.....And The Chicken Rice Wish Has Been Fulfilled....

... By Loy Kee Chicken Rice. Hahahaha..... The chicken was delicious and the texture was very "hua4". The sauce was not only sweet but also salty enough to soothe my yearning for delicious food. In addition, I had GREEN VEGETABLES (Xiao kailan) ! This is really a luxury to be having green vegetables after 2 long months.

Today I went on a shopping spree spending more than Rs.3000. The stuff that I bought are mainly health care products for me to bring back to India. I need all these health care products like eye wash to keep my eyes healthy (thick dusts on the streets and poor lighting in office), supplements (need to watch out my diet... everyone is really complaining that I've become skinnier.. gulp), iPod Nano to clean my ears (again.. same reason - too dusty....kidding!). I didn't buy iPod Nano.... yet.... still in the process of looking for a good mp3 player. Recommendations is that I get iPod Nano. Any one care to comment on this? Greenlamb (since you own one :P)?

On a side note: I'm very scared to go into bookshops here in Singapore. Every book I see in MPH/Kino is at least 2 times of the price in India. What I'm doing at the moment is, enter the bookshop, see their recommendations then maybe buy it in India. I'm looking forward to get a few books on management and self-improvement.

Chennai Week 10 Ended with Chicken Rice Driven Code!

Finally I'm back in S'pore....... home (at least for now)..... The feeling is very nice. Suddenly I can breathe properly again and not worry about the thick dusts on the roads. On reaching West Mall in Bt. Batok, I was overwhelmed to see "familiar sights" of spacious shopping arcades and "crowded" (the crowd in West Mall can't compare with weekends at Spencer plaza, although Orchard might). Christmas shopping crowd, young children running around the mall doing their own shopping with their "wah laos" and "lai dat meh?". I just realised that I've never seen a bunch of kids hang out together as a group in shopping centers without their parents.

Everything looks so clean and so organized here. It is very comfortable to be back here after the "stressful" lifestyle in India. The night before and the day before that I was still rushing to complete my lab assignment. I managed to finish the code in record time. It shocked myself and everyone in class as we were suppose to program 5 options. I completed all 5 while the rest are still working on the 1st option. I scare myself...... Like what I told my friends, this is the power of chicken rice. I was very motivated to complete my codes by yesterday evening because I know I would not be able to go back on Monday to work on it and submit. In my mind was just the wonderful Singapore Chicken Rice, Char Kway Tiau, Bak Kut Teh and all the various delicious non-spicy Chinese food. I have had enough of spicy Indian food especially the non-vegetarian ones. Prata and Chicken curry, Chicken Tikka, Chicken Briyani..... ugh... the week I knew I am coming back to S'pore, I had problems eating the food there in India. I lost all my appetite. According to my friend, Loon - "我瘦了"... Must be because of the diarrhea last week. It seems that a lot of other people are also having diarrhea in Chennai because of the water pollution. Newspaper initially reported that the cause is unknown but yesterday it was reported that the disease is cholera. So.. I think I might've been affected by cholera without knowing it. Good thing nothing bad happened. It seems that a few people died from dehydration due to excess loss of fluids from diarrhea. Some had to be injected with fluids as oral intake is vomitted out. My friend Benny was vommitting that day. I'm not sure if related or not.

Anyway, now that I'm back here in Singapore, I suppose it is time for me to do some shopping! My New Year Shopping list is just being compiled.... Hahahaha... :D

My Updates for End of ..... which week is it? 9?

Since yesterday morning, the weather here in Chennai is very cold. This is the coldest recorded temperature ever according to the news report. Temperatures have fallen below 5deg Celcius and snows will fall soon.... wait.. That's J&K (Jammu & Kashmir) and PoK (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir)... Anyway, Chennai is supposedly the hottest city in India (last year temperatures were up to 40degC and many people died of heat wave around March, April). Presently, a new weather system is just about to hit 500km South of here. Yesterday, it was drizzling the whole day and this morning, heavy showers. I like the weather when it is just drizzling, it just feels nice and cool. However, I hate the heavy rains though.

Despite the "nice weather", my friends and I are falling sick - vomitting & diarrhea. Benny had a bad day yesterday as everything that he ate in the morning is vomitted out within minutes. We were trying to figure out what was wrong with him as we had the same food but did not suffer the same fate. We suspected it was the insect repellant that he turned on while he was sleeping. The effect of the poison has caused him to be sick and nauseous. So, warning to all - don't use the chemical insect repellant in a poorly ventilated room. As for myself, I was and am still having diarrhea since last night. I have no idea why or what happened.

My Cinema Experience in Chennai
Anyway, last week I had my first cinema going experience in Sathyam Cinema, Chennai watching Harry Potter! I'll have to say that I am quite surprised by the cinema. The outside of the cinema is covered with huge billboards of Tamil movies such that I could not tell that it is a building. The lobby was dirty and rundown. I was starting to feel disappointed at the "best cinema" in Chennai. BUT my impressions were changed once we entered the cinema. It started to feel more like Golden Village in Tiong Bahru. THEN.... I started to have a bad feeling again when the show started. As soon as the WB logo was screened, people in the hall started to cheer, clap, whistle and making so much sound that I feared my movie experience would be spoilt. It became silent when the first screen of some old caretaker walked up the stairs. I felt relieved BUT as soon as Harry Potter appeared, people were cheering, whistling and clapping again. The same goes for the other 2 main characters. After that, it was silent again. It felt as if we were watching a live drama instead of a movie. The experience was amazing especially when the Quidditch World Cup was being screened. People in the hall were all reacting just as the same as the characters in the movie. At the end of the show, again, the audience gave a round of applause as our heroes go home waiting for the next semester.

The most expensive food that I have paid for so far in Chennai...
Last Wednesday, we went to Asakasa Restaurant to have our dinner. We found the restaurant through an advertisement they placed in the newspaper. This is the first Japanese restaurant that we found here in Chennai. It is located in such a secluded place that none of us would've thought that there would be such a high class restaurant in there. Inside the restaurants, it feels as if we have left India and arrived in Japan. Everything about the place was Japanese - Japanese Ocha, Japanese Okiasama, Japanese Businessmen, Japanese Sake, .... you get the picture...

However, my heart suddenly sank when we got the menu. The prices were freaking expensive. Two Salmon sushi (the standard rich & raw salmon) costs Rs250 which is like S$10!!! I had a Katsudon meal set for Rs500.... Although the food was delicious but it is definitely not worth to go there often. It is only when I started working, I realise that saving money is not an easy task. I need to start planning my finances ......

Singapore next week
I have confirmed my booking for the Jet Airways flight back to Singapore on Dec 25th, Christmas day. I'll be arriving in Singapore at 5pm, I think. Unfortunately because I am skipping class on Monday 26th, I have to make up on 2nd January to finish up my labs as trainings have been extended.

1 min blog updates

I'm taking out time from lunch to check my mails and blog this very very short update. Maybe I'll expand it later when I get the time but I have only 5mins on my card left so can't blog for long. 1min-Updates for the past week:
1. Cyclone never came (phew) but new cyclone approaching.
2. Watched Harry Potter & Goblet of Fire (I have a lot to say about the cinema going audiences here)
3. Exams postponed, training has been extended (don't ask why)
4. Celebrated two of my Singapore colleagues' B'day in the past week.
5. Booked my flight back to Singapore on Dec 25th (reach at 5pm) and leaving S'pore on 1st Jan by Jet Airways. (The hole in my pocket suddenly feels so deep :( )
6. Had the most expensive food that I paid for - Japanese set meal (Katsu Don) in Chennai ... scary... this is even more expensive than what I had paid for in Billy Bombers. Rs500... pocket really burning hot now...

Exams & Cyclones coming soon

It has already been 8 weeks since I arrived in Chennai?!? Time really flies...... There's a little more than 2 weeks before this intensive training program ends. The main part of TPF theory has ended, we're only left with the labs as well as the final section - TPFDF (whatever that means :S)

There'll be a final exit test on Dec 26th. I suppose my Christmas this year will be spent in my room studying instead of enjoying Christmas TV shows back home in Brunei. Good news is that after training ends, we only need to report back to the main company on January 3rd 2006. This means that I have 7 days off!! Wooohoo!! At the moment am now trying to arrange for my flight to go back to Singapore on 26th Dec midnight. If it is settled then I'll arrive in Singapore on Dec 27th 7am.... but this is not confirmed yet. Don't know if there is still available seats or not. I can only go and arrange for this on Monday. After going back to Singapore, I'll have to reapply visa to return to India as my Visa is single entry.... so mafan. Seem like I will need to set out a plan & lists of to-dos when I get back to Singapore.

Well, putting the good news aside, Chennai is about to be hit by another cyclone - Cyclone Fanooz. *yawn*.... This is getting very very tiring and irritating.... Suddenly out of nowhere a new cyclone just forms and threatens to hit Tamil Nadu. It is becoming like a routine and I'm already expecting certain things to happen when it hits. No surprise that plenty of areas will suffer water logging problems especially near my office. My clothes won't be dry after washing.... Not only that previously, in all the cyclone attacks, at least 2 or 3 people would die from electric shock. The most recent case reported by the newspaper was because of water logging, people dig the roads to let the water flow. They dig it too deep that they hit the power cables below. No problem initially but as cars drive pass it, it damage the cables further. Just so happen a 60yr old man with his grand daughter walk by .... got electrocuted by it. His son saw him fall so he rushed to try and help but ended up he was also killed. It was tragical.

Week 7 ended? er..... mid of week 8?

I have been so caught up in my labs last week that I did not really have much time to come online... or specifically, to blog. I did manage to sneak out from work to go online on Saturday though. This was mainly because it is very difficult to travel due to the heavy floods. The main entrance to Tidel Park which is situated next to my office is totally flooded. The drains are like mini-rivers and the roads are waist high. We practically had to swim. Fortunately, the night before, my sports shoes were already soaked due to the floods near my place of stay so on Saturday I wore sandals to work. It was very convenient to just pull up my long pants and walk through the floods as compared to my friend who has hush-puppy leather shoes. Poor puppy, it's crying...

Anyway, I guess my friends and I should consider ourselves lucky (or maybe unlucky) as we're like the bringer of rains to Chennai. I mean, what is the probability of 4 waves of heavy rain hitting a city that has been experiencing drought for 3 years until we came. The first wave was a very powerful cyclone, the next two were just heavy monsoon rains and the most recent one, another cyclone. The cyclone that hit recently, well it was not as terrible as the first one. However, due to the waves of rain coming almost every week, Chennai is not prepared to handle it. The floods and water logging problems get worse and worse. People were evacuated from the low-lands to schools and other higher areas. Schools and colleges are closed here. The worst I think is when they released the dam. The river was filled to the brim and the surrounding slums were all flooded. It was a very "unique" sight because the river was usually dry. You can sometimes see the river bed and now it is filled.

Fortunately, this time the cyclone I felt was not as destructive as the first one. But who am I to judge as I am not affected much by this. Everyday I see in the newspaper, there are hundreds of people in need of food and proper shelter because of the rains and floods. For me, I only have my labs to worry about :S.... Just realised that I'm down to my final 3 weeks of training.