on friday, i had a company Christmas julbord at a restaurant along surbrunnsgatan. i can't really remember the name the place but it had very tasty traditional swedish food! as per all smörgåsbord, we started with the cold dishes like herring, ham, salmon, moose sausages and smoked reindeer's heart! yes i ate rudolf's heart! :P i thought it would be soft and taste like the "spare parts" (pig's intestines, liver.. etc) we would eat in singapore, but apparently not. it was tough like meat and tasted really good, like smoked ham. and my colleague was telling me it is hard because the heart is a muscle. so desu ne... there were raw herrings in different flavours and i tried about 5 different kinds. this wasn't my 1st time eating herring in sweden but it still takes a while to get used to it. i find it ok but it's really an acquired taste, especially if you're not swedish. ;) after that, we moved on to the hot dishes like meatballs, omelette, sausages, ribs and some other fancy traditional swedish stuffs which i can't really remember. and then finally we finished off with deserts!

there was a wide spread of really good swedish food, but more than that, the atmosphere was AMAZING! every once in a while when we were eating, 1 of my colleagues would call for everyone's attention by making the triangle-like sound using the fork and the wine glass. and then he would start singing a swedish song and every one will continue along with him. and this happened like about 7 times throughout, initiated by different people, but mainly by the more rah-rah ones. ;) there were moments of singing, talking, sharing, laughing and of course appreciation. it was a rowdy but yet heart-warming and joyful night. everyone was so spontaneous and high-spirited and it really felt like a nice family gathering. but in every sense of the word, these people really form my swedish family. although i started out as an intern in the company, but i ended up being part of a swedish family. never once did it felt like work when i enter my office everyday. there is always so much fun, joy and laughter being around all my colleagues. i was really touched by all the gifts, love and kind words from all my colleagues and bosses that night. i'm really really really going to miss them alot! this has really been one of the best years of my life.

3S & Comaea, God Jul och Gott Nytt År!

Here's my NCST graduation video which i did for our batch to thank everyone in stockholm for their love and making our stay here a wonderful and memorable one!! (facebook photos and videos link)

NCST Batch 6 Graduation Video




NCST Batch 6 Graduation Flickr

I'll be in Amsterdam over the weekend. This will be my last short trip before i embark on my final Europe Winter Tour to end my NOC program. sigh... this is just so saddening... i can't believe that it's all coming to an end... ok i'll leave that sob story for another time. 

Christmas is round the corner and it's time to do the christmas dance!

click here if the video doesn't load.

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though this post is overdue, i still need to post it. because Manchester United rocks! it couldn't have been more amazing to travel all the way to Old Trafford to see Man U trash Stoke City 5 nil! although it would have been sweeter if the opponent were Arsenal, Liverpool or Chelsea, i guess i'll have to leave that for my next trip there, which won't be anytime soon.

i've got a huge mail in my mail box today!

and it was really exciting to check out what it was even though i roughly knew what it was going to be.

and no, it's not THAT adult pack filled with all kinds of "educational" videos inside. it was the ONE UNITED manchester united membership pack!

they've got the membership card, pen, yearbook, playing cards, dvd and some other random stuffs. kinda neat actually.

and not only that, i also managed to get my match tix for this weekend too! such accurate timing. ok, after all the trouble, my manchester united trip is finally confirmed! pls no more screw ups! sigh.. and in times like these, my boss would always like to ask me, "what could possibly go wrong?" and i always reply him, "you don't wana know!".

old trafford, here i come! ;)

the past few weeks have been rather busy. like what's new right? but the busyness here is nothing compared to being busy back in singapore. nothing really beats being busy in singapore. and i can already imagine how my hectic lifestyle will begin once i touch down in changi airport in january. but i'm sure it'll feel really good to be back home. back to my family, friends and to my church back home. and of course back to the singaporean food and suppers!! i'm so looking forward to prata! oh man..

ok so what's been up recently? lots of stuffs. just this week, i submitted my business case and the analysis. so that's one major load off my chest. but i've still got my business case presentation, internship presentation and company appreciation video to take care of. all due by the end of the this month. that's the academic side. during the last 2 weekends, i was out of town. i was on a cruise to riga on the previous weekend, while i was in oslo during the last weekend. so this weekend is rest and relax time for me.

riga is the capital of latvia and also the largest city in the baltic states. it's a simple city with an old and traditional feel to it. and while we were there, they were having a mass traditional dance in their streets to try to create a world record for the longest dance. apart from riga, one of the most fun part of this trip was the cruise itself. not that the cruise ship itself was extremely exciting, it was more of the crazy company and the interesting things that you learn about each other. ;) and the basic code of conduct is, whatever happens on the ship, stays on the ship.

oslo on the other hand, was a more beautiful place that really exceeded my expectations. i was told by friends that there wasn't much to see at oslo. but the city proved them, and my little expectations, wrong. my only disappointment was that i was unable to travel to see the breath-taking fjords which norway is famous for. i was really tempted to take the train to bergen and enjoy "one of the most beautiful train journey in the world", to quote wikitravel. but that would mean that i would take a 7 hour train ride from stockholm to oslo, and then another 7 hours to bergen. then spend 1 night there and take the 14 hour train ride all the way back to stockholm. 我屁股会开花! (my butt will blossom!) and i would be so dead @ work the next day after heading straight to work. if i had made my way to oslo earlier by a week or so, i would be able take the ferry cruise there. i guess this gives me another reason to come back to scandinavia. jag måste! (i must!)

and what's up next weekend? WATCH AN EPL MATCH LIVE @ OLD TRAFFORD! how can i travel half way around the world, living in the same time zone as UK and not watch an EPL match @ the very same stadium where they are playing?!?! but to actually get an EPL tix is NOOOO easy task man. as the flight tix were increasing, i decided to buy the flight tix without having any match tix. so i knew i had to get my hands on those tix for that weekend. i waited for man u to release the tix for sale to the public. but they were sold out even before it was released to the general public. i was like.. WHAT?!?! then i had this regret that i should have just signed up as a member for 33 pounds and bought the tix. so i resigned to either buy the tix from the tout on the day itself, or go to the countryside to see sheep (as proposed by my friend). but i'm so not going all the way to manchester to see sheeps! and then i found the official trading site for man u tix, of which i had to first join as a man u member. so, i ended up doing what i had to do in the first place. lesson no 1: when you know that's the right thing to do, DO IT! so now i tried to buy the tix from the site with way much lesser choices for seats and had to pay another 30 pounds extra (2 tix) for handling fees and tax. and i used paypal to made payment for my purchase. BAD CHOICE. the payment went through "successfully" on paypal, but it wasn't received by the other party and it wasn't deducted from my bank. after a million of email exchanges with paypal and the other party, of which paypal only gave automated email responses that tried to sound like a real person behind it, i finally got my money refunded. and then i made a purchase for another set of lousier seating tix, as my previous one disappeared (got bought away i guess), this time with my credit card direct. lesson no 2: if possible, avoid using payapl, PAYPAL SUCKS! but now, it's still not 100% confirm until i get my hands on the physical tix itself. i emailed the tix exchange again to double check with them if they will ensure that i will receive my tix by thursday or do i collect @ the stadium itself. *sigh* why do things have to be so complicated? then the motto of a gay site which i vaguely remember coming across, came to my mind, "because life's not straight". i seriously hope there won't be anymore surprises. oh and i've yet to settle my accommodation. *sigh* here we go again. like how my friends and i always say, "if life's not exciting enough, then it's ain't worth living now, isn't it?"

i have placed a map of the places i've been to (with links to related pics/vid) and the places i would like to visit (in question marks). you can check it out here.

microblogging has been around for quite some time now. as the name speaks for itself, it is a micro blog, usually limited to 140 characters. and from this site, you can actually find a list of over 200 microblogging services! it really amazes that people actually start a new microblogging site when there already exists hundreds of them.

personally for me, i currently use jaiku, twitter and plurk. (without having to sign up, you can click on the links to see how they're like.) facebook also has a microblogging feature, aka status update. but they aren't really a dedicated microblogging site, so i'll leave them out of the picture for now.

so what do i like about the 3 services and which of them would be my favourite? let me just list out some of my personal pros and cons of their services. if the features are common within the 3, then i'll leave them out.

jaiku:
pros 
- has channels that allows users to join and post within that channel
- has integration with IM like Gtalk, LiveJournal, MSN (using IMified.com) ..etc
- has facebook status update integration
- has mobile SMS integration
- has the ability to add icons to your post
- able to read rss feeds and post them
- proper organisation of comments

cons
- registration via invite

twitter:
pros
-  allows html style badge for transparent background
- detailed post search
- has the ability to set device updates on specific users
- has facebook status update integration
- public registration

cons:
- says that it supports IM, but it doesn't
- all replies to a specific post are not viewable as a whole
- no channels/groups

plurk:
pros
- funky and dynamic timeline interface with ajax updates
- ability to set settings for each post (privacy, language, comments)
- ease of view for different kinds of posts (all, your own, private, those you responded to)
- has colourful qualifiers
- has emoticons
- able to post images/videos
- has cliques function (similar to jaiku's channels)
- has very logical commenting view and organisation
- able to view all post from everywhere with filters (eg from various country .. etc)
- constantly updating and adding of new features
- public registration

cons
- IM support has been under servicing ever since i joined
- karma to "force" you to keep updating

as you can tell from the list, twitter would be my least favourite, and it is. i really like the features of plurk and it's extremely intuitive interface. it's really fun to use and it gives a very good overview of your posts aka plurks. so is plurk my favourite of the lot? well, not exactly. i really like it, but it doesn't make it to my if-i-really-have-to-choose-one-it's-you list. and that would be jaiku.

why? for the main reason that it has good integration with IM, SMS and facebook. with these features, i'm able to send/receive posts/updates without having to log into the jaiku page. i can do this via my gtalk (or gmail) and sms. this is really cool because it also means that my darling can "sms me for free". for my end, i can sms for free using singtel/starhub web sms services. but for her, there isn't any free web service sms from my provider. as such, she could use jaiku to do that. neat trick rite? ;)

after being acquired by google, jaiku has removed their limited invites. so if anyone would like to use jaiku, just let me know and i'll send you an invite. 

Here's an overview of my life in Sweden. My neighbourhood... ;)

View the map

So far, these are the places that i've visited this year. Those in question marks are the places i would like to cover by the end of this year. You can click on the places and there would be links to the photos/videos of the places i've been too.

Of course, if it were possible, i would like to cover more of Europe. I guess that gives me a good to come back here again. ;)

click here to view my map

it's been almost 4 weeks since darling left for singapore, but it felt like it has been 4 months already. sigh...

ok. it's been quite a long while since i did a post on my blog. and the excuse i give to my friends is that i'm more into microbloging & photo blogging recently. as you can obviously tell from my frequent updates on my facebooks. oh well, guess i should come back and do some traditional blogging. ;)

alright, so what has been up? summer is over and fall is here. but based on the weather, it seems like winter might be coming early. man, now i know why the swedes treasure their summer so much. the amount of heat and sun that they have is so rare. i'm already missing summer. let's talk abit about summer...

the 5 weeks of my summer has been the best 5 weeks ever! it was totally amazing. mainly it was the traveling around europe which was so fun, but ultimately it was having my darling together with me! if you haven't checked out my photos, please do! they are really fantastic. not that i'm a professional photographer, but the subject itself portrays its beauty. you would be more mesmerized if you were there at the places itself.

we started our journey on 15 july where we rendezvoused in rome. darling fly over to rome transiting @ bangkok & london from singapore, while i flew over from stockholm. when her mum knew about that, she kinda freaked out that the 1st trip she's ever done to europe is gng to be alone. :P but all went well. rome was a place where history came to life. the huge statues and architecture, like the colosseum and the roman forum, expounded its grandiose history. and people always say that the pizza and the pasta in italy is different, that they are much nicer. it's true! the charge their pizza by the weight and i LOVE their potato pizza. simple as it may sound, but it tastes great! and not forgetting their gelato, italian ice-cream. yummy... we spent 3.5 days and 3 nights in rome. sufficient time to cover most of the stuff in rome, then we headed to florence.

florence is a small and beautiful city. i was told by my friends that 1 day is enough to cover florence and pisa. and that's how long we stayed there. and really, that's enough. it's a simple, but bustilng place. and like rome, there were statues all over the city and buildings with elaborate designs from the renaissance era. lovely.

next, we headed to venice by train. going through terrains, mountains and tunnel. it was a rather serene, reflective and peaceful journey. upon reaching venice, it was love at first sight in that beautiful place. it's the only pedestrian city in the world with no vehicles on the island expect for boats. really amazing. we spent 3 days there exploring the place and visiting the neighbouring islands. it was a good time spent there, sufficient to cover all that we wanted to. we even managed to be part of a festival which had a massive firework display that lasted 45mins! those kind you would see during chinese new year, but MORE elaborate and fanciful. extremely impressive. we couldn't have been there at a better time.

after which, we flew to london to meet up with my family and we spent 5 days there. having gone there before, i was their official tour guide and brought them around. then we took an train which ran under the english channel to paris. i was actually hoping to have a nice view underwater. but it was just pitch black. :(

paris is beautiful place. my only gripe is the people. they have such bad attitude towards people who aren't well-versed in french. there were 2 incidents at 2 different restaurants where they were irritated and served so unwillingly just because we couldn't converse with them in french, so snobbish! apart from that, the rest of the trip was really pleasant.

after that, we flew back to stockholm and i brought my family around town.

the next day after my family left for singapore, darling and i flew off to berlin. we spent a night there and then we flew to athens. athens is really over-rated. i'm glad that i heeded ginnelle's advice and stayed only a day there and spent more time at the islands instead. the only thing that's impressive is the acropolis. and i really love the greek language, they just look so cool! ;)

and finally we reached our finally destination of our summer trip. somehow our entire itinerary seem to fit in so well. the places we went slowly built up, with each new place bringing greater fascination and insights. and to top it all, we ended with SANTORINI. if i had to describe santorini in a sentence, it would be "a heaven on earth." just these four words would do. my friends told me it was beautiful and i saw the photos, but all those still couldn't prepare me for what i was about to expect. it is really beautiful beyond description. the place was amazing, the people were down to earth and friendly, the food is good and i was there with my darling. WHAT MORE COULD I HAVE ASKED FOR? oh man... i literally left my heart there as i took the ferry back. that was my first trip to greece but that would definitely not by my last!

if you haven't seen my photos yet, my brethren i beseech you to go take a look. santorini is such a beautiful place. i'm missing it as i type. i had such a time of my life with my dearest darling there. sigh. i WILL definitely visit the other islands in greece with my darling again. i sompa!