Spoiled

"You are spoiling him." she said with a smile.

Am I? I haven't never thought about this, but I was quite pleased if I was. With him, it seems so easy to give him the best I could for him because he has always been there for me unselfishly.

Let's spoil each other forever.

Necklace Found!!

Where was it???

In the bag that I had searched thousand times!! I couldn't believe it when I saw it! I closed my eyes and reopened it to make sure I wasn't dreaming!!!

I was so relieved that the necklace was finally found after missing for 3 months! It has strong memorial meaning attached to it and I was feeling really guilty to lose it.

Now it is back and I couldn't be happier!!

Expansive Day

I first went to travel clinic to get travel advices on vaccinations and had two shots. Then I went buying a great rain jacket for hiking. It turned out to be a very expansive day as within 3 hours, I spent $500 dollars :o :o

However, I think (not my credit card thinks) it is worth spending because now I am up to date with my vaccines and will be safe and dry when it's pouring down in Great Barrier Island and Indonesia (even I hope I won't use it much!)

雙十節快樂！

Autumn Festival Dinner

I am really disappointed at them. A family dinner together was supposed to get together and not you two to talk among yourselves. I tried to chat, I tried to care, I tried to involve, I tried to stop them talking, I tried to hint how rude they had behaved, I tried to be included, but I failed.

They were just simply not present- so careless! It really hurt when I am always the one keeps trying. I was really disappointed at their immaturity and childish behaviour. It's just unacceptable!

I looked away and looked at him with my frustration. He smiled at me quietly and made me feel heard. I knew it wasn't easy for him to come to the dinner, but he really tried. He came and he tried to communicate, but just like me, we were ignored. I feel sorry that he had to put up with this unacceptable manner but he seemed so calm and never complained. Thank you for being so patient with me.

A family dinner - at least I know there was him present.

Relieved

Phew~

Greys and Pain

We are making great progress in watching Greys. It has turned into a routine that every week, we girls catch up on Thursday night and watch Greys from the beginning. Tonight we watched episode 6.

"Maybe we like the pain. Maybe we're wired that way. Because without it, I don't know; maybe we just wouldn't feel real. What's that saying? Why do I keep hitting myself with a hammer? Because it feels so good when I stop."

I can't believe it was 5 years ago when I started being addicted to Grey's Anatomy. This exact voice over hit me in the heart 5 years ago for the first time and Greys became part of my life ever since. 5 years later, I am still addicted to Greys but I no longer in pain, no longer need to relate my emotion to the characters. However, hearing the exact line again brought up the past and brought up some emotions.

TV series/Movies not only tape into the life when you see them, but also can bring the livses when you saw them, when you see them or heard other people talk about it later. That makes Greys timeless for me!

Indonesia Trip booked

After all the drama, I still can't believe that we paid for the tickets and are going to Indonesia for 5 weeks in the end!!!

We didn't expect that we would get the waiting list tickets in the last day, so when the agent told me the 'good' news, I wasn't prepared. It came as a shock and we had to quickly plan within 3 hours. Of course, no work was done this morning. Even now, this whole thing seems so surreal still.

Oh wow! I guess we are going to Indonesia after all! I am also pleased and excited about that I get to go home for 5 days with this tickets. :D :D :D

I hope we will survive the 5 weeks, or that 5 days would be VERY awkward. We will be alright...I hope!

I couldn't stay being mad at you and I am glad that I couldn't. Who could? With that cute sunny smile on you.

Thanks for the umbrella and the suggestion of organising open homes.

I need a holiday

I think I really need a holiday or I'll go insane. It's so frustrating that I lose the ability to just pack up and go wherever I want to go - the down side of stability :(

The holiday destination has been jumping around India, South America, Taiwan, Malaysia and I have been borrowing books, booking tickets, investigating and running around like a dog every time you change plans or no plans. It makes me so angry that I want to scream at you because I always find myself come back to the origin and end up going nowhere and restarting everything all over again. I no longer feel excited when you start talking about travelling because it has turned into useless chare for too many times. I have canceled one after another cheap deals and the whole process seem a complete wasting of time. I look at the airfares everyday and seeing them getting so expansive that I will end up going nowhere if I have to keep accommodating and compromising your circumstance!

The hardest thing is that I understand why you couldn't make up your mind and I have been suppressing my anger, but losing the opportunity to have Chinese New Year with my family was the last straw :@ :@ :@

Now, you are turning around and say we are going to Indonesia. I just couldn't control my anger. I am sorry I wasn't excited when you told me on the phone. Really, I don't want to get my hope up again because who knows, maybe you are going to change your mind again. If you really want the holiday like you said, then now you can do all the work. I am not going to running around like I did before. You can do all the planning and I will believe it when we are actually paying for the tickets.

Meanwhile, I am stilling reading my Intrepid and Gecko tours and dreaming about going there next year and you have no right to tell me that you want to come or the tours aren't exciting or too expansive because you leave me without other choices!

Stuck in the mud

One sunny afternoon, two of the Network Performance Team members went out for a site visit. It started as a check for possible radar locations but ended up as something more than what they expected.

After pulling over on the grass area on the Redoubt Rd off ramp southbound, we immediately found ourselves in DEEP trouble - LITERALLY! Although, we had a 4WD UTE which was just out of garage from servicing on that day, it was really stuck! He tried all sort of tricks - 2H, 4H, 2L and 4L (which I had no idea what they were). He moved the UTE backwards and forwards but only succeeded in creating a BIG mess. In order to keep our pride and dignity, we still believed until this day that the only reason we called for assistance in the end was to test out the efficiency of AMA incident response time. Unfortunately, our first choice was not handy (was in North Shore area at the time), so we found our knight in shining armour, N, who attended the rescue site promptly after receiving the call and pulled out the poor muddy UTE and occupants!

Thank you, N and well done for the 15 minutes response time!

Goodbye, my almost lover

I was reading her blog and she reminded me of a beautiful heartaching song that used to be close to my heart. I am listening to the song over and over again, and it triggers some sore memory. I checked my blog and it has almost been two years! Time fliers.

I am happy now, but she was right that I had learned to deal with the pain and he'll always be there in my heart but maybe in a different way.

Goodbye, my almost lover
Goodbye, my hopeless dream
I'm trying not to think about you
Can't you just let me be?
So long, my luckless romance
My back is turned on you
Should have known you'd bring me heartache
Almost lovers always do

- Almost Lover, A Fine Frezy

Auckland International Film Festival 2009

So here we are, another year of film festival. I have found that this year had less audiences than previous years. Two of my films were only half full. Is the recession finally catching up in Auckland?

A Christmas Tale
Tense with emotion....and it's kind of the film you hope you would find out the answer, but you didn't. A great family drama and full of drama.

Birdsong
As it is categorised in the book, it was a slow film. The cinematography was beautiful and quite funny. The story was simple - three wise men travelling from afar to visit the baby Jesus in Bethlehem. The three lines in Bible turned into a 90 mins tranquil film. The director was there and it made it more interesting. It's really slow and simple! I have to admit that I fall into sleep at some point, but it was okay as it was so slow that I can catch up easily without a problem :p

Blind Love
4 stories around the same theme - love and happiness for the blind people
- An old couple. The man entertained himself with listening to the sport and play piano. Life is simple with them, but they showed their support and compliments to each other just like us. The bit where Peter went under the sea and had fantacy was harilous and touching.
- A blind man and a almost blind women. She was scared the relationship won't work out, but they fought it through with his faith.
- A young mother to be. The story followed the pregnancy and the fear the child might turn out to be blind. However, she was prepared and full of optimistism. Then a 5 years old cute little boy walking into a cinema and holding his mum's hand. They sat down and he told his mum all the exciting cartoon on the big screen. Yes, he was normal and healthy. That was priceless!
- A teenager who is blind having an almost normal life in school and looking for love on the internet.

Canimo
It's probably my favorite film this year. A very well-done and smart film. It's also very controversial as it touches a cultural and religious nerve. I love the fact that when you thought things can't get worse and there was a slightness of hope, BANG, it just get 10 times worse! It made audiences laughed. It was not because it was funny, but because you just didn't know how to take the bad news! Fantastic film!

Song from the Southern Seas
I had never seen a Kazakhstan film, and that was the reason I picked this one. The story around two couples, one Russian and one Kazakhstani in remote resion. The landscape was so different! I enjoyed the simple humour and the rich of the tranditional culture.

Back off

Can you learn to accept that

• You don't have to agree with me, but I am an adult and I am responsible for my own life not you.
• I am my mum's daughter and even she has to accept that my life is mine. She can give me suggestions, but end of the day, it is me who decide what is the best for me.
• The damage from the pressure you give me is not less than the benefit I would get out from your advice.
• If I have to keep compromising and enduring, one day I'll break down
• When we eat together, I will cook the way you like. However, you need to accept that every now and then when I go out, I have the right to indulge myself and I will eat whatever I like.

Gotex or non-Gotex

We went tramping today. Mad! I know.

It was raining badly for the whole day, but there were 10 crazy dedicated people committing to go tramping rain or shine. What I learned? Gotex or non-Gotex doesn't make any difference in the end of the day in the weather like today! I was soaking wet and so were those hard core fully equipped hikers! The rain made the water level of the stream to knee high and we had to cross a few of them. After that, no one even bothered to avoid any mud or water puddles anymore.

It was fun after all!

"Guess what? When your gradchildren asked you, 'Gradma gradma, tell us some exciting stories that you did when you were young.', now you can tell them that once up the time, it was raining heavyly and... They will be so impressed and go 'Wow! That's so cool!'"

"Of course, they will find it amazing! Because by that time, they probably never heard about excercise. All they need to do is lying there and have a machine to stimulate all the muscle. No sweat or movements required."

:x :x :x

They both have had partners for more than 5 years and I was surprised at the reason that they stay together with their partners.

"Too lazy and too tired." They both said."You know? You have to go on dates, look for new people, go through everything again, go through honeymoon period, then adjustments, compromises and etc. Then you can tell if this new gf/bf is anything better than the current one or it's just another same-old same-old story. It might be totally waste of time and not worth it. I am not young any more and I don't have much time left"

Even they aren't totally happy or agree with their partners on many things, they stay because the thought of starting everything all over again is too overwhelming and daunting. Am I too navy or I haven't experienced enough? I feel sad for them as I believe that being with someone should give you the strength and bring the best out of you. It should be a decision that makes you happy and not because you are too tired to try again. However I understand their fear and discouragement.

I feel they are staying in the relationships for the wrong reason. But, that's how I feel. Each relationship is so different and if that's where they see their relationship going and accept that's what they deserve, then maybe it's not totally wrong for them. However, I deeply hope my relationship will never turn into like theirs because it's not right for me.

"Two more weekends!"
"Huh??"
"Then, he will be back!!! :D :D"

You are gone

You are gone and I suddenly realise how much you have penetrated into my time, my space, my life, my breath, my thought, my emotion, my heart and my 一舉一動。

I have found my breathing heavy since you left. There is a stone pressuring my chest which is surrounded by the sadness. This reminds me the visualisation that I did 3 years ago. I didn't understand why my symbol of love was so different from everyone else and I still don't. However, I am glad that I am feeling this way.

Come back soon, please! :)

最近好背！

I reckon 最近卡到陰！超背的！My life in the last 2 months can be described as a serise of unfortunate events! First, with all the money went to IRD. Then, they wrote to my employer, claimed I hadn't paid and ask them to deduct the money from my salary $^#!&#!@#%...

Then, one month ago, stupid Slingshot without our authority, disconnected our phone from Telecom and connected with themselves!!! When we asked for returning back to Telecom, Telecom said that they had to bring our phone line as well as broadband. (P.S. In order to talk to Telecom, we had to ask Mum to call from Taiwan because she was the account holder even I was authorised before, but they lost that record!) We signed up for a 12 months broadband contract with Slingshot, so Slingshot said they were going to charge us for the disconnection broadband even it's just less than a day in order to the make the switch!

After filing a formal complaint to Slingshot and telling all the internet forums what a scum Slingshot was, they finally promised to waive the disconnection fee for the broadband. Now, back to Telecom, they scheduled us in for making the switch today, but for some reason that was canceled, so today they had to file another order and we had to wait another week!!!!

今年是不是沒沖到太歲阿！！該拜拜安一安嗎？
不知道有沒有 Internet 可以安太歲，搞不好還可以用信用卡說！

Fertility Clinic

There is a fertility clinic in my building. Every day I see men, women, couple and family coming in and out the lift to the third floor. It's hard for me not to wonder the stories behind every individual. Some might come for sperm donation, some hoping to have a baby, some get what they wish for and some don't.

Today, I walked out the lift and saw a couple embracing each other. As I passed by, I saw sad tear on the face of the woman. The sense was emotional and reminded me of the episode of "Brothers and Sisters" where Kitty wanted to have baby but every month she got his hope up and every month she got disappointed.

As I walked out the door, I wish one day that couple will get what they wish for.

Yes, I am angry! :@

You left without a word! You just went and had fun with the boys without telling me where you were going. You expected that when you come back I would be still there waiting for you?!

Don't take me as granted!! :@ I might not be there and I might be gone to have my own fun too, with or without you! :@ :@

Tramping at Cape Reinga and around

Tramping in Cape Reinga was a luxury after the great walk in Lake Whakarimoana last year. This time, we didn't have to carry all our backpack as we were doing "car camping"!! :D

At beginning, I was hesitant on taking the trip as 4 day tramping out of my hard earning long weekend seemed a bit too much. However, I was glad that we went in the end. Being close to nature and enjoying the Northland scenery totally rocked!

This was the 3rd time I visited Northland. The first time was in 1996 when I had just arrived New Zealand for less than a week. I joined a camp with YMCA with some trouble kids. Second time was about 10 years ago going on a car trip with family. This time, I went with the tramping club and the experience was as fresh as I had never been there. I was thrilled with the breathtaking scenery and felt so lucky that I lived in a country where has this kind of beauty!!

Day 1:

• Waiting: We waited for an hour for this couple who showed up late without any excuse. Let's not use that against them! However, during the entering trip, they didn't try to engage with the group and every now and then, they just wondered off and disappeared. It really didn't bother me as I was quite happy to just relax and steal the "behind schedule time" to enjoy the holiday mood, except I felt sorry for the organiser as he planned this trip so hard. He was always calm, but I could feel his frustration and responsibility to not "wasting" time.
• Tokatoka Peak: Anyway, eventually we left Auckland CBD (after 1 hour waiting) and eventually we got out the Auckland (after 2 hours sitting in the traffic - due to road over capacity and an motorcycle accident in Wellsford). We convoyed at Matahoke finally to make sure everyone survived the tunnel and the traffic. Then, we went for the first hike - Tokatoka Peak. The short walk up to the summit almost killed me. I was lightheadedd and felt nauseous. However, After enough rest, I was fine. The view was magnificent!
• Waipoua Forest: It's the place where I can remember from the previous trips to Northland. Big Kauri Trees and nice walking pavement
• Raetea Forrest: Because of the delay in the morning, it was dark when we caught the ferry from Rawene across Hokianga Harbour to Kohukohu. Driving in the dark wasn't easy and it's not helpful that none of the signs from department of conservation were retro-reflective, so it took us a while back and forwards to find our camping site! Putting up a tent in the dark wasn't hard. Putting up a tent which was borrowed from a friend made it a bit challenging. However, putting up a tent which only had the outmost fly and no inner tent was... INTERESTINGLY IMPOSSIBLE!! Result: An almost 200 cm human being managed to squeeze into a tiny SINGLE tent with another person!! :o :o :o

Day 2:

• What is this?: In the morning, we got to see where we were camping. It was a nice place considering it was a free camping site, especially it came with a divine toilet!! As we were packing everything back into the car, I found something.
  

"What is THIS?"
" Err?? Where did you find it? :o"
"In the car!"
Yes, we found our "missing" inner tent"!! :x :x :x

• Pandora Beach: On the way to Pandora Beach, our driver as usual liked to stop at place spontaneously. This time, we stopped at this little cute place called Pukenui. The water was so blue like an sapphire . We then conveyed with the other car after the Harbour View Road which had no harbour view and a coffee break. The 3-4 hours hike to the beach wasn't too difficult and the beach itself was really peaceful. We had lunch there and as usual, I allowed myself to have my love affair with the ocean. On the way back, I got to hang out with other girls who had the same walking pace and we had good chats :D. I found out that our car was much more fun than the other - more laughing, more noise and of course more eating!
• Cape Reinga Lighthouse: After putting up our tents in Tapotupotu camping site, we went to the lighthouse. It was very annoyingly modern at the entry. First there was a fancy toilet outside (but I was told it was 100 times worse than our long drop campsite toilets as they were over-flowed). Then there was an arched gate where played music. The path was all new and well signed with significant Maori stories and information. The lighthouse was still as remarkable as I could remember 10 years ago. We saw sunset there and that was a magic moment for me. I love sunset and I love ocean. To have two of my favourite affairs at this spiritual location was a unique moment.
• Tapotupotu: After sunset, we came back to our campsite and cooked dinner. The stars were really clear here and we had a free lesson on astronomy before we went to sleep in a double tent which could fit two persons nicely.
  

Day 3:

• Tapopupotu: We explored the surrounding area while we were waiting for others to get ready.
  
• Te Werahi Loop Hiking: It was a 4-5 hours hike which went from Te Werahi Gate, through swap to Werahi Beach, sand dunes to Cape Maria van Dieman, colourful sand to Twilight Beach and desert-like return. It was quite tough on me as walking on sand dune took a lot of energy. Also, the sun was really burning and I run out the water before we came back to the car. However, the landscape was varied and made it an interesting hike
• Te Paki Stream: After pumping half litre of water into my body, we were on our way to Te Paki Stream. It has the stream on one side and sand dunes on the other sides. Boys went up the sand dunes while we girls relaxing putting our foots into the warm soft sand. It was so much fun leaping off the dunes and landing into soft warm sand 2 meter below :D
• Rarawa Beach: We run out the time to see the sunset in 90 mile beach, so here was the substitute - Rarawa Beach. It has the finest and whitest beach I have ever seen.
• Maitai Bay: It was dark when I arrived. However, our tenting skill had improved by then

Day 4:

• Maitai Bay: Sunrise was magnificent!!
• Karikari Beach: By then I was starting feeling ABB (Another Bloody Beach). However, I loved every beach we went during this trip
• Coca Cola Lake. The colour of the lake is like flat coke. It tasted like Assam Tea though.
• Mangonui: We passed three lovely bays on the way to Mangonui where we had Fish & Chip for lunch. As it was the last day of the trip as well as the long weekend, some people wanted to go back to Auckland earlier, so there we said goodbye to the other car and drove separately home
  
• Rainbow Falls: Our car decided not to go to Whangaroa for St Pauls Rock. However, as we drove close to it, the temptation was high for the boys in the car. We sneakily went for a detour and check out the Whangaroa harbour. It was a lovely harbour, but in the end the sense came to us and we left. However, we caught up the other car at Rainbow Falls as they were leaving.
• Hundertwasser Toilet: Our last visit before going back to reality was the famous toilet in Kawakawa. Hundertwasser was a famous Austrian architect who lived in NZ for a while. I remember in 2003, I went to his museum in Vienna and found his design stunning!!

Remuera Market Day

Good! Fun! Busy! :) :)

My first gingerbread men decoration were awesome! :D :D :D

Tired! Exhausted!

Problem Kid

I was told that I asked too many questions and that slowed down people's work! I tried to be calm, but I really think it's a lot of bullshit :@ and it sounded more like other peoples' issues rather than mine. However, I thank her for telling me about it even she was just passing some individual's concern.

Really, if it was an ingenuous advice, the person should have no worry but tell me in person. If it was really higher management's concern, they could have let me know rather than passing the message through my colleague. If it was from some narrow minded people who were afraid that I would be stealing their knowledge/specially, then I don't give a FIG! :@ :@ :@

What am I going to do differently? I will still be poking my nose around and try to learn as much as I could. I will make sure I am polite and be considerate when I chat with others and be aware of the timing and the length of the chat. Apart from that, I am not taking it as my problem!

Thank you for being there and holding me when I need you!

Loop Cutting

I felt I was hit by a truck this morning when I woke up. Last night, I went to see loop cutting until midnight and my brain wasn't working at all for the whole day.

I think highly of those night shift contractors now. It is really a tough job and is not for everyone.

哭笑不得！

My brother came home with a $600 cheque from those Tax Refund boots in the malls. That was after they took $200 off him as successful fee. I thought that was still a pretty great deal!! Simple and easy!

Thus, I thought I would be smarter and get Personal Tax Summary myself from the Tax department so I can get the full amount without those Tax Refund boots taking those administration fee.

WRONG! 大錯特錯！！！
They found out I OWED IRD money!!!! :( :( :(
Now I had to pay :(

A domestic day

He came with me to visit her because I was too apprehensive to go by myself. However, I was very surprised to see that she recovered not only physically but also mentally well. I was inspired by her courage/faith and admire her being so optimistic after such big trauma.

I am really happy for her and glad that I went to see her after being putting it off for a year.

爸爸看到柿子是：哇！
媽媽看到葱油餅是：天啊！

Inconceivable

The receptionist came to my boss and asked both of our names to be shorten because she couldn't fit them in the business card. My manager decided to change his from 4 to 3 words and altered "Leader" to "Manager". I had 6 words (the longest in the Alliance) which I never managed to remember 95% of the time and now 他大筆一揮， I am Traffic Optimisation Manager!! :o :o :o

Who do I manage? The hardest person - Me :p

莫名其妙，陰錯陽差，就升官了！！偷笑偷笑！！暗爽暗爽 :D :D
不過我名片不太敢拿出去，怕會被人吐口水吐死！！
Inexplicable!! Inconceivable!! I was promoted!!
However, I still don't dare to give out my business card, because I am afraid that they are going to spit on me....:p

The consequence of firing an Asian Engineer

As the economic is getting worse, I decided to do something about it to secure my job. Thus, I sent this link to my office with a subject of "The consequence of firing an Asian Engineer"

My section manager replied with
"I considered myself be warned"

Traffic Jam

----- Text message------
"Traffic is so BAD! Big carpark in motorway! Not moving! Can you ask your sister to do her job and fix it?"

"Maybe I should ask her to stop doing her job"

Morrisville 101

It was nice to see where he grown up and listened to all the childhood stories he had. I know that there is an infinite gap of his life I wasn't involved and I will never be able to know it all. However, being there and seeing him talking about his strong memory related to the place with strong emotion made this one day visit very special.

I wish one day he could see mine. I know it would mean so much to me.

Valentine

"Wow...yours is so long!"
"WHAT???"

"The rose!!!!"
"Oh...Of course! of course!"

有心機的女人

I am feeling threaten and suspicious of her intention. It sounded too much like an excuse to spend time with him alone when really, it was MY idea to give her the ride home rather than his.

Jealousy! Jealousy! Jealousy!

Oi!! 手給我放乾淨點喔！！！！
這女人，心機好重喔！
居然跟我玩陰的！
我要小心一點，看好屬於我的東西！

What's wrong this time?!

When you don't talk to me, I worried. I am afraid that it's all going to happen like last time and I will get hurt again. I have fell once and I can't image to go through that again.

I have been so fragile because you haven't given me enough faith/commitment that you will stay around. I don't know what to do so please excuse me for giving up doing anything in order to simply protect myself.

My PC is in ICU

My PC is in a coma :( My bro has tried to CPR it, but without any success so far. Is it time to let go and give up hope?

Should I plug the tube and call it?

Spectacular Summer

Summer is great! The day is long and people are more energetic or maybe it is just me :p

I have been back from my holiday for 1 week now and I certainly enjoy Auckland summer. The first weekend after I came back to work was a long weekend and Chinese New Year. I caught up with old colleagues for a lovely dinner and saw a spectacular firework at viaduct on Friday. Then, on Saturday, I continued my big mission of uploading photos using dial-up speed. Oh the good old day! In the afternoon, we eventually got out of the house, went to the beach and visited friends. I bounced idea with them and received many good advices on my career. Then we went for a nice bush walk in Wairewa until the sun went down - 9pm!

The last day of the Rat, I was "trapped voluntarily" into going for a morning bush run :o. Then, the rest of day was the Chinese New Year Even Dinner preparation and eating and more eating. My stomach was so full that I was very satisfied in the end of the evening :)

"Wow! There is going to be some firework!" I said excitedly when I saw there was a Light and Fire Show on the programme

"Oh yeah?" He pretended it was a dull idea "What do you think it's going to be like?" He asked uninterestedly

"Errr....like you?"
"Oh! You mean it's going to be SPECTACULAR?"

Taiwan 2009

It's so nice to be home and rested finally after travelling for 2 weeks. Even though it's a short visit, I did enjoy catching up with all the gossip and caught up with family and friends.

I also had my special birthday in Taiwan. It was truly a special day with lots of love and best wishes. I started my day at midnight with a lovely birthday card which I had been carrying since I left New Zealand. Then I went to sleep. When I woke up and turned on my Facebook, I was surprised at the number of birthday messages all around the world :) My parents then took me out for lunch and I had an international phone call before my beauty nap. My birthday cake was really yummy too. All those nice gestures from family and friends made my day.

Thanks everyone who made my special day more meaningful for being in my life.

Bangkok, Ayuthaya

I wasn't as impressed as Myanmar with Bangkok. The humanity made me tired easily. However, the shopping was so good that I almost run out money. In fact, I did :p and I had to exchange some of my back up money so that I had enough money to take the taxi from the hotel to the airport. By the time I arrived the airport, I only had 100 Baht (5 NZD, 3 USD or 100 NTD) left in my wallet :o

Shopping results:

• 1 hat
• 1 pair of sunglasses
• 1 belt
• 1 skirt
• 2 bags
• 3 pairs of shoes :o
  
• 7 T-shirts/tops; and
• some more souvenirs

After shopping for 2 days with the gang, they all left Bangkok and I was back to travel alone. It took me a while to get used to it. I felt lonely and was frustrated when I couldn't gain help easily from the locals. There were less people speaking English in Bangkok than in Myanmar, surprisingly and I didn't 'pick up' other travellers for companion.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the day I went visiting Wat Phra Kaew and the Palace was the New Year Day. Wat Phra was free but the palace was closed due to people lining up to sign the book to wish the king for a long life. I strolled among the old Bangkok and Chinatown without realising it was getting dark. By the time I felt like dinner, I had no energy, so I grabbed a tuk-tuk and it became my best story in Bangkok. Most people heard about those dodgy tuk-tuk drivers and their gem shop scams, but they (tuk-tuk drivers) obviously weren't aware of "Anita" Scam which I got a tuk-tuk drive from Chinatown to Wat Pho for 7 Baht!!!

The next day I went to Ayuthaya and biked around this ancient city. The sun was hot and every temple charging higher entry fee from foreigners! I have to admit that I sneaked into few because it was getting ridiculous and expansive to pay every single temples :p I didn't have lunch until 4 o'clock in the afternoon when I was absolutely exhausted. Even though the sunset was magnificent and I felt so guilty that I didn't make it to the Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn) for the beauty, I just had enough for the day. Home and bed was all I wanted and needed.

My last day in Bangkok was visiting the Weekend Market where had like 130, 000 stalls. I only stayed for the morning as there were just way too many people to bare for me! Then, I visited the Jim Thompson's house.

Maybe it's Bangkok or maybe it's Thailand, but I was amazed on a number of old white man with Thai girl. Is it because of the language? I have to admit that every time I heard Thai people talking, 我骨頭都酥了 (my bones were all went soft) . I was also surprised to see a number of PDA (public display of affection) and lady boys. I am still confused about how this lady boys phenomenon can be so acceptable in a what I see a conservative culture - being in Asia and Buddhism country.