Seattle

Sunday 23 Aug 09

First time on Eva Air - I didn't know what to expect, so had pretty low expectations. Overall the experience was pretty good! The Taiwanese air stewardesses were quite pretty too - a few looked like Taiwanese actresses heh. Thankfully I had good seats on the way there - especially for the long haul (11 hour stretch from Taoyuan to Seattle) - where I could half-stretch my leg out on the side compartment.

~ SIN - TPE: 4hrs 35min ~

~ TPE wait time: 5hr 15min ~

DFS in Taoyuan Airport - LA MER? *snigger*

Had plenty of time in Taoyuan before my connecting flight to Seattle, so I walked around the airport and explored every inch of it. Even found a free massage chair (rather painful though) and tried out iGallop at a pharmacy. Spent the remainder of my time on MSN chatting with people back in Singapore (I love my ipod touch for reasons like this).

~ TPE - SEA: 11hrs ~

After waiting a while for my brother's flight - we got picked up at Seattle Airport!

After settling into Rach's friends' apartment (John & Jo-ae) where we would be staying the night, we set out to look for some food and settled on Dominos. Wasn't our first choice (we got kicked out of the pub/bar cos Rach & Aaron didn't bring their id!) but the pizza was GOOD. John & Jo-ae's apartment was so lovely & the hosts were extremely hospitable - pity I didn't think of taking pictures at their place!

Monday 24 Aug 09

After sleeping in some, out for some good dim-sum!

Rach & Jason had to do some planning, so Kor & I scuttled out of their way and preoccupied ourselves with the Pike Place market.

Fresh blueberries that we thought we could keep for Mum & Dad when they arrived later that evening...but we finished the whole box! :p

Had a nice time catching up with Kor, eating blueberries, trying to hit pigeons, relaxing by the pier & doing some suntanning :)

Flowers Rach & Jason bought for John & Jo-ae!

(notice the leaf in Aaron's nose hehe)

We picked Mum & Dad from the airport early, dropped off their stuff at the hotel and arranged to have dinner together at Alki, a seafood place across the sea from downtown Seattle.

The crew! (minus Aaron)

After dinner Rach & Jason drove back to Burlington while we stayed the night at Seattle Pacific Hotel, resting up for the next day at Pike Place market.

Tuesday 25 Aug 09

The space needle from afar.

The 2 'pig's in front of THE pig!

A cool take-away sandwich stand.

Back to Pike Place Market!

Ugly fish.

So fresh so fresh.

There's tons to see and do just in Seattle downtown itself (like the underground sewer walk or the legendary duck tours), but we decided to stick to just have a relaxing day at the market. Best decision; hassle & stress-free. We took in the sights & smells @_@ of the market, and chanced upon a clam chowder cafe which was delicious. We had a lovely lunch with a great view of the pier. We had to try to dungeness crab of course; the meat was unbelievably sweet (they must have added smtg @_@) & the shell so soft and easy to break through. I don't know why I didn't take pictures...too busy eating I suppose. Topped with tea/coffee at the Crumpet Shoppe & buying enough fruits to last us for 2 weeks :) I love markets.

Dad in the foreground...leaving the market in the late afternoon.

I can finally burst my (literal) bloody blister.

Saw this on http://www.adverblog.com/

"Very cool use of webcams and of interaction with consumers/fans. For the Sour's 'Hibi no Neiro" the cast was selected from the actual Sour fan base, from many countries around the world. Each person and scene was filmed purely via webcam."

Brilliant :)

Commencement '09

Wanted to preserve the pretty flowers in pictures! 

Thanks mum :)

Job interview

1. Issues Management

• Not too bad - haven't been oiling my writing skills so it took me a little while to warm up.

2. Press Release Writing

• Got the engine running so it went smoothly.

3. Media Pitch

• This would have been fun if I had more than 5minutes left to do this :/

4. Translation: Chinese to English

• Aaaaaaaaand this is the point where I gave up @_@

NDP (Rehearsal 3) 2009

There was YF breakout before this...only went for an hour - it looked fuuuun. Pity I couldn't stay and join in on it! Super impressed with the simple but nice decor around the palm trees :) The group did a good job :) *thumbs up* 

Fighting our way through the crowds to collect our funpack

Mummy in the crowd

Collection of funpacks

I thought you wouldn't be able to choose the colour of your bag, but people just jam their way in and pick whatever they want on the table. Quite hectic in a lot of ways - It would be a lot more organised if people don't get to choose what they want and just be given a random bag and be shoved along. People linger to choose or to wait for a colour they want to be replenished on the table. Aside from the overly bright and bold colours (which I suspect was the point) of the bags, I really like it that it can be a tote bag :) It looks pretty decent - I must say they did a good job on the design...such that the tote didn't look like a disfigured version of a messenger bag :p

Being herded along up the stairs to the seating area. Completely elderly-UNfriendly. Some of the elderly folk were struggling up the staircase amidst the humid and muggy crowd.

Finally - an opening.

Red Lions!...? 

The descent -

I really like this shot :)

Very impressive, exciting and smooth landings!

Fighter Planes

Choir!

I think this was the part where Sang Nila Utamah had to do a forced landing on Temasek because of stormy weather. 

I liked how they introduced the SAF - they showed this urgent news report (by Cheryl Fox) on a explosion that happened at Marina Bay, and all the forces came in to show off their equipment, skills and military might.

This is police chasing bad people by boat. Quite interesting to watch - they shot flares at the 'baddies' instead of real bullets (of course) so you could see the action. I wonder if the flares ever accidently landed into the boat before :p

Ooh must ask jm what's this called...the one that can suddenly 'jam brake' and change directions! It sprayed lots of water much to the people's (sitting at the merlion) delight.

Taking off.

The bit where they show off their military might.

Be afraid...be very afraid. 

'Raiding' the audience.

Mum made a interesting observation - 8 out of 10 of them were wearing glasses. Aiyoh.

Parade

The area where I was staring at for a bit...until jm told me he was in the control room @_@ How embarrassing. People were wondering why I was turning around to take pictures when the action was in front.

:)

Just learnt from chubbie that they have a back up contingency - a separate chopper with another flag...flying around somewhere in the West in case anything happens to this one. Pretty impressed - kiasu, but well-prepared.

Live firing from the river.

Distracted by the clouds and rays from the setting sun.

I like.

I like I like.

Mum with her heart.

Sampan? The puppets freak me out.

One of the things I really like about this year's NDP - this boxy thing, one on each side of the stage. At first glance it looks like a screen, but noooo - there are REAL people inside. I like. Mum counted - 56 on each side, 112 in total. So many people!

This. Is. Hilarious.

I think they haven't finished making all the space costumes, and just put a box over their heads.

My heart against the backdrop of the stage.

Simulated 'Electrico'.

The stand-in guy looked like he was having fun strumming the placard and singing to the words.

Finale!

And guess who I saw - Yvonne Lieeeeewwww :D with her mum too! heh always nice to see a familiar face...an ever-mischievous one at that.

I like this year's NDP - it was much simpler and unified in theme and had a smooth flow to it...yeah sure, it had the usual cheesy stuff like - what do you treasure, what does Singapore mean to you etc etc. But on the whole the show was pretty candid, less scripted and natural. There was only one display float - which was good. Don't like the many-floats-not-worth-the-effort-super-messy-and-logistically-crazy stuff. I think previous years there was 'a lot going on' and it looked like organisers were trying very hard...maybe too hard. This year had a simple concept with the usual crowd pleasers (formations, lots of action & colourful costumes), interjected with cute story lines and heartwarming excerpts. 

My top 3 favourite things:

1. "When I grow up" segment

• Super-duper cute kids talking about their aspiration, with excellent creatives in doodling out their dream aspiration as the kids themselves act it out :) One boy said, "I want to be a PSP-helper...*slumps back in chair sheepishly* and help people play PSP." Too cute :D

2. Song mix

• Found myself tapping to the song choices as they did a flashback...I like how they expressed this flashback / journey-to-the-past segment through music :)

3. Photos shown

• Candid and heartwarming - not the kind specially taken to kick up the emo-factor...but those kind dug up from peoples' shoeboxes. Actual memories.

3 things I raised my eyebrows at:

1. Pole dancing??

2. Brief Michael Jackson photo...an attempted tribute?

3. And yes, I can't let go off the boxes on their heads.

The ending was nice - with the national song sung acapella. Haven't said the national anthem in unison for ages! Since JC ended...nostalgia.

Fireworks

Yay :)