Saturday, April 12, 2003
[my name is]:Florence, UKTILU, Zero Intelligence
[height?]: 25 inches
[in the morning i am]: robbing the rich alongside robin hood
[all I need is]: oxygen
[love is]: love is patient. love is kind. it does not envy. love is never boastful, nor conceited, nor rude; never selfish, not quick to take offence. there is nothing love cannot face; there is no limit to its faith, its hope n endurance. in a word, there r 3 things that last forever: faith, hope n love; but the greatest of them all is love. (pls flip to ur bible 1st Corinthians 13 shld my version be slightly diff from urs.
[if i could see one person right now]: i'd rather not. i look hedious.
[i'm afraid of]: pucky, my evil twin
[i dream about]: sucking my left thumb.
-have you ever ?
[pictured your crush naked?]: yup. she was in the mortuary
[been in love]: def! i love my pinky toes. i love my smelly feet. i love my str8 ankles. i love my smooth calves. i love my sensitive inner thighs. i love my round tummy. i love my ticklish love handles. i love my c cup boobies. i love my sexy shoulder blades. i love my long neck. i love my warm ear lobes. i love my wet lips. i love my broken teeth. i love my elastic cheeks. i love my squinting eyes. i love my button nose. i love my disgusting hair.
[cried when someone died]: no. i let out a laugh.
[lied]: now.
-which is better ?
[coke or pepsi]: drain water
[flowers or candy]: r the flowers edible too? if yes. then... hmm... cant make up my mind. can i tell u tomolo?
[tall or short]: i prefer shorts. they r more comfy to wear. can show off my beautiful long legs too.
-with the opposite sex.
[that do you notice first?]: do they have 3 eyes n green lips?
[last person you slow danced with]: my inflatable dummy.
[worst question to ask]: 'how come ure such a genius?' n actually mean it.
-who.
[makes you laugh the most?]: the mirror
[makes you smile]: puck
[gives you a funny feeling when you see them]: perverts
[who do you have a crush on?]: solaro crush. (is that the name of that stupid ice cream?)
[easiest to talk to]: all those young n stupid gers as they believe everything that comes out from my mouth
-do you ever?
[stay on aim, waiting for someone special to IM you]: no. they r always pting a gun at me.
[save AOL/aim conversations]: im a comp idert.
[wish you were a member of the opposite sex]: def. (i want to b their dick. n dick only)
[cry because of someone saying something to you]: nods. when a stranger came up n me n thot that i was david beckham n asked for my autograph.
-have you ever
[fallen for your best friend]: ive never fallen for puck.
[been rejected?]: yes. my jie.
[rejected someone]: in the first place, no one wants me. how the hell do i reject them? totally ridiculous qn.
[used someone]: oh pls, i rather use myself. no one can give me watever i want.
[been cheated on]: yup. when my fren leaned over to copy from my ans script.
[cheated on someone]: yup, when she lifted her paper up for me to copy as a form of repayment.
[done something you regret]: doing this questionaire.
-who was the last person..
[you talked to on the phone]: dont know. received some prank call of a ger's loud moans.
[hugged]: my imaginary childhood fren.
[you instant messaged]: russel crowe. (but he never replied. i always knew that he was stuck up.)
[instant messaged you?]: tan kheng hwa (she mistook me for her hubby.)
[you laughed with]: emma yong
-do you.. are you.
[color your hair]: im bald.
[habla espanol]: hajimashite. japanese chan.
[smoke cigarettes]: i dont exactly smoke them. i stuff them up my butt, they r gd for giving off smellier farts
[obsessive]: im florence, not obessive. u got the wrong person. im sorry.
[could you live without the computer?]: yes. but i cant live w/o my lappy.
[how many peeps are on your buddylist?]: is peep a bad word? my mummy tells me never to peep at others.
[what's your favorite food?]: beef from those mad cows.
[whats your favorite fruit?]: the forbidden fruit that Eve took a bite from.
[drink alchohol?]: oh, thats a no-no. its against my religion. (im a very gd ger.)
[like watching sunrises or sunset]: i'll rather sing to the dawn.
[what hurts the most, physical or emotional pain?]: watever that hurts the most. duh.
[trust others way too easily?]: ha.(dry laughter) i know how great a liar i am. do liars ever trust others? sheesh.
Wednesday, April 09, 2003
b4 we embarked on the trip, we didnt do much preplanning or research. i was simply too lazy, more of the kind to go n chk out the place to c wat they offer on the day itself, while shey was too busy working on her law coursework. we merely relied on the past experiences we've gained over the trips undertaken over the last 2 yrs.
sun: 1st april (tues)
grass: salzburg
spinning: 'i am 16, going on 17'
the view of the salz airport is breathtaking. the airport had snow-capped mountains as its backdrop. looked so perfect. im a sucker for mts as spore n uk r too flat. it kind of brings me down to size. pity i was too exhausted to appreciate the view. but its defintely a gd change from the concrete-surrounded airports in spore n uk. checked into a hostel w/o much fuss. i hate to walk around w my orange 45l backpack in search for a decent bed. shey wanted to catch up with her sleep immediately but i refused to waste a gd sunny day.(ive checked the weather forecast n there isnt many days with sunshine.) so off we headed to the 'sound of music tour'. i found it a tad bit too touristy. but wth, im a tourist for now, dragging 2 cams along. to my frustration, i only found out that my digicam had an electronic fault n was unable to take any pics with it. all the pics that i tried taking turned out pitch black. was very worked out. yes, no doubt i had my slr with me. but it was meant to act as a complement to my digi. not as a subsititue. the lens was 80mm to 300mm. which means i couldnt take objects near me. so challenging to take pics. shey kindly offered her cam for my usage but i felt paiseh as film was double the price here compared to spore. (ive spent alot on the films n batts there. shows how unprepared i was to use the slr.) so for those who r waiting eagerly for my pics, pls b patient. ive to send them for developing then drag the whole lot to my campus for scanning. n its a well- known fact that im a sloth. as for the tour, they brought us all over the place. it lasted for a whole 4 hrs. wow. bringing us up the mts, down to the lakes that the kids fell in, to the steps that they sang 'do re mi', to the von Trapp's house, to the nunnery that Maria went for some time......the thing i hate abt joining tours is that u r unable to stop as n when u wish. but it was the only way that i could c the whole 'sound of music' thingy. after the tour, i tried to look for a camera repairshop. but they were unable to fix it. grrrrr.... in the end, ive decided to sell my cam n buy a new one. ive set my eye on the nikon 5700. will save as much as i can for now.
sun: 2nd april (wed)
grass: innsbruck
spinning: 'runaway train'
we had a gd rest the nite b4 as we didnt manage to catch any decent sleep on mon. we planned to go for a hike in the famous Hohn Tauren National Park. (the largest game reserve in europe). unluckily for us, it only opens in june. grrr. wat lousy timing we have. btw, last nite, b4 i crawled into bed, i realised that i forgot to bring my toothbrush. that always happens to me. n i recalled a song that my fren taught me when i was 15. when we went to aust for a geog fieldtrip n i forgot my toothbrush. the lyrics goes like this ' we r young. we r free. we have teeth. nice n clean.' ha. anyway, the owner of our hostel was very nice n told us to take the scenic rail route to inns. no doubt its longer by an hr but it winds past all the mts. everything was made prettier by the falling snow. we were quite surprised to find it snowing in apr. the snow was heavier than wat i had experienced in uk. i sat mesmerised thruout the ride. like some bright eyed boy, snapping pics here n there. the winding streams, the quaint houses, the white mts...... we reached inns to find out that its a popular ski resort. pengs. we were so unprepared. our warmest clothing was a denim jacket. though i find inns prettier (only the ugly tramlines spoilt the sights) than salz, we decided to stay for only 1 day. we didnt even chk into a hostel as we chose to take an overnite train to save on accomodation. they squeezed 6 bunks into 1 cabin. omg. i cant even sit str8 up on my bunk. (im glad that im short) grrr. the nite was ok. but when the sun rose n its time for breakfast, imagine, 4 grown ups, squeezed in that tiny space trying to swallow the hard bread n tasteless coffee. sick. lucky i dont suffer from clastophobia. our train to graz was only leaving at 2am. so we had a long n gratifying dinner which lasted till midnite. to b on the safe side, we chose to take the main streets back to the rail station where we sat glumly on pieces of paper. from salz to inns, the ride took us 4 hrs. from inns to graz, that took up another 6 hrs.
sun: 3rd april (thur)
grass: graz
spinning: 'wild wild west'
graz. let me think for a moment. cant seem to recall much abt that place. it is the 2nd biggest city in aust, after vienna. surprisinly, there was a small no of tourists. we covered graz within a few hrs. we went to their armoury n found out that they r enough guns, canons, armour suits n helmets to outfit 28,000 men. wow. we had a great time removing the guns 'illegially' from the rack n taking pics ala wild wild west style. bwarhaha. we were so sneaky. lucky there werent much pple ard, only a small grp of chinese tourists n some workmen. we would grab our 'stash', find a hidden corner n 'snap snap snap'. we wanted to hold guns in both our hands but being wimpy weak women, we couldn't manage. we later went to find a tram that would take us to the top of a hill, to the bell tower. even more posing. now we seem more comfy n open with each other. b4 that, a bit more on the reserved side. came up with ways on how to play with our frenz back in uk. we have decided to develop our pics. then mess up the order that they were taken n construct a story up. the story that we have loosely set on : we spent 3 days at the huge grounds of a palace. the palace is that big. with an armoury. with a large lawn. with a maze. with a statue park. with an open air theatre. with a hill. we will come out with bogus names for all the places that we've been. blahblahblah. lets see if they would fall for our tall stories. n we have taken a couple of pictures in shey's orange hooded jacket. she would remove her jack for me, i put it on, with the hood, face my back towards the cam n do a 'john travolta - grease' pose. shey did the same in various places too. we didnt take a full length pic, as our shoes would b a dead giveaway. after all these mischeivous planning n running abt the various sites in graz, it sure tired us out, so we sat down for another slow dinner n realised that we had covered 3 cities in a matter of 3 days. which means, we left 5 days for vienna itself. on the spur of the moment, we booked the next train (a 6 hr ride starting at 630am the next morn) to budapest (hungary). kind of insane looking back now. we had never read up on budapest. we dont have a single map. we dont have the correct currency. totally unprepared. but travelling means u have to b greatly flexible n adaptable to watever pops up. n that ignite our imagination for some time. (we planned not to tell our uk frenz that we went there. let's see if they r smart enough to spot the diff in our pics). then we headed back to our we hostel. sharing the room w 2 other gers. my hp batt finally ran out. n i had to find an electrical socket to charge. the only available one was the common loo. so i sat there like an idert for 1 hr, wishing that it would hurry up. ha. shey kept coming in n out of the loo just to laugh in my face. hey! i brought the hp to wake us up in the morn! w/o it, we would defintely oversleep n miss all our trains n sightseeings!.
sun: 4th april n 5th april (fri and sat)
grass: budapest.
spinning: ' jiu ai hai si zhui mei' (old love is still the most beautiful)
sitting in the train, headed for budapest, peering out of the dirty windows at the landscape, i felt that im back in uk again. so flat n ugly. urgh. we had quite a rough time when we reached the train station as there were no signs in eng. no one knew where the tourist info center was. n when we eventually found it, they dont have a list of avail hostels. grrrr. in the end, they kindly told us how to take the metro to the city center where there was another tourist info center that had a list of hostels. by the time we were done with those arrangments it was pretty late. shey was totally exhausted. we hadnt have gd sleep the last few nites. when we were in aust, she was the one looking out for me, chking the maps, leading the way, finding hostels, even refilling my water bottle. but in budapest, i found that it was my turn to take care of her. she was in such a daze that she can walk in the wrong directions though her map reading skills r better than me. ( she was the appointed map reader when fel brought us on our road trip 2 wks ago.) twice, she would have stepped into dog poo if i hadnt pulled her away in time. if a country's cleanliness is to b gauged by how clean their loos r, then aust is super duper clean (no vandalism at all) while budapest fails on most counts. n the amt of dog poo ard the place. urgh. they shld simply annoint more road sweepers to clean it up. boost the economy n provide more jobs. but then again, i like budapest alot. it reminds me of prague n JB. both dirty. n both signboards r in some foreign lang. haha. the whole city is covered with 80 over baths. if only we had brought our bikinis. i was willing to go in my bra top n shorts but shey had no suitable wear. grrr. they had thermal springs, turkish baths, roman baths, both indoor n outdoor. they didnt let me take pics too. grrr. they were so many pple in the baths. i wonder how is it like during the popular summer hols. overcroweded? body pressing against body in the pool? n wat abt the pee? YUCKS. sick thot. budapest is so much cheaper than aust. so we decided to treat ourselves to gd full meals here. (starter, main course n desert). fd in aust is very salty. even their mineral water has salt added. the first time we bought their mineral water, we almost splurted everything out. i was on a financially restrained trip so forced myself to finish the drink. anyway, we chose to dine in an upper-class classically styled restuarant. we looked a bit out of place in our dirty jeans. but figured that all that matters is whether we have the ability to afford the meal.towards the end of our meal, a whole grp of 200 plus bikers horned past the rest. so bloody noisy. think they have some kind of rally or wat nots. but u could see certain excited male customers standing up from their seats to get a better view. the bikes came in all shapes n sizes. harleys, vespas n even homemade ones. hahaha. bet those cant withstand a crash. the next day, i wanted to take a railway ard the surrounding mts. took the children's railway. driven by an adult of coz, but the rest of it, were operated by the kids like signalling, collection of tix..... the ride was beautiful as usual. all the trees. (im forest deprived in spore.) but i realised that most of the pple in the carriage were little kiddos. hahaha. its ok to relieve the childhood that i never had.
but i still love prague more. grin. nothing can replace prague's place in my wandering travelling soul.
sun: 6th apr (sun)
grass: vienna
spinning: 'some-dont-know-wat-but-ear-soothing-latin church song by the vienna boy's choir'
took the evening train from budapest to vienna the nite b4 as i wanted to catch the boys in action on sun's morn. its their first 'performance' 4 this yr. i think. we Q up in the freezing cold at 8am. it only starts at 915. but there were limited free standing up space. i refuse to pay for a mass. maybe im have something against the Church that makes me pretty bias against them. but then again, upon further thinking, i realise its not the Church i dislike but the pple in it. urgh. imagine, paying up to 40 euros for a seat just to attend a mass? to listen to the boys sing? all this time, ive been brought up on the doctrine of do gd onto others as u would onto urself. to b generous. to b forgiving. all these, ive learnt from the old testament. but i dont see it being practiced in this church. though there were plently of seats avail, we werent invited to take the seats as we didnt pay. appalling. i feel that its all a scam to earn the tourist's money. it kind of disgusts me n many a times, i find myself ashamed to say im a Christian. i rather say im a les. (ok, shall stop toking abt religion here.) we left halfway, b4 they broke the bread. im not batised so i dont have to take it. stepped out of the church only to have the fierce cold winds blowing us backwards. unable to tahan the cold, we rushed back to the hostel. i pulled on 4 tees n took the pillowcase which doubled up as my scraf. lucky its lite blue so its not so tacky. (brought back that pillowcase as my souvenir) i was seriously contemplating taking the duvet out. so that the both of us could be huddled within it's warm embrace. we went out again as i wanted to catch this unusual clock at 12pm. the chill was totally unbearble so after the clock we went to a restaurant for a slow lunch, waiting for the snow showers to stop n to plan the shortest route to c all the sights. after 2 hrs, we decided we shldnt waste the limited daytime n went out. omg.........bad move. we had to dart from building to building, hiding behind the pillars from the winds. a normal 10 min walk took us 1/2 hr. there was this instance when we were shivering from the cold n eyeing the birds in the building with jealousy as they were shielded from the cold. we saw a family running in with us. n we thot, haha. frenz from the cold. to our atonishment, they opened the door to that particular birdy building n went in. omg........ that look on both our faces. wide eyed, opened mouths n the silence. we felt like a fool. after checking out the jewish plaza, we went to the catherdral as we wanted to chk out the catacombs. it was warmer in the catherdral. but when we headed down to the damp n dark catacombs... urgh.. the cold gust of wind..... n the skulls n bones...... all the skulls n bones neatly stacked up by previous prisoners, bones from the last plague..... urgh.. urgh.... even the cobwebs.... didnt take any pics. as many of the dead didnt die a happy death. didnt want any strange objects popping up in my pics or any restless souls following me ard. they closed the catacombs in the 198th century as the smell was overpowering enough for pple not to go to church n attend mass. or so said the guide. grin.
sun: 7th april. (mon)
grass: vienna still
spinning: --
made a futile trip down to the cemetary in vien as we couldnt find the graves of our fave 'decomposers' (beethoven, strauss n mozart). there were no directions in the graveyard. (graveyards in prague r grander n prettier). didnt bother to stay on n slowly chk the tombstones one by one. but we had a great day in schnonbrum palace. the indoors were pretty similar to all the various palaces that ive visited b4. the frescos. the baroque designs. the curves. n certain china n india influences. we had more fun in the gardens after lunch. we waited for more snow to settle so that we could take the grounds being covered in white. the whole place seemed so magical. we could have walked on n on. we went to a maze n obviously got lost. in the end, i got so frustrated that i made signs on the snow on all the paths that we've crossed. then..BINGO. ahahah. climbed onto the platform to get an aerial view of the maze. then i went down n trusted shey to shout out directions to get me out. (shes a known prankster n i almost thot that she would give me the wrong directions n purposely leave me alone n lost in the maze. but she was being nice that day.) so..... i got out without much trouble though at times, she was unable to see me from where she was standing. so i had to shout n jump n wave madly. ha. she came out soon after (she took the shortcut). i waited impatiently outside her exit with a snowball in hand. bwarhahaha. that started a mad fight. scoping n packing the snow tite, standing up to aim, bending down for another handful of snow..... we both suck in aiming. there were no one ard so no casual causalities. shey even removed all her jackets to take a pic labelled 'it sure isnt cold'. i laid flat on the snow for her to take a pic. we blantantly ignored the numerous signs saying not to step on the lawn. theres a certain fascination in leaving our footprints on the otherwise smooth snow. we went to the furthest end of the grounds. i managed to take a handful of pics of the colourful birds n wild squirrels. but squating among the bushes were no joke. not sure if the pics would turn out sharp as they were moving abt. after the palace, we headed back n i decided to buy flavoured tobacco. i didnt know which were nice smelling but the shop assistant was very helpful. in the end, i bought vanilla, sweet honeydew n rum. sniff sniff. we kept sniffing the packets. nice... shey was so tempted to put them into her mouth. ridiculous.
sun: 8th april. (tues)
grass: salzburg.
spinning: 'it's time to say gdbye'
its our last day. n we r back in salz to catch our flight in the evening. b4 that, we had time to visit the 2 mozart musems. 1 was his birth place the other his residence for 7 yrs. learnt alot abt him. n heard snippets of the music he had composed. dammit, y cant i b as talented as him. i dont mind dying young too. as long as ive lived a gd life to the fullest. then i would have no regrets. imagine..excellent artistic talent, ability to compose music, ability to pursue it, to appreciate it, to travel ard, adoring fans, a ridiculous lifestyle...... how many of us can actually do that?
all in all, it was a gd trip. though exhausting. but for that 8 days, i actually felt alive n breathing. i miss that kind of feeling. we drank so much cappuchino just to warm oursevles up. we would stop by at least 2 cafes everyday. i wished that i could have travelled 4 a longer time. however, i know that ive horribly overspent as i didnt tell my parents abt the trip n im forking everything out from my own pockets. i didnt expect the rail tix n film to be so exorbitantly priced. nevermind, shall plan for my next trip -- 15 days to morocco in lovely june.
ps: sorry for all the grammer or typo mistakes. its too long an entry for me to chk thru. (shall trust coalfox to do the proofreading for me. thanx)
yes, im back n
no, carrie, my trip was not an april fool's joke.
will update properly tomolo after a gd rest
to make up for the 1 wk long absense.
----joraffe----
