English Names

Traditional Chinese do not give their children English names.  So most of us grow up with Chinese names, normally made out of 1 to 2 Chinese characters.  The lack of an English name means that it is not easy for English speakers to remember us because it is difficult to pronounce our names and therefore, most of us, normally starting from high school (or as and when we feel we needed one), we get ourselves our own English names.  Although it's become a trend now for parents to give their children English names at birth, some still don't do it or they would prefer for the children to choose, whether or not to have an English name, or if they choose to have one, they can choose their own...

In Malaysia, the English names are quite normal, Kelvin, Kevin, Stephanie, Cindy, Tracy, Danny, Jonathan, Joey, Vincent, Irene, Helen, Elaine, Catherine/Cathy/Katherine, Eric... If you shout out one of these names in a supermarket, you'd probably have a least half a dozen of ppl answering...

And then I got to Macau, now HK... I can't help but notice some of the very unique English names the younger ppl have here:


Basically, there are quite a few catagories...

There are the ambitious ones like Million(!), Handsome(!)...
Then stationary/instrument... Staple, Paper, Piano (there must be a flute somewhere, or a trumpet...), Yoyo (a very common girls' name in HK/Macau)...

Then food... Orange, Spaghetti (OMG), Honey (uh-hm, this is my cousin brother's English name)...
Weather... Windy, Rain, Sky...
Adjective...  Mainly, Aware, Fancy (could be a noun as well...@_@)

Characteristic...  Sinner (one of my x-colleague, Sin is his surname...), Ego (what can I say?), Freeman, Fairy, Baby, Honey (yes, it's my cousin brother)
Body parts... Fanny, Pinky...

Then there are some that I don't know how to catagorize...  Weko, Midco, Fifi, Ginny (drinkable or simply Italian?), Shirty (who turns out to be a fantastic wife, mother and friend), Mask (yup, MASK, not Mark)... hmm...

Some sound really funny and I'm sure you've come across quite a lot if you've been here long enough or met enough ppl.  But hey, there's no way to figure out what the younger (Gosh I feel soooooooo freaking old already!!) generation has in mind...

I've finally done it!

Yes, I've finally tendered my resignation giving them a month's notice! Honestly, it's a relief!

I sent an email to the HR Director in HK and copied Greg, the Associate Director here in Macau. Sent it out 17:52 and gave Greg about 5 minutes to talk to me about it. Haha!

He asked, "Why? Is it personal or something else?" Gosh... since when resignation is not personal? Whatever reason it is, it is personal or I won't quit la! Ai...

I told Greg that although my last day is the 18th, I can stay until end of July if he feels that it's necessary. Sort of promised him I would give him longer notice if I ever quit. I sent the letter at 8 minutes to 6. Greg almost ran to me and insisted that we talk. I was heading to a Karaoke session and was really not in the mood and hadn't the time to do that, I gave him 5 minutes.

I've been thinking about when to do it for quite some time. They made us redundant twice -- April and May. And we were verbally... actually casually... informed that our redundancy will be withdrawn (last working day was 31st May 2009) and that we would be given the written notice on the 1st of June. I thought to myself, wait a minute, they should pay me my redundancy package because on the 1st of June, I'm officially unemployed. And if they wanted me to continue working for them, they should give me a new contract. Correct me if I'm wrong...

That's why I planned a holiday in Malaysia and then meet Adrian in UK -- I replied and said that I won't be available on the 1st of June and that I'll be abroad and that they can call me when I'm back 2 weeks later when Donna, the Sr. Administrator (what's that word Sr. for? I have no idea!) sent me a meeting invite... ha! And she even came around and asked if I've submitted my leave application... "What leave application?? today, since Saturday (30/05) and Sunday (31/05) are not working days, is officially my last day at work!" That was so easy.

I told Greg, "You know I could just walk out and you have to give me my package, it's not that difficult." He then told me he has all the soft copies of the letters for each and everyone of us but he was told that Sam, another Associate Director (??? don't ask me, I have no clue why we needed 2 of these in one team) who was relocated back to HK from Macau when they downsized the team by approx. 80%, originally played a leading role in our team, wanted to come and do it on Monday (01/06). Oh, so now someone wants to play boss... I said, "Greg, you could be screwed for this... what if none of us turns up? You are letting this happen because someone wants to play boss??" He could not argue -- at that point, everything was verbal, nothing in writing whatsoever. Then he called HK to get permission to give me the letter, changed the date and all... I signed it.

He even asked, "If you have planned to quit, why did you sign the letter?"

Daft.

"Ermm... it all happened over the holiday..."

believe it or not?

Ah! Talk about over reacting... can anyone top this please!!

I got back from London on Friday, which I will talk about shortly, but this is something that you would find much much more interesting!

I had fever Sunday evening. With the current situation in Hong Kong and UK... messages were sent to my cell constantly, "WHO alert raised to phase 6, Macau, without local confirmed cases, bla bla bla..." Yup, WHO declared an H1N1 pandemic... the first global pandemic since 1968.

I knew they will at least send me to the hospital if I went to the clinic if not quarantine me for 7 days for observation. So I waited for a night hoping that the temperature would get lower or I could just recover on my own. I took Adrian's advise and took a Panadol. I went to bed but when I got up in the morning I felt like shit.

I text the Admin in the office and told her that I had a temperature and won't be reporting to work. So at just about 10, I went to the clinic. Just like I expected, "I'm sorry, but according to standard procedure, I have to call an ambulance and send you to the hospital for a quick test just in case..." Ya, right. Quick. "How quick?" "Just about 4 hours they'll have the result." Great, I'm officially a "suspected case of infected H1N1". And so the ambulance arrived in no time. Got me all "geared up" and drove me to the government hospital...

Look...

Honestly it was no fun at all. First they took samples from the back of your mouth, somewhere near the throat which was very very irritating. And then I was sat by the hallway to wait for the result. YES! THEY EXPECTED ME -- A SICK PERSON, WITHOUT GIVEN ANY FORM OF MEDICAL TREATMENT, TO SIT AT THE HALLWAY (VERY WELL CONTAINED) AND WAIT FOR THE QUICK H1N1 VIRUS TEST RESULT (WHICH WAS SUPPOSED TO TAKE 4 HOURS, AND THEY CALL IT QUICK) ON SOME HARD SHELL OLD STADIUM STYLE CHAIR!!! How so very nice of them!!

I arrived at the hospital at 10:30am or so. The paramedics told me to stay in the ambulance before the hospital could open the door to the "Special Emergency Room" (this is translated from how they call it in Cantonese) for me.
While waiting, a member of the paramedics asked, "how are you feeling?"
"Alright"
"Then why did you go to see the doctor?"
"I have fever since last night!"
He sorta shut up. I wasn't feel like dying so I said I was alright!! What did he expect anyway? Me passing out in front of him??? Strange people.

I finally got into the "Special Emergency Room". The doctor came to take my temperature (which has been taken sooooo many times in the clinic, the ambulance) and the sample for the so called Quick Test for H1N1 flu -- swine flu... oink oink!! In Malaysia, unless you're dying you don't call the ambulance... I'm not impressed by how Malaysians do it but I'm not impressed here either!

Then they left me there in the hallway... ... ... with a bottle of water... ... ...

At just about 12:30pm, they sent me lunch. Nothing fancy, just edible, with a banana and a bowl of soup with a big piece of chicken skin floating in it!!

My butt started to hurt (because it doesn't have a lot of cushioning, it's just a tiny bum unfortunately), and I was getting really tired and bored...

"Erm... Nurse, am I meant to sit here and wait for my result?"
"Ya, you have to."
"but I'm sick, you see, I'm tired, I'm sleepy and these chairs are crap to sit in..."
She had no choice but to offer me the only bed they have in the ER, you know those damn hard bed, with only 1.5" cushion and just about 2.5' x 6'L... OK better than none. I slept in it until just about 5:30pm -- I talked to Adrian again and he was just wondering if I started to snort... haha Just after we were done talking, the nurse told me that the result came back negative but they have to wait for the fax to come through before they can release me... fine. It's just been 7 hours, I'm alright. Don't worry, take your time. I'm alright.

And so I waited. The fax came in finally, at about 6... I thought that was slow. Nope the doctor was even slower. A doctor has to come and examine me for the last time and give me a proper diagnose and then release me... hmm... I thought he got seriously lost trying to come to this "Special Emergency Room" (it's obviously very new if you know what I mean). He arrived at approx. 6:30pm. Thank goodness Doc, you found your way!! Congrats!! His name if translated into English, is "Hot Spring"... and he was sweating big time when he got there I tell you... He'll lose a lot of weight doing this... I mean wearing the "protective gear" namely the coat, the mask and the shower cap not for shower" hahaha! He took my temperature again (they took it so many times I think they took it away...) prescribed me some paracetamol and let me go.

There was already a girl who returned to Macau from Canada via Japan & HK, who's been held for 2 days... she had a temperature but the first test came back negative. However, because it takes time for the virus to "surface" (before any symptom) after a person is infected, they will take her sample for another test later in the day. She wasn't a quiet girl in that room... She had rashes and it was itching like crazy, which drove her mad... it started last night but they didn't give her the cream for it until just about 3pm the next day... she was crying for it desperately... poor girl.

Also, there are a couple of other girls checking in when I was waiting for the result of the QUICK TEST. One came in, a German woman, who came to the hospital on her own, whom the nurses could hardly understand, with all the symptoms, but they have decided to send her to the normal ER because she came from Nanjing, via HK. Nowhere near USA/UK/Japan... ha!! I had to help translate when the nurses tried to find out where she came from.

And there was this girl who arrived in an ambulance without any sort of symptoms. She came because she was sat near a confirmed case in her flight to Guangzhou. She was complaining about the mask suffocating her as she was arriving and asked if she could take it off... but of course, she was advised not to. And then the nurse asked he to fill out some form, ah... there was this question, "do you have problem breathing?" she said, "well, of course, after I put this mask on!!" hahaha!! and me and the nurse laughed big time! Yup, we all suffer from that!!!

I pity the nurse though, she has to wear it all day long except lunch. No one can breath normal in these masks! Crazy!

Now, tell me if you could find a city besides HK & Macau (which basically follows everything, if possible, HK does & enforces) which would over react like this...

I thought it was...

I somehow thought it was our last day -- 30th April 2009. But no, they've asked us to go back to work on the 4th of May -- the next Monday, and that iPL will give us a letter for the extension of through the month of May...

I went back because it's a team thing --- all of us have got to be there somehow or there won't be a team... I don't know what it meant but for the sake of some of the teammates who have families to support, I went back.

What pissed me off big time was that iPL couldn't give us any form of confirmation on that day, nothing in writing. and still, Greg, our SPM, expected us to come back the nex day... without anything in writing. What do they think we are? NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION? I don't know who is to blame but definitely not us!

We received the letter on the 5th of May and our pay on the 6th of May, without the compensation & the annual leave pay. Ha! Great. One more month.

It was last Thursday, 21st August. Venetian's representative told us that there'll be an extension but there's no detail yet. Great.

Whatever it is, we're gonna farewell ourselves next Wednesday: Mortons for Power Hours and then Newway Karaoke!! F**k it. I have a life --- I'm not here to lick their toes! I don't give a damn -- dismiss me if they want. I thought they were professionals but no, just a bunch of professional w**kers!

Counting Down... 2 days to go!

Yes, tomorrow is my last day with inProjects.


The team was informed that we're going to be taken on board the Venetian but nothing is happening so far, well, we've been hearing things but it's just hear say you see. As long as there's nothing on the table, no deal, that's the reality of it.


I'm just gonna pack tomorrow and then get home and the next day, get to HK and do some banking and shopping on Saturday and maybe even Sunday.

Let's just see how it goes - I'm not saying that they don't need us but at this point of time, people (Venetian) who know what we do and what we can deliver are worried... at least that's the feed back from the people who are really working, on the field. But do their concerns matter? Not really. The guy on the top can simply ask the man-in-charge here in Macau, "Can you deliver without this team?" and I'm 120% certain that he would say yes...

STRESSED OUT!!

This is about work.

We (as in the whole RCT - the ones that are kept) were made redundant end March, that makes my last working day 30th of April 2009, which is just about 6 days from now. We were told that a package is being negotiated with Venetian -- they will take us onboard and that we should get the offer (an offer with at least a 25% cut) just about mid April, which is now way overdue. And we were asked to keep it to ourselves only.

I must admit it was a big relief the minute they gave us the notice. However, when I was told about the possibility of an opportunity with Venetian, I didn't really know what to think -- Yes, I get to keep my job at least for the next few months and No, not the painful job...

I have been working my arse off (mind the language but I just can't take this any longer!!!) last couple of weeks. Providing one forecast after another, dealing with people I have never had to deal with before, contractors & consultants all over me chasing for money that Venetian owes them, countless other tasks on the line, the uncertainty that lies ahead and Adrian being so far away... I couldn't even crochet properly, no mood for House, couldn't sleep well at night, the idea of going to work haunts me every single morning, my scull feels numb and it itches big big time and dandruff starts to fall like snow and it only happens at work -- nothing at home...

And S is given his notice as well, his will come to an end this year...

Oh gosh!! I know how people are driven mad now... I'm just about losing it, sadly... I'll get a couple of drinks tonight and get a little bit of a shopping therapy tomorrow...

Weird...

There are some really funny stuff that I've come across in this part of the world -- although it's just less than four hours' flight time from Malaysia.

Besides the pink (solid) cars (I've seen BMW's in pink, Adrian thinks that these car owners should be executed), scooters and helmets, Hello Kitty all over (seriously both interior & exterior) some cars... the most ridiculous "behaviour" is this...

This is a Ferrarri parked in the carpark of our apartment. We would walk pass this car after we've parked ours and make our way to the elevators everyday after work. We've always wondered why the rear bonet was left open (without anyone near the car) every time we walk passed it after work but not any other time during the day.

Until one night, when we made our way back to our car after we've got home for a couple of hours, we noticed the rear bonet was closed after being spotted left open a couple of hours ago. We sort of guessed the reason... I must admit that it never occurred to me that a Ferrari could get overheated... Daft is the only word that is polite enough to describe the behaviour...

Farewell...

Yesterday was one of the busiest days in the year because the only one left in the Commercial Team is me. Back to square one... I started in the team as the First and only member, for 8 months, I had neither a manager nor an administrator.

Then Brian came and join us.

3 months later, Jane joined.

The team grew from slightly less than 15 to 75 at peak... so big that we have never had the chance to take a group picture together with everybody... This is just about 2/3...

Now, most of those in the picture have left.

We have delivered 2 wonderful projects (both first of its kind - so we are told) - The Grand Canal Shoppes and The Shoppes at Four Seasons. Impressive results. All of us have gained new experience and friendships working this project.

It's been a roller coater ride for some. For me, it's a part of some of the most interesting experience in my life and I will always treasure the good times and bad that we've been through together.

Hang tough, guys!

iPML Xmas "Party"

Tonight, we have our first and possibly last iPML Xmas Party at RASCALS tonight!

Paul and I have been making posters for tonight... just for the fun of it... O btw, it's a private function, hopefully no outsiders are joining us!

Chinese version

The Venetian Job

My Goodness, my job!

The Nightmare Before Christmas...

Personally, I like this one most... and I want to dedicate this to all the guys in Podium Fitout Team who's been laid off -- most of them will wake up on Christmas day and find themselves jobless... WHAT AN ARRANGEMENT!

B O R E D O M

As everybody here in Macau/Hong Kong knows, this project has been suspended until Sands actually finds his funding... While just about 90% of the whole team (all of the teams) have been laid off, and some are still sitting around serving their notices... Adrian has created this brilliant piece! It's been circulated, posted on walls and partitions in some the offices hahaha!

A job well done!

The disaster

It has been a sad sad month and it's only half way through.

First the Fitout team at 5&6 started letting ppl go when it was decided that L2&3 are suspended. Adrian was lucky to be kept and transferred down to the Casino, and that means he gets to stay -- a relief! Then it's our team, the RCT, we had to let 5 teammates go. Honestly, it did not impact us that much -- big relief. But Eric had already been laid off and Mendy was requested to resign a month ago and served her notice and left the first week of the month. She was glad to have to leave -- she was going back to Australia to get married!

This week, worse news struck early Monday - 5&6 will be suspended indefinitely, i.e. until Sands finds a financier/sufficient funding. This means that Adrian job is on the line now. He is gonna be laid off if he is not one of the skeleton team member that's been selected to babysit the project that is now at "vegetable" state (it was said that only 4 will form the team). Adrian is not confident that he's gonna make the team -- well at least that is not the impression he got from the chats that he had with Paul James. However, up to today, they haven't announced anything to the team yet.

The full suspension of 5&6 also means that the RCT will have no shops to open in the project and that will lead to a major downsize of the team. The bad news struck early morning of Thursday (13/11/08) -- I was called in to Ken Holman's room. There, he told me that they've decided that they will keep 12 team members and I was one of the 12. It's gonna be tough moving ahead but that's the reality. He wanted my commitment and with Adrian's future unknown, I will have to commit. And I did.

It wasn't my decision but I got what I hoped for. Of course I want to keep my job considering going back to Malaysia seems to be a bad idea now -- it's not doing any better compared to here anyway.

I should be happy to have kept my job. However, that wasn't the case. You can't imagine how bad it feels to see your mates being let go like that when at the same time, you get to stay. Not unless you've been there -- Adrian's been there and I'm so glad that he understood me. I cried that day before I had lunch with some teammates. I thought it was the worst that it could get. I was wrong.

Then came Friday. The day that they have to break the news to the teammates individually. The management met with them individually and gave them the letters and... that's it. I was busy putting cost analysis together for Mall Management but I couldn't help hearing ppl saying goodbyes and taking pictures... and the fact that Jane and Brian will be parting soon hurt so bad! These two wonderful mates have been my best friends in the team. I don't want them to leave! But I can't do anything about it. I hate the feeling of being helpless. Everything has a solution but not this one. When Eddie came around to my cubicle (he normally doesn't do that, btw, he's one of the selected 12) I turned to him and then broke down and cried. I am not good at things like this. It's harder than I thought. Knowing that some guys have got a family to feed, toddlers and mortgages...

I just hope that all my mates pull this through and I wish them all the best in their future undertakings.

Now I have to worry about Adrian being laid off and sent to another country for another job or finds another job in another country after being laid off. They are going to break the news to the Fitout team next week.

So stressed that my period came 1 week earlier. Shit.

Time

I'd bet you know who sketched this. Yup it's me. I have this pinned on my partition because I want to remember the first day I started work in the Venetian.

I've been in Macau for approx. 27 months now... things have turned tougher these days but I'm still hanging here. Got to know so many interesting friends. Although some have already left the place but I do continue meeting different people. Every so often I realize that I'm around mostly Mat Salleh/Gweilos when I'm socializing. Sometimes it feels like I'm one of them and yet I'm not... strange feeling. Yes, I'm an expat here but I'm not very different from the major population here -- Chinese. However, not many Chinese hang out with Mat Salleh let alone Chinese girls. I would sometimes look around me and find that I'm the only Chinese girl in the crowd. Some friends even call me Gweipo...

I know I'm not an average girl all my life. I live a very different lifestyle from my closest friends back home. Sometimes I feel like an outsider around them. Some of my theories or my concepts are alien language to them. Despite all these, I still manage to make some really good girl friends here -- Mendy, Edith, Luria, Jane and Chin. In a way, we are all the same -- crazy and yet we make sense -- we are some of the most sensible girls in the region. hahaha!! At least that's what I think of us.

"If your man doesn't appreciate you... he's a stupid dumb arse..." that's what I've been told. And my reply was, "If he doesn't appreciate me, he doesn't deserve me..." hehehe!

I will hang tough and stick around until one day they no longer need me here and I will show the other parts of the world my charm hahahahahahaha!!

T8

It was the 6th of August... I woke up, well, half conscious, but I could still tell that the rain and the wind sounded louder than last night!! We (well almost everyone I know) prayed very hard(I just hoped, didn't really pray, because I don't really have a God to pray to... and borrowing one didn't sound normal...)that T8 hoisted so that we can all have a day off!! hehehehe yup T8=no work!! (Brian kept looking at the weather updates on the web the day before anyway! hahaha!!

We don't have Typhoon in Malaysia... well, at least our umbrellas don't "transform" into shapes like this in the wind... maybe we have better brollies...

Why did they insist using an umbrella like that????????????????

Anyway, it was a nice day off -- the moment I saw T8 on the TV screen(turn on the TV and they will have a small little log on the top left of the screen that tells you if it's T8 or something else or nothing...), I switched it off and then fell back to sleep... mmm... nice and sweet... mmm... zzzzzz....zzzz...zz..

At approx. 8:11am, Brian texted me and said, "In case you didn't know, it's T8 now and we're are not required to work but if it turned T3 before 2pm, we will need to go back to work... bla bla bla..." ya, ya... not bothered!!!

... we anxiously waited and hope that T3 comes after 2pm... 1:30pm "Babe can you please check the TV and see if it's still T8?" and I shouted back to him from the living room, "Can you please check the internet while I check the TV just to be sure?" and this exercise went on a few times until just after 2:00pm and "Yes!!!" we're off the rest of the day!! hahahaha!!!

It was a lazy day. Very lazy! We slept, watched TV, ate, slept a lot more, watched some movies... mmm... mmm... hahahahahaha!!

Some said that there will be 3 Typhoons in August... I just hope they came during the week... not weekends please!! hehehe

Some Engrish Menu!

I have been receiving emails about how Chinese (not only PRC Chinese, but Taiwan Chinese, HK/Macau Chinese, Japanese, Korean...) is translated to English wrongly... They call them Engrish.

Guess What me and Adrian found? We went shopping new the St. Paul's Church one weekend and saw this... but they do sell very delicious food and had asked us to help to correct the mistakes and of course, we did...

(click on the images to view larger image)




I'm not gonna translate... just ask me if you want to know what they are hehehe... For those who read Chinese, don't you dare to ask!!

One more!

Found one more as I was looking through the files...



"Fat area" is what it says in Chinese! I wouldn't want to live there for sure...

New discovery in Macau!!

I've been in Macau since August 2006, that means that I've been here for 1.75yrs now... and still, it's a very exciting adventure! Every now and then I have new discoveries!!

Here are some funny street names I came across lately...



I don't know about the Portuguese words but the Chinese words, pronounced "die law hong" (English pronunciation) or "dai loh hong" (Malay pronunciation), which means "Big Butt (bottom) Alley" in Cantonese!!!

and this one...



The Portuguese means "little hide out of pirates"... hehehe in Cantonese, it means "little thief area" ... hahaha

Love 'em!!

Top 3 spots for photos in the Grand Canal Shoppes, Venetian, Macau

I have been thinking about blogging this since not long after the Venetian’s Grand Opening…

When we walk around the mall, the gals and I found some really strange things… the things that we normally wouldn’t do…

And so we have concluded that the following spots in the Grand Canal Shoppes are the 3 most popular spots for camera shots!

3rd Place (outside Edo Japanese Restaurant, well comprehensive coz it has a very stunning backdrop)



2nd Place (the posters they put up on hoardings as displays so that they won’t look so plain... but to pose in front of the thing and take a picture??? come on, the real canal is just right in front of you!!)


1st Place (there’s a stage in St. Mark’s Square for Streetmosphere performances, when the stage is not in use, a black fabric panel will be placed right in front the stage, to prevent tourists/shoppers from staging themselves… erm... what's so special about a black fabric panel??? Ahhhhhh~~ Venetian's Logo!!!!)



Look!! I actually caught somebody in action!!!

Hahahaha!!

What a disappointment!

Last Thursday 28/03/2008 (I only have time to blog it now), we went to Oriented.com's Happy Hours (which is "simultaneously" held on the last Thursday of every month in more than ten cities around the world, providing international networking opportunities and global guanxi for members) in McSorley's, in The Venetian with Kenneth Terry, Eddie and Jane. As usual, the Guinness was good but because I've had too much to drink the night before, I only had one. It was a good place for friends get-together tho.

At about 20:15, Derek showed up and we've decided to go to the Lion's Bar in MGM (the link is for you to identify this place when you come visit Macau... read on and you'll see what I mean) but before me and Adrian got into Kenneth's car, Kenneth said he wanted to get something from his office and left us in the carpark for about 5 minutes. That was when we had a disagreement. It stopped when Kenneth returned to the car but I was still upset. It was about an accusation that Adrian made against one of my friends, which I was dead sure that Adrian was incorrect. I had to defend my friend.

Anyway, we arrived at the Lion's Bar and we made up before we even sat down but I needed more time to wait it out. When I finally calmed down, Adrian had decided he wanted to give us a kiss, but not in front of the friends - they'll tease us for sure! And so he grabbed my hand and we walked out of the bar and kissed right by the side entrance of the bar. (note: surrounding the Lion's Bar, is the casino - all 3 sides) Just as we started our kiss, a couple of security guards came at us and "told" us not to kiss there because it was the casino and that we had to get back to the bar!! hmm... that wasn't so nice! I understand that we're in Asia, which looks like a more conservative region but there was not a single sign that says, "no kissing"! Coming from a Muslim country, Malaysia, which is supposed to be very conservative, I couldn't figure it out, what do you think a gwailo like Adrian would think? I know that minors are not allowed in the casinos of Macau, and so are government servants, but no kissing is just unacceptable. And they had to send 2 impolite security guards to humiliate us???? Ya, right, we were just gonna provoke all the gamblers, who only had interest in what was happening at the gaming tables, by kissing at the side entrance of the bar!!! Can anyone please tell me if kissing is not allowed in casinos in Macau? And that it is prohibited???

I have decided to try kissing in all the other casinos in Macau and see how many casinos will send impolite security guards to tell us off... hehehehe

But I have to say that the band was pretty good. Just try to remember you can only kiss outside the casino! O ya, I saw Mark A. Brown in the same bar that night, enjoying the night... I wonder if he has ever been told off because he was kissing his missus in some casino... hmm...

Burns Night

After finished telling you about how it all began, it's now time to tell you a little bit of the new experience I had in Macau...

Burns Night - I heard about it the first time of my life, strangely, here in Asia, Macau to be exact (which has nothing much to do with Scotland)... it's a day when the Scots everywhere take time out to honour a national icon - Robert Burns (poet, balladeer and Scotland's favourite son). Each year on January 25, the great man's presumed birthday - Burns Night, whether it's a full-blown Burns Supper or a quiet night of reading poetry, Burns Night is a night for all Scots but that's the day the world paid homage to the great Scottish man...

I wanted to experience it with Adrian so I bought 2 tickets. This is all new to him too. We were there, saw a lot of familiar faces and met a lot of new people, heard a lot of alien languages - Scottish... hmm... I could only understood like 30% or less of what they were saying... poems were read, great food and wines and Piping in the Haggis... and most of all Scots men wearing kilts! (some sort of skirt hahahaha - I heard that they don't wear anything underneath!! wowow!!) And they even have a furry clutch "handbag" on their waists!! hahaha!

After the dinner, it was dancing, and singing as well!! And then we decided that we hadn't had enough partying after the event was officially over, we went to Lion's Bar at MGM! Unbelievably, Doug had became the hottest guy in the bar - girls went up to him to talk to him and taking pictures with him! Well, Doug is the guy with the most gray hair in the photos here... I think it's because of his kilt, mm... actually it was the whole package!! hahaha!!!


I thought Steve (the one in the middle) was supposed to be more attractive than Doug... well at the least he's better looking! I think it's probably because of the bottle of Whiskey in his hand! Haha!!

When we finally got home, it was 4:30am! Almost hammered and exhausted! but guess what, the best thing was, my mom wasn't there nagging me (ya ya ya, I'm at my early thirties and she still nags me... she calls me just to nag me sometimes hahahahaha but hey, despite the fact that she nags, she's still the best mom la!) and my boyfriend actually did all those crazy things with me!! hahaha!!! How could I not love being here?????