The Hermitage in St Petersburg, Russia

A documentary on the Kremlin in Moscow I watched last night inspired me to blog about one of Russia's greatest establishment - The Hermitage. It was my favourite of all places in Russia because of how breath-taking it was. So, enjoy!

Here's a quick summary of what exactly The Hermitage Museum in Russia is because I know it's not exactly the type of information one would keep in his or her head. So...


The Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg is, as you can see, a musem. In fact, it is one of the largest museums in the world. The royal Winter Palace of the Romanovs is also now part of the modern day Hermitage. It was started by Catherine the Great, one of the Tsarinas (female Tsar) who was one of the greatest Tsars in Russian history. She had brought the country much success and did a great deal in pulling them together (hence the name Catherine the Great) She wanted Russia to have something to show off, something the people could be proud of, thus she proceeded to construct and create the largest Museum in the world. When I say large, I mean humongous, gargantuan, colossal, Stratospheric!


A documentry once showed a videographer simply walking through the entire place wthout stop from room to room just to show every single room in this palace. It had taken almost 4 hours without stop for them to cover everything. During the revolution when Lenin's men had stormed the place looking for the royal family, they charged in shouting and carrying all sorts of weapons with the purpose of enprisoning the royal family. However they ended up charging from room to room for an hour looking before actually finding the royal family. How anti-climatic is that. Plus, it's filled with such an array of exhibits, purchased from different corners of the world which numbers up to 3 million. It would take 8 years to see if you spent 1 minute on each exhibit everyday. We didn't find it really interesting because most of it was art pieces, I even got to see Da Vinvi's! However it was the history of the various art pieces that really got me listening. I mean, I will never get what impressionists or surrealists are doing.

A proffesionally taken photo of the exterior of the Hermitage.

My own gloomy picture of the hermitage. It snowed later that day even though it's the start of summer.

Here's my sister's way of keeping warm in cold Russia - Bao-ing a spare shawl round her belly.As you can see the interior of the museum/palace is absolutely splendid. The opulant interior architechture was overwhelming (Tourguide's favourite word... Opulant) Parts of the museum were actually copies of Italian or French or whatever country's museums and churches because the Tsars during that time were damn competitive. Kinda like mordern day Ch-eye-na. (oops)This one is supposed to be a copy of a church or something in Versailes I think.This is an entire gallery of war heros. One is taken by me and the other one is stolen from google. You can guess pretty easily because of my mum's head in the picture. HAha.. We were the only Asians around man...And I simply love the fact that when I see this picture online, I know that I've been there. So cool!!Talking about Russia links to Communism right? That's what everyone says when I mention Russia. In case you don't know, USSR is long gone and they have a new monarch on their hands. haha. Lenin & Co. weren't happy that the Tsars were enjoying such lavish lives while they were starving in ghettos, just look at their chandeliars. Most of them are gold plated cast iron, some are silver coated, some are diamond studded, but there was one pretty funny one, it was plaster of paris or styrofoam or something like that painted in gold. Ever wondered how they lit the chandeliars in the past? These babies were mostly more than 15 feet off the ground! Plus have you ever seen the ladders that we use today in history books? No right. Trick is, the chandeliars were retractable! They were released down ever morning and lit, then pulled up by a rope after that! Smart right.

Anyways, to end off, the most hilarious painting I saw during my entire trip. Don't you think he looks like some cartoon? Btw these photos were illegally taken. We had to pay 100 rubles to take photographs and 200 to take videos. (We never paid anything... shhh!!)

Saturated Niceness

I've been getting spoilt at work. I'm still not getting any food and my pay isn't getting any higher, but I'm getting spoilt psychologically because the customers are sooo nice. A few months back I would have considered a day without screwing up to be a good day, and it would be considered bad if I spilt something, or broke something, etc. But now, I consider it a good day only if I've had a fruitful conversation with a customerl, or if someone has tipped me personally, which, I'd been getting for the past week. I've told a couple of people of the very nice (and very cute) customers I'd spoken to a couple weeks back for about a half hour. Monday, when I felt like I would kill anyone who came in my way, I thought to myself, God please make this a less suckier day. Voila! I look in front and see them sitting down in a nother area. I was so happy I literally cleared my dirty plates and cups with such a huge smile me cheeks ached. I think they may be down today again but I've got that sickness hich I get once in a while.

Speaking of which, I haven't gotten this 'attack' in 2 years, the last I got this was while I was a SAJC, and ended up puking my strawberry banana drink all over the clinic toilet. Let me try to create my first Hyperlink: Sick

Oooo it's right at the bottom where you see the bananananana.

Kuantan and Peace!

I've just had left over Beehoon and Durians for lunch, which, compared to the hawker food I've been having for the past 4 days tastes like dry oatmeal. Kuantan was fantastic because

1) the food was unbelievably good, hence I engorged myself almost 24 hours a day

2) The service apartments we stayed at rocked cos there was aircon and the close proximity we had just made things much easier compared to hotel rooms, but much better than sleeping bags. A right amount of personal space in my opinion.

3) The people 'taking care' of us were simply lovely, driving us to and fro, bringing us to all the sights and sounds (mainly the beach and the megamall) and not complaining one bit. Plus they fed us sooo well!!

Anyways, this is a proper post compared to my previous few, I didn't even blog about Russia as much as I am about to on Kuantan, perhaps it's because it was a time I was truly happy in a long time. With the people and energy around me, and the kids which make you laugh your socks off. My baby guitar got a few knocks here and there, but it was hell worth it.

Oh yes, I bet several of you are probably wondering what Kuantan? Ok, Last Friday, a bunch of us from church (a huge bunch of 30+) sat on a lau pok, shaky bus for 8 hours driving along the malaysian east coast to Kuantan for a mission trip. But honestly, this didn't feel like one because of all the food, lodging, and shopping we did. :D Basically we put up a skit for the kids over at Kuantan about the importance of.... Ok no worries, I'm not going to blabber a sermon right now.

Pictorial!!

We needed to cast 3 girls as bimbos. and Cons kena-ed! Muhahahaha...

Guys stop drooling, 2 are taken. Haha, the bimbos trying to look as brainless as they could. After the show, they actually had a whole beeline of boys lining up for a 'meet and greet'! It wasn't part of the plan though, but it sure was funny! One went up to them and pai sehly said they were pretty. Haha!! But... Even bimbos get exhausted, candid shot of the head bimbo Cons, aka CRISTABELLE.

Oh yes, they had planned on calling themselves Cristablelle, Tinkerbelle, and Dingdongbelle.

Camwhoring lor....

And get ready for this....



The 2 resident nerds I guess. Those are cons's specs, so lets see who's the nerd in real life! :D
his mum did my eyebrows, and she was dying to draw his too, haha.. really funny

I had sooo much fun! :)

As I sit here at 2am, listening to Pink's 'Dear Mr President' for the gezillionth time, even if my computer can't play it so many times, I've been hearing it inside my head replaying itself without my permission. It's there when I work, when I walk, and even when I sleep. Yes, I had an entire dream with that song replaying and replaying and repaying and replaying so much that I was exhausted in the morning. Still, I can't get enough of it.

I'd spent my last Sunday evening watching a couple perform an acoustic set at the Ben & Jerry's at Cathay which encourages live performances. I did this with an entire Waffle Sundae to me, myself and I. (yes I went alone) I was feeling pretty sucky, the suckiest I'd ever felt, and having the financial ability to gourge didn't help much except for making me an inch wider. I love acoustic sets, especially when the vocalist is good, so I couldnt help but sit my ass there for a whole good hour listening to the emoest of songs, such as 'All or Nothing' or 'The First Cut is the Deepest', 'Collide', the songs that can really make the heartbroken break their hearts even more. But those are the songs with the 'kick' which many lack these days. It actually made me feel slightly better listening to emo oldies, I just wished I could have sat there even longer and just had the pair sing songs I wanted.

qwerty

I'll get over this, everyone does eventually.

I wish I would.

A song that really means something, I'm surprised she's not arrested though.

A song that really means something, I'm surprised she's not arrested though.

Lights

Im having lousy cheap biscuits. I've never had such lousy biscuits that aren't soggy. (just imagine how they'd taste if they were)

Anyways, I have so much I want to tell you guys but I just don't know where to start, and I'm not really keen on doing that random update that I always do, I think you're quite sick of it. Haha...

Don't you think the Lights are taking over the world?not the fluoroscent or incandescent, but the lights we get with Coca Cola, Pepsi, cigarettes, milk and I reckon it's going to be hitting pork pretty soon. It's just so expected of humans, to come up with something, and than later come up with an alternative which is supposedly healthier than the previous. Skimmed milk, Low fat sugar( if there's ever such a thing) Marlboro Lights, (it's called that not because the cigarette lights up as so I thought but becase one stick contains less nicotine/tocacco than a regular stick) , Less sweet Ribena (why don't you just use less?) It's a gimick I think we've all fallen prey to. Now instead of one sachet of sweet white sugar, we add 2 packets of less sweet brown sugar. Instad of smoking one cigarette? We smoke 2 light cigaretts. You know what I mean.

Coca Cola Zero (Then what was Coke Light all about?)

One Step At a Time

Saw this in the London Heathrow Airport toilet and couldn't resist taking a picture of it. Pretty smart, selling pads, mints and condoms all in the same machine. Talk about forward thinking

My title today applies to several things, for one, I'm going to do my Russia update one step at a time because my attention span and motivation to blog isn't quite high yet. Secondly, I'm going to to get my freedom one step at a time. Maybe I'm not thinking straight, maybe I'm having this uber delayed defiance problem that's hitting me just as I'm about to end my adolence years. Maybe my conscience is on the verge of disappearing and slipping away, each time I think I'm getting closer back some shit just happens again and I end up starting out at negative on the spiritual scale.

Oh damn.

There's this nagging feelign that I'm just going to screw every thing up before I actually get to start my university education.

I'm glad the school holidays are here, means Nat's going to be free-er and I get to have fun with the tuition kids getting ahead of the school.

Argh! I am so very very laxy to blog abou tmy Russian trip!

Insomnia again, but it's getting better. The day before I went to bed at 1 only to fall asleep at 3 and to wake up at 5 and once again at 8. Irritating. Now it's 7.30am, I woke up 6.30 this morning for no reason save for spontaneous-waking-up-syndrome (if that exists) and ordered McDelivery breakfast (Which is oh so shiok when you wake up on a Saturday morning and feel lazy) It's overpriced, but I'm not thinking about it, just the food. hehheh.

I had a great time in Russia (momemtum's up) but I must say that Germany was better *gasp!* Russians are highly disorganised and painfully slow at service. Quote from our tourguide,

'They do things at such amazingly slow and inefficient paces that you wouldn't know how you could have done it any slower than they have'

It's really true, kinda like the F1 pitstop, where there are 2 people just to top up the petrol tank of the car, (one pumps the petrol, another carries the pipe) But just that they do that 100x slower and with even more people.

Our tourguide was really really good, he'd been doing Russian tours for 11 years. And just when you think Russia's becoming/has become a tourist hotspot, you are soooo wrong. They're still as anal as ever on immigration checks, baggages still get lost, (he said we were the first tour with a complete set of luggage in 11 years) and things there are still inefficient. Ok fine so the touristy areas are pretty well esteblished, just a problem with management la..

Ok I shall continue on russia with mroe pictures next.

Oh yea, they call McDonald's McLennin's for fun, haha.. OK fun not the russians, but the tourists. Apparently the first Macs opend when the Soviet Union fell, so..

Lenin went down, the golden arches came up.

Musicals!

We've been watching lots of productions lately, from the classy 'Jacques Bre alive and well in Paris' to the ever full of cock Sebastian Tan in 'Broadway Beng'. (Quite the contrast) Anyways, I finally feel inspired to share my love with the rest of the world... Ok fine just you lot, but musicals and plays are just such a large part of my life. I do hope no fantastic productions come when I'm in Aus studying, like a how Phantom came when my sister was in the States.

The classics can never be beaten, some of them I;ve watched 2-3 times, (E.g. Phantom, Miss Saigon) Not counting the versions that came out in Cinema. I've only included the stage musicals I've watched and can remember, I think I may have missed out a couple. I wish I could do a detailed 'inventory' for every show I watched, but it would take up way too much space and time. Out of all the musicals you see in the following, Aspects of Love was sinply the worst ever I'd watched. And it's an Andrew Lloyd Weber work was was truly disappointing. Even my sister's Hall Musical production was better. =P


Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was also a little disappointing, it was the story-line at fault. IT got kinda draggy at points if not for that super uber cool flying car. Madame butterfly was the second Opera I'd watched in my life. Oh!!! I forgot to add in Aida! (Some super draggy opera about a queen) I was pretty young then, so I kept figiting and pissed off the lady behind me. She told me off in a nice way, and I slept like a rock after the interval, thus allowing her to enjoy the show much more.


The Wedding Banquet (Bottom left corner) had a really cute storyline, it's about a gay chinese guy who gets married to another Chinese immigrant so that his naggy mum won't die of embarassment due to the taboo of being gay and so that the chinese girl can stay in the country to work. And no, they don't end up falling in love blah blah (he's gay remember) . It was really cute.

And these are some of the local productions I've been to, there's a whole lot more like Dim Sum Dollies, Cinderellah etc, but I'm just too tired looking for the pictures. Man of Letters and Forbiddon City were by far the best local musicals I've watched, along with Chang and Eng (I couldn't find the advertisement picture so Itook the picture of the real twins) Beauty World was fun to watch because it reminded you how lousily stupid the story was and makes you glad you didn't watch Fried Rice Paradise, (Locals should know) Man of Letters was Dick LEe's most fantasic musical I must admit. And my favourite gay actor Robin Goh and Emma Yong had such omph. Haha, Emma Yong simply rocks on stage.

Omg I'm back to civilisation! Not that I went anywhere though.

I'm going to Russia next Sat!!:D:D:D

Now we'll see if the story of Anastacia is really true, hah!

I fell down yesterday again at Rochester, really really stupid and kinda funny now that I think about it. I tripped over a stool forgeting it was there. The previous time I tripped over a fan thinking it wasn't there, I spilt half a tray of tofu. This time, determined not to waste any food, I kept the plate as far from the ground as I could while I fell. A really cute angmoh customer was right in front of me as well, and seeing that he was in shock and couldnt get out of my way as I fell, I had to avoid flinging crabcakes at his face at all cost. SO I fell matrix style, slowmotioned and welll, kinda graceful while 3 customers gawked in shock.
Results? MY face inches from the guys shoe (They were nice Timberland shoes I think) A really sore arm, a couple of orh-chehs (bruises) and... The plate of food completely ok! :D Ok I might have messed up the platter, but my manager got the chef to clean it up a little before serving. voila..

First thing I said when I got up,

"The plate didn't break!"

Now my arm aches like shit all because I didn't wanna let the plate break.

Insomnia

I cannot freaking get to sleep!!! IT's now 4.45am and I've been awake for the past hour listening to my bounding heart leap from my neck to my head to my years all within a frequency of 130pm.

ARGH!!!!

I decided to get up and try the american remedy of a glass of warm milk only to find myself eating Double Stuffing Oreos with the warm milk. Trust me, it's heaven, but my eyes are still as wide as 50cent coins and my heart bounding like there's no tomorrow. Bloody palpitations, sometimes I think my entire heart would still keep beating even if I were to cut it out and leave it on the table because of all the heartbeat inertia, if there were such a thing.

AGhhhgh

Happy!

I'm so happy today! Firstly, I got my letter of acceptance! secondly, TGIF, and finally, TGIF!! The weekend feels extremely good because during the week, I work like a dog. I'm sure I've mentioned that before.

Why do I work so hard? It's not a need for cash, it's more of a need to feel useful because at home I don't get that validation. Living at home feels like waitressing most times, all good service goes unnoticed, and yet when there's that one screw up, they screw you left right up down. (At least there's the existance of tipping at work) Being the youngest in the family isn't all that fun you know.

On to happier topics, pictures!!

Yee's brand new niece Summer! (I hope they kept that name) She's the tiniest chubbiest baby ever~

Being in a nursery for the first time was life-changing enough for me, the babies look like ripe strawberries all ready to be picked. I can't wait for my sister to get married and have tonnes of kids!

Here's something called The Brotherhood of Six containing of 6 different shooters meant to be consumed one after another without stop. We sold a couple of these for 60 bucks each the other night! Nat loves the colours, I wish I had had better lighting though.

And look! The tulip was kowtow-ing to me. But it looks really sad,

Ever thought about what would happen when your parents die? No, not the melo-dramatic I-have-no-reason-to-live type of die, just the kind of die that happens when your parents are old and withering, meaning you would probably be middle-aged with a midsection as thick as a truck tyre.

Know what my mum stated in her will? She says should she die before my dad, and we're not of age to take care of ourselves, she would send us to our Aunt in KL, which, to my sister and I, seemed to be choosing between the Devil and the deep blue sea. What a scary thought, not the death part, but mroe of the aftermath.

Plans!

Remember my recent post on childhood dreams? Well, here's the next installment of...

My Pre-adulthood Dreams

I would guess that most of us would probably want to end up working in an environment full of people we enjoy working with or those whom we can trust/turn to, because ultimately, these colleagues are the ones whom you're going to be seeing for the rest of your life. (That is, if you don't go around job hopping) Enjoying your occupation is the key to not hating your life once you enter the drudgery of working, or so I have concluded over the past few years. To me, there's no point forcing yourself to do something you abhore, it just shortens your lifespan and gives you wrinkles.

Hence, I have recently discussed, or more so, expounded to my mum the future in which I see myself as a speech therapist in. It dawned upon me one early morning, after my expensive experience at my prothodontist's office which was actually a labyrith of overpriced mouth specialists (teeth, gums, braces, canines, jaws, aesthetics, you name it, you got it), that what would really sell, would be a one stop therapy place. Much like Giant which attempts to sell anything and everything under the sun, from Fuji apples to Giant (brand) underwear. So what shall my one stop therapy centre be called?

The Therapy Cafe

That's because it'll have a cafe besides Music, Speech, Physio and Occupational Therapists! Knowing that when we all enter the working world we'd have lesser and lesser time to spend with our friends, I've devised the fullproof plan to keep our friends close! You see it started with my mum telling me that should I ever ever start a business/clinic/school, she will HAVE to be my cashier (refer to earlier post as to the reasons why) So I thought to myself, since my mum was going to be in it, why not all the people close to me as well! So....

Nat:

Since you're most probably going to be doing Economics, and you're one of my most trusted sisters, you shall handle the business-y part of the entire operation, i.e. Advertising, running of cafe, expenditure etc. Haha! I'd call that Business Manager

Constance:

Designing the clinic/cafe and painting murals on the walls! But if that's too messy a job, you can take the role of a Music Therapist. Yes, there is such therapy if ou were wondering.

Fei:

You wanna be Head Chef of the Cafe? Haha... If not, should you end up a certified Psychologist, I'm reserving that place for you!! :D

Ping:

Knowing your love for kids, we can have a small scale care centre for the children while they wait and you can be the Teacher-in-Charge!

Yee:

The clinic's very own in-house Optomotrist! Extremely high myopia is also one of the common reasons of disabilty in children.

Joan:

Sorry Joan, my mum chope the cashier's job already, you can be Accountant because I know you luuurrrve handling money! :D

Chio:

And lets say we decide to run a full time Cafe-restaurant at night after our Therapy office hours, Chio is definitely the best candidate as General Manager! And all your children can work here part time at $2 more the average hourly pay! Haha!! (enough of this part-timer exploitation

Mings:

Once you get out of Electronic Engineering, you're gonna be the one to handle all my lightings/wires/fancy shamcy electrical things, plus be Operating Manager! (ok honestly I don't know the difference)

Oily and Siyi:

Once either of you become MP, I'll make sure my centre is in your GRC, so that it'll help you build rapport. And if the other one is free, you'll be my PR Manager! :D HAHA

Roger:

When you make plenty of money which I'm sure you will in no time, you can be the major shareholder!! (No capital la) HAha!!

Not forgetting my mum as coffee + receptionist + cashier (she asked for those positions one ok!) And my sister who can hold tuition lessons for the siblings of the special kids.

Last but not least, the key to having a centre bustling with patients, I'm gonna marry a Paediatrician who'll refer all his kids with special needs over to my centre! Muahahaha!! Oh yes, Dhab I didn't forget you, you can be the nurse in my husband's clinic should you decide to come back to Singapore=)

Ok I know this entire post is complete crap, but I really enjoyed penning, or should I say typing my vision out. If any of you are offended by the imaginary positions I have given you, I apologise in advance! It's all in good fun and no harm was meant. Besides, you'd have to be my really really close friends to make it to the list!

=)

*Note: Still looking for a physiotherapist, occupational therapist and special education teacher.

I'm going to get a tattoo, navel piercing and split my tongue!!

haha... kidding

I was listening to one of my chefs talking about his ear piercing experience which he conducted himself. Three things I can say - Lotsa ice, Ouch, and No way!! How the hell can you poke a hole in yourself, yourself! Other people poke nevermind la, haha...

poke poke poke

Today was crazy at work, crazy.

boingo

I need activity before my whole system shuts down. I think I've become a bubble.

*Pop!*

Oh my gosh I soooo miss civilisation-my (fried)friends!!.

Told you I'm becoming a bubble.

bubbabbubaabubaba

I feel old

I went to my over-priced daylight robber-ing prothedontist yesterday, billing us a whopping $800 for X-rays and consultations. His office looked more like a hotel lounge area than a place for drilling teeth and filling cavaties. They even made us COffee and stuff. MY mum now insists that I become a dentist, one to earn all that I've given to those in this current proffesion, and 2 so that she can become my coffee lady (since everyone pays by card or cheque now, there's no need for cashiers.)

What did I tell you about the coffee thing

View from his waiting area

Nat would love this, look! a little man fixing a giant tooth!!

The whole hotel-ish concept

Oh yes, angsty-emo-siao siyi did this :D

This lady was closing the bubble tea shop for the night and decided to give me half a cup of pearls.

Hehheh~!

OH yes, the Pillowman was awesome, the stories are twisted but really good, tell you more next time.

I miss chio!!

And I love work much much more now :D

Oh my gosh I freaking bummed my afternoon away watching a cliche lurrve movie and napping in the heat after that. Singapore has seemed to transformed to Dubai lately, a bustling city with skyscrapers and the works... and not forgetting the heat

The damn heat.

At the special school yesterday during my usual volunteering, I realised that one of the students was sweating, which indicated ridiculous temperatures because for one, she never sweats at all because she's the calmest of all. She's really cute, as if her entire life were a slow motion movie. =)

So here I am in the sweltering heat (thank goodness the aircon has jus tbeen fixed), on my way to soon becoming either a roast pig (direct heat) or steamed pao.

Oh yes, allow me to continue on my cool girl theory.

Michelle Branch, Juno and Tanya Chua in displayed order because I seem to have difficulty typing their names under their blogs. So, why do I mention these girls? It's the cool factor they have. Especially Juno , the laidback, I-don't-give-a-fiddle-to-dress look they wear. All right their photos don't exactly look cool, but what I think is that they probably neeed to take those kinds of photos so as to appeal to the mass I-love-cute-or-sexy-singers audience.

If I were a guy, I'd probably have a thing for these girls, and note they are not, I repeat, NOT emo-girls as some people classify. I onc ehad a student who said, ya, emo-girls very chio what! I couldn't stop laughing.

The inner bitch is coming out again. grrrr...

Have you heard the song 'Hey there Delilah'? At first I found it pretty comical and freaky, kind of like a stalker singing to Delilah. However, after a few more listens, I'm beginning to find it really sweet and honest. I wonder if it truly came from a random guy writing a little love song for his girlfriend across the country who happened to get his songs played by Ryan Seacrest on the radio and hence shot to fame.

Since I'm on the topic of music, here's a little question for you: What do Michelle Branch, Tanya Chua (if you know her) and Juno (from the movie Juno) have in common?

I'll elaborate tomorrow as I'm still not in the writing mood just yet. =)

Thyroid's up again... Darn.. means lots of weight gain to come. The first time I started medication, I gainied about 8kg. The second time it relapsed , before I could lose any of that weight, I gained like another 4 or 6. I wonder what this round is gonna make me balloon to. Don't be surprised if the next time you see me, you see an elephant. :(