Although Christmas is technically over, to me, the whole of December is Christmas season. So I'm still giving friends xmas gifts even after the 25th haha. For me, Christmas is the best festive season (beside CNY because I get $$ lol) because without fail, my family will host a xmas party for my (maternal side) family. My grandma, aunts, uncles and cousins will come from afternoon and won't leave until late at night. We will just hang out, like as we would during CNY. Best of all, there will be tons of food! I was constantly full the entire day. Eat already, full, digest already, hungry, and the cycle repeats. Plus the relatives would also bring stuff like turkey, lamb, chocolates, fruit cake etc. etc. In short, it's a feasting. Non-stop eating HAHA. 

Christmas for my family is when we put up the christmas tree, adorn it with decorations, decorate the house. Christmas is not christmas without the tree. And yes, we do have a tree, a pretty big one too. It's fake luh duh, as in artificial, plastic and all that but it's been in the family for years! However, this year, my family put it up without me while I was in Shanghai boohoo. My wish is to get a real christmas tree when I grow up. Of course, provided that I have the space and money for it. Hopefully I would meet someone who will love Christmas as much as I do. 

This season is also one where we give our loved ones Christmas gifts! The feeling you get when your friends tell you they like/love your gifts is just YAAYYYYYY. Especially when you know the gift is perfect (or at least suitable) for them! For some people, it's easy to give them gifts because there are stuff that they need/want or that they really like a particular thing a lot. Others, on the other hand, don't really fancy a particular thing or that whatever they like are far out of your budget. Those people, haiii, hard to get gifts! I'm not exactly good at gifts but I try my best.

Back to christmas celebration at my home, this year, I invited some primary school friends over to hang out because I haven't had them over in a long while. Sadly, some of them couldn't make it. We played mahjong the whole time until I was so tired lol. I actually went to take a nap for a while cos really too tired le. Sorry guys!
As usual we had an awesome time talking crap and laughing at each other hahaha.

Anyway meow showed us this, quite hilarious, go check it out!


They stayed all the way from afternoon till night! Because there was a lot of food so we could all have dinner together :)

pearlynn, yizhuang, me, rachel, malcolm

If you've seen the video I posted up there, well, we were trying to imitate the lady HAHA. I was laughing like shit, couldn't keep a straight face.


There you have it! Record breakers of not blinking for 5 minutes! LOL





Yippee nice shot.

With our mahjong tiles! Addicted liao tsktsk


My cousin saw us taking photos and brought out these party hats from under the Christmas tree! Totally forgot about them the whole day! Usually I will wear the reindeer antlers hairband the whole day cos it's simply too adorable. And obviously I can't wear them on any other day but today.

Love this shot! Everyone looks so cute hahaha. My cousin helped us take this. He was like "西瓜甜不甜 ?" and he made us say "甜" so we were all laughing cos paiseh shyshy hehe.

Rachel brought her polaroid camera along! I wished I had one but... should save that money on camera equipment. We took 5 shots so that everyone could keep one for themselves.


At the end of the day, we will cut the log cake to share. Christmas isn't christmas without log cake either. To those ignorant people out there who thinks log cake isn't worth the money because it's supposedly just swiss roll, it so IS NOT. IT TASTES SO FREAKING GOOD DON'T UNDERMINE IT PLEASE. yes, I really really like log cake. 



That concludes my christmas day! Hope that Christmas has been great for everyone out there! 

xoxo,
Gracia

Stay young,

Gracia

Finally, I'm here to pen down everything that happened during my recent OVIA (previously known as OCIP) trip to Shanghai! This trip was supposed to be held in June but because of the H1N1 outbreak, it was cancelled. Fortunately, the teachers were still supportive of this trip and decided to hold it during the December holidays. Originally, I was meant to go with Alicia but then I also don't know how but she her name didn't appear on the list... So, I had to go on a trip with strangers. I only knew a few people, whom I wasn't close to, and there were those who I didn't even see/hear before, and these were people from my own batch. Sorry guys, it's just that I'm a low profile person and well, somehow, some of paths never crossed in the 5 years in school together. To be honest, I was quite hesitant and nervous at the start, because these are people who know each other and I thought I would be left out. It wasn't as bad as I thought as everyone were all very friendly and nice! But of course, it would have been more fun if I went with my friends. Nonetheless, it was a fun trip! 

Btw, some of the photographs may not be as good as they should be because I didn't bring my dslr along, too mafan/bulky and I was afraid of spoiling it. This time round, I brought my Canon G1-X! Not as used to it but it's quite good :)

Okay, here we go~

Day 0 or is it Day 1?

Headed to the airport with Ngoctham and our families. Hmmm, it was quite weird for me because I didn't know anyone then. Felt quite out of place... My dad took some group shots for us but I have no idea where he places the files. Shall find them soon.

With Ngoctham

I was wearing specs because I knew I would sleep. obviously I can't do that with my contacts on.

Mandatory airport shots here. Actually I wanted to walk around more but time wasn't on my side. 

I know these shots are a bit blue-ish as they are taken through a blue tinted glass. However, that is what I love about it.

jett, wanlu, qijia, peiying, ngoctam, me

my plane buddies: gladys and qijia

I know some people utterly hate sitting on planes. For instance, my mum. Whenever I go overseas, she will start telling me about the time when she went America and she had to sit on the plane for 20+ hours and how difficult it was. I'm the exact opposite. I love every bit about the plane ride! Previously when I went america, I just sleep like most of the time LOL. Yeah, I usually just sleep my time away. You have no idea how much I wanted to watch all the movies they have but I just couldn't. Not sure why but planes just make me want to sleep all the time. 
Oh, the SQ plane food didn't taste as good as it used to.

I was too tired to take any shots in the Shanghai airport so I didn't. Plus it was so bloody cold! I'm not thick-skinned, literally. I get/feel cold really easily, especially my hands and feet, and my nails would turn purple. 

The bus that arrived for us looked a bit dodgy... thankfully the other bus rides were better.

I look so unglam but the rest looked so cute/funny lol For that day, we went to this "scam market" where everything they sell there are imitation goods. It ranges from apparel, accessories to things like DVD/drama packs. You name it, they've got it. The mall was huge, about 5 levels but the stuff they have are more or less about the same... So if you've got something in mind already, just go and look for it and it would save you a lot of time. Food-wise, there's a food court at the top (5th) level.

Ngoctam and I shared some 排骨面 thing. I think it was only 18 yuan which is about 4 SGD! Tastes quite yummy too.

Here's everyone at the dinner table! 

I realised now that I didn't take any photos in the mall oh gosh how dumb of me. Too engrossed shopping paiseh haha. Anyway I got scammed there so I don't have good memories. Haii stupid me was in a rush of time and I didn't really bother to bargain much so I ended up paying a lot more than I should. Plus the store owner's face was so bloody black luh omg haiiii. Seriously, too stupid liao. 

Yesh, this brings me to my point. 
SHOPPING TIPS IN CHINA
*** BARGAIN FOR EVERYTHING. Really, even in legit shopping malls, you can do that. 
Sometimes if you buy more, they might consider selling you even cheaper so shop in groups! If they give you black face just walk away, if they are sincere about selling it they will shout after you and ask you back LOL. But of course don't bargain until so 夸张, people still have to run their business. Definitely have to be more thick-skinned!

The street outside the mall, dazzling lights! Not sure if it's cos of Xmas or what.

Ngoctam and I

 We were all waiting out there in the cold (read:freezing) for the bus and it so happens that there was a bubbletea shop there! 
Do you see!!! The cup is soooooo HUGE it's almost/bigger than the size of jett's face. Holy moly. No photoshop here I assure you. If I'm not wrong this should be the largest and it's also cheap too, can't remember the price though.

In the photos, it may look super dark, like it's really late but actually it's isn't. Because it's winter in shanghai, the sun sets earlier.

Finally, our last destination that day was to the National Stadium which was near our hotel. We can easily travel by foot within 10 mins to this place. In Singapore, our sports stadium is as its name says, just for sports. In Shanghai, their stadium is like all-in-one, there's a supermarket, eateries, shops, it's like a mall there. Envy china's land space and how they can build all these while we can't. 

With Qijia my roomie!

Being in china, I feel that it's safer to drink bottled water rather than boil it. Never ever ever drink tap water! They also don't provide plastic bags, they charge money if you need one, so do bring some on the go. Not sure if save mother earth or save money HAHA

Night time is usually free-and-easy so we had to settle our own dinner. In shanghai, of course we will eat.... XIAO LONG BAO 小龙包woopwoop

zan, wanlu, ngoctam, jett

There was also this drink called dou jiang豆浆, that is popular in china. It's supposed to be a soybean drink but it tastes horrid. Basically, we call it "smoke water", for the simple fact that it really tastes like a mixture of smoke and water. HAHAHA too funneehhh. You could try it to tastes how bad it is, but you won't take more than a sip.

The rest ate alot and I decided to explore the place despite it being so cold! I went alone because everyone else was still having their dinner. Sorry if I worried you guys paiseh paiseh.

 Many of them travel by motorbikes. Thus they are everywhere.

 China's fast food: (literal translation) Real Kungfu