ColinLand

Trip Pics Part II: Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Picture riding in our tuk-tuk with Mr. Sinath, our driver.

Temple (I'm not sure which one, maybe Bayon?)

Doorway
View from the road

Tree vs. Temple - Who Will Win? (my guess is the Tree)

Delicious sunset from the top of a temple

Trip Pics Part I: Phuket, Thailand

Leaving Singapore (we were flight TR152 leaving at 7am)

Patong Beach, Phuket

James Bond Island

Spelunking in the Phang Nga province

Coastal fishing town

Back!

I haven't abandoned my blog, it's just been on a bit of a hiatus. But Blogging Is Back!

I'll get some pictures up of my Thailand, Cambodia and Hong Kong trip soon. It was lots of fun.

Colin

Goodbye Singapore

I've been saying goodbye to all of my friends over in Singapore, and packing up my room, which somehow is overflowing with junk.

Tomorrow I leave for Phuket, starting my 3 week travelling vacation, so this should be the last update for a while.

Regards,

Colin

P.S. In the spirit of season, I updated the ol' blog with a special Christmas treat!

The Last Supper

On Thursday I went for my last supper at Sheares Hall. I'm going to miss the delicious food cooked up from 10:30PM to 1:30AM every night. The tasty pancakes with strawberry syrup, the scrumptious chicken naans, and the crisply fresh lime juice. So good!

The Great Hall:

Cia, Christian and Alex:

The highlight of the evening was definitely getting a chance to say goodbye to Auntie and Uncle, who served us our dinners and suppers the whole term. They were both really nice folks, and they even let me go behind the counter for a pic!

Librarians and Busses

Last night I went out for drinks with some of my dad's co-workers, some of whom may or may not have been librarians. They were all very nice! We went to the Raffles Hotel, and it was neat to walk around it some more, and check out the lobby.

On my way there, I stumbled across a Starbucks! If you look close enough, you can see a Christmas tree in the store! We didn't get a Christmas tree in our store!!

Here is one of their delicious posters. You may not be able to read their "Christmas drinks"; it's a Peppermint Mocha and a Toffee Nut Latte. So, I guess Singapore Starbucks' are a bit behind the times. We've had the Toffee Nut Latte in Vancouver a long time ago! But to be honest, they stopped giving toffee nut sprinkles to Starbucks' in Vancouver, so the popular drink couldn't be made. So for all the customers I had to told "sorry, NO MORE TOFFEE NUT LATTES!" come to Singapore!

The Christmas spirit is in the air:

Christmas lights along the street:

Even the busses have "Seasons Greetings: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!" Which is funny because New Years is still what, 6 weeks away? Unless they are referring to Chinese New Year, in which case it's only about 10 weeks ;)

I will admit I had a bit of trouble with the bus last night. I went to exactly the same bus stop as I had gone before to go back to the university, and I got on the same bus. For some reason, the bus emptied really quick. Then the bus pulled into the bus depot, and the driver told me "End Of the Line!" I was a bit annoyed that the bus driver had deviated quite far from his proper route. Then I realized that I had got on the wrong bus, the 174, instead of the 143! But, then I got more confused. It seemed like the bus had gone the opposite direction that I needed. So, to go the right way, I had to cross the street and get on the bus on the other side. So I did (after almost taking the right bus the wrong way).

But the funny thing was, I made it home in less than half the time it should have taken from Raffles Hotel. So I ended up going the wrong direction, then crossing the street, but still getting home really fast. ??? Another Festivus miracle!

Update / Steven S.

Hi everyone,

What's new in Colinland, you might ask?

I'm almost finished the term here! I have one more class tomorrow, then it's just a couple of projects and exams and I'm DONE! A-Booyeah!

I've booked my plane tickets for travelling at the end of the semester!! The plan:

November 28th: Heading Phuket, Thailand (then over to Cambodia, Bangkok and maybe some other places too)
December 13th: Back to Singapore
December 14th: Over to Hong Kong
December 20th: Vancouver!

On a slightly unrelated note, I don't usually use the ol' blog as a soapbox for reccommendations, but in this case I think I'll make an exception. Steven Seagal recently released his first music album, entitled "Songs from the Crystal Cave".

Let's be honest, is a great album? Well I don't think so, although I've only heard 30-second sound bites from Amazon. He has a pleasant voice, if nothing else. And there are some reggae-infused tracks, which is what I was hoping for. A few years ago the word on the street was that Steve was making a reggae album. But then he went to jail or something and nobody heard from him for a couple of years. The verdict? It's not entirely reggae, so it loses points for that. But it features some killer cover art and Steve's smooth-as-silk voice, so it's worth a listen. Plus, "Girl, It's Alright" is pretty catchy. I give it 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

Go to Amazon France here for sound clips of all the songs!

Update: Some high-quality sound clips available at Steve's website, www.stevenseagal.info

My BDae Partee

I had a small gathering with some folks from Sheares Hall to ring in my 20th a few days ago on October 31st. We went to the rooftop of one of the residence blocks. As you can see, it was off the hook!! Off teh hizzle!

From left to right: Gary, Steve-O, Sheri, Winson, Manuel and Cia:

Winson, Manuel, Gary and teh chips:

Me n' the gang:

It's That Time of the Year Again!

Taken Oct. 29th, 2005:

Also taken Oct. 29th, 2005:

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Singapore!

Colin the Rockstar Pt. 2

Thursday night marked the second (and final) gig I had with the Sheares Hall band. This time we upped the stakes and travelled down to the very swanky Furama WaterFront Hotel, along with the rest of the performers under the Cultural Management Board umbrella.

We played for SSSS, or the Singapore Structural Steel Society. No joke, that's their real name, look them up!

Anyway it was another night of great fun, even if it was a tough crowd - my guess is they weren't there for the music.

Setlist:
Five for Fighting - Superman
Howie Day - Collide
4 Non Blondes - What's Up?
U2 - With or Without You

IMHO some of those songs wouldn't have been my first choice, but they all worked out well. We did a bit of a softer set in the hopes of appealing to our target audience.

So here are the pics!

Steven and I carrying our gear up to the Green Room (which wasn't actually green, as you can see):