26th August, 2006

This aptly describes the traffic condition in Boston!!!

Was driving at 80mph (~ 120km/hr), got lost at highway, lost within Boston city itself. Took abt 2 hrs to reach Boston's Courthouse, where we park our car at USD9 for one whole day (the cheapest one can get, they were saying...) 2 cars set off from Portsmouth, one landed at Courthouse, the other landed in Chinatown :p All bcos of the messy traffic in Boston!

But honestly speaking, it has been a long time since I've seen SKYSCRAPERS loh... Was so fascinated and excited when i saw all the high-rise offices.. Boston is indeed a bustling city, full of life and people coming from all walks of life. There were a lot blacks and Chinese in Boston, Hongkies to be exact. We took the mbta (the subway here) to Chinatown to meet up with the other group of frenz.

Found the subway stations of Boston very stuffy, and all stations are so rundown as compared to Singaporea and HK. They do not announce the station names of every stop. You have to keep a lookout yourself :o

All of us felt the hunger pang when we reached Chinatown. Not that hard to find an eatery for us to fill our stomach as mostly were opened by Hongkies, Vietnamese and other Asians.

Me enjoying my long-time craving - 叉烧烧肉饭

After filling our stomachs, went to the medical hall next door to GRAB stuff like red dates, barley, 苟杞子and herbal tea... We headed to Quincy market next, which is near State Station. Took the subway again using our visitor day pass. Within minutes, we were at the Cityhall of Boston.

Outside Quincy Market

Spent about an hour there, walking thru Quincy market and the 2 markets beside it - North and South market. Thought they were termed market, they are actually a stretch of shops with Quincy market selling food (it's actually a foodcourt) and the other 2 for shopping.

Inside Quincy market - lined with food!!!

Walked along the North and South markets... Nothing in particular.. Can only do window shop here. But look what i found:

Any ladies here need a favour from me? Or guys also can :p

North market behind me...

Left Quincy Market at 4pm, and headed back to Chinatown, to buy our grocery before heading back to Portsmouth. Bought cai xin, bittergourd, xiao bai cai, beansprouts, lotus roots, bean curd, Thai jasmine rice, oyster sauce, sotong balls, LUNCHEON MEAT and canned pickled cai xin (ALL THESE U CANT GET IN PORTSMOUTH!!!)

Where we bought our CHINESE stuff :p

Took subway back to Courthouse to retrieve our cars and made our way back to Portsmouth at abt 7pm. Lost our way when we were about to reach Portsmouth. Haizzz still LOST when we are about home....

Saying goodbye to Boston for today. We'll be back every month :p

25th August, 2006

Vega suggested to have dinner at The Deck this evening, where there's beautiful scenery and also to catch the sunset. Went there after work to find The Deck (by the waterfront) closed due to chilly weather and drizzle that earlier on. So we went to another restaurant that's also by the river...



Pretty disappointed cos din get the best view of the harbour, din get to see sunset (as we finished our dinner before 7pm :p) and the food was pretty alright only...















This was what we had, that cost each of us USD15... (and some beer-on-tap)















Need not say, they are lobsters and shrimps again. Together with the seafood platter and clam chowder...

Next time we shall get those better seats... ... :p

24th August, 2006

It's Shufen's 25th birthday today !!! (oopss! Disclosed her age :p) We gave her a surprise bday celebration at Vega's house ( cos only her house has got dining table :p) As we were all working today, we only got the food after we knocked off...

We have pizza, home-baked chicken wings, fries and nuggets and fruit salad

Front row (from left): Ang Leng, Shufen, Me
Back row (from left): Celeste, Xiaoyan, YingYing, Vega

Lighting 25 candles (Wahahaha)

When the time came for cutting the cake, realised that Vega only has a chopper. Hence they opened up their newly-bought knives for Shufen to cut her cake. But can u imagine how many people it take and how long it took to open up a pack of knives?

It was an enjoyable night where we shared food, fun and laughter. Wahahaha.... This is the first birthday celebration ever since we reached Portsmouth. More to come... ... :)

Birthday gal - cutting her cake :p

23rd August, 2006

TAP BBQ lunch today, held to welcome us TAP trainees from Singapore. And it happened to be our 1-month anniversary in Portsmouth today (so fast? NO…. so S…L…..O….W…. loh… Still have 17.5 more months to go…). Forgot to bring camera, hence no photos for u guys. Lunch was pretty alright, guessed it’s to make up for the news broken to us in an email earlier on.

Good (or BAD) news: We are entitled to 120 hours of leave every yr – meaning we accrue 10 hours per month. So up to Dec, I’ll have 40hrs, which means~~ I CAN ONLY TAKE 5 DAYS of leave when my panda comes to visit me!!! Hur Hur.. this’s not enough loh!!! Especially when he’s here for 16 days.. Haiz.. Wat to do? It’s company policy.

Definitely GOOD news: Lonza is giving each of the TAP trainee a returned air ticket back home during our course of assignment here. That means I can go back to Spore next yr, AT NO COST!!! U guys better start making appts to meet up with me cos there wont be enough time. (Please see details below)

Then come the BAD news again: That means I can only go back in July or Aug cos that’s only when I’ll accumulate 70 or 80 hours of leave (which is equivalent to 9 or 10 days)..AARrrggghh! Cannot take leave in advance one… Again, it’s company policy!!! *pengz*

21st August, 2006

Cos of the 'storm' that took place last yesterday, we didn't manage to drive to Boston as the roads were flooded.. Nua at home instead.

When i got back from work today, saw this on my table:

Registered card from my panda!!!

Now my table top looked like this....

Love you, panda!! Hee.....^_^

16th August, 2006

Although it's a Wednesday today, but our QC department has its annual BBQ outing held this afternoon at Great island Common - a great place for relaxation in Newcastle. Nice weather, nice people, nice food and most important of all - nice breakaway from work.. But got LOST again while on the way there... Haizzz...

How relaxing... ...

Line-up of food...

This is my supervisor - Tiffany. Looks quite pretty rite?
Quite serious and strict when it comes to work. Pretty efficient as well...

Me and Lily (my colleague who's very very nice!!)

Christian is in green and Nathan is in blue (2 nice guys... :p) And can u believe Nathan is younger than me?!?!?!?!? By half a year :p

By the cold water... (From left: Jasmine, Weilin, Jiahua and Me)

People here spend their afternoon leisurely, doing painting...

Picturesque?

It's an afternoon of food, interaction, ball games and frisbee. Took a lot of pictures in this beautiful park... But, u need to pay to get into this area! Forgot to ask how much cos the department paid for it. Even the food - sausages, burger patties, buns, drinks, chips, cookies and chocolates... Will go there again :)

13th August, 2006

Had a busy time, unpacking n tidying up my room as I've just moved in... Guess my room still needs a little touch up :p

My little cosy room (ver 2.0) :p

We were invited by some fellow trainees to go their HOUSE for BBQ this evening. Note the word 'house'. The few of them shared a HOUSE and hence has space outside their house to hold a BBQ. They live in Kittery (where there are plenty of factory outlets :p)

See the garage?!?!?!

The kitchen

The living room

Quite a number of fella trainees have oredi reached and the BBQ has oredi started when we arrived. The spread was not bad, having salad bar and chips and cookies on the table. While on the grill, we haf chicken and pork chop, sausages, chicken wings, bacon and corn and marshmallow.

The men behind the grill - tough on them

Salad bar & gals

Nice spread

Half way through the BBQ, we ran out of gas.. And the gals were saying "Why nv buy charcoals to back up?" Hahahaa.... Hence the guys went out to buy another cylinder of gas back and the pit was moved to the garage as there was no street lamp when the sky turned dark. Took a couple of group photos before we left :p