After the longest meeting at the square table so far, I am glad to announce I won $1. Haha. We played 4 rounds in total. Longest we played so far was 3 rounds and we complete it in ard 6-7 hours. But, on Friday, we started early at abt 9 and played till 6am. So we squeezed in another round. Anyway, I was thankful for the 4th round, otherwise I would have lost...AGAIN. But this time, the tables were turned. I was at my home ground. No more Castle Alex. So, poor King Alex nearly lost his pants. Think he broke the record for the biggest loss in a night. Haha. Its a rare sight to see King Alex keep losing round after round. The big winner of the night was Tecklin the Magician. Lady Jingevere also won some. Although I managed to recoup my losses at the last minute and win $1, I was nice so I told Alex I will write off the debt. heh. Think it might be the last or second last session until after exams. How sad.

Today, I went down to the NATAS travel fair with my backpacking mates Gary and Alex. Wanted to look for some good deals and hopefully get down to some serious planning so we can at least have something to look forward to. Anyways, I thought it would be just a short walk through the fair, but we ended up spending almost the whole day there.

Booked our air tickets for $1300+ incl. taxes on BA/Qantas. It was a promotional fare, though BA had a even cheaper promotion just a month ago. But oh well, too bad we din plan earlier. And, we couldn't get the Emirates promo @ $850 because its only applicable for 1 mth, and we had to come back by 30 June. 1 mth is definitely too short for me. But luckily we managed to get an open jaw ticket, without any extra charge.

We will be flying into Brussels, spend a night there and go to Amsterdam for 3 nights. Then, Berlin is next where Gary and I will meet up with Alex. Alex is going earlier in May to Scandinavia, while Gary and I have to stay in Singapore cos we signed up for the CFA exam. Regret it now man, cos we have to study after school exams and stay in singapore till Jun 5 for our paper. Sigh. Anyway, 2 / 3 other gals might be joining us too. Huijing (Lady Jingevere), Peishan and Gary's secret friend.

So anyway, we are gonna take a short 9 day Contiki tour of berlin, prague and vienna, just to experience what Contiki is all about since its supposed to be fun for youngsters. But of course, we prefer to go on our own. Tours are too structured and rigid. So, after Contiki, we'll head to Budapest, then to Salzburg. Then we will split up individually cos Gary wants to go to Switzerland while Alex and I have been before. Alex wants to go to Venice, but I've gone there before too (and I dun want to be mistaken as a gay couple with Alex honeymooning in Venice). So, think I will take a short trip back into Germany. Read that the Bavarian region in Germany has some nice castles to see.

We'll meet back in Spain where we'll spend around 19 days since Spain is such a pretty place. Plan to go Madrid, Barcelona, Ibiza the famous clubbing capital, maybe Valencia and Seville and other smaller cities depending on the time. Finally, we'll end off in Lisbon, Portugal, where we'll fly back via a transit in London. That's where Alex and I might consider extending our trip a little to go explore Scotland before coming back. But, work starts on the first week of Aug for me. Sian.

This is something to look forward to. Might make the exams seem shorter as we count down the days to the trip. Going for a total of 42 days. It could have been longer if not for the CFA. Rats. But with this trip, I would have conquered the whole of Western Europe and part of Eastern Europe. So the next time I go back, it would be Scandinavia, Greece, Turkey and whatever that's left.

We discussed our rough plan over lunch at Pastamania. Originally, Gary and I walked into Macs. But, rich boy Ryan prefered Pastamania. Partly because he likes pasta (according to his quiz about himself found on his blog), partly also cos he has a papaya plantation in his house and owns a car and has an UNLIMITED budget for his europe trip. Though pastamania doesn't serve as good pasta as his usual haunts like Zambuca, Michaelangelos, Al Dente, Pete's Place etc., it still satisfies some of his craving for pasta. He also announced that the NATAS fair has a special RYAN GOH promotion: Any girl that goes with him and Don for their trip, will get a FREE dinner every week. Not just any dinner, but a HIGH CLASS dinner. So, any girls interested, please contact Ryan Goh.



From left: Don (Ryan's travel buddy), Fiona (she's no one's travel buddy but she's there because...), and Ryan (Don's travel buddy). Ryan and Don can't come with us cause Don has reservist. What a waste.



Alex and Moi. Ok bad pic of Alex. He doesn't have such chubby cheeks but its just the angle and cos he din bother to smile. He was more interested in his food which was a small bowl of onion soup and a few small pieces of bread. He is really not trying to diet nor lose weight, cos he's really not that fat. While on the other hand, Fat Mingmong is endulging in a wonderful Carbonara. Decided to try it cos it was more expensive than all other pastas, and it was quite good i must say. It was this delicious...



On my way back to hall, I noticed the trees were flowering! What a sight. If it were a whole row of such trees, it would feel like I'm in Japan walking through the rows of plum blossom trees! According to the papers, the recent hot weather has encouraged trees to flower more. Its a form of defence mechanism because the trees sense the dry spell and flower more to increase their chances of propagation. It was a beautiful sight with the tress filled with flowers and the ground strewn white and pink. Soooo romantic. heh.




Got a quiz this week. Yuck. And I want to go to Maldives. And I want to dive. And I don't want to work so soon.

Btw, anyone going to Europe during Jun-July, maybe we can meet up somewhere! Or, anyone interested in gg for a holiday can join us too. The more the merrier! And of course, Ryan's offer is open to girls only. Do contact him yourself via his blog.