When I left Singapore for Vancouver (with a 3-day stopover in Taipei), I was on international roaming with Starhub, and chalked up a bill of over S$160. Calls made on my mobile phone from Vancouver to Singapore was about $3/minute. I honestly didn’t make that many calls, but somehow all the short calls added up.

There’s someone I must call frequently, and Pfingo is my saviour from throwing money for idd cards by enabling me to call any number in Singapore for free (valid for 3 months) while skype enables me to save on my mobile phone bill by allowing me to call US and Canada lines for less than $3/month.

Paying nothing to call home is possible.

The blog post title itself prepares you for my self-indulgent post, huh.

My Singaporean friends and I spent a night out, where I thought we could just chill out, but they turned it into a somewhat, somehow, heartwarming celebration of my birthday.

Dinner at Prima Taste

We had an infallibly good Prima Taste (Singaporean cuisine restaurant) dinner. The boss recognizes a couple of us by now, and topping his free lime juice in our previous patronage, he gave us a complimentary dish of Seafood Curry (priced at $16.95) this time. What can I say? It was spoon-licking good. And like I said in an earlier post, it’s beneficial to be friendly with the boss. Haha.

We took a walk out in the rain to the Empire Landmark Hotel to get a 42nd-floor view of Vancouver by night, with drinks and a pianist.

This is where they asked the pianist to sing the birthday song, after which they sang it upon presenting a version of a cake.

I don’t know how else to describe what I felt, other than feeling warm.

I think I’ve already developed what I was hoping so much not to: emotional attachment.

To get you a better bargain for your shopping needs, NCNatural Coupons, with its site’s simple layout, will allow you to save a considerable amount. But of course, you will only be able to fully utilize the discounts if you live in the States.

The site is updated on a daily basis with offers from hundreds of merchants. I had a look at Expedia for my travel needs, and FragranceNet for possible gift giving.

This is a sponsored post. 

I’ve booked my one-way ticket out of here, for December 17, to San Diego. Only one month and a week left in this lovely place!

Time! Don’t run so fast!

Florida is a great place to escape the winter up north, and I know of a couple who does that every year, and they don’t even live on the east coast.

Instead of doing the usual booking of hotels, and having a beaten holiday, why not rent condos, villas, or even cabins to experience Florida in a different way? florida vacation rentals allows you to rent these directly from the owner, and you will have access to pictures, lists of amenities, exact location, etc, for you might have different priorities of a holiday from the person next to you, like skiing, golfing, or just soaking up the sun by the beach or the lake.

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Add 24 hours with 16 hours time difference from your home country, and you get 40 hours on your birthday! That’s if you count your birthday starting from midnight of the day according to your birth country, and then only ending after midnight of the country you’re in! Haha

I had a very healthy birthday cake this year! Carrot cake! And it was very yummy!

Wah I think my arms are going to be as big as thighs.

The cake was baked by 2 of my lovely housemates! Thank you Alison (left 1st row) and Allison (centre 2nd row)!

And thanks to my Singaporean friends who were also present at the cake-cutting and sang the Chinese birthday song!

You have to admit that the cake is really special! Sorry for the exclamation marks throughout this post. I’m just very touched and thankful! Haha. And it’s the first time I had a carrot cake for my birthday! And it looks like a big donut! Haha…

But of course the most unique (and loveable) birthday cake I ever had was last year, my 21st’s. Made of jelly. Made by her.

And thank you all happy-birthday-wishers!

This year I have had an excessive number of people who otherwise wouldn’t be aware of my birthday wishing me a Happy Birthday via Facebook. Hmm.

New York CityPass cuts the cost of a Big Apple vacation

6 Famous
New York Attractions
save 50%
$65.00
a $130.00 value
$49 for kids

Each ticket reveals tips, location and transportation information so you can plot your course to: the Empire State Building Observatory; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in midtown Manhattan; Guggenheim Museum on the Upper East Side; American Museum of Natural History on the Upper West Side across from Central Park; and an unforgettable Circle Line Sightseeing Cruise for views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, bridges, and the city you couldn’t see from a taxi. What’s a trip to the Big Apple without shopping and dining? A special offer gives you a discount and special attention at Bloomingdales, and 12 New York City restaurants.

CityPass saves time by allowing visitors to skip most main entrance ticket lines and it saves money, because New York CityPass is sold at 50% off the combined admission price. A New York CityPass is $65 for adults (compared to $130 price if the tickets were purchased separately), and $49 for youths 12-17 (a value of $89.50.)

The CityPass Winter Special runs December 15 to March 15. Begin using your CityPass booklet December 15 or later and your booklet will be valid until March 15 giving you up to three entire months to use the six tickets in the booklet.

With such a steal, I just might travel to New York afterall. I want to go to all the destinations included in the CityPass!

There was a blackout in the entire campus yesterday around 1pm, for about 15-20 minutes. I was in one of the classrooms at Buchanan and we just pulled up the blinds and continued writing our assignments. I heard that other classes ended immediately ‘coz of the blackout. Bleh.

Then in the evening at about 7.30ish there was a blackout again. -_- This time for about 2 hours. This happened just after I posted my previous entry on my whining about work overload.

Neighbours from the other unit came over and we played Cranium (this rather interesting board game that consists of components like charades, pictionary, etc).

If blackouts happen more often, can I use that as an excuse to not do all the work that are due?

Playing with candles. X. My name lah.

Sometimes numbers/rankings do the trick of enticing you, just because they made it to the top 10 on someone’s list. HotelsByCity.net expresses their idea of top 10 casinos, exotic beaches, honeymoon destinations, hotels in asia, and even top 10 New Year’s Eve destinations (including Las Vegas New Years Eve).

I checked out the Top 10 New Year’s Eve destinations, and apparently the best place to countdown to New Year is…Sydney! Why, of course, since they’re probably going to be one of the first places to enter the new year. The other candidates on the list is New York City, Berlin, London, Toronto, Rio De Janeiro, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Paris, and Disney World in Florida. Hey I might be spending New Years Eve in Los Angeles!

“LA is a hotspot anytime of year but the city bursts with energy on December 31st. There are thousands of clubs and restaurants for you to choose from, fantastic firework displays held throughout the city and music pumping from almost every street corner. What makes Los Angeles stand out though is its legendary Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade. The parade comes complete with floats, marching bands and even has a famous Grand Marshal that leads the way. Of course, football fans also know ‘The Granddaddy of Them All’ Rose Bowl collage football game. Whether you are one of the million spectators or enjoying the show on your TV, LA’s legendary parade and football game is definitely worth seeing.”

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No it’s not that cold in Vancouver, well, not yet at least.

My schedule book has so much orange ink scrawled all over for the next couple of weeks, depicting all the deadlines for the many assignments and term papers. Arrgh!

I won’t be able to delight you with pictures of this or that mountain, nor anything exciting for the next few weeks I guess.

What’s lined up for me for the next three weeks: German writing assignment, German Test, World Lit assignment, World Lit term paper for writing workshop, World Lit final term paper, Brit Lit term paper, MLT term paper, Technical Writing Report, Technical Writing Report Presentation, Creative Non-Fiction writing assignments…

And then there’s the exams in the following two weeks.

I don’t know which I should start doing first.

Who says students on exchange have it easy?