Spring Trip (Part 1): Spring at Wuxi 无锡

Wednesday, got up real damn early to prepare and made way to T3 and had breakfast with Papa and said bye bye to him.

Saw Mr Leong at the boarding gate and we board in together. This time we sat together in the plane and it has become a routine to sleep during the flight journey. I did catch some sleep and during some waking moments

I wanted to use the laptop but this irritating girl in front of me downed her seat ALL THE FUCKING WAY such that I can't use the laptop properly in front of me on the pull-down table... URGH!

The same routine of taking a 2-hour coach from Pudong airport to the Suzhou apartment. Mr Leong was out to meet his friend to have dinner together while I'll just have cornflakes cereal & apples.

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Thursday, went to work as per normal as well. Everything seemed pretty standard already.

Still trying to get used to the change in weather from SG to Suzhou.Weather was around 12-19 degree, still pretty cold these days.

Had lunch with the girls at and basically to catch things up a bit. They say girls are usually easy to bond with one another but that's not necessarily true.

I guess the challenge I'm facing is the difference in culture & background. No doubt I am also a Chinese myself but still....

As usual, Mr Leong's out with friends for dinner so same thing tonight, cornflakes cereal & apple for dinner on the second consecutive night.

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Friday, Mr Leong always like to arrange staff/company dinner whenever he arrives. So just dolling up for tonight's 'function'.

It's zi lian time :P

Probably better to blur the background?

I blurred the blue portion of this pic as well. My pat jiao is getting more serious. =/

Weather is around 12-15 degree so that's how I dressed.

I really love wearing long sleeve like that.

Apparently, Mr Leong also wanted a weekend gateaway to Wuxi, Candy's hometown.

But wah lau, he always last minute decide things, how the hell would the staff be informed last minute as well? Today was Friday and weekend starts tomorrow basically zzzz

Lisa can't make it, Mayun definitely can't make it. End up, only Candy is available and Mr Leong would definitely ask Vivian along.

I got rather pissed arranging cos Vivian was also arranging then what for Mr Leong ask me to arrange la. I even ask Mayun to help me engage a driver who'd be able to drive us all over to Wuxi. Mr Leong also can't even decide if we should stayover to become a 2D1N thing? Or just call it a day? He even wanted to go over to Changchou?

I'm a foreigner who isn't really sure how things work there, ask me how to arrange? Whenever something like that happen, I'd be questioning myself what am I doing here. I'm just a designer for Christ's sake but what am I doing here? Being PA to Mr Leong in a foreign country?

Sigh.... Lias with Mr Leong, Lias with Vivian... end up, of cos she does this job better. She got everything fixed.

So yeah.... 我一整天在公司简直是浪费时间~

So just few moments before we all knock off from work, Mr Leong came by the office and then we took a 10 minute walk to a nearby restaurant which Mayun recommended.

It was such a lovely weather and it'll be a pity not to take pics of it....

Mr Leong & Simon strolling behind....

Simon is a writer I hired during my previous visit and I guess it's also good for Mr Leong to click with a male colleague otherwise it's an all-female environment also very weird ah.

After dinner, we went over to the KTV nearby...

Just a collage....

Had lots of fun singing after 3 hours and I thought we're going to call it a day but Mr Leong asked me to accompany him to have a drink at Blue Marlin, a pub just below our Suzhou apartment.

To be honest, I know he often asked K to go 'have a drink' with him after working hours. K also did mentioned to me about this, he said he understand I'm a girl and may feel uncomfortable. He said I could say no to Mr Leong if I really didn't want to because Mr Leong tend to be 'overly excited' with other ppl's accompany.

I don't know about that but honestly, everytime when I'm alone with Mr Leong, I do feel just a teeny weeny bit creeped out, mainly because of how odd it looks when it's just the both of us.

Anyway, so I did agree to go 'have a drink' with him. Perhaps it's naive of me to think he wanted a companion to appreciate the LIVE band but I think his agenda is more like 'have a talk/chat' with me....

Because during the entire time while I was sitting there with him, my blood was boiling and I was really freaking majorly PISSED OFF & DULAN!

The entire conversation made me really mad! I didn't know singing etiquette in a social atmosphere can be used to judge a person's character & personality.

According to Mr Leong, he thinks I'm "eagerly trying to prove my my ability to sing" and that he said "What for you sing so well? What for you want to sing so much better than them?"

!?!??!!@%%^#@#*@*#@#!@!%@!$@!

Is it my fault for having a good voice?? Is it my fault for being able to hold my tune well??? How is it a person's fault for doing well at what they're doing?

He said even if I sing well, I should "act humble and no need to be so vocal about it on the mic." He said "by showing off, you show disparity with your colleagues and there's no point in doing so."

!*@!*^&@%#@^$&#$%^^%$@!@!@

This were all extremely insulting to me! Because it's like asking a person who run fast to 'not show off' and run slower at a marathon to 'give chance' to his friends/mates. It's also like asking an experienced achiever to 'not show off' and 'keep your experience/achievement a secret'. It's also asking a good looking person to be not so gd looking and purposely uglify herself /himself so that ppl around him/her won't feel uncomfortable.

I dunno, I just find it extremely ridiculous! I certainly don't see my colleagues or anyone at a KTV as competitors or anything although I do get a few comments like "eh, sing beside/with you very stress leh."

Till this date, I have no idea why ppl need to get stressed at SUCH A CASUAL ENVIRONMENT TO LET LOSE & RELAX such as a karaoke KTV room! Why? Cos of me is it? To me, I am only concerned with whether I get to sing, I don't really care or judge how other ppl sing their songs cos it's their way of presenting/identifying themselves & distressing their own selves.

I dunno! Do CEOs & Bosses have different interpretation within a confined space such as a KTV room?

Nuff said. Suan le.

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Saturday, it was the weekend gateway to Wuxi.

Got up & prepared and took some zi lian pics!

Xiao meimei want to smile don't want to smile! LOL!

OK off to Wuxi! Vivian & Candy picked us up in the car and on our way we went.

However, it jammed till pretty jia lat. Typically, 40min would be enough to reach Wuxi by car since the train would only require 20 but because it was a weekend holiday so there were a lots of accidents along the road.

It was only until 2ish then we checked in the hotel and had the chance to eat! In fact, most restaurants were closing for ''after lunch hours'' until they open for dinner so we were there trying to finish up our food fast so that the workers could take a break.

We loiter around the street for a while....

The decor of the buildings and shops were really attractive.

Why don't we have things like that in Singapore?

Just me camwhoring....as usual

Abit zi lian to say this but I really love my (dyed) red hair and kiddish face! HAHA!

After sight seeing on the streets for a bit, we got a cab and head toward Bo Gong Dao,

the tourist attraction we were there for!

Lovely weather, not too sunny, not too gloomy! But very windy though!

Upon entering, we were greeted by a big big park where many people were picnicing, flying kites etc. A lot of pet owners bought their pets along!

And then I saw a WHITE SHEPHERD!!!! The dog's so big and I wonder how is the female owner able to manage it?

Me, trying to be part of the action on the greens!

Err... a lot of zi lian me! Haha!

I mainly just wanted to show off my red dyed hair lol

Some exhibition hall about the development of the island.

Quite boring displays inside and I read Chinese very slow so I skipped a lot of parts....

Some zipai with Candy...

After that it's a big bunch of photo taking session cos it was simply AWESOMELY BEAUTIFUL!!!! AHHHH!!!!

MY GOD!! Will you look at all these greenery!!!!

Windy & high tide, not sure which is affecting which but the water was extremely close to the path we were walking... gotta be careful else we might as fall into the water! Some pics were quite backlighted but still beautiful! Hehe... Look at how huge the wind was!

The view was totally awesome!

A friend commented that this place is where they film those Chinese kunfu fighting scenes

in the forest! HAHA!!! He asked if I saw any cool FLYING martial artist! HAHAHA

Just some more of my solo pics :P

Just another zi lian collage to show off my red hair only! HAHA!

We were on this oriental looking dock. Actually I'm not sure if it's considered dock? Or sheltered pavilion bridge? Bridge pavilion? It's supposed to connect a little part of the island to another part? And the lake just runs continuously kinda thing?

I really really absolutely love this island!!!!! SO MANY SCENIC VIEW!!!!

An interior architecture of the structure and a 'hole' within it.

Yes the water level is actually quite high... not sure if that's the highest it can go?

Got mountain, got sky, got water, got tree... what more can man ask? =P

The pavillion behind me (with red lanterns) is supposed to be a restaurant!

ZOMG! The next series of scenes are too beautiful that I couldn't stop snapping of it. Sorry for some repeated views but they're really too pictureque!

It's a BEEYOOTEEFULL garden but there's a couple smooching in the pavilion so we can't go in! HAHA!!!

These are not sakura though. It's just some kinda pretty flowers.

It looks good like that but not really nice look upclose....

ACT CUTE TIME AGAIN! HAHA!!!

Made it into a collage.... all I really like my red hair,

erm ok I said many times already =X

Haha a very poser "Winter Sonata" pose!

After spending around 2 hours, Mr Leong seemed bored even though I feel there are more to sightsee.

I went Google and found more lovely scenes & pictures of Bo Gong Dao here , here & here .

Bo Gong Dao is just one tiny island within Tai Hu.

Tai Hu is the lake connecting Wuxi & Suzhou

The whole Tai Hu is damn huge!

Bo Gong Dao is one tiny space around Liyuan

So we're just only at a tiny area. But Vivian was also saying Mr Leong's foot were hurting so we decided to leave and head over to the funfair Candy was talking about.

It wasn't too far away from Bo Gong Dao but not really within walkable distance, still have to take about 15min cab.

The tiny amusement park.

I said tiny because it's really just a small area.