Thursday, April 13, 2006

Round up!

WHOAA!!! That last post from Sharon really got alot of attention from you guys man.... for the days and weeks after Sharon posted that, I've been getting lotsa MSN messages and emails asking me WHAT THE HELL we're doing over in the US!!! Even my mum told me off on the phone, saying that we should be showing Americans just how GOOD we are, and not how SLACK we are... hahahah.... Sadly, if you ask me, i think it comes with the job man. Audit has always been a very flexible job whereby you can find lots of.. erm.. "rest" times when you don't have anything to do... don't all you auditors out there agree???

Anyway true enough, I've been Chao Geng to the point that I've not been updating this blog so I guess it's about time. Contrary to what most of you believe, I HAVE been pretty busy these past weeks.... no just on my audit engagements, but my weekend activities too! Here's a little round up for all of you who've been wondering what I've been up to....


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Azalea Trail
On a nice and bright Sunday morning, we decided to go for this little trail around Houston which has an amazing display of blooming flowers and shrubs. This only happens once a year so despite the fact that we weren't really FLOWER people, we still managed to have quite a bit of fun taking in the sights!


"Roses are Red, and Sharon is blue....."


"Pinky scenery"

Pros:
- Beautiful Scenery
- $5 entry fee (coulda been more but we sneaked in from the back for 1 of the trails)
- Shipley Donuts for lunch

Cons:
- Having to pretend to appreciate flowers.
- $5 entry fee (i hate paying for stuff)
- No exercise (we drove from one trail to another)

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St. Patrick's Day Parade
Ok seriously, I have no idea who is St. Patrick but all I know is that lotsa Irishmen celebrate this day and it involves alot of beer and alot of the color green (and yes, there's GREEN BEER). We decided to check out the parade downtown and it turned out to be pretty interesting, with "floats" and stuff (and by floats, i mean cars with decorations).


"Check out the Leprechaun! (in the foreground and background...)"


"Wait. Did i say Irishmen or Scotsmen!??!


"Even the dogs were in on it...."

Pros
- Watching a festival not celebrated in Singapore.
- Lotsa gum and candy thrown by the paraders. (I had to fight some kids off to get my candy...)
- Uniquely decorated floats (cars).

Cons
- No idea what the celebration was about. (even till now....)
- Surprisingly few people for a parade. (cannot match S'pore's crowd-filled Chingay)
- Over in less than an hour.

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Strawberry Pickings
Yeah! My first time ever at a strawberry farm!! (i might have been at one in Cameron Highlands but the memory is fuzzy to say the least...) We didn't have to pay any entry fee, and we only had to pay for the strawberries we took out of the farm....... needless to say, being kiasu Singaporeans, we ate 'em while we were picking 'em and of course, the amount we ate was probably more than what we took out and paid for eventually. True Singaporeans.


"All ready with our strawberry wagons!"


"Ah HAH! Sharon caught stepping on the berries. No wonder they're so sweet......"


"Hiding in the corner of the bushes to eat our stash. Woohoo!"

Pros
- Hunting for strawberries is fun!
- Super duper SWEET strawberries! (eating them fresh is definitely the way to go!)
- No COVER CHARGE.

Cons
- We actually DID have to hunt for strawberries as we went late and most of the easily visible strawberries were snapped up. The good leftovers were all hiding under leaves, hence the HUNT.
- Under the sun all day. (although i needed the tan)
- The loooooong drive to the farm. (2 hours of driving. Half hour was due to Wen and Yiren getting lost while i napped.)

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As you can see, we've been trying to do lotsa stuff on weekends, which isn't really easy considering there's not really much to do in Houston. In case you didn't know though, I'll be going to New York in a fornight's time, so do watch this space for more fun events and updates!