milestones of a different kind
Thursday, December 23, 2010

I just realised that the previous post is my blog's 500th post. That's a first.

Firsts are what drives my next two posts. During my brief trip to Xiamen, I realised that I experienced many new things for the first time, and that pretty much made the brief trip so interesting.

1. Flying business for the first time. Sure, it was on Air China, without a personal inflight entertainment system, but it was business nonetheless. I also had the whole cabin to myself, and couldn't help feeling gleeful as all the other passengers filed by and stared at this young guy making himself comfortable while they crammed in economy. Wide seats, large legroom and better service felt wonderful. With The Straits Times in hand while we made our way to Xiamen, I think I acted the part of a nicely spoilt but educated boy from a one child family well enough. heh.

2. Staying in my own hotel room. I must say, interesting as it was to do whatever I wanted in my own room, it definitely wasn't as fun as it would be doing so with someone else for company. And while the Sheraton room was inviting as heck, with its queen bed, 50 channels, huge showering space and bathtub with a huge glass panel that allowed you to enjoy the view of the city, (while others could see you nekkid) the less welcoming decor of the hotel in the village made living in a room alone uncomfortable.

3. Seeing a wind turbine. I've never really had a great fascination for those huge towers with equally enormous blades, but I'd always wanted to see one in the flesh, simply because of the simplicity of the structure from the outside, given its huge size. Those in Dong Shan Dao were shipped from Germany, and together they produced enough surplus energy to sell back to the grid. I think the Chinese got them more to gain experience and build their own, rather than as an effort in actual environmental consciousness.

4. Lighting my own fireworks. Nearby our relatives' house was a small sundry shop selling firecrackers and fireworks, probably only ever bought during Chinese New Year. We bought a few (4) anyway, for around 4 bucks for a nice big canister, and promptly lit them when the night came around. Having your own fireworks show, and being just underneath them is almost magical. Wonderful too, to share it with a whole bunch of people who ooh and ahh at every sparkle. We also got firecrackers (noisy as heck) and shimmering sparkle cones that were also pretty interesting.

5. Feeding a little kid. I mentioned this in my previous post, too. I was sitting down just outside the family house and decided to have my only apple bar I got from Hong Kong, while my aunt instructed Yijing on all the assessment books she had bought for her to do while away. I had taken just my first bite, and one of the little girls ran up to me and wanted some too. So I broke off a chunk and was intending to pass it to her, but she seemed more intent on me feeding her instead. I think she must have been three? I really can't tell these sort of things. Once her saliva touched my fingers, I knew that the rest of the bar was hers. So I kept feeding her as she came back from her mom, and when the bar had gone, she wanted all the crumbly bits too.

Heh, the girl has this habit of shaking her head when she eats something nice, so my mom kept asking her if she liked the bar, and she just kept vigorously shaking her head before coming back for more.

6. Seeing an abalone the size of a grain of sand. While at the village, we had the chance to visit an abalone farm. Stocks had been cleared just a month ago, so in were the new, small little baby abalones that were tiny as heck. They grow with their shells, and the small little specks were littered all over in the tanks. Pretty darn interesting farm visit. I'm sure you know those two words can sound really dreary most of the time...

7. Riding a motorcycle. When I visited the orange grove owned by my aunt, I was taken there as a pillion rider on her motorcycle. Of course, the trip there and back was interesting, and it showed on my face. Happy that they found something us Singapore city dwellers liked, they decided to take us for a joyride to the beach, and my dad happily borrowed a bike to drive himself, with my mom riding at the back. I asked to drive one myself, but my dad said I needed more than just youthful enthusiasm to be able to drive one, heh.

8. Watching a Ch8 drama overseas. It seems that Mediacorp exported this one series to China that had Fiona Xie and some other local stars in it, and it was showing on one of the local channels in the city. Of course, it was all dubbed over with the mainland accent, but I did a double take when flipped to that channel and suddenly saw one local actress who looked pretty familiar. Doubt the plot had changed up any bit though.

9 Flying alone. With just three days of overseas leave left stretched to a five day holiday, I couldn't do any more to leave with my parents one day later, and so I had to take a flight home alone on the returning Air China flight, this time in economy. I sat next to an old dude and a young lady, the latter flying the first time to Singapore with an English education in mind. The old dude from the mainland next to her was telling her bits of Singapore, and strongly advising her against learning the colloquial English used here. I could understand much of it, as I can with Hokkien, but speaking it is a whole different matter, of course. All in, doing it alone was quite a boring experience, and I'd agree with my parents that going on holiday alone would be quite a lonesome experience. Still, an interesting first.

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posted by joseph at 11:48 AM

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