HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR ALL!!!

May your hong pao's be packed this year... as for me, I'm more or less broke...not a very auspicious start to the year huh... :(

Anyways, not a very nice chinese new year break thus far... Had a stupid 2 hr lesson on wednesday (from 8-10 AM!!!)...went to the gym for a 2hr workout then slept for 4hrs from 4-8pm... . ALso returned some of my books to SAN bookshop (needed the money, besides, no space to keep them at home)

My relatives came over from India on wednesday and thursday, and we spent the day with them...or rather my parents did. I stayed home to rot...and to sleep. Went jogging that evening at 6 40 pm... I struggled through my 4km jog ( shows that, though I run 15+min on the treadmill regularly, nothing beats cross country jogging for conditioning). Also saw a White-bellied Sea Eagle up close at CCK park. Amazing bird, with an amazing wingspan... and coming as it did through the purple storm clouds... Fantastic !

Went out to the gym again today, before heading off to watch the last Samurai with my aikido friends. Great movie, great action scenes...and Tom Cruise's acting was simply superb! If you like samurai movies, this is a must watch. The ending made me tear! I'm an absolute sop for sad endings, lost causes, friendships and glory and honour.

We then had dinner at MOS burger at somerset, where I saw an NJ schoolmate of mine whom I hadn't seen in ages, as well as another gym friend who I meet very infrequently. Jude, my NJ friend is going to NSW to study aeronautical engineering, while Victoria is working at california fitness. She has triceps to rival WEN's!!! (not that I specifically noticed..)

Went to have dessert at Crepes and Cream at the Heeren after that. Between the 11 remaining people, we had 2 earthquake type items (total of 16 scoops). There were 2 waitresses... one was I think a newbie... cause she didn't really have defined triceps like our dear friend ... (plus she had the trainee tag on...). Can't help it though! Will never look at ice-cream stores the same way again! Anyway, we chatted till 1030pm before heading back by train...the whole lot of us. I also finally bought that damn "Master and Commander" Soundtrack! $28.10 for 1 CD.... it BETTER be worth it!