Check out my Genting photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bexafraid/

Sorry folks, no images of myself...... I camera shy.

It was an eventful trip!

On the second day (Tuesday) in Genting, a group of China tourist held a demonstration at the lobby of First World Hotel. Hotel security, police and people from the Chinese embassy were called in! (I was on the way to the Casino)

It all happened during their breakfast in the cafe...... the first incident involved another hotel guest, a local, with a group of China tourist. The guest jumped queue. But when questioned, he remarked that as he is a local, he can do as he pleased. They exchanged words and than blows.

Next, the cafe staff drew cute pig heads (its well-drawn. It come in all sizes and the artist is really talented) on their meal coupons, to separate the halal and non halal diners. However, the Chinese felt offended. About 40 of them led a sit-in at the hotel lobby demanding to see the management. Finally, the management arrived after 3 hours. (I found out when I returned from the Casino)

Yesterday, the Straits Times carried a small article about it. According to the report, the tourist were each compensated about RM$100.

Hmmm.... if you are a frequent traveller to M'sia, you will learn to lower your expectations. Their service is very laid back (read, SLOW), and most importantly MONEY rules!

Two days later on Thursday, I was down with a fever! Slept the whole day in the hotel in KL.

Yup, I know, I am weak..... Actually, its not. I call it Emperor's life syndrome. I need minimum 8 hours sleep a day, enough food and no stress else fever will come aknocking. It was just too stressful in Genting. I spent many hours foretelling whether its gonna be a banker's or player's game next!

Finally, was well enough to make the trip back on Friday.

Well, it was a free trip, all expenses paid, courtesy of Genting Highlands. Thank you, Mr. Lim! I will be back soon......

Ps: photos will be up shortly. Still very weak and a little sick.

I am so excited!

Finally, can take a break. The last one was eight months back which I spent a month in central China, Wuhan. It was kinda fun, living with the locals and at the same time visiting all the places of interests. The only problem was the food. I love to eat spicy food, and, you know, they don't have chilli there. As a typical Sillyporean, I miss chicken rice after 2 weeks there. After asking around, managed to find out that a well known hotel serves it. Yummy, it tastes close to what we have, including the chilli. It was heavenly! When the bill came, I nearly died.... One set of it costs almost S$15, very expensive by local standards.

The medical care there left much to be desired too.... I was running a fever and they do not have injections. They will put you on the drip. Mine, mine! I have never tried it before..... Cultural shock!

Well, today will be a busy day. I gotta send my dog to a boarding place, pack some stuff, and finish up any loose ends before I leave.......

Gotto run!

This is probably the most notorious gem in the world. The diamond glows with a unique reddish color under ultraviolet light.

It all started when Jean-Baptiste Tavernier brought the 112 carat diamond to France in 1668. Legend has it that he pried it from the eye or forehead of a Hindu Goddess Sita. However, Susanne Patch, author of Blue Mystery: The story of the Hope Diamond, wrote that It is an unlikely shape for an eye or on the forehead of the idol.

The first owner Louis XIV of France named it 'French Blue'. It was stolen during the French Revolution in 1791, resurfaced in 1813 in London. They were unsure if it was the same diamond as it had been re-cut. But test recently proves it is the French Blue. It was owned by King George IV of England. After his death, it was sold off to pay debts.

In 1839, Henry Philip Hope bought it and named it Hope Diamond. The Diamond changed hands many times. Most notably, Mrs Evalyn Walsh Mclean (1911) and finally Harry Winston bought it in 1947 (or 1949?). He donated it to Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C in 1958. Till today, it has attracted many visitors.

So what about the curse? It was said that many of the Diamond's owner suffered terrible fate.

- Louis XVI and his queen, Marie Antoinette were beheaded during the French Revolution. (but many others died during the war too!)

- Henry Philip Hope family,once very wealthy, went bankrupt. (3 generations of the Hope family were untainted. It is gambling and high spending that led it to its downfall.)

- An Eastern European prince gave it to actress Folies Bergere and later shot her. (not much record on this, cant be verified.)

- A Greek owner's family died in a car accident. (cant be verified either.)

- Turkish Sultan Abdul-Hamid II was toppled from his throne. (no records too.)

- Most tragically, Evalyn Mclean's family. Her son, age 9, died in a car crash. Her daughter committed suicide at age 25. Her husband went mad and died in a mental hospital. (Interesting, Evalyn does not believe in the curse and treat it as a good luck charm.)

Bull Shit? Coincidence? You decide, while I prepare to go for my holidays.

P/s: 2 more days to my much deserve holiday!

Poor soul! Her site was hacked and all her entries were deleted. Below is a message from her site:

Dear readers of xiaxue.blogspot.com,

Yes, indeed, my blog has been hacked. I understand some of you might be sending emails to me right now, alerting me, and the thought warms my heart (which is very startlingly cold right now mind you). Unfortunately, the hacker is quite clever. He also managed to guess the password to my gmail account. My 3,000 emails, some of which very important business contacts, are all gone.*snap!* Gone.The last time I saw my account, I saw two new emails, and these were the only two. I thought Gmail cocked up on me. I laughed, refreshed, and hey, I got logged out! To my horror I couldn't log in anymore. Can you imagine the amount of time he or she took to delete everything?Checking blogger.... GONE TOO!How wonderful. A total of 12 or so blogs, all painstakingly done up, all gone. The media center, the FAQs, the photolog, the Hate site. My hard work of 3 years, gone.Vanished into thin air now! How very cruel this person is. I wonder what made him or her do this. I remember I once told Adrian, "You know what is my greatest fear?" "What?" he mumbled (not because he wanted to mumble but because he only grunts and mumbles).It was that someone would hack into my blogger account. Adrian laughed and said, "Then did you save all your blog files?"I told him no. He scolded me and said, "Then you better go and save them now!" And I did! The latest, however, was the May archives. So if you do have ways to get back the June and July archives, or you saved them even, do tell me! I never thought I would ever be thanking this person, but... xialanbin.blogspot.com did put in some work in copying my files afterall. The URL for my archives are there. It will be hard work doing up all the old blog entries again. It will take a lot of time and sweat, but I can do it.Because being Xiaxue means nothing can get me down, ever. Especially when so many of you are with me. Thank you Shuyin, for waking up at 430am to help me.I started out with nothing, and I can do it all over again. I will stop those bloody tears right this moment.Help me spread the word. Help me put this message on your blog.
Do not email me at xiaxue@gmail.com from now until I get back my account.
If you want a word, please email me at wendycheng@gmail.com.
Thank you.
The real Wendy
[Because this email can be authenticated by my friends Shuyin, Wanyi, Mrbrown, Mr Miyagi and Kenny Sia.]

Lesson learnt: Always backup your files! Danger lurks everywhere on the Internet.

I have been busy playing a Chinese RPG game, "Chu Liu Xiang". Should be done in 2 days. Boy, the game sure is rated RA (Really Addictive & also Restricted Adults).

Real busy with the game, almost at it for 6 hrs a day. And I need a break!

Come Monday, I will be off to Genting for 5 days. Actually, considering other destination too. Like Hong Kong, Puket, Thailand or China (Chengdu), but budget constraints, you know?

When I travel, I go for the best in accomodation. Therefore, cant afford the rest of the destinations. Hopefully, can make some money from Mr. Lim (Genting's boss and a close friend!). Actually, I have some techniques to beat the house odds and I win most of the time. (Haiz, must wait another 4 years before our IR is up.)If you are keen, email me!

I am doing some reading up on Hope Diamond and should be able to post a summary real soon. If you know something on the subject, please share with me.

Meanwhile, stay cool!

Just got up after a night of bad dreams. Full of sadness now.....

I dreamt about her again, that sweet young thing in my life. Though she wrecked my life but I shouldn't hate her (its not her fault, it takes two to clap). I really hope to see her again, just want to find out if life is good.

fz, I know you are fine. Saw your photos update in your friendster account. I am really glad. You will always live on in my memory. Do you still like Piglet? Takopachi? Chawanmushi? Do you still eat at Pasta Mania? Hows everyone in the family? I apologize for my breakdown at the end of our relationship. Its retribution for me, I did it to someone else, you do it to me. Its only fair. Wish you the best, my princess!

I got to move on!

Ok folks.... if you like UFO. See the links below, its about this guy who calls himself, Prophet Yahweh. He claims that he can summon UFO.

Read the article here: http://www.ufodigest.com/prophet2.html

See the video clip, on RealPlayer, of him summoning UFO here: http://www.ufodigest.com/mediaplayer.cfm?medialink=http://www.ufodigest.com/video/prophet.wmv&mediatitle=ProphetUFO

Bullshit? Supernatural? You decide!

You may have read about the similarities between the two assassination, here they are, with my comments:

1) Lincoln was elected in 1860, Kennedy in 1960, 100 years apart
True. High probability of it happening, cos the election only happens once in 4 years. And since they were elected to Congress in 1846 and in 1946 respectively, also a hundred years apart.

2) Both men were deeply involved in civil rights for African Americans.
Not accurate. Lincoln once stated: I have no purpose, directly or indirectly to interfere with the institutions of slavery in the United States where it exists. As for Kennedy, he promoted civil rights only after some racial incidents.

3) Both men were assassinated on a Friday, in the presence of their wives.
High probability of it happening. Almost all public functions (where it provides an opportunity for assassination) occurred on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

4) Each wife had lost a child while living at the White House.
True but not accurate. Kennedy lost a premature baby, while Lincoln's eleven years old died of Typhoid.

5) Both men were killed by a bullet that entered the head from behind.
True. But its either the head or heart for instant death.

6) Lincoln was killed in Ford's Theater. Kennedy met his death while riding in a Lincoln convertible made by the Ford Motor Company.
True.

7) Both men were succeeded by vice-presidents named Johnson who were southern Democrats and former senators.
True. But Johnson is a common name at that time. And one of them was born in the north, but lived in the south many years later.

8) Andrew Johnson was born in 1808. Lyndon Johnson was born in 1908, exactly one hundred years later.
True. But why is the number 100 considered a coincidence?

9) The first name of Lincoln's private secretary was John, the last name of Kennedy's private secretary was Lincoln.
False. Lincoln never had a secretary named Kennedy. He had two male secretaries, one named John Hays and the other named John G. Nicolay.

10) John Wilkes Booth was born in 1839. Lee Harvey Oswald was born in 1939, one hundred years later.
False. John W. Booth was born in 1838.

11) Both assassins were Southerners who held extremist views.
Not accurate. John W. Booth was born in the south but lived most of his life in the north.

12) Both assassins were murdered before they could be brought to trial.
True. But KILLED is a better description than murdered.

13) Booth shot Lincoln in a theater and fled to a warehouse. Oswald shot Kennedy from a warehouse and fled to a theater.
Not accurate. Booth was in a theater (where plays are staged), while Oswald was caught in a cinema. Booth fled to a farm and was caught in a barn.

14) LlNCOLN and KENNEDY each has 7 letters.
So what? But their full names does not contain the same number of letters.

15) ANDREW JOHNSON and LYNDON JOHNSON each has 13 letters.
Not accurate, if you consider his full name as Lyndon Baines Johnson.

16) JOHN WlLKES BOOTH and LEE HARVEY OSWALD each has 15 letters.
True.

17) A Lincoln staffer Miss Kennedy told him not to go to the Theater. A Kennedy staffer Miss Lincoln, told him not to go to Dallas.
Cant be proved. There are many versions to this, and I guess it was added on later.


Interesting? Let me list more eerie coincidence for you:

John F. Kennedy, and the number 6-

Dallas: 6 letters-
He was shot from the 6th floor-
Oswald: 6 letters-
He was shot on 11/22: 1+1+2+2=6-
Move each letter of the abbreviation FBI six places positionally to the right in the alphabet, and you get LHO; i.e. Lee Harvey Oswald-
Take the initials "J" and "B" from John Wilkes Booth's name, move them six places positionally to the right in the alphabet and you get "P" and "H". Kennedy died at Parkland Hospital. http://members.aol.com/prgrmr/lincjfk.html

If you are interested, see what the bible says here: http://www.biblenews1.com/docs/kennedy.htm

Bull shit? Supernatural? Tell me what you think!

Came across this quote on a lovely lady's profile.....

[have you ever ask yourself whether you love yourself?]

Suddenly lots of flashback.....

I used to have a girl whom loved me with all her heart n soul. But after many years in the relationship, I strayed.

An exciting, young thing came into my life. I succumbed to the temptation. I cruelly ended a 6 years relationship. I needed a fresh face, fresh excitement cos over the years, it has turned into a stale relationship. We didn't do anything to renew our passion. It became a habit. Seeing each other everyday, sleeping together but with different dreams. We didn't communicate anymore. She didn't know what I was thinking, what I needed. It wasn't her fault, it was mine!

Things were different with the young thing..... we were madly in love, everyday was exciting, everything was great. Alas, what goes round must come round. I was dumped after 8 months. It was devastating! My world collapsed. I went into depression. Attempted to kill myself. Had a mental breakdown. I tried to ask God, WHY?

One day, I suddenly realized I did not know how to love. In order to love someone, I have to love myself first. If I cant take care of myself, how can I say that I will take care of her till the end of time. I started on my road to recovery. I started loving myself. I didn't hurt myself anymore. I took good care of myself.

Today, I have got used to the pain. Who says time can heal all wounds? Time doesn't heal your wounds, it just let you get used to the pain, so over time its no longer as painful as you started with.

I believe that every life lesson prepared by Him is to make me a better person. I don't question Him anymore.

May God bless you too!

(Little Grass, though we will never be able to be together again. You are always in my prayers. You are a great person who deserves the best. Thank you for spending a significant part of your life with me. Thank you for all you have done. I miss you!)

At a food court, somewhere in Sillypore:

Mr. Fundraiser: Sir, we are raising funds for charity. Would you like to buy a ticket?
(He goes on explaining what the charity does.....)

Mr. Goondoo: How much?

Mr. F: $100 each. If you buy 10 tickets, you get a free golden tap!

Mr. G: What? So ex? The money for what?

Mr. F: Sir, $10 goes to the needy, $40 goes to our reserves.....

Mr. G: Reserves, what reserves?

Mr. F: For backup, Sir. We want to have enough money to tide us over difficult periods.

Mr. G: Ok. Than the rest?

Mr. F: $20 goes to operating costs and $10 for my pocket.

Mr. G: Wait, wait! You get so much huh?

Mr. F: No, Sir. I am a professional. So you cant pay peanuts, right?

Mr. G: What operating costs?

Mr. F: Sir, we have to pay our staff. Maintain our fleet of expensive cars. Maintain our boss car. Pay for our boss family's car expenses. Also, the year-end 12 months bonus for the boss. And, of course, the free golden tap you are getting. Sir, will it be 10 or 20 tickets for you?

Mr. G: Hmm.... still got $20 do what?

Mr. F: Sir, we stepped on the wrong person's toes and have to pay costs. Plus, our building has been defaced, we need to re-paint it. We are also looking for a new boss. The balance $20 will pay for them.

Mr. G: Fuck off!

Oh my God! I am speechless! I have never imagined a charity that pays its CEO 6 to 12 months bonus. He has collected about $1.8 million over the past 3 years. And guess what, two thirds of you out there, somehow, contributed to his fat pay check.

I respect the work these organization are doing, but I will like to see more transparency in the way the funds are utilized.

Meanwhile, I will stick to donating my money to Singapore Pools.

"Brother, be of good cheer. Before one winter shall pass, the chance will yet come to build our nation and drive the Americans from our land. If this should fail, then a curse shall be upon the Great Chief of the Americans, if they shall ever pick Harrison to lead them. His days in power shall be cut short. And for every twenty winters following, the days in power of the Great Chief which they shall select shall be cut short. Our people shall not be the instrument to shorten their time. Either the Great Spirit shall shorten their days or their own people shall shoot them. This is not all. Each contest to select their Great Chief shall be marked by sharp divisions within their nation. Within seven winters of each contest, there shall be a war among their people, either within their nation or with other nations, I know not which. Our people shall prosper only if they can avoid these wars. " http://www.geocities.com/statechurch/tehcumseh.htm

This is an ancient Indian curse, some say, administered by Tecumseh after he was defeated by William Henry Harrison at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. (Harrison went on to become president in 1840). While others say, Tecumseh's mother pronounced the curse when Tecumseh died. And a third version, attributes it to his half brother Tenskwatawa (a medicine man), aka The Prophet.

1840 - William Henry Harrison was elected President. He died of pneumonia on April 4, 1841. The Mexican War broke out in 1846.

1860 - Abraham Lincoln was re-elected President. Lincoln was assassinated and died on April 15, 1865. Within months, war between the states broke out.

1880 - James Garfield was elected President. He was shot and led to his death on September 19, 1881. Battle of Little Bighorn started in 1876.

1900 - William McKinley was re-elected President. On September 6, 1901, McKinley was shot and died on September 14th. He died less than two years after the end of the Spanish-American War.

1920 - Warren G. Harding was elected President. He suffered from a stroke and died at the Palace Hotel on August 2, 1923. World War I ended two years before.

1940 - Franklin Roosevelt was elected President. He was re-elected in 1944. He died on April 12, 1945, of a cerebral hemorrhage. Since he was elected during one of his terms in a year that ended with a zero, he is considered part of Tecumseh's curse. America entered World War II on December 7, 1941

1960 - John F. Kennedy became President. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22 1963. The U.S. entered the Vietnam War less than two years later.

1980 - Ronald Reagan was elected President. On March 30, 1981, John Hinckley attempted to assassinate Reagan in Washington, D.C. The President was shot but was able to survive with quick medical attention.

2000 - George W. Bush was elected President.

It is widely believed that with the survival of Reagan in 1981, the curse has been broken.
Bull shit? Or supernatural? You decide!

I didnt have time to write for so long. I was away treasure hunting, remember? Well, no luck in getting rich! Oh, I am taking about the Big Sweep not missing out on the treasure.

Lots have happened this week. Singapore is show-cased to the world in 2 minutes, should had been 3 but things do changed. And now we have lost a third of the prospective visitors, how sad! Wait a minute, what sort of logic is that? Hmm... let me go figure it out.

Wow, London certainly has lots of headlines! London will be hosting the Olympics in 2012 (but according to John Titor, there wont be one). And the next day, 4 bombs went off in (my prayers go out to them), guess where, London! Is it a sign of things to come?

On the domestic front, I got to know some interesting people this week. First, Mr. R (cant name, cos client confidentiality). Interesting guy looking for investments opportunity in Sillypore. He suggested opening a pawn shop next to our IR. What a wonderful idea!

Then came Mr. G and Miss L (again got to protect my client). Also looking at relocating to this small island. They are well connected with lots of big names in the cina entertainment industry. I must be the envy of many young readers.... cos I have some insight about some superstars (the cool guy in that racing movie adapted from Jap animation, his ex., and also the current hottest model turned TV darling). What a pity! I cant reveal more, else will lose my rice bowl!

I hope things will quiet down for the rest of the week. I need a break to write about my favorite topics, Chinese superstitions. Till than.......