Reevaluating your priorities in life - Richard Teo

I was taking a break from luggage packing when I stumbled upon this video shared by a friend.
No doubt it's a pretty long video, and an even longer transcript that I read later.

I dont know Richard Teo personally, but the contents that he raised and shared, had spoken to me and felt all familiar to me, as I listened to what Richard shared.
From a self made millionaire doctor achieved in probably a span of 40 years, to a god fearing man in a matter of months.
His pursuits in material wants, and eventually finding out the real priorities important in life before he departed is truly humbling.

I'm not a christian, and I may not be as successful as he is.
But having personally gone through some low point a couple of years back, I literally took a year off from life just to reevaluate my priorities and realign my life.

Indeed I am thankful to even be allowed the opportunity and assistance to just mope around, while I seek answers to all the questions that were screaming and swirling in my head constantly.

In difficult times, I met hands that were stretched out to me in hope to lift me out from where I was, as well as the hands that attempted to push me deeper and further down as I struggle to breathe
I saw them all clearly.

It was all a horrible experience that I never want to go through again, but yet without that rough patch, I would not have the chance to take my entire life apart, and piece them back again bit by bit at my own pace.
Re-emerging from where I last left my life, as a new and improved Daphne.

In the new Daphne OS,  some old values has been reinforced to stay, while some new ones have been added from recent lessons learnt. The purpose and existence of Daphne has been re anchored and aligned to better contribute to the world, this universe, in my own little ways.

Therefore, I can attest to 10% of what he had gone through to want to share this with whoever you might be.
It is indeed a lengthy read / video but it's truly a humbling lesson that my own words alone couldn't have described better.

I'll end this entry with a phrase lifted off his transcript, in reference to the book Tuesdays with Morris.

Everyone knows that they are going to die; every one of us knows that. 
The truth is, none of us believe it because if we did, we will do things differently.

The link of his video can be found here: http://youtube/n6oSDyMUigQ
-----

Below is the transcript of the talk of Dr. Richard Teo, who is a 40-year-old millionaire and cosmetic surgeon with a stage-4 lung cancer but selflessly came to share with the D1 class his life experience on 19-Jan-2012.

Hi good morning to all of you. My voice is a bit hoarse, so please bear with me. I thought I'll just introduce myself. My name is Richard, I'm a medical doctor. And I thought I'll

 just share some thoughts of my life. It's my pleasure to be invited by prof. Hopefully, it can get you thinking about how... as you pursue this.. embarking on your training to become dental surgeons, to think about other things as well.

Since young, I am a typical product of today's society. Relatively successful product that society requires.. From young, I came from a below average family. I was told by the media... and people around me that happiness is about success. And that success is about being wealthy. With this mind-set, I've always be extremely competitive, since I was young.

Not only do I need to go to the top school, I need to have success in all fields. Uniform groups, track, everything. I needed to get trophies, needed to be successful, I needed to have colours award, national colours award, everything. So I was highly competitive since young. I went on to medical school, graduated as a doctor. Some of you may know that within the medical faculty, ophthalmology is one of the most highly sought after specialities. So I went after that as well. I was given a traineeship in ophthalmology, I was also given a research scholarship by NUS to develop lasers to treat the eye.

So in the process, I was given 2 patents, one for the medical devices, and another for the lasers. And you know what, all this academic achievements did not bring me any wealth. So once I completed my bond with MOH, I decided that this is taking too long, the training in eye surgery is just taking too long. And there's lots of money to be made in the private sector. If you're aware, in the last few years, there is this rise in aesthetic medicine. Tons of money to be made there. So I decided, well, enough of staying in institution, it's time to leave. So I quit my training halfway and I went on to set up my aesthetic clinic... in town, together with a day surgery centre.

You know the irony is that people do not make heroes out average GP (general practitioner), family physicians. They don't. They make heroes out of people who are rich and famous. People who are not happy to pay $20 to see a GP, the same person have no qualms paying ten thousand dollars for a liposuction, 15 thousand dollars for a breast augmentation, and so on and so forth. So it's a no brainer isn't? Why do you want to be a gp? Become an aesthetic physician. So instead of healing the sick and ill, I decided that I'll become a glorified beautician. So, business was good, very good. It started off with waiting of one week, then became 3weeks, then one month, then 2 months, then 3 months. I was overwhelmed; there were just too many patients. Vanities are fantastic business. I employed one doctor, the second doctor, the 3rd doctor, the 4th doctor. And within the 1st year, we're already raking in millions. Just the 1st year. But never is enough because I was so obsessed with it. I started to expand into Indonesia to get all the rich Indonesian tai-tais who wouldn't blink an eye to have a procedure done. So life was really good.

So what do I do with the spare cash. How do I spend my weekends? Typically, I'll have car club gatherings. I take out my track car, with spare cash I got myself a track car. We have car club gatherings. We'll go up to Sepang in Malaysia. We'll go for car racing. And it was my life. With other spare cash, what do i do? I get myself a Ferrari. At that time, the 458 wasn't out, it's just a spider convertible, 430. This is a friend of mine, a schoolmate who is a forex trader, a banker. So he got a red one, he was wanting all along a red one, I was getting the silver one.

So what do I do after getting a car? It's time to buy a house, to build our own bungalows. So we go around looking for a land to build our own bungalows, we went around hunting. So how do i live my life? Well, we all think we have to mix around with the rich and famous. This is one of the Miss Universe. So we hang around with the beautiful, rich and famous. This by the way is an internet founder. So this is how we spend our lives, with dining and all the restaurants and Michelin Chefs you know.

So I reach a point in life that I got everything for my life. I was at the pinnacle of my career and all. That's me one year ago in the gym and I thought I was like, having everything under control and reaching the pinnacle.

Well, I was wrong. I didn't have everything under control. About last year March, I started to develop backache in the middle of nowhere. I thought maybe it was all the heavy squats I was doing. So I went to SGH, saw my classmate to do an MRI, to make sure it's not a slipped disc or anything. And that evening, he called me up and said that we found bone marrow replacement in your spine. I said, sorry what does that mean? I mean I know what it means, but I couldn't accept that. I was like “Are you serious?” I was still running around going to the gym you know. But we had more scans the next day, PET scans - positrons emission scans, they found that actually I have stage 4 terminal lung cancer. I was like "Whoa where did that come from?” It has already spread to the brain, the spine, the liver and the adrenals. And you know one moment I was there, totally thinking that I have everything under control, thinking that I've reached the pinnacle of my life. But the next moment, I have just lost it.

This is a CT scan of the lungs itself. If you look at it, every single dot there is a tumour. We call this miliaries tumour. And in fact, I have tens of thousands of them in the lungs. So, I was told that even with chemotherapy, that I'll have about 3-4months at most. Did my life come crushing on, of course it did, who wouldn't? I went into depression, of course, severe depression and I thought I had everything.

See the irony is that all these things that I have, the success, the trophies, my cars, my house and all. I thought that brought me happiness. But i was feeling really down, having severe depression. Having all these thoughts of my possessions, they brought me no joy. The thought of... You know, I can hug my Ferrari to sleep, no... No, it is not going to happen. It brought not a single comfort during my last ten months. And I thought they were, but they were not true happiness. But it wasn't. What really brought me joy in the last ten months was interaction with people, my loved ones, friends, people who genuinely care about me, they laugh and cry with me, and they are able to identify the pain and suffering I was going through. That brought joy to me, happiness. None of the things I have, all the possessions, and I thought those were supposed to bring me happiness. But it didn't, because if it did, I would have felt happy think about it, when I was feeling most down..

You know the classical Chinese New Year that is coming up. In the past, what do I do? Well, I will usually drive my flashy car to do my rounds, visit my relatives, to show it off to my friends. And I thought that was joy, you know. I thought that was really joy. But do you really think that my relatives and friends, whom some of them have difficulty trying to make ends meet, that will truly share the joy with me? Seeing me driving my flashy car and showing off to them? No, no way. They won’t be sharing joy with me. They were having problems trying to make ends meet, taking public transport. In fact i think, what I have done is more like you know, making them envious, jealous of all I have. In fact, sometimes even hatred.

Those are what we call objects of envy. I have them, I show them off to them and I feel it can fill my own pride and ego. That didn't bring any joy to these people, to my friends and relatives, and I thought they were real joy.

Well, let me just share another story with you. You know when I was about your age, I stayed in king Edward VII hall. I had this friend whom I thought was strange. Her name is Jennifer, we're still good friends. And as I walk along the path, she would, if she sees a snail, she would actually pick up the snail and put it along the grass patch. I was like why do you need to do that? Why dirty your hands? It’s just a snail. The truth is she could feel for the snail. The thought of being crushed to death is real to her, but to me it's just a snail. If you can't get out of the pathway of humans then you deserve to be crushed, it’s part of evolution isn't it? What an irony isn't it?

There I was being trained as a doctor, to be compassionate, to be able to empathise; but I couldn't. As a house officer, I graduated from medical school, posted to the oncology department at NUH. And, every day, every other day I witness death in the cancer department. When I see how they suffered, I see all the pain they went through. I see all the morphine they have to press every few minutes just to relieve their pain. I see them struggling with their oxygen breathing their last breath and all. But it was just a job. When I went to clinic every day, to the wards every day, take blood, give the medication but was the patient real to me? They weren't real to me. It was just a job, I do it, I get out of the ward, I can't wait to get home, I do my own stuff.

Was the pain, was the suffering the patients went through real? No. Of course I know all the medical terms to describe how they feel, all the suffering they went through. But in truth, I did not know how they feel, not until I became a patient. It is until now; I truly understand how they feel. And, if you ask me, would I have been a very different doctor if I were to re-live my life now, I can tell you yes I will. Because I truly understand how the patients feel now. And sometimes, you have to learn it the hard way.

Even as you start just your first year, and you embark this journey to become dental surgeons, let me just challenge you on two fronts.

Inevitably, all of you here will start to go into private practice. You will start to accumulate wealth. I can guarantee you. Just doing an implant can bring you thousands of dollars, it's fantastic money. And actually there is nothing wrong with being successful, with being rich or wealthy, absolutely nothing wrong. The only trouble is that a lot of us like myself couldn't handle it.

Why do I say that? Because when I start to accumulate, the more I have, the more I want. The more I wanted, the more obsessed I became. Like what I showed you earlier on, all I can was basically to get more possessions, to reach the pinnacle of what society did to us, of what society wants us to be. I became so obsessed that nothing else really mattered to me. Patients were just a source of income, and I tried to squeeze every single cent out of these patients.

A lot of times we forget, whom we are supposed to be serving. We become so lost that we serve nobody else but just ourselves. That was what happened to me. Whether it is in the medical, the dental fraternity, I can tell you, right now in the private practice, sometimes we just advise patients on treatment that is not indicated. Grey areas. And even though it is not necessary, we kind of advocate it. Even at this point, I know who are my friends and who genuinely cared for me and who are the ones who try to make money out of me by selling me "hope". We kind of lose our moral compass along the way. Because we just want to make money.

Worse, I can tell you, over the last few years, we bad mouth our fellow colleagues, our fellow competitors in the industry. We have no qualms about it. So if we can put them down to give ourselves an advantage, we do it. And that's what happening right now, medical, dental everywhere. My challenge to you is not to lose that moral compass. I learnt it the hard way, I hope you don't ever have to do it.

Secondly, a lot of us will start to get numb to our patients as we start to practise. Whether is it government hospitals, private practice, I can tell you when I was in the hospital, with stacks of patient folders, I can't wait to get rid of those folders as soon as possible; I can't wait to get patients out of my consultation room as soon as possible because there is just so many, and that's a reality. Because it becomes a job, a very routine job. And this is just part of it. Do I truly know how the patient feels back then? No, I don't. The fears and anxiety and all, do I truly understand what they are going through? I don't, not until when this happens to me and I think that is one of the biggest flaws in our system.

We’re being trained to be healthcare providers, professional, and all and yet we don't know how exactly they feel. I'm not asking you to get involved emotionally, I don't think that is professional but do we actually make a real effort to understand their pain and all? Most of us won’t, alright, I can assure you. So don't lose it, my challenge to you is to always be able to put yourself in your patient's shoes.

Because the pain, the anxiety, the fear are very real even though it's not real to you, it's real to them. So don't lose it and you know, right now I'm in the midst of my 5th cycle of my chemotherapy. I can tell you it’s a terrible feeling. Chemotherapy is one of those things that you don't wish even your enemies to go through because it's just suffering, lousy feeling, throwing out, you don't even know if you can retain your meals or not. Terrible feeling! And even with whatever little energy now I have, I try to reach out to other cancer patients because I truly understand what pain and suffering is like. But it's kind of little too late and too little.

You guys have a bright future ahead of you with all the resource and energy, so I’m going to challenge you to go beyond your immediate patients. To understand that there are people out there who are truly in pain, truly in hardship. Don’t get the idea that only poor people suffer. It is not true. A lot of these poor people do not have much in the first place, they are easily contented. for all you know they are happier than you and me but there are out there, people who are suffering mentally, physically, hardship, emotionally, financially and so on and so forth, and they are real. We choose to ignore them or we just don't want to know that they exist.

So do think about it alright, even as you go on to become professionals and dental surgeons and all. That you can reach out to these people who are in need. Whatever you do can make a large difference to them. I'm now at the receiving end so I know how it feels, someone who genuinely care for you, encourage and all. It makes a lot of difference to me. That’s what happens after treatment. I had a treatment recently, but I’ll leave this for another day. A lot of things happened along the way, that's why I am still able to talk to you today.

I'll just end of with this quote here, it's from this book called Tuesdays with Morris, and some of you may have read it. Everyone knows that they are going to die; every one of us knows that. The truth is, none of us believe it because if we did, we will do things differently. When I faced death, when I had to, I stripped myself off all stuff totally and I focused only on what is essential. The irony is that a lot of times, only when we learn how to die then we learn how to live. I know it sounds very morbid for this morning but it's the truth, this is what I’m going through.

Don’t let society tell you how to live. Don’t let the media tell you what you're supposed to do. Those things happened to me. And I led this life thinking that these are going to bring me happiness. I hope that you will think about it and decide for yourself how you want to live your own life. Not according to what other people tell you to do, and you have to decide whether you want to serve yourself, whether you are going to make a difference in somebody else's life. Because true happiness doesn't come from serving yourself. I thought it was but it didn't turn out that way. With that I thank you, if you have any questions you have for me, please feel free. Thank you.

459

Peach Bellini

My lip color for today!

Peach Bellini from NYX.

It was a hard decision between the Margarita shade or the Peach Bellini for my puckers!

It took me merely 15 mins this time to make my selection!

The peach bellini gave me a glowy look, while the Margarita made me look like i've gone 2 shades darker with a tan.

In case you're wondering what's the hassle, as most people would tell me to buy both when undecided..

Hahah 

I know right!

I insist on exercising purchase discipline.

It's about the principle behind the purchase, nothing to do with the price!

Just because I know I can easily afford an item, does not warrant the rationale to splurge.

Ahhh pet peeve #2million.

Fair like a pearl!

Prior to my trip before flying off to Cheng Du, I had this slight obsession with buying up random mask that I picked up at the drug store, and whenever the mood takes my fancy, I'll slap them on for (what I call) my "future maintenance".

Hahaha

I know of friends who zealously take care of their skin on a daily basis like a fanatic.

They probably have 20 steps of skin care routine...

While I'm having problems balancing between slapping 3 items on my face, or nothing at all before bed time.

I know i'm uber lazy, and seriously a slow starter in picking up my routine to combat anti aging.

Having said that, I just slapped on a random mask that came free with the hair conditioner that I purchased.

Well, I reckon that its better something than nothing right?

20mins later, I peeled off the facial mask, walked past the mirror and

Omgpapaya!

my face is shockingly fair/white/pale/ghostly.

Looking at my face in the mirror, I now think that I qualify for Halloween with my very pale face at the moment.

If you're wanting/wishing for fairer and more translucent skin...

I reckon that this packet of magic works pretty well.

My guess would be that the element of "pearl" is indeed pretty awesome for a fairer skin!

I'm semi inspired to head over to the Chinese herb store to get some real crushed pearl to nom up or to apply on the face.

I'm not sure where the herb store is located at though..

Need to check with the mother!

(If I ever remember!)

Inspired, with new found respect for the new freebie,

I rummage my bin to retrieve the wrappers for a second look.

The website printed on the wrapper states www.beautydiary.com.tw , in case you're interested!

Oh well... I took a look at the contents listed on the wrapper - the "pearl" content listed is ingredient #25 out of the 29 components listed on the wrapper.

Confirm not the pearl working its magic.

It's either the aloe leaf or the lemon peel doing its magic.

Otherwise its my eyes playing a trick on me.

Ok whatever..

Rainy day love

It's love when in my semi conscious / drowsy state of mind that I hear the papa declaring at the door of my room that he bought me lunch.

Hurhuhur

Not just any boring lunch... But it's Jalan Sultan's prawn noodles!

:D

Eating up my lunch, I reckon the difference between mom and dad when it comes to packing food home is that ... Mommy will usually buy food within her convenience/location, while daddy on the other hand usually doesn't care about the location, so long as he craves for it.

Hahahhah.

Here we go!

Yummy prawn and pork rib broth, with a sprinkle of rice noodle, fried onions and huge ass freshwater prawns for lunch on a rainy afternoon.

I'd call this more than a pleasant surprise, getting to eat yummy prawn noodles that I grew up lusting in my kiddy days +  on a random rainy afternoon!

*slurps*

Reorganizing the wardrobe

Every now and then, I'll go crazy on the bursting wardrobe at home, and drag out my stuff and proceed to reorganize everything, just so that I'd be able to keep track on my clothes.

It really does not help that I have an extensive memory of my beloved wardrobe, and when I'm out to hunt for that ONE garment (that I'm suddenly reminded of), I'll be drowned in the sea of clothes- it gets rather challenging, especially when I'm quite the hoarder when it comes to clothes.

Here we go.. 

This is 5% of my stash at project reorganize.

I've also suddenly lost my steam for packing, and am living with a heap of clothes at the foot of my bed as I lay in bed to post this instead.

Rwar!

The packing.....

must.....

go.....

on....

*struggles*

ps: post packing, I found plenty of "new" stuff to wear! Yay!

Laggard ChengDu trip entry

This is a terrible laggard entry that was stuck around in the phone, saved as a draft for a long while. 

Close to packing for 2013's buying trip, that I realized how far I was in storing away my trip memories..

I opened up the luggage (that was never quite unpacked or stored away) and realized that I've got countless articles still sitting in the luggage unpacked. 

Busy months are good execuses for a very messy room! 

In chronicle order,  my customary bade the social world farewell picture. 

I lied, it was a monkey face that I posted up when I flew off. 

Not a nice smiley one like this.

Hehehehe...

In my previous entry here : I posted my supper and the odds about getting the same room as the other time. 

It felt like home already. :D

I settled quickly and barely unpack, as I was only sleeping for the night.

(My schedule this trip is like some insane journeying and hotel sampling.. i'll prattle on further in a while)

Clearing up all my work in Singapore before I flew off, I decided to pack along a mask, because I just bought it at Watson's sale and decided that sometime during the trip, i'll take them out for entertainment!

Seriously, I always thought that facial Masks are nothing but a consumer hoax, but yet i'm a sucker who still cannot resist buying.

Tsk!

But staring up at my skin 1cm away from the mirror after my shower, I swear that I could see the dry texture of my skin emerging like beef jerky. 

ZOMG.

I yank out my emergency pack of Lovemore Electric Ore Mask and plop it on my face.

#sucks! 

Just 1 hour in china, and i'm already using my emergency pack. 

How about the 6 other nights to go?!

You have no idea how much difference just a pack of mask made to my skin! 

The difference is just pure amazing.

Slapping on the same thing on my face, now that i'm back in Singapore - I seriously can't see much difference. It's back to being a hoax?

I'm one of those miracle believers type of consumers. Need to see something drastic, otherwise, remain skeptical. 

Hahaha. 

That's yet another shot of myself in my legendary room's mirror with my outfitoftheday.

These trips to China are getting interesting.

I've been yanking out long forgotten clothes to wear it there, just because I always try to exercise dressing restraint whenever i'm in foreign countries, it's not so safe to be wearing skanky shorts around, no?

LOL.

Super wrapped up.

that's my 4 year old white "dress/tunic" that rarely sees the sun in Singapore.

My mission this time, would be to oversee the opening of the store located in ChengDu along with a small team, then fly over to Wuhan after the opening, to check on the stores there.

The dad has decided not to head the team, and left me to my own device the entire trip.

I'm not sure if I mentioned in my previous trip post that I got lost, while making my way to the office. 

Some communication breakdown, and the Cab driver brought me for a joy ride around town, and back.

Grr Seriously!

Making my way to the office this time,, I was so confident about finding my way over (Since i'm so done being lost and tourist to the area) 

Alas! I stupidly forgot the unit number! :S

Dad didnt leave any excess card with me either. 

Weh

D:

I stood around the entrance looking like a duck, and waited around for someone to open up the door.

After gaining entrance to the lift lobby, I'm back to being a clever GPS!

I knew which level I had to go...and could walk myself to the right unit.

But the unit number eludes me.

#selfmock+Selfpraise = no praise.

Hahaha

I was bored in the office. Everyone was rushing about to get things done in time for the flight at night, and no one was up to entertaining me, and I felt like I was in the way of everyone.

Chucking me at the showroom was like a meh solution.

Lots of space for me to do some cartwheels.

This would be me, rotting in the showroom.

I have no absolute idea, just how many units the father has rented in the same building.

1 for office.

a few for the staff to live in.

1 for himself

1 as showroom.

Maybe 1 for the cats soon?

Racks and racks of clothes.

1x monkey face, waiting for the driver to pick the team and myself up to the airport after dinner.

Seriously, no one cared if I walked around looking like this either.

Because everyone vacated the office to pack/grab dinner/do their own stuff.

It's just me and the dandy lions glass decals, and the father, smoking away like a chimney in the other room. :(

#SadUnlovedKid

Landed at Cheng Du airport, and made a beeline to the store - because we were carrying LOADS of stuff meant for the store.

Made absolute sense to drop it off , before heading to the hotel.

It looked like this when I reached the store.

Wahhh so dark!

Lights turned on, and this is the crazy mess I saw.

We have Cat in checked shirt, Mr manager overseeing the reno, dude in black tee is the chief architect for our little project. Random lady who I always am forever catching sight of her clearing up wood scraps, sweeping floor etc walking about in heels!

Wow!

I'm not sure how they will magically get the store ready in just 3 days, but my mission there is to just watch, observe and learn something right?

I'm like the set up team, not the reno team.

Hmmmpf.

After bading the mess goodbye, our distributor brought us out for supper.

The spicy mala couldn't wait, I had it in less than 3 hours of reaching Cheng Du!

She ordered an entire pile of food on skewers.

Everything is chinese, and seemed fine to me.

sliced Cow tripe, braised mala chicken foot, black fungus, lotus root, chicken gibblets, rabbit's kidney (! I know! It's my first time eating it) , nano shrimp (they are seriously too small to be identified as shrimps), some stirred fried vegetables, and I drew the line when she attempted to order the head of a bunny.

I swear I nearly died. Contemplating the thoughts of having to eat the head of a rabbit, with its eyeballs and teeth in tact.

Ugh..

Sorry. Rabbit's kidneys are about as chinese as I can be. I'm also not a fan of chicken innards but I eat them anyway.

And all the time, I thought about bunny at home with his large round marble like eyes. :(

In the words of my distributor, my appetite for Sichuan food is comparable to the locals.

(I think so as well... you have no idea how much spicy mala food I eat back in Singapore)

Enough rattling.

This is my very very nice hotel room for the next few days!

For a hotel room it's rather huge! I could hold a party for 8 comfortably!

Ahhh! I can see my bed when I'm showering, and when i'm lying on my bed, I can see my shower/toilet!

Sexy time much?

Hahahha

Oh and the toilet door is made of glass as well.

Sexy shitting time as well?

hahahah!

Woke up, and decided that the room's lighting is extremely favourable for pictures!

without any filter, this is the original ambience lighting in my room!

This would be le daphne, after a filter.

Eh heheh I like how I get baby smooth skin whenever I make use of this filter.

Hurhurhur.

#filterillusions

The cute cups in my room.

I drank with the doggie one.

Not a fan of robots, at least not this one!

Kitchen Pantry area. Next to it, is a washing machine and drying area.

Seriously. It's a mother huge room I have to myself.

I always found out later that this is probably a service apartment, more than a hotel. 

Coz I checked in at 4am in the morning, I have no clue.

Hahahha!

Slightly neater shop.

But still nowhere near completion leh..

Ok fast forward a little.

This are random shots of the shop on our opening day!

Girls are fickleminded!

We/I kept changing my mind on the display pieces chosen for the mannequins.

I finally settled for the orange and almondish scheme instead of the blacks.

Stripping the mannequins is not my favourite task in the Visual set up part.

It's too troublesome!

The orange set looks more exciting no?

The otherside of the store...

That crazy white screen is a jumbled mash of iisa.

Not my brain child, not my favorite piece of fixture in the store layout, but i'll live with it.

The lazy corner.

With the huge sofa (I later spent more of my time camping on the sofa, \ looking like I meant to sit there,coz I was terribly unwell with food poisoning)

I also took time to camp in the fitting room.

Poor sad Daphne back in the hotel room.

I skipped dinner, while the rest of the team stayed behind to sort out the stock takings and system set up of the POS. 

Rwar! They had Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner.

I drank Pepsi, hoping that all the germs in my tummy would die!

Die germs die!

If coke and pepsi is good enough to kill off the toilet bowl stains, it's gonna work for the food poisoning!

I spent at least 4 times in the toilet while I was at the store.

once in the hotel, and I slept like a frigging sad baby thereafter.

I woke up feeling damn refreshed at 6am.

The pepsi worked!

Felt good enough to give myself a fancy do, after I cleared up the room and packed up my luggage.

With an 8.30am flight to catch, I couldnt be bothered to dress up, but I definitely look happier, considering that i'm not much of a morning person.

Random chair in the office of our distributor.

It's the groping chair.

Hahhaa

#lame!

One of those bored days, I went out for a walk in the heart of Cheng Du. It's their shopping district. I stopped by the Watson's to grab a pack of mask, coz I had terrible skin the entire trip.

A pimple grew on the bridge of my nose.

It wasn't looking ugly, but it definitely hurts whenever I touch it.

This is yet another wonder product.

I think its called my beauty diary or something like that.

I woke up the next morning, and the painful bump was deflated!

OMG PAPAYA!

This black rose clarifying pack is making itself useful! 

Miracle product only works when i'm in China?

Greeted by the third hotel of the trip. I like this room the least.

It's dark, old, dampy and very contrasting to the glitzy one I stayed in Cheng Du.

#spoiltbrat.

Size wise, this is pretty decent, just not as new.

I found it extremely amusing to find a stack of cards slotted through my door, with busty ladies, in le sexy pose, offering their massage and other services ranging from students, to old mature ladies in the different "composite cards".

Lol! How enterprising!

I'm left with a series of random pictures snapped for fun!

The uber yummy spring onion pancakes of Wuhan!

It tasted like lots of yummy garlic spread/oil was laced all over the pancake, with a dash of sesame seed and a sprinkle of spring onion.

Awesome! 

Super good change, after 4 days of non stop spicy mala sichuan food.

And after my bout of diarrhea, I welcome mild flavoured food, because my system felt rather weak comparatively. 

We ordered all 3 items shown in the picture, but the favourite would still be the spring onion one in the center! Rwar!!!

Mini lobster about the size of my index fingers.

Nothing to eat, but shell.

That was fried in spicy mala style as well. 

Oh well, I managed. 

Hahaha, just amused at the size of the lobster. 

Diced bread with pork floss filling.

It tasted meh. Very dry. Nothing like the yummy floss buns from our local Breadtalk.

Some dolls wearing the mini design of the offerings in the store!

I want! But to bring a doll home, I had to purchase x amount from the label.

Look at the amount of fabric that each doll has on her, it's definitely not my style. 

Too covered up.

No doll for Daphne :(

Oh, and the meanie of a salesgirl also forbade me to snap pictures of the dolls.

This was taken secretly!

Last hour in Wuhan, I met a samoyed.

Fella is totally not camera cooperative.

The minute I got closed to him, he decided that I give good belly rubs, and demanded for some.

How the heck is lying on uneven pavement even comfortable?

I have no idea!

Lastly, the legendary flight delays at the Wuhan airport.

what was supposed to be a 4ish pm flight got delayed into an 8.45pm flight.

It was so bad. SO BAD!

I almost couldnt make it back to Singapore in time!

We were due to reach Shen Zhen at 6.30pm, and the dad even gave the team instructions to make sure "they have dinner with me" before they chuck me in the right terminal for my plane back to Singapore.

That dinner totally didn't happen!

The delays caused so much drama, it was as if, I was in a movie!

What seemed like too much airport camping time to spare, became super tensed!

When the Wuhan flight landed, the air stewardess actually helped clear me over to the business seats, just to ensure that I'll be the first to depart the plane.

Cat came along with me, since i'm the blur cock tourist here.

We sat on a shuttle bus for VIPs to leave the tarmac area (Thank god, some VIP lady ordered for the service, and we merely hitch hiked)

We dashed (in heels!) from the domestic terminal to the international terminal and managed to check in with merely 10 minutes before the counter closed.

At this point, Cat's assistant was waiting for our luggages trapped in the Wuhan plane terminal.

Awesome right?

With only 10 minutes, we weren't sure if I was to fly home alone luggage-less or what.

Cat said to me "if i'm not back by 11.05pm. please board the plane, and we'll Courier your luggage over T.T

I was so sure that i'll get mushrooms from my dirty laundry by the time it comes back to me.

I am grateful that I've always been well taken care of, no matter how weird the situations may become, and so... my luggage appeared.

It was like a relay dash. assistant to Cat, Cat to me, me to plane.

Rwar!

When I finally settled at the boarding area, I broke down into tears. 

I had over an hour to emo, as there was yet another infamous flight delay on departure back to Singapore! 

*Experienced an insane amount of turbulence this trip. 

Delays were caused by the unstable "weather", so the air crews tell us.

I was upset that I didn't get to say a proper farewell to my teammates.

That I couldnt thank them enough for the 200% effort that they've placed into making this work trip happen and the dedication in taking care of me.

and the crazy part into making my trip home happen too.

IT was just too much.

Reno delays

Exhaustion,

Diarrhea,

Airport dramas

It all came crashing with the tears with relieve that my crazy trip was over.

It felt as if I've grown up alot in the span of 7 days.

I reached home to a war zoned room after I touched down.

Mother left my room door opened, and the dog had a party in my room unsupervised.

Best trip ever with a thumbs up!

Hahahah. 

I was too tired, I slept and only cleared the mess the next night.

Trixie also took the opportunity to shred the sister's letter into confetti!

I found it super amusing and cracked up when the sister told me she later tried to piece her letter together and it read "Dear D, I hope your knees are holding up fine.

Please continue to work on the knee exercises diligently"

Signed off

your physio

This marks the end of my adventures in Cheng Du, China.