Thursday, May 25, 2006
ILA - part deux! :D
BUT! There's more!! Tee hee. I was so miserable, and F kept on bugging me about how I missed my chance to sit in the plane, blah blah blah. And he said it was really funny how I sounded like a lil kid at Christmas when i called to tell him I saw all the planes and I took photos and I was like super high! But anyway, despite him bugging me about it, he did make a dozen calls to see if there was anyone I could hitch a ride with back to Berlin and in the end, thanks to the wonderful Schönes Wochenende ticket, and some super nice people, I made my way back up there!!! *grins*  And guess what? This time round, I got to sit in the F15s, and the F16s and the B1B!!! The F15E is brilliant and all, I mean, the wunnerful dude taking me arnd flies F15s. But. The F16 is gorgeous! It's made for me. I climbed in there, and I just lay back there stretched out on the seat, and felt so at home. I loved the armrest and the controls, and the way the controls felt when I wrapped my hands around it. *swoon* Oh the pain of unrequited love. Heh. I didn't wanna move. Don't know how long I lay sprawled out there, but it wasn't even long enough. But I figured, I had better get out before I got too attached to it. :( Sigh. By the way, I reached the pedals. AND I saw over the plane! So don't say I am too short. And yes, all of this without the Phonebook thank you very much. -nyeh- There was only a slight downside to all of this. Earlier on, when we go led around on tour, there were maybe like 20 or 30 people scattered about taking photos looking at us wandering around inside coz it was traders' days at the fair. But this time round, with the F15s and the F16s, it was a public day. So I have no idea just how many people were there, but it was definitely packed. Heh. So cutting past everyone to go through the fence was just a lil nerve-wrecking. And I never would have done it if I hadn't been so high!! I mean, I get to climb a plane! Who cares that everyone is just wondering who this is climbing into the cockpit. Tee hee. :) Good thing I didn't pull one of my classics and like slip and fall while going up, or need to be lifted up like in Manching. Hee. I did it with class. Or as much class as I could pull off while being high and jumping and super excited la. :) I also got a nice lil souvenir from the squadron!~ *grins*  All in all. I must say. I had the time of my life. The only thing that could possibly beat this would be flying in an F16. Or any jet for that matter. The airforce would be the best answer! Let's just hope when I go back I can convince Daddy that the AirForce isn't like the Army, and that I can make it despite the height thingie. I'll jump and skip and try and grow taller before I turn 27. Haha. ;)
Thursday, May 18, 2006
All-American Week!
Yes, I did tell the whole world I was going to Berlin, and I did, but well. :)  It all started when on the drive up, we stopped to fill up the tank, and while at the rest stop, I spied with my lil eye, something yummmilicious!! That no one there had ever heard of before!!!!!  So, since the rest of them weren't in the least bothered, while I was jumping like a monkey, I bought the tub, and offered to share. But no one else wanted it!! So erm. Well, it was all mine. Heh. And the thing I love about this weather is, icecream NEVER melts!! So I got it before lunch, had lunch (baked potatoes and veggies - it IS all-american after all) and then went back to working on my ice-cream. Hehehe. :) Someone should really look into spreading the Ben & Jerry's word around here. I mean, i can only do so much if I can't even GET the ice-cream here in Munich!! :( And then! When we got to Berlin!!! Guess what I found EVERYWHERE!!! Dunkin' Donuts!!! And we all know what the official colors of dunkin donuts is. ;) Well, not the donuts themselves, but the company, and the outlets. Hee. It was the best la!!! And how apt is this sign, in terms of American-ness.  But I must say, that place was so sad. I went into the museum, and started reading all the things, and boy was I glad it was 9pm cos it got really hard to try not to cry. :S All those people were so young, and all they wanted was their freedom!! And let's not talk about the Wall memorial either. I got in all the Berliner sights at night, in a grand total of liek what, 2 hours? Coz the main focus of this trip was, of course, the ILA. And I will be back in Berlin when I come to Leipzig for the World Cup Match! For which I got tickets! Tee Hee! As for food, we went to this classy lil cafe/bistro/bar thingie that was *such* a throwback in time. I loved it!!And the food was yummilicious!!! Check the place out man!! :P The service was excellent, and the place was packed despite it being anything but cheap. Yumm!!  The photo completely doesn't do the place justice. The lighting was a LOT mellow-er. All orangey and stuff. Reminds me of home. :( Mommy hates white lights. Haha. So at night the house is all orange too. =) But anyway, the whole point of the Berlin trip. ILA. It was all about planes planes planes. Day One was spent touring around, visiting EADs, asking them about PhD positions and stuff. Haha. :P And looking at the aerial displays! The MIG-29, the Messerschmidts, the Tigers and Tiger (Patrolle Suisse Planes and Goldeneye heli), the eurofighter typhoon (without the weapons so it could do all the cool stuff) and a lot of other cool and not too cool stuff. Like the A380, and the DC6 (which i will always have a thing against coz it never lets me in. bleh.) and the other big commercial planes la. I mean, who wants to see a bus when u can see a lamborghini man. :p And and and. Ingo and I got a tour of ALL the US aircraft!!! We were happily there, and started to talking to one of the F15E dudes, and I just casually asked if we could get upclose for photos and plˆtzlich (i love that word! means suddenly in german) we were getting a tour of ALL the planes!!! I mean, all of 'em!! We were in the cockpits of the C17A, C130, and a couple more. heh. And so I posed with all the planes, and then! In the C17!! Since the ramp wasn't lowered, there was a lil service ladder-tunnel thingie leading up to the tip of the tail. I sooo wanted to climb that!!  "Can I can I can I?" "Well, suuure. But you've got the wrong shoes..And I've gotta warn you though, it gets reaaaallly dirty up there coz we haven't been up there in awhile" "I'll take em off!! And I don't mind getting dirty" "Ok then sure, soon as the colonel gets down. He's probably stuck" Hehe. Think of one of the most famous colonels in the world associated with fast food outlets, and u get the approximate size of most dudes. Good thing daddy stopped climbing up and finished his reservist just before he hit the rotund ranks. Can't imagine him as a fat round dude. *shudder* Then again, the generals/colonels I've seen back home aren't that tubby. So maybe it's just a thing that's in this part of the world. Hmm. Again, just before I went up, "don't say i didn't warn you! your white skirt's gonna get reaaal dirty up there!" please! I can buy a new skirt anytime dude! :P But I can't buy a C17 to crawl up. Heh. Besides, how many times could I actually get to even climb up a thing like that!!  And on the way up it was pitch black!! Hee. That first photo was without the flash. Then finally with the flash, look at the difference!!! And yes, I am sunburnt. Just from that one day out looking at all the planes.  He let me go up after him since I was wearing a skirt (and let me go first on the way down. whahaha. :P so sweet rite?) Of course on hindsight I realised I could have gone down and bought a pair of shorts or berms or pants or SMTH from one of the shops, but I was waaaayyy to excited to think straight back then. Heh. The view from the top was magnificent! I just lay there for awhile looking at everything, clicking away. And just enjoying the breeze! After the grand tour, we walked around a lil more, waited for the B1, but then decided to come back later since the Patrolle Suisse people wanted to go in and see it first. And before that it was some Colonel again. :S When I grow up, I wanna be a Colonel too! Everyone has to wait for you!! But anyway, we then went to see a couple of the UAVs. Look familiar? I was so stunned to see them in use!! Haha. **UAVs** But then after that we left since there was no time. :( And we left for Munich. =((((( Without going for the party the US peeps invited us to while touring arnd the thingie. =( And I so wanted to stay to see the B1. But oh well. All good things must come to an end. Hee.
Thursday, May 11, 2006
manching
So this morning I went to the BWB site at EADs cos they were trying to recruit students from TUM. ;) Well, there WERE some people from TUM. But a lot of us young kiddie look-a-likes from the company. Hee. It was also convenient that the Swiss and Finnish F-18s were gonna be there. Plus, there was this old WW2 era plane that got rebuilt, practicing loopings and stuff for the ILA in Berlin next week!! Sooo exciting!! :) I wish I took videos and pictures of the F-18s and the old planes, but I left my camera on the bus, and the best I got was my v3i video. =( No matter, ILA here I come!! :) So anyways, the first stop was this propoganda video with really cool stuff, and the TopGun music perpetually in the background. Out of point but after coming to Germany, I sorta had all my stereotypes about cool good-looking pilots blown away. I mean, I spend so much time at the company I know what the fighter pilots look like. And remember the movie Space Cowboys? Well. Enough said. :) THEN. We went to the old hangars. With the F4-Phantoms and Tornadoes and the Starfighters (widowmakers) --> that's the plane whereby about 1000 were purchased, and around 250 promptly dropped out of the sky. :S HERE, photos were allowed. And so was getting into the cockpits!! I first climbed into the Tornado and whoopee! It was a PERFECT fit!! I could reach the pedals, and see COMPLETELY over the top!! And then I got up to get out, and I realised I was sittign on a lead weight. :S Coz this was used to train the kiddies in 'Ausbildung'. ie; the 15/16 year old tecchies. *mutter mutter* Then I ran all the way to the F4 Phantom. Not that big a deal considering I was already in it when I was at Neuberg. And at Neuberg it was complete with helmet and goggles and oxygen mask! So I climbed in, posed a bit, talked a bit, and proceeded to get out. Oh wait, before I forget. Again, I reached the pedals!!! It was a tad difficult to see over the top, but I managed it. WITHOUT the lead block this time. *mutter mutter* So anyway, I was at the point where I was attempting to climb out. I had to get to this lil platform on the other side, so imagine a lil wall you'd have to climb over. So I erm, got one leg over, when I realised I need to get back UP to get my other leg over. So there I was, wanting to get back in, when someone decided to help me by PULLing me out. -.- It so wasn't gonna work la. My legs AREN'T that long!! And I was like erm, this isn't gonna work. So someone else came along to try and help. So they pulled and pulled, and in the end, they gave up, and someone just picked me up and lifted me over. Bah. You can imagine what everyone was doing by that time la. Uh-huh. Doubled over laughing while I insisted it so wasn't funny. The only person not laughing was too busy climbing in the cockpit. -nyeh- So moving on, I couldn't take no more photos coz they were classified stuff or something. But we saw all the helis!! Apparently they wanted to give away a military cargo heli for research. I volunteered to help! As in, I'd take that one, stick in my Beetle Cabriolet, and my Cinquicento, (and whatever else anyone else wants from Germany) and take heli lessons. By the time I get my license, I'd fly it back to Singapore!! :) Of course they had something to say to that.. "You might have problems on the way to Singapore with a German transport heli.." "NOT if you paint it pink." *grins* And when we stepped outside on the taxiway, there was a Tiger (from 'Goldeneye') taking off and flying practice runs. Apparently the all-important deadline for this plane was the movie. Haha. So there we were gawping at it, when the pilot decides to show off!! Heh. You know how hockey skaters like to come right up to you and do a hockey brake and spray ice all over you? Well, that's basically what the heli did. Flew straight at us, SUPER low, and the only thing stopping him from coming closer was the building behind us. Then he swerved away and we literally ate his dust. Haha. Then came the coolest bit. The takeoffs!! The F18s!! The videos would have been more amazing if I had my camera with me. But sadly, no. :( And while we were touring yet another in-operation hangar like hours later, the planes returned!!! Imagine my chagrin when, standing about 20 metres from the plane, I realised that ONE of the planes had an empty seat!!! Empty!!! I could have been in there!!!! Gah. So there we were, gawping at the planes, when F told me to go smile sweetly at the pilots and maybe they would let me on. Haha. Yeah, I'd remind them of my granddaughter or something la. AND THEN, they took off their gear. And imagine my surprise. They weren't no space cowboys man! Imagine your typical stereotype of a pilot. Make it 10 times tanner, 10 times taller, 10 times cockier, and you've got them. Haha. Well, I exagerate, but hey. It was a HUGE difference. But not important la, the planes were cooler!! Especially when I saw the one they rebuilt from the WW2 era doing its loopings!! That pilot was 70 years old, and he was really doing the COOLEST things!! Can't wait for ILA!! Sooo exciting!!! :)
Monday, May 08, 2006
glow
I came to the office today and it was so pretty! There was a golden glow over everything!! And I mean everything! The cars, the chairs, the pond in the main entrance, the wooden ducks in the pond. Surreal!! Then I realised a couple of things. It was 8am, and the sun rises at 5 or some equally ridiculous early hour, so it wasn't from the sun. And the closer I got, the more I realised it wasn't so much golden as yellow. And as I got even closer, I realised it was yellow powder! Or yellow-ish/orangish. Haha. And then I see bees lying on the ground scattered here and there. Yes, they call this spring. (erm. the yellow powder's pollen btw.)
Saturday, May 06, 2006
record snowfall just for me!~
i think this is pretty amusing. my first time actually experiencing snow more than just flurrying, it snows so much that everyone complains. And it's supposed to be almost spring now. yesterday they told me that it hadn't snowed this much in 6 years. This morning, the tally went up to 106 (actually, my boss is estimating this, he said it's the highest recorded snow since they started logging the height of snow). and when i say high snow. i mean, HigH! Will try and upload pix from my new v3i. It was pretty funny!! Driving past Audi and Mercedes you see these white mounds. And you realise, hey! There are cars under those!! It's like not so good an idea to throw yourself on anything now coz there might me stuff underneath!! so the peeps think its all specially ordered by me and that this is happening coz of me. heh. so it had better start going back to normal!! Especially since by this time it's normally cold but sunshine-y with almost NO snow. Ah wells. Fun!! =) I like! Prolly making up for the time I was in Münster and didn't *really* get to see the snow cept for a lil teensy bit. *grins*
Thursday, May 04, 2006
butterflies!~ :D
so, i went to the doc again for a 2nd opinion and guess what? i saw the xray. it's bad man! it's an impact so great that the bone is shorter than its sposed to be. Long-term effects: I may never be able to do all-the-way-down push-ups again. Like that's a bad thing. *hee* --- and i so love coming home at the end of the day only to find a lil something in the mail that wasn't expected. i love surprises! even more when they have a butterfly on it. :)
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
i spoilt spring!~
so, i flew over the weekend. heh. as in literally. took a plane and zoomed off. woke up soooo early in the morning summore. :S SIX am! *faint* but i guess thats what happens when the sun rises at 5am or smth like that. i absolutely love the feeling of flying u know? Of being completely on top of the world! above the mountains, and the clouds, just the open skies, so its just like you're sailing in singapore except instead of the ocean its clouds. Of how the clouds look like cotton candy as i dodge through the skies looking for openings (intl aviation laws say 1.5km away from clouds..) and the occasional rush as i 'accidentally' estimate wrongly and go through one and have it disappear. hee. of how the mountains look like huge cakes with frosting on top. and cream. the soft kind that looks like melting icecream that makes you so wanna reach out with your finger and go *slluuurrrpp* of how the lil ants on these huge frosted cakes are actually people! and when you go close enough and make super tight turns around the lookout point they actually wave!! of how we chase the lil people down the ski slopes and then go back up the other way only too see the STEEP STEEP drop right after the lifts end. of how i can be 2-3 times my weight when i'm doing turns one way. of how i can be weightless when i'm doing turns another way. of how the world looks upside down. ;) as for how i spoilt spring... doesn't anything sound wrong about mountain ranges that are COMPLETELY covered in snow? not ice-caps..not glaciers, but the rolling green austrian mountains we used to see in Sound of Music. :p And this is MAY. May!!! Spring was officially 22nd March or smth like that. Back in the days when I nearly cried coz an hour of my life magically disappeared. It's all well and good for the rest of the germans coz they had a magic hour back in November or December, but I didn't!! =(
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