It's was Matt's 24th Birthday on 26th Aug and he invited everyone in the hotel to his party. Though if it weren't for Dessi, i wouldn't even know about it.
I almost tot i won't be able to go cos of it's rather far and there ain't transport provided. Good news arrive at 10-11plus when Lacey came over to fetch Simona and i was invited to join along. Tried to wake Selle up but she was more interested in sleeping. So i got changed in 2 mins and off we went!
This is the birthday boy. He have numerous tattoos all over his body and the most obvious ones are names of his nephew, niece (on both side of the neck) and son (on the arm).
Some random pictures taken inside the house. It was decorated with many beautiful balloons! One bonus of being the guest relations mgr. hah.
more random pictures. we sat around a campfire just outside the house. after sometime, people started getting tired of fetching the firewood from the back of the house and started throwing the wooden bench we were sitting on as fuel. Luckily Dessi and me manage to rescue our bench from the fire before its too late.
And finally, the picture you're waiting for...
We had a clear view of the Aurora from where we sat. It's so much better than waking up in the middle of the night to walk to the main building to see it. Cos we are wide awake and there was fire to keep us warm. oh man, how i wish i can do this everynight.
This is my fav cos it has a teeny weeny bit of pur-pur streak. See that? I dedicate this pic to Karene, the first person who told me about Aurora. U rocks! Though i must add a disclaimer that this pic is not taken by me, as my cam batt went dead half-way. Aurora pics credits goes to Dessi.
Pweety pweety. Happie happie. =D
Monday, August 27, 2007
Off-day with e Bulgarians
Finally, my first off-day after a 12-day marathon.
Never sign for lunch as I intented to go for breakie. But as you probably expected, i didn't wake up till late morning. Went with Selle to confirm with Cynthia our departure arrangments on the 12th, followed by a quick visit to 3Bears to stock up on our milk and juice.
Promised the BUlgarians I'll be right back to join them at the grasspatch in front of 20units. But by the time i return, they will already on their way to Tok General Store for ice-cream! Was terribly late but luckily they didn't mind. It was Gergana (aka Giggly) abd Elena's 1st off-day after 3 months. Before that they either work as Busser (sometimes also Maintainence, House(wo)man) in Westmark or as Janitor/House-keeper at Fast Eddy's. The 2 (very) hard-working girls can finally get their well deserved off. They are delighted and i fell happy for them too.
It was still early when we came back from the general store. So they went to relax at the grass patch again. Yay! cos i like it there. felt so carefree laying on the grass. Took plenty of photos for them, and a couple for myself. And i finally get to take the danelions video i always wanted, with the help of Giggly! Blagodaria!
Giggly and Elena are leaving on the 9th, hence Joseph (fellow busser) gave them a set of mini colour pens as farewell gifts. It was then i know that Elena actually share the same things of coloured pens. Haa. The was 5 of them and they took 2 each and gave me the purple one! My fav colour, how sweet! With some prompting from Giggly, i started scribbling on her body. She wanted chinese words on her arm, and since i cant think of any nice chinese characters (i've already written one of my fav chinese characters - 'love' in tradidtional chinese on her shoulder), so i wrote my name. hee.
It was nice hanging out with them. The only sad thing is that i've lost my purple pen. =\
Never sign for lunch as I intented to go for breakie. But as you probably expected, i didn't wake up till late morning. Went with Selle to confirm with Cynthia our departure arrangments on the 12th, followed by a quick visit to 3Bears to stock up on our milk and juice.
Promised the BUlgarians I'll be right back to join them at the grasspatch in front of 20units. But by the time i return, they will already on their way to Tok General Store for ice-cream! Was terribly late but luckily they didn't mind. It was Gergana (aka Giggly) abd Elena's 1st off-day after 3 months. Before that they either work as Busser (sometimes also Maintainence, House(wo)man) in Westmark or as Janitor/House-keeper at Fast Eddy's. The 2 (very) hard-working girls can finally get their well deserved off. They are delighted and i fell happy for them too.
It was still early when we came back from the general store. So they went to relax at the grass patch again. Yay! cos i like it there. felt so carefree laying on the grass. Took plenty of photos for them, and a couple for myself. And i finally get to take the danelions video i always wanted, with the help of Giggly! Blagodaria!
Giggly and Elena are leaving on the 9th, hence Joseph (fellow busser) gave them a set of mini colour pens as farewell gifts. It was then i know that Elena actually share the same things of coloured pens. Haa. The was 5 of them and they took 2 each and gave me the purple one! My fav colour, how sweet! With some prompting from Giggly, i started scribbling on her body. She wanted chinese words on her arm, and since i cant think of any nice chinese characters (i've already written one of my fav chinese characters - 'love' in tradidtional chinese on her shoulder), so i wrote my name. hee.
It was nice hanging out with them. The only sad thing is that i've lost my purple pen. =\
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Westmark Party!
MeiYin's last day...
Before Meiyin leave, i acompanied her to trailer 2 to take pictures with the people she'll miss...
Mind you, the bulgarians are heavy smokers. They even ordered cigrettes online!
I took this with pretty Dessi when Meiyin is still deciding what tutorial to ballot for at burnt paw!
The top 2 pictures are taken on April's last day at work. She's starting her new semester at University of Alaska, Fairbanks now. That girl good wana be a vet, like claire! Wishher all the best!
The bottom 2 photos are take during Meiyin & Christina's last day. With Francis, the laundry in-charge and assistant executive housekeeper, one of the nicest lady in Westmark. We love her! Westmark lost 2 good employees there after.. Sobz.. =(
Mind you, the bulgarians are heavy smokers. They even ordered cigrettes online!
I took this with pretty Dessi when Meiyin is still deciding what tutorial to ballot for at burnt paw!
The top 2 pictures are taken on April's last day at work. She's starting her new semester at University of Alaska, Fairbanks now. That girl good wana be a vet, like claire! Wishher all the best!
The bottom 2 photos are take during Meiyin & Christina's last day. With Francis, the laundry in-charge and assistant executive housekeeper, one of the nicest lady in Westmark. We love her! Westmark lost 2 good employees there after.. Sobz.. =(
Saturday, August 25, 2007
98% occupancy rate in Aug'07
After the girls left, we are only left with 5 housekeepers. With Desis doing housekeeping, Jean have to help out Francis at the laundrey. And all 7 of us are working 7 days this week, at least 9 hrs a day. We usually work fr 7am -4.15pm, which will be 11pm-8.15am in SG.
Our last off-day was last Tue (14 Aug) and our next off-day is coming Mon (27 Aug), hence we'll be working without any off-day for 12 days! Sounds scarry indeed. But the always-eager-to-earn-more-money-bulgarians have been working without off-days for weeks. Who are we to complain then?
Well.. typical Sinagporeans aka complain-queens.
Looking on the bright side, we'll have 3 off-days in the week of 3-9 Sept, including 3rd Sept. Time for good rest before the travelling starts!
Tentatively, we'll be leaving Tok on 12th Sept (prolly on Alaskan Bus Direct) to Anchorage. We'll travel around Alaska from there for 4-5 days. Cruise, flight-seeing, glacier-viewing, wildlife-watching are all in consideration. Leaving on 16/17th to Seattle (via domestic flight) and will travel down south from there. Prolly will be meeting Ditty at Las Vegas on the 23rd Sept and he'll bring us around Vegas, California, San Fransico & LA I guess.. We'r also planning to visit Disneyland in LA on our last night! Have changed our China Airline flight to fly from LA to Taipei on the 30th Aug and back to SG on 10th Oct. That gives us 9-10 days in Taiwan!
Will be discussing the US trip details with Ditty this weekend. Shall update again when things are finalised and I've the internet connection.
Cos our internet subscription expires 26 Aug 1.23pm (Ak time). Sobz.
Will be isolated again real soon...
Our last off-day was last Tue (14 Aug) and our next off-day is coming Mon (27 Aug), hence we'll be working without any off-day for 12 days! Sounds scarry indeed. But the always-eager-to-earn-more-money-bulgarians have been working without off-days for weeks. Who are we to complain then?
Well.. typical Sinagporeans aka complain-queens.
Looking on the bright side, we'll have 3 off-days in the week of 3-9 Sept, including 3rd Sept. Time for good rest before the travelling starts!
Tentatively, we'll be leaving Tok on 12th Sept (prolly on Alaskan Bus Direct) to Anchorage. We'll travel around Alaska from there for 4-5 days. Cruise, flight-seeing, glacier-viewing, wildlife-watching are all in consideration. Leaving on 16/17th to Seattle (via domestic flight) and will travel down south from there. Prolly will be meeting Ditty at Las Vegas on the 23rd Sept and he'll bring us around Vegas, California, San Fransico & LA I guess.. We'r also planning to visit Disneyland in LA on our last night! Have changed our China Airline flight to fly from LA to Taipei on the 30th Aug and back to SG on 10th Oct. That gives us 9-10 days in Taiwan!
Will be discussing the US trip details with Ditty this weekend. Shall update again when things are finalised and I've the internet connection.
Cos our internet subscription expires 26 Aug 1.23pm (Ak time). Sobz.
Will be isolated again real soon...
Friday, August 24, 2007
Farewell Dinner - Bye Meiyin, Christina, Shiwy & Eunice.
During the girls' last few days in Tok, we planned a series of to-do, to-go, to-eat list.
1st Stop: May's Hamburger Joint.
They have reeli interesting decorations. For example: the mini urn between Shiwen & me that says: Ashes of problematic customers.
2nd Stop: Fast Eddy's
MeiYin, Shiwen & I shared Alaskan King crab, while the other 3 shared New York Ribs & Shrimps. No words can describe the taste of the crab we had.... hmmm...
Love their red restroom. As though we'r in a club.
We forgot to tell the helpful passer-by that we want the whole Fast Eddy's logo to be in. Nvm. Someone will photoshop in for us. Eunice/Shiwen *hint*
It's decided that since Meiyin have painstakingly brought the 2-man tent all the way from Singapore, we die die have to use it. Da-dah!
1st Stop: May's Hamburger Joint.
They have reeli interesting decorations. For example: the mini urn between Shiwen & me that says: Ashes of problematic customers.
2nd Stop: Fast Eddy's
MeiYin, Shiwen & I shared Alaskan King crab, while the other 3 shared New York Ribs & Shrimps. No words can describe the taste of the crab we had.... hmmm...
Love their red restroom. As though we'r in a club.
We forgot to tell the helpful passer-by that we want the whole Fast Eddy's logo to be in. Nvm. Someone will photoshop in for us. Eunice/Shiwen *hint*
It's decided that since Meiyin have painstakingly brought the 2-man tent all the way from Singapore, we die die have to use it. Da-dah!
Selle's Mum & Sis came!
Our supervisor was kind enough to let both of us work half day on 10th Aug. The Mum & Sis reached around 3pm and showed up at our room door. To think that we actually thought they might have gotten lost driving from Fairbanks to here. After checking them in to their super cool Wolf-themed cabin, we brought them to souvenier-shopping (Burnt Paw, Westmark Factory Outlet, All Alaskan Gifts) while the rest of the girls finish work and get showered.
Then we finally hit Mukluk land.
Wasn't easy indeed.
Mind you the giant cabbage is real! There are >20 hrs of sunshine throughout the summer in parts of Alaska, including Tok. We had to get use to sleeping in the bright nightlight.
Mukluk can also refer to the shoe above us.
We din't stayed very long as we gotta hit Gateway Salmon Bake (ard 2 miles away) before they closes at 7pm. Our much awaited dinner. Finally get to taste Alaska famous Halibut & Riendeer Sausage, along with Salmon. We cant' resist taking picture in front of this adorable mini bus! Reminds me of the one in Little Miss Sunshine. Hee.
For supper, we went to...
Alas, we can be guest n our own hotel bar. Haa. And Shiwy managed to tie her first cherry knot! ^5
We set off next morning early to Fairkbanks. Did some shopping and visited the Tanana State Fair as it was the last day of the annual event. The downside was that it was too hot and we only had an hour to look around. It's relatively short considering that dear April bought a 1-week pass and went down everyday. We then took a hour drive to our accomodation at Chena Hot Spring. Luckily we just managed to make it in time for the last tour to the ice museum at 7pm.
The museum have special lightings to create an aurora effect. Pweetty!
Can you imagine peeing in an ice toilet?
Inside an igloo.
This is the workshop where giant ice blocks are carved into works of art.
We din stay up as planned to look out for the Aurora. But we did wake up next morning around 5am to leave for Westmark Fairbanks to catch the Holland America coach. We were even early enough to stop by Fred Meyers again. Grocery shopping - our favourite hobby in Alaska indeed.
On the way to Westmark Tok, we getta stop by Santa Claus house @ North Pole again! We also stop by Rika's Roadhouse and got all the pies available for our dear housemates.
Then we finally hit Mukluk land.
Wasn't easy indeed.
Mind you the giant cabbage is real! There are >20 hrs of sunshine throughout the summer in parts of Alaska, including Tok. We had to get use to sleeping in the bright nightlight.
Mukluk can also refer to the shoe above us.
We din't stayed very long as we gotta hit Gateway Salmon Bake (ard 2 miles away) before they closes at 7pm. Our much awaited dinner. Finally get to taste Alaska famous Halibut & Riendeer Sausage, along with Salmon. We cant' resist taking picture in front of this adorable mini bus! Reminds me of the one in Little Miss Sunshine. Hee.
For supper, we went to...
Alas, we can be guest n our own hotel bar. Haa. And Shiwy managed to tie her first cherry knot! ^5
We set off next morning early to Fairkbanks. Did some shopping and visited the Tanana State Fair as it was the last day of the annual event. The downside was that it was too hot and we only had an hour to look around. It's relatively short considering that dear April bought a 1-week pass and went down everyday. We then took a hour drive to our accomodation at Chena Hot Spring. Luckily we just managed to make it in time for the last tour to the ice museum at 7pm.
Chena HotSpring Ice Museum
The museum have special lightings to create an aurora effect. Pweetty!
Can you imagine peeing in an ice toilet?
Inside an igloo.
This is the workshop where giant ice blocks are carved into works of art.
We din stay up as planned to look out for the Aurora. But we did wake up next morning around 5am to leave for Westmark Fairbanks to catch the Holland America coach. We were even early enough to stop by Fred Meyers again. Grocery shopping - our favourite hobby in Alaska indeed.
On the way to Westmark Tok, we getta stop by Santa Claus house @ North Pole again! We also stop by Rika's Roadhouse and got all the pies available for our dear housemates.
Labels:
Chena,
Fairbanks,
Mukluk,
North Pole,
Salmon Bake,
tok
Thursday, August 23, 2007
very back-dated
It's has been a hell of a week since last week. Mei Yin / Chritina left on 19th (Sun) and Shiwen / Eunice left on 20th (Mon). Selle and me are the only 2 Singaporeans left in the whole of Tok Alaska now. Our rooms quota has been raised from 16 in 8 hrs to 20 in 9hrs now, and wll be working 7 days this week and 6 next week. More work but less playmates, the life here's becoming more miserable now.. =(
Justified my lack of updates recently. Now's the updates. MORE PICTURES COMING UP!
Thanks to the thoughtfulness of our resident chef Shiwen, we had a yummielicious red & white themed dessert! Raspberry in white chocolate fondue. Yumm yumm.
Flowers from the guys in room to cheer us up. Even Sasha's name is included. How sweet! =D
This is 2 weeks after Xmas in July. Clown has allegedly beeen celebrated in Tok for the past 85 years as some say Tok got its name from the initials of a famous Norwegian Gold Prospector, who was force to winter in what is now know as Tok (whick is pronounced as ~Tuuk~ meaning Thank You in Norwegian.). Learn more about Thorine Osric Knornsson (born 12th Aug 1889) from: www.ibiblio.org/merry/tok
They have reeli cute costumes/gadgets fro the westmark front end employees. Too bad I din't have chance to take pictures with most them. The above photos are from Geri, aka Giggly, the friendly Bulgarian Busser.
I reeli like this photo. Took this the first time Ditty brought us ans Simona to Moonlake.
For the album titled: The Chambermaids. A pity we din't getta have a take #2 with our new green jacket.
Both pictures are edited by Eunice. Must give credits ehz. c=
Justified my lack of updates recently. Now's the updates. MORE PICTURES COMING UP!
Xmas in July
SG National Day
Thanks to the thoughtfulness of our resident chef Shiwen, we had a yummielicious red & white themed dessert! Raspberry in white chocolate fondue. Yumm yumm.
Flowers from the guys in room to cheer us up. Even Sasha's name is included. How sweet! =D
Clown Week!
This is 2 weeks after Xmas in July. Clown has allegedly beeen celebrated in Tok for the past 85 years as some say Tok got its name from the initials of a famous Norwegian Gold Prospector, who was force to winter in what is now know as Tok (whick is pronounced as ~Tuuk~ meaning Thank You in Norwegian.). Learn more about Thorine Osric Knornsson (born 12th Aug 1889) from: www.ibiblio.org/merry/tok
They have reeli cute costumes/gadgets fro the westmark front end employees. Too bad I din't have chance to take pictures with most them. The above photos are from Geri, aka Giggly, the friendly Bulgarian Busser.
Featured
I reeli like this photo. Took this the first time Ditty brought us ans Simona to Moonlake.
For the album titled: The Chambermaids. A pity we din't getta have a take #2 with our new green jacket.
Both pictures are edited by Eunice. Must give credits ehz. c=
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
write to me!
just realised that i didn't inform many people of my mailing address here. Those that i informed, no letters from any of you yet. Shame on you..
I'll prolly be leaving Tok, Alaska around 12th Sept, so now is the last chance to write to me. It takes around 12 days for letters to reach here i think. =p
If you ever want someone to talk to in the afternoon time, feel free to call me at:
1-907-883-2065. Alaska is 16 hours behind Singapore, and I usually work from 8am-4pm almost everyday. =)
I'll prolly be leaving Tok, Alaska around 12th Sept, so now is the last chance to write to me. It takes around 12 days for letters to reach here i think. =p
P.O. Box 1023
Tok, AK 99780-1023
Alaska, USA
If you ever want someone to talk to in the afternoon time, feel free to call me at:
1-907-883-2065. Alaska is 16 hours behind Singapore, and I usually work from 8am-4pm almost everyday. =)
Saturday, August 4, 2007
July Pics!
When will you ever get to see this in Singapore? I love how the way it encompasses our trailer.
The birthday girl aka princess of the day.
This is our family photo.
Shiwen= Sngapore Flag
Christina= Mama
Eunice= Papa
Meiyin= Daughter
Selle= Daughter's Pet (a Pig & a Tortise combined)
Adel (that's me)= House's Clown, to make everyone happy!
Moonlake w Cynthia
I still cannot believe that nice Meiyin actually leave me to paddle alone at some point of time, without me knowing!
While cleaning rooms that day, we all can't help but notice more than half a dozen of vintage cars parking along side the hotel. These people are on their way to Alaska Vintage Auto Motor Tour 2007 and staying the night over here. Oh my, these are actually cars from world war I. Too bad by the time I wanted to take photos with it the owners had already covered their precious with hood. sobz.
Selle's Birthday
Lucky girl get to go Fairbanks on her birthday, along with Eunice (another July baby) in Shannon's Jeep. Shiwen made this cake for her! of cos, we also got help la. Yummie..
Cooking with Roxy
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