今年年初我把朋友的一篇博客文章翻译成了英语。事情的起因是那时实在闲着无聊去看了看老徐的博客，发现有人给她的所有博文配了英文版翻译，觉得这件事还挺有趣的，也想去翻一篇小试牛刀，于是就有了下面这篇文章。

    中文原文请点击谷笑冰的博文链接：快乐的新加坡之行，她是我国国际象棋女子国际特级大师，同时也希望大家支持我国不太受关注但是潜力惊人的国际象棋事业。

English translation of Gu Xiaobing’s BLOG 1/3/2007

When the Singapore International Chess Convention wound up on the December 30^th, we were planning to get home by the 31^st according to our original schedule. However, we booked the air ticket on the wrong date, so we had to stay in Singapore for an additional day. We never expected that this extra day would leave us with numerous wonderful memories.

“Salesgirl” is Worthy of the Name

I didn’t think that taking two boys shopping in the mall would be this troublesome: I needed to introduce all brands of skin care products and fragrances to them the whole time. Under my specific recommendation, and because L’Oreal was also having a huge discount, my buddy Zhao Jun bought a bunch of skin care products on our way home. He was even thinking about buying more stuff as a present while paying the bill. The real salesgirl stood silently beside us with a “Mona Lisa’s smile” on her face.

Encounter Ni Hua Outside the Esplanade–Theatres on the Bay

In the morning, before we set out, I asked Ni Hua, our chess team leader, whether he would like to come with us. He clearly announced that he didn’t want to go after realizing the destination was just Merlion Park and Esplanade (also known as “the durian opera house”), because he had already been there. At the same time he also said he wanted to sleep for the entire day in the luxury suite, owing to the previous strenuous match. However, when we were taking a break outside the main gate of the Esplanade, we saw a familiar Chinese guy, who is about 1.74m with a pair of glasses, wearing a yellow shirt and black pants, striding into the gate with a big bag in his hand. This was the same boy who ClAIMED that he wanted to “sleep”.

Happy Hours in the Seaside Starbucks

After noticing there was a Starbucks on the seaside, the five of us had a brief quarrel about whether we should sit inside the house to enjoy the cold air or sit outside to enjoy the sea. After ordering the coffee, we finally reached a consensus to sit outside and have some sunshine as I expected. Ironically, the other four people with cold coffee in their hands laughed at me sipping hot Cappuccino on such a hot day.

 

Just as we were starting to feel drowsy, somebody put forward an idea which greatly inspired us-making faces! The next half hour was the best time. The spontaneous laughter from us drew everybody’s attention. We recorded this hilarious moment with our cameras.

Half-Seeing the Movie “My Lucky Star”

Before we set off for the airport we came across a funny Hong Kong comedy, “My Lucky Star”, on TV. The comical scenes made us break into laughter. Wen Yang, who is 1.91m, and often called “The giant Wen”, always misses the punch line. When the movie had already moved on to the next scene, he then understood the funniness and then laughed. During this irregular laughter, the time came to leave for the airport. Ni Hua was very reluctant to leave the movie unfinished. He said we would have plenty of time to make for the airport even if we finished the movie. But the other six of us had already made our preparations for leaving, so he couldn’t help but wave goodbye to the movie.

The Moment that New Year Came In

We almost lost track of time while we were busy talking in the duty-free shop at the airport. Suddenly, Wang Hao sensed that it was almost 12 o’clock. We glanced at our watches and found out there were only 30 seconds until the New Year. Then we quickly headed for the big clock in the hallway. At that time we were really impressed by Wang Hao’s “sixth sense”. Seeing the hour hand, minute hand and the second hand converge at the same time, we wished each other Happy New Year and recorded this exciting moment on our cameras.