SuReLy, PureLy, mE..

2010-06-30T17:24:00.003+08:00

Been ages since I dropped by here.. kinda miss it.. created a new blog prev, but only put in 1 entry:

Friday, 11 December 2009

1 Prince

Going by that title, it's pretty easy to guess what this is about..

I only need 1 Prince in my life, and I'm quite happy to announce that this recent acquisition of mine is a rather handsome and seemly one too.

Only went out with my Prince about twice or thrice so far, and I have yet to regret it. Still trying to really get the feel of things together, it's always the hard part. But it's rarely smooth-sailing when you first start out, so no complaints there, I'm 1 happy girl.

in fact, if you want more details, I'll be happy to oblige. Oh joy.
it's O3 Hybrid. Fierce in Black and Green, this is my new Prince.
I'm one happy squashy :)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ever since then, I haven't blogged. which says quite alot about me I guess.
been 2 years since I graduated, and I feel like I haven't done much in my life. Cleared off some cobwebs, accumulated somemore. Re-arranged the priorities in my life, the people I need beside me and somehow, still managed to get lost along the way.

I still have my impt girlfriends, my siblings, my family. It's a different guy now, and things are going swimmingly well. I can't change the things that's gone past, I can't re-do my education. Oh well.. can't blame anyone except myself really.

I'm just glad that my tripadvisor has all the HKD I'll ever need :)

2009-12-12T10:32:00.002+08:00

Just a lovely Saturday morning, when all is calm and serene. Suddenly thought of Linkin Park's In The End. A poignant song with a message to say, not exactly the same as what I am, but still a good song. Really feel very sorry, but I stand strong on my view that things are better this way.

Time to gather my wits about me and push on in other aspects of life.

2008-12-12T23:58:00.002+08:00

While I did intended to whine about the depressed state of my laptop (and me) with that annoying Windows Loop virus that has yet to be resolved, I found something of greater interest to write about. It's actually rather trivial, yet it's something that I have tolerated for years.

Haircuts.

Now, don't get me wrong. I relish haircuts like the rush of sensation when gulping down an icy h2o after an amateurish bout of badminton. Incidently, it's not the result I abhore, it's the Process of it. Not the snipping, not the shearing.. it's the SHAVING.

Let me explain why:

I will absobloodylutely stiffen whenever the electric shavers at the hair salons is within a 15cm radius of my mop. The sound is just so piercingly whinny that try as I might, I can't block it out. It gets worst. Oh, trust me on that. When it's just used to skim the edges off my thick mop, I'm already skittishly skimmish and would invariably fidget. Except that I would shut my eyes and control myself.

And. The dreaded high-pitched buzzing approaches nearer my ear. Already intolerably difficult not to fidget, the intense moment arrives when the sharp-razor edged equipment is drawn tightly down on my hair until it scraps my skin. And Over and Over again it is pressed down against my naked skin.

THAT. is usually when I am unable to suppress myself, and I will shiver at random intervals whenever the shaver is drawing upon the nape of my neck or head, against the skin. ugh.

Having had my haircuts in M'sia since a kid till leaving primary school, my memory of childhood haircuts were of 93.3 chinese voices battering over the shop, with loads of hair snipping, hair dryers bellowing away and electric razors being snapped on by non-too-tender hands and set upon a kid's newly-formed mushroom mop for the perfect fungal apparition. Almost every single trip, I will always hang on as best as I can until the lady puts the shaver away. Occasionally, only after a slight repair of my hair when a shiver has minorly upset the perfect straight line.

Shavers are necessary evils of short and easily maintained hairstyles. So even while I seemingly wish that all shavers would self-destruct and disappear leaving behind a poof of dust, I think deep down, sometimes the shivers are somewhat deliciously dispelled.

MMmmm. Strange quirks of the human body. Or maybe, just mine. :)

Cheerios folks. Will update after I put my girlfriends to the painful taste test of my home-made 1st-ever baked batch of Gingerbread men. Oh, I'm gonna subject Ter's dinner guests to that too. Har har :D

2008-12-04T18:47:00.012+08:00

Think it's time I put up some photos..

September 8, 2008
First off, there's my dad's birthday. I rushed back home specially for that, it's his 55th birthday celebration+ retirement! Wasn't able to celebrate his birthday last year coz I had to go back to school. We had dinner at a restaurant along Queen's road which serves some fantastic Kou Rou Bao.. followed by a birthday cake from Bakerzin.

September 14, 2008
Next up: Mid-Autumn festival aka Mooncake festival. Well, I still got to eat mooncake when I was in UK, so it wasn't that bad :)

September 28, 2008
And next up, my Mum's birthday! Now, that's really cause for yet another big celebration, because I have missed hers twice in a row. terrible. :) Luckily, I found a way to make it up to her :P

November 9, 2008
Followed by mine..
Oh joy, I had 2 cakes. An oreo cheesecake which I also helped my bro in making, and a delicious fruitcake from Prego complements from my dad.

November 16, 2008.
Well, this photo is really of any relevance. Was reading near the balcony when I saw the steathily approaching massive rainstorm. Looks scary and was in awe.

November 20, 2008
Kuey Pie Ti party by the pool. Guests: my family & ter & jacky.
Yummy kuey pie ti made by my 5th aunt, and fillings by my mum. Also included were some stir-fried noodles & grass jelly drink. all 100% home-made :)

Today! Dec 4, 2008
I made my 1st batch of Gingerbread men! Wanted to try out the recipe for christmas this year. We've got the tree up, we're doing the turkey, and of coz, i just simply had to chip in with gingerbread men.

Here are the during (which looks rather hideous) and the after baking photo. yummy.

2008-12-03T19:41:00.002+08:00

Haven't been here for ages, and when weida mentioned it, I thought I'll drop by just for a quick bit.

Not entirely sure where I want to start, except that my life has been in shambles for quite awhile. And since I'm not keen on sharing too much of it here, I thought I might do metaphors. But nah, it'll be depressing. So anyway.. I'm waiting to start work on dec 15, on a job that I don't want, learning things of no relevance to my planned career path. In a company which is fantastic, but that's the only glowing part of it.

Other thoughts running through my head currently?

#1) mm. I miss wanfang. She's back in Singapore already.. but have yet to contact her. Better do that soon.

#2) I think I'm pretty lost. Feel like my soul's quite empty at the moment. I'm not really inclined to religious help right now, but it's more like.. I'm losing bits of me, and my personality.

3) lastly. Happiness is over-rated.

2008-09-24T05:08:00.002+08:00

For some reason, i can't sleep, even though it's already 5.

Just hung out with Choon Lim today, chatting about some issues that while may seem trivial at 1st glance, but isn't actually so. Didn't do much today in terms of productivity, but i'm just glad to be there for a friend. Like how those ard have been there for me.

Having some problems right now, though I'm not keen to delve any further into it. Still bouncing alot, mostly on the low. A little tough right now, but I think i'll manage somehow till it passes. Definitely feels like a crash & burn situation though.

On the bright side, I do have a job interview with UOB to look forward to on friday.

Still not in the mood to chat.. so ta for now.

G'night

2008-02-01T20:38:00.001+08:00

*growL*growL* - yup, that's my tummy! i'm hungry...
and the West Cornwall pasties I brought home (leftovers from work. 3rd day!), are sitting on my chair 1m away. Alas, it's cold.. & i gotta pop it into the microwave. Too lazy to walk there---so if u derived the fact that i'm now really fat since i rarely budge from my seat, u're right!

Anyway. Work's alright, so far. tiring if i do the closing shifts: 3-5.30pm. tons of cleaning. *argh* pay's pitiful, but I can't really complain, since I'm at least earning some dough instead of spending it away all the time.

got 10min til my next class starts, just wanna share this clip with you.
I want it both! a pug (awww) and a screen cleaner :P but seperately of coz.
hahahaa~ here you go! >> Screen cleaner

2008-01-19T10:25:00.000+08:00

I'm beginning to hate Blogspot quite abit.. it kicks up a real fuss whenever I try to edit my posts to adjust my photos etc. Puts me in a fix every single time!

Anyhow, hope this works out just fine, i'll just keep my toes crossed for now (fingers are busy typing)

Basically, wanna catch back a little about my christmas hols.. was really quiet, if you wanna know :X

Hmmm.... And I think I shall dedicate this post to FOOOOOD! Mostly home-cooked, except for the Jap/Korean restaurant at Leicester Sq and the Korean restaurant at Oxford st.

First-off, I didn't roast turkey this year for christmas either (too big, too ex!), so i did a roast chicken instead. and it turned out just fine! And yummy too~

Simple Christmas dinner of Roast Chicken with sage & onion stuffing, brussel sprouts, minestrone soup, mixed lettuce, chips and smileys :D oh, plus a lovely delicate white wine to wash our dinner down with.

Just to clarify, I did the food arrangements on my plate first, then Jacky copied me with his lil basketball smiley figure!

Jacky proudly presents: Basketball smiley!

Photos taken at food places in london

Left: Jap/Korean Restaurant at Leicester Sq. Jacky & I ordered hot sake along with our bento, and the beverage came in the cutest little flask!

Right: Side-dishes at this delectable Korean restaurant along Oxford st. It's opposite.... crap. I forgot the building's name.. gotta ask Jaesu again. But it serves really good korean food. (: U can tell how good it is, because when the main couse came, it smelt so good that Jacky & I totally forgot to snap any photos til we're halfway done!--which is kinda too late. my bad!

Home-cooked! well.. cooked by me, basically.

Left: My 1st attempt ever, at Okonomiyaki. Well, considering that I've never really eaten a proper one before, you're right if you guessed that it wasn't too good. Still, I'll definitely try again another day to make a better one! (Flour, Water, Eggs, Cabbage, Crabsticks, Spring Onion, Jap Sweet sauce)

Right: Toad in the Hole, with onion gravy(in the saucepan). A definite success : D

Followed according to the recipe I took from Maine~ yummy!

Well, that's it for now. Will put up photos from spain really soon!

2008-01-15T01:43:00.000+08:00

Happy New Year, folks. I trust u've had a good one so far? 2007 has came and whizzed by, and I haven't been blogging for too long. Well, I'll put up some stuff right now, but as for my super recent trip to Espana, that has to hang on for awhile more while I get cracking on organising my photos.

Anyhow, here're some brief highlights from Nov til the end of the year.

I had my mini birthday celebration: Jacky and Rachel cooked dinner--Jacky bought tons of seafood: Mussels & Fish. Daniyal, Sarmad, Khalid, Rachel, Jacky and me tucked into some yummy grilled fish and 2 types of mussels; a la cream soup and in japanese miso soup. Oishii!

Trudy and Rachel baked me my very own Victorian Birthday cake---1st time having a home-baked birthday cake! Was really really good, with icing and sliced kiwi on top.

To top off the start of my birthday, when it hit Nov 9 midnight, my floormates came around, knocked on my door and sang a birthday song for me. It was really sweet of them! (and to Jacky and rachel for all their hard work)

The Singaporean dudettes and dude (Mel, Soo Ling, Cheryl, Jonathon and Fiona!--HK dudette) wanted to celebrate Wan Fang and my birthday with a dinner in town, but I bombed a test that morning and was feeling sick as well.. hence they improvised very quickly and celebrated for me with a delicious chocolate Maison Blanc cake in the evening. Unfortunately, Wan Fang was out with a friend for dinner and we couldn't do it together. Still, it was really sweet and dear of them to do that. Although it was brief, their gesture brightened up my day so much. (:
PS: they gave me a scarf which I have been using ever since~

During the weekend (10 Nov) Jacky treated me to dinner as he promised, and we would partake in my choice of fare for the night. Due to lack of variety (and a thought for his wallet) I picked kebabs at top of the town. Still, we over-ordered and had way too much food. We couldn't even manage any dessert or coffee!

I remembered having olives, pickled chillies, pate and pitta bread for starters; adana kebabs for mains..and simply no room left, even for baklawa.

Straight after exams, Jacky and I popped over to Newcastle (14-16 December).

Left: Newcastle's castle. The name that gave it the place, but surprisingly puny and nonedescript!

Right: Millenium Bridge.

Question: Why were my hands sticking up in this photo? Simply because we visited Newcastle during a really cold spell (think -4 deg to 6 deg celcius) I swear, my fingers were so numb, they hurt if I bump it the slightest. Hence, I borrowed and stuck Jacky's gloves over mine..and it was so chunky, I couldn't tuck my hands into my coat pocket :X

This trip was largely a relaxing sight-seeing one, and we mostly hung out with the other Singaporeans there, introduced to us by Jacky's friend--Keith. Kudos to him, we had free acommodation and first-rate hospitality. ( :

Visiting the Christmas market, having Fried Hokkien Mee (authentic style, with prawns, squids, etc, just missing out on the belachan with lime!)

Left: Monument erected for Lord Earl Grey--> Earl Grey Tea! This was taken at the Christmas market
Right: The pony at the market was just so irresistibly lovely! Jacky donated some change and I quitely whipped my gloves off to carress its soft mane while he took the photo.

Jacky looks pleased as punch, simply because Newcastle is his favourite football team!

I'm not a fan of football myself, but why not? I've been to Old Trafford, so why not here~

The very hospitable bunch of Singaporeans studying in University of Newcastle upon Tyne, with the exception of 1, who reads in University of Northumbria. oh, plus the girl who's name I forgot, is an exchange student.

From Left: Me, Erica, forgot-her-name, Winston, Erik, Keith, Eric. (Photo taken by Jacky)

hahaa.. if you read the names, u'll realise there are 3 'eric/eriks' within.

Went over to their place for dinner during 1 of the nights, and we had authentic home-cooked fried hokkien mee, complete with prawns, squids, even the prawn mee sauce cooked with the shells. (alas, we lacked belachan and a touch of lime juice) but still really good!

The photos below are taken at University of Newcastle Upon Tyne. Well, I almost did go there to study instead of in Surrey.. accommodation and food is much cheaper there, but while I could have quite abit of fun there, I'm still glad I came to Surrey.

The University school grounds

2007-10-28T10:21:00.000+08:00

A-nie-ya-se-yo!

how easy it is to say hi and sashay in like a summer's breeze, all happy and cheery as if everything is right as rain. Well, technically, it is. I'm having fun, as the days pass.
Had a test and an essay coursework this week. And it was hellish. Absolutely bad.. don't know how i'm gonna score a 2-1.. but it's definitely not gonna be easy.

aside from that, how've you guys been? I've been so busy, hardly ever on msn.. checkin' my mails occasionally, and drifted past facebook & friendster once in awhile. Babe, I promise, i'll reply you really soon. gome-ne... for taking so long. and to my dearest buddies.. weida, jack and the rest. will touch base with ya'll soon. And ter, if u're reading.. hope i get to catch u on msn soon! all the best with your job hunt. and to my dearest family (sis, mum), hope everything's going great. wish you good health and may everyday glide but happily and smoothly.

anyway. Oh yes! i just experienced tHE most interesting shopping trip to tescos (supermarket) recently.. on saturday? yeah, as you guys know, it's nearing the end of october--GUY FAWKES NIGHT! and everyone around has been lighting up fireworks. just last saturday--i swear, you'll NEVER get an experience like this in singapore-- i took a break from studying and walked to tescos at about 9pm, as they close at 10. and when i stepped out of the store.. *wiiiiish--bang!' . and a brilliant firework just exploded in that clear night sky right infront. absolutely gorgeous, and a fantastic surprise although it is definitely not intended for me. BUt the timing couldn't have been more perfect (: so i walked back and enjoyed the stochastic night breeze, met jae su & rachel out on a late-night-last-min-shopping trip to tescos and when i was back at the campus, i walked past the counselling rooms at surrey court area behind a group of guys. One of them was particularly tipsy after watching the rugby match against s. africa.. when he juz suddenly bashed his fist right through the ground floor window. mad i tell ya. off his blooming mind. of coz, i was shocked and thankful i was about a metre away, so the glass didn't touch me. and then the alarm just went off, with him taking off right after the first siren. *laughs* -- what a trip.

*nods* so how's your week been? it's week 8 already.. goodness, time really zips by so fast! and I just want to declare that i'm 21!!! before it's too late. here, pple or forms are always asking about the age this year.. so i'm been declaring 22 for forever.. and i've just missed out on 21. so.. here it is-- i'm 21!!!! hahaa.. jeez. i'm old. just celebrated a flatmate's friend's 21st birthday. (: from pakistan. there was pizza, drinks, alcohol and cake, coupled with good music and stereo system. Was really fun, til the warden came in. well, but even after the music cleared out, we still hung ard and chatted---simon, daniel, rachel, jae su and me. it was truly a fun night hanging ard with them. (: enjoyed it tremendously. Although i missed the outing with the rest last night at the club --Disney night-- i stayed indoors with rachel, the only 2 of us left indoors, we had a great chat which i really enjoyed.

So yup, it's a great weekend, and time to start mugging again. Oh yeah, and preparing for HaLllooooOOoween! bring out the costumes and decorations maan! *giggles*

oh yes. btw, juz in case u guys missed my post last year about the GMT and day-light saving time, we've just shifted back by an hour. So prev, during summer and autumn, we were just 7 hours behind singapore time, now, we're 8. so there, that's about it folks. Have a fantastic week ahead, have fun, chill out, cheer up and.. see ya'll online again soon!

Take care!

2007-10-12T06:25:00.001+08:00

One of life's little joys: Digging my stubby & short fingers into the pile of lavender buds, grab a handful and put my face near my hands--- as I first listen to the dry rustle of the little buds tinkle as they trickle back into the pile; and inhale Eau de Naturale-Essence of Lavender.

Haven't been blogging again, but that is somehow evolving into a common practice for the past few months. Haven't done much lately, 2 weeks ago, I went to Auntie Soe Loe's house in Langely to stay~ Was my 2nd time spending a weekend there, really enjoyed myself again. (: Had fantastic indian food too :D
Went to 'Petworth House', one of the houses under the National Trust, which is open to the public for a fee. (basically, they are maintained by the organisation, coz they're really huge estates with tons of antiques, which are often too expensive for the current generation to cope with)

Also went back with a huge bag of stalks of lavender. mMmmm.. my room smells so good! Gave some away to my classmate --Vicky too, when she came over for a meal with Jeffrey.

Well, it's October now. Dad's bday was over, whole family went to eat good food-crabs, satay and all. Mum's bday too, but Jackson centre was unfortunately closed for renovations :X

Oh, and UK SingSoc Surrey had a bbq too, by the lake. Was fantastic, a tad too cold a success.

Anyhow, gonna be kept busy for quite awhile, what with the courseworks and stuff. *sigh*

Oh, and a side update: I'm officially at least 2kg heavier then when I left Singapore.

What An Absolute Horror!

2007-09-03T03:00:00.000+08:00

It was a small farewell, with my family, terrence and jj.
But WoW, was it a great flight or what!

Flight to UK: Qatar airways, transiting in Doha, Qatar.

At first, at Changi, I was disappointed to discover that I was so late to check in, that my 2nd leg of the flight would be seated seperately from Jacky. However, as luck would have it, both of us got bumped up to Business Class!
My 1st time in Business Class, and I thoroughly enjoyed it : D

as shown~

Photo taken at Doha Airport. That Orange Figure says 'Welcome to Doha', with the planes from Qatar Airways lined up infront of.

A few photos of Doha, Qatar. Really feels hot and sandy juz by looking yeah~

Left: Check out the legroom! I snapped this while sitting in an 'Eating' position.. there're 3 diff degrees of resting positions, with the 'zZz' sleeping one almost flat out horizontal with tons of leg room. Damn shiok. Even the blankets have a better texture than the Economy class.. Makes me wonder about First Class : P

Right: Upon arrival, we were greeted with a lovely chilled glass of 1997 Laurent-Perrier Brut Millesime Champagne, from France. mMmmm..

Left: As you can see, Jacky is totally contented with his glass of champagne.
1st course, Appetiser: As a palate pleaser, we were served with caramelised morel in a warm puff pastry parcel.

Right: Aside from my glass of sparkling water, there's a difference btw the glass for me in this pic and from Jacky's. Know why? Coz I moved on to my glass of Chardonnay! 2004 Domaine Rougeot, from Meursault 'Montaine', France.
After the appetiser, came the 5 different types of bread rolls, and Mediterranean Buffet consisting of smoked salmon, foie gras and fig parfait with fennel and pepper salad classic mezze.

But.. here comes the bad news: I forgot to take photos of my main course! Shall just tell you what we had;-

Me: Fluffy omelette with sauteed chanterelle, green asparagus with smoked salmon

Jacky: Lamb Kapsa

Left: Jacky's choice of desert: ricotta hotcakes, raspberries with creme fraiche, maple syrup

Right: My choice of desert: summer berries with haagen-daz vanilla ice-cream

Left: After lunch, a really comfortable snooze and some movie-viewing, we commenced ur English Afternoon Tea. Oh my goodness, so much food again. But they're all just so pretty in those plates! Check out the effect of the spotlight. Good yeah? Almost poster-like!

In that small plate on the top left, sits the plain & fruit scones with clotted cream and strawberry preserve.
In the main plate on the foreground, from the top left spiralling inwards, are the spicy dry fruit slice, chicken & ceps tart and the roasted marinated pepper tart, reception sandwiches (beef and smoked salmon), finishing off with forest berries (raspberries, blueberries, blackcurrant)

Right: Can't give up the chance to capture the spotlight effect - my glass of orange juice, sparkling water and the beverage menu.

Left: Even the table-top has a nice veneer finish, coupled with my anti-dehydrating glass of sparkling water and my personal (stable) individualised tv set, it's total couch-time for me.

Right: Just to add on to the ooze of the legroom factor, here's another snapshot! Reeaaallly roomy eh? : P

Just when we were about to touchdown at Heathrow, Jacky spotted a huge billowing cloud of smoke. Snapped it just in case some major fire hit the headline news that day :P

in case u're curious.. I couldn't find any.

2007-09-02T23:48:00.000+08:00

Yo! it's the start of the autumn semester.. a hello back to all of you. Finally writing once more eh? Yeah, i'm back in uk after a smorgasbord of activities during my 3 months of summer hols in Singapore that were mostly like this:

June - 1st mth: working with Starhub for the PC show and the CommunicAsia 2007 for a couple of days (met pple like Kai Hui, Jess, Jaslin, Kaegan, Vincent, WeiQiang, Jia Jing, Shawn, Aaron). Went to see the chinese sinseh/ physician for my ankle a couple of times, but to no avail.

July - 2nd mth: Started working at Swiber Holdings Ltd, Chin Swee rd office. Was in the Offshore Marine dpt, & made tons and tons of friends whilst in the co.

August - 3rd mth: worked til mid month, when the co. shifted to IBP office.

Of course, in between, I met loads of my friends ( : My, how we have grown.

Met up with my poly classmates: wanrou, elisa, huiling, meizhen, olivia, xiuli, nic, cavin, chenxiang. Met up with my squash mates: serene, venessa, shuhui, zhengjie, leslie, weizhong, luker, choon lim, bryan, stephen. Also, my asc frens from poly: jack, weida, raquel, sun tian, samuel, jovin, peishi, you xiang, ji xiang. My ex-colleauges from Rentokil: melissa, cindy, dennis loe, desmond, dennis ng, uncle sukor. Of coz, and my Surrey friends: KS, mel, cheryl, soo ling, gim hui, jaster.

This list doesn't include ter, coz technically, he's family. Neither does it include jacky, coz i see him almost everyday!

And Definitely, Definitely, my babes: Becs & HuiQing

It was an absolute rush for time, i didn't have enough time for all. Alas, by the time I'd flown, I still hadn't met up with all of them. My bad :X

Still, it was a memorable 3 months holiday. Made frens with tons of Swiber people.. Kelly, Cecilia (the PA who I had a spat with), Nana, Yoshie, Xiao Chern, Charlton, Mustaffa, Sa'ad, Trevor, Steve (legal counsel), Alex, Clarence, Nat, Ah Lai, etc. Of course, not forgetting my 2 dearest friends - Joyce (my boss) and Xue'e (the other part-timer). Without those 2, life there would have been much tougher. It was a fun experience, with memories of a fantastic party & a great farewell (dinner at S'pore Recreational Club & drinks at Le Baroque-Chijmes).

didn't take many photos over the hols but here are a few:

from left: peishi, jovin, jack, me, jacky, weida (with a spoon.. ??)

Photos taken with - Left: Joyce (enjoyed myself tremendously under her. a great boss whom I learnt loads from)
Right: Cecilia (we got on real well after the spat. a-mazing!)

Photos taken with - Left: Kelly (my long-time neighbour at Chin Swee office) R
ight: Xue'e (my dearest babe at swiber!)

a hilarious snapshot after many NGs with - from left: nat, me, charlton, trevor

Such great fun. and now it's over.. and out!

2007-05-01T07:53:00.000+08:00

Although I'm suppose to blog about my fantastic Easter hols with a trip to the farm, an early morning drive down to Billingsgate for fresh seafood (think Pasir Panjang Fish Market), our Seafood fiesta, plus my head-splitting examinations, I just want to announce that (gently prompted by Ter) :

Today has been a good day. (considering that it's examination period, NONE of the days have been good)

Why?

I'm basking in a lusciously gReat hairday. It's soft, smooth, shiny brown under the sun, with cool breezes teasing it ever so often. Ahhh..

I LoVe Great Hairdays!

2007-04-04T03:33:00.000+08:00

Before I begin, I would like to say that I might probably offend some with my views and opinions on this issue, but that is not my intention, per se. On the contrary, I would just like to air my views on this very subjective matter that applies to many (even most) at large.

The very controversial topic of: Couples in a relationship.

A couple in a relationship can be defined as any two people united/ connected, either romantically involved. Well, at least I'll like to think that way. We can leave out the other bits that aren't exactly applicable in this context.

Anyhow.

The keyword here is 2 people, so it would suit most people well to remember that they are indeed 2 seperate entities. With individualistic thoughts, opinions, behaviours, friends, etc etc. It is most imperative that these 2 people are not regarded as just 1 pair; such that both voices the exact things all the time, do the same things all the time, have the same thoughts all the time, are together all the time. These do happen on a more frequent basis than usual, but there is still room for brainwork on both parties. It is not such, that as a 2 people are involved in a relationship, that as long as 1 has a certain opinion regarding a matter, that the other immediately carries the same opinion. While it is a connection, it does not mean that either of them is a lackey/ shadow or a 'yes-person'.

To put it simply, it just means that I'm still me, the same person with the same opinions, thoughts and behaviour as I was before. I didn't change overnight, I'm not going to just melt away into some other person, and I most certainly am not going to shrivel up and conjoin with my bf just because I'm in a relationship with him. I'm still me! The annoying, complaining, whinning me. I'm not really complaining.. oh wait, I Am. I'm a little..just a weeee bit annoyed - do I really seem so shallow? That is so fastidious!

Oh, and one more point to note: I think it would be good for people know that even though friends get attached and all that kinda stuff, it's very mean to start excluding these attached friends from their social lives. Indeed. I didn't really regard it because I have not experienced anything like it before till recently. But truly, it's noteworthy. Don't start to disappear on your friends just simply because they're attached. They're still there, just a little busier, still the same old friends.

Don't make the mistake of pure judegmental assumption. Afterall, if you ASSUME, you're just gonna make an ASS out of U and ME.

*smiles*

2007-03-31T19:03:00.000+08:00

Been down and out lately. But it's also been a fun time for me, afterall, it's EASTER HOLS! : D

But damn that I got injured just the day before easter hols was to start for me. On a luckless Thurs night, to add on to the numerous scratches on my hands; a fingernail that's been accidently cut downwards(exposing the soft nail) by a keyring; a twisted right ankle; a slightly bruised right knee and a scrapped left knee.... I topped it by spraining my left ankle badly and bruised up further for my right knee. Thank God for Maine's wonderful nutmeg oil (squirrel brand). With regular rubbing, I think my ankle will be fine by the end of 2 weeks rather than 6 as predicted by the hospital doctor!

My swollen left ankle..gross ain't it?

Itty Bitty injuries on my legs~

Ever since the sprained ankle, all the food supplies have been shifted from Ter's to mine, and we've been having daily dinners at my place. We had yummy laksa, bak ku teh with you tiao, abc soup with loads of ingredients, curry with prata, etc etc. And we baked our very own Bread & Butter Pudding! (maine's recipe)

The absolutely yummy Prima Laksa with a glass of coke~
And our hot Bread & Butter Pudding straight from the oven, with cold custard to top off with!

And after yummy dinners, we sit down for a game or two. Of Poker, Catan or Mahjong that lasts deeeeep into the night. Either that or we chat and joke around.. which also lasts for hours on end : )

Now you see Maine.................................................................................. Now you Don't!

Our bottle of JD bought by Jacky. Kids, see the effect of alcohol? nOoOoooooo, bad boy!

Unlucky Jacky got a lovely smooch on his head by the extremely hyper ter!

err.... didn't know he had a fetish for sharks. my poor poor sharkie! got sodomised that night.. *shakes head and sighs*

More wacky panda pics. Looks quite real doesn't it? :D

And so goes on my lovely divine easter holidays. Juz watched TMNT yesterday, hobbling step by step. and the movie was good too! the company on the otherhand, is better than good. Ter, Maine and Jacky. Fabulous start of the hols, unfortunately, Ter & Maine'll be graduating this sem. *sigh* But at least I still get to hang out with them for 2 more months. Bemoaning comes later, first comes the fun!

And so.. Just want to wish folks out there a Happy Easter! (Easter eggs from dear jacky)

Song of the day: This Ain't a Scene, It's An Arms Race by Fallout Boy

2007-03-19T06:21:00.000+08:00

It's the absolute last bits of winter right now.. the transition stage from winter to spring. How melancholic it feels, as one savours the little left before it's gone. Those cliche sayings about how you should treasure things/people while they're around, don't wait till their gone. I did, yet it doesn't make the end seem any more pleasant.

Anyway, I've got my tickets booked, I'm ready to go back home at a snap. Although I've been in Singapore for alll my life until recently last year when I came over to UK in Sept, I really love being here. Apart from the people back home - yes, my family, my gfs, my squash buddies, jc friends, poly friends, sec school friends, colleagues, etc etc. Love and miss them so much! Somehow.. I feel that in future should I be uprooted from Singapore to stay perhaps in UK, I would do so without any hesitation, especially if my parents can be here too. Guess this is the first time I've voiced out something like that.. I would miss my babes soo much though :X

Still, the prospects of being home are sooo lovely! *grins happily*

Pirates of the Carribean part 3 (UPDATED) - May 25th, 2007. promised to catch the 3rd part with my squash buds last year after part 2 and shall do so this summer!

The Simpsons Movie - July 26, 2007. I totally heart this series! can't wait to watch this. Shall drag jacky to catch it with me whether he wants to or not.. :P

Shrek 3 - May 18, 2007. Loved the first, missed part of the second.. Can't wait for the third! Yay!

Song of the day: Tell Me Baby by Red Hot Chili Peppers

2007-03-06T19:22:00.000+08:00

Yup, it's me once again. Have got some more fabulous things to share about the grandstanders - our 'public servants'! Quotable Quotes:

“Retrenchment is good for Singapore. If there are no retrenchments, then I worry for Singapore” Goh Chok Tong

“We started off with (the name) and after looking at everything, the name that really tugged at the heartstrings was in front of us. The name itself is not new, but what has been used informally so far has endeared itself to all parties.” Mah Bow Tan, spending $400,000 of taxpayer’s monies to rename Marina Bay as Marina Bay.

Straits Times report dated 26th Jan, 2003-

“More than 3000 Singaporeans have applied for a government assistance scheme in the first two weeks of the year …but no one has qualified.”

“Please do not assume that you can change governments. Young people don’t understand this” - Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, post-2006 General Elections

“People support CPF cuts because there are no protest outside parliament.” - PM Lee

"If you want to dance on a bar top, some of us will fall off that bar top. Some people will die as a result of liberalising bar-top dancing. Not just because they've fallen off the bar top, but because it's usually a young girl with a short skirt who's dancing on it, who may attract some insults from some other men. The boyfriend starts fighting. Some people will die..." - Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister of State for National Development

“I don’t think that there should be a cap on the number of directorship that a person can hold.” - PAP MP John Chen who holds 8 directorships.

“It’s not for the money because some of the companies pay me as little as $10,000 a year.” - PAP MP Wang Kai Yuen who holds 11 directorships.

“Cutting Ministers’ pay won’t trim fat. You’re getting a bargain for the ministers’ pay. As a surgeon, I worked half as much and made 5 times more.”- Ng Eng Hen, PAP minister (Ng Eng Hen alluding to how hard the PAP is working for our welfare, but not so hard that John Chen and Wang Kai Kuen can’t find the time to hold multiple directorships)

“Only 5% are unemployed. We still have 95% who are employed.” - Yeo Cheow Tong

“Singaporean workers have become more expensive than those in the USA and Australia.” - Tony Tan

Contrast this with a report from the Straits Times, 1st July 2005- “Nearly 300,000 Singaporean workers earn $1,200 or less in gross monthly income. Half of them, or one in 10 workers, earn even less - $900. They are the group most vulnerable to retrenchments and fallout from economic restructuring. Many already struggle to make ends meet and have little or nothing for their medical and retirement needs.”

“But that does not change the hard facts of the ground, which is that the average Singaporean, the 90 over per cent who retain their jobs, have had good income. And for most of them, their incomes have grown even in the most difficult years that we faced in the last five years.” Mar 2005 Budget Debate, Lim Hng Khiang.

Contrast this with a Straits Times report, 19th Feb, 2005-

“Monthly incomes for households in the bottom 20 per cent fell 3.2 per cent a year, from $933 in 1998 to $795 in 2003.”

“…I regret making the decision because, in the end, the baby continued to be in intensive care, and KKH now runs up a total bill of more than $300,000…”- Lim Hng Khiang. (Just think how the parents would feel after reading this!)

“We are not considering a casino, but an IP- an integrated resort. IRs are quite different. Infact, they should be called leisure, entertainment and business zones.” George Yeo

Anyway continue to support the PAP for more good years. Afterall we did have a huge increase in the number of millionaires in singapore. Besides the men-in-white are always generous every 5 years. (term for parliament is 5 years)

Compiled by Minority Man at http://www.insanepoly.com/

2007-03-06T09:18:00.000+08:00

I must be nuts. Blogging so much all of a sudden.

But I just had to share this really sentimental quote on my friend's msn nick; Alvin-my childhood friend/srjc ex-classmate. His gf -Grace, and him broke up recently, because she's going overseas to further her studies: for 6 years.

" I don't offer beautiful words, expensive night outs or a sensual experience..all I have to offer is love which is silent and forever..."

So much love expressed in a sentence.

2007-03-06T09:14:00.000+08:00

It’s yet another rainy night. Is it a result of the change in seasons? It’s spring, the wildflowers are out, but I don’t feel particularly joyful even though I've got 2 of them right beside me.

Photos of my gorgeous daffodils.

Probably because I watched 2 of the squash videos uploaded on the blog. I mean, I’ve seen it before, in the editing process. But watching them 1 after another, I can’t help but feel a pang of loss. That I was a year early in graduating. That I wasn’t part of the later process where the fruits of our labour are reaped.. coz I was already gone.

I really do miss the times where we hung out together. Humble beginnings where our seniors didn’t really care about squash. Ngee ann squash club was ready to be closed down, and the 3 of us – desiree, amanda and I had to start our own recruitment drive, gather more people and prove to them that squash should stay open..

We were all dedicated people who over-stayed our squash trainings till the courts got locked up, going out for suppers together – jianny (jian hong), yongren, gary, desiree, me. And other players like baozhu, gloria, grace, josephine, kenneth, michael. We didn’t have much then, but we didn’t really care. While we trained, we could listen to the dragonboat guys participate in their twice-weekly mass orgy in the gym.

Then the new batches came in – shwu huey, kathleen, ven, trina, krystle, serene, yu shan, lynn, joyce, miao qin, leslie, bryan, jonas, luke, weizhong, ryan, zhengjie, skye, stephen, dion, sam, mike,jian qi, gaston.

The best times were during IVP, where we trained harder with a coach, squashed almost everyday and were tight as bunch. Of course, with more people, there’re just more bunches, but still, it was all good. Met many people from NYP, TP, SP, NTU, NUS, SMU. Yvonne, Denise, King, Damien, Marc, Aldren? from TP. Calvin Gay, Yu Xuan, Sarah, and some forgotten names (but not forgotten faces), from NYP. Hansel, Ade, (plus the kingkong lookalike) from SP. Leo and Ian from NTU. (plus I rem the gd players like Poh Kwang, Woon Kwang, the puking chinaman, the national player from India, Wynne, Gracie, etc)

We tried our hardest but up against the university teams, we couldn’t hold up with our amateur skills. We were once top amongst the poly teams, but lost to the universities. Such a shame. Luckily for the later batches, they only had to compete amongst the poly and ITE teams and came in 2^nd & 3^rd for guys and girls.

Reminiscing the past is not really all that fun, coz.. everyone has moved on. I miss all the good times but while I know it’ll never be the same again, at least I had all these beautiful and glorious moments once before.

2007-03-06T00:25:00.000+08:00

Guess what took place on Saturday night (03/03).. Lunar Eclipse!

Am I like..the only one who's excited about it? yeah, i know it happens far too frequently (unlike the solar eclipse), but still, it's pretty cool! It's such a strange co-incidence.. how I got to know about it.

Earlier that evening, happen to note to ter about how big & bright the moon was, juz before we went to the comp labs. Was suppose to stay there throughout the night, but there was some virus in the computer, and I went home instead (didn't want to get my files infected). On my way back, I saw that the moon looked partially blocked, but still, I took no special note of it.

Back home, I logged on BBC news as usual.. hey presto! Lunar Eclipse that night! and all i had to do, is glance out the window and there is was, in full splendor. Thank god guildford isn't full of bright lights like singapore~ thank god my room was in the right direction! thank god too, that the eclipse ended just before it got hidden behind the building.

Anyway, got my buddy terrence & stephen all excited about this eclipse toO! and I did promise to share the photos on my blog, so here they are:

Snapped at 10.12pm. The eclipse started at 8.18pm where it enters the penumbra, so i'm actually 2 hours late! It entered the umbra at 9.30pm. Well, it takes a while for the moon to get 'bitten' more and more so it's really not all that bad..!

(also, I didn't realise my digicam could zoom in x12, hence the very small moon :P )
But if you double-click and zoom in, the moon's actually 'cut' already!

Left: Taken at 10.45pm.
Proper zoomed in shot.

Right: Taken at 10.51pm

Left: Taken at 11.03pm. Realised that the air in guildford smells really sweet! The bright yellow wildflowers 4-storeys straight below my window, are blooming beautifully.

Right: Taken at 11.12pm

Left: Taken at 11.19pm

Right: Taken at 11.26pm. Totality! (Total eclipse of the moon)

Left: Taken at 11.27pm

Right: Taken at 11.30pm

And after almost 30+ shots, my fingers were so cold from sticking it out of the window to snap the photos, my left leg started cramping and I was getting a little tired. Thank god the moon start to move out of the position of total eclipse. And I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me when it started getting brighter! *laughs*

Left: Taken at 11.40pm

Right: Taken at 11.43pm

Left: Taken at 11.50pm

Right: Taken at 11.56pm

So therein lies my 1st photographed lunar eclipse! Didn't really get to enjoy those in singapore, due to the bright lights. But I really did get a kick out of this one.
It was fabulous ( :

2007-02-26T03:17:00.000+08:00

Oh dear. The frustrations of an infrequent blogger. I was still in the midst of contemplating which event to write about! Terrence's Birthday (Feb 10), Last Sunday(17 & 18 Feb) - Chinese New YEar celebrations? Friday (22 & 23 Feb) - Jacky's bday celebrations? The stupid me on 23 feb night at the union? or the trip to london to visit victoria yesterday? In all this muddly confusion, I decided to just do it all at 1 shot. chronological-manner. *smiles*

Terrence's Birthday (Feb 10)

It's his 23rd birthday! Did I tell you what we got for him? We pondered over it so much! Mahjong set? (idea shot down by sis & ridiculously expensive price tag) Working briefcase? Shirt? Tie? Wallet?

In the end, we picked a beautiful fountain pen. *smiles* aren't fountain pens such a lovely thing to write with? I remember the times when I'm in town, I'll sneak over to Wheelock's place to gaze at the beautiful window displays, or to the men's section of Tang's just for the fountain pens.

For his birthday dinner, coz we didn't want to make it a big thing, we got some pple together, ordered a Maison Blanc St Michel Cheesecake. Wanfang got him chocolate mousse cake too! Got Kebabs catered in.. yummy british food. heheh. Got Terrence totally high on his 2 huge bottles of WKD Red & Ironbrew + a pint of Rose wine.

Terrence's 23rd Birthday!
From left: PP, Jacky, Maine, Terrence, Wanfang, Edd, Izzy & me)

(spot the bottles & cans of drinks on the left!)

*laughs* think his alcohol tolerance just went up a notch. Can probably hold his own against my sister's alcohol(wine) prowess for a lil longer! gambatte!

All in all, a really fun night! Ps: He played drinking games with each and every one of us. And i didn't lose at 'Qing Wa Wing Wa Tiao!' to him even once~ (finger-frog jump game)

CHINESE NEW YEAR EVE (17 Feb)

We had our own little steamboat, a comfy setting with 3 other dudes - Ter, PP & Jacky. Had a lil seafood, pork, beef, fishballs from leicester sq, blah blah. And our own home-made lo hei (we didn't even have the sauce packs!) Turned out quite alright.. ter chopped the carrots, I sliced (super-chef delicate sliced style!) the salmon, stir-fried our own peanuts, sesame seeds, grapefruit (to replace the missing pomelo) and plum sauce. *laughs* ok fine, i know we're missing oodles of ingredients. but so? we're students! - like that meant anything. hahaha.. at least it still tasted good! missed out on the yummy crackers though.. darn.

Played poker & mahjong. horrible night with lousy luck. know why? coz the ox clashes with the golden pig this year. Plus - no red underwear. double darn!

My beautifully sliced salmon. Ignore the dodgy chopping board behind! Focus on the glistening fresh salmon.. mMmmmm....

Our very own 'Lo Hei' (Raw Fish Salad/ Yu Sheng)

Credits to Terrence on the flair of artistic arrangement! compliments to the hospi friends he picked it up from.

(Left)Our little Steamboat spread! Fishballs, fishcakes, seafood mix, prawns, bean sprouts, da bai cai, mushrooms, hotdogs, seafood sticks, pork slices, beef slices, meatballs, and the salmon for lo hei!

(Right) We're actually pretty eager to start eating, don't be fooled by our less-than-excited smiles.. it's actually very tough to smile at the camera when all the food is within reach!

CHINESE NEW YEAR! (18 Feb)

Went to the union for chinese new year party. Chinese food was okay, performances were so not. Breakdance performance was great though~ actually, the only highlight of the entire show was that portion! left with maine, izzy, ter, pp and jacky to maine's place coz she was feeling tired. Played poker.. and i swear, the red top maine had on helped aLOT! she cleared us all twice, in poker. As in, all our stakes ended up with her once, we took it back for a 2nd round.. and it happened once more. She is ThAT good. PP's purple (think Barney) shirt and Izzy's maroon cheongsam helped too, coz the 3rd round went progressively well for them. Met maine's friendly housemates - azam and some pple whom I can't remember. Yikes! bad memory!

JACKY'S BIRTHDAY EVE (22 Feb)

Actually planned to cook an entire meal on my own, but decided to spare him even though he had a plethora of Bao Ji Wan (Miracle tummy-ache pills.) Did some shopping on wed, but had to stash it at ter's place first.

Had to chase him out of my place unfortunately, coz I had to pick up a little individual cake early in the morning (juz in case they run out of it) and reserve another large one for his actual day. Got him this---> Le Plaisir (Génoise sponge soaked in raspberry syrup, covered in layers of fresh cream and exotic fruit mousse, laced with wild strawberries, topped with raspberry galze and fresh berries.)
- told him it was a cake, but he just simply refuses to believe me, insisting that it's a tart. so wrong! *laughs*

Anyway, I made mushroom soup, boiled broccoli with carrots, a whole chicken roast with potato wedges, Italian white wine & for desert, chocolate dipped grapes. *burps*

Rather fancy these 2 photos.. the left one for the reflection effect of the wine and the right for a 'glass within a glass look'.

More photos to be put up when i get them from soo ling!

Actual Birthday (23 Feb)

His 25th birthday (a milestone! congrats on his successful quit-smoking campaign :P ) We catered Chinese Dinner from Bamboo Gardens, 10 yummy dishes to fill our hungry tummies. And it's pretty good! 13 people squeezed into Ter's kitchen with lotsa drinks flowing that night. 20bottles of Carlsberg, 2 Huge bottles of Magners, 1 bottle of Blossom Hill rose wine. So the night drew on with loads of drinking & games like Cai Mui (5,10,15), Qing Wa Wing Wa Tiao (frog hop), card games and such. And he got a Maison Blanc Le Cheesecake St Michel! (same as Ter's bday). Didn't want to get him a chocolate coz he doesn't really seem to fancy it as much.. plus the rest were sponge cakes.

Turned out that fiona can really drink! goodness.. amazed at her alcohol tolerance, coz she seemed so guai for a hk girl. *laughs* looks can be deceiving. Ooo.. and Maine has fantastic game skills. be it poker, cai mui, even squash.. she rocks man.

So after dinner and a bout of alcohol in our systems - Union night! turned out to be Cowboys & Indians theme.. didn't dress up though. But still had fun. Pretty alright night except for something stupid that I did. Simply didn't learn from what happened recently.. guess it had to be a painful 2nd time before it gets knocked in. So Stupid of me. Anyhow, the night ended wit

Stayover in Vic's place in London (24 Feb)

Went to London ystday afternoon to Vic's place. Met her bf, Jamie, a lawyer from Oxford. Lovely cosy home with a delightful collection of books, a huge & gorgeous toilet upstairs and a fascinating room (Jamie's) downstairs. love the place! hate the rent. heheheh. Had lo hei once in the evening before heading for a Vietnamese dinner. Back home, we sipped wine whilst chatting, playing bluff, bridge and daidee (not simultaneously of course).

This morning, had lo hei for breakfast. *giggles* i know, it's strange isn't it? We seperated the ingredients into 2 portions, hence the dual lo hei at her place! Oooh.. and found out about the history of Lo Hei from the Singapore NLB website. Terrific webbie! Singaporeans out there: Thank the 4 hotel restaurant chefs for the delicious Lo Hei you eat during Chinese New YEar!

Left: 2nd Lo Hei for the year 2007. (In the evening before dinner)

Right: Lo Hei this morning, for breakfast!

End

And so.. that wraps up my busy and fun filled 2 weeks.

And now. I'm short. Really short. (not literally for my height!) Bread, Apples & Water. At least Jacky was nice enough to offer me the apple, he'll take the core.
*laughs*

2007-02-22T07:18:00.000+08:00

My 1st Valentine's Day with a date. sounds pathetic, doesn't it? No.. it's more of, my 1st Valentine's Day with my boyfriend.

Aww.. don't go all sappy on me, coz i'm not gonna do that! Yes, I totally agree that V'day is such an over-commercialised event for people to earn more money through the sale of exorbitantly-priced flowers, chocolates, restaurant food, etc etc.

Still, I'm awfully touched by everything he did, the extent of it all.. simply left me buggered for words.

My new hair colour! complements to his taste in colour & his handiwork~

Movie date at Odeon. Charlotte's Web, Screen 1, Row M, Seat 21 & 22
*grins*

Dinner at Nando's after the show. Deeeeelicious chicken, chips & Nando's speciality sauces! (Wild herb, extra hot peri peri sauce & garlic sauce) Mmmmm...

Our 2 nicest posed photos in my room. *laughs*

Presents from him.. a lovely rose, card, wine & cosmetic set. New hair, make-up, movies, dinner... wow. *smiles*

Hope he had fun dyeing my hair, changing my hairstyle & dolling me up with make-up. And seriously, the results weren't bad at all.

Happy Belated Vday to my dearest and thank you so much for everything!

2007-02-22T05:27:00.000+08:00

back-dated entry: Februrary 7 2007.
important event: SNOW!!

MoRE snow than the previous time. wahhahaa~! after studying w ter, jacky & izzy til 3+, we went home. and heaven's gates opened up.. with little drifts of snowflakes. we did agree to awake and meet at 6am, but by 4+, we couldn't stand it any longer and..out we gambolled in the snow~!

The beautiful view from my window~

Snow accumulated on my window~ and an obviously elated me!

My footsteps in the snow.. as I head towards the hill for more snow!

My very mild obsession with snow angels!

A successful attempt this time round *grins*

Izzy & I preparing for a snow battle with our mega-big snowballs.

Jacky & I with our lil snow angel~

Group photo with our hastily made snowman!! my 1st ever! *laughs in glee*
from left: mel, ter, snowman, jacky, me, jonathon, izzy.

Mega-snowballs 2 with a very unaware ter!

View from University Court 56, 2nd floor, Ter's kitchen.

My boots stomped into deep-crusted snow.

Plants laden with thick snow~~

Our artwork on a well-snowed on car!

After leaving ter's place with hot choc in our tummies, we trudged back to our room, but we simply couldn't resist 1 last snapshot with our mini snowman~!

Jacky & me at the top of the hill on our way back..

Goodbye Snow...till I see you again, next year.

2007-02-17T21:42:00.000+08:00

It's that time of the year once more. The time of the year where all Chinese add a year to their age--Chinese New Year!

How should I put it.. this is truly my 1st time celebrating Chinese New Year away from home. And the strangest thing? I don't really miss it alllll that much! I mean, sure, I crave that family warm feeling that creeps up unsuspectingly once in a while.

No family reunion dinners, no springcleaning (ok..minimal), no paying of respects to my wai po (granny) and relatives in m'sia, no major snacking of cny goodies, listening to dad blasting his cny songs, no traditional house-hopping with my 3 gorgeous babes, no visiting at jack's place for games with the rest, no ang-bao receiving.

I'm missing it all, but surprisingly, I'm doing well without it! There's hardly a breath of chinese new year festivity/ atmosphere here, so it's not really all that surprising i guess.

Last year, as I recall, cny wasn't all that fun, coz I was down with a viral fever. it was... unmemorable, simply because I was so woozy I couldn't really recall much! Still had some fun though. Had a good dinner with my family.. visited the Director's house w colleagues, got ang baos from colleagues (*YAY*!), lao yu sheng in the office, dinner at the restaurant with all my colleagues--Fatty Weng or smthg, visiting jack's place. was too sick to travel to m'sia though..

yeah, that was pretty much how i remembered last year. and this year? Tonight, we're gonna have steamboat - Terrence, PP, Jacky & me. a warm little gathering where we pig out and mahjong after. poor jacky's still down (and now, out) with the flu.. been 2 weeks? doesn't affect his appetite at all though. *laughs* Yup, and on sunday (tmr), we're gonna head to the Union for a chinese party with performances and food.

Anyhow, just doing a little reminiscing. I've got 2 back-dated posts that I really wanted to put up but it'll take awhile longer - of the very snowy day on Feb 7 (2nd time it snowed here this winter!) and of coz, my first proper valentine's day. No kidding~

Saturday, Chinese New Year's eve in Guildford, Surrey, UK. 7,000 miles away from home. Leaveless trees, quaint little houses, peaceful and a slight fog settlingly o'er the distant houses and trees. Remarkable beauty but somehow, gazing upon it alone doesn't do wonders for my soul.

2007-02-13T21:58:00.000+08:00

Haven't blogged for ages, due to the tight time schedule and the website's adamant refusal to allow me to sign in!

Anyhowww.. just wanna share some of the stuff i've been doing recently.

Last saturday, we went to Portobello Market (a flea market) and Grenwich (GMT) for some sightseeing~

According to dear old jacky, portobello market used to be pretty undeveloped with loads of hidden authentic antiques. Unfortunately, it's pretty commercialised now, and there're tons of imitations. Nonetheless, I snapped some pretty things, so here they are!

Portobello Market

Doll House & pretty lil furniture for my bestest best gf - Huiqing!

Tons of antique cameras for the camera/ photo-loving sweetie
- Janet my bestest best sister!

Grenwich

(Left) Went to Grenwich and saw this really cute/cool race car. pity bout the shadow from the sun though.. it really roared its way down the street!
(Right) Couldn't find this really yummalicious famous pie place - probably closed down its biz already. Had indian food instead. Mmmmm.. Indian Food!

Grenwich Meridien Time!
(Right) Digitalised timer that blinks so fast, you can't even catch with the naked eye. But my smart lil camera did!

A

(Left) Absolutely love chained watchs. Totally salivate at the sight of gorgeous watches.. the fine mechanisms, the little ticking gears. Ain't they such a sight? Wish I could own 1!

(Right) A snapshot of the beautiful scenary, upon the top of the hill that the Grenwich museum sits.

Leicester Square (once again)

Snapped the 1st pic but realised it's rather..RA! *giggles* For those smartie peeps out there, you're absolutely right. it's a PUBLIC URINAL. Right outside the theatre, beside the road!
Any takers? : D

The lovely day around Portobello Market & Grenwich proceeded with a Jap dinner with Wanfang at Leicester Sq. And after that? Yummy deserts at Bar Ciao.
Awww... look at how my 2 buddies enjoyed themselves? so sweet.. and so gay! (read:gay - happy) *laughs* they'll probably kill me now that i've put this photo up.

2007-02-02T02:40:00.000+08:00

It always never fails to amaze me, when people are always able to just express their thoughts and feelings ever so readily. Bloody arse difficult if you ask me.

Let's try this for once.

Thought of the day: I'm a lazy, immature, selfish, evil, and uncaring biatch.

2007-01-25T21:19:00.000+08:00

Slushieees!

Why do I yell slushies when UK doesn't even seem to have any 7-11 outlets? because Slushies come right after SNOW melts!

Yup, you heard me right. After weeks and weeks of whinning about snowless cold weather, my prayers have been answered - - - Yesterday, I suddenly shot up awake at ard 8am, pulled my curtains apart and the landscape was covered in a glorious white.

Of course, my first reaction was to gawk. The weather station had predicted frost so many times, I simply couldn't be bothered. As to why I awoke early so suddenly yesterday, is beyond me. So after gawking and going ooOooohhh & aaaaaaahhh for sometime, I grabbed my camera & started snapping.

Read my expression: YYyyyYYEeeesSssssssSSsS!!!!

After some shots, I went down to meet terrence and we proceeded to do more photo-snapping. It really was quite thick compared to normal standards in the past years (ter said so).

Me & my lovely snowball!

And.. my 1st Snowangel!!

Ok..maybe i did cheat a lil. My actual Snowangel had no head!

*oOps* Caught in the act of repairing my snowangel! Hahhahaa...

Glorious snow! (yet another potential snowball)

After some pics, ter and i made our way to jacky's place and went to give him a morning wake-up snowball~ *grins* my snowball actually made it into his room through the window! hahahahahaa.. wished i took a photo of him throwing pits of the snow out. Thank goodness he stays on the 2nd floor..*laughs*

Snowy days aren't complete without a fir tree & some shrubs to complement it!

Had quite abit of fun in the snow, but the workers were busy scattering salt to melt the snow. *sigh* and loads of snow have been reduced to a wet mess. such short-lived snow.

But, I did manage to snap a pic of someone making a snowman on my short walk around! you can click on the pic to see it enlarged.

All in all, Suuuuper fantastic January 24!

2007-01-22T06:39:00.000+08:00

righto. finally got the photos uploaded..

rem the irish beef stout stew i cooked on my sis's special request (that turned out pretty yummy) -- here it is! An easy to concoct stew comprising of stewing beef, potatoes, carrots, onions and brussel sprouts. (plus some red wine, beef stock & a trustable stout!)

If Yan can cook..So Can I!

The photo has quite a magical feel to it eh? *grins happily*

Murphy's Draught, a pretty good replacement for Guiness~

oOoh. I could Love drinking stout!

What a sinful pleasure. Enjoying a delightful glass of stout whilst reading infront of a great view.
ahhh..

Oops. Another photo pic. Jacky's really got the taiwan food down to a pat. Yummy braised pork rice with spicy battered fried food (like the taiwan shi lin chicken) -- aubergines, mushrooms, chicken fillet, hot dogs and rocket (that's the herb on top). Topped with a glass of chilled coke. Sek Fan! (ps: that's 'Eat' in Cantonese)

Played mahjong with Izzy, Jacky & Terry on Sat night..till 5am. *gasps* yeah.. we started really late! Anyway..had to snap this photo when I kept getting 4 of a kind. Pretty lucky eh? To my Sgp mahjong kaki- Jack: Eat my shorts! for always saying wanna make me pay school fees : P

2007-01-20T22:10:00.000+08:00

i am so screwed, i don't know where to even begin.

2007-01-18T04:15:00.000+08:00

When the music fades ...

And all is stripped away
And I simply come..
A Longing just to bring,
Something that's of worth
that will bless Your heart
I'll bring you more than a song..
For a song in itself, is not what you have required ..
You search much deeper within..
Through the ways things appear,
You're looking into my heart

I'm coming back to the heart of worship
And its all about You ,
It's all about You, Jesus
I'm sorry Lord for the things I've made it,
When its all about You..
It's all about You..Jesus.

King of endless worth
No one could express how much You deserve ..
Though I'm weak and poor
All I have is Yours
Every single breath...
I'll bring you more than a song..
For a song in itself, Is not what you have required
You search much deeper within ..
Through the ways things appear,
You're looking into my heart

I'm coming back to the heart of worship
And its all about You ,
It's all about You, Jesus
I'm sorry Lord for the things I've made it,
When its all about You..
It's all about You..Jesus.

2007-01-18T03:05:00.000+08:00

We constantly seek education.. what IS education?
The process of accumulating human capital. In order to improve our productivity. I'm accumulating human capital, all of us studying definitely are. So, what is my net worth? Am I maximising the benefits of a university education?

The first week..and I'm already overwhelmed and seriously frightened. Try as I might, my absorption rate has decreased even more once again.

I first have to improve my own productivity in studies so that I can accumulate my human capital, maximise the investment of my parents and thus, eventually increase my net worth and productivity for my future career.

2007-01-12T20:17:00.000+08:00

it's so deliciously lovely to awaken on a beautiful friday morning and simply yawn, stretch and laze ard. especially when it's a working day. And the last weekday before spring term starts!

Yes it feels so damn good. Unfortunately, that luxurious feeling was marred by the fact that I only had 4 hours of sleep. *laughs* my body clock is sooo screwed up (but i'm still not the worst), i only go to bed at 5-6am nowadays, and wake up past noon. It's totally my style, coz my parents strongly advocates sleeping early (12-1am) and waking up early. Anyhow, I'm forcing myself to adjust in time, which thankfully, isn't too tough, considering that i awoke at 10am entirely without the aid of an alarm clock. *grins*

Right. I know that talking about body clocks and bedtimes are a totally boring subject. haha~ So after a quickie laze..i took my shower as usual. i do declare, i can just gauge the temperature of the day once i turn the shower tap off.

It.Is.Freaking.Cold. Seriously mann. Back at home, I don't even use warm water when i shower at 7+am before work (well, maybe once in a blue moon). Now, warm showers are an absolute MUST-have and are to die for!

Well, and I made my 2nd payment for my school fees. OUCH. oops, my bad. That expression is not well-defined enough.

Blooody hell..AAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!

Hmmm.. yeah that should basically express what I will have to do this sem.

1) Study my ass off. Treat my textbooks like a delightful murder novel and savour it.
2) Oh, I really do mean to get my ass off --I've got loads of weight to shed!
So. No Chocs. No Chips. No Candy (except mints & gum..that's acceptable right?). No Ice Cream.

HAHA! As If. Oh..ok, I'll attempt.

Let my will power show me the way.

2007-01-06T10:46:00.000+08:00

Supposed to be in bed since some time back, but I came crawling back to my laptop when I couldn't fall asleep. Wanted to do so many things but have yet to actually get down to it.. one of my biggest weaknesses is definitely procrastinating. I've got a whole list of bad points but if I should pinpoint it all, I'll definitely be late to wake up tmr morning.

Sitting here, I recall the conversation i had with my buddy on thurs night. I had so many thoughts shooting through my head as he talked, my mind was on overdrive as I sought to capture his words and my thoughts coherently.

Everyone's life is different, some are better-off, some are worse-off. Everyone gets a different life experience, and I'm in no position to judge anyone based on that, I can only judge mine. It gets me thinking about how small my life is, and the way I live my life. Have I been too..idealistic? I remember a past conversation with one of my girlfrens, when I told her that an idealistic life is beautiful, but only in theory and thoughts. Have I been idealistic? Optimistic? Or do I only see and feel the things that are good? No.. that's not it. I'm just naive and choose to only see the good in people. 21 years of blind faith should end sometime. Later or now? Now, I guess. Now would be suitable. I shan't regret the blessed 21 years I've lived - the life of a perpetually happy and trouble-free person. I've been happy, very happy. So many things to be thankful for, and all the blessings I've received. I'm lucky, for sure I am. If I could strand a necklace of pearls, I would have so many small pearl blessings. Maybe if I could grow just abit more, I could learn so much more and start to put in the big pearls.

It's late and I have many more thoughts, but I'll keep them with me for just awhile longer. Until it bubbles over, I'll keep filling it up.

Can a realist also be a pure optimist? I wonder how that person would end up. At least that would give me some direction to my meaningless life.

2007-01-06T10:18:00.000+08:00

2 days ago, a very special someone celebrated her birthday back at home in singapore. With her bf and her family, no doubt. And once again, I couldn't be present for the 2nd year in a row. I really do miss her loads. loads and loads and shit loads more. We bicker, throw bitching remarks around, but in the end, I somehow miss them too. The nights where I'll just yap away with trivial or just purely whinning away. I can't even remember what topics I talked about, but it really felt good that she was there to listen to me. She was more than my shopping buddy, my bitching pardner, my whinning cushion of comfort..

Hearing her voice, it sounded so near, for a moment, I actually wanted to cry. I've always admired and respected her for her selflessness that I couldn't even come close to imitating, her warmth towards people, the ease she carried herself with and her comments that were sharp as a tact. I didn't get her any gift...I could have, and got it delivered but I didn't. Instead, I was the one getting a gift from her. How could she? I didn't deserve it at all.

I've told her a few times that she's the best I've ever had. and we'll laugh about it. But I really do mean it when I say that she's the best. Miss you loads.

I love you, jie.

2006-12-30T01:45:00.000+08:00

Ta da! i'm finally back to blogging. wanted to blog about our exploits in italy for really long, but i've been procrastinating and slacking.

Well, so our trip to italy is summed up in 4 days, saturday morning flight and back on a tues night flight. the end. only kidding~!

I've loaded up all the pics on Sony Image Album, here it is. (click here)

But, I've decided to throw some here too, the more memorable ones~

Stansted Airport
Left Guildford in a rush, travelling via the last train to stansted, whereby jacky, terrence, pp & i had to spend the night (playing big 2 & snacking + krispy kreme donuts for breakfast!) caught our early 8am flight and off to Italy we go!

Italy: Rome, aka Roma (via Airport Ciampino)

Checked into our hostel 'Des Artiste', a lovely place with marble floor steps and creaky old lifts (yup, those that you see in old movies, or so i thought :P) Another 'first' would be the pug i saw at the roof terrace - he/she (should be a he) was the fattest pug i've ever seen! *faints*

That evening, we took the bus down to the Vatican City and visited St Peter's Basilica, whereby the cardinals were having mass.. and I couldn't take a pic of the main al fresco featuring St Peter. *shrugs*

THE HOLY 'C'!
Saint Peter's Basilica and the obelisk in St Peter's Square

shhhh... it's time for mass.

The next day, we started off with a must-see place - - The Colosseum! The Giganticness/Colossal size simply blew me away. It was bigger than big, and it was built by 80AD..AMAZING! It is truly a sight not to be missed.

Us & the Colosseum!

Down the road, we entered the Roman Forum, the central place of ancient Rome, whereby the massive Basilica of Maxentius and Constanstine was actually the adminstration of justice. There were also the temple of caesar, arch of titus, arch of augustus, shrine of venus and many many others. From all the ruins left on the ground, broken off from the temples/ archs, it is really not too difficult to imagine the wonderous sight it must've been back in the old days of ancient Rome.

Following that, we visited the spanish steps which was not as spectacular as i expected, perhaps it's the lack of flowers due to the season. Walked over to the Trevi fountain, the largest Neptune fountain in Italy. Looking at it, I was truly in awe at the magnificence of the huge sculptures and the emotions they displayed. Then again, I was in awe very often when I visited the other attractions :X Oooh.. and there, i ate my proper Italian gelato! I took a pic with 4 cones (only 1 is mine!) but..well, the camera's gone. But the gelato ice cream is super good! like all the pizzas that I'll eat.. *hmmMmmm* Mama mia!

Marble sculpture of Neptune, and 2 seahorses depicting the calmness & roughness of the sea.

In the evening, we went to the Pantheon, which was meant to be a pagan church for the seven gods of the planetary system, but was converted into a christian church later on and now, is a resting place for 2 Italian kings and painters like Raphael. The building itself however was what interested me, it was a large circular building with a dome shaped roof but with an eye in the centre. Back in uk, i chanced upon an article about it, apparently, if built in modern day, it would've collapsed w/o a supporting beam due to the composite of concrete. However, it has managed to withstand centuries with the unknown Roman concrete and an ingenious & painstaking method of building. Viola! the Best preserved roman architecture remains, for tourists such as us ( :

The next day, we visited Vatican City once more, to see the Vatican Museum & the Sistine Chapel. I have NEVER seen so much art covering the walls! I have NEVER seen such large beautiful works of art covering the ceilings. We were in a rush to catch the afternoon train to florence, that my eyes were truly strained to suck in the sights of it all. And I couldn't. How could I, when I had to twist my head from right to left and upwards constantly, while still watching at a respectably fast pace? Back we still managed to discuss some of the art pieces by Michaelangelo, like 'The Last Judgement', a powerful awe-inspiring painting which included his self-portrait; and the main ceiling al fresco in the Sistine Chapel, featuring 'Adam & Eve' and 'The Garden of Eden'.. Other paintings of the different saints, gallery of maps, the egyptian museum..*argh* i wanna eat it all in! *laughs* I sound pretty insane but you would be too!

Right: Stained glass painting of Madonna & child

Top: The Double Helix w 3 grinning dubious creatures (namely jacky, me & pp)

In Rome, we visited a choice selection of the main sights we wanna see, as I have mentioned previously. The city, although full of conmen and rubbish-strewn streets, is a really lovely place. Everywhere I went, I could see buildings with beautiful sculptures, to me at least, it was a romantic place. A city with so many old building that just felt so old and full of history, it has a dreamy feel to it. Simply gorgeous. (and filled with yummy pizzas from the plentiful pizzerias!)

Florence

We checked into our hostel - hostel Sampaoli, a rather far walk from the train station, but we had a gorgeous en-suite room with old furniture such as old cupboards, chairs, a fake fireplace, comfy duvets and warm lighting. Even the toilet had it's own old bronze-styled key! So quaint, so cosy, so delightful!

Unfortunately, terrence had to rush back to uk and catch his flight back for singapore, leaving pp, jacky & me to enjoy italy for the rest of the trip.

The next morning, after a typical italian working style breakfast of standing by the bar & chowing down our sandwiches (super good!), we walked a fairly far & freezing journey to the Piazza Michaelangelo, where we inhaled the breath-taking view of Florence in all its beauty and italian renaissance charm.

We snapped a photo with a bronze replica of Michaelangelo's David (the real one is in the Academia Gallery) and hurried down to Piazza della Signoria, for more sights of sculptures. It is here, in the square, the original site of Michaelangelo's David stood, and of coz, we snapped more pictures with it, and others like Perseus with Medusa's head and another smaller-scaled Neptune fountain.

We hurried on back, and swept past the Florence Campanile and Baptistry but a flat battery blew our chances of snapping the bronze 'Gates of Paradise' - depictions from bible testaments...darn!

Pisa

After re-charging our batt (the camera and ours) back in the hostel, we caught a train down to pisa to snap some pics of the Leaning Tower of Pisa before it gets dark. *phew*! just in time for some shots...before we headed back to the Pisa International Galilio Galilei Airport...

And so ends our little 4 day budget trip in the boot-shaped european country - Italy. It was a truly enjoyable trip with my surrey buddies - terrence, jacky & pp, I could do it again and again with no qualms! (except for limited money)

But maybe we could hit another place--prague perhaps? *grins*

2006-11-26T09:00:00.000+08:00

Dedication to a dear toadie-eel I know:

E is for Eel

Eels have no heels, As everyone knows.
There aren't any feet, And there aren't any toes.
To be (in)complete, They also lack these:
Calves, shins, and ankles, Hips, thighs, and knees.

This is exam week, and we're all mugging hard. High stress levels and fatigue rule the day (:
Tonight, my fren JACKY was really tired after a hard day's of work, so we gave him due credit for it:

Green-coloured fingernails & smiley faces~

He got PUNK'D!

a priceless 1st expression after being woken up by Issy :P
The poor dude. *laughs*

Photo credits: Terrence & his fantastic cellphone. Cannot do without it in crucial situations like these!

Good luck for exams, babes & babettes!

2006-11-21T03:01:00.000+08:00

Today folks, I will be displaying some scenes that were unseen by others previously.
May I so desire that all cellphones by turned off, all spectacles by worn (by the myopic), all other IE be temporarily ignored for the ultimate viewing pleasure and that all Instant Messenger conversations be set on 'Busy' or 'Away' mode for this period.

Feast your eyes folks.

*Curtains Open*

In Continuation with a previous blog entry of..

One very foggy night in Guildford...*wooOOoo*

The Cathedral. *lightning crackles* ............................... The Cathedral (Part 2) w sudden appearence of 3 ghastly apparitions.
(modelled by, from left: Janice, Jacky, Terrence)

Portsmouth Trip (previously unseen footage!)

Ahoy! Young Inspiration & Ambition - Spinnaker Tower
(modelled by: Jacky & Janice)

Desolation by the sea. (modelled by: Terrence)

The Young & the Fun - Spinnaker Tower
(modelled by, from left: PP, Ter, Jacky, Janice)

Sumptious, drool-worthy dinner

Date taken: unknown. Food consumed time: 20min.
(Chicken Rice Balls, Tomato & Egg Stew, Chicken drumsticks, Pickled cockles with freshly cut chilli, Beansprouts. & a potent & important bottle of Sambal Belachan)

Fireworks from Guy Fawkes Night

a Sprightly display followed by
Golden Array.

Window View - 22 Nov 2006.

The Withered Sparse.

*Credits roll*
- Main Photographer for Cathedral, Portsmouth (Spinnaker Tw) & Guy Fawkes photos: Terrence Wong
- Photographer for other photos: Janice Seak
- Models: Terrence Wong, Jacky Chua, Perry Pong (otherwise more famously known as PP), Janice Seak
- Guest Appearence: Stephen Finlayson, Stroller in 'Desolation by the Sea' & Unknown Stranger's Head in 'Golden Array'.

The End
Thank you folks *bows*

*Curtains close*

2006-11-17T22:27:00.000+08:00

Wanted to blog bout this earlier (read: constant procrastination), but truly, i had to study for a test! So anyway, what i really wanted to blog about, was the lovely dinner at Truffles, Portsmouth, that i was able to enjoy, with the charming company of terrence, jacky and maine *smiles*

Dinner reservation for 4 at Truffles Wine Bar & Restaurant: 4 course meal topped with a bottle of Pinot blanc white wine. (http://www.trufflesfrancais.co.uk/)

Good french food a la complementary of my sister. Thanks jie! I really enjoyed the meal there.

Starters:

Starters: us girls had muscley mussels while the guys snacked on homeless little snails (the poor escargots) deeelicious little clammy creatures.

Main Course:

Part 2 of ultimate sinful pleasure: I had wine-marinated venison with poached pear *slurps*, maine had pork tenderloin topped with shallots, jacky had roasted duck with foie gras and terrence had seared fowl with a grilled tomato.

(see the wall deco! interesting place with huge rakes and scythes on the ceiling, hammers, pots and pans hung on the walls..how countryside quaint is that *beams*)

Truffles' famous Cheese board:

Part 3: Smorgasbord of different imported French & European cheese. Served with a variety of flavoured water biscuits

Dessert:

Annnd the topping of a fantastic dinner - dessert. 2 creme brule (the guys), chocolate drizzled profiterole for maine and a gratin of summer berries for me (absinthe soaked berries with italian meringue - bring on the green fairy!(movie: eurotrip))

So there ends the lovely dinner at Truffles, where we caught the Last bus and the Last train back to the sweet town of Guildford. Gotta hand a really hUGE thaNkS to my dearest sis for this wonderful dinner treat. Plus a GReat big THAnKS to maine and my buddies, for joining me on this lovely dinner. I really enjoyed myself and i'm glad u guys were there with me. The company of friends makes it a whole lot more fun *smiles*

Strange thing though. We acted so drunk, with all the laughing and giggling on the way back. Must be the absinthe.

Note: no green fairies sighted though *shrugs*

2006-11-10T19:16:00.000+08:00

Annnndddd i'm officially 21 and a day old ( : *nods* 21 years of a great life which I am ever thankful for, chockful of the weirdest, warmest, most delightful bunch of people whom i simply love to smithereen bits. although I couldn't get to spend it with them (i really couldn't think of a proper celebration w/o my dearest family and my 3 gfs) I still enjoyed myself tremendously with my close friends in surrey.

When the clock got past 12am into nov 9, i actually forgot that it was my bday. It's true! I didn't even register it, till ter & pp wished me a happy bday. Then all of a sudden, jacky was in the next room with a delicious choc cake from maison blanc, red wine & champagne. Cheers! hahhaa.. it was really lovely, i didn't expect it at all~ after we left at ard 1am++, i didn't go to bed yet. Nope... i stayed up till 530pm talking/chatting/yakking away~ And after catching a few winks, i attended my 10am class and school and blah blah.

After class, went to tescos, bought a more potent brew of cough syrup and honey for terr to replenish his prev depleted supply. the guys (ter, jacky, gim hui, pp, ed, maine) came over, and we had dinner (tacos, grilled chix and chrysenthemum tea)~ yummy yummy! Poor ter had a bowl of somen, but although i didn't taste it, it's gotta be better than my cooking coz jacky was the chef. hahaha~

played some black jack again last night, just that it was in my kitchen.. my 1st time receiving so many blackjacks in a night - 7! but i didn't bet big stakes, just a couple of coppers more, ttz all~ but still, maybe it's coz it's my bday? *shrugs* ter was pretty lucky last night too! after everyone left at 12am, i received my last bits of bday wishes from them and caught Final Destination 3 with jacky (ewww.. thank god i didn't watch it before we went thorpe park). Chatted with him till..i don't know.. 3+? yeah~ A lovely day for a bday girl.

somehow, i envisioned it differently in the past. before i came to uk, i thought, hell yeah, i'm gonna party like mad and have fun. but as it drew closer, i juz couldn't imagine it like that. I'm really glad it was a warm, cosy kind of celebration, it really does touch the heart more than what a night out with alcohol could do.

My friends are broke. Seriously! here's what they got me:

Squash Wilson bag from Terrence!!! : D
New TEchnifibre strings from Jacky, juz in time for my prev match against Imperial College~ *phew*

Seriously good cake from Maison Blanc by Jacky & Ter. (www.maisonblanc.co.uk)
Concerto
Layers of chocolate biscuit soaked in chocolate syrup, chocolate mousse and crispy feuillantine. The cake is glazed with dark chocolate and beautifully decorated in a musical theme.

Earrings on right: Jacky~! good taste :)
Butterfly pendant on left: Ed & PP! reminds me of the one Becs got me years ago~

Cards! Top to bottom: 1)a very sweet and lovely card from jacky ( :
2) Universal Remote! Card from my sweetest & dearest family
3)A beautifully written note on a cat picture from my old-time fren/bro who's ever thoughtful and good - ter.
4) Part 2 of the card from my family~ I HEART YOU MUM, DAD, JIE & LiL BRO!
5)a Delightful surprise card! signed by ter, jacky, mel, cheryl, maine, pp, ed, gim hui & soo ling

Photo card from the ever resourceful & fun scholar - gim hui. I had fun deciphering the morse code msg on the envelope~

And so, my 21st birthday whizzbanged past and regretfully, i have 364 days til my next one. *laughs*

Thanks dudes and dudettes, I really appreciate everything ya'll did. Happy birthday to me ( :
(ps: I'm not some narcissistic freak)

2006-11-08T18:25:00.000+08:00

it's been a cooold week..most of us have either fallen ill, or on the verge of it. I have also succumbed to the chilly winds, just 2 days short of my day! darn. Must be the super windy and foggy night when I didn't pile on enough layers, before trooping over to the Cathedral w jacky & terrence to snap some photos. Haven't got it from terrence yet, but they're suuuper, I tell ya! here are a couple of mine, just trying to re-create the twilight zone since it was soooo foggy.

Snapped this on the way to ter's place

Shady character trying to blend in with the tree..

The cathedral's on fire!

Same place as earlier, doesn't it look like a face w 2 hellish eyes??

Anyway, after the photos, we had tang yuan in sugar water. I love tang yuan! hahaha.. peanut & black sesame filling. and then jacky made ginger tea.. my 1st ever home-made ginger tea!

See the ginger bits? : D

And now, this is another photo of the view outside. slightly foggy, and the trees are surely and slowly shedding their leaves. Such a gorgeous scene, when the wind blows and the leaves flutter so gently ( :

Can't help but think: That God i'm not out there shivering with it.

2006-11-05T23:45:00.000+08:00

It's been 9 weeks since I started schooling in Surrey. And whilst I'm living well and all, credit MuST go to some people here! (aside from my dearest parents who gave me the green light to come here).

Who're they? My buddies here - Terrence, Jacky, Perry. All very different, all very caring and ever so good to talk to ( : I'll like to think that we protect each other but somehow, I don't seem to be contributing in that aspect! So many times have they accommodated me, took care of me and made sure I'm safe and alright. I'm really really very thankful for the companionship from them and the varied sacrifices (eg.time and effort) put in. Hence, a very very big DOMO ARIGATO! *heheh*

Next off, reporting the nation-wide celebratory Guy Fawkes Day. On friday night, a whole gang of us stood in the freezing cold (think 2deg C), waited too patiently to gawk at the fireworks in the field on campus. Beautiful! and pretty upclose too. Lovely array of fireworks that ended too fast, too soon (esp aft the long, cold wait). Walked to town for an expensive meal at wagamama's, and enjoyed a nice hot bowl of fast-food. I mean, it's hot steaming ramen, but boy, do they cook and serve it up suuper fast!

To end off a lovely Friday night, a couple of us continued on to Union for drinks, whereby we seemingly had a good time till the last bits when 1 of us got drunk and started to get outta control. too much stuff on his mind perhaps? Had a great time that night except for some baco bits. *laughs* insider-joke :P

Anyway.. time to get some mugging done. Can you believe it - i'm still slacking! *argh* i hate myself sometimes for such poor will-power. gotta run off now.

ciao!

2006-10-29T17:26:00.000+08:00

*sigh*

can you hear the sigh of relief now tt i've gone past the test+assignment week? can you also hear the sigh of sorrow that my friend now probably hates me? i don't even now what i did, but he's just ignoring me and treating me as someone transparent since fri night. Thought tt he'ld be ok ystday, but i guess not. something happened to him, hope he'll be fine soon.

went portsmouth (the place where my sis attended uni) for some shopping and sightseeing with jacky, terrence and perry ystday. beautiful & breezy place with stuff that is so much cheaper than in surrey!! they have a market there, retailing cheap stuff. so tempted to buy fruits, but it'll be heavy. did some shopping, but only bought a pair of boots and pairs of socks. wanted to get clothes but it's still out of my budget. even though those are factory outlets, but we're still talking branded things. nike, adidas, clark, burberry, ralph lauren, etc. oh, and I went to the cadbury outlet and bought some chocs. shall show u a pic of it when i do the grand opening ceremony!

I just HAD to take a pic with my sis's uni name on it

took some photos at the spinnaker tower, which is in the shape of the sails in the wind. most of the good pics are in terrence's powerful camera though, can't show them to you yet.

in the evening, we went into the casino! 1st time in my life, i get to step into a casino..(i got rejected entry when i went to genting). unfortunately, perry & jacky lost their money, only terrence won some! and he generously used his winnings to buy us ice cream as a treat ( : thank you! and on wednesday, when jacky went to town to attend a court hearing ( not his. it's for his law assignment!), he dropped by marks & spencer and bought me mint chocs. super nice of him too!

when we returned at night, perry was tired and went home.. whereas the other 3 of us trooped to ter's place to watch naruto & whose line is it. lovely end to a wonderful weekend.

absolutely scrummy-miticous chocolate shop. jacky bought a choc-coated strawberry fondue (see fountain on left), and ter bought fudge ( see blocks of flavours on the right!)

my shopping. socks, choc bar, boots and a pack of mixed flavoured chocs!

anyway, I shall post the other lovely pics up rrreeeal soon, so stay tuned, folks~

2006-10-23T17:19:00.000+08:00

Annnnd, it's now week 8 of school. Oh dear! it's true, i haven't blogged for so long! ( 3 weeks, to be exact).

Many things have happened back home in sgp, such as changes in my prev workplace and the death of someone dear to one of my gfs. I do offer my condolences, and that i can't be there for her.

Yup. So what's been happening? let's see.. went to the union to drink on a friday 2 weeks back. perry got stoned pretty quick back then, and puked up everything. *laughs* but at least he was ok pretty soon. the night wore on and aft it closed at 3am, we (ter, perry, jacky & i) went to take some photos at the cathedral. was cold but real fun!

it's Friday the 13th! Freaky Jacky! *laughs*

Me, Ter & Perry (we cld't feel it at all, but appparently it's drizzling! fine droplets of water. spoilt many of our pics though..)

from left: Jacky, Perry, me, Ter at e cathedral

oh yes, last weekend was a rush, coz i had to complete an assignment that was handed up on fri. *phew* thank god that's over. i completed it on thurs evening, joined terrence, ed, perry, jacky and cheryl for bowling at the Spectrum (a place for activities like swimming, ice-skating, etc), came back to submit my report at ard 12am and subsequently left to get some supper in london. the congee i had was ma-mia! delectably delicious! hahhaa..

and on fri, the rest left for some drinks at union. i bust my budget w that supper in london & bowling, so i stayed to 'study'. ended up playing on the internet and whatnot. heh..

had curry at izzy's place on sat and played squash ystday.. now, i owe jacky a pint, he owes me 2 pints & a meal, ed owes me 2 pints too. *jeez* you know what, i really feel awful about even getting them to owe me drinks! : S horrible, ain't it? although ed's the badminton cap't w great badminton skills, he didn't play squash as long as I did.

My rushed out easy to cook dinner. jap noodles, cabbage, hot dog & an egg.
soup base: anchovy powder my dad grinded for me

met sverker (cute swedist next door) & min (korean dude) who're my floormates at the gym when i was peeking down at the squash courts to ref ed & ter's game. talked to..*oops* forgot the german girl's name, but turns out, i've got plenty of exchange stud on my floor!

-2 German law exchange students (Male & Female), another german law exchange but she's actually italian (forgot all their names! dang...)
-1 Swedish cute dude, who's also a law exchange student (sverker)
-1 Spanish exchange student (alfonso)
-1 Korean (min)
-2 China chinese who're in school of management (christina & shelly)
-1 Hongkong dude
-1 brit girl (indian)
-1 brit guy (indian i think. parents & rest of extended family are from ---Mauritius!)
-another brit girl (rachel..senior resident)
-1 negro girl (super super cold and dao.)
-1 singaporean girl who's getting fat. ahhh..shit! that's me!

plus 2 others who i can't rem right now..haha.
gotta study for a 40% test on wed and complete a 50% assgn due on thurs, so ttz bout it girls and boys. seeya..soon!

oh, check this out! deli krispy kreme, compliments of Jaster, who bought them at waterloo when coming back from his' bro's place at cambridge. suuuper good donuts! no shit!

2006-10-08T18:56:00.000+08:00

Week 5.

Went to Bath and Bristol last weekend, visited the roman baths and went to see the suspension bridge at bristol.

Let's see.. had a fantastic week of great food once again..*chubby cheeks* seriously, i think i juz went up a dress-size! shit! There was stir-fried noodles, ed's yummy roast lamb, have yet to try jacky's bak ku teh (with proper pork) since it's still in the fridge, had chinese buffet after a trip to crowdon to shop at ikea and winsgate-a chinese supermarket.

After dinner on fri night, we had mooncake and then went to a classroom in AC blk to watch movies altogether.. watched silent hill, and re-watched Saw 1, which ended ard 4am+. slept till early afternoon and mugged for the rest of the day for my test on mon.

Following which, hot pot dinner! 12 of us squeezed into the small kitchen at uni court, and enjoyed a sumptious dinner. Once again, we had some mooncake and by then it was alrdy 11pm. 4 of us started mahjong and got issy & maine started on playing mahjong. *yay!* hahha.. cheryl totally fits the part of a mahjong tai tai with her jade bangle and gold bracelet ( : sweeeet! joy luck club~!

It's properly autumn now, the days fluctuate at approx 18degrees C? and nights are about..8-9degrees C. The leaves are starting to turn yellow and red too! There you go.. the big tree's leaves are yellowing...spot the small tree on the extreme right? they're red already!

ohh..and i fell down when walking back to my room on tues night? was real tired from mugging and tripped on my slipper. snapped this pic on a whim.. heheh.

So this was how i spent my week, slacking, playing and eating. Really gotta dedicate my time to my mugging, esp since i failed my micro test. can't afford to screw up macro.

wish me luck.

2006-09-29T20:34:00.000+08:00

week 4 of school now, things have been flowing smoooothly so far, except for the fact that i'm getting fatter really fast. plenty of crisps, chocolates and ice cream makes janice into janice X 2. shit!

had dinner with the rest - jacky, terrence, edward & perry for the 1st few days. edward's a great chef! perry's black pepper beef steak was fantastic toO. last night, jacky prepared sushi, tempura, etc. so this week has been a salivating fusion of chinese, western and jap food. Mamamia!

Somehow..i think a few of us are feeling a lil gloomy already. Although cheryl's dad is in london, and the mom juz left (think e mom'll fly over quite often..), her mood was an all-time low last night. Jaster was quite depressed too, missing his parents. (he gets to see his bro who's in cambridge super often) me? i'm still good. Miss my parents for sure, but not depressed or anything. Juz chatted with my dad for a short while last night, and I was really brightened after that. It's quite strange, talking to my dad via the net, becoz.. he sounds like a friend more than a strict dad! Cute :P hehheh.. like him hear this and he'll probably rap my head or kick my ass. ( :

My dad's a really strict guy, and in sgp, i didn't talk to him properly that often or tell him that i love him. But now that i'm here, i seem to miss him more and talk to him better. I guess this is an excellent analogy of absence making the heart grow fonder. For my mom, I already tell her that i love her on a more regular basis back home, and i miss her so much! of coz, I can't compare btw my dad and mom, I love them both equally much.

I'm still in a good mood now, had 1/2 priced bfast at channy's - 2pound half. and after dinner, we're gonna play chua dai di. :P slack abit and chiong for NEXT sale at 7am tmr. heheh..great day ahead for me, hopefully for you guys too.

kudos to all!

2006-09-22T19:35:00.000+08:00

What a rainy morning/noon. I've got class in an hour from now with a coupla errands to run. but the rain is such a great deterrent! Days here have passed relatively fast, doesn't seem like I've been doing much.. wait. i really haven't!

I seem to run out of steam so easily and so fast. Can't.. must maintain and persevere! term tests are approaching really soon and my school work has always been disappointing.

Just went to the comedy night held on tues night - stand-up comedians perform at the marquee for freshers' fayre instead of the usual hangout at chancellors (a restaurant bar). bloody fantastic! Now, i can't imagine spider man without the gay musical joke the comedian did - spidey man, spidey man..wanna be inside a man. *laughs* tons of jokes that were really good.

Tomorrow, we're going thorpe park. Whheeee! finally. haha, i recall when my sis left last year, i was waiting for her graduation so i can go uk for the rides at thorpe park. guess the scenario's a lil different now but the place and event remains.

pubbing/ clubbing is really commonplace here, unlike in sgp where they make it to be such a huge event. or are they truly excited about it? *hmm*

anyway, it's week 3 now. facing huge tests on week 5 and week 6.. gambatte-ne!

2006-09-15T19:15:00.000+08:00

History Lesson in London

The royal guards of Buckingham palace. don't they look smart and so dashing? *grin*

Buckingham palace..and the Queen Victoria memorial
(from right: gim hui, soo ling & me)

This memorial for Princess Diana is on the ground, far from the palace. poor thing, she gets stepped over by everyone.

the London eye

10 Downey Street. Home of the current PM Tony Blair-for a few more months.

Trafalgar square - in honour of Admiral Nelson aft his victory in 1805 at the Battle of Trafalgar

National Gallery, where they exhibit art pieces from world-reknown artists

Fantastic busker at Covent Garden

London Bridge. An error by a ill-informed businessman from america made this plain bridge 'famous'.

Tower Bridge, the bridge the businessman was really after. Grand, isn't it?

Tower of London

Alrighty, plenty of other pics, but not as impt (well, excuse the busker. he's juz too good to miss out!) My london tour ends here!

2006-09-15T18:59:00.000+08:00

hey dudes and dudettes..
how're ya'll doing?
everything's still cool here.

wanted to blog bout the fantastic trip to london last weekend..seeing the tower bridge, tower of london, westminster abbey, london eye, the change of guards at the palace..all the super grand stuff that a tourist should see. ohh and the embarrassing 'performance' with the charlie chaplin busker at covent gardens.

BUT. i miss my family.. *sigh* i juz emailed a reply to my dad.. and whilst i was just happily yakking away, suddenly, i started crying. And i really hate to cry, but seems like my tear ducts are in good condition, like at the airport and now. :'( yeahh.. i miss my dad, who's so fierce to me at times, but i really miss him! my mom too! always caring and thinking for us at every step we take. i love my parents alot alot alot. and now, i miss them sooo much too.
They're really the best I could ever have and ever want.

I miss bickering with my brother, 24/7. the only time we partner each other is either when we play or secretly go to central to stock up on snacks. I always throw sarcastic remarks at him, or call him dumb. But really, i'm very proud of him and envy him for his strong character and caring side.

Of course, there's my sister. i talk to her often on the web, but i miss chatting with her at night, sharing nuggets of info, basically, talking rubbish at night. I missed her alot when she left for uk last year, but now, i'm gone. she's very smart, and very independent. oh, she pisses me off at times too, yet i still love her immensely.

i miss home.. but whilst i'm here, i'll still mug hard, enjoy myself and take good care, so they won't worry about me. about time too, now that i'll be 21 soon. gotta make them proud of me *smiles*

anyway, shall post up my london pictures soon.. seeya next time.

2006-09-08T15:30:00.000+08:00

Here are some recent photos. Some are taken before i left, the rest are from the airport ( : *sigh* i miss my family and friends..not being able to see them for 2 years is tough!

all 4 gfs at Copthorne waterfront for a farewell+early birthday dinner for huisze. *sniffs*

Me and my 3 beautiful gfs. I miss you babes!!
(from left: Huisze, Huiqing, me, Becs)

my last dinner at home.. looks messy but i juz love it so much!
(lotus root & peanut soup, duck wing/leg stew with tau pok, kai lan with prawns,
steamed pomfret and the yummy pau my mom's holding *laughs*)

my childhood playmate + JC buddy - Alvin. aka chipmunk :P

My ASC friends! ever funny, ever cheery and ever good buddies.
(from left: Aaron, Jack, Hangloon, Soon Tian, Weida, Lek Meng, Me, Jovin, Raquel, Peishi)

My present from the ASC bunch of wacky fun friends.
So sweet! hahaa.. it's hanging off my bulletin board in my room now.

Thanks guys & gfs, for sending me off.. see ya'll in.. 2years? bye now..

2006-09-07T14:38:00.000+08:00

hey guys..hwz singapore? uk here is great, the air is fresher, there's also the lovely sunshine as in sgp and although i walk alot more, u can tell that pple are more relaxed here!

But.. somehow, my workload's building up scarily rapid! :X time to whine..hahah~ nah, it's juz that some of the stuff they learnt in year1, aren't the same as what i learnt in poly. hence, i have huge problems catching up..gotta re-read and re-read..and re-read it again. *sigh* work hard.. ajaja fighting! *laughs*

have yet to get my crockery, can't cook. juz got my cutlery ystday, cookware's temp borrowed from terrence. have been surviving on fruits & crisps. oh, but last night? i enjoyed Hainanese chicken rice, veg & bak ku teh soup~ and after dinner? lager & plums. hahaa.. lip-smacking good dinner with the guys (terrence, jacky, jester and gim hui -aka mike) luckily i was with the guys, coz the girls (soo ling, melissa & cheryl) ate instant. can't show u pics of our dinner though, coz it's in jester's cellphone!

my room view makes climbing up 5 storeys soooo worth it!
(oh, plus the gorgeous swedish hunk next door *laughs*)

spent alot of money so far *sigh* have to spend even more soon.. i'm gonnnnaa be broke. and i ran out of clothes! this is what comes out of a 26.5kg luggage bag for a 2year course. *argh* gotta shop..but i'm not really complaining.

time passes much slower here somehow. maybe becoz i'm not surrounded by frens & family? yeah. i miss so many pple! my family, my girlfrens (who made me cry at the airport!), my asc camp frens, my colleagues, my other other friends... well, studies studies. all for the better.

keep in touch yeah? via msn or email! ciao now~

2006-07-22T10:50:00.000+08:00

Employment status : Unemployed (unless you count in my part time job at Caesars)

*sigh* As of 6pm on Thursday 20/07/2006, I am officially unemployed. The nostalgia has yet to set in, but I felt so sad upon reaching home, because I had such a good time there with the people. The work was less than mediocre for some, it was the additional work I receive that was fun (i.e. working on the asia pac newsletter). But the bestest best bits? The people. I didn't inform everyone that thursday was my last day, instead I chose to keep mum unless they asked. So when I slipped away in the evening, I still received 'see ya tmr, janice' from a couple of colleagues--and I didn't correct them either. :' It's quite sad to say goodbye to all of them!

So on monday, the bustling starts. I've got tons of preparations and reading up to do, and to meet up my friends too. oh, and the irony of it! hahaa..I work part-time on weekeends..and guess what. My closest girl friend..is only free on weekends. *argh* how now, brown cow?

So on friday.. went to get my retainers and shopping the entire day with my sis. (I'm finally available to shop with her!). My parents are back toO! so glad to have them back (: I heart you, daddy & mummy.

anyway, just want to keep this post short. Thankfully I'm only blogging of thursday incident 2 days late. Can you imagine if I blogged instantly? You'll get an emotion-loaded short story on your hands!

2006-06-19T17:06:00.000+08:00

Gueeesssss what? My SIS is BACK!!! *laughs merrily* she's still the same lovely sister that left for UK last September. ( : She's still as beautiful, as bubbly, as cheery, as thoughtful...as I have always remembered her as. *grins* Excitment over the past 2 weeks has finally bubbled over and yup, I'm still ecstatic bout her here. Well, of coz now my cupboard space has halved back into the original area, computer usage is halved too..but it's definitely worth it. More squabbles, but more noise too. Rock on!

Oooh, and of coz, terrence (my sis's bf) is back too. SQUASH DUDE! hahahhaa... time to squash squash squash. *claps happily* all of us can hang out again, ain't that just sweet?

And 3rd piece of great news to share: Received my 1st proper acceptance letter..and that's from University of Surrey for 2nd year direct entry into Econs. Today has been one incredible event after another. ahhh..the excitment is still pounding even after an hour of gushing and laughing and.. yeah, you know. (:

Well, and I really wanted to blog bout ystday too. Yesterday was my closest girlfren's 21st birthday. Stand up and cheer please! *wolf whistles* Met her for lunch(was late..as usual :P ) went to Moonfish Seafood and Pasta Restaurant at Marina Sq for pasta, but the poor lass had some tummyache. Girlfren, I know you take awfully good care already, so telling u to take care is quite pointless. Still, I do hope such aches don't reoccur so often...

Anyway, before I move on, have to comment that basically..we just mainly/mostly did eating and drinking. Serious! After lunch, we went to TCC at Millenia Walk for coffee. Talked, shared and we moved on to suntec and visited Caesars later on in the afternoon. Afterwhich, we thronged the stretch of Clark Quay and resided there. It was lovely.
Quiet, peaceful chats..

Had dinner at Fish & Co and proceeded home rather late. Talking bout relationships, about life, personal issues and heart-to-heart sharing. Things that I won't share here but it's understandable right?

Although the day wasn't fantastic for a 21st birthday girl, still hope that she had a good time. I know I did, I really did enjoy her company.

Happy Birthday babe. May your deepest desires come true some day.

2006-06-11T23:15:00.000+08:00

Just spent an interesting night out ystday with my colleague, Dennis. Not the SM, but the salesguy. Why just the night? coz Saturday afternoon and evening, I spent my time bustling with the throngs of pple at orchard.

Yup, I shopped~ Intended to purchase shoes, earrings, tops, pants. *sigh* only managed to get 1 top and a pair of 3/4 pants.. 2 out of 4 ain't so bad right? Anyway. So I met Dennis to fulfill my promise of treating him ice-cream. Because on Friday, we (the bunch of colleagues) were suppose to go drinking at clark quay. Last min, my undecisive SM (he kept pushing me to name a place. And wherever I named, he rejected. So finally, I said clark quay which he agreed) had subsequently changed our watering hole there to duxton again. I didn't really fancy the place and was a lil pissed off with his undecisiveness, so I kinda wavered. Plus, Melissa could only join real late, ard 11, and desmond had to leave before 12. gosh. So anyway, I hurriedly turned down dennis's and desmond's offer to pick me up. Poor dennis, he was already about to arrive at my place! So this is why I owe him a treat.

He picked me up at shaw and we had homemade ice-cream at Sunset way..green tea w waffles. Lovely! *grins* was thoroughly sated after that, when he suggested coffee at some nice spot. Of coz I was agreeable..how could I turn down nice ambience and a good drink? So we travelled..all the way to Sembawang. Yup, you read it right.

Sembawang SAF Yacht Club. Nice restaurant by the shore, where we had our drinks. BUt wait, that's not the last spot! We still had time, and he wanted to show me his old Sembawang Canoeing club, which had been taken over & transformed into the Bottle Tree Village. Lovely restaurant resort-like place, also by the seaside. Was amazed to see the small crowd of pple happily fishing, crab-catching and bbqing. I wanna go fishing & crabbing too!!

It was really so much fun, experiencing all these delights. And the drive home was great too, coz he offered to take me fishing/crabbing, durian hunting and much more activities next time.

Awesome! I love spending my off-days like this..hahaha~ Better still if my babes can join in too. *laughs* gotta own a car next time mannn.

2006-06-08T23:41:00.000+08:00

Well, it's been a pretty lovely week, no sudden ups or downs. lemme begin from last week saturday alright?

Saturday & Sunday:
Worked on both days, at the new branch - Textile Centre. Really ulu place, but I'm quite glad to see some familiar faces (customers) who took the time to pop down for a visit. The shop's really large and spacious, to the extent of..a little barren? Ok, maybe large spaces create an air of class and sophistication. I mean, land prices aren't low in Singapore, right? Shop's a little quieter though, but mean a dip in my commission. *shrugs* Win some, lose some. I work fewer hours, so I get to go home earlier..and a shorter journey too!

Monday:
Caught X-men 3 with my family at Suntec. Great show, didn't really disappoint, because the plot was engaging enough, with rather realistic digital animations. Thumbs up!

Tuesday:
Hmm..oh yeah! Met my 1st 3 months JC friend --Aaron.He's actually..the 1st friend I made in SRJC! hahaha.. a funny, quirky, tall guy. 4 of us (selina, stan, him & me) used to hang out abit at the earlier stages before we mixed into our classes. *sigh* i miss those days of innocent fun. But that's just another story, 1 told waaaay too many times. Haven't seen him in years! still looks as cute and cool as ever, that smart dude. Really enjoyed chatting with him, yeah.

Wednesday:
Oh..that's just yesterday! ahaha.. Had dinner with Melissa, Dennis & Desmond--porridge at Geylang. Suppose to go for some 1-for-1 buffet, but desmond was ill so..porridge it is! Yummy too~ heh. then after plenty of hemmming & hawwing..we went liang seah street & chilled at C.A.N. Cafe. The other Dennis joined in later, and the evening was a blast, with lotsa entertainment round the table. Laughed and joked and teased and.. relaxed. Poor SM had a traumatising evening when the other Den 'took advantage' by leaning in very closely. hahhahaha~~

Thursday:
That's today! Uncle Sukor sent me home this evening, had dinner with my bro..watched Saw 1, compliments of Desmond. Grossed, demented flick which at the same time, is a lil thought provoking. A disturbing film which has an interesting plot. Saw 2's just as good too.

Like I said, it wasn't a fluctuating week. ( : been getting fatter..does that count? damn. gotta eat lesser snacks! (oops. just finished a huge bag of chips by myself after dinner) *guilty* Squash Squash Squash. Wonder when will I squash again. Have quite a few tentative dates with friends and all, and with limited evenings.. *sigh* Plus i really want to have dinners at home too.

*grumbles*

2006-06-08T23:21:00.001+08:00

2006-06-08T23:21:00.000+08:00

2006-05-28T23:11:00.000+08:00

Hey, I just have to add this: I'm blogging, partially because I like to do so but I also happen to be terribly lazy. What I want to say is a HUge Thanks to Babe here--Huiqing! Coz her frequent blogging is like an inspiration for me to blog too.

It's the Great Singapore Sale!! : D I am soooo in the mood for shopping. Clothes, earrings, perfumes, bags, books, gimme gimme GIMME! *laughs* Sounds so horribly desperate. Yeah well, I am.

Met Eliza and Hui Ling on fri night for a meet-up session. Thankfully Dennis accompanied me to shop for her present on wed! (zen styled candle holder with 2 lil buddhist monks, 1 pack of peach scented candles), plus I did a card for her. *smiles* So pleased with my effort. hahahhaa... anyway, we ate, shopped and ate more on fri night. Love it! Oh, but Chocolate Indulgence at Secret Recipes..was disappointing. Should stick with Choco fudge or Cheesecake next time :P
At ard 10 after the sinful cakes, Desmond picked me up from marina sq to join the rest of them at Nomiya, Duxton rd. Drank, had fun, went home and knocked out.

I'm still awfully thankfully I start later on weekends :P i screwed up a transaction, luckily bernard didn't scold me sheepish laugh* had a weird customer who out-of-the-blue suddenly confessed to have brought in a sword from Thailand and wasn't caught by customs. HMmm... plus, he was in civil service, as some army personnel I think. Main Point of this topic: I seriously think some people who are into these kinda artifacts (swords, rifles, pistols, etc) , their brains are fried. I'm dead serious! And I recall thinking how I'll get to check out cute guys often since it's more of a guy interest. Helllooooo.... Young men? hmm.. who aren't weird? Well...few and very far between. *sigh*

My entire week's already planned.. in fact, I'm in the process of planning my June. Gotta think ahead...plus..

JANET'S COMING BACK!!!!!!!!
Damn. Gotta share computer again. *Laughs* Nah, I'm so glad she's coming back! Missed her to atom bits... heheheh. Can indulge in my chatterbox tendencies with her at night again. Oooh, and Terrence too ---SQUASH! hahaha.. my all-time all-accomodating squash dude who doesn't mind that I play terribly. *YAY*!

2006-05-25T23:04:00.000+08:00

My GM has resigned. *gasps* yeah, the rather nice guy who happened to be top GM among the asian GMs in my company. And I was out of the office in the afternoon, 'gallivanting' till I got back, just in time for him to announce his resignation. What a Shocker. Let me restart:

On Wed, yesterday, I went for lunch with my SM, Desmond (Asst. Sales Mgr) and Leonard(other dpt's salesman). After that, my SM gave me permission to hang out with Desmond on his appointments. Yahoo! *laughs* Roadrides with him is always relaxed, that's for sure. Anyway, so we even went Serangoon Garden for a short tea break of creme brulee, oreo cheesecake, and drinks... by the time we got back at 4pm.. all the surveyors and managers in my dpt were called into my GM's room. And I was asked to go in too. At that point of time, I just felt guilty for not being in the office; and he dropped the bomb. I could tell he was really shocked too, and on the verge of tears. The MD's secretary stood by and sieved through his stuff, whereby he packed and left within half an hour. *sigh*

A couple of us were actually planning on MOS that night, but changed it to Monastery- a pub, so that we can speculate more (SM, Desmond, Dennis, Michael, Leonard, Laren and me). We talked bout it, and well, stuff are too sensitive at this juncture for me to even 2nd-guess. And no point either. It Is a pity for my ex-GM. He was a great guy to work under, affable, and he really cares for the staff. Of course he has his pitfalls, which really, I won't divulge it now or here.

But what I CaN say is that we have a new GM waiting on the wings, to be introduced to us on Tuesday. He'll officially start in July, and oh, by the way, he's pulled all our profiles for a review from the MD's secretary.

I for one, expect tighter control of the department and possibly major 're-structuring' in 3-6 mths time. Stick around for the joyride, coz I can't wait to see what's next over the bend.

Toodles.

2006-05-22T23:24:00.000+08:00

Ready or not, Here I come! *roar*
haha..i feel voracious today. Why? Coz i feel quite relaxed right now. After a 'hectic-ly' fun weekend, I can proclaim that I am rested. *smiles* lemme share some bits of it.

Fri night: suppose to go drinking with the rest to celebrate our Sales Mgr's bday, but didn't -- met Alvin, Grace (his gf) and Jerome. A & J are my 1st 3 months classmates. A is also my long-lost childhood neighbour, rediscovered through a visit to my place in preparation for an economics debate. U don't wanna go there, it's a longer story. AnYWAy. Had prata at Casuarina road, and golly, are they YUmmAMicious! i mean it!! it's bloody fantastic, Thank Alvin for his great recommendation. The Egg prata was just so tasty I gobbled it up, with the thosai and murtabak. *burps* We adjourned to Swenson's at J8 for ice cream after that.. Well. Singapore IS mostly eating, shopping ain't it? Eating - Check. Shopping?

Yup! Shopping on sat! hahaha...with the same dudes. BUT. I double-booked myself. *sheesh* am I stupid or what. Luckily, my babe here, Huiqing, didn't even grumble bout it. Felt so bad for having ditched over :\ Thankfully, she managed to join us in the afternoon. So after walking & 'shopping' (i didn't buy a single thing), Jerome, Alvin and I met up with Huiqing and her sis-Eileen at PS to catch Over The Hedge. Hilarious show with great laughter scenes. Nothing heavy, just light-hearted, non-brainy comedy. Left the theatre and couldn't remember half of what the movie screened. *laughs* Told u it's a no-brainer.

Sunday: Big Walk. as a Committee member of Rentokil Initial's Newpaper big walk, had to reach super early - 5AM. *grumbles* Prepared bubble guns, bubble machines, distribute songsheets, take care of the 4 hand & 1 soap dispenser mascots...*bleah* Ooh, and I walked the 10km with my family and dennis (botak). My 1st Big walk! Downside is the major crowd squeezing..and... that I didn't win anything *groans*. Nope, not the nissan car either. sigh. After it ended, I went to Animals Resort at Seletar Farmway 5; met my ex who's working there (ystday was his last day), as well as goats, ponies, baby peacocks, quails, iguana, rabbits, cats, puppies-pug, schnauzer, shetland sheepdog, bischon frise, tzih tsu, etc, and HUGE DOGS like GERMAN SHEPHERDS!!! haha. Guess which I Liked best? I just had so much albeit the fatigue, that I was almost late to catch The DaVinci Code with Jack in the evening.

And so thus ends my lovely hectic weekend. *breathes out* So jam-packed. So exciting. Thank goodness my double-booking worked out fine. But I missed out on a buffet lunch with my colleagues when I went to the Pet Farm. oh well, I'm too fat now anyway...and I had so much fun cradling all the puppies... *awwwww*

And 2 things I want to comment just before I sign off--
1. Pugs are so cute and so unbelieveably friskily Active! *eyes widen* amazing. I really had no idea, coz he was so docile in the cage and when I carried him...*scurry scurry* he's on an all-time adrenalin high!

2. I HEART YOU, YOU BIG GORGEOUS GERMAN SHEPHERD! *smiles* I'm contented.

2006-05-12T08:47:00.000+08:00

Wow, new post! ahhahaa...alright alright, 2nd, 3rd and 4th person to complain/prode/hint bout my lack of entries --janet, terrence and huiqing, Arigato! (: need a push now and then to blog something, don't have that habit like i used to!

Just an update, but u probably already know, I've currently been busy checking UK unis, fretting over the limited 6 choices I am entitled to, the impending dateline whereby my referral has yet to be done by my ex tutor/lecturer.. *sigh* I'm quite kanchiong, quite anxious but at the same time, I don't want to be too caught up coz the greated the expectation, the greater my disappointment would be if it fails. :

Had a great time out last night. Hung out with my colleagues at this newly opened bar at circular rd, and it was their opening night. JAB1, owned by my Sales Mgr's friend. But it was boring..and so we switched to Devil's bar around midnight. My SM stayed though, coz..the waitresses are pretty. *laughs*

Devil's Bar had a live band act, good singing but the music never really took off to serious grooving. Techno in the other dance bar was not my thing so we stuck to the band and kinda just bumped to the music. And then... there was this weird fat guy on my other side that started gazing at us and...*ugh* . Creepy. And then it got Worse. I was holding my drink, and he just poured more into mine from the bottle. I don't even know him. Later on, when the others were dancing, I went to get my glass, he appeared out of nowhere, tapped my shoulder and started following me. Major creep! hahaa..so what'd I do? Immediately I ran..*phew* Luckily I had some friends to merge in with. Drunkard. yucks.

Thankfully after the band, the DJ spun some great R & B music; had a fantastic time groovin'. Alcohol kinda loosened me up a little, so I relaxed and danced more freely, till some guys started closing in a little too much. Strangers bumping against me just irks me, so I had to move off. But had tons of fun. 1 of the girls repeatedly asked me to go up the platform but I don't have the guts for that. With that pole up there..and quirky, weird guys who'll gaze at u, grab ur legs...uh uh. *rolls eyes* no way. I'm no wild child, just a fun-loving girl!

In all, 1st experience at a club was fun. If huiqing didn't have a curfew? perhaps we could be bumping to the music with moves from our class! The 2 girls have asked me out again and hey, I'm a super -saving working class girl. Maybe some other time. Can't club and drink so often, I'll be messed up!

And. The most surprising bit was that Mom & Dad...were totally Okay with me going clubbing! (: I told her that at least my colleagues do club, so I'll be safe with them, rather than with like..another innocent 1st-time like me.

But on another night when I'm free and all, plus a great club with R & B music, I might just pop by. Yup. Definitely a possibility ( :

2006-04-26T22:44:00.000+08:00

Alrighty, i'm bacK!

Received a nudging from a fren to update my blog, (yup weida, that's u alright).
Thankfully for some readership (01 reader-should be in singular, not plural), else I would've abandoned it altogether. Only kidding, coz I love to write. but I also love to be lazy. *sigh* The Great conflicts of a young teenage heart. (i'm still teenage--I don't get to vote, I don't get any money from the government. *growls*)

Anyway. Life. Has been tremendously nondescript. I'm still quite a loner and hermit-like, I seem to avoid my friends. yeah..I don't log into MSN if i can help it. sigh.

Work. Has been pathetic. Busy doing small, unimportant shit work that's passed down from the top. Yup, me. I get 'Volunteered' for committees like the upcoming Big Walk, and this year's D & D. AGAIN. Why? coz after passing the baton, no one else's duties are as insignificant as me. Plus, I get bullied from the upper authorities who cannot decide on what they want. Thus, they just keep changing their instructions for a particular topic. Lucky for them, their hands are clean and smooth, because mine are the ones that get constantly dirtied. Freaks.

Thankfully, I've got nice colleagues --the sales pple, the service co-ordinators. Everyone else. I really do mean it! All very lovely people. *smiles* and i'm super thankful for that. Because everything I think of my shit work, I just want to stand up and leave immediately.

But on hindsight, it might not be wise, because I want to further my studies. Will be trying (a potshot) at applying for UK, coupla universities that caught my eye (and my parents' pocket). Hopefully I can leave this year..

Also, I'm thankfully for my parents support. And my girlfrens..Huiqing's ever steady support and counsell. *sighs happily* life's still good when I can count my blessings and I run out of fingers and toes.

Yep. Life's good, and I'm still one lucky girl.

2006-02-25T23:51:00.000+08:00

Just played squash with Jack & Weida on friday, which wasn't very challenging. Not that I can blame it on anyone, coz they're real beginners, whereas I've played for a longer period of time. Am considering asking Luke, but he has exams. *Sigh* nvm, maybe when they get better, I can have a better game and improve my strokes.

Hey, btw! Do visit http://kevan.org/johari?view=jan-ice and put down what you think of me.

Thanks in advance ( :

Well, sales today wasn't fab. earned very little extra pocket money, and i'm spending so much so fast! Have to work harder for tmr's sales already. Am really tired, with work everyday, I kinda take to de-stressing, lounging in my room surrounded by bossa nova, snazzy jazzy music and what-not. And guess what, I end up sleeping late, coz i'm just so comfortable! ahaha..how weird. Anyway, this constitutes to eyebags but I guess I need my daily dose of good music now.. it's addictive!

2006-02-19T22:54:00.000+08:00

Ah. Lovely weekend. I had a day off from work, and I tried to squeeze every minute out of it to maximise it. Had three things on my agenda - 1) Donate blood 2) Have coffee with babe 3) Play tennis with jeremy from 8-10am.

Failed. Miserably! 1) Iron deficiency (again!) 2) Pacific coffee closed. :/ Watched movie w babe, and didn't have time for coffee at TCC. 3) Tennis courts were already booked.

Yeesh. Well, at least I had a great and relaxing time out with babe. Managed to coax him out of watching 'The Fog', coz I get really jittery from horror flicks. Watched 'Jarhead' instead, which was interestingly nice, but not fantastic as I hoped. Kinda RA too.

Haven't hung out with babe for quite awhile, so it was nice to meet up and slack. Pretty cool dude who doesn't seem to have things going for him well--in the relationship path. Hopefully things get better. It's pretty sad to see him so down and out, coz although he's still fun to slack with, I can't help but feel sorry for him. At least he tried, too bad it didn't work out.

Received a msg from a fren: '...You're a great gal to have as a girlfriend... Too bad i'm attached...'

Thank goodness he's attached, coz I ain't got the time to devote to relationships now. As yet, friendships still take precedence, and of coz, family at the top. Family includes my dad (whom i'm still trying hard to be respectful and polite to), my mom, jeremy, janet (my far-away sister!) and my future bro-in-law, Terrence. Yeah, terrence, thanks for the constant viewership of my blog! greatly appreciated man. ( :

Anyway, my basic theory test's tmr, and i've barely scratched the surface for my studying. Shall chiong off now and bury my face in it. As if. hahaha... But still, gotta sign off now.

Adios!

2006-02-09T22:57:00.000+08:00

At first, I was going to share about the effects of viral infection on my brain.. about how I can feel that my memory's not so good. About me losing money, being more careless than normal..

But.

I just have to share my thoughts and small agonies. Like communication with my dad. Since young, I've feared my dad, scorned him for his method of education, rebelled in small ways, talked back to him in sarcastic tones. In fact, it still persist even now.

I'm trying to stop all that, I really want to obey and honour my parents. But.. it's just so difficult talking to my dad. At our best, my dad and I are more like buddy-style, I'll joke with him, and he'll probably put me down in a teasing manner. I'm fine with it, because at least I can feel the love from him. At our worst... to me, the worst is when I try to reason with my dad, I eliminate all saracasm, I speak in a gentle manner and all fails. He just gets angry, orders me to stop and leave and he starts banging things around and finally stops whatever he's doing, complaining about me.

How now? What do I do? I'm trying to just explain something. Point out a small error on his part, improving communication. And it's just so difficult because even the nicest method fails. How do I communicate with my dad? Must he be winning all the time? No person can.

Because although he wins and saves his pride by ordering me off and saying the last word, but he's broken a little piece of connection between us. And I never want that. I never do. Much as I try, I'm really at my wits end. The conversation topic is not serious, not major at all, but look at the catastrophe. *sighs and lays back*

What can I do. What can I do.

2006-01-26T22:11:00.000+08:00

What a week, what a terrible week.

I cannot recall such a bout of illness that kept me away from work for almost a week! : X my 14 days of mc has been seriuosly depleted and i'm rather worried now. *sigh*

On sunday, in the afternoon during work, i kinda realised i was coming down with a fever. True enough, by the evening, my legs were practically jelly, my mind was on hibernating mode and my body ached tremendously with a paining headache. swell. no work on monday for me.
And tuesday. Fever plus sore throat. on Wednesday, (frustrated at the miserly 1 day mc each time), i went to work..only to be sent back home by noon, coz my head was really spinning.

Fever + sore throat become worse with flu and cough.

Today (Thursday), I STill have fever, flu, cough, slight gastric wind, vomiting and giddiness perpetually all the time.

Oh gosh. What's wrong? Thankfully, i changed doctors. please DO NOT Visit Raffles Medical Toa Payoh! Really bad. All the doctor did was to give me medicine for the illnesses I told her. My family doctor actually delved in deeper (actually, I haven't been to see her for years...*laughs*)

So..I'm lined up for a blood test tmr morning. Great. At Least something else is done. Fever and giddiness for 5 days.

*sigh* I hope i bounce back in time for our company dinner at Fatty Weng restaurant tmr evening! :X

This bout of illnesses are really too much. All I can be thankfully for is that it isn't dengue or chicken pox :P

2006-01-19T22:41:00.000+08:00

I Hate my job. I Seriously do! I feel that I am tolerant, but only to a certain level and my job..has bypassed that level by just that little bit.

For your info, I'm a sales co-ordinator. But to spare you from collecting earwigs w a long explanation, I'm just in admin. Paper work, recording things, staring at the same things day in day out. It's of utterly Zero challenge..oh wait. The challenge is to finish all the paperwork, do it perfectly and to help my colleagues do theirs. Exciting!

I can literally peel off the layers of rust gathering around my brain, pushing away the thick canopy of moss snaking around my head. Oh gosh. I badly want to quit. But the practical side says no, because it'll hurt my resume. *sigh*

It's really draining, doing something you hate. Meaningless paper work, keying in information that is really other people's work, not yours. And what do you get? Eyepains. Backaches.

What Shit.

2006-01-17T23:10:00.000+08:00

The most unimaginable thing..(well, not really THE most) happened earlier on..when I was leaving home around 10pm to collect an item from my friend. There was this huge group of men (20s - 30s) outside the corridor, talking about..catching.

So i left as planned, and called home to get my parents to check out what happened. Apparently..They were CID officers, here to arrest my neighbour (2 men just opposite our unit) The old man (40+) was arrested elsewhere already, while the young man (20+) has still yet to be apprehended. They were allegedly involved in a huge loan shark business and are in a gang and the older man is said to be a rather big shot.

I've never met the old man...just the young one. They've rented that unit for a few months already, but they're always out so I never actually got the chance to meet them properly. Which is just too bad. Imagine if they got me to describe his looks to a sketch artist! How cool.

Anyway. I had a lovely evening yesterday. Had dinner at Wah Lok, Carlton Hotel with my colleagues from Caesars. The food was divine. So yummy, so delectable, so enjoyable. The company was great, with laughter all around. Bernard regaled us with tales and interesting happenings throughout the night, ranging from the weirdest topics like sharks to karaoke bars. Learnt a couple of things.. street-wise stuff from him. *winks*

Retired to Father Flanagan's (rem my bday meal with my gfs there?) for an after-dinner drink. I had a lime margarita, while i recommended a daiquiri to hq. think she would have prefered my margarita to the daiquiri. maybe we'll try others next time. ( :

Lovely drinks, Good food, Great Company. What a perfect combination for an absolutely relaxing night. And I really needed the relaxation.

2005-12-30T23:26:00.000+08:00

*wails*

Folks..I know it's been ages since you've last seen me, but trust me, you will miss the old me, because I have transformed into an unlovely huge ba-zhang! : yes, it's true! and though I absolutely loathe the idea of it, i must..resort to a diet.

me and my foodalicious mouth must say stop to the tempting array of yummy food that singapore offers: melty chocolate mudpies, smooth creamy lucious cheesecakes, lovely fried carrot cakes and not to mention, the crunchy crisps and delectable choclates that supermarkets display so wantonly infront of my all-seeing eyes.

So, thus it has reached this stage. WhAt happened to my rather high metabolism rate?! with a lack of ANY exercise, i think it disappeared as well, without taking my huge appetite. Oh well, gotta find ways to whet my appetite. *sigh* my friends, wish me luck as i undertake this monstrous, unbearable task.

But suffer alone i must, for i alone am responsible for this state.

*sigh*

2005-12-27T13:22:00.000+08:00

feels good to be back once more, typing a whole shit load of emotions into a webpage.
Have rarely chanced upon my blog nowadays..not too sure if it's a flittering interest or just simply because i dislike my blogskin! I think it's the latter, so girls and boys can soon spot the new skin.

I trust most of you had a lovely christmas? Before you bemoan and groan about a short holiday or whatnot, lemme first state that I have a couple of friends who had a lousy one, because they're tucked away into that delectable NS camp of theirs, on duty. how terrible! Mine is LOADS & HeapS better than theirs, thankfully.

I watched The Chronicles of Narnia on saturday with my bro. IT IS FANTABULOUS. I'm not exaggerating! It is really terrific..go catch it! You Must!

Anyway, Had a lovely potluck/ christmas celebration with my gfs and my gf's bfs yesterday, at my place. had lotsa yummy food and great company. tensions were a lil strung for a brief moment, but it started and ended well. I'm really glad for one, that we had this potluck, simply because we rarely meet up (except for birthdays and special festivals), and because we're always tucked away in some restaurant. so hey, potlucks can be fun too! And a good thing is that it's beside the pool, so we kinda played in the pool for quite awhile. *smiles*

My boss..yes, that hunkalicious one, is returning to UK. *sigh* he's a really good boss. Takes the initiative to talk to the colleagues, not only his subordinates, but other small fry as well. He has a great sense of humour, and I can really relate to him. We discussed subjects such as religion, trafalgar war, war in china, vietnam, the difference btw british isles, UK & Great Britain (which I kinda forgot. : X)

The point is, he's a really terrific boss. Flexible, spontaneous, gearing for improvements and can relate to people well. He's a really good man manager who cares for his colleagues. will miss him loads. not to discriminate, but i feel that asian bosses...rarely hit that mark. the rest simply won't be able to measure up, because the standard he set was so high! I sincerely hope the next manager will be good. truly so.

2005-12-03T22:57:00.000+08:00

oh my gosh. NEVER have I seen with my bespectacled eyes a truer case of Brains OR Brawn. Lemme share with you the scenario. Alright, go ahead and blame me if i constantly meet up with dumb people in my line of work at my part-time job. (amazing, isn't it? with such a high literacy rate in Singapore, u'll think that stupid comments and questions should be lower. but well, we measure education rate, not Common sense Or logic. *shrugs)

anyway, my fren popped by, with his ns fren who likes sharp swords. had an interesting exchange with that guy and gleefully managed to put him down. *laughs sardonically* not often that i can out-speak a guy.

well, but it's not about him. it's about my fren's fren's fren. hahaha..confusing? kinda. just a brawny aussie educated lad (the guy i out-talked was also aussie)..asked me if i would stop him if he just grabbed our store product and ran out. DuH! I'll just grab the longest, sturdiest weapon and knock him out. And if he beats me up? I'll just lodge a case against him. This IS afterall, Singapore. Plus, he's a fren of my fren's. How easy can it be to identify him?! super easy. Does he think it's smart to ask such a dumb-ass question? classic case of either Brains OR Brawn. It's a trade-off in his case, I'm sorry to say.

Met more dumb people, dumb couples, dumb teenagers who ask the weirdest, illogical questions that just require an ounce of common sense. Apparently, they don't. Is it me who just think so, or do a large proportion of people who love to occupy busy retail employees' time by asking brainless questions? or show off their knowledge by sprouting non-sensical information to their spouses (note: boyfriends/husbands to their girlfriends/wives). Is it ego that causes them to do as such? *slaps my forehead in disdain*

All in all, my day at work ended well, because of the guy who i out-talked. Scooped up a rare precious moment..a priceless moment when I shot him back with a phrase..and he just paused and hesitated to think over to find something to retort. And failed.

*smiles* What a day. What a Beautiful Day.

2005-11-20T21:42:00.000+08:00

Yes, i'm back. Finally got myself committed to pop down once more. Gosh. Has it really been that long? I guess time is a rather relative thing.

Anyway, just to catch things up a little, 20th birthday is happily celebrated and gone. only did small stuff with a couple of close friends and family. Had turkish food with elisa at my vehement encouragement (hope it suited her palate!) at sofra, irish food at father flanagan's with my girlfrens(yummy & fun dining) and quality jipponese food with my family at honjin. Thank goodness for discounts, else everybody's pocket would have some serious burns. Only sad thing was the lack of alcohol at father flanagan's. *shrugs* compromises must be made, not that i'm complaining.

too bad my sis wasn't here. else i'ld have dragged her along to check out some places to chill. can't wait for her to come back! of coz, terrence would've to be here too..else my dad will be really reluctant to let us out. :P thank goodness for a reliable, trustworthy would-be-brother in law! *chuckles* bet my mom will laugh if she reads this.

just had my first D & D on friday. was a great bash..didn't do any beers with my onslaught of feverish head pains. danced quite abit with cindy (her flavour's hot!) and some other colleagues whom i have no idea who they are-- some technicians..*shrugs* but all in jolly good fun. sadly, i didn't get to win any lucky draw prizes. well, i've got next year to look forward to! had some arabian food for lunch. loved the drinks (kamaradeen), disliked the huumus.

worked yesterday at caesars, chalking up a miserly pay. *sigh* can't wait to get a better paying job. screwed up majorly and probably gave my colleague a headache and a day of regret for working with me!

couldn't work today..my head's hurting alot more. i can even self-diagnose --> throat infection leading to slight fever. well hell.

richard (my boss) strongly urged me to travel to ko chang, coz i mentioned how much i loved phuket. and well..i think i should! hahaa..given the chance. future travel destinations... +ko chang! *smiles with pure elation*

2005-10-25T22:03:00.000+08:00

it's rather interesting. how it seems that when i'm in a happy mood, i rarely blog..but when i'm down in the dumps and out of flavour, that i come scuttling over. yes, ladies and gentlemen. i'm in a frustrated mood right now.

life has been good for so long, that small, trivial negative stuff can trip me up so easily.

as it is, work has been boring as usual. nothing has been motivating so far, but i've been surviving well. and now, my mood is thoroughly spoilt. not the time of the month, but i'm quite amazed that i felt so majorly pissed off by what my colleague commented.

i admit, my quotations may not always be 100% correct all the time. and my colleague kinda ticked me off. and she's one of the few who asked me out for dinner tmr. on them. reason? to show their appreciation for my good work. shut up and get lost man. what good work. *rolls eyes*

yes, i'm lousy, i know it. i'm not so meticulous. the efficient but not always effective worker. so please, i don't deserve such a treat. so let's just forget about it.

and another colleague just brushed me off when talking, commenting that whenever anyone says anything to me, i just smile. gawd. how bland i seem. fine then, guess it's time to remove the smile off my face. especially since there's nothing much to smile about in the office. oh btw? i'm refering to my boss. and u bet ur skinny booty shaking ass that i won't forget his comment for sometime, way after he does.

what a shit-ass fucker.

2005-09-15T22:13:00.000+08:00

Aedes mosquitoes. Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever. Fatal. Stagnant Water. 9,540 cases this year, more than last year's total of 9,549. Mosquito summons. Town Council takes steps to curb mosquito breeding. Environment Minister Yaacob Ibrahim.

Familiar? It should for many who're aware of the latest Dengue attack in Singapore. With cases on a sharp rise, it is no surprise that we're waging mega-war against these little, dangerous bugs. It is time to ANNIHILATE these pests!

Rentokil has come up with these machine called TARGET. Inside it is a LPG gas cylinder inside, with a small area with a deposit bag and a turbine fan just above it. And at the top is a piece of pheromone (chemical that attracts mosquitoes) with a shield sheltering it.

Basically, this machine releases carbon dioxide from the cylinder, and carries with it the smell of pheromones, covering a down-wind area of 100m. Mosquitoes in the vicinity will be attracted and fly closer to the machine, and will not even bother stopping to suck the blood of a person just beside Target. When it flies closer, the fan will suck it into the bag and VioLA! It dies after awhile, without their food.

Target is a bloody good machine, in the sense that..it can camouflage into a green environment (being painted green), is non-toxic, almost silent operation, works 24Hours DAILY and is weather-proof. Servicing is done on a monthly basis (to change the pheromone table & LPG gas cylinder).

Fantastic eh? It's tons more effective than diesel fogging which is smelly and just chases the mosquitoes away with the smell. Rentokil has Water-based fogging too - Not smelly and more effective. But, the BESt solution? Simple : TARGET. THe only downside is that it can't be placed in basements or enclosed areas. EAsy! and child-proof too, as safety locks can be installed.

*smiles* don't wanna be constantly fearful that the next mosquito bite u get can get u a Dengue fever? I can help solve your problem! ( :

2005-09-13T20:34:00.000+08:00

Certain events have transpired recently, perhaps this made me think more than i should over this matter.

As you'll remember, I just took a 4 day trip to good ole neighbour, malaysia. A trip sounds fun, but the one pressing matter was: WHO WOULD FEED TWIRL?
who could? and who would? my whole family was very agreeable to me asking one of my friends, since we all trusted her integrity.

indeed.

She refused, citing that her dad was displeased. Why? because if things went missing, we would blame her.

1) Why would we blame her if something went missing? We were the ones who requested for her help. If things went missing, it would've been our fault, for trusting the wrong person.

2) Does he not trust his own daughter to keep things safe and well? That she would not lift stuff from my house?

3) All our bedrooms were locked. Whatever is in the living room/kitchen...isn't that valuable. unless someone wants to nick a tv. and tvs are getting cheaper. from a condo? even tougher.

4) Unless.. *shrugs* shall not venture there.

My fren..stays very near me, along the North East region of Singapore. 15-20minutes walk away. Instead, my sis had to ask her fren to help us...which she willingly did, although she stayed in --- Jurong East. I was and still am, immensely thankful and grateful for her warm friendship to help in times of need.

Enough said. The disappointment is minor, because it's trifle. But it's sad enough to know as such. :

2005-09-11T21:00:00.000+08:00

just returned from a 4 day trip in m'sia, and my worst fears have been founded. i've gained another 2kg. drats!

left on wed night for JB train terminal, and resided in a bunk till bout 8am when we arrived at glorious glorious KL, home of the Petronas Towers (or KLCC), home to some of my relatives and to yummy food! *groans*

Thursday

visited my dad's sis - gu ma, uncle simon-my dad's nephew, uncle murphy plus some other relatives. ate delish penang char kway teow which was terribly sinful. and that was after a breakfast buffet at our hotel Sol Melia. had dinner at a restaurant with my dad's side of the family, and tucked into steaming dishes of fish, vege and whatnot. felt my waistline expand by a centimetre immediately.

Friday

visited my mom's side today. her 2nd brother- uncle lawrence. met our cousins, currently working in his logistics firm, which will be passed to his eldest daughter, opening an engineering firm in malacca for his 2nd son and plans to run a third biz for his youngest son (who's 26, by the way) to run. dined at yEt another restaurant with sinfully yummy food and desert. killer. met the 3rd son-sebastian. a wild, naughty boy who doesn't study hard when younger. returned with an honest degree. starts to hear the grindstones of my future spinning.

argh. had buffet dinner. some were great, but others sucked. oysters weren't opened properly, and i ended up spitting out shards of shell. poo-tooey. chicken eats shells, i don't. period.

Saturday

checked out in the morning, walked around the shopping areas like Lot 10, Sungei Wang, BB Plaza (Bukit Bintang). had dim sum at Concorde hotel. walked, walked, shopped, shopped, i didn't buy a single thing.

had tian-ji zhou (frog porridge) for dinner washed down with mango shakes and coconut juice. *burps* need i say more?

Sunday

took the train to kulai, visited more relatives, ate more food. and finally...back home here, after horrific jams on the causeway.

great that i don't have to work, but... this holiday's more of visitation. and sinful food. i miss phuket. :

2005-09-02T21:23:00.000+08:00

just had this incredible urge to describe myself & blare it out, mainly because my mind's too chaotic to hold much stuff for long periods before it flounces off to some ditzy thing.

Let's see..

well, i like warm, fuzzy stuff (reminds u of elle wood's snap cup? ha) but at the same time, i reject them. I abhor being portrayed as-Oh, that sweet girl, but i like to help pple spontaneously at times. but that doesn't mean i have this streak consistently. reason why i violently reject this 'Sweet girl tag' is coz..i have a foul, petty temper that flares easily..it's true! it's definitely not moodswings..well, partially.

sounds scary huh. i'm pretty introverted too. i clam up and shy away most of the time. strangely, at certain occasions, even though i'm the new person there, i make noise and behave like an extrovert. but there's on very very rare occasions. when the blue moon gets cheesy.

ah, yes..domesticity. i'm not domestic, coz i don't wash my clothes, mop the floor and stuff. bUt. that doesn't mean i can't (except for clothes washing). on the contrary. haha..it's basically out of pure lazyness that i don't do household chores. i can't cook too..nah, scratch that. i can't cook well. hhaha..yeah. but baking once in a cheesy, blue moon is great. cookies. maybe coz i love eating cookies? damn. it shows. which goes to say that Yes, i'm alsO a great procrastinator.

so, how'd i describe myself? ah yes..a cat. *smiles* what. so what if i have a cat. hhaaha..
i have a lazy mind too. won't think if i can. sleep for tremendous ages, loves to slack and stone, and read. would love to learn dancing though, but can't afford it. *sigh* i wish i had a voice when i was younger. to protest against my piano classes and switch to ballet.

all in all..i'm just screwed up. and u know what? i think i'll remain in this screwed up stage awhile longer. before i whack the dust of my arse, & get the grind movin'.

Bout time too.

2005-08-30T21:13:00.000+08:00

So. in the midst of our Chocolate Freckles Peak (once again!), we had a rather interesting discovery. But. first, i'll show you how we reached that conclusion. Below is a summary of the conversation btw Becs-B, Hq & me. Maybe it was under the influence of utterly sinful fudgey chocolate with cookies.. but...well, here goes!

i commented on how although we RECJ association are meeting up more regularly, a member has been rarely attending. and yada yada yada..working at nyp + tuition, earning 2k a month..
and then we moved on to the number of rejections she gave to her bf. somehow, the conversation shifted slightly, and hq shared this book 'Why Men are from Venus & Women from Mars'. It says that guys like to look at ladies with long, slim legs..reason being? : looking from the bottom up, the real reason is the area where the legs conjoins. *groans* guys.

anyway, so then we moved on to sextology, how this guy is so good with the history of sex, & how pple in the victorian times make out without removing their clothes. i mean..look at the layers of clothing! if they're sleeping at 10, the lady has to retire first at 9, and start peeling the layers of clothes off.. just so that she'll be ready at 10. golly gee. imagine how the guy will feel if he's gotta wait for an entire hour. *lifts an eyebrow*

progressing on, hq remarked that victorian ladies had this strange string garmet for the upper torso tied at the back, which was a corset. and becs couldn't help but pity them and envy them for their fantastic bods. slim and shapely. (secretly, i couldn't agree more) turns out, these ladies had their bladder pushed downwards due to the tight corset. basically, they have weak bladders from the constant pressure.

WHICH led to my conclusion that Victorian Ladies sipped their tea not only out of delicacy & the steaming hot liquid, it is also to prolong their consumption of liquid so as not to rush to the WC every half an hour!

*laughs* amazing how a comment of the regular absence of a member can lead to the discovery of why victorian ladies sip their tea!

2005-08-21T22:46:00.000+08:00

what a happening saturday!

alright, maybe to some of you, it might sound perfectly boring-it's fine with me. but it was a great way to spend my saturday, i can tell you that.

Met my gfs at wheelock's place for lunch at Sakae (again!) together with their dudes. had a yummy meal, and great fun! entertaining and delightful. got the dudes & babes to share their thoughts..and it kinda felt like a..relationship counselling session for awhile though. hahaha! however, boyfriend-initiation day was a success! shixiu's a pretty big hit, considering we've just met him. for me, i met him for the 1st time only, & i'm pretty glad that he's snagged hq! heh.

after lunch, the couples split, i headed to coffee bean for a short cuppa, before heading to bugis for dinner. *burps* finished lunch at 5, had dinner at 615. how terrible! gotta do some exercise tomorrow, that's for sure.

went oasis & played boardgames with janet, terrence and ks from..7 till 12+. it was really fun! they have TONS of boardgames there, and we played Colorette, Settlers of the Catan & Kingdom. sweet. oh, and surprisingly, i met my colleague shaun there.

a fulfilling day out with my closest friends, my sis, future bro-in-law, plenty of food and fun.
what's missing? the rest of my family & a shitload of Exercise!!

2005-07-19T19:50:00.000+08:00

During work today, I spent a good quarter of an hour chatting with my boss. Discussing the importance of a good HR recruitment/employment strategy. Seems like RI hasn't been practicing good hiring techniques, in terms of personality match in accordance with the job. Perhaps it is in our culture, that they ask qtns such as loyalty, how they spend their pay, etc. However, my boss asked me qtns regarding personality type during my interview. It's really interesting--personality matching with jobs. When one hires the right person, eg: Hiring a sales person who not only has Good communication, but also Organisation, they can fulfill work much easier, efficiency and effectiveness is also achieved. There have been instances whereby sales people can communicate well, but aren't organised. Basically, they get buried under other stuff and can't excel.

It is insufficient for a sales person to only have an interview. A guide to better hiring of Sales staff could incorporate a sales presentation, for instance. It is better to rate them by that rather than listening to them proclaim how good they are in an interview. Culture plays a big part, because in the Asian culture, companies keep the old and inefficient/ineffective staff, based on their experience and age, rather than capabilities. It is not cost-productive for the company, but I guess it gives them security for their rice bowl.

We also touched upon the company culture. Long-term investments over short term jobs. Having many little contracts over a few massive jobs. Yup, that is our secret recipe to profit levels of 30% and more. However, for a company to succeed and excel over competitors, the sales must tie-in with the operations and service sector. If either end fails, the results will prove disastrous through bad WOM. Therefore, an easy step to reduce this failure ( a guide, but not a sure-fire way), would be to hire the right person. With motivation and training, employees will produce the desired results for the company, thus propelling them into great success.

I for one, am immensely glad that my boss has great insight, very clear objectives, powerful management tactics and capacity to excel in a leader position with a gung-ho attitude. And, Age is certainly not a factor here, cause he's only 29, and he's been in a managing position overseas for 4 years. *gasps* yup, that's right. I'll strive to learn as much as I can before he returns to UK. *smiles*

2005-07-15T20:22:00.000+08:00

And. So. here i am again!

Yes, I am officially an Ex-Ngee Ann-er. Just went thru the graduation ceremony on Wednesday, together with tons of my friends whom I finally met once more. ahhh..what a comfortable feeling crapping with them, and...basically just hanging ard with them. *smiles with watery eyes* sadly, not everybody attended. After tons of photo-taking, dined at Secret Recipes, before chilling at macs, with MORe photo-taking. silly ones with little fingers..yeah, u know, that sort. ( :

Anyway, had THE most fun day at work! well..technically speaking, it ain't work. Spent the day out with 10 surveyors, 1 field biologist. 12 of us, 3 teams. Plus our GM, Sales Mgr (Barney) and Tech Sales Mgr (Nick). Travelled around Singapore..like Jurong Birdpark, Mandai Zoo --Yummy Ben & Jerry's Ice-cream! , Clark Quay, Newton Circus --yummy hokkien mee lunch! , Bukit Timah Hill --Climbed the steep slope, Changi Village, Singa Inn --Driving range, and lastly, Sentosa --Yummy Sakae Sushi dinner! Was a fantastic game, great car ride in a Subaru Impreza, great food at ZERO cost for me, Fun IQ puzzles and guess what? My team won, cash prize of a cool $60 per person.

Sweet! hhahaa.. But it really is fun. Kudos to Barney for his excellent Planning and Management. This outing is actually a reward for their hard work and great sales results in the 1st half of 2005. Absolutely nothing to do with me, except that I get to enjoy too! Wheeee! hahaha..

*sighs dreamily* And tmr? I'll be meeting my babes. Yay! hahaha.. and after that, going M'sia with Janet, Terrence and KS

2005-07-04T21:58:00.000+08:00

This is so true!
SCORPIO WOMAN (Oct-Nov)

A simple woman who always show what kind of a mood she is in. You can tell right away if she is upset, or if she is flirting with you. She expresses herself by actions much more than verbally, for it's in her character.

A Scorpio woman has her own mysterious personality. She is confident and deep down inside, she is quite proud of herself. She hates to think that she is borne a woman and so, limiting her with a certain socially acceptable rules. She is a real woman and despite her innocent and childish looks, she has a spirit of free soul. Many men will make a mistake if they think she is a good follower; they are wrong.

She thinks being a plain simple housewife is boring. She likes to have power and control over other people, but this will be her secret, for you will only see a cute woman. Everything she does will look good, and she has all the women tricks you can think of. She can manipulate men without them knowing it.

If you think she is going to do everything you say because she loves you, then you will be disappointed. She can be a little tomboyish and she can understand you just by looking into your eyes. You may say sweet words which may sweep away any woman, but not with the Scorpio woman. She will use her X-ray eyes reading your thought of what you just said or what you are going to say. She always smile and hide her true feelings.

She will constantly show you that she loves freedom. If she has freedom, she will not leave you, but will love you even more. If she wants something, she will do everything she can to get it. She has her own sixth sense for people and you can feel that energy when you are around her. She likes a man who can earn her respect, and she will also respect and feel proud of that man. A man with power over her should not threat or challenge her confidence. She likes to have a good looking , strong and healthy man especially if she start to compare with her friends' boyfriends. It is a plus if he hold a degree or a good career.

She is a hot lady. She likes heavy music. She either loves or hates, there are no "fond of", or "like" for her. Love has no "may be", or "perhaps". If she is very angry, she will trash and throw things. Her wind storm can sweep all her dishes and you may accidentally get hit on your head for this matter. Be calm, it is just your grand mother favorite china for she has good qualities even though she is bad tempered.

Sometimes she shows her weakness, but it won't be for long. She will put herself together and become that hot chili again. If she loves you, she will disregard what other people say. Her relationship will be more important than what is right or wrong. Based on this reason, you may know some Scorpio women who are a second wife, a mistress.

She is spoilt, but she allows her loved one to overpower her. Whe dating this woman, you should not keep old love letters in your pocket or in your house. It could be a love letter dated 2 years ago, but she will still argue about this since this is a big deal for a suspicious woman. Remember, she has the temper of a shrew.

If you play a cold war with her, she will treat you likewise and double it. If you stood her up once, she will stand you up 2-3 times. She is quite fair in justice, so she can accept your apologies as much as she can pretend to accept things for now and wait for a pay back revenge in the future. If you are nice to hear, she will double that to you as well. A real fair woman.

She likes to make and spend money. She likes to have fame and reputations, and never let herself be broke and have no name at the same time. She is too proud and will not accept a "Poor" status. She loves to have face, so if you are a manager with small salary, she will be more proud than being with a truck driver. She hates to think or feel like a "Nobody".

If you like her, play a little hard to get. This will excite her a bit. When you go out on a date, set your schedule, but do not let her know that you have planned this for weeks. Always go to pick her up on time or be 5-10 minutes early.

2005-06-23T22:09:00.000+08:00

I had a fun day at work today! I followed Teruna (supervisor of Team1) ard for my service attachment. It. Was. Fun.!
hahhaa.. a really great experience and knowledgeable too.

could see their operations and systems first-hand. Teruna's in charge of the north and west industrial areas --> Jurong & Woodlands. so i followed him all day in the car. Here's a short summary of interesting stuff.. Here's what u use to KILL:

American & German Cockroaches ( C/R )
--> FWP powder in manholes

Common Ants ( C/A )
--> Motorblow for garden areas, BMG spray for internal.

Rodents ( Rod)
--> Fentrol Bait, Fentrol Gel, Bromatrol Contact Dust, Rat glue, Rat cage, Rat trap, etc.

Snake
--> Sulphur's a great repellent

Mosquito
--> Fogging and larvicide

Houseflies
--> Fogging, misting, fly tape, FWD, Luminos 3, Luminos 4

Garden termites & Subterranean termites
--> Puffing in arsenic
--> Agenda/ Fipronil
--> Premise (forgot the chemically used name)
--> Chlorpyrifos
and the dose to be used for corrective treatment after coring and drilling.

aaaahhhhh...it was really informative. Can see that the technicians worked real hard, but their job is interesting. There're tons more stuff from where I work at, but at the end of the day.......

I still freak out while faxing stuff, from the poster of BUGS taped above the faxing machine. *sigh*

2005-06-21T21:34:00.000+08:00

To Phuket and back. a long blog entry!

Sat
Boarded the early flight and reached Phuket in the morning at 0930 (SG 10:30am). Bought some shirts for my babes and buddy, rode on an elephant. Not that exciting, but *laughs* it tended to dump a smelly load whenever it paused. which was pretty often! :X had a absolutely yummy dinner of seafood and visited the pool bar with terrence and janet. gosh. beer is cheaper than water! hhaha..terrence always says that bout UK, but it's also true for phuket. *grins with delight* managed to loosen my dad up a lil on drinking. had heavenly mango with sticky rice dessert.

Sunday
Visited a few islands by canoe. 1 island could only be accessed during low tide, through this cavity.. and we had to lie flat in order to get through! cool eh? coz this island was circular, surrounding a little 'lake'. great experience.. i love to travel! sea, air, land. the pple there were real fun. my sis and bf stuck their legs out of the ship and i followed too. hahaha..and one of the naughtier canoeist grabbed my heel. afterawhile, i hung my legs down again.. only to be splashed with icy cold water! *naughty naughty* dad caught a starfish and found 2 sea cucumbers. had fun prodding the slimy things. today's mango rice with sticky rice is eVen better!

Monday
visited the patong beach in the morn. waves were great! singapore's shore are ripples in a stagnant pond in comparison. *laughs* but it's scary too, coz they have undercurrents that suck u down. swash is powerful, but so is the backwash. had so much fun here. hahha..includes the flirting surfboarder too :P was the first to para-sail. wasn't exciting, but still an eye-opening experience. lovely bird-eye view of the sea and adjacent mountains. can't wait for Thorpe park in UK! terrence promised to accompany me there. *grins madly till the side of my mouth hurts* Had the best meal, in Phuket town. *burps* shit. NOw i have to lose even more weight.

but hey..who diets on a holiday?? Not me. ( :

Can't wait for my sis to graduate. till the next plane ride..toodles!

2005-06-12T23:22:00.000+08:00

ahhh..and so, I have thus completed my 3 day temp job as a DBS promoter for their roadshow at Marine Parade. made a couple of new friends and met up with an old fren. *smiles* but that's not the point of my topic today. basically, i'm in a rather laid-back mood today, sipping my fresh apple+carrot juice, and i'm gonna share this self-labelled amusing incident that happened to me on saturday.

anyway. i was rushing for work and realised that i was broke. so there i was, in a hurry to withdraw $$ from the atm. Initially, i wanted to take out $50. but at the last moment, i changed my mind to w/draw $20 instead. HOwevEr, in my haste, i accidently pressed the 3rd option instead of the 1st or 4th! ( those familiar with POSB atms will understand) and Yes, i withdrew a thousand buckeroos. *yikes* i was totally frozen with panic and hurriedly pressed 'cancel' but to no avail. and so what did i do? but Panic Even more and slammed down on Alllll the buttons! hahaha.. yes, sounds idiotic and crazy, but i did that.

When i left the atm, i was so frightened that someone would mug me and grab my 20 $50 bills. hahha..and coz i was late for work, i couldn't deposit the bills back. So i spent that day forcing chilling incidents of being robbed from my mind during work, till i finally deposited it back in. *sighs with relief* my wallet was sooo fat with blue bills that i can just simply hyperventilate and faint if someone as much as casts a shadow over me when i open my bag!

haha...that really thought me to be more careful with machines. not that i haven't been clumsy in many incidents involving machines *laughs* but this encounter really freaked me out.

lesson learnt!

2005-06-09T00:46:00.000+08:00

remembered this brief conversation with buddy recently. it's about success..basically the gist is such that everybody wants to be successfully. Success is greatly admired by all, but what is even more respected are those people who fail and have the courage to face it, stand up to it and conquer it. Truly admirable indeed. and I can say that I belong to the category that is afraid of even taking the first step that leads to either sucess or failure. May this admittance grant me strength to do so!

oh yes, another thing. Accompanied buddy for a ice-cream snackeroo at Andersons of Denmark, Suntec, because his best buddy works there. haha...his first time eating ice-cream in years! (think decade) scary. anyway..we kinda pulled a white lie on his buddy..*frowns* hopefully buddy can find a permanent solution to his problem so that he won't have to recruit any future actresses.

ooohh..and One more thing! terrence is back! hahaha.. *cheers* SIA flights back to Singapore include a phrase that somewhat goes: To all Singaporeans returning back, Welcome back home.
squash time with my future bro-in-law!

hoo-yeah!

2005-06-05T23:06:00.000+08:00

enjoyed myself tremendously in the company of my babe on saturday. the true babe, Babe. confused? i'm refering to Hq. *smiles* just totally slacked and crapped. Even discussed serious morality issues and religion. of coz, i didn't waste any opportunity to pull strings. well...after some thought and talk with my oTher buddy, i've decided that i shall quit in this profession. Totally not cut out for it! -if i sound really vague, it's 100% intentional.

Had a pretty tiring day at work today, with thomas. had only 1 customer..but he spent bout $800. *phew* don't wanna get lamblasted by the management. and i really did try my best.

well! that kinda wraps up my week... am looking forward for a relaxing day with buddy tmr! hopefully he doesn't make me walk too much, coz my feet are absolutely killing me..

au revoir!

2005-06-02T23:20:00.000+08:00

oh darn.. i haven't been blogging ever since i left HospitalityDirect..and now, i can barely keep track of my days!

last Friday: job hunting with buddy at the numerous job recruitment agencies in Int'l Plaza. sadly, none of the buggers were ard. Saw that jerk screwing Patrick again. oh yeah, met up with sis to shop at Suntec. Saw Junhua, Bryan & Leslie that day. oh, & Kim too! *grins*

last Sat: stayed at hm, rested and cleared some hsehold chores.

Sunday: worked at Caesars. Learnt more bout swords from Lee Peng. ( :

Monday: Met buddy again after his haircut. nice style! bet he couldn't do it as well as the hairstylist. little surprise that i'm right. ha! but i earned myself some ribbing from him. darn..he's getting violent! gradually coming to realise that his violent genes are Not non-existent. Just Dominant!

Tuesday: settled more hsehold chores & squashed in school aft that. returned the club racket & didn't manage to collect my trophy coz it's with stephen. getting riled with the morons that buddy encounters.

Wednesday: wheeeeee! lunched at chinatown mkt and proceeded...*drumrolls* to East Coast Park! been eons since i last cycled! hahhaa..can u sense my exhilaration?? can u taste the joy? smell the laughter? 2 hrs of cycling with buddy. *argh* wished he was more babe, so at least it is easier to catch up with him! but he's nice enough to slow for me. what can i say? i'm just fat and slow. went swimming in the sea but was forbidden to swim out further. what a protective babe! well, he had his anxiety from his past experience. dined at marine parade mkt for dinner & walked ard to end off a wonderful day.

Today: was suppose to work out at the gym and swim with elisa! buddy was to bring us to delta's sports complex. BUT. had job interviews today, dashing my hopes of shedding some calories. i really miss swimming laps in the pool. *whines*

realised that i've been spending lotsa time out with buddy babe! but we're both jobless, and he IS such good fun~! seems tt i'm failing in my task as a matchmaker though. *frowns* religion is Such a sensitive subject. sigh..

gambatte!

2005-05-26T00:03:00.000+08:00

and so the flag has fallen. current status: jobless. i already miss all the ongoings in the office: pat's jokes, saufi's naughty tricks, mark's- 'You're lying!' or 'She loves me', patrick's good-natured nagging and MoSt of all, my buddy. *sigh*

after work, buddy & i walked from Int'l Plaza to Glutton square for dinner. So happened to encounter DXO's official opening night! Treated to an amazing array of fireworks display which made the place seem so awfully romantic. darn. if only i was there with my bf. haha..if only i HAd one to begin with! DXO's a pretty good chill-out zone, went there with buddy and elisa on 2 seperate counts, but that's another story.

All in all, just wanna express my heartfelt joy in befriending such a wonderful person like buddy babe. *smiles* 3 weeks of friendship and such good brotherly terms. IF only my matchmaking skills were better.

well..nonetheless, God is good!

2005-05-17T21:44:00.000+08:00

ok..this is pretty true..scarily true!

The Keys to Your Heart

You are attracted to those who are unbridled, untrammeled, and free.

In love, you feel the most alive when things are straight-forward, and you're told that you're loved.

You'd like to your lover to think you are optimistic and happy.

You would be forced to break up with someone who was ruthless, cold-blooded, and sarcastic.

Your ideal relationship is open. Both of you can talk about everything... no secrets.

Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment.

You think of marriage something you've always wanted... though you haven't really thought about it.

In this moment, you think of love as something you don't need. You just feel like flirting around and playing right now.

What Are The Keys To Your Heart?

hmm...i just feel like flirting and playing? oh my gosh. seriously?? well, but it is true..i don't really need to have a new relationship..although i won't mind one. *winks*

2005-05-15T23:47:00.000+08:00

just spent a day out after work with elisa & huiling ystday. dined at suki (again!) with the 2 babes and my colleague junjie, coz he had free time before meeting his frens. *smiles* all of us are growing up..transition from ducklings into swans. so how come i'm still stuck in the duckling phase?! 1st time seeing them in slinky dresses, nice skirts, heels(!), totes and make-up. hahhaa...feel so out of place in my jeans. :P

we chilled at pacific coffee along citylink after photos at the esplanade. man..i absolutely adore their couches! spent a good part of the night fixing a farewell gift for ms ng, relishing liquer chocolates & sipping champagne. and after that? tucking into a comfy bed. sweet! hahaha..

life's good. hopefully it gets better. *smiles*

2005-05-13T22:19:00.000+08:00

1 day before mothers' day, an old schoolmate/cca mate of mine committed suicide. apparently, over a spoilt relationship with her bf. but to do something so drastic Just before mothers' day? how cruel. but the act itself is already tormenting enough for your family & frens. she..was a vivacious girl, always seemingly bitchy.(i didn't say i like her!) bimbotic but with a whole head of brains.

what is love? familiar enough topic with almost everyone out there. had a kid's definition:
'Love is like plain water. You may like drinking soft drinks and sweet stuff, but when you are thirsty, you drink water.'

true enough. other things in life such as fame, fortune, status may seem so attractive. but we also need emotional manna--love. not going to debunk this innocent thought. Is it possible to live life without love? God-fearing love, family love, friendship love, neighbourly love, couple love. When she jumped, she had to walk at least 5 minutes away from her terrace houses to the block of HDB flats. A non-impulsive action. What was going through her mind? No one will ever get to know..

xiao bai took the same train with me on my way home. discussed the topic about relationships. realised that both have the same morale: for a relationship to work, it has to be at the right time, with the right person. he also said that when you're truly in love, you're willing to do anything for that person.

*frowns* never got that stage. personal problem with commitment. well...at the end of the day, i'm just so incredibly grateful and glad for having my family and friends. They already complete my life. Though they won't be there with me every step of the way, I'm going to take a step at a time.

Counting Life's Little Blessings..

2005-05-10T21:42:00.000+08:00

had lunch with my colleague - junjie today. maan. that has to got to be 1 of the more stressful conversations i've had in a loonnng time! he's a bloody good student, president of his club, can cook, sew, handle woodwork, repair computers...he's like a dream guy for mother & father- in-laws.. i'm serious!

he is what i'ld label as an old soul. definitely. reads encyclopedias but not novels. instead of gaming, he does research on computers. headful of general knowledge & not crap. sounds nerdy? well..he goes clubbing. *shrugs* interesting combi, but he's one hell of a smart guy. aaaannddd...at 19, he was getting ready to get married. *gasps* yeah..oh my gosh. at 19, i'm still thinking bout..studies & fun.

well, truth be told. after he told me bout himself, i immediately thought of...hq! hahaha..her perfect guy. greatest similarity to ya yue gong ming! it's just too bad that he's got a crush already. kinda expected..how can he even Not be attached! i guess..i shall have to work harder still, find another guy for hq. (:

2005-05-06T19:53:00.000+08:00

1st day of work. well, not really. more of job training. *shrugs* but who am i to argue? my payroll has started cracking up and all's well with the world. leo's getting a lil on my nerves, coz he's smearing his uncountable thoughts onto everyone. getting more difficult to shrug him off... but damn, if it truly isn't his day today. he sure stinked up the office with his dog-poo laden shoes. *peeeuuuw!* the downsides of enclosed, air-conditioning has never presented itself more clearly than this incident.

saufi, junjie & i caught 'Kingdom of Heaven' today after 'work'. Terrific show aside from the butt-aching, fatigue-eyed squinting...yeah. it's awe-inspiring. & frightening to see how readily humans were & are, to indulge and immerse themselves in bloodshed in a supposed war of religion. but in truth, it is all about the fight for wealth, land and glory. even till now, we do not repent. are we doomed to carry on the mistakes of our past ancestors? we speak of truth, love, harmony. but not every heart sings to that melodious tune.

The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.
-Aleksander Solzhenitsyn

On a note aside, what have u gotten for your Mom's for mothers' day? my sis, bro & i had a durian cake (she loves durian) and a bouquet of sunflowers delivered to her office. truly hope she enjoyes it.. and know that all these cannot even represent 1% of the love we have for the most amazing lady I have ever known.

Happy Mothers' Day ( :

2005-05-06T00:16:00.000+08:00

And Now, Presenting the newly employed *drumrolls* --Janice--!

yup, u betcha. I'm employed. with 2 jobs. ( :

1) Part-time job at Caesars (suntect) : if u wanna buy any firearms, swords, LOTR memorabilia, STAR WARS LIGHTSABRE... ONLY buy it when I'm AROUND! if not sure, call and ask me! coz...i needa earn the commission. worked 1 day so far. thomas is a pretty nice chap. poor thing, got bombarded by my many questions bout his life. hahhahaa.. nelson's nice too. funny, smart & all. heard tt 1 guy's damn moronic. will have to chance to experience on sunday. *sheesh*

2) Full-time job at Hospitality Direct, as a telemarketer. In all, there're 4 of us. Leo, the 30+ man who's working for the fun of it (he's loaded), Ice, the soon-to-be-bald-coz-of-NS guy who plans to be a lecturer and Saufi, the 18 year old lad who's gonna study retail come July. the pay's ok..but it's gonna be tough.

Babes, Hunks: PLEASE HELP! if u know anyone who is interested to get a membership card for getting free hotel stays in m'sia, up to 60% d/c in 8000 hotels all over the world, dining vouchers... let me at 'em! well...or u can just give me their no.

I promise not to bite. *smiles sweetly*

meanwhile, gotta get some proper working shoes. wore 3 diff pairs (mom's & sis's) on 3 diff interviews..and developed 7 sores in al. heels. the ultimate leg killing gadget. k, enough said.

2005-05-01T18:55:00.000+08:00

ARGHHHHHHHHHH! *scream in frustration & maniac tugging at my rebonded roots* These past few days have been so unfulfilling, so dissatisfying. Am experiencing 1st-hand utter boredom as an unemployed personnel. Can truly, safely declare my status as a parasite to my overworked parents. In addition, I motion that the paradox of staying at home will fatten an already fattened individual into giganticious proportions to be a Fact.

Recently, in my periodic job hunting spats, I came across job offers that entails one to encompass an excellent grasp of both spoken and written English. I fulfill that pre-requisite! Or so, I thought. Unconsciously, a dominant, deep-seeded gloom had threatened to overbubble and easily erased my confident thoughts. In short - My English Sucks. This and many other puny, annoying instances had a spillover effect splashed upon my innocent family members. My deepest apologies. Been experiencing cyclical temperaments that I can only attribute to a petty personality and desolation. and No, it's not the time of the month.

Had so many thoughtful moments these past few days and without a suitable written outlet to lash it upon, I suddenly chanced upon a self-discovery. I can never be a faery-like, intriguing changeling with fantastic anecdotes or spin wonderful encounters. Try as I might, I can never fabricate tentalisingly delightful blogs that are easy on the mind and spirit like my friends, much less mould works of art to rival the likes of Jack DuBrul or Ken Palmer. My blogs are darker revelations/greviances to my blessed, fortunate yet malais soul.

I'm just a plain, simple-minded, ordinary creature with no knowledge in the overwhelming, fast-paced world, no capabilities to boast of, no achievements to shout of. Having said that, I can never encounter exciting adventures, solve deceptive murder cases or make it big in the ivy league. In fact, I suspect that as a pathetic minion, my life would be such that the least would even hesitate to cast their eyes over. Hardly a blimp to be seen or felt.

But I sure damn well can try. Where these words came from, I have utterly no idea. But as sure as the short-lived Isabella (le papillon) blazes across fields in all its splendour and fight for its survival of species,
So can I

2005-04-24T21:55:00.000+08:00

And that's that. The end. Yes folks, I'm referring to my life in Ngee Ann. After 3 long, happy (realise that I omit satisfying?) years, I am finally done. In a way, I'm really sad, because I failed to put in my 100% in my studies, hence the lousy results in my 3 years. My mom actually scolded me! Here's an excerpt of our conversation:

(Jan recites results from handphone)
Mom: How come your results are like that?
Jan: huh?
Mom: You are no longer in secondary school! You do not only put in hard work at the last part! Your previous semester's results are so horrible..
Jan: I know! but Mom, guess what. I'm sloowww..I only learnt the secret of attaining good results in the last year. But i Learnt! The learning process is important!
.
.
.
.
Finally after sometime;

Mom: Good.

Conclusion--- Put yourself down a little, and shift the focus of topic to a different subject to avoid scoldings. haha.. but then again, the scolding was a total shock, because I got the best results this sem.

I sacrificed squash, recreational activities, other unmentionables and I grew closer to God. and it was worth every minute. yes, the exhaustion of the work too. If i had a chance, I would have done this right from the start. But as it is, I can't change time. I must admit that I gained several intangibles from the path I ventured upon too. Hopefully, I will never forget this recipe for success. Shall leave everything to Him.

Meanwhile. I need a job. *frowns*

2005-04-09T11:24:00.000+08:00

i love tim burton.
i LOVE tim burton! oh yes i do, most certainly do. he's my all-time favourite director. granted, i didn't see all or even come close to many of his films like planet of the apes, ed woods, pee-wee's big adventure, frankenweenie,ed wood..but i love nightmare before christmas. edward scissorhands, sleepy hollow are fabulous too. and i'm sure i'll love charlie & the chocolate factory ( the 1971 gene wilder one is grossly insufficient & overrated) & Corpse bride!

fun fact for C & C factory: tim burton actually trained the squirrels for the scene, to crack a perfect nut, remove the perfect nut from the shell and place it on a revolving belt. 6 mths of training! in-credible.

as for The Corpse Bride: well, it is a story based on actual events that occurred in 19th century Russia, at a time when anti-semitism was widespread in eastern Europe. Very often, bands of anti-semites would waylay a Jewish wedding party on their way to the wedding. And because the bride would be the one to bear future generations, she would be ripped out of the carriage and murdered.

She would then be buried in her wedding gown.
creepy eh?

-anyway, so the main character sees this stick in the ground, places his ring and recited the entire marriage sacrament as a joke. alas, it is actually a skeleton's finger. A corpse bride, to be exact. and now, the foolish man, with a real marriage 2 days later, is bonded with a corpse in holy matrimony. how come guys always do such stupid stuff? oops, don't wanna wage a gender war. alright, so if u wanna how it goes, catch The Corpse Bride!

but WAIT! the bESt part of Tim Burton's fantastic creations are...Johnny Depp! i really think they make an amazing pair--Edward scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow, C & C factory, Corpse Bride..wow. i'll definitely catch the 2 upcoming productions, that's for sure.

'Chewing gum is really gross,
Chewing gum i hate the most'
-Willy Wonka

3 more months to go. *yipeeee!*
actually, to be exact...96 more days. but, who's counting?

2005-04-09T00:29:00.000+08:00

i killed today. *clasps hands in prayer* and now, i'm still feeling the jitters. *eugh* should somewhat describe the sound first emitted after i committed the crime. here's how it went:

accompanied janet for her sleep test ( work) just 1 street away. merrily chatting away when i spied a black scurrying object dashing towards the direction of my feet. and there u have it, a crime scene. it was too late for my giganticious feet to jam midway and retreat, and i was hoping with all my heart that it wasn't -- *crunch* damn.

*eugh*! *eeewww*! with several frantic hops and scraping off evidence from my duckling slippers onto a grass patch (thankfully no dog poo, else i'll be in total despair)

after janet was done, i went to survey the crime scene once more. nope, no evidence to point any fingers at me. a huge relief, but i couldn't control the reflex jerk of fear and chills that shot through my body when i laid eyes upon that corpse that was diminished in a parallel maaner. what could one do? except hurry away before eye-witnesses should ever have a chance to associate me with the gruesome body.

all that is done, is done. and try as i might, i can't change it for the better. Therefore, amidst such a crisis, i have to maintain a brave front and an optimistic view.
Thankfully, I still have something to be glad for:

-at least I didn't crunch 2 Cockroaches.

2005-04-03T23:21:00.000+08:00

i love fishing.
i miss fishing!
ok ok..i know i should be blogging bout the major upheavals in my life but frankly speaking? the moment's passed and let's move on to current issues: fishing

i love fishing, because i don't do it regularly. Nor is it a survival thing. so i won't miss the humdrum in the waiting, cause it's such a rare occasion! for those who flinches at the sight/thought of a hook stuck through the fish's mouth..yeah, i do too. but to be able to CatcH ur own fish after one's patient wait..is just exhilarating!

when i was a kid, my dad, sis & i stayed at a kelong a couple of times. (mom was nursing a newborn bro..althogether, go awww) it was really fun! even the bumpy boat rides at high tide. i encountered so many incidents; dumb boy's fishing hook getting caught at girl's shorts & skin, girl falling through rotten plank with the sea just beneath her feet, feeding of carnivorous fish, etc etc. Once, i remembered promising my mom to bring home a mermaid, but couldn't find one and brought home a humongous STarFish instead! ok, sounds naive. But picture me..ok, TRY & picture me as a slim, cute, sweet & short little girl. i know the 1st 3 adjectives sound pretty difficult, but Try! oh, btw? the starfish subsequently died. rather..dried. lack of seawater and constant poking of its little openings with the sharp end of a comb.

fishing is really heaps of fun. high tides with eager hopping fishes right on the tails of eager hopping shrimps, catching interesting fishes such as catfish, puffer fish, weird fishes which lives in seawater and turns sideways in fresh water--its still alive! ecstasy. too bad dad's fren sold the kelong. oh well, life will present its many opportunities. All in good time..and so, i shall patiently await!

toodles!