Welcome to your Destiny

The Big Move

2007-10-20T00:59:00.001+08:00

Hey people! I'm in the process of moving my posts to a new Wordpress blog. Hence this old one will remain un-updated as of now. Construction is still in progress, but I've added in the entry on my recent overseas trip (as what I've promised GUTS).

See you there!

一次过讲完

2007-09-14T22:27:00.000+08:00

Wow...a lot of things have happened since the past entry that I don't even know where to begin writing. I'm convinced that its peak period all year round at my office. Did I mention the big big event which I brought up some months before is FINALLY OVER??? In the week leading up to it, I worked late near everyday and worried about it every moment. I even dreamt about it while sleeping. You can say it was practically 24hrs in my mind. And with my boss in the picture, you can imagine things were twice as confusing and difficult. And at the last moment, one of my trusty aides fell sick and could not attend the entire event. That was really quite hard to accept at first. I was already down with flu, but thought that with the assistance of my 2 committee members, I would still be able to 熬过去. But it was now down to 2 of us only. Real tough luck.

Fortunately, the majority of the event came out fine. All 120 participants arrived safely and enjoyed themselves during the competition. There were definitely glitches here and there of course, what with lights not coming in, air con not being switched on at the right time and us over-estimating the participants' abilities. But thank god it did not rain. That in itself was already a big big blessing. All in all, I went without sleep for 30 hours and when it was finally over, I was already too sick and tired to feel glad. By the 30th hour, my nose had lost all feeling and my voice was turning nasal and hoarse. It was the best.

But no matter what, its over and done with, so there's really not much to complain about now. And things are not slowing down still. Suddenly my boss wants this and that (not that surprising actually) and everything is still going at such breakneck speed. SIAN AH!!!! I NEED A REST!!

Ok, Andy has already gone to China liao. And by the way, I bought tickets to watch his concert (with P and Corinni) but did not go in the end cos I was sick lar. And before leaving, he even sent me an sms to tell me to continue to work hard and that he'll check on me whenever he returns for his breaks. Wah lau. But my new teacher, QL is real interesting. He's only 19 (my teachers just keep getting younger and younger) and is Andy's junior, meaning they studied under the same teacher. But their teaching styles cannot be more different. While Andy is systematic, QL is haphazardly creative. He doesn't believe in sticking to a particular format and is willing to forgo traditional instructions and style for beautiful music. Things which Andy said I cannot do, QL says its A-OK! His mantra is if he is convinced that something works and he believes in the theory behind it, he will follow it even though its not considered traditional.

And the most important thing I've learnt so far from QL was, that I should try and find the happiness in learning my dizi. QL doesn't think forcing myself will work in the long run. For Andy, it was more of discipline and proper instructions. With QL, you don't practice till you find the urge to do so. And its nice to note that practice is slightly more fun now! Suddenly, things which I had found difficult to grasp and learn, they've become easier to practice and 掌握. And lessons are not as stressful too. But deep inside me, I agree with QL. Its a real pain to always drag myself for practice and then become all frustrated when I cannot master a technique. But now, QL will say "没事..慢慢练是需要时间的..不急"

But both of them can play such beautiful music! I know that I'll never ever be able to attain their standard. Just give me like 40% of their 功力 and I'll be satisfied for the rest of my life! To be a maker of music. To let people enjoy what you produced. I think that'll really be quite amazing. =)

Interesting coincidence

2007-08-24T21:55:00.001+08:00

Life's really a joke at times. The most fascinating thing can happen lor. Last Wed, I was at a client's place and was chatting up with a regular customer when she introduced with me to her colleague who wanted to talk to me about a deal. Guess what. After the customary shaking of hands, my customer's colleague started talking to me and as we chatted more, something interesting struck me just out of the blue. Boy, he really look and behaved a lot like MR BLACK PANTS!! The mannerisms were all so similar that I would really have believed he was Mr BP's brother, if not for the fact that Mr BP only has a sister and no brother. Gosh. But the consoling thing was, I realised I had quite forgotten how Mr BP looked like, until I met this customer on Wed. It seemed like so long long time ago when I went on dates with him. Wow.

Anyways, on a different note, for those who are interested to know how Andy looks like, he was actually featured on TODAY newspaper yesterday. Wah, didn't know how 大牌 he is until now leh. According to the article, he is the youngest professional dizi player in Singapore and the first Singaporean to be accepted to the dizi MA course in China. Plus, he supposedly won the Gold award in a prestigious dizi competition in China last year. Wah. Cannot imagine that during the periods last year when he was not in Sg, he was actually winning competitions overseas. I suddenly feel like my teacher is a superstar.

And the interesting thing? He actually smsed me on Thurs morning to inform me about the article. So farnie! But if he hadn't done that, I definitely wouldn't have known about the article. Ha ha. And before departing for this 1 year course, Andy will be performing one last time at NAFA next Sat, 1 Sep. Its his solo recital and I heard he'll be playing some interesting pieces. So far, P and Corinni seemed keen to go with me. Must support support a bit lor.

The new teacher QL, is as expected, even younger than Andy. Think he should either be in his late teens, or early 20s. I've only went through 1 lesson with him so far, and I already kinda miss Andy's teachings. QL seemed more lax and easy-going. Although Andy was very strict, I think I really learnt great deal from him. But a change of teacher could still be beneficial after all, as I realised both of them think of different ways to teach the instrument, and although both methods are not the same, there are merits in both of them. This is especially very interesting, cos both of them had learnt from the same master.

Anyway, to end off....anyone keen to watch Andy's last concert with me, gimme a call ok? I'm going for the cheapest tix anyway, at $10. Chinese music concert usually quite cheap one. Haha. But I seriously think it'll be worth a watch. And I bo bian have to go one, so might as well get more people to go together.

So call me ok.

I'm so ashamed

2007-08-13T22:00:00.001+08:00

Life has revolved around work to such an extent, that I barely have time and energy to practise the flute each day. It really takes quite some effort to peel myself away from the sofa (and from TV) to hide in my room with the instrument. And even when I had the time to practise, I find myself inventing excuses not to practise, and also not to feel guilty for not practising. Its pathetic I know, but I'm just so tired!!

And of course, I've harboured the evil thought of dropping flute altogether. Its so tempting, cos without the need to practise, I can spend my free time in whatever way I want. I can watch TV till bedtime. I can surf net and blog anytime I want. I don't need to subject myself to pain (yes, believe it or not, there's pain ok.) and loads of boring scales. Not to mention playing the same song over and over again. I also dread going for the exam which Andy wanted me to aim towards this coming Nov. The thought was almost too delicious for me to forget. Plus with Andy not teaching me anymore, I still have to deal with a new teacher who till now, has not met up with me for a single lesson yet. And I thought with me giving up flute, I can find time to take up driving lessons, and maybe even finish my piano Grade 8.

And just when I was really looking forward to breaking the news to Andy, I received an sms from my cousin who's learning the violin now. He's one year younger than me, and has always yearned to master an instrument. He actually smsed to ask that I be his piano accompaniment for his Grade 1 violin exam next year. Of course I was honoured lah (and a bit stressed too). But the greatest emotion that came over me was a sudden sadness and 羞耻 at myself. I look at my cousin being so enthusiastic towards his first exam, and I compare it to my laziness and failure to persist in the flute. I think I really take things too much for granted. Of course I still remembered how much interest and keeness I initially had, and how determined I was to practise my flute to perfection (or at least to Andy's approval). And to think all these just disappeared after I took on my new posting. Its damn sad lar.

I've decided to give the flute another go. If Andy thinks I'm ready for the exam, I will go for it. I've decided that even if I fail it, I've at least tried my best. I don't want to be a 喜新厌旧 person. I don't want all my past 2 years practice to go to waste. I'm so old liao, yet still so impulsive at times. I think even if I were to give up flute someday, I will want to have at least obtained a certain grade before I stop. This will at least show that I've achieved something for the past 2 years.

Ganbatte ne!

我的家就在这里

2007-08-09T23:28:00.001+08:00

This is classic. Heard it only today...so suaku. Enjoy if you haven't seen it before.

Free time is boring time

2007-07-15T11:57:00.000+08:00

I'm blogging now because I have nothing else better to do now. These days, I find it hard to spend my free time, other than flute and shopping. VERY VERY 没意思! I was supposed to have my lesson with Andy earlier, but it was cut short cos he didn't feel well (again) and had to leave. Aiyoh, don't know what it happening to my shifu leh. And he's still leaving for Shanghai in Sep for a year long flute studies...dunno how he's going if he doesn't nurse his health back first. Better to be sick in home country, than in a foreign one right? He's also arranging for me to meet my new teacher in NAFA sometime this week. A bit sian lah, cos have to lug around my flute and books there.

Everyone kept complaining I update so little nowadays. Well, I can always write on the boh liao stuffs I do lah, like change mobile phone, bought new clothes, listen new songs, etc etc. But really like a bit too mundane leh. And seriously there's nothing REAL REAL interesting happening...cos work stuffs I cannot reveal much and that's basically what's occupying the major part of my life now. Except that we are preparing for our biggest event this year and I'm thoroughly terrified that it'll not take off successfully. I get nightmares one ok. My boss lor, want to do it BIG and pitch it like a flagship event. Crazy one. Though I agree its a ambitious and 伟大 idea, 做的是我们, and I don't have as much confidence as he does. If the event pulls off well, it'll definitely add a beautiful feather to my hat (and my boss's obviously). But if it doesn't? Quoting from my colleague "Really quite scared-ed" one. Come Sep, we'll all know the answer to that.

I always feel very wasted when I have time to laze around and blog. Haha...maybe should start SDU activities again. But shudder still. Yeek.

TRANSFORMERS had my Sunday transformed

2007-07-11T22:09:00.000+08:00

Wow the show is so kick-ass good, that I really wanna encourage everyone to go WATCH IT! Don't 怀疑了, its worth the money man. I never thought it would be this exciting and non-stop fun action. Granted I was never a fan to begin with. The only thing I remembered from watching the cartoons back in the 80s, was that the good robots had blue eyes, and the bad ones had red eyes. I had never understood the characters back then, and was just forced by my cousins to watch it.

But the movie is just a blast. It has its comical moments, but most of the time, I cannot help but be impressed by the autobots.....so way way cool! Especially when they transform. Heck it even made me see cars in a whole new different light. Haha.

I love the way Optimus Prime said:

"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings. We cannot make the humans pay for our war."

Its crazy to be fascinated by a autobot. But I am.

Watch it! I forsee it's better than the latest Harry Potter installment.

This Blog is not Down yet

2007-06-22T21:45:00.000+08:00

I think I've not written anything for so long that I've nearly forgotten how much I loved blogging before. This job is really no good for me. Besides good colleagues, there's nothing to brag or be happy about. And I've been sick quite a number of times since I started working here. I can spend the weekends mulling over the unsettled issues at work, that I actually find myself hoping that weekdays come back faster, so I can go back to work.

As I've mentioned, blogging is good. It allows me to bitch and bitch about something which I cannot say out loud, and still get some to vent some frustrations. But have to 可怜 my readers lor. So you can stop reading at this point, cos the rest of the entry will contain mainly just that. Complaints and complaints.

I've given up trying to repair the 'good' reputation of my boss in the office. When I first arrived back in Nov, I found everyone having something against him, so much so that he had become a frequent common topic to talk about whenever we have lunch. I had always thought it was such a waste, cos till yesterday, I had always found his judgements and evaluations of certain issues to be quite accurate and sound. Though they may not be the most pleasing to the ears, but it had never given me reason to not believe him, or go according to his suggestions. Some of his recommendations could sometimes appear to be rather unreasonable and far-fetched, but at the end of the day, I would somehow be able to see why he arrived at them, and his 苦心 at doing so. Which was also why I had never really believed him to be a bad person, and that at all times, he's always working towards the good of our organisation.

But today, I'VE HAD ENOUGH! I no longer want to defend his actions anymore. Why? This time, he took it too far and I really felt he was pushing me to do something which was not me, and most importantly, against my conscience. My boss is one person who believes that if someone doesn't do according to what we requests, then we should send stinker emails to him/her to let them know our displeasure, thereby hinting to them that their reputation would suffer if they don't do this and that..etc. Today, he actually berated me for not showing a firm stance towards a colleague from another department. And his exact instructions to me was to send a warning email to him, and sort of 'force' him to make a clear decision. Yes, by doing so, I agree that I would be able to coerce many many people out there to act according to my wishes. But I would never believe in doing that. What's the use of forcing someone to act against their will? Yes, you get your job done, but at the expense of your own reputation and I'm sure no one would ever want to work with me anymore. I must remember that come 2 years later, I will eventually leave this department to work in another division/dept in my organisation. What if the person I 'forced' now becomes my colleague? Wouldn't that be utterly embarassing and killing my career?

I totally could not agree to his suggestion (it was actually an order). I don't think its the right way to do it, and we don't need to go to such extent to achieve our objectives. True I'll have to source for other people, if the persons I approached refused to help me. But its ok. I'll just keep trying till I succeed. Don't you agree with me that the process is as important as the end? I still remember his exact question to me was "What is it that you disagree about my recommendation?" What could I say? That "I think you're mean and crap to think of such a thing. If I was the recipient of the email, I'll remember you for life and probably not hold you in high esteem, no matter how far you climbed up the corporate ladder".

I'm seriously quite disappointed that he actually thought of this method to deal with the issue. I had always tried not to believe in my colleagues' gossip about him, no matter how many examples they had cited. And best part, I didn't even had the guts to tell him that I didn't agree with him. But I think my face says it all, cos I'm not very good at masking my emotions. He's really a idiot.

I think somehow, my Friday has been ruined by him. There's nothing I wish more than to see him being posted to another department. The rumours that he's moving are really come in fast and furious, cos he just got promoted this year. Sometimes, his suggestions can really be quite creative and useful. But I don't agree it should be carried out at another person's expense.

My subordinate's advice to me? "***** him and do what you think is appropriate. Never go against your conscience. ITS NOT WORTH IT."

How true.

Getting nua again

2007-05-31T21:55:00.000+08:00

Sigh, I've not been making good of my words. Had fully intended to bake last Sat, but something cropped up at work, and I had to present at an event that evening. And couldn't do it this coming Sat too, cos I had been invited to my friend Winnie's birthday. You might remember her as my ex-colleague who was also my travel mate when I went to Hokkaido in 2005. How time flies boy! And my cousin is also getting married next Sat! Gosh, many many weddings to go! And such great excuses for me to get new clothes too! =)

These days have been quite boring, cos there's nothing happening to me besides work and flute and aerobics. But am seriously thinking of taking up driving lessons. So old liao, still don't have the license. And another reason to learn now, is that my cousin has kindly agreed to let me use his car whenever he is not in Singapore (which can get quite frequent). Smashing right? I dream of that day to come! Not too sure how long I would take to pass though....somehow I'm not that confident of my coordinating capabilities. A bit apprehensive, but will still try lah. My mom's even better, keeps nagging at me to start lessons and stop procrastinating. But she's not keen for me to get a car though, cos she always felt that the money's not worth it and public transport is still way way cheaper.

Ok, back to work now. Can dream later. About the car license lah.

Hey Hey Hey

2007-05-20T17:58:00.000+08:00

As I've always said, what could I have done without the support and concern of my loyal blog readers? Teddy sounded quite worried when he sent me a 问候 email, paiseh friend, so sorry to have caused you unnecessary alarm. I asked him if the previous entry sounded bad, and he replied it was bad only because he had always known me as a cheery and happy-go-lucky person. And P immediately swung to action too, by jio-ing me out for some retail therapy and heart-to-heart chat. Wah, didn't know my GUTS pals are so 重感情 one...made me feel so touched. Thanks all (not forgetting Snowystars and Tesia)!!

As I mentioned to GUTS and Teddy, its not so much my job lah, which is causing me stress. Its THE BOSS who ain't making things easy. The job itself is challenging and gives me great job satisfaction. But THE BOSS has to be one who is so fussy, and likes to make last minute demands which are unclear and practically not possible to achieve. Makes you want to tear your hair out. I've had times where I can just have a conversation with him for 10 minutes, and I still have no idea what the hell he wants. And that's when I hesitate to ask him to repeat anymore, cos it'll probably make me look and sound really stupid.

But the project is sort of done with and over, so I'm back to my normal not-so-stressed self (yay!). And yes, I realised I really have to take up something I like again, so that there's some outlet for me to release any work tension. For the past weeks, I felt so down, that I gave up the chance to attend the Macarons workshop which I had signed up for (the one which caused 3 digit sum). I just didn't had the 心情 to go. Fortunately I had not paid anything yet, so it was ok. I realised I had not tried out a few of Valerie's recipes for the previous baking classes I attended, so I've decided that I shall try my hand at her butter cake recipe next Sat/Sun.

Andy is well and good now, though I had not asked him the reason for being admitted into hospital. He's back to his strict self and had put on even more demands on my practice, which is as usual lah. But the good news is that he will be going overseas for a week soon, so I'll have some breather soon. Haha.

P and Ah Mah requested that I bake something again for the July babies this year. The last time, I had prepared Strawberry Hearts, and I'm still not decided as to what I want to bake this year. Was thinking that instead of me making the decision, I shall open up a few options for GUTS and let you all vote for the final confectionery to enjoy for your birthday this year. Don't say I didn't give choice ok. I will announce the options in June, so look out for it hor. Hopefully I can get all GUTS members to vote lah, to get a fairer outcome. And I had better start to stock up my baking ingredients. Most had already expired.

Quite exciting hor. Heh heh. I'm quite looking forward to baking again. =)

Slipping into Depression

2007-05-12T12:04:00.000+08:00

I think work has just been too stressful recently. I can feel myself slowly wallowing in self-pity nowadays. Always feel like crying for no reason...siao. No mood to talk to anyone, even my family members. I just clamp up whenever I reach home everyday. There's nothing to look forward to, nothing to feel excited/happy/even sad about. Gosh, this job is seriously bad for me. I only think of finishing all my duties at work.

Even writing this entry makes me feel like crying. And I'm nowhere even near PMS yet.

Andy, get better!

2007-04-28T23:27:00.000+08:00

Had earlier received an sms from The Flute Teacher, to inform that he would not be coming tomorrow for lessons. And just when I was about to celebrate, he smsed again to say he's in the hospital.

Feeling a little bit guilty now. Dammit.

Sincerely hope he gets better man. Though he tekan me a lot during lessons, he's still a mighty good teacher. And also an extremely talented young man.

This week alone, I've already received news of 3 persons whom I know, or who is related to people I know, who's admitted to hospital. Definitely something to worry about.

New Pastry on the Block

2007-04-18T22:22:00.000+08:00

I had these for dessert today. OH MY GOSH!!!! Its almost like having gone to heaven and back. Absolutely so smacking-licking GOOD!!! So yummy I almost wanted to keep them all to myself. Hah!

Had dropped by Paragon today for the eye check-up. Then after the rather short review, I decided to visit the new Canele Pastry shop located at the basement to see what stuffs they sell. Had long heard about their legendary colourful macarons, and thought must try lah. Cos I had signed up for a Macaron baking class in May (which cost me BOMB, first time I'm attending a 3 hour course which cost me a 3 figure sum), and I felt I should get a taste of the real ones to set my targets right lah. A macaron (as defined by Wikipedia) is a traditional French pastry, made up of 2 dome halves sandwiched together by a sweet filling. There are like thousands of different flavours for both the domes and fillings, ranging from chocolate, vanilla, green tea, raspberry, strawberry, coffee, caramel, pistachio etc. The reason behind the attraction of this pastry, is that its "delicately crunchy on the outside, yet moist and chewy on the inside".

Countless recipes for the macarons can be found easily on the web, but its reputed to be one of the most difficult pastries to bake. Every ingredient and step has to be correct for a perfect dome to appear. I've heard how many bakers went through many many tries before they got it right at the end. Hence, to cut short the process for me, I decided to fork out $$$ to learn straight from the experts lah.

There are not many places in Singapore which sell macarons, which is why I gathered Canele can priced theirs at such exhorbitant rates. I bought a box of 10, at a freaking $21.70. Each macaron is so tiny, I could fit one into my mouth right away. But of course, given that each cost around 2 bucks, most of us took at least 5 mouthfuls to finish the pastry. Must make it last longer. Heh! And when I master the recipe, hmmm....I'll be able to make some for my family to try. I'm 100% sure it'll be cheaper, but cannot guarantee the quality lah.

蘇打綠 - 小情歌

2007-04-13T23:28:00.001+08:00

I've come to really really like this song. First heard it on Yes933 of course, but only grew to like it after the recent 罐头剧场- 暗巷 which chose this very sweet and quaint song for its 主题曲. Its sung by a new group Soda Green (苏打绿), and the main singer wrote both the lyrics and melody. Okaay, he looked a bit faggy in the mv, but I thought the tune was especially impressive. He made it sound really like a 简单的情歌, but the lyrics are so moving. In case you cannot view the lyrics properly from the mv above, here you go...

小情歌作詞 / 作曲：吴青峰

這是一首簡單的小情歌
唱著人們心腸的曲折
我想我很快樂　當有你的溫熱
腳邊空氣轉了
這是一首簡單的小情歌
唱著我們心頭的白鴿
我想我很適合　當一個歌頌者
青春在風中飄著

你知道　就算大雨讓這個城市顛倒
我會給你懷抱
受不了　看見你背影來到
寫下我　度秒如年難捱的離騷
就算整個世界被寂寞綁票
我也不會奔跑
逃不了　最後誰也都蒼老
寫下我　時間和琴聲交錯的城堡

And you can tune in to the this mini-series on Cruz Ting's website. I don't always have the opportunity to catch it on Yes933 everyday, so have to make do with hearing it at a later time on Cruz's website (he's the producer). The series is loosely based on 吴淡如's 在暗巷的尽头相逢 and I think the station has already aired 4 episodes of it. Each episode is only about 5 minutes long but its surprisingly quite engaging. Almost feel like going back to the days when there were no tv. I've been quite a fan of Yes933's 罐头剧场 cos most of the times, the theme songs they used are really nice and chosen in such a way that it really suits the stories. The last time I was touched, was when they had used the song 旅行的意义 by 陈绮贞 on a series about a man searching for the perfect 爱尔兰咖啡 and the woman who brewed it for him. I forgot the series title and the author, but remembered that I thought it had quite a romantic storyline. =)

$750 poorer

2007-04-05T22:10:00.000+08:00

Yup, that's the entire cost of my laser treatment, which I went for today. The process was surprisingly quite fast, took only around 20 minutes. First they applied this cream all around my eyes to numb the area....it took about 30 minutes for it to take effect. But quite effective leh, my eyelids felt like there was this big stack of cotton wool pressed on them...no sensation at all when the lady was removing the cream.

Then it was off to Dr Yuen at her laser room. Felt a bit jittery then...all thanks to my facial therapist lor. I went for facial yesterday and had to inform her of my treatment the next day to give her some warning not to do anything too invasive or drastic to my face lah. She then asked me how many treatments I was going, and I replied one lah. Lagi best, she then said "Wah, all lumps at one shot! It'll be painful leh." Hmmm...thanks lor.

Actually, the treatment felt like electric sparks on my eye area, some places were more painful but altogether still quite bearable. I could detect this familiar burning smell during the process, very much like my lasik surgery 4 years ago. Due to the numbing cream still taking effect on my eye area, the pain didn't really set in till about 10 minutes after I left the clinic. And altogether, there were more than 10 laser 'wounds' on my face, and even worse hor, the bigger ones were still bleeding. The result.....I looked like a monster lor. Quite SCARY!! Luckily I brought sunglasses, so could still meet people.

Now, nearly 8 hours after the treatment, some of the wounds have stopped bleeding and the pain had subsided quite substantially. I think the most unbearable part was when I had to bathe. Woah man...it was stinging like bloody hell! But no choice lah. Beauty REALLY comes at a price.

I'm still scared at how speedy I can recover from the wounds. Now I really cannot step out of the house without sunglasses. Don't dare to look at the mirror too.

Plastic Surgery

2007-04-01T21:14:00.000+08:00

Ok lar, actually its more of cosmetic surgery. Cos plastic surgery sounds like I'm going for Botox shots, which I hope I won't need so soon lah..haha. So I've finally decided to throw some money (actually its quite a hefty sum) to remove those small white lumps around my eyes. It seems like recently they've grown to be quite conspicuous and people have been pointing them out to me and making scary comments like "You better remove them soon leh, skali start to grow bigger and bigger!".

I have always thought they were milia seeds and that they were caused largely by my careless and over-enthusiastic application of eye products which were not suitable to my skin type. I've grown so tired of facial therapists pointing them out to me when I go for facials. HEELLLLOOO.....I CAN SEE THEM LOR. I know the only way to remove them is through laser surgery, but I've heard that that's pretty drying on the skin and I was afraid it'll do more damage than good to my face. Face is very important one mah. Which was why I let the condition continue till I finally could not take it and went for a consultation at Pacific Health clinic. Its situated at Paragon (19th floor), so yar, quite posh lah. The main doctor in charge there is Dr Patricia Yuen and the consultation took place last Sat.

She summed up the situation rather quickly and clarified quite a number of the doubts and questions I had in mind. Like for eg, many people had told me the lumps were due to me having high cholesterol levels but I knew that wasn't true cos I go for check-ups every year and I'm given a clean bill everytime! Dr Yuen explained that the lumps caused by high cholesterol levels are rectangular in shape and they also grow around the same area as the lumps on my face. My lumps are more of oval in shape and there's actually no particular reason for the growth at all. She informed that some people just more prone to it, and are not caused by wrong diet or application of facial products. And the lumps were also NOT millia seeds as the latter grow on the exterior of the skin. Mine are actually growths from within the skin.

So anyway, I'm happy that at least, my cholesterol levels are healthy. HUMPH!!

I scheduled the laser treatment to be carried out this coming Thurs, so that I have Good Friday, and the weekend to recover. Dr Yuen said the 'surgery' would not take more than half an hour, but that the entire area around my eyes would be really really red, which also means 见不得人啦. My only worry now is if I'll manage to recover on time for an office event coming up soon next week. But don't care liao lah, I just want to get it done once and for all.

Actually quite looking forward to seeing my face without those lumps. =)

Don't know what to say

2007-03-28T20:04:00.000+08:00

Damn Jialat!!!! Have went out twice with this new guy who lives in my block (yes GUTS, its not opposite, but we actually stay in the SAME BLOCK!!)...but totally no chemistry at all. Its as if I was going out just for the sake of knowing another person. There was no anticipation at all. I actually find myself feeling so tired after each meeting.

The project has ended, and so I will not meet Mr D anymore. I hope I will never see him anyway.

Tsk Tsk. I sound like some disgruntled jilted female. Chay.

Tagged: Weird Stuffs

2007-03-23T22:51:00.000+08:00

Hey I'm baack! None the worst, so no need to worry about me kay... =) Truly appreciate all the concern and advice. Made me realise that I'm still loved and cherished by those around me. Thank You!

Had no idea I got tagged by Snowystars! So paiseh, took such a long time to reply to realise that. This one's about weird things about myself (so many abouts). Gosh. Here goes...

Rules: Each player of this game starts out by giving 6 weird things about themselves. People who get tagged need to write in a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state the rules clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. After you do that, leave them each a comment letting them know you tagged them and to read your blog!

1) I'm a neat freak (is that considered weird?). So neat that I sometimes drive my sister nuts. I cannot bear to see anything which are crooked, untidy, spilled, askew, etc etc. My sister is the opposite of me, so she bears the brunt of my complaints and nagging at home. I sometimes get so bothered that I do the tidying up for her. Its much faster this way. Interestingly, I realised that most of my close friends are the opposite of me except for a meagre few like Corinni who's my ex-room mate (thank god!) and Bluesky.

2) I love PORK, in any way of cooking style. I can eat it everyday, if not for the fact that its not exactly the most healthiest meat around. Fried/steamed/stewed/deep-fried/etc. My absolute favourite? Sweet and sour pork, plus the KONG BAK PAU!!

3) Unless I'm absolutely tired, I cannot get to sleep even with the slightest sound around me. Clocks/watches ticking too loudly, people snoring, air-con vent too loud, fan blades moving too fast, closed door moving with the breeze, etc. I bring ear plugs whenever I'm overseas or in chalets. Cos sometimes, my travel companions SNORE!!! And you know what brand of watches tick the loudest? SWATCH!!! I stopped buying them after I had this problem. Or I just shove them inside my drawers when I go to bed.

4) I get 'high' smelling those newly constructed buildings and wooden structures. Something in those smells simply make me happy. I think this is actually quite dangerous. Haha. New leather (especially those on sofas) also excite me...

5) I can watch reruns of my favourite show so frequently, that I will be able to remember practically the entire script of all the actors and actresses in the show, especially those in my favourite scenes. I used to go absolutely bonkers over Stephen Chow's movies, especially his early classics. Nowadays with the original Cantonese versions available in VCDs, nothing can stop me.

6) I have this inane phobia of microwave ovens exploding. Whenever I use it in my office pantry (which I try NOT to), I always imagine this situation that the evil thing will just explode and blow my face to bits. Which is why, once I switch on the microwave oven, I will stand near the pantry door, far far away from the equipment. This is such that if it ever explodes, I can run out of the room asap. I swear if I ever have my own home, that thing will never exist in it.

Okie, that's the 6 weird things about me. The list is of course not exhaustive. It never will. Don't wanna tag anyone in particular too, so anyone who reads this and has a blog, go ahead and write something! =)

I took the Plunge - 完结篇

2007-03-18T11:16:00.000+08:00

The ending is clear. Almost so crystal clear that it hurts (a little).

I did an experiment again sometime last week. The results were known almost immediately.

I am 99% sure that he is not interested in taking a step further. My last conversation with him was purely on work and nothing else. I do not even need to find out anything else from Joanne (GUTS would know who she is) to understand that nothing is ever going to happen, and I should stop. Of course it doesn't help that I'll still have to work with him for a while more till the project ends. But there'll be really soon....I'll make sure of that.

So sorry guys, for the extreme anti-climax ending to this drama which has had such a promising start. Again, its back to square one and I swear from now on, I'll not subject myself to such meaningless and fruitless crushes anymore. From now on, I'll devote myself to work and dizi. And of course friends.

I forced myself to attend an outing (yesterday) with this guy whom my mom match-made me with. I totally hated myself for going. The guy was extremely nice and not too bad looking, and quite ok in height and weight too. In fact everything was good. But there was this big tumble of emotions all rushing in me, and I could not focus on the date at all. Of course it didn't help that he chose an extremely smoky pub for the meeting and the noise level was not that pleasant as well lah. I couldn't feel anything towards him....but I will go out with him again if he asks. I just hope he'll give me some time before he asks again.

我需要时间慢慢关上这道门，才能安心得转身打开另一扇门
(Corinni would know where these song lyrics originated from)

I took the plunge - Episode 5

2007-03-11T20:38:00.000+08:00

Wah....didn't know my blog suddenly become so drama...everyone is tuning in to find out the ending. Haha.

Went out with GUTS gang yesterday, and of course they took advantage of the opportunity to grill me about this incident and the small details which I had not put in this blog lah. Everyone agreed that the definite next best step would be to verify if he is attached/married. As in Bluesky's words "By finding out his status, only then will you know if its worth having this crush and making the first move". How true.

Even if I decide to give up eventually, I think I owe it to myself (and of course to my dedicated blog readers) that I discover his 'availability' before bringing this to an end. At least 到那时, 放弃是值得的.

I think I have a plan on how to proceed from here. But not so sure I will go into it this week though....things are heating up in office. But don't worry, but definitely update in my blog. So stay glued to this space. =)

I took the plunge - Episode 4

2007-03-07T22:45:00.000+08:00

Okaay, I don't how else to put it but I suddenly have reservations on the guy's 'availability' cos an incident recently cropped up last Tues which made me really suspicious of his status. I'm not going to share the incident here, but suffice to say it felt like an entire bucket of ice water had been poured all over me when the incident happened.

At that point of time, really 心寒了.

Problem is I don't know how to go about finding out his actual 'status' leh. Don't want to make it too obvious, but also not sure WHO THE HELL to ask. Really really sianz. I don't want to go about having hopes, and then only to realise he's actually attached, and even worse, married??? Or about to be married???

Wah. Lau. Eh. Damn jialat lor. But you cannot deny that there are some extremely annoying and super irritating guys who still flirts with the ladies around him, giving others the wrong impression about their status, when they are already attached or married. I've definitely met such 衰breed of men before, and am always extremely wary of them.

This is also why I'm hesitating to ask him about the Date again. Don't want to 表错情. So now, absolutely have no idea what to do, how to proceed. Should I put an end to this crush altogether, and move on? Or should I continue to harbour some tiny hope that there'll be some 结果. Maybe its already clear, the 结果would be that nothing is going to happen.

Again...SIGH

I took the plunge - Episode 3

2007-03-03T22:28:00.000+08:00

He replied to my email yesterday, but it was to inform me that he couldn't make it to the photography session next Monday (so sad!). Actually was a bit irritated too, cos had made all the arrangements liao, and now have to call the vendor and see how we can slot him into another date and time. The vendor then said he will have to do go to the studio personally on Tues to take the photos. To cut short the process, I called him at his office.

Was quite glad to hear that he did not sound stressed out anymore. It was a chirpy and friendly voice over the phone. Anyway dunno I happy for what. He was quite apologetic that he couldn't come for the shoot (had to receive some last minute visitors on that day), and agreed readily to make up for it by going on Tues instead.

After putting down the phone, I was still feeling a tad disappointed that I wouldn't be able to see him on Mon, But in came a totally unexpected surprise, that my mood immediately brightened up and remained so till now. Heh Heh.

He took the initiative to email me! It was not a email about work, or the photography session! He emailed to us why I was still working at the late hour of 0630pm. Heh heh...actually not that late also lah. But this was really so unexpected! Cannot help but feel OVER THE MOON leh. I know lah, so little things only....may not say much, and plus he still did not give me a reply on the Date. 可是可是......still feel happy lah. Crazy me.

Hell, but at least it pulled me through today's tiring filming schedule. =)

I took the plunge - Episode 2

2007-03-01T22:56:00.000+08:00

Hmm...I really wonder how many episodes this incident will garner me on my blog. Heh.

Thank you ladies, for your kind wishes. I'm glad I did it, although it may not amount to anything at the end of the day. It beats sitting around and wondering if he'll call/email me. Sometimes the suspense really make me wanna tear my hair out.

Nope Spy P, he's NOT my boss. My 老板 is happily married with a kid liao. Somehow the guys in my company tend to start a family rather early. Which is why it is really so tough to find a 对象 among my colleagues. Sometimes you see this guy in office and you think "hmmm..this one not bad. Can aim", but before you know it, someone tells you he's already married, and maybe already with 2 kids. Quite boring. Interestingly, it was through some novel incident that I 'found out' this guy SHOULD be unattached and single. I say SHOULD be lah...cannot be sure till I really asked. Its also a coincidence that my boss is actually quite a good friend of this guy, but of course, I did not breath a word regarding my secret feelings, to any my colleagues... and especially NOT to my boss.

He replied my email today, but was not clear whether he agreed to the proposed DATE or not. SIANZ!! It was later that I heard from my boss that he's quite stressed out at his workplace today, so I thought better not bother him with such 无聊 stuffs. I really don't know if he'll eventually give me an outright reply.

Will be meeting him next Monday, for another photography session at my office. See how it goes lah. Am not daring to be hopeful at this point of time. Don't want to be disappointed again.

I took the plunge

2007-02-28T22:09:00.000+08:00

This is it. After pondering long and hard for the last few days, I decided not to wait anymore.

Yes siree.

I. MADE. THE. FIRST. MOVE.

If he still does not get my hint, then it goes to prove he's really a daft one. I cannot explain it in a more explicit way liao. If he's not interested, then 就拉倒. We'll continue to stay as good colleagues (not same department though) and I'll set my eyes on other 'greener pastures'.

I'm not too sure how today's guys feel towards ladies who make the first move. I really wonder if they feel flattered? or threatened? or put off?

Really hate guessing what the other party is thinking. Sian.

Movie marathon

2007-02-20T12:13:00.000+08:00

Recently have been catching up on the movies which I missed when they were showing at the cinemas. I know lah, quite suaku actually cos I watched Death Note only like yesterday, when I realised it was already out on VCDs. Quite a slick vehicle I must say...there were some interesting twists at the finale but still felt there seem to be some sort of anti-climax when it ended. Was wondering if the 'L' really knew that Raito was Kira? And by the way, 'L' is totally way way much COOLER than Raito...love the mascara!!! Haha...I got this creepy feeling when I he first appeared on the screen, but I was quite. impressed by the way he got the university student's timetable out from Kira's massacre schedule.

Anyway, in addition to Death Note, I also watched the following 2 movies:

Take the Lead starring the very very sexy Antonio Banderas. I know lah, he's not very young liao, but still so charming and love his accent! A feel-good show...cos I'm a sucker for teacher-trying-to-get-students-to-turn-into-a-new-leave movie. Just like GTO!! =)

Innocent Steps - 댄서의 순정

Both shows feature ballroom dancing as the main theme so you can imagine how inspired I was to take up the activity after catching these 2 shows back to back. Wah lau, it was all I could do to stop myself from taking the plunge. Its not so much of the cost, but I really don't think I have the time and energy to devote myself to another past time after dizi. 可是可是, 男人跳起 ballroom dancing...真的是魅力无法挡!!! So suave!!! Even though their bodies twist a lot (which I initially felt it made them look very 姑娘), but no leh...they still manage to look so charismatic and good!!! SIGH!!!! WANT TO MELT LIAO!!

Men Trivia

2007-02-16T21:05:00.000+08:00

WELL....was it a tiring day or what? I have just completed 2 long days of photography session where I was the main coordinator and person-in-charge. Dunno why leh, although I did not have to perform the most important functions during the shoots (which of course, were the jobs of the photographer and make-up artist), I still felt like all my energy had been sapped dry after the end of both days. Basically, I had arranged for 17 persons from my company, to come down for the individual photography session and during these 2 days, my main job was to make sure no one forgets to attend the event, that they turn up in the correct attire, and of course, to entertain and make them happy while they were going through the makeup and photography. Tiring right!!!

These 17 persons are, to briefly summarise, people who belong to the following 3 main categories:
1) Big shots in my company
2) Middle shots who would no doubt, soon become big shots in the future
3) Small shots who are currently being groomed to become middle shots

Hence suffice to say, all of them are the elites of my organisation lah and ALL are men. Yes. So in this 短短的两天, I had the opportunity to get 'up close and personal' with this batch of gentlemen, some of whom I've never even met before. It was a pretty intriguing experience cos I got to see the one side of them which I'm sure most of my colleagues would not have known existed before. Hence, I decided to put together a list of interesting trivia about these elites, or rather men in general, which were pointed out and discussed between us (the photographer, make-up artist, 2 bosses of the photographer's company, and of course myself - ALL LADIES) during our kaypoh-ing and bitching session. Here goes:

Trivia #1
Men will always think makeup is only for women and that its pretty useless on them. They will squirm and look uncomfortable during the makeup session, but after that, will grudgingly admit that they do indeed look miles better than before. The very common first words which come out of their mouths when they see their made up faces in the mirror will always invariably be... "WAH LAU!!!" But hor, after scrutinising their faces for a few minutes, they will start to give comments about how their hair is styled and if their face colour look ok. So after getting their face makeup for the past 20 minutes, they've suddenly turned into critics and experts liao.

Trivia #2
This is actually a well known fact lah, but I still cannot resist saying it. WOMEN ARE NOT THE ONLY VAIN POTS AROUND OK. Men also hor. I have a few of the elites requesting that I send them soft-copies of their madeup faces after the project ends, and some also ask me to help take pictures of them on their mobiles, so that they can show it to their wives and girlfriends. I even had one small-shot specially bringing his own personal camera and asking the professional photographer to help take additional pictures of him using the same backdrop.

Trivia#3
Some of my elites are actually film star look-alikes! Its amazing leh, cos I never saw them as that before, but all the other ladies in the team pointed out the same thing to me. I have lookalikes of Joe Ma (the pilot guy in the TVB serial 冲上云霄), one of the 2 males leads in the Korean show Autumn's Tale, and plus the winner of 校园Superstar. Wah...fascinating leh!

Trivia#4
Most of the elites usually look quite solemn and serious in their day to day working environment. However, they can actually go quite wacky during the photo shoot session. One of the big shots (he's like the biggest rising star at the moment in my organisation - he's the type which 没有人不认识他的) who used to be my boss back when I was in my first posting. Have always seen him as a very steady and wise elder. But during the makeup and photography session, wah lau, the casanova side of him came out so suddenly that I was totally knocked off by it! So charming with the ladies leh. Har Har! The makeup artist did not believe me when I told her that he's actually quite a stern man in front of his subordinates and colleagues.

And then there's this middle-shot who was such a natural in front of the camera, then he totally impressed the socks off the photographer once he stepped in to take his shots. Usually, most of the men would wait for the photographer's instructions on the poses and angle to face. This guy hor. The moment he came on, he immediately initiated a few poses for the photographer to select, and I must say some of them were quite good! Then when the photographer had to brainstorm on some other more unique poses, he immediately started posing a couple of totally crazy ones which made us all laugh till I had a stitch. So wacky leh! And because he was the tallest among all the elites (1.92m!!), he really was the most photogenic of the lot, and plus he was also quite tanned and bronze looking. I must say his session was the one I had enjoyed myself the most. Haha...so entertaining!

Trivia#5
Some of the men were so sweet and nice, that their actions can really make my heart melt one leh. I had an emergency this afternoon, where one of the small shots forgot to bring his gloves for the shoot. I nearly went crazy, cos these are white gloves which had small golden buttons at the side of each, and hence could not be bought from just any shops outside. The only way out would be to make a trip all the way to Beach Rd to get a new pair. But time was running out and we really could not afford to waste more time cos the next elite after this small shot was a BIG SHOT and how could we keep him waiting for his turn right?

The most viable option would be to ask around and see if there's anyone in my building who can lend us his pair. But I knew the rate of success for this option would be really low, cos they don't usually keep their gloves in the office. The first person I approached was JL, a middle-shot who had already attended his photo session this morning. He promised me to check with his other colleagues as well. After a short while, he smsed to say that none of his colleagues have it and he was sorry about it. But, in addition to checking with this friends, JL told me he had also asked another middle-shot MJ if he/or his colleagues happened to have the gloves in their office. Eh, I was very very touched by this leh, cos JL and MJ do not belong to the same department, but he still took the initiative to help me ask around. Wah sai!!! 加 100分 can!!! And know what? Minutes later, MJ called to say that he managed to get one pair from his colleagues!!! And he informed me at JUST the right moment, cos I had originally already sent my subordinate to drive home and get his pair of gloves. But just when he was about to enter the lift, MJ called. And he personally brought the gloves down to the room where we were having the photography session. SIGH...SO NICE RIGHT!!! When my colleagues heard about it...their eyes just glazed over and they declared they now have a new idol in our organisation. Actually hor, me too. =)

Trivia#6
Ok, last one here before you become bored from my rantings. This one is hilarious. I just realised all men are absolutely terrified of this simple gadget which most of us women cannot go without. Tadah..

You should see the shocked expressions on their faces when the makeup artist flashed this in front of them. Most of them just totally flipped and questioned with fear "Need this meh?" All of them claimed it looked painful and that it should only be used on females. Haha! MJ was the best! His reaction was the most violent cos he nearly jumped up when he saw and asked "WHAT'S THAT!!!". I had another middle-shot who tensed up so much when the curler was used on him that my makeup artist had to slowly try to get him to relax cos she said the eyelashes simply wouldn't curl when he got so stressed up. Its so funny lor. So ladies, you can use this on your boyfriend/husband whenever they make you angry or don't give in to your whims and fancies. Heh heh. =)

D-Day

2007-02-12T22:21:00.000+08:00

Yeeks....the dreaded day will be upon us in less than 2 days....I can already forsee what I'll be doing on that day....WORKING lor...chay. Cannot help but lament on my lack of suitors...hur hur. No flowers, no gifts, just pure hard work on that day. BUUUUTT....ITS OK LAH. SERIOUSLY. Can get used to it one....haha. But I really like what my uncle mentioned earlier when he dropped by my place. When we were talking about my cousin Audrey's (who's younger than me) approaching marriage, he consoled me and commented "Its really ok lah. Just remember that you must never get married for the sake of getting a partner, or for shutting up people's mouths. If you ever get married, it should be to someone you really care about and love." This is like the best advice I've heard in years, and my uncle's the only elder who had never nagged at me for not being able to get attached. If only more of my aunties/grandmother could think like him. And that's including my mom too.

SIGH.

First outing with colleagues

2007-02-03T22:30:00.000+08:00

Glad to say that I'm slowly getting chummier with my colleagues at the new office. It was actually rather kind of them to invite me to their outings, cos they don't really know me that well yet. Yesterday we went karaoke-ing at Party World (Civics Centre) and wah lau, so expensive man! With the member discount, still had to pay $20 per person. But guess its the same for all KTVs, on Friday and Sat nights lah. Quite fun, getting to know this fun side of them. Some of the young guys quite shy one...must keep cajoling them before they agree to sing. And I always feel quite old in front of them, cos they all address me as Miss XXX (surname). First time leh...haha. Got 2 of them who are my age, so feels kind of weird hearing them call me that. But ok lah, my boss is actually only 3 years older than me, but I still address him Sir.

By the way, slight disgressing here. Yesterday we had dinner at Macs before going to the KTV and I tried the new black pepper chicken burger. Unless you have an extremely high threshold of spiciness, DON'T TRY IT!!! Its really very very 辣...the first few bites may seem ok, but trust me, when you get to the middle of the burger, YOUR TONGUE IS ON FIRE!!!! Had to force the whole burger down cos I was really hungry and didn't want to waste food (and money lah). But still must admit that the chicken is indeed quite tender. Just that its gotta be one of the most fiery burger I ever eaten!

And guess what? Winnie (my travelling partner in Japan) is finally back (for good!) from Beijing. Back in late 2005, she had resigned from work to go on a hiatus in China. That time, she informed us she will be taking up lodging with her friend who had been posted there because of work. It was only later that we found out the friend is a guy lar, so of course we all started guessing their relationship cos eh come on lah, 孤男寡女 staying in one apartment and in a foreign land somemore. But Winnie did not confirm our 'suspicions' lah. Today, I met up with her and wah lau! She informed she had gotten married liao! So 静悄悄 wor! That friend har.... So anyway, its seems like her hubby is now being posted back to Singapore, and they'll be holding their customary wedding in June. She will try to invite her Japanese friends too, so I was hoping I could see Masa, Mai-Chan and Yoko again!! This really came as such a big surprise! I'm sure if I break the news to my former colleagues, the whole office will be set abuzz cos with the aunties around, you can count on them to set all the tongues wagging. But still, its a 大喜事 and I'm really happy for her. Winnie is one of the nicest persons I know, and I've always wondered why she's single. She's really like the angel amongst us cos even when someone treats her badly, she will never speak bad of that person. And when people loses temper with her, or scolds her, she still manages to stay calm and composed, even when we all know its not her fault. You can say she is a person whom I'll always try to learn from. Wah lau, beside her hor, I sometimes feel I'm the devil leh. So its nice to know that she's finally found someone to settle down and start a family. =)

And then hor, a few hours later, one of my subordinates informed me his wife is pregnant again, with their 3rd child!! Wow, two pieces of good news in one day! What next man? That someone got promoted? Win lucky draw? 中马票? Keep the good news coming!

Just Eng-ing Around

2007-01-29T21:49:00.000+08:00

Feel extremely lazy these few days leh... don't even have the urge to start baking my CNY cookies, I seriously think all my ingredients are already rotting away in the cupboard..hur hur. Spent the majority of last weekend surfing net for cool music scores, think my current piano repertoir is getting STALE!!! Keep playing the same old ones...so thought with the new lunar year coming, should go update with some popular ones. Currently am very interested in learning 黑白配 cos thought the piano part in the song sounds really sweet. And of course 范玮琪's lyrics and melody made it very outstanding in the first place lah. A very typical feel-good song ....touching too! =)

So altogether I managed to get scores for:
1) 黑白配
2) 菊花台 - which is super difficult lor. But very very NICE!!!
3) First of May
4) 我真的受伤了 - found a wma file on the net of this song. It was a jazz version played by a member of a certain song-sharing forum. My goodness, it was GOOD! Double the sadness, double the melancholy and very very impressive. Such a pity I couldn't get hold of that score. Could only find a much easier non-jazzy version. But better than nothing lah
5) 瞳をとじて - theme song of the Japanese movie "Crying out love in the centre of the world". Sung by Ken Hirai and one of the most exceptional number which Ken Hirai wrote himself.

There, now I have plenty of scores to go practice at my piano. Don't think I will be able to tear myself away from the music to go do baking...haha...really lazy bum leh!

Treading on dangerous lands

2007-01-25T22:22:00.000+08:00

Work's been a bitch...as usual. Today I was almost caught in the middle of a spitting hot ball of war fire between my boss and reps from another department. I was called up to be part of this meeting as my boss wanted someone to back him up in case things got ugly (which nearly did). Much of the stuffs which were discussed were almost gibberish to me, as I was not brought into the picture earlier on. Had to slowly grope around during their discussion in order to make heads and tails of the meeting. It was a real INTENSE 1 hour meeting! From what I could see actually, I don't think the other dept is really out to tekan us in the way my boss is very certain they were intent on doing. And he kept asking for my opinion when things got somewhat heated up, but what could I say???? I just shook my head and remained meekly quiet. If I could speak my mind, I would reply that "You 2 idiots are talking at completely different frequencies lah!!! Can try to figure what the other party is talking about first, before you start your arguments can?" Really no point lor, I felt like being caught in the middle and I really do not want to take sides but I know my boss wants me to be on his side lah. Sianzzzzz....so political one!

Best part.....I bumped into one of the rep from the other dept on my way home. Wah lau...felt a bit paiseh. Fortunately he was not taking the same direction as me, if not really don't know what to SAY!!!

Getting used to 2007

2007-01-17T22:04:00.000+08:00

I've been 'ordered' by Teddy to blog more often...chay, like as if he does it more than me lor. But he's got excuse lah, people enjoying married bliss mah. Me, enjoying my new hectic work lor. These few days have been surprisingly dull and easy-going....because I'm getting prepared for a big big storm coming up very soon at work. I'm about to get into something real big and crazy the next coming months and I absolutely have no idea if I'll be able to handle it. Quite scared...its so massive, that even Ms Prada was surprised that my boss had actually ordered a newbie like me, to do it. Its like 4 big projects happening all at the same time, and I'm going to be in charge of all of them. Guess I'll really have no break like all the way from next week till Mar/Apr. Sadzzzz....

But still, there's always a pot of gold at the end of every rainbow (except I don't see any rainbow whatsoever lah). My old workplace is organising short overseas trips again and this time, they're heading to Vietnam!! Since I had been there for the most of 2006, so I'm still entitled to enjoy the huge savings they are giving for the trip. Its a 3D 2N affair, and I'll get to travel with my former colleagues again...so fun!! Seriously hope it'll be better than the KL trip I went the other time man. At least get to go by airplane lor. Even though the dates sort of clashed with one of the major event at my current office, my boss had given his approval for my trip. Feel a bit guilty actually, since this event actually comes under my portfolio. But my colleagues have promised they will help to get it going in my absence. So touched.

Am giving Ms Prada a treat tomorrow, to thank her for all the great advice and help she's given me during this trying period. I know it hadn't been easy for her, since she's also trying her best to adjust to her new work scope and job functions. I remembered when I first took over, I would call her for every single minute obstacle I encountered. But Ms Prada had always been ever so willing to entertain each and every call, no matter what day and time it came. Yes, I had even called her on Sundays, and late nights before too. Quite jia lat actually. So no matter what, I must show my gratitude and appreciation. =)

Yay, CNY 's coming! Wouldn't you be glad to know that I've resumed my baking classes? Heh heh...Valerie had quite a number of interesting sessions coming up. I'm attending her Chocolate Chips biscuits, and Marble Cake classes this month. I know, one can easily get the recipes for choc chips biscuits from the internet and cookbooks. But I've tried before and found that the instructions given were not always that clear and easy to follow. I always failed at the 'creaming butter with sugar' step...never can get the result right one. So my biscuits either come out too soft, or they get 漏风 very very easily. I thought its time I get it right once and for all. Had thought I could bake some for my colleagues and friends during CNY. But now with all the projects coming up, I'm a bit hesitant leh. Sighzzz....but will still attend Valerie's classes. Cannot allow work to occupy my entire life, and I REALLY MISS BAKING!!!

Hmmm...what else can I blog about? Dating life is zilch, so nothing to elaborate on that. Have recently received some weird emails from a guy who saw my ad on the SDU website. Damn 无聊的家伙. Think I'm really starting to lose heart in finding the Significant Other. People kept assuring me I'll definitely get attached one, but I wonder how they know leh? I'm not so sure myself.....maybe there's something wrong with me. Seriously....Hai....but....I'm definitely not going to spend time thinking about this 渺小 issue lor. Have better and more important things to do. Even if I'm going to be single for a long time to come, then I might as well be a happy single woman. Others have done it before, and I'm sure I can manage it nicely too. Luckily still have good friends and colleagues around me....heh.

Yup, must 振作起来... 加油!

When you're too free, there's nothing better to do than to spend $$$

2007-01-06T22:24:00.000+08:00

Nowadays, I've became quite addicted to going on Internet shopping sprees....all thanks to my sis lor. For the uninitiated, this activity is organised by a member of some online forum, and for each spree, they have a very limited number of slots available which get snapped up very very quickly. There are all types of sprees available, such as Birkenstock sprees (you can get the real thing at 20% cheaper), or the more common Korean/Taiwan fashion which I'm currently quite crazy over. The clothes featured are really quite 前卫 and kawaii...and most importantly...SO DAMN CHEAP!!! My sister got me a very decent-quality expensive looking pink jacket for only $38, and that's including shipment charges. Their tops usually cost around $21-$25, and you would probably not be able to find the same styles in our local stores. My sis has bought dunno how many stuffs from these sprees liao...I'm still considered an amateur. The one drawback is that you don't get to feel and touch and try on the outfit before putting down your order. And that's not the worst. You must make sure that you know your own measurements very well, cos its not a joke if you received your package (after all the waiting), only to find out the size you ordered is WRONG!!! I don't think they entertain refunds/exchanges one. Plus, the shipment process is painstakingly loooooong!!! I'm not sure what the reason behind that is, but you must really be prepared to wait quite a well for your purchases to reach you.

But still, for the variety I get...its worth it lah. Quite fun too...especially when you get sick of seeing the same stuffs in all our shopping centres and shops. =)

Today's aerobics sucks. Tried out Bodblitz for the first time and its one hell of a challenge. They use this weird looking stick/rod, which has elastic straps where you can hook your shoes to the ends of each strap. Its mainly for toning and fat burning, but really so tough leh! I'm seriously beginning to wonder if my stamina is so bad leh...perhaps it could also be due to the fact that I had a late lunch and at some point of time, I really felt like puking! Must remember NOT to eat so much before a lesson. To think that I could still commit this mistake, after taking aerobics for more than 6 years. Sianz. But the instructor was quite nice lah...kept encouraging me and even mentioned at the end of the class, that he hoped to see the newcomers (a.k.a. me) return again next week. Will consider lah. But quite scared actually. Haha.

Okie, I'm off to another spree liao...see if there's anything good. =)

Homey on Friday

2006-12-29T22:27:00.000+08:00

Heh very 乖 today, went home straight after work for dinner. Had actually left slightly earlier today, around 6.20pm, so I can reach home on time to have dinner with my mum. Ever since I've started work here, I've had her leave aside some dinner for me almost everyday cos I reach home too late to eat with her. So my constant dinner companion turned out to be the TV.

Today, since the office was rather empty and I had also finished completing the financial budgeting for FY 2007 on time (must praise myself leh....first time doing this..heh), so I decided to leave office early. Sigh.....leave early but still reach home the same time. Cos only realised I left my mobile in the office when the train was 2 stops away from my alighting station. Suay until cannot suay lor. Bo bian have to go back take lah, since it'll be another 4 days before I go back to work. Lousy luck here!

Christmas! I spent it with hostel friends, just like the previous years. After eating a rather cheap dinner at the Hong Kong Cafe Kim Gary (Vivo city - rating so so, but really quite cheap), and exchanging our presents at this unlikely venue (I got a mini radio, thanks Spy P!), we made our way down to the hippiest (spelling right?) mambo place in town...St. James Powerstation! As expected, the queues were crazy and its not that comfortable waiting patiently in the cold weather (luckily not raining). Most fortunately (in fact, we were real damn so fortunate), Bluesky's hubby happened to be in the queue and he offered to let us join him lah. Wah lau, so paiseh having to walk past all the people queueing at the back, only to realise Bluesky's hubby was right at the front of the line. Had to bend my head low and ignore all the whisperings behind us...haha. We were in the club in no time, and even managed to get some seats (all thanks to The Hubby again!). Couldn't order alcohol as I had taken panadol a few hours before the dinner, so had to settle for fruit punch. ET joined me (why? why? why?). Think I must be getting old, cos didn't really find the music very heart-thumping leh. Think I'm still stuck at the I-should-be-so-lucky, lucky-lucky-lucky era...dang! After the rather brief countdown, Corinni and I headed down to the dance floor to get some exercise...a bit sian just sitting around and shouting into one another's ears. Music got slightly better after midnight, but as ET wanted to catch the last train home, we left around 1am. Total $$$ damage? 30 bucks for 2 hours plus of unidentified music, 2 glasses of fruit punch and a sore throat from the shouting and smoke. But still fun lah... =)

My cousin Ah Xiang is baaaack!!! Took leave on 28th to check him out at the airport. Was pouring almost the entire day. He still looks rather unchanged, except a bit thinner. Not much to eat there (France) I guess...haha. So sad, he's leaving again next Thursday. Such a rush right? He won't be here for CNY too, so can imagine my aunt's sadness. But while waiting for him at the airport, I sort of hatched this brilliant idea of joining him during his summer vacation to travel around the countries near France, together with his brother Sirfercauress. Cool huh? Cheaper this way mah, and I've never backpacked before too. But takes a lot of planning lah (A LOT!!) so must still 三思而行 lah. But it'll be nice if this actually works out.

Yay, tomorrow going bowling at the Civil Service Club with Spy P. They have one of the cheapest rates in town, and now with the NEL station nearby, its quite a breeze going there. We tried it there once and was rather surprised at how well maintained the place was. Structure may look a bit old outside, but the bowling lanes are at least newer than those found at Marina South. Gimme strikes and spares man!!!!

I'm BACK!!! Miss me?

2006-12-23T23:57:00.000+08:00

I cannot believe that I had not blogged for nearly a month already! Its quite shameful, especially counting the fact that I used to log in twice every week! If not for the 'gentle' reminder from Spy P to update my blog soon, I would have really not found the time to write entries again. But still, it feels good to know that my good friends continue to visit my blog regularly, even if one of the reasons for doing so is to read the blogs linked on my page (thanks hah, Spy P).

Updates updates! Hmmm...what shall I write? Besides my new job, there's not really much going on in my life right now. Boring hor? The first 2 weeks of Dec was absolutely stressful and crazy. There were a lot of events to plan during that period, and I must say the stuffs I learnt during the process were quite enlightening. There were really quite a lot of issues to take care of, just for one event alone. And sometimes, I really did not know the best way to handle the situation at all! How do you cater food for a session when you don't even know what the turnout will be like? What do you do when the speakers you invited to the event rejects you? What do you say during a event when your kind boss suddenly entrust the role of emcee to your face, and you don't have the time to prepare any scripts at all? And during important meetings involving the top top management, what do you say when your big shot boss ask for some event statistics and you are unable to provide it at that moment?

Seriously, I'm beginning to believe that to do well in this posting, I MUST LEARN TO SMOKE MY WAY THROUGH!!!! Sometimes hor, it really doesn't pay to be honest and just say you don't know. No matter what, still must die die reproduce some intelligent (and believable!) answer to your boss and look as if you really know what you are saying. In other words, must know how to ACT! Xiong right? Best part, this boss of mine have the irritating habit of popping new tasks/events on your table, without giving you any preparation time and fully expecting good results at the end of the day. You tell me lah, how to come up with good execution when here, I'm already drowning in all the current work, and you still add on to my burden with even more tough duties? And hor, most of my officers are clearing their leave during this festive season, so its quite difficult to get them to help me, and I also don't have the heart to ask them to cancel their leave lah. What to do, sacrifice my own leave lor. Fortunately, its not a lot lah, only about 4 days left. Won't lugi so much.

But things are slowly getting better now, as I begin get a better idea of my entire work portfolio and the expectations from my boss. There were some painful lessons learnt, but I guess that cannot be helped and I really count myself fortunate that I have 4 good assistants helping to share my workload and stress! I've also gotten used to juggling many tasks all at one time, and constantly tracking the progress of each and every one of them. Ms Prada was right to advise me that when all the undone stuffs seem to be equally urgent, I would need to stop for a while and really consider how to prioritise the tasks and get the important ones done first. Of course my analysis hasn't been accurate all the time, but I make mistakes and learn and try not to make the same mistakes again. There were times I even had nightmares about my work. Haha.

The people at my new workplace are quite nice though. Most are rather young (sheesh!) and I find myself being the 4th oldest in the office. Sigh...I was one of the youngest in my former place leh. Most times, we lunch in and the guys would talk lots of crap and make the rest of us laugh a lot during the meals. And one of our favourite topic....MY BOSS. Aiyah, its quite sad one. He's really unpopular among the office people and he's being known to rebuke some of the boys quite loudly whenever they don't do things they way he wanted it. Fortunately, he seldom scolds the females. But there was once where I made a careless mistake (due to my forgetfulness) and a colleague (JJ) kena-ed his harsh words because of it. I felt so guilty leh and all I could do was to keep apologising to JJ. Luckily he didn't hold it against me lah. But still feel so 过意不去...sigh! Must try not to do that again. SO PAISEH!!!

So besides work (shall not talk about it anymore), its just flute liao. No more baking and less choir practices. I figure I couldn't handle both flute practices and choir at the same time. Too taxing and I would leave very little personal time for myself if I were to devote some of my precious after-office hours to both activities. Already, I'm arriving at my office much earlier than the last posting, and leaving it much later too. Sometimes when I had reached home and taken my dinner, I really have to force myself to pick up the flute and go through the boring drills and songs. Its quite a chore at times, when all you want to do is to chill out in front of the TV. Fortunately, I'm continuing to progress rather well in the instrument and Andy had remarked that he's quite pleased at the rate I'm improving in my basic techniques, which is 气息 and 音色. I've not really considered how far I want to go at this stage, but think Andy will kill me if I were to say I want to stop now. And anyway I won't lah, cos this would mean all the hard work I've put in for the past 1 year would have gone to waste. Its not easy to build up the 丹田 power and I know once I stop practice, it would go downhill immediately, cos my foundation is still not that stable mah. Currently he's trying me out on a Grade 8 piece. I told him he was crazy. Think I'm prodigy arh? But still must give it a shot, though its like super duper tough lor. Its no longer just playing the score as its written. Now, I'm expected to add in the rudiments and various impressive techniques to 点缀 the score. So damn 麻烦 lor. Learn piano so easy, just follow what's written. Chinese music, nooooo....cannot just follow. Too simple liao. Must be imaginative and put in your own flavour and style. Xiao lah.

So anyway, looks like this entry is going to be the longest I've ever written. One last thing to add lah. Bought the Korean drama 'My Girl' last Sun at Carrefour. Was told it's good, though not as good as 宫 lah.

Storyline is extremely similar to My Name is Kim Sam Soon:

1) A secret contract between the male and female characters

2) Male finds himself falling for the female star

3) Male's ex-gf comes back to claim her rightful status

4) Another good-looking male goes after female lead, causing male lead to feel jealous, without knowing he had already fallen for her

5) Male lead is boss of big corporation

Difference? Female lead Lee Da Hae is prettier than Kim Sam Soon. And more people going against the forbidden love between the main leads. I cried more in this show, cos very sad mah, when you have 2 persons obviously very much in love, but cannot be together because of the stupid people around them. First few episodes were absolutely hilarious though. This female lead really knows how to smoke her way through during the difficult situations. Hah, must learn from her.

And the male lead? ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS lor.

Just finished watching the entire show today. Having post-drama blues as usual.

Wah I need the laughs!!!!

2006-11-28T22:16:00.000+08:00

Hey guys you gotta watch this on YouTube....its so damn FARNIE...I couldn't stop weeping with laughter during and after watching the clip. If you have not watched it before, don't hesitate ok! I guarantee no matter how bad your day had been, you will not remember it after viewing the video.

The title of the clip is called 齊天大聖之憲在不准笑(音樂課). Its actually a variety show hosted by the famous crappy Taiwanese showhost Jacky Wu. The scenario is a school classroom, and they got this old man and woman acting as teachers reciting some supposedly-lyrical poem. But because of their very heavy Hokkien accent, their 诗歌朗诵 sounded more like an extremely vulgar (but impossibly wacky) recitation.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Hahaha!

Still stressed....but am dealing with it calmly

2006-11-12T18:44:00.000+08:00

So many things had happened since the last time I blogged. Gosh. Everything had occurred in such a whirlwind speed that I barely had time to relax and surf the net. Now I feel absolutely so guilty for neglecting my beloved blog. Poor dear....

First things first. I wanna say a BIG THANK YOU to all my best buddies and concerned sisters for the encouraging comments and help you've given me during this stressful period. And especially for being there to just hear me talk nonsense and release all the troubled thoughts I have inside me. Thank you for having the confidence in me too! That really helped a lot. In times like these, I sometimes feel like I'm some small midget fighting to get a control over the big big issues in the outside world. It had been quite a trying time I must say...but I know I had benefitted from this definitely. No more comfort zone to retreat to, so its time I GROW UP!!! =)

I said my last goodbyes to my dearest colleagues last Thurs. Nearly want to cry ok! They gave me a very lovely bracelet (Citigems!), but the most touching gift I received was this 3 photo frames containing a mixture of polaroids which my colleagues had gone around taking in the office. These photos captured the persons whom I know I will miss most in future, which is exactly why I consider this present the most precious! They even made captions underneath each polariod! So 感动 right?

To show my appreciation, I bought cakes from The Patissier which was featured in The Sunday Times a few weeks back for their gorgeous designer cakes. They definitely don't come cheap, but the looks on my colleagues' faces when they took the first bite made it all worthwhile. My favourite is the Passion Fruit Meringue. They had other utterly delicious ones such as the Earl Grey, Green Tea, Strawberry Cognac, etc. You really must give it a try someday. The cakes are all baked fresh, and they only bake one set per day. Which means once each 'flavour' is sold out, you cannot get it anymore on the same day. They have one outlet at Ann Siang Rd (near Maxwell Market) and another one at Mohd Sultan Rd. I spent a total of $76 on the cakes. Cool huh?

Then came Friday, and which I took leave to help out in my good pal Sher's wedding. I had thought this would be one of those 'normal' weddings, you know with the same routines and blah blah so on. But surprisingly, I quite enjoyed this one. Perhaps its also because Sher happened to be one of my bestest friend. We had only 5 Jie Meis in the morning, and were pitted against a grand total of 10 Xiong Dis! Luckily our head Jie Mei, Regina was an absolute SUPERWOMAN in her role last Fri. She had all the games and sabo thought out and was the very efficient planner and guide throughout the entire wedding. And of course, our 10 Xiong Dis were also the absolute most sporting guys around. Very cheeky people...but fun (Somehow all of them were crazy over the Japanese guy Hard Gay)! Suffice to say the wedding was a BLAST! The dinner was also quite great...cos I was the emcee mah...=P Very refreshing to get to do it in English for once....and of course I was paired up with a very eligible co-emcee (Sher's cousin). Heh heh. When Sher made her speech during the dinner, her sister just bawled right in front of everyone. Wah lau, I nearly did so too ok.....quite touching lah. And Sher's cousins went absolutely mad over the alcohol available and drunk so much till one of them was totally bonked out when the dinner ended. IMPRESSIVE I tell you!

Sighz....after all this fun, its now back to work liao. Tomorrow's my official first day of work at the new office. I've not even finished moving all my stuffs from my old office....its 6 years of accumulated crap...so you can imagine how much that is. Haiz...I really hope I can get some of the urgent matters sorted out by tomorrow at least....its really killing me now, cos I keep thinking of it day in day out.

However! I do have something to look forward to. Something which I promised myself that if I'm able to get through my first event, I'll reward myself with it. Something which is BRANDED and EXPENSIVE....heh heh heh!

Too stressed to blog

2006-10-29T11:09:00.000+08:00

Instead of religiously working away now, I cannot believe that here I am blogging away, and in full view of the huge stack of stuffs which are waiting for me to go through!!!! But you know what, I DON'T GIVE A DAMN FOR IT ANYMORE!!!!! I've so utterly sick of feeling STRESSED, DEPRESSED, WORRIED, DEJECTED, CRAZY over my work schedules for the past few weeks, that I've decided THIS IS IT!!!! The idiot work will never stop coming in, and so there is absolutely no point of me going nuts over it since I am only 1 woman, running a 2-persons show.
This new job posting is driving me siao soon, and I know Ms. Prada is not having it easier also. Because of the lousy timing, Ms. Prada has gone over to her new position, while I can only officially go over to her place mid-Nov. So what resulted from that is Ms. Prada has already taken over all her new duties, and I'm still holding on to my projects in my old place, and AT THE SAME TIME, both of us are dividing the duties of my new job (and Ms. Prada's previous) together. 2 persons handling 3 jobs. Can kill one you know. Now when I go to work at my old place, I'm dealing with issues both from my current and new jobs, and I also have to make decisions which are related to my new position (but which sometimes, I absolutely have no idea what to do about it). My inbox has never seen such cramped days, cos emails from both sides kept coming in. Plus my new place have some events coming up in Nov and Dec, and there's no way I can start planning only when I officially go over. Which also means I'm kickstarting this planning stage right now, in the 'comfort' of my old office. So ironic isn't it? I've seen cases that when my friends change jobs, they can even enjoy a few days of rest after their last day at their old place, before starting on the new job. Me? I'm so busy, that now I'm really quite terrified of falling ill. I really have not time for that...no time to think of other stuffs except work. Whatever free time I have, like on the train, waiting for lifts, eating my packed lunches, and even during choir practices, I'm still thinking of work.

My new place had a rather big event yesterday, organised by Ms. Prada (her 2nd last project in her old job). I was asked to attend cos it would be my baby project next year. When I arrived and saw Ms. Prada yesterday, her eyes were bloodshot. So stressful can? She told me she couldn't sleep the previous night. But I guess she can hope for more relaxing days to come, since she only has one last project to clear, before she will totally 'wash her hands' off her old job and pass me the baton.

Am I scared over this seemingly tough job? Was I wrong to move there? Trust me, I myself am not sure. But no matter what, it cannot be denied that nothing beats having a friend as a predecessor in your new job. For the past 2 weeks, Ms. Prada had always patiently entertained all kinds of queries I put to her, and at all times of the day too. Whenever I thought of something to ask, I just call. Haha...like some 24 hrs hotline. I know I would have really owed it to her if at the end of the day, I can manage to take over her position without much glitches and mistakes. Must give her a treat someday! A GOOD TREAT!!!

And all I want right now, is for mid Nov to come quickly, so that I can finally release myself from my old job duties and give all my focus onto my new job. Ms. Prada must have also been feeling the same all this while. And I think all this stress is also the reason why my Big Auntie hasn't arrived still. SIGH. My only release from all this, is ironically, practising on my dizi on alternate days. The 1 hour I spend on the instrument is one of the rare momentsI can stop thinking about work totally. Because I cannot play properly if I do not concentrate 100% on the dizi...which is good! Never thought I'll say this man! Dizi is good for me! It keeps me sane! =)

But as Ms. Prada once remarked " People are watching the both of us, to see how we cope. So no matter what happens hor, 我们不可以垮 (right word to use?)!!" This has become our mantra liao....WE MUST BE STRONG!!

The 'No Touch' Policy

2006-10-13T22:55:00.000+08:00

Wah lau I realised one of the great perks in my new job hor, is having the opportunity to meet loads (and loads) of eligible young men in my company. Though I cannot reveal what exactly my new job revolves around, but suffice to say it's definitely a constantly-meet-new-people job! At my old place, even after working for more than 5 year office, I still meet people in the office lift who commented that they've not seen me before. Shocking right?

For the past 2 weeks, I've been learning the ropes about my new job from Ms. Prada, and I must say my current boss is very nice about it, cos every now and then I will bug her to release me for these mini job briefings, which you know doesn't benefit her in anyway lah. So generous right? And sometimes I will accompany Ms. Prada to some of the job- related events, so that she can introduce me as the person who will soon be taking over her position. So far, I've attended 2 of these events, and really lor, as I've mentioned above, I get to know at least 1 very eligible young man during each event. But because I'm very professional one hor, so I bo bian have to adopt a 'See but No Touch' policy here lor. Wah....these guys really are ELIGIBLE spelt with big capital letters ok. Top brains, bright prospects, pleasant looking (some even GREAT looking), good interpersonal skills, etc etc...practically the cream of the crop lah. I'm salivating liao...haha!

Seriously I forsee I need this perk soon, cos from what Ms. Prada had gone through with me hor, this job is really not going to be a easy one. But I'm not that put off yet lah...told myself I must give my best shot before I start panicking. Haha. And what's more, if I can go through those tough dizi lessons with Andy, I believe nothing can get me down so easily one. And speaking of this, I cannot believe I'm saying this, but I actually miss my dizi lessons you know. After Andy went off in late Sept, I've been surviving pretty much on my own with the dizi practices. But without the stressful lessons, I've somehow lost the drive and passion to improve my dizi liao. Previously, with Andy coming once every week, I always grab whatever free time I have at home to practice on the flute so that he can see some improvements the next time he comes. Now, my goodness, you should see how much I've slacked in my practice. Tsk tsk tsk! Damn jia lat lor. As I say, I need someone to push me lar. I'm definitely not the self-motivating type one lor I guess!

Sigh!

The biggest event in 6 years

2006-10-09T21:42:00.000+08:00

Ok, as it seems like things are more or less confirmed liao, I think I can now reveal the 轰动 change which is about to occur in a month to come. As what Spy P (who kept badgering me last Sat to tell her the news) had guessed, I'm leaving my current workplace (of 6 years!) to enter an entirely new job scope in November. Technically speaking, I'm still working within the same company lah, but its just that the job functions between my old and new jobs are like hundred world's apart, and plus, my office location will also change (for the better actually, cos my new office is like way way nearer to my home).

The process of finding this new position, going for the interview and receiving confirmation that the new place wanted me, all happened in a matter of 2 weeks only. But because I was still waiting for my boss to give me the blessing to move, nobody could really guarantee I could move eventually. I myself also did not 抱着太大的希望, cos from where I come from, its well known fact that nobody can confirm anything as long as the big bosses up there have not given their nods of approval. Even now, I'm still like a bit 战战兢兢 over the final decision cos my boss happened to be away last Thurs and Fri and till now, he still hasn't made any response to the news of me moving out. Sigh...keeping fingers CROSSED!!

Perhaps you've guessed, the person's job I'm taking over is none other than Ms. Prada's. Heh heh. Interestingly, I've actually been eyeing this position since 2004, but as I was then still not 'ripe' enough to move out yet, I had to give up the thought lah. It was later that I got the info that Ms. Prada (whom I knew back in 2001) had took up the vacancy. Then earlier this year, I casually repeated this 'story' to Ms. Prada lah, and lo and behold, in early Oct, she called to ask if I was still hankering after this position. It seems that she's going off liao, and the first suitable candidate she thought of (so claims she lah) was me. Heh heh.

I of course couldn't wait to say YES, and after she notified her Manpower officer about it, I was told to go for an interview with Ms. Prada's boss (yes, the one who tried to rescue me from the cursed toilet) the week after. Wah lau, I was so nervous before the meetup...kept trying to predict the questions he would grill me, and then plan what intelligent answers I should give. Most fortunately, it was more of a 虚惊一场 cos the Boss was very nice during the entire 1 hour, and instead of asking me questions, just gave me a general summary of Ms. Prada's job scope and 反而 kept asking if I had any questions. That had me struckdumb for a while, cos I definitely had not thought of any INTELLIGENT questions to ask...haha...dumb idiot!

For the past 2 weeks, I've been talking a lot to Ms. Prada about her job duties, and the functions she's (and I in future) expected to perform. Its actually rather scary cos its only after hearing from her, that I now fully appreciate how sheltered I was in my current job. Over at my new place, I'm pretty much alone as I'm the only person performing that particular function in the department. And I even have 2 staff working under me! Imagine that!! At my place now, I enjoy the freedom of being a 小职员 who doesn't have to manage any subordinates at all. And whatever we do, I still have my supervisor who will help to answer for our actions. Over there, its an entirely different issue liao. Besides my core function, there are still a couple of other roles I have to take on and I worry if I can shoulder all these responsibilities leh. This Ms. Prada very funny, after she briefed me on the extra 'ECAs' I had to take on, she was like smiling away and saying "heh heh...now got reservations about the job right?".

Actually reservations I don't have lah....I mean I cannot always stick to the same easy life forever right? If I need to learn to stand on my own 2 feet, I think I had better start now than later lah, cos I don't want to get too comfortable in my old job that I start to 抗拒 any new jobs which come along my way. At my age now, I figure I can still take more obstacles and difficulties that appear in my job. And from what I see, this new position which I'm taking over will definitely give me more exposure in my company and hopefully improve my ability to adapt to new challenges. And whenever I feel doubtful as to whether I've made the right choice to move, I'll always remember what a good mentor of mine, Lynn, had mentioned to me once.

"Everybody worries about the unknown and unpredictable, especially when one takes on new job functions. But isn't it exactly these unknown challenges which make life so much more interesting and worthwhile to live? At any point of time, we will never be able to know if the current decision we've just made is a good one. But that is fair, cos no one can guarantee what happens in the future. What's more important is that we believe in our decisions and take on whatever happens because of the decisions which we had made in good faith."

Must so remind myself of this in future.

Ending to the Toilet Saga

2006-10-03T22:10:00.000+08:00

Ok must commend you guys for your intelligent guesses....most of you got it right the first time! I did use the Climbing Method to get out of that sticky situation, and I must say I was rather impressed with myself for being gung-ho about it. Actually, when you've got no choice hor, gung ho or not, you still have to do it lah.

So while everyone was cracking their brains as to what best way to extract me out of the cubicle, I spotted this very tiny ledge just above the toilet bowl. Most fortunately for me (which is why I said I need to buy 4D/Toto), the ledge was located high enough in that I could cross one leg over to the next cubicle while resting the other leg on the ledge. I must say first hor, that this ledge is really really narrow...just enough space for one foot only. But as I mentioned, bo bian lah. So the whole idea worked rather wonderfully, and in no time at all, I finally saw LIGHT!!!! Bright bright lights in this gigantic toilet!!!

One of the funny things which occurred was that after everyone agreed that climbing over the cubicle separator was the best way out, I was already taking off my shoes and getting ready to climb liao. Then hor, it suddently struck me that I WAS WEARING A SKIRT LEH!!!! Damn suay ok! I mean can still climb over lah, but cannot do it in front of Ms. Prada's boss cos what if my skirt got hiked up dangerously too high during the process. Wah lau....so paiseh, but I had to tell Ms. Prada's boss "Erm Sir, you mind leaving the toilet before I try climbing over? I, erm erm, happen to be wearing a skirt." I really don't know how I managed to get those words out of my mouth!

Ms. Prada's boss of course agreed profusely "ok ok ok!!", and it was all smooth sailing after that lor. Ms. Prada kept laughing non stop...so evil! And it had to happen that her boss offered to send me home as he was going back to office, which was quite near to my home lah. Wah lau during the trip, I had to keep making conversation in order to divert our attention away from this embarassing incident. And no need to mention too, that all my family members had a good laugh over the incident too lor. At my expense darn!

Actually this event is a small prelude to a even bigger (much much more 轰动) event which is about to happen in my life. Some of my closer colleagues and friends already know about it, but because nothing's been confirmed yet, I thought I should wait a little while more before I make it official in this blog.

Hence again, stay tuned to my next few entries then. Haha!

I should buy 4D/Toto this week..

2006-09-26T12:36:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, I had the privilege of helping out at my friend/colleague Ms.Prada's event held at a JC (the rich one located at the west) in the afternoon. Wah lau, I have not stepped into a school for like donkey years liao....felt almost suffocated by all the youthfulness and exuberance there. Geez. Even the teachers seemed to be getting younger (and more good looking!)...I didn't remember having the chance to enjoy such eye candy during MY JC days. So anyway, the event started around 4pm with a talk by the presenter, as well as Ms. Prada's boss, and then we proceeded to have some refreshments, while also mingling and chatting with the students invited to this event. Its interesting that after so many years since I was in JC, most of the students' concerns still remained pretty much the same.

Ok but this is not the main issue here. After the students left around 6pm plus and the only persons left standing at the foyer were Ms. Prada, her colleague, her boss (the only guy...and quite a handsome chap...but married ALREADY) and of course, moi lah. As we were preparing to take our leave too, I thought I had better visit the ladies first lah...cos this JC is quite far away from my home mah...hence I reckon the journey would take at least an hour. When I entered the toilet (alone...the others opted not to go), dunno why lah but I suddenly had this stupid thought in my head "Eh what if the toilet is haunted hah?" I'm really absolutely clueless why I had this idea...cos the toilet was actually quite cheery looking (bright yellow colour!) and extremely airy and comfortable. Maybe its just the fact that I was the only person there, and I think there must have been at least 10-15 cubicles in the toilet. Big Toilet!!

Of course being the scaredy cat, I chose the cubicle nearest to the door (easier to escape if something were to pounce on me mah) and made sure I locked my cubicle door securely before going about whatever I need to do lah. Then hor, the best thing happened after I finished my business and was ready to leave the cubicle lah.

The lock refused to open.

Can you guess what thought was (again) swimming in my head then, as I was frantically trying to pry open the damn plastic latch?

"THIS PLACE IS REALLY HAUNTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HELP HELP!!!"

I absolutely could not believe my terrible lousy luck leh! Can get sabo by a flimsy latch thingy which isn't even metallic. After playing with the lock for like 1 minute, I was already quite exhausted liao. The latch just doesn't want to budge at all. I had no choice but to call Ms.Prada on her mobile. She was laughing when she entered the toilet....but when even she couldn't kick the door open.....

She got her boss to come in.

WAH LAU DAMN SO PAISEH OK!!!!!! I still cannot believe this actually happened to me.

So Ms.Prada's boss was very nice....he told me to stand as far away as possible from the door, and attempted to again kick it open. But still.....I tell you har...that plastic door is really durable....I think it will stand like that even when there's a typhoon going through the school. The boss even stood on the toilet bowl in the cubicle next to mine to survey the lock situation himself. But nothing helped....at that point of time, I didn't know whether to laugh or get worried.

Aha...so the most crucial question comes up now....how did I manage to get out of that cursed cubicle eventually?? Did I

a) call for help from external sources and wait for the locksmith (it wasn't even a lock for god's sake) to come?
b) climb out myself
c) continue to kick the door till it gives way
d) really wait for typhoon to come

Make a guess. People who know me should be able to select the correct answer one. Haha.

Feel like a PIG!

2006-09-22T22:56:00.000+08:00

Its that time of the month again when I would feel perpetually hungry ALL THE TIME, and start stuffing myself with whatever food I can find. Yes, I suffer from this 'condition' ALWAYS, a week or so before my Auntie comes. Its so scary, on Thursday for lunch, I had a huge bowl of Curry Noodle (get it from no other place than Heng Heng Curry Noodle - Hong Lim Market) which cost me $4, and then I finished the meal with a Mac's chocolate cone. I was so full I thought I couldn't possibly eat dinner, but later, was happily tucking in the pork chops my mom had cooked for dinner.

Then today, my colleagues and I went to Sakae Sushi to take advantage of their '9 coloured plates for $9' promotion (Tomorrow last day for the offer guys...what you waiting for??). Because of their strict criteria (9 plates for EACH table, no splitting of bills, blah blah), the 6 of us divided ourselves into 3 pairs and sat on 3 separate tables, so that each pair could eat 9 plates (10th plate onwards were regular priced). If we had all sat on 1 table, we would only be able to enjoy 9 plates at $1 each. So in our arrangement, the 6 of us were able to get 27 plates at $1 each lah. Actually I thought all this was rather CRAP, cos they could have just allowed us to sit together, and then charge EVERY 9 plates that we eat at $1 each lor, cos it would have amounted to the same as what we had done this afternoon. Cos at the end, each pair of us occupied one 4-seater table, which meant the 6 of us took 3 big tables, WHICH I thought was a bit of waste lah, considering there was still this long queue outside the restaurant. SIGH!! But fortunately despite the crowd, our food still came rather fast and we were able to move off about 45 minutes later. On top of our 9 plates of sushi, my colleague (Ms Houston) and I took on another bowl of teriyaki chicken ramen (don't recommend it actually....not impressive at all). Wah lau eh.....the buttons on my blouse nearly came close to bursting after the meal. SO FULL LEH!!! But Ms Houston super good lor...she took most of the ramen, and still look quite ok after we left the place. Me, I think my face was like, giving the 'can-puke-anytime' look. Most uncomfortable.

Anyway, something rather interesting happened today. I made another batch of Strawberry Hearts for my mom (who wanted to give to them to her PRC 铁打师傅). As there were extras to go around, I took a couple to let my colleagues try. The 2 Muslim ladies in my office kindly rejected my offer (cos obviously my food's dat halal lah), so I had 2 extra left. I then decided to give them to my nice Sikh colleague Ms. Qigong (who had generously lent me her Punjabi suit for my choir performance in Brunei) who works on the level above me. Wah...it turned out that she absolutely loved the tarts, cos her daughter used to get them at a bakery at Bedok and they were priced at $1.90 for 2! Ms. Qigong says my standard's rather similar to the Bedok bakery one! Wah! She really made my day man! And hor, she even ordered 1 batch of the tarts from me, for her friend's gathering held in Oct!

I FEEL SO FLATTERED LEH!!!!

MY FIRST BAKING BUSINESS DEAL!!!

OVER THE MOON LIAO!!!

HAH!

Jay's composing talent - 超赞!

2006-09-16T23:38:00.000+08:00

Ok, so he mumbles A LOT in his songs, and most of the time, I can fully understand the lyrics only when I actually get to sing the songs during KTV sessions. But you have to give him full credit for his ability to create melodies which not only come in a wide variety, but are also extremely catchy and sometimes, very very touching.

I'm referring to the song 菊花台, track 10 in Jay Chou's newest album offering 依然范特西. My goodness, I had goosebumps the first time I heard it on the CD (and it had to be the last track). Basically, I'm a person who forms a very strong impression on any new songs which I hear for the first time. Meaning if I like the song the minute I heard it, then I will probably like it forever. And songs which I have no feelings towards at first...well, it'll probably also stay that way. There are extremely few songs which got me to change my initial impression of them. One of these rare examples, is the old song 领悟 sung by 辛晓琦. When I first heard it, I was totally indifferent towards the melody (cos as mentioned before, I'm a melody person...lyrics usually mean zilch to me). But after hearing it for a few more times, I was greatly moved by the amount of expression 辛晓琦 had 'displayed' while singing the song, as well as the extremely stirring lyrics. But its a very sad song nonetheless.

Anyway, Jay Chou had wrote 菊花台 specially for the movie 《满城尽带黄金甲》 directed by 张艺谋. Of course, Jay is one of the actors in the movie lar, together with other big shots like 巩俐 and 周润发. The moment the song starts, you would know its a very typical traditional 中国风 type of music cos the main instrument used sounded like the pipa (I cannot really differentiate between the sounds of pipa, guzhen and yang qin). But interestingly, the cello was also pretty obvious later in the song, and despite the fact that both instruments are of different origins, their sounds actually came together quite seamlessly in the song. I must say the score arranger did a pretty impressive job!

The melody was of course top notch Jay Chou. Though my sis commented that his voice did not really manage to fit into the song, I felt it was still rather acceptable. Given the extremely poetic lyrics (done by Jay's usual partner 方文山) in the song, I could still feel the range of emotions (the anguish, sadness and 不舍得) which Jay had tried to inject while singing it. And from this song, you really would have been able to guess that this new movie is a 武侠片 with a love story in it probably. My guess lah!

Overall, I had actually only liked 4 songs in this new album. They are:
1) 夜的第七章 (Interesting MV)
2) 千里之外 (even though I get to hear it like at least 4 times a day on Yes933)
3) 退后
4) 菊花台
4 out of 10 is not too bad for me liao...haha. Cos if at least one of the songs had impressed me like to the extent where I repeat the song over and over and over again on my Ipod, then I think the album is already worth buying. I saw on the net how others had raved about the other songs like 心雨 and 迷迭香 (this is more like a jazzy number...imagine Jay doing Jazz!), but to me so-so only leh. Wasn't really that impressed.

菊花台 - still the best! Feel very 感伤 whenever I finish hearing it.

Life's a bitch when your teacher is in a lousy mood

2006-09-10T18:28:00.000+08:00

Wah lau, dunno what 倒霉运 I kena-ed just now, cos I had the most horrible lesson with Andy on this supposedly beautiful Sunday morning.

The moment I opened the door, he was already not in a overly-friendly mood (can see from his face lor). But hey man, I should be the one getting angry hor, cos he was almost half an hour late, and he didn't even call to inform me that (which he usually does).

Then he had to start the lesson by making me play the super tough 塔塔尔族舞曲, which I had not had a lot of practice on the last couple of days. Was concentrating more on the 美丽的姑娘. This 塔塔尔族舞曲 focuses a lot on the 双吐音, which sadly is one of my weakest skill. Hence you can imagine how terok my playing was lah. He of course found fault in most of the notes I played, and then in order to correct my 音色, he made me play the same 'so' (as in do re mi fa so) note like 10 times. But each time, he would still complain that I had not gotten it right. Of course idiot, I cannot get it right lah, cos he never even said what I was doing wrong mah...then how the hell you want me to do the correction liddat?? And when I was getting all confused and slightly irritated (he was ALREADY very irritated at this point), I got all stressed up and my 气息 got worse and worse, to the extent where I felt I wasn't even using half of my 丹田 to do the breathing. Afterwhich of course, this gave him another excuse to complain about my lousy breathing techniques and playing skill lor.

Seriously, I was not really feeling too upset over this lah. It was more of like "Where did all this come from hah?" during the lesson. Very scary leh. And to make it even better, his shifu Master Zhan has already agreed to take me in for 2-3 lessons while Andy is overseas in Oct. LAGI EVEN MORE STRESSED LOR!!! I really don't know how I'm going to go through those lessons....I REALLY DON'T KNOW!! I mean like, my basic skills are still so weak, nothing is quite polished yet, my pieces are in a mess......WHY WHY WHY should I still go and see his Master????????????? He should be seeing top students with GREAT playing abilities, and then discuss with them how to improve their MUSICAL TALENT blah blah blah.....not lousy me!!!

Andy even remarked..."He can be rather temperamental at times one"...and the only thought which flashed across my head was "Yar lor, like you lor." Why am I not surprised. Why?

He somehow softened a little when we were going through 美丽的姑娘, cos I was determined to play really well for this piece. No more scolding liao hor! Fortunately he ok-ed the piece and only commented that I should start increasing the speed now that I've gotten most of the notes right. But I could see he was STILL not in a very good mood when the lesson ended.

WTF!

Yes Spy P, when you asked last week why I still kept to my dizi lessons even when I'm so stressed over it.....now I can tell you....I SERIOUSLY DON'T KNOW WHY EITHER.

Why hah? I feel like a bit 无聊 paying money to go through both mental and physical torture everyday during practice and lesson...and still have to take shit from the teacher when he's not in a good mood.

Damn idiot lor.

ARGHHH!! Me can't stand myself!!

2006-09-08T22:44:00.000+08:00

Pardon the above lousy English hor....I'm really feeling quite a bitch recently. I actually have already gotten all my vacation photos developed liao...cost me around $100 ok. Like I said, its fortunate that I did not spend all the Euros I brought over. Now, with my trip over almost 1 month liao (this sounds like another example of bad English), I'm still not being too enthusiastic over the task of arranging the 200 over photos.

Don't get me wrong, the pics turned out real fine! But I just seemed to be feeling quite the lazy bum these few days. Whenever I finished practising the flute, all I wanna do is to watch the tv, or get ready for bed. Just don't have anymore energy to look at the photos and write down all the nice memories I had in the album. This is so strange, cos it was the exact opposite scenario with my Hokkaido trip last year! I was so keen on finishing the 'project' and showing everyone the finished product. Just now, I've only managed to write stuffs for around 10 photos, and believe it or not, I started to get bored liao. Serious! Damn JIA LAT!

I guess this really shows how much I love this trip huh? =(

ARGH!!!! Bad me! Bad me!!!

笛子领悟 - 要记得！

2006-09-04T14:49:00.000+08:00

Something thought-provoking which Andy brought up during yesterday's lesson:

" One of the ways to setting a solid foundation for dizi playing (or any other instrument) is to succeed in mastering the basic techniques of the instrument, for example 长音, 吐音, 气震音. And the only way to achieve this is to PRACTICE, PRACTICE AND PRACTICE. There is absolutely no shortcut to this process.

However, one mustn’t forget that the ultimate aim of a musician is to be able to MAKE MUSIC. Mastering basic techniques alone, will not allow a musician to create good music. A great piece of music occurs only when the audience is able to feel the complete depth of emotions which the composer had wanted them to experience. And although it is imperative that musicians must first master the basic techniques of the instrument in this long journey, it also takes a certain level of musical talent, as well as huge amounts of music exposure and experience, for a dizi player to be truly considered a real musician.

Unfortunately, unlike the 基本功夫, one can never gain talent or exposure through many hours of practice alone. But no matter what, one should still strive to 打好基础 first, before thinking of bringing his/her dizi skills to another level and dimension."

Tis another Good Bye!!!

2006-09-02T22:43:00.000+08:00

Sirfercauress (my cousin) just smsed me reporting that his brother, Ah Xiang (also my cousin lah), has just entered the departure gates at Changi Airport and will be leaving for France in a short while time. This boy ah, is the super smart type one lor and was picked (amongst all the other overseas scholars and peers in his cohort at NUS) to study in Lyons for 1 year (or 2? forgot..) Sigh....I hate seeing close relatives/friends leaving Singapore for > 3 months one....like very very 不舍得 leh. And even better hor, I had wanted to send Ah Xiang off today one lah but his brother informed me (in hush hush tones) that his brother absolutely abhor seeing big parties during such events. Sirfercauress then added he will ask him for PERMISSION to let me see him off. Wah sai....tua pai leh!

Needless to say, I did not get to visit our nice airport at the end cos Ah Xiang later called and while thanking me for my kind intentions, firmly insisted that there is no need for me to send him off. Aiyah...this boy ah...really hard to decipher. And last week's F9 gathering was actually organised by Sirfercauress to signify some sort of farewell party for his brother. But knowing Ah Xiang's character, we were all warned beforehand not to mention anything about this real reason, and to just casually remark that the gathering was to celebrate the birthday of my aunt (Sirfercauress and Ah Xiang's mom). Funny right?

Hmmmm....I've never been particularly close to Ah Xiang during our younger days, as he was always the quiet and 难以琢磨 type. But I remembered that whenever we had some disagreements with his actions (while playing lah), his ever-protective brother Sirfercauress would be there to speak up and defend him (even I'm not that nice to my sis! Hah!). But because these 2 brothers stay very near to my place, so whenever the June and December school holidays descended upon us, we would frequent each other's homes to play together. And plus, because they also attended swimming lessons together with my sister, we would see one another almost every Sunday during the class (I did not learn swimming with them, as my mom was kiasu enough to have gotten me started long before that).

For some unknown reasons, Ah Xiang started becoming more chatty after he went into JC and since he also attended the same JC as me (albeit 5 years later), we finally had some common topics to talk about. He became really friendlier and more approchable as he went to NS and later university. My mom commented he's like his mother cos my aunt also used to be very quiet and reserved in her younger days. But later, dunno for what reason, she suddenly became more talkative and sociable and continued to be like that till now. Interesting huh?

So Ah Xiang, I'm not sure if you'll get to read this but I really wanna tell you that had you 'allowed' me to see you off this evening, I would have definitely gone to the airport, armed with my newly baked durian swiss rolls (which by the way, turned out really fine and dandy!) and made sure you leave Singapore with a nice durian aroma in your mouth...haha! But anyway, since that did not materialise, I still wanna wish you a safe 14hrs journey on the plane and ah boy, you must do Singapore proud ok! We F9ers are already very proud of you! 要加油 ok!

I look forward to seeing you return during your school holidays....and maybe you can help me buy a LV bag while on your way home? =P

YIPEE!!!

2006-08-29T23:13:00.000+08:00

On my way to aerobics class after work just now, I happened to peep upon a lady who was reading the latest issue of U Weekly. And GUESS WHAT!!!!!

THE CAST OF PRINCESS HOURS WAS FEATURED ON THE COVER PAGE!!!!!AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

I got so excited on the train, that I think I almost hyperventilated.

SO NICE!!!!!!! =)

Couldn't stop smiling the minute I grabbed a copy of the magazine. Although they only gave 2 pages of write-up inside it (so ngiao right?), I'm a very contented woman liao.

=)

Oh yes by the way, have you read the absolutely hilarious and freaking nostalgic blog entry about autograph books on Kennysia.com? It'll only take 4 minutes to go through and laugh yourself silly while reading it. I know I did...and so did my sis. =)

一个忙得很开心的周末

2006-08-28T21:33:00.000+08:00

It was truly a weekend which was thoroughly jam-packed with activities and events, but nevertheless, still very productive and fun! I had merticulously planned the programmes to be equally divided between the 2 mornings and afternoons of last Sat and Sun, and it was such that there wouldn't be any room for any other events to occur. Absolutely none!

My busy weekend actually started on Friday night. I skipped choir to prepare the D24 durian paste for my first try at baking Durian Puffs. This step is actually quite easy, and what I need to do is just to 'cook' the durian till they are relatively drier and add some sugar. After that, the paste was packed tightly and refrigerated, waiting to be used the next day.

Come Saturday, I woke up at 8am (early ne!) and started taking out my baking barang barang, as well as measure the ingredients needed. All actually went rather well, with the puffs rising nicely in the oven (according to Valerie, this was the step which many people fail to achieve), and I was of course absolutely delighted lar. BUT......(must always have a 'but' one...), I don't know what happened....the baked puffs got very very stuck on my baking trays and they absolutely refused to budge at all! When I attempted to dig them out with a spoon, the bottom part of the puffs gave way and I ended up with puffs which have no bottoms! This posed a SUPER big problem, cos I'm supposed to cut a opening at the top of the puffs and stuff the durian cream in mah. Without the bottoms, the cream would probably leak out of the puffs as soon as I put them in lar! Die die die!!!

So how? I decided then to put the cream into the puffs (those which are still stuck to the trays), and then just bring the trays to my cousin's place lah. Like that right, the durian cream gets to stay INSIDE the puffs, and the puffs also still look presentable. VOILA! Me smart right? And hor, you know what I did with those 'bottomless' puffs? I also stuffed them with the durian cream (bo bian, cos made too much cream, don't want to waste..D24 leh!) and joined every 2 puffs together (through their bottoms) to make 1 puff. This way, they also STILL looked nice and even better, can get twice the amount of puffs with every 1 bite! Ha ha ha!! 真聪明!!

Ok then I finished baking around 12pm, and had to rush off to meet my choir friend Mildred for our monthly facial and massage. Of course no need to say, very shiok lah. Then at 0545pm, it was off to my hairdresser at The Heeren for a haircut. This time, I finally changed my hairstyle to a tamer and more ladylike (I would like to think) look. Course since the day I started working, I had been sporting a short spikey cut for like FOREVER lor. I must say I kept this hair style for like 6 years liao, mainly because its the one which I found most suited to my face shape and hair texture. Now, I have absolutely no 'spikes' on my hair, and the current style is a more flatter kind. My colleague Aw said I look like school girl. Wah lau, so 夸张 lor. I myself am still trying to get used to it. Still get a minor shock whenever I look into the mirror. Haha.

Finally reached home at around 9pm. Absolutely too bonked out to practise dizi liao (excuses excuses!). Spent the remainder of the night watching THE LAST OF MY 宫 DRAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My God!!! It was such a emotional roller coaster ride lor, the last 4 episodes! Please let me elaborate more about this show can? Please please please? =)

I first knew about this drama from Snowystar's brief introduction lar. And then hor, just so 巧 my choir pal Adeline had recently bought the VCDs but was too busy to start watching it. I of course 'koped' it from her and started getting addicted to it from Day 1 (which was last last Sat). I tell you har, THE SHOW IS SO FUNNY!!!! And refreshing too, cos I've not seen a modern day palace drama before and the settings (not to mention the costumes) are so absolutely breathtaking and beautiful!! But of course, how can a korean drama NOT have a love story in it right? That would be like the main attraction of the show lah. Got 4 sided love square some more. Its an extremely addictive show lar, don't start unless you're sure you can stay up till 12am each day to watch it. I'm serious! Go buy, borrow, beg, do anything (except steal or download illegally from Internet hor...) to get the drama and I promise you won't be disappointed. My colleague Aw (also a big time Korean drama fan) had asked me which was better, My Lovely Kim Sam Soon, or Princess Hours (another name for the series). This is really difficult to answer, cos both I love leh. KSS I like for its fast pace, witty dialogue and the minimum 'dragginess' (no such word I know) in the series. Princess Hours ranks high for its wonderful settings (I would love to reside in those rooms!!), dreamy-looking actors and actresses (the main actress - 2nd from the right, is a real cutie!!), interesting palace rules (a bit like 大长今), FABULOUS SOUNDTRACK, and of course, a happily-ever-after ending. So how to compare right?

Ok, I better stop here...I know I'm gushing too much about Korean dramas liao. Cannot help it lah... and oh...actually I remembered Channel U (or is it 8?) is going to show Princess Hours soon. But I heard it would be at 7pm....not very good leh, this timing. Don't think most of us would have reached home yet. Anyway, if you had watched and liked Full House and18 Years Old Bride, I guarantee you will like 宫 very much.

Hee hee hee...I'm going gaga all over again.

A Reversal of Roles

2006-08-25T09:16:00.000+08:00

For the past few days, my mum had been complaining of discomfort at the heart area and would encounter occasional slight difficulty in breathing. Yesterday, the condition worsened to the extent where she even broke out in cold sweat while working at my Hor Yi (2nd Auntie) 's house.

0645pm: I reached home. Mom had already cooked dinner and told me to eat first and not wait for her as she would be visiting our family doctor at 7pm.

0710pm: Mom left home to see doctor.

0810pm: Mom returned, and informed the doctor had already referred her to the A&E Dept (SGH) and to go there IMMEDIATELY for ECG screening. I then hastily changed and accompanied her there.

0830pm: Reached hospital, and after some initial questions, mom was pushed in for the screening while I waited at the lounge.

0930pm: Doctor spoke to me and informed (to my relief) that initial screenings looked normal, but would have to wait another 2 more hours for more detailed results to come out. Smsed father and sis about latest updates (can only sms, as low HP battery so couldn't call...damn!)

1030pm: Visited mom at the Observation Ward, but was later chased out by the nurse. So continued waiting at the lounge

1120pm: Finally, nurse informed EVERYTHING WAS OK. Staff would call to make an appointment for a follow-up with a heart specialist in a week's time.

1130pm: Paid $80 for the scanning and medicine and left the hospital.

Sis was actually very worried, cos due to my short smses, she didn't really knew much about the situation and hence, started imagining all the bad stuffs. Sigh, it was also most fortunate that I had not helped my mom book her tour package to ZhangJiaJie (early Oct) cos given her 'condition' now, I really don't think she should go lor. I can also see that she feels quite disappointed lar, but this is for the best. Cos what if she kena the breathlessness there leh? I cannot even start to imagine the consequences.

I've seldom seen my mum requiring my company (or my sis's) in any situation, so yesterday was something rather new. Guess it further reminded me that she is really getting old liao, and its time I have to start paying more attention to her (and my father)'s health and well-being. Feels kinda of weird at first, cos it has always been the other way round for the last 27 years.

Hmm...and it also feels a bit odd, coming to work today like normal, when something so dramatic (feels like that to me lar) had happened just yesterday night. Funny lar.

Thanks for the warm welcome!!

2006-08-17T22:38:00.000+08:00

Hey...I feel so happy getting all the welcome messages in my previous entry. Thanks people! I know I'm supposed to show photos soon lah, but can still wait a while more? Me still arranging them, and also trying to recollect the 'stories' and information behind each photo. Didn't even know I took so many of them leh...after erasing quite a few not so good ones, I'm still left with over 200 photos!! That's 太多太多了!! Fortunately I did not spend all the Euros which I changed for trip...at least now can use some of the remainder to pay for the photo developing...aiyoh!

I've just recently finished the accumulated stuffs in my office, which were left undone while I was away. So you can guess how busy I was lah. Plus after having not touch my dizi for 2 entire weeks, it felt as if I was back to square one, which is pretty scary. But Andy said that was normal, especially since my basics weren't too solid to begin with. And then for the previous lesson, he upped my practice routines such that now, my almost-daily practice takes about one and a half hour to finish. I think I work out more during one practice, as compared to my aerobics lesson leh. After each practice, my triceps, arms and shoulders are always aching away. But I must say the increased number of routines help quite a bit in improving my 丹田 power..although I find it such a drag to go through the entire routine everyday. Its really becoming quite a chore to practice my dizi, but I remembered it was also like that when I was practising my piano eons ago lah. My mom had to nag and nag and nag, before I go practice my tunes daily. I remembered I used to hate lessons then. Its REALLY HATE!! But now, guess I'm reaping the benefits lah, cos a lot of my friends commented that they would have loved to know how to play the piano. Hah....they obviously did not see the 'hard work' I put in when young, while they were enjoying their innocent childhoods (and me slogging on the piano). Har!

Attended yet another of Valerie's yummy baking class last Sunday. This time, I was literally blown away by her finished products....DURIAN PUFFS AND SWISS ROLLS!!! The puffs turned out really really good!! I'm not kidding when I say its comparable to Angie's Choice standards (their durian rolls). Of course, that was my teacher's 功劳 lar...not too sure if I'll be able to produce the same result. But I'll soon know the answer to that, cos my cousin Sirfercauress has recently called for a F9 gathering next Sunday and I proposed making durian puffs for the tea break. Now I'm a bit scared cos what if they turn out really really lousy, like my Tiramisu?? I think worst come worst, I'll buy the puffs from some nearby bakery...HAHA!! Wish me luck ok? Hee..

回家的感觉真好

2006-08-11T12:45:00.000+08:00

Yup everyone, I'm finally in the right mood to start blogging again, haha. Everybody's been asking about my Scandinavian trip and its so sad cos I really cannot find anything REAL good to answer the question! For the price I paid, I can only say it was a so-so trip. Still think my Hokkaido tour was so much more fun. Guess I'm not really a nature person lah, cos that's basically what you see EVERYDAY and EVERYWHERE while in countries like Norway and Denmark. A million lakes, mountains, glaciers, trees, etc. But one thing I gotta admit, the air's real fresh over there lah. Things were expensive (as expected), and I much preferred the city tours as compared to the cruises along the fjords and glaciers. Hah.

Things which were particularly memorable (and which are sadly not a lot) were:
1) Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, was a disappointment. We weren't expecting dirty streets, piercing heat, pet dogs peeing everywhere, 7-11 cashiers who cheat money (my friend lost about S$20 there. Not a lot of money lah, but it was our first day and after 2 flights lasting about 14 hours together, we were not an extremely happy lot to start with) and a hotel room with no air-con. Sigh!
2) The sun almost never sets there. We slept at 11pm, when the sun was still shining brightly and birds singing away and when we woke, it was the exact same scenario we see. Quite interesting actually. It was as if we were taking our afternoon naps.
3) My favourite city tours were in Denmark (tour guide (Taiwanese!) was good there, even if the place was dirty) and Norway, where I got to visit the home of Edvard Grieg, one of the world's great composers (on par with Beethoven and Mozart). Its so cool, looking at the piano which he had played before, and the house which he designed.
4) In Sweden, we visited the City Hall, which was where the Nobel winners dined after the annual prize presentation. Didn't know Mr. Nobel was Swedish..heh. The City Hall itself is a real marvel, cos EVERY room and corner of the place was designed with a particular intention in mind...and not 随随便便 one ok! I couldn't take enough pictures there!
5) The National Park at Oslo, Norway was quite spectacular too, cos it housed the creations of one of their most famous sculptors (whose name I forgot, but will update in my next post). I myself am not a very arty person lah, but I must the admit it was quite interesting to listen to the stories behind each sculpture and appreciate the 心思 of the artist.

During the 2nd last day of the tour, I got quite a bad case food poisoning at Stockholm and then had a fever at Finland, all the way back to Singapore. Which is why I don't remember much of the time I spend in Helsinki, think I was sleeping most of the time there. It was quite terok lah, cos we were in Santa Claus Village and you know, its such a quaint place I bet I could have taken more pictures and buy more Christmassy stuffs if I wasn't sick lah. When we reached there, all I did was half-heartedly take some pictures, and then write postcards (which were to be sent from the Village), and finally, plonked myself down at the nearest sofa I could find and sleep away. Didn't really care what the other visitors would say lah....even the staff there did not dare ask me anything.....haha. I was really pale throughout that period and it felt so so cold there! My fever subsided only when the plane reached Bangkok (our transit point), where I was 2 hours away from home. God, it was HORRIBLE!!!

But I've really got to thank my travel pal Sam. She really took care of me during this crazy period, buying me fish porridge (there was a Chinese restaurant nearby our hotel in Rovaniemi, Finland), helping me with my luggage, taking photos for me, forcing me to keep drinking water (when all I wanted was to puke). I felt so paiseh lor. And my other tour mates (mainly uncles and aunties) were also a real nice bunch. They kept asking about my illness, and one of the uncles also gave me lots of medicine to eat. The good thing was the medicine worked lah, cos my diarrohea and vomiting stopped after a while. And because I didn't dare to eat anything heavy, all I had during my 14 hours flight were 2 small cups of diluted cereal and water. Lost 2 kilos when I returned leh. TEROK!!!

I'll put photos up in my next post so stay tuned ok? Meanwhile, my eyes are glued to my laptop's screen almost every night, cos me in the midst of watching Kim Sam Soon now. Must finish before our local screens start showing it, so that I can watch it a 2nd time when its here. Haha!

Sam Soon is so lucky leh...she gets to study at Le Cordon Bleu at Paris!!! That's like a heaven for aspiring bakers lor!!! I was actually boh liao enough to go check out their school fees and though the school originated from France, they now also have branches in Korea, Japan, Australia and Canada. A basic pastry making course, which lasts about 10 weeks, will set you back by AUS$4700.

And that's not even including accomodation and food expenses. =(

My local uni fees only cost me $5000 per year back in 2000.

I am nice to you all or what???

2006-07-22T11:19:00.000+08:00

Hey everyone! Guess where I'm now?? Its 0630am and I'm at the far far away HELSINKI AIRPORT!!! We are all waiting for our connecting flight to Copenhagen and most of the shops are rather boring (and not opened yet too). So to kill time, I used 4Euro to buy 1 hour of Internet time. See, that's like EIGHT Singapore dollars! A bit boh liao hor, and I'm also still getting used to the weird keypad here. They have a lot of added symbols like Ä, Ö, etc. Kept punching in the wrong keys. Haha

After the airplane fiasco yesterday, our flight took off successfully on 21 Jul at 0750pm, and 2 hours later, we landed at Bangkok. Then it was another 10 hours before we finally reached Finland, Helsinki. Because of the flight delay yesterday, our itnerary had to be changed and instead of going to the Santa Claus Village on the first day, we will be starting with Denmark instead. As for Santa, guess I'll only be seeing him on our final day of the tour. And all of us had to extend our leave for one more day, due to the delay in the flight. Temperature seems to be 16 degrees Celsius outside, but as its only morning now, I'm hoping it would be even warmer as the day goes. Heh heh, I did not really bring a lot of warm clothings with me this time round. Heavy lah.

The Finnish seems to be quite friendly (though I still think the Australians are more approachable =), and the Finnish language really quite weird. A bit like German, but slightly more refined and lesser of the tongue rolling. Anyway, there's still so much to be seen and heard, so not much things to say about the country lah. If I ever manage to get in contact with Internet (hopefully cheaper too!), will try to blog more.

See ya everyone! Take care!

Oh yar, must remember to wish my GUTS Jul babies HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! So ET, P, HQ, go out and let your hair down on your special day kay!

I don't believe this is happening to me!!!!!

2006-07-21T10:38:00.000+08:00

My flight to Helsinki, Finland was supposed to be depart yesterday night 0950pm. 13 hours later (now), I'M STILL IN SINGAPORE AND BLOGGING FROM MY HOME!!!! Can you believe this????

When Sam (my travel pal) and I checked in at the airport yesterday, everything was as normal and we boarded the plane at 0900pm. But at around 11pm plus, the plane still could not take off as according to the Captain, "The panel sensor at the cockpit cannot get a signal from this 2nd engine (from dunno which part of the plane), but interestingly, the engine appeared to be working perfectly fine!". So after several tries, they decided to shut the electric power in the entire plane and try starting up again (guess this is much like we shutting down and starting up out PC when our computer gets hanged lar). As it was night outside, the plane would be in total darkness without the electricity. So all of us needed to get down the plane first lor. They directed us to the transit cafe for a free meal and we were supposed to wait till 1am to get more information.

A bowl of prawn noodles and lots of waiting later, at around 0140am, the Captain finally made an appearance at the transit lounge and annouced sadly, that they simply cannot solve the panel problem, and would need to buy some dunno what spare parts from dunno where to fix the problem. The earliest departing time for this flight would be 21st Jul (TODAY) at 3pm!!!

Can you believe this?? SO DAMN SUAY RIGHT!!!! Of course I should feel relieved that they had actually detected this problem BEFORE the plane took off lar, but still! The even funnier thing was that this particular flight actually has a transit stop at Bangkok first, so there were actually quite a number of people going to Thailand on the plane (and a lesser number of us actually going to Finland). Can you imagine? A more than 12 hours delayed flight, for a journey that would only take 2 hours!

The local flight Captain gave us 2 options:
1) Wait for them to arrange hotel accomodations and transport to-and-fro the hotel
2) For the locals, to go home now and be compensated for the to-and-fro cab fare

Of course I went along with the 2nd choice lar, cos everything was in utter mess at the lounge and who knows what time the airline will be able to get the accomodations settled. I don't want to spend my night at the airport leh! So now, I'm still waiting for more information to come in, like how our itinerary will be affected, how days our trip will still last, should I take another day's leave, etc etc. Aiyoh....So 伤脑筋!!

A Bountiful Harvest

2006-07-16T18:19:00.000+08:00

I'm absolutely surprised that I've got nothing to blog about for an entire week! Actually no lar, its more because I've been rather busy with my trip preparation (leaving this Thurs...FINALLY!!) and flute lor (what else?). Made my first batch of Strawberry Cheese Desserts during the week. This was meant to be a testing ground for our GUTS July and Aug babies, cos they had specifically asked for this as their birthday 'cake'. So I thought better try it out first before baking it for them. Glad to say, they turned out YUMMY! And PRETTY! =)

I went shopping for presents with ET last Saturday. We were SO efficient, cos we managed to grab 3 presents in the short span of 3 hours! They were all within budget, and oh so absolutely wonderful presents (hah, self praise!). But seriously, we both loved the gifts and felt that they were extremely 'appropriate' for our birthday girls. Hee hee! But of course all this WORK made us so tired and hungry that we had our dinner at the unearthly hour of 5.30pm. I couldn't help it, but my stomach was already churning from all the excessive gastric juices by the time it was 5pm. Attracted by their Chilli Crab 小笼包 poster (created in conjunction with this year's Food Festival), we made our way to the 鼎太丰 at Paragon's. After waiting for around 20 minutes, the elusive 小笼包 finally arrived at our table.

At the first bite, I was rather disappointed to NOT detect any spiciness in the meat and 汤汁, and plus, the crab was ALMOST non-existent at all. It just tasted like a more mashed up version of the original pork 小笼包. ET remarked "it's supposed to be like that one lar", but she too could not taste the 辣味 at all. After gobbling down 2 (and ET 1), we decided to just try out luck and ask the waitress if they've made a mistake, or if its REALLY supposed to be like this. One thing I must comment about the restaurant is that the servers are really quite a friendly and helpful lot. They even have one waitress dedicated to refilling the tea and water of every customer! That's what I call Thoughtful Service (how many restaurants have this?).

Anyway, the waitress who came to us took a look at the 'suspicious' chilli crab 小笼包, and commented that she also thinks its a mistake as the real chilli crab dumplings have a reddish tinge on the skin. So she checked with the kitchen and confirmed out suspicions. They gave us another full 6 pieces of the REAL chilli crab 小笼包 and this time, 真的是有辣味 lah (but to me still taste like mashed up pork with 辣椒油 in it). Nothing really fantastic (though their pork chop is oh so so so TASTY!!!)...I still think the original one tastes better (and cheaper some more!). But thumbs up for the excellent service....and this is during the time when the restaurant was throughly packed!

Ok enough about food, I'm going hungry again just thinking about their succulent pork chops and fried rice. I received another piece of good news this morning. Andy IS NOT GOING TO SHANGHAI AFTER ALL!!! He mentioned the school fees were absolutely horrendous (I tell you, the amount can buy at least 2 cars here), so he decided to give it a miss. Actually a bit sad hor, cos he got so much talent, and had already passed the auditions. But if Andy's not going anymore, this means that I would not to study under Master Zhan liao! You cannot imagine how RELIEVED I was to hear that. I cannot even bear to think how it would be like, to be Master Zhan's student...extremely nerve-wrecking and even more stressful probably!

But hor, during our lesson today, Andy's phone kept ringing and he talked a short while to someone (his teacher probably) in Mandarin, and it appeared like his teacher is still trying very hard to get him there lar. So I'm not keeping my hopes too high now, JUST in case he decides to go after all.

I suddenly feel I'm very mean leh.....I should be hoping that he gets to go, and not rejoicing at the fact that he cannot now.

Bad me!

失败乃成功之母

2006-07-08T22:43:00.000+08:00

I had actually tried my hand at baking Tiramisu last Sun, but the results were horrible (to say the least!). I dipped the Italian Ladyfingers in the expresso for too long, so most of them turned out soggy and YUCK! Even my nephews disliked them (and they eat almost everything!). I was a bit disappointed lar, cos this is an EXPENSIVE dish damn it! The stupid mascarpone cheese cost me $12, not to mention how I went around ~~begging~~ sourcing for rum and Baileys from my friends and colleagues (didn't want to buy). But it was a good lesson lar....will definitely TRY again when I feel slightly richer...heh heh.

Today, I made HERSHEY'S BROWNIES!!!! Had a bit of problem initially with the sugar (the recipe needed 2 CUPS!!! That's like diabetic lor!), and the huge amounts of butter too. But luckily all went rather well, and the end result was better than I had dared to expect (after my Tiramisu foray, I didn't want to ask for a lot). At least 是可以见人的啦...haha. What'ya think?

And yar, I promised Bluesky that I will put up the URL for the supposedly rather accurate Chinese personality test. Here you go! Didn't know that Spy P was also interested in the test...heh heh. And hor, it'll be more accurate if you know your time of birth as well and according to Spy P, you can easily get that from your birth certificate.

Have fun! =)

Just Kill Me

2006-07-07T17:20:00.000+08:00

Today's supposed to be a happy day, cos according to 巫许玛莉 and 周崇庆 daily horoscope predictions, today my (or one of my) crush will begin to “realise my secret affections for him and start to reciprocate the same feelings".

TODAY, I got to know that my crush's ALREADY ATTACHED.

心碎了...

I'm rather surprised at the extent of 难过 and 失落 I'm feeling at the moment. This was supposed to be only a MILD crush leh.

Silly me. =(

Damn the 933 horoscope readings.

TODAY no more Mr. Brown

2006-07-06T09:21:00.000+08:00

A day after MICA's letter (in response to Mr. Brown's most recent article on Singapore's rising expenses) was printed on TODAY, Mr. Brown's weekly column on the newspaper has been suspended as of TODAY.

I'm going to refrain from airing my views, lest my blog gets suspended as well (hur hur, like as if!). But I must say the 550 comments (at the end of the MICA article blog entry) contributed by Mr. Brown's blog readers speaks much already. Some of these comments were rather interesting and brought up a couple of issues which I would have otherwise not thought about. Though I've never been a close follower of Mr. Brown's column on the newspaper (although, I DO read his blog regularly), I still feel a bit sad lar, that he's not going to write articles again. His normally-humourous take on his everyday life (for eg. his reservist, family problems, etc) was something which never failed to lighten up my Fridays. I even have friends who comment that they love the way he puts forward his views, and that the Friday issue of TODAY was something which they always look forward to.

However, I must say that the article in question, which he wrote for TODAY last Fri, seemed to be laced with a rather abnormally high level of sarcasm (not something typical of Mr. Brown leh). Hmmm, but to suspend his column all altogether.....quite drastic lar.

Its a gloomy day today lar.

真的松了一口气

2006-06-29T08:54:00.000+08:00

Yup, told my mum over dinner yesterday, that I didn't feel anything towards the guy whom my cousin (his good friend) had introduced to me, and whom I had ONE dinner with last Friday (skipped my precious choir practice leh!). This was after countless pestering from my mum (for the past few weeks), who kept asking if we are ever going to meet up, and when it'll be, and etc etc. It was damn irritating, and I had told her that I definitely would ONLY tell her stuffs about the date when I am comfortable and ready to tell. I don't want to like say, "OK mom, I'm meeting the guy tonight. Wait for my good news....blah blah blah". And then when I come back, I'll happily reveal all the 'juicy' details about the date to everyone in the family. I'm not that drama mama ok. And of course, my mum claims that the reason behind her eagerness was due to the fact that my auntie (cousin's mother) kept fishing for details from her! Cannot stand these AUNTIES!!! Even better, my sister also kena my mum's constant nagging, to the point where my sis got quite angry "哎呀你自己去问姐啦! 我知道也不会告诉你的啦!"

Anyway, my mum was surprisingly not too disappointed after hearing my 'confession' yesterday, and did not even try to probe further as to why I did not like (again not = dislike) Ken (that's the guy's name). I was, of course very very relieved over that, as I hate it when people ask "Why you reject him har? 你到底嫌他什么 leh?" This statement never fails to make me feel like I'm some extremely choosy and picky person! 没有 lor, 我没嫌他什么! 我哪有资格呢!

Ken is a nice guy ok. Its just that I don't feel we are compatible at all. But he was the first guy who had bothered to find out how I thought of him after our first date. He actually smsed me and asked that, and even hinted if I think he could be THE ONE for me. Usually the guy (in the past) will just ask me out again, and after I give some feeble excuse for not joining him, he will eventually get the hint and stop smsing me again. But Ken is really the first who 'dared' to ask me direct if we had any chance. I truly respect him for that cos it shows he's not afraid of rejections. How many guys can actually boast about that?

I spent quite some time figuring out how to put my feelings across to him in the most gentle and non-hurtful way (nearly died!). In the end, my sms to him went something like: "I feel you're a very frank and amiable person, and I think you'll make a very GOOD FRIEND (caps of course not included in the sms lar). You should go for more matchmaking dates (He mentioned this was the first he attended) so you can know more ladies!" Its so fortunate that Ken did get my hint and graciously said it was still very nice knowing me. I felt slightly like a 魔鬼 after reading this remark. But this is still better than to 拖泥带水 and lead people on right?

There....that was how my second blind date for 2006 ended eventually. Cannot say I'm really looking forward to the next one, cos a bit tired and disappointed liao. Sometimes, I just wish that I could stop meeting all my aunties' expectations (on getting hitched) and carry on my life doing the things I love best....aerobics, choir, baking, flute, music. There's just so many many difficulties in this finding-life-partner path. Really am feeling quite quite SIAN liao.....

Dating 领悟 #1

2006-06-26T16:32:00.000+08:00

I thought of this just after my most recent first-date-with-a-new-guy last Friday. A bit like 理所当然, but it took me this long to figure it out.

Hmm...how should I put it? I realise that, with each additional dating session I attend (be it introduced by my kind friends/relatives or SDU), I'm like beginning to know more and more about what type of guys I'm attracted to/looking for. And its interesting that I find myself frequently using the Elimination Method to achieve this understanding!

I started out blind dating last year, happily thinking that my dates do not have to fulfill any criteria one...that 什么都凭感觉吧! Sounds so 潇洒 right? And so unlike many other females who always have this checklist thingy for their future partners...like for eg.

Must be good looking
Cannot smoke
Must have car
Etc, etc

Now, after having experienced a couple of these blind dates, and being somewhat 'wiser' (haha) in this field, I've come to realise that I'm just like any other women with their demanding date checklists. And by using the Elimination Method, it means that whenever I strike off a certain guy, my checklist will grow longer and longer. Cos if I find that I don't like (must digress a bit here hor. DON'T LIKE is NOT = DISLIKE. Its just 没有火花) a certain guy because he does not possess XXX qualities, its only then that I 领悟 that I'm actually searching for a guy who possesses that XXX quality. Does this sounds complicated? I myself am feeling slightly overwhelmed by it still. =P

So now I can futher conclude that I can only better understand myself if I go for more of these blind dates. But this could also mean that my checklist may become a terribly horribly long long list!!! And guess what? I recently did this online 心理测验 which uses our chinese birth date to decipher our personalities and possible situations which are currently surrounding us. Nothing spectacular, you might say cos all of us would have encountered at least one of these through email spam.

But this one was eerily correct in a lot of its predictions, and the one statement which left the greatest impression in me was:

"You are too choosy in finding your life partner (actual words were 要求太高). Actually, there is already someone nearby who is attracted to you. Now all it takes is for you to express some kind of interest in this person, and then the relationship which you are looking for will come true"

Now, this is all very well if I know exactly who this 'nearby' person is. But I DON' KNOW LOR...so WHAT THE HELL use is this piece of advice to me? You might as well tell me how to identify this person lor.

SIGH.

Secrets, Ramen & Millenia Walk

2006-06-22T17:21:00.000+08:00

The above 3 words more or less sums up what transpired during our GUTS ladies night out yesterday. As I was asked (by my supposedly 'ardent' blog fans) to try and blog more regularly (twice a week not regular meh?), I thought I had better write an entry soon before they decide to abandon my blog. =)

Over a meal of 6 ramen sets (shared between the 5 of us - 1 for 1 value set!!) at this little, almost inconspicuous ramen shop at Marina Sq, we updated one another about our individual happenings lar. From what I remembered, they were:

1) P's Hokkaido trip
2) ET's dark dark secret (which she openly told everyone about, albeit in hush hush tones - cos can possibly result in certain share prices dropping one....
3) ET's coming secret trip to Cambodia WITH.....
4) Corinni's Taiwan trip and our 幼稚 method of distributing her souvenirs
5) Our coming celebration for the Jul babies (none other than WF's place again, and as usual, we've not even asked the house owner for permission yet)
6) P's announcement that her tennis has improved (cannot be verified yet)
7) Marina's Sq aircon is free one
8) We should plan a GUTS trip together!!!
9) We've still not learnt our lesson (regarding ahem ahem....you know lar), brought up by Bluesky

Shucks, is my memory failing me? I can only remember so much. Of course, the 2 items in bold were the most discussed about lar. And after the very filling dinner, we (minus ET) had a very nice looooong walk all over Millenia Walk, in a bid to locate this 'Cosmo Pub' which had a ladies nite yesterday. In the end, we could only find the 'Suba' pub which I found rather small and cramped lar. As my feet hurt a little from the loooong walk (think shoes were falling apart), and plus the final episode of 大长今 was on yesterday night, I opted to leave the remaining 3 GUTS ladies in the pub and headed home. Seriously hope P, Corinni and Bluesky were not offended by my decision hor. I just didn't feel like standing around with the red drink....paiseh!

Anyways, the other happy thing which occured was that my Scandinavian trip is finally confirmed!! Earlier on, the agency had informed me that there was a great possibility of my trip being cancelled due to the low sign up rate. But now, it seemed like they've managed to squueze us into another similar package with a different departure date. Woo hoo!!! Though this would probably set me back by a hefty $5.2K (!!), I'm really looking forward to the trip! First time mah....the only country which I've visited outside Asia was Turkey. This is the 2nd time!!! Yay!! What's best also? I will get to escape from practising on my dizi for 12 whole days!!!!!

YAY YAY YAY!!!!

Baking Weekend

2006-06-18T17:57:00.000+08:00

Nice? This cake is called the Serious Orange Cake, and I received the recipe from my choir friend LAL who has this nice habit of browsing food and recipe blogs in her free time (of course she also likes to cook lar!). Its extremely easy to bake (REALLY!!! I promise!) and the result is a tangy, fruity, moist and fragrant buttery cake. My sis and dad liked it, but my mom found it a tad sour. I was rather surprised that it turned out so much better than I expected. Cos the recipe calls for a food processor to turn the orange into a smoothie like substance. I didn't have the required processor, so had used the only juicer I could find in my home. And plus, I did not have Cointreau, the orangey liquor. My mom suggested I used her XO as a substitute. But like quite weird leh, orange XO cake. Yeeeks. Despite all that, I'm still rather satisfied with the result. For those interested, the simple recipe can be found here. =)

Attended another of Valerie's cooking class on Friday. This time, the cakes taught were Strawberry Cheese Dessert and the Triple Indulgence. The latter is actually a 3 layered cheese cake which is also called the 'Big O' found in NYDC. Cool huh? Its a oreo biscuit base, with cheese middle and topped with chocolate fudge. Sounds so sinful (and taste pretty sinful too!). The picture on the right is the Strawberry cheese cake. So pretty hor? Its actually a digestive biscuit base, with cheese middle and a half strawberry, then topped with strawberry jello. YUMMY!!!! I like this more than the triple indulgence, more fruity mah. And it looks so good! Valerie joked during the class that even if the result is not as delicious as planned, it must still be pretty and nice to look at. =P Both cakes require much more preparation and baking steps than the previous Walnut Cake and Strawberry Shortcake. But the interesting thing was that this Strawberry Cheese cake doesn't even require baking at all! You just need to get the cake set inside the fridge. Cool huh? I can't wait get started on this recipe. =)

Cultural Thursday

2006-06-16T09:16:00.000+08:00

Attended my second Chinese Orchestra concert yesterday, where of course, Andy was one of the dizi soloist again. However this time, the orchestra was much much more tokong than the previous one, as the Toa Payoh West CC Chinese Orchestra is one of the more prestigious and accomplished COs in Singapore (other than SCO of course). Got win awards one. The average age of the musicians in the orchestra was definitely below 20 years old (most of them look like Sec Sch students), but all of them already have at least a Grade 9 certification under their belts for their respective chinese instruments (Andy says). Cos the conductor is supposedly quite ngiao one, must possess such high standards before can get accepted into the orchestra. The youngest player I spotted yesterday could not be more than 10 years old, and he already plays a mean 唢呐. Eh...that instrument is like hundred times more difficult than the flute leh...the amount of breath one needs....

But I was more impressed yesterday with the pipa and erhu solo (sorry hor Andy, your flute piece a biiiiiit borrrriiing). The pipa guy played the rather popular 十面埋伏.....which I'm sure most people would know one. This music is always used when our hero swordsman is entering some eerie chinese temple or is facing a possible forest ambush. Wow....you've really got to see this guy play his pipa.....I marvel at how he manipulates his fingers (OUCH!!!!) to play this difficult piece...a bit scary, yet very 扣人心弦. Its like at any time, I can expect to see blood splattering all over from his fingers onto the pipa... =P

Andy wore all white for his flute solo (even his shoes were white!!!). My eyes nearly popped out when he came onto the stage....its a tad cheesy lar. My colleague Aw (who accompanied me) commented "Wah...白马王子!", to which I felt slightly nauseous when I heard that. Ok lar, still quite 帅 lar. What's more interesting was that the erhu soloist also wore all white (to 配合 Andy?? =P). But hers was a very elegant white gown and I love her solo piece. It makes me appreciate the erhu so much more than before. I must say the erhu section could easily be one of the stronger features of this orchestra. Most of my favourite pieces yesterday were played by the erhu. I've always thought that this instrument is only capable of producing extremely 凄惨 music. But I was so clearly wrong! The erhu can also recreate very happy and melodious tunes, and your heart will just sing with the music coming out of the instrument. The erhu is definitely not 逊色as compared to the Western violin. Both instruments actually sound quite similar, but I feel the way that an erhu player moves her fingers along the instrument looks so much more graceful than a violin player. Nice!

There were 3 encore pieces after the end of the concert. By the time the second last piece of music was played, I was already feeling so tired....and still the audience kept shouting for encores. Aiyoh....but it was still a good concert to attend...very worthy of the $15 I paid anyway. =)

我真的好累!!

2006-06-12T22:05:00.000+08:00

隐隐约约, I can feel this stupid headache coming to me slowly but surely. Yesterday was like crazy, the headache was so bad that I actually felt nauseous quite a bit. Had to force my dinner down before I could take the panadol tablets. Yucks....nowadays, this is the symptom I get before my best 'friend' 降临 upon me every month. Its a damn painful symptom...

Yes, I'm also feeling quite quite tired, despite having slept at 8pm yesterday (but quite shiok arh!). The pressures of trying to excel in my 笛子 is really no joke. Andy has been piling a LOT of new exercises on me, and everytime before I can really master a particular technique, he would add on more difficult ones. The reason for his enthusiasm is that he will be going for his flute Masters course in Shanghai coming Sept. Hence, I would be without a teacher soon. Andy's been trying to find a new teacher for me, but its not a easy task as he commented that there's not a lot of really good 笛子 masters around in Singapore. He's now trying to get me to improve to a level where he can refer me to HIS teacher - the famous 詹永明. Yes, the one whose flute CD I've been listening to religiously nowadays. My first reaction? You SIAO arh!! How can I possibly come under such a good 师傅 within only 1 year of learning? There's so many basic techniques which I've not yet mastered!! I mean, I'm flattered Andy's even thought of this option, but come on lar, lets be realistic mah. Andy himself only came under Mr. Zhan's tutelage when he had achieved quite a outstanding level in 笛子already. Me? Dun even know what darn level I'm at now. I'm pretty sure I cannot do it, but Andy kept saying I can. I can meh? Its getting scarier and scarier.

Last week, my choir had our usual annual performance at this same place and around the same time of the year. The 2 days of rehearsal was rather horrible. First, we had to sing under the hot hot sun on Wednesday. All the pigmentation came out on my face liao....bleh! Then on Thursday, it was rain and rain and rain. Not drizzle hor, but the type with thunder and floods one. When we 难得 could find a rain-free moment to rehearse our song, the rain descended upon us not long after. Quite miserable actually. My nicely gelled hair!!! Sigh!

Luckily, I managed to enjoy some shopping moments last Saturday with my ex-room mate Corinni. Had initially planned to look out for the birthday gifts of the GUTS July babies. But we ended up shopping for our own stuffs...hee hee hee. But don't worry lah, we'll definitely get your presents. GSS period mah...best time to buy! And during dinner with Corinni, she asked about my current dating activities. This is sad, cos its rather empty now lar. I'm not quite so keen on SDU activities anymore, and the only 'dates' I get now are the guys whom my aunties and cousins kept pushing to me. But I'm actually quite grateful to them lah, cos it saves me lots of time looking for targets, and these dates should have at least gotten my relatives' 'approval' before they introduced them to me. So far, I've yet to meet any of them, but got send sms lar.

Actually, I had met this particular guy during one of my recent emcee jobs. He quite an eligible guy, nicely built, friendly and humourous, very pleasant looking and doesn't seemed attached also. But the only drawback? He's a Poly graduate, and his working rank is lower than mine, which means his salary might be lesser than mine lar. I used to think that a husband should earn more than the wife. It solves a lot of problems, both emotionally and practically. But when someone whom you had known as a friend first (and not as a 'target' during those SDU gatherings) becomes someone whom you have a liking with, a lot of the usual rules do not seem to apply leh. Its a bit 懊恼, and it kinda upsets my system of reasoning. But of course, nothing actually happened and we somehow lost contact after we finished hosting the event. But it was fun while it lasted. The bantering, joking, kidding around, and plus what I would say, a leeeetle bit of flirting too. Real interesting. Hmmm....

大长今里的美女

2006-06-02T15:15:00.000+08:00

I received this via spam email today, and couldn't resist not blogging about it. Somehow right, when we are all watching the mega success Korean drama 大长今, we would mostly (and automatically) focus our eyes mainly on 李英爱 and her unforgettable life experiences in the show lar. All the other characters (even Sir Min) serves only as supporting characters and would not really garner as much attention from us as the main female lead. And of course, we would agree that 李英爱 is definitely the prettiest in the drama lar....actually its rightly so too, cos it takes quite a lot to possess a face which audiences would not get tired of looking for the whole 60 plus episodes (minus the first few when 长今 was a kid).

However, do check out the following pics of the supporting cast of 大长今 in the modern day attire. My goodness....I could scarcely believe my eyes when I first saw Ah Chang, Ah Lie and the senior female doctor. They look so PRETTY!!!!

Can you guess who is in this final 4th picture (the lady in yellow gown)??

Sick, still must go crazy

2006-06-01T21:12:00.000+08:00

Despite suffering from a really horrible flu, not to mention coupled with blocked nose, throat and ears (think I'm slightly deaf now), I still managed to laugh myself through the utterly, deliciously wacky korean drama - 18 years old bride. I know lah.....I'm a bit outdated liao....going crazy over a 2003 drama only NOW....but better late than never mah. Had watched Full House earlier this year, and my colleague told me that if I liked the latter, I should also go for the 新娘18岁. Well...while I still like Full House for its lovely soundtrack (still get the goosebumps whenever I hear the theme song), and of course Rain, the 18 years old bride scores for its naivety, touching moments (so many more than Full House) and absolutely funny characters (though the OST really sucks). And of course, what's a 偶像剧 without good looking leads right?

Enjoy Lee Dong Gun in what I think, is his best image...wearing the conservative working suit. What can I say...HE MAKES THE SUIT LOOK SO DAMN GOOD LOR!!!

This is actually his 造型 in the Korean show Stained Glass, cos thought he looked so much more suave in this drama than 18 years old bride. But I don't quite fancy the Stained Glass show, cos the female lead is not pretty at all, and then still get to choose between 2 gorgeous male leads (and my LDG even lost at the end...chay!). Han Ji Hye (韩智慧) is so much cuter and plus, tabloids has confirmed that LDG and Han has officially turned into a couple, after filming 18 years old bride and the movie, My Boyfriend is Type B. Sounds like fairy tale hor... =)

Behold my spanking new 笛子!!

2006-05-18T21:17:00.000+08:00

Whoa hoa!!!
Looks rather professional right? Aiyah, you guys probably wouldn't be able to appreciate it one lah...HAHAHA!!! For just $80, it even comes with a nifty red velvet soft case (see above lah). This must be like the cheapest brand new instrument which I've bought....hell even the lousy violin which I got years old cost me $135! But seriously, this new flute which Andy got for me (he brought it back all zee way from CHINA!) is considered good enough even for solo performances.....the old one which I had (see below) is more of a factory-made flute, and at best,

can only be used for orchestra playing. Anyway, the old flute is even cheaper....heh heh...$30 nia!! My new one is made by one of the famous flute making families in China, and from what I gathered from Andy's mini flute lecture, the bamboo which was used to make my flute, was already 3-5 years old before it was 'carved' into a dizi.

Notice any obvious difference between both flutes? The old one is actually made up of 2 separate bamboo sections which are joined together by a golden metallic piece. My new flute has no need for the metallic connector, cos its made up of only one long bamboo 'cylinder'. Anyway, I don't know how this affects the flute itself, but I do know my new dizi sounds way way better and much clearer than the old one. However, no matter how good a flute is, Andy has advised that I would still need to keep practising on the flute to create a good rapport with the instrument. Actually, I also feel a bit 不舍得 towards the old dizi....cos though it may not be as well made as the new flute, it was still THE flute which saw me through the most difficult early stages, plus all the frustrations, disappointment and happiness which I experienced since the day I took up the instrument. Which is why.....I'm definitely still keeping the old flute safely by my side....to remind me of the obstacles which i've overcome in the past, and that I must always stay determined in my quest to master the instrument. But of course lar....its easier said than done. Words are free, but it takes so much more effort to really do it.

Anyway, enough of all the serious stuffs. There was this rather interesting piece of Chinese poetry (I think is poetry lar) 'written' on the top of my flute. Ok, my Chinese standard is only so so lar, but at least I can read all the words on the 'poetry'. But as to what it all means when put together, heh heh heh....I'm not so sure liao. So anyone out there who took Chinese literature, care to enlighten me? =)

Muah HA HA HA HA HA!!!

2006-05-10T08:46:00.000+08:00

This is something I just caught on Yes933!!

David Beckham wants a daughter so badly that he's already picked a name for the baby girl. You'll never guess what name he thought of..

LUNA!!!!

Maybe just so 巧 he'll picked 'Esa' for his next daughter, and then my blog will become like 'thee most visited' blog of the year...HAHAHA!

PS. And know wat, Andy wants to increase my lesson time from 1 hour to 1 1/2 per session. Which means the fees will also increase proportionally from $40 to $60 (per class)...which works out to be $240 every 4 lessons!

AND THAT'S A WHOPPING $80 INCREASE LEH!!! I'M SO GOING TO BE BROKE AGAIN..... One really need to be rather well-off to be musically inclined.....贫民的我已经快要不行了！

Nice nice!

2006-05-06T23:11:00.000+08:00

This is cute eh? Got it from this Road Construction Sign Generator which my choir mate sent me. Hee hee

Am listening to the polling results now. Rather exciting. PAP gets Yio Chu Kang, while WP manages to retain their hold on Hougang.

Just received news PAP also won in MacPherson and Bt Panjang.

la di da di da di da....

2006-05-05T23:29:00.000+08:00

Wonderful....I do not have to work tomorrow, and also do not have the 'privilege' to vote as well. Can wake up a bit later some more, as long as I can get to my Cardio Blitz class on time at 1030am. And afternoon, it'll be bowling with Spy P (sadly abandoned by Corinni...I mean moi). Plus I heard the good news on radio this afternoon, that we get another day's leave due to tomorrow polling day event! Great news isn't it? Really comes in handy for my Scandinavia trip, since I'm left with quite a miserable number of days leave after the trip.

And Sun? If I'm in the mood...may consider baking some cornflake cookies (due to the large amounts of cornflake leftovers from CNY's cornflake clusters recipe...don't woooorrry...not expired yet lah!). Tis the first time I'm using this recipe...looks quite ok, just hope they don't turn out too lousy.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE!

Delicious-looking blog

2006-05-02T21:57:00.000+08:00

Hey guys...check out this extremely impressive bento blog created by a Japanese housewife ( I think!) who also writes beautiful English!! I tell you har, you really have to marvel at the type of 心思 this woman puts into the humble bento sets which she ~~has to~~ willingly makes EVERDAY for her husband. You don't only need hard work for this...you are also required to possess outrageous levels of creativity and lotsa lotsa of PATIENCE!!! I've looked through some of her pics, and it seems each bento set looks quite different from one another!

Show you one pic to make you salivate....

I hadn't even bother to remark that I wish I could do something like that...cos I'm 100% sure I'll never be able to do it! It really makes me wonder where these Jap housewives get the training to do this?

Such a Zhek Ark day

2006-04-30T22:32:00.000+08:00

Yar.....really feel quite zhek ark (Hokkien/Teochew for evil...hope I'm not wrong though..hee hee) today, cos kept eating and eating and eating NON-STOP!!! Its scary...so scary that I've decided to go for another round of aerobics tomorrow, even when I've already went last Sat.

Lunch. Attended my auntie's wedding reception at Summer Palace (Regent's Hotel). Wah the food so damn shiok ok! It was ala carte (spelled correctly?) buffet all the way...and the wedding couple had arranged 11 freaking courses for each table!!! And each course was their 招牌菜, or so my new uncle claimed. But I must admit...its really smacking licking good. Anyone who goes there...do try their
1) 叉烧酥 - 9.9/10...the best I've tasted..the cha siew gravy literally oozes out of the very crispy outer skin..don't try will definitely regret!
2) Black pepper beef - 9.8/10...the beef was in cube form, and its so tender...MY GOODNESS!
3) Fried Rice - 9/10...suffice to say it tasted good even when we were all so full liao (it was one of the last dishes).
4) 麦片虾 - I didn't eat this...but my mum said it was the best she's tasted so far...and my mum's quite the chef herself!

The buffet is only available on Sun (non public holidays) and cost $43 per adult. Not cheap, but well worth the money, if you're like my sis type...can eat and eat one.

Afternoon tea. Masa is in Singapore!!! For those who dont remember who he is, his house was my warm nice place of abode when I toured Tokyo last year! He arrived yesterday, and would be flying off to Jakarta tomorrow afternoon! So this was a 难得 opportunity to meet up with him again! Gosh...thus also began the mad mad flurry to purchase gifts for him, as well as for my other Japanese friends in Tokyo who hosted me before. I nearly went crazy coming up with gift ideas...luckily my sis helped me some. And right before I met Masa at 4pm, I managed to conjure a grand total of 4 presents for Masa, as well as for Yoko, Mai-Chan and Sue. I tell you hor...these gifts is 一定要给的. Why leh? Cos when I was in Japan the other time, these 3 ladies kept showering Winnie (my travelling mate then) and I with so many presents, that I was quite quite taken aback! They've only met me like once...and I already received so many presents. Even better, is that about half a year later, when one of Winnie's Japanese friends came to Singapore, Yoko also passed him a gift to send to me!! Imagine that leh...and I had not even given her anything yet! I must say the Japanese are some of the most hospitable and friendliest people around!

Anyway, I ended up with Masa and my sis (she kaypoh tagged along) at Kinokuniya Coffee Bean and ate another mango mousse and strawberry shortcake. I think my stomach is 无底洞 one.

Dinner. Had fried Thai noodles at Nooch.....couldn't finish....was then, quite sick of food liao. Not good feeling....

Now...don't dare to sleep so early....scared will have big tummy...and indigestion also...its madness lah.

Btw...I'm also supposed to bitch about the extreme lousy food at the Japanese restaurant located inside Taka food court. The restaurant had apparently changed hands recently, and while the previous one offered good Jap food at very affordable prices....this new one is YUCKS YUCKS YUCKS! I mean...I dun like it very much lah....the servings were so much smaller that what was depicted in the menu, and the prices were like SUPER EXORBITANT lor!! The average sushi plate on the conveyor belt cost $4 each...and me, Spy P, and ET each spent $17 plus on the food there, and left the restaurant feeling only 50% full. We had to settle for dessert at Spageddies after that. Damn jia lat.

But fortunately, we had the extremely generous (and loaded) ET to treat us for the the Jap food.....so must give her the necessary 客套话 lah...

THANK YOU MISS ET!!

WE LOVE YOU MISS ET!!

PLEASE DON'T FORGET US WHEN YOU BECOME A MILLIONAIRE MISS ET!!

Like that can or not har, Miss ET? =)

小小的成功=大大的鼓励

2006-04-24T21:45:00.000+08:00

TADA TADA TADA!!!! Out of my very short baking stint (which only started last Dec), this is the most successful I've gotten so far. Presenting my 含辛茹苦的杰作......VALERIE KONG'S (my 师傅) WALNUT COFFEE CAKE!!!

So obviously, the cake's appearance is not its 最优秀的卖点 lar...but my sis actually gave it a 7.5/10 rating leh! For now, that makes me rather satisfied liao...
Actually I had wanted to blog a lot more on my very first baking success one...but am now watching 大长今 on tv, and the situation is so bleak and dismal (all the 尚宫 going against one 韩尚宫) that I've somewhat forgotten what I had wanted to write about. So crappy.
But anyway, I'm quite motivated to get started on the other recipe which Valerie gave us...the one on the Strawberry Shortcake, except that maybe I may replace the strawberries with mango slices...hmmm yum!

超不快乐的一天

2006-04-19T12:18:00.000+08:00

Feeling a bit sad today. Yesterday was a rather sh*tty day cos I received my first complaint note (anonymous) regarding my flute practice. The note was slipped into my letter box and the contents went something like (all in caps) “STOP YOUR STUPID NOISY FLUTE etc etc etc etc”. Don’t remember the entire message lar, cos I threw the note away the minute I finished reading it. Surprisingly, the only emotion that I felt was slight sadness and a whole lot of embarrassment lar. Guess not everyone is appreciative of my lousy flute playing….SIGH.

But a few interesting points which my mother pointed out was:

1) Not many people actually know that the flute was played by me. Cos when my mum opened the letter box and saw the note, she asked my neighbour (who happened to be at the void deck then) what it said, as my mother did not know how to read English. My neighbour (who stays right above me) then told her the contents, and added “Aiyoh, not bad what, the flute. Thought it sounded ok leh…and moreover, its coming from the opposite block right? Why they place the note in your letterbox har?” Interesting right? So it means, that the person who wrote the note should most likely be staying at my opposite block, cos only the people there can actually see me playing my flute (I usually practise it near my bedroom window)

2) My mother then mentioned that this person must have really done some ‘exploration’ and homework before sending the note. Although I think its not that difficult to figure out the exact unit I stay in, but you have to admit this takes some extreme 心思 to really narrow down my unit. Actually this sounds a bit scary now…feels like I’m being stalked…no joke leh.

3) The person who most supportive of my flute lessons turned out to be my mother. She was actually debating whether to show me the note, cos she was afraid that I would give up my lessons after reading it. But I’m not that weak lar. I definitely believe there are other ways for me to continue my practices, such as closing the bedroom windows and door while practicing, or moving my practice to the study room where the distance between my block and the one opposite is much bigger. I think I will only stop if I keep receiving the notes, or if I kena a visit from our friendly neighbourhood police.

Actually, I seriously think that if my flute playing is ~~really driving the complainant nuts~~ creating such a noise that the complainant cannot carry out his usual activities, I really wouldn’t mind he/she approaching me personally to work out some schedule/plan which can suit the both of us. Now with the complainant staying anonymous, I really wouldn't know if by changing my practice room, the flute sound will still travel to his/her flat. Guess I can only deduce the effectiveness of my solution, based on whether I still receive any more of this type of note.

Haiz….I still have an emcee audition coming up tomorrow…don’t think I can get that job cos am down with flu today (but still at work) and my voice will definitely suffer once I take the flu tablets. So yar, I predict that today will also be quite a sh*tty day…..

Not to mention that I still have flute lesson later this evening.

Yum Yum Yum!!!

2006-04-16T18:50:00.000+08:00

I finally did it! Took the first step and attended my very very first baking class yesterday at Hougang CC. Actually I had wanted to do that in Feb liao, when my interest in baking had started then. But was a bit scared and apprehensive lar....very afraid that the class will be filled with all those expert aunties who already have many years of baking experience...and also worried that my questions will seem so amateurish and stupid in the class lar. Now I really regret not attending the class sooner....cos it turned out to be such an enlightening and fun and YUMMY experience!!!! I'll definitely attend more classes in future boy...

Yesterday's recipes were for Strawberry Shortcake and Walnut Choc Cake. 单单听名字我都已经心动了!! Our teacher was a very nice lady called Valerie Kong who has been teaching baking for quite a long while liao. And interestingly, I found out that many of the students yesterday were her fervent fans, and they only go for baking lessons that were conducted by her. But after the lesson yesterday, I figured I know the reason and even better still, I think its quite likely that I'll follow them too! She a really really patient teacher who will willingly answer all types of baking questions, no matter how idiotic/无聊 they may be. And one of the things which impressed me most, was that I left the lesson with so many important and precious baking tips which I would have otherwise been absolutely unable to get from those recipe books outside. And I like it that Valerie does not only tell us what ingredients to add, but why they are added and what function each ingredient plays in the baking process. Cool right? And she'll also recommend the best brand of ingredient to buy, such as eggs, butter, choc chips etc etc. And here I was thinking all brands were the same! Amazing!

Anyway, yesterday's class was more of a demo lesson, so we did not really get to roll our sleeves and do the baking ourselves. But it was still good to at least witness the correct way of creaming the butter and sugar, and how to beat the egg whites and to what extent (VERY IMPORTANT!!), or the best method to separate egg whites from egg yolks, and so much much more! It was definitely the best 3 hours I've spent in any lesson! And I really bombarded her with all the baking questions I had wanted to ask for so long....finally!! Cos I had experienced countless baking failures (to the extent whereby I became quite demoralised) and I had never knew the reason behind these failures! My goodness.....I really should have joined the class earlier.

And best of all, the cakes turned out so FABULOUS that I was really quite speechless when I first tasted the strawberry shortcake! My gawd.....it was really really good....can even beat those done by the bakeries! The only thing is that I'm not so sure I can produce the same results lar. But the other students in the class told me that they were mostly able to get the same results back home when they tried her recipes. One of the students Eunice, even told me that when she baked the strawberry tarts using Valerie's recipe, it was so popular that she had to keep baking a few batches to keep everyone satisfied! Wow...if only I can do the same.

At the end of the lesson, there was enough cake for each of us to bring back home cos Valerie baked extra the day before and brought it to the class (how nice!). My mum and sis were totally impressed when they took the first bite on the walnut cake. We are still left with the strawberry shortcake in the fridge, cos a bit 不舍得 to eat it all at one go. Hee hee hee.

We will miss you TOBY!!!!!

2006-04-13T14:39:00.000+08:00

Went for a BBQ gathering yesterday night at Toby's residence - the used-to-be posh and exclusive Mandarin Gardens. I said used-to-be cos in the good old days when I was studying in that area, this condo was like so atas atas type one...so different from the old and a bit dilapidated Neptune Court beside it. And anyway, Neptune Ct still pretty much looks the same - old and dilapidated, but sadly, Mandarin Gardens is also becoming a bit retro liao. We could even spot those old fashioned public telephone booths in the condo, and I must say some of the current HDB void decks look even better than the ones in Mandarin Gardens.

But the facilities, wah....got only one word to describe....absolutely top notch and well maintained ok! This is actually a pretty big condo...cos it consists of quite a number of blocks...machem like a mini HDB estate, I tell you. But hor, their facilities inside comprise of:

1) 3 tennis courts (which condo got so many courts one?)
2) Not 1, 2 or 3, but 4 squash courts!!
3) Suitably big-sized pool
4) Suana rooms
5) 4 pavilions with 2 BBQ pits each
6) Supermarket
7) Learning centre
8) Gift shop
9) Thai restaurant (!!)
10) Hair salon
11) Gym

Impressive right? Its like the size of Shunfu estate, with all the 'essential' facilities built in. No need to even step out of the condo to buy anything liao. Guess the units there must be freaking pricey also lor. But yar lar, Toby is rich one...so it makes sense.

Anyway, Toby is part of my choir kaki group lar and yesterday's BBQ dinner was like a gathering for us, as well as a farewell party for Toby since he's leaving Sg for Vietnam to teach English. This boy har, didn't know he can cook so well one. He was the one who marinated the raw food, and plus was also the one behind all the cooked food like potato salad, spaghetti, garlic butter, and his 招牌chilli paste. Absolutely smacking licking good, I tell you...especially the potato salad. Me hor, I usually skip the salad part of any meal one cos I hate eating raw veggies with those dressing on it. But Toby's potato salad was one of the rare salad dishes which happened to agree with my tastes....hahaha.

But I guess what we all enjoyed most yesterday, besides the super duper good food, was the good conversation we had with one another, as a group. Its quite funny actually..cos we see each other almost every week during our choir practices. But we still have so much to talk and joke about leh...after knowing everyone for more than 2 years. Sometimes hor, what really motivates me to attend the choir sessions, is not really my love for singing leh...but more because I get the chance to meet up with my choir kakis and spend time pursuing a common passion and interest. Sigh....I know this is what I'm going to miss most of all, if I were to ever quit choir, if if lah!

And yesterday, we were all so 不舍得Toby, when we took our leave from his condo. I'm already missing him liao...Toby, one of our rare tenors (we are PERPETUALLY in need of tenors), the one who's always wearing t-shirts with quirky messages on it, who's always voicing out his disgust when I don't sit properly on the piano bench to play the piano (haha!), who wears a sarong to sleep (we peeped on him while in Brunei), who's from my brother school (came as a shock to me though), and who can cook so much better than me (only knew yesterday). Toby's life story also quite drama one....but cannot reveal the juicy details here lah....suffice to say that he used to be a 富家子 (those 少爷少爷type one), but after falling out with his father, he decided to strike it out on his own and not depend on his dad anymore. Drama can? Think he took up a couple of jobs after his NS to support himself lah....teaching bangaras English, and working as a waiter. Oh yar, must add in this small but funny anecdote which occurred during his waiter days.

Apparently one afternoon, the famous singer 杜德为 patronised the restaurant which Toby was working in (think he was in Sg to film some TCS drama....probably the one with Jacelyn Tay and Fiona Xie) . So we all know that 杜德为's angmo name is Alex To right....but Toby, who's absolutely rubbish with the Mandarin music scene...did not know that. So he kay kiang proceeded to anyhow-ly translate 杜德为's name to David To, because he says 德为=David. And with that, he approached our singer and asked "Hi Mr. David To, what would you like to order?".

Toby later told me he was so so so malu....that he didn't even dare to approach Alex To again to ask for his signature, which he had intended to do so at first.

Tsk tsk......crap right, this boy?? But must admit he's got some creativity lar.......

我不可以再做懒惰虫了!!

2006-04-03T22:18:00.000+08:00

I'm so so ashamed of myself leh. Have been promising certain friends that I will find time to meet up with them someday. But so far, I'm still stuck at the promising stage only. Haven't even taken the initiative to plan my diary and ask them out. TSK TSK TSK....BAD ME BAD ME!

Ok. These friends whom I really need to call soon are mostly my ex-classmates/course mate whom I've not seen for more than a year liao....and are namely:

YJ - my good pal from MGS who was in the same class with me for all 4 years. This is going to be tricky, cos the last time I saw her was during uni days...gawd...that's like decades ago leh. Actually hor, I only thought of meeting her again after I caught up with Jane during last Jan. And surprisingly, I found YJ's mobile number in my phone! Really funny leh....didn't even remember asking her for it. Now I also a bit paiseh to contact her again after such a long while! Skali she thinks I'm some insurance agent now, and want to ask her out to get business....haha. And even worse, skali she doesn't even remember me now! =(
Yufen!!!!! My NTU course mate and hostel friend!!!!! Had called her during CNY to invite her to GUTS reunion dinner....but she had to attend her BF's friend's gathering. During uni days, she was also my swimming mate (every Mon morning!!! SO SPORTY!), and plus also went through the sucky waitressing job with me at Snoopy's Place! Wah lau eh....those were the good old days..haha. And hor, she was also my travelling companion when I went on my first solo overseas trip after graduation! To Japan some more!! God I miss her....must must call her!!!
Finally, the last person to call.....is none other than Tracy, my Pri Sch friend who had participated in a number of SDU events with me last year, and who is now ATTACHED LIAO!!!!! (I feel so ashamed again....why never happen to me one?). But I think her love life was not so smooth sailing last year....cos she sounded a bit sad in the email she sent me....think I better meet her soon to find out more. She's usually quite bubbly and crazy one....a bit odd to see her so subdued recently....hmmmmmm

That's it lah! 3 persons...3 good friends whom I don't want to lose contact with......MUST NOT PROCRASTINATE ANYMORE!!

Finland trivia

2006-03-31T09:33:00.000+08:00

THIS IS SO COOOOOL!!!! Was checking out the web to find out about Scandinavia's weather in July, and guess what I found on this Finland tourism website? Because of the phenomenon called the Midnight sun during summer (hmm, wonder if this is where Shakespear got his inspiration for A Midsummer Night's Dream?), the average sunrise time in Helsinki (in Jul) is at 0401am...which is nothing special, cos same as Sg lar. But the sunset time????

At a FREAKING 2247HRS!!!!!

I am SO looking forward to my Scandinavia trip!!!!

HAPPY FRIDAY, EVERYBODY! (I'm very high now!)

On the way to SCANDINAVIA!!

2006-03-26T21:46:00.000+08:00

I swear I shall never ever attend another NATAS fair on a Saturday morning/afternoon / night/whatever!! My travel mate, Sam (female lar) and I had PURPOSELY arranged to meet each other at City Hall around 0930am, so that we could have a leisurely stroll to the fair at Suntec. Upon reaching there at 0955pm, both of us were absolutely astonished (you should have seen our jaws drop!) at the sight of the 4 LONG LONG queues outside the hall, waiting to buy the tickets! Thought we were already quite early liao.....Singaporeans are really KIASU!!! But fortunately, the hall was really big, so there wasn't so much jostling and shoving in the fair. And the the charging of the entrance fee also helped to greatly reduce the number of visitors (yar...keep out all those onlookers!!)

As we had already done our homework (so proud of ourselves!) before the fair, and hence had narrowed our search to the Scandinavian packages from namely SA and Universal, we were able to come to a decision rather quickly during the fair. We signed up eventually with Universal (the tour route and price were better) and made our deposit there and then. Wah....got so many free gifts leh! A toiletries bag (from the insurance agency where we bought our travel insurance for this trip. Yar, we are that kiasu), a bag from Visa and get this......A COOL RED CABIN BAG FROM UOB!!! Nifty huh?? The only drawback? I had to lug the cabin bag around with me as we did some shopping at Marina Square after we left the fair. But quite fun lar, cos I ended up dumping all the stuffs I bought into the cabin bag....so much easier than carrying all the plastic bags. Haha!

Heh heh....if all things go well....if enough people signed up for the package....if the weather over there doesn't deviate too much from the norm (no snow PLEASE!!).....we WILL be flying off to Scandinavia in this coming July!! So exciting!

I've already started to plan what wardrobe to bring liao..... =)

BLEAH life

2006-03-24T16:53:00.000+08:00

Nothing's been really exciting nowadays. I'm so bored at home...didn't know that one can actually get bored watching HK TVB serials again and again. And plus, I have no more motivation to attend SDU events liao. 看来看去，挑来挑去, all events look the same one. And I really 不看好 the chances of me getting attached through this avenue leh. Sigh....dunno since when I've became so demoralised also....

Guess the only thing to look forward to would be my hopefully-will-materialise Europe trip this coming June. Will of course be paying a visit to the NATAS fair tomorrow with my travel mate...and have after doing the maths, this trip will most probably take away a freaking $5000 from my bank account. Scary right? Its like A LOT A LOT OF MONEY lor!!!! But cannot help it lar...I don't want to stick to Asian countries all the time.....and its always been my dream to see the Midnight Sun at Finland.

THANK GOD FOR PB!!

Andy recently said I've not been improving enough in my flute techniques.....*SOB SOB SOB*!!! He said I did improve lah, but he had expected more from me. Haiyah! He thinks I everyday no need to work, just spend 8 hours daily practising on the flute meh? As compared to Ms Mazda in my office, I'm already like so freaking diligent liao lor! This Ms Mazda only practises her piano (she started piano around the same time I took up flute) about twice a week, and her teacher didn't even nag her about it. Me? I try to practise at least every alternate day, if not everyday leh! But I also know my standard pretty much still cannot make it. And I also know that Andy nags only for my own good....but no need to nag during EVERY lesson lah. 我知道错了!! I had tried to hint to him that he should lower his expectations lar...and that I'm NOT AIMING TO PLAY IN SOME ORCHESTRA OK!!! But either he's not taking the hint, or he's being really really super strict. LEARNING A NEW INSTRUMENT IS SO DAMN TOUGH!!!!

But I absolutely will not give up my lessons (even though the evil thought did occur to me before). I still hold on to the dream that SOMEDAY, I will reach a standard where even Andy will be pleased and satisfied with.

SOMEDAY!! SOMEDAY!!

I need a MASSAGE!!!

2006-03-16T08:44:00.000+08:00

I tell you har...these few days, I've really not been in the best of luck leh. Anything stupid which comes out of my mouth would somehow eventually turn into real events one. I cannot reveal what stupid stuffs I said lah (cos its work based), but all of them, one by one, really happened to me.....SO DAMN SUAY!!! I also cannot believe it myself.....

And recently hor, my body has been itching for a good body scrub and massage. The last time I 'enjoyed' something close to that was the extremely 'invigorating' foot reflexology session I went for last Dec. So long ago liao. Actually I have another of that session left, but a bit scared to go back. And oh yar, talking about the foot massage, Spy P recently had an unpleasant encounter with the reception staff at the parlour we patronised last Dec. I have to agree that the lady's behaviour was quite illogical and 过分.

In Dec, when we went for the foot massage together, Spy P got this male masseur HRY who was not, according to her, very good lah. Then I told her to try the masseur (Lim) who attended to me cos he gave me quite a thorough (if not freaking sore) massage which I thought should be the way. So for her second session, Spy P asked for masseur Lim when she made her appointment. To her dismay and chagrin, the receptionist on the phone actually refused Spy P's 要求 and said that all of their employees give the same quality of service, and she should stick to HRY who served her the first time!!!! WHAT THE HELL?? Since when customers cannot choose the person to serve them one? Everytime I make a pedicure appointment, the lady on the phone always ask if I have any preference for the person who does my pedi!

Then hor, the foot massage recept told me friend that they have over 4000 customers, and none of them have ever complained about any of their masseurs one. So indirectly, she's hinting that Spy P is being a troublemaker lar....I was absolutely APPALLED!!! I mean, if she had gave a good reason for rejecting Spy P's request, such as perhaps as HRY had served her the first time, he would be in the better position to know Spy P's condition and improve from there (which I don't think so lor.....1 time only what....). Or maybe most of the masseurs are booked liao, and only HRY is available.....ok, this I can still accept right? But you don't have to mention the 4000 customers blah blah blah blah what......sounds so unreasonable!

But eventually, Spy P did get another person to attend to her (not Lim though), and this time, she did experience some pain and soreness.....and was also on the whole, more satisfied than the one she had in Dec. But no matter how good the massage is, Spy P was already very very put off by the reception woman, and she swore she'll never go back there again. I don't blame her man! If it was me, I would definitely have felt the same. There are so many other parlours I can go to, why should I limit myself to this place which insults and embarrasses their customers?

I've yet to go for my final foot reflexology session.....will see how it goes. Maybe I should stick to body massages in future. At least the spa aunties treat me well....

Contender for The Best Joke I've Heard

2006-03-07T23:02:00.000+08:00

Got this from Miss Ah Yat....forgot if it happened to her maid, or her friend's maid or her XXX's maid...but suffice to say, its all based on an actual event.

(For convenience, let's just pretend its Miss Ah Yat's maid)

It was her maid first Sunday off, and my colleague Miss Ah Yat kindly gave her the permission to go out (and probably to spend the day at Lucky Plaza pinicking away with her 同乡们). However, since it was her maid's first time out, she had a little bit of trouble getting back home. All she knew was that her boss resided at Serangoon Gardens, which was what she told the cab driver lah. However, upon reaching the not-so-small community of Serangoon Gardens, Miss AY's maid was at a loss as to what the specific address of her employer was. All she could tell the driver was "Its near to Auntie Lucy! Its near to Auntie Lucy!!"

The cab driver must have been thinking "How the hell I know where your Auntie Lucy stay meh?" After going for a few rounds with little success, Miss AY's maid finally gave a scream of delight, pointing to a sign and shouting "That's Auntie Lucy!!"

So ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, can you guess what the world she was referring to as Auntie Lucy?

It was none other than our Singapore's very own.......very uniquely Singapore....

NTUC

心有余，而力不足

2006-03-05T15:27:00.000+08:00

Wow wow...this must be the longest blog-free period I went through since the day I started blogging. I'm so sorry guys for MIA-ing the past 2 weeks. Its been hell of a 2 weeks for me....the title of this entry says it all! Things have been happening one after another continously....giving me no time to rest/surf net/msn chat/blog/choir...and I even had to miss my beloved aerobics classes.....gawd!!!

No need to guess la...the main thing which occupied most of my time and energy was none other than my work lor (I didn't even have free time to go for any SDU events leh!!). Something big suddenly cropped up, and it threw my entire office into disorder and chaos (ok, mabbe not as bad as that...but something near to that level). Everybody's daily life was disupted because of this stupid idiot event which occurred. I'm just so so glad it's finally over lah....but at least something's good came out of it, and I also gained some very useful experience in the midst of it all.

I've also recently started my acupuncture sessions, which I hope will be successful in treating my horrible monthly cramps. Actually, I've long given up hope on getting rid of the cramps, cos its more or less a hereditary issue and as long as the cramps limit itself to only one day per month, I'M ALREADY VERY SATISFIED liao! It used to last 3 days/month during my schooling time...but now with the regular consumption of evening primrose oil and exercise, the duration and level of pain had reduced to something which I can still tahan. But recently, my sis went for acupuncture to treat her inflamed tendons (feet), and her situation improved quite radically after only 5 sessions! This is quite miraculous, considering the fact that our family doctor had already declared her condition to be incurable! So that got me wondering if it could also work miracles for me lah. So far, I've undergone 4 sessions, and although there was still pain for my most recent period, it was considerably lesser and at least, I did not have to resort to taking Panadol, which I heard is bad for the liver on the long run. Heard only lah....dunno how true ok.

But acupuncture is definitely not for everyone...cos its quite painful leh!!! The first time I did it, I think I went pale when the needles went into my body. Cos its very very different from getting injections as like in your family clinic. For acupuncture to work, the needle has to be carefully poked into certain points, and if inserted correctly, it should give one the sensation that the needle has gone right deep into your body, and not just the surface. Its this feeling which I could not withstand during my first sessions. How should I say it....its not actually painful....its just....very sore and 酸酸的感觉. Very difficult to describe....but for every session, I had to endure 2 needles on my tummy, and 2 on each leg. Then the doc will clip some electrode thingy to the needles, which will then send a vibrating sensation to the needle points. After 4 sessions, I still can't say I've gotten used to it, but for my cramps to disappear....I guess I'm willing to try anything lah. When you've been plagued by something since the age of 14, which occurs every month, its really gets quite sickening and sian, especially when it starts to disrupt your daily life and work.

And oh yes Batman, the acupuncture sessions was also one of the reasons when I had to KIV the ballroom dancing classes. I'm so sorry hor...hope you were not too disappointed leh. Paiseh.

But on a brighter note, the trip to KL was rather fun and fruitful. Though it lasted only 2 days, I must say no one went home empty handed or unsatisfied! Though I did not really pick up anything really cheap or what lah (I ended buying from Giordano and Nike.....like Sg doesn't have like that), but just being in a foreign country for the weekend felt quite good leh....and my proudest buy was 3 super super cheap, but authentic A&F tees!!! Wow! I couldn't find them in Sg leh, and even if have right, it would have cost at least $50 per shirt! Those I bought in KL were less than $20 each! Nice!

Food was quite ok lar...the usual buffet stuffs...and we also ate at a roadside claypot stall at their Pertaling Street (Chinatown). I was actually rather disappointed with their Chinatown, cos everybody was like saying how good it was, and that we should not give it a miss when we go KL. But when we reached there, all I could see were rows and rows of pirated stuffs lah...from VCDs to shoes, watches, bags, etc. And their shop attendants, mostly the local ah bengs, were also quite persistent and irritating. Yeeeee yucks! Would never go back there again....The only good thing was that all the Chinese there spoke mostly Cantonese...which I was rather surprised to hear at first. And the only Chinese who spoke in Mandarin were found only in big departmental stores like Isetan. Interesting huh....like a mini Hong Kong.

Hmmmm....think I've already pretty much summarised what I went through during the past 2 weeks......fortunately my work level has returned to normal....so hopefully I will have the time to blog as often as I did previously lah. =)

P.S. Forgot to say....I have a choir performance tomorrow evening at CHIJMES....quite excited about it...and for the first time, I'm wearing a gown instead of the choir uniform, cos I'll be playing the piano for the performance. The acoustics at CHIJMES is supposedly to be quite impressive....just hope that I won't be playing too many wrong notes lah.

The Mysterious Mr. X

2006-02-17T10:00:00.000+08:00

I met him through work
5 years ago, my boss had wanted to matchmake the 2 of us. But I rejected her kind offer (for Pete's sake, I was only 22 then!)
Have never spoken to him EVAR, until last year
In general, I see him less than 5 times per year, and its all purely for work reasons
Its hard to explain, but I gradually found myself looking forward to the few opportunities of meeting him, even though we never speak more than 5 sentences to each other everytime we meet. And all interactions between us are always about work.
Hence, I know ZILCH about him, except that:
He's quite tall
Has rather good career prospects
Is not good looking at all (but still attractive, to me)
Kind of aloof type
But not sure if he's still single and unattached

Sigh....without myself even realising it, I think I've developed a crush on this very 神秘 Mr.X.

Love is in the air......

2006-02-15T22:23:00.000+08:00

Completed my first biathlon last Monday....heh heh, except that I only swam lah....left the running to my colleague Brown. It was quite a breezy and cool afternoon...for some reason, the sky was rather cloudy during the entire time I was in the pool. So, lucky for me...did not get too tanned/sunburnt.

But unlucky for me too, that my competitor was far far too strong and I only managed a miserable second for the mixed team relay. It was miserable because there were only 2 mixed relay teams lah...so you can say I let Brown down....cos the other lady swimmer was faster than me by almost an entire lap. But of course lah....she was an ex-school swimmer leh....and believe it or not, we started swimming together with the other men team's relay, and she still finished first ok! Even faster than the guys!! But I was not too bad, cos there were a couple of guys who took even longer than I in finishing the 6 laps....heh heh. But it was a good experience....I've never swam competitively before....and I must admit it was quite exhausting to finish 6 whole laps as fast as I could. Think I still lack a lot of training....but still fun lar! As I've mentioned, I participated purely for the reason of challenging myself, and at least I know that my stamina can still win some of the guys....heh heh

And oh yes, so how did you guys celebrate your V-day yesterday? Mine was nothing special...cos did not receive any presents/flowers lar...as expected anyway (Oh yar, forgot that I did receive a packet of chocs from a good friend... =)). But I did receive V-day smses from a couple of good friends, plus Mr. Dark, and SURPRISE SURPRISE......the super filthy rich guy whom Bluesky introduced to me a couple of weeks ago. I was really really stunned leh...cos I thought he would probably have forgotten about me. But maybe he was just being nice lar..... and maybe he was sending the message to a couple of other lady friends, and just added my name into the 'mailing list'.....aiyah...who knows. And surprisingly, I did not feel sad when I saw so many couples holding bouquets of flowers along Orchard Rd.....I actually thought that it was quite nice to see so many couples enjoying this lovey-dovey season, and that there are still guys who care enough to give pretty bouquets to their other halves. Nice! =)

浪漫满屋 - 풀하우스

2006-02-13T10:46:00.000+08:00

What's there not to like about the show?

Dashing couple
Great OST
Stunning 背景 (check out the house!)
Unique storyline
And most importantly.....超感动浪漫的台词!!

SDU updates

2006-02-08T23:47:00.000+08:00

During our recent gatherings, Spy P asked why I've not been blogging my dating experiences just like before (with Mr.BP and the others). Well firstly, I've toned down quite a fair bit in this dating activity, cos tired lah, of STILL not meeting Mr. Right after so many tries. After a while, I've just lost some of the initial drive and enthusiasm to carry on with the blind dates. And another reason why I don't blog about them so much, is because silly me thought that blogging about my dates may somewhat jinx and cause them to be unsuccessful at the end. Yar, I was that naive....HAIZ!!

Anyway, I'm over all of that now and am also slowly getting back some of the much needed enthusiasm towards dating. My first date in 2006 was arranged by Bluesky, whom I must say, is such a good friend to always think of me whenever some great SINGLE guy comes along her way. Heh heh. I shan't talk much about the date, except that I don't think it will work out eventually, as there's too many differences (in status, age, and wealth) between the guy and me. But suffice to say that, if it (the matchmake) had even the slightest chance of being successful, then I'm really well on my way in becoming a SUPER, OUTRAGEOUS, FILTHY....RICH TAI TAI!! But I don't think so lar. 我的命应该没那么好啦!

Attended my first SDU event in 2006 with Batman earlier tonight. Quite disappointed actually, at the quality of guys who turned up, as most of them looked rather old leh. Think there were only 2 guys who were around my age, namely Batman and another one whom I shall call Mr. Dark. It actually turned out that Mr. Dark had also attended a speed dating event I went to last year, and he remembered my name (this is no easy feat, as I don't have a Christian name, and Mr. Dark is a Malay, so remembering Chinese names should have been not that easy to him)! During that particular event, Mr. Dark was actually one of the guys I had a good impression towards, cos he was quite easy to chat and joke with. But when he did not do any follow up after the event, I then decided he must have forgotten about me, and so I continued with my other SDU activities lar.

But....to find out that today, he actually still remembered my name and plus, even the stuffs I mentioned during the last SDU event, was really quite a pleasant surprise....hee hee hee. And this time, he asked me for my number (after the event) and also sent an sms while I was blogging this entry. Hmmm.....sounds quite ok leh? Anyway, I know I should not put too much hope on any ONE guy and instead, should go out and join more events to meet more people first lar. But altogether, I would say tonight turned out to be a surprisingly encouraging start to my dating 旅途 2006. I only hope things will start to get more promising in the near future....=)

Why like that har?

2006-02-07T09:21:00.000+08:00

This is getting quite irritating....the pics on my blog kept disappearing on me leh. Happens everytime I refresh the page. Am I the only one experiencing this?

Wonder if its because I attached the Myolie/Bosco pics through Blogger, and the bandwidth thingy kena exceeded, or if there's someting wrong with Blogger itself leh? Haiz....think I better host my pics through Photobucket/Ripway in future...safer this way.

There's no way I'm taking down my beloved pics. NO WAY!

I should be so lucky...lucky lucky lucky

2006-02-05T22:34:00.000+08:00

Wah...seems like the Dog Year 真的待我不薄 yeah....so far, the money has been rolling into my pocket quite incessantly, during the past mahjong sessions I've played. But its all very very small winnings lar...cos we all play extremely really small bets one. Plus somemore, we do it the AP (arithmetic progression) way, rather than the usual GP (geometric progression) route. So everything was quite amateur...haha. But still, at least I've won something. I'm not usually this lucky one....and today, everything was so smooth sailing for me....sigh....sometimes don't want to hu so fast also cannot help it....HAHAHAHA.....I would have won even more, if not for my cousin Sirfercauress who later kept winning with at least 4 doubles....and I was the one who kept throwing the winning tile somemore. =(

Oh yar recently, I also did something which I previously, would have NEVER even considered doing.

I signed up for a biathlon (yes Batman, its the one organised by your side. You going?)

This is crazy ok. Cos I usually really HATE running. When I had painstakingly finished my 2.4km run nearly 8 years ago (JC year 2), I swore no one would ever be able to force me to run another km anymore. Running is so BORING!!! And round the track is hundred times worse..cos the scenery doesn't even change.

But this time, because the organisers promised that its going to be a SUPER mini biathlon (and yar, its really quite mini, only need to swim 3 laps, and followed by a 2km run), I thought that this could be the perfect chance for me to challenge myself lor. I love swimming, and 3 laps is like quite chicken feet lar. But the thing is, I'm better with distance swimming, than speed swimming. And I tested myself last Sat....took around 7 mins for 6 laps. Thought it was rather pathetic...haha. But anyway, instead of the Woman's Open category, my in-charge advised me to sign up for the mixed relay, which means one person will swim, and the other will run. We have some pretty good runners in our division, and it seems like we just lack swimmers. So the arrangement is that I will swim 300m (6 laps) and my partner (Brown) will run 4km. Sounds pretty ok leh.

I just hope I won't cause Brown to lose any chance of winning some medal, cos I had wanted to join this biathlon, solely for the purpose of self-challenge and motivation. I had never thought of winning anything lar....don't think I'm up to standard yet. But I know my partner is a REALLY good runner....sigh.....maybe I should warn him of my standard first. So that no high hopes = no disappointment. Heh heh...

Going nuts soon

2006-02-01T18:02:00.000+08:00

I have this very annoying trait.....which is whenever I go bonkers over a certain drama (Jap/HK), I usually suffer from very bad withdrawal symptoms once I finish watching the series. So currently, I've lost interest in whatever I do....choir, flute, work, eat, sleep......cos all I wanna do is to keep thinking about the cute couple 黄宗泽 and 胡杏儿. It usually takes a few weeks for me to get over this feeling. Extremely irritating, but is also something which I cannot control.

Sigh....I think I put too much emotions in whatever I watch. But this is still not the absolute worst. The biggest major symptoms I went through was probably for the Jap show 'Love Generation'. I took so long to 'get my life back' after watching the series.

Yar, I don't doubt it....I'm really going nuts soon.....

I'm sooooo SMITTEN!!!

2006-01-28T21:43:00.000+08:00

Right now, I'm extremely extremely (very very) crazy over this show

and its mainly because of this couple

who in real life looks like this

Aiyoh aiyoh....THEY ARE SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO CUTE IN THE SHOW!!! For the non-Cantonese fanatics, 奶奶 in this case DOES NOT mean Ah Mah ok. In Cantonese, it means mother-in law (heh heh just in case you don't know lar). I must admit that Liza Wong was excellent in her role as the demanding mother-in-law. But Myolie Wu and Bosco Wong, (who has effectively become my favourite TVB onscreen couple, after Raymond Lam and Michelle Yip)though not as experienced as Liza, were so endearing in the show!

I love (SPOILERS SPOILERS!!!):
1) How Myolie hated Bosco for being a mother's boy (aka wimp), when in actual fact he was the well-known masked hero of the town
2) How Bosco grew to love his wife, who was not only a bandit's daughter, but was also extremely uncouth, loud, unrefined and uneducated (but very righteous!)
3) When Myolie found out her hero, the masked guy, was actually her wimp husband
4) How this couple made up after their many arguements (SO CUTE!!!)
5) The endless fighting matches between Liza and Myolie.

Aiyoh...I will go on and on and on and on one. So if you'll excuse me, I'm now going to watch the entire series a 2nd time, from first to last episode.

Please please go watch if you have $20 to spare (it cost this amount to rent). I guarantee you won't regret it. It will be the best $20 you've spent! And hor, DO WATCH IN CANTONESE OK (got English subtitles one)!!! Mandarin...BLEH!!

Shall we dance?

2006-01-26T09:37:00.000+08:00

Ok, I know this is a pretty loooooooong shot, but I’ll never know till I’ve tried lah. So here goes:

Anyone keen to take up ballroom dancing lessons with moi?? Guy or lady also can…..=)

As my choir practices will soon be reduced to only once a week, I now have one day free to take up all sorts of ~~crap~~ wonderful self-enriching classes after work. Was rather inspired to pick up ballroom dancing after watching 小 S perform her sexy samba moves in 康熙来了 last Saturday night. I browsed the Internet yesterday (me being efficient as always) and have sort of narrowed down to 2 reputable dance studios which have good centralized locations – Sunny Low Dance Studio and Shawn & Gladys Danceworld. I’m quite interested in taking up their Beginner Social Dance course, which teaches the Salsa, Rock and Roll and Cha Cha. Prices are at $100 for 8 weeks (once per week, an hour per lesson)….woo hoo….so much cheaper than my ~~bloody~~ beloved flute lessons.

The good thing about learning dancing…is that THERE’S NO HOMEWORK OR PRACTICE TO DO AT HOME!!!! And maybe can even get some exercise done at the same time. Cool right?

So if anyone’s interested, leave me a message or email can? The beginner course at Shawn & Gladys starts 23 Feb (7-8pm). For the Sunny Low one, I’ve got to call and ask. But prices at both studios are quite similar. S&G is located at Bras Basah Complex, while Sunny Low is located at The Riverwalk (near Liang Court). Actually I’m real ok with going alone one lar…but just thought that it would be nice to have someone to learn together with….for a change.

Oh yes, another option which I’m also considering is tap dance. If anyone’s keen can also inform me hor. Cos I took up the beginner course a couple of years back, and am interested in continuing it (dont want to waste the shoes mah). It’s a Tuesday affair at the Jitterbugs dance studio (Millenia Walk). Of course it'll be EITHER ballroom dancing OR tap dance lah...cannot possibly do both...I'm not that free yet.

Thanks har, everyone. And Happy CNY Holidays! 祝大家万事如意，事事顺心, 恭喜恭喜!

Kindhearted...or 恶作剧?

2006-01-25T09:07:00.000+08:00

Every morning, my daily bus routine consist of:

1) reaching the bus stop at a particular time to catch my usual bus (it must be the SAME bus, cos only this bus has the best aircon temperature and the seats are not so vandalised...yet)
2) Finding the best window seat (preferably not one which has the aircon vent blowing on my neck/head, or which has that irritating sloping feet rest underneath)
3) PROCEED TO SLEEP THROUGHOUT THE JOURNEY

Okaay, I know step 3 is actually quite dangerous for ladies lah, cos once asleep, we are easy targets for potential 色狼 and 小偷s who sit beside us. But cannot help it lar, its such a long journey for me, and I can already memorise all the 'scenery' one can see on the journey. So nothing to do but sleep lah.

Its not like I've not had my fair share of weirdo-meeting onboard these journeys. I especially dislike those passengers who, because of their big sizes, take up nearly 70% of the seat space, leaving only 30% for me to squeeze in. And because of all the 'squeezing', I literally have to 'rub shoulders' with these people, and that makes me feel very uncomfortable (and also quite threatened). I don't like skin contact with people I don't know leh.... and I'm also not sure if they do this on purpose one lah. Its quite annoying and most importantly, it disrupts my beauty sleep on the bus.

But anyway, what I really wanted to blog today was my journey this morning. I was having quite a good sleep (got dream some more, if I remember correctly) when I was abruptly woken up by this guy beside me. Usually, I can only see 2 reasons for strangers to wake me up on the bus.

1) The bus conductor is here to compute the EZ-link card
2) The bus broke down halfway, and all passengers have to get down

I've kena both examples before, but today was a refreshing change though. Haha. The guy woke me up and actually said

"Do you know where you are stopping?"

You know, for about 5 secs, I was staring groggily (and stupidly) at him, trying to decipher what the world he was talking about. Then my reply was 'Har?", to which he repeated his question lar "Do you know WHERE you are stopping?".

I've by then, fully woken up from my sleep and thus answered him with a ready "Yar! I'm stopping at the Interchange (like as if he wanted to know)" He then gave a slight smile and I continued my sleep lar.

But what a nice guy hor? I hope his intentions were as decent as I thought they were lar, that he had only wanted to make sure I don't miss my stop. Anyway I think so lar, who would be so free to wake sleeping fellow passengers up for any other reasons right? So I can confirm he is really a nice guy....cos honestly, I don't think I would even do this to the stranger sleeping beside me (on the bus lar!)....damn so paiseh leh!

In good spirits

2006-01-19T22:32:00.000+08:00

Yay man...I know this is mean....but for the very first time, I managed to psycho Ms Mazda (the colleague I used to dislike, but now am ok with) to psycho other people in the office to be our coming CNY celebration emcee this year! Whoopee!

Eh, my reasons are not without logic ok. Firstly, everytime I always kena emcee/usherer for such events one...think my Director also sick of seeing me liao. Secondly, MUST give the newbies a chance to show their faces and get themselves known to other people (esp the higher management) in our department mah. If not hor, chances of promotion is low leh....if our bosses do not even remember their faces.

Thirdly, I really abhor being the emcee in front of my colleagues. Don't ask me, I ALSO DUNNO WHY! It doesn't matter how big or small the event is, I just prefer to emcee in front of people whom I don't know/or are not familiar with. Of course this does not include wedding dinners lah...so friends out there, please note that I'm still available for the job hor. Don't 误会 ok. I'm referring to events in my company only.

But I'll still be helping out with the emcee script though....its the least I can do anyway.

And another piece of good news, my company is sponsoring all of us a trip to KL in Feb!! We'll be taking those super VIP coaches, which I assume to be extra comfy and roomy, and most of the meals will be free too! Whoo hoo hoo.....I heard shopping's there is not that bad leh....and I quite like the idea of travelling with my colleagues. The last time we did that, it was in year 2000 (such ages ago!) and I really had a great time then! My boss brought her daughter and niece AND nephew along, and somehow, I sort of became their 保姆 during the trip. But still fun lar! Sightseeing and shopping was only so-so (cos in Malacca only), but it was great spending time bonding with the aunties in my office. Haha.

Feb is truly a month to look forward to! No scary emcee job, and a (hopefully) fun trip too! =)

Beauty up my life

2006-01-17T18:45:00.000+08:00

Hee hee hee. I spent an entire afternoon enjoying my monthly beauty treats all at one go! Very shiok arh! But also a bit stressed, as I arranged the first 2 sessions back to back. Was late for the first one (eyebrow shaping), so kena (extremely!) late for the 2nd one also (leg waxing). So paiseh man...the lady who did the waxing had to push back some of her clients' appointments because of me. But on the other hand, there were also countless times where I had to wait a couple of minutes for my appointment with this lady. But of course, that absolutely does not mean that I should not be faulted for being late today. =P

Had a leisurely late lunch....(sound so tai tai) and then proceeded for my final appointment - a haircut. This time round, I chose not to patronise the Bishan Salon #1 which I raved about previously. True I like the hair stylists over there, but the wait is really agonising! And plus now sure peak season one....cannot imagine how long I have to wait to get a haircut. The last time I went, I spent 2 hours in the salon, and the actual haircut only took around 20 minutes. Scary right?

Today, I took up a recommendation by Her World magazine and went to this salon called Hair Folio at Stamford House. The stylist I chose (Cristine) is reportedly very good with short funky cuts (and somemore can last as long as 10 weeks!). You know its really difficult to find a stylist who can do a mean job with short hair, especially mine cos I'm quite difficult to please one. So usually when I'm lucky enough to find a good one, I'll stick to him/her for a long long time.

This Cristine was friendlier than I thought she would be, cos she looked quite dao in the magazine shoot. And she also explained to me patiently how the cut should be, and how I can style my hair everyday (VERY IMPORTANT!!). Overall, I'm quite satisfied with the results, but would have to wait for a while more to see if the shape would still hold when my hair grows longer. But the price hor....its the highest I EVAR paid for a haircut.

A Freaking $57!

I'm really curious to see if 10 weeks later, I'm still happy with my hair.

And hor, for this price, I can go for 2 haircuts at Salon #1. =P

Relief

2006-01-15T16:41:00.000+08:00

Thanks everyone for the kind concern over my home's water pipe problem. Luckily the plumber managed to get it fixed within 2 trips here. The first one he made yesterday, to survey the situation and discuss the price with my mum. My parents thought about it for a night before deciding to call him and take up his service today. Actually, I though the price was not that bad. Cos the problem behind the flooding was our main pipe (well hidden behind a row of kitchen tiles, which was why we couldn't find it yesterday) had broke and the plumber guy's suggestion was to cut off the water supply to this bad pipe, and fix another pipe to let the water go through (better than hacking open the tiles and replacing the broken pipe inside).

He quoted us $200. Pretty alright leh, I though. Aiyah, anything to stop the flooding lah...very tired of wringing the towels already...手都脱皮了. And we had to endure one night of washing all our dishes in the bathroom (cos the leaking will start once we use the tap at our kitchen sink)....made me feel like I was in the 60s, squatting down at some street to wash dishes by the common tap. Very funny one, its only when you lost something/cannot use something, that you begin to appreciate its usefulness and value.

And come to think of it, I count ourselves damn lucky that this pipe did not choose to leak during the CNY eve. I figure my mum would go crazy then, cos she would probaly be preparing our reunion dinner. And like what Snowystars said, the price quoted then would probably skyrocket too!!

Home Alone

2006-01-14T18:24:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was good....today is BAD (referring to my 遭遇s). While I was happily going about my baking this morning, I realised (to my annoyance) that there was a small puddle of water lying somewhere near the kitchen sink. At first, I though it was my sis's fault, cos she had just bathe and probably somehow had managed to splash water outside the bathroom. So I just wiped it with the floor mat and continued with my cookies.

Half an hour, I found the puddle forming again at the same spot, except now it was even worse. The puddle was much bigger, and I began to fear that the reason could be that a water pipe had broke. This is not good....especially when I'm alone in the house. Never dealt with this before leh. But when I looked through all the pipes underneath the kitchen sink, I couldn't find one which was leaking water! All seemed intact and ok to me. But whenever I started washing stuffs at the sink, puddles of water would start forming from nowhere. And best of all, it looked like the water was rising up from the gaps between the kitchen tiles! Very bizarre! Within an hour, my kitchen had become a mini pond....serious! No matter how much I tried to wipe the water, more would appear....the flow was really quite unstoppable.

When my mum returned a couple of hours later and declared even she did not know the reason for it, that was when I knew this is pretty serious! Usually, my mum would be able to repair almost anything (even better than my father). So now, we are still taking turns to wipe the water and waiting for the plumber to come. It seriously look pretty scary......

TGIF....People!

2006-01-13T16:48:00.000+08:00

Dunno why, but I've been feeling extremely cheerful and high today, right from the moment I stepped into office. This must be my happiest Friday the 13th! Must be partly because I managed to smoke my way through a dua liap meeting yesterday. I was such a pro man....haha. But most importantly, a number of decisions were made by my boss during the meeting, which allowed me to have a better picture on where my projects were leading to. Thaaat was great! No longer 一头雾水liao.

And I finally saw sunshine today!! My mum should be the happiest though, cos the bedsheets she just washed can finally be aired properly. I would never imagine myself to say this, but it actually felt good to feel the familiar perspiration on my neck while walking back to office after lunch. No more umbrellas needed! And best of all, no more wet feet. Super yucks!

The People Park's Market has finally reopened, after 1 long year of renovation (and serious cleaning up!). Though the place used to be quite filthy, it still provided all of us a good place to grab some award-winning food lar. Fantastic Yong Tau Foo, Bak Chor Mee, Orh Hiang, Zhi Char, etc etc. And to top it all, they have a wide array of sundries shop at the higher levels which sell highly discounted toiletries! Super cheap...esp if you buy in bulk. Good food, plus cheap shopping....what's there not to like?

So weekend's coming.......gonna be busy for me though. But its happily busy, cos I'll be trying out a new cookie recipe. Have been baking quite a lot since Christmas......dunno why, just suddenly have this passion for it. It really makes you feel good when someone appreciates your baking results. And I can sense that my mum is happy about it too.....cos she knows that I pretty much suck in cooking dishes....which is kind of sad, cos my mum is a wonderful wonderful chef. So now, at least I can bake.....still not totally gone-case YET. And most importantly, I have this cousin who would gladly eat up everything I bake (even the rejects) and still give me the thumbs-up! Haha....that's quite encouraging leh....for a beginner. So now, I'm not that afraid of my cookies coming out lousy, cos I know that no matter what, she'll be always willing to eat up everything. And her sons (my nephews) will also follow her.....haha!

And of course, will be meeting Jane TOMORROW!!! Very excited about it! Have even started planning what I'm going to wear. =)

Elite friends

2006-01-09T12:35:00.000+08:00

Received a very pleasant surprise yesterday from my Friendster account (of all places). One of my best friends Jane, sent a mail to say that she has returned to Sg and asked if I would like to meet up. AIYOH!!! OF COURSE LAR!!!! You know how long we have not seen each other? I think should be at least 8 years already! I quite miss her leh!

Actually, its sad that I've lost contact with most of my Sec Sch good friends...so Jane is one of the lucky few whom I still have means of contacting with. I mentioned its sad cos my Sec Sch days were definitely (not counting uni days lar, cos there wasn't much studying done..haha) my favourite and most memorable ones. Basically due to the fact that:
1) Studies were not particularly that tough and stressful then....unlike JC (my darkest period)
2) There were Home Econs and Arts subjects to enjoy
3) Teachers (at my school) were nice and friendly
4) We moved to a brand new premise at an exclusive Bt Timah address
5) Made some of the best best pals I have
6) Went from the last class (in Sec 1) to the top third class in Sec 4 (Woo hoo!)

The best pals I mentioned in point 5 were basically Jane, Fiona and YJ. All were in the same class as me in Sec 3 and 4, but Jane I met in Sec 2, while YJ was in the same class as me for my whole 4 years in the school. However, it was during the last 2 years that the 4 of us became much closer, mainly cos we sat near to one another then. All 3 of them were exceptional students in my class. YJ was always top in Maths, Fiona was fantastic in English (but hates Chinese) and Jane was good in the Arts (History, Geography, and especially drawing). Me? Was only average in most of the subjects...so also dunno why I became part of this elite clique. Haha.

And the best part, all 3 of them came from extremely well-off families, especially Fiona. Wah sai....the houses they stay in hor....Jane (condo, and mum drives a black Mercedes), YJ(either detached or semi-detached) and Fiona (2-storey bungalow WITH POOL!!!). Beat that ok! But actually, that's the norm in my Sec Sch lar. Meaning, most of my classmates had residential addresses that were relatively short and consisted of only:

House number, street, postal code.

I'm serious! In fact, I was so used to this 'phenomenon' that when I reached JC, I was quite surprised to find that the reverse was true. In my sec sch, there was only a very small minority (including me), who stayed in HDB flats or non-private property. But most fortunately, most of my rich classmates didn't really care who was wealthy or not lar.....so the difference in 'status' didn't really affect me that much then. But I had always loved to hear those tai-tai stories from Fiona...like how her mum forced her to buy this $700 branded dress to wear to our school's Founder's Day Dinner....and how her home's water bill amounted to over $1k per month (becos of the pool lar), etc etc. Quite entertaining...haha. And in those days, only those more wealthy students could afford the $60 per pax tickets to the Founder's Day Dinner (which was perpetually held at the very posh Shangrila Hotel)....which is why I had never once attended it during the 4 years in the school. But ok lar, I also did not particularly yearned to go to the function....go also nothing presentable to wear anyway...how to fight with $700 dress?

But having such friends does have its good points. Firstly, I was very motivated to get the same good results as they had. And it was all friendly competition. Jane was especially very encouraging to me, cos she knew I was not that good in Geography and History. She would exchange useful pointers with me (cos her drawings of the volcanoes and rivers were always so much better), and YJ would compete with me in Maths and Chinese. It was a challenging, but fun 2 years we had together, all 3 of us. Quarrels also have lar, but only very minor ones which were resolved in 1 day type. =)

But the sad thing about it all? We all went to different JCs after graduation (except for Fiona and YJ who went to our affiliated JC) and because they were so rich, all 3 of them went overseas to study after their 'A' Levels. From there, we kind of lost contact with one another, and I currently really have no idea how Fiona and YJ are doing. It's damn sad, isn't it? Now and then, I still 回味 the interesting times we all had together, like when we ran the much hated 2.4km every year, how Fiona and I endured our 'A' Maths holiday remedial lessons and the times Jane and I had so much fun together baking crazy stuffs during Home Econs. Sigh.....its like so far far away from now liao, but I can still remember each and every moment of them.

So anyway, at least I still have Jane. Hopefully she has news of the rest and I'll see where this will lead to. My greatest wish will be that someday, all 4 of us will be able to come together again. That'll be absolutely SWELL!!!

Office humour

2006-01-06T22:14:00.000+08:00

While chit chatting this afternoon about whether we should have some farewell lunch for my Malay colleague RH who's leaving in Feb, another colleague, Miss Ah Yat (so called because of her fondness towards the restaurant) recounted a event which revolved around RH, and which had made Miss Ah Yat extremely paiseh. But its very farnie!!

There was one morning where RH called up his boss (we had different bosses then) and said he had to take urgent leave. The reason he gave was "my CAT died". But his very blur boss heard it as "my DAD died", and was of course very sympathetic upon hearing the news lar. RH was given his leave, and his boss also informed the rest of us (but not me, forgot why I wasn't in office that day) about this piece of sad news. Actually hor, also cannot blame RH's boss for hearing it wrongly, cos it was true that RH's father had been quite sick for some time. My very helpful and efficient colleague, none other than Miss Ah Yat, immediately started collecting 白金 contributions from everyone in the office.

When she was almost done, another colleague who's a close friend to RH, then asked Miss Ah Yat quizzically "Eh, I thought RH's cat died leh. He smsed me so one leh. Don't tell me his dad also passed away on the same day ah?". Wah lau! Most fortunately, Miss Ah Yat immediately asked RH's boss to confirm, and it was only then that the entire matter was clarified.

Haha! Imagine if Miss Ah Yat had really handed the 白金 collections to RH when he returned. Dunno what he will think man "Wah, pet died also have 白金 one ar?".

And poor Miss Ah Yat had to return the money to everyone in the office, and also had to explain the mistake over and over again. I heard that she also kena teased by everyone the entire day. Muah ha ha! Yar, me very evil to laugh at her, but cannot help it. =)