wRitTEn aLL OveR mY hEArt

2008-05-21T12:23:00.002+08:00

Latest Updates!

I am home! And was greeted with a blast of hot air the moment I stepped out of Changi Airport. How I miss the weather in Japan (Korea was too cold)!

Good news came to me while I was away. I received all my final semester results and obtained a personal best gpa of 3.88 with 1 A+, 2 As and 2 A-s. This may be commonplace to those magna holders but to me it's a sign to me that if I bother working hard for it, I can do it too.

Anyway, gonna update about my trip soon. After I get the rest of the pics from the BF. We took 2.5 gig worth of photos!!! Many things to blog about so stay tuned. For now, I gotta get back to studying CFA before work starts next week.

2008-05-05T22:12:00.003+08:00

On Saturday, I caught Harold and Kumar (or is it Kumar and Harold?) with the old TMS gang after dinner at Simpang Bedok. It was HILARIOUS. It wasn't a show worth $9,50 although the company more than make up for it.

Today, I caught Iron Man and it was worth it even if I had to watch it alone. Being a sucker for superhero storylines, plus the raving reviews I've been hearing, I definitely did not want to miss it. With 2 days left in Singapore before I depart for Japan/S.Korea, I booked the bf for a date at the new Cathay cineplex at downtown east today.

Despite the high expectations I took into the theatre with me, the Iron Man still managed to entertained me thoroughly. I like it because of the portrayed tension between business and humanitarian. I like it coz of the super glam technology, gadgets and whatnots. It's not very realistic especially how Tony Stark managed to create a super-power robot suit from scraps of metals. But can you actually name me one superhero story that is actually realistic?

What I especially like about this movie is the precision of the length of each part of the story. I liked that they elaborated on the process and not the final showdown. It deeply reminded me of Batman Begins, which was another fave of mine. Nowhere was too draggy, nowhere was too short. According to the bf, they managed to keep close to the actual looks/plot/characters of the comic. And from a superficial vainpot's perspectives, the gold and red Platinum/Gold/Alloy Man suit is super chio.

So seriously, if you haven't caught the show yet, please do. Money back guarantee you will not regret it... It is sometimes funny, at times touching and many times exhilarating.

2008-05-04T13:34:00.002+08:00

Few days ago I realised my aircon has stopped working. It keeps blowing out hot air and it has chosen a great time to do this - when the daily temperature is 33 degree celsius and the humidity level is about 89% in Singapore.

As much as I hate calling home maintenance people to my house due to the countless con-sters I've came across, we called our regular aircon repair/cleaning man. The reason he was regular was because he was the only one that we met that actually did a proper job of cleaning. Nevermind the fact that he used to charge $35 and that price had hiked to $60 over the span of 2-3years. Nevermind that he's quite a money grubber for he often told us to repair this and that when it turns out to be just a cleaning issue. As long as he can get our aircon up and running we're happy.

Today he came (with his wife) and tried to switch on my aircon. Then he said that it was not our usual dirty-and-needs-to-be-cleaned problem. He said the sensor was spoilt and that it needs repairing. Repairing would cost $180. Recalling that my bro's own aircon sensor had the same problem before and he managed to fix it quite easily himself, we decided not to engage his service. The aircon man said that we have to pay him $20 for the petrol he expended driving here. Though not unexpected by his demands, I was enraged. Being his regular customer, I expect him to have the decency not to profit from us in this manner. Of course we are willing to help him recover his costs but $20 is definitely a rip-off. $20 worth of petrol can definitely last traveling for a few days. Pique, I called him a con-man and that $20 is extortion. Not too sure if he heard me coz he was in the toilet packing up his tools. But his wife sitting in the living room heard me alright and I think I frightened her a little. Yes you old bitch, hope it would frighten you enough to knock some sense into your con-husband.

When they left, my bro's girlfriend was saying that it's actually okay for him to ask for the $20 because it is the industry norm. When I heard that I was very sad. Sad not because I didn't know about this. But sad because a norm does not mean that something is okay, yet these conmen has made many of us (excluding me of course) believe that it is okay. I have never come across any other honest profession that allows a person to profit from another without having performed any service. If you bring your laptop (or any other electronics/appliance/watch) for repair, they don't charge you for having expended effort into finding out the problem and quoting you even if in the end you decide not to repair. When you ask an insurance agent out to discuss about a policy you would like to take out but in the end you decide not to take it, does the agent charge you for his trip fare or the work he has put into drawing up the policy? No.

And I'm not even saying that we should let the aircon person bear the cost of the trip. But I would like to repeat that $20 is unreasonable. (We even came across $40 in the past!). Hence I really feel that there should be some form of authority regulating the industry. I know regulation comes with a cost but I believe in this instance, the cost of the harm caused on the consumers due to dishonest practice far outweighs the cost of regulation. If you are not able to behave, then your parents should come in to discipline you. The logic is as simple as that.

2008-04-11T12:16:00.004+08:00

Today I am going to talk about you. Yes, you. Sometimes I feel like you're such a great mother, taking care of our basic needs - washing our clothes and cooking our food.

But sometimes you're just too narrow-minded, even though you believe you're not.

How many times have you come to conclusion about something that you barely have any basis on? Assuming that unknown deaths of young people must be because of their nasty dietary habits since young. Randomly give a curing effect for certain food type that you like. Sadly, you like to jump to conclusions about your daughter too.

Do you dare not admit that you like to tell me stories such as:

1. So & so is giving her mother $500 a month, and expecting her mother to look after her kids as well. That's barely enough money for the kids. What a useless daughter.

2. So & so gives her mother 50% of her salary to her mother even though she has a family. What a filial daughter.

3. So & so only gives $300 to her mother. Such a stingy daughter.

4. And when I asked you how much do you want? You replied, "1k (if my take home pay is 3k)"

When I tell you I might not want to have kids because it takes a lot of money and time to take care of them. You label me as being selfish. It really makes me angry. I tell you, the selfish ones are those that bring the children into the world but not able to provide the time and money for them. And the only reason they have children is to depend on them in their old age. Yes, such as yourself.

So then I got you angry too. You did not only give me attitude for the next few days, but I hear you badmouthing me to my brother. And you know what, I'm not surprised. Because you do it all the time. You tell my brothers about all our quarrels and make them sound like I'm an unfeeling person. You also tell me stories about my brothers, about how one never give you a cent after he started working and how the other flares up his temper at you for no reason. Then you ask, why are we siblings not close and loving?

Tell me how do you expect us to love each other when we know so much bad things about each other from your mouth? Even if what you're telling us is true, is that what a mother should do? A mother would keep her tales to herself if she does not want her children to have pre-conceptions about each other. In this aspect, I feel that you've failed as a mother.

I really do want and try to be a good daughter. But sometimes your expectations are just too high.

2008-03-25T16:14:00.001+08:00

How do you know the choice you made is correct? Not counting hindsight..

Honestly I don't know and I still feel very unsettled by having to choose between interest and money.

One is a front office job that can possibly move me up to my ultimate career aspiration - investment banking.

The other pays 1k more a month (ouch!), not counting bonuses and other fringe benefits.

What would you do?

On another note, I changed my mind about enjoy my last semester; I can't wait to graduate!

2008-02-18T19:37:00.002+08:00

Valentine's day came and went 4 days ago. But true feelings of love does not require the nourish of Valentine's day. And so today, 18th of February, I'd like to say a few words about the boyfriend. Today I will not hesitate to be, what you may termed mushy, but in my opinion honest.

I think the boyfriend is like an obscured gem. As I spent more time with him, I discover more qualities in him that I adore. Here are a few I would like to share..

1. I discovered by pure accident, and to his embarrassment, a list of my likes and dislikes that he keeps, says it helps his goldfish memory. Actually that's not exactly a quality is it? But I like it that he makes an effort in the relationship without giving the impression that he did. It made the relationship light and his effort genuine.

2. He never gets angry, especially not at me. Not once. I must admit if I ever have to live with myself, one of me will definitely end up killing the other me. I can be rather stubborn on my own point of view and has a sharp tongue to match. But he always let me win in the end without a hint of sarcasm or attitude.

3. He is hardworking and driven to succeed. An ambitious man is the sexiest man. In fact, his motivation has some positive spill over effect on me.

4. He makes me laugh.

5. People say that marriage is the end of love. Some girls said that relationship is the end of romance and all the nice things guys do. I am fortunate that some things between us did not change pre and during relationship. What got us close in the first place was the daily smses we sent to each other. I'm certain what kept our relationship strong was that we never stop this habit of smsing each other. We do not drift apart because we do not have time to meet up. Remember, he is just an sms away.

For all the above reasons and many others I have not mentioned, I love you dear, simply for being in my life.

2008-01-12T13:23:00.001+08:00

Long overdue post but as it's the weekend plus Tash finally uploaded the pics on Facebook so..

Quadruple Date!

It was a happening affair for me as it meant a get-together with my loved ones and their loves. After much rescheduling due to clashes of personal activities, we finally met up in late december for a nice dinner at Spaggedies.

Q: When do you know you and your friends are getting old?

A: When all you talk about is the glory (or horrors!) of the past.

It was a significant day for TEA as it marks a decade old friendship! (8years plus 2years of B**ing for the Z). With E, there is always something special between us, be it the similarities in looks and thinking, or the craziness of fun we had. T has always been a great listening friend and comforting companion. Z and his Naima instinct who took care of us like little girls that needed protection from the bad guys.

The attendees of the night:
Ivan & Tash, Sharon & ZJ, Me & Shawn, Elise & Alex

Photowhoring:

After dinner, we head down to Mindcafe at Purvis street. Elise and Alex didn't join us as they had a movie to catch. I think boardgames cafe is such a good place for get-togethers and laughter. It also helps us to get to know each other better with some of the games...

The shooting game that ZJ proudly won.

The how well you know your friends game..

We also spent a long time playing Taboo. My fave answer of the night was given by my beloved Tash.

Me: Singapore has a lot of this (refering to reclaim land)

Tash: B**g*a (go figure!)

More photowhoring:
with Sharon

Tash and ZJ

Tash and I!

(Theme of the night: Black and white!)

2007-12-20T16:28:00.000+08:00

Good Friends Are Hard To Come

What makes a true good friend? Is it someone you feel at ease with despite having not seen one another for a long time? Is it someone that makes you laugh till your side hurts? Is it someone who is generous with his money because he believes friends are worth much more?

Once again, I met up with the Primary school bunch. Have met them a couple of times when I was working but this was probably the first time we had most of the people around (sans Juncong as he was recuperating from a slip-disc operation and sans Liwen who had caught the flu bug).

As we wanted to celebrate Heather's belated birthday, and if you remember how we did that last year, you would know why we choose Fish & Co. (Digressing a bit, I didn't realise I have change so much in a year. Look at that bright ghastly hair!)

So back to the topic, Zhong, Geraldine, Heather and myself (the early birdies) joined by Wenjie queued outside the Fish & Co. at Wheelock for around an hour before we got a pretty decent round table for 7 of us. At a little past 8, after we ordered our dinner, Angela and Desmond strut into the restaurant like a cute little couple. Actually they went to get the birthday cake for Heather together but being the childish P-sch friends we were, we started teasing the pair as we have done since 11 years ago. This started a bout of retaliation as we started digging up the past of Cong and Heather, Liwen and Wenjie. Well, as eleven-to-twelve year old kids, what constitutes compatibility is simply similar physique and close proximity in classroom seating arrangement.

Anyway, if you did check out my old blog entry, the best part of the night is about to start when the fish and co staff brought out the cake and forced Heather to stand on this very high chair in front of all the patrons and sang her a birthday cheer.

After the song, they would not let her down until she successfully blow out her candles at a distance of more than a metre away. After much whines and tries, she did it. Way to go girl! I think if it were me, I would have just curl up and die in embarrassment. I mean, considering the location, this is at least 5 times as embarrassing as last year at Tamp.

We took more pictures back at our table where we enjoyed the Yummy cake Hao and Angela bought from Taka.

Group Shot:

Left to right
The boys: Desmond (Haojie), Desmond (Yongzhong), Wenjie
The girls: Angela, Me, Heather, Geraldine

We wanted to buy birks for Heather after dinner but we were too slow and the shop has closed. Running late, we decided to take a bus down to Selegie's Mindcafe where we made a booking at 9.15. Met some of the TMS netball girls there. Really nice surprise. In fact, I've been bumping into a lot of people recently. Few days back when I was out with the boyfriend, I met Tourmaline and Weiling, then followed by Elim. At Fish and Co., I also bumped into Priscillia. Seems like everyone is out enjoying their holiday eh?

Nevermind, I'm digressing again. Oh ya something happened while we were on Bus 65 to Selegie. The 2 Desmonds didn't manage to get on the bus while the rest of us were squeezed right to the door. When we reached the next stop at somerset, the folks at the bus-stop wanted to get on the bus but the driver did not open the door (bless him) for them as it was full. One of the man started rapping on the door and Wenjie commented that they look like Zombies from Resident Evil. The description was so apt all of us burst out laughing inside the enclosed bus.

At Mindcafe, we were cheated by this guy who sold us a useless $20 Mind vouncher for $15. I hope he get struck down by lightning for being such an evil dick. Anyway, this unhappiness was quickly forgotten as we immersed ourselves like kids in the idiotic games. I personally found the last game was the most fun as it was quite comical seeing my dear friends' strange reaction. We played for 5 hours at the cafe until it closed at 3am.

I cannot wait to meet up with them again as each time I'm with them I'm bound to train my abs and cheek muscles. I don't know what's the exact definition of good friends. But I know I see it in my 11 years of friendship with them. Lastly, thank you Haojie for insisting to treat us to both dinner and games. It's not the $200 over that you have generously forked out but the thought (as you so put it) that matters. As long as we're happy it's worth it. Thank you, thank you all. Let us toast to our eternal friendship.

2007-12-18T15:43:00.000+08:00

I haven't blog for so long I had difficulty rememebering my blogger login details.

Why the absence?

Actually that is a very good question. Why? I have no concrete answers to that. I guess I just felt really tired of updating anything. I wanted to shut people out of my life and keep it private. What's the point of knowing that I had several near misses with my dream job? Are you really interested in my exciting activities? Do you really care that I've been working my ass off during my internship?

When repeating stories of my life has become a chore, I only want to share it with people who are genuinely concerned.

That had been my twisted thinking for the past few months. I feel that I have reached another phase in my life and I'm struggling to reconcile with it. Give me some time and I promise I'll step out of this soon enough.

2007-10-14T23:32:00.000+08:00

I'm tired of listening. I'm tired of always being the one that you turn to when you have a problem. I want to stop dishing out advice like I'm passing out flyers on a street. I don't want to whisper words of comfort. I don't want to be the pillar of support. I don't want to act like nothing can crumble me and tell you to be strong like me. I have myself to deal with. You're only interested in yourself. Why should I be interested in you?

2007-10-07T15:32:00.000+08:00

Yesterday I took a bus to see a dentist. Midway, a father carrying his lil daughter came on board. As they neared, I could see that the little girl had been crying, with her slightly red eyes and wet lashes. As she looked really cute, I could not help observing her. I saw her hiccupping as she forces down sobs. Then I remembered that when I was a lil girl like her too, and when I had to suppress my sobs because I would otherwise be reprimanded, I would experience the same hiccupping urge.

It makes me wonder how unnatural the society has made human beings. Are we supposed to be expressing our emotions freely by nature? Hence when we feel the urge to cry but could not do so, our body react strongly to the contradiction. But as grew up, we were constantly being punished for letting our unhappiness show. Slowly, we developed an "immunity" to this strong body reaction and thus could control our sobs more effectively.

But if this is so, is it healthy? Should we be doing this, going against nature? Is this how we want to educate the next generation? That it is NOT okay to be sad?

Just a food for thought.

2007-09-29T15:18:00.000+08:00

I did a major haulover to my hair.

Cut.

Straighten.

Dye.

Now I look simply plastic.

2007-09-23T15:56:00.000+08:00

Look what I found! A talent on Youtube!

2007-09-17T21:26:00.001+08:00

I miss my MOF friends...

2007-09-16T14:32:00.000+08:00

Wotcha! Haha didn't expect me to blog?

Oh well been really busy. Really busy. So busy I don't even remember where my time went. But of course I do remember some memorable fridays with my colleagues. First time at Brasserie Wolf and the other at Brewerks. Pocket burning events ha.

We ended up at Brasserie Wolf by mistake. At first we wanted to go to Timbre but my workaholics colleagues were still not done by 8.30pm (our reservation time was at 8) so a few of us decided to head out first. However, as we could not confirm our reservation and we've yet to eat, we decided to go to Brewerks instead where we could have our dinner and drinks at the same time. Turns out Brewerks was packed with people. So Uncle Shu suggested going to Robertson Quay to have this v nice ramen. As Robertson Quay was some distance away, and on the spur of the moment, we end up taking a river cab there!

Me, Beng Lee, and Jam on the river cab

This time with Uncle Shu.

However, luck was not on our side. The Ramen place has closed down! In the end we found a place that have enough seats to accomodate us in that area and it's none other than Brasserie Wolf. By that time it was past 9pm and the rest of the peeps were already on their way to join us. So there we were at this overpriced and classy looking restaurant, we settled our dinner.

A candid shot of the rest of them. The one smiling at the cam is my favourite (by default) buddy Ben.

My nice-looking but not-fantastic-tasting and overpriced porkchop

After dinner, all of us except went to this cheapo looking but comfy beach bar for a drink. Nearly fell aslp on the comfortable seats, if not for the hilarious company.

That was the Friday prior to Month-End. So how did we celebrate the end of Month-End? Yes! We went to Brewerks! This time we made proper planning and reserved the place early. As usual there were some workaholics so everyone only finally came by 10pm. But it was a great night and we shared trading tips, discussing about the over-discussed subprime problem. We joked over R-rated stuff, and they gave me insights on my career path. It was a great night and the beer was great (at first, until we hit the 4th tower and everyone was just dreading the "cheers" word). It doesn't help when some of them doesn't drink much. I had at least 5pints! Anyway, I also had the new york steak medium but tasted more like well done. But in any case, it's still a pretty nice place. The bill came and it was $585! But it's okay, we had fun and if money can buy happiness, why not?

Lastly I present to you, a mug of The gang:

From Left: YongHui, Me, Uncle Shu, Darryl, Jason, Ben and his gf, Christine, Kwee and Jam

2007-08-18T22:46:00.000+08:00

COOK103: Intro to Baking

Today the BF and I finally caught up with our long overdue cooking sesh. After much insistence from the BF, I agreed to whip up my infamous shepherd's pie for him again.

We also tried Asparagus-Stuffed Portebello Mushrooms. It was yummy! Have a look..

The BF insist I give him credit for making it so here it is: he was the master chef for this dish. We let my bro and er-sao tried it and they said it's good enough for starting a restaurant hehe. Think we ought to find a way to improve the looks though.

I think I'm hooked on cooking. It gets easier each time. Experience teaches you which to cook first, which to chop first, how much to put and how long over the fire. So what do you guys think? Do I have the cut to be a top-notch chef? Heh tune in to the next cooking sesh then. Hopefully it'll be pretty soon.

2007-08-12T15:14:00.000+08:00

Happy 1st Anniversary my dear!

Yep time really flies. It had been a smooth sailing year for our relationship. Each day spent together is a happy day. There were few harmless bickering, but never anything that could damage our good feelings. If people think one year is too long for honeymoon period, I would like to try 2 years. But that's for another time. For now, we celebrate this special day like every normal couple.

After much mishap (which the bf does not want me reveal here..but which is definitely caused by him), we finally arrived at Sun with Moon. Initially, I wanted to go easy on the BF's wallet because he just came back from Japan with his wallet burnt. But we ended up in an ordering frenzy.

Ebi & Negi Okonomiyaki

This is the japanese version of pancake with prawn filling.

Gyu Baraniku Miso Stew

This was my fave of the night. You cannot believe how many large piece of beef there are in this stew. There were not only many, but very sinful as well. The fats and meat literally melt in your mouth.

Unagi & Asari Kamameshi (left) and Pork Karubi Kamameshi (Right)

These came 3rd and frankly speaking, after the beef stew, neither of us had much tummy space left. But still we ploughed through these not too bad japanese claypot rice. One was eel and clams, the other was salty pork which was too salty for my liking.

But no food is too much for greedy lil pigs like me. Look!

And what is a celebration without dessert?

Tofu Cheesecake in a cage, yum yum!

Finally, a stuffed but very happy us :)

2007-07-28T21:17:00.000+08:00

Well guess what? My beloved lesbian aka Getassha Lee has got me hooked on this great site which reminds me deeply of the paper dolls I used to play as a little girl. It allows you to mix and match apparels from shopping sites all over the web and I've been at it for the entire day. Out the window goes my plan of shopping today. Polyvore beats town 200 times over.

Here are some of my collections (if only I really own them)

2007-07-28T10:27:00.000+08:00

Yo folksies! I'm done with Harry Potter! Four years of waiting (yes, I'm a late fan) and it all ended within 3 sleep-deprived nights. The seventh and final installment of the series - The Deathly Hallows - was up to standard and answered all the questions I needed answers to.

[Warning: Spoilers ahead!!!]

I love this book as much as I love the 6th (Half-Blood Prince). In the Deathly Hallows, JKR no longer take us through the Hogwarts Express and life in the castle. This time, the trio set out on an adventure to seek Voldemort's 4 remaining Horcrux (bits of Voldemort's soul stored in various magical objects that had helped him attained "immortality") Once again, JKR managed to piece things together using clues she dropped along the way in the earlier parts of the book as well as from the previous installments. That is also why, one may find the beginning rather draggy but which when you have completed the book, those previously irrelevant things mentioned seem to fit into the plot perfectly.

For instance, as deduced, RAB - the mysterious guy who stole the horcrux stored in the Slytherin locket, was indeed Regulus Black. He was introduced briefly by Sirius Black as the younger brother when Sirius went through his Family Tree with Harry. Obviously JKR tried to throw us off track by making Regulus seem like a cowardly death eater in the eyes of Sirius. However, avid fans like myself were not to be fooled. We spotted in the 5th installment that JKR mentioned a "heavy locket that no one could open" amidst various magical objects that Harry and friends found while cleaning up Sirius' house. Also, I found it so suspicious that JKR mentioned Mundugus stealing things from Sirius' house after his death (in the 6th book) that I knew something must be up. Why would JKR mentioned it if it was something so insignificant? Of course, it turns out I was proven right. Mundungus did stole the locket among other things and for the trio to find the locket, they had to seek the person whom Mundungus sold the locket to.

My second educated guess was that Snape is a good guy. I know there have been many speculations and various school of thoughts even among the best of fans. But I was certain that Snape is good because at the start of the 6th book, Snape explained to Voldemort that he only placed himself under the shelter of Dumbledore after Voldemort's downfall so that when Voldemort finally come to power, Snape would be in the best position to spy for him. But I noticed a time discrepancies in his explanation. Dumbledore mentioned once in the 4th book that Snape turned spy for Dumbledore a year before the downfall of Voldemort. It seems to me that Dumbledore would not have gotten his time wrong and hence Snape must have not been honest with Voldemort. Furthermore, in the 6th book, Hagrid overheard that Snape was quarrelling with Dumbledore and he had said, "maybe you're asking too much of me. Maybe I've changed my mind!" This was not accounted for at the end of the 6th book and that had fueled my suspicion that Dumbledore had planned for Snape to kill him. Of course, my deduction came true.

Even though I was spot-on in some of the major plots, the story still surprised and intrigued me at every turn. I must warn you, however, that if you had expected something as glamorously adventurous as the Slytherin locket quest taken by Harry and Dumbledore in the 6th book, you would be as disappointed as I was with the book at first. It seemed as though Voldemort had not taken as much precaution with his other horcruxes as he had with the locket. But as I followed the trio down to the final horcrux (except Nagini the snake) to be destroyed, I realised that JKR had executed her signature move once again. The horcrux - Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem was actually mentioned in the 6th book in the Room of Requirement - A place to hide things. The way it was mentioned was so obscured that I'll bet most people would have missed it. "Seizing the chipped bust of an ugly warlock from on top of a nearby crate, he stood it on the the cupboard where the book was not hidden, perched a dusty old wig and a tarnished tiara on the statue's head to make it more distinctive..." Come on, who would have realised then that the tiara mentioned was actually Ravenclaw's Diadem, aka Voldemort's horcrux? That is why I am so impressed with JKR and also why she is the richest woman in England.

Aside the brilliantly hidden hints to supplement her ending, JKR also managed to capture the spirit of love and death. Death is only a transition and we should all face it bravely when the time has come. And love will take us through the hardest time. JKR mentioned many times in interviews and in the books through the voice of Dumbledore that Love is Harry's greatest weapon against Voldemort. As it turns out, Love (or the lack thereof) was Voldemort's greatest flaw. Because he belittle love, he could not have guessed why Snape would betray him and also that when he killed Harry, a protective spell was cast on the people Harry loves. Voldemort could not touch them because Harry died to protect them, just like how Harry's mother died to protect him.

Finally, the ending was nothing spectacular, but brilliantly so. If you had expected a star wars battle like the one you had seen in the 5th movie (between Voldemort and Dumbledore), you'll be disappointed again. But then, why would you expect something like that? Harry is not as magically skillful as Voldemort so if they were to go out on a pure wizard duel, Harry would not stand a chance. The only way to defeat the darkest wizard since Grindelwald was through JKR's pure wits. The ending was unexpected, yet to be expected. It could not have been better, any other way.

2007-07-15T14:53:00.001+08:00

Aloha!! I have been missing for quite some time haven't I? To make up for the absence, I have prepared a really long entry ahead. Hope it can keep you entertained in the next 1/2hr or so.

Okay so I shall begin in backward chronological order. Just caught Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on Friday night. Being a fan of the books as well as a cynic of the movies, I find it hard to rate this movie objectively. In any case, contrary to most, I liked the beginning of Order of the phoenix better (but the poor bf nearly fell asleep while the evil umbridge tortured harry and his friends) because I thought the ending just fell short of expectation.

In the book, Harry and his friends went through a lot of strange traps/rooms in the department of mysteries which I found really interesting but the movie cut that out probably to cut cost. I guess my biggest problem with the shows is Dumbledore. That guy can't carry off the character at all! When Dumbledore face-off with Voldemort, he was hardly afraid or attacking. He merely flicked his wand to protect Harry and ward off Voldemort's spells. Voldemort even said "you do not seek to kill me, Dumbledore? Above such brutality, are you?" and Dumbledore just answered, "we both know there are other ways of destroying a man Tom. Merely taking your life would not satisfy me I admit." Like how cool is that? Why can't they project that image in the movie?!

And I find the problem with the past movies is evident in the current one as well. The essence of the story is always at the end when Dumbledore explained things to Harry. This part of the book puts everything into perspective when all the clues they dropped earlier makes sense and fits perfectly into the plot. This part of the story is also where I am moved to tears. Yet, it was hardly tear-inducing in the movie. I agree that Daniel Radcliffe probably acted pretty well compared to his co-stars esp and I shall give him credit for that. But once again Dumbledore did not come through. In the book, when he told Harry why he didn't want to tell Harry about the Prophecy because he does not want to take away Harry's happiness so early and why he did not give prefectorialship to Harry but to Ron also because he figured that Harry had too much responsibility as is already.

I guess I could go on and on and I know that no matter how much I criticise the movies, I will always get excited when the new one comes out again. I also understand the limitations a movie-maker face so I shall keep the rest of my displeasure to myself.

Instead, I shall move on to my Genting/KL trip with the BF. Genting was fun. We went there on coach which was damn shiok coz each person has a laptop size screen to watch movies. I watched The Machinist, The Cave and Fantastic 4 part 1. On the first day the BF and I lost about RM145 in Casino (yep we're unlucky) but it was okay because our breakfast and dinner was all settled by my generous Aunt at nice restaurants so we hardly spent. We watched Transformers there too. Not too bad man, both the show and the cinema. We spent RM34 on Osim iMedic massage chairs. Damn shiok la summore still cheaper than normal seats in Singapore.

Second day, we went to the Theme Park and I forced the BF who had phobia of heights on rides that he would never have taken if not for me hehe. Theme Park was fun because the weather is soooo good so you don't even realise you had gotten a sunburn (which we did). Anyway, I know I have bore you enough with words so here are some photos we took..

(Our hotel room - Highlands Hotel. Ripped off the website coz didn't take pics)

(The wet boat ride)

(I was supposed to be running away from the Dinosaur. Yes my acting is bad I know)

(I love this photo because it looks like the ghost bus in Harry Potter!)

(The BF at Mary Brown...the food cannot make it la)

(Rowing this boat thingy..one of the most boring in the Theme Park haha but we had plenty of time to kill coz the Park ticket is for the entire day...)

(On the monorail... another boring ride..but precisely coz it's boring do we have the time to take pics haha)

(Very nice model of the entire Genting Highlands)

(Leaving Genting..)

(To KL!)

We met up with Tim, Joyce and YL. We visited this Discovery Centre thing at KLCC which was like Propaganda for the M'sia Govt. Then we went shopping at the Jalan Bukit Bintang area. Didn't get to shop much coz we're always in a rush. Only managed to buy a pair of pretty jap-like satin flats from Nose at only RM36! Then we makaned at Sushi King which was cheap but food was as good as it cost only. We also found a food street (the famous Jalan Ah Lor) in the area and helped Tim find his Ramly Burgers. It seemed to have died out in KL.

(my beef yakiniku set from sushi king)

Last day, we went to eat Pork Knuckles at this place called House Frankfurt under recommendations. I didn't like it. I thought the meat was too tough and the fats too chewy. Those that I had at Paulaner's was better. The fats really melt in your mouth and the meat was tastier.

(Our Pork Knuckles)

(Tim's sausages... okay that sounded wrong)

(Our first and last group take at the restaurant)

(On the horrible train ride back..you know how bad it is judging from their expressions)

(The view outside the window made up for it though...almost)

Yep so that sums up my Genting/KL trip. Wait!! Did you think I was done blogging??? No of course not. I told you I am gonna entertain you wasn't I?

So work at Credit Suisse has begun a week and I must say the people here are really nice (as nice as those at MOF) although the pace is so different like I'm in two different dimension. It's all good though except that I was rather tired at the beginning because I report to work on Monday morning when I reached Singapore on Sunday late at night. Really addicted to the coffee machine everyday la. Each person actually has two computer screens to facilitate our usage. Getting so reliant on it already that I think I will have a hard time adjusting when I go back to school haha.

(The breathtaking view from my office pantry at the 21st floor)

(My lunch with my new colleagues at Killiney. It's amazing. The Killiney here has an extensive lunch menu with not too bad food at affordable prices)

More random pics!!!

(Pic of me and 2 other fellow interns from MOF - Kayan and Elim at my farewell lunch at this Indo restaurant which was damn exp man.)

And some photos of the BF and I feasting at Awon Korean Restaurant after he came back from ICT. (I wouldn't recommend this place to friends)

Okay think I'll stop here. This post took me 3 hours la. Tired man. K ciaoz! Will post more pics from MOF farewell lunch soon!

P.s: did anyone noticed that I cut and dyed my hair?

2007-06-30T11:37:00.000+08:00

I have been lazy to blog. And still is.. so I'll be succint.

Oceans 13 was a disappointment. Fantastic 4 was terrible.

Shopping has been bad for me. I have swiped $788 last month from my UOB card alone. That's more than my 1 mth allowance from MOF. Not to mention the expenses on the other card and by cash.

Went drinking sometime back and nearly fainted again. Found out that it was some reflex disorder of the vessel that dilates instead of constricts so that my blood could not flow upwards to the head.

Went JB with my family 2 weekends back. Thanks to Er-Sao for showing us around and taking good care of us. Nice BakKuteh and seafood!

And some photos found on my hp:

Will update more on the MOF interns farewell celebration and my malaysia trip soon..if i'm not too lazy.

2007-06-14T15:57:00.000+08:00

I was reading Jun's blog and she was mortified and ranting about being groped by a pervert in Shanghai. Then I thought of how Viv was molested herself recently near her house. When she told some of her friends, the girls also shared their similar stories with empathy.

It reminds me of the several experiences I had too, especially the first. It was the most serious among all and perhaps more serious than the others' cases. But then again, we ladies tend to find it too shameful to tell anyone and blame it on ourselves even though it's not our fucking fault. So if it's a nasty one, they probably wouldn't tell me anyway. Just like how after more than 10 years of silence, I'm still lacking the courage to share entirely now.

All I can say is, I am lucky I got away with nothing permanent, except a haunting memory. For years I have refused to sit down beside a stranger male on the bus or on the train unless it's possible for me to put at least an inch of distance between us. Any slight contact will send the red alert to my protective women instincts.

But what I really wanna share here with my lady-readers is that You Are Not Alone. And fuck the bastards for violating us like that. They have no right and They are downright disgusting. The next time some stinking men tries something funny on you, scream! let everyone knows! call the police! But if you're too frightened by the prospect of announcing your misfortune to the world, I suggest you bring a safety pin around so that when he strikes, you can poke him in the part that is rubbing you.

2007-06-10T18:46:00.000+08:00

Hey Peeps, it's time for COOKING102. Today's lesson is definitely leaps better than last month's. We cook Aglio Olio using spaghetti with olive oil, garlic, shitake mushroom, and tomatoes. It comes with buttered baked potatoes as sides. Of course our favourite of the evening was the grilled bratwurst and asparagus wrapped in bacon. Yum Yum!

Can't wait for COOKING103

2007-06-09T13:46:00.000+08:00

I remember when I was in secondary 3, Yan, Tash, Jun and I went for this studio singing recording. I remember singing Sammi Cheng's song and everyone thought it was nice. When I played the CD at home, my bro thought I bought a pirated version of Sammi's album. Everytime we go KTV, ZJ will ask me to sing it. Once Wayne even thought the analogue was on and kept trying to off it until ZJ told him it was off and that was me singing. Okay all these sounds damn BHB but I am BHB so what can you do to me heh.

Anyway, I never really thought I sounded like Sammi. I just figured that her songs seem more suited to my voice. Finally, 7 years later, I found an example of how sounding like Sammi really sound like. Here it is:

2007-06-04T11:29:00.000+08:00

2007-05-31T11:28:00.000+08:00

HELLO!

Feeling quite chirpy despite the fact that I'm spending like 3 months worth of pay in the past month. Caught

with Marie at Causeway Cathay on Wednesday. Thanks to the sporting babe who's willing to travel to the ulu part of Singapore to use the about-to-be expired movie vouchers. We had a great time together gossiping while makaning at Swensens and Gelare and the best time of all was our hyena-liked laughter dominating the entire movie theatre. I really like the show. Laugh until every part of our muscles ache man. It's a great show! I highly recommend it to anyone with a healthy sense of humor :).

Yesterday my company sent me and another NUS intern Elim to listen to a talk by Tim Parkinson, the mktg MD of Nike over lunch at Marriot. I think my company is damn generous to pay 100 bux each for 2 of us to go to the talk. It was a pretty cool talk whereby Tim Parkinson taught us the way to STORYTELL a brand while we sit around those dinner tables to enjoy starters, main course and dessert. There was wine too and I had some white wine.

After the talk, which ended around 2.30pm, Elim and I decided not to go back to the office and end up shopping around talk and having a long chat at Starbucks before heading home. It was great chatting with the girl and getting to know her better.

2007-05-27T17:59:00.000+08:00

I was in an indulgence kinda mood and went on a shopping rampage. After 3 hours spent around the city area, these are my buys:

From right, anticlockwise: white with green stripes and ribbon shirt from Dorothy Perkins $29 (original $46), brown racerback from M)phosis $6 (original $20), muddy green floral dress from NESS $25 (original $83), pale pink pumps from Novo $40 (original $50), navy blue dress from Topshop $29 (original $99), black high-collared tunic from M)phosis $18 (original $35).

Total damage done: $147
Could-have been damage: $333

Ahh! What a fruitful day it's been!

2007-05-26T15:54:00.000+08:00

Hello! I've been disappearing for quite some time huh? That's because I've been really busy. Everyday after work I've been meeting people for dinner. Monday I met my parents and went to Tiong Bahhru Market to eat. Haven't been there since last year when I went with the SMU gang after IE class. Love the ambience and the food.

Tuesday I met the BF for dinner and movie. We watched a brainless show of 28 Weeks Later at the Cathay with my free vouchers. But to be honest I quite enjoyed it coz it's gory and brainless and I watched with negative expectations haha.

Wednesday I met ZJ wanting to watch The Wind That Shakes the Barley but ended up going to AMK Botak Jones with his GF to eat with KG, Kane, Tapoot and Ricky. The food is okay okay only leh. Don't know what's the big hoo ha about. No doubt the servings are big. I only ordered the single patty and I was stuffed. But taste wise it's just normal. Maybe I'm not good at appreciating this sort of American Junk Food.

Thursday I met up with the SMU gang at Tonkichi to celebrate the BF's birthday. Once again, the food is so so only. It too comes in big servings. It's starting to make me wonder if Singaporeans are becoming food bins. Like just stuff yourself crazy with all kinds of garbage as long as it fills your tummy to the point of bursting. But to be fair to Tonkichi, the food was well-cooked but not good enough to justify $20+ for a bowl of rice and a big piece of deep-fried pork fillet.

Anyway, yesterday I finally had a proper celebration with the BF. I bought him tix to catch A Midsummer Night's Dream at Fort Canning Park. I whipped up a few dishes to picnic at the show. I made broccoli salad and shepherd's pie which the BF really like and which I believe he is still craving for now heh so I presume my culinary skills ain't too bad. I also bought muffins from Amoy but we were too full to eat. Now it's happily in his family's tummy. Yay muffins point for me!

Here's how the pie looks. I'm sorry for the poor quality but it was dark and my camera flash doesn't capture things very well.

Later on, we went back to his place to retrieve the car and went to watch Pirates of the Caribbean! Very funny show and I enjoyed it very much (although I dozed off several times!. It was a 1.55am show which ended at 4.40am and I've been up since the morning before at 7am so you can't fault me for being tired right?)

Lastly, I know it's a lil belated here but I'd like to make a dedication...

Happy Birthday P****! (censored because he doesn't want people to know what I call him by) It's been great times with you. Now that you're 24 years old [oldoldoldoldoldoldold :)], you should learn to be less childish and be more like your intelligent other half. In any case, hope you enjoyed the birthday plan I had for you. And the Braun Buffel wallet I got for you. Please please please use it. No point keeping it to mould. Okay nagging stops here.

Oh before I sign off, would like to show you the present my 2nd bro bought for me from Disneyland:

A Mickey Mouse mug!

p.s: GSS has begun!!

2007-05-21T00:41:00.000+08:00

Went out with my p-school friends (unofficially known as the "Crampers" coz outing with them always end up in laughing cheek/stomach cramps) yesterday. We went to Pastamania at PS where the service was horrendous. What's worse was the atrocious attitude of the waiter named Augustine. Very disappointing man.

Anyway after a very filling dinner, we head to eat tau huey and tau huey zui at prinsep st there before we head on to Mindcafe where we ate some more. Really darn full man. But we had fun playing those brainless games. We spent the longest time playing SAYWHAT as can be seen in the photos.

Finally we left at around 1+am. Yep that's about all. Short post coz lazy to blog.

2007-05-17T16:45:00.000+08:00

woohoo! i got the internship at Credit Suisse! I can see my future falling into place now :)

2007-05-12T08:32:00.000+08:00

Hmm something is wrong with blogger so I don't know if this post will turn up. But in any case, I haven't wrote anything for a long time so here it is..

Been having a rather fulfilled life. Met up with some friends to play pool, dinner, chit-chat.. shopped quite a bit too. Bought another pretty pinkish-red puff sleeve shirt from Dorothy Perkins and new working shoes. Had cooking lesson with the BF at my place where we whipped up some butter-beer bratwurst, teriyaki chicken, veggie soup which tasted yummy and the bf and I had 3 servings of it each. We also had blackened scrambled eggs - blackened because the bf was lazy to wash the pan after grilling the teriyaki chicken and decided to just throw the egg in. But it was still edible though. We decided next time we might try something easier such as pasta. Thinking of aglio olio since I have plenty of olive oil at home.

Work is great too. Although it's not an investment bank, but I have to admit that I'm loving the people there and the job scope. My boss is damn nice and damn capable. As she takes me out to see clients, I feel more and more impressed with her and the way she handles people. And she gives me a lot of opportunities to prove myself to the senior management. I'm given 2 big projects to do on top of some nitty gritties like filing a trademark for them and finding a method for them to measure investments with risk-adjusted rates. One of my big project is branding the department in MoF into a shared services centre for the other ministries and I will see through the entire branding steps from planning to implementation. Planning includes MR stuff and research while implementation includes our open-house event, marketing kit and website design (of course I'm NOT doing the actual designing). The second project is developing a business case for them by doing research, forecasts, valuation, scenario/sensitive analaysis, simulation and the sort to decide whether this business case is worth pursuing. Challenging stuff but I like!

Okay that's all for the writings. Shall leave you all with the photos now..

*courtesy of Marie and Tash

2007-04-26T23:37:00.000+08:00

All my results are released and will be submitted to the registrar office by tomorrow. All I can say is I'm pleased with my results this sem. It has renewed me with hopes of pushing my GPA up to a Cum Laude before I graduate. Tough, but it's a goal.

Anyway, started my internship at MoF this week and it's been quite a pleasant experience. What I love about it includes:

1. The wide variety of food available at 3 minutes walk from my office. Amoy Food Centre is a haven. The food are DAMN good and DARN cheap. I had a bowl of handmade fishball noodle (5 fishball!) for $2. Very yummy! Then today I had grill chicken chop with rice, fried egg, veg, prawn, and soup for only $3! And it's very good too! Everyday I look forward to trying another stall with long queues and Channel U recommendation "certs" plastered to the display.

2. I get to wear nice working wear to work everyday. Heh yup I'm a vainpot.

3. I do real work. As my boss puts it, everyone does their own photocopying. If someone asks you to run errand for them, tell them to @#$%*&. They give me huge projects to handle from start to finish and gives me full reign to decide what to do exactly.

4. I can start work anytime I want. They have a culture of flexi-timing and it doesn't matter how long you stay in the office. It's about the amount of work you've done.

5. The management staff, my colleagues and fellow interns are all very nice and friendly.

Yep. So check with me in a month's time and see I've changed my opinion haha.

2007-04-24T21:36:00.000+08:00

I'm back!!!

Gosh I feel so deprave! Was rendered internet-icapped for a week because stupid singtel screwed up again. Since the day we switch from maxonline to singnet, our wireless had been down like once every 3-5 days on average. But rant aside, it's finally fixed (though I have doubts it's permanently fixed) so shall stop complaining now.

Well, let's see...what have I been up to since the day I went missing in cyberspace? Well, I met up with Yan and ZJ at Katong. Wanted to have Aston steak but we were so lucky that it was closed for renovation. So we went further down the row of eateries and came to this cafe (can't remember what it's called) and had very very cheap student meal. Had potato soup, breaded chicken with chips and coleslaw (very big servings) and a can drink for only $6.90! We also shared a piping hot brownie topped with ice cream.

Then we went to KTV for 2 hours. 3 person sing only damn shiok! Can hog the mike long long. And we only spent about $10 each ($28 per room for 2hours). Day time even cheaper. Cheap and good sound system and wonderful songs selection. Who wants to go with me again? Still itching to sing more!

Hmm what else did I do? Oh I went to the gym and work out my ass. Then me and the bf went to town and had Fish & Co. Oh and I went shopping! Haha supposed to be shopping for a pair of black pumps for work because my current one is damn chui already but I end up buying two bags instead! Feel damn sinful for splurging so much before I even start work.

Heh, gotta do a sloppy photoshopping to edit away the background coz too messy already.

I swear the lights don't do this bag justice at all.

Retail is indeed therapy.

Oh and something strange happened in the week. One morning I woke up and found a piece of biscuit resting on my window ledge

like this:

It's weird because the ledge/pillar thingy above my window is wider than the one below so how did the biscuit end up there? But the even weirder thing is that when I came back home at night, the biscuit is gone! The mystery of life that I may never solve in this life.

2007-04-16T18:26:00.000+08:00

Fresh off the sewing machine! A fashion piece that can be worn 2 ways!

Summer Bloom Tube Top

Summer Bloom Jumper Dress

Fresh off Zara's latest collection! A yellow puff-sleeve shirt I've been looking for in ages (literally)!

2007-04-16T00:40:00.000+08:00

Yes, I caught the long awaited Phantom of the Opera with the BF, Viv, WL, Zhiwei, Joyce and YL today. It was sooooooooooo good! I LOVE it! The props were real and expansive, especially the boat on the misty lake. Damn nice! And the songs and the voice and the chills you get when the casts hit the high notes... I would love to watch it again the next time they return, and will make sure we get better seats.

The boyfriend - who is also the kind sponsor for my ticket - and me

Viv and me. Can you see the stage behind us? Yep, that's how far we sat.

Now the songs from the musical is on auto-replay in my head. But for once, I'm not complaining.

2007-04-13T23:00:00.000+08:00

13 hours more to freedom, which means 10 hours more to my last paper, Strategy. Although I had almost a week to prepare for it, I find that it is impossible for me to sit down for more than 3 days to really study a subject. Take for example today, I woke up at 10+, surf blogs a bit then lunch then went back to nap for another 3-4 hours. Woke up at 5+ and decided to do some editing for my Nego Analysis Paper then went to bathe then go for dinner then come back watch TV until now. I feel like it's holiday already man. Then I keep seeing the KFC advertisement on TV with the fried chicken wrap that looks so good and I keep craving for food. Thinking about pizza and wanton mee and fried chicken and chocolate and kaya toast. Even though I had ice cream and fruits after dinner I'm still craving to eat some more. Really going to get fat at this rate. Feeling really bored right now. Don't know if I should just have an early night or try to do some last minute revision. Sorry man just had the urge to rant. And guess what, I'm having bread spread with kaya n butter now. Think I'll get heart attack tonight then no need to go for exams tomorrow liao. Flunk this semester also never mind.

2007-04-12T14:33:00.000+08:00

Pics from YL's bday at Waraku:

(over-eating makes people do crazy things)

and at the end of the day, Choo and his best companion..

*credits to Woeilin for the pics

2007-04-11T14:16:00.000+08:00

Went to Vivo with the BF and tried the Hot Dog Fastfood there. It was pretty good, especially for a sausage lover like me. Both of us enjoyed the fries, which I found to be something different from the usual Cheese Fries that everywhere has.

Last week I celebrated 2 person's birthday. First it was YL's at Waraku on Tues. I had this very filling beef set that wasn't too bad. In fact, we ordered so much stuff that our total bill came up to 170+ and you know Waraku ain't exactly a very expensive restaurant. Everyone was so full and Choo and Shawn had to dare each other to finish the Greentea bday cake. I also had a Jap porn lesson that day and learn the new term "Bukkake".

Then I went to ZJ's place for steamboat to celebrate his 22nd. Although I'm one day late, but here's a message to you still my:

(1) Best friend of 8 years

(2) Naima of 2 years

(3) Jie Mei of the remaining years

(4) Punching bag of anytime I want

Thanks for being such a great friend. Really glad that you've finally found that someone and that you get to blow the candles this year. Make up for last year's drunken moments...

2007-04-06T11:58:00.000+08:00

A solution to all my closet worries

How ingenious can the designers at IKEA get?

After finishing my Ethics Exam yesterday, the boyfriend and I went to check out Central at Clarke Quay. The mall carries a Japanese theme and hence we saw many many Jap restaurants there. We went to check out this recommended Ramen cooked by a real Jap chef. It was Y-U-M-M-Y I tell you.

The soup base which was chicken was superbly tasty. And the Char Siu and Pork Belly we ordered was soft and juicy. I thought I was in gourmet heaven. The soup + noodle cost $12 while the Char Siu and Pork Belly is $4 and $5 respectively. You can add noodles at $1 if you've still got soup left in your bowl.

Later on, we went to the basement to check out the Jap light bites. We saw these cute little donuts and fell in love with it. We left with a bag of tiny donuts in our hands.

This is how small the donut is on the BF's palm

The donuts are actually not bad. Coz of their small size, the frying process has made them rather crispy. Top it off with maple syrup, walnuts, chocolate, sugar flakes etc and they make a pretty decent dessert.

2007-04-02T14:54:00.000+08:00

Some of the overdue randomness I found on my handphone...

A trip to Aston several weekends back with the bf and his friends relieve me temporary of my steak cravings. Had the Ribeye for only $10.90 NETT (no GST, no SVC charge). Very worth it. Top it off with two sides. (I choose pasta salad and baked potato which was yum!) The queue was really long though so you gotta have patience if you want to try it.

Creative Writing Field Trip to Kranji War Memorial was very depressing. We went there last Tuesday and it started drizzling very lightly, adding to the whole atmosphere. We saw some tombs with no names, which is really quite saddening.

And of course several photowhoring pics was found. But I'm too lazy to post all so I'll just post one taken in the morning with unkempt hair, naked face, and old sleeping tee. Somehow I feel the naturalness of it all makes me look better than those taken with make up on and neatly combed hair.

Yep so that was my 5minutes of total randomness. Should probably get back to studying. Ciaoz!

2007-04-02T11:35:00.000+08:00

Last week, Yanlong asked the girls a strange question: "Do you think Choo will make a good husband?"

(Below is the gist of the conversation that transpired. There may be some inaccuracies in the exact wording due to my poor memory.)

Viv or Jess (can't remember who said what) replied that it depends on who the wife is. If she is someone who likes an honest man, then Choo is the candidate. But for us, we would rather have a more romantic man.

Can you imagine if our BFs proposes to us by asking: "Should we go get a HDB flat?"

Then I added that imagine Choo's GF hints a proposal to him instead by asking him to get a HDB flat together and Choo's reply is:

"Cannot! Property prices is very high now. Let's what until the prices fall. Moreover, I need to calculate the mortgage instalment and check our financial capabilities first!"

2007-03-31T12:58:00.000+08:00

The Legend of the Ear

The BF has often tease me about my protruding ears - a characteristic of mine that made me really self-conscious when I was younger. But now, I embrace it with delight and feel no shame when I tie my hair into a ponytail. It's what I call, "my unique selling point."

But to be accurate, it's not really that much of an uniqueness. Protruding ears AKA "Bat Ears", found among 1 in about 100 people, is due to a defect in part of the cartilage (gristle) of the ear. They are nomal-sized, but may appear more apparent in children as ears are one of the first body parts to reach adult-size. The reference to "bats" is due to the similarity found between a bat's ear and the person found with the defect. (DUH!)

Jacky Wu's "The Guess Show", a variety show that invites hot babes (or hunks) that belongs to a certain theme, once invited 5 pretty girls with protruding ears.

In Singapore, our very own past star search winner, Ivy Lee is yet another example of a hot mama under the curse of the bat ears.

My favourite Hong Kong Actress, Ada Choi is also a lady plagued by bat-ears, but still look great none-the-less.

Lastly, to illustrate my point, even the mythical elves in Lord of the Rings, such as Arwen (played by the beautiful Liv Tyler) , has long, wind-defying ears.

Thus, it can be shown that bat-ears does not make a girl ugly. Weak attempts at hiding it will only make u seem unconfident of yourself. I am not advocating for one to purposefully highlight one's already noticeable ears to others. But rather, just be natural. Be proud of who you are.

2007-03-31T00:21:00.000+08:00

Was hitting a low just now. Haven't felt like that for a long time.

Till you called and offered to drive me over, just to cheer me up.

How could I ever let myself think for a second that I am alone?

2007-03-28T12:02:00.000+08:00

Personality Test recommended by Marie:

You work hard, seeking success. You are self-sufficient and in spite of all the trials and tribulations that have beset you in the past you carry on regardless.. You are one to be admired because you pursue your objectives single-mindedly and with initiative. You know that you can 'do it' and what is more, you will - without necessarily being dependent upon the goodwill of others.

At this time you 'need to be needed' and again you 'need to need'. You have had this feeling for some time now and you are looking for someone who could share a close bond in an atmosphere of shared intimacy. You have the belief that with the right person you could conquer the world.

In spite of all the opposition, you are insisting that your goals are realistic but circumstances are forcing you to compromise. You are not very happy with this situation but there is little that you can do about it. You have very strict standards which you try to apply to everyone who enters your sphere of influence.

You feel that you must have co-operation from those close to you before the existing stressful situation can be improved. You feel that no-one understands you and this lack of understanding and appreciation makes you feel completely isolated. You need that feeling of security and would like to get away from what you now consider depressing shackles.

You have that need to re-establish your own individuality but your sensual self-restraint makes it difficult for you to let go - to open up, but the way that you are feeling at this time makes you feel that 'Enough is enough' and you are prepared to give in. This disturbs you as you feel that this attitude is an obvious sign of weakness - an attitude to be overcome and so in spite of this situation you feel that in order to assert your own individuality you need to continue to practice self-restraint.

You need to be respected as an exceptional individual. This is the only way that you can hope to achieve the status that you wish to achieve. You set yourself very high standards - and come what may - you abide by them.

I find it pretty accurate especially the part in bold. But it kinda make me sound like a very unhappy person eh haha.

2007-03-24T17:26:00.000+08:00

White Daisy Passing
Rocky Votolato

Please slow it down
There's a secret magic past world that you only notice when you're looking back at it
All I wanna do is turn around
I'm going down to sleep on the bottom of the ocean
Because I couldn't let go when the water hit the setting sun
Passing white daisies taking turns
Close the door walk into the street
Catching raindrops on your tongue
And for a minute it all stops but it won't last man
It's just a passing moment gone
Please slow it down
There's a secret place that I know where I could dig a grave out and climb underground for good
All I want to do is turn around
I'm going down to sleep on the bottom of the ocean
Because I couldn't let go when the water hit the setting sun
Passing white daisies taking turns
All those evenings on the back deck of our first apartment
They meant everything but the wind just carried em off
And you can't go back now just a passing moment gone

2007-03-22T13:41:00.000+08:00

School has been crazy...

but thank god I have my ~~aphrodisiac~~ comic relief

(and he's gonna kill me for putting this up hehe)

~I don't have to boast about the things you bought for me or the posh places you take me to because it's not your gifts I love but you :)

2007-03-18T12:40:00.000+08:00

Went to Ice Cold Beer finally on Friday, then caught 300! with the BF and his friends. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the show. It reeks of cool all over. From what I know, it's a film based on a graphic novel which is in turn based on history. History wise though, it's a bit inaccurate, in the sense that it's more rar rar and stuff. But it's still entertaining nonetheless. I love the queen in the show. She's unlike any other woman depicted in these sort of movies. She's smart, sharp, witty, and capable of killing if need be. Both of my fave lines in the show came from her. Also, the hot bods of the 300 warriors will make every female in the theatre salivate and every male go green with envy. If you'd enjoyed Troy, you should watch this. If you had not enjoyed Troy, this is still worth a try.

Sparta King, Leonidas, and his Queen, talking to the Persian Messenger Peter Mensah. Check out Leonidas' hot bod. :)~

The sexy Oracle warning Leonidas

The 300 Spartan warrior ready to fight

The Immortals that are actually Ninjas

Stelios shielding himself from the Magical Attacks

The Persian King, Xerxes I on his over-elaborate Sedan. Yes the thing he standing on is a Sedan carried by many many slaves. Check out his bling bling.

Stupid Theron trying to sway the Spartan Council on his side:

2007-03-13T00:20:00.000+08:00

Okay a strange thing happened today. The entry I posted today did not turn up. But nvm, it was a short post, basically about me having gotten an internship for the summer at the Ministry of Finance. Pretty exciting job though I'm kinda suffering from the Winner's Curse. Shall refrain from commenting further lest my employer-to-be decides to google me.

Despite having sealed an internship, which is 1/3 of breath let out, I feel very ARGH inside. And I can't explain why. But instead of whining, let me post some random pics.

my cool friend

My hot friend

2007-03-09T14:05:00.000+08:00

I have the impression of myself halfway through a limbo and time has come to a standstill. It seems like there's so many things I am pinning my hopes on, which due to my lack of far-sightedness, these hopes appear dim.

In 4 weeks time, the semester will be over. Yet for once my concern is not on the exams, project, presentations, quizzes and assignments about to be due. I am worried about securing a good internship. Honestly, I have done A LOT just to get a decent one. I practically have "TAKE ME!!!" all over my resume. But with an average GPA like mine, and no relevant work experience (which is a circular reasoning because no IB is willing to take me that's why I have no IB experience in the first place), I find the doors slammed in my face.

Then, as again, due to my lack of farsight, I underestimated the importance of having a CCA record in University. Now I understood its importance, when I have to use it to raise my chances of getting the DUO award, so I can use it to go to Barcelona next semester for exchange, and whether I get my choice school, ESADE, yet again depends on my mediocre GPA.

Lastly, I worry about, but not as much as the above, my employment opportunities after I graduate at the end of this year. This is dependent on my GPA and internship I guess which eventually also relates back to my GPA. And it's too late to pull up my GPA now. I opened my excel sheet and did some simple calculations and realise I need to get a GPA of 4.3 (A+) average to get a Cum Laude. That I tell you, is impossible. Argh, who said an undergraduate's life is the happiest?

2007-03-05T21:05:00.000+08:00

I've been sewing...

The Red Peony Silk Skirt
Damage done: $7

White Garden of Eden Cotton Dress
Damage done: $5

(please ignore the anal face)

2007-02-27T17:36:00.000+08:00

OMG I am a scared-to-die health conscious freak!!

That just hit me when I was sitting in class yesterday. I thought about my diet and exercise habits and I realise the reason for them is not because I want to get rid of my flabs but rather coz I'm worried I might end up half paralysed on the hospital bed 30 years down the road. It's not that I think I have a perfect figure already. Truth is far from that. It's just that when I feel fat, I would end up skipping meals and making sure I eat just enough not to faint. I choose not to eat that oily fried chicken or force myself through that 3km of treadmill because of health reasons, even though I usually claim to people that it's coz I wanna diet when asked why I'm going to the gym.

Now that I'm on the topic, I never believed that hitting the gym alone will slim a person down anyway. I admit that it does help u achieve a better body, even for the slimmest person. It tones the muscles if you do it the right way. But exercising will have little or even negative effect if one does not curb the eating habits. I know of many people who push their food around the plate and barely touch them with their lips when I meet them for a meal. But once they step out of the restaurant, they start looking at gelatos, tidbits, and the lot, and began stuffing their mouth with these unhealthy snacks, at irregular hours. And when they grumble about their size, they claimed its genetics coz they don't eat much during meal times. That's true you don't eat much during meal times, but remember it's not only the food you eat at meal times that count towards your fats.

The bf and I actually got into a heated debate over this topic once (throughout the train ride from cityhall to tampines) and he is sympathetic towards these "genetically" obese people. The genetics arguments derived from the observation that the parents are thin and so are the kids, the parents are fat and so are the kids. Now, I'll tell you why it's genetics. When the parents are big-sized, it comes from their eating habits. As their children, they acquire the same lifestyle and diet (say frequent suppers and fatty meats). I mean if the parents say hey let's buy dessert after dinner! Naturally the kids will be having them too.

Obviously there have been various studies on hereditary obesity. Most of the research are done on grown-ups that were adopted since young and the findings have been that their weight were closer to their biological parents'. But closer sounds inconclusive to me. How about those that were "genetically" fat but stay slim or those that were "genetically" slim but grow fat somehow? Based on my personal experience, even those I know whom everyone else thought was hereditary obese, had successfully curb their compulsive eating habits and shed those excessive weight!

Perhaps, the only "genes" I believe in is the lack of self-restrain when it comes to eating. But it does not mean that if you have your parents' "obese genes", even if you stop eating altogether, your fats will not go away. THIS IS UNTRUE! You do not grow fats out of nothing. Trust me. Fat or slim, healthy or sickly, it's all up to you.

2007-02-24T00:16:00.000+08:00

Haven't update in a while coz been pretty busy this midterm break. As it clashes with CNY week, half of it was "eaten up" by Bai Nian activities. I actually set out to clear most of my school work this midterm break such as the following:

(1) Research for Entre Finance Project
(2) Study for Ethics Midterm Test
(3) Do Creative Writing Assignment 1 (which is giving me a lot of headache now)
(4) Do MR Assignment
(5) Catch up on Entre Finance Readings
(6) Complete 3 Strategy case studies
(7) Attempt the Negotiation Analysis Paper

It's Friday now. 2 more days before school reopens and considering that I'm going to Mrs Lim's to Bai Nian tomorrow, I only have 1 day left effectively. So let's take a look at what I've accomplished so far.

(1) Read 2 chapters of Ethics coursepack
(2) TRIED to do the Creative Writing Assignment

Yup that's all the work I've done in the past 7 days. I am so screwed up. To say something in my defence though, I did at least attend a 1hr+ MR meeting during the week. But that's hardly any thing to boast about. Time is ticking by and still I am blogging here to whine about my predicament. I am the height of procrastination

2007-02-17T11:30:00.000+08:00

Where am I going to celebrate my birthday/valentine's day?

The driver wouldn't say

I was definitely excited and on edge

as I spotted the amazing sight ahead

Reaching the end of the long, dark and deserted way

I realised "oh it's the P.S. Cafe!"

Once we've settled into the cheery interior

We began to pout in hunger

We sip our... white Champagne? Nah it's $6 a bottle mineral water

While patiently waiting

Finally! I cut into my Abernise Steak and Prawns

And in his mouth the Roast Turkey he was chewing (photos not taken)

And we end it with a yummy dessert

Sinful Handmade Chocolate Blackforest Pudding

So then the happy lovers left the restaurant bar

To catch Hannibal Rising

By the end of this wonderful night I'm pleased

With the company and the gift

2007-02-14T14:55:00.000+08:00

my new hair cut

2007-02-13T16:50:00.000+08:00

warning: profanity ahead!

I am damn pissed!

Crap! Is this someone-up-there's sick way of saying happy birthday?!

I just had my hair cut under Marie's recommendation and no it wasn't a disaster. In fact, I like it so much I wanted to post up a pic of my new hair taken on the way home. But something was F-up with my beloved handphone and when I tried transfering to my laptop, it wiped out all the photos in my memory card without transferring!!!! (and no, obviously I don't have back-ups, otherwise I wouldn't have been so pissed)

Then as I decided to go online and whine about it on my blog, my singnet broadband connection decided to be an ass with me again. Ever since we switched from starhub to singnet, singnet has been giving our family a whole load of headache. I was fervently against the idea when my brother wanted to switch to get the free sony flat screen plasma tv and for a faster connection speed (my ass). But of coz he got his way so here I am struggling to connect since last night. I decided to call singnet myself this time and kan them myself. The technician went all technical on me on how to troubleshoot. Feeling really sick of listening to him, I decided to hang up and try on my own. In the end, it worked. But only after I pluck out the phone line in my room.

Meanwhile, while I was trying to savage the above-mentioned problems, this irritating pest of a mosquito decides to chen huo ta jie (rob when there's a fire) and suck me of all my blood. Magically 7 20cents big (not exaggerating!) mozzie bite can be seen and felt on my legs after only say max half an hour of being together in the same room. I swear when I become rich, I am going to fund the research for a chemical that will eradicate all the mosquitoes in this world.

I don't understand why I'm so down in the dirt today. It's bad enough that I can't get to celebrate my bday yesterday because I have to study for the quiz (which I don't understand why the prof even term it a quiz when it's 40% of the grade) today. Fuck up.

2007-02-09T13:31:00.000+08:00

Because I am 21 turning 22 and because valentine's day is coming...

My criteria for the perfect boyfriend 8 years ago:
1. Must be goodlooking, in the boyish kinda way, preferably with beautiful eyes
2. Humorous, makes me laugh
3. Musically talented
4. Romantic, mysterious, full of surprise
5. The ang-moh pai or real angmohs
6. Sporty and cool, skate-boarder type
7. Taller than me (this was VERY important as most boys my age were shorter than me then
8. Generous, Rich

Current criteria for the perfect boyfriend
1. Does not have to be damn handsome. More manly and suave sort of goodlooking like Brad Pitt
2. Witty, makes me laugh
3. Knowledgeable because I am too lazy to keep up with current affairs and I'd like my man to keep my updated
4. Mature when handling problems but playful at other times
5. Takes good care of me, watches out for my well-being
6. Gracious, carries himself respectably
7. Taller than me (but not so important now since most guys have outgrown me haha)
8. Rich is a bonus but personal capability is more important

Okay please take this with a pinch of salt. It's all for the fun.

2007-02-04T23:12:00.000+08:00

3 entries in a day. I must be barking mad.

Anyway, I just wanted to recommend a show I caught on Friday night/Saturday morning. After school on Friday, the BF and I had our dinner at Suntec and decided to head home to retrieve his car so we can catch:

Great, great movie. It reminded me of Motorcycle Diaries, and its the autobiography of Nicholas Garrigan as Motorcycle Diaries of Che Guevera. But I must say this show spark my interest more than Motorcycle Diaries. There was qualities you associate with a blockbuster: violence, sex, excitement, morals etc. But what struck me was how real the characters are portrayed. Obviously they are real people but I'm just impressed that the director managed to capture Nicholas as he is and not hyping up the glamour. He was somewhat selfish, not evil, but just proud of his own achievements and doesn't think beyond the detriments of his actions. He was in essence, you and me. A flawed and common human being but under circumstances, gone through extraordinary experience.

Both actors, James McAvoy and Forest Whitaker were stunning. Whitaker was exceptionally hilarious as Idi Amin. I particular enjoyed his variability in his moods, his crude sense of humor, his adopted accent, and his sometimes competence and other times incompetence at being a dictator. I love McAvoy's version of a selfish, slightly arrogant (biting off more than he can chew) but still righteous in a very humanly way, human.

Compared to Blood Diamond (which I also liked very very much), this show is more real, with more convincing characters. Although the show started off a little slow and strange for me, but the intensity build-up is remarkable. A definite must-watch.

2007-02-04T15:24:00.000+08:00

Some pics from the supper at BCM on Thursday night

On the long, winding, and puke-inducing journey to 85 on bus 14.

Melvin and Tash and Mr. Number 1

Me (halfway through smsing the BF) and ZJ

Finally got to see Melvin. Think the last time I saw him was at the airport when we sent Tash off which was a long long long time ago. Anyway, it was a great night of food and jokes.

2007-02-04T14:33:00.000+08:00

Have you ever had a lucky shopping day?

If you did, you'll understand exactly how I felt yesterday.

I went shopping with my mother yesterday, so that I can give her an opinion on what to buy/wear to her company function next week and for CNY as well. We started off having dinner at Pastamania and I ordered the tomato herb soup for my mother. But turns out she wanted the minestrone instead so I went back to the queue to reorder. The manager saw me again and asked if the tomato herb soup was okay. I told him my mother didn't like it and so he told his crew to void the minestrone order and told me it's on the house. Great service eh? Esp when it's a place where they don't charge service charge.

Anyway, our first stop was Mango and I found this navy blue blazer/jacket and tried it on. The cutting was flattering, the style was chic, and a look at the price tag says that I should buy it. The sticker in white says $110, the sticker in red says $55. My mother offered to pay for me so happily we went to pay at the cashier. When the sales assistant handled our merchandise, she announced that the price is actually $33! It's like picking up 2 pieces of $10 bill on the street.

Later on, we saw this purple skirt with sweet embroidery and my mother tried it on. She liked it and was adamant about buying it. But being the shopping queen that I am, I felt that the price at $69 did not justify the brand, the material, the cut, or any of its combination. We got into a debate which quickly escalate into a hostile exchange of remarks. Eventually my mother decided to heed my advice. Leave the skirt first and check out other stores. It's not on sale, it's not dirt cheap, and it's not exceptionally beautiful, there's no worry that it'll be gone within a couple hours.

We went to Bysi, and I picked out this floral skirt. The prints were gorgeous, and the colours were understated yet good for matching. What's most important was that the workmanship is pretty good esp considering that we got it at a steal of $23! I gave my mother a look that said "I told you so" after we left the shop, and I'm pretty sure she abandon the idea of the $69 skirt immediately. Later, we headed to another retail store and found this black skirt of silk-like material and pretty laces. She tried it, liked it, and bought it. When we were paying for it, the salesperson told us that we get an additional 15% discount if we have a POSB/DBS debit/credit card. It's like picking up money from the floor again.

Before we head home, we saw some bedsheets on sale at Isetan and I decided to have a look since I needed one to match the quilt cover I bought from IKEA. Checking the price list, I picked out one that I thought was $32 after 50% off. But when we were paying for it, the cashier checked with the salesperson because there was no price tag and the guy told her $25! I'm pretty sure now you know what I'm gonna say about how that felt like :).

So we went home with bags in our hands and happiness on our faces. It was indeed a magical day for us.

2007-02-01T14:36:00.000+08:00

I love photoshop! I think it's one of the best computer software ever created. And that is saying a lot, considering how many wonderful programs there are at our disposal.

I like fiddling with photoshop and learning new tricks each time. And then I'll start trying it on every photos I own of me and even my friends. Last night, I figured a very simple way to enlarge my eyes to thrice its original size. It's almost dawn-the-famous-blogger-like.

Before:

After:

I think I look much better with bigger eyes eh? Maybe I should consider plastic surgery.

2007-01-28T22:25:00.000+08:00

Remember the taiwanese actress whom I supposedly look like? The one who ironically share nearly the same chinese name (Xu Wei Lun vs Xu WeiLing) as me, as well as the same height?

I just received the news that she just passed away after a car crash that severely damaged her brains. Poor girl, she was only 28 years old.

And damn, there's one less celebrity that I resemble now.

2007-01-28T18:48:00.000+08:00

As mentioned, I went to watch the Singapore vs Malaysia match yesterday, with a nasty cold. I never considered myself as the patriotic sort so that even when we were made to sing the national anthem before the match, I found it hard to find my voice.

As the match progress, I start to find myself wanting Singapore to win. Maybe it was influence from Tim who was really on the edge of his seat rooting for the Lions. Or maybe it was the general atmosphere in the stadium when more than 99% of the crowd are made up of Singaporeans. By the second half of the match, I was shouting and hoarsing my voice out with WOO! and BOO!

Then it came to the point when Malaysia scored one against us and we were greatly demoralised. 15 minutes left into the game and the score was 1-nil. It doesn't help when the M'sia keeper started diving each time we bring the ball into their penalty area, faking injury and playing off time. I was so disgusted by his repeated "Rivaldo behavior" that I shouted damn loudly "KEEPER PUSSY AH!" Haha think everyone got a shock by the crudity. But I couldn't help it. I can't stand injustice and I believe that fairplay is very important in every aspects of our lives - sports, career, etc. It's my, perhaps personal and a little naive, belief that we should never go against our morals so as to emerge the "winner" in a competition.

Anyway, God was fair and we manage to equalise ourselves before the end of the game, which led us to extra time. Still, no winner emerged from extra time so penalty shoot out became the next option. Like Tim had said, it was a time of instantaneous happiness or depression. 5 shots each and all went in. So it came the final moment of sudden death. Their Pussy Keeper let in our goal. And our keeper caught the next!!!

Yep so the mood was high and everyone was standing, leaping, whooping for glee. except for the small cube of yellow across the stands from us. It was a match that really made our money worth man. So then as we head on for beef kway teow at Geylang later on that night, we all agreed to catch the match against Thailand in the finals.

I never thought I would enjoy the match but I guess it's a different thing altogether, watching it on TV and catching it live. The emotions that run through the stadium can be really contagious.

2007-01-27T14:35:00.000+08:00

I feel really crappy now. I am hacking like a sick old man and I'm feeling weak and cold when it's 2.30 in the afternoon and NOT raining. I'm not even hungry when I've hardly eaten anything since I woke up at 10+am.

So many internships to apply to though I know there's hardly a 1% chance that any will reply. I really should not have put off my internship to the last summer before graduation. And my exchange plans too. ESADE is offering such limited classes in English that I'm even finding it hard to clear even my GEs! They don't even have Spanish class and their language classes - Dutch and French is conducted in Spanish. Really well done man.

This semester is proving to be a lot of work. Entre Finance and Strategy homework EVERY week, Ethics and Nego readings EVERY week, and I realise my birthday week is going to be hell! I have MR quiz 3 days before my birthday, Nego quiz the day after my birthday, and Entre Finance quiz 3 days after that. And it doesn't help that my birthday is just 2 days away from Valentine's Day which means my Vday is burnt too.

And I'm going to watch a stupid match of Singapore vs Malaysia later and hopefully pass my germs to all the soccer fanatics there. Bleh.

2007-01-26T08:49:00.000+08:00

Your Birthdate: February 12

You are certain and confident when you choose to love someone.Even though your romantic choices may be unconventional - you stand behind them.Your friends never know you as well as a romantic partner does.
Number of True Loves You'll Have: 4
Number of Times You'll Have Your Heart Broken: 1
You are most compatible with people born on the 3rd, 12th, 21st, and 30th of the month.

What Does Your Birth Date Mean For Your Love Life?

Took this from Angeline. I don't really believe it though the last line about romantic partner knowing more about me is quite true. I mean, isn't it true for most people?

2007-01-22T00:02:00.001+08:00

Finally assembled the wall cabinet and shoes rack I bought from IKEA and fixed them in my room. Yes I keep my shoes in the bedroom and I counted a total of 16 pairs of inactive shoes. Here's how it looks:

I shifted my bed away from facing the door as according to fengshui, it was the "death" position. The position made the person sleeping in it feel lethargic even when sufficient sleeping hours are maintained. Hopefully I'll sleep better tonight.

So an overview of the current state of my room...

The portion of absolute mess in one corner of my room. Think I'll tackle it another day. For now, I am thoroughly exhausted.

Oh and this is probably totally irrelevant except maybe for the color of my room and this beautiful dress worn by Keira Knightley that I came across. I've decided to make it my next project.

2007-01-20T15:36:00.000+08:00

Some photos I found on my handphone...

The piggies welcoming the new year

Harry Potter character busts

2007-01-16T19:16:00.000+08:00

Today is one of the weirdest day I've ever experienced.

I started off the day at half past ten in the morning. I went into the shower and as I was reaching for the soap I heard a loud explosion. I looked around, thinking that one of my mother's pail fell to the ground. But it wasn't. And seconds later, I felt the source of the noise - the ice cold water against my skin. The heater had gone off.

I went out of the bathroom and went into my room, switching on the lights as I went. But as I walked into the room. I realised that the room remained dim. It was then that I realised that my entire house had blacked out. This happened once to the entire neighbourhood before which lasted about 15-20minutes so I thought nothing of it this time round and headed off to school.

After half a day at school, I was on the train on my way back, I took a seat where both sides of me were unoccupied. A couple stops down, an old man boarded the train and sat on my left. I was vaguely aware of his presence as I was listening to my IPOD video and reading my Negotiation worksheet. I just know that he was stuffing this black pouch between us which irked me a lil so I slid into the seat on my right. His pouch toppled down onto the seat as I moved away. Strangely, this seemed to pissed the old man, who picked up his pouch and slammed it hard and loud into the seat. I looked at him weirdly but decided to go back to reading my worksheet. I stole a few sideward glance at him later on and notice that he was reading this small booklet with english words.

Several more stops later, he suddenly got out of his seat and, along with his pouch, flop down into a seat between two men across of me. He started squeezing his black pouch between himself and the man on his right. At this new vantage point, I could see that the tiny book he was holding was titled: The Facts About The False of Jesus. He started leaning towards the guy on his right and look as though he was reading his book out to the guy. The guy with his ears plugged with music was oblivious to this and alighted at the next stop. The old man got so pissed off that the man had left and started slamming his black pouch into the now empty seat beside him again. Seeing that, I finally realised that the old man was a nutty.

When I finally reached home, the electricity had not returned. I stoned in the living room for an hour plus waiting for my parents to come home because there was nothing I can do without power. When my parents finally came back, and several calls to PUB later, we finally traced the problem to the heater fuse and fixed the problem. My parents keep saying how lucky I was not to have been electrocuted while I was bathing haha. I guess in a way I am. But I'm more amazed by the fact that a simple day like today could have so many oddity occuring.

2007-01-07T14:00:00.000+08:00

Eversince I stepped into 2007, I've been having the feeling that I stepped into it with the wrong foot first. It's been a week since and I don't feel like I had accomplished anything, anything that I'm supposed to accomplish.

1. I haven't sold any of my old textbooks. The closest to it I've done is arranged to meet a girl on Monday to sell my Intl Econs book.

2. I haven't bought any textbooks for this sem's requirement. Truth is, I haven't actively been asking for it.

3. My class timetable is not yet confirmed. Everything will fall into pieces (or not) on Monday 12 noon.

4. I'm vaguely aware that some internship application deadline for most banks are drawing to a near. But I'm too lazy to do my resume or coverletter. Too lazy even to check the exact deadlines.

5. After reformatting my laptop, I'm supposed to install back all the programs but I haven't done any. My photoshop, itunes, ares, etc..heck even my CD driver is gone. Can't really fault myself for all these coz I did try to reinstall it. It just didn't happen due to circumstances.

I feel like I've been living my life in a daze in the past week. It's not like I have been busy partying, or mugging (i mean it's only the 1st week of school), or doing anything that I can actually remember. I feel like time just slip me by without realising. I keep wishing that I can wake up one morning and the above 5 chores are all done for me.

These days, I feel like I'm just going through the motion of things. Putting off errands for no good reason unless laziness is one. My brains are thinking and doing things without me being aware of that. I eat and sleep and go to school and come online and watch tv. If this keeps up, this sem's results is gonna be a disaster man. And worst of all, I'll end up with no internship.

2007-01-04T19:44:00.000+08:00

Today is the first day of school for me. Today I feel very accomplished.

Although the day did not start off perfect, with me sleeping half an hour past the time I'm supposed to wake, totally missing the alarm clock, but I woke up in the nick of time and managed to reach school 10 mins past 10. Slightly late for the CIT DIY Laptop reformatting session but no harm done.

So after a couple hours of fiddling and help from the experts, I've successfully reformatted my laptop. After a rush lunch with the boyfriend who has class earlier than me, I headed on to CIT helpdesk to fix my utility key problem. More than a year ago, I accidentally deleted a program in my tablet laptop and rendered the tablet function useless. An adjustment to the LCD brightness will prompt an error message and when I point the tip of my tablet pen to the screen, the laptop shut down in a temperamental and abrupt manner. And with the help of the friendly CIT guy, my problem is fixed!

So who's the bimbo now huhuhuh?

Who's the Queen procrastinator now huhuhuh?

Not me!!!

Hahaha okay. Anyway I'm using IE 7 now and it's pretty cool, the way the screen loads is just so slick. Even the guy from CIT was impressed haha. But the terrible thing is, I am now plagued by the problem of my blog's chatterbox and I don't know how to reply to it now. You babes who figured out how, Kudos to you man! Think it's time to fiddle with the HTML again.

Whatever, I'm drifting. So I had my first lesson of the term in the late afternoon: Creative Writing. And despite the boyfriend and the twin sis sniggering at my choice, guess who's in my class? Haha Paul Ng Aisheng! One of the people I would have least expected interested in Creative Writing. The class seems interesting and slack enough so I'm gonna be sticking to my guns.

Anyway, lesson has ended more than an hour ago and I'm still in school now. Why? Coz my dad was picking my mom up and so I'm waiting for a free ride home. But the wait seems to stretch into eternity. Where the hell are they???

2007-01-02T14:31:00.000+08:00

a conversation that transpired between me and the boyfriend yesterday

me: I still can't believe it's the new year. What's your new year resolution?
bf: To meet lots of girls.
me: ...and why would you want to meet lots of girls?
bf: So that I can date them.
me: Fine.
bf: What's your new year resolution?
me: To make sure you don't get to meet any girl :).

2007-01-02T02:29:00.000+08:00

2007 has just been 26 hours into and I'm already spending spending spending!

Bought 4 tops and a pair of shorts online! But they were a steal so I'm not complaining. Then met the bf for dinner at Raffles City and I bought a bottle of deep pinkish red nail varnish from SkinFood. Tested it out and love it! It was darn easy to apply and the colour looks thick even though I only coated a very thin layer. Kinda vixen-like huh? Ha.

I would have bought more if money isn't so tight nowadays. And I need to save some moolah to get the bags from ASOS. Angeline, organize a small spree pretty please?

Hmm.. 2007 was off to a weird start for me and I still can't believe it's another year passed me by. VERY soon I'll be 22. Goddammit I'm old!

Okay initially I really didn't want to go sentimental and blab on my blog about what my past year had been and let everyone I know or not know read about it. But then I decided I wanted to type this down as a personal reminder. Even though I do not keep archives (if anyone noticed), I am still able to track back to the very first entry I wrote in 2004 on blogger.

So here it is, 2006, a year of changes for me. Probably the period when I did many things, been to many places, met more people, got closer to some friends, and lost some. Learn so much from it too. But then again, every new year, I gather the notion that I've grown so much in the past year and doubt I can mature anymore than that. But I am proven wrong time and again.

I've had regrets..things I wished and felt I had or had not done. But then I realise 2 nights ago while I was trying to coax myself to sleep, that this was meant to be. If things hadn't turned out the way it turned out, I wouldn't have known and I wouldn't have learnt. I know I'm getting all cryptic but please bear with me. I know now to treasure this moment, this person. Stop dwelling on the past and enjoy the journey. I have enjoyed the journey.

To sum it up, 2006 turned out to be great, and I hope it will continue into 2007. So happy new year everyone!

2007-01-01T02:43:00.000+08:00

New Year Resolution: Expect Nothing.

2006-12-30T23:49:00.000+08:00

Borat

caught it last night. And I strongly urge people with a sense of humor and do not take things too seriously to catch it too.

I love it!

It's hilarious, ironic and plain stupid. It's also a show that makes ur jaws drop and go "was he for real?"

I can't pinpoint which scene I like best because when I thought the naked fight scene was the best in the movie, I was reminded of the fine dining scene where he showed the pic of him and his son and the scene where he put his nigger talk he just learnt to practise, and I find myself in a sandwich.

There are lessons to learn too, apparently. Mocking the people who are racist against jews, and the church fanatics that City Har*est go-ers can identify with.

And his convincing act when he "realised" he had been fucked by a faggot, his apparent shocking and heartbreaking moment when he found out about CJ's inchastity, and the great risks he took to irritate the not-so-friendly americans... it's definitely worth your last ten.

2006-12-28T23:21:00.000+08:00

Image Heavy: Beware!!

A Day Out With Mah Dance Huns

It was a day of shopping and yakking and munching but I think I'll just leave you with a fraction of the total 65 pics we photowhored.

The accomplice

Are you seeing doubles??

How about triples???

Nah it's really just four of us!!!!

Niptuck Needed

Tyra Babes

Bitch Fight

Lesbiany Love

Show me thy money!

Heado Stacko

Looney Ladies

Kiss & Tell

So now you know the true meaning of photowhoring

2006-12-21T14:32:00.000+08:00

Check out my cute lil corgi

Ahh I so want it!!

Anyway, got down to business with the silk I bought on Tues and

TADA!

the "collar" can be worn off-shoulder or half-off-shoulder coz I added an elastic band under the silk. Looks kinda retro eh?

2006-12-20T00:12:00.000+08:00

I am DARN full!

Remember 2 weeks ago I declared after an unsatisfactory IKOI that buffet ain't my thing? Well I changed my mind.

Courtesy of the boyfriend's bro, who was just offered a new job with Credit Suisse, gave us a lovely treat at The Line, Shangri La Hotel.

The décor was upbeat, appetizing, and trendy. Everything from the table mat to the pillars and chairs were in either orange or white. In particular, I found the waitresses' uniform (a dress in black & white V-stripes) ultra cool.

The variety were many..and many is an understatement. You can have a little bit of everything and still end up with an exploding tummy. No repetition. We had lobsters, crabs and prawns (from raw to bbq). We had beef (ooOo it was so tender), seabass, scallops, turkey, satay (the satay was yum!), varieties of fish and chicken and vegetables and sashimis. There was your choice of pasta made right in front of you, and soups (western or chinese, with the wintermelon soup being our hot fave), chocolate fondue with strawberries and candies, all sorts of chocolate and fruit dessert. I especially like this colourless jelly thingy with an alcohol taste that is not so overwhelming like what you get from liquor chocolates. We ended our meal with this HOT, sour fruit tea and some longans.

This is a "before" picture

and this is an almost "after" picture. By then, we already had all the main course and were coming to our desserts. See those on the table? By the way, you can see bro and dasao in the background. May I just add that dasao, the singapore girl (SIA), is hot? I felt like a plain jane next to her heh.

The boyfriend and I.

That's about all the pics I have. The lightings were too orangey it was making my hp camera's resolution weird.

By the way, we went fabric shopping in the day and bought this piece of lovely silk from arab st. Can't wait to make something with it.

2006-12-18T16:12:00.000+08:00

I have long came to the conclusion that I'm not your typical thoughtful person. I'm not one of those sweet little darlings who bakes you cookies on festive seasons, wrote you a card to get well soon, and often drop you forget-me-not smses to your mobile line. Over the years, I have received x'mas, new year, birthday cards from friends that I haven't been keeping much contact with. And I never sent it back once. Yet, they continued to send me their well-wishes year after year.

I am grateful for friends like these and have been trying to be more thoughtful as I grow. But I must admit it does not come as a top of the mind to-do-list. It comes with lots effort for me when it seems those sweet little darlings just does it like one of her daily eating/shitting/sleeping routine. If it had not been a timely reminder sent from a dear friend 3years ago, I would not even be actively dating old friends for some catching up session. I am that unthoughtful.

I guess it is just part of my laziness package. Even if it had seemed effortless for those sweet little darlings, it must have, in truth, been a hell lot of work. I mean, the hassle of it all..preparing gifts etc.. and that is provided that you see a need for a gift in the first place. I am not talking about your run-of-the-mill occasions like birthdays where giving presents have become a tradition. Who would have thought of writing a congratulations card to your boyfriend's friend whom you've met a few times and who has just gotten a promotion? (excluding situations when you're a total bitch and is trying to hit on your bf's buddy).

I am pretty hopeful that everyone has known one of these sweet little darling in their life. It might be you, your bro's girlfriend, your cousin, your best friend, your girlfriend's sister...and if you have not met one of them yet, I'd say 'pity you!'

2006-12-17T18:56:00.000+08:00

I started sewing again today!! Bought this fabric almost a year ago when polka dotties was the in. But I had not been working on it because 2006 had been a busy year for me. Better late than never right?

I wanted something that I will wear out reasonably frequent so I came up with these:

I haven't sewn the "sleeves" up yet but I'm more or less decided on the first design. Any objections?

2006-12-17T00:08:00.000+08:00

Today, I went to

this -->

<-- and this

today with my dear les Ms Getassha Lee Min and

bought a -->

saw pretty but super expensive
by Melly Mak

Then I met the boyfriend for dinner. We had pasta mania which wasn't filling so it was good because it meant we finally had the chance to drink the BillyBombers milkshake. Boy was it sinful.

Yep, so basically this was my day.

2006-12-16T23:29:00.000+08:00

Heather's b'day cum P-sch outing Part II

Finally! I've gotten the pix from Heather! Well anyway, like I said, we headed for dinner at Fish & Co after an entire day at Escape Theme Park.

So anyone who knows me well enough will know that I have a very bad impression of Fish & Co's eversince like 4years ago when I experienced the most atrocious service ever at the Glass House near Dhoby Ghaut. Anyone who knows me well will also know that I'm rather picky when it comes to service. Anyway, I don't think I wana dwell into that disappointing experience here.

What I wanna say is, I was quite reluctant to revisit Fish & Co eversince. Think I did once like 2 years ago at Centre Point and the Sword Fish I had was crap and the service didn't seem to have improved. But last Saturday was Heather's bday. And she wanted Fish & Co. So I didn't want to be a spoil sport and give it another try.

Maybe I should have just gone for the fish and chips long time ago. Maybe it was the waiters and waitresses at the TM outlet. But I must say, I'm converted. There were occasional peeves when they didn't get what we want quickly but to be fair we were requesting quite a lot. But they were friendly, chatty and approachable. But the turnaround factor for me was that:

I finally found a restaurant that does great b'day surprises! No longer is the miscommunication and slip-ups and obviousness. What we had there was pure initiative and an enthusiasm that shows they really care it's your b'day. It's not my idea of a classy service. But it is definitely a marked improvement from the previous. Bring a friend there on his/her b'day and you'll know what I mean.

So cut the long story short, these are the photos from the night:

A group pic taken by the friendly waitress who happens to be Desmond's ex-classmate.

Juncong trying to murder Heather with the cake knife but only succeeded in dropping cake flakes onto her hair.

The babes.

The fags. =x

A super unglam pic of me taken by Juncong when he was supposed to be taking Heather who was being forced to stand on the chair while the Fish & Co people sang her a b'day song. By the way, this pic illustrated just how much I enjoy the company of my p-sch friends :).

2006-12-15T18:46:00.000+08:00

I made a revelation about myself today.

I loathe disappointments.

It always irks me when I have expectations about something only to be short-changed.

That is perhaps why I love surprises. Because there is no expectation to begin with.

So pls, never promise me something you're not capable of.

If you do, be prepared to incur my wrath.

2006-12-14T17:22:00.000+08:00

Haha yeah me again. It's quite rare that I find myself in the mood to blog so often these days. I was just reading a post on Marie's blog inspired by a post on Syd's blog and her words were:

I don't think I can deal with sharing my life, my thoughts, and myself with another from scratch again. It takes so much energy and frankly, I don't have that much to spare.

It's like she took those words right from my mouth 3 years ago. I can't begin to explain how much I understood and felt those words she's feeling now. It struck me how amazing human beings are. We may lead different lives with different people but we all go through the same things at different point of time. I am quite sure anyone who has been through a break up of a really long relationship can relate to her words too.

But having been there, albeit in a slightly different situation, I must say that do not underestimate your power to love again. It seems impossible now because you're still fresh from the pain of losing someone who was very very special to you. But given yourself time to heal and time for the right one to come along, you'll be able to share yourself again, give your all again.

I swore I'll never love again, swore my heart would never mend, said love wasn't worth the pain, but then I hear it call my name..
~Kelly Clarkson~

I don't know if it's a case of priming (you know when you're considering purchasing a particular thing and suddenly everywhere you go, you see that thing), but this year has been a year of break ups for me. So many of my friends.. from their blogs, from their lips.. I witness the ruins of intimate relationships. I hope they won't give up. It's hard, no matter who made the first move. But we're all still young and there's still much more for us to explore. Allow yourself to heal and you'll be surprise how much more there really is left in you.

p.s: please do drop me a x'mas gift into my x'mas sock (on my menu bar). Show me how much you love me without going broke!

2006-12-14T13:44:00.000+08:00

I finally went to Vivocity!!

Supposed to be there on Monday but the boyfriend was more anxious to check out the Guess Sale so we ended up in town and catching Deja Vu. No complains thought coz it was a great show. I wouldn't expect anything less from Denzel Washington though. It is one of the favourite topics of mine and the boyfriend: time travel. I couldn't quite agree with some of the ways the past and future is linked in movie but decided to just take it at face value. It's much more enjoyable this way.

Anyway, before I headed to Vivo yesterday, we went to Chinatown for yong tau fu and went looking for my cheap elastic belts. Woohoo thanks to Tash's recommendation I got these:

at $2.60 each

should be wearing one of them later..

Anyway, Vivocity was beautiful. There were some shops that you can't find elsewhere in Singapore so it kinda gave me the feeling that I was in a foreign country, which was great! We didn't have time for proper shopping but there was this shop called Pull & Bear which has many preedy apparels and shoes to my liking.

Went to the Samsung shop and found my beloved cellphone

IN PALE GOLD!!! So nice right? Same colour as the heels I want to get from Guess!

and a super hot flip phone with diamante details that I want so badly!

We had our dinner there and bought some after dinner bites at FoodRepublic. Check out our sesame bao and tu tu kueh.

There was a small pet safari there and I fell in love with this really cute 3-mth old Corgi. Makes me want a Corgi so much more. Too bad I didn't take a pic of it but here's a similar looking one:

My fave part of the mall is this outdoor spot where you can sit down and view the beautiful view of Sentosa across the sea with the wind blowing gently on your face:

After a lil more exploration, we decided to head home as I was getting more and more sick by the minute. Took 10 home and slept through the ride. All in all it was a great day out despite a leaking nose and weak physique.

2006-12-12T21:27:00.000+08:00

Went out with my p-sch friends on Saturday to celebrate Heather's b'day. Went to escape theme park coz the admission was only $6 for unlimited rides, free ice cream and snack.

However, the weather decided to play us out and began to rain when it was almost our turn for GoKart (after a darn long wait). Anyway, we took a hell lot of photos while queuing with YZ's 3.2 megapix camera phone.

It started with Heather wanting to take a photo of all of us.

Then I offered to take one for them so that Heather can be in the picture.

And the guys found it so hilarious they decided to each take turns to snap for us.

However, nothing beats having all 6 of us in one frame so WJ tried capturing all of us with his long and skillful hand.

which was pretty good, but still...

..Liwen wasn't pleased with his results and ended with:

(she thought a pic without WJ would be just great)

(but change her mind in the end)

Later, we headed to Fish&Co for some makan..actually it was quite a feast. But i'll update it another time when I've gotten the remaining photos from Liwen and Heather.

2006-12-10T16:50:00.000+08:00

I am the biggest klutz in the entire world.

Remember how I cut my knee twice by the waste paper basket from my ex-office? Then in the same place I cut my own finger with a pen knife? Not to mention the precious moment figurine I broke at Joyce's house which robbed my wallet of $75. And the numerous times I injured myself accidentally, tripped and grazed my knees and the sorts..

Well earlier this week I headed to Ikea with the boyfriend. When I alighted the bus, I called him and saw him across the street. While still on the phone, I started walking onto the road, only to realise midway that that red man was on and there were at least 3 cars speeding my way! I went "fuck!" and ran as fast as I could to safety. Everyone was looking at me probably thinking "tsk tsk, young girls nowadays don't know how to treasure their life..."

Thursday night I met ZJ at my house bus stop to meet Tash and Alvin and supposedly Melvin for supper. When I left my house, I saw splutter of red dots on the void deck floor which were still wet. I walked out further and saw an ambulance parked near the lift. I showed it to ZJ when I saw him and he told me he's been pretty suay lately, seeing people injured. Then we board bus 10 and alighted at Simpang. As I walked across the carpark exit/entrance towards the 7-11, I heard ZJ calling me asking me to becareful, I hesitated thinking there's a car coming. However I couldn't see any infront of me so I turn back and was met by the automatic barrier which swung down hard and painful on my nose! Now I have a real nasty cut on the bridge of my nose very very close to my eyes (I heard someone said quite loudly that lucky it didn't hit my eye). Now I'm disfigured!!! And the bone still hurts quite a bit when I rub with my fingers.

Hai, so am I the world's greatest klutz or what?

2006-12-05T00:04:00.000+08:00

Hey peeps!

1st post after exams!

After our last IE paper on Sat, the IE peeps head down to Amoy Street for the nicest fish soup I have ever eaten. It's really great. Everyone should try it if you haven't.

Then the bf and I went to catch Saw 3. Absolutely disgusting. Gross-o-meter to the max. 5mins into the show and I asked myself why am I doing this to myself, subjecting myself to such horrors? But it was enjoyable in a sadistic kinda way. The brain operation scene was niptuck X 2 and the body twisting scene was the hostel X 10.

Then we head on to Miramar hotel for IKOI buffet!! Hmm okay honestly i have to say buffet is not really my thing. The first serving of sashimi was YUM! And then it just got quite sickly. Maybe it's the lack of variety, maybe I was stuffing myself too much to make the money worth, but I got sick of the food after awhile. Think I'd have like it more if it's ala carte.

Sunday I had a good work out spending half a day doing a THOROUGH cleaning of my room. Can't believe how dusty it is! I used up for 5 magic clean wipes before I'm satisfied. It's almost as clean as Joyce's house now haha.

Today went shopping with Tash at Bugis and bought 3 earrings. Maybe I am suaku but do you guys know Bugis street actually sell many many gorgeous earrings 3 for $5? That's like uber cheap la. There was this gold leaf earring that both of us got that we later saw at Diva selling at $10/pair! Felt really good about the bargain. Anyhoo, we got tired after a mere 2hours (old liao) and went to Terra for some light bites and drinks. The Mango Soothe there is really not too bad. Makes me crave for the Xu Liu Shan mango pudding in HK. Later, the bf and the les bf joined us for dinner. We went to Chinchin for chicken rice and chee cha and got so bloated because we over-ordered. So proud that we managed to clean up (nearly) all the plates eventually.

the lovely diamond xmas tree worth $1.5million sponsored by soo kee jewelry

Yep yep so that's what I've been up to since my last paper. And of coz making over my blog as you can see. Credits to Tash for the gorgeous stencil she made for me long long ago. Credits also to this girl called Minz Chee whom I stole the friend's blog photo link idea from. I got all of your photos from whatever source I could get from, mainly friendster. However if you do not like the pic I put up, feel free to send me a w:90 h:100 photo of yourself and I'll do the changes.

Tmr is IKEA tampines day. Need to buy new shelves for my things. Swedish meatballs here I come!!

2006-11-29T18:50:00.000+08:00

I miss shopping! Every time I open my wardrobe doors, I feel aghast by the same old pathetic clothes that I own. It seems like everytime I mention Vivocity, everyone has been there! And I still have $140 Tangs vouchers to utilize! I miss sewing too! After a nearly 1 year long break from designing clothes and making them, I've allowed fresh ideas to come. I just need the time to look for cloth and start sewing!

I miss going to late night movies and even later supper with the boyfriend. There's so many shows I've missed can? I don't think I've ever ever gone so long without a movie in the past 8 years. My last movie was Good Year, by Russell Crowe which if you remember was.... earlier this month....ok that's not really long but this was one stray movie after a long absence before it so it feels really long. And who cares about growing fat with late night suppers? These few days when I'm mugging at home, I've been munching from the moment I woke up to the moment before I sleep.

I miss my friends!!! Both of my dearest friends has been away for too long and even if they had been around, I don't think I'd be able to fork out the time for them (Zhenjie is proof of that!). The fact that Tash has been back since Monday and I am unable to meet her sucks bigtime! I haven't had a proper talk with her for soooo long and I miss photowhoring with her!

I miss lazing around at home. Not studying but lazing. Lazing without guilt that is. The weather in Singapore has recently taken a cold turn. Can you imagine waking up in the day, it's pouring outside, it's so dark you could mistake it for night time, and you're snuggling up under your quilt cover.... but you had to force yourself up because it's past noon and it's time to study. Bleh!

HAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII~~~~~!!!!!

2 more days, 1 more paper. ENDURE!!

2006-11-26T22:12:00.000+08:00

I went to the e-library to search for past year papers for Fixed-Income so that I can practise for tomorrow's paper. I did not find any. Instead, I found 2 Tax Planning papers, decided to take a look, and holy!

It could be the length of the questions, or that the topics taught this year is slightly different, or just my lack of confidence.. I found myself panicking. I thought to myself, if this is what they ask on Wednesday, I don't think I'll be able to cover all the points sufficiently in 3 hours. That one small assignment on Section 24 already made me spent hours agonizing over it. I keep wondering if I'll be at a disadvantage to the rest of the class who has already taken Income Tax, which was an unmentioned "pre-requisite" to Tax Planning. What if in my attempt to illustrate a certain point, I contradict a Tax Act not taught to me in this module?

O no! oh no! What to do?!

The fact that this module has a course code ACCT305 keeps fuelling the fear in me. First of all, the numbers in the code stands for the degree of difficulty in the course. For instance, the most basic of marketing course is MKTG101 and finance course is FNCE101. When you see a 3 right in front of the 305, you know there's a certain amount of prior knowledge you're supposed to have. So as you know or can probably guess, ACCT stands for accounting, something that is not in my field of expertise. In fact, I have no pre-knowledge of tax at all! Why didn't I consider that earlier? I guess I can only say I brought this upon myself. Blah!

Okay I should stop whining and face the music like a woman.

Ciao.

2006-11-23T21:07:00.000+08:00

I thought I just saw an old friend on project superstar.

Is that the Jeremy I know?

2006-11-22T00:06:00.000+08:00

In another 10 hours I'll be sitting for my final IB quiz. And from 10hours ago up till now, I've done nothing but to nap, watch tv, surf the net, fiddle with photoshop etc.. And then I ask myself, am I sure I'm done studying IB? My answer was "I am pretty sure I understand every concept taught about IB, but whether I can obtain a perfect score tomorrow depends on whether I get tricked by the questions or not." Yet, I can't help feeling guilty that I am not seizing every minute to make sure I revise every concept such that they are imprinted deeply in my mind. It then hit me that perhaps this is the sign of something that Yanlong has been talking about: the grade chase.

I mean, I'm intrigued by all that I've learned so far. But why am I forcing myself to re-read all these shit again and again and again? Wouldn't my time be better spent on learning new concepts, theories or ideas (not related to the exams)? Well, it would be if there isn't the grade chase I have allowed myself to sink into unknowingly. If there isn't exams and grades, I think I would have learn more than just 5 modules a semester. Instead of reading the same textbook twice, I would be reading 2 different books once.

You must be laughing. You must be thinking if there wasn't grades and exams, I would be wasting my time watching tv and idle and daydream the whole day. Maybe I would. But I can tell you I have never been so challenged by everything I've been learning in uni (minus bgs, twc and the lot), esp this semester. I am so inspired by all the trading strategies i've learnt that I can't help sighing over the fact that I only have one last finance elective to clear. I want to do more! I would love to read more financial books!

I would, if there is time. I would, if I'm not chasing the grade.

And I can't stop chasing the grade.

My life has been built around it.

So has yours.

2006-11-21T19:07:00.000+08:00

OMG OMG OMG!!!

July 13th, 2007

the date i've been waiting for...and still waiting...

"Bloody hell!"

2006-11-18T14:29:00.000+08:00

Stan's father ROCKS!!!

p.s: fixed income is killing me..

2006-11-17T10:26:00.000+08:00

2 more weeks
1 more report
2 more assignments
1 more quiz
3 more exams

Then it's ikoi, ikea tampines, and vivocity!

And then it's Christmas and all the good feelings that Christmas brings along. Did i mention that Christmas is one of my fave festival? I vision cold cold weather, bright lights in the night, delicious food, exchange of presents, laughter and companions..

Just 2 more weeks...

2006-11-12T22:58:00.000+08:00

Surprise surprise I'm blogging again!

Even I surprise myself.

But if you aren't surprise, then that's just too bad.

Hmm guess what I like about slacking my sem away and doing badly for all the modules? It's that the more quizzes, projects, presentations, tests, exams I have left, the more chances I feel I have to rescue myself from the disaster thus far. (Although that is a fallacy in practise since I never manage to pull up the grades anyway.) On the other hand, having been doing well so far, it makes every approaching quizzes, projects, presentations, tests, exams extremely intimidating. Instead of bringing me hope, it gives me the feeling of walking on eggs. Just one slip-up and there goes my entire sem of hard labour.

On another happier note, I got my new baby!

Isn't she lovely? (yep it's a female!) Trust me, the real good is much much prettier than this dummy.

Can't stop playing with it. Ultra sleek, with a touch screen, 2 megapixel camera & video with mp3 player and so much more! And I was really lucky. The price has fallen another $30 since about 2weeks ago when I checked, and despite me losing the voucher, M1 readily agreed to give me the $60 discount (they have records of it). The final price? My PSLE score ha.

Now I'm the happiest girl on earth.

2006-11-11T23:43:00.000+08:00

I am officially pissed off with myself.

M1 sent me this $60 vouchers as a marketing strategy to get me to sign up for another 2 years. I've been setting my sight on Samsung E900 for a while and the boyfriend has convinced me to wait for the price to drop first. He was right, the price dropped for about $80. Realising that the voucher expiry is almost up, I decided it is time to use it... only to realise I had lost it! That's not the most frustrating thing. What really pisses me off is that previously I had just let it lie around my room and it was only several weeks back when I thought to myself "I'd better keep this somewhere safe" and now I can't FREAKING REMEMBER WHERE I KEPT IT! I've been spending the past 2 hours ransacking my room and the entire household. The voucher remains to be found.

On wednesday, I made plans to finish reading 2 chapters for fixed income, do the assignment, and complete my consumer behavior report before the end of this week. Till date, I have yet to finish even 1 chapter, much less did the assignment and my CB report is still in its infant form. Although I still have some time before the deadline, I wanted to finish them earlier so I can work on my IB final quiz in the next week. I am behind schedule because I have been watching TV and wasting precious time searching for the stupid voucher.

Okay I know I am very whiny... and I apologise. This is the first real entry in a long time and I am ranting away like a whiny bitch. Okay I will talk about something cheerier after this line...

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Haha crap, sometimes I amuse myself so much I feel like a loser.

Right cheery things.. Hmm okay I should be able to pull up my GPA this sem, although it's hardly any feat trying to move up that lowly GPA of mine.

Watched Good Year last night/this morning.. yep yep midnight movie again just like old times. It was a feel-good show and it gives me this warm fuzzy feeling inside..

...

I'm not really a cheery person am I?

2006-11-03T20:49:00.000+08:00

How I long for a

right now..

Results may be good so far, but the lack of sleep and play is killing me.

2006-10-25T16:27:00.000+08:00

This post has been lingering in my head without a form for a while now and I had feared publishing them due to the sensitivity of the issue, plus of course my own lack of motivation to blog anymore.

I'm sure we've all come to realise that the no.1 suicide hot spot is none other than one of Singapore's pride and joy: the MRT railway track.

It is saddening to know that there are so many poor people out there. I grumble about not having enough money to buy more pretty clothes, live in a bigger house etc. And we thought that no Singaporeans will find themselves close to the point of starvation. Yet it is happening.

It is more saddening for me, however, to know that people are actually helping those family members abandoned by the deceased by donating large amount of money.

Yes, you read me right. I am saddened by the fact that people are helping only after such tragedies had occurred. Why is it that such desperate ends had to be commited and hit the news headlines before help can be given? It is somehow signalling to me that the society is advocating "if you've hit a roadblock, kill yourself, and we'll help your family tide over the trouble water". What about those people who remain strong in the face of adversities? Aren't they worth our helping hands, if not more so?

Singaporeans are generous and full of sympathy, that I agree. But it is also undeniable that we are lazy (taking a reactive rather than proactive approach in stance like these) and misguided (encouraging the wrong things unintentionally).

2006-10-18T22:51:00.000+08:00

My Cech is injured!!!

Thanks to this stupid guy from Reading, my dear Cech is lying in the hospital now with a fractured skull. Promising young and arguably world's no.1 goalkeeper nearly died due to a disgusting, low and brutal attack by a stupid guy (which my bro saw laughing after the incident).

What happened was Cech fell to the ground and this unknown guy from the opponent team his knee came crashing into Cech's head. Unintentional? We can't tell for sure but I sure have high doubts. No person's knee can cause such a damaging impact if he had made any attempt to pull back upon seeing Cech on the floor. Plus the fact that he was seen unremorseful after the incident. And the motivation was there as well: Reading is a new and poor team and needed money so bribery is likely..especially when in the same match another Chelsea keeper was knocked out unconscious by another Reading player. In the end Terry has to takeover keeper and Drogba had to be put in defense.

Thank God Cech is on the way to recovery although he'll probably miss this entire season. I hope that bastard gets shot. Okay I know I sound very vindictive but can you imagine poor Cech with his broken skull and trying to crawl out of the field? The boyfriend said he has a bone lodged in his brain! All he ever did was save marvelous goals. He does not deserve to suffer at the expense of lousy playing by the opponent.

Sorry for the rant. I'm just really disgusted right now.

Yan: Help me take care of him in Prague k?

2006-10-10T00:45:00.000+08:00

Today I was on the train to school and out of boredom I started to observe the shoes people wear and tried to invent a story behind its owner. I ponder: what makes a person wear what he/she wears? Can we tell a person from his/her shoes?

2006-09-28T22:35:00.000+08:00

Lesson of the day: Life is Fragile

Went to Crystal Jade for dinner with my family just now and my brother and his girlfriend was telling us about the car accident they were involved in on Tuesday. This was what happened:

It was their friends' wedding. There were 5 cars. The first was the wedding car. After the wedding car went past, a large tanker cut out from a side road suddenly and so the 2nd car slammed on the brake. The 3rd car slammed harder on the brake and bang slightly into rear of the 2nd car. The 4th car (the one da sao was in) was totally taken by surprise and crash into the 3rd car. The entire fender crashed in and da sao's chin suffer a bruise as she hit into the seat of the driver. Luckily the 5th car's driver (the one my bro was in) was alert and managed to avert the accident. The front passenger in the 4th car suffered 2 deep cuts along her neck due to the seat belt. If not for the seat belt, she would possibly have flew out of the car. In fact, it was fortunate that no one was sitting in the middle back or the person would definitely have flew through the windscreen. Another girl in the 3rd car suffered from possible concussion and is currently under observation in the hospital.

This is of course nothing serious compared to those we often heard on the news. But when it happens to people close to you or even to you, even a minor one can send shock waves into your system (as can be seen by da sao's persistence in wearing a seat belt even when she was sitting in the back seat just now). My bro said, when he saw the 4th car crash into the 3rd, the fender disappearing within seconds, his mind went numb instantly.

How powerful and destructive a human err and carelessness can be!

Last night, Shawn told me that a guy from his company met an accident as well. He was riding a motorbike and a lorry rolled over his chest. His ribcage collapsed and his condition was critical. He went under the operation lights yesterday and I have no idea whether he made it. The saddest thing is he has a wife and a kid that's still very very young.

Indeed how fragile life is. Sometimes I take it for granted that I would not be hit by a car or die by some freak accident. Is that hubris in a way? Kinda like: "these suay things will never happen to me la!" But that is such a fallacy isn't it? Yet I find myself behaving in such a way all the time.

I think we should all really treasure our lives. How stupid it is if we get killed or seriously injured just because we were too impatient to wait. Must we wait until we get into an accident before we learn caution? What if we never get the chance to thereafter, that there is no after?

Please, friends, drive carefully. And avoid riding bikes if you can. Watch where you're going especially when you cross the road. Even if you don't care about yourself, think about the grief and pain you'll cause to those who truly care about you.