Farewell Dinner for a friend going away

It was a gathering of old friends again, this time specially cos one of our uni bunch of people is going to fly to Taipei, and spend the next 2 years there for his job. Minus the usual bunster, there were 5 of us, cos the newly weds came.

It was rare that the main character was there early! Given that he usually would either be super late or MIA (ok la..understand that he is a busy man. My money in the bank depends on people like him). But basically the person nearest to the venue was late (yes..its me..but I had to send out one email mah...)

The conversation flowed to his's preparation for the trip, how and where is he going to settle in (free accomodation near to 101 in Taipei next time!), to badgering the newly weds to post their honeymoon photos on facebook (after they create their account that is..it may be a joint account by the way =.="), to reading fine prints for telco ads.

I guess in this so interconnected world, it doesn't feel too different knowing that the friend is going to be miles away, cos anyway, he's going to be uploading his pictures as and when he could onto facebook. So it feels the same, just that we probably couldn't meet up as often (well, not that much different since he's like MIA most of the time in the first place.heh~)

The world is indeed becoming smaller.

I got a date with Mayday!

I got a ticket to Mayday's 新歌飚唱会! Woohoo~

I just hope I didn't hurt my friend too much when I grabbed his arm the moment he told me he got extra complimentary ticket..HAHAH~

72 hours to the new year

So soon to close the chapter on 2008.

I was pondering over some matters along the PIE today, which resulted in a much longer detour, which led to ...more pondering.

Which led me to the ultimate question : what do I really want?

On what? A couple of things, that had been bouncing in my mind for a while already. Well, actually.."a while" is an understatement of sort. Some of the issues had probably been there for the past few years, while some..more recent, and probably more pressing, especially since I had to really decide in the next few days.

As I was pondering, I came to a conclusion that I had been fighting the symptoms to the issue in question, instead of really going to the core.

Like,

Should I go to the new department? And on what terms ? -->what do I really want?

Spend money to do stuff that I want to while I still can, rather than be really a prude and save up?-->what do I really want??

Enjoy singlehood, or go out to meet more people? --> what do I really want???

When was the last time that I was really sure? I cant remember. Sometimes I just wish to bite the bullet and plunge in, but the cautious side of me had always pulled the rein in. Life is so not fun this way :(

Seasons Greetings!

My HTC died-ed and was sent to hospital today hoping for some chance of bringing it back to life. So was using my trusted sony-ericsson spare phone for the time being. Since most of the contacts are in the HTC, whenever someone call or sms I would have to repeat the same explanation : "my phone died, and using spare phone now. So I dont have your number. Who's this?" Other that, if it is a phone call, I would just pause for 1 sec to see if I recognise the voice (so far that didn't work very well). So if I had sounded hesitant when I took your call, it's because of that.

Anyway pre-christmas there would always be the influx of christmas wishes, and most of them I dont recognise the numbers. So for the first 2 sms I repeated the same message (see above). After that I realised that it's just too troublesome. So whenever a sms come in I would just reply "Merry Christmas to you too! :)". The person may have been the jerk that I have been trying to avoid (which I had mistakenly taken his call this morning cos I didn't recognise the number), but I guess this is the season to just be jolly and share some cheer around.

So I appreciate those who had sms-ed, though I dont know who most of you are, but I sincerely wish you all a merry time with friends and family :))

Christmas Eve already?!

exactly.

But of course it's evident by the fact that there were so many people buying gifts everywhere! Did someone just say that we are going into recession?!

I just finished wrapping the pressies..I have been accumulating the pressies since like 2 months back, knowing that I dont want to be stuck in the last min shopping fix (okok..it was also an excuse to start shopping :p). But then it was a blessing in disguise as well since I was away for the whole of last week. Just that I had to scramble for wrapping paper today, and after running out of gift tags, improvised with my favourite notepad, which I had used sparingly since I bought it..like..10 years ago? and ribbons which I had a spare roll of.

Hope I haven't left anybody out..

Gemurah

Last Dec when I went to watch the SEA Games, I came back with Q Flure's song.

This time round at the Junior Asia Cup, whenever there were breaks - before game, in between games, after games, the sound system will be blasting with songs, usually the unintelligible malay songs or Queen's "We are the Champions", all on repeat mode until the skin crawled from hearing the same songs over and over again.

Anyway, one of the songs got stuck in my head. Asked one of the girls for the title which was "Gemurah". And although I dont understand what the song was about, it sounded quite upbeat for a tournament setting :))



But the MTV for this ballad "Sampai Sygur"(which was also on the repeat play mode at the Seremban II Stadium), also by the same guy Faizal Tahir, is nicer.




Guess what? I went to buy Faizal Tahir's CD on the last day before coming back to SG. Haha~ Yes, I still dont understand what the songs were about, but they sounded not bad I must say. Now, to find a kind soul to help translate the lyrics...

JAC Day 9 and Final Day

We won Pakistan 1-0. So that qualified us to the 5th/6th placing match against Malaysia this morning. So it was another day waking up at 5am plus for breakfast.

Malaysia got the 5th, and us the 6th. But somehow the girls seemed happier than the Malaysian winners after the match. Think the Malaysian team is dissappointed that they didn't manage to finish in a better placing for this tourney.

So it was back to the hotel, pack and check out of the hotel, giving us a good 2 hours for lunch before leaving the hotel for the stadium to watch the 3rd/4th placing match between Japan and India (No team meetings! Finally!). The girls had their last Seremban wish of eating at A&W again, and had their fill of rootbeer floats, coney dogs, curly fries, waffles...

We reached the stadium just in time for the start of the match. India won the game 3-1 as they converted their chances, whereas Japan had no luck in front of the goal. Maybe it was the weather. It was so *&^%$& humid that everybody was fanning themselves and dozing off at the grandstand. I was telling GM who was sitting next to me that perhaps this was why India won, cos the weather might have suited them to a T.

It was home sweet home when the game finished as we went back to the hotel for our coach. So began the journey home :)))

I never thought I'll be so happy to be in my room again.. after camping in a hotel room for the past 10 days.

JAC Day 8

First pitch training for this tourney. Yes. First pitch training on the 8th day since we set off from Singapore.

The good thing about the first team to use the pitch was that there's no one earlier than you and you have the luxury of warming up on the pitch directly. Only an hour's slot was allocated to us, 20 mins were spent passing and hitting to each other.


Anyway, it was a beautiful morning with cloudless sky. Which was the case for the rest of the day. Which means it was super hot by the time we got back to the hotel and when we walked out for lunch.






The girls have their video analysis in the afternoon followed by a briefing in the evening, before we had to go to the official hotel for the dinner hosted by Malaysian Hockey Federation. Music was blasting throughout the whole dinner together with cultural dance items, which made talking almost impossible other than to just the person sitting next to you. It was probably on purpose, as Juanma commented that he noticed that Asians dont like to talk while eating (hence the loud music so that people were not made to feel awkward while not talking), which was quite contraryto the European culture. Looking at the composition of the people at my table (managers and coaches from the different participating teams), it was probably a darn good idea too to mask the fact that conversations may not last beyond "how are you" and "how is the dinner" in halting and smish smack English.

Actually, on second thoughts..I would have rather attempted the halting conversation rather than having the music blasting non-stop for the full 2 hours. My brain felt a bit concussed now after being kept hitting by the high decible sound waves =.="

So..early day tomorrow against Pakistan, at 8.30am. Going to play on the second pitch which we had not trained on before.

JAC Day 7

Rest day..although was being kept on the toes depending on the outcome of the India v Chinese Taipei score. Looking at how Korea played us yesterday, we were wondering if the Indian team is going to also pull back on their attacking, so long as they secure a win. The plan was to do some pitch training from 6pm to 7pm should we go into penalty playoffs, so all the playing gears were brought down to the pitch as well.

Thankfully for us, they crossed the 8-0 mark 20 mins before the end of the game, before finishing at 10-0. (Ok, I feel sorry for the Chinese Taipei team too..having to play at 4pm under the hot sun and have to struggle for their last game too). Btw, when I got the news of the 8-0 score, I was actually on the way back to the stadium from the hotel..cos of some blur idiot who forgot to bring the hockey balls and I had to go back during half time so that I can make it in time for the pitch training. In the end, the girls who was supposed to be taking charge of the balls paid for ice cream for the whole team :p

So we are going to meet Pakistan on Sat morning at 8.30am (which means that the team has to wake up by 5.30 to start eat..which also meant that I have to wake up at 5.15 to get ready for them to come to my room to take the food), and since the classification match on the last day is going to be either at 8am or 8.30am..that would mean that for the remainder of the days of this tournament, I will be waking up at 5 am thereabout everyday.

Oh dear...

JAC Day 5&6

Day 5

Was our rest day, and girls were made to expend their extra energies during pool recovery with the sports trainer Geok Mei (GM's and my conspiracy to make the girls tired so that they wont stay up late at night watching tv/surfing net/chatting...). In the afternoon, we went to watch India vs Korea. Real interesting, watching the nimble India team pit against the compact Koreans in style and tactics differences. I think the best thing for me for this trip is having the chance to watch teams like China, Japan, India and Korea play against one another, whose games gurantee would have been interesting.

Dinner was again at our "favourite" shopping complex, and having lost for choice where to eat, the team settled for the Chicken Rice Shop, which sells...chicken rice..

Anyway I can only say..girls between the age of 16-21 are the most difficult to rationalise with sometimes. Sigh...


Day 6

Game vs Korea today. Somehow the energy of the girls seemed different today, and it showed during their game, when almost all the girls kept chasing down opponents and and passes. The half time score was promising, as we wrapped up the first half 1-0 (of course the Korean team was obviously not going all out, since they had already topped the table with their win yesterday against India). But the lack of fitness and focus showed during the second half, and we finished the game 6-0.

Now, we have to see how much India is going to win Chinese Taipei tomorrow for their 4pm match (which we are going to watch) to know who we are going to play on Sat. If it's going to be anything 7 or less, we are going into strokes since Chinese Taipei and us are tied on points, goal difference and goals for. The stroke is going to take place after the last game at tomorrow, which is ending at 9.30pm. And that would mean logistical hell for me since that would mean that I would have think of how to feed 19 players and 4 officals (including myself of course) at the stadium. Not to mention the erractic timings of our arranged transport..which makes planning super challenging.

I think I need a holiday after this trip.

JAC Day 4

Today is a &^$%^^$ day..That is a story that if i start blogging abt it today, I will puke blood once over again..

But anyway we drew with Chinese-Taipei 1-1. A very unlucky defensive lapse which resulted in a goal against us, and an overdue call for a penalty stroke which we converted.

We stayed to watch the China team play against Malaysia. By the first half, China was leading 2-0, but I must say that Malaysia fought very hard as they tried to maintain the scoreline until the last 5 mins when China took another field goal.

And cos one of the vans which was supposed to come to pick up had one of the tyres punctured, we had to wait for a good 50 mins before the vehicles finally came for us and by the time we reached the hotel, it was too late to eat at the nearby food court and so...the girls had a treat when we went to the 24 hours A&W. Girls who were complaining of cramped legs suddenly made that little leaps and walked 2 steps faster =.="

Tomorrow is going to be first real rest day...the previous one having played the postponed first game. Next game, against Korea on Wed.

JAC Day 3

The team was supposed to wake up at 6am this morning, and start eating their breakfast by 6.30am latest so that they have got enough time before their first game at 9am. Geok Mei the sports trainer and me had done the "Maria" duty of buying breakfast food (bread, banana, apples, muesli bars, the night before, at the nearest Giant supermart, which was a good 15-20 mins walk away, further than the supermart at the basement of the nearer Parkson superstore, as we couldn't be sure if we could get enough bread for everybody, since their supplies are noted to run low by evening. The food was left in my room and the rooms were supposed to get their food from here after their wakeup.



After all sleepy eyed players got their fill, we set off to Seremban II stadium for the team's first match. With our own outriders!



(I got photo! But loading pix onto blogger.com seems to be quite impossible on wifi here)



We lost our first game to India 0-8. Think the girls were a bit upset at the big scoreline, but considering this is the first big outing for them, thought majority probably handled it quite alright.



Afternoon was spent watching the other 2 teams in our group - Korea and Chinese-Taipei (7-0), followed by 15 mins of China vs Thailand. I was quite surprised at the different standards of the Thailand U21 and their national team, having watched the national team played during the last SEA Games in Dec 07. Hmm..maybe there is hope for our team for the next SEA Games.



Tomorrow we are playing against Chinese-Taipei. There could be a chance for us to score some goals.

Day 1 had past..and Day 2 just flew by

It had been super busy since I reach Seremban. Photos uploading soon!

Day 1

8.30am - coach set off from Textile Center

9.30am - &^$&*(&..stuck at Tuas Check point

10.30am - ok..option A - if I reach seremban at 12 plus to 1pm, maybe there is still time to check into our hotel first, then go for the manager's meeting which was at another hotel (that is another story by itself..). Option B, if I reach about 1 plus I'll have to go straight to manager's meeting.

1.00pm - saw the sign "Seremban 93km". Ok..Option C (and the only I guess), be profusely apologetic and hope that most of the other team managers probably left by the time I reach the manager's meeting after dashing there once I alight from the bus.

2.10pm - I can't believe it when the bus driver suddenly shouted "Seremban!" What?! Wasn't the coach supposed to go to a terminal or something? This is a super ulu road lor..hey..that's Madhavan! Hey Madhavan, you here to help the tournament? You going to the official hotel Resort??want to share a cab? When I told him that I was there as the manager, he mentioned, "No wonder I find you a bit familiar..." (oh shit..it better not be from incidents whereby I had scolded him on the pitch when he was umpring our games...)

2.50pm - after a ride with a dingy old cab with no meter/no aircon/no receipt, dashed into the meeting room and of course..was profusely apologetic.

The rest of the days was sent recceing the areas around the hotel and visiting supermart to buy food, since the team is going to arrive late and probably need some bites later that night. Had a chance encounter that reminded me that this place is not Singapore..and it's probably rare (and not that safe!) that a female walks alone on the road.

I think the 30 mins rest watching The Guardian on AXN was the last 30 mins that I had chance to rest. ..

Day 2

Match day!~ vs India @ 6pm.


We are in Group B, the same group as India, Korea and Chinese Taipei. Group A has China, Japan, Pakistan, Malaysia and Thailand. So...we are very luck not to be in Group A :p

Too many things happened..that it's prob too long to blog. But the main thing was that the game got postponed to tomorrow due to heavy downpour..but we were at the stadium for 4 hours from 3.45pm before we left at 7.45pm...
Now the team has to wake up at 6am to eat in time for the game at 9am. So going to hear team first hoorah "Majula!" tomorrow, in a different position on the bench ..hmm...come to think of it, feels quite weird.

Ok..more next time. Sleep! (I need it..)

Off to Seremban!

As my debut appearance (cameo?) as manager for the U21 team. I have been told I can finally put my fiery disposition to good use. Hmmm..

It has been quite a madness 4 days, especially the last 2. I must say..whatever the experience, it has made me thankful for what the many managers had done in the past - Xiuhua, Wanzhen, and heck..even Ruby. So many things happening in the background just so the players can just focus on the games.

But I wonder..things were so much straightforward and more well planned last time. Somehow "stretching the dollar" is real important now, and I have to be always on my toes for last minute changes and happenings (one of which resulted in me having to travel alone tomorrow ahead of the rest of the team..Yeah..what an adventure.). And..I probably have to draw out the "appropriate management skills" (still fresh from Bintan), to appeal to 19 juvenile girls to exercise their common sense. Things like "lights out at 11pm" will prob be the top of my list to do every night, after I saw how it drew many exasperated expressions during the admin brief..

Ok I exaggerate. Maybe half of them will be sensible enough..the rest..are just happy go lucky.

I guess I have to bring out the devil-with-pitchfork attitude, and probably try to stretch the morning grumpiness through the day.

I hope I can come back with my sanity in one piece.

I will survive

although I want to wring a few necks along the way...

国境之南

特爱电影原声带，因为觉得听到某一首歌特别有画面感。

如果海會說話　如果風愛上砂
如果　有些想念遺忘在漫長的長假

我會聆聽浪花　讓風吹過頭髮
任記憶裡的愛情在時間潮汐裡喧嘩

Things I learnt from my first half marathon

(i) Sometimes there may really be somebody out there, keeping a lookout for you..

I had remembered to set my alarm at 4am. But somehow, I woke up at 3am at the tail-end of some weird dream, and after realising that it was still early, I went back to sleep again (the dream continued..). But somehow I felt that I was going to be late, woke up and realised that the clock was at 10 minutes pass 4am..and my alarm didn't go off! Thank goodness..

(ii) It is possible to run more than 1 hour.. without stopping..

I think I would called myself mad if I said it 2 years earlier. Anyway for today, I decided to just listen to my body and stop only when it says so. And so I went on to the 2 hours mark...I was pretty amazed at that especially since I hadn't train for it.

(iii) and your body does talk to you..sometimes all at the same time.

The ankles say.."See lah..wear heels lah.."

The knees say.."I have not seen poundings like this since..like never?!"

The hamstring and glut say.."Wee! Work it baby! But if this goes on for too long, we think we need to rest leh..."

The back say.."Hmm..not bad..still surviving..better dont surge too much hor..if not..you know"

The arms say.."When was the last time you work us out?! Of course we are not used to swinging!"

The head says.."Come on..Come on..run your own race....Dont listen to the rest.."

(iv) There is no way to complete the race comfortable if you never train for it!

Did I say I didn't train for the run? Serve me right.

(v) Sometimes we are too fast paced for our own good. We miss the nice sights and sounds that surround us everyday

Like how the morning sky gather light.

Like how calm the water at Kallang Basin is.

Like how the Singapore Flyer had added to a new dimension to the Singapore skyline.

Like how solidatory is Shenton Way, without its maddening office crowd.

(vi) The things some people carry in their hands (hands..not as if they strap it to their arms or something)

Digi cams, video cams, handphones, wife's handbag (i'm not kidding)...

(vii) What did they teach us during Senior Officer Training? No matter what it is, it's always important to at least have some $$ on you.

Especially when shortly after finishing 21 km and the one of the first delightful sights was an ice cream man selling ice cream. And you have naught moolah on you. Darn.

(viii) Wardrobe malfunction can cause painful experiences post event

Especially when it caused raw skin area, on the torso, and makes it &%&$^*!# painful whenever water touches it.

(ix) Ice Mocha is nice after run :))

(x) A phone cam is always handy for catching post run shots. Should have done so pre-run, but it's too early..I think the phone will reject my morning grouchy face look..

Happy People After 21km (Photos courtesy of CK's phone cum music player)

Enough is Enough ..sometimes too "enough".

..when you said "I think CXX is like a dumping ground for people who cannot make it in SXX"
(Thanks.. I really need that kind of statement now.)

..when you said "What you think you could have done better? Maybe if you have done something different you wouldn't end up in this state"
(Again, thanks. I didn't know it has become my fault that things have turned out this way. And as if things will turn around by going through this process)

..when you said "you know..you are really a difficult person to get along"
(Just great. Not only professionally challenge, characteristically challenged now too)

..when you said "You know..(ex-flame's name) is getting married..again". Paused silence.
(You sound just too happy to tell me that. What were you expecting me to reply..)

..when you said "What I said is all facts what..why you cannot accept facts"
(Facts according to you. And even if they are factual, that don't make them right)

..when accusation starts to fly when I declined your help, and it becomes my fault for acting up. Again.
(I didn't know that your help comes with the condition that I must accept whatever you say, no matter how hurtful they are)

Enough is enough..

..when there is obviously a communication gap understanding what is the cause of this whole fiasco

..when the option is so callously planned and communicated

..when whatever agreement didn't hold water at all



Gosh..how I hate it, especially the last one. Things are starting to not make sense. Or maybe they do. Telling me that it's time to snap out of it.

Post W Dinner rantings

Another wedding dinner attended. Another night whereby the night owl refused to go to bed, and spent (wasting?) time in pensive thoughts.

In summary,

• Want not, grief not
• 对的不来，来的不对
• Don't stray from the decided, if the alternative is not fantastically favourable.
• Things will take their own course, whether you like it or not. The only way to deal with them when they come....is to deal with them when they come

Well, at least there is the Dec trip to focus on..10 days with 18 girls, 1 ang moh. At least I got the asst coach D to fall on..or can I??

The saddening headlines this morning

I gasped when I flipped over the paper over coffee this morning and saw the headlines - " Singaporean hostage killed in Mumbai". The first Singaporean victim fallen to terrorism.

Even if I dont know Lo Hoei Yen, nor her family, I cant help but feel a sense of sadness at the loss of a life, who totally had not relation to the terror wielded by this bunch of supposedly young men, in a country not ours and woes not in any way caused by of our doings. It could have been me, my family or friends who happen to be at the wrong place, wrong time...

What we take for granted..travelling safely on the roads, being able to catch up with friends now and then in town, going about our daily lives. How much of these can we still enjoy should there be a chance that someone will sabotage our MRT lines and buses, for eg, or if a bunch of renegades storm a downtown spot?

Looking at our neighbours in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, I appreciate the fact that our little red dot is stable, like in the eye of the storm. But then, should the storm shift, I cannot imagine what we have to give up.

I treasure what I have now, and I pray that terrors in such forms will never reach our shores.

First day back at work

It felt kinda weird going back to work after being almost 4 weeks away, almost like as if I am going to a new place. Of course, the ultimate jam on PIE didn't help to lift the mood, which also resulted in me ended up in the same lift as my Director (well, this was better than the last incident, cos I asked him immediately "Sir, you also caught in the jam on PIE issit?"..heh~ )

Not that it would help if I had reached office earlier. I locked myself out of the system cos I forgot my computer security password, and had to wait for the IT people to come rescue me =.=" By the time I opened up my email inbox, the cronies (those who didn't take leave) from the course have already semi-flooded the inbox :p

The mood in the office was pretty sombre. A few people were not around, but somehow that didn't seemed to be the reason for heavy atmosphere hanging in the air.

It must have been too much negativities. Coming in from both left and right of my cube. At least the front of the cube was still opened, and a few colleagues did dropped by to catch up.

It was a good break. At least to see that there are more stuff to life, work and colleagues than papers, agendas and politiking :))

Back to School! 完结篇

Defining moments for some of us

(i) Pre course briefing

A : "Can we bring our laptops to Bintan? Cos may not have enough time to finish assignment after coming back"

B : "Got washing machine where we stay?"

C : "Do we need to buy extra insurance?"

D: "Do we need to travel around one? Can we can use those kind of trolley luggage huh?"

(A, B, C, D + E, F, G's thought bubbles.. "Wah lau eh..what kind of people am I on course with???")

(ii) 1st week of course

• (wah lau..that guy need to be so chao bin or not..)


• weak coffee and fried snacks for tea breaks


• "Who is that Gary huh?" "Donno leh.." "That guy sitting at the corner one la..always i-lang one"

(iii) Bintan

• Heart and Soul
• Chivas Regal
• Draft beer (but of course)
• Eggs. 10 of them. Plus some branches and leaves and what other poor plants we pulled from their original spots.
• of bells and sirens
• Care bear - shine? stare??
• "I dont think we should be talking about this here" . Wide opened eyes and jaws dropping.
• Packed lunches
• Day 1- Rain. Day 2 - Rain. Day 3 - Rain. Day 4 - Rain. Day 5 and Home Sweet Home - Sunny. Just great..
  

(iv) 3rd week

• flooding of FB with all the pics!
• Hot and whiltering weather
• Painful paper to write (for most..)
• Fish head curry dinner
• Songs and 青蛙跳

(v) 4th Week

• Mugging of handouts which didn't make sense
• More recces
• Revelation of someone's sensitive new age guy's side - luncheon meat sandwiches!
• Handshakes, promises to keep in touch and heartfelt blessings

HTAC SO 2/2008

It has been great knowing you guys!

My horoscope reading for Wed..

"You get some deeply weird news early on that leaves you feeling kind of funky for most of the day -- but it's not all bad! You know deep down that things are right where they're supposed to be."


I was just having a "thought" conversation with myself (er..you mean you dont?) earlier today, and was wondering if I had been right in choosing what I had wanted to do, which dictated how I had wanted to behave, or had I been sabotaging myself all these while? The devil/angel dialogues had been ongoing for a while..and very soon I was confused as to which is which..

"Come on..you know you wanted to do it.."

"What for? You know what your purpose was, right?"

Yet, it's true that deep down in my heart I know how things are going to be, and it's not going to matter how the recent events turned out. As of it is, things had taken its own course and in fact, turned out in a pretty nice way.

So let it be so :)

which leaves me only with this question..what is the meaning of funky??

夜深人静时

每当夜深人静时，总会不经意的，满头思绪。

经济萧条， 我的计划会被影响吗？

不久前的那一只签，好像都没被显灵？

前面的路途，是不是只有经一步，才现下一步？


冥冥中自有安排。再怎么抵也抵不了。

是剪头发的时候了。

Busy Sunday

I hate it when the weekend came and went. Just like that.

Especially Sunday, was out by 2pm, but practically wasting my time at the hockey pitch cos of some people who dont keep to time (I am beginning to hate people who dont respect the value of time. I could have done so much stuff for the duration of time I waited!), with practically nothing accomplished at the end of it.

Then it was rushing off to rehearse for long time friend Kel's wedding as the sword party. Both my partner in the sword party and I agreed on the point that it was always better to dress up nicely and wait with the rest of the dinner guests for the arrival of the groom and bride, instead of having to herald their arrival in number 1. But oh well..for long time friend.

Then it was dinner and it's great that the table with my uni mates had seats available. I didn't realise that it had been a year ago that we met up! What happened in between?! It was yakking and photo taking all the way throughout the dinner (even while the groom and bride were pouring out their gratitudes to their parents, guests etc.. we were entertaining ourselves taking photos :p)

And just as it came, the day ended. And now it's mugging time again. Sigh..Mondays somehow are just so dreary.

My new ride come Dec 08

Provided that the $2 COE fiasco doesn't drive the bidding price up!

The irritating bruise Part 2

I realised that my entries have sequels nowadays :/

In this case, it is a continuation, or more appropriately the spreading of that irritating bruise that is leading to a lot of whispers...

"Eh..what happened? She fell down issit?"
"她被boyfriend打huh?"

Since Wed, the bruise had became a glorious shade of dark purple yesterday and today it had became quite a sight.




It looked sinisterly like a afternoon shadow, and even half a goatee if viewed from a certain angle - one coursemate had unceremoniously said that it looked like a beard, while another one offered a shaver. =.="

One thing for sure, it had really started to looked quite bad. Not in the painful sort of bad, but bad cos it's like so obvious. People started to offer solutions, like apply some whitening cream, use hard boiled egg, rub some Zambut.

This already being Friday, I only had like tomorrow to let the patch dissipate. So after dinner I threw in 4 eggs to cook, and now I'm onto my second hard boiled egg, with an application of my night cream in between, which had Q10, which I hope will help somewhat. The bruise looked kinda became reddish purple, which I seriously hoped that it meant the pooled blood are moving away.


I dont want people to think my friend has a bearded lady-friend come the wedding dinner this Sun... but one thing for sure, I know that the egg-y smell from the hard boiled eggs is making me hungry :p

迷惑的纯真

为什么
每一次听到这首歌
就想起你

That irritating bruise

I was given a welcome present for the first training after a hiatus of 5 months (2 prezzies, if you include the warmup routine - it was a shocker to my legs). Went in for a tackle, think the bouncing ball came off my stick..got a knock from the ball on the chin. It brought a bit of tears on at that instance, but the pain subsided after a few sec. Didn't want to rub it cos was worried that the colouration will spread, and hey, it's not like when younger, when any injuries will come across as very "gungho"...

But the patch somehow got distinctively darker when I looked into the mirror just now. So after wrapping up my assignment, I had wanted to see how bad the bruise was, cos cant really see in the mirror.

TO MY HORROR....

And this is when the spot is still tender, meaning the colouration hasn't really start to spread.

Gosh.. I'm torn between vanity (how to conceal??!!!Got photo to take and wedding dinner to attend this Sun!! ) and practicality (whatever..wont die if people see the bruise).

Right now, I'm more inclined towards "whatever..". Wait till Sun..

I wonder..

- if I should cut my hair. I miss having short hair that dries within 1 hour.

- if my sense and intuition are throwing me off guard. I swear I thought...

- if I should have even bother.

- why I feel squemish when I think about what is going to happen come Jan 09.

- my mind is still running so actively, despite having ran constantly for at least 1 hour on the hockey pitch, and having verbal diarrhoea since 11pm. Must be the wet hair.

A note to myself

平常心，ok?

Back to School! Part 2

All of us are counting down the words needed to complete the assignment.
"How?"
"Only 1000 leh..still got at least another 1000 more"
"I donno..I ended up uploading photos on my facebook"
"I only need another 500 to meet the quota..jialat.."
"I completed already."
And everybody suddenly turned very quiet..
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(god..how come the slides and the handout totally not coherent?)
"Er..sorry to interrupt, but before you go further, are the slides you are presenting, or the handouts more updated?"
"The slides are more updated"
(*&^%&*..it has only been 2 weeks ago when they gave us the consolidated handouts lor, can't they update the slides, then print the handouts?)
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(What..HC what?? NC what?So many acronyms! What the hell is he talking about?)
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"...The hazmat...sophisticated equipment.....there are...."
(I am really...really.....really....sleepy......)
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(*FB tab blinking*)
Pauline "wei wei..doing essay assigment?"
XXX "I have been sitting infront of the laptop since 730 pm but havent accomplished much le.. u done with it?"
Pauline "no..i watching tv.muahahahah!"
(stop showing off..you know you are going to kick yourself later for procrastinating again)
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On FB...
XXXX is "desparately trying to finish up his assignment"
XXX "cannot be more distracted"
XXXX "wonders if she can even finish half her assigment tonight"
Pauline is "speechless once again :x"
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okok..better start working on it.
Tomorrow night going training, Wed gotto drop by Delta to settle the travelling t-shirts at the federation.
I better remember to order ice tmr too..

Musing beside the pitch

I was at the pitch this afternoon cos the U21 team was having a training match with the U-16 boys. While waiting for the Tuck Lee Ice man to arrive with the ordered packets of ice, was talking to the sports trainer, GM.

GM asked me how long I had played, I replied about 10 years before I stopped training a few years back. Then we started talking about scars, operations, allowances and professional athlethes.

After that, I watched the girls as they battled the guys, and as usual I itched to play. Sometimes I wonder, other than passion, I really dont know what else kept us going - beyond stitches, broken bones, sprains, juggling studies/work, lack of sleep.. Sometimes I wonder if I hadn't pick up hockey on a whim during Sec 1, would I be what I'm like today?


p/s Limin, wishing you a speedy recovery after your ops tmr!

Back from Bintan! -updates

Am uploading the pics taken onto picasa web as I am updating, which wasn't a lot given that I had only taken pics on the first day and the last. All those in between? Too busy with climbing mountain trails, contorting branches and leaves, getting gloriously drenched in between getting muddy and sweaty. And oh..getting indoctrinated by our 60 year old mentor on "Respect, Trust and Care".

Personally, it was amazing how the trip turned out. I was kinda dreading the course cos I remember the last time when I was on overseas experiential learning course (that's a nice way of putting it - the real deal was unexpectedly harsher than what we had been prepared for then). I guess as you get too comfortable over time in the urban setting, the outdoors seems a bit ..like..wild?? Moreover, I was a bit sceptical if I can survive the group dynamics..again..getting too comfortable with people already known and worked with.. bleh. On another front, I knew my own objectives for this course as well as the trip (as shared during our very first facilitated discussion in Bintan), given how situation was turning out back at work prior to the start of the course.

But anyway, it was better to do that, than to sit in class and go through lectures after lectures on leadership (hey...that sounded kinda familiar, heck, it happened in bintan as well.Haha~), I thought, and it's good to get those limbs working.

So..I cant say that my moral was very high on the first day cos it was damn early waking up and getting out of the house by 645am, and it was pouring cats and dogs when we reached our destination (which continued its form for the next 3 days as well, until the day when we left when it decided to turn bright and sunny =.="). Thereafter, things took its own course, and somehow it got way much better, especially with the post-activities gatherings at night - that was when the real bonding started :p Almost everybody shedded their "work" fronts and laughed, joked, teased, chatted, shared experiences and thoughts. It was encouraging especially when after a few days, a colleague was comfortable enough to share his thoughts on me, asking me why I was holding back during this trip, knowing that I'm out of character. It was insightful of what he told me, which I think would not had happened if it wasn't that we had been hanging out for the past few nights.

My group was somewhat the super (under-)achiever in all the planned activities front, but it just turned out that our group was prob the only one that was laughing most of the time - despite being chidded for not putting "heart and soul" in our work, lectures on leadership, malfunctioning contraption..I was just telling someone that there seemed to be a lot of "alphas" in my group, but during the 5 days, I discovered that instead of being "alphas", we were more like individuals knew when to hold back and support the designated leader in his/her learning processes, whether if the decisions made were right or wrong. Well, I dont know it was the right attitude towards what we were supposed to go through, but somehow I felt that that had helped foster a sense of trust and respect, which was evident in the last day when instead of writing comments on one another's possible area of improvment and slipping the notes to the respective persons, my group decided to go against the norm (again) to just share and tell how they feel, to one another's face.

The super-underachieving Group 3

Looking back, in my heart, I thank whoever is up there, who had probably understood what I needed, and the trip had really perked me up since a long time I remembered, beyond my expectations. Now..there is still something left unsettled..cross fingers!

Back from Bintan!

Will update more soon...

and waiting for email..crossing fingers!!

The rudest driver I have ever came across

I had the most unpleasant encounter which was the nearest that I wished I could just walk up to the car and let my creativity flow with the car key.

Location : Suntec Carpark B1 (the Carrefour block)

Time : 11.30am

I hadn't expect it to be easy to find a parking lot. So it was a cursory round before I ended up at the entrance where I had came in. Decided to try my luck at the other corner, ie, if I had entered the carpark, I would have turned left immediately.

It was a tight corner as there were designated parallel lots on the left, with the usual reverse lots on the right. As I turned the corner, a couple was just getting into their car parked on the right, 4th from the start of the row. So I moved slightly front, and switched on my hazard light, cos there was no way to wait at the corner, which I would probably blocked the whole traffic. At least where I was waiting from, oncoming cars could still be able to drive past before I get the chance to park.

The car took a while to move off, which is about like 30 seconds, but no other oncoming car. After 30 seconds, the car inched forward turning out of its lot cos remember -it was really quite tight with the row of parallel parked vehicles in front of it. So I waited.

Just as the car made its way clear out of the lot, to my utter disgust I saw a yellow Honda jazz turned the corner and without any hesitation drove head-in into the lot! I horned but the driver was clearly oblivious. I was deliberating whether to confront the driver or to just leave, but I just cant stand the fact that it was damn obvious that I was waiting for the lot and the driver was damn rude to have done what he did. So I reversed to the Honda, where this 50-plus man stepped out of the car with his teenage son.

"Hey, I was waiting for this lot!" I said.

"No what, I thought u were waiting for other lots in front"

Hello???!!! If I had would my car had been stationary with hazard light on?

"No, it was obvious that I was waiting for this lot!" I replied

"If you are you should have waited before the lot what". Then he used his index finger and tapped his temple 3 times, and walked off nonchanlantly.

"F&^%&* idiot! " I shouted after him and drove off.

ARGHHGHGHHGHGHG! WTF! He had the audacity to behave so smugly about the fact that he outwitted another person for a parking lot!

Freaking hell. I wouldn't been as angry if he

(i) had really didn't see me waiting (which, it was obvious he did. Come on, if I can see his audacious act of driving into my lot through my rear view mirror, he would been able to see me waiting in front, and in seeing me waiting, went in head first so I had no chance to contest for the lot)

(ii) apologised

No, I did not deploy my creativity streak cos no point commiting crime for an idiot like this. But I did take a photo of his car and car plate. Was toying with the idea of sending it STOMP and whatever other forums of ungracious and totally rude idiot. But then again, no point in flaming this idiot by mindless netizen mob.

Fine example he set for his son. I pity the son for having a father like that cos he wouldn't have any chance of learning civility from the main role model he has in his life.

I hope there is no need to reach the stage, where we need to erect this sign warning people of potential area of road rage, if only all of us practise a little bit of grace and common sense.

ps. Yes, I still think in general men are worse drivers.

Women drivers are in general unsure cos they seldom drive; so yes, some of them do take more time in parking, some of the time they are slow on the roads. You too if you only drive like once a week.

Men drivers - they switch lane without signalling, they squeeze in front of you, forcing you to brake, they tailgate you, they dont ever let you get the chance to cut in from the filter lane -they would even accelerate to cut you off even though you are already running out of road and probably heading to the barrier in about one more nanosecond. Oh yes, some men drivers do also take more time inparking their super big vehicle, sometimes cutting in the lot next to it (which lead me to think that they really should limit their car size to the level of skill they have)and some also do travel at 50km in the middle lane of the expressway for god-knows-what-reason.

How to know? Next time you think the driver in front or beside you is horrible, turn and look. It is more likely to be a man than a woman. I know, cos I have done it. And read the newspaper - how many of the accidents fatalities are male drivers? Nuff said.

Back to School!

(oh god..so early...my mind havent wake up yet...)
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"Av view ewer done a dreat azzesment befwour?"

"Huh?!" (at least 5 goondus who were not sensitive enough in controlling their first reactions) (the goondus included me)

First line repeated.

"Oh..threat assessment..no, never do before"
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He asked, "Are you ok?"

*turn around, GC (sitting in the row behind me) pointing back at me, turn back and look at the lecturer*

"Eh Sir, you looking at me?"

Darn. Kena punk'd.

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(wah...jialat..want to fall asleep liao..cannot leh.. Very 'luck say' if sekali I start nodding)
*pinch pinch poke poke*
(wah lau eh..if this carries on my arm blue black liao)

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(hmmm..nice weather..shit..what did the lecturer just say??)

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(wah...how come she scribble so many things on her handout. Got so much thing to write meh?)
*look at own handout which was as clean as it came*
(hmmmm......)

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"Ok class, any questions?"

Silence.

You can even hear the coconut tree leaf drop across the parade square.

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(Ok, better start finish up the readings....oh..file forget to bring back?....... Yay! Dont have to read already! hahahahahah :D)


p.s. The above moments are not fictional, but depict perhaps only 5% of the true happenings of the whole course so far :p

By and large, the lessons were insightful, thought provoking, and essentially an eye opener, by the few experts in their area of work. Thank goodness also the participants are participative and threw some really snazzy questions that kept the class atmosphere alive.

Going to a semi-wilderness next week (I felt a deja vu of HuaHin, which I didn't even knew was a resort town going by the rough stuff we had to go through. We should have bunked into one of the 5 star resorts any of the 3 nights we had to kayak)

Halloween! Part 2

It was a bad evening, but wasn't going to let that affect my night out.





It was scary-galore (not to mentioned meat packed crowdedness) at outside Zouk.

Other than the usual devils, Death of god, there were a lot of

• angels
• the Joker
• bunny girls

Some interesting ones

• A ERP Gantry (oohh,,that's scary..)


• a group of PAP MPs (who were waving around and got themselves into velvet without queueing..darn!)


• a Ronald Mcdonald

Aaaww...I realised how lame it was without the pics. But I was too lazy to bring my cam from the car, my phone cam sucks and I am totally regretting it now! :/

What was I? haha~ wait for the pics. Next year I want to go as something scarier.

(this is till named part 2 cos I deleted part 1 and part 3 - going to stay low profile under the radar.)

嘟嘟 嘟嘟嘟......

In the humdrum confines of the office..suddenly..my colleauge went..

"嘟嘟 嘟嘟嘟 ， 青春一二三..."

Huh?? O_o

“哎呀，我（做到）块要疯了.." aka "my brain is releasing pressure by doing this nonsecical spontaneous act of unexplainable behaviour".

But anyway...that song is ancient! but somehow the song is just so distinguishable that once the "嘟嘟嘟" comes out, people will already know what song and show was that.


With all the SBC shows doing re-runs on tv, it was like reminiscing the time when getting to watch the 9pm serial was the best thing for the day. The voice over was ear jarring yes, but somehow the stories were those that you cant forget after so long. The same colleauge commented "Wah, 陈碧风is so cute can?". Of course la, she was the equivalent of the current Joanne Peh or Fiona Chin(I wonder where is she now..?)

And as we crapped along, we realised that the scariest tv show then had to be 迷离夜, which prob imprinted in my mind the sterotypical 桥段 of the omnipresent 老阿嬷whenever it's time for a eerie moment. And we also concluded that the scariest story in that serial was the one with the butterflies. I cant exactly reall what was the story about (was it about a small girl got bitten by a butterfly and then grow old?), cos both of us remembered that we were super scared of butterflies after a long long while.


I guess I lost touch with TCS and subsequently Mediacorp. Nowdays I see more variety on tv, and more glamourous stars;but somehow, the feeling is not the same. It was memory galore when you-tubed "SBC drama"

And now..

"Time by Raymond Weil. 8pm"

No lyrics!

I was hooked when I heard this song, thks to sunshine, who posted the link in her blog.

So decided to drop by HMV before dinner to hunt for the CD. I had actually wanted to buy this 2003 release



but I only found this





Oh well..I had wanted the 2003 release cos I thought the sleeve was nice, but since HMV didn't stock it, I guess the 2006 release wouldn't be any different. Moreover it prob is better since since it has tracks from her later albums - March of the Empress & Vegetal.

But as I was opening up the sleeve, I was suddenly thrown back to JC days, when a close friend lamented "The CD quite crap, doesn't come with lyrics one!".

I had wonder what was the big deal then, but at this moment as I was looking at the CD sleeve, my sentiments echoed my friend's words, uttered more than 10 years ago, exactly. The CD sleeve consisted of a smaller than A4 sized printed insert, with song listing, the acknowledgement to the background performers to the individual tracks, and a simple tribute to the singer for the writing/composition/arrangement/performance/production for the songs (yes, this was the reason why I was willing to part with almost 30 bucks for this CD..I think this girl is amazing..)

Well..yes, I really loved the songs playing over my car stereo as I was driving back, but somehow the overall experience was already marred in a way. I mean, in this digital age, if I had wanted to buy a CD it would be for keepers right? If not I would have downloaded it from the internet or something. After paying near to 30 bucks for a CD and it doesn't come with barely any stuff inside the CD sleeve, it can be very disappointing.


Compared to the other double-CD album I bought from 五月天 (no, not their latest one, I am also counting down to the release after hearing all the new singles on radio)，which I had also decided to buy to keep, it came with lyrics, illustrations, (for me to oogle at 阿信and 怪兽..heh~), anecdotes, it seemed a more worthwhile buy.

Perhaps we are more partial to such stuff, since there are just so many pirated MP3s or China parallel imports floating around, and production houses, esp the Mandarin songs market has evolved, improvising in order to tempt consumers to part with their money, which prob explains the larger (and thicker) packagings for the Mandarin CDs (which can be quite irritating cos the odd sizing made packing difficult). But in general, most of the records are still the normal 5x4" CD casings, which you really can't discern the content, until you paid, and "poh heng sway" that you will like what you see after you tear away the shrink-wrap.





Anyway, whatever it is, the songs are nice. Here's one, thought I still prefer "Flowers"

2nd attempt at Strawberry shortcake

I finally found wholewheat flour! And it means...another go at the strawberry shortcake!

This time round, I was more careful with the egg whites, which really became stiffer after beating, and held longer too with the cream of tartar.

Cut down on the sugar, more patience folding in the mixture.. Just pop in the mixture to the pot..45 mins to see whether if it'll be better than the first try.

*cross fingers*

---Verdict---

- Cake slightly burnt on the bottom,costing me much effort (and my manicure) to scrub the baking tin before my mum comes home, if not she will nag at me for being not using turning down the fire.But already turn down the fire to the smallest already..man.. I think I used bigger flames to cook maggi mee than to bake the cake lor. Patience.....

- I could have blended the wholemeal flour a bit longer.

- Overall, better than the first round, but not good enough leh. So rabbit..u wait longer ok? :p

new blogskin again!

As you can see, I hv reverted to my old blogskin, albeit a different template. I was so tempted to go for something darker, like how it was before the last skin. But well..I guess it's good enough to see my usual alcoholic treat back again :D

It's time for the real deal soon...

So busted...

my back, that is.

Was all ok during the run and after it, though a bit on the stiff side. Which was why I decided to stretch a lil before going to sleep. Of course, going a bit more to hear the back cracking which was the ultimate relief for a stiff back if you ask anyone.

But what I hadn't expect was that I cant even flip myself over in bed the next morning.

The last time my back acted up was prob during the season early this year, but I was careful. And I was sure it hadn't been so bad that I hadn't see it coming, or feeling the pain first thing in the morning. I had attempted to get it sorted out last year, but the inconveniene of visiting the sports clinic and the lack of interest from the staff there hadn't tempted me to followup with treatment. Serve myself right.

Needless to say, the whole morning was misery overdose when every movement had to be done gingerly without sending the back muscles into spasm. I dropped the eyelash curler in the morning, and took at least 1 whole minute to reach for it and stand up again, and even then was sweating with the effort. Getting into and out of the car became uncomfortable affairs. Someone in the office carpark was giving me the weird look when I had to slowly crawl out, grab the door and right myself up, wait for 10 seconds for the pain to subside before reaching for my bag in the car. At some point in time I was walking like a Liang Po Po cause it was simply too painful to stand straight to walk.

Desperation called for desperate measures. I had to resort to finding the nearest clinic to office that can deal with back problems and I called to make an appointment fixed at 1230. So giving myself enough time, I left office at 1215pm, only to bump into my Dir at the lift lobby and hv him asking "Going for lunch huh?". "Yes Sir, running some errands too." Damn, of all days...to be caught leaving office early..

So to the physiotherapy clinic..which had to be tucked in some obscure corner, when I was cursing under my breath already while walking with a rimrod back. So when I finally found it, I was so relieved..that relief (no pun intended) was here.

Attended by a physiotherapist called Cheryl, who I thought was carrying a fake australian accent while trying to cover her singlish intonations.... but hey, no rude thoughts cos she was going to be my saviour! According to Cheryl, the main problem was that my flexi joints on my spains are locked by the surronding muscles due to spasms, which was prob triggered by the crack I did last night, which now caused them to press on the nerves.

So 45 mins of diagnosis, stretches, massages to mobilise the back muscles, standing and sitting practises to ease the strain on the back area, and some exercises to do on my own.

And set myself back by a good $80

=.="

*heart pain*.

A followup was scheduled for this Fri. Seriously, I had obviously taking my back for granted until you realise that you cant even do the simple daily things like picking up things, bouncing down the stairs, or even just plain sitting down.

If every body part has an age attached to it, I think my back is probably like a 80 year old's. I better start taking good care of it; if not I would really walk like a liang po po after a few year.

Musing on a Rainy Day

Was out of office early for an appointment, and headed to Botanical Gardens earlier than usual for weekly run. And it started pouring on the way. By the time I reached, it rained with no respite in sight.

The original intention was to read the truman capote short stories that I threw into my bag, while waiting for my running partner to turn up. The best thing that anybody could possibly do now was to grab a latte, then a chair, and read the book. But I ended up enjoying the best frontview seat to glorious rain more, with this playing in the background.

Not that you really played attention to the piped in music, cos you would be as absorbed into the rythmic pattering of rain on the roof, the concrete grounds, accompanied by the cacophony of raindrops on leaves and stems of various botony.

Lulled by the soothing sounds, reclining back, inhaling with relish the scent of coffee infused with the fresh smell of new rain after a stuffy humid afternoon.

You cant see it, but I marvelled at the design of some of the planter boxes - overflowing rainwater cascading from alternate planter boxes, forming impromptu mini fountains. It's times like this that I miss my portable phone cam.

I'll always remember that someone told me that water, in whatever forms they come in - lakes, ocean, reservoirs, in the shower- carried with them positive ions, which could help to turn anybody's aura and mood around. That probably explained why I like beaches. Now, I wondered if that theory included rain, especially when they poured in such abundance.

How often do you get to watch, smell and hear the rain? Ah..it's nice.. the little joys in life.

独立新时代女性的矛盾

今晚，到了球场。 为了一个没有再加思考许下的承诺，虽然还有一段时间，责任也还没划分好 好歹也要下来探班一下。

仿佛，看到了十年前的自己。还记得，那时，别人在家吃饭，温书，看电视，我们却是在球场上- 讲好听是在奔驰， 讲难听是给教练骂得狗血淋头 （可我还真想念张教练）。哈~

也误打误撞，本来没打算，到后来，碰了俏和君子吃晚饭。君子这次中国之旅，不是很愉快。人的种种。她叹息地说了， 来新有十年了。

十年。

十年来，我们那队比较要好的几个， 好像物以类聚似得， 性格上，都那么独立， 那么强。

我啦，直来直往的火爆子。

俏 出了名的工作狂， 打球，工作都一样。

君子，直爽坦然，为了生活，适应能力超强。

秋给我的影像，是她娘家和她自己二人小世界的精神支柱。

艾 在最紧要关头，为她一人最冷静

莲是一个没人敢惹的小辣椒，现在一人在雅加达任工。

敏一向来，是个很有主见的新时代女性。


除了敏和秋 （还有俏明年也快了），其他的我们还都是孤家寡人。

君子中国的旧朋友们，意见纷纷 - 太硬了吧，让男人都怕。

则么，我吃中饭时还跟一个前同事说了 - 我太独立了吧，所以男人都不敢追。还哈哈大笑带过。晚上，竟然发现一个礼拜前，在中国内蒙的某人，也说了同样一番话。

应该是还没遇到一个有能耐的男人吧，我回君子道。能接受我们的独立，也能让我们偶尔靠靠一下。

她说了，没办法，没遇到，所以得自己变得更强， 更独立。

矛盾。

可没办法。

The Death of Punctuality

Since you can call to "alert" the other party that you will be late for dinner -

- so it's ok that now you can take your own time after your yoga class. Yeah, I could have try to wash up and leave in 15 mins, but why rush?

- so you can "clear" your emails since you were out the whole day for an event which prob ended before 5pm. No, never mind if you prob wont need 2 hours to do that, since you can also read all the usual junk and spam as well. The rest can wait one..

- so you just want to detour to grab whatever stuff you forgot to buy even if you had everyday in the past week to go get it, since the others are going to be late anyway. It's ok, you called the last person of the group so that the person dont have to go there so early and "stupid stupid sit alone there to wait..but you on your way there already? hahah..ok..you wait lor"

Just great. This was the worst experience I had with this group of friends who are perpectually late during one occasion or another. I can still recount the number of times that I have to wait for half an hour or more before one of them turns up for any of the gatherings that we have. If I make an effort to be punctual it means I'm committed to our agreement, and anything less without valid grounds will just show how lacking in that department on your part. The mere fact that you can wantonly decide what time you want to turn up without any regard for the other people who are in the agreement just show how shallow and inconsiderate that you can be.

"You can always be late also one what..."

Dont these people understand that it's too tiring to speculate how "late" to be cos you dont want to be left stranded waiting for the rest???

Grrrrwwwwwwwlll.........

Carnage

This is a sinful week

It started normally...until yesterday which was when the carnage started:

Tues dinner
Dinner was pork knuckle + sausage platter + beer

Wed lunch
烧肉+ 叉烧+烧鸡 for 6 (which looked like it could feed 10)

Wed dinner
2 black pepper crabs + 1 chilli crab + 海鲜油条+“黄金”豆腐 （which was the size of a rim of A4 paper block)+2 plates of negligible veg (for consolation that we are taking something healthy amidst the artery choking sutff) + Vermonster

Tmr

Lunch - I'm so going to either eat light or skip...cos.....

Dinner - japanese alacarte buffet dinner at Himawari = free flow of shabu shabu+sashimi+fried soft shell crab+ god knows what the rest will order.

The above detailed what I had gone through and going to go through with 3 different groups of people of 3 straight days.


It would hv more amazing if I had remembered to bring my cam on each ocassion to document the kind of food that I am feasting on. I better run them off soon.

NailsNailsNails...

The wine is chilling in the fridge. In the meantime, uploading some of the photo of my sinful escapade yesterday to Yishun.

Nice right?? Cant really see? OK, another one.

How's the closeup?

Another angle.

Ok, it is so untypical of me to be so hiao. But

• I was feeling sian
• Thinking of doing something to my nails, which were getting a bit too long and hurt when I bang on the keyboard in frustration, which was also getting a bit more frequent
• but quite sick of all those nail salon bars who always seem not be really bother
• Got like 4 weddings coming up in the next few months, the first of which is end of the month.

And then I chanced across this website. Thought her designs were quite creative, which is something I found lacking in the nail salon bars. So since I was on half day yesterday, I decided to check the place out. Which was quite worth the trip, esp talking to Cynthia (who did my nails - sweet girl!) and her mum while Cynthia slog away over my stubby fingers.

I was like looking at my nails on the way home; OMG - so pretty !:))

Darn.. even sound a bit lian-ish in this blog. That is so not me..but OMG, so pretty! Ok, thinking of next design to try out..

气。非常气。非常非常气。

This entry contains muted vulgarities and lots and lots and lots of anger and frustration.

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A hamster docking station.

Despite my protest and apparent displeasure. Just cos my cube is "not so open".

WTF.

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I was surprised when someone came to ask me something, which I hadn't told anybody other those on a need-to-know basis.

I haven't made any decisions yet, but the news had been broadcasted. Thanks to somebody.

WTF.


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You dont need me, you just need someone to help do piecemeal stuff.

WTF.

Strawberry Shortcake!

Nope. Not this.

But this.

Or at leat what I tried to be.

First, I cant find whole wheat flour - after scouring Giant, Sheng Siong, NTUC..In the end, I settled for semolina, which is also wheat flour, but after checking with Sunshine, who told me that semolina is actually grinded finer. But what the heck..I already got the strawberry and whipped cream. It will do for a start :p

Second, I cant seem to be able to whip the egg white properly. I think I was probably too impatient, cos I threw in the sugar before the whites were properly peaking. and I couldn't really get the whites to form the "stiff peaks" after that.So it was half an hour of using the mixer until my arm is sort of achy now. Bleh. Straightaway after the mixture went into the pot (I bake with a cooking pot btw..), I googled for the best way to beat egg white until they peak . The wonder of the Ingtereck.

Third, I think I have a subconscious adversion to whipped cream. Instead of whipping the cream from scratch, I cheated and bought a can of whipped cream. Whih is not easy to spread on cake?! It sort of turned watery when I i tried to spead it around (how did people do it so nicely like in the photo?) Maybe also my subconscious mind keeps telling me "less cream. less cream. less cream". Maybe the trick for nicely spread out whipped cream is to dump lots of it? ( I did noticed the thick layer of cream in the photo which made the cake looked super delicious. Hmmm..)

The final product didn't do too badly, but my mum said it tasted like 鸡蛋糕 -.-"

Ok, the next one will definitely be better. The search for whole wheat flour is on!

Stay

Still ripping CDs. It's good that I cant download the software from Nokia Music Center..if not I think I will spend more money.

Remember I mentioned that those cds which I bought eons ago, I still like them? Came across one today. And I still liked.



I wonder where is Lisa Loeb now?

Next - travel speakers

My music collection

My laptop is reformatted and set up again. So today was playing with new toy day!

I was busy the whole afternoon ripping CDs from my collection. It was a good time too..since my CDs were like all over the place - room, hi-fi. car CD deck, boot of car, car visor, car glove compartment...well, I like my CDs to be within one arm reach where I can reach and pop them into the Cd player :p

Realised that although I had bought more english CDs, most of the ones which I decided to upload into iTunes were the Chinese one. Funny thing..I realised that my Chinese CD collections were quite erratic - I had a couple of 陈弈迅and 王力宏 though I wasn't much of a fan, but I had none of SHE?! Well, not that I am a big fan but I would have thought that inclination was more to the latter then the first 2. Of course 五月天,苏打绿　are in.

My choice of english albums had pretty much been quite stable through the years; those I bought them many years ago I still like, and were among the first few that I ripped- robbie williams, love actually sound track, and of course more recent ones like across the universe..somehow I wasnt too keen on those CDs which I had bought recently like Amy Winehouse. just wondering where some of my lounge, jazz and bossa nova music CDs are. Its weird that the whole collection is missing, just wondering when was the last time I took them out?hmm...

Talking abt 苏打绿，was just telling someone the other day that I regretted not going to their concert when they came to Sg recently. Think if they do come again, I will def go.

I'm not stupid

I had it coming.

I am not as experienced as you, but that doesn't mean I am stupid. What makes me more mad was your statement that I was not cut out for this, when in the first place you hadn't gave me opportunity to learn the ropes.

This pretty much sums up what I have been feeling for the past one and a half year.

F1 Sunday

What could be more exciting than watching the first ever night race in the history of F1 Grand Prix? Like many ple (read : not high net worth - no sponsored tickets - no track side seats), but I prob had the vantage seat - in front of the TV.



Which had proved real good, if not how would I have caught Messa's disastrous moment causing him to drop from the leader of the pack to end up covering the rear? And then watched the replay of Haikonnen crashing out with just a few laps away from the finish line? I pity those who had betted based on the showing on Friday. People used to say "The ball is round", now I think that applies to the tracks as well.



I must say, the race had proved to pack more drama than the hong kong serial showing on channel 8, real time some more.



In the middle of the race, I suddenly had a feeling of deja vu - the setting was the same a few weeks back with our paddlers playing the doubles final. It's exciting to think that Singapore can stick its fingers in the international sports scenes pie finally.

Chat before the weekend

It had been a restless day.

I have a nugget of thought which has transformed to a mammoth load, that has been bouncing in my head for the past 1 week. Imagine a big boulder bouncing around in your brains- I had been rendered almost impossible to work (wasn't hard especially when you had to deal with nauseating excel spreadsheets). Finally unable to get any headway, I decided to pop into my Dy D's office for a chat. And confirmed the facts of what I had felt about my one-and-half year stint current post.

Now the ball is in my court. It is good that I have at least 2 days to think of what I really want. However, I cant shake off the images of bridges burning, and not from my end too. Gosh, I just wish that things will fall in place when that happens.

Nobody's responsible for your outcome other than yourself. I don't want to waste another one-and-half year.

First ever F1 Night Race

It's funny how that the one of the biggest race is actually starting tomorrow but the buzz doesn't seem to have taken off.

Personally the indication that the event is finally here was the flurry of activities by the other floors in my office building.Another source was of course the TV. The point finally hit home when I had to leave my car behind at Centerpoint and take the MRT to City Hall,bearing in mind that the roads are closed.

I would have expected that there would have more excitement generated, like how enterprising merchants coming up with F1 theme stuff- F1 themed cakes, F1 sales,F1 cocktails, F1 t-shirts..you get the drift.

No. Zilt. So much for the first night F1 race and the first for Singapore. Even the IMF meetings 2 years back sounded more exciting with all the news of likely protesters, all the power hustlers coming to SG.

Could it be that as a nation obssessed with only soccer and golf (try naming another sport that can possibly grip the whole nation..), F1 racing is a more foreign sport that is less easy to understand and hence, not much interest garnered from our own people. But then again, neither does Singapore is known for a big following on athletics but we all know how Liu Xiang was the hope of China.

Ok,the analogy wasn't really good. But my point is, it seems F1 Grand Prix forgot to engage the Singaporeans in the festivities. I had remembered something like a fringe carnival was promised. I had seen none,or maybe I was too far back in the kampung to hear if any has been planned.

Well, I do hope that the whole event goes smoothly. For the ticket holders in feeling justified in payiing so much for the tixs (just cross your fingers that you dont get drenched in the rain. Umbrellas wouldn't help in these tropical downpours), for the drivers and their crew. And for Singaporeans- to have lived in such close proximity to the first of such race but without enough fate to be part of it.

No chance with tickets or squeezing in with friends at their downtown office? Just imagine yourself going through the circuit :)

I need activities.

I am bored stiff with work. So my mind tends to wander to keep myself mentally occupied. Wikipedia has been a source of relief (I cant believe that I derive some joy in checking the thesarus on dictionary.com) and I make sure I bring newspaper to the office everyday
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I am looking at signing up for courses, but realised that they may just cross over Nov when I am not sure whether if I will be around for a good 3-4 weeks. If not the pilates course sounds real good and at least keep me occupied physically other than running. I need another sport, with the lull period.
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I am keeping to my financial goals, so I am keeping my shopping to a minimum. Realised that it helps to keep the wardrobe less cluttered too and make me think twice before I decide that the stuff is really something that I like and not bought on impulse (I have got enough dresses. I have got enough dresses. No I dont need to buy that dress.I have got enough dresses). I'm sure if I am kept gainfully occupied, my shopping desires will definitely drop cos I suspect the impulses are built on boredom.
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I am running out of DVDs to watch. I had found the ones borrowed by one ex, which I had refused to watched after learning that he had strayed during the period when he gotten the DVD, and stashed them somewhere. I was so desparate to find something to do that I finally watched one. I am so going to thrash them for good after I finish watching the other one. But then again, I dont want to waste my life watching DVDs after DVDs...
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I am looking for good books to read but haven't got chance to go to the nearest library, and I don't believe in buying books if I can help it. How come Novena Sq dont have something like Sunny Bookstore? I will definitely be a long time trusted customer.
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Rest can only be as sweet if one is as equally purposeful in work.

I need a change.

It's not over tonight..

Just give me one more chance to make it right


I didn't even know the title to the song. I went to youtube and search "it's not over tonight" and I found it. Amazing :D

Was playing the song when my brother walked past and said.."You got the song? THe song kept playing in my head when I was showering just now leh".

I bet it's so contagious that the chorus will keep playing in your head at least for a day after you read this entry.

Enjoy!

残暴

星光灿烂，
现在只成
回忆

乌云
刮风
狂雨

它不惜摧残，
无情,自私
狂妄,自大

我为何还稀罕

在避风港
慢慢挨过这场
无聊的暴风雨

雨过天晴后
再导航

Black Saturday

It's sad that it has to happen again.

The Black Saturday has led to many dead and injured. According to the reports, the attack was timed so that it was the most deadly, when most were breaking fast. If the attack was idealogy led, the idealogy based on a religion when this was the month to practise forebrearance, peace and empathies, I dont see how both can be linked or based on the same theology.

Just like the American financial market crunch..Singaporeans were generally nonchalant, until the truth hit home when AIG was affected. It became a real issue istead of some problems to be dealt by chaps halfway around the globe. Do we need something to happen at our doorstep before we start to sit up, and perhaps realise how vulnerable we are?

I am so darn weak...

...over only 2 bottles of victoria bitter.



I have to qualify, I wasn't drunk but I think my body was starting to protest when my lower abdomen (not my stomach strangely) started cramping up and I was breaking out in cold sweat on the way home. Could be due to the fact that :-

• I was nursing a sore throat over the past 2 days


• I was feeling a wee bit dodgy while waiting for the "auntie's" arrival


• The excel spreadsheet which I hv been working on for the past week was making me nauseated


• I havent been sleeping well for the last few days (see point i,ii and iii) and of course, exacerbated by someone's inconsiderate callings late Wed night when I was trying to sleep.

The moment I step out of the car, I felt the upsurge and threw up at the nearest grass patch. Whatever I had for dinner (or what had tasted like what I ate for dinner) came out in the mash of liquid and whatnot. Once done, I thought that was it. Then another wave came.

While facing downwards and watching whatever i merlion-ed..I could hear 2 banglas walking past and probably sniggering in their own language. All possible imagined sexual attacks flashed through my mind, having heard of what happened near my place recently. I was so ready to kick whoever take a step too near me.

I must say..it is amazing how I managed to make it back home in a super steadily manner. And spent the next half hour cradling my head until I decided that it was definitely much better to be cradling my head SHOWERED, CLEAN AND READY TO SLEEP. So despite protests from my whirling head, I dragged myself to the bathroom floor. Much better after that, I flitted to my kitchen to down 3 tabs of vit b, knowing that was the key if I I want to survive the night and wake up sane the next morning.

And truely, no hangover effect..only the sorethroat and nauseating effect from the excel spreadsheet left for me to nurse.

Damn. I liked the 虾酱鸡 and would have preferred to have it left digesting in my stomach. I hope next time I eat 虾酱鸡 it wont bring back this episode to memory.

My steps to more self discipline

Step NO 1. Sleep Early

I havent been hitting my bed anytime before 12 midnight for the longest time. THe most recent time was in Bali (where the only past-time was sleep cos horrors!There were no tv in the rooms which we were staying in and I finished the only book I brought on the first day!).

So last night I decided that enough was enough (of course, the fact that I finished watching the DVDs I borrowed.. ) and I was all ready for bed by 11pm.

And tossed and turned for a good half hour I think. The usual dream-state sleep toward waking up didn't help. But counting back, it was the first 8 hour sleep that I had for ages. I better keep it up if I want to get rid of THE dark eye circles.

Step No 2. Start Running

After the Nike Run, I decided that I need to recuperate. For a few days.

Which extended to a full 2 weeks :p

Of course, what resulted was expected, exacerbated with the recently gourging of mooncakes.

So providence provides, I grabbed the oppotunity when an email thread came from the most unexpected person to remind us that it's about time to start getting fit, and jio-ed people to go running. Today was the first session at Macritchie. We are going to do Botanic Gardens next Tues!

It's always nice to run at nice places..and of course the fact that there are people waiting for you to run together helped cos you dont want to be known as the "pilot" lor.


To Stan Chart and lean body! yay!


Step NO 3. Money-wise

I had a thought recently, and I deicded that that will be my financial goal for the next few years.

Cant remember where I read it from, but typical Taurus got bad money sense (cos they love pretty things too much!!!). But when they decide that there is something they want to get, they will work the hell towards it.

So...

Gone are online shopping and shoes (only if I'm still thinking about the stuff the next day. Hey a girl's gonna get what a girl luvs right? :p), expensive lunches (just not so frequent..special occasion still can la).

Hmm...I realise I dont have much vices money-wise. That'll do for a start :D

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I realised I haven't been photo-blogging recently..seems like nothing interesting recently :/