Guangzhou, here I come!

This would be my last entry till I get back from Guangzhou. I am excited, but am afraid that I missed out packing something. After all, Guangzhou is a strange new place to me, unlike Hong Kong. I am not sure whether I can readily get stuff that at need, pronto.

Anyway, I am throwing caution to the wind and just let things be. I just pray to God that it will not be so cold. I think I should be prepared with my winter gear but one can never know.

Will I meet someone there? Hahaha...not sure. Throwing THAT to the wind too (if there ever was such a saying).

Merry Christmas to all who are reading this entry. Will be back soon!

The not-so-good and the good

I have come to a point today, that I feel that there is no point in blogging. It takes too much effort, but yet, I should still blog. Even though not so nice stuff happen day in day out, there are still good stuff going on.

Yesterday, I was happy but today, talks about old age and death surround me, as my grandpa got admitted to the hospital after yet another fall. It is good to live in my country as long as you don't fall ill. The hospital bill is no laughing matter.

Anyway, I had a fruitful and eventful day yesterday. I attended an ex-colleague's wedding and then had dinner with Spacecake at Marmalade Pantry. Super delicious if not for my stupid gastric attack. Dessert made it better though. A must-try is there crab meat linguini and their desserts? Can just close your eyes, point to whichever and order. We tried the sticky date and toffee pudding and the apricot and blackberry crumble.

Personally, I have made the sticky date and toffee pudding my comfort food favourite of the moment. It was an almost orgasmic experience on first bite. Hahaha....that's the only way I can describe it. It was not too hot, not too suit. Everything was just right and the toffee oozes appropriately around the pudding without overpowering it. Need I say more? Better make reservations in order not to be disappointed.

Orchard Road has really gone through a facelift too. Lots of new tall buildings loom on both sides of the road: Ion Orchard, 313@Somerset, Orchard Central. Yes, I must say, we are beginning to look a little like Hong Kong.

p/s: Will post pics of the food later. Too lazy to find and plug in USB port.

Chyi, Tiger Huang, Pan Yue Yun & Wan Fang

Went Genting to see their concert. Out of the 4, love Chyi the most. Love her "Olive Tree" (gan lan shu) song and "Stories". Perhaps that is why I am what I am called today because of her song. Haha.

Tiger Huang Xiao Hu was my Dad's favourite and mine in a way. I love her song, "More than just friends". The song is about this woman who is always there by this guy's side, sharing his pains and happiness and when he has anything, he will go to her, be it happy or sad. Little does he know that that the woman actually wants to be more than just friends. It describes my feelings totally. More so now than ever and when she sang this song, I let go and cried myself silly. It actually felt good. And Tiger Huang sings very well in live situations!

I cried yet again when Chyi sang her songs. She has a voice of an angel and she has a way of touching one's heart with her voice. What's more, this was my first time listening to her live and being so close to her. She said that this concert was about treasuring and loving women and who should treasure and love them? Ourselves. Powerful.

It was a good end to a horrible day but no sooner had we enjoyed ourselves, did we have to leave the place in a hurry so that I can get back to work on Monday, which is now!

Views about life and relationships

It has been a crazy week, or even months, but I think God is helping me along, edging me on with every waking hour.

Other than going for my belly dancing and ceramic classes, I hooked up with my University friend on Facebook and we caught on over the phone. She too is now divorced but has just gotten married again because she got pregnant. She told of a long story of betrayed love. long court cases (still fighting at the moment) and the fact that she had little faith in love or marriage (even though she is in one now).

While I am happy for her that she is married and pregnant with child, I cannot help but feel that God was sending me a message: that I should really wait out and be patient with finding Mr. so-called Right. OK, I know, I am beginning to sound like Sumiko Tan from Straights Times, always lamenting about how she cannot find a decent boyfriend. No, I do not like her columns and no, I do not want to lament. I think I have come to a stage that I can say that I am comfortable with who I am at the moment and what I am doing in my life. There is no guarantee that I will not want to find someone special to keep me company somewhere down the road, but at least now, I am not worried or in such a hurry to find myself a partner.

Not sure if I have mentioned this before, but I am at the stage of self-discovery and at my age, learning to really live as a whole person. Sometimes, it is not easy,having to cope with parents, colleagues and so on, but every step is a learning process.

I am learning to truly live in, and learn from these learning processes and enjoying it every moment. If there were bad moments, I now have mum to fall back on, where previously we were not able to really talk to each other, she advises me on how to handle everyday human relations. We do not always see eye to eye but I feel real close to her just by having these heart-to-heart talks.

Living each day, feeling alive!

It's been yonks since I last blogged. Life has been really busy but fulfilling. No, I am not dating or anything like that. It's just that I have busied myself with lots of things: Classes for my diploma course on Mondays and Wednesdays; Belly dance class on Thursdays and now, ceramic art class on Fridays.

Yes, it is almost like I cannot breathe but I guess this is the best way to while away time and what better way to meet new people than to sign up for classes at the local community club?! I have met many of my classmates from both the belly dance and ceramic class, who want to make a career switch to my current profession. Lots of networking there and I think that is healthy enough, for now.

I think God has been good to me. What I lack in life, He makes up for it in other ways. I also fall sick less (touch wood) as I think my work environment is much better than my previous one. Now all I have to do is to wait for a guy to drop from the sky. NOT! I will take it in my stride and leave it to fate.

My focus is on my parents and grandparents at the moment. Nowadays, I tend to worry more about them. I will call back often to check on them and if they do not pick up, I get all worried. Not trying to gloat here but I am really happy to have bought a new t.v. for my grandparents. I saw that their television screen was turning yellow, a sign if it going kapoot. I did not buy it all buy myself though. I 'joined forces' with my Dad and no, we did not get the set from the Philips Carnival that just passed last weekend.

I am living each day, like it is the last (trying) especially when it comes to my parents. One never knows what is going to happen next and I do not want to live with regrets.

It's set! I am going to Guangzhou!

This trip had been two or three years in the planning. When I was working as a Librarian, I always tried to give priority to my colleagues who had family. They had children and had to take leave during the school holiday period. The bad part? I could never go on tour with my Dad and two aunts, one of whom is a teacher.

Even last year, I did not dare to take leave as I have developed this phobia for it. I was afraid that I would get "No" for an answer. Now that I am in my new work place though, I plucked up the courage and went to ask my boss. She was really nice and even though I am not confirmed till November, she agreed to the dates that I asked for as there was no one taking it yet.

I feel very blessed to be working in this new environment. With good guidance and fairly good colleagues, I think for once, I can safely say that I can live longer. I thank the good Lord for that.

Thus it is so, that I will be spending my Christmas in the land of my forefathers.

EeeeeeH......E71

I have a lot of backlog on my blog! First of all, I would like to announce that I have bought the Nokia E71!!! I cannot believe myself! I am so not a Nokia person and yet, I went to buy a Nokia phone. I must hereby state though, it is more out of its functionality than anything else.

Read a lot of reviews on other smart phones on cnet before I decided on this phone. I was dead against buying the iPhone though, as I thought it too faddish and I heard its fair share of...issues.

Anyway, mine is the white version and I am happy with the change so far. Only boo-boo is that I did not realise why the battery was running out so fast till last night. The Notification light was set to go on for an hour. Of course battery run out in 2.5 days lah! Hahahaha!!!

The last time I saw her

Last night, at around eleven plus, our house phone rang. My thought was," No news is good news at this hour" and true enough, it was bad news.

The part-time domestic help whom I so dearly call Auntie for the past 16 years, passed away after coming back from Indonesia, her home town by sea. Auntie is a Chinese originally from Indonesia. She has been in Singapore for the longest time and earns a living to help raise her family by cleaning the houses of other people. Her husband never really treated her very well, but that is another story altogether.

Auntie had cleaned our house from the time that we were staying in Yishun. Even when we moved to the East, she did not mind travelling the distance even though she stayed in Khatib. She liked our family, my mum in particular (I am sometimes not the nicest of persons when it came to the way I wanted my clothes ironed).

It was only when I brought back Snowy the dog that she had her asthma relapse and my mum took the chance to tell her to stop work and rest at home. Auntie, after all, was not that young. I cannot even remember why I took Snowy back with me but it was the time when I separated from my ex-husband and when I realised that my mum too, was allergic to the dog (and that my dad did not like any sort of pet in the house much) that I had to painfully return Snowy to him. It still pains me talking about it. I feel that I treat Snowy more like my lover more than my ex-husband.

Recently, when we shifted to our new place, our present part-time domestic-help could not make it. Mum had asked Auntie to come along. She just wanted Auntie to sit around and look after the furniture and stuff and see to things. She didn't really want her to do much. It was a way to let her spend her time and also to take a look at our new place.

It was so troublesome to move from our old place that Auntie and I had to come over to the new place first. We were to guard the door and to look out for the movers when they arrived.

I still remember the minute that we stepped into the new house, she took the vacuum cleaner while I took a bucket and clothe. She started vacuuming the floor while I started wiping the window and window grills like crazy. It was tres dusty!! Both of us cleaned up the place quite a bit in no time and yet, there was no sign of the movers.

Auntie decided to buy lunch as it was nearing 3 and my stomach was growling. I remember giving her $10 for her to buy us both some food. I still remember that it was duck noodles and a packet of coffee. Both of us sat in the kitchen, the kitchen cabinet top as our table, slurping the noodles away. She had wanted to return me the $10. I still remember telling her to keep it and take it as an Ang Pao since I never really did give her one. Come to think of it, I could barely call that an ang pao.

We had a good time and before she left, I promised her that I would go visit her at her home one day, perhaps during the Chinese New Year. Never did I dream that the first and last time that I would visit her home, would be during her wake.

Last week or so, she went back to Indonesia to visit relatives and attend a wedding dinner. Halfway through the stay, she had fallen ill (asthma attack) and was sent to the local hospital. She refused to stay on and insisted on coming back.

The frugal lady had travelled by sea there and so naturally, would come back the same way. The big waves and choppy waters must have made her worse as, according to her daughter (the one who called us), she passed away once she reached Singapore.

She may have burnt quite a few of my clothes and washed them the wrong way at times but in my heart, she is the best Auntie who knew how to iron best.

Rest in peace Auntie.

Woah! I have been missing in action for quite some time now. Actually, it was more like I was taking in all the action. Went to Sunway Pyramid for the Hari Raya Puasa long weekend. I really let my hair down and let go!!!!

First of all, we were upgraded to k class executive (Konsortium)when we were on our way back. Super comfortable. Plus because we got the first row of seats, there was a much bigger leg room.

Already started shopping right after we dumped our bags in our room and spent almost the whole day at the theme park screaming our lungs out. By the way, just in case you were wondering who is the "we" in question, it's me and my ex-colleague. we went up the water slide 4 times, trying out the different slides, but on the last time down, I almost drowned as the speed was too fast and our float toppled. I was overthrown from the float and yet I could not touch the ground. Panic came over me and I kept bobbing up and down in the float 'hole'. I was finally saved by a lifeguard.

Ate at Nando's too! It was not the same as when I ate in Melbourne or the sort of taste that I remember from Perth but it definitely did satisfy my craving for peri-peri sauce. Yum!


Fooling around with big frames 'spectacles' on our way to Sunway.

Was trying to take a picture of the night view from our room and I ended up seeing this amazing yet, a little scary reflection of ourselves!


Fooling around with big frame spectacles yet AGAIN! Hahaha!


The view from our room during the day.

Watching Getai

I used to think that going to getais (those temporary stages put up to allow the ghosts and humans to enjoy) were tacky. There will be singers singing ah lien songs, wearing ah lien clothes and patronised by lots of old ah bengs.

I am not sure whether it is an age thing or whether my perception has totally changed but I was actually looking forward to going to a getai and to embrace whatever that comes with it. It has finally dawned on me that it is something that is quite unique to these parts of the world.

I came home to echo-y loud music and walked towards that all too familiar stage with live singers belting out oldies and old Japanese style sort of songs. It was as if I was mesmerised. There was a lot of talking before the singing and when the singer did sing, it was obvious that age had caught up with her and her voice was not as loud and clear. I went up stairs to put my stuff down and was met with Dad.

Both of us came down again and watched the last hour of the live show before retiring back to our humble abode. There was an ang-moh sitting down to watch the show as well.

Before, I used to get creeped out by the fact that the front few rows of chairs were always left empty for the ghosts. Now though, I guess it is part of our culture and I just accept it.

Tacky as it may all seem to be, I quite enjoyed the whole experience.

Belly dance my way to slim-ness

The community club (cc) is just a stone's throw away from my house now. Used to scone at the activities and courses that they offer until my Dad became a course provider there himself.

I had previously picked up some brochures for belly dancing classes and aerobics classes at the cc. I finally decided on belly dancing as it held on Thursdays. Aerobics classes were on Fridays and I still wanted to reserve that evening for fun and friends.

After dinner (please see previous posting) and sending my aunts home, we came home (obviously). Dad and I had to pass the cc after we have parked our car at the multi-story car park. I didn't want to procrastinate anymore and decided to just sign up!

Quite excited actually as I had been wanting to learn this for quite some time. Other than learning something that I am interested in, I can get a decent workout! How wonderful! I'm excited (as you can see from all the exclamation marks).

First Aider!

It's been a busy week at work and my weekend is burnt. Burnt because I have been sent to attend a First Aid course. Finally!!

It was on very short notice and I realised that it was going to be from 8.30am to 6pm!!! What a drag! But after I went in for the lesson, I decided that it was going to be fun! It was, and I made a lot of new friends. All ladies of course.

The facilitator was also cute, not in the sense of handsome-cute but more humorous cute. He is an ex-paramedic with very real stories and lots of scenarios for us to play out. I had to 'kiss' a dummy and revive a baby dummy but it was all fun. I am kind of happy that I finally got to learn first aid. Even when I was in my Librarian job, I was not sent on this course. I'm glad to say that at least I now know what the steps to CPR are.

I wanted to buy dumplings from Fong Kee (People's Park Complex) as it was near where I had my course but turned out that my aunts went to our new place for a tour of the house and wanted to eat at Chinatown!

I walked the tourist streets of Chinatown such as Pagoda Street and Trengganu Street before meeting them to eat at the Chinatown hawker centre. If you are a Cantonese and enjoy traditional Cantonese food, then you should really try this stall called Macau Fong Cheng Cuisine (#02-211). It was yummilicious!!!!! Psst! It was so yummy that I had 2 bowls of rice :P

It's a new day

I am very happy today. Everything has fallen into place. I have truly begun my new chapter in life. I need to live my life as I mean it to be and not in a half here and half not kind of state.

I received an sms from my lawyer saying that she has sent me the final judgement from the Family Court. This morning, I did not have to go to work as it was Teacher's Day!! The funny thing was that I woke up with a vision of Mary and me in front of the grotto. Oh sweet loving Virgin Mary! She has, in her own ways, comforted me along the way, in ways, I do not know how to explain.

Today, I truly feel like a new person and I should try to remember this feeling and live each day like this.

I went out to celebrate Teacher's Day with my Dad as he is also a teacher. He teaches English and Chinese to adults at several community clubs. He has many loyal students. At first, he had wanted to bring me to Blue Jazz (Ha! Fancy that! My Dad bringing me to Blue Jazz!) for set lunch but it was pouring cats and dogs by the time that we wanted to go out. We decided to move to somewhere indoors but still in Bugis.

I think my Dad did not realise that we now had to change at City Hall in order to go to Bugis and once he realised that, he decided to change the eating place to City Hall instead. I recommended him the food court at Level 3 as there was this Japanese tempura stall that allowed you to choose and pick. It was a little like eating yong tau foo. Once we have chosen the pieces to cook, the chef will deep-fry the food there and then.

Dad loved the food!! Plus I also took the opportunity to point out the western food stall that I like to patronise. It is called Olive Fusion and I usually go to the one at Bugis food court. They have now opened one here as well. I think I will come to the Raffles City one more often since the one at Bugis tends to put too much garlic. I could still remember the time when I he put too much garlic that my whole mouth was chili hot and I kept tearing.

Accompanied Dad to Bras Basah Complex to get some oldies CD before heading down to the Esplanade. Dad wanted to get tickets for Chinese opera and to do some research at the library. I just wanted to wander about. Saw some visual arts exhibition and read some coming attractions at the Durian before finally meeting up with Dad and heading home again.

It was a peaceful kind of day but a nice one. Before we really headed home, I dropped by at the church and really went to the grotto to see Mother Mary. At first I even wanted to attend evening service but decided that I was not ready for that kind of commitment yet (Haha!).

After that we popped by the police station to change our address on our I/Cs and then headed home. Mum was at home waiting for us to have dinner.

More pictures of Bali

I am using my Dad's computer to do all the downloading as I still cannot seem to get back the format that I want on my laptop

The ceiling above the bar at Hard Rock Cafe, Bali.


The memorial for the bomb blast victims in 2002. This was taken from across the road.


Dog-gone tired on a hot afternoon :P


A zen-like library of sorts in the midst of some of a cluster of cottages in the resort.


The environs of the resort.

My new home

I love my new place. I have a slightly bigger room, a bigger bathroom and I am very near to everything. I am not only living near the town centre (centre ville en Francaise) but I am also at the centre of Singapore (I think).

I have also attempted to decorate my room to look Shabby Chic and it has kinda worked, with the help of IKEA stuff. White country style wooden chair and a very nice and simple lamp. I know, I know, shabby chic is supposed to be old furniture given new lease of life but nobody said that I could not use new stuff. There is no hard and fast rule.

I have also found a shop (or two) at Thomson Plaza that sells country style furniture and nick-nacks. I was very tempted to buy the whole shop worth of things but stopped myself just in time.

My bed, which was especially made ten years ago and has followed me from the old to new place. I used to hate it probably due to its bulkiness in my old room but I am glad that I kept it as it totally suits my decor theme!

That's the chair and lamp from IKEA. That old-looking fan is indeed old! I first used it when I was given my own room, at about 2 or 3 years old!

The water jug and the tissue box cover were bought at two seperate shops but all located at Thomson Plaza. Thomson Plaza also brings back loads of memories as I spent one third of my childhood there. One of my pre-university school days hangout, Burger King, is longer there. Thank goodness, KFC still is.

The painting and the instruments were all bought from Bali. Love them to death!

Anyway, I fell ill a couple of days back and had to find a doctor pronto! I was really lost as this town is really quite new to me. I just based it on my previous observations and went to what I thought was a better reputed clinic chain (starting with P and it is not Parkway). It was stated that it will re-open at 6.30pm and it was only 6.10pm. I decided to wait.

By 6.40pm, there was still no sign of life from inside the clinic and there was a whole group of people waiting to see the doctor. My stomach was not sparing me much and so, depending on my memory again, I decided to cross the road to another clinic that I remembered passing by on my way back from church.

This was a much smaller clinic but I liked it already once I stepped in and I felt that this would be the clinic that I would come to if I had anything wrong (touch wood). The doctor also proofed to be very professional and he listened very carefully to what I had to say.

I am on my road to recovery and it is funny coz he seems to have prescribed similar cough mixture like my previous second choice doctor behind my house (my first is always my GP at Hougang). While previously, I never seem to get well, this time around, it seems to work. Is it the good vibes or is it really the medicine? I really cannot tell.

Whatever it is, I must say that I love this town!

Problem!!!

OK! I have a problem here. I am very used to the layout of my blogposts before they are published. Now though, everything has gone somewhat plain text mode and I cannot find the icons to post my beautiful pics with. Help!!!! I am such an idiot when it comes to these types of things!

Bali!

What a romantic place, even though I was not with a guy. The place and its people, will make you fall in love with the place incessantly and make you wish that you were back there again right away.

Self 'portrait'.

Mexican shrimp wrap @ Kaz Cafe.


Sunset at Kuta Beach.


More self 'portrait'.

Sukiyaki @ Fukutaro. Yum-yum!

Tiring

Woah!! Didn't know that shifting house is such a mental stress as well. One would have thought that you just need to move from one house to another, right? Wrong!

There are other things you need to look out for, like how your cable doesn't seem to connect, the cable network outlet is not at the position that you would like it to be, etc, etc.

I also got to see the stressful side of my parents and how not ready they were to cope with it. They were literally shouting their heads off each other and what was worse was that when I tried to ask them to calm down, they turned to me to vent their 'anger' on me. I got double dosage.

If I DID tell them that I am being shouted at and am getting double dosage, I would have the bear all the accusations about me not being able to stay calm etc, etc. In the end, I chose to be quiet. I chose to go out of the house. I hate conflicts and I hate being 'maligned' like that.

In the end, I went out to get more scrapbooking stuff! Oh yes, Wildswans taught me some stuff that I found really exciting to try and useful too!

The time is NOW!

Woah! In a few hours' time, I would no longer be staying in a condominium, but I am very excited. As I will be having a bigger space to myself and closer to my friends. Not only that, I think I will be able to get home faster and save on transport.

I feel excited but at the same time sad, but most of all anticipative of my new life and yet another new chapter. I think it is going to be OK. Being 'alone' would be OK. Glad that I am not exactly alone still as there are my Dad and Mum.

Mum has been the most hardworking throughout this whole shift. She started planning from the word go and without her, we would not have been able to pack everything on time.

Till then, I hope I get the computer up and running so that I will be able to update some more. Ta Ta!

p/s: I am rearing to get back to my scrapbooking routine. Guess it would be a little interrupted till Wednesday, when I meet Wildswans.

Night safari, here we come!

After the much unhappy incidents,we boarded the bus number 138 and headed for the Night Safari.

I guess after two parks (the zoo and the Jurong Bird Park), we were a little tired of walking. We decided to take the tram ride instead. Woah! The tram ride was $10 instead of $5 (Zoo). Before the ride started, pictures were also taken and each 'framed' photo is twenty freaking dollars!!! It was a little like daylight robbery...at night!

Can you imagine? If all three of us bought photos, it would be $60! I could not stomach that and had to swallow my pride and walk away.

The food was expensive too. Half a dozen satays cost $11 and in the end, I settled for a kids pasta for $6.90. The portion looks like it should be charged at $5 max.

While eating, we overhead this photographer asking if anyone wanted to take pictures with the snake for $10. I jumped at the opportunity. The deal was that we could take 2 official ones for the souvenir postcard and then take as many as we want with our own camera.

Bad customer service

Yesterday, before we went to the Night Safari, we did some shopping at the AMK Hub. I was so cheesed off by the general customer service that I did not buy as many things as I wanted to. The only top I bought was from this shop called "The Box".

After that, we were walking along and saw Pepper Plus (my current favourite shop) and walked in there to see. I had seen and tried some clothes at Wisma that I was contemplating buying but could not make up my mind and wanted to ask my friend. I was at one end of the shop while my friend was at another. I was holding on to the dress and the salesgirl was in between us. Obviously I had to make sure the salesgirl was out of the way before I 'shouted' to my friend.

The salesgirl sussed me up and down before asking me, "Want to try?" and then looking at another rack of clothes, she asked me, "s, m or l?"

How RUDE!! First of all, she sussed me out from head to toe as if I was a secondary school child who did not have the ability to buy any thing. Next, I just felt that she was so rude in not making any eye contact when asking a question. I think a robot would have done a better job. Even if a robot DID NOT look at me, I would have felt better.

I was polite enough to reply that I was just looking and proceeded to tell my friend not too softly that the dress I was holding was the one I tried at Wisma's outlet the day before.

What followed after that was also plain rude as the salesgirl (probably in her 40's) proceeded to look from one of my friend to another (two friends were with me at that time). We left the shop shortly and my friend asked me, "Does that person has a problem somewhere?" Obviously, I wasn't the only one cheesed off.

The next shop that we stopped to ask questions was a mobile phone shop. The lady gave straightforward answers but did not seem warm or friendly.

The 'finale' came when we walked into the Little Match Girl boutique. I saw some pants that I liked and had wanted to try some. I took my size and was standing behind this lady who was standing right in front of the fitting rooms. I was not sure whether she was customer or part of the sales team.

Whatever it is, the two obvious sales persons were busy chit-chatting away and did not even bother asking what I wanted even though I was standing there for a good 3 minutes at least. The lady in front of me had left her position right in front of the queue.

It was only after I complained rather loudly to my friend about why it was taking whoever was inside so long to try clothes that the salesgirl casually pointed to a very black and inconspicuous signage that said that something like everything is on sale and there was no trying.

No trying????!!!! How ridiculous! If it was no trying of tops I would have been a little more confident but these were pants I'm talking about. There are different cuts and this being an local brand, the cutting is bound to be smaller than what I am used to (European cut). What would be worse if they put the clause that there would be no exchange for sale items. That would be a real disaster for me! It would be money wasted.

Oh yes, since I could not try, I hung one of the two pants on the rack to try to wrap the other around my neck to try for size. Almost before I can finish saying "Hey presto!", another salesgirl was going to remove the pants that I had hung from the rack.

I do not know why, but I glared at her and said, "I still want this". I would not have done so before as I would have been too polite. I even replaced all the apparel that I did not want and then whispered into my friend's ear," let's go. The service here is very lousy."

When I turned around to look at the salesperson, she was giving me her world's biggest smile but it was too late.

Part of me could not help but wonder whether it is because of the way we spoke that made them think that we were from that certain huge country (with the world's largest population) that they were treating us this way (especially the last shop). After all, I do speak with THAT type of accent when I speak with my friends from there. It just comes naturally.

Then again, if the sales persons think that the money of the people from this big country is not worth earning, then they are plain dumb and stupid. Four to five years ago, when I went to Hong Kong, the sales persons there have already recognised that their neighbouring fellow citizens DO have the spending power and went to all means to meet their every needs.

Well, I would rather think that it is not racism (for the lack of a better word at the moment) that is causing this type of attitude. I would rather think that it is the people who are in Ang Mo Kio that are generally like that: not so refined :P

Hmm...I think I would still stick to shopping at Toa Payoh in the near future. The sales persons there are generally nicer.

The day thus far.

Guess what? I went to buy some more card stocks today. Crazy me! Going bongkus over paper and stuff. Could not stop thinking about it all day and grabbing ideas from all over for my layouts. If this is not addiction, I do not know what is.

Anyway, I came home to an empty closet as mum has packed most of my clothes and stashed those that I need in her closet. Sounds strange but that was to facilitate our part-time help to pack. Now I have got to shift my clothes back :P

Now that we are really going to shift in six days, feel a little numb and sad that I would be leaving this place. I just have to convince myself that it is for a bigger room. That should shut myself up!

Countdown to shifting

It is now exactly 7 days (or 1 week) to shifting from old place to new one. It is pretty exciting as I will have a slightly bigger room. Nobody would believe that my room is smaller than an HDB flat, but it is!!!!! I feel like a laboratory rat running around in circles within my own room!

Anyway, hope the Net will be up real soon after I shift, if not I will be so crippled! What happened to my laptop? The wired charger has gone berserk! It will not charge and I am afraid to use up all that battery. Sigh...time to send it to the Doc.

My view about posting other people's pics on the Internet

I am not sure whether it is the ex-Librarian in me or am I just so very anal, but I go law by law about things. Photos posted on the Internet is no exception.

Even as I post like crazy on Facebook and in my blog, I would ask for my friends' permission 99% of the time if I know that the picture with have them in it. I mean, doesn't the Facebook give a clause about whether we have used the pictures with permission or something?

It's the same when my Dad goes and buy cheap CD s/ VCD s from China. I thought it was pirated and frowned upon it. Only after I realised that it was produced locally in China (and therefore the cheap pricing) did I stop harrassing my Dad. Even so, I feel that the quality is not that good. Even his friends know that I am stickler for this intellectual property and piracy issue. He was once afraid to lend my Dad a pirated VCD knowing that I despised these products.

I also had to give my Dad a long lecture about the copyright laws (being then in the Library profession) when he attempted to photocopy a book wholesale.

Therefore, you can imagine how upset I was when I saw someone post pictures of many other people that I feel, she should ask permission first. Actually, I don't really blame her though coz my Chinese colleague had already put up my picture (taken with her) in her QQ space. I don't think many people realise that it is a violation of sorts but even if it is not, I just feel it is a form of courtesy.

That said, I am going to leave this topic to rest now. If not, people will think I am a naggy old hag. Or maybe they already do. Did I ever tell you that my Dad thinks that I am a police in my past life? Haha!

Addicted!

Yes I am! To scrapbooking. It is no cheap hobby but it makes me sit at home all day, trying to create a page that is nice and presentable.

Last Friday, I spent more than a $100 on materials, embellishments, rub-ons and such, but I suppose it is worth it. Besides, I found another shop which had a much friendlier atmosphere than Made with love. It is called Laine's Papetierie. Somehow the vibes were much better than the former shop.

I was really reluctant to start as I am very prone to the 3-minute interest. But I think that this scrapbooking is here to stay. In fact, I am doing 2 scrapbooks at the same time: one for my trip last December (long overdue) and one for my school assignment.

I still am not following any rules but I am getting the hang of adding stuff to an otherwise plain piece of paper. I still do not want it to look too cluttered but I think I am getting the hang of the whole scrapbooking thingy.

p/s: Sorry Wildswans, I have started on it, but we can still have a scrapbooking cum tea session. I think it will be fun!

Excited!

Well, there are several things that I am excited about these days. One is that I am going to shift house soon. Yes, we sold the place and I didn't really talk about it as I didn't want to jinx the whole thing. I am superstitious like that.

Now that some time has passed, I feel that it is alright to say it out. Second thing to be excited about is that I am going away on a short break! Finally! After this short break which requires me to take a plane, I will then go away to Sunway Lagoon again in September. This time, it would be a coach trip. Love that I can go away, even if it is just a neighboughring country.

August would be a month of anticipation and change. Anticipation for the divorce papers to come through and change because we would be shifting. My house is now like a warehouse and we dug up tons of photos that we have long forgotten and did not know existed!!

Jurong Bird Park

Woah! It's been yonks since I last visited that place. Really, yonks! It is again in one of those God foresaken places and we had to take a long MRT ride there.

Somehow, I feel that it is not as 'commercial' as the Zoo as it only has one restaurant there and we had to search high and low for that one Ben & Jerry's ice cream cart.

Nevertheless, we enjoyed watching all the different birds perfrom and see them roaming about in their cages. My favourite were the penguins, of course! After all, I just bought a penguin plush from the zoo last week. Was very tempted to get a flamino plush toy but held myself back. Mum is going to scream if I buy anymore :P

One shitty thing was that my camera ran low on battery. It was quitea bummer. Nevertheless we were still able to enjoy ourselves. Will upload pics tonight!

BBQ

Had a small BBQ last night. What was supposed to be a 15 people gathering turned out to be just 6 persons, and all girls at that!

We celebrated the final bbq at my place, my divorce, my new colleagues birthday. It was a small but rather meaningful party. Here are some pics!

Photo-Me

Just in case any of you might need this, here is a list of Photo-me booths that I know of. I am going to do something lie Amelie of Montmarte but not to take pictures but to suss out where these booths are:

1. Sembawang MRT
2. Bugis Junction Level 3, outside Seiyu (sorry, it's called BHG now)
3. Orchard Tower
4. Plaza Singapore
5. Toa Payoh MRT
6. Boon Lay bus interchange
7. Thomson Plaza Level 2, diagonally opposite KFC (added 16 Aug 2009)

I will be re-visiting this post to add new venues.

Satisfied cut

Just in case it can be hardly noticed, I trimmed my hair. At a very cheap price at that! $8! My eyes nearly popped out when I heard how much. After I did some other stuff and it came up to close to a hundred. Even then, it is still very cheaper than when I was at Reds.

True, hair dye got to the side of my face and water splashed onto my face while my hair was being washed and there was only one cup of tea. There were no wet towels, no sultana biscuits. But if that could save me half my hair cutting cost, I would forego all these and just do it!! As long as it gets the job done! I was quite satisfied with the cut too.

This place is at Toa Payoh Blk 124. I think it is Lorong 1. Got to check again. I think I will be going there more often :)

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo...

Woah, ha, ha! After many, many yonks, I went to the zoo again yesterday! I brought my 2 China colleagues there and though it was a long and tedious journey, we had lots of fun!

By the time we finished work and got there, it was already 3 plus in the afternoon. We all wanted to see polar bears and such but got so fascinated by otters and lemurs, that we did not really finish the whole of the zoo. Plus, it started to pour at about 5.30pm. Thank goodness we brought umbrellas and I was in my num (new urban male) flip flops! They are so comfy and water friendly!

Even after they have announced that there were 15 minutes left to closing, we were still ambling along and taking pics like nobody's business. After all, there were lots of others still walking.

I think the Singapore Zoological people really has good business sense coz after it closes at 6pm, the Night Safari opens at 7pm. I was thinking: what to do within that one hour of free time (even though we were not going to do the Night Safari that day). Well, you shop at the souvenir shop! That's what you do! Or you eat at one of their food outlets for you are so in a God foresaken places that there is little choice but to eat what is available there. We did not though. I bought stuff and then boarded 138 back towards civilisation. Hee!

Oh, let me explain about visiting the Night Safari and so on. You see, we decided to go for the park hopper tickets whereby we pay a discounted price to go to three parks: Singapore Zoo, Night Safari and the Jurong Bird Park.

So next week, check out the updates on Jurong Bird Park as we will be heading there.

In the first place

Hee! I just realised that I used a lot of the phrase "in the first place" in my posting called "live and let live"

Just thought it so funny that I had to post it! (+0+)

Bitch!

Sometimes I really wonder, whether those bitches out there really know that they are bitchy at all. I have a colleague who tells me that she has no self confidence and yet, when it is called for (when I am on MC) she needs to stand in for me and perform stuff that cajoles quite a fair bit of self confidence.

Never mind that. She would leave me a lot of 'shit' to clear and yet, get the buy-in of my boss, so much so that whatever shit stuff that she does, she can do no wrong.

I don't know what you would call this but I call it two-faced. I sometimes also wonder whether she is secretly very happy that she managed to do my duties (even though she claims she has no confidence and low self-esteem).

I also wonder whether she knows that her actions are categorised as bitchy (in a way): saying one thing in front of me but doing something else altogether; get your defences down first and then attack. Oh! And need to get everybody pity first too!!!

On top of that, this colleague comes across as superficial. Her smile can freeze my whole freezer as it is so fake and lack warmth. I am glad I soon will not be facing this type of person in my daily life soon. Then again, there a lot of such sorts looming around the world. I guess she just appeared in my life to give me some starter training.

Mush in the head

There is a storm growing internally within me these days. There is a lot of negativity within me which I need to get rid of.

The insecure part and non-confident part of me is talking to me (a lot) again. I keep asking myself why am I always falling short of expectations. Even when i swim, I can never do a full length of freestyle. I will do about half or three quarters of a pool and then give up by switching back to frog style.

There are also times that I feel that I talk a lot of bull crap and then, fall just short of delivering. At my age, I am beginning to worry if this is going to stay with me forever and if so, then I wish not to live. For I get this feeling that I am spending my whole life trying to catch up with others but always falling short of expectations or when I have barely just reached (imagery) the finishing line and everyone is off again, achieving something greater than me.

I used to tell myself that it is OK, that I want to live longer than other people and would want to take things easy. I am beginning to worry that I have been telling myself a big fat lie all along.

I also feel that this insecurity has to stop and I feel that I should somehow go back to my childhood and find exactly what it is that made me feel this way and undo it.

Well, I suppose only a shrink will be able to do that. He/she would probably hypnotise me and then ask me to do some silly such stuff and 'undo' the bad stuff that I feel about myself. While he/she is at it, I would also him/her to see what it was in my childhood that made me such an undisciplined person that I am today.

I used to think that I was carefree. Now I feel that it's coz I am really lazy. I used to think that I wanted to be unique, to stand out from the crowd and not follow what everyone else is doing. Now, I don't know... .

Sounds like a whole plethora of junk in my head? Well, that is exactly how I feel right now. Despite though, let me tell you, I still want to have a little bit of sunshine. For sunshine to me, represents hope. If I am void of even hope, then there really won't be a point in continuing life's journey anymore.

Sigh...then again, all these junk could be PMS.

My fears

A few days back, I suddenly realised that I am very afraid to be alone. As much as I tried to convince myself (and those around me) that I enjoy being alone, it is actually the opposite that is true.

I suddenly thought about a lot of what if-s: What if I did not find myself a partner by a certain age and had to live and die alone; what if (and I am sure they will) my parents are no longer around anymore? What should I do; what if I died. Who is going to settle my funeral.

Questions like that kept coming up and I suddenly felt panic. Plus me being very anti-social and shy, not sure when I would ever find myself a partner any time soon. Worse yet, as age catches up on me, I have crawled deeper into my shell and do not really want to waste my time meeting new people.

All these just increased my worry and fear. Guess I am writing all this down to calm myself down. Guess what Ally McBeal (and some other shows) talked about that biological time bomb ticking away is very real. Not in the sense of making babies but in the sense of finding a mate to spend the rest of my life with. Not necessarily (to find a mate) to marry but to watch the sunset with.

Need to calm down, need to calm down.

Slash and MJ

Was doing some major packing and arrangement of stuff when I dug out loads and loads of photos and several files full of posters that I have torn out from the then Radio and TV Times (now 8 Days). I had painstakingly filed them but thought that my mum had but thrown them all away. You can imagine my surprise when I saw them again!

One of the posters was of Michael Jackson and Slash (former guitarist of Guns & Roses). I was just wondering to myself as to why they took a picture when I found my answer over the TV programme. After all, the whole world is reporting about MJ. Slash was playing the guitar on his song "Black or White".

Coincidentally, that is also my favourite song. Correction: that is my second favourite. My favourite would be "We are the World".

2 legends

Today, 2 legendary greats died today. One is Farah Fawcett, the other is Michael Jackson.

MJ's death came as a real shock to me. There was no warning whatsoever. He was preparing for his comeback tour in England and then this happened. He died of cardiac arrest. While for Farah (like I knew her so well), news about her not being well has already been out for awhile, so it did not come as too big a shock.

Nevertheless, it still took me by surprise as the last I heard about her was that she had amputated one leg. Well, I suppose this is better for them as they do not need to suffer any longer.

Night-night Michael. Night-night Farah.

p/s: Farah was Brad Pitt's idol.

Scrapbooking

OK, so the flu bug was not the only thing I caught over the weekend. I think I have caught the scrapbooking bug as well. In my (hopefully not 3 seconds of) new-found enthusiasm, I went scrapbook material shopping.

Actually, one of the reasons why I hesitated starting this hobby was how exclusive it looked. Of course, the first reason would be that it is super time-consuming, and I was not one with patience.

Back to the topic of exclusivity. What I suspected was not totally false. You see, before I stepped into the store, I thought that scrapbooking was something that was very personal and that it should not matter how you do it, it was more of how you liked the way it looked. From the examples I see above the cupboard doors in the store, all of them scraps (as I would call each scrapped page from now) have a certain look, and had tons of stuff (that I later learnt, were called "embellishments") loaded onto each scrap. Why so gaudy??

Then I came home and did some Internet research and these scrappers (as they are commonly called) have like, templates to follow!! Whatever happened to individual style? Anyway, it was too late as I have already started my own scrapbooking of my Hong Kong trip. I must insist that it looks OK without template planning and little or no embellishments. Don't want them to snatch the limelight from my photos.

However, I did forget that I should include stuff that I collected during my trip to stick onto toe scrap as well. Time to start searching!!

By the way, some fanatic ones wear gloves while handling the photos so that the oil from their hands don't spoil the quality of the photo paper. Woah! No such patience. Plus, everything should be acid-free, down to the pen that we write in.

Let me see how much patience I have got in searching for these acid and lignin free stuff. Already, my glue did not pass the test. I just got it off the shelf of DAISO. Haha!

Live and let live

I have been getting lazier and lazier, and no, there is no guy in my life to justify why I should be writing less. In fact, my love life is s empty that I find that as an excuse for the lack of inspiration to write.

There is the H1N1 going on of course and the fact that I have infected throat and ears just made me so immobile that I just slept the day away.

Truth is though, I think all these illnesses have been stress related. I have been thinking of moving on, to another similar work environment, of course. Just cannot take the very stressed out supervisor breathing down my neck every other minute. I am not a person that can be micro-managed in the first place. It was what made me walk out of my old job in the first place.

Of course, I must make some mental adjustments myself in the first place, starting from now. There will be micro-management everywhere and there is no such thing as the perfect fit or the perfect boss.

This makes me think back to the very basic logic of the strong over the weak. I think this strong over the weak issue is happening in our everyday lives, in our every moment: your parents' words against yours; your colleagues instructions over yours; your bosses' decisions over yours; the librarian telling you you have to pay the full price of the lost book even after a write-in appeal; even to the point of the salesgirl insisting the last piece of item was newly displayed and you had no choice but to take THE last piece.

Then again, for that very last example, you have a choice. You have the power of not buying that item, which was what I did. Well, I exaggerate too much by giving these examples, I guess. Perhaps I see things too micro-ly myself. I should learn to let go, live and let live. Somehow though, the majority of people seem to be the suppressed while our bosses are forever the oppressors.

Well, just dark clouds passing. After the rain, all will be fine.

Ten years already?!

As I was walking back from the bus stop today, I could not help but wonder in awe as to how time has flown past me. It has officially been10 years since I have lived where I am living and for the whole 10 years, I had wanted to write this complaint to my MP to complain about this woman who was feeding stray cats at a very inconvenient spot leading up to one of the entrances to where I stay.

It is unbelievable that it has been so long and I DID NOT take action! I mean, I did not mind that she was feeding strays bu I really did mind that she had put the food at the most inconvenient of places when there were ample other places to put it in the vicinity.

Plus the fact that she just leaves the food and plastic bag (used to put the food) there and come morning, when the food is empty, plastic bag hurricane happens. It was an ugly sight. I even hated taking bus from that side of the road.

Now that I take buses from there more often, I realised that the woman does not seem to come anymore, as the path is clean of all food and strays. It is good in a way but worrying in another. I am worried about the fate of the cats, even though I do not approve of feeding strays does not mean I do not treasure life.

Back to my 10 years at the present abbot: I still feel like it was yesterday that I had just moved in, just complained about how small my room is, just thinking to myself as to when I can move out of this rat hole. It is now 10 years.

Perhaps it is also because I was 'away' for 2 or 3 years as I got married and had my own place for awhile. It was only about four years ago that I moved back home. Don't know why though, but I never did feel that attached to the place as say, with the previous dwellings. Perhaps it is because Dad and Mum chose it. I did not. I was away studying.

From the time that I stayed here, I always felt that everything was temporary and I didn't even dare to work around the kitchen. Reason being that I did not feel attached to it. Sounds strange? Well, I AM a strange person like that.

Much ado about nothing

You must be wondering why I am writing the same topic as my blog title. Well, the truth is, I went to watch a Shakespearean play at the Fort Canning Park. It was a fantastically wonderful experience.

It was a casual affair with free seating all round. Luckily we arrived early though. There was already a long queue at 6pm when gates only open at 6.30pm. When the gates finally did open, we rushed to get a spot. It was not the centre of the stage but no matter. For who was to sit near me but my local idol, DICK LEE!!!!

It seems that the area we sat in was the media section (actually there were no marked areas, just that they happened to sit there). Michelle Chia and hubby was directly next to us and there were a bunch of other actors that I did not even know who were sitting around us. How did I know they were famous? There were these squealing girls who could not stop speaking as loudly as they could before the show and during the interval.

Love the picnic thing that is so casual and yet so fulfilling. We had bought the usual, ham, cheese, country loaf and drinks. I brought the picnic mat, mosquito repellent, mosquito repellent patches and wet wipes from home. Kiasu right? Well, better be prepared than to get bitten. I even lent my repellent to this lady who forgot to pack hers.

Repellents can also act as temporary deodorants. There was this really huge person (could not make out whether the person was a guy or gal). Had really bad B.O. and so I sprayed a generous lot where the person was sitting. Worked quite well! :)

All in all, I enjoyed myself and wouldn't mind doing it all over again when the next play in the park happens. Oh yes, I will promise myself to have more picnics at one park or another.

Handmade vanilla ice cream!

Did this about two weeks ago but as usual,too lazy to download the pictures. I made my first ice cream without putting it into the freezer. It was a lot of hard work though. I had to shake and rub like crazy. Not to mention that halfway through, my Ziplock bag broke and salt was 'cutting' my hands.

What should I do?

How am I going to celebrate all the good stuff that is coming my way? Well, I wanted to go clubbing and karaoke-ing but these would be pushed back for now.

For a start, I went for a nice chatty dinner wtih Spacecake. It was catch up time and I was bursting with stuff about my own life. Hope she did not find me too boring a company.

Then she gave me a lacquer box from a neighbouring country. On the very nice box was a dragonfly. According to her, dragonfly signifies love in that country. Thanks Spacecake, I am sure love will take flight, when it comes and happens :) Meanwhile though, I am still in the state of being happy coz I am free (almost).

Oh! Then of course, I booked my flight out for a short holiday in one of those Indonesian islands and another to KL. These are little 'presents' for myself. I am also considering checking in to one of the local boutique hotels for a mini celebration as well :)

Today in court

Today, no yesterday, I went to court. It was my first time and hopefully last time that I was in one. I was a bundle of nerves. First, I was not sure where the Family court was and then I was so intimidated by all those lawyers in white shirts and black jackets that I literally froze up.

It should have been an easy thing, just like my lawyer assured me. Somehow though, I just got all nervous. Maybe it is because I was worried that I would not know how to 'swear' in front of the judge. Or that something might just go wrong somehow.

It should also be easy since I was not the first one to go. There was supposed to be one other guy before me. Turns out there were two persons before me instead. Nevertheless, I was thankful in that I could 'observe' some more.

The funniest thing happened during the time when I was swearing to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. While holding up my right hand, I had to touch the Bible with my left. Some funny energy surged through me through my left hand (could just be my imagination).

That energy transformed into a whole plethora of emotions. While my lawyer was asking all the questions that she had briefed me before, my whole marriage life seemed to flash before me. I was choking up, but I controlled myself.

My slot in court was 2.30pm but the Judge was late and there were two before me. I still managed to get out of court by about 2.50pm. As I walked down the stairs out of the Family Court, I was just flooded with emotion and relief. I had to tell myself that life is going to be better. I had to brush away the stray tear or two.

It is so strange, since I am supposed to be detached from it all. I should have left all that emotional crap when I walked out that door about 4 years ago. I should be void of all emotions regarding this matter by now, but yet, I am only human I suppose.

This is only interim judgement or some such stuff like that. I still have to wait for 3 months before final judgement is made.

Many things happening

I know it has been a while, but I am really so swamped with work, with school, with house-hunting.

Yes, house-hunting. I know that I swore never to buy another property as long as I lived, that I was going to up and go any time that I wanted to, but I finally succumbed to the prospect of having a property to my name (or at least part of it).

I was house-hunting almost all of last weekend and it has been a big rollercoaster ride ever since. We thought we have found the perfect house and then we had to worry about financing and now that my job does not pay me sky high salary (not that my first one was super fantastic anyway), I find myself stuck with almost nowhere to go.

Anyway, let's see what's going to happen.

Flu blues and my ignorance

Sigh...I am down with flu. Actually, I am already coming towards the end of my flu. I thought it was the usual nosey business where it gets hypersensitive and I only needed to treat it with Zyrtec. Turns out not.

My doc told me that I caught the Influenza A! Imagine my shock as the Influenza A (H1N1) is going on! Turns out that I was misinformed. Influenza A is a name for the common flu (if I am not wrong, it is the winter flu). It is just that this particular strain, H1N1 is dangerous, for now.

Anyway, I am stuck here at home, wondering whether I should go for classes tonight, since I am covered with MC. Nevertheless, it is just the second lesson of the new module and the teacher is quite interesting. Tough choice, tough choice.

Strangest feeling

I have thought that I am void of all feelings towards the opposite sex. I thought I would not be affected at all. Turns out that I am still partly human after all.

Just a few days back, one of my new colleagues was so cute and so sweet! She asked me point blank whether I had a boyfriend or not. My reply was negative and she immediately told me that she wanted to introduce a friend of hers to me.

It was a funny kind of feeling as, I would have been very repulsed towards such 'things' before. Yet, that day, I was full of curiosity and interest and yet, afraid all at the same time. I remember asking her how old the guy was, what he was doing and lots more other questions like that.

I would not reveal too much except that the guy is so much younger than I am. Just wondering how "I" am going to handle this since I have a little phobia of younger guys, let alone much younger ones!

Nevertheless, I also revealed to this new colleague of mine (who is slightly younger than me) that I am not a clean slate. That I have things to settle before I can move on to other things. I can be upfront about it now. She too was very nice to check with the guy friend and he was ok to be friends with me.

She did ask me for my phone number but I did not commit to anything...yet.

It is funny coz I am already getting a fuzzy feeling even though nothing, not even friendship, has started. I guess it's the thought that counts.

Give me my space!

Today, for the very first time in my life, I told a salesperson off. You know? The type of salesperson who comes and tells you that you have too many blackheads or that you are too fat? Those that are in pharmacies and such?

This happened at Watson's Takashimaya. My colleague had wanted to buy some colour dye to dye her hair at home (cheaper this way).

The moment we were standing at that particular section, this middle-aged woman comes forward to ask us, "Looking for some shampoo for your hair?"

Let me tell you, her body language was already not quite right, but what followed was even worse. She saw us walking towards the hair dye section and moved up closer to us and asked, "Looking for hair dyes is it?"

She then stood even closer till I had to edge back a little and worse still she was standing like a gangster, weight on one leg and one shoulder tilted at an angle towards us, as if asking us, "What's up? Want to fight is it?"

I was boiling and I think I had enough of all these types of lousy sales tactics that should have been gotten rid of ten, twenty years ago. I do not know where I got my guts from but I proceeded to tell her off, "Please do not stand so close. Back off. We will see for ourselves. If you continue to stand here, I might just move away and not buy anything!"

I think she was so shocked at me barking at her like that, that she really backed off for quite a while.

Even though I feel quite back for telling her off like that, but I feel that I have suppressed my unhappiness for such situations that I was going to burst if I held my opinion to myself any longer.

Anyhow, I felt much better after that.

Another song that I like. This is the original version.

Song of the moment

This is my favourite song of the moment.

Another cheap thrill moment

It's strange how we see certain things in this world. It's like how I know, if I were given a $10 voucher to be spent on my next purchase, it is not really a saving on my present (or even next) purchase. For, if I did not go back to the shop and buy again, I would not be spending any money at all!

Nevertheless, I was chided by my Dad the other day (Saturday)for falling into a sort of marketing trap by the petrol company. You see, Shell was having this promotion for V Power: From 7pm t 11pm, Friday to Sunday, the price of V Power is the same as 98.

He felt that I was unwise to fall into the trap of paying more. We (or rather, I, for my Dad goes for Caltex)usually pump 95 and this is still cheaper than 98, with or without offer.

Truth be told, is that I am a little 'vain' in this area too. V Power does give more power to the car (just as I feel that Shell petrol generally gives one's car more power. You can call it a psychological thing but I don't really care. Of course I knew that even with special offer, it was going to be more expensive than my usual. To me though, pumping V Power was like eating at Les Amies (not that I have) or buying that Gucci bag. It is a once-in-a-while pleasure that I reward myself with. Not something that I would do everyday.

By the way, it was quite a cheap thrill sort of moment when I went to pump my petrol. My petrol meter was close to touching the "E" line, yet it was only 6.50pm. Having worked in the customer service line before, I knew better than to pester staff to let me have the discount before the stipulated time.

I was a little panicky (since I was running on empty) when I remembered that there was a small lane just before the petrol station. By the time I reached the lane, it was 6.56pm. Strange how time seems to come to a standstill just when you want it to pass quickly.

6.58pm. I realised I was blocking another car and had to shift my car. As I moved it, I made the decision to head off to my destination: the petrol station. After all, it was peak period and there were many vehicles about. By the time I am able to filter out, it should be 7pm already.

True to my 'calculation', the news was being reported on Class 95FM and there was a little car queue at the station too. By the time I got a place a the pump, it was already passed 7pm.

My colleagues were crazier

My two closest colleagues are skeptical people. They approach things with caution, skepticism and pepper it with criticism, sometimes aplenty.

It was the same with Uniqlo. Since they are not from Beijing,Shanghai (or other big cities that have such shops) and since they have been here for quite some years, they have not heard of this totally happening brand.

I was already ranting and raving about it the day before and the day of opening. I did not ask them to go with me as I felt it would be such an upscale task to convince them to go somewhere as far as Tampines.

One of them called me anyway, after she left the workplace and expressed that they wanted to go with me too. I picked them up halfway (somewhere in town) and we headed for Uniqlo! The older of the two kept asking me what sort of brand is this and whether it was really that worth it, etc, etc. I was getting a little impatient (as usual).

When inside, while I bought 7 items, they bought none. Guess what though? They went back the next day and the next, each time getting more and more items. Each time they went back, they had to queue for at least half an hour to 45 minutes!

I am just wondering whether all of us humans are like that: treating things with suspicion and caution all the time.

On why I am so crazy

For those of you who are wondering why I am so crazy about Uniqlo, can read part of the reason through here.

Yes, the love affair started in Hong Kong some years back (maybe 2 or 3) when I chanced upon this shop inside the Miramar Shopping Mall. Every year after that (or whenever I do pass by Hong Kong) I will definitely drop by to stock up.

The other thing that caught my eye was this Gatchaman character that I had seen as a child. I went crazy when I first saw the image on its pamphlets. I used to watch the Taiwanese-dubbed Mandarin version. It brings back lots of memories.

Anyway, I am really, really, really happy that Uniqlo has finally landed on our shores and will be here to stay! Yippeee!

Now I understand

Just hours before, I was queueing up at Uniqlo that has just opened its doors to the public at Tampines 1 today. From the night before its opening, I had already planned what I should wear and what I had wanted to buy (from the Internet catalogue).

I was in full Uniqlo gear: Boyfriend jeans and UT t-shirt. I even 'stole' the Today paper for the day as it had all the details of the store, opening hours etc. As I ate breakfast, I sms-ed one of my former colleagues and asked if she would be going. She said she was on night shift but was going to work early so that she could hop into the shop to look-see.

At 10 plus in the morning, sms comes in telling me that the place is super crowded and the queue was very long. I thought to myself, "Only cashier queue long, so why give up the chance?"

Sms comes in at about 4 plus that the place was still super crowded. Then, at about 5 plus, another sms comes in from yet another former colleague cum regular travel 'kaki' (loosely translated as friend in Malay). She told me that the queue was so super long that she had but given up. She was going to Dorothy Perkins instead.

Woah! This made me want to fly down there even more (instead of deterring me from going)!! At about 6.40pm, I sped away from my work place and went to pick up two of my other colleagues who decided last minute that they too wanted to come along.

By the time we reached the "Welcome to Tampines" part of the journey, it was almost 8. I was hungry but nevertheless, determined to get to my destination. The traffic jam started from Safra Tampines and I had to make a detour as I could not cut into the turning lane.

As I turned into Tampines Mall car park, yet another jam!!! I could kill the cars. Wished I was driving a monster truck then, so that I can roll over all the other cars. When we finally emerged at Basement 1 of Tampines Mall, we decided we had to eat something: Bread. We scooted in to Bread Talk: One chose the bread while the other two lined up at the counter. What time work!

By the time we reached Level 2 of Tampines 1, it was already quite late. I made a mad dash for Uniqlo only to be greeted by yet another queue!!! This queue went all the way back past the toilets, diaper change areas and into the staircase leading to the car park!!!

Yet, I felt really excited. There was a strange buzz and everyone else was talking at the same time. I wanted to just get in there and start shopping. I could just feel my hand itching to go through the different t-shirts.

Thank goodness we were a little earlier for shortly after us, they stopped the queue giving the reason that they would close at 10pm. Phew! Once inside, there was no stopping me of course. Seven pieces of clothing in all!

I kind of felt dizzy from all this fan-fare like actions. Now also understand why groupies can spend hours waiting for their favourite singers to appear for just that one or two seconds :)