Book launch

Got asked to go for a soft launch of a book called Face Hunter. Really interesting coz this guy likes to take pics of people. This guy's name is Yvan Rodic. Go google him as he has got a blogspot going on.

The launch was held at this place called "A curious teepee" at *Scape (next to Orchard Cineleisure). The whole place was selling somewhat quirky, artsy stuff and there was free flow of alcohol and finger food. There were mini quiche lorraines and fusion peking duck-shredded duck skin (with a little meat intact) stuffed with shredded cucumbers and oyster sauce in a mini ice cream cone. Lovely!

Most heavenly though, was the panna cotta. It was so yummy, I had 2 helpings. Of course, nothing could have been yummier than the author himself who spoke with heavily French accented English. When I asked my friend, turns out he is a Swiss living in France. Just perfect.

It was a perfect unwinding evening, my girl friend and I. We just looked at the merchandise the shop had to offer, saw the bartenders perform their shake-shake-shake (twice or more) and later on, sat down to people-watch. There were indeed lots of beautiful people tonight. Thoroughly enjoyed myself. Now I can sleep with a smile :)

p/s: the reason that I am still up and typing all this, is solely due to the expresso martini that I had. Hick!

Yoshitomo Nara

Went to the S.A.M @8Q yesterday to watch a documentary about Yoshitomo Nara. His paintings are quite amazing and it reminds me of the ones that Carrie Chau (the Hong Kong artist) does. I just wonder who is copying who. Or maybe, nobody is copying nobody. They just look child-like.

I find that there is so much more that the museums here are offering now and I really feel I can just go to one of them and soak in all the artsy stuff that is around me and stay there for ages. Going to more documentaries of artists next weekend. It is all part of the Trans-Cool Tokyo exhibition that is going on now at the 8Q.

Got a discount off the documentary tix and free museum pass too! Discount coz my friend works there and free pass is due to the buying of the tix. There ARE ways and access to arts and culture in a more reasonable way :)

Here's a linke to info on Nara:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshitomo_Nara

Re-discovering stamps and sending snail mail

I just sent out a parcel last Thursday. It gave me the funniest, tingly,warm, fuzzy, feeling ever, that I have not felt for the longest time. I used to send parcels and such, but that was a long time ago.

I must say, I was even nervous when I was sending it. I was not quite sure how I should place the stamps and what I should do. It did not make it any easier that the post office was going to close in about less than half an hour. There just simply was not enough space to put all the stamps. I suppose it was partly my fault and that of the customer service officer. Hee, we got carried away with the different designs of the stamps.

When she found out that I liked different stamps and that I knew a little about the different series (I was just pointing out the limited edition festive series of stamps) and she was so nice to decide to give me a whole melange of stamps to send to my dear friend in a far away land.

I suppose it is not what everyone would do in this day and age of digital world but I think sending and receiving a parcel is such a traditional and yet simple way of cheering oneself and the receiver. I don't know about you, but I would be cheered up no end :) In fact nowadays, receiving a letter cheers me up no end already.

The only funny thing is how they try to persuade you into paying for your mail to be registered. Another customer service officer (not the one who sold me stamps) told me that if I were to go by regular mail, then it would be impossible to trace if the parcel got lost. Slowly thinking back, I think this is a little like a slap on their own faces by indirectly telling me that there is no guarantee of good, efficient and reliant service as our parcels may get lost.

Besides, if I really wanted a guaranteed, registered mail, I would have just gone to DHL, FedEx or the likes. I would not have wasted time queueing up to buy stamps.

Anyway, I suppose this is their way of up-selling, just like how in the hotel industry (as I have learned in my course before) that you try to up-sell by suggesting similar but higher priced products.

Well, I am off to write those Christmas cards and sending them off soon! So that hopefully, I can receive some of that Christmas cheer in the mail.

Being supportive (altnernative title: Doubts)

Last night, one of my good friends finally tied the knot. Actually, she and hubby had already registered for marriage some years back, but in the traditional Chinese eyes, one is not really married until they have had a banquet. This is usually a Chinese dinner at a restaurant or hotel ballroom.


As usual, the question about jobs turned up and I started talking to another close friend (let's name her K) about it. I was telling her how my Dad had sold the car and stuff like that simply because he feels that it is too much for him to upkeep. She then said that I could have taken over the payment of the car installments and I told her that with my current salary, I can hardly pay for myself.

I really do think that my professional is really hard to sustain as one would need like 200% of passion in order to continue. I think I still have it but it is just discouraging when my own Dad does not even feel supportive of what I do. Now, can I blame the government, the market out there or myself for choosing this profession? I suppose it is everything rolled into one.

It is a little of the government's 'fault' for taking so long to up the status of my present profession and it is a case of  "too little, too late".  It is the local market's fault as my profession did not need degree holders to do the job before (they still don't but they make the diploma real tough that one would have thought one was taking a PhD). It is also my fault for feeling so comfortable where I am working now that I do not feel like stepping out to look for the same job but with higher paying bosses.

Then of course, K said something that also discouraged me a little: She said that "I don't know, I think it is important to have a good-paying job".

Well, I suppose from her point of view it is true for what she goes for is quite different to what I go for, plus she does have a family to support.

I would very much like to say that I totally love my pay and my job and that I do not have any doubts about changing professions but that would be very fake of me. I do have my doubts and worries as my parents ARE getting older and I must have more savings. What I can say now though, is that I still have got enough passion to continue with my profession but I am not eliminating the possibility of changing professions in the near future.

Yes, I know, my market value, be it as a life partner or in the workforce, has now de-valued with age, but I think one thing that my present profession has taught me is to be contented with many things and not ask for too much :) That means, I am not in panic mode yet. Haha!

Reverting back to the old ways

This morning, I had cheese, ham and bread for breakfast. This is largely due to the fact that I am just back from Amsterdam and Paris, where I enjoyed eating breakfast like that.

This way of eating is not new to me. I used to do it once in a while to remind myself of the lifestyle I led in Suisse and in Oz. I did tell Spacecake and OLKgal that I do not mind eating bread everyday. I really don't, but coming back home also made me realise that having other choices is good too. That's only because we have been exposed to different types of food.

The fact that the types of Asian food being so reasonably priced made me appreciate it even more. I peered into one "Malaysia Restaurant" in Amsterdam and a dish of Nasi Lemak cost 17.50 Euros!!! Laksa was also around that price. No doubt, one would be served and be sitting in a suitably climatised room (either air-con or heater, depending on season) but the fact that I could eat Nasi Lemak at 10 times cheaper just made me...more humble when it came to eating here now.

The bready part of me though, laments at the lack of finding nice sandwich and salad type foods here, locally. I suppose I can only look to Subway and Delifrance for comfort and a quick fix then.

My preferred Asian style of breakfast will still be fried bee hoon and coffee with evaporated milk, but more often now, I will have more bread readily available at home .

Of all times!

Of all times, my USB port connecting my camera to the PC has malfunctioned. Of all times that I am so super enthusiastic about uploading my pics!

Well, I suppose I will just blog on first and bring the poor fella in for a check-up after my exams are over. My on-site visit is tomorrow and I am nervous like hell but I shall have the Lord by my side and I will conquer it all. Two years of studying and it is finally over. Yet, I am looking at taking up French again and perhaps, perhaps, even Dutch. Got to weigh out the opportunity costs though. Not sure whether I want to learn Dutch due to the fact that I have been there and that my friend is there (i.e. vain lah) or do I really want to learn a new language?

See? That's me. Very...undecided :P

Back!

I'm back from the Netherlands and Paris!!!! I feel so refreshed and inspired to do lots of things. Although I do not know how long my inspirations will last.

There are lots to share and many pictures to upload. As usual, you would have to wait awhile. Got to sort out my exams first (which is on next Monday). Will try to share as quickly as I can though and may even consider opening a flicker or picasa account. Hahaha...I know, I know. Should have done that yonks ago! Better late than never, I say!

Tot ziens!

My poor woollen argyle sweater

I find myself quick to anger nowadays. Today, it was over this woollen sweater that I had bought from Uniqlo. It is fine Merino wool and I had told my mum that it is to be hand-washed and I just put it on the back rest of my chair, in my room.

It was my fault. I should have just added, "Please do not wash it. I will do it myself".

It was too late. When I came home, I saw the nice off white with pink and grey argyle patterned sweater on a hanger, drying on a 'bamboo' pole. My heart froze. For one should never hang woollen stuff like that. The water is just going to weigh everything down and the clothing will go out of shape.

I tried to salvage it but I think it was too late. The collar looks warped and the whole thing looks out of shape, elongated. I tried to control my anger and wrote a nice note to Mum telling her what I have done (put the sweater on top of clean plastic sheets, on the floor. They do not say "lay flat" or "dry flat" for nothing. I told her that I was not angry and that I hope we would come to a better understanding next time.

It was no use though for after she came back and I explained to her, I had a closer look (for I really did not bear to really look at it) and it just looked..warped and out of shape (sort of). The best part was Mum tried to lighten the whole situation and say, "Aiyah, how much can one sweater cost?"

I suppose when one earns less, one will treasure things a lot more. It felt very painful to me as I had not even started wearing the piece of clothing. She continued to say what's the big deal and that I could always buy it next month.

Helloo!!!! Knock-knock! I bought this for my Amsterdam trip and I am flying off at the end of this month. HOW TO BUY?????? So angry with her flipping remarks. The more she talked about the monetary bit, the angrier I got. The anger was not really there at first. It is after all $49.90. It is probably about 10 meals for a person and enough to feed a whole family.

Well, maybe I am anal too but a warped piece just would not look the same. It just makes me look frumpy and sloppy. Besides, I am not the slimmest or tallest of people. The increase in length and width would simply not flatter my figure (or what is left of it).

It did not help that Dad thought that I was the one to blame. He asked me why did I put it in the laundry basket in the first place, which I did not. Had to explain it all over again to him that it was very clearly put in my room.

After several painful screams in my own room, Mum finally came in to 'apologise'. This could take awhile but writing this is helping me get rid of the anger. Feeling better already and would just have to bear with it and wear it, I suppose. I am trying very hard not to get angry.

From a spiritual point of view

Sometimes, when I feel that I am at a very low point in my life, God appears before me through His words and the little things that happen around me.

I was still very upset about yesterday and was feeling really low. It is the first time our friendship was put to the test like that and I was still hurt by what my friend had said. I prayed about it all the way while walking to church and it turned out that today's readings and sermon was about forgiveness. Father John told us that we had to "learn to forgive". How apt. How simple and yet how deep. It is not an easy thing to do, forgiveness. But yet, when we do it, it is "to celebrate freedom". I felt a big stone being lifted as I hear all this.

Moreover, there were lots unexplainable things that made me reflect a lot today. Perhaps that is why it is called "Reflection" on the church bulletin. The first line read:" People hurt us by their actions and we react by deciding to hurt them in return." Kinda made me think about my ex-housemate and friend that I fell out with. I did not do anything to hurt her in return and, from my point of view, I did really do anything to hurt her in the first place. Knowing her though, she would have, by now, painted a bad picture of me (to herself and other people) so that she can justify why our friendship turned sour. I may be wrong though, I may be wrong.

God is trying to tell me something; He is perhaps telling me to move on with life. This I should do. Plus as I was praying to Him, I drew parallelism to the fact that Jesus was always going against the flow and having to fend for Himself. I was somewhat like that yesterday. I was (metaphorically) cornered and I was not given a choice to even explain myself. My views and words were all pushed aside. It was horrible. Jesus must have felt very helpless too, when He could not save Himself from inevitable death at that time.

I am still reflecting and these reflections are purely my own thoughts. I guess what I wanted to say is that "God is so good to me. He gives me comfort when I most needed it".

Weird day

I had quite a weird day today. It started good. The friend and I went to eat at this Thai place that we both liked and we went to my God Bro's exhibition. We went around aimlesslessly and museum hopped a little (except that we did not go in coz we had to pay). We even went to visit a Catholic Church and I explained to the friend about the rosary.

Then we went to have coffee at this coffee shop and I said something wrong and the friend got very upset. The friend 'cornered' me (in a metaphorical manner) and the friend raised voice at me and I was so upset I cried. I wanted to up and go for I felt that the friend was being unreasonable and did not allow me to have my say. The friend also said some hurtful but somewhat true things.

You know, I hate this. I think in life, everybody's purpose is to make other people believe in their own views and make others agree with them while making them ditching their own. Sometimes, I find it such a struggle to get heard. Or maybe, I did get heard. Just that I am not hearing.

Plus I feel that my whole life is a whole life full of explanations to others on why I am imperfect and why I am wrong. I feel that everyone in this world is insecure. The way that they cover up their insecurity is to 'win' others, do better than others, seem to do more than others and to 'force' their own views upon others. The more they do this, the more insecure they are. Maybe I am generalising. Maybe I am not.

Such is the world I see. Such is what I have derived upon after our ARGUMENT. Our first. I cannot believe that I sat there and accepted all that nonsense, but I did.

Actually, I have long had the idea about "insecurity" but today, I was so cornered and felt so belittled (in my own way, you can call it self-pity if you want) that I had to pen it down. I am a mess inside now. The friend has opened a can of worms. The friend has forced me to look inside myself and made me feel very lousy. It is not entirely my friend's fault though for I have stereotyped the friend and thus the anger that arose.

We both apologised and I managed to humanely sit down and talk through the whole issue all over in a slightly calm manner. I came home, with my insides still all mangled up, as if I have met with a very bad accident. I think you can see from my erratic writing and thoughts.

I would need time to lick my egoistical wounds, I suppose. Writing this down helps.

Updates of my life

I am so busy nowadays, juggling work, final exams for my studies and preparing for my trip to Europe, that I hardly have time to blog.

I am also busy trying to look for alternatives to the things I use on a daily basis. Things like facial cleansers, make-up, make-up removers and body wash, etc. Other than the Neutrogena facial wash and the waxing strips, I have found a Japanese brand of make-up remover called "Cleansing Express". It works pretty well and so far so good for my skin. No funny red patches yet.

I have also found the drugstore brand of make-up called Kate that is very good! They are actually by the makers of Kanebo make-up but they are selling it at more affordable prices at drugstores, giving customers more value for money. The Face Shop is also my 'good friend' now.

Just today, I was going to buy some long sleeved cotton t-shirts for my trip (to keep myself warmer and for layering purposes). I first went to GAP as I had bought a very nice cotton tee that was lightweight and yet, served its purpose in keeping me warm. The damage would be $39.90. I decided to drop by at Uniqlo at ION. They had a much thicker long sleeved cotton tee going for $14.90! Grabbed it! Plus it was premium cotton, very good to the touch.

I suppose now it is more of learning how to shop smart and I am also learning that drugstore (i.e. cheaper stuff) stuff does not necessarily mean bad news. It is sometimes better than the expensive stuff.

Well, going to bed now, for I need to get to work by 7 am tomorrow. Night everyone!

THAT porridge place

Well, I have always said that I would take some pictures and show you what the porridge looks like etc, etc. Here they are:

The name of the stall: Guangdong zhou pin. Translated, it roughly means porridge from the Guangdong province

My favourite pork ball porridge with fried dough fritters. They make their own pork balls and there are lightly browned sesame seeds and some other preserved veggie that makes it yummy. They are bigger than most other pork balls too!

Lovely day

Met up with some girlfriends to have tea and we ended up having such a nice, arty kind of afternoon. First stop: K.Ki at Ann Siang Hill. Quaint little place with nice environment and nice people. Here are some pics:

 Then we went to this place called Stevie General Store. They sell second hand almost everything and they have got quite a nice selection of retro clothes. Not that cheap though but the owners are really nice.

The owners also sell a collection of second hand books, which they themselves have read and like. They were very humorous and so was their way of tagging their items. There was a bust of Bruce Lee which they labelled as "One of Ip Man's disciples". Thought it rather witty. Just that I cannot remember the rest.

We then hopped over to Books Actually which was diagonally across the road. This shop is now 3 stories high and if I wanted old typewriters and those toy baby grand pianos made in China, I would know where to buy them.

All in all, it was a lazy afternoon, spent with 3 ladies and rounded up with very good dinner at Spizza's.

The Face Shop

Three Face Shops in the span of 3 days later, I managed to complete what I needed to buy and found the satisfactory customer service in the third and last shop.

The first shop I went to was at Wisma Atria. The girl who served me was only interested in me buying lots and lots. When she realised that I was not going to do so, she became very lukewarm. I had already surfed their site and actually knew what I wanted: Eye pencils which were eyeshadows and this green eye shadow which the eye pencil range was not going to offer me.

Turned out that they were having a promotion: take one or two (I cannot remember) eyeshadows and a blusher in order to get a special discounted rate. But I didn't need a blusher! The sales person's head could not turn fast enough. It was like a straight road with no side turns and slip roads. She could have simply suggested that I get what I wanted and she would still have a made a better sale than my two pencils.

Next, there was the cashier. After asking me "Do you have membership?", she decided to converse with me totally in Mandarin, even though I actually spoke to her in ENGLISH! Rude and how can one not be able to speak English when she is working in the customer service industry. It IS our language of communication after all.

Second shop I went to was at the HDB Hub. I was looking for that green eyeshadow palette but could not find it. I was tempted to use Mandarin but decided to test the sales person. She was not very good with her English but at least she attempted to speak to me. That, I applaud her. Only thing was, she had no turns and slip roads either. The green palette was out of stock and she just gave me an apologetic look and smile. She could have suggested the triple baked eyeshadow instead.

The last shop was at Junction 8, Bishan. I could not remember whether I spoke English or Mandarin but what made me buy more than I intended was because the sales person knew when to retreat and when to come forward to assist me when help was needed. I finally got my green palette eyeshadow and this liquid foundation with BB cream. She was very patient and detailed with her explanation of the foundation and seeing that I was looking at the placard for the detailed explanation, she took it up for me to read. Nice!

If I were not put off by the mouldy looking powder puff in the tester, I might have already bought their loos powder from them. Lucky thing I did not though, for I found Kate (cosmetics brand by Kanebo in open shelf style) at Watson's and their loose powder was at almost half the price of that from The Face Shop. Phew! More savings!

Lazy but productive Sunday

Wanted to study and do my work at Coffeebean & Tealeaf (Junction 8) today. Was also craving for eggs benedict since I have been cooking it in Cafe World.

The minute I reached there, I was quite put off, as they had put up a sign "no studying" on all their tables. No studying for me then. Then, when I saw the picture and portion of the eggs benedict that they had, I kind of lost all apetite for...it did not look as good as the one in Cafe World. Hahahaha...! It looked too dry and the portion looked too small for my already very hungry apetite. I ordered a "brek 'o day" instead.

I suppose I was too hungry and my brains already told my stomach that the food was not going to be nice and so I did not feel that filled up at all. Not wanting to stay there to try my luck, I left after gulping down my coffee. Plus, the table next to me kept having the irritating message tone from her Nokia and I found that rude.

Anyhow, I ended up buying some cosmetics for myself (see next posting too) as I did a clearance of what I had before. Most of my old stuff are now not usable as they have been left in the box for too long. Don't want to put mould onto my face.

Wanting to buy groceries from Cold Storage, I took the MRT to Novena and instead of going to the supermarket immediately, I decided to park my toosh at TCC. What a lovely decision!


I ordered a side of calamari rings and a herbal tea called "Exotic French" and had a lovely time getting some stuff done! There were lots of distractions though, especially these two friends, a guy and a girl, dissing Facebook. They were just trying to act uppity, if you ask me.

The girl was telling him that some friends update their status and things like somebody in their family died also gets posted and he immediately replied," I think that is too personal to put isn't it? I will never put something like that on Facebook".

Well, who is to say who is to put what on FB? Anyway, it helps keep friends connected, especially those who may not be in the same place/ country as you are. Then finally the guy says what he felt inside him all along; "I think I prefer Twitter. It is so much better". DUH! Whatever!

In that whole span of eavesdropping, I managed to finish a whole chunk of my work. I packed up and left, hoping to give my ears some peace.

Corrine May for NDP song 2010

Only Corrine May has the ability to move and stir a person's heart with her voice and music, no matter what she sings. Kudos to Corrine May!!

Of friends and transport

Last Friday, I met up with my Primary school friends, PK and Karen. We were supposed to go and try out this new place called Kichi Kichi at Takashimaya but  we ended up at Seoul Garden instead. Why? Because we all forgot that it was a Friday and all of us forgot to make reservations!!

We had a good time at Seoul Garden though. I was happy to be eating BBQ stuff, together with soupy things as well. There was a lot to catch up on and we re-connected with one another.

It was quite funny though, before we met up. PK and I are the ones without a car and yet, when we suggested another restaurant (Ebisboshi Shogentai@ Iluma), Karen told us to change to a place whereby there was less ERP, etc, etc.

Seriously speaking, if you have the money to own a car, then why don't you have enough to pay for ERP?? Surely you must have factored that in when you decided to have one. Besides, I thought cars are supposed to give you more convenience as when compared to us public transport folks. I personally just find it a little absurd to have to compromise most of the time.

Well, we finally got it all ironed out and came to a compromise alright! Whatever it was, all's well that ends well.

Health-ier??

Hmm...after proclaiming publicly to be health-ier, I ate something not as healthy as I would like it to be: Korean chicken meat on sticks with rice. I think they called it chicken bulgogi set meal.

It is grilled and all but the thing is, there are little chunks of chicken skin on the stick and that makes it a little too fatty for my liking. Hee, actually, if it were pork, I really do not mind it at all. The fat is more solid and does not feel so squishy like those of chicken. Plus the fat of the pork adds to the texture of the meat itself.

Today though (as in Monday, since I am blogging this past 12 midnight), I thought I was going for the healthier chicken choice. Well, what can I say, not much difference! Guess what? As I am typing this, I just realised that I ate chicken rice twice today! Once at work and then for dinner!! Not that chicken is my all-time favourite, but I just happened to make this choice of food tonight (Monday). Mind you, if I can help it, I will not touch chicken wings. There is a story behind it but I shall save it for another day.

Anyhow, it was a satisfying meal though and ahem, I added a jumbo korean sausage to go with my dinner. The only thing I can console myself with is that nothing was deep fried.

It is not a sin to be fat

Yesterday, I was at NTUC Unity Pharmacy buying Johnson's Baby oil. I was actually on the look out for pure Vitamin C tablets (not those with zinc). The ones with zinc give me lots of gas, a sign of a weak digestive system. I was just looking around when the typical sales auntie walks up to ask me whether I needed help. I told her, "It's ok, I am just looking around."

A very standard reply but a reply nonetheless. It actually means "do not disturb me". Why is it that they do not get it at all??!!!! Ten, twenty over years and they still do not know how to treat a customer right. No wonder they seem to be killing flies more than making sales fly!

What happened next just made me seeth with anger. I mean, I have met with such situations a million times at least but every time, it never fails to make me boil. I just take it as a personal attack and very poor social etiquette. She asked me, " Do you want to take a look at some slimming products?"

How forthrightly insinuating can it get?? I was fuming and had wanted to put down the other products that I had chosen and was about to purchase, but I took three deep breaths and walked myself to the cashier. No point stooping down to that person's level. Well, at least she did not come outright to say that I have a very big tummy or that I had lots of blackheads, all of which happened during my whole lifespan.

I am not slim and far from skinny. However, I have lost quite a bit and am proud of who I am now. Although I am not at my ideal shape yet, I would like to be very positive about myself (which I am). I suppose that lady would not know all that information and she thought that she was giving me a big hand in suggesting that I go on diet.

I think I am a much smarter shopper than that. Slimming products can help momentarily but it does not last forever. One needs to exercise and change one's eating habits to healthier choices in order to maintain the figure.

For years now, these so-called promoters lack the tact and the very technique of capturing the heart of the customers. It's funny how pushy they are. Somebody should tell them to go learn some basic psychology or like I might have said somewhere before, go Taiwan. They have got superb customer service etiquette.

That said, I must tell you what I am doing now to change my eating habits. I am choosing more soupy stuff to eat, such as yong tau foo; ban mian; fish soup with bee hoon and so on. I also try to eat more greens and drink lots of water. Hee, as for the exercise bit, I must admit that I have been lagging a little, but at least I walk from my home to the MRT station. That is already a good 5-7 minutes. Plus changing MRT lines from the red line to the yellow line also requires some walking. Those are the minimal that I get right now. Will be factoring in more exercise regime soon.

Flash flood

Remember me mentioning about the flash floods a few posts before? Here is an example of the wrath of the flash flood that happened recently in the Little Red Dot:

Box it up

Usually, one sms, one call from the friend, I would put everything down and join the friend in whatever the friend has suggested we do. Today, I am tired. Physically and mentally tired.

The friend had asked to meet for lunch, but I actually turned the friend down. I woke up real early today to get to work by 7am and I needed to come home to take my cough medicine. You see, I was supposed to be on M.C for the last two days but I really did not care to stay home. There was a lack of staff and if I did take anymore M.Cs, I would be inviting unwanted gossip.

Was feeling a little down after that, not quite sure whether it was the medicine or my own feelings. Anyway, I just feel that I am slowly mentally sifting out the emotional lovey-dovey parts from the friendship parts and putting the former into a box to be stored away in one part of my memory forever. Until such a time that I need it, then I will bring it out again, on condition that it will not be painful to myself.

I am on my way to closure. I can almost hear the sad violin playing in the background, but I refuse to be sad and I refuse to mope. I will walk with a smile to embrace a new chapter in my life, slowly but surely. Things will be different. The friend will not know, but at least I know that I will be better, soon.

Car-less

I am now not so sorry that my Dad had sold our family car away. With flash floods like those that are quite common just now in Singapore, I am glad we did not have to deal with soaking wet cars that had to be towed away and overhauled.

I think deep down, it still hurts me a little that we do not have a car now but I would like to have a noble way of thinking that we are doing our part in saving the earth.

In a way, we are creatures of habit and once I got used to walking to and from the bus interchange and taking alternative transport, it really did not matter much anymore.

Nosey business

I have been having a bad case of post nasal drip cum infection for the last week or so. My left nose had been semi-permanently blocked. I have been roughing it out as I know that if I went to the Doc's, he would simply prescribe me with the same old antibiotics that would cure me for a while but then, I will be back to square one in no time.

Instead, I chose to queue up for an appointment to see the Chinese doctor (Traditional Chinese Medicine or TCM in short) instead. I really believe that it is time my immune system faced up to its challenge to fight all those infections. The price for all these ra-ra talk and thoughts? Whopping cough ever so often throughout the day. I am coughing so bad that my stomach hurts and I have to remember to remind myself to squeeze my kegel muscles so that I would not be peeing like a helpless baby. I sometimes have to rush to the toilet as my lung, nose, ears whatsoever are so filled with mucus that I had to throw it all up.

Sorry, grotesque I know but I somehow I feel that writing about it will make me heal faster. Haha!

How do I avoid embarrassment in public? I use the story book that I am reading to block my whole face while I coughed away. I know, I should use a mask. Now, where did I put it...?

Wish me luck, my appointment with the TCM doc is tomorrow evening. With much luck, I would heal soon and 'tune' my body till it's able to withstand all sorts.

P.S.

The Night Festival posts will be up soon, just as soon as I get the energy to upload the photos. I am not very bright with technology/ geek stuff and blogging and going on the Net is about the only cool thing I am good at (not really). But anything geeky scars me and I approach it with much apprehension. Give me some time to upload and I can tell you about the fun things that went on that night.

Waxing (not so) lyrical

Well, it has been a horrible weekend. I can say that my so-called love life is in the doldrums and will be headed for doom soon, just as soon as I am able to accept and create closure for myself. I need to move on. I don't mean to mope here, but I need to type it out in order to tell myself to execute it.

First step to healing my heart was to try the wax strips that I bought from the pharmacy. I once tried these in my Uni days and I suppose I did not know how to do it very well, either that or the product itself was not so good yet. I did not succeed in removing much hair and got my toilet all yucky after that. I stopped using those like, forever.

For the past two or three years, I have been going to "Strip, the Ministry of Wax" to have my fix of grooming. Looks like I would have to stop that soon too as my package is going to be used up soon and I do not intend to continue going to them. For one, I will need lots of Vitamin M and for seconds, they like to 'sell' you stuff: if it is not this cream, it will be IPL treatment, that treatment, something or other.

I do not blame them though. This is how the general environment of their industry works. Plus they earn commission like that. Only thing for a softy like me is to have to prep myself on how to say "No" every time before I go for a session. I could almost memorise and predict what they are going to ask and/or tell me.

It is even contradictory. One of them told me that because I wax, that I would get in-grown hair easily and that I should try IPL instead. Funny? Wasn't their business all about waxing? Why were they slapping their own 'faces'? I suppose this is what I had learned in my hotel course as "up-selling".

I also do not dare to request for a regular therapist for fear that if I stuck to one, I would get too emotional and attached and would be more inclined to say "yes" to any suggestions whatsoever for treatments that she gives. I am sorry, if you are a therapist and is reading this but I really would like to be more prudent in my spending, you know. Plus I am just like that. I judge whether I would go back to a hairdresser by how over chatty he or she is. If he or she tries to sell me everything under the sun in their shop, it would be the first and last time that I would go there.

Anyway, I tried the brand "Nair" and it turned out pretty good! All those trips to the waxing salon also taught me a thing or two about waxing myself. There was also a nice strawberry taste to it, which was yummy. There is also glitter on the wax, which made it all the more fun!

There, I think I will be able to manage on my own and be able to save tons of money from now. Plus, I do not need to make an appointment or wait for any particular day to go. I can do it in the comfort of my own home :)

p/s: I am not going to tell you which areas I wax, OK! Hahahaha!

Eavesdropping

Nothing much happened today, except that I walked to SingPost centre to have my lunch as the cook cooked something that I used to like but now, am quite frankly sick of: it's fried ee fu noodles.

It was hot like hell on my way there and back and I felt like a barbecued turkey after that. I ate yong tau fu (my choice of food nowadays, as it is not too oily). What was interesting were the two guys sitting one seat away from me on a long table. I think one of them is a doctor for he could not stop talking about cancer, good cells, bad cells and so on. Really. Quite tasteless to be talking about illnesses and diseases when one is eating. Didn't their mums and dads teach them?

Every sentence had the word "cancer" in it and this doctor guy (I presume that he is) seems to want the whole world to hear what he was saying. He told his friend (whom I think is doing his Masters of sorts, as he mentioned about "finishing the thesis") that he should try "virgin coconut oil" or was it "extra virgin coconut oil". It was as if doctor guy was trying to create the next new buzz word and/or buzz product by word of mouth.

Frankly, I found it very tasteless and an uncool thing to do. Besides, just because the virgin olive oil is getting so much limelight, now all sorts of oils must be virgins?? Oh well, according to him, this extra virgin coconut oil is supposed to be good for the health (Ha!) I just say, everything in moderation.

OK, OK, so I was eavesdropping but they were not exactly very discreet with their conversation either. In actual fact, their voice volumes were bordering on rudeness and inconsideration. Well, the only excuse for them I can think of is that the food court was full of people and was rather noisy. Either that or one of them could be hard of hearing.

After lunch, I trotted off to my favourite de-stressing place: Popular Bookshop and bought myself some stationery necessities. As I exited the entrance of the building, I remembered seeing some handphone cases that I needed so badly. Mine was the faux leather casing type with a magnetic clasp that will flip open. The stuff in the casing that was supposed to hold my handphone has come to bits and was barely clinging on to my phone. My phone had slipped out of it's own casing and the casing had defeated its purpose in protecting my phone. Get it?

Long and short of it is that I needed to change the handphone cover. I had searched my whole neighbourhood, which is one of the most famous heartland neighbourhood shopping area in Singapore and yet, I could not find a case and/or one that was nice enough for me to want.

Today, I tried my luck. Like I said, I was exiting the building and stopped by at the store. After some queries from store owner and some recommendations later, I took an orangey-red 'condom' cover for my handphone. No more flips and flaps and no more bulky cases. This one just slips on nicely over the the phone and hugs it snugly. Sure, it does not protect the screen of the phone but then, I already have a protective sheet over it.

I'm a happy girl now! It's not as orange as I want it to be but I am still a happy girl nevertheless! :)

Hunger and lust

Hmm! I know what you must be thinking when you see this title of my post. well, it is a little play on the words and you shall find out why shortly, like, right after reading this.

Today, I was really hungry as I was doing closing shift and swore myself into not buying any titbits. That way, I can watch my weight, a little. I finally decided to go to Olive Fusion at the food court of Raffles City (Level 3) after work. I think I mentioned in one of the posts that I had a crush on the Chinese chef. He has slit eyes like mine. :p

That was the "hunger" part of my story. Of course, to add lust to the "hunger" part, it would be that he added a little more spaghetti for me. No! Yes, he did! I saw him add that wee bit more as he was finishing up with the cooking of my dish. It made me feel special even though his intention may purely be due to the fact that I am such a regular. Somehow, I was conjuring up a lot of images in my mind :P

By the way, even though there are many choices on the menu, I somehow always end up with spaghetti pesto. There are more than one Olive Fusion outlets in food courts and I first started out with the Bugis outlet. Seriously though, I prefer the Raffles City one as he cooks to my liking. The pesto is not too wet and oily, just coating the pasta and giving it a fragrant, nutty and herb-y taste. The Bugis chef however, makes it too wet and soggy and there was once, he put so much garlic and did not cook it too well that I was tearing throughout my meal!! I was a walking garlic bomb after that.

This Raffles City chef though, does everything perfectly. Plus point of course, is that I like watching him cook. Sigh...what is with me and chefs? Is it because of their chef's uniform (as opposed to policemen in their uniforms)?

No, actually the object of my lust is not the man/chef. It was a pair of Clarks Sports shoes, several to be exact. I am planning for my trip to the Netherlands, right? While I have a pair of beautiful Doc Marts' mary janes, I am just worried that the weight of the shoe itself would give me sore feet for the whole of my journey. The other thing is that I would have to find suitable socks to go with it. Most of my socks collections are ankle high ones (or does one call it sockettes?). I would really have to look into how I can save on this area.

I kept finding one beautiful shoe after another and I kept trying them on to see how it would look on my small little feet, how comfortable it would feel and whether I was able to walk long distances in them. The touch of the leather and the comfort of the insoles, they were enough to make me erm...high. Hee! But of course, I needed to control myself. I have promised myself not to buy any clothings, shoes whatsoever and it's mid-month and I have bought nothing! I shall have to keep to that promise.

Mondays

Today, like any other Monday, was a rather sucky, tiring day. It was my turn to do the opening shift again. It is the day that nobody really wants to do the opening shift, least of all, me. I have to sleep earlier on Sunday just to ensure that I wake up on time to catch the 6.20am train to work. Being a night owl, that did not suit me at all.

I often ended up having to take a cab to work, but I have learned that taking cabs is an expensive affair and so, the only way to solve the problem is to wake up earlier! It is painful. I have tried leaving my table lamp on, keeping my radio on and lifting up my curtains a little more just so that the brightness from the sky would wake me up faster, but all of no use as I still often oversleep and have to end up rushing.

The only consolation is that I have a few hours to unwind before I get to my night classes. Today, armed with my fresh supply of books from yesterday, I ate a sandwich with fries from this Bratwurst Shop at Plaza Singapura (yes, there again coz I wanted to print out photos instantly and that was the only place I could think of where there was one). Of course I know of other places but it would be too far for me to go before my lessons.

Anyhow, it was a grumpy, coughy Monday, but I shall not complain. The less negativity, the better.

Orange

Some may think I am faddish by supporting the Dutch in this World Cup. Doesn't mean I have friend who has gone to stay in the Netherlands that I should support blindly, right? Wrong.

OK, so what if I did choose the Dutch team because my friend kept posting up fantastic pictures of everyone wearing orange? So what if I chose to support this team mainly because their team is called Oranje (Orange) and wears orange and wreaks orange? I simply love the colour orange.

Matter of the fact is, they already managed to prove themselves by playing their way to the finals. That in itself is reason enough for me to support them. Anyway, I always preferred to support the underdogs. I was going to tell you an example of a boy band that I used to like, but that would then reveal my age and/or the era that I come from. Therefore I shall refrain from doing so.

Whether or not the Dutch will when tomorrow, I will still be wearing my orange dress from Uniqlo and bring my orange stockings to change into after work (also from Uniqlo) to show my support. Hahaha! For in the end, even if they do not come in first, they are still runner-up, silver medalists, all!

p/s: did you notice the clock on my blog? I did not choose an intersection of an orange without much reasoning :)

Correction (hopefully the last) and updates

Don't need to wait for Monday to unravel the mystery about Sunny Bookshop. Indeed, I was right the first time round. They are NO LONGER at Far East Plaza.

I could not wait till tomorrow to get fresh supplies of story books and thought I would go to EMF (another secondhand bookshop) at Plaza Singapura. When I reached the 6th floor, surprise, surprise!!! I see those big familiar words with that screw driver on the letter "S": Sunny Bookshop. EMF is gone, for good!

I plunged into the sea of books and started looking and searching. It is still quite messy, not the sort of organisation I am used to while working in the library, but this would suffice as I satisfied my hunger for books and pleasurable reading.

Halfway through searching, a local celebrity of the theatrical kind even popped by to look for a certain book! It was Karen Tan and I do so admire her works as an actor with the theatre. She could not find what she wanted but thanked the staff and told her not to worry if she could not find the book, as she simply just loves the feel of a secondhand bookshop. How nice, so do I!

At first, I only took 3 books but the girl told me that if I took one more, my loan period would be extended to two and a half months per book! What a bonus! Finally, not one to miss out on such great opportunity, I lugged 4 books around town with me.

The old shop was indeed on Level 3 (so my memory did not fail me)and the present shop at Plaza Singapura, Level 6 is the only store they have, i.e. they have shifted there permanently. Bliss for me still, as it is still not too far away from home.

The Night Festival

The Night Festival is coming again. This coming weekend to be exact. Without making much effort, I have unknowingly gone for this festival every year. Every year too, I have gone on the festival with the friend.

However, this year, I may want to do it alone for a change. Sometimes I feel that going to the museum requires a lot of patience. Not that I have much but I think I have a little bit more than the friend.

Besides, this year, I may want to stay till the end of the show, past midnight. Should be quite spectacular. It is true, I may not have anyone to share the whole experience with, but then again, I have never experienced going to the festival alone! Hee, we'll see how it goes.

Plans and virtual food become reality

Saturday had been one hell of a day. From the word go, there was no stopping. I had to go back to work to help out with an event and afterwards, I met up with my friend to discuss our trip to the Netherlands/ Europe.

I did not realise that the booking of a hotel could be stressful. We actually spent a whole afternoon doing bookings for just 2 places and then, we still had to settle our Eurail pass. By then, I was all google-eyed and had to shout, "Stop!"

Actually, amidst all this excitement, I am also a bit worried as my practicum for my course may be delayed and it may not end exactly in September itself. I am taking a little gamble though and praying very hard that my practicum supervisor will allow me to choose a favourable day before I go off.

By the time we finished everything, it was almost 8 o'clock. Way too late for dinner. As my friend and I were Cafe World fans, we decided to go to Marche at 313@Orchard to eat real food that we usually simply just cook in the virtual world of Cafe World!

Hehe...we had seafood paella and pizza. I almost wanted to get spaghetti bolognaise but had to stop myself. We ate a slow dinner, chatting and laughing as we went along. The food was yum!! Hmm...this game, I better beware of it. If I am not careful, I will be putting on lots of weight by wanting to turn what is virtual into a reality!

Correction, correction

Sigh...I am so blur. Age must be catching up with me. A quick check with my friend today confirmed that Sunny Bookshop (as mentioned in my previous posting) is still 'alive and well' and so I was wrong in saying that it no longer exists.

Strange then, that I did not see the name on the directory listing of the shopping centre (still scratching my head figuratively). I must go find out myself this coming Monday.

My friend told me that it is actually on Level 2 of Far East. Now why did keep thinking that it was Level 3? The most amazing part is that I vaguely remember myself getting 'lost' the same way when I was a lot younger. I kept thinking that it was at Level 3. Oh wait, I am confused. I thought the escalator from the bus stop did bring me straight to Level 2 (and not 3).

Anyhow, do wait for my update on Monday when I am able to sort myself out. Not before going to exchange for more books to read though :)

Closure

Met up with an 'old' friend from Uni days yesterday (Friday). We were for some parts of our lives, 'detached' from each other as she set up her own family and had a successful career. Things have changed a bit but we got connected again through Facebook.

There was another friend, Let's call her "friend A", whom we were very close to but till now, I still refused to accept in Facebook. Maybe it is because I could see what sort of person she is and remembered the not-so-nice things that she did to me during Uni days or maybe, part of me just did not want to tell her that I am a divorcee. That would be admitting that she is better off than me...in a certain way. Don't get me wrong though. It is not that I dislike this status but with friends who like to compare, I just wished to keep a safe distance. I would rather not go there.

Anyway, this 'old' friend that I met up, told me that Friend A had news for me that this person that I used to be seeing during my Uni days, has died. He died quite some years back now.

I was not surprised. I already kind of knew that he was no longer in this world but someone telling me in my face became a formal closure for me. I told my 'old' friend that I was OK and that I was not affected (much), but that night when I came home, I did not really sleep well. No, I did not cry. I think I was past that for this one was a relationship that was never going to work out and I have let go a long time ago. It was just that from time to time, I used to wonder where he was and what he was doing and whether or not I could find him on Facebook.

That night, I reminisced about us back in those days. Those were bittersweet memories that will now have to be packed neatly and kept in a box somewhere, to be stored inside a corner of my heart.

Rest in peace, Y.S.C.

Bookworm

Just this Monday, I was off work early, doing the opening shift and all. I had just finished one storybook which I had bought from Books Kinokuniya quite some time back and was craving for another.Reading was another way of keeping myself busy and off the shopping malls. It was an economical yet good old fashion way to pass time, without being too useless at all.

I am a slow reader and borrowing books from public libraries never really did work for me. I would be too stressed up about the due date to be able to enjoy the book completely and in the end, I would still be late in returning them anyway.

My bus takes me through Orchard Road and the nearest bookshop I could think of was Prologue at ION@Orchard. Then I had a better idea! Recently, I had thought I saw Sunny Bookshop still in business at Far East Plaza and I quickly rang the bell and hopped off. Sunny is a second-hand bookshop that was tres popular during my school days. You bought a book at one price and if you returned it on time, you would get back a certain amount which was lower than that of what you paid for. The difference was that the due date was like a month or so and that did not sound so bad to me. I know, strange isn't it? 3 weeks is not OK but 4 weeks is fine. Maybe it has got to do with the fact that if I did not return a book from a second-hand book store in time, I could still keep it for myself.

I was wrong about Sunny though, for it was no longer there. Luckily, there were two other second-hand bookstores for me to peer into and the first one did not look at all appealing. The collection was in a bit of a mess and there did not seem to be much selection and variety to begin with. I decided to consult the directory and found ANA Book Store on Level 5.

The arrangement of the collections were still quite messy but at least this fella had the popular authors and books displayed upfront, which was so much easier. I did not have too much cash with me at that time though and was too lazy to go all the way back down to the basement to get money. I was also running a little short of time and there was still dinner to settle.

I think sometimes with books, it is also fate. I picked out this unassuming book called Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda. Amazingly, this was a French translated book and little did I realise that it was filmed into a French movie, Ensemble, c'est tout and was acted by Audrey Tautou! I am quite sure that I have seen the film title before as it was one of those French Film Festival screenings.

Well, it felt like I was back in my Uni days where I went to bookshops, picked up books and trotted off to cafes along the cappucino strip in Fremantle. Except that now, I stay in the comfort of my own room until the wee hours of one, two o'clock in the morning and devour the book some more during my lunch break.

This book was that good! I paid $9 for it and will get back $6 when I return it. Technically speaking, the book just cost me $3, but everyone (including the shop owner) knows that one does not stop there. Once you are hooked on it, you would go back for more and the $6 will be rolled over to your next purchase of books, which is just as well in my opinion. After all, one still has to read anyway.

By the way, I really liked how the owner told me after he had given me change, "Now you can feed your mind with knowledge" or was it "Now you can feed your mind with all that reading". Anyhow, I was in a hurry but I was really happy.

On the way, I saw Wasabi Tei serving its first customers. Made a mental note to self that this could be another Monday early dinner place in future. For usually, there would be a long queue for this place. Once it's bar tables are filled up (and there are only bar-table-styled seating, one would have to obediently queue up for like...forever (when one is very hungry).

p/s: Right now, my mind is all messed up with all that emotional shit after reading the book. The author really knows how to bring one right up to the roller coaster and come down with a big bang. Will probably do a book review of sorts later when I get my emo self sorted out.

Aaarrrh!!

Today (as in Wednesday, 7 July), I was really bitchy. I was rushing to go for night classes as it was going to start half an hour earlier. We were going to get instructions about our practicums and such. Did not want to miss a thing.

I stopped by at Kopi Tiam @ Plaza by the Park and thought it would be healthiest to eat yong tau foo. There were these three persons in front of me: two ladies and one man. The man took longer to decide what to have and I beat him to the queue to get my food done first.

After cooking the second bowl for the ladies, he told the cook to calculate all three bowls of yong tau foo together. I do not know but I felt that since my bowl was at the counter top before the man, that the cook should ask for my opinion on whether I minded to let him go first or not (since they were in one group). Instead, she just told me in Mandarin, "You wait, ah."

That made me boil. Not really but because I was in a hurry. Therefore, instead of taking it sitting down, I simply told her back calmly in smooth Mandarin that I did not want to buy her food anymore. I think the four words "I don't want already" are very powerful consumer tools. In fact, in my opinion, the most powerful. After all, the money is in my hands. I have a choice. All I heard her say was, "Huh??" as I rushed to get other stuff for dinner.

I chose not to wait and went to the nearest, fastest stall, which happened to be the duck rice stall. The duck meat was chopped up in a minute and the whole transaction took less than 3 minutes. I paid, took the packet of rice and took flight. I was going to be at least 4 minutes late, all no thanks to yong tau foo auntie.

By the way, I think that man was also very ungentlemanly. He saw me looking at my watch a few times already and I WAS indeed before him in terms of finalising my choices of yong tau foo pieces. I do not see any reason why I should not go first.

Anyhow, I only just made it in time as they started 5 minutes late to accommodate for people like me :(

Very Korean

Crying is no good for the eyes. They felt like goldfish's eyeballs today, but I managed the day though. Had a refreshing albeit sunburn-ish kind of walk to Singpost Centre during lunch break. It is amazing what walking can do for the mind, except that I wished that it wasn't so hot.

Had Korean food for lunch today. It was BBQ pork set. Then coincidentally in the evening, Mum bought me Korean grilled saba fish set. Because I was rushing to see the Chinese doc, who is ever so busy and popular, Mum had bought me take-away (how sweet!). The very coincidental part was that she took out the set of environmental-friendly chopsticks and spoon set that I bought from Lotte World in Korea. Suddenly, I felt very Korean and I was half giggling to myself as I ate dinner at the Pek Kio Hawker Centre, which was sparsely populated with the dinner crowd thinning out already.

The wait at the Chinese doc's was not so bad and Mum and I went home on one of those rare occasions that she would accompany me out. Bliss! Kept giving her secret smiles and she pretended to glare back at me. Hee!

Let it all out, learning to let go

Last night, for the first time after so many years, I bawled over the state of things of my so-called love life. It is zilch and I feel like such a failure and it all stemmed from a simple message.

Not that the message was clear or definite. It is still vague with only a suggestion of what is to become of our 'relationship' (if you can even call it that). The message was sent last weekend but it took me that long to process (and I am still trying to figure it out).

Maybe it is the final acceptance and realisation that it is going nowhere; maybe I finally admitted that I am just not lucky in love; maybe I can see that I am just no good with any sort of relationship (friendship, courtship, whatsoever).

Anyway, life must move on. We are still friends but I must learn to let go. If not, there is only one way to do it and that is to ask him, which I am too much of a coward to do so (thought of autistic child pressing ears shut and shaking head vehemently from left to right when s/he cannot accept something comes to mind). Maybe after my all-important course. Cannot afford to divert my attention now.

The other way is to try and make new friends which I am still convincing myself to teach myself to do so. I have become a sort of recluse, a sort regression seems to have taken place and kind of lost some skills about socialising (just like how an autistic child does not know how to communicate). Sigh, I should stop being so negative and doing comparisons with people with autism. No offense, I think I have said it before, but here again, I feel that I was sometimes born with mild autism but veering on the Asperger syndrome side.

I am still positive as I have other things to think about at the moment. I shall leave so-called love life aside and concentrate instead, on the love for my family and friends.

My resolution for this month

My resolution for this month is to not buy any clothes and/or shoes. Hopefully I can resist the temptation, especially from Uniqlo. I shall try to walk into shops less and stay at home more. I need to get used to owning what I have and not be too greedy.

First day back at work

Hmm...it was not exactly a smooth start to the day on my first day back at work. The gossip mongers were trying to see how many pox and scars I had, probably so that they could discuss about the 'seriousness' of it later, out of my ear shot.

Luckily I had purposely left some scars for them to see. I also had to explain that most of the pox came out on my back and my scalp, not so much on my body. You could almost see their I-want-to-believe-you face.

Plus, there was that contradictory discussion I had with my working partner as to whether or not to take medicine to stop the growth of the pox. As said in earlier postings, I actually do not advocate suppressing or even stopping the pox (through immunisation).

However, when one is sick and does not know what else to do, and when the doctor tells you that there may sometimes be complications like meningitis and/or pneumonia, and that the pox can even grow on your eyes, one better take the doc's advice and take pills or whatever.

I called it a contradictory discussion because I heard from another colleague that she (my working partner) was not too happy when she realised that I went on medical leave. Instead, today, she was advising me that I should have let all the pox out and just kept drinking cooling stuff for the system and not taken the anti-viral pills. Now, as I am typing this, I am just also wondering whether there was a pinch of sarcasm in what she said. Yes, I know. I am a little slow like that. Make that very slow, which is why I think I may never survive the corporate world. Ha!

I mean, it is one thing to give good advice, but it kind of shows your 'sincerity' as well when you jolly well know that if I let it all come out, that I will take at least 2 weeks of medical leave. Is that what she really wanted?? I doubt.

Anyhow, I gave it my all during the day, doing what I had to do as a team member. I think most times, I am doing the shit work. That said though, I am enjoying doing it because I love it and I have not much complaints about it.

Last but not least, I just want to say that NOBODY WANTS TO FALL SICK and when one is sick, one may sometimes not be able to make or receive phone calls. This is something strong and healthy people may never understand. Or maybe their time to fall very sick has not come yet. when it comes, they may fare worse than me.

Subconsciously...

My cousin had his wedding reception last Sunday. I was really looking forward to it, or so I thought I was. Maybe subconsciously, I did not want to go.

You see, this is my cousin's second wedding. His first one didn't work out. As much as I had wanted to be there to celebrate with him and his new wife, I could not. One very obvious reason is of course due to my chicken pox. The other was that I did not want awkward looks and conversations from relatives.

When my second uncle's daughter got married, they were so secretive about it and they used me as an excuse of not telling everyone. They said that they did not want to hurt my feelings. Ha!! What utter bullshit! If you don't want to tell then don't tell. Don't use me as a lousy excuse. I am happily divorced and there is no reason for me to be unhappy, unless of course they were afraid that I would jinx up their daughter's marriage.

Well, in a way, I was glad that I was not there last Sunday at my third uncle's son's wedding. Then nobody can say that I had anything to do with anything if anything happens. I was very honoured though, coz my cousin actually asked me to be receptionist. Hahaha! This is the sort of thing I liked to do. I did that for my other cousin's wedding and it was fun being the PR person.

Well, most of my cousins are all getting married now and I am happy for all of them, coz I cannot wait to be auntie to all those cute nieces and nephews! As for me, I will continue my journey in looking for a partner. No, not for marriage, but for companionship. I need to start widening my circle of friends from now.

Anyhow, I had to decline the invitation to be receptionist and I stayed at home, like any other good patient.

Need to cool that seething madness

I was seething mad. In fact, in a way, I am still seething. Spurts of smoke (imaginary, of course) can still be seen spurting out of my ears occasionally.

I called up my boss to inform her about my extension of medical leave and guess what she told me? She said that if I did not have the word "Chicken pox" on my medical certificate (MC), then only one day of official MC will be counted.

I was so stunned at that point of time, I did not know what say. Not only was she insinuating that I was lying to her, but she was also (directly or indirectly) insulting and questioning the integrity of the doctor.

As I put down the phone, the fact of the matter slowly sank in. I almost wanted to immediately blog it down but I thought I would cool down first. But I can't cool down. I do not care whether it was HR's policies or what but it was really RUDE!

The funny thing was that just a day before, one other colleague had gotten an MC for 2 days. She looked fine the day before but because she went to the polyclinic, she got the official 2 days. On the third day that she was supposed to come back to work, she had already earlier applied for leave to shift house. I am not going to say anything here but I would let you, my readers, be a little bit of Sherlock Holmes and go figure out why I am so mad.

Therefore, is it right to say that if I go and waste my time, wait at the polyclinic, then I will get my official MC for sure?? Or is it that all private doctors are quacks??? Because that is the message that she is sending me. RIDICULOUS!!

Plus the fact is, I DO have chicken pox!!! I have scars to prove it, even though it is not many simply because I was given the anti-viral pills to stop the spreading. You know, just because of some minorities who abuse the system, we people, who do not want to fall sick at all are always the victim. Maybe we are too obedient. If we talked back, then maybe, there would be some sort of reaction. Then again, we are in a very Asian society and I find that most companies and organisations work in very Asian mindsets. Talking back is a big no-no. It is almost like death sentence.

I mean who likes to pay money to the doctor every month??? Who likes to wait there for hours just to see the doctor??? Seriously, sometimes I wish Asian bosses were more empathising towards their employees, but I think that would take us 10 decades to reach that level of empathy. There is no magic; changing cultures take that long, if they ever succeed, that is.

Anyway, I went to the doc's and it showed on his face that he felt that this was all a joke too. He commented, "An MC is an MC" and smiled. The doc's word IS the law in the medical world. Well, in normal everyday life, GP terms, at least.

Pox!

I cannot believe it! I caught the chicken pox!!!! There were 5 rounds of it at my work place and I thought I would be safe from it but in the end, I still got it!!! It started on Monday afternoon. There were all that flu-like symptoms of backache and post-nasal drip and so I thought I was coming down with flu.

I went home, ate my dinner and was bathing when I felt the shivers. My feet were very cold and I wished that I could stay in the shower forever. I was too cold. I stayed as long as I could in the shower as I could and braced myself for when I needed to get myself out and put on clothes. It was the coldest few seconds in my entire life.

Huddling myself in my towel, I grabbed a pair of socks, opened the window threw the towel back onto the rack and went straight to bed without even turning on the air-conditioning. Oh, of course, I ate Zyrtec before going to bed.

Next morning, I almost could not get out of the bed and out of the house. Took a cab to work. Too painful to walk. Mum had asked me why I did not want to go and see the doc and take M.C. Told her I could not as I was doing the closing shift. Don't want to mess up everybody's schedule.

Come afternoon, my temperature was 37.5 degrees. Asked my colleague for panadol and popped 2. At the same time, my other colleague spotted spots on my face and immediately asked if they were chicken pox. There was one obvious pimply spot on my lip and a few others on the sides of my face. That was on my right side.

By four plus, two more spots had appeared on my left chin. Eeeekssss!!! I had wanted to wait till the next day to go and see a doctor, but mum told me to just go as it made no difference. It did make a difference though for I though the spots were not typical enough to be called chicken pox.

We went to the doc's anyway. I was treated as a pox patient and have to stay at home for the next 5 days. I was given some anti-viral medicine as he was afraid that there might be completion when I get it so 'young'. There could be meningitis or even pneumonia. It was not cheap though but it was necessary.

When I went home and took my bath, found one more spot on my right boob. Hahahaha!!! This morning, lots have sprouted on my scalp and I have accidentally scratched on in my half sleep-stupor.

Anyway, I am keeping my fingers crossed that I will not get too many spots and that there will not be any scars. Sigh...there goes my cousin's wedding reception this Sunday.

Hairy business

Went to cut my hair today. Sigh...so much contemplation for just one hair cut. Really though, I am after all, spoiled for choice here. There are just so many around my 'hood that I can close my eyes and just point. Only thing is that I do not know which one is exactly good and which is bad.

Some are dirt cheap and have a long queue but really not so sure whether cheap is not always bad. One day, I vow to stand outside and wait for someone to come out from their haircut and judge for myself whether it is good or not.

Today's cut was done at Kimage. Not bad, but on the safe side. Still good though :) Would be going back for treatments and colouring though, for I think their prices are reasonable and I have gotten their discount card now. Would also go back if I feel really lazy and don't want to go too far away.

Happy Saturday

Woah! It was a tiring but happy day today. I met up with two of my ex-colleagues and we did a lot of catch up! We spoke of the good old days and for a moment there, it was like I had never left the company. There were times though, when I felt a little left out.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed their company very much. We ate at Sushi Tei at Tampines 1 and then proceeded to eat desserts at Bakerzin. We sat at Bakerzin for like forever. They made me feel connected and yet, disconnected. There is, from one point in our lives, where our paths seperated. The gap that has developed, can never be filled up again. What we can only do now is to build new paths (different ones) that is unlike any other from before; that of friends.

After the very long chit chat, one of them took the MRT back with me. She alighted at one of the stops and lamented that we used to drop off at this very stop with her and we would take bus back to our homes. We used to stay very near each other. Now, she goes off the train on her own, while I continue my journey much farther than before.

I miss the East still. Which was why I requested that we meet at Tampines anyway. The only thing I forgot was how crowded Tampines could get and how very rough the people living there could be! This man was walking towards me and my arm was lifted and folded (as if reaching to scratch my back) and he rammed right into my arm. He purposely did it though because I was very sure that he saw me going his way. It was already very narrow and yet, he purposely rammed into my arm (his waist was up to my arm, that was how huge he was). It happened near Body Shop, near the entrance of Tampines Mall.

Then, as we were approaching the traffic lights that we had to cross to take the MRT, another lady bumped into my friend. The bump was not a light one but...it was more like I-want-to-ram-you-so-that-you-can-get-out-of-my-way sort of bump. I made this comment that people who live on the East side are so rude! Of course, I admitted that I was also an East-sider but I think I have blogged about this before and said that the people from around where I live are much more civilised!

Well, well, I guess I should not generalise too much, lest I get beaten up! Anyway, I ended up eating bread from Bread Society as I was too full to eat anything else! Ahem! If you click on the link and scroll to "Signature-back to basics perennials", you will see my favourite "Spinach and Cheese". Crispy with cheese on the outside, moist and soft on the inside. Oh! Don't forget to check out the cute head chef too!

On the other hand...

...after all the hype at work, there is after all, my down side. I have been feeling very needy. Actually, I felt this for quite a while already and it is my one weakest point (I think) I am so needy that I nag too much to my friends and probably bore them to death and scare them away.

I am probably doing the same thing in this blog. For this blog though, I do not really care, since I want to write what I want to write. But I think I need to learn when to shut up when enough is enough.

Tomorrow is another working day and it will be for the next few Saturdays. I just pray to the good Lord that I will be able to pull through till my course practicum is over. Then it's off to the Netherlands! Woohoo!!!

Cornflakes Crispies for our Daddies

It had been a good week at work. For those of you who know me, you know what I do. For those of you who don't, you would just have to keep guessing, or you might have already guessed from bits and pieces on my blog.

We made cornflakes crispies two days ago and all of them could not wait to taste it. It was the first time we all made it and we were all anxious and excited at the same time. While we all had fun mixing all the ingredients together, I did most of the scooping of the crispies into the cupcake cups. Oh! I had fun sprinkling the hundreds and thousands too! :)

'Baking' it was a little tricky though for we only had a toaster oven to work with. The first batch got quite burnt and my colleague had to watch the over the oven after that. It was really nice though for after that, we put them into nice little packages to bring them home, to our Daddies!! It's after all going to be Father's Day this weekend! Oh! We made simple cards to go along with it too!

If I had a toy boy...

If I had a toy boy, what sort of toy boy would it be?
Would he be a mascular man with long hair like Fabio?
Or would he look like a geek?
Or could he be a cross of both? Thinking about it just makes me laugh in glee.
The idea just tickles me.
Whatever it may be,
I'll just wait and see.
Maybe I will be really frisky and get a type in all three!

Funny

Such an interesting thing happened: My Dad wants to plan a trip to Hokkaido (free and easy) and was trying to find travel companions. He had waited very long for his friends to come along but none were very interested.

Now, one of his former radio listeners who could speak Japanese would like to go but I rejected it flat out. Why? Because the listener is a "she". Hehehe...you would think that it would be the parents who would be the 'goal keeper' at such things but my immediate reaction was, "No way! Tell her that your daughter does not allow it."

I should trust the old foggies on this but somehow, I am really protective of my mum. Strange thing though was that my mum was OK with it. I guess she is more trusting of my Dad than me!

Anyway, my Dad is trying to get my aunts to go along so that they can share the room with the lady listener. We will see how it goes.

What a leisurely day!

Went out with the girls today (you know who you are) and we had a girlie, smashing time! While one of them got THE shoes that she wanted for her wedding dinner, the other two of us got our satisfaction from buying intimates at La Senza. Well, actually I had wanted to hold back on the spending, but the offer was too good to give up on. Usually, La Senza's offer is 2 bras for $60 but now, because of the Great Singapore Sale (GSS), it is 3 for $60! Plus, as a member, I get an extra 10% discount!

As usual, I was fussy about customer service and I apologise to the girls for having to withstand my nonsense. I really should start a blog on customer service but I also do not want to sound like a grouch all the time. We'll see.

We ate gelato at Gusttimo di Roma and that in itself was another customer service story. The ice cream was good though albeit a little melted. Nice ambience though. Good for little chit chats and some peace and quiet.

Dinner was at Paragon's Big O and the spit roasted stuff was yummilicious!!! It reminded me so much of Cafe World, except that I was eating the real thing!!! Hahaha!

A change in most aspects

After changing to my present job, there was a vast change in my income. I received much less than before but I was still not very good with my finances until recently whereby I had to force myself to learn how to cut costs and live within my means. After all, I AM going to Europe and I need to save up!

I think I was a big snob before, or maybe I was just plagued with bad experiences. I never really did believe in pharmacy-bought beauty products. Perhaps the ones that I bought before gave me bad results like either skin that was too dry or skin that was too oily that it gave me milia seeds.

Last week though, I decided to try out stuff from the pharmacy and bought a bottle of Neutrogena face wash. Turned out pretty good! Washes quite well and so far (and most importantly), no skin irritation yet.

The funniest bit was that it is actually made in Korea! Here I was paying $30 over for something Korean (Laneige) when I can get one that pays at about one third less! Well, still keeping my fingers crossed. My skin is actually quite sensitive so I hope this will last as long as it does so that I do not need to spend so much money on skin products :)

The higher one's ancticipation, the greater one's disappointment

It's so funny that I have this same crush on this same guy for donkey years, even though I have told myself to stop it.

Anyhow, I am too much of a coward to tell him in the face that I like him or that I want to do him. Hahahahaha!!!

It's funny that I also started getting really excited when we were supposed to meet tonight. What I thought was going to be an interesting and exciting night, turned out to be a night that I did not really want to be there for. He was telling me about his so-called relationships, treating me like his pal, his confidante. Sigh... . My happiness plummeted to the doldrums. It was almost painful, except that I do not really feel anymore pain as it has become numb (my feelings, that is).

He had promised to spend the whole weekend (as if!) with me and it did sound like it would be a long night out chatting, watching movies and such when we spoke last, but it was not like that. The evening ended rather abruptly and quite early, so much so that I was starting to get depressed. Shoots! He was the one who was depressed! I guess it rubbed off me.

Haha...he asked me whether I was headed for home and I told him point blank that I was going to HMV at 313@Somerset. You could see the surprise on his face. He asked me what I was going to do there. I just told him that I would window shop. That's what I do when I am depressed (more surprised look on his face and of course, I did not actually tell him I feel depressed).

Well, I did end up at HMV but NOT before going into Forever 21 to try some clothes. Depression is a dangerous thing; it makes you want to spend. A lot. If not for my limited resources, I would have gone bongkus buying loads and tonnes already.

HMV seems to set the mood for singles who have nowhere to go. There were a few single persons (usually men) roaming around, looking at C.D.s, but I suspect, their attention is more towards the lady customers in the house. One man in particular, was going around in circles with me. If not for the fact that he did not cover his mouth while coughing, I might even have befriended him. Haha! Funny.

The CD that I finally chose was Mika's Second album, The boy who knew too much. I had already bought his first album for I loved his songs like Grace Kelly and Big Girls (you are beautiful). I had stopped listening to it for awhile as I thought his second album was not to my liking. This time around though, it sounded pleasing to my ear. Hehe...guess I am a little fickle.

The journey back home by MRT was a short one, but it really did feel exceptionally lonely. I was just taking in all that loneliness and absorbing it all. It was kind of nice; kind of bittersweet; kind of beautifully sad. I chose to walk home using the route that I would not normally choose: the more dangerous path I call it, but actually not. During the day, many people use that path to get to the industrial area near my place. Even at night, there are still a few work-laters who use that route. I have grown to love it. It is where I get the frogs' symphony on a rainy day :)

Tonight, I did not care and I finally remembered to slow my steps down. Nowadays, without a car, I seem to rush from place to place as my legs never seem to be long enough. Ever. I paced myself a little and was in a contemplating mode. Except, I was contemplating nothing in particular. I was just in that funny space of melancholy. The air felt like a sad state too. Maybe I am too piteous upon myself but sometimes, once in awhile, it actually feels good to feel like that. Why should one suppress how one feels?

Life goes on. I am still in search of my toy boy, as advised by some of my friends (especially when I go to Europe). This in itself, has become a big joke to me! Then again, who knows?

p/s: When I say depressed, it is more a figure of speech sort of thing. Not that I really feel so at the moment. If the so-called depression becomes so bad that I need medical attention (which is like, never), I will let you, my readers know.

Spending time with Primary school friends today

One of my friends had come back from India with her 3 kids. Every time I see her, she seem to add another kid,and another, and another... . No, I am just kidding. Her kids are adorable.

So there we were, Cadence, Amy, Amy's sister and I. We were at Marche, 313@Somerset. Heehee! Yes, second day in a row that I am there, but IT IS a convenient place for all and there was a play area for the children. Oh yes, there were the kids too! Amy's sister brought her 3 girls, while Amy brough her 3 kids with her as well. All in all, it was a big party!

We spent lots of time playing catch up as we chatted about what we are going through now and there seems to be never-ending stories to tell: from the heat in India, to playing Wii at home and Cafe World on Facebook.

I introduced Amy to Uniqlo and we bought some stuff from there too. If one could become a stakeholder by buying from that particular shop every month, I would definitely have qualified for Uniqlo. Haha! It is so my style now as I do not need to be so formal in my dressing. I am their tights and leggings fan and their clothes can pass off as smart casual when paired properly. Sigh...now I hope to visit the Uniqlo in France. Can't wait! Euros is dropping like mad too!! Hahaha!

As for pictures of the kids and the times that we spent together this afternoon, I will seek permission first before uploading it here.

Spending time with friends on a Saturday evening

I have been doing a lot of catching up this weekend, and I have been going to 313@Somerset. A lot.

Yesterday, I was there. I met up with Spacecakes and Wild Swans to have dinner. We went to this Chinese Restaurant called Paradise Inn. Nice food, horrendous customer service and because of such bad customer service, it caused the food to turn cold and therefore, was not as satisfactory as expected. The only saving grace (to me) was the soup. We ordered a fish soup that was so deliciously yummy and rich in the fish oils and meat taste, that we kept going for seconds and thirds. The rest of the Paradise Inn story, I shall blog it down another time, if I still have the mood. Thinking of it just makes me boil.

It was to be a night of fun and perhaps drinking, but generally we were having the another goes sort of thought and we just moved on from one place to another. After dinner, we sauntered over to the next building, which was the Orchard Central (OC). I wanted to introduce them to Crystal Jade Cafe but by the time we reached it, the "Close" sign was being hung at the menu rostrum outside. We went in search of other sit-down joints.

We found Heavenly Loft + Ben and Jerry's ice cream joint. It was a nice place to be. There was a big mural across the wall in which the centre piece was Adam and Eve. There were a bunch of people whom, I presumed had just finished the World Vision 40 hour Fast (they were wearing the T-shirts) and were breaking fast at the cafe. Nice crowd and staff were OK. Did not chase us away. Minor boo-boo was that they did not ask me before removing my root beer float tall glass. It was not much; just the ice water that had melted while we chatted away, but it would have been plain courtesy to open one's golden mouth to ask before removing it.

We sat till about twelve plus maybe? And then they asked us for last order. We rejected their kindness and paid up to leave. We were still undecided about drinks. The original plan was to go to KPO, which was across the road from OC. We were half-hearted and seeing that it was not so happening while we were waiting to cross the street, we decided to just take a stroll down to Plaza Singapura.

We went to the basement to get money from the ATM and was going to sit at McDonald's but realised that they were closing at 1 am, which was about when we asked them what time they closed. We still wanted to walk and talk and so decided to trot down to the Cathay. There we sat at Starbucks and chatted some more. What a lazy, easy-going night! We were there till about 3am, when the last of its customers left and there was only the girl on night shift cleaning up.

We said our good-byes and took our separate cabs homes. It was indeed good catch up time and I wonder how long this will last as I think will be the last single standing. Heehee!

Some things are meant not to be said

Alright. I might just get bashed up for writing this post but let me just say right from the start that this is purely from my own personal experience and from my own point of view and it is more towards the person in question and not to criticise the whole race, so to speak.

Today, one of my colleagues suddenly gloated to all the rest of us that the only reason that Singapore Table Tennis players could beat the China players was because the Chinese officials in-charge had sent out young and inexperienced players and not those that were already well exposed and National Champions don't know how many times over.

Almost immediately, the whole air around us became very tense and it became like a Singapore Vs China kind of conversation, a my-country-is-better-than-yours kind of conversation. One of my other colleagues , let's call her Colleague 2, was very sarcastic by telling her, "Yes, we do not have enough talents and so have to buy talent from overseas, like China...many of our sports talents are foreigners, etc, etc.

Silly me also went on to explain that there is absolutely nothing wrong with foreign talent. That was a common thing. I told them to look at soccer and some other sport like that. They have lots of players who do not belong to that country but are playing for that team because the money is good. I suppose at that point of time, I missed the point totally and was perhaps trying to tell that other teacher that she did not have to explain why we have foreign talents winning the game for us.

Our dear friend continued gloating by saying that there is no way that Singapore was going to win if not for that fact that the China team gave us a chance. Ha!! The whole place was getting heated up and was started to feel like a war zone.

Then comes Colleague 3 (she is also from China) who says it best of all, "It does not matter who wins, what is most important is that we (the Chinese) won. That was when I felt that I was given a slap on the face and realised that the last laugh was on the colleague who was laughing and gloating at us, our country.

For what Colleague 3 said was right. Either way, the Chinese still win, Singapore or otherwise, for they are all Chinese nationals! It is like the gloating colleague was giving herself a slap on her own face. Instead of getting the kind of reaction that she wanted, she had embarrassed and humiliated herself.

Sigh...I tell you, if she were in Australia, maybe she would learn to be more low key than this. Anyway, I knew that I did when I was there many yonks back.

Well, this gloating colleague of mine can sometimes be nice but I suppose she still misses home and like most of us, patriotic to her home country.