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.