Indulgz

The name of the restaurant opened by TJ's bandmate Christin, only 6 days old. We were meeting Grace and Jeremiah (J) and J suggested going there to support. Since we had no better suggestion, we went.



J told me it was a dessert place. Went there not expecting such a posh looking place. Flowers were still placed outside, indicating it's new-ness. We sat down, and started looking at the menu. Lady Boss Christin came and introduced herself, catch up with TJ and J, and recommended some items too. Seeing as we already ate dinner, we decided not to go crazy with the main courses but just order a few to share.







From top to bottom: potato salad, grace and j with cheese fondue, our main course: stuffed portobello mushroom

Potato salad was good, using new potatoes and yummy minced bacon fried until crispy. Stupid generic bacon bits sold in the supermarkets cannot beat this... Never had fondue before, this cheese one is pretty nice, thick and has this bitter aftertaste of alcohol (kirsch, if i spell it correctly)it comes with bread cubes, pear, green and red apples. the tart sweetness of the fruits matched v well with the cheese. finally the stuffed portobello mushroom. portobellos aren't usually so small, some seasonal issue, so we got two. it was stuffed with chicken etc. dun really know wat went into it. you could really tasted the original flavours of the chicken and mushroom, lightly seasoned with rosemary. it came with truffle mashed potatoes (v good and hand-mashed w/o any milk powder taste) and some veggies. good for ladies (healthy!)

Desserts!





I am suaku, never eat fondue before. Liked the dark chocolate fondue here. And here comes my fave item of the day: Lemon Souffle. Never eaten souffle before (ok this is repeating itself, i'm a suaku). When it was served, i tot it was some cocktail. Turned out to be a dessert. Light, lightly sweetened, with the tangy tart flavours of lemon. you can still taste the tiny lemon zest bits. and it comes topped with strawberries and homemade whipped cream. yummy!

They're still new, settling in and fine-tuning their menu. Christin tells us tt the rib-eye steak and the butterfish steak are highly recommended by customers. like this place so much tt i have persuaded my jc classmates to have our gathering there. must show support mah. cos it's good food, reasonably prices, nice decor and nice music too...

Here are the four of us who went:



Had a great time Grace and J, nice to catch up! We should do it often. Thanks J for giving us a ride back, and sorry tt you ended up being summoned (parking).

p.s. been reading a few food blogs recently, kinda inspired. but don't think i'm doing a good job. haha!

The Lake House

Went to watch sneaks on the Lake House last night, meaning that I caught it before most of the general population in S’pore. Did not watch the Korean film Il Mare prior to this, so I can’t do any comparison between the two. But yeah, because I haven’t watched romantic movies for so long, was kinda anticipating this and hoping for it to be good.

TJ’s rule # 1 for romantic movies (or all movies in general): there must be a happy ending. To him, if the ending is sad i.e. the protagonist dies/is injured/does not end up with his/her lover etc. then the show will never be great in his books. Hopeless romantic tt guy… but yeah… I don’t really agree, cos sometimes there more beauty/poignancy if the leads do not end up together, but are happier as a result, or it just wasn’t meant to be, but the process was still a most beautiful love story. Rambling in the morning, but I hope you know wat I mean.

My rule # 1 for romantic movies: leave logic out of the window while watching it. If you think too hard, it will never make sense, robbing it of the loveliness. Come on, the mere notion of two people meeting and falling head over heels in love all within the span of 2 hrs should already send alarm bells ringing. Not to mention ghosts who don’t leave cos of unfinished business and end up being brought back to life by the man of her dreams (Just like heaven) or people who can correspond via letters (who does that in 2006 anyway? Use email for goodness sake) and can even send letters back and forth in time over a two-year gap using a mailbox. So leave logic out of the window, and prepare tissues, cos allowing yourself the freedom to feel and experience other ppl’s love story is a sweet awwww feeling…

Haha not bad, throughout this whole entry I did not give away any of the plot that’s not already being overplayed on the trailers. Loved the soundtrack… It just set the entire mood of the movie… Especially the song by Paul McCartney: This never happened before. Simple but beautiful lyrics:

i'm very sure
this never happened to me before
i met you and now i'm sure
this never happened before

now i see
this is the way it's supposed to be
i met you and now i see
this is the way it should be

this is the way it should be for lovers
they shouldn't go it alone
it's not so good when you're on your own

so come to me
now we can be what we wanna be
i love you and now i see
this is the way it should be

this is the way it should be

this is the way it should be for lovers
they shouldn't go it alone
it's not so good when you're on your own

i'm very sure
this never happened to me before
i met you and now i'm sure
this never happened before

the noisy lampshade (pics)

Pics of my noisy lampshade before his lampshade gets taken away. Doesn't it just make you go awwwwwwwww...

Home Cooked Food

Finally I get my long overdue pictures to post here. Really should get a camera that works, or a phone with a good camera. This looks damn good. And comes with a 3.2 megapixel camera, and I can photoblog too! Woohoo! But I don’t think it’ll come cheap, not in the next few months at least. But a girl can dream…

Saturday 22 July 06

Watched Nacho Libre. Funny show, but it wasn’t as fantastic as School of Rock. Cos let’s face it, Jack Black obviously won’t look as fetching as Brandon Routh in spandex, though I must say that it’s quite a good coincidence that both costumes feature the red and blue combi. I loved the campy soundtrack though, cute and fitted the outrageous Spanish/Mexican accents to a T. But will I recommend it as must-see? Not really. Wait for the (pirated) DVD. Cos there’s no superb special effects in this one that you MUST catch it in a cinema anyway. Next show I wanna catch: the Lake House. Haven’t seen a romantic/tear-jerker since Just Like Heaven. And I must say the house really looks very nice.

After movie we went grocery shopping. Bought frozen cod fish in NTUC, a bargain at less than half price of what you’ll get in the wet markets. Then it was some chocolates, baguette from Delifrance. I went to have a look at the newly revamped Bistro and it’s menu. Madness! A sandwich costs almost 10 bucks now! I might as well top up abit more and go eat real western food at Café Cartel or something.

Why the cod? Well we were preparing dinner at tj’s home since his parents weren’t around. So the menu of the day consisted of:

Cream of Mushroom

Campbell’s Select Cream of Mushroom with Roasted Garlic, diluted with milk. Fresh white button mushrooms were added to give it the mushroom kick.

Bruschetta on Toasted Baguette

Cubed tomatoes tossed with lightly sautéed garlic, olive oil and Italian herbs. Served on Toasted Baguette

Lightly fried zucchini and capsicum

Pan-fried cod fish steak with honey mustard sauce

We had help with this one, but doesn’t make it less tasty as you can tell from the pics. YUM!

Sunday 23 July 06

Celebrated Daddy’s b’day at Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao @ Toa Payoh. Their menu is the older version, less extensive as the outlet in Suntec or Holland V. I also felt that the food wasn’t tt up to standard, but who can really go wrong with Xiao Long Bao right? All in all a great dinner. Happy birthday in advance daddy! (His b’day isn’t until Friday)

the noisy lampshade

realised that i shd add pics to my blog to make it more interesting, then most of the pics will end up being tt of my darling kitty. who's been a pain the the backside recently.

so in the end kinky didn't have to go for stitches, cos his tail healed after cleaning with antibacterial solution and antiseptic powder + 2 antibiotic pills daily. was a bitch to feed him the pills and wash his tail but ok. so it really was getting ALOT better, u can even see the fur start to grow back... happy happy. but since he knows he's getting better, he's making TONS of noise wanting to go out. he still has his lampshade on, and tt's stopping him from squeezing out anywhere... but doesn't stop him from trying, and making a hell lot of noise to get us to maybe open the door for him.

we wanted his tail to completely heal b4 we let him out and take off the lampshade to prevent future troubles...

but alas, the clever and noisy lampshade managed to make his way out this morn, jump into my neighbour's house and happily stayed there until my maid found him, tried to get my neighbour to chase him out, where he happily jumped into the drain, and stayed there...

sigh. liddat how to get well you stupid cat?

i HATE falling sick

ok who doesn't? esp if it's the kind that makes your stomach churn and makes u grasp your stomach, and you can't stand up straight during the sporadic spasms, that makes you wake up in the middle of the nite (almost every half-hourly) just to go toilet to diarrohea. what kind of word is diarrohea anyway? i never really learnt how to spell it.

first tj, then me, then now cha. according to my doc it's some virus going arnd tt attacks the stomach, not sure how true is that. so was on one day MC, just sleeping at home. at least my stomach no longer hurts due to the medicine and also because there is only so much that can make ur stomach churn if you didn't eat anything and have proceeded to diarrohea out maybe 3 days worth of food.

all in all, agony. i HATE falling sick. unless it's the keng kind that i can take MC and feel pretty much ok.

fear to fall

met up with yun and ade to go blading after work. was kinda apprehensive cos 1) i haven't mastered blading properly 2) haven't bladed in a LONG while 3) never bladed in rented blades b4 4) tj (my 师父) wasn't here

so after getting our gear ready and wearing smelly wrist and knee guards, we were off. ade is a natural, she learnt while she was young. yun and me... dun really know how to blade, but she's much better than me... ended up ade and yun were blading far infront of me and chit chatting, while me (the tortoise) is always behind, trying to catch up and trying hard not to fall... so ade and yun kept having to stop periodically to wait for me. thanks babes!

i must say i surprised myself. when blading with tj he was almost always next to me, either holding my hand or just an arm's length away. so while i did manage to blade and move, i never really learnt to fall, or have the guts to trust myself to blade properly. so now tt tj's not arnd, i'm forced to learn quickly, cos now nobody's here to hold my hand to baby me... and let me scold him when he tries to make me go faster... and interestingly enough, it's like this tt i manage to learn faster...

is this how life is? you grow up faster when left to your own resources... tt's why wild plants grow much more luxuriously and healthily, while the sheltered ones in the greenhouse, while beautiful, seem lacking a little life?

perhaps this is how it is. i have to let you go, go out there in the world to find yourself, and in the process, i'll find myself too... and realise tt i'm actually stronger than i think i am, that while i need you here in my life, maybe i also need you away for a while. they say absence makes the heart grow fonder. maybe absence also makes the heart grow...

always had this fear in me... fear of failing, fear of falling... it's time to conquer tt fear, i think.

TGIF

Not in a particularly good mood today. Kinda dreary morning and was like super lack of sleep, guess this is after-effects of the world cup, slept 3 hours tt day, and less than 6 for the rest of the days, so now I’m feeling the effects liao. Good thing is, my boss is on leave today, so can take it easy for abit. But still, taking it easy entails time passing by very very very slowly, unless I do “extra” things like blogging to take up my time. And web-surfing and msn too… oh wellz.

Was on leave yesterday to attend tj’s convo. Pretty fun affair I must say, finally my turn to return the favour after he was so nice last year, helping me take my stuff, going all around marina with me and the gals to be our official photographer (and yes your pics are nice). So this time around, I was the photographer, holding up to 3 cameras at one go, snapping away… quite fun really, but people should just learn to use ONE camera only, then disseminate their photos via email etc. much more convenient than to stand there 3 times longer time to pose, and the photographer having to keep changing cameras. Going to take photos again on Sunday. Shd be fun but no more skirts and give me my comfy birkies anytime!

Well good news, tj’s new job thingie is just about settled, gonna start work on Monday to sign the papers and wat not. But it’s kinda disappointing for me, cos was thinking of going away with him to lovely Sibu for a long weekend before he actually starts work. And now that it’s been brought forward, guess no more beach holiday to laze around and do nothing. Yes he lives near east coast and in theory we could laze around the beach every weekend, but no it doesn’t work that way somehow. But I am still glad for you dear, that all the long wait and uncertainty is finally over, and holidays will always come, guess we can just save that money and it can go towards my new hp + mp3 player fund. Any other contributors are highly welcome. Hehe.

Double good news tdy, just found out my dearest lab partner proposed to his gf! Happy for them!

Shall erm start to try to do some work. All the bosses are not around this morning, making me have very little incentive to do work. But as I said, not doing work is boring. And gosh, it’s only 9 am. So many more hours to go! But at least I’m going blading later. Wish me luck that I don’t fall too hard! Haha.

Cat Pee

Flavour Description of a very cute lip balm:
Cat Pee: A funny name- but a yummy blend of pink grapefruit, orange, & lime.
Sounds good? It smells good too.
Well, what's the occasion for this title? You'll soon find out.

Basically, my very cute cat recently got his tail banged up, he probably got into a fight with another cat, and the bottom half of his tail is now bald, with wounds in it which got infected and stuff, so we bought antiseptic powder, cleaned and bandaged his tail. It got better, so we removed the bandage. Wrong move. Sunday nite (it was raining the entire afternoon) he came back, his tail dripping blood. It was like he was having his period. Yes it was that gross. Worse of all, he had this huge deep gash on his tail. Sigh, the cat that never learns. So we washed it (hearing his cries really make my heart melt, but serves him right) and bandaged it again. And made plans to visit the vet the next day.

After a lack of sleep due to the World Cup, mum, cheryl and i made our way after work/school to bring kinky (my very cute cat) to the vet. the vet was recommended by my cousin, but we've never been there before. so after going round in circles in the back seat of a van with a cat who obviously hates travelling in a car, we got tired trying to calm him down... so i was just stoning, and cheryl was absentmindedly patting him. next i felt a warm liquid on my pants and shirt sleeve. split second later i heard cheryl shout, "ARGH! Kinky PEED!!!" cue jumping out of seat. after which we frantically tried to dry the seat with his towel and newspaper (thankfully we were smart enough to bring some)

Have you smelt cat's pee? It starts off like normal pee smell, then probably because of some bacteria in it, it starts to stink to high heaven after a while, not good if you're in an enclosed van with a semi-deranged cat. and even worse if you have some on your clothes. super gross. and we haven't even reached the vet yet! arghz. so finally we reached the place before cheryl and i suffocated from the stink (my mum refused to wind down the window).

The vet was very nice, he came out to help us get kinky into the clinic. somehow kinky seemed soothed by the vet and his assistants, who were cooing over him, patting him and calming him down. all three were young and obviously loved animals... awww... after examination, he told us that the wound was slightly infected so he can't stitch it up, so we had to take him home, feed him antibiotics and clean the wound regularly to clear it up before stitching. the fee was reasonable and he even lent us a cage to take kinky home! so nice. luckily the place kinda stank already, so nobody noticed (we hoped) that cheryl and i stank of cat pee.

And yes, we went home and i rushed to the toilet to bathe. Gosh I hope we never have to do that again, but sigh, we have to return to the vet on saturday! wish me luck!

fly away

this is actually not my news to tell, but don't think he'll mind. tj got offered a job, MNC, pretty good offer, good money and all but entails travelling and drilling on oil rigs. probably lots of training too, and the chance to go all around the world (to work on oil rigs lah) for now, he's gonna get posted to china (chongqing) for 7 weeks, then come back to s'pore for 7 weeks, then go again. after a while there'll be trainings to attend etc.

he's pretty excited and psyched up abt it, as his family and i are... good opportunity to go abroad to see the world, earn money etc. and how many ppl actually get the chance to work on oil rigs? career prospects are good too. staff welfare, like all MNCs are good (my company is just a bloody GLC, everything also wanna cut cost) so everyone's encouraging him to go...

so dear, please do go, don't let anything or anyone hold you back. go see the world, but be safe when you're out there in a foreign land, working in a dangerous job. am a little hesitant, esp since the previous LDR didn't work out for me... but we'll never know where the road ahead leads, which is scary but exciting all at the same time.

things you said to me last nite really touched my heart, about how u will go, earn big bucks so u can hurry up afford tt rock for me...

so i'd borrow the words from corrinne may

You can fly so high
Keep your gaze upon the sky
I'll be prayin every step along the way
Even though it breaks my heart to know we'll be so far apart
I love you too much to make you stay
Baby fly away

dance and life

interesting last salsa lesson.

went with tj and yun, joined by 2 indian girls (one of whom turned out to be yun's coursemate. the world is that small) so tj was the only guy, naturally all the attention was on him. so i was dancing with him... he was trying his best to lead. but guess i was impatient, never wait for him to lead then i just move. so end up pele (the instructor) made some comments, which were very interesting and very true as well.

all in all, she said tt girls shdn't be too impatient, guys take time to learn how to lead properly, so if the guy doesn't lead tt well, and makes you do the same few steps over and over again, just let him... maybe can guide him, never scold/comment on him on the dance floor, do all the discussions off the dance floor... if really have to comment, dun say "how come u never do xxx dance move?" but say more diplomatic things like "if u pushed my hand this way i would be able to read ur moves more accurately"

it was v interesting cos this was EXACTLY wat happened when tj and i went union, cos he was unsure abt moves then we didn't end up dancing alot, and i was impatient cos i wanted to boogie abit. but he wanted to confirm each and every step first, while i just wanted to go with the flow. needless to say, it didn't end up very well...

so it got me thinking: since i was able to allow myself to be led by the zai dancers (e.g. the dance instructors), how come i can't let myself be led by tj? does tt translate to real life? i.e. is it because i dunno wat i really want, so i'm just waiting for the guy to take the lead, to do wat he wants and hopefully know wat i want as well? and when he sometimes fumbles then i turn impatient? are all girls like that or am i alone in this? then tj started telling me tt sometimes he's afraid sometimes tt i dun really know wat i want, and tt i'm settling for something 2nd best.

i beg to differ. i accept him for who he is and who he wants to be. and i know tt there's something in him tt has the potential to be great, it's just tt he hasn't discovered it yet. and yes, he fumbles sometimes, but i do too... if girls just want someone who already has wat they want, and know wat they want etc. then they shd just marry old successful men who have tons of money to get them wat they want... but no we don't do tt... cos there has to be something more, something special...

so yes, i'm still grappling with my place in this world, finding my way, and i know you are too. so take my hand and we'll make this journey much more enjoyable. and take heart to know tt i'll always be behind you.

what's the fuss?

was on the mrt when i saw this scene:

parents (looks to be early 30s) sitting down on the seats, with their son (age abt 1 - 2, i can't really tell the age of kids lah). son was sleeping very cutely across the parents' lap, his head lying on his dad's arm, legs on mum's lap (try picturing it in ur head). he was sleeping soundly, looking v angelic and all... then mum took a blankie (those cloth not thick enough to be a blanket), folded it, and lifted up boy's head, put the blankie over dad's arm and put boy's head back. boy continued sleeping. after 5 sec, mum thought it didn't look right, and proceeded to lift the boy's head and adjust the towel again. then did it again... finally she looked mildly satisfied. but after 5 sec, dad lifted boy's head, adjusted the blankie, then readjusted it. by now the poor boy was still asleep, but u could tell he was annoyed... he scrunched up his face for the split second his head was off his comfy pillow (dad's arm) as if to say "just let me sleep can?" so after like 5 times of adjusting poor boy... parents are satisfied... so boy slept peacefully for like a good 3 min (around one stop)

after tt, they're approaching their stop, so mum beckons maid, who all this while was sitting next to mum scrolling thru their camera and minding her own business, to fix up the pram. she did, then mum proceeded to carry boy into the pram. she didn't put him in properly though, looks to me tt boy was way too low in the seat. so tt's why the seat buckle thing couldn't buckle properly. so she proceeded to fiddle with the buckles and strap for a good few minutes, you could tell she's getting stressed already cos i think gonna reach her stop. all this while i wanted to say "why don't you just lift boy up abit, then you don't need to adjust like crazy" but i didn't. so finally, she was able to buckle her son in, rather oddly cos the straps were way too long to be securely arnd his waist, more like at his crotch area... then they left the train...

me? all this while i was just standing there looking, not bothering to pretend tt i wasn't looking cos they were clearly fixated on the son, whether he's sleeping properly (if don't lie down properly wait get neck pain how?) etc. so they kept on fussing over him... readjusting the blankie so many times, then fiddling with the straps and all. ironically, the constant readjustment just made the boy's sleep alot more disrupted... it's amazing how he still slept thru it. a more finicky baby would have started wailing, but maybe he's used to it. and i just wanted to say "relax lah, he's fine, don't worry"

from the looks of it, this is the only child since i didn't see any other kids around and the maid was out with them so they couldn't have left kids at home. (maybe the grandma is taking care of the kid, but nmind) is it me or are parents fussing too much over their kids? fall down abit then hurry up go and pick the kid up... scared the kid fall, get injured, play in dirty sand (tt's prob why all the playgrounds these days have no sand in them) fall sick etc. so the kid ends up sheltered, and spoilt, and falls sick ezily... etc. and grow up to be brats...

not saying tt i'll be a better parent when my turn comes, just... relax lah, ur kids are hardier than you think. look how well you turned out...

The Risk Management Guide to LOVE

Ok, I have so many people asking me what is it that I really do. I manage risks, duh. Even people in my company and division don’t know what I do! Problem is, I don’t really know how to explain it to them, so I start making them blur and end up paiseh-ing myself.

So here goes, to explain the concept of Risk Management (RM) I’m using one of the most universal examples: LOVE.

Step One: Identify the scope of the project
In this case is falling in love and whether to enter a relationship with tt special person. Being in r/s and it working out or not is not in the scope, so I shall not elaborate, and anyway there are different set of risks which then makes it super complicated to explain.

Step Two: Identify the benefits of the project
1) The benefits of couple-dom: don't ever need to have to find excuses to go out with tt person w/o sounding daft or desperate. No more lonely weekends/holiday seasons.
2) At the end of a particularly hard day, there's always someone to sayang you and hug you and kiss you to make you feel better...
3) In the process of being in r/s with tt person, you get to know him/her more, and also get to know urself more... and who knows, he/she may be THE ONE
4) You have something to tell your nosy relatives when they ask you why you aren't married yet (at least you're getting there)
The list is of course, not exhaustive. There are a million other reasons why people should fall in love, but I shan't go into details.

Step Three: Identify the risks of the project
1) He/she may end up to be a jerk/bitch. A horrible monster who you can't live with. Sweet while dating but suddenly morphing to a jealous/neurotic/overpossesive/selfish/mummy's boy person. AND ends up treating you like shit. And dumping you and what not.
2) After being a jerk/bitch and dumping you, you have to deal with all the emotions: sadness, loneliness, self-doubt (am i not good/pretty/thin/smart enough?), self-pity (ditto), anger, etc. AND friends who didn't know better might unintentionally rub it in esp if they didn't know that the r/s has ended.
3) Waste time/effort/emotions on someone who's totally not worth it, when you could have spent all that time and effort doing charity work/studying hard and doing well in sch/working hard and advancing in your career.
Again, unexhaustive. All in all, the ultimate detrimental effect is the break-up.

Step Four: Risk Control
Split into two wide categories: prevention and mitigation.
Prevention: actions to prevent the break-up. E.g. getting to know the person alot better before getting into the relationship, not taking him/her for granted, always showing that you care, making the effort to know his/her family and friends. You can also prevent getting hurt by not investing that much emotions in the r/s (i highly don't reccommend this)

Mitigation: actions to lessen the effects of the break-up. E.g. Hang out with good friends, learning a new hobby/sport, going out to know new people, not wallow in self pity and doubt etc.

Step Five: Overall Analysis
Weighing the benefits and the risks and after taking into account the steps you could take to prevent the risk event from occuring, make a decision whether this person is worth all this effort. Falling in love is a big gamble cos you might end up losing more than you win.

But remember: if you wanna be 100% safe, don't fly.

bloody hell

monday tt started out pretty good. rested weekend, watched prison break, the tv series tt's currently not available on ch5 or cable, so get the dvd series! it's even better than LOST, which is, in its 2nd season making me super lost liaoz... went to familiarisation to learn abt one of the subsidaries' operations, insightful... just that yah, airbus is out to sabotage my next year's bonus i tell u. stupid, delay the A380 for so long for wat? now everyone gonna be affected. bloody hell. and tdy's newspapers, boeing gonna delay the dreamliner too... wth, but at least tt one they give sufficient notice, so we can do forward planning... but still...

ok the worst thing tdy was: with effect of 1st Aug my stupid bus fare is gonna increase from $89.25 to $126. An increase of 40%. madness. ok i understand tt fuel prices are up, but 40% is way too much lor, even airlines dun charge so much extra... currently one-way fare is $60 but i pay more lah, to enjoy two-way, which is not super worth it since i take it like on average 2 times a week, but i figured it works out to abt 2 bucks a trip so why not... so now tt it's gonna be so ex (one way is still gonna be 90 bucks) i figured tt it's time to change the way i get to work... this leaves me with these few options:

1) take one way only, then take the bus back myself, pay $90/mth + watever it costs to get me home via sbs

2) go to work myself, squeeze on sbs, and squeeze on sbs back, est.: $50/mth
cons: no seats on the way there. other than tt, i still leave home arnd the same time and will reach on time (i arrive at 8am now, much too early anyways)

3) hitch a ride from my mum to tjc, then take bus in, again, sbs back. est.: $30/mth
pros: save more money, dunnid to squeeze on public bus for majority of the ride.
cons: i'll prob reach work too early again, but this also means i can drop by at bedok and have yummy breakfast...

4) source for other bus companies, but i have a feeling tt this particular company has a monopoly on this route from my house to my work place.

so yeah. most prob i have to find my own way back liaoz. which will take me at least 1.5 hours. sighz. but tt means i have the flexibility to work later (trust me, i'm not really looking forward to this) but i figured that i have to start working late anywayz since i getting alot more to do, and i keep having to go for trainings for this and tt, not as if my workload is lightened. oh well...

so wat do u think i shd do?

just like toilet paper

heard this at work tdy from my colleague in crisis management with regards to his job:

"my friend says i'm like toilet paper, in times of peace nobody gives a damn abt u. in times of trouble suddenly u become damn precious and important."

hmm... does tt mean i'm like toilet paper too?

take time off to smell the roses

starting to get busy at work, which is a good thing. realised the reason why my predeccesor left, and i must say i observed the same thing as well, but shall try my best to make things work lah.

watched "cars" last nite with tj, it's a committee event org for our division, turned out quite well, we ended up selling 200 tix and it's nice seeing all the kids in tow... it's a pretty good movie though i dun agree with tj tt it's better than "over the hedge" i think both are pretty equal... so go catch both! guaranteed laughter galore...

don't worry, there won't be any spoilers so you can continue reading this. one thing tt resonnated with me was how alot of us, caught up with the rat race to be number one, to earn tons of money, we forget to slow down, enjoy the beauty of mother nature around us, to pay attention to the people we love, and who love us too... and tt ultimately makes us empty and unhappy... sure it may be a trade-off: if we spend less hours at work, we do less well, we may not get paid as much, but we get the extra time to spend making ourselves happy... and who says tt's a bad thing?

so yupyup. everyone please take the time off to smell the roses. to relax, enjoy ur weekends instead of cramming in so many activities 'cos you don't wanna "waste it".

have fun!

of sakae, tea party and great thai food

haven't been blogsurfing these few days cos was kinda busy, read my friends' blog and realised tt they have updated so much shit... which made me wonder what the hell i've been doing, it's not as if i was tt busy at work lor... hmm...

so yeah, tuesday was tons of food day. my dept secretary got promoted and we were organising a tea party. so boss wanted to drive us out to tampines for lunch and get the teabreak stuff... so we did tt. ended up secretary treated us to sakae lunch, the lunch sets are pretty decent and value for money! try their sushi set, looks exquisite lor, like 8 of their best sushi combined in a set, and comes with seafood soup in a kettle (i dunno wat this is called lah, but looks atas). by the time we were done with lunch, it was abt 1.30. then we still had to go get food for tea party. ended up buying angie's the choice durian roll, mango roll and went royal's to get mini pastries too.

realised tt my boss is pretty generous. not only does he buy titbits around the dept when he goes on trips, he sponsored alot of the tea party, cos knowing my company, we wanna cut costs on EVERYTHING. but he insisted on getting durian roll lah, which at $2.80 per roll isn't cheap lor. so at 3.30 we had tea break... after which it was almost time to go home, so just dally abit and i did...

best part of the day, yummy homecooked dinner. tj's parents were in taiwan for holiday so he has the car these few days. he decided to cook dinner for me! so not knowing wat was for dinner, i made my way to his house, to the smells of yummy pineapple rice. there was also a v yummy rendition of vietnamese salad (healthy) and the most kickass thai green curry with authentic matured green curry paste all the way from thailand. it was hot! but super nice... it's like after a hard's day at work then i go back and have yummy dinner waiting in front of me... bliss!

so yup. later got movie screening of cars, free tix sponsored by sports and recre committee (of which i'm part of). heard it's a good movie, and since it's free, even better still! have a good week ahead. i'm dreaming of my beach holiday...

Night Safari

Went to the Night Safari (NS) just now, taking advantage of the 50% discount coupon on ST, and the fact that Tj's parents weren't in town so he had the car. But we still ended up paying $18, which wasn't tt cheap, but better than $28. Not complaining, cos we thought it was well worth the money. I have been there, but it was in the early days of NS, and it was with my parents and some overseas friends, so it was just tram ride and go home. Today we went on the 45 min tram ride, had fun looking at ALOT of cool animals, it seemed that we were lucky and managed to see majority of the animals, even got to see a rhino in the open (they usually wallow in the mud to coat their sensitive skin and protect it from extreme heat (s'pore's weather) and mosquitoes and all). well it was a nice cool night, and i guess after the long drizzle it really got pretty cooling, which made the walk around the various trails more comfy... even made it for the 11pm animal show...

i enjoyed myself cos it's nice seeing animals in a "natural" habitat (you may argue with me abt this, but at least they are safe from poachers and destruction of their wild habitats) and it's just sad that perhaps my children may not get to see them next time, so don't buy wild animal products and wear fur and eat sharks' fin and all tt... unfortunately we didn't take any pics because it's dark in NS (simulate their natural habitat) and they didn't allow flash photography (cos it's not a good idea to startle the animals)... so we ended uptaking photos of us with stuffed toys in the gift shop (this is starting to be a trend)

saw quite alot of tourists there... i think it's nice to be a tourist once in a while in your own country, to look at s'pore from fresh new eyes. next up: pedalubin and macritchie treetop walk (part 2). hope tt does materialise...

Lost In Space (Lighthouse Family)

Heard this song on light and easy 94.60 FM a few days back. It's a sweet song that brings me back to when I was younger. And now, it just expresses my feelings towards you...

Sometimes, I get tired of this me first attitude
You are the one thing, that keeps me smiling
That's why I'm always wishing hard for you
'Cos your life shines so bright
I don't feel no solitude
You are my first, star at night
I'd be lost in space without you

And I'll never lose my faith in you
How will I ever get to heaven, if I do

Feels, just so fine
When we touch the sky me and you
This is my idea of heaven
Why can't it always be so good
But it's alright, I know you're out there
Doing what you've gotta do
You are my soul satellite
I'd be lost in space without you

And I'll never lose my faith in you
How will I ever get to heaven, if I do

Unwanted Attention

Close friends would have probably heard my whines about this one by now. Long story, but to borrow the words of a friend, “it’s complicated, yet simple. He's irritating and doesn’t get the hint, and you are never gonna like him.” How true. So if you break the whole episode down to its essence, as my friend did, then it really is simple. This applies to a lot of things that happen in our lives. We think so much into everything, of every small little action by people whom matter to us, that a lot of things become so much more complicated than they really are. By breaking things down to its simplest, perhaps a lot of worries and troubles will go away. One thing is for sure, that at least we’ll spend a lot less time trying to complicate things.

One thing for sure, this isn’t the first time. Perhaps it was the environment I was in, everyone was in lab coat and goggles all the time, guys were typically boring and didn’t go out there to meet new friends, much less girls. Perhaps its because I don’t really like to talk about my personal life, believing it to be my own, only revealing those to closer friends. Was afraid that tj wouldn’t like it, that he’ll misunderstand, thinking that I intentionally hid him from my friends, leading other guys on etc. But I’m so glad that he didn’t. He’s just my rock, my hiding place, my shelter from the storm. Thank you dear.

Of course one question comes to my mind, is there anything wrong with the way I deal with the opposite sex that makes them misunderstand my actions? Not that it had always happened, and usually guys do back off once they figured you’re attached. Which part of “I only treat you as a friend, and I already have a boyfriend” do you not understand? Cos it sure is irritating and scary when someone remembers every little small action that you do, or some offhand remark that you make jokingly, and takes it to mean something totally different. I was just being myself. *Shrugs* Deal with it.

Enough whining. Time to get back to my day.