Confessions, Raves, Rants and Mutterings

Happy Birthday Mommy!!

2005-10-06T16:43:00.000+08:00

Happy Bithday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday my dearest mommy!! Happy Birthday to you!!!!! And don't worry you are still as gorgeous =)

Tuition... Tuition... Tuition

2005-10-04T12:35:00.000+08:00

A little insight on the world of tuition.... I'm currently under the mercy of 3 kids right now.. one in primary 2 and the other two in secondary.

I just dropped my other GCE 'O' level girl from vietname, basically because she kept delaying payment and everytime I asked her for her fees she would tell me "didn't I pay?".. She's vietnamese by the way, that is not to say that all vietnamese have such convenient memory loss. It got too troublesome to keep reminding her again and again and honestly I was trying to hold my tongue, I couldn't bear to tell her she won't be able to pass her O level English, because she could barely pass primay one grammer. but that is as such the mentality of overseas students (some of them)

Someone made a comment to me the other day about giving tuition being easy money for us graduates and undergraduates, and basically anyone else who feels like scrimping on the CPF funds.I must admit that many of us take upon the task of teaching for the good hourly rates ( read: 16-30 an hour) depending on how large your ego is and how huge their budgets are.

After teaching for 4 years, I find this pseduo truth of easy money, a misconception. Try explaining to a primary school kid why it is important to ignore the rules of language sometimes, in order to be more creative in your writing and to try new writing styles or try telling a secondary school boy that reading properly and pronouncing words clearly is very important.. "Mother" does not equate to "mudder" and you basically do not prnounce the letter "R" as "r-er" and heaven forbids if your tuition kid thinks Singlish is alright.. singlish is NOT alright, save for the occassionaly "lahs".

And honestly I find it insulting when an"Ang Moh" tries his very best to conscientiously contruct a sentence and end it with a forceful "lah" , and somehow or rather expects us to applaud his effortful attempt at speaking Singlish. and worse still is the Singaporean who laughs at this, sometimes making comments of "wow not bad" as though everyone speaks as such. Is it really that amusing to think that the majority of the world (yes the world beyond Singapore) find it surprising that there are a bunch of Singaporeans that can speak proper English with accurate pronounciation and when they hear them they immediately ask "did you study abroad" or compliment " you speak wonderful english" as though English isn't out first language, and seeing a singaporean speak proper english is someout out of the norm. which it is by the way. In fact when I hear that I feel insulted but on the other hand you can't really blame them can we..

Trying to articulate simple explainations to differentiate everyday objects, such as the difference betwee a "gate" and a "fence" can sometimes be quite a challenge, especially if he or she is armed with a bagful of "whys" and "how comes" ... but alas the battle continues

ok enough of my ranting, Think my brain has officially ceased functioning for the moment. More raves and rants to come =)

Things that are so over rated...

2005-08-15T23:48:00.000+08:00

Alright, I was looking at some student magazine and at this article written by a singapore student on the things that you have to do when in Perth, a few of the items listed are over rated, them being...
1) Cicerello's 2) Billy Lee's chinese food and 3) Cold Rock (although I loved it the first time I tried, it wasen't that enticing this time round)

so since I have posted about all of my favourite things I shall post some of my "not so favourite things" and in no particular order...

1) The watered down drinks at Metro

2) The horrible drain water looking hot chocolate Scott and I had at Augusta..yuck yuck yuck

3) The fact that I didn't get to see any Whales during my Whale watching session

4) Cicerello's food, not yummy

5) Kaili's Chilli Mussels.. no gravy

6) The fact that the bus service ends so early on weekends

7) Those annoying pre-adolescent Asians who dresses like Brittney Spears when she shops at Harbour town

8) Harbour town (yucky stuff, excpet for lorna jane which is still over priced)

9) Oriel's food (especially their cheese burger)

10) Australian Sausages

alrighty.. that's about it actually heh.. oh yeah and the fact that Australia has the stronger currency, makes things more expensive.. bah!!!

These are a few of my favourite things..

2005-08-12T23:25:00.000+08:00

... least in Perth that is. In no Particular order (cept the first entry =p )

1) Spending time with my sweetheart = )

2) Allanah Hill ( at claremont)

3) Skinny Chai Latte

4) Scones at Margaret River's Berry Farm

5) Little Creature's Pale ale in the " not so little size"

6)Fremantle's Ricotta cheese and contreau crepe

7) Little Creature's Mud cake (to die for)

8) one of Little Creature's cute waiter with cute glasses

9) Scott's Baked Beans with cheese

10) The cold feeling of clothes when you bring them in from the laundry line

11) Driftwood's cane cut semillion

12) Driftwood's Tawny Port

13) Loot botique at Subiaco

14) Scott's Char siew

15) Snuggling in bed with Harry Potter (the not so latest editions)

16) not being kicked off the bed

17) the Kebab at Broadway Fair

18) Boost's Banana Buzz (Regular please)

19) Boost's Mango Magic (Regular as well )

20) the fog that comes out when you blow into the atmosphere

21) Margaret River Chocolate Factory's Milk mocha coffee (with coffe bits)

22) Busselton's Hot chocolate

23) My Margaret River weekend

24) Voyager Estate's red grape juice

25) The Bratwurst hot dog at Fremantle Market

26) the Kakula Brothers Chocolate coated coffee beans

27) Kakula Brothers and Kakula Sister

28) Duende's food (especially their roasted beef with gnocchi and their jammon with basil)

29) Tiamo's Beef (oh so tender and succulent)

30) and last but not least... the fact that I get my GST refund at the airport = )

Avon Descent

2005-08-07T17:49:00.000+08:00

Just returned from Bell's rapids, this forest like area which has a river running through it. (think wind in the willows) Scott and I joined the rest of WA in cheering on the competitors of the Avon Descent 2005, a two day long and gruelling white water competition which starts from Tooday and ends at Bayswater, for all those unfamiliar, check the Western Australia map!!

Su-ming and Craig was nice enough to fetch us there, su ming initially mentioned that they would pick us up at 530am (much to my horror as we had been partying the night before at Metro.) but later changed the time to 830am as the website mentioned that the boats wouldn't be coming through Bell's rapids that early. Scott and I packed a few pies and a bottle of water, if I had known we would be there till 4pm, I would have packed a whole picnic basket. Su ming and craig brought cheese, olives and crackers and other nibbles. gee and I thought it was just gonna be a 3 hours thing and we'd go somewhere else for grub!

It was a nice experience though, we parked at the Brigadoon Equestrian centre and took a shuttle bus into the Bell's rapid area, we had to pay $10 for the vehicle entrance, we were initially debating if it was 10 per head or ten per vehicle as neither of us saw the sign when we drove past.

I finally had my chance to watch a show jumping event, if that is what they call it (where horses jump over poles). I'm sure there is a proper term for it so if anyone knows, just give me a shout out. We stayed to watch about three horses do their rounds and I must say it was impressive, nothing like what you see on the television. I guess it's the same event but when you see it live, it's more interesting as you can hear the horses hooves up close and hear their breathing. and their owners look oh-so-smart in their helmet and riding boots with cropped pants. Very British!!

There were about 800 over participants this year, out of which 56 dropped out after the first day!!! we found ourselves a nice little spot by the river banks, with a good enough view of the main rapid area. The Paddle skis and Kayaks only started appearing about an hour after we got there. It was pretty exciting watching teams and solo participants manuver their way through rocks and through the rapids, something that we can never do in Singapore!! It really must take some skill to steer the boats in certain direction in order to avoid collision of capsize! Many of the competitors broke their paddles (you could see the broken shafts stuck onto their boats when they rowed past). and many of them had scraped elbows or cuts on their faces and their body suits had little tears and rips!

We and about everyone else on the rocks cheered to competitors as they rowed by, those that weren't too tired waved back or said their thank yous. I especially cheered the loudest when the female rowers went by. Most of them made fantastic timing, beating alot of their male counterparts. Even the grand daddies ( in no way a metaphor of experienced rowers but the literal meaning of a grandad i.e someone old) were makign fantastic timing!!

There were pretty interesting boats too, this double kayak put on Bananas in Pyjamas costumes and wore the blue striped pyjamas and on their kraft it read" are you thinking what I'm thinking B1?" " Yes I am B2" "Stamp out poverty".

Others had cute soft toys stuck onto their helmets (yes you need that brain bucket). My favourite was a Cow. and of course there was this female who was pink all over, her Kraft, her paddle tapes, her outfit and her helmet!!

so at the end of it all, I'm slightly burnt, the sun was pretty hot although it was cool when it got cloudy and when the wind started up!!

Need to go take care of 4 hungry stomaches in the house!!

Margaret River weekend getaway

2005-07-31T18:31:00.000+08:00

Alrighty, sorry for the bit of absence, was down at Margaret River for the weekend, or rather for a good bit of the weekend! Was suppose to stay till Sunday but we managed to cover most of the stuff we wanted to see plus a handful of vineyards as well, therefore we called it a wrap on Saturday night and came home one day earlier!!

The trip was fantastic, the wine was great, we visited quite a few, which were...1) Driftwood estate..2) moss brothers...3) cape lavender ( ok it's more of a lavender farm but they have lavender wine as well)...4) rockfield estate...5)berry farm (to die for scones plus scary birds that attack you and your food)... 6) Leeuwin estate...7) Voyager estate...9) watershed estate...10) evans & tate and of course we visited the Chocolate factory, the cheese factory and a few other cute stores!!

we went whale watching at augusta but to our dismay we didn't spot any. but ph well the view was teriffic, reminded e alot of the great Ocean road in Melbourne, the lighthouse was very pretty, although I think it doesn't beat those greek island ones. but then again as joel mentioned i have a liking for "things that stick out of sea" hmm well ok sounds a bit crude but hmmm...

the place we stayed at was really nice, it's called Magnolia Studios which is actually a garage turned bedroom (with all the essentials, like a toaster and coffee making facilities) owned by a family, nice lady! called robyn, her daughter was so sweet as she stood out near the entrance so we could find the house. we actually had to go to Quest apartments for some help as we couldn't locate it and absent minded me had forgotten to bring the telephone number!

We were going to stay at the local bed and breakfast but we had to cancel it , the lady running that was not very nice and given a chance, I would not stay there in the future, don't think I should do any naming as she relies on the bed and breakfast for her bread and butter and she lives alone, still she was pretty nasty and by all means was I being very nice about it till I got fed up and told her off because she was insinuating that we found some place else and didn't want to stay with her, and so I pointed out that we could have drove off and not drop by to pay the cancellation fee, that kept her quiet.. sheesh Australians!!! Actually to think of it we were this close to driving off but then my conscience got the better of me, and i thought that well if she was a widow and really did rely on this to feed her then we should pay the fee but if she was lying then it would be bad karma to her, least my conscience is clear, even my cousin said I should have driven off!!!

anyway the drive back was pretty smooth, we took the inland route which was shorter unlike the coastal route which we took when we drove down on friday. W made a few stiops here and there to refuel and to qipe off the squashed and very dead bugs which were splattered all over our windscreen!

oh and I think Scott and I have found the nicest hot chocolate around, it's at the Busselton cafe, near the busselton jetty, which yes we paid $2.50 each to walk the longest jetty in the southern hemisphere. It was a cold day and my ears felt as though they were going to dettach themselves from my head!!
But still it was such a pretty sight to be far form shore and to see the seagulls, I think Mom would give this a miss come November as I think the wind would mess up her hair too much = )

oh well, going to get some rest, thank goodness scott drove most of the way, he managed to finish his 25 hour log in period for his driver's.. yay!! now all we need is that car... =p

A car, a car, finally have a car!!

2005-07-26T23:28:00.000+08:00

Finally, I have a car in my posession!! whoppeee!!! Went down to collect it at subiaco! and it cost us $270 for seven days , it is a bit more expensive as I am still under the age of 25 and they have this policy to add an additional $6 if you were underaged!! I still think its some ploy to squeeze every penny out of the customer!!

anyway,we got a toyota hatch, 1.8L I think, or it's some statistics close to that. Now I welcome myself to the world of oil price watching, because I have been saying "ack, we can't put gas here, its more expensive" and what nots.

Just got back from Duende, this really nice spanish restaurant at leederville (See thanks to the car we can actually go there and not worry about what time the last bus is leaving)

The food was great, We had two servings of flat bread, guacamole, jammon and basil and for main dishes, had veal and roasted beef with Ginoochi cheese and with everything, we had tons and tons of olive oil and salt!! No idea why everything was so salty!!! but nonetheless it was a very nice meal!! and it was at a decent price too!

ah well, going to go and cut a birthday cake now! white chocolate from Miss Maud!! hope it's good!! yummy =)

The First weekend

2005-07-25T20:15:00.000+08:00

The first weekend has officially passed and I am counting down the days till i go back home!! I know I am starting a bit early this time round.I spent the weekend visiting fremantle, walking around the markets and finally, finally tasting the crepes that I have been craving for since the last time I was here. I had the ricotta cheese and contreau while scott had the lemon and sugar cinnamon. It was a bit upsetting that he didn't like it haha!! I think he was a bit dissapointed with the crepes as I have been going on about it since forever!! ah well!!

Had cicerellos for lunch, not very tasty, no idea why everyone recommends it!! and I still don't believe you have to pay for ketcup and tartar sauce. We had the seafood platter which came with (thank god) one small pack of tartar sauce!! Had cold rock on the way back too!! somehow I reckon that things just don't taste as nice the second time round when you go back. I think because we all remember how nice it tasted, or rather we exaggerate how nice and yummy the food was and ultimately end up disssapointing ourselves when we actually try it again!!

ok, my first purchase of my trip is : two bags of coffee beans which I iwll have to grind them at home!! my grandma loves coffee and the smell was just overempowering, I oculdn't helo but succumb to the sweet roasted smell of Kakula brother's coffee bean collection! that shop is just fantastic, I have yet to visit the one at northbridge though!

We're getting a car tomorrow, so if you see a toyota hatch with the "no birds" sign, try to see if it's me behind the wheel!! can't wait for the weekend, headin down to margaret river for the weekend!! Wine!!!!! and cheese and my wonderful chocolate!!!

Western Australia

2005-07-22T23:40:00.000+08:00

Hello Western Australia!!! here I am, away from Singapore and into the arms of a cool winter-y perth!! thanks to Joel who picked me up at the airport!! and to Tom who spotted me first!!! =p and of course to scottie =))))

took a Qantas flight, as they were having a promotion, paid $530 for the ticket, inclusive of taz. Singapore airlines was too expensive! I think it was about 800 over dollars!! the tax went up from $174 last year to a whopping $220 this time round!! this is insane they need to put a cap on the increase of airport taxes!! then again I know it's due to the fuel prices going up as well!

the flight was pretty good, except for the food which sucked, the entertainment was pretty decent, I managed to only watch one show as you couldn't manually start and stop shows like you can when you are on SQ. Watched "Guess who" the one with Ashton Kutcher. I sat beside an english couple who was on a round the world trip!! lucky them, according to them they practically sold off their house and bought a cheaper smaller one and took the profits and bought a round the world ticket, they would be travelling for about 5 months!! wow!! think they must be on their way to the easter states of Australia by the time I get back to Singapore!!

Just finished "the box with the dots" yummy!! been craving for Dominos for over a week, really glad I had my fill and I think that would be en ough till November = )

really sleepy, think I am going to crash and snooze, I just see so many familiar things.. Tiamo.. the bus stops, the caltex house!!! can't wait for fremantle tomorrow!!

Last day of work

2005-07-19T22:44:00.000+08:00

Finally, my last day of work at Standard chartered! Can't exactly say that I am entirely happy about it, as it also means my income has come to an end (temporarily I hope) but then again it also means that I would be in Perth soon!! Yay!! I know the australian govt should just grant me a pr status here. Sigh again one of my regrets of not going overseas to study!!! going to keep this blog short. need to start packing up for my trip!!

Yoohoo!! friends of mine in perth I am coming soon!!! Swan brewery scones anyone? and please please the C restaurant?

metting up with my colleagues at standard chartered on thursday for dim sum at crystal jade!! how nice!! they are giving me a treat!!

one of those folks around singapore who..

2005-07-10T07:31:00.000+08:00

Alright decided to get down to blogging, I figured if I didn't start writing proper sentences I wouldn't be able to write a fluent passage anymore, since I don't need to write papers for uni!

Yesterday was tiring! I have finally gotten a chance to have my name added to the league of all the other graduates before me who had so crazily endured the heat, to get photos of the esplandae and the padang while all decked out in their convocation gown!

yes even the tourist took photos of us, and i can imagine what their tag line would be "local graduates" or better yet " local graduates before getting a heat stroke" A few of us met up at 745am (to get better light for the photos) I suggested the time but some specific member of the male species thought it was some other fella who suggested it, talk about having a gender bias, which he openly admitted when I dutifully corrected him!

Anyway, the day started off with tons of photos in school, yes the place that I am so glad to be away from would forever be etched in my photo album. and thank you my dear for being the photographer for the day, the photos turned out absolutely fantastic =)

we moved from the forum, to that huge fire-ant infested park near the forum, I wanted to take a photo infront of the grinning geko and make a gagging face just to remind me how AWFUL the food is!! attention all undergrads, skip the food there but the drinks are alright!

Second on the list was AS7, the FASS head office, basically we chose that location because it was airconditioned and we were already dripping and getting cakey from standing around the forum. The faculty had put up a large banner which read "FASS congratgulates the class of 2005", we were all a little bit excited whe we saw that and as you cna imagine, we spent a good 2o thos just posing infront of the banner, doing the usualy mix and match of people.

the day was still pretty early so we decided to move to that "open field beside the ECP where people go to fly their remote controlled airplanes" I've always wanted to go there but never could figure out how to get there. the roads were dusty and basically fun fun fun to drive in especially since I am driving an airtrek, ok not your all terrain drive but hey it was the car to be in especially when you see the dust fly all about u (ok I hope my mom doesn't read this or she would now how I have been ill-treating her car). We stood around there taking photos with the esplanade and the city skyline in the background and seriously when the photos came out, it looked like one of those poster background! right next stop esplanade, as it was getting hot and we figured some air condition would do us good. Yes we are a spoilt little lot!!!

We thought that we were going to be the only bunch of graduates there since it was pretty early but hey what do you know we arrived at the esplanade to join a whole bunch of graduates form NUS and NTU. sigh so everyone had to fight for a space to get infront of the exhibition (which were hanging green coloured jig saw puzzle pieces)

One thing to note is that your convo gown DOES NOT go with track shoes whatsoever, so all those who would graduate in the years to come, never ever wear track shoes even if it is comfortable and even if you are only taking photos!!! gee, this whole bunch of graduates wore track shoes and it was just a disaster as the gown looked so fantastic on them and when ur eyes migrate downwared to their feet, you see signs of "Nike" popping out, not a good sight!

We all got pretty exhausted after the esplandae and since the sun was getting a tad bit too strong, we decided to call it a day. I had to rush home to prepare dinner that following evening as I would be holding a graduation dinner, which compromised of graduates and would be graduates!!

till later!

my gown exchange

2005-07-04T22:41:00.000+08:00

Finally!!! I have changed the size of my convocation gown. scott and my mom were probably the only two who knew how upset I was over my oversized gown.. and yes narisa too!!

See, I had ordered an 'm' size, by right i should have been an XXL because the co-op gives out sizes according to height and with my heels I would have been1.77m so xxl!! which was dumb because i tried it on at the co -op and the sleeves were up till my fingers and the shoulder pads were falling off of my well... shoulders!!! duh!!

so anyways, I ordered an M and collected it (after 2 hours in the mpsh), got home and realized that the gown they gave me was too big, well slightly bigger as the shoulders were roomy and din't fit, and it made me basically look like a huge big square box!!!

so I got upset, threw a hissy fit and complained to all that would listen, which was basically everyone I complained too because they had no choice!!!1 becuase they knew they had no choice.. haha ok ok fair enough because they were nice and were being sympathetic!!!! there =))))

anyway the guy at the exchange counter kept insisting that it was an M and refused to give me another size. I asked to try on an S, as i thought the supposedly wrong M size was actually the real M size, and i figured that i would alter the length for the S, so anyway he said there were no more S sizes, which i didn't believe. I mean come on you cater for over 300 graduands and you are tleling me you ran out of an S, the most popular size of them allm, you should be well stocked!! anyway he brought out another M instead and I tried it on and voila it fitted so much better, I took the gown which I had taken home and compared it to the new M he brought out and ovila what do you know, the shoulders of the M size I had taken home were 1 and a half " bigger than the new piece!!

See I knew it I knew it!!! that ass!!!! but at least the gown is settled.. I have it all tucked into that funky bag i see graduands carry around july and I'd always go "arrgghh" when i see them, that's also becuase I would be thinking of the semesters I have left to complete and now as I strolled by a bunch of silly freshmen doing ridiculous freshmen camp things, i laugh!! MUHAHHAHA

but don't worry, every freshman will have her/his day =)

A couple of things I want to do... in no particular order

2005-06-27T21:54:00.000+08:00

1. Travel to Cambodia and do my own version of Lara croft!!!! =)))

2. Earn more money.. and I mean more more money!!!

3. Get my Masters... soon...PHD.. when I have recharged my brains or get new ones from someone a whole lot smarter =p

4. Be a better daughter/granddaugher/friend/girlfriend/confidante.

5. Get over my terrible fear of swimming in open waters

6. Hit my 57 mark ( you know this or you don't)

7. try to be a little less paranoid about everything and specific things

8. Get a nice tatoo on my back.. chels remember my phoenix and the letter "S" on my wrist!!

9. New Zealand trip!!!

10. Travel europe in style!!

11. Travel on the orient express.. that's USD$20,000 for 21 days of first class travelling, throughout Europe and Africa

12. Successfully throw a dinner for30 people.. think Bree Vanderkamp from Desperate housewives (closest I have come is 12 and I almost died of exhaustion)

13. Have a professional Muay thai fight

14. Climb a mountain, anyone, I'd start with mount cook!

15. break someone's nose (haha ok good friends you'd know what I mean =p)

..ok can't think of anymore at this point of time but I am sure there is a whole lot more id want to write

Weekend is over and it is back to work

2005-06-27T20:09:00.001+08:00

Well the weekend is over and my baby is finally back, after waiting for ever at the airport, much to my dismay( since he didn't get the flight he wanted and I couldn't see him on friday morning) and anticipation(he might make it at the later flight which means I would get to see him friday night, which he was on, thanks to the Qantas staff).

I guess all the constant messaging and calling didn't exactly help ease his nerves and he was being anxious about getting home. Sorry!!! The weekend was nice, relaxed alot and listened to him complain about the weather!!! brought dallas out to the botanical gardens and saw tons and tons of goldies!!! I am a chauvanist when it comes to dogs and probably other things as well. But i think goldies are the best breeds around, yes you can contest that, not that it makes any difference to me. Yes other dogs are gorgeous and cute as well, I saw a Malmute the other day, it was as huge as a calf!! but I am just imagining how nice it would be to have a big garden where you could have 5 dogs, and for my case 5 goldies!!

Working sucks, not that I was at it for a long time but it is bleah, especially when I am doing this part time and when half the people are earning so much more than me (sales personell) yes money is hard to come by, although certain retards may contest to that and proclaim that it is "just money", sure easy to say when you aren't earning it! so I toil and clock up additional hours and over time in hopes to earn a little bit more!

ah well, tomorrow is but another working day, I need more perks!!! maybe I should try different concoctions in the pantry that would make my sometimes mundane work seem more appealing.

Boing!!! Boing!!! Boing!!

2005-06-19T19:32:00.000+08:00

Alrighty, I have finally curled my hair, yes yes I know I have been going on about it for about 4 years or so but the deed is done!! I went for a body perm on Saturday, it was pretty impromtu (yess even with a 4 year track record of wanting it done) I was actually going to get a protein treatment while my mom got her hair coloured but then I saw this really lovely picture of Angeline Jolie and I thought hey this shall be the time to do my curls!!! and by the way just to note for all those who already do not not.. Angeline jolie is HOT HOT HOT!!

I'm still getting used to my curls, didn't even move my head much on saturday itself anf my mom kept laughing at me and kept passing comments about how I look like I have a stiff neck and it didn't help that I had a dinner that night which required alot of interaction!!!

Oh yes, my uncle was being a pain in the ass, bragging about how he yelled at the credit loans department of UOB and the vice president of the bank had to come down personally to apologise, what utter rubbish, he isin't even that rich to begin with, yes definitely above average but peanuts copared to the big players. but I did make a comment that made everyone laugh and shut him up as well, which is a good thing and he couldn't get angry because I said it as part of a joke!! haha serves him right anyways!!!
ok that was so super random but I can't help it!

Just visited the hairdressers again because i thought my frindge is not curly enough but she reckons that I would end up looking like a sheep if I did it any tighter.. ok yes I finally look really old, although everyone seems to think I am either married or with kids or something like that!! arrghhhhh!!!!!!!

ok time to take my wonderful shower, and pat on the sculpting lotion!!! toodles!!

It's 630am in the morning

2005-05-05T21:37:00.000+08:00

Yes , I know, my exams are over and what the heck am I doing up this early.. well I can't sleep oviously.. and it was an automatic wake up thing.. Guess it has been all the days of waking up early.. or rather earlier to study.. yeah I am one of those people that can't study at night, can't the burn the midnight oil and hit the sheets by 12 and then dutifully crawl up at 4am to study.. sigh..

and oh guess what,, my wonderful lecturer e mailed us and told us that everyone did well for a module and the average grade was an A- and guess what.. I put that module under S/U option arrrghhhhhh what the heck!!!!!! ok I am not so worried about that one, it is the other four psychology modules I am freaking over, especially social cognition which I have already one question wrong, and there are only 2 questions sigh and my CA sucks.. I don't even know how I am going to manage this.. yes this is an early morning rant.. gee I just wanna graduate and vamoos as my lecturer said.. can you believe he said vamoos.. or more specifically he said "university is going to turn private here and fees are going to be increased so everyone should vamoos" haha he is a boring old fart but can be quite funny when you catch him in the right mood.... sigh

sigh you know this exams werre just gross.. and I have words to describe it actually.. sigh and at the start of my exams I had to fill in some survey form and that paper was disgusting and yesterday when I ended my last paper I had to fill in the same form for the SAME guy and that paper was gross too.. whoa it is a sign =((( and to top it off I had an encounter with some scary taxi driver who kept telling me to complement psychology with fa lu.. so I can help people who has zhong xie... and he was going on raving and ranting about it through out the whole trip. saying that it is good becaus eyou have to believe in this stuff!!! arrghhhh.... it was so freaky.. =(
and it is still freaking me out!! sigh.. and I was hoping that the taxi would reach school soon.. yes laugh away people.. it's not even funny!!!

Sigh I just want to retire ( I know what the heck I have not even started working) any openings for a tai tai.. I can cook... if that helps and clean if need be but pref not clean hehehe.. =p
ok I am going to bring Dallas out for a walk right now.. and maybe go back to bed!!!

Stress Innoculation.... please

2005-04-11T03:39:00.000+08:00

Right as the title suggests, that is probably what I need now, someone to teach me how to handle stress.. ok and I do not mean by ways of alcohol and smoking, although maybe the former might help a bit then again I read somewhere that alcohol consumption actually affects the quality of sleep you get every night...

Yes talking about sleep, let;s see whats the average hours I am getting... hmmm about 4-5? I have no iea why, I conk out at 2 and I think to myself gee maybe I will sleep in and I mean sleep in till maybe 7am but no even when I didn't set my alarm I jolt up and out of bed by 6am!! sigh... the army should teach their lads how to function like this

Right on, no updates as yet, those who know me or those who know me and feel like that don't know me now because I have basically evaporated out of the social scene, don't despair.. I am not beyond repair and oh god this rhymes... ok that is a warning sign.. when I start to rhyme.

Friends in Perth are having a blast,, cook outs, canoeing, slate night movies, nice Easter trips!!

Chelsea: I blogged,, and I miss you very much!!! can't wait to see you in June, make sure you come back

Jacinta: we will go rowing ok when you come back, The rest of us were commenting how fair and sun-phobic we have become!!

Scottie : In Saeculo... Missing you too =)

Nana: Gambate... we will make it through then we can go to the co-op and try our gowns k

SMU guys: only a week or so more to go before exams are over jia you.. Bryan you should have booked that promotion thing to Perth, see lah. I am sure you would be able to rush to the airport!

*Names are arranged in no particular preference*

I am going to be a star... or so I wish

2005-03-24T14:49:00.000+08:00

Just got back from Muay Thai training not too long ago, I am super tired and sleepy but still I have to stay awake becuase I have work to do!

Channel U came down to do some filming today, I think they are creating some documentary on the various martial arts or alternative lifestyles of Singaporeans or something to that extent! so Yes haha I am an 'alternative' , whatever that may mean =)

We thought training wouldn't be tiring as out teacher would at least want us to look good on the television(not with our hair matted to our foreheads and us gasping for breaths) but we were wrong, ok so we did run less, and we didn't do too many slopes, but techniques was tiring and so was sparring. Plus the fact we had a big black recording device in the middle of the empty spaces that seperates each pair during sparring didn't help either. Not only were we concentrating on out techniques but on the other hand we were trying our very best to look cool and collected (how is that even possible ) and of course not forgetting the task of avoiding the camera.

The one thing I realized was that during that training day, everyone kept their guard up i.e hands at the face level or in other words trying to shield themselves from being caught on camera, I guess my teacher should arrange pseudo filming sessions in order to remind us to protect our faces!!

And yes I got filmed too .. doing hip rotations when we were warming up, how glamourous, if I make the final cut I am going to be featured rotating my hips clockwise and anti clockwise to the rhythemic sound of 1..2...3...4.....5... =( so much for my 15 minutes of fame. and of course there was the left jab, right jab and right side kick combo, which I had to do in slow motion so that the camera could capture it, I think I was trying to angle my 'best side' towards the camera.. or rather my slimmer side!!

Alas, it is a wrap!

Boring hair and a whole bunch of knots

2005-03-18T02:56:00.000+08:00

I've decided to write this post in red, in dedication to my braids that I completely took off this morning!! *sob* *sob*... actually I'm in the middle of removing the last one =( Ok I am making this sound so melodramatic... and yes I am now back to my boring brown hair.. no more interesting hair do with bits of red sticking and peeking out of my pony tail!!

Ok, note to self I would probably not do it again, but then again that is what I said the last time when I braided my entire head.. Narisa,, chelsea, Mish remember that?!??! and we spent like the whole night washing our hair and helping each other blow dry it!! boy was that tiring!!

The advantage of having these braids, well maybe not exactly an avantage, would be that you have a handful of people complimenting it, saying how interesting, hey even my lecturer came and ask me where I did my hair, then again he has hair longer than mine, enough said.

The downside is that, right now at this moment, My entire head looks like a huge big piece of tumbleweed!! Yes you hair gets knotted form the washing and the scrubbing you do, and sigh it is such a pain to take it off, but hey it's ok for a month.. hmm then again I think I stretched it to a month and a few days.. of nice hair it is worth it.. and yes, I am going to get a hair cut this evening, decided to get rid of my split ends!! no more dyeing my hair for a while, I need to start using those protein packs more often!! anyway off to the gym for now, till next time!!!

I am back!!!!

2005-03-13T11:13:00.000+08:00

Hello all, I am back, yes I am!! I know I havent been posting.. yeah right being absent for about close to 4 months is about to be called an act of disappearance. Anyway, been a little bit busy with school, since I am taking a few high-level modules and they are killing me. to those that are in their 3rd year, you would know what I mean.. alright what are the latest updates besides burying myself with work.

I just turned 22, sigh double digits of 2's the last bout of double digits I had, I was still worrying about completing my PSLE! Alright time for a little bit of colour!!!

Oh by the way to those that do not already know, Ikea is having their annual sale, time to stock up on items, but I think this is probably the short one, because I think their big mega sale happens in August if I'm not wrong, ah yes, the 'ah so' in me speaks!

Well, I'm about to go off to run some errands, think I'll back date a bit and write about some happenenings in the past few months, don't worry you will not need to endure 120days worth of writings, don't think I can type that long either!! Till then!!!

Happy Birthday to me, Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to meeee.!!

2005-03-05T09:48:00.000+08:00

Yes yes!!! I have officially turned 22!!! hurray!!!! and after last years celebration, I have decided to keep this one low key, I think it is true, what they sawy about the years after your 21st birthday big celebration. Everything else would be just simple. Well my birthday actually started back last saturday, when I went for Lady Salsa with Huitian, courtesy of Scott, thank you again for the tickets =) I totally enjoyed the show, pity you couldn't watch it with me!! Then on the subsequent Sunday, mom and I went for brunch and White bait and kale, we had previously planned to go there back in February but alas, those plans did not materialize!! The brunch was a pre-birthday meal, since mommy dearest was not going to be around for my birthday, yes While I am stuck in humid and sticky Singapore, she is jet-setting off to cool Hong Kong, I say cool, both literally and metaphorically because Hongkong has been experiencing some pretty extreme winter, it is march and according to my uncle who also doubles up as my weatherman, it is still pretty chilly in Hk. She apparently had to attend a property exhibition there as her company is currently trying to market one of their new projects.

The 3rd of march started off pretty well, I guess I woke up on the RIGHT side of bed! My mom actually bought a small cake for me so we could have it for breakfast and have a mini celebration and my grandma, knowing her, made those red eggs and "mian sian" for me!! so yeah it was quite a heavy breakfast., especially at 8am, I was tyring to swallow whatever that I could. The cake was pretty yummy, a chocolate etoile cake from Temptations cake shop! I came home after sending mom off, was suppose to hit the gym but decided that I had some time to kill, Was suppose to play chauffer to my grandma and fetch her to her usual tuesday mahjong hang out.
My grandma was acting all weird that day, in the sense, delaying me and not getting ready on time and me being me, was pestering her to hurry up because I would be late for my 'spin' class. well at about 1045am the door bell rang, I did not answer the door sadly because I was making dinner reservations, but it was a bouquet of tulips for me!!! and my grandma was tryign to prevent me from going out in case the bouquet came when I was out, so she actually knew all along that I was going to get the bouquet!!! proceeded to call my mom and proclaim my happiness and yes she wasen't surpsied, so everyone knew except me, and they are apparently good at keeping secrets, so don't underestimate parents and grand mothers! To the person who gave me those flowers,, thank you so much it made my day!!
My rest of my day was spent at the gym, the career fair, suntec city, met up with joycelyn to shop at giordano, have you seen their spring collection, all the colourful tops, quite nice actually. I learnt that if it was your birthday, you get a 20% discount so hear ye hear ye :SHOP AT GIORDANO ON YOUR BIRTHDAY, YOU GET 20% OFF ALL ITEMS!!

Dinner was a quiet affair, didn't want the whole ra-ra affair. Esmirada's at CHIJMES was pretty good, we had their garlic bread, two servings, one of which joycelyn and I polished off by ourselves over drinks. The garlic bread was served with one end sticking in a basket, so much so that I named it "the phallic symbol of the night" it was really odd, I'll see if I can get a photo of it online. We had Paella, a Musaka, sword fish kebabs and drinks after that. The servings were quite huge so the food was sufficient. And oh do try out this dessert called melting moments, it's a chocolate cake with melted chocolate in it so when you pierce your fork through it, it oozes out chocolate =)
very very yummy.

and then there was a cat, who scared the heck out of everyone because it kept looking up at out table and giving off " I am going to pounce on you" vibes, I guess patrons have been feeding it regularly! and there was the service, which SUCKED big time, the lone waitress didn't smile one bit and was so curt and the restaurant actually ran out of menus, that is a first!!!

but hey all was good, despite the inkling of irritation I got due to the bad service! Alas, cheers to being 22!

Joycelyn's Birthday- a little late I know

2004-10-19T05:11:00.000+08:00

I know Joycelyn is going to kill me for putting up the photo but I couldn't resist, I think she looks really lovely here. This shot was taken at senso, the restaurant gave her a complimentary mascarpone cheesecake, which was in my opinion the best part of our $250 dollar meal! The appitizers were pretty good, loved the buffalo mozerella although Joycelyn claimed that it smelt like fermented beancurd!! It was like a 35 dollar plate of fermented beancurd!!!

Food at Senso was not worth the price, I had expected something really good but was pretty disappointed by it, however the decor and the ambience made a difference and the service was fantastic. The captain was really obliging even when we moved to 2 different tables. Dinner was pretty quaint. I orinally planned to bring her to the Wine company at Dempsy rd, because she is quite the wine lover, but due to certain glitches the place had closed before we got there, was pretty upset about her spending her birthday in the car!! so we got a photo out of that place, which I think joycelyn delted becuase it made us look like Haloween spooks!! anyway, gonna make this a little short entry becuase I need to get back to work.

was relaxing for a bit just now, now its back to work work work

Fist of Fury

2004-10-18T15:34:00.000+08:00

Alright, I am done with work for the day, no not doing anymore, this is driving me totally insane. Just finished watching Fist of Fury, yes the Bruce Lee show, also called The Chinese Connection.

I was suppose to watch it during my monday film class but the quality of the chinese/cantonese version was so bad, and I think the lecture theatre equiptment did not have that the language option so we ended up having a mish mash of cantonese and chinese all rolled into one. The lecturers decided to screen the version that was dubbed in english so you can imagine just how bad it was.

the scene started with Bruce Lee coming in and in the cheesiest english went "Am I too late, is master dead" I wanted to drop dead form laughign so hard!! and when he yelled out "shi fu" you could actually see the words being formed but all you hear is "Master" so I decided that I would get the vcd myself and watch it!

For all those who havent' watched it before (you all need to be shot) here is the 411. It has the cheesiest plot, of a student avenging the death of his master, no prizes for geussing who the vengeful student is.. and that is what he did. avenged his master's death and I won't spoil the show for all those who intend to watch it!!

However, if you watch the show closely, one realizes that this show is very closely tied to history, especially japanese-chinese relationship.

Alot of people can identify Bruce Lee..the shedding of clothes when he fights.. the wonderful scream he does when he gets pissed and of course that oh so "xia lan" sneer he gives, which I totally adore by the way!!!! but can we identify with him?

I think Bruce lee epitomizes agility, swiftness, gosh did i mention that to die for body =).. definitely a lean mean fighting machine.. so all those trying to pile on the muscles, that is what you are suppose to look like you hear, not a single piece of muscle!!!!

It's such a pity he died at such a young age, I think he could have achieved much more if he was still alive, can you imagine how he would look like now? 70 plus and still alive and kicking, literally

I did a jump kick today during training,can't say it was the most glam thing on earth, but when i practice, now don't laugh but the only person who I want my kicks to look like, is Bruce Lee's. ok but I am never ever going to be able to do that, sadly! Jackie Chan can just go back to his Hollywood films, don't really think his gong fu is that great. I think his other ' shi xiong' ,san mao is much much better

I always wanted to do Jeet Kun do but I'm stuck with Muay Thai. can't do his wonderful one inch punch, don't even wanna try, think I would die laughing but still I think everyone has a bit of Bruce Lee in them.. some people have his sneer, or rather do it quite convincingly..some have his agility...speed....character.. etc etc you get the picture.. people say Bruce Lee was a legend, some say Bruce Lee was a hero, I think Bruce Lee was all that and more. He is still very much alive! (I am not dellusional, not one of those people tt go around claiming to have spotted Elvis)

Now I am starting to blame my mom for not letting me do martial arts. so no I don't have 12 years of fighting experience. but what I do have is 12 years of prancing aorund in ballet shoes, yeah I am one of those that did ballet and decided to throw in the towel half way, what a retard, shouldn't have done so. I met one of my classmates when I was in Perth, she just stopped dancing last year whereas I stopped when I was 15.. form 4 years of age to 15, i think that is enough. but when I see these little girls runnign aorund town with their hair all tied up in a bun and wearing tights and a leotard underneath their clothes, I get all envious!!

but it's alright, I am glad I swapped my ballet shoes for a pair of boxing gloves =)

Driving me nuts!!

2004-10-14T02:11:00.000+08:00

Alrighty, to all the people that has been asking me where have I disappeared to...I have been ultra busy with school. mid terms, assignments, essays and crazy presentations infront of ANAL RETENTIVE people!!

Decided that I should paint my blog post with a little more colour since everyone is in a dreary mood, with all the above reasons.

Ok I shall give a little posting about Joycelyn's birthday soon, so people who are wondering about it, just give me a few more days. No idea what happened to my image station account, I forgotten my password to it, sorry about that! right, after I finish my essay that is due soon the pictures and updates will be arriving here so waiiit for it = )

so everyone just take a deep breath and hang in there!!! just a note. I will total scream if I hear the song American Idiot by Green day! Heard it about 5 times yesterday!!!!

Birthday dinner

2004-10-03T14:45:00.000+08:00

This is the three of us before going off for dinner...

Had dinner at Maison de Fontaine, this French Rastaurant located along Scotts Road, it's one of those old colonial bungalows converted into restaurants. I think Indocafe is there as well. The ambience was tres romantic!!! and the place is oh so spacious, makes me wonder how living in there was like in the past. think I would definitely want a place like this when I get enough cash that is. The food was pretty good, we ordered French Onion soup,, Foie Gras salad and I had the roasted pumkin and smoked salmon salad followed by some seafood ( special request with no squid) broth thingy for the main course, uncle had the veal and my grandma hadf the grilled snapper with confit, everyone else had the seafood thingy, yeah I know boring fogeys we are!! had the rum and cherry cake I bought for my mom for dessert along with tea and dessert wine!! so I am sitting here feeling very very stuffed!!

We were entertained by my uncles rendition of the Chinese National Anthem, with instrumental sound effects, I know, don't even ask how he accomplished that! Spent the entire evening listening to my mom, uncles and aunts go on about their hey days and my cousin and I were lamenting about how stressed out we are with work and what nots! Mom is thinking of throwing my grandma's 80th birthday there as well. I suggested having a "Shanghai Tan" kinda theme then everyone can come in cheongsams and the 1920's kind of semi-western get up. My uncle suggested him renting the emperors robe, the yellow one with the dragon motif!!!

The service was pretty decent, the lady even came to the car to collect the cake when they saw us pull in the car park. Have to say the food isin't as expensive as I thought it would be, amounted up to be about $320 for 6 persons, and we ordered side dishes and drinks. I think a decent meal for two or so would be about less than 90 dollars!! Then again I think it is because they just moved here from their previous CHIJmes location.

Alrightey, enough of that, think I still need to figure out what to do for my mom on Wednesday, any suggestions?

Outside the restaurant

2004-10-03T14:35:00.000+08:00

I have no idea how to post 2 photos in the same entry so I have decided to split the two up, this is the whole bunch of us outside the restaurant after dinner, we were suppose to go for drinks at Equinox but everyone was too full and too lazy to battle the horrible traffic jam at Orachard Road!

Big Yellow Taxi

2004-10-01T01:50:00.000+08:00

my all time favourite song, decided to put up the lyrics, it's originally done by Joni Mitchell, although Bob Dyland, Amy Grant and Counting Crowes did a rendition as well... enjoy!

Big Yellow Taxi

They paved paradise And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique And a swinging hot spot

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got Till it's gone
They paved paradise And put up a parking lot.

They took all the trees
And put them in a tree museum
And they charged all the people A dollar and a half just to see 'em

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got Till it's gone
They paved paradise And put up a parking lot.

Hey farmer farmer Put away that D.D.T. now
Give me Spots on my apples
But leave me the birds and the bees Please!

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got Till it's gone
They paved paradise And put up a parking lot.

Late last night I heard the Screen door slam
And a big yellow taxi Took away my old man

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got Till it's gone
They paved paradise And put up a parking lot.

Rest Finally!!

2004-09-30T14:07:00.000+08:00

Wow, haven't blogged since like forever... been really busy with work,, projects,, mid terms, studying and all that Jazz. I think I can finally breathe a little easier, for now, like maybe for the rest of the week, till I have to worry about my two term papers that I have due in the next couple of weeks, sorry 3 term papers rather... I am totally lacking of sleep right now, my eyes are just about to close!!

Thanks Scott, for the yummy chocolates and the nice cd, a very good pick me upper when it is 3 am and you are feeling so mopey and bleah! and yes to you to Kristina for calling, saying a few words and then saying u have to go study yourself. It's like what the heck!!

I finally got tickets to go watch Mama Mia, wohoo, watching it with well my mama literally. she is not a big fan of these musicals, she hated Rent when I dragged her to watch it when we were in London. and I think basically she would cringe at all my suggestions at musicals and what nos.. Only reason she wants to watch Mama Mia is because of all the ABBA songs they would be singing, sigh my mom is getting old. Actually can you imagine 15 years down the road. Gold 90.5FM would be playing songs like Eminem and whatnots becuase they would be considered oldies by then? and when our generation bop and groove to it , our kids would be wondering what kinda stuff we were listening to when we were younger.

Right, I am aching all over, having a major cramp on my right calf, thse type whereby it just cramps up when you take even one step. my sparring partner kicked me in the calf and I wasen't wearing shin guards. so I can barely point my toes!!! Had a good work out today, getting on my endorphine high... k which means I am stinking up my house too, haven't taken a shower yet, I know everyone go eeee right now but I will soon. Just need to wait for the damn heater to get a warm... which is about now actually.. k think I might crash soon.. nothing very interesting going on due to the work and stuff I have... bleah... oh going to play badminton tomorrow,,haha run around like a moron for 3 hours and then heading on to Salsa baby!!!!

Holiday is Over!!

2004-09-25T13:07:00.000+08:00

That is it, my so called mid semester break is over, it wasen't even a break, it was just 4 days long and I barely stepped out of the house to have any fun. I only went to the gym and had dinner with The mommy and that's about it!!

Haven't been blogging much, strapped down with readings and tons of studying to do, basically for the midterms up next week. I think my Hippocampus is not doing it's job properly and my Cerebellum needs to start working again because I keep getting sleepy and what nots.

I think Piano exams are around the Corner? Because my neighbour keeps playing the same piece over and over again and I swear it has to be an exam piece, either that or her piano teacher has only been teaching her that same old piece. Ok, I have to give it to her, at least she is not a bad piano player but listening to the same thing, even at 2am at night is overkill!!!

my neighbour has stopped playing the zither too, I think he/she keeps changing instruments every so often, I am just praying he doesn't pick up the drums or the violin!!! I think the only reason why I take notice of all these little noises around me, it's because I am at a time whereby having some peace and quiet is very much appreciated!

I went on to friendster yesterday, haha yes remember that thing? It has been like ages since I last did anything on it, well I decided to give an old friend of mine a message, not sure if she would ever get to see it because I doubt anyone checks it even. but one thiing I realized, everyone has changed alot, looks wise and character wise I suppose and I guess I marvel at how people still remain as friends eventhough everyone is so far away. but then the sad thing is, the amount of years clocked up in the friendship diary is not a reflection of how deep or how mature your friendships are. There are people who have been friends for at least 10 years but still don't communicate as often as they should and practically know jack about each other. and there are some who know each other for a few weeks, months or maybe just over a year who hit it off rather well and take efforts to keep in touch.I am sure you have one or two of these people in either category in mind. I know tons of people who go they dont have time to make it or don't have time to call. but please time is a thing you take in your own hands. and it really reflects the effort you want to put in the friendship. how hard is it to pick up the phone and call, or make a 2 hour outing to have coffee?

The scary thing is that we often are so side tracked and preoccupied with other dealings in our life that we neglect one of the basic fundamentals. I know friends who would totally cancel out on an outing if a guy asks them out, or if they just feel irresponsible enough not to make it on time and not tell you until half an hour after you are suppose to meet them or worse friends that have everything on a way on street, with you making all the effort to keep in contact and maintain friendship and it gets to a point that you can't be bothered because there is no equity involved in it. I guess one could go on classifying all the different types of people we know and how they fit in different niches.

I think for all the weird events that Singapore or the world has, we should dedicate something called friendship day or rather "how to appreciate your friends day" I mean hey if we even need the PAP to teach Singaporeans how to romance each other we might even need a lesson or to in how to maintain friendships!!!

ok a little disclaimer,, this is just random thoughts evoked by the humble website called friendster...haha how cool now if only hotmail gives me inspiration to write a good essay!

Snow City,ice skating Go Karting and Paintball (Part 2 )

2004-09-19T20:40:00.000+08:00

Alrighty this is part two, hmm where did I left off , oh did I mention I am having some major food Poisoning, I think it is either the mee siam I ate at Kiliney Kopitiam or , I dunno what else.. anyway yess back on to my wonderful and eventful friday!!

We didn't really have lunch, I think we were all a bit too tired from all the fun we were having, think we just ate a bag of potato chips and that is about it, oh I drank a small carton of Brownes Mocha Chill!! remember that Jacinta, I used to down a huge carton almost every day when I was in Perth, I just absolutely love it, somehow the ones we have here in Singapore are not as nice, not as creamy I have a feeling they were made somewhere else.

Next destination : GO KARTING!!!!!!! I have no idea exactly where the grounds of this go karting place is I know it is somewhere in Jurong or was in Teman Jurong but I know it is behind some HDB flats! Anyway, all of us had a chance to go for about 3 warm up laps to let us have a feel of how Go karting is like, I have to say the helmets were really bad, I took a whilte one which had a visor, everyone said it made me look like a traffic police, I actually wanted to be one when I was younger because I wanted to wear those funky boots they have, until I found out they were not full pieces of foot wear but shin gueards and oo don't you think their unifroms are just oh so crips = ) well they are my enemy numero uno now ever since I learnt how to drive! Anyway, the Go Karting course was made up of 2 straight roads three major bends and an 'S' shaped course, actually it was rather small. I think the one in Johor would be better, hey anyone up for Go Karting in Johore?!!? I think everyone went for about an average of 6 rounds or more? the funnest bit was the last so called "race" where we had 5 cars go against each other and the 5 cars were placed in a staggered manner, very much like how they place runners on a running track, so off we went, a few of them spun 360 degrees, I almost smashed into one of them because his car spun and was facing me and I only swerved in the nick of time, it reminded me of daytona, only that if your car crashed or flipped over, you wouldn't be resuming the race! Oh and I have to say Go Karting, at least in Singapore is something I owuld never ever do, because it costs 35 bucks for 10 minutes!!!!! yeah beat that, there were these few PRC folks that arrived after us and all of us agreed that they were just suckers who were going to get cheated!! = ) How evil!!

anyway, yes on to the most anticipated part of my day, I waited for a good 9 hours to play Paintball!!!! and hey those who actually paid to play paintball in perth, I assure you, you guys had more fun!! Really! Paintball turned out to be rather dissapointing, or rather it was not as messy or dirty as I thought it would be, I had always imagine it to be like in the scene of 10 things I hate about you when Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles played it (yes I am a a fan of that show!!) Anyway, the game basically went like this two teams of three would start on the same side, the objectives is not to hit each other because there is this rule that says we can't hit people within a couple of Metres but to hit down two targets on the other side of the field while "killing" off two otherp layers on the other side as well after which both teams can battle out for this box that is in the centre of the field! and of course if you get hit you are out!! so there we were clad in our chest protectors and this mask thing that made all of us look like mini darth vaders!! We actually looked quite the professional SWAT team because coincidentally all of us wore black and we did this really weird pose with our guns!! Anyway the first round of game ended in less than 5 minutes because the two guys who were suppose to be on the other side of the field were people working for the paintball company, yeah the very same bunch of people who probably play paintball when they are bored and have nothing to do, same people who are accurate and hit you in the weirdest angle and even through the holes in the crates! and there is this tunnel system whereby they could come over to your base and shoot you from within the tunnel (there are tiny gaps) but you can't go into their territory and shoot them, and besides they had 2 lives while each of us had one. so I guess it was pretty unfair, so after a while they rearranged us and made us have unlimited lives, so we played that, I think that lasted for a longer period of time, I got shot smack in the middle of my throat, where the adam's apple is suppose to be, and I think I know how people feel when they get strangled, it is like the air is totally sucked out of you!! boy did that hurt and I have a tiny bruise there! so I did the whole fire rounds of 5 or so pellets then while the other guy ducked I ran to covermyself, think I did quite a bit of slidding around and going down too hard on my knees because at the end of it all my jeans were all muddy and I have huge bruises on my knee caps. so they figured ok they had to modify the game a bit, so they made it possible for us to see where the two defenders were hiding becuase everyone had to charge out at the same time before they went to duck and hide. previously the other two people just hid whereever they liked and because there was only 2 of them in such a large area and 6 of us in the same amount of space they couldn't really be spotted very easily. so this third round was when we managed to hit the targets down and this was also when I got shot right smack on my mask and as I was clearing the paint off my mask I got whacked again on the exact same spot, this time on my hand, more accurately my last two fingers of my right hand and when I stood up to say ok I got shot , I got hit on my back,, what the heck!!! so at the end of it all, non of us got the box and basically non of us killed the other two guys, they were too accurate and really did execute many head shots, I suppose it would be much more fun if they didn't get the pros to play!!! so much for paintball!! I really want to try it again, gosh but it is rather pricey at the Orchid country club, I think if I am not wrong JB has one too, that is it, I think a day outing at JB is a good idea!!! plus all the good food!!!!!

ok so that about sums up my friday, think I went home tired sweaty and chining like crazy form all the squatting I did at snow city and during paintball!1 think the bit I honestly enjoyed the most was Go Karting would love to do it again, some time soon!! that is it Jb people!!!!!

Snow city,ice skating,go karting and paintball (part 1)

2004-09-18T23:09:00.000+08:00

yes yes, this blog is going to be a tad bit long so I think I will break it up into two parts, a before lunch section and an after lunch section. Friday was fantastic, managed to do all those above, and with the exception of ice skating, we did everything else for FREE!!!!! and the best bit we were also PAID!!!! Although we only earned 30 bucks that day, I would even do it if we weren't gettin any cash at all. I even skipped my Biopsycho lect for this, hmm maybe I shouldn't even be putting that here. so anyway, how I got this job, my friend was working at the LOTR exhibition when it came, so yes he was on of those people that fec you guys all the nonsense, goodness knows if the stuff he said during the Q n A were true!! but anyway, he hooked up with the mediacorp people and have done some trial runs for them, so basically we were guinea pigs and had to try out the games the producers and games coordinators had come up with before the celebretites played them, well so called celebrities because he mentioned a few of them, non of which I have ever heard of.

We assembled at Snow city at about 930am, which meant that I was up at about 7am, yeah travelling from the east to the west is not a joke, kudos to those that have to make that daily trip to work or to school!!! Snow city was pretty fun, and hey I can finally say I am one of those that experienced 32C,15C and -6.5 C all in one day!! How funky is that!!!?? ok Snow city was rather upsetting, I always pictured it to be much bigger but it only consisted of this tiny play ground with some weird plastic looking igloo and another slope made out of ice. so the Mediacorp people had the few of us running up and down the slope, planting flags along the way with some safety rope along side in case we needed to break our fall, and we even had this funky game whereby a pair had to go downhill and one of them chisel holes into the ice and the other plant a flag in the hole. the best bit of it was actually sliding down the ice while on a rubber float!! and oging backwards is very very fun. I think we scared off a bunch of tourist because they looked a bit patrified when we were coming downhill. The producers were a very fun bunch of people, very easy going and not the uptight kind you would expect, they even played the games with us because we had to do it in a team event. and when we were done they were still asking us if we wanted to go down the slope again!! By the end of our little stint at snow city, we were soaking wet, from falling on our behinds, and injured..my friend had a bruise because she knocked into another girl and I had a cut on my thumb because of goodness knows what I did or tried doing!
oh hey I can finally proclaim : I have seen snow!!!!!!! oh and did I mention we actually had a snowball fight, but I think it was more like throwing huge ice chunks at each other!!

after Snow city we had a good three hours to kill, we headed on to Mcdonalds, and opted to sit out under the sun because everyone was freezing even though the sun was blazing hot! we had a small nibble there and crazy me had an ice cream cone, I am super hooked on the ice cream swirl they have but with the original cone not the wafer one. Anyway, I was going on about how we should go ice skating, since we were already wet and cold, so no point getting all hot and and seaety under the sun. so we did just that. I haven't been ice skating since I was what sec 4 and I think everyone should at least have a go at it, it's very very fun!! Manage to impart a teeny bit of wehat little ice skating knowledge I had to my friend, so she was kidna gliding across the icea, well semi gliding by the time we were done. There were these kids, maybe about 4-7 years old and they were super good at it, skating backwards and doing spins and all those nifty footwork, I bet with you everytime they went by us they probably thought "LOSERS!!" oh and might I add there was this ultra poser there, yeah you know them, those that skate at super fast speed not knowing that it is only a stupid circle that they are going in and then suddenly they stop and shave ice to the side and create this huge gigantic hole in the ring (yes hands up for those who were these posers!!) ok I forgive the guy though, he must have been what 16 or so? you know THAT age. but ok I have to admit, he was pretty good at skating! oh and there was this caucasian girl, I think about 4 years ols who was tryign to skate backwards, so this poser guy picked her up and twirled her around, and she was giggling and having so much fun until her maid started going "EXCUSE ME EXCUSE ME, PUT HER DOWN" in the shrillest utmost annoying voice. and there she was acting like one of those, you know how some people act when they are draped across a caucasians arms the whole "Look at me!! Look at me!!" (say it in the Julia Stiles way in 10 things I hate about you) and I found out when she was talking ontop of her voice that she followed her employer back to the states for 2 months at the begining of the year, but give me a break you do n't go somewhere for 2 months and come back with some fake slang! That is such utter rubbish!! anyways, it got me and my friend thinking why on earth are people so uptight about things like that, I mean as poser as he was, I really doubt he had any pedophile tendencies, or meant any harm, I mean it was just super clear he was just mucking about!! sheesh!

My friend did a wonderful job, only fell down once, but we did the wonderful "oh I am going to fall so let me grab to the nearest object" thing, you know how it goes, when you panic and all you want to do is just grab something, someone, anything, anyone!! but it was hilariou because we actually did this really nice spin on the spot! Anyway my feet were achy and sore after 2 hours of skating and we had to leave to get to the MRT for the bus to come pick us up for GO karting!!

ok to be continued in a bit = )

A brand new week... an annoying day

2004-09-14T13:51:00.000+08:00

right the first day of a brand new week, and boy was it just filled with little incidence that irked me so!! urggh

Finally had my dose of badminton yesterday, although it is for a short period of time, but I did manage to sweat buckets. so wohoo, can't wait for our next game!!

went to collect my friends computer from the school's computer centre after that and the front desk guy, who is roughly our age made a comment of "whoa you must be good in badminton' (i went to collect it still in my shorts and t shirt with the racket sticking out behind my bag) and i looked at him and asked "what made him say tt" then he went on to reply. "oh because you have played until your hair has turned all red" he then continued laughing with his other friend as thought it was like the funniest joke on earth. so I took my docket which he gave me and rolled my eyes and walked off ,I also had shiyi pulling me away before I could say something else.

and the best part, when I received my tax invoice, I had to copy this whole set of numbers down and I asked the guy if I had to copy down the alphabets right infront as well, and he said 'yeah you have to and you can copy down the bar code if you like' and then he laughed . ok , obviously you couldn't copy down the bar code. I think I was highly annoyed and i just asked him casually if he really thought that was funny. He just gave a weak smile but least that shut him up for the rest of the period I was there.

I don't understand these people, do they really think making such lame ass comments do themselves any justice at all. and the worse thing, they are always more often than not guys are the ones actually making them! that is not some sexist remarks, it is true!!!

I finally made my way to the gym after my film and history class, almost got into an accident, rather I missed a head on collision by a few mm. yeah and geuss what, the other vehicle happens to be a taxi!!!! yeah a taxi making an illegal U-turn to pick up a passenger while I was turning left. and you are not supposed to make any freaking U turns, it is actually impossible!!! and the worse thing is that he would down his window and started yelling, and of course to be true to all women drivers on the road it is definitely not me to sit there and be yelled at, so obviously in my true singaporean grace I wound down the window as well and started going on with my bouts of "are you crazy" "you can't U-turn here" can't you see there is no sign" and trust me I was totally cheesed off, becuase he was neither apologetic about it and decided to scream instead, I was this close to copying down his lisence plate number and lodging a complaint but then again, he was an old man, but as my friend told me "old man, big deal, you give them an inch they take a metre" or was it they take a yard... hmmm. but yeah was totally annoyed and fuming when I got home and to top that off my heart almost hit the floor when I jammed my breaks, becuase i thought I was seriously going to crash and you know with my mom out of town I think she would flip when she gets home to find that the car has been smashed. and it would be no more transportation for all of my friends and for all those australian folks, no more rides to and from the airport. chels no more speeding down the highway at 130km or so to get you to the airport anymore!! haha ok mom, I hope you don't ever read this = )

anyway, think I have calmed down already, off to do some work!

projects

2004-09-09T10:44:00.000+08:00

Ok, my blogging has been pretty irregular, friends are complaining that there ain't enough good stuff to read... but eh what the heck, I am busy with work this semester and what else am i suppose to be saying up here on the blog. Going for my weekly Salsa fix again this evening. at least I have the car for about 2 weeks. Mom has gone for a business trip and grandma has decided to vamoos off to some cruise to no where and a trip to Malaysia. Leaving me stranded here, of course I have my darling baby!! Dallas that is, so it is gonna be alright. Least I have the car whenever I want wohoo!!!!! Happiness!

Right nothing much has been going on, finally structured my weekly activites. between salsa, gym, muay thai and studies, gosh ok and friends here and there, damn leaves me with very little time to do much. Wish the week had another extra day, another day of rest that is.

Nonetheless, I have been super happy lately, I mean that is to say I have been in a pretty good mood, so that is good and yeah to all my friends, that say I don't smile enough, havent I been smiling alot lately??? yes yes? to the extent of people asking me why on earth am I grinning for no reason?!?!? No idea why but yeah its just the good spirit I guess.

Right oh, going to hit the gym now and get some work down. cheers to all and hope the happy sprite finds its way to you!!

Salsa!!

2004-09-04T01:31:00.000+08:00

Alrighty, yesterday was the first official salsa lesson I had, for all the times that I have actually salsa-ed was with friends and all the so called half past 6 footwork were taught by them. So yesterday. me and a friend trotted down to xenbar, this place in the heart of Chinatown. My friend thought that classes were $50 for unlimited and I was actually wondering if any classes can be so cheap, well it turns out that $50 are for the classes but ontop of that you have to add another $135 for the entrance fee to the club. that is for unlimited. Other than tt it was $65 for 5 lessons. We were debating on whether we should try our hands at a different school instead, one called Allegro which was down the rd. but then again we were a bit too tired to walk all the way there, especially in heels. Yeah stupid me wore a pair of funky heels that was a tad bit too high for the first class. I didn't know we would be doing so much spinning and twirling! The first 20 minute of the class was spent doing the basic 8 counts and I was near sweating buckets when we stopped!!! I realized this is definitely not for the self conscious because you will look weird initially, so for those that don't even wanna boogie on the dance floor at lets say mambo, better start doing that before hitting the salsa floor, then again the reverese might be true, structured, well semi-structured steps might be easier to pick up!

Along the way, we learnt how to do side steps and really basic stuff, we had to change partners frequently so every lady got a chance to dance with every other single lad out there. the sad bit was that I got knocked on the forehead a couple of times because only 2 outta the 10 guys were taller than me and could spin me properly without me having to duck!!! How sad is that! but i have to say some of the guys there were brilliant, very very smooth with their dance moves!
I didn't quite get the dance steps, especially some weird half turn thing, and I think I might have stepped on a couple of toes, certainly brings new meaning to the phrase ' to tread on ones toes' because that is what I did, literally!

I doubt that the $185 for unlimited lessons is really worth it, I think I might have to consider that really carefully since I don't I would have the time and energy to go all the time, plus classes are at night and all that kinda thing, and I think salsa is something you need to have fun doing and not see it as a 'lesson' per se. ok enough rambling for now, think I am going to hit the sheets again, some nut case woke me up at about 9am!! That is not an early time to be making phone calls to people!! especially not when I had a late night last night!! arrghh... right cheers

tired and deadbeat!

2004-09-03T03:48:00.000+08:00

Right, I realized I haven't been posting, so I shall give a little update. My laptop is finally back from the 'clinic' it is about time too, been abot what 2 weeks since I sent it there. Why on earth is everything taking so damn slow nowadays.

Just got back from the gym, did a relaly fun areobics class today, yes, do not and I repeat do NOT look down on the humble hi-impact areobics class!! It really does wonders sometime, leaves your dripping buckets!! And might I add I think few guys in my gym are regulars too because they can spin and grapevine like nobody's business!! so for all my dear male skeptics, you guys should give it a whirl, who knows, might be your new found workout!! Although I highly doubt it!

Quite excited about tomorrow's Salsa session, finally able to take proper lessons, so far my lessons have been from friends and past salsa bar experiences! So I am pretty psyched about that!! and I think I am taking after dear ole Jacinta, I'm still trying to arrange a couple of sports day session in my week, although all my friends are too lazy to get their butts moving!!!

got a squash game on Monday!! Finally managed to book a squash court in school, I know that game is alsmot extinct but hey it is pretty fun!! Still finding my badminton kakis!! Fangping has left back for the states.. still remember when we played Badminton at YCK? only ended up with me and Kl playing while everyone else sat down!! what the heck! and when are we going to play floorball!?!!?!?!?!?

right enough on the raving and ranting, shall update on how the salsa session went!

cheers!

Happy 21st Birthday Adeline!!

2004-08-26T00:14:00.000+08:00

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you , happy birthday dear Adeline, Happy Birthday to you!!

Thanks for dinner today, the food was really yummy, especially the chicken with bread crumbs on top of it, not sure what is it called. Hope you have a fantastic day ahead and hey welcome to the club of 21 year olds!!!!

2004-08-25T23:22:00.000+08:00

Adeline's place

Training day

2004-08-22T16:21:00.000+08:00

Finally went back to my Muay thai training today after a 3 months hiatus while vacationing in asutralia. It was really weird being there because there are no more familiar faces. The three girls which I did the classes with, one has gone for a long vacation, not sure when she would be back, another has taken up a job offer in France and would only be back in December and another, my dearest friend of mine has decided to leave me high and dry and well stop training.

So there I was, there were only 6 of us today, did my pad work and semi sparring with a caucasian lady, an ex model, so yes guys the leggy sort, she was really tall, like about half a head taller than me or so. Kinda forgotten her name though, she is from sydney so we spent the entire time complaining about the weather in singapore and how both of us love the weather in australia especially in Winter.

training was the usual routine, warm up, push ups, shadow boxing, a few moves, pad work, semi contact sparring and all that. I wanted to die by the end of it all. My lungs couldn't take the 5 minute rounds and my stamina is just terrible!!! I think all the lack of activity in Australia has made me all slow and weak!! very very sad. My coach mentioned that I was slower too, because me and her did some sparring and she almost took my head off my shoulder , but I did managed to duck, which she said was a little bit too slow, since I believe she wasen't moving at her fastest speed either.

so I am pretty discouraged by it all, very upsetting so i think i better kick start my regular pre-australia regime again. sigh...

I bought another pair of boxing gloves while in australia, so I have two pairs now, anyone up for sparring? = ) Joycelyn?!!!?

right oh, goign to grab a shower now, so terrible hot today. and maybe take a nap.

2004-08-19T20:20:00.000+08:00

haha remember this song from footloose, very catchy and very 'flash dance', think I mis the 1980's, not that I remember much of it anyway!

Where have all good men gone
And where are all the gods?
Where’s the street-wise HerculesTo fight the rising odds?

Isn’t there a white knight upon a fiery steed?
Late at night I toss and I turn and I dream of what I needI need a hero
I’m holding out for a hero ‘til the end of the night
He’s gotta be strong
And he’s gotta be fast
And he’s gotta be fresh from the fight
I need a heroI’m holding out for a hero ‘til the morning light
He’s gotta be sureAnd it’s gotta be soonAnd he’s gotta be larger than life (larger than life...)

Somewhere after midnight
In my wildest fantasy
Somewhere just beyond my reach
There’s someone reaching back for me
Racing on the thunder and rising with the heat
It’s gonna take a superman to sweep me off my feet
I need a heroI’m holding out for a hero ‘til the end of the night
He’s gotta be strong
And he’s gotta be fast
And he’s gotta be fresh from the fight
I need a heroI’m holding out for a hero ‘til the morning light
He’s gotta be sure
And it’s gotta be soon
And he’s gotta be larger than life
I need a heroI’m holding out for a hero
‘til the end of the night

Up where the mountains meet the heavens above
Out where the lightning splits the sea
I would swear that there is someone somewhereWatching me
Through the wind and the chill and the rain
And the storm and the floodI can feel his approachLike a fire in my blood
I need a heroI’m holding out for a hero ‘til the end of the nightHe’s gotta be strongAnd he’s gotta be fastAnd he’s gotta be fresh from the fightI need a heroI’m holding out for a hero ‘til the morning lightHe’s gotta be sureAnd it’s gotta be soonAnd he’s gotta be larger than life

-bonnie tyler from 'footloose'

song

2004-08-19T19:58:00.000+08:00

it's just a song, the bottom post, haha I like the first 4 lines. thought it was kinda cute, and very nicely put!!

cog psychology lab

2004-08-18T23:08:00.001+08:00

Why on earth did I take this lab class?!?!?! someone please tell me. this is a class that I would probably do badly in. This module is non examinable, which means everything is graded based on continual assesments. Which mean a, APA style report to submit every Wednesday of the week!! Well at least for the first three weeks that is. and after that comes group projects and assignments. Sigh I am in no mood to start school. not sure why either. but I guess all of us need to hang in there. Other subjects are quite alright taking Biopsychology, personality and difference. European studies and film and history.

It is so odd, second week into the new school term and here I am getting slightly stressed out. I am still thinking of applying for the honours program overseas. might give UWA a shot since they do have a good clinical psychology program there, not sure how that would work out, hmm to think of it not even sure if my grades are up to mark, ok that means I still have about 2 semesters to work hard and buck up right?!

my neck is aching, think I slept in some weird position last night, no get those thoughts of your head, it is not like that at all!!! just one of them days!

cog psychology lab

2004-08-18T23:08:00.000+08:00

hear ye hear ye

2004-08-18T21:51:00.000+08:00

K, I finally got my pictures up so this is the new colour of my hair. streaks of red, copper, orange, slight tinge of pink (if you look closely enough). Decided to take a picture of my ponytail because if I just take a photo you can't really see the colour.

2004-08-18T21:49:00.000+08:00

paint me a rainbow!!!

some people just don't know how...

2004-08-17T13:44:00.000+08:00

Right, here I am peeved as hell, pissed and annoyed. sitting here wondering why on earth can't people keep to themselves sometimes. this is coupled of course with all the weird scandals and rumours that a few friends of mine have been complaining to me about. and some weird ass person raving and ranting her head off, I have an inkling those weird rave and rants are from melbourne, don't know why though.

Sometimes I wonder where do we draw the line in keeping things confidential and letting others, mainly other friends within your circle of friends know about it. I guess this utterly pisses me off because I just realized how alot of us don't practice self censorship and well sad to say basic common sense. I have no idea why people do not hold others in regard and take it for granted that they can tell others things that you want to remain confidential. I mean sigh, so much for confiding in friends and expecting them to know to keep it to themselves. I geuss what one friend said is true, the things you don't ever want anyone to know you can never let it out as there is always that much a chance that it might get out! well thanks for that simple but very solid words that oddly enough I never thought about.

and I guess to pour salt on a very open wound, I found out about all this personally, how sucky is that, I guess it just jumps out at you, the question of who can u trust and who is mature enough to know what to say to whom and what not to say to whoever else. I am just in a foul mood, not so much pissed but more of dissappointed really. sigh...

Computers of the world unite!

2004-08-17T08:36:00.000+08:00

So I'm back, or so I thought. I sent my Laptop on its merry little way to get it fixed and fixed up it was. I collected my little darling on Friday and lo and behold, guess what, it broke down on me AGAIN on Sunday Night. So here I am at my school's computer cluster, with 2 hours to spare before meeting some group mates for project discussion.

For all those who have been wondering what on earth has happened to me, do take note that the only thing working, or should I say the only thing that is in semi-working condition is my Instand Messanger, and I say semi-working because I get to see some people online and some people who are online I do not not see, so I have not blocked off anyone, if anyone must know. but my Instant Messanger only allows me to see a couple of you guys , so those are the ones that I have been talking too I suppose!! so no I'm not ignoring anyone whatsoever yah! I am just unable to get my techonology straight and functioning and yes I do have a spare computer, a compaq, but lo and behold guess what, that ain't functioning either because of some software problem and wow on top of that, I have a feaking assignment that is due tomorrow and I have no idea how to do it and it is workth like 10% so it is brilliant ain't it? arrghhhh ok more whingings to come

I'm back from outer space

2004-08-15T13:48:00.000+08:00

Wohoo!! I am finally back after a couple of days of abscence! My computer has been royally screwed up by the sasser worm and the korgo virus and goodness knows what else has been messing about my computer!! Well, it has been patched, or so I hope it has been for now, sigh I am begining to really love all these anti virus programs and patches! so please everyone go protect your computer and up their defense!

Right, my hair is now coloured, wohoo!!! welcome back colours!! so I am no more the brown, blondish haired person that I was in australia. After spending 6 hours at my friends place, my hair is now in hues of red, pink, copper, orange and blonde! wohoo!!! so not everyone has seen my colours as yet, but soon I guess soon, but nonetheless I am just happy that Ihave some colours in my hair!

feeling energetic again, the restless kinda energetic too much energy to spare and nothing to do, gosh I need to do so me frisbee or something like that, anyone interested? sigh...

colours, paint me a rainbow

2004-08-06T14:54:00.000+08:00

Just got back from Orchard an hour ago, yes Orchard Road Singapore, not Subiaco in Perth, Brunswick in Melbourne or Tsim Tsa Tsui in Hong Kong!

Went to get my specs repaired because the lens are a little bit weird and alas I am stuck with terrible studious looking specs while my funkier turtle shell ones are being repaired on.

I finally got down to the colour house at wheelock place, decided to give that place ago since Joyvelyn had such a fantastic colour job the previous time she went there

but ok it was way to expensive for a black base with violet streaks. I decided to have a little colour change since I have done Red streaks and even dyed my whole hair red, those who remember me collecting my A level results would have remembered my hair then and also during the second year in uni. and since I have also done the copper orange with blonde streaks, blonde was kinda outta the question. so I ended up deciding on pink and violet both of which need bleaching and the total cost was $270. 90 for base colour since my hair length falls intot he very long category. Another 90 for the bleaching and another 90 for the violet, which I think is rather pricey because I doubt other salons charge 90 for bleaching. sigh I guess I would be returning to good ole sunset way to get my colouring done. least they offer student prices there

Well guess I would think of something. any suggestions? blue? pinkish mahogany? I have no idea, al ittle bit sick of the blondish brown copperish mish mash that my hair is in right now.

2004-08-05T00:35:00.000+08:00

I hate technology!!!! right now, I hate computers, don't believe it, My lappie and my pc has to break down on me at the same time, this is so not possible.

Was trying to send a photo out over MSN the other day and guess what, it doesn't work, neither does my IE at the moment as it keeps on coming back to the ' server not found' page everytime i try to click on a new website address! I think my two computers have some virus! great now I have to lug it all the way to a repair shop!

I don't believed this, I hate technology (at the moment)!!

right, if I rant anymore I am just going to explode to bits!!!

Homeward Bound

2004-08-03T13:26:00.000+08:00

Finally, after being away from Singapore for 4 months, although I was back for 24 hours prior to my Hong Kong trip, I am finally heading home. The flight is in a bit so I am going to rush off to the airport soon, just realized I didn't bring back one of the trench coats I had tailored in Shenzhen but my Uncle goes there quite regularly so I would probably get him to pick it up for me!

Hong Kong has been great, I have always loved this city. I think it is the dirt, grime and neon sign boards that give it a certainc haracter absent form Singapore and different from that of Bangkok's. Can't say I am 100% delighted to be back in Singapore, I would miss the nice weather and pace of life and how polite people are (Australia), those who tell me Singapore's service is fantastic has to be kidding, those who have experienced any other service from Australia or Hong Kong should know what I am talking about. and i have no idea till this day how Singapore airlines can get their awards for excellence!

also, I would be missing the food and my egg pancakes, and steamed egg white (chels and nari: remember them? ) and lang zhais in Hong Kong!Well dear friends, I'll see you guys soon in singapore, gonna be back about evening time. see ya then!

ode to freedom from a kept cow

2004-08-02T12:25:00.000+08:00

Distant HillsThe Distant hills call to meTheir rolling waves seduce my heartOh, how I want to graze in their lush valleysOh, how I want to run down their green slopes.Alas. I cannot.Damn the electric fenceDamn the electric fence.Thank you

Dallas

2004-08-01T09:23:00.000+08:00

I have to say this, I miss my beautiful dog! I havent' seen him for 3 months and I only got to see him for a couple of hours before jetting off to Hong Kong. Sigh, how on earth do you explain to poochies that you are not abandoning them but merely going away for a period of time but would be back for them? Heaven forbids if he thinks that I am leaving him for good! Miss him so so much!! few more days a few more days = )

the po lin monestary

2004-07-29T09:22:00.000+08:00

After visiting Hong Kong more than 8 times in the past few years, I have never ever done much sight seeing. All thanks to mommy dearest who dreads the flow of human traffic at these sights. But since my aunt and cousin are here as well, we figured that we would at least have to see the famous Po Lin Monestary. Famed for the enormous statue of Buddha at the top. The train ride to Lantau island took about 45 min, all of us managed to get seats on the train!!! wow, for all those who know Hong Kong, you should understand the human congestion in the train stations so getting seats for 4 was quite a feat. Mom hated the bus ride up the hills and the driver was completely insane making quick turns and jerky stops. Driver from hell at his best!!! so mommy dearest felt like throwing up after that terrible 1 hr bus ride. We passed a prison, apparently Lantau has about 3 prisons. Well apart from the regular bus loads of tourist and local residents whose numbers equate to the amount of pig farms in singapore, I 'd say Lantau island is a good candidate for more prisons. The view from the prison was magnificent, with the main blocks facing the South China sea, but alas, I doubt its residents are in any position to marvel at the view.It took us about an hour and a half to climb the stairs that led to the buddha, I must say it was quite a pleasant climb, thank goodness for the foggy weather! It was so impressive and when you look out, you just imagine how the view must have been like hundreds of years ago, no wonder people made their way all the way here for some meditation. the complete serenity sans the shilouette of cranes and machineray in the distance provided quite an out of body experience, no, not the same type when you are in a daze after downing shots of alcohol.I reckon this is where most of the Hong Kongers come if they really want a whiff of fresh air, as someone mentioned to me a while ago, he wanted to fedex me a can of oxygen! trust me the thought is very much appreciated! the air down below is just terrible!there is a common misconception about buddhism, and I suppose alot of people have mixed it up with taosim, the religion that has all the various deities and gods and goodness. in fact and correct me if I am wrong, buddhism is more of a philosophy than anything else, a teaching of the way of life. and in this modern world, and at least to me , it is becoming rather attractive. this however is a topic to be dabbled with another day.so after all the ooohs and ahhs and camera manouveres, we proceeded to the famed vegetarian restaurant. for Hk$60 we had 5 dishes and 1 soup. we even had a fish shaped tapioca dish, I guess it is to substitue the lack of fish on the table. The meal was simple enough, My cousin didn't like it, and was just being polite by taking small nibbles on the vegetables. The whole affair of dishing out food to those that were seated at the various tables reminded me of feeding time at the zoo. The soup was doled out using a makeshift ladle which had a saucepan attatched to the end of a long stick. and the rice was in huge vats!ok, so after a dismal lunch and another bout with the driver from hell, we were on the way down. We passed by a short windy passage mid level and from there one could grasp a stunning view of the buddha looming above the hills. the fog present added tot he air of mystery and for all those who have watched the good ole classic chinese gong fu flicks, this looks like one of those tales of a young man embarking on a journey of self discovery and decides to check himself into a monestary to find peace with himself and finds that his destination is just beyond the mountains! I couldn't help but smile and rattled this concept to my cousin who of course didn't understand what on earth I was talking about because Perth hardly has any gong fu shows and eventhough if they did, my cousin doesn't understand Mandarin or any chinese dialect for that matter.The rest of the day was spent roaming the streets of Causeway bay. My mom and aunt headed back to the hotel because they were too tired and I had to bring my cousin back to a couple of shops to pick up clothes that she had sent for alteration and to return a pair of shoes to Lan crawford. She decided that the refund should go to another pair of shoes which she did buy in the end,a very nice pair of miu miu heels! and oh Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo is on sale here in Hong Kong, still too pricey though

shenzhen

2004-07-27T03:20:00.000+08:00

It is official, I am not shopping anymore, never in my life or rather the recent years have I been so tired, this is ridiculous! Woke up at 7 for a wuick work out and after breakfast at Mcdonalds and a one hour train ride from Kowloon Tong to Lo wo I was in Shenzhen, land of fake goods and more fake goods.I expected the famous tailors that everyone raves about when they come to shenzehn to be lined up along a main street, asking you to step into their dingy little changing rooms to get fitted but alas, China's pseudo democractic policies has even shenzhen constructing major complexes to house these commercial practices. Lo wo commercial complex as it is called houses about a gazillion shops selling goods such as 'Hermes' 'Gucci' and the rarer 'Botegga Venetta'. Did I mention they also have DVDS going at S$3!!wohooo, going to go into hibernation upon reaching the sunny shores of Singapore!My uncle and his girlfriend brought us there and after hearing her exaggerated stories about how the store vendors would literally drag you half protesting into their stores or shove their wares into your faces we finally stepped into the complex. I suppose it was really not what I expected, people there were indeed loud but no shoving and pulling was experienced. Store owdners merely left you alone after a wave of the hand a a firm shake of the head. I suppose being Australian and unexperienced she was pretty much shocked at the store vendors promotion plans. You know how caucasians get when they experience extreme cultures (those who have watched episodes of the Amazing race should know what I am talking about) and tend to be incapable of coping! this is getting to sound very racist, but I do not hold them in high regard at the present time, more on that later.So we (mom, aunt, cousin and I) were introduced to 'Sally' a 24 year old vedor who sells grade A imitations. We were instructed to follow her, not too close though all the way to another store which housed a back room. We trailed sally for about 15 min, all of us pretending to be browsing and looking into other shops. I have to say in the excitement to see some good stuff (especially my dear cousin) we didn't do a very good job, no oscars to us! We spent a very claustrophobic 2 hours in a small tiny room, at least it was air conditioned, looking through catalouges and items. I only got away with a tiny LV key ring and my mom, well for all those who know my mom, she didn't buy anything. my cousin went bezerk (she is form australia) and as she said " people in Perth won't know the difference' and so did my aunt. I have to say though. the quality was fantastic. Every stitch, every seam was like the original.I was this close to purchasing a Gucci sling bag, however instead of saying 'made in Italy' it read 'made in Ital' I guess I was not ready to be the proud owner of a gucci bag manufactured from a distant, very distant ,far away land. so far that is practically non existent.we managed to get some clothes tailored, coats that is, very nice ones indeed, I chose two designs and brought in a brown tweed material and a soft trenchcoat material, very burberry!!! I just hope they turn out nice. I guess we would know come Wednesday evening when we return to pick it up.Lunch in Shenzhen was bad, their DIm sum was very oily and they har kau looked like it was deep fried. I only ate vegetarian noodles. I didn't want to run into the risk of putting some weird foreign meat into my mouth. I hardly doubt that the beef or chicken in the menus are 100% and I would never forgive myself if I had accidentally ate dog meat or something close!right, going to soak my feet and get down to finishing the Da Vinci code before my friends start raving to me about it and spoiling the story!

The destroyer

2004-07-26T00:44:00.000+08:00

If you have been one of those people that I have raved to about the meaning of my name, I apologize! It seems today, the greatness of the title has met its demise and I have been greatly reduced to that of ' the destructor', yup that is correct.As of today, all those who know me also know a person who single handedly caused the crashing of the internet service in a hotel in Hong kong, the hotel name would remain anonymous just in case an overzealous business men whose computer I have affected happens to stumble upon this entry!but yes believe it or not, little ole me caused that, due to a virus that was in my computer, I have my mommy dearest to thank for that! but alas woe is me, my wonderful virus infected computer caused the internet server to crash and to think I made a call to the front desk, wondering why my $120 a day broad band connection was not working.

Little did I know, the computer problem caused by one of the hotel's guest, which they so patiently explained to me, turned out to be yours truly!sigh, feeling awful, what if a million dollar deal was disrupted because of me, what if some poor person couldn't submit his thesis because of me, what if... what if....all the power, all the might that lay in my hands, even for that tiny moment *evil laugh*

off to Hong Kong I go

2004-07-24T08:59:00.000+08:00

Wow, I have officially been on Singapore soil for 24 hrs or so, pretty surreal. About a week ago I was still having a picnic at Matilda’s bay. I spent the entire day running errands before my departure to Hong Kong tomorrow morning. I know, off I go again and trust me I am grateful that I get to travel. Weather is terrible in Singapore compared to australia, all I did was to stand at one spot in the car park and waited for my mom to bring the car around and I started perspiring! Although a few of my friends are complaining about the cold in Perth, I am asking them to STOP!!! Relish the cold, it is a million times better than the humidity here!!! Friends have been telling me that it has been much cooler these few days, if that is the case, boy am I glad I missed the heat wave and dry spell!!!!!Almost got into an accident today, stupid deranged driver who couldn't stick to his lane and kept swerving towards my lane. what an inebriate! oh and yipee, my 'P' plate, otherwise known as the ugly triangle is gone, banished from my window screen!!! it has finally been a year since I have gotten my license, yay!

ok although I don't think I feel any happier, well maybe a little and people can stop bullying me because of that ssign I have on the side of the car.I finally gotten a chance to speak to Liza today, Still feeling awful for not being here in Singapore when she needed me most and when she really wanted a friend to talk to. So if you read this dear, I am awfully sorry! Trust me, I feel terrible. And I promise you an Old chang Kee curry puff the next time.

Talking about Old Chang Kee curry puffs. I had no idea the prices of them puffs went up by 10 cents!!! They now cost a dollar!! Didn’t they use to be 90 cents only!!! Arrghhh this is just terrible, soon we would be paying Australian prices but receiving Singaporean serving sizes! Alright, my plane leaves in about a couple of hours time and I have yet to pack, going to get cracking on the suitcase, it would be nice to finally be able to carry my luggage without my arm being torn off from my shoulder!!

Self Pity

2004-07-22T20:56:00.000+08:00

"I never saw a wild thing feel sorry for itself. A bird will fall frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself." -D.H Lawrence

a picnic a picnic!!

2004-07-10T08:55:00.000+08:00

I finally managed to pull a picnic together with Jacinta, we started off later than expected and sadly only spent 3 and a half hours there before a required trip to the house was made to let michelle in the houseThe picnic meal was simple enough, apples, fish fingers and home made pita wraps. Ok, not entirely home made since the pita skins were store bought. And of course a trusty bottle of solo! We decided on a sunny spot, alright more like I insisted on a sunny spot before we freeze our tushies off, it was warm and sunny enough to have a picnic but once the wind came around, he chill factor just ups one notch and Matilda’s bay, being a bay by itself supplies us picnic goers plenty of fresh gusts of wind.Upon finishing the current book I’m reading, the Alchemist by Paulo Cohello (quite a good book if I may add, definitely a good picker upper) I just laid back and stared at the cloudless sky.

And it got me thinking how the simplest things in life catches us unguarded and astounds us by its magnificent silent beauty. I guess many would wonder where the beauty comes from when the sky has always been there and hey there weren’t even any clouds for us to set the imagination free. But just laying there soaking up the wintry Perth day I relish the fact that I would never feel like this again nor see such a sight again and I guess that is where the beauty comes in. To know that everything disappears in a moment. Sure enough I would lay there by the grass of some bay in the future but everything else would be different and I would probably feel differently.

I suppose we do not cherish these daily experiences enough and do not think much of it to scare ourselves into realizing that once a moment passes us it is never coming back and once an opportunity is lost, that is the end of it, sure enough people will say that another opportunity would come knocking but when, and how long more would the wait be and would it be the same? I suppose one of the reasons why I wake up early and dislike taking naps or bumming around and seem so restless most of the time is that the years we are able to walk quickly, have bountiful energy and not tire with ease is limited to the days of our youth.

And I definitely do no want to regret later in life that I did not walk around enough or have done enough. Life is that short, I’d rather leave the slacking when I am retired and can actually say to myself, I have done enough, seen enough and want to relax. On second thought I hope that day doesn’t come too soon.

wohoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2004-07-09T08:53:00.000+08:00

Shout out to Jacinta who has finally, finally got down to signing up for a gym membership!!!!!!!!!!!

relaxing weekend

2004-07-06T00:39:00.000+08:00

It’s now 8am on a very very gloomy and cold moday morning, I got a lift from my aunt who works at the Charles Gardiner hospital near Nedlands, which meant that I was up and at it since 645am this morning! I was going to grab breakfast at Tiamo but I was lugging around way too many things, including 6 months worth of ‘delicious’ magazine to bring home.The first weekend in Perth after a one month hiatus. I spent it at my Aunt’s place up in Karrinyup, a sleepy little suburb with no kids for about a couple of kilometers, until the oval that is. Jacinta is taking her diving course, getting certified as a diver soon. Lucky girl, I can never ever gather enough guts to send myself sinking 10 metres underwater. I think the thin gthat freaks me out would be the chance of bumping into an eight egged, or rather in this case tentacle sea creature on the sea bed! That would definitely send me into a sate of panic! Yes, octopuses give be the jibbers, and I have no idea how my fellow friends can consume endless amounts of Japanese baby octopuses! sinking onto the seabed that is like 15m below is like throwing yourself off a cliff!!

Anyway, hats off to those that have been certified or are taking the course!The weekend was really good, spent time away from all technology, with the exception of the television and the heater and of course kitchen appliances. Although I have been holidaying since the end of April, I feel that my holiday only started when I returned from Melbourne and Sydney, since I’ve been here for about a month and basically seen all that has to be seen, at least the touristsy stuff, I can now take it slowly and well spend time with people and just basically bum. I spent most of the weekend, hanging out with my Aunt here; I even attended the pilates class on Saturday. And guess what I did on Sunday morning? I baked. Yup the good ole country style living.

It was rather refreshing, to be unconnected to the internet and relive the pre internet era! Yes I have unofficially classified that as an era, very much like the Victorian or the Tudors and as much as I love staying connected with the rest of the wide wide world, I have a feeling it has caused the demise of my peace of mind, at least when it comes to having a peaceful, undisturbed holiday. I think Jacinta has finally tarried, time so see if she is interested in getting some grub!

2004-07-05T08:27:00.000+08:00

Happy 4th of July, although it has nothing to do with me whatsoever but I hope everyoone enjoys this day all the same!!!Woke up ridiculously early to catch a ride with my aunt down to her work place. She works at the Sir Charles Gardener hospital, about 10 minutes away from Broadway, she was however kind enough to drop me off at Jacinta's place. So there I was at 645am staring at the beautifully painted country styled ceiling, thinking "oh gosh this is too early to be up on a cold monday morning" but i still had to wake up all the same, waking up early and grabbing a ride from her versus taking 3 buses and a total time of 2 and a half hours to get home, the latter seemed more appealing! I was stuck pacing around Jacina's place from 745-1130, and after couning the ceiling cracks I started laboriously typing recipes from 6 months worth of 'Delicious' magazine.

We spent the day roaming the streets of subiaco, jacinta was out to find a jacket while I was contented not spending anymore money on shopping whatsoever and only on the neccessities. We ended up buying a whole cheesecake from 'The cheesecake shop' and with much luck the cake we wanted, the continental cheesecake was on discount, so we bought the entire cake for 12 dollars less!! hurray hurray!! Yes, it seems that one does not need a psychology degree to tap ino the mind of a consumer, damn time to swich majors!

we decided to treat ourselves to some yummy dessert since it was the 4th of july, this is however ausralian and not the USA so we won't be having any BBQ by the lawn while watching fireworks. We are however, thinking of having a picnic tomorrow by Matilda's bay. With a book, some white wine and some sandwhiches and each others company!

It would be quite nice, considering that I have not had a picnic since I was wha 8 or so? if the weather holds, we would probably have the picnic tomorrow or the day after.It has been raining non stop for the past week in Perth,as so I have heard from the 5 people who have complained about the dismal weather. Jacinta, my aunt, my cousin and my cousin's fiancee. ok 4 persons.Anyway, going to go cook a special July the 4th dinner. roasted potatoes, moroccan chicken goulash, tomatoe carrot and corn soup and of course cheesecake for dessert!!

50kg worth of luggage and a worthless offer

2004-06-30T20:00:00.000+08:00

Here I am, back in Perth. After being away for about a month I am finally back in Western Aaustralia. I did not miss my flight as one of my friend predicted that I would. And I even managed to evade the extra luggage surcharge at the airport. Talk about being lucky! I initially planned to take a taxi to the bus station where I would then hop on the sky bus to the airport, that would have probably cost me about 25 dollars. And my mom reckoned that I was better off paying 35 and take a taxi directly to the airport. A least I would not have to lug my luggage around, a task which I found out to be tiring and painful.There I was all packed up and ready to go, Mick gave me a ride back to college square after lunch and trust me, I had one hand near the door, in the event that I had to make a jump for it!

I called a taxi and did a 50 metre dash from Victoria’s unit to the elevator. With the suitcase and laptop case in one hand, the box in the other, and the duffel bag slung across my shoulders I was all set. I didn’t have much of a problem bringing my luggage into the lift as I managed to prevent the elevator door from closing my propping the box against the door. Upon arriving on the ground floor however, the elevator started making weird grunting noises and I figured I had better not keep the door opened for too long a time, lest I get stuck and had to call an elevaor crew to come help me out.So there I was struggling with my bags infront of 2 guys when one offered me some help. So he did help, he moved my suitcase from inside of the lift to the outside of the lift and went on his merry little way. I honestly preferred him not to have helped, at least I would still think here was an ounce of chivalry left in Singaporean men, yes he was Singaporean.

I managed to half drag-kick-push my luggage to the main entrance which seemed to be kilometers away when a nice girl offered me some real help by bringing my suitcase to the front of the building. So there I was with 5 taxis infront of me, all of them asking what my name was to check with the booking. The girl who helped me with the suitcase also mentioned that her two friends both of whom were waiting for a taxi were also heading to perth. So I ended up sharing a taxi with them., It was by far the cheapest taxi ride (13.70) that I had ever taken. That's even cheaper than if I were to have taken the sky bus. We ended up checking in together, and with the little luggage they carried I managed to distribute my additional baggage weight I was carrying among the two of them, hopefully they did not figure out my intentions of wanting to check in together. Thank god for that or I would have ended up paying $80 for the additional 30kg.The plan ride went smoothly except for the annoying passenger seated across the aisle who kept, in a very rude tone, demand for vegetarian sandwhiches as he did not eat pork! and I found out they were from our lovely neighbours across the straits! that is of course not to say that everyone that hails from tha fair land behaves in such a manner.

It was fantastic to finally be able to take a long hot shower, the shower at the Melbourne apartment was a little dodgy and the water would turn cold midway and it always catches me in the middle of washing out the soap in my hair.It was a fantastic break in melbourne and it was by far one of he best times I've had just having some time to myself.

Phillip Island Tour

2004-06-27T17:55:00.000+08:00

Ijust got back from a day tour to phillip island and finally got the chance to see the famous fairy penguins I have been hearing so much about. I should have opted for the Penguin express insead, which zipped would zip me directly to the island without the koala conservatory and cattle ranch. And it was 30 dollars cheaper too. The weather was rather dismal, with pockets of rain in between moments of sunshine. Even the Kolaas at the conservatory opted to stay curled up on the highest branches, away from he discerning eye of us visitors. I didn’t manage to get any good photographs as everytime I tilted my lens upwards, droplets of water would fall and I did no want to ruin my camera with moisture.

The supposed slow stroll along the paths at the conservatory turned out to be a quick brisk walk around the area and back on the bus. If the weather was not bad enough, thr tracks around the area became muddy and everyone started tracking mud onto the bus.The tour also dropped us off at the wattlerook cattle farm, which is supposedly the oldest running cattle farm in the area. You could feed the free range kangaroos and turkeys and other barn animals there.trust me, I have no idea why there were roos there though, must be one of their marketing ploys to prey on us tourists! While the younger people (it being the school holidays, there were plenty of annoying kids, mainly from Singapore running amok on the bus) went about ooing and ahhing at the kangaroos, the rest of us chose to stay warm and dry inside the café, tasting their famous Devonshire scones. So if you are ever around the area near south gippsland visit the cattle farm for their scones, it is by far the best Devonshire scones I have ever tasted, even better than those served at the Swan brewery which were not as fantastic as my friends made them out to be. For 7 dollars, yes things in Australia tend to be a tad bit pricey, you get two scones, two very large scones, with home made jam and clotted cream and of course Devonshire tea.The tour guide cum bus driver, unlike many other tours, bus drivers double up as tour guides as well, brought us to the Nobbies, the rockiest area of phillip island. Phillip island was cleared of its marshes and swamps by the two brothers who supposedly set the island ablaze for seven days and seven nights in the mid 19th Century. On certain days one can even see a colony of fur seals resting on these rocky crags, resting after a day’s of fishing and frolicking in the sea.It was only during dinner when I sat with three other tour guides did I found out that the bus I was on had left 2 passengers behind at the koala conservatory, Paul, our tour guide spent 10 minutes searching for the person without a ticket to the penguin parade.

However, it was not that he had an extra ticket but it was the case of him having one less ticket.The two passengers were however picked up by another bus, I jus hoped they do no file a complaint against him.After waiting for about an hour in the cold, I finally caught sight of the famous fairy penguins, these tiny penguins are the smallest of its kind, and every day at dusk, they make their way back to the beach and up on to the grassy hills and into their burrows to spend the night. And apparently they have been doing so for thousands of years. Another one of Mother Nature's many wonders. Sadly, no photography or recordings were allowed in order to protect the natural habitat of these penguins. However, there is always the sole bufaoon who doesn't listen and this time it turned out to be one of the camera wielding tourist from China, why am I not surprised.

As you can imagine, the boardwalks, which visitors stand on were jam packed with people from all around the world, making breathing let alone viewing very difficult. the rain did not help, as I spent half the time trying to avoid getting my eyes poked out by the over zealous visitor, who had one too many times mistaken a small rock for a penguin and had frantically waved her umbrella about.The penguins were awfully adorable, they were only at the very best 60cm in height and when they waddle back to their burrows in groups, you just can't help but imagine how it must look like when the "high penguin season" comes around. he penguin population varies from 800-2000 every night, and even when the visitor centre closes, these penguins are still arriving on the beach and making their way back home. I think the lucky penguins are probably the ones that arrive after closure; at least they would not endure the ever annoying gasps and whispers by tourist. even more so being flash banged occasionally.

We stopped by the town of Cowes on phillip island for dinner, phillip island ,being a holiday resort reminded me of Mandurah in a way. The empty houses and the light from sparsely occupied houses. Had dinner at this lovely Italian restaurant. It was rather sad having to sit alone, yup went on this tour alone but it was a nice feel. Michael or Mick as everyone calls him, one of the tour guides who sopke to me on and off during our stops invited me to sit with him and the other tour guides. And I tell you they are about the most interesting bunch of people, their stories were great. Ranging from an eagle crashing into the window of a tour bus to a sick joke about telling a bunch of rowdy Jewish boys that the next stop would be the gas station if they didn’t pipe down.

He was kind enough to offer to drop me off at college square where I was staying as the bus I was originally on would only dropped me off at the Swanston street bus terminal. and I would have to take a tram back to college square from there.So after the last passenger was dropped off at their respective hotel, we made our way to college square, not before going for coffee at a nearby café along lygon street. I felt awful to turn down his coffee request as he seemed pretty tired and after a long day of driving, I figured the least I could do was have a cuppa with him. A short coffee break turned ino 2 hours worth of chatting as he told me stories about his driving experiences and people he have met along the way. He has been a tour guide for about 10 years since he was 24, so that makes him 34 this year, and gosh he thought I was 26!!!!! How distressing, I think I need to cut bangs and look 16 to be able to look my age! I am just crossing my fingers, hoping that by the time I am 50 I won’t look 60! Mick offered to take me to the Great Ocean Road on Tuesday as it was his day off as he figured that tour companies were charging rouriss way too much for a tour. But I decided that going off with some bloke I barely knew would not be a good idea and we scheduled a lunch appointment instead.did i just use tthe word bloke? damn! Anyway, I figured hey it wouldn’t hurt to know a tour guide in Melbourne, since I love the city so much I bet I would be returning for a holiday or even post grad studies. So I did manage to grab hold of his e mail and told him that he would have mine when I e mailed him since I was changing my e mail address.Oh well, alas slumber beckons.

Murphy's law and the great Sydney escape

2004-06-21T19:53:00.000+08:00

Melbourne here I come, or so I thought. Here I am sitting in my friend's apartment right now, currently using a ridiculously expensive internet connection dial up. ten dollars for 50mb. I don't believe this!!Melbourne is just fantastic, the weather is much wetter and cooler than sydney but the entire atmosphere is more dismal and grey, reminds me of London quite a bit, but without the old english charm of course. Getting around Melbourne is easy enough. everything here runs in a grid like pattern. Getting to Melbourne from Sydney however proved to be a pretty tough thing to do.

The first thing that kicked off a chain of “you are not getting to Melbourne” incidents was the booking of the taxi, ok so I admit it was my fault that I had mistakenly said that we wanted a taxi to the airport, I guess it was due to the luggage that we had, it made me forget that we were actually heading to the train station to catch a train o the airport. So when the taxi came along and I did mind you, apologize profusely for the mistake. He refused to take us to the train station. I guess It was basically due to the fact that he would have earned 40 dollars less than what he would have had if he were to bring us to the airport. So we waited for about another 15 minutes, praying and keeping our fingers crossed that a taxi would come by the house, which was of course a long shot since we were in whoop whoop land!! Anyhow, a taxi did come by just as an airport shuttle bus pulled up and by way of bus it would be about 50 dollars for the three of us including luggage.

However, just as we were about to climb in a taxi came by and we decided to take the taxi to the station instead. we were already really late he driver reckoned hat he could bring us to the airport for less than 50, which was a long shot because the airport was on the other side of Sydney, approximately a ten dollar ride from Alexandria, where Penelope was putting up.We took that offer anyway and ended up in an hour long traffic jam while traveling towards the harbour bridge and even when we took an alternative route via goodness knows where, we ran smack right in the middle of another jam, so as the cars inched ever so slowly forward, the meter continued jumping and with that so did our heartbeats, and in our heads well at least mine and my friend’s was slowly calculating and converting the really expensive taxi ride. So bad luck for us passengers and a small windfall in terms of taxi earnings for the driver.

Wih 20 minutes left before the gates closed we half struggled, ok I half struggled with my luggage all the way to the front, only to find out that I was neither booked on the 1115 flight nor the 1145 flight, in fact I wasen’t on any flight at all. So there I was in a foul mood, tired and with an achy shoulder from carrying the duffel bag, without any flight out of Sydney. Apparenly my friend who had previously cancelled her flight to Melbourne and changed it for a flight to perth accidentally cancelled my flight as well and after the cancellation fees were deducted, the remaining credits went towards her ticket. It was however probably the airline’s fault as my friend did mention that the remaining passenger was still making the trip to Melbourne. So, after paying an additional 30 dollars for anoher ticket, the new ticket cost 110. I was on my way. I couldn’t conact Heidi who was meeing me at the Melbourne airport as her number was in my lap top ,which refused to boot up. My phone calls couldn’t be diverted to any phone, I guess a pre paid credit does not allow you to do that and horrors of horrors my battery went dead! So a very tired me boarded the 1145 and was finally on my way to Melbourne.

Heidi managed to find out from the counter that I was on another flight and waited for me at the gate. But still I felt horrible for making them wait for an hour or so. Thankfully the rest of the day went by without anymore interesting events, I managed to locate my friend’s apartment at Lygon street, and after a quick lunch me and Heidi made our way around Brunswick st at Fitzroy. A quaint little street, with tons of pubs at every corner. Brunswick reminds me a little of London's campden lock, sans the flea market. Well, it's freezing outside and I need to get dinner started. I'm thinking grilled chicken and mushroom.

early morning manicure...very early morning manicure

2004-06-09T19:08:00.000+08:00

OK, I was awoken by the annoying ringing of the alarm at 630 this morning, met a friend, well I only got to know her 3 days ago, at 8 am to begin our insane day of shopping! Myers and David Jones were having their annual mid year stock take sale, whereby almost everything gets slashed by at least half price. We only managed to cover Myers in the morning before walking down to The Rocks, which was about a half hour walk down George street. We did however went for a half an hour manicure at 930 in the morning, yes 930!! So while everyone is at work, or in school or sleeping, we were there getting our nails shaped and painted!!

We wandered around The Rocks area, had pancakes at this absolutely wonderful place called Pancakes on the rocks, oo just heavenly, I have been hunting for the perfect fluffy pancakes and I think I have found it, then again that was what I said about the pancakes at Tia mos in Perth, which my friend thought was only decent. We both blew about 40 bucks in total on a bowl of Nachos, a brandied apricot pancake and thai chicken pan cake wraps. Yes yes it was rather costly but oh well it was money well spent. I couldn’t spend much at the Rocks, I suppose that was mainly due to the prices of all he goods in the area, think Gucci, Louis Vittoun, Dome and the likes, so as much as I would love to splurge on the latest Gucci wallet or LV monogrammed bag, I have to reserve my resources for Melbourne and perth. Besides, I don't think mommy would be too pleased if I went home and waved an expensive bag in her face, especially if I am on a budget, well sort of.

The view from the Rocks was simply fabulous, it was rather quiet though and without the weekend markets, the rocks seemed rather colourless. Didn’t stay too long a the rocks because we figured we would be back when we visit the weekend market this Saturday. Took a Ferry to manly, didn’t cost too much, about 15 bucks for a day tripper which allowed us to utilize any form of transport around the citry, excluding cabs of course. It was cheap, until I lost mine and had to spend an additional 5.80 to get a return ticket from Manly to the city. Manly was fantastic, it reminded me of Bondi beach, except that the beach was a tad bit small and the surf was pretty flat. It was a rather quaint beach town, with loads of surf shops. So proud of myself, didn’t buy anything today, ok well on account of the 6 pairs of shoes that I have already puirchases, I figured that I should jus relax a bit till later in the week. We missed the last bus from North Head, this look out point at well, as the name suggests, the northern part of Manly, the view was jus fantastic, you could see the city skyline and the rugged crags along the coast. Except for a few cars, we were basically the only two nutcases who went there by foot.

There was this elderly couple however, parked near the edge sipping coffee and having a muffin, it was romantic in a way and I guess the sight of someone being os much in love despite years of being together and seeing each other day after day.I still don’t understand how can someone wake up seeing the same face for more than 5 years, even a 5 years it seems like a rather lengthy period of time! But that is a topic to be discussed another time round. We ended up walking back to the city centre, which took us about an hour or so.

We however stopped at the school of tourism and management which resembled a huge castle. That is one of the benefits of exploring on your own I guess , you get to see all the sights that are off the beaten track and not so popular with the tourist masses, I mean the school isin’t even a tourist attraction. The school was bounded by a high wall and the both of us stood on an electrical box to peer over, I was only until a car drove by on he other side and out of the school did we realize we were less than 50 metres from the main gate. Yes I know such stupidity, but we both reckon that it would make a good picture if someone took a photo of us from behind peering over the wall. The entire act just made us feel like mischievous little kids! Anyway, feeling super deadbeat and I don’t want to chip my newly painted nails!!!!!!! = )

Cousin from oz

2004-06-05T19:07:00.000+08:00

Just got off the telephone with my cousin, whom I have not spoken to or seen in 7 years. I guess it was just the distance and the things going on in her life as well as my own that prevented us from being closer. She turns 30 this year and is trying out for a tafe music degree whereby you have to go through a recital. She is just absolutely brilliant on the piano. She is currently staying with her grandmother down in alexandria, which is a million year away from where I am putting up right now, so that makes popping over periodically very difficult.Although I only spent about half an hour on the phone with her, I just realized how much I have missed her, years ago she was still bringing me around the city of sydney, she was 23 and I, 14 and I still remembered how she wanted to bring me to all the hottest clubs but I was of course under age and now that I am of age, she has sadly passed that phase.

This was the same cousin that played hookey to keep me company at home, the very first time I visited them when they were still living in Canberra and played monopoly with me till the wee hours of morning, think I was only about 6 years old. We used to harvest the cherries form their cherry tree at their back yard and then climb fences to steal mandarins from their neighbour.A little about my cousin, I suppose she is not what one would call pretty, but more of androgynous. She went through the whole long hair phase during her teens and when I last saw her, she was a lanky skin head, yes skin head, with a couple of piercings here and there. Think sinead o’ conner. She’s just one of those lucky ones with sharp features and a nice head shape, laugh if you may but you do need one of those if you want to shave your locks.

She has had her up and downs, battling depression, recognizing her sexual orientation as well as being in and out of drug habilitation. I guess the worse bit of it all was the little support she received from her mother, who kicked her out earlier this year. So, while juggling a job has a cinematographer for some government funded video, doing a course at the TAFE and getting her life in order, I’d say she is doing pretty good.It is strange how we here are worried about all the ups and downs and fretting over simple stuff such as exams and what we should do when we graduate while on the other side of the world somewhere, or in most cases the person just a block or two away from you frets about where the next meal is coming from, or how he or she is going to cope with life in general.

When faced with such examples, our cares and concern seem so minuscule, so unimportant.

the move

2004-06-03T22:25:00.000+08:00

It’s 7am here in Sydney, and I am still up, couldn’t fall asleep. I think I am still running on perth time ,which would be about 5am. Although I am usually asleep much earlier than that. Had a really long night, I guess in someway you could call it pretty eventful and in someways it was pretty tiring. We landed much earlier than expected. It actually took us about 4 hours to get to Sydney and we landed at about 10 plus Sydney time when all of us thought it was ten plus perth time.We made our way to my cousin’s place down at maroubra, a suburb about twenty dollars away from the airport. The place looked decent enough, pretty much like one of those boutique hotels. The security guard at the counter was giving us weird looks, I think we must have been quite a sight, two girls with tons of luggage trying to figure out how to open the doors to the main entrance.

With a façade like that, I figured my cousin’s interior wouldn’t be that bad, I was way off. His place was cozy enough, a very messy type of cozy if you may, the “toss my shirts all over the place” type of cozy. We spent about 10 minutes cleaning up before deciding o grab some food, only to find that the mcdonalds that was around the corner has already stopped serving. And all we could find was a 7 11 store, where we purchased instant noodles and some milk.Our very first dinner in Sydney, the city with famed restaurants and quaint cafes did not quite serve the hors’deveures we expected. Instead we had the canned salmon and peanuts with noodles option. While lounging in front of the television, we decided to do some laundry since the sheets looked pretty dusty, we figured that would be the first to be loaded in. the washing went fine until we went on to the dryer, well back in perth when we did drying in the Laundromat, the sheets would always come out crisp and in about 30 minutes we would have nice warm sheets.

I didn’t realize that dryers in homes were not as efficient and about 2 hours and a short circuit later we were stuck with damp sheets.The smaller heater caused an electrical trip, which caused the tv to stop working and the radiator was not exactly doing its job very well. I guess the worse bit was that there was no internet connection and due to the fact that I had to do some correspondence and school administration thing, it was imperative for me to get online.So at about 330 we packed up, and called a cab .with about 40 kg worth of luggage, we headed north which was about half an hour away to another friends house, and if late night moving was not bad enough, It started to rain. So here I am 4 hours later, unable to sleep and trying to type in the dark without waking up my room mate.

20,000 feet in the air

2004-06-03T19:14:00.000+08:00

20,000 feet in the airI’m about more than 15,000 off the ground and writing this blog on the plane on microsoft which I am jus going to do a cut and paste thing here on live journal. I know we are all not supposed to, well,technically that is switch on our computer or any other electronic goods on board, but with 4 hours away before landing at Sydney domestic airport, I can’t help but take my lappie out. I am writing this at a very odd angle, see the bloke right infront of me has decided to do a full recline and I am staring a the reflection of my screen and I have a feeling in about a good 10 minutes Time I am going o get a headache. And as though that is not annoying enough, it seems that me and narisa are holding a very interesting conversation for he keeps turning his head around and trying to take a peep at the computer screen or take a listen to what we are saying!! Sheesh!!!

Narisa and I reached the domestic airport just 5 minutes short of boarding our flight to Sydney. We had to make a trip down to canning vale to drop off Lek’s car at his uncles’. So, after 15 minutes of dodging traffic and trying to follow his car, which was quite easy, considering the fact that it is a bright yellow Mazda 3, I was more than glad to be in the passengers seat.food on board Virgin air is ridiculously expensive, but I guess that is about the rough estimate of prices all around town. A sandwhich pack which consists of 4 pieces of miserly filled bread costs about 5 bucks and a beef burger, very tiny by my standards cost about 8.50.

That’s it, next time round, we are packing our own little gourmet basket! Me and Narisa are currently trying to survive with a bottle of plain water and a small carton of mocha chill, yes another one of the addictions I picked up while staying in perth for about a month!!! I think I have gotten out of the Tim Tam phase, thank goodess, although I would still never ever turn down a tim tam offer.I haven’t a clue what we would be doing in Sydney, which is rather odd as I have always planned a mini itinerary for myself and whoever I am traveling with. I guess having visited Sydney a few times, it makes this trip seem just like a regular visit and nothing special.

However, I have to be sure to catch a show at the opera house his time round, no matter how much the tickets are going to cost. However, dear ole Ying Nan has so kindly planned some stuff for us to do inspite of him having exams in about 3 weeks time, so he is going to be our tour guide during our stay there. I do hope that he is able to ge down o studying though. Anyway if you read this Nan, STUDY STUDY STUDY!Ok me and narisa just did a stupid video, some introductory video of the plan, sheesh felt like one of those Taiwanese variety shows, and we tried to record I in Chinese, lest everyone else knows what spastic statements we are making. Right, think we are going to land soon.

Mandurah and clubbing

2004-05-31T18:12:00.000+08:00

AARRGHHHHHHHHHH this sucks, 30 seconds to pressing the update button and he damn page gets refreshed!!!!!! AACCCCCCKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!! DAMN IT DAMN IT DAMN IT!!!!ok so here I have to start all over again.... here goes...Haven't bveen writing much on the journal, not too sure why either, while my other friends dutifully make an entry almos every single day, I guess I rather write on impulse. Spent the weekend, well only Friday and Saturday to be exact at Mandurah, this town about an hour or so south of perth. A very conducive place to retire I suppose. Very quiet, and where almost everyone owns a boa or a dinghy or something that floats on the water.

The apartmen blocks we passed by on the way to my friends house had a canal behind them and instead of having a lush garden you had a body of water, ever so convenient for parking the boat you own. Had to end our trip prematurely though, as my friends were finally going clubbing at Metro, this R n B club at Northbridge. Saw the sunset at Mandurah, which was actually the main drawing point of the place. I know, I suppose every sunset is similar in a way but there are the slight but ever so stark differences. Colour of the sky, the position of the clouds, texture of the clouds and even he gradual change in colour as the sun begins to set right until the last ray of light diminishes into the horizon. It was the first time in my life that I actually experienced a full sunset, from the yellowing of the day time sky to the blackness that engulfs the land when the last rays are gone. Most of my other Singaporean sunset watching, ends when the sun disappears into the sea. And the sky is still bright.

My friend’s house is about approximately a minutes walk, or 30 seconds if you run, from he beach as well as a dog exercise area, so yes there were many poochies and I went bezerk after seeing all he labbies and stuff. I know, I live by the beach back in Singapore but in the distance lay ships, oil rigs and if you look out beyond the ships, there lies Indonesia with her blinking port lights! The water here however, is unmolested, almost virgin like and with the exception of the occasional lonely boat that sails pass, the waters remains untouched. And when you look out into the night, the only light that illuminates the beach come from the moon , the stars and the lights from the occupied houses along the water front. So the mozzie bites were worth the experience of the natural beauty.So I spent Friday and Saturday watching dvds, reading books having dinner at chows, watching the sun set, taking photos and falling asleep midway through Ned Kelly.

These activities seem normal enough but it was just pure bliss to be by the seaside. and oddly enough, these normal activites, seem so much more pleasant. We Ended up watching Honey and Ned Kelly, the answer to who chose what seems pretty obvious. Honey was initially not on the dvd list as there were non left on the shelf, however my friend got lucky as one customer returned a copy of it so you can imagine the very very large smile on my friend’s face.Had hungry jacks on the way back, finally had a meal there, for all the times I visited Australia, I have always wanted to try the pseudo burger king!! Had a grilled chicken with vanilla milk shake on the way back, stocking up on the dairy products for a night of clubbing. The clubbing was fantastic I suppose being tres excited for 4 weeks and not getting a chance to club kinda kills the excitement in a way. The music was decent for half the time and the other half was well rather dreary.

Didn’t drink much, Guess I did not want o have to half drag and lug myself home, esp not when I am in heels and the surrounding of where I am staying now lacks lighting. Ah well. Hope Sydney and Melbourne would be better though.Alrighty time for bed.

Mandurah and clubbing

2004-05-30T18:15:00.000+08:00

The apartmen blocks we passed by on the way to my friends house had a canal behind them and instead of having a lush garden you had a body of water, ever so convenient for parking the boat you own. Had to end our trip prematurely though, as my friends were finally going clubbing at Metro, this R n B club at Northbridge. Saw the sunset at Mandurah, which was actually the main drawing point of the place. I know, I suppose every sunset is similar in a way but there are the slight but ever so stark differences. Colour of the sky, the position of the clouds, texture of the clouds and even he gradual change in colour as the sun begins to set right until the last ray of light diminishes into the horizon. It was the first time in my life that I actually experienced a full sunset, from the yellowing of the day time sky to the blackness that engulfs the land when the last rays are gone.

a walk, a trot, a canter and a gallop

2004-05-26T16:21:00.000+08:00

I think I have forgotten the feeling of being liberated and wha it feels like to be free, or wha I think it feels like to be truly free. the new sensation when you have learnt something new, something that gives you the feeling of freedom and flight. the adrenaline rush that kicks in.Till 8 hours ago, I had forgotten that. and until I was happily galloping along the beach, with the indian ocean by my side did i remember the feeling of freedom.I finally managed to get to the yanchep stables today for 2 hours of horseback riding down a bush trail and on to the beach. Did it with Narisa and 4 other japanese tourists. I suppose the consant echo and swapping between yells of "go go go" and "kite kite kite" would amuse any by stander, the horses too I suppose were wondering about the queer command. Now my thighs hurt and like any beginner on a horse my behind hurts!! The last time I ever ridden was at the Singapore polo club, that of course was pale in comparison. the the vast landscape and the rocky paths and low lying branches that never fail to give you a good whack on the head when you pass by them gave the whole experience a rustic touch, I was just a pair of cow boy boots and a cow boy hat short of being in a western flick. of course more riding skill would have been beneficial too.after 2 hours of riding and consantly trying to get my horse to gallop instead of trot, yes trotting is what gives you the bum aches. I got too ired of constantly leaning forward and standing on the stirrups. My horse apparenly doesn't like to move fast, as the guide says, she's a "lazy gal" ohh. This beauty's name was Jerrisa, very beautiful young female horse.

As everyone says, the eyes is a window to ones soul, I suppose it applies to horses as well, she had the most captivating eyes, strong and gentle, a juxtaposition nonetheless, but it is among the wo conrast that such a captivating entity forms. I suppose that is one of the reasons why almost everyone falls in love with horses. Everytime we came to a stop to wait for others to catch up her head would bend low and break a branch of a near by shrub and if that was not bad enough, she would sometimes stop and break a trot and munch on the grass infront of her, many a times I felt as though I was being thrown forward.

The constant munching is probably where she gets that strong jawline!!I was constantly trying to Get Jerrisa to gallop along the trail , but could only most of the time get her to trot. As my guide said, it is the adrenaline that the rider emitts that makes the horse want to gallop and once the horse feels your adrenaline it wants to go forward as well. It takes, apparently your desire to surge forward to make a horse move fast and smoothly, silly as it may sound, I suppose horses feel these vibes, exactly the same way how they can feel an earhquake coming. Jerrisa only galloped along the beach, and honesly, in my opinion it was he best feeling I have had in years. the duality of fear and excitement. The rush you feel, partly from the speed and partly due to the fear of falling of the horse. yes, many a time did i feel my butt sliding off the saddle.

Guess I would make a trip down to the stables at least another time, that is if i can persuade my other friends to come along, if not alone i shall go.thank you jerrisa for helping me find that feeling of flight again.

2004-05-22T16:20:00.000+08:00

Went down to fremantle today, the weather was cool and wih a nice breeze from the Indian ocean, ok so it was close to freezing by the time the sun set but still, I have almost forgotten the pleasure of how it feels when your jaws go numb or when your hands can't feel anymore due to he cold, yes it hurts in a way, a alitle achy feel but then again, it is just the simple delight of knowing that you are away from the humidity and heat of singapore.

Was pondering about the phenomenon of overestimation today, I know it sounds really odd tha I call it a phenomen, but if you think about it, it really is , the tons of people that overestimate themselves, their intelligence, their atractiveness,their sense of humour,their way with people. these people sometimes do fairly well, you wouldn't know if they really do possess the abiliy, or is it their sense of firm self belief that leads to a series of self fufilling prophecies, that allow them and the people around them to see them as such.

someimes when one thinks of oneself a certain way and always believe so, you bump into people that makes you feel that you are not as good/smart/ (fill in the blanks) than you really are.you re evaluate yourself, and then realization sets in that you are not as you think . then there are events that happen that always give your ego a good whack in the head, the poor bruised fella. trodden on, beaten up and eventually left to dead, well kinda. It is sad that everyone always tries time and again to prove themselves to be worthy and up to mark to other peoples' standard but ended up dissapointed by their performace but the most saddening thing is that when you try to prove yourself worthy to yourself and fall short of your own expectations. sometimes you just stop trying.
A friend asked me once, why do I do the things that I do, to prove it to others or to prove it to myself, I guess it does make sense, who do you want to prove yourself to anyway?

A simple kind of hush

2004-05-21T17:12:00.000+08:00

Just going to make a short entry, went to the gym with Jacinta and Lek today, dear ole jacinta is tryign to make up her mind on which gym to join, fitness first or the school's gym. Anyway, had a tiny work out because my arms are still aching from the previous workou! Anyhow, had a good chinese dinner at Northbridge although the food was decent it was still way pricey I miss Singapore prices!!!

As people always say, being truthful must be one of the most imporant characterisics to have, wearing your mind on your sleeve can sometimes be entirely beneficial and more often than not sometimes it just backfires and you just wish (yes upon hindsight AGAIN) that you just weren't being honest eventhough you know it is the right thing to do. it is weird how at the spur of the moment how one thing seemed so justified can turn to be such a regreful event the next. strange very strange indeed. I always thought myself, to be someone that tries to be as honest as I possibly can be, and although I don't succeed in certain situations, more often than not I do keep to that.

I guess I am re thinking whether honesty is the great virtue of mankind. Wouldn't oblivion and ignorance be better? not that i condone lying and all that. i don't know.

Alannah Hill and exam results

2004-05-20T16:15:00.000+08:00

Right, I hate technology right now for the very simple fact tha this is the third time I am writing a journal entry on the same subject because dear ole internet explorer decides to be too efficient and keeps refreshing the page and my page just keeps expiring!! damn it!!Got back my exam results yesterday! Very dissapointing. I guess I can't blame anyone else. This is the gift of hindsight at work again, how when you look back and go damn it I could have or rather should have done much better. I guess I am jus pretty dissapointed due to the fact that I know I could have done much better and am capable of producing better grades. I suppose it is not so much of the alphabets on the transcript but the fact that you have not put your brain into good use and have not maximised its potential!

Oh well, don't want to sound like one of those people who rattle on and on about their grades and all. but still damn it! Well, time to choose new modules again for the next semester. Somehow the supposedly easy modules I took in order to pull my CAP up, general biology and some sociology module ironically was the cause of my demise! damn it!

Anyways, went to Clermont today with my friend, shopping shopping shopping!! finally paid up for my Alannah Hill purchases that I had on lay by! Alannah Hill is jus fabulous, she is the australian version of Anna sui. All her pieces are very whimsical, bohemien like tops and bottoms. The average price of each piece is about A$159 so you can imagine how torured I felt after going through racks of stunning tops and bottoms and knowing that I can't afford all of them!! wish I could!! I escaped with litle damages, just A$325 spent on two tops. A pink vintage lace top with asymetrical trimmings and a black cardi with pink trimmings and frills and ribbons in place of buttons. Wanted to buy another skir but thank goodness they didn't have my size. The nice thing about Alannah hill is that she takes these simple tops like silk camis or satin tanks and adds little trimmings of laces or flower prins and recreates the piece and voila you have a semi modern and yet vintage kinda look. Anyone who comes by australia, trust me Alannah Hill is the way to go.And the sales girls in there are just oh so pretty, was talking to one of them, turns out she is a model too, but by he looks of it I think every other sales girl there has to be a model, one of them happens to be my cousin's friend too. Was hoping that she would be so kind to give me a discount but alas, she was not able to. I guess the really nice thing about the entire shopping experience in Alannah hill , well apart from the clothes they have would be their service. Although their service is kept to a very casual note, I guess I find delight in he fact tha they ask you if you need any help and then they pretty much leave you alone to browse and unlike the sales girls who breathe down your neck and stand so close to you when you shop these ladies just tell u to "give me a shout out when you need help" he lady that was helping me out even bothered to tell me that she had to get some stock bu would be "leaving you in the good hands of my colleague, Ania".Everyone seemed to be really enjoying themselves, looking preppy with their outfits they had put together, yes being an Alannah hill sales lady means you can take anything in the shop and wear it! If you really want to know wha service with a smile really means, visit the Alannah Hill store in perth. ok apart from the fantastic service the decor, satin curtains at the dressing room and a chandelier in the middle of the shop, purple paper to wrap your purchases and a cute paper bag you can swing around after you walk out the shop was just the cherry on top of he ice cream.
Well according to my friend that went with me, everything seemed perfect except the way the sales girl unglamourously folded the reciept and placed it into my bag. but hey between me and my purchase I barely noticed it, who wants to take a peek at the reciept anyways, just a painful reminder of how much poorer you are!! and hey no I did not just shop for my stuff, we did get some shirts for my friend, so at least someone is spending with me although we both got two tops I guess my damage is that much more, but still! Though I don't think retail therapy works for guys as much as it does for girls, although the success rate is highly overstaed. He was looking a little down and out when we started the shopping trip, two shirts later, guess his mood didn't really improve much!

well hope a good night's sleep would at least improve it a tad bit.ok before IE decides to be efficent again, I am going to submit this and head to bed.

Shopping in the city

2004-05-13T04:13:00.000+08:00

Alright, such a frivolous topic I know, been in perth for exactly two weeks. and one ciao italia dinner, 2 dim sum lunches, 1 tia mos's breakfast, 2 barrets bread breakfasts, 1 tarranova dinner, one dinner at chutney mary's, one dinner at some tandoori place and a swan bakery factory high tea plus shopping at myers, portmans, witchery, sports girl, nike, some bead shop, S.dc later I have officially blown $1200!!!! yes congratgulate me,I have no idea how did I spend so much, ok so I did not account for all the little purcahses I made along the way oh and did I mention I bought this fabulous brown bag from Aztec rose for 40 bucks!!! quite a steal. I think the difference between this little write up and that of Candice Bunshell is tha her cute brown bag are probably from Alexander Mcqueen and the cute shoes from Jimmy Choos or Manolo. well I am still trying to be what plus skyes call a "park avenue princess" although I hardly doubt I would be one. You have to have at leas two platinums and a black card and ha an "of" something title in your name, well that is at least what the book says anyways.

Oh and I bought this pair of really nice earrings for 45, only to find out that you could make a similar pair if you chose the beads and shared some tools with firends. and the cost for 3 pairs of earrings would be 17 bucks!!! highly upsetting, I am trying to limit spending here, this is not exaclty bangkok where you can divide up your spending, sadly you have to multiply for exchange rates.ok have to admit, perth's shopping ain't that fantastic and yes yes I know, if it is not that fantastic how on earh did I spend so much? I have no idea but I am restricting myself, no more!! well at least no more till sydney and melbourne!!! then collete dinnigan and alanah hill here I come!!!

Going to be in sydney for about 3 weeks, then melbourne for another 2, would have company in melbourne till like well not many days, I am kinda looking forward to spending some alone time in a nice ciy like melbourne. no idea why but melbourne kinda reminds me of new york in a weird way, well certain parts of the city at least, i think it is the whole atmosphere and weather there. ok, i am just rattling on and on, think it must be the lack of sleep, off to bed off to bed.

The Brutality of experience

2004-05-05T16:30:00.000+08:00

i was laying there in my bed thinking, yeah one of those things you don't really do when you are on holiday except for when it is thinking about what to eat where to go and all those frivulous things you think about when you are on holiday.It is amusing and quite funny if you think about it, funny in a rather obscene way. how everyone is blessed with the gift of hindsight. what is apparent at the present was not at all apparent to you at the present in some point of the past. the experience that one goes through, after epdisodes of falling and getting up again is supposedly good for you, builds character, shapes your perception and through some un noticable way makes you a better person, re creates your foundation and helps you re stack your building blocks in life.

Then on the flip side, expereince is just a cruel joke that allows you to feel vulnerable, and makes it starkly obvious that you are not strong as you think you are or as you would want to be, mostly it is an insiduoius way of letting you know that whatever defense mechanism that you have improved on and built has failed and you need to come up with another, improved one. one that would be strong enough to take on the many fast balls in life. they always say life is a learning jouirney and you never quite stop till you are six feet under, but sometimes you get so weary of learning, re- learning and learning that at the end of it all everything is pretty much in vain, because you still make the same mistakes, mistakes you thought you had learnt from and would never commit again. this is the hubris of humanity, the stumbling block of our growth process. The last resort as many propose is a shut down, the last defense before the city. the destination you reach before you say to yourself, i don't feel anything anymore, no remorses, no regrets.

The inability to feel has been underestimated, most of all it has been severely neglected in being chosen as a weapon of defense. it is an art, the ability to numb out and say that nothing hurts and nothing aches anymore.it is not as easy as i would like it to be, I have no idea if I have reached this destination but I think I am standing right infront of it, so it is close... next topic "shopping in the city"

Fear and the beauty of being uncomfortable

2004-05-05T04:06:00.000+08:00

It's funny how sometimes people are so comfortable with their enviroment, with what they have, with their routine that the slightest uprooting from it all throws them off balance. the comfort they seek and the solace they find in the familiar builds on the fear that is already in existance, fear holds you back from achieving what you want, but most of all fear kills all desires and motivation to sugre forward.

The beauty of being uncomfortable is facing fear, fear of the unknown, even the fear of irnonig your own clothes because you know you suck at it, which by the way i do. to challenge yourself even if it is the most frivoulous matters. throwing yourself into the abyss of uncertainty and the unknown and not knowing what you might learn or what you might face. the chance of getting something back in return by making yourself vunerable seems silly but it works, i swear.This same fear we all face disables and inhibits one , but most importantly fear kills you slowly from the inside, it makes you see your weaknesses ever so starkly and your vulnerabilities evidently.

But I like fear, rather I like the feeling of over coming it, the feeling of conquest, mind over matter, is but the best feeling anyone can have. The triumph of the spirit over the tangible, bringing emotions to another level. but sometimes in order to overcome fear you have to go through a baptism of fire, to sumbmerge yourself through the experience until you become numb, so numb that you can't feel what you fear and through the recognition of fear you dettach yourself away from it and slowly leave it behind and over come it. The process of dettachment, I feel in my humble opinion is one of the best methods to overcome ur fear, to understand your fear from inside.

Identifying your fear, for example the fear of pain is to go through it know how it feels, understand it, know how it feels like in order to dettach yourself. Sometimes though the feeling of learning and identifying is too tiring. Lessons and processes were never meant to be easy, in fact they were never meant to be a joyous one. Such is a lesson learnt from a very good book that makes perfect sense, how the simplest ideas that we take for granted holds true to many situations. a good read, not when you are a bag full of jaded bones though. tuesdays with morrie.

The beauty of being unknown

2004-04-30T15:59:00.000+08:00

Here I am, in Perth, the start of a 3 month vacation in Australia. A short holiday, a good time for reflections and considerations. A blast to anonymity, a period of comfort. Three days into my holiday and so far so good, one thing I realized was how calm everyone was.

I was at the bust stop waiting for a bus that would take me to town and I chatted with this girl, a freshman at the UWA reading Engineering. It was just a casual conversation of how she was going to flunk her mid terms and might have to repeat some modules next semester.but the thing that struck me was how nonchalant she was about the whole thing, and how calm she was about retaking modules. although it seems simple enough, the whole notiuon of having sufficient time on your hands, the lack of hurry and urgency to graduate and the ability to take things in your own stride. Very different from the Singaporean undergraduate, flunk a module and you are pretty much deemed as dead, oh wait gee that is going to be me when I flunk my stats module this semester, sigh.

The beauty of walking through the streets of Perth was the availability of pure anonymity, not that everyone knows me back home. But the beauty of not being known, and the beauty of walking on and being undisturbed, an individual among other individuals, isolated in their own world. A seperate entity and yet a part of an interactive community. It is only during times of these does one realized the pleasant feel of being silent among the hustle and bustle. The silent observer.

The beauty of being unknown is just the simple fact of preserving your privacy, something that is frequently taken for granted, when everyone cares about other peoples' lives and not their own.right a dismal note of consideration. but I am in a rather reflective mood. will continue later.