What word will you use to describe Year 2008?

This morning I was listening to YES 933 & the DJ, Cruz Teng, happened to be on this topic. "So what is that one chinese character you'll use to describe year 2008?"

Well, I'll used one English word to describe this year and it shall be 'Unfortunate'.

On a personal level, at work, we have been lacking alot in luck (maybe) or probably due to the inappropriate approaches, our projects were terminated one after another. My morale did sink to rock-bottom of the sea which really made me want to quit my job & to further studies as I doubt that I can see my future if I continue staying here.

However, this was followed by an economic recession, which first hit US and subsequently, other parts of the world are affected too. What worsened it further was increase in oil price, inflation, etc. So how could I leave my job then? Everyone was holding on tightly to their job as if it's a life buoy.

More recent unfortunate events include the political unrest in Bangkok (hope it'll be alright soon if not just keep to BKK as I'll be going Phuket soon. *Pray*) and the terrorist attack in Mumbai, which had taken the life of an innocent Singaporean. Sigh...

Let's just hope that the remaining of the year will be a fortunate & peaceful one.

Ranting...

I was a little, or in fact more than a little, irritated by someone today.

I was looking for a bottle of chemical for my reaction but couldn't find it at its usual location. After looking around for it in the lab, I finally found the bottle with him. Then he asked for a favour from me, which I thought was to return the bottle of chemical to the original location. To my surprise, asked me to check the stock for that chemical & if the stock is low, he said WE should order it. I guess it's more like saying I SHOULD order it bah.

It's not that I mind ordering the chemical which everyone elses in the lab use as well. But the fact is, he always think that he's the most senior RA in the lab, & starts to order people around. But, when it comes to things associated to our big boss, he'll fight to do them so that he can claim credit for it. So why can't he check the stock of this chemical? Previously, he had even asked me to consolidate a name list for him. I'm not his PA, for godness sake. So all I did was to ask him to do it on his own. I'm not so stupid to do for him! *Idiot*

For small things like ordering stuff, big boss don't get to know, so he can't claim any credit. Of course he won't do it. What a selfish person. *IDIOT*

A Wish for a friend

It's another relapse again. Really hate to see her sinking into such state again. It just pains to see her red eyes & watery nose. Worst of all, I dunno what I can do to help her except to console her.

Hope that she'll be alrite soon.

Teambuilding to Batam, AGAIN!

This is the 3rd time that my co holds its teambuilding at Turi Beach Resort, Batam, but it's the 2nd time I'm attending. This time round, the resort looks really different from the previous time I went, which was in 2005. It is now so much nicer with the newer & more westernised rooms. Besides the rooms, what I like most is their swimming pool. Hee hee...

Unlike in previous years, the teambuilding activities we had this time was kept to a minimum. Previously we did hiking, abseiling and paintball which some found it too tiring. So this time it was just rafting building and sailing. Actually at the end of the activity, I still dunno the names of some of my teammates. We had lots of free & easy time, which makes this teambuilding a really relaxing one. The gals & I even signed up for massage. Good for a relax, but not the best I had so far.

Haha...next week gonna be another short week, with Hari Raya Puasa falling on Wednesday. Hee hee.... :)

My Big, Fat Ankle...

Less than a week after my diving trip, I'm on 3 days MC starting from today. Haha...it'll be a long long weekend for me. Woohoo!! Actually besides having this opportunity to slack at home, I guess there's nothing much for me to rejoice over as I have a badly swollen ankle & 2 swollen toes now. And they really hurt with every step I take. Sigh...

Anyway, I think it all happened due to a very silly reason. I wore the diving fins until it cuts into my skin & now infection!!! Haha.... Or I guess I was too negligent to have ignored the initial minor wounds until my my ankle started to swell & ache.

But anyway, I shall just enjoy my long weekend before next week's teambuilding at Batam. Well, which means another long weekend then. Hee hee

My Virgin Dive Trip!

After dilly-dally-ing for so long, at last I've completed my open water course & I'm now a certified diver. Yeah~~

But this license definitely didn't come easy for me. I've drank lots of chlorinated water at the swimming pool, seawater in the sea, etc. But it was definitely an adventure worth sharing. Hee hee...

Prior to my open water trip to Pulau Tioman, I've attended 2 pool lessons earlier this week in order to master the basic skills required during the open water dive. Oh well, all I could say is I TOTALLY SUCK AT CLEARING A FULL MASK! This explains why I drank so much pool water. I was so used to breathing in & out through my nose that when I had to breathe in through my mouth & out through my nose in order to clear my mask I still kept doing everything through my mouth. Even the instructor, Rory, almost gave uphope on me. :'( But finally, after many attempts & after filling my stomach with plenty of chlorinated water, I succeeded. Next was to hope that I could do the same in the open water. Prayed hard.

We set off for Pulau Tioman, Malaysia, on Friday night after work. We were ferried from the dive school to Mersing Ferry Terminal in a van before taking the ferry to Pulau Tioman. In between was some hu-ha, with the van driver demanding for extra $$ for the trip & refusing to drive us to our destination when no extra $$ was given. :S

Luckily, we still managed to reach Tioman as scheduled. It was around 5am then. We just collapsed onto our bed as we have to get up at 7.30am for our dives. Just barely 2.5hrs to sleep. *Yawn*

1st dive was cold & scary. So I kept clinging on to my human life buoy. Haha... Just as I thought that things got better for the subsequent dives, I lost my dive buddy cum human life buoy during my 3rd dive as I let go of him & unknowingly, I floated up to the surface of the water. Not so scary for me as I could see civilisation on the water surface - pretty near to shore then & there were boats passing me a few times (though they ignored me when I waved for help). But poor buddy was panicking in the water then cos he thought he has lost me for good. *Phew* We soon reunited on the water surface.

Managed to clock 5 dives in total. Hee hee... So happy to have passed! Not only that, we managed to see alot of sea creatures like turtles, nemo, cuttlefish, angel fish & many others! :)

Really want to thank Tan, our dive instructor & of course, Rory as well, for the pool lessons & for making fun about me during the trip. Haha...

Now waiting for my license to arrive & I can then start on my dive journey!

Here's a peek at the turtle:

Qing's Big Day!

Finally....FINALLY!!! Finally I got to witness the big day of my jie mei, Qing!

In order to ensure that the entire customary wedding go according to the advised auspicious timing, we were told to arrive @ the bride's place before 6am. In other words, I'll have to wake up at 5am in order to wash up, get dressed & make up. But in the end, I only jumped out of my bed at 5.30am when Winnie smsed me. Oh no!! I just rushed like a mad person, from brushing teeth to make-up. I think I managed to step out of my house in like 15mins? Haha...Luckily I can easily walk to her house. Hee hee....

Most of the jie meis have already reached the bride's house by the time we got there. All were dressed in purple with a sweet purplish corsage tied to the wrist. But I think at that point in time, I was more excited about the gatecrash, oh well, nervous as well, coz I was to lead in the gatecrash. Haha....

Finally the groom & brothers arrived 15mins to 7am. Time was running short so we just have to speed up the "procession". Haha....to start off was the sour-sweet-bitter-spicy test where the guys have to gulp down the concentrates (not concoction but CONCENTRATES!). Haha....Like freshly squashed pure lemon juice, sweetened condensed milk, freshly-cut bitter gourd & chilli padi. But I think the guys played cheat by stuffing the chilli padi in their pockets. *Boo*

Next was a series of questions about the bride thrown at the groom. He got quite alot of wrong answers. Hmm....So punishment for them was to make them wear the adult diapers which I've decorated. Wahahaa.... Not forgetting our angpows, of course. However, as time was running late & the elders were rushing us to open the door for the groom, we let them in for the final round of love pledge before the door leading to the bride opened. Yeah!!!

At last we can proceed to the groom's house for the subsequent ceremonies before heading to Marina Madarin Hotel for the lunch banquet. Still a busy busy afternoon running around the hotel, helping the bride. But it was fun. Hee hee..

Hope that Qing & Cy will have a blissful marriage & also a great time im US. Gonna miss her!

Pretty bride!

Busy Weekend II

Phew! 2 busy weekends have passed!!

Finally, finally...we are going to see the transformation of "a chick into a hen" soon for Qing! Wahaha....Held a hen's party for her on Friday, with her dressed up into a "buttercat" or "catfly", whichever way you wanna call her. Haha... Coz she's dressed up in a funny combination of a pink, fury cat hairband + purple butterfly wing. On top of that, a sash was made for her to wear. Ke ke.....

The combination turned out to be like this:



Haha...we had some Arabian food but sadly, due to time constraint (& bride's resistance), she did not smoke the sheesha. :( Food took extremely long to arrive. By the time the food reached our table, our glycogen have already been converted to glucose. :S After dinner was a short stay at St James, with the bride in her pretty & sweet outfit walking in & out of the various clubhouse. Wahaha....

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After a late nite sleep I was made to wake up very early for my sis's co family day @ Singapore Flyer. Yawnz.... I just wanna experience the ride. wahahaah.... Thank god, the weather was nice & sunny & I managed to take alot of nice nice pics with nice nice clouds hanging in the sky. Hee hee....


I would say that the ride was ok lah. Luckily there's 2 cute Australian kids to play with & I was taking pics from each & every corner in the capsule. If not I bet it'll be very boring.



Other than the ride, guess what we did @ Singapore Flyer??

Look at the pic below. Can you guess it???

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Fish Spa! Got it right?? Given a promo price of $18 instead of the usual $28 for a 30min session, we decided to go for!!

Well, it felt a little ticklish initially, but after a while it felt nothing more than a mere vibration on your legs, just like an Osim massage chair. Haha....The turkey-borned fish were really hardworking! They didn't stop nibbling off the dead skin on my legs.

Result: Smooth soft legs!!!

One gentle reminder for those who wanna try fish spa. Best time to go will be in the morning, that's when the fish have the most energy. Ermm...I also think coz they are the hungriest in the morning. Never go after 10pm coz the fish are too tired by then.

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Sunday was the 3rd & final 10km race I'm doing for the year. Which means my next race will be a half marathon during the Stan Chart in December!!!! Well, back to the Nke Human Race. We were all in the red colour race tee. So when everyone started running, it just looked like a bull chase. Not a nice running route with lots of bottleneck along the way as it covered alot of narrow pathways & small tunnels. Glad that I've completed it though. Going to stay away from running for 1-2 weeks before I start training for 21km. But how do I train for it then? Haha... We shall see lah. :p

Busy Weekend

I think this weekend really marked the start of my busy weeks, with quite alot of activities lined up from end August till mid September.

Sat was the thank you dinner from Cy & Qing for all bros & jie meis @ Fish & Co. Oh well, a very quick dinner for me as I had to rush off for the Singapore Fireworks Festival. Bought a pair of Hippo boat tix so that we can watch the fireworks from the river. Hee hee.... It turned out to be a really rainy day, so all I could do was to pray hard that the rain would stop by the time the fireworks started. Though the rain did not stop by then, I think we were pretty lucky that it was nothing more than a drizzle then. So the fireworks festival proceeded as scheduled. Yeah! It was great manz! A good chreography by the Korea team! And I love the sound of the fireworks too! Pop.... POp... POP!! $23 bucks for the worthy 15mins. Maybe next year we should charter a boat & have to all to our family & friends! :)

My 2nd 10km run was completed on Sun. Yeah!!! This time rund it's the SAFRA Bay run. Route was a little more challenging than Shape run as we gotta run up the slope on Benjamin Sheares Bridge. But then, towards the end, it was somewhat unpleasant due to the human jam caused by the narrow pathway. Nevertheless, I completed my run in 1:17hr. Slightly worse than my Shape run though, where I clocked 1:14min. 3 mins of difference! Haha....

Tired tired. Need to rest & "nourish" my legs for next week's Nike Human Race!!! I think I'm nuts to have signed up for so many races!!! Haha...

Encounter with a "neighbour"

Come to think about it, I've already stayed in my current flat for almost 22 years. All these years, I still love my place very much because the neighbours here are nice and it is so convenient with all the shops strategically located just downstairs. Yes. I can go downstairs to buy anything without having to go under the sun or into the rain. It used to be that I can do the same to get to the wet market which was connected to my block but sadly, the market was burnt down last year. :(
Besides its convenience, I always feel that my place is pretty safe, since with the shops around, there's still be people walking around the neighbourhood at wee hours. So I always feel quite safe to go home alone even at late hours.

But just last Friday, I started to feel a little paranoid & begin to put on my guards whenever I leave or return to my house.

Last Friday nite, on my way home, I took the same lift up my block with this guy "neighbour". Both of us alighted on the same level but I have to take the stairs down to my house while he headed in another direction. Half way down the stairs, I heard him saying "Hi, Hi... excuse me..." At the moment, I thought that I've dropped something near the lift. Then I saw him walked towards me & asked if we could be friends since he sees me pretty often. Later he asked for an exchange of hp no., which I declined since i don't feel too comfortable giving out my no. to a stranger (although I know he stays same block as me but still feel uncomfortable about it). Eventually, I only gave my msn to him.

Subsequently, I received an email from him with a brief intro of himself (his name, age, occupation, blah blah) & his hp no. He still insisted on me exchanging hp no. with him as he claimed that he's hardly on msn. However, I saw him on msn for the next few days & every time he'll ask for my no. -_-zzz
I told him I'm attached & so is he. But he claimed that he wanted to be sincere friends with me. I think the freaky part is that he seemed to know my movements, like what time I'll be at the lift lobby waiting for lift, where I'll hang out on certain days. He even wants to join me for a jog although I work in the west. That day he even msn me to meet him at the staircase for a while. But I simply ignored the message. I wonder what he wants.

I do not think that his way of approach is as simple as to be sincere friends with me. He's too persistent & freaky already! Now everytime I wait for the lift at the lift lobby, I'll be so paranoid to look left & right, hoping not to bump into him.

Why is there such a weird neighbour here?? I'm just scared to go home alone now :(

Lying...

I hate people lying to me! What saddens me most is when someone so close to me chose to lie to me over something trivial.

Is it so hard to be frank & tell me the truth? Why must he assume my resistance upon hearing the truth?? The thing is I won't have any violent objection or anything. But now, I've know the truth from elsewhere yet he insisted on his lie. This is very upsetting, you know?

I just don't understand. Why must he lie?? :'(

Start of Marathon Season

Yeah! I completed my first 10km run yesterday & now my thighs are aching, but luckily no aching very badly lah. Hee hee....

Together with a bunch of gfs, I took part in the annual Shape run yesterday and this marks the first marathon I'm participating for this year. A few more races to come. Next month will be doing 2 more 10km runs, SAFRA Bay run & Nike Human race. Then the greatest challenge will be t do a 21km run in Dec. Haha... I think running 21km at one go is pretty scary. Nevertheless, I shall just give it a try. Maybe will do a 42km next year? Haha....

Anyway, yesterday's run was pretty relax. Took it quie easily as I do not wish to strain myself so much since I gotta do another 10km run in a month's time. So I just took my time to enjoy the run at my own pace. Hee hee....

After the run, LLT & I headed to Sentosa for the sun, sea & sand. But a pity, sun wasn't strong. It drizzled abit, stopped & rained again. But it was very breezy & I had a good nap on the wooden bench. Haha... But just a little suay that I kenna birdshitted again!! Yeah, 2nd time within a month? Who else can be "luckier" than me?? But looking at it from another angle, I was really lucky coz the shit only landed on my arm & not anywhere else (like FACE)!

Given the lousy weather, we decided to leave Sentosa earlier than planned to catch another movie at Vivo. In the end, we encountered a more interesting Peh Peh that the R21 show which we were watching. Haha...

I've labeled him as ti-ko-pek Peh Peh. Wahaha.. So interesting leh. Well, it goes like this. LLT decided that we catch a R21 taiwanese movie which i was totally clueless about. But anyway, I agreed on it since there's nothing much for us to do then until the screening of 'The Dark Knight' which we have bought the tix much earlier. As you know, before the start of a movie, there's be lots of ads and usually that will be the time that I'll spend napping. Yes, I admit I'm piggy. *oink* But then, this very well dressed Peh Peh (in long-sleeved shirt & pants), sitting next to me, played with his hp and making quite abit of noise when he kept moving his hp joystick. So he drew my attention. If it was the usual blind me without my specs or contact lenses, I probably wouldn't have noticed anything unusual. But yesterday I had my contact lenses on,so wit my sharp eyes, I noticed something unusual. OMG! I saw lots of gals pics which appeared to be secretly taken by the ti-kopek Peh Peh coz no direct front view of the gals were taken. They were all either side view or back views. What's more sickening was that he kept scrolling forward and backwards looking at the pics, rotated the pics and even zoomed in to look at the gals! Somemore, most of the gals in the pics were in mini skirts or shorts. I quickly whispered to LLT to bring it to his attention as well. LLT wanted to exchange seats wit me, but I felt I was quite ok to sit with the sadistic since I wasn't sexily dressed. Anyway, if his hands dared to sneak over to my seat, I'll make sure I whack him with my popcorns!

During the movie, especially during the boring scenes where there's no pretty, scantily dressed women, Ti-ko-pek Peh Peh would take out his hp again to look at the collection of gals' pics he has. But I think the most pervertic part was that he went to the extent of taking pics of the scantily dressed gals in some scenes of the movie. OMG! Seemed very desperate & bian tai to me! Whenever i saw him switching on his hp camera, I would cough or try to make some noise. But I think he was too engrossed in the "photo-taking" session that he didn't hear him or just too afraid to turn & look at me. What a bian tai uncle! Yucks! I thought such people can only be found at chang jiang cinema.

I wonder what's on such people's mind. Too deprived?? What an interesting encounter! haha

Happy Birthday Mummy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DEAREST MUMMY!

Today is a really busy day. Broke my routine of gym today for the Dragonboat race. Hee hee....So exciting!! Our heat was scheduled at 4.50pm today but we arrived at Bedok reservoir much earlier to watch the other heats. As I watched it, I felt more & more nervous. Afterall, this was my very first time taking part in a Dragonboat race, though as a drummer only. But still, I was totally clueless of what's expected of me other then hitting the drum, of course! LPP & I played "scissors, paper, stone" to decide who to drum 1st (since we got 2 race boats). Haha...me being the loser lead the 1st race then.

Unlike the practice boat which I rode on last week, the race boat was much more shallower and lighter. Every little movement by the rowers or the water waves could easily be felt and so for me to sit at the front tip of the boat was pretty scary. What made it even scarier was that i had to sit at an elevated level. Wooo.....I could only cling on tightly to the drum lo. Wahaha....not so much for my life only, but if I got thrown out of the boat during the race (which has never happened so far & I hope I won't be the 1st to create history of it), the team will be disqualified.

So for the race, we'll have to row (leisurely) from the finishing point to the starting point where at the starting point, the drummer (Me!) got to hold on the the buoy the throw it into the water once the horn sounded. Exciting! The minute the horn sounded, I threw the buoy & hitted the drum to give the rowers the beat for their strokes. Nervous nervous..... 800m to go for the race! Finally, we landed in the 4th place in our heat which consisted of 5 boats, clocking a timing of 5.20mins. 2nd boat did even better with a timing of 5.07mins. However, we did not managed to get into the semi-finals which will be held tomorrow. Nevertheless, it was a really good experience :)

After the race, I rushed back home to celebrate my dearest mummy's bday! Hope she stays happy & healthy always!! Love her lots!! After our "traditional" bday song singing & cake cutting, we made our way to De Coder's Cafe @ Bukit Timah for Claudia's bday party. By the time we reached it was pretty late and the group was already playing the games already. Haha... So I made use of this chance to pester LLT to bring me to Waffletown. Wahaha... Wish granted & stomach satisfied. After that back in the cafe for cam-whoring. wahahaa....

So tired now. But it was a really enjoyable day. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MUMMY & CLAUDIA! Good nite everyone :)

Do I look like a terrorist?

I been standing infront of the mirror since I got home today. No no...not that I'm self absorbed in admiring my looks. *PUKE* But rather, I wonder if there's anything wrong with my looks or what caused it to happen for 3 consecutive days.

It really got me a little pissed when my gym bag got checked today, for a 3rd time, within these 3 days. All these 3 days, I was on my way off from work to take the train and the staff at the MRT station was walking towards me as I tapped my ezlink card and entered the gate. Already used to the signals she gave, I knew she wanted to check my bag AGAIN.

Me: "This is the 3rd consecutive day that you are checking my bag. Is there any problem with my bag?"

She just smiled and said, " Just checking lah."

As I routinely, for the 3rd day, placed my bag on her desk and unzipping my bag, I said, " What you are going to see in my bag are going to be what you've seen for the last 2 days!"

I think she felt a little embarassed and so tried to change topic by saying this, "You came from school?"

Me getting a little more pissed off by now said, "I've told you yesterday already. I'm going to gym."

WAHHHHhhhhh!!! I really want to faint already! Can't believe that I'm so sway to get checked by the same lady 3 days in a row!

Swayness aside. Afterall, who else can I blame but my own looks. Maybe just because I look a little tanner, so I resemble MS? Haha!!! Oppz. That's a bad joke.

But I really doubt the efficiency and effectiveness of their spot checks.

1. Checking on the same person for 3 consecutive days. If the problem really lies wih me (my looks, my skin colour, or probably smell of chemicals on me since I work in a lab, etc), I will be more than willing to cooperate with you to go through some questioning or whatsoever.

2. If the suspect is on my big bag, then I think the staff should check more thoroughly instead of just getting me to unzip my bag yet she's not even checking the individual small bags in my gym bag. Anyway, those small bags only hold my running shoes, clothes lah. Nothing hazardous. But can you imagine if it some real terrorist? I think the way their staff check the bag, they can never find anything lor. Even if there is a b***.

So please, if want to check a bag, check it thoroughly and not so haphazardly. Otherwise, it makes me feel insecure to travel on public transport too.

Haiz...so I guess, the best way for me to "escape" from this tomorrow is to carry a small small handbag. Then spray some perfume before I leave office. As for my skin colour, I doubt that I can make any immediate change right now. Probably I should start splattering whitening cream on my face & carry an umbrella out during lunch!

My first attempt!

Today I had my very first try on......

DRAGON BOAT

!!!

It was really fun! LPP & I are supposed to be the drummers for the Kormodos team for the dragonboat race next weekend. So we joined the team for practice at Kallang river today for a preview of it. Hee hee.... Since there wasn't any drums for us to practise on, we had to take turn to sit at the front of the practice boat and count the beats. So whoever that's not doing the beat counting would get a taste of paddling. Oh manz! It was really tiring to paddle. I think my arms & lower back are going to ache tomorrow. How am I going to go for body pump class then? Hmm....

The paddlers in the team are definitely a nice bunch to be with. Being my first time on a dragonboat practice, they were kind & helpful to guide us in the instructions given by the coach. Hee hee...

Yah, probably you are wondering why on earth do I get into this dragonboat team out of a sudden huh? Actually part of the team consists of my colleagues. They were then in need of drummers for their race next week and asked around for suitable (small-sized), interested people, be it with or without drumming experience. So their main criteria was that the drummer has to be LIGHT & SMALL-SIZED! Erhh... actually I'm just SHORT lah, not really light. 4X kg lor! LPP was much lighter than me. But I guessed that they were too kind to reject me, so each of us will drum for a boat in the race, fair & square. Haha...

What's scary was that they told us that since drummer has to be the lightest, we will have to be in bikini or probably a special leather costume which will come with a whip as well. Erhh...sounds very the ... ... In the 1st place, I doubt leather is light lo. Guess they are just trying to scare us off. Haha...

Yah, the race i on this Saturday & Sunday at Bedok reservoir. Be there to support us! Though time unknown yet. Wahaha...

Disappointment

It's been quite a while since I last blog. Oh well, it's not because I'm too busy with work or with my personal life. Life has been boring lately, so I got nothing much to blog about. Haha...

Why is my life boing lately? Cos my work PROJECTS (yes, with the 'S') all just got killed lately & I'm now waiting to start on something new. So now for most of the time, I'm waiting for time to pass. Arghh!! Research can sometimes be really demoralising! Actually I'm neither emotionally nor physically attached to the projects lah. Just wondering why is this disease area so hard to work on. Maybe we just lack luck? Maybe it's the retribution we human are getting from the countless changes (many harms included) we have done to alter nature. Well, only god knows! :)

Anyway, to counter this "boredom" which I've been experiencing lately, the thought of furthering studies has been on my mind. Actually, I always wanna further my studies, but just when to start on it. Finally took some actions, started with emailing profs, checked out the viability with my boss and today, I just checked out the possibility of getting funded with my HR. Disappointed to hear that the quota for funded students is now full anf probably the earliest which there'll be a vacancy is early 2011. OMG! I'll be 29 years old by then. I wouldn't want to embark on a 3-4 years of studies then. Too old for it by then. Sigh...

So right now, I'm still thinking of an alternative to it. Either apply directly to the uni then pray & hope that I'll be offered a scholarship. Though with a much lower stipend, I hope I'm still able to survive then. Alternatively, I'll seek a job change soon bah.

Will just stay positive then! ^_^

June is coming!

Time really flies. Now it's already end of May and very soon we will be half way through 2008. 2 public holidays in May have passed, next PH will be National Day, but that falls on a Saturday, so it doesn't make much difference. Following that will be October 1st, Hari Raya Puasa. WAH!!! That's like 4 odd months down the road!!!! T_T

Well well, although there's no PH to look forward to in the upcoming months, there's definitely something worth feeling excited about.

Keep a lookout @ Yebber. There will be some very special things to look out for. Hee hee... Remember to check it out regularly in June.

Surprise SURprise SURPRISE!!


Coming Soon from Yebber on Vimeo.

Start of Shopping Spree!

Yeah! To mark the start of the shopping season (although I tend to shop all year round. GALS mah! Haha...), I took a break from my usual afternoon gym workout & head down to Expo for a shopping spree. Well, actually I'm usually more of a target shopping person, meaning that I have in mind what I wanna buy, head down to the place, get what I wanted & leave. This time round, it started off with the same concept in mind. I wanted to get an eyecream & decided to check out what the sales have to offer. But guess what? In the end I bagged home about $200 worth of "goodies". Muaahhaha....

Expo was so packed with people today. HUMAN JAM! Cos there were so many sales going on. Adidas, women's apparels sales, food fair, Popular sales & Robinsons sales. Not forgetting that there's also a church service there. Despite the crazy human jam and being all by myself, I was still very excited, trying to squeeze into the halls where the sales were. Started off with the Adidas sales. Still gotta queue up to gain entry into the hall. Before that we even have to deposit our bags but everything was carrid out in a very organised manner. Before you can swarm to check out the bargains, one will be given a very big plastic bag (which looks like a garbage bag) so that you can put whatever you want into the bag then make payment at the cashier. Managed to find 3 tops, out of which 2 were for myself. Hee hee... Good bargain!!!

Having warmed up at the Adidas sales, my next & final stop was Robinsons sales. That's where I intended to get my eye cream. But in the end I bought myself $100++ of things. Wahaha.... Luckily I need to rush to airport, if not I think I'll be more that $200 cheaper. Wahaha....But then, really had a great sense of achievement!!

So happy now!!

That's how women are. :)

Department Teambuilding

Finally it's over! Phew!!!

I've been tasked to be the organiser for today's teambuilding at Sentosa, mainly just gotta work on the activities for the day and BBQ. But that's already a little stressful. I was so afraid that things will go wrong, weather might be bad, etc. Yes yes, I've been praying extremely hard for good weather as most of the activities planned were outdoor. If it really pours, I've only got a big packet of balloons to fall back on. Erhh...well, low budget. So the only alternative Just game which I can think was to blow balloons since there's plentiful in my lab. Wahahaha....

I guess the funniest part was that I actually had a bad dream last nite. Dreamt that the BBQ had not even started at 7pm when I've promised everyone that our teambuilding should end before 7pm. Just remembered that we kept changing BBQ pit in the dream for some reason lah. Luckily it was just a dream. STRESSED manz!

I thought that it would be a much easier task to bring a group of adults out on an "excursion" compared to bringing kids. But I was wrong. The adults were just as hard to manage. One ran off to buy a cup of coffee before we board the Sentosa Express and in the end was denied entry onto the tram (no food & drinks allowed!). So the whole group of us gotta wait for him to finish his drink. Then another two ran out of the train a stop before we reached our station. When it came to games, some simply could not understand basic instructions and rules of the games. In the end, I screamed and shouted until I almost lose my voice.

Luckily te BBQ was more orderly and it finished off at about 6pm. Haha... So my bad dream did not come true! Other then a passing shower when we just arrived at the chalet, the weather was fantastic. Bright & sunny!! And I got tanner again. Haha...

Yeah! On the overall, it was an enjoyable & successful teambuilding. Ended the evening with a beer & chit-chat session with some colls.

Look forward to the next one (paintball I guess) to be organised by my boss. Hee hee....

My first Aquaaerobics class!

Today is Ben & Jerry's free cone day! The good thing is that I'm on half day today. Yeah!!! But this is my last half day to be cleared for the remaining leave from last year. Really gotta be careful on how I spend my leave in the remaining months since I plan to visit Ah Ma at San Francisco in December. Yes!!! Really can't wait till then! :)

Yeah, back to my half day of leave today. Sadly, I didn't managed to get any free cone today. I made a trip down to Suntec City after taking a nice afternoon nap. Ermm...well, I wasn't there specially for the free cone lah, but was there for a swim & to try out the aqua-aerobics class at my gym. I was expecting to see long queues outside Carrfour (which happened last year) with people queueing for their free cones yet I saw no one giving out free cones! Not even at the B & J shop. Later did I realise that the free giveaway was only available at selected outlets. Disappointing! Nevertheless, I still went off for my swim, happily. :)

Oh yeah! Did some leisure swim at the pool, relax abit and waited for the aqua-aerobics class to commence. Haha!!! Finally!!! I always wanted to try it but didn't get the chance to. I was so excited!!

The class started off with some basic warm-up exercises in the water. It still appeared easy then. As the class progressed, oh manz, it's pretty tedious. Especially when you see the instructress going through the motions so fast and effortless at the surface (while we were in the water), it seemed like there's no way to catch up with her. Later part of the class, she used the "noodle", which is a long rod-shaped float that is used as a resistance in water. I kept floating upwards when I use it while others managed to stay in water. OMG! So malu!!! I wonder if it's my technique or really like the instructress said, that I'm ligher than the "noodle" in water. Haha....

Anyway, it was a fun session. So hungry & tired after the class.

Start of of running regime!

As usual, on my way to work this morning, I took out my earpiece so that I can connect it to my hp to listen to radio (yeah, Class 95! :)). But somehow, the wires of the earpiece got tangled up and I ended up spending my entire train journey to work attempting to untangle it. In the end, it just worsened, and the knot got even harder to untie. I think I did it with so my frustration and strength that part of the rubber even came off, exposing the wire inside (the greenish part in the pic). Sigh...eventually, I gave up undoing the mess.

I think there's no way to salvage the earpiece unless I cut off part of it to undo the knot. Haiz... Anyone with a spare earpiece?? I don't think I can survive my gruelling 45mins of train journey in the morning without Class 95. LLT, come back soon! I know you can save me!! Haha....

Anyway, without it, I still got my ipod. But i just prefer radio in the morning rather than just songs after songs with mp3.

Finally had a good jog in the evening and I completed 4km! hee hee... Well, it's time to start on my jogging regime since I've just signed up for 2 marathons - Shape run in July and SBR in August. Will be running 10km for each event. Siao liao!! Gotta run on a more regular basis now! I shall run in my dreams now! Wahahaha....

MayDay ROCKS!!!!

To be true, I'm a big big fan of Mayday. I love most of their songs as their music is fantastic & the lyrics of their songs are always quite meaningful.

I almost didn't want to attend their concert this year as I've attended their previous concert at Expo last year which was supposed to be pretty much similar to this year's. Last year's theme was "JUMP!" (away from Earth) while this time round was "Down to earth". Glad that I've made the right decision to attend their concert again this year. Hee hee....

Compared to last year's concert, this time round, the stage was done in a very innovative way. Other than the usual main stage, there were two runways which led to another smaller temporary movable stage. There were also more interaction between the singers & their fans in this way as those sitting near the runway got to "touch" their idols. Haha... Although I'm not one of those lucky ones (coz mine was not the top-priced tix. Haha), I still got a very close view of the band members when they came to the movable stage. Then I went crazy snapping pics of them. Wahahaa.....

They managed to make the crowd really high after their 6th or 7th song where they sang their more popular songs. I sreamed & sang until my voice almost go hoarse too. Wahaha.... It was so fun & enjoyable! :)

Most parts of the concert turned out to be much more better than last year's. However, I think that the choices of songs for last year's concert were much better than this time. I wasn't familar with a few songs sung this year and somehow, at certain points, it just didn't bring the mood of the concert to the peak.

Anyway, I'm just looking forward to Mayday's upcoming album now.

And yes, Mayday, YOU ROCK!!! :)

Two days of leave!

I got 2.5 day of leave to be cleared before it gets forfeited in May. Having too little leave (only a standard 15 days a year!) really requires a careful planning of leave taking. Initially, I planned for a week-long holiday next week since Labour day is on Thurs & Fri is co's holiday. But last min had to change plan & ended up clearing my 2 days of leave yesterday & today. Hee hee...

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day and we made the right choice of bringing Oscar out to Sentosa. He was very excited to see us dressed up & packing his bag of barang barang (yes! He knows that's his bag!!) and he just kept following me around the house when I carried his bag. Yah, he knew that we would not bring his bag out without him. Smart dog! Hee hee.....

On our journey to Sentosa, he just wouldn't stop looking out of the windscreen of the car, wondering where we were bringing him to. As we approached the Sentosa beach, he somehow knew that we were reaching our destination & kept whining. Finally, we reached the beach nd he went all crazy, running around and erhh....urinating around, trying to mark his territories. Yah, small trees, big trees, lamp post & even at a shade where people had placed their belongings at. Such a cute, naughty dog! Take one look of him enjoying the breeze at the nice sandy beach:

Surprisingly, the sea was very blue yesterday and it just didn't look like Sentosa. Haha...

Lazy Oscar tried to hide escape from the sun by hiding under the wooden benches. In the end, we gotta drag him out. So funny. Haha....

It was a lovely weekday afternoon spent at Sentosa. We were pretty lucky to spot Michelle Chia, Thomas Ong & Julian Hee shooting at the beach too. :)

However, on my way home, I had gastric pain out of a sudden. Really sudden coz I've been eating quite abit since morning and my one & only gastric pain record was during my JC days. I wondered why it happened this time. I took a nap when I got home and halfway through my nap, I felt something on my bed. It was Oscar! I guess he must have felt bored coz no one was playing with him. He put his favourite ball ball on the bed and wanted me to play with him. He climbed onto the bed & licked me before getting off the bed & waited for me to throw the ball for him to catch. It was so sweet of him to give me a lick first. Hee hee....

Thank goodness, the pain was gone after a rest. Hee hee....So all these rounded up my 1st day of leave. :)

Today was a much more relaxed day after a day out in the sun yesterday. It started off with dim sum lunch at Ah Yat (shall be reviewed soon!) followed by a lame movie, "Harold & Kumar" before hitting the gym for pump & combat. Then home sweet home.

Gotta be back for work tmr!

Well, still got half a day of leave to be cleared on next Tuesday. It coincides with Ben & Jerry free cone day! Yeah!! Probably I should go & queue for a cone? Or maybe one cone after another?? Wahahahaa.....

Lunch with Yebber & Chalet

Today I gave the gym class a miss since there's a lunch gathering with Yebber & fellow Yebber Ambassadors. Hee hee... It was a nice lunch at Laguna National Golf and Country Club. Haha... again, lots of pictures of FOOD were taken. Luckily, we still managed to take some pics of we people. Haha... Really thank Yebber for the lunch! :)

After lunch, I went off to Aloha Loyang chalet to meet my uni frds for a gathering. Haha...this gathering was a little different from our previous gathering as every one of them brought their partners along. A big gathering! It was definitely an enjoyable get-together filled lots of laughter during the dinner & games. Haha...although at first i thought that it's somehow weird & would not be that fun without barbeque at chalet but it turned out to be quite well with delivered cooked food. Yeah, we ordered the "golden pillow", which actually consisted of curry chicken kept in a big loaf of bread. Actually it was quite nice :) As for games, the most tiring one was probably the "maffias & spy", where you gotta find out who were the maffias by deciding on the reliability of what each player said. Tired tired!! But it was fun! Hee hee....

Thank goodness that I don't have to travel all the way home on my own back from loyang. Thanks to WL & bf for giving me a lift. Hee hee....

*Yawn* Really gotta sleep now. Hope to go for a jog before gym tmr!! :)

Tree Planting

Yeah, today was my co's community day. Theme for this year - Tree Planting!!!

But the activity did not start until afternoon. In other words, I still gotta work in the morning. Sigh...anyway, on my usual way to work, I received a call from Ah ma! Oh well, Ah ma is a nickname given to one of my uni friends, she not my real ah ma (grandmother), ok? Haha....

Yeah, she's been in Boston for her attachment since last Sept and this was the first time that I got a call from her. What a pleasant surprise early in the morning. Hee hee....

Yeah, got to discuss abit about our plan to explore California either in August or end of the year. Hope things go as plan. But gotta survive some 18hrs of flight. OMG! My longest flight so far was the one to Turkey which took 10+hrs. Hope to confirm o the details for the trip soon. I'm so excited!! Hee hee....

Oh, back to the trees. Yah, we were pretty lucky that the afternoon was bright and sunny after the heavy rain in the morning. It was so funny to see my colleagues drying their socks in the oven, and some used the heat guns in the lab to blow dry their wet shoes in the morning. Haha....

We reached Changi connector park around 1.30pm and after the regional head gave his speech, off we went to the tree planting site to witness the planting of the 1st 2 trees by all the division heads. Finally, it was our turn! We had been splitted up into 4 groups to plant the trees at different parts of the park & I belonged to the yellow team. 5 other colleagues & I got the spade & shovel before starting to dig the ground. Haha...very soon after, we planted 3 trees!!! Haha...that's was fun! Here's one of our little tree.....

The event soon ended with some refeshments followed by a closing speech by my director. Hope to go back some day to look at the trees which I have planted. Well, that's provided that I can recognise them. Haha....

We will ROCK YOU!

Wednesday evening is always a day which we'll usually take a break from gym. Yeah, our body needs a break from all the workout as well. Haha.... So what's up for the evening??

Hmm....

Hmm...hmm....

Orhhh!!!


On impulse (sort of), we decided to grab 2 tickets to watch the musical, 'We will ROCK you"! Yah, it's really my 1st time to buy a musical ticket and the next moment, we are sitting in the theatre. Well, in a way, the feeling is just so different from buying a movie ticket then go into a movie theatre to watch a show. Probably it's the price of a musical ticket which will make you plan & think twice before deciding whether to watch it. Haha...in this case, we bought a pair of cat 2 tickets ($120 each, thanks for the treat too!) & then we are in for a ROCK Nite!

Halfway through the concert, we did a "self-upgrading" of seats to the cat 1 seats ($140 for each ticket!) since there were many seats left empty in the cat 1 area. Haha....but based on what we have observed, those from other lower-priced categories have been upgraded to better seats as well since the area which they should occupy originally was empty for the nite. Aiyah, if that's really th case, we should have gotten ourselves cheaper tickets so that we could still get the upgrade. Anyway, the lesson learnt is to watch musical on a weekday, where price is lower & audience group is smaller and of ocurse to get cheap cheap tickets then pray hard for seats ypgrade. Haha.... Gonna practise these next time!

On the overall, I quite like the way the musical has been put up. Their dance and singing were fabulous! But of course for this musical, it involved lesser fanciful props. Unlike the previous musicals, 'Phantom of the Opera' and 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang', which I have attended last year. Nevertheless, the performance was still done very well by the great actors, actresses and dancers. Yeah! Furthermore, they even added in some "local flavours" in their script to make it more interesting.

Feel so much like dancing after the musical. Rock Rock ROCK!!

Family Day!

Yesterday was a happy day for me & for my family as well. Finally, we have our family gathering again and again, it was organised by me. But anyway, so long as everyone's happy, I don't mind organising it every time. Hee hee....

Well, dad's birthday falls on April 16th. Wish him a very happy birthday in advanced! Yeah, so for yesterday evening, my family & of course LLT went out to celebrate dad's birthday. Wah, had a hard time deciding on where to bring my family to for dinner. Since it's a rare chance that my family gathers for dinner nowadays, I was really afraid to choose a dining place which they might not like. After some thoughts, I decided to bring my family the Plaza Market Cafe for buffet since my parents have been quite keen on goig fo one(erh...though they are not really big eaters!).

Dinner was fun, where we chatted and laughed alot as we ate. Also, we took lots of pics. Hee hee.... After dinner, took my parents on a nice stroll around cityhall area. Yeah, took lots of pics at the Esplanade, with the Sg Flyer in the background, the Merlion, etc. Haha....took some funny pics too. Felt so much like a tourist in Sg. Haha....Little did we realised that time passed so fast then and it was almost midnite when we left the place. So tired by the time we got home & we still gotta work today. Yah, I guess that explained why I got a bad runny nose today. Lousy me! But I still think it's worth it, for all those fun we had yesterday. Hee hee.... Just hope I'll recover after a good sleep tonite.

I should sleep early then. Gd nite & sweet dreams! zzzZZZZzzzzZZZZzzzzz

Choir Concert

In support of my dearest ex-tutee, Lakshmi, I purchased 2 tickets to watch her choir performance tonight. Hee Hee....

The concert was held at Victoria Concert Hall. Well, it's been a couple of years since I last attended a concert there. Yeah, the concerts I've attended recently were held either at the Singapore Indoor Stadium or Expo Hall. Well, to be true, those were the pop song concerts. Haha... Unlike this time round, a choir concert!

The concert started off with an interesting song, "One a Twenty", sung by the choir. So why do I say that this song is interesting? Basically, the piece was done in a way which requires it to be partly spoken and partly sung close to pitch. A pretty lively song to start with as well. To make the concert a little more interesting, there was a guest performance by another choir group and the concert was ended with a grand finale of Disney movie magic. Basically, the finale was very much like the High School Musical. Lots of singing and dancing. Interesting!

Besides the concert, we ended up getting quite interested in how the teenagers nowadays dress. Well, I guess they've tried to dress in their very best for the evening. However, many just ended making themselves look weird. Hmm...in a way, I do think that teenage years is an awkward period where you are "neither here nor there" (no longer kids but not adults yet) and have not much idea on how to dress appropriately. Looking at the teenagers who have attended the concert, I started to ponder how I look like when I was about their age. Well, ermm, some 10+ years back? Was I like them back then?? Haha....Looking back at my pictures taken back in those days, OMG! Can't believe that's me. The silly-looking me! Haha....

Bad morning but I got New Snowball!

This morning there was a train disruption again! I was happily sleeping on the train then when the train stalled at Yew Tee. I opened my eyes to check my surrounding and heard the PA system informing passengers to alight the train and go via the train towards Marina Bay to reach our destination. Erhhhh.... I work at Buona vista & I was already at Yew Tee then yet I need to take towards Marina bay again??!!

Not willing to do that, I decided to try out my luck by taking the one & only bus outside Yew Tee MRT which brought me to CCK, in hope thatbe some there'll be some buses there which will bring me to Buona vista or at least somewhere near my work place. Went over to CCK MRT to check on the situation 1st, and I realised that an accident had occurred at CCK. So many policemen & paramedics around then. The MRT station was just as chaotic as Yew Tee and I'm just like a fugitive trying to get out of the place. Only other way out was to board a bus from CCK interchange to get out of the place. Well, sadly, only one bus was available and it would bring me to Jurong East. But queue for the bus was super duper long. Two fully-packed buses left & I was still nowhere near the front of the queue. After waiting for a good half hour or so, we were informed that the train service had resumed. So happy then!!! FINALLY!!!

But again, there was some miscommunication. I managed to board a train but due to some miscommunication, we were made to alight from the train then again told that the same train could be boarded again. There I saw a very ungentleman-ly guy who dashed for the seat & squeezed a lady out of the seat. Singaporean guys! Sigh....

Finally finally!! I managed to reach my office just before 10am. I was dead tired by then.
Just then, I spotted a box containing a mini snowball on my desk. Addressed to 'Gou Gou', which is me. I was totally delighted! Hee hee.... the snowball even comes with a melody of "You are my sunshine" when you press the base of it. Like it so much! Really thank Jo for it. I guess she knew of my previously broken snowball so bought another one for me. So nice of her!!!

Here it is, Da Dang!!!



**Update**
Later, I heard that it was a suspected suicide at CCK MRT & the 40+ years old man died in the accident. Sigh...I really wonder why lately there's so many cases of suicide on MRT platform? probably it's the easiest & faster way of suicide. But It's definitely the most painful & disgusting way to die. I saw pics of it before it really looked gruesome. Furthermore, it caused so my disruption to people's life & probably gonna be hated & cursed by some of them. Don't you agree with me?

Quarter life Crisis?

This morning, a few colleagues & I gathered (we are sort of the older gang in our lab, either in terms of age or experience. wahaha) in a corner of the lab, not so much to gossip but to talk about our plan for the future. Hmm...future in the current job seems bleak, unless I don't mind staying as a RA for the rest of my life. But the thing is I do mind. I don't wish to be the one doing all the experiments yet not always clear of what I am doing, why I am doing and for who I am doing the things for. I don't want to be stuck at the bottom of the flat hierarchy forever and fighting for all the little things which means nothing to me yet are the only things which can be used to so-called prove my ability in the company. It's just makes me a tired at times.

To many of us, now the work just seems so monotonous & everyday we are just waiting for lunch, then at 5.30pm, time to knock off. Then wait for monthly pay-day. I don't know if it's my current project or after staying on the job for almost 4 years now which makes me feel a little demoralised and lost now. Hope this feeling go away soon.

Anyway, I've also started to take some actions on my plans for the future. Still hope to future studies. Well, just submitted a proposal to my boss & I'm now waiting for a reply. Hope it's a positive one! :) If not, I guess it's probably time to move on to elsewhere.

Yebber has turned ONE!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, YEBBER!

I'm proud to be part of the Yebber community and also one of the chosen Yebber Ambassadors (as you can see there's this orange badge on the left hand side of my blog. Hee hee...). Yes! I've just participated in the fun-filled Yebber's 1st anniversary party at Mint Museum last night. And yes, this is infact my second visit to the Mint Museum. This was my second visit to the place. It's definitely a great place to visit not just for the kids but adults as well.

Since I was still on my week-long leave, I managed to arrive earlier at 5+pm to help Claudia & the rest of the Yebber team to get prepared for the evening's event We could just see the ultra-stressed up Claudia running around the museum setting things up and making sure that each & every of us knew our duties for the evening. Bobo, Zihui & I were tasked to be the receptionists for the evening. Hee hee.....

Finally, at around 7pm, guests began to arrive and the 3 of us were busy taking their attendance, giving out programme sheet, bingo tickets, noise-makers, filling out lucky draw "coupons" and of course, directing the guests. At 8pm, with most of the guests arrived, we were ready to kick off the event for the evening. Polarbear was the emcee for the night and the series of activities was started off with a speech given by one of the founders of Yebber, Darren, followed by the still-very-nervous Claudia. Finally!! We know how the word 'Yebber' came about, why Yebber was born & who are the three funny men who started Yebber. Hee hee.... Following the speeches was a short video clip with interviews of the Yebber Ambassadors (Me!! ME!!! *shy*)

Not just that, there were even Bingo game & lucky draw to get the guests involved for the evening. But me, no luck in either of them. *Sob sob* Nevertheless, being able to participate in the party had already brought alot of joy to me. Not to forget that each of us bagged home a goodie bag with magazines & vouchers! Hee hee....

Yes yes!! How can I forget one of the most important thing. Food!!! Food was served in buffet style, with a good variety. The food was good. We had fresh greens, spaghetti, parmesan crusted chicken, seafood platter and wild mushrooms, tomato checca & salmon bruschetta. After which, we had some mini cakes for dessert. Yummy!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the organising team at Yebber for the event and of course a big congratulation to them for the success of the event.

Hope to celebrate future Yebber birthdays!!!

For those who have not joined, what are you waiting for?? JOIN NOW!

There I went & here I'm back!

After 5 days 4 nights in Bangkok, I'm back here in Sg! That's so fast manz!!! Nevertheless, I'm still on leave today & tomorrow and I got my weekends!!!

Yeah,bought alot of things from Bangkok. Could have gotten more stuff but my luggage was too full for me to squeeze in any more stuff. Shall update real soon! Got 1100++ photos to go through. So crazy manz!!!

Why am I always the one doing all these??

Why why why??? Why am I always the one? Why am I always the one who feels the need to be responsible for all these little things? Why is it me & no one else? Why do I need to take care of this and that, do this and that, check this and that, buy this and that? Why can't that someone who should take charge take care of all these things or at least share the workload with me? I wish to be taken care of as well, but why are things happening in the other way round? I hate it! Why are things like that? It's just not fair!!!

A three "Little Miss" Day

Today is a day out for Little Miss Sunshine, Little Miss Scatterbrain & Little Miss Bad. The three Missies decided to go ECP to cycle/blade & have been praying very hard for good weather. Lucky for the three Missies, the weather wasn't too bad. Although it started to drizzle a little after breakfast at McDonald's *burp*, it also allowed the three over-aged Missies to spend some time (& a dollar!) seeking shelter on the miniature merry-go-round. Yes! Can't believe that they took a ride on it! Thank goodness that the miniature horses didn't break. They even posed for a couple of pictures. Back to childhood days!! Haha...

Little Miss Bad decided to blade instead of cycle with Scatterbrain & Sunshine since she sucks at cycling. Haha.... But Miss Bad has not bladed for quite some time and still needed some time to warm up & get herself familiar with blading again. Everything came back after a while. However, she still sucks at conquering steep slopes. In the end, Miss Sunshine has to "drag" Miss Bad on her bike. What a lazy & lousy Miss Bad! Miss Scatterbrain was just too high & kept laughing. Occasionally, she'll get so high that she lost control of her bike. OMG! Really scatterbrain! Haha!!

The outing was for Miss Bad & Scatterbrain to accompany Miss Sunshine & cheer her up. But it turned out that the other way round. Haha... Anyway, so happy that Little Miss Sunshine is back to her good old days again!!! YEAH!!! :)

To a dear friend...

Really sad to see that you've been so unhappy lately. Yah, even when I saw you crying I'll feel like crying with you. I feel very useless, not knowing what I can say to console you or what I can do to help you. Just hope that you'll get well soon! Really miss the usual you!

Get well soon, dear friend!

mint Meseum of Toys

If you mention the word mint, I'll probably think of peppermint or Singapore Mint. No no... it's neither the two. This "mint" place which I went today is the meseum of toys!

So what does mint mean in this case?

It actually stands for 'memories of imaginative & nolstalgic toys' (if I didn't remember wrongly!) The place consists of 5 floors plus a cafe at the basement. The exhibits (toys) were spread over the 4 levels, with each level having a different theme. Some of the toys which we managed to catch a glimpse of include tin tin, felix the cat, popeye, mickey mouse, betty boop, a collection of snow white & the seven dwarfs. Haha... it's such an interesting place! Many of these toys I've not even seen them before when I was young. The toys in the meseum will be rotated every few months, so you'll be amazed by the wide collection of toys the owner has.

Another interesting point about this toy meseum is that the lightings on the display shelves were done in such a way that they will not cast any shadow of the toy. So it definitely helps when it comes to phototaking. No matter which angle you take from, the picture will look good. But one important thing to note when photographing here is that no flash is allowed. This is to prevent the flashlight from degrading the colour of the precious toys.

Something interesting was mentioned during the guided tour. Look at the pic below. How is this snow white different from the usual one??

Think hard!!! Think think think!!

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:

:

:

:

The answer is that the "real" one has black hair! Got it right??

Well, so why is there a blond hair snow white in the meseum? Haha...that's for you to go & find out! The admission cost $10 for adult and $5 for children (aged 2 - 12 years old).

The pic above is one of my favourite pic. Or I should say one of the cutest pose of the seven dwarfs I've seen at the meseum. It so resemble someone!!! Hee hee....

It broke. My heart broke too.

My snowball!!!

It's been like this for 1 yr & 2 months. So nice & pretty! I like the 2 little bears in the globe as well as the guardian angel bear on top of it. I really like the phrase written on it too.

It reads

"Friends

Every time you're with me

you always make me smile"

But, a careless me swept my hand across my table & the snowball toppled & shattered. My heart shattered too. It's one of my best Christmas present so far. Really sad leh. Even my eyes turned teary & I totally lost the mood for lunch. :'(

The snowball broke into pieces, with bits of glass, water & the snowflakes all over my desk. All I could recover were these:

The base, some glass & the 2 "dry bears".

The poor guardian angel was separated from the other 2 bears.

I'm really so upset! Don't know if the same snowball can be found? Sob sob.... My precious snowball!! :'(

Yuan Xia with Yebbers!

Today marks the last day of Chinese New Year. Sob sob... no more angpow & lou hei but there's still lots of CNY goodies left at home. Actually also didn't gt to eat much CNY goodies this yr. My persistent cough lasted from a week before CNY & till now I have yet recovered. *cough cough* Yes! Almost a month already!! If this continues, I guess I need to get an x-ray of my chest done. Sigh...

Anyway, even with the cough, fun still continues!

Had a final CNY gathering with Yebbers & Hotpot Culture tonite. *BURP* Yah, still very full from the dinner! Not only did we have a full dinner, we had lots of fun & laughter. Haha... Look forward to the next outing!

Enjoy the comics done by Claudia :)

Valentine's Day! Qing's Big Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! Today is also my day off from work. But wait, please don't get it wrong. I didn't take leave to celebrate V'day but to attend my dearest friend's big day. Yes yes, it's Qing's & CY's ROM day! Congrats to Mr Chua & Mdm Tang. Oppz... I should address you as Mrs Chua! Hee hee....

Got up at usual hour as on any other working day & I was greeted with a nice & yummy Big breakfast. Haha... I supposed I can call it a V'day special. Yes, though it's just a simple breakfast, but it really made me quite happy. Thanks LLT!!

The whole afternoon was a busy one. Three of us accompanied the bride & groom to their bridal shop for the make up & dress up before rushing down to the Registry. Phew! We only managed to reach the Registry 5 mins before the allocated time slot due to some hiccups along the way. Luckily we were still in time, although all guests had already arrived and were waiting for the couple. With just some 5 mins spent in the registrar office, and they are now husband & wife! That's really fast! Wanna say again, congrats to both of you & have a blissful marriage! After some photo-shooting, off we went to Carousel @ Scotts for our High-tea with the couple, their family & friends!

Post-ROM was more of F&E, own activities. Yah, many were off to meet their partners to celebrate their V'day. Along the way @ Orchard road, you could easily find people seizing this great opportunity to sell overpriced roses. Yah, overheard one vendor selling her "old-fashionedly" wrapped (you know those traditional silver wrapper for flowers? So out-dated now!) roses going at $6 per stalk. Wah, freaking expensive manz!! Just then, I asked my partner if he would get those flowers for me. But his answer was clearly a NO. He said he'll rather give me the $6 than buy the ridiculously expensive flowers. Then he really dug his wallet for $6. All I told him was that I wanted 999 stalks of flowers not just 1 stalk ( so $6 x 999 = $5994!!!!). He simply stood there, speechless. Wahahaa....

Well, we just went for a free movie screening that evening (coz he has won some movie ticket again! Haha!!) then home sweet home. As simple as that. No flowers, no presents, no fanciful/overly-priced dinner but just a Big Breakfast & a nice stroll home. That's really nice & sweet enough.

Happy Valentine's Day.

CNY Visitings & Gatherings

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO EVERYONE! Yes yes, you didn't see wrongly. According to Chinese, today is everybody's birthday & we call it ren ri. It falls on the 7th day of the 1st month based on the Lunar calendar. So today is a day to lou hei! HUAT BIG BIG AH!

So today I ended "louing" twice, one over lunch with my fellow colleagues & I'm just done with another one at LLT's place. Haha...4 times of lou hei so far for the new year & there's still more to come! Wahahaha

So how have I spent the last 7 days of my CNY??

Day1: Stayed at home with my family and my aunt & cousin came over for CNY visiting in the evening. Happy to see them but miss my nieces coz they didn't come. Other than that I just spend my day surfing net, watching tv, sleeping, eating. Haha....But still feeling good, coz it's been a long time since my family & I spend time together at home like that. Hee hee...

Day 2: I slept till around 10am for my Doreamon cartoon, then lazed around until 1+pm when LLT came to my house for visiting. After lunch (my mum's cooking. YEAH!!), went over to LLT's place for my 1st step-out-of-my-house CNY visit. Haha.... Tried to book movie tix at GV website many times before we finally managed to get 2 tix to 'The Diving Bell & the Butterfly'. Shocked to see that Vivocity is so crowded just like any other weekends! Went to Breadtalk to get some bread but most bread were either not made because of CNY or they've been swept off by the crowd. Haa.... After movie was home sweet home.

Day 3: Finally back to 3 hrs of gym class after 3 days of slacking. Haha... Still coughing badly, so took it easy in gym. After which we went over to Pearlina's house for gathering. There we went crazy over PS3 followed by blackjack. No luck, lost some $$. :( Oh yah, I also had my 1st lou hei for this CNY & had a nicely prepared Tepanyakki dinner. All thanks to the hosts!! Then off we were to watch 'Ah long' movie. Hee hee.....

Day 4: It's Sunday! One last day before going back to work! Went for Yebbers' gathering at Claudia's house. Yes, thanks for the invitation & the pizzas! Played blackjack again & LOST AGAIN!!! Wah, really no luck leh!! Then went off the mee Qing & the rest together with their bfs for ktv! Still coughing madly, so didn't sing alot. Looked like everything was nice & peaceful but then I think there's some unhappiness again. Hmm....Really scratching my head & wonder why. Women r so mafan leh. Yes, even though I myself is a true woman, I can't find any reason to deny this fact. Do this also not right, do that also not right. Sigh...

Day 5, 6, 7: Work ,lor, what else?? Haha.... Yah, played Blackjack again just now. Just couldn't believe my luck. LOST AGAIN!!! But nvm, coz LLT won like $60!!! Congrats to him & to me too! Coz my expenses for the next few days shall be beared by him. Ahahaha

Happy Rat Year!!

We have just sent off the Pig & here comes the Rat! Happy Chinese New Year, everyone!

Finished my reunion dinner with my family by around 9pm & till now I'm still feeling quite full from the steamboat although I didn't eat alot. Poor appetite. Still coughing!! *cough cough*
I've been suffering from a bad cough since early last week, from a dry cough now it became a cough with phlegm. Today I went to see the doc for a 2nd time & got more antibiotics & cough mixture & also a MC for today! Haha....so I can go back next week to cancel my leave, which also mean that I'll have to clear 2.5 days of leave in April! Hehee.... For for now, really hope to recover from my cough soon, otherwise I can't eat alot of the CNY goodies. :(

So tonite gotta shou sui for the good of my parents. Yes, wish that they'll always stay healthy & happy! Can't wait to receive my 1st ang pows from my parents tomorrow morning!!!

HUAT AH, everyone!!!! GONG XI GONG XI!!

Appraisal Day!

After 2 sessions of appraisal, I've finally completed my appraisal with the ratings & comments from bossy. But then each year, it's always the same rating & more or less the same words from bossy, saying that he has tried hard to fight for better ratings BUT.....
Yes! There's always a BUT to it. Sigh...

So how to have a breakthrough so that he can really fight for better ratings for me without the word BUT coming back to me at the end?? He suggested that I do some project of my own, which I find it abit useless & time-wasting. Hmm...how to innovate when most of the time you just get to follow instructions from your uppers? Just don't see anything good or useful that an associate can do to show that he is well above others. Yes, even my boss agrees that in such a lab environment, to excel in leadership roles is tough. At times, I just feel that me as an associate is just like a housewife. U keep the whole house clean & tidy but how well has it been recognised?

Another thing we discussed was about furthering studies. Well, this has been on my mind ever since I graduated, it's just about finding the right opportunity& time. But somehow, this urge is fading as I'm ageing. Wonder why. Maybe because now there's more commitment, having to give another 4-5 years of my youth to studies makes me re-think about it. Maybe because the longer I've been in R&D, the more lost I feel & I don't want this to happen for the rest of my life (coz if I study, probably I'll be stucked in R&D). But if I don't study, I must move out of R&D soon! Anyway, Bossy has been very encouraging & helpful.

Hmm...at the end of the day, somehow there's this surge of sianness in me. Due to appraisal? Other stuff?? Hmm..... sometimes I just wonder if I'm asking for too much in life.

Greed.

Does it grow with age?

Again, I miss walking down the street alone, with the wind blowing. I think it does help me clear my mind.

My Shopping List

Suddenly I realised that there's so many things I wish to buy.

1. New pair(s) of jeans for work.
2. New t-shirts for work/gym
3. Nice & presentable clothes/dresses
4. Fancl facial wash + toner
5. New sandals
6......

Still adding more thngs to the list. BUTtttt.... my bonus still not in & I gotta wait till end of March! Sob sob.....

Bad Day...

Today is a lousy day, bad start of the week. Well, it didn't start off with a lousy day. But it just turned bad towards the end of the work day. It's still the same old people who have got on my nerves. I just can't stand how selfish some people are. For a 8hr slot daily that's available for booking, a good 6 hrs of it has been taken up by 2 of them who belonged to the same team, leaving just 2 hrs of lunch time for others to use it. Ok, well, we do have another similar instrument but it's problematic & just broke down today. For me, it's not an issue to sacrifice my lunch hour for the use of the instrument. But still, I or rather we felt that it was very unfair that people from the same team are bugging the system for the entire day & others are not given a chance to use it. Basically all those queued behind me could not have a slot to use the instrument & have to maybe risk their stuff on the problematic one (Well, think I'm still considered quite kiasu compared to them! Haha....) What's more is that a very kiasu environment has been created in the lab all because of them! In order to book the instrument for next day's use, we are only allowed to do so after 5pm. But the Kiasu them are always sitting & hanging around the 'booking book' way before 5pm and we are never their opponent. Yah, cos we have so much things to do in lab, I think it's a complete waste of time to sit infront of the 'booking book' at like 4.30pm & wait for that half an hour to pass. Really crazy!!

So when I saw that a 6-hr slot was "gone", I tried to reason out nicely with A, but he refused to give way, saying that they need the 6 hrs. I think B saw that I wasn't very happy & after a discussion with A, he gave up 3 hrs of his slot. Nay, not that I'm going to take up his 3 hr slot, ok? I went around to check if anyone else needs the slot and gave it to him. Yes, at least now 4 persons can use the instrument tomorrow instead of 3 & I'm sticking to my slot during lunch hour. Just wish that these people will be more understanding & less selfish to make it a better place for us to work in. I'm not trying to vent my anger or what to anyone with regards to this matter. I just want some fairness in the matter. I'm glad that I got it already. :)

Catch-up lunch

This afternoon I've finally met up with Fi for lunch. This lunch date has been dragged from 2007 to 2008 & finally we ended up @ Biopolis' Mealbox! Doing a quick count, the last time I saw Fi was in NUS and that's some 3+ years ago. How time flies!!

But, it's still so easy to recognise her despite my myopia coz she still maintains her spikey hair. Except that it's now less funky (coz less spikey. Haha...) and more tamed (or should I say mature?). Spotted her in a pink shirt, with a blazaar over it and holding a very pink umbrella. Hmm...definitely different from the past coz she used to be in t-shirt & berms. Keke...

We had a great time talking, about past, about present, about future. Missed the fun time we all had during JC 1st 3 months, really! I think it's oe of my happiest time and probably that's why I'm so actively in touch with my pre-JC group of friends. Haha... Fi really knows how to make me happy. She commented that my face shape has became so much sharper & I'm slim! Wahaha....

Hope that the whole group of us can meet up soon!!

Beauty World.... CHA CHA CHA!!!

CHA CHA CHA....CHA CHA CHA!!! Yes, I've just attended the musical, 'Beauty World', on last Friday evening. So what makes me wanna watch this musical so much?

Well well, it all goes back to 10 years ago, in 1998, when I was still in my secondary school. We had this vocal training course (I think so. Haha....) at Mediacorp which was then called TCS. The vocal training course aside, we were brought to tour around Mediacorp to see the various acting studios, etc. On the last day of our training, we were invited to watch the Beauty World musical full dress rehersal and it was a great performance! Yes, and it's my 1st time (and last time I think...) to be in a Mediacorp studio andto be so close to the stage & actors. Hee hee....

So now, 10 years later, I was so excited to be able to catch the musical again, although it's now different casts. They also did some changes to the musical & have added more songs to it, it is still as fantastic!

I'm always amazed by how fast they change the stage backdrop, their beautiful costumes as well as their excellent acting skills & singing. Really impressed!

So will there still be another return of the Beauty World musical 10 years down the road? Let's wait till 2018 then!

Welcome 2008!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!

Year 2008 just arrived without me really realising it! Yah, time to wake up!! Yawn yawn....

Anyway, had an interesting new year countdown @ Music Dreamer Live! Cafe. A small yet cosy place where we were entertained by songs & games as we munched on the snacks & drank the bubble tea. At the stroke of 12 midnite, we wished one another Happy New Year & rushed out of the cafe to catch the fireworks. Haha....we were pretty lucky to get a good view of the high-flying fireworks. Hee hee... So nice!!! Hope it marks a good start for me, for US!!!

Coming to my "self-appraisal" & New Year resolutions. So for the past 1 year, what have I acheived & what have I not achieved?

But all in all, 2007 is a pretty eventful year. Early in the year, it started off with a new chapter in life with LLT. Not something that I would expect though, coz I always claimed that I wanna be a nun. Haha.... But really want to thank him for always being there to share my joy & wipe my tears. Hee hee....

Friendship wise. Lost a few & gained a couple. Losses? Well, people change over the years or because of things in life which could have triggered changes. But whether those changes are for good or for worse, I guess only time will tell. I welcome the new friends who have entered into my life and I will continue to treasure the old friendships I have! Thanks friends!!

For the past year, I have also watched lots of movies, a couple of musicals & plays such as 'Phantom of the Opera', 'Dim Sum Dollies in the History of Sg', 'Titoudao', 'Kumar the Queen', and a few more which I've forgotten the title. Haha.... Attended a few concerts too,which include Mayday's, Christina Aguilera's, Cheer Chen's, A-Mei's & ended with Fish Leong's.

Holidays wise. Sadly, 1 Penang trip with Pig then a business trip to Turkey, Istanbul & Kusadasi. But I totally love Kusadasi!! Nice sunset, interesting place. But too bad we got too little time there. Not too long after my Turkey trip, my uni good friend, Pig, left for US for 1.5 years. Sob sob... So miss her. Now I got one less travelling & shopping kaki. But still hope she'll do well in US. I'll find you soon, ok??

As for my work, I'm kinda of doing work that will help people achieve "success" & not we ourselves achieving it. Hmm.... 2008 is going to be another of the same kind. Sigh... Well, yah. Again, it's time this year to seriously think about my future!

One of my resolutions every year is to pick up a new skill and for last year, it's rock-wall climbing. Fun, & gd experience! So what's up for this year? Hopefully a new language like German (Still hoping that I can go Basel for work/studies some day. LOL) & yes, diving! Which I've procrastinated for 2 years. Haahah...

~2008~

So for 2008, I definitely hope to achieve much more & be happier. Work wise, I need to really think about which direction I'm heading. I don't want to be stuck as an associate in R&D forever!

I also want to travel to more placs this year! Yah, I know travelling is costly, but I wanna go out to see the world! Hopefully I got enough leave & $$ to go US to look for pig! Yes, and also my diving trip. Hee hee..... So hope that I'll get a big fat bonus, which I really doubt so. Sigh...Anyway, I intended to cut down on the performances I attend to make my holiday trips possible! =)

Other than these, I hope to have more time spent with my family especially. More family dinner, outings & hopefully a family holiday trip! Yes yes, also more time with YOU, my friends. Hee hee...

Cheers to 2008!! Hope it's a good luck year!!! Hehe....