15th day of Lunar New Year so followed tradition faithfully and ate rice dumplings. :) but didn't follow the rest of the rituals... had a laugh with alb 'cos he went on about this being the day girls traditionally throw mandarin oranges into the river/sea/lake so that the fishes don't eat the body of the man in the river.. hahaha... had to tell him that that is the Dumping Festival instead and all sorts of people (not just girls) throw dumplings (not mandarin oranges) into the river to save the brave hero Qu Yuan after he was killed by some bad guys (can't remember who they are..:p). we got more mixed up after that 'cos i continued to explain to him about the tradition of the sticky paste cake and why families have it - it is to stick up the mouth of the God of Fortune when he comes around to your house 'cos he "knows when you are sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if you've been bad or good so be good..." :D ... sorry... :p

spent most of yesterday getting rid of vicious Trojan Sircam A virus/worm from all three of my office computers (all three got infected because all of them share drives freely - which alb tells me is really silly and should never be done :p) - quite a challenge 'cos when you remove the virus from one computer, it quickly gets infected again by the other computers which are still attached to it.. Was almost in tears in the midst of fighting bug 'cos started to be in despair, especially at the stage when I casually removed the sircam.exe file (with the help of Norton Antivirus) and then realised the vicious bug had designed itself to run before you can run all other applications so if you remove it, you can't run anything at all! :O (see yesterday story) . But finally won the battle anyway with alb's help (had to call him even though he was in the midst of watching Collateral Damage and he sweetly came to my rescue - phew!) - computers are now all clean and protected.. :)

Nonetheless, fighting this bug and growing to hate it more and more as I did gave me an exciting business idea... Imagine you hate your ex and you want to do the most horrible thing to him/her. I come along and offer you this service of designing a fully customizable virus that I will have you officially launch into the world. The virus will be named after your ex (for example, the John virus or the Susan virus). The virus will then spread all around the world and soon everyone will hate your ex too.. :O... gee.. so vicious.. hope no one really comes up with that....

my illness and grogginess is making me come up with such random and evil ideas...

think I should be going on the drip soon.. woke up feeling terribly dehydrated and head is feeling full and groggy even though I have drunk at least 10 glasses of water since the night before..... falling sick again (!).. quite embarrassing though 'cos I've always projected myself to be quite fit and healthy.

my antivirus software just killed off access to Microsoft Word, Excel and every other application :O.. think I have gone a little too far this time in my virus busting campaign... oh dear... as they say, killing an ant with a cleaver.. :(

Just back from an enjoyable weekend in Sentosa with close friends and got toasted tan from sitting in sun and swimming in sea. Actually feeling really tired and ill now from all the fried food, alcohol, snacks and suntanning... :(

Have begun reading Og Mandino's The Greatest Salesman in the World - this odd inspirational book written in a storybook style is set in ancient Palestine which has apparently sold over 13 million copies in the 30 years since it was first published in 1968!!! Can you believe that?? 13 million! Wow! Might need to take a year to read the book though! They recommend that you read each same chapter daily for over a month before you move to the next one! :O I think they may just be trying to instil discipline as well.. don't know if I can be THAT persistent.. :p but looks interesting..

just watched Jack Neo's I Not Stupid and am surprised how much I enjoy it.. it is a social-commentary-movie that makes Singaporeans laugh at themselves and bravely too, at the Government and it's controversial policies, though mostly in a harmless way.. The hilarious story about three kids and their families from different social backgrounds creates a social satire that touches on issues of education streaming, the importance of the Chinese language and focus on academic excellence and paper qualifications. Didn't know Jack Neo could be so multi-talented, as an actor, storyteller, screenplay writer and director.. quite impressive... they got good reviews too...

went for Financial Mgmt class today and found out that this is actually already Week 7! Almost haven't done any studying at all since the start of the term (except for reading some relevant books that will help with planning strategies for the shop and trying my best to pay attention in class).. don't know how time can slip by so quickly that it is almost already March and there are so many things that I haven't been able to do consistently (a.k.a New Year Resolutions). There are bible passages that I haven't come around to meditating on, running and blading have been as inconsistent as the weather lately, haven't started on the projects and reading that I should be doing for my studies, can't remember the last time I actually picked up my paintbrush or sketchbook for some creative expression.. and also stopped writing my book...so many things.. so little time...

Realised that the problem lies in that I don't prioritise my time. The fact is.. I really don't have enough time for all I want to do.. so offhand, if I do really want to prioritise, guess this is how it would go.. God comes first.. then probably my fitness/health (i.e. running and eating properly).. then probably my studies (cos I know this is going to be a huge source of stress if I am inconsistent), then later comes family, friends etc... i think this is how it would go.... don't know... maybe sleep should take priority over everything.. zzzzz....

AOSEPT has just come up with this apparently “new” one-step contact lens cleaning system called “AOSEPT PLUS” that requires no rubbing or rinsing! This means that I actually save the time I normally spend on cleaning my lenses everyday and can do something else! Which works out to be.. err…… ONE minute! I can use this time to.. err.. type a total of 55 words! Ok ok… I know it doesn’t sound much but I really don’t like the whole tedious process of cleaning my lenses (and I find daily lenses too expensive) so this product does really appeal to me.. wow… guess this is what my Mktg lecturer calls “cherchez le creneau” – “Look for the hole...and fill it”.. which is what the company has done to come up with a new and innovative product. Another company that has done that was this other one I was using before this, which allows you to clean your lenses in 10 minutes flat! Quite good too. Must be innovative too to survive in market.. umm…

Saw this and really like it..especially the Platinum FMJ one... must save up for it…

isn't this just so terribly cute??? and these are the real people behind the bears!

thanks kai for making these lovely bears for us!! *smile*

It's really nice to have friends like these to keep for the rest of my life.. :)

Discovered horrors of all horrors two days ago that not just one, but three viruses have in fact infected our office computer!! :O The three guilty parties are the:

WORM_SIRCAM.A – which sends copies of itself to all addresses listed in an infected user's address book (we have more than 1200 addresses!! :O ) and in temporary Internet cached files.

JS_SEEKER.A6 – (what I describe as the embarrassing virus) which changes the Internet Explorer start page of an infected system to connect to a pornographic Website and then adds a link to the Web site in the favorites folder (which explains why our start page changed to a porno page all of a sudden one day! :O and we had a bunch of new kinky links in our favourites folder)

JS_EXCEPTION.GEN – which also changes the infected user's Internet Explorer startup page and is able to mass-mail itself (ahhhhhhhh………. :O)

Spent the morning virus-busting, trying to recall some of the MS-DOS stuff I used to know (thankfully I have a 24-hour personal technical helpdesk) – hee hee.. one of the advantages of having an IT guru as a significant other :p Going to install anti-virus software finally tomorrow..

I think this is really cute.... and for those who missed Valentine's Day, here a little something for you.. :p

This is great for those who love art and animals..it's really cool.. This is great for those who love science but not bunnies (especially marshmallow bunnies - really cute ones).

Discovered a quaint little place called Colbar along Portsdown Rd yesterday – a secret hide-away known only to the very few (I think) and also to the expat community. Great for a relaxing drink (we drank Tsingtao beer : p) and some simple snacks on a blisteringly hot day such as yesterday. It’s right opposite the Archery School and seems to be frozen in time with its old wooden doors and signboard with peeling paint. Feels totally cut off from the rest of Singapore. Very nice :)



Spent most of afternoon swimming and in spa pool – realised am not so fluid and smooth in the water anymore due to long layoff from pool, since spending most of my time running and blading. Must brush up on swimming if want to participate in biathlon.. :p :O I find the advice from this book Total Immersion – The Revolutionary Way To Swim Better, Faster and Easier really good. It focuses on three fundamental rules for going faster using the front-crawl: 1. By balancing body better in water (getting your buoyancy right – apparently reduces resistance in water by 70%!) 2. By making body longer (by always keeping one of your arms in front of you) and 3. By swimming on your side (as often as you can). Really works. Try it if you swim.

Just watched Bless The Child on vcd – good triumphing over evil. God’s power is so awesome! :)

came back late from a friend's bbq - yet more stuffing face as part of CNY celebrations :p Looks like this really is the festival of feasting and anyone remotely contemplating losing some weight, flab, a-little-extra-on-the-side can quite clearly forget it.. : p how to when there is so much good, cholesterol-laden and seasonal/festive food around, so many obligations to fulfill and so much available time?? Yummy gourmet bbq - we had barbecued seafood (a delicious assortment including stingray, crayfish, prawns, cod, squid), chicken wings, sausages, beehoon, three different types of salad, sangria (yum!) and even yam paste dessert at the end.. as usual too much food but yummy... :)

had my second CNY loh-hei (raw fish salad) toss today with boss and colleagues at Mitzi's Cantonese Restaurant at Murray Terrace near Maxwell Market - boss' favourite restaurant. I love loh-heis.. they are so much fun and communal, gives you the pseudo-feel of someone proudly performing an important traditional ritual, and if done properly (i.e. not too dry and the sauce is just right), actually taste quite good - especially with the crispy bits.. yum..yum...

definitely putting on some flab... those new year goodies are vicious...

news report: our poor neighbours are frying!!

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!! *smile*

just had an unbelieveably good run.. felt on top of the world and could have gone on forever.. quite strange.. must have been because of sufficient sleep over holiday period.. :)

was walking through wheelock place just now and there were literally hordes of people/couples everywhere, queuing outside every single restaurant from nooch to nydc to sakae sushi and even some new ones with obscure names.. feels a little funny to be walking around date-less on valentine's day but oh well.. nokia customer centre wasn't open yet (lazy bums! will only open on the 16th.. but well, guess they know their customers will still be there anywhere..) so didn't manage to repair my 8250 (so annoying..) tried to help Sis find Hope For The Flowers at Borders but it was out of stock.. so hard to find this children's book (decorated only with black, white and yellow illustrations) on caterpillars...

spent most of today trying out samples of new modelling, moulding and casting materials at our supplier's house - really fun. Didn't feel like work at all - glad I like the products we are dealing with - no offense intended but I think I will really die of boredom if I work in a bank or shipping firm or something like that.. I think it is really important to like what you do for a living...

Chinatown was dead as a ghost town last night and Marina was bustling with the crowds. River Hong Bao once again spelled “kitsch” (like a blown-up scale of the ubiquitous pasar malams you get all over suburban Singapore nowadays –i.e. pirated VCDs, cheap watches, 3 for $10 T-shirts, handphone accessories and the works). Accidentally deleted all my digital photos from last night :( so can’t show you pics of oversized pink and blue sheep soft-toys, fluorescent yellow Made-in-China stuffed doggies with over-sized heads and cheap sewed-on plastic eyes, Southpark Kennys in a whole range of shades of orange, jumbo styrofoam mandarins and gold nuggets and cartoon-nish looking statues of zodiac animals. Very surreal..

New year period can be such a drag when you have hardly any relatives to visit and all the shops are closed. Spent the afternoon taking pictures of new year goodies we have been stuffing our face with – view my “Amateur Food Photography” : p Have been over-eating (so what’s new?) and not looking forward to the end of the hols… sigh…

HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR!!



Anyone going down to the River Hong Bao 2002??

just finished reading Wall Street Journal best-seller FISH!- on boosting morale and improving results in an organization that is "chronically unenthusiastic and unhelpful". Quite inspired to breathe some new life into shop - not that we are all dead fish or anything like that - in fact, we are probably one of the most energetic and fun shops around (judging from the positive feedback that we get from some customers and also from the unsolicited job applications we get on and off). But sometimes, wish some of the staff (and also ourselves on tired and uninspired days) can be more consistent in sustaining that "fun, bustling, joyful atmosphere and great customer service".

shall try implementing the four ingredients that are mentioned in the book first thing we open on Thursday :) - Choosing Your Attitude (there's always a choice about the way you do your work, even if there is not a choice about the work itself), Play (making work fun), Making Your Customers' Day (getting them involved in the fun); and Being Present at Work (undistracted by other concerns) - hope the staff catch on with the idea..

burp!! :D (lingering smell of seafood and home-made chai masala drifts across living room where mum and sis are enjoying "A Kindred Spirit"...)

just finished stuffing face at home with steamboat-style reunion dinner with papa, mama, korkor and chiechie (truly a rare event 'cos someone - usually me :p - is always not around eating dinner with everyone else :) Mum prepared sumptuous spread of fresh steamboat ingredients - we had really fresh sliced pomfret, giant prawns, copious amounts of my favourite dried fish maw, chicken and pork liver, sliced lean pork, fresh and chewy fish balls, expensive abalone (which apparently hails from the Cal-mex (California-Mexico ?) Sea - only one giant slab in a can - sliced and blanced), chinese lettuce, golden needle mushrooms, and rice vermicilli. Ate and ate and ate and then realised I was exploding at the seams.. hahaha.. seams!!!??

now relaxing over a cup of Kho-Cha Masala Chai I bought from Mumbai last December. Had a good laugh cos I boiled over a mixture of milk and water while blogging. Taste is not bad though I still prefer the one at Borders... must try again - quite amazed at the amount of ingredients that actually go into making a cup of Masala Chai - glad for the ready-mix I have...

so i have a real rest day tomorrow - technically the only public holiday in the whole year that I celebrate at the same time as the rest of Singapore.. we are closed for two days!! And then it will be v-day (panic panic for those unprepared!! - incredible crowd today at shop wiped out most of our supplies of red paints of all sorts - for glass painting, stone painting, silk painting, porcelain painting, t-shirt painting.. hahaha.. :p

Someone over at ArsTechnica's forum have a story of a Palm VII cooked in an oven together with a pizza. Ridiculously, this chap believed that his wet Palm VII could be rescued by putting it in the oven with his backlight on. Well, someone in his house thought better use of the oven and threw in a pizza and turned the heat up...see story

had an early v-day celebration today - got him a pair of Nike ACG Air Storm (weather-resistant) cross trainers and got a cool black digital Swatch Skin from him! Happy happy happy :D

went for 45-min run at East Coast in the morning (from Macs to beyond Fort Rd and then back) and almost collapsed from sheer exhaustion from late previous night (3) and early wake-up (at 7, went back to sleep, and then 8). But starting the weekend exercising almost always feels good - sort of like getting something important out of the way so I can have a relatively guilt-free rest of the weekend to catch up with people, watch movies and generally relax.

enjoyed a simple v-day lunch of Hainanese Chicken Rice at supposedly famous stall at Seven-Storey Hotel near Bugis - where we encountered the most inflexible/non-existent customer service policy we have ever seen.. For those who know me, you know I hate green tea, barley, papayas etc. I hence tried to change the "home-made barley" drink that came with the rice set for something else, like a coke, and was instead rebutted quite matter-of-factly that it was "impossible". She didn't even bother to discuss it and was quite content to just let me stay unsatisfied! Talk about zero customisation!

dinner was at this new Jap ramen restaurant at Shaw Centre Beach Rd where I made the mistake of ordering the plain, quite unexceptional katsudon. Ended up struggling to finish it and looking like this....also found out that Zoolander (starring Ben Stiller) has been banned from showing in Singapore! That was the original reason why we had come to Beach Rd - but think it was banned due to the plot having something to do with the assassination of a Malaysian leader.. gulp! :O

suddenly had this real random desire to go to South Africa, Sri Lanka and/or Tahiti… like.. right now…

just pack up my rucksack, slr and guide book and go…

ever had that feeling?

and so our little nation has been plunged into a sudden state of mourning…

even my daddy, a man of few words and even fewer emotions, upon hearing the shocking news, displayed a downcast, solemn look and could only mutter that he was feeling “sad” – very sad indeed – because Mr Ong was … “one of our Presidents” and because (with a slight pause), he was “an old boy of Chinese High”… :’( daddy then sat in the dark munching his biscuits slowly and thoughtfully… My brother too, speaking with awkward pauses as if making sure he wouldn’t be seen as being too “womanly emotional” in his words, was sad because this man was simply a “good man”. What a splendid example of an individual who has so successfully exemplified the ideal of having lived a meaningful life, that "…..when (he) came to die even the undertaker was sorry." --- Mark Twain” … don’t we all remember how he single-handedly took on and questioned our mighty government during his presidency tenure on the amount of information they should release on the use of the nation’s reserves? There can be no greater amount of respect accorded to this man… who has yet amazingly never left his touch with the common man in the street..

"And in the end it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." --- Abraham Lincoln

we are all feeling really sad indeed

have been sternly reprimanded by a total of THREE people for KIKIA! :D hahaha.... sorry.... :P

Cool blue LCD screen on my 8250 just blanked out yesterday, out of the … err.. blue (no pun intended :p)! Couldn’t read my sms, use caller id or check missed calls – very annoying – and had to rely on my memory of the exact number of presses to get to each phone function. After a whole day of practice, believe I am now able to do the following blindfolded: check voicemail, switch phone to silent mode, turn on and off phone, call familiar numbers and even sms (with a lot of errors lah) simple messages… haha.. found out this “blanking-out” problem is quite common with Nokia 8250.. aiyah.. so inconvenient… got to try to bring down to Nokia Care Center today..

Mktg mgmt lecturer was reminding us to read “Rich Dad Poor Dad” again yesterday at the lecture (I’m at Chapter Eight already anyway :). He said something casually to the class that made me sit up and really think about it hard and long for the rest of the evening.. This was what he said:

“I can predict your future by just knowing two things about you. The type and number of books you read; and the type of friends that you keep.”

Sounds really true. It seems like many of us subconsciously take on the philosophy of what we read and study; and the values, attitudes and behaviours of the people we hang out with. Summarising, I think it is only correct to say that, as “You are (physically) what you eat”, we are also “(philosophically) what we read” and “(psychologically) who we keep as friends”. But wonder what it reveals about me since I read everything from Dilbert to Khalil Gibran to Ancient Histories of Egypt/Greece/China to books on art, architecture, spicy food, travel, photography, personal financial mgmt, biographies & autobiographies, photoshop, national geog, fiction, classics etc..quite random.. and occasionally (though very rarely..:p) Her World!!! :O

got a Kogeban handphone accessory today and suddenly realised how amazingly enduring some of these Japanese cartoon icons are... it's just "Burnt Bread" after all!! :O

have been absolutely hooked on Robert Kiyosaki's best-selling "Rich Dad Poor Dad" - about managing your personal finances - for the past week. Quite intriguing.. really got me rethinking about my spending habits. He advocates buying only Assets if we can (assets being things that can help to make money for us - not "desire goods" such as the latest gadgets, newer cars etc - really like a corporate way of thinking). He says that many people mistake Liabilities and Expenses for "Assets" and end up in debt or struggling with their finances all their life (e.g a car and even a big expensive house). Went shopping today and kept thinking about what he wrote and ended up in the end only buying two CDs - Paul Oakenfold's Tranceport and the Lagaan VCD - both of which I have wanted to buy for a long time (at least 6 months to more than a year!) and the cost falls within the budget allowed by my little "windfall" income I got just today from helping someone do something last month.. :) .. looks like i just might be able to "balance my books" for once if I follow his advice closely.. let's see how..

so HR mgmt lecture tonight was cancelled and for some odd reason I have the feeling of someone suddenly given a day off unexpectedly! :) Like I am on holiday! Realized how precious little time I have nowadays for doing anything else other than going for work, lectures and for the rest of my time spending time with the people in my life. Life becomes a cycle (though not in the negative way, just in case you misunderstand).. it’s just that in this cycle, I don’t really plan for anything and things just kinda happen – so stuff like running, reading, painting, thinking, etc.. sometimes gets neglected… so quite glad I had the opportunity for a short rejuvenating run (in the cool night air) round the estate just now and now for blogging… life’s little pleasures.. :)

having said that, I love my weekends though (all thanks to SIM for not stealing my off weekends away with lectures!) which tend to be filled with even more of life’s little adventures... Had a fulfilling past weekend going Geocaching (treasure hunting with a GPS device) and found my 3rd geocache at Labrador Park! Beautiful bit of Singapore – should go if you haven’t already.. continued Makansutra foodhunting at Old Airport Road Hawker Centre (ate Cho Kee wantan mee and Hougang otak otak), relaxed for a short afternoon with SA over thick creamy unexpectedly yummy milkshakes at Billy Bombers Orchard Point, catching up on each other’s lives, went for a run at East Coast Park (from Macs to Fort Rd and back – wah.. very long!!), then piled it all back with dinner at Fisherman’s Village @ Pasir Ris under a cool and starry night – before ending the week watching a 3h 45 min (so long!! :O )Bollywood hit Kabhi Khushie Kabhie Gham at East Point cinema @ Simei (so far!! :O) it’s worth watching just for the remarkable MTV-style dancing (which will put even MJ and his sister to shame) and the incredibly gorgeous-looking hunks and babes. These Indians look amazing – a mysterious mix of Eastern and Western looks…. Hee hee.. I actually even have the soundtrack from the movie – got that in Mumbai when I was there in Dec! :D

alb just sent me this really funny thing - turn on volume high before you click this.. hee hee...

thanks to karen for telling me to "go for the time share presentation.....if you want to rankle your nerves and commit murder." Ended up really not going in the end 'cos time was really tight, rushing here and there and the timeshare reps were very irritating, calling me at least three times today to check the speling of my name and all that type of nonsense. Know they are up to no good cos guy kept reminding me that i must stay for the full 1 and a half session if i go (same as what karen said about "Been there and almost got into a fight because they wouldn't let me leave earlier than they planned!") and woman told me that i must not "forget to join the special draw to win Cartier products" by matching my 16-digit credit card number with what they draw out at the end of the session.. Wow! Lucky didn't go.. these guys are getting really smart.. getting your credit card details using such deceptive means..

fortunately i am not the greedy type and Cartier-Tiffany-Resort Holidays don't mean much to me..

I'll take hill trekking in Chiang Mai anytime... :)

Just got a call from this "timeshare holiday" salesman saying that I (and another 249 lucky people who did a survey last year - err..oh please!... since when??) have won "Free Holidays For Two" to I-can't-remember-where. durrhh?? these people are so incredibly pesky and he kept pestering me to commit myself to a 1 and a 1/2 hour presentation on time-share holidays.. very suspicious.. but (just for the heck of it) am actually quite curious to know how they sell it - I'm always quite amazed by how incredibly surreal these hard-sell salespeople make you feel as they talk to you... they are like Info-mmercials come alive, going on and on in front of you even when you show the most bored, disgusted, annoyed, PMS-ed look. Where did they learn to talk like that??

Them: Miss, got time or not? (flashes fake million-dollar smile)
Me: No. (looking really sian)
Them: Won't take up much of your time.
Me: No. (avoiding eye contact)
Them: We have here this product hor, you find in shopping centre...
Me: (you give an incredulous look)
Them: selling for $49.99! Today here, just for today, we are having a special promotion. Instead of $49.99, we are selling you for only $9.99!! I am not joking! You can check with Metro and Robinsons! And if you buy today, we also give you this extra thing free!
Me: Thank you. But I am not interested.
Them: Take a look at it lah. You dowan to miss out on this...
Me: I AM NOT INTERESTED IN IT!!
Them: err... ok hor (slightly shocked).. thank you.. (colgate smile instantly vanishes and walks out robotically)..

I sometimes even imagine they are actually mechanical people, run on batteries...

OH NO!! We are going to be hit by a 3.5ton Satellite falling from space soon!!! :O >> Read article from CNN

just upgraded from my faithful to a yesterday! Now I'm Walking On The Blue Side...hahaha...

M1 has this amazing new promotion until month-end and I managed to get the phone for only $0 as long as I sign another 2 year contract for their Ultimate plan!! wow wow wow!! :) well, its not entirely free (as some friends like to keep reminding me).. but don't matter, I am already on the Ultimate plan now and i'm not likely to change my telco provider anytime soon anyway (since my existing number is the only way some of my overseas friends can contact me now..)... hooray!! what a nice treat for myself :)

watched Black Hawk Down last night and couldn't help thinking about the movie again and again today. Gore and drama aside, I think the movie really hit home with a couple of thought provoking scenes, among them being the numerous scenes where the Somalis were shot down like flies by the Americans (and yet they kept coming and coming - a faceless mob of angry people gone mad) and also the scenes where the US soldiers had quiet contemplative moments and being humans had struggled with why they were engaged in "someone else's war".

while taking care not to come across as an extreme pro-US person, I have to admit that the more I ponder on it, the more I am moved by what I realised was undoubtedly the driving force behind what eventually brings US to involve itself in all these wars around the world (surfed the net for "US Involvement In War" and came up with an amazing amount of information about US militia in World War I, II, Vietnam, Panama, Afghanistan (during the time of Russian invasion), Colombia, Nicaragua,Greece, Somalia, Kuwait, the Balkans, Philippines etc etc..). While it is easy to dismiss the US involvement as largely due to self-interest (e.g. for oil during the Gulf War - as your taxi driver uncle will tell you), this cause seems miserably inadequate to explain why the individual soldier on the ground will be willing to risk his life for a cause like this, especially in wars like the one in Somalia and in Vietnam - where the economic benefit to US is even more unclear. That's when I thought there must be a higher cause - something that they believe in so much that they are willing to give up their comfort and prove it with their lives - and it seems like these were (from watching the movie and also from reading some online stuff) the ideals of human rights, democracy, anti-terrorism etc.. some strong beliefs that these people seemed to have learnt from young... Frankly speaking, I think all this is so amazing for a country that is so rich and powerful and comfortable and could choose not to get involved nor to assume such a difficult international role....

This sort of thing must be foreign to so many of us in Singapore.....

have just been passed this small black book TAXI DRIVER WISDOM - a collection of apparent quotes by New York cab drivers together with some really nice b&w lomo-style photos - really funny and amazingly philosophical what these guys come up with.. haha... :p

On the human condition: "You say you are happy, you are lying." On chemistry: "Love is 90% responsibility. Whatever that other 10 percent is, it must be quite something." On cat fighting: "This jealousy I have seen in my sisters, but not in my brothers."

No regrets: "Each day is like another bud on a tree: impossible, without the tree beneath it." At peace: "I like driving. Otherwise I take another job. Each thing can be everything for you. You make driving everything." On understanding: "If there is understanding, there is love. If there is no understanding, there is only an endless stream of questions." Reading signs: "If a man keeps telling you he loves you, over and over, then something is wrong."

On motive: "We do everything for ourselves." On women who claim to love boring men: "What everyone likes the best is money, but they don't say it." On better halves: "People look so much better alone." On the rhythm of life: "The traffic - it slows, it speeds up again for no reason sometimes." On finding a mother: "Women choose who they love the most. Men choose who loves them the most." On identity crises: "Whatever you become, someone will long for what you were." Ashes to ashes: "We are all born poor."

I've never had two consecutive nights where I can remember my dreams so vividly! :O Must be that my body is still trying to digest all the food and late dinners that I've been stuffing my face with...umm... Last night, I had this really long dream where I was in India, having just gotten off a train. Later on, when I had left the place for quite a distance and time, I suddenly realised I had left all my luggage behind in the station (ya, quiet unbelieveable :p).. anyway, I started making my way back to the station and got lost along the way, all the time thinking (ya, still in my dream) that the luggage would probably already have been stolen.. Actually woke up really glad it was only a dream.. gosh, i would really hate to lose my luggage on a trip...

Was curious to know what this can reveal about my psychological state and found this:

Luggage stands for your personal effects or what you carry with you on a journey. What happens to the luggage? Lost luggage might be a concern about your identity or about being prepared for the journey. Stolen luggage might suggest that you feel someone is interfering with your attempt to reach a goal

oh dear... can I possibly have so much going around in my subconscious that I don't know about??

had this recurring dream last night about my car. What happens is that every time I get to my car - no matter where I park it - I will find the bonnet up, the car windows down and this huge stuffed polar bear (it was really really big!) sitting in the driver's seat - :O I remember that in the dream, I was convinced that someone had obviously stolen or made a duplicate of my car keys, so I made an effort to park my car at different places. Yet, it kept happening. Very bizarre. But got woken up by phone ring so didn't manage to figure out how to solve the problem.. :P

Went to Google and searched for "polar bear dreams" just now and found two interpretations of this dream -

1. Your dream is very telling of your emotional state. The snowy environment that you are in suggests that you may be emotionally cold or indifferent. The polar bear symbolizes some deep and negative emotions that is yearning to be expressed. Bears hibernate. This may be analogous to repressed feelings which have remained quietly in your subconscious. At some point, these feelings are going to awake and need to be expressed and confronted... (huh??? what deep and negative emotion??)

2. Due to its color, a polar bear in a dream is a good omen signifying an improvement in your circumstances. (hahahaha :D... duh?? how different the two interpretations can be!!)

Met up with some Sec 4 classmates (haven't seen them for the last 10 years!!) last night for a yummy home-made pasta dinner and decided enthusiastically we are going to try to get the whole Sec 4 class together for a reunion of some sort. Once again, it was interesting to find out where everyone is now and how they have changed in their looks and aspirations and to find out who is still in touch with whom. :) Its really nice to still be able to talk to each other comfortably. Found out most of the girls are either getting married or are already blissfully married. :)

just got this really fun game from alb - let the cats bounce on the trampoline and then rescue them by vacuuming them up - definitely another fantastic time-waster... :p remember to turn on the hypnotic background music..

funny... had a really fun HR mgmt lecture just now and discussed loads about managing and leveraging on culture diversity within an organisation. Had a lot of thoughts on the topic - especially on this article by Singapore writer Catherine Lim about cultural antagonism - and wanted to come back and blog them down but now my brain has turn to mush... think i am just too tired..

got to hit the sack now... zzzz....

watched critically-acclaimed French movie Amélié from Montmartre just now and think it is one of the best movie I've ever ever seen!! With the original quirky irrelevance and discordance of parts of the movie alongside the actual/main story line, the way the characters are introduced and developed, and the feel-good factor in the movie, I really can't imagine how the movie could end up not being a hit! :D Those are probably why the movie really struck a powerful chord in me... Simple storyline of pretty Amelie (played by amazingly adorable Audrey Tautou) who meddles in the lives of fellow Parisians and makes some serendipitious positive changes in their lives. Maybe it was also this thing they call "The Amélié Effect": an accumulation of good deeds and charitable acts the film inspires - really really cool! As one online movie reviewer says "The flick may not be deep but it is entertaining for both the eye and the intellect." Can't agree more.. I say this movie is a must-see. Please, please don't miss it.

Met up with some of my Primary 6 classmates for dinner gathering at Marche Restaurant just now. Wow! Haven't seen some of them for almost 15 years since we all left HPPS to our respective Secondary schools! Interesting to find out about the different paths we have all taken since then (we have a couple of lawyers, teachers, a researcher and others among them) and the varying perspectives and ideas we all have now. More intriguing was this game Miak made us play where we went round the table and everyone had to name someone else in the class who was not at the gathering... it was amazing how many of the names no longer sound familiar (let alone the faces!).. nonetheless we did manage to come up with all 43 names in the end. Wonder when we will finally have a gathering where everyone turns up. Not altogether impossible since we already have almost 26 people on our email list! Not bad, huh? :)

Fun. :)

i'm now an unofficial spokesperson for the new Shell V-Power fuel! Think they've really got the coolest and most delightful product I've ever been convinced to try out! Went to a Shell petrol station today to pump up with Super 98 as usual and was convinced by two bubbly kiosk attendants to try out "The New V-Power". According to them, although the fuel was $0.12 a litre more expensive, it cleans up the engine over the longer run and eventually will help start saving money..umm.. the colourful brochure also struck a chord with me:

- Does your car crawl up a hill at a snail's pace - even when you press fully on the accelerator? (err... yes...)
- Are you always slow to overtake another car on the road? (ok.. ya also..)
- Do you have trouble picking up speed when you car is loaded with passengers? (ya ya ya!!)
- Are you always the last to accelerate when the lights turn green? (gasp! It's so true!!)

If you answer "yes" to all the above questions, you'll need the power of Shell V-Power... blah blah blah....

According to the brochure, the fuel was developed through collaborative research by Ferrari and Shell. Hence, the fuel is able to simulate performance car behaviour (wow, can imagine being a Formula One driver.. :p) The new fuel "comes with a potent blend of high-energy components that vaporises and burns a lot more effiiciently, leading to more increased energy production." With the fuel, the car will also become more responsive, allowing you to experience an extra surge of power when needed to overtake and pull away from road hoggers such as "pick-ups with no pick-ups, lorries spilling mud from its side etc". Lastly, the fuel also cleans up (instead of the usual build-up of carbon on) the engine as it burns.. wow.. quite amazing..

I've always been suspicious and sceptical of this sort of "too-good-to-be-true" product. However, I decided to just try it and the difference was amazing! I don't think I've enjoyed driving as much until now! My old Mazda 323 suddenly became really smooth and I found overtaking a piece of cake.. in fact, while going up a somewhat long and steep stretch of PIE, I actually suddenly felt a burst of power in the engine (rather out of the blue!) and started overtaking even Mercedes Benzs!! wow wow wow!! It was definitely a product that feels diiferent! I have to admit I'm overwhelmed!

Met up in evening for dinner with friends from University and Meili's friend from Mongolia and realised that she (the friend), like many other tourists, find Singapore really fascinating and beautiful. Decided to take a couple of pics around the Singapore River and they actually came out quite nice.. think as Singaporeans, we sometimes fail to see the beauty that is right in front of us and keep repeating how boring the country is to the point that ironically, we need a tourist to tell us how beautiful our country is before we can see that again.....

hahaha... talk about someone who really wants to sell his hard drive!! It's HAUNTED!!! :P

This visualization thing I’m doing is getting more intriguing! It surprises me how much more consistent work and effort will need to be put into what I am doing now if I really want to be where I would ideally like to be in 5 to 10 years’ time. Realised that to be good at something, everything needs to be paced along and built up over time and will not happen overnight.. Think of this analogy my Finance lecturer likes to use.. ”You can’t eat 5 meals all at one go”.. so true..

This is how I do my Visualization Exercise:

1. I think of all the things I am interested in or have always intended myself to learn and be good at. E.g. oil painting, photography, a particular language (e.g. Bahasa Indonesia), blading, etc…

2. Next, I decide the level of competence/standard I really want to be at to consider myself “good enough”. This will differ from person to person, of course. For Bahasa, for example, it will be good enough for me to be conversationally comfortable. I really don’t need to know how to write an essay in the language! : p For photography, on the other hand, I would want to know also how to handle black & white film expertly..

3. I will then rank myself from 1 to 10 on the level of competence I am at now (relative to where I want to be). For Bahasa, I am probably now only at 1/10 (i.e. know really really basic stuff and cannot really sustain a conversation for more than.. err.. 2 mins?? :p).

4. From this exercise, I will then know

a. The areas of interest I am actually interested in,
b. What else I need to learn and know,
c. How much further I need to go, and
d. Best of all, what I would have accomplished 10 years later if all things really go the way I plan (the hope is quite sustaining..)

I will then realize there is still so much work to be done! Try it!

I've been told that the "mock lomo pics" i took are actually just distorted pics, not lomo at all.. its like saying the mock meat i cooked is actually just "modified gluten" i suppose... :p oh well... i'll try harder..

Been thinking quite a lot about where I want to be and what i want to be doing 5 to 10 years from now... Think it was triggered by my reading of this book "Success is A Journey" about this guy who woke up one day and decided to travel 17,000 miles from the west coast of America to Cape Town, South Africa...it's a book about "fulfilling your dreams" and the "importance of courage, persistence, and the acceptance of total responsibility for one's very survival".

Incidentally, over the last weekend, I also chanced upon this "Life In Hell" comic strip in IS magazine by Matt Groening (of The Simpsons fame). This funny rabbit-eared buck-toothed character was told that he had within himself all that he needed to create the life that he wants for himself. All he had to do was to "choose and focus on a life that embodies his highest aspirations and wildest fantasies, a life full of love and laughs and adventure." He had to visualize what the life would be like ("feel it in your bones, let your imagination soar"). Then, imagining that ten long years have passed and everything in life has happened in the "best possible way" - "What will you be doing? What will you have accomplished? Where will you be living? Who will you be kissing?"…

Quite inspiring… seriously…where would I really want to see myself? How do I want to be feeling at that time?

Watched highly-rated Jap animation “Spirited Away” just now and was totally blown away by wonderful storyline, amazingly well-drawn graphics and cute characters. It's such a wonderful, wonderful show!! Heard there were long lines outside cinemas in Japan and even US when it first opened! Brings back the child in all of us - a story with seeming good and evil but at the end of it a thread of humanity stringing everything together... even though all the characters are spirts.. umm.. :p Anyway, go and see it - if not you will regret it when I meet you and rave about it in your face!! :D

"For the people who used to be 10 years old,
and the people who are going to be 10 years old."
-- Hayao Miyazaki

just found out how to take lomo-type pictures with my digital cam by adjusting the white-balance when taking under tungsten lighting!! Check out these pics I took randomly yesterday!

Received an inspiring letter from an overseas friend today and feeling on top of the world now. :)

Wonderful line he wrote inside should speak a lot to all of us:

I know life is beautiful.

A simple sentence… yet, how many of us just cannot seem to be able to feel and see that anymore. Life has become “boring, stressful, tiring…” and people have become “cynical, artificial, and judgmental..”…. you name it, we’ve all heard it.. one form or other… why can’t we just see that life, no matter what happens, is still beautiful and wonderful…. when will we be able to speak this simple sentence with the same amount of confidence and faith...

Even the darkest of moments, for how much it sounds like a cliché, is an opportunity to “learn something and to do something positive for yourself – to become stronger inside, independent, and to want more out of life than before” To quote best-selling author Richard Paul Evans,

“It is in the darkest skies that the stars are best seen.”

Wow.. :)

just saw a link to this on dannybunny's website.... hahahhaha... reminds me of the Mahir craze some two years back.. tried to find the original site again but couldn't.. seems like they have taken it out.. :( What a pity.. :p Read that the hits to this guy's hoax homepage (saboed by friends) went into the millions and spun off a bunch of spoof sites and even a webring!

And this is truely amazing.... The Condiment Packet Museum... truely bo-liao... :p

Spent the day today interviewing people who responded to our ad for a “Sales & Marketing Exec”.. we decided to state upfront what we deal in – art supplies and stationery; our target market – schools, clubs and offices; our requirement for the person to have sales experience and a car; for the candidate to have “excellent communication skills” and to be “a self-starter, energetic and resourceful”. Got quite a bunch of great candidates.. some more interviews tomorrow.. phew! :)

Had a really fun HR management class just now. We went through the different personality types defined by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator – which states that everyone can basically be made up of a combination of 4 dimensions:

Extroversion (E) or Interversion (I) – how you relate to people
Sensing (S) or Intuition (N) – how you look at data and analyse things
Thinking (T) or Feeling (F) – how you make decisions
Judging (J) or Perceiving (P) – how you live your life

I have done this test twice before (at 16 and 23) and have always come out as an “INTP” type – which basically summarises myself as being someone “focusing more on his/her inner world, prefers change rather than continuation, preferring to take in info through “sixth sense” and doing things with an innovative bent, making decisions on the basis of cause and effect by analyzing and weighing the consequences (though I don’t really score high in this area – I may be mildly “F” – which means I sometimes make decision based on values) and like to live life in a flexible, spontaneous way, preferring to stay open to experience, enjoying and trusting my ability to adapt to the moment”. According to the lecturer, S type logical people take in info using their 5 senses, noticing what is actual rather than the abstract notions behind things. They can thus be quite unromantic and tend to express their affection in practical ways, e.g. buying you a vacuum cleaner for Valentines Day so you don’t have to strain while cleaning the floor.. hahaha. :p. umm…. Also, P type people, by their nature of being disorganized and spontaneous, may frustrate J type people, who tend to live their lives in planned, orderly ways, wanting to regulate and control life. J-type people are seldom late, preferring to arrive 5-mins early, compared to P types who are perpetually rushing.. Oh! :O

Read something good:

The Dawn Of Reality
Many great success in life comes just one step beyond where you are ready to quit. There is a time in your life when you feel yourself suddenly beyond caring, completely willing to accept the outcome, whatever it is. And at that moment, fate intervenes. Destiny acts. Something happens.

Every test that you take and pass on your journey merely prepares you for more difficult tests and challenges. They never end. They only change and become tougher as you grow and mature.

Never wish for things to be easier. Instead, wish that you are stronger and better. Never seek the easy way out. Instead look for the hard way through.

Nature is kind. She never sends you a problem that is too big for you to handle. She is clever as well. She prepares you step by step, raising the bar, the requirements, gradually, until you are ready for the big tests when they come.

As long as you have a clear goal and a plan, and you are willing to be flexible in the face of changing circumstances, you will continue to move onward and upward.

You will eventually look back and be amazed at how far you have come. But it is nothing in comparison to how far you have yet to go.

This is so funny!!! hahahaha.... It's one of those animated gifs that tell a story..

I have nothing new to write about today.

It’s one of those days.

And I remember that I used to think that this sort of days were the most wasted days. Every day had to be packed. Meeting people. Doing things. Trying out new stuff. Planning for more adventures… For some reason, I had to see myself (more than to be seen by other people) doing new and exciting things every single day. This was how I interpreted “Living Each Day To The Fullest”.

How wrong I was.

I like days like this now. I really do. Days of stillness and non-excitement somehow give that balance – the essential balance – to the other exciting & busy days. It’s only when my mind is really still and peaceful that I find myself stopping and looking within. I look at how things are going. I think about how I have been over the past few days. I think about how I have related to other people – the words of encouragement and inspiration, but also the words carelessly and hurtfully spoken. I contemplate silently and when I pray, I find myself hearing what God has to say more clearly, uncluttered by the noises of the day. I sleep more soundly at night and I feel more prepared for the day ahead. And I enjoy every experience that comes along after that more consciously and more deeply.

That I feel is living life to the fullest.

Had a really nourishing body-and-mind day yesterday. Woke up early-early for breakfast and then went blading at East Coast, managing to cover the Fort Rd to (not really but almost) Bedok Jetty stretch twice (to and fro). But I think I still prefer running… somehow, it’s feels more like a real cardio workout to me compared to blading. It’s like drinking beer and whisky, as Alb puts it.. Had yummy lunchie of Hill Street Char Kway Teow (I’ve finally found them!! They are here!! At Bedok South Rd Blk 16 Unit 187!! They are the best!! Yum…:) before going “geocaching” (treasure hunting using a GPS device). I’ve found my 2nd cache so far! :D – basically, the idea is to hunt for a “cache” (which is usually a Tupperware container containing a log book, some trinkets and a pen) given just a bunch of coordinates you can key into your handheld GPS device. You will then use these coordinates to find your way to the “treasure”. It’s quite fun and allows you to discover Singapore in a new way.

Met up with close bunch of Sec School friends in evening for dinner at Kopitiam and then drinks at Public House. We had one of the best and most fulfilling gatherings last night sharing stuff that some of us didn’t know about each other… as we shared, we felt our bonds strengthened and really glad about the friendship, the bonding, the certainty that these people will be here for you no matter what happens in the future. As friends who have known each other for between 14 to 18 years, we knew we would still be sitting around together 20, 30… 50 years from now, having a good time together. Of course by then, we may be drinking stuff that is a lot milder.. or worse still, as Kai puts it, we will be wiping spittle from the corners of each others mouths.. hahaha…

I love this bunch of friends.. :)

So I'm back home now checking out online car maintenance sites and wondering when the next AA "Car Maintenance Workshop" will be held. This site is not bad.. got a lot of pictures.. :)

WHAT AN APPALLING GAP IN MY KNOWLEDGE OTHERWISE!! :O

Thought today was going to be a relatively uneventful day until harrowing (ok, I exaggerate) experience just now. Left FM ($$ mgmt) lecture wk 2 promptly at 10pm and went back to car only to find that the battery has gone completely flat!! :O Turned out that I had forgotten to turn off the car headlights!!! Thought these sort of careless things only happen to other people, especially since I had a lot of sleep last night! :(

Anyhow, had to wait for AA guy to come and fix it – Poor guy came after 30mins and was quite appalled by what he saw. The battery had almost no water in it!! Huh? What’s battery water?, I asked innocently (for once sounding like a bimbo.. sheesh… :p also feeling a little sorry for not paying attention to what my dear friend Lynn used to tell me about car maintenance - I think she did mention once something on battery water..) anyhow, nice guy jumpstarted my car and told me to drive to nearest petrol kiosk to buy battery water to top it up. I drove carefully, making sure I didn't stall my car along the way (quite stressful) and went to my favourite Shell station along Upper Bukit Timah Rd. Genial Mr Ramli there was equally appalled at what he saw :p Only 3 bottles (no less) of battery water was sufficient to top up the parched battery (Mr Ramli said he had personally never experienced a situation as bad.. ever.. :p).. on top of that, the radiator water was also almost empty, the water for the windshield wiper was running low, and I could not seem to answer some questions he had, such as if the engine oil is enough etc.. :( Oh dear.. what an embarrassment for a car owner and someone who has been driving for more than 8 years!! Still have to wait till tomorrow to find out if my battery needs to be changed… if not will have to get AA to come again tomorrow.. according to Mr Ramli, I shouldn’t try jumpstarting it myself ‘cos if I get the polarity of the wires wrong, the car may EXPLODE!! :O

I always knew I would be famous some day... (see magazine cover)

In the mood of scanning... check out lovely wrapping paper for one of my presents...

Did I ever tell you how special January 8 is? :) It is the..

Birthday of
- German composer Robert Schumann (1810)
- Elvis Presley (1935)
- Shirley Bassey (1937)
- Stephen W. Hawking (1942) - A Brief History of Time
- David Bowie (1947)

& Death Anniversary of
- Marco Polo, Explorer (1324)
- Galileo Galilei, Astronomer (1642)
- Lord Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scout movement (1941)
- Zhou Enlai, the most popular leader of China in the 20th century (1976)
- François Mitterrand, President of France (1981-95) (1996)

Wow! I could be famous one day!! :O Check out who's born on your birthday at Genealogy Today

Check out this site that shows a way of folding maps to make them small enough to be carried easily and still be available for use without having to unfold them entirely. It works! Try it out on paper first! It requires you to cut a slit in the map though. Cool.. :)

My Cologenics Personality Test says that I am a "manipulator", lazy, tired, stressed out, uncertain, suspicious but.. of "true managerial material"!! hahahaha... :p

You are striving to make favourable impressions all of the time. and you are going out of your way to make the impression that you are something special... You are constantly on the watch to see how your friends and neighbours are reacting to your various ploys . But this is so unnecessary.. because most of the time you are in control of the situation - and you are, in the nicest sense of the word, a "manipulator" because you use various strategies very cleverly in order to influence and obtain the necessary recognition.

You are lazy ... You dream of a peaceful, calm, uncluttered and uncomplicated life. Your ideal would be to share a permanent base with some person or persons who would be able to demonstrate on-goinglove, peace and security.

You feel tired...worn out and listless. The last thing that you want to do is to be in an open conflict with those around you that are forever tormenting you... What to do? -That's the rub..you are feeling that you are being choked...unable to breathe..

Setback after setback has resulted in considerable stress and now you have got to the stage that you are continuously on your guard, not only to protect yourself from others but to protect yourself from yourself. It would seem that many of your unfulfilled hopes and dreams have led to uncertainty and suspicion. You no longer wish to answer to others and you are insisting on freedom of thought. You feel that you are fully self-sufficient and can control your own destiny. You are seeking ways to protect yourself from further loss of prestige and against further setbacks. You have become very dependent and you doubt that matters could possibly get any better in the immediate future and this negative attitude is leading you to exaggerate your claims and to refuse reasonable compromise.

You are trying to build up your own position and you resist all external influences. You insist that you are your own person and you will not tolerate any outside interference. Decisive and proud, you are true managerial material...

Just back from yet another stimulating Marketing Management Class - today's topic was Marketing Research :p (which we are very much lacking of but desperately needing for our shop). According to youthful-looking lecturer (who amazingly has a 17-year-old son and a 13-year-old daughter!), important decisions should be preceded by proper research - which he then systematically proved by using the example of his choice of marriage partner - which he emphasized was done only after rigorous "research" of the many choices out there. hahahah :p he says he didn't just go out and marry the first girl he saw... durrhh???

went for an expat tai-tai lunchtime houseparty today halfway through the day at one of our teacher's house. Malay lady married this Englishman and spends her day painting silk and folk art, playing tennis and golf, volunteering, and doing "aqua aerobics" with other such ladies. They are all part of this so called "Singapore Flower Club" (getting together to discuss and arrange flowers) and another "International Ladies Group" that get together to do arts and crafts.. umm.... remember how many of us in school (not me lah!) used to dream of such a life.. hahaha... anyway, all the home-made food were really yummy.. we had moussaka, some popiah thingey, chicken with apricot sauce, thai vermicelli salad, thai sticky rice dessert (which is really yummy!!), spring rolls and lots of exotic fruits (strawberries and grapes).. yum.. yum.. I'm growing fat I tell you...

Look at the new iMac!! It looks like a table lamp! I want!! :P

Birthday celebrations yesterday ended with a bang! Had the best dinner of my life (so far) at The Tavern – this Swiss/Mediterranean restaurant along River Valley Rd – trying out all these gourmet stuff I’ve only (until now) read about. Starters were Foie Gras (pan-fried Goose Liver) and Oysters (both cholesterol-laden delicacies but equally worth dying for!! ok.. I exaggerate..). We then had the US Niman Rib-Eye steak (supposedly the highest “melt-in-the-mouth” quality -sold by every 10g) and Fried Cod – also really yummy!! – downed with this Italian red wine the excitable waiter recommended. Ended dinner with this Swiss desert Coupe Neselrode that came looking like fried spaghetti (chestnut puree) with meringue, whipped cream and vanilla ice cream. Yum Yum!!! :) :) :) :) Yum Yum…

Birthday loot for this year: An Eagle Creek Matrix Neon (Ne) bag (perfect for carrying notes to my lectures! Thanks alb! I love it!), a Basic Techniques for Painting Texture In Watercolour book & a Polymer Clay – The Weekend Crafter book (from my dearest pals from RGS :) thanks gals!), a funky Pop Quartz watch with a really cool but “impossible-to-wear-by-yourself” strap (thanks HM! :)), a “Huiling Poem” (: p thanks Mich!), an ORDNING&REDA glossy notebook with an innocent-looking cat on the cover (great for me to “pen my thoughts, sketch, let my creative juices flow..” thanks SA! :)), “Jelly T-Lights” (from Sarah) and a stream of sms & phone birthday greeting throughout my (otherwise really stressful ‘cos office computer hard drive crashed) day. Thanks Everyone!! Love You All!!

Btw, it has finally happened… an album dedicated to my Buttercup paraphernalia!! Wahahahah….!!! :O

thanks Karen and Matthew for wonderful birthday greetings!! :)

I'm glad to have met wonderful people like you too!!

watched psychological thriller Vanilla Sky on Sunday night and for some reason was really spooked by the show. Started shivering and goose-bumping and felt really spooked out.... inexplicable...but the show is not bad, quite like the original plot and the fact that both Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz are both good-looking helps..

Ask yourself honestly: WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY?

oops.. just found out that plot isn't original after all! .. >>

Sheer exhaustion from too many late nights and brain and body exerting activities (I mean running, just in case your imagination runs wild.. :p). But I have to blog.. I HAVE TO BLOG!!! :O …. Hahaha… talk about a sudden moment of insanity..hahaha… Am I going.. senile… ??? gulp!

H A P P Y - B I R T H D A Y - T O - M E ! ! ! :) LALALALA…. I AM GETTING OLDER!!! WAHAHAHA…. Today 27 years ago is the very significant day God decided to put me into this world to make the world a better place for you…. Wow! What a great thought! :) I think this is probably one of the nicest birthdays I’ve experienced for a long long while… its nice to realize that a lot of the friends I have around me are people I have known either for a long time or people whom I’ve only gotten to know recently but intensely… that’s probably what being human is really about.. it’s about people and our primal need to feel connected with them..

House birthday party on Saturday went well! Mum made yummy fried bee-hoon (saturated with juicily-fried assorted ingredients), curry chicken (my favourite), steamed prawns (very juicy and very fresh), spicy pig’s stomach soup (phew! Shiok!), ngoh hiang (Mum's specialty), bouncy Jap jellies (as Kai likes to call them Konnyaku), kueh kosui and agar agar, and bought loads of exotic fruits (Sarawak pineapples, seedless grapes etc); we concocted a murky (but still drinkable) version of Sangria (OJ, 7-Up and Red Wine) and Kenneth brought longevity buns (pink, peach-like NTUC ones). Mostly good friends from school plus a rojak mix of others and we all had a good time! Even tried showing my VCD – Ferris Bueller’s Day Off but no one was paying any attention to it, preferring to talk and mingle and stuff face... nice :)

Wah.. so exhausted from working and studying part-time (the 3 times a week 3 hours every time schedule) that I think I am going to start slacking off in my blogging.. must persist must persist... :p Yesterday we learnt (at Financial Management Wk 1) from the "Absolutely Professional" lecturer that accountants are the best off whatever the economic situation. According to him, when the economy is doing well, accountants are definitely employed (cos you need them for mergers, acquisitions whatever). When the economy is doing really badly and the company closes down, accountants are the last ones to go cos you need them to close up the final accounts of the company. In a situation when the company is starting to do badly, accountants will be the first to know (cos they are the ones who manage the company's accounts) and hence be able to quit before things get worse. hahaha... quite true.

Waiting now for guests to arrive for birthday house party!! mum has prepared a lot of food.. yum.. yum..

Finally bought a copy of JB Jeyaretnam’s “Make It Right For Singapore” yesterday from him selling it outside Centrepoint. Decided to buy it cos have been really curious about it since the first time I saw it being sold a long time ago and also because he and his assistant were shouting “Last Copy! Last Copy!” and being Singaporean I just couldn’t walk away like that… our conversation went:

Me: Is this really the last copy? (one must be sure, you see..)
Mr Jeyaretnam: Yes, it is (showing me his empty bag. his assistant did the same)
Me: I see… I’ll have it then… will you sign it for me please?
Mr J: Of course.. all my copies are signed (he takes out his pen and starts writing in it)
Me: How do I contact you if I want to ask some questions? Do you have an email address inside?
Mr J: umm…. No.. but you can contact me using this number (he proceeds to write his number in the book.. gulp!! :P)
Me: Is this book biased? (lowering my voice and saying in a mock-innocent way)
Mr J: (Raising his voice a few notches) Of course it is biased! It is VERY biased!! Hahaha…it is biased, and if you want the Truth, the truth can be found with the PAP
Me: hahaha… thank you then.. (taking the book from him) guess you all can go home now...
Mr J: You can read about how the PAP….. (his voice trailed off as he started to mumble to himself and I continued to walk towards Breadtalk to get my favourite Flossies…)
Me: Thank You.. thank you…
Mr J: ….. (mumble mumble… what a strange man..)

2nd day of work and 3rd day of New Year and am already playing too hard! :P



Stayed up late last night with fun-loving and relaxed bunch of 4 friends having dinner at Rice Table Restaurant (at Cuppage Terrace) having Rijstaffel set (an Indonesian buffet-style meal where they serve you up to 20 dishes (tahu telor, rendang, otak otak, sambal prawns, sotong, sate ayam – yum..yum…:), fruit salad, kangkong belachan, etc etc) and you sample the lot and then you can order extra of whatever you like.. very social-style dinner and much of the dinner-time is spent on discussing which dish you think is nice and passing around those you want your dinner companions to try out. Quite cool. The only other place that I know serves this sort of thing is Alkaff Mansion (which is quite beyond the reach of most of us anyway..) Hung around at quiet Doug’s Bar (still along Cuppage Terrace) after that drinking Tiger Beer (What Time Is It? What Time Is It? :p) and discussing random topics from famous murder cases in the past (Adrian Lim – the medium guy, remember??, Mimi-something – who killed her husband’s mistress, the Curry murder case, etc etc), new PDA models coming up in the year (we all want the Sony Clie!!), and even other topics too risqué to be published :p… very fun…

First day back at work.. Overwhelmed by realization of all the work that still has to be done!! :O Spent morning training new staff and afternoon trying to plan for the whole year ahead plus calculating all the estimated profits of the shop's different operations.. don't know what the economic climate will be like this year.. guess no one really knows.. but since it's still the start of the year, everyone is still in quite a high and positive mood so seems ok so far.. hope it maintains this way..

attended the first day of lessons at SIM today - on Marketing Management - and we already have our assigned group for projects as well as our topics!! quite scary to be back in class.. thankfully nothing was really hard to understand..

Lesson for today: Marketing (in the new economy) is really less about "Selling A Product's Features" but more of "Helping Someone To Enhance Their Lifestyle".. umm... true... should try it out in our new marketing strategy planning for this year.. "Paint and Enhance your Life?".. "Paint and Look More Attractive?"... "Craft Your Life???" umm... think I need to "be in a contemplative mood and let my mind wander freely" to generate new ideas (as guru Dr Yoshiro NakaMats - brilliant guy who has more than 3,000 patented inventions (including 16 to IBM) compared to Thomas Edison's mere :p 1,093 - says)

url: Soda Constructor

H A P P Y - N E W - Y E A R ! ! ! ! H A P P Y - N E W - 2 0 0 2 ! ! ! :-O

Wishing All A Tremendously Rewarding 2002!! And May All Your Grand Plans (i.e. Resolutions) Bear Fruit, May You Achieve Great Happiness & Wisdom In "All Things That Matter To You" - Faith, Family, Friends, Love, Career (or work), Finances, Creativity & Fun! :) - and May You Finally Discover A Path That Is True & Satisfying To Yourself In The Year Ahead!

Counted down to the all important New Year's Day with a bunch of fun-loving people last night at very atmospheric Cosy Bay at Tanjong Rhu Road. Some enterprising chap converted this old lighthouse overseeing the Indoor Stadium into a (somewhat cheesy) mult-storey pub-cum-restaurant - very cooling, very relaxed setting but quite cheena cos they kept switching between Cantopop, Chinese songs, Eurotrance and some random pop music and we stuffed our faces with deep-fried chicken wings and french fries downed with jugs of Tiger Beer (What Time Is It? What Time Is It? :p) as we counted down repeatedly (a-la Teletubbies) and sang Auld Lang Syne. The mood was not quite as exuberant as we had hoped it to be, though we had a bit of excitement as the new year arrived when someone from one of the higher levels of the lighthouse threw a lit sparkler onto the canvas canopy (and immediately fled) and it set off a little fire (which got worst when someone else in a moment of maniacal panic threw a full mug of Tiger beer onto the flames! :p).. anyway, fire got extinguished eventually by quite on-the-ball pub staff and eveyone once again resumed their chatter.. quite anticlimactic...

Started the year well today waking up early at 7.30am (cos went to send friend off at airport) and then blading at East Coast in the afternoon before stuffing face with yummy chilli crab at Long Beach for dinner. Yet I'm home early and blogging before 11pm!! :) Think I'll actually get to bed by 12 and get up on time tomorrow!! Yay! East Coast Park was really crowded (the swell partly attributtable - i'm sure- to the people jumpstarting their New Year Resolutions :p) and people just crashed into each other or into lamp-posts and dustbins.. even this friend of ours (who is a fairly competent skater) fell and got a serious cut on his chin (which needed four stitches!!) and alb dislocated his thumb (ouch!) and almost fell into a manmade pond in the park.. quite bizarre...

This is the final blog for year 2001!! My new year resolutions are already in place (ready for implementation) and plans already set for 1st Jan 2002! We are going to go painting and blading tomorrow!! :)

Just checking around a little bit to find out what everyone is doing (everyone is really sneaky about where they are going to be counting down and what they are going to be doing.. umm.. :p ... will be interrogating all the guilty-looking people tomorrow... hee hee :)) Hope everyone is going to be with people they like/love/do-not-hate tonight... its been a difficult year... :( another couple just broke up less than 24 hours ago... sigh.... 2002.. What will the new year bring? no one knows.... me? oh. planning to go and stuff face with yummy local fare (makansutra stuff) for dinner before the year ends and then go on "healthier" (i.e. not entirely healthy but maybe cutting out unnecessary saturated fats etc) diet plus loads of exercise only next year. :p

Bye Bye 2001!!! Hello 2002!! :O

ARTICLE: Birth Order and Personality: 8 Facts that Might Suprise You

ARTICLE: Sex and Birth Order: How Yours Affects Your Bedroom Behavior

ARTICLE: What Your Birth Oder Means for Your Marriage

My birthday is coming!! :P Don’t panic don’t panic!! Bought myself two early birthday presents yesterday – a transparent Nokia 3310 handphone cover (makes my phone look quite ‘lian’ now with really bright flourescent lights) and a pair of really smooth, ultra cool Salomon inline skates (80mm wheels/ABEC 5/Aluminium frame/Shock Absorber) in shades of blue from shop in East Coast Park! Never had so much fun blading before – whizzed along feeling the wind in my hair and past all the slow bladers on their $80 Ultrawheel blades from Carrefour.. hahahaha…. Think I will make regular inline skating my seventh New Year Resolution:

7. Regular rollerblading at East Coast – on either every Fri or Sat (depending on my off day) – if you want to join me , gimme a call or sms! :)

Attended a cosy candlelight house party yesterday (post Christmas-pre New Year – what you might describe as “New Year’s Eve Rehearsal Party”) – stuffing face with yummy home-made Shepherd’s Pie, potato salad, chicken wings, cold cuts of ham & salami, and ribs from Cold Storey – downed with copious amounts of red & white wines and sangria (yes! two days in a row!) . Slightly intoxicated, we made our way to scare ourselves silly with excellent midnite movie The Others. Really excellent.. and Nicole Kidman was really good too.. don't miss it..

What a fun day :)

Kai & I had the yummiest Spanish tapas and sangria at Ocho Restaurant And Tapas Bar at Chjimes just now after work. The sizzling garlic beef tapa and sauteed mushroom tapas were simply heavenly!!! Plus the sangria was the best I've had so far (and I've had..*burp*.. quite a few before :p)

just met up with "long-lost" friend (haven't seen for six months) for supper over lethal combination of Tiger Beer & D24 durian (old grandma tale dictates that the beer + durian combination can kill.. i'm still here...unless.. this is my final blog... (gulp!).. WATCH THIS SPACE!! Just read online: "This combination apparently creates what the Chinese like to call "internal wind" But for the King of Fruits, it’s more like an internal typhoon"... umm...

anyhow, we encountered two really bizarre events on our way back - firstly, when we went back to his car which was parked in the open-air carpark, we found it almost totally covered with bird-poo on the front and back windscreens, bonnet and boot! It was the worst case of bird-poo attack I've ever seen in my life! And strangely enough, there was none on the roof of the car!! So eerie! Secondly, we encountered at least three separate instances of accidents involving car pile-ups in this single night! One of them was so bad that we counted at least 10 cars involved!! umm...

btw: Check out my new Buttercup wrist watch!

saw this advert in the MRT for the website for the Second Link and actually went to look at it.. do you think there is anyone else out there more "bo-liao" than me?? :p Actually, I was just really curious what I could find on the site.. I mean.. is the site also "e-commerce enabled" to allow visitors to buy "I Love The SecondLink" baseball caps and umbrellas?? maybe.... haha.. now you have to click on the above link to find out!! you can also click on this second link... err.... no pun intended... :p

brrr... the weather has turned amazingly cold and wet and rainy.. so much so that now almost everyone is saying that it is "not like Singapore" anymore... been going around with winterly jackets and may soon be putting on gloves and scarf! :p Met Service says our temperature is now between 23 to 27 degree celsius! wow! Never quite had weather like this before - as one of my depressed friend says "the sky is raining as heavily and continuously as her heart".. :( ... Number of friends and associates in "emotional turmoil" continues to balloon... wonder if there is a bizarre correlation between low temperatures and cold hearts??? aahhhh :O gave Kai this really depressing website to look at today - not sure why.. no evil intent.. I think I just wanted her to know that she was not "alone in the Universe" If you are experiencing some kind of relationship up & down at the moment, this neverever.com site should mean something to you...look at the archives especially.. be forewarned.. it is pretty depressing...

had authentic Yakitori dinner at Nanbantei Restaurant in Far East Plaza just now.. yummy!! but really expensive.. every 2 sticks of beef/chicken/pork/seafood/vege lightly salted and grilled expertly over charcoal fire costs between $5 to $18!! The chef will prepare and cook the food right in front of you and serve you. Nice atmosphere but not a good place to bring friends with hearty appetites unless you want to burn a hole in your pocket or leave unsatisfied.

are you one of the "growing number of people (probably now in the majority)" who don't even make New Year's resolutions? Are you one of the many who say "why make them since experience has also taught us that we will break them anyway, "so what's the point?"" Besides, not making the resolutions will enable you to avoid the "negative spiral of guilt, failure and de-motivation that making resolutions and consistently breaking them creates". Ya?

Here's a little something from Tony Buzan's Head Strong:

.. (considering) how the brain builds up its thinking patterns and probabilities for repetition, thought and action, think about what the non-resolution-maker is actually thinking: "I am not going to make New Year's resolutions because, if I do, I will break them." This thought is repeated, in various ways, both consciously and subconsciously: "I am not going to make New Year's resolutions because I am the kind of person who will break them; I am not making New Year's resolutions because, when I do, I break them; there is no point in a person like me making New Year's or any other resolutions to improve myself, because I am the kind of person who, when I make good resolutions, breaks them; I don't make New Year's resolutions because when I do I break them because my will is not strong enough nor my self-control great enough to make them come true..."..

This, according to Tony Buzan, is a disastrous thing called "Meta-Negative Thinking Habit" that, the more and more it grows, actually and physically decreases the possibility that its owner will make any resolutions to improve at any time and will convince them that both their bodies and brains are out of control, and that growing weakness and overall decline are inevitable...

wah... betcha didn't know it was so serious... :P

je táime ewedeshanno aishite-imasu te amo ‘oku ou ‘ofa ‘iate koe aloha phlâwt-rák jag älskar dig ich liebe dich i raakastan sinua te quiero saghapa amo-te ti amo i love you ....

The language of love is the real language of the world. In some ways we all need to hear the words “I love you” but there are at least two schools of thoughts on this theory. One is the school which says to say it often, or as much as you can, or at least not to waste an opportunity to tell someone that you love them. The other school says to use these three words sparingly, and that it renders them without meaning if you use them all the time. The truth probably lies somewhere in between: in any case, it is all a question of degree. Telling someone you love them when you have only known them a short while may not be as intensely meaningful as telling a long-term partner or your parents. The point is that “I love you” has as many meanings as there are moments – or individuals – and understood in this way we should all be free to express our individual version a lot more. There’s no power in holding back and waiting for the other person to ‘crack first’. Not telling someone you love them could be one of the things you end up regretting all your life. Real power goes tot whoever is able to communicate love. As it is often said, ‘an ocean refuses no river’. The words ‘I love you’ are meant to be used – they’re among the best ones we have. Don’t wait too long. – from Girlosophy2 – The Love Survival Kit

Just had a wonderful 2 hour plus phone conversation with dear friend from the UK (the phone bills!! :O ) and realised how much has changed since the last time we chatted on the phone. It's funny how events in the year tend to speed up as the year comes to a close. Looking back, I can hardly remember what happened in the first half of the year! umm....

new year resolutions.. ahh...It’s the time of the year again when we reflect on the 12 months that have just passed. For many of us, this year has been incredibly intense, very exciting, definitely enjoyable, full of lessons learnt and emotions felt. For many of us (me included) this year can be described as having been rather unpredictable. Most of us felt the effect of the much dreaded “Quarter Life Crisis” and helped each other along even as we clung onto our own crutches or partners. The economic uncertainty made career switching less attractive so most of us hung on to what we had (except for the couple of brave souls who ventured out on their own). While some relationships were cemented with vows of marriage and some new ones were born :), there were those that faltered and fizzled out :( and also those that collapsed and now hung on uncertain. Some of us wished we had manuals to teach us how to handle the many difficult decisions we had to make.. but there were none.. we were left to our own devices and the support of Faith and friends. Many of us also put ourselves through some rigorous tests in creativity, learning random stuff from painting to dancing to languages and taking trips to odd places (e.g. me to Goa).. In short, the year has been memorable in its own way..

have decided on a couple of new year resolutions…
1. to participate in every race/charity run that comes up in the year
2. to more openly appreciate the people close to me
3. to strengthen my connection to my family
4. to be more generous
5. to write a book
6. to allow God a more constant and definite place in my life

.. more coming up soon…. share yours with me the next time I meet you, ok? :)

Two Great Quotes

"One of the key tools for a long-term relationship - a common purpose. If you both agree at a conscious level that the purpose of your relationship is to create an opportunity, not an obligation - an opportunity for growth, for full self expression, for lifting our lives to their highest potential, for healing every false thought or small idea you ever had about you, and for ultimate reunion with God through the communion of your two souls - if you take that vow instead of the vows you've been taking - the relationship has begun on a very good note. It's gotten off on the right foot. That's a very good beginning." - from Conversations with God (Vol 1)

"When I loved myself enough, I could remember during times of confusion, struggle or grief, that these too are part of me and they too deserve my love." - from When I Loved Myself Enough by Kim McMillen