Parcels Of My Life

CEO, David Conner, explains OCBC's system outage on 13 Sep 2011

2011-09-21T22:52:00.000-07:00

	As the holder of one OCBC Visa card, I received this email from OCBC yesterday evening on behalf of the good man.
	Dear Customer, I owe you an explanation of what caused our systems to go down last week along with an update as to where we are now. Since cutting over to our back-up system mid-day on Tuesday, 13 September, our information technology team focused their efforts on identifying the root cause of the technical problem which caused our banking channels to go down from 9:00 am for more than three hours - services were restored progressively from 12.20 pm and were fully operational by 1.00 pm. Our team was determined to find and fix the problem so as to ensure there would be no repeat channel outage. After reviewing several possible causes, the team isolated a network device that did not function well. This device acted in combination with a parameter setting in the main banking system to trigger a suspension of the system’s network communications. This situation in turn affected our ATM network, branches, and internet and mobile banking channels island wide. Our team took the time to identify the fault, simulate it and repeat the simulation to confirm that they had indeed identified the exact cause of the technical problem. This deliberate process was followed so as to ensure that we rectified the problem correctly and, in so doing, would prevent any future recurrence. After implementing the repair, our team tested our main system thoroughly to ensure that it was working well and then returned our technology operations from our backup system to our main system over this past weekend. The service outage did not meet our commitment of having our channels operating for you at all times. This is unacceptable. Again, I apologize for any inconvenience that this incident caused you. I am grateful for your patience and understanding during the time our systems were down and thank you for banking with OCBC.

	Yours sincerely David Conner, CEO
	Who could hold a grudge against OCBC with such a letter written? Perhaps it was easy for me to say as I was not affected by the downtime at all, however he was sincere and admitted to the company's mistake to the point he knew it was unacceptable. Let's hope that such a incident will not happen again or it would definately tarnish OCBC's trust and David Conner's name. Anyone out there affected by the OCBC downtime in Singapore?

2011-09-14T05:17:00.001-07:00

One of my newest favorite sites to find information on Wushu - www.singaporewushu.com

Steve Jobs resigns as Apple CEO

2011-08-25T11:55:00.000-07:00

It's rather timely that as I had just finished reading 'Steve Jobs iLeadership', my business idol had just resigned as Apple CEO yesterday.

Although no reasons were cited, it should be rather obvious that Steve Job's resignation could be due to his dramatic fight with cancer and the even more recent relapse. It's hard to imagine that a man so visionary and great as him was obliged to leave his beloved company as CEO the second time, when it is at its peak. It would be of no wonder should Apple's stocks plunge after Steve Job resign, the same way it did when rumours of his cancer spread.

Reading Steve Job's bibliographical book had proven to be a great insight into the world, vision and struggles of a highly successful and dedicated man. Steve Jobs is one who would stop at nothing for excellence, and that's how consumers could get our hands one great consumer products like the Mac and iPhone. Steve Jobs have proven that you do not need many varieties in the product line. Just two great products and it is enough to revolutionise the world.

Because of his passion and persuasion power, Steve Jobs could win over anybody he want and that is how he managed to get all the talents in the world to work for him. Apple did not have the power, Steve Jobs did. And I do hope that Tim Cook had absorbed all of Steve Job's essence.

With Steve Job's resignation, once again Apple would feel like a presence is missing among their midst, but Steve Job's legend would definitely go on.

P.S. I am at City Hall Starbucks typing this and I just first hand witnessed how two individuals, one using a MacBook Pro and one holding a iPad started connecting simply by smiling at each other's Apple product. And I, just sitting around the same table (it's crowded today) using my Toshiba netbook, was left out. They began talking since 10mins ago, and are still talking now.

It is the sense of common identity that Steve Jobs had created. Simply Awesome

Donald Trump & Bill Zanker : THINK BIG Chapt 4 - 6

2011-07-27T00:35:00.000-07:00

I'm actually done through all 10 chapters of 'Think Big' and am left with the appendix with covers commonly asked questions, during the Learning Annex by bill Zanker I reckon.

Donald Trump talked about 'Luck' in 'Think Big' chapter 4. Being a christian, I view luck in a different way. Luck in any form is a blessing from God. As God is always fair, humans are all born equal in the sense that if you are blessed with more, be it good looks or good brains, you are expected to do more and contribute more to Christ and mankind. Being mentally handicap could also be a blessing as what some people often say - they are not bothered by worldly prodlems and can do whatever they like. It's really subjective for humans to judge. I guess it all depend on one's outlook. For one, I would love to be a actress but my looks will never get me into Hollywood. However, I am glad I am born with better brains to think big and a hardworking mindset to make it happen, a compensation I think enough to get me far in some other ways.

' Good Luck happens when opportunity meets preparations' - Think Big Chap 4

blog.namran.net/2011/07/21/event-preparation/

As described in 'Think Big', alot of people see successful people and all they see is the end result. they do not see all the hard work that there successful people have put behind in getting where they are now. Sure they are blessed with good brains but good brains without any work won't get anyone far. I am sure we all know that Tiger Woods did not swing a golf ball into a hole on his first try. He had worked very hard from a very young age to get where he was (until his sex-addict was revealed).

'Think Big' reminds me that success have to be worked for. It does not come in a day or a month. It may come faster if I work harder, but not right now. I've got to be patient and focused and work hard for it. I can pray for more blessings but it is really up to God if I am worthy of the blessing. All I am doing is to prepare myself for an opportunity that may come to me - that is only if I work hard. As what Donald Trump in 'Think Big' advises - I ignore what I lack - the good looks, and focus on what I have - good brains. It's all over if we dwell on the negative. We all have to make it happen ourselves.

' Do not be afraid to take chances' - Think Big Chap 4

Well I think this is really the point I have to really absorb. Doing internet marketing is all about taking chances I must say. Because all transactions is through the net and there is really no way to ensure that the party at the other end receiving the payment would deliver the goods or service. I almost had one mischance, fortunately I always make sure that I go through a third party payment company like paypal, therefore BF and I could appeal for a dispute and the goods was sent over within a week. I can only take precautions but because I don't know th eperson on the receiving end, I have to take the chance or I'll never know if the chance is real or not. I only know that if it's real, I won't want to miss it!

'Get people to respect you' - Think Big Chap 5

That's why I prefer to stay professional. I was at a club yesterday meeting some camp juniors. My ex who was my senior in the same camp as I went about telling the juniors that I can't take more than a can of beer. I'll simply concuss. I really disliked that and I hope he reads this blog. It makes people think I am weak and laugh. It's disrespectful. For one it is NOT true and I take wine and hard liquor which has even higher alcoholic level. Even if it were true, I do not need a loud hailer announcing my weakness. I did not want to raise my voice at him in front of the younger ones yesterday, but if it were to happen again, I'll make sure he takes my stand. We are good friends and if you are reading this, I hope you understand and respect me. I can't have people thinking I am weak and making a joke out of me. I hate it.

'Revenge' - Think Big Chap 6

In this chapture in Think Big, basically Donal Trump is trying to tell the whole world that it is important and satisfying to take revenge. It makes him happy and he even go so far as to teach how one should take revenge. This is one I can't bring myself to do it. I can't even stand up for myself sometimes!

I don't think I will learn what he intended to teach in this chapter though. Not that I disagree with him, just that I can't bring myself to buy the mindset. Sure, I will stand up for myself next time, but not go so far as to take revenge and aim to destroy another human being. This does not apply if someone tries to steal BF though. BE WARNED.

So I won't talk so much about this chapter. If you like the idea, go buy 'Think Big' and read for yourself.

Donald Trump & Bill Zanker : THINK BIG Chapt 1 - 3

2011-07-24T23:45:00.000-07:00

I've always heard of Donald Trump but all I knew was that he should be some big guy somewhere in this big world. He should be pretty rich too.

Now I know Donald Trump’s a REALLY REALLY rich guy with lots of properties, golf course, television shows and even a football team to his name. He's generally highly confident, a good man and a loyal friend. Trump would, however, make a terrible husband and has a nasty attitude.

'Think Big' is a New York Times Bestseller and I personally think it is basically for people who already have a certain direction in life: That they are not going to work for anybody. They will owe a business, or a few businesses and people are going to work for them. Either that or you are already someone successful who wants to be even more successful even if it makes you look mean. Don’t waste your time reading it if you intend to stay employed or do freelancing jobs all your life. You won’t see eye to eye with the book and its authors. If I were to throw 'Think Big' to my mother or anybody else who spent more than half their lives working for others, they’ll probably think the book is leading me onto dangerous unknown paths.

'Think Big' is co-written with Bill Zanker, another big business owner who goes around the world doing expos and teaching people what schools don’t teach. I figured you could Google these two big personalities yourself so I won’t bother covering them now.

Trump talked about passion in ‘Think Big’:

‘Passion gives you the intestinal fortitude you need to never give up.’

I couldn’t agree more with him. I’ve found out that Lack Of Passion is one of the main reasons why I couldn’t force myself to stay in YEO’s any longer. I like the people I like the job. I have interest in it no doubt. But liking a job isn’t enough. How do you actually go on to do something for 10 hours a day when you have no passion for it? I’m not happy and I’m not excelling. For someone with such varied and vast number of different interests, passion is what sets one apart from another.

After 10 hours of work, I could make myself travel for more than an hour all the way back to school to join the juniors for their Wushu training. Passion is the driving reason why till this day, even after 10 years, I am still training in Wushu. It’s stimulating and satisfying. I feel happy and free in my Wushu shoes and pants. Sometimes I even think I can fly (It’s weird why I never excelled in jumps). Get me to go down to the stadiums to oversee a soccer match (part of my job) and most of the time I am counting down to the last hour where I can leave. Have it coincide with a Wushu training day and I’ll feel I’m having an especially awful week. I sincerely thought I had the determination to last for two year but I’m emotionally extreme and life got exceedingly miserable for me very quickly. My bosses think I had good potential but I was dawdling and oblivious. I wasn’t like that. It was a period of time I had a lot of doubts and felt I am mismanaging my life. I had to leave and ‘reset’ myself and I’m glad I’ve made the right decision.

‘Do what feels good’ ‘Never give up’ – Donald Trump ‘Think Big’

Compared to many other fellow practitioners, I am probably a failure, having put so many hours into training yet my best is only silver in the nationals. Age is catching up yet I don’t think I will stop anytime soon. I am still training and maintaining my form while many of my peers have stopped and given up. I love Wushu and I love the art’s beauty. Medals are not as important compared to passion. As long as I don’t stop, who knows, I may get a Gold somewhere someday! Or maybe a student can win one for me! Thinking Big!
I’m only learning how to apply all these to the work I am embarking now. I tend to be hot-headed and rush into new interests. This time I took efforts to ensure that with I am doing now is in line with what I know I would be interested in for a long time. How do I know? Simply imagine if one day your business stops earning you money, or if you become so busy you only get to sleep 4 hours a week, would you still continue doing what you love doing now? If the answer is yes, congrats, you have found your passion. Hopefully, as I get better in it, as I get more confident in it, it’ll become a passion the way Wushu became for me.

‘Know your business inside and out, get all the facts, ask people their opinions, and then go with your gut.’ – Donald Trump ‘Think Big’

Up till now, the reason why I haven’t really quoted Zanker is not because he hasn’t really written anything good, but because he seems more like a commenter backing Trump’s words. His writings take up maybe about 7% of the 'Think Big' , probably that’s why you only see Trump pointing at you from the book and not Zanker and Trump doing it together.

Sometimes you know your business and facts on the tip of your finger. Then you go ask around for opinions and when you’re done asking, you’re also convinced you are wrong.

This happened to me several times before. Of course I’ve wiser up to know who to ask. But at the same time, it is also important to trust yourself and your gut. Women have better instincts and I dare say 80% of the time I follow my gut, especially in the case of directions and people’s character, I’m right (50% of the time I really don’t know the odds). Sometimes all the facts could be pointing you in one direction but your gut points you in another. If your gut have proven itself right many times before, do Trump’s advise and follow it. You won’t be far off.

I personally think however, one should take Trump’s 'Think Big' words to a certain extent. Trump is talking about business here and having my own ups and downs, I am uncertain how my instincts work here so I’ll probably follow his advice. However, I wouldn’t do the same when it comes to good selection or BF’s instincts on directions. We get it wrong most of the time and if your instincts always get you losing stocks, I think it’s best to let someone else professional handle it for you.

There are altogether 10 chapters in 'Think Big' and here I’m through 3. These are just some quotes which I feel more for. It’s a really good book so get it if you want to start setting higher standards for yourself. Will talk more about the book later in the week.

THINK BIG.

This blog will begin blogging posts on Books (Surprise BF!)

2011-07-24T21:06:00.000-07:00

After a month of hiatus (except for that very brief note I left a week back), I’m finally back with the intention of writing a full post. BF has been very supportive of the works I am getting on now and while I sink into self doubt on certain days, he has really big unwavering confidence in me that I will succeed. For the past one year of my life he has always been there for me, very kind and very supportive. I always thank God for bringing us together.

One of the big ways he has been helping me and boosting my confidence since I left my full time job is to get me to read books. Now, I never liked the idea of reading until one month ago when he cleverly passed me a book that relates to the path I am taking now. At that point of time, I had just came back from church camp (I should seriously blog about it) and was at a low point realising my dad really wasn’t into iPho at all. I decided there is no point going ahead anymore since the main objective was to get him out of his tiring freelance job. BF’s real smart to get me to read the right book at the right time. I was looking for an answer as to the path I should walk on, and the book showed the direction I should charge into.

So in a short period of one month, from reading only compulsory textbooks in 22 years of my life, I have now completed reading 4 books ( of which 2 I actually choose from MPH myself – BF bought it =P). I am currently on my way to completing my 5^th book. So I thought since I’ve began reading, I should start sharing my thoughts on these books yea? Hopefully someone may find some use for my sharing one day and begin aiming for success in life, which I am doing now.

I’m not going to share one whole book in one post coz frankly; I read the way a Slow Morris climbs. I hope they are slower than snails because the speed a snail move is not slow enough to describe the speed I read. By the time I am at the end of the book, I’ve probably almost forgotten what I read at the beginning (that’s why I got to buy the book and refer).

So for future posts that talks about the books, I am only going to talk about interesting chapters or parts of the book which I have read for the day. There is an exception for the first book I’m blogging though. I am already finishing it, but for the benefit of anyone who chance upon this blog, I’m going to start covering from the beginning.

We’ll see how it goes yea!

Book I’m on now: Think Big by Donald Trump and Bill Zanker

Yea… this is the kind of books BF makes me read. He’s gonna train me to be richer than him.

You know I am into something

2011-07-10T23:28:00.000-07:00

When I go hautius on my blog!

I shall not talk too much about it.. so here's the gist.

I am exploring internest business and aiming to earn $5K a month.

Serious.

And i'm gonna get busy now.. so long!

Japan Earthquake

2011-06-23T01:13:00.000-07:00

The earthquakes shaking the nation's land and souls don't seem to end.

Another earthquake occurred in Japan again this morning near the east coast of Honshu, Japan,the same epicentre as the deadly March 11, 2011 earthquake. With the 6.7 magnitude earthquake, the 75th since the first, another Tsunami could follow and ruin recovery efforts.

I remembered when I first heard about the Tsunami in Japan, I was immediately presented with the number of casualties on Google Search Engine, followed by a video of the devastation. It was the afternoon of March 11, 3 hours after the earthquake occurred. I was sipping mocha tea at Tea.dot, enjoying the bliss after a morning swim.

It's heart wrenching to see the destruction. Words cannot describe my awe for the Japanese as they retained their strong morals and values even during such hopeless times. My heart and respect goes out to the Japanese who took the event in their stride amidst the sorrows; We Singaporeans will not understand the pain. We are blessed with good governance, good economy and a good location free from Natural Disasters. If earthquake were to struck us, would we be like the Japanese, standing united and helping each other, or would we be the likes of the Americans, lamenting their fate?

I don't even know how I would react.

Are you Male?

2011-06-05T17:43:00.000-07:00

@ United Square Starbucks: Woman stares at me, then walks over,

Woman: Hi Sorry. Are you Male?
Me: HUh?! MALE? (*confused)
Woman: Are you MAle?
Me: What?!!! Me? Male?! (*immediate furious.)
Woman: I am looking for my friend. Are you Male?
Me: Oh. No.

For 5 secs of my life I sank into ultimate depression and self denial.

iPad games for Cats

2011-05-24T01:23:00.000-07:00

Think iPads are developed for humans? Think again.

Absolute genius.

iPho @ Singapore Education Summit

2011-05-23T10:14:00.000-07:00

And I am officially on day four of being iPho’s CEO!

The SES went well. It was great to see all the positive responses from the crowd! Each participant were given the chance to have a photo taken for free. Subsequent photos are at $1 per namecard size and $2 per 4R size. It was cheap no doubt (Original Price @ $2 for namecard size & @5 for 4R size) , but it’s only the start and it was a special promotion at the SES. Glad to know that people appreciate the effort we are putting in to make their pictures look beautiful.

Someone actually stole my black angry bird. I suspected it was a little boy who took it and 'good thing' he came back to steal the blue one. So I caught him and followed him around until he went back to the safety of his father. After speaking to the father, he turned to ask the boy, who lied saying no. It was his younger brother who happily broke his cover and took the black bird out of their school bag. And he still refused to do anything, saying that some auntie annie told him it is free and he could take it. When the younger boy took the bird and gave it back to me, he came along and tried to snatch it back! And the father just sat there and do nothing! ARUGH. Luckily I did not let go. Such a disgrace. I simply told him he can’t have it because it is not his, thank the father and left. I hope the father gave the boy a good lecture.

Never expected that I'll need to play detective on second day of work!

The two days of the first tryout gave me invaluable experience. I have also learnt some lessons. In order of time sequence:

1. Always have the quotation well explained and defined.

2. Need to include floor space needed, 4 chairs, table length, ceiling height & no of plugs needed (min 2 preferbly 4)

3. Free parking coupons?

4. Do not let people choose what was taken. They'll take forever.

5. To have computer faced against the wall so that people do not get to see what we do and try to intercept the flow.

6. Photoshop was a bottleneck. We need to rectify this.

7. Manpower – One photographer, two photoshoper, one cutter and one to manage the crowd.

8. Signs must state clearly the prices

9. Crowd manager has to try to garner mailing list people so we can inform them when the photos are up on face book

10. There must be a cut off time to pack up.

11. A netbook for mailing lists. I spent the last 1 hour typing in emails which could have been done in afew minutes simply by importing the contacts from a excel sheet. Bard. 30% of the emails bounched back due to wrong mail. Never knew there were so many doctors around.

Here are some fabulous pictures taken!

iPho is for the very young to the old! iPho rocks!

Officially Self Employed!

2011-05-22T05:51:00.000-07:00

Its been 28 hours since I was out of YEO'S and 28 hours since being a professional entrepreneur!

YeEEEeeeBAaaa!!!

Here's what my last 28 hours have been like:

6pm to 8pm yesterday - Thinking very hard what I might have missed out and what else i'll need to purchase on what is iPho's very first debut tomorrow, a partnership with edvalue for the Singapore Education Summit! (Where BF is a main speaker!)

8pm to 12am yesterday - Headed down to Marina Mandarine, location of the partnership venue to do a site reccee and to look for the very-much-missed BF main speaker.

12am to 2.30am - Finishing off what's left of formulating the standard proceedures and templates which the helpers can follow, learn and execute easily. Packed and checked items and set up needed for the morning's debut.

2.30am - 3.30am - Toss & turn in bed with excitement

3.30 - 5.30 am- Think I slept?

5.30am to 6am - Toss & turn in bed with excitement

6am to 7.30am - Prepare to leave home, pick up helper & zoom off to SES - Singapore Education Summit!

7.30am to 5.30pm - iPho GOES LIVE! go www.facebook.com/ipho for pictures taken and printed, on the spot!

5.30pm - 10pm - Happily Concussed =)

Progress in my resignation and iPho

2011-05-06T11:29:00.000-07:00

Progress in resignation

This is actually old news, just that I did not post it up, and it's a good news! So I'm letting it out here!

Instead of 1 month notice, I only need to serve say 2.5 weeks notice!

That's because I haven't been taking my leave so I have lots left to offset, including a leave in-lieu for the elections. If you consider Vesak Day and that one week has passed since I have handed in the letter (TIME PASSED LIKE SONIC MAN), I only have 1.5 weeks to go! WooOooHooOoO!!!

iPho

The offset came in handy, as right now I am trying to secure the first partnership deal for iPho, even when nothing is set up yet =.=. If it works out, the event will be on 21st & 22nd of May, which gives me one or two days to be fully prepared for the first debute. I will have to work faster now, confirm the deal and move on to the preparation, name cards and collaterols.

I'M SO EXCITED!

Boat Ski and an exciting Labour Day!

2011-05-01T23:26:00.000-07:00

This year's labour day is a day of new trials and adventure! As part of friend's birthday celebration, we went on a boat ski with wake pirates. It was b'day girl's treat to do something exciting that none of us ( b'day girl, b'day girl bf, bf & me) had done before, before we all grow old with passing birthdays and realise our brittle bones will not restand boat ski and anymore excitement. Dinner was our (bf & I) treat back to b'day girl, just that bf foot all of the bill =P: That was when I had my virgin try on the most horrifically pitch black squid ink pasta that turned me into a witch like monster - continue reading to find out!

Boat Ski with Wake Pirates
Contact person : Jeremy Koh
43 Admiralty Road West S759962
Mobile: 9845 7452
Email: jeremy@wakepirates.com
Enquires: askme@wakepirates.com
Web: http://www.wakepirates.com/

SAF Yacht Club Sembawang Clubhouse is not exactly the kind of clubhouse you go looking your best. Be sure to clad in broad-shorts, singlets or tanks and most importanly, slippers or sandles for your Boat Ski. As true as the web claimed, there is indeed freeflow water and sunblock, just that it's all either used up or empty, so better bring your own drinks and sunblock.

They charge $90 per person for an hour for the boat ski and it's a good amount of time to learn some good stuff without breaking any bones ( boat ski looks relaxing, but trust me I am sore all over my back). If going in a group, you may need to wait for each other so I say get some chips up on board. Forget about cards as they'll all be in the petrollium dark waters once the boat starts chattering away.

Talking about the boat skiing in sea water, this is what you'll be soaking up and gobbling in when falling - water with Singapore's marine wildlife natural deposits mixed with industrial waste from the nearby all-sorts-of Senoko Factories ( All wastes goes into the canal. All water in the canal flows into a big canal. The big canal is connected to the sea. I was fated to intern and work there so I know.). Human deposits ( like my bf's spit and think about all the pee when people get excited...) and not to forget the visible layer of black petrol floating on the water. You may include all else things imaginable.

Oh but Hack! It's not like we don't know where our tap water & Renew water come from! Don't think about it and have fun boat skiing!

Fresh face all ready to go for boat skiing!

Big ship, small boat - all at Sembawang SAF Yacht Club

Our boat ski boatman & coach - Freddy from Wake Pirates

Two sets of skis for big feet & small feet

Introducing the beer & tobacco man on Jet Ski - Jeremy Hohoohooo

All behing coach's back

BF wearing the ski.

I would have loved to place my boat ski tutorial video, but BF's one turned out to be more informative and better taken (because I was the one who took it -.-). So here it is! Hope you can gain some knowledge here before going for your first boat ski!

A squat...

And a stand on first try!

I can't stand it how pro BF looks.

Presenting my super Pro BF boat skiing!

This is how small you'ld look from the boat

My turn! As I have never done it before,
more time was used to get my basics drilled in first.

On board simulation of how you'll feel when tagged by the boat in the water.
For this, a patient, knowledgable and strong coach like Freddy
(coz he needs to simulate the pulling power of a BOAT) is needed.

I have lots of videos of myself in the process of boat ski learning and trying to get boat ski-ing right, but I'm not going to upload it and bore everyone out. Instead, I'll just upload the more interesting and educationa and you'll go subscribe to my You Tube Channel and check out the rest of the videos there! - http://www.youtube.com/user/bearoncloudnine

The first time you fall durong your boat ski, you'll most probably fall front so you'll be lying in the water on your tummy. To get into position for ski again, you'll have to get onto your back and trust me, the first time is never easy. Somehow things don't work the way you want it to do in the waters with lots of floats!

Tip: Try straightening your legs and knees when you turn. Don't forget to continue keeping them straight when you turn!

And I didn't know there was so much commotion going on on the boat!

This is how you'll look like when preparing -
tuck everything between the ski and your stomach and only your head should be seen!

First time I'm Up!

And in 3 seconds I'm down again! YAY!!!!

Just to give you a video-ral sense of what happened.

Riding on the waves getting pro man =D

We learnt how to get stable, manouver from side to side and lastly, to ride on waves and cut through waves.

It is scientifically proven that the smaller size you are, the smaller you'ld look from the boat.

BF says I am hot....

But he also knows my Hotness Level cannot be compared to his...

Just compare it for yourself! He's going one hand show off! Hump!

Busking in the sunset, with sore arms, back and legs =)

Coming up - Squid ink Pasta

Embarking research work for dad's website

2011-04-29T08:14:00.000-07:00

I have figured out that the first few steps (and the cheapest) in setting up my dad's business is to have online presence.

1. Website
2. Facebook

3. Namecards & creatives to create EDMs and brouchers

I was looking through some photography websites today to gain some inspirations. Some of which I chanced upon are pretty impressive. Check em out:

http://tsangphotography.com/indexfs.html
http://envistar.com/

I have also chanced upon another inspiring website - Seeing beyond sight - photography by the blind. The partnership between Kathy Knox (a blind writer who recently picked up a camera) and Tony Deifell (a photography) is one that would instill deep thoughts into the world of blind.
http://www.seeingbeyondsight.org/?gclid=CJP7x-bywagCFYZ66wodx1l2pg

Although my dad has been in this line for more than 30 years already, he has always been a freelancer getting jobs via contacts. His logo is simply a "IMAGE" in Times New Roman and a "Photography Services" in cursive italics. No issues with the image the log protrayed actually - a Professional and no frills service, exactly what my dad's been doing. However, this would poise a problem when reaching out to the younger ones and to the more fun & creative side of the business which I will be in-charge of venturing into.

So I've thought of setting up a subsidary kind of business to target the more youthful ones. iPho - Stands for Instant Photo, a subsidary of Image Photography Services!

Now to work on the logo and Image of iPho!

It's official

2011-04-29T07:33:00.000-07:00

And I am on my way to becoming the next BIG ENTREPRENUER OF THE YEAR!

I AM UNSTOPPABLE!

2011-04-28T07:09:00.000-07:00

In the next 24 hours time, I will be handing up my resignation letter the second time, this time standing stead fast to my decision. There's the lingering feeling of pity, but as much as I would like to, I should not stay on.

Well, this also means that in 24 hours time, I will be serving my one month notice and after that, since it's not like I am leaving for a better job, I am officially unemployed!!!

But I am not jobless =) I will take this time to finish up the E-Book that bf and I started, to help my dad set up his photography business, to work on my writing skills and to finally do all the things I have been wanting to do like going for church prayer session and taking my afternoon naps =DDD... all while trying to live on my savings.

It's hard when at the back of my mind, I know that I will not be able to sit comfortably in Starbucks sipping my frappochino and reading magazines , nor have my weekly dose of salmon sashimi. I will have to think twice about adding a additional chicken wing to my rice or get that rabbit patterned socks to wear in my rubbery crocs, BUT, I have all the feelings I once had slowly returning to me once again.

I AM INVINCIBLE!

I AM UNSTOPPABLE!!

I AM BACK!!!

Not going anywhere

2011-04-20T08:52:00.001-07:00

When I typed in the above title it seemed ironic to me that this same 3 words has two different meaning which I am applying in my current situation.

I am not going anywhere with my job and I do not see myself improving. I know where the problem lies but thats the way the system is and it was drilled into me within the first 4 weeks of work that there is nothing I can do to change it. Neither do the people around me want any change. The culture was, will and shall always remain the same. On top of this, I feel like I have entered a events company, not a MNC as a marketing executive. All I do was to just garner registration, look for suppliers, liasing with logistics persons and follow instructions.

And yet, simply because it is only my 8th month at the job, I'm not going anywhere too. What am I going to tell my future employees that 8 months and all I did was to follow instructions and garner registrations and database?

I had a bad chiding from my top boss for things I have had no control over. What am I to do when I have really cracked my brain for so many ideas only to be rejected one after another, and then back to square 1 following instructions once again? What am I to do when after working so hard for a project I look forward to, just because I cannot think of any new idea which they themselves cannot figure out and I get my project taken out from my KPI? What am I to do when someone leaves and and suddenly I have to garner registrations in 21 days? I even have to seive through information to find out what was left over then continue from there! Why is it that I am still handling something that is under someone else's KPI and I help cover the beginning while someone else gets the honour of covering the end.

How could you bet a $100 dollars that a manager can complete something within a week which I cannot complete in a month? If I am the decision maker I am sure I can, save the consequences that my decisions may not be the right decisions. But I am not the decision maker and I cannot make promises. I have to go through a minimum of 3 rounds instead of 1. 1 - talk to the supplier/ partner for a deal, 2 - wait for a good time to discuss with manager , 3 - return to the supplier. This is the best case scenerio. The worst case is when the supplier says no, lets try to compromise, then I repeat step 1 to 3 again SEVERAL TIMES. If my manager changes her mind and wants something more, then the scenerio is the same as the previous. How can you bet a $100 on this? I do not mind giving you the $100 off hand from my pocket if $100 is what you want. I know that you want me to take this positively, but I am a marketing excutive who is told to simply follow instructions.

I have been working off my ass from 8.30am to 10pm for the past 1 week and I know I am losing myself. My dreams are all about work now and I have trouble every morning having to go through what is really completed and what is completed - only in my dreams.

I have been missing out on my promises to God to maintain a regular reading time every week.

Thank God Easter is coming in less than 24 hours and I can indulge in God's words again.

St. Luke Gospel

2011-04-11T07:46:00.000-07:00

God made use of Luke, a Gentile, to spread to the world the events leading up to Jesus birth and also tells us of our saviour's early years.

St. Luke 1 : 5 - 27

Herod the Great- King of Judaea

Zacharias - Prist, course of Abia

Elisabeth - Daughter of Aaron, Wife of Zacharias

John - Son of Zacharias & Elisabeth, to become John the Baptist

Gabriel - Angel whom appeared before Zacharias & Mary, mother of Jesus & Joseph, father of Jesus

Joseph - Father of Jesus, husband of Mary. He married Mary out of obedience to a dream from God after learning about Mary's supernatural pregnancy and raised Jesus as his own son. It is likely that he had passed away before Jesus Ministry,

Mary - Mother of Jesus, wife of Joseph. Gabriel the angel appeared before her and she conceived by the power of God and the Holy Ghost. Cousin of Elisabeth

St Luke 2 : 25 - 36

Simeon - Man in Jerusalem , just and devoted. Man who circumcised Jesus.

Anna - Daughter of Phanuel, tribe of Aser, a prophet

2011-04-06T23:02:00.000-07:00

http://www.juice.com.sg/

http://backstagebusiness.wordpress.com/feed/

I wish my job is this

2011-04-01T06:05:00.001-07:00

I wish my job is to just sit around in starbucks everyday and draw or type whatever that is happening in my head or all around me. I seriously have alot of things to draw and type around. Just the out of the world dreams I have almost everynight is enough to compile a book of the weirdest stories. And when I am bored I'll simply go somewhere else and walk around till some new tots pop up in my head and i'll write them down. That is if only many enough people read my stuffs or if I am famous. Oh and I really love my TOSHIBA netbook that really came in very handy for most part of this week. The best part is it CHARGES MY PHONE!!! Love you lots Toshiba darling. =)

Deeply attracted to this song

2011-03-31T19:13:00.000-07:00

Lyrics Taylor Swift lyrics - Back to December lyrics Although this song has no meaning in my life

Application TwLauncher has stopped unexpectedly

2011-03-30T17:58:00.000-07:00

picture taken from droidforums.net member jpeanes My 3 day old Samsung Galaxy S says: ' The application TwLauncher (process com.sec.android.app.twlauncher) has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again.' It happened when I was downloading my first few apps. AURHGHGHGH!!!! Edit: I had the phone sent to customer servicing centre and they had it fixed within a matter of minutes. Guess this problem was prominent among galaxy s phones. However since my phone is very new and should had the newest software installed they could not figure out why out happened. Only two possibility was that one of the many apps I was trying to download had a bug or 2, I was trying to download about 5 or 6 apps at one go and that proved too much for this great tiny phone. anyway its fine now and I cannot be more glad. All they did was to reset the phone. To reset phone, you must still be able to access your key pad. Step 1: go to your key pad Step 2: punch in this string of code - *2767 *3855# then hit enter/call Step 3: pray hard that this string of codes work for your phone and wait for magic to happen step 4: if it works, rejoice. If it doesn't, move on to step 5 Step 5: go visit your friendly samsung customer care centre at either jurong point or douhby ghaut plaza singapura. Yes only these two places as the rest are all shops in charge of making money only and customer service do not bring in cash. They'll direct you to these two centre. Consider yourself warned :-) For those who prefers to hands on, check out www.samsunggalaxysforum.com - it makes me feel important to have a forum built just to address my phone problems =) TwLauncher application stoppage be gone! Edit is all typed using samsung galaxy s while bumming around in starbucks.

Jackie Chan's dead at 52!

2011-03-29T07:31:00.000-07:00

And that's a hoax!

Apparantly online reports quoted from a Los Angelos hospital that said he died while promoting the new Kung Fu Panda 2 (Which I am sooo gonna watch!). For fans out there, don't worry. He is very much alive and kicking and I think he would be very amused to find out that he is 'killed off online!'

And here's to one of my favourite Kung Fu star of all times, movies that I have watched and loved!

Here he plays a straight face square soldier in the old Dynasty Period whom the princess had fallen in love with and waited for hundreds of years after consuming a pill that makes her immortal. Touched by Jackie's care, protection and respect, she kept faith in all his promises, only to suicide heartbroken by re-carnated Jackie who could not remember her at all. Action, romance & comedy, he played it all!

And now from soldier to a man in a neat pressed tuxedo making use of high technological enhanced body mechanics to fight off evil do-ers. However this time it's less of a romantic and the 'one & only one' kind of love but a play boy who made use of the special skills and cool grooves gained by wearing the tux. From olden romantica fighting soldier to modern cool play boy superhero - truely versitile.

Away from the usual good guy great moves, this is Jackie as the bad guy kidnapping a baby for money. Not much of the fighting, but whats a Jackie Chan show without his cool moves? Halfway through the movie, his fatherly instincts took over and he of course, went back to being a good guy and returned the baby. He has the face of a good guy anyway, but could do well playing the bad guy pretty well once in a while =)

How could he die? Everyone's waiting for his Die Hard 4!

When everything taste the same

2011-03-28T09:18:00.000-07:00

It all started off with a loss of voice. Somehow my voice was drained away from my throat by some jounin invinsible to the eye and my voicebox could only produce empty clutters since last tuesday. Tomorrow is already gonna be a new Tuesday. Then a wednesday night my blanket mysteriously, ok, not so mysteriously, got stuck at some part of the bed and no matter how hard I pull, I could never get enough cloth to shield me from the fan. I find it kind of ironic when the one feeling hot wanted the fan and the blanket at the same time.... anyway, I caught a cold that night. So that's how I got my nose blocked since then. The deadly illness also conveniently blocked my ears, tastebuds and I think it blocked a big part of my brain signals such that I was not quite sure what I had been doing for the past few days. Glad I am clearer now. I felt like a lost duck in a desert back then, keep wondering what am I doing or how did I end up here? It also felt like I have been eating duck porridge every single meal for the past whole week. For the days beginning with the loss of voice, I had been eating porridge every single meal and had duck porridge for dinner as it is the most assessible and good tasting porridge available after work at Sembawang MRT and Yew Tee MRT. So I had it on wednesday night and it was the last thing I tasted. After that everything else was duck porridge. As I could only remember the last taste I had - the duck porridge , bread the nex morning tasted like porridge, dumpling soup tasted like duck, water tasted like dumpling soup which tasted like duck porridge, siew mai tasted like water, almond milk tea tasted like siew mai, sushi tasted like siew mai, which all tastes the same like duck porridge. Life could only be described in 1 word - Agonizing. I spent much more these days, putting all kinds of different food into my mouth with great faith that maybe, just maybe, i'll be able to taste this one! I got more and more dissappointed each time. Finally I turned to WASABI which myth says would shoot through the nose and clear it! Like real. It did shoot through, but somehow the great ocean is still stuck in my nose and I am still sniffing till now. I'm just glad that I din have a running nose. I know that it could have been worst.

The Ultimate Spa

2011-03-24T06:23:00.001-07:00

I just went for the deal from BigDeal.sg - 87% OFF on Glycolic Face Spa or Dead Sea Mud Body Remedy @ the Award-Winning The Ultimate Spa. Add $5 for a Relaxer Back Massage @ $38.

I badly needed a facial from a outbreak over the last weekend. Must be too much chocolate cakes from Siong's mommy's b'day! So I simply got the two most value for money deal available at deal sites. It really pleased me to know that both are below $50, the price I pay at my usual facial venue.

So one of which is the Glycolic Face Spa @ The Ultimate Spa. For it's service, location and the cut off the usual price, it's a great deal, but they will not see me again.

It's just 30mins from home, located at the Bukit Batok Civil Service Centre. It's the second time I've been to the place so I'm more or less familiar with its location, just that Bukit Batok CSC is really big and has two different sections! One section has only 4 floors, while the other section has the 5th Floor where The Ultimate Spa is. If you take the lift which only brings you to the 4th floor, alight at the 3rd floor and walk to the other end - towards the nature themed swimming pool (only opened to members and their guest). Walk striaght pass the pool and turn left, take the lift to the 5th floor and there you are, at The Ultimate Spa at Bukit Batok Civil Service Centre.

Within the Spa itself, they have another level up. It's a beatiful and relaxing place, not to mention really big for a spa location. It's like walking into a Banyan Tree resort located on a Hilltop with lots of potted plants and phuket flooring.

The Gylcolic mask basically helps to remove dead skin without the need of harsh exfoliation. It's amazing property is that it will nutrilize itself after 8 mins or so, so it will not eat into your skin like acid if you just fall asleep while doing home treatment. Meanwhile, they'll do a good & nice shoulder message that hits all the feel-good points, leaving you even more relax and sleepy! It's one of the best shoulder message I had with the right amont of strength. I guess message is their stronger and better service compared to facial.

The extraction process was very thorough and only abit painful. I mean, facials have only three kinds, abit painful, painful and very painful. Some people with very low tolerance level have another meter called excrutiating pain, but I don't think this will ever happen at the Ultimate Spa. They are really gentle. However, they do steam the face first which I am really against. My usual facial do not use the steamer at all. The products they use come from Gemany, Barcelona, and they feel good on the skin, not strong or too prickling. I think they could be stronger though. as I feel it is too mild to be of any good use and does not justify it's hefty price tag.

At the end of the session, I came out with a very swollen red face that looked like someone just ran needles across it. They did not have a machine that helps to lessen the swell and depend solely on their products,which is very obvious it did not work well on me. They said that my face condition is really bad and they should have given me a stronger cooling product to use.

This makes them look very amature with their understanding of a customer's face condition and their own products. In fact, if that is the case, they should have completed the whole treatment by ensuring that my face swell subsides before letting me go. This was the case for most facials I went, except for this one which still tried to sell me a year package and some other products, saying that they will use 'this and that' the next time. It kind of made me feel that they are trialing and erroring their products on my face and they will use the first few sessions to do that. Very unprofessional.

When I said that I think the products are not working well on my face (as can be seen from my evidently swollon red face),all they could say is ' This is good for you' and 'This is very good for you'. They do not touch on the 'Why is it good' and the 'How it works' or even explain what it is for. I think they should just stick to doing message. Very unconvincing.

Rating: 2 stars out of 5.

End of the world

2011-03-22T08:19:00.000-07:00

Today's lunch topic was " do you believe in the end of the world?"

** Story Begins**

Colleague A: You know what? My friend is in bangkok now and is cursing all the way coz it is 16 degree celcius!

Me: HUH? 16 degree celcius??? Bangkok? how can it be! it's so inland!

Colleague A: Ya la! its like crazy la!!! Bangkok leh! 16 degree celcius she was like so caught unprepared! She does not have any warm clothes at all!

Colleague B: Oh!!! IT's gonna be the end of the world...

Colleague A: hmmm.. maybe lo.. *types sms on her iphone*

Colleague B: do you all believe its going to be the end of the world?

Colleague A: * very fast response as usual* YES

Colleague B: So why are we working so hard now. we should all go and enjoy! ... Do you all think its gonna be in 2012?

Colleague A: Yea lo... I think so...

Me: According to the Bible, the signs are showing.

Colleague B: Really huh? What signs?

Me: Earthquake, tsunami, rise of 10 nations and wars.... we are hearing that suddenly and much more often now.

Colleague A: My friend says it will happen within our generation.

Colleague B: oooo.. ya lo... how i wish we all know when exactly the when the end of the world is, then we can plan our activities ahead of time.

Me: -.- huh..... if everyone knows when the end of the world will be, no one will be working and there will not even be food to go around! When that comes, it will really be the end of the world! Who will even be out there working for you to provide entertainment?

Colleague B: Ya lo. you are right

**Topic ends here**

I think God has a good reason for not letting us know when exactly will the world end. We all just have to be prepared and ensure our salvation. When the day comes, it will be like a "thief at night" and what we can only do is to be mentally prepared.

FAST FOOD WAR COME ON NOW!!!!

2011-03-07T03:14:00.000-08:00

UPDATE!!!!

When Mac comes out with a 1-for-1 deal to the alldealsready Singaporeans,

Trust the king to come up with something EVEN better, burgers at a dollar, its a buy 1 get maybe 3 more free!
And this is what the king in the midst of its 'never-chicken-out' campaign said on FB:

Why settle for better when you can make it EVEN better? The King takes pride in 100% flame grilled burgers and believes that everyone should have it the REAL way. To prove his point.......because the King never chickens out of challenges. And real flames.

This is outright war against McGrill!!! I hope macdolnalds respond, and we can have the greatest fast food war of all times! I hope KFC and Texas Chicken joins in too! Not to forget LJS!

My admiration for BK marketing department had just hightened once again.

Power of Songs

2011-03-07T01:52:00.000-08:00

Shuo Hao De Xing Fu by Jay Chou

There are just some songs that would somehow, someway, unexpectedly, bring out some feelings within where are hidden, but not lost. No matter how happy you are now, no matter how contented and blissful you feel now, no matter how forward looking you are towards the new future, things and feelings in the past, though faded, will never do away as though it never happened.

When these songs are heard once again, it pulls out the feelings to the surface, feeling as though that fateful day was only yesterday.

Maybe it is because the fear that the past may repeat itself is always true.

2011-03-02T08:52:00.000-08:00

i'mmissingyousobadlyican'tsleepthinkingofrunningovertoyounowandbringyouhomeigotstrawberrymilkteabutitsnothelpingiwantyourhugsandwarmthnownownownownow!!!!!!

Customer Service in Singapore

2011-03-01T06:59:00.000-08:00

For the past few days I've been meeting terrible customer service that really spoils one's day. Often than not, it is caused by an individual who could possibly tarnish the name of the company. Things only gets worse when you see the exactly same behavior in the manager.

Before I begin elaborating, I must first clarify that I am not the unreasonable kind of customer who demands for full money back gaurentee services not first class services the kind you get on airplanes VIP seats. I am the kind who will help the waiter should he spill the drinks on the table (not on me!). What I am talking about is basic manner, innitiative and attention.

Part 1

A fine last saturday, Siong and I choose to have dinner at Xin Wang Cafe. A waiteress came along to serve us after we got our seats and we were flipped through the book looking for the dish we wanted to order. So when we found the location of the dish so that we can point it out to her, we raised our heads from the menu to see her staring blankly to her right. So we called for her attention and she noted down our main course. After which, we flipped to the front of the menu and pointed out the next order, then as a natural course, we looked up to ensure that she has taken down our order. To our astonishment, the waitress is once again staring blankly to her right! We looked at her and kept quiet, testing if she would notice the silence. She did, and she noticed us staring at her, and she went:"anymore? in chinese".

After finishing out ordering, the tried to promote the Xin Wang Peng You card in the most monotonous and uninterested fashion, we caught some of her words while the rest drowned in her own throat. However, we decided it is time we get the card since there is a outlet near my where I live and we have been eating there every now and then. No harm anyway, since we caught the part whereby we have to pay $30 for the card, but more than $30 worth of vouchers will be given to us.

So happily, we dined, while talking about the unattentive waitress and how they should improve their customer service. When we had our fill and left the table to foot the bill, turned out the card entitles us to a free drink on the day of purchase. We were immediately displeased as the waitress serving did not informed us of the drink. Well we figured out that she probably did, in the part where she drowned her own voice. Eve

The waitress should have noticed and pointed it out to us that we have to choose a drink, or that perhaps we can change the dessert into the free drink for the day! She did not and now, being Singaporeans who will not let go of free deals, we carried our full stomachs and returned to the table we sat previously, just to order the free drink and force it down our bellies.

So I casually commented to the manager who took over to serve us that we were not informed of the free drink and now that we have eaten our fill, we do not know what to order for the free drink. She simply looked at us, puzzled, and kept mum. So we ordered and decided that the waitress probably got the attitude from the manager.

Being the ever customer service stressing person I am, I decided that I should fill in a feedback form and hope to bring this incident to light to the management. So I asked a passing by waiter for one and unfortunately, feedbacks can only be done online.

Apparently, this got to the same manager who served us and she came along, asking about the issue. From our point of view, the only reason why she decided to attend to the issue was for the fear of having it raised to the higher management.

So she kept apologizing on her waiter's behalf, till the extent we felt awkward and naggy. We were just eager to leave!

When the matter was brought up at the cashier area, the cahsier should have already informed the manager to ractify the problem, which we see it as easily a voucher stating we can redeem the free drink some other time, even if it is at the same outlet.

Instead of apologizing profusely, the manager could also have simply given another free drink voucher to pacify displease consumers. It may not be deserving since we have already had our free drink, but this goes a long way in building goodwill with consumers. In addition, people do not go to Hong Kong Cafe to drink - it is more of a eating place. Having a free drink draws people back again and food will be accompanied for order. Can't businesses just think for the long run?

The managers just made us feel that they want us to leave asap and hope that we will not louge the complaint. We did not in the end, but the next time round such incident occurs, I will be sure to record the feedback address.

Part 2

For some reasons my handphone is unable to detect any reception at all. So I rushed down to Sembawang Starhub shop (as I discovered from the starhub website), aiming to reach half an hour before it's closing time at 9pm. When it was my turn to be served, I addressed my issue as: ' My phone is not able to detect any reception and I think something is wrong with it or my simcard'

So the customer service went: 'For Sim cards you have to go to Doughby Ghaut. We do not do Sim Cards here.' She simply tried to redirect me without even taking a look at the actual problem of the phone! What if it is a phone problem and nothing's wrong with the sim card?

Totally put off at the unwillingness to serve.

KFC Breakfast with Siong = Blissful Morning!

2011-02-15T23:45:00.000-08:00

Happy Chinese New Year

2011-02-13T21:37:00.000-08:00

Typing from my Brand New Toshiba!

2011-02-01T07:23:00.000-08:00

I AM NOW BLOGGING FROM MY BRAND NEW TOSHIBA NB520!!!!

I won it during Siong's Advocators CNY gathering dinner at Concord Hotel last Sunday... the very first time i won a top prize!!! And to get the exact model that I want was really a blessing from God! To think that I was yearning for it the day before passing by the roadshow promotion while working at *scape!

For awhile when I won the lappy, I thought to myself any TOSHIBA laptop is really good enough. Never did I expect to win the EXACT model that I want! In a beautiful orange too! (Advocator's colour) I must use this netbook proper for building of my aspirations and such from now on! No more heavy 4kg Lenovo on the MRT trains! It's gonna be Toshiba NB520!!!

Oh but I'm still gonna use my Lenovo mainly at home. Toshiba is more for travelling and light usage=) The advo people were amused at how dazzled I was after receiving the prize! I'm blessed!

I sent this poster to Siong two weeks ago, telling him that this is something I would want to buy if I have the cash. Now I've got it! =D

WOOoOoTS!

Thai Express

2011-01-28T01:36:00.000-08:00

Ai ya no time to talk about the post. Will edit later!

Spring Cleaning

2011-01-27T09:31:00.000-08:00

Today (or rather yesterday since it is 1.31am now) I took a leave to do 3 things

1) Have KFC breakfast with Siong

2) Go for driving which has to be of a very weird timing which I can't take a am or a pm leave

3) Spring Cleaning

And here's the result

1) We woke up so late, I was even late for driving! KFC BREAKFAST!!!!! Siong you gotta have KFC breakfast with me next week ok!

2) As usual

3) I got home from a good lunch with NK at 3.30pm and fell aslp till about 7.30pm. Finally started packing at 8.30pm after some net browsing. Spent most of the time washing clothes instead.. haiz..

I've gotta find another day to finish everything up, definitely by this weekend coz I'm gonna do my manicure on Monday. I hate Spring Cleaning. But Spring cleaning makes my mom shut up and Siong happy. Haiz.

2011-01-17T22:22:00.000-08:00

Which is worse?

A: A materialistic but honest person.
B: A down-to-earth person who lies.

Anyway I have taken away the chatbox as there is too many nonsense going on there. If you want to comment, please hit the comment button under the post.

Who to call when you find a dead cat.

2011-01-11T17:26:00.000-08:00

I know this may seem like a weird post but I hope it comes useful one day to anyone who finds a dead cat in Singapore, like the way I did along the way to work.

No you do not call the SPCA or the AVA/Centre for animal welfare and control. They only deal with animals that are still alive and breathing.

Call the NEA (National Environmental Agency) at 1800-225-5632 and they will take care of it.

P.S. You have to know the exact location of the dead cat so that they will know where to go and clear it.

New Year, New Resolutions

2011-01-08T09:15:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I have actually blogged. Life's been very busy, but pretty standard. I have been working hard at work recently rushing for a upcoming major event and doing up proposals and what to do for next year. When I am not in office, I am in my driving instructor's car trying to learn how to drive well.

Bad news is I failed my first test yesterday. Luckily I have myself mentally prepared already. My instructor haven't been all good and I could never understand the circuits.

I had wanted very much to blog about my happenings actually... all the things that happened in the workplace (it's getting pretty weird and frustrating and the rosy picture at work is revealing it's thorns)... how glad I am to have a very understanding and mature boyfriend... how I decorated a christmas tree and placed presents under it for the very first time in my life... how I received embraces from a family for the very first time for all the New Years I've been through....how although with all these lovely and wonderful thing happening around me, I still a suffocating woman's shadow at the back of my mind.

Shawn and I came up with our New Year resolutions this year and we are going to turn it into a really cool scrapbook! Will take pictures of em and have them posted up soon!

Gonna slp soon!Gotta start on my new year resolution tml morning- excercise at least twice a week!

Pray hard that I wake up in time!

I'm lovin this song

2010-12-10T22:32:00.000-08:00

I'll be rich if I am a Panda.

2010-12-03T21:29:00.000-08:00

From the news.

Statue made of panda dung sold for US$45,000

BEIJING - A former Swiss ambassador to China turned art collector has forked out 300,000 yuan (US$45,000) for a replica of the famed Venus de Milo statue -- made from panda dung.

Children from the southwestern province of Sichuan, the home of China's beloved giant panda, made the unusual statue with the help of famous sculptor Zhu Cheng, popular Web portal sina.com reported.

An employee at the Henan Art Museum, surnamed Zhao, on Friday confirmed to AFP that a statue made of panda faeces had been sold to Sigg, Swiss ambassador to China in the 1990s, who spent a total of one million yuan on artworks.

The statue was the main talk of the show, attracting people not because it was a replica of a famous sculpture, but because of the material from which it was made, the report said."From time to time, people get closer to the statue and smell this yellow Venus and some claim it smells nice," it added.

Pandas are good at earning money and are generally paid high salary. Here are the stats:

In 2004, each panda earns 3.6 million RMB (similar as 450,000 million USD) .The President of the United States, President Obama earns $400,000 a year.

Usually one panda a year cost 6000-10000USD for basic cost: meals and airconditioning, basic medicine. But it's worth it as you can mould it's shit and sell for much more.

But pandas are not very materialistic creatures. All they want is bamboo. So all the earning are used in preservation of pandas' habitat and its construction, as well as wild scientific research, promotion in preservation educations

Guys don't you wish your ladies/gf can be pandas?

Happy Birthday to MEE!!!

2010-11-18T07:14:00.000-08:00

This year's 22nd birthday felt like a 21st.

It feels great to be a 21 year old princess, just that I've really passed my 21st and it's the 22nd birthday I was really celebrating. I had two whole cakes for my birthday this year, one from my family, one from siong's family.

My mom got a nice cake, however its not a cheesecake which I always want for my brithday - a standard request every year. She prob got it coz she liked the cake and getting the cake for my birthday was probably a one-stone-kill-two-bird aim. Neither did I blow any candles. I told her there's no need to and I'll just go out and slice the cake for them. So when she waited long enough at the living room the day before my birthday, she called asking when will I cut the cake. So I cut and then they took the slices and ate and watched TV. So I went back into my room. That's all I did.

My birthday was really a blessed one! Siong brought me to good old JB City Square for Ostrich and Steak on the rock! Then it was a classic cheesecake and a new cake flavour (which I had forgotten!) at Secret Recipe! Spent the whole day walking around, never really bought anything...but it was a day of good food and jolly feeling! Prob its also coz I've spent $450 at Watsons the week before, that's why I've tightened my wallet! Wonder how I managed to spend $450 at good old watsons? HAHAHAHhAhahHAHAhha!!!

Dinner was some fried Taiwan Chicken. I also found a shop that could do stamps for me at a cheap rate. Prob make afew stamps and see how it goes from there.

Shawn's mommy insisted that I should have a cake to cut on my birthday, so out we went to get a cake from Q Bread. It is another cheesecake! and I had Alison, Si Lie, Celest, Calieus, May, Sam, Uncle, Auntie and Siong to celebrate with me!!! =)))))))

This year's Birthday brought me one of the best birthday presents I ever had. Siong got me a Whiteboard and a Swarovski Red Heart necklace. Auntie got me a nice Levi's top. God blessed me with somethings I had missed out, but treasure now.

Thank you all!

IVP wushu competition

2010-10-29T22:36:00.000-07:00

For the first time since I had known about this competition, I am sitting as a spectator.

I've been competing for the past three years without fail and I still remember the first year I had competed. Every year is a different experience and my goal was always to grasp at least one Gold. But I never did. The best I had done was the first time I competed, in the National Wushu Competition, obtaining 2nd for my fist form. After that was always a decline.

It should be a lack of focus. It is now a regret and I wonder if I could ever, after 10 years of wushu practise and now not practising anymore because of work, still obtain a Gold somewhere somehow. Maybe I should go train in Tai Chi as what Wei Han said. Too old already. Am I?

All my life I just lacked the focus. I had always wanted to go Nepal, but Ivan beat me at it, left only after 6 months of planning. I had planned 6 years.

I really want to continue training in wushu. Just when I felt my competitive life had started, it ended too soon. But because of work, because of various other reasons, I had stopped. And as I see my friends and people I once knew in De Wu, how thay had remained focus and made a name for themselves, I blame myself for not being strong enough to heck the barriers and move on.

Ups and Downs

2010-10-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

It's been some time since I was here. Been working very hard and trying to play as hard too.

The first month of work was really the honeymoon period...where everything was fresh and I was still wondering why my predecessors left my position so quickly for various reasons. Although I have been working OT since the first day of work, doing surveys way after office hours, I thought this job was great as I am meeting people and coming up with new ideas every day (coz I had the time to think) . I'm also learning new marketing stuffs everyday.

For the past week or so though, I havent been meeting people. I havent been thinking. I have only been trying to chase time, the same feeling like trying to chase after your shadow in the evening sun, aiming to plant both your feets on your head but each time you move, the shadow's always ahead of you. And the midday sun has been so shrouded by cloudy skies (with haze recently... even NEA website's so loaded it's not loading) so you're prevented from the simply goal of standing in your own shadow from head to toe.

I'm also not really learning new marketing stuffs. But I'm still learning - about how to twist words so that I don't say the wrong things to bosses and partners, at the same time trying to stay as honest as I can. It's such a meticulous and delicate balance, I'm not careful enough and I kept shattering it.

Keeping in contact with overseas bosses is also mind blowing. I've been working for more than 12 hours this week so far, simply because I spend more time collating everything and trying to make things short and sweet in view that bosses are busy people, esp overseas. Then when things are short and sweet, people start to assume missing information and then make the wrong assumption, often to a negative side.

Then it makes no sense to rectify the assumptions which may require long emails when the reason why everything happened is because I wanted to keep things simple. Trying to rectify probs may also make me look like I am arguing, esp when the boss specifically told you ' no time to read emails'. So I went ahead to do my stuffs, threading on my toes, yet I still recieve a 'Who gave you the approval?!" So I went back to square 1, seeking approval for every single breath I take.

Its not like people in the same hazy island are anymore contactable too. Somehow when I need things I could never get to them. Then when they needs things (which are ALWAYS very urgent, more urgent than mine), being the person who strive to nv miss a call, I am always there and I became a messenger, doing more things when I have not even settled my own issues I wanted to raise to the very same person. Somehow. Then when everything is finally done, and I raise my issues, "Oh! I get back to you in a while" then the same whole process repeats. TMD.

All hell broke loose and I spend my nights worrying what kind of emails I will receive the next day. Sometimes I even felt like I should not sleep but wait for my boss to reply 3-4am emails so I can quickly get things stright.

Now I know why my predesessors left. But I'm gonna stay. If this is the kind of trials God has in mind for me, then I'll just take it in my stride and prove myself. Although I feel that many of my so called mistakes were are driven by circumstances I dont understand, leading to many misunderstanding, I don't think I need to stand up for myself. I just have to do my job, be more stringent (that is if i get my good slp) and try to stop those stress acne from popping.

Bracing myself for the arrival of bosses tml. They are finally back. Bad news is I am expecting some form of compiled and burning lecturing and they have probably lost their faith in this one who aced the interview. Good news is since they are back and things will go on right once again.

Funny times

2010-10-10T03:59:00.000-07:00

I received a email from Candice that reads this.

The Vanilla Pudding Robbery

This is just too funny not to share an article which appeared in The Dublin Times about a bank robbery on March 2.

Once inside the bank shortly after midnight, their efforts at disabling the security system got underway immediately. The robbers, who expected to find one or two large safes filled with cash & valuables, were surprised to see hundreds of smaller safes throughout the bank. The robbers cracked the first safe's combination, and inside they found only a small bowl looks like vanilla pudding. As recorded on the bank's audio tape system, one robber said, 'At least we'll have a bit to eat.'

The robbers opened up a second safe, and it also contained nothing but vanilla pudding. The process continued until all safes were opened. They did not find one pound sterling, a diamond, or an ounce of gold. Instead, all the safes contained covered little bowls of pudding.

Disappointed, the robbers made a quiet exit, each leaving with nothing more than a queasy, uncomfortably full stomach.

The newspaper headline read: 'IRELAND'S LARGEST SPERM BANK ROBBED EARLY THIS MORNING'....

Shawn prompted me to search for this wickedly intelligent Thai bank commercial after reading this email.

Then as usual I began my search for the infamously intelligent and humourous thai advertisements. Seems like there has been lots of updates over the past few months! Here's a series of commercials promoting a coffee that will boost your energy level, enabling you to multitask well.

The one below is nothing intelligent actually... just in your face and so plain dumb i'm laughing at it's stupidity =P

Its amazing how thai people make fun of themselves and their own country's uniqueness - ladyboys and lots of infamous ghosts stories

This is one that I didn't like. But I guessed that Siong would like it, and I was right. Talk about ego-centric men who like to make us women look silly. ARUGH.

Message in a Bottle Survives Epic Journey

2010-10-05T06:07:00.000-07:00

Last year, a high school student named Corey Swearingen put a letter in a bottle, sealed it up, and dropped it in the Atlantic Ocean, off the Florida coast. It was kind of an experiment for school. In the letter, he appealed to whomever came across the bottle to contact him and let him know where in the world it showed up. Amazingly, someone did.

About 16 months after the bottle was dropped, Swearingen's marine science teacher heard from someone in Ireland. The letter had made its way across the Atlantic Ocean and washed up on the shores of the Emerald Isle, found by a 17-year-old and his Dad while out for a stroll. In an interview with Florida Today, Swearingen said he never expected the message to be found.
Can't blame him for pessimism. After all, the wine bottle, which, according to Swearingen, is being put up on display in an Irish pub, did face long odds. But it's hardly the first message in a bottle to survive a perilous journey.

In 2009, a message in a bottle washed up on the shores of England. It had been tossed into the waters near the Bahamas nearly five years previous. Incredible

There's even a case of a message in a bottle helping a family find a new life. In 1979, Dorothy and John Henry Peckham dropped a message in a bottle in the Pacific Ocean while on a cruise. Amazingly, the bottle found its way to Southeast Asia where it was picked up by 31-year-old Hoa Van Nguyen.

Nguyen wrote back and began a correspondence that eventually led to the Peckhams helping to sponsor Nguyen and his family's immigration to the United States.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I believe that this is the work of God working His miracle on earth! I could never figure out how fragile glass bottles could survive sea storms, potential rocks and the constant curiousity of sea creatures (I think they would be curious!!!) to carry it's message across the surface of the earth when tough steel tankers ships are always at the mercy of mother nature! It must then be God's work to build faith in the hearts of those who dared to try =)

Don't Get Burnt Marketing Campaign

2010-09-29T07:20:00.000-07:00

In the NEWS! A lorry with high density metal trunk caught fire from a surface spark after a speeding bird ran it's beak into it! Fortunately the bird was fine. Unfortunately the fire slowly consumed the trunk and the driver only came to realise when a passing drivers started horning and to signaling him! LOL!!!

If such a thing really happened I think the first thing that would come into a Singaporean's mind is to buy the lottery plate number of this lorry. It's a kid up there by the way. =P

'Singapore Customs has launched a public campaign, "Don't Get Burnt", to in an effort to eradicate illegal cigarettes. With the use of traditional and new media strategies, the campaign draws attention to its icon - a burn mark - that emphasises the consequences of dealing with illegal cigarettes.'

This reminds me of the time I worked in BAT when my boss was telling me all about this and that a campaign will be launched soon. That was last year in June 2009. It's September 2010. How soOoOooOon!!!!

But I must say the campaign tagline and icon is very well done. The way they have the icon printed and integrated onto the moving advertising medium makes it highly noticable and catches any passer by's attention to see if something is really burning! I must say the designer had done a good job. The burning mark also mimicks a cigeratte burn through a paper, which anyone and everone would be able to easily relate how it would look like. Finally a creative warning advertising effort by the Singapore Government other than the usual 'In Your Face kind' and the 'WARNING, DO NOT xxxxx, IF NOT FINE $xxxx' kind. At least I do not see any big red warnings on the lorry.

Their micro-site is very well done too. You should take a look if you've landed here. Your computer screen will even look like someone had burnt a hole in it.

http://www.dontgetburnt.sg/#media-gallery?id=1

You'll also notice that apparantly the police have been spying and taking pictures of offenders. Before this, they most probably gave people a warning and a second chance. But with the Don't Get Burnt campaign in full force, I don't think they'll give any chances.

And to all smokers who like to frequent Malaysia or JB, do take note of this not-so-new regulation. It is an offence to buy, smoke or possess cigarettes without the SDPC mark. Offenders can be fined a minimum of $500 per packet for possession or jailed for distribution of cigarettes without this mark. Think twice.

Virgin to launch space tourism in 18 months

2010-09-27T17:40:00.000-07:00

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - – Billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson said Monday that Virgin Galactic is on track to offer commercial space travel within 18 months, and that space hotels are next on the drawing board.

Virgin Galactic, which aims to become the world's first commercial company to promote space tourism, has already collected 45 million dollars in deposits from more than 330 people who have reserved seats aboard the six-person craft.

Branson also has visions of establishing hotels in space, which well-heeled tourists can use as a base for shuttle flights over the moon.

"We are looking at hotels in space. We love the moon," the tycoon said

I had aspired to be an astronaut in my early primary school days... a weird ambition for a little girl isn't it? I remembered being amazed by this planetary book I had, and being the only kid in class who could name all the planets in order to my science teacher. Perhaps what I wanted was to be at the top of the world, able to admire mother earth, and the other mysterious yet beautiful planets, moons and stars with my very own eyes.

But somehow along the way I lost it. I'm not sure why...

I no longer aspire to set foot in space anymore. Perhaps I was influenced by my church teachings... that we should not disturb the peace of space, God's magnificant creation. Perhaps after all the spaceshuttle explosions I was a tad frightened. Perhaps its because as I grew older I understood all the possible dangers and high risks of the adventure.

Such that I am actually against Richard Branson's space empire ambition. It sounded to me like Gundam.... are we going to act like God and build a 'man-made planet' in the near future? Isn't Earth with all the wonderful colours, sights and smell, good enough a place to live in?

If I have a store...

2010-09-27T08:37:00.000-07:00

I will make it into somewhere we like, not what we think others might like.
I will make it into something that shows who we are, not what people want us to be.
I will make it into a place where people walk in with pure inquisitivity , and then walk out with a full understanding

We should do something like this once a lifetime....

2010-09-27T02:33:00.000-07:00

Longest Journey by Powered Paraglider

WHO:
Benjamin Jordan
WHAT:
8,008 km (4,975.93 miles)
WHERE:
Tofino (British Columbia) to Bay St Lawrence (Nova Scotia)
WHEN:
15 May 2009 to 24 August 2009

The longest journey by powered paraglider is 8,008 km (4,975.93 miles) and was achieved by Benjamin Jordan (Canada) flying west to east across Canada from Tofino (British Columbia) to Bay St. Lawrence (Nova Scotia) between 15 May 2009 and 24 August 2009.

Cool stuffs to put at home

2010-09-21T23:54:00.000-07:00

This is COOL! My home will be filled with such cool stuffs next time! Definately!
http://freshome.com/2010/09/21/cool-out-of-the-box-lamp-design-from-yeongwoo-kim/

And I will porb need this next time too. Lol! 'This mattress was designed for those people who want to hold their partner in their arms all night long without feeling the presure in the arms. This will effectively prevent the arm pressure and you can also pitch feet in the slot and easily find the most comfortable sleeping position.'

http://freshome.com/2007/12/21/love-mattress/

Fossil - I like it!

2010-09-17T08:54:00.000-07:00

I have always been fond of this brand. It's designs range from classic to classy, yet always retaining its true vintage outlook.

I could wear this on the weekdays to add to my professional business wear...

and this during the weekends for the rugged and no-boundaries me!

This is Siong's choice, simple yet sophisticated, truely an art!

And I got my eyes on this vintage bag. A bag that could easily walk you from the 1930s to the 21st centuary. A design that resists all trends and time!

A weekend of board games

2010-09-14T09:01:00.000-07:00

The last weekend was not as eventful, but not less exciting either! Friday was a day of catching up with some overdue work. Siong's mom being the super nice mommy around packed super nice fish and minced meat porridge for us! I felt it was abit over priced though. Come to think of it, I think I had developed a liking for fish and porridge recently. My choice of dishes usually comprise of some freshly sliced fish... of note, this Fish Stomach and Skin porridge I had on Sunday for dinner at Tao PaYoh. It was fabulous. They really give you the omega 3 filled stomach fats and big well cutted slices of skin, nothing less! Apparently the stretch of eateries have good and well-known food, just that it is well hidden, tucked away behind other shops and snacks stores. I'll make sure we have something else from there again the next time we are nearby! And take some pictures too!

Following that, the saturday was a day with afew hours spent with my beloved NTU wushu juniors and meeting the freshies. It seems like there will be some potential in this year's batch... but its just the beginning and its hard to predict as many people usually leave during the first few weeks. It simply a matter of who stays.

The rest of the evening was great fun and laughter with Mickey, Jessica and dearest Siong at Coffee Nations, our favourite hideout! I transported my full size cluedo all the way there... and the rest of the day was like - Siong got jealous that Mickey and I were "spending too much time together in the Spa" so "with much chance and effort he made his way to the room and forced mickey out of the spa pool onto the bed" and Mickey " wasn't too happy with it" so he " jumped into the pool to destroy our nice little private time together finally" . But coz we can't stand the idea of sharing the same spa pool with mickey so when "mickey jumped into the pool, both of us scurried out and gave the whole pool to him!"

You gotta be there to find the whole thing funny! JESSICA PLEASE SET THE NEXT CLUEDO SESSION!!! YOu gotta win AT LEAST ONCE! kekekek...

Sunday was great. It was church then BBK then having good times at Jurong Point! I still prefer the weekdays though when there is less crowd. It's better for my temper too. We had lunch at our long missed Banquet... and then MOVIE!

DON'T watch cats and dogs unless you are a primary school kid or accompanying a pri school kid. The kid would easily rate it 5*. If you are not a kid, it becomes a 1.5* - credits purely going to the really cute animals.

Then it was the porridge dinner mentioned just now and SETTLERS at Fu Kai's place. I'm lovin the game! But I still like cluedo currently, unless I become a expert in Settlers =) I want more board games weekends!!!! Like once a month?!

My next Handphone...

2010-09-13T22:30:00.000-07:00

Is gonna have a keypad,
Is gonna be throw, slam, fling and drop proof,
and is gonna be able to cut the sending of that sms to the wrong person with the quick touch of a cancel button.

Very important

THIS IS GONNA BE MY NEWEST LENOVO!

2010-09-07T20:21:00.000-07:00

THE Lenovo Ideapad S10-3T

Just look at this beauty! You can swirval the monitor round, then press it down clamped with the full sized keyboard and start doing natural touchscreen actions!

Way to go Lenovo! Juice the Apple!

How I wish it comes in all black! I'ld get it without second thoughts!

Did I ever mention I am a big fan of Lenovo?

I only owe one laptop in my life before and thats my precious Lenovo ThinkPad T60. I got it more than three years back during NTU's freshman week 'IT Fair' and I must tell you had never regreted the choice I made. It drained my POSB account, but it's thru thick and thin with me. For three hard years ( I do not have the habit of shutting down my PC and even when I carry it around, I simply close the lid and move off), after being dropped from heights as tall as me with my arm stretched and being man handled by aircrafts personnal with placed naked in a lauggage, it never fail me. Not once had it died before. My T60 saw me through my university and was my best friend. It was always there for me =D

THE SMRT PRESTIGE

2010-09-07T08:08:00.000-07:00

THE SMRT PRESTIGE.

I TOOK IT TODAY!!!!

Travel to your meetings in style with Prestige by SMRT Taxis.

This exclusive service is offered on Mercedes and London Taxis. The spacious interiors and contoured seats make for a relaxing ride whilst music of your choice soothes the soul. And if you desire to read, the wide selection of magazine on board provide food for thought.

With Prestige, you can expect impeccable service and more. From being able to hold a conversation to delivery of quality customer-service, and even down to donning business wear when they are behind the wheel, all our drivers take great pride in the fact that they are setting benchmarks when it comes to service.

Ensuring you have a pleasant journey is important to us. Equally important is your safety which is why the Prestige fleet is equipped with a safety lock system that prevents the opening of doors when the vehicle is in motion.

So, leave the driving to us. Travel to your meetings in style with Prestige by SMRT Taxis.

To book a Prestige service, call the SMRT Taxis hotline 6555 8888 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 6555 8888 end_of_the_skype_highlighting. Booking fee for Prestige service is $8.

Its super big and spacious... I can cross my legs on the chair! It's so smooth , maybe I can play monopoly deal or even cluedo on the ride!!!

LUXURIOUS! At a price of $2 more.

Back in the Office

2010-09-06T17:37:00.001-07:00

I'm back in the office again.

NOt that I'm not glad to be here, its just that I know today's gonna be a long day cuz I only had 4 hours of sleep, and the day before, 5 hours. And I thought yesterday was supposed to be a luxurious day whereby I can sleep early after watching some anime.

I got my anime but not the sleep. Some work that I had been oweing for some time was needed and thus I worked on it. There goes what I thought is the first time i'll get my luxurious 9 hours of sleep since I started working. I could only blame on my bad time managment as mentioned in the previous post. It was a good push to get things done though.

4 and 5 hours of sleep is the kind whereby you don't feel tired enough to fall sick, neither do you feel alert enough to close the lid of the flask tightly before mixing the boiling hot contents in it. (Got scalded early in the morning. What a way to wake up.)

Blogwalking

2010-09-06T05:42:00.000-07:00

Is this some sort of new marketing tactic for online businesses?! Somehow such people (maybe even machine) would leave a often out-of-point comment on my chatbox and have their name linked.

Some time ago I was fighting this anonymous coward whose name is "." . Yes. DOT. who hurled rude remarks on my blog and is still in hiding. Now I have people like miki, supposedly a sexy sara and girls with cute braces praising my blog when I know there is nothing to praise about. Especially when I have half written senseless posts like My BB cream story that only had a picture and some SPF which only I know corresponds to which BB cream! And oh! miki claimed that its very information. Bow wow wow.

I left a threat note on the chatbox a few weeks back threatening to report their blog or leave bad comments if anyone attempts to advertise on my space without my permission. But. I hate to admit, they ain't a tad threatened for their website does not allow any form of reporting or commenting.

I do think that they do targeting as I don't see such phenomenon on my friends' blogs.

Maybe I should check out what is BlogWalking.

Update: Increase Traffic Rank with Blogwalking
Blogwalking, Is a powerful technique to increase your visitors or traffic by visiting your friends blog or even someones you don't know. In This way you can totally increase your traffic in alexa and have a lot of numbers of visitors in your page that result high page impressions by adsense or any other ppc program.

Now I get it! It's another way round the all-so-clever Adsense! You leave a praise, then your link and then people will go to your blog feeling all goody goody! Then Adsense will notice that new IP address and you get the cents! For awhile I was thinking whether I should try earning some extra allowance from Adsense without spoiling the serenity of my blog.. but this is irritating and mindless. As a marketer, I know the big money people pay to advertise on Adwords and simply having traffic crossing over their adverts to gain those tiny cents is not within my code of ethics. I won't attempt blogwalking on other people's site.

I won't stop people from blogwalking here, but at least make enough sense in your comment if you want to earn from my click.

Update:What is blog-walking ? Blogwalking is a technique to increase blog traffic by visiting other blogs and leave your marks there. The other blogger is then expected to reciprocate by visiting your blog.

This sounds more reasonable but I maintain my stand. Make sure you leave a reply worthy mark before expecting any reciprocation.

Update: Now my blog is a gathering place for Blogwalkers. -,-. Hi all.

Mad rush to sleep

2010-09-05T09:54:00.000-07:00

I've been officially working for two weeks already/ only and I feel like I have worked for 2 months already although it still feels like it was only yesterday when I just entered the company. I am glad my colleagues and superiors really do trust me in my work and I am not treated like a innocent fresh graduate. They do place high expectations on me and I am glad I am given ample opportunities to learn and do my part. This was already in place the first day I stepped in and I am given five projects to work on already, of which three of them I am playing a leading role with good guidance from my superior. Therefore with so much to do and so much done already, I feel like I had worked for 2 months already, but time had passed so fast, I could still clearly remember my feelings and events that took place the first day I stepped into my space in the department.

That being said, eveynight therefore became a mad rush to sleep. I have to wake up at 7am lastest every morning so I can prepare and leave by 7.30 am to catch the 8am company bus and reach office before my official working hour starts at 8.30pm.

This means I have to start sleeping ideally by 11.30pm. For the past few days I had work to do even after my official working hours ended at 6.15pm, and then I'll try to find some time, usually less than an hour, to spend with Siong, then go home, often reaching home after 11pm. Then I quickly check my personal mails, fb, quickly bath, dry the hair and go to bed... everything before 12am, often getting more tired due to the mad rush.

This weekend however was a welcomed break. Althought the mad rush to sleep is still there, I got to spend my weekend window shopping at Marina Square and Vivo City , have Kenny Rogers, beach at Sentosa, rewarding lunch adventure after church, tandom bike for the first time at East Coast and Karaok at Tanjong Katong. I know that such fun filled and well spent weekend with friends and my love will be hard to come by next time... and I am also feeling the drain of having packed so much activities into two days. For one thing I have not started on decorating my work note book nor started anything on scrapbooking, something I have been wanting to do for a very long while now.

I have been missing on my weekly anime and also rather behind my blogging for I had lots of entries I wanna talk about. I have not been reading my basic bible knowledge nor touched the bible.

It's time to work something out.... a weekly schedule that I should follow... like... I'll try to read my BBK and verses from the Bible at least twice a week.. and to have read and prepare myself before every BBK lesson. But then again...it's gonna be another schedule squeezed into the time I use to rush to sleep.

Gotta work on time management.

My BB Cream Story

2010-09-02T08:31:00.000-07:00

25PA++
20PA+
45PA+++
35PA+++

Early Morning dislikes and the good kind of Evenings

2010-08-31T18:38:00.000-07:00

Top in the List
Feeling super hot and stuffy but sneezing and having mucus threatening to flow at the same time. Feeling hot and sneezing do not match each other.

Second in the List
Waking up from long nightmares that causes headaches

Third in the List
Feeling most humid after washing my hair and having to walk in the hot sun with no wind from my home to the MRT. (This did not occur this morning fortunately)

All these on top of having to rush and unable to laze in bed for half an hour.

Oh... but it was a good evening yesterday!

Top in the List
Meeting up with a old friend from my secondary and junior college for dinner and having a good ketchap and a jolly good time.

Second in the List
Having found my $1 but VERY BEAUTIFUL stickers near my place. Brings me back to the childhood days where stickers are cheap and not-glamour-fied by some art shop selling them at premium prices even when they aint as good as what I've gotten at $1 before. That was in the primary and secondary school days =D Got about $13 or $14 worth of em.

Third in the List
I managed to get a nice durian cake for my mom and some very good traditional mooncakes for shawn's family from Bakerzin at a good discount! Burnt my pocket but feels good coz I know they'll be happy!

A new Parcel

2010-08-22T09:09:00.000-07:00

In about 7 hours time, I'll be waking up and preparing for my first day of work.

It's my first job and my first step into the working society. I am not officially a working adult, no longer the student I've been for the past 14 years of my life.

Amidst all the excitment , abit of sadness as I end my 'wake up at 12 noon weekdays' life.... and a pinch of stress looking at the time I'm left for my own personal hobbies, there is a Biblical quote in today's sermon that should set the foundation for my career path.

Philippians 2:3" Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves"

I'm not good at explaining things so let's hope Shawn has something on his blog that I can link to =P

If U're in a relationship, married or none, read this. U'll know why at the end.

2010-08-20T09:33:00.000-07:00

MARRIAGE

When I got home that night as my wife served dinner, I held her hand and said, I've got something to tell you. She sat down and ate quietly. Again I observed the hurt in her eyes.

Suddenly I didn't know how to open my mouth. But I had to let her know what I was thinking. I want a divorce. I raised the topic calmly.

She didn't seem to be annoyed by my words, instead she asked me softly, why?

I avoided her question. This made her angry. She threw away the chopsticks and shouted at me, you are not a man! That night, we didn't talk to each other. She was weeping. I knew she wanted to find out what had happened to our marriage. But I could hardly give her a satisfactory answer; she had lost my heart to Jane. I didn't love her anymore. I just pitied her!

With a deep sense of guilt, I drafted a divorce agreement which stated that she could own our house, our car, and 30% stake of my company.

She glanced at it and then tore it into pieces. The woman who had spent ten years of her life with me had become a stranger. I felt sorry for her wasted time, resources and energy but I could not take back what I had said for I loved Jane so dearly. Finally she cried loudly in front of me, which was what I had expected to see. To me her cry was actually a kind of release. The idea of divorce which had obsessed me for several weeks seemed to be firmer and clearer now.

The next day, I came back home very late and found her writing something at the table. I didn't have supper but went straight to sleep and fell asleep very fast because I was tired after an eventful day with Jane.

When I woke up, she was still there at the table writing. I just did not care so I turned over and was asleep again.

In the morning she presented her divorce conditions: she didn't want anything from me, but needed a month's notice before the divorce. She requested that in that one month we both struggle to live as normal a life as possible. Her reasons were simple: our son had his exams in a month's time and she didn't want to disrupt him with our broken marriage.

This was agreeable to me. But she had something more, she asked me to recall how I had carried her into out bridal room on our wedding day.

She requested that every day for the month's duration I carry her out of our bedroom to the front door ever morning. I thought she was going crazy. Just to make our last days together bearable I accepted her odd request.

I told Jane about my wife's divorce conditions. . She laughed loudly and thought it was absurd. No matter what tricks she applies, she has to face the divorce, she said scornfully.

My wife and I hadn't had any body contact since my divorce intention was explicitly expressed. So when I carried her out on the first day, we both appeared clumsy. Our son clapped behind us, daddy is holding mommy in his arms. His words brought me a sense of pain. From the bedroom to the sitting room, then to the door, I walked over ten meters with her in my arms. She closed her eyes and said softly; don't tell our son about the divorce. I nodded, feeling somewhat upset. I put her down outside the door. She went to wait for the bus to work. I drove alone to the office.

On the second day, both of us acted much more easily. She leaned on my chest. I could smell the fragrance of her blouse. I realized that I hadn't looked at this woman carefully for a long time. I realized she was not young any more. There were fine wrinkles on her face, her hair was graying! Our marriage had taken its toll on her. For a minute I wondered what I had done to her.

On the fourth day, when I lifted her up, I felt a sense of intimacy returning. This was the woman who had given ten years of her life to me.

On the fifth and sixth day, I realized that our sense of intimacy was growing again. I didn't tell Jane about this. It became easier to carry her as the month slipped by. Perhaps the everyday workout made me stronger.

She was choosing what to wear one morning. She tried on quite a few dresses but could not find a suitable one. Then she sighed, all my dresses have grown bigger. I suddenly realized that she had grown so thin, that was the reason why I could carry her more easily.

Suddenly it hit me... she had buried so much pain and bitterness in her heart. Subconsciously I reached out and touched her head.

Our son came in at the moment and said, Dad, it's time to carry mom out. To him, seeing his father carrying his mother out had become an essential part of his life. My wife gestured to our son to come closer and hugged him tightly. I turned my face away because I was afraid I might change my mind at this last minute. I then held her in my arms, walking from the bedroom, through the sitting room, to the hallway. Her hand surrounded my neck softly and naturally. I held her body tightly; it was just like our wedding day.

But her much lighter weight made me sad. On the last day, when I held her in my arms I could hardly move a step. Our son had gone to school. I held her tightly and said, I hadn't noticed that our life lacked intimacy.

I drove to office.... jumped out of the car swiftly without locking the door. I was afraid any delay would make me change my mind...I walked upstairs. Jane opened the door and I said to her, Sorry, Jane, I do not want the divorce anymore.

She looked at me, astonished, and then touched my forehead. Do you have a fever? She said. I moved her hand off my head. Sorry, Jane, I said, I won't divorce. My marriage life was boring probably because she and I didn't value the details of our lives, not because we didn't love each other anymore. Now I realize that since I carried her into my home on our wedding day I am supposed to hold her until death do us apart.

Jane seemed to suddenly wake up. She gave me a loud slap and then slammed the door and burst into tears. I walked downstairs and drove away.

At the floral shop on the way, I ordered a bouquet of flowers for my wife. The salesgirl asked me what to write on the card. I smiled and wrote, I'll carry you out every morning until death do us apart.

That evening I arrived home, flowers in my hands, a smile on my face, I run up stairs, only to find my wife in the bed - dead. My wife had been fighting CANCER for months and I was so busy with Jane to even notice. She knew that she would die soon and she wanted to save me from the whatever negative reaction from our son, in case we push thru with the divorce.-- At least, in the eyes of our son--- I'm a loving husband....

The small details of your lives are what really matter in a relationship. It is not the mansion, the car, property, the money in the bank. These create an environment conducive for happiness but cannot give happiness in themselves. So find time to be your spouse's friend and do those little things for each other that build intimacy. Do have a real happy marriage!

If you don't share this, nothing will happen to you.

If you do, you just might save a marriage.

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

A CHRIST-CENTERED MARRIAGE IS A MARRIAGE THAT IS SURE TO LAST A LIFETIME.

So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate. Matthew 19:6.By Stephanie Halmilton

My Angel

2010-08-18T20:38:00.000-07:00

said this:

"The state of your life is merely a reflection of the state of your mind"

Evolution

2010-08-16T20:24:00.000-07:00

Charles Darwin's theory of Evolution is a widely debated topic with its own fair share of controversies and arguments. Nonetheless, the theory has sparked the inspiration and creativity of various artist and people with a different purpose around the world... and these are what they see or envisioned.

I think these artists are trying to show how men have evolved to be dependent on the electronics we have. It's amazing how snails survived the evolution process.

I know I have the tendancy to just become like this.

When something drastic happens along the way....

How we may just end up back in the waters after supposedly crawling out from it millions of years ago...

And this is my personal favourite. Short and sweet. To the point. =)

Bukit Timah Hike!

2010-08-14T02:13:00.000-07:00

Siong took a day off from work to help me out my flea. The booking did not went through thought and we went hiking at Bukit Timah Hill instead!!! Boy has it been long since I last stepped foot on Singapore's tallest hill! The terrians and tracks have changed slightly, but I am glad the things I like: - the fresh air and greenery, the permanantly good weather among the forestation and not to mention, the gushing stream of cooling clear water along the Jungle Fall Path.

History of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve
Bukit Timah was one of the first reserves established in 1883. All the reserves were worked for timber except for Bukit Timah. In 1951, the reserve was further protected by legislation and is now adminstered by NParks.

And this is the route we took

South View Path
Catchmeet Path
Resticted/ Blocked up routes =P
Diary Farm Loop
Seraya Loop
Jungle Fall Path

We hiked about 3 hours in all, and here's some pictures!

Helpful monkeys helping each other with grooming,and the most adorable monkey with his usual antics =)You get to see strange wonders of nature if you take the nature paths... and enjoy the cooling nature walk with occasional burst of warm sunshine from a break in the canopy.
Towards the end of the route along the jungle fall path, a refeshing stream of clear cooling water serves as a great reward from the long hike and exercise =)And after going round and round the nature reserve, we finally reached the summit! At 163.63m high... TADA!!!! After disembarkment from the summit, we had a full lunch with fishball noodle, char kuay tiao and nasi lemak, lots of sugar cane drinks and a cooling avocado sea coconut for dessert!

Then a good rest treating our sore legs and tired bodies =P

A repost from Jan 12 2008

2010-08-13T09:51:00.001-07:00

A Willing Heart, A Willing Spirit. Listening comes from the heart. No judgement, no expectation. It's a process of love.

I found it meaningful in a new way once again.

Food Galour in First Week of Aug!

2010-08-11T05:43:00.000-07:00

Siong got his first job! It's nothing related to his field of work and today was already the second day of work ( I was lazy to blog). The working hours aint really ideal for our on-going studies on Patou-logy, but most importantly is that he likes his job and there is GOOD FOOD around his work area!

We did a mini celebration on the finding of a new job after his second interview(although it wasn't confirmed if he would get the job yet at that point of time =P) and had lunch at a restuarant below his workplace.

It's called Hong Kong Street Family Restuarant, damn good Zhi Char at competitive price in a air-conditioned environment. Sounds too good to be true yea? The prices are like any other Zhi Char you find in Singapore Coffee Shops, just that this is clean and comfortable with food gaurenteed to make your tummy happy and your weighing machine smoke. They serve very quickly too.

And of course I ordered my top fav when it comes to Zhi Char - Hotplate Tofu! Served piping hot with generous amount of miced meat and super fresh prawns ( pictures don't lie). We also ordered Beef Hor Fun, another must have dish in the Zhi Char industry. Again the portion was generous and they gave as much beef as the noodle! The beef was tasty and done very well, not like those over cooked tough beef we sometimes get elsewhere. It was more than enough for two people and we were glad we din order more! Our tummies were rounded!

Address: 273 Thomson Road #01-01 Novena Gardens Singapore

There was some work needed to be done by the week and we checkedin at Coffee Nations again. Coffee Nations recently changed their menus. Although I welcome the change, I still prefer the old menu and set lunch. But oh well, I'll be waiting for better recipes to come up next time!

We had Carbonara, Chicken Karagage, Europe Platter and Coffee with some orange flavouring (Did not get the name though). the Chicken and the Coffee was new and it was crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside. Nothing much interesting to the taste though. The coffee was too sweet for me so Siong had it instead and I ordered my usual fav, Amerrato Latte. Perhaps it was because of the orange they had in the coffee, it tastes unique (more towards the conotation of weird) but it's a chief reccommendation so if you feel daring you can try it. =P

SUPER Happy National Day 2010!!!!

2010-08-11T04:35:00.000-07:00

It was homemake pancakes in the morning with some burnt ones....Siong brought me to ECP for some fun before he starts work officially... he makes good effort to keep his girl happy! He tried roller blading for the first time. I was the better one there and became his walking stick for a beginner. I saved him many times but he still had a couple of falls (Ai yo yo....) but still came out unscathed, save for some muscle sores at the end of the day. Blading @ East coast was fun (during national day), even if Siong probably scared the wits out of the people behind him by many near-trips... He got me thinking how cool it'll be to be dancing and blading at the same time! Siong brought me to his grandparents place in my short shorts, I hope I havent made a bad first impression! We also managed a trip to 1-Altitude gallery @ One Raffles Place - the best view I've seen in SG so far! Everything was BELOW us! And to end the night, a nice instant noodle meal (which Siong disrupted the cooking process and the hotdogs exploded and the brocolli melted) and a cheesy desert with his family. Great way to spend national day metinks too :DDD

I did this post in 5 mins.., a template was provided by dear Siong!!!! Kekekekeee!

And everything was picture perfect!

I'm falling I'm Falling!!!!!Yun to the rescue!!!! =pAt one altitute, we were greated by people in red shirts at the 63rd floor.
And an amazing view from the 64th storey!

I can pick up the IR with my fingers!

Shawn's height was just nice for the view. I had to jump or look through the glass! There's aircon in the toilet or it will become like an oven!

And I'm a happy girl with Helium Balloons!!!!

Beauty of viral ads.

2010-08-02T11:02:00.000-07:00

Extremely well executed viral ads which will make you believe it's just a home video.

and the most awesome viral ad of all history

Hong Kong Day 5 and Last Day =(

2010-08-01T07:10:00.000-07:00

Bob Chronicals!!! - Hong Kong Disney Land!!! Day 4

2010-08-01T06:58:00.000-07:00

Bob Chronicals!!! - Macau then Ferry to Hong Kong Day 3

2010-08-01T06:30:00.000-07:00

On the third day, Bob spent most of me time at Bob's No.1 Fav CaSINO! The VENETIAN!!!! The Venetian Macao is a hotel and casino resort, modeled after its sister casino resort – The Venetian in Las Vegas – and is the largest single structure hotel building in Asia and the fifth largest building IN THE WORLD by area!!! Once again Bob feels so small.... In The Venetian the sky is ALWAYS Blue and it ever rains! It is always good weather!

The river is also ALWAYS blue and calm and peaceful!!!

And you can rent a sampan to bring you down from one end of the channel to the other end! In The Venetian, the boatmen loves to sing!!! Bob Loves to hear the boatmen sing!!!

In the Venetian you can shop...

Under clear blue sky and fluffy white clouds....

And mysterious english people sometimes appear out of no where and start singing and dancing... sometimes on the streets.....

Sometimes from up the buildings from the window!!! There are performances to catch everywhere and Bob was never bored there!

Bob left the Venetian in the afternoon and found some nice cooling ice cream yougurt!

Isn't Bob Cool???!!!

Bob Chronicals!!! - Macau Day 2

2010-07-27T10:20:00.000-07:00

Today Mr Tour Guide say Bob and Mommy have to dress in nicer clothes coz we are going into very GRAND Casinos and will be watching MANY SHOWS! Bob is so excited!

Mommy gave Bob a blue bow tie and Bob looks instantly Bobbbi-some!!! Bob thinks he might meet the right girl today! Mommy wanted me to wear a red carnation, but Bob likes his ears and the red carnation blocked Bob's cute ears so Bob did not wear the un-bobsome flower.

First stop was the Fisherman Wharf! One moment its the chinese Tang Dynasty look-alike,

The next moment is the small cliff houses where the fisherman live bob thinks! they may not look like it, but these are really small houses with really small windows just nice for Bob! Bob's not sure about the chinese thing up there ( which is still not opened for visitors) , but Bob knows tt it is a theme park!!! Bob knows there is volcano there!!! Bob's scared... but Bob's SOOOO excited... What awaits inside???!!!

First stop, Mr Tour Guide brought us into the City Mall for some relieving air conditioning ( Remember how Bob said it was soo hot yesterday??? It's still VERY VERY HOT today) and to buy some cold drinks too! There was no one outside... and there's only the cashier inside... but the drinks are interesting and at a good deal too!

As Mr Tour Guide led us on... we came upon some ancient Rome stone walls that reminds Bob of empty maze filled with menacing traps and dry cracked bones and skulls from people who died of hunger....

There is a quiet and souless galdiator's arena behind the stone wall....

and a empty train left cluelessly in the middle of the plaza... with no train conducter, no passenger and no body around.... only Mommy, Mr Tour Guide... and BOb. o.O

WHERE DID ALL THE PEOPLE GO TOOO!??!??!?! HELLO HELLO??? ANYBODY THERE???!!! THIS IS AN ANCIENT GHOST TOWN!!!!

After all the scary moments, Bob hid back into Bob's bag and the next time Bob came out... Bob was in air-con again sitting on a luxurious chair meant for Bob the Bobby-Some King of all Rabbits! Humans have to bow down to me!!! They must acknowledge Bob's RibbI EmPIRE by wearing Rabbit Themed Clothes or else OFF WiTH THEIR HEADS!!!

So here is Mr Tour Guide with his "Follow the Rabbit" Shirt...

And here's Mommy with Black and White rabbit coming out from Magician's Hat! Bob is the King and Bob RULES!!! Everyone must listen to Bob!!! Then....

Suddenly... Bob.... Bobb.... Bob the King saw Jane the Princess... Jane is sooo sweet... Bob... Bob's mesmerized.... Bob... Bob dun't know what to say... she's beautiful....Bob... Bob....

Bob is in love.......Bob has a song for Jane....

Bob... Bob...........................ZzZzzzzzzZzzz.....

The next time Bob woke up Mommy and Mr TG was watching an AWESOME 3D show with the screen the shape of a DOME!!! Up above us!!!! There was sea creatures... tiger... DRAGONS... Everything look so real!!! But bob forgot where he saw this... will Mr TG tell him?

Bob Chronicals!!! - Macau Day 1

2010-07-18T06:22:00.000-07:00

Heylo! I am Bob! Bob go Macau!!!! Bob use Tiger Airways to go Macau! Departure time is 6am!

Bob is all ready for Holidays in Macau and Hong Kong! Bob says invest in a TSA lock or a lauggage with TSA lock to keep your valuables and lock safe and intact and to facilitate checks!

Bob can read itenaries!

Bob loves Siong! Siong is the official tour guide for the holiday!

Bob can eat TWO Macdonalds Breakfast! Just that Bob can't hold fork and knife..... Bob likes the pancakes more! A good breakfast before setting off with Tiger Airways as no food will be provided! You pay for the food and cup noodles up in the air costs as much as a Mac breakfast! Gobble up!

Bob don't like seat belt because bob small, you can't find bob under seat belt...

Bob loves grooming and massage! Bob so SHUANG!

Going to take off soon!

Because we take off at 6am from the East at Changi, we get to see the sunrise from the plane!

And we arrive at Macau!!!!

And Bob is weary because Bob at Changi since 9pm and no sleep.... But bob freshened up later when we reach hotel! The hotel bobbly nice! See Mr Tour Guide saying he found good place for me and mommy to stay! This is the view we see just behind hotel! Me say bobbbly good view! Good Job Mr Tour Guide!

Pousada de Infante Macau! Our Hotel! We looked for budget hotel and ended up in a GRAND FOUR STAR HOTEL! AT BUDGET RATE! Bobilicious!

Looking good inside!

Bob do Bobble Bath in Bobbbily Bob Bath Bub!

Nice clean beds! Carpet floor! Bob took the table!

This is what Bob sees from the window from our room!Next time Bob want to go here! bOB thinks that next time here will be very grand with lots of exciting things like shopping, good food and spa because Bob knows Banyan tree is part of this Grand Construction! Bob coming back in 5 yearS!

See!! This is the causeway Bob travelled from Macau... TO MACAU!!! hehe! As you can see, Macau is made up of islands so we need to travel from the lower part of Taipa where our hotel is to the upper part of Macau where all the BIIGGG and COLOURFULLLLL casinos are!!! But Mommy is on budget and it is SOOOO much more expensive to live in the part of Macau Peninsula where all the big CASINOS are, and sooo much cheaper to stay at the other side! Mr Tour Guide also found a very good hotel!

Anyway, it takes less than 10 mins to travel from one side to the other... its still very convenient!!! See the map bobilow!

This is Wynn dancing water fountain! This is in the day showing casino 4 to 6, Wynn, Starworld and Sands! Below got night time one! Night time one nicer!

AND THIS IS BOB'S HOME!!! My bag in a bag!

And I am OUT!!!! My adventure in CASINOs Begin!!!

People who go to Macau like three things:

Dragon and Pheonix
Money and coin tree
and everything GOLDEN!

And the people in Macau sure know how to please their customers!!!

And when the dragon show ends, the dragon goes back to it's cove and all that's left is the smoke from it's firey breath! Dragon show and Golden Tree show runs every 30 min! Be sure to catch them!

and this is the toilet in Wynn! Fitted for KING BOB~!! Bob is the KING!!!! BOB is King Bob the FIRST! YAY!!!!

And this is the Senado Square!!! Tada Tada Tada!!!! The 3700m, Leal Senado Square is paved with a wave-patterned mosaic of coloured stones, created by Portuguese experts. Bob lovEs this place!!! There is a place (try to locate it!) at the far left of this picture that sells super super delicious warm milk pudding! Mommy will be in charge of introducing all the food we had! Lovely Bob only help to show places Bob bobby bobby bobbiling around!

When its not sooo Hot (but still very hot!!!) we went to the Ruins of St.Paul's Cathedral, by George Chinnery (1774–1852). The cathedral was built in 1602 and destroyed by fire in 1835. Only the southern stone façade remains today. AND VERY WELL PRESERVED!!! Bob's so amazed.... see Bob stand in front of the Ruins... Bob went... BOOOOWwwwwwwwww......

And this is Mommy and Mr Tour Guide!!! They climbed the flight of stairs!!! Bob small rabbit cannot hop up the stair so Mommy carried me in her Bag! Bob also in the picture!!! But Bob small rabbit... try to spot Bob ME on Mommy and Mr TG hands!!!!

Bob's still so so amazed.... see Bob still stand in front of the Ruins... Bob still went... BOOOOWwwwwwwwww......

After that Bob went to Paulo do Monte! It is a Fort!! With Lots of CANONSS!!!! it was built between 1617 and 1626 as part of the church of St. Paul's project and with the added purpose of defending the city from possible attacks. It is VERY HIGH up a hill, Mommy and Mr TG finished a bottle of PoCari in order to reach the peak! But we were vey very well rewarded with a spectecular view of Macau!!!

Then Bob tried to control the Canon and aimed Casinos!!! BOB AIMED AT THE BIGGEST CASINO!!! (Bob did this after he finish going around the casino! Bob Smart rabbit!) But Bob small Rabbit... Bob fell into the Canon and got blasted out from it instead... Bob became KAMAKAZEEEE Bob!!!! It took Mommy and Mr TG hours to find poor Bob among the bushes... these canons are not for rabbits below the age of 3!

Bob with the very colourful night view of Macau's Casino in the background with Wynn's dancing water fountains that shows at every 15min interval! All shows are different cheorographs to different music! You can stay and watch the water fountains cheorographed to dance from classical music to disney's songs! Bobby bobby nice! Whynn Casino is Bob's and Mommy's and Tour Guide's favourite Casino!

But we are good children. We never gamble at all! We *go in watch free dragon show then come out watch free water fountain show then go in watch free golden tree show then come out watch free water fountain then *repeat.... You can get free entertainment ALL day!Bob feels like dancing with the water fountains! La~~~ La~~~ lalalal~~~LAAAAAA!!!~~~~

Bob found a very apprehensive website if you want to find out more about Macau! http://www.reviewjournal.com/webextras/macau/ They tell you about Macau life, casino culture and current happenings too! Go see go see!

ZAIA!

2010-07-18T06:06:00.000-07:00

Sorry I can't help it... i love the show so much I will watch it ALL OVER AGAIN!

Experience the Unforgettable!

I want to stay in Macau and Hong Kong... HHaHAAHAHA

Anastasia

2010-07-17T06:10:00.000-07:00

This song has been the song in our heads thru Macau and Hong Kong since we watched Zaia at The Venatia in Macau. It was one of the many mysterious but magical songs in the broadway and circus show, a pleasent surprise from Siong and the highlight of my 6 days vacation! It's a resident show by Cirque de Soleil and although its rather pricey, it is really worth a catch if you are going to The Venetian! Before the show, some of the main characters were already interacting with the audiences, like showing off some amazing muscles and throwing popcorn everywhere! We sat at the thrid seat from the stage and could see the actors' amazing and countless emotions and expressions, they are truly masters of the stage! Flying acrobats, clowns on trampolines, fire dance and rola bola... makes you feel like a captivated and amazed silly child all over again =) The company matters alot too ^.^

From the official website, http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/zaia/home.aspx

ZAIA is the most dazzling show ever staged in Asia. This brand new 90-minute mega-production brings together 75 high-calibre artists from all four corners of the globe. ZAIA is the dream of a young girl who journeys into space on a strange, yet familiar voyage of self-discovery. As she travels, she encounters the beauty of humanity and eventually brings it back with her to share with the inhabitants of earth.
ZAIA presents a young girl’s perception of the stars and planets, space and infinity, all populated by a panoply of fantastic, literally out-of-this-world creatures. The title, ZAIA, comes from a Greek name meaning “life” and is also reminiscent of “Gaia,” the living, self-aware, spirit of earth.ZAIA is a show that highlights dance, movement and aerial acrobatics, soaring to the farthest reaches of space and human beauty.

I had once dreamt of being an Astronaut as a primary 1 kid and had a favourite book about the universe which I can memorise sentences from!

Now more about the movie Anastasia - I found out just awhile ago that the main character Anastasia was built upon the character of a real girl, the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia. The Grand Duchess was a lively, gifted and mischievous. She was also described as nasty, sometimes to the point of being evil.

"The only surviving child of the Russian Royal Family hooks up with two con men while the undead Rasputin seeks her death." I have never watched the movie before, but for while when I was looking at video, I was wondering why did this particular disney princess adopted a rather smart and not so sweet look, even to the point of having a tint of the evil disney witches look (look at the eyes). But after I realised that Anastasia was built upon the character of the Grand Duchess, I am amazed at how Disney had once again brought characters to life, giving them a whole new satisfying plot for a story of its own. It will be great if I can get my hands on the movie, for I would like to see for myself how Disney had recreated this real and interesting Duchess. For your information, Rasputin was a good friend of the Grand Duchess and her three other elder sisters, so there was a twist here.

Wikipedia, as usual, provides a good summary of Anastasia's life. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duchess_Anastasia_Nikolaevna_of_Russia

The most queer things of all, today's the 92nd year anniversary of the royal family's death. Realised it as I was reading through.

Money Changer at Lot 1

2010-07-09T05:29:00.001-07:00

A post about:

A R J Money Changer at 21 Choa Chu Kang Ave 4 #03-K1 Lot 1 Shoppers' Mall

and I'm all out to tell friends and people NOT TO CHANGE THEIR MONEY THERE! If you are at Lot 1 and desperately need to change money, you can try the one at the basement. I should have done my research before deciding to change as SGForums claims the rates are better for the money changer at basement too.

Let me relate to you my bad experience with them.

I was walking around lot 1 after dinner when I suddenly remembered that I've forgotten to change money for my Hong Kong Grad Trip No. 2 due to fly off the next day at night. It was fortunate that I remembered, coz tomorrow's gonna be a very packed day and it will be difficult to drop by any money changer. (that's why I havent had the chance to do any research)So I simply went to ARJ Money Changer with $600 to be changed into HKD.

They way ARJ works is that they have three counters. Counter 1 and Counter 2 is in charge of collecting and counting the money. They run your money in a automated money counter machine, keep the money, then hand write the amount you are going to change on your queue ticket. (Yes you have to get a queue ticket which the number jumps by the second you miss your queue number. There was a frustrated lady before me who missed the queue as they didn’t bother to wait for her for more than 3 seconds. I almost missed mine simply coz a guy in front of me was making way for me to get to the counter.) I had mine written in hand as $600 -> HKD. Then you have to proceed to the third counter – the checkout counter along the lane to collect the money you want to change into.

Meanwhile, the money is being hand passed from counter 1 to counter 2 then to the checkout counter. While I was waiting for my turn at the checkout counter, I was called back to counter 1, saying that I gave them ONLY $550, not $600. I was however, very sure that I gave them $600 and even saw the machine that the lady ran the money through stating 6 * $50 notes! What’s more, it was the same lady who HANDWROTE the $600 on my queue ticket to acknowledge that I gave her $600. I told her I gave her $600 and she started looking for that missing $50.

After sometime, when it was apparent she could not find it, she wrote me another piece of paper $550. NOW I AM FURIOUS! They lost my $50, and tried to say that I gave them only $550! What kind of outrageous nonsense is this! I still have that queue number stating $600 given to them to be changed into HKD in my hands! And now she is trying to make me take that hand written piece of paper to say that I gave them $550!!!

I told her no. I am not touching that paper. "I gave you $600, and you lost a $50 note. And now you are trying to say that I gave you $550!" So she took that $550 stack of notes, counted it several times, run thru the machine several times just to show me that its $550. How dumb. Of course it’s going to stay as $550! Money doesn’t grow out of money by itself! To make matters worse, she had a Big Guy as reinforcement behind her, telling me to shut up and pointed at the machine that says $550. "You only gave $550. Not $600. Look at the machine! It says $550."

"Of course the machine says $550! Your staff lost $50! Look at this piece of paper. Isn't this her hand writing? She wrote $600 and I left for the collection counter. Would she have written $600 if there was only $550? And now she is trying to give me another paper that says I gave her only $550, when I gave her $600!" AND I was asked to shut up again. I was ready to call the police.

After 10 minutes of arguing, looking for the lost $50 and recounting that stack of $550 that’s gonna stay the same no matter how many times you count it, the smarter looking counter 2 then found the missing $50. ON THE FLOOR!!!! Then they smile at each other... smile at me...smile smile... Ha-Ha-Ha.

Just keep away from that A R J money changer. I will not be the only one to have such a bad experience under their terrible system and service.

I love BOB

2010-07-06T09:59:00.000-07:00

I managed to get my Salad Dinner today! From Long John Silver!!! I wanted to get salad from KFC but its OOS so LJS was the next best choice. It's cheap and filling too, with lots of good fresh greens, potatoes (I asked for more greens and less potato) and chicken in the all time fav LJS batter.

I had lunch at Fortunate Restaurant 幸福饮茶 with Siong at vivo city today. I was looking for good and cheap food at hungrygowhere and found the place. The reviews were very accurate! It's high class food served at mid-class price. I wouldn't day it's cheap, the portion's a girl size meal too, but for the splendid taste and good food, I won't mind going back there again.

According to recommendations, we ordered the sliced fish congee. The fish taste was there in the smooth congee with generous fresh white and smooth fish slices at the bottom served in a claypot. At $5.80, I won't mind going back again if I am at vivo. Well, it's considered cheap in Vivo city already! Siong's good at ordering and we had many other dishes like the Glutinous Rice in Lotus leaf ( So So to me, I think the one they offer at Hong Kong Cafe is nicer), Char Siew Bao (it nice and he liked it alot. Soft, fluffy and flavourful to the bite, but its just me that I will NEVER order 70cents bao for $1.50 each....), Fried Dumplings ( SUPER DUPER NICE! Crispy on the outside, juicy at the inside, simply mouth watering! It has shrimps in it) and my favourite of all, the chicken steamed with mushroom. They give you generous thick slices of mushrooms which you will fight for and juicy chicken, well steamed, soft with the just right amount of fats, and filled with aromatic flavour... I'll go back to the restuarant just for this!

Sorry no picture coz the food's simply too good. If you see pictures means the food craving was not strong enough for the photos-first discipline. Everything's priced from $3 - $8 I think... somehow the bill came up to 30 bucks though... I must have missed out some things from the chinese feast...hhmmmmx

Anyways, introducing the newest member in the soft toys family..... BOB!

Aint he cute? He loves to Ji Piong Ji Piong and KAMEKAZEE BOBBBBB!!! and he's gonna have his own Bob chronicles soon. I love Bob sooooooo much so people, please pray that he'll live for more than 3 months!!!! (the average lifespan of soft toys... in my hands)

And OOOhoh! Bob can do the Puss in Boots 'the eyes' pretty well. Look at his pic...He's doing it already! Here's Puss in Boots for comparison!

I've never been so free!

2010-07-05T07:20:00.000-07:00

There are only 3 commitments that I have in life now

GA
Job search
Family

Surprising eh! I've just left the 'studies first' stage of my life and am entering the next stage... and I have no idea what's in for me at all, especially when my life values have amazingly changed. My call of duties and priorities are now totally different...

Just five months ago my dream job would be one that is set overseas, allowing me to travel as much as I can. Now I want to stay in Singapore, or rather, stay at home wherever it should be. I also thought that I should work hard and earn as much as possible, even at the demise of my body and health, but after the Loreal Brandstorm competition which left me totally drained, I am now strictly for a five day work week, leaving Saturday and Sunday for life, family and church... Family wasn't even in the picture less than 2 months ago.

I hope I can continue my Wushu trainings too... a short but good wushu self practise left my weak body in muscle aches from top to toe, I can't even cough properly! I wanna go learn some dance, continue my classes at Jitterbugs, or even taking up designing courses, things that I have always been interested in. I want to make nice desserts too... its been some time since I made brownies and cheese cakes.

Glow's magazine from Watson is fantastic. I had KFC and bubble tea today, and the magazine made me wanna go for Salad and Green Tea with as little sugar as possible for tomorrow. It also told me that all these while I have been applying my concealer the wrong way! =P And I've learnt that moles that grow and change in shape or colour can very well be cancerous. *warning* Glow made me wanna go east coast park and cycle too. Maybe Siong will bring me there! =DDDD

I feel old all of a sudden... and I am quite sure its the aftermath of over working for the competition. I've never felt so drained for so long. The nightmare even haunted me when I was in Switzerland - I dreamt of being pulled back to Paris to do photoshop for the winning team!

I should complete my posts for Grad Trip too! It's everywhere and I hope my blog can provide some tips for traveller who may want to tour Europe someday!

I'm going Hong Kong too and I'm sure I'll be rejuvenated after the wonderful trip! =D

I'm happy. The kind of peaceful happiness knowing that God has everything planned out for me and I shouldn't be worrying too much about anything. =)

He's Back He's Back He's BACK!!!!

2010-06-30T10:10:00.001-07:00

HE's back hes back hes back !!!!!!

HE"S BACK!!!!!

And my world's spinning again! =DDD

And I love my new bobby BoB!

I'm Hoooked!

2010-06-26T08:18:00.002-07:00

BY THE NOTEBOOK!!!

Good recommendation by Wei Qin. Tear-jerker with a sad but happy ending. The complete story of the love of a lifetime, not to be forgotten...

Here's a fanmade picture with a very romantic and noble quote from the movie

They really choose good and suitable casts too, had to fall in love with them and the story!
Ryan Gosling and Racheal McAdams. Aparantly they are are lovely couple offscreen too!

Somehow Racheal McAdams share something similar to my all time favourite female artist. I've watched more movies on the aeroplane than I would have ever had for the rest of the year and first saw McAdams in Sherlock Homles and she already reminded me of Shu Qi back then.

OKEy! That's all! I don't normally blog about celebs, but just this once coz the movie's REALLY NICE!!! I don't mind watching it all over again! *hiNT!*

Reserved for grad trip posts hahah

2010-06-26T08:18:00.001-07:00

lalalallalaa

4th June – (Friday) Day 3 Amsterdam to Berlin

2010-06-08T15:47:00.000-07:00

Checked out of hostel early in the morning and prepared for a long ride to germany
We had afew adventures along the way. The first one was taking 2 trains within the airport, a series of 7 or 8 escalators and running across 4 or 5 travellers within 15 minutes to catch the transit plane from Hong Kong to Amsterdam coz we were too addicted to my monopoly deal! We ended up being the last to board the plane and had the door closed behind us. The second adventure happened today. We woke up very early in the morning and left the hostel at 9am to buy the 10.30am ticket to the international transit (7 station stops away from the station where we are) and then take the 11.50am next train to Berlin. But we didn't know that the train doors closes VERY FAST like 15 secs and they wont open the door even if you ask the train conductor to! So what happened was we were slowed down by our heavy lauggages and Andy left one of the luaggage outside the train and went back up to the train to help the rest with our bags. Then BOOM! THE TRAIN DOOR JUST CLOSED BEHIND HIM! and I tell you the train door closes SUPER FAST. Not like the Singapore MRT train - ours is very slow compared to those in Europe! So the bag's outside the train and everyone else is inside the train. Just nice the train conductor was coming into our cabin to see our tickets and Yew Kuan tried to ask him to help us open the door. But he had no sense of urgency and simply continued collecting the tickets... and we can't give him any tickets coz all our Euro Passes ( the tickets) are in the bag that was left outside the train! After collecting the tickets then did the train conductor started talking to us to understand what happened @#%&*(*#@!#%&*&^%$#@!&*&^%$#@#&*(*&^%$#@&*(*&#@*(*&$#@*()(%$#@*(*&^%$#$*( and he called the station to tell them what happened. So we only got to alight 2 stops later (coz he attended to us only one stop later) to go to the service counter to wait and hope that our bag will be found. But it was not found and we decided to go back to the train station where we left the bag. We can't go anywhere else without our Euro Passes too. So we took the train back to the international transit station but the bag was still not found. Just as we were about to leave, a call came to tell us that the bag had arrived at the station which is 2 stations down, the one we were at just now. So we went back and got the Bag =P Quite an adventure eh! In the end we only arrived at Belin at 7.30pm. LOL!
Reached Germany/Berlin only at 7.30pm.
Took 2 hours to find the hostel which was just 20 minutes away from the station we alighted at.
We were totally amazed by the quality of hostel.. it was more of like a 3 star hotel to us! The beds were very comfortable too. Clean and big toilet facility with free breakfast and food for hungry ghosts at night! What more can I ask for? =D

3rd June – (Thursday) Day 2 – Amsterdam

2010-06-08T15:46:00.002-07:00

We woke up pretty early in the morning and rented bikes from Mike’s bike tour at a discounted rate. (the same tour agency we went yesterday) Our first destination was the bags and purses museum. It’s a pretty nice vintage museum with lots of bags and purses dating as far as man civilization begin. The ones that I really like have some metal details here and there, like metal clutches or patterns sewn into the bag itself. They even have a Samsonite luggage bag fully covered with Swarovski crystals! It’s one lauggage that’s gonna cost more than any valuable you might have on you!
We had lunch right after that. Kai Wei had the popular and affordeble food destinations well researched and we ate at a burger stall. It’s rather pricey compared to Singapore burgers, like Carl’s Junior and don’t even come with fries or drink. But what they have on the menu is rather special -Wild Duck Burger with Chinese cabbage. It’s succulent, it’s addictive, it’s splendid. Till now everyone wants another go at the burger! Too bad the next time we get back to Amsterdam we wont have enough time to get it.
We found the famous ‘I AMsterdam’ near the Van Goth Museum. Apparently the big metal alphabets always change places around Amsterdam! And we were lucky enough to have chanced it there along the way to a destination! Of course, we camwhored there! =D
After that we went to the Van Goth Museum. I was sleep walking around like a Zombie! My butt hurts, my legs are sore and my eyes are tired! It’s not that the museum was boring, just that it was really the last stop and I’m too tired to be walking around the big place with nice cooling marble seats tempting me to just sit on one of them! The whole museum is filled with paintings, works of many different artists and the majority, from Van Goth himself. He died alone at the very young age and led a pretty sad and lonely life. He got famous only after he died. Like what my mom told me when I was (I had a ambition to be a artist), artists only earn money when they die, and when they are alive, they lead a sad and hard life. =( How true. 50% technique, skill and talent. 50%, the story behind the work.
We then rushed back to return bikes and managed to reach Mike’s bike shop on the spot! Otherwise we’ll really be in trouble as we can’t return the bike the next day. We are due for Berlin early in the morning.
After that we went to Rookies Café, a coffeeshop selling brownies and smoke. Shan’t really elaborate on what the place really is or what we did there.
We then went to the train station to book the ticket for tomorrow’s train and then head back to the hostel. Along the way, I had this really soft and comforting vanilla yogurt walls ice cream. I’m so gonna get that when we come back to Amsterdam again at our last stop!
I’m now back to hostel… weary, hurting toes and soles… but bathed and fresher. Its supposed to be 10.27pm now… but the sky’s still getting dark. YES! The sun was still shinning brightly in the sky at 9pm! It’s a 18 hours days here and the sun rises at 5am and fully sets at 11pm. We don’t get to see the night at all! COOL Stuff!

2 June 2010, (Wednesday) 1st Day, Amsterdam

2010-06-08T15:46:00.001-07:00

We touched down about 6.25am Holland time, that’s about 12.25pm Singapore time… it makes me feel like I have stopped time for 6 hours! A 4 hours plane ride from Singapore to Hong Kong, a 1 hours plus wait in the transit playing monopoly deal and risked missing our next flight from Hong Kong to Amsterdam, a freaking 10 hours flight!
The landing at Amsterdam can be described as like a fairy tale! The plane flew through the marsh mellow clouds and landed, cushioned on the soft clouds! The mist was so heavy when we landed, we thought they were ordinary clouds in the sky and was expecting at least some glimpse of the land of Europe! And as the plane cleared the thick white cloud into a thinner mist, VIOLA! It’s the runway already!
I watched Bai Fa Mo Nv, True Legend and Confucious, three movies on the flights! =P
The hostel was hard to find, but it’s a nice place =) totally satisfied! 5 of us sharing one small simple room with one toilet. Kuan said we won’t get such luxury at the rest of the hostels though. One in particular has 8 beds so we might have to share the room with 3 others.
The city of Amsterdam’s like my dream. Little shop houses everywhere with beautiful vibrant colored flowers planted at the doorstops of every little home... that’s for the majority of the homes there. Sounds good already? Now hear the country side! A view of the lake from every homes, a little garden for you to plant little lovelies. People lazing around by the river in the marigolds, dandelions and tulips, some reading a book, some fishing, some old folks cuddling on the bench and some… just lazing around =D At the back of some houses there are great patches of grassland, where you’ll have black beauties to white stallions, cows and oxen, bunnies and sheep. We even spotted two beautiful raindeers kept as pets! There is also this cheese farm and shoes making factory. The cheese are sooo good, I’m sure I can have them every day without getting nauseous! I’ve got two smoked cheese for home and Shawn’s home! It’s the kind of life I’ve always dreamt of, the lake, the house, the horses… just build a swing for me and its perfect! The amazing thing is Amsterdam used to be a drain swamp many many years back into the history. Now, 30% of it is reclaimed land and everything, including the country side, is man made!
I am seriously considering moving to Amsterdam if I can find a job here or after retirement. The only problem is, I am probably allergic or something to the flowers there, I got pricked/ poisoned/ allergic reaction from the plants when I attempted to lie in the flower bed. Irritated me for more than half the day! We visited the countryside via bicycle. It was a 4 hours terrifying experience for me coz I was never good on the bike. The first thing I did when I moved off with the bike was to crash into a (thankfully) stationary car! The guide went “Seesh! And this is just the beginning!” I had exactly the same sentiments. I couldn’t really enjoy the ride coz most of the time I am worrying about controlling my bike! But the breeze and weather was perfect. The sun was bright (but not scorching at all!) and I am glad I had my new instantly glamorous sunglasses too! My butt and head started hurting 3 hours into the bumpy ride and I think I probably killed more brain cells and gained more pimples stressing out on the bike than sitting for exams!
In fact, I seriously ALMOST DIED FOUR TIMES today. Basically coz I wasn’t familiar nor alert about the traffic in Amsterdam! I almost got knocked down by cars two times, a cart once and a bicycle! I was totally accidently prone today too, dropped things on my own foot, scalded by leg etc…..
Lunch was great. Farlala - Its vegetarian with some fried vega stuffs in pita bread, topped with free flow salad! It’s so cool I ate lots of carrots and other greens =D Its tasty coz I was famished =P
We took another tour around the… er hmm… red light district. There was nothing much really, just that the amount of respect the people here give to prostitution as a legal job is amazing. The girls here are backed by a very very strong union and they are considered to be holding a normal job. They are even taxed at a rate of 22% by the government! They have this number which is connected to all the girls mobile and they even have the panic button in the room where they do their business! When the lights along the streets turn red, it means that the red light district is busy, come back another day. They are really THIS organized!
There is a church and a kindergarten in the red light district too and everyone treats such vice( as seen in Singapore) as something very normal and nothing surprising at all, simply coz they have lived and grew up here from hundreds of year already! Girls even go to church to meet rich guys and then go somewhere else to do their stuffs. It’s pretty sad actually, coz it feels like even the holy walls are penetrable.
It’s pretty tiring coz many of have jet lag. We really walked around a lot and cycled a total of 20km too. WQ and Andy even fell asleep without bathing! EEK! I’ve gotta plug in coz two of us here snores. Going to sleep now! Chao Chaox!!

2010-05-28T07:48:00.000-07:00

At Pacific Coffee Company now enjoying some fun time with BioBiz friends!!!!

And we found out that Alvan's gf may just be a imaginary one!

10.49pm

JC friends outing and Cobblers in Singapore

2010-05-27T23:50:00.000-07:00

I finally went out with the 2 lovelies and 1 dirty (inside joke) again!!! It was a late lunch, then far east shopping (GREAT BUYS) and then dinner at Crystal Jade.

We had some rather ex lunch at Full House (Far East Plaza). The food looks better than it tastes... This is what Jessica had...

And this is my lunch! I love pork floss!!! It looks super flavourful right? It tastes quite normal actually.We were too busy shopping to be taking pictures, but I got the demien shorts that I was looking for for a month, a matching and versatile rocker's belt and a pair of BOOTS which I have been looking for for half a year now. And guess wad. The total expenditure was less than $70. =D

Karen (the ultimate shopper), got two flats, one scarf and a bag. Jessica was the acting boyfriend of the both of us, accompanying us around without getting anything.

Then was crystal jade Dinner! I felt everything was really overpriced though. $ 7 bucks ++ for a bowl of noodle with dried onions (Karen loves it though) is daylight robbery. I din like my fried rice coz it was blend and oily. Jackson had somehting similiar. I think Jess's noodles looked nice though.

The girls...

the dirty guy who aspires to be a xiao bai lian and wants me to help him sign a premium internet connection contract.....

And us with our food!Whats crystal jade without their famous XIAO LONG BAO! =DKaren had to leave after that coz her bf's (Jing Kun) fetching her. Apparently he always sends her home no matter where he is! There was this joke that all girls should send their bfs to karen's training! Then they'll pick us up and send us home from whereever they are! YAY!

A big hug and more importantly, SEE MY NEW BOOTS!!!!

A great day indeed! Had my international student card done too so hopefully its gonn amake travelling in Europe abit cheaper.

An overseas call from Siong adds the final golden butterfly-ish touch to the wonderful day! We talked for 28 mins ( Time passes too fast!) so I think that call costs $12 bucks plus...... but its worth it! Just that maybe have to try cutting down abit more =P

I had the soles of my precious boots enforced by a Cobbler I found at Yew Tee. Costed only 9 bucks and its quite well done I must say! The grip is soo much better and I am sure the boots can now last longer. The cobbler took abit longer though coz the old man could not find his smller knife. I ended squatting down beside him to help him look for the knife. I had innitially pointed out this knife he had just in front of him but he's looking for his smaller knife. So we spent 5-7 mins or so rammaging thru his things abit looking for the knife. Then, I guess he got fed up, he just decided to use his big knife. He picked it up and VIOLA! The small knife he was looking for is just hidden underneath the big knife!!!!

It's worth a little laugh!

I am glad that such cobblers are still around. In time to come, they will extinct and everyone have to go to Mister Mint, a absolutely horrid place that charges three times more, use cheap materials and void of human feelings. Bad experiences only.

And I'm gonna see Jessica in another 2 hours plus time! WOO HOO!!!

25 May

2010-05-25T16:49:00.000-07:00

What enormous happiness a surprise email can give! =D

Clears all the grey clouds for the day!

=D

The Last 3 Days...

2010-05-23T04:43:00.000-07:00

I'm too lazy to arrange everything in order of timeline... just try to figure em out ok! HAha! And admire the food =P

@ CitySquare Johor Bahru

Tea Break! Tasty honey lime (not the diluted types or those from concentrate types you get in Singapore) and soy skin with ginko.

Strawberry Drink! And the cool guy who loves Strawberries!!!

That's Shawn smacking his lips after a delicious meal of Ostrich meat, Beef, Chicken and Mutton on Hot Stone!

The fork that attempted suicide, saved by the chunk of meat stuck onto it. How ironic!

Sizzling Ostrict Meat.. Yum Yum

The Beef, Chicken and Mutton. Cooking =D

Coke Float!!! AGAIN!!!

Not in Picture

-Banana CHoc, Macadania White Choc and TOTALLY choc (I forgot the name) cakes from Secreat Recipe

-Tofu and Mushroom in Cheese from Kim Gary

-Nissin Noodle from Kim Gary

Back in Singapore. Tcc Tea...

and very nice salad!

Sending him off

Keep thinking of God and me... as how I'll continue seeking faith and belief in God and you.

3 weeks since I've last blogged

2010-05-23T01:46:00.000-07:00

It was loreal brandstorm meeting everyday for the next two weeks since the last time I blogged. Jia Jia was here in Singapore from 5th May to the 11th and it was really a struggle between work, accompanying my childhood friend and sleep. It was absolutely grueling... thankfully Siong was there helping out whenever he can =) Ivan hit off REALLY well with Jia Jia and he took her out for two days on my behalf. Han Long and SH's BF did well doing 'da zha' =P Shawn's friends also helped out for the dance and were always punctual! Thanks guys!

I didn't really have much pictures with the girl except on the day she left =( she's grown up really pretty =D with a good voice too!

Last week was more eventful. Tuesday the 18th was the Loreal Brandstorm Finals and EVERYONE could see I was totally nervous. I think I may have even pulled the whole team down! Anyway, we got second. We were told it was really a close fight with the first team though =)

Thank You Zalvado Fighters!!! You guys fought along with us! Thank YOU my supporters!!! I could constantly see your cameras in the air snapping away!

A really sucky place to present. It was SOOO BRIGHT and sunlight filled, no one could see whats on the screen. I prayed for it to rain when its our turn to present though, and my prayers were answered!!! The sky darkened when the third team was up and IT RAINED when we were presenting! Our screens were possibly the best seen among the four teams, which was really needed! =D

The posters that made me photoshophobic.

Something really bad happened to my trophy though. This was before *see the trophy in WQ's hand*

And no. It was not WQ who dissected the glass thing. IT WAS MY BROTHER WHO BROKE IT.

He's SOOOO gonna sponsor my Europe trip.

Uploading pictures is becoming a chore in this post so I'm gonna separate my posts. =)

2010-05-02T12:11:00.000-07:00

I am summarising my April. Everything's jumbled up and I really don't know if they are in the correct order, so the picture sequences below are by no means any form of suggestions in terms of timeline. This is the Citron hand cream that I got from Crantree and Evelyn and I am in love with it. Not only does it do its job of keeping your hands soft and smooth, it has a refreshing citron smell that makes me wonder if the company should invest in produing perfume as well. It's in my bag everyday since the day I owed it! Jessica got the rosewater hand cream from the same company for her 21st Bday last year. It smells great too, though not as nice as my citron one =P

We had lunch Shokudo at City Hall after abit of shopping. Mine was too dry and not as delicious as it looked, but Jessica's chicken as holy good. I'm gonna have the same thing as Jess the next time I visit Shokudo again! Or may Jess wanna eat there again too? =DDD

I finally had my Pedicure done to get rid of the pile of dry skin I have at my heels that is causing me alot of itchiness and frustration. It was a ' Buy a classic pedicure and get a express manicure free with 4 nail arts'. I added a scrub too just to pamper myself =P. The service and skill did match the cheap offer though. The pedicurist made a hard poke into my cuticle and caused some minor bleeding while the manicurist did a terrible painting job, not putting on the base coat before applying my OPI and I could see the two layers of blue very distinctively. The OPI (surprisingly) caused my nails to peel two weeks after I removed the badly chipped nailpolish.

Some left over packed lunch I made for a kite flying occasion organised by the Taman Jurong adventure club. It's really a wrap just that I had sooooo much left over 'liao' the prata was not big enough to wrap everything, it became more like a thin crust pizza instead.Had a cheesecake and TWO root beer floats after kite flying that day. That was the last time I had a cake. THAT WAS TWO WEEKS AGO!!! I NEED MY CAKES!!!! CHEESECAKE!!!! MAYBE FROM BAKERZINE!!! *super obvious hint hint*It's the exam period and of course, (although I only have but ONE paper this sem =DDD) HOW CAN EXAMS EVER COMPLETE W/O A DAY STUDYING AT MY SECREAT HIDING PLACE?! =D The menu had changed and for some reasons I forgot to take the lunch, but I had this new dessert! Hot choc mud pie with two servings of vanilla ice cream. Sweet and YUMMY! way to reward myself and Shawn!

Patience!

When did food at Quad looked sooooooo fulfilling and appetizing? =D

A relaxing day at another of my favourite hideout after exams. It's different from coffee nations as this is really a place away from books and studies. Only magazines or day dreaming about setting foot on a cruise allowed here! (at least for me!) The food here is slendid too, I'm gonna come here more often!

A pretty and splendid tea break at TCC only AN HOUR after a full TeoChew Porridge lunch and only ANHOUR or so before a 2 hour dance practice. Surprisingly, it was the most ordinary scrones with their accompanying jams that I find the most tasty. I have ran out of my limited vocab to describe food, so I now pass on to the pictures to say their thousand words la.

I don't think this is a nice picture of myself with a failed attempt to look cool, but I do think I look like some Nihon Oonano Hito stick in the bamboo forest. This is taken at Esplanade though and the Bamboo structures and designs are real cool. Go there and take pictures!

There was this particular picture of a particular meal that I had really really REALLY wanted to take but didn't not was this dish from New York New York called Steamed Fish in Butter or something like that. The reason being, it looked too good that my hands could not fight the temptation of picking up the fork and knife in oppose to picking up my hp camera, and after a mouth of the juicy heavenly fish that LITERALLY melts in your mouth, that makes your eyes squish,the sides of your mouth unknowingly going up, and your eyebrows lifted, I could not put down the utensils I have in my hands to pick up the cam. Was too busy.

Also, THANK YOU NK and Alice for helping me with my Jap 2!!!! VERY VERY VERY Much appreciated!!! =D

Audi Fashion Festival- Redken

2010-04-29T10:50:00.000-07:00

Just one word to describe it - AWESOME! and I am glad I put in effort to dress up for the occasion... everyone was well dressed and I was still worried I may be OTT.

And I'm glad I've got Jia He to take the extra ticket as Xue could not attend. He's the guy with the DSLR and consequently, all pictures below are credited to Jia He! Wonderful pics I must say given the limits of his lens! Great Job!

so Here's mine and Shu Hui's ensemble. I'm glad I had my white jacket as it was cold inside.

This is the ticket. Could be easily mistaken as a phamplet! My favourite model among all. She moves, walks, pose like a girl totally in her own dreamy world... captivated me, I think I over looked other models! She is the first to walk out anyway, so I guess she should be the best among them?

On Stage Styling! Shu Hui and I found out that it's nothing much really. It was more of like pinning up fake ready made hair designs. Most of the hair you see on the model's really didn't grow out from their head! &*()(*&^#@.

I bet that's ready made too! Just well pinned!

I had Jia He to specially take more of the one below. Girl friends reading this, forget it. He's mine!The Final show and the confetties went off! Here is another model that Jia He took. This time not for Redken but a car model. Apparently she is different from those we saw on the runway. Other than the thicker thighs, tummy and unglam postures, she was also doing this seemingly flirtatious action, blowing kisses everywhere. The worst thing, she's wearing the exact same ensemble as me. What a disgrace! Jia He was being professional though, I say he contained his puke pretty well.

All thanks to the opportunity given by loreal and the chance to participate!

=D

2010-04-28T00:56:00.000-07:00

i should learn how to sing this song

2010-04-22T09:46:00.000-07:00

I jsut finished my first paper of the semester and last paper of my uni life (hopefully) and feeling soooo slack I dont feel like doing anything else.

Includes elaborating my post =:P

April - Miracles

2010-04-20T07:33:00.000-07:00

By some miraculous means, my roomie of 2 years in hall 4 is now moving into the block RIGHT NEXT TO MINE NEXT MONTH!!!!

Just WOW at the map! It's a small map, but big enough to make my point. I'm in the red block... and she's moving into the blue one!!!

Now I have no lack of HTHT sessions I used to have with the dear girl! =D She has been there for me... and this time really really near me!!!

On top of this, Jia Jia's FINALLY COMING TO SINGAPORE!!! And she'll be staying over at my place for all 5 days!!! It's like a dream finally come true to both of us who miss each other soooo dearly... I think I'll cry at the airport when I finally get to see my childhood friend! It's been almost 10 years!!! I just hope that she'll be kept safe during her study in Bangkok for the week before she embarks on Singapore... *prays*

I also get to go for the 2010 AsiaMarketingSummit FULLY SPONSORED!!!! HOW COOL!!!! I've checked the ticket... it's priced $1000 over.. even with early bird and group discount it's still at least $500 plus!!! And the speakers there are really marketing gurus I'll probably meet this once in my lifetime... Top Shots from Facebook, Twitter... and many more!!!! *lazy to go check back to the website to list em down*

Miracles and everything good has been happening to me since the start of April... so much so I don't want April to end for I fear that May will be a totally contrasting month... one thing for sure I predict I'll be tearing abit more in May...when Jia Jia has to leave for home in Nepal and when Shawn leaves for his 6 weeks of fun in China. Don't know when Jessica leaving for her grad trip too.

It's ok! By then Alice will still be there.. RIGHT NEXT TO ME ME ME!!!

For all these miracles and happiness that are happening and given to me, I would have normally exclaimed THANK GOD!! or THANK FATE!! and even THANK YOU!!! (and look into the sky which I knew was never empty).. but now that I have came to know the significance of the name and that I am actually thanking someone out there who can be possibly real and powerful to begin with... I don't know if it's right anymore to exclaim thy name when I don't even know if my belief had even began.

2010-04-19T18:23:00.000-07:00

I will be sitting for the last paper of my official education life in 55hrs time!!!!

WHOOOOhHHOOOOOO!!!!!!!

unless I da bao la... CHOY! *touch wood*

Bitter-Sweet

2010-04-17T10:22:00.001-07:00

Bitter-Sweet love

2010-04-12T10:23:00.000-07:00

we love many
and are loved by many
still loved many many...

2010-04-11T18:02:00.000-07:00

that's why I always think that Long distance relationship wont work...

Havent watched the movie though!

I think I know why I am so infactuated with this song... the words... the meaning...the rythm and tempo... sometimes when I listen to it, I feel like I am flying to where I am supposed to be.