Mama Mia! Comprain and Comprain....

Went to catch Mama Mia today and it was pretty good. Nostalgia at so many levels. The ABBA songs for one even though it really wasn't my era, and then their Aussie accent.

The crowd pleasers were the familiar songs mostly. Dancing Queen especially and it was full of energy and GREAT! Until some girl in the row behind me decided that she could sing as well as them...NOT.

Before that, we had dinner at this Japanese restaurant at Esplanade. Something or other Ichiban (number one)...

Errr... not quite a reckon. My teriyaki chook was not bad, but Polly's chook dish, with egg on rice (can't for the life of me remember what it's called!) was pretty tasteless.

Also, the guy serving us was new, as he kept reminding us, so he had to find out that ice cubes were only allowed to be served IF we ordered soft drinks. "What DUH?!", i hear you ask. Food took ages to arrive too! Man, the last couple of places i've eaten at have bombed!

Think ah, Maccas and BK still the best lah. Cheap, no nonsense.

Even KFC not so reliable already. The gap between what's shown on their advertising boards and what's actually served seems to have been widening. I finally had enough when i opened my "Ultimate Combo" or whatever you call it and discovered that they gave me 5 little pathetic lumps of popcorn chicken. Didn't even cover the bottom of the container properly when the boarding at the counter showed a cup brimming with it. I took it back and told the auntie that it wasn't full when the board showed a full container.

Somehow she managed to hear "the board shows 24 pieces" and proceeded to act incredulous. WTF, I was just as incredulous, at her deafness and/or blindness. Have a feeling she meant it to be a joke but i wasn't laughing. She eventually filled it for me. This diabolical stunt that they tried to pull on me has happened to me in Perth too. When they gave me a half empty box of potato ball things. And it was drive through somemore. Thankfully there was easy parking so i just parked and walked in with the inadequately filled box of mashies. When other customers saw me remonstrating with the manager, two others who ordered the same at the counter immediately opened their boxes and demanded KFC fill it.

J, who is not from around here, reckons that we Singaporeans complain too much and she's prolly right. Most of us Singaporeans know it too but heck, when it comes to food, there's no messing around man. Doubt that CASE will be approaching KFC to have them rectify their ads but if enough of us keep a vigilant watch for our own interests, our disruptive remonstrations at food outlets for shoddy service will improve things.

Congratulations Denise!

From Saturday...

It was my pleasure and honour to be invited to Denise's RoM lunch at Merchant Court. Congratulations once again :)


The Happy Newlyweds, Denise and Nigel

Have known Denise since my first year in uni but only got to know her a lot better in my second and third years. Where i would go over to her college residence and get slammed into walls by her and Janet. It got to a point where i would be left totally breathless after a particularly violent crush against the hard brick walls of her hall. Don't get decieved by that beautiful smile and gentle demeanour at first man. hehe... payback for telling Nigel how fat i was :P

I recall the time we played humtum bola with lemons while melons hid in the good doctor's room. Also the pillow fights we had where u, cheryl and janet would always gang up on me! How unfair was that? AND how childish too! *shudder*...ah those times.

Despite all the violence, i have to say Denise is one of the nicest people i know. Always more than willing to offer useful help. it is no wonder that Nigel loves you so much. Congrats, Congrats again.

As if the joy wasn't enough, we had a great lunch too :) hehe....lots of dessert and good company at a table full of cheerful people. Had so much salmon sashimi, i felt like a bear all over again.

Still more joy to come as i was to go see J in a dragon boat race!

Eventful Sunday

Sis and I went with J to Rach's church funfair thing where i managed to buy a huge bag of Mamee dried noodles. Also got to see a Franciscan monk in his full robe, habit, or whatever one can call it. Haha, it was so thick, i bet he suffers from dehydration everytime he steps out of an aircon environment.

Made a stop on the way home at Cold Storage to grab potatoes and other groceries to prepare for the night's lantern festival potluck to be held at my place. Long time ago's supper friends were invited to enjoy the nicely strung up lanterns bought by sis.

Mini drama only occured when we boiled the potatoes and they came out soft as mash! Putting them in a cold bath then fridging them helped. Anyway, sis was in charge of making the salad so i left her to it. Already helped peel and cut them as it was. Oh...for those of you starved for eggs, she managed to find 5 eggs to hardboil and mix in!

Got an SMS from Trudy saying she couldn't make it cos she managed to get food poisoning. Well, it would prolly happen to us by tomorrow anyway, seeing as how the eggs we used were pre-ban era ones. You missed out girl!


From L to R: Yilin, Rachel, Dannie, Sharon, Sue Anne, Teri, Roy, Joanna and Me

Sharon brought her dog Herbie. A golden retriever that was more tanned than the yellowish looking ones we normally see. Roy would later abuse the poor fellow by making face shapes with his extra skin and ears, and carrying him all over the shop. Rach and Suena were terrified of him, especially when i dangled food near them so Herbie would get real close.

We all also had a whale of a time cracking jokes about Roy and his "balls!", which according to Sue Anne, had to be said with feeling. Afterall, she kept them warm on her lap all through the car ride to my place. You had to be here to believe it and i'm sure the neighbours were got a bit uncomfy when we started cracking rah (RA) jokes. haha...wonder if the poor kid studying at a window facing us caught our banter and asked his parents what some of it meant.

They may have to put up with it again near the end of the year if we should hold another one. This time everyone will get more than 3 days notice and opposed to this one :P

Food
Punch
Potato Salad
Roy's Swedish meatballs!
Suena's chook wings
Joanna's fried rice
Rachel's mee goreng
Sharon's dips (homemade, no less)
Dannie and Yiling's Ben & Jerry's ice cream.

Tiring Day

Went to the NATAS travel fair at Suntec today and found a heap of cheap tour packages and flights. People who want a short holiday out to Thailand or Malaysia for less than $350 should go have a look see :) Thanks Dannie for pointing me to a tour agent he knows.

Anyway, met Annie for dinner at Swenson's in Bugis. One of the WORST restaurant experiences ever. Or maybe i'm just expecting too much and cos i was late.

1) Our main meals arrived more than 10 minutes apart...so the one that came first sat there waiting and getting cold. Ok, I could have started first but that wouldn't have been polite.

2) Our dessert sat at a side table for close to 5 minutes before someone finally brought it over to us. Sure, 5 minutes is nothing normally, but not when it is ice cream! I didn't order a milkshake people!

3) The bill took a good 25 minutes to settle. First, they took 10 odd minutes to present it, then Annie decided to pay by credit card. When the bill came back, it was the wrong bill, so they had to go correct it. The 10 minutes later, they came back with the same bill! WTF is wrong with them anwyay?!?!

To make matters worse, i was late to meet J and her sister, Pollyanna, up at Raffles Place for a ride home. I had to dash dash dash when i got to Raffles Place and thankfully they took pity on me when i described my horrible dinner.

NO MORE BUGIS SWENSON'S, EVER!

Old Supper Buddies

This entry is more for myself than you guys, unless u know these people of course :P

Have lost touch with a bunch of friends i had before i went to Perth but by sheer coincidence, J's work colleague that sits right opposite her, May Anne, is the sister of one of the wackiest in our group, Sue Anne!

Muahaha...

Had lunch today at Raffles City with the three of them. Japanese downstairs. SA hasn't changed one bit and is still her crazy self. Like when she decided to hold up the bottom of a 2 piece tankini (tank top bikini) in the car when she visited Perth.

Her sister, MA is concerned that SA is too darn uncouth to get married and will remain a spinster forever. At which we suggested another old friend, Roy, might fit the bill. Lol....what followed was spoken loudly over the lunch table which we shared with others!!

Me, "Ok, i know. I'll grind up some Cialis (Viagra) and then dissolve it into a solution and lace Roy's food with it. Then lock him and Suena in a room!"

At which Suena immediately replied, "Then if Karlman sneaks in how? Then poor Roy will be the one in danger!"

See, Karlman is one weird fellow. He loves girl's sports shoes and even managed to ask a shopkeeper to try and get him a pair with his size! Then the shopkeeper had to tell him, "This one for girls one leh, you cannot wear!"...

hehe, Suena reckons the hinges on the closet doors are just about ready to fly off.

Anyway, our sense of nostalgia was so strong that we ended up calling up our old supper bunch and agreed to have a potluck this Sunday...wonder if we can get the people together in time. Sister bought the lanterns already :)

Fortune Favours the Brave (or Stupid)!

"Let's try that new route!"

With that, my intrepid sister and i decided to prolong what had been a mosquito infested trek about our northen mountains in a quest for rubber seeds. With trepidation (rather than the said sense of adventure) my sister, Tenacious T, followed me, Klutzy K, down this slippery slope of wet leaf liter in a new expedition; to find a northen route to Hillview Avenue.

Klutzy K's account:

We slipped and slid down slopes of rotting plant matter. One wrong step and we would have fallen head over heels into some hidden longkang at the bottom of the hill!

How oppressive it was in this jungle. We wondered if it was wise to proceed with this undertaking with naught but a plastic bag and mobile phone. Our non existent supply of water was...well, non existent. Neither did we bring any weapons to combat the swarms of enemies we encountered. Fortunately, they only wanted our blood. Unfortunately, there seemed to be an endless queue of them. Press on we did.

And there it was... a great cluster of rubber seed pods! The seeds themselves had to be somewhere! In fact, they were everywhere! We traded with the natives for them; our blood for their rubber seeds everytime we stopped to pick them from the floor. Those stupid buggers have no idea the worth of rubber seeds in the kingdom of Klutzy K. Couldn't believe the amount of treasure we were getting with just a little loss of blood.

Along the way, we also saw the remains of some fearsome creature. Several in fact, they were black and thorny and look to have fallen to their deaths from great height. Man, did they stink too! Even in death, they were lethal. Thankfully none of them felt like falling and inflicting on us the pain suffered by many before!

Wasn't long before we found the breeding grounds of the natives!! A huge pool of stagnant water in some old stonework! Yikes, all the babies were wriggling this way and that... Run Run Run before the guards come!!

Helpppppppp.... Argh...too late! (major blood drive for natives' bloodbanks)

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

Ok ok, we both got back alright.

Went to play baddie in the arvo with Amy and her sister's friends and somehow managed to tap the shuttle straight into Anna's nose! Oh man...reminded me of Meet The Parents where Ben Stiller smashed the volleyball into a girl's face and broke her nose. In this case, Anna didn't lose any blood. Her nose just did a bit of a Rudolph impersonation.

Had dinner with sister and J at HV. Wanted to have sushi but it was too crowded... so we ended up at the usual place, Katong Laksa. Sis decided that girls should always stick together so the two of them combined forces on me through dinner. Win already lor!

Seems like we can't go to HV without making a stop at Cold Storage where i stocked up on my cup noodles and got 4 pet bottles of coke and root beer :) What a healthy diet! Ma, don't worry lah, will only have them at 3 in the morning! muahahaha

More Shopping + Haircut

Last few days:

A few shirts from Esprit (woohoo... one of them 50%!! and two of them i got 25% off having paid for them using Rachel's HSBC credit card thing.) Oops, haven't paid her back yet
haha

Oh, also got a haircut. The unanimous view of my shaggy dog look was "caveman!!" J finally took me for a haircut at a hairdresser at Taka. Smart Cuts i think. This place stylo lah, hairdresser also got name card one! Piang, no wonder $33 lah... haha... but well worth it.

First they have someone specialized in washing people's hair. Must be cos most of the people who walk in for a haircut have 1) oily hair 2) gelled up hair 3)lice!... Anyway, the hair washing girl started soaping and shampooing my hair in the hot seat and i kept wondering, "how on earth is she going to wash it all off?" Started looking suspiciously for/at fire fighting sprinkler systems. After having given my hair a good massage, she finally got me to get up and go to the sink...now, why didn't we do that from the start?

After having gotten a really nice wash, i got back to the chair and thought she would be the one to cut my hair but nope, she just said "wait here, your hairstylist will come soon". HUH?! Ok, nvm. He finally arrived and one look at my hairstyle (or lack of style) and he must have rolled his eyes. My hair was long enough for any style save a ponytail abomination. So he went off to grab a folder full of hairstyle pictures and proceded to show them all to J! Hello hello! whose hair is he cutting anyway? hahaha...i thought it was quite funny...after they had a short discussion, he showed me the style they had chosen for me. Not too shabby of course, and if J chose it, well, she would have to live with the consequences if it came out bad :P

Snip Snip Snip, didn't help that J had this nail biting expression on her face... mix of apprehension and consternation i believe. However, it came out pretty good, thank goodness. Though i will have to get used to gelling it everytime i leave the house. Unless i want people to mistake me for a rooster or Mr Wollie from our primary school english textbooks.

It is pretty short and tidy now and everything seems clearer now, why i can even see the streets signs when looking straight! Instead of having to continually keep the hair up with a hand. Found out that if you put too much gel, your hair hardens into a helmet! Too little and the hair goes its own way.


Bahh...this is so so disjointed...

Night Safari, Thursday

The weather looked threatening but in the end we managed to go :) Had dinner at one of those Chinese Coffee shops opposite Beauty World.


Open from 7:30pm till midnight. Who on earth wants to be in the middle of a mosquito infested place at that kinda time?? Lots of people apparently!

First off, Singaporeans ah, forever asking silly questions man. On our way to the carpark, we got hailed to a stop by one of the parking attendants brandishing 2 light sticks. As if we were a jumbo jet landing at Changi like that.

So down came the window and the attendant said, "Good evening, coming to the Night Safari?" Ohhh NOooo, we're there at 7 something in the evening just to feed mossies (it wasn't quite that bad in the end).

After a surprised but firm "yes" from friend driving, the attendant proceded, "So you will want to park your car?" LOL...but of course we would want to park our car!! Then what? drive around inside ah?!? Run all the free ranging animals down can??

My surprised and bemused friend could only manage a second, more hesitant "yes".

We were one of the earlier groups of people to go for it and thought it was a little quiet. Anyway, went for the tram ride and saw... deers, deers, deers...oh dear, more deers!! Argh, quit with them already!! More deers! Arghh... ok, now u've got a vague idea of what we were put through. My poor friend got so bored during the ride that she dozed off a couple of times. At least the weather was nice and cool. Surprisingly, wasn't too humid despite the earlier rain.

Went for their night show too where a few of their animals were a little rebellious. One refused to come out and play when told, then another was so busy crawling all over a member of the staff, they couldn't get it to pick a grape out of a little girl's hand. When they finally managed to focus the attention of the rodent like creature, it didn't want the grape.


*spoiler alert* Do not read on if you are going to the Night Safari.


Highlight of the night was this annoying guy that sat in front of us desperately looking for his Maggie. haha...turns out it was a 10 foot long python. When he finally "found" it in the lower rows of seats, he started heading back up to our position to get his bag. three of my friends positively rocketed out of their seats and dashed to the top of the ampitheatre.

All in all a great night, despite the Night Safari being a little boring. Prolly cos we didn't walk the trails too much.

Rest Rest

am giving this space a short rest, cos my mind is occupied by stuff i don't want to write about but trust me it is all good stuff :)

You Light Up My Life

One too many bulbs had died at home and i just had to go get replacements. Decided on the white light type by Philips. Those that look brains! You know, the curled and gnarly stuff.
Bah, just look at the picture.



Anyway, I just took a numeracy test for a StanChart position and got an end result that said something like "in competition with others, you didn't make it!" Then 5 seconds later, the bulb in my room blew. What timing. Exactly like my non functioning brain, as far as ratios and exchange rates go. A bit too rusty i reckon, but i'll still blame it on my unfamiliarity with my sister's calculator. It's a timed test see, and i think the people who are really smart and made for that kinda position wouldn't need calculators to tell them the answers. Being the kiasu Singaoprean that i am, i plugged in all the MCQ answers to try...duh..."1 minute left" in a 21 question test. I had 6 questions left. Thankfully it's an online test.

Now that i have my new gnarly, brainy, ultra power lightbulb, i'm gonna sign up with and have another crack at it. This time, i will see the light (cough cough, gag).

On another topic, have met new friends and old friends alike who have brightened my life here considerably, but one above all. More details in the future i daresay.

Chicken Diarrhoea

Was reading Miyagi's blog and he had an entry about the current egg crisis we're having.

What really brought it home to me is that the Al-Ameen outside my house is now charging $0.50 more for items that have eggs, or maybe even a dollar. All i got was this vague "Pataya now $5 ah, boss, because of the egg". Thing is, i didn't even know what the pataya cost before.

Anyway, how i wish i had my own egg laying hen now, just so i can ridicule all the people who thought me crazy for having kept 4 chickens in my garden in my primary school days. Remember when we could buy a chicks and ducklings from our science teachers? Like $1.20 for a chick and $2.00 for a duckling. At that time, i thought they were pretty much the same thing, just that people who bought ducklings were getting a really raw deal.

First, they cost more. At primary school in the late 1980s, every cent of pocket money counts. 80 cents could get you a whole bowl of wanton mee, with extra wanton and char siew thrown in! Secondly, ducklings were noisy from the moment you took them home, quacking like mad. At that time i didn't see the humour in it, but the science teacher selling the fowl creatures was a certain Mr. Quek. Lastly, duck sai ALWAYS smelt a lot worse in the class than chook shit, no idea why. Don't think they allow chicks and ducklings into classes now.

Anyway, with the generous extra pocket money my grandfather gave me (he spoilt me rotten), I managed to buy FOUR chicks! man, i bought so many, my science teacher gave me a big cardboard box to bring them home in! Everyone else cradled their one chick home in their hands or some little drink carton.



ok, these look plasticy and the 2nd from left in the middle row looks like a rooster Britney Spears in making.

Can't remember the reactions of my parents but too late for them to do anything about it i guess. Then everyone started getting into the act of caring for them. My grandfather's neighbour gave me this huge metal cage that he used to house a giant iguana in so i could restrain the chicks when my grandfather let his dog loose. Then my dad bought some chicken wire mesh and wooden stakes to build a cage at home for the same reason.

By being really cautious, we never let both chicks and dogs loose at the same time..for quite a while at least... Then finally it happened, my maid was chaining the dog at the front of the house while i was poised to release the chicks and she yelled "ok". So i thought the dog was leashed but turns out she meant "ok, i will leash the dog". HAHAHAhahaha... Horror of horros, the chicks made a dash for the cage while my dog came sprinting for them. I was too small and shocked to do anything and before i knew it, one of them was in my dog's mouth!! *wack* I hit my dog with a slipper and she spat the poor little fluffy thing out. By then, the chicken had soiled itself. I kid you not, there was guaysai oozing out its ass and it couldn't stand. It was trembling like heck and it must have had a lion's heart not to have died of shock!

Anyway, it survived and all 4 grew up pretty big. And then one fine day, i woke up and there were only 3 left! I ran around the garden looking for the 4th one and thought my dog had somehow gotten to it at night. It was a lot more sinister than that! My maid, seeing as how they were so big and well fed, took it upon herself to slaughter and cook them!! Argh!! I ate my own pet for dinner the previous night and none of us but my maid knew!! *trauma* *tears* *anger* *wishes of death on maid*.

At least the other 3 died natural deaths i guess. Come to think of it, there msut have been some conspiracy. They never once laid an egg and there were two hens and one rooster left after the other was murdered by my maid.

hmm.. been wanting to get a dog, maybe i can try getting a few chicks instead :)) heeheee But then again, better not lah, sekali they start crowing around dinner time like my uncle's

Lazy Sunday, Think Think

Slept at 5am odd again then woke at about 2pm. Talk about sleepless, wonder if there are jobs that require these kinds of sleeping patterns. Then slept again from 5pm odd to 9pm. All up, 13 hours of sleep, pretty abnormal.

Too much time to think about relationships and their pitfalls.

In the last few hours, i've spoken to a few in the whole range and thought about others.

One of them, an ex-classmate, is seeing another of my ex-classmates. Never knew they had attended language school together before entering the MBA course. I'm so so happy that she has found a love, someone who is able to look beyond her past and understand that people deserve a second chance, especially when they are fundamentally people. You see, she is a divorcee, like another friend who faced a similar issue in the past. It restores your faith in people when you find people willing to see the good person for whom he/she really is.

Really happy for you K, really am.

On the other hand, H is facing trouble in marriage. How can I advice another when i don't know the situation, and even if i knew the situation, should i or can i really offer advice? It is horrible when a relationship's feeling is all but gone or damaged tremendously. I settle for offering support, which is the least and, at the same time, most i can do. Come on girl, you'll survive as you always have. And i promise i won't disappear from sight like when i did last time. You're a good person H and things will come good no matter what.

On a more optimistic note. A few days ago,
*beep* *beep*
1 message receieved
"Don't forget my RoM is on the 25th of Sept ah!"
Haven't met the lucky guy yet but will on that day. Am looking forward to congratulating you with all my heart, and enjoying the buffet with all my stomach :) Importance in that order, i promise, cross my heart and hope to die.

Just hope your ROM won't be like a certain G's that my good friend Jasslyn attended (side note, J is a magnet for disaster). The bride-to-be decided to call her mother-in-law all kinds of horrid names and drove one and all to tears. Poor Jass was caught in the middle of it all. hahaha....as i recall, this was supposed to be a short holiday back in SG for respite from trials and tribulations in Perth. What a break it was for her :P

It got to the point where the registrar said, "i don't think you two should be getting married" How right he was.

Divorce rates seem to be going up huh? But oh well, it still feels like there are a lot more happily married people out there than unhappy ones. D, here is wishing you the best for yours :)

Rainy Saturday...

Met up with Joanna and Rachel for breakie at maccas today :)
First hotcakes since coming back man...and it promptly gave me a tummy ache
erksss

later, Rach come over to do some of her work before we were to walk the little nature trail at the end of my street but Joanna called and said we could play tennis afterall :)

Off we ran, down the hill, up the hill! With Rach doing one of her crazy screams when i "accidentally" kicked a giant grasshopper at her. Dunno who was more frightened, her of the grasshopper or me when i heard her bone chilling scream.

Anyway, we made it there without further mishap :)
tennis was fun and the girls were pretty ok at hitting it. Of course i had to scamper left, right, back and front and at the same time try to control the strength of arm so that i won't hit them "accidentally". hehe...

Joanna came with her tennis outfit which was pretty cute, which of course she will deny vehemently when told :P

Anyway, the rain soon came and that was the end of the session.

Arcade!

Just realized that nowadays my posts are just plain itineraries of what i've done during the day. Well, it is set to continue that way :P

Finally collected the shirts i today and also sent in a pair of pants for altering.

More importantly, i rediscovered the joy of arcade games. The one at Dhoby Ghaut MRT has these really good shooting games. You know the kind that has you looking from a top down view on your puny fighter while clouds of little green bean sized bullets fly at you from all directions? Anyway, i used to play heaps of those during NS. Spent a good part of the afternoon in said arcade.

After that hitched a ride back from Joanna and had dinner at this place opposite Beauty World. First time i've eaten in one of the Chinese coffeeshops there apart from Johnson Duck and what was formerly Charcoal Grill.

Will prolly sleep early tonight cos tomorrow should be an eventful day.

Baddie at Clementi

Was supposed to go out and collect the shirts i bought last week but was just too too lazy after having slept at about 5am.

Was supposed to meet with Jillie too but between my laziness and her eyebrow plucking adventures, we didn't. However, i did find the strength to call Amy at which she excitedly asked me to go play baddie with her sister and friends.

Insurance agents, her sister and friends, so no wonder they have such flexible hours. Had a good time playing at the Clementi Sports Centre. Amy claimed not to have played for yonks but she still managed to use the frame to execute perfectly disguised dropshots! Man, she disguised some of them so well, i think she herself didn't know where the shot was going until it landed. :P

Met her sister Anna, who is a little mad and clownish in the good sense. Really funny. After baddie she managed to sit on dried jiao sai! hahaha...oh well, like they say, shit happens.

Played a game of singles with Jameson and boy did he make me run all over. By the time we were done (i won! yes! haha...duh), i was a walking raincloud. Yes, pity there were no fires to put out, if not i could have been a mobile sweat sprinkler (i see people's faces turning green). Jameson's a little portly so it was quite funny to hear his gf, Angela, calling for him to run from behind the court. Also had a game with Louis, he too delighted in having me scoot all over.

After baddie, we ended up at KFC :) My favourite!

All good fun.

I Wish You Love

To Irene and Jo,

Different people, different reasons, but same song from me to you.

I wish you love by Lisa Ono.

I wish you bluebirds in the spring
To give your heart a song to sing
And then a kiss, but more than this
I wish you love
And in July a lemonade
To cool you in some leafy glade
I wish you health
But more than wealth
I wish you love
My breaking heart and I agree
That you and I could never be
So with my best
My very best
I set you free
I wish you shelter from the storm
A cozy fire to keep you warm
But most of all when snowflakes fall
I wish you love
My breaking heart and I agree
That you and I could never be
So with my best
My very best
I set you free
I wish you shelter from the storm
A cozy fire to keep you warm
But most of all when snowflakes fall
I wish you love

When snowflakes fall
I wish you love

When snowflakes fall
I wish you love

When snowflakes fall
I wish you love
-----------------------------------------------------
Thanks Hel for sharing this really great song with me

Siam Ah!

She: If you have nothing on, you join us for Mambo, ok?

Seeing as how it is still school holidays, i called Amy for lunch again. Had Long John Silver's at IMM. The place has really changed from last time. Now it's just like any regular shopping centre. Anyway, Amy brought some stuff to mark and test papers that needed tallying of scores.

So i happily helped with the tallying. Pretty easy stuff :) But some of the poor buggers that took the test obviously didn't read the instructions and Miss Goh claimed she warned them ery specifically to read them. *shrug* haha... few were spared the mandatory ZERO for not circling answers as required but instead drawing a couple of brackets in and putting the answer in that. Seemed a little draconian at first but really, isn't reading and then being able to follow instructions a whole lot more important than choosing the right word or answer? I mean imagine if you were a total whiz at cloze passage but couldn't read the instructions on some prescribed drug? Death to all who can't read AND follow instructions!

hahaha... ALMOST had to join Amy and Belinda (another old time irc friend) for Mambo.
Yes yes, i know we are 26 and prolly double the age of some who manage to sneak in. But what can i say, Amy and Belinda are stil clinging on to their teenage years (rather well i might add). been there only once and didn't like the place at all. The idea of people, reeking of alcohol and ciggarette smoke, gyrating their sweaty bodies near me just isn't appealing at all. I had my chance to escape earlier when Uncle Yong called to ask if i wanted to watch Singapore play Oman but skipped on it cos i was feeling a little lazy. This was of course before Amy suggested i go partake in sweat sharing at Mambo. Just when all hope seemed lost, Joanna of Arc came to the rescue. *Beep* (BZZzzZZ) *Beep* (BZZzzZZ)

You have 1 message.

Joanna: "Got dinner plans today?"

Me: "No plans for tonight..."

Then i had; Dinner at HV, and with Joanna, too good. :)

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Dear Friend Amy

After having been interrupted by someone doing the long jump on the train platform, i FINALLY got to meet up with Amy today.

Amy, where do i begin. It was some 7 years ago that IRC for NUS students was just about taking hold. Those were the days where i was part of a channel called #nus1. Man, there were 4 of us in there, Amy, Lynn, Sprocket and me. Those days feel like an eternity away now. Anyway, our first irc outing (how weak does that sound now) was to King Albert Park where only 3 of us turned up; Amy, Lynn and i. Managed to mistake Amy for Lynn and Lynn for Amy but thankfully, i was the only one with a copy of the Newpaper so no mistakes on their part.

We gradually grew into good friends and Amy and i even signed up for driving lessons at Bukit Batok Driving Centre together. Yes, Amy, i am going to recount the incident :P Part of the sign up process involved an eyesight test and being the vain girl that she was, she had to wear her contacts even thuogh they were a little blurry. LOL, i passed mine easy but she had difficulties seeing even the 2nd row of letters. hahahahaha, she actually asked me what they were so i could read them out to her then she would repeat it to the lady testing us. hahaha, the lady couldn't believe what was happening but finally told us that this wouldn't do. Poor Amy had to scoot home for her glasses :P

But today, she said something that really justified it all. The only reason why people look good is cos they are vain. Think about it for a second without the cynical "if u look good, u look good" thought. Of course it takes effort to look good! haha, maybe i should be trying to be a little heow too.

Anyway, we headed out to HV for lunch with her driving us and man, we managed to take wrong turns at almost every conceiveable turn. hahaha...it was like the cockeyed leading the blind! Credit to her though, she managed to stay calm through all the wrong turns (mostly wrong cos they were inspired by my "i think we should turn...) . In fact, she managed to land us at a parking lot really close to the Yu Pian Mee Fun place that i had only just visited last week with Cheryl, Denise and Janet. Too it seemed like all the shops there were having a siesta! First time i've come across coffee shop owners saying "Xiu Si (rest)" and only opening again at 3:30pm.

After that we headed to Queensway Shopping Centre where i managed to get a pair of tennis shoes and baddie shoes double quick time.

Amy is a teacher by profession and it seems that every teacher has to be involved with some ECA or other, Amy is in charge of the library! hehe, somehow i knew it would be something like that. HAHA, so i persuaded her to bring her sister's Maltese (not the chocies), named Nike, over to my place and go for a walk with him.

Went to my favourite walk, Bukit Gombak Trail. Malteses aren't particularly big dogs so it was no surprise that the poor fellow had to struggle up some of the bigger steps but go up it did. Guess it had some Airness in it along with ample encouragement from me. Come to think of it, dunno who i was cheering for most of the time, Miss Goh or the puppy :P Anyway, Amy enjoyed it pretty much so we might go again soon. It's great exercise too, climbing up and down the silly hill. Oh, and they finally cleared the fallen tree so we managed to walk all the way to Bukit Gombak Stadium from Chu Lin Rd.

Man....come to think of it, i really want to get a doggie now.

Runabout with Hel

Had a great sleep last night, from midnight to noon. 12 great hours :)

Met up with Hel for lunch at Johnson Duck, opposite Beauty World. She also asked two of her ex-students from Assumption English to join us, Damien and Yuan Teck. Can see they're really mischievious people but were quiet anyway cos of my presence.

Apparently Damien gave Hel a study lamp last year as a X'mas pressie but Hel complained that it did not come with a lightbulb. I suggested he give her a bulb this year for X'mas and that broke the ice.

We actually ordered a whole duck and didn't even finish it in the end. Thought that with 3 hungry boys (yes i still think of myself as a boy even though i'm 26), it wouldn't be a problem. We actually left a drumstick behind! CRIMINAL WASTE!! Especially since there was so much skin on it! Arghhhhh....

After that Hel and I landed up at West Mall where we had a whale of a time playing arcade games. Been a while since i spent so much time in an arcade. But Hel had a tough time cos she kept getting challenged by people who have prolly been playing the games there 3 hours a day for the last 5 years. Having been beaten enough, off to Shop 'n' Save we went. Wanted to get longans but they didn't have loose ones, only 3kg plastic boxes of them so we got that. Or rather Hel got that, oh, and a bottle of A & W Root Beer. None of that Marinda Root Beer crap. Which tastes totally gross.

Took Hel up to Bukit Batok Trail cos she wanted to collect rubber seeds for her geography class. Found a pathetic two before we hit jackpot! Two uncracked pods of three each. Damn, that sounds confusing. Ok, imagine tri-lobal pods with 3 rubber seeds in it. Ok, we found two of those. Also found that they cleared the trail of fallen trees so we managed to walk all the way to Bukit Gombak Stadium.

Had dinner at Al-Ameen after that chicken soup, pataya and mutton chop. The mutton chop was surprisingly good, might have that again tomorrow night after tennis. Then we set down to have longans :P



Me and Hel, with a few longans left...a lot more where that came from! And yes Ma, i moved the table outside.

Of course we couldn't finish the giant carton of them but we managed about 1/3 of it, so i forced her to take a kilo home.

All in all a great day with an old buddy :)

Day of Activity

Started off with Dim Sum at East Ocean or something like that :P One of their managers was this Hong Kong guy that was pretty charming to Joanna and Rachel :) Rach positively melted when he spoke to her, even though she didn't understand a word of what he was saying.

The guy was pretty helpful but a little comical. Said he would go to the kitchen to fight for a plate of fried squid for us then ended up giving up a plate of friend fish. Duh :P hahaha... then later Joanna told him that Rachel said he was very cute. LOL, should have seen Rachel's face turn a very deep red immediately. Hilarious.

After lunch, it was on to business for Rach and Joanna with me tagging along. Walked all over the big DFS building opposite Far East so Rach could find a bag but there just weren't any nice ones around. So we headed on down to Paragon where there is a big Gucci shop.

Man, it took her more than an hour of toting that bag on and off in front of a mirror to finally decide to get it. Oh, there were three of us there to persuade her that she looked gorgeous with it, not that she doesn't look gorgeous without it (think i had too much sugar syrup earlier). She even managed to force her friend, Pauline, to come rushing own to the shop in her semi sleepwear
haha....imagine, someone wearing really lok kok in Gucci trying to persuade someone to buy something.


Gasp! Rachel's $970 Gucci bag. Well, guess it isn't so bad cos there is a 25% rebate to be gotten come December.

We were supposed to have a BBQ today but turned out that there were too few of us to make it worthwhile. Besides, we'd done ZIP prep work for it. Didn't even have a pit man. Ended up eating dinner at Adam's Road hawker centre. Man, the place has changed heaps; bright lights, more tables and chairs...but same people running the shops as 5 years ago when i made nightly jaunts here with NS cycling buddies.

Borrowed Finding Nemo from Joanna, will prolly be laughing my head off for the rest of tonight.

A Special Friend

Read a blog post of a special, special friend and it brought back all sorts of memories. Sighh... how i wish hings could have turned out differently. But they did not.

Oh well, i refuse to dwell any further on the trying times (i know i'll come back to them again sometmie). But instead remember all that was special and great of that time.

Stammers... nothing like walking around in there with you to look for watermelons for juicing at serene's house. Yes, i remember your grossed out look when i started eating the pulp, but it was really juicy still! That there was too much juice to finish later is besides the point :P

Oh, by the way, i bumped into Serene last night at Paragon. She asked me to arrange an outing for us all but i told her i would ask you to do that instead :P *muahaha* i still remembered at the back of my mind while i was talking to her what she called me. *wonder if it will be rat poison or cyanide* muahahaha

Hahaha...oh, and the bump you managed to inflict on yourself when bouncing off Serene's bed. LOL, oh well, i tried to stop you flying off like a train out of control but i'm no Spiderman.

What i remember most was how we were at Pt Walter and the benches were damp after a light rain but we still wanted to sit and enjoy the serenity. Guess who became the bench on a bench :P Think i remember my leg going numb after a few minutes. From that day on, it seemed like the benches were always wet even when they were dry. It felt so warm and comforting. Not least because i was using you as a wind shield :P haha :)

And the sandbar... man... it's a whole life there. Ducks quacking suddenly in the total darkness. i could have sworn they were T-Rexes out there. And the fear on the first few times that the tide would come in and we'll be stranded. Then again, that thought wasn't entirely unpleasant.

Our goodbyes came in Perth on Cotts beach in a timeless hug. Happiness, sadness... Joy and despair... What was overwhelming was regret that things could not have been any other way, or that i hadn't the courage to make them any other way. I believe we still owe one another some 999,997 hugs?

Has this story finally ended? Like how we were never able to finish Serendipity despite numerous attempts. Our timings have been anything but serendipitous.

Another Friday

Stayed home all day cos i finally managed to get decent sleep.

Joanna for once finished work at 5pm, and only cos it was some training course so i met her around 6 at orcahrd and we had Japanese food at this place in the basement at Paragon. It was pretty good :)

Was starving so i actually ordered an extra bowl of rice. The waitress's expression was a mixture of confusion, horror and disbelief. Don't think too many people order an extra bowl of rice with their yakiniku set. Joanna had unagi with rice. As usual, she didn't finish it but that's excusable i guess, cos she doesn't like rice :P

Then Rachel came to meet us and tried to climb over a little barrier. *cue* shock, horror expression on waitresses' faces AGAIN. hahahaha....Rachel's lifted her leg ever so slightly but must have seen their faces and changed her mind. Walk one big round to sit down with us for 2 minutes while we waited for the bill.

Off the 2 girls went to some religious class while i went to kill aliens at the arcade in Dhoby Ghaut MRT. We later met up for Coffee Club and the usual muddy mud pie....erks.....so muchhhhhhhh

Got Some Shirts

Don't have too many shirts yet so decided to take advantage of some available girl advice/expertise as far as getting working shirts. Jo had dental in the morning and since she stays pretty near me, decided to follow her down. But i neglected to remember that her dental was in Hougang (where is that again?!). As reward for following her all the way there, i got a lunch treat at a Thai place. Seafood pineapple rice and tomyum soup, sweeeeeeet.

After that, it was on to shirt hunting. I'd noticed Zara had some nice comfy shirts before so that's where we headed. The one at Wheelock Place is one of the bigger ones and had 3/4 of a floor dedicated to men's wear. To say that i know nothing about working shirts is an understatement but thankfully it was a weekday arvo that we were there so i had lots of help from one of their experienced staff.

Ended up grabbing five shirts. Always knew i had a fat neck and short arms, but to alter up to 4 1/4" on the sleeves? Well, that was only one, the others were mostly in the 3" range. Pick up will be next Thursday. After that, Jo got her turn in the ladies section where she went on a clothes trying spree. A dozen pieces later, she decided on ONE black top.

I tried 5 shirts, bought 5 shirts, she tried 12 tops, bought 1 top.

Guys call it indecisiveness, girls will say they are discerning is all. Whatever :P

Then we watched Open Water, which was utterly utterly rotten. One of the worst shows i have ever seen!! It was slowwwwww, boring, second rate....erks, words can't describe the contempt i'm holding for it. We were glad it was over soon enough.

Jo felt that buying one top from a full day of shopping was really pathetic so she tried to find better sizes (S instead of M) at the Taka branch of Zara. Nada, zip, mei you.

Met Eileen, Nicole and May for Seoul Garden Korean BBQ. Jo was periodically screaming out whenever some of the oil splashed up on her and that must have been quite disturbing for an Indian couple eating at the next table. The lady would jump on every scream :P. i reckon Nicole was the smartest one, she just ate slowly and didn't get too many scalds from flying oil.

Suffice to say that by the end of it, Eileen, Jo and I were all suffering monumental tummy aches. Think we will all hold our respective cabinet meetings in our throne rooms tonight.

Dinner with Helena

Where do i begin?

Helena must be unique; she's the only girl who's hung out with me and lost weight in the process. "What the?!", i can hear the gasps. She used to be my cycling buddy see :) That was during NS days where we didn't haev a care in the world and so could ride all over the place :)

Those days have long gone as i lost touch with her over the last 6 odd years i was out of town. Come to think of it, i lost touch with her even when i was still here, one of those weird things where i started drifting away.

That she is still so warm to and friendly to me despite my disappearing act, which can only be described as disappointing as friends, is testament to her good and kind heart. Anyway, i'm back now and i feel i have a real lifelong friend in her and can always seek good advice from her. Being married makes one so much wiser i guess. So it is with her advice, coupled with events yesterday, that i've decided i really should be closing some chapters and starting anew.

Feels like one of those new year resolutions to me but hopefully this time they'll stick.

Now to more important things like what did we eat? :)
Well, met at HV again!!?? This time we had a rolling buffet of sorts. Started off with $3 chicken laksa with hum, which was just plain incredible. First time i ate there was when Jo brought me. I had 2 bowls that time but not this time. Also ordered a large plate of fried wanton, $3 too. In USD, that's a pittance man, $4.50. (Ma, Pa, we'll go when you come back for holidays :))

Then we went up the road a bit and had popiah, 3 for the 2 of us, seems like we both like the same parts of the silly things; the ends. That i just had popiah at the same place just 2 days ago didn't seem to matter. See, that's me if you don't already know. i'll go all excessive on something i like till i get sick and hate it for life, or a month at least.

By this time, we were pretty much bloated but hadn't talked much at all. Hawker food tends to do that to you. Especially when there are heaps of people walking around and the food arrives like greased lightning. Gobble gobble gobble. then decided that we needed something sweet so Coffee Club it was.

But before that, the food needed a little settling so off to Cold Storage we went for what was ostensibly a walk. The fact that we were both so so full saved up from grabbing a trolley and emptying out the store. Did end up getting 2 boxes of Konyakku jelly, a bottle of orange essence and a can of fruit cocktail (story on this to follow in a few days i hope). All of which are to be used at the same time, but i have a sneaking suspicion that by the time the jelly is to be used, the fruit cocktail would have long been consumed and probably mingling with other things in the Straits of Malacca.

Sat upstairs at Coffee Club and ordered a muddy mudpie, mango cake and a glass of passion tea with ice cream(?!). I held my peace with the tea concoction, i'm sure that if i'd just a sip of that, i would be lightening myself substantially, immediately. Person taking our order was a bit DUHhh.... decided that with only 3 items, she could remember without writing it down but came back a few minutes later to confirm the order. Then my muddy mudpie took ages to come and when it was ready, we saw her walzing everywhere but our table. Finally we managed to beckon her over and get my mudpie. Both of us just rolled our eyes :P. Think someone up there must have seen our meanie poot expressions cos i managed to forget to take the jelly when we left. it was while we were in a cab on the way to our homes that conversation turned to the jelly and..... "Uncle, can turn around, please? Left something important at the restaurant lah"

Important stuff, jelly :) Could be a whole new beginning in that.