Me,You and a Dog that smells like poo

Singapore June 2009

2009-07-07T20:49:00.034+08:00

While I still feel like it, I think better get it all down otherwise it will just disappear into the depths of my memory...it really helps that I'm still on semster break atm...

I'm super glad this time I managed to take close to 100 photos in a short span of 1 week...even though I retained all censorship rights, there are still a good chunk of shots that can be published...hehe...(*ahem* at this point, I'll like to say payments are accepted for the maintenance of personal privacy and the perseverance of dignity)

Here were some of my favourite moments in chronological order...

Zouk/Vivi Nails - Pregnancy News. Unfortunately my reaction was wasted on Jason. I'm really happy for Jelly but this news makes me feel really ooooooooold...as I said before I left, it is going to be strange that the next time we meet she will be pushing a pram and carrying a diaper bag...haha..I may need a bit more time to adjust...still, I look forward to meeting her first-born and no doubt Jelly and Mark will be very excited to show off their little one too...

One hungry mummy...

Pump Room - Smashing place with my favourite gang. What's not to love? Zouk was shit but this place is awesome! It's here that we took the most photos...I had a great night and I am sure everyone else too...ok, except maybe Dana who spent the night and early next morning prostrating at the alter of the porcelain god...

annoyed that the boys spoilt our photos lah! see...real mature!

the poses got worse as more drinks were consumed....

and I swear you guys are a bad influence on Meredith (tsk!)...see the discrepancy?...

At this point, I think the only likely person to pay me to remove photos from here are my husband....

Soup Restaurant/Timbre - Somehow or rather, Mok tends to get us free meals at the Soup Restaurant...no complaints tho...Meredith and I both love the chicken and sweet potato leaves *beams*...we had so much food that day that I honestly was worried we won't be able to finish it all, considering Meredith was the only male at the table since Leon wasn't able to join us...Pity that was the only time I got to catch up with Jun...it was unfortunate she couldn't join us at Timbre that same night, whereby we finally convinced Mok to grab some drinks with us...I believe this was like the first time in more than 4 years (?) since we met Mok for drinks and stayed way past our bedtime...

THIS photo must be framed man...since when have we managed to get Mok out so late at night???

Other noteworthy mentions are my fish-spa experiences..(I was at Kenko twice in 4 days!)..if you want Shiok-Shiok experiences the best person to talk to is really Dana...and our night of KTV...and SPEAKING about KTV...i've got the video as promised...

Look at Jason pretending he doesn't care..somemore pretend clever huh..read to Galvin..I threw the potato chip at him in the end..and he promptly ate it!...anti-climax seriously...Wahahaha...Jason, you better pay me good moola to take down the video....heheheheheh

I apologise for all the mad cramming of activities night after night...I will take into account our ages next time I'm planning to come home for clubbing/chilling/drinking etc...Till Next Time!

The Long Overdue Post (Sorry Dana!)

2009-07-03T22:05:00.010+08:00

My excuse: Busy studying last semester lah!

Anyhows, I got to say, I am still very touched by the fact that Dana made up her mind pretty quickly when I asked if she would come spend Easter with me. I honestly was just talking cock and you know me, I can be really whingy - I moaned that I virtually get no vistors and I miss everyone...less than a week later, our dear friend got herself booked onto a flight. (PS: I need more friends who can make up their mind like that)

It may not seem like a big deal to some, but this was the first time Dana had to travel on her own. It was a very harrowing experience for her indeed with taxi booking miscomms, gusty winds and rain, a lugguage with a noisy wheel and (!) the failure to obtain an Australian visa. We are lucky to have had Jelly save the day...otherwise, I think Dana would have been scarred for life and will never talk to me again for convincing her to come visit me. Ha!

I'm just glad she got here in one piece, noisy luggage and all. :)

Lovely day at King's Park

Everybody knows my activities pretty much revolve around food...that does explain how fat I am these days. The following is a snapshot of our lunch at Elmars'...don't worry, everything was shared amongst the 3 of us...

Pork Knuckle and my favourite Sauerkraut

Yummy tasting plate with various sausages, hams, cheese and dips

The photos don't do the food justice man...this swan valley restaurant is totally recommended (by me of course)...best to go with at least 4 other friends....

The other foodie thing we did was to cook mee siam one night. The lucky girl even scored a double-yolked egg!

please ignore the mess behind Dana...I'm not a very good housekeeper...hahaha....I believe we stayed in another night coz she wanted to try the instant mee-sua she found at a Perth Chinese grocery store...funny girl bought a shit-load of the instant mee-sua back to Singapore only to discover the local Shop n Save has them as well...

I was a little sad that her trip lasted only 4 days. But at least during that period she exprienced her first fishing trip, even though the massive pelican got fed while we went home with nothing. We also watched Keane play at Metro Freo...awesome gig...glad I got to hear my song live! Only regret was that we didn't stay till the end and there were no photos! Boy were they cute...

.......

Here's to great fun with a very dear friend and hope Meredith and I will have better guests sleeping arrangements when we finally get the house built!

Watch This Space....

2009-07-02T17:06:00.002+08:00

got reminded (yet again) to update and post all those bloody photos...who ask me not to have facebook right?...ok lah, will do it soon...i still have photos from Dana's trip to post :)

Recipe

2009-03-25T17:34:00.005+08:00

I'll share something with you today. The recipe for Chicken Rice...so simple you won't believe:

Ingredients List:
Chicken
Ginger
Garlic, Spring Onion, Coriander, Chilli
Soy Sauce, Sesame Oil, Sugar, Salt, White Pepper

Chicken
Ensure pot has enough water to cover the chicken completely. Bruise 5-7 cloves of garlic and 4-5 large slivers of ginger and add that to the water. Boil Chicken for 20 minutes in the covered pot (25 minutes if Chicken came straight from the fridge) on high to medium heat. Turn off the fire and leave chicken in the pot for a further 10 minutes before taking it out.

Sauce for Chicken
Mix soy sauce, a little bit of sesame oil, a teeny bit of sugar. Add a touch of white pepper and it’s ready to be poured over the cooked chicken.

Garnish
Coriander (roughly chopped) and spring onion (sliced lengthwise; makes it nice and curly!)

Rice
Cook rice as per normal. Use chicken stock from cooking the chicken instead of water. Feel free to ladle in the garlic and ginger from the chicken stock or put in a new batch of garlic and ginger. Add salt before cooking the rice. You can also put in a chicken stock cube if you like (It’s not cheating; I did it!)

Chilli Sauce
Blend chilli and garlic. I usually use a 50-50 ratio but it’s up to you really. You can also include coriander in the blend. Add soy sauce, Japanese rice vinegar (or lemon juice) and sugar.

Ginger paste
That’s just a ginger and spring onion blend. Mixed in with canola oil and salt.

EASY ISN'T IT?

anybody whom have ever been away from Singapore for more than 6 months usually become quite an expert in dishing up Singaporean hawker fare....

maybe next time i'll share somemore "secrets" with you...secrets which anyone of us who has ever been a poor uni student before will know :)

seriously, for those of you who have never left the comfort of your parent's homes, do you know:

what flour goes into carrot cake that makes it so chewy?
how to successfully rid the stench from pig stomache when you want to make kway chup or peppery pig organ soup?
how to make the broth for mee siam from scratch?

you get my drift....

and no, i'm not bragging...all i am trying to say is that you guys have it good back home...if i crave anything that resembles Singaporean cusine, i have to either make it myself or, settle for something cooked by Malaysians, which can be nice, but just not the same...no foodcourt ta-bao for $3 ok...

The only thing strangely that none of us (not that i know of) could ever replicate, was ta-mee...u know, like dried mee pok with fishball, mince pork and mushroom...with chilli! if there is really a secret for it..someone please tell me....

Of Cheap Airfares and Presents...

2009-03-16T15:30:00.008+08:00

yes, i'm only updating my blog coz i have some spare time today from being away from work....i'm just so tired i couldn't bear thinking abt sitting at my desk for 8 hours today...though, i cld be bothered to get up at 7.30am to text my manager and tell him i wasn't coming in...ha!...but in all seriousness, i do have a migraine and a really sore spot towards the mid-left on my back...

Bring on the Cheapie Flights!
I have not had so many vistors in a short span of 2 weeks. Goodness, i think i've caught up with more pple in Perth this past fortnight than the last 2 years combined. Not surprisingly, these happy visits have tossed my otherwise mundane perth life into chaos...i am still recovering from the late night of coversations over tea and chips...

Oh, i do have to give my congratulations to Kevin and Nancy. The sneaky bugger finally proposed while they were in Perth. How apt! I am just so thrilled for these two...everyone's been waiting for them to get hitched! :)

Jun's currently in Perth for her first ever visit to Australia. We met up for a simple bbq dinner at my place last night. This was soon followed by heaps of wine, chocolates and strawberries...Just a taste of how wine-tasting can be like down at Margaret River i suppose...I think Jun's over her allergy to alcohol but she can do better!

I will be catching up with Aileen tonight and hopefully Emily over the weekend. We'll see how we go...i do have an assignment to complete but we'll see...i'll choose meals and drinks over research and writing any day!!

Surprise!
If we weren't married, we would have been dating for 13 years on Sunday. I think after so long, he's finally EMBRACED the element of surprise.

I honestly can't believe he would have bought me a gift and really nice one at that. Someone from the company of turquoise boxes must have naked pictures of him somehow..if not, how on earth did they make a repeat customer out of him? hahaha...nonetheless, i am one very happy person...Thanks dearie!!

He has sworn off more annivarsaries except our "real" one in September. Ah, we'll see.....

No Facebook..EVER!

2009-03-03T23:02:00.002+08:00

hate to break it to you guys but i seriously doubt I'll ever get down to owning a facebook account...yeah yeah i am breaking my promise...whatever!

BUT, I've started twitter-ring (if that's what it's called these days)...haha...soooooo much better...no need for the patience of buddah to upload photos....AND if I do have the PATIENCE of buddah, i'll just upload said photos here...

by the way, just wanted to *ahem* recommend a trashy reality TV show that has captured my attention for all 4 seasons already...go watch Ladettes to Ladies...i'm sure you'll find the clip on youtube or something...totally hilarious...i wouldn't normally recommend shows to anyone back home coz you guys are already way ahead of us in the tv stakes, but this..haha! you don't get nudity and vulgarities on free-to-air do you? Anyways, go watch and tell me if it isn't the most funny thing ever! (Dana: have you watched it? is this the place you really want to enrol in?)

Speed (Up)Dating

2009-02-05T19:59:00.004+08:00

Yeah yeah yeah...i DO REALISE i should update more often, i should get a facebook account, i should stop wasting my gym membership, i should save more money, i should clean the house more, i should spend more time doing meaningful stuff, blah blah blah...

if i did all of the above and more..i might as well go save the world and the economy right? let me be me...hahah..

so, starting from where i left off in Oct 08:

Our birthdays were totally uneventful. I can't even remember what we did to be honest...Our friend had his big three-oh though..heheh
Went on our first holiday in what, 2 or 3 years? Beijing now has a lot more to offer than the usual sights. If you do get a chance, do visit the little cafes and shops on nanluoguxiang (South Drum Lane) near the now-famous Lotus Market. Trip highlights include our nice little dinner of fried scorpions, silk worm larve and other oddities...lowlights? well, for the entire trip, we only managed one photo with each other..brillant!
Mere did very well in his exams if you must know. He even has a CPA cerfiticate to prove his place in the top 2.6% percentile *beams*.
Talking about school..makes me angry that Curtin upped school fees by 3.5%!! damnit!!
i've signed up for a sewing class...please don't let me break the needles again...after which Mere and I are thinking of attending a Bahasa class...please lah, we are not those poseur types..choosing French or Italian lessons can..we are practical people..Bahasa is a good-to-have in our work...
Mere is on a rampage...healthy living and all that...its working for him..but the salads are boring me to tears....i may start a i-hate-lettuce campaign soon...hmm..on deeper thoughts, i think it's just his ruse to stop me from eating out so often...not happy!
Talking about turning 30, our friend finally bought his CAR last week. :)
I'm trying to find another dog that looks like Shiro...
Oh yeah, and coz we loved our trip back to Singapore in Dec so much we are coming back again soon. June 24th's the date and coz we are only back for a week, please clear your diaries and think of places to go ok?...lesbian nights optional..

nah, don't say i never update arr....

1 down, 1 more to go...

2008-10-21T21:47:00.010+08:00

well, another 2 more papers for us if you count his...at least he's finishing up on this friday...so i don't have to get my own birthday dinner from KFC like i did a couple of years ago...besides, it's a friday so no KFC!!!

someone's pretty uptight about the upcoming exams...
.

"don't like that lah..can give me a nice photo or not?"

well, at least it wasn't the middle finger....

someone else can always study and sit the CPA exam for you....

my next one's an open book so i am feeling pretty relaxed about it...my plans for the rest of the week is to complete an assignment (nearly done!) and hopefully consolidate my notes in some semblance of order before the open book exam...

the exam is be done online...you have a whole week to get it done but you only have one shot....originally it was going to be released from the 3rd Nov onwards but i will be flying off on the 2nd and seriously, no stable internet connection in Kolkata apparently...so i requested to sit for the exam earlier...the lecturer's so nice...he opened it early for everyone! hahaha...

on that note, folks, i'll be away for 3 weeks from the week of 3rd Nov onwards...don't miss me too much :) As usual, I'll get my stop-overs in Singapore (good ol' SQ)...so listen up pple....take out your diaries/blackberrys/whatevers and take down these dates...

2nd Nov, Sunday - Back for one day, flying off at 9pm on 3rd Nov, Monday
7th Nov, Friday - Back for the weekend with a colleague..flying off on 10th Nov. Monday

Pam, we can celebrate your bday early on the weekend? or would you prefer to spend the celebrations with someone else? :P

I know there's a very small window of opportunity and everyone's really busy...if we can't meet up we can't meet up...i'll be back again in Dec :)

Oh Oh...before I go, I thought I'll leave you guys with this photo taken at Taboo when I was back in Sept...luckily i don't look fat-faced in this!! and i do have to apologise for that guy's nipples..really marred the otherwise lovley shot...-_-

Just Because....

2008-09-09T18:28:00.026+08:00

hello to you..YOU who can still be bothered to read this nearly-dead blog...well, today's a decently good day...coz i've just handed in my first uni assignment and i got home early so i've decided to post this entry..and guess what, i'm also going to post up some photos! yay....

first let us back track to March 2008...when i was back in Singapore for my dad...here are some super long-awaited photos from then...

our lovely friends who used to reside in Perth..they have all now deserted us for sunny Singapore and Brisbane

and their kids..."melvin junior", "little catherine" and "roy junior"...i'm sure u can match them up with their respective parents...now all we need is a "little karen" for a complete set!...

and here's catching up with some of my most favourite people in the whole wide world....luckily no pictures of us at Luna...only this decently glam shot at Fashion Bar...

wait...i lied..i do have pictures at Luna...but..ahem...since i'm trying to maintain a PG rating here..it shall not be published...let's just say it involves a gi-normous wall mounted poster and air (ass) kissing....

There were obviously more photos with the girls as well, but sorry...i'm vain...i look terrible in those photos...so while i'll give them to you (someday), i won't be posting them up here too...:P

Fast forward to May 2008...my first work trip to Vancouver to meet our global marketing team...great trip i got to say...work-wise it was definitely fruitful...and the food and shopping was simply awesome as well...here's a pic of all of us at a cooking school...great idea for a team building event but not so sure about the menu...blue cheese with chicken...hmmm....

i also shelled out about 100 bucks for my first ever sea-plane ride...it's a 20-minute plane trip which basically starts by taking off on water and landing back down on water as well...mere reckons it was super cool when he did it in Indo visiting Newmont's Batu mine site so he insisted i try it out in vancouver...well, i wasn't as excited as he was but i got to admit it did provide a very breath-taking and unique view to vancouver....already one of the most beautiful cities i have ever been to, the bird's eye view just made it so much more wonderful....

so cute right...a heart-shaped freeway...

ok let's bring ourselves back to current time...last week i attended my first ever user conference in the Philippines...pretty shocking considering i have been with this company for nearly 3 years...duh...so here's me with $1,300 worth of excess baggage...

i was basically there simply to make sure nothing went majorly wrong...and if things went awry then i've got to fix it...so, sadly, there wasn't a lot of time for me to go shopping or do any interesting for that matter...i was staying right next door to a massive shopping mall for crying out loud...and yet i only managed to pop in for a couple of hours on the last morning that i was there...

BUT i did get to do one cool thing tho...and that was to try the local delicacy - Balut. My first attempt at balut was at a restaurant...looks good doesn't it...but bear in mind this dish is aptly named "balut surprise"...

TADAH!

Don't be grossed out just yet!!...let me explain...balut is an egg with a semi-formed duck embryo...it's usually a 16-day old embryo..any older and you'll get feathers and beak...what you are seeing here isn't the duck embryo at all..it's really only your regular hard-boiled egg with slightly more prominent veins than usual...presumably coz there is (was) an embryo in there that was feeding off the nutrients from the egg itself...

"balut surprise" was decidedly a very westernised version of the real deal...so after dinner, we requested to go find a street vendor and taste it for what it was meant to be...

my very willing-try-everything colleague peeling open the REAL balut...

and here's mine after eating/discarding the yolk and egg white...

(you can't actually eat the white as it is very very hard..hence the name balut, meaning "stone")

...now you get the embryo at the bottom...

ok, i guess you can be grossed out now...:P

a bonus of most of my work trips is that i get to have a free stopover in Singapore..how can i resist right? i had a really FAT weekend...eating and eating and eating...and drinking and drinking and drinking...

what capped off a really fabulous weekend was my time at Wine Connection with my favourite bunch of people again...best friends in the whole wide world!!!!

Eying - Thanks for always being the life of the party..love your vivaciousness always!! Hope Hei wasn't too bored..
Siheng - Don't panic about your wedding plans...it will be fine...so nice to meet your wife finally..hope we didn't scare her to much...hahah
Jason - I've never had someone who has ever been so anxious to celebrate my birthday..this is certainly the first!! Love you to bits for that!!!
Mok - I'm so glad you are always there when I come back...unlike some people...(just joking!)...wish you all the best in your new job and i certainly hope we can work together!
Andrea, Serene, Dana - What fun would it be at Taboo without you guys...our Mr. Popular would have simply ditched me after introducing me to Jackie for the 7th (or was it 8th) time in just as many years...

See you all again in November!!! Hopefully i would have more entries by that time....

It Suddenly Occured to Me....

2008-08-19T22:10:00.002+08:00

It has dawned on me that perhaps if I don't update soon...a few things would happen:

1) Blogspot may permanently shut down my blog and being the padantic hoarder that I am...it would completely devastate me if ALL entries were gone...forever

2) Andrea may die without ever reading another update from me....how can i ever bear that thought!

3) I may forget my login and password.. .which would then render this blog useless...which then might make option 1 happen....which would then make option 3 happen as well....*it did TAKE 2 tries before i managed to log in*...

such is life...

see you guys on saturday!

2008-03-04T21:06:00.006+08:00

it's 10pm over here now...it's my bedtime...but my lazy ass isn't as organised as it used to be...

at least i did manage to get everyone presents...i seriously DON'T CARE if your '08 resolution is/was to lose weight...

there really isn't much of a point for this entry, except that i just wanted to notch up another entry before i leave...orginally there was going to be a super long post about what we did when joy was here...but seriously, that is like so last month lah...so forget it...i'll just summarise it here in one word: Karaoke...i think if the uptopia guys see us again, S.H.E and JAY CHOU will spring to mind...i have been avoiding that part of Northbridge ever since....and no Joy, we have not gone to check out CROWN for you....

*deep breath out* i still have not packed my suitcase,i need to do a dishwasher run, i need to find clothes to wear to work tomorrow...i know my mum's gonna be pissed when i tell her that the water filters she wanted are all sold out....and i miss shiro already...damnit!

i am getting all cranky now...better go...ok, i'm signing off here...see you all in lovely Singapore...i'll give you guys a call when i get in...

How Retro!

2008-02-12T19:57:00.000+08:00

There are times at work where i usually squeeze in my daily dose of internet news, online games, reading my personal emails etc...you can see my company has a very healthy attitude towards employees who surf the web during work hours *beams* - Reason #247 why I jumped at the opportunity to return...

what i saw in my inbox this afternoon nearly made me fell off the chair (in a good way!):

Don't know how this pic crawl out from the depths of Dana's mac...but it made me laugh out loud...taken circa 2004, Dana even titled the email "So Young Then"...

apart from the obvious fact that *ahem* we look younger (ok ok! don't whack me, i'm only speaking for MYSELF here), can anyone believe the filters???? haha...i was telling Dana it's like so...ermm...taiwanese in the 80's kinda feel....look at the porn-blue couch!!...and it doesn't help that this pic was taken at a karaoke...

i wonder is it only when our friends go thru some sort of joy or adversity in their lives that we stop and ponder about the great times we had before...hence the on-slaught of memories from school-days or years before we all started work and leading very separate lives...

glad to have these pictures remind us of the happy times we had...

hehe..and since i know some pple ain't regulars on this blog..no harm putting on another pic right guys? (if only they knew, they will so kill me..and dana for the kind sponsor)

Best Wishes

2008-02-01T20:37:00.000+08:00

I am a bad friend...if you had asked me even just 2 years ago...i didn't think i'll become this jaded, grouchy, cynical, "unfeeling" friend....

dana said so herself...my damn 2008 resolutions didn't even mention friends...shit, i am really terrible...

I have always thought that i am those, you know, will-go-to-the-ends-of-the-world-for-you (even if you were super super unreasonable) kind of friend...sadly, that seems to be no longer who i am...

stupidly, I made promises i cldn't really keep...right after uni...i basically told myself that i will definitely go back to EVERYONE'S wedding...to be there at your special day...but guess what...right after our wedding in Sept 2006, i missed the first in a whole string of weddings....

sorry Eying...i know you said you didn't mind...but i still feel regretful till now...esp after reading ur last entry abt ur dress...sigh...i didn't even know you felt this way...so jokingly, i've always pestered you to have the wedding dinner...well, it's just an attempt to make myself feel better...selfish i know...

there were a few more in between, but pple probably decided might as well not ask...hahaha...i don't blame them really...

tomorrow is going to be another day like this....sorry girl, i really wish i cld make it...but the timing is really off...might all sound like excuses at this stage, but i really can't...all i can say is that if circumstances weren't what they are now, i wld have made it back regardless...

i truly wish you all the happiness in the whole wide world...enjoy your day and don't worry too much about making it a perfect...marriage is for life...it's not just about the wedding day...so relax, take deep breaths and smile smile smile....

So here's to you and Mark: Have a great married life, and don't forget to look back at this wonderful day and think how lucky you two are....

Siheng: I think you are probably the next in my whole line of friends...sorry if i what i said to you over the last few days stressed you out...really didn't mean for it to be like that...sorry sorry sorry...i sincerely do hope that you and Eurris can manage to pull this off without much hassel...so you know lah, if you need any help (or if you have to ask obvious questions) come talk to me and eying ok?

all the stupid little things that made me laugh

2008-01-23T20:40:00.000+08:00

see...it's all your fault...who ask you to whinge abt my lack of blog posts?....after that one post i did last week, i got hooked on youtube (again!)....and funny msn conversations no less...

yes, i do appreaciate the fact that i get to laugh myself silly...and in many cases i actually laugh until my stomach cramped up...shiro now thinks i am insane and has been ignoring all polite requests to come to me ever since...

comedy, especially those with physical violence involved, transcends all languages and cultures...some things just don't need any explainations...put it simply, just watch! i'm sure you will get it!

is it just me or are these type of game-shows seriously hilarious? i don't believe i am the only one (plus mere) that thinks this makes excellent entertainment for after work...

For the lack of a better title...

2008-01-14T20:09:00.000+08:00

i'm officially disgusted with my procrastination for all things web-based...disgusted enough to drag my sorry-self back to this blog...but not enough to open up a facebook account...bleh...my "official" stand is that i blame gmail for not giving me a decent alias..and besides...i doubt pam has started her blog...so sue me...

i really thought i was gonna write something before 2008...you know, about

- Christmas (parties)

- Highs and Lows of 2007

- and everything else from Nov onwards

but laziness has got the better of me...now back with my old company, i seem to have lost all my free time and interest in starting up the comp when i come home...

i have now decided to kick myself in the ass (if that is even possible)..and pick up the slack...so let me fill you guys in....

In case anyone forgot...just a few days before posting my massive load of company Christmas cards**** (the post office pple actually asked me to go home and come back the next morning coz i had 2 boxes of cards to send...) it was Mere's birthday, and as you can see, he wasn't too pleased getting closer to the big three-oh...

i wasn't there when he made that face...this was taken at his office carpark (of all places) coz Ren & Sylvia made him muffins and decided to have the "party" there...he got golf clubs from me btw, so that kinda made up for the low spirit...i hope!

*** that explains the lack of Christmas cards this year to all family and friends...sorry sorry sorry...i was too overwhelmed with the crowd at the Post Office...i didn't know Perth had that many pple, seriously!

Nov/Dec is always a good time at the office...sales are usually pouring in the door and it's near the holidays..everyone's in great spirits!...one of the first "parties" after i came back was a end-month lunch to celebrate great sales (what else?)...played supagolf in the morning and spent the afternoon at Ferals getting pissed drunk....

we took turns wearing the cap and taking crazy photos of each other...this was mine...the rest were better left unseen...

no point sharing all my work whinges..so let's carry on with the parties! the next big party was the Christmas boat trip to Rottnest...the skies were blue the sea was green and the fish were gi-normous..

unfortunately, i had no pictures to show for it...coz i was ill...sick on the way there and on the way back...let me just say it was super unglam to throw-up in front of your boss and work mates...never to be repeated i guarantee....and just for clarification...no i wasn't drunk...and at the very least my breakfast was probably what attracted the fish to our boat in the first place...

anywho...then that brings us to Christmas and New Year's which went by in a hurry....had great plans to spring clean the house..and like you and I know (knew)...that wasn't going to happen and it didn't....ha!

i did vacuum and wipe the place down for our Christmas party at home...but didn't throw out all my crap...too disracted by the new evaporative air-conditioning we have just put in and my serials...

i so have to rave abt the air-conditioning...so fabulous that even Shiro didn't have to go for his summer-shave this year (makes him look like a cue ball, not a good look i assure u...) and we didn't even realised that temperatures soared to 44 C during the Christmas break...aint that great? for the first time in 7 yrs...summer has simply by-passed me....so happy :)

then just before the year was up...Mere made another happy purchase...we finally got rid of the fat box of a TV and upgraded to a slimmer, sleeker 50-inch plasma....hehehehe...don't have to wear glasses to watch my serials...extremely happy...so much better now to perv on the DOA bikini-clad chicks (who cares if they are not REAL)....wahahahaha....

i shall close this entry with what i would like to achieve in 2008, in hope that you my friends, will push me to stay on track when i stray off the planned route...and give me encouragement when i need it the most...

1) this is a classic: i shall endeavour to stay on a healthy exercise plan. Note: this is not a diet plan..coz that is just simply setting myself up for failure (i love food..need i say more?)...our gym membership has started..i am aiming to go to the gym at least 3 times a week...so far so good...but freakin RPM is so boring...and i can't stop yawning on the elliptical trainer...any tips (other than TV and music) to keep myself from getting bored while exercising?

2) work-wise, i hope to make 2008 a positive one for me...i hope to grow and i hope to learn...i have an excellent bunch of workmates and i wld like to keep that up...nothing is better than to go to work knowing that i will laugh and enjoy my time away from home...so no stressing over the little bits and pieces, and go with the flow!

3) with Mere, there is nothing more i can ask for...we are happy, healthy and very comfortable with our lives...i do not ask for anything else...i just want to carry on with this stability in our relationship which we have worked so hard for over the last 12 years... :)

4) i wish i had more time with my family..but with the distance and lots of other factors, it is simply not practical...honestly this is beginning to bug me a lot more than it used to...tho sad that my sis won't be joining me here in Perth, but in some ways, i am glad Joy is staying in Singapore...so there will always be someone i can count on to pass on my love to my parents and aunty...i think 2008 is time that i think abt coming home for a while and also to ensure that i call my parents more often...

so help me out guys...this will be my guidance to life for 2008...come December, don't make me look back at this entry with regret...i want to be able to put a tick against all the above!

Wanna feel like a superstar?

2007-11-28T20:42:00.001+08:00

......try autographing 500 christmas cards at one sitting :(

Australian Idol 2007

2007-11-25T23:16:00.000+08:00

We are such idol-watchers here...not fans...but appreciative audiences... :)

The final two weren't disappointing...whichever one won wouldn't have made a difference...we liked both! I guess Mere is happy that the chick won...she did a few songs in the series which he really really liked...

here's a sample of the songs sung by the two finalist during the series:

Natalie Gauci - Man in the Mirror

Natalie Gauci - Umbrella

Matt Corby - The Blower's Daughter

Matt Corby - The Scientist

The winner's single by Natalie was superb, but too bad I can't locate the opera house clip yet....

This year's batch of finalists were probably the best lot we have had...ever...just glad that a certain spoilt brat didn't win...

If you are still patient enough to watch this last clip, then please...i didn't particularly wanted him to win Idol...but I thought this song was done so perfectly, it would be a shame not to have people remember it....

Ben McKenzie - Hide and Seek

Facebook-less

2007-11-21T21:47:00.000+08:00

I know I am getting old and out-of-touch...and i am hardly over a quarter-century old...promise I will sort out an account soon....don't rush me!

If anything, I should have the cleanest and softest clothes in the world!

2007-11-18T11:14:00.000+08:00

6 years ago, when i first arrived in Perth...my inexperience in setting up houses meant that my parents had to come over and help me fit in all the barang barang and make sure i had all the essentials....apparently, knowing how to cook is really not enough to survive on your own....

i still remember how my parents spent their first week in perth scuttling around looking for mundane (but important!) things like extra locks for the apartment, extra light bulbs, detergent, household cleaners etc...and i was just simply interested in selecting bedsheets....

One of the things that was bought during that fateful June in 2001, was a 5L container of Comfort softerner...yes, it's not a typo...it's really 5 LITRES...look, my mum has this thing for fabric softerners ok?...i have since moved houses twice and each time I had to take that giant bottle with me....

7 years later (today)....i have finally finished using the last drop....phew....to think it was only 2 years ago that i finally used up the 10kgs of washing powder that my mum bought as well....

Update

2007-11-13T19:55:00.000+08:00

I know my last update was on Halloween....and apparently my favourite "Happy Tree Friends" weren't good enough company...yes yes I know....it's been a while....i'm trying my best! honest!!

well, my main excuse for not updating is really coz i was preoccupied with lotsa things...that is the story of my life...either i have so much time on my hands that i am bored to tears OR i will have so much on that i also dunno what to blog abt...for fear u all will be frightened off by my blow-by-blow accounts...i know i am cheong hei...i do admit that...

if you guys really want to know...read on

for starters i was starting on a new job...going abt my normal day to day...learning the ropes of managing the PR for a variety of products...from GPS units to Waterproof iPod cases to other barang-barangs....already busy enuf but the mkting mgr decided to quit...so i knew more or less i will be given her role as well...and hopefully with more money...but i was fretting...debating if i shld take more money and significantly increase my workload...or just stick to my usual workload and forgo the extra cash....

i was waiting and waiting for my boss to tell me how much more he was offering me before i decided if i wanted to do both jobs (PR & Mkting) or just stick to doing one (PR or Mkting)...then all of a sudden...i didn't need to make the decision anymore...my old boss called me back....

ok ok...i exaggerated...he texted me....

so now i am back at my old company with a whole bunch of pple that i truly enjoy working with and for....altho there's a whole heap of new faces...but it still had the same fab vibe....i am really glad this happened....i am not doing anything new...in fact doing less now for a lot more money than before...that always puts a smile on my (money)face!

I just got to learn how to deal with Corporate in Canada and learn not to upset other newer team members (that is another story in itself...seems like i "stole" someone else's role)...i am not a bitch (really!) and i rather make friends than enemies...i swear i honestly want this team dynamic to work...so i am willing to play nice and BE truly nice...

the other thing that i was preoccupied with was Jelly and Mark's visit....as u all know i am a kancheong spider* when it comes to vistors...i will prep and fret, prep and fret, prep and fret...from the day the pple arrive to the day they leave...

*Note to potential visitors: not that you are unwelcomed, in fact you are most welcome to stay with us while in Perth..just excuse the worrisome host...

They were here for a week...mainly to take their wedding pics and also have a short break from their hectic schedules...sneak preview of photos available...but I have to photoshop them first...hard work lah (8GBS worth!)...so that got to wait, obviously....

jelly and mark are back in sg now...they are definitely going thru a rough patch...i hope they will stay strong...condolences to mark and his family....

In the spirit of Halloween....

2007-10-31T22:19:00.001+08:00

Something for the kiddies:

Lovely Surprise

2007-10-30T22:19:00.000+08:00

Came home from work last wednesday and found this ~

Introducing the new PR chick.....

2007-10-20T21:49:00.000+08:00

Yes I know, I have been slack...sorry sorry...don't abandon me...

This post is really abt answering some qns that i have been getting from friends over the last month...like "have u found a job", "what r u doing so early on msn" and the occasional "great! u found a job, how is it?"....

in short, to the above concerns, yes pple, i am officially gainfully-employed (again) as of 2nd Oct 2007...yippeeeeee

to be honest i wasn't sure abt the job...small company again...little pay....and the PR role i was offered is pretty unfamiliar territory...

but after a good couple of weeks with them...i can honestly say it's really FANTASTIC...the pple are nice...i get to learn from the current Marketing Manager...there are systems in place...and most of all, a lot less stress being that i am not ultimately responsible for the whole marketing dept.....pay is really really low...but hey, less stress so i guess it's kinda worth it...even tho i start at 7.30am...but i can swear to god i am seriously a million times happier than at that f***ing plc!

however there is an issue at the moment.....i am very comfortable with the workload...and altho i think i am ready to take up more...i really dunno if i want to...it's a very very fine line btw challenging myself and going back to those dark times where stress and sleeplessness takes over....

but it's not really up to me to choose...i dunno why i seem to be ending up in companies where the staff t/o rate is damn high...the Mkting Manager is leaving next week....i have been offered by the boss to take up her role with significantly more pay of course (altho he has not specified the amt yet)...and i can either choose to hire an assistant or do it ALL myself...the difference obviously is how much pay i want to get...

well, life is not always good timing issit...had it been one year later, i wld have put up my hand, no hesitations...but now, a little unsure tho...i really don't want to over-promise and under-deliver...yet i think i can do it...how how how....

the boss has already begun to test me...hopefully he will be pleased and i get to make the call on what i want....

Please God, can you let me have an easier 2008?

The Visit

2007-10-10T17:46:00.000+08:00

Finally finally!!! After 6 long years later, Andrea dearest has decided to grace me with a visit!!! No no no... I am not complaining...so happy already...there's no space inside for anything else other than excitement!!

The poor girl so badly needed a break...and it was great that Serene came along as well...can't believe I got to meet her first before the others...hahah

Day 1 started out pretty good...made breakfast for all...(and discovered that i cannot talk and cook at the same time)...we then spent the whole afternoon at Freo...walked the markets, drank the beers, ate the seafood...even met an old secondary school classmate! pretty amazing story i tell u...the girl saw Serene first...but when she approached our table, Andrea realised it was an old classmate of ours...the girl even called out our names without blinking an eye, while i was like still thinking it was one of Serene's friends...i guess the most hilarous part was afterwards Serene admitted she didn't even remember that girl's name either...

all i can say is, Serene, u seriously crack me up...this incident is just the first of many to come... :) Probably the most memorable thing said during the entire trip was after i commented that I did not scale the Great Wall of China coz it was super steep...u actually replied that it's probably coz the ancient Chinese knew martial arts and have qing gong...they didn't need to walk down the tiny, slippery and steep steps... !!

*if i cld put an emoticon here i wld*

i think it would have turned out to be a pretty decent first day, have the poor dear not ended up puking her guts out the rest of the evening...oyster allergy it seems...poorthing :(

Thank goodness medication helped...or it could simply have been that she threw up absolutely everything...if not, we probably would have cancelled the trip to Margaret River...

"Selfishly", Mere was the self-appointed designated driver...yes yes, he wanted us chill...but i think (ie: know) he probably didn't trust us girls to drive...hahaha...when we came home he admitted that he didn't think we cld hack driving at 150km/h to overtake the trucks...duh....

Saw some pretty cool stuff on the busselton jetty...didn't know that you could fish for squid like how u wld fish for regular fish...ermm..then maybe it should be called squid-ing instead? Too bad the underwater observatory tour was later that afternoon so we couldn't check that out...but yah, i thought it was too far a walk anyways...the tram no longer runs on the jetty...so if we were to get to the observatory it was gonna be a 1.8km hike! i am freakin lazy i know...but it was also pretty cold lah!

Candy Cow was next....but hey, I just wanna say i am happy to be there...but it's not like its my mooooossst favourite place in the entire universe can? yes, i like fairy floss...(see above pic for fairy floss bigger than my head...raspberry flavour somemore!) yes, i think the candy & fudge making is pretty cool...but i dun eat them anyway...AND, i only WAVED to the guys making fudge coz he smiled at me first! serious!!

we were so tired at the end of the day that we just bought dinner back to the very very nice motel and ate in front of the TV...the nite was capped off with a couple of rounds of scrabble (forgot the mahjong set) on which Andrea won both times...tho we are still abit suspicious of "twirly" as a proper word...

the next morning was a mad rush of taking in what Margaret River has to offer...after a quick brunch at The Berry Farm with to-die-for boysenberry pie, scones with home-made strawberry jam and savoury scroll...we jetted off to a few different wineries, a venison farm (didn't see deer leh, only 1 insane dog) and most importantly, the Margaret River Chocolate Company...

i honestly thought they used to be known as the Margaret Chocolate Factory...but they must have grown bigger over the years...*shrug*...anyways, we got Pam her block of Rocky Road...which i might add, it's pretty small compared to those cheapo ones you can get elsewhere...but MR chocies are by far one of my favourites...i don't think she will be disappointed...only thing is...i just found out from Pam that Yousing loves Rocky Road too...oh well, that small block will be demolished in seconds i guess...hahahha...come to Perth next time lah..i'll take you there myself and you can go crazy shopping for chocolates....

the last thing we did before embarking on the 4-hour drive home was to go up to Dunsborough to the Whale Lookout...had to trek abit before we got to the clearing overlooking the ocean...met a few angmohs along the way...kept insisting the white sprays far far away were whales "playing"...*rolls eyes* honestly those sprays were nothing but sprays ok...dun lie to me can...BUT, we finally did see a whale...tho just a lap of the tail...it was lucky i suppose...it happend just as we were about to leave....

I think age has really caught up with us.......the Margaret River trip completely wore us out...we were all K.Oed that nite...

Slowly recovering from the trip, we got to a later start on Day 4...Mere had to go back to work so too bad he couldn't join us...we trotted down to Subiaco first thing and decided on a coffee brunch...Mere works in Subi so he knew of a great coffee place where I have been wanting to try as well...

If I told you that Stimulatte (great name isn't it?) has great coffee and that is why you should all go there...that would be such a lie...the coffee is great, yes, but that is not really the main thing...hehe...all i can say is that the SINGLE girls from Mere's workplace are frequent patrons of Stimulatte...and don't worry, guys can get their share too...:)

from there we went on to Leederville where Andrea bought a pair of cute sunnies...can never remember the shop name even tho i'm always there when i'm in Leederville...Andrea was tossing up between a pair of brown ones and a snazzy red pair...i tot both looked good on you anyways :)

Shopping in Perth...how can I not bring them to Harbour Town...where everything is cheap...ok, maybe not when compared to Singapore...but certainly not too bad lah...

Then it was to glorious King's Park...thank goodness the sun came out...it was all damn farnie at the whispering wall...you know, surprisingly, not many pple know that that semi-circle of a wall is actually one of those with the fascinating acoustic effect of being able to hear your friend sitting at the other end, metres away, whispering...

That evening, we had dinner in Northbridge...followed by a spot of Bubble Tea (the "infamous" Hot Lavender Milk Tea) at Farmosa...felt abit bad tho...Andrea and Serene came all the way to Perth...and we ended up having an asian meal and taiwanese bubble tea...pretty duh....but get them to tell u the story of WHY we had to go try the tea...makes for an interesting conversation...what was farnie was the way Serene reacted to the smell of the tea...dun worry, i agree..it stinks...

Sad to say...There are no pics for the last day of their trip...we simply had Shepherd's Pie for lunch and proceeded to Carousel for last minute chocolate shopping...

By the way, I just wanted to say here that 90% of the photos shown here were taken by the very talented photographer Ms. Andrea Goh...seriously, i think your phototaking rocks!

Below are some bonus shots that i hope you find cute...hahaha...check out the puppy tummy flab on the bottom right!!...

Damnit...shld have made that pic larger...nvmind...if anyone's interested let me know and i will send it to u....

This entry is dedicated to our dear friend Pam, whom for various reasons have been hard to catch up with and hence holiday plans were made w/o her....Andrea is holding ur Rocky Road ransom...u better go rescue him soon! Hope u enjoy the pics! :P

New Couch

2007-10-10T17:10:00.000+08:00

Having lived in our current place for well over 3 years, it hasn't been (and will not be) given the interior decorator's touch...nicely put, the house is basic...but in all honesty, it sucks...

Don't get me wrong..i am fine living in "these conditions"...altho Mere might beg to differ...but there is really no need to deck out the joint when we did not have the (original) intention to live here for long...tho we didn't expect to still be here after 3 years!...we are procrastinators lah...

Our furniture are bits and pieces that we have bought/received over the years..our latest acquision is a "new couch"....given to us by the PILs becoz:

1) my FIL thought it was such a steal at $200 from the swap mart *roll eyes*

2) but it didn't match the PIL's furniture

3) our old couch needed replacing

the colour's not great but seriously, whatever....who cares if my furniture matched or not... *shrugs*....only issue...it's one of those microfibre ones...comfy for lazy asses like us...but bad also for pple with shaggy dogs...like us...can't win right?

we now have to resort to laying down the back-rest cushions on the seats whenever we leave the house...thinking that Shiro wld then be unable to jump up and get all comfy with the fluffiness...

how wrong are we....

I caught him snoozing on top of the back-rests one afternoon....not sure how he got himself up there...but so far, at least there hasn't been a repeat performance yet...otherwise, someone's gonna have an appointment with the cane...

Urbanites turned Farmers

2007-09-22T11:06:00.000+08:00

Hi Folks! Missed us? Nah...didn't think so...hahaha...probably none of u even think we were gone...albeit only for one nite...but still...

We finally went up the the PIL's farmhouse in York (97kms outside of Perth Metro) on Saturday for an overnite stay... "long-awaited" in my PIL's view...but not for me...:P

"Are we there yet?"

I will admit right away that i wasn't so enthusiastic abt going...but yes, we HAVE to go some day...so why not now?I was really going to try to enjoy myself...i swear!

It's a beautiful place, granted...fruit orchards at the back and fields of wildflowers everywhere...but i cldn't possibly stay for more than one nite...for many reasons that shall not be mentioned here...let me just say, it's not simply becoz i am being a prima-donna when it comes to holiday accommodation...

Some of the activities that the urban farmer couldn't resist....

"I'm a lean, mean, grass-cutting machine!"

"A farmer believes in self-sustenance"

" Breath-taking sunset....A lovely end to an excellent day "

The happiest camper the entire time was probably Shiro...running happily (read: madly) amongst the tall grasses and wildflower fields...chasing bugs and sniffing at grass-seeds...

This was him at the end of the nite.....

The poor dog simply couldn't move...no matter how much u prodded or called out to him...

" Missing York already... "

Really thanks but no thanks...next time Mere can take Shiro up there alone...I think I am comfortable remaining an urbanite.....

Culinary Adventures

2007-09-14T21:30:00.001+08:00

Not sure why...but I have had some "adventures" with seafood lately...

Just today...I was having some leftover chilli mussels from last nite...and I found a half-digested baby crab in one of them...I only made that discovery when the crunch between my teeth happened and i tasted roe....Nice!

Usually if this happens...i would shrug it off...possibly even thank my lucky stars that i got some yummy crab roe thrown in...(this is someone that happens to like chewing on cooked prawn heads for their cholesterol-laden brains and little black beady eyes that go 'pop' when u bite into them...)

After my incident with the baby crab...i kinda didn't feel like having the rest of my mussels...dunno....really feel like vomiting...

it does take A LOT to make food repulsive for me...i mean...i can honestly eat anything...(expect for bugs and creatures that you don't find in a supermarket)...

i will eat innards...i will eat fish eyes...i will crack the fish's skull to suck at their brains...so why the sudden repulsion...i actually dunno....maybe i am getting old?..

tell u guys something esle...something gross...

last week, my FIL saw this frozen conch for sale at the chinese shops...he said he wanted to try it...I didn't think it was going to be good coz i have always used the dried variety for soup...the dried version is tasty (tastes like abalone, serious!...) but I dun think the frozen one was going to be tasty at all...plus he wanted it stir-fried...i honestly never heard of anyone using the conch for dishes except soup...

Mere agreed that stir frying wasn't going to soften the conch at all...so he decided to steam it for dinner...with the usual...ginger, garlic, spring onion and sauce...the conch did soften...but it was completely tasteless, save for the taste of the condiments...so, in our opinion...the frozen conch sucked!...

coz the frozen conch was pretty large...we kept half for for ourselves for the following nite's dinner...now..not sure if u know what a conch is...it is essentially a large sea snail....shell-less...so perhaps more like a slug?! anyway...the portion that got kept, was the part where the 2 knobby long bits were..u know, like "feelers"...

I really dunno what happened...but i got seriously grossed out while preparing it for dinner...i was slicing it...and i kept thinking it is a damn SNAIL...i was really close to tossing it away...i was so scared!!!! see, you got to understand, i once freaked out and chucked a whole chinese cabbage away coz there were tiny neon-green caterpillars in it...yes, i cld have simply rinsed them off...but i was terrified...so when i was faced with this snail/slug...all i cld think off was chucking it away...but i knew i shldn't coz it was like nearly $20 a kilo lah!

So i pep-talked myself...it's dead...it's not a snail snail...it's like abalone...etc...i was nearly done with the slicing...when i realised the damn thing had intestines!!

my god...i wanted to die...i had to pull them out and rised the slices to make sure that there were not remnants of the snail's crap (literally!)...how gross is that..snail's intestines! i mean pls...it's almost like chicken intestines can?..but it's not chicken...its a bloody snail!

i must stress, i have cleaned out chickens and fishes before...blood and guts dun faze me...but snail's innards?!!?!...errghh...thinking abt now just makes my hair stand....

i honestly am off seafood i think...but how? We might be going to the Oyster Bar for our anniversary...Oh, haha...that reminds of a worm-in-my-oyster story...but i'll save that for next time...

Foodies

2007-09-12T17:37:00.000+08:00

I know at this point in time I shouldn't even think of "celebrating"...but it's the weekend...and we have nothing better to do...so we went to EAT loh...our "dates" have always revolved around going to a restaurant anyway...

Mere kindly reassured me that tho i have joined the ranks of the unemployed (for the time being), he can still afford to feed my face...reeaaaallllll nice issit he?

Mere picked this place that he had no idea where it was except that it was around the Fremantel area...yup, no idea...we only decided to go there after we hopped into the car, so yes we could have checked the web...but we don't usually lug our laptops around like some pple i know...

Thankfully Mere had the common sense to heard towards the river and just drive along that stretch...found it pretty quickly...pretty quirky place...next to the river bank and near a flyover too...so when the band plays..the sounds reverberating off the concrete kinda gives the whole area a pretty cool vibe...

Apparently The Left Bank is pretty popular...but as I was not a born and bred Perthsian...i had no clue about this place at all...the only Left Bank i know is in France...

Like any Freo restaurant...seafood is the predominant item on the menu...everything was pretty pricy and honestly, seafood doesn't interest me much...especially "normal" stuff like fish and chips....

Knowing Mere, I knew that we will be ordering the tasting plate...and coz I knew the servings were going to be pretty small, I ordered a oyster and seafood chowder to share...

Verdict? I was right about the food portions...don't get me started on food portions...having been here for so long...I have grown to expect large servings on even larger plates...if I can finish the food..it's not generous enough!!..yeah, its the fatty talking...but really, why is it that prices have increased so much over the last few years, but our plate sizes have shrunk?? Don't give me the crap about healthy eating ok...if i want to eat healthy, i can make my own salad at home...

The chowder was ok...but not enough stock...it's like the chowder was watered down and then liberally salted...yes, there were quite a bit of seafood pieces in there...but the taste was really just so-so...

Thank goodness for the company tho :) Great company makes even the crappiest food taste like heaven...

Altho the experience wasn't as great as I expected...I will go back again...I believe in second chances...who knows, maybe the cook was off sick that day? Maybe the ingredients were not as good that day?...or simply, I think I might order the lamb shanks next time...hahaha...and I shall remember to leave some space for dessert too...

I shall leave you with a pretty picture of us foodies...

Yeah Yeah...I am fat becoz I love food...tell me something new ok?...

Life as I see it right now...

2007-09-05T16:30:00.000+08:00

It's been, what, 2.5 days since I left that place...how am I feeling?...haha...pretty relaxed and happy actually...

I get up at whatever time I like...without my usual panic of how much time I have left to slap on moisturiser and make-up, thinking if I still have time to put on mascara without poking my eye out...running to start the car up...deciding which pair of black shoes to wear...

I've been very good...no TV at all during the day...so, no Cath, I haven't been watching Oprah & Dr. Phil..hahha...I didn't even touch my DVDs...

Afternoons are spent having a quick lunch at home or out at the shops...ducking into the supermarkets for a few grocery items or even at the cafe having an ice-coffee and strawberry shortcake...mmmmm....nice as it may sound...but I do find sitting somewhere with a magazine pretty boring...i'll rather lie on my bed to read to be honest! So, i'll usually be back home in less than 2 hrs...

While at home, i'm parked in front of the comp for a good portion of my mornings and afternoons....the job hunt has been pretty ok so far...nothing exciting...but yes, there are stuff are there for me... but i think i must have hit the download quota...the connection is so slow...i am growing old just waiting for the page to load....damn optus!

it's nearly 5pm now...time to do another of my most favourite thing in the world...i think i haven cooked dinner in months... now that i am home...i can be bothered to make yummy stuff for dinner!! So happy just writing about it...

On tonite's menu is Emperor Chicken and a simple dish of stir-fried garlic chives and chicken gizzards...ok..enuf of me rambling on...need to go steam the chicken liao...

Tata ~

Don't bother polling...

2007-09-03T14:37:00.000+08:00

Firstly thank you for all you "helpful" people who did cast your vote...i'm sure striking lottery is really an OPTION...that choice was simply put in to see which of you are seriously out there to help me...tsk tsk tsk...turns out there was none...

Anyway, the main reason why there is no need for the poll anymore is that I have taken the decision to quit. Things were actually sorta looking up and so....yes, it's pretty sudden...even for me...

My company (ex-company, rather) hired a HR professional months ago...her task was to speak to each and every employee on what their job role was...only a couple of weeks ago, she finally got to our department...honestly I really dunno what is the point of hiring someone to draw up your job scope...considering, aren't you already hired? if your bosses dunno what the hell you r doing...ain't something seriously wrong?

I didn't know exactly what to tell her...as in, should I hard-sell myself or not...coz I don't even know what the objective is...how to play the game? anyway...it was pretty antagonising...but after 2 super long discussions..she finally came up with my role description...very detailed...right down to the nuts and bolts of what I do on a daily basis....

Now, this role description, to my understanding...was only a "draft"...it will be sent thru to Management (ie: Towkay, Towkay Neo & Jing Li) to get approval..meaning i assumed that they will have another discussion with ME..to see if both Management and I agree that these are my responsibilities etc...I mean, you don't need me to tell you that this is the appropriate way to handle this kind of matter right?

At the same time..my Jing Li wrote me a role description as well...based on how he thought my role should be like...we agreed to have a discussion this week to talk about it...

But...my role description written by the HR professional turned up on seek.com...tho the company name was not mentioned...how i know it was for my job?...well, firstly, the agent was the same one that got me this fucked-up job...and she was so lazy that the ad was word for word as what the HR professional wrote...save for some stupid typos and the fact the ad was to advertise for someone with 3 times my work experience...

how fucking under-hand and unprofessional...seriously why did I waste my time with them at all?!

Maybe they are trying to hire a more experienced person to help me...maybe I'm mistaken, the ad was not put up by my company at all...maybe maybe maybe...i have discussed the possibilities with Mere...the bottom-line is they are still unprofessional and why should I work for this type of people anymore? Besides...i am not quitting just for one stupid ad...the ad was simply the last straw...

For some reason...when I get pretty worked up...my mind tends to express everything in chinese or cantonese...as in...i dunno why..english words can't seem to give me the exact description of how i feel and what i would like to do to people who annoy me...don't worry...no hokkien vulgarities involved...don't see how someone esle's maternal genetials come into play on how i feel....

hence...i am sometimes lost for words on how to express myself in formal writing...i can't exactly use the words "stay in your stupid company any longer my life will be shorter leh" in my resignation letter right?...

So Mere kindly offered to draft it out for me...I didn't use his in the end..coz in summary, his was really pretty harsh...and, it's basically not me...so we compromised...and this what i submitted this morning:

honestly waaaayyyyyy milder than what Mere would prefer...like what Dana told me..."don't burn you bridges"...but hey, no bridges there..and also..this mild version probably got my towkay steaming from his ears already...(which btw, I'm told...he hasn't spoken a word since I left...ha!)

Before I submitted my resignation this morning...I cleared up my desk and threw away all drafts, files and paperwork that I was working on...it's MY work...they didn't like it...so everything into the bin...I also deleted all my digital files...of course, I know IT can possibly salvage them from the depths of the server...but i renamed them all to either "draft", "draft1" or "text" or something really "useful"...if they want to spend time opening all the files before salvaging...be my guest :)

In a word of fairness to my jing li and towkay...i honestly don't think they knew about the ad at all...i confronted my towkay this morning when i gave him my letter...he was really lost for words...asked me to wait for the Towkay Neo to come back...no fucking way! I'm outta there...why should I wait...wait to be told that yes, they are replacing me becoz they thought i was crap?

I know deep down my towkay knows that the towkay neo did it...not the first time btw...i was the one who did the previous round of ads...we advertised even before the person was told to leave...and yes, that person found the ad..and sent a stinker of an email to everyone in the office..."watch out, you could be next" was the warning...ha!...just didn't expect that it would be me...

i left not sobbing but with my pride intact...as far as i'm concerned...i know i am not at fault and if the other staff members hear of this...Managment will be blamed and seen as despicable...i probably did hit the nail on the head with my letter as well...if not, my towkay whom is a really nice, gentle, kind person...won't be still red in the face and steaming at his ears...

My Jing Li did call earlier to let me know he thinks that i was very unfairly treated and that the towkay and himself are trying to find out exactly what happened...i said my peice...i don't feel the least bit upset...

How I am feeling now?...just a little bit du lan..and wish that I will find out if the Towkay Neo will get told off by the Towkay...hmmm...i will check into that...but as of 3pm this afternoon....i know the Towkay Neo still hasn't stepped into the office...so we shall see...

My plans for the next few days is to chill out a little...and continue with the job hunt of course...

who knows...i might come back to singapore for a while...just had a look at my bank account..had more money than i remembered...luckily...

Has the choice already been made for me?

2007-08-30T21:11:00.000+08:00

the hunt continues...but how not to feel that the guy up there is trying to tell me something when i got this via email today....

how suay can one person be....i wanted that job...sounded so good...sigh...i shld have known when i checked out the company website and the pdts and services were completely different from what was specified in the ad...stupid stupid me...

the guy up there is either telling me that i should give up the hope of ever finding a good job...or that my destiny is to be stuck with this bunch that will slowly but surely drive me insane??

Eeeny Meeny Mynee Mo...Should I Stay or Should I Go?

2007-08-28T20:18:00.000+08:00

I know this has been a pretty hot topic of late...

It is rather difficult to decide as, seriously, who can be sure of what's gonna happen in the future? If someone out there does..pls, forget answering my above question...just tell me what's the winning number for the saturday lottery thanks!

I can't believe I am finding it so hard to make up my mind...I am usually quite decisive...not that I make really good decisions all the time...but hey, I rather not waste time thinking...just do it lah...won't kill me!

So here I am after..hmm...2 weeks?...and I am still thinking...very irritating you know...this feeling of not being able to make up my mind...so...let's do a poll shall we?

Just one small request folks...as this is quite an important thing to me...please read what I have to say first and then give me a response...and no, I wld prefer if it's not a simple yes/no answer...pls try and convince me...coz I really need a very good PUSH or PULL...

Ok here goes...

This is what I have come up with so far:

Scenario 1 - I should stay because....
1) This is a proper marketing role...varied tasks with lots of room to grow...great on my CV
2) It has only been less than 6 months..I should give this company/job another shot...don't give up easily
3) Direct Manager seems to be trying to re-define my role...make me feel more confortable
4) The pay is not fantastic but still great...even if I an unhappy, at least I have my pay
5) Colleagues are great
6) The new job that I found is good but not great..not even a marketing role...

Scenario 2 - I should leave because....
1) These variety of tasks put together is quite an unreasonable work load..mgt also have their unreasonable expectations (ie: don't give me directions but expect me to know what they are looking for...am I GOD?)
2) Quite a few things have happened recently that made me doubt myself...whether or not I am right to doubt my abilities...to me, the damage is kinda done...confidence levels are pretty low at the moment
3) The efforts of the Manager just made me more inclined to believe he thinks I don't take enough initiatives...so again, I feel pretty down and I don't feel like asking him abt the issue...
4) I found another job that potentially can pay me the same..different industry, different role...whole new attraction all together
5) one person that although we can be friends..I cannot work with...quite an obnoxious character...
6) New job may open the door to a new career path

I know there is always "scenario 3"...that is wait for a good marketing job to come along..then no qualms abt jumping ship right? hahah...easily said than done...but don't worry..I have begun the hunt...and still hunting...

The above 2 scenarios are pertinent only to my situation NOW....that might change...but who knows when...

Any comments would be welcomed and considered.. :)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Post note 1

haha..just suddenly remembered another reason to add to Scenario 1...as stupid as it may sound...you guys dunno ok...i am scared of serving the one month notice...can be so eaten alive...

tho I mus say if I do tender...i will try to get them to let me serve 2 wks instead..since I get paid every 2 wks anyways..so dun have to wait till month end...

Entry 3

2007-08-27T22:54:00.000+08:00

Blogs .. as we have established, it's not fresh and young ... it's just become older bolder and more in your face and hangs around like a bad smell... much like old men ...

Why is it that when people get old they get annoying, weird and impudent? Like this nutter beside me on the plane .... must be in his late 60's ... normally a person would feel rather pai-seh to get up and down in the plane to get shit from the overhead locker ... but noooo ... old people don't give a shit about what others think now do they?

This trip to Bali, contrary to everyone's belief, was a working trip.

This was my office:

It was really hard ... the accommodations were appalling:

I mean seriously! what's with all that water just outside the balcony?

The mine site itself was in a remote area (try middle of nowhere) only accessible by company seaplane ... the trip was long and arduous ... and there was nothing much to see on the way in:

The mine site itself? well it was pretty big ...

err...actually.....

And all we had were seafood restaurants ... man ... shocking really ...

So after 5 days of hard labour, it's back to Bali enroute back to Perth ...

I really need to talk to my boss .... the poor treatment is simply unacceptable ... i'm threatening class action ...

Due to this injustice, I've decided to thumb my nose at company policy ... smuggling "fan ban" dvds, 400 cigarettes and 10 indonesian cigars!! Can you imagine what they are worth in the black market over here?

Anyway ... blogging sucks ... piss off! I'm a fat, tired and angry old man and I can say what I like ...

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Let's talk about Happy Things

2007-08-20T19:59:00.000+08:00

Ok, let me first start off with something not so happy...Mere is away for a week in Bali...I know, how dare he leave me with my shitty job right? haha...but it's ok lah...he is not holidaying but on work training...and he has promised to buy me stuff!! He'll be back with pictures I'm sure...we've just bought a new camera...Also, now that he is away the comp is all mine....hahahah

It's not like I am totally fine at work...But yah, I know I should not dwell on it...so, let's talk about happy things...I must say I have had a couple of good weekends...much deserved I reckon...for all the crappiness that I have to put up with during work...

2 weekends ago, I met up with my cousin Patricia...she was here on a short holiday and wanted to meet up coz my aunty had something to pass to me...guess what folks...the gift couldn't be any timelier...I now have 7 new serials to watch!! If each serial averages around 30 episodes, with each episode being roughly 45 mins...do you know that equates to 9450 mins worth of vegging out in front of the TV???? Super Cool!

No lah, dun be crazy...you think I am like when I was 20 meh? I am getting old plus I still have to drive myself to work every morning...I wun finish watching them all till probably next year...I just finished a 40-episode serial recently...took me a grand total of 1 month...is that slow or what...very unlike me isn't it?

Sorry, I got to digress, that SHOW is one of the best recent serials I have watched!!

And just on Saturday Mere and I went to the City to get our new camera...the ancient digital camera we have has decided he wanted to retire...understandable...he was like the first generation digital camera...so we unashamedly, with his blessings, upgraded to a hotter, younger model...

Since Mere had an outbound ticket to Bali, we could buy the camera at the duty-free store...cheaper mah...anyway it's not the camera I want to rave about...it's the fact that it cost only $320 and yet it came with a free return ticket to Adelaide! How great is that? I know alot of pple think that Adelaide is like the slums or something...but having been there 3 times...I can honestly say, there is a lot more happening there than right here in Perth...so, I really look forward to going back there again...this time with a new camera and a blog...I'll be able to share Adelaide with you guys... :)

Oh yah, and also my MIL came back from Singapore on Saturday nite...and up till then I was still using a camera-less, mp3-less, colour-less mobile phone....I am now a proud owner of a daddy-sponsored, brand-new mobile phone...yay!!

Pls...I haven changed my phone for the last 5 years...so let this sua-ku wallow in her excitement for a while longer ok?

I'm soooo over it

2007-08-19T22:04:00.000+08:00

I am so over it...I have spent weeks thinking left, right and centre about what should I do with my job...

Something happened on Friday (I HATE you) which caused me to make up my mind on a few things...I have come to the following conclusions:

A) The job is not for me/I am not up to the challenge/My skills are not those that are required
B) The company is shit/The bosses are shit/Not my fault

Whichever is correct...it doesn't matter anymore...much that I want to stay...I think it is time to leave before things become uglier...

thank you jason...you made me realised it doesn't matter if A or B is the truth..it is a simple case of incompatibility btw me and the job...hence time to put a stop to all this (sis, it's time to type your resignation letter!)

so back to the drawing board...I have to re-evaluate what I wanna do and make sure I have the appropriate skills and qualifications to match...

I'm so tired...just want to be happy...why is it so hard?

Catching Up

2007-08-12T23:47:00.000+08:00

The plan started with Naz msning me two weeks ago...Naz wanted to take me out to lunch on the new company credit card she got (damn, how come I never got a credit card while I was at Surpac!?)..for the help I gave her for the June maintenance run...

I really didn't want to be paid for the "help"...I mean, I did it really just coz I will feel bad if it fucks itself over...so anyway...I just told her why not we go for drinks...no need for the company to foot the tab...

Then it turns out that Jared was leaving Surpac too (ok, I should stop saying Surpac...they are with the commies now) so I asked Jared if he wld like to come to drinks with us (ie: Naz, Mere & Me)....from there I found out that 2 other ex-colleagues were leaving too...total mass exodus...

Long story short...their farewell drinks were organised on the same day as the drinks I was organising...so of course Jared cldn't come by himself...more ex-colleagues were invited...I booked a table for 12 but it ended up with only 6 of us...pretty embarassing...

Tho only 6 of us...but it was the "right" group of us...It felt so nice to see everyone again....I missed you all!!!

You know, I think the mass exodus wouldn't have happened...had it not been for the commies...Surpac was really a fabulous place to work at...great colleagues...wonderful bosses who were not overly controlling...beer o'clock at 4pm every friday...etc...

I can keep going with how great Surpac was...I know I chose to left...but I had no choice...

I had to leave coz I was seriously getting pissed off with our overseas offices (shall not name countries here) and the fact that there was no career future for me at Surpac...marketing was all controlled by head office in Vancouver...

Drinks tonight really have sparked off a whole lot more job/career/money related issues for me...I am unhappy at my current job...but I dunno what to do about it...

If I leave:

Does that mean I was "wrong" to leave Surpac?
Does that mean that I was not ready for the new job in the first place?
Does that mean I am a loser coz I didn't try hard enough at my current job?
Does it mean that a marketing role is just not my cup of tea (the horror!)

BUT the million dollar question is: will leaving actually make me happy?

How do I know if I will be happy in the next job I take up? Do I want to continue in a Marketing role? Did I bite off more than I could chew when I took up this job that offered me more money (more money = more responsibilities?)?

I think just let me grovel over this somemore...hopefully I can get a clearer perspective on what I want to do with myself sooner rather than later...

And just in case anyone is wondering...no,quit working altogether is not an option...tho supported by Mere...but I don't think I can do it...for now anyway...

More money spent...

2007-08-05T15:50:00.000+08:00

This weekend has surely turned out to be one of the most expensive yet...

Weeks ago, I read that there was going to be a Truffles Festival in Perth...being such a foodie...I asked Mere if he was interested to go with me and have a look...it's not too far a drive...only about 30 mins away...

There was going to be some cooking classes, talks by world-class chefs, food tasting and even a demonstration of truffles-sniffing dogs..but what I was most interested in was the Produce Market...

Look, I didn't go with much expectations...as we have been disappointed by a lot of such markets already...I knew exactly what to expect...the usual assortment of stalls selling honey, jams, pickles and olive oil...granted u can't get these in your normal supermarkets coz they are directly from the farms and small businesses...but still, it gets boring after a while...

The Produce Market was exactly as I described...BUT I was there on a mission...I wanted to get a bottle of truffle oil...

Disappointingly, there was only 1 stall selling truffle oil...can u believe that? I mean, this is a truffle festival for god's sake! I am happy for the other stalls to carry on selling their non-truffle related goods, but hey, didn't the organisers think of getting more relevant businesses involved?

Anyway, we did a bit of tasting before going ahead with our purchase...it was decent, not fantastic :(

and it wasn't all free tasting by the way, tho I can understand...these truffles are $200 per gram...

All we had were:
A slice of hazelnut bread with truffle butter - $2
A slice of bread with brie cheese & truffles - $5
A cube-sized New Norcia Nut Bread - Free
A tiny piece of bread dipped in truffle oil - Free

A little disappointed I didn't get to try the soft-boiled egg with truffle shavings...all sold out by the time I got there...

So, I got my bottle of truffle oil for $30 and we simply trudged home...I still can't believe all it takes to flavour the entire bottle of oil is one tiny slice of truffle...maybe half the size of a 5c piece...

Yes folks, the little black speck you see on the bottom left...that's what all the fuss is about...Let's hope that tiny slice does its magic...I'll let you all know if the oil is really worth its weight in gold...

On a happier note, Mere and I can look forward to a freebie on Wednesday...as a job perk...I occasionally get free tickets for movie premiers organised by the radio station that my company advertises with...last time it was Fantastic Four 2, now it's Die Hard 4.0...let's face it, this movie is more for Mere than me...but at least Maggie Q is going to be in it...I'll just eat my popcorn and shut-up...

Saturday Shopping Spree

2007-08-04T21:25:00.000+08:00

This morning started good enough...with a headache from last night's farewell drinks with Carly at the Queen's subsiding almost immediately with two Advils...but I still had to get up at 8am to get ready for a doctor's appointment...

It's such a pain going to my doc's...it's all the way back into the city...as if I don't go there often enough...I know I work in the bloody city, but there's not enough time during lunch to see the doc ok? Anyways, just needed to go there and confirm if my skin aliment was indeed turning me into a walking mushroom farm, or it's something else...turns out nothing was wrong except for a really serious case of dryness...so no more hot showers for me..and I have to use those non-commercial body lotions...damnit...

Hence after a nice big plate of fry-up for breakfast, we trotted down to the pharmacy...bought a whole heap of stuff that came to a grand total of $117.

*shake head* Mere couldn't imagine why toiletries came up to so much...all I can say is - dearie, make-up is not cheap and the vitamins to increase your metabolism, well, it's nearly $40....so, c'mon!

After going to the pharmacy, we thought we might walk to my office to get my car...coz I left my car there last nite...so I could drink myself silly (as per usual for a Friday evening)...proved to be a bad move...for Mere at least...haha...see, we had to walk past a certain shop...that Mere absolutely hates...

This shop is somewhere I have visited at least 3-4 times over the last few months...looking for something in particular...something I can use...something I need...something expensive...

I mus say, I swear I expected that it will turn out to be another window shopping experience...but...

To Mere's credit...even after the issue at the pharmacy...he was truely the perfect husband :) He even participated in the super drawn-out bag selection process...the chinese sales-lady (all of them are chinese...Don't be surprised...who else buys this sort of stuff?) was really enthu abt getting me to try carrying virtually all the bags in the shop..in all colous as well...I felt pretty bad that she had to scale the ladders to reach the stock and after a while I told her not to bother...but she insisted...thank god I did find something I like...if not I would have felt like crap...or worse! buy something I didn't like....

Jason and Dana wld know how long I have antagonised over this...if I were to spend quite a bit of money on a bag, I wld naturally have to find the perfect bag...I have been searching for so many months...it's either I liked the shape but the design was ugly...or vice versa...

I have seen this bag before..it's a simple shape which I like, with the classic monogram (abit iffy abt the classic monogram coz I already have a wallet like that...)...but this is a limited edition piece...they have added a silver thread design to it...pretty pretty pretty!

Also, thank god for the AUD..it's superb performance against the Euro...I got the bag at nearly $300 cheaper than if I had bought it a few months ago...so, Cath, thank goodness I waited!!

I left feeling great of course...and happy that Mere was actually ok with it! You guys don't understand man...but Cath, I know you wld get what I mean...hahaha

The last funny bit to this entire story...remember the stuff we got at the pharmacy?..

Yah, in an obiang translucent white plastic bag...we were happily walking ard the whole shop with it...thinking abt it now really seems so funny...I really thank the sales lady today...for being so professional the whole time (how did she know I will actually make a purchase?) if this was back home, I don't think we wld have gotten the service that we did, considering I had no make-up and Mere was in a fugly, ratty, gray sweater carrying a bag of pads.....

Entry 2

2007-08-01T22:50:00.000+08:00

Back for more of my rants eh?

I liken blogging to office politics ... cheap, nasty but in today's society apparently a necessity.

From this point forward, use the words, "blogging", "ass-licking", "brown-nosing", their equivalents and grammatical permutations, interchangeably*

To blog or not to blog ... that's not a question ... it's a demand.

To get accepted as part of the inner circle and climb the ladder of achievment we must have a go at blogging. Any "great" person these days worth (or believed to be worth) their salt, blogs.

Check out some of the websites of the biggest companies on earth (e.g. Oracle, Wal-Mart (world's biggest company btw ... take that Exxon!))and you'll undoubtedly find blogs in them from employee/bloggers trying to get ahead in life (or perhaps under duress...)

Question is, do you believe in ass-licking? and do you believe the sweet nothings muttered during a good brown-nosing? (check out the Basic Candy Buyer's Assistant's proclaimation: "There is not another company I would rather work for than MY Wal-Mart!"). No? And yet there is a swing towards using this un-edited, un-governed media as a source of information?

I've had to think about this lately at work ... to blog or not to blog? Is another rung up the corporate ladder worth my dignity, self-respect and friendships? Hmm ...
The pondering continues ....

Close entry.

footnote:
-if you've been too thick to understand *, my company does not literally have a blog ...

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Random Stuff

2007-07-31T20:48:00.000+08:00

Poker-Face
We got invited to dinner by Mere's colleague (a very nice girl, Sylvia) a few Saturdays ago...a fresh thing for us coz, you know, Mere is not exactly the most sociable..was pleasantly surprised when he said we were gonna have plans for that Saturday...

Anyways, dinner turned out really well and we played our very first proper game of poker....Sylvia's friends even had the plastic cards and chips! Great for Mere...he finally got to do what he have always dreamt about - SHOW HAND (a la God of Gamblers) But yah lah...as usual...guess who's money he showed-hand with?...he was already cleaned out by then...so basically with that one Show-Hand he cleared my chips, effectively bankrupting both of us....the irony in that was the pile of chips he showed-hand with was actually won by me in a round of show-hand too....ok ok...I am not a fantastic poker player alright? I put all my chips in only coz I had a set of flush...heheheh...kiasu (or rather, kiasi) I know but still a spectacular win right?

Lost $40 in total, both of us combined...Nonetheless, all in the name of good fun....as what my auntie used to call it..."pay school fees" loh...

Not sure if we did get any decent photos for that nite of poker...check with Mere on that one...

The Lost Art of Cocktails
"Discovered" this bar in Northbridge two Fridays ago...I said "Discovered" only coz we have walked past it during our last 6-7 yrs here but never thought about going in...now I am so hooked!! The band on Friday nite is superb...and most importantly, the cocktails there are fabulous!!!...All freshly-squeezed by the way...haha I can say its healthy, full of vitamin C lah...see, it's winter and I haven't had my cold yet...

I really hate the usual pre-mixed lousy sweet stuff they try and pass off as cocktails in most of the popular joints....seriously, where are all the pple who can make you the world's best cocktail from freakin fresh ingredients?..ok lah, sure the alcohol is not "fresh ingredient" per se...but you know what I mean...

When I pay for a cocktail....coz it's so fancy you wanna charge me more for it, fine..then you jolly well make it a helluva good cocktail..I want the fruit, mint leaves and god knows what other heavenly stuff you put in to be hand-smashed into an unrecognisable pulp...chuck said pulp into a chilled shaker ( I said CHILLED) and give it a really good shake (plus some smooth moves please) before pouring into a perfectly decorated (no ugly umbrellas or pineapples for me, thanks!) and chilled (again, I say CHILLED) martini glass rimmed with salt crystals...perfect for a friday nite drink...celebrating the fact that we have not strangled the boss or slit our throats yet...

My favourite at the bar? Mmmmm...Chilli & Ginger Margaritas...most pple I know don't share my enthusiasm for Tequlia, not to mention the addition of chilli (gasps!) and ginger (eeks!)...u guys dunno what u r missing man....imagine sipping your cocktail, waiting for the alcohol to work its voodoo...then it hits you..the wonderful spice and kick....frighteningly exhilarating...

OOO...can't wait for Friday...missed one last week coz although I brought Jelly to the bar, she wasn't keen on my choice of poison...see what I mean about not many being enthusiastic about the Chilli & Ginger Margarita?...still, we had a good nite and I got to try another cocktail - Luscious Limbo

In a word of fairness, I did go to another bar (strangely called a deli dunno why...I can tell u for sure the prices are not what you can find at the local deli!) recently...on our "wedding anniversary" no less...whose bar staff are just as apt at making cocktails from fresh ingredients...but sadly, aside from chilled shakers and glasses, the other most important thing to me is that my drink simply cannot taste like cough syrup...

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
No I didn't get to read it at 9.02am WST on 21st July 2007. You must know by how Mere reacts when it comes to money and fads....

A few months back:

Whinger: "Why can't I pre-order the freakin book? it's only $29.95!"

Stingy-Miser: "Coz in a couple of weeks after the first release it will cost $19.90 at K-mart"...you guys can see how the conversation went right...

but he is right...it's not that big a deal for me after the initial whinging...I only paid $25.99 for the book a mere 4 days later..haha..yah lah..I know, $4 savings...like damn great liddat...

I am not simply gonna talk abt how great it felt to save $4 (Mere: Up Yours Rowling!)...I just want to say how depressed I was after reading it...damn damn damn...maybe I am sensitive but I got all teary...what a nut job right?

My eyes welled-up when I read to the part where Fred, Lupin & Tonks died. So sad....especially Fred lah...

Aside from giving me "shallow eyelids", I've got another question...maybe it's just me...I'm not the ultimate fan so I admit I might have missed some details...at the part where Harry goes visit his parents' graves...it is written that his parents died on 31st Oct 1981...obviously we all know Harry was a baby then...debatable if he was a year old already...but that is not the point...the point is doesn't that make Harry older than moi?? and I thought he was meant to be 17?

I always thought the books were written in today's day and age..have I missed something for the last 10 years?

Backlog No. 1

2007-07-23T20:47:00.000+08:00

Being that I have delayed my start into the blogging community for like what, the last 2-3 years...I envisioned my blogging genesis to be horrifically long-winded (which I admit I am) and possibly damn out-dated as well since I would probably talk about stuff that happened months or even years ago...

A lot of which I am about to blog about (over the next few weeks perhaps) have been told to friends and family..so technically there is nothing new...but I still want to talk about them coz..well, I dunno...coz it amuses me and I want to remember these things forever?!?

ha...some of these things can be so lame and so simple...but I still crack up when I see/hear/read about them...maybe I am shallow...it seriously doesn't take a lot to give me laughing fits...

One of the more recent funny things I have come across is Little Becky. *Bear with me Andrea, you have probably heard the funniest one...but trust me, there's more where it came from* ...she is the smartest and funniest little Irish girl or 'lovely lass' as they would say...how cute is she??

You guys got to seriously hear these Becky Classics to see what I mean:

- Little Becky wants to demolish her school
- Little Becky rings comedian Des Bishop
- Little Becky's issue with spare tyres
- Little Becky wants to be a Footballer's wife
- Little Becky sorts out her lazy Dad

Sorry guys...I can't do fancy shit with this bloody thing yet...so no such thing as mp3 streaming...for now anyway....

Hope these amuses you as much as it does for me...

Entry 1

2007-07-22T22:23:00.000+08:00

For me, this blog is about selling my dog's sexual services as much as it's being about my disdain for blogs....

If you choose to continue reading, you will hear a tirade of abuse focused on this stupidity that a community of loser nerds term "the blog".

You have been warned....

What? ... you still reading?!?!

Ok ...

Does anybody really give a toss about the drivel that is being spewed on this scourge of the internet ... we have come to know as "the blog"?

Btw, does anyone know the origin of the word? ... guess not ... wikipedia does ... check out the pic of the 'early blogger' ... your fore-father... shame he managed to breed...

A medium that because is cheap seems to give even the most pathetic authors a license to publish their mind-numbing crap.

I've only recently been made to read the literary contributions of some apparently 'top bloggers' (some characters called Xiaxue another one called Karen Cheng) gosh! the content is so worthy of the Pulitzer prize .... NOT.

Why is there this fascination with the lives of others? It's like an extension of the love of reality tv ... goodness... the great content!! like watching hair grow... have we no lives of our own that we have to live vicariously through some (likely to be made up) bullshit adventures? ...

What's that? you actually believe that these jokers have unlimited time and funds to go out and live la vida everyday and then rush back to their computers to share it with you? ... how about that daily life stuff ... good god!! my life is boring enough not to want to check out how "more boring" some other twit's could be ...

So why do people read these ratings and assist these loons in making advertising dollars because you have contributed to their hit count? Why are you reading this now???

Strange ... the pondering continues...

Close entry.

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Hello World!

2007-07-19T21:27:00.000+08:00

Ahem...testing testing...

As most may know, I have procrastinated signing up for a blog for the longest time. I guess it is just that I am worried about various things, from having nothing intelligent to say to simply I don't want to do something unless I can give it a decent go...

So anyway, I have decided to rope in Mere and start up with small expections that people might find us at least a wee bit interesting and perhaps even entertaining enough to read our drivel (as mere puts it: "who wants to read crap about other pple's lives")....hmm...but let's not be pessimistic and see how it goes...

Basically all I am going to say is that it took me this long to finally dip my toes in...please give us virgin bloggers some support...thank you thank you thank you...