It was my colleague, Mark's birthday today. He turns 28. The SAPOs bought him a book on love poetry. Why? Cos 1. He's a Literature, arty farty person so he appreciates these things. I do too, but not in excess. And 2. He's getting married end of this year, so he wants a collection of love poems which he can use in his wedding.

So I went down to Kinokuniya and Borders over the weekend, searched through the poetry sections of both book shops (I prefer Kinokuniya's selection, Borders ones are very skimpy) and and finally decided to buy him a collection of love poems by very established poets such as John Keats and Elizabeth Barett Browning. I swear, poetry is so not my thing. They were...confusing. I had to read through quite a number of books before I decided on this particluar one. I mean, I was a Literature student in JC and the poetry section for me was just really, really painful. I hate those poems where you have no clue what they are saying and you have to read in between the lines. So anyway, I bought him that and I hope he genuinely likes it.

We had a mini celebration for him in the office just now. I bought a small chocolate cake and the SAPOs sang him a song, he cut the cake and we spent about half an hour just talking rubbish. It was pretty fun.

Mark, the Birthday Boy. Don't ask me why he's holding a flag.


The SAPOs- Naturally, I forced them to take a photo: Clockwise from the bottom- Me, Mark, Leonard, Rodney and Wan Ping. Weisi was away on EV attachment.


The next section of this entry is going to be about nothing but .....DOUGHNUTS! For all those who know me really well, you know that when it comes to sinful food, my level of discipline is pretty high except for when it comes to doughnuts!!!! I LOVE DOUGHNUTS! Any kind. I have tried doughnuts everywhere.

1. The neighburhood kinds. Cheap but good. I can even tell you where are the really good and cheap neighbourhood ones. Kings Confectionery at AMK Central and at the Sheng Siong area at Woodlands. Damn nice. And cheap. 60 cents for sugar doughnuts, 90 cents for chocolate rice ones.

2. The ones from overseas-
a. Dunkin Doughnuts in JB, KL, Bangkok- The custard filling ones. Nice.

b. Donut King in Perth and Melbourne- The simple, no frills Cinnamon doughnuts. Straight from the oven. I can eat 6 at one go. I swear, when I go to Australia for my studies, I'm going to get FAT!
c. Doughnuts from Italy- Cant remember the name of the shop cos it was 2 years ago. The doughnuts there are to die for, the nociolla doughuts ( hazelnut doughnuts. Drool)

3. The ones in Singapore now, where it's all the craze
a. The mini Japanese doughnuts from Clarke Quay- I ate 12 at one go. And this was after I had lunch! 12! They were small but addictive. When I ate that, I gymmed like crazy after. Hahaha...
b. Vinco doughnuts- From Vivo City. This one's ok, a bit limp but if I have no choice, I'll still eat it.
c. Munchy Doughnuts- From Causeway Point. Pretty Good. I had the peanut butter ones. Nice.
d. Missy Doughnuts- From Plaza Singapura. Which I bought today during lunch. I've been having a craving for doughnuts since last week, when Maya was talking to me about her doughnut tea party in her office and I couldn't get the image out of my mind. I wanted to get some over the weekend at Causeway Point but the Munchy Doughuts counter was so crowded on both Sat and Sun. So today, during lunch, I went down to PS and was pleasantly surprised to see the line at Missy Doughuts to be so short. So this was what I got:

Yup, I'm a chocolate doughnut addict. Chocolate sweethearts, chocolate glazed and chocolate cinnamon. :)


I'm bringing them home and hoping to spread the guilt with my sis and mom as we watch Live the Dream tonight. :)


Yes, so here's my totally no brainer entry on my friend's birthday party (if you can call it that) and my love for doughnuts. Do you see whyI have to gym so hard now?

Happy midweek everyone!

I met my girfriends from university for dinner last Friday. We were so close in university and had the best fun together. But when we started working, we had less time for each other, with our work, family and bf/family/ fling commitments that we met only once in a very blue moon. So last Friday was one of the blue moon.

So the 4 of us are made up of Maya, Yati, Farah and me. Maya was a Sociology and History major in university, working at Customs as a Trade Procurement Officer (Maya, I hope I got that right). Yati did the exact same combination as me: English Language and History major, working as a History teacher at RI now and Farah did Sociology and English Language, also a teacher teaching English at Coral Secondary School.

Yati just got married last Nov and she's very heavily pregnant now! She's giving birth somewhere in mid October but she looks great. You know how some people just look horrible when they are pregnant? Massive weight gain (Though that can't be helped), breakouts, swollen faces and ankles, flared nostrils (What? There are people like that ok!) and limp hair. But Yati looks incredible. If you just look at her from the chest upwards, she does not look pregnant at all. She looks very radiant, her skin is great, her hair is luscious. She's an exercise junkie. If you thought I was an exercise junkie, you haven't met Yati then. Even now that she's pregnant, she still swims 3 times a week, and does yoga stretches at home! Fascinating.

The 4 of us had our dinner at Swensens, shared ice cream, and then had coffee. And what's a meeting without pictures right? So here goes:

Maya, me, Farah and Yati.


Yati and me. See what I mean about the not looking pregnant from chest up?


Farah and me. Farah's gorgeous. She's having a thing for Middle Eastern guys now and aspires to go to Dubai one day to snag a Dubai-an. Fa, grab some for me and Maya too k! :)


Maya and Farah. Maya has been griping about her weight gain since she was left immobile due to her ankle accident 4 months ago. She's talking rubbish. She doesn't look like she gained weight at all.


My friend, Yati, in all her glorious pregnancy. It's so weird to think that just 7 years ago, we were all carefree and the only thing we had to worry about was passing our university exams and what to wear when we were going out partying. And now, she's married and will have to care for another person. Forever. As you can tell, the thought of having a baby scares the shit out of me.


It was so nice to meet my girfriends again. Though things have changed and dynamics have shifted, it's good to know that these girls are there when you need them. Love you girls heaps!


And No. I did not keep to my promise of not spending anymore. Instead, I spent even more. This was what I bought on Saturday when I was walking down town with Dev.

Clinique range of skin care (Cleanser, toner and moisturizer), the 2 way compact powder and the concealer. I've been wanting to buy a good housebrand for my compact and concealer and decided to try out Clinique cos they are friendly on the skin. It's been good so far. Total damage to wallet: $220


I decided to buy the Bobbi Brown gel eyeliner, given the positive reviews, the Face Shop eyebrow filler, Body Shop's portable blusher brush and an applicator for my gel eyeliner. The gel eyeliner's good. I'm using it now, and there are no smudges as yet. Total damage to wallet: $90


On Sunday, I walked around Causeway Point with Dev. The purpose was for us to have tea at DeliFrance and I ended up at Outfitter's Girl, a clothes shop, saw this gorgeous 3/4 pants, tried it on, realised it makes my legs look longer and my butt look perkier and I was so happy cos I could fit a size 1!!! Yeah!!! That's an XS! Total damage to wallet: $43


What does that come to in total? About $350. I'm screwed this month.

But I'm happy cos I love everything that I bought. :)

And this weekend had been a really good weekend cos I got to spend it with my girlfriends, Dev and my best buddies, Vidhu and Wendy again. Yup, Vidhu, Wendy and me met up again on Sun night, and this time round, we hung out at Chong Pang and had dinner and kuehs in unglam clothes. But it was so much fun. Vidhu, hope you like what we did for you. Love you guys!

And this is on a Saturday evening, after I had done all the damage to my wallet.


Oh...And Dev's mom bought me this. It's like a place to put all your earrings, necklaces, and rings so that they are neat and you won't have a problem looking for a complete pair of earrings. I love it. Cos I have at least 30 pairs of earrings and finding a complete pair is such a pain when you are late in the morning. His mom has a set too and when I saw it at his place, I started gushing and she bought me one too! I love his mom.:)


Yup, I had a really good weekend. Stress free. Fun. Full of love. :)
Have a good week everyone!

I am leaving for Australia for my studies in about 4 months. So I'm slowly doing all my preparations for my departure. Very stressful. I'm so worried I might forget something.

1. I have applied for my study leave, and am waiting for it to be processed. Hopefully, I get the leave approved by end September. The leave, assuming that I get it, will start from Dec 28, which means I get an extra 3 days of leave as compared to my other colleagues. I'm probably going to leave Singapore Jan 5th 08.

2. I have sent out my letter of acceptance to my university. And paid my first sem fees of freaking $11,000.

3. I need to go for a medical check up for application of my Student Visa.

4. I need to apply for my Visa. Troublesome process. I need to do this earliest 8 weeks before departure. That makes it end October.

5. I have applied for my hostel in Australia. I'm now waiting for my referee forms to come in and the Principal of the hostel to interview me, to make sure I'm a normal Asian girl who will not seduce hot Australian students ala Annabel Chong before I'm confirmed a place in the hostel. (Hahahahahaha)

6. I need to arrange for someone from UWA to pick me up from the airport when I get there cos I'm going there all on my own.

7. I need to make sure my financial committments at home are settled before I leave. (Monthly insurance, monthly house instalments, urgh...)

8. I need to buy my air tickets to Australia.

9. I need to buy a lap top.

Hmm..That's a lot of things....

Anyway, I was looking through the UWA website and I was browsing through the different residential hostels they had. It's costly to live in a hostel! About Aus$10, ooo for a full academic year there. And the Aussie dollars is so bloody high right now!!!

This includes food, lodging, inernet access, etc but...$10,000! That's daylight robbery. I was talking to my mom and was asking her if I should stay in a hostel for 1 sem, then rent a room outside for the next sem. But she got all paranoid cos she said it's not safe and said she would rather I spend that extra money on lodging and be safe and fed than save a few hundred dollars but live in unfamiliar surroundings.

I guess that makes sense. Anyway, the hostels are right opposite the university itself so I guess I'll save on transport cost. And cos I don't drive, living away from campus does not make sense cos it means I will have to commute by public transport and we all know that Austraian public transport system is shit.

So I've narrowed down my hostel choices to these 2. Check them out.

Currie Hall. This is the front of the hall. My first choice of hall cos they serve halal food. And they cost the lowest. Looks nice doesn't it?

One of the rooms in Currie Hall. It looks a bit...run down, but nothing that a chirpy looking bed sheet and decorations in the room can't fix. :) I'm there to study, not to live in comfort.


My 2nd option, Trinity College. Very nice also. I love the greenery of the hostels.



One of the rooms at Trinity. This one looks good but costs a little more I think.


In the meantime, while waiting for the reply from the hostels, I'm going to start buying things which I will need to bring over when I'm there. Very stressful cos I'm doing it all on my own. But very exciting as well. :) I can't wait to be a student again.

I spent a bomb this weekend. I'm supposed to keep my spending at bay cos I need the money for my studies next year. And since I'm going 2 whole mths earlier (Jan instead of Mar), it means I will have no pay earlier, which basically means I need to save more money. And the high exchange rate of Aussie dollars isn't helping the situation. But of course, that did not happen at all. Every month, I pay for a lot of nonsense with my credit card bills. Ok, let's see now...

1. I give my mom 700 bucks
2. I pay 180 bucks for my Spa membership
3. Another 100 bucks for my Insurance
4. 80 bucks for my gym membership
5. 200 bucks for house bills

What does that come to? Mmm...About $1360 or something..That actually stilll leaves me with a lot of money...Cos effectively, I only need about $500 for my own expenses and transport...So I can actually save the rest, and that comes up to quite a comfortable amount for savings..But of course, since I'm a shopaholic, I spend at least $300 every month on shopping..Urgh...And that's on a good month. On a bad month, I can spend as much as $800.

This is a bad month. This month alone (And please note that it's only 20 Aug- Pay day was only 8 days ago!), I have busted my shopping budget. What have I got so far?

1. A turtle neck from MPhosis- $25
2. A half cardi from MPhosis.- $41
3. A haircut- $45
4. Make Up from Bobbi Brown- $100
5. Perfume, Eternity by CK- $50
6. Clarins Toning Cream- $75
And...this is a freaking impulsive buy......
7. A DKNY watch- $200!!!!!!!!!!

That's like a total of almost $550 lah!!! And it's 2 weeks more before pay day..I have to stop this...I'm going to put all my credit cards and even my atm cards at home...I always say that... :( I have no self control!!!

I think I'm already indulgent enough with my Spa and gym package....The crazy shopping does not help the situation at all...:(

Anyway, I met a former colleague from school, Derek on Friday night. We drove down to Seletar Airbase where we ate Western food at this place called Jerry's. The buffalo wings were evry very good. We shared that and then I had the fish and chips and we shared a brownie with ice cream...Derek is a senior teacher from my school, but he's not that old...He's about 35, I think but he's damn solid hence explaining the fast rise in the teaching profession. He has been with the school since he first started teaching, so that's a really long time but he's moving on to greener pastures. He's going to Northlight School, a school where students who fail their PSLE repeatedly go to. He's psyched to move on and I told him to tell me how it is...I wouldn't mind teaching there....Very meanigful I think. It was nice meeting him again after such a long time... I didnt get to take a picture with him cos I forgot my camera!

On Sat, I went to the gym with my sisters in the late morning. We went for the Body Balance class, then we continued with the treadmill. Clocked in 3.2km in 20 mins..Oklah...Not bad right? Legs were cramped up after that, obviously.

Then I went to cut my hair, finally. My hairdresser, Kenneth, told me he was getting married in October. I'm so happy for him!!!! I've been with him (as a hairdresser & customer relationship of course) since I was 19..That's 8 long years..And he saw me grow up.

My hair looks so fabulous (Hahahaha I'm shameless) cos of him. He chooses my hair colour for me, and knows how to cut my stubborn hair so that it falls nicely when it grows out. A lot of people ask what I do to get the curls and bounce in my hair, and I tell them 'A damn good hairdresser.' I'll die if he moves away to another country or he stops cutting hair. I already booked him for my wedding..Hahahaha...I dont want weird hair for my wedding ok... He's cute too, by the way..And very young..Only 2 years older than me. Makes my hair visits there a wonderful one.

For those who want to go to him, his shop is at Far East Plaza, called Klear Cut. Last floor, near Puncak. He has another outlet at Serangoon Gardens. I've recommended many of my friends to him, and they all love him. He's really good. I used to have really ugly mushroom hair until I discovered him.

You know how you are always a bit apprehensive when you go to a hairdresser? Not me. I look forward to my hair appointments cos I know he always makes my hair looks so much better. :)

I'm trying to grow my hair to my waist, so I'm trying to see him every 6 to 8 weeks to let him trim and layer my hair for me. I want that luscious hair look..Hahahaha...

So enough about my hairdresser. I went to catch Rush Hour 3 after my haircut. Freaking funny. I shall not spoil it for anyone who wants to watch it. But you should go. It's awesome. Bloody funny. I have never laughed so hard for a movie.

On Sunday, the whole family went to have lunch at Seoul Graden at Takashimaya. I'm personally not a fan of Seoul Garden cos
1. It's costly. $120 for 5 adults. Exorbitant.
2. It makes you smell when you are finished. All the smoke.
3. You have to cook your own food. And wait. Not the best when you are starving. It doesn't make sense to pay so much only to have to cook the food yourself.

But since my sis wanted Seoul Graden so badly and her husband (my bro-im-law) was paying for lunch, I went along. We obviously took photos.

Outside Seoul Garden. Kikin, Nana and me.


My vain niece and me.


My nephew and me. My mom was hyperventilating when I decided to wear the white shorts. She was like 'Can wear something a bit more decent? Your mom and sis wear a tudung, then you wear shorts and sleevelss. White shorts some more.' Hmph. I ignored her anyway. Hahaha..I'm horrendous. Those are my Mango shorts by the way. I'm into white now.


At the fish aquarium at Wisma Atria. My niece and nephew. They are horrbily naughty but are so cute. They look the same don't they?


My niece, eating Famous Amos No Nut Chocloate Chip cookies. She's turning 4 in September but she's tiny. In case you haven't noticed, she loves the camera.


Then while the kids were looking at the fishes in the aquarium, my mom, me and my elder sis went into City Chain. And that was when I saw this gorgeous watch from DKNY. $235. Expensive. I didnt want to buy it until the sales lady gave us a 20% discount, making it $188. And cos I have no self control, I bought the watch. Expensive. I know I m repeating myself. But I love it. It's bronzy..Very modern. I like watches with square faces. Mom and sis also bought DKNY watches.



Then I walked down to Isetan Scotts to get my blusher and bought Bobbi Brown's pot of blusher in 'Rose' (gives a sun kissed glow) and lip gloss (something pinkish nude).


And that's my whole family. Anti clockwise: My mom, my nephew, my elder sis, me, my bro-in-law, my younger sis and my niece.


And to top off the weekend, I met Vidhu and Wendy for dinner on Sun night. So the minute I reached home from my outing with my family, I called Vidhu up and he picked both Wendy and myself up and we drove down to Causarina Prata and had pratas. I haven't seen them for so long, almost 5 weeks. We talked rubbish, shared 2 cans of Sarsi, ate prata kosong, made fun of Wendy and her T shirt which was actually made of babies' panties (Hahahaha), and bitched about people. I had a great time with them. Babes, please don't have a 5 weeks lapse before our next meeting okie?

I had a pretty good weekend. Even though I overspent. But what the heck right? I work hard for my money. But I swear to not spend anymore until the next pay day. Fine..I'll try very hard.
Ok...This has been a very long entry.

I watched Live the Dream (LTD) yesterday night and it was highly entertaining. Rushed home and had a quick bath to make sure I don't miss any of it. And boy, was I rewarded.

First things first, the contestants on the show are way....better than the contestants on Singapore Idols. The top 12 finalists on Singapore Idols, with the exception of 1 or 2, were seriously bad. Those contestants were cringe worthy. So last week, when I was watching the auditions round of LTD, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that they all could hold a tune. At least the ones that were shown on tv.

So there are 4 soloists and 4 bands each week, of which, 2 will be selected by viewers through calls and smses from each category and the judge will choose one out of the two selected ones. The soloists were really good. There was the Filipino guy- Robert Sangu (I think that's his name) and he sang Signed, Sealed, Delivered by Stevie Wonder and he was awesome..He sang the whole song in this high tone..Very very good. Then there was Eka Marina, a Malay lady. She was good too. She sang Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You. Very good aside from the vocal gymnastics which she occassionally lapses into. That was a bit irritating. And Fendi. Not very good looking, but oozes charisma and coolness and soul and funk. He sang Senorita by Justin Timebrlake. Sexy rendtition. And Victor something. He sucks. Not worth talking about.

Robert got into the next round. A bit sad that Fendi didn't get through. Maybe he'll be back as judges' pick. I like him. A lot.

What was entertaining, aside from the singing, was the horrendous spoken English of the contestants. I know I'm being a total bitch here but since it's my blog, what the heck right?

First up, we had 3 groups, 2 of whom were Malay groups- BARB (I think that's their group name) and Sound Salvation. Sound Salvation is supposedly very well established in the local music scene already but I was not impressed. 2 guys in the group, 1 sang and the other was on the guitar. Too self indulgent. I had no idea what they were singing about. Too angsty. And the lead singer was wearing a fur lined hooded jacket. ?????? Hello??!!! It's 35 Degrees out there!!! What was hilarious? He looked so ultra cool, the stupid jacket, all black ensemble, skin head, eye liner and all but when he opened his mouth...cannot make it.. 'They seems to like us....bla bla bla' Hahahahahaha...'They' is plural!!!!! No need for an s for the verb!!! I know, it's my English teacher side coming up. There were a few other note worthy moments but I can't remember them for the life of me.

The ironic thing is, as I was sharing with my sis as we were both grabbing each other out of pain in listening to them speak, is that, they don't know how to keep it short and sweet. It's fine if you can't speak well. Don't ramble cos you end up sounding even more stupid. And painful for the viewers. The ones who are able to articulate themselves know how to make their comments short and snappy. More impact you know what I mean? At times, it got so bad that I had to run to my room and told my sis to shout out to me when they have finished talking. It was that bad.

But it was fun watching it with my mom and my sis. We seldom watch common tv programmes, unless something like this comes on. So my mom kept giving us dirty looks, as if to stop us from being such snobs 'Yeahlah..Not everybody can speak well like all of you, you know.' and my sis and me just continued laughing and laughing. Highly entertaining. You guys should watch it if you haven't. The contestants are good. There's quality this time round. Oh..and look out for the bad spoken English...Hahahaha

Looks like my Wed evening's going to be occupied from now on. :) 1 more day to the weekend everyone!!!

Oh.....

I want to share this beautiful song with everyone. It's called Mi Manchi, by Andrea Bocelli. It was said that if God had a voice, it would sound like Andrea's voice. The lyrics are beautiful, like poetry. You guys know that I'm not a mushy, mushy sort of person, but this music is really beautiful. Dev bought the CD and when he heard this song, he looked for the English translation and shared it with me over the weekend. I cried cos it reflected what he felt. And it seemed so apt cos he's leaving soon.

To me, this is romantic, not rubbish like 'I love you, you complete me, you are my life' nonsense that pop music has nowadays. The song is in Italian, which sounds really romantic but here's the English translation.

Mi Manchi
I Miss You

I miss you
When the sun touches the horizon
When darkness covers the sounds of the people
The listlessness no longer goes away
Like the shadow of something that's still mine

I miss you
In your look
In that thoughtless smile
In those excuses of yours
You're the lump in my throat that doesn't go away
It's you, it's you

I miss you,I miss you
I can pretend to be okay but I miss you
Now I know what I need to say
To have you near before going to sleep
While I stand undisguised
within my soul

I miss you and I could
find another woman
but I'd be cheating myself
You're my regret without an end and
The chill of my mornings
When I look inside myself
And know that I miss you.

Now that I can give you a little more
It's you, it's you

I miss you and I could
have another woman
but I'd only be cheating myself
You're my regret without an end and
The chill of my mornings
When I look inside myself

Beautiful isn't it? :)

Entry full of pictures. I had a relatively good weekend. Managed to do almost everything whichI wanted to do for the weekend, except for the gymming on Sat morning cos my calves were still killing me from Thursday's step class so I decided to give it a miss. Ok, and I was too lazy cos it was too early in the morning. Oh..And I didn't cut my hair.

On Fri evening, just before I met Ee Kia for dinner, I went down with Supt to check out this restaurant at the Botanical Gardens for an end of the year event for Principals. It's called Au Jardin, run by the Les Amis Group. The place was so beautiful. Overlooking lush greenery, it has such a beautiful setting. The tables, with its crisp and fresh white linen, the crystal cutlery, the chandelier, the ceiling to floor glass wall, the paintings in the restaurant, no wonder they charge a bomb for diners. I looked at the menu: $125 for dinner for 1 person. Crazy! But very nice place. I saw a Caucasian couple discussing their wedding dinner there... Very good ambience. I took some pictures of the restaurant to show the committee for the enxt meeting. Here are some-

The balcony views, which I love.


Very romantic.


After that, I rushed down to Orchard to meet my ex-colleague from school, Ee Kia. Ee Kia was my gym buddy when I was in school. He's like a really smart guy, RI, RJC, scholar, fast track and all but very humble guy, at least in my opinion. He's a musician so can be rather temperamental at times, but of course not with me. He's witty and is a great person to bitch with. Cracks me up with his imitations all the time. I haven't seen him for almost 6 months, so seeing him again was great. We had dinner at Billy Bombers and then walked around town before meeting up another friend, Calvin at Coffee Club Express outside California Fitness gym at Somerset. Came back really late, like almost 1am. I was totally zoned out after that. But I had a blast.

Ee Kia and me at Billy Bombers, Hereen. His eyebrows look plucked but he denies it.


Calvn, Ee Kia's friend. He joined us for coffee at about 11pm. Nice guy. Very friendly, and seems really interested in listening to what I have to say. And everyone knows I have a lot to say. :) And...I like him very , very much because....he thought...I was a ...PERSONAL FITNESS INSTRUCTOR AT THE GYM!!!!!!!!!! Hahahahahahaha!!! I told him I go to the gym and he thought I taught the classes there! So flattering right? He said I look sporty and fit and toned... Of course I was happylah...All my time spent in the gym, it's so worth it. Now you know why I like him right? ;)


Yeah, that's me taking pictures of myself, with Ee Kia's help while waiting for Calvin to come.


On Sat, I went to buy my Hari Raya cloth with my mom and sis at Arab Street. I was supposed to get turquoise this year but all the turquoise lace was crappy and fugly so I chose...yes..pink. Again. But it's actually black lace with pink flowers embroidered on the lace and I'm going to line it with light champagne coloured silk, and the kain is a matching pink silk too. It's beautiful..And relatively cheaper...$70 bucks for the whole suit. Without tailoring so I'm happy.

Mom and me. We went down to Takshimaya after Arab Street to shop around. I bought mom a Nike Sports Bra.


Me and my sis.


And on Sunday, I met Diana for lunch after my yoga class. We shopped for her bday gift and I got her a pot of MAC blusher. We went around town, shopping, had coffee, had lunch, gossiping, bitching, updating each other on what's happening with our lives (Not that there's anything majorly exciting going on in mine). She's getting married this Dec 1 so she's busy preparing for her wedding and all. A bit sad cos already now, we meet like 3 times a year. I can't imagine when she gets married, the frequency of our meetings. But I had a blast with her.

This is Diana. She's beautiful. Mother-in-law's dreams come true. Super gentle and demure. Can cook, can bake, can clean. Amazing how we became best friends. I have known her for 20 years. Bloody long.


Me and her at Breeks, Taka.


Yes, so I had a good weekend. I didn't spend much time with Dev cos he's busy with preparations for his interview but I had a great time nonetheless. Until the next weekend people, unless I have something to blog about in the course of the week.

It's a Friday! I am so happy that the weekend's here, right after that 1 day of public holiday. :) Which was too short, in my opinion.

Spent the whole National Day in the gym..Hahaha...I know, I'm obsessed. I went for a step class and a pilates class after that. The step class was such a killer. Step class for beginners , beginners my asslah. So bloody tough. Jump here, jump there, twirl here, twirl there, didn't know what I was doing half the time. I jumped around on the step board anyway to get my fix of cardio. Went with my sis, Nana, and she turned so bloody red from exhaustion.

This was a vast improvement from the first time she exercised, about 4 weeks ago. I brought her to a body balance class, then body combat after that. She looked like she was going to pass out half way through the body combat class and she literally turned blue..I'm serious... I actually stopped kicking to ask if she wanted to stop. 4 times throughout the class....So this was her first time doing step and I think she felt even more stupid than I did.. Oh well, I felt stupid doing step class the first time too..It takes time and coordination...

I'm going to have a pretty packed weekend. Meeting Ee Kia, one of my close colleagues from school for dinner tonight, I haven't met him for ages...Sat, I'm going for an abt class at the gym (hopefully I can wake up cos it's a 10am class at Novena), then meeting mom and sis at Arab Street to buy my hari raya cloth, and then going to Far East to get it tailored (I know, extravagant. But it's only 1 set of baju and I'm very anal about the tailored clothes fitting me nicely.. I hate it when my cloth is so costly, only to have it ruined by incompetent tailors who charge cheaply. I would rather pay for expensive but good tailoring) and then maybe cut my hair and meet Dev for dinner and help himprepare for his interview next Tues. Sun, I will go for a yoga class in the late morning at Orchard and then meet Diana during lunch time to celebrate her bday which is wayyyy...overdue.

I love the weekends don't you? ;)

My colleague, Leonard told me that if his picture and the others were going to be circulating on cyber space, he wants to know of the website of my blog and the others echoed the idea. So since there are a substantial amount of my colleagues pictures here, I gave them my blog address. So guys, read & enjoy but don't tell the Supts and DD k. It's a personal blog. And no, I don't bitch about any of you or my bosses. Tsk tsk..So unprofessional. I do whine and gripe about the work, but it's harmless.;)

This picture was taken with the scholars who were attached to my branch for 5 weeks. This was taken at Manhattan Fish Market at Plaza Singapura, and it's way better than Fish and Co, which sucks now. It's costly, and they are smelly. Not the waiters, the food. Very fishy odour comes out of the restaurant. Blech. So I recommended Manhattan Fish Market to my colleagues cos it was a farewell lunch for the scholars and it was a unanimous view that Manhattan Fish Market is a better fish place. Piping hot food, fresh seafood, nice waiters who make you feel welcomed. :)

From left to right: Weisi, Scholar 1 (Ivan), Wan Ping, Scholar 2 (Chim. I think that's her name. What? They were with us for only 5 weeks so I am not like chummy chums with them), Rodney (as happy as ever), Scholar 3 (Fauziah), Mark, me, Leonard and Gordon.




Another angle... :) I love the camera!!!!


Anyway, I went to meet my students yesterday for dinner. It has been so long since I last saw them, almost half a year. These boys were my naughtiest boys in class but they were absolute angels to me. I remembered when I was in school, and if anyone was rude to me, these boys would be the first to 'threaten' the rude students. If I was upset, they will try ways and means to make me happy. When I had a lump on my lower back, they bought me tortoise pillows, key chains and tissue box to lift my spirits up. (Lump- tortoise-get it?) When I was sick, they gave me 101 ways of curing my ailments. When it was my birthday, they gathered the whole class and gave me a surprise bday party, of course I cried. They cooked for me during Teachers Day, they made me cards, they came for my remedial classes during the hols even though they hate coming back for extra classes. I went to Cambodia with all of them and had a blast. They made me love going to school :)

They are all so grown up now.
From left to right: Alvin (in MDIS doing hospitality), Yee Siang (Poly- some engineering course), Sam (Poly-engineering course as well), Me, Edwin (SIM-doing econs) and Zhenping (City Harvest-private O levels)

Went to Pizza Hut with them and had a good time catching up, and talking rubbish with them. They make me laugh like crazy all the time.



It's a pretty short week. Holidays tomorrow, only Mark and me will be around at work on Friday as the rest took the Friday off. Damn it. Didn't cross my mind to take leave. Sigh...Oh well..I'll just save my leave for another day...

Happy National Day People. Enjoy the 1 day break. Fine, 2 days if you are a teacher or you took leave the following Friday. Hmph.

One of my colleagues, Weisi, said something to me today during lunch. He said, 'You should have a dual race in your i/c. Chinese and Malay. You are probably more Chinese than most Chinese in Singapore are.'

How did the conversation come about? Cos Wan Ping, one of my colleague, ordered tau huay with the glutinous balls inside and I was telling them about how much I love those glutinous balls and what those balls signify for the Chinese when they get married and have to eat these balls. For those who don't know, the couple eats these balls with sweet syrup during their tea ceremony cos the sweet syrup signifies sweetness in the marriage and the glutinous balls, which are sticky, signify the 'stickiness' of both couples to each other forever. I think. That was what Dev's mum told me at elast. I saw 2 of his brothers get married and both had the glutinous balls thing. So they were amazed by my expansive knowledge of the Chinese culture. Of courselah, my bf's mom is Chinese you know....

But this entry is not about glutinous balls, of course. Though I can spend a lot of time talking about them, seeing how much I love them, but I'm digressing.

A lot of my friends feel that I'm very un-Malay. I never really understood what that meant until recently. I mean, what constitutes being a Malay? To a lot of people, being a Malay will mean these:

1. Conservative & traditional
2. Tudung wearers- Being a Malay to them is synonymous to being a Muslim. Though it's not necessarily so.
3. Not very smart. I know, stereotyping.
4. Can only eat Halal food. That has to do with Point 2.
5. Goes out only with Malay guys.
6. Decent dressers.
7. Not vocal or opinionated or loud.

For those who knows me, I don't fit in very well with the typical stereotype of a Malay. I'm not conservative or traditional, I don't wear a tudung (My friends will laugh if they see me in one), I'm not dumb (not that I'm very samrtlah...but passable), I eat as long as it's not pork or lard or liquor (What? I do a lot of travelling ok. I can't survive on fruits and vegetables only.), I prefer being out with non Malay guys, cos Malay guys don't really like me, or at least, only the mats do, which is not a good thing cos they can barely hold a conversation, I'm pretty open with my dressing (I have improved by leaps and bounds in this area. Maya, remember my backelss top in uni? God, I was such a skank) and of course, for all those who are closest to me, they know that I am loud, vocal, and opinionated.

Having said all that, it doesn't mean that I'm not proud of being a Malay although the recent articles in the papers about Malays having screwed up marriages kind of made me cringe a little. I am. I'm proud of my heritage and what the Malays here have achieved. I am proud of our strong culture and filial piety. Our pride for our houses, our family, our religion.

I know of Malays who are ashamed of being Malays cos of the negative connotation with being a Malay. Like pre-pregnancies, many kids and not being able to care for them, divorces, not academically inclined, not ambitious, etc...So they try not to divulge their true identities or pretend that they are so English-cised and can only speak nothing but English, with a fake accent. Urgh...Makes my blood boil...

I think race should not be an isue at all. Race is nothing but society's infliction on us. So the next time someone asks me what race I am, I'm going to say 'The Human Race.' :) We are all the same isn't it? I'm just crossing my fingers that when I get to Australia, everyone there will embrace me (not literally, though I wouldnt' mind that if they were guys, and good looking..Hahahaha) for being me, regardless of my race and skin colour. :)

I had a surprisingly good week, despite the business. The VP Retreat was a great success, at least from the positive feedback given from both Supts and VPs who took part in it. It was interesting cos we had 4 different speakers; from Richard Eu, the CEO of Eu Yan Sang, Mr Liak, CEO of Alexander Hospital, James Heng, founder of the Duck Tours and DHL Balloon and Dennis Foo, CEO of St James Power Station. I thought I was going to be bored by the speakers but they were really insightful. What struck me about these men were they are really successful but you could sense the humility in them, they are really passionate about what they are doing and they believe in their craft, they are risk takers and are really forward looking.

Like Mr Dennis Foo. You know how he's always in the newspapers, for being at this party and that party and I've always had the impression that he is a really snobby guy. So the day before the retreat, Chairman of the VP Retreat Com and myself made an appointment to meet him just to brief him about our theme and discuss with him his speech for the VPs. We were supposed to meet him at his office at 6pm but cos of some accident on the road, we were late by 20 mins! Imaginelah. We took almost 3 months before we got to get an appointment with him and we were late. Panic man. I thought we were screwed and he was going to be a bitch to us. But he was not. So pleasant, humble and accommodating. I liked him at first meeting. :)

When we went to St James Power Station, we were all treated like royalty. We were given a talk by him, then he brought the group on a tour around St James itself. We got free drinks and all. After that, a group of Ps, VPs and myself stayed on and he gave us the best seat in the house and whatever we ordered was on the house. Absolute generosity.

So I did a lot of firsts during this retreat.

1. I got to listen to 4 important people talk about their road to success. Learnt so much from them. I know, I'm a geek at heart.

2. I took the Duck Tour, you know, the one that goes on land and in water. Interesting experience.

The whole group, on our way to the Duck Tour. That's me and Mark above, we are both in the committee. And the picture directly above are of my Supts. Nice people.

3. I took the DHL Balloon which went up to 150 metres high into the sky. Very unpleasant experience. I've taken a hot air balloon in Turkey, which was way higher, but that was really nice though...Don't know why this one was so unpleasant.

The view from the top. Beautiful.

Mdm Maureen Lee, Principal of Kranji Sec, also in the committee with me. Nice lady.

4. I went down to St James Power Station and as I've said earlier, it was nice being treated as a VIP. It's a really nice place. 9 different rooms to hang out in. I liked the Bellini Room where they played jazz, swing music and the roon with the Salsa music. Nice.

Mrs Ngiam, Principal of Princess Elizabeth Primary, Chairman of the Committee. A lot of energy.

Some of the other Ps and VPs who stayed on the night. :)

5. I spent the night at Copthorne King's in the same room with my Supt, and she was dressed in pyjamas. Hahahaha..Never in my whole life did I think in my whole career I would be in the same room, sleeping with a Supt. Much less in her pyjamas.

6. I taught yoga to the whole group of VPs, Ps, Supts and DD in the morning before breakfast. And they said I was really professional. Hahahahaha....It was interesting. Enjoyed teaching the group. I can see myself in another career....

It was great fun. Though it was tiring, the planning, work involved, I had such a fun time. My biggest take away from this?

To strive for perfection, but at the same time, celebrate every little success that you get cos those small steps will eventually lead you to that perfection. Insightful eh?

Me, Wan Ping, Rodney and Mark in my room. I had great fun with all of them. :)

The boys and me. Love both of them. Will miss them when we go back to schools next year.

Then, on Fri night, I met Maya for coffee at Causeway Point. It was so nice to meet her again after such a long time. We talked, and bitched, and ate, and drank, and laughed....:)

There was one thing that she said which struck me.

Going off to study for a whole year is a very unnerving thought. I'll be all alone in a foreign land, with no friends or family. I shared with her about how scared I was and how I'm worried about Dev and me when we are apart for such a long period of time. And she told me that I need that 1 year to find myself, and realise that I will be fine being on my own. That stuck with me till now cos I think I need that time apart for both Dev and me to be sure of our relationship and where each other stands.

Thanks Maya. I had great fun. And of course, being the camera whores that we both are, we took photos though we were only at Causeway Point. :)

This is Maya.

Both of us at Delifrance. :)

Enjoy your weekend people. Another long week next week.