happy 2012

Wow. 2011 went by just like that.

It'd been a decent year. Nah, actually it had been a pretty crazy ride.
I'm not complaining. Just stating the facts. Besides, most people love roller coasters.
The chicken hearted me used to hate it. I would do it cuz I didn't wanna miss out. But I couldn't understand why would people want to put themselves thru something crazy like that.

Then I leaped off the edge towards the end of November, and fell in love with the adrenaline rush.

I think it changed me for life.

Happy 2012. I'm embracing it. :)

Glee 3D Concert

listening to glee's kurt's version of 'I want to hold your hand'...
~~~
Caught the 'Glee 3D concert movie' preview last night.
If only the cinema crowd was more spontaneous and everyone could get out of their seats and dance to the music. That would have been super awesome.
Still, I had a good time singing along to all the songs.

"Yeah you got that something
I think you'll understand
When I say that something
I wanna hold your hand" 


Funny coz it actually did start out with a mini debate about holding hands. 

2011 Q1, not too shabby

listening to gary cao's 'Bei Ge Wang'...
~~~
Oh man, the first quarter of this year is over! Before we know it, I'm celebrating my fiftieth birthday... *shudder* Let's see what's been going on in my life:

Jan
These guys must be among the nicest folks I've met. Not the usual aloof Korean pop stars with difficult artiste manager. Btw, for the few of you who knew about the funny little story, this was what I wore. Note to self: NO CAPS WHEN HOSTING EVENTS (with cute men). Hahahaha...

 

Char came back for holiday and we held a hen's party for her. So sad I'll be missing her wedding in NYC this month! :( Grr... my only gripe about work is that we can't take leave during certain periods.

Feb

Happy CNY! Happy Valentine's Day! 

Chinese New Year is always a happy occasion to me. I love spending time with my family and friends. I love lohei and CNY goodies. A few things happened during the Vday period, including a partying session with the crazy Cupid gals.

March

March starts with the letter 'M'. Malaysia starts with the letter 'M'. I was in Malaysia a couple of times in March. 

Was in Port Dickson with listeners for a 3D2N trip. Lovely trip. The listeners were great and the indoor pool within the hotel room was a wonderful bonus.

The weekend after, we headed over to the new mall in JB for a Theresa Beauty roadshow. It was my first time hosting a roadshow overseas. Pleasantly surprised that some Malaysian listeners turned up for the event. The other spokesperson Jin-jie, is a cutie. The jokes she cracked were hilarious. Pretty fun experience.

Into the 8th day of April. Let the good story continue to unfold!

Not your regular aunt agony

listening to stef sun's 'Dang Dong Ye Jian Nuan'...
~~~
Didn't really like this song when I first heard it. Thought it was one of those 'emo-wannabe' songs. After listening to it for another couple of times, it slowly grew on me. Like some people.

The days zoom by so quickly I'm getting whiplash from trying to catch a glimpse of the past. Some friends got married, some got pregnant, some gave birth. A few of them found love and a few of them lost love. Such is life. Mine is like a scenic little path along the countryside. Mostly tranquil, not much excitement, at times boring but generally interesting enough to keep me entertained. When you've reached a grand old age of 100, you treasure a peaceful and smooth-sailing life.

Was chatting with Q and she commented that I usually give pretty good relationship advices. Yayaya, you ask where did there come from??? Like all backseat drivers, I direct very well. Maybe I should start my own Antithesis of Aunt Agony column.

Q was upset because her ex had changed for the worse, so reconciliation was probably outta question.

Antithesis Aunt Agony's words of wisdom:

When a bowl is broken, there'll always be a crack. And if now the bowl is chipped and cracked and used and smelly with fermented food inside, why would you still want it???

Past revisited

listening to fish leong's 'Ni Hui Bu Hui'...
~~~
Checked on a galfriend last night over a pint of beer at Blooie's. She went through a rough patch end last year when she broke up with her boyfriend. I guess you really lose yourself when in love. Not a pretty sight. So glad she's recovering well, meeting new people and all.

While catching up, suddenly thought of an email which I'd received long ago: "No male strippers allowed". It reminded me that sometimes losing yourself can be a pretty experience too. Except my lost & found counter has stopped functioning since then.

Movie time

listening to far east movement's 'Rocketeer'...
~~~
Not much of a movie buff coz I can think of better things to do with the two plus hours. However, that being said, I really like the shows I'd caught recently.

Love, and other drugs

Jake & Anne, the hottest onscreen couple so far. Imagine their babies if they were real-life couple. Then again, Jake with Taylor Swift (on/off romance) would make quite good looking babies too.

The part about Parkinson's disease hit a little close to home coz one of Mom's best friends suffers from it. We've seen her gone from an active healthy fun-loving lady, to a bedridden shriveled shell that depends entirely on her husband, the maid, and tube-feeding. Not a pretty sight :(

Hereafter

What happens after we die? Different religions have different takes on this. The agnostics have their own views too. Btw, French language sounds yummy and Brit accent is quite nice.

Black Swan

*sing song voice* Psycho...
But Natalie Portman is so hawwwwt! The sinewy bodies of the ballerinas make me wanna sign up for dance lessons too. The toes and feet however, are quite painful to look at. So scary! I'm quite pleased to recognize the term 'plié' from my pilates class. It makes me feel... less ignorant. Hurhurhur.

Next on my list: 127 hours and probably The King's Speech.

Another GLORIOUS year begins!

Happy New Year! 
This is just a quick note. I'll be back soon.
Very busy these days. I'm not sure what I've been up to, but it sure feels busy.

2010 had been amazing. Some incidents were quite dramatic but all in all, the year was a joyride.
I miss 2010 already, but I think 2011 will be just as brilliant.
Now, gimme some time to gather my thoughts.

BRB.

Trick or Treat!

The kids from the childcare centre at our office premise dropped by for some 'trick-or-treat'ing last Friday. At 1130 in the morning, we were attacked by ghosts, witches, princesses and fairies. There were a number of UFOs as well. I think their parents were too busy. They sang, they danced, they partied with us. There were lots of candies for everyone. I even managed to steal some from the kids. We all had a good time.

My convo with some of the children as they came in.

Kid 1: Do you know who am I?
Me: Eh... a princess?
Kid 1: No!!! I am a fairy!
Me: Ok, hello fairy.


Kid 2: (in Spiderman outfit) Do you know what am I?
Me: Eh... Spiderman?
Kid 2: No!!! I am vampire Spiderman!
Me: Hello vampire Spiderman!


Kid 3: (looking at me) What are you?
Me: I... am... a.... (paused for dramatic effect) DEEJAY!
Kids: (in chorus) Hello deejay!!!


Hurhurhur... Children are so gullible. :)

TRICK OR TREAT!!! 

Sara Wee was overwhelmed.

The 僵尸 smudged the blood on his cheeks.

 Feeding time at the zoo.

 

My colleagues actually dressed up for this.

It's cool to work in this industry, isn't it?

I had to go for a campus event, so no outfit for me.

No worries. Photo editing works too.

Happy Halloween!

Fishy biz

listening to cha ban sheng's 'Tai Tou Ming'...
~~~
Kids are funny sometimes.
My five year old nephew called my aunt to ask for some guppies.

Jord: Yi-po (grandaunt), can you give me two of your guppies?
Aunt: Sure, I'll bring to Chor-chor (great grandma)'s place on Saturday.
Jord: Thank you. I will give you my fighting fish ok?
Aunt: Erm.. it's okay. Thanks Jord, but I don't need your fighting fish. Keep it for yourself.
Jord: Take it take it.
Aunt: No it's alright.
Jord: Ok. Bye.

Two minutes later, my aunt's phone rang again.

Jord: Yi-po, I am Jord.
Aunt: Yes dear?
Jord: I think for a while and I think you MUST take my fighting fish.
Aunt: I don't want your fighting fish.
Jord: I take two of your guppies, so you must take my fighting fish. My fighting fish is very strong and beautiful. It is .... (spends five minutes telling my aunt how good his fighting fish is.)
Aunt: But I don't want it. You can have the guppies, but I don't want your fighting fish.
Jord: No. You MUST take my fighting fish. I will bring on Saturday. Ok. Bye.

That's how my fifty year old aunt, who tried to give away my cousin's guppies, ended up with a fighting fish. Which died in her care after two weeks. Jord still doesn't know. Oops.

Drunk texting

listening to tian fu zhen's 'Ji Mo Ji Mo Jiu Hao'...
~~~
Drunk texting cracks me up. C walked into the studio on Monday and stood in front of me.

C: WTF did  you message me on Sat?
Me: What?
C: Go check your outbox.

"I'm in betw whr qe we ewweede andnext palve"

I think it happened when C couldn't find me at the party. In my defence, I don't think it was THAT hard to decipher the message. *shrugs* Oh, and apparently when Robin asked how the party was, my reply was that my shoes were killing me and I'm gonna marry Lee Hom. With crazy spelling errors.

Well, at least I got my facts right. :D

Fall season: Mulberry Alexa. Mine!

listening to lee hom's 'Ni Bu Zhi Dao De Shi'...

~~~

My precioussssss... You are here....

Out of stock in Singapore. Out of stock in London.

Grape was sold out, last piece in plum.

Of course I had to have you in my arms.

My precioussssss...

I will hug you to sleep again tonight.

Project Perth

listening to xie anqi's 'Cui Ruo'...

"为什麽 我不觉得快乐 也不觉得难过"

This song leaves me kinda conflicted. Is it really nice? Is her singing good?
There's something wrong about it, but there's also something right about it too.
Ah well, as long as I enjoy it.
~~~


August was a month of travelling. Company cruise, work trip then followed by a mad dash to Australia to check on my brother who was hospitalized. He would be in crutches for a while and forever set off metal detector at airports. But otherwise, all is well. Thank god!

Hospital next door sounds more glamorous than where Bro was admitted.

Friendly resident attending to Ducky looked like guy from Entourage. 

Minus the stubbles.

(pic from canoe dot ca)

Pet Duck was happy to see us.

Look at his wide smile:

Cut along the dotted line:

Flower and I made it a point to eat well at breakfast. 

These mushrooms and bacon strips rocked my world:

Crepes the day after.

 Took some to the hospital for kiddo too.

Paris in Perth:

Spinach and ricotta cheese crepe.

Tasted better than it looked:

Though we were busy shuttling between the hospital, the supermarket and the hostel, it felt less tiring than my Jogja/ Bali work trip. The situation wasn't ideal, but anyhow I love spending time with my family.

Go speak English yourself

listening to gigi leung's 'Shi Jian Hai'...
~~~
Some people really get my goat.  Or donkey. Or elephant. Or some kind of animal.
R read me a letter published in the papers. This person was complaining about the bus driver not being able to speak English. Such letters always get me very irritated.

EXCUSE ME. THIS GUY IS A FRICKIN BUS DRIVER. WHY ARE YOU DEMANDING SO MUCH FROM HIM??? 

Why don't you say he should speak Malay and Tamil too, since these races also made up a significant percentage of the population? Make him go for German/ French/ Italian classes too, since YOG is coming up and there would be foreign delegates in town. Singaporean bus drivers must all learn to speak Spanish as well, coz Spain won the world cup (this makes no sense but I don't give a hoot). Why don't YOU go and learn how to speak Mandarin or Malay or Tamil, depending on what the race the driver is? He's a BUS DRIVER. Just make sure he drives the bus bloody well, and that should suffice!

Let's do a trade-off: the bus driver will go learn how to speak English and you shall go and learn how to drive a bus. I think it sounds extremely fair.

How much do I ♥ World Cup? Lemme count the ways...

listening to lady antebellum's 'Need You Now'...
~~~
Finally the football fever has gone down.
Besides watching the action, most of us had a good time checking out the cute footballers. Yes pretty things make us happy, but somehow, my friends love to burst my bubbles.

In one of my emails to SL, told her I wanna go Argentina and look for hunks like Higuain:

Handsome right???

SL was enthusiastic about Argentina but not the men. In her opinion, Latin American men could turn out too slick and oily. All she could remember about her past experience in Buenos Aires was how they were hit on by twenty-two year old boys. Well babe, at least they didn't look like this:

Hand of God here, any taker?

Then on gchat with YL, after gushing to her about how adorable Jesus Navas is, how good his eyes look...

Even my straight male colleague thinks he's HOT.

My friend insisted such men don't exist.

me: bye bye.. i going spain and argentina liao

YL: ok, go, and then realize that all the men on the street look like puyol.

不要!!!!!! Geez!!! Thanks. Where's your positivity??? You're supposed to be concern about my happiness, no? That's what friends are for, no?

Anyway, I'm sure if I tell them I'm going to Korea to look for hotties, e.g.:

Song Il Guk

I can always count on friends to rain on my parade and tell me that I'll end up with this:
...
...
...
...
...
...

Shinjuu

listening to usher's 'OMG'...
Usher's da man He's still rockin' it. I can't stop chanting 'omg' bits.
~~~

Dinner with J at Shinjuu last week. It's cool how J's so passionate about Jap cuisine, he's actually doing apprenticeship after office hours, at one of the Japanese restaurants. I'm into jap food too. To be more accurate, I'm into TUCKING in to the food. Hurhurhur. :)

Mainly grilled stuff at Shinjuu. Food's pretty good, but/and a little salty. Probably so that customers can chase them down with a pint of beer or some sake. Anyway, salty works for me, so no complaints there.

Some food pictures:

Orange thing in the bowl is the talk of the town these days: molluscs that predict winning football team. I'm not taking revenge on Paul or his relatives, though I have to admit I was a lil' annoyed when Germany beat Argentina. I craved tako sashimi then.

White strips of stingray with dollop of mayo and some ikura. Oh yums. A good alternative to the usual preparation of sambal BBQ. Chewy without being tough, flavourful... Went well with light Sapporo beer.

I can't imagine I'd ever eat this willingly!

At least not at the usual chicken rice stall. 

Guess what:

Grilled platter. Decent selection.

Tori ume shiso:

This was excellent! The meat was succulent and had a nice bbq scent to it. The taste of the plum and shiso leaf also complimented the chicken. Yums.

Hungry must eat.

Thirsty must drink.

Kanpai!