Alright 2009 is coming to a close and gasp where has the year gone? I ask the same rhetoric every year. Every year, same same, but different.

So here's the obligatory post on how my 2009 was. I shall sum it up as succinctly as I can haha but knowing my tendency to ramble...

No. of days of no pay leave/annual leave forced to consume: 27
No. of days that I feel damn happy that I don't have to work: 27
No. of copies of 8 Days rotting on my table: 21
No. of movies I watched: 8 (that is a lot considering that I usually watch 2-3 on average per year)
No. of concerts/musicals etc attended: 8


No. times I passed by immigration: 5


No. of classes/courses that I signed up for: 4 (Yoga, boxercise, pilates, Korean)
No. of times I stripped naked in front of strangers: At least 3 times I think?
No. of failed interviews attended: 2 + 1
No. of Korean dramas watched: 2 (down from the heydays of maybe 6 or more!)
No. of new lands visited!: 2
No. of showdowns with bosses: 1 (and that is more than enough)
No. of Shinhwa stuff I bought: 1 2 (I know! Crazy little right! Especially when you compare it to the amount I spent last year... $882.37. Enough to go to Cambodia and back OMG!)
No. of failed 5km runs: 1
No. of "peach blossoms": ZERO! Where is the cute waiter from Kyoto?
No. of hours spent on Facebook: Way too much for my own good
No. of hours spent reading allkpop: I shudder to think of it
No. of fun & memorable times I've had with friends - cooking, eating, mahjonging, ktving, travelling, hanging out etc: countless :) and priceless

Of course this is a very superficial gist of my year haha but looking back, there really isn't a huge anchor point or milestone in 2009. If I were to recall 2009 it would be marked mainly by my travels. For next year, I hope I will conquer new destinations (anyone keen on Europe? or else I'll probably go with my mom on a package tour... but I'd rather go with friends), get a good new job (I BETTER!!!), improve on my Korean, maintain a certain level of fitness, and have more memorable and happy times with loved ones!

Yeah and I have my "do one new thing a year" motto to abide by. Next year I shall go speed dating! LOL.

And that photo album where I stick all my stubs and stuff? It's almost full. How befitting that it contains almost a decade worth of memories (there's stuff from 2000 in there!) just when 2009 is coming to an end.

Did I mention that no-pay leave has been cancelled wef 2010? DAMN! Now I really have nothing to look forward to in 2010.

Enough of the moans and groans. Have a Happy 2010 all!

After a whole night of desperate searching, I had the sense to try TVants on one of our Windows XP computers and realized that it's not SingNet that banned TVants, but VISTA!!! Idiot VISTA!!! #%*(@#$(&!$!!!!

I am one desperate person trying to find all ways and means to watch live Internet TV tomorrow! The annual Korean music festivals are on the 3 major broadcasting channels today, tomorrow and 31st, and I've already missed the SBS one today. :(

Stupid SingNet blocked TVants I think practically everything else is also blocked. RAWRR!!!

My parents are having a 爱 marathon (aka that Taiwanese drama That Never Ends) thanks to Mio TV.

I have 2 big pimples and a shitload of clothes to iron, most of which were procured in Cambodia.

And I have to wake up early to meet the Korean teacher tomorrow who will access my competency in the language.

I am starting to think that my one-week break is way too short! I mean it's already Saturday! Where did my Thursday and Friday go?! My weekend will be burnt, and I have to do so many things, one of which is to re-start my job search!

I also have a slight headache.

Sigh.

Aaandd.. it's Christmas!

My last day of work for 2009 was on Wednesday. I'm gonna end the year in a happy and relaxed mode despite being mad busy at work for the past 3 days! My long break starts from Christmas Eve all the way till next year! NO WORK! NO EARLY MORNINGS! 睡到自然醒!!! FREEDOM!!! :)

This unprecedented long break is only for this year coz there will be no more off-days for next year. :( I shall enjoy my last long break in a while to the fullest! I already have so many things to do in mind that I think one week is not enough!!!

So meanwhile, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Enjoy the festive season everyone! I heart the end-of-year holidays :)
메리 크리스마스!

Guess who I spotted today?


A very blurry picture of 周董!
Saw Lin Chiling too but my phone's camera was too laggy. I was so busy trying to take a picture of Jay Chou that I didn't even look up when he walked by and he was gone in a flash! But he did his little smirk and hand sign thing.

Back from Cambodia looking 2 shades darker and with a ton of laundry to do! It was really scorching Hot! Hot! over there.

Cambodia was a good experience and I wouldn't mind going back to Phnom Penh again for the shopping. Oh my, the shopping! The shopping pwns Bangkok in my opinion. For US$20, you can probably get 4 or 5 very nice tops, a pair of comfy pants, and perhaps enough spare change for a small clutch or pouch or two. Dirt cheap!!! There was also a hugeeeeee selection of shawls to choose from. My hauls included a total of 19 tops (for self and family), 6 pairs of pants, 1 skirt, a very nice rattan handbag, a red monk's bag (as my mom calls it), a small clutch which I intend to use as a lunch bag, 2 shawls (for mom and sis) and a lot of other knick knacks and miscellaneous souvenirs and stuff. Oh! And I got a pirated Korea Lonely Planet Guidebook and a pair of sunglasses with prescription lenses! There were Adidas tops going for US$3.50! Totally regretted not buying more. And I wish I'd bought more tops and gone crazier at the Russian Market!!!

All in all, Cambodia would make a good and cheap shopping getaway. I spent $800++ in total for 2 cities, but if well-planned, I think a budget 4-day trip with mad shopping in Phnom Penh can be done with $600. If Angkor Wat is on the agenda, it would be better to fly to Siem Reap and then fly back from PP. That would save the time and money needed to get back to Siem Reap to catch the flight home! A tip though, bring a couple of face masks along because those would really come in useful when travelling on tuk tuks on the dusty roads in PP. The roads of PP are really dirty.

Now it's back to the sad reality of work after all the excitement of a holiday. I'm not dreading going back to work so much this time round, because all I need to do is to survive 3 work days and then it'll be a 11-day long break till next year! :)

After a super busy weekend - parents away again, so stuck with all the household chores again, in addition to trying to lead a social life - I'm finally done with the ironing and all and started to dig out clothes to pack but I got distracted by the computer. Again. Like playing games that totally add no value to my life, clearing my camera memory card and stuffing my MP3 player with videos that I will probably not have the time to watch.

It's almost 6am now and I have 8 hours to pack, sleep, and get myself to the airport. Other things like catching up on allkpop (omg I have not read allkpop and newspapers for 3 days!!! I am so behind the news) and watching videos not included. There is just too little time! I have not felt so unprepared for a trip before!

I accidentally scalded myself while ironing just now and I have a welt on my wrist now. :( On the flip side, all my ulcers have either healed or are going to heal soon! Yay! Just in time for the trip too.

Strangely enough I think I will probably sleep more in Cambodia than I do on normal days.

In other news, I passed my Korean placement test with a pretty good score! Hooray! I have no time to meet up with the teacher till Boxing Day so we shall see how it goes.

Ugh back to packing... it currently stands at about 5%.

The SingTel Mio guys came over the weekend and ta-dah, our house is now Mio equipped. At first I dismissed Mio as a white elephant since I'm already busy with all that eyeball action online. So I only found the time to explore it just now, and GUESS WHAT! I found out that there is KBS World!!!!!!!
Life (and TV choices) just got a whole lot more exciting!

Our Internet plan has also been ramped up to 10Mbps SO IT BETTER DELIVER!!! So far so good. My surfing has been mostly smooth.

Caught Broadway Beng over the weekend and it so happened that there was a review on the show in Life! today.
Couldn't have agreed with the reviewer more - I thought the show was kind of all over the place!
But okay, if you like Hokkien songs and getai I think it'll make good entertainment for you.
Kumar is having a show next year. I prefer Kumar's humour actually.

NO TIME TO WATCH THE AMAZING RACE!!! I hope I don't get to accidentally see who won in some random article... And my stubborn ulcers! Still rotting in my mouth. And I have a freaking huge pimple pulsating in the middle of my forehead. :(

Ulcer count: 2 in left cheek, 1 on tongue, 1 on upper lip, 1 on lower lip, and a few tiny tiny ones that may have been healed.

I just finished watching The Amazing Race. Flight Time and Big Easy made a bad choice! If they do it systematically, it's not that hard to form a word with 5 letters when they already know what the first letter is. They're athletes but not very logical people I think (like when they struggled for so long with the suitcase and the code). At least they were funny!

Not really rooting for anyone in the final 3 teams this season.

My mouth is full of ulcers. *sadface*
At least 3 on my inner left cheek and countless other small ones all around.
My whole mouth just feels sore.
I hope they recover before I go on holiday!!!

I need some strong, potent ulcer-killer medicine.

Talk about extreme. This has by far got to be the strangest, most disturbing and most disgusting fandom encounter I've read. It's beyond obsessive! I think the fan in question is severely DERANGED!

Caveat: The article in question may lead to some rather disturbing images.

I feel very sorry for Taecyeon. It's really bloody (no pun intended) disgusting! OMG. It ain't easy to be an idol star nowadays...