Oh look who's here!

Happy New Year and happy 2014 y'all!

 

From the 45th floor of MBS haha

MBS is super crowded on NYE, but we found a good spot to catch the fireworks!

Still trying to recover from the aftermath of the wedding yesterday. Had about 1 hour of sleep the night before the wedding and considering that the 姐妹s only got to know each other because of the wedding and the dynamics of the group (read: Bridesmaidzilla!!!), I think we did pretty ok.

 

 Me in my lok kok t-shirt and shorts and the radiant bride in her red gown! Haha

Too bad I didn't have any photos of me emceeing! LOL was a little nervous and I probably sounded very stiff like I was doing a Chinese passage recital. LOL. And I think it's time to retire my killer heels, twisted my ankle on Christmas Eve and made the mistake of wearing killer nude heels which made me walk like a duck and probably placed unnecessary strain on the recovering ankle. Luckily I had the help of Paul who vroomed to help me get another pair of shoes from home! :D

So that's how Day 1 of 2014 was! May the rest of the year be smooth sailing!

Merry Christmas...!!! Oh wait.... Christmas is over already haha.

So I obviously should be sleeping now (it's 5am) but I took a long nap from 11+pm to 3am so I guess that should make up for some of the lost sleep.

And it's time for... *drumroll* the annual wrap up post! The time we take to sit down and look back at the year past. Actually I'm not really reflecting about my year, but just randomly plucking off things from my head about what I did. So here's my year in review!

In 2013, I...

MOVED ON! *fireworks*

- I moved on from a hazardous relationship and all that 藕断丝连 nonsense and thankfully found someone a bazillion times better (I think I struck the lottery on that one). Took a while and everyone's right, we will all get there eventually, painful as it was (at that time).

- I moved on (or am about to) from a company that I've been with for close to 6 years. I haven't "officially" tendered but I will miss the nice people there... other than that, good riddance! Haha.

- My mindset moved on too. I used to relish my single life and did not harbour any hopes of settling down (awesome for me - no need to think about having kids plus I get to save my money to do things I want haha). I guess partly because of my friends' influences and seeing people getting married and settling down around me that I start to think - hmm, maybe the married life ain't that bad. Of course, a lot depends the timing and the person, and I am thankful that the right person appeared at the right time.

Which explains the Sale of Balance and the seemingly fast-forwarded pace of the relationship. But if not now, then when?

- I moved from climbing mountains to swimming with the fishes! Hurhurhur. But in terms of achieving my "do one new thing a year" goal, I get an A! Haha. I'm running out of new things to do next year though. Any suggestions?

- I also moved from being a poor struggling employee to a dead broke and struggling employee, if that is even possible. Hahaha.

- And moved from being at my ideal weight to +4kg more. Blah. :x

Also took plenty of trips this year starting from Shanghai, Ho Chi Minh, short trips to Genting, Phuket, Dayang, KL, Batam, went trekking in Nepal and finally ending off the year in Seoul. Lots of notable moments such as seeing magnificent scenery and snow falling. I think one of my resolutions next year should be to not go on so many trips so that I can save some of my annual leave and most importantly, save some money. :x

And the weddings in 2013! Weddings involve a lot of work but I like to be part of them to share the joy of the couple. :D For good friends I mean. In fact I'm starting off 2014 with another wedding! Looks like my whole 1 Jan will be gone sigh!

Looks like Moving On is the recurring theme for 2013! Moving on ahead with life and planning for your future would, I suppose, signify some personal growth and development so I hope that it means at least I've erm, grown somewhat to be a better person.

I really have no idea what I want 2014 to be like. Living life one day at a time as usual. But it really does seem like odd-numbered years are better for me haha. I just hope my new job will treat me well. *cross fingers*

I've had a nice long break since the Thursday afternoon before CNY, except on Single Awareness Day when I went back to work, followed by another lazy Friday without work to lead into another long weekend. Tomorrow will be one of those days when I will wear my "I Hate Mondays" t-shirt.

Angbao collection for this year is a little dismal thanks to our lateness. It has also been pouring almost every day during visiting. Which is a little sian.

Single Awareness Day was surprisingly not lovey dovey at all. Hahahaha. I didn't see anyone carrying huge bouquets of flowers around! Or maybe it was because I didn't take public transport on that day. No matter. I tried hard not to think of last year's 14 Feb when I was in Hong Kong.

Also 18 Feb is my 5th year at work and I can now declare that I've given half of my twenties to the same company. Rare indeed for a young working adult, most of my contempararies are already on their second or third job. Youth, ah~ such a fleeting, transient thing. Once it's gone, IT'S GONE!!!! Shit.

As an exchange of sucking away my youth, the company has decided to reward me with 400 buckaroos. :) Woots, an added bonus for my travel fund! But if you think about it, that's only $80 per year I've served and less than $6 per month? Hahaha. Ok la. Mai hiam.

So that has been life. Pretty blah and boring, and work is getting busier, but blah and boring beats miserable and angsty any day. Haha.

The predicted End of the World came and went, and we're still alive. It is, to be honest, a little disappointing. But well, we have reached the end of 2012, that time when we all start to reflect and take stock of the year's happenings. Every year I write a post summarizing what I did and the more significant experiences I went through. So here's my scorecard for this year.

Overall, I think the lows outweighed the highs this year; Q4 was particularly shitty.

Career
No breakthrough, didn't get my promotion, still in the same job, not sure where I am heading towards. Although I did complete a Project Management course, I'm not sure if that's what I want to do. Basically, the whole building and construction industry does not interest me. I guess this is a LOW for me.

Love
Definitely a down-in-the-pits, deep-in-the-valley kind of LOW. Too much has been said about this. All the wasted time and effort and feelings invested. My eyes, small as they are, have widened; my once giving heart has closed. Occasional bouts of bitterness and negativity still creep up on me every now and then, but it's amazing how fast you have moved on. W said 我放不下，我不甘心，因为付出了还是得不到他。So 2013 better be the year where I let go and move forward. I may end up not entering another relationship ever again, but I need to clear such vermin out of my life. Flush the toxins away!

Health
Not great, I think I developed a cough at least 3 times this year, worst of which was the terrible bout of allergic cough that lasted for 1.5 months. Recently, I've got this boil/pimple/cyst? growing in a sensitive area. Spent so much money on the doctor this year. Le sigh. Well, the silver lining is that I lost some weight, hopefully can maintain. I guess neither a HIGH nor LOW.

Wealth
This one is like a perpetual LOW for me every year since I'm always broke with neither pay raise or promotion in sight. Hahahaha.

Friends
患难见真情。Very thankful to all my friends for all the encouragement and comfort during those difficult weeks. Special thanks to Ade and Shan for the whatsapp chats and offering a listening ear, Karen my MSN buddy for listening and understanding, the Royalties especially the long suffering Gillian who has to bear with my random outbursts, petty complains, rants whenever drama strikes, Viber calls late at night (guess this is when the time difference works in my favour hahaha), and W for the mutual bashing of the asshole. Haha. Who needs guys when you have awesome friends right? HIGH!

Travels
Didn't travel far, instead I took plenty of short trips around the region this year. Hong Kong/Macau in Feb, KL/Genting in June, Kota Kinabalu and then Langkawi in July, Taipei/Taichung in Nov and Bali in Dec. Short trips are a pretty nice way of recharging and getting away from Life. Should probably do more of such trips if the budget allows. So well, I guess a HIGH for having the chance to travel, minus some points for some of the travels which involved the jerk.
I have no concrete travel plans for next year though. Possibly a diving trip and Nepal, but details are still pretty sketchy.

Other Milestones
This one is definitely a HIGH - climbing Mount Kinabalu and making it to the peak! Likewise another HIGH would be completing my first half marathon, and a couple of 10km runs! Also tried out Salsa classes. Hmmm. Seems like I'm the type who needs to have a goal to work towards. Else life gets pretty blah.

Hobby-wise, I think I'm improving on the baking. In other news, a lot also happened to the people around me this year - new relationships, engagements, getting a new home, relocating, losing loved ones... etc. And I haven't seen one of my best friends in 6 months! :( Point is, everyone has their own life and shit to deal with, and that's why I'm grateful for all the friends who have rallied around me in times of need.

I guess if I look back and scrutinize, pretty life changing stuff happened in 2012, one of the more impactful years in recent memory. Even-numbered years weren't that great for me so let's hope 2013 will bring lots of better things (like a new job?).

Gonna start it off the year with a bang by having an awesome KTV session with the pals! :) Gotta run, am late!!! :x

This is probably the only time you can see me bustin' out such sleek moves LOL.

Merry Christmas folks.

LOL another one! Very amused by it hahaha.

中秋节快乐! The moon was a huge yellow orb today.
Or yesterday. Technically yesterday.
Next year I'm gonna buy some snowskin durian mooncakes. Or the famous Raffles Hotel champagne truffle mooncakes. I've never tried them.

And I'm procrastinating! I'm gonna regret procrastinating. I have a 15% assignment to do, due on Thursday. It's not rocket science. I should have done it today. But I didn't. :(

Session #8
Distance covered: 11.27km
Time: 1:22:12
Average speed: 8.23km/h

Prosperous Dragon Year everyone!!! :D

This year I've been doubling up as the role of the family chauffeur, since we rented a car for CNY. The rates are exhorbitant but we are paying for the convenience I guess.

Anyways, I reserved a Ford Focus and got a free upgrade to a Toyota Camry when I went to collect my car on Saturday. The Toyota is bigggggggggg and I'm not used to handling such a big car! Very worried that I'll scratch it somehow when turning tight corners especially in multi-storey carparks. I hate multi-storey carparks. They are the bane of all drivers!!! ROARRRRRRR *like a dragon*

My driving skills are still noob and parking is a family effort (everyone tells me TURN NOW! and keeps on eye on the the back to make sure that I get into the lot without buanging someone else's car). Still better to be driven around than to drive. And it's not just guys who cannot multi-task while driving because I can't multi-task either!

On to more frivolous stuff. I did a Gelish manicure on CNY eve and I must say that I'm very impressed with Gelish! It takes a few coats but it dries instantly under a UV lamp. Which is great for chor lor people like me! I'm always digging my hands around and ruining my nails within minutes after the completion of a manicure. Its hard-as-nails (hurhur pun) coat means that you can scratch, do household chores, dig your ears/nose etc. and it won't smudge nor chip! Excellent!!! The only downside is that it's pretty pricey (I paid $40 for an express mani with Gelish which I thought was a total rip-off o_o) but at least it's long lasting (said to be able to last up to 3 weeks or a month) so at least you get more bang for your buck. I'm sold on Gelish now! Haha.

Signing off with an extremely flattering picture of me. Never thought I'd be one of those 大眼妹, you know like those girls in Taiwan who look super cui without makeup but once they stick on some falsies and do their makeup magic, they look totally transformed! Yeah I look like that too! :D


怎样? 眼睛超大, 脸又尖,　又有樱桃小嘴, 不错吧! :D
Returning the car tomorrow morning. I was hoping to sleep in but my mother wants me to send her to work tomorrow. Le sigh. :( AND WHY DID MY BOSS CALL ME ON A PUBLIC HOLIDAY WHEN IT'S NOT EVEN URGENT I HATE MY BOSS NOW ROARRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

TOMORROW IS NOT A WORK DAY TOMORROW IS NOT A WORK DAY TOMORROW IS NOT A WORK DAY TOMORROW IS NOT A WORK DAY TOMORROW IS NOT A WORK DAY. :(

Ooops! My blog's looking a little woebegone. I've neglected you, blog! :(

3 weeks has gone by since my last post and what has happened?

11/11/11 happened! And the days leading up to that momentous event was spent juggling guest lists, logistics, transport, converting footage, yada yada yada for the that big ceremonial and symbolic event that actually doesn't mean anything significant really - GROUNDBREAKING.

Oh the sweet relief when the event was finally over!

Also just came back from a weekend 2D1N trip to Batam with family and relatives. You know one bad thing about travelling with family or a big group like this? Oh gosh the noise! And the kancheong-ness! They can't just chill - no, they must yell instructions loudly, talk over each other, boss people around... Can get rather jarring on the ears.

Noise aside, Batam probably deserves a blog post on its own. Which I will do so once I find the time to blog! Also spent an entire weekend baking in the hot sun, drenched in the rain, weathering the elements and unpredictable weather, just to help my friend out in a shoot for a short film. Which also rightly deserves another post by its own!

The year's passing by so fast, I don't even know what I'm doing sometimes... my 365 blog, which was meant to chronicle my entire year, is quite a failure hahahaha. I got too lazy to post photos every day. :p

But the end of the year is nigh! I likey! Festive mood and all that! :)

It all started with a birthday greeting a Primary school classmate left on my wall on Facebook, and the idea to have a class gathering (after 13 long years!) finally came into fruition! It took about 2.5 months of planning (and procrastinating) and I am proud to say that I was the main organizer for this! I spearheaded it! Positive action verbs! Woohoo!

Gotta thank Facebook for the ease of contacting people and linking people up.

Lunch was initially awkward - in typical Singaporean fashion, 80% of the attendees were late - but it was soon salvaged by the arrival of the gregarious ones. Over the course of idle chit-chat and interview-like questions where everyone politely probed about each other's choice of earning money, I found out that 2 of them used to date (!!!) and surprisingly, none of us present were engaged, married, or had kids. And everyone concurred that it was indeed surprising!


Some I haven't seen at all ever since I left Primary School!
Oh! And I met this cute Korean guy in my last Korean lesson for the level! Our teacher invited some Koreans students over and we hosted a small party for them. We also had to prepare questions to ask them and half the time I was just stuttering in broken Korean.

And I spent unnecessary money buying 3 more dresses today. I have enough new clothes to last me from 初一到初四，no actually more, because some I bought without planning to wear it for CNY. Sigh. SELF-CONTROL PLEASE! And I also realized that there is only 1 more weekend left to CNY, and I haven't done any spring cleaning yet! Which means I have to clear my table and etc etc etc next weekend!

Anyway, I think I kinda like my brown hair now. :)

I just discovered the "Song of 2010" in 2011. That is what happens when you listen exclusively to K-pop. You get disconnected from what the rest of the world is listening to.

It's called "Love The Way You Lie" - Eminem feat. Rihanna. It was with some kind of morbid fascination as we watched the MV during KTV yesterday.



It's an oddly powerful song. I guess it's the angsty rap. 总之，打女人的男人就是贱男人。

We (or rather, I) also discovered a whole lot of other songs and music videos promoting the hedonistic lifestyle. It's all about parties, booze and sex nowadays. And like we concurred, folks nowadays don't even try to be subtle or vaguely suggestive about it. It's all about being explicit and in-your-face. I even saw a flashed boob in the Black Eyed Peas' I Gotta Feeling. Omo.

Anyway I had a fabulous start to the year with lots of good food but I'm rather sad that today is the last day of my week-long break. The worse thing is that I feel like I haven't even done anything much! I need another week-long break! Booooo. :(

Some good times :)




Some good food :)




At Chilli's


At Hediard, this small cafe along Tanglin Road. Might be French.




Thai food along Purvis Street


Ending the day with desserts at 满记
One of my colleagues at work had this 365 project for 2010 - it was like a photo journal where she took a photo for every single day of the year. Hmmm I'm wondering if I should embark on something similar?

Anyhow I'm going to make the best out of this Sunday! Tons to do! Need to iron! Need to jog! Need to email my Korean teacher and I've been procrastinating!!!

Christmas in 2010: Impromptu mahjong till the wee hours, slept till afternoon, ironed, packed my wardrobe, surfed the net, read the papers.

Welcome to my boring life! Happy Boxing Day pals! :)

It's only early November but I can already feel the start of the Christmas vibe! I love the relaxed holiday feel that comes with the end of the year. :)

I finally finished watching 学警狙撃 at 5am this morning. This has got to be the most exciting HK drama I've ever watched! Full of twists and turns and the baddies aren't written as the typical one-dimensional evil character either. Bravo to the scriptwriter!

I've read 6 copies of 8 Days in a span of 4 days! I shall aim to reach Issue 1000 (that's the Dec 13 issue) by the end of my break. 9 more copies to go omg.

On 初二 I went to my grandmother's house to 拜年 (the same grandmother who comes to our house every Saturday and throws tantrums like a kid, refuses to bathe, and keeps asking when she is going home etc etc). Seems like her dementia is getting worse, because she can't even recognize her own house! When night falls she will demand to go home - even when she is already at home. She will get very angry when everyone just patronizes her. So in order to appease her, my uncle bundled her up into the car, drove from the multi-storey carpark down to the void deck of her house. She will willingly believe that that is her house when she returns to an empty house instead of one that is teeming with people. Aiyoh.

On 初三 my relatives came over and I lost at very badly at mahjong.. haha. My auntie waived off my "school fees" in the end. They are used to playing with bigger stakes so $0.20/$0.40 is too difficult for them to count. HAHA! 赚到! But I still lost $2 at blackjack.

Half of my break is gone, hopefully the other half will crawl along slowly... KTV with colleagues later!!!

Happy Tiger Year and Happy Valentine's Day!

Devastating news about my newfound wrinkle aside, the next time CNY and Vday falls on the same day, we'll all be like 63 years old.
Which means MORE WRINKLES! Omg. But I don't think I will mind the wrinkles as much when I'm 63.

I hope this week will pass by reeeaaaaaaalllllyyyyyyy S........L.......O.........W........L.......Y...............................

새해 복 많이 받으세요~!

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!

Oh, how I miss my 4-day weeks!!!
I received my full pay this month but still.
I finally get to enjoy a long weekend after 4 long weeks of waiting. *misty eyed*
Now I just need to get through another 2 weeks before the lovely holidays come!!! :)

I love the end of the year! The weather is cooler, the year is wrapping up, the mood is festive, there's a bonus payout, and there are more holidays to look forward to. YAY! *beams*

MOOOOOOO!

Happy Lunar New Year! :) We've entered another cycle and me and my peers are turning 24 this year! I still think that I'm 22 actually. Haha.

May everyone have a prosperous year ahead!
(Or as prosperous as the current economic climate allows, anyway. Every other page in the papers is about the budget, drawing into our reserves, cost-cutting, tightening purse strings, -5% to -2% growth... depressing or what?!)

But whatever. Collect lots of hongbaos, people! HUAT AH!

What's wrong with Pet Society?!?! Ever since they added this "save game" thing I've had problems with it. I can't seem to save my game and whatever changes I did to my pet's house, or whatever races I win, are USELESS.

Please go back to the old Pet Society!!!

In other news, I spent the entire Saturday (or what's left of it after I wake up) cleaning my table and its surrounding areas! Woohoo, now my table's (kinda) spick and span and very well organized. But I bet I will forget where I re-organized my stuff when I need to find them. Hurhurhur.

And guess what I found stashed away in my calculator box! (Yes, I still keep the box that my trusty calculator - RIP - came in, for reasons unknown to myself. That went out in the trash today.)


Concession passes from my Primary school days!!!
(Calculator box's on the left)


Remember the days before the EZ-link card? I found the good ol' magnetic card that we used to pay for rides last time... with a noisy tsck-tsck sound and a ticket.
I dug around and did a complete overhaul of my cupboard. It's always fun to find things and reminisce...


For example, the book Ichee gave for my 18th birthday! Choke-full of happy and smiley goodness :)


Haha Mad do you remember doing this?!
I think our study room is very unprepared for CNY. Hahaha.

Today's the start of my week-long break! YAY!!! Not that we had much of a choice in choosing not to take leave, but I'm still pretty happy about it. :) HELLO to days of waking up late and lazing around!

It's like having school holidays again! Another week in June, and another in Dec...

I'm going to take this break to finish up On Air. I've been watching it for ages but it's not as compelling as say, Iljimae. I really like Iljimae! I think it's one of the better Korean dramas that I've watched in recent memory. But then again, I've really scaled back on watching K-dramas for the past 2 years.

CNY's around the corner and my table's as messy as ever! I need to do some major spring cleaning this weekend. I took half-day leave on Thursday just to go buy these humongous storage boxes from the Toyogo warehouse in Toa Payoh. The boxes are so huge that they can't even fit into the boot of the taxi!

Okay I'm sleepy and I'm nursing a mild cold and I need more money!

I just caught a male artiste lip-synching to Jason Mraz's I'm Yours on the Marina Bay Singapore Countdown. Sorry, but the lip-synching is very obvious and a bit forced. O.o I think there's a girl on Youtube who can sing it much better. Live.

Usually I don't really watch the Countdown shows but this year I'm paying a bit more attention to it hahaha just because and I see that Ch 5 has all these trailers advertising for the up and coming acquired movies and variety/drama programmes in 2009...

5 more mins to 2009 according to my computer clock... maybe there'll be fireworks downstairs. Happy New Year to all of my 5 readers (and counting)!