Getting lucky?

We all hope that our lives are smooth sailing and always pray for good luck and good divine lots when we visit the temples. But sometimes when things get too smooth, it feels a little odd and as if something dramatic is looming.

This morning, my journey to work was perfect! I was slightly later than usual but the lift was waiting for me when I stepped out of the house. The traffic lights turned in my favor when I strolled towards it. Then my bus was the first to arrive after I crossed the road. Many empty seats on the bus instead of the usual crowd. Where was everybody? I turned out to be the earliest at work in the department.

Should I go buy 4D?

Coffee and tea

I come from a family of addicts.

I’m hooked to the teh-c from Ya Kun and Wang café. Sometimes, I go for the kopi-c. A cup after lunch has become the norm. I could have spent enough to get an air ticket to Japan after hundreds of days working in Suntec. The addiction started off with work in Toa Payoh when we ate snake every afternoon. Drinking teh-c was part of the daily activity which became a ritual.

My mom’s a coffee addict. She drinks and needs to drink 3 cups a day. I didn’t touch the bitter beverage until after college. My best friend then managed to convince (or was it ‘tricked’) me into trying, starting with a milky, frothy starbucks latte. After that, there was no turning back. Fell in love with Vietnam’s strong brew when I visited Hanoi in 2005. My favourite is ali culi though trung nyugen coffee is supposed to be the best. The addiction to coffee became more fatal when I started my current job with the daily talkshow boss. He stressed out so many people in the department that they started buying coffee for our daily self-help group session in the afternoons or right after the talkshows (morning and afternoon on alternate days). Well, that was at least one plus in this for me! With the change of boss who started buying us coffee/tea in the afternoon, I’m back to my Toa Payoh good old days! And on his account!

As for my favorite drink, it’s gotta be the HK milk tea! The standard is so uniformly good throughout HK and even Macau! Call it a personal preference but I think the best so far is from 兰香园 in Central, HK island though it’s a freaking HK$21!!! The next best in Singapore is from crystal jade. Sigh… but ok lah, $2 only.

When it comes to the intake of caffeine and fish, I’m certainly not as good as my mom. Oh, maybe not fish. She only enjoys buying fish cuz it’s expensive (???) and watching us eat. I can’t sleep after caffeine (I suspect even coke) too close to bedtime, which is why I started collecting phone numbers so I can call people up to chat when I suffer from insomnia.

As for my sister, she's hooked onto hitting mcdull - every day without fail.

Sandra vs Dilbert

Went to watch The Blind Side yesterday. Touching story about an American white lady and her family adopting a black teenager who became a successful football player and winning some best athlete award from NFL (I supposed it’s national football league). Starring Sandra Bullock. At night, I watched Speed on channel 5. Still like her in this better, especially when and Keanu Reeve made such a perfect couple!

Pictures say a thousand words and Dilbert says it all - this strip ran on my birthday. It's a story about a boss who’s only job is to delegate and repackage the merits of his team (and others) as his. Rest of his time is spent on googling on his newfound hobby – golf, besides sleazy stuff (whatever the company allows). Perfect job!

Fantastic weekend

Friday night was the company’s annual dinner. Not throwing of 5-cent coins at us this year. I won’t miss any opportunity to spend the company’s $$$ but not lucky at lucky draw. No ethnic costumes for me, so I decided to be cowboy (ang moh). Thought I actually stood out by not dressing up.

It was certainly a fun weekend for me, and I guessed a tad too much cuz this Monday seems extremely blue.

Had relaxing breakfast with my friend on Saturday at Coffee Bean. It’s 1-for-1 till 11am at orchard central for now! Discovered this when I was hanging out there last week. No crowd and pace was so comfortable. Even shopping at 313 next door was great. And about my friend, the bride-to-be. She made me a beautiful birthday card and put in the most recent photo of me she could find – look at the bunch of fringe I had on my face. So, always make sure you are camera ready! Looking forward to her outdoor wedding at Sentosa in March! It’ll be my first time to an outdoor wedding!

Another primary school gathering that evening, and probably the last one for the year. Attendance increased by 33.333333%. We were up from 3 to 4.

Sunday was even better. I slept the entire day and read gossip magazines in between.

As for today, it's watching The Blind Side this evening. Free tickets from the person I least expected!

Hope for the day

One week zoomed by without much excitement except almost a whole week of (free) feasting. What more can I ask for other than for a heavy downpour as early as possible this evening, so our Annual Dinner can end immediately after the buffet.

I also hope to find a same top for me and my sister this Chinese new year it’s been years since my mom packaged us as twins.

Freebies are great!

This year I’m extremely lucky cuz my birthday treats started from last week and should end by next weekend. Have been enjoying lots of good food. The best was an overnight muffin topped with a candle and a paper flame which ‘flickered’ when I blew at it. Long time no see friends called me up for dinner. And my primary school friends I met up with last Friday for a gathering gave me a pleasant surprise. Free dinner and thereafter a cake. My friend the organiser was supposed to walk out with the cake at the café but it was very crowded so we went to sit at the harbor front and he came back with it after his visit to the toilet. I supposed he also told quite a few people in our alumni who didn’t turn up about my birthday which was probably why I got SMSes from some on my birthday. First time in so many years haha! Since it was a surprise, there wasn’t any photo.

Had turkish lunch (Sofra at Shaw towers. Great food!) and thai dinner on my closest girlfriends on my birthday. Noticed my new necklace from my friend? We took the long ride on the escalator to the rooftop of orchard central for some breeze after dinner to escape from the crowd. The B2 link to Centrepoint was cool. Reminds me of Macau. Orchard road on weekends is crazy! Hope orchard central continues not to do so well.

My neighbour at work baked and brought me a hershey’s chocolate cake this morning. Nice cake – sweetness just right and moist. Yes, the one on the left is the baker. Can reveal her contact number if you need to place an order with her. Guess what? The intelligence chief bought me a gift after receiving a slice of my cake. Can buy 4D! Oh, and u can see i already cut my hair.

My China colleague gave me a present which she said could be taken with me onboard a plane to the States. It’s actually a nice earring hanger. Guess should be safe though I didn’t really understand what she meant.

The company’s annual dinner is coming up this Friday. We’re supposed to turn up in costumes of another ethnic group so I’m wearing the cheongsam since (I really think) I’m Indian.

One year wiser?

My birthday’s coming up and I’ve received my first cake – a banana walnut muffin (my favorite flavor) (p)reserved from yesterday. The thought really counts! The icing on the cake really was the flame on the candle. Very environmentally friendly and real – it flickered when I blew at it! Thereafter, I could remove it with my fingers. I love it so much that I broke out in tears of joy (or laughter, rather) uncontrollably.

I didn't have to go to OCBC!

Birthday wish for this year is there will be no more terrorists in USA and Canada for now, so I can go for my holiday there in spring. They can make a comeback after that.

For now, I think it’s more important to cut my fringe/trim my hair! And not forgetting a photo of me in the necklace my colleague bought me for Xmas, as presented by McDull earlier!

Childhood Friends

These are 2 of the friends I meet annually – when the one oin the middle, a PhD student in engineering, comes back to Spore from Australia once a year. Other times of the year, the rest of us are all in Spore but never meet or even contact. Once in a while, I do get sms adverts like so-and-so has gone into some business, festive wishes which have been dwindling.

More about these 2 friends: one in the middle should be my oldest friend unless I can trace my kindergarten friends. I knew him since pri one. The other one was from another class and said he also knew us since pri one cuz we joined them for Chinese classes, but we have absolutely no recollection. He lives and works near me but we never kept in touch. The cool thing about him – he is a ROCKER! So proud that I know him!

Their lives sound fun but I also have my far share of fun and excitement – the daily intelligence journal and now even in the research work for a property project (highly confidential). How cool?!

The one on the left is ME.

Precious English Lesson

I had wanted to gather over time and then put up the list of precious (but widely/daily available) pointers from a foreign talent. However, the pinnacle was reached last Friday, so I had to put the list up before the next one, at the expense of bad karma. Please appreciate this:

Pronunciation:
Morning/ afternoon = morling/afterloon which have now been corrected but followed by “se-peaking”.
Clinic = key-e-nic
Empty = empathy
Guess what 'organic yoga' means? Our initial guesses were yoga without a mat or naked yoga. It turned out to be neither cuz she meant 'organic yogurt'.

Spelling:
Manicure = Menicure
Pedicure = Penicure (my boss said this service only available to men)

Yes, copyright belongs to the foreign talent who said she got PR status within a year cuz she’s bilingual! Singaporeans, buck up!!!

More X’mas presents!

More interesting and beautiful presents received!

From Canada:


One of the three legendary animals for the Vancouver winter olympics 2010. This one is called Quatchi, a sasquatch which eats anything n has big feet – just like me! But it can do a split which I only managed up to secondary school. He wears earmuffs, just like McDull!

Colourful dainty necklace. My friend and I have been searching for a multi-shaped, multi-material and multi-coloured necklace. This makes a good interim one!

From Singapore (and Sarawak – the sender is):

A cute but not-so-powerful milk bottle fan - but probably the most irritating gift i got this year. Quatchi’s hair barely moved.

A bunch of leaves necklace. Love this one but haven’t found right clothes to match it but here’s to show much I value it.

Doesn't he look royal with it?

Avatar

Great show! Though initially put off by the smurf-looking blue monkeys. After watching it, the characters seemed more based on zebras than monkeys. And must it in 3D, though sometimes I got tricked by my own eyes – I thought the flying stones are going to hit me or something and panicked for a moment.

My only peeve is that the 3D specs are manufactured in the US, so given my asian nose, the specs were too heavy and didn’t sit well on my nose. I was holding it almost throughout the 3-hour show.Those at Universal Studio were so much lighter and comfortable.

The ‘live nature and thy planet’ message is so much clean cut and crystal clear than the days of quacking at Copenhagen. And great soundtrack! Pls lend it to me of you have it!

Incidentally, I thinhk my last movie was Slumdog Millionaire. That shows how picky or out I am. My favourite singers are ABBA and The Bee Gees.

Collectible Accessories

I’m an accessories lover cuz I believe they can jazz up plain dressing. Most are bought from my own pocket and I’ve also received lots as gifts. Can’t feature so many here (lazy to take pictures and lost some, esp earrings), so here’re some blingy ones:

Bought this in a pair in Portland in March 2008. It turned single less than half a year.

My ex-colleague made this for me to make up for my loss. It suffered the same fate.

Ball of fur - Xmas present this year.

My recent favorite from mini bits. Worth buying – when there’s a sale.

Promised myself to stop buying bags cuz simply too many, esp from Naraya which I deeply regretted. However, when I saw this on new year’s eve, I knew I had to buy it - so chocolaty, delicious looking. And it was on sale.

I believe in choosing clothes and accessories your style. So if you’ve a china face (and most importantly the behaviour), yes you look good in the act-cute/striking/cheapo dresses and the carpet-looking shawl though 99.99% of things are MIC!