was greeted by an unexpected visitor when i entered my grandma's place this afternoon.... a peach-faced lovebird named "Baby". it so turns out that someone gave my cousins this cute pet bird and they brought it to my grandma's place.... after some initial squeamishness i managed to get it to mount my jeans pocket.... after which it got kinda comfortable and started making its way up my t-shirt by clinging on to the folds of my t-shirt... and when Baby started moving up to my neck i started screaming and jumping cos it was really ticklish... (after the picture was taken) haha but felt like a kid for one whole afternoon, making cooing sounds to attract its attention. =) it was pretty tame though.

new year resolutions? dun really have anything in mind since i dun usually keep to them... but i suppose i will resolve to be less pessimistic and hu si luan xiang less, constantly remind myself to treat every single person i meet with respect, restrain myself from snacking too much, treasure every moment with my loved ones and make the best of my stay at Washington D.C..... and i hope for the many less fortunate souls in this world that no more disasters will hit them and worsen their already dismal living conditions..

Did i suddenly turn birdwoman?  

hmmm i can't help but think about the breadtalk bun.... i dun think you can help much by buying that bread leh....maybe ppl are getting cheated by breadtalk... i think save your money and use it for organizations that really give all the money to the victims.. well, unless of course, you actually want to eat that bun, then i guess it's a different story...

hmmm actually i better go and check out the little sign on the breadpan again.. later i got everything wrong and get sued by some random breadtalk person who visits my blog.... sadly, it's dangerous to talk rubbish on one's blog these days....

the death toll for the earthquake cum tsunami disaster has exceeded 120000... i feel touched and heartened that ppl everywhere are doing their little bit to help. eg. breadtalk has this 9.0 bun or something (though badly named i feel) which costs $2.30 and for every 9.0 bun bought, 90 cents is donated to the red cross or something. though they are still making money out of it!!! at least they are helping i suppose. hmm.. actually i wonder though (if ppl are all so re1 xin1 to help) whether the additional revenue from that bun actually exceeds the donations they hav to make such that overall they make profits?!! ok i shall not be so cynical. anyway, bbc has this article on international aid efforts and lists a host of organizations that ppl can make donations to! so i shall do my small bit and perhaps ppl who frequent my blog (though not many i suppose) feeling generous can do their small bit! Click here! (the internet links are on the RHS)

shopaholic me bought two pairs of shoes yest... but they were really good deals. $50 Sing for a pair of Skechers... feel bad shopping wiht my parents actually cos they just keep asking me to buy things if i like... actually borrowed a microsoft frontpage guide from the lib yest! haha wonder if i will hav the time to read it actually. cos i really feel tempted to do something to my blog.

a little incident two days ago made me feel that i am still a little insensitive sometimes.. but yest i felt that perhaps i am getting a little more rational... and less likely to jump to conclusions. and i suppose i should stop wishing for things that wun ever happen.

the most unglam thing just happened to me this evening.... was at the raffles city restroom and after i flushed, (luckily) my nice nokia hp conveniently slipped out of the side pocket of my gap hobo bag and fell right into the toilet bowl....despite the instinctive (though disgusting) retrieval of the phone right after its undeserving fate and despite immediate efforts to dry to whole phone with toilet tissue, it eventually still died on me after initial deceiving signs of 'revival'..... oh well. clumsy me... kinda upset cos i really liked that phone and it was really user and sms-friendly.... and upon returning home and reporting the unfortunate accident, it gave my mum more reason to reproach me since on this very same morning she just reminded me how my cell phone can drop out of my side pocket if i left it unbuttoned.....
oh well. i shall comfort myself that i managed to find a slip case for my widescreen laptop at funan today... that i met up wtih two groups of ppl and spent an evening with really good company... and that i have a spare phone to doodle around with and thus am not totally uncontactable... sigh. but upset with myself and feel sorry for my poor phone... =P

the unfortunate natural disaster that killed thousands of people in Asia on Sunday reminded me how vulnerable we are to 'random' acts of nature... a commentator on the straits times remarked that for a few moments, everyone, regardless of race, class and wealth, was equally vulnerable.. from rich tourists busking in the sun to the poor living in coastal villages of India and Sri Lanka...and that it was heartening that aid relief too came from many diff places around the world... i personally also felt the need to treasure every moment we have with our loved ones.. cos who can ever predict what can happen the next moment...

my mum has morphed into this chinese painting cum calligraphy expert and i just felt very happy for her that she can spend her free time doing all the drawing she wants.... and made me wonder, when i retire and grow old one day what would i do.... what if i am this old spinster with no kids, what do i devote my energy to...

exercised for the first time in dunno how long this morning! partly because i had slight jet lag and got up at like 530am and was doodling around house with no agenda... but feels good to exercise! i need to get rid of those layers of fats that have been building up around my waist and other spots during finals period. though i have been only back for a day, i can't help but feel really aware of people around me. somehow i am starting to see ppl in a different light. i can't really define what kinda change i am feeling.... but i just got the sense, from like a day out (yest and this morning) that there are actually many poor ppl around.... ok maybe not poor, but like lower middle class maybe? maybe i have been around HDB estates and hawker centers where the less well-to-do folks live.... i dunno why i suddenly feel so conscious of the different classes of people in society... in a way i feel bad that there seems to be a sizeable proportion of the population who aren't exactly very well off.... and will be likely to remain like this over generations... but i guess what matters is that these families are happy? sometimes i guess it's' not very good to know of greener pastures elsewhere cos then when we are down we feel extremely abject and shi bai... sigh dunno. i'm talking rubbish.

while jogging with my dad i was painfully alerted to teh fact that my parents are really ageing ... my dad complained of a constant ache in his shoulder and he seemed thinner than last time... if i had stayed in the US going about my own affairs i wouldn't be really aware of all these things about my family.... i'm glad i came home in a way. i guess if i had just stayed there i would just be so bogged down by my OWN affairs and my own problems and get so self-centred or worried about other trivial things constantly on my mind and not even think about my family that much... and am glad to receive smses from familiar faces like shu, jing, joyce, jeannice and ting!

despite having been home for less than 12 hours, i have already bought 3 pieces of clothing haha. what a shopaholic i am.... but well the sale is really good! g2000 has like 30% off blouses and skirts and 50% off blazers...mango was having a sale too. sigh. foresee myself spending quite a lot of money over the next week or so... the LA flight was really long! 18 continuous hours on a plane really isn't that fun. even though the seats were fairly comfy...