My sat mornings continue to be taken up by site meetings at new place, but things are starting to shape up and meetings with contractor (my uncle) are finally getting shorter. Yay! Both D and I are really relieved that my uncle turned out to be an excellent and extremely patient contractor - he also allocated his good workers to our project and they have retiled the entire first floor and the bathrooms quite nicely. People generally don't seem to hold construction workers in very high regard; but to me, good tiling seems to require quite a lot of skill, patience (and prob experience)! And I was really impressed by how they have managed to tile all the irregular outdoor portions of the house so nicely.

As part of DIY house-reno, I also attempted to design our own gate... and I am quite happy with my little gate design! But erm dunno if this can be translated that accurately into an actual gate design heh.

 

Today was a productive but tiring Monday off..  Day started at abt 930am, and ended at like 1030pm! Hmm hours-wise it was actually more xiong1 than work; but I ended up with some surprise finds/ bargains, including an off-the-rack dress I can wear for ROM, so I came home a broke but happy girl. Amidst all the shopping I even managed to catch a glimpse of the Abercrombie guys (in sweatpants only) outside the new A&F store along Orchard! The shoe-search was tough 'cos there just aren't that many choices out there within my budget; I managed to find something decently pretty, so if I cannot find anything else I'd prob just go with this pair.

It's so painful that I have to wake up at 715am tmr to go to work... :(

p/s: I have developed a newfound respect for good salespersons (who know their stuff and are not out to pressure you to buy a certain product/ model). It's also pretty inspiring to meet people who know their trade really well and look like they love what they do for a living..

I get easily stressed at work... so life is hard when it really doesn't have to be that tough :( And stress tires me out. Was stressed over two not super stressful things and ended up feeling very tired tonight/ yest night. I have another stress coming up... have to find wedding shoes in time for my gown fitting next Tues! Bleah...

Inspiring TED speech by Amy Purdy - double amputee and pro snowboarder, on how to draw inspiration from life's obstacles

Fridge Talk

I never thought that buying a fridge can be so complicated and mentally + physically exhausting. After several rounds of browsing in the past couple of weeks (we have been eyeing some Fisher & Paykel ones), we ended up buying a pretty big but reasonably priced two-door LG stainless steel one tonight. We hung around the fridge display area for more than 2 hrs, making repeated rounds to compare the potential candidates, their number of NEA ticks (ie. annual energy consumption) and agonising over the amt of premium we were prepared to pay for chio-ness (For the F&P fridges, the chio-er stainless steel ones cost abt $400 more than their plainer sandstone/white counterparts...)

Our purchase was something we totally did not set out to buy; but LG apparently produces good, high-tech energy-saving fridges. Hopefully we made the right choice; even if we didn't, I can regret later cos I can minimally sleep well tonight knowing that my fridge is not gg to be camouflaged by my kitchen wall :)

[p/s: I think I actually mentioned this in an earlier post - In our pursuit for chio kitchen appliances, we had initially set out to buy a SMEG fridge. But the poor space efficiency and exorbitant price tag quickly led us to strike it off our shortlist :P]

Need to snap out of a very negative outlook/ attitude at work :( Somehow many things seem quite pointless and bureaucratic; and in turn motivation level has plunged significantly of late. I have also been less nice to boss lately; including giving slightly sian3 looks when informed of the need to present stuff at dept planning sessions etc. Bleah... On personal front, life is pretty hectic with renov and wedding stuff to think about every week. I think my tendency to want to be perfectionist about the slightest details also makes life more tiring for myself... Perhaps need to learn to let go and enjoy the moment more, at work and outside work!

The highlight of my work day was a roundtable discussion chaired by my CEO with visiting CSC fellow & co on the "evergreen" topic of housing affordability. My office and another section in my dept kinda co-organised the event so I got to sit in the session as a back-bencher... While our visitors from the States left us with some 'food for thought' comments towards the end of the session, the "star" of the discussion was actually my CEO cos she was really really zai. I don't think I've ever had a boss so outstanding and clear and eloquent in delivering her arguments/views... She's also really skilful in disagreeing in an agreeable and sensible way. Have also found her very humble and approachable despite her very impressive achievements. Such an inspiration for ppl working with her :)

 

Christmas colors on the sunset deck of our junk at hazy Halong Bay

I didn't like Hanoi very much to be honest, and this time round we also had a series of unlucky/ unpleasant little incidents on the trip... :( Sadly my experiences with Vietnam haven't been that great; also ended up with like a bad throat/ nose due to the bad air, so I was pretty thankful to be back in clean and green SG heh.

Later part of this week was split btwn some bridal stuff and house renovation business. I got rather upset with the bridal studio's pricing policy for my made-to-measure evening gown (design with too many folds = $, two diff colors on gown = $, extra bow = $, cheongsam cut = $, extra crystals =$$$). On hindsight, I shld have asked more questions before taking up the package, but oh well sometimes you really wouldn't have known better beforehand. 

Quite a bit of the old house have also been stripped free of old wall/floor tiles; and it was interesting to see all the hidden pipes/ wires beneath the false ceilings and such.. This evening we also visited a SMEG showroom to checkout their bright and retro-looking fridges; but concluded that chio things can be rather impractical... so will prob give up idea of buying a very chio fridge and in turn try to settle for a relatively chio but more functional and reasonably-priced one. The Harvey Norman salesman at Millenia Walk also gave us a very informative overview on induction cookers, ovens and dishwashers... but need to do more homework and research bit more on which brands are more reliable/ durable... The 3 main contenders for the kitchen appliances (esp a good oven!) I want to get are BOSCH vs BRANDT vs ELECTROLUX... recommendations are most welcome :)

Tmr's early morning flight to Hanoi will be on Tiger Airways - an airline I honestly quite dislike.. But since the tics were really pretty cheap we decided to be cheapo and get them anyways. We didn't have time to prepare v much for this trip at all, but perhaps this wld be a good opportunity to just chill and do more of nothing after a relatively stressful few days earlier part of this week :) After > 4 mths of being grounded, I can finally say yay holiday again!!

Our office headcount increased by 50% this week when my new admin exec (V) started work on Mon. For now, find him a little tough to read because he seems to have the tendency to look a little sian/ sad even though I suspect he may not necessarily feel that way. And I think I prob shouldn't have used the word "cute" on some of the little things he decided to place on his workstation (like a sitting bear that's actually a USB hub and a trio of sitting monkeys with heads that rock from side to side) - he gave me a bit of a "What the..." face when I said that, but aiyah, he prob wasn't that pissed with me lah heh. Good thing he's very organised and a self-professed neat freak, so the newspapers lying around on the table got reorganised into nice neat stacks; cos V just "couldn't take it"...

On the personal front, I have to try to settle reno stuff by this Sun, as we are trying to start work next week! Major stress, cos i cannot seem to decide on the bathroom tiles, esp for the ones in the main bedroom. Spent quite a bit of time yest trying to draw up what kitchen can look like; and it was pretty satisfying when I finished; though I felt really exhausted at the end of the day and actually slept before 12am for the first time in a long while. Am now supposed to be doing some work; but am really too lazy to get down to them :(

"Nothing worth doing is ever easy" - words of wisdom from a dear friend!

today I uncovered a pretty silly SOP required for reimbursement/ making purchases. All I wanted to do was to buy a few post-its that my dept admin inventory didn't already stock (they have yellow ones but i needed other colors). The officer in charge of stationery purchases shared with me (to my disbelief) that I had to put up an approval paper before I cld proceed with my (claimable) purchases. In fact, I was told, I had to get approval to buy just about anything. While the officer was nice enough to offer to put up the approval for me; I just thought this step of seeking approval for the most petty of purchases was just plain silly and a waste of time lah. D says it's some new SOP put in place after the SLA saga and not unique to HDB... Think this new procedure has been in place for a while alri, just that I didn't need to make out-of-pocket purchases until now... isn't it kind of an overkill.. why cannot just apply this SOP to bigger purchases. Maybe I shld find out more about this and try to "complain" when I am free ha. Meanwhile, perhaps I shld just stick with yellow post-its for my meeting to avoid creating unnecessary work for other ppl :(

there are a 1001 things to do every weekend and I find myself feeling more tired than rested pretty much every Sun night.. and it's another dreaded Mon tmr! As usual, we did a little bit of wedding/ house stuff during the week. I finalised the design of my gown on Fri, but didn't  quite expect the BV designer to suggest that I put myself on a strict diet plan... the challenge is for me to take 2 inches off my waistline by Mar next year - a tall order for someone who loves snacking and isn't particularly conscientious at exercising :P But I suppose I can try to watch my diet a little more and stay away from unnecessary carbs. Also went down to Balestier to take a look at tiles this afternoon; am now racking brains over the type of tiles/ layout for the bathroom/ kitchen... DIY can save us quite a bit; but it's certainly a lot more time consuming!

This morning I accidentally sent my director an email meant for my boss, which had my frank comments on what I thought about his comments about our slides...!!! (obviously it was not meant for his eyes at all) I immediately realised my boo-boo while the email was being sent; but there was nothing I cld do... In my dismay, I hurried to my boss' room and I think I cldn't stop saying "oh no oh no" for the first 30 seconds... Boss was nice enough to try to call the ISD guys to see if anyone cld do anything for me; in the end I also called the SOE guys myself - who informed me that LN had no recall function whatsoever, unlike Outlook. Hai, so in the end had no choice but to send a supersede email to my director to ignore the bad email... but erm obviously tt made it more obvious... Though director later emailed me to say "no worries", my CEP prob fell to rock bottom overnight... It's been a while since I last did anything so silly, but oh well, it happens :(

Have neglected blogging this past week 'cos life was slightly stressful starting last Thurs, when we had to do some major changes for a set of slides to be used to brief CEO for the first time. The worry wart in me reared its head the whole time and so I fretted over the contents of the slides a little over the weekend and for most of Monday... Thankfully everything went quite well on Tues; and both boss and I got to take a slight breather! Through this episode though, I was reminded of my own pessimism and perfectionism. It's nice to have optimistic ppl around me to balance off the negative thoughts.

I chanced upon a really cute creative poster on Etsy... feel tempted to get it, but then it's damn ex for a piece of paper.... Good reminder though. To chase and not just follow your dreams!

Last Fri, I interviewed ppl (tog with boss) for the very first time... It felt slightly intimidating trying to appear confident and seasoned to potential hires for my new office, but I gradually warmed up towards the end of the session. It turned into a pretty interesting first-time experience seeing things from the OTHER side.. The candidates turned out to be all pretty decent; and though we wished for a candidate who posessed ALL the qualities we were hoping for; it was clear at the end that things dun usually turn out that way and choices and trade-offs had to be made. Oh well, at least there were promising ones and hopefully we can get along well with the person who decides to take up our job offer!

Amidst the busy wedding & house reno planning, I also decided to embark on a little twice-a-week photo project with J; and I've been trying to take pictures every other day over the past week. Was initially slightly concerned abt time commitment and whether it wld induce daily stress in us... but so far things have actually turned out pretty well; and the little project has subconsciously led me to look more closely at things around me :) This week I think I took too many photos which wun be used as formal entries... so just sharing one of them here. This is a pic of the display window at Pullman Bakery@Millenia Walk.

A fair chunk of my time now is taken up by wedding planning and home stuff! While home stuff has been somewhat lower on the priority list, we may have to gear up and spend more time researching and thinking abt it in the next few weeks as it seems that getting a ID to do up the place will be quite out of budget :( Incentives are not really aligned and IDs obviously propose things that will milk as much money out of us as possible; by 'innocently' inserting unnecessary feature walls for aesthetic effects; recommending "premium" finishes etc etc. After sitting through 2 initial proposals, the scrooge in me is starting to feel very tempted to plan/ design everything ourselves and just get a contractor to do up the place... After all, I think we have decent aesthetic sense and taste; so hopefully things wun go too wrong...

On a more frivolous note, I stumbled across some cute accessories yest when checking out a florist. A vintagey flower ring! Am not quite a ring person, but cldn't resist getting it. :D

Poor D is down with chicken pox and has voluntarily quarantined himself at home since Thurs so as not to endanger innocent souls to this annoying infectious disease... Thankfully I already got it in P4, but it a truly indelible experience since chicken pox scars left permanent scars on my face :( I only have my itchy hands to blame!

As a result of D getting chicken pox (and me having to explain D's absence to ppl - at cell group, when I went to bridal studio etc) everyone started telling me about Shingles (which is apparently just as gross, if not grosser!). I also ended up using public tpt a lot more than I wld otherwise have - the longer travelling times/ hassle of using various modes of public tpt to get to places suddenly made me feel that I have been somewhat spoilt by readily available car rides fr D most of the time...  :-/

Also spent a good few hrs this afternoon trying to source for a value-for-money wedding photographer... but seems pretty tough to find folks who are good and cheap heh. This guy is pretty good but out of budget... Eventually got quite sian and gave up after shortlisting like 3; shall check these out first and hopefully they make the grade. Recommendations are most welcome!  :)

Had a most enjoyable long weekend (took Mon off) hanging out with girl friends, watching DVD movies and visiting more bridal studios... Esp the hanging out with girl friends bit. Feel that I have somewhat neglected the hanging out with friends bit (partly also cos not everyone is back but more ppl were suddenly back briefly over weekend) so it felt really nice catching up with them..

The bridal studio part was actually rather hair-raising as I really cldn't decide btwn my final shortlist of two studios and spent quite some time fretting over whether I wld regret after signing up for either. But as with many things in life, choices have to be made and so I finally forced myself to decide today :) Somehow just deciding on a studio magically made me feel somewhat accomplished...

Here's a pretty hilarious video by Mr Brown on the presidential candidates...

I have always found my offices too warm but the new office is unbearably cold. Now I have to wear my cardigan everyday and the cold hovers ard my body even when I go out for lunch etc. I suspect my recent little cold/ sore throat was the result of the Antartica-climate in my office. BUT... apparently boss and MIA neighbour's cubicles aren't as freezing as mine! I suddenly realised it today during discussion with boss, cos both of them have window panels where the warm sunlight can stream in to neutralise the cold. But my station only has walls and no daylight :( Perhaps it's time to get help to make my officer warmer.

We've barely started with wedding preps (so far, have gone to look-see at a few bridal studios and mainly did online research for venues) and the "road ahead" already seems somewhat intimidating. This afternoon, we attended a caterer open-house; and the salesperson seemed pretty surprised tt we were still pretty hazy about what we envisioned our wedding to be like despite planning to hold it in about half a yr's time. And then there are all these horror stories floating ard abt having to book venues more than one yr in advance... Another immediate hurdle ahead is successfully finding a cosy non-hotel/convention centre venue that can take like 300 guests or more... Hai, foresee many dilemmas and frustrations ahead!

On a brighter note, I stumbled across a lovely gown yesterday that almost looked like it could be IT. But sadly had to let it go 'cos it had to be bought (not for rental) by today :(

Cute finds I sighted at Wood Would (stationery + paraphernalia store) this afternoon, captured with my new camera!

Lovely ribbons!

A craft book I wanna get!

  

 

New Toy!!

I finally bought a new compact camera over the weekend... and am pretty satisfied with the first few shots I took with it this morning. Looking forward to more fun pics but without the weight of a DSLR :P It also comes with a few fun artistic filters, which I used on my shots of my office:

 

 This is what HDB Hub looks like from across the road..

 My little 'cosy corner' on the drawer-top

 

My cutesy stuff close-up, in dramatic mode :)

 This weekend in pictures 

Some pics from the NDP preview on Sat evening; and my quick attempt to use my long-neglected oven. Heh, but my apple cinnamon muffins are instant-mix ones, from the sorely missed Trader Joe's...

 
 

 

 

Invisible enemies

My stuff fell prey to some creepy floaty neighbours TWICE this week at my workstation! Ok, I am not talking about the real creepy supernatural beings (though I also hope they are not lurking around) but an enemy by the name of.. MOLD. I thought my office was freezing enough to keep such thingies away, but I was very wrong. Earlier this week, I happily bought a box of blueberries and strawberries from the entrepreneurial fruit-stall uncle (who has a stall at the basement food court, but now regularly pushes a cart to various floors to hawk his goods at lift lobby). I then left them out in the open since we didn't have any fridge in office. But I discovered with horror yesterday some white furry stuff on my remaining half-box of strawberries... so had to throw them away. Guess the freezing temp was not freezing enough to keep these hardy fungi away :( Err... a tuperware that I used to bring some fruits to office also kenahed cos I forgot to wash it and left it out for maybe 2 days :(

Heartland gem!

Today my dinner started with a warm green tea baumkuchen cake... not from any fancy/atas pastry shop but a little cake/noodles cafe at Toa Payoh Central called Wheat Baumkuchen. It was really yummy - even better than the baumkuchen from Taka B1. Yay, now I have yummy green tea cake right at my doorstep :) This little shop also sells five types of cold noodles, each named after a creature (most of them were sea creatures, like penguin; seal; dolphin etc). Somewhat random, but I guess it's kinda cute. But due to the faint association between the creatures and the contents of each dish, I alri forgot the creature that endorsed the soba I had :P I would def go back there for dinner!

I suddenly need to be very well informed and well read and it feels somewhat intimidating and exciting at the same time. Exciting because I will hopefully grow much less ignorant in the next yr or so but intimidating cos I am expected to know so much more about everything (trends, current affairs, econs etc), Have unfortunately been suffering from partial brain-rot the past few years :( Perhaps I now need to set aside one hour or so everyday to read newspapers, newsmags etc but doubt I'd have the discipline and willpower to last for more than 1 week ha. Well I will try lah, though I know I'd never get very good at doing these things... At end of day, they are just not 'my element'...

Today I asked my MIA neighbour (who's no longer MIA) a random qn about his namecard - whether he had any preference for the Chinese translation of his designation.. cos these chapalang stuff just got sent to me since I'm the lowest life form in my tiny office of 3. NMIA neighbour (in his late 50s I think) walked over and told me that it didn't matter to him since he didn't know any Mandarin (he learnt Malay in sch instead). The reason? Cos the Chinese teachers in sch then were really fierce; whereas the Malay teachers were much nicer and gentler...

Today's Day 2 of work back at HDB. Things are still relatively peaceful; and the environment is very quiet. My office is a little set-up tucked away in a little corner behind the lift lobby, with a total of... 6 workstations and a tiny discussion corner. So far, there's a total of 2 inhabitants in our little office (in the past 2 days at least). The 3rd person (someone senior) has apparently been MIA, so my boss and I have had the whole place to ourselves! Hopefully this MIA neighbour is easy to get along with... i mean, when there are so few of us, 1 unpleasant colleague makes a huge diff... :P

I get a nice corner with lotsa wall space right at the end, but it's currently relatively empty and undecorated, except for my santa mug with a santa-holding-on-to-cup-rim spoon; a few postcards of takayama/ gassho-style farmhouses stuck on the side of my big cabinet; an unmagnetic whiteboard; self-decorated IKEA magnets on my magnetic cabinet door and a little dish cloth with black cat-face prints covering the top of my little chest of drawers. I want to make my workstation feel more homely, but have yet to decide on what pictures/ posters i should put up. Maybe a potted plant/ cactus or two and cute vases would help.

Hope things will remain peaceful in the weeks to come! Heh. So far so good, except that I have to readjust to using LN (instead of Outlook) all over again... Am also not used to having to meet/ co-exist with so many people at the lift lobby... The exponential increase in number of fellow lift-riders is somewhat intimidating.. though I dun even know many of them. I suddenly cannot imagine/ believe that so many ppl actually work at HDB Hub... Guess I had also better start working bucking up, so as to live up to my fanciful title of "Head Strategist"... Right now, these shoes are too big for me to fit comfortably in; and what I need to do in the coming months is still somewhat hazy :(

By the way - this is my cute santa mug hehehe.

Tmr is my 2nd last day at work; but I feel so unready to leave. I mean not really because I dun want to leave; but more because there's still quite a bit of unfinished business and housekeeping stuff to attend to! Things to file away and shred; compiling outstanding work items to handover to colleague and such. Meanwhile, some emails still continue to creep into my mailbox, waiting for my reply/ further action. New boss has also been happily sending me things to read/ do, but realistically I prob wun be able to get to them till I start work proper next week. If only life could be more leisurely sometimes...

This is my last week of work at MND, and hopefully everything will be peaceful. Or even if there's chaos somewhere, hope it wun spread to my territory :P So that I can do some last min filing, clearing up etc in peace heh. Next Mon I will be back at good old Toa Payoh; several impt things also lie ahead in the next yr or so it feels pretty scary. Hope everything works out well.

3 particularly cool things happened during the trip.

One is kinda frivolous actually. I think i have been slightly brainwashed by L'Occitane ads and tourist postcards to think that Provence is synonymous with LAVENDER LAND. So like we were quite baffled (when we drove past some fields and took pics in midst of the lavender) why the very recognisable scent of lavender couldn't be detected at all at any of these spots.. Halfway thru the trip J decided to experiment with one lil stalk she picked... We sniffed pretty hard, but still no smell leh. One middle-aged French guy apparently noticed our 'antics' and gestured with his fingers to rub the lavender 'buds'... and voila! We smelt the fresh lavender fragrance immediately! It totally didn't occur to us that the scent had to be 'released'... cos I guess too used to smelling the processed lavender oils/ lavender satchets. But made me wonder how come the lavender satchets smell go good... have they all been pre-rubbed heh? :P

The second one was closer to my heart... Met up with Jeannice on the later part of the trip and had a really fun time hanging out together and catching up... Though (similar to J when we visited her in Japan last year) she initially had some initial reservations abt being a light bulb, her company was really enjoyable - and it prompted Derek & I to do stuff we prob otherwise wldn't have... like dining at the top few trip advisor restaurants more than half the time; disappearing into interesting stores we may not have stopped to explore etc.

The last one and most significant one involves a cute little Provencal hedgehog named "Sweet Hubert" we met on the trip... was somewhat smitten by his cuteness when I first sighted him at a souvenir shop. I took pics for keepsakes... and thought that was the last I'd see of him.

Hubert in my hands, his friend on D's shoulder...
 

Little did I know that he would suddenly make a guest appearance as a "ringbearer" on our last day in Paris...  :)

Just got back this morning; and totally conked out in bed till 4pm. Provence was really lovely - with great company, awesome weather, good food and lovely sights. We felt slightly cheated though that the extensive lavender landscape featured in many postcards were nowhere to be found. Maybe they were located in more secluded areas bah... thankfully we managed to hunt down a couple of nice little fields along the way. Will blog more again later this week! :)

Halfway thru my trip, I realised the importance of recognising some basic French.. Esp when it comes to food : p but thks to advancements in technology e.g. the prevalence/availability of free wi-fi in my hotels/ b&bs it wasn't too difficult to look up stuff or download free French-English apps to my iPod on the go heh. Cannot help wondering why the french word for mushrooms sounds like champions/champagne though...:)

Tmr we head to Provence... So far the pastry selection in Paris and Normandy have been somewhat disappointing- the Isetan basement at Shinjuku San-chome wins hands down heh. But we shall see... Interestingly I also chanced upon an elderly Japanese couple three days ago and chatted with them a lil in Japanese :)Looking forward to better weather and lovely fields of lavender in full bloom :)

Typing this from a T3 computer terminal... and am about to board my flight to Paris. Yay! :)

Oh mum...

Just didn't feel like doing anything after I reached home today and I did something I hadn't done in ages - hung out in parents' bedroom to watch TV with mum. I never quite realised how much my mum cared/ minded my behavior/ actions... but she does. My heart aches somewhat just thinking about it...

So we were watching Channel 8 news when I caught some brief footage of the crane hoisting down the stupid Sembawang water tank (where this maid was murdered and dumped) from the HDB block. It stirred some interest in me cos just this evening HDB came and updated me abt this and I almost had to staff up something related to the removal of the water tank. But like many channel-surfing restless viewers mum switched channels to Channel 5 and both of us were suddenly carried away by this program revealing the trick behind how a woman can disappear from a curtained-box in a magic show that we missed the news snippet on the water tank. I naturally expressed my disappointment - not cos it was anything really worth watching - but more 'cos I failed to satisfy that kpo urge in me. Anyways just too bad lah and so i went about other stuff like showering and my nightly ritual of wasting time on my computer.. when all of a sudden mum hurriedly came into my room to ask me to get ready to go watch TV 'cos the water tank snippet was going to be replayed on Channel U news... and I suspect she had intentionally kept the TV on so she cld monitor whether this wld come up again during the 11pm news.

You know - I had quite forgotten I wanted to watch it (cos it was really not that impt) but sweet mum like cannot sleep without achieving her mission for that night like that. So I eventually caught the 3 min footage of the hoisting of the Sembawang water tank, all thanks to mum.

I dunno how she does it, but her selflessness just makes me darn ashamed of myself.

D sent me photo evidence of my 'hairdressing session'...
Though they were a little 'chor lor' I was nonetheless amused by my little hairstylists..

I left work feeling rather sian and demoralised yesterday, but two little sweeties at cell group chased the blues away... I've never been very popular with kids (cos I am usually unanimated and thus not so fun to play with perhaps) but for some weird reason these two little girls (Julia is 5+ i think and Judith ard 7) endeared themselves to me the whole night, as if I had known them since forever.

It all started off when the elder sister decided to come sit on the cushion on my lap... showing off her flowery rubber band and like a tiara-thingy to me... then soon after the little one also jumped on the bandwagon and suddenly 3 of us were like the best friends. They quickly pulled out their pre-sch class photos to show me; and asked me to guess the names of their classmates. As with most class photos, names of everyone in the picture were all displayed at the bottom, but Judith got genuinely thrilled/ surprised when I managed to "guess" her friends' names; and kept asking me "how you know them!". Hai, such innocence was indeed endearing.. :) Our friendship wore off a little as the night progressed; but towards the end of the session, they decided to friend me again. Judith tried to tie my hair unsuccessfully (naturally lah, her hair was the nice smooth silky sort) and accused me of not using any conditioner on mine.

I didn't know what to make of the whole episode (esp cos the kids have seen me before several times at church - just not at their house, and have never been particularly chummy with me at all)... It really felt quite therapeutic when the little sister quietly sat in my lap when everyone sat around in a circle to sing some songs -- though my feet later became temporarily achy as they were rarely sat on when in a cross-legged position :P Cannot explain why, but somehow under such circumstances you feel like you only bear to show the 'good/happy' side of yourself to them... [OK, perhaps I will feel less so if I hang around them everyday lah]

Perhaps I am less kid-disabled/averse than I think haha.

I had to buy 3 different farewell cards today... It was slightly problematic 'cos nice 'custom-made' farewell cards are pretty hard to find... compared to say birthday cards... I was debating whether to get this slightly quirky one which read:

YOU'RE LEAVING

[You have to imagine a drawing of an orange chicken standing beside a sausage that looks like a plaster]

May the Chicken of Happiness
and the Sausage of Prosperity
FOLLOW you wherever you go

Wasn't sure how the recipient of this card wld react so I lingered around in the store for some time wondering whether to get this or not. In the end I got it - it's for a guy anyways so he prob wun get too offended or upset even if he thinks it's weird lah.

On a random note, many ppl in office seem to be raving about Kungfu Panda 2... maybe I shld really go catch both KFP1 & 2.. ;)

Last Fri was my director's last day at Hsg Div :( Though I'm not particularly close to him, he's a really sincere and nice person. And I have after all worked under him for close to 2 years... so it was somewhat awww... when J & I went to say goodbye to him before leaving office on Fri... Quite a few Hsg Div "alumni" also turned up for his farewell lunch on Tues... somewhat indicative of how long he has actually been around! My last day was finally firmed up last week too. It should have been this week; but have been asked to stay around for a little while more. But come 18 Jul, I shall resume status as HDB staff proper :)

Quite a bit of the weekend was spent doing research for upcoming trip. Also snipped off some 5 cm of some split ends/spoilt locks yesterday... and hairdresser tried to change my parting. I find changing parting a very troublesome business... perhaps cos I've stuck to mine for the longest time, so it's pretty annoying/awkward when a certain part of your hair cannot fall the way it has always been the past xxx years... Hai, I suppose as with all things, the resistance is great at first... but after you get over the initial painful few weeks, then things turn for the better! Hopefully I persevere in this change hair-parting business cos it will be for the better... Meanwhile i have also attempted to do the little poofy fringe that's somehow quite popular now... but just cannot pull it off glamly leh, so it's pretty sad :( I have this secondary fringe of stray hairs that's particularly annoying.. Alright I shall stop blabbering but bad hair is unfortunately a daily affliction for me :(

Every Sunday night I dread having to go to work the next 5 mornings :( The next few weeks are not looking good at all, made worse with the big musical-chairing at the top and changes within our own division. May mid-Jun arrive quickly so that I can be escapist and at least get a 2-week break away from work..

Living out your dreams...

This morning I happened to chance upon a short little video on picture books about the life of Jane Goodall, a chimpanzee expert/ ardent conservationist. The illustrations are wonderful! Somehow I found it touching when she spoke about how women had some innate qualities like empathy and intuition we can bring to the field of science. I just never thought of it that way. I got somewhat upset when folks at Cambridge told her chimpanzees should only be given numbers and not names...!

These days I find myself running out of things to say. Perhaps I am growing more and more self-conscious and critical => so I self-censor more these days. The past weekend was a very exciting one... with WP making history by winning a GRC. Personally, the most touching part was witnessing the successful outcome of their tough bid/ fight... how these ppl can hold on to their ideals despite the difficulties faced and work really really hard to realise their lofty dreams.

One of the amusing "by-product" of election night was that Mr Yam Ah Mee, our dear Returning Officer, went from sheer obscurity to being one of the most well-liked faces in GE 2011 overnight. Given his very sudden and overwhelming popularity (with 38,427 likes and counting on his FB fan page), I think his rise to fame beats Miss NS, who prob became Sg's most popular politician on FB over a span of at least a week or two. It's somewhat 'heartwarming' too that though ppl poke fun at his 'robot voice' and photoshop his face onto logos of traditional chinese medicinal balms and all; most of the online chatter about him is in good jest. Mr Yam really looks like a pretty earnest and sincere kinda guy.

This evening my mum also got a really yummy choc cake from Chocolate Origin at Changi Village for my sis' birthday tomorrow. I have to say it is one of the yummiest and chocolatey cake I've ever had, and it certainly feels more like a choc cake than these Awfully Chocolate cakes. I think Awfully Choc cakes are actually awfully unchocolatey, because they never seem to leave a nice cocoa-ish aftertaste. While they taste alright, they remind me more of flavoured dense dark brown cream and not chocolate... but somehow the Awfully Choc stuff has a cult following. Sorry to say, but their cold poached choco cakes are one of the more hideous-looking cakes I've seen. (wah, why i suddenly so evil and foul-mouthed haha)

I will end on a sad note. My little plant at office is dying and looking jaundiced. Maybe it's finally manifesting the symptoms of printer toner-dust poisoning :(

Almost every weekend I resolve to devote some time to doing something "productive" - yet every time I mostly end up nuahing and self-indulge in stuff like checking out cafes/ watching movies/ shopping etc. Bleah. Ok lah, this weekend I also attended the WP's Aljunied GRC rally at Serangoon stadium and a SDA one at Pasir Ris park... What a world of difference though - both in terms of the turnout and quality of debate/ arguments put forth.

A song my sensei shared in Jap class some weeks back led me to look up 'Hana' (Flower) by Orange Range on Youtube... this in turn led me to discover the Japanese movie (今、会いにゆきます) with Hana as the theme song. This is the only Japanese rap song I know/ like and find poetic - and the lyrics became even more meaningful after I watched the movie over the weekend. Yuji's picture book from his mom was reminded me of drawings from The Little Prince... I guess I was meant to watch this movie :)

Cute sights in Nagano City + Anime movie I just got!

We were supposed to make our way to Tokyo on the 12th, but due to the train disruptions and all, thought it wise not to return to Tokyo the day after the earthquake and wait till things have stabilised a little. So our day was spent leisurely in Nagano City instead. A certain famous ancient temple by the name of Zenkoji temple was the key attraction there; so we dutifully made that our tourist destination of the day heh. Along the way we decided to be adventurous and got a miso soft-serve. It tasted exactly like miso and I regretted it immediately after the first few bites... and we ended up dumping it for a normal strawberry soft-serve heh.

Aside from wandering about the temple grounds and various small shops along the way, we were pretty chill...

Self-service omikuji (fortunes)... these remind me of five stones :P

Two young Jap ladies unravelling their fortunes...

The prettily and neatly tied-up omikujis never fail to impress me...

Cute mirrors and hankies I spotted in a souvenir store!

Irasshaimase (Welcome)! Pls open the door and come in...

View of cute shopfronts from inside the cafe...

I just bought the DVD for 5 centimeters per second online! By another up & coming anime director Makoto Shinkai... The level of details depicted in his scenes (mirroring reality) is amazing and I felt compelled to get it. Somehow the japanese spoken in these kinda trailers just feel so poetic...

Japan trip in bite-sizes

Our first 3 nights were spent in snowy Hakuba in Nagano prefecture, some 4.5 hrs car ride northwest of Tokyo... We were blessed with clear skies and lots of sunshine the first day; and cloudy skies but lotsa snow on the second. While it was nice to have clear skies and sunshine; it was certainly a lot more exhilarating/ fun skiing while snowing... There was so much fresh soft snow on 2nd day that our skis got stuck in piles of snow when making our way down the bunny slopes.. And I finally got the hang of skiing this time round! (after a whole morning/ afternoon of falls on the first day though)

Hakuba Yamano hotel - situated right beside a ski jump stadium

Peek of ski jump stadium from hotel balcony... cannot imagine how anyone can do the real thing. I will settle for the Wii version anytime heh.

Took our meals mostly at the hotel; cos we were too lazy and cold to go wander else :P Hearty breakfast to start the day! but the sunny-side ups didn't want to be eaten and made a face.

a healthy dinner of shabu shabu...

I think this is the 2nd time Subway staff at the White sands branch called me 'Mom' when asking me what I wanted... I thought only Filipino maids called their female employers 'Mom'... but both the Filipino young lad taking my sandwich order and the Filipino lady at the cashier addressed me as 'Mom'!!

Terrible Tuesday

I felt 'weak' at work today :( On some days, my denseness and inability to express thoughts clearly show up very clearly. And with peers and bosses who are the exact opposite, you can't help but feel very small... Then recently I kept getting asked/ questioned on things that ppl assume I should know, but I don't (mostly because I haven't been motivated enough to go read up on all these extra stuff outside working hrs) - then I wonder if i should remain bochap or whether it's worthwhile to be more conscientious about it. So far I think I have been leaning towards the bochap side, but also end up getting rather stressed up when the same questions keep getting thrown to me by diff ppl on diff occasions. Bleah :( :(

Today I also got a little annoyed and petty at boss who spoke to me as if I should have known and put something into my submission all along when she never even asked to discuss the issue properly anyways. Hmph!

It's been a long while since my last blog entry. I have been quite pre-occupied with something important the whole of this week... though I'm still not quite done with it and prob wun for a while - thought I'd write a quick post today :) I really want to blog a little about my Japan trip too, but I guess I'd have to keep that for later.

Today in Jap class our teacher taught us various ways to deal with food-related complaints in Japanese... like if the waiter got the wrong order; or if the food is taking too long, what do you say? Hmmm the responses were quite interesting, cos even the complaints had to be expressed somewhat politely and without appearing too rude! Sensei also asked what the difference was between a Japanese 'coffeeshop' and a Sg one... and the answer was that in Japan, usually more than 50% of the customers are alone whereas in Sg, we usually go to cafes with friends etc. I wonder why...

Thru the song for last week, I discovered another Jap anime master (Makoto Shinkai) who draws superbly realistic stuff - and I wanna buy his DVDs! Today's song was also quite cool - a jap version of "My Grandfather's Clock" by Ken Hirai... The Jap version is slightly diff from the Eng one though... Eg. instead of standing for ninety years in the Eng version, the clock in the Jap version stood for a hundred years heh.

Red velvet cupcakes!

I fell in love with the red velvet cake after I had my first piece at Food For Thought opposite National Library... Sad to say I have never managed to relive my first yummy experience ever since... and the red velvet cakes I had the past few times were usually too dry and flaky for my liking. Not fresh and moist at all. So when I found a recipe from my Food & Travel mag earlier this year - I decided to make them on my own one day.

I made these last Wed but it was a little rushed cos I only had abt 2 hrs or so to make them in the morning before a dentist appt ard 1230pm... but the recipe was pretty good and the cake turned out surprisingly fluffy and decent! My color was actually a bit off - to be healthy I avoided dyeing them deep red... so I actually ended up with pretty pinkish/peachy sorta muffins... But for some reason they actually turned darker later at night - which was excellent cos then they looked more authentic when I topped them off with the cream cheese mixture! It was my first time trying to 'pipe' anything from a piping bag... and it was pretty fun once I got the hang of it.

My cupcakes looking all gooey and bubble-gummy before gg into the oven...

I think I would gladly make these again - and they will prob be redder and less healthy the next time round heh. Am also happy to share the recipe with anyone who's interested, so just let me know! :)

She who eats's little fundraiser

She who eats (Chika) is a talented Japanese food blogger I follow regularly... She takes lovely pictures and whips up all sorts of lovely treats - mostly from fresh produce she finds in Japan... Now, Chika is doing a little fundraiser for the disaster relief efforts; and at the same time giving away some sakura goodie sets to 3 lucky donors at the same time! If you'd like to try your luck at winning one of these cool sakura sets while doing some good, do drop by her blog here. Funds raised will go to the International Relief Committee - whose strategy for the disaster relief is to "give direct support to Japanese organizations that have immediate access to the affected areas and that have the appropriate capacity and experience"...

Good luck!

It was really unfortunate that such a catastrophic disaster hit Japan - so suddenly and so horribly. Monica-san (the Hakuba Yamano hotel co-owner) broke the earthquake news to us on our way back from Happo-one ski resort. That was about 3-something pm on 11 Mar; and we cldn't quite believe our ears until we stepped into the hotel lobby and there it was LIVE on TV - the terrifying tsunami fast advancing towards the coastal region at Miyagi prefecture, quickly sweeping away houses, cars - igniting fires and perpetuating fires as it engulfed anything and everything in its way. It felt all too surreal - until I saw the damage the tsunami had caused close-up later that day and repeatedly on tv over the next few days.

We were lucky not to have really felt it in Hakuba - except for like a cold draft that hit the slopes when skiing (which according to Monica-san was probably due to the earthquake). Another 6. something magnitute earthquake did hit close to where we were though (in the Niigata/northern Nagano region) ard 4am on 12 Mar - but thankfully nothing worse than the brief shaking of our hotel building was felt.

The rest of our trip became a lil 'out-of-whack- but it was really not that bad already. I consider it amazing how the JR service and Tokyo metro subway around our area resumed almost the day after... and most of the train lines were pretty much in operation ard Tokyo. Contrary to some somewhat misleading reporting on CNN, the 'wiped out' kombini stores sight was likely only limited to the Sendai area (At one pt, I got a little annoyed how CNN kept playing up the extent of damage and horror of the whole episode without giving viewers that much detail on the specific areas affected/ where the scenes/ photos were taken. But I suppose that's what catches ppl's attention/ glues them to the TV - rather than the mundane and un-newsworthy fact that ppl's lives in many parts of Japan also went on pretty much as usual).

In fact, much of Tokyo seemed so normal that I would scarcely have imagined that a huge earthquake had hit the country just a few hundred kilometres away... It's heartening though that ppl appear to all be chipping in to reduce energy usage. Some shops were closed/ dept stores had shortened opening hrs - and McDonalds at Narita airport even removed their electronic menu display and guests only had paper menus to refer to.

I hope that Japan recovers from the disaster soon. News of the nuclear crisis at Fukushima is rather disturbing - really hope that the worst is over. It's sick how some folks exploited the earthquake/ nuclear crisis to spread false rumours about radiation leakage:
http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg/stomp/sgseen/this_urban_jungle/577284/its_a_hoax_radiation_from_japan_nuclear_leak_spread.html

Some folks created a 'facemap' and placed it near the Meiji-Jingu bridge near Harajuku station in Tokyo for people to leave encouraging messages.

Maybe we can all do our part by giving a little to help the people in need in Japan:

Donate to the Sg Red Cross via Groupon: http://www.groupon.sg/deals/singapore/support-emergency-relief-efforts-in-japan-and-other-affected-areas-all-donations-will-be-given-to-the-red-cross/715829794

You can also give a little via global websites such as Global Giving: http://www.globalgiving.org/

ありがとう。

Just a very quick update -arrived safely back home 2 hours ago :) Thanks to all who msged/ emailed me to check that I'm alright. Very touched by your little messages/ gestures.

Cannot believe that the first thing my Dad asked me to do upon arrival was to go for a 'radiation check'....

Off to Japan!

After a little boo-boo this morning (tried to check in at the wrong terminal and got scolded by my mummy. the super efficient & fast sky train was a life-saver) erm I am off to Japan in less than an hour and hopefully no more boo-boos for the blur me.... :)

Otogicco

I have a recent fetish for this Japanese red riding hood called Otogicco... She is really cute! The mini love affair started when someone gave me a Otogicco-in-sitting-position clip (for holding pieces of paper upright)... Actually I have seen her previously in specialty stationery stores like Wood Would - but I have long gotten over my sec-sch-buy-cute-stationery phase. Plus - these stuff are always quite ex, so I have not made any rash irrational decision recently by spending say $10, $20 on a little notepad/ stickers and such... But maybe I shall hunt for some Otogicco paraphernalia when I go to Japan next week!!! :D

I have blatantly capitalised on Otogicco's cuteness for a mini office b-day celebration mailer heh. Yes, our COS is over!! (Not like I was part of the core group of long-suffering souls... but I think I will benefit from the less tense atmosphere in office from tmr onwards)

I turned 28 over the weekend... just 2 more years before the big '3'...! Was ill most of the week; but thankfully semi-recovered on Sat... Nice sis got me a relatively atas-looking little cake (which I chose) from a neighbourhood mall in Tampines on Fri night. It was a breakfast cake :)

Didn't end up doing anything particularly special; but sometimes being able to enjoy simple things in life is a blessing too... Only on my bday do my parents and sis crowd around a little piece of pastry to sing in unison FOR ME! And on this day you suddenly hear from and receive well wishes from many friends; but there are also some you hope to hear from but don't... heh.

I never really know beforehand what to wish for before blowing out my candle. This year it was the same. For now I still have the luxury of time to wish that I will figure out what to do with my life soon...

My summer lemmon mousse cake! I kinda liked how the lemon slices resembled bicycle wheels heh.

Tulips from someone special :)

Woke up with a bad sore throat this morning and decided to take one-day MC... there's so much work to do but v little motivation to get to them... bleah :(

On a brighter note, I have been taking Illustrator online classes the past few weeks, and am discovering how powerful and fun this program is! Alas, it is extremely extremely expensive and have yet to figure out a way to get hold of the software after my trial version expires :(

A simple homework piece I did for this week! The jap characters just read "Pretty flowers!" haha. These few simple Japanese characters have made the whole picture look a lot more poetic-looking... isn't it? Maybe I am biased.

Cooking Class @ TOTT

Pre-Valentine's, we took a cooking class together at Tools Of The Trade (TOTT) at Dunearn Rd. The class was called Cooking To Seduce: Kamasutra in the Kitchen, but obviously it was nowhere as suggestive. The only faint association with the title was the supposedly aphrodisiac nature of the dishes we were taught.

The class was pretty packed (we were typically given only up to 15/20 min for each dish) but quite fun. The cooking studio was really new and well-equipped with modern and chio kitchen utensils (which could be bought next door at their in-house store). The electric stove was also a bit too high-tech for me and I cldn't quite figure out how to operate it without assistance from the staff. Or maybe not that it's high-tech, but just that I seldom cook!

I realised that chopping is an essential and important skill to acquire... Cos we had to chop up stuff for practically every dish, my hands got a little achey at the end after chopping lotsa spring onions, leeks, lemongrass, ginger etc.

Our tom-yum soup... actually it isn't that difficult to make this after all :)

Oyster fritters in batter form. I was terrible at deep frying these - and transferred my frying duties to D halfway after a blob of hot oil leapt out of the pot onto my right forehead!

Time to savour the rest of the dinner! (The greenish looking thing is actually our ginger-crusted salmon; while the bowl of brown liquid is raspberry choc sauce for our fruit spring rolls. The oyster fritters with pomegranate chilli jam were gobbled up during class :P)

There was quite a bit of washing up to do throughout the class... but luckily kitchen assistants helped to do the more mafan parts...

Happy Valentine's!