have been feeling a little out of sorts the past few days, as well as today... perhaps cos various things at the back of my mind have become somewhat bothersome recently. or maybe i'm just suffering a quarter-life crisis on the eve of my 24th birthday... and even though I plan to take half day off work tmr I haven't really decided how to spend the half day, either. and it's not a very 'guilt-free' half day, cos I owe boss quite a few things! but whatever. sometimes we need breaks, and I think I'm due for a short break to just slack or like do nothing, reflect on things... but wonder when that will come.

after a movie outing with two colleagues yesterday evening, I was suddenly very motivated to set up some informal 'Singles Club' within the unit, to go check out new restaurants/eateries/hawker stalls together, as well as good shows/movies and other worthy activities... then, perhaps write reviews, practise my English and at the same time do colleagues some service :P BUT a big prob though is i will have very few "members", given that 80% of colleagues are married. if i exclude my engaged unit head; and my section head (we're certainly not so chummy with big boss to ask her such frivolous things) then I'll essentially be left with like 3 other potential 'candidates'... out of which one is attached and technically ineligible... another one is not likely to fancy such activities that much.... then i'm really left with one other colleague.... so maybe my brilliant plan will fall through after all. hehe but it was fun dreaming about doing a mini frivolous monthly food/movie review thingy. hmm. maybe i should outsource and get ppl from other units.. but then again, all big things start small :)

Happy Chinese New Year to all!

the best thing about my new year this time round is perhaps the new year cookies/goodies. mum bought loads; aunt gave us some; sister's bf's mum also made some really yummy stuff for us! these cookies are so going to last us till way after new year... having missed out on the "complete" range of new year cookies the past 4 years, i have been indiscriminately ingesting lotsa flour, sugar and butter in their various baked manifestations... and the best thing to do when snacking is not to think about the calories :P I find reunion dinners sometimes rather paradoxical. esp dinners with extended family and for my case, with relatives (on my father's side) whom i'm not even close to... and because i've never been close to these relatives, there's nothing much to talk about at the dinner table... and obviously they have nothing much to ask after either... cept small talk topics which is so pointless... yet year after year all parties subject themselves to such pain by agreeing to have that reunion dinner just for the sake of having it. when each family would undoubtedly be happier dining on its own... dunno why i'm so cynical but it's true...and i don't have any urge to visit any festive place either haha... so today after a whole afternoon of visiting, came back home to slack.... i hope to spend most of my next two days catching up on SLEEP, reading and studying Japanese :)

Favorite spot of the month!

decided to check out the newly-opened 'Central' at Clarke Quay MRT after work today. the experience was very pleasant, cos it's still relatively new and unheard of and we managed to get away from the sickening Orchard/City Hall crowds. though quite a few shops weren't open yet, a fair number were, which made the trip there still worthwhile. highlight (and main purpose of trip too) was dinner at Japanese restaurant Waraku. They had quite a few non-mainstream dishes, such as this creamy greenish salmon and spinach creamy udon or something. wanted to try that initially; but ended up opting for a safer option. Food was quite decent and the view was great. The restaurant's on the 3rd floor and right opposite the Clarke Quay 'shophouses', so if you're lucky enough to get a (full-height glass) window seat, you'll essentially get to enjoy a night's dinner beside the glistening Singapore River in air-conditioned comfort. After dinner, got Hokkaido ice-cream at first floor and picnicked on the steps along the river. It's really a good idea to let ppl sit just by the river... something you couldn't really do on the opposite side. While sitting on the steps and glancing back at the restaurant where we dined at, realized that actually the Kopitiam food court above Waraku prob gets the good view too :P hehe so if you're budget-conscious, can go food court and enjoy equally good view :) however, i wonder if this place will be still as nice and peaceful say 3 months down the road?

was so sleep-hungry today that I made my Dad send me to work in the morning. and when he does that, I'll usually arrive at work say 15 min early. so today, upon arriving at work, bumped into boss distributing rose stalks to all his lady subordinates... at like 8.15 am!!! I seriously take my hat off to some very zai individuals. I can never really figure out how boss, who sometimes clears emails till 1.30am, manages to wake up at like 7 something the next morning to work efficiently all day as if he's had a good night's rest. AND this also happens quite 'regularly'.... how do all these ppl do it? how to suffer prolonged sleep deficit and remain both sane and good-tempered and all? Section head's another mystery. She can churn out emails at record speed; usually works more than 12 hrs a day and has almost everything at her fingertips. Yesterday, section head also gave each of her some 100-over staff 8 mandarin oranges each; and personally arranged them nicely on everyone's workstation!!! this was definitely done after i left the office close to 9pm... she revealed that she actually did the mandarin-orange arranging till 1am yesterday.... OMG. these ppl really put me to shame.

I got to witness today one of those MP walkabout/ ang-bao giving ceremonies that have taken up considerable airtime over local news of late... only that mine's a SERS completion ceremony - usually held when residents have completed their move from their old flats to their new ones. and so being the OIC for this particular completion ceremony, was in charge of putting together the info folder for the bosses. that was extremely time-consuming and hair-raising (when you're expected to go dig out info from eons ago). also got some first-hand, personal 'how-to-be-a-good-subordinate' training from boss... like when the big boss is mingling around with bigger shots, have to be watchful... such that if he shoots you a glance from the corner of his eye; it means "come quickly i got something to ask you/ i want you to do something"... and so instead of occasionally getting carried away by the silly antics put up for residents on stage you're supposed to watch your immediate boss closely... so boss watches dept head, i watch boss... (haha i'm sure this is very common lah. and actually boss was nice to remind me. just that i'm being complainy hehe)

I think people try to invent reasons for abnormal circumstances; attributing 'rough patches' to things like bad luck; fan4 tai4 sui4 and such! and so of late colleagues have been saying that the 'pigs' in the office have been out of luck and that we need to go pray to some deity to improve our lots... hmm dun really believe in this sort of thing, but have been rather unlucky of late! so feel a bit cursed! and it's also quite irritating that many things I have to deal with; or IMMEDIATE emails I have to answer are sometimes quite 'technical'... ie. one really needs to be experienced to know where to unearth info from... and some of our databases are seriously mind-boggling/ challenging; with an infinite number of sales codes and acronyms that a freshie like me always takes forever to decipher... and so, i'm really really grateful to my great, kind, helpful colleagues... whose sharp, trained eyes can pick out and sieve out info at record speed... hai. and was really touched by a couple of colleagues who stayed back with me despite having personal things to attend to... despite being super tired too... just to help me tackle work issues. it's heart-warming to have such good, decent ppl around. :)

on some days I can't help but feel that I can never be very good at the things required of me at work... and at times you wonder why you're doing certain things; since they are scarcely related to your work scope at all. so sometimes my colleagues and i spend a disproportionate amt of time mulling over stupid little things... (I suppose it helps that fellow colleagues try to find joy by indulging in titbits and such) sigh. I wonder if ppl also get frustrated with the way some things are done; but because it's so hard to introduce change they just go along with everything and end up feeling that the way things are is actually somewhat acceptable. I hope I don't become all abnormally 'normal' after some years of service in the public sector.... :P on that note, there's a new Jack Neo film coming up; from the looks of the movie title and trailer, it appears to be some satirical take on the govt sector and how things are done. should be an interesting movie to catch. aargh; might have to work fri evening; sat and sunday!!!

This morning I finally hunted down a Japanese cafe cum bookstore that I've been wanting to visit ever since I saw it in CityScoops some 6 months ago. This Japanese cafe (see pic below) is strangely named Bon Gout (which I understand is French) and sells no-frills homestyle Japanese food. The food is not particularly tasty, but I like the atmosphere of the place. You can pick any Japanese book/mag/comic to read while or after having your meal... And it's right by the Singapore River (Robertson Quay), so one can easily take a stroll by the river after his/her meal. I shall return some time to sample other things on its menu.... or when my Japanese actually becomes good enough for me to browse the mags/books with ease haha. hmm... that one must wait long long.

I alighted at Chinatown station before walking over to Robertson Quay. The place was really re nao, even at 12pm on Sat... guess I shouldn't be surprised, since Chinese New Year is but 2 weeks' away. Saw this flower stall upon emerging from the station...

Liked how my zhu jues came along, one almost clad entirely in white (hair too!) and the other in black... provided some nice contrast to the sea of red, pink and orange flowers :)

went for a health screening yesterday morning and had my height measured. am supposedly 167cm tall now!!! erm, but perhaps it was a mismeasurement but I prefer to deceive myself hehe. I shall not take my height again till some other health screening :P hehe, of course weight is a sensitive issue which shall not be disclosed on this blog. not like anyone would be interested, anyways. am stressed by various tasks at work this week; and feel rather unproductive. when things keep coming (which in turn prevent you from concentrating on any one thing you need to do), I get rather flustered and end up being not so efficient. i esp dislike doing very routine things like preparing info folders whereby you have to go and dig up info from eons ago just to give it to someone for reference.... aside from work-- I have a mini Japanese test tmr evening, which i've done NOTHING so far to prepare for... hopefully I wun fail too miserably. also got an email from National Museum; since I signed up to volunteer there a couple of weeks ago.... hmm. prob have to reconsider given how busy I'm getting...!

My tiny collection of baby-doll high-waisted tops has quietly but steadily grown over the past few months, to the extent that a couple of more observant colleagues have started associating me with these good-for-concealing-fats-yet-cute tops :P so today one colleague came in with something like that, and came to me to say that it's a "Shi Min-inspired" top... hehe thought it was really cute of her. sigh, I certainly shop a lot more than I used to in the States... and the ready availability of relatively more affordable clothes doesn't really help. There are many ugly things around; but I somehow still manage to find a few nice things every month... Self-discipline, pls!

hunting down Japanese restaurants

heard from Jeannice that there are quite a few Japanese restaurants at Cuppage Plaza; and decided to check it out today after work. Unfortunately didn't get to eat Japanese food in the end... finding Cuppage Plaza was easy enough (though Joyce and I initially walked past it without even knowing)... upon entering discovered that there were not only quite a few non-chain-looking Japanese restaurants, but Japanese bars and lounges as well... so this is where many Japanese hang out...? well unfortunately most of them were full and had to turn us away. We even stumbled upon one Japanese restaurant with tatami mats and customers sitting on the floor... was really thrilled, but alas! we were informed that they had no seats available... oh well. I shall return one day :P anyway, so we hungrily gave up our search at around 8pm or so and walked out to the row of restaurants opposite Cuppage. Cuppage Terrace, it seems. And settled for Indonesian food at Ricetable, a buffet-style restaurant. For $19.80 without GST/Service Tax etc (around $23.50 if you add all those) you get to sample around 20 dishes of Indonesian food, laid out elegantly on a heated 'metalboard' in the middle of the table (to keep dishes warm). Since there were only 2 of us, we had bite-sized portions of various dishes... a good spread but a little wasteful too cos you're served what you might not like too. unfortunately, even with the small portions we were unable to finish... hai. (to think that we initially thought about getting refills!) guess buffets are never very value-for-money for girls. and quite silly of me to have wolfed down two egg tarts 2 hrs earlier at work haha. mmm.. food was decent, but yeah... not very worth the money for girls, lah. :) after that went walking around at Centrepoint and discovered the new? Haagen Dazs, which was having a one-for-one ice cream offer... quite happily ordered the ice-cream even though i was super-full... and felt extremely lucky cos the store manager removed the sign soon after we ordered and told his staff that we were the last two... :P and so in 3 hrs or so i went from super hungry to super-full.... whatever; it's a Fri night!

one week ago I complained about feeling somewhat 'cursed' at work; this uncanny 'curse' has not been lifted and things are only getting worse! Just a few weeks ago I was wondering why i haven't exactly been given much responsibilities; today i feel overloaded! a couple of not entirely work-related type thingies have also been finding their way into my overflowing inbox these past two days... generally, my mailbox has been and is still so full that I dont even bother saving things i send out :( hehe, perhaps also need to do more housekeeping on my part; but find it hard to find time to! then end up archiving all the old mails (some unread) work life is however getting a little more exciting and varied, despite the unavoidable 'busyness'... have to learn how not to let work overtake my life!!! on a different note, 2.5 months later i'm finally 700 pages into Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina... aaah. 100 pages more to go. at this rate, i can only read like 4 thick books a year :( so pathetic.

i'm really becoming old and forgetful. My mum has been commenting that I appear so nonchalant about many things after returning from the States. I apparently ignore mosquito bites and can't be bothered to apply ointment on the sore bumps. I apparently have delayed reactions when she asks me questions; like frequently repeating her questions before giving her unsatisfactory answers... just this morning, before I left for work, she told me to hand my dad (waiting in the car to fetch me to the MRT station) some grocery list that included some items for dinner. AND I cleanly forgot the existence of such a grocery list until 745 pm or so when I was preparing to leave the office... was quite horrified upon realizing that the white sheet of paper fished out from my bag covered with neatly-penned Chinese characters was my mum's forgotten grocery list... called home immediately to apologize...

i suppose even though life goes on and stuff, I do have some huge things deeply bothering me and I have no idea what to do about them. perhaps the subconsciously preoccupied mind has "sucked up" some of the vigilance of the conscious...

Strange fruit

this is a really random post - stumbled upon this red hairy fruit during my site recee yesterday morning. Looked quite like the rambutan, but it's more cone-shaped. What on earth is this? its light-pink flowers were quite pretty though. my colleague has seen these plants around, but i'm positive i've NEVER seen these curious looking things around... wonder if they are edible.

i can't help but feel a little 'cursed' this week; cos one thing cropped up one after another at work leaving me hardly any space to breathe... and though the weekend has finally arrived I still have work stuff to attend to tomorrow morning. hai. just when i thought i was relatively free compared to most of my friends at other stat boards and Ministries... oh well. i am not really sore or anything cos I really very much prefer being kept busy... just that too much work really saps up all your energy, leaving you with very little to do anything else. nonetheless, also feel that keeping positive and not practising self-pity over my recent 'plight' also helps quite a bit; such that even though i come home tired everyday, at least I dun feel horrible... wish for a more leisurely week next week; but i know that's not going to happen... :(

my stomach was making rumbly noises yesterday afternoon in the middle of Japanese class, cos I had left my wallet at home when I was actually supposed to dine out for lunch. and so had to try hard to keep attentive despite being rather hungry. turns out that it wasn't all that difficult, because the sheer amount of time/effort I was expected to put in for my JLPT 2 prep class soon made me quite intimidated and worried. and so after a semester and half or so of relaxing Japanese lessons, I now have to memorize tons of Kanji each week and practise all that we learnt in class on my own, too. This course basically tries to squeeze in 2 yrs of Japanese study into 1, such that by the end of the year all conscientious students would be well-equipped for the JLPT 2 test. I so look forward to the end of the year... cos I dreamily forsee that my Japanese should be waaay better than it is now... but on other hand also fear that I don't have enough perseverance to pull through! oh well. we shall see :) in conjunction with my accelerated Japanese study starting this month, I have also resolved to check out more independent Japanese restaurants from this year onwards. have been relying so much on chains and have been eating the same kind of Japanese food all the time... it's time to be more adventurous with Japanese cuisine too! only that it might burn a small hole in my pocket...

Last Yunnan post

though i still have many pictures to show, i think one week of blogging about my China trip is enough :) and so this shall be the last entry. wondered what i should show... eventually selected a spot i had tea at, which had superb view; and a picture of a local in Dali washing up in the morning just outside his shopfront. This was actually a series of 4 pictures- from his spitting; to gargling; face-wiping... and a final one showing end of all 'commotion'; with only harmless-looking stools and water remaining. alas, thought it wasnt too nice to publish someone else's washing-up routine (i wouldn't want anyone to do that to me; but then again, i also don't wash up in the middle of a street :P)It might not seem that high up from the picture, but we were really above almost everything else. Basically there's this pavilion where you can go for a bird's eye view of the old town... but it was overpriced and we decided that we've had enough of exorbitant and not-value-for-money tourist destinations. As such, wandered down from peak into the little streets and stumbled upon this inn! basically they are situated near to the pavilion and thus enjoyed almost equally good view. and tourists need only pay 2 RMB to go in to enjoy the view (with tea provided). So there i was, sitting above almost everything else :) I really really liked this place. imagine doing your readings up here! it was a little chilly, but still comfy enough for me to stay up there for close to an hour hehe. was also fun peering down at rooftops below you and watching human activity down there.

on this morning set off to the city wall with hopes of capturing the sunrise. but it was too cloudy. so instead wandered around on the city wall, looking down at locals preparing for the day's activities/business. this guy caught my eye... and using my ultra-zoom, i managed a pretty close-up from maybe 30 meters or so away up on the wall. tried to be discreet too; cos i was ultimately sneaking a picture of his daily washing-up routine! :P

Yunnan (4) - Of kitties, dogs and chickens

Before heading to Lijiang from Dali, we had a Tibetan-style lunch at Jim's Tibetan Cafe. Across the street was this book/DVD store whose exterior looked like a place I would like. And so i entered. They had a really great selection of books and DVDs... but what really distracted me for the first 10 min or so in the store was a nicely decorated corner for ppl to chill out. There was a curious kitten pawing the chess pieces on the chessboard... highly extremely unresistably cute. By the time i whipped out my camera and tried to capture the endearing scene, the kitten had unfortunately jumped out of my imaginary frame and down onto the floor. :(

There it is, looking really cute and innocent but perhaps really just eyeing my camera quite suspiciously. The curious/playful creature bounded off soon after I took this shot.

There it is once again, on the other side of the chessboard. Waited quite long for it to look up into my camera, but it never really did. Anyway i really loved the entire arrangment of chessboard, flowers and other random objects on this table. The person who did this must be a genius!

There were two dogs on the roof of a certain wing within the monastery grounds. Have never seen dogs wandering on rooftops before and they (perhaps unfoundedly) felt a little 'celestial' to me :P
The chicken seller with his caged-up chickens at the market at Xizhou, near Dali. I think maybe some 10 years back we could still see similarly caged-up chickens in wet markets in Singapore... remb mini outings to wet markets with my aunt/grandparents as a kid when living at my Grandma's place. not sure about today though. hehe i suppose we can definitely see some if we visit poultry farms :P

Yunnan (3) - Food

There was a huge variety of Yunnan (at times Tibetan) cuisine as we moved through the different cities. The best culinary experiences were in Dali and Lijiang. Didn't manage to sample all the local food; but think i still did a good job overall :) Most of the ventures were worthwhile, with only a couple of 'bad eggs' :)

Yak butter tea in Sakura Cafe, Old Town, Lijiang. It actually comes in two flavors- sweet and salty! The salty tea sounded too weird to me and so opted for the sweet version. Tasted interesting but pretty good!
Tibetan bread with honey for breakfast in Lijiang, at a cafe called Lamu's House of Tibet. The bread was soft, chewy but a lil too greasy. However, it went pretty well with the rich, sticky honey. Yummy.
A Naxi sandwich-- a fusion dish i think, with Naxi-style bread and 'western' fillings, including cucumbers, tomatoes, pan-fried breaded chicken and pickles. Huge portion, but quite delicious.
A local snack termed fried Dali Cheese in the restaurant menus. Saw it in many places along the street and thought... it must taste quite good? bought one 'cheese fan' to try; but on the contrary it tasted quite HORRIBLE. expected this to taste sweet and milky; but instead it was dry and sour... bleah.
Lastly, halved pig heads, pig trotters and a packet of pig brain right in the middle. Well, don't think this counts for food - least not in my case. however, i couldn't really categorise it under 'animals' either, since it's really just slaughtered and disfigured parts of the pig. erm... saw this in a local market in Xizhou, some 15 km away from Dali. was rather grossed out actually, but it was interesting nonetheless. The man who was hawking this was really friendly, and quite proud of his pigheads, too.

Yunnan (2) - the people

Yunnan is home to several ethnic minority groups, two of which I had personal encounters with. Around half the population in Dali are from the Bai ethnic group and Lijiang is home to the Naxi ppl. I usually don't take pictures of ppl, just cos it's usually hard to get ppl to agree to pose for pictures. However, this time round, i managed a couple of portrait-style pics of the locals :) I strongly believe that human subjects add a lot to photographs.

These old ladies are from the Bai minority group. The first day in Dali we decided to visit a market across Erhai lake. and so we made our way to the pier... after some haggling we finally managed to get the ferry fare down to 80 RMB from 130 RMB. Unfortunately, 1/2 an hour later, we found ourselves on an island in the middle of the lake; and were informed that it would actually take 4 hrs to get to our intended destination. Not only were we conned to visit this island, we were also made to pay compulsory island admission fees of about 3 RMB, which in turn entitled us to these old lady tour guides. i did feel rather cheated, but decided to make the best of situation and tried interacting with them... and also tried sweet-talking them into letting me take their pics. hehe, so here they are!

Having been deprived of the market experience the day before, we made our way to another one closer to Dali the following day. This jolly dumpling mold vendor was actively marketing his dumpling molds by giving live demonstrations and an ongoing commentary; repeatedly producing fake, entirely dough-filled dumplings :P However, I was taken in and bought one :) and when i took my mold to examine yesterday evening; i realised that it even had a 'fu2' 'embossed' on the mold!

Some old ladies at the same marketplace. I was very intrigued by the "basket backpacks" that majority of the population carried. Not the most aesthetically pleasing, but certainly very convenient!

Just as Lonely Planet predicted, Doctor Ho spotted us outside his clinic (in Baisha Village) and extended a very warm welcome to us. He's apparently world-renowned; and this fact was repeatedly impressed upon us during our 15-min-or-so stay in his clinic. :P Got some free healthy herbal tea, while incessantly given various write-ups (from BBC, USA Today etc) on Doctor Ho by the man himself. I forgive his slightly excessive egoism, taking into account all the good he has done for the poor :) BTW, he encourages medicine students to visit him for learning pointers.

Last but not least, Naxi ppl dancing in the Sifangjie square in Old Town, Lijiang.

Yunnan (1)

I covered four cities in Yunnan Province on this trip. Flew into Kunming via Silkair; trained overnight to Dali and bused to Lijiang and subsequently Zhongdian (aka Shangri-La). Bus rides in China are amazingly 'informal', as the driver picks up ppl on the way, as long as there are seats in the bus! and so it appears that anyone can try flagging down a bus on the road and check if it's heading towards his/her destination; pay a discounted fare and will then be on his/her way! drivers are generally quite skilful at navigating windy mountain roads... though i had my fair share of worries initially :P my heart jumped during the couple of times when drivers honked furiously, only to realize that it wasn't really at cars in the opposite direction, but at innocent lambs/ pigs/ dogs loitering in the middle of the roads :P Weather-wise, it was generally good, esp in Dali and Lijiang. Zhongdian was a little too chilly for me, coming right from hot, tropical Singapore. it certainly didn't help that i didn't stay at very expensive hotels... and so quite a few didn't have any heater at all... but all of them had electric blankets under the sheets, and the best solution was of course to hide under covers once one was done showering. harsh reality of dealing with the cold in less developed places was impressed upon me-- you just have to bear with it; wear more clothing; or generate heat with lighted charcoal/a fire...

anyway, some scenes from the diff places i visited. will blog separately about the people, food, animals and other random things that caught my fancy :)

View of the Tibetan Monastery in Zhongdian from the spot where we alighted from the bus. It's also the only proper 'tourist destination' i visited in Zhongdian, cos as night fell it just got unbearably cold for me. and thus ended up hiding in bed, skipping dinner and watching TV.

'House' in Baisha Village, around 10 km north of Lijiang. The clear blue sky and orange-brown of the doors made it picture-perfect. This is also where I met the legendary Doctor Ho (more on that later)

View from the Black Dragon Pool Park (or Heilongtan Gongyuan) If the sky were clearer, the snowy peaks of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (Yulong Xueshan) would have been more visible. A very peaceful and scenic place :)

Flowering cherry trees against the Cang1 Shan1 range in the background. Cos it's winter; really didn't expect the entire street to be lined with flowering cherry trees. made wandering around quite pleasant!
Elephant on a platform rock formation in Stone Forest (or Shilin), about 1.5 hr's drive away from Kunming. Unfortunately it was quite rainy, which made navigating the slippery labyrinth of stone formations slightly more challenging. also didn't leave me with many decent pictures :(

I'm back!

took many interesting pictures on this unexpectedly smooth and pleasant trip so don't really know what to post for time being. decided to use this one, since this year's technically the year of the pig; and also cos trip was surprisingly animal-ful... what with dogs, kitties, pigs, lambs, goats and yaks! and i've come to conclusion that more obscure destinations can be quite charming too :)

i thought i could escape from the bad weather in Singapore, only to land in even worse weather! it was cool but sunny in Kunming yesterday when i first arrived, but it's extremely cold and rainy today... terrible weather for travelling. am now sitting in a cold unheated 'bar' with slow internet... and blogger interface is interestingly in Japanese! haha oh well. but shouldn't be complaining, since it's free :) there seems to be more street food hawkers here than on the east coast, with ppl baking sweet potatoes, frying omelettes and bbqing skewers of meat at seemingly random spots on the streets! felt very tempted to take pictures; but cos i wasn't buying felt a little bad to exploit them as photo ops. have taken my meals mostly in restaurants, but have to admit that the food here is somewhat too oily and foreign for my liking :P everything has gone fine though, cept for cold unheated hotel rooms and phenomenon of 'unpowerful' flushes in toilets; which has indirectly led me to cut down on number of times i go to the loo each day... the cold is still tolerable though, but will get increasingly worse as i move inland... pray hard that the next two hotels i booked have heated rooms/bathrooms!

flying off to Kunming tmr morning for a week long holiday. also planning to go to cities like Dali and Lijiang on the same trip... shall hope hard for a smooth enjoyable journey. barely half-packed now and am attempting to squeeze all my barang barang into pretty small duffel bag and backpack to remain mobile. let's hope that i wun freeze when i get there... though it's only about 5C in Kunming; it's been a while since i've been in that kinda weather! so a 20C drop in temperature might take a while for me to get used to and comfortable in :) it'll also probably get colder as i get to Lijiang. in any case; will try to blog once or twice when travelling... if not, I wish everyone who faithfully reads my ramblings a very Happy 2007! :)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate Christmas! have to admit that it really is just another public holiday for me... I am perhaps the most unhappening person; cos just spent Christmas eve sorting out some pictures on laptop while watching Love Actually on Channel 5. Though this is my 3rd time watching it, some of these stories touch me again and again... too bad no nice atmosphere to watch show. also visited IKEA earlier in the afternoon to look for wardrobe and bedsheets... it's crazy cos though weather was rainy it was crowded all the same. and mum commented that it resembled a 'marketplace'... with children running around and ppl sitting on display two-seater sofas at the entrance! look forward to a Christmas lunch at Jacqui's place tmr afternoon :) goodness; hardly accomplished anything and my long weekend is going to be over :(

It's my first time celebrating Christmas in office and was pleasantly surprised that colleagues were pretty 'on' about giving gifts etc. Also had an intra-unit gift exchange and received a cute little bracelet from fellow colleague. yay! Christmas has never really been a very big day for me; since my family never celebrated it and I am really not big on buying gifts for ppl; nor receiving them, for that matter. However, felt an urge to reciprocate colleagues' kindness and thus went last min shopping earlier this evening. shops were totally CROWDED with ppl and didnt feel like getting anything in the end. doesn't help that I am a rather fussy shopper and can spend hours walking around without finding anything that really catches my fancy. oh well. boss is flying off tmr morning to US to spend Christmas with fiance.... then rest of us gathering at colleague's new place to meet up with old boss, who flew back for winter break. time flies! have worked for 5 months without really realizing.

The Garden Festival at Suntec was somewhat disappointing, but the orchids at the 4th level still managed to save the show a little. but alas, most of my attempted close-ups turned out rather blur. perhaps my hands are really too shaky. in any case; i'll need to practise taking pictures a lot more frequently if i want to improve! the last time i laid my hands on this camera was in mid Oct, when i wanted to take some pics for a certain competition... anyway; thought the yellow ones above still turned out somewhat decent, albeit not as clear as they should have been!

Colbar
was brought to a "refurbished" eating house tucked away in the heart of Wessex Estate yesterday... and i immediately fell in love with the very 'rustic' feel of the whole place! i mean though it's reconstructed and a little artificial, but still think it's cool. apparently they serve good cheap food too, though i didn't have a chance to sample any of the items on its menu. it has also been featured on the Uniquely Singapore website. unfortunately it's rather inaccessible and thus inconvenient to go on any whim and fancy. but will definitely keep this place in mind, esp when i finally learn how to drive here :P

for the very first time i got a sore throat from talking too much. and so i was really surprised when i woke up on Tues morning with a very painful throat... the result of my first SERS exhibition counter duty at Ghim Moh on Monday... perhaps i was so tensed up during my first exhibition duty that i forgot to drink enough water :P anyway i think it's quite fun to do frontline stuff like this... and interacting with the public makes you discover that there are like 1001 scenarios that you would never think up while sitting in the office trying to write policy papers... yeah. and it trains you to think on your feet! however, besides being inexperienced, i am additionally disadvantaged in the sense that i don't look very credible (nor wise enough haha)... more than once ppl either ask me "are you a student" or "are you part-timing"... one old lady even said something like... you're too young lah.. when i bought this flat you weren't even born how you know what policies existed then?? when we tried to tell her about a certain current policy... i mean she's not wrong.. some ppl have been living in their existing flats for 30 over years...

Mini makeover

i'll finally be getting my own room! and because we just got someone to give the walls in our rooms a fresh coat of paint; i can finally buy bedsheets i like when i move into the room maybe a month later. although the rooms are very chapalang now cos everyone wants his/her own color... but whatever lah. i can't stop rest of family from painting their room walls a color they want but i dun fancy very much... and then i can visit the new IKEA at Tampines and go furniture shopping for my own room! yay! dunno what prompted my parents to embark on a tiny house makeover... but i'm not complaining. house is currently very junky. everyone's junk is everywhere. many of my college books and coats are still tucked away in my suitcases cos there's no storage space in the wardrobes etc... hope to get a bookshelf and a new wardrobe... but i suppose furniture-buying will always burn big holes in the pocket... so i will have to spread this out and live within my means. but having your own room's a good start :)

Muslims and Alcohol

I get to interact a little more with our admin assistants (there are 3 of them, of which 2 are Malay) whenever officers are roped in to help with logistical/labor-intensive stuff from time to time. and so yest while sitting at the big work table with a few other officers and our 2 very chirpy malay colleagues, we somehow managed to talk about alcohol... and for the first time i discovered that muslims are not allowed to ingest alcohol! i'm so chi dun! i suppose if i were more observant, i would have noticed... but alas this has never crossed my mind. once again felt ashamed of my ignorance. i tried to recall instances of muslims drinking alcoholic drinks, but i couldn't really remb any... found it hard to believe cos alcohol's such a 'social' drink... and so if Muslims dun drink, or try not to... how does it affect say their social dealings with clients? so they cannot 'drown their sorrows'? so i asked with a look of disbelief, (very ironically, coming from a non-alcoholic like me) so... during festive seasons there's no alcohol? to which my colleague replied, no, they just drink soft drinks... she also added that they cannot even have rum in the cake! so she cannot eat tiramisu! etc etc. maybe this is a super bad reason to be relieved, but i'm quite thankful i have no religion-imposed diet restrictions... else i cannot eat tiramisu.. cannot eat my Dublin mudslide ice-cream... okok, but that's all besides the point.

dots are in!

The polka dot 'craze' is ongoing and I've also gradually built up over the past few months a tiny collection of tops with various designs of polka dots... from tiny dots to big bolder ones... i've also been drawn into this retro fever! and amusingly, this morning 3 other colleagues came decked in tops with dots in various colors/sizes... but i think i should stop acquiring dots-themed pieces of clothing soon... else i might run the risk of ending up with a wardrobe of retro-ish clothing i might not wear again when these go out of fashion... but then again, i'm no fashionista.. and regardless of whether dots are 'in' or 'out'... they can be very cute and timeless when worn tastefully :)

on the other hand, there seems to be a few decent films opening this week! Am also happy that film fests seem to be quite plentiful here... though many of them are at the distant and overspilling-with-ppl Vivocity. Here are a few things i might want to watch: Flags of our Fathers; 3 needles (which opened today) and Sunflower. But alas! Dec will be a busy busy month for me... hope i get to watch at least one of these this weekend :)

work 'cubicles' at work are just high enough to block an average person's view... and while it ensures your privacy it's sometimes not very conducive for talking to your colleagues... esp when you're like me and sitting at your table and do not really like raising your voice very much. plus i like to see the person i'm actually talking to if possible. SO... i've developed a rather ungraceful habit of climbing onto my table... haha. esp when i want to talk to the colleague who sits 'behind' me... and i've gotten so used to climbing onto my table and popping my head over the ledge that i almost never bother to walk to the end of the row and then to her row of workstations.... i guess it's a little difficult for ppl to picture this if you're never seen our workstation configuration :P and i've been doing this so frequently that i've gotten 'negative feedback' from the colleague who sits diagonally behind.. that it's scary for her to sometimes see this head pop out of nowhere.... haha. but hey.. sometimes when you're 'up there' you get a bird's eye view of what's going on in the vicinity... of course i have to be subtle and ensure that my head isn't blatantly obvious from afar when ppl walk around :)

today after i stepped into my classroom a fellow classmate offered me some sweets... but they were not ordinary sweets! If you've watched Grave of the Fireflies, you might be able to understand my surprise and excitement... remember the little sister had this can of fruit sweets she kept with her throughout? which she kept shaking to see if there was any left? So this classmate of mine actually handed me a 'duplicate' of that! apparently his colleague went to Tokyo's Ueno market and bought that, among other things, for 1000 yen. :)

i also attended my first Malay wedding earlier this afternoon. a Malay colleague whom i don't even know personally invited me to her wedding ceremony and since i was free, i just showed up. I was told that her wedding was actually a more 'posh' Malay wedding, because the decorations and tables were more lavishly done up... i didn't really stay for long, but somehow i can't help but feel a little ashamed that despite having lived in a so-called multiracial multicultural society for a good part of my life, i had little understanding of Malay marriage customs... and among the guests invited, 90% of them were Malay... with little or no intermingling among the Malay and Chinese/Indian guests... i mean i suppose we do 'co-exist' peacefully, but somehow most of us have yet to really step out of our comfort zones to better understand the other races?

going on house visits also gives me the opportunity to work with 'collectors of land revenue' from our operational unit, who are often older male officers in their 50s (i think) so in a sense it's also like a totally different 'crowd'; these officers have been at this for so long that they are really proficient in explaining things in dialect and malay to residents! and so thanks to them i am sometimes saved from situations whereby my limited capabilities in hokkien fail me :P also, though i don't know them very well personally and may never get the chance to given our very infrequent contact; it is not difficult to tell that they are good decent folks. today i finished early and so could go home... then it was raining.. and dark.. and i wasn't too sure where i can take a taxi from... then Mr XX (though it was drizzling) somewhat insisted on walking me to the road where i could hail a taxi home... the only thing that prevented him from doing that was perhaps this elevated platform from which i had to jump down from... which if he followed suit he would have been unable to get back to the void deck where all the others were.... yeah anyway, was quite touched by this little fatherly act of kindness... :)

i like the occasional ''frontline" aspect of my job. which puts me in contact with our customers, ie. HDB flat owners... i've come to realize that most of the SERS flat owners we deal with are really not very well off... thus work unwittingly gives me a rare opportunity to interact with the less privileged members of society. i'm still too new to be able to answer ppl's queries effectively or very accurately, but i'm trying to get better. sometimes officers have to bear the brunt of these ppl's complaints/gripes; and it can be rather demoralising to have ppl blame you for policies that you had no part in drawing up; but nonetheless it's just interesting in my opinion to listen to such feedback. well... i suppose i'm still new and the novelty of such frontline duties has yet to wear off... but i hope that i wun become jaded with time, but instead become more familiar with policies i need to know well, so as to be as helpful as possible to members of public in need of info they really ought to be aware of. feel that policies have gotten so complicated and I have the responsibility to make things as understandable as possible to everyone; and esp the illiterate and elderly. alas, i don't even hav everything at my fingertips yet. so need to first work on that!

of cats in costumes, p-sch kids and newborn babies

work this week has been pretty gruelling and rather demoralising, but that aside, snippets of my friends' lives have made this a palatable week nonetheless. first... the guest star appearance of Nick in his Frankensteinish Halloween costume! haha... this was the cat that would disappear the instant he sensed my presence.. remember blogging about him last Thanksgiving (it's been a year...!) and regretting how i didn't maange to capture any shots of Nick. poor Nick here looks rather tortured in his costume... no offence, Courtney :)
also attended my ex-primary sch muscial at the National Library Drama Centre last night... had a brief meeting with my ex-teacher; and saw quite a few ex-teachers :P but instead of going up to them, i was silently eyeing many of them haha... cos most wouldn't remember me anyways...most of them look quite the same as they did some 11 years ago! and some of the performing kids... they are really quite little! really felt old in comparison.
last but not least, i received the joyful news of the birth of a newborn baby. My ex-landlady Tonya gave birth to a baby girl last week. would have been exciting if i were still there to witness this... i'm thinking of buying some baby accessories/bedding/clothing as a token gift... briefly looked at Pottery Barn (which has the SWEETEST baby things) and Baby Gap... haven't decided on what to get though. ideas on both online/local shops specialising in babywear are most welcome! and for now... it's off to a 2-930pm workday for me in a couple of hours' time.

attended a one-day course at the Civil Service College today for the first time and met a very chatty fellow attendee.... we were just discussing some things and it somehow led to her commenting that oftentimes, it's not that we don't really dare to do certain things. rather, we have no courage to deal with the consequences.... and the fear of facing the undesirable consequences makes us think twice about acting in the first place... not that i don't know this at the back of my mind, but no one has put it so explicitly before. it's so true.

also discovered this cool bookstore/antique/furniture store at Chip Bee Gardens, right opposite Holland Village.. It's called Cho Lon, which means marketplace in Vietnamese... has a very interesting collection of books! and it also sells unusual items with the Urban Outfitters feel... good spot for Christmas gift shopping! though quite pricey :(

even though i usually dun get to sleep in on Sunday mornings, i always look forward to the one hour before my Japanese class... cos i'll usually get to sit peacefully at the McCafe outside Isetan Scotts before the rest of Singapore flocks to Orchard :P I've also fallen in love with this frappe drink that I can only find at McCafe outlets-- something called the Himalayan Tea Latte... it's a little like Chai but not that 'spicy'... i dunno. not sure what they put in it but i'm quite addicted to it :P perhaps it's good that McCafe's not quite as ubiquitous as normal McDonald's outlets; else i would have burnt a big hole in pocket, since it only comes in one size (large). on the other hand, if i get to drink it everyday i'll probably grow sick of it sooner than expected. so yeah, though i'm usually rushing Jap HW while sipping my tea.... the relaxing music in the background + the rare tranquility in Orchard actually makes sitting outdoors at a cafe in Sg still somewhat pleasant. this would be perfect if we were blessed with non-freakish Berkeley spring weather all year round :)

i think i still can't really get over the fact that work often entails doing things that you don't exactly enjoy doing... i'm told that that's quite common, and that i ought take them as challenges... but also fear the arrival of the day i stop feeling this kinda unpleasantness and resistance... i've also been fretting over this small policy paper i'm supposed to draft... cos policies are a lot more complicated and messy than what i expected; and also find it hard to convince myself to argue for a certain stand when i have yet to witness how the policies translate/ have translated at the ground level... AND... when discussing certain ideas with nice colleagues, realized that it's so easy to propose this and that... and yet i wouldn't even be able to imagine the indirect inconveniences caused at the operational level.... i really have a long way to go! nonetheless discovered amidst my anxiety that my 'buddy' at work's actually a very very sweet person... and am really thankful to have her as my 'mentor' :)

I sense that i appear to be rather 'mysterious' to some ppl... because oftentimes i look like i'm pensive, then in the end i don't even utter a word. then usually ppl get a lil bit concerned and will instead ask.... so are you ok? and usually ppl would in turn be at a loss as to what to say to me... and some ppl are seemingly baffled. i wonder if my boss is one of them... cos i'm not chatty like some colleagues and so during chance meetings after lunch on way back to office etc sometimes work is still discussed for lack of better conversation topics. hmm in fact, work issues almost always manage to find their way into lunch conversation generally... but guess that's not very unusual at all

i was the sorry victim of my dept d and d's activities last night. there were many saboed victims, but thought mine was especially traumatic. and rather inappropriate for a dept annual dinner... SO... towards the end of the dinner, when i was about to leave, i was called on stage as a substitute for my colleague (who left shortly beforehand) for some 'beauty pageant' whereby contestants were supposed to replicate on stage somewhat suggestive moves initiated by the emcee... and the female 'contestants' had to end off with "Am I hot?"... so poor me was standing on stage, almost wanting to puke/faint watching the emcee demonstrating all this... and the worse thing was... every contestant's lil performance was captured on video.... of course i couldn't bear to do most of the things we were told to, but had to entertain a little just to be sporting... but thought it was a most inconsiderate item for a d and d dinner... if it's prom night or something i can stomach it, but d and d??? unless i'm just being particularly sore having been victimized... i think if anyone who knows me well were present, he/she would have totally cracked up. and of course, sympathized loads with my plight.

with an office full of ladies, office chatter can never exclude shopping finds... i mean i'm not surprised when colleagues talk about shopping... but was indeed a little surprised to discover rather expensive taste among quite a few! and quite a few of them are pretty 'obsessed' with LV... colleague sitting opposite me brought her $990 LV bag to work today... and ppl were congregating at her workstation to catch a glimpse of the thousand-dollar bag.... then another colleague just received a $800 LV wallet from her husband, much to the envy of some others... (not so much the wallet, but rather a laogong who teng2 her so much) i'm certainly too poor to afford even the tiniest LV bag as of now... but more importantly, i'd rather splurge on a holiday abroad VS such a luxury good... when i expressed this preference, bag-fanatic colleague replied that it was the opposite for her... she very much prefers bags (that she can keep and admire over and over again) to holidays... hehe.. maybe one day if i ever get super rich i'll start considering these tai tai habits....

the past two days have been crazy for me; worked past 9pm for both days and felt extremely worn out... have been assigned very tedious tasks at work and perhaps inability to work quickly and efficiently has resulted in extremely long hours.... :( also observed that it does pay to be more chatty and thick-skinned at work(or just about anything???); and my character sometimes put me at an disadvantage when it comes to establishing good work relationships with people... one does not need to 'hit it off' instantly when making friends since the process is gradual whereas one sometimes needs to be good at just dealing with ppl if you merely need to get work done... makes me wonder what kinda job would be a good fit for me....?

sometimes i wished i were better at making choices. cos some decisions in life are extremely difficult and distressing to make and you just have to believe you did the right thing and keep going. perhaps it's good that big decisions made are mostly 'irreversible'... which makes you take extra care in making them...yet there will still be this lingering doubt at the back of your mind..... how can some ppl be so sure about what they want?

spent quite a lot of effort today trying to capture pictures suitable for an ongoing mini photocompetition. sadly i didn't manage to get anything very satisfying. nonetheless, enjoyed myself wandering around the colorful Bugis village area, which has many interesting characters. on way back to Bugis MRT, also walked past a tissue "seller" (as i'm writing this, it suddenly struck me that Singapore's perhaps one of the few if not the only country where tissues are a "peddleable" product) anyway, not to digress.... so i happened to look this old man in the eye... and his eyes just lighted up with hope, perhaps thinking that i was going to buy tissues from him... and so i faltered and fished out my wallet... dunno, sometimes i think i have double standards. i usually ignore tissue peddlars who go from table to table, but certain tissue peddlars really look so pitiful i feel bad for not helping at minimal cost to myself... though the right/wise thing these ppl ought to do is to look for work in order to get a steady stream of income. oh well... haha and oops i've totally digressed from what i set out to blog about :P

just caught my first Bollywood movie on Arts Central -- Bride and Prejudice. hehe sounds familiar?? cos it was what Sumei was so addicted to around the time i was temporarily homeless last fall.... so while i was doing various assignments and preparing for midterms, this dear girl was watching the $1 rental dvd on her laptop :P j/k, of course she did other constructive things too :)

Anyway, it's a very interesting movie in my opinion for various reasons...i mean picky ppl can find many flaws with it, but it was enjoyable for me. Plot-wise, it wasn't too exciting, since i knew what was going to happen in the end. Rather, the Bollywoodization of the storyline made it interesting. maybe i just haven't watched Indian movies before, but i was pleasantly surprised how 'Indian' it was... i loved the Indian wedding scene near the beginning with the young Indian couples dancing... it was very refreshing :) and at the end of the movie i concluded that saris can look extremely beautiful (esp on Indian ladies, who also have big lovely eyes and somehow these two go together haha)... it looked real odd on the white girl who played Darcy's popped-out-of-nowhere girlfriend... initially they also tried to challenge stereotypes of India and the US.. but it turned out to be a rather half-hearted attempt... nonetheless still liked this idea of cross-cultural interaction among the characters...

dad has been delegated the official responsibility of managing household in mum's absence... and though i cannot say that he hasn't been trying, performance is a certainly a far cry from mum's usual standards... i really have to give mum credit for managing household so well; and sometimes even though it appears to have been effortless, i'm sure it is and has been tiring... though having to work all day makes me extremely lazy when it comes to household chores, i finally decided to do my part after watching clothes and towels being folded the "wrong way"... haha... i am really not some fastidious neat freak, but seeing clothes and towels folded in an 'unorderly' way made me feel so unbearable and thus i decided to break out of laziness.... and i really can't say that it's a girl thing, cos I have definitely witnessed guys who are super neat/clean... who put me to shame :P but my dad's certainly not one of them. esp not after discovering in one of his clean trousers pockets a crumpled ball of soiled handkerchief.... was very very grossed out.

mum has zipped off to Xiamen on a mini getaway with a friend and though it's just been a day, things feel amiss at home. no warm hand to pull the sleepy me out of bed/shake me awake in the morning; no warm beverage awaiting me on the dining table in the morning; no one to wave me goodbye upon leaving the apartment for work... haha i totally sound like a big baby right and feels strange since i didn't have any of this all these years overseas... i mean perhaps it's when you know you ought be having something that you don't that it feels particularly funny. (ie. since i'm at home in Sg, by right mum should be here too) sometimes you miss things and people more than you think you'll do...

this evening i checked out the latest mall in town, Vivocity, together with maybe 50% of all Singaporeans, who flocked there to cou4 re4 nao4... it actually opened last weekend if i'm not wrong, but the attention-grabbing-of-late stores, like GAP, only opened late yesterday... and though i'm not like a die-hard GAP fan or anything, i did feel like checking that out, too :P sadly, it's rather pricey and selection didn't seem that great. and though being in the shop itself (eg. atmosphere, general deco etc) did give me some kinda deja vu; having to jostle with tonnes of other Singaporeans certainly made the overall experience very 'local'... On the whole, shops at Vivocity did appear to veer towards the more high-end ones... wonder if the crowds would still continue to pour in after the initial hype is gone? but now there's another mall with ZARA :P unfortunately i'm still too poor to afford the expensive but pretty clothes there. hai. and now that i have to 'make my own living'... realize that zhuan4 qian2 bu4 rong2 yi4..... :P

after months of consulting the Unit's street directory for ad hoc tasks, a recent assignment convinced me that it was worthwhile investing in my very own Singapore Street Directory. how else would i be able to figure out what really exists in my town?? Despite having some trouble really familiarising myself with my assigned towns, I think i cannot complain about not having been assigned a 'familiar' town... since whatever town i'm assigned i'd probably not be too familiar with it! esp when viewing it from a "bird's-eye view"!!! sis thought it funny that i bought a street directory even though i don't drive... well.... if i familiarize myself with the streets, it would be a plus if i eventually know how to get (drive) around Singapore right? :P but you know... it's really no use sitting in the office and staring at maps if you really haven't been to the areas yourself. I should really learn how to drive soon and drive myself around to familiarize with places i ought to know well!

alas, my mum finally made the discovery minutes ago despite my relatively successful attempts to hide a huge blue-black on the knee the past few days... so i had to sit through a 5 min lecture on how i don't know how to take care of myself.. as well as a mini interrogation session on how the disfiguring evidence of my clumsiness came to be... paranoid dad has even jumped to conclusions that i might suffer from some form of osteoporosis... i knew this was coming and so have been trying to hide the blue-black by wearing pants to work these past few days... but alas two min of negligence sitting in living room in knee-length nightgown have wasted all my efforts :( aaargh.

If you're wondering what movie to catch this weekend/ next week, I highly recommend Little Miss Sunshine! It's hilarious... and very sweet at the same time... :) and i guess the familiar freeways, road signs and motels did bring back fond memories of road trips too.

Tales from Earthsea (Gedo Senki)

I want to watch this!! It's Goro Miyazaki's (Hayao Miyazaki's son) first full length animation film and it has a lovely lovely theme song... very calming... and the beautiful sketches have won me over even though i've yet to watch the film haha :) Think it's going to premiere on Nov 9 in Singapore. In the meantime, you can watch Trailer No. 1 here... or Trailer No. 2 here :P

Singapore has turned mooncake island this past week or so. i'm seeing so many mooncakes around it's starting to get a little repulsive.... goodness knows how much lianrong (and other fillings too i guess) an avg Singaporean ingests during this period... and it's amazing how with some extra packaging and creativity hotels/restaurants can turn these low cost traditional desserts into highly profitable products... alas! i too fell victim to this huge commercial ploy-- HDB staff get say 25% discount on mooncakes from major hotels/restaurants and i got myself a box of mini mooncakes with champagne truffle and ganache from Raffles Hotel... colleagues were raving about it, but when i brought it home and let my family try it... my sis just went... taste like champagne, meh? haha. i did wonder how come some colleagues and other HDB staff bought so many boxes of mooncakes of various flavors.... do they really like eating mooncakes?? how much mooncake can you eat before you get sweeted out? and can ppl usually differentiate the quality?? I'm no food connoisseur, but as long as it's not significantly inferior, i doubt i can tell the difference btwn the quality of mooncakes from various hotels/ restaurants... does a Raffles Hotel mooncake really taste way better than the 80 cents mooncake you get from a heartland bakery? i suppose it boils down to the gift-giving part of buying mooncakes... obviously where you buy your mooncake from matters... hee... and when you spend so much money on your mooncake you would want to pyscho yourself to think that this expensive mooncake tastes better.... haha... i suppose this applies for many other things too? :P

sat in a public housing seminar at HDB on Friday; some variation in work routine at last! it was interesting for me, cos i got to learn a lil more about Universal Design, which includes, but is not limited to creating barrier-free access for the disabled; rather, it strives to make facilities/designs as user-friendly as possible to a broad spectrum of users. I also realized how impt it is for planners to take such things into acct, and applaud the move :) i used to admire how disabled-friendly buses and places in the States are; am happy to see progress here in sg too! i want to refrain from making this sound like a sales speech or something, but now HDB flats will come with wider corridors; bigger switches, bigger toilets, ramps instead of steps at appropriate spots etc... it really doesn't seem like it requires too much trouble to make these provisions and it's heartening that changes are slowly being introduced :)

lastly, on a random note.... we were briefly discussing recent news events in Japanese class today... and someone raised the coup in Thailand. so apparently in Japanese, the katakana for coup is not simply coup; rather, it's based on the original French coup d'etate... i guess it makes sense, since French should be as 'foreign' as English for the Japanese... why should i assume that all Katakana words are based on English? (though most of them are..)

Animal subjects

Haven't been to the zoo in YEARS... so it was really pretty refreshing for me :) realized on Sunday that it's a totally different experience trying to take pictures of wildlife... cos... alas... they wun sit still for you...whereas kids, fidgetive and restless as they are, will still listen sometimes.. but how to convey a photo request to an animal? :P

The Singapore Zoo seems to be big on wildlife conservation, for a good cause :) You get to take pictures with one of these parrots, or bigger ones, if you pay $5 towards some wildlife conservation fund. If not, you still get to take pictures... just not with them :)

yawn... go ahead and snap all you want... but be sure to leave me to my afternoon nap after that!

Friend: So... since whites are called angmohs, is Ang Mo Kio where all the angmohs live??

i was very amused. :P

A touristy week for me :P

friend's visit gave me the chance to visit quite a handful of places I prob wouldn't have visited on my own... and discovered a few decent and not overly-touristy/artificial places to visit... Sg does have a its own share of cool places too after all... :)

Visited the National Orchird Garden in the Botanic Gardens for the first time... it's such a pretty garden... no pictures can justify the experience of walking through all those colorful elegant flowers. Very good photo op too! Didn't really get much time to take pics this time round.. but hope to return in future

hehe... where was this pic taken? (read on to find out..) sadly the CBD buildings are somewhat 'clouded out' by the haze... anyway, my FIRST time taking the cable car brought me to the tranquil summit of Mount Faber. have to admit that it was a lil scary to be 'floating' in non-airconditioned cabin way above everything else... as well as above lotsa tropical trees as we neared Mount Faber... but quite cool! :P

have yet to master the art of working both efficiently and competently... still some kinda trade off for me as i tend to spend more time to ensure that quality doesn't suffer... but sometimes realize that certain things you have to race against time... and things just can't be as good as you want them to be... which leads me to another point-- i find it rather disturbing how in an attempt to get things cleared, we sometimes have to compromise on details... one wonders what happens downstream if things aren't well thought-through enough? how do diff organizations make decisions? top management ppl can't always be right also... yet seems like subordinates usually wun question excessively. just do. how can like that. why like that. will i eventually become like that. or am i already like that...

We, flowers, welcome the IMF/World Bank delegates

finally went out with my new camera on another mini photo outing... with the knowledge that town would be more flowery than usual :P well, wasn't disappointed... but at same time rather amused how intentional everything is! even all the shops are giving delgates special discounts.. why they so special! ha.

Isn't this pretty....

So i discovered rows of sunflowers lining the pathway right outside SMU... not sure it they will be permanent. in any case, they're so pretty; made me wonder why we dun ever plant sunflowers along our roads... too high maintenance i suppose.

and so i discovered this strange phenomenon of sunflower-lined roads...

this was closer to suntec... well... it is rather obvious that they have been intentionally planted.. can still see the original bunches and wiring....

this week or two is prob as happening as Sg can get...? everything has been planned to coincide with IMF/WB meeting rather intentionally, so as to showcase the island to the supposed 16,000 or so delegates arriving... sadly i can only hear about the big names in the papers; no chance to attend any public lectures and such... of course i'm happy that there are many things i can do during the weekend, yet at the same time, feel like everything's but a show. it's cool that passers-by get to appreciate Salvador Dali's sculptures in front of Taka... but me wonders if these transplanted sculptures would soon disappear after the buzz is gone? reminds me of friend's documentary... that we dun bother to slowly cultivate and allow things to slowly take root... we only want instant gratification...?

had three 'arty' events lined up back-to-back last weekend... caught Forbidden City on Sat; watched Tony Takitani at The Picturehouse on Sunday; then attended an Asian Film Symposium screening at the Substation yesterday evening... though i was left with little time to take a good rest; they were totally necessary for balancing out the draining forces at work ha. the former two were nice (though Tony Takitani wasn't very easy to figure out i have to say) but the last one was really really cool . I got to watch a documentary titled Singapore Standard Time produced by my very dear friend! and it was extremely good. Sadly, i don't think it's going to be shown anywhere in sg anytime soon, but the producers say that it might be screened on Arts Central come Jan 07... so watch out for it! ;P if only i can produce something half as good one day! ;P hee still haven't totally tossed out my far-fetched dream of making documentaries one day... but knowing me..... hai.

i still cannot really decide whether it's good to keep feeling 'sore' over having to do things you HAVE to do but dont' like to do; or whether it's better to just accept that there will always be things you dun like to do but HAVE to and be 'resigned' to fate... hmm i guess either way you still end up having to do these things you dun like to do haha. so perhaps BEST way is to think... how can i eventually not need to do things i don't like to do?! aiyah maybe i'm just being irrational and childish and spoilt... i suppose there are always things one has to learn/do, but doesn't enjoy learning/doing... and perhaps slowly tipping the scale towards things you like to learn/do is called active management/exercising control over own life? :P

tmr morning's our dept's 'Active Day' and some of us were made to participate in team spirit- boosting games.... i signed up for something called "Wet and Wild", which involves carrying scoop of water over your head over a certain distance.... then team that gets most water in shortest time or something wins. hmmm... hope i dun really end up getting wet. but wonder how effective these will be at team-building? anyway... i suppose it's a nice break from work. though this week saw me OT-ing 2/3 times, still can't help but feel unproductive even while OT-ing since i'm still somewhat "handicapped" at work... and it's funny how after i revealed to a colleague that work hasn't really won me over at all... he replied saying something like, "who likes work??" :P i think i just need to find something that will motivate me and inspire me at work, if i ever do...

Toa Payoh HDB Hub has been more re4 nao4 than usual this past couple of days, due to open auditions of juedui superstar right in front of NTUC... or some sort of pre-audition thingy... having scores of male popstar wannabes waiting for their 'ticket' to fame isn't a regular sight during lunch breaks :P yeah, so colleagues and i made use of leftover lunchbreak time to cou4 re4 nao4... also spotted Quan Yifeng doing some kinda hosting for Channel U... sad to say, i don't think i've heard anyone real good so far... and colleague's comment that some of the participants wear until 'bu san bu si' made me rather amused ;P i suppose it's one way of drawing attention...

sometimes ppl have strange affinities for things without knowing why... i think in my case i have this strange affinity for Japanese. just like at Berkeley, taking Japanese somehow makes me happy :) and... even at Berkeley i thought the teachers were amazing to produce textbooks with such cute pictures etc.... my sensei at Ikoma has the this amazing flair for illustrating cute stick figures cum scenarios on the blackboard within minutes... and uses them effectively to enhance our understanding of the material... though teaching format etc is different, i feel like the classes are really pretty decent too. actually i think i've been placed into a class too advanced for my level... but hehe to save my money, i'm gonna stick with it... i mean at least i still get quite a fair bit of what she says :P
then today on the MRT, seconds after whipping out my copy of Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which i have been reading rather sporadically during my commutes to and from work, this middle-aged guy standing behind me initiated a conversation by asking if i've watched the movie starring Daniel Day-Lewis (i didn't even know it was made into a movie)... conversation gradually veered towards career consulting... and HR.. and turns out that he knows my deputy director from the HR dept (who's kinda like scholars' boss) anyway he appeared very well-informed and experienced and has daughter who works for A-Star... haha. somewhat random but coincidental though.... anyway, dunno.. lesson of the day....ERM, read interesting books on the MRT cos you'll never know what interesting conversations they can spark? haha.