Merry Christmas and Happy 2009!

This is my favorite time of the year... when everything at work winds down, good friends physically present double overnight; and everyone is more or less in a relaxed/ joyous mood. We also had our ERU celebration this afternoon, and coerced sporting boss into doing some seriously funny antics (such as wearing dark angel wings cum halo/ devilish hairband gear, compliments of ph2). The antics were captured on video.... but meant for ERU-sian eyes only. Uploading to Youtube was strictly forbidden :P

Am also leaving for the Land of the Rising Sun in the wee hours of the 26th and really looking forward to a week of frosty adventure with two dear frens :D

And so to all my dear friends who read this blog, have a blessed Christmas; and since I won't be back till next year, here's also wishing all of you lotsa joy and good health for 2009!

The lazy bum has finally attempted to prepare for her trip next Friday...

And so this afternoon I dug up all my "winter wear" :) Though almost everything is from abt 2 years ago, still feel rather excited being able to wear them again! So far have not been able to re-wear nicer long coat, cos forever travelling on tight budget and need to wear 'hardier' 3/4 coat for practical reasons...

Should I be vain and bring 4 scarves for a week...? (Only 3 featured above :P)

Christmas is round the corner...

During lunch we were just about to finish our bought-in lunches at the common table when Eunice walked in with two huge red plastic bags... She had purchased a Christmas tree from one of the HDB shops at a bargain price of $22! And it was a pretty tall tree for $22... While I was finishing up the last bits of my lunch, a very gancheong and excited Eunice began her little project of immediately assembling the tree...

The very inexperienced few of us were rather pathetic in the art of opening up a bunched up Christmas tree, but luckily as more of us returned from lunch ppl started to chip in to help with ERU's first christmas tree (according to Eunice, it's been a long 6 year wait. Though i wonder why had to wait so long... :P) And with the help of everyone, the tree was done up in half an hour! But then somehow the stand not very well built (discriminatorily a few of us joked that cos it was made in China) and so our tree is actually "seng-eh"...

The first thing we put on the tree was this cute furry little star, compliments of Leha. I mean, it isn't a beautiful kinda star, but with its girly eyelashes and red little embroidered mouth, I thought this soft toy star actually felt pretty endearing.

And ta-da! Here's the chapalang ERU Christmas tree... with everyone's random items hanging on it... including recycled decorations and stuff. Think we prob have the most budget-conscious tree around, but oh well, in the end it still looked somewhat decent... :)

Hehe, on a separate note, I am very proud of one of my self-wrapped prezzies. Yesterday I splurged some $20 buying ribbons... (sigh, on hindsight, can almost buy one big christmas tree already...) but I dunno, the lovely satinish ribbons just tugged at my heart and cried out, "Buy me!!!"... and so I gave in....

On kids...

Child rearing in sg seems like a daunting business. Or maybe having kids anywhere is challenging, but just more stressful in sg? While having bunch of in-mid-30s colleagues offers me this 'crystal ball' opportunity to see what I might be doing with my life some ten years down the road, somehow they have been more successful in scaring me of late... :P But when I point out how challenging/ stressful bringing up kids (properly) seem to be, ALL of them insist that the qualitative/emotional benefits of having kids is frequently unquantifiable/ cannot be easily expressed in words, so I only see a lop-sided picture when they commiserate abt the other realities of child-rearing. OK lor... :P

Nonetheless, here are some scary observations made recently:

i) Recently fly started bringing her cute lil fly to HDB child care, arising in increased frequency of contact with her when fly brings her back to office after office hours... I am particularly baffled by why adults, upon seeing NEW kids, usually automatically, quite instantly transform into high-pitched creatures (or maybe my motherly colleagues are an exceptional bunch!). They start to entertain the kid, to make the kid happy and ask the kid all kinds of questions. Well, xt once told me that studies hav shown that kids seem to be able to hear higher-pitched voices more easily... Dunno how true that is. (For one, I know that own boss prob thinks that of mrs boss haha, though recently dun get to witness that much anymore). Anyways back from tiny digression, I feel like I can never feel natural trying to be high-pitched and act their age so that the kid would take to me and play with me... Though I've successfully babysitted kids for an hour or so, do for one whole day, think will die leh.... So deep down I feel very doubtful whether if one day I have kids will they be so disappointed with their stone-stone mummy....

ii) With more colleagues' kids reaching p-sch age, the "in" thing is now parent volunteering. Someone is already considering buying ppty near XXX sch so that in like 3, 4 yrs' time son can go to XXX gd pri sch. Then apparently once you set your target on XXX sch, it's time to offer your valued services! And 2 years in advance is considered 'late'. I mean, everything just seems rather unpalatable. Taking leave to go and wrap library books with fellow parent volunteers REALLY doesn't sound too appealing :( Neither is sitting by sch gate to be "security guard" so that no trespassers enter the sch compounds. I just wonder how impt early childhood education is and impact of the 'gd sch effect' on the kid. Maybe it's all a matter of "face"... But maybe now I say everything unpalatable one day if I have kids I'd do exact same thing. Then again, I seriously hope not, cos I'd really prefer a happy carefree and inquisitive child to a "smart" but stressed out and unhappy one.

Say so much then I think... actually why so scared. Worrying abt something that might not even happen. Hehe, I suppose in meantime I should just treasure fact that I still have luxury of time & freedom to roam and explore the world :D

Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars

As usual, I have super delayed reaction. Just uncovered title of this song and its beautiful lyrics... though very not realistic :P Maybe that's why it's so popular, cos it lets ppl dream about ideal situation... :) But the lead singer seriously needs a haircut.

"Chasing Cars"

We'll do it all
Everything
On our own

We don't need
Anything
Or anyone

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

I don't quite know
How to say
How I feel

Those three words
Are said too much
They're not enough

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

Let's waste time
Chasing cars
Around our heads

I need your grace
To remind me
To find my own

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

All that I am
All that I ever was
Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see

I don't know where
Confused about how as well
Just know that these things will never change for us at all

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

And so the book that acted as a convenient prop for my pics last Sat turns out to be an excellent read. It's been a while since I've gotten pretty glued to a non-fiction book on the MRT...

Here's an interesting excerpt in which the author tries to make the point that some seemingly 'natural' beliefs/ ideals are but ultimately mere human constructs... Yet we resigned and sometimes unthinking humans are just apt to accept things as they are, thinking that things are too entrenched, too well founded to be questioned etc....

He quotes from George Bernard Shaw in this alien title called The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism (London, 1928):

You must clear your mind of the fancy with which we all begin as children, that the institutions under which we live are natural, like the weather. They are not. Because they exist everywhere in our little world, we take it for granted that they have always existed and must always exist. That is a dangerous mistake. They are in fact transient makeshifts. Changes that nobody ever believed possible take place in a few generations. Children nowadays believe that to spend nine years at school, to have old-age and widows' pensions, votes for women and short-skirted ladies in Parliament is part of the order of nature and always was and ever will be; but their great grandmothers would have said that anyone who told them that such things were coming was mad -- and that anyone who wanted them to come was wicked.

This para (esp the first half) is pretty inspiring isn't it... I think it makes a lot of sense, but guess it requires quite a bit of 'rowing against the tide' and a thinking and unlazy person to make improvements to the status quo. I hope that I'll always bear this in mind, and that there will always be a little spark in me to want to change things for the better :)

A lovely little package... :)

The botched outing to Marina Barrage...

Sometimes, anything that can go wrong will go wrong. But sometimes that's also what makes life more interesting :P

The random Sat outing began with two 'girls' meeting in the lifeless CBD area for their outing to the newly opened Marina Barrage. The plan was to walk to Marina Bay MRT station after lunch, to take shuttle bus to Marina Barrage. I had no idea how to walk to Marina Bay MRT, except to blindly follow Miss M, who enthusiastically brought along her street directory map. Before the little walking exercise, I was supposed to be introduced to some yummy Taiwan porridge. Unfortunately, the place was closed. So were all the other nice eating places that Miss M wanted to bring me to as alternatives :( Nonetheless, we found a decent Indian eatery along Stanley St and had a pretty satisfying meal of chicken briyani....

Then it started pouring. Well, showers were forecasted for the day but I still harboured some hopes that the skies would clear up by afternoon. Since when I reached CBD area it was only drizzling slightly... So had no choice but to change plans, and hunted down a cafe by the name of 'Geek Terminal'...

After hanging out there for an hour or so we decided to try our luck again! And so we walked all the way back to near the S'pore Conference Hall... Along the way I had a running commentary from the CBD-seasoned Miss M, telling me who owns which building etc. For me, the most memorable building of the day though was this new Ascott Residences building, 'cos the exterior 'tiles' were of this old-fashioned looking/marbly greyish design that looked extremely ugly-- not very befitting of such a premium service apt block leh... :P

Alas, the closest we ever came to the Marina Bay MRT station was a sign which said 'MRT Station 500m away'. Somehow somewhere we made a wrong turn and lost sight of our 1st destination... and found ourselves surrounded by heavy vehicles and cranes... And of course, invited curious stares from amused construction workers...

Looking back at the construction mess we walked into...

So in the end we gave up our little hike to Marina Bay MRT station... Though Miss M subsequently suggested we take MRT from Raffles Place to Marina Bay, somehow all my excitement for the elusive Marina Barrage had evaporated... So we settled for early dinner at another cafe instead. What a productive day :)

But good things still came out of it... I stumbled upon a Christmas tree outside Geek terminal and managed to snap some Christmasy shots from inside the cafe for my own amusement... :)

I think it's really cool how the different christmas lights show up in the picture as little circular 'scales' of colors :)

The book I brought along to read, which ended up only as my prop :)

I like BooksActually very much.

Because it feels like a place set up by book lovers for fellow book lovers. And how the top of its pretty white shelves are lined with antiquish-looking cameras... Every single book on display feels unique and seems to yell out "I offer some precious insights about our complicated world" or... "Let me help you get away from the ultra-utilitarian/practical world you live in". And though it's prob but 20sm big, I can feel like someone/ some bunch of people poured all their heart and souls into it because the whole place is just so nicely and cosily done up. With little endearing things all over.

While browsing in the store today it started raining all of a sudden. And one of the staff actually asked me whether I needed an umbrella when I was about to pay and head out. I didn't need one, but was so tempted to ask if they were going to give me one? (Ok, maybe I was naive and he wanted to sell me one... but I choose to imagine that he was gonna give me a free umbrella :P). I dunno, but such warm personal touch is so lacking in most stores I frequent these days... I miss the little-independent-stores-by-the-street feeling.

Perhaps the sad reality is also that you prob also need loads of $$$ to comfortably live out your little fantasy without worrying about bread and butter issues. These BooksActually ppl certainly look like they threw in a little fortune for the place to materialise. (Maybe that also explains why the stuff in there's not cheap... :P)

I felt a little ashamed of myself today :(

Didn't realise that I was in such a pricky mood this morning till I met my first unfortunate "victim". So while walking with tph to NEXUS for Day 2 of "Research Skills & Techniques" course, bumped into the always-bluff-me BTD guy who has owed me some info for the longest time. And everytime he sees me he will give me guilty look and mutter his empty promise of giving me the owed inputs asap. But wait for dunno how many months already he still hasn't delivered his promise. Until I also can't be bothered to chase him anymore. For some strange reason I always run into him at the lift lobby... (I suppose there's some justice in this world...) So anyways this morning I saw him at another lift lobby again. As usual, the sight of me instantaneously triggered his broken tape-recorder-ish lines that he will give me the inputs ASAP... Usually I will try to act stern a bit so that he will really act on his words. However, dunno what came over me this morning, I just like didn't really care to listen to his explanation anymore and even while he was talking to me halfway I just like didn't feel like listening and totally walked away...

Poor tph was apparently a bit traumatised with my behavior and commented that she had never seen me so ungracious and 'fierce' before... Then I realised that I really did a not-so-nice thing to this BTD person. Though yeah, he technically didn't really offend me in a personal kinda way.

Oh well, too bad for him. And not so surprisingly, he still never delivered his promise. So though I genuinely felt a little guilty, deep down the evil side of me didn't exactly regret the little act of 'mischief' for the day.

Getting high on iMAC!!!

Shi Min is totally hyperventilating that the scroll ball on her mighty mouse can scroll sideways and zoom in like a magnifying glass.... :P

Of Fort Canning Park and NMS...

This is part (II) of photo outing last last Sat... and the journey begins from the drive up to Fort Canning Park...


Right opposite the first carpark is the back of the National Museum of Singapore (NMS). No idea who decided to plonk this ugly capsicum right in the middle of the grass patch...

The ugly capsicum close-up. Maybe I should give the sculptor some credit for his/her skill in making this public art look REALLY like the real thing :P

If you look to your right instead of looking directly opposite, you'll notice the pretty gothic gate...

Hey this time round I really didn't tilt my photo. How do you tell? The tree is straight.... ;)

If you begin strolling down towards the direction of the NSM 'lawn', you'll pass by some cool flowers...

And a tree with huge buttress roots that double up as some kinda refuge for the miniature shrubs...

And before descending via the most beautiful escalator (MBE) in sg to the front/side entrance of NMS, you'll first notice some sweet orange flowers again... :)

And while on the MBE, you can marvel at how nicely the old NMS building merges into its new extension...

After the short ride down the MBE, I couldn't help but look back at this interesting structure once more :P J-- If you look closely enough, there are pockets of autumn in Singapore too :) But of course, nothing as spectacular as Japan...


There are some funny whiskery purplish flowers at the side of NSM... That was it for the afternoon, cos by then I felt like I was getting a little toasted by the scorching sun! I want 15C weather....

My lovely baby... :)

D.O.B: 29 Nov 2008
Weight: 11.5 kg
Dimension: 24"

And so I finally decided to get it. The 24" iMac -- at the Sitex show yesterday afternoon. And somehow the earlier dilemma got resolved as soon as I saw how different my own photos looked on the 13 inch macbook and the 24 inch iMac... Though my sis was rather baffled why her crazy sis wanted such a huge monitor for.... Then again, after we brought it home (sadly had to drag my nice white box on Expo floor all the way to taxi stand hehe) and tried setting it up, she too got very excited and insisted on inserting her face into my very first profile pic when we were prompted by the webcam to take one.

This being my very first Apple product, I was pretty impressed by how minimalist (yet everything u need to know is there) and prettily packaged the whole package was. And there was REALLY but one cable I needed to deal with. Which goes thru this beautiful hole in the aluminium supporting structure and perfectly into another smaller circular hole at the back of the iMac. (Seriously, who thinks abt creating this hole in middle of your aluminium stand such that your cable looks nice and central when plugged into the comp...!) That the power button was so nicely integrated and hidden at the back of the iMac also made me really impressed (though I was stressed for some 10 seconds prior to that cos I couldn't locate it at all :P) These people at Apple are just great at creating functional yet tasteful designs that simplify our very complicated lives! That's how great design should be.... Simplify and not complicate; beautify and not clutter...

And so to my new and not-so-little baby-- It's gonna be a BROKE BROKE December for me... and though I have only prob uncovered 10% of how cool you are, deep down I think you are worth it :)

Today while waiting for my special lunch mate at foot of Somerset MRT escalator, three balding old men casually clad in shirt and berms walked past me to take the escalator, sharing some "life views" among themselves... And left me with some uncannily-timed "advice".

(Non-Verbatim)
Old Man 1: It's very important to keep a positive outlook in life...
Old Man 2 (agreeing): You should never feel sorry for yourself. Even if/when you feel sorry for yourself, nobody would feel sorry for you...

I only managed to unintentionally eavesdrop on two/three lines of their conversation, then as they ascended to above ground, I couldn't catch anymore of what they were discussing... But somehow I was rather eerified, cos like just when I had been feeling somewhat negative about certain things seems like someone decided to drill some wise words into my worry-warty brain...! I think it will work some, esp also after dear Miss W also took time off her very busy schedule to give me some wise "scoldings" hehe :P

So I shall put in more effort to count my blessings! Blessing no. 1 was little act of kindness by ph2. Who yesterday out of blue in middle of afternoon came over to my workstation and offered me half a cut and "cored?" apple. Like suddenly so nice to me (actually she has always been nice to me though she always pretends to bully me), so for 15 min I felt very 幸福 :) And blessing no. 2 was the successful 'debut' of the nice little tennis gang :)

====
Alas, my little mac poll has closed. And 24 inch iMac wins! But I still undecided.... Strangely no one thinks I should buy a macbook... Perhaps I shall go check out Sitex tmr with sis to see if I can sniff out any good deals :)

Finding beauty in everyday sights...

If only this place were mine... :)

Such a lovely outdoor setting.

Is that a windvane?

An uncamera-shy bee flew into my frame when I was shooting these orange speckly flowers... :)

Photo outing cum mini road trip!

Today I drove myself (and Dad) to Rochester Park and Fort Canning Park :) Have been wanting to check out them out for a while but somehow never got down to doing it. Originally planned to take public transport, but upon declaring my photography plans this morning paranoid parents thought that these places were too ulu for me to explore alone. So in the end Dad offered to be 'guardian'... And I jumped at the opportunity to drive the new car hehe. Well, Dad also brought along his own camera to take pics, but I suppose he wasn't half as 'on' as me and spent most of the time either looking out for me (Dun blindly go onto the road to take pics! he warned repeatedly...) or just sitting around while waiting for me. In the end I didn't really explore Fort Canning Park, but wandered down to the beautiful National Museum instead... Am also rather pleased that I managed to show and convince Dad how lovely the renovated National Museum is; and how he can actually go to many many places in Sg that is not White Sands or Tampines Mall :P

I also realised that there isn't really a lack of pretty places in sg, if one looks hard enough. And that flowers with nice buildings are a lethal combination that makes me swoon... :) I think I managed to snap more than 200 shots this morning, enough for blogging the whole of next week! Here are some highlights....


I can never get enough of the white and black colonial buildings... Hehe, ppl go to Rochester Park for nice dinner, I go there and sneak into the HC restaurants to take pictures. Think the only place I can afford to go is the Twelve+One bakery, with its cute little pastries... However, Dad dun want to go with me so I could only look in from the window :P



This has to be the most beautiful escalator in Singapore :P The feel is a little teletubby-ish eh?


The last pic is a street shot that I am quite satisfied with. Tried to make it look un-sg, and I thought the yellowish leaves helped a bit in adding a little autumn-feel to the scene. I suppose some snow and ppl walking in long coats would have helped romanticise it, but oh well, sometimes have to make the best of circumstances...

Japanese and photography can be buddies... :)

I've decided to stop taking Jap classes starting next term. But I dun intend to give it up... The plan of action is to watch free Japanese dramas online and read Japanese women lifestyle mags. But actually I dun have much trust in own perseverance hehe :P Though Jap mags are a lot more ex, somehow I feel so happy reading them (actually up till now i only browse 'cos am too lazy to go and slowly read text. Very lazy hor... but hopefully that shall change!) And Jap characters are so beautiful they just fit in nicely anywhere on the page... So anyway, decided to fish out local mag and compare with japanese mag... And upon close examination I realised my japanese mag also had many many lovely (posed) photos. Many against lotsa greenery and other nice outdoor backgrounds. Was pleasantly surprised cos I never ever looked very closely at the photos... So if my grand plan goes well, seems like I can i) save jap course fees ii) maintain japanese proficiency and iii) improve photography skills all at the same time!

Anyway, just a few frivolous but lovely pictures from my Japanese mag:

Monochrome chic

Burberry trench coats for Mum and daughter. So pretty... and unaffordable... and unwearable in sg ;(

Heavenly outfits and setting... If I ever have a daughter, she shall be dressed like this. :P

Had an unproductive and unmotivated day at work. Hate the in-limbo yet powerless to do anything kinda feeling. But must keep reminding myself degree of happiness also highly dependent on my own attitude towards things. Mustn't wallow in self-pity when I technically should be thankful for many many other wonderful things and people in my life :)

Oh well, to distract myself from life's little booboos, I just added a frivolous poll to my side bar! If you'd like to help the indecisive Shi Min decide on what Christmas prez to get for herself, start voting now! :P

I figured bosses are there for a reason :P Even his mere presence makes a difference! Of course I dun really mean it in a bad way... 'cos when expectations are upped I actually become more pdtive. Well, to a certain extent lah... We secretly acknowledged that the self-approved holiday is over; it's pay-back time!

Dad turns 60

There's always some ppl in life you take for granted and for me, one of them is Dad... Much as his paranoid-ness and over-protective instincts irks me sometimes, I have to concede that prob no one else in the world would ever be so nice to me.

For a super-paranoid person like him, turning 60 is quite a huge thing. So to celebrate the occasion, I went with him to get the big birthday prez last last Fri... and we celebrated his Chinese birthday today... with a healthy yogurt frost cake :P He likes to chant that he prob wun live past 60 something, but contrary to his own ridiculous conjectures, I secretly think that anyone as health-conscious as him can prob live to a ripe old age. I hope deep down in my heart that he will too.



And there's Dad trying to act cute. In fact I secretly think he can be damn cute and quirky at times... though I just act disgusted and nonchalant. Recently when commuting tog in car I complained why he can never freely let me do whatever I liked.. Always restrict me here and there and get unnecessarily worried. To which he answered, I would never be able to understand how painful and devastating if at his age anything terrible were to happen to me... Somehow it left my heart half broken and doused my wanderlust quite a bit. I suppose I will still explore since that's what I love, but will bear in mind to be safe.

Retro night...

Some funny pics to share... :) 2008 seems to be my lucky year and I won something at the lucky draw again! Unfortunately always win things I dun need, this time in form of Phillips mini hi fi set... It looks a bit obiang so though functions are better I'm still content with my own no-frills but chio hi fi set :P

Well, though I'm into geeky specs, no this is not mine :P I really like this pic though cos makes me fit right into the theme... Haha but wear already like even more obvious eyes are super tiny... haha.

Ph and I got bored towards end of dinner and decided to make full use of the roses lying around on our table... But er, the roses a bit oversized lah.

Fly -- my hairband twin for the night! I thought fly was the most retro-ish ERUsian for the night...Whole outfit yellow and white... very matching and retro :)

Er, this is supposed to be bimbo-pose picture... I obviously am not very well-trained for it (I dun mean the other colleague is :P) Hehe and nobody noticed my blue-black! Yay. Well though when browsing through pictures I spotted a somewhat powdery knee, dun think anyone else did nor would :)

Oops I did it again...

The clumsy woman did something stupid just before her D & D again... AARGH. Remb this Jan for HDB D & D I screwed up my nail polish cos the tissue paper got stuck on it?? Yest night, I hit my knee when climbing over low fence to get to Dad's car... and got like a huge blue black on knee. And I'm like going to wear short above-knee dress and bruise would totally show. Great. Dad was already shaking head on car disapprovingly at how careless her daughter could get ( right after I 'injured' myself) Seems like I have to do some cosmetic touch-up to the blue black patch on knee later, wasting some foundation and powder to cover up... :(

**Pulls hair**

After being largely muddle-headed the past 2 years with ppty sector jargon (but still managing to smoke way through), finally saw some light today (on one tiny aspect) after attending some seminar at URA on development control guidelines. Stuff is technically not directly related to what I do at work, but I was really keen to learn more about all these devt guidelines... Else everyone always use terms like DC, GFA blah blah and my understanding always half-baked. Well, not that I have turned expert overnight, but i mean, quite interesting to learn about existence of various guidelines. And listening to architects complain about why this this guideline must be like that :P

Most intriguing part of lecture today for me was intro on specific guidelines for landed housing/ strata and cluster housing... The setback requirements, defn of basement, attic and what-not was just very interesting to me... I suppose having lived in a HDB flat practically all my life has unwittingly given me a rather I-cannot-do-anything-funny-to-my-house mentality... When all these ppl living in bungalows and what-not seem to be able to make all kinds of modifications to their houses, "subject to approval":P . Oh well, I suppose when you're richer you also have the means to do so. Somehow after becoming more aware of resi devt guidelines in sg I feel like it will totally change how I look at houses next time! Though I also wonder if we are so strict, prim&proper (VS other countries) that overly creative proposals by owners always kena shot down...

Another morning of lecture tmr! Hopefully would not feel sleepy twds lunch though, like I did today... :P

had lunch with "long-lost" tennis coach today and am now somewhat psyched up to take up lessons again :) maybe I am just very imaginative and unrealistic, but somehow during lunch I was half picturing myself playing tennis decently some years down the road... And it was a pretty cool thought. Coach highlighted/ reminded me that it's quite possible for anyone to pick up tennis (I give him benefit of doubt that his comment was not corrupted by specks of moral hazard-ness ;P); it's more a matter of how much time and effort one wants to put into it to become good at it. The nice little chat about tennis led me to think about life in general. I suppose as with many things in life, if one is passionate enough about something, willing to put in effort and not impatient to just skip all the necessary steps to desired outcome, he/she would likely enjoy the sweet and hard-earned fruits of success. Though I kinda know this, at times it's still easy to be lazy and wish that your dreams come true without any sweat. Perhaps it's just human to want instant gratification...

Leona Lewis - Better in time

Thanks to 18-yr old cousin, I finally found out name of this song...! And was bluetoothed the mp3 hehe :P Was pretty surprised cousin was so willing to splurge money from part-time job on some sleek Samsung touch-screen phone that cost him over $300...

Anyway, here's the beautiful song and MTV if you are interested (somehow embedding is disabled for this video)... Leona Lewis has a great voice...

If all goes as planned, I might finally be getting some new cute curtains for my room in the next month or so :) However, home seems to be headed towards chaotic "personal-enclave" style of furnishing, since family members have pretty different tastes/ preferences and cannot come to consensus... And it's terribly difficult to create consistent, modern look for old place unless occupants want makeover badly enough to sink in the $$ for a drastic makeover... Since we rarely receive visitors, I suppose it's alright as long as I'm relatively happy with my part of the home... :P Have to give and take and cannot impose own preference on rest of family members (though I would love to haha). It's also cool that parents let me do what I want for own room, so I shall get my earthy tone colors... hehe. Dunno leh, will feel uncomfy if things dun look right to me. Amusing how sis is really a lot less particular in this aspect-- like ask her to buy nicer (in my opinion), non kid-print bedsheets befitting her age but she just not willing to fork out single cent... Though it's but a tiny detail in everyday life, falling asleep on pretty bedsheets also happy leh :)

Minshuku = Min + Shu + Khoo ;)

Past few days have been religiously spent researching for Japan trip and looking up accommo. Esp accommo for popular destinations, which was being snapped up pretty quickly (though I was rather doubtful abt everything being booked up so quickly and was quite slack initially... :P) Hardworking a bit and finish booking everything then can rest :) We're halfway there....

So anyway today the ingenious Shu asked if Jap style farmhouse = minshuku (BTW minshuku = hiragana pronunciation for 民宿 = something like homestyle lodging/inn) and highlighted its semblance to our names... It was so brilliant cos at that moment it just hit me that hey, we're so fated to stay at a minshuku together...!! Cos not as if we're being intentional abt fitting bits of our names in... Min is always min; shu has always been shu... Well, J you are a bit out, but hey, with a little twist you still fit in quite snugly... ;)

Alright, maybe all of you think I'm weird... But to me, it's just such a cute coincidence.

Lovely long weekend...

It was such a great long weekend :) Exercised, researched for trip, learnt (went for photography and jap class), explored (Little India & indian food with the family), chilled out and watched two movies (Tokyo!@The Picturehouse and I Capture The Castle at home :P) Though it's back to work tmr morning, I wun have too long a week since I'm on do-nothing-leave come Thurs and Fri. Life feels good...

The family was atypically adventurous on Sat and decided on a spontaneous outing to Little India. Mum has apparently never set foot in Little India proper all her life...! It was great that they chose to go down during the Deepavali festivities period... cos it was a lot more re4 nao4 than usual! However, I was almost smothered by the crowds... We brought home addictive crunchy muruku snacks... and have been unable to resist them the past few days... Now the sinful keropok-ish stuff is almost half gone.... :(

Alas, it was also an indulgent weekend. Need to jian3 fei2 in coming weeks...