Sinema!

Yesterday evening I finally caught something at Sinema :P Bought tics for Jean Yeo's (director of The Leap Years) The Marriage Factor, starring Wong Li-Lin and Tay Ping Hui... Sinema is a tiny little place tucked away in an old MGS campus on a ulu little hill and despite it being a Sat evening, there were only about 10 ppl who came for the show... There were also hardly any ppl at the eateries/restaurants at Old Sch. So it was great, cos I hate crowded places!

The lil store where the spartan "box office" was located mainly sold various local movies, magazines and nostalgic snacks... I chanced upon the Monocle mag here and felt quite tempted to buy it, but decided in the end that I prob couldn't justify my forking out $19.90 just for one issue of a mag, given that I seldom read my mags cover to cover :P Another exciting discovery I made at the store were the nostalgic snacks on sale... eg. White Rabbit candy in packaging that had extremely dated look and the Hiro Choc Cake! (More on that later) So anyway, I was quite childishly thrilled to see those Hiro Choc Cakes after like what, 10 years, and asked for permission to take pics of them as well.

Turns out that the ppl at Sinema had bundled Marriage Factor with another Jean Yeo movie titled Ceciliation, as well as a director Q & A session. We didn't manage to finish watching Ceciliation due to unforeseen technical difficulties, but they were quite nice/apologetic about it and offered the audience another chance to go back to watch it. Marriage Factor was ok lah, though some dialogue bits were pretty witty. In the end, I think I enjoyed the impromptu director Q & A the most... 'cos it was quite interesting :) eg. how difficult it was to make commercially viable movies in sg, the Shanghainese audience's negative reaction towards casting Joan Chen in the Leap Years, among others. She also divulged that Tay Ping Hui was actually her schoolmate... And like in the movie she kinda gave him this geeky look, just to deflate his "I know I look good" ego a bit.. HAHA. Good one, cos with his terrible haircut and unflattering glasses, Tay Ping Hui did succeed in looking pretty nerdy :P

And now, I shall end this post with the star appearance of the HIRO choc cake....

Well, I dunno about you, but I used to see this all the time in my pri sch canteen, alongside the 20 cents red and yellow packaging animal biscuits, the 15 cents ladder-patterned yellow biscuit with peanut filling and what not :P And these used to cost 30 cents per piece, i think. I even had to paint this once (practice for still-life painting) for art class in RGS... I mean it was definitely not one of my favorite snacks, but hey... it kinda brings back fond memories of the good old carefree days ;)

Ting has always told me that I would love Pjt Runway, but I somehow never found the time to watch it. After seeing the TV ad on Channel 5 while on the treadmill the other day, I made it a point to remember to watch the Season 4 episode tonight... And I love the winning dress! The long ribbon, the 3/4 sleeves and the cute little vest...

I thought about hunting this down, since it eventually retailed in the stores at a pretty affordable price... but then like cannot really carry it off :(

Stiff necked

This morning I woke up with a most unexpected stiff neck. I really dun recall the last time I got a stiff neck, dunno what I did last night to deserve this :( Anyway, it was an uncanny coincidence, cos my DD apparently took MC on Monday for a stiff neck. Then, I was just thinking stiff neck also need MC one meh? Next time I had better think twice before thinking not so good thoughts about other ppl :P Ok lah, I am not so superstitious/irrational as to attribute my own stiff neck to frivolous reasons like this; but yeah, what a coincidence. I also realised having a stiff neck is so inconvenient (haha, surprise surprise!), in addition to being painful when you try to turn the way that's achey... Like, even when you see a friend/colleague from the left corner of your eye, you can't really like turn to say hi or smile! Surprisingly (this time for real) I found out that the stiff neck condition wasn't all that uncommon... Opposite neighbour shared that her husband frequently suffered from stiff neck and that his was stress-induced. Lhp had her cute conjecture that likelihood of stiff necks increased with age and her husband also suffered from this from time to time (wah, bad news for me if so... signs of ageing...?!) Somehow their anecdotes made me feel less unfortunate about my own stiff neck. It's always nice to know that there are ppl to commiserate with, even though it's merely deceptive wishful thinking/imagination on my part.

Siem Reap (4) - The luxury of idling

As you should be able to tell by now, I really liked the outdoor dining area of hotel lah... The first half of the day prior to airport transfer was pretty much spent eating, fiddling with camera and idling around, since Mum expressed preference not to explore any new places. We also ended up watching tv in hotel room and eventually, glued to some Korean drama on one of the cable tv channels :P


The leisurely breakfast... I'm trying to copy those food bloggers who take cool pics of partners eating, but without showing the face... I think I need to capture more of the food and less of the distracting/messy crockery on the table next time... :P

Hehe this is unposed pic taken while mum was eating. Erm, nothing particularly appetizing lah... but it shows.... eating in progress? :P

Beef noodles (tasted thai) for breakfast. It was pretty yummy :)

Cos we kinda overate and had a rather late breakfast (then like watch tv all morning), we didn't grow that hungry by lunchtime. So we turned to cakes for lunch.... Mum is cutting strawberry mousse cake... Tasted so-so only though :P Think can get better cakes in sg.

Some peach flan that also tasted so-so... After two cakes, sweet tooth me ordered ice-cream as well :P Hai, me wonders when my next trip would be.....

Siem Reap (3) - Of Angkor Wat, pillar-lined passageways and apsaras

In this post, I continue my pretty much history-less and backgroundless post of Angkor Wat. :P I mean, even if I attempt to pen down the things I learnt, it is at best incomplete and you would be very much better off reading Wikipedia or something. And much as I liked listening to stories and anecdotes my tour guide told us, I really can't regurgitate them... I get confused with kings with long names from different centuries. What I do remember though are the key and simple stuff -- eg. Angkor Wat means "City Temple" (Wat referring to temple or like monastery, according to TG). It was also initially built as a Hindu temple, but was subsequently converted into a Buddhist one later... Its origins also explain why the bas-reliefs (esp on the outer walls) are filled with Hindu gods/ battle scenes etc. The picture above is the causeway leading up to the 3rd (outermost) enclosure of Angkor Wat. "Thanks" to scorching afternoon sun (actually, think most ppl head to Angkor Wat early morning when it's cool and nice to walkabout), the "coast was clear"...

One of the side entrances leading into the inner enclosures...

Having entered the temple compounds (within 3rd enclosure), TG brought us to THE spot to take the picture-perfect shot of Angkor Wat. Was extremely thrilled with the symmetrical picture I could capture... So once I snapped this, excitedly showed it to TG (smugly trying to get some form of affirmation that yes! i did it!) However he was like.... not nice! The reason being that I had missed out the palm tree reflection on the left. So my palm tree was "beheaded"... So thanks to him, I took a few more pictures from slightly different angle and eventually got my picture-perfect shot. Somewhat... :P

It was really really hot and so before proceeding to tour the inner enclosures, we stopped by some drink stall for cooling coconut drinks. And not surprisingly, the child peddlers came over to sell their souvenirs... Though really young, they were pretty skilful at marketing their wares... Eventually I gave in and bought a set of postcards from one girl, since the pics were decent and only cost a total of US$1. That however led to more ppl flocking over... They looked so pitiful I felt bad ignoring the other two... Forgot what led to us taking this picture with them, but unfortunately the photo became an earned opportunity for one of the girls to get us to buy her stuff... Like she became a little cross and kept telling my mum, you take picture, never buy from me.... Oops.

One of the five towers in the innermost enclosure... They were undergoing restoration and so were unfortunately closed to visitors. I noticed that the steps leading up to the towers were extremely shallow and steep (at about 70 degrees incline)-- According to my TG, there are two explanations. The first (architectural) one is that somehow this made the whole structure more stable... The second (religious) one is that back then, this made it very difficult to scale for ppl who came to pray... And by having to carefully make their way up the impossible steps, they already had to like bow to the gods...

I also loved the many pillared passageways all over... I like gazing down the pillared passageway cos it gives an architecturally aesthetic sense of distance... This one's at the outermost enclosure of Angkor Wat.

This is similarly at the outermost enclosure and shows a Japanese-fluent tour guide explaining the carvings on the bas-relief....

Another beautiful passageway in Angkor Wat.

There were also numerous apsara (celestial beings) carvings everywhere -- not just in Angkor Wat itself but also in the other temples. This is my favorite picture taken at the Bayon temple. The intricate detail (there's like tiny figurines on the apsara's right!) is astounding. There are two more apsara ones below (last two). I cannot even imagine carving one panel. It would easily take me years... assuming that I had the patience and the talent to do it.



Actually I don't think any number of pictures can do justice to the grandeur of the place; it must have been pretty spectacular back in its 'heyday'... So that will be all I'm putting up for now. Do visit if you get the chance... though it might be a better idea to do it during the off-peak season (once again, according to my trusty TG, the causeway shown in the first pic can get jam-packed with tourists during the good months, say around Nov to early part of year) if you want to avoid the crowds and can endure the heat and rain :P

Siem Reap (2) - Ta Prohm and Bayon

The land tour I booked online was surprisingly exclusive. Little did mum and I expect that we would get a tour guide cum car all to ourselves... It was great though 'cos everything was still quite flexible despite the existence of a pre-planned itinerary for 2 out of 3 days. Tour guide was atypically burly for a Cambodian (most ppl I saw had like smaller built) and was frequently self-amused by things he told us (esp when he thought he told a good joke/ said something witty), breaking into this deep hearty laughter every now and then. That aside, TG was really knowledgeable and spoke good English, which certainly made communication a breeze. In addition to being fluent in English, he was also studying German and Spanish to improve his language capabilities! The many Japanese-fluent tour guides I encountered at Angkor Archaeological Park also put me to shame... :P

This post will be on two key attractions within the Angkor Archaelogical Park (Angkor Wat and other temple/city ruins are all housed within). Due to short stay, I only had one day to tour the park... If you really wanted to explore everything thoroughly, one day is definitely way too short... So this time round it really felt like a "touch and go" kinda tour for me. There were many interesting corners and spots I wanted to linger on at, to just soak in lost-civilisation kind of atmosphere, but perhaps company was not quite right hehe. Also hard to stay on for too long at a place when on guided tour. Though Mum was similarly awed by the structures, she got temple-fatigue by the end of the day, commenting that "after a while, all the temples look the same" :P

Though knowledgeable TG imparted us quite a bit of history and background of various temples, I prob only retained like 30% of what I was told. Hehe so my post will (as usual) focus on the visual aspects of the tour...

As you can see, Ta Prohm temple is famous for its overgrown/ intertwined trees... Apparently many of the temples, when first discovered, were covered by the jungles... Many of them had trees removed during restoration etc, but Ta Prohm was left pretty intact... I'm glad it was, 'cos this place was pretty amazing.

Algae/moss-covered slabs of stone... This temple really possessed this lost civilisation kind of atmosphere...

Beauty in chaos. Dunno how tree can survive with no soil..? But it seems to be thriving pretty well!

Close-up of tree roots in previous picture. Now, according to TG, this entrance was apparently featured in the Tomb Raider movie. Hmmm I can imagine why, cos it's pretty out of this world! Due to its movie fame, there were also like a tonne of tourists posing in front of it :P

A four-faced Buddha tower, with the faces pointing at the four cardinal directions. TG added that they also represented the four divine qualities or something in Buddhism... one of which was 'Charity'. Hehe, as you can tell, my memory not very good....

We also visited the Khmer city Angkor Thom... while walking through the sprawling compounds, I saw a temple near the Man and Woman ponds... In fact while driving through the park, there were several temples tourists could scale, mainly to like see the view from the top... Mum didn't want to scale it so I climbed up on my own... :) BTW, weather was baking, but I still preferred it to rainy weather (luckily it didn't rain v much those few days though it was rainy season in Siem Reap)

Me in some funny cube-like structure at top of temple hehe. Hopped into my ancient picture frame after setting self-timer on camera... :)

The beautiful Bayon temple within Angkor Thom. Famous for its many many four-faced Buddha towers. I think there are like 30 over towers....

Row of gods lining left side of bridge leading to south gate of Angkor Thom. There's like another row of 'devils' on the right...

Siem Reap (1) - Borei Angkor

I liked Siem Reap very much... The homely (but tastefully decorated) hotel I stayed in certainly contributed quite a bit. It was also the off-peak season (plus the most basic rooms were undergoing upgrading) so we got a free upgrade to their 'landmark' room, which was lovely and comfortable. Interestingly, there was always this light whiff of lemon scent in the lobby...

The lovely lovely outdoor dining area. I suddenly realised how beautiful dark wooden chairs with white cushions look. I think the lush greenery also contributed to the nice atmosphere. If i ever own a house with a nice big balcony/backyard of sorts, I'm so going to do something like that :P Perfect for reading/taking a leisurely breakfast...

After breakfast the first morning, I hung around the pool and discovered some fallen frangipani flowers on the ground (there was a frangipani tree by the pool) ... Don't they make such good props?

Another frangipani flower I picked up... It was great that the hotel was like so under-occupied, so it did feel like the whole place was mine to roam around... Such a refreshing change from the overcrowded sg hehe.

A swing by the pool! Isn't the structure cute? :)

Floating lotus flowers in main lobby, with petals all nicely folded...

The door linking outdoor dining areas to the hotel restaurant...

Another dining porch of sorts...

More lotus flowers! The whole place just felt so peaceful and nice... I'm already missing it despite having stayed there for merely two nights :P

Beautiful Angkor Wat

ps: pls pretend you didn't see the scaffolding... :P

It's finally Wed!

By lunchtime this afternoon, my mood was already much much better... and couldn't help beaming deep inside... Haven't felt so happy (technically over nothing, except fact that I was going on leave and returning to office only next Mon) in a while... Sigh, so deprived right. But it's really the first time I'm taking leave in what, nearly 4 months?? :( Life has been hard (ok lah, everything is relative) and I think I deserve a good break! :)

Now now... how should I nuah3 tomorrow.... :P

I seriously think that I'm like quietly and invisibly temperamental and 'turbulent' :P Not temperamental in the easily irritable sort of way, but more in a potentially change mood v quickly type of way. Was reflecting on state of blue-ness yesterday and wondering why there was a need to be so blue... So today despite having to work most of day tried to keep spirits high by just focusing on doing site duty well... and somehow day went by pretty quickly and peacefully. Hope tmr will be just like that and then I only need to clear the Mon/Tues hurdles. Somehow occasionally watching Olympic athletes fighting it out on TV also reminds me of own weak-willedness... Need to be stronger and not so easily set back by little obstacles. And in boss's terminology, only by not taking 'path of least resistance' and roughing it out thru hard times would I become more "polished", just like how a 'diamond' is formed.... Bit cheesy but it does get the point across lah. :P

Though the day started off pretty well with the few of us in office previewing exhibition launch pics of my shuai4 Adviser, it ended terribly. But on hindsight, also dunno why I got so stressed when I received the 5.40pm or so IMMEDIATE email. Ended up burning another night unproductively in office. Weekend sucks cos it will be work work and work. Mon will be eeky too. Tues will prob be spent clearing stuff before i can finally get to go on leave. Hope I have enough 'steam' to last till Wed.... :(

Am relieved half of crazy week is over... It's super not fun to be notified the very same morning to join "support delegation" for Adviser's house visit after work!! I guess it was a mini eye-opener though... only that my 30-something Adviser had loads of energy, walked the whole block and practically visited every household that was at home... So by the time we reached the 2nd (last) floor at 9.45pm, the woke-up-at-6.30am-on-tues-morning me was already finding it difficult to keep eyes open, lest help to answer SERS questions. Good thing had very able colleague around who diligently answered questions for a very passive and super tired me :P I also got my answer to a seemingly baffling phenomenon of super-long queues at Meet-the-People sessions. Cos I witnessed Adviser telling every household to go look for him if they had problems (and am presuming it's typically the case for most MPs)... Political vote-gathering aside, personally feel like it's rather warped, 'cos providing such assurance to residents implicitly encourages over-reliance on external parties for personal problems? And knowing that you can easily complain and ask MP for help, not much incentive nor motivation to take responsibility to solve own problems...? AND this is probably why HDB staff suffer and get flooded with tonnes of appeal letters.

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I find it very amusing how guys frequently try to hide their 'softer side'... perhaps it's just not very manly (esp to fellow guys) to appear too emotional/ to have soft spot for certain things? But it's perfectly human and alright to have weak spot for things/animals/people what, why must intentionally try not to show. Then upset/sad also have to try very hard not to cry.... like so difficult life like that.

Thanks to J, I have one Ponyo hanky and one hedgehog towel, all the way from Japan! And a cute, in-fashion flowery chiffon dress (which erm, I have to figure out how to carry off nicely ha) Apparently Ponyo on the Cliff is already showing there, together with movie-related merchandise.... When would it start showing here...? Though by virtue of being in ERU I am destined to be a tree in my next life (insider joke), perhaps it's time I started playing a greater part in saving trees by using hankies more often... It would be a great idea if I weren't such an absent-minded person who has tendency to leave behind personal belongings everywhere... :(

Aside from stuffing ourselves full with (yummy) desserts twice in one afternoon, we also caught a very entertaining local documentary -- Mad about English, basically about the English-learning 'craze' in China, focusing on Beijing residents picking up/brushing up their English for the Olympic Games... Not to be mean to the many earnest English learners featured, but the movie was really quite hilarious. My favorite character was 74-yr-old Jason, 'cos of his dedication to mastering the language despite his age... Chinese physician Mary comes in close second, just cos her way of pronunciation really tickles me :P Here's the trailer:

The 1000th entry

According to Blogger's records, I've written 999 entries since I started this blog in 2003... which makes this my 1000th post. Seems like I've really written an awful lot the past 5 years; and I feel like I ought express some form of thank-you to those who have been reading this little whimsical blog of mine all this while :)

So to my handful of imaginary assumed audience + i-know-who-you-are audience out there, thanks for keeping tabs on my life; for making the frequently keep-everything-to-herself Shi Min feel like even if there's no one/ nowhere I can really vent my daily frustrations/ share my random musings with, I have the comforts of telling it to the bunch of friends who from time-to-time don't mind snippets from my unhappening life :P

Upset.

This afternoon I had a most unexpected break down at work, in the middle of narrating what pissed me off so much. I wasn't ANGRY ANGRY, but maybe madder than I realised. And so overwhelmed and 激动 that I had to just let it all out. Surprisingly for once, I felt really strongly abt something :P Though I couldn't do anything for half an hour or so after that, I supposed it purged some of my negativity and frustration.

Life is SAD for now :( But i suppose it should get better. Though not much in the near future...

And oh yeah, I hate ppl who tell you "We're in this tog" when it's just hypocritical lip service. Why utter such sugary things when you dun even mean it.

I've never felt so short-fused and frustrated in a very long time, but some silly things just make you want to pull hair and give up. And dun understand why ratio of grassroots attendees VS HDB attendees at a meeting matters so much. If ppl cannot make it so be it, why need to try so hard to match numbers, restrict ppl going just so that other ppl are not 'outnumbered'?! Dun see how number of attendees is that critical/gg to affect whether our msg gets thru or not such that we must waste time scrambling to reduce ppl from internal depts... I suppose when you're in foul mood, even tiniest of things can ignite huge fires :P I also hate ppl who make me do extra work in collation by not giving me inputs in requested format. HMPH!

That said, I suppose I still need to count my blessings. That always come in the form of comforting support in a few esp fabulous colleagues, frequently willing to go all out to help me. Esp for menial things I dun like to do and am very bad at doing.

I have two crazy weeks ahead and the little evil signs of stress/ long working hours have very unfortunately started manifesting themselves on my poor face... If I emerge un-disfigured, un-sick and mentally sound near end of month I shall be one happy creature. I shall console myself with the fact that most things, be they good or bad, will eventually pass. (Of course, when good things do happen, I will pretend not to remember what I just said :P)

Holiday Holiday!

So far I've surprised even myself with my last min impromptu holidays... :) And so in "just-do-it" fashion, I just booked a super short getaway to Siem Reap, Cambodia for later this month... Discovery of unexpected window of opportunity came on Monday (upon finding out that some official thing I was supposed to staff that week had been cancelled) and it immediately got me itching for another holiday hehe. Though mum had kindly agreed to be my travel companion this time round, always feel like I end up imposing on her when potential travel buddies can't accompany me... Hmm i suppose it's also cos I popped question to ppl out of the blue ha. In spite of my distaste for huge crowds, still decided to go to NATAS fair this morning to hunt down good travel deals in kiasu Singaporean fashion... :P Though had to pay admission fee of $3, I actually left exhibition with net gain of $4.5 'cos I koped a copy of the latest edition of Asian Geographic on India (Not that I am usually so cheapo, but I was pleased 'cos on way to EXPO I had originally intended to buy the mag for own reading pleasure) Didn't end up booking anything there, but the Incredible India! and Yokoso! Japan booths made me very tempted to squeeze in smthg else late this year... I suppose I'll see how it goes :)

Need to adopt "just-do-it" mentality more to other aspects of life.. :(

That our work/social environment influences how we think and act is something that ppl might not be actively aware of... Feel like only when something un-routine happens, then I realise, hey whatever my passive brain believes is the norm might really be the exception... But cos you face the exception on a daily basis, your mind sometimes fools you into thinking that it's the norm... I say this because after a Berkeley gathering last night and after attending some scenario-planning exercise at MND this morning, I suddenly realised that the average working crowd might not be that 'aged' after all :P (What a duh! "discovery" eh) Not that my colleagues are old, but I guess I cannot deny that they have by and large arrived at the setting-up-a-family stage of life. Furthermore, I really seldom experience say, going up to my workstation in a lift full of people about my age! My fellow lift passgengers are on average abt say, 35-40 yrs old.... (Qualifier: Not that similar age = can click, but I'm using age as a kind of proxy for gauging issues/things that matter most to ppl) And brainstorming/interacting with abt-same-age peers this morning also made me somewhat miss hanging out with ppl my age, whose conversation topics are at least of more immediate interest to me. Not that anecdotes from kid-loving colleagues are boring; but you know, I hardly ever meet ppl in HDB who would be passionate abt the same things as me. Which, come to think of it, can be somewhat disappointing, though I've never really felt that way. And it made me understand why in a college town one can feel much more inspired abt life, abt wanting to change the world VS a workplace where the majority's priority is to remain status quo as long as they get to earn their keep and get by pretty comfortably.

Casualpoet

This is a pictureful post of a tiny place.

Casualpoet was definitely more obscurely located than I had imagined... If I hadn't looked up its address beforehand, I would NEVER have noticed it. Because it's tucked away on the 3rd floor of a shophouse in Chinatown. Who would believe the existence of such a cute peaceful little haven above a row of noisy eateries :P So I skeptically scaled the flight of concrete steps... 2nd floor was some dubious massage place i think... kept going... till the above greeted me. The US customs declaration form stuck beside the door felt esp nostalgic. The contents read 'Art Prints', with a little welcome msg beneath it.


After browsing through their quirky but overpriced collection of mags/journals/books, I settled down at a seat by a window for a late lunch. Alas, still not too good at getting my lens to focus on the spot I really want; and only captured clearly the chicken skin of my chicken chop :P It was average-tasting, and somewhat overpriced. But ok lah, tog with the food, I bought myself a nice peaceful spot for an hour or so.

The table tag reads "free wifi for friends with laptops". Seriously, this feels so much like a place I would hang out at in Berkeley.... to just study/chill.

A nice little pin by the window.

The window I sat beside, with lil pots of plants and The Portable Jack Kerouac for browsing.

Postcard packs were also on sale... Ah, the Eiffel tower never fails to mesmerize ;)

Contents of a postcard pack neatly arranged on a wooden ledge.

Seriously, this place felt like someone living out his/her dream/fantasy... rather than a store that would be commercially viable/financialy sustainable... They have really interesting and pretty tasteful items on sale, but I wonder if anyone really buys them... There were also quite a few good 2nd hand titles on sale, and customers were encouraged to give these 'pre-loved books' (their way of describing 2nd hand books) a home. Food was so-so, with a limited selection of breakfasty items, but i mean, it's just such a nice quiet place to chill... To catch up with a friend and relax... The staff were also nice and were quite ok with my snapping away... Though one fellow customer was somewhat curious when I seemed more interested in taking pics of my food than eating it and asked if I were a food critic haha. Another great thing abt this place is that it's so uncrowded (apparently it's still quite new and I guess still unheard of). Oh well, least I hope it will remain this way till the next time I visit.
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Hehe, the pic below is of my shopping find of the day. A retro-ish hairband from Miss Selfridge that was on sale! Though I doubt I'd have any occasion to wear such a crazy thing to work, I just couldn't resist buying it...

New bedsheets for me!

My weekend has been pleasantly idle so far, aside from the much needed workout in the morning :) It's such a luxury to be able to do absolutely nothing, once in a while. However, decided to go check out the IKEA sale with mum in late afternoon; and came home a happy girl with two new sets of bedsheets! (Ok lah, actually more like quilt covers cum pillowcases, cos their bedsheets technically dun have design one) I also wanted to buy some cute bowls and stuff, but had to give up idea 'cos we really dun need more kitchen barang barang :( Have been wanting to check out their bedsheets (I already have two nice ones from there, but still wanted some more hehe... :P) The light blue cum white one is one design (one side blue, the other side white) while the green pacman-ish design one is just a plain print throughout. Yeah, even sleeping on pretty things makes me happy haha.

Tmr after jap class, I shall hunt down a cool art/book/design store casualpoet somewhere near Chinatown :)

The "pjt" I am working on has led me to work closely with one or two colleagues i haven't had that much contact with previously... and it has allowed the usually passive me to somewhat 'hit it off' with one colleague :) Like when talking abt work she would also share awww anecdotes abt her son with me; indeed my motherful unit has given me an advance peek into what mums think/feel/gush about. And funny as it might sound, it appears to me that for many, being a parent in turn brings out the 'child' in otherwise serious and cynical-ish adults :P

This morning tph and I also concluded that under this boss, we are always 'guilty until proven innocent'... I have finally deciphered why it's so stressful to work under him sometimes... it's because the default (when doubts arise) is always that we are in the wrong, unless we prove him otherwise. So even if you think you did everything nice nice already, the way certain clarifications are put forth makes the 'accused' extremely uncomfortable or feel bad about herself.

Today I also scored two black marks with boss... The first one: When questioned why I never included a certain enquiry number in my draft, I bluntly answered, erm... cos it never crossed my mind that I needed to put it in?? It's not like I was careless and left it out... it just didn't occur to me to include it :P (Afterthought: Though my answer prob didn't reflect too well on myself, it was really the truth mah and I suppose I didn't see the need to make up an excuse. Later on when I reflected, I also realised that my mind was stuck in writer-mode and not really reader/enquirer/information seeker-mode) Second work crime of the day was committed when during a site visit, I failed as a site OIC to enlighten boss on which block number was what on the site plan (block numbers were obscured by my coloring)... At that moment, I could sense that he was ready to pull my ear, just that he had excellent self-restraint and let me off.... :P Though I felt a little bad, deep down I was actually not that guilty, cos it's like who in the right mind would memorise position and number of the blocks on the site plan??

Die, who would guess that the guai1-looking me is becoming such a rebel at heart :P

Today I this blur OIC was chased left, right and centre from various ppl but surprisingly it made me more amused rather than annoyed or really stressed. Amused because I am really not a good follower worker bee who religiously finds out and ensures that I've done everything I need to do in the SOP. And only when ppl chase me to do this/that then I panic (not for everything though, things i like i do first :P...); deep down I know that my ensure-everything-goes-well boss disapproves of such short-sightedness. Hmm perhaps every good boss will lah. And if I were in the "old era" I would have gotten many harsh lectures on such tardiness... so lucky that the new era style of mgmt is like cool and calm style... However these past few days I'm finding that the bulk of my time at work is really spent on multi-tasking/coordinating inputs/stringing bits and pieces of info tog rather than really racking brains. While busyness has generally improved my productivity level, mind doesn't seem to be getting much exercise. Which is not so good....

Japanese class, Ocha Cream and John Stuart Mill

This is a random post on things that made me happy over the weekend.

Today's the beginning of another new 6-wk term and though I reluctantly dragged myself out of bed at 8 something in morning, wondering why I constantly deprive myself of more beauty sleep every Sun, I was reminded why as soon as class began. Though a fellow classmate and I both agreed that we dun really have much time to study before class (actually the truth is probably not disciplined enough :P), classtime itself is just so enjoyable and fun. I suppose that's what keeps me going. And our new topic for the term is 健康ブームの光と影 (which can be roughly translated into the pros and cons of the health boom). So our sensei explained the imagery associated with 光 and 影 and their respective association with good and bad things... Not that the association of light with good and dark with bad is anything new, but I thought it was very interesting how the Japanese frequently formalise words that conjure up certain images or sounds into actual usable terms for their own language. But it's fun, cos it's easy to imagine when your language has descriptive terms that try to paint reality :P The trouble is that only the Japanese really understand what their thousand and one onomatopoeic words mean...

Ocha Cream is a talented local jewellery designer, and her necklaces/earrings are all so quirky and cute. Imagine wearing a necklace with a Tiger Brand label on it...! Well, though not all of them are nice and that wearable, there are quite a few really nice ones... And I would say all of them are so creative, with so many neat little details. She makes me so want to set up shop and make all these jewellery on my own... (ok lah, say only) Unfortunately, her merchandise is so overpriced... :(

Someone reminded me of my PEIS 100 class in an email and I nostalgically dug up my class notes and rediscovered my favorite John Stuart Mill... Hai, looking back at all the assignments I did that summer, feel like my brain has indeed deteriorated. Anyway, here's to share a cool excerpt from Mill's 'On Liberty' that I will try to always bear in mind:

He who lets the world, or his own portion of it, choose his plan of life for him, has no need of any other faculty than the ape-like one of imitation. He who chooses his plan for himself, employs all his faculties. He must use observation to see, reasoning and judgment to foresee, activity to gather materials for decision, discrimination to decide, and when he has decided, firmness and self-control to hold to his deliberate decision. And these qualities he requires and exercises exactly in proportion as the part of his conduct which he determines according to his own judgment and feelings is a large one. It is possible that he might be guided in some good path, and kept out of harm's way, without any of these things. But what will be his comparative worth as a human being?

Ah, 2 hrs to the end of my lovely weekend and start of another tiring work week... I need to read The 4-hour Workweek some day.

Today was stressfully draining though it started off and ended well. My heart melted a bit on the way to work upon discovering that the hole in my skirt pocket had been magically mended by 小叮当mum... even without me having fedback on the almost invisible hole! Clothes would be all crumply and holey (haha ok lah i not rough) if not for mum's tender loving care :) Unfortunately, these days my mornings aren't as carefree as before and while searching for some answers for a stress-inducing boss this morning, tph remarked that it was the first time she witnessed me lose my temper. Her conclusion was that I must have felt really pek chek :P I suppose I was! By 6.30pm I had entirely given up on trying to be productive and went for dinner breather with fly... And successfully tempted the usually ultra-healthy lady to snack on 60cents vanilla cone with me after dinner... So rarely do we sit around leisurely ard Toa Payoh that we found sitting and chatting at the breezy area outside Macs pretty relaxing... Finally at 7.45pm we trudged back to office, before I packed up at 8pm... :)

**TGIF tmr! **

Yesterday I found out that I had been confirmed as one of the interviewees to be "grilled" by assessors assessing my organisation for a certain business excellence award. Hai, 不见得 I so "lucky" in other aspects of my life :P Hmph. After the briefing last week, felt rather amused by how staged things could be... I mean, passion has to come from the heart and not from some external party egging you on to be passionate... But I suppose I'll do my part in my own way :)

I found a nice French song from Un Homme Et Une Femme (A Man and A Woman)! And apparently this famous french movie won the Oscars in 1966..... :)

I had a productive Saturday... On Sat morning I decided to act on a whim and taxied to ComfortDelGro Driving Centre to enrol for the refresher driving course, after finding out via the phone that practical lessons were fully booked till late Aug! But very unfortunately I made a wasted trip 'cos by the time someone attended to me at the counter, only two peak-hr slots were available for rest of July and Aug. So mafan, they should allow ppl to enrol and book classes online. Oh well, so i suppose the earliest I'll be hitting the roads would be in Sept... Come to think of it, it wouldn't be of much use learning how to drive and not knowing my way around in sg AT ALL. Will only know how to drive to like MRT station; or maybe Pasir Ris to HDB Hub... haha. Need to stop being a passive passenger. And will KIV someone's idea to rent car to drive around at night when there's no one..... :P

I also did some unintended hiking on a scorching Sat afternoon and arrived at my destination in pretty dismal flustered state. Was supposed to meet someone at 2902 Gallery at Mount Sophia and stupid me didn't internalise directions properly before setting off... thinking that I wouldn't get lost... Well I didn't get lost, but walked a lot of 冤枉路 circling past Paradiz/Peace Centre and following windy road quite a bit up the mountain (instead of taking flight of stairs that led directly to destination) before finally chancing upon Old School at Mount Sophia. Had no idea that it was like a new creative hub until I googled it after my mini outing... And the compound is supposedly a refurbished MGS... The location was pretty cool, peacefully tucked away up on tiny hill yet overlooking city. Now I know the shortcut up there, can get ppl to go watch movies with me at Sinema one day ;)