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

3 particularly cool things happened during the trip.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oh mum...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

YOU'RE LEAVING

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Living out your dreams...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Two young Jap ladies unravelling their fortunes...

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

Cute mirrors and hankies I spotted in a souvenir store!

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

View of cute shopfronts from inside the cafe...

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

Japan trip in bite-sizes

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

Hakuba Yamano hotel - situated right beside a ski jump stadium

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

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

a healthy dinner of shabu shabu...

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

Terrible Tuesday

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

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

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

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

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

Red velvet cupcakes!

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

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

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

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