Country Garden

2008-12-04T14:06:00.002+08:00

Just dropping a quick post before heading back to s****.

Isnt it queer how both my fave artistes both cut an album this year with the 'circus' theme?

and first, on jay chou:

喬克叔叔 was such a promising song. i wished jay chou had done more with this MV. it was frankly rather disappointing. perhaps 龍戰騎士 will be better.

and moving on to britney spears.

womanizer was a great video, and now the leaked version of circus seems to be even better. she is improving all rite. and yes, the world tour that everyone's been waiting for is confirmed. who would have imagined 2 years ago that this day will finally come?

that said, she's still not ready to perform live. the 2007 vma probably affected her so badly she just doesnt seem to exude the slightest sign of confidence when she takes the stage these days. and she does continue to fumble with live interviews.

the video is filmed by the same director behind slave 4 u. there are definitely some similarities, save for the dance scenes which have been toned down alot.

2008-11-04T22:03:00.002+08:00

was browsing thru the headlines of WSJ today. more bombings in india/iraq, america goes to the polls, llyods taking over hbos etc etc. but the headline which caught my attention, and got me really worried was.. china as aircraft maker? with all the bad press abt china's milk/toys/eggs scandals, cant say i feel most comfortable with china's manufacturing standards or technology for that matter. any mistakes / errors in the manufacturing of an aircraft is potentially much more fatal than that of milk/toys/eggs. i will be a lot more careful with booking my flights from now on. of course, this is not to say i will never fly in a china airplane. afterall, china could be the next global manufacturing hub for planes. but until then, let's hope that things will substantially improve somehow.

on another note, i suspect that one of the better outcomes that have unintentionally emerged from this credit crisis is that of greater income equality? of course, a million and one disclaimers apply here since i havent got any statistics or research to back this claim but it seems like many of the wealthiest people have had their fortunes halved or more than halved amidst this global financial meltdown. would be interesting if someone could initiate a study on this and examine the before and after crisis ginicoefficients.

2008-11-02T21:53:00.002+08:00

had to go to smoo today run some misc errands. and as i entered the sch compound, a sudden surge of nostalgia which i never knew previously existed washed over me. an experience most queer indeed.

anyhow. since we're technically in a recession, a good majority of my intended fashion purchases / hair treatment / buffet dinner plans have to be put on hold. perhaps this will leave me with more time for my ailing reading plans..

2008-10-18T09:59:00.002+08:00

nothing beats winding down on a friday night with some colleagues and delicious pastries after yet another week of absolute madness brought on by the tumbling financial markets. it's so ironic how everyone has so much to say about everything yet no one can be concretely certain about anything. but one thing's for sure, the markets have spoken: postulation gets us nowhere, much less resolutions built upon postulations.

market woes aside, i'm left with saturday to collect and ready myself for our upcoming getaway trip where only 5 star luxury awaits. perhaps this is what they call life after death..

2008-10-11T21:49:00.001+08:00

Jay Chou's new album capricorn is great! esp this track!

And the Britters was so hawt in this video! ALL HAIL LARRY RUDOLPH! he's the man...

2008-10-08T12:30:00.002+08:00

contrary to popular belief, 2008 hasnt been a good year for wealth, or health for that matter. (i am personally more convinced about the latter, seeing how my medical bills for the year are soon approaching SGD 2k.)

In any case, i believe that every market has its cycle. Sure, it takes a hell lot of courage and optimism to enter the markets when fear and panic have gripped every single broker on wall street. but 50 years down the road, will you look back and regret your inaction today? This correction, though painful, is necessary to ensure that history does not repeat itself. But as long as the deleveraging and unwinding does not end, and as long as credit spreads remain sky high, we may not not have hit the trough.

Oh, and the one thing that we should all mourn is the premature end of the glorious investment banking era. I suspect that if someone told me now that he was an ex-investment banker, i might silently mock him behind his back.

2008-09-27T11:31:00.002+08:00

Two things to be excited about this weekend:

and now, for the second thing that got me really excited.. britney's new circus album! the first sound track womanizer was released and it's TOTALLY SMASHING!

2008-09-16T22:26:00.002+08:00

My fam and i spent the entire dinner debating who's to be blamed for lehman's downfall. to me, it's really simple.. all the mkt particpants had a hand in this. from the exFC greenspan, to present FC bernanke, to lehman's ceo fuld, and all the other financial institutions who pulled the plug on this distressed bank, had a part to play and hence, a price to pay.

if aig crashes as well, then the probability of a next wave of writedowns in the form of corp and consumer debts will significantly increase. so all eyes on the US now. and in true krugman's style, paul krugman wrote a truly cynical but sensible piece on the financial russian roulette.

but honestly, we're all very said that it is lehman, and not ML, who had to go. because it's like.. lehman u know. so tragic. anyway, financial textbooks authors will all be scrambling to rewrite their case studies in view of everything that has happened this yr. i'm sure the final diagnosis shld be very interesting to say the least..

2008-09-15T22:46:00.005+08:00

i just couldnt resist the urge to blog today because it's probably gonna be one of the most memorable days that will ever go down in financial history. it's not everyday you get one of the world's largest bank toppling down like jenga blocks.

it's not everyday either, that i open my web browser to find so much negative news in one page. Look at the spectecular chart on the right which shows dow jones gapping down by a whopping 292 pts on opening! and it's not even mid day in wall street yet.

so lehman is finally going down, and taking the rest of the world with it - credits, commodities, global equities.. even EM is not spared. lehman now trades at 29cents which is such a scandalous thought for one of wall street's oldest investment bank.

One report in the middle now questions if AIG's plight will be worse than lehman's. it's a highly justified question at this point in time since so little has been divulged about AIG's financial status.

There is one good news today though (circled in green) - will ML deal signal the bottom of the market?

Yet, a skeptic's answer would be this is only the beginning of the end.

Oh, such turbulent times we live in!

2008-09-09T21:52:00.000+08:00

2008-08-21T22:16:00.003+08:00

i couldnt quite believe that the US screwed themselves over twice in a short span of 10mins. hailed as one of the favorites to win the 4x100m relay events, both the men and women team separately dropped their batons in the last changeover to be disqualified. Such shocking performance repeated twice in a row. uh, like didnt the ladies watch what happened to their male counterparts in the preceding race? the mole says that the US obviously has to work on their baton passing skills.

now the jamaicans can comfortably cruise their way to yet another two gold medals. gd on them!

the US however managed to salvage their disappointing performance by making a clean sweep in the 400m men's race to clinch all top 3 positions with a pretty dramatic finish. nevertheless, their performance in the track and field events this olympics has been sloppy to say the least. they will never catch up to china this way.

2008-08-16T10:32:00.003+08:00

the most heart-stopping race of the beijing 2008 games - the 100m butterfly stroke for men, also phelps quest for his 7th gold - has just concluded. having watched the semifinals the day before, i was quite worried that cavic from serbia may very well upset phelps track record thus far, seeing what a strong contender cavic was with the fastest qualifying time. the mole said however, that phelps would probably have the faster recovery time between the two which should therefore give him an edge in the finals. but as it turns out, cavic has just as speedy a recovery time, as he led the 100m race right from the start, pulling ahead of both phelps and crocker. even in the last 5m, cavic was marginally ahead of phelps which got me thinking shit, there goes phelps olympic immortality. but amazingly, it was the finish that eventually returned the gold to phelps. definitely not one of phelps most spectacular race but perhaps the most clever one. above the water finish? who would have thought of that? was it brilliantly timed or just pure dumb luck? afterall, the difference was only 0.01s. pitied cavic though he came in second, cuz he swam such a good race.

but phelps has been very impressive this game, such a very talented swimmer. for the sake of witnessing the most historical moment in the olympics yet, i hope phelps succeeds in his unthinkable quest. but then again, i will continue to remain a supporter of hoogie, and both sister and sistah as supporters of thorpe. as discussed several times before, the main problem we face now is that we're still too hung up over the hoogie/thorpian era and are not able to move on since. which is why we find it difficult to convert to the phelps camp although we recognize that he is truly talented in his field. much to my surprise, hoogie despite being 30 this yr, still competed in the 100m freestyle. as expected, he did not win the race, and i was too sad to function for the rest of the day after that race. this is most probably his last olympics before he retires like thorpe. how sad. likewise, this olympics will probably mark the peak of phelps career since he would have already turned 27 by the time it's london 2012.

on the gymnastics front, both yang wei and nastia liukin were truly deserving of the individual all rounder title. competition in the ladies event was a tad more intense, as wang yilin and shawn johnson were trailing very close behind. amongst the three, i liked liukin best because she had so much grace and flow in her.

it is quite tiring indeed to work in the day and follow the games at night. have been surviving on double shot espressos during the past week, but this is nothing compared to my colleague who drinks 5 shots a day. a lot of madness going on this games, with world records being smashed everyday, every race like nobody's business. and if you managed to read this post up to this point, then you must be as mad abt the games as we are too.

2008-07-30T22:48:00.003+08:00

how do i even begin. the past one month has been so eventful, it leaves so little time for other things. but most impt of all, my best fren came back for a short visit with her fiancee. needless to say, i was most delighted to finally be able to meet the 'knight in shining armour' in person!

it was almost like they were on a whirlwind tour of this tiny island. and we were so honored to even be allocated the luxury of spending an entire friday afternoon with them. so i had to take a half-day off for that, but some friends are totally worth the little 'sacrifice' of our precious leave entitlement.

the knight turned out to be a really nice person indeed. and i wish the couple all the best in the long and trying journey which lies ahead of them.

alas, time passed only too soon, but at least the meet up ended on a positive note. there are plans to travel together some time next year, and for my part, i sincerely hope that such a trip will materialize.

2008-07-01T22:22:00.002+08:00

just what the hell are we hanging on for?

week after week we eagerly anticipate (well, maybe not so anymore) the latest issue of the translated naruto manga only to find the plot descending further into a horrible mess of ridiculousness.. i mean.. c'mon, itachi as the tragic hero?! how desperate can masashi kishimoto get? how much further can this -for the lack of a better word- 'retardedness' stretch? Jiraiya's last message (currently still an undeciphered code) had better be a darn good one to make up for the stupidity of the entire plot!

2008-06-12T20:54:00.002+08:00

this may seem a lil outdated but i finally caught SATC in the theatres. at the end of the show, i turned to the bf and said, 'i want a walk-in wardrobe!' the reply? 'it isn't abt the wardrobe."

actually, it isnt. the movie is abt a much nobler theme - love. love between a male and female, love between girlfriends, love between two men and love for oneself? Why samantha was actually mad with her boyfriend for buying her a diamond ring instead of allowing her to get one for herself is beyond my comprehension. why wld anyone want to buy a ring for herself? that's narcisissm. it's the job of a guy so let him do it!

but at the end of the day, the only love that seem to triumph all of the above (well, in the movie at least) is the love for designer brands. and so we were razzled and dazzled by all the manolo blahnik, vivienne westwood, christian lacroix, and oscar de la renta..

so perhaps part of the movie was abt loving your girlfriends, or loving your partner, or loving your handbags.. or a combination of all. but nevertheless, at least one thing is certain - having a walk-in wardrobe definitely helps!

2008-06-03T22:04:00.002+08:00

the past wk has been highly eventful, it was so enjoyable catching up on the gd old times with the gd old friends. thanks to laysh, i am now aware that being 23 means being in your mid-twenties, because 20-22 is classified as early twenties, 23-26 as mid, and 27-29 as late. oh crap, we're growing so darn old.

had a wii party over the wkend at pet's place. had originally planned for a bbq that same day too but it rained. dreadful. nevertheless, we had a great dinner, and as usual, pet's dad will take out his latest offering on wines. i really cant keep track anymore of the different wines we've tasted at her place unless i pen it down. i enjoyed GH better this time round, for the very fact tt i didnt drop out mid way thru a song. both pet and dan were the pros in this game, it was just crazy seeing the songs they played.

met up with LT and her bf for dinner too. LT is the one single reason why our asset managers believe that luxury funds will continue to perform well despite the inevitable economic weakness. she totes a different branded bag each time i meet her and i suspect her private collection of branded bags may well be in excess of 10. and mind you, these are expensive bags she owns. (non-monogram bags are typically more expensive than the monogram ones you see)

had a great dinner with the girly pals last nite. our poor auditor friend kena OT last minute and couldnt come. all the horror stories abt their line just cannot be further from the truth huh. there are plans to hold a girly party sometime in june/july.. so looking forward!

and of course, not forgetting all the lunch khakis and the weird but interesting table topics we had over lunch. oh, and the 'best fish and chips' too... *grimace*

the poor boss, having being rejected last week, decided to try his luck again today to ask for a lunch slot this wk. needless to say, he didnt succeed this time round either (because all lunch appts need to be fixed at least one week in advance) and has unfortunately been relegated to the next wk. he quipped with much exasperation, 'what's this? you have more lunch appts than me now?' thought it was quite hilarious. :D

2008-05-27T21:10:00.004+08:00

hadnt actually planned to post anything today, but was kinda 'inspired' after reading momo's blog and her whole strange ordeal with a china conman who tried to bluff their fam abt her brother being kidnapped. it is normally not easy to fool people with such a cheap plot, but what if ur not able to contact your family member who was supposedly 'kidnapped' at that point in time? and that was what actually happened in her case. makes me wonder how these conmen planned their call with such precision? perhaps its just heng suay.

but momo is probably right in any case - with this huge influx of foreigners coming to work in our country, it is inevitable that the number of scam cases will rise in tandem as well. and to a huge extent, i seriously doubt the police's effectiveness in dealing with such cases. thus, one other alternative would be to consistently remind others to stay vigilant by sharing your own experiences with these scam encounters because you'd never know if it'll help someone else.

Coincidentally, i looked into my mailbox today and found the following email, which i'm almost 100% positive is another piece of creative shitscam. if only these conmen were to spend their creativity on proper work instead of cheating the money outta some sorry ass, our global productivity could be so much higher.

Dear (my name),

I am writing to remind you that the outstanding Student/Undergraduate Travel Loan was due. I would appreciate it if repayment of the loan in one lump sum or by instalment as agreed before by cheque in favour of The Trustees of Chung Chi College could be sent to Dean of Students’ Office, Chung Chi College, The Chinese University of Hong, Shatin, NT not later than June 15, 2008

Please mark your name and write ‘for repayment of student loan’ at the back of the cheque for our easy follow up. I hope you could honor your promise in repaying the loan at the time we lent it to you.

If you have special reasons and is likely that you would not be able to repay the schedule, please contact me at 2609 6991 or evelynchan@cuhk.edu.hk. Thank you for your attention and assistance.

Evelyn Chan
Dean of Students’ Office
Chung Chi College

i'm sure the folks at chung chi college would not be too pleased to learn that their college name has been used for such a purpose. considering that it was probably a chinese drafting this email, i'd say the grammar aint half bad at all. and this much credit i'll give. i'm not gonna bother replying the email, but this is just FYI in case you should ever receive a similar email as well.

it's a bad bad world out there so... take care folks! i'm outz

2008-05-19T18:49:00.038+08:00

Was in KL over the weekend, sorta a short get-away and birthday celebration rolled into one. We had a swell time livin' it up in KL, dining in as many restaurants as we could and shopping in all the luxurious shopping centres we could find.

Sadly, KL isnt cheap these days, and we blew all our money on the first 3 days we were there. Thankfully we had enough money to make our way back to the bus station for our bus ride back to singapore.

Yet, every cent was well spent and we had the most amazing experience there. i nv imagined that malaysia could be this cosmopolitan and fashion forward, but KL totally proved me wrong. so yea, i now take back my words. next to KL's pavillion shopping centre, singapore's paragon looks like complete crap. shopping will never be the same again.. i'll miss pavillion so badly!

Let's start off first with all those posh eateries KL has..

never heard of c club, but the interior is totally beautiful

giant xiao long bao restaurant that's under renovation..

michaelangelo's - an italian restaurant where we had paella

the walls were decorated with sketches of michaelangelo's famous art pieces

the ship - the steaks there are not half bad. well, they claimed to serve the best steak in town so.. standard has to be pretty decent i guess. the restaurant's interior was decorated like a ship, and the waitors were dressed in sailor's costumes..

and of course.. sushi king. the sake toro was just so wonderfully grilled.. it was damn juicy and fatty

the only non-air conditioned place we dined at.. claypot mee tai bak behind petaling street (china town)

ice-cream waffle at wafflestop

moo sandwich which jacky insisted we must buy because it costs less than SGD 2. obviously, with us two gluttons combined could not finish the whole pack so we had to give some away

baskin robbins - brownie yoghurt.. kinda expensive, but damn damn good.

macaroons from the buffet dinner we had at our hotel. it was fantabulous.. in fact, we liked it so much we complimented the chef and asked if we could buy individual pieces of it.. he said the hotel doesnt sell them but he gave us a box of 6 to take home, with compliments from the kitchen! oh yea, he told us to drop him an email if we're interested in the recipe..

blue chocolate macaroon - our favourite
of course, the sashimi that night was very fresh as well.. but no pics to show. we had heaps of it!

our big american breakfast

our mee jawa - the only local food we had during the entire trip. think it's just a 'high class' version of mee rubus.

one of the major highlights of the trip - our 5 cai bin fen (rainbow concoction) cocktail at a restaurant called dainty hill. it was so gorgeous we didnt bear to drink it

but of course we did - eventually

behold - my favourite shopping centre! girls beware, this place is so damn evil..

it was just huge and luxurious... almost like a palace with all those marbled walls and floor

all the big brands under one roof

and the erm... bimbotic brands too. we never actually entered the shop, because doing so will prolly lead to serious repercussions. it's too embarassing a place to be caught browsing at.

i love club monacco!

the fashion is gorgeous... but so freaking ex too

huge store it is!

petronas twin tower at the KLCC -in the day

in the evening - purple sky! so pretty

turning dark

dark

leaving behind a legacy on our last night in KL.

damn, the towers look so surreal, it was as though they're fake

my mini bday celebration at home when we finally got back. the family+boyfren choir that sang out of sync - harmonics totally sucked, rhythm totally messed up, and the father who was completely engrossed in starsports. but ok lah, appreciate the efforts dudes!

this year - my boss gave me the best bday prezzie!

okok so with that - it's back to work tomorrow! hope ya all had a great weekend too!

2008-05-08T23:24:00.002+08:00

Top 5 wkend activities:

1. Drinking.. cuz one night is never enough to make up for all the wkday shit
2. Chiong JB.. cuz the food, carwash, and petrol is cheap
3. Jacuzzi.. cuz the weather is ridiculously fucking hot
4. Growing fat.. cuz of the sedentary and nutritious lifestyle that i lead
5. Dreading the start of a new wk.. cuz it's another 5 days to go before i repeat no. 1 again

just realised how almost everyone i know are/were from the finance industry, like my parents, bf, cousin, schmates.. am wondering whether the mole will add to this list as well.. prolly only a matter of time.. how interesting, or shld i say, boring?

2008-04-20T19:14:00.003+08:00

when interpreting horoscope, there is the perpetual dilemma of having to choose between believing the contents to be prophetic, or viewing it as a self-fulfilling prophecy. but in any case, 2008 will be a great year for ox career wise, but at the same time, a bad year with regards to office politics.

at this juncture, i'm not in a position to comment on the first part, but the 2nd part has definitely started materializing for me. in fact, things have escalated to the point where my usually politically-neutral boss saw fit to intervene. i shant go into the juicy details here for obvious reasons but needless to say, the entire episode left me feeling so damn fucking miffed.

There are 3 major categories when it comes to the classfication of colleagues in general: the nice, the bitchy, and the hypocrite. 'The nice' are those who are usually helpful, and seldom -but never say never- engage in gossiping. the bitchy are those who really get on your nerves most of the time but the hypocrites are the ones you should really look out for and stay out of the way as far as possible. Till date, i seem to have more ppl falling into the last 2 categories instead of the first, which cannot be a good thing yea.

sometimes, i feel so much resentment on my job -esp when it eats into my precious precious lunch time! grrr- i wonder if anything or everything about it is worth the shit. but of course, i'm sure i'm not the only one feeling this way.. and that's why.. everyone needs some alcohol during the weekends :D

2008-04-09T22:41:00.004+08:00

So a good majority of the americans called for the boycott of the beijing olympics and rallied their ppl to protest on the streets because they believe that china has violated basic human rights in their handling of the tibetian rioters. Yet on the other hand, taking place just right in their own backyard, we have women and childen being detained against their own will, forced into having sexual relationships and bearing children with men who are old enough to be their grandfathers, and being both physically and sexually abused by men who are disillusioned with the belief of 'maintaining God's order'.. the first question that comes to mind pronto is: where is this human right ideal you so vehemently preach about? what we have at hand is a highly paradoxical situation; it is so ironically sad yet so very laughable too. americans should learn to take care of their own business before butting their abnormally large noses into other people's affairs.

read more about the american horror HERE , courtesy of our all-time favourite news channel which has recently gotten a tad too sensational for my liking. Why, it defo has to be CNN of course.

2008-04-06T21:58:00.006+08:00

There's been quite a bit of positive brit news going on recently, and i'm just too bz to catch up with it all, but reckon these are probably the more significant events worth recording about:

1) Jamie spear's conservatorship over his daughter has been extended to july. for the moment, he seems like the most reliable help that will ever be offered to her and indeed we do see the results showing. papa spears has effectively put a stop to all that late night partying, all those driving around aimlessly and running over paparazzi's feet brouhaha, and most importantly, we're not see much of weirdos like sam lufti and adnan ghalib around. yes yes, so good so far..

2) britney guest starred in sitcom how i met your mother 2. i personally think she pretty much nailed the character, and her performance was awesome. i mean, considering that she's got all this trouble (mental illness)going on in her life, that was one hell of an incredible act. her costars too had only praises for her. in fact, that very episode registered the highest viewership for the series this far. ladies and gentlemen, this is what i call star power. oh yea, did i mention that she looked good too? thank gawd for the stylist on the set, i think he/she did a great job in the wardrobe selection for britters.

3) getting back together with larry rudolph? well, dont think this is anything concrete yet but she's met up with him recently. for the uninitiated, larry rudolph was brit's former manager, the man who 'discovered' britney and built up her entire career so basically she owes much of her success to this man. that was, until she fired him few years back when he ordered her to check into drug rehab. in any case, he's glad that she's been making good progress and has expressed confidence that she'll make the biggest comeback in history ever. well well, we hope so too..

it wasnt too long ago that CNN had to make this.. erm... somewhat cheap and pointless analysis of britney's performance at the music awards which sent her career plunging right down to the bottom of all pits..

so much for britney watch.

kudos to danny too for sending me the link of the southpark video on britney. for once, southpark actually made sense. perhaps its time to let this girl go before it's too late.

oh but wad the heck, here's a damn hilarious spoof of britney's infamous performance last year. it totally rocked my night!

2008-03-30T23:41:00.003+08:00

hurry up.. cuz madonna's only got 4 minutes to save the world..

fabulous song that totally seemed to be custom made for the eskimole... ENJOY!

2008-03-29T00:31:00.004+08:00

I must say... after a shitty week at work... all that one can look forward to is... the WEEKEND! esp when it's filled with good company.... and booze.

Our apple crumble at swensens, which pong kept pronouncing as apple crumbler..

white balance was way off.. this was the best i cld salvage :(
was great catching up with da gang.. too much gossip as usual!

it's been so long since anyone last saw nic... the pork knuckle and sausages were just superb! and so was the beer. good choice of restaurant, sistah!

we were damn proud of this self-portrait because it is such a marked improvement from the one we took last yr! yup, i'm confident our commencement pic will be even better! :D
sistah says this photo is potentially facebook material.

2008-03-25T21:54:00.004+08:00

my nieces are all growing up incredibly fast.

still remember those days when she was in her terrible twos, but now she can tell me she's 4!

feeling so old all of a sudden.

bumped into an old fren at clarke quay the other night.. and he said i looked HAGGARD.

The mole - in a desperate attempt to prove that she knows the tech stuffs written in her award winning paper - fixes the ailing modem.

so the award presentation was yesterday and the honorable, deserving albeit shameless elder sis wasnt invited. UGH.

but oh well, my old folks got to rub shoulders with the f*in@nce minister. dad was pretty impressed with the ministry, said those people really know what they're doing and actually put a lot of thought in their policies prior to implementation.

guess that's a pretty comforting piece of news, especially in difficult times such as this. having people at the top who knows what they're doing is just abt the best thing a country like us can ever hope for.

2008-03-24T23:55:00.002+08:00

Hey guys, new lay out.. but how does it appear on your screens?

On my laptop the alignment looks very out, but it looks fine on my desktop. how abt yours?

argh technology drives me nuts.

2008-03-18T22:33:00.000+08:00

2008-03-16T22:33:00.006+08:00

Our short Batam weekend getaway

Disneyland goes to Batam?!

Not in another century!

Pirated donald duck and mickey mouse. Got us laughing so badly. Just everything about them was out of proportion. The guys found it so ~~amusing~~ ugly they had to take photos with the poor mascots.. which i shant pose here for fear of embarassing them.

The 2 value hunts in low cost countries such as indonesia, thailand and china are food and massage. we went to IndoThai for massage, and the standard was pretty decent. Costs about SGD 20 for 1.5h. Something interesting i learnt about massage is that if the customer has too much 'wind' in the stomach, this 'wind' is passed on to the masseuse during the massage and the masseuse is the one who burps instead.

A&W. Such a trip down memory lane. Wished we still have here in SG..

But the most value eat of the day goes to pizza hut.

A couple meal consisting of 1 personal pan pizza, 1 spaghetti, 4 pcs of garlic bread and two drinks costs only the equivalent of SGD 4.. Even our hawker centers are not THAT cheap.

Grocery shopping in indon hypermarts is great fun... and cheap too. hairdye costs only half of what we pay in SG.. bought tons of instant noodles back.. ya its weird but indon instant noodles actually taste good.. :D

2008-03-13T21:31:00.004+08:00

I dont believe this y'all.

When the sun first reported that britney's MV for break the ice was going to be an animated video, i thought it was a ridiculous joke. but as it turns out, this just cannot be any further from the truth, afterall, it aint april 1st yet. Much to my disappointment, the video really exists and has just been launched today:

As the mole puts it "desperate situation calls for desperate measures". i'm not sure if the situation is SO damn desperate that it warrants for such a measure. i am thoroughly disappointed with the record company, because they should be providing britney with the help she needs to regain her former standard as an artiste instead of disguising her problems with an animated video. i'm not blaming them entirely because it seemed that britney herself actually initiated this lousy idea.

i dont know. the video is not terrible. on the contrary it is palatable. but it so happens that break the ice is my fave track from the album and i was really expecting britney to come up with a really cool dance routine for this tune especially since she's been practising quite a bit on her moves recently.

oh well. one's gotta move on. and on we go.. to happier things.

dok sai was back briefly for about a week and it was just great catching up. i mean, we do keep in contact thru email (or rather, facebook recently) but meeting up face to face was just great.

we kickstart her return with a bout of korean steamboat at Awon, followed by dimsum lunch at hei she hui the next day. yesterday, we met up at pet's house for some hardcore gaming with the Wii.

It was my first time actually playing it although i've seen it around when i was travelling in japan back in dec. i must say i am very impressed with how real it felt. my arm is actually aching now because we played too much virtual tennis yesterday.. amazing how physically straining it can be huh? you actually go thru the same motion as you would playing tennis on the courts, but minus the ball and the sun. perfecto.

people are betting i wouldnt mention this, and so to prove them wrong, i shall say it. i was the overall loser yesterday, regardless of which freaking game we played, i always came in last. at black jack, i lost every single one of my chip right down to the last penny. for bowling, baseball, boxing and even bomberland i led the league tables from bottom up. the only thing i nearly excelled in was tennis, where i came in third. (there were 4 players in total) and so yea, i pretty much sucked at everything the entire day, but i promise to play better next time. so watch out y'all!

many thanks again to pet for hosting us. we had a great feast yesterday, as always. and i'm missing the tennis already..

2008-03-11T23:38:00.004+08:00

2008-03-11T23:33:00.000+08:00

2008-03-11T23:30:00.000+08:00

2008-03-09T21:29:00.002+08:00

so the fed didnt deliver an emergency rate cut despite the rising unemployment rates though market had expected otherwise last friday.. maybe uncle bern has finally come to the realization that ammunition has to be used sparingly for it to take effect. rate cuts are getting too costly for the economy.

it's kinda regrettable how fast time passes after one steps into the corporate world. work is incredibly hectic, esp when you're working under a boss who is a perfectionist with mild OCD tendencies. this makes work doubly taxing, but challenging nevertheless. two months into the job, and i've made a number of mistakes already, some were serious, some not so serious, but what's most impt is the learning experience, and the need to remain humble throughout to everyone. the colleagues i'm working with are all extremely bright people, some perhaps even the brightest in their field, which truth to be told, is quite intimidating. i feel rather inadequate most of the time, but suppose that's inevitable being the first fresh grad hired in the pdts team. gotta pull up my socks and work harder.. and hopefully, i'll be able to leave the finance sector b4 age 35 to pursue my other interest..

to my dear frens who are still studying / job-hunting, do cherish your numbered days left as a free person.. life as it is now will be all over before you know it!

2008-03-03T20:48:00.003+08:00

The Kingdom is a seriously gd show.. :D

And LTB reunion was fun.. 'nuff said! :D

2008-03-02T21:59:00.003+08:00

okies, some congratulations are in order.

the mole has just won some freaking competition organized by the ministry of f*in@nce for the national budget essay. she came in tops, edging out our dear friends from nus. if i'm not wrong, this is the first time an smu student came in first for this sorta essay writing competition. oh wth, maybe there were only 3 people who participated?! it's always a possibility yea.. but mom thinks i'm just being sour.. LOL!

but anyhow. i am sure her name is now on the potential list of candidates for the position of finance minister say in some 30 years down the road. but is this freaky or what. our family never had such genes in us to win national essay writing competitions.. and i mean never. even my mom understood only 60% of what the mole wrote in that essay. so that's really freaky y'all!

so, in honor of her glorious victory, i shall hereby dedicate this song by britney to the mole.. and the title is 'FREAKSHOW'. well done mole!

2008-02-26T22:04:00.002+08:00

In less than two months since i started work, our dept has lost two of our noisiest folks around. The farewell was strangely sad.. Maybe because we all thought he went for his cigarette break again when in fact he went out to buy us flowers on his last day..

But there's nothing quite as sad as britney these days. on the surface, she seems to be getting better. yet, it's just sad thinking how she even got herself into all this mess in the first place. we dont even know for sure what's this mess we're talking abt.. and we dont know either if she'll ever get sorted out. dont really wanna end up watching on bloomberg / cnn about her passing away, like how they reported abt lydia sum's death. it's sad when talented ppl die young. too sad.

i still havent gotten sick of her latest album. it still rocks.

2008-02-17T22:38:00.003+08:00

thanks to the alcohol, i woke up at 12 noon.. and half the day was gone just like that..

but it was fun night.. northern rock sank big time and had to be bailed out by the central bank. ubs was uber profitable at one stage but subsequently slumped into the reds. there can be no better banker.. haha..

sistah and i prepared tang yuan for supper too.. we sooo should do a potluck one of these days! sistah, you can cook for your curry chicken, i wanna try! we shld organize one of these card sessions again, prolly when everyone comes back! :)

2008-02-14T22:32:00.003+08:00

Happy Valentine's Day y'all!

Hope you've enjoyed the day..

We had dinner at Hotstones, which is a place i'd recommend just for the fun of grilling your meats on a slab of -what else- hotstones duh. It was great experience and i'm feeling uber full now.

2008-02-13T22:20:00.002+08:00

Rumor has it that britney will be leaving US in the next couple of weeks for some training in privacy, after which she will going on a global tour!

hmm.. sure or not?! this sounds a tad too ambitious for her current condition..

ok, heck that for tonight, i'm gg to bed early!

p/s: sistah, is saturday on?! pls stop ur nuaing and get down to planning.. haha. we could do a meal or chill at someone's place, or both. i've got a lot of alcohol and will need help finishing it up. unfortunately it aint beer though!

2008-02-12T00:34:00.000+08:00

maybe derivatives are not that scary after all.

they are complex, no doubt abt it, but it's brilliant. it's so amazing, and mildly addictive as well.. finally i get a practical sense of how black scholes work, albeit largely on an intuitive level. but hey, that's gd enough for me.

even if nothing happens, all of this has been an interesting read.

and just to share a quick money-making tip in view of the festive season, which is perhaps best employed on the non-locals. our bank gave us red packets for the CNY. a collegue fr lugano happily opened his before the 15 day CNY period ended, so i told him that was bad luck. and now he wants to give the ang bao away. =)

2008-02-07T00:33:00.000+08:00

GUNG HEI FATT CHOY everyone! :D

Here's wishing one and all a smashing year of abundance ahead!

Allow me to present one of 周杰倫's lesser known songs - 迷迭香

(trust me, it's nice.. even the mole agrees)

CJ7 is quite an ok film, a bit too 'healthy' for my regular movie liking though. looking forward to kung fu dunk!

2008-02-03T23:11:00.000+08:00

CNY Prelude

And with that... there goes the weekend... but feasting starts tomorrow.. holy holy!

2008-01-31T22:26:00.000+08:00

It's strange just listening to Britney's fabulous album while reading abt her second admission to the mental hospital last night...

what a waste...... such a terrible, terrible waste.. why oh why wont you pull urself together to make good music again?! you've got the most loyal fans in the universe waiting for your return.. damn it, is anyone listening?!

oh well, here's to remembering her better looking times..

before she turned into this..

Bi polar disorder.. never knew it could be this dramatic!

Free file hosting by Ripway.com

2008-01-27T20:06:00.000+08:00

Brewerkz last fri with sistah dearest and her bro! i simply cannot over-emphasize how great it was catching up with these guys.. sistah was gone for the longest time ever, i nearly thought she was never gonna come back!

recommendation of the day: Black bottom pie at brewerkz.

We never did notice before that brewerkz served desserts. but they do and it's pretty decent. behold our frozen chocoloate icecream on oreo crust in all her magnificent glory:

and it was HUGE. in fact it was much larger than coffeeclub's mudpie.. you'd prolly get a better idea of its sheer size here:

Our sistahly picture of the day:

the guys had their share of 'brotherly' picture too which totally stinks of chauvinism and spasticness so i'm not gonna put it up in case i get creamed..

feeling really glad for sistah and this rare opportunity she's been given. i wish her only the best! please dear, go kick some serious ass over there, prove to them that we asians are just as capable! :))

2008-01-22T21:15:00.000+08:00

Tadah! we were damn lucky to have gotten the tickets.. many ppl had to pay a premium (and quite a hefty one at that) in the secondary market

just when the concert was abt to start. as u can see, the number of lightsticks that went up was about 5x more than what we saw at jacky cheung's concert. of course, who cares if lightsticks are childish?! i think they add to the mood of the concert!

What can i say... Jay Chou totally owned that night as he impressed us time and again with his whole range of talents including a repertoire on the piano, drums, gu qin, guitar, shuang jie kun, and some weird acrobatic shit. But it was all too cool. that's what we call JAYNESS!

and his vocals improved tremendously.

jay belted out a whole list of fantastic songs that night.. enjoyed every single one of it.. amongst my faves were ye qu, cowboy on the run, ting mama de hua, ye de di 7 zhang, an jing, hei se you mo.. that's a lot for favourites but that's how it is with jay! all the songs are sooo nice. OMG OMG OMG.

seriously, who doesnt lurve jay?! he so totally rocks. and britney too! (more britney news below)

This wasnt recorded at the concert of course, but it's such a cool video of jay and yuhao playing the piano. guys who can play piano are just so... i dunno, there's just something very charismatic about that. between the two guys, i definitely prefer jay as an artiste. but somehow, yuhao seems to look better playing the piano.. if only the cameramen would focus more on him than on jay..
u know, jay kinda made playing piano cool again.. his influence is just amazing.

i'm still in awe. but let's move on..

after good music comes good food! our fave shun li yong tau foo at beo cresent (stall opens at about 11pm) and on average we'd queue for half an hour.. but for good food, it's all worth it. been eating this since primary school and it's still tastes very delicious. people come down all the way from bt panjang just to eat this!

And to top all of this frenzy off, there FINALLY has been some POSITIVE news on the britters front. word has it she's gone back to the dance studio to rehearse for her next single... guess which one?!

HOT AS ICE!

seriously! this is one track that can put her career back on track if she doesnt screw up the MV. it's a fantabulous song that i never get sick of hearing.. getting all psyched up.. she had better not disappoint.

Here's Piece of Me video, dancing not so great but at least this is much better than gimme more so.. can we really complain?!

2008-01-06T15:13:00.000+08:00

Nothing about Britney was ever certain - from her split with K-Fed, to her possible comeback, to her romantic linkages with sam lufti, or adnan the paparazzo, and even the unheard of waiter at a certain posh restaurant.. and everything the media reported that Britney did.. well, that was what they claimed she did.

But the fact that the poor girl has finally gone berserk is sad to say, the one most certain thing of all the uncertainties that has been going on in her life. And you know that there's a 101% certainty in this tragic news when your poor dad who was tuning in to CNN, eargerly anticipating the updates on the global financial markets gets bombarded instead with a live newsflash on britney's meltdown.

Ever since that bizarre head-shaving incident in Feb, the whole world watches on as the pop princess hops on the train express to popwreck. So why should anyone be shocked then, that she has finally arrived at the inevitable destination - Sina-cedars hospital?

After refusing to hand over her youngest son to K-fed beyond visitation hours (by locking herself with the poor kid in a room for two hours), the cops were called in to break open the door. Poor britters (oh critters!) was strapped down and sent off to the mental hospital for a 72-hr psychological evaluation. She is now said to be released and is believed to be suffering from bipolar disorder.

I regret the receipt of such news, because part of me still believes in the professional side of her. Britney has made some of the most incredible music videos the industry has ever seen, and performed some of the most fantastic concerts the world has ever had. Despite all her recent problems, the 'piece of me' video was a marked improvement from 'gimme more' and that, really speaks a lot about her professionalism. She is one of the most versatile artistes in the music industry, as she's able to pull off any image thrown at her with so much ease. And at her peak, she was one of the most hardworking artistes, too.

It's really a pity things had to end this way. She was once livin THE hollywood dream, which sadly, has now turned into her worst nightmare. She once had the looks, the fame and the money which she has recklessly squandered all away. She once had the custodian and visitation rights to her kids which has now been taken away as well. (If K-fed can put up such a clean act and tricks the rest of the world into believing that he's the better parent, why cant she?) But alas, Brit's lost everything she once had, yet, maybe she'd finally get the psychiatric help she so desperately needs.

It's a sad day for all of us, britney fans around the world because the comeback day that we've so patiently been waiting for will never arrive. that's something we can still wish for though - provided britney's still alive. wouldnt be surprised any day now, that we read in the news poor brit has attempted suicide. it's not so hard to imagine that finale now, is it?

oh goodbye britney! till you -finally- get ur act back together,

your loyal fan

2007-12-31T13:54:00.000+08:00

Final post for 2007

Looking back, 2007 has been a great and fulfilling year. Cant remember if i had any resolutions for 2007, and whether or not they have been accomplished, but on the whole, i'm quite happy with how the year's events have panned out.

There is a great deal more to look forward to in 2008, and today's Oprah Winfrey episode served as a gentle reminder that the simple folks are the most contented bunch.

My personal resolution for 2008: To ensure that *quality* food consumption continues to be undeterred by the effects of the seemingly unarrested inflation, while hedging the risks of an extreme weight gain.

Sounds difficult, but i'll try my best! haha.

To all my friends reading this: May the coming 2008 be a blessed and fruitful year for all of you!

2007-12-29T00:36:00.000+08:00

Since i've been back...

Met up with pang and elaine for dinner + coffee.. unfortunately all photos with pang in it are blurry because elaine has shaky hands... hmmm the side effect of too much fencing?

first meet up with pet since both of us got back! spent the lovely afternoon having tea at royal copenhagen..

with our $38 royal starters for two!

was complaining to pet how i was so stuffed after the starters.. and pet said we're always stuffing our faces into food because we enjoy gd food.. the server at our table said that it's a gd thing that we enjoy our food.. totally agree!

a close up: omelete wrapped in smoked salmon, bacon with mushrooms, salami, cheese slices, and herring served in vinegar..

comes with bread!

my favourite of the lot...

despite feeling so stuffed, we HAD to try the desserts there.. it was the whole point of our visit!

our blueberry cheesecake which was gd

Royal Copenhagen - best for girls' get together..

Yeah, only if you had the budget too.. total bill came up to $70 - and Pet treated!

And we agreed it will be my treat next time :D

Despite feeling doubly stuffed after the cheesecake, the 3 of us went carousel (royal plaza at scotts) for buffet dinner!

I assure you this is the best buffet in sg i've ever had yet!

Food wise, i liked this better to bar and billard room at raffles hotel and triple 3 at meritus mandarin..

But service-wise, nowhere beats raffles hotel..

The most amazing thing about carousel's buffet is that it leaves you full at the end of the meal.

Full, but not sick. I usually get sick of the food after a few rounds at the other buffets but this one leaves you full, yet ur craving for more.

it is like you wanna have another go at the food but ur tummy is telling you there's no more space..

This is a must try for seafood lovers i strongly recommend it. And if you're attempting the sashimi, do ask for SALMON BELLY and SWORDFISH. it's good!

budget: with taxes and svc charge all in, be prepared to spend slightly over 60bucks per person. But it's cheaper than raffles anyway (if i do recall correctly bar and billard cost us $72 per pax)

deserving of 5 stars!

i didnt know peugeot manufactures salt and pepper shakers, did you?!

2007-12-28T01:26:00.000+08:00

The death of democracy.

How regrettable indeed.

2007-12-26T14:46:00.000+08:00

Japan Trip - Part 3 - Tokyo

It's amazing how with each trip you take you learn something new about a foreign culture, and a little more about yourself. Of the entire trip, i enjoyed the Tokyo leg the most- further confirmation that i'm indeed a city person.

Tokyo was such a stark contrast to takayama, where we had just been a day earlier. The city has always been infamous for its rush hour crowd, and even though we arrived in tokyo on a saturday, the crowd did not let up. We frequently found random strangers bumping into ourselves and hurriedly walking away without any apology. So it seems that the city folks were less friendly, although generally helpful nevertheless.

Tokyo is indeed a shopping paradise. GAP was having 50% off and we nearly cleaned out the entire store. There are also many good buys in Shibuya and Harajuku, only if you looked hard enough..

With whatever little money i managed to save from stinging on my regular meals, i splurged them all on: cosmetics, hair products, boots, GAP and burberry (it's actually cheaper in japan!)

Welcome to the 2nd most expensive city in the world!

City sights:

Akihabara - famous for electronics and anime/manga stuffs

Outside the Tokyo imperial palace

City buildings

Having travelled to the countryside, we formulated the theory that any form of civilisation is marked by two things: STARBUCKS and ZARA

Animals are allowed everywhere in japan. This is a picture of two poodles (white and brown) taken at the GAP store where we were shopping. Unlike the tiny toy poodles, these dogs are really huge and they come up to your waist level.

Fishes at the tsujiki fish mkt waiting to be shipped

Buildings @ shiodome

nice reflection

cutting edge

costume shop @ harajuku

porn is legal in japan and is available almost about any and everywhere

Human element:

At akihabara

Outside Tokyo imperial palace, it was frigging cold that day

With Weili @ one of the restaurants in tsujiki

Tamago yaki

Outside the restaurant

At shiodome

Weili with his matcha icecream

Plants and such:

Food:

More cakes - japanese pastry is so gd i'd swear by it.

mc pork - the best burger from mac's i've ever had. the patty was juicy! we will never get this in singapore because macs here is HALAL. damn.

latte art!

kyushuu jangara ramen - the best ramen broth i've ever had!

my sushi set @ tsujiki

was never a tamago yaki fan but this was just mindblowing

roasted tea icecream. it beats matcha hands down, anytime!

my last meal in tokyo - guess what's in that box?

the best strawberry cheesecake i've ever had in my entire life! and it costs less than S$3! after the first bite i was so tempted to run out and buy another slice.. but the shop had closed by then.. bummers

meal on the airplane which wasnt half bad!

As you can see, the food in tokyo is superb. I encounted many of my best foods in this city, which has now replaced Paris as the culinary capital of the world. And for good reasons. The japanese are perfectionists in whatever they do, and they're proud of everything they do. As such, you can expect reasonable standard of food everywhere - even if it is just a fast food chain.

2007-12-21T00:40:00.000+08:00

Part 2 - Takayama

I felt pretty uneasy at this place. For the most parts, it seemed quite eerie to me. We stayed at ryokan murashi - which was located at a very ulu part in the mountains... super cold weather too, it snowed on the 2nd day we were there..

Scenic spots:

The abandoned streets, no people, no cars...
The shops were vacant.. the signboards creaked as the winds blew

At the hidden village of hidan - rice crops were grown in concentric circles around a pole which is supposed to signify God

The lonely swan.. kinda sad

Cottage house

Human Element:

Me eating fish ala survivor style

At the town city

Plants and such:

The food:

A typical breakfast

Crabs

Snails - chewy but tasty, i almost forgot i was eating snails!

Hidan beef slices for shabu shabu.. oh that marbled texture!

not forgetting fresh sashimi of course

more crabs for hotpot

two amazing things about this veggie - it stands on its own! and it tastes good?!

2007-12-20T12:53:00.000+08:00

Pictures from Japan - Part I - Kyoto:

Scenic Sights:

Kyoto Bus Station

The 33 Shrine

Kyomizu

People queuing to drink the water that streams down from above

Arashimaya

The "orchard" road of Kyoto

Human element:

Just after waking up - in our yutakas

Our last photo taken in kyoto

Plants and such:

Capturing the sun

Pattern on the tree trunk

Momijis on the floor

A carpet of momijis

On the branches

In the river

The food:

My first meal in Japan

The cakes that i could never afford

Musashi sushi master

Note the fish to rice ratio in japan.. and contrast that to what we have in sg

And the egg to rice ratio

In summary, kyoto is an ancient and scenic city to visit. But dont expect the shopping to be great. You may feel very bored here if you're more of a city person

2007-12-17T19:16:00.000+08:00

did even more shopping today and i'm seriously wondering how to bring all my stuffs back

managed to find a pair of knee high boots under 100! so happy, bought it straight away.. thank gawd for visa!

ciao guys when i get back :D

hey pet, how abt dinner on fri!

2007-12-17T02:20:00.001+08:00

2nd last night in tokyo..

harajuku was a blast.. we nearly emptied the GAP store because it was having 50% discount. sistah, if you are reading this, dont bother to get me that H&M dress already! i've bought a similar piece from GAP today :D

i've blown most of my dough on fashion / cosmetics / food - which practically is about everything. came here with 1 luggage, going back with 3...

tomorrow will be yet another shopping day.. just tried the shiseido hair mask deb bought yesterday, damn, it's gd! so gonna get one for myself! i can feel instant rejuvenation on my hair.. amazing..

cant wait to be back - runnin low on budget and i'm so friggin tired..

2007-12-16T08:12:00.000+08:00

So we've finally hit the malls in tokyo! Most of the things here are super ex. They carry a lot of brands which we cannot find in sg. The fashion standard in Tokyo is so high, they make you feel so underdressed here! Really tempted to get a pair of knee high boots but the average price seems to be around SGD 250-300, which is quite ex considering such boots is not smthng to get to wear everyday in sg.

And i'm in lurve with the burberry blue label! it is only available in japan though, because the japanese LURVES burberry. They stock a very extensive range of burberry merchandise here. Unfortunately, for the wallet design i liked, the pink one is out of stock across the entire japan! damn. The black one is nice but it looks rather dull. =(

Bought a lot of cosmsetics here for the hommies because the prices are pretty all rite! Hair dye is very cheap too - about $6-$7 per box? the color range here is fantastic! and they have the paradise kiss brand of hair dye here too! very pretty packaging! may get some hair products back on the last day.. but luggage space is such a constraint!

2007-12-15T01:43:00.001+08:00

behold ppl, i am still alive.

i survived takayama's freezing weather. sorry to disappoint laysh!

we're now at the last leg of the tour - tokyo aka shopping paradise? oh well, we shall see.

looks like the mole doesnt have to collect an icicle from the airport afterall..

2007-12-11T17:36:00.000+08:00

winter chill's the bitch!

but the folks here are very warm.. they are really helpful with directions, but you must know how to speak japanese. whatever jap i have learnt over the last 3 months, works shit here. jap is really too chim and what we have learnt is only but the tip of the iceberg.

went to gion district today and a geiko showed us around.. ended up having jap food at a fast food restaurant. so u buy tickets for the meal you wanna have at the vending machine and pass your ticket to the staff who will then serve you the food when it is ready. quite the idea wor..

overall, kyoto is quite the ancient city to visit if u like a quaint and quiet sorta lifestyle. there are cheap buys in this city, if u keep your eyes wide open..

we are heading for takayam tomorrow, which is on the mountains.. think it will be even colder. ciao!

2007-12-05T21:40:00.000+08:00

Today is CHILLAX DAY

Suki Sushi Buffet!

Pang refused to take photos but we managed to force him into it. haha..

And den it was off to ezone to relive our adolescent days... We played daytona twice.. Pang and I each won one round, and elaine came in last for both rounds.. haha.. auto rules.. but Pang wasnt exactly driving.. he was just trying to bump us off course the whole time.. which really pissed elaine off.

We played 3 rounds of table hockey too. Girls VS the guy. and drawed for all 3 rounds..

Even after all this excitement, it wouldnt stop raining outside so we went for tea...

The V sign is infectious...

I'm FINALY DONE WITH EXAMS! woohoo :D

p/s: check ur email for photos :P

2007-12-04T22:37:00.000+08:00

This is the last time ever i'll get to say this again...

my last paper ends tomorrow!!! muahaha.

the last 3 months has been great.

maybe because i'm on exchange, or maybe because it's noose. in any case, it's JUST SO SLACK!

hmmm. think i'll miss my jap TB class. the girls were quite a lot of fun. they're really the 'act kawaii' type in true japanese fashion (or maybe their really kawaii?!).. like one of the girl from HK brings a 'rabbit' schoolbag to class.. its really cute cuz she dressed her rabbit up in the gothic theme.. complete with black wristlets and chains...

and our sensei, he's got long curly hair that goes beyond the waist and wears a pair of specs. but you'd forgive him for his *ahem* fashion sense anyway because he's quite funny. for our class activity, we had to pretend to give our 'orders' at a fast food restaurant.. so he'd bring an apron to class and put it on while taking our orders. all the girls agreed he was cute. (but not me not me! DISCLAIMER. haha.)

TC got more fun towards the end of the term. my partner for the oral exam was kinda hilarious. after the listing was posted, we had to go identify who our partners were. so i tot that guy was him and i went up to say, 'hi, r u XX?'

den.. SILENCE.

he didnt reply me. shit i tot i got the wrong guy. moments later he stretched out his hand for a handshake. it was like DIAOZ.

as for finance... well, i was looking for something more intensive but it didnt pan out that way. i've learnt most of the stuffs b4 so it was pretty boring and skipped classes like 50% of the time. this is a level 3 course in noose, but we learnt most of it in level 1 in smoo?! weird.

okay this wraps up the smugger's post infiltration report! the smugger is pleased to report she escaped relatively unscathed!

2007-12-03T23:19:00.001+08:00

Just got interested in a new manga... Paradise Kiss.

It's based on a contemporary setting in the world of fashion. The main character, yukari is a college student talent scouted to model for the label 'Paradise Kiss' in a fashion show cum competition. She had initially looked down on the team of designers, as she thought that only those who failed school pursued fashion as a trade.

She later came to the realisation that these people genuinely had a passion for fashion.. and along the way, she fell in love with the chief designer, george... subsequently, she ran away from home and dropped out of school to pursue modelling as a career...

yet another story with a sad ending though - george left for paris to further his studies in fashion design... while yukari stayed behind in japan as her modelling career has just taken off. she ended up marrying a doctor in the end..

Well, the manga is worth a read for all the fabulous costumes!

the theme song is super nice! Thanks to Pet for d/ling for me! :D

Free file hosting by Ripway.com

2007-12-02T15:29:00.000+08:00

Shortly after my previous post, the mole has 'bravely volunteered' to half my flu virus. In other words, the virus strain that's been circulating around this house has claimed its 4th victim. That was truly a heroic act, mole. Come, let us all applaud the mole for her courage.

Will the next hero please step up to get infected?

Misery loves company.. Which is why flu virus spreads! muahaha.

2007-12-02T01:13:00.001+08:00

There, i've added it.

Never thought i would.

A link to a britney fan site.

Actually, not quite a fan site. More like tabloid page! Entertaining nevertheless.

More brit news... Britney's completed filming the music video of her 2nd single "piece of me". Cant wait! afterall, anything should be better than "gimme more" MV. that sucked to the core y'all!

Exams end coming wed.. finally huh. budden, i'm feeling under the weather.. what impeccable timing. argh! but misery loves company... so.. who here wants to share my flu? :D

2007-11-30T11:15:00.001+08:00

Gonna head out in a few moments' time to have lunch with our dean. muahaha.

2007-11-26T21:15:00.000+08:00

Feeling kinda restless already. And feeling too darn old for exams.

On facebook, i've been sorted intoo... what?! slytherin?! gah, i thought i had enough courage in me to be a gryffindor.

2007-11-22T22:10:00.000+08:00

My finance3102 team at noose!

And no, the noosians arent as 'alien' as what smoothies make them out to be.

But cheers to the most heck-care project team i've ever had. nobody really gave a damn abt our projects mainly because more than half of us in the team are year 4s, and our GPAs are more or less 'fixed'..

a typical conversation about our project usually goes like this:

"eh, you think i care?" "err no... because i dont think i care too!"

but the work gets done at the end of the day so it's really cool. slack as they may be, they're just as smart, think a couple of them were from rj. the whole rafflesian brain shit again. BAH!

argh! will miss watching naruto and playing poker at the back of the class every friday.. and finding the kaya lattice.. and sneaking off during break so as to avoid the traffic jam in the evening..

and er yea, my bag in the foreground is damn extra.

2007-11-21T22:12:00.000+08:00

Just a quick entry since i've just only updated myself with the two latest 'local' happenings in singapore.

1) 3 ang moh tourists from UK took a trishaw ride along clarke quay. all 3 grown men squeezed onto one trishaw pedaled by an old man. throughout the trip, they kept taunting him about the speed, and at the end of the journey, paid him only $5 instead of the $10 the old man was expecting because 'their money got nicked'. (sidenote: c'mon this is sg, it's not so common for your $$ to get 'nicked') BUT! the best part was, they filmed all of this on video and posted it up on youtube.

2) star blogger michelle quek and her friend were walking around toa payoh hub when her bag accidentally hit a chinese woman who was with her supposed ang moh bf. the chinese woman alledgedly hit michelle on her back with an umbrella in return, and the caucasian reportedly beat up the two girls. an 'ah beng' and some uncles stepped up to help the two girls, and blocked the angmoh and his gf from escaping. again, this was posted on youtube.

Needless to say, both incidents led to a public outrage and a whole slew of curses, expletives, and threats ensued. online, of course.

Well, the point of this post isnt to debate the morality of the committed acts. It also isnt about whether racial discrimination formed the main motivation behind these acts. In my opinion, it is just unfortunate that both incidents involved ang mohs and resulted in the conflicts being 'inter-racial'.

While there's been many complaints that the government should be doing something to protect our locals from these supposed 'acts of racism', people must understand that such conflicts do happen from time to time.

the underlying problem, in fact, seems to be something else. what the government should be wary of instead, is the community's response to these incidents. a good majority of the comments made by our locals carried the bitter tune of 'don't think you foreigners can bully us just because we're singaporeans'.

isn't it sad that our locals have this sort of mentality? isnt it sad that even we, as singaporeans, right here in our own country, feel diminished in the face of foreigners? isn't it sad that our locals have to go to such extreme, hurling insults and all, just to feel that maybe 'justice' can be delivered this way?

had the 'villians' in the above incidents not been angmohs, but one of our locals instead, i dont think the public would have been as bitter about it. furthermore, this feeling of 'bitterness' towards foreigners certainly didnt seem like it was cultivated overnight.

perhaps, the question to ponder about is: did our government's pro globalization and trade policies result in our middle strata feeling like they're 2nd class citizens in their home country?

this revelation is so sad because we know that no matter which country we migrate to, we will always be treated as a 2nd class citizen.. but to feel that way even in your own country... it's... a lot sadder.

period.

2007-11-19T21:03:00.000+08:00

Cool, the bow-tie blouse in white is sold out! The mole originally wanted to keep one for herself, but decided to sell it in the end.

Had a great time shopping with yv and deb yesterday! everyone bought at least an item for herself, yv bought the most though! not surprising since:

1) this is yv we're talking abt
2) she's drawing salary!

sigh. cant wait to earn my own $$$. when will that be?!

Days left as smugger: 16

2007-11-17T20:55:00.000+08:00

Hello dear frens! Pls allow me to introduce my new shop blog notime4shopping!

Please visit it here at: http://notime4shopping.livejournal.com/

Please pass the address along to all ur fashion savvy frens! Will be grateful too if you could add it as a link on your blogs =)

Some pics from the photoshoot of our first collection:

2007-11-15T16:12:00.000+08:00

me: bernanke's on tv. gosh, his beard has turned ridiculously white
the mole: must be the subprime
me: DUH! to be fair, his beard was greyish to begin with, but now it's damn white!
the mole: christmas is coming! he can be santa claus
me: but he's balding..
the mole: does it matter? santa claus wears hat...

some moments later, with the air of sudden realization..

the mole: OH! you can go be santa's elf!
me: ....
the mole: all those unemployed can go be bernanke's elves for x'mas. it all adds up now..
me: yea it's only right he provides us with employment. he's the cause of our plight..
the mole: you can start by cleaning santa's sleigh

and the mole proceeded to sing the modified -christmas- carol:
you better watch out
you better not cry
better watch out i'm telling u why
BEN BERNANKE's coming to town..

you have no idea how well that clicked. it sounded so SMOOOOTH. trying singing it urself!

will bernanke play santa this season with yet another round of rate cut? if so, then we may have an early x'mas this yr!

2007-11-13T15:22:00.000+08:00

So, our dear sponsor of the EPL plunged some 23% since its peak in Oct, during which one of our two soverign funds swallowed up a whopping 3% stake. And you may wonder where have a portion of our reserves disappeared to. Now, I'm not saying that Mr. EPL Sponsor is a bad buy. Afterall, it did look somewhat attractive back then with 4 consecutive years of double-digit ROE and a possible acquisition of a dutch bank at hand. Unfortunately, things didnt pan out in their favor and the rest as they say, is history. But what I must say though, is that the timing of the transaction is impeccable - the classic mistake of buying at a high?? Of course, Mr. EPL Sponsor isnt the only one penalised in this subprime crisis where everyone has a part to play and a price to pay. Yep, everyone. So people -up there- should stop denying that we, the almighty and ever resilient sgp is not affected by this crisis because clearly, we are.

2007-11-13T09:39:00.000+08:00

getting tired of this blogskin. was thinking of getting a new one that is unique, and not those off the blogskins search engines. in other words, i gotta create one myself, and from scratch - the images and all. this should be so challenging, and so fun.

i'm trying to think of a new color scheme. and somehow, i'm rather inclined to choose something with a pinkish undertone. but at the same time, i dun wish for it to appear overly bimbotic/diabetic.

pink + black?
pink + white?
pink + cream?
cream + black?
maroon + cream?
purple + black?

suggestions anyone? (oh, and anything BLUE or ORANGE are completely OFF my radar. as in OFFFFF.)

will get down to it after the exams. should take no more than 3 days if i consistently work on it. but then again, it will be my first attempt, and ya'know how technology just lurves screwing ppl up.

2007-11-11T19:47:00.000+08:00

Sometimes i look at my blog and wonder why do all my posts sound so freaking bimbotic. why am i always raving on about shopping, about concerts, about eating, about BRITNEY SPEARS (i swear the social stigma attached to being her fan is really bad, but like i said, i'm still PROUD of it. hahaha..) and then proceed to blog more abt about..shopping, concerts, eating and more BRITNEY.

why don't i ever blog about the -seemingly- more 'intellectual' stuffs like the possible stagflation in the US, or the ongoing speculation in the oil market, or the unwinding of the yen-carry trades, or the weakening of the greenback, or the appropriateness of Bernanke's rate cuts, or the widespread uncertainty in the financial markets caused by the subprime woes and how that's -annoyingly- affecting my job hunt.

i -could- talk abt these. but why should you bother reading what i think? ur -most probably- better off reading dismal scientist, the economist, MS, and the likes of others who are 'professional analysts' (though sadly, these 'professionals' never get it right for like 50% of the time and are quick to change their minds upon realization that their previous prediction will not materialize. like the *ahem ahem* GS analysts...)

so yea, given the lack of justification for more 'intellectual' debates, i shall continue with my random musings on seemingly bimbotic stuffs that never fail to amuse me.. so looking fwd to shopping next wkend.. it's been too long since i last shopped. TOOO LOOONNNGGG.

here's a cute lil photo to end off this pointless entry! the 'sentry guards' of the sg zoological gardens. so lucky to be able to get a snapshot of them in this kawaii pose:

2007-11-10T00:35:00.000+08:00

Photos from my previous collection..

2007-11-08T23:44:00.000+08:00

Just a short note before i try to head back to the books..

Britney's launched her new album, Blackout! Listened to the entire album today. There are a couple of tracks in there which are pretty awesome. Gimme more is supposedly the '#1 single', but i dun really fancy that. prefer Ooh ooh baby and Hot as ice.

Ooh ooh baby

Hot as ice

However, she seems most disinterested in promoting her new album. Insiders claim that this is because she's had quite a few disagreements on the production, like how she didnt like gimme more as #1 track, and she also didnt like the album title 'black out'. Sources claimed she said she'd rather not have a career than to work for something she didnt believe in.

In any case, her album would have topped the billboard charts if not for some last minute regulation changes which left her at #2 spot instead. but who cares, seriously. if an album is good, it is good. period.

Her most recent photoshoot with OK! magazine. Looks ok to me, really. wonder what's all the fuss about. she definitely doesnt look as looney as what they made her out to be. and she doesnt look fat right?! [mole still thinks she's too fat for the industry.] well, lets just say that there are many FATTER hollywood celebs out there...

and i've just read this article about a $25,000 chocolate cake? made from 17 different types of exotic chocolate and edible gold and what not. if i had a slice of that cake... i'd prolly sell it off and use the money to buy me some gooood clothes! :D

2007-11-06T13:01:00.000+08:00

The country garden series has a new addition:

snapshot of one of the roses we bought for granny's 81st.

2007-11-05T10:47:00.000+08:00

Tai tai outing! unfortunately, the high tea buffet didnt pan out as expected since the legends didnt serve pastry.. but being determined to have our 'tea' that afternoon, in all 'tai tai' fashion.. we cabbed to.. robertson quay in our limousine cab!

our sinful indulgence

camwhores

and more of us

DTLS

cheapo shan posing with juan's limited edition LV bag!

ying was 'forced' to take photos with us

team W

nihon no supakurin jusu. laysh didnt get it right

(as usual, she knows how to pose with the bottle only haha) and made a mess.

so ying shows us how to pop it right. but still a mess nevertheless!

grey with grey and pink with pink.

shoes

team W conquered clarke quay

awaiting juan's *ahem* widelens photos for our all zhipai shots

DTLS

the 3 evils

e 4 of us

and again

in summary.

our star

as evident in most photos, ying doesnt really like to take pics but too bad she has thick-skinned frens like us who keep forcing her into doing stupid poses together with us. haha!

2007-10-31T10:26:00.000+08:00

I've just completed my essay on reproductive and therapeutic cloning last night and man, that does feel good. it's one hell of a smoking masterpiece with smokebombs planted here, there and everywhere - you wont know where you got smoked!

on a slightly depressing note, deb and i noted that the intelligence level of our project groupmates this semester is at an all time unprecedented low. sigh.

strangely, my throat is feeling much better today. and because i had quite a huge helping of sashimi for lunch yesterday, it leaves me to (il)logically conclude that sashimi has miraculous healing powers! mina-san, sashimi o yoku tabemasu yo!

after lunch, deb and i went window shopping. think we all agreed that shopping on a weekday afternoon is GOOOOD. no crowd, no mess.. we went into this store at the new suntec extension and gosh, they sold very lovely winter clothing at okay prices! there was this pair of very very pretty socks on display but it was out of stock. and so, i've been put on waiting list for the next shipment. guess it kinda sounds ridiculous that you have to reserve a pair of socks.

Quote of the day:

"And if the shuttle bus decides to screw you over, you are answerable to the bull-dozer."

2007-10-30T00:18:00.000+08:00

i dunno what gives me the rights to say this, but i hereby declare that electric blue is OUT! it's OVER and PASSE and DONE WITH!

sheesh, i cant walk more than 2 metres in school these days without having to pass by some girl dressed in that shade of blue.

But what really did it was when a team of bimbotic girls came dressed up in electric blue for their group presentation. OMG, it was just such a RETARDED sight. like seriously?!

it's NOT cool when everyone's wearing the same thing. not cool at all. so move on folks! electric blue's so totally overdone.

i shall call it vommit blue from now on. oh gawd. my eyes.

2007-10-24T23:49:00.000+08:00

The title says it all.

Fergie mama.

Big girls dont cry!

It was a great concert! we bought $77 tickets but managed to move to a $168 seat because there were vacancies.. When u attend concerts by asian artistes, u sit down abt 90% of the time and stand only 10% - that's when u clap at the end. for angmohlang concerts its the other way round - sit 10% and dance 90%. It was great fun! Now.. looking forward to jay chou's concert in january... i've got my tix already... have you?!

2007-10-22T17:29:00.000+08:00

EVERYONE MUST WATCH THISSSSSSSSSSSSS!

it's such a refreshing change from the prince of pop! OMG OMG OMG! he's too damn talented le! and it's not just abt the song, it is the directing too. (no prizes for guessing who directed the video huh!)

i used to wonder why jay chou doesnt dance often in his MVs, is it because he cant dance? but this MV totally answered my question! jay chou CAN dance if he wants to :D

song: 7.5/10
MTV directing: 9/10!

to all u j-detractors out there: quit complaining abt him not changing his style.. not that he needs to, but this shld be enuff to shut u up

oh btw, jay chou kinda inspired this group of piano fanatics to master his pieces from the secret and they're posting up the videos of themselves playing it on youtube. the best part is people are sharing advice on how they can improve on their pieces. it's pretty amazing! and btw x2, i just found out that jay chou actually composed some of the piano pieces from secret himself..

2007-10-21T22:47:00.000+08:00

(Joe memorizing her biz law stuffs as usual)

Joe: ...... (ramble ramble ramble) therefore, i maintain that Robert should NOT return the cupboard and...
me: no. robert SHOULD return the cupboard..
Joe: Unless you're Robert...
me: If i'm Robert i'd throw the cupboard at you
Joe: Provided you can, you nua kia...

(five mins later)
me: Joe..... i've lost my drive and motivation to study...
Joe: Since when have you ever had the drive?
me: well yea... true..

(moments later.. after brushing my teeth)
me: Joe! I've made a new resolution! I'm going to slack off for the rest of the term..
Joe: Hasnt that always been your resolution? Pls dun make your old resolution sound like new
me: It is new! it's because its going to be my last few weeks as a student and i want to enjoy it!
Joe: Stop paraphrasing your old resolution to make it sound new

(more random musings)
Joe: I see i was honorarily mentioned on your blog for pointing out something blatantly obvious (referring to me killing myself with a bio overload few entries back...)
me: but well... you DID say that.
Joe: I'm not denying that i said that
me: ok, then whats your problem with that
Joe: Please.. i've pointed out more obscure observations than this before

(even more moments laters)
Joe: Robert is gay.
me: Awww, aint that sad for you..

2007-10-19T14:38:00.000+08:00

With bonds out of the way, will equities be a breeze?

I really appreciate my internship - it makes studying finance much easier. It does not guarantee better results of course, but at the very least it saves you a lot time..

Practical experience honestly beats theoretical knowledge hands down!

2007-10-17T20:57:00.000+08:00

The unlikely week 9 indulgence

The surprise gift!

The replacement phone - Ultra Shine:

sorry, to be shamelessly plugging myself in here, but i think my photos of the phone are damn chio! (Click to enlarge)

The anticipation...

2007-10-15T20:57:00.000+08:00

Overdue updates!

The mid-autumn festival lightings along clarke quay.. beautiful eh!

Our free Guinness draught. They give it out free every saturday night, so do check it out if you're along clarke quay... Of course... never liked beer, i'm a magarita person!

Then, the 4 of us met up for Oktober fest @ clarke quay (yes, again)

But before that, it was dinner @ pasta de waraku.. The food was really gd!

Top left (clockwise): Squid Ink pasta, Cod roe and squid pasta, Hokkaido crab pasta, Cod roe and scallop gratin (our fave!)

At the Oktober fest!

It was really fun joining in the songs.. linking arms with the person next to you and swaying to the beat of the music.. after a while, we were kinda like is the music ever going to end?!

This is our hostess for the night, Heidi. (the one in the outfit) As u can see, she aint ur typical slim german hot chick. nevertheless, she's the german chio bu of the night, becuz she was just so fun.. and everyone wanted a piece of her. we've got a video of her doing the chicken dance, really cute!

The human train... the people were really sweaty, so thank gawd we sat that out.. there were drinking games too.. there was this aussie guy who gulped down (as in literally just GULP) down a pint of beer in less than 2 secs. he just kinda like opened up his mouth and POURED the beer down his throat. damn hardcore. everyone was stunned....obviously, he became the topic of the night.. and random people were just going up to him to congratulate him for that spectacular performance... ahh what 2 seconds of stardom can do for you.

The swiss alpine lions and their traditional... omg, i forgot the name of this instrument. but its swiss and erm... looks very difficult to play. the master was standing on our bench!

Hitman worshipping the instrument with a kiss... as u can see, everyone was highly amused..

all hail King Erdinger!

with that, it's now back to my sad sad existence.

2007-10-15T14:13:00.000+08:00

And so it is. I'm such a regular at noose's spinelli, the staff recognizes me and where i'd normally sit by now.

So here i am, on a rainy monday afternoon overlooking the pitiful landscape outdoors, feeling so part of it, yet so distant at the same time. Outside, the rain pitter patters rhythmically, trying its best to not be overpowered by Andrea Ross' Moon River that's playing feintly in the background. Such delicate balance.. The greyness of the building further adds to the melancholiness of this mood.. Oh what a priceless moment this is! If only peace & tranquility could be bottled up for savoury in the hectic moments of life.

My quiche sits so delightfully on the table, looking especially tempting under this warm light... and so, i shall give it my whole-hearted attention now. i musn't deny myself from it any further. The hungry taste buds are waiting to be fulfilled...

2007-10-11T22:11:00.000+08:00

It's my 4-times-a-year anime ranting session again!

latest addition to my top 5 fave anime list:

Fate / Stay night

Servant Saber - Spirit of Arturia

I know i know, i must be super outdated.. but it's a damn nice anime seriously!

In a nutshell, its abt a race to obtain a holy grail which will grant the winner their wishes. the contestants are magicians and they will each summon a servant (an ancient hero spirit) to fight for them in battles. In order to obtain the holy grail you must eliminate the other magicians and their servants. shirou, the main character of the story, is a complete noob at sorcery but accidentally summons the strongest servant, saber.. somehow in the process he falls in love with her, and would rather not have her fight.. but this is contradicting because fighting is the sole reason for the servants' existence.. one shortcoming of the series was that Type Moon tried to cramp a seemingly sordid story plot into 24 episodes, and as a result, the character development lacked depth.

the holy grail eventually turned out to be some form of WMD, so it's a bit like whats gg on in the world today. like how everyone thinks they can change or control the world by owning a WMD, and strive to eliminate all others who are suspected of building WMD.

and no prizes for guessing that the anime ended on a very sad note.

Magician Rin Tohsaka

i think mystical + dark + sad story line are the main ingredients for fantabulous animes.. the other example would be ayashi no ceres, though it got a bit sappy midway. think this anime was abt a celestial goddess called ceres, who was reincarnated in a girl called aya.. so all the bad guys were after aya because they wanted the powers of ceres.. and tooya, who was aya's lover, turned out to be ceres' mana (i know, it was like wtf?! when i watched that too) so he had to sacrifice his life for ceres to replenish her power and destroy all things evil, or something to that extent. in any case, tooya DIED, leaving his pregnant gf, aya alone behind. drama huh.

Behold, my top 5 anime picks:

1. Rurouni Kenshin / Samurai X (yes, still! i deserve loyalty points for this seriously.. it's been like 10 yrs already?!)

2. Cowboy Bebop (very contemporary.. one of the more 'westernised' animes. dok sai's fave too)

3. Fate / Stay night (newcomer!)

4. Naruto (the wait is kinda turning ppl off)

5. Eden's bowy (strangely, this anime left a very deep impression on me, though i still fail to grasp the storyline... damn chim shit)

So yup, ayashi no ceres gets the boot for being overly sappy..

when time is such a constraint these days, any anime that fails to interest me within the first 2 episodes gets dropped off immediately..

And NO, i dont think anime is childish, or at the very least, it depends on what kind of anime you watch. and not card captor sakura pls.....

2007-10-08T15:17:00.000+08:00

I am seriously disturbed by how an increasing number of people seem to think I’m 16. Yea, I know I look young, but not THAT young surely?! Maybe it’s time to consider a perm.

Have u ever wondered why there seem to be a negative moral connotation associated with smoking? Or how some people (parents, especially) discriminate smokers, such that it is subconsciously ingrained in our society that ‘good guys don’t smoke’? Admittedly, smoking is an addiction for some, and having any sort of addiction implies a form of mental weakness. But shouldn’t this be applied to other forms of addiction as well? Such as caffeine addiction? Why aren’t heavy coffee drinks treated with as much contempt as smokers? Or is it because most criminals and the undersirables of the society are smokers? What if they were coffee drinkers as well? Has anyone conducted a survey to verify that? But whatever the outcome, just because criminals smoke doesnt mean smokers are criminals. The only reason why I’d lay off cigar, or more specifically, smoking as an addiction, is because it has a negative impact on our health. And it gives me a bad throat after that.

Totally random musings, just as random as the day has been.

2007-10-03T22:52:00.000+08:00

genes: where did you come from? where will you go?

to say that dawn is turning semi-cranky cannot be further from the truth. alas, reading too much abt genes and mutations makes me suspect whether, i too, am suffering from a genetic defect because i simply cannot comprehend all that i'm reading.

people dismiss my complaints on the subject matter, as all i'll need is a pass/fail grade. and that, dudes, is PRECISELY the problem. i have zero confidence in passing, and i kid you not. 3 gruelling attempts at different sample exam papers (of which the highest i've scored is only 30%), should be more than enough to prove my point.

i was never a science student to begin with, and shld have never overloaded myself with 3 bio mods to end my sch life with. this is effectively known as digging my own grave, and joe'd say i deserve no pity for having one foot into it already. the rest of me remains to be buried on saturday.

it is ironic how we used to joke that smoo should just set aside a plot of land for students to bury themselves under that crazy workload. little did i know, that it is noose and not smoo, which will eventually kill me.

2007-09-29T22:20:00.000+08:00

My first attempt at nabeyaki udon..

Quite a healthy dish.. added mainly mushrooms (3 diff types), veggies (spinach + cabbage), fishcake, beancurd.. etc.

secret ingredients in making dashi: konbu + bonito flakes! duh, its not really a secret anymore is it.

got most of the stuffs from meidi-ya, the importer of INFLATION from japan, at exorbitant prices..

the end result:

post mortem:

1. the beef slices were really tasty.

2. must improve on presentation.

3. need to increase bonitoflakes to soup ratio.

4. add meat to enhance the flavor of soup.

5. dont forget the EGGS!

6. should get a bottle of red chilli pepper

Okay, next round of udon should taste better.. except for the fact that... there will be no next round.

2007-09-26T21:16:00.000+08:00

Farewell dinner~

Parting is always bittersweet... but at least, with Sai gone we'll be able to cut back down on expenses and channel them into...... clothes and cosmetics. (and yes, we told her that!) haha. kwok and i swear we're so darn bad for each other!

Dinner at mama's carribean bar.. the food was gd!

Trying to look sad cuz sai's leaving. as you can see, kwok's not putting in any damn effort in looking sad. she SOO looks like she's luffing..

and sai wanting to 'dress up' as a vampire before leaving. sai sprouted a lot of rubbish that night, i think it was the beer she had during dinner.

i *heart* these two pics, the color is DAMN nice. and the pic looks like it was taken overseas can! very christmasy kinda feeling. this is accomplished after much editing of course, they were initially failed pics which i was comtemplating to delete cuz sai took it w/o flash. it was super blur so i applied unsharpen mask + adjusted the colors and voila! i so damn shld make a living out of image editing.

2007-09-24T22:16:00.001+08:00

I really hope we get to dine here again when we visit bangkok! the ambience was just fantasssstic! but of course, you DO pay quite a bit for it tho.

http://www.thedomebkk.com/web/sirc_home.html

2007-09-23T23:06:00.000+08:00

After much postponing and procrastinating, we finally got round to watching ratatouille today. it's a brilliant show, primarily because remy the rat was so darn cute! i lurrrrved his pinkish jelly-like droppy little nose that wobbles, i wished my mouse had a nose like that too!

actually, the movie kinda portrayed paris to be a lot more beautiful than what it really is. in reality, the streets of paris are a lot stinkier, a lot dirtier, and a lot dimmer... will not dispute however, that the city has GOOD food.

i've come to realise that in life, there are 3 things which can have an uplifting effect on a person's mood:

1) FOOD
2) MUSIC
(and when all else fails.. though generally NOT recommended)
3) ALCOHOL

however, the list for most females would usually include one more item:

4) SHOPPING

looking forward to december.. japan trip followed by bangkok getaway.. intensive shopping + eating! SSSHHIIIOOOKK! just exactly what i need b4 joining e corporate ratrace..

2007-09-19T01:38:00.001+08:00

wah, didnt plan for this double entry for today. just happened to read a pretty interesting blog post else where, and here's my 2 cts worth on it:

first and foremost, within a circle of friends, there is no one person who is more impt than the rest.

all are equal, obviously, and if one shld desire to meet up with the rest (because that person can now afford the time to), then the person shld initiate an outing, or at least indicate his/her interest of having one.

the person also shldnt work on the assumption that the other friends have full knowledge of his/her own (busy) schedule unless he/she makes it known to others.

further, that same person shld never expect to sit around, hoping that an invitation will fall from the sky - afterall, why must others always be the one doing the co-ordinating? (planning for an outing is not only time-wasting but annoying as well, having to check with all other members of the group just to confirm an outing.)

there must also be some common understanding that the other friends may be busy with their own lives too, because some of them are either working, or seeking job applications - which therefore means they wont have time to continually check if someone else's schedule is less hectic.

failing the above, that person shld NOT conclude that he/she has been outcast by the group and that the group has been uncompromising. social disengagement as we know, is a two way process. unless the person decides to outcast his/herself, he/she can still be involved in a social group.

the final point i'd like to make is - everyone has to adopt a proactive role to keep a friendship going. so perhaps the question to ask urself is, have you done so?

2007-09-18T16:30:00.000+08:00

BEHOLD FINALLY... the long awaited photos!

The resident camwhores take it up a notch - to the studio!

F.R.I.E.N.D.S

doksai looking melancholy

the famous SMOO jumping pose, attempted with 2 non-smuggers

this was potentially a nice shot, quite pissed with the photographer for screwing the lighting up tho. so this is re-edited by urs truly!

dok sai looking melancholy again

this is kwok looking oh-so-arabianisique.. the photo kinda ressembles a TIME magazine cover.. with a title that reads: OPPRESSED WOMEN OF THE MIDDLE EAST. like seriously.. what a mysterious air to it!

bimbo!

my mask was talking to me.

a proper pic of us together, damn the lighting looks weird!

classic!

Okay, and here are a few awards to be handed out..

and the special mention award for being the most hilarious photo goes to.........

the attack of the conical bra! (poor kwok)
(damn shit, i tell u dok sai sure can pose, note her expression! how professional! she was even clutching her cone?! OMG)

the next two awards go to my two favourite photos of the entire shoot, and the runner up is...

and finally... presenting... the winner of the photoshoot!

DON'T MESS WITH DA BEST!

Right.. right... so this wraps up a 400 dollar photo shoot...

so dun ask me why i'm feeling broke! damn, i wanna shop!!! blardy hell, where has time gone to?!?!

2007-09-15T23:09:00.000+08:00

We camwhored so much, i dun even know how to organize these pics..

While waiting for the rest

Permutations and Combinations. The possible 7C2 pairings...

Acting stupid already.. Top right corner - the ex-convicts! See how convincing they look? Damn, i knew i was right when i cast them for their roles..

More 7C2 combinations. Bottom right corner - WC acting cute! BIG TIME!

Debbie and I were trying to take a pic when kwok ambushed us from behind.. top right corner - kwok terrorizing us!

The dancing queens..

Indivudual portraits

More lemons!

The crazy folks, gosh i'm starting to miss these outings already...

Lots of drinking of course...

And this is what happens when u fail to out-talk jac.. you DRINK!

Pic of da nite! With my regular proj (cum bitching) partner since yr 1!

And for interest sake, i'm down with food cum alcohol poisoning, could be one or the other, or could be both. It's hard to say.. but somehow, we've tracked it down to the chicken soy sauce noodle we had for dinner.. because dok sai threw up too.. and she picked up pieces of the undigested dinner from her vomit to examine.. (the things that doktors do, really!)

abt 50% of my stomach lining feels like it has been eroded by alcohol, and i regret not taking a proper FULL meal b4 drinking. feeling damn hungry today, but cant put anything into my mouth without feeling like puking. gahhh...

thanks for the fun nite out anyway guys! lets do this again when dok comes back next yr!

2007-09-12T00:03:00.000+08:00

Our new samsung LCD TV is tuned in to the asian food channel some 15 hrs a day.

It's not such a bad thing though. At the very least, it liberated my dad from his "chinese are the smartest, chinese are the best, chinese are the thriftiest, and chinese have the best cuisine" obstinate way of thinking. after a month of daily 'hokkaido journey' viewing, he is now thoroughly convinced that hokkaido is the best place to visit for tasty seafood treats. and if all goes well, we may be headed there for a ramen cum hotpot cum sashimi cum retreat next summer. ahh so looking forward.

the other programme that seemed particularly fascinating was 'escape to river cottage' or something to that effect. in the show, the cook whops up a dish using whatever he has hunted during the day.

in one of the episodes, he actually made bunny burgers. needless to say, the burger patties were made from the rabbits he hunted. *sobz* rabbits are so cute can!

also in that same episode, he brought home a GIANT mushroom (i think it was puffball) that weighed some 6.5 pounds. the mushroom was so huge you'd think that they existed only in alice in the wonderland. seriously! they dugged up the flesh so that the mushroom became a 'pot' for them to dump in other stuffs like pigeons and fungi and veggies blah blah. and they baked the entire 'mushroom pot'. it was amazing...

watching too much of these food programmes really brings out the 'chef' in you and makes you wanna cook up a storm as well.. too bad dok's cancelling on us this sunday and we cant seem to find a replacement day.. so... what a bummer! ok, gotta watch ratatouille soon... like seriously. 've got damn cravings to eat now.

2007-09-10T23:30:00.000+08:00

Just an add on: Dok actually went thru a fair bit of research on how to make a conical bra.. afterall, conicals dun just fall from the sky, do they. see how proudly she displays her stuffs? *SALUTE* i'm starting to suspect that we will still laugh abt this say 10 yrs down the road...

2007-09-09T13:07:00.000+08:00

A prelude!!

Lunch, prior to photoshoot:

The final touch up:

The dress up!! Sai as MADdonna, Kwok as arabian belly dancer, and me as some venetian masquarade

Sai's version of madonna's conical bra is CLASSIC! (she made the entire outfit herself!) the wig wasnt exactly madonna-ish. More like the blonde version of Lion King. And Kwok was assaulted by the twin peaks! (or were we assulting those twin peaks?!) oh man, cant wait for the pics.. the fun thing abt the photoshoot was that everyone was just so spontaneous.. think we kept the photographer highly amused the entire afternoon..

2007-09-06T23:49:00.000+08:00

The one biggest gripe I have about Noose is the fact that we’re constantly exposed to the elements of weather as we traverse between the different faculties. And Singapore as we know, frequently oscillates between the two weather extremes – blazing hot sun and merciless heavy downpours. Experience further tells us that the two extremes are not mutually exclusive too. I ought to get this into my head, that a bright and sunny morning certainly doesn’t exempt one from bringing her umbrella to sch. (not that having one will help either if the rains seem almost semi-torrential). Aside to the Smuggers: you OUGHT to appreciate that freaking concourse we have in sch! I cant decide if this post is meant to bitch abt the weather or the sch. Maybe a bit of both. My mind is in a constant state of flux and I can hardly put together a single coherent trend of thought. The only consolation to me now is that the wkend is already in sight. I can already feel and breathe it. Tonight’s poker session had better be good. I don’t need to win, I just need the fun, the solid humor with a little dash of lame jokes. Hell yea!

2007-09-05T23:13:00.000+08:00

Priorities.

Weird little things that change over extended periods of time. Hope i havent gotten them all wrong.