my little princess

the lovely little lady is growing day by day and since her arrival in our happy family, she has made such a significant impact on our lives. She has given us so much happiness and besides being able to experience true happiness ever since i got married, i also derived true happiness from being the mother of my princess :) she has made my life soo enriching, colourful and meaningful. what a difference she has made.

my mum

It's been eons since i last updated my bloody blogger but since im rushing off for dinner, I just wana say something that bugs me... my mum misses me to the depths, the rate she is calling me many times a day drives me nuts while hubby can only shrug and look on with great amusement. oh well, mums...

Work blues

It's been such a long while since i wrote here! gosh! Not because i was busy throwing sheep or adding sharks to my aquarium, i was reali busy! I hate all that crap that i have been thrown at recently and boy m i GLAD im movin outta my current wrk place next june, yay~ :) Anyway, I just finished another major project, this time it involved the putting together of some publication and it was hell of a not easy thing to do esp when ppl expect u to write articles in the last hour before its due for print and worse still, I had writer's block! I even translated a 5 pg chinese article so that i could have the material to write the article! In the end, almost half of the write ups in the publication are mine! Nmind, i will keep it as my portfolio, will do me good next time, perhaps. I dont dare to imagine what its gona be like for me in the first half of next yr esp when a pseudo radio station will be set up and i will be one of those who gotta set it up from scratch!
:( Dec's gona b burnt, argh! I gotta think of the programme list so that ppl will listen to the programme thats aired in the building, i gota think of ways to attract ppl to listen, wth! It's so not gona b easy and they will milk me dry b4 i leave the place, as is the practice. Im upset and i don even wana say any further coz it will juz kill me flat if i think abt the wrkload for next yr and this yr end :S Oh well, till then again or at least till i have time to use the force on ya or perhaps drunk dial ya :P

wedding dinner - a waste of time, money and energy

woah.. after so many months of hiatus, things have changed big time for blogger. I've been up to my neck in work and i was soooo soooo close to getting our flat at cck but a pity the seller decided not to sell the flat after all. sighh.. anyway, im so excited and all. im still in the midst of discussion with him about whether we should even hold a wedding dinner cos the idea sounds pretty dumb since not everyone's gonna know one another and that the last thing i want is my colleagues to treat our dinner as a place of gossip. worse, im not gonna be dumb to splurge on these undeserving ppl as they are just my colleagues, acquaintances, not close friends. this sure sounds like some mega star who said that she is just a colleague of so and so hehe. My sis told me it makes more sense to hold some kinda garden afternoon party and invite only those i wanna invite which means that i can save more money for a better honeymoon and a flat (wherever it is gonna be). This idea sounds good esp if i can have a party at sentosa :D if anyone has a great idea on where else i can have a nice garden party for a wedding, pls drop me a note! im definitely not gonna do that pretentious wedding dinner that so many ppl go for coz its really silly and i wont even get to interact with my frens plus i gotta wear that fake smile for many hours blah blah. take my colleague for eg, she stupidly spent more than $30k on her wedding dinner and ironically, she cant even afford a frigging flat and many ppl played her out last min so fewer ang baos for her! how stupid can one be? worse, she prides herself to be really intelligent. Crap. So, I shall take the smarter route by throwing a cheaper but good treat for ppl who're close to me and thus, will give me bigger ang baos. Or perhaps, i will treat my relatives and frens separately so that i can spend more time with them instead of the ten seconds handshake and words of congratulations during a typical wedding dinner. Plus, i dont have to go for many gown changes so i may have a chance to get my local fashion designer to design just one nice gown :) yay! Life's gonna be sooo soooo blissful :)))

Failing health

heaven plays a cruel trick on frail people.exactly two yrs ago, it was a lower back injury after my fall off the stage. two yrs later, im down with a blood cyst and endometriosis, both of which require surgical removal. im so not looking forward to the weekend for the first time as i'll probably be in the operating theatre under GA. im so afraid of things that can happen. i really hope i'll be fine and get up and about soon after my op. this is indeed a sign that i must leave my current wrk place, as i see more ppl either fall from grace or get hospitalised and all that crap..

oh well, wish me luck peepz..

im very traumatised and depressed.. perk me up with a joke or two...

Back in Sg!

Oz is a nice place with nice scenery but shopping's nothing much to crow about coz the fashion's reali unappealing coupled with the high prices. I cant even find any semblance of mango or zara so i realised how much i missed sg shopping. met up with my friends in melbourne in the chilling cold of the evening. they were telling me how lousy the local papers eg the age were and sure enough, i burst out laughing after flipping a few pages of the papers which were filled with tabloids! one shared with me how he asked his colleagues what they thought of the OJ Simpson case and they didnt know who that was. they missed our Straits Times, the predictable weather here coz melbourne's weather is really cranky and i can vouch for that as i was shivering big time in the freaking cold (esp in philip island) though its supposed to be summer! even though i slept without aircon in the hotel room, i woke up freezing like crazy in the room. i came down with a bad flu thanks to the cold. also, life seemed to move too slowly that it was driving me nuts, no shopping by a certain time, the x mas decorations would only stop at a pathetic row of decor (according to my frens), toilets weren't as desirable as those in taka. i really do appreciate what we are pampered with in sg.

sydney's a nicer place as it's more like sg though the lack of shopping made me feel really deprived. but i must say that paddy's market rocks, with all the paraphernalia going at low prices and good bargains. unfortunately, the sydney tour guide sucks, he's some china man who was mumbling to himself and brought us to shops where he earned commission, thank goodness our local tour agent from Hong Thai took good care of us and was responsible. Anyway, Blue Mt is really quite an experience. nice place with rather blue mts of course. in all, i love the sightseeing but definitely not the shopping so u can imagine how i ravaged the town when i came back since i hardly spent much overseas. still, with the kinda pathetic bonus and pay im getting, i'd better restrain and discipline myself lest i max out my credit card again. i wish im so lucky like my frens who are getting such high bonuses eg twenty months bonuses with a monthly salary of ten k. guess its justified that i should just quit my current job but that means i wont be able to do my masters foc next yr. anyway, im in the midst of making very crucial n impt plans for my career blah blah so wish me luck that i'll make the right decision.

meanwhile, here's wishing all of ya a merry xmas and happy new year while i look forward to the start of 2007 with gloom :(

Health woes

yay, work's out for the moment (at last) and i'm so bloody relieved after a crazy yr of wrk. i've not been in the pink of health of late, with chest pains and giddiness. Worse still, i been having a bout of strange jumping of the nerve below my right eye, so it's bothering me big time. work's really sucked my life away to the point that i have no time for so many other impt things and people. just heard today that my colleague's application for leave to go for her honeymoon was rejected last yr because she was needed to do work. I was horrified because if you cant go for a honeymoon, how in the world do you spend time with your loved ones? I was appalled! Will that happen to me too? Gosh! It's amazing how we were told that a bal must be struck betw wrk n life and yet, they are stopping us from doing so. fancy getting last min wrk which req u to submit something the next day or getting calls after office hours. I am amazed by the speed at which all of us wrk. Since i've survived here for a rather long time, i believe i'm tough enough to handle all the shit elsewhere as my place's so well known for efficient workers who can work well under pressure, which is true since I've managed alot of things this yr n been part of big events comms.

okay, im rather worried that at the rate im working, i may drop dead before i even start my new phase of life. worrying indeed because its affecting my health badly. after my trip to down under, i shall go for my full body checkup, which will include checking for cardio, cancer etc. Really have a bad feeling about my health status. Argh. wish me luck. I still wanna have my own family and its too early for me to die... :(

R&R@bintan

i was at bintan last wkend and it felt good to slack there. i went for this mangrove day tour which was a very enriching experience as the boat brought a group of us through the swamp. i learnt more about the various plants and how to tell them apart from their roots. i like the one with the ribbon-like roots, very pretty. a pity im sucha tech dinosaur so cant upload the pics. anyway, the tour guide showed us the spot where the boatmen worship the crocodile spirit and she reassured us that there isnt any croc there. for a moment, i kinda freezed. then, she showed us a huge kiln situated way up on a hill which was made of the roots of some plant and its no longer in use. then, we saw huge monitor lizards which are actually not even adults yet. those creatures are so darn well fed! next thing i knew, i saw a mangrove snake coiled up, sleeping on a fragile looking branch above my fren and i. i was freaking out as i was so afraid the branch will give way and drop on us!!! it didnt help when this happened a few times, whenever we were under the snakes. it's thrilling but scary, esp at the thought of being so close to snakes. yucks.

then, after the 2 hr trip, we went shopping at a local mkt where the things were sold at rather high prices even after haggling! its definitely not worth shopping there since its not in rupiah. sigh.

we also went to the spa for a good massage. it was really fantastic! my fren n i had a huge rm surrounded by lush greenery in the shower area. i like the rustic setting too.. we had the south seas massage which was darn shiok! the kneading and massage actions resembled the movement of the waves in the sea so they applied rather gentle pressure on the points and well, im glad to have this as i havent had my lymphatic drainage for months already.. after more than an hour, they were finally done though this left us yearning for more. we had a cup of lemongrass tea which was soooo fragrant!

evening time came so we went to the kelong to catch the sunset and it was beautiful from where i was sitting while eating my favourite seafood. the dinner was really cheap, considering the amount of seafood we ate, ranging from prawns, codfish right up to chilli crab. yummy! :D

on the whole, we slacked alot, i kinda got a little tanned though i didnt think i was under the sun that much. the beach was beautiful, the swimming pool faces the sea so its a panoramic view :D

i definitely enjoyed my r&r over there. glad i had a good break albeit a short one. pheww... ;)

and yes, im lookin forward to next wk though i'll be a year older :( im already pleasantly surprised when my colleagues threw me a lunch and very nice gifts. gee..i feel so goooddd :) i cant wait for my dinner with my relatives tonight at chef chan as my aunt's promised me a braun buffel bag which i demanded errh i mean i wanted,while the other aunt isnt telling me what she's getting for me.. just hope that my gifts arent bulky or i'll have problems lugging the things and going to breeze at scarlet hotel for a drink with my frens after that. nevertheless, whatever the gifts are, i will prob still be a contented gal :)

blah blah

i m finally back again...!!! its been a long time since i wrote here. had been so busy for quite some time that i had to work till almost midnight everyday at one point in time. sigh. yesterday was a very rewarding day for me, i was swarmed by my "fans" and their gifts which were so overwhelming that I could only take home the perishables with me. I was amused by the wide range of gifts as they ranged from sinful food (despite them having seen how unglam i look on the telly for the past 4 wks) right up to cheeky gifts. i was lugging a few kg of perishables around which made my shopping trip at msia rather challenging. the moment i got home, i forced my sis n mum 2 help eat some of the food.

i'm resolved to use my treadmill at home now that i have more time. it's a great machine except that the handles at the side are short so i feel kinda unsafe when using it at times. i'll be heading to bintan tomorrow till sunday. it's an exciting place that's gonna rawk! and its amazing how i only booked my holiday 2 days ago. this is what efficiency is all about. yea.

im already starting to plan my next hol, probably going to thailand with my uni lecturer. too bad shanghai will be darn cold year end so cant go there. And my silly fren in aussie isnt gonna be down under so i'll have 2 wait for another yr. sighh.. Ciao ppl and here i come bintan! :D

crazy about treadmill!!!

yay! my Aibi treadmill's here finally! I got it during some fair at suntec and my boy helped me bargain down the price. It's kinda smaller than those at my gym but heck, i get to exercise everyday! im more motivated to do so esp when i saw how terrible i look on tv. ewk. anyway, life's sucha whirlwind. been busy with a major upcoming event and already, im sucked dry of energy. falling sick soon as my throat's scratchy and i can't hit my usual high notes when i sing. sighh... i havent had time to go for a spa, a mani and pedicure, and eyebrow shaping so i look like a huge mess. i also need my massage!!! but i dont have the time to do all these!!! not even practise for my piano lessons! i cant wait for national day so that i can rejuvenate and look good!!! i intend to give myself a good treat though i've already maxed out my credit cards thanks to sg sale. I wonder where im gonna get the money... just dont ask me to pray for money, i dont believe in that. anyway, meanwhile, i shall work out everyday and get ready to lose more wt. yea :)

yes, im back from my cna trip in beijing and hk. if u had seen the news, u would have spotted me on tv. of course, i recorded the news segment. its true that one looks 10% fatter on screen. i look bloated, oh god! anyway, it was a darn great experience. i went to the great wall of china n marvelled at how those labourers ever built it. as i took each steep step, i could feel the pain n agony they went thru. each step was so steep that if a dwarf ever attempts to climb, it'll take him a day to climb one flight. it's amazing how i carried a heavy backpack containing 1st aid kit, water bottles n climbed in the 39 degrees heat! i was really happy to conquer two and a half towers. i managed to get a certificate with my name engraved on it to say that I had conquered part of it. i think i must have been about 1000m above sea level? it was a real test of stamina and determination esp for someone with a bad back like me. many younger ppl gave up before me so its true indeed when they say that it gets lonely at the top. now that i've gone to the 2nd wonder of the world within a year, i am so tempted to go to a 3rd one...

anyway, i went to the 13 tombs of the ming dynasty. we were told not to take pics as its sheer bad luck so i didnt. anyway, there wasnt much to see there except for the signboards filled with bad English sentences that set us laughing our heads off. the tomb was pretty cold but kinda depressing looking.

i went to the forbidden city which was behind the tiananmen sq. nothing much to see at forbidden city as you can only peer thru the windows or glimpse from afar, the rooms of the past kings and queens. some were pretty sparse, not much decor. the beds were so small that i wondered how the emperor and his empress can slp on one bed which seems terribly uncomfortable and hard! and the mirrors spooked me out for no reason. i admired the clocks they had, very intricately designed. the throne didnt look as majestic as i tot it would. As for tiananmen sq, well... its just a big square with mao's face on it. didnt get to walk around much over there coz it was drizzling so we ran for shelter. on that day, we walked so much that i had to do self foot reflex.

next was the summer palace which was the nicest. we went to one of the gates and from there, we got to sit on a boat which ferried us around the lake. we were wondering why the hell would an emperor and his mother need such a huge palace for their summer retreat? the place is so bloody huge that its impossible to cover it within a day. anyway, i donned a robe and wore the empress and concubine head dressing. my friend commented that i looked like those young, cheeky empress who's up to her mischievous tricks :)

we also had shopping and oh my, the stuff there are really cheap n pretty n sports wear's dirt cheap! for the rest of the trip, we gota chance to learn about news reporting so camie desouza taught us and gave us hands on sessions that were really fun. even the news activities in hk with roland lim were very enriching and challenging. im so glad i went for this trip as its so enjoyable though i suffered from nose bleeding everyday in china. cant wait for the 5 part series on our trip to be broadcasted on cna hehe :)

am enjoying my 1 day holiday now, waiting for him to cook me a sumptuous meal. seems like its curry with duno what. i feel so blissful coz he always plans our meals v carefully, cooks them and beautifies the presentation which amazes me, and he insists that i sit back and relax and wait for my food to be ready. and yes, he doesnt even want me to help him clean up after the cooking :) well, i'll surprise and reward him with a ben n jerrys icecream. yea... :)

cant wait for this thurs to come coz my frens n i will be heading for dinner at xi yan, the famous rest that serves up food to u at 7.30 sharp so if you miss the first course, too bad. wonder what's the menu gonna be like since we cant choose our menu... am now checking out the rest at greenwood ave for this fri's lunch with my colleagues. any recommendations besides shiro? :) this's gonna b a darn good wk for me yay...

a sum up of things...

i am so glad that there is a movie, "she's the man", that is loosely based on 12th nite. no matter how loosely based, its a great movie. it has most of the main characters in shakes' play though the villainous character turns out to be a spider which is really funny though the symbolism of the character is very apt - a nasty creature that people abhor. this movie gives a very interesting take on this romantic comedy and having been so caught in the close analysis of this text, this movie gives a very fresh perspective. i had watched the movie that followed the play very closely and it was as good as the play itself but nothing as refreshing as this. however, for those shakespeare's fans, i think they will be very offended and find this play blasphemous.

anyway, on to other stuff.. a person recently asked me if religion or studies is more important and i boldly declared studies. woah, you should have seen the shocked and offended looks of some of the people which was pretty amusing. another person then asked if im an atheist and i refused to answer but instead, gave that enigmatic smile which convinced them that i am so that they would not dare to engage in such debates with me ever again. well, i seriously feel that one has to be practical and study hard. whoever you worship isnt gonna help ya if you dont help yourself first by studying. well, its a matter of personal choice in the end, whether you wanna go with what i said.

am looking forward to this sat's getaway with my loved one and then, next sat's work trip to china. yay. and when im back, i hope my frens are able to have booked a table at xi yan, the famed rest which is perpetually booked. pray hope the restaurant has a table for the six of us. anyway, i dunno when i will next write a blog entry, considering how busy i have been. been busy with work, doing publicity for my workplace events, coming up with slogans blah blah. feel as if i am in the marketing business.

so see ya folks another time... :)

R&R

yay im back from a long absence on the blog. been a v hectic year, having played host to visitors to my work place, having done so much, helping and mentoring young people. I certainly hope that my bonus next year will be as good as this year's. Am glad I finally got promoted to the next salary scale coz I need the money!!!

now im looking forward to the 2nd work sponsored trip of the yr. This time to beijing and hk. it's to learn about journalism and that this is organised by cna. yay! am looking forward to it in june.. and june's the time for me to go for sinful spas, to get my ever relieving massages. and of course, lose wt by going for intensive workouts at the gym.. sighh.. am thinking of changing my membership to fitness first coz i wanna go for its aqua exercises in its pool.. :) anyway, will meanwhile try my best to lose some wt to look good. yea..

will be back another day when im free...

I'm leaving on a jet plane (Jet star's ad)

its been a reali darn long time since i wrote here. decided to write here today since i'm leaving on Jet star for cambodia early mornin tomorrow. Been so busy til I'm about to crash and burn. Wonder if I am on a bad luck streak. Anyway, take care all. Till then... Sighh...

Happy New Year!!!

dear all, happy new year!!! Sorry if it's kinda belated. Had too much fun and work over the holidays. Got a chance to see the fantastic fireworks at the esplanade, it was magnificent as it was right before my eyes, with no trees obstructing our view thank goodness. But it was really crowded and if I didn't have someone to protect my back or hold me tightly, I'd have been terribly injured as everyone's pushing and shoving rather violently.

Anyway, work's getting hectic and worse. Was told yesterday that I've gotta do something which is not within my scope and I freaked out coz if they had told me earlier, I would have prepared the work in dec. I'm pissed coz I already have so much work to do and now, even more! What the... Dread the thought of having to work till about 10 pm this friday as most of us are down for some important stuff. Yucks. Meanwhile, will try to chill out as much as possible, yeah.

Sigh.

Happy New Year!!!

dear all, happy new year!!! Sorry if it's kinda belated. Had too much fun and work over the holidays. Got a chance to see the fantastic fireworks at the esplanade, it was magnificent as it was right before my eyes, with no trees obstructing our view thank goodness. But it was really crowded and if I didn't have someone to protect my back or hold me tightly, I'd have been terribly injured as everyone's pushing and shoving rather violently.

Anyway, work's getting hectic and worse. Was told yesterday that I've gotta do something which is not within my scope and I freaked out coz if they had told me earlier, I would have prepared the work in dec. I'm pissed coz I already have so much work to do and now, even more! What the... Dread the thought of having to work till about 10 pm this friday as most of us are down for some important stuff. Yucks. Meanwhile, will try to chill out as much as possible, yeah.

Sigh.

shitty business!

I think I must have eaten too much of the wrong food. I'm down with major food poisoning. It's strange how he had diarrhoea for only a few times after dinner on xmas while I been poo-ing non stop for many days. Damn the curry fish head. Yesterday, my stomach must have been further aggravated by the intake of the oily tempura like food served before my meetings and next thing I knew, I got the chills, started shivering uncontrollably and the fact that it rained cats and dogs didn't help at all. I was tempted to pile on another jacket but I didn't wana look like a rice dumpling. To make matters worse, I had no idea how my finger got a deep cut. All I remembered was the blood rushing out and I was screaming in pain when I ran it under the water. I rushed home to get a good sleep and this morning, I was down with severe abdominal pain and everytime I went to the loo, a free flow of stool was dispensed. I felt really shitty and had to get an MC to account for my absence from work today. Wonder how many days of leave / MC I've taken since my hospitalisation took up a hell lot of that.

It's strange how all my illnesses are seasonal. I always get some kinda major illness at the year end and my doc is probably sick of seeing me so often too. But I'm bringing him good business, considering each trip is $50.

Well, xmas was great, had a weekend getaway and my other half gave me a book filled with all his written thoughts and feelings. Best of all, he gave me the strangest but really most amusing gift - a toy robot called robosapien. It's really expensive, never knew that such toys can cost $150. Gee.. it is really cute as it grooves to some cheesy music and does strange caveman-like actions and sounds. He believes in giving such stuff now and then as he believes that there must be an element of fun in our relsp. It was really a great xmas which was marred occasionally by my bad bout of diarrhoea. I certainly hope I get well fast coz tomorrow's dinner with my friends and him and they will kill me if I back out as they have waited for so long just to get us out. In fact, I suspect I will lose their friendship. We are supposed to go to gorkha grill which sells nepalese food but coz it's gonna be spicy, I gotta cancel the plan to go there and get to soup restaurant instead or else I will literally be in deep shit if I eat spicy food. Well, it's not a bad choice anyway, it's got great chinese food though I'll be missing out on the lovely sweet potato leaves and samsui chicken! Dammit! I've gotta settle for porridge for now... At this rate I'm falling sick or getting all sorts of strange illnesses, I'm gonna lose weight faster than exercising at the gym..

Wish me luck in recovering from this nasty food poisoning. I definitely don't wanna ruin my dinner tomorrow and the day after at Jaan... :(

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of ya! It's been a pleasure, not pressure having known you for so many christmases! Orchard Road's so frigging crowded last night after having watched chronicles of narnia which btw is good, I particularly like Aslan :) Anyway, back to orchard again. There were scores of ppl spraying foam and all that stuff at their friends and even strangers! I could see a few ppl take offence to that and of course I hope these party goers did not spray at poor unsuspecting old ladies as they can't take such shock or perhaps may be hurt by the chemicals or stuff in the sprays. I nearly fell when I did not notice a can lying on the pavement. In fact, the pavement was strewn with cans and it's v dangerous for someone like me with a bad back injury. Thank goodness I didn't fall. If more bins were provided, these people may have less reason to litter. I was rather angry, partly because I nearly fell and also, it is v dangerous for older ppl too. I wished there were some officers on duty to stop these ppl from littering. Just because it's the festive period, it doesn't mean that they should just go wild and litter the streets as such behaviour will spell misfortune or tragedy for those who trip and fall. Anyway, I am glad that I spent a great xmas eve, pigging out on great "semi fusion" food at wan hao in marriott. Lovely presentation and innovation creation of food such as sharks fin with egg white, very chawanmushi style except that this is a big serving :) Yes, I just killed more sharks but I don't quite care. They can clone and breed more sharks to save them for all i care. Actually, they should clone the fins. Anyway, I had better not talk more about eating them before some activist blasts me. hehe.

Well, enjoy your christmas! I'm looking forward to my day with him as it's exactly 3 years since we got together on that fateful christmas day :) yay... To all of ya, have a loving, passionate and sassy Christmas! :D

The nutcracker suite at the esplanade

i went for the nutcracker yesterday at the esplanade. It was magical but first, I gotta gush about the fantastic dinner though a bit rushed of the performance. The food at my humble house is more than humble. It's exquisite and bursting with flavour. The menu itself was very puzzling. It had very poetic phrases which I can't remember now. We were very tempted to get the set dinner as there were more dishes but we were in a hurry. Dammit. We had a strange looking appetizer which came in a small cup with strange tasting liquid and something that looked like noodles. It was great! Next, we had some steamed chicken with ham etc and it was so well done and flavourful! Then, we had the fried beancurd with scallop floss which was good beyond words. As I couldn't eat seafood yet due to my poor lip, I had to ask them to replace the crab meat with pork in the fried rice. Dammit again... Then came our yummy Wagyu beef in black pepper. It was so soft that it melted in our mouths. We were high on the food which was served promptly after we told them we're rushing for the 8 pm performance. Our bill came up to 70 plus per person. Good service and the cooking's really fast! It's a pity the rest opened at 6.30 pm. Oh yes, the decor was beautiful, with chairs which resembled the wizards' hats in harry potter. The top of the back support of the chair curled back like a hat. There were seats of various shapes and sizes. Too bad we didn't make reservations so we got to sit on a normal chair. Anyway, the service was good, with the waiters politely asking us individually if we wanted our very fragrant tea to be refilled instead of asking all of us at one go if we wanted more tea. Kinda pitied the waiter as he had to repeat the same question to each of us though we were all within hearing distance. I had earlier read a notice outside stating the dress code, no shorts, just smart casual. Then, my colleague pointed out a couple dressed rather sloppily with the girl dressed in shorts sauntering in. I was disgusted as the couple were strutting like proud peacocks into this restaurant which required proper dressing. Was wondering why this young couple dared to dress so awfully to such a nice place. Am puzzled why they were allowed to even come in in the first place. If I were to be dressed like this in such a restaurant, I'll wish that I can turn into an ostrich. Anyway, we decided that we will come back again and sit down for a longer meal, ie take the set meal. Yay!

Moving on, let me talk about the performance. It was great except that it was marred by two combined schools' choir which was hidden in the orchestra pit. I shall not mention the two schools but I know of a choir which's ten times better than it. The choir members had too much air coming out when they were singing, they failed to sustain the notes, not enough lung power and they couldn't even keep up with the SSO's tempo. It was just so wrong and awful. The first reaction my colleagues and I had when we heard the choir sing was, Yucks! My colleague then pointed out that the organizers had no choice but to choose a lousier choir as no good choir would want to sing for only that pathetic few minutes in the orchestra pit. It just doesn't make sense. Even the sg youth choir won't do that. We were just so appalled by how badly the choir sang, given the very few notes they were supposed to sing! In fact, during intermission, we could still remember what notes they sang and we started singing hehe. Then, we continued our bitching about how bad the singing was. On the whole, I enjoyed the dance. I liked the part when the tin soldier danced with the doll at the beginning, the soldiers fighting with the rats which behaved like cats, the angels dancing etc. The clever use of multimedia played an impt role in the changing of the background / set. I can imagine how many backstage hands there must be, given the scale of the production. I liked the interpretation of the various movements in the suite as the choreographer indeed assigned the appropriate countries to the various movements. I like the China one in particular, with china looking ppl coming onstage in bicycles. The Arabia dance was so sensual too! Meanwhile, I saw my piano teacher leaving his keyboard several times during the performance so I asked him today during lesson why didn't he just sit still at his keyboard thruout the performance and he simply said he wanted to view the performance. Gee... Anyway, he told me this's a very costly production and I won't announce the cost here. U can ask me personally though... The nutcracker performance ended so beautifully with blue lights shining on the snow flakes hanging from the top and smaller pieces of flakes floating to the floor. My teacher told me that a certain size had to be cut for all the small flakes to float down in a certain manner and they had to keep testing till they got the right size. Amazing huh...

After the performance, we headed for drinks at Cityspace which my friends just fell in love with after I brought them there. Thank goodness we managed to get a good seat. Well, something really embarrassing happened. I was reaching out for my fren's virgin mary when I spilt my cinderella drink. 3/4 of it was gone and the ang mohs at the next table generously offered me their serviettes. The waitress helped to clean up and she even refilled the drink for me at no extra charge! It was so sweeet of her! Now, that's what I call good service hehe.. It was kinda strange that as time passed, the windows got foggier. Strange phenomenon and my colleague seemed anxious about it. I asked her if she was afraid that the water molecules were fogging up the windows and force their way in to attack her. We had a really great time last nite and we are of course looking forward to dining at Jaan next Fri. Yay!

Today, I was at suntec at 7 plus, headed to royce and oh god, the queue was just crazy. I decided to get my dinner with my friend and later try my luck there. Had a simple meal at country manna, exchanged xmas gift with her. I gave her an australian wine, ruby port, with 17% alcohol and she nearly flipped when she saw the percentage. On the bottle was a personalised message for her. Glad she liked it. She gave me a set of kenzo perfume. Can't figure out what kinda smell it's supposed to be but it's nice and came in nice small bottles. I love it man.. After dinner, I headed back to royce and got an even bigger shock. Ppl were queuing up to get into the shop! I had no choice but to queue. It was hellish. There weren't the slabs that I wanted so I just anyhow grabbed a truffle kirsch for my silly cousin. Waited in the bloody queue for such a long time and a woman behind me started complaining to the security guard that there should be more than 1 cashier. I was already irritated so I turned back and shot her my infamous dirty look. Wanted to tell her off that this's a specialty shop, even godiva has only one cashier. She should just go to cold storage and get her chocs since there are more cashiers there. Anyway, I am glad I got my chocs though they had run outta ice packs so I had to race home to preserve them in good condition.

It pays to be nice as you'll get nice gifts and you get to dine with frens at great places. Oh my, I am gonna drive my trainer crazy at the rate I'm going for sinful food. I can see my money flying away at an incredible speed and my credit card bills mounting... sighh... But I am still excited about all the dinners lined up for the rest of this year and of course, my anniversary on xmas! :D

Xmas Shopping! :)

I went down to taka today to get all the xmas presents which came up to a hefty sum. It really irked me when I saw huge crowds there although it was only about 3 pm. The queues were snaking and I thought that for once, it's a sat or sun. I decided to go into the specialty shops like Armani and Hugo Boss to get the anniversary present for him this Sunday. Am looking forward to xmas cum anniversary but not looking forward to the week after that which's filled with meetings in preparation for the crazy year ahead. Anyway, I was tempted to step into LV to check out if the white glossy bag that i am in love with is still around but decided not to as I need $$!!! Then I headed over to Armani and was just so upset that the shirt which I thought looked really good online wasn't very striking or impressive up close and personal so it wasn't worth that 200 bucks. I went over to CK which had better shirts and more colours so I settled for one grey shirt. After I bought the shirt, I wandered about rather aimlessly in taka before I came face to face with Hugo Boss again. Not knowing why, I just went in to check out the shirts' designs. I nearly kicked myself when I saw that the shirts weren't as exp as I thought. I should have bought them instead of the CK one. Afterall, there isn't much price difference. Damn. I'll buy from hugo boss next time. Feeling cheated, I indulged myself in a crazy shopping spree, buying swarovski crystals for my aunts and birds nest for my grandma from paragon, and some nice decor stuff for my maid and my aunt's maid too. So you can imagine the amount of load I was shouldering and my feet were screaming for a good rest. Of course, I could sniff the burning smell in my pocket as I had effectively burnt a hole in it. And Bonus was Pathetic! Now, I gotta beg $$ from others so that I can afford the expensive dinners that are to come this week. Thank goodness the french and jap restaurants dont open early as my colleagues and I had intended to eat at Jaan or Equinox rest or Inagiku before the performance at the esplanade. But it's not much of a consolation since they made me think of another nice place to eat at, which I cleverly suggested my humble house, knowing that my pocket would really be made very humble after the dinner.

Oh yes, I must gush about the fantastic crayfish horfun that's sold at the empire cafe at raffles hotel. Oh my god, it's not just delicious, it's really fantastic and it's worth that $15 + and it's a huge serving. As I couldn't eat seafood thanks to my lip which still looks ugly, I took small chunks and was so upset that I couldn't eat more! I was forced to eat some huge bowl of fish slice noodles which aren't too bad either but still can't be compared to the horfun! I was whining to my aunt and she deliberately told me she's bringing my cousin to eat there again this Thurs so I insisted that I will come along again. Hope they try the crab fried rice which looked really delicious on other ppl's table so that I can take a small bite without offending my delicate lip :P

Well, so much for my lose weight plan. I wonder if I'm just throwing my money down the drain for paying for the personal training coz discipline's needed too when it comes to losing weight.. Sighh...