miscellaneous stuff

reminders:

• renew my relief teaching application
• survivor finale on friday
• start writing christmas cards
• meet uncle victor at brmc on saturday at 3pm, helping him to take photos for brmc's let's shine item playing at taka and paragon.

random:

• reading nothern lights by philip pullman
• started working at my dad's office, helping to build models... will write about it some day.
• found out my judo captain played for this year's sea games. she won a silver. congrats renjun!
• christmas shopping. normally i dun spend on myself, but i think i shall for this year.
• my parents got a new car, we've had the old one for 10 years already i think, it was a second hand one, so yeah, time to change my mum said. anw, the new one's a honda stream, 7 seater. it's a 1.8l one compared to our previous 2.0l one, so yeah, it'll save us some money in the long run. it's not tt we're rich, ok? in layman's terms, we downgraded our car. can't wait to start driving it. haha! i just don't like tt the hand brake has been replaced by a foot brake. weird...
• been watching man vs. wild on youtube. for all those episodes i missed on discovery channel.

my christmas wishlist:

• black jacket from x/square in marina square (i think tt's the name of the shop)
• victorinox swiss army knife (gwen's getting for me)
• zippo lighter (gwen's getting for me) i don't smoke btw. i just like playing with it.
• external flash for my dslr
• ipod nano (been thinking of it for quite some time)
• books. i wld like a book voucher to get all the books i want to read.

my last week's unhealthy lifestyle

finally found the time to type! haha, the past week been going out alot and coming back home late, and have started working at my dad's office this week til next...

ok a little update about last week:

tuesday - went to gwen's place and we made tomato soup and brownie. the soup was nice! =) but i can't say it's fantastic cos i knew what went inside the soup. all i cld think of when i drank the soup was how much msg, chemicals and artificial processed edible stuff was going into my body, haha. and there was alot of veggies, which i dun like. all i ate was the sausage and mushrooms. ANW, cooking it was more fun haha. i found out i had a skill in chopping, be it garlic, long beans, mushrooms etc... it was like unleashing a hidden talent. talent! i'm amazed, haha. the brownie was good too. haha. but gwen was going on about we shld have put two eggs instead of three. cos it came out cakey. ah well, next time we make we shall use two eggs ok? =)

thursday - gwen came to my house and we made cookies and watched stranger than fiction on dvd. went to holland village cold storage first to buy betty crocker's double choc chip cookie mix and lots of junk to eat, then went to gramaphone to rent dvds. anw, our cookies came out great! nice and chocolatey. so we ate nachos and cookies while watching dvd. i stupidly left half of the cookies unattended and unprotected after the movie on the kitchen table top, and there were ants swarming all over it. damit! half of the cookies gone.

at least i've been running occasionally. i need to find a new route and increase my running distance. currently running just 4k.

i forgot what else i did during last week, but i think it was going out to orchard alot. oh yeah, gwen! i got you your mega wowo so yeah, look forward to receiving it for christmas. haha. oh yeah, and another thing, i finally got the judo gi which i was eyeing the beginning of the month, which was on sale. so yeah, it's of a thinner and lighter material than my original one. can't wait to go back to training when school reopens.

happy 22nd birthday kathleen! =)

ugly singaporeans

i'm currently reading philip pullman's nothern lights, the first book of the trilogy his dark materials, which is now a film called the golden compass. yup, the one described as "atheism for kids"... but no worries, i'm just reading for pleasure.

ok i really want to discuss this issue: is it just me, or are there other singaporeans around who really hate singaporean-sbs bus mentality? ok, i'm not referring to moving to the back of the bus to let other passengers board (i really detest tt, and i shall talk abt it later), but i'm referring to ppl who refuse to move to the inside of their seats to let other people sit down. you know what i mean? these people will sit at the outer part of the seat, the one nearer to the aisle, and then when other people want to sit down, these insensitive people will just move their knees out to let a poor fellow squeeze to the inside... sheesh. what are they thinking? scared of a fire in the bus so that they can quickly make their quick escape? ok, if their stop is close by, then tt's ok, but not when they still have a whole journey thru.

i exprerienced this incident today, an old lady was sitting at the outer seat, my stop was very close by and i wanted to sit down. i moved toward her and the seat. and not surprisingly, without any expression she just moved her knees, expecting me to squeeze thru. ok, so i squeezed thru and sat down anw. my stop was just two bus stops away from where i boarded. and then it came to my stop, as expected, she moved her knees. why can't these people just have some basic courtesy to stand up to let other people leave? it's really bothersome especially when these poor fellows are carrying alot of stuff, and i've had my fair share of experiences. i had to agilely manoeuvre my camera bag and equipment (which included my lenses and tripod) to avoid hitting tt ugly singaporean. seriously man, if i had my way, i wldn't care less and just whack tt guy with my tripod. so sorry, i wld say, why couldn't you stand up to let me walk out?

coming back to the sbs bus etiquette, why can't singaporeans just move to the back of the freaking bus?? yes, i know, they want to be near the exit so that they can make their quick getaway when a fire breaks out in the bus... sheesh. yeah, ok i know they dun want to squeeze all the way to exit, but then, everybody will have to get out eventually, right? and because of this singaporean mentality, other people can't board the bus. this goes out to mrt users too. really disgusting lah, the centre of the carriage is so empty, the areas near the doors are so filled with people you can't even walk straight without bumping into anyone.

oh yes, and before i forget about ugly singaporeans, who really hates parents with all their baby strollers? i mean, it's ok to have a stroller, but pls dun go to crowded places and take your time and walk to slow lah... cause so much jam... if you want to go with it, pls be conscious of your environment and to ppl waiting for you to move aside to walk thru. the worse thing i can't understand is that, the "baby" is old and big enough to walk, why do you still need a freaking stroller??? goodness gracious me... and they take up so much space in the mrt!

sheesh...

christmas lights in orchard

little miss sunshine

watched little miss sunshine yesterday. was a very funny and heartwarming show, about this little girl olive who wants to win the little miss sunshine pageant, so her eccentric, dysfunctional family (mum is a smoker and pro-honesty, dad is a motivational speaker but is in fact a loser, uncle is gay, a proust scholar and sucidal, grandfather is a heroin addict, and brother is a follower of nietzsche and takes a vow of silence) takes a road trip to california to make her dreams come true. very beautiful story. there's a really hilarious funny part in the story where the grandfather gives advice to dwayne (olive's older brother) about sex, but of course i can't write about it cos my new town students read this blog.

anw, i like this part of the film, so i actually copied the words from the subtitles played in the dvd, the transcript, very uplifting and encouraging. in this scene, grandpa and olive are together and olive questions her grandfather about winning the pageant:

grandpa: time for your beauty rest. get in there.
(tucks olive into bed)
there you go. goodnight.

olive: grandpa?

yeah?

i'm kinda scared about tomorrow.

are you kidding me? you're gonna blow 'em out of the water. they're not gonna know what hit 'em.

grandpa?

yeah?

am i pretty?

olive... you are the most beautiful girl in the whole world.

you're just saying that.

no, i'm not. i'm madly in love with you, not because of your brains or your personality. it's because you're beautiful, inside and out.

grandpa?

what?

i don't wanna be a loser. (starts to tear)

you're not a loser. where'd you get the idea you're a loser?

because daddy hates losers. (cries)

back up a minute. you know what a loser is? a real loser is somebody that's so afraid of not winning, they don't even try. now you're trying, right?

yeah.

then you're not a loser. we're gonna have fun tomorrow, right?

yeah.

we can tell 'em all to go to hell. goodnight sweetie. i love you.

the way to a guy's heart is thru his stomach, and banana bread

christmas lights at plaza sing...

went out with gwen to plaza sing on thursday to watch the golden compass, starring dakota blue richards, daniel craig and nicole kidman... pretty cool show, not too bad, but you know, it's the first of a trilogy, so the action and plot hasn't reached its climax yet, it was more of an introductory of the conflict and characters and everything. but the alethiometer (golden compass) is cool! haha. and now i understand why it's been called anti-christian also... gwen tells in the book by philip pullman, the magisterium was called the church... anw, overall it's ok lah.

ANW, i wanna write about this: gwen made me this loaf of banana bread. so sweet... hehe. she wrapped it up so nicely with cloth and tied it neatly, wow, i'm so touched loh, how often does a girl do tt for you huh? and this's like the first time in a long time a girl does something sweet for me. and the bread tastes nice too! very rich flavours. thanks gwen. i really really appreciate your effort and time put into making it for me.

taken from her sms:

"...put oatmeal, sunflower seeds n almonds in them... haha i just grabbed wateva nuts i had in the fridge n put them in hehe :p Was supposed 2 only put in walnuts but was too lazy 2 go n buy them since i had some excess almonds...Anw i put 8 bananas in them, n added lotsa banana essence n vanilla essence, so it wld taste n smell more ummm...Banana-like? Haha :) Yea n its made wif olive oil butter (only 2 tablespoons of it cos i ran out of it) n yoghurt :) Ya n brown sugar n organic rye flour...N i sprinkled cinnamon sugar on top b4 i put it in the oven...So dats y the top of the bread is kinda hard n crusty n somewhat burnt cos i think i overbaked it... Ack... Just to tell u dat the bread's really healthy :)!..."

thanks gwen, i love it. =)

photography outing with mich and grace

my cousin, an fhm model??

ok, i seriously, totally, definitely have to write about this. because it's so damn funny and interesting! hahaha...

i only found out yesterday from gwen tt my cousin geraldine was actually on the front cover of fhm magazine! hahaha. on the june 2006 issue, to be exact. and it was really queer cos i can sort of remember seeing tt issue in the newsstand at holland village, but it didn't occur to me that that was actually my cousin, hahaha... so shocking lah, and she's even holding a python, hahaha... i remember thinking, tt's provocative, stay away, go away... hahaha. what's even more funny is that, i wld have probably come across it in camp during ns, cos my friends wld buy fhm and maxim every month, and pour over the cover girls and pages, tearing out the pictures of the girls wearing close to almost less than a bikini and pasting them on the walls. haha. i think my cousin might have been on the walls beside their beds when they sleep at night. hahaha.

well, it doesn't end there. she was a part-time model, and she modelled for the cars too. i showed to my mum earlier on, and she was like, "tt's your cousin." and i was "yeah, tt's geraldine." i thought she wld fly thru the roof haha. but she didn't. well, i have to admit, she looks good, and i'm kinda impressed. i still like michelle chia though. sorry geraldine!

anw, she got married last month, so here's the picture of all of us with her husband. ok, dun look at me, i didn't cut my hair, looks terrible, haha.

i still can't believe my cousin was on the front cover of fhm and i didn't realise!! haha.

die hard, with a vengeance

tt's the group photo of my studio, was taken on the last day during the port folio crit. well, 'm not going into any lengthy reflection essay about how the past few months was, but just going to say tt it was one heck of a rollercoaster ride! haha... but overall fun. i guess what i like most of it all are the friends i have. there was all the rush to meet deadlines and stress to find inspirations for ideas and staying up late til 7am and having only two hours of sleep... despite all those, i still do find the energy and drive to carry onward. sometimes i feel like giving up, but i remember God's grace and strength, and my personal journey and mission with him (will type tt another time). i know this is something i want, and i'll have to work hard for it. i recently watched this dvd "sketches of frank gehry" and i must say i'm really like totally inspired by him right now. haha... press on! now's the hols, relax, recreate and recharge. i'll be back, with a vengeance.

beautiful lazy monday

went to setosa with gwen yesterday, it was nice cos there weren't so many ppl around. walked to palawan beach, sat on the sand and read magazines... haha, well, it's the hols now, time to slack, be lazy, relax and let the time fly by. went into the water, the water was warm but the wind was chilling, was shivering like mad when i came out haha. anw, after tt just lay on the sand and watch the sky and clouds, and of course get a tan. the sky was really clear, really nice crisp blue. then we walked along the beach and watched the sunset, it was kinda romantic and beautiful lah... too bad i didn't bring my camera. had dinner at sakae sushi! haha, so long haven't had sushi, so it was nice! we went back to the beach after tt and watched the stars, saw orion, pretty cool... the night sky was very clear, cld see alot of stars, and we also caught the fireworks and water display from the songs of the sea water show. spectacular, hahaha... yup... it was a beautiful day.

thanks gwen! =)

finally...

finally got all the basic stuff settled and going... well, it was not that difficult after all. and i dun think i want to get a blog skin or whatever, just want it plain and simple. less is more, right? thanks to mich, hwee tyng and xuelii for the help! =)

first post

hello.... first post: testing testing testing....