men

they're weird. both my sister and i think so. sending text messages like "hi". just plain "hi" and nothing else.

wassup with that????? i thought that it's just this ONE guy who did that, but now there's another one! and doing it to my sister too.

i figure, it takes conscious effort already to think of me, to press those buttons, and scrounge up my mobile number in his address book. why can't he press a few more buttons at the same time and text something that actually means something rather than just "hi". i'll never understand...

conclusion... men=weird.

i do miss santa cruz...

was reading thru my past blogs... some Santa Cruz folks i really miss....

Valente | Jenny | David
Maritza | Rachel | Lilly
Julie | Michele | Sequoia


actually... there's a couple more... like angel and aimee, and mike, and everard (who was always so nice to us) but their pics dun fit in the collage... oh well... haha

Riverlife church

Guess what? we finally moved into our new Worship Centre today!!!! look!!!!!

isn't it absolutely beautiful.... sigh... i get emotional thinking about it and how far we've come as a church, where we are now, and how much further we will progress. I love Riverlife.... it's home.

oh yeah... WIlliam Lee is is being commissioned as Senior Pastor of Bartley Church. For everyone who came from there... do come and show your support!

venue: Riverlife Church Worship Centre
date: 31 July 2005
Time: 2.30pm

Saturday

yesterday was a super packed and tiring day. i slept only 2 hours the night before cos i was doing my department website...

saturday schedule:
7.30am woke up to go to work.
1pm left office
1.30pm reach Bishan to get groceries for the party later
2.15pm leave Bishan
2.45pm reach home and start preparing the guacamole
3.40pm finish making the guacamole and start eating lunch
4.55pm wash face and put on makeup
4.15pm leave my house to meet evelyn
5pm reach Caryn's house for the party

no time to breathe at all. i was so tired at the end of the day...

here are some pictures from the party

Seri, Wei shen and Julian starting the BBQ... supposed to be Sebastian's job... but guess what? he only came after all the food was cooked... haiyah... useless... haha

Evelyn and Iris openng up packets of sausages... i think they went a little crazy opening the packets.. we ended up with a shitload of sausages that barely decreased!!!! i think caryn's family will be eating sausages for a long time to come...

me and Jun. i can't see my eyes! can you tell i'm super tired... sigh. Anyway, Jun's such a dear. she's really nice, sensitive to people's needs and really really appreciative all the time. i think she's awesome.

me and evelyn... her dad gave me a ride to the place! so nice hor... and fetch me back home somemore...

Dawan and me... dawan has this really really long arabic sounding name... but for short, we call her dawan... hehe. she's a crazy fan of Taufik. and she's only 20... sigh. feel so old next to her.

Julian and Charlene... lovebirds... oops don't tell anyone i said that... wahahahaha... anyway... both of them are very nice, they were the ones who stood there bbq-ing while everyone started eating. i felt so bad that i took over while julian went to eat.

some of the food and the 3 babes who were preparing the stingray...
went to play mahjong after that... i sub-ed for julian... played 1 and a half winds... only lost about 1 dollar. not too bad considering i'm playing wif experts lor... ;)

I LOVE MY JOB

To all the silly people who send out chain mails

Would you believe an email like this??

Subj: FW: Dell is giving away PCs for free

Dear All,
>
> Dont miss the opportunity.....
>
> Please pass on to all your friends & relatives the following e-mail from
> Dell. Dell is giving away PCs for free.
>
> Dell is trying word-of-mouth advertising to introduce its product and the
> reward you receive for advertising for them is a free pc free of cost. To
> receive your free PCs all you have to do is to send this email out to 8
> people or 20 people. Within 2 weeks you will receive a free pc. (They will
> contact you through your e-mail address).
>
> Please mark a copy to: Hong_Ching_Png@Dell.com
>
> Regards
> Gena Tan

if you are, you're probably those who believe that Microsoft will give you 10 cents for every person you forward the email to, or that some corporation will give 5 cents for every person you forward the email to a help poor starving children. or better still! there's a prince in nigeria who's caught in the middle of a civil war right now, and has 3 million dollars that he wants to share with YOU.

Please for goodness sake... how dumb can you be? (sorry for insulting the person who sent this to me... she's otherwise a really smart girl...) if money/computers were so easy to come by, everyone in the world would have a computer and be millionares by now.

I bet the whole point of this dell email is someone who really hates this person Hong_Ching_Png@Dell.com and wants to spam his email.

spam is so bad cos other than the obvious stuff, like spammers sending viruses, clogging up mailboxes and such, spam also steals bandwidth! to put it simply, more bandwidth means that the internet (the whole internet... everyone connecting to each other) runs faster, and vice versa, a lower bandwidth means that the internet runs sloooooower. SO, spam, chain mails, junk mails take up bandwidth that you could be using for something more useful or entertaining rather than reading a stupid, false email.

so, let's all work towards a common good... for heaven's sake... stop forwarding chain mails and junk mails.

i dunno why i'm suddenly so irritated by this, but i just am. so do me and the rest of the internet world a favour. STOP SENDING CHAIN MAILS.

they must have put something in the oranges

Today was a crazy day... 1st, i had a lunch treat from my dear pal evelyn cos i was confirmed! we ate at sushi tei... yummy... love sushi tei...

we had Dragon Roll... it's fried prawn wrapped with rice and avocado.... oooh... simply fantastic... look at the picture... doesn't it look great???? slurp...

here's evelyn posing with the food... hehe...the other great thing was the steak sushi... can u see the pic? it's the other dish in the photo... the brown thing with the lettuce leaf. omg... another great dish... sushi rice with ebikko, topped with teriyaki beef slices, mushrooms and eggplant. mayo drizzled on top!...
the food is absolutely FAB!


yeah anyway, after lunch, my project team gave out oranges to my division (we do such boliao stuff huh... i'll explain more another time...) . but anyway, each person got 2... but as the distributor, i get more. so i brought all these oranges up and distributed them around. i wonder what these oranges were grown with... cos one of my colleagues just went crazy after eating them!

here he is... Sonny (pronounced sunny) together with evelyn. sonny's really nice. he's such great guy to work with.

Sonny, me, half of rachel and evelyn. Evelyn and sonny are actually from the same course in NUS! albeit 10 years apart, but still... they're senior and junior!

Sonny, Me, rach and eve. Sonny started spouting all sorts of nonsense about yi li liang li... haha... oh well... i can't explain it very well cos it's in chinese... but it's some chinese innuendos about balls and breasts... hahahahaha... we concluded that he must be deprived cos his wife is pregnant... =P ... hehe

all in all, it was a fun day.. not too much work... din get scolded too much... :)

beaded jewellery shop

i'm attempting to be an entrepreneur by selling some of the beaded stuff i made online! you see... i have been buying beads and i like making beaded stuff... so i should share my stuff with the world!

i wonder if anyone will buy anything... hey must help me publicise to your friends okie? there's only a few items up... cos i'm just starting out... so go check it out if u have some time and give me your comments. you can click on the icon below to see what i have on sale

waste of money

today is payday, and today i'm broke once again. bah. i went out for dinner with my department team members... and we spent over a thousand dollars! and we didn't go to any fancy hotel restaurant... we went to long beach in Marina bay. the lobsters cost $200 each! it worked out to about $75 per person.

what a stupid waste of money. i'm quite pissed.

i shouldn't have gone... i should have gone for cell group like a good girl... it wasn't even that fun. I didn't enjoy the company... it was seriously too large a group to interact properly. 16 people... i didn't even get to talk to the people on the other end...

too pissed to write much.

some pictures from before dinner (and before the bill came)...


Me, Evelyn and Rosalyn... Rosalyn's so sweet hor...



Iris and me... she's really nice and kind... helped me a lot especially when i was just starting out



Eve and me! we are best office pals! hehe... what would i do without her help!



me with iris, Sylvia and Shima. guess how old sylvia is? i bet you'll say she looks like she's in her late 20s or early 30s...
BUUUUUT she has already 2 kids! her daughter is about 12 already!!!! i hope i'll look as young as she is when i'm her age!

yeah... not very fun and too expensive dinner. oh man... i feel so kiam... but then it's really NOT WORTH IT!

NKF Drama

I don't believe in giving money to NKF... never did... now I can say... Told you so!!!!

heh... i'm too irritating to be true... but anyway it's ridiculous!

NKF CEO's $600,000 pay revealed in court

He's getting paid $600,000 annually to run a Non-Profit organisation. and he got 12 months bonus! WAH... his 1 month's salary is my 1 year's salary... ok... jealousy aside, you know why I don't believe in giving money to NKF? Cos they have so much money to spend on putting up shows and giving away lucky draw prizes that it becomes kind of meaningless. I think charity should come out of people wanting to give to a cause that they believe in. So, it should be that even without celebs putting up any fancy shows, and performing dangerous stunts, people will still donate money.

That said, I guess that there's nothing wrong with what NKF's doing to raise funds, after all most charitable organisations do put up performances of some sort to raise money. BUT, I do object to other non related organisations profiting from these performances! for example, singtel charges like $0.50 for every call you make. They freaking make tons of money from each NKF Show!!!! also, i don't see the need for lucky draw prizes. are they trying to get people to donate because they wanna win that prize car? that prize car could provide dialysis for a couple more people.

Disgusting...

First class travel, Gold taps in his office bathroom, 12 months bonus!!!!!

look where your donations are going to...

I pity the beneficiaries of the NKF Fund... i do hope that they will not be affected by this... but hey... just cut the pay of the CEO and a whole lot of kidney disease patients could benefit!

i want a new digital camera!

well... actually i am considering 2 of them... 1st one is my all time favourite brand... CANON!

this is the Canon Ixus 50, a.k.a Powershot SD400 as it is called in the USA, a.k.a one damn chio camera! the Ixus looks really classy... and canon just generally makes good cameras.

Pros:
-Good resolution
-Very nice color, bright without being overbearing
-Natural skin tones
-Good shutter response, especially when "prefocused"
-Incandescent and manual settings handle household incandescent lighting quite well.
-Excellent close-focusing for macro shots
-Accurate LCD viewfinder
-Very good low light capability, both exposure and focusing
-Excellent movie performance
-Compact, sleek case design

Cons:
-Slightly high contrast
-Slightly limited dynamic range on the highlight end
-Optical viewfinder is a quite tight
-High image noise at ISO 400
-Quite a bit of softness in the corners of images, particularly at wide angle
-No shutter/aperture info displayed, in either record or playback mode
-Images on the LCD seem a little soft


Now for the next contestant in the running...
Nikon Coolpix S1.



this one is one of those idiot proof cameras... just point and shoot. it's really nice and sleek... so chio rite... i like the fact that it is so flat, with no protuding things...

Pros:
-Attractive design, well-built
-Good accuracy from the LCD viewfinder
-LCD stays pretty visible under bright lighting (better than average in sunlight)
-Excellent macro performance, flash works surprisingly well up close.
-High contrast, slightly limited tonal range
-Very bright color (good if you like bright color)
-Slightly faster than average focusing
-Loads of helpful "assist" options for novices
-D-lighting feature helpful for shaded subjects
-Best Shot Selector works well for avoiding motion blur
-In-camera redeye reduction seems to work well
-LCD viewfinder actually works fairly well in low light
-Good VGA movie mode
-Underwater case available

Cons:
-Rather soft corners in its images (unfortunately rather common in subcompact digital cameras)
-Very bright color (a liability if you like more natural-looking color)
-Skin tones can be rather ruddy looking, overly pink
-Some image noise even at low ISO settings, but most users won't notice it
-While relatively "clean," high ISO images are rather soft
-Limited low-light capability
-Very short flash range (a common limitation of subcompact camera models)
-Shorter than average battery life, although not bad for a subcompact model
-Higher than average compression on images, even at highest quality
-Low light focusing requires camera and subject be totally still
-No exposure info shown on the LCD
-Only two aperture settings
-Red-eye reduction option significantly increases shot to shot time

both take photos with equally good quality... i feel... and both cost about the same price!!!!!!!

how am i gonna pick one... ahhhhhh... i guess i really need to go and take a look at them before i decide... but i like both... help me decide... vote for one or the other by leaving me a comment!!!!!!! thanks! :)

women's 5 deepest needs

that's what today's sermon was about. let's see...

1. women need affection (not so much sex, but affection)
2. women need conversation (we need to talk!)
3. women need openess and honesty (i started falling asleep after this point...)
4. women need financial security
5. i have no idea what the last point was... i was asleep at that point...

i'm so terrible huh... sleeping in church... but i was really really tired... sigh. maybe my excuse can be that i was in church since 8am cos i was helping out in the children's service...

oh anyway, the above 5 points should be understood in the context of marriage or a relationship. same for the 5 basic needs of men.

hmmm... think #1 is quite true for most women... like sex is just the output of affection... maybe this is changing these days... women have sex just like men do... which don't think i could do... affection... like cuddling, hugs, kisses, someone telling you, you're beautiful, you're hot, you're sexy... that's important.

conversation is important... i think when women like spending time with someone, they want to share their lives. but then i think... sometimes when i'm tired, i don't really wanna talk... just wanna do some anti-social thing... like watch tv... haha

hmm i didn't really listen for the rest... i was ahem... sleeping. but then point 4 says my wife needs my financial security. i think this is true... it's social conditioning that leads us women to want someone to take care of us... i don't deny that... but i do want someone to take care of me... financially at least. damn... i bet feminists all over the world are cursing me right now. hah. but i don't care... it would be great to be a tai tai and take care of the house and children and have a guy to take care of the finances. BUT... bah. in this day and age of equality, rising costs, and all that... this is not gonna be very feasible... soooo... oh well we'll just have to deal with it. as long as the guy is prudent with his expenditure... i guess it's better than nothing... haha

haha... my own exposition on the sermon...

this is an interesting series... i wonder who thought it up...

sleepy weekend

this is such a lazy weekend... i mean... i have things to do... but... i'm gonna stay in and sleep most of the time. well let's just put it down to getting cramps from you-know-what... sheesh. why must women suffer like this. stupid eve... it's all her fault. oh well. let's not be too condemning now... i guess in that situation, any woman would be tempted.

we had a great cell group discussion yesterday about men... and they're needs. kinda weird cell group discussion? well... it was actually the sermon topic! interesting huh... hard to find it applicable rite now but it sure is interesting. men's top 5 needs are...

1. sexual fulfillment (is it any surprise????)
2. companionship to do activities (that's why they like to play football with their buddies)
3. an attractive spouse (but then we all knew men were shallow already... haha)
4. an orderly home (yup. they need maids...not wives)
5. admiration (stroking of their egos...)

true you think? i guess it's quite true... this sunday, they're gonna be talking about women and their top 5 needs... apparently, women's needs are totally different from men's needs. i'll listen what they are and keep you posted.

shocked...

poor London... This must be such a traumatising time for London... 1st they got the olympic games... then, they wake up the next morning and there're explosions going off all over London.

I love London... it's really sad that this has happened. what about all those people who are injured... what about all those families who have lost loved ones??? BBC was quoting somebody and said these attacks were aimed not at prime ministers and leaders of countries, but aimed at normal ordinary working class Londonites. it's true! who else would be taking the subway early in the morning... it's all these Londonites who are on their way to normal jobs. I mean, the rich would probably be driving around... not taking the train or the bus...

it's sad sad sad...

wonder if something like that will happen in singapore... I wonder if singapore will be prepared... cos from BBC, the emergency personnel seem to be getting to work really smoothly, and there's no sign of panic in London... no hysterical people and all that. everything seems really normal. either they're cold-blooded or they've accepted it and gotten on with life. maybe it's just British culture.

anyway , aside from the bombings, I was supposed to go to the gym today with Rachel... but then she didn't feel like going and i was just tired. and aching. heh. so we didn't go... and i snacked alot today too! not boding well for my diet-weight loss plan... hahahaha. crap.

yup... tired... sleepy... niteyzzzzzz

planet fitness

my company has just signed us up for a corporate membership at Planet Fitness! which means that we can go to the gym FOR FREE!!! wahhhh... so nice rite? i'm so inspired to go and workout regularly now! i actually went today... went for body combat (fun fun fun... even tho i'm so uncoordinated... hah) and ran for 20 min after that... not too bad considering that i haven't exercised for like years... oh well maybe months... take it from me that it has been a LOOOOOOONG time. just look at me and i'm sure you can tell. *fat*

wah lao... to tell you the truth, i'm inspired by olinda cho... she's so freaking skinny now! it's absolutely disgusting. she lost like 15kg... so she's 57kg now... guess what... she's lighter than me even tho she's taller than me!!!! how disgusting. i calculated her BMI... it's only 19.something... and mine is at least 22. *fat*

ok let me get to my weight loss strategy. or well, attempted one at least... cos i'm not sure i can stick to this. right now, i'm 58kg *fat*... this month is July. i'm going to attempt to lose 6kg by the end of this year. which means 1kg a month every month. do you think i can do it? i wonder too.

here's my plan.

1. Exercise: go to the gym 3 times a week
2. Eat less: take meal replacement from herballife (my friend's taking this and she lost weight!)

you'll hear how the plan is going as it goes along.

i hope it works... and you'll see a skinnier prettier bettina at the end of it all!

26 Questions...

1. Do you know ur best friend's Friendster password?
- No... I think whoever gives out their passwords is STUPID... don't you know what people can do with it????? Paranoid cos I learnt about cybercrime in school and how people's identities can be stolen...

2. Do you think long distance relationships work
for u?
- No... oh well... maybe if it's "true love". Damn, I sound so cynical.

3. Are u an emotional person?
- Well... maybe... I think... I don't cry a lot but I like to do things based on feeling.

4. If u had one last breath to say something to someone u love what would u say?
- Be happy.

5. Do you believe in best friends?
- Not really. Friends have different categories, and some friends are good for certain things. But good friends are very very important.

6. Ever felt so jealous of your friend?
- Not yet... Why should I be? If she' really your friend, you should feel happy for the person instead.

7. What was the last thing you did?
- Open up friendster... that's how I got this silly thing in the 1st place... oh well... I am just bored.

8. Who is right next to you?
- Rachel

9. Who was the last person/people you ate out with?
- My colleagues: Evelyn, Rachel, Chue Tee, and Sonny. We had really good Lor mee for lunch.

10. How many times has your page been viewed
since?
- sigh... for my blog, abt 93 since 20th June 2005... which is when I started counting... so little...

11. How's the weather right now?
- Sunny but not too hot cos it rained this morning...

12. Last person you spoke to on the phone?
- Mummy!

13. Last person who called you?
- Rachel. She was looking for us to go for lunch... haha

14. Last song you sang?
- Jay Zhou's "Qing Tian".

15. Last time you danced?
- A month ago in HK... when we went clubbing... see... I'm not a chiongster. =P

16. Lost a friendship over something stupid?
- No... only over important things...

17. Smoked?
- No... well not cigarettes at least... does shisha/hookah count?

18. Dumped someone before?
- No one to dump. Sigh.

20. Faked being sick to miss school?
- Of course... who hasn't? I can even fake MCs... who wants to pay me to do that... haha... Just kidding...

21. What time did you wake up today:
- 7.25am... Arrrgggh... Late for worrrrkkkk!!!

22. Current taste
- Garlic from the lor mee I had for lunch. hahahahaha. is that wat the question means?

23. Do you like the person who sent you this?
- Not really... haha... not telling who it is though.

24. What are you wearing right now?
- Pretty, black lacey skirt from Hong Kong, black sleeveless top and jacket from GG>5 (I'm at work... shhhhh...)

25. Are you too shy to ask anyone out?
- I dunno... maybe if I liked the person I wouldn't dare... haha. But if we're just friends of cos not...

26. What is the first thing you notice about the opposite sex?
- Eh? 1st thing of course is whether he's cute or not lah... you know... tall, dark and handsome that kinda thing...

Michelle's birthday

Today, we celebrated Michelle's birthday! it was kinda sad and pathetic at 1st cos we went to so many places... got there around 2.30pm and realised that they all closed at like 3pm... crap. so in the end, we went to Goodwood Park, and had to wait for a table to eat high tea. yummyyyy....


oh yeah... boliao pictures of me on the way to church... haha... i think quite pretty today mah... so take some photos lah...


hehe this is shuying on the way out from church... doesn't she look like a little red mushroom? so cuuuuttte.... hehe... anyway, our darling cannot touch the sun.. she's our very own snow white.


arrgh... dunno what happened to our group pic before lunch... it disappeared! oh no... maybe i deleted it by mistake... but how could i have done it.... sigh... so sad...

here's michelle with her yummy durian birthday cake.... slurp... famous cake somemore...

the requisite blowing out the candles...

and cutting the cake....

now for the birthday Prayer...



here's all 4 of us... michelle, shuying, berinda and me! happy, and sated... hehe... make that extremely FULL... after that humongous buffet lunch and cake... haha...
we are really such greedy pigs... disgusting all of us... anyway... this buffet is at the coffe lounge. it's not that great... i think the best buffet at goodwood park is the japanese one... either the japanese bbq one or the japanese sushi one... those 2 are fantastic! :)

Secondary School Outing on 27th June

Met up with a couple of my secondary school mates for dinner... we met at Bugis and went to eat Ma La steamboat nearby. it was a buffet, which means that i ate too much... haha... crap... why can't eating and losing weight be both achievable.


this is me and Lynn at the steamboat place. isn't she sweeeeeet....

Yifang, Gail and Joanne. Gail has become so much prettier since the last time i saw her! she lost some weight... and is dressing up more! Yifang looks the same...

Me and Yifang and Gail. you realise how Fang's eyes are closed in every shot? haha.. can't be helped...

Me and XY. she's just plain nice and funny. we had good times together...

group pic! .... sec 4A
actually I don't really think secondary school is the best time in your life. i think JC is much more fun! i guess cos of the independence...

my photoshopping skills has improved... Lemme show you..
This is the before... pimples galore... xunchi has them too...



This is after photoshopping it... perfect skin for both of us... whoooooo.....

am i good or what??? wahahahaha...