beautiful contradictions

detox day 3

2007-12-29T23:54:00.001+08:00

well well... i'm rather enjoying this vegetarian diet... but at the same time i can't wait to get back to being unhealthy!!! you know what i crave the most... chicken wings... deep fried, bbq-ed... any way is good.

anyway this is what i ate today:
breakfast: soya bean milk without sugar, one orange
lunch: potato salad, some boiled vegetables and a very small slice of chocolate cake (i know i shouldn't have, but technically it is vegetarian... :P)
dinner: teppanyaki tofu, mixed vegetables and mushrooms, garlic brown rice

another 4 more days to go... :)

Detox Day 2

2007-12-29T00:56:00.000+08:00

yesterday was miserable. i was hungry the whole day! today however, it got better.

i found an organic/vegetarian restaurant down at boat quay called Genesis Vegetarian Health Food Restaurant, and had the healthiest rice set ever.

breakfast: 1 orange, 2 cups of organic peppermint tea
lunch: brown rice with sides of boiled spinach, cabbage and carrots, stir fried petai with tomato and onion, salad, soup
dinner: vegetarian lasagne, fresh orange & pinapple juice

as you can see, lunch was really filling. somehow still missing something cos i didn't have any meat, but i think i didn't do too badly today. :) i don't think the extreme fresh fruit and vegetable detox plan is gonna work out for me... not just yet.

but let's take it one step at a time... on to day three!!!!

detox day 1

2007-12-27T09:31:00.000+08:00

In view of my recent allergic breakout/rash, i have decided to do some form of detox. my detox plan is simple. for the next 7 days eat only fruit and vegetables, either fresh or lightly boiled in soup. no more sugar or alcohol or sauces, but organic teas and juice.

it's gonna be quite hard... i love food... and hate dieting. bah.

today is day 1...

boo

2007-12-25T21:20:00.001+08:00

my rash is BACK!

yay!

2007-12-25T21:15:00.001+08:00

my blog looks right again.

christmas was fun.

my friends are wonderful!

christmas service for superlife is OVER.

i got nice-meaningful presents from everyone.

i gave nice-meaningful presents to everyone.

i have the true meaning of christmas in my heart.

YAY!

Equations

2007-12-20T00:33:00.000+08:00

happy=happy
sad=sad
moody=moody
stressed=stressed
busy=independence
rest=busy
nothing=wondering
reassurance=uncertainty
life=acceptance

sometimes...

2007-12-15T01:07:00.000+08:00

i feel lost at work. what am i doing in banking? can someone tell me...

oh... yes... i remember now...

i'm doing it for the money.

hmmmph... so it shall be then.

bored

2007-12-01T13:38:00.000+08:00

What a boring Saturday afternoon... everyone is busy, or has already made appointments, or is out of town. siiiiiiggggggggggghhhhhhhh...

Memories of Japan

2007-11-17T17:27:00.001+08:00

Well, the trip to Japan was eventful... as all holidays are wont to be... lots of walking, temples, wonderful food, shopping, sleeping in, waking up early, spending time with a favourite someone, sharing a friend's life... and the list goes on.

We didn't get to see Mount Fuji at all... :(

My favourite picture from the 2000+ photos we have...
The happiest day in one of the 5 "Happiest Places in the World" - Disneyland! This photo captures perfectly our mood that day... silly and happy!

Rest of the photos are here...
Japan1
Japan2

I wanna go back to Japan again... next time to hokkaido and during sakura season! :)

wheeeee...

2007-10-19T10:23:00.000+08:00

I've found a way to post to blogspot from work! :P Mozilla Firefox is a fantastic software... i can't view old bloglines now, and bloglines beta doesn't work on Internet Explorer, but... it does on Firefox! and i can login to blogger via Firefox as well!

I'm scared... I'm going for a 10km run on Sunday. AND I still haven't managed to complete 10km yet. the most I've run is 8km in approximately 1 hr, and I was SO TIRED after that... :( how how how? Imagine me... un-athletic me, unfit me, lazy me, me who'd rather eat than diet, yes... that me... running? siiiiiiiiiiigggggggggghhhhhhhhh. why oh why... what possessed me to sign up for the race... and as if that's not enough, I'm running in the Standard Chartered 10km run too. that's in December. you know what they call people like me? CRAZY.

Haha...

meme - tagged by roo

2007-10-18T21:27:00.000+08:00

i haven't blogged in... forever. but just cos roo tagged me...

4 Jobs I have had in my life :

Barrista (Santa Cruz Boardwalk)
some crappy (but well paying) Citibank project calling up people and getting them to sign some form
Basel 2 analyst in OCBC
Basel 2 analyst in SCB

4 Places I have lived :

I only have lived in 3.... :(

Geylang East, Singapore
Serangoon Gardens, Singapore
Santa Cruz, California

4 Countries I have been to on vacation :

Thailand
Australia
China
USA

4 of my Favourite Foods :

Foie Gras
Macaron's Raspberry Granite
Grilled Cod
Steak - Medium Rare

4 Places I would rather be right now :

Japan visiting Shuying!
San Francisco
Maldives enjoying the beautiful beach
Eating dessert at Macaron

4 tags

Momo
Hamu
Hazelnut
aki-hime (jan jan)

long time no see!

2007-08-18T16:54:00.000+08:00

oh... i didn't realise how long it has been since i last posted. my last post was... one month ago.

heh heh... oh well...

some funny photos - the new improved minnie mouse

#1 Minnie-Joseph-Mouse
she's angry! look at her snarl...

#2 Minnie-Marv-MouseDon't you just wanna pinch her cheeks?

* Specimens are not for display only. Not for sale.

Seriously...

2007-07-19T09:52:00.001+08:00

My company blocks EVERYTHING!!!! Pictures, personal sites (i.e.
blogs)...

AND I think most of the sites blocked were because I was accessing
them... hahahaha... :P

So anyway... no more online shopping... no more reading blogs...

The good thing (I guess) is that they haven't blocked bloglines YET, so
I can still read SOME blogs.

GRRRRRRRR slave drivers they are...

it didn't work...

2007-07-09T23:05:00.000+08:00

well i guess blogging from work is not such a good idea after all... at the very least, i shouldn't be so adventurous and add in pics and stuff. :P

oh well... maybe i'll try again tomorrow. :)

got some celebratory dinner thingy to attend... for my dept, for our contribution to the BASEL project, and i have to go even tho I just joined. Rain says it's prob gonna be boring. oh well... free dinner at least, i guess, though... i can think so many other better things to do with my evening than having to sit and make small talk with a bunch of people i dunno very well.

siiiiiigggggghhhh

Blogging from work

2007-07-09T23:00:00.000+08:00

Yeah as you might be able to tell… I’m BORED!!!!!!!!!!!!

I cannot post to blogspot from work. Sigh… how frustrating. But somehow, they manage to block blogger’s login box from my office! It’s amazing what they can do. Really.

So anyway… I’m just trying this out ok… so if it looks funny… I’ll take it down when I get home.

I don’t have that much work to do today… which is good! But I think next week will be crazy-busy… sigh.

Anywaaaay… here’s a photo of my beloved miao miao. She actually looks pretty here! All thanks to Joseph’s wonderful photographic skills (and some minor picture editing with Picasa).

You know what, I’ve been shopping… WAY TOO MUCH!!!!! All the sales have been terrible on my pocket. And now, I’ve discovered the joy of online shopping as well. There are these wonderful things called sprees, where you can join a group of strangers who all wanna buy something from a certain site, and share the shipping costs among the group. All it takes is someone to organize these, and there are tons. Of course, you run the risk of the stuff coming in damaged, or the organizer running away with your money. But it’s oh-so-addictive, and so easy to do from your work desk! :P

Here are the 2 sites I cannot help but click on every day just to see what’s new.

online shopping in singapore - _spreee

and

online shopping in singapore - sgspree

Girls, click on these at your own risk only. :P

P.S. I will not be responsible for any losses (monetary or otherwise) anyone experiences from clicking on these links.

One saturday evening

2007-07-01T21:36:00.001+08:00

The story of my life...

I stepped in a HUGE ass pile of red clay in Punggol. Don't ask me why I didn't see it, or how i managed to step right into it, or even what i was doing in Punggol in the 1st place...

suffice to say, it was fun, even though it was too hot, the grass was too scratchy, but spending the evening with my favourite person in the world was enough.

:)

lalalalala

2007-06-24T18:05:00.000+08:00

so... i've decided to remove the privacy settings from my blog... because... somehow having to login to view my blog mean that i cannot view my own blog from work!!!! so irritating...

bleargh...

mood: slightly depressed

2007-06-21T23:14:00.000+08:00

felt almost like crying when i was listening to this song in the office. fortunately i didn't actually cry. that would have been embarassing.

maybe i finally listened to the words instead of just to the tune, maybe the lyrics finally made sense, maybe... growing up makes the sadness all the more real.

白色的风车安静的转着
真实的感觉梦境般遥远
甜甜的海水复杂的眼泪
看你傻笑着握住我的手

梦希望没有尽头我们走到这就好
因为我不想太快走完这幸福
很可惜没有祝福当爱你并不孤独
不会再让你哭

我背你走到最后能不能不要回头
你紧紧地抱住我说你不需要承诺
你说我若一个人会比较自由
我不懂你说什么反正不会松手

我背你走到最后能不能别想太多
会不会手牵着手晚一点再到尽头
你说不该再相见只为了瞬间
谢谢你让我听见因为我在等待永远

i miss ocbc...

2007-06-11T21:52:00.000+08:00

well... at least the people there.

SCB is quite different in terms of working culture, and the racial ratio in my department is like 6 Indians to 1 Chinese. And i'm the youngest female on the whole floor probably...

I wonder how long i can last there... but i guess it's a new experience, a new adventure, a test of my adaptability.

the pantry is sweet tho... there's a fancy coffee maker, and a fridge full of canned drinks.

I still don't have my own seat! boooo... i'm currently squatting at this lady's seat - she's on MC for 2 weeks at least. i can't wait to get my own table!!! one where i can decorate with all my photos and junk.

Bettina's sunrise at Changi beach...

while the real photographer snaps away with his SLR ( with multiple fancy lenses)... bettina pulls out her trusty (pink) panasonic "baby" camera, and captures her view. the sun rising from behind the clouds, without fail, every day. A reminder that God never changes, He is the same, yesterday, today, forever. And His promises never fail.

i love handing over...

2007-05-30T18:17:00.000+08:00

... work!

haha

4 more working days at OCBC... I can't wait to get rid of all my work!!!!!

of course i'm gonna miss my colleagues - especially my dear neighbour of 2 years ;)

but i'm not gonna miss the work!

haha not like i'm really looking forward to my new work at SCB either... it's quite scary! the boss expects me to deliver almost immediately! i'm gonna have to work... HARD! sigh.

got a 700+ page reading to do... *yawn* haven't started it yet...

God help me...

One small step across the road, A GIANT step towards Chanel

2007-05-17T22:12:00.000+08:00

This is notification to all my darlings:

I am changing jobs! i've just signed at Standard Chartered.gonna tender my resignation tomorrow.

it's a 1 year contract position, but before you ask why i'm willing to give up a permanent job for a contract job, let me just say that the pay is just too GOOD to pass up!!!!!!!!!!!!

:)

will probably start at SCB in about a month, earlier maybe if i can use my leave to offset my notice period at OCBC. will tell u all more when i see you...

:)

a magical wedding

2007-05-15T23:27:00.000+08:00

SO... what do weddings and magic have in common?

actually... NOTHING that i can think of really! (unless you count like a magical-fairytale-like-wedding. but the wedding i attended over the past weekend had a performing magician. really... it's the 1st time in my entire (rather short) life that i've ever attended a wedding with a magic show performance. well apparently the magician is the bride's mother's friend. so that's why he was invited to perform.

i felt a little sorry for the groom (my friend)... he's such a sweet boy, but i don't like his fiancee. :P anywayyyyy... the wedding was kinda impersonal, no slideshow with baby pictures, just one with the wedding pics. well it was expected i guess... considering they planned the entire wedding in one month!

oh... and guess WHY they had to get married in one month???? (yeah you can guess lah... i'm sure i don't have to spell it out, this post is bitchy enough already as it is)

Pictures! Me and XH in the toilet... photowhoring :P

XH, Eve, SH, Me :)

Do right woman, do right man

2007-05-08T09:30:00.000+08:00

Take me to heart
And I'll always love you
And nobody can make me do wrong
Take me for granted
Leaving love unshown
Makes will power weak
And temptation strong

A woman's only human
You should understand
She's not just a plaything
She's flesh and blood
Just like her man
If you want a do right
All days woman
You've gotta be a do right
All night man

Yeah, yeah
They say that it's a man's world
But you can't prove that by me
And as long as we're together baby
Show some respect for me
If you want a do right
All days woman
You've gotta be a do right
All night man

2 babies

2007-05-07T23:03:00.000+08:00

One human...

one kitten.

both oh-so-cute!

i wanna bring them both home...

tee hee hee...

karaoke at St James (and other random things)

2007-05-06T01:49:00.000+08:00

it's a rather nice place to hang out. the rooms are fabulous... wonderful sound system... cordless mikes... too cold though...

the company was a bit weird... it was a "team" thing... my team lead from work suggested that we all go for karaoke to destress a bit. so we had 2 aunties, 1 non-chinese, 1 strange-motonous-voiced-tone-deaf-guy (NOT FROM MY TEAM!!!), and the rest of us more "normal" people.

it was rather fun, but i had more fun at eve's birthday karaoke session.

i never knew how bad the words of "my humps" sounded until the non-chinese guy and i sang it out loud yesterday. :P - that was quite funny i have to say...

today was such a self indulgent saturday... waking up laaaate, having lunch, eating ice cream out of the tub, watching Extras (this hilarious BBC TV show) and Swing Girls while lazing on the couch, then going down to town for dinner and movie with the girls.

i really love my girlfriends... i enjoy just hanging out with them. and we haven't done the "girlfriend" thing in a while too... so spidey 3 was fun, just cos i watched it with them!

i'm so random today... too many thoughts competing to be shared...

i think i should sleep... good night world...

expectations revisited

2007-04-28T02:21:00.000+08:00

you know what's really bad about expectations... is that expectations when raised, and then dashed can really hurt.

but pain is merely a state of mind.

life without feeling. is it really that bad after all? i hope i never get to find out...

As of today

2007-04-20T17:30:00.000+08:00

As of today, I have had worked 7 continuous days in a row.

But, JOY!!! The weekend is finally here!!!!!

As of today (actually just today), I have bought 3 dresses, 2 pairs of shoes and some satin hairbands.

bad Bettina.

As of today, I am a girlfriend for 1 week and 2 days.

... blissful happy sigh...

extreme boredom

2007-04-11T15:59:00.000+08:00

ummm... yeah the title says it all. i'm so so so so so so bored. basically because i haven't really have much work to do for the last few days. and there is a limit to the number of blogs one can read a day (why don't people update their blogs more often!!!) and the number of people one can stalk on friendster... but well, don't look so envious now, i have to work this saturday AND sunday. sigh... the horror of it all. i really do hope sunday will just be a half day.

One good thing though, i'm on leave tomorrow. :) all because my bro, yes little nathaniel, is going to NS!!!!!! heh... i dunno if i should worry about him. he's the baby of the family... the one i buy clothes for, the one who still *sometimes* calls me jie jie, the one who got angry with me when i pushed him off the sofa and chipped his tooth... but that's another story for another day... haha. anyway, this little brother of mine, cute as he is, is not exactly what i imagine a soldier to be. definitely not like a spartan in 300... more like Saigo - ninomiya's character in Letters from Iwo Jima. hahaha... don't tell him i said that... :P He doesn't even kill cockroaches for me at home...

Oh well, maybe NS will be good for him. maybe it'll help him become a man. i hope he stays good though... they learn too many bad things in army... heh... it's weird thinking about my baby brother swearing fluently in hokkien, or... urgh... never mind... don't wanna imagine. but he has to go though this himself. we can't baby him forever, even though i kinda want to. :P

So here's a prayer for Nat:

Dear God,

I pray that you'll keep Nathaniel safe from all harm as he goes through training in NS. Grant him divine favour with his commanding officers, and help him keep a positive attitude in everything he does. Keep him safe from temptation, keep his mind pure, and his heart safe for You, no matter what situation he finds himself in. I pray that he'll learn to turn to you 1st no matter what. Bless him with good christian friends in NS who will encourage and uplift him. Help him to be a witness, a candle in the darkness that is the army.

I thank You for bringing him thus far, and I know that You will continue to watch over him.

In Jesus' Name,
Amen

A lazy Saturday, a tiring Friday and an interesting Thursday

2007-04-07T19:30:00.000+08:00

this saturday was the most restful one i've had in the last month or so...

the weather was lovely... blue skies, white fluffy clouds and a bright-just-right-for-tanning-sun.

well i didn't exactly sleep in, but i did manage to sneak in an afternoon nap. (the joy!!!)

In the morning, i went wakeboarding with jaime and jas. my 3rd time, i think i can stand quite stable-ly now... even though i forgot how to get up properly the 1st 3 times... i can ride with one hand! yay!!! that's a major accomplishment for psycho-motor-challenged/balance-impaired/clumsy me.

look... proof!!!! :)

anyway, so on Good Friday, eve came to my church for service. a picture of us on the roof terrace. we really do have a million dollar view. :P

Thanks for coming dearie, and i hope this will not be the one and only visit. you must come again!

After church, went down to town for a bit of shopping and watched freedom writers... it's such a touching show. i really admire Erin Gruwell for her passion and her dedication towards her students. she believed in them when no one else did, and really made a difference to those kids' lives.

Since i am going backwards in time, i reach thursday, of which its main activity was something i'd never done before in my life - visit the Night Safari. Murphy seemed to be working extra hard that evening... but it made for an experience i will probably never ever forget. to the one who planned it, thank you, i enjoyed myself. :)

Finally let's backtrack 2 weeks to the day before momo left. From our dinner at Jumbo, a photo of momo (with coco the bear), who is shopping up a storm in tokyo. ;) don't they look adorable...

Expectations

2007-04-06T22:33:00.000+08:00

Expectations are the shits.

It would be nice if I didn't have any expectations of anything/anyone. I'd never be disappointed, cos if something good happened, it would be a pleasant surprise, and if nothing good happened, it would be... well... just life as usual.

Seems like a pessimistic way of looking at life? I guess so... but it saves a person from the emotional trauma one faces when disappointments occur.

to keep on my rose tinted glasses, i risk my emotional wellbeing. to throw them away, would be to not live at all.

Happy-ness

2007-04-05T16:18:00.000+08:00

it's terrible how my mood swings from one post to another. :P

i've got nothing to complain about this week. every single day, i am able to find something that makes me happy. and it's a blissfully-sappy kinda happy too. siiiigh. (and that was a happy dreamy sigh)

catharsis

2007-04-02T09:42:00.000+08:00

Pronunciation: k&-'thär-s&s
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural ca·thar·ses /-"sEz/
Etymology: New Latin, from Greek katharsis, from kathairein to cleanse, purge, from katharos
1 : PURGATION
2 a : purification or purgation of the emotions (as pity and fear) primarily through art b : a purification or purgation that brings about spiritual renewal or release from tension
3 : elimination of a complex by bringing it to consciousness and affording it expression

This weekend necessitated some form of carthartic release. it was a crazy weekend. my life is usually kinda boring, and relatively peaceful, but the emotional ups and downs of the weekend have been... tiring to say the least.

in brief, lack of sleep; being forced into going for a deparment event; denial; painful sadness; intense tiredness; losing; being told that i've got an inferiority complex; upset-ness; being told that not just one person thinks that way; depression; family disagreements; overwhelming emo-ness, culminated in my newest ear piercing.

haha... so i'm not that much of a bad girl... getting another hole in my ear is probably as wild as i can get.

I Wish You Love <3

2007-03-29T15:54:00.001+08:00

I wish you bluebirds in the spring
To give your heart a song to sing
And then a kiss
But more than this
I wish you love

And in July a lemonade
To cool you in some leafy glade
I wish you health
But more than wealth
I wish you love

My breaking heart and I agree
That you and I could never be
So with my best
My very best
I set you free

I wish you shelter from the storm
A cozy fire to keep you warm
But most of all
When snowflakes fall
I wish you love
But most of all
When snowflakes fall
I wish you love

Ikea, Superlife, and Work (or the lack of)

2007-03-29T09:59:00.000+08:00

i love walking around Ikea. it's amazing how much crap i wanna buy just walking around Ikea. and the best part, i never go to Ikea just walking out with that 1 item that i went there to buy. i always end up buying rubbish-y stuff that i think will make my life better.

like for example, i got these hanging things to replace the one i previously had, which was now really old and dusty...

And to Komplement it, i also got these drawer thingies that fit into each slot. so useful to keep all my stuff.

I also got these nice white boxes to throw my cds in, instead of leaving them all over the place. i'm on my way to getting my life organised! haha...

Oh anyway, this super cute boy is Yihui's baby brother... he's 7, and in superlife! and... he likes me! haha... he came up to sit beside me during service last sunday. and asked me how to find the memory verse in the bible. so cuuuuute...

hehe i love my superlife kids. and especially last sunday. they were mischevious and rowdy, but they also worshipped really enthusiastically. their singing brought a smile to my face and tears to my eyes. this was the song they were singing:

I WANT TO KNOW YOU LORD
YOU ARE A GREAT BIG GOD
I'M YOUNG AND DO NOT KNOW A LOT
COME AND BE MY ALL

I WANT TO LOVE YOU MORE
GIVING YOU MY LIFE AND ALL
YOU DIED FOR ME YOU'VE SACRIFICED
I WON'T FORGET YOU LORD

I LOVE YOU JESUS
I'LL GROW UP KNOWING YOU
I LOVE YOU JESUS
I'LL GROW UP SERVING YOU
I LOVE YOU JESUS
MY LIFE IS SAVED BY YOU
I'LL NEVER FORGET
NEVER FORGET
I'LL GROW UP LOVING YOU

EDIT:

siiiiggghhh... i really pray that every single one of them will remember this song forever, even when they grow up.

you know i'm really free at work when i can blog during working hours. hahahaha... anyway this week has been really easy. not busy, nothing much to do, i finish my work too fast every day, and can even help other colleagues do their work. haha. but don't tell my boss that. i'm sure i'll get busy again soon. i better enjoy this lull while i can.

i have to go for some stupid department event this saturday - an island wide photohunt. 9-freaking-AM. sigh on the 1st weekend i have relatively free, i STILL have to wake up early. bah. the boss actually called me down to ask why no one on my floor was going for the event. I had to make the supreme sacrifice for my team, and said "Yes, i'm going for the event." We're split up into teams of 4, and guess whose team i'm in? yes. that's right. the boss's (grammatical error?) team. i'm gonna have so much fun this saturday morning. yup. i can so tell already.

See you soon, my friend

2007-03-23T10:17:00.000+08:00

be warned. this is a super emo post.

i'm not saying goodbye, nor am i saying farewell.

the words i will say are "talk to you later", and "see you again soon".

even though you're gonna be far away from singapore, and i won't have your company for 6 months, we've got email, msn, telephone.

i will surely miss you. so much.

take care of yourself, i'm only a phone call away if you need me.

be happy!

love you...

the weekend!

2007-03-19T11:46:00.000+08:00

it feels like many days have passed since Chinese New Year, when actually it was just one month ago that i was gorging on pineapple tarts and bak kwa. so many things seem to have happened since then. i keep thinking that it's been at least 2 mths since CNY. don't laugh, but the only reason why this thought popped into my mind is because... my curly hair is now -almost- straight!!! i permed my hair on 5th Feb, which means my hair stayed curled for at most1 1/2 months...

So yes... back to the topic, Momo brought me and joe as guests to the Chanel Fashion Show on Friday.

i have to say... attending a *real* fashion show is an experience. beautiful (expensive) clothes, beautiful (skinny) models, beautiful (famous/rich) people. yeah that kinda sums up the show.

Isn't this girl pretty? some of the models were too thin though. and because the chanel shoe collection was made up of really chunky platform plastic shoes, those really skinny models walked soooo weirdly. 2 or 3 looked like they were gonna fall over with every step they took. oh maaaan, attending a fashion show makes you such a bitch. haha... i've never been this bitchy... seriously. the whole time we were waiting for the show to start we were just like... "OMG look at that lady, she's wearing gold pants", "why is that person wearing a yellow wig?", "oh the guy in the gold tie is cute", "kit chan probably had botox done". famous sightings... Zoey Tay - she's SO PRETTY!!!, Kit Chan, David Gan, one of the Melwani sisters, and some model that i've seen in the newpapers before.

yeah that's us trying for a model-esque look. :P

Saturday, attended Rachael Yamagata's concert at the esplanade. her songs are really emo... reminds me of a pity party. the kind of songs i like to listen to when i get depressed.

Sunday! Sunday was just how all the other Sundays have been for the past few months. Church. Friends. the perfect way to spend any Sunday. but the only difference, we actually travelled halfway across singapore (to HV) for lunch and to play Cranium at Joe's house.

1st, lunch at Da Paolo Pizza Bar...

green was the colour of the day!

The only sad thing about this weekend was the thought that this is the last weekend for the next 6 mths that momo will spend with us.

sigh... much as i tell her that i won't cry at the airport and that we'll find a replacement to fill up her "spot" in the girlfriends club... i know, you know, momo- you better know, that it's not gonna happen that way. sheesh... i'm tearing up just thinking about it. there's more i could say, but i'm at work. it's not too professional for me to start crying in front of my computer... my colleagues already think i'm mad for laughing so hard at marvin's "English Metaphors" email this morning. they're gonna think i've got multiple personalities. :P

why i haven't blogged

2007-03-16T09:21:00.001+08:00

well you all know i've always been lazy... :P but fear not, my memories still have been captured, because the people that i spent most of my days with for the past 2 weeks have been blogging faithfully. much more eloquently and poetically than i ever could, i should add, with pictures and all. hehe... can u see my laziness oozing out with every word i say?

my brief version of the past 2 weeks...

1 Mar 07

Stupid Girl and Idiotic Guy irritate me

3 Mar 07

Consultant-Rain throws a party, and we turn his house into a gambling den...

of course, the "good" girl that i am, i didn't gamble... one guy lost ALL his money, and even had to borrow money from another guy. think he lost a more than $150. really watching him gamble is scary. they were playing "in between"- a game of greed, guts and glory. he's got too much greed, and guts, and totally no glory. he bets recklessly. if i was his girlfriend, i would never marry him. i'd be worried for my future, and whether he'll one day gamble the house away.

4 Mar 07

Pammie's 21st birthday party... pammie wammie's all grown up now, into this beautiful young lady... siiiigh... time passes so quickly.

9 Mar 07

took leave, and went with shuying to make glasses, then went to her house to help transfer programs to her new laptop, then clubbing at St James Powerstation. Movida was... interesting... they play Banghra music... but with sufficient alcohol, that could be overlooked. overall, FUN!

10 Mar 07

PS cafe for "brunch" at 2pm. hehe... PS cafe is the perfect place to while away a lazy saturday afternoon. i love the scrambled eggs. i've never had such wonderful scrambled eggs. moist, fluffy, buttery... i totally love them.

Michelle's house for an 8 course degustation dinner lovingly prepared by Chef Ng. really really good food!
and of course the requisite game of Taboo that the girls always play whenever we gather at somebody's house. the singaporean version is so much harder than the ang-moh version... and some really weird words too.

10 Mar 07

2 movies, 300 and dreamgirls. 300 is wonderful- bloody without being gory, heroic without being cheesy, entertaining without being corny. i've never seen so many buff men in one movie before. and i've never felt so bloodthirsty in a movie before. kill kill kill!!!!!! it's so stylised... like watching the comic come to life on a movie screen.

dreamgirls was fluffy. just the way a musical movie should be. the singing was fabulous. a little anti-climatic after the intensity of 300, but rather good overall.

it was an eventful but extremely tiring weekend. and i learnt one new thing about myself: drinking a double tall low fat vanilla caramel macchiato will keep me awake for 12 hrs. don't ask how i know... siiiigh...

Anyway, one thing i can blog about... you know, much as i hate working, and i always say, "work is just work", i also have to say it's nice to know that what i've been spending most of my days on is appreciated and my time has not gone to waste. i just got my appraisal, and seeing the grades, and reading the comments written by my team head, it gives me the assurance that the freaking-long-hours i put in during UAT, the weekends/public holidays spent in office, the "scoldings" from the consultants are... well... at least a little... worth it.

and following the appraisal, it was time to collect what the bank owed me for 2 whole years. i've seen ppl collect bonus letters twice already, over 2 years, and i didn't qualify for either one. finally, it's my turn. well the bonus wasn't fantastic, but i thought the increment was pretty good. And there's other options and opportunities to explore too. :)

the highlights of the coming weekend:

Friday night: Chanel Fashion Show and Party
Saturday: Rachael Yamagata Concert
Sunday: Board games at someone's house(?)

yay! maybe i'll put up pictures after this weekend... :)

it never rains but pours...

2007-03-13T18:51:00.000+08:00

... and so pouring it is. from my window on the 40th floor, i can barely see the ground.

so, i am, here in my office. the thunder is roaring, the sky is dark. so dark. waiting for a laspe in the rain.

siiiiigh....

tiredness is...

2007-03-12T14:57:00.000+08:00

... sleeping 5hrs on Friday, then sleeping 4 hrs on Saturday, THEN, drinking a doubleshot tall latte at 5pm on Sunday and not being able to fall asleep until 5am on Monday morning.

guys are stupid

2007-03-02T14:52:00.000+08:00

Pompous, Know-it-All, Insensitive, Low-EQ guys PISS ME OFF!!!!!

.
.
.
.
.
.

Idiots, all of them.

and that's all i have to say.

Save the Cheerleader, Save the WORLD!

2007-02-28T23:19:00.000+08:00

heroes has disappeared from youtube... :(

sob...

bettina is in mourning.

skinny is beautiful

2007-02-27T22:45:00.000+08:00

and i hate it.

i'm beginning to get tired of getting comments like "wah you lost SO much weight", "you look so good after you lost weight", i think the "best" comment so far must have been "bettina, you look like you lost a ton!"... blah blah blah... but that's not really the point here.

most of the time, i don't really know how to respond to statements like these. seriously, what do they want me to say? ok. maybe for the "you look good" kind of statements, i would say "thank you" because it is a compliment after all. but then how is "you lost weight" a compliment? it's not. it's just a statement of fact. and in effect, it could go both ways. if u tell an anorexic that she lost weight, it actually has a negative connotation.

why does beautiful have to be skinny? why does the world think so? why does the media perpetuate this thinking? why do I believe it too?

i won't deny that i set out to lose weight, or that i'm happy to have lost weight - i mean i think i look better in clothes now (even this statement contains so many sociological implications), but... i'm still disgusted with how much i have absorbed the superficiality of this world.

can a person really not be fat and still beautiful?

but having said all that... i still wanna lose another 3 kg.

hahahahaha...

i am such a superficial creature.

oh yeah, btw, this rant is not directed at anyone reading my blog. this outpouring of thoughts is a result of a comment from a colleague i bumped into after work yesterday.

If you would just stay in your box, I would be okay...

2007-02-23T23:58:00.000+08:00

I would like to extend some thoughts about momo's post on her blog "Hmmm... why?".

been thinking abt all this, and you know some of us (me included) always compartmentalize the people around us into convenient boxes, and keep all the stuff we know about them in nice compact mental files. i am aware that this gives us some assurance and measure of stability. we "know" what the other person is like, what they will say, and how they will react in different situations. as long as the person stays in their box.

now you would be safe if the people around us would stay in those little boxes that you've built for them. but the thing is, people change, relationships change... and they move out of their allocated boxes. after they move out of their boxes, suddenly, you have to figure them out again. in their boxes, they lose the ability to hurt us, because whatever they do, you can just say "but then he/she's always like that". but once out of their boxes, that is when we will not be able to use that excuse. suddenly every action gets magnified and every word becomes personal. but yet, because they don't have a box, you cannot get angry/upset, the rules are not there...

sigh...

dreamgirls

2007-02-22T00:24:00.000+08:00

the movie that we didn't watch because yours truly booked tickets at the wrong cinema. (i'm really sorry, momo, grashopper and roo)

i've learnt my lesson now, one should NEVER for any reason watch Heroes, open 2 cathay booking windows at the same time, and then try to book the tickets on one of the windows after deciding that we should watch at the cathay instead of cineleisure. something is bound to go wrong.

however because of my mistake, we watched the cheesiest movie of all time instead - Ghostrider. it was so corny to the extent that it was really funny. it had the cheesiest and most predictable storyline and dialogue.

yeah... that was the only bright side of the whole situation (that was my fault- totally). it was a good laugh. :D

歌曲：暧昧

2007-02-20T02:53:00.000+08:00

暧昧让人受尽委屈
找不到相爱的证据
何时该前进何时该放弃
连拥抱都没有勇气

只能陪你到这里
毕竟有些事不可以
超过了友情还不到爱情
远方就要下雨的风景

到底该不该哭泣
想太多是我还想你
我很不服气
也开始怀疑
眼前的人是不是同一个真实的你

暧昧让人受尽委屈
找不到相爱的证据
何时该前进何时该放弃
连拥抱都没有勇气

暧昧让人变得贪心
直到等待失去意义
无奈我和你写不出结局
放遗憾的美丽

停在這裡

Heroes and Chinese New Year

2007-02-19T02:17:00.000+08:00

Just started watching Heroes yesterday after hearing SO MUCH about how good it is. and YES it is AWESOME!!!! i don't usually get so hooked onTV, but this show just keeps me wanting to know what's happening next. Everyone should watch it.

i like the flying guy - cos it's always been my dream, to fly!!! but in my dream i have wings. more like the X-men guy (in X-men III) with white feathery wings. i also like the funny japanese guy who can time/space travel! and his name- Hiro. haha... the writers are quite amusing. i'm only at episode 2... i can't wait to find out what happens. tomorrow i can prob squeeze in 2 episodes. hahaha...

I love CNY. food, food and more food. siiiiiiigh.... oh of course meeting the relatives are fun too. :P

As time goes by, and everyone gets older, people change, old ones pass on, and new ones are born. i am reminded of the the cycle of life. one of my aunts commented today in chinese "ren shen jiu shi shen, lao, bing, si". loosely translated as "All there is to Life is Birth, Growing older, Sickness and Death". which is so true. everyone no matter who you are, will eventually go through these 4 "stages" of life. life on earth is so transient, which makes it all the more important what i do to ensure that i have prepared myself for my eternal destiny. and living out my purpose on this earth to the fullest.

my dear extended family: the young, the growing older and the old...

singles of the world unite

2007-02-13T23:56:00.000+08:00

the one day in the entire year, where couples reign supreme, guys spend big bucks, and the girls whom those same guys spend all that money on, walk around smugly with big bouquets/rings/stuffed toys/whatever.

the one day in the year where those who do not have someone they call their other half, hibernate at home and wish that the night would pass quicker.

the one day where i wish i was like one of those couples - in love.

Valentine's Day.

siiiiiiiigh.

I can't sleep!

2007-02-11T09:07:00.000+08:00

... it's kinda depressing. A nice Sunday morning, and i'm wide awake at 8.30am in the morning.

So anyway, updates on my life so far,

Diving at Similans and Koh Bon was awesome! The best sightings of the entire trip were of the Manta Rays at Koh Bon.

They're really wonderful, HUGE, majestic, and they come so close to us! When i go diving , it's like I'm in a really fascinating world. It's really pretty and colourful, with so many different things to see! And the best part, you don't get hot and sticky and sweaty underwater.

This is the boat we lived on. It's quite okay. Better than I expected. Rooms and toilets were small, but clean. And it didn't matter anyway, we spent most of our waking hours on the deck. It was totally relaxing. Wake up, dive, eat, dive, eat, nap, dive, nap, dive, eat, sleeeeeep. What a wonderful life. Next time, when I'm rich, I wanna own a yacht. siiiiiigh... dreams.

Anyway back to reality, 2 belated birthday celebrations the past 2 weekends...

Happy Birthday Kokoro... (apologies for the fuzzy pic. children are so hard to photograph... sigh)

Happy Birthday Joseph... you are such a lucky man... :P

oh yeah, btw, i permed my hair! nice nice? :) Took like 4 hours sitting at the salon. I was so tired after it was done. but it's a change lah. was getting really really bored with straight hair.

and now, it's 10am i'm gonna be late for church. darn.

sick sick, everyone's sick

2007-01-12T13:04:00.000+08:00

that would include me, my boss, 1 guy sitting beside me, another guy sitting on the 17th, and random other people.

that's why i'm home today, bored out of my wits. can't fall asleep, nothing to do. it's pouring outside, which should have been perfect weather to sleep in. but alas, i have daytime insomnia. bah.

oh blood diamond is a really good show, for those who are interested... leonardo was awesome. and its really quite emotional and touching too. well... the american/capitalist/hollywood thing about it was... the message at the end of the show wasn't "STOP BUYING DIAMONDS". it was "stop buying CONFLICT diamonds"... hahaha... after all, the diamond industry brings so much money to america.

wonderful, my roof has a leak. how do i know? a drop of water just fell on me. and being the weak helpless woman i am, i don't know what to do about it. that's what men are for. let my dad fix it. :P i'll report the issue to him tonight.

maybe i'll go lie down now and try to sleep. siiiiiigh....

another party

2007-01-10T18:48:00.001+08:00

so there was another party on Friday. it was okay... not all that fun... mainly cos of the company. siiiigh. not that the people who were there were not nice people, but the usual people i go out with, all couldn't make it for some reason or other :(

oh well. the party was for a colleague's bday. so it's one of those gotta go thingys... a brief summary of the party:
1. i did not get drunk
2. the birthday boy bit me (and juls and theresa)
3. the birthday boy's friend asked me out for lunch one of these days
4. the birthday boy got suuuuper drunk by 1.30am and had to be sent home
5. i went to extremely crowded phuture and got groped by YOUNG 18 year old kids
6. i was sooooo tired by 3am and wanted to go home
7. one of the girls i was partying with got this guy who likes her to send us both home

that was the whole party. it was moderately fun... had fun dancing. i haven't danced in such a long time!!!!!! i want tooooo....

oh and the best part of it all... i didn't get hungover the next day! haha.

and i wish i had a photo like the one below... (i did it in paint lah... was bored at work as you may be able to tell :P) but i have one with an uglier guy beside me instead... siiiiigh. where have all the cute guys in the world gone? one of the most profound questions in the world aye... i am so deep... (right, like a puddle)

u guys get to see the rest of the uncensored pics but don't anyone go and tell keith... :P

Keith's Birthday Party - Uncensored

Blog Music

2007-01-08T23:55:00.000+08:00

FINALLY i've managed to post music in the simplest way possible.

No need for flash players or windows media players or any other stupid things that need me to upload countless things. this website works brilliantly! or until they get shut down. :P

Momo... your turn next. :)

private blog...

2007-01-08T14:25:00.000+08:00

hehe... sorry for the inconvenience caused. i just cannot stand the thought of little kids (aka megalife kids) reading my blog.

must try not to be a bad influence lah... :P this is my act of public service.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

2007-01-04T00:41:00.000+08:00

We are happy. The festive season is over, and even though We has to work, everyone back in the office is either
1) still on leave
or
2) not very interested in working.

We have condensed the past 2 weeks in a series of photos for your viewing pleasure...

Christmas Musical-Strings

The 2 vain-est P6s We've ever known, Kiki and Lala. They are only kids who wanted more makeup, more glitter, bigger hair. We shudder to think what these 2 little lasses will be like when they grow up (images of drag-queens flash by). We thinks that they are totally adorable now, however.

Christmas Day

We likes artistic shots... or at least artistic-shot-wannabes. And We thinks heart shaped foam in coffee cups is cute. :)

Christmas Night

We went for dinner on Christmas Day with the girls (and boys). We loves excuses to dress up. We was probably too overdressed for dinner in Singapore, but much fun anyway.

in order of tan-ness: blackie, normal, whitey

Don't We looks fabulous...

Can you guess what We are doing? Just a hint, primary school math may come in handy here. (yes We knows We're missing 8 & 9... but whatever... details details...)

The best looking table at Ember

Girls-Dressed-Up!

New Year Holiday

For some reason the father adores going for a holiday in Malaysia over the new year's weekend. We has been doing this for 2 years in a row.

We had a relaxing weekend...

On the beach at Port Dickson

Family Photo

We loves the time spent with the family. We thinks that this year, We should try spending more time with the family. We don't want to have regrets à la the movie Click.

Stuck In My Head

2007-01-03T15:56:00.000+08:00

And you can tell everybody

This is your song

It may be quite simple

But now that it's done

I hope you don't mind

that I put down in words

How wonderful life is

now you're in the world

love is in the aiiiiirr...

2006-12-16T22:28:00.000+08:00

Christmas is coming! yay!!!!!! i lurrrrrrve Christmas. Christmas is for friends, Chinese New Year is for family. heh heh... well at least in singapore. i'm sure ang mohs (or a BBC)will disagree with me... but yeah that's the way it is around here.

oh yeah and not forgetting, it's the wonderful day that our dear Lord Jesus was born. doesn't that just make christmas special?

the reason why love is in the air is because of "The Holiday". i have no life. all my posts are about movies these days... i don't think very much, do very much... or rather i have no need to write about whatever i do think or do. anyway, back to The Holiday. it's super romantic, not to mention the eye candy available in the show. well at least half of the main cast is good looking... Jude Law is soooooooo hot, soooooooo charming, i would fall in love with him in the movie. too bad he's not like that in real life... lying cheating stinking rat. Cameron Diaz is cute... she's so adorable! i like her. for some reason, i can totally identify with her character. well i wish i was as hot as her... and as rich and successful as her character, but other than that... somehow... she just feels... familiar.

arrrrrggghhhh! so irritating. i wanna fall in love NOW.

the christmas weekend starts on Wed next week!!! Department Party on wed (which i'm co-organising btw...), Zara sale (i wanna go in the morning) and Megalife musical-STRINGS on Thurs (which i'm helping to do makeup for), Noel Fiesta in church on Saturday (yeah i'm helping out there too), visiting City Harvest on Sunday with Ber (cos no service on sunday at riverlife) and party at home for family and the girlfriends, Christmas dinner on Monday (we're gonna dress up!!!!!! yay!!!!)

i'm looking forward to next week!!!! hehe!

then before you know it, it's gonna be New Year's Day. 2007 is coming. i feel myself growing old already...

OK. no melancholia allowed before Christmas. depression can set in later... i'm happy-happy!!!

war...

2006-12-02T13:14:00.000+08:00

... Is a truly disturbing event.

the movie Flags of Our Fathers brought this into clear perspective all of a sudden. I don't think I could ever survive like that. And much as I wish that this is just a movie about a war in the past, the reality is that there are wars going on now. Just that in Singapore we are coocooned from all these harsh realities of life.

Flags of Our Fathers is not just a war movie, even though the movie is about a battle between the US marines and the Japanese Army during WWII. The movie centers around the iconic photo of the 5 marines and 1 navy corpsman raising the US flag on the hill of the island Iwo Jima. This photo became a symbol of victory for many Americans. The 6 men in the picture became national heroes, only 3 survived the battle.

heroes. What are they? And how do they get to become heroes?

people say seeing is believing. So photographs are often held up as evidence in court... But what is real? That photograph of the flag raising was actually the 2nd time they had raised the US flag. The 1st flag was raised by a different group of soldiers and was subsequently lowered cos of orders from one of the majors. The original photograph had evidence of the 1st flag being lowered in the corner, but of cos that side of the picture was conveniently cropped out.

too many things to think about in this movie....

all in one- super long post

2006-11-24T01:31:00.000+08:00

sorry...haven't blogged in such a long time... but i can tell that my "good" friends are still having having fun on my blog... there're entire conversations going on without me blogging a single word.

Anyway...

let's start with my birthday. This year's birthday celebrations were really fun! i think i had almost a 4 day celebration weekend. i thank God for all my friends especially those who took the time to organise stuff and get presents for me... i feel sooooo loved!

the festivities started on thursday, with Jess and Wendy. they wanted to do something silly... well the story was that i'd lost jessica's birthday card the last time... so this time they hid my card! and gave me an empty envelope...

our food!!!! we ate at hog's breath cafe... wow... the steak was fabulous!!! melt-in-your-mouth tender and HUGE!!! we couldn't finish all the food we ordered. it's wonderful yummy affordable cow.... *slurp*

Then Friday. i celebrated my birthday day together with the rest of my colleagues. it was a co-birthday celebration. me and Liwei.

We got a cake that said happy 2nd anniversary. this idea came courtesy of Vonnie... that girl... she has too many bright ideas. haha...

then it was off to velvet for some dancing!!!!

my alcohol tolerance is going dowwwwwn. last time i could drink so much more... i must be getting old. gotta cut down on these binge drinking things... i hate getting hungover the next day. anyone know a good hangover remedy? be sure to share it with me.

Saturday... went for a wedding in the afternoon. of which, the whole time i was pathetically hungover. making idle chit chat while your head is pounding and your stomache is churning is not the most enjoyable way to spend the afternoon. i was looking at the food at the tea reception, and i was thinking... "hmmm, now would it be more disgusting to throw up fruit or chicken wings?" i chose the fruit.

Saturday dinner was for the girlfriends + a boy... I LOVE MY GIRLFRIENDS...

***EDIT*** Boy wants to be included in the lurrrrvvvve.... so yes this is a nice boy. we like boy a lot.

Boy should be honoured to be so accepted by the girlfriends... we don't accept just anybody ;)

The girlfriends... Jaime, Shuying, Jasmine, Janice...

we're missing Jac and Michelle who are in Australia (Mich is back by now, Jac is coming back soon!!!!!), and Berinda.

this bunch of girls are gonna stick by me for the rest of my life. i know it. what would i do without them... <3>Happy Feet
Ramon (in a cheesy mexican accent): Thank you, Thank you. Right now, i take a moment for myself, bow down bow down.
other penguins (they bow): You da man!
Ramon: ok that's enough, i feel your love.

hehehehe! watch the clip!!! this is my favourite part of the movie. i love those little mexican penguins. they're the funniest!

back to work... i.e. real life

2006-11-08T14:27:00.000+08:00

well... i had a great 2 weeks off. got lots of rest, went shopping, watched movies, went diving, cut my hair, lost 2kg (haha).

but it's back to work now. one good thing is that work is not too busy right now. just some documentation to clean up till next week where the busy period starts again! i'm going to have a fabulous time the next 3 days! the boss is not around... hehehe... how blissful.

oh btw, for some reason, i am able to logon to gmail from my workplace (they block all the internet mail servers like yahoo and hotmail) cos someone found a backdoor link. kudos to the smart person who found out how to do it! anyway... so i get to go onto gmail and also use gmail chat! SOOOO all you people with gmail... logon and chat with me... :)

these few weeks feel like they've been full of activities, with many more activities this coming week!

notable events that happened...

Last Tuesday:

Haircut at Le Salon

Wah... it's really quite shiok to cut your hair there... they treat you like a VIP. we get bathrobes once we step in the door, and any kind of drink you want... and each stylist has a assistant whose entire role is to help the stylist. like holding up my hair when the stylist is blowing it... what a wonderful experience. the stylist who cut my hair was cute too!!!! tee hee hee...

oh yeah if my eyes look swollen it's cos they are! i came back from my diving trip with 2 bruised eyes... i looked like someone punched me... in both eyes! so ugly... sigh. the instructor said it would take 1-2 wks for the bruise to go away! but Thank God, the bruises faded by wednesday, and by thursday, they were more or less gone. I tried everything to get rid of them! i went to see the doctor, paid $100 for moisturising cream, and eye drops *rolls eyes*, and 2 days MC. After that i went to the Chinese Medical Hall and asked the old lady there what medicine is good for getting rid of bruises, and i came away with a bottle of tien chi. My cousin told me that hard boiled eggs (really hot), rubbed over bruises would help the bruise subside. I did everything. haha. and together, they all work! :)

Janice's birthday was on Saturday... we had an official celebration on sunday, and a mini celebration on saturday at the V tea room... haven't downloaded the pics yet... will post a pic up later.

sunday was fun, with joe as the official photographer, we went for lunch at crystal jade korean bbq place, then just hung around for gelato.

pics are on joe's blog... www.muchuu.com/photos/janicebirthday

i want to learn the LINDY HOP!!!

2006-11-02T12:50:00.000+08:00

Don't they look like they're having so much fun??? i've wanted to learn it ever since... ever since. think i was in JC when i 1st saw people doing it. their faces look so happy!

SOOOOOO... Shuy and i are going to go learn!!!! the class starts on 16th Nov at Jitterbugs. (Hope i can make it for lesson 1--- it's the busiest period of the month... sigh)

YAY YAY YAY!!!! Bet i look stupid... i'm not the most coordinated person in the world... haha... i really look forward to it though!

watched The Guardian yesterday...

it's really not too bad... except for the really corny ending. they should have just stopped when it was good. watch it and you'll know what i mean.

there are no movies opening today!!! how is that possible????? so weird... i'm on leave... the only chance to watch cheap movies on weekdays... and i have no movies i want to watch. siiiiiiigh...

back to slacking

The Past Few Weeks...

2006-10-24T11:49:00.000+08:00

hehe... So I haven't really blogged again. But since I'm on block leave this week, I shall endeavour to blog.

Actually it's quite boring... just a whole lot of pictures. seriously, my life is not that interesting.

So this starts from the day off me and eve had...

You know what, I think, I'm gonna have a bright future ahead of me as a tai tai. Me and Eve took a day off some time early this month, and went for a FREE SPA (courtesy of Eve), then for High Tea at Marriott hotel... Sigh... such bliss... Yeah so this is me being a tai-tai...

Oh! We had a party to celebrate Isaac Peter's birthday! These are my lovely ex-cell group leaders...

So it was the Accenture guys last day last Friday... i kinda miss them. the office feels quiet without them. well... not that they're noisy or anything... but it's just emptier. haha... oh well at least i know that i can just call them when i need help.

So i went down to have a farewell drink with them... SY (Rain) made CY drink a waterfall!!!!!!! yeah that's the lady on the extreme left. she's a mother of 2... she drinks. a lot... she carries a plastic bag around in her handbag just in case she gets drunk (for puking into) haha...

from top left: CY, Ed, Me and Rain ;)

The other half of the table...

From left: Gaby, SH, Eve and Joe (looking drunk)

Stupid Gaby spilt alcohol on my camera... growl............... my precious.... my pretty baby... now with alcohol on it. bah.

After which, we adjourned to singing karaoke. Rain and his wifey... they are both SO SWEET!!! omg... he told us how he proposed to her before.... awwwwwwwww........... heart melting sweet.... they are such a perfect and loving couple. i want a relationship like that too!!!!!!!!!!

Today. Hari Raya Puasa. 24th October 2006. I went wakeboarding with Jas, Jaime and Renhao. The 2nd time in my life.

That's me... in my diva glasses and girly hat (hehe)

Jaime and Jas... They're both too good..... sigh i can't compare to them...

Renhao... it's his 1st time doing this... he stood up! which is not too bad....

Now... here's proof that i can stand up on a wakeboard.... i don't look very good lah... but not too bad i guess...

Today was also Joe's housewarming!!! we had lotsa food (no chicken wings though) and played taboo- the singapore version. so instead of mount rushmore, we get Sentosa. instead of Martin Luther King we get Chiam See Tong. hahahahaha.... quite funny. and hard! there are pictures... i'll post them when i get them from Joe. :)

That's all folks! oh i'm goin diving at pulau dayang this weekend! so more pictures when i get back!!!!

re-blogging

2006-10-07T01:44:00.000+08:00

so... i was just thinking that i should start blogging again. maybe 10 years down the road i may need to remember what i've been doing with my life.

work has been way too busy the past few months to even consider logging on to write down what is happening. but now that the project is officially over, i do have more lull time to sit down, think about life, and generally be frivolous and post pictures.

mum's graduation ceremony+Dept cruise+me and Rain-who's eyes are bigger?+Jessica's birthday+vinson's birthday+roy and dorothy in singapore+Shuying's birthday+me and eve looking pretty+eve, me and soo ann after watching forbidden city+Xunchi's wedding+ber's birthday+my costumes for megalife's easter production+Gail's wedding+Wendy's birthday+Jasmine's birthday+Office party

Not in order of date.... so... quite a lot of stuff happened in between... but it's kinda hard to go back and write everything down. so this will have to suffice.

ok... i'll be back.

dreamzzzz

2006-04-06T10:21:00.000+08:00

so i had this dream yesterday... that i had a baby. it was a girl (dunno who the dad was tho... u know how dreams are, like you know there's a guy but u dunno how the guy looks like). ok so i have this really cute little girl, and she loves me the MOST out of everyone in the world.

hmmmm... what is the point to this post... NOTHING... except i want a baby girl who will love me the most and think i'm the best person in the whole wide world.

hahahahahaha...

man.... Do i need a life or what.

oh i just got myspace... just so that i can spy on some people. haha. so if u have myspace too... can u add me...

my profile page thing is http://www.myspace.com/beautiful_contradictionx

i'm baaaaack!

2006-04-03T22:10:00.000+08:00

wow, so... it's been quite some time since i last blogged... i just don't really feel like doing so... cos... well actually there's nothing interesting happening in my life. i mean... its not like i'm not doing anything, or that i'm not busy... but there's just nothing interesting. and who wants to hear about how i go to work, have lunch, leave at 8pm, come home, sleep... and repeat the cycle all over again and again for a week... yeah it's boring.

i need to find myself some spice in my life! maybe find a cute guy to crush on... haha... that will be interesting.

oh jessica's brother is working for the consulting firm that's working for my bank. and so... he's working in my office now! it's quite funny... cos now i'm his client... he can't piss me off cos i'm "bigger" than him... just based on the fact that i'm the client. wahahaha...

i finally went to get my new IC made. just like that, i "lost" $300. it feels like i took the money and threw it into the dustbin. just think, how many bags and shoes i could have gotten with the money!!!! i could get that dress that i liked from trixilini... arrrrrrrghz... so pissed with myself for losing it.

oh well... this month was a rather good shopping month... i bought....

my new cell phone!!!!!!

it's pink, small, and totally adorable... i luuuurve it! was gonna get the gold one... but then i decided against it cos the swivel is just too impractical. and i'm so chor lor... surely drop it and spoil it. the only drawback is that the internal memory is only 23mb, and there's no expansion slot. bah. useless. but cute nonetheless.

i wanna put up pics... so long havent put up pics already! let's see....

starting from... pammie's birthday party at macdonalds...

Macdonald's Birthday!

if you're wondering which one is the birthday girl, it's the one in the centre. the 20 year old. hahahaha...
haven't attended a macdonald's party since i was 10 i think... haha... it was pretty fun... forfeits and all... :) the kids were super rowdy, but they made it fun.

us with the birthday girl!!!!

Then, disney on ice...

nemo with legs!

<3ariel<3

the only shot i could get of her... sigh... i always have such bad luck photographing ariel. my favourite disney cartoon is little mermaid...

Us after the show...

Hey, we're young at heart!

Secondary school class gathering...

Acting cute

there were over 20 people... haven't seen some of these people since we graduated... but it was so cool meeting up with them. we will do this once a year... haha.

Now for eve's birthday!

Me and the birthday girl

We had a nice celebration together with the rest of the ex-TBO bunch. going out with them is always entertaining.

Let's see when i will blog again. when life becomes more interesting....

How much do you weigh?

2006-03-21T15:01:00.000+08:00

You Should Weigh 156

If you weigh less than this, you either have a fast metabolism or are about to gain weight.
If you weigh more than this, you may be losing a few pounds soon!

How Much Do You Weigh?

So... since 156 pounds is abt 70kg... i either have a fast metabolism or am about to gain weight!!!! GOSH... i hope it's not the latter... it probably is though.... ARRGH!!!

no bonus for me

2006-03-16T20:31:00.000+08:00

boooo hoooo hooo...

cos last year i was a TBO, so i don't get bonus for 2005... sob sob... everyone's gonna get their letters around now... and i won't be getting one!

sigh... so sad.

i dont feel like blogging these days

2006-03-15T23:27:00.000+08:00

but yet i'm back... just cos i had an amazing experience on the bus today... and i just have to share it.

it's really a small thing... but today, on the bus, it was really crowded, so alot of people were standing... then someone got off. instead of plonking himself onto the seat as most singaporean men would do, this guy (indian looking, dunno if he's local) turned to me and gestured towards the seat, offering it to me!!!! i was shocked! and i just smiled and shook my head. he turned to his other side and offered the seat to the lady standing on the other side of him.

WOW!!!! i've never encountered such gentlemanly strangers before!!! in retrospect i should have smiled and actually SAID something... maybe like "No, thank you, thanks for offering." Something more polite than just shaking my head mutely.

well... i'm impressed. so whoever this guy is, i hope more of him appears in singapore. you know how i'm always ranting about rude, selfish people who don't give up seats to old people, and don't hold the lift and doors... well, today my confidence in men has increased again. so maybe there are good men out there after all!

How Do Men See You?

2006-03-03T17:29:00.000+08:00

Men See You As Choosy

Men notice you light years before you notice them
You take a selective approach to dating, and you can afford to be picky
You aren't looking for a quick flirt - but a memorable encounter
It may take men a while to ask you out, but it's worth the wait

How Do Men See You?

Interesting..... wonder if it's true? hahahahahahaha.... if only... :)

i was angry just now... with stupid Linksys - this company from which my home's router comes from. but now... calmed down already... will wait for them to call me on monday. if i don't get a call, then they're gonna get it BIG TIME from me... and that idiotic technical representative that spoke to me... i see a HUGE complaint email flying her way.... whoosh... growl... talking about it makes me angry again. forget it... i need to enjoy my weekend... i'll get angry again on Monday.

drool should i get this?

2006-03-02T10:19:00.000+08:00

so beautiful rite?

check it out at the creative website: Zen Vision

i like the blue too.... my friend can get it at a good price cos he knows people working in creative... wheee...

celebrating a girlfriend's birthday

2006-02-28T23:55:00.000+08:00

jaime's birthday - dim sum and tea

love my girlfriends...

So...

2006-02-28T17:17:00.000+08:00

So i'm busy at work, really tired most of the time, and easily irritated by people. not pissed or anything... it takes too much energy to be pissed. just mildly irritated all the time. but then... irritation is just irritation. there's big irritations and small irritations. small irritations i get over fast. of course, i'm not so high-and-mighty to think that i don't irritate people... surely sometimes other people get irritated with me too! oh well... i'm sure the friendships that i have and treasure are strong enough to withstand all this crap that i go through.

so... however, on the bright side, got a lunch treat from big BIG boss for participating in the our divisional taskforce last year... and all of us got $100 worth of robinsons vouchers! WHEE!!! i'm rather pleased with that... bettina go shopping now...

SO... my face is getting better! THANK GOD!!! the medicine really worked wonders... compared to last year, and the year before, and the year before that... this is like a miracle... no disgusting rotting thing on my face, no huge scab, no scarring!

so... i feel like going drinking... but i have no time. maybe this weekend i will make time. jasmineeeee... we should go... :)

PMS

2006-02-23T13:26:00.000+08:00

i just feel like complaining...

this one particular consultant... said he'd treat us... but never planned anything, wanted to go to macs or bk, then when we said no fast food, wanted to bring us to a hawker centre. ok. imagine how will a hawker centre treat work out for 1 guy treating 8 ppl? option 1: he goes around and buys for everyone, option 2, we buy our own food, pay for our own food, and claim money from him. up til lunch time just now, we still had no idea where we were going. finally decided on going to killiney kopitiam. and guess what... cos his boss was there, she paid for everyone instead. sooo... he didn't even treat us to lunch. his boss did.

bah.

it's not the lunch treat that is the point... it's not even where we're eating that is the point... it's that i can't tell if he really wants to treat us to lunch. if he doesn't, then why bother? the lack of thought into this irritates me. think people shouldn't say they're treating if they are not. and if they're treating, actually think about where would be a good place to bring everyone, and whether the people they're treating would like it there. else treat for what... no point.

bettina's PMS rantings.

boo hoo hoo

2006-02-22T22:02:00.000+08:00

bettina is sad.... bettina has a cold sore on her face... bettina gets one of these horrible things every year... bettina's not gonna take any photos until it gets better.

on the bright side though, bettina likes the doctor that bettina went to see today. with the amount bettina paid, bettina better get better in like 1 week max. the doctor gave bettina 1 day MC but bettina still had to work... bettina is not type A. bettina has no choice.

Long Photo Post

2006-02-19T22:49:00.000+08:00

Got a whole lot of photos that i haven't posted!!!!!! Let's start from the beginning...
Pamper Bettina Day... a whole day of fun planned by Berinda... so sweeeet hor?
Beginning with a delish lunch at Japanese Dining Sun.

Look at the wonderful food!!!

Berinda says," You better finish all the food. Who cares about dieting..."

Next stop, a pedicure to soothe our weary callused feet...

My ugly yellowed toes before...

After: Pretty olive toenails

Last but not least, a ride in a chauffeur (haha edde's gonna kill me for calling him a chauffeur) driven car to our final destination for the day, Villa Bali.

Blending in with nature at Villa Bali

Happy Day!

Ok so that's all for Pamper Bettina Day.

Next, for some reason the consultants that i work with have been asking us out for drinks pretty often...

Here's one of the occasions... The guy in the centre is one of the new consultants on our project.

The reason for this drinking session is him. He's leaving for korea for a job posting... how lucky rite? haha

Went shopping with Jess and Wendy...

Nice pic of me and Jess... the colour effect was accidental... but i think it turned out pretty nice huh?

Me and Wendy... seriously... i think i look better on the right side when taking photos.... i must keep that in mind... haha

Pretty dress i saw at Zara... I wanna buy a pair jeans i saw there! no time to go back so far...

Most recently, on Friday, I went for my 1st fine dining experience... well... not really fine dining... it's more like fine dining food in a normal restaurant atmosphere.

We went to Saint Pierre at Central Mall... We took the degustation set... which is like 10 tiny courses... it's like a sampler set. Some of my favourite food...

Smoked Salmon Sashimi. It has this super long beautiful elaborate descriptive name, but i can't remember it. so yeah... smoked salmon sashimi. haha. The food looks pretty huh...

um... This is.... Lor Ar (as in stewed duck)... YES... stewed duck in a french restaurant... it was pretty good i have to say... but i prefer the one at the coffee shop near my office. haha.

Baked Cod... this was really good.

My favourite... Creme Brulee... This is the only place that i've tried that i don't get jelat after 2 spoonfuls. really smooth and not egg-y at all... ooooh heaven.

Procedeed down to Cafe Iguana for some drinks... trying to improve my photography skills on Marv

Our loving couple... Marv and Mich...

Shuy and me...

oh yeah so that's like 3 weeks condensed into one post.

Work has been so busy these days. but it's a good busy. good to have work to do that challenges me. and my "boss" is really good too. he's great about questions... i can ask him everything. i like. hate to stay back in office though... but i guess it's life.

yay!

2006-02-15T09:38:00.000+08:00

anyway the reason why i'm changing my blogsite is cos there are too many kids reading my blog... i'm sure u guys have heard me complain about this sometime... so anyway it hasn't changed much but i dun think anyone really wants to read my blog so much that they'll search me up on the internet... haha.

so long...

2006-02-13T22:12:00.000+08:00

wow haven't updated in a while huh...

well it's not that nothing has been happening... it's that too much stuff is happening! and work is busy... so busy.

anyway... played mahjong... so fun. hate to lose... fortunately we play with chips only. haha.

Jac's leaving... i will miss her... everyone's leaving... and leaving me in singapore.

Berinda did a pamper bettina day. there's tons of photos for this one... i'll explain properly another time... words don't do justice to the whole experience.

Jaclyn Tay came to my church... she's pretty! very small sized... she looks a lot taller on TV.

gonna cook dinner for some friends tomorrow... sigh... singles nite yet again.

let's see... anything else? guy-that-i-dated-in-Santa-Cruz suddenly sms-es me... weird.

ok...next post will have the photos. :)

the life of an irritating guy

2006-02-04T15:46:00.000+08:00

seriously, i wonder how people can be so irritating... i wonder if they do it on purpose... i mean maybe everyday they wake up and say.

"good morning world! i wonder how i can irritate someone today! let's see what i can do... i know maybe i can go to office, and slack off purposely. make sure that i don't have a computer terminal to use so that i can sit down next to bettina and stare at her computer screen for 15 minutes. yeah that sounds like something irritating that i can do! ohhhh... that's not irritating enough. maybe i can snoop around on the things on bettina's desk. hmmm let's wait til she's on leave so that i can flip through that notebook she always brings to meetings. oh and to make sure that i'm the ultimate irritant, i'll make sure i scold vulgarities all the time. F this, F that... yeah. i'm sure the girls in the office will be irritated by that."

can you believe that there's someone SO IRRITATING???? this guy is horrible. i gave him suggestions like why don't you try someone else's PC, why don't you go back down to your department. he doesn't even take the hint and go away when i ignore him blatantly. i asked him "um, so are you going to sit here beside me the whole day?" in a sarcastic tone before he went away.

maaaannn... i think he takes the cake for irritating-ness. tsk. why am i surrounded by irritating guys.

C is for Cookie, Cookie is for me...

2006-02-02T19:46:00.000+08:00

I baked coooooookies!

From Left: Chocolate chip, Triple Choc Chip, and Chocolate Quakes

Yummy! I haven't baked in such a long time. Baking is so therapeutic. I love the whole process of baking... from mixing the dough, to putting it in the oven, and of course, the heavenly smell.

Don't my cookies look delish?

MoS on chu1 yi1

2006-02-02T18:30:00.000+08:00

For some reason, me, jess and wendy decided to go to MoS on the first day with a couple of her friends... it was fun! but nowadays old already... cannot stay out too late... i get tired. haha

outside the MInistry of Sound...

Pretty lights that change colours!

Me and Jess being narcissistic...

the clubbing buddies.

i love how we can have so much fun together. *wink*

Cool water feature in MOS... yeah that's like a water curtain...not a very good shot i know... but it looked interesting... there's like lights flashing on the water and all. pretty.

Funky Retro room... look at the patterns on the wall!

We went to pure to get drinks. shared some jugs... played cai quan, loser drinks.

Jessica finishing up the jug... it's funny cos she kept losing... haha. so she kept drinking, and drinking, and drinking!

*does this count as a funny shot? i don't have alot of compromising shots wat... hahaha*

nice waitress offered to take the photo for us! we picked up those guys....NOT... those are wendy's friends. one of them has a very nice name... fu xin. means lucky star. such a "pretty" name rite? he says it's orbit to have a name like that... but i like the name! names should have meanings... next time when i name my children, i'll name them something meaningful.

Yet another Photolog

2006-01-31T01:32:00.000+08:00

Yeah so what else is new... haha.

This is the day Laraine left... 6 months. so fast, yet so long as well. getting used to having my own room.... wahahahaha...

Fast forward to Chinese New Year eve.

we had quite a different reunion dinner this year. instead of the usual restaurant dinner, we had sukiyaki at my uncle's house. yummy... look at the delish beef... and my favourite japanese mushrooms... slurp.

some random pictures taken that night.

my pretty cat, miao miao. she's got attitude... i like.

Chu Yi...

CNY day one... it had to be sunday morning.. so went to church.

My CNY outfit is PINK!!! pink dress and pink shoes.... haha... i love it!

thats my co-worship leader for children's church

met so many cute kids...

My cutie of a niece who did this beautiful drawing for me.

the girl in the drawing is me... and i'm in a park. so nice!!!

my other niece wrote this. isn't she good... i think it looks almost professional!

too tired to write much except for captions... haha... there's more photos from MOS yesterday night too...

another time... goodnight!

Happy CNY

2006-01-28T22:48:00.000+08:00

this year seems like a relaxed year in terms of visiting and festive mood. seems like no one is really in the spirit of celebration. and with the long weekend, visiting is spaced out... which i don't mind, cos i really want a good rest. got 2 extra days off... yay... absolute bliss! but it is kinda sad... i used to like the festivities of chinese new year...

but now... old already... my aunt just asked me "ni you mei you nan peng you" and when i said no... she said... "bettina, ni yao kai shi chu dian le"

OMG... pretty soon i'm gonna have to fob off the when are u getting married question.... faint. maybe that's when i'm gonna start taking holidays over chinese new year.....

anyway, looking forward to the next few days of good food and catching up. more photos to come! :)

Leaving on a Jet Plane

2006-01-26T12:23:00.000+08:00

well... not me... my sister. she's flying off to Aberdeen, Scotland tonight! for those who are wondering, she's going on an exchange program. 6 whole months!

i think i'll miss her... but i like having my own room though... haha... don't kill me Laraine.

anyway here's wishing her all the best. i pray that she'll be safe, healthy and have lots of fun!

now back to last minute packing and getting stuff for her.

It's been a while...

2006-01-23T22:45:00.000+08:00

... since i last blogged... didn't have anything exciting going on in my life... and didn't particularly feel like blogging.

feeling so tired and sian... can't wait for CNY. my period is coming... i'm PMS-ing. the world has turned dark and grey.

i'm feeling broke too. think i should start saving. it's amazing how money disappears so quickly. shall make it a point to save up this year.

Back to happy things... Saw this beautiful dress at Trixilini!!!!! omg... it comes in different colours... black, lavander and pink. momo, after much thought, i like the black one the best, followed by lavander... but it's kinda expensive... but oh-so-pretty! i wish i had a picture to show you...

so this is my new baby!

Isn't she beautiful???? awwwww.... so pretty... takes brilliant pictures too. and lotsa funky modes. perfect for a point and click person like me. so cheap too! it was only $495. $512 with tax. free 512mb card too. yay!!!!!

my other baby...

She's beautiful too! for those who can't tell what that is, that's my new portable hard disk drive. the one i was talking about. it's only like palm sized... and so cool and sleek. and with 40gb, it's got 2x the memory of my lappie. haha.

so many geeky buys... i'm a closet geek... haha. oh well... it's all out in the open now... I'M A GEEK!

Celebrated a colleague's birthday on sunday... went to have dim sum at crystal jade kitchen at taka. great food terrible service. i complained to the manager. these cantonese-speaking people are the worst. talking behind our backs... do they think we don't understand????

french toast... the best outside of Hong Kong. yummm...

the lot of us...

omg... for some reason Shuy, Janice and I all wore shades of green to church. and guess what, we met michelle and marvin later, and they were both wearing green too! so this is us all in green. haha...

body-torturing day

2006-01-13T23:40:00.000+08:00

welllllll..... had an interesting experience today...

ahem... went for a brazillian wax... ahem... THAT HURT!!!!

and went for facial... THAT HURT TOOOOOOO!!!! but this is normal pain... the other is... *shudders* PAIN.

anyway... i dunno whether i'll do it again... it's interesting though... i thought i'd be paiseh having strangers see my... ahem... parts. and it was initially, but they just made it seem so normal, and i just forgot all about it. and let them do their work... trust me... it hurts. but they say the pain will lessen b y 50% if you go back within 3 mths.

anyway my brazilian is called Tease-me. *wink* got different patterns you see... and that is one of them.

after that, waxing my legs was not painful at all. compared to the brazilian... legs was nothing...

who wants to go for a brazilian now? raise your hands...

my new toys

2006-01-12T21:39:00.000+08:00

My folks recently went on a gadgets buying spree... went to sim lim square and got 2 webcams, and a portable hard disk.

our new logitech webcam...So cute hor... we're keeping this one at home

we got another one which was from an unknown brand, intelli. this one, my sister's taking it with her when she goes to aberdeen for exchange. which is why we got the webcams anyway... playing around with these things now... so fun. who wants to watch me on webcam?? hahaha...

oh yeah and the portable hard disk, that one is my baby... looks so sleek and pretty. one of these days i'll take a photo of it and show you all... i've been wanting one for so long cos my lappie is running out of space! can you imagine, my poor 5 year old pentium III laptop only has a memory space of 9 gigabytes on 2 drives. that's a grand total of 18 gb! an ipod has more memory than my laptop... haha. and with my vast collection of MP3s and photographs. there's just NOT ENOUGH SPACE!!!!!! so now.. i have 40gb more space!!!! WOOHOOO that means i can take a shitload more photos and still not run out of space. *blissful look*

gonna get my camera next week too. i've decided on a panasonic lumix fx-8.

found a shop in Sim Lim Square that sells it for $495. so cheap!!! read so many great reviews about it too that it totally swayed me from my love for canon cameras. but the best this about this camera has to be the anti-shake function. u can sway the camera about and take the photo, and it still will come out perfectly clear! and apparently the lens is better than the canon lens as well. but i dunno about all that... all i need is a point and shoot.

yeah me and my new toys, and my soon to be new toy.

Perfect weather for sleeping

2006-01-08T20:25:00.000+08:00

today's weather was PURRRRFECT for staying at home, watching tv and just slacking around. which is what i've been doing all day! whee!!!! i didn't even make it to church... which is terrible, i know, but i really meant to go. me and lar left the house, albeit we were late, but we couldn't get a cab for like half an hour... so we decided to take a walk to the churches near by our house. BUT by the time we got there, one service was almost over and the over had just ended.
oh well.... i hope trying counts for something...
seriously, i'm old already. went to MOS on wednesday for a short while. (it's beautiful in there btw... i didnt take any pictures tho... next time i will!) i didn't even drink... but by the time i got home, i was SO TIRED.....

the next day was tiring too... met up with my ACJC ex-classmates... that was fun... i don't get to see them at all... catching up was really good.

Weili, Godwin and Yaoyang

Kwek, me and Debz

me and debz with joanne

rainbow outside my office window... i just looked out and saw it! so beautiful...

then friday, i celebrated a friend's birthday at Thumper. the party ended too early! keith (the birthday boy) got drunk before 1am. and everyone started leaving... booooo....

me and the birthday boy.

Looking forward to yet another public holiday on tuesday! woohoo!

excerpts from KL

2006-01-08T01:22:00.000+08:00

Took a short break to KL over the long weekend with the family. Haven't been on a vacation with them for such a long time!

Spent New Year's Eve in KL... the kids there are so rowdy! walked down jalan bukit bintang, and the kids were just spraying people randomly! This is some black guy getting sprayed by some other people. and this is like at 10pm... no where near midnight.

I hear this happened in singapore too!!! OMG... terrible... i'd hate getting sprayed at by a total stranger... and if it's the string type it's not that bad.... if it was the foam spray..... i'd be hopping mad! probably slap the person.

Anyway, more pix coming right up...

EDIT: The sister thinks she looks like shit, so this pic is removed. i'm so kind...

Having dinner at Jalan Alor. that's where the street hawkers are! we had a great dinner there... tze char style... yum yum...

Dinner! Stir fried beef and satay! that's just like 2 out of 8 dishes that we ordered. haha... we're such piggies...

We took a walk down Jalan Bukit Bintang to check out the New Year's concert and stuff...

Look at the crowd!!!

yeah that's us.

the crowd there was too rowdy for our liking so we took a walk down to KLCC to check out the celebrations there!

Lok Lok at KLCC. there's tons of these little carts...

the twin towers, so beautiful at night!

Anyway, there was practically no "atmosphere" there even though there were so many peopl cos the stage was SO FAR AWAY!!!! we couldn't event hear the screams from the stage. everyone was just sitting down...

Me and Lar.

Fireworks at the stroke of 12!

SO pretty right? this is the nicest clip. after this, the fireworks were obscured by the thick smoke, and all we could see was little sparkles... sigh. wat a waste of good fireworks.

Nat with his COLD Ramly Burger...

Next day, we went to church.

The church that we went to on New Years day. it's a presbytarian church. quiet solemn service.
I did something embarassing... when they had communion, they passed around a basket of bread. real bread. i accidentally hit my sister's hand as she was passing it to me and the whole basket fell onto the floor. sigh. not enough bread to go around....

On the way home, we stopped by at tangkat to get beef noodles. the beef noodles are famous here! really really good stuff. well, i remembered it to be better... but it's still good!

thick broth, tender pieces of meat... SLURP...

SO that was my family's KL trip in a nutshell. it was overall an ok trip. nothing much special. nothing much to buy, nothing much to see. just a good restful time with the family.

what major are you?

2006-01-04T15:05:00.000+08:00

You scored as Sociology. You should be a Sociology major!

Sociology

100%

Anthropology

100%

Dance

92%

Psychology

83%

Theater

75%

Linguistics

58%

Biology

58%

Journalism

50%

Art

50%

Engineering

50%

Philosophy

42%

English

42%

Mathematics

33%

Chemistry

25%

What is your Perfect Major?
created with QuizFarm.com

well... it turns out that i did the correct major in uni! but then again... how true are these quizzes... i could have chosen those that i know will skew my results towards sociology. heh oh well...

better late than never... thoughts from 2005 and looking ahead to 2006

2006-01-02T18:33:00.000+08:00

So i was away in KL over the new year holiday... so had no chance to post up some thoughts about the new year.

2005 was an eventful year! A look back at the highlights from each month...

January
I started my new job, my first real job! It's a blessing how i got the job in the first place, even though i have never really wanted to work in a bank, but the opportunity presented itself, and here i am. i have to say though, the pay is alot better in a bank than anywhere else.

February
Chinese New Year. 2005's CNY was kinda depressing, with my uncle's business not doing well, my dad having problems at work, my cousin got retrenched, and some other not so pleasant stuff. everyone still went through the motions, but it was just not the same. However, things changed later in the year.

This is my family at the CNY eve dinner.

I had an issue with a friend. i felt that she wasn't treating me as she did her new friends. granted we were never really close, but when we had to do certain things together, she'd never want integrate me into her group or whatever. anyway i accepted it as it is, and life went on. i guess life is like that.

March
Nothing much happened this month... work went on... and on and on and on.

April
all the TBOs got a pay increase cos the bank did really well last year! so we got a upward pay revision. WOOHOO!!! show me the moolah

May
Went on holiday to Hong Kong with Jessica and Wendy! it was really fun! i simply lurrrrve hong kong! the weather is nice, the shopping is great, the food is fabulous!

Travelling with like minded friends is like going on a 3 day long shopping expedition! pure enjoyment!

A sad thing happened on the 21st of may, my malaysian cousin-in-law passed away in a road accident leaving behind my cousin and her 2 young children. forunately, the family rallied around and provided support. it's gonna be hard for them from now, but i'm sure she'll pull through. we'll always be supporting them in any way we can.

June
I started working on the Basel II project for my bank. well... i'm there for a learning experience. I'm still there now... seems like the project has been extended till June. that was when i got closer to eve, and we are good friends now!

This was taken at the Basel II Kick-off Party, which is basically just an excuse for people to drink... we had to leave early though cos... the GBB Pool Tournie was going on!
This was when i was "picked up" by a woman for the 1st time too! wahahaha... it's just a joke... but a really funny incident nonetheless. I was in the toilet of China One where the pool tournament was being held... and suddenly this woman asks me what i'm doing here and where i work for. how did i know that she's also working for my bank? and all of a sudden before i know what's going on she says later i'll buy you a drink. must come and find me ok? i was like.... okaaay...
haha so i get a free drink. her husband later bought me a drink at her command.... haha. interesting huh.

In June, I also started my new photowhoring obsession. since June i think i've taken over 1GB of photos... every event needs photos to mark it!

Met up with my secondary classmates. that was cool catching up with them...

July
The most significant July memory was spending $70 on a department dinner at Long Beach Seafood restaurant... super expensive and not worth it at all! they over ordered... we had so much food, and such expensive items too! Lobster, crab, prawn, and the most not worth it of all, the bamboo clam. *disgusted* can't believe i paid so much for a dinner that wasn't even fun.

I got confirmed! yay... no pay rise or anything... but i'm no longer on probation!

August
I lost my IC in August... that reminds me... i haven't gotten it made YET... i have no idea how i lost it either... cos we went clubbing, me, jess and wendy, and i made it back home with everything in my bag intact, and my IC missing. upset.... it's gonna cost me $300 to get it done this time... sigh.
Maybe i'll get it made in Feb...

Kenny came back to visit! I was so happy to see him! and his lil brother was such a darling...

September
Nothing much happening, 1st wedding of the year i attended. one of my colleagues got married.

October
the whole month was like party month. practically had a party/event/something happening every weekend.

It started with my department offsite, then the division D&D, then jeanette and samuel's wedding, a popiah party at another colleague's house, and the finale to all the events my committee at work as been organising, chillout nite - another excuse for people to get drunk silly.

Jeanette's wedding was a cool time for me not really for the wedding itself although that was cool... really sweet seeing them married! it gave us (the girlfriends) time to get together, dress up and do silly things like take photos and act like we're 18 again!

bear with me... just 2 more months to the end of 2005.

November
birthday month!
we weren't able to celebrate janice's birthday properly, cos so many of the girlfriends were away. but a mini-celebration took place...

my 3-celebration birthday... well actually 4 counting the one with my family...

oh and let's not forget... Qing's (my cousin) wedding...
and most importantly, my dad got a job!

December
China Mission Trip...

then Christmas!
family, then a basel department dinner party, christmas dinner with the girlfriends...

New Year's Eve in KL with family. pictures to come soon. :)

that was 2005.

my happiest moment in the year was when my dad got a job. that was a huge blessing and full of God's favour.

haven't really thought much about 2006. i'm not one for making resolutions, cos i prolly will never keep them. haha.

But i hope 2006 will be a fulfilling year. i wanna serve God more, and maybe consider a change of job (i'm thinking about it... just thinking), and attempt to save more too!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!

And lastly, i leave with you, my dear readers, this song. I realise that after all this time, i still do LOVE Santa Cruz, some of my happiest times were spent there. I wanna go back there for a holiday at least.

The title of the song, I Love Santa Cruz. :)

Christmas and Parties

2005-12-31T00:37:00.000+08:00

I really meant to post this up some time ago... oops.

so now that New Year is coming right up, i HAVE to post up these pics before they become obsolete... haha

Let's start with the Basel Christmas Party at a restaurant at Hotel Phoenix.

the 3 TBOs and 2 SOs...

Eve and SH and me... SH looks young hor... hmmm she's older than she looks. haha cannot reveal too much else she'll kill me.

My supervisor.... with a santarina hat... hahahahhaa... he's so sporting... so FUN!

The guy behind is one of the consultants... one of the nice ones.

the Basel team! from TBO up to VP... wooooo.... i am not worthy....

our starters... soft shell crab, deep fried milk and escargot in choux pastry.
surprisingly quite yummy! i had thought that all the fried stuff would not be that fresh.. but i was wrong.

Merry Christmas everyone... Cheers!

Had dinner. sang songs, got saboed by the game master... and now, after all the fun... it's time to go home! cos there's work the next day... sigh.

Christmas Eve...

On the way to church to give out ang pows... (left over money from my china trip, i have to distribute it.)

After the nice dinner... Jan, Ber, Mich, Jac, Me, and Shuy.

Jac wanted a funny pose... haha.

You can't see my dress very well but it's green, and a little grecian looking. I love it! it's kinda transparent though...

Jacky, our designated driver for the night...

Me and Mich.

Now for Christmas Day.
I love christmas service. so nice sweet and meaningful.
the drama was good... i can't call it a musical even though there was singing cos the singing sounded unrelated to the play.

TTITs... that's short for Tai Tai In Training. Daphne named us...

Ber and me...pretty dresses.

Me and Jac... she was dancing for service. Vincent came to church... that's good...

Me and the brother...

Weird faces

Last Christmas Party on Christmas Day itself...

Had a party at Shen's house at Balmoral Park. the condo looks like a chalet... not at all like a condo.

Me and Vonnie

Seri and I

Me and the guys.

OK... that's all the christmas pics... In 3 hours time, i'll be off to KL for New Year's with the family. hope i'll have fun... more pics when i get back. :)

China Trip Installment 2

2005-12-26T03:39:00.000+08:00

So here's the 2nd half of the trip.

Day 6:

We conducted an english quiz game with some craft work at the end of it.

After the end of the quiz, the teams each have points to "buy" materials to build a tall and stable structure.

The Winning Team!

Day 7:

We went to visit ann's house and Yihui and Shuying decided to exchange clothes. Don't they look cute...

Day 8:

Friday outside the mosque. all the men are going there for their weekly prayers.

Collecting alms,... so interesting

We had a concert at the end of that night, but i had no time to take photos as we were all performing in one way or another. so... dun think anyone took pics. got video tho...

Day 9:

Our last morning in China! me and Shuying woke up early specially to go and eat the beef porridge. it's really good... and super cheap. like only 3 yuan for each bowl... which like in total costs 70 singapore cents. SHIOK!

Anyway our parting team shot at the hotel.

Home Sweet Home! Arrival at Changi Airport at 11.15pm. it's great to be home! i'll miss the cold (just a little bit) but it's good to be back in singapore. haha.

Bonus Pic of my family's Christmas Party.

We had a Chen Clan Pasta Party, with pasta that we cooked on the spot. i made my own tomato base. wow... it was surprisingly yummmy! the pasta was really good. pasta is so easy to make compared to other things.... e.g. chilli crab...

Anyway, Merry Christmas to all my friends... more christmas celebration pics tomorrow!

Photos from China - Instalment 1

2005-12-19T20:34:00.000+08:00

Hullo... I'm back from China! for those who didn't know, I went on a cross cultural exchange trip to China. It was a really cool trip. literally and figuratively... the temperature was averaging 0 to -15 degrees celcius! Because it wasn't just a holiday, it was a really enriching and fulfilling trip.

So anyway, here are some of the photos from day 1 to day 5.

Day1:

a super fuzzy picture of me and Shuying on the plane

Yihui looks retard... but i look pretty! :) haha...

We landed at Guangzhou airport at 12.30, and had to wait for the airline people to settle our hotel. and unbelievably, we waited for at least 2 hours! after 2 hours, they told us that we be given a hotel abt 25 min away from the airport... sigh. Initially, the plan was to go to Guangzhou city and eat dimsum, and do a spot of shopping... but because of the delay... that plan was scrapped. so sad...

This is our free hotel in Guangzhou... provided by our airline cos of the 1 nite stopover. not too bad I guess, for a free hotel.

We went for lunch at the hotel restaurant, and cos we didn't know what to order, we got a set meal. cos that would be faster. to our horror, what came out was a HUGE pile of rice, a few strands of cai xin, a few slices of char siew, goose gizzard, and snow peas fried with lup cheong. and guess how much we paid for that???? approx $10 per person. YUCK!

So we decided not to trust the hotel people anymore and order our own dinner...

Yummy food! and we paid like about the same amount as for lunch. plus we had our own room with a TV and all that. This was just the beginning of even better food to come!

Day 2:

the view out of the airplane window... looks just like what i imagine heaven would be like. see that cloud over there on the left... i'm gonna sit on one of those and play a harp next time. haha.

Landed at our final destination...

Trying to do the mist thingy... it's -8 degrees temperature... *shivers* cold!

Us in our beanies

typical scene on china roads... it's some tractor thing.

Lunch! And we thought we would be suffering.... haha

Day 3:

Dance Lessons for the china youths...

Day 4:

A donkey drawn cart! my first time seeing one.

Various meats hanging outside the butcher shop. this entire street is filled of shops like this one.

such a cute little baby!!!!! her name is jayna and she's half korean. anyway this is the day i looked particularly ugly. terrible dressing, no makeup at all. sigh.

Yuna, elder sister of jayna. prettier, but slightly less cute.

one of my favourite foods there... BBQ sotong! slurp!

do you feel the heat?

the end result... Yummy!!!!!

Day 5:

The Grand Mosque. it's interesting how chinese and muslim elements are mixed together. look at the dome at the top and the pagoda like structure beside us. weird...

a circular overhead bridge

some government building. the guard actually shouted at me and told me not to take pictures. scary...

at the city park... looks like an ice skating ring behind it rite? it isn't tho...

our whole team... like statues.

The view of the city from the top of north mountain.

okie... that's the beginning half of my trip... more to come later.

to china we will go...

2005-12-08T16:39:00.000+08:00

flying off tomorrow at 8.35am.

reaching airport at 6am.

gonna have lotsa fun, take lotsa pictures.

it is going to be super duper cold. high 3 degrees celcius, low -15 degrees celcius

in the meantime... some pics from the office...

Andrew's Birthday... we got him a strawberry cake... it's really yummy!

Now for some boliao shots of me and my office pals!

working with these people is like not working at all... haha. i mean we do have work to do...but it's all one big party!

cya in a week... with pictures from china!

FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS

2005-12-04T23:08:00.000+08:00

My attempt at attention-seeking behaviour...
oh well, i dunno who reads my blog and who doesn't. i dunno who is my friend and who isn't. write if u want to, don't if u don't want me to know that you are reading my blog, but leave a name. haha. be truthful, but be nice. hahahahaha.

{do this}: if you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, even if we don't speak often, please post a comment with a memory of you and me. it can be anything you want - good or bad. when you're finished, post this little paragraph on your blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people remember about you.

Numa Numa Yeaaaah...

2005-12-01T14:50:00.001+08:00

QUIZ - Which Superhero are you?

2005-11-30T17:09:00.000+08:00

Your results:
You are Supergirl

Supergirl		80%
Wonder Woman		75%
Catwoman		60%
Robin		57%
Superman		55%
Green Lantern		55%
Spider-Man		50%
Iron Man		45%
Hulk		40%
The Flash		30%
Batman		20%

Lean, muscular and feminine.
Honest and a defender of the innocent.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...

my scary right eye

2005-11-29T21:19:00.000+08:00

nah... it's not a horror movie... haha... but i discovered a bump in my right eye on sunday. that kinda freaked me out cos it was on the white of my eye! I've never gotten a bump that i can actually see and IN MY EYE!!! yeah... so I went to the GP that night to get it checked out...

the doctor said that it looked like an ulcer (gasp!) but he thinks it's nothing serious and just to make sure that it's harmless, he told me to go and see a specialist.

AND he drew this picture of my eye.

Disgusting right?

So yeah, i made an appointment and took the day off to see the eye specialist... to my relief, the specialist said that this thing is very common, and about half of all the patients he gets each day have this problem. Not an allergy, not an infection... but it's a cyst (WHAAAAT?) but it's harmless he says... probably caused by some particles that entered my eye, and the particle was too big for natural tears to wash away. so, the white part of the eye as a defensive measure, "swallowed" it in an attempt to expell it. thus, causing a cyst.

okaaay... so i don't feel so bad now... it's gonna go away after a while. why do i get so many problems with my eyes/skin... sigh.

OH... i have 2 bad service experiences in 2 days! OMG... i can't believe that i had to suffer through such bad service. having had experience in the service industry before, i think it's really important that service staff really give their best! and i expect it of them, else why bother to be in this industry.

Yesterday, i went to catch harry potter with Jan and Shuying and Joy-Joy (it was gooood! except for dumbledore... this new one really acts stupid) and we had dinner at suki sushi at Cine. the service there is really really bad. the wait-staff made us wait a long time before they came to take our order... and then our order took forever to come. and then on top of that, they got one of our orders wrong. the girl who brought it asked us 2x what we ordered in a disbelieving tone, as if we were trying to cheat her. THEN the guy to took our order even asked us if we want to take the wrong order when we told him that we were in a hurry (no apology at all). i filled up the feedback form with bad feedback. the service really sucks. but *shrugs* what do you expect at a place aimed at teenagers... so we didn't kick up as big a fuss.

TODAY, i went to the Balcony, which is this new cafe/pub/lounge at Heeren. the ambience is really nice, the decor is really pretty... BUT the service sucked so bad as well! they must have asked us like 4 times whether we were ready to order, when we told them 4 times that we were still waiting for a friend. then once shuying got there, they IMMEDIATELY came over and asked if we were ready to order. PLEASE... gimme a break... my friend just got here. Berinda was really irritated by this. Nevermind... then we placed our orders and then the manager comes back and says that they don't have a particular dish that we wanted. nevermind. so we changed it. after that, we realised that we didn't get our orange juice. so we asked him, and he said that he thought we were reconsidering our whole 1st order. now i was getting worried that they might have cancelled shuying's order too. so we asked the waiter whether we had 3 mains and 1 side. he said yes. we asked a few times, and he kept saying yes.... all the food came.... we waited forever... but shuying's order never came... we asked that same waiter... he checked... and lo and behold, discovered that that dish was never ordered. and that's not all. there's this one waitress who had such a kiam pa face. she was wearing slippers. WTH? how can they let her wear slippers to work??? unless her toe is swollen 10x it's normal size or something and can't fit into a shoe... that's just sloppy. She came over and took away my plate without asking if i wanted it cleared. nevermind. Shuying was dipping her potato wedges into this little sauce dish which was on a larger plate. this same stupid girl comes over and starts putting the dirty utensils onto this plate. please bear in mind shuying is still dipping her wedges into the sauce. all 3 of us are staring at her. she then tries to lift up the plate while shuying is still dipping. berinda cannot take it a second longer. she says " excuse me, can't you see that she's still using the sauce?" and the girl says oh did you still want it? hey hello.... use some common sense... isn't it obvious???? Berinda cannot take it anymore... me and Shuying are in different states of pissed-ness. these people have no common sense. none at all. even the manager is a little whacked... he kept giving excuses like his staff is new and all sorts of crap. hey... i really don't care... some things need common sense... and they don't even have that.

the food wasn't even that great... if not for the fab decor, i'd never go back there again. we really need to improve service standards in singapore... if this is how service is like, no wonder we're lagging.

2005-11-26T01:11:00.000+08:00

Got Ade and Isaac to buy this for me when they were on their trip to the US of A... anyone up for some drinks? *wink*

Yet another wedding to attend

2005-11-24T22:49:00.000+08:00

Last Saturday I attended the wedding of one of my cousins. Seems like everyone is getting married this year! i think i must have attended at least 3 already.

Anyway, her wedding was held in Malaysia, so the whole Chen clan trooped down to Kulai (a small town just above JB) for the wedding dinner.

We were stuck in the jam... what should have been a 2 hr (max!) journey turned out to be a 3.5hr one.

Here's my brother, my sister and I just before we reached.

The wedding was really loud and rowdy. No tinkling music and soft chatter... there was karaoke and the yam sengs were really boisterous!

The bride and groom on stage...

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM Seng!

Experience the Yam Seng for yourself.

Loud rite? it's actually really quite fun. maybe next time i'll have karaoke at my wedding too!

Cute boy with the unpronounceable name. he's one of my cousin's kids... his name is zedekiel (a bible name) but that's not the worst.. his brother is called hedekiel (another bible name). poor kids... or rather their poor teachers. imagine having to pronounce zedekiel on the 1st day of school. *shudders* i like him tho... very good natured boy.

Nadene and Regine my eldest cousin's children. they call me Bettina jie jie when they should technically be calling me aunty. of course i don't bother to correct them. haha... why make myself older than i already am.

making funny faces with regine.

Nadene's too old to be making faces... she's acting all sweet now...

2nd eldest cousin's girl... she's the most precocious girl i've ever met. she once told me she didn't like a present i gave her...and wouldn't accept it... nope not politically correct at all. but very cute!

that angelic smile... just hiding the micheviousness inside.

we took so many funny face pics! i look super ugly here... but who cares! it was really fun. hehe

This is the cousin that does my facials... i'm going to her this saturday for my facial!!! need to clear up my face. sigh.

another malaysian cousin. she has 2 kids... and her husband passed away earlier this year cos he was in a bad car accident. so sad rite? she was really crushed... but she looks so much better now. Thank God she was able to pick herself up... and now she's working and all that. so it's all good.

Yeah... all in all a very fun wedding. click here for more pics of the event.

p.s. i found this fantastic website that lets you upload any type of file (up to 3mb) and let's you hotlink the file too! The ultimately cool thing is that it's totally FREE! haha. it's called freefilehosting.net and that's how i put up the video. yeah yeah yeah.... today is another good day!

check out some funky dance moves... WHOA!

2005-11-24T16:15:00.000+08:00

China's answer to William Hung

I'm feeling boliao at work today... I know u guys probably have seen this before... I saw it like a few months ago... but this is super entertaining. she has no shame... oh well.. provides entertainment for the rest of the world.

My other language names...

2005-11-24T13:52:00.000+08:00

Your Japanese Name Is...

Cho Kawashi

What's your Japanese Name?

Your French Name is:

Virginie Corre

What's Your French Name?

Your Sexy Brazilian Name is:

Gabriela da Costa

What's Your Sexy Brazilian Name?

Your Irish Name Is...

Eimear Joyce

What's your Irish Name?

haha... funny... from now on you can call me Eimear. cool name huh... how do you pronounce it??

beautiful contradictions

detox day 3

Detox Day 2

detox day 1

boo

yay!

Equations

sometimes...

bored

Memories of Japan

wheeeee...

meme - tagged by roo

long time no see!

Seriously...

it didn't work...

Blogging from work

One saturday evening

lalalalala

mood: slightly depressed

i miss ocbc...

i love handing over...

One small step across the road, A GIANT step towards Chanel

a magical wedding

Do right woman, do right man

2 babies

karaoke at St James (and other random things)

expectations revisited

As of today

extreme boredom

A lazy Saturday, a tiring Friday and an interesting Thursday

Expectations

Happy-ness

catharsis

I Wish You Love <3

Ikea, Superlife, and Work (or the lack of)

See you soon, my friend

the weekend!

why i haven't blogged

it never rains but pours...

tiredness is...

guys are stupid

Save the Cheerleader, Save the WORLD!

skinny is beautiful

If you would just stay in your box, I would be okay...

dreamgirls

歌曲：暧昧

Heroes and Chinese New Year

singles of the world unite

I can't sleep!

sick sick, everyone's sick

another party

Blog Music

private blog...

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Stuck In My Head

love is in the aiiiiirr...

war...

all in one- super long post

back to work... i.e. real life

i want to learn the LINDY HOP!!!

The Past Few Weeks...

re-blogging

dreamzzzz

i'm baaaaack!

How much do you weigh?

no bonus for me

i dont feel like blogging these days

How Do Men See You?

*drool* should i get this?

celebrating a girlfriend's birthday

So...

PMS

boo hoo hoo

Long Photo Post

yay!

so long...

the life of an irritating guy

C is for Cookie, Cookie is for me...

MoS on chu1 yi1

Yet another Photolog

drool should i get this?