Getting to know me

I received the following email a few days ago and decided to do as it says:

Welcome to the new 2008 edition of getting to know your friends! Here is what you are supposed to do, and try not to be lame and spoil the fun. Change all the answers so that they apply to you. Then send this to a bunch of people you know, INCLUDING the person who sent it to you. Some of you may get this several times; that means you have lots of friends.

(Please BCC the friends you email to so that no one will cc to everyone on the list when replying. It might not be welcomed by those who are not in the circle….Thanks)

Here are my answers:

1. What is your occupation? - Loafer for now. Maybe teacher in future.

2. What color are your socks right now? - Not wearing socks now. At home leh.

3. What are you listening to right now? - Korean pop songs, but I dun understand a single word!

4. What was the last thing that you ate? - Sour plum to digest the sinful dinner i had earlier.

5. Can you drive a stick shift? - har???

6. Last person you spoke to on the phone? - Dun remember. Some telemarketer?

7. Do you like the person who sent this to you? - I dun dislike that person.

8. How old are you today? - 29yrs 5 mths 2 wks

9. What is your favourite sport to watch? - Dun like sports

10. What is your favourite drink? - Tea with milk (teh), hot or iced.

11. Have you ever dyed your hair? - Yes.

12. Favorite food? - Changes according to my different cravings every other day, but usually prata/goreng pisang/rojak/youtiao

13. What was the last movie you watched? - Can't remember. Forgetting Sarah Marshall?

14. Favorite day of the year? - Any day I can spend quality time with Ah Ke, friends & family

15. How do you vent anger? - Shake Ah Ke & ask him why he can still remain smiling when I'm so angry & frustrated. Or complain to friends.

16. What was your favourite toy as a child? - AH KE!!!!! And he's STILL my fav toy now. My little darling. *muacks muacks*

17. What is your favourite season? - Autumn. Love the colorful maple leaves & dry cooling weather.

18. Cherries or Blueberries? - Cherries (but not those weird tasting ones found in some desserts)

19. Do you want your friends to e-mail you back ? - if they are free or bored lor

20. Who is the most likely to respond? - duno

21. Who is least likely to respond? - duno

22. Living arrangements? - Parents + siblings + Ah Ke & his friends

23. When was the last time you cried? - In July. Cried so much my eyes were swollen the next day.

24. What is on the floor of your closet? - A basket of bags & 1 safe deposit box

25. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending this to? - Duno. Still deciding who to send this to.

26. What did you do last night? - Watched F1 & checked out abt the grid girls online after that. Coz their quality were so unbelievable, I had to find out if I am the only one who expected high standards.

27. What inspires you? - Duno.

28. What are you most afraid of? - Unknown future, no career, no $$, no love, insects

29. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? - Cheeseburger, but my fav's mushroom swiss burger. Yumyum..

30. Favorite dog breed? - Know ntg abt dog breeds. Favorite pig & rabbit can? That would be the "never grow big" pig that I heard exists & floppy ear rabbits.

31. Favorite day of the week? - Any day I can spend quality time with Ah Ke, friends & family

32. How many countries have you lived in? - 2. Spore & Japan

33. Favorite TV show? - Changes often. Used to be ER & Ally McBeal, then Desperate Housewives. Now dun have any fav show now...

Send me your answers leh! I wana kaypoh & know u too!

First trip to S'pore Turf Club

No lah....I didn't go there to bet on horse racing... The horses were probably sleeping by the time I was there. Thanks to SSO's free public performance at the S'pore Racecourse, I had a chance to enjoy an evening of classical music & get to "tour" the racecourse premises.

Ms Sua-Gu me was very excited to be there. There were many booths for placing bets & self-betting kiosks as well. There were blocks of seats beside the booths and the floors & seats were filled with litter. Poor cleaners were clearing up the mess at 6+ in the evening. Checked out the racing track but it was quite dark. Someday I want to go there to see all the action.

Despite the rain, the performance went on as scheduled. I had a great time there. It was fun trying to figure out which musical instrument was playing which part. However I duno what some are called coz I've returned all that I've learnt in music theory to my teacher 11 years ago. Heehee...

Here's my favorite piece played at the performance. Not from the SSO performance nor a complete piece, but I'm sure you'll enjoy it too.

Alexander Borodin (1833-1887)
Prince Igor: Polovtsian Dances

中秋节快乐

Today's the Mid-Autumn festival! This means yummy mooncakes are here again! Ok, we started eating mooncakes 2-3 weeks back when it was still the Hungry Ghosts Festival month. Coz by the time it ends, there's only 2 weeks to the Mid-Autumn festival. Two weeks isn't enough to eat all the yummy mooncakes on sale!

BUT Ms Chan is on a diet :( I had to control myself from eating too much mooncake. To date, I've had 1 mini lotus paste snowskin, 1/4 durian snowskin & 1/4 lotus paste baked skin. With my family eating mooncake as a dessert almost every other day, controlling the temptation to eat it was a torture. I've a weakness for yam paste mooncake. Those deep-fried with layers of pastry skin. *drool* Luckily no one bought it otherwise my weight will shoot up!

This year no lanterns too coz everyone have their own plans. I wanted to go to Chinatown / Vivocity's lantern walk but no one wanted to go :( So I ended up surfing net at home. Hope next year's festival will be more fun and I can eat mooncakes to my heart's content :)

Btw, I've lost about 1kg after 20 days of dieting & exercise. Happy!! Just a bit more to go & I can safely PIG OUT in Taipei next month. *drool*

Jobless and enjoying it?

I've been jobless for 6 months. Being unemployed from March - July was a choice I made. I was living as a maid overseas, free lodging and food but no pay. When I returned in August, I actively searched for jobs & went for interviews but never passed the 2nd round of interviews. And that included temporary jobs! I was upset & felt very useless. Why was I not shortlisted for interviews? Why did I not pass the interview? Am I that lousy? My self-esteem plunged and I had bad mood swings. I desperately wanted to return to the workforce.

I'm still looking for a temp job with no success. Coz temp jobs want me to commit for 3-6 mths which I can't. What if I'm lucky and get a perm job? Then recently a friend told me to take my time to find a perm job I like & enjoy the free time I have now. Coz once I start working, I can no longer idle my time away like I'm doing now.

I thought it through carefully and decided to apply for a job I've always had a passion for but didn't go for it because of the 4-year bond attached. I'm still waiting for the outcome of the interview. If I fail, I really don't know what's my next step.

For now, I'll enjoy my free time & pray that all will turn out well.

Day out at East Coast Park

Feeling bored & not wanting to waste the nice sunny weather, I drove to East Coast Park with my AhKe (my darling doll) & his pet (Shiro the soft-toy dog) yesterday. The 2nd time to drive after 3 months break, I needed them for company. But they stayed to look after my car in the park.

By the time I reached, the nice sunny weather turned very hot & very sunny. Not the type of weather I want to walk or cycle around in. So I ended up pigging out at Burger King, eating my favorite mushroom swiss burger. Had onion rings and iced milo too. Need energy later for cycling mah... heehee

Rented a bicycle near McDonalds area at $6 for 2hrs + a free bottle of water. That's like $3hr/hr. Quite reasonable deal. To make full use of that, I pushed myself to cycle beyond National Sailing Centre until I reached a sign that stated "Changi Beach Park, 7480m". Quite ulu area there but can see aeroplanes flying past clearly. SQ, cathay & some other ulu airlines... Cycling back to the shop was a torture coz very tired by then. And buttocks pain pain!!

A nice day out to East Coast. Think I should go more often before I settle down in a job. Coz weekends at East Coast will probably be a nightmare.

Communicating with the deities

Having lost sleep for nights over some problems bothering me lately, I went to Shuang Lin Si to pray last Saturday. I had 4 main wishes in mind & repeated it about 9 times to all the deities in different parts of the temple. Talk about being kiasu! Heehee. I drew a lot too, to seek guidance on what I should do and see what's in store for me in the near future.

It wasn't exactly a very good lot, but not a 凶 one neither. It read "It's best to brush off your misgivings and suspicions which are only hampering your progress. Don't feel discouraged for the prevailing obstacles will vanish and be replaced by pleasant, promising prospects. " Financial Pursuit: Unpredictable at present, but good in the near future. Job-hunting: Successful following initial difficulties.

To me, this lot addressed most of the problems troubling me lately. And I had asked for guidance & help from the deities regarding it. It's amazing. It's like they heard and were really communicating with me and gave me encouragement through the lot.

When it's time to pray to 太岁 & 虎爷, I'll definitely be back at the temple.

And yes, after the trip to the temple, I sleep so much better now. It really gave me a peace of mind.

Bored

When you see many changes in my blog template & a sudden increase in blog posts within a week, it can only mean one thing: I'm feeling very BORED.

I'm done with my Korean & TVB dramas. I've finished the books I borrowed from the library. I'm too lazy to go out. I'm resisting the temptation to go out coz it means I'll satisfy my food cravings easily & my "lose weight mission" will fail.

So I end up in front of my PC all day reading & writing blogs. Reading articles & horoscope & any other nonsense that interests me. I seriously need to work. This is driving me crazy!

Getting out of a mess

Life's been a mess for me lately. A mess I created myself. I seldom regret my actions but now I do. I wish I could turn back the clock. Maybe things would have turned out differently.

I'm lucky to have support from family & friends who are understanding & always there for me. I'm learning to let go and move on. I'm trying to start afresh. It's difficult but I'll try. It's not the end of the world for me yet despite the obstacles I've to overcome.

Haiz....why do Goats always have it tough? We seem to offend Tai Sui (太岁) every year! I must go to Shuanglinsi temple to stuff Hu Ye (虎爷) with meat & pray to all the deities, esp. 太岁 soon! *Please give me better years in future*

我要减肥!

As my title suggests, I'm trying to lose weight. Not that I'm overweight & need to lose it for health reasons. I'm just being VAIN. Heehee.

I'm going on a 1-week holiday trip to Taiwan & HK in October with my friends. And we all love to eat. With a local guide (my jie-mei's working there), I'm sure we'll get to pig out on the best foods in Taiwan. Maybe might have daily suppers since our hotel is supposedly in a hip shopping & eating belt. Drool... I can't wait to try the food there!

My berms are very tight now. Put on a kg the past month. I'm desperately trying to get rid of that extra kg & lose another kg more as an allowance to put it all back in October's trip. Smart idea?

"Mission Lose Weight" started last Tuesday with cycling 30mins on my gym bike. Food intake was reduced. Started a food journal too. Day 3 into the mission I gave up on the food journal coz it's such a chore. Daily cycling is still on. Jogging plan with my sister never materialized coz we're just too lazy. Heehee. I've lost 0.5kg over 10 days. Slow progress but better than nothing. If I don't over-pamper myself with lots of food on weekends, I should be able to reach my targeted weight by October.

It's so miserable to be on a diet. I think of food everyday. Yesterday craved for curry puff & yam cake & chee cheong fan, today crave for char siu bao & popiah & rojak. And I crave for iced milk tea everyday. Crazy me... why am I torturing myself like this? Maybe i should just buy larger sized clothes!

My handphone ringtone

A few months back, I went to a jap ktv session with my friends. One of them sang 愛は勝つ by Kan. It's a catchy and refreshing song which I liked. Jacky Cheung did a cantonese & chinese version of it too. I was so crazy over it that i downloaded it as my hp ringtone! Here's the original Jap version and the Canto version. Enjoy!


愛は勝つ by Kan



壮志骄阳 by Jacky Cheung 张学友

Karma & Other Stories

I've started to read a lot lately. From almost every other article in the newspapers to articles online and books borrowed from the library. My recent book was "Karma and Other Stories" by Rishi Reddi. It's a collection of short stories, mostly about Indians living in America coping with the different culture while preserving their own. A clash of values & way of life. It also gave an interesting insight on the Indian traditions, beliefs and culture.

Many of the stories remind me of my own attempt to hold on to the Singaporean culture while trying to adapt to the Japanese culture. The difference in thinking & the way of doing things. The expectations & the environment. What a challenge! I've always thought of myself as someone who can adapt easily to changes. How wrong was I! Anyway, more about my karma & other stories in future. Go read Reddi's book first :)

Happy Teachers' Day

A big thank you to the 2 teachers who taught me how to be a teacher when i was starting out. Being thrown into teaching with just the textbooks and nothing else, I was really lost and didn't know what to do & where to start. One readily shared project and teaching ideas, the other shared ways to discipline students and manage expectations. I miss the 2 years teaching in the school with you two. And I miss being a teacher. If all goes well, I'll become a teacher again and I hope I can inspire my students the way you did for me. Happy Teacher's Day!