bärの涂鸦部落

Moving

2009-08-24T19:58:00.000+10:00

I'm moved to wordpress! It's still under construction but I've transferred all the files to my new site.
Reason being? Wordpress gives me more control! Talking bout control freak...

Welcome to my new home!

Bollywood

2009-08-03T16:37:00.001+10:00

My son and I were sitting in my trusted GP's room. He had finished examining the little one and it's my turn. Ya... crap! We both got sick... just from sitting in the freezing Shin Kushiya restaurant at Vivocity for dinner.

The nurse came in. "Doc, a child is bleeding." "Ok bring him in."
Right immediately, an Indian mom rushed in with a 3-year-old boy in her arm, followed by her older daughter. Her hand was covered with dried blood from pressing the wound on the boy's scalp. It's a 2 cm shallow cut. He wasn't bleeding anymore.

I bet she made a dramatic entrance into the clinic. She looked panic, with tears in her eyes. The boy seemed to be frightened by his mom's frantic reaction.

"What happened?"
"He fell down."
"It's OK it's not a deep cut. He looks fine and scalp does bleed more. Did you wash him?"
"No."
"Ok, go to the toilet and clean him up now."

Then, the father called and doctor assured him that it's just a small cut and he was attending to the child. In fact the child smiled when the doctor gave him a sweet - Vit C. When the mom was done with the child, the doc gave her a gauge to press on the wound, reassuring her that it's not a big deal and she had to wait at for their turn.

"Can we stay here instead?"
"No, I prefer you to wait in the waiting hall."

Arghhhhh... finally she's out.

"They are all crying. Both parents are panic!" Apparently the father was crying over the phone. The fall of their child was definitely causing a bigger trauma to them than the little boy.

I put myself into her shoes and I don't see me being the panic mother with tears gushing out of my eyes. Touch wood when shit happens, if situation permits I'd nurse my child's wound, put antiseptic on it and make decision if I need to take my child to the doctor. Then I'll give my husband a call for a brief report. Little children are extremely sensitive to our feelings. They are observant, absorbing information like a sponge. Being panic and weary would only add more psychological burden to the little ones.

As I walked out of the doctor's room, the mom was still sobbing, while the child was happily enjoying his biscuits.

Everything for the little one...

2009-07-20T13:47:00.005+10:00

This was hubby trying to convince me for his "need" to get a new true HD ultra big TV.

"If you can get Tiffany I can get a new TV..."
"Well my Tiffany will only cost a fraction of your TV. "
"It's for the zai... for his EDUCATION!"
"What? Is that for him to see the nostril of the lion clearly?"
"Yes..."

$%#@&^%

hahaha... lame! Everything for the little one!

Companion

2009-07-10T17:33:00.002+10:00

I think a good meal comes with great companions.

With bad companions, I won't be enjoying my food even if I were dining in a Michelin 3 stars restaurant.

Food was great today. Ambience was excellent. But I find it rather hard to swallow...

Hurray!

2009-07-01T14:08:00.001+10:00

Mission accomplished!

Last Saturday I swam the agreed length twice! Can claim my Tiffany now!
*blink blink*

Hearty Potato and Egg Salad

2009-06-01T17:40:00.007+10:00

Found this super yum potato and egg salad recipe on essortment.com.

Ingredients
4 potatoes
4 hard boiled eggs

Dressing
4 tbs mayonnaise
1.5 tbs French's mustard
Half an apple
sugar
milk
salt
pepper
paprika

Preparation
Peel, boil and dice the potatoes. Mash the eggs and mix with potatoes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Whip mayonnaise and mustard. Gradually add milk until the mixture is creamy and smooth. Add sugar.
Slice apple with skin on. Mix with potato and egg. Toss with dressing. Sprinkle paprika on top. Put salad into the fridge. Serve cold.

My paprika is lumpy!

I served mine as side dish for my ultra yum steak! Slurrrrrp!

A little achievement

2009-05-26T16:35:00.003+10:00

Yesterday I swum in a 1.8m pool. It's about 8m in width. Normally I don't dare to swim in a pool which I cannot touch the ground. It takes a quite a bit of courage for me to do it.

I'm still not very good at swimming. The maximum distance I could go non-stop is half a olympic sized pool in width. Not length though.

Well... I have until end of 2009 to swim non-stop to the other end of the pool (in width) and I'll be rewarded with Tiffany.

For the sake of Tiffany... I shall work hard!

Parenting notes

2009-05-06T20:25:00.007+10:00

I've been doing some reading on how to tame my little monster. I think I need a book called "Handling little monsters for dummies".

These are what I learnt and excerpted from "Raising a happy child" by Steve and Shaaron Biddulph.

How to teach babies to stay away from danger
If a child is heading for a dangerous object, pull them/ his hands away and stay in a firm voice,
"Come away!"
"Hot! Hands off!"

Tell the child what to do as opposed to what not to do. This is more useful than saying
"Don't touch it or you will burn yourself" (sounds like Dan)
which can plant the image in a child's mind of the bad outcome and may make them fascinated with doing it.

Stages of Discipline
Distracting babies
Distract the babies away from what you don't want them to do by offering something else, like picking them up, give them a cuddle, give them a toy or even point them to look at an interesting object like a dog.

Redirecting toddlers
Offer them something in replace of what the toddlers desire. Eventually they will learn that they will not always get exactly what they want, their needs will be considered and something good might happen.

When the children have only the beginnings of language, it doesn't work to lecture or scold. Explaining things in details will not make them change. 2-3 years old learns with their bodies, show them what you want them to do.

When they become better with language, redirect them by putting your words into the positive. Tell them what to do as opposed to what not to do. Humans respond better to being told what you want.

Do not shout at them. Offer an alternative which is acceptable to you.

The teaching conversation
Help little monsters to find new ways to behave that still meet their needs. We want them to
learn to wait
take no for answer
ask politely for what they want
respect others' feelings
not hurt others physically or verbally
follow simple rules

When the problem happens, stop the child, calm the child and make good eye contact.
Ask
1. What happened? What did you do?
2. What were you thinking and feeling?
3. What do you think you could have done differently?
4. What will you do to fix this now?
5. Will you do that now?

Aims: Resolve the issue and make sure that the child has learnt the lesson and come out not feeling bad.

Withdrawal

2009-04-15T22:37:00.003+10:00

I'm having withdrawal symptoms from holidaying. Went Down Under twice within 3 weeks.

Now that I'm back to my normal schedule, I don't know what to do with the extra time I have having not to travel from one place to another. I have 48 hours a day.

Anyway, the weird thing is... the first thing crossed my mind is doing dishes when I tried to recall my last trip. Doing dishes everyday.

Back here, the sky is not clear and the sea is not azure blue. Cargo ships view instead of endless horizon and beautiful sunset.

I shall remember that.

Smack!

2009-03-11T19:31:00.004+11:00

I was still blur. Walked into the kitchen, eyes half closed. Transfixed onto 3 moving objects, and my eyes wide opened. Heart throbbing. Nervous.

They were ugly faces and moving legs of scary cockroaches. One medium sized teenager roach and 2 babies.

Smack! Smack! Smack!

I rolled up some newspaper and killed them all!

I'm so proud of myself. Calmed and cool... I murdered them and chucked them into the bin.

When I dumped something else into the bin, the teenage roach tried to grasp its last chance to escape. Did I not kill you? I closed the lid of the bin, crushed it on the belly, leaving its head exposed.

With the help of a thick kitchen towel, I squeezed its head and it snapped into half, leaving no room for survival.

So proud of myself. I murdered them. Cool and calm.

No way they are going to have a chance to "play" with my child. Though I'm still wondering where did they come from? Roof maintenance? Lift upgrading? I wonder.

Thank God they couldn't fly.

Bent your nees!

2009-03-03T00:59:00.006+11:00

I went to my very first Hot Yoga session this afternoon. I tried yoga years ago and hated the slow pace of it. It's always very cold at the gym back in Melbourne and I always looked at the clock frequently hoping the minute hand would spin faster. The coldness added to the discomfort of the yoga class that I couldn't bear the torture and stopped going for yoga ever since.

When something is hot, most likely it's good except for beer and ice cream.

It never crossed my mind that Yoga... a hot one... could give me this level of exhaustion. I have sore muscles all over my body and a good sleep is on top of my most wanted list for the remaining hours of the day and it all translates into - I had a surprisingly good workout!

Despite the good workout for my body, I had a good workout for my mind too. Can you imagine how does an Indian robot sound like? Try... the voice of an annoying call center guy from India speaking to you monotone. Then change it into "Robot" mode.

I had to use all my will power to focus on balancing my body for the "Boat" pose and try to comprehend what was the complex instruction mumbled out of heavily accented Inglish of the made in India instructor for the next pose.

"Bent your nees. Bent! More! More!"

Okay.. I'll bent!

Kidnap

2009-02-27T16:17:00.006+11:00

I was just getting up when my phone rang. Oooh... it's sister.

"Are you ok?"
"Yes I'm."
"Where are u? Are u at home?"
"Yes... what's wrong?" The first thing came across my mind was terrorists attacking Singapore... cuz I dreamt about it last night.
"Nah... dad received a call saying his daughter is being kidnapped and they want $$$$ from him."

Scam.

It's always on the paper and never thought that it would happen in our family. It's the classic scam.

Phone rang and a girl cried hysterically for help.
"I'm a gangster. Your daughter is in our hand in KL. I want 200K.... " bla bla bla... shit like that.
While negotiating with them, dad asked mom to call sis to confirm our safety. The voice of that girl somehow resembled my sister. The caller heard this and they put down the phone.

Minutes later, they called again telling my dad that "his daughter" was unconscious and demanded 200k immediately.

Anyway, glad that it's just a scam and everyone is safe.

Hmm... what a dramatic start for my Friday....

Orange Spinach Salad

2009-02-17T19:44:00.003+11:00

I made this salad last week and it's super yum!!!

Ingredients
1 Packet of baby spinach
1 Romaine lettuce
2 tbsp. finely chopped onion
1/2 diced sweet pepper (red or orange)
2 Oranges, peeled and sectioned
1 cucumber, shredded or thinly sliced

Honey Dill Dressing
3/4 cup Japanese Mayonnaise
2 tbsp. honey
1 tbsp. lemon or lime juice
1 tbsp. dill weed

Whisk and chill the dressing. Toss everything together before serve.

Cost per Liter

2009-01-30T20:03:00.004+11:00

If you could buy breast milk by the liter from the corner store, how much would it cost?

Answer:
According to the economist Julie Smith, breast milk is worth approximately AUD50 a liter. Based on 1992 Australian figures, Smith estimates that Australian women produced 33 million kilograms, worth AUD2.2 billion to the economy, which is about 0.5 percent of the GDP. Since 1993 Norway has included human milk output in its annual reports on national food production. It is the only country to do so.

Fresh Milk ~ Fiona Giles

I've been the sole milk supplier to my baby and I've ever thought about this - breast milk as a commodity. Adding love and intimacy on top of that 50 bucks, the milk "sold" to my baby would be priceless.

还在

2009-01-23T18:04:00.001+11:00

总是觉得祖母还在。
当我回到家一脚踏进家门就会看见她在满脸的皱纹里藏着的笑容。

人们说年的杀气很大，所以老人们都很担心等不到下一个团年，一个孩子孙子们把家挤爆的团年。

很庆幸自己在圣诞后带了我的小瓜回家，让他看看曾祖母，也让祖母关怀她的第四代。
而在我脑海中，祖母享用着杜拜甜枣的高兴模样，是我对她的最后印象。

想不到喂祖母吃小食是我为她做的最后一件事。
真的要对自己重要的人好一点。不想在他们走的那一天后悔。

Shattered

2009-01-06T20:33:00.003+11:00

I think I have slippery hands. Or you may call it clumsy. I broke the lid of my Tefal pan in the last month of 2008 while doing the dishes and I'm yet to find the replacement for it.

For the first month of 2009, my drinking glass refused to let me clean it that it rather slipped and killed itself, shattered into tiny pieces all over the sink. It's a sign that doing dishes is not my expertise. I need a dish washer to rescue the innocent items in the kitchen. Too much casualties in my humble flat.

The death of the drinking glass made me realize how much I love Ikea. No pressure of breaking stuff and I always know that I can get a replacement in a pack of 6... more for me to break!

Simple life

2008-12-18T12:38:00.004+11:00

I feel like a million bucks for being able to sleep through the night for the first time after months of dragging myself up in the ungodly hours for the little sucker.

Energetic and most importantly happy! Haha... apparently I've been taking the privilege of sleeping through the night for granted.

Wow! Early xmas pressie and I hope that it lasts...

人才...空虚

2008-12-09T17:43:00.003+11:00

一流的人才，永远简短透明，四两拨千斤。
次等的人才，才让大家见山不是山，见水不是水。

我们不断地打电话，只是在排解空虚。
手机的电磁波，最适合用来麻痹自己。

王文华~史丹佛的银色子弹

What's wrong with these people?

2008-11-12T22:34:00.006+11:00

I signed up a manicure and pedicure package long time ago with a shop at Marine Parade central when I was heavily pregnant and couldn't do my own nails.

The shop is always busy and the owner is a young Malaysian girl. She is humorous, polite and by just chatting with her, she makes the normal more than an hour session like a 30 mins one, which is great when I can't do anything but sitting there waiting for my nails to be done.

I have used up my pedi session during my pregnancy and I've left with a couple of mani sessions and I don't wish to sign up for more sessions. I hate commitments... with the shops.

Two days ago I called up to book for a mani and pedi session since I have an event coming up this weekend.

Ring ring ring and a RPC girl picked up. I told her that I'll buy one pedi session. I'm sure she smirked over the phone and said in dismay: "Buy only ONE session?"

Yes you idiot! That's not your problem.

Something came up and the event has been cancelled plus it's raining cats and dogs out there and it's a major turn off. I waited until 715pm and I decided to make a call to cancel my appointment.

This time, a man picked up the phone.

Given him my name, I said: "I would like to cancel my appointment at 8pm."
He said dramatically:"Oooooh!!!! Yes... but WHY?"
Me: "It's raining."
He went in his distinctive singlish:"U dun haf umblella meh?"

It's none of his $#@*&^ business. Just accept the fact that I'm cancelling the booking and shut up! I'm kind enough to bother to call up though... bloody hell!

What's wrong with these people? I'm the customer and I do what I want. Just accept and be grateful that I'm still having the intention to spend money in this recession.

Sometimes I rather talk to the machine that I don't need to deal with idiots. Provided if the machine is smart enough...

Press 1 to make an appointment.
Press 2 to make changes to your appointment.
Press 3 to swear to a real person.

Dear son...

2008-11-11T15:40:00.003+11:00

This is how I feel after tasting the baby pasta with cod fish I've just prepared for my 9 months old boy.

When he has grown up, I'm going to tell him:" Son, whatever crappy food that you have tasted in your first years, 95% of the time were mummy's cooking... the other 5% were the crappy baby food produced by Heinz..."

I feel so sorry... should have bought tonnes of tasty baby food from Japan!

一碗阳春面的故事

2008-10-14T23:58:00.002+11:00

并不知道谁是这故事的作者，只知道这是个很感人的故事。
如果您有什么不如意的事情，就发挥阳春面的精神，加油吧！

对于面馆来说，最忙的时候，要算是大年夜了。北海亭面馆的这一天，也是从早就忙得不亦乐乎。
　　平时直到深夜十二点还很热闹的大街，大年夜晚上一过十点，就很宁静了。北海亭面馆的顾客，此时也象是突然都失踪了似的。
　　就在最后一位顾客出了门，店主要说关门打烊的时候，店门被咯吱咯吱地拉开了。一个女人带着两个孩子走了进来。六岁和十岁左右的两个男孩子，一个身崭新的运动服。女人却穿着不合时令的斜格子的短大衣。
　　“欢迎光临！”老板娘上前去招呼。
　　“啊，……阳春面……一碗……可以吗？”女人怯生生地问。那两个小男孩躲在妈妈的身后，也怯生生地望着老板娘。
　　“行啊，请，请这边坐，”老板娘说着，领他们母子三人坐到靠近暖气的二号桌，一边向柜台里面喊着，“阳春面一碗！”
　　听到喊声的老板，抬头瞥了他们三人一眼，应声答道：“好咧！阳春面一碗——”
　　案板上早就准备好的，堆成一座座小山似的面条，一堆是一人份。老板抓了一堆面，继而又加了半堆，一起放进锅里。老板娘立刻领悟到，这是丈夫特意多给这母子三人的。
　　热腾腾香喷喷的阳春面放到桌上，母子三人立即围着这碗面，头碰头地吃了起来。
　　“真好吃啊！”哥哥说。
　　“妈妈也吃呀！”弟弟挟了一筷面，送到妈妈口中。
　　不一会，面吃完了，付了150元钱。
　　“承蒙款待，”母子三人一起点头谢过，出了店门。
　　“谢谢，祝你们过个好年！”老板和老板娘应声答道。
　　过了新年的北海亭面馆，每天照样忙忙碌碌。一年很快过去了，转眼又是大年夜。
　　和以前的大年夜一样，忙得不亦乐乎的这一天就要结束了。过了晚上十点，正想关门打烊，店门又被拉开了，一个女人带着两个男孩走了进来。
　　老板娘看到那女人身上的那件不合时令的斜格子短大衣，就想起去年大年夜那三位最后的顾客。
　　“……这个……阳春面一碗……可以吗？”
　　“请，请里边坐，”老板娘将他们带到去年的那张二号桌，“阳春面一碗——” “好咧，阳春面一碗——”老板应声回答着，并将已经熄灭的炉火重新点燃起来。
　　“喂，孩子他爹，给他们下三碗，好吗？”
　　老板娘在老板耳边轻声说道。
　　“不行，如果这样的话，他们也许会尴尬的。”
　　老板说着，抓了一人半份的面下了锅。
　　桌上放着一碗阳春面，母子三人边吃边谈着，柜台里的老板和老板娘也能听到他们的声音。
　　“真好吃……”
　　“今年又能吃到北海亭的阳春面了。”
　　“明年还能来吃就好了……”
　　吃完后，付了150元钱。老板娘对着他们的背影，“谢谢，祝你们过个好年！”
　　这一天，被这句说过几十遍乃至几百遍的祝福送走了。
　　随着北海亭面馆的生意兴隆，又迎来了第三年的大年夜。
　　从九点半开始，老板和老板娘虽然谁都没说什么，但都显得有点心神不定。十点刚过，雇工们下班走了，老板和老板娘立刻把墙上挂着的各种面的价格牌一一翻了过来，赶紧写好“阳春面150元”，其实，从今年夏天起，随着物价的上涨，阳春面的价格已经是200元一碗了。
　　二号桌上，在30分钟以前，老板娘就已经摆好了“预约席”的牌子。
　　到十点半，店里已经没有客人了，但老板和老板娘还在等候着那母子三人的到来。他们来了。哥哥穿着中学生的制服，弟弟穿着去年哥哥穿的那件略有些大的旧衣服，兄弟二人都长大了，有点认不出来了。母亲还是穿着那件不合时令的有些褪色的短大衣。
　　“欢迎光临，”老板娘笑着迎上前去。
　　“……啊……阳春面两碗……可以吗？”母亲怯生生地问。
　　“行，请，请里边坐！”
　　老板娘把他们领到二号桌，一边若无其事的将桌上那块预约牌藏了起来，对柜台喊道：
　　“阳春面两碗！”
　　“好咧，阳春面两碗——”
　　老板应声答道，把三碗面的份量放进锅里。
　　母子三人吃着两碗阳春面，说着，笑着。
　　“大儿，淳儿，今天，我做母亲的想要向你们道谢。” “道谢？向我们？……为什么？”
　　“实在是，因为你们的父亲死于交通事故，生前欠下了八个人的钱。我把抚恤金全部还了债，还不够的部分，就每月五万元分期偿还。”
　　“这些我们都知道呀。”
　　老板和老板娘在柜台里，一动不动地凝神听着。
　　“剩下的债，到明年三月还清，可实际上，今天就可以全部还清了。”
　　“啊，这是真的吗，妈妈？”
　　“是真的。大儿每天送报支持我，淳儿每天买菜烧饭帮我忙，所以我能够安心工作。因为我努力工作，得到了公司的特别津贴，所以现在能够全部还清债款。”
　　“好啊！妈妈，哥哥，从现在起，每天烧饭的事还是包给我了！” “我也继续送报。弟弟，我们一起努力吧！”
　　“谢谢，真是谢……谢……”
　　“我和弟弟也有一件事瞒着妈妈，今天可以说了。这是在十一月的星期天，我到弟弟学校去参加家长会。这时，弟弟已经藏了一封老师给妈妈的信……弟弟写的作文如果被选为北海道的代表，就能参加僵的作文比赛。正因为这样，家长会的那天，老师要弟弟自己朗读这篇作文。老师的信如果给妈妈看了，妈妈一定会向公司请假，去听弟弟朗读作文，于是，弟弟就没有把这封信交给妈妈。这事，我还是从弟弟的朋友那里听来的。所以，家长会那天，是我去了。” “哦，原来是这样……那后来呢？”
　　“老师出的作文题目是，你‘将来想成为怎样的人’，全体学生都写了，弟弟的题目是《一碗阳春面》，一听这题目，我就知道是写的北海亭面馆的事。弟弟这家伙，怎么把这种难为情的事写出来，当时我这么想着。”
　　“作文写的是，父亲死于交通事故，留下一大笔债。母亲每天从早到晚拼命工作，我去送早报和晚报……弟弟全写了出来。接着又写，十二月三十一日的晚上，母子三人吃一碗阳春面，非常好吃……三个人只买一碗阳春面，面馆的叔叔阿姨还是很热情地接待我们，谢谢我们，还祝福我们过个好年。听到这声音，弟弟的心中不由地喊着：不能失败，要努力，要好好活着！因此，弟弟长大成人后，想开一家日本第一的面馆，也要对顾客说，努力吧，祝你幸福，谢谢。弟弟大声地朗读着作文……” 此刻，柜台里竖着耳朵，全神贯注听母子三人说话的老板和老板娘不见。在柜台后面，只见他们两人面对面地蹲着，一条毛巾，各执一端，正在擦着夺眶而出的眼泪。
　　“作文朗读完后，老师说，‘今天淳君的哥哥代替他母亲来参加我们的家长会，现在我们请他来说几句话……’”
　　“这时哥哥为什么……”弟弟疑惑地望着哥哥。
　　“因为突然被叫上去说话，一开始，我什么准备也说不出……诸君一直和我弟弟很要好，在此，我谢谢大家。弟弟每天做晚饭，放弃了俱乐部的活动，中途回家，我做哥哥的，感到很难为情。刚才，弟弟的《一碗阳春面》刚开始朗读的时候，我感到很丢脸，但是，当我看到弟弟激动地大声朗读时，我心里更感到羞愧，这时我想，决不能忘记母亲买一碗阳春面的勇气，兄弟们，齐心合力，为保护我们的母亲而努力吧！从今以后，请大家更好地和我弟弟做朋友。我就说这些……” 母子三人，静静地，互相握着手，良久。继而又欢快地笑了起来。和去年相比，象是完全变了模样。
　　作为年夜饭的阳春面吃完了，付了150元。
　　“承蒙款待，”母子三人深深地低头道谢，走出了店门。
　　“谢谢，祝你们过个好年！”
　　老板和老板娘大声向他们祝福，目送他们远去……
　　又是一年的大年夜降临了。北海亭面馆里，晚上九点一过，二号桌上又摆上了预约席的牌子，等待着母子三人的到来。可是，这一天始终没有看到他们三人的身影。
　　一年，又是一年，二号桌始终默默地等待着。可母子三人还是没有出现。
　　北海亭面馆因为生意越来越兴隆，店内重又进行了装修。桌子、椅子都换了新的，可二号桌却依然如故，老板夫妇不但没感到不协调，反而把二号桌安放在店堂的中央。 “为什么把这张旧桌子放在店堂中央？”有的顾客感到奇怪。
　　于是，老板夫妇就把“一碗阳春面”的故事告诉他们。并说，看到这张桌子，就是对自己的激励。而且，说不定哪天那母子三人还会来，这个时候，还想用这张桌子来迎接他们。
　　就这样，关于二号桌的故事，使二号桌成了幸福的桌子。顾客们到处传颂着，有人特意从老远的地方赶来，有女学生，也有年轻的情侣，都要到二号桌吃一碗阳春面。二号桌也因此名声大振。
　　时光流逝，年复一年。这一年的大年夜又来到了。
　　这时，北海亭面馆已经是这条街商会的主要成员，大年夜这天，亲如家人的朋友、近邻、同行，结束了一天的工作后，都来到北海亭，在北海亭吃了过年面，听着除夕夜的钟声，然后亲朋好友聚集起来，一起到附近神社去烧香磕头，以求神明保佑。这种情形，已经有五六年了。今年的大年夜当然也不例外。九点半一过，以鱼店老板夫妇捧着装满生鱼片的大盘子进来为信号，平时的街坊好友三十多人，也都带着酒菜，陆陆续续地会集到北海亭。店里的气氛一下子热闹起来。
　　知道二号桌由来的朋友们，嘴里没说什么，可心里都在想着，今年二号桌也许又要空等了吧？那块预约席的牌子，早已悄悄地放在了二号桌上。
　　狭窄的座席之间，客人们一点一点地移动着身子坐下，有人还招呼着迟到的朋友。吃着面，喝着酒，互相挟着菜。有人到柜台里去帮忙，有人随意打开冰箱拿东西。什么廉价出售的生意啦，海水浴的艳闻趣事啦，什么添了孙子的事啦。十点半时，北海亭里的热闹气氛达到了顶点。就在这时，店门被咯吱咯吱地拉开了。人们都向门口望去，屋子里突然静了下来。
　　两位西装笔挺、手臂上搭着大衣的青年走了进来。这时，大伙才都松了口气，随着轻轻的叹息声，店里又恢复了刚才的热闹。
　　“真不凑巧，店里已经坐满了，”老板娘面带歉意说。
　　就在拒绝两位青年的时候，一个身穿和服的女人，深深低着头走了进来，站在两位青年的中间。店里的人们，一下子都屏住了呼吸，耳朵也竖起来了。
　　“啊……三碗阳春面，可以吗？”穿和服的女人平静地说。
　　听到这话，老板娘的脸色一下子变了。十几年前留在脑海中的母子三人的印象，和眼前这三人的形象重叠起来了。
　　老板娘指着三位来客，目光和正在柜台里忙碌的丈夫的目光撞到一处。
　　“啊，啊，……孩子他爹……”
　　面对着不知所措的老板娘，青年中的一位开口了。
　　“我们就是十四前的大年夜，母子三人共吃一碗阳春面的顾客。那时，就是这一碗阳春面的鼓励，使我们三人同心合力，度过了艰难的岁月。这以后，我们搬到母亲的亲家滋贺县去了。” “我今年通过了医生的国家考试，现在京都的大学医院当实习医生。明年四月，我将到札幌的综合医院工作。还没有开面馆的弟弟，现在京都的银行里工作。我和弟弟商量，计划着生平第一次的奢侈行动。就这样，今天我们母子三人，特意到札幌的北海亭来拜访，想要麻烦你们煮三碗阳春面。”
　　边听边点头的老板夫妇，泪珠一串串地掉下来。
　　坐在靠近门口的蔬菜店老板，嘴里含着一口面听着，直到这时，才把面咽下去，站起身来。
　　“喂喂！老板娘，你呆站在那里干什么？这十年的每一个大年夜，你不是都为等待他们的到来做好了准备吗？快，快请他们入座，快！” 被蔬菜店老板用肩头一撞，老板娘才清醒过来。
　　“欢……欢迎，请，请坐……孩子他爹，二号桌阳春面三碗——”
　　“好咧——阳春面三碗——”泪流满面的丈夫差点应不出声来。
　　店里，突然爆发出一阵不约而同的欢呼声和鼓掌声。
　　店外，刚才还在纷纷扬扬飘着的雪花，此刻也停了。皑皑白雪映着明净的窗子，那写着“北海亭”的布帘子，在正月的清风中，摇着，飘着……

雨

2008-10-03T02:09:00.003+10:00

每逢九皇爷大诞槟城都会下大雨。

这个星期连续下了好几天的滂沱大雨，天气冷得连晚上都不需要开风扇，连老家对面的那座山也披上了白纱，感觉上就像在高原度假。

我老家真的是“开门见山”。

我的度假村。

NYC

2008-10-02T19:05:00.004+10:00

Carrie Bradshaw: And we were dressed from head to toe in love... the only label that never goes out of style.

Samantha Jones: I can't color enough, I would color all day every day If I had my way, I would use every crayon in my box
Carrie Bradshaw: We get it! You like to color...

These are my favourite quotes from the movie "Sex and the City". I miss walking down 5th Avenue after watching the show. It brings back all the memories of my NYC trip last year.

Skyscrapers, little niche cafes and restaurant, Central Park, Brooklyn Bridge and Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week...

The only thing is the girls don't love hot dogs like I do...

I love big cities.

p/s: If you like reading Candace Bushnell and you love "Sex and the City", check out "Liptsick Jungle".... yummy...

Wisdom of a child

2008-09-24T01:54:00.002+10:00

This is supposed to be posted ages ago... I didn't have time to work out Canton input until now.

The dog at home is obese from excessive feeding from my grandma and dad. I've decided to push the dog for some exercise before she's transformed into Garfield and die of heart attack.

Went for a 20 mins power walk today. After 15 mins, the dog was still unable to catch her breath.

Me: "you are still panting... tomorrow we'll walk more"
Doggie was looking at me begging me not to torture her.
Tiger: "dee dee, tomorrow it will be worse, save your energy and don't run around."

The way Tiger replied was so funny in Cantonese - 聽日你仲慘嗱，慳番啖氣來唞下喇. It sounds like an old lady trapped in the body of a 10 year old child...

菠萝

2008-09-24T00:46:00.001+10:00

带了我8个月大的孩子回家，爸爸妈妈都对他们唯一的孙子爱惜的不得了。

Tiger是我表姐的女儿，打从两个月大就住在家里，爸妈把她当作亲生女儿来照顾。

Tiger说：“这个是金菠萝，我以前也是金菠萝，然后贬成银菠萝，现在是plastic菠萝。如果他有什么差池，那我就会变成rubbish菠萝，没人要了！”

从此，她每天都很用心地帮忙带我的孩子，更破天荒主动地洗自己的碗和洗衣服，来提高她的菠萝地位。

当小孩可不容易，这么小就要费心的为自己铺路。而我的孩子也有了新的外号－金菠萝。

hungry

2008-09-21T03:10:00.004+10:00

it's 1am. i'm hungry. i need a dose of donuts. preferably krispy kreme. i wish it could be delivered to me through the window - imagine peter pan with a box of krispy kreme in his right hand. superman also can. dunwan spiderman cuz he doesn't "fly" straight. by the time the donuts are delivered by him, they would be lopsided.

gimme donuts.

urrrrrgh...

Oooouch!

2008-09-18T02:26:00.004+10:00

I can't do my own brows. Serious. I have all the right tools and I can fix someone else brows but I just can't do mine. I feel sorry for my pink tweezerman... whenever I look at it.

Usually I get my brows done when I go for facials. However, I find that it's hard to get a good beautician who does it right... just can't get the right service for what I pay for. Most of them use shaver which irritates the fragile thin skin on my upper eye and I hate it. On top of that, on a very high occurrence that I'll leave the place with not quite even brows. It's not my perfectionist talking, it's unfortunately true that most of the time the beauticians screw up.

There is only one time that I found someone who did it right. She tweezed my brows into perfect arch. However, I resorted to not to go back and contribute into her pay because she is such a bitch.

I've been really lazy lately. I frequent facial lesser, look at the mirror lesser and let myself go... alright... haha... just kidding... I decided to let my brows to grow back and try out Browhaus. It's backed by Spa Esprit and they are professional in fixing the brows - on the surface... they should be good.

Keeping my fingers crossed, I stepped into their branch at Paragon. I crashed the branch instead of making an appointment. It's a small shop hidden behind Spa Esprit.

They were really busy even on a Wednesday afternoon.

Ooops... it's a 2 hours wait for the next available slot for tweezing but they have threading in 40 mins.... 2 hours vs 40 mins... I just couldn't shop around at Paragon for another 2 hours with my little monster - I might end up buying that expensive designer sleek looking baby high chair... so threading it was!

So after spending 40 mins wandering around and contributed the pay for some sales assistants, I went back to Browhaus again. Two ladies left happily despite having some red patches on their brows and wiping their tears from the sockets of their eyes. I was being ushered to lie down on a chair by an Indian lady. She promised me that my brows will be really nice after her magic work.

Apparently threading is an interactive work. The customer has to help to pull the skin for the thread to run quickly to root the unruly hair and it hurts... really bloody painful. Ooooh... I did my upper lip as well. When the thread ran through my upper lip, I really felt like giving her a punch on her face.

She did the magic and from her satisfied smile, I was assured that she's proud of her handy work. Then, she passed me the mirror, gave me the biggest smile and said in awe: "It's beautiful..."

I was hoping that I would not end up like the ladies - red patches. Damn it... I ended up having patches of swollen skin on the socket of my eyes and at the corner of my lips. Worse, my brows were not beautiful... those were uneven brows and complemented with my tan skin, with the new arch of my brows, the first thing came into my mind was the statue of the goddess on the roof of a Hindu temple.

I look Bollywood. She really needs to go to get her eyes checked. My brows were uneven and they were NOT beautiful...

When I went to pay for the service, unwillingly, I had to listen to 3 different pushy shop assistants telling me 5 times on how I could save 70 bucks by signing up the package which could be used for 2 years.

I was in pain. I wasn't happy. I just wanted to get out of that place. So... I paid 22.70 SGD inclusive GST for my Bollywood goddess look.

On the next day, I met up with a friend and coincidentally her sister also went for threading (normally she goes for tweezing) at Browhaus at Wheelock Place and her brows look just like mine. Maybe Bollywood goddess look is the next IT thing?

Btw, the swollen patches on my skin subsided only after 3 days. I think I really need to put my pink tweezerman into good use...

Loser

2008-09-12T17:31:00.004+10:00

Busy busy busy. On top of managing my little one, I've been tied up with...

visitors - had visitors coming by 3 "batches" (haha... sounds like delivering goods) from all over the world in 1 month... phew...
organizing trips - getting my visa, flights for myself and the little one, planning itineraries... lots to do and I can't imagine how it's going to be - flying with the little one on my own
helping my hubby with some tiny tasks...

I haven't been reading for the past 2 months except the newspapers and it makes me feeling ugly. I'm back to the gym but I haven't reached my target of toning up my muscles. I have 3 more personal projects pending and I'm still keeping the dateline open. I haven't touched my Wii for months and dusting the console doesn't count.

I wish my little monster could sleep during the day to let me do things (blame the baby... hehe). Now I sound like a total loser!

Ants

2008-08-19T17:55:00.004+10:00

I have ants problem.

They are everywhere in the house - kitchen, bedrooms, on my son's playmat and they even come out of the keyboard as I type on my Mac... like A has 4 ants underneath and 1 of them is trying to hide under the space bar while 5 more are crawling on the screen.

Gross.

I don't eat when I'm on my laptop. The ants somehow find that the laptop is a good hideout or my passion fruit and grapes body wash is too sweet that the scent lingers and transfers to my laptop when I type.

I've been tolerating with them... trying to live under one roof peacefully while waiting for the lizards to wipe them out the food chain way - naturally and biologically.

I put my sweet treats from the bakery into the microwave to hide them from the ants. I have a thing for cute looking buns and pastry. I'm selfish and hate to share my food with the ants... and the microwave oven trick seems to work... until yesterday...

Yup! They made it! and they made a scene... those annoying pests made a trail from the floor up to the fridge and all to the way into the microwave oven. They found their way and greedily move tiny chunks of my food out of the oven.

Crossed. Vexed. I removed my sweet treats out of the oven and pressed
High
10 Seconds
Start

As the microwave worked their way and boiled the juice out of the ants, I heard "Pop! Pop! Pop!"... it sounded exactly like the popcorns!

To my surprise, as I pressed the Open button, there were only 5% casualties... the rest of the bloody tiny little creatures were still alive, showing off their survival skills and singing "na na na na na you cannot catch me!"

Dear dear dear... I went back to the conventional way... wiped them with a cloth and flushed them down to the drain.

To my rival... bloody ants... try me again... I'll press
High
30 mins
Start

and listen to my song of victory - the sound of "popcorns"...

You can have that jar of honey... leave my cutey buns alone!

Little surprise

2008-08-13T02:22:00.001+10:00

Little note:
Best present comes when it is least expected. Little surprises go a long way.
Love the Jurlique session today. Thank you.

Godsend

2008-08-06T02:04:00.007+10:00

Nothing is wrong and nothing is right. Nothing seems to be exciting. Not big deals are humongous to me. Take "change myself" out of the equation cuz I don't feel it right.

I need "me" time. My space. My life.

If I can't have the rewind button at least give me a fast forward. I need more than patience. I'm muted. Higher than ever EQ is switched on but that's never enough.

God bless me.

Need something to perk me up to change my mood weather from gloomy cloudy days to sunny days. Chanced upon this little cutey teddy bun. My sacrificial teddy bun. Sorry that I had to eat you.

At the same time I picked up this 5-rings game bun from the same bakery. You are not that cool but still I want to eat you.

Kudos to the baker! You are godsend to me.

Received 2 emails from the HR of two MNCs asking if I'm interested to join them. They got me from my inactive resume from an online service that I had to request to get my password reset. Maybe it's time to get back to the work force?

赤壁

2008-07-28T19:47:00.004+10:00

看了赤壁，那是吴宇森的三国。

折戟沉沙铁未消，自将磨洗认前朝。　　

东风不与周郎便，铜雀春深锁二乔。

杜牧－赤壁怀古

杜牧面赤壁有感而提了这首诗。诗中的二乔是江东二乔。江东二乔是一对姐妹，大乔嫁给了孙策，小乔则许配给周瑜。她们本姓桥，长得天姿国色。诗意是倘若周瑜不是借东风而打败了曹操，那东吴就很可能战败，而江东二乔也会被曹操掠到铜雀台当玩偶了。从前战败时，胜利者常把战败者身边的女人占为己有。

也许是吴宇森的浪漫主义作祟，也许是吴宇森拜读三国的领悟。戏中说曹操是为了夺小乔而开战，可真是看扁了曹操。

总觉得看戏不能太过认真，那只是导演在说故事。

炸到

2008-07-22T17:04:00.003+10:00

Dan的广东话是有限公司，非常有限的那种。他说话的逻辑常常让我哭笑不得。

有时候，我会对我的孩子说：“傻瓜，你这样做会很痛的！”
他责怪我说：“为什么你叫他 stupid melon？”
当他明白傻瓜的意思后，他常常对孩子说：“Stupid melon, 你这样会...的！”

昨晚，我故意作弄他说：“你说别人像一粒饭，那对饭很不公平！”
他说：“那就一块烧肉吧！”

我真的被他炸到。

回

2008-07-07T02:43:00.002+10:00

她回到了他们的海滩。

还记得那年冬天的太阳很大，那家店的早餐买到下午三点。他们选了一个在阳台的位子，懒洋洋的享用着早餐。

太阳很大，但风很冷。
眯着眼睛，抖擞着身体，手握着暖暖的杯子，舔着热腾腾的可可。

天空很蓝，一对情侣牵小狗着在散步。

“我们来这里定居吧！” 他说。
“那我要那间白色的洋房！”调皮的她指向半山面海的房子。
“那好！就这样哟！” 就算是她在开玩笑，他也会满足她所有的要求，填满她每一个梦想。

他无法抗拒她孩子般的笑容，她不能忘记他深邃的眼睛。

她回到了他们的海滩，他们的身旁都有另一个他。

才发现原来跟他在一起，最平凡无奇的小镇也会变得很绮丽，最苦的啤酒也会变得很甜。

“要停下来吃个午餐吗？”身边的他问。
她摇摇头，说：“不，雨下得很大。”

不想破坏心中最美丽的画面，有着他的画面。

The workers will hang themselves

2008-06-02T22:45:00.004+10:00

I had a good laugh reading this...

sounds like a horror movie huh?

Common sense... what?

2008-05-29T00:56:00.005+10:00

So, someone passed out, and remains unconscious. What should you do?
a. Pretend that I see nothing. Walk quickly.
b. Fan that person and rub his/ her chest.
c. Stand and watch the show. You don't get this scene everyday ok?

The answer is... all of the above!

This is exactly what I saw today. Dan had to work offsite a few blocks away from Bugis Junction. While waiting for him to finish his work, I killed some time at this shopping mall which is targeting the younger crowd.

I was heading to BHG and a human wall was blocking my way... hmm... is that a demo on some fancy stuffs like... maybe snake oil? As I was squeezing my way out, I saw this - a lady was lying on the floor unconsciously, right in front of Topshop, a girl was rubbing her chest, and another one was fanning her.

So... someone passed out... and all these young people (I'm really old in comparison to them) were so caring (okay... the better word is kay poh) that they built a human wall, surrounded the lady, crossed their arms and watched the "show".

Luckily, someone called the ambulance. The paramedic arrived immediately. God bless!

These young people might be the high achievers at school, scoring straight As like supp supp water. In fact, Singapore is very well known for producing the most Ivy League students (by percentage).

However, building a human wall is killing the lady instead of helping her. Being kay poh is not being caring!

Ivy League students without common sense? Useless!

New Razor

2008-05-09T18:51:00.010+10:00

I'm a razor person. My razor is traditional, no fuss, hand held, "manually" operated pink Gillette Venus razor. However, ever since I tried Dan's razor, I prefer using his.

Let's call my razor a "She" and his razor a "He".

"She" razor has nice curve and it gives a firm grip. Most importantly, it's Pink! However, "She" razor doesn't give a clean, smooth shave like a "He" razor does. Even though they are both from Gillette. So, the company gives the best razor to the men... as their slogan goes.

Why settle for the less while you can have the best of both? Introducing "Ultimate" - the ideal razor ala DS!

With this, the "Ultimate" has all the pros of a "He" razor and doesn't slip like a "He" razor. Try lather on shaving cream/ gel and use a "He" razor. You'll know how I feel.

Come... hire me as a product reviewer! I'm very good at this.

Re-registration of Marriage

2008-04-10T18:41:00.004+10:00

As a good citizen, I follow the law. My ROM was done outside of Malaysia, so as a Malaysian citizen I'm obliged to re-register my marriage in Malaysia or at the High Comm.

As usual, I googled and found this link which I thought useful. This is stated on the website.

Applicants are required to go to the NRD Counter/Malaysian Consular office/Embassy with supporting documents:
* Identity card /Passport
* 1 coloured photo each (32 mm x 38 mmhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.bold.gif)
* Original marriage certificate
* Other relevant documents

I thought I was all set! There I was, standing right in front of the counter and handed out my documents at 8.30am.

Officer: "Do you know about our procedure?"
Me: "Yes!"
Officer: "Where did you get this form?"
Me: "From the internet." Officer: "We need everything in duplicates."

She handed out the original colourful copy of the registration form and a printout of what is required to me.

Officer: "Where is your husband's birth cert?"
Me: "He is a New Zealander. We don't have his birth cert with us."
Officer: "New Zealanders don't have birth cert?"

hmm... she was not able to understand my English. So, I said slowly.

Me: "His birth cert is in New Zealand."

So, my mission failed! I was so bloody cross until I had to chill at my favourite shop.

This is efficiency!

First of all, the information as published over the internet is FAR from accurate. It's very simple. By putting up correct information over the internet, it saves time for us and the labour time at the High Comm. Secondly, why on earth the birth cert of a foreign spouse is required? On the passport, it's clearly stated where the person was born. Thirdly, MyKad is supposed to contain the info of a citizen. Submission of the birth cert is redundant. Lastly, it will take the High Comm 7 days to process the re-registration. So, your IDs will be retained for 7 days! Oh... don't even bother to call up the High Comm for clarifications. They are too "busy" to pick up the general line.

So, if you are in the same situation as I do, be prepared! These are what required as stated in the printout of the "procedure".

Both husband and wife are required to be present during submission and either one, upon collection day. The ID or birth cert of both parties will be retained by the office for processing.

For registration within 6 months, pay SGD10. Otherwise, there will be a penalty fees.

Fill up and complete 2 sets of the application forms.
Original documents and two copies of each documents need to be submitted.

1. IC (Malaysian/ Singapore) of both parties

2. Birth cert of both parties

3. Singapore marriage certificate

4. Any party who is one 2nd marriage, please produce the divorce certificate (Singapore, Malaysia or foreign countries)

5. Two passport size photos each

6. Foreign spouse to produce his/ her passport.

All photocopies have to be in A4 size.

Submission time: Monday to Friday 8am - 11am

I gotta do it again after my NZ trip.

Love

2008-04-09T17:34:00.003+10:00

I find this is a very interesting definition of love, as defined by XiaoLu Guo in her book - A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers.

'Love', this English word: like other English words it has tense. 'Loved' or 'will love' or 'have loved'. All these specific tenses mean Love is time-limited thing. Not infinite. It only exist in particular period of time. In Chinese, Love is 爱 (ai). It has no tense. No past and future. Love in Chinese means a being, a situation, a circumstance. Love is existence, holding past and future.

If our love existed in Chinese tense, then it will last for ever. It will be infinite.

AVI problems for Intel based Mac

2008-04-09T01:43:00.006+10:00

I tried this and it fixed my problem. =)

System:
Intel based machine running OSX.

Scenario:
1. Unable to use Quicktime Player to open AVI files. Quicktime crashes without prompting error message.
2. Unable to import AVI files to iMovie. Error message "The application iMovie HD quit unexpectedly" is shown.

If these problem persists even after relevant codecs such as DivX and XviD have been installed, search for this file "AviImporter-r7 (Intel).component" in your system. It should be under your "library" folder. Move the file into another location (who knows you might need it in the future) and the problem should be resolved.

Good luck.

魔力花球

2008-03-27T19:10:00.005+11:00

昨晚他收到C的短讯 - I'm off the market!
好高兴哟！到现在还一直维持着收到消息兴奋的心情。

C是他的头号好友，也是我们的伴郎。
在婚礼上一时兴起，把在场的未婚女士们叫到舞台的一端，然后把手中的花球往后抛，花球在空中划了一条弧线，女士们像玩躲避球般往旁边跳，结果花球不偏不倚地落在S的手中。

S正是C的女朋友，我抛的花球魔力可不小，不到一年他们就订婚了！=)

想婚的朋友们，下次当新娘抛花球时，别扭扭捏捏的，想婚并不是什么丢脸的事情，要大大方方地把手伸出去，迎接幸福。

Indian humour

2008-03-19T15:52:00.003+11:00

I used to work with Indian consultants... sometimes I get their jokes... sometimes not... sometimes they think it's a joke, but it sounds insulting.

Anyway, check this out!

烘衣机

2008-03-12T18:04:00.002+11:00

想要一台烘衣机
把太阳搬进屋子里

想要一台烘衣机
塞满我对你的爱情

想要一台烘衣机
等待也是一种幸福

想要一台烘衣机
来烘烘我的坏心情

天空每天都在流泪，有时轻轻密密的，像快乐的眼泪，有时重重狠狠的，像崩溃的眼泪。

快乐的天空忘了上班，太阳公公也在偷懒。

我的衣服也在流泪，为它们重重的身躯担忧（看到了吗？霉菌在偷笑）

It's time...

2008-03-09T03:21:00.000+11:00

Finally... GE is over. This is a year to remember, and a time for a change.

It's expected that the opposition parties will win over the hearts of more voters... but it's a good surprise that in fact, they have won Penang, Kedah, Selangor, Kelantan and Perak... far more that what is anticipated.

It's a shame for me not able to go back to Penang to vote, not able to be part of the history. Still, I'm glad to see the rising of political awareness among Malaysians and the willingness to risk it all and vote for a change. It's not about Chinese, it's not about Indians, nor Malays... it's about Malaysians.

The new parliament will be formed tomorrow. I truly hope that the leaders will learn from this... and the new leaders will have the wisdom to manage the country.

Pray for Malaysia. The Boleh-land.

If there is a heaven for you...

2008-03-04T17:09:00.003+11:00

If there is a heaven for you
Have you found your way there?

If there is a heaven for you
Have you been greeted by the angels?

From being intimidated to trusting each other
I'll never forget you

I'll never forget how you greedily asked for food
I'll never forget how you liked to play with your favourite teddy bears
I'll never forget how you barked at strangers and retreat to a safer place
I'll never forget how you hugged my mom happily
I'll never forget how you curled in my arms
I'll never forget how you liked it when I brushed your hair
I'll never forget how you huffed and puffed after our jog around the neighbourhood

Too much happiness you gave to me
Too little time we spent together
I'll never forget you.

I love you, DeeDee.

R.I.P
13.02.2005 - 03.03.2008

DeeDee passed away @ 16.45 in the hospital of severe liver failure. The root cause is still under investigation.

Thanks for asking...

2008-02-20T00:39:00.002+11:00

My best friend sent an sms to me - "Are you ok? Haven't heard from you for some time..."

The "heard" actually means not seeing me online. I'm have not been logging on to MSN as frequent as I used to be and have not replied my emails promptly.

I've been sick for a while and now trying to adjust to my new role in life.

Thanks for asking. I'm perfectly fine.

Merry Merry Xmas!

2007-12-23T16:28:00.000+11:00

Wishing everyone a very wonderful and joyous xmas! Forget about calories counting... there is no diet in this festive season. =P

My favourite xmas song by Nat King Cole - The Christmas Song...

and here's another one by Josh Groban & Brian McKnight - Angels we have heard on high. This song is absolutely beautifully done by the singers. It's by thousand miles better than the version done by Christina Aguilera. ^_^

Enjoy!

Bee!

2007-12-11T00:19:00.001+11:00

Yeah... finally I had the bee! and I grabbed the last one at BreadTalk.
Isn't it cute? It's not as tasty as I thought it would be.. the bee head was stuffed with red bean and the body was filled with butter. The wings and the antenna were chocolaty. Still... I was very happy munching the bee... ^_^

i cant resist...

2007-12-06T19:33:00.000+11:00

I can't resist cute cakes and pastries. I have a tendency to lighten my purse whenever I pass by bakery shops with loads of cute stuffs on display.

I surrendered my money to the cashier happily when I saw these at Four Leaves.

shooting star choc bun

doggie face choc bun

Okay the doggie wasn't extremely cute but it's still look like a doggie. I love dogs.

I'm still not able to get the little Bee pastry from BreadTalk. It's the Bee from the Bee Movie. It's always sold out when I was at the bakery. I even bought Mickey Mouse mooncake during the lantern festival... hehehe...

This afternoon I made this love shape egg mayo sandwich for myself.

I cut the bread into love shape using the mould I bought for frying eggs. The bakers should mould the breads into funky shapes. I'll pay for it! Square is just too boring...

Bersih Protest

2007-11-13T18:33:00.001+11:00

Kennysia (one of the famous bloggers in Malaysia) did a transcript of Malaysia's Information Minister's interview with Al Jazeera News on the Bersih Protest.

Approximately 40K people participated in the protest to submit the request for a clean election to the AGONG or the king in Malaysia.

As expected, all newspapers and TV channels in the country did not report the protest neutrally. The best coverage was done by Al Jazeera News.

Click here to check out the transcript... it's hilarious...

yeah... we have ERECTION... we don't need VIAGRA...

麦兜

2007-11-12T20:00:00.000+11:00

今天妹妹msn我这个youtube video. 原来是麦兜。

算一算麦兜也该有十年的历史吧！还记得常常和朋友在点菜时会学麦兜讲“午餐有咩也食？”，还有常常在Red Box点的圣诞和大包歌。好怀念哦！

At the Crossroads - Malaysia

2007-11-10T18:04:00.000+11:00

This video is being circulated among fellow Malaysians.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9zmRMoDt58

It's a video for thought for where the country is heading to in the future.

sien...

2007-11-09T18:55:00.000+11:00

darn sien... found that my Flickr pro account is expired... and I could only see the 200 most recent photos, unless I opt for an upgrade which I have to pay USD24.95 per annum.

Now I'm migrating the remaining 200 photos and will just stop using it. I like Flickr for its presentation of the photos, like how you could group your photos into sets, they way the slide show is done... luckily I haven't enabled links from Blogger to Flickr... if not I'll be pissed off instead of being sien...

I'm going to migrate the last 200 photos into Multiply and forget about the rest of the old photos... maybe when I'm really running out of things to do, I might upload the old photos again.

=)

My impulse purchase

2007-10-31T18:13:00.000+11:00

There are visitors from Australia and New Zealand staying with us right now. As a good hostess, I took them out for touristy stuffs yesterday.

We visited the Esplanade,

the art created by children along the underpass to Esplanade

the durian structured Esplanade roof terrace,

Merlion,

Fullerton Hotel and walked around Boat Quay. We spent some time at Orchard Road before heading to Newton Circus for our pre-Night Safari dinner. Night Safari was having Halloween theme, the animals were dressed up in Halloween costumes... nolah... the park was decorated with Halloween stuffs.

At the end of the day, it was a 12 hours outing...

okay... back to shopping... Let's blame it on the weather...

It was extremely humid after a short down pour. By the time we got to Orchard Road, my legs were aching from hours of walking and I was already in my "zombie" state. One of visitors wanted to get some Chinese CDs, so we went to HMV and headed straight to 3rd floor.

I wasn't thinking... and wanted to treat myself something to motivate myself to continue with the journey. Every girl knows that was very dangerous. I spotted "Jay Chou" album on the shelf. My instinct told me it's not released yet, and it's too light to contain a CD + a desk calendar... but... what the heck... I found another Mozart piano for duo CD that I've been searching for a long time. So... I headed to the counter and swiped my credit card... that was adrenaline rushing.

As I was heading out of HMV, I spotted another shelf with Jay's album and a tiny notice board next to it... stating "Pre-order Jay's album now and redeem the CD and toy on 16th Nov".

hehehe.... apparently I've pre-ordered the album, and the box only contains the desk calendar for 2008.

Later I found that I've paid 3 dollars more for the album, HMV always charges slightly more expensive to reduce the ROI of investing in the escalators.

I checked and confirmed that the album is going to be released on 02.11.2007. Maybe I was confused, but I remembered on that tiny board, it was stated 16th November.... grrrr..... and I'll be out of Singapore until 20th Nov - which means... I won't be able to redeem the album. So... I spent more money, pre-ordered the album, not able to get the toys and CD when it's released, and I have to go to Orchard Road again to get the album 18 days after the release date.

Anyway, now that I think about it, I'm glad that none of them wanted to do shopping for luxury items... if not... ooouch...

Lesson learnt. Always listen to my instinct. Always stick to shopping rule no 1 - never buy anything when I'm in "zombie" mode.

关怀

2007-10-25T18:57:00.000+10:00

关怀是
施予对方想要的
接受回报之前，先有付出
每天都要努力实现的
自然而快乐的
虽然是小事，却是伟大的

载自－ 11楼，Han Sang-bok.

My birthday

2007-10-24T18:06:00.000+10:00

Happy B-day to me! Thanks mom for giving birth to me... thanks for all the b-day wishes...

After 21, everything seems to be in a fast forward mode. Time flies. Tonnes of changes happening in our lives... I'm glad that I still have that beaming smile on my face.

This year... I'm 27, married, starting my family in Singapore. As a sign of maturity, yucky necklines starting to craw all over my neck.

So what's happening? Dan took a couple of days off to focus on spoiling me.

Got a Wii as pressie from Dan on Friday. I always wanted a Wii and finally it's officially launched in Singapore. Surprise... surprise... Australia beats Singapore by launching it last Christmas!

All authorized dealers are selling the console in a package. So, we got to choose two additional games for free from a list on top of Wii Sports. I chose Shrek the Third and Transformers. The free games are not so fun but I really enjoy Wii Sports. We bought additional controller so that we could play together. Now I can hit my husband by playing Boxing. Any nice game to recommend? I don't like RPG...

Slipped into my Havaianas, packed my bikini and sunscreen, we went overseas on Sunday as my bday getaway trip. It's really an overseas trip... We took a 50 mins ferry across the choppy South China Sea and landed on Bintan Island, Indonesia. I took up the WOT Hotel deal from Wotif.com where the hotel is kept secret until the booking is confirmed. I was hoping it's Bayan Tree Resort... and it turned out to be Bintan Lagoon Resort.

There is nothing much to do in Bintan. We just checked in... threw ourselves into the pool...

had some ice cream and relax...

The resort is not bad. We did not step out of the resort at all.
The currency used in Bintan Island is SGD. The employees speak excellent English in the resort and I didn't feel that I had actually left Singapore, except the fact that we did pass through immigration check points. There are nice and fine sands by the beach but the sea water was a bit muddy. We had Indo-Malay buffet dinner with excellent beef curry. However, the buffet breakfast was below standard.

At the end of the trip, I brought home with serious tan and 1kg weight gain from excessive eating... my eyes were bigger than my stomach.

Yesterday... on my actual birthday... we did some touristy stuffs. Dan took me to the Chinese Garden after my medical checkup. It's strange that both Chinese and Japanese gardens are in the same location. The Japanese Garden was a disappointment. It did not have much Japanese elements in it. It's relatively tiny in comparison to the Chinese Garden. There was a Live Turtle and Tortoise Museum and I had a great time feeding the turtles and koi fish.

These were Southern America turtles... I was on a bridge in the middle of the pond. The hungry troop swam towards me and it was pretty scary being ambushed by hundreds of them, even though they are harmless. One of them even tried to snatch the fish food away by its mouth. At the end, two packets of fish food were fed to the starved reptiles.

Beautiful koi fish were fighting for food...

To fulfill my gastronomical pleasure, Dan treated me dinner at San Marco Restaurant at the Fullerton Hotel. It's an Italian fine dining restaurant. We had a table by the window, overlooking Marina Bay.

The bread rolls were unique, it's small round roll in a meatball size. Wine pate and smoked salmon was served as amuse-bouche. It was very delightful. After having Foie Gras & Rhubarb for my entree, vanilla sorbet was served as the teaser to clear the palate. I had roasted kurobuta piglet for main. The pork was very tender and it melted in my mouth. The best part was it's served with my favorite apple sauce.

Dan had Seared Sicilian scallops for entree and 36 hour braised lamb shank for main. The scallops were mouth watering. The lamb was succulent but it's a bit bland to my taste buds.

We shared grapes pan roasted with raw sugar and brandy for dessert and it was sensational. The skins of the grapes were removed and I loved the chocolate ice cream. A complimentary plate of desserts was served with our tea. Chocolates, nougats, passion fruit Turkish delight and chocolate tarts were served. The Turkish delight was my favorite. The rests were just ordinary.

Oooh... the staffs were very attentive but I didn't feel easy as there were many eyes watching me eating. I couldn't understand our waiter's English. He was the only Chinese there and was mumbling all the time. The manager was suave and good looking. ^_^

I think i'm spoilt... in a good way.

周杰倫-牛仔很忙

2007-10-19T01:45:00.000+10:00

Jay 新的MV. 很不一样的曲风，舞蹈很kawaii的说...

骗徒

2007-10-17T16:42:00.000+10:00

讨厌。被电话吵醒了。

“喂，我是从某某市调公司打来的。我想...”
“没兴趣！”
“我还没说完你怎么会知道没兴趣呢？”
“你们打过电话来好几次了...”
“几时？”
“上个星期...”
“那谢谢你。”

我不是无知的老人，也不是贪心的妇女，我关心时事，就算90％的我还在睡觉，我就是不会给你什么好处。

现在的骗徒很勤劳，可能有个target,每个星期要拨几通电话，要有多少个人上钓，才会有花红分。这是第三次接到这种电话。

拜托，我的电话正在国际漫游，下次就算99％在睡觉也要狠很地给他们脸色看。

讨厌。我喜欢自然醒。不要吵醒我！

Beware of Garbage Trucks

2007-10-11T17:06:00.000+10:00

This article is written by David J. Pollay.
Extracted from http://pos-psych.com/news/david-j-pollay/20071002426.
Enjoy.

How often do you let other people’s nonsense change your mood? Do you let a bad driver, rude waiter, curt boss, or an insensitive employee ruin your day? Unless you’re the Terminator, you’re probably set back on your heels. However, the mark of your success is how quickly you can refocus on what’s important in your life.

Sixteen years ago I learned this lesson. And I learned it in the back of a New York City taxi cab. Here’s what happened.

I hopped in a taxi, and we took off for Grand Central Station. We were driving in the right lane when all of a sudden, a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, the car skidded, the tires squealed, and at the very last moment our car stopped just one inch from the other car’s back-end.

I couldn’t believe it. But then I couldn’t believe what happened next. The driver of the other car, the guy who almost caused a big accident, whipped his head around and he started yelling bad words at us. How do I know? Ask any New Yorker, some words in New York come with a special face. And for emphasis, he threw in a one finger salute, as if his words were not enough.

But then here’s what really blew me away. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was friendly. So, I said, “Why did you just do that!? This guy could have killed us!” And this is when my taxi driver told me what I now call, “The Law of the Garbage Truck™.” He said:

Many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they look for a place to dump it. And if you let them, they’ll dump it on you.

So when someone wants to dump on you, don’t take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Believe me. You’ll be happier.

So I started thinking, how often do I let Garbage Trucks run right over me? And how often do I take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the street? It was then that I said, “I don’t want their garbage and I’m not going to spread it anymore.”

I began to see Garbage Trucks. Like in the movie “The Sixth Sense,” the little boy said, “I see Dead People.” Well now “I see Garbage Trucks.” I see the load they’re carrying. I see them coming to dump it. And like my taxi driver, I don’t take it personally; I just smile, wave, wish them well, and I move on.

One of my favorite football players of all time is Walter Payton. Every day on the football field, after being tackled, he would jump up as quickly as he hit the ground. He never dwelled on a hit. Payton was ready to make the next play his best. Over the years the best players from around the world in every sport have played this way: Tiger Woods, Nadia Comaneci, Muhammad Ali, Bjorn Borg, Chris Evert, Michael Jordan, and Pele are just some of those players. And the most inspiring leaders have lived this way: Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, Ghandi, and Martin Luther King.

See, Roy Baumeister, a psychology researcher from Florida State University, found in his extensive research that you remember bad things more often than good things in your life. You store the bad memories more easily, and you recall them more frequently.

So the odds are against you when a Garbage Truck comes your way. But when you follow The Law of the Garbage Truck™, you take back control of your life. You make room for the good by letting go of the bad.

The best leaders know that they have to be ready for their next meeting. The best sales people know that they have to be ready for their next client. And the best parents know that they have to be ready to welcome their children home from school with hugs and kisses, no matter how many garbage trucks they might have faced that day. All of us know that we have to be fully present, and at our best for the people we care about.

The bottom line is that successful people do not let Garbage Trucks take over their lives.

What about you? What would happen in your life, starting today, if you let more garbage trucks pass you by?

Here’s my bet: You’ll be happier.

Ottogi Beef Jjajang

2007-10-10T17:12:00.000+10:00

I'm super lazy especially when it comes to settling my lunch. Usually I wake up at around 12pm and slowly regain my conscious and have my breakfast in front of the TV, watching Discovery Channel. So, my lunch time is around 2pm.

I'm loath to confess that there are thousands of lazy bugs living in me. So, I avoid to go out to get my lunch at all costs especially under the heat of the sun right on the equator line.

Today I got up super late and there are no more healthy quick lunch fix (such as ham, lettuce and stuffs for sandwiches) in the fridge. So, it's time to explore and try something new.

Bought this Korean Ottogi Beef Jjajang from a Korean specialty shop near home. It looks so tempting from the box.
I'm good at preparing instant food. I followed the instructions...even though I couldn't understand a single word in Korean.

I opened the packet, and found that there is NO RICE in the packet. Okie... sometimes pictures can be deceiving. I thought it would be something like those packet meals that come with pasta or rice that I could get in Australia. It seems that I can't be a 100% lazy bug when it comes to Korean food...

So the instant meal is not so convenient... okay... so I continued...

Ting! Ting! (noise from the microwave oven)

It turned out to be the most disgraceful instant meal ever!! Again, picture is deceiving. In reality, it's a chunk of deep brown stuffs that is very close to black colour. It smelled awful!

At the end, it went straight from the microwave oven to the bin!

So... if your boyfriend/ husband treats you badly, "cook" him this meal in return... It costs about SGD3.80 and I'm sure it worths every single penny looking at him suffering from this shitty stuffs.

I'm evil...

Drinking Culture

2007-09-26T19:42:00.000+10:00

Last night went out for a couple of drinks with some new interesting friends. I like to hang out with fun-loving uncles, you get to learn so much from them.

Met his guy - Ryo-san, and his SIL's (son in law) brother Gyong through a friend. Ryo-san is a very fun to be with biz man who is operating some backpackers like resorts around the world. Ryo-san is a Japanese in his fifties and Gyong is in his mid 20s, taking English course in Singapore.

Besides the enjoyable drinking and lots of funny stories, Ryo-san taught me some Japanese and Korean drinking culture. Some sort like how to drink with the elders without being obnoxious.

The Japanese...
1. Japanese always serve their tea 70% full. Many restaurants are not doing this right.
2. Japanese guys never serve drinks to the ladies. The trend is changing though...
3. No matter how hot the sake bottle is, get rid of the tissue paper or towel wrapped around the bottle. Train up the heat resistance and hold the neck of the bottle with your fingers only.
4. Do not put the sake cup down after cheers. Finish what's in the cup then only put the cup down.
5. If it's a good sake, give compliments by saying "awwwwwww" from your throat then give your forehead a good "slap". A bit like you need to make noise while eating the noodles to show that it's really yummy!

The Koreans...
1. When cheers to the elders, the younger person's glass has to be lower than the older person.
2. When drinking, the younger person has to use one hand to cover the glass/ cup, turn to the side and drink.
3. It is very rude to look into the eyes or face the elders while drinking. This is so different from the German's - bad sex for 7 years rule for missing eye contact.

I wonder what are the Chinese rules... Nobody really taught me how it should be done.

yummmmmm seng!

i thought i've picked up a copy of Shop...

2007-09-25T17:48:00.000+10:00

Spotted a new mag at TopShop - Project Smitten and it was crying out loud "buy me buy me!"
What's worse? It says "Shopping is Life" which matches how I live currently! I think this mag is just for me... and the cover worths 5 bucks for creativity.

The model looks hot, isn't she? Seriously, it even has a page describing how to get the cover gal look!
Flipping through the mag, I thought that I have picked up a copy of good aussie's Shop Til You Drop, except that the shops introduced are actually in Singapore.

There are too many similarities between the mags. For example, in Smitten there is a section about what the editors have bought, foreign exchange (they didn't even bother to change the title of the section?), section for niche home decors... everything and even the flow of the mag is "coincidently" as found in Shop!

Hmm.. the only difference is Project Smitten is published by Viscion whereas Shop is by ACP Magazines.

Seriously, I'm really glad that finally there is a pure shopping magazine in Singapore! It's been so long since I've got my issue of Shop til You Drop from my Brisbane trip in July. I'm dead bored reading those mags in Singapore until I've stopped buying them. Too much information on how to survive a relationship, how to kick-ass at work place... bla bla bla... and the contents are recycled every year... bah!

Anyway, it's kinda annoying about the similarities between the two mags.... smart school kids even know how to shuffle the contents of their project to avoid looking too similar with the work from last year's top 3 projects.

先读为快－ hiyawu的新书

2007-09-20T02:53:00.000+10:00

分享hiyawu的新作－六弄咖啡馆

hmm... 在台湾刚刚发行，该很快就会来到新马吧！

Siam Jit Eh...

2007-09-13T23:06:00.000+10:00

This is funny.

Luckily I'm not that fuss... =)

Happy happy first month

2007-09-11T20:05:00.000+10:00

Can't believe it's already 1 month since I'm married... I'm still staying at my sister's... gonna stay here for a good 3 weeks.

Okay... the photos will be ready real soon... I promise... still have the morning session photos to be sorted out...

My heroes character...

2007-09-08T14:18:00.000+10:00


	You are Claire. You're naive and still getting used to your abilities. Some more experience and assertiveness would be good for you.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

Love like...

2007-09-06T22:54:00.000+10:00

Work like you don't need the money;

Love like you've never been hurt;
Dance like nobody's watching;
Sing like nobody's listening;
Live like it's Heaven on Earth.

~Old Irish Proverbs

想用这个古老的谚语来回答好朋友的一个问题。

每个人都在感情路上受过大大小小的伤害，学乖了就要爬起来，多接触别人就会知道自己想要的是怎样的一个人。

把脚步放慢下来，好好爱自己。要相信你的心，它会告诉你眼前的人是不是你的Mr. Right.

遇见了就要放胆的去爱，幸福才会敲上门来，这才是对自己与对他的公平方式。

Love like you've never been hurt... 感谢我的他告诉过我这一句话。

祝你幸福。

Masters in Instant Noodles

2007-09-04T20:12:00.000+10:00

I started to have instant noodles when I was... maybe when I was 6 yrs old. I think instant noodle is one of the greatest inventions for cooking dummies like me.

At one stage, mom used to stock boxes of thai mama instant noodles at home. Then her kids can have it for supper if they are too lazy to get food from outside.

This thai noodle is so yummy that you can just eat the noodle itself before even cooking it. It tastes a bit like the good malaysian kids Mamee snacks.

It's tomyam flavour. I think it used to be super spicy. Now this noodle is not as spicy as it used to be. I think it's not my taste bud. It's a general review from my tomyam noodles craver cousin as well.

During my recent trip I bought this thai noodle from 7-11 in Thailand.
The texture of the noodles is very similar to the Mama's noodle. It's also tomyam but has a very nice lemon grass flavour. I prefer this than the Mama's noodle. Surprisingly it's produced by Nissin. I couldn't get this in any Malaysian supermarket and hypermarket. hehe... my dear frens if you happen to go to Thailand please bring me some...

Instant noodle is a very Asian culture. During my stay in Melbourne, my aussie dad and mom bought some instant noodles for the Asian girls at home, especially me, because I'm so hopeless that I could only master the art of cooking instant noodles. I had one attempt of cooking pasta at home while they were away and it is the yuckiest pasta with white sauce you can find on earth. It's sour!

Hmm... my Korean housemate Jee-Young introduced this noodle to me.
Sutah Ramen means hand made noodles （手打拉面). Jee told me it's her favourite noodle in Korea and it's a very good cure for hangover. I totally have no objections on it. Everytime I had too many drinks at the club, it's an instant cure to wake me up in the morning. It never fails. Jee taught me the Korean way of cooking this noodle. Just chop one onion and add it in the boiling water along with the packed mushrooms and carrots in the packet. For this noodle you need to cook longer and it's very springy. After that add the extra hot chili powder. Add an egg and the heat from the noodles will cook the egg.

Sutah Ramen is quite hard to find in Singapore/ Malaysia. So far I could get it from the Cold Storage at Wisma Atria, Singapore and supermarket at Island Plaza, Penang. I haven't seen it in KL yet. In Melbourne, you can get it from the minimarket at Glen Waverley.

Shin ramen (辛）ramen is one of the more popular Korean instant noodles but trust me you will not return to Shin ramen once you have a taste of Sutah ramen.

hungry... hungry... there is only ordinary maggie chicken, vegetarian, duck and indomee in the storage... sienz...

经一事长一智？

2007-09-03T17:55:00.000+10:00

总是有一些学不乖的人。

在事态严重时求家人帮忙，在走头无路时可以对家人撒谎.

“我以后不会再..."
"我绝对不会再犯下这个错误！”

熟悉吗？

然而，有多少个人真的会学乖，真的会回头是岸？

现在对天发誓比吃生菜更加容易，在家人扶一把后就拍拍屁股走人，连一句谢谢都省了，转过头来还是一再犯下同一个错误。

信任是赢来的，被别人关心与照顾不是应当的。

当一再被背叛，造成的伤害算最亲的家人也无法说服自己这是最后一次，到时别怨天尤人，把家人说成不孝不亲不忠不仁不义，有今天的果是当日种下的因。

Yummy yum BBQ Thai Seafood

2007-08-27T18:50:00.000+10:00

Due to immigration law I need to depart Singapore for a couple of weeks. It's a coincidence that my gfs from high school decided to go down to KL during the same weekend to meet up with ah ker who's been residing in Italy. Yay! Girl Power weekend!

Sokyi, min, joo, turtle, n I gossiped for hours at turtle's beautiful and quiet condo somewhere near Wangsa Maju's Carrefour. It's a very very nice apartment with niche interior design. I fell in love with the balcony instantly. It's fully covered with wooden doors. The doors are built at the edge of the balcony. You can see the mountain right in front of the apartment when you open the wooden doors from the balcony. I think if the condo is located in Singapore, you will see headlines of maids falling off the balcony cuz the madam asked them to clean the doors.

After gossiping off our calories from lunch, we headed to this seafood restaurant suggested by Sokyi at Taman Cahaya, Ampang for some really yummy yummy seafood. It's called Nong & Jimmy Thai BBQ Seafood.

Ahem... how to get there?

From Ampang Point, head to the direction where Ampang Yong Toufu is. So, Ampang Point and Ampang De Palma should be on your left. Go straight nd keep to the right most lane. At the 2nd traffic light after Ampang De Palma, turn right. Go straight and you will see Giant on your right. Keep left and keep going... about 10m after the walkup flats on your left you will see a Tiger Beer sign. Turn left there and turn right into the car park.

It's an open air hawker style seafood restaurant.

Tips: must get there early. It's really packed and the seafood run out very quickly!!!

Most of the dishes were done BBQ on charcoal! We had super super yummy claypot seafood tomyam. It's done with prawns, squids, mushrooms and some fresh spices. It's so spicy but yet you just can't resist it.

Don't miss the Yao Zhar Guai （油条）with special pandan kaya alike dipping sauce. It tastes a bit like donuts and you need to order it separately from a small stall.

hmm... i didn't bring my camera and we finished the tomyam and yao zhar guai before ah min took out her camera.

We wanted to order BBQ cockles (or hum) but it was sold out dy. Even the butter prawn (奶油虾) was sold out as well.

so sad....

Then we had some yummy fried rice, BBQ prawns, BBQ crabby, some thai style lala, and so-so steam fish and belacan kang kong.
For 6 of us (including turtle's man), the dinner including drinks and the yao zhar guai comes to about RM35 per person. It's considered cheap for the quality of food we had.

When we met up with ah ker later at night, all of us looked so sleepy after the meal. The blood just couldn't pump up to our brains. kekekeke....

Corned beef toasties Party!

2007-08-22T14:35:00.001+10:00

Dan's mom bought some kiwi canned food (corned beef and lamb tongues) from kiwiland for my mom while the family was in Penang. My family don't appreciate these delicacies and it ended up following us back to Singapore.

I think the kiwi boys missed their food too much... someone suggested to come over for corned beef toasties party on last Sunday. They bought some brazilian corned beef and beverages.

The sandwich maker at home is broken. So we bought this sandwich maker from Philips. This sandwich maker matches with our kettle and rice cooker.
I think I want to have the whole range of electrical appliances from Philips. The design is the best from the brands out there. I just wish that it comes in baby pink.

We went through 3 cans of corned beef, 3 big loafs of bread, half a cube of butter and one packet of Tasty cheese.

This kiwi corned beef - Hellaby's is the best of all. It's famous since 1900. The brazilian one is too salty and the texture of the meat is not as good as Hellaby's.
Looks like minced meat...
We mastered the timing (the sandwich maker comes with a timer... it beeps when the sandwich is done) and the sandwiches taste the best when it's cooked for 5.5 mins.

yum yum...

Devon decided to make Corned beef toasties special! Just like a Ramly burger special... with eggs!
It actually turned out super yum!!!
Dan decided to share his love of lamb tongues with Sarah and Ed. He hard sell them to bring the lamb tongues home... Poor Sarah has to bring it home for her mom... trust me... it tastes sux!
oooh... we had some champagne as well. Next time if you are planning buy, avoid the Brut Reserve Particuliere from Nicolas Feuillatte... it's a freebie from Shangri-la's group but it tastes bad. It's too sour for me. I think I'm spoilt by Moët & Chandon.

Fireworks@Marina Bay

2007-08-21T01:56:00.000+10:00

It was a really spontaneous decision to go to join the kiasu crowd to see the fireworks on Saturday.

Nothing is really free in Singapore, even with fireworks. There is a fee for it if you want a strategic location to enjoy the fireworks. So instead of paying our way to the stadium (it's quite late to get a ticket anyway), we followed the crowd towards the Esplanade and joined thousands of spectators in the "grand stand".

Not that I "hiam" or being harsh. It's really not that spectacular. The fireworks was really... ahem... boring.

Anyway, it's still an eye opener not on the fireworks but the people.

i. The fireworks is supposed to start at 9pm. I think it followed Singaporean or maybe Asian time. The even did not start until 9:15pm, with some kites with flashy lights flying around the sky for a good 5 mins.

ii. Okay... maybe we can't blame the organizer for starting it late. When it's 9pm there were still thousands of so called ticket holder rushing towards the stadium gate to gain entry. They paid, so we should not complain but wait for the late comers.

iii. Smokers. I hate smokers. Especially smoking in the public where kids are around. There were a handful of smokers smoking like a chimney around me and I was strategically surrounded by a bunch of kids. Those ah bengs (yes they dressed and acted like one) are worse than drunk people at Zuok. No matter how drunk they are, they know smoking is banned. These ah bengs are sober and aware of their surroundings. Luckily the one standing right in front of me stopped the ciggy right after the fireworks started. I was about to wear my bitchy mask to tell him off (Yes i'm back in Asia and standing for your right is not right, it's called kay-poh and bitchy).

Smoking is not an IT thing. Be considerate, ah bengs.

iv. Crowded. Very crowded. Super crowded.
There were thousands and thousands of people, walking along the streets heading to the same direction for the fireworks and leaving at the same time right after the fireworks. The traffic controllers weren't very good. It's out of control.

I think it's wiser to close the affected streets and just let people walk on the road, like how Melbourne closed Flinders St during Moomba and other celebrations. That's easier to control the crowd and being efficient Singaporeans, the crowd will disappear within split seconds. It's better this way than having people pushing around at the same time running away from motorcyclists.

Wait until F1 in Singapore. The crowd will be even worse.

不能说的秘密

2007-08-17T15:06:00.000+10:00

这是Jay 的新歌－不能说的秘密

这首歌的intro很有classical music 的味道，让我想起以前在家里弹好听的曲子时，妈妈会从厨房里跑出来，坐在客厅里听我轻抚黑白键子。

R.I.P Choy Choy

2007-08-17T14:49:00.000+10:00

Life is a miracle. Life is fragile.

My dear choy sum passed away some time when I was away for my wedding. Choy Choy was struggling in their last few days - due to high moisture in the air (from one whole week of heavy rain) and excessive watering one day before the start of the rain. The soil was too wet and we didn't have good weather to dry them out.

They were lovely. The grew to the prime of their lives and died afterwards. So sad...

You can see they grew to almost 2cm tall!

Choy Choy.

R.I.P
22.07.2007 - Early August 2007

there is a little surprise everyday

2007-07-26T21:57:00.000+10:00

It's been really gloomy for the whole day. Gray sky. Pouring rain. It's so bad that makes everyone sleepy... and a little moody.

Something will cheer you up when it's least expected. Even though it's the smallest thing.

They are the sprouts from the choy sum pot! Yes we are growing choy sum in this little pot!

We bought the seeds from the market and planted it last Sunday.
It's only Day 4. They are really growing, even though in this pathetic little pot!

There is no balcony and definitely no land in the flat that I'm staying. There is a big pineapple plant next to the choy sum pot. I have to put the gigantic pineapple on a higher "ground" as it's almost poking to my eyes when I walk towards the window.
Why choy sum? I think because they are the easiest ones to grow from all the packet seeds from the store, far more easier than cactus. My little cactus that I bought from Cameron Highlands died in 2 weeks when I had them while I was 12. The snail ate the cactus. That's why escargot is one of my favourite dish now. Now the snails would have died on the journey climbing up the stairs to the flat... even though they are smart enough to go by the lift, they would be having a yucky death as the Singaporeans won't be patient enough to hold the door for them.

Anyway, the growing sprouts have really brighten up my day...

Life is a miracle!

Another fantastic song!

2007-07-19T00:20:00.000+10:00

We had Muar Chinese and now Negarakuku!

Take the rap out and that's the best Negaraku I've ever heard! I wonder if it will be deleted very soon by the request of the government.

Now I know why I'm sick

2007-07-18T12:46:00.001+10:00

oooh... been coughing for more than a year now. Dry cough. During the day and in the sleep. Really hate that.

After moving to Singapore, my body doesnt get better but only worse... sneezing, coughing... and losing weight. Finally I asked for reference to see a lung specliast at Mt Elizabeth Hospital yesterday.

Doctor sent me to undergo some detailed tests like blood test, pulmonary function test and so on. The outcomes are normal except for the blood test, which the results is out today.

haha... apparently it's mycoplasma infection and the reading is quite high. So... no wonder all the medicines and inhaler I was prescribed with did not work at all.

At least this time the high medical bill paid really worth it. I think this should have been diagnosed earlier by the doctors in Melbourne.

My medical bill is super expensive... have to shop less...

Wait For You

2007-07-18T12:29:00.000+10:00

luv this song by Elliott Yamin...

For the newly weds

2007-07-07T13:18:00.000+10:00

For the important friends of mine who tied the knot on 07/07/07 and 08/07/07.

Corinthians 13:4-8, The Bible
Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude.

Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends.

Sylar... don't come into my dreams...

2007-07-02T02:34:00.000+10:00

Had a nightmare last night... Sylar was hunting for me in my dreams!

OMIGOD! The worst thing was I have no idea what super power I have (maybe sleeping for long hours?)

That's the worst nightmare of the year! I hope this will not be one of my repetitive nightmares and I think I should stop the watching and talking about Heroes... hmm... until late August for Season 2... hahaha....

For those who have not seen Heroes: Sylar is the bad guy who eats the brain to get the DNA for new super power.

想说

2007-06-25T18:15:00.000+10:00

有没有试过有些话憋在心里好久，一直想对一个人说，但面对面时却说不出口？

前天梦见自己对一个人说一年前应该说的话，梦醒时已泪满框。
是潜意识吧！当年的话现在说了也毫无意义，也改变不了些什么。

重要的话该适时的说出来，你永远不会知道你可能会改变结局。

长假

2007-05-23T01:22:00.000+10:00

在放长假。

每天都懒洋洋的呆在家里，什么都不想做。

他问：“updated your CV already?”
我说：“lazy...”

妈妈问：“找到了工作吗？”
我说：“还没开始在找...”

朋友问：“今天做了些什么？”
我说："没啥... 睡醒了就吃，吃饱了看电视，累了再睡...”
朋友说：“你是猪哇！”

前几个星期都在不同的地方渡过－去旅行，见朋友，回家...

觉得每次去旅行，行程都是排得满满的，看了一个景点，就要飞到另一个地方，有时还要血拼呢，东西永远看不完，深怕会错过了些什么，结果旅行比上班还累。

现在只想充充电，什么都不做，任由自己懒洋洋的一天过一天。

sehr heiß

2007-05-08T23:47:00.000+10:00

Very hot.

The sun was burning my skin. I'm one tone darker... from the sun damage happened 3 days running between peejay - KL taking public transport.

Not much changes from my last visit since October 2006. Nothing is changed. The traffic is still having rules within no rules. Drivers are still driving and parking as they wish. Other races still like to stare at me while I'm walking alone... even though I was wearing super decent totally covered T-shirt, jeans and sneakers.

Actually, I do feel more dangerous compared to my last visit. There are some tensions among the races provoked by the politicians. Anyway, it happens everywhere - Australia, Italy, the USA...

There is a nice eatery at Kota Damansara. It's called "Hokkien Noodle" kopitiam. Last night my sis and bro in law took me there for dinner. We had stir fry hokkien noodles, fly lice (fried rice) and satay. Today we tapao roast duck from there as well. All super yum! slurrrrp!

I have a small craving for Bak Kut Teh... but I think it's too hot for it right now. This afternoon I went to the US Embassy to get my passport... yes... I managed to get the tourist B-2 visa to the states. I was sweating like no tomorrow for while waiting for a cab in front of the embassy. So embarrassing.

Hot.. it's really very hot!

一二三.. 打哈欠

2007-05-04T21:00:00.000+10:00

又生病了。

逃避了澳大利亚寒冷的冬天，来到常年如夏的国度还是患上感冒。

讨厌打哈欠，更不喜欢流鼻涕。
鼻子在哭泣，眼睛水汪汪，脑袋儿昏昏迷迷的，连去血拼都没力气了。

好朋友也是在生病，病魔快点离开我们... 我们还要到曼谷去大开杀戒呢！

busy busy...

2007-04-26T22:31:00.000+10:00

I thought I haven't collected much, until I realized it's not easy to pack... i have identified about 10kgs of clothes for donation... that's excluding all the nice shoes, boots and other stuffs.

it's hard to decide what is a keeper, what should goes to a better home... the hardest part is when it comes to gifts... i feel bad not to keep things that are given to me as a gift...

should i bring them home? they are not small items... i have wooden jewelry box, wooden candle holder, a medium size candle dish and some other stuffs.

pack pack pack...

it's my last day at work tomorrow.

There was a staff briefing at MCG member area today. It's posh... and even the guards were super well mannered... maybe cuz the company has splurged on this event.

took the photo by my phone camera... the holy grail of footy still looks good!

have lots to do tomorrow. Can u believe it? I think it's just my nature. People told me.. "what the heck? just relax... they can't fire you anyway..."

To me, I have promised myself what are the things I want to deliver before I go. Just have to finish it, if not it will come into my dreams haunting me that I haven't finished that task. It's just me... 严以励己... a wise man told me it's good in this way, it pays when good words spread around, especially in this "small" IT industry.

work work work...

Warning to you

2007-04-24T00:16:00.000+10:00

Yes. It's you! Cyberstalker!

This is my first and last warning to you. After so many attempts yet you are still trying to attack me.

Hijacked e-mail account. Scams. Left hideous comments on my blog and my sister's blog... and now trying to hijack my blog.

Cyberstalking, unauthorised access to any computer systems, creating rumours and destroying data held in a computer system are violations of Computer Crimes Act.

Yes. You have committed crime and put yourself into bad positions. STOP it right now or legal actions will be taken against you!

Don't visit my blog if you don't like me. Don't waste your time visiting my blog 10 times a day, steal my photos and create fake user IDs in all social network websites. Do not leave any comments or try to contact me in any forms.

You will NOT be entertained.

That's what I want...

2007-04-18T22:31:00.000+10:00

iPhone - the most sought mobile phone is due to be released in June. It has created great inquiries from the market far before it is released. Leave alone how much market share Apple Inc. is targeting for, from strategy and marketing point of view, this is already a success.

Here comes Steve Jobs iPhone keynote highlight...

Want more? Hidden info from Steve Job's iPhone keynote presentation. This is an excellent video clip explaining some hidden (or rather unexplained) features of the iPhone.

Here's a quick demo of all the main features.

It's a pretty good toy. Revolutionary? Not really... it's a product with good combination of nice features of all gadgets on the market. No doubt, Apple Inc. has a very strong marketing team which highlight the little features which answers the need of that little add-ons. This, has created the "Wow" factor of iPhone.

Apple Inc. seems to have an infamous history for recalls - from the batteries of iBook, PowerBook to MacBook, and the problems for iPod Nano. Will Apple Inc. learn from the history? We will see.

After all, is this what you want? To me it is. I love Mac. Most likely I'll love iPhone as well.

Alrighty... a bit too geeky... here comes the funny part... some ideas for more features of iPhone... it reminds me of Stephen Chow though.

My tarot card reading

2007-04-16T21:21:00.000+10:00

Spotted this on a friend's blog and given it a try... ooh... I'm the Empress, ruling the kingdom of bärLand. My friend is also another Empress... ruling the land of Smurfs.

You are The Empress

Beauty, happiness, pleasure, success, luxury, dissipation.

The Empress is associated with Venus, the feminine planet, so it represents, beauty, charm, pleasure, luxury, and delight. You may be good at home decorating, art or anything to do with making things beautiful.

The Empress is a creator, be it creation of life, of romance, of art or business. While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the High Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where it gestates and grows till it is ready to be born. This is why her symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things as well as love. Even so, the Empress is more Demeter, goddess of abundance, then sensual Venus. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, yet at the same time, she can, in anger withhold, as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her.

It kinda explained why i like to look at pretty gals... lalalala...

Give it a try and tell me who you are!

s@y it L0ud!

2007-04-15T23:22:00.000+10:00

children are always cute. The owner of this video clip asked his little cousins to say "i want (love) you" in Hokkien... kawaii...

follow them, practice and say it loud to your loved ones...

笑死人的 12星座宝贝

2007-04-11T16:43:00.000+10:00

今天在信箱收到这个，超暴笑的！

白羊座

媽媽經常叮囑羊羊："穿裙子時不可以蕩秋千﹔不然，會被小男生看到里
面的小內褲哦！"
有一天，羊羊高興地對媽媽說："今天我和小明比賽蕩秋千，我贏了！"
媽媽生氣地說："不是告訴過你嗎？穿裙子時不要蕩秋千！ "
羊羊驕傲地說："可是我好聰明哦！我把里面的小內褲脫掉了，這樣他就看不到我的小內褲了！"

（勇敢直率、敢做敢為的白羊）

金牛座

賣瓜小販："快來吃西瓜，不甜不要錢！"
饑渴的牛牛："哇！太好了，老板，來個不甜的！"

（持家、想出軌又顧全自己的金牛）

雙子座
媽媽叫雙雙起床："快點起來！公雞都叫好幾遍了！"
雙雙說："公雞叫和我有什麼關系？我又不是母雞！ "

（自我意識強烈、自行思維的雙子）

巨蟹座

公車上，蟹蟹說："今晚我要和媽媽睡！"
媽媽問道："你將來娶了媳婦也和媽媽睡阿？"
蟹蟹不假思索："嗯！ "
媽媽又問："那你媳婦怎麼辦？"
蟹蟹想了半天，說："好辦，讓她跟爸爸睡！"
媽媽："！＠＃＄％︿＆＊（……— "
再看爸爸，已經熱淚盈眶啦！

（戀母情結、依戀的巨蟹）

獅子座

獅獅去參加奶奶的壽宴。到了吃壽包的時候，獅獅問："我們為什麼要吃這種像屁股的壽包？"眾人聽了臉色大變。
接著獅獅撥開壽包，看看里面的豆沙，說： "奶奶，快看！里面還有大便！ "
眾人暈的暈，吐的吐。

（以自我感受、不怕旁人眼光的驕傲的獅子）

處女座

處處對肚臍很好奇，就問爸爸。
爸爸把臍帶連著胎兒與母體的道理簡單地講了一下，說："嬰兒離開母體之後，醫生把臍帶減斷，並打了一個結，後來就成了肚臍。"
處處： "那醫生為什麼不打個蝴蝶結？ "

（好奇心強又追求完美的處女）

天秤座

父親對天天說："今天不要上學了，昨晚．．．你媽給你生了兩個弟弟。你給老師說一下就行了。 "
天天卻回答："爸爸，我只說生了一個﹔另一個，我想留著下星期不想上時再說！"

（聰明、權衡利弊的天平）

天蠍座

蠍蠍剛睡著，就叫蚊子叮了一口。
他起來趕蚊子，卻怎麼也趕不出去。沒法，便指著蚊子說："好吧，你不出去我出去！"
邊說邊出了房間，把門使勁關嚴得意地說： "哼！我今晚不進屋，非把你餓死不可！"

（搞不懂、不按常理出牌的天蠍）

射手座

射射："爸爸，為什麼你有那麼多白頭發？"
爸爸："因為你不乖，所以爸爸有好多白頭發阿。 "
射射：…… （疑惑中）
射射："那為什麼爺爺全部都是白頭發？"
爸爸：！＠＃＄％︿＆＊（……

（喜歡思考的射手）

摩羯座

一天，羯羯跟媽媽上街﹔走在路上，突然下起雨來。
媽媽拉過羯羯的小手，說："下雨了，快往前跑阿！"
羯羯慢條斯理地問："那前面就不下雨嘍！？"

（明白現實懶得改變的摩羯）

水瓶座

瓶瓶問媽媽："問什麼稱蔣先生為『先人』？"
媽媽說："因為'先人 '是對死去的人的稱呼。"
瓶瓶說："那去世的奶奶是不是要叫『鮮奶』？"

(天生的另類、腦筋思考永遠和常人不一樣的水瓶）

雙魚座

爸爸給魚魚講小時候經常挨餓的事。
聽完後，魚魚兩眼含淚，十分同情地問："哦，爸爸，你是因為沒飯吃才來我們家的嗎？"

（富含豐富同情心、不分情況對象的雙魚）

Kawanku...

2007-04-11T08:03:00.000+10:00

记得麻坡的华语吗？这是他的新作－我的朋友...我蛮认同他所rap的...

2020年宏愿... 现在的马来西亚离2020年有多远？应该不止13年吧！有多少人的思想，步伐和道德跟得上时间的速度？言论自由根本是毫无纯在，笑话反而闹了不少...

共勉之

2007-04-07T03:58:00.000+10:00

凡事由其自然，遇了处之泰然，得意之时淡然，失意之时坦然，艰辛曲折必然，历尽沧桑悟然。

20 ways to keep a good level of insanity!

2007-04-05T06:30:00.000+10:00

1. At lunch time, sit in your parked car with sunglasses on and point a hair dryer at passing cars. See if they slow down.

2. Page yourself over the intercom. Don't disguise your voice.

3. Every time someone asks you to do something, ask if they want fries with that.

4. Put your garbage can on your desk and label it "IN."

5. Put decaf in the coffee maker for 3 weeks. Once everyone has gotten over their caffeine addictions, switch to espresso.

6. In the memo field of all your checks, write "for smuggling diamonds."

7. Finish all your sentences with "in accordance with the prophecy."

8. Don't use any punctuation.

9. As often as possible, skip rather than walk.

10. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat - with a serious face.

11. Specify that your drive-through order is "to go."

12. Sing along at the opera.

13. Put mosquito netting around your work area and play tropical sounds all day at work.

14. Go to a poetry recital and ask why the poems don't rhyme.

15. Five days in advance, tell your friends you can't attend their party because you're not in the mood.

16. Have your coworkers address you by your wrestling name, Rock Bottom.

17. When the money comes out the ATM, scream "I won! I won!"

18. When leaving the zoo, start running towards the parking lot yelling, "run for your lives, they're loose!!"

19. Tell your children over dinner "due to the economy, we are going to
have to let one of you go."

20. And the final way to keep a healthy level of insanity... tell someone about it to make them smile. Its called therapy.

四月

2007-04-02T00:15:00.001+10:00

骤眼到了四月，这个月底就会到另一个国度，开始过新的生活。

真的很快，不知不觉在这里过了三个秋天。

白天越来越短，黑夜越来越长... 该会怀念这里的一切吧...

有一位亲切的阿姨说... "Don't look back!"
我说... "I'll miss... but I won't compare..."

既然决定了就不要后悔，对吗？

假期快点来

2007-03-29T22:18:00.000+10:00

很期待我下一个假期。

最渴望在布拉格漫步，在圣托里尼岛崖边白色小屋看爱琴海的日落，在爱尔兰遥望世界的另一端...

最好可以什么都不用担心，不需要住最好的酒店，也不需喝最醇的红酒，只要有个好旅伴，用最轻松的心情和我在一起，再普遍的景点也会是最美的画面。

当然不用担心假期后银行户口的赤字那可更妙！

我好贪心。

这里有一个video很可笑，也很可悲。大概我不会在旅行时看到吧！

Good stuffs looking for new home

2007-03-24T17:51:00.000+11:00

For those who don't know, I'll be leaving Melbourne moving back to MY/ SG in May. So... time is ticking.

I've have collected tonnes of stuffs here and they are looking for new homes, as I need rooms in my luggage for my lovely dresses from Seduce, Cue, Satch... all the good oz fashion brands...

Weighed all the stuffs in the wardrobe and that's almost 40kgs. That's excluding all the hardware stuffs that I have, and my soft toys, shoes, books, accessories, toiletries..

I'm not shipping anything back as by bf is kind enough to fly here and escort me home. So in total, we will have 23*2 (checked in luggage) + 7*2 (hand carry) - 12 (estimated weight of empty luggages plus some of his clothes). Hmm.. flying British Airways gives extra 3kgs compared to MAS or SQ.

I'm positive that I could reduce the total weight of all the stuffs I have in OZ to 48kgs nett. I'll achieve that by donating old clothes, winter jackets and giving any stuffs that I don't need anymore.

This week I'm parting with my Nike Yoga Kit. I'm giving it away to friends in Melbourne only. Let me know before 15 April if you are interested in adopting the yoga kit. Spread the words if you know anyone who's into yoga/ pilates.

Nike Yoga/ Stretching Kit
Condition: As new
This is a complete stretching kit from Nike. I've used the mat twice (no sweat) and haven't touched the stretching strap and foam block.

Bought it for Pilates as I need additional "clean" mat on to cover the mat at Fitness First. Gave up after two weeks as the class is too early for me on a Sunday and it's very very packed in the class. Everyone at Fitness First Syndal is very kiasu. They get up early to "book" their space in the class. I always get the location next to the door...

Oh... the whole kit including box weighs 2.2kg, which is equivalent to 10 dresses.

Friday... a not so good one...

2007-03-23T22:16:00.000+11:00

Today is not a good day for Melbourne. Fatal collision happened at Burnley Tunnel this morning. there were explosions, evacuation and deaths. Then there was a gas leakage at Malvern in the morning as well.

So sad that it has added the death toll of road accidents... the truck could have slow down...

My car was hit by a big truck once. I was caught by a truck from behind while it was turning left at a junction. I was at the left most lane and my car was almost station. It clipped my car in between the trailers and my car was totally caught and couldn't move at all. Luckily both vehicles were at a very slow speed, if not I cant imagine how bad the damage would be.

Trucks are scary and the drivers like to speed. They are always in the fast lane and pushing the other motorists into the left lanes. Although my accident happened more than 6 months ago, till now I still have the phobia whenever there is a truck driving pass my car.

Anyway, a not so good Friday is still a Friday. Some videos for you... cheers!

Have you seen The Ring? Here's the Japanese monkey version.

Isn't it clever?

New Battery!!

2007-03-22T22:01:00.000+11:00

Yeah... collected the new battery for my battery yesterday and it's working!

claimed the warranty on 09 March and it arrived on 19 March. I went to collect it yesterday... really couldnt wait any longer because I tripped over the power cable for a couple of times and the notebook shut down in the middle of processing... bad bad me doing bad things on my hard disk.

Oh it took me 2 hours return for the trip to claim the warranty... the Service Center is located at Malvern Road and Friday traffic was really really sux! Learnt my lesson and this time I went during lunch hour and it took me 1 hour return including picking up 10 pcs McNuggets with medium combo meal...

Happi Happi lalala....

It's not me...

2007-03-20T21:46:00.000+11:00

I've been a drama queen since I was a teenager. I thought that the drama elements will slowly leave me behind and I will be less interesting as I age.

Apparently, it's not... and it's getting as interesting as Wisteria Lane.

My dear friends, someone has tracked me down from this Blog and sent me some emails and comments with some false information about my personal life, which I chose to ignore. Why bother when it's not true...

Okie... that's for last week and the week before.

I thought that would just be a small index in the book of my life. However, it seems that I need to put a chapter for it.

Today I suspect that my Yahoo! email account has been hijacked.

Symptoms:
1. Invalid Password when my password is in fact valid. I have even typed it on a notepad for confirmation. As said, my hair is black. So... no blonde day!
2. After resetting my password, as I could sniff something has gone wrong, I found that I've lost majority of my emails in my Inbox. There is a specific mail box that I have stored some very important emails, and it's empty.
3. The emails including the ones that I've mentioned above, are missing.
4. Checked my Trash can - there is an email that I've never put into Trash can.

So, too many coincidences... I could conclude this into scenarios below:

Case A - Errors or Virus at Yahoo! end.
Case B - Hijack

Okie... stop your thinking there... Everyone is innocent unless proven guilty in most countries. I wonder what is the Cyber law?

I've done what I should do for investigations.

Surprisingly I'm very calm. I'm not angry at all. I'm just wondering what will happen to me next...

Oh.. by the way, if you've received any emails from 20.03.2007 00:30 AEST to 22:30 AEST, that's not me... if you did receive, please forward me that email and I'm interested to know what's in there.

Eventful March... till 10 days to go...

Video CV

2007-03-18T13:55:00.000+11:00

When you are doing something, you'll be fed by the news in that area... I've resigned from work and now starting to update my CV to apply for jobs (ya... i'm the lazy ones... now i have to find out what i've accomplished at work...)

This news caught my eyes... it's in Chinese about a video CV sent by a Yale Uni senior year student Aleksey Vayner to USB AG (Wallstreet investment company). You've seen it in Legally Blonde and now it's in reality... but in a funny way.

Chinese News

Someone has leaked the CV and forwarded it. From there, it traveled to different organizations, and even to the congress, later to Youtube.

News from Forbes

Though Aleksey Vayner lied in his video CV, recruitment agencies think that the idea is brilliant. From there, recruitment companies like Jobster has adopted his idea and now there's a trend for Video CV.

However, everything has a catch.

To prevent from being sued by the applicants for discriminations, most companies do not accept resumes and CV attached with your lovely photos. Some have even gone to the extreme of not publishing the names in the CV, because one can guess the race of a person from the names. This is common in the states and some Western countries, but still in Asia it's common to submit your photos in the resumes.

Video CV... appealing? Yes. Do it? nah... not for me...

Here comes Aleksey Vayner.

Here's a peep show for it.

Wiki for this.