We'll walk down this road together

And so the journey of preparations begins. Choices and decisions, discussions and management of expectations, broad concepts and nitty gritty details, hopes and compromises, and the list goes on....

More updates next time? Yes definitely. :)

Of Prayers

I was on leave on Friday and decided to go to the Guanyin temple at Waterloo Street. Just suddenly felt like I've not been there for a long time and hence the visit.

This time felt a little different from the rest of the other times I've been there. I can't put a finger to it but it felt like as if I was less emotional and more at peace. During some of the previous times I went there, I'd sometimes feel like crying or tearing when I prayed. This time round, I didn't feel it.

I went about my routine as per normal, gave my offerings, gave my token, knelt, prayed, got up, knelt, kow-towed somemore and prayed but I didn't get that emotional feeling I felt last time. Don't know why. This time round things felt more right.

Which is a good thing. :)

Murphy’s Law: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong

When Jacky Cheung came to Singapore for a concert 4 or 5 years ago, I couldn’t make it, for reasons that I cannot remember now. When he came 3 years ago, I couldn’t make it again as I was travelling I think.

And finally this year, the King of Canto and Mandopop is making his way to SG again in August. Fans went wild and within a few days, all tickets were sold out for his 2-night concert. 3 more shows were added and all, if not most tickets were snapped up as well.

TH & I managed to get ourselves tickets for his 28 Aug show. :) We were waiting for so long for him to come back. We were happy larks haha!

And then….

The company now has to send me for a meeting trip to Busan. So as it turns out, after so many years…I am still not fated to go watch his concert. Sigh…:(

Hehe

I reached office at 815am today which is quite usual ever since I started taking a private bus to work.

I am loathe to admit it but I spent the last hour and a half not doing any work at all. Because….I was reading some of my old posts from end 2008 to early 2009 heh.

I always find it very interesting to read my old posts, especially those from that period, simply because I never knew I could write like that.

I read in amazement just now at the thoughts which were penned down and the feelings I was experiencing during those times. I wonder where all those lovely writing juices went to? I certainly hope they’ve not dried up in me!

Efficiency

I wonder how the woman's body evolved to be as such.

Why does the modern day woman menstruate once every 28 - 40 days?

Do you know that the women in some rural tribes in Africa actually menstruate only once every 6 months or only once a year even? Why can't the rest of us women follow such a cycle as well? :(

Why does a woman menstruate? It's the body's way of preparing for the possibility of an egg being fertilised and developing into a zygote and then an embryo. It's just preparing in advance and building up blood linings in the uterus which are rich in oxygen and minerals. JUST IN CASE some eager beaver sperm outswims his peers and hits the jackpot of an egg.

But in the event none of those tadpole-like creatures find the Easter egg, or in the event that there are no sperm present at all to create a miracle, then the body breaks down all that extra blood lining and oxygen-rich wall linings in the uterus and sends it out of the woman's system. Hence the bleeding.

Which is quite inefficient right? Like, hello? I spend time preparing and preparing but nothing comes out of it and so I discard whatever I have built up. Abit waste time right?

Why couldn't the woman's body have evolved in such a way that the uterus builds up its wall linings only at the point when the egg has been fertilised? When the egg has been fertilised, I'm sure the body knows right and then maybe it could have sent some signal to the body that okay, now is the time to store all those minerals and build up those wall linings. There's an egg that needs to be fed and developed. Hurry and go build yourself up now.

Wouldn't it be more efficient this way? Less wastage too right?

Hmm...ok, I'm rambling I know.

The Crabbies

Mr Orange and Mr Grey are a pair of fussy crustaceans. Yeah, considering that they are actually scavengers in the wild, I think they are a little fussy.

They like bean sprouts but they only take it if its steamed and not raw.

They eat lychee but not longan.

They eat cornflakes, the non-sweetended kind, but they don't like non-sweetened oats.

They like rock melon and will fight over it, but they don't like watermelon.

Still, it has been a fun journey of discovery so far, finding out their dietary preferences haha.
I shall experiment more with other types of food...:)

Big Auntie

Big Auntie always chooses the worst days to visit.

She would suddenly show up when I'm overseas, it's happened twice in the last 8 months.
Or she would turn up during the weekend when I want to enjoy myself and relax.

Big Auntie menses is here again. Backache and cramps are starting already.

I think I can still tahan the dinner appointment tonight. But K & I are going to Universal Studios tomorrow. Hope I can survive that!!

In the meantime, I'll continue hugging my water bottle. I just filled it with hot water. :(

#s-u-r-v-i-v-e

Mid-day Rants and Thoughts

• Note to colleague: I should be getting part of your pay for doing your work.


• Why can some people come in at 945am and leave at 6pm? I'm working for 1.5 hours more but getting lesser pay??


• Growing dislike for some colleagues makes me feel like I am turning into a picky and fussy person.


• How to help someone improve if that person always wants to "taiji" or run away from responsibilities? Or if that someone doesn't want to help herself???


• Mondays are not meant for working. I'm surfing for chocolate muffin recipes now.


• Looking forward to 6pm. There's still 4 more hours to go.....zzzz.

*lazy to think of anything*

• Wondering if I should go perm my hair again. At least two ladies have told me that I look better with curls haha...I miss the days of not having to blow dry my hair into a nice shape too.
  


• Heading to Canele for dinner tomorrow. The mains sound interesting when I saw the menu online....hope it meets my expectations!
  


• Some people in my office bunch tire me out. When we don't invite them for gatherings, they say we don't invite them. But when we invite them, they either don't turn up or give half-assed answers like "errr...I may have something on leh...errr..I let you know? err...but I don't like so and so, very boring with her around....errr...I was thinking of going for a photography shoot...errr...." And the most patronising answer of all is always this "If I can make it, I'll go join you." Which in most cases with this bunch of people, usually means "I'll probably won't turn up".
  


• Madonna's "Confessions on the Dancefloor" album is a great album to listen to when you're working hard on drafting a paper. She accompanied me the whole of yesterday. I must have listened to the album at least 3 times over. And I managed to cough up the paper by the end of the day! Yay! All 5 pages of it! hahaha...

Voila!

I love this caricature :D

Conversations - the good, the bad, but no ugly

## CONVERSATION 1 ## the good

Had lunch with a colleague earlier on and we were talking about another colleague.

Lili: Tony loves to eat tow suan! He'll go look for tow suan everywhere he goes! And he especially loves to have tow suan with the fried char kway teow!
Me: Ok, I see.
Me: *thinks* Wait. You mean the fried yew zhar kway, or char kway teow?
Lili: OH!! YEW ZHAR KWAY YA YA YA! The long long fried thing! Hahahahha
Me: Hahahaha...


## CONVERSATION 2 ## the bad

On MSN. One-sided conversation.

JM: So how's things with you?
Me: *ignores*
JM: *after another 10-15minutes* So has he proposed?
Me: *irritation* Why do you keep asking me this every single time??????
JM: Oh have I?
Me: Yes.
JM: sorry, don't be upset lah. Was just being kaypoh.
Me: *ignores* *building irritation*
JM: If you need emcee next time, you can find me, I just did it for a wedding last night.
Me: *ignores* *still building irritation*

Eh??

I always get bruises, scratches or cuts without knowing how they got there.

I did it again last night. I got a 5mm cut on the middle finger of my right hand without knowing how, when or why.

I only noticed it when my middle and fourth fingers were sticky and patchy with blood.

But at least the cut's healing already.

MP as in....

Mushroom Pot.

It's been at least 5 years or more since I the last time I went there. Brought K there just now for dinner. The branch at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

I loved to bits the wild mushroom soup base. It was so sweet after all the cooking that I actually contemplated asking them whether I could dabao the soup home or not haha... Anyway, for the record, the answer is No. If you're wondering, I didn't ask them. Haha.

It must be the first time ever that I did not really eat much meat at a steamboat meal. It was all vegetables, mushrooms, some pork balls, more vegetables, some liver and 1 piece of beef for me today. Moderation for the sake of achieving some semblance of stability in my moody stomach.

K liked it there. For me, I've always enjoyed the idea of having a steamboat or a mini BBQ between just the two of us. Today's the first time we've actually done it and I pretty much loved it!

Maybe we'll go back there again soon. :)

First Time

And may it be the last...

Mr Orange pinched me just now, and refused to let go. There I was, stuck for a few minutes, with Mr Orange sitting in my left hand and a 3mm portion of the skin of my left palm clenched tightly in his right pincer.

I was rearranging some things in the tank and had to shift him. I couldn't place him anywhere and so I thought I'd just hold him for a little while. Before I knew what was happening, he had already latched onto me.

I stood still and waited, hoping for him to think that nothing was going to happen and so maybe he would let go naturally. That didn't work.

I tried to pry him off but he refused to let go. I hung him upside down but he clung on even harder.

#$#^%&^*^&*

I poured some sand on him but he only retreated further into the crevice of his shell and pulled my skin along with him.

#$#^%$&^%%

I was wondering how long more I'd have to grapple with him when a bulb lit above my head. I'd already tried pouring sand on him. I could try pouring water. Aha! Maybe that would get him to release me. And so armed with the idea, I trudged to the bathroom. And he was still pinching me all the while. By now my skin was starting to throb a little.

I ran the tap on Mr Orange who was still cradled in my left palm.

Voila. The blast of cold water shocked him into action. He loosened his grip (finally) and started scrambling out of his crabby hole, as if to see what was going on outside his sanctuary of a shell.

Poor thing. I hope the chlorine in the water wasn't too strong for him. No choice though, I had no other idea! Anyway, I had to dry him off before I put him back into the tank. And I also gave him half a bean sprout. Food can lift the spirits of some people, hope it can do so for hermit crabs as well.

Tough luck Mr Orange. Hope it wasn't too traumatic a cold bath for you.
May you sleep well later.

In the meantime, I still have a red mark on my left palm. -_-

p/s: While all the drama was unfolding above him, Mr Grey aka Lazy Bum was chilling in a corner of the tank......

That Yearning Feeling

It's been 6 months since I had a real overseas holiday.

And my heart's been wanting to go somewhere....

Work trips don't count because even though I can steal some time here and there for a little shopping and sight-seeing, at the back of my mind, I know that when I go back to my hotel room at night, my laptop and emails are going to be there to greet me.

It's amazing how even a budget airline return ticket to Bangkok can cost about $400 per pax including taxes and fuel surcharge. That's even more expensive than the accomodation which will only be about $300 for 3 nights at my favourite hotel, the Baiyoke Sky hotel (which is situated just above the Pratunam Wholesale market and is a stone's throw away from Platinum mall).

Maybe I should just consider heading to Malaysia or Batam or Bintan. But it's boring...

Or maybe I should just sign up for all the discount websites out there now...Groupon, AtCrazy, Deals, Gobbler...and wait for a good deal to come up.

Enough of dreaming...:(
*back to work*

Birdie Time

Upcoming trips...hmm.

Busan, Korea - August
Dakar, Senegal - October
Hong Kong - November!!

Not sure if I need to undergo any immunisation jabs again for the Sengal trip....:(
Will need to check the Communicable Disease Centre website....

Looking forward to the Hong Kong trip with K :)

Nom Nom

Been quite awhile since the last time my stomach "spoiled" in protest of the incessant amounts of food and drinks I've stuffed it with. Guess I've not kept my gluttony in check for a long time...hmm.

I didn't have much carbo the entire day yesterday. Lunch was yong tau foo soup and dinner was a few mouthfuls of my mum's chicken rice and 2 small pieces of chicken with loads of vegetables. The indigestion and bloatedness subsided a little because of the limited intake of food.

Good.

And the slight diarrhoea cleared up after I popped a pill in the morning.

Good.

Today shall be a day of little carbo and light foods as well.
En route to a better stomach and (hopefully) some kilos off! Haha...:)

Stomach spoil again

Woke at 430am with a terrible tummyache. Sat in the washroom for awhile, got rid of whatever gunk there was in me and went back to bed, only to get up about 15minutes later again.

Made a second trip to the toilet and sat on the throne for a few more minutes. Didn't know there was so much of it in me??!!

Teetered back to my room and by then it was 5am.....zzzz. Was tossing a little but I managed to get back to sleep, albeit for less than an hour only before my alarm went off.

Tummy's still not doing good now. I can feel it churning and I'm feeling bloated. :(
Maybe I should pop the pills I had from last week's visit to the doc.

Wonder if this has anything to do with the chicken wings I had from last night's dinner. :(((

"Sync in Progress"

That's what my phone has been showing for the last 20-odd minutes.

I'll admit this. I have been lazy. I've not synced my Iphone for a loooooooong time.
And when I'm trying to do it now, it's taking helluva long time to sync up properly to my PC.

It's been at Step 1 of 4 for the longest time. I'm already falling asleep here.
I think I'll go and bathe now and just let it sync on its own sweet time.

Things are Just Not the Same Anymore

Sigh
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Enough Said.
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.
The standard of the Bak Chor Mee and Chicken Wings at Bedok Block 85 Market has gone downhill.
.
.
.
.
.
I was craving for these things but when the food came, it was a little disappointing.
It wasn't as nice as before. As K put it...."things are just not the same anymore"...

Crabby Update

The crabs are doing okay I think. They're not as active as they were on their first two days in the new tank though. Maybe they've settled down already. Some things I've noticed so far:

• Mr Grey (or LazyBum as my mum calls him) is more timid compared to Mr Orange. He doesn't venture out of his shell to walk around that much.
  


• BUT, Mr Grey's much more motivated by food and water than Mr Orange. Put in a new type of food and he'll be the first one at the food bowl. Mr Orange will still be stoning somewhere else in the cage. Mr Grey's also the one to be drinking from the saltwater bowl more often.
  


• Mr Orange seems to be much more subdued now. During the initial two days, he was climbing here and there, digging here and there, irritating Mr Grey by climbing on him, irritating me by scratching against the corner of the tank, so on and so forth....But he's quietened down alot and spends more of his time hiding in his shell now.....
  


• Hermit crabs are scavengers in the wild and I read online that because of that, you need to include a variety of other foods in their diet, apart from their usual dry food pellets. And so....I gave them lettuce and bean sprouts yesterday. They really did eat the vegetables! :)
  


• They like digging. After I change their fresh and saltwater bowls and smoothen down the sand a little, by the next morning, the sand's a mess again. My mum calls them "Naughty Crabs"

I think, if I've the time, I'll create a special playpen for them, something separate from their tank. Perhaps I'll use a cardboard box and in that box, I'll give them some obstacles and maybe some food too. No water though, lest they spill everything and wet the box.

Read online that we need to give them baths too. Dunk them under running lukewarm water for awhile. Either that or dunk them in a bowl of dechlorinated lukewarm water. You can add salt if you want to as well. Will try this in the next few weeks maybe.

And I thought they'll be easier to care for compared to hamsters....hmm. Seems to be more effort now haha....

Aging?

Having a bad right shoulder since 2 days ago. Feel like I’m physically falling apart. I can't roll my shoulder forwards or backwards without feeling anything.

I may need to schedule a session with my masseuse very soon…:(

Random

5 words/phrases off the top of my head right now:

1. negotiation


2. things to do


3. lunch


4. running


5. vacation

5 songs off the top of my head now:

1. Everything - Wang Lee Hom


2. 晚安 - 林宥嘉


3. To Kill a Mockingbird - Eminem


4. Home - Michael Buble


5. Dang Dong Ye Jian Nuan - Sun Yan Zi

Lessons

Overheard a conversation between a Chinese mum and here daughter yesterday in the washroom of Tampines One.

Daughter: Why so small one?
Mum: No, you should say this: Why this is so small?
Daughter: Orh. Why this is so small?


Hmm. Why this is so small?

Why is this so small? Hmm........lessons for both?

*cringe*

I did a presentation last week to an international group of about 150 pax. I'm not a good presenter and I hate public speaking, what more to an international audience.

They did a live recording of the entire meeting and I just listened to my audio segment.

Eeeeew. I hate listening to myself. *cringe*

There are many many areas of improvement needed. Let's start with a good point first. I was concise and clear on the points I wanted to highlight to the audience. And I kept my responses to questions short and sweet.

Minus points. I kept saying "ok" or "k". Every sentence seemed to be punctuated with it. :(
After every slide change I also said "ok", before launching into the points I wanted to say.

I said alot of "ums" as well...I use these fillers alot when I am thinking about what to say next or when I am trying to slow myself down and talk audibly and not rattle off like a train. It showed up ALOT during my presentation. So my whole presentation had lots of "oks" and "ums" or "uhs".

And I forgot to thank the people who asked questions! Not politically correct haha.

I hope I can bear these in mind if I need to present next time again......

Cold and Uncomfy

@$#%&*^*%#$&W%^%

Just spilled water on myself. On my crotch area to be exact. Now I've got soggy damp jeans and semi-damp undies.

Feeling cold down there. :(

Oh well, looking on the brighter side, at least it wasn't coffee or tea or milo I spilled. :)

We go back a long way

I was at the doctor's 2 nights ago because I was having slight diarrhoea. The same nurse has been working there since forever. There are always two nurses on duty at the counter. I've seen others come and go for the other nurse position but she's the only nurse who's been there all the time.

When I went there and said my name (sans family name) and block number, she could tell me my surname. Wow. She could even tell me my own unit number. IMPRESSIVE. I was silently doing a "FWAH!" in my mind haha.

And then she took out my case file, or rather, it was a thick wad of white cards all stapled together. I happened to see the first card and the stamped date of the very first time I went to that clinic.

It said 15-March-1986.

WAH.

I've been seeing this doctor since I was 5 and a half years old. I'm 30 and a half now.
I've been seeing him for 25 years?! That's a quarter of a century and three-quarters of my life!

From when I couldn't see over the counter to when I am now towering way above the counter top!

We go back a long way Dr Yao. I wonder how much you've earned from me and my parents in all these years? Lol.

Of Sticks and Balls

I had the strangest request this afternoon. A colleague called me....

Aaron: Do you play pool? Do you know how to play pool?
Me: Errr, I don't really play it. I can hit the ball but I won't know where it goes.
Aaron: Ah?? You're so jialat meh? You look like you can play!
Me: Errrr....really? Err...thanks. Why are you asking anyway?
Aaron: We're missing a player for the inter-division pool challenge and thought to ask you to join our team. I think it's ok then. Bye.
Me: Errr...ok, sorry, bye!

danny-boy

Looking forward to meeting Dan and YL tomorrow night for dinner.

It's been ages since we last caught up with each other and I've also been putting off meeting up with him because of my recent busy schedule.

K & I are meeting them at Vivocity and we decided to try out this place called The Cellar Door at Level 1. Hope we made a good choice!!

Updates after tomorrow's gathering! :)

scared scared

I had a scary dream last night. I guess it could be considered a nightmare except that I didn't wake drenched in sweat nor screaming in horror. But thinking about the dream now makes me shudder at the creepiness of it all.

I dreamt I was possessed but didn't know it. I was at someplace with a female colleague and a male colleague. The lady colleague's face was a blur but the male colleague turned out to be HC. Anyway, we were talking and then suddenly I felt uneasy. HC, being a devout Christian, felt that something sinister was stirring within me.

The next moment, I sort of collapsed to the ground in sweat but was still conscious and fully aware of my environment. HC proceeded to mutter some prayers and conducted an "on-the-spot" cleansing or exorcism of some sort. I remember his voice rang out clearly in my mind and asked me to stay strong and focused. The mind of me in the dream I mean.

The lady colleague was cradling me in her arms. I remember it didn't feel too comfortable though haha. HC continued with his healing and cleansing.......

And then, the dream ended. I don't know what happened to me thereafter.....

But eeew, the hairs on my arms are standing on end. I don't like creepy dreams. :(