Monthly Archive

yes, it’s 31st of december and i’m sitting around at home instead of out partying. not that i mind it very much, i’m a semi-hermit to start with.

i still have a couple of xmas cards that are still unsent, cos i don’t keep track of people’s latest email addresses. erm so don’t be surprised if i send you some file over msn suddenly the next few days (weeks).

and being 31st december, how can i not do a memory replay of 2005?

and memories are great and a whole lot easier with the help of some visual aids.

let’s see some of the things i have done this year:

1. may 09th to july: went through attachment hell, with a great attachment mate who kept me sane. though she still drives me insane from time to time.
2. june: turned 21 years old
3. july: got my first manicure and pedicure
4. dec 10th: mayday final home concert 2005
5. broke my personal record for grades
6. image revamp:

• got a fresh new haircut and new glasses after cny 2005. funky new look!
• bought a skirt for the first time, in dinosaur years.
• first-time owner and user of makeup in the first half of the year. now it’s left in the cupboard collecting dust.
• decided to revolutionize the wardrobe. got rid of a load of horrendous impulse purchases. which explains the sudden increase in new black tops, black is versatile.
• yes, i bought 2 pairs of heels too. the second pair of ultra-gu-niang heels gave me HUGE blisters the other day. and i had six bloody plasters on my feet.

uh oh, i think i reached the end of the list.

but here’s some stuff in the collage that i am still hankering after:

• a red mini cooper with twin white stripes
• an apple powerbook
• a white ipod nano
• an aarnio eero globe chair / an arne jacobsen egg chair
• nokia 7610 in black
• some savings

ok, next year will be more happening. but no new year resolutions, cos they’re a waste of time. who ever keeps to resolutions?!

happy 2006 in 4 hours’ time, everyone!

it all started with the bbq at my uncle’s place, who asked us over not for xmas, but just for fun. and my bro and i ended up playing rounds of big two (dai dee) with my cousins and two other kids, all under the age of 17.

who ever heard of people playing big two on xmas eve?

it was still quite boring until we introduced the leftover cordial from the bbq. the loser had to drink one cup each time, without anyone going to the toilet until we finished the half-tub. so being wise and cunning, i teamed up with my cousin, and the rest weren’t that dumb either, they followed suit. with the early departure of the weakest teams, it was the battle between the cousins. thank god we played in teams, or i’d have burst my bladder.

cos the final round involved a mugful of cordial which is even bigger than the usual beer mug size. and my team ended up drinking the mugful. but it wasn’t me playing, ok? not that it made much difference, cos it was a damn exciting round. everyone was just throwing their cards and towards the end we all became hysterial when all players had two cards left. my cousin was leading intially and missed by a bit.

with three hours’ sleep on xmas eve, the very same uncle’s family and mine left for msia at 5.30am. crazy, isn’t it? but it was a day of good food on xmas eve, peranakan food in malacca for lunch and chinese dinner at a restaurant in johor. ironically, a year ago when the tsunami took place, we were in the same peranakan restaurant having lunch.

oh yes, i bought a freaking gu niang pair of slippers with heels too. beaded some more, ok!

boxing day?

it was spent varnishing my parents’ bedframe and their cupboard. the wardrobe was a freaking ten-door monster, about three metres high. damn, and i painted the wardrobe with a chinese calligraphy brush, which is bloody small! it was six solid hours of varnishing and dinner at 10pm, as if we had to atone for too much enjoyment over the weekend.

hope everyone had a xmas-ly weekend.

being a final-year-final-semester student i think i am experienced enough to share some tips of subject registration, haha. and this will serve as a reminder nothing in the entire university life is as stressful as this fateful day, not even the exams come close.

registration for subjects is an art. it requires rocket science calculations.

firstly, you have to decide which combination will be least taxing and require the least number of days of presence in school.

then you try and compare which combinations are better, e.g. early monday mornings with a two day week compared to late morning classes with a three day week. and you have to anticipate which classes will be most popular so as to minimize congestion and lower the probability of not getting it.

contigency plans have to be made, for different index numbers, different courses, backup plans for elective modules. if index A (module 1) doesn’t work out and you want to settle for index B (module 1), you may have to drop index C (module 2) first and add both index B (module 1) and D (module 2) to prevent timetable clashes.

make sure you reach school damn early to chope seats in the computer lab (2pm is considered late for a registration slot at 3.30 pm) so that you can discuss contigency plans with your hang-out gangs in school if their original plans fall through. then msn windows start appearing the moment you log on as your other friends start asking you about your timetable plans. it is during this moment on msn that you can discover which classes your enemies are landing in and you can try to avoid them.

3.15 pm. once you finish all the planning, exchange your log in user ids and passwords with your friends who want to have the same timetable. so that if yours screw up and the others are fine, they can make use of their terminals to help you check for vacancies or register. maximize efficiency.

3.20pm. confirm all ideal timetable plans and contigency plans. make sure you have a paper with all the plans and index numbers on it so that you don’t fumble and have quick access to that if you have to register manually. don’t rely too heavily on the STARS planner and don’t tust your memory too much when it comes to index numbers.

3.25 pm. closes all msn windows and whatever you are doing online. looking across the sea of computers in the lab, you’ll see the STARS website on every computer screen.

3.28pm. everyone has their cursor placed over the almighty button that would send the index numbers to STARS to register, do the same. there is complete silence in the lab. the more impatient and kiasu ones start to click on this button repeatedly to see if by any chance, the server will open the floodgates slightly earlier than stated.

the lucky ones (like yours truly) who sit behind those impatient people will peer at the screen in front waiting for them to successfully add the subjects before clicking their own, thus ensuring that the floodgates have indeed opened and that you are one of the fastest.

due to past experience STARS sometimes screw up after too many attempts and you have to re-log-in again, therefore it is not wise to be one of those impatient ones who keep clicking.

3.30pm. the floodgates open and you hear, “can liao! can liao!” followed by exclaims of “YES!”
just a few minutes later you start hearing cursing and swearing - because the server has jammed.

3.35pm. the bunches of students who had exclaimed and marvelled at the magical moment of smooth registration pack up and leave the lab. the others with slight problems getting their ideal combination stays behind and ferociously clicks on different buttons to check vacancies and to add or drop index numbers. in between you hear shouts over your head, “(insert index number) has (insert number) vacancies!!” keep you ears open cos sometimes these tidbits of information will benefit you too.

if everything fails, email the school and plead with them to get you a slot.

that’s all there is to subject registration.

i am sure glad i don’t have to go through this painful event again. cos everytime it takes place, i have a splitting headache from the stress and complication.

farewell to registration headaches!

first, samsung got onto my nerves so badly i was fuming all the way from boon lay to jurong east.

two weeks ago (or possibly three) when i called their customer service line, there was this nice and polite lady. i told her i wanted to send my phone for servicing and if i could get it back on the same day, since i have no spare phone and it would be very inconvenient if i had to leave it overnight. she kindly checked with the toh guan people and told me they had stock of the keypad for my phone model and yes i could get it back on the same day if i could give them 2 hours for servicing.

today, when i called them before i made the trip down, it showed that the samsung customer service is a matter of probability. the try-your-luck-and-see-which-customer-service-officer-you-get kind of game.

this impatient woman on the customer service line told me NO I CANNOT GET MY PHONE ON THE SAME DAY, IT’S IMPOSSIBLE FOR ALL THE SERVICE CENTRES TO DO SO. in quite a rude tone too. so i ignored that comment and tried to ask her to check if the toh guan branch had stock of the keypad. she told me NO SHE CANNOT CHECK WITH THEM because some service branch thing is closed but i can still go down and leave my phone with them overnight. (i already told her i don’t want to leave my phone overnight) so i told her “forget it, i’ll go down personally and check” and hung up.

i reached the place in jurong east. and when i told the lady at the counter i want to service the keypad, the first thing she told me was, “ok but the earliest you can collect it is tomorrow. but we can’t promise this either. we’ll call you when it’s ready.” i told her i can’t leave me phone overnight, if they had stock of the keypad couldn’t they replace it in two hours? so she finally asked her colleague if they had stock and yes, they did. so she told me, “yah, ok we have stock. you can collect it in two hours.”

wrong customer attitude! they should have checked the stock before telling me the collection date to make their service efficient and to minimize trouble for customers! they think accord distri centre very accessible ah! it took me 45 minutes to get there ok! still have to walk for another 10 minutes lor! and they needed possibly more than a day to replace a stupid keypad?! were they trying to prove their inefficiency or what?!

finally, when i collected my keypad after two happy hours of shopping at imm, i tried the buttons 4 and #.b great, it worked perfectly! so i left a relatively happy customer.

and when i got home and started sms-ing, i realised button 5 is faulty!

WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS WRONG WITH SAMSUNG?!

i am so going to blast those people the next time i go down. sent the phone for servicing with two faulty buttons, and i get the phone back with a new faulty button.

and i think i should send a copy of the above to samsung feedback too, seriously. they should pay some attention to their customer service and telling their staff what exactly is the standard procedure instead of spending on those not-too-bad advertisements and what not lor! customers not important meh? and so far a general observation i have is that samsung phones are less durable than other brands. samsung users usually have to change their phones barely a year after their fatal decision to purchase.

*fuming

and next, the bloody school registration system. it’s already bad that they made the checking such a huge mystery that on one knew when the results were coming out. they had this table listing all the different courses in one column and another column for the release date. AND ALL THE DATES SAID 3RD WEEK OF DECEMBER. are they brainless or what? then just write a sentence saying all results will be released in the third week of december lah!

now it’s for the biannual headache again. so few vacancies left for so many people. and when i tried to check the number of vacancies again,

then why bother with online systems? does it take that much trouble to have the computer systems compile all the numbers and let the students check them?

why is the school getting from inefficient to more inefficient?!

i haven’t been updating as frequently this week cos, without outings and dinners, life is boring. and the email marathon i’m having with weiwei is taxing on blog contents. i just reached a milestone in my life - my first 2,053 words email. and it was easier to mention some of my future plans in the email marathon than on the blog, cos nothing is finalised. so i’ll talk about it only if it materialises.

meanwhile, here’s a sumary of what has been happening:

1) been varnishing some old wooden furniture in the house. in exchange for some pocket money. i guess i quite like the varnishing, cos it’s quite fun and it feels good when i manage to transform a battered looking piece of furniture into some gleaming thing. but it’s not so fun when i have to do it in such crazily warm weather. and it’s not so fun when the father mentions an ever-growing list of things that also need to be varnished.

2) one of my tuition kids is mad. she started off the lesson today extremely grump and she was sulking so much i felt like hitting her head with a chair or something. she looks SO unpleasant when she sulks. but then for some unknown reason she went into a super good mood after half a lesson. she’s mad, she is.

3) i feel the movie-dinner itch already. damn, for years i thought i’m immune to movies and only watched movies to cater to friends’ preferences.

4) i realised why i haven’t been swimming since exams ended. cos i’ve been juggling my tuition assignment, all of them in the day. no wonder i feel so busy. so *ahem don’t accuse me of making excuses hor!

5) i really, really gotta bring my phone for servicing. i keep forgetting, and january is just around the corner.

6) life next week is gonna be as boring, i think. ugh.

a third tuition assignment came in and it seems this last one will be a lot of work and effort on my part. but for some strange reason i prefer tutoring weaker students, cos smart students are too smart-ass and there’s no sense of satisfaction since their grades always remain that high, with or without me.

but a third tuition assignment also means more walking to and fro, spending more time each week explaining grammar and problem sums to unenlightened kids.

still, money has to come in from somewhere and compared to telemarketing and sales, yeah, i’m delighted to be tutoring. plus, i think i’m lucky to be getting continuous referrals. these three all came from the same ex-student, who fired me just last week. either the mum feels guilty for firing me (hence the recent two referrals) or she wants her own kids to shine (wahaha, ok she can’t be this evil).

the money should be rolling in end of dec and beginning of january. meanwhile, i’m still determined not to buy anything till post-xmas, anything at all, except for a black beaded bracelet i’ve been searching for to match the black beaded chocker i have. lucky i don’t celebrate xmas or the new year, or i’ll be doomed.

but tuition assignments are always unpredictable. and i really should start to save up. remind me of this save-money campaign the next time i go one a retail therapy session.

woke up feeling a little feverish, the hot-and-cold kind and now, the warmwarmwarm kind. with a splitting headache to complement. perfect occasion for some panadols, but i haven’t taken them yet. still hoping i’ll feel un-feverish soon.

no, the feverish feeling doesn’t come from excitement about the mayday concert this evening. surprisingly i’m pretty emotionless now.

cos i’m too fed up with fyp. maybe fed up is a little too strong. i just don’t know how to continue with it.

a happy 21st birthday to the dressed-glamourously-but-behaved-unglamourously-liuhwen!

it was an enjoyable party, with so many of the ex-classmates around. and all the catching up. man, i’m always lost.

and no, i didn’t have a good-face-day. and to punish me, MY MEMORY CARD/CAMERA/MEMORY CARD READER HAS GOBBLED UP ALL THE PICTURES!! to think that “wenling’s camera-guy” commented that it was a good camera. then it misbehaved. not the first time it has happened though.

i shall see if it works fine tomorrow. you never know with technology stuff.

so people, i’m sorry i can’t contribute photos and we’ll all have to rely on the unreliable liuhwen for photos.

oh yah, to those who hugged me tonight, sorry i smelt bad! hahaha, it’s the warm night lah….

on a more introspective note, i was thankful that i’m still a “swinging single” now.

i was walking home just now under the stars and began to realise that star-gazing would be something i wouldn’t know or want to share with someone else, even though it’s that special someone. it’s something so simple yet beautiful that i think i’ll appreciate it more without having to share my admiration for it with someone else.

it’s also therapeutic to spend time alone, and strangely, i seem to be enjoying my personal space more and more. such as going to the movies alone (so far i’ve only done it once), shopping, browsing bookstores, etc. etc. all by myself. it’s so much easier to think when i’m alone, i can see myself and others more clearly too. and i don’t have to explain myself or to care whether others agree or support my view.

i just need to listen to myself.

not to mention the freedom of being single. being able to go out with different groups of friends as and when i like it, having the time to just stay at home and watch dramatic and lame hongkong serials on weekends and spending family time while i can still enjoy it.

i don’t have to bother myself with all the nitty-gritty stuff that comes along with relationships, like making sure the other person is happy, feeling upset when something goes wrong, etc. to me, all these are a burden at this stage. a burden which i’m not able to carry on my back right now, especially after hearing the girls talking about their complicated stuff tonight.

aren’t all these blessings?

hmm, i think i shall continue to enjoy these blessings as much as i can while it lasts.

and to tracy, the day i have something to share, you bet i will! =)

instead of a good hair day i have a good face day! haha my face looks so much smaller in the photo and i have a chin! hehe.

nothing i can do about my nose, though.

happy evening at jurong point with all the ugly decor!

yawn. going to my third tuition lessons in 10 mins time.

1st lesson @ 11am
2nd lesson @ 3pm
3rd lesson @ 7pm

don’t think i’m earning big bucks though. i just started the cycle of 8 lessons. and there’s two “free” lessons cos the parent paid me before exams and i have to clear what i owe her before she officially fires me.

still got to finish lit review by tonight!!

tamade, i’m already sleepy!~

and we’ve barely started.

it’s been a busy weekend.

kx’s birthday on saturday in yishun. was sharing some gossip and retail management post-exam stuff throughout. sometimes i think most of my casual talk with marketing people are gossip, gossip, gossip. but then, with fy and shiya around, we did share some more personal stuff like family stuff etc. etc.

and i noticed KX YOU HAVE CHANGED!! she’s learnt to suan me and be more aggressive when talking to me!!! rebellious! she used to be so sweet and slow-motion and gentle. on saturday i was waving my nail-polished hands around and she said something like “qiao” (vain) with a smirk (complete with her head held high) and walked away!!! oh no, must brainwash her to treat me nicely. her voice drips with honey when she speaks to other people lor!! not fair.

but then she’s the birthday gal, better don’t blast her too much lah. hahaha.

i think i wouldn’t be craving for dim sum for a long time, after the dim sum buffet i had with the family yesterday. overstuffed, after my crazy brother ordered waaaaay too much stuff.

no more dim sum affairs for the time being.

was so bored last night that i watched the star awards.

man, it was a disgrace. especially during the last half an hour of the awards ceremony, the presentation of the top twenty male and female artistes. i had zero idea why zoe tay and christy chung had to go on and on and on about motherhood like some spokesperson for the give-birth! government campaign. and it’s pretty much out of point lor!

then when the most popular ladies went up to give their speeches, they had this horrible method of cueing them when their allotted speech time of 30 seconds was up. the stupid star awards music in the background. man, how uncreative and obvious and rude.

but i had my mouth half-open when the best news presenter gave her thank-you speech. wah liao, news presenters are always different. their super fluent, flowery language and precise pronounciation. stunning! by the way, what’s with the comment from claire chang (the female mp) commenting that females are still better than males in news presenting (or something like that). that was totally unnecessary lor and i think it’d have made the only guy nominee feel awkard and uncomfortable. plus that guy nominee also not too bad what! so much for charismatic politicians.

am starting to work on the literature review for my final year project. it has to be mind blasting (personal expectations) although i have no idea how to go about it. but it’s high time to get started, since we have set an “internal deadline“, which is this wednesday.

and of course, i have some motivating goodies to remain a happy worker. hehe, i downloaded a couple of new mayday video clips. yum.

mayday’s coming on thursday! their concert’s on saturday!!! wheeheeeheeeeee!!!!!

the cockroaches have been invading my room. the worst thing is, they don’t crawl into my room, which would prove that my room is filthy and thus it would be my fault. fact is, they fly into my room, hit the walls, fall down and disturb me.

and, flying cockroaches are uber tough. they need a heavy dose of insecticide before they go into spasms on their back, compared to their weaker counterparts that crawl. there seems to be more of these flying cockroaches during the monsoon season. now that i hear any suspicious “click” sound i jump out of my seat with a speed that would put jackie chan to shame. cos any sound like that would signal a flying cockroach hitting the wall.

i’m am so freaking fed-up with cockroaches so i did some surfing to find out more about cockroaches. yah, i’m bored, can?

and i shall share some information about these creatures:

1) the flying cockroaches are likely to be the blattella asahinae which is a very close relative to the German cockroach.

2) thirst, hunger, sex and safety rules the cockroaches’ lives. (so if you wanna get rid of cockroaches, deprive them of these four factors)

3) cockroaches are not used to living on a polished marble or vinyl floor (or any other surface which does not allow them to grab hold of something and flip themselves over when they find themselves on their backs)

4) insecticides contain organophosphate nerve poisons, somehow causing more acetyl choline (a neurotransmitter) and results in muscular spasms in cockroaches. the spasms cause cockroaches to flip on their backs and without muscular coordination, they cannot flip themselves over and die in the upside-down position.

5) cockroaches are nocturnal creatures and they hibernate in seasonal climates.

6) tropical cockroaches prefer temperatures above 25 degrees celsius. (that’s it, i’m doomed unless i migrate.)

7) people do keep some species of cockroaches as pets.

cockroaches have been around for more than 250 million years and they have no natural enemies.

9) an advantage of having cockroaches around is that they feed on bed bugs. (but doesn’t that mean they hang around your bed? eeeeeeeyuck.)

want to get rid of cockroaches? here’s a checklist:

everything has been done in my house, except for the moving around of fridges and ovens. damn troublesome leh. my mum would volunteer me to do that if i even suggest it to her. better not. i’d rather live with cockroach invasions.

i am declaring weiwei as my silly-movies-buddee. just like how wenwen is my no-brainer-movie-buddee. strange that we practically never watch movies all together.

movie of the season: chicken little.

a very short movie in 80 minutes.

maybe the storyline has to be short in 80 minutes, cos i thought the movie was a little underdeveloped. for more than an hour i was thinking, “ok, so where does the action really start?”. i didn’t realise that the action had always been taking place. and i was a little confused about the baseball thing. i thought it was its dream or something.

the starting was painfully lame, but fortunately it was over in a short time. the characters were super dramatic, which made the whole thing quite funny, plus the pokes at hollywood movies. but i didn’t understand why chicken little and the ugly duckling had to end up as a couple. i mean, it kind of kills the point of a “child’s” innocence, that is, if kids nowadays have any innocence left.

but then, i love the way chicken little looks, minus its big head and ugly green t-shirt. it looks so soft and fluffy with the layer of down, although it looked like yellow fish scales occassionally. and the baby alien was AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW. i want the baby alien!! i think i like the baby alien more than chicken little. wahahaha. it’s SO cute!! so incredibly fluffy, always speaking in some gibberish thing. SO CUTE!!

but it was fun watching with the weiwei cos she kept laughing and laughing damn loud throughout the movie. so i could laugh loudly too. wahahah.

moral of the story: cartoon makers should always make their characters as fluffy as possible. like chicken little, baby alien, stitch, elmo, the lion-thingy, etc.etc.

went around town the whole day yesterday in my heels and man, i nearly died from pain. it’s been a long time since i’ve worn that pair of heels for prolonged periods and it was to do some serious shopping some more. wore heels cos we intended to attend a marketing alumni dinner, but we missed it in the end. my feet still feel like they’re bruised and swollen, but they’re not! what the. wah liao, what if kana internal injury? hahaha.

anyway, these feet are not mine. they’re fy’s. wah she almost used up a small pack of plasters yesterday. see lah, pointy shoes are evil. but she claims it’s because she seldom wears this pair, that’s why it’s so bad. pointy shoes are evil. pointy shoes are evil. pointy shoes are evil. pointy shoes are evil.

i’ve been visiting marina more often recently, and i realised i’ve never ever noticed this thing before.

but it’s very cool leh!! it looks so retro, like it belongs to the era when hdb built playgrounds using cement and coloured tiles. the kind which is near existent now cos it supposedly kills kids if they fall or crash into the structures.

so many twists and curves some more. maybe it’s not exactly aesthetically pleasing, but then it’s starkly different from all those minimalist-looking things people are building nowadays.
i sure hope they don’t mess with it during the renovation, cos singapore looks so painfully modern, we are tearing down all the “old” buildings like nobody’s business.

what historical buildings? they all look so new. bluff people one lah, those historical buildings.

and look who we saw at taka yesterday?

i love elmo, even though i didn’t watch sesame street. i only discovered who the fluffy and adorable creature in sesame street was in upper sec.

this picture reminds me of someone’s inability to comprehend simple toddler toys meant to simulate coordination and use of the hands. you know, the twist, slide and push-button motions. thus she couldn’t figure out how to make the sesame street characters pop out from behind the doors in the toy. i seldom do this, but out of agitation i scolded her “STUPID!”. wahahahahahah.

still managed to find the perfect present for one of the december babies, and a hopefully-perfect present for a november baby.

two more december presents to get.

santa claus is coming to town!!