Category Archive

There are miracles in the world because I received a call this morning requiring me to turn up for a second interview tomorrow. It’s totally unexpected because I was stuttering when the interviewer asked for my hands-on experience during internship. To date, this is the only organization that has shown interest in me, damn it.

I seriously hope I don’t screw up tomorrow. There’s not much time for me to weave recall more convincing stories about internship if I want to get some decent sleep tonight. I’m just hoping they’re not gonna harp on work experience tomorrow, I might drown.

I’m also hoping I wouldn’t have the wild look of a lunatic in my eyes tomorrow. All these travel coordination and planning for the graduation trip back to Australia are getting on my nerves. I have to handle everything by myself because in this family, the father pays, the loafers arrange. Yes, that’s me, a loafer. I know, I know. If I can’t handle travel arrangements for three people, how can I possibly handle multiple projects at work right? The real problem is the tight deadline for this trip.

I’ve been procrastinating most of the arrangements because hell, what if I didn’t make it for the final semester? Now that the results have been released, everything has been a crazy whirlwind. Yes, I’ll be flying this Friday, which is like, tomorrow, as I type past midnight. I now see the wisdom of my brother’s school in having the convocations months after the end of the semester.

Good luck to me, I need a smooth journey and a job real bad.

I’ve been spending an unhealthy amount of time at home since my return. I guess it was due to the ridiculous weather. I was out in the Clarke Quay area the other night and according to the companions, it wasn’t a particularly warm night but I just melted in the heat. I glared at them when they contemplated hanging out at one of the outdoor pubs. We ended up having iced drinks at McDonald’s and man, was it cooling.

Anyway, I have had enough of lazing around at home. It’s time to take a walk out there with my camera or something, but I’m supposed to start packing the luggage for the graduation. or something Damn, I hate packing luggages. Besides, I’ve almost gotten used to the weather here and I’m heading back for the freezing cold and then returning to hot, humid weather again? Let’s see how well my body can adjust to extreme temperature differences, yah?

Hmm, can’t decide where I should go tomorrow if I have the time.

Warning: You know it’s gonna be a long and whiny and emotional post when I start talking about leaving Australia.

It’s been one and a half years.

When I first came over, I came with a lot of anticipation and worry. Anticipation because I would get to spend 1.5 years alone, living by myself and having a lot of freedom. I knew that I would enjoy the stay here because I was going to do something I had chosen to do, instead of being forced into the workforce like everyone else. Besides, I’ve always wanted to study overseas. But I was also worried because I only had a week to look for suitable accomodation and I didn’t know a single soul over here. It was freaking scary.

I had a hard time convincing myself this place would be all right. My eyes nearly fell out of their sockets when the plane landed at the Canberra “International” Airport because for as far as I could see, the whole place was in a shade of ugly brown. I had another scare because the motel I was booked at for the first week was located at the border of Canberra’s civilization and it was surrounded by bushes and grassland browned by the summer heat. There was a bus passing by the motel every hour and it travelled along a wide, deserted road before weaving through a few quiet little suburbs. But I thought the suburbs were sweet little places and I didn’t mind if I had to live in one.

Then I moved into a suburb near the city. While it wasn’t exactly a sweet little suburb, it appeared to be kind of deserted at first. Recently, I met a classmate on the bus while I was heading home. Just before I alighted, she commented, “This place….(looks around) doesn’t look like there are any buildings nearby”. I chuckled and told her it’s just a 5 minute walk from the main roads. It amused me because I had the exact same thoughts when I first came. When I was checking out the place, I froze when I was along the main road because it was lined by a thick patch of tall trees and the ubiquitous bushes. It was as if I would be living next to a mini forest. For someone who grew up in a concrete forest, this sight was frightening.

I don’t know if I would ever be back in Canberra but I know if I do return, there would be a lot of things that will have changed. In my 1.5 years here, they replaced a huge carpark I used to cut across daily with a shiny block of student living quarters. Over a single weekend when I was away in Sydney attending the brother’s graduation, they bulldozed yet another carpark which was the alternative shortcut I had adopted and I have no idea what they’re building there.

After I leave they’ll be demolishing the outdated bus interchange where the neighbourhood mall is and a new bus interchange would be built. They recently repainted the interchange in the corporate colours of the bus company, bright orange and bright green. The place now looks like some kind of kindergarten bus bay.

The bus interchange and the adjacent carpark of the shopping mall freaked me out the first time I saw them. Yeah, I spent my first two weeks here totally freaked out. These two places looked extremely gloomy and dangerous with all the dirty-looking concrete and vandalism. After a couple of weeks I realised they were one of the bigger bus interchanges and shopping malls in Canberra.

The ulu-ness of this place doesn’t scare me that much anymore, it’s kind of refreshing because there are no skyscrapers over here. Sure, I get bored because the nightlife is pathetic (unless I want to spend all my time clubbing and I really don’t) and there isn’t much to do around here. I spend each semester meditating and reflecting, ha. That’s because each time I leave Singapore I bring along with me a lot of issues which I would straighten out here.

I grew to love Canberra and it’s not a good thing. Like I’ve mentioned before, it’s painful having to give up either Singapore or Canberra when I love both places equally much. I’m bringing a lot back with me this time. I’ve gained experiences and knowledge, there are a lot of new thoughts and my mind is a lot lighter than when i came. If I ever hit a difficult time again, I only have to tell myself I survived 1.5 years of being alone, I went through certain anguishes without anyone by my side and yet managed to graduate (hopefully). Besides, I survived stats ;-). Therefore I can handle anything in my life, no?

Oh well, I guess this marks the end of quiet days and peaceful living. It’s hard to say this, but goodbye for now, my second home. I know I’ll miss you lots.

i got this post-it pad from cedele depot last year. they must have put a spell on it cos that christmas eve is one i truly remember. there wasn’t anything much special about that day but it left a deep impression on me. half a year has gone by and that christmas eve afternoon at cedele depot keeps popping up in my mind each time i use up a sheet from this post-it pad.

maybe it was the way i had to hang out at raffles place on christmas eve. the area was a ghost town by late afternoon and i had to hang out till 8pm for the second shift at the redemption counter. most of the shops and cafe were closed and i gratefully found cedele depot open. i was the only customer around and the staff were taking the rest of the day easy. the female manager was bitching about some rebellious employee like a chao ah lian and intruded on my thoughts.

i was scoffing at the tagline on the post-it pad when the staff chucked it into my hands along with the handful of change but damn it, i do vividly remember the christmas eve afternoon spent there.

this is one of the very few christmas eves i still (and want to) remember. it’s totally weird how i’m blogging about a christmas eve which has gone by but i just thought i would, before the post-it pad runs out.

someone was asking to take a look at my melbourne photographs but i declined, mainly because i didn’t take many. it’s been a long time since i had the chance to put my heart and soul into taking pictures. somehow i don’t like the look of photos i take when i’m not in the phototaking mood. the pictures usually turn out to be boring and flat.

there are some amazing photographers out there (professional, of course) who inject so much feeling inside their masterpieces it just connects you to them. i was browsing the touristy items in melbourne 360 when i saw this photo calendar. each and every picture was oozing loneliness and depression of a city soul. i couldn’t get through all the photos in the calendar cos it was too depressing. i thought it was a bit overwhelming but i still do like a healthy dose of feeling in photography.

then i came across this postcard selling at a rip curl store in melbourne city. it was a picture taken by sean scott. i had no idea who he was until i came home and googled his name. but there and then, i stood there for a long time, transfixed. i would have bought the postcard but one of the corners was slightly dog-eared. i can’t help but go for perfection when i buy pretty things.

with the lack of interest to pick up photography tips and skills i don’t think i’ll ever come up with a kickass masterpiece. the more i look at previous pictures i was happy with, the more flaws i see in those pictures. it’s not good to be too anal, eh?

anyway, i’m thinking of getting a new camera when i am comfortably employed. i love my lumix, but it has its limitations, especially its image quality. most of the time, i have to boost (a lot) the colours after i upload the images to my laptop. besides, i’m paranoid of my lumix breaking down on me, though it shows no signs of doing so. my lumix is probably around 5 years old? i don’t want to be left without a camera.

i want to go out there and take photos.

*whines

5 days of non-productivity because:

1) i was in sydney from friday to monday, during which i spent most of the time around the city with the parents and the brother. i only realised how much australia is gonna tug at my heart strings when i return to the sunny island. i totally loved visiting those familiar places in sydney. revisiting those landmarks was like seeing old friends again. i wonder how i’m gonna cope not being in australia.

i was in a little argument with my dad over the issue of my convocation. he REALLY wants to attend it and i am trying all ways and means to wriggle out of it. i can’t think of any reason why i would go through so much trouble just to don the graduation gown. but because my dad wants to attend my convocation so badly, i’m reconsidering my decision.

2) played tour guide for two days when my parents visited canberra. i sucked at the task cos i got lost most of the time (thank god for the GPS device we rented) and i couldn’t even recommend decent food. oh well, i’ve been a geeky student for the past year.

but it was definitely fun and uber cool driving around in the rented car. i’m still trying to get used to only having to move the right foot when controlling the brake and accelerator. there were many occasions i caught myself having a foot on each pedal. i also forgot there’s such a thing called a handbrake and i actually drove from the city to the airport without releasing the handbrake. the route from the city to the airport took about 15 minutes but there were a hell lot of roundabouts and i nearly got into an accident at one. it has been a long time since i entered a roundabout and i forgot i was supposed to stop for vehicles coming from my right. such a terrible driver i was yesterday morning, thank goodness for the amazingly friendly and forgiving drivers in canberra)

right, i now have a 20 page essay to submit in 16 hours’ time and i only started on it 3 hours ago. i can’t even concentrate on the damn essay because there are ten million things going through my mind.

i’m trying, i really am.

hello world.

i’m now in sydney, seated under a buzzing lamp. because the other lamp in my brother’s room blinks too much and i complained about it.

i think a buzzing lamp is still better than a blinking lamp. at least i can do my readings under a buzzing lamp.

it’s time to bury myself in statistics. gotta submit an individual statistics project next friday. there is an urgent need to figure out the central limit theorem, among the ten million other things i cannot comprehend. the only thing i remember about central limit theorem is the president’s glee when she figured it out in those good old days. i should have taken the effort to straighten the damned thing out before i graduated. the thing i hate about statistics is that i have no idea how things are relevant. what the hell is the point about standard deviation and variance anyway?

fortunately the statistics lecturer is painfully slow in his progress. half a semester has gone by and he’s still doing lecture 3. which means we wouldn’t cover more than six lectures this semester. this is very good news for me, because six lectures instead of twelve means the grounds to cover for the final exam is halved. considering i take days to try and understand just one lecture, six lectures are enough to kill.

i guess the sydney weekend will be a good reward for completing the project and figuring out the first three lectures. the brother’s graduating! which means the parents are visiting and the ultimate point is good food galore. these are the main reasons why i have to visit sydney. sure enough, i have to lug my readings and work to sydney so that i survive the next few weeks. but i’ll be feasting on kickass seafood and dim sum and all other forms of yummy food. the parents will also be visiting canberra for a day or two, which will be very bad for me. bringing touristy parents around boring canberra during deadline season isn’t my idea of fun.

goodbye, world. till we meet again.

oh dear, sonific songspot is down. no more looped song on my blog. damn it, i miss that song already.

lorne - a town along the great ocean road

the week-long melbourne trip has ended. am glad to be back among my huge bed and a spacious bathroom and internet and a clothes rack to dry everything and not having to live out of a luggage and canberra air. am cranky from the ending term break and ended melbourne trip and no more laughing and drinking and hanging out and having to go in different directions from the travel mates and having to face school hell from now on.

am too tired to blog about melbourne, gotta catch up on some sleep and work first.

last week this time i was hanging out with the msian and wenwen. somehow we always do unhealthy things when we hang out together. thus the yakun full meal appetizer before the kfc meal. laughing at how the msian looked in her ah lian clothes and every small little thing.

after which i met up at frolick in holland v, for a frozen yoghurt treat. and to just sit in coffee bean, drinking nothing but plain water, talking away for hours. till coffee bean had to close for the day at 1am. another “new” friend, i think. i was amazingly comfortable with everything despite the “new” person i’ve never hung out with.

last thurs i was still frantically packing the luggage, worrying about not having time to meet up with others if i couldn’t finish packing.

last wednesday i was out with weiwei and visited her in sengkang. finally, after three months of being in singapore. did nothing except playing with wii with her and her sister.

last tuesday i was hanging out at seahyiyi’s place because of the suddenly-on-suddenly-off decision to bai nian to mama-seah. tried to undo the negative impressions mama-seah had of me but i couldn’t help talking or laughing loudly anyway.

over the three months i also:

1) worked at a redemption counter, something i would never do, if not for seahyiyi’s persuasion. so seahyiyi’s friend became my friend too and in these three months i watched more movies with them than i usually do in half a year. i sang and drank, in a karoke. i stayed out till late at night. i spent christmas eve and new year’s eve with these same people, doing the same things.

2) the brother’s wedding and boy, i am still flabbergasted at how i managed to buy two cheap dresses and heels four days before the wedding day. desperation always drives out the efficient shopper in me.

3) spent a lot of time loitering around, doing the data entry for the fast food chain which sells deep-fried chicken parts.

4) did invigilation, raking in good money.

5) turned up for the last time at The Office where i’ve always worked as a temp admin. thoroughly enjoyed working with the neighbour-in-black and the admin head. even though there were things which saddened me and pissed me off big time over there.

6) went through the same chinese new year rush of apparel shopping and then, doing crazy dashes across the island.

during the last week i somehow kept passing by some places which hold a lot of memories. memories accumulated over these three months. i wouldn’t say they were depressing, but they just reminded me of what is beyond me.

i’m dreading weekends over here. i’ll be all alone with few people logged on to msn cos everyone’s out during their precious weekends.

excuse me while i retreat to the solo crunchyroll summer camp.

i’m physically exhausted from all the running around but the promise of good times lure me away from home. my schedule always gets increasingly packed as flight dates near but damn it, i love running here and there meeting everyone and doing the last minute purchases. it just gives me a sense of purpose. darn, if i have to rely on this to feel the sense of purpose, there is no hope left for my life.

but anyway, i’ll probably be in canberra or one of the airports the next time i blog.

i’m seriously gonna miss everyone (i’m already missing everyone) who means something to me. if i haven’t been talking as much as i did before, it’s because i’ve just gotten used to being quiet. the silences are pretty comfortable for me, even if it freaked some of you out. but it’s still the same loud, screeching laughter you hear, isn’t it?

right, i’m trying to convince myself i’ve packed every single thing i need into the damn luggage. i hate packing, it’s such a pain in the ass. i hope i’ve remembered every damned thing.  i’m sure the return flight will still somehow screw up, cos i always screw up at some point in time.

i’m keeping my fingers crossed the journey back will be safe lah.

we got off at harbourfront station trying to rush to the taxi stand before the midnight surcharge kicked in. with all the peak hours and midnight charges and everything it’s a little tricky to remember everything. in our blind rush we exited a glass door and reached the main road where cabs obviously couldn’t stop. seeing that there was a security guard in a stationary pose within the harbourfront building, we went in to ask him where the nearest taxi stand was.

there was something very weird about the guard. i refused to ask him where the taxi stand was before looking at his card which identified him as a security personnel. he was standing the way uniformed people stand, with both hands at the small of his back, posture straight as a rod and not moving at all. even when we asked questions, he remained motionless. other than moving his eyeballs a little and mumbling through his mouth. he moved his eyeballs to look in the general direction of the taxi stand and that was that.

i tell you, harbourfront sure has a weird security guard.

i was mentally prepared to collect ally towards the end of next week, as the counter staff at epicentre helpfully pointed out that “all the technicians have gone home for the chinese new year and repair work will only start on the 11th”.

on saturday when i left my laptop there, i received a call in the afternoon asking for my password so that he can access ally. i was a little grumpy cos hey, i wrote it down on the instructions sheet whaaat. but oh well, it was a good thing they started the repairs early.

to my absolute surprise, they called me this afternoon to inform me that ally was all ready to go home. wheee! that’s like, two working days in all? of course i dashed down to epicentre to collect ally even though it meant giving up an hours’ pay. to the hell with the miserly $7 i could have earned.

now ally is back on my laps and man, i am one happy person.

there are just about ten million things i need to do and i’m too lazy to do them. blogging is one of them but then again, there isn’t much i can blog about. work’s been boring and sufficient to keep me occupied during overtime hours.

i’m glad it’s the weekend cos i went out with the colleagues on thursday and because we are a bunch of busybodies i reached home after midnight. thus explaining our zombified appearances and movements on friday. friday turned out to be a roller coaster day cos i thought i could leave office early after cleaning up my data entry. due to some miraculous events i left the office at 10pm. no complains though, i welcome extra income any time.

despite the strong urge to just stay at home the entire day, i forced myself to hit town in search of the elusive chinese new year clothes. i ended up not buying a lot of clothes i liked, don’t ask me why. all i bought after five hours of shopping was a black blouse for work and a pink namecard holder for my friend.

i am a doomed shopper.

i still have to reply emails, figure out which courses to take next semester, call up the hairdresser, chase after payment for my previous work stints, wrap a present, write a card and send both items to taiwan, buy clothes and shoes, meet up with people i haven’t met for ages, etc. etc.

the bro’s wedding ceremony and banquet are finally over. still catching up on sleep, especially after the new year eve hangout session which ended early this morning. my first taste of moet champagne in ritz carlton. for free, folks, i haven’t struck the lottery. we were just trying to get a good view of the fireworks display and my boss had good contacts, i would say. the fireworks were waaaaay disappointing though.

second round of ktv last night and we ended late. fortunately my mum was too tired to notice my empty bed in the middle of the night. gotta slow down on the extreme late night sessions a little cos my survival policy is to do everything in moderation.

wouldn’t be watching any horror movies in the near future cos bloody hell, i got damn frightened by the movie i am legend. freaking scary scenes of the infected human beings. i swear it’s the first time i’m so frightened by a movie. i was covering my eyes and cowering in the seat, like what any chao gu niang would do. there goes my image and reputation.

damn it, i need more sleep.

the ktv-drinking session which has been planned for a long time almost went down the drain. simply because it could be risky, with my dad spending slightly more time at home lately.

but christmas eve is christmas eve, the last day of work is the last day of work, a need to destress is a need to destress and an alcohol craving is an alcohol craving.

i sang, people. i sang, in front of others. tis a milestone in my life. ktv-drinking sessions are pretty effective in relieving stress.

so yeah, i drank more beer than usual and didn’t get high at all, damn. my goal for tonight was to at least get high but i got a little dizzy halfway towards the end of the last glass so the rational me stopped drinking. it’s one thing to stay out late but a totally different thing to end up drunk.

fortunately the boss sprayed some fragrance on me before sending us home. with some luck my clothes wouldn’t smell like alcohol.

right, i’m glad everything’s under control for now. except for the digestive system. though it’s a lot better than the other times i drank, i’m releasing a lot of gas. not so good.

i need more merry training, haha.

sometimes it’s dangerous to go out with people who never had curfews in their life. my parents never imposed a concrete curfew on us, but it’s understood that we shouldn’t stay out too late too often. yeah, the main thing is, to plan properly and stay out late without my dad’s knowledge.

i was all ready to be a good kid who would return home right after work yesterday. but i was persuaded to turn up at the ex-company’s gathering at the bowling alley and because i have weak determination, i went. i even highlighted to the neighbour in black and the admin head that i had to return home early cos i had no money for cab fares.

tragically i was stopped from going home after their bowling game which ended at midnight. instead i was whisked to the usual drinking place to catch up and drink. we ended when the pub closed and walked for half an hour to esplanade so that i could catch the night rider bus. yes, the bloody bus that goes from esplanade to havelock road to orchard to tekka to bukit timah to bukit batok and finally, jurong west.

that was when my admin head took off her heels and walked barefooted. not because she was drunk, but because her heels were making weird noises after tripping on them once when we were still on our way to the pub.

in the end our long walk to esplanade was wasted cos the admin head’s dad who was a cab driver sent us all home so that we could get home earlier and not waste money on expensive cab fares. a super nice person he was.

so i reached home at 4am after dropping them at toa payoh and sembawang, totally tired out and regretting the last minute decision to turn up.

7am this morning, thinking to myself: damn it, why am i feeling so damn tired when the sky is already bright? oh shoot, i’ve only had 3 hours of sleep, that’s why. right, nice rainy weather for me to sleep in.

and it’s now 2pm.

i made my first blood donation today!! wheeeee!

i’ve always wanted to donate blood but they just didn’t conduct those blood donation drives anywhere near me. so there was this donation drive at raffles place mrt today and cos i was on my way to bugis during my break, i dropped by.

i was very much amused by their persistence in having me do certain things. like how the lady at the registration counter insisted i should wear the first-time donor sticker on my blouse “so that the nurses would be kind and more gentle with me”. it made me wonder if they would be violent and fierce if i didn’t do so. then the uncle persisted in having me sit down to drink a packet of milo before i left even though i had already rested for a while. all i really wanted to do was to head for bugis.

i was also very amused by the little pump that they gave me and which was used during the blood donation process. quite cute what. the needle wasn’t so funny though. i saw the suspicious plastic thingy which could only mean one thing - a big fat needle hidden within. so i asked the lady in alarm if it would hurt more than the first injection of painkiller. thank goodness it didn’t hurt.

this bandaging guy rested my arm against his tummy while he was bandaging the elbow area despite my discomfort. but i let it go cos he was obviously new at his job. the first time he bandaged my arm, there were gaps between the tight rounds of bandaging and lumps of my surplus flesh appeared between the gaps. i didn’t have the heart to ask him to re-bandage it when he asked if it was fine but he did re-bandage it when his colleague walked by and saw the ugliness of the bandaging.

the next time round i’ll ask for the coloured bandages. they’re so much cooler! but then again, that’s if those blood donation drives appear anywhere near me. the process is quite fun after all. besides, the blood donation people are really nice and friendly!

it’s always good if i don’t blog when i have lots of free time. it means i’ve actually gone out to meet people and that my social life isn’t decomposing.

the past few days were spent….eating, watching the dinosaur-doraemon (yes, the dinosaur is deliberately placed before doraemon) movie, shopping at daiso vivo, shopping at daiso imm, eating and finally, mahjong. i lead a sedentary life but hey, at least i made the effort to get out of jurong west. it’s always good to have kampung buddies like the seahyiyi and mf cos they’ll either travel the whole bloody distance with me or vote for jurong west gatherings.

i officially declare myself as a mahjong player at the beginner level. meaning i have to ask the other players every now and then which “wind” direction and which “number” i am. meaning i exasperate other people by doing a lot of reversal actions cos i’ve thrown the wrong tile, took the wrong tile at the wrong time, etc. etc.. meaning i keep shouting “AH!” instead of “pung!” or “hu!” when i draw a good tile. oh well, at least i’m pretty entertaining, or so i think.

tomorrow’s gonna be an intensive present-searching day. my dad is giving us daily reminders about his birthday and it’s funny how he thinks everyone isn’t getting him anything at all and blah blah blah. now i know why i’m so nonsensical and greedy (in terms of food). i hate getting presents for the male species cos there’s so limited things i can get. utterly boring.

a lot more social activities coming up and no, no photos allowed until my next haircut.

or you’ll end up like this too.

while i was on the attempt to visit floriade, i got myself ridiculously lost and ended up around the parliament house area in canberra. there were truckloads of tourists but i still managed to take some pretty pictures. i love taking pictures when the sky is absolutely clear. it makes most pictures turn out pretty. shall upload the pictures to my photoblog if i survive next week.

i took a very, very long walk. yeah, approximately 6.6km according to the map. wow. it’s a little tiring but very satisfying. of course the takeaway dinner helped cos i skipped lunch and if i had to cook upon reaching home i’d be cranky, not happy.

the weather’s now warm enough to take two showers a day. yay! that is, when it isn’t windy in the evenings. the wind has been kind of strong lately and by strong, i mean 40km/h. i actually had to exert considerable force to stabilize myself when standing. i hope i burnt some fats when walking against the wind direction. try holding a camera steady against the wind, hurhur.

another assignment has gone through accreditation and i am happy with the grades. my contributions during class discussion are increasingly intelligent.

i think i need to celebrate by sleeping more.

spring is here and with it, flowers and blooms. everywhere! even along the streets where the grass can be very patchy, there are pretty seas of flowers of different colours and varieties. these are just photos i’ve taken when walking home from the bus stop. imagine flower galore on a wider scope. now i know why people in seasonal countries can be so crazy about spring.

this is like a preview to floriade, which i am still trying to fit in my schedule. on a non-weekend, non-deadline-eve, non-rainy day. it’s kind of tricky. i sure hope i make it there before the last day, 14th october.

ohmygodohmygodohmy god.

the photos i’ve taken for today, more than 50 of them, just disappeared. maybe because the memory card reader was cranky. maybe it was the memory card cos it’s not the first time it happened to this particular card.

i’m still feeling the heartache.

the only consoling factor is, it was a gloomy day today and the pictures weren’t so nice. maybe i’ll go back to the war memorial to take the photos again. but i walked for a bloody long distance can!

due to the spare-no-cents campaign and the resolution to be a model student (see previous post), i think i’ll stay in canberra for the two-week term break. this is my second semester here and i haven’t been to anywhere in canberra except for two shopping malls, one of which is my usual groceries mall, the city strip and another small little suburban strip.

i shall start on my itinerary once i catch up with my work.

i hope there’s good places to explore.

i must be jinxed this semester.

the journey back here took me 22 hours, enough to fly across the globe. the transit system between international and domestic terminals at perth airport was so bloody screwed up i thought i would never catch the flight. then at the security checkpoint, i left my handbag containing my phones, passport, wallet and all things important. so i ran from the waiting lobby all the way back to the security checkpoint like a lunatic.

then.

the flight was delayed for a freaking three hours. i fell asleep in the lobby out of exhaustion and by some miracle, i jolted awake for no reason to see the queue for boarding the plane.

by the time i reached sydney, i had of course, missed the bus and by another miracle, i managed to hop on to the next bus without waiting for another few hours.

the hongkong drama mf transferred to my laptop is somehow short of 5 episodes and i’m lost without them. i’m done with the 16 episode korean drama and left with 2 episodes for another hongkong drama. that’s after reading two very thick books. i’m gonna die of boredom.

and my landlady advised me to either share the broadband connection with my housemate or set up my own account. i have a bad feeling about this. we’ll see how it goes.

class at 8am. cheers, everyone.

do you see how she’s only one-fifth the width of the big-ass doraemon? disgusting.

but people like the kampung makes sim lim and waiting more interesting. it’s funny how we always end up in the weirdest places (i.e jurong west coffeshops) drinking teh bing and doing nothing but stoning.

field day for the local media cos all they could talk about was the record number of weddings held and how the numbers were special to the newlyweds.

it was also earth day and the most environment friendly thing i did was to stroll along the river in a non-air-conditioned environment.

it’s amazing how this gathering was booked more than two weeks in advance and yet, everyone except kx had something on at the last minute and arrived late. i was the most ridiculous, turning up two hours after the appointed time.

but got good reason one hor.

a short gathering but full of laughter, shrieks and screams. cos we settled for an utterly brainless and violent game at settlers cafe.

my double chin is coming back with a vengeance.

while in the car to katong for peranakan food last night, we passed by the marina area along the expressway.

not having remembered seeing the huge construction site when i passed by two weeks ago, i asked the ex-collegues, “eh, what are they building here ah? like very big project hor?”

they answered in a perfect shouting chorus “THE CASINO LAH!”

these people very unforgiving one, they began pointing out the big-ass ferris wheel, etc. etc, “just in case i didn’t know”.

but dinner and dinner company was really good.

“i worry for all in the car…remember to bring along some light snacks when you leave (the office)”

the favourite sales engineer is dropping by to pick me up (since the office is only 5 minute’s drive away) for dinner with the rest of the nice folks in the office and he asked the neighbour-in-black for my exact address so that he wouldn’t get lost.

knowing his track record of getting lost in this area, i told the neighbour-in-black to tell him that he can drop by jurong point to pick me up instead of getting lost here. but they’re still coming by my house.

and none of us has absolute confidence in his ability to find my house.

things we don’t bond over

this vacation, i’ve found a lot of friends.

long-lost friends, friends i seldom see, friends whom i am appreciating more than ever.

friends like tracy, domina and rebecca, who i see once in dinosaur years and yet, ridiculously easy to catch up with. being with them made me feel that i can be a lousy friend, cos i appear once in a thousand years and put in too little effort in keeping it going. i certainly would have procrastinated meeting up with them all if tracy had not done the amazingly efficient organizing.

friends like my ex-colleagues who are always very, very concerned about me and take really good care of me when we are out. we all discover sooner or later that it’s easier to make an enemy than a friend in the office. that’s why i appreciate this bunch of friends i made in the office, cos i know they’re hard to come by, the handful of people who don’t grumble about doing work they’re getting paid for and people who do not participate in the evil and scheming game of office politics.

while catching up with other school friends this week, we talked about whether or not friends can be made in the office. my belief is that we can, cos i have done so. but it takes a lot of trial and error, observation and common sense. it takes a really long while to see who are the evil backstabbers and the disloyal before we find the worthy friends in the office.

i must be getting old or something, it makes my day to meet up with people i haven’t seen for ages and after every of these meet-ups i swear to get off my lazy posterior to meet them more often.

hello, world. it’s me, i’m trying to find all my friends again.

and hello friends, i apologise for being such a lousy friend. i’ll try to be a better friend now!

i am #45318648.

or at least, for the time being lah. see how it goes for the next few weeks (months). friendster is a really good way to satisfy the voyeurist instincts in me but i’m kind of bored with it already, sheesh.

looking at the friendster profiles of some long-lost friends, i kinda miss them a lot. a lot.

but i’m the kind of person who feels paiseh about contacting people again after a long period of time. what if they don’t reply my messages? what if we meet up and we have nothing to say to each other? what if we’ve changed so much we can’t get along anymore?

too many what-ifs in life.

just last night, the first message that came in after midnight was from a long-lost friend, who was last seen at my birthday two years ago. she was so “lost” that i didn’t tell her i was leaving for aust because of all those what-ifs i had asked myself. but it’s good that we’ve set a dinner date already cos i really wanna find out how she has been doing these days.

another friend found, yay!

for the past week i’ve been back on the island but more or less hiding, cos i intended to surprise people.

alas, it was not to be and out of the many surprises i planned, only one was successful. too many disruptions in the other cases.

and what better way to celebrate my own return than with a shutdown of the digestive system. so bad that i had two slices of plain bread on one day and a plate of salad for dinner the next day.

i’m still warming up for long dinner and shopping sessions, gimme more time, folks.

the plants-munching-and-unmotivated-shopper-yanyan you’ve been meeting in the past week wasn’t the real her. she’ll be back soon.

how can i ever forget to mention this?

flight’s booked, as of yesterday afternoon!

*waves air ticket and passport crazily

the canberra office of qantas is so conveniently located, just a street across school, as is applecentre which is located on campus, and the city centre which is just behind school as well. yeah, you get the idea that most of everything is located in the tiny city centre. everything else that is located outside the city centre is probably unimportant.

anyway, i’ll be basking in the tropical sun for a full month! before i return to full blast winter. brrr. i haven’t made up my mind to surprise and pounce on everyone (yeah, i know it’s an extremely cheap thrill) i know on the sunny island, or to make an early announcement so that i can start fitting in outings.

hmm, which shall it be?

i made myself very happy today.

by getting a haircut, even though the person washing my hair was brutal and kept splattering water on my face. even though they had raised eyebrows when i pointed to the picture in the hairstyle magazine for guys. i seriously couldn’t find anything i like in the magazine for ladies. i didn’t know my hairstyle is that guy-ish until today. but anyway, it turned out fine. and other than the shampooing, i liked their service pretty much. friendly, detailed and helpful.

by trying to decide whether elmo goes on the right side or the left side of the going-to-be-blistered toes. they are oh-so-happy!

and by doing a lot of shopping. over two days i bought two tops, three t-shirts, a jacket and two woollen tops. all for $117. i think i like being a student cos i can wear t-shirts regularly. i don’t know, but since sometime ago i haven’t been wearing t-shirts when i go out. so school makes me feel like wearing t-shirts again.

yeah after a lot of shopping distractions i finally started on today’s planned itinerary. not that i have a real itinerary anyway. i planned to visit bondi beach today and changed my mind. instead i got my haircut and did a bit of shopping at chinatown. i wanted to take an hour or two at st. mary’s cathedral, which looks really, really beautiful from the outside. but a part of it was under renovation and since i can’t take proper pictures of it, i shall visit it the next time round.

so i ended up at the royal botanic garden. lots of pretty greens, flowers and all things calm and peaceful. it really is a place for picnics, for thinking, for sitting and doing nothing. it was all so inviting. and over there, i took a lot of pictures. the ones with water were taken after a bloody long trek in the garden, cos it was located at the end of it. and i was so late i had to rush through the garden to catch the sunset pictures. but the view was worth the walk.

but at the end of the day, horror of horrors!

see those tear-drop shaped things hanging from the trees? they were sleeping bats! and as i was taking photos, some were waking up and began their nocturnal rounds. so i escaped the park in fear.

p.s. yeah i know the picture of statues can’t be seen clearly. collaging using powerpoint has proven ineffective again.

went to darling harbour today, to take some photos and to catch circus performances and buskers in action. i ended up watching most of the buskers’ shows in between my photo-taking, lunch and walks. the buskers were really good, they could insult the kids and the audience and people still loved them. and the audience was so fun and spontaneous, nothing like watching busker shows in singapore. and watching them really made me laugh.

that’s a monorail station, an old brown structure which marked the beginning of the bridge and the yellow-and-green bridge railing. a messy yet interesting blend of new and old, which is what amazes me in sydney.

it was great being able to eat yummy seafood next to a jetty, though we had to sit slightly further away on the grass, there were crowds at the tables. apparently the seafood isn’t as fresh today, but having abstained from seafood for more than a month, that was heaven already. and for once i met a cute kid, which is a nice change.

kind of got bored when i went back to darling harbour and decided to take photos of the pretty places i saw when walking to the fish market.

and i love it that an authentic mini was parked right there.

sydney is a CITY!

how come i always end up living in boring places, jw in singapore and canberra in australia. sheesh. gonna start taking photos and taking long, good walks from tomorrow! or whenever my bro doesn’t offer to take me around.

we went to this taiwanese eatery and sheesh, i haven’t had decent chinese food for a long while! so in appreciation of quality chinese fare i gobbled down a huge plate of curry fried rice and doughsticks wrapped in a spring onion pancake. and yummy ice cream for dessert. man, i’m stuffed. seafood tomorrow and dimsum on saturday. woohooo!

canberra is such a small place that i met my project groupmate on the bus to sydney. and i chose to sit behind her, cos i wouldn’t know what to say for three and a half hours. so anti-social of me, i know. but i can’t help it!

less than two months ago, i spent less than ten hours at home every day. sometimes i would spend only three to four hours at home, returning well after midnight to catch some sleep before going out again. that was quite something, considering i have a ridiculously low energy level and that i have parents who are control freaks.

now the tables have turned. i spend less than six hours outside, if i have classes. otherwise, i stay at home all the time except for groceries shopping.

seriously, i need a life.

i made my way down to the city and caught this pretty sunset.man, the whole of canberra must have been there to watch the fireworks display, meant to mark the end of summer. i have never ever seen so many people in canberra before. the nearby carpark was totally packed, which was kind of phenomenal.

the fireworks display kicked off with some rocket-like thingy zooming across the sky. for twenty minutes i sat there in a trance, bowled over by the colours and the explosion of the sparks against the dark sky. i wanted to take photos of them, but i gave up after the first two minutes and concentrated on appreciating it instead.

this was the only decent photo i took, one of the first sparks before they shot up higher and higher:

am back from groceries shopping. the mall is a 50 min walk from my place, with uphill and downhill slopes. by the time i got there, my legs felt like cramps. sheesh. and man, the wind was so strong and cold my teeth were chattering like crazy. and i thought it’ll be fine to go out without a jacket cos of the sun. by the time i walked to the main road i was freezing. crazy weather here, and i need a lot more sweaters than what i have now, i guess. dang.at least i’ve got a well-stocked fridge, pantry and kitchen now. too well-stocked, maybe. if this kind of grocery shopping carries on, i’ll be busting my tight budget very soon.

i need time to learn eh? how the heck am i supposed to know how much food one person consumes, anyway? besides, the darn supermarkets don’t really sell food in single servings unless we’re talking about microwavable or instant food. bah, no more of that for the time being. and i can’t possible buy a quarter of a cabbage and eat that for say, four meals. it’ll kill me, i’m a person who needs variety in food!

grocery shopping and budgeting is an art in itself.

to think that the only spending i had to budget for in the past was phone bills, shopping, entertainment and socializing. now it’s a whole lot more – broadband bills, rental, multiple phone bills, groceries, miscellaneous items previously provided by home.

i might just die of starvation before i get home.

i’ve just done the ironing, cos all my clothes were vacuum packed and were crumpled beyond recognition. then i realized something. somehow, except for clothes i’m wearing at home, there are only four colours in my wardrobe – white, green, brown and black. somehow! i can’t figure it out too. i almost never wear green in the first place!

it’s definitely not an excuse to look for more clothes here, though they have pretty nice clothes at the malls here. think i gotta live with these four colours for the time being. but damn, i miss the colour-coded wardrobe i had sometime ago.

i’m munching on cherry tomatoes, cos i had a heavy breakfast, skipped lunch, am hungry and it’s too early for dinner. main point is, me! cherry tomatoes! i never got along well with tomatoes, i only liked them in pasta sauce, ketchup and sandwiches. and now, raw cherry tomatoes! still getting used to the taste of tomatoes. told you all i’m gonna be a changed person, didn’t i?

the dinner i cooked: cabbage soup with carrots and tofu, sweet and sour fish.

yeah, the black things on the fish are the chao tar parts. quit smirking.

i was on the way to adjusting to the time difference, even though it’s only 3 hours’ difference, when my dad called at midnight and woke me up from sleep. that means everything went back to singapore time again. so i missed breakfast this morning and had lunch at 4pm (sg time 1pm).

sigh. i just switched the time on my laptop to the local time here. it’s not a good feeling, but then i have to live with it for the next ten months, don’t i?

went to the school today and sheesh, the campus is HUGE! and there’s some really pretty sights too. i got a ride from the motel staff who were heading there and saved myself 3 bucks for the bus ride. when they dropped me off, i had to consult the campus map immediately and even with the map, it took me lots of time to figure out the directions. what’s new? but i managed to find the places i wanted to go, the bus stop and figured out the correct direction of the bus all by myself! that’s some improvement, if you ask me.

came across two singaporeans in the campus and i stopped myself from bounding up excitedly to introduce myself, in case they think i’m crazy or something. but i think i’ll settle in a lot better if i get to know some fellow singaporeans. guess i’ll join the society for singaporean students after all, make some new friends and stop wallowing in misery.

i’m really looking forward to moving in on sunday, cos it’s so depressing staying in the motel room everyday (it’s a hassle getting to the city) alone.

i’ll be connected to the internet either with effect from monday, or wednesday. monday if i get to use the landlord / housemate’s broadband connection, wednesday if i have to wait till i’m properly enrolled and can use the connection in school.

i miss everyone.

my second day in canberra today and it wasn’t too bad after all.

my potential landlord woke me up with a call confirming the viewing session today and she drove from her house to the motel i’m staying at to pick me up, back to her house and after the viewing session, drove me to the neighbourhood mall (neighbourhood relative to australian land size, not singapore’s) after that. and she made green bean barley soup too. nice of her, eh?

the room’s huge and airy and has lots of natural lights too, which is what i like. and there’s a regular-sized fridge, microwave oven and tv in the room for the tenant’s own use. the other tenant has her own! amazing hor?

there’s a 80% chance i’ll rent this place, cos the landlord seems ok, she speaks chinese (haha, what a reason!), nice big room and bills are covered. even though the shared bathroom is on the other level. but me no brat, me can adapt and share! the rent’s steep though, i’ll have to live on a shoestring budget if i rent this place.

went to set up a bank account and explored a little too. took my first bus ride, which wasn’t so bad, if only i had figured out how things work earlier. but there’s always a first time!

and i found where all the humans were. they were spotted in the shopping malls, the bus interchanges, and main city area and on the way home after work taking buses. finally. humans.

for the record, i hate any accent that is not singaporean. the australians i met on the first plane, the motel, etc didn’t have such a strong accent probably they’re used to speaking clearly to passengers and guests from everywhere. on the domestic flight and at the bank, i nearly died trying to concentrate on what the hell they were trying to say. i’d better retune my ears fast or i’m gonna die here.

an update on the injuries i’ve inflicted on myself over the past two days: a bruise on my knee turning a beautiful shade of dark purple, a bump on my head from hitting the bunk bed really hard when i stood up, peeling cuticles and skin coming off my lips, both of which caused by the dry weather and started bleeding.

my lunch for today, which was a lot better than the microwaved food i bought from the motel’s vending machine yesterday.

people have been complaining my blog has too many words, these lazy people demand more pictures instead of words.

therefore, i present to you my final picture of the day:

xiao xiong at work!

it’s me again.

it’s not so fun after all, being alone on the first day.

there’s no signs of human life in the suburbs during the day. the drive from the airport to the motel i’m staying in right now took around 15 minutes, and in these 15 minutes, i only saw ONE pedestrian. yeah, i also saw a mum pushing a pram while i was waiting for the bus in vain. that’s all. not even a kangaroo, despite the kangaroo road signs.

i miss the hustle and bustle of city life.

ok, i know. look on the bright side, right? at least i have my friends with me. real friends with me virtually, not-so-real friends with me physically. such an irony. now let me introduce all of them, cos with the probability of meeting people being so low, i’ll probably blog a lot about these friends of mine.

back row (from left to right) : stitch, xiao pang, xiao xiong

the ones in the front have no names. the snoopy was from an ex-colleague, who only found out on friday 6pm that i’m leaving. she’s so gonna kill me.

and look, i brought something that will remind me of the bed at home. it’s my kid pillow. i don’t think it’s my baby pillow, but it has been with me for many, many years. and for a kid pillow, it’s really, really clean! no saliva stains or weird dirty colours!

and besides these, i have a box of almond cookies, which i shall start eating on the first day of cny. lovingly delivered to the airport by seah-yiyi and kx, who tricked me into telling them my transit location was at brisbane and they managed to stalk my family and i from the moment we stepped in the airport. without any of us even realizing until they popped up just before i entered the departure hall. the surprise had such a great impact i started screaming. that’s a feat you gals have achieved, since i’m not even a screamer!

but i couldn’t talk to them or my family much, cos my family was getting teary and i wanted to flee. it’s not that i’m not sad, it’s just that i don’t cry in front of them. i admit the tears welled up again when i was in the plane mass-messaging friends about my departure as promised, when i next switched on the phone and saw more than 10 messages, when i called home, and now as i’m typing this.

great, my face is now awashed with tears. anyone seen that before? i still miss home and friends. but i know i’ll be fine and remain where i am till i finish the course. for the time being, it sucks not being able to reply messages and to hang out on msn, cos the darn internet kiosk in this motel doesn’t allow msn.

hopefully by the time i put this up i’ll be all right again.

ok, enough of the soppy stuff for today.

let’s be happier! like what the sunflower weiwei bought me is.

i should be proud of myself for having found my way to canberra safely, and that i managed to lug all my luggage around during the transit flight and when disembarking from the domestic flight. the qantas lady last week lied to me. she said i didn’t have to move the luggage myself during the transit. but the qantas lady at the airport yesterday was nice. she let me bring on 5kg of excess luggage at no extra charge. and that’s excluding the carry-on luggage, which was super heavy too.

oh, oh! and i managed a flight conversation! my first ever! the quite nice Australian (who’s younger than me) was amazing. she did a transit at singapore and bought an entire carton of cigarettes for herself, and A LOT of alcohol. she was the one who directed me to the domestic terminal.

the view outside my room: burnt grass, dry trees. while the plane was landing in canberra, all i could see was a sea of brown. all the chao-tar plants dying in this drought.

ok, that’s all for now – my first day is that boring. but i promise i’ll smile and take care of myself. the way i kept forcing myself to eat a few mouthfuls of airplane food even though i seriously had no appetite. cos i’ve made a promise i’ll try to eat regular meals no matter what.

there, an act-brave smile.

i know i’ll survive. right?

5th Feb 5.07pm

i’m in canberra already. the place i’m staying at is small and smells musty, but it’s clean. and there’s air conditioning, so what else can i complain about.

gonna got out and settle banking issues, a map of the place, etc. sheesh, they’re charging me $2 for 20 mins use of internet.

forgive me if you don’t see me around in the next week or so, but that’s highly improbable.

will blog more later.

it’s 2.05am and i’m awake. why?

because there’s this very sincere landlord who sounds like she’s dying to rent the place to me. the place looks nice and new and clean, though i’ll be sharing bathrooms (ack!!). still, it might not be that bad. so i spent more than an hour checking up on the place and the additional expenses i might incur on top of rent.

did i mention that i might come back not only as a crazed international student (read: the ultimate geek), but also as a wise financial planner? with so many things to plan for and a limited budget, this one and a half year is gonna be one hell of an experience i think.

it’s been a long time since i sat down in front of the tv for the entire night. i’ve been out every single day meeting different people for different meals, or just rushing here and there preparing stuff for the “great experience”. sometimes i skip meals because i can’t be bothered to eat while rushing here and there.

my luggage is less than half packed i think and the next two and a half days are already filled. i might have to pack late after midnight.

the life of an international-student-to-be is a tragedy indeed.

i visited vivocity for the first time yesterday. before you exclaim in horror, let me explain why. it’s really because vivocity is rumoured to be totally packed on weekends and it’s kinda out of the way. i’ve been really lazy and anti-social, thus the late visit.

it wasn’t a pleasant first visit too, cos i got horribly lost while looking for a dbs atm. while trying to return to candy empire where the attachment mate was supposed to meet me.

there’s an obscene number of shops though, if i ever feel rich enough to shop for an entire afternoon. which wasn’t how i felt yesterday. so i left immediately after lunch with the attachment mate, in case i turned destructive. which is always the case when i’m out shopping alone.

instead i went to funan to check out laptops. and man, fate decrees that i shouldn’t have anything but a macbook. or at least it seems to be so for the time being. think it’ll take quite some time for me to get used to a new operating system if i really do get a macbook.

switching to mac after about 16 years of windows? sheesh, i sure hope i survive.

i went for a free dinner and drink session with the neighbour-in-black and my admin head on friday and sheesh, they’re mad. the neighbour-in-black’s dinner unglam moments were more frequent and funnier than the super-unglam seahyiyi.

especially my admin head. even though she’s only 30 this year, she’s already a mum with two young daughters. yet, she could stay out with us, yakking and yakking away like she’s still single. in fact, i was the one who had to declare end of session at 2.30am. and both of them were so dumb and slow when it came to “coincidences” and gossip, that i nearly died laughing at them. sometimes i seriously wonder if i’m too much of a gossip or they’re just lousy.

it was fortunate for me to have reached home just slightleeeey earlier than my dad, or i’d be a lump of dead meat typing this entry now.

the other night when i went out for dinner, there was this cute little cat with an absolutely pretty face walking along the corridor in my direction. the eyes were so mesmerizing i stood there looking at it for a long time and smiled at the cat. yes, i know it doesn’t make a lot of sense to smile at a cat and not petting it, but i don’t pet stray animals. i’m not that loving.

anyway, the cat returned a happy meow. hearing that and noticing that i wasn’t following, the dinner mate turned around and looked at me. and asked, “you not scared of cats ah?”

“no lah, cats very scary meh? you expect me to scream and run off is it?” i got a thumbs-up for my erm, fearlessness?

i don’t know, seems that a lot of gu niangs out there are scared of harmless little kitties and scream as long as they see one heading in their direction. cannot understand these people. it’s understandable if they got hurt by one evil cat who scratched them when they were a kid and therefore they developed a phobia or something. but some of these cat-phobia-girls i know are scared of cats for no reason.

the worst gu niangs scream at anything - cats, dogs, cockroaches, dead rats, etc. etc. i wonder if they’ve got overdeveloped voice boxes and lungs or it’s just that i’m weird. aren’t those just living things as well? i certainly don’t see these people screeching when they see human beings or erm, corpses.ok, i’m getting a little morbid.

i have to say i’m a very un-xmassy person.

it’s probably due to family influence. my family, being the extremely-chinese kind, doesn’t celebrate christmas at all. to us, it’s just another public holiday. friends around me aren’t either extremely xmas-sy too, which leaves me with a bland xmas every year.

for the past three years, christmas-es have been spent in malaysia. and it’s always with family. foodie-family. this year, we went with the same uncle and family, carrying out similar activities. just that this year, time was a little tight and the weekend was spent on sitting (read: sleeping in various sitting positions) in the car, getting stuck in jams, getting off at highway rest stations and for meals.

at least we got a great variety of street food (i really like msia street food), fantastic ipoh hor fun and chicken and charsiew and meatballs in ipoh, as well yummy seafood back in johor.

and it’s a little too late to reply the xmas sms-es cos i only reached home after midnight yesterday. i guess the same thing will happen next week, cos i’ll be in msia (yes, again) for the new year weekend.

but to all the well-wishes and xmas presents, thank you very, very much.

and to everyone out there, thanks for being there for me.

i was supposed to be in bugis yesterday, so i made my way in the never-ending rain. with full makeup on and dressed nicely, cos i was supposed to attend an interview which was cancelled at the last minute (their fault, not mine).

while on the train i decided it was too crowded for my liking, so i got off at clementi. and took a bus to bugis. forgetting that the bus goes through orchard, and that orchard gets obscene traffic jams on rainy days. forgetting to grab a quick lunch first. so i was stuck on the bus for two hours, getting an overdose of watching rain beating against the bus windows. somewhere around the time my stomach was really hurting from being starved, this lady boarded the bus, with some food that really tempted me with its smells.

by the time i got to bugis, it was still raining. so i dug out my wet umbrella and forgetting that it was wet, shook it in my own face. don’t ask me why i shook it, i don’t get it too. some kaypoh kids at the bus-stop saw that and laughed.

later in the afternoon, i happened to walk by a stall selling a pretty necklace i decided i should get. just as i picked it up, my phone rang. it was a friend i was supposed to get some stuff from. and i walked over to nlb to get the pathetic piece of paper (which i later realise i didn’t need), forgetting all about the necklace. until i was on the train back home, that is.

it’s amazing how many silly things i can do in a day.

but anyway,

click on image to enlarge!

am too lazy to send out personalised cards this year, so make do with this attempt!

merry xmas to all!

*i finally got off my lazy ass and downloaded firefox. now i can blog normally again.

retail therapy always manages to soothe my frayed temper.

a little cranky the whole of last night cos i just couldn’t sleep. fell asleep after 3am, kept waking up in between and only fell into deep sleep after dawn. and woke myself up cos i thought i heard the message tone on my phone. funny thing was, there was a message, but my phone was on silent mode. i wonder why, too.

and this plunged my mind into deep, murky waters cos throughout the restless night i was in and out of a dream, of the same person who messaged in the morning and something to do with the phone. i couldn’t tell the difference between reality and dreams.

was pissed with singapore post for screwing up some stuff, and till now, i seriously don’t know if i’m totally screwed upside down.

so i went shopping. at jurong point. jurong point always brings out the worst in me.

in less than one and a half hours, i bought three tops and two pairs of pants. but they’re not entirely impulse purchases. lately, semi-casual and casual wear just equate to one thing - jeans. and i only have two pairs of them left, so i bought some comfy pants which are for sloppy days. two *coughdisneycharactercoughcough polo tees and another semi-formal shirt.

it’s amazing when i’m not in the best of moods, i become a highly efficient and dedicated shopper.

still looking out for a heavy winter jacket, flip flops, a huge bag, gloves and god-knows-what. but these can wait till i’m in a not-so-good mood.

i like sitting at bus stops watching heavy night downpours.

it’s the way the raindrops falls hard upon the shiny, wet road and bounces off. from far, these numerours raindrops look like silvery, winged insects taking off from the ground. with a tinge of orange light if they’re near the street lamps.

while everything else puts on a brighter, shinier layer of mas