goodbye 2007

Enjoy the last day of 2007!

clay (non-bake)

Was at Art Frenzy yesterday and had a chance to do something with non-baking kind of clay. So took some pictures of the somewhat finished product? Haha, very tiring you know...



insect farm: yellow mushroom + flower view


insect farm: backview of lady bug + snail
ps: notice the pink flower had some black trimmings on some of its petals? That's the shadow effect.. *lol*



insect farm: side view of smiling lady bug
ps: notice the blue drop next to the flower? That's the morning dew on the flower's leaf *LOL*



insect farm: snail and lady bug front view


First time making such things... well, the last time I did something like this was using plasticine.. and that was during kindergarten time? Muahahhaha! Anyway, was fun and it took about 1 hour plus plus, I think. As you can see from the pictures, at the end of it, I had gotten lazier... and just threw in one orangy flower that is kinda out of the theme with the rest of the stuffs.

Probably next time, can advance to making something with those baking kind of clay?

merry christmas

Here's wishing you a very Merry Christmas!
Eat, drink and be merry!

青花瓷

Current must have song in my playlist, Jay's 青花瓷. Actually hor.. what is it ah? According to translation, its "blue and white porcelain". Really ah? I only know that it is categorized into 'chimelology' chinese. Not only the title... the rest of the lyrics even. This song is one of his 中国风 songs. Previous ones include 东风坡 and 菊花台。

Anyway, here's the lyrics:

素胚勾勒出青花笔锋浓转淡
瓶身描绘的牡丹一如你初妆
冉冉檀香透过窗心事我了然
宣纸上走笔至此搁一半

釉色渲染仕女图韵味被私藏
而你嫣然的一笑如含苞待放
你的美一缕飘散去到我去不了的地方

天青色等烟雨而我在等你
炊烟袅袅升起隔江千万里
在瓶底书汉隶仿前朝的飘逸
就当我为遇见你伏笔

天青色等烟雨而我在等你
月色被打捞起晕开了结局
如传世的青花瓷自顾自美丽你眼带笑意

色白花青的锦鲤跃然於碗底
临摹宋体落款时却惦记著你
你隐藏在窑烧里千年的秘密
极细腻犹如绣花针落地
帘外芭蕉惹骤雨门环惹铜绿
而我路过那江南小镇惹了你
在泼墨山水画里你从墨色深处被隐去

天青色等烟雨而我在等你
炊烟袅袅升起隔江千万里
在瓶底书汉隶仿前朝的飘逸
就当我为遇见你伏笔

天青色等烟雨而我在等你
月色被打捞起晕开了结局
如传世的青花瓷自顾自美丽你眼带笑意


After throwing these to Babelfish, here's what I get:

The element embryo outlines the tobacco mosaic □□□□to be pale
The bottle body traces □at the beginning of peony like you □
檀香 passed □the window concern slowly I however
Proclaims □on walks □to this □one half

The glaze color exaggerates the female court attendant □□taste to harbor
But you 嫣然 as soon as smiles like is in bud
Your America one □□diverges could not go to me the place

天青色 and so on □the rain but I am waiting for you
Cooks a meal □□□raises separates the river surely in
□□□imitated the previous dynasty in the bottle bottom □to be leisurely
□I □meet □you to bend down □

Whahaha.. at this stage.. cannot go on.. tak boleh tahan!

more christmasy stuffs

Was at Paragon yesterday to do blood test. So went looking to see if can buy anything for the gift exchange on Monday. Walked around and saw the newly opened, Duchy Originals. Expensive stuff I would say. Think it was featured once in magazine or somewhere. Nothing to buy there, but I did contemplate on whether buying foodstuff is a good idea. Marks and Spencer have some butter cookies in quaint looking tins. But paying $20 for a tin (small) of cookies, sounds a little extravagant.

So went over to Ngee Ann city to look look see see. Was quite hungry because have to fast for the blood test. So went to take a bite at one of the shop in basement. Had sandwich for $10. Rich hor? It comes with a drink and salad.


japanese sandwich

So today was at Taka again because haven't buy the Christmas present yet. So walk and walk, and bought the goldfish red bean pancake (I like to eat this one!), still hot from the oven.. yumz!

Was there from 1130am, and wandered until 130pm before finally decided on something. Decided to get something practical and useful.. as usual... Gift wrapping service is provided but the queue was damn long! The helpers are young kids (probably doing their temp job during this school holiday) but they're quite pro in their job. Once they decided that the wrapping is not up to standard, they'll rip it up and redo.

Anyway, mission accomplished so can go home. But before that, took some pictures of the Christmas tree (told ya every mall has one, didn't I?)


@ngee ann city



closer view


Was walking in front of the hotel, when chanced upon this sports car.


there's another one behind.. exactly same same

Think there's a wedding going on and the owner of these cars are probably one of the guest or something... Oh well.. the lives of the rich and famous I guess.. Us mere mortals will just stand one side and gawk.

christmas @vivocity

picture taken from afar


nearer... twinkle, twinkle little star

krispy kreme

Thanks to Hendrik, I've tasted my first ever.... the-legendary-everyone-who-had-tried-it-oh-so delicious doughnut... krispy kreme, Original Glazed!

Did you know that its recipe dated back to 1937? Wow... that's 70 years ago! The recipe was bought from a French chef by a Vermon Rudolph, and he began selling Krispy Kreme on July 13, 1937. Read all about it here.

I think it tasted quite nice, and very sweet. My version is one day old version, so probably the taste can't be compared to those hot from the oven. But I'm just glad that good 'ol Hendrik managed to lug some back for us deprived people to taste what some say, their holy grail.

s'pore star awards 2007

Watched yesterday's Star Awards 2007 on TV. For the uninitiated, this is an annual event where the who's who in the television industry is honoured. But for various viewers out there, the fun thing to watch are the artiste in the top ten favourites category.

Funny start is the sketch by the little kids, spoofing past year's where Zoe Tay asked Christopher to kiss Fann. Muahahhaa! Made fun of Ah Jie, siah!

Anyway, there were some awkward moments where Sharon asked XiaoZhu to pick out the winner for the winner for the most popular host category. Probably he wished the ground would just open up and swallow him alive! Haha!

Also I think the guests and acceptance speeches should have longer time rather than just one minute. Imagine asking the oversea guests to come all the way to Singapore and expect them to stand there, announce the winner and just give out the award? Like that just put a life sized human cardboard can already. Oops, overrun liao... so gotta go, tata!

Oh ya.. no 8-days today... they haven't print out yet due to yesterday's Star Awards... overrun again..

tokyo stash

My dai-gor went to Tokyo (on business) and came back with more food stuffs for his mui-mui that has never taken a plane to anywhere before.


tokyo banana, some tiny cake slice, green tea and coffee sachets



banana cake that's in the shape of a banana, with banana fillings



japanese instant coffee with pattern liao liao


I think I like japanese cakes. Soft and fluffy. So interesting!

singapore flyer

picture taken from office window

达尔文

Currently Tanya's 达尔文 is in my daily playlist. What is 达尔文? I think its Darwin? Haha, my Chinese no good... But here's the Chinese lyrics and my feeble attempt in translating to English:

我的青春也不是没伤痕
my youth is not without its scars

是明白爱是信仰的延伸
have understood that love is an extension of belief

什么特征人缘还是眼神
which characteristics; personality or the eyes

也不会预知爱不爱的可能
also won't be able to predict whether love is probable

保持单身忍不住又沉沦
tried staying single yet couldn't bear

兜着圈子来去有时苦等
moving in circles, sometimes waiting in vain

人的一生感情是旋转门
one's whole life's sentiments is like a revolving door

转到了最后真心的就不分
turned til at last, true hearts will never be apart

有过竞争有过牺牲
having competed, having sacrificed

被爱筛选过程
being filtered by the love process

学会认真学会忠诚
learnt to be earnest, learnt to be committed

适者才能生存
only the strongest can survive

懂得永恒得要我们
understood that eternity wants us

进化成更好的人
to evolve into a better person

-------------------------------------

there... i mangled the lyrics... *LOL*

abarenbo mama

New show starring Ueto Aya. First knew her, for "Attention Please" about a punk rock girl who joined an airline as flight attendant. Some of her trademark actions can be found here as well in Abarenbo Mama.

I like her as she's portrayed as feisty and believably cute at the same time. The kid who played her 'son' Yuki (Shibuya Takeru) is also quite cute with his curly hair.

Ueto Aya is also the lead in the movie, "Azumi and Azumi2" together with Shun Oguri. Shun Oguri is also the guy lead in the japanese version of "偷偷爱着你" or better known as "Hanazakari no Kimitachi aka Ikemen Paradise".

celebrating 1,001 views

Haha, ya bo liao lor... but happy that number of views have gone up to 1001. Probably half of it was viewed by myself. Nevertheless, still happy!

adventures on a saturday

I got some cold calls recently and was given the offer to enjoy a free facial (full treatment, no less!) with no strings attached. So being the obedient girl that I am, I said, "ok lor.."

So there I was... standing at Telok Ayer Street. Go into the shop must take off shoes one. So ma fan.. I was thinking, "Is my reebok safe outside?" Anyway, so there I was.. inside there and they asked me to sit and wait. I was late for 15 minutes, so they said no room available for now. Wait and wait... till about 10 minutes later. Meanwhile, the beauticians were all cramped inside one room having their lunch. The place really feels like a neighbourhood beauty shop upgraded a bit.
Anyway, the treatment not bad la.. although they promised no selling while doing the treatment, the beautician did broach the subject by saying if I wanted better effects, should top up $88 for some additional stuffs. So I said, "no thank you... just the free stuffs will do."

But after everything's completed, its time to meet the sales person. Naturally, like a gym, their offer is usually quite attractive. And for a one time offer to new customers only. But as I've another package already signed up, I stuck to my guns and declined. The sales lady also give up. Haha!

So after that, I walked to Pickering Street. And that's when I nearly died. Had to cross a traffic light and it was 'green man', can walk status so I crossed and was about halfway thru when I heard a car honk, so I stop. Lucky I did, because a car just sped past me. Wow.. if I had taken another step.. well, that's all folks. Thanks and see ya in another lifetime I guess.

So after a harrowing escape, I went in search of food. It was about 2pm plus and haven't have lunch yet. Wanted to find Satowa, which is supposed to be at China Square. Found it after some time but it was closed. So wandered somemore and saw Hock Lam beef noodles. Famous one but didn't try it. Went into Kyo Nichi ramen instead. Very similar to Ajisen and this place is really empty when I visited.



ramen + tori karaage + hot drink = $13+


ramen closeup


tori karaage closeup

does it look delicious?

windy siah...

something funny about the weather these days
fwah... the way the wind blows... brrrr.. so cold!
i think if you just stand on the streets, the wind will propel you forward.. no need to move.. automatic one

sunrise

sun rising slowly...



sun rises higher...



slightly zoomed in view...


better sky color.. but window dirty.. tht's why you see specks of dirt :P

I don't know about you... but my eyes are seeing stars now...

cheers for civil servant

Civil servants in Singapore will be receiving good bonuses this year as announced recently. And a new thing has been introduced; "Growth bonus". Grow what leh? Babies? Haha! According to the report, its country's economic growth. Read story here.

With inflation setting in, more money will certainly come in handy. But what about those non-civil service people? Its been a long long time since I had a 2.5 months bonus. Think it was somewhere in 2000 or 2001, when I was a civil servant myself. Ahh.. the good old days!


So, what will you be getting this year end? For me, I know what I'm getting.... more work...

today

Had the opportunity to go to Republic Poly. Such a big place! Haha, can fight with NTU. But feels like a bit barren. Not enough greenaries!

Looked around for abit before heading to the nearest foodcourt cum canteen for lunch. Had chicken chop (can choose fries, mashed potato, rice or spaghetti) and it comes with soup. Food is definitely worse than NTU! The soup had flour bits floating in it and is very very salty! The chicken chop is cold! But then, for $3.50... can't really complain so much, right?


lunch @RP canteen

Indeed, am thankful for all the years in NTU and for all the good good canteens around! For Canteen One's chap chye peng, soya chicken noodles, spring chicken from western food stall, for Canteen 4's pepper chicken with rice, for Canteen 2's Malay food stall with the 'mao mao' chicken wing, for Canteen 3's zhi char, Canteen B's chicken rice and many many more!

After lunch, went back to office via taxi after dropping WL at the data center. The taxi then went into a tunnel.


tunnel pic


And then passed by the Singapore Flyer (sounds like a gigantic piece of paper!)


tiny Singapore Flyer


Then of course, back to office.


office lor

my bestfriend

Adeline


My best friend is in town today. We had dinner with Lily and Joan. All of us were classmates since primary and secondary school days. But Adeline and I went way back before then. We were friends since kindergarten. Haha, yupz.. a big part of my childhood were spent with her.

christmas has arrived

The decorations that is...


every mall must haves.. Christmas tree!



some house..

Location: Causeway Point

down

Jialatz la...
With the financial market not doing so well nowadays, my fund value also go down down down... -2.72% liao... so sad la... quick quick bounce back up up up!

a little note

just a little note
to let you know
off on a holiday
that's where i'll go

"How can we find you?"
if you really want to know...
dun call me, i'll call you (when i get back)
ho ho ho!

tatarah not LUB, instead it became HUB

Hahaha, from the previous LUB (lowest unique bid), tatarah.com.sg has decided to go HUB (highest unique bid). Actually, its kinda like expected.

From previous observation, most ppl will bid very very low.. starting from $0.01, if everyone were to bid sequentially and uniquely, $0.01 to $1 will need at least 100 bidders (but 100 bidders for processing fee of $1, will give you $100 only). And for some of the more expensive items like Gucci handbag etc, some of the bidders actually placed a bid of like $500 but of course, the lowest bid will win, and usually the lowest unique bid are all less than a dollar. And because the website actually have quite a number of items that you can bid for, that would further dilute the number of bidders per item (unless the item is really really hot, like a car or PSP etc).

So, logically, one would go for HUB. Looking at S'porean mentality, perhaps the technique will go something like this:

Item retail price: $260
Processing fee: $1
Maximum bid: $130
Likely bid: 129.99 <-- if this is unique, then it sure is the highest one


So customer is still happy because can get <50% off retail price.

purple

Dark Purple

To others, you seem a bit dark, mysterious, and moody. In truth, you are just a very unique person who doesn't care what others think. And you really enjoy your offbeat interests and friends. You've decided that life is about living for yourself - simple as that.

What Color Purple Are You?

french name generator

for some strange reason:

Your French Name is:

Amélie Grangers

What's Your French Name?

personality

You Are An ESFJ

The Caregiver You are sympathetic and caring, putting friends and family first. A creature of habit, you prefer routines and have trouble with change. You love being in groups - whether you're helping people or working on a project. You are good at listening, laughing, and bringing out the best in people. In love, you value harmony and mutual understanding. You will apologize or give someone the benefit of the doubt, if it means getting over a fight sooner. At work, you are good at building relationships and connecting with people. You would make a great nurse, social worker, or teacher. How you see yourself: Organized, dependable, co-operative When other people don't get you, they see you as: Opinionated, critical, and know-it-all

What's Your Personality Type?

happy deepavali

dear friends, have a happy deepavali~

agent

If anyone is looking for contacts to help in investment stuffs, you can get the contact from me.

oh

saw the sms only this morning
meeting has been postponed
oh well, back to sleep then

tired

Dead tired by now.

Tomorrow gotta wake up early 'coz need to be at the school before 730am.. and the school, is in Marine Parade!

stiff (sprained?) neck

This morning, don't know what happened. I woke up (albeit a little too quickly) and I heard this 'crack' sound. And after that, couldn't move my neck without feeling pain.

Sigh.. the perils of being old...

tatarah

I'm sure most of you would have already heard of tatarah by now. It's plastered all over the MRT, also appeared in Today to announce the winner of the first draw where the winner successfully bidded a car for only $0.23 etc. It works based on LUB (lowest unique bid).

Its like TOTO where everyone will have to pay a processing fee and no matter whether they get or dun get the item, this processing fee is non-refundable. For myself, I bidded for a Nintendo DS Lite(processing fee is $1). Unfortunately, didn't manage to get it as mine although is unique, it wasn't the lowest bidding price. I've counted there were about 245 bids. And the retail price for the NDSL is about there.. plus minus some. So, it would seem like everyone is buying the winner a present *lol*

Unfortunately, the server is down for these 2 days as they're upgrading their bandwidth as mentioned in their website notice.

Quite fun to play, so if you're interested.. may yours be the winning lub!

creative commons (cc)

Heard this term floating around but didn't really bother about it till as of yesterday, whereby the eLearning Standards Seminar invited a speaker, Mr Warren Chik, to give a talk on that topic.

A few things learnt from that topic:

1. Protectionism. Copyright law is there by default, so the usage of phrases like "© entity name. All rights reserved. " is not necessary. But useful as declarative evidence. 'Copy Right' means only the owner has the right to copy.

2. Open source. Free for all to use.

3. Creative Commons - Free but with conditions.

#1 and #2 are the two extreme ends, while #3 is somewhat between those two.

Click here to learn more about creative commons or visit their official site at http://creativecommons.org

imustbethworldsmosteasilyconnedperson

ya, tell me any sob stories.. no, i think tell me any stories and i'll readily surrender all my cash to you...

yup, just gave $10 to 2 students who claimed to be volunteers and raising funds to help the ex-offenders. didn't see any license nor anything, and the students just place the money inside their pockets. no donation tins whatsoever. sigh

shopping

Had a pleasant experience shopping at Harvey Norman West Mall today. Was looking for a digital voice recorder and was recommended to a Samsung mp3 player with that function instead. Price was within budget, so I bought it. The surprising part was when the sales girl brought out the accessory for the player (cover and lanyard). Then I saw the price tag ($20), so I said, "Must pay money one isit?" Then the sales girl Bena said, no need.. free one. That was pleasant surprise #1.

Then went to counter to pay for the device. After settling the bill, then she asked me wait for a while. After that she brought out a pack of ice cream and gave it to me. She said treat me eat. Wah.. that was another pleasant surprise!

random thoughts

Tired tired. Probably will sleep early tonight. My brother's currently in Japan for work and will be back in a weeks time. Muahahahha, toilet for my entire self for one week!

Received a phone call from my sales rep (funds). She sounded quite apologetic that due to the current market situation, the funds are not performing as she said it would. Haven't recoup the sales charges as incurred. Will need the price to go up by about another 16-18 cents more before it makes a small profit of about $100-$200. As long as the money dun go down the drain, can already. Haha... first time investing in a fund that is rated as aggressive.

Other than that, this week is work work work. Ya, today ate the "Ah Koong Fishball Noodles" at Food Republic (Suntec). Supposedly famous. So tried the fishball noodle lor. Everything there also expensive. Costs me $4.20 per bowl. Hmm... nothing fantastic. The noodles(mee kia) wasn't springy, quite soggy in fact. Fishball... I've tasted better ones. The soup got 3 plain fishballs, 1 small fried fishball and 1 piece of fried beancurd skin, plus some little(really little niah..) bits of pork. Dunno who created the hype one. Maybe the original one in Johor better? Don't know 'coz never ate at Johor before. But I'm quite amazed at why the Food Republic must use such heavy bowls. Very difficult to carry and then navigate thru throngs of ppl hor! The only good thing there was, that those dirty dishes will be cleared by pretty ladies in cheongsam (also dunno who said must wear those tight fitting cheongsam, and then must carry heavy plates and bowls and then still must navigate thru the crowds and avoid dirtying customers' clothes).

lifeache by leunig

A HERBAL Remedy for LIFEACHE.

You suffer from lifeache.
Your whole life is sore; it hurts when you move it.
HERBAL REMEDY.
Take one patch of grass, a mild day and two large, green trees.
Lie on the grass beneath one tree and contemplate the other tree.
Nap from time to time or gaze occasionally at the grass.
Pain will subside. Lifeache cannot be cured but you can learn to
MANAGE THE SYMPTOMS.


view image

i am obese

Went to the gym the other day to look look see see. I've always thought of gym as a sweaty smelly place (thanks to my experience in Ngee Ann Poly, where you only need to stroll past their small small gym... and the musky, stale sweat smell will assault your nostril in no time!)

So while I was there, they did a body composition analysis (probably it'll give them more fire power in terms of convincing the customers to sign up). Anyway.. I am indeed.. OBESE. I will need to lose 11 kg of fat, and to gain more muscle mass.

Feels almost like ... mission impossible.

brain quiz

To test whether you're a left-brain or right-brain person:

Click here

buying into a dream?

These few days we've been buying TOTO like nobody's business. Dreaming of all the "what ifs..." if we ever strike the first prize. Thinking of which property to get, which areas to invest the surplus money into... But alas, reality always keep us grounded. We never did get beyond 3 numbers.
Probably each of us had already sunk in about $30 per person (or more!) for this year.

Maybe, if we pool the money and use it to invest. The returns could've been much higher?

money no enuf...

Heard from my bro that owner will increase rental to $2500 next year. $2500 divide by 3 means about $833 per pax. Wow... that kind of price I could rent a 2 bedroom flat in Serangoon North 3 years ago. How things have changed since then. But all these are expected with the boom in property. So will be looking for a place to move to for next year. Nowadays, HDB rental should be between $1500 to $1800 for a 3 bedroom flat. Sigh...

the central n sentosa

Went to Central today. YT said he wanted to eat at Grains. I wanted to go see the Japanese restaurants and shops there. So we walked one round to look look see see the place. Marutama Ramen has a queue outside. But the shop selling curry udon looked practically empty. YT asked me to choose which place to lunch at so I suggested Waraku (more variety to choose from). Unfortunately, it has a queue too. So we ended up at Tom Ton (because I never tried black pig before and there was no queue)


view from our table


The black pig ramen lunch set (@$13.80++) is only available during weekdays, so had to order something else. He ordered the black pig nabe (@$18.80), while I chose the black pig rice with ginger (@$18.80) in hot stone (like bibimbap kind but without the egg in the center). Side dish was one stick of black pig with leek yakitori (@$4.80). Click here to read the review.


udon soup

ginger rice


After lunch, went to look look see see what's in Central. Basement got Petit Provence, so bought some Pon (cheese ball thingie), Cream and Chocolate Wassant (some croissant thingie). Haven't eat yet, so don't know what they taste like. Marcial Kobe mini doughnuts are really tiny. There's this shop opposite Lao Zhao Pai that sells stuffs from Japan (similar to Lao Zhao Pai concept), so if anyone suddenly got craving for the shiroi koiibito choc de langue.. can get from that shop. There's also a Jap grocery shop called Yamakama.

After that, went to Vivocity and had a belgian mocha (or was it latte?) @ Haagen Daaz.

belgian mocha


chitty chitty bang bang car at Vivo


After that, decided to go Sentosa to burn off some calories. So took the sky train there. Below are some random picture @ Sentosa:



seaside



sand...


jungle trail.. but no la, never go in


hey, look what i found.. a trapeeze!


cafe del mar


some flora... i kinda like this picture


walked this stretch of road...


there were trees...


lifeguard post



some kind of statue


entrance to the hanging bridge


was at the southernmost point of asia continent



nightfall approaching...

Oh ya.. saw Ix Shen (should be him.. else its someone who looks an awful lot like him) playing beach volleyball as well... and yeah, he has a hot bod!