interesting thots

 my chinese tuitor made a very interesting observation today during class while we were, er, practising my conversant chinese (in other words gossiping) she basically said that in our family, our choices of country to study university is very reflective of our different characters. which come to think of it made a lot of sense

you see -  aaron's in canada coz he's the strong silent type and very much more laid back than all of his other siblings. aaron doesnt care abt fashion, dressing for comfort. he definately loves the outdoors more than ivan and myself hahaha.

then there's ivan.... more outgoing of my brothers and seriously thinks abt his dressing to the point where pple are wondering just how metro he is. he's always liked the british way of dressing. and he's the most religious of us and all abt peace in the world kinda thing

then there's me :) the more selfish in a way... i love attempting to bully my brothers even thou it doesnt really happen. its mostly they let me get away with the smaller things. i love shopping and definately not as quiet as aaron. and i love food and more shopping heh and im definately the craziest

isnt this such a funny observation? hahaha leave it to our chinese tutor to think up of this haha

Aquariuses

Aquarians of both sexes place a high value on friendship. you may behave as you like as a lover or wife, but friendship must live up to an inflexible code. There are certain things friends do. And there are certain things friends don't do. Friends are never disloyal - and friends are there when u need them. Aquarians rarely realize that their definition of friendship is interchangeable with the definition of real love. The water Bearers never ask for more in friendship than they're willing to give in return. In the Aquarian Age, it's difficult to draw the line of distinction between friendship and love.
Frendship in all its variations, is as necessary to the Aquarian woman as breathing.
If he'll be her real friend, she'll be able to trust him with her heart, which will allow her to be as ardent as a sexual and romantic partner as he could possibly desire.
"he said he was my friend. friends should understand each other, shouldn't they? i dont care abt all the rest of it, but he said he was my friend."
Fixity is stubbornness, only a bit more so. in the Uranus-ruled woman, its woven throu with their unpredictable behavior, doubling up on the syndrome of inventive, uncoventional stubbornness

nite out at mortons

when shit happens, and a very depressed girl has to get over it, it helps to haf a great friend to go out and have a wonderful dinner at obviously the best place to have a proper american steak here in sg....

great food, drinks and Wonderful service who can complain rite?

all thanks to our servers: anan, herman and not to forget subash for this enjoyable night

they were truely the epitome of great service... we were checked on periodically and they totally knew how to anticipate what we needed. its really rare to find service like this here

it was really sweet of subash to remember all my drunken trips to mortinis and he even gave kas and i a round of nite caps

to start it off....

it was a rather big warm onion bread

then it was a 5 onion soup which tasted really yummy

for main course:

i had the ribeye steak with sides of creamed spinach and garlic mashed potatoes topped with sour cream and bacon bits

i know my pics are terrible but i havent yet got the guts to whip out my camera at every course so all these are mostly taken in a real hurry so no one else knws haha

our surprise parting gift just as we left :)

they were really sweet and we totally discussed all the possibilities with such a huge bottle of moet we got to pose with

i think kas and i will be bringing swas here soon haha :D

this was a little something i heard at the end of gossip girl this afternoon:

while most pple think that it is our brain that controls our reactions, its often our heart that gets the biggest workout. it can make us do the craziest of things, but it can also let us take a chance on new adventures. bcoz when we open our heart we can explore a world of love and be pleasantly surprised by the people already in our life.

indocapades

margaret's birthday weekend :)

or actually even before

wednesday:
met up with a potential wedding planner and we fell in love with her :) swas signed her up and i have help now!! after we decided to have drinks at the bar next to our meeting area which was the bar at st regis

yummy mai tais and gin tonics later... we headed off to pearle noire at east coast in search of MORE oysters

but since i cant possibly eat another crazy round of oysters, indra and i didnt even have that much. haha but instead we had TONS of sav blanc. since it was arnd leo's hood, he joined us and in part celebration of him being able to start drinking again

and we all knw how this night ends hahaha 4 bottles between swas, leo and i

Thursday:

margaret arrived and straight from the airport, she and i got dragged to HV for sake with the wonowidjojos and andrew and ashari... since we both were a little later than the rest, by the time of our arrival they had consumed 3 bottles already and were still going...

finally we got kicked out and proceeded on to the usual - ktvvv with more drinks and singing

Friday:

we celebrated margaret's birthday!!!!!

she takes her birthday wishes really seriously

dinner was just us girls.... yummy jap food to nurse the hang over lots of us were experiencing frm the nite before haha and of course the best cure for hang over is more alcohol. so along with this, we had even more sake hahahahaha

the next thing we knw... andrew was across the street frm us having drinks with his friend too! so he joined us along with leo hahaha then it was off to velvet and that was the start to a very slippery road down to oblivion

this was the only picture taken frm this great nite hahaha - 2 bottles of belvedere, 20 shots of sex on the beach, 16 jaeger bombs/really horrible jaegerpagnes haha, 2 bottles of moet and numerous other drinks that i dont really remember

lets just say i stayed all the way to the end of it all.... and i totally blame alcohol for all of this madness hahaha

Saturday:

:) complications abound

chicken rice for dinner :) yummyyyyyyy and surprisingly i got dragged to butter haha

considering how tired i was... butter wasnt the problem hahaha

it was the 2nd stop tt was the issue... we decided to go back to the same place as the night before OMG

go take a look at this crazy bottle of moet! haha it gets served in a GOBLET - the size of the bottle compared to the glass next to it

8 flamings, this bottle of moet and martell drinks

im very surprised my liver is still functioning rite now hahahaha

severly drunk wonowidjojos yet again - and i swear this is when things start happening. things that take up my sleeping time and my already minimal energy i have left

Sunday:

head held by a very stiff neck, i dragged myself to church to make mom happy after all the late late nights

tea with the girls at fosters to catch up since i havent seen them in forever :s stayed at gina's to stay awake bcoz it was going to be off to dinner at patara hahhahaa

margaret has just left and swas will be leaving to jkt tmr for a few days... kas and i will finally haf time to recoup. i really am getting WAY too old for this haaha

a week till i start working :(((((((((((((((((

in review of this week

im so very
tired - having an average of 3 hrs sleep over the past few days is extremely taxing at my old age
mentally exhausted - friend's wedding problems, my own friend complications... i swear the holes i dig for myself
liver overworked - been drinking freakin everyday i cant believe it too... its not even relax drinking but all out kinds
im soo not young anymore hahaha

happy easter

with fung and indra around we went for oysters at the fish market last tuesday coz it was $1 per oyster and between the 3 of us we finished 42!!!! we hadnt realise just how much we had eaten until we headed out and felt the full effect of such a meal. the 3 of us felt so sick i think i'm officially oystered out for awhile. even so, indra and fung had the stomach to head down to clarke quay for a full night of drinks

thurs - sat i felt sick so i spent most of it at home thou wen is back for easter break... we hung out a few days and checked out the new sogurt

opened by lips its a really good froyo place... finally something very similar to something frm LA here in sg!!! i'll definately be going there pretty often

sat nite at zouk with the indos.... a night out with a dj frm the us - how apt :)

champagne, whisky, shots of whatever and numerous jaegar bombs later.... oh and my surprise was dressed in pink haha darma visited us frm jkt and was not packed for this trip coz it was totally not planned

clash of the titans 3d on sunday... my first 3d movie and i was rather dissappointed... im sticking to 2d haha

today swas and i drove arnd portsdown road looking for her wedding photographer and we drove by...

haha we were so curious as to what this cute place cld possibly offer we walked in and decided to stay for tea :)

yummy chocolate tart and blackforest cake with good capps :D

life mysteries

i was just thinking of some activities i wld like to pick up this year
- rock climbing
- pick up yoga again
- golfing again
- attempt dancing again
- wine appreciation courses

now the only thing is to find time for these activities.... since im considering taking a position here in sg, im just thinking of these activities that wld be interesting. but also since time is limited to after working hours i wonder if i haf the time to squeeze all of this in on top of my ongoing piano and chinese commitments. technically it would be great if my yoga instructor tt i need to find his contact again teaches near my new working area (again if i choose to take it up) heh

as i was watching tv this evening... i came across sex and the city and friends and here's the best part - both shows were telling a story of the guy who got away/has a special place in the heart kinda thing. coming frm a girl's perspective... i knw that when time comes and tt phonecall comes thru, we will or at least i will jump thru hoops for them/him. in my case i haf more than one that got away. im the type of girl who will continue being friends with my exes; and i dont knw if this is to my own detriment or sanity haha but i knw for those tt dont fall under the "guy who got away" category, i'll never get back together with them anymore... but for those special few - anything frm them just makes my day. i knw its really pathetic but im sure putting oceans and continents between us is even worse but it still happened hahaha. and trust me when i say it doesnt work. even after mths and years, these special pple haf a strange power over me that i wish i could wish away. especially now at this stage in my life, i wish i cld say that for the next relationship i'll try my hardest to be what i havent been for my exes but i always wonder - if say PI or LD calls, will i come running? i wonder too if guys are even close to being this sappy and if they do ever feel so strongly for another

3 nincompoops

i had mentally pysched myself up to go and swim earlier this swelthering afternoon but just as i was about to step out of the house... it starts pouring - lightning, thunder and all :s i guess i'll just haf to do it tmr haha

im considering taking up rock climbing and contacting my previous yoga teacher again and all this is based on whether a call comes thru and therefore i have to actually make sg my base for awhile at least

these few weeks back have been great.... instead of having swas, fung is in town :) been taking her out to yummy places just for fun. and it seems that i was "spotted" on friday nite hahahaa :D due to sarah's blog's popularity, someone wrote in to sarah to tell her she saw me at spruce having dinner there. gina and i decided we shall make badges that says "yes we're sarah's friend". i dont mean it in a bad way but its pretty cool for this to happen coz that just shows how good sarah's doing in the cyber world esp in sg :) she's had pple come up to her randomly at things like zoukout just to say hi and tt they are her customers/blog readers
but while at spruce.. one of my favourite restaurant here in sg, i did haf my usual tuna tartare and was in the mood for a burger

after it was off to house for drinks with margaret who was in town too then to OE for more drinks hahahaha what a wonderful way to spend my friday nite

sat was great... gina was finally done with the madness of mozaic and had time to kill.... first off was back to ac for fun-o-rama
i havent been since the one right after i had graduated. so it has been awhile... and boy do i feel OLD sheesh... we were there for very short period coz it was soooo hot and we had to rush off to do our nails with gina at our normal place :) then it was off to fosters

sarah and i were very unsatisfied with our lunch coz it was just bad food and gina hadnt had anything to eat so scones were the thing they wanted the most
we were sitted outside by the long benches and it got a little to nature-friendly while we were there so right after we were done scoffing down the food, we left haha
then it was off to.....

since im here nearly daily, and the girls havent been there AT ALL... i had to drag them here rite? im the coffee drinker of the 3 of us but they were up to checking out leon at work and this place im always raving abt.

he has opend a new area which is really cute, we hung out there for a bit and gina met a collegue of hers. im still so amused that this old school radio actually works and the plant was painted by leon's aunt...

then it was back to holland area to drop sarah off at her car coz she had other plans later on while gina and sinclair ended up having dinner at home :)

sunday was off to church then dinner was spent at gina's thou i was the one cooking :D haha made my usual aglio olio and tried a new ckn recipe hehe

hope all of u had a good weekend and a great week ahead! march is going to be over soon

Into the hole called Shanghai

I've dissappeared into the hole called Shanghai for a few weeks in search of the next step; or my next step. i was mentally and emotionally prepared to take the next serious change in my life since things here have been a little better/worse in some areas. and i thot shanghai would be a good place to start looking. things were put in planned but upon arrival, changes happened and it just ended up becoming a holiday... and exploring my options.
i managed to meet some people who have helped me to view things a little clearer :)

the skyline of this country was wonderful and the trip was good... i actually enjoyed it very much... i enjoyed being away. but the best part was i felt a little out of place with just sooooo many chinese! and hardly any other coloured person :)
the weather was perfect... thou it did rain most of the time while i was there but i LOVED the cold... it was definately a very appreciated change from sg's heat

one day i found myself just getting lost in the streets and found myself in this area:

this little square was surrounded by tall buildings... reminding me of SF alot.. a little too much. i found myself really missing my LA friends and everything tt was during those few years

food wise....

i found that M at the bund really didnt dissappoint, service was good and food was yummy
oh and not to forget the view... the view of pudong was great!
best part abt this particular day was that it SNOWED!!! it has been ages since i've seen snow and i've missed it soooo much. since i've been unable to go back up north earlier this year, im really hoping to go there end of the year... and im really keeping my fingers and toes all crossed

however the following few days i got the chance to try Jean Georges.... and very unfortuantely, i was very dissappointed with the quality of food they put out. this was afterall the happiness that came when i found out there was a Jean Georges in shanghai. ive tried the branch in NYC and thou the food wasnt the best of that particular trip, at least it wasnt bad. i found that the accompaniment over-powered the main item on my particular starter and main. after paying my bill... i left with the feeling that i shd have just saved that amount of money and gone for more meals at M

at the restroom of Jean Georges Shanghai

and of course no trip to shanghai would be complete without xiao long bao :)

i followed my taxi's drivers advice to go to the xiao long bao restaurant at chen huang miao... unfortuantely i wasnt too impressed by it. i guess that by this time i was craving chilli more than anything and since this particular xiao long biao didnt come with my usual crystal jade's chilli, i found it rather bland hahaha i knw... blasphemy. but i still remember this day really clearly, after lunch i was able to walk arnd this touristy place and unfortuantely nothing caught my eye except for a toy store... in it, they had all these old tin toys that gina normally goes crazy over and i just spent sooo much time in there, i was unable to choose what to get her :)

clubbing here was also an interesting experience all together... haha ordering in mandarin and getting served fruits with our bottles of whisky etc

oh oh oh not to forget... this year is the year shanghai hosts the world expo :) on my way to the airport... i caught a glimpse of what is installed for visitors there and i cant wait to head back there later this year to walk thru those amazing structures

bye singapore for now

im off! to the land of no blogspot or facebook... to tempt my fate

its a little exciting yet terrifying at the same time

i hope what im doing will yield results and my mom to be strong
i'll miss all my friends again esp sarah and gina
and start all over again

always....

the bridesmaid, never the bride

ever since graduation, mom's been not so subtly hinting that she wants a grandchild. all my friends here all have heard me lament over and over again how im being pressured into bearing children even though im not dating anyone at the moment thou mom has tried to suggest guys. so today while i was talking abt being the maid-of-honour for my cousin, we were going thru how many weddings i've participated in

my first ever appearance as a flowergirl was with aaron at his aunt's wedding. somehow i seem to vaguely remember this experience... if im not wrong, i think i tripped over the ribbon tied to the bouquet of flowers at the ministry of weddings place. but goodness who knws if this memory is even accurate
then it was my own aunt's wedding in indo... my partner was my cousin didit :D i remember this as one of my first few introduction to stephan and michelle. by this time i was 5?
and the last time i was ever the flower girl was at ku's wedding here in sg and it was held at regent? i knw the 2nd nite for family was held on top of ocbc towers... i walked down with ko and i definately remember the amount of trouble we got into the very first morning when uncle graham tried to come thru the gates
the last wedding i participated in was my aunt's at ritz... i still can remember the honeymoon suite and ce was my partner :D i remember having to stay with her the nite before, only to haf to stay up coz we needed to pluck the petals off roses coz they forgot to order them for the next day! hahahaha
so this year... i will be maid of honour for my cousin, and bride's maid for swas hehe

mom's now just worried that it will not be my turn at all hahaha


happy cny to all!

how sad....

http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/el-bulli-to-close-permanently/

mi birfdae weekend

instead of celebrating my wonderful ahem "forever 24" / 25th birthday in indo, i decided to risk my liver and take my chances here in sg.

it all started on thurs..... meet swas for dinner which was basically a whole evening and night of eating at 3 different places - tea at twg, then cheese snacks at the cafe outside ion then again at a jap restaurant on robertson. at our last place we also ordered a 720ml bottle of sake which surprisingly we managed to finish. then it was off to sinclair's where the girls were waiting patiently with me for midnight :)

i love my pressies i received that night!!!!!!!!

then horror struck.... i crashed my brand new car onto my neighbour/family friend's car just one hour into my birthday and this is the first time ever i am in an accident where i caused it. sigh... just wonderful start to my birthday rite?

it caused me a terrible night of tossing and turning coz i felt soooo bad.

with this utter lack of slp, i then had to get up to meet my dear kah sian for breakfast otherwise i would not be seeing him for quite some time. it was a good time of catching up with him :) time passes so quickly that i never realised that we havent met in over 6 mths! and for the first time was he late to pick me up :D hahaha thing is... as a pilot, he's always on time if anything earlier but never late even thou he knws he'll still end up having to wait at least another 5-10min while i rush to get my things together :) but for the first time ever, i was ready on time and he was late! hahaha

after breakfast, i met mom for a quick meeting with potential bankers who were basically trying to convince my mom to move some of her assets to them... just mostly tons of sucking up so it wasnt as interesting as i expected it to be. dropped off some cny stuff at my dentist's/former neighbours/family friends hahaha then off to lunch and omg... it was absolutely wonderful! food was simple but good but the place, the place was soooo amazing i cant believe a foreigner had to it to me hahaha. i was soooo impressed by it, i didnt realise i had walked past andre till he called out my name haha. silly me.

lunch dragged on... then it was rushing for the 2 of us... him back to work then me to the airport to pick my grandmother up... only to get her an hour late! oops

by this time, i had been out for the most part and was just pooped out of my mind so headed back home for a nap and to avoid drinking for as long as possible :) had dinner with mom coz i hadnt had my birthday mee sua yet and grandma had brought back food frm bangkok too so dinner was yummy! just as dinner ended my darling sister, janice came over :D

then it was off to overeasy :)

my greatest friends ever since sc days

my double waterfall birthday drink all thks to indra!!! utter madness...

will update with the coolest pic taken by sinclair once i get it haha

everyone was just waiting for me to pass out rite after... but i lasted! or at least till i got to zouk heh

next morning.....

somehow found the energy to drag myself out of bed to head here for brunch :D
even thou i was terribly late... yet another oopsy

i would love to thank all my darlings and friends for such a wonderful 25th!!!!!!! those here and who were here in spirit... i love u guys!

Bali pt 2

6th - dont quite remember the weather truthfully but im sure involved some rain

sat started slow... had breakfast, jumped back into the pool, then it was off to spa at dala spa... beautiful rooms, good service and best of all a really good massage. the rooms were beautifully decorated, each with its own theme. perks of having a competent family is that even at this award winning spa, we still got great discounts

the last pple done were leo and sarah... both were off in bliss land and forgot abt time.... then it was a mad rush to get to kudeta. where else

my darlings were the BEST... they wrote all of that on the sand for all to see my age :p and as per what leo said, the most amt of work he has thus seen frm the girls haha

since we all didnt really haf lunch, we had some nibbles at kudeta before running of to metis... the lastest restaurant in bali.

they haf wonderful foie gras menu and the food was truly worth raving for... unfortunately in one of the writeups, it seems that the owner wants to haf one of the best wine collection in bali, that however, fell very short. thou an experience in itself

on the list, had a "hatten" wine grown and produced locally in bali. as is that shd haf set off an alarm rite but gina and leo were excited to try it to the detriment of everyone else.... it was TERRIBLE. i have officially tasted a wine that is worse than those box wines andrea used to drink at pepp. :s
after dinner, we were hoping to find some place to find bottles to buy back to our villa but everywhere was closed! it was hilarious! our driver had to drive us to various places in search of either hard liquor or wine.... when we totally chanced on this sorta dodgy kinda supermarket looking place and continued our party in the pool :)

7th - cloudy but with sun :)

got up early to go jetskiing and bring the girls to nusa dua :) leo was out cold as the past 2 days worth of activities and a night of gossiping totally fried out his wires.

since the girls werent into water sports... it was left to jason and myself to jetski arnd... it has been ages since we haf done it so it was soooooo fun! 20 mins out in the ocean. we wanted to do our ritual banana boat but since there were only 2 of us, we werent feeling up to it and tried ot convince sarah to no avail. while waiting the girls found a new boutique hotel rite next door and swam in their infinity pool that overlooked the ocean.

for lunch we took a very long drive to the other side of bali at denpasar to bu chandra's for the local delight of babi guling......

leo left right after lunch to catch his flight back to sg in order to watch some concert... but the girls stayed on only to leave later that night. i decided to bring them to one last place to catch their last sunset in bali... ayana resort and spa

this place was the former ritz carlton... very cute. i got to see the place my cousin got proposed to... the sunset was truely breathtaking... too bad leo totally missed out on it. had drinks and some nibbles at their rock bar. unfortunately the drinks and food werent as good as kudeta plus more expensive too... so the agreement is that kudeta had a better atmosphere even thou they didnt haf the sunset view as beautiful as ayana.

johan totally missed out on this trip :( thou a wonderful start to my birthday celebrations :D