This sudden crave..

Coffee-brown or Warm-amber Nokia 7360? Or wait for the hi-tech Sony Ercisson k610i packed with a 2MP camera and USB connectivity?

The next business exploration?

OTO Trimax just for Mama!

Mama wanted an OTO belt, one that you wrap around your tummy and let it vibrate away your fats, and that costs a whopping $320. Nevertheless, Tian and I got it for her at her request (she spotted a discount at Carrefour) and gave it to her as birthday present. Hope the belt won’t be cast aside as like the fate of the Sudoku handheld player and the Diamond Mine software I purchased online last time.

There’s this fervent desire to renew all household appliances in Mama, first renewing our vacuum cleaner, then buying a new washing machine loaded with all these warm washing features. Tian was saying next time she’ll expect a new fridge from us. Let’s see when that request comes.

This morning I slept till 10am, damn shiok. So much wanting to take leave tomorrow and have a day to myself. Laze around in bed till late, explore little parts of Singapore on foot, find a spot to see the beautiful sunset and arrange times at my own pace.

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How do you handle a person full of criticism and has words full of suan-ness? You can say their minds are sharp as it requires a particular twisting of the brain to come up with such words to spite others. You will have to consider how to place yourself in a position when others find it hard to “fight back”, then use the right phrases to bring out the most sourness in what you mean. Then when others counter, you will need to have the fastest counter-attack so that others don’t have the time to conjure up their argument points.

“Fighting” in words require intelligence and an acumen above others. There used to be a junior of mine in JC who pierces everyone using words and never fails to “provoke” others, sometimes when to the extent of making someone cry. I used to counter his “swords” with calmness, maintaining my composure every time. After sometime he told me it was no fun as he wasn’t able to get me worked out at all, though I wasn’t particularly trying hard to tolerate. Hmm, but now I’m not that sure if I still have this composure when things get too rowdy in this adult world.

On-the-go Person

Yep I like to get things done fast and efficient, and not having to hang around to wait for things to happen or to gradually complete. Thus I have this tendency to get irritated with people who walk too slowly blocking my path and people who don’t quite pick up things fast (specifically to other colleagues whom I need to deal with at work). Guess I’m becoming a gan cheong spider soon.

But yeah! Life’s good coz we get to enjoy the luxuries of life. My definition of luxuries:
- Having time to myself, reading newspapers or simply lazing outdoors on a beautiful morning
- Observing those lovely expressive kois (especially at the Koi Pond at Suntec basement)
- Nua-ing with WW at his place on a lazy afternoon
- Basking in the warm sunset, soaking in the golden rays
- Jogging in Botanic Garden, amidst the trees and greens
- Having a sumptuous and yummy brunch (my Sunday’s favourite – waffles!)
- In the company of close buddies who truly understand you
- Getting presents that you’ve been wanting
- Strolling along East Coast Park under the hot sun, watching the sea and overhead airplanes, and feeling the sea breeze
- Munching blueberry muffin at McCafe with WW tucking away
- Eating Mama’s delicious home-cooked food, including my favourite steamed fish

And I’ve got to enjoy them all during the past weekend! Woohoo!

On Saturday WW and I went over to Suntec City early in the morning, with WW attending his aerospace seminar from 9am till 12plus pm while I was free to do whatever I wished! I could even drive his car for some 兜风 if I wanted to. I chose to stay by my favourite 鲤鱼, seeing them wake up to the early morning sun in the Suntec koi pond. Some were very big, barely able to keep their full bodies in the water. I like the silver ones and the whitish ones with patches of orange on their heads.

So there I stayed for close to two hours, reading about Budget 2006 and happily smiling to myself, thinking of the extra bonus come 1st May. Can sign up for the $315 make-up course, yay! And WW can use extra money for investment (aka trading?) and wish he reap lotsa profits from there! Feng is thinking of going for a trip with the bonus too. I think we people just can’t wait to spend it off quick.

WW came out of the seminar and we proceeded to Esplanade for Al Dente’s one-for-one course. What a good bargain! And the Portobello never fails to impress; it had got us craving for more. Till the next time when we go for the other pastas not on the promotion set.

Then on Sunday, the Feng Gang decided to meet at Les Amis the Café at Botanic Garden for brunch. Initially I was still wondering if it were that high-class posh restaurant featured on Les Amis’ website. Luckily Jun assured me it’s not, else I would have gone on a full stomach hoho. Before meeting up, I went for a morning jog around Botanic Garden wearing my new Nike sports shorts (so proud of it). Quite a refreshing jog and happy to have many joggers with me. Goes to show how popular the place is on a Sunday morning, and also explains the difficulty faced by people patronising the café – gotta wait so long for a seat. But the food wasn’t too bad at all, I like the big waffles they served. And the other ladies (plus Jason and Henry) had big plates of scrambled eggs and fried eggs (don’t know what the mini-egg-burger thing which Feng had was). Enough to last till tea time.

Feng Geng gave me Vitasence cleansing mousse and a lovely pearl necklace for birthday, so sweet! Tks gers! Exactly what I’ve wanted, and which is now making my face skin smoother (there is a difference!).

So that made my past weekend extremely fulfilling and satisfying. Looking forward to more weekend breaks and good that it’s mid-week now.

WW has just turned 25 years-old, wishing 男人 a very happy birthday! Although I have no big items to give, I will supplement with pamper and lovingness twice that of usual. 男人be ready to accept this lavish indulgence!

Little wandering thought

Just now on the MRT train, I was looking out at the scenery and for one split second, deciding between viewing the skies and viewing the land. Such is the narrowness of our vision. Are we able to expand our scope of vision, to encompass all the sights span by our eyeball so that we don’t have to place our attention at different pieces? It goes the same for memories, why do they have to be piecemeal and not an entire coverage? (After some thinking, I deduced that we simply couldn’t remember everything as that would make it like we are living double – one half in memories, one half in reality.)

元宵节

It was 春到河畔 last evening with parents, accompanying them for the fireworks display and the CNY festivities. Seeing them enjoying the fireworks bring happiness in me. There were millions of people though! And saw a lot of big-busted women with singlets or racerbacks that show off their cleavages. Woo.

Sunset at the Padang. On the way to the River Ang Pow.
Fortune God standing big and tall
Beijing or some Chinese perfomers with a make-shift palace pavilion
十五的月亮照在Esplanade上
Beautiful lanterns
At 930pm, the fireworks went off in a bang! Splendid!
Woohoo~~~!
There were red heart-shaped fireworks to mark the coming Valentine's Day

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Birthday dinner with family & WW

Still had a good time after a hard day's work. Work doesn't deter us from enjoyment.
Family together after the meal. Our rather frequent hang-out for dinner - 合兴“嗞喳”
The dishes
Lo Hei!

等待是甜蜜的

Quite a terrifying comic with people running out of paper. Scary! But yep, all the commotion about the Danish publishing of the comics is not that much warranted, in my opinion.

Material Possessions
When we advance in age and, for most, status, there is an increased desire to own more prized objects with heavy price-tags. However, if not kept in check, this burning desire will fuel off too ferociously that by the time we realise something's wrong, our pockets could have already been burnt off.

Being born in a relatively humble family, I was taught since young to be thrifty and question myself everytime before buying a big item. I remember how my dad used to scold us when we bought stuff he felt unnecessary and complained how expensive it was. Those were the days when our parents had to scrimp and save for our education, but of coz young us didn't know it and thought they were just very niao. But good saving habits have rubbed its effect on me. Now I think twice before buying expensive stuff, and still am unwilling to pamper myself with designer and branded goods.

Recently me been beo-ing Nokia N70 phone, rummaging through the many newspaper advertisements during weekends for the best M1 deal. But thinking this amount could potentially set me back financially, I've decided to stall and wait. Imagine everytime it's a few hundred bucks desire that I conquer, a few thousands would just vanish soon. (And I want to have that excess savings to splurge on my man ;) )

Then, seeing the people around me getting the thing I want so easily (Tian got N70 as a gift from her Henry Love, WW's sis bought N70 a few days ago), can't help but feel I still lack that purchasing power. So what if I'm a while-collared worker now? There are still so many restrictions. And this somewhat-low pay is alluring me to be envious of my friends who can afford Gucci and LV bags easily. But nah, I like this feeling of anticipation, of having the suspended desire to possess, before claiming this object as mine. The satisfaction of obtaining (and owning!) something and the lengthened euphoria then makes the object more precious.

Thou shall not be greedy! (But would be good if my pay can double...)

Still in Office at 10pm!

I'm spending the few minutes here before it strikes 10pm, which is time for me to call a cab back home! Yes, niao company only allows transport allowance after 10pm. Meant to go back much earlier, but alias..

Just now was lo hei dinner at the podium with quite a big group of staff. Wanted to network with some folks from other Groups, but didn't have much opportunity. Then no one from my function (aka department) wanted to go, so ended up I dragged another fren from another department along. So off and antisocial.

Recently there's much love in the air, hearing happy news from my dear frenz. Two of my good buddies got attached (very happily!), and one of my JC classmate is getting married in July. She's the fourth in the class to change the marriage status k.. our 98S26 class ladies damn power.

Recently me been working like siao, bringing work home to do at nights, staying in office OT, rushing work during weekends. Can't help think of a way out, say do a feasible business or strike off with some ideas parallel to hitting a gold mine. Can't image how people can slog so hard, work so many hours a day, and end up being a young woman underneath an aged woman's skin.

Oh how fast~

Happy Birthday to Tian (and myself, hee)!

Today was at Raffles Town Club for an offsite which lasted the whole working day, and zao before the rest get drunk at the Pub after the discussion sessions. My supervisor at work even got me a nice mango mousse cake, which aroused everyone's curiosity wondering how I had such a special cake when they only had the buffet's small cake pieces. So sweet of PK! Also coz of that, the group sang the birthday song in front of a restuaurant crowd, paiseh but fun!

Came back home for dinner with family and dear WW, and such a coincidence to be on the same bus as Shou Bi. I insisted on lo hei today, so we did that at the coffeeshop downstairs, which was quite nice, both in terms of food and significance. It was my bro's first lo hei, and the first time when we (family and also nan ren) had lo hei together. Felt so excited shouting the New Year wishes, each for one ingredient: 恭喜发财，大吉大利，甜甜蜜蜜，鸿运当头，青春永驻，满地黄金，越捞越起，捞到风生水起！

WW also gave me a surprise with his very original game! I "fished up" him, a PK and both a ring and Vitasence product on the third round! So fun~ I don't need the "won" rewards, as the thoughts and sincerity are already more than enough. :)

Some photos that were not able to come up in the last post:

The lamp post with a surveillance camera beneath, at Istana Park. Goes to show how tight the security is.
WW with his cousins. All very adorable kids and note how colourful their dressing is!
Dinner at Ritz Apple Strudel at Upper Thomson. The baked dory was soo huge I simply couldn't finish
WW with one of his favourite dishes - pomodoro with extra $1 serving of veges

My attempt at an artistic photo of the dragon and phoenix at Guang Ming San temple.

Turning 25

Doesn't matter that much what age I'm going into, as long as we're all happy~

Celebrated with WW in advance yesterday, as we could enjoy the sunshine only during the weekends. WW brought me to Kong Meng San Phor temple coz I've never been there before. Took the chance to pray for peace and a good year ahead. The place is cool too, very serene, peaceful and spacious, unlike the usual clutter in small Singapore.

We went on to Bishan park which is just opposite, and wow, it's big. Spotted a bunch of Indian dancers there in the midst of filming.. they can shake their bombom real well! Haha. Dinner was at Ritz Apple Strudel place at Upper Thomson (didn't expect real food at Ritz right!), where we had Italian dishes (as below). The food is cheap! And neither service charge nor GST was slapped on us, cool huh. The total bill came up to $30, and we got to enjoy a big portobello, bruchetta, pomodoro spaghetti and a very big serving of baked dory with mashed potato. Quite a pity the restaurant is tucked in the corner and patronisers only buy apple strudels rather than stay and have their meals.

Yesterday's date was just so nice, the kind of date I've been yearning for every now and then. With loving 男人 under the big warm sun - happy!

Ah-Fong's balcony

The swimming pool view from the 8th floor
Istana Open House

Mama & Papa

With WW's four cousins

Istana House

Guan Yin Temple

CNY Photos

Me with Tian in Uncle Keng's lorry, on our way to Aunty's house in Yishun
On our way to second destination, from Yishun to Telok Kurau. Got swept all over during the ride on CTE and PIE
We three siblings at the back of the lorry
We squeezed Shou Bi out of the picture!
Papa with Fluffy (in pampers) at Ah-Fong's condo
Mama enjoying herself on the couch at Ah-Fong's house
Haha, sneakily taking photos of ourselves in the toilet

WW and YZ :)