Beautifully Imperfect.

Day 14: Can You Smell Chinese New Year?

2012-01-14T18:40:00.000+08:00

I've been making cookies with mum for CNY for as long as I remember and this year is no exception. Only that mum ditched me to go Genting Highlands so I was measuring and stirring away myself. -_-

But all is good, the smell of freshly baked chocolate chip and almond cookies immediately makes the world shiny again. Plus, it signifies that the Chinese New Year mood is in the air! :D

Can you almost smell them?

When I was at Jaya One doing grocery shopping earlier, I stumbled upon a Hush Puppies sale and grabbed two pairs. The pair of purple suede flats is something I've been eyeing since the beginning of the year but at a hefty RM 199, I just couldn't betray my bank account like that. But, today I found it at RM 80, which is too good to pass down. And the other pair, well let's just call it collateral damage. :p

With fresh cookies and new shoes, I'm now officially almost ready for the New Year. Just a teensy bit more shopping to go... :p

Day 13: A Week of Craving.

2012-01-13T18:13:00.000+08:00

They say the way to a man's heart is through the stomach. Well, I like to think that's partially true for women as well, although it probably only works for sweet things as the journey to my heart is probably via my sweet tooth. :p

The Signature Dessert at ZenQ.

The weekend before was a scorching one and I had a terrible craving for something icy and cold - Taiwanese desserts! Adam almost as good as ignored my plea and so today, my colleagues obliged and teman-ed me for a round of ZenQ Taiwanese Desserts in Pyramid during lunch. :D

You know, people say only pregnant women have cravings. If my cravings are already so frequent and random now, I really fear for the day that I'm ever pregnant. Eep.

Day 12: Staying In.

2012-01-12T14:15:00.000+08:00

Having a bottle of Herbalife and staying in office for lunch because I ate too much yesterday, all while browsing food blogs.

Am I a sucker for punishment or am I a sucker for punishment? Seriously, now. -_-

Day 11: It's All in the Focus.

2012-01-11T23:52:00.001+08:00

Today was one of those days at work where it was difficult to focus. Mainly because I run so many different projects at a time that more often than not, I get very scattered. Time is spent dabbing a little in Project A, then moving on to Project B before skimming through the updates for Project C. And then suddenly you remember you have a very important meeting to attend for Project F. As if that's not bad enough, HR calls you and tells you that you were specially selected for a cross functional group-wide Project W.

If I can stay on top of all these projects at the same time, I'd be quite proud of myself. But how many can I actually do well? Do I be merely mediocre at all, or neglect some so I can at least excel at a couple?

S'crazy, but at least I have a great bunch of colleagues that keep me sane. :)

So tonight's agenda: No thoughts about work. Recharge levels of optimism. Just going to focus... On me, myself and a friend named Bed.

Because hey, if I can't focus at work I might as well focus on sleep. Good night everyone :D

(And of course special post focus for Adam who came all the way here to have dinner with me - enduring Chilli Rush level 4 chicken wings and my constant complaints about my tummy about to explode from too much food - when a guy sees you as absolutely stuffed and completely dying from having to pee and can still laugh at you endearingly, you know he's the one :))

Day 10, a Late New Year's Wish.

2012-01-10T17:51:00.000+08:00

Happy New Year, everyone! Seems like 2011 passed by in a complete whirlwind, so much so that I kinda wished I had more time to reflect on things that I did, more time to just... smell the flowers. Do you ever feel that way?

There's been this trending topic on Twitter since the New Year began, today it was "Page 10 of 366". Yesterday it was "Page 9 of 366". Intrigued, I looked at it to find out more - some twitter-ers are making twitter into a diary, a diary with 366 pages. (Well, if you wanted to be sticky about it, it technically would be Tweet 10 of 366, but never mind :p) Every day, they tweet a "page" of their diary; it could be a quote that summed up the day, or just a simple recap. All within 160 characters.

Back when Twitter didn't exist, or not enough Malaysians knew Twitter existed, there was also Project 365, where you capture your life for a year by taking a picture every day for your blog. (Though now, I suppose you could even run your own Project 365 on Facebook!)

Both are pretty nifty ways of immortalizing a year of your life - twitter works if you like things short and sweet, and blogging works for the rambly types like me. :D

Which leads me to say... I don't usually make new year resolutions because I'm pretty crap at keeping them, but if I were to make a list of resolutions for the year 2012, blogging would definitely be on it. I've said time and time again that this blog is a personal diary of sorts for me, and that hasn't changed. So maybe it's time to make this resolution, to diligently capture these days of 2012?

The year of Passion at work.

So, will 2012....

Impressive CNY mall deco at Sunway Pyramid that kept us mesmerized after lunch today.

..the Year of the Dragon be the year that I finally manage to keep to a New Year resolution? :D

Only time will tell.

/fingers crossed

The Games Children Play.

2011-06-08T15:07:00.006+08:00

My nephews and nieces have grown up so much. Back when I started this blog, they were nothing but toddlers, saying the darnest things, and happily allowing me to bounce them on my knees.

Now, the older ones have lost their baby fat, are too cool for hugs, are incapable of smiling for the camera (cause it's not cool, probably) and like to say "yo" (cause it's cool, probably). o_0

Even my boyfriend is cooler than me to them, because he plays some simulator-battle-real-time-war thingymajib on his iPhone and I don't. :(

Just the other day, the oldest (turning 12 in December this year), called me up at work. He had a pressing issue with me.

See, one fine day he just decided to google his full name (Why he would think of doing that at age 12 is beyond me. At age 12 I would probably google; "how to score 5As in upsr", or "which barbie doll has green eyes" wtf.) and stumbled upon this post. He was appalled with a few things:-

That I had a blog. (He said it with a lot of pressure in his voice; either, disgusted that I had a blog cause blogs might be uncool in this day and age amongst children, or that I wasn't cool enough to have a blog.)
That I posted a "horrible picture" of him (His words, not mine. But hey, when you're a child, doesn't that automatically give your aunty permission to post photos of you that they deem cute? ~~Maybe that's why he doesn't smile in pictures anymore, for fear that I would deem them cute.~~)
That his picture was so freely available on the Internet because his friends would definitely google his name and find that god-awful picture of him.

I certainly had a good laugh after that call :p

.
.
.

It's obvious the course of time has caught up with us so quickly that they've grown so fast (even my 3 year old nephew insists of fist-bumping me instead of high-fiving me FML) and that the advancement of technology has helped that growing process along even faster. Which can be totally good and totally bad at the same time, I guess. They're so immersed in the world of the www, of iProducts, even Facebook (he also tells me that his whole class has Facebook except him cause my sister in law doesn't allow it yet heh)... Whatever happened to children and pure, simple imagination? Imagination, after all, is the best toy a child could have.

Which is why I was glad when I left to work this morning and saw this:

My living room, transformed into a "Level 3 Tent". Don't ask me what a Level 3 tent is and how it differs from a Level 2 Tent - I really have no idea. All I know is that I once made a tent similar to that when I was young (mine was probably so awesome that it was like, Level 49 or something), and I'm glad to see these age-old activities come out at home.

In the meantime, here's to children not growing up so quickly, and learning how to look up from retina screens to explore the vast corners of their maturing minds. :) I think a balance between tried-and-tested, and tech, will be best.

P/S: And Joel, if you decide to google your name again.... HELLO! WEN KOR LOVES YOUUUUUUU. <3 <3 <3 HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Now how's that for embarassment. :D

Sharing Some Contentment.

2011-04-11T14:12:00.000+08:00

Adam and I have maintained separate blogs since our teen days. I know I started mine some time after Form 5, and I think he, even earlier. Since hitting varsity days & and now even work, we both neglected our blogs (poor blogs!) for study time, work time, and now, dating time.

But that comes as a shame, because if not for blogging, there is no avenue for us to document down food we tried together, places we went together, things we saw together and well... memories we made together. :)

So, to cut a long story short, Drops of Contentment was born.

Hello, world!

To kill two birds with one stone - help us be our own little treasure chest of memories, and also to share some of the things we've tried with you. Hopefully this blog doesn't die off!

Of course, I still have every intention of keeping splashes dot blogspot dot com alive for myself (I really think there are no readers left anyway :p) as I still hold this diary very closely to my heart.

If you have a moment, do have a look! Link here.

Legoriffic Memories.

2011-03-03T09:51:00.001+08:00

Because it never hurts to start your day off with a bit of humour from my new favourite site, The Oatmeal. Wit and snark combined.

Luxury.

2011-02-24T09:37:00.003+08:00

Now I don't usually do shameless product placements for work, but when this one popped up in my mail-box... oh boy, I feel the power of advertising.

Because, if I had a million bucks to spare, I'd splash out on one of these. A sandy beach as your garden? Hell yes.

Especially after a working week like this... it feel like it's been the longest week ever, and yet it's only still Thursday.

What Happy Tastes Like.

2011-02-22T12:43:00.002+08:00

Last Sunday night, parked at the intersection of Bangsar Village 2, Pappa Rich & Cziplee was an ice cream truck bearing some happy.

Kreme Kart, my new found friend.

A dollop of creamy vanilla goodness in a cup.

That's what happy tastes like, but sharing it together? Now, that's what happy feels like. :)

/burp

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Putting the Gold in Goldilocks

2011-02-21T15:42:00.001+08:00

I was doing a spot of web surfing before staying in to through lunch today; because 1) I have a ton of flowcharts I need to give birth to, and 2) I had/have a splitting headache. And then I stumbled upon this:

Goldilocks Jewellery - a Singaporean based jeweller that fuses fun yet delicate doodles with gold, and tops it off with a personal touch. Why? Because the pieces are customizable, and hand-twisted to perfection. I reckon odds are no two pieces are exactly the same.

You might argue that the uncle along Jonker Street can do these in the form of key-chains for you, but there's just something about these beauties that caught my eye.

Goldilocks Jewellery allows you to choose alphabets, or even custom-make your name. I'm not sure if there's a limitation to the number of alphabets, but I should think not, as long as you're willing to pay the difference?

The beauty is, you can choose from 18K white, yellow or rose gold, and choose if you'd like your creation to be accompanied with a diamond. Jewellery never got so personal before this.

A cursive E in white gold.

A capital K with a diamond to boot.

Pretty cursive letters, and oh-so delicate!

If you don't like it horizontal, you can even have it dangling this way.

Former Channel V VJ Sarah Tan sports her name. The beauty of it is, it looks abstract from afar, but you have to look closer to read it.

They do bracelets too. Pretty-ness.

Everything looks easy enough to order online - you can even send them a picture of your own doodle and they'll give you a quote.

Go visit http://www.goldilocksjewellery.com/ for more info. Prices look like they start from SGD480.

Oh, lust. /dreamy sigh

Well. Don't say nobody ever told you it was expensive to be a girl. Or have a girlfriend. :p

One Step Closer to the Maxis Om Nom Nom Race

2011-01-12T15:42:00.001+08:00

It’s 2:51 p.m. as I start writing this – exactly 3 hours & 9 minutes to the Maxis Om Nom Nom contest deadline!

I’ve never joined a Nuffnang competition before… but this one really caught my eye. Adam is extremely keen, so I figured, why not? Being the natural procrastinators we are, we’ve left it till the very last day, and in true couple fashion, he’s banging out his entry post as I type this.

Now the race sounds awesome. ‘Nuff (no pun intended) said.

What’s the race all about?

Ta-daa!

60 bloggers. 11 hours. 5 locations. Lots of food. (!!!)

In this day of technology, it’s only right that the yellowed, crinkled treasure maps are put away and instead in their place for this treasure hunt… a shiny iPhone 4, the trusty Maxis Finder301 app (found at http://itunes.apple.com/my/app/maxis-finder301/id375530216?mt=8# ) and Wireless Broadband (http://www.maxis.com.my/personal/broadband/wireless_allplans.asp if you'd like to get yourself one of those handy dongles) will be provided to get us to the ultimate treasure. All the devices are courtesy from the folks at Maxis. How times have changed!

I daresay Adam and I will be making use of this app a lot :p

Along the way, the contestants will be tested with riddles that can be solved with the help of the iPhone 4 GPS & the Finder301 app. You’ll be expected to make your way to a location, at which you’ll be given food --- now here comes the tricky bit, upon trying the food, you’ll be expected to produce a complete food review on your blog before you get your next set of clues.

For more info on the competition -- http://maxis.nuffnang.com.my/2011/01/04/the-maxis-om-nom-nom-race/

Only the toughest bloggers will prevail! *nods empathetically*

Why I’d love to join

Being the complete food junkie I am, and the withdrawal I felt when The Amazing Race 17 drew to an end awhile back, this race sounds like a perfect one for me. (Granted, I’ve never actually ran an Amazing Race before, only having hurled yelled remarks at my TV screen and lament at some contestants’ stupidity and jumped up and down in my living room when my favourite team was on the brink of elimination, so it’s probably time for me to walk the talk. Or in this case, run the talk. But, I digress.)

Did I mention I love food? I did? Oops, sorry.

Why we would make a good team

Adam brings the Om and I bring the Nom Nom to the team! He takes big bites, makes quick siapa-cepat-dia-dapat decisions, zooms through traffic while I nom nom nom my way through my food, take my time to think and ponder a little more. We’d be an interesting dynamic… so, pick us? Hee.

Here’s Adam’s blog link on why he should join – http://inadamsgarden.blogspot.com/2011/01/one-step-closer-to-maxis-om-nom-nom.html

Ready, Set, Go!

Looking forward to om nom nom-ing our way through together!

p/s: I hate couple t-shirts so this race might be the only time I will willingly be in a matching t-shirt with Adam. (I hear him rejoicing already -_-") Size L, please.

Pretty Things.

2011-01-10T12:33:00.002+08:00

Simple brightly coloured flowers in a rustic metal pail are an instant pick-me-up. It's a shame that these daisies don't dry nicely which is why I've resorted to artificial ones.

I don't remember how much they cost per stalk but I got these from Ikea - even the act of choosing one of each colour was pure happy happy joy joy.

What are some of your pick-me-ups?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

One Down.

2010-12-11T10:09:00.001+08:00

I'm officially 5 papers away from completing CPA. Okay, granted it's still another 2.5 years to go... But one down, with a grade I didn't expect is sure to be better than nothing at all, right?

Yay! :)

To top things off, it was Financial Reporting which was such a pain in the ass. Double yay!

Is it just me, or does this woman on my CPA booklet look like a young Sue Sylvester from Glee? Hee.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Questions We Can't Answer.

2010-12-06T14:49:00.000+08:00

You know when you were little, there would be all these seemingly simple, childlike even, questions you had in your mind. And in your teeny voice, you would go, "Mommy, why something something something something one?" (Well, I always asked my mother questions, not my dad, for some reason or other.)

And the simplest question sometimes could seem like a Harvard-worthy or SAT question to your parents. Why is the sky blue? Why does B come after A? How come dogs have four legs? Where do babies come from?

(Okay, so that last one isn't something that can't be answered, more like parents choose not to answer it correctly -_-)

But let me tell you, last weekend, I heard the winner of all winners of questions we can't answer. It was at Vincci, Mid Valley.

Auntie: (two pairs of shoes in her hand) "Miss, can you take size 5 for these, please?"
Salesgirl: (examines shoes) "Sorry Miss, this one no size already."
Auntie: "...WHY?!??"

I walked away, biting my tongue, trying not to laugh.

Watching the Days Go By.

2010-12-05T13:00:00.002+08:00

After years and years of asking, dad asked me last week, "Eh, do you want a fan in your room?" I jumped at the chance.

I now have this pretty silver fast beauty in my room, newly installed by this kind worker who said, "Wah, your fan very nice hor?" I agree.

It kinda puts me at ease, lying in bed and seeing the blades swipe around in this large circular motion. I think I've found a new form of therapeutic companionship.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Oh, Saturday.

2010-12-05T11:46:00.002+08:00

My muscles are crying "Mommy" today from the torture I put them through yesterday morning in BodyPump class with Caryn. I think we worked every muscle in the human body including ones I didn't even know I had. Heh.

In true sloth fashion to gain back whatever I burnt off in the morning, and in a way, to celebrate Adam finishing his first two papers, we went to Tony Romas for dinner. :D

I love Tony Romas, but it's so expensive! And of late we've been rather broke so we haven't been in awhile.

My favourite appetiser in the world. I've loved onion rings since dad bought me my first from A&W when I was a kid. But that was before I tried these. Tony Romas onion rings take the cake. /greedy

Rib sampler. Okay, you can't really see the clarity because of the filtering by the Instagram app, but sigh, the iPhone4 camera (no, Adam's new toy, not mine unfortunately) is crazy clear. Compared to my 3GS. I want.

Toy wonderland at Mid Valley! The Christmas deco is pretty stunning. They've really outdone themselves. There were all these huge-ass plush teddy bears all over the centre decorations & throughout the mall. Kids were tumbling all over them. If only I had no qualms. Hee.

Caught The Social Network, yay! Been wanting to watch it ~~because Justin Timberlake was in it~~ because it's supposed to be really good but it took forever to come out in Malaysia.

I dont think its going to be a movie for everyone because the script was fast-paced, and laced with sarcasm, but I really liked it. Jesse Eisenberg added so many quirks to his character. One can wonder if the real Facebook founder is really like that, but then again it's based on a dramatised book which was based on the true story, so I wouldn't hold my breath. It's still a good watch though.

Twas a good Saturday night. Only one more week before Adam finishes his exams! :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

We Excel at Excel.

2010-12-04T08:19:00.002+08:00

Slow Friday evening at work. I remember back in school, I couldn't figure out Microsoft Excel for the life of me. I swore by Word.

Oh, how times have changed. My Microsoft Word is dusty now.

I'm going to say that this new found comfort zone with Excel is a sure sign of aging. Heh.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Vacation Lust.

2010-10-14T14:12:00.000+08:00

I miss holding your hand and walking down the busy, bustling streets of Bangkok. :)

My Large Denominator.

2010-10-09T15:17:00.000+08:00

(In retrospect, the title of this blog posts suggestively seems like something you'd see on the cover of Men's Health magazine, or in large colourful letters across the cover of a porn DVD. But, never mind.)

I feel like I'm being pulled in more directions at once, with many sub-directions pulling away at those main directions. Work, special projects, studies, other commitments, relationships, personal tasks... and even, time for myself, if I'm lucky. The running joke is that at work, the aim is to "stretch" you so far till you're at that point of breaking. I wonder if I'll break or if I'll bounce back all springy like a new rubber band. Or like Elastigirl from The Incredibles. (Maybe I'll have damn a lot of stretch marks like a woman after pregnancy. That sucks.)

I'm being expected to divide myself into so many sections, and sub-sections. So what happens when you do division with a big denominator? (Sorry, I was a bit of a math buff back in school - remember how we used to do 'pecahan' during Maths? The denominator is the bottom number.)

1 / 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 = something friggin small. Zero point zero zero zero.... something.

One me divided by a bajillion commitments and responsibilities = Well... tired.

That's one equation that ain't too fun solving.

When it's two-three weeks away from exams, it's not fun turning down invitations to go shopping, dinners, yum-chas, or constantly clocking up the hours in my head, thinking that if I go, I have that much less time to study or to recharge myself. Or hurriedly packing up to leave at 6 p.m. on the dot, under your bosses' noses because every less minute spent inching in rush hour, is one more minute for me to unwind or... study somemore.

It's selfish, but I think I'm going to have to be selfish for awhile. At least until my denominator gets a little smaller.

Anyway.

2010-08-02T14:21:00.000+08:00

Pastor Yu shared something during Sunday service yesterday that I thought was particularly interesting. It's this bit of...poetry, if you may, that some say was written by Mother Teresa. Regardless of author, it's a fascinating perspective and worth a read.

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;

Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;

Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;

Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;

Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;

Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;

Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;

It was never between you and them anyway.

*

I think it's a good concoction of words and messages that I want to take a thing or two away from. It's a daily struggle to not return evil for evil, a challenge not to honk a useless driver on the road when he honks you first and it was his fault in the first place. Instead, maybe make it a chance to return good for evil, an opportunity to drive away instead of flipping a finger.

It's difficult, but let me try do it anyway. :)

Back to the Grind.

2010-07-22T19:37:00.001+08:00

I've always said I preferred studying over working. Give me assignment stress, exam cramming headaches, blistered fingers from furious writing any time, because with all that comes flexibility, energy and not a care in the world. Well, not really anyway.

So, if I prefer studying over working, how about studying while working? Guess I'll find out soon enough.

Got all my exemptions and an invitation to enrol, now all I've got to do is get my butt enrolled before the 26th of this month.

Pretty stationery shopping and brand new challenges, here I come! :)

Polaroids.

2010-07-16T18:31:00.003+08:00

There's just something about polaroids. The white frame, slightly thicker at the bottom so that you may scribble down something about the picture or the moment, that slightly grungy filter-like glaze that makes it a little vintage.

Pretty.

Digital camera photos are too easy. Snap one, don't like it, take another, delete. With polaroids, there's no second shot. Somehow, it just feels like the best way to capture moments, just that very moment, and have them immediately immortalized. Much like life, you only get one shot. :)

If I had a polaroid camera, I'd take polaroids of moments that made me happy, keep them in a shoe box, and look through them once a year with someone I love. And then show them to my grandchildren next time although, they will probably turn down their noses at them and show me their fancy schmancy hyperdigital-superquadruple 358x zoom camera with techno-rotating capability and sound sensitive shutters that takes about 52 shots in a nanosecond.

Sometimes, we yearn for simplicity and the little things that matter, that no technology can do better. Like I said, you only get one shot. Live and let live.

Island Down Under.

2010-07-13T14:50:00.004+08:00

Okay, so I'm a month late, but I figured it was time to finally get off my laurels and talk about my Resorts World Singapore Universal Studios experience.

The boyfriend and his best friend had been talking about taking a trip to the little island down under to check out Universal Studios. Because Pok Xian, his best friend, works on Saturdays, they picked a Saturday which was a public holiday for us and the best choice was 5th June - Agong's birthday! Plus, it was also Dominic's birthday, so it was like a celebration of sorts too. (Btw sigh Agong why must your birthday be on a Saturday? My employers don't give us replacements for public holidays boo :( )

Being the chronic procrastinator I was, I left the packing till late. At about 11 p.m. with a wake-up call at 4:30 a.m. the next morning to get to the LCCT in time for our flight at 8 a.m, I was still packing. Or something along those lines.

Anddddddd during my packing, Adam sits me on my bed, taking both my hands in his and drops a bombshell telling me that "Err dear ah... I have bad news." ~~Like he was pregnant wtf.~~ Or he might have tried to make it a good news/bad news thing, but it was most definitely bad.

See, 5th June was not only a public holiday, but the first weekend of the Malaysian school holidays AND the Singapore school holidays. Read: Bumbling children all over the theme park whose over-zealous parents had bought the tickets for 5th June off the Resorts World website wayyyyyyyy in advance. Leaving us with no theme park tickets. Jeng jeng jeng.

A lot of drama later, we decided we'd just go try our luck with going there anyway. The moment we touched down at Changi, we hailed a cab to go there in person.

The silhouette of an AirAsia plane against the sunrise :)

Cloudy morning.

Nope. No luck. Staff at the counters told us that the tickets for Saturday had been sold out in advance and that there were none left for over-the-counter sales. Blasphemy. We decided to switch our plans around and get tickets for the next day instead -- although that meant we would have to rush through the theme park instead because our bus left Singapore at 4:30 p.m.

After buying the tickets, we wandered around some of the shops there instead. The Hershey's shop is to. die. for. Omg.

They had a Reese's section too. I love Reese's! I bought a packet of white chocolate Reese's (which Pok kindly informed me, white chocolate isn't real chocolate -_-) but they melted after leaving them in the locker all day long sigh.

Hershey's galore!

Next to the Hershey's shop was Garrett's Popcorn who does these really kick ass fragrant caramel popcorn with really big corn kernels. Till today, Adam still laments on and on about why nobody has brought it to Malaysia yet.

Because Dom and his colleagues were clever enough to buy tickets off the site in advance ~~unlike us~~, they went on Saturday, and Pok went off to visit his sister on Saturday instead of Sunday like he initially planned, that left Adam and I a whole day to go dating around the island :p

We checked into our budget hotel on Joo Chiat Road and began our hunt for Katong laksa. Katong laksa is my absolute favourite-st dish in Singapore and is something I insist on having everytime I'm there. I think we took a twenty minute walk under the hot Singaporean sun, but it's okay! No walk is too long for Katong laksa. :p

As usual my poor sense of directions eluded me and I couldn't find the famous one that my family always goes to, so we settled for this one instead which was pretty damn good too. (Only that people don't usually serve chopsticks with Katong laksa because the noodles are supposed to be so short that you can eat it with a spoon alone.)

IF YOU HAVEN'T TRIED, YOU MUST TRY IT!

Soon before long my bowl became like this. Only with the remnants of my uneaten taugeh bleh. And the plate in the background had what Adam proclaims as the best fried mee suah he has ever eaten.

After an incredibly satisfying lunch, we went back to the hotel to get changed for an evening at the malls :p

That picture was taken right before I dragged Adam to countless shoe shops, three of which were Charles & Keith. Charles & Keith shoes are actually so much cheaper in Singapore when they're on discount. But get this, after all the shoe shops I visited, not a single pair that I liked had my size left! ROAR.

I'm a size 39/8 and in Malaysia, this is the size that's usually leftover during sale period. Singaporean girls have bigger feet than Malaysians. :( So, Great Singapore Sale, you were not very fun this time round. (Also, Adam probably found it the most frightening ordeal ever.)

Dinner at MOS Burger. This is a Chicken Teriyaki sushi rice burger thingymajig. Incredibly small and I wouldn't think worth the SGDs we paid for it, but interesting nonetheless. The boyfriend said he felt like he was "...eating a bento box." The stuff from the bento box, I mean, not the box per se. Never mind.

We met up with Dom and his colleagues, Pok & ZH for after dinner drinks at Clarke Quay and I feel like kicking myself for not taking any photos because we got the birthday boy drunk. And he was a bloody intellectual drunk too might I add. I've seen quite a fair bit of drunken people -- emo drunks, hyper drunks, sleepy drunks, violent drunks, but I've never seen a smart drunk. :p

Dom: "What are the 5 Greek Options!? Tell me, what are the 5 Greek Options!"

o__O

I don't think I could do justice to the whole situation, so I think I'll leave it to one of the guys to blog about. Hehe.

Went to bed late and woke up early on Sunday to be in line to rush into the park when the gates open.

Welcome to Universal Studios, oh we went through quite a lot to get tickets for you geez.

First stop: Jurassic Park! We sat on that glider coaster thing which isn't one of my favourites because ever since Gold Coast, I figured that coasters where my legs are left dangling in mid-air aren't for me. Maybe it's just that I don't feel secure enough.

The mandatory photo with a dino.

Far Far Away, the kingdom in Shrek. Sigh. It's one thing watching princess all your life in cartoons when you're little, and another seeing castle structures in real life. I swear I practically skipped down the path when I saw this.

Welcome to Far Far Away! Adam having fun pushing his girlfriend far far away. His idea for a photo op, not mine.

More pictures of Far Far Away & the quaint streets. And two knight in shining armours at the top left. :p

Shrek! /waves crazily. I keep on forgetting I'm 22 this year instead of 2.

The Enchanted Airways ride where they make you queue up in this house with stone walls, complete with fun posters for you to read whilst waiting in line. The roller coaster is actually the dragon in Shrek, or in this case, their "airplane", hence, Enchanted Airways.

Trying to keep a straight face vs. trying to be yeng.

The boys!

Clockwise from top left: The view of Far Far Away from...far far away (no pun intended), the famed Battlestar Galatica which is still shut after months, the matinee where we caught the Monster Rock musical, and the streets of Lights Camera Action.

One of the Egyptian men on stilts who walked around the park nearly all afternoon in the scorching heat. He had very nice abs though. Ahem.

One of the vintage cars outside the diner where we had lunch.

Madagascar! With "I like to movit movit" blaring out of the speakers! Super fun.

Cannot not take a picture with the Madagascar animals. :D The rest of the area looked really good. Unfortunately, didn't really take as many pictures here as I would have liked since the rides in this side of the park were mainly for children and we were running out of time anyway. :(

One of the signboards in Old Hollywood. If you can't quite read it, it says "Welcome to Hollywood; Population: Glamourous". Hee.

And last but not least, the two majestic statues outside the Revenge of the Mummy in Ancient Egypt. The best ride of the whole theme park, IMO. It was a super long wait, but it was the one that made my ticket's worth. It's a roller coaster ride with parts in complete darkness so you don't really know which way you're going to tip next -- left right up down, even backwards.

Looking back, we only actually spent about 5 hours in the theme park, including lunch and watching a few shows. We missed this water show which was supposed to be really good, and the guys would probably have liked to go on some of the rides again but despite all that, if you plan your time properly, go in when the gates open and all that, you can probably cover the whole park quite nicely.

The size pales in comparison when you think about Movie World in Gold Coast, but that probably makes it much better for families with children. My brother, Su, and their three kids went a week or two after us and they spent the entire day there.

After all that, we hopped into a cab to go to our last destination in Singapore where we were to take the bus from -- yet another mall. And of course, what with my luck with all the shoe shops earlier on, the guys suggested that I try the very last Charles & Keith in that building which would bring my total tally to four Charles & Keith outlets in two freaking days.

So I did, and again... no size. :'((((((

Whilst wandering around waiting for our bus (after my fourth and final traumatic Charles & Keith no-size drama), we saw this. xoxo.chic for real one day, perhaps? Maybe we should copyright it soon. Lol.

So, with that, ended our two-day weekend getaway to Singapore. Did I enjoy it? Sure I did. Good company and new places to see made the two days great fun. I know I grumbled when the boyfriend planned it because the MYR to SGD exchange rate is never soothing for Malaysian bank accounts, but I'm glad I went. Now, next stop is Bangkok/Krabi in September, and I'm dead excited.

I never knew why holidays were so important before I started work, because my family was never big on travelling, but now, after I've fully immersed my life into a 9 to 7 job, I totally get it. Bonuses, from now on, are going into my once-a-year travelling fund. Koh Samui, Bali, Hong Kong, Japan, Melbourne, Paris, Rome, US of A, England, Egypt, here I come! /broke and dreaming.

Silent Weight.

2010-07-09T20:58:00.001+08:00

It's 8:17 p.m. and there's less than 10 people out of the 100 or so people on my floor left. Level 10 usually hustles and bustles with the two workplace printers churning output non-stop, the constant smatterings of English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Malay and Tamil from one cubicle to another, loud shrill desk phone rings or Top 40 and perhaps Hindustan music blaring as ringtones out of the other phone we all carry, and the continuous clacking of keystrokes or mouse clicks. From 9, all the way to 6, and usually 7, there's never a silent moment save for lunch hour.

I didn't notice that the noise had somewhat diminished, disappeared. But this silence comes as food for the soul this evening.

Sometimes I get frustrated. I find myself become less articulate, less able to pour my feelings into words, be it through speech or in writing. It's hard, and maybe I give up too easily, but still... it really shouldn't be so difficult.

And just like a jinx, I've hit a mental block the moment I wrote the above paragraph. Guess that's life's peculiarities for you. Bites. Every. Single. Time.

Beautiful. Maybe I should take up photography since I don't quite know how to express myself anymore.