Creaky old bones!

I was panting like my dog (yes, with tongue stuck out and all) after about a 2km run. So ashamed that i can barely catch up with my 12 year-old sister who still had the stamina to run the extra round and do 90 starjumps (she requested that i type this in, what the... ego booster). And her legs are growing longer and longer (i'm threatened!). Okae, i will use her as the motivator and i am going to challenge her! ( Just you wait, little sis!)

And unfortunately, the 4D thing didnt work out. Sigh. Sponsors any?

Wishing for an "Impossibility"

I'm thinking and imagining too much! You know those advertisements on TV where people grab as much money as they can in like 30sec. I imagine i'm the lucky one to grab the grand prize of $10 000! Yeah, as in literally imagine seeing myself on TV. So dumb right. Or striking 4D. Ah, no wonder Singapore Pools is so rich. Everyone's hoping that ONE day they will be the lucky one. Wow, with $10 000 that will be enough to offset my laptop, digicam,air tickets, winter clothing, books, stationery costs. Today is Wednesday right? COME ON!!!

Big O

Thanks to Fiona's good deal, we all managed to eat one main course, soup, drink and Desert for about $15 each. So worth it right:) All the fishes were quite disappointing though but the lamb and steak was GOOD. And who can forget, Spike-D. This durian flavoured cake covered in chocolate. The chocolate was just ordinary but oooh, the cake was good. Luckily Fiona and Vee were adventurous enough, else we'd have missed out on this gem. Everyone's doing well and fine, either working, just out of job, bumming around, going for interviews. Can't wait to meet them again, this time Nana's coming, she wants to bring us to eat this prawn noodle at Beach Road, looks like its a different stall from my all time favourite but worth a try anyways. And, yes we can go get my present :) I'm still waiting for Friday when all the Robinsons...Taka...Metro will advertise and please please... 20% storewide. Let the GSS begin.

On turning 19

Wheee! I'm officially a ripe 19-er( according to Sue) and it sounds way OLD. Nowsaday, when i walk on the streets especially Orchard Road, i feel so much older and so does everyone else right, looking at those secondary school kids, i feel so much more in control of my life. Like, old enough to make important decisions for myself, trusting my own judgement although i wouldn't dare say it for clothes and shoes (I always trust my mother's judgement, no wonder i sometimes look Old (yucks!) )

Anyway, i had one helluva time trying to look for my own present (blushes) with Mich, i swear i've seen enough of Mango to last me for the next 2 to 3 months, in fact i feel nauseous thinking of the number of times we visited different Mangoes. I spent my birthday with them today at the zoo, we're FRIENDS OF THE ZOO! Had interesting lessons on baboons, we're convinced that they are staging an uprising against human beings looking at the way they faithfully attend "meetings" (possibly to escape from captivity first and then tackling us, we're threatened!). 2 highlights of the day...
1:DONKEY. Should try to post the photo up, never knew donkeys were SO horny. YW the animal lover went to like play with the donkey's ears and stroked its head a little and then Mich followed, before we knew it, the donkey started "shitting"... or so we thought, the "black thing which looks like shit" just kept growing longer and longer and we were so puzzled why it didnt drop? And then enlightenment when " the black thing" just suddenly shrunk when it walked away. How can the donkey be so turned on? YW has such charm... it ain't easy to charm a donkey you know, please raise your hands if you can :) Well done YW. Thinking back, it couldn't have been motion because motion doesn't come out from there! It should come out from the backside!

2. SNAKE : Ever the brave MJ, she led the way through what we thought was the harmless aviary until the end when we were about the leave, a snake appeared on the gate and MJ almost touched it! We screamed in disgust (except MJ who was the closest to the snake), jumped back and MJ suggested going through the gate anyway ( what was she thinking? by the way, she walked through the reptile garden alone because we were too chicken to go with her) and we screamed even more! Ended up crouching all the way back to the entrance of the aviary, screaming along the way, alot of screaming. This is ridiculous, the aviary is in Children's World! Snakes in Children's World?

Felt like tourists in the zoo. The people who visit the zoo are either tourists, families or couples. So we were quite out of place, guess we fell more into the tourists category, we behaved like tourists anyway, wearing our identical visors (so corny!) And i really enjoyed the "Spirits of the Rainforests" show, I love Riau the orang utan and of course, my birthday "surprise", this shiny bronze snake which the zookeeper swung dangerously across my face! Uncalled for :( Anyway, had a great time feeling like a kid again, absolutely necessary.

Ah! My ever wonderful team mates surprised surprised me this year again, where else but at my house s always. You know me being so thick-skinned, always trying to see through their many tricks and decoys but pretending not to know so as not to spoil their plans reallly fell for it this time! and I'm oh-so-touched! They were in cahoots with my little sis and my mother again this year! I guess impromptu surprises work better than carefully planned ones. Haha, and the OREO cheesecake they bought was so delicious ;) Really know how to pamper my fragile stomach right! I'm ever grateful to have team mates as creative as you guys, cheers! Can't wait for more surprises! (Oh no, so thick-skinned again, kidding lah! Really appreciate the expense you'll go to make this surprise a successful one)

Just listened to Sarah Brightman's live concert at Royal Albert Hall in London ... On TV of course, she's awesome. I love "Wishing you were somehow here again" and "Music of the Night" from Phantom and her duet with Andrea Bocelli "Time to say Goodbye". That song never fails to give me goosebumps... not in a bad way but in a strangely uplifting way. That is a real TIMELESS classic. Unfortunately, Andrea Bocelli was born with poor eyesight and became totally blind at 12 after a soccer accident, but he has a fantastic voice second to none. I love coming up with my own Italian phrases to sing the song( don't laugh) because i can never remember the words. Oh well, listening to it live just makes me happy.

Been busy busy like a bee these past few days and i'm meeting up with e Sista gang tomorrow! yay, finally havent seen them in a Looong while. I'm supposed to get myself this pair of leather shoes but i couldn't find the design that i like at TAKA! Oh oh, i'm in trouble. Don't worry girls, i'll make sure i find something to buy before we meet tomorrow!

And Mich... i do want to hear his voice! Especially since he complimented me (winks*)

The importance of staying positive

You know i'm bad at livening things up unlike some people, or encouraging people when they're down. I don't know what to say or maybe i think what i say is not going to help. Can someone teach me how to spread the positive spirit? I have faith in you! We will do everything we can to overcome this, let's hold hands and walk together. I'm always looking forward to a day of improvement, a day of signs of return to normalcy.

I'm going to watch Boeing Boeing tomorrow! Cross fingers hoping it'll be good, don't want to waste my money!

Oh by the way, i'm supposed to give my sister tuition twice a week?!?! Yawn. How dreadfully boring, but she's so excited because it's the first time she is receiving "tuition" (shudders). Where is my lucrative tuition client?? I hope the teacher calls me back soon to let me know when i can start. I'm pretty short on cash now so i hope to get a call tomorrow morning for relief job. Please? I think something's wrong with MOE's accounts dep. My pay for 2 days was $130 and they deducted $78 for CPF... leaving a pathetic $52. I'm going to call them up.

What? When? How?

What if things never return to as they were before. I'm afraid. No matter how much encouragement and help you give, it's not going to improve. Then what am i supposed to do? Couldn't control the tears( what an emotional wreck).. and then i slapped myself silly. Sometimes it's fine, sometimes it's not, everything's just unpredictable. It could take 2 weeks... 2 months...2 years? I wouldn't dare to imagine. Sorry, this probably sounds like an incoherent mess to you. But not to worry, i'm fine :)

Ah, yesterday's bbq was great! The heavens were kind to us:) How strange it was, the bbq was held at this J1 guy's house and here's the twist, he isnt' even from HC. Bleargh, it's just a Chinese High thing. But no complaints, the food was shiokelicious. Lotsa variety, from stingray to sotong to otah to satay to chicken wings, prawns, hotdogs, corn, fried beehoon, fried rice-all were nice ;) The evening started off slowly because we... the oldies were a little awkward but thanks to meilin who spiced up our whole evening with her shrilling laughter, she just gets higher as it gets later, she's the life of the party ! It's great seeing the juniors so united... aww just like us during our days. Felt a little old even though we're just 2 years older than them, must be the working world that's making us age faster than we should be! Gasp no way!

I have relief teaching tomorrow, all's good. At least i have something constructive to do and earn some money. Just remembered something funny. This P3 girl wanted to ask me what those lines on teeth are called (she was referring to cracks) , trying ever hard to get her point, she said " Teacher, you know those wrinkles on your teeth... ?" And then i fainted. How cute!

A Dark Gloomy day

I saw tears welling up in her eyes. Things looked set to improve on Thursday... for that few hours but it was short-lived. He told me not to worry. I hate docs who think they are the greatest in the world. We're not paying them to scold us, he doesn't see where we're coming from, he just thinks we have no faith in him which isn't the case at all. That egoistic creep. So what if you're a doc?

It looks like it's going to rain but I'm going for a bbq later so it better not. A very belated farewell of some sort, we've actually bade our goodbyes say... 5 months ago? Better late than never as they always say. Looking forward to seeing everyone again :)

My kid sister is getting hipper, she's going to watch The Sound of Music with her girlfriends later. They've even decided what to wear ( for the record, it'll be skirts for all of them, doesn't it sound familiar? ) Kids these days excercise their independence too fast.

Normalcy is what too many people are taking for granted. Well, you probably wouldn't understand until it is staring at you in the face.

My First Entry...

At a ripe old age of 19, i've decided to venture into unchartered waters ... not exactly unchartered but considering that my kid sister of 12 already has her own blog.. gasp. Am i in stone age or something. Ha. Actually, yes, i've been hibernating in my little cave( a very comfortable, cosy cave i must add) for quite some time now ever since i was "sacked" from my teaching job. I kinda useD to like kids until i went into teaching. My teaching friends and i often call it Devils Paradise. Everyday was like a war, i dont go to class with my books, i go armed with a shield, swords, daggers, pistols, parangs. In spite of all my weapons, being attacked was, well a daily ritual. I've been kicked by my hyper active child, my hands twisted a few rounds, suffered close calls of near deafness(man, i've got a zoo, not a class.. i have parrots who screech into my ear, spiders who climb walls, monkeys who can't sit, worms who can't stop crawling on the floor, slugs who slide down their chairs). I've learnt the art of self defence in the short space of 3 months, not a bad experience for a short teaching stint. More interestingly, i've even heard vulgarities i've NEVER heard before in my entire life... coming from the mouth of an 8 year old boy. We sure learn new things everyday.

Teaching aside, my friends must probably be shockED that this caveman is actually setting up a Blog! What has come over me? erm... maybe it's the boredom of not having much to do at all, waiting for uni, waiting for confirmation of a big tuition client, waiting for that organisation's email to thank me for my participation in their second round interview and thus drawing a close to all my hopes, waiting to get my driving license, waiting for him to improve not knowing what i can do to help feeling useless. It's sure alot of waiting. So in the meantime, let's do something constructive like publishing my ramblings for all to see. We'll see how long i can maintain this... anyone wants to make a bet, calling for bookies! Perhaps what's going to keep this blog going is if i go to UK to study. It's the means for communication! Then i dont really have a choice... believe it or not i used to detest using the computer because i found it troublesome to start up ( i took approximately 1 hour to get connected onto the internet on my old computer). In fact, my whole family's so ancient we dont even have a digital camera, I dont' even know how an ipod works, what's a Thumb drive ? I really should just return to my good ole' cave and be happy rubbing stones to start a fire right?

Speaking of uni. Ah... can't believe we've all come this far. Congratulations everyone! It's been a long ride. We're going on to the LAST phase of our formal education! The biggest question now is.. to UK or not to UK. I've been dreaming about it since secondary school, of course the ideal situation would be to get a scholarship and go withOUT being a burden to my parents. But that is just highly unlikely now, gotta depend on ourselves. And London is way expensive. We're no rich farts, no millionaires, if i do go, every single pence i spend will be my parents hard earned money and there is almost no way i can pay them back. Number one : they won't allow it even if i want to pay them partially. Number two : i have to work for many many years before i see money coming in. Sigh. But my mother is pretty set on sending me there, pa is just afraid i'll never return if i find a good paying job there. Gasp no ! I'm too Singaporean at heart... who can live without Jln Kayu Roti Prata, Sin Ming Kaya toast and kopi etc etc . The list goes on and on and on.. i've compiled a list of my everlasting local favourites including many of my mother's to-die-for dishes, i'm sure i havent covered all my favourites, will post it up once i think i've done justice to all my favourites. But i digress(the foodie in me surfaces... unfortunately, much as i enjoy eating, i have a weak stomach, sometimes, the food comes out even before digesting, i'm trying not to be explicit here). London is beautiful, London is amazing etc etc, i've heard lots about it and i do wish to be there but at what cost? At what point do we draw a line between receiving an overseas education from a prestigious university and using your parents' money to achieve that dream? I could just jolly well save up on all the money, stay here and be an engineer, carry on with my way of life living happily at home. What if i regret not going next time? This is a life-changing decision for my family and me, something i have to figure out fast.

On a lighter note, i went shopping at zara with my mother this morning and we saw all those gorgeous winter clothings. I was ensnared by this chocolate brown jacket which costs a whooping $265, trying to imagine myself sashaying down oxford street in that jacket, jeans and boots. ( of course, please dont imagine that friends or you'll start laughing, this should be limited to my imagination only and only mine. haha). There were many other pretty jackets of all designs too, all wonderfully sewn and all "reasonably" priced. UK dreams again...

And then i met Mich and gang in the afternoon. We had a great time, finally MJ is back, the musketeers reunited in full force after 4 months. Mich and MJ were so sweet to buy YW and me a "ROXY" cap and "Esprit" wallet. Very nice :) Shanghai should really be the capital for genuine goods.

All set, my driving test's on 9th May. I AM going to pass on the first try! I am not going to give a single cent more to the driving school. They estimated that the average learner takes between 20-25 sessions to complete their course. So i'm slow, i expected to finish in like 25.. but no.. i took 28! That makes me Ultra slow but i do think i can hold my own in the car, thank you very much. So i better pass! The school's all out to drink our money... gee.

To X, you're a very big part of my life and although i know you'll never read this, i hope you can find the strength to move on, we're all behind you, just that tongue-tied me doesnt know how to say it which always makes me feel helpless and useless. No matter how long it takes, we know you're going to find yourself again.

I'll be meeting many of my friends this coming week because of some special occasion coming up? Is it not? oooh.

There, my very first entry...