merry is love ;

Self audit

Saw this on the Facebook homepage and decided to try even though I've done it before. From my very vague impression, some of the results are different. But there's one I am 100 percent certain is different - education. :X

Your view on yourself:

You are down-to-earth and people like you because you are so straightforward. You are an efficient problem solver because you will listen to both sides of an argument before making a decision that usually appeals to both parties.

The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for:

You are a true romantic. When you are in love, you will do anything and everything to keep your love true.

Your readiness to commit to a relationship:

You are ready to commit as soon as you meet the right person. And you believe you will pretty much know as soon as you might that person.

The seriousness of your love:

You are very serious about relationships and aren't interested in wasting time with people you don't really like. If you meet the right person, you will fall deeply and beautifully in love.

Your views on education

You may not like to study but you have many practical ideas. You listen to your own instincts and tend to follow your heart, so you will probably end up with an unusual job.

The right job for you:

You have plenty of dream jobs but have little chance of doing any of them if you don't focus on something in particular. You need to choose something and go for it to be happy and achieve success.

How do you view success:

You are afraid of failure and scared to have a go at the career you would like to have in case you don't succeed. Don't give up when you haven't yet even started! Be courageous.

What are you most afraid of:

You are concerned about your image and the way others see you. This means that you try very hard to be accepted by other people. It's time for you to believe in who you are, not what you wear.

Who is your true self:

You are mature, reasonable, honest and give good advice. People ask for your comments on all sorts of different issues. Sometimes you might find yourself in a dilemma when trapped with a problem, which your heart rather than your head needs to solve.

Emo.

Slipping deeper into the emo mood playing all the emo songs.

Just completed my catch-up session with Ugly Betty so I now add one more drama serial to follow every week besides GA and PP. I know it's a little of a waste of time but I just can't bear to let go shows I've been watching since desktop-with-crappy-green-tinted-lcd-display-monitor days. WH says I'm probably the only one watching UB but I must say it has certainly improved over the seasons. I like the boss-assistant relationships portrayed. It's the kind I hope I'll develop in the future - one based on trust, openness, and friendship. And I'm totally looking forward to seeing how the relationship between Cooper and Charlotte develop in PP. This is going to make me look a tad crazy but I actually went to skim through the season 2 episodes to get a better idea of how/when the couple became, you know, a couple.

On the topic of relationships, I've been slacking in this area of late. I appear offline more often than you know. I haven't asked PM about her ankle. I didn't reply texts for 3 days. I take really long to reply to MSN messages. And at the risk of having all credibility go down the drain, I will admit here that I sometimes don't bother replying to MSN messages at all then come up with a lame excuse after. I just don't feel like entertaining people recently. I mean I didn't even really enjoy or looked forward to any of the birthday thingys before the exams. And my mobile phone's battery has been flat since this afternoon and I haven't or have no intention to charge it. Oh no, antisocial personality?

You know why the marriage rate in Singapore is falling? The people here - men and women alike - lack guts. Seriously. And I'm not saying that I don't 'cause man I have zero guts when it comes to this. Why I say this is because I'm suddenly reminded of how our girlfriends in China fought for their guys. From pda-s to cooking a complete meal even though she doesn't cook - damn those girls are gutsy!

I haven't talked to any of my China friends in slightly more than a month. That's a really long time if you don't think so. Our Best Friend initiated a convo today but I ignored then she asked why I was ignoring her, which I, well, ignored again. What other answer could be truer to the question - okay I feel a little bad now. QiuQiu initiated a convo yesterday which I ignored. China Boiboi hasn't started a convo after I told him in some uncertain terms to go get a life.

Gradebook
Emotional Quotient (EQ) - F(AIL)

Perhaps it's just the exam stress talking.

WHAM BAM!

After the crazy schedule of 4 consecutive papers in the last 2 days, I'm down with 5 papers with one more to go. Never again will I put myself through this torture. The first thing I did when I got home was not sleep but catch up on last week's Grey's and PP episodes. This PP episode actually made me tear! Grey's hasn't done that to me in a long long time. I am now proclaiming PP my new love! But although I look forward to PP more than Grey's every week now, I still watch Grey's first then PP, and it's certainly not a case of saving the best for the last. Loyal at heart much?

Role reversal? Equal world?

What a coincidence.

Yesterday, SMU high-flier had this as his Facebook status - (SMU high-flier) thinks it is perfectly fine for ladies to make the first move!

Today, sisters and I stumbled upon a repeat telecast of the Channel U talkshow 'Woman(women?) on Top' or '女人大主意' in Mandarin, that was having a discussion on whether women should make the first move.

What do you think?

My view is, in today's world, men do fancy being chased and it's increasingly acceptable if one hears a woman doing the chasing. But me? Call me traditional, call me gutless, I'm remaining a 被动者 (as opposed to 主动者).

China's hidden power

People had undermined the power of China till just recently. I was ignorant of it. But today I read a China magazine and was surprised. Beijing had 8-lane roads in 1984 and the pavement outside Tiananmen in 1989 looks the same as the ones I saw a couple of months back. China was at the same, if not better, stage of development at that time. Perhaps we should be thankful they stuck to the communist regime so that we could have a little headstart.

My best travelling buddy

I typed in the title for this entry last week but got distracted by the Subaru challenge so it got relegated to drafts. Today's a good time since we just received my cousin (returning from Nepal) and my ah ma, aunty and uncles (returning from Xiamen) within an hour of each other.

I have never gone travelling with friends. In fact, my first time going abroad without The Ps was the China trip this year - late by many of my friends' standard. So when El asked me last week if I wanted to go Bangkok together, I hesitated. Because especially after our ill-planned Beijing trip, Sissy S and I came to one conclusion - we are each other's best travelling partner.

Why?

Because we have the same priorities.

What we never stint on: Trying authentic local food, and having a guide when we visit attractions. We hate it when we reach an attraction and we know there is significance behind everything but we don't know what they are because there isn't a guide explaining.

What we always stint on: We will scout for the cheapest airfare (budget airlines), and cheapest accommodation (backpacker's inn, common toilets, 1-star hotels). We travel using the public transport (excluding taxis). We eat street food most of the time. We throw out fashion and travel light. We will brisk walk with our heavy backpacks for 30 minutes just to save 2 yuan per person. That, by the way, translates to 40 cents.

We were known as extremely good walkers in China, even in Beijing when a guy commented that we are very 厉害 when he saw us at Tiananmen watching the flag raising, and a while later leaving Wangfujing after breakfast for our day's itinerary.

In essence, we travel tough, rough, hard, and cheap. We would rather save on luxuries and comfort to see more, try more and eat more at great value.

Afterall, Sissy S and I actually welcomed the idea of staying overnight at Macs when we couldn't find accommodation, even when it meant not showering from Thursday morning to Sunday morning after touring, walking, and climbing in 40 degrees heat. We just weren't ready to fork out big bucks for 4 hours of room usage.

Now, who else wants to be my travelling partner? Who is up for the challenge?

Us (looking good enough I must say) on the second day, after the night at Macs, and not showering for 2 days.

Subaru challenge '08

My fellow Car 8-er just discovered this - a video of my one and only break last year. Just a shot of me but the music really brings back memories. Five minutes actually seemed long. Anyway, my fellow Car 8-er endured 33 hours at my position this year can! Salute! And woot, the Thai guy finally dropped out! But the last female also just dropped out so 2 guys left for the fight. We are just happy the car's going to a local once again. (:

Subaru challenge - I'm hooked!

It's that time of the year again!

Dropped by on the first day and actually stood watching no one in particular for a good 45 minutes re-feeling all those feelings again. Didn't try this year 'cause
1) Sarah isn't trying due to her exams so it feels quite lonely to try alone.
2) Ah Ma's birthday falls on the same day and we already had a buffet planned.
3) I don't have an avid supporter who can give me a ride home when I drop out.

The last is very important kay! (: I don't want to have to find my own ride home (worse, taking a bus) when my feet/legs are all aching and who knows, perhaps even hallucinating. Last year, we had Aunty S rushing back to Ngee Ann City at midnight after I told her that Sarah was on the verge of dropping out. After some photos, videos and the midnight break, Sarah indeed got wheelchaired out. See, that's the state you leave in! So cannot don't have ride home!

Digressing, without Swensens just opposite the road, I wonder where supporters go to have their hunger fix in the middle of the night. That place holds fond memories for us because of the Subaru Challenge so I was really kinda sad when I found out it was gone.

As usual, there were 2 cars for the public to try to win some prices and I was most tempted to to get my favourite Subaru cushion but decided not to 'cause I still had errands to run for the day.

This picture -taken with my lousy Samsung phone camera - shows my car this year. One of my fellow Car 8-er is still standing with her hand glued to Car 10! And I also saw the marshal who booted me out last year; She gave me the last yellow tag. Oh well!

I soooo want to be there! Am tracking the number of people left and watching the webcam waiting to see the action during the break. 15 minutes more!

This is the desperate Subaru challenger speaking: I WILL BE BACK NEXT YEAR! Anyway, this is the 9th year. Next year's the 10th! They said there's going to be something special. Now, I bet it's something worth fighting for.