merry is love ;

SERIOUSLY TER.

Just played close to 14 hours straight of spades. My eyes are strained, my head throbs sometimes. Oddly, it actually disappeared when WH and I won the last game. But I can feel it coming back already. And in all that 14 hours, I had only two partners. That is as rare as that game when our table's teams' score were level on score and bags beyond the 500-mark which means like one chance in 100000000000000 to the power of infinity times. Alright you get my point. The only difference between the two partners was one was a complete stranger (We played eight hours. It's a record.) and the other is WH. Okay another difference is that with the stranger, we won plenty but our ratings dropped lots and rose small, and with WH, we lost like nobody's business but our ratings rose big and dropped small. Definitely one of the best days of spades. (:

Sissys and I had some conflict over the direction of our food blog but it's all settled now hence, did some editing to the posts. I guess this is good 'cause it gives us exposure to team ventures and problems that may be associated with it.

Need to start reading all those books Sissy and I bought over the year and also to start studying for my BTT! I think I'll take a really long time to get my driving license. :/

Merry Belated Christmas!

HOHOHO! So I'm a tad late but MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

This Christmas was spent having family gatherings at my place, and I received 3 presents YAY. Sissy S and I cooked western for the Christmas eve dinner and Dad and Mum cooked eastern (lo kai yik, assam fish, and fried shellfish) for the Christmas Day dinner.

On our menu were roasted chicken (which turned out really yummy!), salad, bacon with tomato skewers, cheese fondue and aglio olio pasta. Uncle and Aunty J brought ham with cranberry sauce, cheese cake, and chocolate for the chocolate fondue, and 4th Aunty brought log cake and a chicken pie. Those that we have taken a picture of, I've put the recipes on our Food Blog. But our star of the day - the roasted chicken - was unfortunately carved without having its photo snapped in our excitement to see how it turned out. Oh well!

After cooking for a couple of family parties, I feel Sissy S and I work quite well in the kitchen together. I think our cooking has improved, our knack for getting reasonably-priced groceries has also improved, but our time management is still GAH! I don't think we can ever do lunches. And we still have to figure out a way to ensure our dishes are still nice and hot when our guests eat them. I guess we hope to move on to hosting friends soon but that comes a hefty price tag. Perhaps if friends share the finances, this will come sooner than we thought!

Update

Just returned from Vietnam on Sunday where Ah Ma fell into the water while boarding a sampan and dislocated her shoulder.

Saw a meteor shower in Vietnam.

Got back my exam grades and they are the best in my university history but still not good enough, and way too late.

Just went grocery shopping with Uncle, Aunty, and cousin J at Carrefour for our X'mas party tomorrow. Going for another round of shopping tomorrow morning for final ingredients and gift exchange.

OHOH. The sissys and I finally set up a food blog today. It's for anything food-related but our main purpose is to have a place to record recipes we come across, and for easy search for recipes when we have to cook in the future for parties or other occasions. Hope it will stay relevant!

My yahoo spades results are telling me I should go to bed like NOW. From a streak of 5 wins to 4 losses in 5 games with the last two my fault. Plus my back is killing me! This is the earliest I'm going to sleep since I can't even remember when. Yay me.

well, good morning!

big news! terrible news!

i may be falling back to the yahoo games addiction phase. this time instead of yahoo pool, it's spades, reversi (which i turned from pro to loser overnight), hearts and checkers (which i absolutely suck at). diesss. it's terrible. i'm currently lying on my bed typing this on my samsung because i've a backache from sitting too long (with bad posture) in front of my lappy.

i didn't realise how my life now is all to similar to that period of time till yesterday. then, i survived on just a bowl of tau huay everyday and ridiculously little sleep in the day. yesterday, i had my first meal of the day at 9pm and it wasn't even a real meal. it was just 5 soup spoonfuls of porridge and i hadn't eaten anything since i woke and actually haven't eaten since. plus, the time i'm keeping to these days - sleeping at 7 to 8am and waking at 12 to 1pm - is so odd it should be some cause for worry. do you see the parallel?

so i'm a tad scared that i will return to that lifestyle. there were consequences and they weren't awesome ones. oh except for one - i lost 5kg (permanent okay! but have since been put back on ugh)! maybe some higher powers decided i need to lose weight and led me back onto this path again?

Things to do during the December vacation

1. Pack room (in the midst)
2. ~~Apply for BTT~~ (Ba is going to take with me!)
3. ~~Buy camera~~　(didn't get the G10 or G11 'cause they were way off budget)
4. Do serious trading on the simulation platform (in the midst)
5. Go mambo?
6. Get a pair of black heels
7. Exercise, if even for a while
8. Start recipes blog for record purposes (inspired by Julie and Julia)
9. Be less hopeless at checkers
10. Start job hunt

I've been bumming around at home catching up on movies. So far, I've watched G-Force, Angels and Demons, New in Town, Julie and Julia, and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.

Just yesterday afternoon, I was a tad surprised because Huoying, Qiuqiu and Xiaoye all initiated convos with me. I've also gotten a couple of movies from China Boiboi. So in conclusion, China relations are all good.

Late last week, there was a night I had to walk home on the empty streets in the wee hours of the morning (think 4am) and boy, did I pass many homeless. They were sleeping on the steps leading to the MRT station, at bus stops, pretty much anywhere that has shelter. And you suddenly wonder where these people came from. Isn't the statistic for homelessness in Singapore zero?

I've attempted to sleep at the void deck before so I know how it can be. It's super duper chilly, uncomfortable, so really that time I had to sleep out in the open, I didn't sleep at all. Hence, while on the one hand I empathise with them, but on the other, I blame it on themselves - who asked them to come to Singapore to steal our jobs (most of them were foreigners) - although I'm very much aware that it is necessary and for the good of the economy.

And if I'm flying solo, at least I'm flying free

I want to go Broadway and watch Wicked! Now I understand why Yin can spend close to 300 bucks on the play and cd (exorbitant!) and still come out a happy happy girl. I actually got a tad emotional just watching this. Can you imagine if I'm right there watching this live? Man, I think I'll get over-overwhelmed.

I'm also an official Gleek! The plot's not as gripping as Grey's, PP or even Ugly Betty for that matter but I absolutely LOVE the songs. :D

This is an excerpt from an article I just read - Faux Friendship:

It's amazing how fast things have changed. Not only don't we have Wordsworth and Coleridge anymore, we don't even have Jerry and George. Today, Ross and Chandler would be writing on each other's walls. Carrie and the girls would be posting status updates, and if they did manage to find the time for lunch, they'd be too busy checking their BlackBerrys to have a real conversation. Sex and Friends went off the air just five years ago, and already we live in a different world. Friendship (like activism) has been smoothly integrated into our new electronic lifestyles. We're too busy to spare our friends more time than it takes to send a text. We're too busy, sending texts. And what happens when we do find the time to get together? I asked a woman I know whether her teenage daughters and their friends still have the kind of intense friendships that kids once did. Yes, she said, but they go about them differently. They still stay up talking in their rooms, but they're also online with three other friends, and texting with another three. Video chatting is more intimate, in theory, than speaking on the phone, but not if you're doing it with four people at once. And teenagers are just an early version of the rest of us. A study found that one American in four reported having no close confidants, up from one in 10 in 1985. The figures date from 2004, and there's little doubt that Facebook and texting and all the rest of it have already exacerbated the situation. The more people we know, the lonelier we get.

This is why I'm never one for 'Happy Birthday!' wishes on Facebook. It's too on-the-way. Sms is also convenient but you know, at least it means I'm actually devoting one or two of my finite number of monthly sms-es unlike Facebook where I'm dedicating to you what, 5 seconds of my unlimited broadband time. That said, I still appreciate all my friends who posted birthday wishes on my wall because at least they bother! I don't even look at the tiny birthday section. :/ BUT I'll be making the effort to look at it more closely so that I can return them the wishes.

This is also why I'm twittering more than updating my Facebook status these days. Was just discussing about this with Yin last week. I said I twitter more nowadays because fewer people (if any) reads my Twitter so it's like a very short blog post for me. Then she said, that these networking sites are mainly used for people to socialise. But is that really the case for Twitter? Anyway, only 2 friends are following me (if they are still using Twitter at all) so it's still considered private to me. Or is it antisocial behaviour? Hmm.

It's funny because I know Yin has a blog and she knows I have one but we've never asked to see each other's. Therefore, I beg to differ when people say that blogging is akin to putting your life out for all to see. Blogs are indeed accessible to all but it's another thing whether people manage to access it. Facebook is, on the other hand, exactly that - putting your life out for all to see. Which is why I draw a line; I never accept my aunties or parents as friends. There are boundaries between friends and family and I like to keep the two groups separate.

Lady Gaga love

I know just a while back I twittered that I didn't see what was the big deal about Lady Gaga. But today I see the light. She's good; I always appreciate talented musicians. Let's just say I've been listening to her songs the entire day today. So much so that Sissy R has kinda banned me from playing them any more. :/

And because the stupid Ebay seller sent me the wrong LCD screen and now refuses to reply me, I'm stuck with a LCD screen that I cannot use and a nonexistent LCD screen on my camera. Which means I've been looking at cameras again.. Which also means I'm totally feeling the urge to get a G10 or G11 again. How how how?

By the way, cheddar in instant noodles rocks socks! :D

typed at 2.16am at the bus stop

oh my goodness! i typed a whole long post and it got deleted 'cause somehow my phone lost the wireless@sg connection at the bus stop in front of the SMU administration building. half thinking if i should type again since i've set my mind to getting onto the next NR7 bus that comes by. i've already missed two 'cause i was distracted by a loud motorbike for the first and the second 'cause i'd since discovered an internet connection at the bus stop and decided i might as well do some surfing, blogging instead of being stuck outside my house without anything to do 'cause i didn't bring the key! why i am in this predicament is because while waiting to report for the stanchart marathon, i saw some people changing to the tee provided and concluded that it's not worth my committment to stay up till 2pm tomorrow. and i'm not going to call the house phone 'cause dad has to send sarah to esplanade for the marathon later at 4+am.

anyway, i drank a little red wine at sam's party just now and got whoozy again. where has my alcohol tolerance disappear to! ugh. and her friend has the exact same thing we got her. sigh.

quite enjoying the peacefulness and cool breeze here. :D

OVER!

Yesterday marked the last day of exams! I think I travelled almost the whole of Singapore. East, west, north, south (central) - you name it. :D

First, hunting for Sam's birthday stuff with El and WL. I'm in love with this deep purple Agnes B (an-ya-bay) bag. LOVELOVELOVE! I finally know how to pronounce the brand properly heh. What's with all these French (?) pronunciations, even a word so English like Agnes? And I kept looking at watches. :/

Then off to Tampines IKEA, Courts, and Giant. BIG shops, BIG auntie. XD I almost regretted saying 'Never mind lah, we can carry the stuff back.' when WH said she should have driven the car over. Almost. I still carried the blender (YAY I can make non-chilli tasting avocado milkshake now!) and lots of junk groceries back to the car at IKEA. Oh, saw PE teacher IY while at Giant.

Then back at my place, drank half a bottle of Hoegaarden (the small one) and got tad whoozy. >.< But enough to last chatting with Sissy S and WH till 3am despite only 1.5 hours sleep the night before. Not too bad, not bad at all!

Missed Nic's birthday celebration just now though 'cause was still tired when I woke. OOPS. Now going to Sam's birthday celebration then tonight till tomorrow afternoon it's Stanchart. LOOOOOOONG day.

AND. The stupid Ebay seller sent me the wrong thing!!

FAT and FULL.

While typing the title, I realised I have another title that says 'FATFATFAT'. :/

I looked at the mirror yesterday and am appalled at how fat my arms are! >.< I tell you, my calories go to my chin, arms, tummy, and inner thighs. Round round round they have all become! ):

And today I pigged out at the Yum Cha buffet. :/ Totally not helping although it was with good company. (:

Should really start on a fat-burning exercise regime.

Hair matters

I joked with my stylist the last time I saw her that the next time I visit, she would have been promoted. And lo and behold, that happened! So I now have to pay extra 10 bucks if I continue to let her do my hair. BAHHHHH because I got to experience the difference between her and a regular stylist doing my hair today. Went for rebonding to take advantage of the birthday month promotion and the entire process took close to freaking 4 hours! This is by far the longest rebonding session ever! The last two times she did for me, it only took 2.5 hours tops. And another BAHHHHH thing is after I came home, I realised that there's a promotion from now till February giving the same promotion. Oh kill me now! I could have saved that 1.5 hours. >.<