:: AnGeL's HaVeN ::

Fixed Deposit of DM 7 Jan 2012 - 7 Jan 2013

2012-01-14T11:56:00.002+08:00

$182,166.08

Int pa 0.828000

12 mths

Season's Greetings from SQT 2011 c'',)

2011-12-07T20:22:00.002+08:00

To all Terrific Teachers out there!

2011-09-01T17:17:00.002+08:00

Terryfic Tuesday

2011-08-24T23:22:00.003+08:00

It was nice how u took the fluff out of my hair
I just hope it wasn't dandruff you saw there

Sitting side by side on the sbs
You were gallant enough to let me sit inside

First thing I thought was how sweet
if he was my son-in-law! :)

Loyang Primary School - July to August 2011

2011-08-03T00:27:00.007+08:00

What back-breaking and exhausting work. But thanks to wonderful talents and hardworkers Soffian, Fazrullah, Sze Yong, Hazlan, Suryani, Chong and little help from yours truly, the disaster was "restored" and became such a wonderful work of Art!

Well done Team!

Sports Day ~ 6 June 2011

2011-06-04T09:50:00.001+08:00

Sigh, very bad organisation and no direction given...

Some Committee members do a bit and some do a LOT more...

Stayed overnight in the office! Worked from 6pm to 5am!

2011-05-26T05:23:00.004+08:00

I'm officially done for the day!

I'm going to go home and sleep my ass off!

Before that, I have to iron some school uniforms though.

C'est ma vie! :P

Daily Motivation

2011-05-23T14:40:00.006+08:00

Morning Motivation

When I woke up this morning lying in bed,
I was asking myself,
What are some of the secrets of success in life?
I found the answer right there,
in my very room.

AND NOT TO FORGET,
THE CARPET SAID...
KNEEL DOWN AND PRAY.

Carry a Heart that Never Hates.

Carry a Smile that Never Fades.

Carry a Touch that Never Hurts.

HAVE A PURPOSEFUL DAY IN THE LORD!

'God Blesses Us To Be A Blessing Unto Others'

Jeremiah 29:11 "for I know the plans I have for YOU, declares the LORD…’
"Never give the devil a ride, he will want to take over the driving."

Dear Person of God
Be still for a while and praise God for His favor, His grace and His
Awesomeness. God is able to do the impossible and is always near.
He loves us unconditionally.

Please forward this to every person you want God to Bless!!

Happenings in May 2011

2011-05-06T10:49:00.001+08:00

Danny's Colour Me PINK party!

2011-04-27T21:02:00.004+08:00

Health Matters for April 2011

2011-04-07T13:10:00.001+08:00

The Magic of Photoshop ;)

2011-03-16T17:23:00.004+08:00

March event - Ice Skating @ Kallang Leisure Park

2011-03-16T15:47:00.002+08:00

Making a Paper Fan

2011-02-28T19:44:00.006+08:00

Step 1: Recycled paper + coloured pencils + staplers

How time FLIES!

2011-01-29T23:47:00.003+08:00

Unbelievable! The last time I blogged was last March! Many months went by and I didn't realise this! I used to blog in my free time in the afternoons in TWSS. Those were the days. I really miss my days in TWSS. The students were tough to teach but I made some friends in the students and teachers. For some reason, I developed myself quite quickly in that school. I guess because I had gained some maturity then. I was posted to the school in Jan 2006 and left in Sept 2007. I spent my 32nd year on Earth in that school. Many milestones. 2007 was my last year riding my bike and it was the year I joined HQ. I actually didn't want to join HQ because I liked it so much in school but at the same time, I felt that I was capable of better and it was nice that John actually took the time to convince me to be part of the Mastereign HQ family :)

It's now 29 January 2011. I still have some things on my bucket list that have not been fulfilled. Top-most on the list is to WRITE a great story and hopefully many people will read it and love it!

GOD willing I can accomplish this year. I want to be able to afford a lot of things for my loved ones and I think that's the way to do it :)

Office Warming 2010

2010-03-01T05:39:00.005+11:00

Hmmm... I'm feeling a bit irritated. And increasingly mad at the thought of it...

Instructions were clearly given last week. Invitations were supposed to be sent out then attendees' names to be submitted to me. It's Monday and someone comes to me asking if I sent out invites. Clearly, I was not the one tasked to send out invites. Argh!

Anyway, I will send out the invites cos' his royal ****ness does not have the email addresses of the Professional trainers (which should NOT be the case!). Imagine the Drama Program Director not having the contacts of his trainers. Sigh.

So I'm now gonna send out this invite...

Gong Xi Fa Cai to my Family & Friends!

2010-02-13T01:00:00.002+11:00

Happy CNY to all my dear colleagues!

2010-02-10T14:04:00.001+11:00

Things to do before 2009 is up!

2009-12-23T19:49:00.003+11:00

How time flies! Two months have flown just like that. Soon 2009 will be gone forever.

From my previous to do list, although I accomplished most of my tasks, I have to admit they could have been done better.

For instance, I should have monitored the Medical Services programme @ BHSS more but I assumed that because Louis was @ the school, he would help settle things. Never assume! Unfortunately, that programme did not end well. :(

As for bus bookings, I realise that I must make a system of record-keeping so that I am aware of what tasks are to be done in priority, what has been done and what has yet to be done.

Unfortunately "Operation Tidy up my bedroom!!!" is still in progress! It's not easy clearing stuff I've hoarded all these years! One step at a time. Good thing is that I've donated quite a fair bit to the St. Vincent de Paul Society and hopefully the things are handy and find someone who wants or has use for them.

I can't believe that I already had plans to clear my office desk in October. Unfortunately, I wasn't really able to do that and I'm already clearing my leave so I have yet to pack my remaining stuff at the office! I will do all this when I get back on the 29th!

I not only bought a new pair of sunnies, I got 3! One white and one in brown. The other one I gave to my Mom.

I have already marked and prepared all my schools' projects so that's good. Unfortunately, I did not have time to fix the powerpoint slides for Terry's school. That should be Diyanah's job anyway.

New deadline for old goals: March 2010

1. Finish writing my plays

2. Start writing my future bestseller :)

God-willing I accomplish my room clean-up before the year is done. The best way to do that is to end this blog and get cracking!

God bless everyone with a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year! ('-',)

Things to do by end October 2009

2009-10-11T04:10:00.003+08:00

1. Get Medical Services programme for BHSS settled

2. Book buses for different schools

3. Tidy up my bedroom!!!

4. Give away unwanted but still good stuff to SVDP.

5. Clear office desk so that moving office is easier!

6. Buy sunglasses cos' my fave pair died in SZ last Sept :(

7. Burn YISS projects into a CD for Karen.

End of November deadline:

1. Finish writing my plays

2. Perm eyelashes?

3. Hair extensions?

4. Start writing my future bestseller :)

HongKong, Shenzhen & Macau adventure!

2009-09-21T16:09:00.007+08:00

My Boss initiated a company trip to HongKong, Shenzhen & Macau during the September school holidays. I was eager for the trip for many reasons. Firstly, I've never been to China and wanted to add her to my list of visited countries. The last time I was in HK in 1993, it was still a British colony! Btw, that was my last year as a maiden because the following year I got married & then had Kimmy!

I've also been wanting to visit Macau ever since it was featured on Boys Over Flowers (my current fave Korean drama)! Did I mention that I love the series?!

Some colleagues flew off earlier on September 3 but a group of us (Danny, Sze Yong, Louis et moi) decided to fly off on the 4th instead, that way we could save on one night's accomodation. Smart rite?

So we met at the airport at the insanely early hour of 5am and I realised afresh that while I am cosy in bed at this absurd hour, there are so many people already up and about. In fact, many shops in T3 were open already (I think they operate round the clock).

I remember falling asleep the night before with the scary thought that I would oversleep! Good thing was that I was sharing a cab with Louis who lives in the next hood. I paid him half the cab fare ($12.50) but he doesnt' remember! :( I shwear (Catholics shouldn't swear) that I did Louis. Cross my heart, we all die anyway!

While the rest of them had something to eat at BK for a super early breakfast, I didn't cos' I was looking forward to devouring my United Airlines brekkie but all I got was...
a cupcake, apple pastry and a cup of fruits. The Starbucks coffee wasn't great so I consoled myself with 3 bottles of Baileys. Sigh* Hick!

We touched down in HK airport around 11+am and we just missed the coach so we had to wait 30mins (or was it 45) for the next one! By the time our hotel transfer arrived at Cityview Hotel (formerly the YMCA), it was just in time to catch the Boss for lunch.

That evening, we had a lovely and uber-expensive dinner @ Kimberley. I was under-dressed for the location (then over-dressed in SZ, argh!). Linus played the piano because the songs they were playing in the bg did not go with the ambience of the restaurant. After dinner, we went to Lan Kwai Fong for some clubbing.

The next day, we just did some window-shopping in HK because we were saving our moolah for our retail therapy in SZ (to be regretted later).

We left HK for SZ by mini-van. It took 3 mini-vans to transport our cohort across the border. We stayed @ the Marco Polo. Lovely hotel which was the same price, no wait! It was slightly cheaper than the Cityview Hotel actually!

Like I said earlier, shopping in SZ was a disappointment. I envisioned MBK-type shopping haven but we got deserted People's Park shops instead. It was quite exciting to enter a shop selling bed linen only to stoop down to enter another shop. I was half-expecting to be transported to the promised shopping paradise but alas, it was not to be. I was raring to buy stuff but I simply did not see anything that enticed me to part with my $$$. The only shop that tempted me was the quaint hat shop Danny and I stumbled upon on the 1st floor. I regret not buying a hat there. In the end, we got some DVDs - 5 days later watching it in Sg, I was cursing and swearing cos' Land of the Lost was entirely dubbed in Russian no matter what language selection I chose. Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

Eating dinner was in China was a reminder of how icky it is eating in an aircon place with smokers in our midst. I was very unhappy. The smoke was annoying and the smell was awful. Trains in SZ are very nice though. As nice as our newer MRT trains. I even have a souvenir because for some reason, when I tapped my plastic token, I was allowed to exit without having to surrender the cute green coin.

Next day was a day-mare. Riding cramped in the back of a taxi was fine for the first hour but when the scenery got monotonous and it looked like we were heading nowhere, I began to get irritable. Stupid cab driver took us to the bus station when he could have brought us straight to the checkpoint. The bus station toilet was gross - the flushes didn't work so I got to see a lot of things that should not be seen.

Finally reached Macau in the late afternoon. Managed to enjoy a delicious Portuguese egg tart with Cathleen and her SLR-toting hubby. We cam-whored while we took in the lovely sights. The sun set without my realising it. As we were walking along the bright streets of Macau, I saw someone running on the street (not the pavement) and dismissed it as a crazy loon. SzeYong pointed out that it was Danny. So I was right! Haha. Kidding.

Lots of fond memories from the trip. I'm glad I went. Coming back, I had to pay back my mum-in-law by staying home for 2 days to look after the kids. No problem for me cos' I needed to recuperate from the trip plus I don't find looking after my kids as challenging as she does. Of course, I felt guilty to be away from work but it was good spending time with the kids after being away from them for 4 days.

I want to bring my kids to Macau in the near future. However, my colleagues told me that Macau at night is different. Prostitutes walk about the streets. Hmmm... might have to take a rain check on Macau till the kids are older.

Btw, flying back on UA was worse than flying to HK. The male steward who didn't look like one was a super rude asshole. The food was worse. They played the same in-flight movie as the one we didn't want to see on the 1st UA flight we took - does anyone really want to see Dragonball twice?! Dear Danny vocalised his angst to the idiotic steward and instead of hearing Danny out and pacifying him, the moron acted like a spaz and talked Danny down. I hope he gets his just desserts. Like when he's doing a demo on how a parachute works, it doesn't. Anywayz, Danny wrote in to UA to complain on our appalling experience to and fro. UA offered us international travel certificates which we have yet to receive.

3rd blog of the year!

2009-09-21T15:39:00.004+08:00

Wow! What a difference 2 years make!

In 2007, when I was still posted to TWSS, I used to blog almost every week! Good times. I still miss the school and the students I had the pleasure (and torture at times) of teaching. I met one of my ex-students at United Square last week. Muhammad is now working at Toys R Us there. He has to travel all the way from CCK and unfortunately there is no direct bus from there to Thomson Road. :P

Lots have happened since I last posted.

Early in the year, I had 3 new female colleagues. On hindsight, my first impression of them isn't accurate at all! I still remember thinking that one was fat, one was old and one was hot. Turns out, A looks fat but isn't, B isn't old, in fact she's one year my junior (which means I'm not old! haha) and C isn't hawt!

In July, I started teaching in YISS. I still remember I was nuts about Super Junior then. I'd watch their videos every day! It all started because mum-in-law went on a cruise to HK and so the cable in the living room was finally accessible during prime time! Whoo! As we were channel surfing, we chanced upon Arirang on channel 172 and watched the top 10 Korean pop hits of that week and it so happened that Super Junior had 2 hits on the charts: "Sorry Sorry" & "It's You".

Enjoy my fave Super Junior videos below!

In August, my love affair with Super Junior (esp. Hee Chul who looked gorgeous cross-dressing and dancing in the Intimate Note segment) ended. Gu Jun Pyo took over their place because Boys Over Flowers fever started then. All thanks to Kay who was watching the series on YouTube. I heard of the series before but I refused to be sucked in but curiousity got the better of me and I was hooked! I am still contemplating whether to buy the DVD series which I think is too pricey (but they are trying to CONvince us it's cheap) at $44!

I googled for episode guides to Boys Over Flowers and found this fabulous blog by a fellow pinay. A very well-written and comprehensive write-up! Kudos!

http://en.wordpress.com/tag/boys-over-flowers-episode-guide/

In September, something magical happened. I've always been envious of my friends who can just take off from work and go on a short holiday. I wish I could have some fun too. One day, I received an sms from the boss who said he was organising an impromptu company trip to HK, Shenzhen and Macau. When I heard Macau, I was immediately keen because Boys Over Flowers went to Macau too! I arranged to bring Keefe along because he is the naughtiest and biggest trouble-maker at home only to have him back out at the last minute. It's a good thing he did because I think he would have been bored if he had come along.
Read the next blog to find out more about my China 2009 adventure!

Happy Easter 2009!

2009-04-13T01:30:00.005+08:00

For Lent this year, I gave up meat and soft drinks. I didn't abstain entirely. When the kids ordered meat or drank soda and couldn't finish it, I would as usual, clean their plate for them. I hate wasting food! My favourite Saint for this cause is St. Martin de Porres.

I didn't really miss meat. I'm not a fan of fatty pork anyways and I can't stand chicken. I love baby chickens (aka eggs) though.

It seems that abstaining from meat and soda has caused me to lose a bit of my belly fat. Hooray!

The kids and I decided to attend Mass on Sunday because of Easter Sunday. We usually attend Sunset Mass on Saturdays after the kids are done with their Catechism. Sundays are usually spent resting at home (resting for me = ironing the kids' uniforms and clothes while watching Japan Hour, Dynamic Korea, etc). Our Parish is fittingly named "Church of the Risen Christ" so we made it a point to attend Mass there today. At the end of the Mass, the wardens gave out chocs and for some irritating reason, I got a pack of just ONE choc whilst I saw that other peeps had colourful packets of chocolates in their hands. Kimmy and Keefe got the same chocolate but had 2 Hershey's Kisses to go with it! I guess God is on my side for the cause of slimming down.

After Mass and a walk around Toa Payoh (buying books at Popular, looking at toys at Kids' Palace, browsing a bit at the National Library), we had dinner at the Kopi Tiam. Kimmy and I shared a bowl of fried fish soup (with milk of course!) and a plate of scallops chee cheong fun. Although we shared our meal, Kimmy and I were stuffed! Keefe polished off his plate of Fish and Chips by himself. What about Kay? She was grounded and missed Mass!

Btw, Saturday started out good for me. Firstly, I woke up at 10am with a start because I had 2 smses - one which reminded me that I had to be in school to help out at a dance rehearsal and the 2nd was an invitation for breakfast with a friend who I haven't seen for a while. Good thing I was able to kill 2 birds with one stone. Met up with my friends for breakfast at the Cafe Cartel at 1030am then walked over to the school at 1140am to help out. Better late than never... :P

Rushed home at 1pm to bring my son to his friend's birthday party but he threw a hissy fit so we didn't go. Which was good because for some strange reason, the cold medication I took the night before seemed to take effect on me that Saturday afternoon and made me really drowsy! So I took a nap and woke up at about 6pm because of a thunderous crash. I walked to the study room and looked out the balcony. The source of the noise was a crane that had come smashing down into the fence dividing the construction site and my apartment's parking lots! Thank goodness no cars were smashed (the lots were empty) and no one was injured!

And last but not least, as usual, it rained cats and dogs on Good Friday. It rained and thundered most heavily around 3pm (the time Jesus Christ died). Amen.

But that was 2 days ago!

Now He's risen indeed, Alleluia!

A Blessed and Happy Easter to all! ^_^

First blog for 2009!

2009-02-23T01:37:00.005+08:00

I used to blog lots. I blogged lots in 2007 ~ a good year. My last year in beloved TWSS and the year I joined HQ.

2008 ~ so busy that I only managed to blog two times! A few milestones though:

• went back to the Philippines for Lola's 85th Birthday. Last time I stepped on Philippine soil was in 1993!

• got my Singaporean citizenship application approved! At last!

Now for 2009:

• Here's my first blog for the year :)

• I cut my hair short for CNY, after having had long hair for more than 2 years. Mostly because I got sick & tired of sitting in the salon rebonding my hair for hours! But lots of people say I look better with long hair so I guess I'm growing it all back again.

• I got my Singaporean passport 2 weeks ago! Have yet to use it! Most likely my passport will lose her virginity to JB. Or God-willing Thailand...

• God-willing I go on a cruise this year and have the body to wear a bikini!

• I tried Choya today. Two of my friends raved about it so I expected too much and now I don't like the drink :P

• Found out that I can get to my blog by "googling" Island Creamery under the Images tab.

That's all for now. It's time for bed. It's 2.30am and I have a 10am class later!

Make your own South Park Character

2008-08-15T16:27:00.002+08:00

http://www.sp-studio.de/

Make your own South Park character.

Got this thanks to Janice.

My kids love this site!

Long time no blog!

2008-08-10T18:27:00.000+08:00

OMG! The last time I blogged was last year! Have I been that busy?

2008 is moving fast. In a blink of an eye, American Idol season is over and they're currently looking for contestants for next year. We just celebrated National Day (Singapore's 43rd) yesterday and for a change, the kids and I were with my colleagues at our office rooftop. Every time Singapore celebrates her birthday, next thing I know, my birthday is here and then Christmas too. The year is growing old quickly. More so than before, I feel. Eeks! It's exactly a month away to my 27+++th Birthday! God willing I look fab on that day, and always haha!

One reason the year is moving so fast is cos' of the many milestones I guess. The Beijing Olympics have just begun. Next month will be the first F1 Night Race, held in Singapore no less. Exciting times.

I'm still the same TV addict.

I am currently enjoying Ch U's telecast of Couple or Trouble. I chanced on the show on Ch 55 last year while channel surfing. I'm so happy I get to see it again cos' it's funny and sweet. And the hero is easy on the eye too.

I just finished an enjoyable "Hana Kimi" (Hanazakari no Kimitachi e) on cable Ch 56 ~ that's the Japanese TV series and NOT the Taiwanese version puh-lease! I love love love Toma Ikuta! Yeap that's his pic up there. Isn't he KAWAII! He is sooo funny in the series. He's the main reason I watch the show although the other cast members are great too.

It's ANOTHER year and I still have NOT attained my rock hard abs. It's not surprising since I have not really been doing my goal of 1000 crunches a day. Speaking of my image, I blew $110 on my hair on April 29, thanks to the lousy recommendation of my parents' other daughter. For all that $, I ended up with yucky, frizzy hair. So I had to spend ANOTHER $150 sometime in May to fix it by having it rebonded. Sigh*** And now, a mere 2 months after all that hoo-ha, I feel like having a hair cut. I have to resist or else I've spent all that $ and time in the salon for nothing.

I just had a brainwave ~ why don't I reward myself with a haircut once I've achieved my washboard abs! Aha! That will me give me time to outgrow my rebonded hair teehee.

OK time to get back to my Facebook addiction of word games - Scrabulous and Word Twist! :)

Long time no see... constant changes...

2007-11-14T16:05:00.002+08:00

Wow, it's been 2 months since I last blogged! A lot has happened since then...

Last time I blogged, I was still at beloved and dearly missed Teck Whye Secondary School. I have visited the school 3 times since I left and sadly, my careful organisation and order have not been maintained in my dear old IT Resource Room 3.

It used to take me 20 minutes to work via my dear old Serow. When my bike died and I gave it to Jon, I slowly got used to taking one hour to get to and from work daily. I miss those slow bus rides. I finished reading many a good book that way. And it was fun listening to the radio too.

Now it takes me 20 minutes by bus to get to and from work. It's 730pm. If I left TWSS at this time, I'd only be home close to 9pm. If I left now, I'd be home around 8pm! :)

I miss the students & teachers at TWSS. Who'd have guessed I'd feel this way when I took up the post in Dec 2005! Weirder still is that the trainer whom I took over from, Joe Chan, is now my colleague!

Last time, lunch at school would cost around $1+. Minimum here for lunch is $3.50.

I can't imagine riding to work now. On top of the gasoline, I'd have to pay for parking (thankfully only 65cents per day) but I'd have to pay for ERP too. Thing is, I always have to be on the move to different schools. While it may be convenient to have my own wheels, there are times I go to school with colleagues and I'd much rather travel in air-conditioned cab comfort as opposed to riding in the blistering heat or get drenched in a sudden downpour.

So life has it's ups and downs. I've adjusted to the change. Which means another change is going to happen. Cos' nothing stays the same for long. The only constant is change.

Fruitful Saturday

2007-09-24T11:02:00.002+08:00

While waiting for Kimmy to finish her Catechism, Kay and I did our usual jaunt around Toa Payoh Central.

I bought Long Vacation VCD box set for just $2 at Cash Converters!!! It's so cheap that I don't mind there are no English subtitles. I'm just happy to ogle at Takuya Kimura and watch the drama intro over and over again. (Lucky thing I can watch the English subtitled video on CrunchyRoll).

Then the freebies started rolling in...

It started when Kay wanted to go in Buzz to look at magazines. While I was waiting for her, one of the staff approached me and asked me to do a survey. After a few questions, I was given a lovely pink and lime green bag filled with goodies (perfume sample of Sarah Jessica's Lovely, a cute sack of rice, etc)!

Then Kay wanted milkshake and while lining up, I noticed a poster saying that for every purchase of milkshake, you get to spin the wheel of fortune. The cleft guy in front of Kay cheated. He actually got a "Thanks for trying" but when he noticed the MickeyDees gal was not paying attention, he swiftly turned the wheel to "apple pie". Good thing Kay and I didn't have to resort to such measures cos' she won a pack of French Fries fair and square.

The last freebie of the day was when the girls and I went to Vivocity to collect the Baileys' sample. Happy day!

Early religious buildings of Singapore

2007-09-17T16:23:00.001+08:00

Helped Kimmy do research for her holiday homework and this is what I found out...

Cathedral Of The Good Shepherd

Stamford Raffles gave a Malacca priest land on a 999 year lease to build a Catholic Church in 1822. Rev Mgr Courvezy got the site from Bonham, the Resident Councilor. The present St Joseph's Institution stands on that site. The first Roman Catholic Chapel was a modest building which cost $700, met from public subscription; it had no tower or spire.
By the end of the 1830s Bishop Hilary Courvezy, Vicar Apostolic of Malaya, thought of extending the small chapel but Father Beurel persuaded him to keep the site for a school and select a different one for the Church.
The corner stone was laid by John Connolly on 18 th June 1843; a tablet in the Cathedral confirms this. The corner stone was blessed by Bishop Courvezy. A building appeal fund was launched in 1840.

The Cathedral was built to a design by Denis Leslie McSwiney. It was opened and blessed by Father J.N. Beurel, the parish priest on 6th June 1846. The building is in the form of a crucifix in Renaissance style - a steeple at one end and Greek pillars supporting the roof. The building cost $20,000. The steeple was added in 1847 by C.A. Dyce, Sheriff for the Settlements of Singapore, Malacca and Penang. The marble paving from Antwerp was installed in 1860; the nave was extended in 1888 and consecrated on 14th February 1897 by Bishop Rene Fee.

The relics of Saint Laurent Imbert, the first priest to visit the few Catholics in Singapore in December 1821, are preserved in the Cathedral. During the Battle for Singapore the Cathedral was converted into an emergency hospital.

Roman Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart - Most beautiful Church in Singapore

One of the most beautiful Churches in Singapore is the Church of the Sacred Heart built in 1906 by the Society of St Vincent de Paul.

This Church was built largely for a Chinese (Cantonese) congregation. The name of the Church is given in Chinese and so are most of the memorials in the Church.

A new Hammond organ was presented to the Church on 8 June 1941. Among the benefactors of the Church are A. Cashin, D. Pillay and A. Seth. The Church was renovated in January 1969 and the Parish Welfare Hall was established on 21 February 1971.

The stained glass windows add dignity to the facade and architecture.

Saint Joseph’s Church

Expansion of Portuguese Roman Catholic Mission in Singapore.

In 1825, Father Francisco da Silva e Maia founded the Portuguese Mission on the site where St. Joseph's Church now stands. The church lays claim to being the first place of Catholic worship in Singapore. Opened in 1912 and replacing the old church building, this architectural marvel is structured in the form of a Latin cross and boasts beautifully crafted stained glass windows. St Joseph's Church was gazetted as a conservation building in 1993. Every Good Friday, the Catholic community in Singapore commemorates the crucifixion of Christ with a procession through the grounds of this church.

The first Church of St Joseph was erected on a site chosen as early as 1822. Rev Father Vincentre de Santo Catharina used the funds left for constructing the Church by Rev Francisco de Silva Pinto I Maria, head of the Portuguese Mission. The foundation stone was laid on 14 December 1851 and the building was completed in 1853 but n 1906 the Church was pulled down and the present replaced it in 1912.

The present Church of St Joseph cost $15,000 to build it and gift were also sent from the King of Portugal. There is a tablet in the Church date 1 January 1919; it was placed by the congregation which recognized the 'generous aid towards completion of the Church' by Father Castro, Bishop of Macao. The Church was designed in the Gothic style by the architect firm of Swan and Maclaren; the central lower is octagonal in design with a dome and flanked by two small towers.
Next the Church is the Priest' House of St Joseph's Portuguese Mission built in 1912.

St Anthony's School was opened in 1889 by Father Jose Pedro Sta Anna da Cunha in a small shop house in Middle Road. Later the school moved to a compound house in Victoria Street near the Church in 1886. In 1893 the girls were separated from the boys who occupied the ground floor of the Parochial House. In 1894 the Society of the Canosianas Sisters in Italy took charge of the Girls' School.

It is interesting to note that the French and Portuguese Missions contended for the honour of evangelizing and pasturing in Singapore and this led to papal intervention in 1886. The pope decided the respective spheres of influences by the two Missions.
The building of the Church of St Joseph and other Churches opened by the Portuguese Mission is an example of the early expansion of the Roman Catholic Church in Singapore.

Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus and Its Chapel

Catholic education for girls in English and Chinese medium of instruction; orphanage for girls and hoe for abandoned babies in early Singapore

The Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus (CHIJ) was founded in Victoria Street by Rev Mother St Mathilde with three Sisters, Sr Gaetau, Sr Appolinaire and Sr Gregoire. Soon after their arrival in Singapore in the ship 'Hoogly' in 1854 they started the Convent with 14 fee-paying pupils, nine boarders and 16 orphans.
In 1856 the Convent was extended when Rev Father Beurel acquired Caldwell's House for $4000. By 1894 the enrolment was 167 and in 1904, 300 and the School presented its candidates for the Junior Cambridge Examination.

The first commercial classes were started in 1926. Boys were also admitted in the early years and one of its pupils is Mr David Marshall, the first elected Chief Minister of Singapore and at present Singapore's Ambassador to France.

A new wing was added in 1909 for which the government gave a grant of $20,000; this wing included the hall and new classrooms. In the same year the beautiful Chapel was completed. The special feature of the Chapel are the stained glass panes, the work of Flemish, Ireland, England and the Philippines.

The stained glass panes have been described as 'a consummate piece of workmanship a divinely mosaic-the flawless transparency of which will be struck through with rays of God's transcendent beauty. 'Stained glass panes include the apsidal series encircling the high altar. The aisle windows depict the twelve apostles bearing their distinctive symbols.

Further extensions were made to CHIJ when in 1931 it acquired the Van Dyke Hotel adjoining its grounds. Two years later St Nicholas Girls' School opened in Victoria Street to educate girls in Chinese.

Prior to the outbreak of World War II, CHIJ educated girls in both Chinese and English and the second language was French.

The CHIJ was also an orphanage for girls as well as a home for discarded babies or foundlings usually left at the 'small gate' often at the point of death. There was a dormitory for the boarders and a crèche for the babies looked after by a team of dedicated sisters and nuns.

From 1885 to 1903 CHIJ extended its services to help the sick in the General Hospital.

During the World War II (the Japanese Occupation) the Sisters and orphans left for Bahau, a settlement in Negeri Sembilan, Malaya. CHIJ suffered much damage during the Occupation. The windows of the Chapel were shattered and the stained glass group in the Lady Chapel was completely damaged and also two of the apsidal series encircling the high altar.

The Tiger Hall was used during the Japanese Occupation for instruction in Japanese.
After the return of the British in 1945, CHIJ was restarted and the Tiger Hall housed St Nicholas Girls' School.

In 1964 CHIJ was separated into a primary and a secondary School. By December 1983 CHIJ had to vacate its Victoria Street premises to give way for re-development. The beautiful Chapel is preserved and is now a National Monument leased out to be appropriately used.

CHIJ started functioned in its new premises at 626 Lorong 1 Toa Payoh and the official opening was on 17 August 1985 by the Vatican Ambassador to Singapore Archbishop Renato Martino. The Convent still maintains the spirit: 'Simple in Virtue and Steadfast in Duty'.

When Singaporeans look at the beautiful Chapel they will be reminded that CHIJ provided Catholic education for girls, an orphanage for girls and a creche for abandoned babies. http://schools.moe.edu.sg/chijpritp/images/vicst3.gif

Candy Candy

2007-09-14T12:49:00.000+08:00

The early years

Candy is a six year old orphan who lives in an orphanage near Lake Michigan with Ms. Pony and Sister Lynne (レイン先生　"Lane-sensei" in Japanese). In some countries, her name is Sister Maria or Sister Mary). Candy was found by them when she was a baby, the same day that Annie--Candy's best friend--was also found during a cold winter day. She frequently causes mischief with her young friends, especially with Annie. She has a raccoon named Clynn that will accompany her in most of her future adventures. One day, Annie consents to be adopted by rich parents, the Brightons (Britter in some countries). This takes place after Candy refuses to be adopted by this same family when she realizes she will be separated from Annie after the proposed adoption. After Annie's adoption, she writes letters to Candy but soon she tells her that her parents prefer that she forget about her past. Heartbroken, Candy goes to her favorite place, Pony's Hill, to cry. Here, she hears the voice of a boy, telling her: "Little girl, you are prettier when you smile than when you cry". The boy is dressed in a full Scottish outfit and carries a bagpipe. Candy is awed by his outfit but soon they become friends and he plays the bagpipe for her. When she turns around to pick up Annie's letter, the boy mysteriously disappears. The only suggestion that it was not a dream is a brooch in the shape of an eagle with the letter "A" on it. Candy nicknames him "The Prince of the Hill" and she will daydream about this encounter all her life.

The Ardlay Family

At age 12, Candy is "adopted" by the Leagan family to be a companion to Eliza and later ends up as a maid. The children, Eliza and Neal, often play cruel pranks on her and delight in tormenting her. Mrs. Leagan, whose name is Ruth, does not like her, but Mr. Leagan is kinder to Candy, though he frequently is away on business and therefore cannot be a reliable ally. One day, she meets three cousins: the brothers Archibald (Archie) and Alistair (Stear) Cornwell, and their cousin, Anthony Brown. They are also Eliza and Neal's cousins, and they all belong to the Ardlay family (Andrew family in some countries). It is soon apparent that the boys all have a crush on Candy, but she clearly prefers Anthony because of his striking resemblance to the Prince of the Hill. While Candy is a maid at the Leagan house, Annie and her parents pay a visit to the Leagans. When Annie is introduced to Candy, she acts as if she had never seen her before in order to conceal the "embarrassing" fact that she was an orphan from Pony's Home--following Annie's adoption, the Brightons had told friends and family that Annie was the orphaned daughter of a relative of theirs, rather than a child from an orphanage. Candy is sad that she cannot talk to her best friend, but has a chance to interact with her when she Annie and the Leagans are preparing to go out for a horse ride and Annie's horse takes off with Annie screaming for help (she calls Candy's name, rather than her parents'). Candy gives chase with another horse, and manages to rescue Annie from her hellish horse ride. Before Annie and her parents leave the Leagan's residence, she leaves a ribbon tied to a post so Candy can find it. Candy does find it and is later accused by Eliza and Neal of stealing it from their guests. These two manage to persuade their parents that Candy cannot be trusted to stay living inside the house, and she is sent to live in the horse stable. When Archie, Stear and Anthony discover Candy's mistreatments (and after many adventures), they have the head of the Ardlay house adopt Candy. This mysterious and very wealthy gentleman (referred to as Great Uncle William or Grandfather William in some translations) is never seen. Candy also befriends Albert, a bearded vagabond that lives in a hunter's lodge with lots of animals.

Now Candy has a new social situation and while some of the Ardlay relatives still dislike her (namely Eliza, Neal, their mother and the "apparent" head of the family, Great Aunt Elroy), the three boys make her feel welcome and help her become "a real lady". Her romance with Anthony develops tenderly, and he grows a new breed of white roses that he names "Sweet Candy" in her honor. This romance, however, is brutally cut short when, on the day Candy is officially introduced as an Ardlay, he falls from his horse during a fox hunt and dies--interestingly, seconds before his death, he was going to tell Candy about a boy who looked very much like him and who was always around his mother when he was a baby. Aunt Elroy and Eliza blame Candy for Anthony's death. Candy is heartbroken and returns to Pony's Home to overcome her grief. She does not stay long, for Great Uncle William has other plans for her: he is sending her to the Saint Paul Academy, a boarding school in London. While on the ship to London, Candy wanders out into the deck and she sees a young man who resembles Anthony in the shadows. She tries to approach him because he is crying, but he mockingly brushes her off while denying he was upset. She has met Terry Grantchester.

Saint Paul Academy

This boarding school is co-ed, but contact between girls and boys is very limited and severely punished. The Ardley cousins--Candy, Stear, Archie, Eliza and Neal--are all students there. Because Archie and Stear are her adoptive cousins, Candy is allowed to see them, but not as much as she would like. She quickly starts to sneak into the boys residence at night to chat with them. She does this by crossing the park that separates the boys and girls quarters while swinging from tree to tree until she lands on the balcony to their room. Soon after the school year begins, Annie is enrolled in this same school and Candy hopes to finally be able to resume her friendship with her former best friend. Annie, however, pretends not to know her at first. One day, when Annie--who is in love with Archie--witness Archie trying to confess his love to Candy, she runs crying and Candy goes after her to try to calm her down. When Candy finally catches up with Annie, the later speaks of the subconscious resentment and jealousy she had felt since they were children at Pony's Home. Annie compares the perceived favoritism that Ms. Pony and Sister Maria showed Candy, to Archie's love for Candy (which at the time was stronger than the feelings he also had for Annie). While Annie is bitterly crying in this way, Eliza and her friend overhear this exchange. Annie's secret comes to light, and this allows Annie to become Candy's friend again. Candy also makes a friend of her neighbor, Patricia (Patty) O'Brian who ends up being Stear's love interest. The school days are full of mischief as Candy tries to avoid Eliza's evil schemes, and the harsh discipline of the Academy nuns. Also in London, she finds her old friend Albert working at a local zoo. He has shaved his beard and looks like a young adult in his twenties.

Terry, the boy she met on the ship, is also attending the same boarding school. He is a rebel and always causes trouble with the nuns who can't really punish him since his father, the Duke of Grantchester, supports the school financially. Terry teases Candy every time they meet, seemingly because he's in love with her but is afraid to admit it. Most of their meetings end up in a fight. He mostly teases her about her freckles, a fact that makes Candy furious, and her tree-swinging habits. This leads Terry to give candy the nickname "Freckled Tarzan." Candy in the beginning is still grieving the memory of Anthony, and cannot understand Terry's role in her life. She's troubled by this rebellious boy, particularly because she has seen him cry before, and she suspects there is tragedy in his life. One night, instead of entering Archie's room, she accidentally enters Terry's room and finds out he is the son of Eleanor Baker, a famous American actress. Terry is an illegitimate son, and feels torn between a father who has married for duty to his name and social status, and a mother who loves him dearly but thinks it is best not to see each other.

One day Candy talks to Terry about him & Anthony, jealous of the feelings she has about another boy, tells her in a cruel manner that she cannot have romantic feelings for somebody that is dead. The school's May Festival dance arrives but Candy cannot attend because she's punished with detention by sister Grey. Great Uncle William sends her two costumes for the ball: one of Romeo and one of Juliet. Candy initially disguises herself as Romeo, and manages to escape the detention tower to go to the ball where she dances with Annie. Then she runs to the woods where she has hidden the Juliet outfit and changes into Juliet. Terry finds her and dances with her. Then Terry throws a jealous fit when Candy foolishly brings up Anthony while they are dancing. He knows that since the accident, Candy has been frightened of horses and he decides to cure her once and for all. He takes her to the stables and shoves her brutally on his horse. Candy cries but slowly overcomes her fear of horses, and begins to understand that life after Anthony must go on.

Candy and her friends go to Scotland during the summer. Terry is also there and eventually reconciles with his mother thanks to Candy's intervention. He admits to Candy that he likes acting too and would like to pursue a career in theatre. Over the summer Terry and Candy really bond; she is more comfortable around him, and he is no longer rude to her. One day, while they are sitting alone under a tree, Terry asks Candy to dance with him so she will have nice memories of her summer in Scotland. Candy accepts the invitation and they begin dancing. But soon after they begin their dance, Terry abruptly stops and kisses Candy. Candy, feeling embarrassed, slaps him and tells him that nobody has ever disrespected her in that way. She still cannot admit her feelings for Terry.

When they go back to school in September, Eliza is jealous of Candy's relationship with Terry, which came to her attention during the summer. Eliza had developed a crush on Terry during the summer in Scotland, and vows to separate them. She sets up a rendezvous in the stable for them, fooling them into thinking one needed to talk to the other. She brings the nuns to the stable and they are caught "in scandal." Sister Grey, the head nun at Saint Paul Academy, decides that Candy is to be expelled from the school, but that nothing will happen to Terry because his father financially supports the school. Terry is opposed to the discrepancy in punishments, and decides to solve the problem: he will leave the school instead of Candy, and will go to the United States to pursue his dream of acting on Broadway. Before he leaves the school, Terry plays the harmonica all night for Candy while she is locked in a punishment cell. This was Terry's farewell to his beloved Candy. However, Candy is unaware of his decision and when she finds out, she finally understands how much she loves him and she runs to the port to tell him she's in love with him. However, she arrives too late, and can only watch as Terry's ship leaves across the Atlantic. As Candy cries and calls his name, she decides to return to America too.

Nurse years

After a dreadful journey as a stowaway in a cargo ship from England to America, Candy goes back to Pony's Home and finds that Terry was there only minutes before she arrived. Encouraged by Ms. Pony, she decides to study to be a nurse and takes classes in a school in Chicago, where she excels because of her interpersonal skills. She is reunited with her friends from school when they come back from Europe because of rumors of war. Terry's theatre company comes on tour to Chicago, and they meet very briefly after chasing each other in the city (their meeting being sabotaged by Terry's partner, Susanna Marlowe, who has an unrequited crush on Terry). They start writing letters to each other and maintain a long distance relationship. World War I begins and there are some thoughts of sending young nurses to the war, but Candy is not selected.

One day, a mysterious patient arrives at the hospital: he was injured in a train explosion in Italy and has amnesia; he was brought to Chicago because it is the only name he says in his delirium. Candy is shocked to recognize her good old friend Mr. Albert, and personally monitors his needs. Because he has no family or relatives, Albert must leave the hospital and Candy suggests that they get an apartment together so she can continue to take care of him. The thought of her Mr. Albert who has shown her so much kindness in the past going out alone without his memory greatly distresses her. Albert agrees reluctantly at first, but soon they become excellent friends and are very happy living together.

In the meantime, Terry has landed the lead role of Romeo Montague in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Terry invites Candy to New York to the premiere. His intentions seem matrimonial: he's been saving money and has sent Candy a one way ticket. Candy daydreams about being his wife and having breakfast with him. However, a terrible accident happens during one of the rehearsals: a lamp detaches from the ceiling right above Terry, but Susanna (who still has an unrequited crush on him, despite him telling her that he loves Candy and should leave her alone) lunges and pushes him away. Her injuries are so severe that her leg must be amputated. Feeling horribly guilty for what happened, and even more so because he knows of her unrequited feelings for him, Terry does not know what to do, as there is increasing pressure that he should marry Susanna from both Susanna and Susanna's mother. It is in this tense atmosphere that Candy comes to New York. Terry tries to keep the incident from her until a better time, but unfortunately Candy finds out during the premiere. She is stunned, and knows that Terry is probably suffering a great deal because of this moral dilemma, yet she is angered that Susanna is blackmailing him into marriage. When she goes to confront Susanna about this, she arrives just in time to save Susanna from committing suicide. The situation is untenable as to what to do, and Candy hastily decides to end her relationship with Terry at once. She believes that by removing herself from the situation, the problem will be solved. In what is probably the most remembered scene of both the manga and the anime for the full emotional impact it carried for both characters, they break up on the hospital stairs. They both promise to be happy, as if hoping that the sacrifice of the relationship for someone else's wish would not be in vain. Heartbroken, Candy returns to Chicago under the haze of a high fever and tormented with knowing that her dream of marrying Terry has been shattered. She returns to the loving care and support of her Mr. Albert who is very concerned about her well being, and he provides a shoulder for her to cry on.

The months pass and Candy tries heals from her grief, by devoting herself to her work and to Albert's recovery of his memory. Unfortunately, people begin to whisper about her living with a man she is not married to. Also around this time, Stear, who had joined the army, dies in combat. Soon after Stear's death Patty leaves Chicago. Albert recovers his memory abruptly and remembers who Candy really is and more importantly, who he really is. He hides this from her at the beginning, but once the rumours become unbearable and Candy is fired from the hospital, he decides to leave to avoid causing her more problems. Candy misses him a lot and is worried about his health, as she is unaware he's recuperated his memory in full. One day he sends a package to her and hoping to see him to ensure he's fine, she goes to Rockston, Illinois only to find that Terry is now acting in a low class theatre, drunk. Candy realizes he has arrived to that state because of the pain he feels over their breakup. Since Susanna is still dependent on Terry, Candy knows that the only way she can help him come out of this is to remind him of his dream. By sheer willpower, she manages to reach the actor, who snaps back into action. He sees Candy from the stage in his drunken stupor and delivers a performance worthy of his talents. Afterwards, despite acknowledging that he cannot forget Candy, he finds the strength to go back to his life in New York, and in some way perhaps honoring their mutual wish when they broke up: to be happy despite the circumstances of their separation. This is the last time they see each other, each seeming to go in their separate ways. Before leaving Rockston, however, Candy runs into Terry's mother, who tells her that only one person was capable of saving her son.

Back in Chicago, the days go by peacefully until Neal starts wooing Candy. He is unsuccessful because she remembers how cruel he was to her as a child. He arranges a forced marriage telling her it's Great Uncle William's will and that she has to obey. By Neal's side there are Mrs Leagan, Eliza and the Great Aunt Elroy all trying to talk Candy into this commitment. Astonished, Candy decides to seek the mysterious Great Uncle William to forbid the union. George, his faithful lawyer and consigliere, drives her to the mansion where he is staying. There Candy discovers shockingly that the Great Uncle William is none other than her old friend Mr. Albert. He was the brother of Anthony's mother Rosemary, to whom he had been greatly attached to. This also explains the resemblance between the two men (uncle/nephew). His identity was hidden from all partly because of his young age and because he did not wish to be the head of the family and run the business. He makes a dramatic appearance in front of the Chicago society to prevent Candy's arranged marriage to Neal.

The end

Still shocked by her discovery that Albert is the Great Uncle William, Candy goes back to Pony's Home to reflect on the events in her life. On Pony's Hill, she remembers her friends Anthony and Stear who have died. A tear falls from her eyes and a familiar voice says; "Little girl, you are much prettier when you smile..." As she looks up, she has a new surprise: Albert is standing there. Candy realizes he has been the Prince of the Hill all these years. "Albert, Great Uncle William... and then my Prince!" she exclaims as she runs to him. The anime ends with a gathering at Pony's Home front yard, besides Albert there are Annie, Archie, Ms. Pony, Sister Maria, the children of Pony's Home, Clynn (Candy's racoon) and Mina a dog that was given to Candy by one of her patients. Candy makes a toast to her friends that helped her overcome troubles in life. There is hope that her life is going to be better!

Links:

http://lakewood.srv7.biz/ - in Japanese

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

2007-08-17T18:02:00.000+08:00

Kimmy started reading the book in Borders a few Saturdays ago. She really got into it and asked me to help her find the book in the library. I was surprised because although I've heard and read Judy Blume, I didn't think much of the title.

Kimmy finished the book and I returned the book to the library. Then she asked me to get the next book in the series. I wasn't sure if it was Sheila or Superfudge so I googled my query.

That's when I stumbled upon the fact that Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing was mentioned in my fave comedy "Scrubs"!

"In the Scrubs episode My Sacrificial Clam J. D. introduces one of his patients to this novel, and states that Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing changed his world."

If it changed JD's world then I'm reading the darned book! So I went to the library to re-borrow the book but couldn't find it. I had to borrow another copy, without pictures :(

I'm so glad I read the book. It's great! I'm waiting for Kay then Kimmy to finish reading Superfudge so I can read it too. :)

Howl's Moving Castle ~ the movie

2007-08-11T16:15:00.000+08:00

The very day I expressed interest in getting the movie, I got it! Read on to find out how...

30 July, Monday

Keefe and Kay drew what they thought the Silver Surfer's home would look like for a contest in D'Mag. Since they took the trouble to draw, I decided to send in their entries. The deadline was 31st July but they only finished their artwork on 29 July, a Sunday and so I rushed to the post office in Toa Payoh after work on July 30 to mail it in.

On my way to the post office, I passed by TS Video Store. I normally get my videos from LaserFlair and Sembawang because they are cheaper and have a wider range of English movies. For some reason, something compelled me to go in the store. I asked the cashier if they had Howl's Moving Castle and expected a negative reply (just like what I got in Borders) but surprise, surprise, they had both the VCD and DVD!

I didn't get the DVD (which if I recall correctly was cheap too, at $13 I think) because the jacket was all in Chinese and according to the helpful saleslady, it only had Japanese and Chinese audio with no English subtitles!

Although the VCD only had the original Japanese dialog version with English subtitles, I was happy to get it because Howl was voiced by none other than hottie (from Gatsby commercials and Long Vacation, etc) Takuya Kimura! *drool*

Enjoy this video with two of my fave Asian stars, Japanese Takuya with Korean babe Choi Ji Woo! What a gorgeous pair!

I was able to watch the English dubbed version, where Howl's character was voiced by Batman Begins' Christian Bale on YouTube anyway. :)

Back to TS video store... the VCD was on offer for $16 for 2. I proceeded to look for another VCD to buy but couldn't really find any that I liked. A lady saw me grab Howl's VCD and she asked me if it was good and I said that I heard it was. Next thing I know, I see her walking to the cashier with her copy. I chased after her and asked if she wanted to share with me so we could pay $8 each (instead of $9.90 per person) and she gladly agreed. What luck!

Happy with my purchase, I continued on to my original destination, the Post Office and realised that I must have just missed the opening hours by minutes. So I queued at the machine to get a stamp for my envelope. I stood in line for some time, no thanks to old ladies trying to figure out how to pay their numerous bills on the machine. They were still fiddling with the machine when the postmen came to collect the letters for the day! I grumbled that my package would miss getting picked up thanks to the delay in front. I don't know if it helped but I soon found it was my turn. I found that my only option to pay for a 50 cent stamp was with my ATM card! I waited for a long time for the transaction to be processed, hoping my package wouldn't be missed, only to find out that the stupid machine, AFTER accepting my payment, had run out of labels. WTF!!!

Just then, the postmen opened up the side door of the Post Office to bring in the mail and I rushed in to a staff still inside and asked her for a 50 cent stamp. At first she gruffly announced that they were closed but I said it wasn't fair that I had paid for a stamp and didn't get one! She had no choice but to fish out a stamp for me. Teehee. I handed in my package directly into the postman's hands :)

For all that hassle, the kids better win something but I think my trouble was made worthwhile by my Howl's Moving Castle find :)

I found time to watch the movie a few nights later and it was OK. I wish that more of the book was in the movie but the movie was quite different. Oh well.

I finished reading Anne of the Island on 10 Aug 2007. My favourite is still the first & best book of the series, Anne of Green Gables. I'm deciding whether to continue with book 4: Anne of Windy Poplars (aka Anne of Windy Willows) OR read CSI Miami: Heart Attack.

Speaking of books, on my way to visit the new HQ at Middle Road, I went to the Central Library and happily walked off with these two bulky books:

The weird thing is that I was at the Central Library the previous Saturday to borrow Anne of the Island by LM MONtgomery and I can't believe I missed seeing Howl's Moving Castle Picture Book by Hayao MIYazaki which was only a few authors away!

Kimmy was the one who discovered that there was a picture book because she saw it at the Toa Payoh Library. We rushed there after our swim downstairs but could not find the book. Someone must have stolen the book!

I still can't believe I got Howl's Moving Castle VCD so easily and cheaply! I had begun to despair when Borders didn't have it cos' it gave me the impression that the movie would be hard to find. And indeed it is. After checking many other video stores, I only managed to find the Code 1 DVD which is selling for $45 in 2 Sembawang stores! It's amazing how the VCD is available in a shop close to home and for such an affordable price ($9.90). I had checked online and eBay is selling it for over $20! Best of all, that lady was there at the right time so I was able to get it at the offer price of $8. How strange and magickal is that! Looks like I was fated to own the movie... :)

Howl's Moving Castle

2007-07-30T17:24:00.000+08:00

Loved the book, can't wait to see the movie!
Unfortunately, I was unable to find the DVD at Borders during the weekend. Was at Borders last Saturday (28 July) with my folks for dinner at Fish & Co. What are the chances of it being available at other places? If I have time, I should check out HMV.

But I've already asked for help in getting the DVD from Australia...

Check out the videos below. The movie looks really promising and all reviews I've seen are positive.

It's not my fault...

2007-07-27T10:06:00.000+08:00

I can thank my parents for lots of things but not for the following. My kids can say no thanks to me too. :P

The Top 10 Worst Heredity Conditions:

1) Baldness - my youngest bro suffers from it

2) Lactose Intolerance - I suffer from this and I love cream and cheese too!

"The Chinese distaste for milk was thought to be a cultural one, until scientists in the 1960s discovered lactose intolerance in Asians, Africans, and southern Europeans."

Wow, I can sue! And there's a website too!

And another website!

3) Acne - I remember having very bad zits (more like tiny volcanoes) on my nose during my teenage years.

4) Having Twins - none in my family but my maternal cousin Jocelyn has a pair

5) Heart Diseases - I think I'm safe... God-willing

6) Obesity - Phew! But I think my sis inherited it, haha

"One scientific theory suggests the same genes that helped our ancestors survive famines are now working against people living in places where food is plentiful. Many of today's bulging waistlines have only to do with eating too much of the wrong foods, however."

7) Bullying - so my sis has an excuse? That big, fat meanie...

My mother's other daughter wanted me to leave work at 3pm. Even if I was the boss, I wouldn't leave work early if there's things to be done. So I msg'd her to go ahead with her plans cos' I was busy. Her reply: "Bitch". WTF was that for? Obviously I am related to one seriously mentally deranged idiot.

8) Colour Blindness - thank goodness I don't have this

9) Breast Cancer - The cause of most breast cancers is still a mystery. God forbids any of my family has this!

Worldwide, breast cancer is the fifth most common cause of cancer death (after lung cancer, stomach cancer, liver cancer, and colon cancer). Among women worldwide, breast cancer is the most common cancer.

10) Alcoholism - Every time I get drunk, I sleep like a log. I hate it cos' I miss out on all the fun. The only alcoholic beverage I can tipple is snowball which is thankfully too mild to get me intoxicated.

"Children of alcoholics are not destined to be alcoholics too. But recent research reports about 50 percent of the risk for alcoholism is genetically determined. The environment accounts for the other risky half. The disease is considered genetically complex, meaning that several genes come into play and they can affect individuals differently."

The following may not be hereditary but my parents have them too...

My Mom and I have/had Hyperthyroidism which is overactivity of the thyroid gland that leads to high levels of thyroid hormones and speeding up of vital body functions.

My Dad and I suffer from Vertigo - It is the sensation of spinning or swaying while the body is stationary with respect to the earth or surroundings.

Unexpected Deception...

2007-07-20T16:47:00.000+08:00

How interesting! Only one publisher (out of 18) spotted the similarity between a submitted manuscript entitled "First Impressions" and "Pride & Prejudice".

Frustrated author David Lassman decided to deliberately plagiarise from 3 of Jane Austen's books to see whether, if she were alive today, she would have a hard time getting her works published too.

I really admire and am impressed with the assistant editor of British Publishing company Jonathan Cape. Alex Bowler was the only one who spotted the deception! He truly deserves his job. The others should all get the sack.

If Alex Bowler is good-looking, he'd be my dream guy! But I guess he's probably a middle-aged man. *sigh*

Speaking of deceit...

I mentioned in my last blog how pissed I was when I received my eBay purchase that was stated as coming from the States. I wouldn't have minded the lie if the item was as described but instead, I got a cheap-looking and flimsy watch. Argh. Still can't get over it. $ down the drain. Darn...

Learnt something new today...

2007-07-19T11:58:00.000+08:00

as always :)

What I learnt today was that Google is NO longer my number one search engine. After trying countless & fruitless searches for a catchy tune I heard on the radio this morning, I decided to try Yahoo instead... and lo and behold, it was the first result I got!

So here's the tune, title and lyrics of the song, no thanks to Google, but many thanks to Yahoo and iMeem Happy listening and singing along! :)

On The Shelf

You took my love and you threw it away,
gave you my heart and you took it that day.
T-t-t-took it away, t-t-t-took it away, mmmm,
and I want it back.

Went for a drive just the other day,
I left my heart and you towed it away.
T-t-t-towed it away, t-t-t-towed it away, and
I want it back.

I'm like a dog without a bone,
I'm like a house that's not a home,
I'm like a watch that nobody wants to wind.
I'm like a lock without a key,
nobody wants to lean on me.
I'm so lonely, lonely without you.

There on the shelf am I, baby.
There on the shelf, am I.

Went to a party 'cause you said you would go.
I sat around but you didn't show.
No, no, no you didn't show, no, no, no you didn't show.
Oh no, oh no.
I ring your house I don't get no reply,
well I don't know why you keep tellin' me lies.
T-t-t-tellin' me lies, t-t-t-tellin' me lies.
Oh, oh, oh.....

I'm like a dog without a bone,
I'm like a house that's not a home.
I'm like a watch that nobody wants to wind.
I'm like a lock without a key,
nobody wants to lean on me.
I'm so lonely, lonely without you.

There on the shelf am I, baby.
There on the shelf am I, baby.
There on the shelf am I, baby.
There on the shelf am I, baby.
There on the shelf am I, baby....

I can't believe the video is available! Happy watching the dorky moves! Can't understand why the audience was not responding to this great song! Were they on pills?

Anne of Avonlea

2007-07-18T17:36:00.000+08:00

I completed Anne of Green Gables last night. What a wonderful book!

I loved it so much that even though I've finished reading the story and I can read it online as well, I bought myself my very own copy. I was excited to find it in one of the Bras Basah bookshops. Best of all, it cost me only $2 :) I am looking forward to re-reading the book and will be very happy if my kids read it. I was fighting tears when I read the chapter where dear old Matthew died of a heart attack.

I started on Anne of Avonlea (2nd book in the series) this morning.

Speaking of Anne, both my daughters are named Ann. I wanted them to have an "e" like Anne of Green Gables insisted hers was spelled but unfortunately, my hubby forgot to follow my instructions!

I have yet to hear from 8 Days regarding my missing prize. I went all the way to Yio Chu Kang to collect my pathetic hamper only to find one of the prizes (the sunscreen lotion) missing! I have been waiting to get it in the mail but so far, nothing.

However, I did receive something in the mail that I was expecting anticipatedly. Unfortunately, it did not live up to my expectations. Firstly, my eBay purchase is supposed to be from the States. When I saw that my envelope was postmarked in Hong Kong, *alarm bells* started ringing! I opened my package and found a cheap-looking Marie watch inside. The postage cost only HK$8 which is equivalent to about SG$1. So the fugger made a $15 profit. Bloody turd. He had the gall to ask me for a favourable comment on his eBay page. That reminds me - I SHOULD leave a comment!

Never again will I purchase such stuff from eBay. I will stick to just buying books. The 3 books I got from eBay arrived from the States and were in great condition.

That should teach me. You get what you pay for I guess. I accept that I look awful in my $10 haircut. I should've spent more time and money on it but then again, I hate to waste money on such trivialities... But I feel that I got conned with the Marie watch because the picture and description led me to think I was getting a beautiful stainless steel watch and not some cheap metal watch that can't even clasp properly.

Anne of Green Gables

2007-07-13T14:40:00.001+08:00

I borrowed Anne of Green Gables from the school library because it was recommended in my daughter's book list.

However, it stayed in the bookshelf untouched for a few weeks because my daughter got the gist of the story from Wikipedia instead. Tsk tsk tsk...
I popped the book in my bag intending to return it. Fortunately, during the bus ride to school, I decided to skim the book. I love it! I can't put it down. I am currently in Chapter 15: A Tempest in the School Teapot.

I just found out that the girl in the picture is an English actress named Kim Braden. She gained fame thanks to the popular 1972 made-for-television British mini-series.

I think she suits the role because Anne Shirley is supposed to be a homely, red-haired freckled girl. I'm happy to see that Kim Braden grew up to be a beautiful lady. I wonder if Anne is supposed to turn out the same way. How nice if she does!

The Canadian author, Lucy Maud Montgomery said that she based Anne's looks on a photograph of Evelyn Nesbit.

I'm always happy to stumble upon good books, especially those that have series because I have other books to look forward to after finishing one.
Speaking of books, I visited the Salvation Army Thrift Store at Upper Bukit Timah Road yesterday and walked out with an armful of books that cost me just $8! :)

I finally found a Jean Plaidy book there, titled "the Plantagenet Prelude" but unfortunately I already own that title. I got it anyway. I also found Ellen Degeneres' book "My Point... and I Do Have One" which cost only $2!

I bought 2 books that had a NIB stamp on it. This brought back memories because during my secondary school days, I used to hang out at the NIB in Serangoon Gardens to buy/borrow books. Most of my precious Jean Plaidy books were bought from there. One of the books was a Nancy Drew mystery for Kay. I think NIB stood for National Indian Bookstore. I miss that place... Interestingly, when I googled "nib serangoon gardens", it led me to my testimony on the Serangoon Garden friendster page.

I bought another book for Kimmy. It had the CHIJ Secondary School (Toa Payoh) Library stamp on it!

I also purchased a book by Terry Pratchett called "The Carpet People". I think I tried to read it before but was not hooked. I've decided to give it another go cos' after all, it's only $1 and proceeds go to charity. Oh cool! Just found out that The Carpet People was his first novel written in 1971. In the Author's Note of the revised edition, published in 1992 Terry Pratchett wrote: "This book had two authors, and they were both the same person."

Update on 17 July 2007:
Found this link that links to other gorgeous Anne of Green Gables tribute pages!

Samsung LCD ~ may it RIP!

2007-07-10T16:45:00.000+08:00

My Samsung LCD TV died on Sunday, 08 July 2007 @ 957pm, just before Ugly Betty of all times!

I thought it was a problem that could be fixed but after going around Mustafa yesterday evening, I noticed a sign on an LCD TV that said 60,000 hours lifespan. I asked the salesman about what happens when the 60k hours is up, and he described exactly what happened to my TV - it could switch on but there was no image, only beeping sounds. Drats!

I can't remember when I bought my TV but it can't be more than 5 years ago. According to calculations (ok, actually THIS website), if watching TV was your full-time job, and you did it 24 hours a day, it would take you almost 7 years to wear out your LCD display.

But but but... I didn't switch on my TV 24/7 for 7 years!! Only 4... :P

So as mentioned earlier, I went to Mustafa yesterday to check out the TVs and they had a Samsung 27" LCD TV that seemed like a good deal for $870. However, I was hesitant because I don't like that my previous LCD TV which cost so much, betrayed me, by dying on me before I could watch Ugly Betty.

I almost settled for a $109 no-name brand small TV but my sis advised against it. It was really very small.

So we drove to Novena Square and during dinner, we bumped into Vincent and Terence Kesavan. Wish we could've met in more opportune circumstances. The reason they were there was to visit Terence's mom, Marina who was in hospital cos' she was in a coma after suffering a stroke. God bless her and may she get better soon. Auntie Marina happens to be my ex-bf Kevin's mom (i.e. Terence's bro). I wonder how he is holding up...

Back to the quest for a new TV...

From school, I strolled over to Ten Mile Junction to check out the TVs @ Sheng Siong. Not bad, they had more of the cheaper variety. Cheapest I saw was a small no-brand TV going for $99. But what caught my eye was a 21" flat screen Akira TV going for $189. I asked the salesman how heavy and bulky the box would be and he recommended I get a similar TV but of the more reputable Samsung brand which costs $80 more but had free delivery.

I would have bought a TV there and then if I could've cashed and carried it. If only my sis was in the vicinity so she could give me and my new TV a ride home. I guess I'll have to wait for tomorrow or Friday when my sis comes to the West for some business appointments.

In the meantime, I'll have to tape all my fave TV programmes and watch Aja Geum Soon in the living room with mum-in-law, in gulp, Chinese. I prefer watching the show in it's original Korean but beggars can't be choosers...

Happened to google for TVs and came across http://www.ebay.com.sg/. One TV is selling for $140 and it's a Sanyo 29"! The set is 3 years old though. Tempting... but then again, I don't need a set that's so big because it's for my bedroom, and according to this helpful link, since I'm watching about 5 feet or less away from the TV, a 20 to 27-inch display will do.

Came across an even better sounding deal... $80 for a 21-inch almost-new Panasonic colour TV. The problem is, payment must be made only via only bank transfer or ATM - NO COD! How dodgy is that!

My dilemma is... is it worth spending a few hundred $$$s more to get an LCD TV or stick to the cheaper fat-ass TVs...

Hooray!!! This website has just reconciled me to getting the cheaper CRT TV!

"CRT TVs may be bulky, but then you have one of the best pictures you can get from a video display device. The truth is that not even the latest top plasmas can rival conventional cathode ray tube displays for black depth and contrast, while nothing beats a high resolution flat-screen CRT display tube for picture clarity.
In particular, today's true flat-screen high-resolution cathode ray tubes are capable of producing crisp, vibrant images of exceptional quality. In addition, the CRT TV is easy to set-up, and will work well in a variety of locations and light conditions.
This means that if your screen size requirements fall within the display size limitations of CRT TVs, and if picture quality is of prime importance, then a CRT television may still represent a suitable and ultimately, a more affordable solution than the latest expensive plasmas and LCD TVs."

That settles it. Getting a good. old CRT TV!

Update: Got a new 21" Samsung TV from Sheng Siong @ Ten Mile Junction for $269 on Wed, 11 July. Thanks to my sis and Ow, I managed to bring it back home safe and sound. Gave them a treat @ Pasta Mania on Thursday evening to thank them. I actually wanted an Akira 21" TV for just $199 but the stock was only coming in 2 days later. And I would have to pay for delivery, $30. So in effect, by getting the Samsung, I was only spending $40 more. So far so good.

Curiousity didn't kill this cat...

2007-07-07T10:50:00.000+08:00

I'm not a big fan of the Ghost Whisperer. I only watch it now & then. So at the start of Season 2, I was bewildered to see that Melinda's (played by busty Jennifer Love Hewitt) best friend Andrea (played by Aisha Tyler) was a ghost. I was curious why and how Andrea died and why Aisha left. I got my answer in wikipedia - Andrea died in the plane crash shown in the last episode of Season 1. Apparently, Aisha left the show on her own accord.

I'm currently reading Elizabeth based on the movie starring Cate Blanchett but I'm not going to complete the book cos' it's full of historical inaccuracies. How annoying!

I am going to recommend to the school library to state this fact otherwise students will read the book thinking it's accurate.

The book is boring anyway. I much more enjoyed and prefer reading Jean Plaidy's books on Elizabeth and other European royalty. I highly recommend her books. I would love to own a complete collection of her books.

I just found out that the TV series "Elizabeth I" starring Helen Mirren also contains a historical inaccuracy - the show features a meeting of Elizabeth and Mary, Queen of Scots although the 2 never met in real life!

Another show I wondered about was Charmed. I used to enjoy the show but got tired of the ridiculous stories soon after. I was curious to find out when Charmed finally ended - the series ended its run on May 21, 2006 in the US. The only thing I liked about the show that lasted was the closing song by Jay Gruska.

Speaking of witches, I had fun thinking of my fave movies that had witches in it:

I didn't see the movie version and apparently Roald Dahl hated the happy ending but I loved the book!

My Backgrounds :)

2007-07-07T08:49:00.000+08:00

Jean Plaidy's Books

2007-07-06T19:07:00.000+08:00

I own the books in yellow :)

Single Novels
• Beyond the Blue Mountains (1948)
• The Goldsmith's Wife (1950)
• Daughter of Satan (1952)
• Lilith (1954)
• Melisande (It Began in Vauxhall Gardens) (1955)
• The Scarlet Cloak (1957)
• Milady Charlotte (1959)
• Defenders of the Faith
• Madame du Barry ~ read it in the National Library
• Evergreen Gallant
• The King's Adventurer ~ read it in the National Library

The Medici Trilogy
1. Madame Serpent (1951)
2. The Italian Woman (1952)
3. Queen Jezebel (1953)

The Mary Queen of Scots Series
1. Royal Road to Fotheringay (1955)
2. The Captive Queen of Scots (1963)

The Lucrezia Borgia Series
1. Madonna of the Seven Hills (1958)
2. Light on Lucrezia (1958)

The French Revolution Series
1. Louis the Well Beloved (1959)
2. The Road to Compiegne (1959) ~ given to me by Adeline's English uncle when I visited their place in York :)
3. Flaunting, Extravagant Queen (1957)

The Ferdinand and Isabella Trilogy
~ listed in the National Library website but not available for loan yet!!!
1. Castille for Isabella (1960)
2. Spain for the Sovereigns (1960)
3. Daughters of Spain (1961)

The Stuart Saga
1. Murder in the Tower (1964)
2. A Health Unto His Majesty (1956)
3. The Wandering Prince (1956)
4. Here Lies Our Sovereign Lord (1957)
5. The Three Crowns (1965)
6. The Haunted Sisters (1966)
7. The Queen's Favourites (1966)

The Georgian Saga
1. The Princess of Celle (1967)
2. Queen in Waiting (1967) ~ read it in the National Library
3. Caroline, the Queen (1968)
4. The Prince and the Quakeress (1975)
5. The Third George (1969)
6. Perdita's Prince (1969)
7. Sweet Lass of Richmond Hill (1970)
8. Indiscretions of the Queen (1970)
9. The Regent's Daughter (1971)
10. Goddess of the Green Room (1971)
11. Victoria in the Wings (1972) ~ read it in the National Library

The Queen Victoria Series
1. The Captive of Kensington Palace (1972)
2. The Queen and Lord M (1973)
3. The Queen's Husband (1973)
4. The Widow of Windsor (1974)

The Norman Trilogy
1. The Bastard King (1974)
2. The Lion of Justice (1975)
3. The Passionate Enemies (1976)

The Plantagenet Saga
1. The Plantagenet Prelude (1976) - my 1st eBay purchase, all the way from the US of A
2. The Revolt of the Eaglets (1977)
3. The Heart of the Lion (1977)
4. The Prince of Darkness (1978)
5. The Battle of the Queens (1978)
6. The Queen from Provence (1979)
7. Hammer of the Scots (also published as Edward Longshanks) (1979)
8. The Follies of the King (1980)
9. The Vow on the Heron (1980)
10. Passage to Pontefract (1981)
11. The Star of Lancaster (1981)
12. Epitaph for Three Women (1981)
13. Red Rose of Anjou (1982)
14. Sun in Splendour (1982)

The Tudor Novels Series
1. Uneasy Lies the Head (1982)
2. Katharine, the Virgin Widow (1961)
3. Shadow of the Pomegranate (1962)
4. The King's Secret Matter (1962)
5. Murder Most Royal (1949)
6. Saint Thomas' Eve (1954)
7. The Sixth Wife (1953)
8. The Thistle and the Rose (1963)
9. Mary, Queen of France (1964)
10. The Spanish Bridegroom (1954)
11. Gay Lord Robert (1955)

The Queens of England Series
1. Myself My Enemy (1983)
2. Queen of This Realm: The Story of Elizabeth I (1984)
3. Victoria Victorious (1985) ~ read it in the National Library
4. The Lady in the Tower (1986)
5. The Courts of Love: The Story of Eleanor of Aquitaine (1987)
6. In the Shadow of the Crown (1988)
7. The Queen's Secret: The Story of Queen Katherine (1989)
8. The Reluctant Queen: The Story of Anne of York (1990) ~ read it in the National Library
9. The Pleasures of Love: The Story of Catherine of Braganza (1991)
10. William's Wife (1992)
11. The Rose Without a Thorn (1993) ~ read it in the National Library

Friday's Detour

2007-07-06T13:53:00.000+08:00

Today was the deadline for me to collect the Surfs Up hamper I won in the 8 Days contest I joined last week.

Total cost of collecting the prize from 8 Days...

1. 20 cents sms to join the contest

2. $1.18 bus ride on service 163 from Toa Payoh to MediaCorp Publishings' office @ TechPoint (Ang Mo Kio St 65) which took only 30 minutes!

3. 85 cents bus ride on service 854 from TechPoint to Yishun Interchange.
Could have been cheaper but I missed my stop at Khatib MRT station.

4. $1.15 bus ride on 171 from Yishun Interchange to Bukit Panjang.
Loved the scenic route through Mandai. No tall buildings and best of all, I saw 5 parachutists descending from the sky.

5. 40 cents bus ride on 190 from Bt Pjg to school.

Total: $3.78

And all that trouble for a movie poster, a t-shirt, lip balm and a key chain. Whoop-dee-doo... :P

Then I realised that I was missing one of the prizes, the sunscreen lotion! I just sent an email to complain about this. Hope they send the missing prize to me cos' I don't want to have to spend almost $4 again just to get to work!

Normally, the journey to work costs me only $1.38 on one direct bus 985 or 985W, from the bus stop opposite Trellis Towers (10 minute walk from home) to Teck Whye.

When I had my dear old Serow, the journey only cost me about 90 cents cos' every km was about 10 cents of petrol. I don't think I'll get a new bike although I miss the mobility and speed of getting around. I think it's time this gal got herself some 4-wheels.

Preferably one that looks like this:

My First YouTube Video :)

2007-07-04T19:22:00.000+08:00

Kaitlyn Chan was 1st in her class last year! Woohoo!

Followed by 2 more videos...

You can also see the videos here (if you live in Thailand and can't access YouTube):

http://an9el.multiply.com/video/item/2

http://an9el.multiply.com/video/item/3

http://an9el.multiply.com/video/item/4

Shou Zhu Dai Tu

2007-06-24T12:33:00.000+08:00

Thanks to reading the book "Watching the Tree to Catch a Hare" by Adeline Yen Mah, I am even more fascinated by all things Chinese. I am now proud of my Chinese heritage (courtesy of my paternal grandmother) and my love of singing Chinese songs (I don't understand) is justified. :)

Thanks to this fun website, I found a Chinese name that I like: Meng Rui

I need to memorise the words of the Chinese songs I like to sing cos' unfortunately, I can't read Chinese.

I am trying to remedy that. Anything is possible.

According to the book, there are said to be over 50,000 Chinese characters, compared to over 600,000 English words. A knowledge of 3,500 characters will enable a reader to comprehend 99 per cent of the contents of a newspaper!

Lian Ai Pin Lu - Andy Hui & Evonne Hsu

Hao jiu mei you chui wei feng de wan shang
wo men kan zhao shan xia du shi deng guang
ni shuo kuai le he zi you shi qiong ren de tian tang
zhe zhong xiang fa wo wo hen xi huan

ni yao wo bi shang yan jing xiang xiang
you wo kan bu jian de yi ge yuan fang
ni shuo di qiu shi le yuan yao yong xin qu you lan
zhe zhong shuo fa duo lang man

xin zai fei lu hen chang
wo men shi bi ci de bi feng gang
ting zhao ni liao dao zong qian he wei lai
ni xin li suo you de meng gen wo hen xiang

Oh you light up my life
suo yi wo ye xi wang wo men xin zhong pin lu dou yi yang
meng jia dian gan jue si nian zhuang shang chi bang
ai shi wu xian ke neng de fei xiang

Oh you light up my life
wo xiang ang ni fen xiang wo men xin dong shi fen de meng xiang
zhe shi yi ge kai shi hai shi yi zhong huan xiang
wei lai zheng zai deng dai bu shi ma
( wei lai wo xiang he ni fen xiang )

yi zhi xiang gen ni zhuo na tian yi qi zhi wan fan
xiang wen ni kai xin ma
zhe xie ri zi kan zhao ni zhui zhao zi ji de meng xiang
kuai le zhuan xin de mei ge yang zi
wo xiang wo men de meng you yi yang de pin lu bu shi ma

~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~

真的想你 (Zhen De Xiang Ni by Alex Toh & Shunza)
男聲：杜德偉
I am trying to add the hanyu pinyin... slowly but surely...

(ALEX)
One two, one two, one and one is two
U were meant for me, I was meant for you
Tell me that u love me, want me, need me in ur life
Cause I got love so come and take a dive
Into my world, share this world with me
I hope you're gonna wanna stay right here, you see
This is the day, this is the way
So let us sing this song and make it stay

(順子/Shunza)
Please I gotta write a little tune for you
To express nothing else but pure love for you
U see, I'm the kind of woman that well,
I don't like to keep my feelings inside
Gotta let it outside
Let the world know how much I feel for you
I even wrote a love song dedicated to you
So if you miss me, really miss me,
Why don't u come closer and kiss me (kiss me)

(ALEX)
才相遇就有點想妳
yu xiang ni
想看妳不敢告訴妳
xiang kang ni bu gan dao shu ni
別以為是寂寞而巳
bie yi wei shi ji mo er yi
我知道自己的問題
wo ji dao
茶不思飯不吃的道理

妳使我夜夜好憂鬱
ni shi wo ye ye
一個需要愛的人
yi ge shi ye ai de ren
一顆發了瘋的心
yi

(順子)
想為妳譜寫一首歌
xiang wei ni bu shi yi shou ge
歌裡面都是妳的名
de li mian dao shi ni de ming
請相信我是用了心
xing shao xing wo
自從妳出現在夢裡
生活就變得好美麗
把時間留給妳
想著妳和等著妳
我是真的真的想妳
wo shi

CHORUS:

真的真的想妳
zhen de zhen de xiang ni
好想為妳淋一場雨
證明我的心
證明我的命
永遠永遠屬於妳

我是真的真的想妳
真的真的想妳

好想為妳淋一場雨
證明我的心
證明我的命
此情　此愛　永不渝

(ALEX)
Till the break of dawn
To you I'll sing this song
This lovely melody
That goes 真的想你
Day night, I'll be holding you so tight
Together, let our love live forever

Something's not right...

2007-06-23T10:46:00.001+08:00

You won't believe what I saw at the overhead bridge (linking Toa Payoh and Balestier) on my way home y'day (22 June 2007, Friday)...

I'm shortsighted so I could not define the large black blob I saw in the distance. I was very surprised to see what it was when it finally came into focus...

A Macaque monkey!!!

I was apprehensive to pass it. So I whipped out my camera while waiting for the people behind me to pass the macaque first (hehehe).

If it wasn't for me pointing my camera at the simian, the 2 ladies would've walked past it obliviously. They too, paused but walked by unmolested.

However, a young lady walking with 2 guys in the opposite direction was not so lucky. I heard her screaming her lungs out while the cheeky monkey chased after her. The more she yelled, the more the monkey wanted to be with her. I couldn't really see from where I was standing (safe and sound below the bridge) but it seemed her 2 companions weren't of much help!

Our last Indonesian maid, Khoriyah, went back to her kampung for good on March 16, 2007.

Like the other times, I was expecting that the new maid would arrive shortly. But it's been 3 months and still no sign of the new maid... God willing my father-in-law engages one already cos' he and the mother-in-law are @ loggerheads over this.

It also sux having to do the damn ironing myself. I want things to "magically" right themselves and clean themselves like last time!

Also in March, on the 20th to be exact, Ch U started showing a new K-drama called "Be Strong Geum-Soon" every weekday night at 7pm. At first, I didn't really care much for the show but as soon as Dr Jae Hee (Kang Ji Hwan) entered the scene, I was hooked. :)

I thought that the K-drama would end in October because there are 163 episodes altogether, but I just found out that these episodes were only half-hour long segments. This means that since Channel U is showing about 45 minutes daily (1 hour less 4 ads segments), it will end sooner, thank goodness. I can't wait to see the happy ending. :)

According to the online synopsis, last night, I was watching Episodes 106 and 107 = Episode 69 in 8 Days magazine.

Last night, I was supposed to go to St James Power Station for some karaoke and dancing with Edy & his pals and Paulyn. Unfortunately, I had cramps so I stayed home instead. Hope they didn't have too much fun without me :P

Haven't had a maid since March 16. Been watching Geum Soon faithfully since March 20. But more significantly, the last time I rode my bike was 4 May 2007! I miss riding! What used to be a 20-minute journey to work now takes an hour. Then again, if I was riding, I wouldn't have seen the macaque and I dun miss not being on the roads with the many assholic drivers and riders out there and when it rains.

Update: I've decided to give my dear Serow to Dr Jonathan of SpeedZone. He has kept my bike alive & kicking up till recently. She will be in good hands.

So Much In Love by Sheena Easton

2007-06-21T21:27:00.000+08:00

You must be happy, you look wonderful
i've never seen you look so fine
i heard all about her, you're mad about her
you talk about her all the time
you say you love her, and she's given you
everything you'll ever need
though i still adore you, im happy for you
i know that it's too late for me

the only love i ever wanted is gone forever
i could never put my world together
so much in love, i know you'll never
come back to me
ohhhh
love doesn't come to you every minute
if you hold back someone else will win it
if you got a love, put your heart right in it
and never set it free

so think it over and you'll understand
im not trying to change your mind
though she'll never love you, the way i love you
boy, don't miss you chance this time...

the only love i ever wanted is gone forever
i could never put my world together
so much in love, i know you'll never
come back to me
ohhhh
love doesn't come to you every minute
if you hold back someone else will win it
if you got a love, put your heart right in it
and never set it free

wohhh.. oh!
so much in love with you...
so much in love with you...
(several times..)

the only love i ever wanted is gone forever
i could never put my world together
so much in love, i know you'll never
come back to me
ohhhh
love doesn't come to you every minute
if you hold back someone else will win it
if you got a love, put your heart right in it
and never set it free

..::-=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=-::..

All this while, I thought this song was by Sharon Cuneta! This song came out in 1978 which means I was only 4!

How come my sis and I remember this song so vividly? Did Mommy or Daddy keep singing it? Or maybe Uncle Jimmy or Tita Chattie...

Scary Thursday morning

2007-06-14T12:00:00.000+08:00

This picture is near the scene of the crime...

Y'day morning, I had a shocking and nasty encounter. As I was approaching my daily shortcut @ Tai Gin Road (past Sun Yat Sen Villa and the Burmese Temple), I noticed a man with his black bicycle parked on a pillar hoisting his blue shirt up. I continued walking thinking I would walk past quickly while the sicko relieved himself behind the pillar. But as I was nearing the shortcut, he came out from behind the pillar with his black shorts pulled down and he was wanking!

I made a quick about turn but decided to stop and make my first 999 call. I waited for the Police to arrive. In my state of shock and fear for my safety, I did not take a picture of the disgusting man. After giving my statement to the two policemen who arrived after 2 minutes (with the sicko gone), I proceeded on to work. I took the shortcut cos' the policemen were still behind me looking for evidence of the crime. God willing the sicko is caught. I worry for children who live in my neighbourhood. I regret that I did not take a picture now. My short-sightedness disabled me from seeing the wanker clearly.

A clever student of mine (Fir) pointed out that no wonder I made a 999 call - it was because I was reading a book with 999 in big, bold, red characters! Eeks! I'm returning the book asap!

The book is interesting. It has 10 True criminal Cases which occured between 1960 to 1984 in Singapore, ranging from armed robbery (it happened in 1980 @ the Standard Chartered Bank on Upper Bukit Timah Road - quite near my school!) to kidnapping to murder. The pictures are really interesting. In one of them, it shows that in 1979, the police car used to be a VW Beetle - my dream car!

I am now reading Adeline Yen Mah's 3rd book. I am learning more about the Chinese. I have Chinese blood from my paternal grandmother whose maiden name is Tojong which may well be an amalgam of the common Chinese surnames "Toh" and "Hong". My Chinese ancestors were Hokkien which my Dad says explains his love of fried Hokkien prawn mee :)

According to Adeline's aunt Baba, the 19th Century was a British century, the 20th an American century and the 21st will be a Chinese century. This could very well be true. 1/4 of the world's population live in China alone and there are many Chinese in other parts of the world. There are many Filipino-Chinese and Singapore's majority race is Chinese.

I caught Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer on Wednesday night at Shaw Plaza. I love the cinema near my home. It's nice and seldom crowded. Best of all, they let me watch movies there for many years without having to pay for my youngest kid :) Anyway the movie was a letdown in the end. The ending was pathetic, it came too quick and too easily. But it was entertaining throughout. My fave part was when Johnny Storm fought Dr Doom with all Fantastic Four heroes' powers combined. IMHO, Jessica Alba looks freaky (not in a good way) as a blonde.

This is the only picture I could find with the Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer together.

Update on 17 June 2007: Father's Day and Ex-Friend's B'day:

Finally found pic of the Fantastic 4 and the Silver Surfer together. Thanks to my fave info website: wikipedia :)

Super-busy Saturday!

2007-06-10T17:28:00.000+08:00

I just completed reading "Falling Leaves" by Adeline Yen Mah.

I loved "Chinese Cinderella". It was easy to read and I was happy with the ending. After all her childhood troubles and sufferings, Adeline, through her own ability, carved a better future for herself. How? By winning an international English playwriting competition, she made her unfeeling and neglectful father so proud and happy that he agreed to send her to England to further her studies. I was full of hope for Adeline's future...

I was pleased to discover that I didn't have to imagine about Adeline's future and that I could find out what happened to her through her bestselling novel "Falling Leaves".

Unfortunately, at the 2nd last chapter of the book, I was dismayed to find out that instead of finding true happiness in her later years, poor Adeline had to contend with betrayal from her own siblings. I especially can't stand her eldest sister Lydia - the biggest betrayer of them all. What a biatch! Sigh* Why does Lydia's duplicity make me think of my own sister... :( Her evil stepmother aka "Niang" remained horrible till her last breath. It's terrible that people such as Lydia and Jeanne Prosperi Yen exist in this world...

Now on to the main topic. Here's how I spent my Saturday...

Was woken up by Edy's call @ 6am. He & Sholynn picked me up at 640am. Was at the old Police Academy @ Thomson Road by 7am for the AA Heritage Drive 2007. Free b'fast was a miserly sausage mcmuffin and a carton of apple juice. Sigh, I was expecting the Big Breakfast (love the scrambled eggs!).

Edy drove like a madman starting from:
1) the old Police Academy @ Thomson Road >
2) National Stadium Carpark H = carpark behind Macs and KFC! >
3) Red Dot Traffic @ Maxwell Road
4) Upper Pierce Reservoir
5) Old Ford Factory @ Upper Bukit Timah Road
6) Singapore Post HQ @ Paya Lebar
7) Back to the Police Academy

After all our hard work, we didn't win anything. Oh well. We didn't stay on at the Police Academy. We were back before 11.30am but lunch was going to be served only 2 hours later at 1.30pm! So we headed to Novena Square and settled on the famous "and my most favourite chicken rice" opp. Novena Church. $10 for a plate of yummy roasted breast meat plus yew char kuay, sambal kangkong and lime juice.

After that, we walked off our full tummies at Novena Square.

Was home close to 2pm. Dumped my shopping and walked to Toa Payoh Interchange to meet Saro.

From TP Interchange, Saro and I took the train to Orchard MRT station. We had a nice time walking at places that I used to see often. I have not visited Wisma and Taka in zonks!

We ended up at our main destination around 3pm - the Lime Flea market behind Orchard Cineleisure. I almost bought a few stuff but thank goodness I thought carefully before adding nonsense to my junk @ home.

We then took 174 to Bukit Timah Rd. We alighted at Coronation Plaza and explored the shops in the building, hoping to find treasure. But my main goal was to introduce Saro to Island Creamery which was 2 buildings away. I'm happy to say she loved the place and ice cream. She especially loved the Kahlua. I bought home a tub of Nutella for the kids ($8). We took a pic and printed it out. Look out for our pic on the wall u can see behind us. Btw, Island Creamery provides the photo paper :)

We took the 157 back to Toa Payoh. I went to the Pasar Malam and bought 3 Marie towels, 3 sticker books (2 Marie and 1 Disney Princesses), SpongeBob Monopoly and SpongeBob water bottle. :)

As I was walking home with my loot, I suddenly remembered that I had left my memory card in the photo printer at the Island Creamery! Freak! So after dumping my stuff, instead of heading to Taka to meet Paulyn, I had to make a detour back the Serene Centre. Argh! Thank goodness I was able to get my memory card back. I took the 171 to Far East Plaza and ended up wasting one hour waiting for her! Grrrr. After running around the whole day, this was the last thing I wanted to do to end my day. I gave up waiting at 1030pm. &$^%@*!!!

I went home, rested my tired feet and had a nice time catching up on my taped TV programs. Just before midnight, Paulyn sms'd if I wanted to go karaoke - forget it! I tucked myself in and had a well-deserved rest.

Back from the Kampong...

2007-06-04T11:11:00.000+08:00

My adventure started last Wednesday, 30 May 2007.

How time flies! It's already been a week since!

Students and teachers going on the "Pahang Learning Journey 2" had to assemble @ the school foyer at 230pm. Just past 3pm, the bus was on the move to JB. It was my 1st time going into Malaysia by coach. The other times I came by car or bike so checking in customs was relatively easier. All I had to do was sit pretty while the driver/rider rode up to the customs booth and then after giving our passports to the customs officer, we were good to go.

But this time, I had to get down the bus and go through customs with luggage then get up the bus again!

We reached the JB railway station around 4.30pm. We took turns - while 2 groups stayed to watch the luggage, the other 2 groups went to the shopping centre opposite to buy dinner. I bought myself a packet of rice with vegetables with yummy-looking yellow gravy, a pie slice of scrambled egg and hot dogs = RM5. For some reason, a student who also bought rice with one meat dish and 2 veggie dishes paid only RM3. Hmmm... And I discovered that the darn RM1 coin has not been in use since last year. Grrr... I have RM6 of worthless coins. I found out that the reason for their discontinued use was because they rusted easily. Yes, the coins are darn ugly. Hope my coin collection can fetch a good price next time...

At the JB station, all four schools going on the Learning Journey gathered - Ang Mo Kio Secondary School, Yishun Sec, Nan Hua High School and Teck Whye Sec. About 130 students in all.

The train arrived around 7pm. Unfortunately the sleeper berths were full (with the AMK students I think) so we had to take the seats. I ate my dinner in segments cos' I was full after eating only a third of it. I finished my dinner around 11pm. Had to use the toilet (thank God just to do a number 1) and although not great, was not as gross as I expected. The cleanliness deteriorated noticeably when I used it again in the morning.

It's not easy walking in the train cos' it was rocking and swaying. But had a fun time walking to the cafeteria nevertheless - crossing from carriage to carriage, seeing the open train doors and people watching the other passengers.

Seats on the train got more uncomfy as the night wore on. Nearly had a heart attack when I realised that I had forgotten to bring the video camera charger! Managed to make the 2 batteries I brought last the whole trip. The last battery died when we arrived back in school :) Unfortunately, the end of the school cheer was cut off :P

Arrived at Kuala Lipis train station at about 5am and transferred to a nice big coach. We travelled to Kuala Medang where most of the kids fell asleep. I tried to stay awake but after one hour, I fell asleep. When we arrived at our destination, it was raining cats and dogs so we stayed put in the bus for another hour. When we alighted, the sun was already high in the sky and the welcoming committee ready for us. The place looked familiar to me because of the countless edits I did on the Pahang 2006 video.

After the formalities, we proceeded to our foster homes. I found the bedroom pleasant. The bathroom was not bad but there was no place to hang my clothes! I had to do a juggling act after my bath. The thought of having to go through this every time I took a shower was discouraging... While brushing my teeth, I saw that her sink was covered in grime and tiny hairs. I tried to wash away the dirt with water but no matter how much I poured, the filth stayed put.

After 3 days of different activities in the blistering heat, it was time to head home. I enjoyed the food but at the back of my mind, I was thinking that eating so much might entail problems for me later but thankfully, I had none. I stumbled upon this write-up on the problems of doing one's business on holiday... www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/180/ from http://talkatorion.blog.com/1148909/?page=2

Then I remembered a webpage which had a funny recount on the horrors of taking the train to KL written by an American. I had a good time reading it: www.geocities.com/travelwithyour/kuala2.html

I'm getting lazy doing a detailed account of my Malaysian adventure so here's a quick recap of the major events:

Fishing - almost caught a fish. It was fun. Unfortunately, I dropped my fave sunglasses from Perth and someone (myself perhaps) stepped on it. But thankfully, I can still use it although it's partially broken :( Talk about good quality... and it was only AUD$7! :)

Attended Malay wedding in a kampung 15 minutes' drive away. Good food and hospitable people. 3 students chose that place to do their big business. Go figure.

Took a 45-minute boat ride to an Orang Asli village. At the same time, a TV crew from RTM2 was there to film for a TV programme called "Wish You Were Here". Trying to find out when the show is telecast so I can spot myself in the programme :) Unfortunately, the RTM2 website isn't much help... Hope someone can enlighten me... I suspect the programme might be on Tuesdays at 530pm?

Buffet lunch @ Radius International Hotel in KL. Had four helpings. Was so full I didn't have to have dinner or breakfast.

Went to KLCC but didn't buy much cos' things were same price as in Sg - what's the point?! Was supposed to go Mid-Valley MegaMall for proper shopping but KL got flooded due to the heavy downpour so ended up going to the KL Train Station early instead.

Train ride back much better because on sleeper berth. Took the top deck! :)

If you want to see pix and read more about my Quest for Knowledge in Pahang and KL, go to this webpage (designed by yours truly).

End of adventure: Back to Sg at 8am. Reached school at 840am. Back to work. Imported the Pahang video and photos. But the day didn't end there...

Saro sms'd to see if I could meet up. I agreed cos' I wanted to make full use of my day. I intended to leave school early cos' I wanted to dump my baggage @ home 1st and shower then change into fresh clothes but students were doing projects in the lab and I had to wait for the iMac g5 to be returned.

Managed to leave school only at 3pm and met Saro at Toa Payoh Interchange @ 445pm. Bear in mind my travelling time home by bus takes 45 minutes to an hour, excluding waiting time. So I met her in record time. We took the 56 bus (which took ages to arrive) to Marina Square. Had dinner and did some shopping. Found a nice Marie doll which I bought for Lein's b'day (have to keep it under wraps till September!). We walked to Bugis where we visited Paulyn's shop. That's where I burnt a hole in my pocket. I got myself 3 cute tees (pix to be uploaded soon) for $35 from a lady with long hair on the 2nd floor. I got a dress from Paulyn for $30 and bought Saro a present, a $15 roulette drinking game from Paulyn's shop. Was home after midnight after supper with Paulyn ($10 for bah ku teh soup, tau pok, yew char kway and drinks).

Btw, to entertain myself on the trip, I borrowed 2 books from the school Library. The 1st book I borrowed "The Murder of a Beauty Queen" by Alex Josey turned out to be not as interesting as I thought it would be cos' not only was it mostly about the trial but it repeated stuff again and again. o_O

I switched to "Chinese Cinderella" by Adeline Yen Mah. I was saving the best for last. I've been wanting to read this book for ages but it's always not available at the National Library. It's either on loan or reserved. Totally forgot about looking for this book in the school library. Good thing as I was looking for "The Phantom Tollbooth" by Norton Juster, I stumbled upon the book (thank goodness M is close to J). Started the book on the 3rd day of the Pahang trip. Love the book. Almost cried but stopped myself cos' I didn't want to concern the students or have them teasing me. It's so sad that little Adeline had to go through such a terrible time growing up. God bless all the children of the world.

I am now reading "Falling Leaves" by Adeline Yen Mah. Love it.

This was her 1st novel. Chinese Cinderella is meant for kids but this one is meant for older readers.

I feel that I read it in the correct order because Chinese Cinderella goes into detail about her childhood. Since I know her family well, I am having an easier time reading and appreciating "Falling Leaves" which chronicles her life from the beginning to her adult life.

Long time no see...

2007-05-30T13:18:00.000+08:00

I haven't blogged in almost a fortnight.

The word "fortnight" has stuck with me since I could not answer the question "What is a fortnight" for my English PSLE paper! :P I remember checking the meaning as soon as I could and it's been rooted in my head ever since. Happily, getting the question wrong did not stop me from getting A* for English. Whee!! :)

Last week I was too bz to update my blog because I was occupied with teaching some Sec 3 and Sec 4 students Advanced Flash. You can see the fruits of my labour and theirs HERE.

coming soon...

The school holidays are here. My friends think that sch hols = no work but they're wrong. I had to conduct Dreamweaver lessons for Sec 3 students on Monday and Tuesday. I created a sample website for students, click HERE to see Ms Angel's website. That's how my students address me cos' I find being called Mrs Chan makes me sound old and the surname is common so might cause confusion amongst students. You can see 2 of my students' websites HERE and HERE.

But today, Wednesday, I will be having a short break (but kinda working cos' I'll be shooting video and taking photos during the Pahang/KL school trip) from 30 May to 4 June.

When I get back to school, I will have one more day of Dreamweaver training followed by Photoshop training for Sec 2 students on 6 June (Wednesday).

Some students have asked me for holiday IT training so I will be conducting advanced Flash and Photoshop lessons for them as well. They've also expressed interest in creating blogskins. I am currently sourcing for tips on the web and I am impressed that many of the blogskins were created by young people, mostly teens! I dun think they had proper lessons. My guess is they learnt to do it on their own. Most impressive is this website created by a 17-year old who was from Nanyang Girls' High and is now in Hwa Chong Institution. I'm not surprised cos' I can tell she's a smart girl - She even gives online tutorials! Wow! I am so impressed by what kids can do nowadays...

Anyway, back to my Pahang school trip...

Just as I was leaving home around 830am, it started raining heavily! So I had no choice but to wait for the rain to stop because I was bringing a luggage, knapsack & my usual Cotton On bag to school today. I spent my time watching Miss Universe 2007 on tape. Miss Japan won. Seems Miss Universe is bent on crowning someone from Japan cos' last year's Miss Japan was 1st runner up. The winner is not bad but I prefer Miss Korea 2007, I think she's gorgeous!!!

Miss Korea

Miss Japan - Miss Universe 2007

I was finally able to leave home at 10am! Thankfully the bus was not crowded so I found myself a nice spot (next to the Emergency Exit) since it had the most leg room, just nice for my barang-barang (i.e. stuff).

In about 2 hours, I will be on my way to Pahang. First we will assemble in the school foyer at 230pm. The bus will leave at 3pm sharp and take us to JB. We will then board the train at JB (cos' it's half price if you take it from Malaysia!) and reach our destination in the wee hours of Thursday morning.

To prepare for the trip, the teacher-in-charge Mdm Nurul kindly prepared a "what to pack" list which was really helpful. I went to Mustafa last night with Paulyn to get new earphones and exchange SG dollars to M'sian ringgit ($70 = RM269!). I have altogether almost RM300 on me.

Here is the Learning Journey to Pahang Programme Itinerary (involving 4 schools: Teck Whye Sec, Yishun Sec, Nan Hua High School and AMK Sec):

Day 1, 30 May, Wed:

0300pm - Depart for Woodlands Immigration by coach
0600pm - Arrive @ Tanjung Puteri Immigration Complex
0630pm - Arrive @ JB Railway Station (KTM)
0716pm: Board KTM Ekspres Timuran (JHB to Kuala Lipis) *why not 715?

Day 2, 31 May, Thurs: Happy Vesak Day

0500am - Arrive @ Kuala Lipis Railway Station
0630am - Arrive @ Kampong Kuala Medang. Rest and wash up @ Dewan Haji Omar.
0730am - Breakfast
0830am - Welcoming ceremony for our tour group
0900am - Students getting to know session with their adopted families, photo taking
1000am - Students proceed to home of adopted families. Teachers go to a hostel.
12 noon - Lunch
0130pm - Gather @ the Hall for a round of activities (rubber plantation, making of kuehs, making sugar and mushroom picking)
0530pm - Fishing Competition *we have to fish for our own dinner?
0800pm - BBQ dinner

Day 3, 1 June, Friday:

0700am - Breakfast
0730am - Gather @ the Hall for round of activities (Community Involvement Project i.e. preparing lunch, painting prayer hall, decorating landscape, cleaning hall and kampong areas, arrange books at the village Library, etc)
0200pm - Singapore style food Buffet
0300pm - Traditional, folk games
0430pm - Fishing Competition again
0800pm (till 2am!) - Cultural performance

Day 4, 2 June, Saturday:

0730am - Mass exercise
0830am - Tour session and round of activities part 2
1230pm - Lunch
0130pm - Round of activities part 3
0530pm - Farewell and prize-giving ceremony
0745pm - Depart for Kuala Lipis Railway Station for shopping (AMKSS, YSS & NHHS depart for Sg)
1000pm - Return to Kampong Kuala Medang

Day 5, 3 June, Sunday:
0800am: Gather at the Hall
0900am: Depart for Kuala Lumpur
1130am: Arrive @ KL
12 noon: Lunch @ Radius International Hotel
0200pm: Visit the National Museum
0500pm: Visit Mid-Valley Mega Mall
0700pm: Arrive @ KL Sentral to board the train from KUL to Singapore

Day 6, 3 June, Monday:

0700am: Arrive @ Woodlands Railway Station (Singapore!)
0800am: Arrive in school

Back to work! :P

Thanks to sweet & funky Janice :)

2007-05-27T15:28:00.000+08:00

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Unsung Heroine

2007-05-11T11:06:00.000+08:00

I was reading about My Name is Earl on wikipedia because I love the show! I always enjoyed the trailers so I eventually got round to watching the series and I'm hooked.

Despite tuning in later in the series, I still understand what's going on. It's that well-written :)

One moment I was laughing remembering the latest funny episode and the next I was in tears because of the following...

One thing leads to another...
From the above page, I discovered a very tragic news story that I missed last year:
the Amish School Shooting.
I was very saddened to read that 5 innocent girls were shot to death.
But what touched me most is that a 13-year old girl named
Marian Stoltzfus Fisherasked the gunman to shoot her first in an attempt to buy time and save the other girls. What a brave thing to do! And at such a young age.
She is surely in Paradise now where she truly deserves to be.
May God rest her soul and the other victims of the tragedy
(and other tragedies as well).

Radio Ga-Ga

2007-05-08T10:58:00.000+08:00

Many years ago, I used to take great pleasure in listening to the morning radio show of Joe Augustin and the Flying Dutchman on Class 95. I liked the show so much that it was one of the main motivations/reasons to get me out of bed! They were so funny and entertaining together. The show started in Dec 1996 and ended its golden run 4 years later in Oct 2000. :(

Without Joe, the Flying Dutchman isn't the same. How can it be that he was funny and witty with Joe BUT now, he is plain b.o.r.i.n.g. I can't stand it when he makes lame jokes and laughs uproariously to make it seem witty. It's very pathetic.

Petrina Kow and Vernon A were great replacements but they left too. I LOVE Rod Monteiro too but whatever happened to him? Did he get the sack? I last heard him on Gold 90.5FM doing the weekend morning show. Hmmm... I miss hearing his funny nonsense on Class 95. I can't believe that with him gone, Jean Danker is the number one show for that time slot. No way! She is boring, self-absorbed and kinda stupid. She once read a letter and corrected the writer's use of "snicker" and said he should've used "snigger" instead. Hullo! They both mean the same you dimwit Jean!

And I guess bad taste runs in the Richmond blood because Mark chose to leave so-so looking Vernetta for manish-looking Bernice. Then I read a few months back that Don the younger bro is now dating icky Jean.

Class 95's HR manager ought to be shot for hiring the following annoying wannabe DJs who assaulted my ears and made me regret switching on the radio: fatass Maggie who's now irritating the morning listeners of Power 98 and slanging Marilyn (wonder where she's gone to...). What a coincidence that these 2 irritants' names both start with M. M for maggots, mistakes and miserable. I heard Marilyn not surprisingly mispronounce Catherine Deneuve's last name as de-noo-vee! OMG!!! What kind of radio DJ is that?! ARgh!!! FYI, Deneuve should be pronounced as de-neuv. Je peux parler Francaise, un petit peu.

I was sooOOo happy to hear that Petrina and Joe were teaming up for a new morning show on 91.3. I wanted to tune in to Joe on Power 98 but hearing Maggie's inane comments and stupid talk made me get morning sickness.

So I'm glad Joe left her miserable fatass behind. I have been a faithful listener to the Morning Show with Petrina and Joe since it started. They're both smart and funny. The only stupid thing I heard Petrina say was that the lyrics to Sugababes' Red Dress goes "oohed ah in the red dress". I checked with my bro who loves the song and verified it on the net, the actual lyrics are "I'm cooler than the red dress".

Oh well, we all make mistakes sometimes so I forgive her. After all, she's heavily pregnant at the moment. I saw her pic on Elliott Danker's blog and oh my, what a big tummy she has! Is she carrying sixtuplets?! Hehe.

Elliott Danker is part of their radio show and they said he's there to keep things hot in 2007. So I went to his blog to see how hot he really is. Not my kind of spice I guess. No offence but nice surname albeit, the Dankers I know are not the best looking Eurasians around: Jean (looks weird), Elliott (shouldn't have overrated himself), Laurene (a really sweet gal)... ooh! Just realised that Laurene's sister Lisa is pretty though!

Btw, Joe Augustin's son Jordan is in the same class as my son. They both attend SJI Junior, formerly known as St Michael's School. I was so close to tapping Joe on the shoulder and asking him whether I could work as a part-time DJ...

I wouldn't mind working the late night shift - like after midnight. I'll keep those who are awake company with good music and regale them with interesting stories, etc. At first they'll pay me peanuts because I have no training whatsoever but slowly but surely, the fan base grows until they have no choice but to pay this DJ big bucks for hosting the number one radio show in town! Muahaha. What a nice dream.

Another dream of mine is to be the First Lady or President of Singapore in future. I would love to have my picture up in school halls for the students to admire :P

Back to the topic... I am flabbergasted at the audacity of some people who call in to take part in 91.3's radio contests. Some of them are so stupid, I'm surprised they know how to operate a telephone in the first place. They don't know the answers to the simplest things and yet they call in hoping to win a prize? These people are soooo dumb that it's not funny anymore. 91.3 is too nice by giving these morons prizes!!! Stop the charity already I say and snowball the prizes for listeners who are more deserving please.

I <3 SpongeBob Squarepants!!!

2007-05-05T12:07:00.000+08:00

I knew it! But I'd rather go straight to Heaven...

2007-05-03T17:08:00.001+08:00

Got the following through Din... Thanks hun.

The Dante's Inferno Test has sent you to Purgatory!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very High
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Moderate
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Very Low
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Low
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

Therapy & Exercise @ St James Power Station

2007-04-30T13:54:00.000+08:00

I enjoy blogging. Typing away is so therapeutic. :)

I also enjoy watching writers type away like Carrie did in Sex & the City. This also brings to mind Stephen J Cannell - I can't believe I remember his name after all this while. That means the ending credit featuring his logo was very effective. I recall seeing the ending credits of an 80s show (he did both the A-team and the Greatest American Hero which I loved for being funny and witty) which features him typing, before throwing the sheet from his typewriter whereupon it animates to become his company logo against a black screen.

Backtrack... St James Power Station on 27 April & Adieu to Bro on 28 April

Was @ St James Power Station last Friday. I was actually contented to stay home and watch Survivor but I fell asleep instead. I woke up 15 minutes later and decided not to waste my life away sleeping so I got ready in a jiffy and was out of the house just before midnight. I was hoping to catch the last bus. I didn't want to ride for 2 reasons (1. dun drink and drive & 2. unpredictable weather). Happily, I caught the last 145 at 1210am. I reached my destination half an hour later...

Unfortunately, the place was jam packed. Yes, it was close to 1am and yet people were still waiting to get in. And many more people were arriving in steady streams. The queue was terribly long and when I called Edy to rescue me, I was told he was passed out drunk! Argh! I shda stayed home! So I sms'd him that I was gona kill him for not telling me in advance not to come. His friend must have relayed the msg to him cos' in a few minutes, he was out of the club to bring me back in. This endeavour took 30 long minutes because of incompetent, trying to be important but useless security personnel. We learnt our lesson so when Paulyn came, "rescuing" her took only 5 minutes. It took that long because our dear girl didn't even know where Dragonfly was.

I'm glad I went out despite the bad start to the night because in the end, I met up with long-lost friend Crystal. So Paulyn, Edy, Crys and I sang the night away @ Mono and danced a bit @ Powerhouse. It was a good call for me not to ride because when we exited the club at 5.30am, it was raining. Ended the morning with an early breakfast just outside my road - 2 buttered toast with 2 undercooked soft-boiled eggs and coffee.

Slept a few hours (from 7am to 10am) then it was time to get ready to go to the airport to bid my bro John "Au Revoir & Bon Voyage".

Had lunch @ Delifrance in T1 cos' my bro was flying on Cathay Pacific. The last time I took Cathay Pacific, they gave out mini tubs of Haagen Daaz as dessert & fatass Kenneth asked for seconds. John said they dun do that anymore - give out yummy ice cream tat is.

Btw, the service @ Delifrance T1 is terrible. The manager had an attitude which I promptly pointed out. God forbids they spat at my food in the kitchen. Anyway what pissed me off was that I ordered 2 different fondants but was given the same. "Nevermind" (of course I mind) that it cost me $7 a piece. Then I discovered that I could've ordered a meal and the dessert would've only cost me $2 more. I complained about them not recommending to me this option and good thing I was allowed to top up. For just $10 more, I got a pizza and spaghetti. Retards! The Delifrance staff, not me.

Fast forward: 30 April

Monday morning...

I overslept cos' I only fell asleep at 4am (I didn't want to stay up, was just not sleepy till 4) and not surprisingly, I woke up past 9am! Argh! I can't believe I slept past this morning's Amazing Race All-Stars episode. Darn. That would've made coming to work late worth it. I must have been FAST asleep because I cannot recall hearing my alarms (2 handphones and the TV) going off! Thank GOD it's exam week so I did not miss any lessons. Phew! In my defence, I am feeling slightly under the weather. With the crappy weather we've been having lately, this should come as no surprise. I am having a runny nose and a slightly sore throat. Been drinking lots to combat the impending loss of voice and have been running to the loo as a result. Good exercise.

Speaking of exercise, I told my bro that the next time he sees me, I'm gonna have washboard abs. What inspired me was seeing Zoe Tay's 6 pack in the latest issue of 8 Days. If she can, so can I. I intend to do tons of sit ups (1,000 daily?) and push ups. I think I shall take pix weekly to monitor my progress... That should be fun.

So when dear Edy asked me to go St James again that nite, I decided to get up and go. I was wondering if I should ride there but decided against it cos' it might rain and drunk drivers might be out and about on my way home. Made my way to the bus stop and as expected, when I crossed the road, the 145 arrived on the opposite side of the road. Oh well, I might as well find out if the 131 route is faster and more scenic. Turns out the journey on both buses is about the same.

I danced the night away cos' I was motivated to lose my belly fats. Surprisingly Edy commented that I didn't dance much that night and I looked bored. Did I use to dance more energetically than that? Those were the days. Days of youth... But despite my being not as youthful and energetic, I still managed to attract a guy's attention. I noticed him looking at me while Paulyn and I were tearing up (not) the dancefloor. I felt uncomfortable so when Paulyn mentioned she wanted to go to the Ladies, I flew there with her. However, when Powerhouse was closing, it was just me, Paulyn, Edy and Soon on the dancefloor. So it wasn't hard for my admirer to find me again. He asked if I wanted to dance with him but I declined. I was so shy that I didn't even get a good look of him. I know for sure he's a man but good-looking or not, who knows. My friends say he's not good ennuf for me so there. Anyway, I'm married with kids! Didn't he see my wedding ring?

OMG, Edy is asking me to go to St James again tomorrow night! To go or not to go...

What a week...

2007-04-22T20:55:00.000+08:00

Been more than a week since my last blog. Many things have happened but uppermost in my mind is the Virginia Tech tragedy - may God rest their souls. :(

The last time I blogged, I mentioned that when I cracked an egg into my tom-yum noodles on Friday the 13th, I found two egg yolks. The following Friday, 20 April, I ate tom-yum noodles again. I ate the same thing cos' being the good (not so good, I missed Sunday Mass this week!) Catholic girl, I abstain from meat every Friday and also because, I asked my parents to buy me lotsa tom yum noodle packets from Thailand. God must be telling me He approves cos' amazingly, coincidentally, I cracked an egg with two egg yolks again!

It's been a busy week since my bro John is in town. We went for karaoke on Sunday, 15 April - Ivan and Paulyn came along. She sent me home in her usual daredevil style.

Monday evening, 16 April was my first time in Orchard Road in a long time. I met my bro @ Far East Plaza and we had a fine time window shopping. I couldn't resist buying my fave snacks Clover Chips from Lucky Plaza - it's a cheesy snack from the Philippines that should be much cheaper back home but it's selling for $2.80 per pack over here.
Oh well... I got 4 packets. 2 have already been consumed since then... :P

17 April, James' birthday so I sms'd him my well-wishes. Poor 'boy' had to work till late.

What was supposed to be a short trip to NTUC ended up lasting from 8.30pm to 1.30am! After getting tons of groceries at NTUC, we had supper @ Whampoa cos' my bro wanted to have char kway teow. Lucky me had 2 glasses of my fave sugarcane juice - the best in Sg can be found @ Whampoa Market!

After that, we headed to Mustafa - late night shopping paradise.

I received a surprising sms from Max inviting me to his baby's first month party on Sat, 21 April. Let's just say baby Taylor is 4 months premature... :P The party was held @ his wife's grandma's place cos' old folks can't move about easily. Although I was not keen on going to CCK cos' I head West weekdays for work dammit... I was glad I did cos' I saw Roger and Max's older brother Darren whom I haven't seen in years. Darren's wife Patricia is HOT. So pretty and slim despite having given birth a few months ago to their baby girl. Cowabunga! Too bad I dun have a pic of her but I have a pic of Roger & his missus carrying Taylor, Thomas, new daddy Max and moi. The Lais are growing to be a good-looking family. Brother Darren & his hot wife Patricia have baby girl, ex-Miss Singapore Universe contestant Ivy & Kenneth have super cute & chubby Ryan and on the way, baby girl Sarah who is due in June and congrats again to dear pal Max & Peggy on their new addition Taylor. :)

Today I used my time wisely. In a few hours, I did some laundry, swept, ironed and cooked! I had the afternoon free to catch up on my taped shows. I still have tons to catch up on though cos' mid-way through my TV marathon, my kids say they're hungry so off to the kitchen I went to whip up my corned beef fried rice. Yummy! - if I say so myself. The kids finished it all up :)

Fruitful Saturday ^_^

2007-04-15T00:41:00.000+08:00

Hooray! The new sofa bed finally arrived on Friday the 13th. I didn't even realise it was the notorious date until Justina mentioned it in her blog. She's a nice girl but her English is not that good so I really wonder (question 1) what MOE is up to when hiring such people to mould the future of the nation... Poor Jus is having financial troubles now so it leads to me to wonder again, (question 2) why did she leave her stable teaching job? (question 3) Wonder what Jus taught in school...

Btw, can u believe that there are teachers (some senior) who use the word "dateline" instead of the correct "deadline". OMG!!!

I know I'll make a fabulous teacher but I'm not interested in starting work at 7am! I so want to be a school principal though. A friend of mine pointed out to me a funny news report I missed in today's papers. The news was about a principal who caned a teacher by mistake in KL! Haha. Firstly, who asked that biatch to walk around caning students without warning. She mistook the teacher as a student because she was wearing the same martial arts uniform for CCA. Tsk tsk tsk. Let the punishment fit the crime, I say!

Which reminds me... I witnessed my first student caning last week. A Sec 3 class came in to my lab to use the iMacs. Halfway through the lesson, in comes the discipline master to cane 2 boys who were caught with cigarettes. They were given 3 whacks of the cane each. Poor boys. I could see that it hurt but the class acted like it was nothing and even laughed at their pained expressions. Sigh. I really felt sorry for them and advised them not to smoke again. Hope they listen. I was looking for a picture to add here but stumbled upon this website about caning in M'sia instead - don't click if you don't like the sight of blood!

Back to the original topic... the bed was supposed to come on Wed but the stoopid delivery men called to say they could only make it between 1-3pm when the arranged time was 3-7pm. I was pissed that they reneged on the agreement but I was secretly pleased that they had to postpone the delivery date cos' I was happy to stay on in school (and not have to take time off) and finish up my work.

Besides teaching @ TWSS, I also manage the school website and I'm happy to say that I've gotten many compliments on the recently completed web pages: Tamil Camp, Malay Camp & Caring Day ^_^ With so many school events happening, I have many more web pages to create and photos to edit. There's also an Art website that is outstanding but I'm still waiting for the teacher to give me the materials I need from her. Long overdue...

I was caught in the heavy downpour riding home on Thursday night. It was not raining at all when I left school. And it was only a very light drizzle when I entered the PIE. But by the time I passed the Eng Neo exit, the drops became bigger. Good thing I stopped to wear my raincoat because I didn't want to get the contents of my bag wet, especially the mp3 player I had on my neck & my handphone. I only wore the top part of the raincoat though. I decided to forego the pants. I was lazy to take off my boots. I reached home with soaking slacks right down to my panties :P

So next day (on the infamous Friday the 13th), I decided to take the bus to work. My boots were still wet anyway and I didn't want to risk riding home in heavy rain again. I wore a dress which unfortunately was loose on top and accidentally revealed my tattoo. My student saw it and said "teacher, wah, u have a tattoo ah?" I said "No, I don't have a tattoo". Which is so true. I have tattoos, not a tattoo. Haha. ;)

I left school at 4.30pm so I could reach home before 6. The bed was scheduled to arrive after 6pm. Not surprisingly, the delivery ppl called me while I was on the bus to ask if they could deliver it @ 5.30pm instead. Why do they keep changing the damned time?! I got mad and told them to stick to the arranged time cos' I was still on my way home. Argh! Don't buy furniture from Novena if you want a fixed delivery time. I agreed for the bed to come on Wed evening but when they tried to change it to suit their timetable, I told them to bring it on Saturday instead. Then they had numerous monkeys from their call centre call and bug me to get a different time convenient for them despite my telling them UMPTEEN times that I work Mondays to Fridays from 9 to 6pm! I guess they learnt their lesson cos' the deliverman meekly said they'd be @ my place @ 630pm. Good!

This gave me time to alight at my bus stop and walk to Toa Payoh Central instead where I returned Kay's overdue books (that silly girl!). But bad things lead to good things. On my way to the library, I couldn't resist looking at the many things on sale and one that caught my eye was a gold rat that was perfect for my mother-in-law's b'day gift! The price was right too! I bargained because it had a small defect and got it $2 cheaper :) The salesgirl told me that the green ball was a semi-precious stone (cat's eye)! Kewl!!!

I had to withdraw cash and when I got back, I found the rat had been nicely wrapped in a red box.

Friday the 13th unlucky? Dun think so! Look what I found when I cracked ONE egg into my tom yum noodles for dinner that night... two egg yolks!!!

I happily slurped up my dinner with my half-boiled egg yolks - I love eggs!!! - while watching "Be Strong Geum-Soon".

I chanced on the episodes synopsis and I can't wait to see how the story turns out! Wow, the show has 164 episodes! Friday's episode was #29... that's 135 episodes more to go = 27 weeks more to go! If my calculations are correct, the finale will end in October! Another Korean favorite of mine "Jewel in the Palace" only had 54 episodes and it was considered long.

-=+ Saturday +=-

The kids and I were about to leave for catechism when it started raining heavily. So we decided to stay home instead. I sms'd my sis to tell her we could meet earlier. She came unannounced and expected me to be ready at her whim. What a moron. Anyway, I decided not to go along with them. I had the house to myself. I spent my time well - I washed some stuffed toys and bolsters, I ironed the kids' uniforms, I stitched the holes in my bolsters and tidied up my bedroom.

Only thing I missed was greeting my bro John who flew in from Bangkok today! Whoopeeee!

Tonight, channel 5 featured two good movies as well. I skipped the 1st one because I have the tape and the VCD of "Bring It On". I still remember my bro introducing the movie to us when we were in Perth in December of 2004. I taped and watched the 2nd movie "View From the Top".

The movie had many famous actors (my faves Christina Applegate, Mike Myers and Robe Lowe, as well as Candice Bergen, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kelly Preston) in it but it wasn't a big success. I liked it still. I don't understand why they keep using Mark Ruffalo as the leading man when he isn't that good looking. He must have good connexions. He was with Reese Witherspoon in "Just Like Heaven" and with Jennifer Garner in "13 Going on 30".

This was an eventful week. Something happened on Tuesday but that retelling has to wait...

And most likely, I'll be going on a "business" trip to Pahang in June. Well it's fully paid for by the school :)

I am in the midst of reading True Crime and it's great. At first I didn't like it because I found the writing old fashioned but some of the stories are well-written and I've learnt many new words:

- nostalgie de la boue = literally means "yearning for mud", attraction 2 what is unworthy crude or degrading. Was used in the book to describe the criminal's frequent visits to prostitutes.
- solipsistic = Latin solus alone + ipse self, the theory that "the self can know nothing but its own modifications and that the self is the only existent thing". I feel this way sometimes.
- jingoism = extreme chauvinism or chauvinistic patriotism
- uxoricide = the killing of one's wife

Thank you God for everything! YOU know what I'm talking about. (^_^)

Happy Easter!!!

2007-04-08T01:47:00.000+08:00

-=+ Maundy Thursday +=-

Started the long weekend on Maundy Thursday afternoon :)

Woke up early and left home @ 7am. Instead of taking the PIE and exiting @ Stevens Road, I decided to make a detour and go by Chancery Lane instead to bypass the jam caused by CJC, SJI and people heading to town via Stevens or Newton Road.

Got to the old NIE easily. I'm familiar with the place, thanks to the Wine Company @ Evans. :) The school's Sports Day cum Swim Meet started with a Walkathon. Left the video shooting to the students. I took photographs of the events to put up later on the school website. Had a nice time walking around (some of) the Botanical Gardens.

By the time the school event ended, I was hot and sticky. Poor students had to sit out in the sun! Thankfully, IT head allowed me to go on home :) I just couldn't picture myself doing work back in the lab in my sticky state. As I was waiting for the traffic lights to turn green, I chatted with some students waiting for their turn to cross the road. Suddenly, the car beside me wound down its window and inside were the school counsellor and 2 teachers. In an "Ugly Betty" moment, the 3 of them whipped out their mobile phones to take a picture of me. I protested laughingly but obliged when they told me they were gonna send me the photos :)

Later that night, met up with Leini and we went Church visiting. See Kimmy's blog for details :). In brief, we only visited 3 Churches (St Francis Xavier,
Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Holy Trinity) thanks to our late departure. We ended our visitation at East Coast Park where the kids and their Tita finished their Uno game and their milkshakes.

-=+ Good Friday +=-

Ironed a ton of clothes in the morning. I took almost 2 hours. Ironing the CHIJ pinafores takes me the longest - about 7 to 10 minutes. I ironed 5 pinafores altogether.

Just before 3pm, I gathered the kids together and we watched the Passion of the Christ. Of course we didn't eat meat the whole day.

Unfortunately, I fell asleep watching Survivor which is hardly surprising because idiotic Channel 5 telecast the show at 12-freaking-30 am! Bummer!!! I know the outcome thanks to the Survivor episode recap but I wanted to see what went on.

-=+ Black Saturday +=-

Woke up several times feeling itchy in places. So in the morning, I decided to sun the mattress. It was a herculean task. My queen-sized mattress is so heavy! It was so difficult maneuvering the mattress out to the balcony. By the time I succeeded, my fear that the sun would be too far up the sky to properly shine on my mattress was useless because it started to rain. :(

My mattress is old and after seeing the bottom side exposed, I decided then and there to trash it and get myself a new bed.

Initially I wanted to get a $199 loft bed from Ikea. BUT when I found out that the delivery & assembly charges would cost almost half as much as the item, I decided to look for an alternative. It was then that I decided to get a sofa bed so that I could "fold away" the bed in the day and my dream of having a sofa in my room would be fulfilled as well - two birds with one stone!

I asked my sis about the sofa bed she had. It was the perfect size, had storage space underneath and it looked great as a bed and as a sofa. Best of all, no more disgusting stains cos' the sofa bed could easily be wiped clean. So I went to Novena and got there just as the shop was closing. I only wanted to recce but because the salesman said that the offer price was changing back to the normal price on Easter Sunday, I decided to purchase it then and there. It helped that the name of the sofa bed was "Angel".

After surfing the Ikea sofa beds webpage, I don't feel so bad about splurging $330.50 today. (The bed's offer price was $299 and delivery charge is $31.50 so I got a $2 discount. Big effing deal yeah... :P)

The cheapest Ikea sofa bed is $245 and delivery charge is $40.

It's white and although the cover can be removed for washing, I don't think it looks nice and comfortable. I love my black faux leather cover which I can easily wipe clean. Plus it's comfortable to sit and lie on. And it comes with a foldable coffee table/arm rest! :)

For $45.50 extra, I get a nicer looking sofa bed which will arrive on Easter Wednesday afternoon. God-willing the delivery men will take the old mattress away free of charge cos' it is a good brand after all.

I spent another $50 on groceries - cheese pork sausage, cheese tofu, fruit juice, chocolate milk...

I left my old mattress in the balcony so it can capture the Easter Sunday sun as soon as it rises.

In the meantime, I'll be sleeping on the tiny Winnie the Pooh sofa bed. I don't want to sleep on the floor because unfortunately, I have spotted lizards crawling on the floor before! *$&% basturdz! Not many at one go, but different ones at separate times.

So it's great that the sofa bed is slightly higher off the ground than my mattress was. Best of all, I can store my old magazines or watever underneath!

I also spent the night creating blogs for all my kids. After doing up Kimmy's and seeing how nice it turned out, the other two (Kay and Keefe) wanted one each as well.

Happily, my sis told me that I could watch the Survivor episode I missed y'day on youtube! And that's why I posted this blog so that I could while away time while waiting for the videos to load.

I just checked - I'm done with this post and so are the loading of the videos. :) Perfect.

Gonna go Easter Egg hunting after Easter Day Mass later. Happy Easter!!!

Caring Day 2007

2007-03-28T14:07:00.000+08:00

What a tiring day Caring Day is for me.

Firstly, I got up @ 5am this morning (slept @ 1am mind u) cos' I was afraid if the weather was bad, I'd have to take the bus (1 hour journey). Thankfully, it didn't rain so I left home @ 6.40am and reached school at 7am - a record time, earliest I've reached school thus far.

Since I left school @ 8pm last night, this means I'm back in school in less than 12 hours!

Then, later that morning, I had to lug around a video camera and a digital camera to capture the day's events @ various locations. From school to Kranji Reservoir to Pasir Ris Park to the Institute of Medical Health and back. I navigated while Andrew drove. Got back to school at exactly noon. Tired and hungry.

The book is due tomorrow (29 March). As I finished reading the last chapter, I was afraid I would spill tears on my fried kuay teow lunch. I want to leave the world the same way: much loved, revered and sorely missed.

It's close to 3pm and after having a good lunch and a cup of cereal to boot, I'm ready to hit the sack. Unfortunately, despite CCA (MediaBytes) being cancelled, there are students who remain in the IT room so here I am typing away to keep myself awake.

Super Rainy Monday morning...

2007-03-26T13:25:00.000+08:00

According to Karen Carpenter, rainy days and Mondays always get her down.

Then she would be twice as miserable today because this Monday morning was a super wet one.

Thankfully mum-in-law woke up and offered to drive Kay to school. It so happened that leaving for school at the same time were the twins whom my daughters dislike. So when the lift arrived at our floor, my mum-in-law told them to go down first. Which was fortuitous because while waiting for the next lift, I realised that I'd left my handphone behind. Phew!

However, when we reached the ground floor, the twins were still there, putting on their raincoats. I think they purposely did their dress-up right in front of the lift so that my mum-in-law would have no choice but to offer them a ride. Which she did.

While driving past Sun Yat Sen's villa, deja vu struck. It was raining as heavily last Monday as well. Only thing different is the red altar is gone. Not a trace of it.

My 1st good deed was to shelter my daughter and the twins from the car to the school gate, getting myself drenched in the process because the rain was pelting so hard. I think it's sad that the twins and my girls don't get along. They are neighbours and schoolmates after all. I vaguely recall seeing the twins as babies. How time flies.

When mum-in-law dropped me at my bus stop, I was too bz making sure I didn't get wet that I totally didn't realise that the bus in front of us was my bus!!! So I missed it by a whisker. :(

The next 985 came 15 minutes later. Thank goodness I didn't ride to work today. The traffic was very bad, as expected.

2nd good deed I did was press the bell when I noticed a lady running to catch the bus. The bus stopped and the lady got in. None the wiser that I had helped her. I feel like an angel or fairy.

Thanks to the terrible traffic, I only reached school close to 9am!

-=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=-

I was supposed to spend the weekend recuperating from "jet lag". However, as I was groggily trying to watch Survivor and slowly but surely drifting off to la-la land... I received smses to go drinking and karaoke. I decided to kill two birds with one stone and asked Ivan to join me to meet Edy @ St James' Power Station.

Edy was @ Dragonfly that night and we spent the rest of the night in the karaoke room. Silly me only took time off to visit the loo! I didn't check out the rest of the place (the dancefloor) and the other clubs as well! I guess I'll have to use Edy's membership another time so I can check out the nightspot properly. The place closes @ 6am but by 530am, everything was over. So I reached home at 6am, just in time to see a rerun of Ellen.

I was up in less than 3 hours to attend a Parent-Teacher Talk at CHIJ Secondary (Toa Payoh). Man was I stoned! That was an exhausting Saturday for me.

-=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=-

According to MSN.com today:

This baby fat may look cute, but other studies have shown that infants may not outgrow their adiposity and end up becoming overweight children, adolescents, and adults.

I agree, totally! I was a skinny kid and yet, I still have to fight the bulge now. So I can imagine it's even harder for former teletubbies.
So peeps can say all they want about my kids being skinny, but at least they won't have weight issues (not as much) when they grow up.

-=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=-

I am the total opposite of Wendy Cheng. She said in her blog that she will always take cabs, never public transport. I on the other hand, would rather give my money to a stray dog than take a cab, if I can take the bus. That's me.

TGIF...

2007-03-23T08:42:00.001+08:00

What a week...

I think I've gotten over the "jet lag" that my parents' visit induced. I was able to stay up and watch TV till late, like before. I managed to watch a touching episode of "Without a Trace" and watch 2 days worth of taped shows, while ironing the kids' uniforms at the same time. Time well-spent :)

My mum-in-law is angry with my 2nd dotter. I think it's ridiculous that someone her age is quarrelling with a 10-year old kid. What happened to "older and wiser"? Or "pick someone your own age"? I guess she's venting her frustrations of not having a maid on poor Kay. Kay didn't help matters by answering back. So in retaliation, the mum-in-law refuses to drive her to school so I've had to walk her to school y'day and this morning as well. I dun mind because I love the morning exercise in the fresh air. Because I'm waiting for my bus to work by 720am, I get to school around 8am. Best of all, I'm seated in air-conditioned, stress-free comfort listening to the radio on my mp3 player and reading "Tuesdays with Morrie" and occasionally watching the heavy traffic outside. Thank goodness I dun have to deal with it. :)

Monday: 19 March 2007 - St Joseph's feast day
I forgot to mention that the red altar that had a Chinese god (black statue - what deity is that?) which used to stand along the path leading to the Burmese temple, went up in flames last Monday morning. It was my 1st day waking up early with my girls. It was fortuitous (lucky & fortunate despite having the same meaning, seem inadequate) that just when we reached mum-in-law's car that drops of rain started to fall. As we drove past Sun Yat Sen Villa (I'm the neighbour of the 1st President of China hee), Kimmy noticed a huge fire on our left and lo and behold, despite the rain, the red altar was ablaze! Too bad I didn't get to take a picture of it.

That's my home in the background ~ aquamarine & white bldg

Note: oops, just checked with Ivan. It's not a black statue, it was a red statue - the Chinese god of justice!

Although it was raining cats and dogs when I boarded my bus, somewhere on the PIE, the rain stopped. When I reached school, there was no sign of rain at all. I looked weird carrying a wet umbrella. This reminds me of the time it was raining on one side of the Church and the other side was bright and sunny! I think it's really cool how the weather can be so different in different places. While we're suffering from heat here in Sg, frens in Canada are shivering from the cold.

Speaking of buses... I've encountered lots of weirdos on it this week. Thank goodness not the rowdy, trying to be cool adolescents who are just itching for someone to give them a tight slap on their obnoxious faces... but old folks who put up their legs on bus seats. I shudder to think that I'm seated where someone previously had his disgusting feet on it.

I thought I could finally catch up with my social life now that my parents are back in Bangkok then I realised, no maid! I've got a bottle of Canadian wine waiting for me. Harry Potter DVDs waiting to be collected. Invites to go on short holidays, karaoke, clubbing... No choice, I've got to take a raincheck again.

I really wish I could go on a fortnight-long holiday to Australia in early April. My bro is moving from Perth to Melbourne and I would love to go on a road-trip with him. We can use the $500 he'd spend on transporting his car on the train, to finance fuel and food purchases instead. What a cool adventure that would be... God willing I can make it!

Freakin' Cough...

2007-03-16T14:09:00.000+08:00

After I waxed lyrical about the pleasures of taking the bus in my previous post, the next bus ride I take proves to be a nightmare. I'm not surprised. U jinx urself by saying something is nice.

Anyway, I took the bus to Shenton Way y'day afternoon because I had a training session to attend back at HQ. Things started out well - I left the school at 1.30pm to get to my 1.45pm appointment. Just as I reached the bus stop, the 190 arrives! :) I board the bus and I get my preferred seat - seat at the back with the hump, by the window (with no annoying ads to blur the view).

Then the horror started.

Horror 1: Being on the bus with terribly annoying and noise-polluting people

After getting comfy in my seat, I realised that seated at the back row of the bus were a bunch of boys who thought they were being cool by blasting songs out of their mobile phones. Nevermind, I simply drowned out their noise by putting on my earphones and cranking up the volume slightly. Serves those boys right that an old man who must have used to be like them gave them a scolding for monopolising the back seats with their legs stretched out. A nice young Indian chap also chipped in by requesting the mobile phone blaster to tone down his noise.

Horror 2: Being one of the terribly annoying, noise-polluting people!

Just as the bus had filled up to the brim, I was suddenly hit by coughing fit! NB! The more I tried to keep it in, the stronger the urge to cough. I tried to distract myself with my book, the radio and the view but it was no use. The freaking cough kept bursting out. So no choice, I had to cough out loudly periodically throughout the whole bus ride.

I wanted to ride to work today in case my coughing spasm returned but I plan to meet the family later so no choice, had to take the bus again. Happily, I didn't cough too badly. But there were 3 Indians seated at the back row talking as if they had swallowed a microphone. Thank goodness for my mp3 player.

I wonder how it will be like riding while coughing non-stop... well, good thing I didn't ride after all cos' looks like it's gonna rain again.

I'm still coughing hard but at least I'm alone and not bothering / annoying / disgusting anyone. God-willing when it's time to go back home, my coughing would be over and done with. If not, I guess I'll just have to walk to Church to meet the family. (St Joseph's Church is probably half an hour brisk-walk away...)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Trying to find out who's the latest cast-off from Survivor but the website is not updated yet! Grrr...

But it's all good. In my quest to find some news about Survivor Fiji's latest episode, I stumbled upon two interesting finds:

1- This bitch quit Survivor a day before the show started. Her spot could've been filled by someone else if she had quit earlier. She shouldn't even have joined dammit!
www.fhmonline.com/articles-3698.asp?cnl_id=3&stn_id=17&idx_id=3698

2- Dominic Purcell who plays death-row brother Lincoln on Prison Break is an Aussie. Lots of hot Aussies turning up in Hollywood.
www.fhmonline.com/articles-3500.asp

Juz Popped In...

2007-03-15T13:04:00.000+08:00

Woke up late today but I'm sick so I excused myself. Went about my daily routine (cold shower, dried up, dressed up, put on make-up while dancing to the radio / listening to CNA then dried my hair with the fan on full blast while watching CNA and had my cuppa). By the time I was done, it was 1030am. But I'm sick so it's OK. Blew my nose. Left for work - decided not to ride since I'm heading to Shenton Way later - my bus arrived at 11:05am. Reached school around 11:45am! But I'm sick, so it's OK.

I loved the bus ride today. I always do especially when I get my preferred seat and the bus is nice and empty. But what made my ride even more pleasurable was this book I'm reading: So Much To Tell You by John Marsden. The National Library came to the school and I chanced upon the book and decided to borrow it because it's the winner of Australia's 1988 Book of the Year award. I'm so glad I did. A must read.

Here are some reviews on the book: http://owl.infosys.utas.edu.au/reading_room/books/42.html
http://www.buildingrainbows.com/bookreview/reviewid/472

I'm leaving school now because there's training at HQ (that's why I'm heading to Shenton Way).

Need to leave now so I can meet up with B @ Funan @ 1:45pm. It's already 1:17! Need to pass him his belated b'day gift too, to lighten my bag and see the look on his face hehe. :)

Still ill...

2007-03-14T17:00:00.000+08:00

Weird... yesterday I received smses from friends whom I haven't heard from in a long time. Unfortunately, this week is a bad time for me to catchup with friends for 3 reasons:

1- I'm still under the weather: coughed like mad this afternoon and still can't smell a dang thing. Lunch tasted like cardboard but I have no choice but to eat cos' people keep buying me lunch! God provides :)
2- It's the March school holidays so all free time should be spent with my kids
3- My parents are in town for vacation so all free time should be spent with them as well

So too bad, I had to turn down the invites to go drinking / catchup session / movie / celebrate birthday / karaoke. Why are all these outings popping up when I'm not available?!

Darned, it rained heavily in the mid-afternoon and I thought it was over and done with.
I'm stuck in school close to 7pm thanks to another heavy downpour. Looks like I might have to leave my bike in school overnight again. I HATE riding in the rain.

Note to self:

- http://profile.imeem.com/6_1WNt/playlist/EzqgVWSK/ - new music website found thanks to my student ^_^

Random thots of a sick person...

2007-03-13T16:19:00.000+08:00

I was supposed to send my daughter to school yesterday morning to give my mother-in-law a break but she offered to do so anyway so... I watched the Amazing Race All-Stars before leaving for work. Man, what an episode. The fun team members to watch, Rob & Amber, are out! Dang!!!

I don't have any strong supportive feelings for the teams that are left. I'm willing to root for Eric and Danielle, then Teri and Ian second. As much as I like Uchenna, I think past winners of the Amazing Race should not be allowed in again. But he'd be my 3rd choice.

The teams that I absolutely do NOT want to see win are the "Beauty" queens (I don't find Kandice beautiful at all, wonder how she won her crown... and the 2 sluts behave oh-so-bitchily) and Charla & Mirna. I used to like the midget and her cousin but I find their recent behaviour quite annoying.

I'm not so keen on the two teams left cos' of their personalities that don't sit well with me. I have nothing against gays. I don't dislike them cos' they're gay but they seem like particularly bitchy couples to me. I would love to see these teams have a showdown with the "beauty" queens. I bet the girls would run home crying.

Anyway read this in the news...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070313/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/military_gays

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Peter Pace --> my hero

Brave man airing his views knowing full well that gay people and gay rights activists will slam him. But the truth is the truth. I truly believe gayness is a sickness and that people who are gay can't help who they are but they can control their actions.

Today, I volunteered to send my daughter to school again and I did. Unfortunately, after dropping her off at school, I missed my bus by a few seconds (half an overhead bridge to be exact) so I had to wait for the next one. The next bus took a blardy 30 minutes later to come! Argh! I could've walked home and ridden to work...

Oh well, a sick person shouldn't be riding anyway although I feel bad when I cough on the bus. I dun care about spreading germs but I'm particular about noise pollution and don't want to be an active contributor.

I think I'll see the doctor tomorrow and hopefully get 2 days of medical leave :)

Sick & getting fat!

2007-03-11T23:13:00.000+08:00

Last year, I discovered the fastest way for me to lose weight: get stomach flu.

I had been trying to lose weight i.e. exercising now and then / cutting down on lunch now and then, to not much success. Of course I knew that if I exercised more regularly and vigorously, I'd probably see the results I wanted but I wasn't up for it.

One late night of January 2006, I had supper at a popular prata cafe just opposite Mustafa Shopping Centre. I wasn't that hungry but since everyone was eating, I had plain nasi briyani with a yummy mango drink. The next day, (which was my first day at work in a new school) I had a funny feeling in my stomach. I tried to ignore it but I found myself running to the loo...

When u're running to the loo,
and it shoots down to ur shoe,
it's diarrhoea (2x)

When u look down at ur sh**,
and it looks like curry mix,
it's diarrhoea (2x)

(Sadly, that's all I remember of this song I first heard during my secondary school days...)

Happy to say, I made it in time. God forbids the shoe thing ever happens to me!

I knew something was wrong when I burped and I could taste what I had for supper the previous night! I didn't want to take medical leave cos' as I said, it was my first day at work! I had already taken leave the previous week to settle my kids' first week at school, so getting an MC, although urgently needed, was not an option.

I somehow braved the next 3 days in my miserable state. I didn't have any appetite to eat thanks to the burps that left a horrible taste in my mouth. Not surprisingly, everything out + nothing in + keeping on the move = losing lots of weight. Needless to say, it made all my suffering worth it! (^_^)

There's always good in bad I believe. Hooray to food poisoning! :P

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Fast forward to March 2007...

I am sick again but this time with the flu / sore throat / blocked nose / headache. I am prone to getting sore throat. I just lost my voice early this year and had to conduct classes despite having little of my voice left. I remember croaking painfully in classes. So because talking is a big part of my job, I fought hard against losing my voice again (especially so soon!). I succeeded but I still have to contend with a throbbing head and a blocked nose. It started with a painful throat on Thursday morning, a super runny nose in the afternoon and ended with a bad fever by night. I've downed a whole bottle of cough medicine, almost finished a pack of children's panadol and finished my flu medicine - and I'm still not OK.

Normally I'd be happy to be sick cos' being sick means losing weight but not this time. To make matters worse, my time of the month has come at the same time. I've had tons of things to do despite my condition. I also had to forego some things thanks to my bad state.

Yesterday was my daughter's birthday. My parents arrived for a week long holiday here just this morning. So I've spent the past few days up and about, eating non-stop and I still have tons of leftovers to deal with. When all I really want to do is rest in bed.

The last time I was sick, I at least had the silver lining of losing weight. What's my silver lining this time?!

"For to those who love God, everything turns unto good!"

Good help is very hard to find...

2007-03-08T19:05:00.000+08:00

A few weeks ago, I read a horrific account on Wendy Cheng's blog about a maid having a tryst with her boyfriend - in broad daylight, plain for all to see, the guy was dry humping the maid in a phone booth and when they parted ways, horror of horrors, the maid was actually carrying a baby in her arms! What a gruesome threesome!!!

Lesson: Never leave your kids alone with the maid!

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Next story... on 3rd March 2007, an Indonesian maid's face was splashed on the front page of the Home section because she fell trying to get back into her employer's home. Siti snuck out at 3am to meet her Bangladeshi boyfriend and returned home to find the door locked. The maid had the audacity to leave the door unlocked, leaving her employers at the mercy of intruders.

So finding she couldn't get back home via the front door, she tried to get back in by climbing up to the fourth storey but she lost her footing and ended up fracturing her arm and injuring her head and legs.

Lesson: Live on a higher storey.

But that really won't hinder the maid. We live on the 10th floor and our maid still escapes. One time my mother-in-law locked her out, she simply waited for my father-in-law to come back home and let her in. Go figure...

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Funnily enough, the very next day after the news about the falling maid, another maid's atrocious actions came out in the papers. An Indonesian maid was stunned by her employers' coming home earlier than expected so she asked her boyfriend to hide outside on the ledge. The poor guy stood out there for 5 hours while the maid went on with her chores, pretending nothing was amiss.

His precarious hiding place only came to light when a concerned neighbour rang the doorbell to tell the family that someone wanted to commit suicide outside their kitchen ledge.

Lesson: Don't stick to a fixed routine!

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I'm not really shocked by the stories above because as I've said, our maid does the same darned thing! She also uses a bolster or pillow and covers it with a blanket to fool us into thinking she is in bed fast asleep. Not surprisingly, her contract is not being extended so she is leaving us next Friday. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

I was the one who uncovered her shenanigans because one time, I woke up around 3 in the morning (Yikes! 3AM! The Exorcism of Emily Rose...) Finding nothing good on TV, I went online instead. I was startled when I heard the front door being opened at 630am. It was the maid creeping in and she looked taken aback to see me up as well. I asked her where she came from, and she said she had gone down to wash the cars. I saw that she had been prepared with that lie cos' she had the pail with her. I asked her how come I didn't see her leave when I was on the PC since 3am and she claimed she went out while I was in the toilet. What fast thinking! She's not as slow-minded as I thought... But what a load of bullcrap cos' although of course I took a toilet break, I always do it quickly and I would definitely have heard her leaving.

But what revealed her story for the con that it was, was this:- I went to bed soon after she got back. I woke up just before noon. I asked my mother-in-law if the maid went down to wash the cars that morning and as expected, she said yes. I asked her what time, and mother-in-law said around 10am! Aha! Of course I told my mother-in-law how "hard-working" the maid was by washing the cars twice that day.

How I Can Make My World A Better Place

2007-03-05T18:54:00.000+08:00

Here's one hidden treasure found in one of the boxes in the upper cabinet... the poem I wrote when I was in Sec 4! Which was ^$ years ago... :P

We were asked to write poems based on a topic given during Literature lesson and my poem won and it was put in the school's 'Prize-Giving and Farewell Ceremony for Secondary School Leavers' Booklet. ^_^

*Ahem* Here goes...

How I Can Make My World A Better Place

One thing I can do on my part
Is not to start what's bad for my heart
Smoking, drugs and other sorts of pollution
Should be stopped to continue evolution.

How to make this world a better place
Is a responsibility too, of every race
We should take care of the Earth
Because, after all, she's the planet of our birth.

Without our lands, oceans and trees
Every sort of life would cease
So unless we want to number our days
We have to change our hazardous ways.

We must take care of our gift from above
Protect her, treasure her and treat her with love
It's time for us to realise -
Without our help, our world will die!

Marie Angelica Itao
Sec 4E
St. Joseph's Convent

Saturday, 12th October 199x (teehee... :P)

Out & About

2007-03-03T20:48:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, I accepted my colleague/friend's invitation to attend the Infocomm Awards with him. I was happy to for the following reasons:
- Event was at MOS
- Free entry
- Free dinner

As I was walking out of school, it started to drizzle. Thank GOD I chose not to ride to work. By the time my bus arrived, it was raining cats and dogs. My slacks were soaking wet. I alighted and darn, it was still pouring. I had trouble crossing over to Clarke Quay cos' I missed the underpass sign and decided to jaywalk instead. I was so miserable standing in the heavy downpour, getting my slacks wet all over again and regretting leaving the comfort of my office.

However, my mood changed as soon as I entered. I forgot all about my wet slacks as soon as my friend passed me my goodie bag and he mentioned that one of the freebies inside was a thumb drive! Woohoo! Vernon A was a great emcee - he was so funny! The winners of the Infocomm Competition were mostly top schools. I enjoyed the dance performances as well. Best of all, the dinner proved to be superb. The spread was wonderful - seafood pasta, prawn fritters, mushrooms with turkey bacon, delicious creamy mashed potatoes, brownies and walnut carrot cake. I had second helpings of mashed taters and prawn, washed down with refreshing cranberry juice.

The event started at 4pm and ended at 730pm. The students left with their teacher and headed back to school. My friend and I decided to sit al fresco where we could finally have some fags. The ambience was nice but a bottle of wine costs $60. Happy hour offer was just 30% off alcoholic drinks so I settled for mocha instead. Because my friend was dying to have wine, he wanted to get the bottle but I refused to stay put. I suggested that we go to the Wine Company instead where a bottle of wine sells for as little as $28!

Happy to say, my friend was not disappointed. :) However, because he didn't like sweet or white wines, I couldn't try the wine Janice recommended. Of all stars to see that night, I saw one who I dislike - Michelle Chong. But because she looked so good that night, I decided that I'm okay with her now. This might change if they rerun Seoul Far, So Good on Channel 5 again.

Had a good time and went home feeling sated. Had a good sleep, so good that I forgot about my 5am Scrubs! Damn! Oh well.

Woke up at 730am. Watched some TV. Fell asleep again and got up when my alarm rang at 11am - time for The Biggest Loser. Got ready as soon as the show ended and made it to Borders 10 minutes past the arranged meeting time of 1pm. :P Late as usual. Oops.

I suggested having lunch at Fish & Co and happily, Fe complied. Had my yummy New York Fish & Chips with rice. Managed to finish only half so had the rest packed. Went home to bring the kids to catechism. Donated several bags and an old Hello Kitty clock to the Church's collection bin (proceeds of the sale of items go to the needy). Went home, watched Malcolm in the Middle and had the rest of my Fish & Co for dinner. Super stuffed now. Wish I didn't eat it all. I feel kinda sick. Maybe I should take some laxatives...

As busy as a bee...

2007-02-27T14:25:00.000+08:00

I've been occupying myself pretty well lately. I've been decluttering my bedroom and my work station. It feels great doing something constructive. :)

And it's all because sometime late last year, I decided to stop hoarding stuff and start clearing out my clutter. I did bits of tidying here and there but not that much. In preparation for the Lunar New Year, a big container was placed at our carpark for people to dump their discarded items in. I saw people throw out mattresses, cabinets, bicycles, etc. I hope that these things were recycled.

The spring-cleaning bug only hit me after CNY. My mum-in-law must think I'm nuts for starting my tidying up only now. Better late than never :P

I've also been spending lots of online time reading Wendy Cheng aka Xiaxue's blog. I totally enjoy and am entertained by her posts - love her sense of humour & agree with most of her logic/nonsense.

As usual, I also dedicate some time to my favourite hobbies (in order of time spent, from most to less):
- Watching TV Ellen, Amazing Race: All-Stars, Survivor Fiji, That 70s show reruns, Friends reruns, American Idol, Japan Hour, True Files, Scrubs (Woohoo! It's back BUT at 5am on weekdays! Argh!), Malcolm in the Middle, etc)
- Reading Nicholas & Alexandra (ill-fated last Tsar of Russia & his empress)
- Dancing & singing (whenever there's a good song on the radio)

-=-+-=-

While I was bz doing my usual stuff, some people were bz winning money! Leini's roommate struck lottery 3x and won lotsa $$$! Lucky SOB! He was nice enough to give us a fab treat at Ichiban Sushi. Lucky me had 2 plates of salmon sashimi to eat all to myself! Woohoo! Weirdos dunno how to enjoy the good stuff! I stuffed myself with other delish dishes such as the Lobster Salad Inari, Cheese Maki, Soft-shelled Crab, California roll, baby octopi, vegetable tempura and cream pastry. *burp*

It was sweet of him to get Kay the latest Barbie movie on VCD from Popular. I bought a few stuff from Popular as well so when I was throwing out my receipts, I thought the cashier was being funny by putting 1,000 - $13.90 and then I realised that was the receipt for Kay's VCD! He used another $1K note to pay for the Japanese dinner. Wonder how much he won in total...

When's my turn to win some big money?! Then I can pay someone to tidy and makeover my room and happily donate all my unwanted but nice stuff to charity.

Wait a minute! What am I talking about? WHEN (God willing) I finally strike it big at Toto or 4D or Singapore Sweep, I will get my own pad man! I will build myself a beautiful home with the requisite swimming pool, a pool table, a mahjong room that is surrounded by glass (not mirrors - we don't want cheats), a lovely garden, a fountain and a jacuzzi. And parked in my garage will be my personalised baby blue and lavender VW Cabriolet!

OK time to check if I struck it big last nite... wish me luck! ^_^

P.S. As expected... no such luck. All the numbers I bought (chosen and quick picked) were not the winning combinations! Argh! When?! Dammit! When?!

P.P.S. Forgot to mention that here's one hidden treasure found in one of the boxes in the upper cabinet... the poem I wrote when I was in Sec 4! We were asked to write poems based on a topic during Literature lesson and my poem won and it was put in the school's 'Prize-Giving and Farewell Ceremony for Secondary School Leavers' Booklet. ^_^

*Ahem* Here goes...

How I Can Make My World A Better Place

One thing I can do on my part
Is not to start what's bad for my heart
Smoking, drugs and other sorts of pollution
Should be stopped to continue evolution.

How to make this world a better place
Is a responsibility too, of every race
We should take care of the Earth
Because, after all, she's the planet of our birth.

Without our lands, oceans and trees
Every sort of life would cease
So unless we want to number our days
We have to change our hazardous ways.

We must take care of our gift from above
Protect her, treasure her and treat her with love
It's time for us to realise -
Without our help, our world will die!

Marie Angelica Itao
Sec 4E
St. Joseph's Convent
Saturday, 12^th October 199x (teehee... :P)

Unexpected finds...

2007-02-25T13:51:00.000+08:00

As I've said many times, one of my favourite hobbies is going to 2nd hand shops, thrift stores & flea markets to look for treasure. Little did I know that all this while, I had hidden treasure in my very own room!

I decided to clear out the top cabinets today so I could put in stuff that is cluttering my room. On the floor, I have an unopened brand new steamboat which I won from my D&D 2005! I want to put that and my collection of board games in the top cabinets.

Would you believe that some of the stuff I've been keeping out of sight and thus out of mind are diapers I bought for Keefe - and he hasn't needed it since he was a baby back in 1999! Lol! I also have breast pads, a bulky videocamera circa 1990s and old stuffed toys. I am going to donate these items to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. I was surprised to find two new tops in a paper bag and happily for my kids, I unearthed 2 great toys - playdough set and brand new Lego!

I was at Ikea yesterday and it would be fabulous to have a clutter-free bedroom like they have in their showcases. Best of all, some of my finds are sellable so I am thinking of going to Cash Converters to see if they will buy my stuff. Knowing me, I will use the money I make from Cash Converters to buy stuff from their store hehe. Nothing lost but everything to gain I say.

Return of the unwelcome...

2007-02-23T16:28:00.000+08:00

Great! It seems that the morons who can't drive are back from their holiday. Traffic was still relatively smooth but my journey to school was about 7 minutes' longer. I encountered more than the usual road hoggers today - lotsa lorries, trucks and a 190 bus going at a snail's pace.

Because it was still windy, I was afraid to speed up cos' I always get the feeling I'll float away like the Wicked Witch of the East (or was it West?) did when she was riding her bicycle in the Wizard of Oz.

Although I still encounter strong winds riding to and from work, last night, I had to use the fan for the first time in many weeks. Gone is the beautiful, strong breeze that ventilated my room in weeks past.

Ash Wednesday (which was on 21 February this year) signifies that Lent has started. The irony is that I forgot all about it and made the rare decision to buy lunch from the canteen that afternoon. There goes my fast & abstinence to mark the occasion. Oops.

The devil is really around because only now that Lent has started do I get this strong urge to buy lunch these past few days when I have survived skipping lunch all this while! I'm happy to say that I managed to stay strong and resist the urge of getting lunch. It's hard cos' lunch here in school is so cheap. A meal usually costs less than $2!

6 more weeks to Good Friday. God willing I remember to do more good deeds, abstain and fast as much as possible.

Happy Year of the Pig indeed!

2007-02-22T14:03:00.000+08:00

Started work yesterday after a nice long break (which started on the afternoon of 16 Feb) thanks to the Lunar New Year holiday (19 & 20 Feb). Spent the holidays making plans to meet up with friends but ended up choosing to stay home, lie in bed all day watching TV and eating A LOT instead. What a fitting way to start the Year of the Pig. :)

Coming to work yesterday was a breeze. Most of the bad drivers in Sg must be still away on holiday! Woohoo!!! Normally it takes me over 20 minutes to get to work but because the roads were not crowded, I got to school in 15 minutes! :)

Bad drivers MIA in Sg was confirmed by my ride home which was just as smooth and fast.

It's the Year of the Golden Pig to boot so God-willing it's a really good year for all of us. I sure could use it. Just before the Lunar new year, got a miserly ang bao from the boss (while lucky Edy got $500 from his!), a tiny bonus and lost quite a sum of money @ mahjong. I have a feeling my luck's about to change... for the better God-willing!

Gong Xi Fa Cai

2007-02-20T15:34:00.000+08:00

CNY celebrations started on Friday, at school. I actually succeeded in reaching school bright and early, i.e. 745am. Normally, I would have just finished my shower and would be deciding what to wear.

Could've left school earlier but as usual, I was so into the work groove by mid-afternoon that it was hard to pull myself away at 430pm. I might as well have left school later cos' I waited till 5pm for the dang bus to arrive!

On the bright side, if I had left later, I woulda been caught in the sudden heavy downpour. Good thing I didn't ride to school. Quite a few people liked seeing me in my navy blue cheongsam anyway :)

Played mahjong with Edy, Andy & Wen Hui and a really good looking new friend. God willing I get to play more mahjong with him. Not cos' he's such eye candy but because he's a really nice guy. He didn't lose his temper at all despite his streak of bad luck plus he was very sweet. :P

Lost $80... argh!!! Would've lost much more if not for my amazing zì mō win of 4 doubles for the very last game. That's $23 each from everyone. To top it all off, the 60K tile tile that I picked was the middle tile (to complete my 50k and 70k set) and the VERY last one available! So if I didn't pick the winning tile myself, there was no way I could've won. Reallllllly lucky I must say.

Sigh, the things I could've done with the $80... like buy a nice Japanese or pasta or Fish & Co dinner and a bottle of wine, OR a much needed hair treatment OR massage, OR nice karaoke session... basically a lot of things...

Sat: had reunion dinner. Wore my Happy Day Spongebob Squarepants t-shirt. Was supposed to go out but decided to laze in bed instead.

Sun: Out visiting in the morning. Wore a very lovely Japanese-style top (shiny, velvety black with pink cherry blossoms, which Paulyn gave me for my b'day last year) and brand new pants which I got from Metro 2 years ago! Even Emerald Hill grandma-in-law liked the top cos' she asked how much I got it for. Back just in time to catch the latter half of Japan Hour. Ate so much today. Must work out all the new year goodies fats.

Mon: Leini & bf came to visit. Went for early Fish & Co dinner; had my fave New York Fish & rice - yum!!! Was co-erced into watching a movie: Epic Movie was a waste of my $40 (paid for 5 peeps). Grrr!!!

Was supposed to play mahjong but after the yummy dinner, decided to stay in and laze in bed instead. The mj kaki was just not tempting enuf. If it was Goh, it'd be another story. :P

Tues: almost done with CSI: Double Dealer.
Dyed my hair Elegant Burgundy with the hair dye (Hoyu, Japan's no.1 hair colour) I bought last nite ($10 only!).
Might go out tonite... been tua-ing Ivan a few nites already. Feel bad. I'll give him a nice ang pow to make up for it :)

Cool buys from Flea Markets (^_^)

2007-02-16T13:40:00.000+08:00

I love hunting for treasure at Flea Markets and Thrift Shops. My favourite buys are:

- A picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Help from Cash Converters (only $4!)

- An Eygptian framed picture of Isis from Thieves' Market (only $4!)

- A nice gingerbread type Church coin bank from Cash Converters ($2!)

- A pretty castle coin bank, Marvin the Martian glass, beer mugs, Beer board game, travel Monopoly, travel Cluedo, assorted VCDs from Cash Converters

- A Spiderman mug and Marvin the Martian glass from Cash Converters in Perth, Australia

- A brand new blue wallet for $10 from Zouk's Flea & Easy.

- 2 pretty rose bracelets for Kimmy and Kay from China Square.

- Assorted Christmas bunting and books from the Salvation Army

- I also get lotsa 2nd-hand books from Bras Basah

- I also bought a $20 elastic Swatch watch from the Salvation Army

So much treasure found... and so much clutter in my room. I need to sell away some stuff that I got as presents that are just an eyesore really... like a weird Virgo wood carving from Edmund which he gave to me when we were dating back in secondary school! That's almost 15 years ago!

The day after Valentine's Day

2007-02-15T20:15:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was my sis' bf's birthday and also the death anniversary of a friend whom I got to know on the Internet. Good thing I remembered to sms him b'day greetings and sent my condolences to her family via their memorial guestbook.

I left school at 8.30pm last night. It was a good thing I came in late y'day morning or I'd be feeling really crappy. Then again, if I came in early, I'd probably have ended my work earlier rite? :P

My plan was to go to the bank before work to get $2 notes for Chinese New Year. I intended to reach school by 10am latest cos' my earliest class y'day started at 1230pm.

However, I ended up reaching Upper Bukit Timah after 10am so I decided to drop by the Salvation Army thrift store.

Address: Praisehaven 500 Upper Bt Timah Road S(678106)
Operating hours: Mon – Thu: 10.00am - 6.00pm, Fri – Sat: 10.00am - 9.00pm

As usual, I had a fun time browsing through the stuff, hoping to come upon treasured finds. I was tempted to get some CNY decorations but with my new mindset of NO CLUTTER, all I came away with were 2 books: a A-Z book on serial killers for $1 and a novel about Tsar Nicholas and his Tsaritsa Alexandra (doomed parents of doomed Anastasia). :)

All I had for lunch y'day were 2 yummy, super sweet oranges.

I do my little bit to lose weight. I love food!!! So I could easily end up pudgy. I detest obesity so GOD forbids I ever become obese. Some people say I'm silly to go on a diet cos' I don't need it. It just goes to prove that I'm successful in concealing my fats. It's not obvious I'm fat in places cos' I try my best to hide it. I dun understand how some people with unsightly and unflattering flab can wear tight fitting outfits. It really turns me off.

I used to be slim because I remember wearing close-fitting tops and dresses easily. I study my old pictures and can't see the love handles I have now. The fats crept up on me and next thing I knew, I had such a huge kangaroo-like pouch which made me look like I was pregnant. Yucks! I recall being able to grab more than a fistful of my belly and how it flopped over in excess!

I'm happy to say that most of the pouch is gone now. I guess my little efforts to exercise and skip lunch in school have worked. But what really helped me slim down was when I had food poisoning early last year (January 2006). I had non-stop diarrhea for 3 days and because of the sour taste I had in my mouth every time I burped (I was super gassy), I had no appetite to eat at all. When people saw me after, they commented that I'd slimmed down a lot! Yay!

So I learnt that the fastest way to lose weight was to poo a lot and not eat much (or at all).

I was happy to accept some trial samples of detox pills. It gave me diarrhea but I still had my appetite cos' I wasn't burping up nauseous gases anymore. Still, better than nothing. The trial samples soon run out and I was not willing to fork out more than $50 for the cheapest detox pills I could find on the market. I was trying to psyche myself to do the 3-day fruit juice only diet. But I have not been able to do so cos' after fasting during lunch, all I can think about during dinner is to have something nice and filling.

So I decided to try laxatives which I read was a method some girls or models used to lose weight. I was happy to find a bottle of laxatives made in Germany at Mustafa for only $1.80! I tried 2 pills on Saturday night and next morning, it was as if I took detox pills. So detox pills = laxatives?! $1.80 as opposed to $50! The long weekend is coming, courtesy of the CNY holiday so I guess I'll be having more laxatives soon...

Actually, I can do more to lose weight. I should go jogging at the track nearby and swimming especially since I'm lucky to have a pool downstairs. But lazy me manages to just do some crunches or dancing while I'm watching TV. This isn't often btw. I will remember to exercise when the show I'm watching motivates me to do so, like when I watch the Biggest Loser on Saturday mornings hehe.

My dream is to be able to wear a close-fitting (not tight fit) top without having to worry about unsightly bulges. :) I'm happy to say that a cheongsam that I would not have dared to wear before is what I'm wearing for today's Chinese New Year celebration in school.

CNY isn't a really fun time for me. I've been fantasizing about getting away from the mundane visits and use the money for ang pow giveaways to pamper myself instead. Speaking of moolah, my son has 2 classmates with famous & well-to-do parents. One of his classmates is the son of Joe Augustin, the DJ. His other classmate's mother is the famous plastic surgeon Georgia Lee who was featured in last week's Life section.

Time is passing so slowly... On normal days, I'm startled to find that it's already past 3pm. It's only 1.30pm now! Coming to school and eating lunch early is throwing me out of whack.

C'est la Vie

2007-02-09T14:10:00.000+08:00

Last Sunday, my bro John and his colleague went back to Phuket. It was nice having my brother around. He's one of my fave clubbing and karaoke buddies. When we were kids, who would've thought we'd enjoy hanging out together. How my little brothers have grown...

After sending them off, as my sis was driving on the PIE, I commented on a biker who sped past us in a dangerous, zigzag fashion. I was wondering how some people could ride like that when they had nothing but a helmet to protect them. The traffic that was smooth-flowing suddenly came to a standstill around Eunos. I was sorry to see that the cause of it was a biker lying on the extreme left lane and a few metres away lay his helmet and bike! I wondered whether he was the biker I had commented on earlier... Hope not and hope the man's ok.

Then this morning, I heard on the news that Anna Nicole Smith has died. What a weird life she had led - Guess model, became a blimp, was married to an 80 or was it 90-year old tycoon, her son died last year 3 days after she gave birth to her daughter. It really goes to show you that having money doesn't solve everything. Maybe better for her to have been poor. I think it's really stupid and shameful that many rich people squander their wealth on drugs and partying when they could give it to worthwhile causes like the poor and orphans.

Today is also the release of the O-level results. The outcome will change the lives of many young people. Some will fix their mistakes. Others will continue on their destructive path to doom. I truly regret screwing up my A-levels royally. If I had not, I could be sitting in a cushy office right now instead of earning peanuts. An ex-schoolmate of mine at NYJC who was one year my junior is now Head of Department at the school I'm working at. He has his own nice office and a nice car. Sigh***

God-willing I can make big steps to make my life better. I KNOW I am terribly underpaid. I am worth so much more. I leave my life in the hands of the Lord.

Life. Make the most out of it. Make every day count. Live each day like it's going to be the last. Not by partying your guts out but by living it meaningfully so people will remember you fondly when you go.

Leave the place better than when I found it...

2007-02-05T16:04:00.000+08:00

I hate dirty toilets. What irks me is to find someone exiting the toilet that is dirty. I have encountered middle-aged ladies (who seem to be the main culprits!) leaving the stall unflushed and/or with dirty toilet seats. Sick! As for myself, I refuse to enter a filthy toilet. If I do enter one that is mildly dirty, when I leave the place, it is cleaner than when I found it. For example, here in school, shocking as it sounds but occasionally, I find footprints on the toilet seat of the Staff toilet! So I spray the seat with the hose and then layer it with LOTS of toilet paper which I then use to wipe the seat clean.

On my way back from my regular visit to the ladies' (cos' I drink lots of water), I encountered a female student named Ain wearing a jacket and she had the hood on. I thought she was just trying to be funky so I was about to walk on by when Benedict asked me if I had seen the Ain's hair. I misunderstood at first and thought he was talking about my hair. Then I realised that he was talking about Ain's hair which had been lopped off by her mother! Apparently, the mother hated her long fringe and messy hair. So the poor girl now has to wear a hood to hide the terrible haircut she got.

But worse was to come. When she rolled up the sleeves of her hooded jacket, I realised she was one of those students with the idiotic penchant of maiming themselves with a pen-knife cos' they think it's cool to carve their names on their skin. I thought that was bad enuf but when she rolled up her sleeves further, I saw that the skin on her upper arm had been scraped raw! She told me her father used a pen-knife to scrape off her skin! OUCH!

I really like Benedict, the student who alerted me to this problem in the first place. He backed me up in my advice to Ain. So he asked me to distract her while he went off to get the VP.

However, when Ben got back, a different story emerged...

The true story is that her father poured acid on her arm to eradicate the tattoo.

Now I don't know which part of her story is fact and which is fiction. Basically she's a troubled youth full of angst and unfortunately, her parents are too old-fashioned and conservative to take a healthier approach to tackling her situation.

God-willing my kids grow up without such problems and sadness in their lives. All children start out innocent and pure. How nice if everyone stayed this way.

I spoke with Ain of course, on the silliness of harming herself and hopefully she listens.

Bike trouble again... what's wrong with my Serow this time...

2007-01-31T14:18:00.000+08:00

I got back from my Bangkok Christmas holiday exactly on New Year's day. This means that my bike had not been started since the last time I rode it on 20 December! Knowing my bike, I suspected it wouldn't be able to start after such a long time of inaction. True enough, I couldn't start my bike so I sms'd Jon and Alan about it. Alan said he could only come and help me jump start my bike a week later! He also said that 3 weeks of inaction should pose no problem for the bike to get started. So I decided to give my bike a go again on 9 Jan. I sat there for some time getting no response and fearing that I'd finally kill the battery by my repeated attempts to start the bike when suddenly... the bike fired up! Woohoo!

So my 1st time to ride this year was on the evening of 9 Jan. Rode around the small carpark but decided it was better to take the bike on a proper spin so went around the Balestier neighborhood. Rode to school the next day :)

That was the only time I rode that week. The next day, I had made plans to meet up with Paulyn so it was more convenient for me to take the 190 direct from school to Far East Plaza. It was a good thing that I didn't ride because it rained cats, dogs and horses that day.

The same thing happened the next day - it rained buckets. Worst of all, I had overslept! The time when I most needed my bike was the time I couldn't use it, thanks to the crappy weather.

I haven't been riding for a few days hence because of the unpredictable weather. However, despite the recent cool weather, not a drop of rain has been in sight. So I decided to start riding again. I tried starting it on the evening 29 Jan. I needed my bike urgently because I was in desperate need of sanitary pads and it was already past 9pm. My fave show "Girls Out Loud" was starting at 10pm. Finally managed to get the bike started after pressing the start buttons tons of times. The cheapest pads I could find were Laurier's 30 pads for $3.50. Made it home just a few minutes past 10.

So I rode to work the next day and the weather was lovely. The traffic was good too. Not much crap except for the usual slow down at Stevens Road exit due to the bottleneck at the Mount Pleasant entrance.

This morning, I expected the same nice ride to work but the bike felt weird. It felt like it was sliding to one side! I looked at my front tire and it looked flat to me! Gosh! So I made a detour to the petrol kiosk. Pumped some air into both bike tires. Decided to top up my petrol in gratitude for the free air ($5). Rode on to work but just as I was about to pass the Stevens Road exit, my bike felt like sliding again! I decided to exit and made my way to Jonathan's shop. Left my bike there and walked to the 960 bus stop at Bukit Timah Road.

Left home at 10am and reached school at 12noon exactly. Took me 2 hours to get to work thanks to the hiccups. The bus ride took about half an hour. I missed my stop cos' I lost my bus card and when I finally found it, it was too late to alight. So I had no choice but to ride on and got down at Sheng Siong. Bus ride from Bt Timah to Ten Mile Junction cost the same as my bus ride from home to school = $1.38. Since I was already at Sheng Siong, decided to check out the supermarket and guess what? Found out that the sanitary napkins are way cheaper there. Although I didn't need it anymore, decided to buy them anyway since they were soooo cheap - 30 pads for $2.50!!! A whole dollar less. Geez.

I wonder what's wrong with my bike now. I should make full use of it since her time is up this year. She turns 10 on 28 Oct (same birthdate as Kimmy) which means her COE is up and I don't think I want to ride anymore. So either I downgrade to full-time public transport or God-willing I win a car so I can start driving and not have to worry whether it's going to rain or not! :)

God bless all riders out there.

The year's not that new anymore...

2007-01-30T11:50:00.000+08:00

Time flies. Last Monday, I took leave to attend my 2nd daughter Kaitlyn's Award Ceremony. What a very pleasant surprise my sis and I got when we found out that Kay was receiving a prize for being FIRST in class last year! Amazing! I'm happy and proud. :)

This means all my kids did well in school last year!
Kimmy - 2nd in class, received a $15 Popular voucher
Kay - 1st in class, received a $20 Popular voucher which she used to get a Strawberry Shortcake VCD and Betty & Veronica's Double Digest magazine
Keefe - in the Top 10 of his class

(^_^)

Then last Sunday, it was my first time at the Budget Terminal. It took me exactly an hour to get from home to the airport (Bus 21 > MRT from Kallang to Changi Airport T2 > free shuttle to BT). Met my bro and his colleagues. Waited a bit for Leini and Ow. Then we drove off for lunch at Whampoa's popular mixed rice stall. The day passed quickly and I got home just in time for True Files and then the Apprentice.

I hate Channel 5 by the way. They did not publicise enough that they were showing Survivor at 1230am last Friday and so I missed it!

&%*$#^!!!

It is verrrrry irritating that Channel 5 telecasts shows like that at the wee hours. Who can stay up so late after a hard day @ work!? Lucky for me, I've got a VCR.

Thanks to Ch 5's idiotic scheduling, I've been getting up at 5am on weekdays just to tape FRIENDS and the 70s Show. If I had more discipline (and sleep), I would get up to go jogging.

Websites Recommended by the PM

2007-01-16T18:17:00.000+08:00

Chubby Hubby - about Food: www.chubbyhubby.net
clubSNAP - photography: www.clubsnap.org
Talking Cock - Singapore humour: www.talkingcock.com
BullockCartWater "Niu Che Shui": www.bullockcartwater.blogspot.com

Chinatown’s local name - Niu Che Shui (Bullock Cart Water) arose from the fact each household at that time had to collect fresh water from the wells in Ann Siang Hill and Spring Street, using bullock-drawn carts.

Drinks on da house! ^_^

2007-01-16T17:34:00.000+08:00

What an eventful night I had. And all because I missed my bus home by mere seconds! While waiting for the next bus, I decided to find out if Edy was still @ work and he was just about to have after-work coffee! So I joined him (and had kopi courtesy of his nice colleague) and from there we had dinner @ Far East Square. Finally got to try the Fried Fish recommended by my dear Makan Places show. I treated Edy to dinner.

Dang! Feel like having that Fried Fish right now!

After, we decided to go for after-dinner drinks and Edy chose a place called Fluid Bar & Kitchen (the old Carnegies spot). What a good decision cos' we ended up taking part in a fun Quiz that was similar to what Nin told me he played in Phuket.

Ended up exchanging pleasantries with and marking the Quiz of one of the pub's owners.

Thanks to my good memory and general knowledge & Edy's "smart" fone moves to Thomas the movie buff, we won 2 free rounds of drinks! :)

Questions I knew the answers to off the bat were:
A: Optimus Prime (Q: who was the leader of the Autobots)
A: Hundred Acre Wood (Q: name of the wood Winnie the Pooh lives in)
A: Road to Singapore (Q: Movie that Bing Crosby and Bob Hope starred in. Clue: close to home.)
A: Santa's Little Helper (Q: Name the Simpson's family dog)

The Quiz cost actually $10 to take part in. But the peeps kindly waived the fee for us since we were first-timers and were unaware of this.

The treats in total cost me a total of $30! Well worth it for a yummy highly-recommended dinner and 2 pints of Erdinger beer (+ free drinks: 2 shots "Quick F**k" and "Death Wish" + 2 glasses of wine - red & white)! ^_^

I Love TV (3) - 2007

2007-01-13T16:12:00.000+08:00

My last "I Love TV" post was on August 3, 2006.

Here's an update to my weekly couch-potato routine...

Last August, Ch 5 gave me 3 daily weekly (Mondays to Fridays) must-see shows: the Ellen Degeneres show, Oprah and ET.

Unfortunately, sometime in November, they stopped showing Oprah and ET for no given reason and started showing the Tyra Banks Show instead. Oh well, I guess I can just go to ET Online and I found that they repeated quite a lot of stories anyway. It's good they kept the best of the lot Ellen but it would've been better if they showed it in the evenings when I'm already home! Instead I have to keep asking the maid to help me tape the show @ 5pm daily!

And checking my 2006 diary, it's amazing that I first watched Jewel in the Palace on Ch 55 in late 2005 (7 - 22 November to be exact). Then I caught it's 5 days a week run on Ch U which started on 14 March 2006 and ended in June. Then I discovered that Ch U rerun the series again around October I think but this time on weekends. And being the big fan that I am, I caught it whenever I could. It's now 2007 and that rerun has yet to run its course :)

So far, these are my current weekly staples:

Mondays

Girls Out Loud @ 10 pm - missed last nite's episode (15 Jan) thanks to the maid's usual incompetence, argh!
Scrubs @ 1130pm on Ch 5 (why can't they show this b4 Grey's Anatomy?! - of which I am not a fan) - *sob* season has ended!!!

Tuesdays

CSI Miami @ 10pm Ch 5
followed by Cold Case @ 11pm
The OC after midnight - as you can see from the not particular timing that I'm not really particular about the show either. I catch it if I have nothing better to do. The storyline has really gone down the drain.
Enjoying rerun of Extreme Japan @ 730pm - land of my ancestors...

Wednesdays

That 70s Show - have it taped cos' it's at 4pm!
Starting Friday (19 Jan), the show will be telecast weekdays at 530am!
American Idol - starting tomorrow (17 January)
Extreme Makeover @ 10pm
The Simple Life @ 11pm - not really keen but will watch if I am awake

Thursday

Nothing worthy to watch all night, until American Idol comes along. Used to be my free day to meet up with pals.
The Amazing Race Asia on AXN @ 9pm (Friday 1 AM & 12 noon; Saturday 10 AM & 10 PM; Sunday 8 PM; Tuesday 8pm)

Fridays

Last I wrote this, I had nothing to watch on Fridays! But what a difference a few months make!

Beauty & the Geek @ 7.30pm
Skating with Celebrities @ 8.30pm - the winners got involved! How disgusting! The bastard actually left his wife who was preggy with their 2nd child to be with the hussy! And now they're expecting their first kid together. Shameless...
Survivor @ 11pm (after Supernatural! How stupid! They should show Survivor first! ARGH!!!)
31 Jan update: Even more stupid, Channel 5 decided to telecast 2 shows of Survivor last Friday and this coming Friday. They didn't publicise it enuf so I missed the 2nd show! Blardy arseholes!

Saturdays

Discovered the Biggest Loser 2 is showing at 11am! Stupid Ch 5 did not advertise this! I've missed many episodes already. Sigh.
Awaiting the return of my beloved Malcolm in the Middle
Jewel in the Palace @ 7.30pm
Korean dramedy My Girl on Ch 55 @ 10.30pm (Sundays 3.45pm) - now no need to catch it on cable cos' I managed to borrow the DVD-set from Thomas :D

Sundays

Japan Hour on CNA
True Files @ 10pm
The Apprentice @ 10.30pm

31 Jan update: I've such a TV lover. I've been waking at 5am, almost without fail (first slip was today cos' I slept at 430am!) just to tape reruns of Friends followed by That 70s Show. Love these shows! I hate how Ch 5 has been censoring the jokes on That 70s Show!!! Argh!!! Grow up already. What kid is going to be watching it at 530am anyway?! And why would they understand it when the show puts the joke in a subtle manner? Grrrr... stoooooopid Ch 5.

FOOL IN LOVE WITH YOU

2007-01-10T13:52:00.000+08:00

Heard this on the radio a while back and finally remembered to search for the lyrics when I was clearing out my old diary...

Lovely song with intelligent lyrics. Was easy to find as only one search result came up when I googled the words I remembered...

http://ntl.matrix.com.br/pfilho/html/lyrics/f/fool_in_love_with_you.txt

FOOL IN LOVE WITH YOU
by Jim Photoglo

When you said goodbye
I didn't need to cry
Cause I was not in love with you
Oh but now that we have parted
I just can't get started
I'm just a fool in love with you

I'm a fool in love with you, with you
Darlin, darlin when a fool has got it
That's when he don't want it
That's a game I played with you
Now that I ain't got it
Girl you know I want it
I'm just a fool in love with you
Fool in love with you

Girls I know that phone me
They all want to own me
What am I supposed to do
Cause when my heart's on fire
Burnin with desire
All I think about is you

I'm a fool in love with you, with you
Darlin, darlin when a fool has got it
That's when he don't want it
That's a game I played with you
Now that I ain't got it
Girl you know I want it
I'm just a fool in love with you
Fool in love with you

-=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=-

Yay I found the video! www.jimphotoglo.com/FILvideoplayer.swf

The long lost video for FOOL IN
LOVE WITH YOU is now available for viewing. Thanks to Steve Kahn

The 5-day old New Year...

2007-01-05T00:24:00.000+08:00

3 Jan - 1st thing to welcome me back to work was nasty... the partial remains of a dead lizard on my desk! Sick!

4 Jan - is my youngest bro's birthday - belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY LES!

5 Jan - Have been waking up around 6am so I can send my girls to school. I take the bus to work since the bus stop is just opposite CHIJ Toa Payoh's anyway. Besides, I made the right call as it rained heavily on my way home y'day.

While surfing the net today, I suddenly realised that I do have certain things I want but don't need. So these will go to my b'day list. Even tho' my b'day is still 9 months away, I will write down my wants cos' last b'day when my frens asked me what I wanted, I couldn't think of anything! And they know I hate getting things that I dun want or need @ all.

So here's the 6 things I've come up with so far...

1. Blackadder DVD (want)
2. Seinfeld DVD (want)
3. Long Vacation DVD (want) - $22 on www.ebay.com.sg
4. Rosary tattoo on my lower back (want)
5. Rebonding/hair treatment package (need)
6. Malcolm in the Middle DVD (want)
7. That 70s Show DVD (want)
8. Trivial Pursuit game (want)
9. Scene It - FRIENDS edition (want) ~ I already have the original; X'mas gift from Lein & Ow

Happy 2007!!!

2007-01-03T01:00:00.000+08:00

Back from a wonderful Christmas vacation in Bangkok, safe and sound. Sorry to hear about the bombings - may the 3 victims rest in peace. I hate these senseless violent acts of terrorism! No more bombings please! What a crappy end to the old year. Sigh.

Spent the New Year watching the beautiful and superbly noisy fireworks display on the Chao Phraya River by the Oriental after New Year Mass in Thai at the Assumption Cathedral.

I am dreading going back to work in a few hours' time... I haven't worked since I started my leave on 21st December 2006!

Just as Janice did in her blog, here are the Christmas presents I received:

1. Dad & Mom - black bag with silver Angel lettering on it
2. Leini - Scene It DVD game + make up set
3. Nin - PCD & Paris Hilton CDs
4. Les - South Park DVD
5. X'mas Gift exchange held on 23 Dec - SpongeBob Squarepants stocking (from Aida & Othman)
6. Edy - Crystal angel ornament

Waiting for promised pressies from Paulyn & Dan Erd who I have yet to meet up with since I've only just gotten back.

Christmas gifts I gave:

1. Dad & Mom - 4 ink cartridges and 100 pieces of photo paper for their new printer & champagne bubble bath salts and foam for the 3 tubs they have
2. Dad - 2 Daniel Hecter silk ties
3. Mom - I Love Mom photo frame
4. Lein - mini mouse + Marie pill box
5. Nin - PCD CD + scapular
6. Les - Marvin the Martian mug + green tee
7. Kimmy - scapular Rosary + Monster House DVD
8. Kay - scapular Rosary + Kelly witch doll + Pirates of the Carribean 2 book feat. Kiera Knightly 9. Keefe - scapular Rosary + Bionicles VCD
10. Ow - Crocodile polo
11. Parents-in-law - Caller ID Telephone & cordless phone
12. Maid - top
13. X'mas Gift exchange held on 23 Dec - I gave love songs cd compilation with IQ keychain

Spent the morning of the New Year on the plane back to Singapore. Breakfast on Thai Airways was much better than the dinner I had on my flight to Bangkok. I had a choice of quiche or chicken noodles. I chose the quiche which turned out to be just omelette really.

Touched down at 11am, one hour behind schedule due to the delayed flight. Glad to find that it isn't raining cats and dogs here anymore. Rested and unpacked 1/3 of my stuff. Lazy to do the rest of the unpacking...

Spent the Jan 2 holiday on the net till 6am and then slept the rest of the morning off. Got up at 2pm and watched TV. Went for a walk at 4pm with the maid and Kim to show her the routes to the kids' schools. Cancelled my mother-in-law's cab booking cos' I dun see the sense in paying $110 for short-distanced trips (SJI Junior and CHIJ Toa Payoh are both an easy walking distance from home!) for just 3 days! Even the cab driver kind of admitted he was ripping my mother-in-law off. Instead of being grateful that I saved her money, she was mad that I messed with her insane plan.

Who cares what she thinks. I know I did the smart thing. Went to Toa Payoh to return library books and found it surprisingly open! Thought the Library was closed on PH! Got myself a new Samsung phone for $0! Woohoo. What a great start to the New Year!

2006 was good to me. God willing I use the wisdom and experience I've gained last year to make this year even better. May 2007 be full of wonderful things and God's blessings for all of us!

Thanksgiving & petition to St Anthony of Padua

2006-12-20T13:47:00.000+08:00

Written on 4 December 2006, 1:47pm

Thank you Saint Anthony of Padua for answering my prayers.

I was carrying a lot of video equipment (including 2 hugeass strobe lights) the night of the school's D&D (23 Nov) so it is kinda understandable why I misplaced one of them - a digicam! Replacing it would've hurt my wallet dearly but what was worse was the thought of forever losing the pictures I took. So I prayed to St Anthony and got back the digicam a few days later, from Peter. :)

Now I need to pray to St Anthony again to beg for him to help me remember the lost password to the G5! I feel so idiotic forgetting a password! Argh!!! God-willing I can remember the password as soon as possible. Today, God-willing...

-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-

Unfailing Prayer to St. Anthony

"Blessed be God in His Angels and in His Saints"

Oh Holy St. Anthony, gentlest of Saints, your love for God and Charity for His creatures, made you worthy, when on earth, to possess miraculous powers. Miracles waited on your word, which you were ever ready to speak for those in trouble or anxiety. Encouraged by this thought, I implore of you to obtain for me the recovery of the lost admin password so I can log in the G5 again. The answer to my prayer may require a miracle, even so, you are the Saint of Miracles. O gentle and loving St. Anthony, whose heart was ever full of human sympathy, whisper my petition into the arms of the Sweet Infant Jesus, who loved to be folded in your arms; and the gratitude of my heart will ever be yours.

Pater, Ave & Gloria.

-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-
Addition:

7 Dec
I received a pleasant surprise last night. My dear Edy sms'd me that Wen Hui found my missing white gold + crystal earring that I thought was gone for good! Amazing! Firstly, I had no idea where I lost it. I only know that it went missing on Max's wedding dinner day - 19 Nov. How time flies. That was over a fortnight ago! So now I know I lost it @ Edy's place. Anyway I bet it was found thanks to who else, but my dearest St Anthony ~ Thank you!!!

20 Dec
Yesterday St Anthony answered my prayer regarding the lost password! 3 nice guys came down to set up the new iMacs and I asked them if they could help me reset the G5 password and... Yes! I have drilled the new password into my head. Something easy that I can't and won't forget :) Thank you once again St Anthony! *muaks*

To ride or not to ride... part 2

2006-12-19T01:52:00.000+08:00

Same dilemma as what I wrote about last month... The rainy season is baaack.

Today is an especially rainy day.

I took the bus to work because the sky was cloudy as far as my eye could see in all directions! I didn't want to risk getting drenched but the whole bus journey was uneventful and it was only after I had been seated at my desk for about an hour (close to 11am) did it start to pour. Yeap, I reached work close to 10am :P

It has rained on and off since morning. It's now 2am!

Thankfully, I made the right decision to leave my bike at home because it started raining cats and dogs while I was waiting for my bus home. The rain was so heavy that the bus shelter wasn't really providing much cover thanks to the heavy splatter. Btw, I did a good deed. An Indian lady had no umbrella and she had to rush into the bus whilst carrying her daughter. Little did she know that I used my brolly to shelter the both of them. Makes me feel like an angel :) I hope the people at the bus stop who witnessed my kind gesture would be motivated to do likewise.

Then the rain abated and I thought to myself, "That's it?! In that case, maybe I should have ridden..." then it started to rain again. Only when I was safe and dry at home did the clouds realllly let loose a torrent of heavy rain. Thank you God!

That was around 6pm and it has been raining heavily since. The rain stops for a bit every now and then, but then the heavy rain starts once more. How much water can the clouds hold?

Now I can hear the wind howling outside. Lots of lightning flashes and one scary thunder clap so far.

The downpour is so strong that visibility right now is poor. I can't believe I just saw a bike go past on the expressway. Poor chap. God willing he (and all the other riders and motorists out there) get to their destination safe and sound. It's a terrible night to be out and about.

My plan to go to Novena & Novena Square and Junction 8 literally went down the drain thanks to the weather.

God willing I can run my errands tomorrow:
- Drop my lucky draw coupons at Best Denki
- Exchange my PCD cd (only 10 songs!) for the correct PCD cd (13 songs)
- Buy Nin's scapular from Novena's Catholic bookshop
- Get my return date to Bangkok confirmed - God willing we return to Sg on New Year's Day at the latest.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Update: Managed to do 2 errands y'day despite the heavy downpour.
Yeap, it continued raining for a total of 30 hours (almost non-stop)!

During my bus ride home, I was praying hard for my fellow motorcycle riders I saw on the roads. I was appalled and frightened at how most of them rode fast despite the wet and slippery roads! So not surprisingly, I saw 2 ambulances, one for each side of the expressway, attending to two fallen riders. God willing they are OK. I alighted at my busstop and walked towards Novena. On the way, I stopped to buy some lottery tickets ~ wish me luck. Then I had a nice time browsing the Novena bookshop so much that I found it hard to tear myself away for Mass which I joined during Homily.

After that I walked to Novena Square and the nice guy at Sembawang Music Store agreed to exchange my PCD cd. :)

Now left with 2 errands: confirm return date from Bangkok to before New Year's Day, God willing 31st December and drop my lucky draw stubs at Best Denki. I think I'll go to town today to do just that and do some Xmas shopping.

I also need to pack my bags! Flying off on Christmas Eve. Can't wait! :)

To ride or not to ride...

2006-11-08T16:36:00.000+08:00

It has been raining every afternoon for the past few days now. The good thing was that it would rain in the early or mid-afternoon so that when it was time to head home, the roads would have had time to dry out a bit.

Yesterday was an exception. It started raining close to going home time! I was contemplating whether to ride or not and decided on the latter. I almost changed my mind while walking out of school because the rain had become a light drizzle. I boarded the 985 at about 6pm. Normally the bus journey takes about an hour (45 minutes on good days). However, yesterday's bus ride took over an hour. I reached home close to 730pm.

The bus did not take its usual route on the PIE but went via Bukit Timah Road which was congested with cars moving at a snail's pace. This made me think that I had made the right decision not to ride home that day. If the bus couldn't even go by the PIE, it must mean there was a massive jam on it. However, when the bus got back on the PIE using the Stevens Road entrance, I saw that cars were moving along smoothly. Hmmm...

I have been trying to search for news on yesterday evening's PIE traffic situation to no avail... I heard on the radio y'day evening that a tree branch had fallen and was blocking the way somewhere on the PIE. I guess that's why traffic was smooth-flowing where the 985 got back on the PIE cos' the rest of the cars were still jammed up somewhere prior to Stevens Road.

Thanks to having no bike to ride to work this morning, I only managed to make it to school at 1030am! To make matters worse, the Principal and VP were in the office to see my "grand" entrance. Hope they understand my situation ~ I dun live close by.

As much as I love this school, it would be nice to teach somewhere closer to home like CHIJ Toa Payoh or St Michael's School (soon to be called SJI Junior) where my kids are studying. Both are walking distance from home too. I wouldn't mind teaching in Marymount Convent either which my company has an account with.

I'm sick of the pitfalls of riding. I'm sick of being at the mercy of bad drivers (and there are lots of them in Sg). God willing I win 1st prize in Toto soon so I can buy myself my dream car and dream home. Alternatively, God willing my hubby makes those wishes come true!

Funnies from TelevisionWithoutPity.com

2006-11-03T15:07:00.000+08:00

Project Runway - Season 2

This will make the hepatitis he just got from lying on the New York City pavement totally unworthwhile.

Project Runway - Season 3, Episode 1

Jeffrey used felt, vinyl, towels, and bed sheets to make his design. His model's name is Javi. The dress has an empire waist and is composed of strips of fabric arranged vertically. It looks like he was going for something edgy. And it is, I guess. The edge of good. Jeffrey interviews that he was happy with his dress. He feels like it will establish him as a forward-thinking designer. Well, I can get on board for that. His design looks just like what I'd imagine people would wear in the future, after some war or plague had destroyed every good designer.

More gems from Episode 2:

As she's standing over Michael while wearing one of her clavicle-baring frocks, I'm suddenly struck by concern for her five children. If those babies were breastfed, they were seriously malnourished.

And Vincent's shirt is unbuttoned far, far too low during his interview. Really, what's the point of a shirt if you're going to wear it like that? Is it just catching drool?

Wahahaha!!!

Next page...

Then Vincent tells Angela that she needs to stand three feet away from him. She backs up, but he says that she is still not three feet away from him. Angela Solomonically suggests that, since she moved one and a half feet back, he can move one and a half feet forward. I just feel like crayons are about to shoot out of their asses. They're being so f***ing childish.

Teehee!!!

Other gems from Episode 3:

Page 5:
Vincent gets the giggles over his dog outfit. It makes me uncomfortable. I guess I should ease up on the guy, but…I don't want to. It's manifestly obvious that he's crazy; I didn't make the shit up. He interviews that people aren't considering the importance of the dog outfit. Then he laughs some more about the hat that he made for his dog. It's so naked, his emotion. It's like some sort of porn.

Then Jeffrey says wouldn't it be horrible if Bradley had to go home on his birthday. Well, yes, it would be horrible. In fact, I might stop having birthdays if something like that happened on my birthday. My pain would make me ageless. Beautiful? Yes. Tragic? Another yes. I'm torn.

Page 6:
Sweet Bradley pops up to say that there is some "spiciness" occurring in the workroom, but he's just trying to finish his outfit. Then, he rubs his eyes and does this little peek-a-boo thing. My kingdom for that image as a screensaver. I don't really have a kingdom, though, so, empty promise.

The next day, everyone is really concerned about Bradley. No one wants him to go home. At Parsons, Tim tells everyone that they'll have two hours to get their models ready before the runway show. He wishes Bradley a happy birthday and asks how his look is coming along. It's not good. Everything is in pieces. Tim says, "I dare not even ask about poor little Stanley." I'm not sure when it will become useful, but I plan on saying "I dare not even ask about poor little Stanley," whenever even remotely possible. Perhaps, if someone's really down on their luck and telling me their story, I could say, "I dare not even ask about poor little Stanley." Then they'd be confused and it might take their mind off of their own troubles for a few moments or something.

Page 7

It's hair and make-up time. We see Robert tell this hairdresser who can't be older than twenty-three that he wants his model's hair to resemble an "On A Clear Day You Can See Forever bob." I gladly relinquish my title of Gayest Person Ever to Robert. As well, I suggest that he modernize his references when speaking to the younger generation. It looks like that girl thinks that she's supposed to shave the model's head.

Bradley apparently told his model to "use [her] best judgment" in regards to hair and make-up. Hmm…when I think successful model, I think of names like Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, and Christie Brinkley. Now, with the exception of Kate's stint as Johnny Depp's girlfriend, those girls exhibit some pretty bad judgment. Abusing assistants? Billy Joel? Peter Cook? The next time he can't be with his model for hair and make-up, maybe he could stick with the more succinct "Don't f*** this up."

Page 8:

I must confess, I love Ivanka Trump. I think she's sick pretty and I love her sort of laconic manner. As well, she inspired an Imperial Teen song that kept me running on the treadmill for most of 2002.

Page 10:

And who sends a six-year-old to camp? That's an orphanage, not a camp.

LOL! :D

Gems from Episode 7, page 4:

Their hosts are Michael Kors and his mother, Joan. She sounds like she's been smoking Virginia Slims since she was 12, and looks like she hasn't missed a day under a tanning lamp since the Berlin Wall came down. God bless her, it's amazing. They are the tannest family in America. Even if they have a third family member who is albino and you had to average that person's lack of tan into the equation -- tannest family in America, the Korses.

Wahaha!!!

And on page 6...

Vincent discovers that Uli's mom, who is from Germany, Europe, "has this European air about her." There seems to be a little bit of a language barrier, but it's anyone's guess as to whether it's the English/German divide or the Crazy/Sane difference that's causing the problem.

Hyuk hyuk hyuk...

Princess Hours links

2006-11-01T17:58:00.000+08:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goong

http://yeehan.wordpress.com/2006/08/19/korean-drama-princess-hours-goong

http://yeehan.wordpress.com/2006/09/08/princess-hours-goong-pictures

www.blogskins.com/info/113301

www2.thaitv3.com/board2005/viewtopic.php?t=25849&start=0&

Went for lunch time Mass today at 1.15pm at St Mary of the Angels at Bukit Batok. Just so that I can go home after work and watch Princess Hours uninterrupted. Cos' the alternative would've been go for 7pm Mass at Novena and tape Princess Hours which would mean watching the Mandarin dubbed version which I don't like. I dunno how to get my VCR to tape the Korean dual sound. The other option would've been to watch Princess Hours and then leave home to go for the 8pm Mass which I'd definitely be late for since Goong ends at 8. So I did the smart thing by going for lunch time Mass, after painstakingly finding out the Mass times of the Churches convenient to me (near work or home). So despite altering my schedule to fit the show, at least I fulfilled my obligation of going to Church today. :)

I pleasantly surprised myself by finding the direct and trouble-free route to St Mary of the Angels. I don't really like the modern layout and design of the Church. But I'm happy that I finally got to see the Church and attend Mass there for the 1st time.

After Mass, I headed back to school but was tempted to park at Standard Chartered and cross over to the Salvation Army. Ended up spending $30 there on a $5 skirt, $1 X-Men book, $2 German beer mug (brand I've not had or seen before ~ cool!), $2 Lola Bunny mini-mug and $20 elastic Swatch watch, circa 1995! I just couldn't resist.

I spent some time perusing the clothes for something to wear to the Arabian Nights-themed D&D but found none to my liking. Don't really fancy wearing 2nd hand clothes but the wraparound skirt was cheap and nice.

I justified my spending by thinking that the money goes to the needy. :)

OK it's 6pm so time to head home. It just finished raining (for the 3rd straight afternoon). Thankfully it stops raining by the time I head home but I hate riding home on wet roads plus traffic builds up thanks to idiotic motorists. God willing I reach home safe and sound.