Thursday, December 29, 2011

2012

I will take up this challenge for the next 30 days of the new year that's arriving.

Let go of one relationship that constantly hurts you. – Keep people in your life who truly love you, motivate you, encourage you, enhance you, and make you happy.  If you know people who do none of these things, let them go and make room for new positive relationships.  Over the next 30 days, if relevant to your situation, gradually let go of one person in your life who has been continuously hurting you and holding you back.


I'll link the source if you're curious about this.


Words are easy, and I know it's hard. But I've finally found the reason to let go.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Christmas dinner

My mom and I initially wanted to have a buffet dinner and I cleverly suggested Rise at MBS. When we arrived there at 6.30p.m, we were told they'd ran out of seats and would only have available seats at 9p.m! Incredible. We walked around aimlessly around The Shoppes, with my mom clearly disappointed because she wanted a buffet dinner for the whole night to stuff herself silly but slowly. Alas, we came across this restaurant, Yu Cuisine, serving Chinese cuisine and she decided she wouldn't mind. Since I always bug her to eat either French or Italian at MBS, I decided to give Chinese cuisine a try. 

Drunken prawns

Xiao long bao in lobster bisque

Lobster steamed in yellow wine

After the simple dinner made up of just prawns and lobsters, we were satiated. Walked around The Shoppes without any aim, just to digest the full stomachs. Came out of the mall, and the grand city lights greeted us. The whole night sky filled with skyscrapers; the pride of Singapore.
The floating Louis Vuitton caught my eye, I mean, duh, who wouldn't see the huge-ass building by itself on the waters? Decided to act attas and go in. Well, the both of us were pretty well dressed anyway when we stepped in because I saw a lot of Singaporeans decked in slippers in the outlet. Sigh.

My mom apparently went a bit bonkers, suggesting we buy shades. She was so enthusiastic about it. S$600-700 for a pair of shades, seriously? Lao niang haven't felt like money dropped from sky yet.
When we were at the entrance of LV heading back into The Shoppes, they had a lot of collections of various books. We literally spent a good half hour flipping through the architecture and interior collections. Haha, what cheapos.

My high metabolism steered my body to walk in the direction for more food, or desserts. We went into High Society. I wanted to try their cupcakes, for the sake of comparing with Pammy's. But I couldn't bring myself to pay S$6 for just one when I know the ingredients and cost in making one. Damn. Thinking back, maybe I should have just tried. I mean, hi Pam, the lemon cupcake was literally screaming at me "BUY MEEEE EAT MEEEE!" but I had good control. In the end, settled for a glass of white wine, and a slice of cake with 66% dark chocolate and hazelnut that costs $9. See, I should have bought cupcakes too right? Since I was splurging on food anyway.

I realised that the French and Italians, to me, have a secret charm. That bit of elusiveness, mysteriousness and almost like a cut above the rest. I want to learn more about their language, their way of life. Just to close the gap. Reminds me of a moment when I was dining at an Italian restaurant at Robertson Quay, and the waiter, an Italian guy, was so interested in me and even asked for my number. He even had long hair and it was tied up neatly. I think that would have driven many girls crazy. But sadly, I'm not part of that gang. He even gave me a house pour white wine ON DA HOUSE yo. How lucky. And that was like... 3 years back? Lol. My xmm charm. Oh ya so what was I talking before I was indulging in myself?

Seriously, I can't believe the year is over. Singlehood beckons, every year.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Just a little bit

Hurt.

Have a merry merry christmas!

Have I mentioned? My all time favourite christmas song is Last Christmas by Wham.

And you know why, because every year I wish for the same special thing. But only this happens:
I gave you my heart, but the very next day, you gave it away.

I laughed at myself in naivety. Sometimes I can't help myself from caring too much. Oh dear.

It's just another special day. New year will be likewise. CNY will be another time again. Aye aye aye.


Friday, December 23, 2011

We bought a zoo

That's the movie Pam and I caught today.

My plan was to grace the grand opening of GV at 112 Katong. But I was pretty disappointed at how there's no special celebration of sorts to commemorate the opening. Lousy marketing. I think GV could have done way more to gather the crowds, especially when a lot of working adults are clearing their leave during the festive period, I'm definitely sure their theatres would be full if they'd took the opportunity to market their opening with more events tied together. Think of adults, students, kids and senior citizens, all free during this period!

Anyhow, I like to rant to Pam about how people who live in Katong are either too rich or have too much time. Because when we go 112, either of us would be driving, and then, there would be a lot, i swear, a lot, of parents bringing their kids to the mall, in big luxurious cars, at random times of a week day when they should be working. No need work one meh??? Then, you might be thinking, it's a taitai, no need to work, so can bring kids out. But no, it's a WHOLE family outing. Wonder who's bringing in the dough? Amazing rich families hiding around in Katong area I swear.

Back to the movie. It had a simple storyline about a dad bringing up 2 kids on his own after his wife's passing. Coping with loss, and raising a teenage son can be taxing for a dad. It was touching. Pam cried uncontrollably.

I had a random flashback to my childhood. I realised I grew up without much material items or toys. The only one luxury both my brother and I had was our Playstation and limited Lego. We didn't have boxes and boxes of Lego. Just 2 sets, which I've kept till now. I remember how I was crazy over Beyblades and Tamiya cars and my dad would lie to me. Lie, because I know that it's not possible. I guess it was a white lie. But why lie? When I pestered for a car, just a car, to bring to race at the tracks, he would say he can build one for me. When I wanted the tracks, he said he could buy the metal and make it for me. Sigh. Lies that adults can come up with. I was always hoping to be able to build the biggest track ever for my non-existent Tamiya cars.

But thanks to his un-spoiling ways of bringing us up, we spent most of our childhood playing with whatever we could find. I was pretty creative then, and made my own kite from cardboard and thread. I used all of the thread at home and brought my kite out of the house. I remembered I started running, against the wind, and slowly letting my home-made kite go. It started flying, and as it flew, it got higher and higher. That kind of joy cannot be bought with money. The tugging of the thread as the kite got higher, so high that I ran out of thread and the kite was still high up in the sky. That gave me so much satisfaction as a kid. I was practically using all my strength to hold the kite down because of the strong winds. And I begged my brother to make another kite with me, this time, bigger, and with a much longer thread. But he refused.

Then, when the computer craze started, we had one too. Throughout my computer years, I remember building my own CPU after it consistently crashed. The power adaptor would fail, then I would rummage through the spare parts and fix another one, then to make it run faster, I would add more RAM. That's where I got hands on opening up the whole CPU and figuring what goes where. Lucky for his un-spoiling ways again, I became more tech savvy than more girls I know would be.

Sometimes, not being too rich or too poor, can be a blessing in disguise.

Living in satisfaction, sometimes feeling that life can be hard, makes me appreciate the good life I have at other times.

You know, sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage. Just literally twenty seconds of just embarrassing bravery. And I promise you, something great will come of it. 
A quote straight out from the movie. A principle that has guided his life through many many years. 

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Pot of belly

What was supposed to be a dinner night out at the year end turned into a food spree to various places and finally concluded to be a christmas celebration for us, PTJR. I will just conveniently leave out the C cos'... you know, i know, we all know. ;p

Pam baked really nice butter cookies with a smear of chocolate on em'. I'd wanted to take a dirty picture of it but no more left. Oops. We had swedish food for dinner at Haji Lane and it was goood. I wondered why when I woke up this morning, the images of those food were the first to appear in my mind. The pasta bake and meatballs were super good! 

Next we proceeded to have some ice cream at Island Creamery. As if it wasn't enough, we walked further down after the ice cream to have some cupcakes at Cupcakes Engineer. The shop had a really cool interior. 

Now, you might probably think the night ends here. But, thinking it was still too early, we continued to Holland Village. Pam's virgin trip there. We went to Overtime to get some drinks. And lucky us, there was a live band! The Starker beer was pretty good, my type of beer, not gassy or bitter. I couldn't help myself but be amused at the singer who was a bit plump and showed off one side of her shoulders. So cute! She had quite an impish face as well. Adorable. I'm not being sarcastic but it was really damn cute with the one side show of the shoulders. Hehehe. And her voice was good. The keyboardist whom Ruby thinks look like Mas Selamat also had a deep low voice for classic guy songs. Think the likes of Ronan Keating. 

I had too much beer, and it was my first time getting tipsy on beer. Hahahaha. Too bad, I'm still logical and sane. Unlike Tan, prancing around talking nonsense. 

What a food spree. We pigs unite!

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Back to December

I've had a really good rejuvenating trip away from all the hustle and bustle in Singapore. For the premium that we've paid, I think it was really worth it. I'll worry about earning that back again in time to come. I was fortunate to find a book to keep myself entertained from the 3rd day onwards at the guest house in Chiangmai. Love how tourists put up those books to share. That's the way knowledge should be right, pass it on. The book is called "Journey Without Goal: The Tantric Wisdom of the Buddha". It was such a complimenting experience to the way I pictured myself relaxing and disconnecting from the world back here. Although I felt myself going into a different world altogether every night when I read a few chapters just before I slept, I felt more surreal in the place, immersing myself fully in a totally different environment and adapting to it very quickly.

Spiritually, I feel more wholesome. It was a really well deserved break. The reconnection with nature and its sounds remind me of the peace that I've been seeking in some of the zen books I've been reading back in Singapore. As if I'm trying to achieve the state of still water... occasionally creating ripples when thrown with stones and pebbles and settling back to the still state again after a while. Similar to the calmness despite troubles, worries and criticisms. I really appreciate the beauty of nature, with the majestic strong currents created by waterfalls, the coolness of the high altitude, and the beautiful plantations created by pure hard work and the efforts of the villagers living up in the mountains. I'm blessed to be able to deepen my insights as I pay attention to the country, the culture and its people with their various practices. Soaking everything like a sponge... I wished I had more knowledge to appreciate the place even more.

My favourite picture from the trip! 

As I return to Singapore, back to the month of December, I was reminded of the epic dramas I've experienced with Nel during this very same period last year. And how quickly time has just flown by... and we've yet again grown up with those experiences. Office & its politics didn't break me, it just made me stronger. Although I wouldn't want to be in the eye of the tornado again, I'm glad to have experienced that to grow up with a greater sense of maturity, to know the realness of the world.

December used to be a season of love for me. I thought it was the mood for love. But it's been pretty much the season of giving these recent years. Ah, overrated-ness. I think my life's changing quite a bit.  
我宁愿回到一个人生活
As if this particular song with its lyrics speaking my innermost thoughts, deep down even without me knowing. Startlingly real.