Taking stock

I haven't been updating my blog as frequently as I would have like to this month. Too busy shopping for such a cheery month but mostly taking stock of what this year has meant to me. I am not going to dwell too much into that but in short, I cherish this year like every other year... and that despite all the ups and downs (like everyone of you out there), I am very at peace with myself.

Toilet-Mates & Hall-Mates

As mentioned in my earlier entry , this will be a tribute to those who made my last few years of studies spectacular. I stayed in hostel so all of us were hallmates. In our hall, we had 11 blocks (if my memory serves me correctly) and I stayed in Blk 10 throughout my three years there. My room-mate for the first year was Qian-Jie, second & third year was Ailei (with Corina as part-time room-mate). The interesting part is that although all blocks are only two storeys high (ground floor occupied by guys, 2nd floor by girls), the beauty is that we got to share one toilet with another room. This is really good!!! For those who haven't stayed before in hostels, you wouldn't understand why I am thrilled by this... imagine if the floor only has one toilet?? It be a long queue every single day man!!! So although our hall is quite old and 'dilapilated' in comparison to other newer halls, nothing beats having our own toilet.... which brings me to my 'TOILET-MATES' - Yunyun & Lixin!!! To get to their room, all we need to do is walk past the bathroom, come out from the other door near the basin, and voila!!! it's Yunyun & Lixin's room!! So it's little wonder that our connecting doors were mostly left opened for the convenience of both rooms. Life was never boring for us (I mean how to be bored when most times, I am surrounded by at least three kaki??) in fact, we loved to play and play and play, eat and eat and eat, yell and make a fool of ourselves - a sure-fire way of ensuring us to be included in most hall activities, yahahaha!!

When we were in our second year, it was our turn to organise those hall orientation camps... even now when I think of it, I cringe. YES, we were those irritating idiots that go around orchard yelling stupid cheers and bulldozing everyone who happened to stumble upon our paths. What a bunch of monkeys! The below picture was taken outside Lido (for those of you who are Orchard Shopping Queens, I'm sure you would have recognised it by now). We were holding on to our team's banner, I think our group was named 'Maori' or something... so corny, kakakaaka!! If you look closely, I was standing near Qian-Jie (who's holding the banner with her right hand) and Kaisiang (who is now Ailei's husband). Ailei, Jane, Jocelyn the ones squatting down on the right bottom of the picture.

The picture below showed Karen's room in Blk 6, you may think that our living condition sucks big time.... and guess what?? YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!! But I must say we did make ourselves as comfortable as possible. Can you see top right hand corner some clothes hanging on some clothes peg?? We developed a habit to hang our undies inside the room near the toilet door especially when nobody's around. Why?? There had been a couple of thefts and Karen narrowly caught one of them, whoa hoo! And this is also one reason why the girls are staying on the second floor, supposed to deter such monsters but apparently not very effective.


And what do we do when it comes to birthdays?? SABO!! Karen was forced to wear this cardboard to parade round the different blocks. On the cardboard, we drew a picture of her bra-panties and wrote: I want my bra and panties back!!.... Oh dear, now that I think of it, I wondered who came up with such a wicked idea, NOT ME, I swear.

Okie, let me think... what else do we do? Erm hmm, mind you all, we do study (last minute), attend tutorials (always late) and watch TV (all the ba-kua show) okie? Oh yah, we also go for NIGHT CYCLING from our hall in Boon Lay via Orchard to East Coast Park. Took us the whole night just in time for breakfast at East Coast Mcdonalds.....

.......And we participate in interhall games (Track & Field, Table tennis etc etc) and we were CHEERLEADERS some more.... so funny! Our mascot was a dragon (or isit?!)......

..... and finally we GRADUATED!!! And we took pictures in the newly renovated toilets to commerate our bond as toiletmates. Not that we get to enjoy the new facilities since we left after we Pi-Ye. (in case you wondering why Ailei & Yunyun in plain clothes, that's because they study engineering so got one more year to go).

Right after we came out from school, we spent a bomb to visit Turkey... so that all of us will be motivated to earn our own keep..... Awwwww!!! I don't remember much about Turkey except it is a Muslim country and their babies look cute and that we played a lot of 'Bridge'. Oh, and that the local men keep saying they want to marry us since they are entitled to many wives.... CHEY!!!

(from left to right: qian-jie, me, xiaofen, Karen, Xiuying & Mr Loo)

A Power greater than thye

I had no idea what has gotten into me these days. I woke up from a nightmare with puffy eyes this morning - I dreamt that me and Wilson had a divorce. I was up and about, way before my alarm goes off... so early that I even had time to close the door after Wilson left for work. Normally I am still sleeping even after he left for work. After I closed the door after him, I wandered around the whole house aimlessly, knowing that I should get ready for work but unable to because I am vacant and hollow inside. I poured myself a cup of water and sat down on the kitchen chair and stared at the cabinets. Nothing registered in my brains except fear. Fear from the nightmare. I knew I'll spend half the day thinking about it and the other half trying to forget it... that's what I hate about bad dreams!! Whole day wasted with silly thoughts haunting my mind.

On my way to work, I pondered the issue of faith. Faith as in confidence in how I do things; faith as in my trust in all the relationships that I have in my life right now - friends & family included; and faith as in religion. The search for a greater power greater than ourselves; greater than all the universe combined is still very much alive in my opinion. I have no religion but that does not mean I do not have faith. The Koran, Bible, Taoism - all of them speak of the same code of conduct and warrant similar punishments. They all say that if I do not carry my life as dictated, I will never be in heaven afterlife, I will be condemned to hell for eternal torture and misery. I cannot imagine a God who rules in this manner. More often than not, people turn to religion during very desperate moments - times of financial difficulties, political turmoil, natural disasters. We are all seeking for truth, that indeed there is divine intervention, that indeed this greater power created us. For that we are grateful, for life has a meaning.

All-time popular Sitcom: Friends

Woke up on Sunday with my husband already out of the house for his roadshow. I walked around my flat from room to room thinking what I should do to occupy myself before the contractor comes along and before my sushi lunch appointment with the girls. I switch on my favourite album - Hotel Costes and decide to tidy up my photo collection. A flood of fond memories washed over but I am going to talk about two of the most important events/groups that I hold very close to my heart. First will be this group of girlfriends that I am going to meet for lunch later; this is our 11th year together. The second will be my room-mates from hall which I'll touch on in my next blog entry. Over the years, these two groups kinda merged into one big happy family and we always celebrate X'mas together.

The picture on the right is one we took during Adeline's 21st birthday. All of us knew each other when we were 17.... Ailei, Xiaofen, Karen, Ade, me and Qian-Jie (left to right). Qian-Jie and Ailei used to be secondary school friends so they knew each other longer. Karen and Ade came from Anglican High so they knew each other longer too. Xiaofen and Ade even more incredible - primary school friends!! Oh I need to explain here how Qian-Jie's name came about! She is the tallest amongst us all so we all call her Jie-Jie!!! Her full name is Zhang Xuqian but I am so used to Qian-Jie that 'Xuqian' feels weird on my lips! My husband even more funny, he thought all along Qian-Jie's name is 'Qian-Jie'... until I asked him why he calls her that even though he is much older than she is!! So I told him that she is 'Xu qian' and then he thought her surname is 'Xu' with a single name 'Qian'... Wahahahah, so blur-sotong husband!!!

This picture is one where we had our first X'mas party! Our theme was golden theme and Yunyun's the proud winner when she spray paint her whole pair of shoes a gold colour.... talk about 'no horse run'! So in exchange, she was crowned the winner with a tiara on her head and bamboo pole on her arm like how Ms Universe should be crowned!! My my!!! We should get a sash and a bouquet of flowers to complete the whole look...
This year we have settled on a theme " Lace & Leather". Unless somebody else comes up with a better idea if not, we all got to put on our thinking caps on how to dress the part. Every year, I am almost embarrassed to step out of the house dressed ridiculously but every year this is the only celebration I really look forward to.

I can understand why 'Friends' is such a popular sitcom. I missed watching 'Friends'. It really one of those serial that you know no matter what happens, it won't let you down. You want humor, they have it - you want day-to-day lives, they have it - you want kookiness, they have it - and if you want to cry, they have some emotional scenes too!!!

So this entry is a tribute to those of you here who made my life spetacular. I believe that when we get the chance to witness each others' happiness (like in this picture where Xiaofen's getting married), this chance is not a coincidence. It happens because we were there for each other when we were down, when we were miserable, when we saw what made each other upset. And because our strings were bonded over such times that we remembered that we want these same people to share our happiness too. I will never want to let any of you go too far away from me, our relationship has transcended over time. We will continue to spend our birthdays and our x'mas and our mooncake festivals and our new year and and and..........together. The more I see it, the more I think Karen's vision will come true: We will sleep side by side next to one other in old folks' home.

Maxim 1st Year Party

Ade rsvp for us to this Maxim magazine party at Dblo - a Man's magazine -- a very good reason why there are always ample nubile fleshes on the cover of the magazine. Less is best seems to be the motto for such covers. No wonder they are the more visual of the human species.

The entrance was unlike other parties I have been to. Jenny is busy asking the staff there what food are there available and guess what?? Quite a good spread (just look at the close-up below) - chicken burgers, beef burgers and Carl's Light chicken strips. Although they look yummy, the food's pretty cold which prompt us to appreciate the beer better.


Meantime, they were having some contest going on stage, one minute is the hairiest-chested man, next is competing on who eats the fastest and then... and then they were looking for the shortest skirt in the club. And Jenny was 'dragged' on stage. She didn't let me down cos she won herself......

... A pair of movie tickets!!! You go, girl!!! Man, it feels brilliant to have a short-skirt queen as a friend, wahahahah!!!

And not forgetting the bar-top dancers (see the picture below).... Sorry it's a bit dark but I did the best I could to give you guys a glimpse of three sexy pair of legs and firm butts on the bar-counter!!


Below is a picture with some new-found friends from the advertising industry... Not that I know a lot about this industry. Maybe they can give us more insight next time.

Second part of the night includes a hop over to Zouk where Jenny was raving on about this fantastic DJ from France - Dimitri. Sounds like some kind of high-tech Matrix-soundalike name. Oh by the way, there is absolutely something about Jenny - she can parallel-park!!!

And guess what, on the way when she drove us to Zouk and stopped at a traffic Junction, she can even whip out her eyelash curler and did a quick touch-up... so fast that before you can say: Boo, she's done and her hands back on the steering wheel... Wah Seh!!!

Finally, we met up with the rest of the girls at Velvet. We were so very busy rotating ourselves between Velvet, Zouk and Phuture, with each of the girls having different groups of friends all over the place. I remembered walking to and fro several times and feeling quite exhausted!! Now I know how the 'qi yue ge-tai' people feel when they have to run from show to show to perform. The music is so-so only considering that that the DJ is supposed to be really good. I took the above picture of Ade and Jenny because it's really a very 'rare' glimpse of us really enjoying ourselves on the dancefloor. Sigh.... Pathetic!! I vow never to walk around so much the next time I am here.

And the most irritating thing is that the 'security' is so tight in there and they keep telling me to put my camera away!! Buzz off!! But I 'tou-tou mo-mo' took out my cam and continue snapping pictures. So finally I have a picture of all five of us.... taken in the ladies!! Starting from the left, Adeline, Janice, me, Jenny & Shirley. (Oops, sorry Shirley, I know your eyes are shut but this is the only group picture taken, I blame it on the stupid bouncers!!!)

Interpretation of A Day wasted

Age is catching up. And do I feel old? Oh yes particularly when I partied on Friday till the wee hours of Saturday and still feeling not quite recovered when Monday comes. Saturday is just a day WASTED. There is this routine: wake up around noon, wash clothes, cook simple food, nap in the afternoon, wake up and decide what's for dinner, then doze off in front of the TV. On average, I only have 7-8 hours where my eyes are opened on Saturday, a stark contrast with the weekdays!

During this 7-8 hours, nothing excites me much, no amount of booze, food or activities is as seductive as my pillow. In fact, most times I am very unaware of what is happening around me and go about everything like a Frankestein's bride-to-be. I even suspect that if someone clubs me over my head, I would not retaliate at all. But a slight disclaimer on this: it does not mean all of you can happily appear at my doorstep with a club in hand....

Statements that Got me thinking

No 1. I saw this during KL roadtrip outside a dentist:
"Do not hand the key to the Devil, as the Devil will always want to Drive the car."

No 2. I saw this on a FCUK T-shirt, pretty interesting but kinda expensive for a simple t-shirt:
"A HARD Man is good to find."

Normally we only hear of A good man is hard to find... but this!!! I take my hats off!

I was so Bitchy Already

I was maybe about 9 years old, Primary Three or so.

Being the class monitoress, I went to the teachers' room to bring back all the spelling tests. I purposely 'forgot' to bring one copy back. This copy belonged to one of my classmate, a female classmate. I hated that all her hairclips were so pretty. She had to go and retrieve her spelling test herself.

KAKAKAKAAKA!!

What I Did On Hari Raya Puasa (3rd Nov)

We decided to head to KL with a couple friend of Wilson - Joshua & Siew Chiaw. Joshua & Siew Chiaw knew each other aeons ago through Wilson. So he is the "Mei Poh" !! Look how compatible both of them look below! Especially their height!

It was a comfortable and relaxing trip up to KL (maybe because Joshua took care of the driving so me & Wilson really had time to snooze, snack and occasionally disturb the couple in the front seat). I think the actual journey took us 3hours plus but the toilet breaks took an extra half an hour... Haha!! What to do?? So many girls queueing up, I wondered sometimes what is so difficult about: pulling down your pants, peeing, zip up and get the hell out of the toilet for the next user?


The above picture is taken by me from the car, so peaceful right?? The below picture is that of the opposite traffic flow on the highway,... WAH SEH!! Quite a lot of cars, must be the people all going back to their different hometowns for the long holiday. KL is actually quite a cosmopolitan city where most residents are from other parts of Malaysia but chose to work in KL. Which is why when we arrived later, it was the first time I encountered such a quiet KL....

Siew Chiaw decided to bring us to this famous 'Ampang Niang Tou Fu' for lunch before we check in to the hotel. This place is really chaotic! So many people eating, just look at the picture below! And this is just the front part of the house (oh by the way they operate from their own house), I was snapping this picture from the centre of the house! There is no proper queue system at all.. the only way to do this is quite babaric; eye a table and hawk around it! Their orders are transmitted via a loud speaker system connected to the "chef" located outside the house. So LUAN!!!
But it definitely worth the hassle!!! Each piece is HUMONGOUS and tasty. The best part is the price, RM26 with drinks included. Wah, About $12 can feed 4 adults until "bao bao"!!

The above meal is just the start of our "PIG OUT" affair. We ate waffles and then we ate sumptous Zi-Cha and then we ate 'Hong Kong' cusine and then my ex-OCBC customer, Mr Ng who stays in KL brought us to eat "Penang Fare' and then we ate chips/beer and then we ate Hainanese chicken Rice in Malacca and then we also can't resist their Chendol and then..... too many many!! My favourite food is still the the mee in the picture below (super oily, super unhealthy but that's the whole point)

I know it looks disgusting but we FINISHED it..... I AM SO FAT! SO FAT! SO FAT!

Although I have been to KL countless times, I never been up to the Petronas Twin Tower so I persuaded all of them to 'pei' me! But then what a disappointment! It closed for public holiday, DAMN!!! Next time can someone PLEASE BRING ME THERE??

So instead we went to check out Zouk/Velvet.... at night. I managed to take a picture of the place during daylight because I find that the white shark-ball lookalike structure cool and interesting. And for the records, KL Velvet's layout is exactly the same as our Velvet here!! Exactly meaning even the toilet is placed in the same corner near the bar counter.


When we got bored of shopping (actually it Joshua & Wilson... when did girls ever get bored of shopping, kakakaaka!) We decided to catch a movie. Very crowded and the queue system so screwed up that all four of us are activitated to queue up in different queues and see who is faster. Below is Joshua and Wilson deciding on what to watch. In the end it some LOUSY movie by Edward Burns... Title is "The sound of Thunder" Don't say I never warned you!!!!

Despite the movie hiccup, we had a lot of laughter throughout the whole trip. But I just wished I am TALLER!! Look at the three of them, if they decide to talk among themselves, I can't even hear clearly!!

I keep wondering: We ate the same stuff what... how come I never like them lei???

What I Did on Deepavali (1st Nov)

Xiaofen invited us for Housewarming to her new home at The Esparis. I was there early as I had to leave earlier for a wedding dinner. I like her place, there are a lot of water facilities/features in her EC. Entrance wise there is a mini waterfall, the pool looks great, and there are hydrotherapy beds as well. Next time I shall bring my bathing suit along to soak up the sun! My other friend, Tanny also stays in this EC but different block... I'll get a chance to see it soon when she invites me over.
Adeline (the one eating chips) and Karen (the bright hot pink girl on the far right of the picture) arrived slightly earlier to 'pei' me. Karen, by virtue that she just came back from Beijing after two months of filming crickets, had a lot to update us, mostly about her disgusting working counterpart - a man who thinks highly of himself and made advances to our dear Karen! Wah, he never die before!!

Karen brought some gifts as well, one of them being some China-made honey and the other,......

one full plastic bag of raunchy undies!!! Kakakakaaaa!! Karen was just commenting that this picture makes her look like some cunning merchant who is peddling kinky underwear to innocent girls... kinda true huh?? In the end, each of us chose one that we like best, leaving the most SEXY of all to Lixin!! A Super-red aspicious one... whoa hoo!!

Come to think of it, I am wearing one of those now... nice design except that it keeps riding up my butt. Hmm, I like to think that this happens because I have a voluptuous derriere... but seriously, a more likely reason is that I got fatter!! Boo Hoo Hoo

Awwww.......the TRUTH hurts sometimes!