the fastest finger

i have a lunch partner for the past 2 days cos i roped in apple to help me in the completion of a survey results compilation assignment. even with much rush, going all cuckoo-eyed .... it is still NOT DONE. and it leaves me to complete them all by myself tomorrow.

RARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

no more lunch partner.
even the interns have left. (today's their last day)
oh the woe of a quiet and cold office.

GYABOO!

belated presents are good, its like celebrating your birthday twice over. 'this bag has many side pockets, and you better put your handphone in one of them' nagnagnag. 'u better take care of it!' nagnagnag

thanks, for pointing out that ...
1) i am boring
2) i am blur
3) i speak bad english
4) i am a pet mouse next to you all.
5) my self-confidence plunges.

thanks for
1) helping me keep up with trends that i otherwise couldn't have afford. my birkenstocks, havianas, my purse, my bag, my watch. eunice - clothed by FM.
2) making up for my blurness or help counter it.
3) correcting my grammer
4) being there with me in foreign lands.
5) driving me home
6) letting me irritate u guys with the milch accent. "ariigatoogozaimasu"

GYABO!!!!

artistic emotions

很像胸口挤满了什么
闷闷得
思绪
感受
隐隐约约
有如心脏是银幕的static
似有若无
那是 说不出 的感觉
画画 是把这种感觉 表达在线条与颜色当中
曲子 用旋律 捕捉了这个概念
指尖的轻重 是随着心脏的起伏
还是心脏的起伏 是随着指尖的轻重？
就连作词人 的文字
也是断断续续
就好像 相机 怎么也不能代替眼睛所能看到的。
剧本是借由角色，
虚构的情节
把黑白的static
变成有逻辑 有连贯性 的故事

画
曲
词
戏
书
就好像 相机 怎么也不能代替眼睛所能看到的。

eu can knead

my 1st attempt. tried it out with normal rice, shredded carrots & sweet potato filling. haha!! (smileys are drawn on) ok now, i just need to get the seaweed and the correct seasoning & filling. yosh!

Japanese cooking

learning to cook has always been part of the "to-do" in the holiday list. was into sushi making eons ago, my pralines failed terribly, so till date I am still best at maggi mee. if you want it to sound better, you can say you know how to cook ramen - which is essentially SHIN ramen.

in our last movie date, drey gie & i suggested a japanese potluck! I wanna try my hands at this ;D ...

Onigiri! (Japanese rice balls!) sushi is just too difficult. kawaii-deshio?

found a online help to easy onigiri making . and was superly inspired by this.

we can always do other easy ones like soba, somen. & the japanese egg-wrapped fried noodles.

and you know what is the best part of it all? DAISO. japanese cooking is not expensive anymore!

drey & maggie: when when when?

zzzzz

eunice wants to put the jacket over her head
sleep
dream and hope that no one notices her.

zzzzz...

// here's some intelletual sparring //

"The Washington Post has published the winning submissions to its yearly neologism contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words. The winners are:

1. Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs.
2. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.
3. Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
10. Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.
11. Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam.
16. Circumvent (n.), an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.

The Washington Post's Style Invitational also asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

2. Foreploy (v): Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
3. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which
renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.
5. Sarchasm (n): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it. "

Hoi An

byebye Hue, we are going to.....

HOI AN.

The midpoint stop during our bus ride was at Lang Co beach. Beautiful beautiful beach. i really love the scenery with the sprawling beach infront of me and the surrounding mist. After hopping onto the bus, we drove through the Hai Van Pass which separates North and South Vietnam. Used to be a mountainous route and now the Vietnamese has built a tunnel which makes it easier and safer.

lunch was trying out the Hoi An's specialty - Cao Lao. And I drown it down with BABABA "333". Vietnam's local bia (beer).

fiona read from her book that white rose (another specialty) had shrimp & frog filling. FROG... during our shopping, we saw an old lady selling it by the roadside, and many locals coming out of their shops to buy. (which tempted us) we asked the lady in the bookstore we were in what was inside the innocent hargow (prawn dumping) like wrapping and she said prawn and beans. No frogs! so we tried. It was nice and tasted very much like hargow with a kueh like texture.

an old lady with her plate of white rose.

after a difficult time locating this place, we were abit apprehensive about eating there because it was at a ulu place + they were ALL locals. we decided to take the risk and had our stomach satisfied with the above. it was the vietnamese wrap your own 'po-piah' except it was rice paper & not popiah skin. and besides veggie, you can wrap a springroll inside your spring roll, or wrap in an egg (which had tau-gay wrapped in it), or the satay. vegetables aside, it was superb. and the female boss seeing that we were tourist, stood by to wrap our popiah and to feed us with it. (after she left fi & i proceed to remove trace of tau-gay discreetly) vietnamese are a friendly lot of people, and after the boss went away, the lady sitting beside us helped us with the ever-understood sign language. Ba Le Well Restaurant is a MUST-go. At this point, everyone has to applaud Fiona for eating veggies.

the rest of it are spent shopping, and we need no photographic evidence of that.

return of (super)tutor

adopted sijia's tuition kids and the 1st session happened last night. 1st time that i'm teaching such a young kid (Pri 1), and being so used to the get-straight-down-to-the-books approach, it was kinda difficult for me to half teach & half cajole her. It is hard to be so harsh on such a young kid when midway u see her maid bringing in a glass of milk for her, she tells u about the drawing she draws and then requests for a story to be told to her - about crows. WHICH TOTALLY CAUGHT ME BY SURPRISE. eunice can tell u no story! (unless u wanna hear stories about my mum.)

so..... i was like "whoa... are u testing me?"
little girl: (innocent look) "actually i have a story in my mind already"
me: "OHHh... why dont you tell me then?" (i thought i was very clever to have turned the situation around in my favour)

out came her paper and pencil, so as she told her story.. she was drawing the beaker and stopped midway in her attempt to draw a crow.

little girl: "i dont know how to draw crow, can help me draw?"

eunice so CANNOT draw to save her life. but i had to do it right.... so the end product looked like a chicken, to which she said "aiyah, nevermind"

sijia *laoshi, HOW??? i hope she doesn't ask me for any story or drawings!

*ps: she actually referred to you as sijia laoshi. hahaha. u hear liao u wont paiseh meh?
pps: apparently the crow story she told me, is the one u told her, i swear she is testing me. haha

tonight is round 2 with her Pri 3 brother.

Season 2 - The return of the (super)tutor
Episode 1: crow drawing

out

season unchanged.

i have reached a cul-de-sac of blog block.

season of emptiness
shed its burden
of remembrance that has faded
slowly to a forgetting of sepia-tone
barren branches
swaying to the rhythm of
freedom
and sharp wind hissing all too loudly
into uncovered ears
too clearly,
is everything that i see
and hear
deprived of mystery & secrecy
of hope of excitment of maybe

and yet it doesn't flake
and i never
transit.

相信

你给我一个秘密
让我触摸到星星
在一个夏日夜里
走入了你的森林
聆听着你的呼吸
世界就睡在梦里
孤单都已经离去
只留下　天和地
我和你　永远在一起
看着我　的眼睛
为什么　要哭泣
那幸福　太容易
让我不敢相信
一起穿一件雨衣
后座你抱得好紧
风雨中美好回忆　
爱过的那些歌曲
有一天再也不听
我想你知道原因
黑夜终究要黎明
如果我　如果你
天一亮　要往哪里去　
看着我　的眼睛
为什么　要哭泣
那幸福　太容易
让我不敢相信
勾勾手　盖手印
这一刻　有约定
那爱情　变美丽　
因为我开始相信
故事的最后结局
结束在那年冬季
孤单的冰冷风里
于是我问问自己
还能不能够相信
另一段爱情靠近　
啦啦啦~啦啦啦~啦啦啦~
现在是２００１
永远的２００１
跟想像有点距离
我将他唱在歌里
曾经属于我们的相信
希望我们永远都不要忘记
啦啦啦~啦啦啦~啦啦啦~

“歌声结束后 就是我们要跟各位说再见的时候了”

有什么是值得相信的？

Hue

the day at Hue was a short one. we reached in the morning, and then spent the next 2 hours, depositing our bags with new friends we made then going off to settle the whole flight change hassle. it was after settling all these that we booked our hotel, washed up and went out for a great big meal. of course, we didnt skip the famous Hue pancakes!

being a small town, we thought we should just go on foot to visit all the various places of interest. then it drizzled and we decided to just hop on to this cyclo which has been asking "xich lo?" (cyclo?) all these while and offering us directions. haha imagine 2 of us in a small xich lo... it was like us sitting in a pram. it was quite a hilarious sight and we got our fair share of attention from the locals. our cycloman, was really friendly, and was one of the few people who tried his best to teach us Vietnamese. unfortunately, my vocabulary is still stuck at "xin cao" (hello), "cam on" (thank you), "ngong lam" (very good!).

we cycled past various sights mentioned in travel guides but only stopped to visit the Forbidden City. which is the smaller version of the China's 紫禁城.

not small at all. we spent an hour in there and alot of shots couldnt be captured properly because the building is too wide & ours are just consumer cameras, not professional enough to take wide shots. i gave up trying to trying to create a panorama shot by segmenting the building into a few parts so that i can just join them up using photoshop later. too difficult.

as many would have noticed by now, Vietnam's culture is very much Chinese influenced. so, things felt more or less familiar.


being very used to metropolitan cities, the slow pace of these old cities like Hue and later Hoi An has it own charm. we watched as cars, cyclos and motorbikes travel at the same pace across the bridge. and saw cyclos transporting big wooden cupboard. its like watching the era of cheongsams and samsui women, scenes that became familiar because of tv serial.

didnt take too long before we were done with the city tour, and we continued our adventure with cycling. in retrospective, Hue and Hoi An were probably the only 2 place with the biggest possibility of not getting killed. after a while we just gave up navigating, but just merely remember the various turns we took so that we can just follow the same way back to our hotel, and enjoyed our ride. like making crazy turn with all the motorbikes beside us, stopping with everyone at the traffic light being a part of the big horde of bicycles & motorbikes. haha come to think of it, cycling was FUN there.

weekends are too short

the weekend always too frigging short when you are working. things like eating (even if you have to que for ages just to eat a bowl of japanese ramen), catching a movie, playing sily games are example of simple joy. couldn't bear to sleep because that would mean getting ready for work the moment i open my eyes. so in the end i slept at 1am and then conveniently ignored the ringing alarm. LATE.

learn some apple vocab:

man drought = no raining men = do the rain dance

carousel.

location: lenin park (hanoi)

fiona said that vietnamese are living our 80s - a period we were in when we were young. when people commute using motorbikes and bicycles. where children went fishing with their dads, kicked the feather thingy instead of going short sighted with PSP. our last day at hanoi was spent at Lenin Park, an amusement park that seemed to be caught in time. it was a weekday, the park was relatively empty and quiet. the metal planes, metal seats, metal horses & trains didn't move but it was still rather enchanting.

// im not having much luck with blogger & youtube. will upload the pictures & video when its possible.

boss

我立志当个老板！

During the Vietnam War, in 1969, John Lennon and wife, Yoko Ono held two, week-long Bed-Ins for Peace, in Amsterdam and Montreal, which were their non-violent ways of protesting wars and promoting peace.

Lennon: "Give Peace a Chance"

if only the people in Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, Thailand and so many more would spend more time in their beds instead of ruining lives.

the rosencrantz and guildenstern syndrome

there we were, all game for a round of poker. just something out of the blue (...maybe to kill time), we shuffled the deck, the workings of chance that was uncontrollable. the probability of winning? uncertain. now, that leaves space for hope.

the cards - exposed. remember, there is never a win-win situation. there is no space left for uncertainty. the game is, sealed.

The Holiday List 2007

the holiday list 07

/salaried - $2000 (before CPF)
/tuition - $600
/bank in - $1500
/set aside for texts - $100
/photographs
/memorabilia
/presents
/Spanish
/O_O nodame cantabile (GYABOOOOOOO), Engine & many more
/celebrate, reminsce JUMP!
/Comm. Service Report, Resume Compilation submission
/Pre-Aussie Meetup

i wanna learn how to hit some drums too

my civilisation

3 days of no substantial work task, no internet - meaning i am bored to tears, finally i am connected to the online world. CIVILISATION!

thank goodness for yang & smses. he brought teenage years back to life again.

老友万岁

到了那一天
当文凭完整了我们的成年
当我们各奔前程
各分东西
我们会不会偶尔想念对方
还会不会一起送机
到时候
我会去哪里？
你会在哪里？
msn 会不会开始有时差
还会吃宵夜吗
还会嘻嘻哈哈 一起写'正'吗？
会有谈不完的话题
会不会因为想念朋友
所以才有这长篇大论

现在的我
越来越明白
好朋友难求
也正在期待 大家归队!

Global Warming

Global Warming is the latest horror movie in town.
ok, not latest but presence felt more so now than ever.

im evaporating.

Hoi An - My Son

Summer work and work 2007

Yesterday, with some very sudden twist in events, I was informed that I could start work. That was a 3 hour notice, and then I reported to work at Marine Parade on that very same day. The first few days of being in a new work environment always suck big time and that pretty much summarizes it.

Lunch at Marine Parade, anyone?

school's out

school's out. means you get to sleep alot. and late. take your own sweet time about breakfast. pop in Garden State and after that think that its good but you need to read the screenplay for some of those dialouges that i didnt catch. go through the news, and wonder why the heck did North Korea abduct Japanese, checked that out on wikipedia. think about the same old things that i probably should get around doing, like learn how to cook, speak some new cool language, clean up the room. then realize that this has been thought about for years but laziness always get the better of us.

school's out.

"I'm okay with being unimpressive.
I sleep better."
...Garden State

still jobless, took up tuition assignments though. so 4 days out of a week dedicated to tuition.

p/s: was it that bad gan ann? about not being able to see me. haha i dont recall that. i only recall going home on at 930 and having dinner at say 10pm. not too awesome.

又初恋了

withdrawal symptoms.

阿信： 谢谢你门，让我在有朋友的地方睡着，有音乐的地方醒来
。。。神的孩子都在跳舞 专辑

we cannot be too different
too deviant from the normal
and in this little red dot
we cannot be too angmoh
nor too cheena
too loud
nor too soft
too opinionated
too empathetic
we have to keep to the middle of the continuum
bordering on the extreme is
too abnormal

屁。











难道我又我又初恋了

o para paradise

high.
i love you 无望 我就是那种人
深深爱上一种 香香的狂野
扑通扑通 的狂跳 JUMP!
变平足也没关系
梦中的那个世界
有这么了不起
o para paradise 是否那么重要 是否那么的遥远
能不能暂时把你的勇气给我
将我的手紧握
我会对你说 我给你自由
我可以是男是女 可以飘移不定调整百分比
为了你 而祈祷 而祝福 而感动
记得找我 我的好朋友
执著的灵魂
整天 陪你唱歌
和我大声唱
一千个世纪

and i wish it could have gone on and on, and i would have stood on and on, screamed on and on, pretend i am not 22, on and on.

丢电脑 丢外套 丢掉背包 在丢唠叨
丢掉电视 丢电脑 丢掉大脑 再丢烦恼
冲啥大 冲啥小 冲啥都让人常烦恼
恨得多 爱的少
只想越跳越疯 越跳越高 把地球甩掉
一颗心扑通扑通地狂跳 一瞬间烦恼烦恼烦恼全忘掉
我再也不要 再也不要 委屈自己一秒
一颗心扑通扑通地狂跳 一瞬间烦恼烦恼烦恼全忘掉
我甩掉地球地球甩掉 只要越跳越高

丢电脑 丢外套 丢掉背包 在丢唠叨
丢掉电视 丢电脑 丢掉大脑 再丢烦恼
野心大 胆子小 跳舞还要别人教
恨得多 爱的少
只想越跳越疯 越跳越高 把地球甩掉
一颗心扑通扑通地狂跳 一瞬间烦恼烦恼烦恼全忘掉
我再也不要 再也不要 委屈自己一秒
一颗心扑通扑通地狂跳 一瞬间烦恼烦恼烦恼全忘掉
我甩掉地球地球甩掉 只要越跳越高

JUMP！