ZiggyZag

7 more days to my birthday. I was born in 1981, the second year that marked the beginning of the 80s. I often wonder what I would be like when I am in my mid twenties. Would I be married? Would I be a mommy by now? Would I be someone else's mistress, living in an empty big house with servants and chauffeur ready for me? Or would I be peddling the streets, selling things or food that I made? I have lots of thoughts that ran through my young mind. It never occured to me that this one day, I am actually a teacher, teaching abroad from my home country, thinking of how to serve my country and at the same time wondering what else could I do more for the people in this country where I work now.

There was once a fortune teller who came to my house on a visiting purpose, he told my parents that I would be a rich woman someday. I would be able to study in University, have a car, live rich and even better if my husband is a businessman. We laughed it off as we were living in a remote area, where jungle and river were our surrounding. How could this be true?

On one occasion, well the image was still blurry and greyish in my mind. We took the KTM train to Kulai, visiting my dad and aunt. My dad was working in Johor and as I was told by mom, we were there to see if we could settle down in Johor. 'Zooop...' and how time flies, we moved to Johor, we studied there and here I am, working abroad.

I went through horrible experience with my family, went through desperations in life, struggles to make ends meet, nightmares in which I kept running for my life, friends I made who only talked about ending one another's lives, triumph in studies, depression, attempts to end my life, police case, work endlessly for my living expenses in Uni, met my wonderful fiance, Fred and my life changed! Well, he wasn't the one who brought the entire change in my life, but he was there throughout my transform and transition. Then of course, I met Him. I talked to Him and I felt He was there for me whenever I needed Him for woes and triumph. I thanked him for what He gave me, and I thank Him for making me realise life can be very fulfilling. But yet......

I'm turning 26 soon and I do wonder what have I contribute to my family and society so far. I love and hate my life, but loving my life more than exchanging it with someone else's life. I want to be who I am and what I can do so far. Happy Birthday to me! I will treasure life more and people around me. I want to see more about world. I want to do more. Let me live to bring love and happiness to people around me. 26, I'm counting down.

I'm preparing to get into the next phase of my life. I have sent emails and waiting for replies. Most replied and I am waiting to meet one for further discussion. I don't know how the whole thing will turn out, but I am pretty sure this is what I want. It was quite a sudden decision. There was no other contributing factors except for fulfilling my long-awaited dream that I never thought will come true. I am praying and just hoping things will work out fine. If you read this post, send me your well wishes as well as to include me in your prayer's list. I'm afraid to pray often as I felt I don't deserve His listening :)

HE : Can I buy you a drink?
SHE : Actually I'd rather have the money.

HE : I'm a photographer. I've been looking for a face like yours.
SHE : I'm a plastic surgeon. I've been looking for a face like yours.

HE : Hi. Didn't we go on a date once? Or was it twice?
SHE : Must've been once. I never make the same mistake twice.

HE : How did you get to be so beautiful?
SHE : I must've been given your share.

HE : Will you go out with me this Saturday?
SHE : Sorry. I'm having a headache this weekend.

HE : Your face must turn a few heads.
SHE : And your face must turn a few stomachs.

HE : Go on ,don't be shy. Ask me out.
SHE : Okay, get out.

HE : I think I could make you very happy.
SHE : Why? Are you leaving?

HE : What would you say if I asked you to marry me?
SHE : Nothing. I can't talk and laugh at the same time.

HE : Can I have your name?
SHE : Why? Don't you already have one?

HE : Shall we go see a movie?
SHE : I've already seen it.

HE : Where have you been all my life?
SHE : Hiding from you.

HE : Haven't I seen you some place before?
SHE : Yes. That's why I don't go there anymore.

HE : Is this seat empty?
SHE : Yes, and this one will be if you sit down.

HE : So, what do you do for a living?
SHE : I'm a female impersonator.

HE : Hey baby, what's your sign?
SHE : Do not enter.

HE : Your body is like a temple.
SHE : Sorry, there are no services today.

HE : If I could see you naked, I'd die happy.
SHE : If I saw you naked, I'd probably die laughing.

Splurge! Relax! Unexpected! And Splurge SPREE...

Not sure which are the right words to use, but yes...our anniversary is on the 11th Aug, 3 days after my birthday :) This year is my turn to plan for the celebration and after much considerations and research, I have decided to turn down Banyan Tree at Bintan to Sentosa. Well, we are staying at Rasa Sentosa, Executive Panaromic View. I was attracted to the view from bathroom haha! Booked that this morning and just wait for that day to come and relax. Guess, $100 saved per year just for this time should be ok right? Anyway, on top of that weekend escapade for our anniversary, we are going for a nice dinner tonight at San Marco Restaurant, Fullerton Hotel. Was choosing between this and Top of the 'M' Revolving Restaurant at Mandarin Hotel, but ended up with the first choice. Reason is simple: I know what I can eat at San Marco hoho coz menu is available online.

Arrrggghhh, so sinful to splurge but yet so tempting to not to splurge!

The dictionary defines friendship as a particular relationship between two friends. So what actually is contained within these few alphabets or letters that are formed and are able to tell to the whole world that friendship is a relationship between two people or more who are willing to be one another's slave?

Let me get this right! Or no! I can't seem to get this right.

I just had a big argument with a so-called close friend and I just felt the whole conversation was just a waste of our time and effort, for talking so long over an empty basis. I felt it was more like a basis of working out an intimate relationship than a friendship. A bit gross it seems. But tell me, what is friendship to you? Does friendship mean we can be totally honest with each other? When we affirm everyone that we should act with honesty as the first trait, then how can we work things out when both people are utterly honest with each other without even thinking if the words said are hurtful or otherwise? Just when one think honesty is to be utter frank with each other, does that mean we can be not tactful when we speak? Ok! So what if a person who claims to be your friend, expect you to understand and accept his or her bad habits on the basis of understanding or knowing him or her well. Isn't this similar to taking advantage of the other party? The funny fact is when one expect everyone to be honest, most of the time, I mean most not all, they don't normally take it down well when honesty is thrown at them. How funny isn't it?

So anyone here? Whoever reads this piece of alphabets-formed sentences, then sentences-formed paragraph and which then translated some meaning to you, please enlighten me. Can we honest with our best so-called best friend? And if we are honest, how can we still maintain the friendship if the other party who expected honesty from you, actually can't swallow any of these facts at all?

One day I met a sweet gentleman and fell in love. When it became apparent that we would marry, I made the supreme sacrifice and gave up eating beans.

Some months later, on my birthday, my car broke down on the way home from work. Since I lived in the countryside I called my husband and told him that I would be late because I had to walk home. On my way, I passed by a small diner and the odour of baked beans was more than I could stand. With miles to walk, I figured that I would walk off any ill effects by the time I reached home, so I stopped at the dinner and before I knew it, I had consumed three large orders of baked beans.

All the way home, I made sure that I released all the gas. Upon my arrival, my husband seemed excited to see me and exclaimed delightedly: "Darling I have a surprise for dinner tonight." He then blindfolded me and led me to my chair at the dinner table. I took a seat and just as he was about to remove my blindfold, the telephone rang. He made me promise not to touch the blindfold until he returned and went to answer the call. The baked beans I had consumed were still affecting me and the pressure was becoming most unbearable, so while my husband was out of the room I seized the opportunity, shifted my weight to one leg and let one go. It was not only loud, but it smelled like a fertilizer truck running over a skunk in front of a pulpwood mill.

I took my napkin from my lap and fanned the air around me vigorously. Then, shifting to the other cheek, I ripped off three more. The stink was worse than stinking cabbage. Keeping my ears carefully tuned to the conversation in the other room, I went on like this for another few minutes.

The pleasure was indescribable. When eventually the telephone farewells signalled the end of my freedom, I quickly fanned the air a few more times with my napkin, placed it on my lap and folded my hands back on it feeling very relieved and pleased with myself. My face must have been the picture of innocence when my husband returned, apologizing for taking so long.

He asked me if I had peeked through the blindfold, and I assured him I had not. At this point, he removed the blindfold, and twelve dinner guests seated around the table chorused

"Happy Birthday!"!! We nearly died!!!

I never watch any of the Die Hard movies before. I knew my dad loved the first one, if I'm not wrong, it was released in 1995. We heard a lot of good reviews from people we knew and they said Die Hard 4.0 is a must watch and it's worth the money.

I caught it last night with fred and it was a real thriller I must say. The suspense was good but the wrap up of the story wasn't very well developed. I thought the part where Maggie Q's role was taken out from the story was a bit juvenile. I do hope to see more of their kick-ass fight, but too bad none! I was quite disappointed at that scene of the story, quite a put off lor....aiseh...

Anyway, for those of you who haven't watched it, well I would say, go for the thrill, the car crash, the chase between big truck and starscream, sorry I mean the fighter jet? Anyway, can't seem to embed the trailer here, so you can always search for one in youtube, i'm sure you know better than I do :)

It was as if I met my old friends when I watched this show....damn good!!

It's finally home day! I didn't miss HK nor Spore. All I wanted was a good shower, good dip in the water, good rest, good massage and good facial. That was it! We woke up at about 10am and started packing the last bit of our bags, and making sure everything can be packed in the hand luggage so the cookies and almond flake will be in good condition upon arrival in Spore. We checked out earlier at about 11.30am and left our bags with the concierge. We walked out and this time, we started exploring harbour city area as well as some shops / boutiques that we missed in TST. We had our lunch at Sweet Dynasty but we were too full to have their desserts, I didn't regret anyway coz by that time, almost everything taste about the same to me. No more wow effect!! hehe....

We continued walking and yes I walked in Giordano Ladies and bought 1 jacket and a top. I didn't even shop nor walk into any Giordano Ladies in Spore but I did it in HK. It's a wonder!!

Ohh, I forgot to mention, on our 4th night in HK, Alzier actually told us that there was long queue to get into LV. And he said one of the bags that was about a notebook size costs only HKG7,500 = about $1,500. That to me was another wow! Price not too ex for one LV bag. Anyway, we noticed almost in every mall in HK, there will be LV / Gucci. I started thinking how good was the buying power in HK, either from the locals or tourists.

We had our early dinner in the aiport, popeye fried chicken. It was very yum! The chicken was very fragrant with spices, meat was tender and juicy with its crispy skin on the outer layer. The fries were freshly sliced from potato (not the processed type) with its skin too, fried with spices and tell you what, that was the first time I love fries so so much....usually I don't even finish one small pack. We flew back at 8pm and that's all for my 2007 HK trip :))

Ahh, Peak was the destination to go on Sunday morning. We woke up at 6am to catch an early ride to the Peak, as well as to avoid the horrific queue for the tram to the peak. We were very lucky as there were less than 15 people in the tram. The ride was very interesting as we sat on the 2nd row and we felt the steep slope, which was about 45 degree in position. On our way up, we saw houses and of course, trees surrounding us. Once we reached the peak, we went up to the viewing terrace to have a good view of Hong Kong. There weren't many people and we had the best view of almost everything. We paid HKD5 for a minute view from the telescope but then again the stupid machine cheated HKD6 from us coz we weren't allowed any view after slotting coins into the machine. So we changed to another telescope and we had another 1-minute view too.

We left Peak at about 9.15am and we managed to catch the double decker bus back to Central station. We sat at the upper deck and had good view on the bus around Central area. We walked around the bus terminal that led to the MTR station. We snapped a few pictures and Fred was quite attracted with their IFC building (International Finance Centre). We then took the train from Hong Kong Station to Citygate again. This was the time when we spent the whole afternoon shopping for snickers. I bought altogether 7 pairs of shoes and Fred; 2 pairs. Can;t imagine how we kept those shoes in our bags huh? It was funny just to recall the number of shoes excluding clothes, 'lao po bing', almond flake and bags.

We met mayleng, colin and emma for dinner at Silvercord Mall, food court. We had a quick dinner as we were rushing for the 10th Anniversary Celebrations, just to see its 36 minutes fireworks. TST was suddenly full with crowds and we were walking almost side by side towards the same direction. There were lots of police and roads were blocked because there were too many people crowding at one area for the show. So we had to change our route to another street to catch the fireworks presentation. We found a not-so-good place to watch but it was nothing more to complain as we could still catch good view of the fireworks.

After the show, we went separate ways and both fred and I walked towards Nathan road to meet Alzier. We had dinner at one of the chinese restaurants and both fred and I had only drinks and a toast. The meal was on Alzier and after a short walk towards Mongkok, we went separate ways again. Fred and I went on to temple street to check out things and soon after that, we went back to our hotel to pack our bags and stuffed our purchased goods in the backpacks and hand luggage. We had to discard the shoe boxes but we took a picture of it as a memory :))

We woke up at 10am, knowing we both wanted some rest before another round of walk. We got ready, packed our little backpack and we started our walk again. Our first destination was to Citihall in Central for Maxim's dimsum. We reached there about 12pm and we got our waiting number 144. The lady who gave us the number told us that the wait would take half an hour but we ended up with 1 hour wait. The wait was really long for just one meal of dimsum, I just couldn't understand what was the big deal that attracted so many loyal customers and of course the curious ones like fred and I. Our number was called and we got to sit near the big glass window that overlooking the sea and the ferry pier to somewhere which I can't recall.

The first trolley came, no two at a time. Their cantonese was really fluent and too quick for me to catch a word. In the end, they spoke English. We had 8 servings; steamed tofu and shrimp ball, har kau, ribs in black bean sauce, cheong fun, fried milk (yes, they fried milk and it tasted like japanese tofu but sweet), char siew pau, vegetarian styled tang hoon wrapped in beancurd skin, and I can't remember the rest. The wait was worth it for the food. We couldn't really finish the food because the portion was too big for the 2 of us. If there were another pair with us, it would be a perfect meal.

After our dimsum luncheon, we went all out to search for factory outlets. We went to Pedder Building in Central but found nothing that caught our attention. Dickson Warehouse was the next to look for, which was at Kowloon station. We read about that in the internet and books but it was such a disappointment. We got nothing and we were there for only less than 15 minutes. We gave up almost totally and with low spirits, we headed to Tung Chung station, the last station that can get us to see the Giant Buddha. We read there was another outlet and we told ourselves if there was nothing there again, we would go straight to Sogo and Times Square. Once we were out of the station, we saw Citygate mall. And you know what! Adidas Outlet was the first one I saw, followed by Nike Outlet, Timberland Outlet, Evita Peroni Outlet, Esprit Outlet and many more. All factory outlets and I almost went bananas because of the outlets I saw, actually the price tag hehe. The snickers were half the price I can get in Singapore, same goes to Timberland and Evita. I checked out sizes and compared prices. It was only a search and hightlighting day. I was waiting for Day 4 for the full-out shopping extravaganza.

We kept our timing right so we could make it for the Symphony of Lights at Avenue of Stars at 8pm. It was very cloudy and although we were early for the show, we couldn't see much coz the lights were all drowned by the clouds. It was very windy and with the drizzle, I was really trying hard to gear all my fats for some warmth :p but it was futile.

It was 9.30pm when we stepped into the Vietnamese Restaurant next to our hotel. We were so captivated by this fried chicken (coconut something), and we ordered half of it (spring chicken) and a plate of beef cube tomato rice. The dinner was really, really good. By the time we left the restaurant, it was about 10.30pm and the street was still buzzing with people, cars, food and adult magazines *wink. They started selling the adult mag at 11pm and I was very amused with their collections for sale, which of course something I don't get to see in both Msia and Spore. Our walk ended after some walk around our hotel area and we went back to sleep.

We woke up at 8am, it was very bright then. We washed up and headed out to MTR station, the TST stop which is only 5 min walk from our hotel. We saw this small eatery shop and we walked down the stairs to their shop, which was situated like maybe their basement of the building? It was a small 'char chan teng' and we had congee and fried bee hoon yummmmmmm....we tried their 'lor mai kai' but it looks more like our glutinous rice dumpling or the steamed rice in lotus leaves, it was huge ok...

We bought our tickets and went straight to Central. Once reaching Central, we took our slow walk exploring the place. It was drizzling and of course, quite a romantic walk for the 2 of us :p There was sheltered walkway and we had really good view of the business district in that area. From its skyscrapers to high rise residential buildings near the peak. It was a grand view from bottom, overlooking the magnificent buildings erected all around you, kinda petite I felt :p We took the lift to 40th floor of Bank of China and there we had one of the best view of Central. From IFS to HSBC, the huge plasma / LCD screen right at the top AIG building. No fashion show on the screen but the moving and animated AIG brand in the screen, quite a view to see.

We did our window shopping, in fact a quick glance at Landmark and we made our way to look for Luk Tung restaurant for dim sum. Unfortunately, we didn't get a place even after their lunch hour just because we didn't make any reservation. It was quite a disappointment especially after wading our way through the rain and the crowd of working professionals. Both of us were quite cool though and fred made a quick trip to the toilet before resuming our exploration.

After walking past some slopey streetshops, we reached the mid-level escalator, well if you have watched Chungking Express, the arty-farty movie by Wong Kar Wai, then you will know which escalator I meant. We stopped when we were quite near to Lindhurst Terrace, a place where we wanted to find the famous Tai Chung's egg tart. We were reading the map when this kind caucasian lady who approached us and gave us some help with our directions. We exited the escalator and started our walk to Stanley street, and it was definitely a good walk. As I walked, I told fred I had the sudden craving for nuts and beer, and yes we got ourselves a bottle of beer and a packet of cashewnuts. We couldn't finish the cashewnuts and the packet is still left in our fridge now at home hoho.

Though we walked like whole day, we didn't feel much of exhaustion. Soon after the beer and nuts craving adventure, we found Lindhurst Terrace. The first shop that caught our attention was this small, uninteresting food stall on the roadside. I was wondering if they had any place to sit for food and it turned out that their seats were all in the building. We went in and I had a plate of "chung yao kai pa fan" (chicken chop rice with fried spring onions). I must loudly announce, this was the best chicken chop rice I had ever tasted. The chicken was very well-marinated and the skin was very crispy. The meat was tender and not hard even after the fry and of course, the garnishing was super duper yummy. I'm drooling now :p Fred had pork chop burger. I didn't try it coz I don't eat pork but according to this choosy man, he thought the pork chop burger was fantastic.

Soon, we found Tai Chung Egg Tart, which was opposite the shop we ate. We were super full by then and the tarts didn't really amuse us. We almost gave up on the tarts until we saw the queue and the newspaper cutting that said the ex-commissioner made a special visit just for their tart and I was like "sure or not!!!" Fred queued up and bought 2 egg tarts. It was hot from the oven and we just took a small bite just to taste the tart. And guess what, we couldn't resist not eating it. The egg tart was so good that it almost melt immediately in your mouth. The crust and the custard was made in such a good combination that you can taste both at the same time, the buttery crust and the eggy custard, with its buttery taste and sweet finishing from the custard. How could anyone resist from eating them while they were hot?? We can't!!

We explored further to Western Market, the 50s Shanghai-theme dine and dance restaurant, the pier to Macau, seafood street and finally MTR back to our room. We had good shower and started our walk again to Mongkok for dinner and desserts. We shopped along the way and we had a supposedly light dinner, which in the end we had fried capsicum, grilled octopus, fishball and finally mango delight at Hui Lau San. The one less guilty about the eating in HK is we walked a lot to compensate the carbs and fats we ate, though we consciously know that don't really help much :p But again, if one were to go on diet in HK, I would say you might as well drop the idea of going HK in the first place. Their food is to die for!!

We touched down at about 12.30pm. After checking out, we went straight to get our luggage and met Kelvin, the rep from Ann's Travel Agency. He's arranged us the transport to our hotel. We stayed in Guangdong Hotel. That was the hotel available when we made our booking.

We checked in at about 2pm and the room was quite small. But again, according to Alzier, his was even smaller. So I should just shut up for now :) It was very convenient to walk about from our hotel. We were at TST area and the MTR station was just 5 mins walk away. Quite cool. Many restaurants, convenient stores, pubs were around our hotel area. We started our walk to Mongkok, checking on Temple Street, Ladies Market, Hui Lau San, Wing Wah (for wife cookies), Maxim (for almond flake) and so on. We made good discovery along our walk.

We had our first HK bite at a fish noodles shop. The portion of the food, HUGE! Think they used 3 wantan noodles to serve for one person. It was very yummy. The wantan was wrapped with 2 prawns and minced meat. As we ordered the dry wantan noodles, it was the oyster sauce served. Quite salty though. That was for fred. I ordered fish noodles fish balls, basically the noodles was made of fish meat and of course I need not describe fish balls right?

We tried 'yu dan', the fishball at road stall near ladies market. Yummy as it is, we had only one string of fishballs. We tried their famous stuffed meat green pepper. Well, it was so-so. Our dinner was a plate of roast meat rice. Char siew and roast meat. Fred had most of it coz I don't really eat pork. Our day 1 was basically food, food and food. The good thing was, we knew the corners of the streets, and we can walk without the map after day 1 :)