Was woken up by a phone call at 9 am. Good news this time =) ! I've been accepted by another company. They're super efficient la...I just went for the interview yesterday. And the sch just sent them the resume the day before. So I got the position within two days. I've never seen such efficiency from the sch. Haha.

My supervisor seems very nice. And I had a good feeling when I saw the office yesterday. Hope it's all right from here on =) . Thanks very much to all who offered consolation and encouragement, whether directly to me or in your hearts!

Was woken up this morning by a phone call from the school. Bad news.

My internship company had decided not to take me on after all. It is one week to the start. The rejection email was sent on the 23rd. I got a missed call from the school yesterday, only I didn't know it was from the school. And several from about three weeks ago, but I'm not sure whether it was about this. So it's my fault for not returning the calls. I could have known earlier, and made alternative arrangements faster. Time is of the element now.

The whole thing smelled really weird and fishy, so I did some investigations on my own. Was really angered by the results. But there's nothing I can do about it. I don't want to burn my bridges. I'm just going to tell all my friends to relieve my frustrations.

I had been looking towards my internship with a mixture of excitement and dread. Dread because I was afraid that I wasn't going to like it, or would disappoint. Excitement because I could finally do what I want to do, and see if it suits me. And also the opportunities that I could be offered after the internship.

I didn't buy any new formal clothes because I thought I wouldn't need them, this being a not-so-formal company. Now I'll have to get some new blood to replace my outdated ones.

It's all these thoughts that sadden me and make me sian. But I'm ok with it now. Trying to look on the bright side. The school's plan for me now is to choose 5 other companies and see if they still have vacancies. Hope they won't see me as leftovers or a potential problem. I chose some nearby ones. My reasoning is that at least I'll get to have more sleep. Haha.

Wish me luck, everyone.

Sometimes, you don't need snow and a crackling fireplace to have a warm and fuzzy christmas.

I had one in our evergreen sunny island, without any element that's typical of a white christmas.

Let us go now, you and I, to the beginning of the festivities - on Silent Night.

The theme was colors. Each of us had to have only red, green, black and white on our person. And also, to be random, we all had to do this one thing with our eyes. I put them on for the first time in my life that night. See if you can guess what they are from the photos ;) .

My comrades Candy and Yi Ting.

Comrade #3, Florence, and me.

Still can't tell what we did with our peepers?

Here's a closer look at mine.

Don't you think they look 妖艳? I wasn't trying to do any such expression, but the pic just came out looking like that cos of the eyes.

Here's a more natural-looking shot.

The game's up! Can't believe it? Heeheehee...I won't be wearing them again, though. When I first looked in the mirror after Florence put them on for me (they stung my eyes so much I teared), I felt I bore a 99% resemblance to your garden-variety ah gua. Or 陈汉典 when he's doing a female role.

We had dinner at The Vines restaurant in Thomson Road. The steak was goooood. I haven't had good steak in a long long time! The stalks of veggies are distracting though.

After the exhorbitant 3-course christmas set dinner, it was time to rip off some wrappers.

The rule set by Candy was that each present had to have an element of DIY.

First up, Florence's gift for me.

Nicely wrapped! I like the two-tone look, even though it is only because she didn't have enough of one colour.

She got me a stationery holder with a magnetic dartboard to help me decide whether I should take a study break when I've gone mad from revising and am desperate enough to play with a stationery holder with a magnetic dartboard. And she sewed me a pouch. We couldn't find any 破绽 in any of her handmade gifts for us. For this, I named her the DIY Queen!

I was very amused by the very random content in her card. The third sentence reads: "This colour paper is like too bright. Haha." Who on earth would feel an overwhelming urge to share that with the recipient of the card? Heeheehee.

Next, Candy presented us with her gifts.

I got a coaster with a custom design, and a mug.

Plus a silly photo of us. And a card.

Lastly, it was Yi Ting's turn. Since the moment she met us that evening, she'd been obsessing about how terrible her gift is and how we must forgive her and not expect it to be good and so on. Her anxiety level jacked up after unwrapping each of our gifts. She even played the sympathy card, saying that she only slept 2 hours every night, staying up to finish them. She insisted that ours were all tons better than hers.

At this point, her anxiety reached boiling point and she could barely bear to watch our reaction to her handmade present.

It turned out to be...

A christmas tree made out of wires!

She bought little pegs to act as "ornaments" on the tree and twisted all the wires herself to make the shape and design. She even tied our presents onto each tree! It's so creative! I would never have thought of it.

We were all highly impressed by Yi Ting's gift and reassured her that we love it. It was certainly a night of surprises for me as I didn't expect to receive any of these gifts.

The next stop was AMKHub, to catch a midnight screening of Sherlock Holmes. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. My only complaints are that it is a bit too long, and I really don't think Sherlock is that good at fighting. I shall read the books soon to find out.

At about 2 am, we cabbed back to Florence's place to play mahjong. We watched an Asian film awards ceremony and episodes of Kang Xi while my dear comrades pong-ed, gang-ed and hu-ed away my finances.

And so it is that at 10 am on Christmas Day, I crawled into bed and slept until 5 pm.

I was due to be at Orchard at 6.30 pm. The plan? Have a Christmas dinner with Bee, KC and Yu Lan at Wheelock Place's NYDC.

It was a leisurely affair, just relaxing, eating and chatting. Great activities for my low energy levels. =)

We'd opted to buy a more general gift, and then draw lots and see who would get whose. Fate chose very well, and we were all very happy with our presents.

I got a Winnie the Pooh Monopoly Junior. It came with gorgeous Pooh wrapping paper which turned out to be from a pasar malam. Maybe the cheapest things really can be the best sometimes!

Bee gave each of us an extra gift - a stationery holder with a pen and candy. All nicely wrapped and compiled by herself to show her sincerity.

The nice and simple night ended at Borders.

Boxing Day was a busy day for me.

My fellow beans bounced into my castle at 2 pm for some free ktv.

Many singers have weird habits or 怪癖, and Fang definitely aspires to be one.

She even has the emo and 深情 looks perfected.

However, what she really needs is an adoring audience who listens intently to her beautiful voice instead of taking photos right beside her.

She showed her professionalism by ignoring us and continuing to perform happily.

Time flies when you're goofing off, and we went back upstairs to present our offerings.

Another unique xmas gift: homemade chocolate sponge cake! It may not look like much but it's made with love and tastes great - I single-handedly polished off half of it. Pls be proud of me, XY! ;)

Our aspiring singer got me a Keroppi notebook and a card. She's so sincere that she tested each of the pens that came wrapped inside the notebook. Haha. I think shopkeepers would only entertain such requests from ditzy and cute girls like her.

Isabel got us Pull and Bear scarves stuffed into a cute stocking. I really like how the scarf looked with my shirt (see the ktv photos above)!

We then ordered KFC and watched the Sisterhood of Travelling Pants 2. It's not as good as the first, but still a great movie to watch with gal pals on a girl's night in.

Bee arrived at about 9 pm for the next item in my non-stop schedule - a sleepover with her and Cheryl.

The initial plan was to have a night swim, but in the end, we decided that it's too cold and ended up swimming the next evening instead.

So we watched 40-year-old Virgin on channel 5 while waiting for Cheryl to arrive. At 11.30 pm, Cheryl was greeted by Bee and someone wearing Doraemon pyjamas outside the MRT station near my house.

We had a Pirates of the Caribbean 1 & 2 marathon. I was dozing off during the second one but held on because Cheryl kept saying she was going to finish her cross-stitch for Bee very soon. But alas, it still wasn't done at 4.30 am when we finished Dead Man's Chest, and so I elected for us to go to sleep and for her to finish it the next day. We went to my parents' room (they went to Batam so that we could have more freedom and space to sleep) and had a nice chat for a while before surrendering to the Sandman.

The next afternoon, determined Cheryl woke up earlier than us to finish the cross-stitch bookmark. After swashbuckling through Pirates 3, it was finally time to exchange the gifts!

Cheryl's present for me was hilarious.

There are two hilarious parts about it. 1. She spelt "pseudo" wrongly at first, and 2. she clearly doesn't know the meaning of "pseudo", because the said relationship is anything but. It's as real as the nose on your face, baby. ;)

My bestie got me GLOW-IN-THE-DARK undies! It's soooooooooo cute and I've wanted one since last year! Hehehe!

So here it is - my haul for Christmas 2009 (there isn't enough of the cake left to show it here).

Looking good, eh? ;)

Hope your Christmas was just as heartwarming!

My parents have added a new item to my Converse collection!

They bought me this pair from Indonesia for S$40+:

It's the colour combi that I've wanted for a long time! Hurrah!

=) =) =)

After days of stressing about what I'm going to get, 2 days of shopping, and half a day of packaging, I'm finally done.



A small mountain this year. Damn kua zhang. My mum saw me working on them yesterday and today and remarked jealously that I don't put in that much effort for her gifts. Sigh!

Every year while doing xmas shopping, I'd be so stressed and indecisive (just.can't.decide.what.to.get! Is this good enough? That looks like something she'll like, but let's keep it in mind first. Will she think badly of me for getting this?) that I'd promise myself not to go through this again the next year, but when the time comes I can't bring myself to be the party pooper and say no. Also, I see present-selecting as requiring inspiration, just like writing. So my gifts range from total misses to =| to pretty good hits. Sorry if you got the former! Maybe next year you'll like the one I get you. No matter what, please know that I did fret excessively over it, but inspiration just didn't arrive fast enough. And when I push the panic button, there goes my selection criteria. Then come the feelings of insecurity (Did the present come across as really thoughtless? But I did spend hours choosing it...).

But today, after all the work was done, I began to feel a tiny buzz of excitement. On Boxing Day, I will end up with a small mound myself. Will it contain any pleasant surprises? :D

Thanks to this feeling of anticipation, I can see myself nodding again next year when someone asks "shall we exchange gifts?" =)

Source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7vmyo16jarQ6DL5u-BLJv5vIGLr74jZ9i-bCH1o0ltSaQRYZYjVOnKfBasvae3u0GEFWzzpLqydX8EVorHYgAuKJucnLQ2_9D8_H_XGnJj7-mjYT9cN4IWGiyP70iQwglKNVSfA/s1600/love.png

I'll do that when the time comes. If it ever comes.

Source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpy17qKSmhTvh7NGmZj0K1cBYFxNosKDMZ-1IwPuJUzUUF7oE0QPEDGYfHufE4oGVnP5tkkXvotAkXZfowaog0q9EmXBEn5N7ccYiAbvR96EjGBHAKwpOV6440rsaomoJHz_9CRQ/s1600/happiness.jpg

A laugh a day keeps the doctor away ;) . Hope it did it for you too.

Saw the above pics on Max's blog. Thanks for bothering with Kirschblüten - Hanami, by the way. It gives me pleasure, knowing that you enjoyed it ;) .

P.S Just saw another pic (on Ro's blog) that made me LOL!

I've been busy watching this show for the past few weeks. It's a Taiwanese 20-episode drama called 我在墾丁*天氣晴 Wayward Kenting. I wouldn't call it an idol drama cos there's quite a bit of depth in it, but there are idols. Two really cute male leads.

Wanted to share the above video cos I really love the beautiful grayscale shots of each character in the beginning. The director is really talented, though egoistic.

I recommend this series. It taught me a thing or two and gave me food for thought about love, the environment and how much I have yet to see. I'm always bemused by my own childlike fascination with how some places can be so big. How different city dwellers and country folk can be. And it made me wonder whether there really can be such a naive person who just continues to shine as brightly as the sun no matter how many times he is hurt by his blind trust for others.

Darn, now I have to find something else to be blindly busy with. To distract myself from the 2 million tasks that are waiting to be done. I swear I had 100 times more interest in everything I'm doing now during the exams. Argh!

...I would have a gallery of Converse shoes.

So far, I have owned six pairs.



Bought my virgin pair in 2004. They only cost about $50 or $60 then. Nowadays a pair of high tops like these are $65-$80 when not on sale.



Friends cottoned on and got me these for my 18th.



I received these for my 20th birthday (red and navy blue). I spent about a hundred years sifting through all my past photos, looking for one with this pair in it (they went to shoe heaven in Hong Kong). I couldn't find any pictures of it online (now I know how rare it is).

I know it's not very clear and looks exactly like the pair before it, but hey, at least you get to see my slender legs! The difference is that for this pair, the outer (red) layer could be folded down to reveal another, navy blue, layer.

This brown pair became mine when I turned 21. They walked me to my 22nd.

Brown's successor. Only $30 from a shop in Far East Plaza! Got it a few months back.

Yesterday, I decided that owning only one pair of shoes is ridiculous, and so I got these for $49.90 from Heritage Hub.

Labels: if i had too much $

Just finished watching a German film called Kirschblüten - Hanami (Cherry Blossoms).

Hebe recommended it a little over a year ago. I just wrote it down somewhere. Glad I kept it till now. It amazes me, thinking about how she could have come across it. I imagine that Chinese subtitles for a German film must be rare. Fate, perhaps? It does seem to be an operative word in her life. Hehe.

Anyway. This movie is sadder than One Litre of Tears, in my opinion. It's sad, but I don't feel depressed at the end of it. It's somewhat arty, but I understand it perfectly. It says so much with so little. Let me know what you think if you decide to watch it and manage to reach the end. I don't find it too long at 122 minutes, but maybe it's not for everyone.

Here's the link on Youtube, if you're interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B7dgg-yLY8&feature=related.