Spoil me silly.

The woes of an overseas student. Nine weeks away from Singapore, and I have been missing, in no particular order of preference:

- Hainanese chicken rice just about anywhere, with yummy chilli :(

- Fried carrot cake (the first stall at Chomp Chomp!)

- Fried Kway Teow (Newton)

- Duck rice (the little restaurant near my grandma's place)

- The bubble tea cafe at Ang Mo Kio (actually just the food) O.o

- Mos Burger's tsukune rice burger and fries!

- McSpicy, because stupid Aussie Mac's doesn't have it :'(

- Fried hokkien mee (Newton)

- Chicken baked rice from Swensen's

- Taiwan porridge near the Indoor Stadium (OMG 海京鲁肉 菜卜蛋 砂煲豆腐 清炒豆苗!)

- 煮炒 (干炒牛河 牛肉炒米粉 牛肉芥蘭 蝦酱鸡 红烧豆腐 - I am such a sucker for cow)

- 什菜饭!! (Hey Z - ;p)

- Beefballs and rice from random food court at shopping centre

- Pure Vanilla from Coffee Bean

- Crystal Jade (麻婆豆腐！)

- Black Angus/Jack's Place, for once-in-a-blue-moon indulgences

- Indochine at Wisma, for ambience, music and the usual company :>

- Nooch at Wheelock/CityLink, for yummy Thai fried kway teow with chicken

- Popiah at Serangoon Central food centre

- Mudpies from NYDC (only the mudpies)

- Keyaki (those who've been there with me know why...)

- Seoul Garden (?) O_o

- Prata and Dinosaur at Thomson (Just how good are Dinosaurs? ;p)

- Nasi Lemak (with an extra sausage) from Marina Square/Sim Lim Square food court

- 饺子 锅贴 云吞 + 面 (note their similarities here)

- Bumbu, my all-time favourite restaurant for Indonesian and Thai!!

- Long John Silver's fries + crumbs, even though their chicken is rubbery :x

- Lychee margarita at Cafe Iguana, only with Piggy and Viv

- Nidz's curry (chicken/vegetables)

- 炒米粉 炒米粉 and more 炒米粉 from Serangoon Ave 2！(Sunday mornings before 1999...)

- Sausage McMuffin with Egg and hash brown (the ones here taste funny)

X X X

There are many others, but I think I've got everything pretty much covered :>

Advance bookings with me for any of the above, anyone? ;p

X X X

Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And everything you do
They were all yellow.

Coldplay - Yellow.

Vehemence.

男人都一起去死吧。

I initially thought of removing these words because Perrin (being a man, naturally - lol) said that it was full of vehemence ;p

Let me explain.

Just as I finally worked out how to make Chinese characters appear on my blog and therefore wanted to do a trial run to see if they'd really appear, Piggy miss-called and I had to get out of the house to meet her downstairs. Which meant that I had no time to edit or remove before anyone sees the words! (Bwahaha I wonder how many people have read it while I was away) ;p

I came in here with the intention of deleting it, because it really does sound overly angry and I mean, I haven't reached that stage whereby "all men deserve to die" la ;p However I have decided to retain the words in their original untouched form, because it was really the first thing that popped into my head anyway. Like what I always believe, we have to preserve history in its most original form!

So anyway I'm really happy that (finally!) Chinese-lit enthusiast me can finally put my favourite lyrics/poetry into good use :>

那只是一场游戏一场梦

不要把残缺的爱留在这里

在两个人的世界里

不该有你。

一场游戏一场梦- 王杰

Words of wisdom.

Me: I hate men I swear

Carpe Diem: Well... I don't hate them lar. I just don't want to love them anymore.

X X X

With the "good men" population gradually going extinct, who can blame us for feeling this way?

PS: Straight male readers are not allowed to comment on this post to defend themselves (particularly someone with initials HKL ;p).

And no matter what I do
I feel the pain
With or without you.

N'Sync - Tearing Up My Heart.

Peer pressure.

I walked out into the kitchen to find Blob frying eggs - not one, not two, not three, but four eggs all for himself.

And that was not all. I bent down to look at the oven, and I saw what seemed like 12 pieces of chicken strips baking inside.

... I guess no one will be surprised to know that he weighs over a 120 kg and has a BMI of possibly 34 (just a stab-in-the-dark prediction because he is always lying about his weight).

X X X

The power of peer pressure is as such - I got this from Piggy's blog, who got it from another friend's blog, and here I am, blatantly plagiarising O_o But this list of "I have(s)" is fun, I have to admit.

[ ] Snuck out of the house
[x] Gotten lost in your city (I am proud to say that I am directionless)
[ ] Seen a shooting star
[ ] Had a serious injury
[x] Gone out in public in your pajamas
[ ] Kissed a stranger
[ ] Been in a fist fight
[x] Had alcohol
[x] Laughed and had milk, coke or water etc come out of your nose
[x] Pushed all the buttons in an elevator
[x] Been in love
[x] Been close to love
[x] Been to a casino
[ ] Been skydiving
[ ] Broken a bone (just dislocated)
[ ] Skinny-dipped
[x] Skipped school
[ ] Flashed someone
[x] Saw a therapist
[x] Played spin the bottle
[x] Gotten stitches
[ ] Drank a whole gallon of water in one hour
[x] Bitten someone
[x] Been to Disneyland
[ ] Gotten chicken pox
[ ] Kissed a member of the same sex
[ ] Crashed into a friend's car
[x] Been to Japan
[x] Ridden in a taxi (o_O?)
[x] Had feelings for someone who didn't reciprocate
[ ] Stolen something from your job
[x] Gone on a blind date
[x] Lied to a friend
[x] Had a crush on a teacher (...)
[ ] Celebrated Mardi-Gras
[x] Been to Europe
[ ] Slept with a co-worker
[ ] Been married
[ ] Gotten divorced
[ ] Had children
[ ] Seen someone die
[x] Had a close friend die
[ ] Been to Africa
[ ] Driven over 400 miles in one day
[x] Been to Canada
[x] Been to Mexico
[x] Been on a plane
[ ] Seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show
[ ] Thrown up in a bar
[x] Purposely set a part of yourself on fire
[x] Eaten sushi
[x] Been snowboarding/skiing ;p
[x] Met someone in person from the internet
[ ] Lost a child
[x] Gone to college/poly
[ ] Done hard drugs
[ ] Tried killing yourself
[ ] Fired a gun
[x] Purposely hurt yourself
[x] Taken painkillers
[x] Missed someone
[x] Cried over lost love
[x] Intentionally killed a living thing
[ ] Stole your best friend's boy/girlfriend
[x] Secretly wished you were president

And suddenly, I feel like my life is so unhappening because I have never snuck out of the house?!!??!!!!

Get over it.

A couple of weeks ago a friend from China forwarded a message on MSN to me, urging me to go to some website to petition against Japan's bid for a seat in the UN Security Council.

I closed her window without a second thought, but not before wondering why she thought that I would support the move. Because I am supposedly a fellow Chinese who would lend a helping hand in times of need? Or because Singapore was invaded as well in WW2 so naturally I would be equally anti-Jap?

Seriously, China should just get over it and let Japan go already. History textbook issues aside, all that violence and boycotting is unnecessary. In fact I don't even see why the Chinese would feel any "better" with Koizumi's apology, when it wasn't even this generation who invaded their country like 60 years ago. Okay this might be just a very simplistic point of view but well, I am no political analyst and this might well be the first and last time that politics makes an appearance on my blog.

X X X

A week ago there was an article in the Straits Times about this PSC scholar guy who recently got bombed (on online forums and other channels) for racist comments on his blog.

Like, duh.

Is he the only racist one in SG? Definitely not.

So why did he receive all that flak? Because he is a PSC scholar and SG is so obsessed with projecting a clean and green image (And then they go and build 2 casinos). Well done!

Singaporeans should just get over small issues like these and move on to look at bigger pictures.

Boy, am I glad I went overseas.

X X X

Oh, and if you guys are bored, check this out:

http://www.mrmen.com/makemrmen.htm

I am no html whiz so don't ask me how to create a link.

X X X

That I would be good
Even if I lost sanity
That I would be good
Whether with or without you.

Alanis Morissette - That I Would Be Good.

Just friends.

I've seen a couple of blogs using this blogpoll thing so I thought I'd try it on my blog to make it more... uh, interactive ;p While watching TV earlier I wondered how many of my friends/blog readers believe that they can remain friends with their exes after breaking up. By the term "friends" I really mean friends - no awkwardness, bitterness, no "talking-to-him/her-is-killing-me" kinda thing. Pure friends, just as though you were never together and you'd never been through all that good and bad. I guess most of your answers will depend on why your relationship ended, but surely things are never going back to the way they were before, no matter how amiable the breakup was.

So guys, tell me!

NB: If you've yet to experience a breakup, (good on you!!! ... but) provide me with a brilliant hypothesis ;p My apologies if this blogpoll has triggered some memories that you never want to relive.



Fingers trace your every outline
Paint a picture with my hands
Back and forth we sway like branches in a storm
Change the weather still together when it ends.

Maroon 5 - Sunday Morning.

Too tuff to puff.

Yesterday I tried bugging Shin-chan to let me try one of his cigarettes after months of seeing him smoke one after the other as though they made up his life-support system. Without batting an eyelid he opened his pack of Marlboro Lights and handed me a fresh new ciggie. But I told him I'd rather not waste a fresh one to try (because I knew I wasn't going to last the full dose) so he let me have the one he was smoking instead. He doesn't speak English very well so he did a physical demo of sucking on the cig, letting the smoke enter your lungs (?!) then breathing it out either from the nose or mouth... which was really funny coming to think about it now :)

So after a minute of rehearsing the procedures, I took the very first puff.

Cough.

Refusing to believe that I'd done it the wrong way, I took the second one.

Cough.

Shin-chan tries explaining the procedures again. Third attempt.

Cough cough cough and then I felt tears welling up in my eyes.

Fourth attempt. Shin-chan once again does physical demo with an "I'm so high" expression on his face. Bwahahahaha.

More coughing, and then I felt my whole head spinning.

After the fifth puff I decided that I wasn't cut out for smoking at all - not even for trial. I seriously wondered what was it about smoking that makes one so hooked? How can that even be possible, when it all starts out icky and gross on the first few tries?

So i guess that's the end of the smoking career, and one item off mom's list of worries - alongside pre-marital sex and pregnancy, drugs, alcohol, clubbing, and mixing with 'bad' company O_o

X X X

The next two weeks will be hell for me, with regards to schoolwork. Wish me luck.

Here is where you'll always find me
Always walking up and down
But I left my soul behind me
In an old cathedral town.

Diana Krall - Boulevard of Broken Dreams.

This goddamned Heather part II.

After the whole parcel-search saga I finally found the package from my mom. It apparently landed in the post office just next to where I live, but since 1st April no one has dropped a note in my mailbox to notify me. Heather is not a sneaky thief who wanted my cheapo clothes and anti-pimple gel but just the postmaster of that branch. Riiiight. Now that's Australian efficiency for you. So since the post office was so near, I went down personally to collect it yesterday.

And I was wondering, why did mom have to pay the extra cost for express and the door-to-door delivery? -_-

Cookies are a 'sometimes' food.

Conversation between Piggy and I on ICQ.

I: cookie monster is going on a diet

P: .........?

I: sesame street is now advocating healthy living and therefore only allows cookie monster to eat fruits and veg from now O_o

P: are you serious?

I: no kidding let me find the article online

P: ..........

P: ????? X 10

P: so is he going to be called Vegan monster?

X X X

April 12, 2005

Cookie Monster turns diet guru

NEW YORK - COOKIE Monster is to become a children's diet adviser.

The Muppet who usually puts away a plateful of cookies in a single swallow will now say that the sweet treat is a 'sometimes food'.

The move is a bid by the makers of children's show Sesame Street to promote better eating habits among children as America struggles with obesity and weight problems in all age groups, CBC News reported yesterday.

Cookie Monster had, in the past, not been able to get enough of his favourite food. He even sang the praises of cookies on the show. But in his new song, Cookies Are A Sometimes Food, he tells children how some foods can be eaten 'any time' while others - such as cookies - should be eaten only 'sometimes'.

Also in keeping with the show's new healthy-living theme, each episode will open with a health tip for kids about nutrition or exercise.

Among guest stars who will support the theme are singer Alicia Keys and New York senator Hillary Clinton.

The show has new characters such as talking eggplants and carrots.

X X X

P: Cookies Are A Sometimes Food ........................................?

I: this world SUCKS. talking eggplants and carrots?!!

P: its a children's show, dammit

P: cookie monster is..... cookie monster. cookies are a sometimes food?!!??!!?

I: if cookie monster was a real character i bet he'd rather die.

P: well he'll be skinny now :P

I: he wasn't obese to start with -_-

I: he's so cute being the cookie-ish way he is... why HIM of all people? ernie and bert can do better.

P: because he eats cookies.

I: you mean he gobbles - and that's unhealthy eating alright.

X X X

I rest my case.

This goddamned Heather.

Mom mailed a package of things to my Aussie address at the end of March, paid extra and all for express door-to-door delivery (ie: package should arrive within four days), and until two days ago on the 11th of April it still hasn't arrived at my doorstep.

Two days ago I got Mom to call Singapore Post to trace the whereabouts of the parcel, and yes - she was told that it arrived in Melbourne on April 1st (so where the hell is it?!!?). Went downstairs to check with people at reception if someone had actually received it on my behalf and forgot to let me know - nope, no package for you, miss.

Yesterday Mom called SingPost again, and was told that it had actually arrived at my place on 1st April, plus it had already been signed and received on my behalf by someone named Heather, whom I have absolutely no idea about. So I thought okay, it has to be someone at the reception (again!).

Went downstairs to ask earlier, and the very kind lady at the counter told me that they've got no staff by the name of Heather (???!!!!).

......

Riiiiiiight.

So really, where the hell is my damned parcel from home?!

Darn you slack inefficient people - now whoever said that you could just let a random Heather receive my package and sign it on my behalf, when the parcel was specifically addressed to me, door-to-door and registered?

And Heather, whoever you are - seriously, are you that desperate for a winter jacket and some ordinary daily clothing?!

All you thieves who've gotten away scot-free with my things - my project draft my bottle and now my package -

DIE
AND
BURN
IN
HELL.

X X X

It is far beyond the stars
It is near beyond the moon
But I know beyond a doubt
My heart will lead me there soon.

Bobby Darin - Beyond The Sea.

Take my hand.

Reading Gerrybin's blog about the NUS lecture 'proposal' reminded me that I have yet to post my thoughts about it! Okay I know I am 6000 km away from Singapore but, thanks to all my faithful gossip sources, I still am able to keep up with the local juice. I actually first heard about it from Z (who unfortunately had to be secondary schoolmates with the guy - so I guess TCHS guys aren't all that smart, huh) but only got to view the clip a few days after.

In a nutshell, the entire episode was gross. I'm sorry mate, if you think that method of telling someone you are interested in her is going to work (because it's innovative and romantic), then you are dead wrong. I mean, the powerpoint slide (see image below) wasn't even half decent. That retarded-looking figure (which I suspect was a desperate attempt to draw an image of himself) with the words "take my hand" was baaaaah. I think my 4-year-old Bernice can draw better. Or perhaps my grandma (I decided that I will give him more credit).



Yes the image isn't very clear but I just wanted to prove my point on what a disgustingly horrible powerpoint slide it was that he used to attempt to win a girl's heart.

I wanted to go on and on, but I shall give the guy a break. After all, he has already suffered enough humiliation from doing such a 'bold and courageous' act (from the poor embarrassed girl, that is).

So anyway, why not try national TV the next time? :P After all, TCHS taught you the value of "zi qiang bu xi"... :P

I saw the sign.

Singlehood is a very strange thing. You like the fact that you don't have to be accountable to anyone for your actions, that you can be free to go on dates with people who catch your eye, that you are enjoying the luxury of not being in a situation whereby the both of you don't see things from a similar perpective (and thereby resulting in endless quarrelling). You love the freedom. You love it when you're single and you've got all that extra time to spend strengthening your friendships. You are carefree, and you know there's alot more in store for you being a single young lady, rather than having someone beside you.

After I left uni yesterday evening I went to QV, alone, to get my groceries - because I had a fried rice craving and wanted to cook (!!!!). So I did, and had dinner in front of the TV, on which "American Pie" was showing [lala, R(A) in Singapore ;p]. In the end it turned out that I cooked waaaay too much for myself, so I kept the leftovers in the fridge for dinner the next evening.

But I guess no matter how much you are bathing in the glory of being single (and available and carefree), it's at nights like these when you (actually, I) wished that maybe... just maybe, it would be nice to have someone to spend Friday nights with, or at least share some extra fried rice.

'Cos I can't make you love me
If you don't
You can't make your heart feel
Something it won't.

Bonnie Raitt - I Can't Make You Love Me.

April 5th 1969.



Happy 21st birthday to Nong Fai, a dear friend and permanent supplier of Thai songs, who used to live just ten seconds away from me not so long ago at shitty Arrow Heights, and who taught me so much about Thailand and Thai culture. Kun chok dee, 555! ;p

X X X

Tuesdays are a bitch because my first class is at 10 in the morning (which is very early for me, for those of you who know my sleeping habits) and the weekly routine, without fail, would go like this:

- Alarm clock rings at 0845.

- With eyes half-open I desperately reach for the alarm clock to shut it up and go back to sleep.

- Alarm clock rings again, 8 minutes later (it rings every 8 minutes if you don't shut it up "permanently").

- Again with eyes half-open I turn to look at the time - Okay, 0853. Should I go for the darn lecture or not?!

- From 0853 to 0855 thoughts will run through my head on whether or not I should make it for my class. I weigh pros and cons - Aiya the lecture is useless and the lecturer is boring. Even if I go I will probably be striving hard just to keep awake. But then if I don't attend the lecture I won't have a complete set of hand-written lecture notes (yes, that's just your usual me being obscenely obsessed with having everything in order...). And what was it that someone told me, that we are paying for school fees at a rate of AUD 60 per hour?!!??

- I give the alarm clock one last look and decide that I will go after all. But let me lie in bed till 0900. Please.

So today, just like every other Tuesday that I have contemplated skipping my lecture, I dragged myself to uni for an extremely boring hour of Development and Urban Environments... -_-

X X X

I almost forgot that I am supposed to be angry today, because my Japanese 2A project draft (painstakingly handwritten entirely in nihongo, thank you very much) is missing.

WTF??!!!

At Prac 2 this afternoon I submitted my draft for correction and was supposed to get it back by the end of the class. Everyone seemed to have gotten theirs back except me, so I went to ask Sensei if she was still holding on to mine, or something. She said no.

No?! "But I just submitted it half an hour ago!" I protested.

Sensei looked really really apologetic but at the same time she was giving me this "Sorry I don't know what happened so please solve the problem yourself" look. And I don't know if she was trying to comfort me or something, but she added with a laugh that "your draft must be very good for it to be taken by someone else!" -_-

Anyway, sigh. Now I have to rewrite and submit it again. Like what the hell la. And I still don't know if someone took it by mistake, or it was intentionally stolen.

The jerk who took my project draft I hope you die a horrible death and rot in hell!!!

X X X

When the moon falls in your eyes
I know the sun has set
The fire still burns within me
Since the day we met.

Shunza - Xie Yi Shou Ge, April 5th 1969.

Cam-whores galore, and I swear it's Bismi.

Early Sunday morning and I just got home not too long ago celebrating Piggy's 22nd, which was absolute fun! Yay to my idea to eat at Squire's Loft and the stroll at Port Melbourne :p



Supposedly our best shot ;) Ignore the state of our hair, the wind was bloody strong...



Gunther will scream! :x



Stupid shot ;p



... aren't we such cam-whores?!?

The wonders of cappuccino, the company of your closest friends, the sea, and the breeze. It makes you forget everything :)

Heppi burfdae wor, Peegie ;p

I feel really sick now and I think I need Eno. I swear it's Bismi. Abstaining from prata and steak with sinful mushroom sauce for the next three months...

Suddenly it's true
No longer can I choose
It's in you I'm defined
And there is no other.

Human Nature - Cruel.

Hidden tracks.

Last night I created a playlist on iTunes and named it "songs to cry to". Contents include "First Love" by Utada Hikaru (duh ;p), "Kissing a Fool" and "One More Try" by George Michael, "Liu Lei Shou Xin" by Wang Lihong, "End Of The Road" by Boyz II Men, and "Forever Love" by Gary Barlow (hmm... misfit? ;p). Someone please tell me I am not being excessively sadistic.

I hate Jielun's "Gui Ji", I swear. I hate it to the core because I cannot believe that a 5-minute song can say so much, in fact everything that's on my mind right now, and I hate the fact that I wasn't the one who wrote it.

With that being said, it's the first song I click whenever I play my "songs to cry to" playlist, and since Wednesday it has been played for a total of 90 times...

X X X



And whoever said uni classmates don't have class gatherings anymore? ^_^

Now my dreams are filled with times
When we're together
Guess what I need from her
Is forever love.

Gary Barlow - Forever Love.

Ah. Nostalgia, nostalgia. Do you remember, ASS? :>

Stalked.

I know I am going to sound like a primary school kid when I say this but HJ and I established that "Thursday is Best Friend Day" so, like every other Thursday we met up yesterday to hang out, 'study' and have dinner (ie: exchange latest gossip ;p). Apparently when we were at Starbucks, this stranger guy was watching us (??!!) and later at night sent HJ a message on some 'friendship network' (which I shall not name ;p) to say that he saw us, and that he was watching us for a full half an hour. Seriously?!?! WTF. Knowing that you are being watched, and most importantly hearing it from the person himself, is bloody creepy...

*Happy thoughts, happy thoughts*

X X X

Yesterday I also went on a 4-hour field trip for our project and walked from the Melbourne General Cemetery all the way to Flemington. The walk was such a bitch 'cos it was damn far la (for those of you who don't know Melbourne)! But the cemetery, surprisingly, was not scary at all. Maybe it was because we were there in broad daylight O.o In fact the 4 of us felt quite at peace and since then I have changed my whole impression of cemeteries O_o God I could have died walking that full 4 hours under the scorching hot sun, and at the same time taking pics and jotting down notes. Now I feel sick... -_-

Holidays are ending. Sob.

X X X

By the way, Jessica out of American Idol?!?!

X X X

And I think to myself
What a wonderful world.

Louis Armstrong - What a Wonderful World.