I'm 25 today :)

I think this will prob be the last year that i'll be publicly declaring my age... i never used to understand why women are so hesistant with their age but now i totally feel for them & joining the gang....

I have a feeling today will be a great day despite me being cooped up at home with my books.

My sisters sprung a surprise for me early this morning at 1am with a cake at my house... thanks R & AT, love u guys much much! So sweet of both of u & i miss the both of u so so much!!! Cuz of work & studying, anti-social me haven't meet them for more than a month...

As I'm typing this, mum's making a carrot birthday cake for me (incl. fresh cream & sugar carrots)! Yum yum...

Not forgetting the msgs from all my really sweet friends, thanks for remembering my bdae & the well wishes :)

Kiez enough of time wasting here... as my bro said, i need to get back to my 3000 dolllars paper preparation... fingers x....

Don't be too choosy?!

I know i'm supposed to keep off the comp but I can't help but to have to say something about this: National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan had this advice for newly-weds and first-time homebuyers today - 'Don't be too choosy'.

I find this statement extremely laughable. Excuse me, we are talking about a big investment here of at least 200k, not supermarket shopping for an item which costs $2. If you don't choose to be picky at this time, when do you? Besides, there's inertia costs to be considered. Once you've move into a place it's very time consuming,tiring & costly to uproot yourself to another place plus all the hardwork you've to put in to find a new home. For quite a handful of ppl, upgrading is prob least on their minds, they just hope to get it right the first time, find a place they like and live happily after.

what have been said recently in the public arena hasn't been too palatable... i'm sure ppl haven't forgotten what was said by Lim Hng Kiang a couple of weeks ago about inflation: going for alternative choices if your usual items are rising in price.... that's equivalent to lowering standards of living. The economy is doing well and yet ppl will have to settle for less... if i remember correctly, a politician in another country said something along the same lines and was forced to resign...


disclaimer: just my 2 cents worth... no politicial views or opinions intended.

Sheesh...I'm going to be on the wrong side of 25 in 4 days... yikes...n there i'm "wasting" precious time dating my books...bah...

Things to do...

Itchy butt me can't focus on something for too long...been tinking of doing a load of other tings while trying to study... shall get it out of my system once n for all so i can focus focus focus!!!

(not in order)

1. Tidy up my room & redecorate!!! (i want a victorian theme with brocade wallpapers but i like my yellow room...)
2. Tidy up my work table b4 the stack of newspapers, printouts, research papers, press releases engulf me
3. Book tickets for Beauty World & perhaps Jacky Cheung
4. Plan New Year getaway with R & AT
5. Plan Post Bdae BBQ (if it happens....)
6. Plan London & New York holiday
7. Organise KKN Xmas & New Year gathering
8. SHOPPING!!!! (Been deprived....)
9. Watch uncut version of Lust, Caution (if it's still showing) & Enchanted
10. Exercise more

i desperately need to concentrate on my remaining books...shall return to my 2h-sleep-a-day routine back in my thesis writing & pre-A levels days...not sure if i've the stamina or not... getting old already...

A Perfect Day

Read this column entitled "A Perfect Day" in the Straits Times today. I had a thought of what would be my perfect day, and the first thing that came to my mind was this:

A Perfect Sunday:
-Attend 830am service at All Souls London
-Dim Sum at Chinatown / Lunch at Misato
-Shopping at Spitalfields, Liverpool Street & Brick Lane street market
-Bagels at Brick Lane then Crepes at Hampstead
-Grocery shopping at giant Tesco or Sainsbury or Oriental City
-Dinner at Oriental City
-A pint at the neighbourhood family pub with friends
OR
-Dinner at a pub followed by a musical/standup comedy/ballet

I miss London. Studying makes me miss it even more.

Stollen cake

Xmas & CNY are my fav festive holidays cuz i not only have a reason to buy new clothes and dress up, it's also the time for good food & gatherings!

On festive food, besides snow skin mooncakes, my fav is Stollen Cake, a traditional German Christmas cake.





The best i've eaten so far were the ones I got from marks & spencers in London about 2 years back. M&S home brand... it was moist, not so sweet and full of texture. Even better if taken in Germany, in the middle of a Christmas Market with a cup of Gluhwein....

Haven't been able to find Stollen cake ever since coming back here. If anyone knows of a place tt sells good stollen cake in sg, drop me a msg. will be very very grateful :)

n.b. stollen cakes are NOT the same as English fruit cakes. They r filled with marzipan... please do not suggest fruit cakes cuz i find them absolutely revolting... too dry n sweet for my liking.

Birthday wish list

I'm turning 25 in 2 weeks...so old!!! I even have wrinkles forming already :(

Well, everyone's entitled to a wish list on their special day i suppose...here's mine...inspired by Xi equal *winks*:

1. Divine intervention to help me pass my exam the next day
2. A new job
3. A Nintendo Wii
4. A Shih Tzu or a Maltese or a Scottish Terrier..white one pls cuz I wish to name it Snowy
5. Air ticket to London
6. Non-chocolate Birthday cake (maybe i shall convince my mum to bake one specially for me...haven't had a proper one all to myself ever since London)
7. Dinner/drinks with friends & family (after Dec 1 that is...have been a recluse for the last couple of months... time to get out n get some fresh air)
8. A Chloe Kerala Bag
9. Marc Jacobs Daisy perfume
10. Marc Jacobs Aline Bag or Marc Jacobs Stam Bag
11. Dior Christmas Limited Edition lip gloss pendant

i guess that's prob it for now...

The ocbc proposed subordinated notes release has found it's way to me...gotta get back to work...

2 years...

Finally, it's been 2 years since I joined SPH. One third way to the light at the end of the tunnel. Honestly, it felt like 20 years.

Didn't manage to blog on the actual day itself (7/11) as I was stuck at City Hall covering the Horizon Towers case. I hope it ends soon... the mess is torturous... i pity the lawyers involved...ok maybe not, considering they are paid tons to try to straighten out the mess...

My neighbour at work did a gd job describing how i feel at the hearings: out of place. some of the owners are so rich, they can sit in everyday and not go to work. the lawyers are being paid 100+k a day in total. In contrast, i'm paid peanuts and not only have to sit through the painful hearing, I have to go back to reorganise the points into a story and then translate at the end of the day.

Enough on Horizon Towers...my second year has been less exciting despite a heavier work load.

On top of my daily articles, I planned 3 executive series supplements & workshops and did the supplement & marketing for 2 of them at my paper.

Moved on to Zaobao after my paper's first anniversary in June this year. Let's put it this way, the grass is not always greener on the other side. Been feeling like a human typewriter for the last 5 months churning out property stories after property stories... i miss writing my banking n finance articles which have reduced to a rare occurrence given the never ending URA/SLA/HDB press releases and announcements + Horizon Towers. Hopefully things will change for the better with HM back on the team.

The best word to sum up how I feel now will probably be numb.

Perhaps i've been in journalism for too long. 2007 also marks my 10th year with SPH. I became a student sports correspondent for Zaobao in 1997 and then a student reporter with Friday weekly & Zaobao Fukan in 1998. Interned for half a year in 2001 before LSE and then every summer at the various papers. Besides wanbao, zaobao online & the magazines, I've experienced working for all the various departments under the chinese news division.

Perhaps, it's really time for a change.

Reunion week

Last week was reunion week...

met up first with a fren tt i met randomly over irc a decade or so ago... funnily enough we ended up in the same industry when neither of us thought of doing so (ok, maybe for me, consider less seriously ... was alwiz more into archi)...

the same night, i met up with 2 frens from jc that i havent seen ever since graduation. despite losing touch for the last 7 years, we hit it off right away and it felt like the year 2000 again. i miss u guys. we went a little overboard with catching up though, started at 9ish at gloria jean's at raffles city & when that closed, we moved on to timber and then to esplanade...didn't realise it was already 4am when we last saw our watches. can't wait for our next meeting some time mid nov... we have plans of camping at ecp/changi one fri or sat nite... would be nice...

onto sat, met up finally with kkn (-1)... my bestest pals ever... we had so much fun chatting over cheese and chocolate fondue @ Swiss Culture... laughed till i had a headache...chuan, come back soon!!!(but not b4 i visit NY heh heh)

sunday, had lunch with my bro (first time in half a year!) & childhood church friends. really nice just catching up with ppl and spending some time with my bro without it ending with a quarrel. got a new fone on sunday too... a n95... my bro's right... a bimbo like me shudn't have gotten such a high tech fone... i'm still messing ard with it & trying hard to sms without my grubby fingers jabbing too many buttons at a go... must say the best ting bout it is the camera! 5 mega pixels n adjusts for colour n lighting on it's own. impressed.

reunion week wouldn't have been possible - ok maybe not impossible, but definitely less likely - without facebook. it's a really powerful tool... got in touch with a few frens way back from sec sch n even pri sch! ppl i havent seen or been in touch for years!!!

however, along with the gd memories came bad ones too. a monster from the past found me on it...adding on to the super bad day i had today. i'm pretty sure the person has prob already looked up my profile and somehow ended up here. what should i do...

i shall go have a shower first...

sleepy...

insomnia has returned to haunt me. been running on 2 hours of sleep n adrenaline.

1 more day to the weekend... i just want to sleep for a long long long time...

stress reliever

been pretty stressed & unhappy lately... funnily enough, the first thing I thought of was to go for a haircut. And that was what I did today after courts.

I used to dread going to the hairdressers as most of the time I end up hating my new hair cut. However, over the last 4 months, I've been to the hairdressers numerous times, even at lunch. Going to the hairdressers gives me some breathing space, time to digest the morning's events & to escape from the slew of phone calls.

Guess one can probably gauge my stress levels from the length of my hair. I've had long hair ever since my first year at university but after joining Zaobao in June, I've seen my hair shrink to shoulder length first, and then to a shorter bob.

Believe it or not, in my first month, I actually went to the hairdresser's three times, coming out each time with a shorter cut...

To be honest, i'm not a fan of short hair, but after each cut, my head seems to feel lighter and liberated me can finally think again. It's all in the mind I know, but it's one of the things that can make me happy besides binging on chocolates that make me fat.

oh yes n blogging n procrastinating when i'm stressed. need to get back to work... shall finish this some other time when i feel like having a go at escapism...

things tt keep me awake at night

1.overactive brain from overworking in the day
2.the dark
3.memories of grandma & missing her
4.the guilt of not being by her bedside when she died and when she was laid to rest in the coffin
5.fear of not being able to finish studying
6.fear of not waking up in time and not at all
7.work and the thought of it

i can't keep staring at my ceiling or into space till the wee hours of the morning. i need sleeping pills.

Psychological test

Wows sent me this really creepy website yesterday... i must say it's about 90% accurate for me. Freaky tt an online test can read me like a book...brrr....

Give it a try: http://www.paulgoldin.com/colorgenics.htm

What it said about me:

Your mind is never at rest.You are continually striving to influence all those about you. You have some excellent ideas but you persist in trying to persuade others just how great your ideas really are. Maybe you are trying too hard. Take it easy - remember, 'Everything comes to those who wait'.

You are a very warm and emotional individual but unfortunately in the past too many people have taken advantage of this sensitive trait. You need aesthetic surroundings, or an equally sensitive and understanding partner with whom to share a warm understanding.

You are prepared to establish a particular relationship that is being made available to you at this time. It could be a satisfactory liaison but there could be a certain amount of conflict involved -try to avoid direct confrontation at all costs.

Unacceptable restrictions have been forced upon you and this is resulting in severe frustration and stress. You are looking for independence and consequently you shy away from any restriction and avoid obligations of anything which might prove hampering. You are being subjected to considerable pressure and want to escape from it so that you can obtain what you need, but unfortunately at this particular moment in time you lack the necessary strength of purpose to succeed in this.

The tensions induced by trying to cope with conditions are really beyond your capabilities. This has resulted in experiencing considerable anxiety and stress. You are looking for confirmation from your nearest and dearest that you have the ability and strength to fulfil all of your needs and to be completely self-sufficient.When matters don't go right for you - you tend to become inhibited and blame others for your inadequacy. You feel that there must be a way out from all the trials and tribulations that you have been experiencing of late and you are right - there is a solution - so don't give in, keep searching.

我的梦中情人庐山真面目！

My Paper & our new media team had a paintballing session cum interview with JJ Lin. I've liked him ever since I heard his version of 记得 on 933 in my Bankside Room back in 2001. He was just a voice that I liked back then...Was over the moon when I got the chance to meet him. Will help you gals out again any time as long as there's JJ! hee hee...

supermarket therapy

got off work today for class at 6pm... earliest i've been out of the office since my shin min days...which is about 1.5 years ago...

anyhow, i rushed from work to class so i din get to have dinner. Finished class at about 940pm n was starving so I dropped by PS on my way home. Was planning to get Mac's or KFC cuz I didn't expect the other places to be opened at tt hour. Very surprised & elated to find carrefour still opened for business so I grabbed a basket and went crazy.

It definitely felt like London all over again. After work, tired & hungry and browsing through the shelves for instant gratification. Funnily enough, the stuff I got were about the same as what i used to get. Got sushi & 3 legs of honey chicken wings from the deli, all for the price of 1 cuz they were closing, cranberry & red ruby juice (love red ruby! havent had that for 1.5 years!!!!), cheese cubes, biscuits n soup. Spent nearly an hour walking around.

Midweek is usually bad and esp so this week as I've been starting work at 8am and reaching home at 1am... felt so much better after my supermarket retreat...gosh i hope i'm not turning into an auntie but supermarket therapy sure works! Try it next time if u need some unwinding.

Paintballing with JJ Lin

我的梦中情人:)

welcome home!

my "favouritest" person is back in my life again :) Back to loads of catching up, shopping, eating, listening 2 mat rockers n nuaing!!!!

welcome home babe...wished i had gone to HK with ya (k u have a pt...it was a gd thing we didn't or else we'll both end up dead broke) n happy belated bdae since u din get my sms!

love ya! MUAKZ!!!! we should get down to planning our weekend beach getaway soon b4 i lose my sanity forever...

sighz i miss my long hair... maybe i really shud go for hair extensions... n no more going to the hairdressers when i'm stressed!

side note: shan't drive anymore if i plan to stay out late... pretty suicidal...was trying so hard to stay awake driving home at 4am on the cte yest ...kept going beyond the speed limit n had to try really hard to avoid kissing mad taxis who keep trying to cut in front of me...

梦中情人

met my 梦中情人 today & had the chance to play paintball with him... heh heh...perks of being a reporter...haha :p

had to try very very hard to behave myself. don't know him on a personal basis although i wished i had the chance to, but from the few times i've interacted with him, he's perfect: christian, funny, sporting, talented but too bad, he'll forever just be someone in my dreams.

pictures later when CTY decides to send them to me...

----

Onto other things... saw this blurb on STI earlier on... can't agree more that scholars shouldn't just be from the elite schools... they're many many more talented and farsighted individuals with better leadership skills out there. They also bring different perspectives having experienced a different lifestyle. Glad that in my robotics days back in sec sch, i had the chance to interact with peers from neighbourhood schools. Learnt quite a few lessons about life from them.

Having said that, I don't quite agree with the "guile" part...probably more tactical and drivem but definitely not cunning... even if they are, ppl who are chinese educated are more compassionate and loyal i feel. A look at the SME tow kays, even the scheming crafty ones have a heart.

Spread scholars across schools: Ngiam Tong Dow
PRIMARY school pupils who shine should be spread across a range of secondary schools, rather than the two or three elite institutions usually reserved for scholars.
This would ensure Singapore's brightest are equipped with a wider range of thinking skills to tackle today's complex issues, former top civil servant Ngiam Tong Dow said on Friday.

He suggested, for example, that those educated at Chinese schools here in earlier years, tended to have more 'guile' as a result.

Most education is in English nowadays, but in previous decades, a number of schools taught classes largely in Chinese. That led to a distinction.

Speaking at a Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI) lunch, Mr Ngiam said Chinese-educated Singaporeans generally have more guile and cunning than their English-educated counterparts.

They also tend to be more 'doers' than just 'thinkers', which is an important trait that Singapore's scholar-dominated civil service needs to cultivate, said Mr Ngiam, chairman of Surbana Corp.

He was speaking to 150 attendees at SCCCI's biannual Distinguished Speakers Lecture series at the Ritz-Carlton Millenia hotel.

In his half-hour speech, Mr Ngiam discussed how Singapore can maintain a First World 'state of mind' by being a society with equal access to education and 'driven by passion'.

He also raised the question of whether there was a divide between the English-educated and Chinese-educated in Singapore.

Mr Ngiam, who attended an English medium school, recalled 'a famous speech in the 1960's' made by Mr Lee Kuan Yew, then Prime Minister, now Minister Mentor.

Mr Lee had described English school students 'as gold fish swimming in an ornamental bowl'. In contrast, Chinese-educated students were likened to 'piranhas in the wild'.

Blast from the past...

was googling for something and found my sec sch chinese project by chance.... funky...

Wedding Customs:
http://chinese.sngs.sch.edu.sg/other%20folders/meizai/fengshu/1/COVER.HTML

Singapore Female Authors: http://chinese.sngs.sch.edu.sg/other%20folders/aoyou/bentu234/index.html

Teletubbies turn 10!!!

(Source: Pink is the new blog)

Teletubbies 天线宝宝 turn 10 today! Gosh... it seems like yesterday when I first watched the hyper repetitive show with a baby face sun in sec sch (again! again! k... i was bored)

Lala, the yellow one's my fav... my brother bought me one for my birthday then. Still have it sitting pretty in my cabinet along with Tinky Winky that we got from mcdonalds.

Despite talks of them being satanic and found with rosary beads in them, nothing devious has happened to me in the last 10 years. Hmm...on second thots, maybe my insomnia n moodiness have something to do with them....

Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Lala, Po!


Teletubbies in Singapore @ Raffles Hotel in August 2007


Awww... so sweet...my fav lala with po!