Happy because..

1) The girls said I'm looking cute in plaits today.

2) A sense of satisfaction after finishing almost 200 stars for Joyce Darling - she's such an angel! The last time I made stars was in 1998-9.

3) I had yummy chocolate cake - Joyce Darling's birthday cele - for dessert after lunch :d

4) Suddenly remember that I slept on a hair pin one night last week - felt lucky it didn't puncture my big fat arse..

And that's for only today (and only what I can remember)! So many things, big and small, to feel good about :)

18th SG International Ballroom Dancing Championships

I was so totally inspired and motivated last night when I saw the amazing dancing by the amateurs and the professionals!

~ When's it my turn? Wouldn't I love, love to explore that shore, um, dancefloor up above..?

MermaidS (ok, random..)

Really felt like dancing when I saw the latin, esp the cha and the jive, and quickstep - I like the faster ones - but I didn't know we could dance during intervals so I was wearing my filmsy black heels!

The first interval started with the foxtrot and Sito wanted to do but I was afraid of foxtrot! Went with Dan on the next song - quickstep - instead. Result? My right shoe threatened at the forward lock. Same thing when I tried with Sito. Darn shoes!

I was lamenting the wasted opportunity but a later interval brought us some waltz so Sito and I went back to the dancefloor to try again! I was stuck at the whisk this time. Decided to do just the steps, ie no pivot, no stride, no whatever technique; just move! Had some fun like that :)

Today, I woke with aching thighs and slightly painful balls (of feet) but I felt damn good too :p

Oh, I sudden feel an ache in my left arm, must be due to the lack of practice this past week. Sito, we must jia you this week! :)

Bus transfers

Oh, that rainy Thurs night, I was at Union and to avoid getting drenched, I chose to take FOUR buses to get back rather than the MRT, which required a certain amount of walking under no shelter. Crazy right? :p

Took bus #1 from opposite Amara to somewhere near my place - took about 30min. Then it was bus #2 to opposite my place - another 20min. Could have walked back from there but it was still rainy and the lightning and all made it scary.. Decided to take bus #3 to the interchange and take a bus back the same route so I would drop right outside, heh!

I was lucky there was a feeder bus that ran late cos other buses had all ceased operations by that time! Then as I alighted bus #4, the card reader said I paid $0.00 after a $0.25 rebate.

I checked my travel records at a machine yesterday and found that somehow the cost of each trip got less and less due to the rebates, leading finally to zero cost! Interesting find :)

Update 31 Oct 05

Um, I neglected to add that I had only $7 apart from my ezlink card, not to mention the impossible cab queue at Amara..

Hot date?

"No, I'm just hot."
*shrug*

Man, I can't believe I actually said that! :p

We started a casual Fri dress code a few weeks ago. So yesterday I was in this lovely top but I kept myself wrapped in ugly company jacket until the end of day when I was leaving with a couple others.

But when I met Ker and friends, well, I was no longer hot - I was lian! Um, ok lor..

Affirmation

Quite recently, Kel and I were talking about how a lack of affirmation in growing years could cause low self esteem, diffidence in personal abilities and potential etc. Often, the typical conservative "Asian", or to be in my context, (SG) Chinese upbringing tries to "humble" or improve the child with criticism but neglects to compliment. In fact, some degree of agreement, even tolerance, will do just well; compliments are a bonus.

No time or mind to dwell more on this, just thank Kel for bearing me and for telling me I'll be chirpy again - think it helps :)

Fun with my Ixus

Sito had this painful toe for a few weeks so after lesson last Sunday, Shifu offered to send him to a sinseh at Chinatown - "you must cure it fast!" My nose detected a Kodak moment and the rest of me followed..

I now reveal with much glee, the patient's expression as the sinseh twisted his bones into position!



Heh heh, am I evil or what? :p

The place - Lee Thim Kay or something - looked so old and reminded me of those bygone days when many places had no floor tiles; it was usually just cold grey cemented floor. And the smell! Of herbs and herbal pastes, mmm.. I like :)

But bliss from my prized photo was short-lived.. - I kena bird shit on the way to the MRT! We both saw the white dollop falling between us. Sito thought it just fell through, but I knew better - my knee felt the shit through my thin drawstrings =(

Literally feeling like shit, I spent the next hour on the road trying to find my next destination - family chalet at the end of the world: Changi/Loyang! (I don't know the difference..) After putting down my heavy bag, I noticed that Grams was looking gorgeous in her outfit! It was a blue piece that I'd never seen before..



It took a lot of effort to get this shot ok, old people being camera-shy and all..

There was this half hour when people were trying to achieve the perfect marshmallow after witnessing mf's standard *smug* Yan was very comical, kept talking and giggling (hence shaking) while roasting hers, ending up with two consecutive ashy marshmallows! Eh, must be serious when roasting that perfect marshmallow ok.. Crispy on the outside, and the inside soft and sticky, yummm.. like this:



After the BBQ, I had a revelation. Aunt and I were flanking Grams and just staring at her. Aunt said she called Grams a big fat pig, and pointed out her bits of fats showing through her pretty top. Grams just smiled :) And at about that instant, a thought struck me: Grams and Meh were very alike! No wonder I can't help looking at them both - too cute!

With grace

Was happy last Wed when boss LH commended on my presentation to the big boss. Yesterday, I had another one at a bigger forum but I was speaking too fast - think it came out like I was nervous. Or worse, ill-prepared. Not too happy about it but at least - I've checked - I didn't miss out any point.

*small pat on the back*

I still get the nerves before a presentation but I've trained myself to be calm when speaking, simply by seeing presentations as a performance and my bosses, my audience; if I have sung and will be dancing to an audience (including judges), what is speech??

Yet, speech is the most difficult of all. Without the steady rhythm of accompanying music, I have a tendency to talk too fast and I have to consciously tell myself to start slow and keep slow. Otherwise, I'll stumble on my words, and THAT is what will get me nervous.. Imagine, screwed by my own words!

I shall do it as Kel says: with grace.

Update 27 Oct 05

Boss HK gave us feedback on our presentations on Monday:
1) Don't talk so fast! - mf also says *.*
2) Give the context/background
* These two points are important, especially to cate to those who do not read papers beforehand..
3) Minimise use of acronyms
4) Maintain some eye contact
5) Visualise proposals in slides - relating more to contents

mf must learn :)

Hamster!

At Kel's place now. He has a hamster!! It was supposed to be difficult to control (cos Kel cannot make it) but it played in my palms for quite a long while. And we snapped pictures! Not uploaded yet, too bad, but anyway I looked ugly in the photos so no photos here!

The hamster is very very very small.. Oh Tok has informed that it's called a dwarf hamster.. Greyish black, like a fur ball! But one that poos black pellets, two (dropped) on the sofa, two on my left middle finger, but I still like it, too cute already :)

I'm trying to teach Tok to tie hair now. My hair! Haha! He cannot make it ah... :p

Tok: =.="

Ok, the lines in peach are all typed by Tok, not mf... Heh heh..

Kel is watching the Condor Heroes or something on Channel U now. I'm blogging. And Tok is walking around, he seems bored!

I go find other things to do now..

Carrot is a root, potato is a tuber

That's my science lesson of the day.

Thurs was Kel's birthday - welcome to my age bracket! AND I DON'T MIND I'M HITTING 26 SOON SO DON'T BOTHER SAYING OR EVEN THINKING OF ANYTHING TO SPITE ME. I'll still be nice and wish you happy birthday in this space :)

Anyway, we - Kel, HL, Tok - came out to play last night. Ended up at TCC (again) at Millenia Walk (again). At one point, I was wondering why the surname Wang was pronounced *wank with g* and not waa-ng; the former was so gandang gia!

Kel or Tok: Great, now we have a root AND a tuber!
mf: Huh?
The guys: Carrots are roots, potatoes are tubers..

You see, for as long as we can remember, HL has been known as carrot aka caitao. Then tonight, somehow I was labelled gandang??! But Kel looks more like a potato than I do! See the shape of his face?

When you're having a good time, time flies. The song 当你孤单会想起谁 was on air as we drove towards Esplanade to drop HL. She and I sang a bit, and it reminded me of JC times, when we first heard this song. So nostalgic all of a sudden!

Getting fat?

No way!

I've come to the conclusion that I'm not fat - I'm just huggable :)

Happy birthday to my cute Grams!

Today is the exact day of her 82th birthday by the lunar calendar. We celebrated last Sunday with pizza and KFC - yes, Grams always wanted something the kids would like, except that Hui was the only one who qualified as a kid now..

We cut the cake after lunch, it was fun to see so many of us crowding around the table! Grams looked slightly amused as she posed for the camera for our sake. I like her :)

After all the eating, the cousins were sitting around and talking while Hui was jumping everywhere. Then she decided to tie my hair. I remember Ling used to tie my hair when I was at Hui's age. Now that I've grown up, I let Hui tie my hair. Seems that my hair has always been well taken care of hur?

My maternal grandfather - his peaceful but sudden passing in 2002 demostrated to me, for the first time, the concept of death and loss - had a provision shop in the next block. It was really old; instead of a till, there were two Milo tins of cash hanging from the ceiling beams. Think I put a picture of us cousins standing in front of the shop some time ago.

Since young, we've been visiting Gramps and Grams every other Sunday. We would head first for the shop cos that was where everyone would be. After running about for a couple of hours, munching on tidbits in the shop or blowing dozens of those sticky balloons from glue or something (bought two tubes of them a while ago - Bestman Blowing Balloons!), it was time for a simple lunch in the shophouse kitchen.

The cousins used to play "Simon says" on the balcony in the shophouse. One of the two rooms was used as a stock room and it was always filled with giant boxes of candy and chocolate - it must be yummies, I just knew it! :) Sometimes we would play hide and seek in that room, with the lights off. Could be quite scary sometimes *.* The shop closed after lunch on Sundays so everyone would move to the flat and stay there to chat and play until late.

I love this tiny flat, having spent so much of my most memorable childhood times here..

She's happy :)


Now I feel like writing in Chinese:
看着外婆的相片，我有一种莫名的感动。其实她的生活很简单，其实她并不需要大势庆生。但她知道大家都好爱好爱她，为她庆生也是我们想让她开心。

老人家嘛，总不喜欢照相，所以我趁她开心地望着小荟荟时，偷偷地给她来个特写！我就喜欢她脸带微笑的样子，尽管皱皱的，尽管画满了时光的痕迹。

我希望有一天，我也会和外婆一样，老得那么可爱！

Over yong tau foo (and a slice of pineapple)

1 - mf as Amelie
Was in the shower one night when I heard what could be nothing but some woman having an extremely painful foot reflexology session. At 1am.

2 - Prince Charming
I've fallen in love with the guy in Stairway to Heaven over the weekend. Nvm his pong pong hair, nvm his slit eyes under his impossibly bushy eyebrows.

3 - But I don't want to die
S Korea must have the highest rates of hereditary leukemia and rare brain tumours etc, especially among the young people. They die in almost every other drama. Fine, sometimes they can be miraculously cured.

4 - "You don't behave like a virgin"

Said Ultimo to me.

Hmm? Um, ok lor. Recalling Jo's words from five years back, why behave like a "pseudo virgin"?? I behave as I like it - in mf-ism (incidentally a magical word, like supercalifragilisticexpialidocious :p)

5 - "Lousy daughter"
Kel chided me for letting Mother cook on her birthday which was yesterday. But it made me realise that I'm quite like her in this aspect: I don't mind whipping up a few yummies on my birthday, but get that cake for me! :p (We did get her a cake)

Simple life

The office emptied early yesterday; by 715pm, there was only me. I felt peaceful, there were no weird noises, perfect for work! But I couldn't, not with Mdm Longevity Ulcer nagging at me every minute. Losing three wisdom teeth only meant more gum for ulcers to find their spots. Apparently my gum is very comfortable; this ulcer is an overstayer - 8 days old!

Anyway, I decided to up and go, taking with me my Elle trolley bag I bought a couple of weeks ago at the last Isetan sale - I reached there by 9am, queued and paid for it in 20min flat! Got to work at ten that day :p Well, point is I needed a cab.

As my cab turned into the carpark of my precinct - now I must explain that I seldom take this route back; I'll usually drop at the main road and climb a flight of stairs to my block, but with the bag, I had to drop right at my block last night.. Ok, nvm the geography! - we passed by the market area.

An uncle was holding his baby's hand and pointing at the passing cars; an auntie walked by with bags of post-dinner groceries; families were strolling back home after their chicken rice and fried kway tiao at the hawker centre. It was dark and the lights from the flats could be seen as my cab cruised through the carpark. I imagined that if I were walking back from the market, I would hear bits of conversation from the flats on the lower floors.

I cannot recall the last time I walked that road.

Perhaps I'm quite tired these days. Like YX said this morning, my scheduled seemed too packed..

Sometimes I want nothing more than to wake up 7-ish - without an alarm clock and yet I'll only laze in bed just long enough to give my bedmates a morning kiss.. Then I'll walk to the kitchen windows, take a few full breaths of the morning air, put that no-one's-looking-at-me smile on my bed-face, (check out the noodle delivery man - I stay just above the coffee shop) and all the time, morning sounds are floating around me: the shrill chirp of happy sparrows, the scary cries of big black crows, the low growls from the delivery vans, the general sounds of ordinary people waking up..

Then, it's pee time! :p

I always open the front door in the morning, I like it brighter and it'll allow more air to pass through the house, refreshing the indoors and chasing the night away once and for all! There's a bridge right outside my block leading into the secondary school across the road. The site used to be my primary school, which is now on the other side of the main road. Some school renewal thing. So instead of tiny white shirts and navy blue bottoms, I now see bigger light blue uniforms doing their student things.

If the weather is kind, maybe I'll consider a jog. *Pause* Ok, let's say I decide to jog! I know it'll take me about 45min to get to the park, jog one round, and get back. But on such a lovely morning I'll take a detour to the market on the way back for my century egg porridge, jostling with the aunties doing their morning shopping and watching everyone go about their everyday business. It's not my everyday activity though.

When I'm back, my bet is everyone will still be sleeping and I'll still have the house to myself. Some music will be good to go with my porridge. I haven't tuned in to 933 for a long time now; current mobile doesn't have a tuner. I'll plan my day as I have my breakfast as I have no appointments today.

Fully cooled down from my jog, it's time to perspire again as I iron my clothes, again to the sound of music. By now, Mother should have woken up to get her newspaper and groceries. She may start to nag at how noisy I am with the ironing board, or she may walk out without a word but come back chirping. But I'll iron on and pepper the mainly one-sided conversation with my "uh-huhs"; don't mind humouring her a bit since I'm in the mood.

I should shower after the ironing but perhaps there are more things to do. Like tidying up the altar where I keep my watch and hair clips etc, rearranging my bags a bit, wiping the dust off my shoes and washing some if necessary, etc. Shower now? Not yet.. By then my guess is that MZ will have woken up as well, and it'll be noisy with her tv. I'll wash my face and retreat to my little corner next to the telephone, at the edge of the living room near the kitchen.

There on the tiny table rests my trusty lappy from eons back, when broadband was free and super fast and when I could stay in front of the comp for hours in my comfy padded chair. But no, today I'm on my pink stool from Ikea with my lappy doing its job - on my lap, and I'll start to perspire as the comp heats up. See, no point for a shower right? :p There is usually no one around on MSN in the morning, especially if it's a Sat morning. But it's a good time for me to blog and check my emails - ya, that's basically all I can do online now cos I'm on freaking modem!

I'll ransack the fridge at some point for ingredients for my pasta lunch - it must be a pasta lunch; I'm desperate to re-enact my life in Oxford.. I'll cook myself a simple dish with meatballs, olive oil, pepper and herbs. I may re-watch an episode of some VCD as I have my lunch, or I'll look through my digi photos.

Post-lunch slump. I think I want to sing! :) But it's tough to sing for long cos Mother will nag nag NAG! So I guess I'll go back to comp, do a bit of work - have no idea what else to do! Gee, I crave for a free day like this and yet have nothing to do??!

I conjure up an interesting paperback. Ok I have something to do now - I can read the afternoon away. Totally engrossed in my book, I won't notice that the sun has started to set until it's almost gone or until I notice the orange light of the setting sun on this bit of the wall - think we get this light only half the year or something but I'm not sure when. Sometimes I find that sunsets can be depressing..

On a typical day, Mother will cook dinner. But I'm in the mood. I'll suggest that we go to the market instead, just for once. Nothing fancy, just something hot and yummy, nevermind the salt or cholestrol contents for once. Zips bursting, we'll go shopping at Ang Mo, the neighbourhood version of NTUC, for toiletries, snacks, bread for tomorrow, and how about ice cream for the night is warm?

"Since you're here, let's buy 5kg of rice!"

Huh??! Fine lor, mf = free labour! I remember we used to lug a 10kg sack until Mother realised that two sacks of rice were much much easier to handle! Nowadays, we seldom eat in so one sack is enough to last quite a while.

Tired, it's time for a shower - yes, finally! I'm so gross, haha! After that, I'll just snug up to my bedmates with my book or my fav CD until it's time to rest for the day..

*Dreamy*

Suddenly feel like cancelling all my outings and taking leave for the next week..