Randoms

Sito would say sometimes, "I don't know what's going through your head.."

Well, I'll share some thoughts and fluff now, a collection of stuff since earlier this year..

1) What sustains mf
Have I mentioned how Mother was commenting - negatively - on my panda eyes? Well, it's not just her now. Walked by a couple of counters and was accosted by sales asking me if I would like some eye gel/cream..

O_O

Now I have a morning eye gel for puffiness and the panda effect plus a night cream for fine lines. Mother broke the eye gel some weeks ago and I had to - I just had to! - go buy it amid my busiest period. They proved their worth, cos during the couple of weeks when I was sleeping at 3-4 am, people still said I looked fresh! And if products kept me pretty, Berocca kept me alert and helped me survive those days on very little sleep..

2) What irks mf
On the topic of tanning with Kel. Said I needed to tan my legs cos they were too pasty.

Kel: Well, 猪脚濡之前是白色的..

Idiot.

Just a while back, on one tired evening when he dragged YX, WX and mf halfway through City Hall, I was so tired I could barely walk and he simply went, "提起你的大蹄向前走!"

And all these cos his NS friends saw me once and thought my legs fat and strong enough to 踢死一只马 or something! =(

3) What feeds mf
Recently, I believe that you could change food preference through sheer habit.

I didn't like cooked fish a lot. Perhaps cos Mother used to give us plenty of steamed or fried pomfret. Or a couple of other fish. All yucky. Once I refilled my rice so I could enjoy my rice without the taste of fish! But mostly, I would pretend to have bitten on a bone and spit out chunks of half-chewed fish she wasn't going to check, or be a messy eater :p

Fell in love with smoked/raw fish after my Scandinavian trip. It's been sushi and sashimi mostly since then though I do take a few bites of the fish at wedding dinners - Sito said perhaps I liked oily fish..

But lately, for health's and vanity's sake, I have been trying to have only fish for meat on weekdays. No money for sushi every day but the porridge with raw fish slices is a good substitute. But I'm not really for the porridge. So I'm opting for fish beehoon mostly. Cooked fish! The aversion died after a few bowls of hearty fish soup :)

4) What bewilders mf
Some time in mid year, I kept feeling restless and uncomfortable. PMS? But food didn't help *.*

Then I recalled an article I read in Cosmopolitan years back: Menopause could begin as early as the late 20s or 30s - I could not remember which so I did a search..

35, says this article - phew! Though it's only seven years away..

And Sito just called me a middle-aged hen - 中年母鸡?! Cos "it's middle age from 25 to 65!" *.*

5) What outrages mf('s modesty)
I was violated that other day.

Was undressing for a shower when I happened to look up and saw this huge lizard o.o staring back at me O_O

Enjoying time

This is the first quiet weekend in the long while.

:)

- Resumed dancing yesterday
- Pampered myself with a pedicure, a facial and foot reflexology
- Visited Grams finally
- Ironed 70% of some four weeks of laundry

Trying to get my life back to normal.. More updates later..

*******************************

Grams came out of the shower and stood near me, looking at plants.

mf: Ahmah, li jin pang :)
Grams: *cannot hear*
mf: =D

I cut my hair

Took some eight inches off my waist-length hair today.

A little sad at the loss but I really want to demostrate that there are major things that I can still control and not at the expense of sleep.

I have been trading sleep and energy to balance work, social and personal commitments. And I haven't seen my Grams for more than a month.

mf, endure..

Skrik

Busy bee me

It's confirmed - I have 21 pairs of shoes :p

Spent a few hours assembling a shoe wheel and cleaning and packing in my shoes. I'm happy :)

Lugged the shoe wheel back on Thursday while out with CY. It was quite heavy and of course we headed for the cab. But we were unlucky - we were attacked by a cockroach in the cab! Had to keep shifting with the big shoe wheel box in between us to accommodate the scary pest. Good thing we were almost home...

I was very hardworking yesterday - went to help Sito arrange his books etc. But only for a while :p Ended up reading his stuff..

For example, his old 作文簿!


And a new found favourite comic book :)

(Oh, notice my nicely manicured finger? :))

..while he buzzed about his tons of books..

(These are only maybe 20%)

Sinned with a huge supper but no regrets cos I ended up working on my laptop until 5 am *.* Woke at 1.30 pm today :)

I should really start to write about my latest trip.. Later!

Toilet talk

Was in a long toilet queue today but managed to jump ahead two women cos the latest available cubicle had a squatting pan.

Why do people prefer the sitting pan to the squatting pan? Some possible reasons:

1) Too old to squat - that's why Grams has a sitting pan after using a squatting pan for 70 years
2) Floor is usually wetter in a squatting pan cubicle - I try not to think about the nature of the liquid..
3) Some people read while shitting - and it's difficult to hold a book while trying to balance!
4) Simply habitual - I guess many younger people these days grow up with only a sitting pan at home

I have one reason for preferring the squatting pan to the sitting pan in public toilets - I'm not letting my bare silky skin touch something unsanitised for the last 100 s(h)its! And wait a minute, are those spots of water or urine on the seat?!

So, what do you prefer?

At a terminal in T1 near gate C15

Our holiday has been shortened by 30 minutes cos the flight was delayed re-timed..

So we're challenging each other to word twist in Facebook! :p

But before I play, a random observation by Sito:

mf looks like Li Bing Bing..

I could just hear various exclamations of disbelief or wow or puking sound, but I'm happy :)

Reference picture? Her side profile for Mont Blanc..

天下无不散之宴席

It seems only not that long ago when we were squatting in Thomson, moving from one building to the next, adding staff slowly - two in January, one in May, one in June. And now, we have our own office, renovated once for expansion.

In terms of staff, SF came and left, DC came and left and came back again, and just yesterday, LY left. For SF and DC, perhaps it was only one year each, I didn't feel quite sad but this time, with LY's departure, it really felt like a bit of the original troop was just..gone..

LY said she wouldn't cry. But I did =( How embarassing since I'm such a tap..

Looking back, we had a lot of memorable - good and bad - times together. Actually, the bad times for us referred to mostly two paricular weeks in April 2007 :p Even COS was great fun! Last year, even though there were only so few of us, we worked and played hard, laughing over things I should not mention here (:p) and celebrating LY's birthday the night before the speech, inevitably staying past midnight.

We were saying at the farewell lunch yesterday that next COS, we wouldn't be celebrating LY's birthday anymore.. No COS for her, no birthday celebration for us, and for me, no more familiar "小妹妹!"..

But I'm glad for her cos this is what she wants - to go home. I want to go home too but I have delayed the trip for another year cos I also want to finish my pet project.

I do like this place. Supportive bosses, nice colleagues, good environment, exciting work. But I don't think I can stay here for too long. My pet project will finish and I'm not sure I'm as keen on the maintenance part. Work, no matter how exciting, can also lose its lustre after a while, as I just realised this week for one particular issue..

Was at a course one day where we were asked to place money, recognition, job satisfaction, work-life balance.

1) Money: Enough. I don't need more though I wouldn't mind more :p
2) Recognition: Happy. In fact, I don't really care except that it has an impact on my bonus :p
3) Job satisfaction: Yes but this is odd cos I've not yet seen any major work of mine come to fruition.. But that'll happen soon - that's why I'm working so much...
4) Work-life balance: Not too happy. I mean, I can take leave as and when I need, and I have a life outside work. But I'm afraid I'm getting rather hassled by and even pre-occupied with work. Sometimes, I have to make myself go home; other times, I want to leave while there's still some daylight but I just can't. Recently, I'm unable to go out on Saturdays and Sundays without checking my emails in the morning in case I miss anything, and at night, I'll take a look too. I believe that work-life balance is a personal choice, but I'm feeling like I'm losing the ability to choose.

Not difficult to guess that I placed (4) as most important to me. For now, guess will make do with whatever work-life balance ratio trade-off I can get - I have been working my ass off so that I could hand things over nicely when I go on a holiday next week. I'm sure when I come back, it's going to be worse. I always find it such an irony that the holiday is not really a holiday. There is always work; you don't end up doing less work cos you're just cramping the work within a shorter timeframe before and after the work blackhole so that there is also life.

Anyway, I've digressed too much. I should really go do some work while I have some time. Be back in June..

May Day! =) May Day! =(

I like public holidays :)

This May Day, I had a nice brunch with LS, G and SX. Jon was held up but we managed to meet him when he came down to meet LS and this interesting junior of ours.

I like brunch. It always has this leisurely feel to it.. You know, not waking up early enough for breakfast, and yet after brunch, there is still time to do other things :p

Went to find Sito to go to Istana for the open house. This was my second time in Istana during open house. First time was some years ago, also on May Day and damn hot..

BUT, the guard at the queue refused to let us in cos Sito was wearing slippers.

Now, we understood why - proper attire for respect for the official residence of the head of state, etc. Fair enough. So let me rephrase the above: the guard at the queue refused to let us in cos Sito was wearing slippers even though some guy just walked out of Istana wearing slippers - why could he go in?!

The guard remained nonchalant even when we pointed out the guy to him. Well, fine, we accepted the rules. So we went to Carrefour and got a pair of shoes of the wrong size at $20 just so we could go in. And guess what? There was no guard when we returned! No one enforcing the so-called rules!

The best part was when we saw other guys in similar get-up as Sito - tee, berms, slippers - in Istana grounds.



(left edge, camera was slow :p)


What's with the inconsistency with the attire rule?!

We don't like unfair treatment and inconsistency in the enforcement of such rules. In fact, before we went, we had checked the website to see if there were any dress code and there was no info on that =(

Nonetheless, we had some fun going around - even though it was so damn hot.. We even bought Istana collar pins! Oooh...

I like collar pins. I have a duffel bag stuck full of collar pins - plus one now :)

Having babies

(Warning: Gross story ahead..)

SF gave birth only six weeks ago and she looked like she never did. On the other hand, Mother once commented that 19-year-old mf looked pregnant *.*

Anyway, the ladies met for lunch recently. With a new mother among us and four experienced mothers (and three of them pregnant) around the table, there could only be one main topic - childbirth and etc.

I must admit I was quite interested! All the talk about epidural, watching the doctor do a caesarean on your through a mirror (!), breastfeeding, types of breast pumps etc. I must say it was very enlightening and fun when they were recalling their experiences.

BUT someone mentioned cutting, sewing, tearing for not caesarean but natural birth...

My burning question: what and where do they cut? And why?!

Of course I have a rough idea given the context but when LY explained, I was like o_O (not going to go into details here but you may like to google for episiotomy if you feel up to it..)

(My next burning question: can you still have good sex after that?! TO said it would depend on the birth itself, if it was well sewn up and healed, confounded by the possibility of incontinence etc..)

I couldn't help it and did some googling just now, stopping short at actual photos and videos. I don't think I have the stomach for those after reading about the process. It is true that many women have gone through it. And, our mothers' generation didn't even have epidural! But SF is right - it would have to be caesarean comes my turn! Now I shall reconsider my ideal of having four children :p

On a lighter less scary note, I had something funny (and gross) the other day - I called it "poop of my dream" :p

Escape from Blue Isle

It was a gloomy day. Two strangers sat down at a roadside tavern and helped themselves to some morsels of food. Sebotino was heavy-built and moved about steadily, carrying with him an aura of seriousness. Baloda, on the other hand, appeared nervous and restless, and kept looking around him for unseen danger.

Sebotino had walked a long way and yearned for companionship. He didn't think Baloda would be a likely friend - they seemed too different. "Well, at least he looks like an unlikely foe," he though wryly to himself, recalling the nightmare that he had just escaped from.

"Hey!"

Startled from his thoughts, Sebotino looked up and found himself staring into a pair of shifty eyes. It was Baloda.

"You, you are not from around here," Baloda said cautiously.

Sebotino nodded wearily, "That's right. I just came from the Blue Isle."

"The Blue Isle? My people have lived here in the Marble Plains for more than a hundred generations but I have never heard of the Blue Isle."

"Oh, it was a wonderful place, bright and sunny in the day, and quiet and peaceful at night. There was no need for my people to venture here. We had a good life there, we did..."

A couple just arrived and sat near the unlikely friends. Sebotino noticed their shifty eyes and figured that he was in a strange land of strange suspicious people.

"But you are here," Baloda was now looking more curious than uneasy, if that was actually possible.

Sebotino leaned forward a little and paused. He was not sure if he could confide in this stranger but he decided that the truth must be told.

"Disaster struck the Blue Isle yesterday. I believe I am the only survivor of my kind. There was no sight of my people after the disaster."

Baloda turned pale. The big guy didn't look like he was lying.

"What could it be that wiped out an entire population?"

"It was a monster! An atrocious witch she was! If I hadn't hid under a drain, she would have found me and killed me like she did the rest! I saw her do it - with poison! So many of them, all dead on the streets!" The terror of the recollection was showing in Sebotino's eyes and reflected in Baloda's.

"I was trying to run home to safety and just as I was reaching, I saw her killing more of my people right outside my door. I had to wait until nightfall before I could reach home. But the door was locked and I couldn't pry it open. No one came to my help - I supposed they were all dead."

Baloda gave Sebotino a shaky pat. "You are a very lucky man to have escaped alive," he said, and after a pause, "If you do not mind, I can introduce you to my people, find you a home."

Sebotino was surprised at this offer. He did not expect this kindness coming from a shifty little fellow. As he stretched out his hands to thank Baloda, he saw Baloda's eyes widening in fear. Suddenly, a great shadow fell over them.

"The, the witch..?" Baloda could barely whisper now. Sebotino turned around...

"Ahhh!"

His scream trailed off as the witch flattened him with a piece of tissue paper. Baloda and the couple, always on their feet, had taken the chance to run away.

The legend of the witch would continue among the people of the Marble Plains...

PS: Yesterday, I found ants crawling in and out of a hole in the bathroom wall, and Baygon-ed them all. This morning, I sealed the damn hole. Stupid ants were still crawling about the sealed hole looking for a way in after that. I picked them up and flushed them away. I hope all these ants have vacated the Blue Isle. My Blue Isle :p

Feeling..fresh

Haven't felt like this for a long time.. This morning, I woke up fresh, and stayed fresh the whole day!

It must be the long hours of sleep last weekend, and what a leisurely weekend it was! Made spaghetti bolognese for three although there were only two of us :p We ate the whole lot *very proud of ourselves* and threw in dessert, which was Japanese pancake topped with flakes of Ben & Jerry's chocolate chip cookie dough - flaky cos it was too darn frozen to scoop *.*

A very simple and stress free weekend, I like and so, I am happy :)

Fly me to the moon

Well, almost :p


Can't tell what that is? The Singapore Flyer!

Don't think we were only at the bottom gazing ok...


=)

We looked blue cos the whole wheel was blue for some reason.. I like this photo cos we looked good (:p) and the background was beautiful! Ok, some imagination is required here cos we blocked about 80% of the view..

Views on the other side:


Have I mentioned we had the whole capsule to ourselves?


No need for imagination here cos there were CCTVs!! :p

There were people queueing but we took the Signature Cocktail Flight, which came with, um, two Signature Cocktail drinks, and two glasses to bring home. Not sure if the private capsule came with this flight or if it was because no one else chose this flight that day.. With a number of couples in front of and behind us sharing capsules with many others while we had our own, we - or rather, Sito - had certainly spoilt the market! :p

Thank you, Sito :)