Our new Mac is here!!

Some people like smells that are floral. Or fruity. Or fried.

We like the smell of new electronics!!



That's us in the reflection :)

Can't believe it's been a month since we recycled our MacBook Black! Feels good to work on a Mac again :)

Just finished transferring files and installing everything except Sito's very pro Adobe (which is on its way from Sg) and Nikon's Picture Project cos Mac no longer supports that format or something. Ended up uploading photos from the past month using iPhoto and searching high and low for the files! I know, it's a cool app but I like to manually manage my photos. Very manually. Like rename-every-photo kind of manual.

Should sleep already. More updates later!

♥ this Mac :)

Emoticons galore!

I think I'm a very smiley person.

Had an idea to count the number of posts with smileys:
543 with :) - woohoo!
36 with =)

And :p comes close at 536! *applause*

That's way more than the number of posts with un-smileys:
159 with =(
53 with :(

Seems that I use :) more often than =) to express smiley mf, and =( more often than :( to express un-smiley mf..

And then there are other emoticons..

More duh looks than un-smileys:
223 with *.* - *.*

Another duh look, I suppose.. Not sure what else it is:
27 with o_O or O_O - don't think I've used O_o, looks weird haha!

And another funny look:
18 with ~.~

I suppose I can replicate all these expressions on my pretty face!

PS1: You realise that the posts overlap right? Like this post has everything!

PS2: Add one to the numbers above with this new post! :)

听933庆中秋

最近每天听933，有一种很熟悉的感觉。听到喜欢的歌曲，就上Youtube找K版唱两句。

933在我小四的时候起播。当时也没有常听，因为妈妈掌管家里的收音机，听的是咨询电台958，虽然也有播歌，却大多不是时下流行的。

高中时，终于有了自己的随身听。当年的随身听可是cassette player，不是CD player哦！因为听卡带比较吃电，所以在上学途中我都是听933的。还记得有一回，我正好想听许茹芸的＂突然想爱你＂，一打开随身听，刚好就听到这首歌，而且还是歌曲的第一秒！

Anyway, 今天是中秋节 － 中秋愉快！:) 玉兔妹妹今年可有提灯笼啊？:)

昨天晚上，就是新加坡周一早上，933一连播了很多首和月亮有关的歌曲，包括一些很旧的歌，就连Sito都会唱两句，真好 :) 我刚刚突然想到冰皮莲蓉月饼，虽然并没什么胃口，却很想咬一口!

今天也是二年级开学的第一天。去年因为中秋节是开学一两个礼拜后，我们有时间筹划一个formal的中秋聚会。今年虽然没有特别庆祝，但学校有一场欢迎二年级的野餐，中国学生也有一场informal的中秋+迎新会，最重要的是我们在San Francisco的时候吃了一个绿茶莲蓉月饼！*burp*

一口气说了三四个小时的话，还是中文，弄得我喉干舌卷的，不过能够见到一些熟悉的面孔又认识了几个一年级学生，还觉得很充实的。回来冲了个凉，喝了点水，又回到了933的怀抱，只是新加坡已经不是中秋节了。希望明年的中秋节，我们会在新加坡 :)

PS：正要publish的时候发现，这里也不是中秋节了！

Presents

Sito came home at almost 1 am on Sunday. So nice to have my husband back! :) And it's not just cos he brought me presents!



A green angel keychain and a long pinkish chain that can be used as a necklace or bracelet - I used it as a bracelet on Sunday! And the little brown basket with purple threads too - a big knickknack to contain my small knickknacks :) Oh, there's another chain not in the picture - it was a sample that got left in his bag accidentally. He's trying to contact the person to arrange for payment now.

Sito was in Nicaragua for two weeks to work on a pro bono project for Fabretto, and these were made by impoverished Nicaraguan youths. Most of the cards have a handwritten name behind. The pink chain was made by a Roberto Meza.

Now, I'm not the present kind of person. I don't buy souvenirs when I travel. I find Christmas gift exchange a chore. I don't buy birthday gifts unless I happen to see something suitable. And if it's suitable, it doesn't have to wait until your birthday! But I'm not very observant haha! On the other hand, sometimes, I do just feel like getting a little something for someone - it could just be a cookie!

I don't expect presents too, not even on my birthday, unless the present is good makan company :) But I can appreciate the thought behind a gift. And Sito knows of course. When he told me over the phone that he got me presents, I felt both excited and strange.

Excited, not because of any anticipation for some exotic Nicaraguan gifts but because my husband got me something when I didn't expect anything! And half of the purchase price of these presents goes to the kid who made them, so they make me and another person happy :)

Strange, because all our money comes out of the same account - it's like paying for half my presents :p I know, it's not just the money but the actual act of thinking about the other person and choosing something suitable. So for these two years, we can just ignore the technicality and be happy :)

I love my basket of presents. I love even more that Sito knows what I like! :)

Hokkien mee....wannabe!

Remember my 排骨虾面? Well, I froze a tub of soup to make Hokkien mee today! In fact, most of the ingredients today came out of the freezer - frozen yellow noodles and frozen pork ribs from last time and frozen prawns from a more recent trip to H-Mart. And my freezer still remains quite full :p

I roughly followed the recipe from Uncle Phil. Roughly cos I couldn't find thick bee hoon, I didn't add squid and bean sprouts, and I used pork ribs instead of belly pork and Shanghai greens instead of chives.

So here's the result:


Looks not bad right? But it tasted more like chicken mee than prawn mee! *.*

On retrospect, I should have boiled the ribs separately instead of in the little bit of prawn stock.. I didn't have enough stock in the end and had to use chicken stock and a lot of water :( And the ribs were not boiled long enough so they weren't tender like the last time :(

Well, at least it wasn't bland! We even had sambal chilli with lemon juice! (Cos I don't have calamansi - different but same same??)

I cooked a lot as I had to use up all the thawed noodles *.* so we had leftovers - just noodles, no more vege or prawn or pork - for another day! Maybe I'll add chicken bits instead of prawns..?

Freeeee and happpppy!

I have relinquished my duty as a summer student director for this building, yeah!!

So my duty hours were weekdays 5.30 pm to 8.30 am and all day on weekends, and I worked alternate weeks with another student director. We were to attend to urgent matters like lock-outs and evacuation and flooded bathrooms etc. When there were upcoming maintenance like hot water outage or radiator works, we would send out mass emails and put up notices within the building. With the school year starting, we also dealt with check-ins.

There were fun things too - we organised a BBQ and an ice cream social for which I managed to get a store to sponsor 100 cups of the creamy stuff! We also had lunch with our bosses - their treat of course :p We had good response on our social events and everyone was happy. For this job, I didn't get paid but I got to stay here for free over the summer, which saved us some money.

Like all jobs, this job had its ills too. Some people missed reading the word "urgent". I mentioned the frustrating incident of the two chaps who called me at 3 am just to use the lounge. Another guy called on a Monday evening, claiming that the front desk was always closed and he had been waiting to get his parcel since Friday. When I went down and retrieved his parcel, it turned out to be a....bicep builder!! You urgently need to save your shrinking biceps hur??

And I was mistaken in not expecting stupidity from MBA students. This guy gave his keys to a friend who was going to come back after him so he ended up with no key, while this girl locked herself out of her room in only a towel. Twice. In the same week. At 7+ am.

For two weeks in July, we had a big group of visiting students from the Netherlands. One day, a twin room had an aircon issue over the weekend, and I had the most unpleasant encounter - hello, this isn't a hotel, and I'm not your maid! The usual residents were a lot nicer, yes, even though they may not understand the word "urgent".

But the most terrible thing - and most unexpected - had to do with "guanxi". In June, a graduating student asked me to open the apartment of this other student whom she knew had left so that her visiting parents could stay there for a couple of weeks. She did not want student affairs to know - why?! I felt quite bad for her parents too if they had to stay in a dirty room when they had to fly 14 hours to get here. And she had the cheek to ask me when all the interaction we had was an introduction. Anyway, I was at a loss - it wasn't that it could not be done. But I don't like to do sneaky things lor! How to reject nicely? In the end, after talking to Mum who happened to call, it was not a matter of nice or not; it was a matter of right or wrong. I told her to ask student affairs if she could rent an apartment.

Despite all my complaints, there were times when I enjoyed my work, when I met nice people, when I helped someone in genuine need. Like this chap who returned from a week-long trip at 4 am with his keys to find that maintenance had changed his lock! And the couple who found themselves in an apartment with a weird smell that couldn't be removed. Or the guy who smelled gas in his apartment. And today, a guy arrived at 7 am, waited in his roommate's room for a more decent time to call me for checking in - so nice right?

And through all the check-ins, I got to meet a lot of people, made a few friends, although at times, it was quite exasperating, like last night, I had eight check-ins in under four hours - I was barely changed and seated when I got the next call! And some people could not wait - they kept calling home and mobile, home and mobile while I was in the bathroom!

I've also learnt things about this building. Now I know the location of each of the 33 rooms on each floor, I know how to fix the stove for minor gas leaks, and - this is very important - I know that the five-second rule doesn't count here; carpets here have suffered floods from kitchen and toilet *.*

Being a student director, I also had a glimpse into the whole machinery behind our accommodation. It was, um, interesting *.* Suffice to say that I would be checking our bills very carefully and handling our own mail forwarding when we leave this building!

But now, I'm just basking in freedom :) Finally, I can sit through a meal without answering a call. Finally, I can sleep soundly without praying that I don't get a call in the middle of the night. Finally, I don't have to suffer the irritating ringtone from the duty phone!

And finally, Sito is coming home!! :) I have cleaned parts of the apartment so that he will return to a clean home in addition to a happy wife :) But actually our apartment is quite clean to begin with. (The guy who oversaw the radiator works couldn't help telling me so after going through more than 60 rooms!) He's probably flying over US airspace now.. Can't wait to see him again!

Update at 9.00 pm

Tamade, I rejoiced too early!! A few friends couldn't get the student director and called me instead! I don't mind helping my friends but I can't help feeling sour :(

Hello hello? Can you hear me?

A thought popped into my head the other day. I've always liked to take photos as a keepsake for memorable times in our lives. And this blog, this writing of sorts, stores my personality in a way.

But I'm missing something - voice.

I really like my voice! But only the way it sounds to me. I've never got used to how I sound to other people. I have recorded my voice a few times just to hear what I sound like to others. And what a blow to narcissistic me the first time I heard my voice from a playback!

My speaking voice is rather nasal and tends to go sharp. I find it funny that I sound pretty bo chap. Quite a hollow voice. Or maybe I recorded a hollow monologue? :p

My "presentation" voice - I rehearsed for presentations at work :p - is still nasal but it's more low-pitched. Have to be, else too kiddish for work!!

My singing voice is the worst of all - nasal and hollow and screechy! So sad.. Better just sing to myself in future :(

But my cute voice is ok. It's, um, cute hoho!

I guess mine is not a voice that commands attention, just good enough to 骗小孩 :p

10 things I love/hate about you

Suddenly thought of this movie "10 things I hate about you" that I watched with my OBS watch back in 1999. Um, I thought it pretty lame back then even though I was probably its target audience...

At first, I wondered if I could list 10 loves and 10 hates about Sito. Then I wondered, what if I had more hates than loves?! And then I thought, now that would be love, right? Haha!

So I started listing - not sharing! :) - and I have eight loves and five hates!! :)

I'm still not fully well from a cold I suffered right after we came back from San Francisco. Opened the window to air the apartment and ended up feeling cold - yes, summer is over!! :(

Anyway, so I moved to Sito's desk to stay out of the wind. Now I'm looking at the two photos of us on the wall next to the desk - one was taken before Christmas in 2007, with me in my mini mini skirt and Sito in his now-torn green polo tee which we liked very much, and the other was a wedding shot. I think I much prefer the Christmas shot where Sito had this really serene look, and holding my hand instead of my bouquet ha!

I had such a vivid dream yesterday morning. I felt very awake and turned to my left to laze a bit more. Then I felt Sito creeping into bed to sleep and his warm hand brushed against mine. When I suddenly opened my eyes, of course he wasn't there. Seemed like I had gone back to sleep right after turning on my side *.* But the dream was SO real! Miss his warmth..

Can't wait for Saturday when he'll be home :)

我的审美观

31岁的我趁老公不在家，竟发了一个下午的花痴 ^.^

刚看完韩版动作片"City Hunter"，爱上了主角李敏镐 :p

我原本对李敏镐不怎么感兴趣，甚至只在电视剧预搞片和产品海报看过他，连名字都不知道。可是我发现李敏镐在很多角度不是象木村拓哉，就是象言承旭！*花痴*

在网上找出一堆照片做比较:

Kimura Takuya                    Jerry Yan                           Lee Min Ho


很象吧？要找短发的，又不眉开眼笑的，还真难！没用他们笑的照片是因为他们有时笑起来太美了，美到我这做女人的无地自容！*.*

其实还有一个演员跟他们长得相似:山下智久。但我对山下智久没有感觉，可能他的角色目前还不吸引我吧。

Yamapi


其实很多时候，我都是喜欢上剧里的角色啦。比如我很喜欢很喜欢"长假"里的瀬名秀俊，"流星花园"里的道明寺，"就想賴著妳"里的項羽平项大律师，还有现在"City Hunter"里的李润成。而他们又长得相似，我想我应该就是喜欢这类型的男生！^.^

miso: Um, Sito doesn't look like them leh... How?

*想* 我老公象吳尊啊！♥

Sito                                        Wu Chun


就嘴唇和（几年前的）身材 :)

之前找木村时找到松隆子。觉得有个表姐蛮象她的 － CY，记得我们小六时结婚的那个吗？

Matsu Takako


就两天前，我在全身镜里看着自己，发现我从小就讨厌的萝卜腿虽然不是什么美腿，却也不太象萝卜腿了，但曾拥有过的柳腰却不见了，和屁股二合一了！不看了不看了，看脸好了，至少有人说过我象孙燕姿，陈毓芸，甚至范文方和杨采妮！！！是有点莫明其妙... 大学时期还有人说过我象松岛菜菜子！

mf                                          Matsushima Nanako


这个，头发吧？我还是有自知之明的 *.*

24小时后....

刚看了1992年成龙和王祖贤主演的城市猎人，突然想起高中时期Tok曾经说过我象王祖贤！真是大众脸 *.*

Home alone on a rainy Saturday afternoon

Omg, I just watched this 1993 HK movie "夏日情未了" - it's so 90s! Aaron Kwok's hair was a key feature, waist-high jeans were everywhere, and at the end, even waist-high panties made an appearance on Rosamund Kwan in a most wonderfully hilarious sex scene accompanied by the entire tune of "Only You"!

Aaron looked like a little boy then, very cute, also very macho *drool* It's ok, Sito knows I like Aaron - although I must qualify that I much prefer the older version :p

And Rosamund Kwan was so young then. I think she isn't very very pretty but she carries herself very well.

And the whole idea of a "romantic candle light dinner" was so funny. They were just sitting there, eating and looking at each other *.*

A pleasant surprise was hearing "让我欢喜让我忧" in the middle of the movie. I like that song.

Ah well, just completely random..

It was sunny this morning and I was sad that I couldn't go out. No hot water this weekend due to maintenance so I can only shower but not wash my hair.

And suddenly it's raining. I guess yesterday was the last true summer day, sighs!

Anyway, it's Saturday, but it doesn't feel like a Saturday. Or rather, I think every day feels the same these days hoho! Without Sito here now, I can't tell one day from another. Sometimes it's good to have a timetable :)

Re-discovering forgotten childhood games

The other day, I went to wake Sito at 11.15 am. We ended up sitting across from each other on the bed, and trying to play 我家我家!

This is a genre of childhood games in my time that I forgot to mention in a previous post.

I have long forgotten how to play this particular games. That day, I tried very hard to remember how to determine win or loss but couldn't. I only remembered there was something about 公鸡, 母鸡 and 小鸡 :p

There are a number of such games, and they typically start with what sounds like "set set set", corresponding to the rhythmic up-down movements of both players' clasped hands , with the left palm facing up and the right palm down.

Oh, I think there's a variation of the chicken game that goes like: 我家住在大巴窑，大牌叫做 ABC，门牌叫做 do re me，我家养了三只鸡，公鸡母鸡和小鸡!

And somehow this leads to what sounds like 切! Which means it's time for scissors/paper/stone!

Then there is this super addictive game called 205. It's effectively scissors/paper/stone but with a twist. It's played by three players. If any two players show the same sign, they will go "合作愉快! 叉呀打呀!"

At "合作愉快", they'll shake hands while the third person opens up both palms. At "叉呀", it's scissors/paper/stone time and if they show different signs, they'll hit the third person's palms on "打呀"! They stop only when they show the same signs.

It hurts for everyone ok! When children hit people, they hit hard! Or maybe it's just those around me? Anyway, I found the game addictive but I never liked it much.

I tried looking for more info on these games but to no avail...

Oh, but I think I still remember how to play five stones :)

I suddenly remember finding childhood treasures in a museum store in Singapore a few years ago. I can't remember which museum it was but the store carried an old favourite of mine - bubble glue! You know, the small tube of glue-like substance that comes with a little straw to blow out bubbles? I think I have a picture of it somewhere but my portable hard disk can't be used on this laptop. In the meantime, check out this article on Super Elastic Bubble Plastic, its proper name apparently.

And then in primary school, board games and card games were all the rage. Think 飞行棋 (no, it's no chess), Old Maid, Happy Family, Uno and its variations like Snap and Heart Attack! Ah, so nostalgic!

This most resembles the pack I played with my childhood friends!

Source: fustar.info

Found an article on some of these games here.

If I recall more childhood games, I'll come back here to add on :)

Necessary, good to have, doing without

I was drawn to a report on EIU's latest global liveability report. The EIU used New York as a baseline city and gave other cities "a rating of relative comfort for over 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five broad categories: stability; healthcare; culture and environment; education; and infrastructure" (link). Cost of living was apparently not a factor.

Now I can't help noticing (1) how the top 10 are cities in Australia and Canada, and (2) that Singapore has been ranked 52nd!

I have never been to Canada but I was in Melbourne for a few days and honestly, I wasn't impressed. I mentioned why before so I shan't repeat here. Short of paying hundreds of dollars for the full report and ranking, I can't imagine how there can be so many cities before Singapore! No, I don't think I can be convinced.

But well, liveability is arguably subjective.

In my adult years, I have lived in three cities - Oxford, Singapore and Evanston, in that order. In all honesty, I find all three cities very liveable. Putting aside cost of living, if not for family and friends and two key pain points, living in Oxford or Evanston - or any other similar city! - sounds as inviting as living in Singapore.

The two pain points are actually on the national level, not really specific to the cities - taxation and healthcare. Of course I didn't pay tax in Oxford but if I did, it would probably be high, like the 19.8% Sito paid in his nine weeks of internship here. And while I had free healthcare in Oxford, it was painful - long waiting time, not to mention out of the way. As for Evanston, my doctor is just round the corner but guess what? My insurance will expire in, oh, 30 minutes!

Renewing my coverage will cost over $5,000 this year, with a $250 deductible and up to $1,000 out-of-pocket expenses. Getting a new plan with lower premiums doesn't save me any money because the deductible increases dramatically to $3,000 and more! In all probability, the insurance will remain that, an insurance.

So I'm going without insurance from tomorrow. When I wake up tomorrow, I'll be a good girl and no longer jaywalk, I'll be careful not to injure myself with my clumsiness, I'll self-medicate all minor illnesses. This doesn't make Evanston unliveable though; good healthcare is still available, just that I have to pay an arm and a leg for it. As if I'm not already paying an arm and a leg for it through the insurance, ha!

I guess Singapore probably scored poorly on areas I don't care about, like censorship. I'm happy we're not China and I have my Facebook, thank you.

But my choice is and - I dare say - will always be my Singapore. It has the necessary (think personal safety and infrastructure kind of hygiene factors) and the good-to-have (24-hour eateries? Yes, please!), and I don't have to do without anything!

Seems that I'm missing Singapore.. Sighs, I don't really feel that since I'm already at home with Mr Sito. But when we were in San Francisco and hanging out with old friends and having familiar food (and I'm the kind who can eat pasta every day) and feeling like Singapore in the 80s (um, that was Chinatown) and finding salons offering cheap rebonding services (for me only :p) and doing foot reflexology (again, just me!), we felt strongly about wanting to go back to Singapore after the MBA.

Well, recruiting season starts with the start of fall quarter in less than two weeks. Pray hard that Sito gets a good enough offer from a Singapore office to say bye bye to his BATNA!

An artsy and nerdy day

Went on a little excursion to the Museum of Contemporary Art with WSY. Free admission for Illinois residents on Tuesdays! All we did was to state our zip code.

It was our first time at this museum, and we went there early enough to have lunch at the restaurant inside before taking a free guided tour. Before this, the two of us had only been out on group events so it was really nice to be able to have a good chat over lunch :)

The current exhibition features works by Mark Bradford, an artist from LA. His work reflect a lot of his background and significant events around him.

I'm not the artsy sort, and know nothing about contemporary art. Fine, I know nothing about art! So it was a good thing we had the guided tour, else we wouldn't have understood or appreciated anything O_O

Oh, also took the intercampus shuttle bus for the first time! I had wanted to take that to go downtown for a while but never did. I used my spouse ID card which is actually not valid on this bus unless the bus is not crowded (and the driver is nice). So I was lucky! WSY used her husband's card and the driver didn't even check the photo! Think I'll do that next time..

So, I'm not artsy, but I'm definitely nerdy - I thought of the Pythagoras' Theorem while in the shower just now and I wanted to prove it!

First, I realised I couldn't spell "Pythagoras" so I googled :p I resisted looking at the proof...

Then, as I got my pen and paper ready, I couldn't get started so to give myself a little hint, I took a little peek...

"...similar triangles..."

Ah ha!

But I confused myself by cutting up my triangle in a complicated way. I took a second peek for a second hint *.*

Then I proved it!

Happy :)

But sighs.. Had to peek! :( Twice!! :((

Anyway, must share happiness - got to talk to Sito for some five minutes this evening - he called! :)