Tuesday, May 30, 2006

lesson #003: red is the new black

Ever since I bought the empire red top (well, yesterday), I've been having cravings for red stuff. Like this red postman bag from Dorothy Perkins, and red nail lacquer dusted with gold. Such a classy, old-money combi - red and gold! Yet it's a look that's hard to pull off, 'tis a fine line between stylish and tacky.

Since we're on the subject of colours, I've just uploaded the piccies from Jess's Pink Cadilac party. She really did a good job on decor, I think everyone was wowed. Pink lights, pink streamers to greet us, and of course... bring on the bunny ears!


The bunny ears are courtesy of Jess.


With the birthday girl. Babe, you look sooo hot in this picture!



With Kunz, who's the mastermind of the coming dance outing on Fri.


This bunny's hungry!


More dance girls!


My best dance biatches, doing our trademark do-re-mi pose.


With Gary. The shutter didn't open properly, resulting in this artsy-ish picture. Doesn't it look like the vision of someone whose eyelids aren't fully open?


The boys complained about having to take pictures for us all of the time, so I took one for them to shut them up.


Yang & Gary attempting to be cool bouncers. I think Gary can pull off the preppy look!


All together now! Taken during the cake-cutting. Jess's cake had a tiara on it! Just what every bitch princess needs. Haha.

On to other pink items. Went walking around Orchard with Gary after work today, and as I urgently need conditioner, bought L'oreal Elseve Nutri-Gloss (it's a new product apparently) which is packaged in a pretty hot pink bottle. Tried it just now and I must say... IT IS GOOD. It makes your hair feel really soft and smooth, and you can feel the difference straight away after just one wash. This is one HOT item that I'll recommend to everyone.

As mentioned in yesterday's entry, I bought Belkin's Sport Sleeve for iPod Nano ($19.90). At first I intended to buy the original iPod pink armstrap but that one costs $50++ and it doesn't even protect the iPod entirely. Belkin's one, however, is one hot value-for-money momma. It doesn't look half-bad and it's not as flimsy as the original iPod armstrap. Sometimes, Function must overrule Style. As long as Function isn't butt-ugly.

After visiting the Apple merchandise shop at Cine, Gary and I stopped to look at the Singapore Idol meet-n-greet which was happening just outside Cine. I'm intrigued by the guy who has hair covering half of his face mainly because I'm frustrated that he doesn't seem to intend to chop off that damn hair any time soon. By the by, for the past two weeks that I've followed Singapore Idol, something kept niggling on my mind and I finally realized what. It's the vision of Gurmit Singh decked in V-neck tees a la Topman. Plus he's got a 40-year-old face but the hair of a teenager. Why? Why? Why don't they give him a more fitting look? Mediacorp seems to be trying too hard to appeal to the younger generation.

Aaaaanyways. Looking forward to tomorrow - dinner with Yang and Zhi after work followed by a solo dance session @ SMU Concourse. Boo hoo. Hopefully Gary will be going to the gym so that he can see me twirling all over the place while I can see him huffing and puffing after only ten minutes on the cycling machine (haha).

Monday, May 29, 2006

lesson #002: lessons from fengshui

Today has been a day of awakenings. Let's speak of the major one first, which's got to do with d***e. D-A-N-C-E. That word that felt like a vulgar word that I've been avoiding like a plague. That word that's part of the sentence, "How's d***e?" that I've been replying with a dismissive, "Let's not talk about it."

Sheila came to watch us and clean up our steps today. It somehow felt like I was back in year 1 and being scrutinized by her for the first time. The worst thing is it felt like I hadn't changed much since way back then, and that I've even gotten worse.

During the jazz item practice, she pinpointed me multiple times. I was dancing really raw. Obviously I was sad that she could see that my arms are weak, that my posture doesn't have a centre and that I don't have control over my movements. And that my eyes wander everywhere when I dance. Everywhere but the mirror in front of me. But the thing that I hate the most is the fact that I can't say that she's wrong. I am whatever she said I am, I am all of the above. It's a sad day when you discover that you suck, but I'm not afraid to admit it. I have become... a bowl of porridge. Soft, mushy, with neither energy nor passion.

Weak arms, posture and control are all parts of technique that I have to train. But the eyes... If I'd forced myself hard enough, I could focus. Maybe. The truth is I haven't been able to look at myself dance ever since the elections and the Funka audition. I don't blame anyone but myself for both. And then, slowly but surely, I shrunk. I retreated into a coccoon that, while comfortable, started sapping my former confident self into nothingness.

I wish I'd cried when Sheila shook me. Maybe then, I could've had closure for all these pent-up emotions. As it is, it stays right here, on this blog, unseen anywhere else. But I've got to get a grip. I've let the past haunt me for too long, and it's eating up my future. I think, all along, I've been secretly wishing for somebody to slap me awake.

Tomorrow, I'm buying an iPod armstrap. The baby pink one looks nice anyway! This armstrap is a necessity because, on Wednesday, I'm gonna camp in the concourse area and practice my turning. I'm totally gonna make a fool out of myself, dancing alone. But I don't care, it has to be done. I lack the space at home and I need to practice.

Well, speaking of shopping, I did some of that today during lunch. I used up my lunch hour intending to browse the Suntec shops, but the first shop I entered was Mango and somehow I was stuck there for the rest of the hour. I tried on plenty of tops and went back to my workplace with two. One is hot red, empire cut with a ribbon to tie in front, selling at $35. It's pretty darn cute, I tell you. The other is a simple light yellow tank with leaves embroidery to be worn for work.

And did I mention the knee-length, flare dark purple skirt from Topshop which I bought last Thursday? It was on 50% discount, so I got it for $33! What a steal! And the next day, I went to buy new heels from Charles & Keith. Gary was with me and he commented that the pair looked like something a rich tai-tai would wear. Exactly the look I was going for (well not a rich tai-tai, but a rich IT girl), so I bought them.

In any case, I wore the new pair to Jess's uber pink party, the Pink Cadillac. Now that deserves an entire blog post on its own, so I'm saving the commentary and the pictures for later. What I'll do say is that my tai-tai heels are NOT walking heels. At ALL. They are not meant to be worn anywhere near a public transport, except for cabs. So an hour's train ride to Pasir Ris MRT was... well, while not exactly the IPPT that army boys go through, it's still most definitely a test of endurance.

But I digress. A lot. This post is supposed to be about awakenings, and I've told the first tale of awakening. The second and also last awakening has got to do with my room.

Basically, I kinda think that fengshui is half based on logic. My room is so messy and there's so much crap strewn across my bed that it must be bad for me. Basically, when you can't even be in charge of your clothes and all your stuff, how can you take charge of your life, how can you call yourself a good d***er (which I don't, sadly), and how can you wish to exude self-confidence? My whole room is a MESS. It's the Messiah of mess, where all sorts of mess congregate together and do whatever mess do when they meet up. Shriek hellos and airkiss, maybe.

I'm not about to rearrange my furniture (what furniture?) so as to let the wind flow in the direction or prosperity, or whatever. But I'd better clean up my bed and wardrobe so that I can at least see my bedsheet. I think once I got this spring cleaning done, I'll feel more at peace and rested when lying on my bed. And I'd be less stressed and moody (if you see mess, won't you feel kinda gross and grumpy?), and then I'd be able to concentrate more on other stuff, such as d***e.

And maybe, just in case, I should re-arrange my trash bin so that it won't be in my Money Corner. With the GSS just warmin' up, I need all the dosh I can get to save my soul from the Shopping God. (Then again, by actually shopping, won't I be selling my soul to the Shopping God? ... Hmmm. Fuck the god, I need tweed pants for work.)

Thursday, May 25, 2006

lesson #001: the revival of the lessons

So I met up with Jing last night. We had Asian Kitchen @ Marina for dinner (not bad, but loses out to Crystal Jade's la mian) and then went to Times Bookshop. She bought Kazuo Ishiguro while I got myself some chick lit (been craving for some dumbing down amidst all the work stress and all) (it's very stressful trying to look busy when you've got nothing to do). And then she did a pedi at ProfessioNail, which is next to Times.

I think ProfessioNail's pretty good. For the price of $15 you get your toe nails done and you get to sit in a massage chair for half an hour. Mmmm. An express mani is $12. Might go back there to prettify the nails one of these days.

Speaking of nails, Substance opposite SMU's SoB (or LKCSB... whatever...) has an even better service. They give 30% discount to students, so a full pedi costs only $24.50. Very worth it. Went for a haircut there a couple of days back as well, and it wasn't half bad. If you're looking into trying out new places for a mani/pedi or a haircut, you can try it out. It's especially great since nobody goes there, so you'll be spared the horrible Waiting Time that usually plagues most hair salons.

OK. After much plug-filled digression, we shall resume with the story of how I met up with Jing Once Upon A 24th May. Yeah. So... where were we. Ho hum. Right, the pedi. So after a short while spent admiring her toes, we went to Esplanade to get dessert in the form of $1 ice cream. Took some pictures (shall put it up one of these days, it's rare that both of us take a picture together, but then again, the pictures weren't very flattering) (babe, we gotta put full make-up and then meet up to purely take pictures one day) inside Esplanade before settling down by the sea licking our melting ice creams.

It was nice catching up with her and listening to horror stories of her school trip to Malaysia. Here's an extract from her blog, which has been re-published henceforth with the author's consent:

"it was an eye opening trip. for me it was more unpleasant than enjoyable, as i got to experience first hand the general poor attitude of our dear neightbours. for the first 6 days we stayed at a university hostel, and on the 3rd day of our stay, 2 of the girls' rooms got broken into, INCLUDING MINE. the interesting thing is, the theif stole weird stuff. she took my Pantene shampoo, ignoring my Bodyshop shower gel. she took my star earrings and i am very pissed about that because Mike paid for it. she took a necklace i bought the day before and never got to wear it. she also took a pair of shades i bought the day before and only wore for 2 hours. she fucking took took my pencilcase which contains a whole load of expensive stationery including a 256MB thumbdrive. she ate my Meiji chocolates in my room and dropped some on the floor, and leaving one of the empty boxes on my table. she took my room mate's slippers and phone charger and opened her contact lense case (for fuck).

from the other room she took another pencil case with twice the amount of expensive stationery, and 5 tshirts of total worth $95. the funny thing is she left my Island Shop spaghetti top and tube top alone, which these 2 alone add up to 140RM and are new. and so from the stuff she stole we concluded she was a girl with size 5 feet and only wears clothes which cover more skin. uh huh. probably using a Samsung phone or has a boyfriend using one, never ate Meiji chocolates before and doesn't shop cos she left all the brand names alone.

so we took it up to the hostel administration and the way they handled this matter was most impressive. under stress they slow down (even more than normal) and look very stressed, all the while effectively solving nothing. and after 3 days of prodding and angry complaints from us all (there were 16 of us), they said they found my necklace.

hooray!

the next thing they did was hand over this envelope which was damn heavy. and opening it we saw..waaalaaa!

some random Indian style gold bracelets.

fuck lah. they sit around in their offices all day long doing nothing and can't even solve an internal theft case. even when we insisted on checking the contractors and the cleaners (who were most likely the ones who opened all the doors of the rooms on our floor and ransacked our place), all the stories they told were different."

On top of which, her professor, who's in her fifties, was robbed when they were in another city and suffered from fractures as a result of the Grab'nGo.

Hokay, enough of traumatizing stuff. We decided to call it a night. At the Esplanade bus stop, saw an advert for a comedy show. May go on a double date to catch this:

Esplanade Presents
160 Characters
Vanilla Productions
Australia
2 - 4 Jun 06, Fri - Sun, 8pm, Recital Studio

Sometimes 160 characters is all we need to express ourselves. The 160-character-limits of phone text messaging is explored in this highly interactive, often hilarious work of improvised theatre.160 Characters asks its audience to forward their most intriguing text messages to an onstage phone. Each text message is used to inspire an improvised comedic sketch by six Australian cast members. The results are wholly original, spontaneous and fantastical pieces of comedic storytelling.

Sounds interesting hey? I was intending to ask my potential date if he'd be interested in attending a comedy show once I got home, but I never got the chance to. Once I hit the bed, I closed my eyes to catch 12 winks before I watch Project Runway (was feeling tired and kinda sick), but the 12 winks became 8 hours and I woke up the next morning feeling crap as I didn't manage to get anything done. And I bloody missed Project Runway's premier episode. GAAAAAH!

Anyway, as I was waiting for my bus to arrive just now, saw yet another advert for a play at Esplanade called Shorter & Sweeter. Wanna catch that too! Hmmm. Feel so artsy-fartsy now. Teehee!

Sunday, May 21, 2006

sugar, spice, and everything nice

Saturday, May 20, 2006

pieces of a puzzle

All my fault / feeling sucks / glad I'm home / Jurassic Park no more / heartaches subside / Syd's party / pictures soon / King Kong DVD / contrived / gottachangegottachangegottachangetagboard / a life of quiet desperation.

Sunday, May 14, 2006

THE cathay, THE manhattan fish market, and MUCH bad lighting

The Cathay:




The Fish Market:


Flaming Platter For, you guessed it, Two. Looks like Fish & Co but tastes twice as great as Fish & Co. This is a case of (CHEAPER!) imitation KO-ing the original.


Actually, it shoulda been called Flaming Platter For Two And A Whole Village of Starved Children.

Friday, May 12, 2006

*hic!*

Wala's with Josiah (designated invitor), Ron, Adrian + gf.

Okay. Someone tell me why, when I've been complaining of being overworked/underslept, I am blogging at 2.19 AM after a night spent drinking snooze-inducing booze. I think it is called irony. Like, you know, Fe. Man, can't believe I still remember my sec school Chemistry. And yeah, I am talking much cock which some people won't even get.

Anyway, tried a shooter called Quickfuck and may I just say, puns unintentionally intended, the Quickfuck was great. I can taste cherry syrup somewhere inside the shooter. It's really sweet, yummy, and satisfyingly strong. So ladies, please ask for a Quickfuck. Personally, I feel it's better than a Blowjob, and it beats Sex on the beach hands down. Better yet, get the boys to ask for a Quickfuck on your behalf and get a laugh out of it.

The band at Wala's was fantastic. I first heard The UneXpected (hope I spelled that correctly) last Christmas way back. The lead had a fantastic voice back then but she has since improved her range and projection even more. She sounded purrrrfect. Especially loved their rendition of The Rasmus' In The Shadows.

Long weekend's ahead and I'm a pretty happy bunny that it's here. This week's gonna be the last 4-day workweek as there ain't be no holidays in June. Sob. But oh well, I'll be working at Suntec (the same client as last week) once this Jurong Island gig is done, so I'm looking forward to that.

Oh, and don't even ask how Jurong Island was. Is. I can only say this: I've taken into calling the place Jurassic Park for a reason.

Gotta admit though, the client isn't that bad. And my colleagues are a fun bunch to be around, what with talks of Crazy Horse-ing and manly jokes.

When walking home, saw a doe-eyed white pussy cat near the swimming pool. It's the most beautiful kitty I've ever laid my eyes on. Ooo, I thawt I thaw a puddy cat!

Yeah, I'm definitely crapping out left, right and centre. Time for some sleep. Good night world, and have a joyful Vesak Day.

Saturday, May 06, 2006

as the sky splits it pours and soaks the souls of heartbroken maidens

Rain to end a Saturday night may be seen by most to be anticlimactic, but strangely enough I felt peace as my eyes stared through the heavy raindrops into nothingness, waiting for daddy to pick me up Mary Poppins-style from the house bus stop in which I was aqua-trapped.

Random thought #1: I'll be sent off to the god-forsaken island called Jurong Island for the next two weeks of my internship. Wowie. Greeaaat. Couldn't you sense my overwhelming enthusiasm *crickets chirping*.

Random thought #2: It sucks to be walking along Orchard Road browsing through shops and spotting so many good finds, all the while knowing that you're not in the financial position to be buying stuff. No, not even that yummy polkadot top from F21. Or the delicious knee-length skirt from Isetan. Or gorgeous new eyeliners from MAC. Or... well I could go on forever.

Random thought #3: My thighs are so fat that I'm starting to look like those voluptuous black girls on rap videos when I try on micromini skirts. Did sit-ups just now but that'll only help with the upper abdomen so to attack the thighs I gotta run, gotta run, gotta run tomorrow.

Random thought #4: I've run out of randomness. Ooh yes. Shadow Hearts is fun fun fun. Civ 4 is fun fun fun (especially when I conquer other civilizations and raze their towns MWAHAHA) but laggy. Metal Gear Solid is not for me - I'm hopeless at it!


Syd looking lovely at NINES. Lurrrve your dress, dah-ling. As you can see, DXO's ladies' room is a far cry from MOS'.


I like my polkadot belt/tie! Ignore the drain.



Metal Gear Solid 3. It's the first stage yet it's hard as f***.


My absolute favourite soft toy.


Me & a strange guy who came over to play teamwork Civ 4 yet ended up getting childishly excited over MGS3 (and continuously dying on the first stage).

Thursday, May 04, 2006

the boy who sleeps

My working place this week is at Suntec City, and I LOVE it. I love knowing that the shops are just a minute's walk away. I love being surrounded by gorgeous new things in brightly-lit stores. But this job's ending tomorrow and then I'm back to square one trying to figure out the senior in-charge / address for workplace / where and when I'm needed.

But I have to say that the highlight for today was the bus ride back home. I took the bus from the Esplanade stop (ahh... bliss... where the seats are plenty and the atmosphere un-suffocating). Chose a seat by the window. Along the way home I was joined by this guy whose smell sat next to me even before he did. It's sort of a mixture of sweat, dust, and smoke. But that was fine. I just shrugged it off and looked out of the window so that my nose won't be pointing at his direction.

However, he started nodding off to sleep very very quickly. And as he nodded off, his whole body teetered dangerously towards me. With each sleep-induced nod he leaned closer and closer until I had to press myself hard against the window to avoid his dozing body while his delicious bodily odour wafted under my nose. He jolted himself awake soon afterwards, however he then proceeded to nod off AGAIN and the whole process was repeated. And repeated. And repeated. I got so annoyed at one point that I very deliberately adjusted my sitting position with a purposeful landing whomp! which jolted him awake (but what's new... he dozed off yet again).

UGH. Okay, it's not that I mind having people lean on me on bus rides as they doze off to sleep. ... YEAH RIGHT! The only chance I'd ever allow that to happen is if the person is Jesse Metcalfe. Well, this guy ain't no Jesse Metcalfe. Come on. If I really desire a mind-blowing combination of sweat/smoke I'd order it upfront, 'Can I have the Sweat'n'Smoke Combo? Yeah, the number six. Supersize it please, and hold the deodorant.'

And thus, an ought-to-be-peaceful bus ride home became a dangerous game of deflection.