trek 7.1x

:) So excited. Just got my first bike ever! Okok it's my 2nd bike. The first was a free bike that I won in some contest - it weighed a ton but served me really well. Can't remember what happened to it. I think I left it at my uncle's house before we had a fall out and it was left there to rot.

Anyway, after months years of thinking about getting a new bike, I finally decided to plonk down good money for it. And bikes don't come cheap! The entry level bike I was eyeing the Specialized Sirrus, but that was going for like 800 buckeroos! I ain't paying that kind of money for a sport that I wasn't even sure I would like. So anyway forced to make a decision*, I decided to visit a T3 Bike shop and put down $600 for my first hybrid.

 

The Trek 7.1Fx. Isn't it lovely?

I can't wait to ride it. 

*Will be going on my 2nd OCBC Cycle tomorrow. Would be a problem if I turned up without a bike!

I heard that the number of cyclists who signed up for this has almost doubled. (I told a friend 55,000 - I lied. I am sure it's less since the first OCBC Cycle was about 5k cyclists).

Anyway, hoping to see eye candy without wilting in the heat. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. :)

crop circles...not!

How do these people do things like that? I can't even see beyond my toes!

And just enjoy the show!

Serious case of tmi

Ok, there is this colleague in office who is seriously getting to be a pain to be around.

1. All conversations must revolve around her or
2. She must have an opinion or a story(about herself of cos) in all coversations which usually include this story of...
3. "I can't cough. Cos everytime I cough I throw up. " to which I cannot show any more sympathy after hearing it for 50x now.
4. When she wants to go get coffee (to go mind u) she insists that you accompany her. Or after lunch she'll ask,"are u doing anything? Wanna go carrefour?". I usually don't mind trawling supermarkets but not with her cos of points 1, 2 and 3.
5. When you are busy and say you can't go down with her to fucking accompany her to get a takeaway coffee, she loudly goes," why are u like that? Why can't you go down?".... Er cos I'm here to work and I'm not your slave runnin up and down at your beck and call?
6. Talks about her ex constantly. And how hung up he still is about her. Even though he recently married.
7. Talks abt her new White meat she is dating and refers to him as "him". And not by name. Eg. "I wanna buy a mr grumpy shirt for him lah." when she approached some shopping mall cart stalls. Like err I'm sure him has a name. And I even know him. He is called Robert. Or say my boyfriend.
8. Wants to hang out after work to shop (no thanks). And I once wore a new dress to work and she asked me repeatedly ,"I thought you don't like shopping?" I got really pissed off and said," you mean I have to report to you when I go shopping?"


And finally this takes the cake.

One day I walked over to her desk. She said,"oh I just went to my gynae."

Thinking to myself I thought," please don't tell me what problem you have."

Irritating colleague:"oh cos my there the pH is imbalanced lah."

Me: (thinkin) fuck. Why the hell do I need to know this?

Irritating colleague: cos i've been wearing tampons to sleep and when I was in Australia and swimming I used tampons. And now the discharge is a lot and it smells. Not that anyone else can smell it but you know.

Me: (thinking) gawd seriously do i need to know that much? I'm so not winning 4 d this weekend

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all signs point to...

 I having been thinking of getting my own place in recent months. It'll still be a long time more before I do, with what the crazy property markets skyrocketing in prices like nobody's business. But the thought of taking over my dad's place did cross my mind a couple of months back. Great location, and I like the convenience that it is just 2 min walk to NTUC and everything else I need. (Well, everything else I need actually would be living 2 mins to Marketplace or Cold Storage but...)

So mentally I've been making a list, about the pros and cons of taking over this place, and buying my own.

So far the pros of getting over my dad's place:

• Staying somewhere where I am familiar with
• Close to facilities and amenities that I need/don't need but good to have
• Staying with my parents
• Money goes back to my dad

Cons are:

• Staying with my parents (the noise that my dad makes in the morning, for that matter, day, noon and night)
• Paying for a place to have my bro, his wife, daughter and maid come crash anytime they feel like it. I'm paying for it dammit and I ought to have a say whom I want in the house
• No way in hell I'll be able to get my pet
• Did I mention already how irritating my dad can get?
• Or my bro and his gang coming over

a dreamy little tune

I like her voice. It suits this song really well. And something special that takes you a nice dreamy place in your head when you play this while driving.

new idol

I was wondering what's the big fuss about "Twilight" and "New Moon", and now I know. This is the reason:



OMG he is so cute! And did you see the way he laughed? Reminds me of a cutie! OMG.. droolsome

toddlers shouldn't have tiaras

Does anyone else, other than me, think this is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG?!

No wonder you get pedophiles. These kids are acting years beyond their age. And they way they speak "I'm smokin' hot." From a 5 year old? What is wrong with their parents?

I absolutely prefer...

1. my chicken to be fillet, not chicken wings or a whole chicken. The very thought of eating chicken with bones sickens me, I cannot explain why, and I rather not eat it, no matter how delicious the chicken was done. If it has bones in it, I'm not eating it.
   
2. Ditto to fish - this is worse, I fear that the bones may stick in my throat and slit it.
3. Or anything with intestines, liver, kidneys - whole bloody innards, good grief, they are kept inside a body for a reason! Intestines - they filter your food and output POOP! Jesus.
   
4. to have food in places with A/C and not seat by roadside stalls where I fear I might see a rat nibbling on ingredients that might go into my salad.
5. not to eat at street side at all! I find street side food revolting and smelly - especially those have pork. And pork stewed in dubious gravy - god knows how long it has been sitting there.
6. not to see raw meat placed in front of me while I eat. I was in BKK recently and walked passed countless stalls where they had pork, liver, coagulated blood nicely laid out in front of the stall - how is that even going to attract crowds? Obviously I'm missing something here.
   
7. to eat sandwiches to a bowl of badly done noodles. Salads, pizzas (thin-crust), japanese anything. I absolutely love italian, nice good pub food.
   

I was in BKK over the weekend, and was so happy that I would be having phad thai, tom yum goong, lovely green curry. But it seemed that all my travelling companions wanted to do was to eat by road side stores. Or at the local kopitiams - where I see intestines swimming in the food, and the porky smell was so strong I almost turned vegetarian. Why?! Why would you want to eat porky, over cooked, fly-ridden food when you can get more hygienic and equally yummy food, for CHEAP in BKK?

And especially when you can see the lady who is preparing your food is touching your cooked food after she touched raw meat!! *faint*

And I was labelled atas cos of my food preference. That is so unfair. Made to feel bad that I didn't eat road side food which seemed good enough for others to eat.

Thankfully, my thai friends brought me to have decent thai food. hahah

Other than that I had great fun in Thailand -- the company was great, accommodation was fantastic.

I absolutely love the country!

spots of difference

Hahah can you spot the differences?* Am trying on my smokey eye look on my cannot be more chinese-shaped eyes. Love the smokey eye look now. Although, in 20 years time, I'm sure it'll date my look as 2009 and super "orbit".















Anyway, conversations from B2 - while I was giving her a big kiss goodnite

Me: hey, I'm taking leave on Friday!
B2: (Eyes as big as can be with enthusiasm that only a 5 year old can have) Then you can come to school to fetch me!
(Me thinking,"errrr.")
Me: But I'm going to Bangkok!
B2: (Looking upset) Are you going there for work or for fun yee yee?
Me: For fun.
B2: (Super upset that I am having fun without her) Have you reserved your tickets?
Me: Yes.
B2: Have you paid for it? Otherwise you can give it to me. (looking very, very upset now)
(kwa, kwa, kwa)
Me: (Whispering) I'll go buy nice clothes for you in Bangkok.
B2: Oh okay yee yee, and buy some for B1 too!
Me: Okay sweetheart.

World's biggest problem solved.

* Photoshopped my million freckles, zits and mole from my face!

hello, I'm kitty & I'm an involuntary workaholic

Been getting restless about life and unhappier about work lately. Not sure if it's cos it's just me and my short attention span, or that the planets are not aligned. Been working till 11 or even till 1 the past week. And this is from endless weeks of working late and over weekends. So today I was adamant to finish my preso so that I won't have something hanging over my head over the weekend.

And even though I had to check the site (for like the 10th time within 2 days)-- all hyperlinks, copy, branding, image, functionality -- at 12.30am, I am grateful that for the next 48 hrs, I don't have to think about work.

I don't want to think for how long for the rest of my life I have to work, cos that will completely piss me off and make me suicidal :p. But I am just so glad that the weekend is here. Even 48 hours of reprieve is good.

所以买了雷朋

I have been feeling rather disgruntled about long work hours these days. Started out when I worked at the agency. Good colleagues but the work sucked to high heaven. I was clocking in close to 16 and sometimes 20 hour work days. And for a period in time, I was working EVERY weekend. I think my friends and my cousins gave up calling me cos I was perpetually working.

So when my new job came along I jumped on the opportunity. Hoping that the hours perhaps would be more human. Like working 9 to 7 at most, and having decent weekends.

But in recent months, the work has been piling up. I'm working later, and on weekends. And it's come to a point where I wonder, how is this normal?

When people in European, US or Australia go on leave, they don't work through their leave. They definitely don't work weekends. And they don't do that much OT.

So why is work life balance respected in other countries but the stupid asians we are, we slog like cows, and for what? To prove that we're hardworking?

It's gotten me thinking. I wonder perhaps I should start talking to people and perhaps thinking about starting my own business. Doing, I don't really know. Running a cafe?

hmmm.

Anyway as an interim consolation, I got myself a new pair of Ray-Bans.

restless

Starting to feel a restless at work. And about life. And recently, getting more dreams about my life back in Bath. It's been almost 2 yrs since I've been back. 2 freaking long years. And they've gone by in a blip of an eye, and I can't remember much of what's really happened the past 2 yrs. Yet memories of my Bath days are more vivid, and yet seems impossible and much like a dream.

Mornings are a little harder to bear. Harder to wake up in the morning. There seems to be not much of an aim to work towards.

Need to focus on something...quick!!

tool that deserves the place of honour on my kitchen counter

Watching a program on KitchenAid. Which to any ordinary person would be an extremely boring program. All but to me!

I WANT ME ONE OF THOSE!!!!! Sigh. It's like $700+ which isn't a lot of money, but compared to my el cheapo Philips mixer, which cost me $50,... ok it's expensive.

BUT BUT "It's so much more than a mixer..."

in memory of Ms. G

After 17 years, I finally found out my JC literature teacher's surname - Ms Gurupatham, and only at her wake.

I wasn't close to Ms. G. In fact I was a bit intimidated by her. She didn't quite fit into the profile of what teachers should. She wore ankle high boots with tights. Had really short crew cut hair. But despite her non-confirmist appearance, she was a really good literature teacher. When I had to re-do my 'A' Levels as a private candidate, all my Shakespeare texts had changed. G took me in her literature class with my friend Eileen. She absolutely didn't have to, but she did, and for that I am eternally grateful.

G was obviously very well-loved. Her wake was packed. And it felt like a big party. And after all the "thou"s and "doth"s ... the only thing that I did remember from G's class was when she got pissy with our class and told us off. Telling us that no matter where we'll end up from SR, it's all about the attitude.

And she is definitely right. Bless.

serving the planet

I have to say, heinken always has the best ads.



I love the expression of the man at 26".

Here's another from Heinken with Jennifer Aniston.

lots of travel

When I was down in the dumps with work I went to see my fortune teller about work, and during the reading he said - you will be travelling a lot!

I was thinking,"yeah, right."

Then I realise I keep getting these "travelling opportunities" thrown in my face.

I was just telling my cousin that I've been travelling every month this year except in March.

Jan - Bangkok & Phuket, Thailand
Feb - Sydney, Australia
April - Macau
May - Melaka & Mataking, Malaysia
June - Penang, Malaysia

After my dive trip to Mataking, I was thinking,"hmmm no more travel. That's good. Spend time at home." And the next thing I know is that I'm scheduled to go Penang late June.

Makes me wonder, maybe Alexx is quite accurate in his reading.

Now, I am watching Globe Trekkers featuring New Zealand. I am besotted with Milford Sound. It looks incredibly beautiful and scenic. Apparently it's a 4 day track over 53km long. You do a certain length of tracking in the day and camp overnite at huts. And the sights are amazing - glaciers, forests, mountains, temperate forests, lakes.. oh so many lovely sights. And for a long time, after UK, it is one place that I want to go.

timezone

6.30pm, driving to meet some friends for dinner. The past week has been so hectic and work always piles up on the week you plan to take PTO.

Suddenly my phone rings. B's house it reads.

Me: Hello?!
B2: Hi Yee Yee, are you at your diving place?
Me: No, I am going diving only on Thursday.
B2: Is dark there now?
Me: Mei, I am going to Paragon, I am still in Singapore.
B2: Oh!

But so funny and sweet she is to remember that I am going away and call. Angels!

red (velvet) revolution

Since I read about red velvet cake on Bakerella, I've been so smitten by them. Even Ellen Degeneres had Sweet Lady Jane to bake her a vegan red velvet cake ( I wonder how you do that, with butter and eggs as main ingredients in any cake)

Side note: just posted a pix of my red velvet cake on my msn, and my cousin immediately recognised it. No wonder we are cousins. But in this case, she wins, hands down. I've only come across red velvet just about a year ago, and she knew it all this while!!

With a cake with a colour so rich, I couldn't quite imagine what the taste would be, but I did think that a cream cheese frosting would go so perfectly well with it. And that was just one of the many options with this amazing cake. So yesterday at Kinokuniya, I came across Rachel Allen's Bake and was just browsing through the recipes, saw the red velvet cake and knew I had to get the book. I've watched her cook programmes in the UK, and always liked them. Her cooking style is a bit homey sort of cooking and yet her recipes are like a level one up from home recipes... hmmm if you know what I mean.

So when the cake came out piping hot from the open, I broke a small piece off and had a taste. The first taste was not unlike that of a butter cake. But there was something rather flavourful about it. Maybe the buttermilk? I couldn't quite pinpoint. But it was so fun making this cake, just because of the colours.



The origins of a desire to bake on a Sunday afternoon - Rachel Allen's Bake

Look at the lovely pastelly colour! I HAD to start taking pictures.


My very first PINK cake! I know of at least one person who would like this already.


Looks yummy already doesn't it?

It was really yummy. The icing could have been less sweet. And less crystallised sugar in it. (Cos I ran out of normal caster sugar)

All who wants to try this cake ping me! I'm planning to do a desserts get together. :) That'll be fun!

oh wow, whadidyaknow?

Men have evolved very little, haven't they?

From the Economist

"A find reported in this week’s Nature suggests that sculpture, too, brought the smut-makers in early. Nicholas Conrad of the University of Tübingen, in Germany, describes what is probably the oldest human statue yet discovered. It is 6cm tall. It is carved from a mammoth tusk. It dates from about 35,000 years ago. It was found in a cave in south-western Germany. And it is, not to put too fine a point upon the matter, obscene."

For full article, click here