ZPOD

I gave a friend a flower calendar during xmas last year.

There are 12 stalks of paper daisies (for each month) and each stalk has enough petals for the days in the month.

Behind each petal, there is note - which is something like what you'd get in a fortune cookie.

And so started this trend of FPODs - Flower Prohecy of the Day.

It feels nice to receive a FPOD at the start of each morning. Words like "Kiss somebody", "Tell someone you love him", "Don't go grocery shopping when you're hungry", "just dance".... all touches a part of me that may be buried over time.

It gives you that minute to think about what you really want to do, or feel.

And for some FPODs, it made an impact.

This morning's FPOD, was actually ZPOD - something made up by zj. And it is as good as any FPODs, or even better! So i'll share it with all you dear ones out there.

"ZPOD - inspiration from my phone
TRANSFER the work

CONFERENCE your friends

REDIAL the happy memories

RELEASE the pains

HOLD on to your happiness "

I'll be back in Singapore next week! For my wisdom teeth surgery... which I'm getting goose bumps over!

My girly times

Mambo jambo

According to wikipedia:

Mambo Jambo,

commonly known as Mambo nights,

is a theme clubbing night held every Wednesday at Zouk in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. It is highly popular among the younger segment of the clubbing crowd in Singapore, and a Mambo experience is often regarded as an initiation ritual for many beginners into the local clubbing scene.

And I'm singing....

Oooh baby..do you know what that's worth...Oooh Heaven is a place on earth.... and i was dying inside to hold you... I couldn't believe what I felt for you... In the summer rain...Doesn't matter what I do now.. doesn't matter what I say... cos I'm guilty ... guilty as a girl can be... only you can set me free... I stand accccuuuuuused of love in the first degree.

HK - BKK

it's been a while.


the one week in HK felt longer than a week.


watched SATC the second time in HK (uncut version) on mon

didn't cry as much, but laughed harder

TUES night: went for a dance class with zhijin

Choice of music: Falling out, by Keyshia Cole

It was way good. The instructor was way good. Couldn't say the same for myself. I've slowly lost the passion for dance. I danced thinking that my steps were not good enough. extremely conscious of my moves.

I should be dancing without any inhibitions. why didn't i?

WED: never a good idea to skip lunch. I had two dresses, one blouse, a ring, a thinning wallet and an empty stomach.

Dinner was at RED at IFC with Fion and Steph. Healthy fusion food - i like. So much laughing my stomach ached.

Got tipsy with glasses of Cabernet Sauvignon, and the world started spinning, and slow dancing, and i was ... smiling. :)

THURS: butterflies in stomach. I hadn't gone for an interview in years. I mean, i meet people and conduct interviews/discussions with them... but this is different - although I thought i did farely well. I'm surprised how at ease i was when i was there. please. make it happen. Before Sunset.

FRI: the 13th. Two presentations, same set of materials, to two different groups of people. Five hours altogether. My throat was killing me. I stopped myself from talking the next couple of hours.

Dinner at cwb with fion - this girl can't bear to have me away from hk. haha. what would i do in hk without her...

It started pouring - the red storm warning. My cable signal went haywire and images appeared in spurts and slow motion. Not a good time to stay home, so we headed out to beijing club - where (I curse the day he was born!) idiot man grabbed my boobie. The Jager bomb got me. I puked that night. =.=

and I realise i don't have tears no more. why?

SAT: Mega junk day, or supposed to be mega junk day. But the rain wouldn't stop. So everybody stayed in bed, until it's time for brunch, at the press room. And it's time for me to pack my luggage, and get ready for the land of smiles.

Wanton shrimp soup and a couple rounds of walk around CWB and the girls were headed to the ifc for more shopping and lotsa sushi eating. zhijin and eileen said i have to try desserts at 'sift' before i leave hk. Best i ever had. =)

It's becoming a ritual - to go prive during the last night in hk. It was still raining, we were drenched, but spirits were not. I cannot even imagine how we ran in the rain in our high heels. Must be quite a sight. haha

SUN: Yum cha and all those philosophical talk about karma, random talk about 90's cartoon, bryan adam music.

And i almost missed my flight again.

I was the last passenger to board, but it's definitely not the last time i'm reaching the gate on the dot.

SUAN LUM with eileen - felt surreal. Feels like we never left singapore. Sooo much to catch up on, in the span of a week and she's gone back to sg the next morning.

man, i wish i can be home.

Journey to the East

Was at East Coast Park
two days in a row

I miss this part of Singapore
nothing seemed to have changed
except for a few new eateries

families still hang out at the beach
teenagers still pitch tents and BBQ
some walk their dogs
others walk with their lovers

Seafood dinner was good
a treat by Mr Goh
'cos he was promoted last month
I miss chilli crab
the last time i had it was when Fion came by to visit

sunday had been planned for catching up lost time
to do up one of my many reports
initially wanted to wake up at 8
but my body ached from combat and jam
11-ish got a call from Dr. Poon
'want to go blading?'

YEAH BABY.


the weather was perfect.



and i miss spending time with Dr. Poon.

we need to do this again. =)

Sleepless in Hong Kong

16th Nov FRIDAY

530pm

Eileen arrived in LKF

730pm

Pohpoh got off work

9pm

Dinner at Mongkok

Eileen's fav: Claypot rice

After dinner shopping til 12

17th Nov SATURDAY

1am

3am

5am

6am

slumped, dirty feet

830am

Enroute to Luohu, Shenzhen

super shag.

Dresses dresses dresses!

Laurel restaurant dimsum- damn tmd long Q

back to HK 1030pm

18th Nov SUNDAY

1230am

was at borin' Dragon i.

then to Prive (again).

3am

430am

530am

drunken guy pinned down by cops

730am

too foggy to see sunrise

830am

dim sum breakfast

@ Shun Tak centre

I can't even remember the restaurant name now.

130pm

starting our shopping trip

damn hungry

3pm

7pm

super seh liao.

and super broke after getting new bag.

left eileen and mr X shopping at mongkok

while I headed home first.

no pictures from this point onwards

because I was functioning like a zombie

and looked like one too.

19th Nov MONDAY

1am

went to bed

530am

Tsui wah breakfast

and eileen's insanely early flight.

830am

woke up for work

armed with a can of redbull

and a bottle of OJ

and two extra panadol cold

but I still couldn't last the day.

the alcohol was still running in my blood.

spinning spinning spinning.

cousin daniel just told me he's visiting this weekend.

I need to be energizer bunny.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Bzbeee has been really busy

mummy's visit (24th Oct to 29th Oct)

during which we became absolute foodies (ignoring expanding waistlines),

became members of local boutiques,

and went to the singapore equivalent of JB and Batam - Shenzhen and Macau.

mich's visit (3rd Nov to 8th Nov)

I was knocked out the first night already and performed the hug-the-dustbin/pail/toilet bowl trick again.

=.=

were at shenzhen for the usual SPArty

- steam bath, jacuzzi, turkish massage, food, mani and pedi.

more 买东西， 吃东西， 买东西， 吃东西！

(we went boots shopping!

and I only found out this morning that the lady gave me two left feet. nb.)

- eileen's visit (8th nov onwards...) ???

- ros' visit???

- yanlin's visit (1st - 4th Dec)

- JAY CHOU's concert!!! (5th Dec)

me and mich also bought his Vol 8. album already!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

with free 2008 calendar!!!!!! it's gonna be an AWESOME 2008.

or as mich likes to say, 'It's Clay-zeeeee'

- I'm flying back sunny island 7th Dec. :D

- 8th Dec - chalet with primary school mates

some of whom I've not met for a decade!

So, homecoming party for me, anyone?

with sparklings only pls... ;)

Such an exciting chapter has begun!

I remember when I first heard the news of Miss Xie getting past the interviews at the Jap embassy and the position to work in JPN for a year, I was so excited!!! In fact, excited is an understatement. I was exhilarated, and my heart raced so fast that my tears uncontrollably rolled down my cheeks. And they felt warm.

That was during the steamboat dinner at mich's place.

So the big day has finally arrived. All the luggages packed... but feelings?

Heard from the sweeties that this morning's send off at the airport was a teary one. Wish I was there, but..nonetheless, hope my presence was felt!

Distance is indeed a barrier. It was not until this HK secondment that I slowly learnt to let go... of certain things/persons. My previous trips hadn't been this long and hadn't made me miss so many precious moments with the ones I love.

You cannot participate in the lives of others if you're not physically there, if you can't share the same experience at the same time. Even as you retold each other's experience, something will still be missing? So you just learn to let go and let the other person(s) enjoy doing something else and wish they have a good time. I guess the ones at home now would be feeling the same about me too.

We can only look very much forward to the times we'll spend together again, and smile as we think about such thoughts.

=) Miss Xie, Ganbatte!!

'Yes Mum?'

Miss Poon's on her way back to the sunny island, carrying most of my buys from HK for me. I was worried that my luggage would be overweight with all the new items. THANKS Miss Ang AND Miss Poon for carrying my stuff home~~

Had a hearty breakfast this morning before Miss Poon left.

The owner of the cafe (and probably everyone else) thought that Miss Poon is going back to her home town (the philippines), bringing with her loads of things to distribute to her various family members.

It was HILARIOUS. I couldn't stop laughing.

and Miss Poon played along and called me 'Mum'. Hurhur.

I've sorta indicated to boss that I wouldn't mind visiting Manila... although he was slightly concerned about the safety issue... Mr Goh wasn't very keen to let me go too ("Tell boss that he cannot have you all the time, I need you too.").. but I thought it's a good chance for me to visit the place...

if any of you know any friends in manila (preferably conversant in english) and wouldn't mind spending 2-3 days doing street interviews, do let me know =) remuneration amount to be confirmed.

yawn. the cycle of sleeping for 2 hours each night is not doing my eyes and brain good.

Visitors come and go...

It's been a crazy work week, with impossible deadlines to meet and the ultimate rush to churn out a report which I personally felt was very weak.

yea, so i suffered under a different working style from the HK boss, but i survived (i guess).

It's been a week since Mr. Goh came and left. It feels surreal to see Mr. Goh and go eat and shop with him, as if we're enjoying another weekend in Singapore.

but when i sent him off at the airport, I bawled my eyes out. I thought i've got used to travelling and leaving people behind. I thought i had learnt to be independent enough to live on my own.

but that's not the case, apparently. I didn't think I could love Mr. Goh any further, but I already did. I wonder if i'd have the courage/determination/independence to nab any job which would require me to work long term overseas. -more of this thought later-

Now that the sweeties (yun and hwee) are here (again, the surreal feeling), the weekend's gonna be a blast again.

Spend 4+ hours in Mongkok new town and Argyle centre with yun this afternoon. We bought so many things that the plastic bags we were carrying gave us terrible looking marks -- as if we've been caned several times on our arms.

I haven't had such a great time shopping with yun. And on the bus ride home, we came to the conclusion that 'circumstances shape ideals'. I like the way how our conversations about people, things, led us to this conclusion. And i think it's a sensible one.

If I weren't in this circumstance, I probably would 'want' different things. more about this later.

It's great that the girls are here. We'll try to wake up in time for morning dim sum later.

baoz - aching arms, legs and eyes.

Gym Bunnies and the dick at Cannery

Yay! Great workout today!

must thank all the sweeties for making the effort to come down to paragon by 930AM on a saturday! Hope you girls enjoyed the wonderful bodystep class conducted by julian ... :D although I suspect our calves and thighs will ache terribly tomorrow....

We ta-bao-ed lunch and went to Eileen's place (cos the 'ladder' man was coming to clean her leather sofa) and after that.... we decided to GO BACK TO GYM AGAIN!!
wanted to go for another of julian's class but we missed the time, so we stopped over at starbucks for a drink before going for Nike Rock Star Workout. Mich coined us the 'GYM BUNNIES'. The amount of energy we have really surprises me sometimes... just when you say you're tired and want to give up... you push yourself a little bit...and a little bit... and a little bit... and over your limit.

No pics at the gym, cos not very nice to take pics in the changing room, with other people's boobies showing. Hurrr.. only took one with Eileen, while mich was looking at shoes...


Was at Mr Goh's place for dinner... while he was intensely watching the man U vs Everton match, occasionally switching over to the other match, while I... read 8Days.

Popped by the Cannery later at night cos Mr Goh said he would bring me there AND he is the only guy eligible to bring me there. Hurrr. And then he showed me the dick.
It's some structure (for air ventilation?) at the Cannery which Mr Goh thought looks like a dick.

Nothing much's happening at the Cannery... lotsa drinking joints and smoke, and I wasn't really in the mood for a drink. good thing there was a BAZAAR!

Which I didn't manage to get anything from. =_=

Häagen-Dazs was packed, so we went a little further to this other dessert place, which served the BEST apple juice I have EVER tasted. It's FRESH, GREEN and CRISP!!
Can you imagine! Although their menu was a bit confusing...The Ham and Cheese sandwich was good too....
Mr Goh commented that my smile looks contrived... but my smile is my smile is my smile... how different can it get?? Not as if his smile is any different.... and I realise how dark Mr Goh is..... Even our new Fossil watches are black and white!

Happy Birthday Dr. Poon~!!

Happy Birthday EP~

and CONGRATULATIONS~

now we can look forward to the day when we can:

1) easily get our MCs
2) have all our medical questions answered
3) just call to find out which meds to get at the pharmacies
4) know who are the not-so-good docs to go to
5) maybe....get ourselves hooked up with a dashing doc

we may not have told you this personally (yet) but we are all so PROUD OF YOU~

You know you are capable of great things and you will make such a GREAT doc, one who truly cares for your patients, the one who really has angel wings beneath the white coat. <3

may all your dreams come true, dear.

Looking forward to the next sleepover at your place!

Pre-then-post birthday celebrations

So... I was saying that I didn't feel excited about my birthday...

but this birthday surprised me quite a bit. =D

It's true when you're least expecting something, they'll always appear as pleasant (or unpleasant) surprises.

=When the clock struck 12=


The long overdued surprise--Mr Goh unexpectedly dropped by my place with lovely cakes from Rive Guache on Thursday night! I didn't pick up the various give-aways he made that day... he told me his colleague wants to know where I got the Vday cakes for him from, asked me about the different types of cakes available, etc, asked me when I'd be home after tuition... I SHOULD have smelled something fishy, but I didn't. I guess there were too many things to do at work.

=Luncheon=

On Friday, the actual day, (which also happens to be the last day of work for m and wj), we had our own farewell/birthday lunch. Despite all the un/happiness at/about work/one another, we still managed to have a good lunch and a good laugh over AT and our postures at work. Man... I'm a hunchback! I need to make a conscious effort to keep my back straight!


And then some more decent photos. The girls and Peter got me this pair of amethyst shoulder dusters with other semi-precious stones. It's a handmade design by this Japanese lady, Yoko Yamada, who believes that "small things are beautiful". =D


It is believed that amethyst will protect its owner from drunkenness. The ancient Greeks and Romans wore amethyst and made drinking vessels of it in the belief that it would prevent intoxication.

Given my tolerance for alcohol (or the lack of it), we shall see if it's really true or not.



=Dinner Date=

so Mr Goh got confused about which date my birthday falls on... until I need to write it down in 'black and white'...

and the mystery dining venue (which is high and dark) turned out to be Altivo Bar @ The Jewel Box at Mt Faber. Nevermind that it's alfresco, the night breezes were cool AND there were no mosquitoes AND no one was smoking since decent food was served there.

But it was really dark...



and food portions were tiny, but still delicious... maybe good things come in small packages

Mr Goh says the girl on the card reminds him of me... cos of the eyes ^ ^ and the figure. =_= Jewel's peak was really yummy.

and since there was a live band there (who plays really good music)... might as well make a dedication right... <3

so there was a 'Happy Birthday' song which I uploaded earlier, followed by this...we sound like mice and I look drunk (from half a glass of mango margarita)...

and this... SATAYS! $2 per stick! But the meat was damn SUCCULENT! and the KETUPAT was WARM!

And so ends the night of the 30th, when I'm officially TWO AND FOUR.


=Sweeties and Presents=

Presenting to you... the Nike 'Shox Q-Vida' Athletic Dance Shoe! Great for fitness dance and gym workouts ;) I LOVE IT!

Description: Lightweight, synthetic leather lace-up provides responsive cushioning, articulated arch flex and support, ideal for the fitness dancer.

big THANK YOU to the sweeties! then we went shopping for GGGoh's present. ;) I realise we didn't take pics with hf!! and hf, I didn't realise you guys went kino to get the cards!
Dinner was at Thai Express (two days in a row)...craving for spicy food and their lime+watermelon juice + mango salad + four season peas. I can have Thai Express for consecutive days!

Oh, I didn't realise eileen left the Q to get the cake too! What's happening to me?! I'm losing the ability to read the signs! (or maybe cos this time zee managed to keep mum about it) So yeah, the cake was a surprise!

The strawberrilicious chocolatey cake from CHOCZ and my little wishes

Zee took a pic of me with her polaroid cam, which I later showed Mr Goh and he said it reminded him of 周慧敏 Vivian Chow.


Which part? The headband, the hair or the bushy eyebrows?

and we're off to the Mezza9! As usual, eileen ordered this special conconction called Hot and Sexy which tasted REALLLY bad... and she settled for a lesser evil - the Bloody Mary. I thought I'd be more conservative and ordered a Tiramisu martini. It wasn't that bad, in fact, all the martinis at Mezza9 are DAMN power, too strong for me liao. I think ru's the only one who finished her Sakura. The amethyst didn't work for me at all.


=Two Ts=
When I made my wishlist and told Mr Goh I would like a Tiffany, he asked me who is Tiffany...

whether he was pretending or not, I could not tell...

but we went tiffany shopping nonetheless! finally decided on the lock ring (over the beanie ring)... to which Mr Goh asked, but there's no key to the lock?

Oh my dear... YOU are the key... WHEE!


Sis got me the keyring but since my sturdy bow and heart keyring (since 2002!!) is still intact, I'm gonna be a cheat and double up the tag on the keyring as a pendant! WHEE WHEE! ;D (I checked with tiffany today and they don't sell their chain separately! wk!)

=birthday thoughts=
I still DON'T feel 24.

As I've told many of you, I think birthdays are most entertaining when you're still a child. Nothing to fret, parents will take care of the cake, food, desserts, balloons, gifts, cards, confetti and your friends... And you just sit in front of your cake and look like a princess. I probably had about ten or less of this kind of parties.

And when you're older, it becomes just a date to remind yourself that (maybe) you need to learn to be more responsible and act like an adult, etc etc.

I wish something WILL happen to me when it's my birthday, like physically overnight, so you know you are REALLY growing older. Like grow bigger boobs la, grow an inch taller la, eyes grow bigger la, butt becomes smaller la... just some sign you know (note: not ageing signs though!) ... So I can proudly say, I AM A YEAR OLDER!

Or some fairy godmother will come by my bed at night and present me with my birthday certificate, that sort of things...

Cos emotionally, mentally, what not, I don't feel that I'm growing g r o w i n g...

maybe I need to become fully aware of who I really am before I can make a fairer comment about that... :P

Thanks to all who sent me birthday wishes and love!