a BIG "thank you" to NeuNeu

a BIG "thank you" to NeuNeu

despite ending work & reaching home at 4am, he brought my slippers to my office at 6am, when I complained of blisters;
he seldom loses patience & temper on me;
helps me with the chores at my place coz i’m incorrigibly lazy to do it alone.

he offers advice whenever I have problems;
or simply listens to my grumbles daily.

he's always giving me surprises...
from handmade photo collages, frames;
whips up “surprise meals”;
records his singing etc…

... and just yesterday,
he fetched me from class as usual after rushing through his presentation,
drove up to Kent Ridge Park with a boot secretly packed with heart-shaped balloons & a My Melody plushie sleeping happily in a pink X'mas sock.

Not just another YouTube video

Dearest Baby,

Happy Anniversary.
Specially for you...

...with love

Eventful Day, Saturday

happy.
though it's not a rest day for me today.
spent one entire eventful day with him yesterday.

'twas a long day.
in the morning, NeuNeu fetched me home to rest after my night shift ended, then we went to Clementi to buy the phone for bro. it's indeed quite a nice phone.

thereafter headed home to change, dropped TC at Suntec on our way to town.

i thought i had missed the Sanrio fair (or got cheated) the first time 'round.
it was flooded with lotsa goodies!
the variety for My Melody was quite limited.
sadly, there wasn't much car accessories either.
but NeuNeu bought me a My Melody photo album!
to-date we haven't had time to finish filing the Vietnam photos.
pity, we haven't been taking much photos recently either. i guess we're just too occupied.

oh, we caught up with Aly in town yesterday at Cineleisure.
didn't manage to catch up on gossips though.
parted at Pastamania where she had her lunch, then ended up in 2 different places for KTV. miscommunication. hah. we were at Partyworld but they were at KBox.

went separate ways for dinner as well.
nothing fantastic about the food.
didn't have much choices since most of the eateries in Far East Plaza were already closed by then.

there's a stall at the basement selling the super sinful Fried Mars Bar.
but it was closed too. aarghh! do try it the next time u're in the area.

also, on this boring work day, i amused myself while racking my brains for the D&D attire.
see my crappy ideas below...










ultra glam girl.
did i even have to spell it out?

so u want a Megastar?
u shall get a Megastar!

ps: not cheap hor.
selling at USD $1279.00.

Year End

it's the time of the year.
the time when everyone sends everyone wedding invites.
the time when everyone is getting their appraisals done for the entire year of hard work (or not).
the time when companies have D&Ds.

speaking of which, my company's D&D invite is out.
it reads:

Our annual dinner and dance will be held on Dec’07, Friday at Rendezvous Hotel.
For this grand occasion, you will be the famous celebrity and Glitzy stars of the night!

Come and dressed as a megastar. Be prepared for your loyal fans and paparazzi, waiting to besiege you for your valuable signature and picture!

The evening will only get better with lots of exciting games, which leave you sidesplitting laughter!
And there will be wonderful prizes to be won!


question is what should i wear?
running thru pix of the red carpet events in Hollywood doesn't help.
too glamorous n glitzy.

i can already picture NeuNeu saying i look like 舞女 (hostess).
that's what he said of my glittery pouch.
it was only a pouch. imagine what he'd say of a dress.

suggestions, anybody?

Time Management

going to class today by myself.
NeuNeu's busy with a major project on this week. he's super tied-up. no exaggeration.

know what?
yesterday, we set off to work together in the morning at 6.30am.
he dropped me at the office around 7am, then headed to work work work...
he only knocked off no earlier than 1am. 18hours of work! (.. with no OT pay)

well as he puts it, he's the reason why Singapore can sleep in peace at night.
although not as noble as him, but i'm the reason why people all over the world can connect!


word has it that there'll be major changes recently that may affect our team.
gonna continue keeping the optimism going for now.
as a consolation, i've got a couple of offers already..
offers ranging to visit me in HK if i relocate, to throw me a grand farewell party n an offer to hire me as a full-time maid.
thanks a lot hor.

I WILL SURVIVE!


well, schedule's a little hectic for us this week coz Neeraja's hospitalized while Chung n Sindu are away on leave. next week'll be worse (for me) coz i had to un-swap my shift with KT for this weekend to do OT on Friday night.. also, i haven't swapped my shift for classes next week. bah.

time time, i gotta make time.

already missed my weekly meet-up with Aly a few times this month. i doubt the next 2 weeks would be any better. i gotta meet Anjana too!

Another Weekend...

was going to start my routine blogging of my weekend until i heard the announcement on the opening of the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway (KPE). they even have a webbie for it!
hmm.. does all the grandeur translates into hints of exorbitant ERP charges n a hike in COE?
anyways, check out the webbie.
it's quite cool (..or so i thought), even comes with a couple of free multi-lingual MP3 downloads.

ok, back to my weekend. (did u ever think u'd ever escape it?)
Saturday was rest day for me.
NeuNeu went to help Debs move to her new apartment in Sengkang while i chalked up a good few hours of sleep after my night shift.

poor him.
always overworked (... usually by me), even on his off-days.

he came by to pick us up (mom, bro n me) to Giant for some grocery shopping.
ok, i hear Sophia's voice ringing in my head:
"u always go Giant hor".
herhrr.
thereafter enjoyed the long-awaited family dinner coz we hadn't done so in ages.
we cuddled up n caught Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe on telly after dinner.
turned in early coz Sunday's our WORK DAY. boo!

fast-forwarding to Monday...
met up in Sengkang to move the last of my stuff, dropped them back at home n headed out for his haircut at Tampines Mall.
went over to the Round Market for food (after realization that i haven't been to that place despite having stayed in Tampines for 20-odd years. the secret is unveiled, Nick!) only to realize most of the stalls are closed!
i thought the operating hours "daytime" referred to anytime before evening.
hell no. it's MORNING only!

funny thing was that when NeuNeu was buying Fried Carrot Cake for me from another coffeeshop in the vicinity, the stallholder tried to convince him to buy $2.50 instead of $2 by telling him: "两块钱很少的。" (meaning the portion for $2 is very small).
well, he didn't coz i really don't eat a lot anyway
(at least i try to CONvince n CONsole myself that way. u get the drift, don't u?).

alas! the portion was quite pathetic.
his take on that?
"哇，他真的很不客气的给很少啰！"
i have no appropriate translation for this. let me know if u do.

hit home after lunch since we couldn't agree on a KTV or JB trip.
life just gets that sh*tty, doesn't it?
off-day but can't go places coz we've both got classes at 7pm.

luckily class was good for me.
more or less on track.
aiyo, i shouldn't say too much. sekali fail the exam.


that's all for now.

i miss...

i miss playing mahjong with u & my family over jolly chats over the weekend;
i miss smacking ur bottom every time u walk in front of me;
i miss hearing ur singing over the phone;
i miss impromptu BBQs with u by the beach;

i miss cuddling u in front of the telly after suppers;
i miss attempting to wake u up in vain with my kungfu moves;
i miss rubbing noses with u first thing in the morning;
i miss giving u surprise hugs while u do the dishes after meals;


i miss u.

... and i don't want to miss out a single thing no more

One-by-One

feeling melancholic.

one-by-one,
my colleagues are leaving.
it's really enjoyable working with most of them,
a nice environment with all the friendly folks that make my work-life so pleasant.

Asha, Caps, Yoong, Dennis.. now Nick.

no matter where u guys go,
i wish u all the best for ur future endeavors.
not forgetting... u're missed!

A long post...

ahh yes, when there isn't anything else to blog about coz work's monotonous n class is routine...

i blog about FOOD!!!
..not forgetting more road trips..

a slightly belated post on my Tuesday lunch trip to Tanglin Halt Market (the newer one that's a street away from Alexandra Police Post).

actually i didn't do any research before going, just had no appetite for rice that day so i randomly ordered Lor Mee since there wasn't any queue when i was there.

u can add the vinegar according to ur liking, great for someone like me coz i'm no fan of the black vinegar.
love the fried fish coz it's not the crumbly ones that disintegrate into the soup.. or sauce or whatever u call it.

shan't tell u more.
go try it.

the SGD 2 version is just nice for a light lunch.
after which u can order her fried carrot cake that comes in servings of $1.50/$2/$3
SGD 1.50 only ok! where to find?!


i've been really nasty to NeuNeu these few days.
it's no excuse,
it's PMS...

spent the entire Wednesday screaming n throwing tantrums.
i can already picture him saying:
"ok la, what's new. no PMS also like that what."
blardy 'ell.

so it wasn't any surprise that he coaxed me.. hoaxed as well..
then came by to bring (actually more like force) me to go for class.

still kena chopped to buy 5 mini char siew bao at 4 buckaroos while waiting coz we couldn't go to Komala's for the payasam or rasgulla that i've been craving.
so i made him pay for it.. literally.. i grabbed the money from his wallet.
muahaha.

oh, here's the surprise he had for me...
choco-dipped cookies with mint filling.

the picture isn't doing it any justice.
i know it looks like u-know-what.
give the man some credit la.
so sweet of him to be able to tolerate my abuse n still give me surprises.

i forgot all about it when i woke up n continued my abuse.
看招，寒冰掌！


anyway i just collected my free phone from StarHub in the afternoon.
why so good?
it's actually an assignment from RippleVox.

so the phone (embedded with ez-link) will double as a wallet n can be topped up accordingly using a ez-link / credit card reader which is also provided.
cool right?


lastly, after trying my luck at Chinatown Point (in search of My Melody stuff) NeuNeu also brought me to...

Rain, Rain... Go Away

we went trippin' yesterday

more like FOOD trippin'.
kicked off the day with...

Adam Road Market - Pork Rib Prawn Noodles
Zion Road Food Center - Boon Tong Kee Duck Rice


(pity the famous Dessert & Char Kway Teow/Fried Carrot Cake stalls were closed)










followed by Labrador Park,
Mount Faber,
Vivocity

'twas raining so hopes of snapping a few shots were dashed.
guess i just gotta wait till the renovation works complete in January.


class wasn't as bad.
already at lab session for EIGRP / OSPF.
we got kicked out by 9.45PM (as usual).
i doubt we'd ever complete the module on time if this continues.


disturbed sleep is taking a toll on me. i haven't gotten the night-shift sleeping habits out of my system.
the OT this Friday night certainly won't be of any help. shucks.

The Weekend

time really flies.
it's Sunday again.

last night, or rather this morning, he hogged the entire blanket. then finally decided to stuff the blanket under the bed so that we could both die of cold throughout the night. well done!

i rewarded him with tons of hate mail n messages.

so to make amends, he came over to bring me to lunch at Clementi central.
where i finally tried the Stewed Sesame Oil Chicken. yummy!



nothing unusual on a working Friday 'cept meeting up Will for lunch.
'twas at Clementi as well (not central, though), where we had our meal at Botak Jones.

they serve authentic American western food at hawker center prices.
had Fish 'n' Chips (SGD6.50).
i tell u, their chips are darn good!
well, u can tell the popularity from the crowd...
the queue + wait took about 20 - 30 minutes!

met up with Nikky at Loyang Point late morning n headed home after that.
couch-slouched for the next couple of hours.
then left home with bro to meet Will at Boon Lay (all the way from Tampines, ok!)
the interchange (Boon Lay) was packed. foreign workers were all returning to their dens.
somewhat daunting.

anyway we were dropping by JB for dinner that night.
oh, "Chicken Poppers" was nice though i thought it looked pretty miserable to have only 5 pieces in a mighty large box.

Will was so nice to offer buying me that Mirumo toy.
but of coz i said "no".
i'm a grown-up, can?
*secretly shoves all the toys n cartoon DVDs under the bed*


gym has been rescheduled to tomorrow.
yes yes, the sucky part is there's class too.
maybe a sumptuous vegetarian indian feast will boost the spirits a bit.

i am starting to feel a little unwell coz i snacked on cup noodles just before knocking off.
i'm overeating!!!

2 - Days

i was sick since Tuesday.
i ate too much.

so it could've been either the overdose of chili;
and/or the packet of Lay's salmon Teriyaki chips;
and/or the mint choc chip ice cream;

therefore we postponed yesterday's gym session.

NeuNeu came by after work on Tuesday.
we couldn't make the wabbits that night either.
turned in early after he finished up the dinner mommy prepared.

attempting to separate him from the cushy pillows n sheets in the morning was never an easy task.
wasn't feeling well enough to yank him off the bed.
so i just facebook-ed. hah. took a likeness quiz.
the topic: Internet Procrastination. how apt.

when he finally woke up, he was busying himself doing Time-Out hand-signs just like in the basketball court (see figure on right).
i screamed at him coz he was driving me nuts by circling the room like a cuckoo.

prepped up n left for prayers at Waterloo street.
we had the donuts that mommy gave for breakfast on the journey (almond choc n blueberry) n took lunch at the market only after prayers.

he had his habitual order of fried carrot cake n i took soup Koka noodles at SGD2 each.
unfortunately, no pictures coz we were in a hurry to finish up.
it real was hot n stuffy there.

carrot cake was good, as usual, whilst the Koka noodles tasted rather bland (no choice, i was still sick) but did i noticed lots of Uncles n Aunties queuing up for the curry noodles.
next time i'll try that!
so far the better one i tried is at Kovan.
to avoid lunch crowds, i suggest going on weekdays between 2pm - 5pm.

okays, enough about food.
i guess the two days' deprivation from food is driving the craving.

speaking of Labrador Park in the previous post, here's an update:
The jetty and beach will be closed from 15 October 2007 to 31 January 2008 for upgrading works.

also, i'll end of now with a link to some beautiful shots taken by my friend.
Evening@Labrador by Mike


gotta pick my brother up at the airport coz he's returning from Adelaide today!

Yesterday

Will picked me up after work yesterday morning n we had our breakfast at pasir panjang.

yes, that's him waiting for his prata.
he looked like he's gonna stab the chef any minute, doesn't he?

no wonder they say "a hungry man is an angry man".

oh, here's mine:

fried bee hoon with egg
SGD 1.50

the noodles has bits of chopped chili padi n spring onions in it. yum.



as planned, we headed to Vivocity for the show after lunching at home (not forgetting the very essential nap after 12 hours of work). i've got lots to rave about the movie although it made me really upset for the whole night.

the rain made things worse coz we can't go to Labrador Park for dinner.
in the end had to make do with some muslim food at Labrador Villa Road. it wasn't that bad, but a tad to spicy especially when i just had a spicy breakfast.


sigh. the pace in class is getting a little too fast. i fumbled with the lab portion n i would have strangled myself there n then if there were some kind of cable within my reach (RJ11 or RJ45 or coaxial or fiber or serial.. or ALL OF THE ABOVE!!). but there wasn't coz it's a remote lab session.

i'm having a mental block (see diagram below):

Movie Promo

usually shifts with KT would mean that he'd send me back to Simei after work
'cept this morning i arranged to meet Will to buy movie tix from GV Vivocity
so work ended on time in the morning but Will only knocks off after 8.30am
KT was really nice n sent me out to take a bus to Boon Lay

i was so wrong to presume that the ride, like on weekdays, would take an hour or so
the bus captain was already driving like a tortoise n still it took only 20minutes
to while the rest of my time away, i took another bus to his base to meet him

the drive to Vivocity passed quickly coz we were busied ourselves by bickering throughout the ride (... what's new?) n arrived at 9.15am. breakfast at Toast Box while waiting for the ticketing counter to open. i can't believe we were so kiasu.

HIM: "Aiya wasted. Forever 21 not open yet, actually wanted to buy some nice clothes for u one."
ME: "Oh, don't worry about it coz we're coming again tomorrow afternoon for movie mah."

HIM: "..."
ME: *sniggers*


oh, the reason for queuing up early in the morning?
not for discount,
not for good seats,
not for good movie (well, Tony Leung's good, for sure. *yummy*),
but for this.


mwahaha. that's $10 on top of $20 from my company for my birthday
yes, those which i stupidly forgot to use when i purchased those Biotherm stuff

so tomorrow's plan will be:
movie + Labrador Park + CCNA (boo!)

Motivation

i signed up for a nuff-nang account.
yes, it's that nifty little icon above the tagboard.

i'm secretly hoping it'll earn me enough dough for some serious shopping in Taipei come January.

anyways, according to the seasoned Taipei traveler (my brother) it'll be winter-time n finally, the under-used winter wear from last year's Beijing / Hong Kong trip can come in handy.
not that the fact will deter me from getting MORE clothes though.
i'm exhilarated from that thought alone. woohoo!!!

ok, more research to be done for that.
strange, i never seem to be equally enthusiastic when it comes to CCNA.


prior to that, we also have the Kuala Lumpur trip in December.
i guess we'll miss Qing by a week or so but hopefully we can still catch Wynn, Cheng Hoe, Jo while we're there.
i wonder if we'll be staying for Jo's birthday celebration though.
we do some serious consideration if she gives us a HUGE treat.
*hint*

only problem now...
we're still contemplating between a drive-in or train ride.


at least there's something(s) to keep me motivated for the next 4 months or so.


okay, back to facebook-ing for now.

SOS

i give up!!!
.. for now

the previous / next post navigation on blogger is hopeless.
minx n i are having a hard time trying to figure out solutions / hacks for that darn functionality.

the only good thing's that i got my permalink fixed in the process.

Night Update

a second trip to JB yesterday (Thursday) morning.
brought forward by a day coz Will doesn't have to attend the monthly brief before work in the evening.

started the day with KTV-lunch at Red Box before loitering within the mall a bit. then moved on out to Giant for car wash n some supply of munchies, BBQ gear..

unfortunately, we still didn't manage to get any My Melody car accessories in the 2 places (someone please tell me where to find them?!!!)

finally, Will spotted My Melody's air freshener at our last stop, City Square. was really sweet coz he bought it for me n of coz he allowed me to house it in the car :) typically, i purchased my dope of magazines, contact lens solution n headed home to work after the usual jam across the causeway.



oh sueann, i saw lots of ur favorite mushrooms in City Square!
took some pix will upload later for u.. i'll just charge a minimal (discounted) commission for bringing in those fungus for u.. :P

Fatigue

been very exhausted of late.
travel planning, last-minute eating/shopping trips, classes n work.

yes, mainly due to work...
been madly swapping shifts in preparation for CCNA the past month.
the thought of CCNA is already making me tired now, not to mention there's another session tomorrow evening.

being occupied is really taking my mind off negative stuff.
well, it's also taking my mind off the important stuff. the fatigue is aggravating my already-bad-enough absentmindedness. today i overlooked on my contact lens case AGAIN.
to think i actually told myself:
"Ok, i'll put this here so i'll remember to pick them up before leaving."
ya, right.

i so wanna collapse on my bed n sleep for the ENTIRE DAY!!!
not a chance.
at work tonight.
class tomorrow.
work for 4 nights.
class again.
work again.
class again.
then finally off for ONE day after ELEVEN days.

good news is that we've:
1) got the car serviced yesterday
2) confirmed another JB visit on Thursday
3) planned for Spa next Wednesday/Thursday (hopefully there's available slots)
4) confirmed KL trip to be from 26 - 29 December
5) confirmed Taipei trip to be from 23 Jan - 28 Jan

random pix for the month of September '07

i need time to reflect daily.
i need more than 24hours a day.

i need to rest without worries.
put me to sleep in ur loving arms.

Illegal access

ST, 1 Oct

AN administrator was fined a total of $15,000 on Monday for illegally accessing his former girlfriend's personal e-mail accounts and changing her password.

Lim Boon Siang, 27, was convicted last week of two charges under the Computer Misuse Act and had six other charges taken into consideration.

A district court heard that he changed the password of the e-mail account with the user name 'ocean_valley', without the consent of the account holder and accessed Ms Shirley Ang Shu Hui's yahoo.com.sg account from his Ang Mo Kio home on Jan 21.

They met while they were studying at Singapore Institute of Management and became a couple. They broke off last December.

Between 2001 and 2004, Ms Ang registered three personal e-mail accounts including 'ocean_valley@yahoo.com.sg'.

In 2003, she used her hotmail e-mail address 'ocean_valley' to register for her Friendster account.

Lim knew about her four accounts as she had communicated with him using the accounts. But she had never allowed him to use the accounts which were personal.

Sometime in January, someone posted lewd comments about her in her blog.

Lim claimed that he got to find out about the postings and wanted to know who had made them.

That was why he decided to access her accounts to find out more.

His lawyer, Mr Dinagaran, said Lim did not mean to cause any mischief to anyone but was merely trying to protect Ms Ang.


to the person who actually accessed my email thinking i never knew, this is for u...

Month-end

finally braced myself up for some blogging
fatigue is stopping me from sitting up properly on my office chair

started the day with breakfast (..probably considered lunch) at Clementi Central with Will & his mummy after spending the night at his place. headed over to Qian Hu in Lim Chu Kang to buy new fishies n fish food. so it's decided by him that they'll be named Ben & Jerry. i wonder if it's the effects of the ice-cream we had at Downtown East the night before (strange that he didn't decide to name them Cherry & Garcia though).

fell asleep shortly after waiting for him to complete the reservation for our air tix over the phone. it was not until i devoured the last bit of the Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia in the fridge with his help! woke up to a sumptuous spread of fish head curry prepared by Will mummy, washed up n it's back to work for the night.

to sum up the last entry of the month, here's a quick rundown of my month of September...

5-Sep	Dental appointment
6-Sep	Hairdressing - Kenny's Magic Flute - Vivocity
8-Sep	Jalan - Bukit Panjang Plaza Jalan - Ten-Mile Junction
13-Sep	Facial - Dermalogica Exhibition - Hermes Gallery
14-Sep	Jalan - Batam, Indonesia
16-Sep	NATAS - Singapore Expo Dinner - Bugis
17-Sep	KTV - Partyworld Int'l Building
19-Sep	Jalan - IMM
22-Sep	Jalan - Geylang Serai Baking class - CSC Tessensohn Jalan - AMK Hub
23-Sep	Healthcare - Check Up
24-Sep	Jalan - AMK Hub
27-Sep	Supper - Geylang Ride & Stroll - Kallang
28-Sep	Grocery Shopping - Giant, Tampines KTV - Kbox Hougang
29-Sep	Class BBQ - Costa Sands, Pasir Ris
30-Sep	Breakfast - Clementi Central

also, tentative plans for month of October...

1-Oct	Jalan - Johor Bahru, Malaysia CCNA Class
3-Oct	CCNA Class
8-Oct	CCNA Class
10-Oct	CCNA Class
11-Oct	Bro returning from Adelaide
15-Oct	CCNA Class
17-Oct	CCNA Class
19-Oct	OT *YAY*
22-Oct	CCNA Class
24-Oct	CCNA Class
29-Oct	CCNA Class
31-Oct	CCNA Class

ok, work needs to be finished up.
meeting Will n Andrew in the afternoon for some jalan/makan in JB.