i'm back!

have not been coming to this site for a long long time. surprised that there are still people asking why i never update. haha... kk just a quick update on what i've been doing the last couple of months:

- worked at Canon during Nov-Dec last year. it was a totally unexpected job scope of chasing debts by phonecalls. lol..

- went hongkong with my family. i miss hongkong! simply love the char siew bao! must go back there soon. next year maybe?

- went genting with friends. its fun to go there this time with friends. too bad the food and holiday crowd spoiled abit of our enjoyment.

- finally decided to do my masters and after many complications, i didnt get the scholarship. but managed to become a staff and get concession for school fees. its better financially. that is provided i get to keep my staff status. hope dr khan gets new grants soon.

now for recent stuff..i atended kr's wedding at hort park last sunday. though his wedding was simple as he combined the engagement and wedding itself, it was beautiful and sweet. his wife is so pretty in the tube gown and trailing head-dress. they walked down the grass lawn on the path lined with pink and white rose petals, and their friends stood by the side and blew bubbles as they walked past. dinner was served buffet style. the chocolate fondue was the best! then they showed a video their friend made, with cartoon figures of them and their photos from the time in sec school where they met until now. such a long relationship. they even went back to their sec school to take wedding photos. after that they gave a speech thanking their parents for bringing them up and the bride cried. and me and mei had tears in our eyes after that. haha... nothing to do with us but we were touched anyway.

really liked their outdoor wedding. more special compared to the usual hotel banquet. now i'm starting to dream of my future wedding. haha...still a long long way~

congrats Kr! may you and xf live in happiness and enjoy your honeymoon!

09102008

i've been lazy to blog recently. haha... not because i'm too busy but because i'm too free. was sad after i screwed up the sia interview cos i really wanted that job. then almost right after i lost my temporary job too. so yupz, i'm slacking at home again. recently there's alot of depressing news about the economy, with the coming (or already happening?) global economic downturn. singapore's economy will be affected and consequently so will the job market. it is predicted that singapore might take 2 years to recover. and i have not found a job yet. i dunno why its like only me that is taking so long. i've to seriously consider taking the masters if i still cant get a job, that is if the scholarship is given to me too. but somehow i really wanna work now, dont really know if i should still study.

to fill up my time, i was searching for new dramas to watch again. and i came across a korean variety show - We Got Married. i found it very entertaining! its about 4 randomly paired celebrity couples who have to complete missions as newly 'married couples'. for eg the first mission was to move into their new house on White Day (liek V-day) and decorate together. it was interesting to see how the different couples interact with each other and the sweet things that the guys do for White Day. the show was supposedly unscripted. there was a couple alex and shin ae, who were like the fairytale couple. they were the only couple that got to live in a big villa while the rest stayed in apartments. alex was like the perfect guy, seemed abit too perfect to be real. but i liked that they were the only couple who were awkward at the beginning, then exchanged stories and feelings and slowly developed the relationship. seems more real. i think people watching the show can probably relate the different couples with their own relationship at different stages.
below is the song that alex sang to shin ae in episode 2. Like A Child by Kim Dong Ryul. i think he sang it beautifully.


on the topic of marriage, i met K and M yesterday and K is getting married next year! realised i havent finished asking about his whole story. haha...he'll be the first among my friends to get married. cant believe we're all going to starting the next stage of our lives so soon.
祝你幸福！！

I'll be there

watched 100% entertainment yesterday and it was gary cao's singing session. he had a major sorethroat and barely had voice to talk. but he could still sing so well! so impressed! really ke lian him but it was still funny cos the hosts kept saying he talk like zeng zhi wei. he also sang 1 song which i really liked, the english demo version of 一眼瞬间, I'll be there. i feel that its nicer than the chinese version. the lyrics are very nice. anyone know where to download it?? wish someone could sing this to me now. dedicating this song to jh and sy...

I'll be there - Gary Cao
When your tear starts to fall
You feel no hope at all
Don't you ever think of giving in
When the rain starts to fall
Everything seems so cold
Don’t you ever frown
Cos I’ll be around
And late at night
I’ll close my eyes
And pray that one day you will find
The strength inside to show you how to break through this time

Whenever you need someone I’ll be there
And everything will be okay
Cos we can pray that one day we’ll find the love
That will lift us up to the sky
Whenever you need someone I’ll be there
And everything will be just fine
Us hand in hand
We will make it through I’m sure
This I promise you till the very end of time

Through the good times and bad
Forever we’ll always have
One another to keep our chins up high
And you don't have to be scared
Just as long as I'm there

Olympics

16 days of Olympics have finished. nothing to watch anymore. :( i've been watching mostly basketball, with some other sports. all so exciting! i think michael phelps would have become the most famous person in the world after this. 8 golds!! wonder if anyone will beat that in the future. i think technology may have helped with the record breaking though.
i missed singapore's table tennis match against korea that won us the silver. hopefully we wont have to wait another 50 years for another medal. the way that the atheletes perform just amazes me. the potential of human's ability is so stunning. i think the most exciting match was the basketball finals US vs Spain. it was such a close match! spain actually chased up to be 2 points behind US in the last few minutes of the game. it was the closest taht any team has got to, playing against the US. for a moment i got worried that spain might actually win. but of cos US won. haha...they just had to, with terrific nba players like le bron james, kobe bryant and dwayne wade. watching the US play is like watching a nba performance with fanciful dunks and fast-break offense.
spain has a 17 year old player, whom the commentator kept emphasizing. though he is not the best at the moment but i think he will be a force in the spain team in future. for now, he looks like the harry potter actor to me. haha...
another entertaining player was lituania's no 13, whose name i cant spell (think its pronounced like es-ker-vicious). he is quite a good player but his expressions amuses me. haha... i think he is quite unlucky too. in the match against china, he was blown at by the referee for breaking the backcourt rule (offense team cannot pass the ball back over the mid-court line) and thus causing a turnover. his feet were one on each side of the line when he got blocked by a defender. then when he turned the ball away from the defender, his hands passed the mid-line and thus become backcourt. lol...suay.

i'm gonna miss tha basketball action

Right decision?

Yesterday, i did something that many people will deem as foolish. i..turned down a scholarship for masters studies. wasted? yes, i guess so. i didnt expect to get the scholarship so quickly in the first place, and without even an interview. there are many reasons, many inhibitions as to why i turned it down. i'm not sure if that is the right choice. i guess i still dont know what i want in life. i still feel that i would have made a better choice if i could have gone back to the lab to work in the past few months. but that was not possible so no point saying.
anyway, i hope i have made the right decision. hopefully i can find a really good job soon...

You and me

You and Me - Lifehouse

another song that i love now...



Cause it's you and me and all of the people with nothing to do
Nothing to lose
And it's you and me and all of the people
And I don't know why, I can't keep my eyes off of you...

Day at Bugis

Met jh at bugis today to shop for presents for 3 friends. yup, still living the jobless tai tai life. ktv on monday and shopping today. haha...back to today. we bought the 3 presents in less than 4 hrs and even kept to the tight budget. feel a sense of achievement. haha...

the whole afternoon was packed with activities after that. went sim lim square for lunch, ice monster for dessert, guan yin miao to bai bai. i accompanied jh to fu lu shou tower where esther's mum had a massage shop. jh did a foot and shoulder massage and ended up wriggling and crying out in pain. esther's mum seemed to be very skilled and strong. a little scary hearing the cracking of the bones when she tried to 'loosen' the shoulder muscles for jh.

after that, jh said she wanted to go find a certain backpackers' hostel in little india. walked around the shophouses and saw a few other hostels but not what she wanted. then we saw 3 caucasian backpackers so we decided to follow them. after following them for like 2 streets, they came to the hostel we were looking for! haha...a lucky coincidence. it was very cheap, only $12 per night. with free breakfast, internet and a few other services. though hav to share the room with 9 other people. we got hungry again from the walking and since we were in little india, we went to an indian eatery for appom. its a flour thingy with a soft centre and crispy sides, eaten with sweet coconut milk and sugar. nice!

on the way back to bugis, we passed by the ERP gantry. saw on the sign that from 6-6.05pm, the charges was $2.30 for cars. we thought it was weird why the gantry was only open for 5 mins? it was 6.03 and so we waited for 6.05. haha... then once the time reached 6.05, the charges raised to $3! so much difference! pity the cars that went in just as it changed. haha...

saw many new things today. its a fufilling day!
looking forward to tomorrow...

Graduation!

I have officially graduated! after 4 years of struggling, i finally graduated. feel happy and sad at the same time. happy that i finally dont have to take exams and as renchun said, dont have to read through 180 slides of neurobiology lecture notes anymore. but also 舍不得 to leave sbs and my friends.

bought heels before convocation with jinhong but in the end, i didnt wear them. realised they were quite high. and i still cant walk very well in them. haha... jh said she'll laugh out if i walked up onstage like i did when i tried the heels.

initially met her and the rest at 4pm to take photos before the ceremony. but we were still too late and too slow in dressing. we were robing in front of the sbs office, with huihui and sy's mums helping us adjust. didnt manage to take many photos and we were one of the last to enter the hall. went in 20 mins after the given time!

there was a surprise at the end of the ceremony. a masters graduate proposed to his girlfriend, who was also a graduate! can see how nervous the guy was, taking deep breaths. haha...but it was very sweet. with the crowd's urging, he finally went down on his knees and proposed. their faces were shown on the big screen with their names in a heart-shape frame. think i'll be very embaressed if i'm the girl. haha...

after the ceremony, it was photo-taking time! kept walking back and forth between sbs and nanyang audi to find people. in the end, i didnt manage to take photos with some friends and didnt take group photos. we'll have round 2 for group photos this sat! thanks so much to ny, sw and hb for coming! especially to ny cos he came after work and also went home very late though he had to wake up early the next day. also thanks for being my photographer of the day. haha... really appreciate you all!

now, a new chapter. but before that, i hope to find a job really really soon!

Ice cream!

went to novena's mingles cafe again last week for ice cream...

Ice cream... (strawberry, green tea, chocolate fudge, walnut sth...)

More ice cream... (mixed berry sorbet, spotted doggy, hokey pokey, banana)

And even more ICE CREAM...

(white chocolate with raspberry, lemon lime sherbet, rocky road)

think 11 scoops is the limit for me. at least i didnt get stomach discomfort this time. my cousin ate a total of 16 scoops!! pei fu... i think it was the white chocolate raspberry that made me feel sick both times. much too sweet... i love hokey pokey (caramel ice cream)! now i need to exercise more. been eating alot lately. hee...

taken outside novena. can you see an eagle cloud?

I'm yours...

I'm yours - Jason Mraz

Song lyrics | I'm Yours lyrics

Results out!

i feel like hugging all the sbs people right now! *hugz* all 4 years, now its over. i totally cant believe my results. thank goodness my poster presentation didnt pull me down. thank goodness to jy for having mercy on me. thank goodness to my supervisor! cant believe the words on my screen, its not even obvious and i didnt even see it at my first glance. but its probably cos we are not under the GPA system.
now to find a job. how how?

Bangkok trip 21/5-25/5

just came back from bangkok last sunday. it was my first trip with friends and i enjoyed it! hopefully can go on more trips together in future. i wanna go taiwan, hongkong, japan, europe... haha...back to bangkok.

Day1...took airasia to bangkok. it was my first time taking a budget flight. though it definitely pales in comparison to normal flights, i cant complain much. but at least there wasnt any delay and we even arrived slightly ahead of time. and probably being a budget airline, the plane parked near the last gate towards the end of the airport. thank goodness for the shuttle service or we'll have to walk a long way. though a new airport, changi airport is still way better. we took a minivan to our hotel, Samran Place. it was a small hotel with only 24 rooms but the toilet was new and clean, which was most important. We went to Mah boon krong shopping mall and had a light snack. tried their traditional mee, which i found similar to the penang char kway tiao and another dish similar to our carrot cake. the taste was ok, a little sweet and sourish. one thing i noticed was that thai people LOVE beansprouts and vegetables. half the plate of 'carrot cake' consisted of raw beansprouts which i didnt like. the best dish was a thai dessert, sticky rice with mango. it consisted of glutinous rice drizzled with coconut milk with a generous helping of sweet and juicy mango. my favourite! its aboslutely delicious. after shopping we ate dinner at fuji, a japanese restaurant. the food was ok but relatively cheap. then we watched a movie, 'what happened in vegas'. 'chocolate' was already out on vcd then. one special thing about watching movies there is that they will play the national anthem before the start and everybody had to stand up to pay respects to their king. thais really love their king and huge posters can be seen everywhere.

Day2...the day started out with going to the Grand Palace after breakfast. even before we got off the cab, i saw one tuk tuk driver walking towards us, telling us that the grand palace is closed today and wanna bring us elsewhere. i read about this scam online so we ignored him. besides, we were 10 meters from the gate and people were streaming in and out. who is he trying to kid? the buildings were magnificent and in intricate detail, covered in gold, ceremic or shiny glittery pieces. but the weather was so HOT, we were sweating in our jeans. next, we went to the nearby Wat Pho, temple of the reclining buddha, and Wat Arun, temple of dawn, across the river. Wat Arun wasnt as beautiful as i had imagined but we still took many photos. took a cab back for lunch at A&W. the rootbeer float is so refreshing! we took a cab everywhere cos its really cheap, cheaper than 5 people taking the BTS skytrain. and i'm really amazed by the traffic in bangkok. the roads are always so busy, with as many cabs and tuk tuks as there are cars. the cabs just cut easily across 4 lanes or even do a u-turn whenever there's an opportunity. and the thing is, nobody horns. everybody justs try to give way. buses also mostly slow down without stopping and people can just jump on or off. dont think any singaporeans can drive there. Next, we shopped at Platinum mall. the mall is very big with 7 floors and endless shops, much like our far east, that we took 3 afternoons to finish shopping there. wanted to have dinner at coca restaurant in siam centre but it seems quite expensive so we ate at sizzler's instead. cheap and good! wanted to go suan lum market but it rained heavily! the weather forecast actually predicted rain for all 5 days of our trip but luckily it only rained at night.

Day3...shopped at pratunam market and platinum mall. wanted to go to baiyoke sky hotel for their international buffet lunch cos of the good reviews and magnificent view. but it turns out to be more than double the price of what people have said! didnt get to go there and was very disappointed. went to T & K seafood in chinatown for dinner. it occupied the whole of a small shophouse with i think at least 5 levels. really crowded and we were looking forward to a good meal especially the fantastic review given in yu's guide. we ordered shark's fin soup, tom yum soup, steamed fish in lemon chilli and garlic sauce, curry prawns etc. the meal was quite good and reasonably priced but it didnt have that much WOW factor as mentioned in the guide. the steamed fish had a little freshwater taste that i didnt quite like but the sauce was very good. after dinner, we wanted to go to the memorial bridge night market. the helper at T & K said its about 2km away and we started to walk there. after walking for ages through the ulu and dark chinatown, we finally reached to find a bustling market. but it was so cramped and crowded with only space for 1 or 2 persons to walk through. couldnt stop to see anything and just felt like quickly walking through to open space. after 2 long days of walking, we decided to go for a foot massage next to our hotel. the experience was very unique and it was more itchy than painful. seeing ny by my side was totally comical. haha...

day4...our last day! we decided to forgo going to chatuchak market and instead, this day was spent revisiting the same shopping malls to finish buying things we put on kiv. went back to pratunam, platinum and MBK. yu, ny and i went to chinatown in the afternoon, cos we heard that there are alot of cheap and ncie accessories there. but i think the cab driver probably took us to the wrong place cos we only saw shoes and bags there. there were mainly locals doing wholesale shopping. and the streets were small but there were cars and motorbikes buzzing through from time to time. kinda scary and fustrating walking there that we gave up. another disappointment. hai... at night, we went to suan lum market. finally we could go there after 2 failed plans to go. a pity i didnt bring my camera cos the plae is really nice! its set up in a enclosed compound and looks like its meant for tourists. but its much more spacious and organized. really good to shop at. but we didnt have much time to look around and didnt buy anything. cooled down for some drinks at the open-air area where there was a live band on stage. nice ambience and end to our trip.

i enjoyed this trip of shopping and eating but regretted not buying more stuff. still left so much money! haha...so many things that i still wanna buy. let's aim to go taiwan or hongkong next!

p.s. go to my facebook for pics!

Coincidence?

i had a net friend, the only one that still talked to me from time to time. i knew how he looked like from photos but he didnt know who i was. anyway, he was a senior from the same jc and subsequently in the same uni. i dont know why but i always seem to see him around, in school or out of school. its such a coincidence. i dont even get to see some of my friends this often. i think i'm beginning to seem like a stalker to him. lol... but i dont think i'll reveal my identity to him since he cant even remember who i am anyway. haha

yesterday was the SBS prom night and i didnt go. seems a little wasted now. think it would have been fun. at least i knew more people in sbs than i did in secondary school or jc. if only jh was around. haha...

I'm looking forward to bangkok trip!!

gosh, i'm feeling sick now. my stomach is churning. from nervousness or from ice cream? from ice cream probably. my own fault...
my mum asked me to join her, my aunt and cousin for ice cream buffet at novena. i've been wanting to go there so i agreed. but i shouldnt have gone the day before my fyp presentation. i ate 12 scoops of ice cream and the last 3 scoops were just the limit. the sweetness and cream just stuck in my throat and now my stomach feels sick. i hope it will be ok tomorrow...

so nervous... please let me get through with it smoothly~

going to update for the past 3 days. hee...

Wed...dear finished his exams so we went to Sizzler's at suntec for a belated-birthday lunch. we ordered a set lunch each and had helpings of the salad and ice cream bar. we were so full after that! but it was nice though. too bad i couldnt access the website to print the promotion voucher.
p.s. Forbidden city is a lame movie with nice fighting scenes. Ironman is just nice. haha...

Thur...i moved out of hall today. quite sad actually. out of my 4 years in university, i spent almost 5 semesters staying in hall. though i didnt join any activities and was quite anti-social, i enjoyed it all thanks to my friends.
i'm gonna miss staying with friends.
i'm gonna miss the late night suppers.
i'm gonna miss studying together around the school during exams.
i'm gonna miss the chats with the girls in the room and the secrets we shared.
i'm gonna miss going canteen 2 for breakfast.
i'm gonna miss the steamboats in the tv room.
i'm gonna miss being able to see my dear so often.
i'm gonna miss all the good times.
Thanks my friends for the memories...

Friday...finally, i printed my poster today. after going crazy trying to do the layout of the results, i did 3 at 1 go and showed it to my prof. in the end he asked me to decide myself. finally had 1 layout which i'm satisfied with. went to poster connection at sunshine plaza to print. the price and quality was quite reasonable. saw alot of ntu students there and all the different posters. went to have the rochor beancurd and you tiao while waiting. nice! now all that's left is the presentation on tuesday... *nervous*

woohoo! i LOVE my new sandals!

yup, thats right. i finally succumbed to temptation and bought the sandals in gold colour. they are so comfortable~ i can wear them to bangkok now. lol... i'm loving it!

Ny, happy birthday and jiayou for your last paper!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

on a sidenote, i've been catching up with watching 'they kiss again' and i quite like this song sung by ariel lin. it sounds sad to me though.

你

风轻轻 我听见你声音

你对着我叮咛

要注意自己的心情

雨轻轻 我听见你声音

你拿着伞靠近

为我遮着风挡着雨

一点点想哭泣 一点点想着你

你的爱很珍惜

我总依赖着你的记忆

你就像风在说话 顺着我方向

你就像海中的波浪 堆着我成长

我明白你的回答 温柔的对话

爱情其实没有办法 不被感动吧

我不说谎

went back to the lab yesterday to show prof my poster draft. found out that its too brief, thats why i have so much space for big font and pictures. prof said that my cells would probably look like dinosaur cells at that size. he's becoming more and more lame lately. -.-... leo is going to take over my project! i wish i could continue it myself though. its a relatively new project in the lab and could be exciting. going through my thesis with him, i realized that many things were not clearly put across since he didnt understand some things. hai... dr khan introduced us to the new fyp student from ntu, a girl from BMS starting the week of our poster. this lab is relatively good and prof is a very nice person but he can also be very forgetful sometimes and having no mentor means we also have to be thick-skinned and independent. having angela around really helped us alot but she's finishing her phd soon. cant imagine what it'll be like if she isnt around to teach new students.
went home for dinner and my parents wanted to try the bbq seafood stall that was featured in channel 8's 'qiang tan da xing dong' in the market near our house. it had scored the full 30 votes by customers in the show so we thought it was worth a try. reaching there, we saw many customers and were told that we had to wait for 45 mins to 1 hr. there were about 5 workers helping out in the stall but the boss (the guy learning in the show) just sat or walked around outside in a bo chap manner. definitely not a good sign. after the long long wait, our food finally came and i was terribly disappointed. we ordered the bbq stingray, la la shellfish and a plate of vegetables. everything down to the rice and chilli failed to meet my expectations. the chilli on the stingray was not enough and not spicy. the vegetables were oily and tasteless. i dont like shellfish so i didnt eat it but it lacked the chilli padi as seen in the show. even the rice is hard and lumpy. i'm never going back.

met up with sw yesterday to study. told her i saw the slippers in Novo that she was talking about. turned out that the slippers we liked were the same. i had seen the gisele bundchen sandels in royal sporting house a long time ago and really liked them but didnt try them cos its a freaking $40 for a pair of sandels. its so expensive but i really liked them. now sw says her bf is going to sponser her and she's going to get them. argh... she's so tempting me. $40 for a pair of sandels? what should i do?