My Saturday

7:59AM: Woke up but continued lazing in bed.
10:00AM: Walked to the market and bought yau char kway for breakfast, then slept.
12:30PM: Woke up but continued lazing in bed.
1:30PM: Walked to the market and bought fried beehoon, fried egg, fried chicken and fried fish fillet for lunch.
2:00PM: Slept.
3:30PM: Woke up and walked to the mall opposite and bought waffles with peanut butter.
4:00PM: Slept.
6:00PM: Woke up. Craved for Roti Canai and teh tarik, but soooo guilty over all the calories and sleeping. So decided to jog to the mamak.
6:30PM: Jog
7:00PM: Jog
7:30PM: Reached mamak. 7.5KM in 60 minutes. Ordered Milo Ice and Maggi Goreng telur mata kerbau. But too tired and didn't have any appetite. Left most food untouched.
8:00PM: Walked back
8:30PM: Walk
9:00PM: Walk
9:30PM: Walk
9:45PM: Reached. Showered, gobbled 1 hokkaido cake and slept.

Yeah. So that basically sums up my gloriously fattening lazy Saturday.

Twelve Cupcakes Bugis Junction

It's Thursday! I left office at 6pm sharp and went to Bugis.

"I bet you're in Bugis"

Haha that's what I got in the WhatsApp. My hair is a little too long so I wanted to trim it shorter again. They were playing all these awesome acoustic songs in the salon and then Michael Bublé's 'Home' came on. Then I looked out the windows and it's all dark outside already. I suddenly felt so emo! Listening to Home in a foreign city at night alone! Ok technically there're 6 more people in the salon but still...

I tweeted about it and one of my friend replied "Somehow I've associated your emoness to cupcakes"

Guess what! Ironically I just bought Chocolate Salted Caramel from Twelve Cupcakes before I go to the salon. Well, Twelve Cupcakes don't have the BEST cupcakes but they're nearest to my office so I bought it every other day.

Am I really that predictable??!! 

Salted caramel is my favorite flavor. Yummeh!!

Twelve Cupcakes

B1-03B Bugis Junction

10am - 10pm

First Blood Donation!

It's our company's yearly blood donation drive again! I was afraid of the pain so I haven't donated before. Last year, I was pretty determined. I went down to the cafeteria alone, filled in the forms, handed in to the officer, only to be told I can't participate because I didn't bring my passport (I was only on Employment Pass at that time).

This year, I chickened out. I didn't register.

At around 10am, Kenny, my cube neighbor came and persuaded me to go along as he wanted to donate too. He said it's his first time as well so well, I guess if want to takut, then takut together not that bad.

Turns out it's not painful at all! First they took a drop of my blood from my finger to test whether I have sufficient hemoglobin count in the blood (I think). I was then ushered to the side to wait for my turn. When they inserted the needle, it was a little painful, almost like an insect bite.

I looked at my blood coming out and filling the packet the whole time and Kenny say it's creepy why I kept looking at it. I always think I'll faint looking at blood but turns out I'm completely OK with it!

After the 1st packet is filled, I asked the nurse how many more packets to go lololol. She said "ONE ONLY LAH GIRL HOW MANY YOU WANT TO GIVE"

I nearly passed out the moment they took out the needle. I couldn't hear anything and had a split second vision darkening. I lay down for a good 5 minutes then Im OK again. 

Everyone, say Hi to Kenny! He's my cube neighbor and I'm really glad for his existence. I am mostly polite to other colleagues even though we were all pretty close. But with him, I can talk rubbish and actually be my own crappy self! Actually, to be honest, he's a little like Kevin! He used to have hair then he went into this hair salon because he said there's a cun girl inside. Then the cun girl cut all his hair off lol so he became botak. 

Bruises for the whole week! Ironically, I had serious headache for the rest of the week. I don't know if it has anything to do with the donation at all. Bleurgh...I don't think it's related! I hadn't had headache for almost 2 months already so can't help wondering.

I definitely wouldn't mind donating again the next round!

D1 | Venice

I'm currently watching 冲上云霄 and most segments of the drama revolves around Italy! So everytime they go to Rome my eyes open twice bigger and thinking 'That's where I was!" "I know exactly where this is!" 

I was just there a month ago. It's really crazy how fast time flies.

Honestly I didn't feel the excitement until the moment the captain announced that we have touchdown in Aeroporto Marco Polo. Work has been incredibly taxing and there's not a day I get to leave work on time. 2 weeks before I'm scheduled to fly, I shopped around trying to find a travel backpack. I figured it'd be easier to bring a backpack rather than bringing my spinner Samsonite luggage. I couldn't find any I liked and lucky me my brother told me he has one.

My brother's 10 year old travel backpack. He used it when he was still a student travelling around Europe.

Flew with Emirates and we're lucky we got on the Airbus A380!

Midnight flight and arrived at Dubai 5:10AM.

I have this habit of taking photo of the flight route. I have one for every flight I got onto!

I mad love Pinkberry! I had them when I was in the US and until now I still think it's the best Froyo I've tried. Dubai airport has 1 small Pinkberry counter. Totals up to almost 10 USD though. 

I like in-flight meals. Bread and butter taste 3257634596 times better on a plane. SQ always serve their bread warm, but Emirates' is cold and hard =( The entire journey, I didn't enjoy any of the meal except this one, the Cajun chicken fillet. 

Almost there!

Proof that mum always carries my bags haha.

First view of the great Venice! We took the bus to Venice island, then walked around 20 mins back to the apartment. The only mode of transportation in Venice island is the Vaporetto (water taxi). You can't drive cars or motorbikes, not even bicycles in the streets of the water town!

My first lunch in Italy! We didn't really survey any must-eat places so just picked a random ristorante since all of them sell almost the same things. Pizzas, Pastas and all kinds of bread.

I think I've had Italian cuisine less than 20 times in my whole life. In fact, I dread coming to Italy just because I thought I'd starve to death since I dont like pastas and pizzas. If I had to choose, then it'd definitely be Pasta Carbonara. So I did, for my first lunch. It tasted surprisingly GOOD! It's around €8 to €10.

Hello, my travel companions!

There're plenty of these street-side restaurants. I felt so fucking surreal just sitting there.

Just a random building opposite the restaurant.

We took the Vaporetto from P.le Roma station to cruise along the Grand Canal. There's also plenty of Gondolas but it cost more than €50 so we opted for the less than €10 Vaporetto. Less romantic but exactly same view!

We sat outside to get the full unblocked view.

No words can describe this.

My first view of the famous Rialto Bridge, the oldest bridge along the canal. Can you see the many many many heads on the bridge? The canal is also very busy with all types of water buses, taxis and gondolas.

Sunset!

Beautiful side buildings :)

If I'm not mistaken, this is the magnificent Santa Maria della Salute, an example of the Italy Baroque architecture.

Walked past Bridge of Sigh. It's named Bridge of Sigh because it connects the New Prison to the interrogation rooms in the Doge's Palace.  The view from the bridge was the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment.

Overlooking Il Redentore (I think. Sorry I suck at remembering building names).

Piazza San Marco, the main public square of Venice.

 Masks everywhere, ranging from €3 to  €500. I ended buying one too. It's sitting there now collecting dusts ;)

This is funny. They bought drinking water for €1 but paid €1.50 for the public toilet behind St Mark's Square. Now we're all confused whether we should drink more water hehe.

Love sunset skylines.

I think my sister and mum really like '饼印'. Now my sister know how she'd look like when she's old hahah.

We sat there for a while and witnessed a mini riot. People were shouting through the loudspeaker in Italian and we didn't understand what it's all about. Helicopters and Venice polizia boats were trying to disperse protestors to make way for the MSC cruise liner.

View from the Skyline Rooftop bar from Hilton Molino Stucky. 

Me and my mum was exhausted and a little jet-lagged so we skipped dinner and went straight back to the apartment after Hilton.

We wandered around the endless winding alleys and crossed countless bridges on foot and I think I can say we almost saw the entire Venice in 1 day and it was extremely relaxing and slow-paced. There're millions of tourists, but still better than going in Summer (Jun-Aug), I think. According to the Paolo our apartment owner, he said there're not many residents in Venice island itself. He used to live in the the island but it's very inconvenient as he can't drive or cycle so most of the locals, including himself, moved back to the mainland.

Great, great first day. Sigh.

"If you read a lot, nothing is as great as you've imagined. Venice is -- Venice is better."

On Being Contented

I think I'm really easily contented. A very simple meal of Roti Telur and teh tarik makes me very happy.  A small cosy eat and talk with a couple of friends on Saturday night makes me very happy. One episode of Modern Family makes me laugh till I teared. A simple quiet moment together listening to a song on repeat makes me very happy. A sincere 'Hallo how are you doing' from friends makes me very happy. A surprising chat with a stranger makes me very happy. A simple handwritten note makes me very happy. A trip away with family makes me very happy.

I don't own anything. I don't own a lot of money.
But I'm happy.

Sex Blog Duo

Hmm. The 'new generation'.



If you're too free nothing to do, the other whole interview with "Singapore Now" is here about their dream of becoming pornstars.

"Had an eventful first day. Met up, chat a lot, dinner, walk in the park, and stayed over" - Alvin on their first date. And the interviewer asked whether there's any recording involved that night hahahah. I like both the interviewers.

When their story first came out in the news, the blog was not taken down yet. I heard somewhere that NUS has revoked the scholarship offered to him after he mocked the school. Not sure how true is that. To me, I think ultimately this whole thing is entirely up to them. If they're comfortable with exposing their sex lives and photos to the public even though they're not exclusive yet (not the 'conventional couple') then it's totally their business. Everyone just chillax, grab a beer and watch lah lol!

Italy Itinerary September 2012

Before I forget, below is the short summary of my Italy itinerary.



[Day 1] 16 September 2012
- Touched down Aeroporto Marco Polo  at 2.05PM.
- Checked in Apartment near Tre Archi bridge.
- Vaporetti along Canal Grande
- Piazza San Marco

[Day 2] 17 September 2012
- Rialto Bridge ★
- Murano, The Glass Island
- Burano
- Piazza San Marco

[Day 3] 18 September 2012
- Train to Milan
- Piazza Del Duomo
- Shopping in Galleria Vittorio Emanualle II
- Train to Cinque Terre
- Checked in Apartment, 5 mins walk from Train Station

[Day 4] 19 September 2012
- Hike from Riomaggiore to Manarola
- Train to Monterosso
- Boat to Riomaggiore
- Night hike to Manarola

[Day 5] 20 September 2012
- Train to Pisa
- Leaning Tower of Pisa
- Pisa Cathedral
- Train to Florence
- Checked in Apartment, 5-10 mins walk from train station

[Day 6] 21 September 2012
- Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore
- Galleria dell' Academia
- Piazza della Signoria and Palazza Vecchio
- Ponte Vecchio
- Medici Chapel
- Piazza della Uffizi

[Day 7] 22 September 2012
- Shopping in Florence!
- Piazza della Republica
- Piazza della Signoria night walk
- Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore night walk

[Day 8] 23 September 2012
- Piazza Michelangelo
- Train to Siena
- Siena Cathedral
- Piazza del Campo

[Day 9] 24 September 2012
- Train to Rome!
- Checked in Apartment near Cornelia
- Piazza del Popolo
- Spanish Steps
- Fontana di Trevi
- Piazza Colonna
- Pantheon
- Piazza Navona

[Day 10] 25 September 2012
- Colosseum
- Roman Forum
- Altare della Patria
- Trastevere

[Day 11] 26 September 2012
- Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri
- Ponte Sant' Angelo
- Castel Sant' Angelo
- Vatican City

[Day 12] 27 September 2012
- Vatican City
- Fontana di Trevi! ♥

[Day 13] 28 September 2012
- Train to Naples
- Walk around Naples town

[Day 14] 29 September 2012
- Flight from Rome to Singapore =( =( =(

Best Memories Come From Bad Ideas.

Today I saw this quote and I cannot agree more!

I'm really bad in remembering things. All I can remember clearly are those stupid stupid things I did mostly in my uni years, even after sooooo many years!

Like we were just out for supper at midnight (we're out for supper almost every midnight), talking rubbish doing nothing then just one of them suddenly say "hey let's go to malacca". "When?" "NOW lah". And off we went. We didn't even go home and change or take anything and we drove straight to Malacca and reached there at 4 in the morning. We didn't know what to do. Found a place, ate Bah Kut Teh and drove back to JB.

I think the one I'll remember the longest is when MeiFoong, Ah Hao, ChekChow and me went driving around at night in the uni when suddenly our mutual awesome (at that time) spontaneous decision is unleashed. We drove back home, looked for a spanner, drove back to the Uni, and took something away (which doesn't belong to us). The best part is, Hao fractured his arm because he literally boxed the wall the previous week and still had his cast on so he had to lug the thing in 1 hand. We then carried the crazy big thing back home and drank alcohol for the whole night celebrating our 'achievement'. The next morning, we drove back to the same place, only to realize there's a CCTV pointing straight to the place where we were last night. All of us almost peed in the pants. We went home, lost appetite, sat around, did nothing. There's an exam the next day but me & MeiFoong didn't study for it because we're almost 98% sure we'll get expelled.

In the end, we sat for the exam and flunk it. And, we didn't get expelled. AND the lecturer announced the exam marks will not be used as part of the course examination marks. So, we sorta got off the hook, unharmed, and decided that's probably the dumbest thing we did and will never do again.

Well, it didn't last long because the following week, all of us partied and jammed at home (my favorite feng tao song at that time), then drove out looking for haunted house to find ghost (!!!??!!), and 6 of them were escorted back to the Balai and had to be bailed out. Police saw them in the haunted house, thought they're druggies and took them away. I think nobody tried explaining that they're just looking for ghost because we all know how dumb that sounds.



Inserting completely unrelated youtube but back then when I used to dance, I love to watch Alex Bullon and he even choreographed for my feng tao song haha.

Those are just the tip of the iceberg of the stupid things we did. The 4 years in the uni makes most of my best life memories.

So it's true. Young people do brainless dumb things. The best memories come from bad ideas.

Too Fast!!!

Hello lovelies!

So...I'm back.

It's been so many days but I'm still not sleeping well. For the first few days, I had a terrible jet lag and it's awful! The first time I had jet lag was almost 7 years ago when I first go to US. The following few times I did not even feel anything with the time difference so I forgot how horrible it is. I'm exhausted but I tried to lie on the bed since 9PM and did not go to sleep till at least 5 in the morning.

It's improving now though. I go to bed at 12 something and fell asleep at around 2 ( I think ) with ~6 hours of sleep. Definitely sleep-deprived, and my already very bad eye bags become a lot worse!

Anywayyyyyyyyyyyyy YES! YES YES YES to all the questions asking me if it's fun in Europe! It's my first Euro trip (the start to many more I hope) and I enjoyed myself thoroughly. It's truly eye opening and amazing experience. I hope I don't be too lazy and will get around to blogging about the details.

When I sit down and think about it, I still cannot believe I went to Italy. *sighs in satisfaction* 

I haven't had much vacation this year. In fact, I didn't go anywhere AT ALL, not even to my favorite city Penang! People say you need a long vacation once a year to get refreshed and will resume work with much more positive energy. I beg to differ! Since I got back, I've been feeling like work is too torturing (since when it's not?) and kept thinking of quitting (as always). Dramatic sial. But I kept convincing myself that I need ALLLLLL the money I can earn so I can keep going on nice vacations every year (hopefully).

Ranting about work. As always.

Have a great Wednesday!

Happiness

It's probably only close to 5 degrees. Every now and then, he will reach over in the middle of the night to make sure my feet is safely tucked under the blanket. He didn't know but I'm awake and my heart jumps each time he does that. I want to live in that moment forever. I feel so at peace, warm and extremely contented. The feeling is truly irreplaceable. And I woke up, but I try to hold on to that feeling as long as I can.

It's been a while. I just want to share this feeling with you all because it all feels so nostalgic.

It's that simple. Happiness can be very simple.

可惜不是你

I wonder why are Chinese songs usually a lot more emo.

Quarter 2 Team Building

Our next team building is 2 more weeks from now so I think if I don't write about my last team buildings, I never will.

Initially we wanted to go to Universal Studios, because the last time we went for team building, the Galactica and Transformers ride were not ready! However, my boss wanted something different, something away from Marina Bay and Sentosa because most of our activities and dinners revolve around these 2 places.

We voted and decided to rent chalets and do a BBQ instead. BBQ? Under the blazing hot sun? I, for one, definitely wasn't looking forward to it.

#1 Goldkist beach resort. Turns out it was some ancient old chalet at East Coast.

#2 The beach, just 5 minutes walk from the chalet.

#3 The guys, put to work rightaway. Started barbeque pit fire while waiting for the vendor to deliver the marinated BBQ food.

#4 Kenny, the organizer, also my cube neighbor, and Ken.

#5 We rented 2 'villa's and we seem to be the only residents there.

#6 Danh, one of my badminton kaki and Alec, the assigned photographer of the day. He took all the photos here.

#7 The vendor was pretty good. So much food! Even though there's 40 of us we still could not finish it. Other things are mediocre, except sambal sotong and stingray which is quite yummeh! Oh, premium cup-otah too. The rest are just fried bee hoon, noodle, satay, garlic bread, chicken wing, butter corn, lamb, the usual BBQ food. Good thing about ordering from vendor is they marinate and pack all the things nicely and even deliver with the utensils, charcoal, aluminium tray etc. Which means, we dont have to do ANYTHING at all except starting fire and EAT.

#8 Tung, my Vietnamese colleague, also an alcoholic. He drinks almost every other day, and once he got so drunk during our annual dinner that we went on stage and hugged our CEO.

#9 Elvie. One of the major contributor of the day. Before I go for the BBQ, I was still thinking who the hell would want to stand outside and BBQ under the hot weather. Turns out almost all of them took turns without being asked! Ehem, except, for my team.

#10 I did not bring my camera. So took my boss's camera and played around while people cook for me haha.

#11 The one on the right is my manager. On the left, is the SAP business IT manager. Both of them sat there and bbq for us. When he's done, he'll shout for us to pick up the food!

#12 My team. Obviously not contributing except finishing all the beer.

#13 While I hid in the chalet which was air-conditioned.

#14 My team mates and lunch kakis.

#15 Kenny shouted and tried to get us to play a game, and it took him almost 1 hour to finally get our name on the board.

#16 At that time, this "Draw Something" game was still the IN thing. I also played it almost everyday at that time, then one day I just decided to quit and never logged in since! Not long after, I never hear people talk about 'Draw Something' at all.

#17 Our boss rented bicycle for all of us after the game so we can go cycle around the park all the way to the beach. I haven't cycled in ages! It took me almost 15 minutes to finally get the hang of it. I used to have a racing bike, not mine, my brothers! Haven't cycled since I left Segamat.

#18 Pit stop.

#19 Then the rest caught up.

#20 Pit stop again at the hawker on the way back to get sugarcane because we're all exhausted and dehydrated.

#22 They're both my cube neighbors and I'm never bored because they talk all the time. So loving wtf.

#23 Heading back to the chalet!

#24 Then we stayed in the air-conditioned room and watched while one of our team mate did his dirty dance thing and shake his bootay to songs he picked from his own iPod wtf. Nobody forced him! He volunteered to entertain us. As you can see he's the only one dancing in the middle while all 40 of us sat around him laughing coz he's so daring!

#25 Our 2 IA students. Left is Pris from NUS who's in our team and right is Hyosun from Korea who's in the business IT team. She had peace sign in EVERY SINGLE PHOTO. I guess that's the Korean way of taking photo. Her boss can never pronounce her name correctly so in the end he just called her 'Samsung', during her whole 6 months training.

#26 Amy, Juliet and me.

#27 Most of us! That's our director lying there.

#28 Last one!

Work environment is pretty harsh over here compared to my previous company. But still, I think most of them are still OKAY to work with. At times I get really frustrated but I'm slowly getting the rhythm and catching up on how to get things done with the military working style.

I cannot believe I'm here for 2 years already. Time really flies!