just breathe... ~*

new domain =)

2007-06-16T02:19:00.000+08:00

hello, from today I'll be blogging at www.lavanderblues.com. I've finally done it up =) The archives haven't been transferred over yet, so all the older posts will remain here. Thankyou!

turkey part ii

2007-06-14T00:53:00.000+08:00

cappadocia - my favourite place of the whole trip

kissing the camel. taken by my turkish tour guide, who was really experienced at getting the angle right!

the houses cut into the soft rocks of the fairy chimneys. the people here used to live in these structures until recently when the govt forbade it.

inside one of the fairy chimney houses. it was decorated really nicely.

in the tiny tunnels of one of the underground cities in cappadocia. it is supposed to be 10 storeys underground, we managed to explore 3 storeys of it. the bore of the tunnels were so small i had to duck walk through most of them.

i got to try my hand at making pottery too. wore a pair of gross pants, and made a bowl w a hole in it, even after much help from the master. a career in pottery is so not for me.

one of the local dishes we got to try along the 10hr bus ride to cappadocia: plain yoghurt with honey and poppy seeds. super super good! the sweetness of the honey masked the tart sourness of plain yoghurt that i dislike, and the poppy seeds added texture. totally going to make this again at home =)

at the salt lake. the ground's all salt, and its so white it almost looks purple. i took lots of jumping shots here =P

luscious, cheap cherries bought at a road side stall!

with our tour leader cynthia, and turkish tour guide cem (pronounced jem).

the grand bazaar. we bought hanging mosaic lamps and a gorgeous aladdin lamp from here!

pretty belly dancer.

on the bosphorus cruise

one of the 2 bridges that connects the continents of asia and europe, and for the turks in istanbul to travel from the residential to commercial areas of the city.

turkish baked potato with butter, cheese, and whatever topping u want!!

apparently famous mado turkish icecream.

at the spice market

turkey, part I

2007-06-13T23:12:00.000+08:00

just got back from turkey today. it was a phenomenal trip, in terms of sights and experiences. i got to ride a hot air balloon, sashay down a catwalk in a $2000 leather jacket, do pottery, cruise down the bosphorus straits that separates the continents of europe and asia, crawl around in caves 3 storeys underground where ancient people once lived, soak in iron fortified waters in the thermal springs, bargain successfully at the bazaars, taste new foods, meet new people... it was only not so good because my dad hurt his back, and
it caused some worry. and somehow i didnt really sleep very well in the hotels there even though the tour brought us to some pretty good hotels.

shall upload some photos now before i drift off to sleep.

the blue mosque:

with the turkish cherry juice seller who sold us overpriced cherry juice.

on the ferry ride across the marmara sea.

i got pulled out to model one of their jackets in a leather factory's catwalk presentation for the tour group. another guy from the grp also had to do it. it was klutzy, and really quite funny =P the leather was super soft though.

visited mother mary's house near ephesus. it was a rather surreal experience, even though i'm not catholic.

the ruins of a great ancient civilization, ephesus. it was a huge city, and we walked through most of it, being mostly in awe of what the ancients accomplished with primitive equipment.

(nowhere as convincing as joel's great efforts in his picture last summer, but well, one can always try)

(dad on an ancient loo. where great men once sat.)

(a carving of the goddess of victory, nike, which our sports brand is named after)

(library of celsus, 3rd biggest ancient library)

the cotton castle, millions/thousands? of years of calcium rich waters flowing resuled in calcium carbonate deposits, and the formation of a truly unique site.

and i got to ride a hot air balloon! it was so so expensive, like US180 per pax for 1hr or so, but so so so fabulous an experience. we got to see the sun rise over the hills, and the unique landscape of capadocia from air. our pilot rose us to the clouds, and down so near the rocks that we could touch the cliffs, and even between 2 fairy chimneys.

(with newfound friend diyanah =) )

at the beach by the aegean sea.

completely vile, caffeine saturated turkish coffee

yum cha!

2007-05-31T01:04:00.000+08:00

monday denoted the last day of csfc @ sgh for cg6, and we comemorated it by meeting up before our tutorials at jumbo seafood at the serangoon garden country club for a sumptious dim sum lunch =) we ordered many many dishes, with jerry's 20% discount, it came up to only $12 per pax! the pictures here are all blue tinged unfortunately, because of the weird blue lighting all over the restaurant.

the winning egg tarts. super nice especially when they came out fresh and piping hot from the oven, with wobbly eggy fillings. we ordered seconds - and thirds of this. =)

lousy xiao long bao, which were very much bigger than the din tai fung/crystal jade size that we're used to, but not at all nice. the centres were mushy and oily. ugh.

pictures around the table.

zj and i with our frog egg-slime dessert (i forgot the real name, but its less disgusting-sounding, i promise) thats good for your complexion.

our osces ended today. cant say that it went well, since i forgot that the sciatic nerve is easily injured in the hip joint, and the various types of nerve palsies. what i thought was elbow xanthomata was actually neurofibromatosis? and i really couldnt see anything wrong in the cxr. ahwells.

friday: cg6's outing to bowling & pirates =)

2007-05-29T20:38:00.000+08:00

at billy bombers, where we filled up on chicken and sides ravenously at lunch at 330pm after our day ended in sgh. finished so incredibly stuffed at 4pm that the plan to go for martinis and steak sandwiches at mortons' was ditched.

bowling was next. christine surprised us all by trashing everyone and getting an over-100 points score.

we even went to the arcade, making up for the adolescence that was never there. tried to play with the para para machine, but it took 2bucks and more than a few tries for 4 medical students to figure out how to use it. and in the end it just wound up with each of us taking one sensor and waving our hand under it. i discovered that im pretty good at daytona too!

i even challenged lawrence to it the next day, and i -almost- overtook him - something that has never happened before. he usu trashes me by many many laps. but i didnt get to beat him as he somehow managed to overturn me as i was overtaking him. boo.

meet bobby:

dinner at dian xiao er, with their excellent herbal roast duck, and jerry's gorgeous gf shirley for company =)

i enjoyed pirates tremendously, even though my friends dozed off partway, i loved the costumes and props and cinematography. the rocking of the ship scene was amazing too. haha. calypso was disappointing. and i was devastated at the ending. shant spoil the surprise for you if u havent seen it. =)

happy birthday dear liyana =)

2007-05-28T09:41:00.000+08:00

to dear liyana, happy 21st! we had a impromptu celebration at menotti's on saturday for their half priced desserts after 10pm for the sweet birthday girl. hope you liked the fcuk tshirt! =)

2007-05-21T00:02:00.000+08:00

as bean wld say, now that lawrence is back, let the "heyhey" photos innundate the blog!! *laughs*

dinner at metropole herbal restaurant

2007-05-20T23:34:00.000+08:00

we recently rediscovered an old favourite at a new location - the old imperial herbal restaurant at metropole hotel, recently closed their old strategic location, and reopened at the top floor of vivocity. but this outlet is now revamped, with seafood and other nonsense, and the unique flavour of the old place that i grew up eating all lost. however, luckily for the old diehards like my family and many of my dad's other business associates, part of the crew (including our very favourite manager, doris) broke off and started their own restaurant - the metropole herbal restaurant at a swanky new location in clarke quay. all the old favourites i loved are still there, including the egg white. and there are fantastic new dishes to try too. =)

egg whites - with other herbal-sounding ingredients in a potato nest, now served in a cute ice cream cup. we'd eat this almost everytime we went to imperial herbal.

the most fantastic "kong bak pao" ive ever tasted. i could wax lyrical about this for hours. the meat was sooo succulent and tender, and completely slid down my throat, and the sauce it was braised in was soooo good i literally licked it clean. (ok i didnt exactly lick, but i used the mantou to wipe it clean of the last drippings of flavourful sauce.)

the best flower mantous ive eaten. the flower patterns in the buns are amazing! and they impart an amazing texture to the bread. *shudders with joy*

original peking duck, with the chef flown in from china to roast the duck and slice it in front of the guests who order it. extremely flavourful and tasty.

home made sesame buns, really nice =)

i realise that this is my third food-centric post in a row, i apologise. it was just that i was looking through my iphoto, and the only photos that ive been taking lately are of the food when i eat out. so that's the only thing i have to post about. ahwells. and my prose is really bad, im in a half asleep stupor and am only barely able to exclaim weakly with the memory of the food each picture brings.

lunch at hongkong kim gary cafe @ vivo

2007-05-20T23:24:00.000+08:00

lawrence is back! he touched down in the wee hours of friday morning, where i went with his dad to receive him. we then met up again at noon on friday for lunch after i left sgh early for once =) lunch was at the hk cafe in vivo, as he heard from lynn that it was fantastic. and i always have to give fantastic food a try. so there we were.

the lunch sets are pretty value for money. he had a "mark six curry" which is a tasty curry with 6 ingredients and i had "hot spicy noodle soup" which was very typical of me. the teh ping was fabulous, and my noodles came in a super duper ginormous bowl which filled up the entire of my side of the table. =)

i am always amused by how hk cafes serve instant noodles with sausage, or egg, or luncheon meat etc as part of the menu. i am even more amused by how some people order these. they are so easy to prepare at home! at least this place was honest. they are called "nissin noodles" in the menu.

birthday dinner at prego

2007-05-20T23:09:00.000+08:00

i had a very nice dinner at prego with my parents last thursday after a long day at sgh. we ordered our favourite dishes, which thankfullydidnt disappoint, and it was a great evening to be had by all. it was preceded & followed by shopping at the robinsons sale too, where i got a pair of nice orange heels =) we even bumped into selene, jem, auntie kimsiang, meredith and denise, which made the evening all the more fun.

i thought that the food we had was spectacular. with lobster tagliatelle, braised veal in saffron risotto, and my favourite kind of pizza whose name i cant remember, but i like it all the better for the fresh rocket leaves on the crispy hot base that adds a fresh crunch in the mouth.

cg6 "night call" at sgh

2007-05-17T00:30:00.000+08:00

impromptu decision to go back to sgh for night call at 1030 pm saw me rushing back to the hospital after shopping for close to 6hours in town. at least the rest got to go home and shower up. we changed out into scrubs, and waited around for our tutor. managed to see a paraumbilical hernia in the OT just before repair. then supper then home to sleep. and as a result i was super tired today. =)

ah wells.
happy birthday to me! =)

my 21st bday party =)

2007-05-13T23:07:00.000+08:00

*warning* long post ahead!
(had to sort through almost 300 photos, but there were so many nice shots of many people im afraid i wasnt very selective oops)

it was an amazing birthday party on saturday night to celebrate my upcoming birthday on thursday =) i really couldnt have asked for more; it was exactly as i had envisioned it! we did everything ourselves (even made my own bday cake =P) as i wanted it to be sweet and meaningful. unfortunately i couldnt invite many other people whom i'd like to have asked as i ultimately decided that i wanted a very small intimate party of about 25 (inclusive of family). many apologies to everyone.

prep work:
it took my mum and i several weeks of planning, with shopping in the weekends at various places like concourse, holland v and little india for supplies. and the night before was spent baking the choux pastry for cream puffs, and on d-day, mum and i rose bright and early to start baking the cheesecake brownie and peach cupcakes for my bday cake =) i designed everything myself, from the invite cards to the printed menu, and even the cake too =)

i was so happy strewing gorgeous red rose petals on all the tables, with floating candles and tealights and oil lamps all over the garden, which i felt made my normally frumpy backyard extremely atmospheric. everyone was supposed to come in their interpretation of the theme - "flirty summer breezy nights", a phrase i felt embodied the idea for the evening garden party =P and everyone looked fabulous =)

the menu was home-cooked, and included,
appetizers: nachos&salsa from margarita's, cheese sticks, and 2 types of bruschetta which were made by my mum.
mains: bbq lamb, salad and andrew's delicious aglio olio
desserts: my cheesecake brownie, creampuffs with peach slices and peach cupcakes w mascarpone frosting which was my bday cake =)

everyone "helping" andrew with the pasta, which thanks to him was cooked on the spot and served piping hot!

myself, huiling and yun helping to prepare the salmon&asparagus bruschetta

mirri likes the heart shaped balloons on my mango tree

uncle stephen and auntie kimsiang (selene's parents) who've been figures in my life all through my years were kind enough to come for my party too =) dad & mum entertained them at another table =)

after dinner and desserts outside, we moved into the dining area for cake and li&wenbo's songs =)

li sang twice that evening. this was "i hope you dance", originally by lee ann womack =) so sweet of u babe, thanks!=)

i felt this was a very nice shot of everyone helping to light the 21 sparkling candles on my bday cake =)

my peach cupcake w mascarpone frosting birthday cake, with a cupcake for each person in attendance and 21 sparkly candles =) the candles really had sparks flying from them!

part of my birthday gifts - the nine west bag i really really liked, and a braun buffel wallet frm the medicine bunch. sel and her parents gave me a silver "h" pendant frm tiffany&co, fiona a long chain necklace she made herself, huiling a bag, and yun, a really gorgeous wooden windmill she assembled herself. thanks dears for all the gorgeous and thoughtful presents =)

i also got a pink ballet slipper pinata which we had some fun with. i got blindfolded first and they teased me for a super long time. at one point in time i think i almost whacked jerry w the bat too. then we led zj all the way to the pond, but fortunately for him he was astute enough to feel the edge of it and not step into the water blindly. fiona also displayed suppressed angst in hitting the pinata =P it was ultimately broken by joel and joshua =)

the party was nicely rounded off with li and wenbo's rendition of "say a little prayer", with hilarious backup by marcus and bean =)

we definitely couldnt have pulled it off without all the lovely people in attendance that night who were all so sporting and helpful =) im especially grateful to my mum and maid who slogged the entire day to make the entire thing come true, and am super grateful to shiyun and huiling who helped assemble the appetizers and set up when mum and i were running late and getting flustered, andrew for cooking all the pasta when we couldnt do it cos we were so busy =P, my uncle for setting up all the tables and balloons and for bbqing all the delicious lamb we got to eat =), the guys for carrying my grandma up and down the stairs so that she could be there in the midst of the action, and everyone else for being sporting and helping out randomly throughout the night =) it was amazing to have everyone there and i really appreciated it so much, for giving me such a beautiful 21st party. thankyou =)

cg6 does venepuncture on friday =)

2007-05-13T22:39:00.000+08:00

i've finally done venepuncture on a patient! =) thank you zhentang who gave zj and me patients to take blood from. i was nervous and my hands were trembling a little, and on the first attempt my needle went too shallow and i didnt hit the vein, partly cos the uncle's skin was very loose. zhentang taught me how to pull the skin taut properly so that the vein was easier to access and i managed to get the job done pretty smoothly, and collect the 4 tubes of blood that was needed. my patient was very cooperative too, and fortunately jerry was there to help me distract the uncle in cantonese. i cldnt have done that myself because i dont speak the dialect.

zj's attempt wasnt so smooth though, and they (aka zj n zt) had to try many many times, whilst i attempted to talk and distract the auntie in hokkien for quite awhile. but zhentang did say that this patient was very difficult to venepuncture. her veins kept collapsing.

after that, bent on overcoming the hurdle of doing their first venepuncture on a human, we got extra equipment from zhentang at the prep room and went off to the HO room to do it on each other! so by the end of the day, everyone got a chance to try =)

*bday party photos are still coming up. wait for it, soon soon =)

wednesday off!

2007-05-11T21:37:00.000+08:00

a lovely self-imposed day off on thursday saw me meeting selene, her mum and her baby niece for tea at coffee club in taka, whereupon we headed back to her place to rest and play with the adorable baby. it was great catching up with my dear old friend whom i havent seen in a few months =) and meredith is just growing cuter and cuter by the day =)

12/5 -(this post was backdated)
my bday party last night was simply fabulous, beautiful and elegant, and i have my parents, and lovely, sporting and helpful friends to thank for it. =) will post photos soon when i consolidate those from wenkien and other people who took pictures so that i can post the nicest up =)

at the OT today =)

2007-05-08T22:41:00.000+08:00

picked selene up from the airport last night and reached home at 3am this morning left me with barely 3hrs sleep before this very long and busy day today. it was super fun though, with hweeying and i going to the wrong terminal and sitting on the pavement at the airport waiting for the shuttle bus to appear. and supper with selene and her parents after that! =)

the OT today was super interesting. (and tiring) i got to poke and touch an excised liver tumour the size of a head, and help open the excised portion of a patient's descending colon (still warm, fresh from the patient) with a malignant metastatic tumour almost completely occluding the lumen to expose the tumour for jerry (mr camera boy) to photograph. the second one was super smelly when the other exchange student cut it open, with faeces and blood spewing. hee.

my cg, with jerry, me and zj =)

the guys of cg 6

the gals of cg 6 =)

off to shower up and study! for dr eng's tutorials which honestly scare me such that i cant remember anything when im being arrowed. ahwells.

new haircut & highlights

2007-05-07T00:01:00.000+08:00

the highlights arent obvious here, but this is a new refreshing look for me. haha cant say i wanted my hair this short though, but somehow it ended up that way. and the ends flip out. boo. this was taken after some watering down of the ends =P ahwells i'll get used to it soon. =)

happy birthday candice!

2007-05-06T00:54:00.000+08:00

candice's party tonight at the oilve tree in the hotel intercontinental was such a fun and elegant affair. i really really loved the masks she, her mum and her sister spent 3 days hand making for all the guests. i especially love the one i got, which reminds me of a tutu. the food at the place is really really good too! am soo stuffed now =) the oysters were amazingly huge and succulent =) the party itself was really fun, with the emergence of a new "prawn-star", and us, the three rats. HAHA. more about that later =)

the 3 rats. rat 3, 2 and 1 from L-R

xueying being amazed at the size of his oysters.

candice and the espirit bag we got her =)

buffet-buddies! cel, fiona, brenda and i went to get food together, and we had soo much fun being greedy at the gorgeous dessert spread. notice we're all carrying 2 plates each =P

chris li's prawn-star efforts. she peeled a whole plate of prawns for yilin to eat!

candice and her very gorgeous mother =) dont they look alike!

candice cut her cake with maria, who's birthday is tomorrow - sunday =)

cg-mates. jac left early before we cld take the picture w her!

candice receiving a watch from her og mates

and ending off with a group shot of everyone =)

of delectable sticky date puddings and good company

2007-05-05T17:55:00.000+08:00

post clinical skills and results release saw me joining joel, zj and emily at marmalade pantry for happifying desserts to celebrate the demise of microb and our successful passing into m3 =) whilst i was bothered by an extremely uncomfortable tongue ulcer, that didnt keep me from enjoying every crumb of the ever-so-gorgeous sticky date pudding there. its seriously the best dessert-ever, whatever zj claims about his apple and rhuharb crumble =P and to me, not even the famous nutella cupcake there comes close. good food and free flowing conversation - we even got to see david gan when we snuck up to passion salon for a look =)

clinical skills course =)

2007-05-05T02:02:00.000+08:00

the past 2 days have been filled from 9am-4pm with the very interesting and hands on clinical skills course. what with knot tying, venepuncture, per rectals, catheterisation, how to listen to heart murmurs, NG tubes, suturing etc, it was a really fun and enjoyable time, just that it got a little draggy at times. and as usual, our over-photographed cg 6 managed to take some pics during these sessions.

the very wonderful cg, sans jerry

suturing

my suture pad!

poor youjiang who got volunteered to try a NG tube down his nose. it didnt get very far, even with the very experienced doctor and surgeon trying, because he was just so uncomfortable.

andrew got a per rectal done on him too! the guys koped the KY jelly and hid out in the toilet. all we girls managed to hear was a lot of laughter from within. goodness knows what they were doing =P

happy 21st jeffery!

2007-05-01T11:16:00.000+08:00

the extremely effervescent party at cafe del mar in sentosa celebrated his 21st with a big bang! party was good, the beer and champagne great, and the sporting host even better! i went with some of the girls and we all had a pretty good time. cafe del mar is a nice place with beds on the beach, although the bikini babes walking around gave it a just a wee bit slutty feel =P neither did i l like the music - trance, but all in all it was a great party =) thanks to cel for letting fiona, chiara n i shower up and change at her place =)

cg 6 (sans mike yam) in sgh!

2007-04-30T00:02:00.000+08:00

the kelong trip

2007-04-24T22:16:00.000+08:00

it was a wonderful 2d1n with bean, marcus and joshua at the kawal kelong at bintan island. sun, sand, sea, fishing under the stars, sumptious seafood everyday, unlimited banana boating, crystal clear waters, relatively inexpensive price...we even had the whole kelong to ourselves because no one happened to book it over this wkend! it was just such a gorgeous experience. and i am now thoroughly sunburnt, and marcus has turned into sebastian the crab. i shall simply let the photos speak for themselves.

pre departure photo at the tanah merah ferry terminal.

our first glimpse of the kelong, with the almost 1km long wooden bridge leading up to it. we thought we had to walk all the way, so scary. thank goodness the boatman uncle came out in the motor boat to fetch us and we were spared from walking the whole way.

the extremely nice hokkien boatman uncle who watched over us as we swam in the sea. he can amazingly snorkel with a cigarette in his mouth, and still somehow manage to smoke. amazing eh?

finally at the kelong =)

bean and i with our so amazingly delicious plate of shellfish. "zhut zhut" or sthg. it was sooo flavourful, fresh and huge; the absolute best i've eaten ever.

calamari!

a fishing boat, that came to take some singaporean men out to the high seas for some deep sea fishing. they stopped by at the kelong for lunch.

we all sat on the floating jetty to put our feet in the seawater, a coof relief in the hot day. these were some gratituous shots of bean and marky =)

charlie and chaplin, named by bean. the kelong had 10 dogs, and these 2 were adorable. they were scared of us, and wld jump into the water and swim away whenever we were on the floating jetty.

exhilirating speedboat ride!

we took many, many "model" shots in the sea, this was one of the nicer ones heh.

us on the banana boat! bean was soo terrified she was screaming all the way, even when we were going relatively slow, in a straight line. joshua was jumping up and down on the float to make it more exciting, and marcus was just "zzzz" behind. ultimately it was soo hilarious because as the boatman uncle made a turn to make us fall, the guys would frantically lean towards the "topple" side because they wanted to fall in, and the girls would lean towards the "untopple" side. we girls won! as we only fell into the sea once in the entire hour, surviving many many sharp turns made by the uncle. heh.

sunset.

we are all happy to be here =)

just picture this image with the sky covered in a blanket of stars. it was surreal. too bad the camera couldnt capture it in all its beauty.

night fishing with makeshift apparatus, using string on beer cans. and black, inky sotong bait. we didnt catch anything and all my bait got eaten up by fishes.

sunrise =) my favourite shot of the lot.

locals searching for shellfish at low tide.

joshua couldnt resist jumping into the shallow waters just around the kelong at low tide as well =)

crystal clear waters at the secluded island.

and white sandy beaches. =)

part of the catch from the returning fishermen from their overnight deep sea fishing trip. the haul included 3 baby sharks, 1 sting ray, a whole carton of catfish amongst others.

and i shall end off with delicious white pepper crab =)

cg 6!

2007-04-24T21:57:00.000+08:00

taken at the venepuncture session today where we attempted to take fake blood from dummy arms. yay i managed to fill a tube. wasnt very easy to "feel" whether you entered a vein already. it was really fun though =) i gave brenda a fright when she saw me tying the tourniquet on jerry. she thought i was gg to draw his blood! hahaha. i was just practicing my tourniquet-tying skills.

went out for lunch yesterday and today w the cg as well, getting to know new people is fun, especially jacquelline, whom i havent gotten a chance to talk to in the 2 yrs of medicine till now. yays =) clinics are exciting =)

mcCafe

2007-04-20T23:49:00.000+08:00

some random pictures we took after watching the movie - 200 pound beauty at lido. the movie was funny, but rather predictable, like a very old and used storyline. the lead actress is seriously gorgeous, she somehow reminded me of dawn yang, whom may i add is in a bikini on maxim's cover. and so lots of chating and gossip transpired at our little table at mccafe, thanks for the great night out!

bakerzin has new macarons!

2007-04-19T01:43:00.000+08:00

my favourite ispahan (the pink one) made me swoon and go weak at my knees, bringing back memories of paris. the other one was opera, which was a coffee tinged macaron.

totally brightened up my day on saturday.

post exam baking

2007-04-19T01:39:00.000+08:00

peach cupcakes with mascarpone frosting!

the flavour was great, texture of cake soso. i gotta work on it summore.

the ZOO!

2007-04-19T00:08:00.000+08:00

and so we went to the zoo. an impromptu idea by zj and christine late monday night to meet at the insane hour of 9am at the zoo to see inuka, the polar bear, and have free ben&jerry's icecream since it was b&j day! i ended up waking at 7am, and having to call wenkien 3x to wake him up, before getting dad to drop me at his place so that i'd have a ride to the faraway land of mandai. ultimately, it turned out that b&j day was applicable to all outlets except the zoo. how embarassing. the animals were really cute though. and so after our 4hr trek through our singapore zoo and some kfc which we were all craving for, i went to another unlikely place - IMM to meet fiona and grace for lunch, whilst the rest headed to great world city to catch the free b&j deal.

these were my favourite. so gorgeous.

this white tiger was sleeping just like a little kitten! so cute!

zj w the scary emu

the attack of the killer blue birds. these birds tried to attack marcus. ahwells he prob deserved it anw.

butterfly on christine's hat

the butterfly who wouldnt leave me alone. it stayed on me for a super super long time fluttering frm my shoulder to back to hair etc.

petting the goats, whom li was infatuated with

this elephant spouted water at us. everyone hid behind the pillar except me. boo.

post exams!

2007-04-18T23:59:00.000+08:00

and so yes, the horrible exams are over! they really really sucked. especially microB. and now comes the nail biting period of wondering whether i got the vivas or not. such a terrible feeling. but its definitely a huge relief to be able to let down my hair, to paint the town red! haha i've been shopping quite a bit lately, mostly things for clinics, although i came across the projectshop sale midway and i like project shop haha. so. yes. i've been spending way too much. and i want to stop the shopping. too exhausted and tired of it alr, but i havent found a suitable bag for clinics except for one $150 nine west bag seemingly perfect, but which is way too exhorbidant. ahwells. doesnt matter larh.

more importantly, ive been meeting up with friends, and spending time with people. people who mean alots to me. which is good. i'd like to pick up a new hobby soon though. hms.

oh yes and i must add. german girls are hotttttt. at least those on gntm. much better than antm.

long long overdue photos

2007-04-18T22:15:00.000+08:00

pictures from dinner last friday with marcus, joel and bean. zj who was supposed to meet us to go to brewerks (land of the $12 slice of oreo cheesecake) fell ill at the very last moment. and we ended up going to waraku at the new central mall =)

food was okayy... wasnt particularly impressed, but neither did it suck. clarke quay is sooo nice now! with all the drinking holes, clubs, chill out places that i never knew was there. im missing out on so much! hehe. i feel super old. all the time.

my visual dna

2007-04-02T00:35:00.000+08:00

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

jess!

2007-03-30T23:57:00.000+08:00

haha ok i decided its easier to just post it here =P so anws, i decided that its best to know the background of the story, but not the plot =) then u'll understand the story and yet still get the surprises.

so the background:

set in the Paris Opera house, the story is a sort of flashback, beginning in the future and then going back into the past. there is a mysterious figure called the Phantom who lurks around the opera house and terrorises the people there and gives instructions as such to the people in charge of the opera house on how he wants it to be run and such. and there's a chorus girl, Christine, who is being secretly tutored by this mysterious "Angel of Music" who is really the Phantom, and becomes really good at singing. then one day Christine meets her beau, and erm lots of things start happening. hahaha.

hms wonder if this is good. i dunno. ohwells hope i helped =) and hope u enjoy it! its really damn nice! =)

angel of music

2007-03-29T21:26:00.000+08:00

a much needed and anticipated outing to watch the phantom of the opera on tuesday night with bean, li, xizhen, xuan and ryan, where we ran into brenda and her bf too =)

it was such an amazing production. the set and costumes i felt were comparable to the mary poppins show i watched in london 2yrs ago. the singing was amazing, i was constantly awestrucked by the voice ranges of the actors. the phantom was phenomenal, he really brought the character to life for me, and i was sooo sad for him at the end when christine rejected him, though he was pretty scary during the whole of it before that. i jumped so many times and like closed my ears (which i always do when im scared) during the show hahaha because of random loud noises and pyrotechnics. quite cool really, im just a scaredy cat.

i guess the only thing i wld grouse about was that 1. some idiot kept trying to call me during the first act, 6 missed calls i think, and when i called back during the intermission thinking that there was some emergency, turned out to be a wrong number. i was SO pissed because the stupid caller just took away from the magic of some of the most amazing songs of the show sighs. 2. i didnt really knw the story, so it took a little bit of figuring out, and 3. we were seated rather far away, all the way up in circle 2 but that didnt matter larh i already paid $97 for my ticket haha. ohwells.

i loved loved loved it. phantom of the opera songs on repeat on my itunes these days =)

my lurvely beanbumms and me =)

2007-03-25T15:09:00.000+08:00

whee! =)

the paper steamboat that refused to boil.

2007-03-25T14:56:00.000+08:00

zj: "grrr. its not boiling."
m: "dun care la. eat my scallop first."
,
,
,
,
(after an interminable period of time, with 2 "excuse me, are you really sure its supposed to boil?"s, 3 fuel changes and a lot of grousing and poking)
,
,
,
,

both: "omg! its finally boiling!"
cue: a few meagre lousy excuses of bubbles rise to surface of soup.

happy birthday huising!

2007-03-24T01:31:00.000+08:00

it was a simple affair at her hse tonight, with the busy bday girl busy entertaining all her friends and taking special effort to introduce all of us.
w the medicine people =)

with yiting and yimn, old friends of mine from primary school who happen to be huising's close buddies =)

and a new friend, clarence who happens to know sarah ans si too!

PNTB!

2007-03-24T01:03:00.000+08:00

we sent this in to Trent's Pink is The New Blog! i hope trent posts this up on saturday heh *crosses fingers*

tokyo street food - veg pancake

2007-03-18T11:57:00.000+08:00

taken by lawrence =) so delish, i just had to share it =)

2007-03-17T00:46:00.000+08:00

how much rejection can a girl take? "the system is not available" over and over and over again all day, like multiple head-slamming, saliva spurting, blood gushing punches on the face in the wrestling ring - in slow-mo and blurred backgrounds.

am sad, and bored, and down, and irritated, and have nobuddy to talk to because lurvely msn is down =( chocolates didnt work, not the 8 squares of french cadbury milk choccies i had earlier at least. not enought fatty foods at home to quell this, only managed to have 2.5 gloriously crispy goreng pisang in all its deep-fried oily goodness for supper. i need more fat coursing through my veins pronto! but hopefully no artherosclerosis please. arghh. can we program our macrophages to reject all the VLDLs and LDLs please?

boring day at home

2007-03-16T18:33:00.000+08:00

you never realise how attached you are to something until its taken away from you. that truth was realised today for me, when msn was down for a good part of the afternoon (still is sighs), and im reduced to attempting to study in my room, feeling very very alone indeed, and missing the convenience of contacting my friends whenever very much. argh. plus lawrence is somewhere in the hills of mount fuji, hopefully enjoying himself and soaking away in some nice hot spring (with hot jappy chicks to accompany him as i've been saying tt he should be doing all along =p). argh... the solitary life is not for me.

attempted to watch house, but house is getting too boring. same formula all the time. watch this hilarious madTV spoof to see what i mean:

and im still craving jap food... and nachos... and crispy prata. which dont go well together, but who said i wanted to eat them together anw.

pop goes my heart!

2007-03-16T12:03:00.000+08:00

kudos to li who called me up last minute on tuesday to watch the hilarious "music and lyrics" with her, wk and marky. starring my favourite hugh grant and drew barrymore too (cue: 1... 2... 3... swoooon!). it was a hilarious feel good romantic comedy with great music, just right up my street. =)

post CAs (for which i did not do well for microB at all sighssssss) saw me watching 300 at the cinemas not once but twice, blowing abt $100 on a new leather gap clutch at 50% off, a fcuk skirt at 70% off, a white faux snake skin belt, and my new mac shadestick in lucky jade (am poor now) =). It also saw many gatherings and much fun, with gatherings (and mad rushes) to watch 300; shopping excursion with cel, fiona, pooja and marky whereby we met the most no. of meddies in orchard road i have ever seen in my life; mum's birthday dinner at marmalade pantry; movie and shopping outing w my parents to vivo; music and lyrics plus menotti half price desserts =) funness.

the studying has begun in the midst of all these fun, and i'm just taking it one step at a time. microB has taught me that it is pointless to spend your life mugging ( i spent 4 whole days cooped in my room sitting on the same bloody chair surrounded with mountains of paper, only to get a lousy grade. sian. esp when i thought i knew my stuff sighs) but without it you're so much worse off.

pictures frm friday, which was shopping trip and mum's birthday.

and the menotti pictures frm tuesday.
which was interesting considering that there were 2 bunches of us there at the same time! my table, with bean, rous, marcus, me, li, wk and joel. and the other table w chris li n zj, tianloon n jess, hazel n ian, and jerry. =P and i was sooo shocked when shiyun n qinglin waltzed in too! the night was indeed filled with surprises.

brief respite...

2007-03-04T16:42:00.000+08:00

friday marked the brief conclusion of the first 3 CA papers for cofm, neuroscience, and pharmaco. somehow exam weeks don't quite agree with me i think. i get super tired and sleep deprived despite sleeping 6 hrs or so. and there was a brief thing about mixing up the dates for neuroscience and pharmaco which threw me off tangent a little. but ah well its all over and time to focus on microB for next thursday's paper. for lunch on friday though, marcus, liyana and i (not being invited to ibrahim's highly exclusive birthday lunch =P kidding!!!) headed down to west coast macdonald's for some macs breakfast, and some fun on the playground equipment! here i discover that my sense of balance is still as terrible as always - so much for having done so many years of ballet.

on top of the world! or err just the pyramid at west coast park after we managed to beat off some young punks from some secondary sch who were loitering ard there and claim the peak of the pyramid! =)

last week also saw a very very pleasant surprise! when auntie kimsiang and uncle steven popped by to apparently chat w my parents and do a little CNY visit, guess who showed up too! my darlingest selene who flew back frm the states for one week surprised me at the door! and apparently both my parents have been in on this surprise for some weeks now, so i was the only one in the dark. boo. it was wonderful meeting up with her, and getting to see her gorgeous niece meredith, having dinner with her family and all. too bad we didnt get to catch up much properly though, the cny rush, and all the exam nonsense got in the way bah.

back to post-infectious diseases =(

a berrylicious chinese new year!

2007-02-23T18:12:00.000+08:00

this post is rather backdated, considering that it's already the 6th day of the lunar new year today. but ah well, i've been busy attempting to study for next week's CAs, and enjoying the "festivities", or whatever little of it i have here.

the first day of cny was rather quiet, save for a surprise visit from the behind-house-neighbour's son which i shan't comment upon here (i think many of you would have already heard stories from me).

and so, my restless food-loving father suggested that we (the 3 of us) go for high tea at the ritz carlton. now, ive been to the high tea buffets here quite a number of times, and im constantly impressed by their inventiveness with their menus. every few months or so, they'd revamp the theme of the whole buffet, and out comes a whole new array of food and desserts. and they'd all conform to a similar theme or concept. the one that got us hooked last year was their chocolate theme - my dad the chocolate lover, naturally lapped it up like a baby. then there was the honey theme, which we avoided because we felt it'd be too sweet, and now, berries!

sweet, plump, juicy, tangy berries in all sorts of concoctions - homemade jam for the scones bursting with berry-goodness, tarts, cakes and pastries, trifles, a cute strawberry cupcake that i couldnt resist, homemade ice cream simply overflowing with the good stuff, even fresh ones for you to dip in the chocolate fountain they've got going there. many different types of berries were featured - the quintessential strawberry, fresh plump juicy blueberries, raspberries, and blackcurrants like i've never tasted before, there were even deep dark sweet cherries (which technically is a stone fruit and not a berry, but who really cares when its just so good).

the savoury stuff didnt disppoint either. butter poached lobster? seared tuna sandwiches, amazing fried balls with mushroom and other good things i didnt remember, scones with homemade jam and fresh cream, smoked salmon rolls with pickles and capers, really wonderful scallop "har gows" etc. im salivating now.

there was even a honey buffet, a whole section with about 12? (i didnt count) different types of honey, deep dark acacia, raw, infused with cinnamon, and many others i didnt particularly take note of. the thing that puzzled me most about this part of it was - what do you eat the honey with? save from simply licking them off the spoon, there didnt seem to be anything that i could have had to compliment it, or even any media for gastronomic tasting or delivery. i had to ask the chef, who gave me a pretty dubious answer (after a long hesitation might i add)- eat it with fruits (wouldn't it be super sweet?) or alone. ultimately i just decided that it was there to plump up the spread, and to make the whole thing seem more refined and experimental.

but they needn't have. with the elegant string quartet playing tunes from our favourite musicals, sipping tea (orange pekoe for me and camomile for mum) from fine bone china - notice the gorgeous intricate design that i couldnt help but admiring for extended periods of time, and the gracious service it was surely refined enough an experience for anyone.

my full and happy parents =)

- am amazed i did an entire post on the buffet experience itself, woah. more on the cny back in malaysia later!

sharline's 21st

2007-02-18T11:57:00.000+08:00

happy birthday sharline!!!

friday night - was sharline's 21st bday celebration, for the real big day today! it was a tasteful after dinner affair @ union bar with wonderful drinks (mojito!) and finger food, and great people =) i had lots of fun, albeit almost losing my voice shouting over the noise to carry on decent conversations, and it was just a wonderful party. she looked soooo gorgeous in red! her bf is soo sweet! crooning michael buble's fever, and organising everything for her =P haha.

anws happy cny too!

valentine part 2: island creamery =)

2007-02-17T18:03:00.000+08:00

our hannabi valentine.

2007-02-17T13:33:00.000+08:00

it was a fun vday dinner at hannabi, the lone table of 7 admist the sea of couples. heads craned to look at the dateless people as we made our way out of the restaurant. kudos to joel for eating the most - and for finishing up the stuff i cldnt finish. our literal "bin". who was disappointed in us that we didnt eat our max as we suggested a jaunt at island creamery after that for something sweet. and to xuan as well, who polished off a humongous plate of jap beans with disapproving looks from the guys who felt that it wasnt worth ur $ to fill yourself up so much with peas. buffets are for meat people!!! - according to them at least. i predict tt joel will get constipation for his fibreless diet.

it was fun, with guys being extremely engrossed reading cleo - looking out for hot girls probably. and the fried pufferfish starter complimentary from the restaurant. getting reminded halfway through the meal by bean's "joshua, if you're sick you probably shouldnt eat this sashimi. there's like probably a lot of flukes in there" - with everyone else being super stunned at her comment. and me choking on the slice of mackerel sashimi i just ingested. flukes. enough microb i say!

photos frm part II of the our dateless valentine up later!

2007-02-16T01:03:00.000+08:00

honeycomb cake

2007-02-15T22:26:00.000+08:00

spent the afternoon baking today. 3 honeycomb cakes! for ourselves, the neighbour, and msian relatives. took sooo much time, i got soo tired by the time i trudged to andrew's house to get my stuff at 7plus.

but still, it was a pleasure to stand at the sweltering hot stove, stirring sugar and water until it caramelises and gives off this really gorgeous aroma. and mixing cake batter is always therapeutic, throwing together flour, sugar, egg, butter and in this case, condensed milk too, getting your fingers dirty with sticky gooey goodness. and the happiness when i slice open the steaming hot cake, fresh from the oven and see the pretty holey pattens formed by the baking soda - hence its name; honeycomb cake (indonesians call it Bolu Sarang Semut).

and because i was making such a huge lot of cake, (6x the recipe!), 12 eggs were involved, and i had great fun practicing how to crack them one handedly! and this photo was taken with one hand cracking an egg, and the other holding the camera to take the shot!
talk about multi tasking eh?

love.

2007-02-15T17:58:00.000+08:00

happy valentine's day!

it was indeed a very happy valentine's day for me, as the surprises (or not-so-surprises) of the day slowly unveiled.
i received this darling piece of jewelery in the post some time last week, from lawrence in the states. only opened if after midnight on 14th feb though, with him looking on in the (so very screwy) webcam. i say it was screwy because the connection was BAD. and at regular junctures - usually after i peel off the next piece of wrapping, silly skype disconnects, and i have to wait fervently to reconnect again. it was just -so- irritating.

thanks dear, for this gem you so lovingly picked out admist the jumble of the vast cyberspace and sent it here to me where it currently adorns my neck.

a second surprise was that i now have my very own url! not the normal ___.blogspot.com. no. i have my very own www.___.com! courtesy of lawrence too! i'll be working (very slowly) to design this new place, and eventually will shift this blog over there. very slowly because although i've already conceptualised the design, there's a whole new programming language to learn - php, in order to code this new place. no more puny html. php here i come! expect it only within the next few months though, because there's the need to study for many painful examinations in the meantime too. gah.

wonderful hannabi jap buffet and island creamery at night on vday with cherished friends. more on that on a later post.

south buona vista road duck rice

2007-02-11T22:50:00.000+08:00

brief hiatus after 4hs of cofm tutorials and another 4 gruelling hours camping out in the medicine library, to eat duck rice with em, hon, joel, and eugene sometime last wk. succulent pieces of duck meat marinated in a gorgeous savoury sauce, accompanied with rice, lime juice, sambal kangkong and nice braised tofu.

happy early 21st birthday fiona dearest!

2007-02-11T22:08:00.000+08:00

her dinner party at the YMCA metropolitan hotel last night was an extremely sweet and happy occasion, spent reminiscing about old times with good old friends, looking at the photo album of fiona's life she compiled, teasing people about pretty girls, and of course getting to know new other-halves of good old friends =)
i almost cried when her friends sang songs for her so beautifully, and when she gave her mum a thankyou present, which was so exceptionally special.

it was a wonderful night (even if i didnt get to go to the balcony with the rest after that), and im so glad that a good friend who's been with me for about 8yrs now has blossomed into such a beautiful young adult. gorgeous! =)

and here's a rather special photo - 3 huilin(g)s together! we 3 were seated at the same table, so it was all very confusing that when someone called huiling, all of us wld like reply. hahahaha. funny. the 3 huilin(g)s in our batch in rgs, who all somehow or another became fiona's close friends =)

cny is coming!

2007-02-11T22:04:00.000+08:00

u just know cny is coming, when u
spend 45mins stirring pineapple jam in a ceramic pot over a sweltering hot stove;
when your mum makes delicious pineapple tarts (better than you've tasted anywhere else before - crisp exterior, followed by a meltingly gorgeous interior with the tangy sweet pineapple jam blending superbly with the warm, buttery outer biscuit coating - so oh my god wonderful);
when u spend a saturday morning tying red pipe cleaners on all the plants in the house;
when you have to wait till 8pm in sch for mum to pick u up because she had to go to the flowergarden to buy new yr plants;
when u hear yucky dong dong chiang music in all the shopping centres;
when there's more and more goodies to eat =)

post genetics + pictures taken with new camera phone

2007-02-11T21:30:00.000+08:00

pricey lunch at food republic, vivo city. imagine $6 for a plate of nasi lemak! $7 for a measly small tiny bowl of bak ku teh. rip offs man. but we still had fun.

gorgeous dogs that melt your heart. at the fantastic pet shop on the roof of vivocity.

horny dogs who cant get enough of each other, with rouan yelling out a commentary for anyone to hear. how embarassing. haha.

triple9 shot anyone =P (according to joel at least)

funky shades at river island.

goodbye

2007-02-04T16:08:00.000+08:00

my trusty nokia 3200

you've been with me for 3years
since council camp in j2 when selene's dad pronounced my old 8250 dead.
we've been through so much together,
through lawrence's army days calling me at night
i even made you new purple & silver butterfly robes
and the dratted Alevels
you were the phone that i was using when i first got attached.
you were with me when i first entered uni,
and had to key in all the numbers of the many new friends.
one of my only ways of communication in the lonely pgp room.

you went through so much with me.
i shall miss you.

goodbye.

and hello to

2007-02-04T16:04:00.000+08:00

my new sony ericsson k800i. $238 after a $60 trade-in of my old phone that's on its way to india. immensely impressed by its functions so far, but cant say i know how to use the cooler ones like picture blogging and voice activation. anyone can teach me?

emily

2007-01-30T23:29:00.001+08:00

this the emily i knew back in rjc.
drew this of her for her card last week, just thought i'd share it here =)

beware. blogging splodge ahead.

2007-01-30T21:24:00.000+08:00

this post is extremely long overdue.

qiantai and renji, the birthday boys! =)

with pam whom i havent seen in a loooong time! (and wenkien, whom i see everyday)

and here's my attempt at making granny smith apple lemongrass sorbet that turned out to be a granita instead, but nonetheless super refreshing and delicious!

the ingredients

and the end pdt! i shld have taken a better photo of it.

long-overdue photos from lunch @ marmalade pantry the friday before last, with zz and marcus. this was a much needed break, and a great chance for us (zz and me, that is. m is rich enuff to eat this everyday lor) to give ourselves a treat! ultimate comfort-food lunch for me too, and i walked away sooo satisfied and happy =)

i had the risotto (fantastic and satisfying!) and we shared the desserts - fig pudding (so orgasmically gooood! i sat there speechless after taking each bite, with this super contented grin on my face, soooo good.) and their famous nutella cupcakes tt marcus specially preordered for me cos i wanted to try and they sell out v early (so sweet haha).

dinner with some of my cybermatrix juniors last friday too! fun to meet up w these girls after not seeing them since sec4!

and just a couple of the thousands of photos taken last tuesday night at emily's 21st birthday party. happy birthday girl! hope u like the gorgeous red ipod we got u!

and how can i resist.... =P

hellos. i miss you!

many more recent stuff to blog about. but my days have mostly been school, trudge home to some prison break and mountains of studying. constantly tired and sleepy, im practically running on the cans of nescafe i drink everyday now. but the CAs are coming soon (one next wk and the rest just after chinese newyear. great. another celebration gone to the dumps.), lots to cover. no choice. and the dean's office have obliterated our summer holidays (how kind.), so there's just a teeny weeny short break of max 5days (including sat and sun) to look forward to after the final exams, and then its a whirlwind of school again, albeit clinicals this time. fantastic. sighs.

quote of the day (yesterday, that is)

2007-01-18T20:38:00.000+08:00

jxywk (gleefully):
"i love my new fitz and gerald! its so easy to read!"

li n lin simultaneously (in shock):
"its fitzgerald!"

omg. M2 is almost ending already leh friend.

2007-01-14T20:49:00.000+08:00

its been a long time since i last posted. had so many wonderful pictures to post. gorgeous memories of hanging out with him in the precious 3.5 weeks he had here. but all the xmas - newyr pics are all gone. disappeared into the depths of my hard disk, and i know neither how/why they disappeared, nor how to retrieve this precious pictorial collection of my memories back. so right now i've only got all my pictures frm jan 4 onwards. there is a gaping hole frm dec 19 till jan 3, too huge not to notice.

the hols were great, i spent almost all of it seeing him practically everyday, with the rare exceptions of meeting up with my sec sch babes and a few medicine xmas parties i think. prior to the horrible MB CAs (which didnt turn out too well, contrary to what some of you think - i dont know where you got ur sources frm), was alot of studying and hanging out w him; i also did an attachment at AH's a&e w dr. travers where i got to drain a buttock abscess - which was FREAKING COOL may i add, with loads of blood and pus, a very strong, kicking not-sleeping-when-he-shld-be-sedated young indian male patient (read: strong bangladeshi man in pain), and a dangerously close arsehole right next to your face when you're trying to debride the abscess cavity. hms there was also the few days right before the MB paper where i was v sick, and sleeping a lot, w my fever spiking at 39.2 or higher (at one pt the thermometer read 40.2, but we decided that it cldnt be that high, and it was just a wonky thermometer). oh yes, and there was the sunday brunch at prego just b4 MB w lawrence, even tho i was sick and had an exam the next day. the food was totally worth it. their pasta and tiramisus are fantastic.

aft the MB CA, there was the gg back to RJ to see mr yeo and mrs chan, movie "the wicker man" which had a great plot i felt, but some loose ends untied, dinner at menotti, kbox, the attempt to go sentosa tt failed because of the stupid relentless rain, farewell dinner at pariss w his family (dont go to pariss at marina sq!!!), stayover w him on the night of departure, and finally him leaving for pittsburgh in the wee hrs of sat morning. and there's the birthday party at yiuming's place for qiantai and renji today too!

as you can see i owe alot of photos, most of which contain lawrence, and they're all in my camera with wenkien at this v moment - i hope he's taking gooooooood care of it. =P

so now tt he's gone again, its back to the days of studying, waking up at 6am to talk to him, constant checking of my hp during lectures and skype dates again.

you dont know how much i hate skype. i need it sooo much, yet i hate it when im so dependent on it to stay in contact w him. it feels like such a superficial rship using skype. sighs. better than nthg i guess.

hms wondering if i shld go do a good deed right now. *ponders*

Meme - if your life were a movie.

2007-01-07T18:03:00.000+08:00

ok in my little bid to screw my MB up more than it already is, here's sthg really funny i got frm mrbrown.com and decided to try out for myself.

here's how you do it: put your itunes/ipod on shuffle, and press play. For every question, type the song that's playing. When you go to a new question, press the next button. Don't lie.

so here's mine:

opening credits - she will be loved
(hoooway!)

waking up - cool, gwen stafani

first day at school - head bobs, black eyed peas
(uhhhh. i didnt know i was so cool one leh...)

falling in love - sometimes you cant make it on your own, u2
(rather strangely apt for my case. haha.)

fight song - my humps black eyed peas
(wooh! cool mama hip catfight song!)

break up - too lost in you, sugarbabes
(uhoh, sounds like a really bad breakup there.)

prom - L'hymne a L'amour, edith piaf
(wah so poetic and flowery. was expecting something funkier. but beautiful nonetheless =P)

life's ok - champagne supernova, oasis

mental breakdown - you always get to me, colin raye
"When I'm hangin' by a thread
There's a circus in my head
I'm in a lonely state of mind
You always get to me"

driving - where is the love, black eyed peas
(head bobbing driving! i like!)

flashback - beyond the sundial, kevin kern
(so tv drama-esque)

getting back together - tout le bonheur du monde, sensimilia

wedding - shan hu hai, jay chou and somebody
(shit im freaking in trouble la. this is such a breakup song!! pls dont let me be like britney spears and be married for less than 24hrs)

birth of child - beautiful world, coldplay
(sounds like what id feel like)

final battle - love song, enya
(very very poetic)

death scene - when you say you love me, josh groban
(this is really quite sweet i feel. haha if i died to this song. hms i might be happy. hahaha)
"When you say you love me, For a moment, there's no one else alive" (like ME, for instance)

funeral song - fin fin bigaoutte, le bulac
(HILARIOUS! crap. at my funeral??? its this VERY CUTE french song. thats boppy and hoppy and happy and old. repetitive too. kinda like a gypsy dance song. maybe people will dance in joy at my funeral)

end credits - aint anybody gonna take that from me, colin raye
(apt. rather like my principles. i like =) )

omg i like laughed at every song that came up. its funny! try it!

happy new year y'all!

2007-01-04T23:09:00.000+08:00

first post of the year.

here's one of the gorgeous fireworks i saw at the marina bay fireworks display.
front row seats.
after 1.5 hrs of waiting in the crowd and the rain.
it was spectacular, though im not too sure whether it was worth the effort and the wait.
i didnt even get to count down.
and there was no music to dance to or get high on.
so it was just wait wait wait then ooh fireworks!
lawrence's happy new yr call at 12.02am then only told me that it was midnight and 2007.

whee.

i wish...

2006-12-29T02:27:00.000+08:00

tis' the season to be jolly

2006-12-29T02:03:00.000+08:00

lots and lots of meetups and parties this christmas season. came back from jp's place earlier, and am soo tired. i dont have photos from all the parties, but they will all stay as nice memories in my mind - before they all get booted out by microB stuff. bah.

26th dec - lunch with ruth, grace, shiyun and fiona at Han's at the national library. lots of tales of ruth's travels and exploits as always, and this time, she's on the milo tin! i really have to go check that out.

after that was the wonderful xmas party at mirriam's house! that was truly great. the food was all good, i had rave reviews about my choc cake hooray, and i got a lot of lovely xmas presents from my doting friends! now that made me feel really guilty, because im not in the habit of sussing out xmas presents for people. i just have never done that, apart from maybe lawrence's xmas present last yr and this yr, but he's special. so i really apologise for the lack of presents this yr to all, esp marcus, cel, zj, joshua, and mirri, who so thoughtfully got me really gorgeous and sweet stuff! food was great! our potluck really worked very well, and everyone contributed great stuff =) wk's mum's glutinous rice, li's rendang that's really sedap!, joshua's sushi, enming's otah, weeming's pasta, marky's tang hoon and potato salad, bean's chicken pie, mirri's cottage pie, sandwiches etc, zj's tiramisu, my choc cake, cel's gorgeous log cake, i hope i didnt leave anyone's out!

and being amongst bffs, the atmosphere was just so relaxed and comfortable it was really good. =) and here's my cake getting zj's enigmatic stamp of approval.

lawrence and me on the mrt =) perhaps the last coupley shot for now.

wednesday saw me meeting up with yun, diane and liangsi for dinner and girly chats. di's whirlwind trip back frm 24-29 dec. it was fantastic to talk to these girls after soo long. dinner at glutton's square, and then dessert at menotti's half priced pastries after 10pm. a hilarious episode involving me and my dream long chain heart necklace which i finally saw at miss selfridge, but was gone after i stepped out of the store for 10mins to consider it. ohwells.

yun and i making new yr wishes on plastic balls in the esplanade. to be thrown in the bay to float around on new year's day.

and to end off, a hilarious picture at topshop.

no pictures from jp's party this evening im afraid. check out wenkien's blog for more pics of our bff xmas party and jp's party tonight!

day trip up north from chiang mai

2006-12-26T00:35:00.000+08:00

on the second day, we hired a driver, mr jerry, to take us on a private day tour up north, mainly to the Golden Triangle and to visit the Karen Hill Tribe. Along the way, we stopped at other gorgeous places such as this sun drenched place for morning tea which i dont know the name of because i was too sleepy, the Mae Fah Luang gardens erected by the Queen mother to encourage agriculture and horticulture in the northern regions of Thailand, the border town to Myanmar, and a tangerine plantation.

It was an insane trip - 730 in the morning till 830 at night, travelling a distance thats the equivalent of driving to KL and back in one day. haha, but it was amazing, and we got to see so much in just one day.

shall let the photos do the talking, whilst i read about mycoplasmas.

my cooking class in chiang mai

2006-12-26T00:22:00.000+08:00

for 3 glorious hours in chiang mai, i had a wonderful home cooking class with Yui and Kwan and their lovely son Sid at the alotofthai home cooking "school".

Chiang mai is known for its numerous cooking schools. These come in all forms, from high class hotel restaurant classes (e.g. the Four Seasons), to these more localised home cooking classes organised by locals in their own homes! i opted for the latter, as i felt that i wanted to get to know the city better through its people, and it'd be interesting to visit one of their homes, and get to know them on a more informal basis.

It was a good choice. I chose this school after reading a raving review about it on a thai food web portal, and gave Yui (the teacher) a call when i arrived in Chiang Mai. On the appointed time, her husband Kwan drove to my hotel in his van, and picked me up. In the van were the 6 other students i were to be attending this class with; 4 australians and 2 americans. They all came in couples, whilst i was alone. My parents had no interest in joining me in this venture. Despite being alone, and feeling a little awkward being the only asian in the group, the warmth of Yui quickly endeared everyone in the group to each other, and i felt less lonely.

We cooked tom yum soup, green curry, and my favourite pad thai. =) she did it in the way that wld be easy for us to replicate at home; ie using stocks and pastes that wld be more easily available and accessible to us, rather than doing everything from scratch, which probably would have been more authentic. But the thought of having to pound curry paste for hours before just to make green curry for eg, would definitely deter me from ever cooking it again at home. As it was, the dishes turned out great, and i have fair confidence in cooking them again =) We all had our own little cooking stations, and were allowed to customise the dishes to our own tastes and liking! (I astonished everyone in the group, even Yui, with the amount of chillis i insisted on adding in my food hahaha!)

The lessons also included a local market tour, which presented no particular interest to me because its basically the same as the wet markets in singapore, but was definitely an eye opener to the caucasians.

images from chiang mai city

2006-12-25T23:09:00.000+08:00

merry christmas!

2006-12-25T19:05:00.000+08:00

i apologise for the dearth of posts lately. there're sooo many pictures to upload, but im fussy about doing them chronologically, and well, all my pictures are in the macbook pro (of which i returned the powerplug to lawrence -which was the stupidest thing in the world to do, and it has run out of batt, therefore i cant use it) and im currently blogging on my trusty lovely powerbook which has finally returned from its long trip to pittsburgh safely back to me, with the sole exception of an unsensitive shift key now. having used both models for an extended period of time now, i must really say that the powerbook is really significantly faster than the older macbook pro. especially when launching microsoft applications, and rousing it from sleep. but i digress.

christmas has been lovely so far.
a pre-xmas family dinner with lawrence and penang relatives at the brazillian along 6th ave. gorgeous food and company. followed by a hilarious karaoke session at the club. unfortunately i spent most of that session choosing 'simple songs' for them under the stressful insistence of my dad (how am i supposed to know what you older people know or listen to offhand?!).

xmas eve - lunch with lawrence and shuen at geylang's doujiangyoutiao place and durian after was fantastic. orchard road for last min xmas shopping was terrible. too crowded i say.

last night's xmas eve party with lawrence's extended family was great fun! good food, and great games. the caroling was nice as always (carolling's so nice, its sthg ive never gotten to do before, till last yr at his family's xmas eve party too). albeit feeling a little lost and lonely when he had to go make his rounds "hi, yes i reached home 3days ago... oh the states is not too bad, im coping alright... its fairly cold now yes..." yadda yadda, and do other family duties... but ive gotten to know some members of his family well enough to talk and chat, so i guess it was still okay.

today was okay-ish. frazzled as usual whenever there're alot of people in the house. i so do hate it when relatives are here. my oasis and haven of a home is turned into some noisy place and i turn into this manservant being called to do this and that constantly. therefore i always escape elsewhere. but today? it'd be rather sad to be in the medicine library on xmas day dont you think? so there was no other choice. my great plan to bake peach cupcakes with mascarpone frosting for all my friends was killed when the lady at cold storage told me that they were totally out of heavy cream. none whatsoever for the next few days. are people really eating that much cream in this holiday season? waistlines people! i had to sadly put back the gorgeous fresh australian white peaches i'd found and italian mascarpone cheese. bah. even my foray into mixing the chocolate cake for our xmas party tmr was dashed when there were not enough eggs in the house. not a good day i must say.

overall, its been heaven that he's back. lots of stuff on my mind though. ohwells.
lunch with the girls tmr, and then our wonderfulicious xmas party at mirri's! i cant wait!

ive diligently gotten my secret santa present. have you??

gorgeous HAATO icecream

2006-12-22T01:06:00.000+08:00

strawberry champagne and honey-clover.
honey-clover rocks my socks.
and notice the humongous portions?
*swoon*

HE'S BACK!!!!

2006-12-22T01:04:00.000+08:00

*egg-cited happiness*

(and he looks sooo different)

sighs.

2006-12-05T19:28:00.000+08:00

i really really really really really really really need a haircut now.

precious post-exam moments

2006-12-05T19:07:00.000+08:00

im a little delayed in posting photos. here're some from last week:

finally got to try awfully choc cake last tuesday, after lunch at ikea! the cake is sooooo gorgeously good! =) i read reviews previously that the cake is tooo chocolately, but i bought one whole chocolate rum and cherry cake, and it wasnt at all too chocolately! but nicely dense and moist and just supremely good =) zj bought the entire original choc cake, but he said it wasnt as moist as mine tho.

on wed, marcus, li, wenkien n i headed to guzzle us some east coast prawn mee! =) good as always =) then we headed to ecp to get liyana some halal food.

the sea is so pretty and blue, the day so bright, surreal. it so did not look like we were in singapore.

coconuts at ecp =)

friday's sojourn at holland village after sch and the medical instruments fair with bean, zhenjin, joel and liyana, with lunch at this noodle place, and chilling out at haagan daz after. i had such a wonderful time just eating, relaxing, and chatting with good friends. times like these, totally spontaneous, yet so rewarding for the soul, are just too immensely precious =) we photowhored a lot too. here are just some of the pictures we took.

green tea, macademia nut and chocolate icecream!

delicious beard papa cream puffs and chocolate fondant cake at taka basement after, whilst walking to PS to meet wenkien =)

zhenjin took this hilarious picture of me at the art gallery in taka where we decided to go and browse. we were soo furtive, afraid of getting caught, but there were like security cameras in every corner in that place =P

happy anniversary

2006-12-02T18:41:00.000+08:00

late this morning, i was upstairs knitting my furball (of which i will post pics of later so you can see how its such a tremendous furball) and minding my own business, when the doorbell rang.

this was there, in my astionished mother's arms, addressed to me, with an incredibly sweet note attached.

"hello!"

thankyou lawrence for the wonderful gift =)

<3

2006-12-02T10:48:00.000+08:00

lawrence, happy 2 yrs today =)

comments from today:

2006-11-30T00:10:00.000+08:00

mirriam and liyana commented today that being attached automatically makes a girl less attractive. i could see why. its like doubled up for me because my height automatically makes me a lot less attractive to guys already. but hell, it doesnt really matter does it? as long as there is that one special guy in the world who thinks you're as hot as hell, what the rest of the male species think about how you look is automatically discounted. =P

my result here is the same as lawrence's! =)

2006-11-30T00:02:00.000+08:00

BROWNIE BATTER!

You scored 92% SWEET, 59% CHUNKY, and 74% UNIQUE!

brownie batter ice cream with a rich brownie batter swirl

Mmmm....you are a very sweet mix indeed! You are warm, loving, and caring to all those around you, but you're not boring in the least! You have a wild streak and a creative, unique streak, too. You are a great friend, an interesting person, and you know how to have fun without ending up crouching over a toilet bowl. Nice!

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 99% on SWEET
You scored higher than 99% on CHUNKY
You scored higher than 99% on UNIQUE

Link: The Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Flavor Test written by weered1 on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

photo splodge part I

2006-11-29T22:00:00.000+08:00

hooray! the exams are over! =) the intensive torture of information feeding that had been the mainstay for the past 3-4 months is finally drawing to an end! no more mindless memorising of drugs and weird terms for the sake of memorising them, even if you're not completely sure what the hell u're spouting, for now at least. finally time to take a breather! =)

unfortunately, there's still 2 weeks of school immediately following our CAs. its been extremely hard to focus in lectures, and the 4 lectures-a-day of neuroscience and bacteriology has just been whizzing by in a blur of things, im not sure if ive gained anything from sitting in that freezingly cold LT for the past 2 days. my brain's just too tired and retaliating by refusing to absorb or focus. i. need. a. break. really. badly. which thankfully comes in the form of a free day tomorrow! =)

so here are photos from the past 2 weeks or so, which have been extremely trying. they consisted mostly of trying very hard to concentrate in lectures, study pathology and pharmacology, and having to deal with the immense mental stress of having a shitload of relatives in the house. they came in a stream, one group after the other. my house was noisy with all their chatter and this constant buzz of mental stress with all that noise and extra people just kept draining me out. i attempted to escape from that mental torture by staying out first in school, then at smu with shiyun. but that just became too much after awhile too.

so i felt that i probably didnt do as well for the recent patho and pharmaco (esp patho cos i just couldnt seem to focus in the 45min duration of the paper) as i hoped to. did alright for the previous 4 papers too. at least i passed, but i still feel that i waste too much of my time studying extra things and not doing as well as other people who study smart.

so anyway, the stress and torture both scholastically and privately for the past week or so have ended, and i can properly enjoy now. for awhile, till i begin trying to plow through the work that has accumulated during this exam study period.

i rambled on and on. lets cut to the chase. photos here:

granny's 87th birthday. i love her =) she's so cute and sweet, not to mention she has been there taking care of me since i was born, and living with us. im just so glad and thankful that she's still healthy and strong.

bean's birthday, which was the day we all wore red to celebrate her growing one year older! =) lots more pictures of this on her blog!

the following crapload of photos are from the post exam lunch at sun and moon at wheelock with bean, me, marcus, wrong joel, zhenjin, jerry, liwei, and william! liyana and mirri were there too, but sun and moon wasnt halal unfortunately.

joel and his cheesecake! he's been asking about the green tea tiramisu "with a lot of green powder" picture on my blog in a previous post since forever, so he was really excited to try this cheesecake that came in a birdcage. haha.

bean and the snowman beanie she got from joshua and kahheng for her birthday!

zhenjin and jerry - they look almost like brothers with their matching outfits for the day =P

good times, with a car ride with old guys talking incessantly about cars (which i just totally went zzzzz in =P) and funny bean with her continuing tirade of how pigs are cute. this lunch was followed by an attempted ktv session when a few of us met up with baorong, ibrahim, eugene, zhimin and velda later, but that fell through. went to do my eyebrows after that anyway hehe.

more post exam photos to come - @ awfully choc, MORE east coast prawn mee and ecp etc =)

old photo

2006-11-25T23:36:00.000+08:00

my lovelies =)

haha.

2006-11-25T01:33:00.000+08:00

robbins: "the only certain way of avoiding cancer is not to be born; to live is to incur the risk"

and 1 in 5 people will die of cancer.

damnit. i shldnt have been born. now im going to be a statistic.

horrible. =/

2006-11-23T21:55:00.001+08:00

sucks when the majority of the people you love are far far away, and there's hardly anyone to go to when u feel vulnerable because they are 1. traipsing around niagara falls with friends old and new, 2. studying vvv hard which stresses you out completely, 3. you've already bothered them and cant anymore else they'll think you're insane or 4. just too busy or not there.

doesnt help too when you have relatives in the house invading your personal and study space, and you cant coherently place the reasons for why you hate them so much into words that would make anyone else understand your position without first thinking you're a selfish unloving freak. relatives who treat your house as a free hotel, available for them to stay as long as they like, or to bring whoever they like there. its my fucking house, damnit.

im glad i dont have siblings. no obligations to people i dont like in the future, unlike my poor poor parents with 10 sets each.

smu is so nice its positively unfair that nus looks and feels like such a dump. if it werent for the medical school, and the wonderful people there, id hate it to bits.

i'm a wrecked up jangle of hormones right now. dont step on my toes.

miss you. 1 more mth to wait is simply too long.

fooding splodge...

2006-11-13T22:22:00.000+08:00

thanks for all the encouraging comments on my tagboard =) i was really touched to read them, esp from friends who're so far away and whom i really miss very dearly.

this weekend's been rather relaxed and filled with sleeping and going out. i did help my parents clear out the storeroom because we found this humongous rat the length of about 2/3 my arm, not including its really long curly tail. ugh gross. when mum lifted this big picture frame that we stored there, it scampered out, causing my mum and maid to shriek really shrilly. it then wavered underfoot near my mum for a split second before it ran out of the storeroom, past me, into this clump of bushes in my garden. dad the-too-late-hero ran out of the house with his golf club - a no.8 iron, but was too late to catch the scrouge. thoroughly freaked out by the scampering rogue, we gave the storeroom a thorough cleaning, and even a new coat of paint. what an adventure.

i havent posted any food pictures for quite some time, so here are some photos from fairly recent fooding adventures:

gorgeous gorgeous east coast road prawn mee, with lots and lots of chilli powder and fairly big prawns! yummy! gosh i can practically taste it in my mouth now, and its really making me salivate, even though i had it 2 weekends in a row. these photos were from the first weekend, when i went there with marcus and zhenzhen, after the public health screening at toa payoh. we had a wonderful time, with delicious bowls of prawn mee, lime juice, and a huge plate of ngoh hiang!

posers posing with our wonderfully delicious prawn noodles after a hard morning's work at toa payoh hdb hub. i'll blog about some of the more interesting encounters there in another post.

on the recent saturday after CAs, i finally got to go to sun with moon with my parents! nice nice set lunches, really value for money. my dad enjoyed his seaweed udon with handroll set tremendously, which is saying a lot. haha... i tasted it too! its like japanese food that's a little different from our usual boring california handroll and salmon sushi and what not. and the usual normal stuff like seaweed udon there is exceptionally tasty. yum!

the desserts are gorgeous. at least i felt that way. hahaha.

the famed tofu cheesecake that christine has been talking about sooo much, and even asked me to bake. haha its really light, and has a great texture. i really enjoyed it, and it didnt make me feel stuffed, even after the heavy lunch.

gorgeous looking green tea tiramisu. ooh! haha. its rather different from our usual tiramisu with the mascarpone cheese and liquor though. but still really light and delicious =)

and well, after class today, i got a lift home from dear celene and darryl, whereupon i set to work baking these little darlings for a couple of special people tmr! =)

ooh haha after looking at all these pictures, im hungry. =)

sounds from the library today

2006-11-09T22:24:00.000+08:00

e: "yay i finished microB in one day!!!"
li n me: "quick!!! close ur eyes, mouth, nose and ears! later leak out?!"

me: "arghhh! ive been in this bloody library since 830, and only taken less than 2hr break for lunch dinner AND toilet, and i still cant freaking remember all this stuff?!" (it was 9pm btw)
li: "dont worry, you've been studying so hard, it'll all come to u"
me: "like real. and you know it too."
li: "yah true."

anyone: "ahhh i just studied this like 3mins ago!!! how come forget already!!!"

the marathon stretch in the library today from 830 to 945 did little for my current state of microB and immuno knowledge. loads more to do still. damnit. i hate memorising stuff. esp stuff that doesnt make sense, but just pure mindless cramming of random bombastic words. and tiny minute details that arent taught or consolidated in class but rather, you're supposed to miraculously know them, from txtbooks and the such i suppose. medicine has brought my worst fear to life.

my brain feels like a hunk of foie gras now.

stuffed.

W.

2006-11-08T09:47:00.000+08:00

forget the 5Ps of smoking, or the 3 steps of Green's precede framework.

Here's the good (and important) one. the one W of COFM.

Whatever.

i know im supposed to be studying...

2006-11-04T22:18:00.000+08:00

but since i cant really stuff everything into my miniscule brain, and im probably going to fail anyway, here goes...

i just had some stuff to get off my chest. just spent the past 20mins flipping through the RJC alumni group in facebook, looking at where everyone is, adding new friends to my facebook list. somehow, i got really sad and despondent. attached to most friends' names were prestigious universities i had always longed to go to; imperial, harvard, cambridge, stanford etc. and for many of them, it has become a reality... they're living the overseas college life that i had dreamt of since i was tiny, that motivated me to study through the gruelling sec and jc days. and well, i'm stuck in our little sunny island of singapore, the place we all call home. its not that bad i guess, considering i'm pursuing my dream, medicine. its just that, i was sooo close to getting there. i had the grades, i even had the resume to boot. i probably cld have gotten a scholarship had i applied, and i even got a place. at imperial. to do medicine. just that no company or organisation in their right mind offers an overseas medical scholarship. and well, it just didnt seem worth it to make my parents spend an extra $400k just for me to live my dream overseas, when i can get a possibly equally good degree here for so much cheaper.

nus is not a bad university. i suppose its a good, even a great university. and i am having a lot of fun here, with all the great people i've gotten to know in medicine. its just that seeing myself attached to it unravels a whole string of broken dreams. but ultimately, when i graduate, i shld be where i want to be. thats the only thing keeping me going.

i think a lot of friends in med would feel similarly about this.

my friends overseas tell me its not that great a deal to be there... and my parents promised that esp since i saved a bundle by not going to imperial, i could travel around the region with my friends during the holidays. but somehow when i want to make plans, its always my parents who're in the way. im either not allowed because they're being cautious and protective, or they want to go too. which totally spoils the fun dont u think?

i feel like crying now.

more random stuff in the midst of mountains of mugging.

2006-10-27T17:16:00.000+08:00

so many things to know. drowning. is it really necessary to remember that singapore has 11,820 hospital beds, or that there are 8 public hospitals (5 acute general, 2 o&g & psychiatry, and 1 community), 6 specialty institutes, and 13 private hospitals? or how about the multitude of different viruses, each with their own clinical presentations and treatment mthds; or all the various drugs available for HIV treatment, which are commonly used, pathways of action, others that are used in various special circumstances? the tracts and pathways in the spinal cord and brain for all the different kinds of sensory and motor stimuli to run through during transmission? i guess this knowledge is important, to a large extent. its just super difficult to cram all these little random details in such a short space of time. 1 more wk to 4 CA papers, then 2wks of more lessons, and then another 2 papers. and i still dont know what the difference between COX-1 and COX-2 are. or why aspirin prevents platelet aggregation and causes bleeding even though 2 of the intermediate factors involved in this have opposing effects, without refering to the notes. i've already been revising religiously after lectures consistently, and it still amounts to this last minute panic and cramming. great.

us at lunchtime today. we're going to mirri's house tmr for some function where i'll be the only chinese girl in the house full of indian muslims celebrating hari raya. mirri wants me to wear a cheongsam too! should be really fun =)

public health screening tomorrow. toa payoh hdb hub.

oh yes and please do:

artwork by celene, huilin, marcus and liyana =)

back to work.

extracted from a random blog.

2006-10-25T00:08:00.000+08:00

here is the Manolo’s latest column for the Express of the Washington Post.

Dear Manolo,

I love heels, especially all the new stacked heels out for fall. But I’m pretty tall at 5’10” and would hate to break the 6’ mark. Is it possible to have heels cut down?

Maggie

Manolo says, ayyyyyyy! Have the heels cut down? Have you no shame woman?

Yes, you may have the heels cut down, although the Manolo doubts that any reputable cobbler would desecrate the beautiful shoes in such the manner, so you would have to do it yourself, perhaps with the series of inexpert blows delivered forcefully overhand with the small hatchet.

Of the course, the real problem here, it is not with the shoes–the poor, innocent, much maligned shoes–but in the stead, the real problem here it is the habitual and unnecessary insecurity of the tall girls.

It has been the experience of the Manolo that too many of the tall girls worry that if they wear the heels they shall appear freakish, and will not be able to attract the mens, who they believe are intimidated by their Amazonian stature. And so these beautiful girls spend their lives slumping their shoulders, slouching around in the flats trying to look shorter.

Bah! The Manolo would have none of this!

Stand proudly tall sisters! Throw back the shoulders and wear the heels, and the mens will fall over themselves attempting to climb your heights.

The Manolo reminds you that some men like them the taller the better, for the example, the magnificent 5’8” tall Rod Stewart who has been married to both the 5’11” Rachel Hunter and the 6’1” Penny Lancaster.

~~~~~~~~~~~
woot! i am just so going to wear my heels to school and ignore what anyone says about being taller than them.

in cartman's wise words "screw you guys, im going home"

ramblings

2006-10-24T20:41:00.000+08:00

its been a wonderful long long weekend. happy deepavali, and selamat hari raya to my dearest li and mirri! =) this long break has been fantastic and therapeutic. even though ive been mostly holed up in my room not really wanting to talk to people, or out with my parents. not really in the mood to socialise much too; somehow im very very self conscious of my braces now that the lower row has been put in. i dont really know how to smile anymore =( bleah. practicing in front of the mirror doesnt help either. hahaha. im just going to throw the towel in and just heck it and be ugly anyway.

i realised that looking good takes a tremendous lot of effort. not that i do at any point in time, but im just saying. of course, some girls are just naturally pretty, even without trying. those, are the lucky 5% of all females around. and of course, beauty is subjective. i get exposed to that everyday. guys debating over "the prettiest girl in medicine", and trust me, in our batch, there's lots to choose from. hahaha. and well, soandso will ALWAYS say that he likes girls who dont look like a shrunken apple (and simultaneously totally insult cel by calling her chubby), and someone will divulge who his eye candy is... and well, almost always, someone else will counter that with "--- is prettier!!!". this debate is not limited to the guys alone. we girls are constantly going over whom we think is the best looking out of our lot too. what a silly topic to talk about. but its a brainless one, which really helps when our brains have been fried by all the nonsense innundating it daily, and all it has to retain. heard of the term over-usage?

so anyway im on to that because i just spent 15mins watching chiobus on youtube. someone passed me a link because she thought they saw my best friend shiyun on one of the channelU programmes. lets not get me started about how i feel about channelU programming. bleah. but its not her anyway. thankgod. she's so much prettier than the girl there. haha.

went fooding with my parents and uncle today too! claypot laksa and my favourite avocado milkshake at alexandra village! then to ah chew's desserts near bugis after that! wonderfulicious! hahaha. im now snacking on the nice teochew kueh from the shop in alexandra village too. FATTENING. but im underweight so im not bothered. shall post fooding photos!!!

there. i love the egg n milk custard at ah chew's. haha.

and going to alexandra village brings back lots of memories. miss you!

i must talk more to my best friends like yun, sel, diane, and sarah who're like so distant now because we're all so busy we dont talk anymore. must must.
time to mug again. i am so not looking forward to school tomorrow. sighs.

more random photos from recently

2006-10-22T18:53:00.000+08:00

i think these were from our first trip down to vivocity for carls' jr and "you me and dupree"!

gosh i really have got to get down to studying now. T+2wks down to the CAs, and im so unprepared. not to mention, im sleeping for like 30mins for practically every paragraph of COFM i read! not. good. at. all. this long wkend was supposed to be useful, but so far it hasnt shown much returns. GAH.

happy birthday darling zhenzhen!!

2006-10-21T21:55:00.000+08:00

waiting for him to come online, though i seriously doubt he will now... sighs. shall blog more about sthg happy! like zhen's birthday in 2hrs time! =)

we did an early celebration for her on friday in school, with this gorgeous green tea cake that marcus bought from le pattiserie!(bean and i did the choosing from the online catalogue=P) super duper yummy, hope you like it dear! we all had fun trying out the bursty little gooseberries, which were sooooooo terribly sour. yelch! thankgoodness they were just decorations.

here's to our pretty and spunky newly minted 20-yr old! =) welcome to the 20s! may this year be another gorgeous year for you! =)

p.s. a little bird told me u wanted a homemade cake! sorry dear! friday was too rush a day to bake! i owe u one! =)

night out at timbre =) amongst other things

2006-10-21T21:25:00.000+08:00

i guess i've disappeared from here for a pretty long time. somehow blogging just hasn't been one of the top things to do on my list. the past 2 weeks have seen me camping out in the library more often, going down to sgh for an interesting dengue session, succumbing to the shopping bug both online and offline with lots of great finds, exploring the spanking new vivocity with friends and parents, watching season 1 of house, and lots of southpark as always, and well, just in general keeping myself occupied.

last tuesday, i decided to join the girls (cel, hwying, christine, hazel and fiona) at timbre. it was after much consideration, because for once in my life, i was actually all geared up to study! =P but decided to join them anyway, and i can only say that i did so with no regrets =) it was an amazing girl's night out. ngak's repetoire that night was more fun and upbeat, a good change from the depressed mood that he got me into the last time i went there. and he sang well as always =) his singing's the only reason i ever go pubbing, on weeknights at that. the company was fantastic, like we had such a great time chatting over drinks and nibbles, and even played a prank on our dearest fiona, aka flyfairy!

just got back from more shopping with my parents in orchard. bought a jersey dress from projectshop sale for 50% off!! =) orchard's interestingly quiet today, even though its a public holiday. everyone must be at vivocity. vivocity's really quite a nice place to be, although i feel that the new gap outlet is just too overrated. currently there's a nice selection of shops there, although too little places to eat at. it was so bad that the both times i've been there, i've had to trudge up and down the entire ginormous mall just to find a place where i dont have to queue for half an hr. now they just need to open all their shuttered-up stores, and have more eateries open, and it'll be perfect. i cant wait till there's a bigger buzz around the waterfront, when the shops there open. it looks like a wonderful place to be. =)

little things like this get me through the days...

2006-10-04T23:35:00.000+08:00

esp when everything just seemed to go along happy and fine, and suddenly it just came all crashing down. like a thunderclap on a bright sunny day. study, good food, and baking (in this case, more mooncake making) are the balm to my wounds.

thanks jianping for the yummy krispykremes from melbourne! =)

bringing mooncakes to school tmr! =) (with a better snowskin recipe this time) i hope they're nice.

mooncake making sunday!

2006-10-03T20:00:00.000+08:00

on sunday, mum and i embarked on a mooncake making experiment. she got a recipe from a colleague for yam mooncakes, and we decided to try it out. however, our attempt was more like an experiment because her colleague only gave us the steps to do (steam the mooncake, mash with some sugar and oil etcetc) and conveniently left out the amounts of each condiment to add. nevertheless, it was really fun, and the filling turned out great! what wasnt so fantastic was the snowskin, which i felt was a little soft. i think that our recipe called for a little too much shortening. ohwells. we made about 45, and gave them away already (to colleagues, lawrence's family, neighbours, and marcus!). but we're going to repeat this on thursday, for mum to bring some back to penang over the weekend for our relatives. hopefully there'll be some left, and i can bring them to school!

2006-10-03T07:12:00.000+08:00

ahhh meant to wake up at 4am this morning to mug, cos i slept at 10 on mon night aft the long long tiring day. and i didnt wake up! this was despite lawrence's best efforts to skype, msn, and call me to wake me up too! gosh im such a pig. 6hrs of sleep shld be more than enuff alr lor. =(

sighs

2006-10-01T18:28:00.000+08:00

sighs everyone knows how i only check the timetable at 630am of the day itself. because that's the time i wake up to chat with lawrence before heading to school, and that's the time i print my notes. today i decided to look at it a little earlier. and WTH??? i have this insane long day tmr! lessons from 830am -730pm with about 2hr break in between in total! thats 9hrs of school. TOMORROW. the first day of school after mid-sem break. *sobs* im not ready to end this holiday yetttt!!!

you are all my witnesses okay???

2006-10-01T01:08:00.000+08:00

lin~* says: (1:00:16 AM)
next yr vday bean and i are dating each other =)

in omnia paratus ~ *the sharing song* says: (1:00:29 AM)
how abt me??????????????????????????????????

in omnia paratus ~ *the sharing song* says: (1:00:51 AM)
selfish ppl! u all shud be more sensitive and nice to the TOTALLY NO VALENTINE ppl ok!!

lin~* says: (1:00:54 AM)
=)

lin~* says: (1:01:06 AM)
u might be taken by then =P

in omnia paratus ~ *the sharing song* says: (1:01:21 AM)
ok! i will take u up on that! hahaha

marcus has to get attached by valentine's day 2007 =)

$18 pedicure =P

2006-09-30T09:46:00.000+08:00

fri morning. bean, aileen and i trooped down to bugis to use up the $18 nail voucher that we got from our DnD package =P it was great fun! with lots of girly talk and gossip, discussion about various issues bothering us... and getting our nails done =)

aileen's toes =P a pretty pale pale pink. sorta off white and beigey. haha. we all had these cute little fans blowing at our toes to dry the polish at the end of it.

my toes! i chose pink =P

beanie's! she was edgier, and chose a deep dark blue =)

so there concludes the fun of this week. i got invited to chocolate buffet on fri night, but declined, citing my need to study. which did not really materialise anyway, and i ended up watching "breakfast at tiffany's" i love audrey hepburn. time to mug now!
mum bought mooncake material yest, we're going to try making mooncakes! =P yayyay!

starlight cinema

2006-09-30T09:23:00.000+08:00

thursday saw me having a wonderful lunch at menotti with my council buddy dennis. we caught up, and he spoke of his newfound passion for law. it was accompanied by wonderful pasta and desserts - and i had olive oil gelato!!! i was so excited over the olive oil gelato as i had previously read of it being served in this newyork restaurant and how good it is. and then, when i was in france, i had lovely olive oil and vanilla macaroons from Pierre Herme. I was extremely excited to try menotti's version of it, and suffice to say, it did not disappoint. =) it was savoury and sweet, yet with a bit of spicy aftertaste. yum! i shall go back there often to eat the gelato =)

hung ard raffles city for awhile, mugged a teenyweeny bit, then met the others for the nokia starlight cinema at the padang! =) the movie being shown then was "just like heaven" starring reese witherspoon. just like my kind of show =) romantic comedies rock my world =) there were beanbags, little chairs and cushions strewn about on the grass for people to take, and we koped a beanbag n a chair. mirri and i claimed the beanbag immediately! =) sterling kindly prepared a picnic, and we had great fun nuaing on his $2 tablecloth on the grass, eating chips, nachos w salsa, focaccia w brie, choc biscuits and chit chatting. for me? i just lay back on the beanbag and stared into the sky. the vast vast blue sky. it was wonderful =)

mark and his favourite primary school biscuits =) it was hilarious how the guys went gaga over these =P

beautiful sky. there's a tiny moon somewhere in the pic.

had a great time, and it was wonderful talking to jason, sterling, newman and mark, whom i dont usually hang out much with in school =)

girly outing and early lantern fest eastie supper =)

2006-09-28T09:18:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was a great day =) it began with an ultra girly outing with cel and bean, in which we shopped alot alot. no actually, where they shopped alot alot (because i only spent $8 whilst they spent really much significantly more! discipline sia =P) and we had good times catching up too!

we had ramen at ajisen ramen =)

went shopping at tangs beauty hall for mac makeup! this is cel and me. bean's trying on eyeliners at this juncture. trying on the various shades of eyeliners on ourselves to see which looked the best was really fun =)

and then we went perfume shopping! we smelt and critiqued so many perfumes, and showed each other our own fragrances (i love my sheer veil by vera wang)! it wasnt long before we got heady with all those scents =P and confused with all the little strips of papers that they use as perfume testers. trying to find a fragrance from marc jacobs that suited cel, and an interesting saleman topped it all off.

after this, us 3 girls went crazy in far east shopping centre. what was originally meant to be a 10min jaunt stretched on for about 2hrs in the same little row of shops. temptations galore! we went through dresses, skirts, accessories, white sunglasses (for cel), quirky skeleton earrings (that i really liked, but for $15 just wasnt worth it), searching for aimei's designs in the shop with all the cubbyholes that people rent spaces to sell their goods, buying belts (what's with the current craze over elastic belts??) drinking teh-ping and yuan yang will i was all overstimulated with sympathetic discharge. before we all got exhausted and tired of gazing at endless arrays of materialism.

i almost bought this $55 dress, but the price didnt appeal to me somewhat. haha =P im stingy (and poor, considering how i havent received pocket $ in 2mths because im paying for the car accident in july).

mooncake party at chiara's place later in the evening was great fun too! those who turned up were not the usual bunch of people I usually hang out with, so it was a good opportunity to mix around and get to know others better! especially since they all live around me, in the east =P

hanging up the decor.

wenbo's own handmade snowskin mooncakes!

learning how to appreciate chinese tea. chiara was teaching us all the steps - 1. smell the tea in the tall cup for the "hot fragrance", 2. pour the tea in the tall cup to the short cup, 3. smell the empty tall cup for the "cold fragrance", 4. sip all the tea in the short cup in 3 mouths - 1st sip through the teeth, 2nd sip through the tongue, and 3rd sip through the throat.
we all had great fun trying to do that, although i couldnt really tell the difference between sipping through the tongue and the throat.

sterling: "do i have nice eyes?"

xueying and sterling helping me set up the lantern, with everyone else looking on. i really really really wanted to carry lanterns =P

lantern! =) i havent carried one in many years. when i was younger, we used to go back to my dad's village during mooncake fest, where i would get to play with lanterns, sparklers, fireworks with my cousins. however, we stopped going back after i reached pri 6 thereabouts, because we werent free/no school hols etc. and being an only child, i have no siblings to carry lantern with. bought these last yr because i really really wanted to carry then, but it was not to be, no one to play with me =P haha i sound so sad. very happy that i finally got to carry yesterday!

hweeying decided to join me!

sparklers!

=)

guys chilling at the pavillion downstairs.

great day =) time to go mug a little then heading out to meet dennis for lunch! havent seen my council buddy in ages. =)

photorrhoea

2006-09-26T22:16:00.000+08:00

haha ok that was crappy. but i was highly amused when i read that the medical term for "runny nose" is rhinorrhoea (might be mispelt). reminds me of a cross between a rhinosaurus and diarrhoea. which brings very interesting images to mind. so, i coined this term, photorrhoea = photo diarrhoea, and to use it in a sentence," http://jxywk.blogspot.com is suffering from photorrhoea".

so yes. its the much anticipated holidays now. one week. just 6wks after school commenced proper. but we sure do need it. ive got a load of lectures to catch up on, and the CAs are in a few weeks time too. time to try and commit all those pharmocological drug names and insane microbiological virus names to memory, along with more stuff from those subjects, thrown together with even more stuff from pathology, immunology, a little neuroscience and whatnot. i havent even skimmed the surface of what we've covered in this short 6 wks. gosh. ok shall not stress me out. its still manageable. check back with me in march next yr when we'd have covered e complete m2 syllabus. i might have passed out by then.

fairly recent photos:

liyana n marcus "EVS!!!!"

impromptu island creamery outing just before i put my braces on on tuesday! we saw a picture of bean n aileen on the wall. we wanted to take a picture of ourselves to put up there too, but somehow my camera's SD card wldnt connect onto their HP photo printer. so it was not to be. i finally got to try their teh tarik and horlicks flavours! 2 huge scoops for $4. they tasted like ice cold versions of the hot drinks i enjoy =) nice!

ANW. today was a fantastic day. first, i woke up at 740am to chat with dear lawrence on the wonderful new skype for mac, that allows for webcam function! its super clear and the speed is good. =) he's doing fine there for those who're wondering. has some exam on wed, that i wish him all the best for. haha gosh, i miss him tremendously.

then, i drove down to east coast park to meet a bunch of medicine people for some morning exercise! em, ian, zhenjin, aileen, weeming, wenkien, honlyn, joel, rouan, and me! =) some of us went cable skiing, some blading and the rest cycling. wenkien, honlyn and i cycled from macs up till somewhere in changi coast road. wanted to hit changi village for some makan, but it was getting late and we all had to be elsewhere later. gosh i got really tired trying to cycle alongside hon and wenkien, who are both super fit people =) hahaha. tired, but it was a fantastic workout =)

hon and ian throwing ice at each other. childish!!! =P

(gosh it just occured to me that you can barely see the prescence of my nice white ceramic braces this close to the camera!!! woohoo!)

rou an came up with this idea to throw honlyn into the pond. first, she came over and whispered the plan in my ear. i whipped out my ixus 55, ready for some action. then she told wenkien, who promptly went running aft honlyn and catching her, whereupon he scooped her up in his arms!!! (awww. this sounds SO heyhey. haha but its really not. i just have bad descriptive skills)

if they were dressed in different attire, id think they were walking out of the church aft the wedding service or sthg. hahaha =P

rouan comes to join in the action. all this while, hon is screaming and wondering "will i hit my head when i hit the water???"

big splash! hahaha.

later in the afternoon, i went to raffles city for some mugging with joshua. cel and chiara, who were supposed to come too, were no-shows! BOO!

i love the new raffles city basement. its so nicely done up and there's a nice selection of stores there too. conducive to study, and i actually was relatively productive there!. coincidentally, i ran into my counsellee, deborah there =).

tmr is gg to be another exciting day =) girly outing and eastie mooncake supper! stay tuned!

gosh and just as im about to click "publish post", of all people, shengxiang called! haha. S03I class outing seafood dinner this saturday! =) happy =)

bleah...

2006-09-24T00:27:00.000+08:00

down with what i think is the flu. runny nose, wet cough. doesnt help that my teeth are still aching from the braces, hence not much appetite, not much i can eat. lost weight. which isnt what i want, despite the normal "girls want to lose weight" mantra.

wells, still went shopping w mummy today, which was tremendous fun =) bought a blouse, and a MAC eye pencil (my current one desperately needs replacing). mum got a skirt and a chanel lipstick. whoopee.. think that the shopping bug in me has finally been quelled. after 1 blouse, 1 eyeliner from today, and 2 dresses frm some uk site that are on their way being shipped to lawrence in e US for him to bring back for me. haha.

immensely lazy abt uploading photos. wenkien, i admire u for ur persistence in doing it every single day.

mid-sem break for one week. time for catching up on work, sleep and R&R! =) and nursing that irritating flu i have. damn. if not for the coup, id be in bangkok, shopping, eating n getting massages now. bleah.

LAPS.

2006-09-20T22:57:00.000+08:00

in light of the recent emergence of exclusive clubs within the m2 batch, (think LBBC - lonely bachelors n bachelorettes club, and the opposing hilarious LCCB) this is going to sound really silly. but trust me, it really really does make sense.

Bean and i have founded the LAPS - lonely attached people society, for the m2s with otherhalves overseas. a support group with an admirable motto - to HOLD ON.

in the always cheerful bean's words:

[xXx] bummmms says: (10:50:23 PM)
okay our motto is to hold on
lin~* says: (10:50:26 PM)
ok
[xXx] bummmms says: (10:50:27 PM)
and be strong
lin~* no more bangkok trip =( says: (10:50:28 PM)
hold on.
lin~* no more bangkok trip =( says: (10:50:29 PM)
yes. good motto.
[xXx] bummmms says: (10:50:31 PM)
yup!
[xXx] bummmms says: (10:50:36 PM)
dun let insecurities ruin rship
[xXx] bummmms says: (10:50:37 PM)
and be happy =)
[xXx] bummmms says: (10:50:39 PM)
hahaha

and unlike LBBC and LCCB (check out http://lbbc.blogspot.com and http://lccb.blogspot.com), we will not have an exco. hahaha we are equals who are just here for each other. =)
3 members so far - bean, jianping n me. tmr we will invite mok. =)

interesting.

2006-09-20T00:26:00.000+08:00

"the only certain way of avoiding cancer is not to be born. to live is to incur the risk"

from papa robbins.