but you must be some kind of superstar

today (or yesterday, really) was a nice, semi-productive day.

met aiping and jieyi for lunch and to catch up a bit. i had the indonesian panggang at the food court and oh boy is it still as good as ever. the one we have at techno edge really can’t compare. at all.

anyway, aiping and jieyi gave me my birthday present – erh, 3 hongkong movie dvds. though actually the only one i really like is the one with charmaine sheh in it… haha. but thanks still :)

also went shopping for new shoes, and i ended up getting a pair of very nice superstars :D

aren’t they nice? the only problem is that they kinda make my (non-existent) arches hurt, and i’m dying for gel arch inserts so i can wear them more regularly. in any case they’re probably going to be a bit better for my feet than slippers…

the other productive bit of today was going to the gym with huishan. she took the treadmill and i went for the stationary bike. which i found out is rather tiring when you increase the tension quite a bit plus if you push yourself to go full speed the whole time… seriously builds up the lactic acid feeling. but at least little pain (apart from the uncomfortable seat) and no breathlessness is involved. probably something i should be doing more often.

dinner was at the deck, and most stalls were closed so i settled for the claypot stall… and surprisingly enough the onion and beef thing wasn’t too bad. for one they didn’t use rice meant for fish soup and for another the serving wasn’t as pathetic as the first time i bought it. one more thing to eat at the deck, maybe…

alright, that’s all for today. going to read my deviance readings in ahem, preparation for tomorrow’s make-up tutorial. just so i don’t embarrass myself by not knowing anything at all.

and sigh, i’m not looking forward to friday… boo.

looks like history’s repeating

okay, so i decided to go back to hall tonight after all. fortunately my parents gave me a lift back, though i actually just wanted a lift to the bus stop so i wouldn’t have to walk so much. and yeah i feel kinda bad cos they ended up paying ERP twice… and seriously, ERP till 11pm? i think it’s nuts.

anyway, turns out that practically everyone is still around in hall. didn’t expect that, actually. and this sem is actually a departure from the rest because i usually spend my entire midsem break cooped up in my room rushing (or at least trying to) some assignment or the other. this time i got to spend at least close to half the week at home? and i deliberately chose not to bring back any work-related material because knowing my lazy self, i wouldn’t touch any of them over the weekend anyway.

had a pretty fun day today, with the other musketeers. it was quite funny, really, how everyone but me (as usual) was running late. so late that we went from originally meeting at 10.30am to 11am to ending up only leaving amk at like 2pm. and yes, very long story as to how that happened.

so the story is that vanessa already told us she was going to be late, but yy and maryam ended up late too. so we went to S11 to eat first (or rather we went there to watch me eat, since the other two didn’t want to) and in a series of somewhat bizarre coincidences, we met one of the AJ PE teachers… erh can’t remember his name. but yeah we got recognised because yy was proudly wearing the AJ PE tshirt… haha.

and then, mark tan appeared! turns out that he was going to meet jasper and gideon to well, bum around? haha. so yeah of course we sat together and all… and it seems like they’re still as nuts as ever. i mean that in a sorta good way, so no offense to you guys if you read this eh. and stupid mark is going on a backpacking trip through europe. i am jealous. even though i know i cannot go backpacking cos i have grossly lousy feet that will hurt after like one day or less… haha. but yes i’m jealous because i wish i had the time and money to go on such a trip. oh well.

so after lots of dilly-dallying over how maryam and yy were going to meet the guys for the greek statues exhibition thing at the national museum, we finally went to choose our dvds. and surprisingly enough we picked them out pretty quickly (so unlike our previous experiences when we seriously took ages) – first we decided that two movies (instead of our intended three) was enough, before decided on watching the machinist and stardust.

so off we went to yy’s place where we commenced our dvd movie mini-marathon – after prepping ourselves with snacks of pretzels, ruffles and french onion sour cream dip – we watched the machinist first. i guess it was a pretty good movie, because it totally kept us on edge though the ending was also a bit whattt. but yup not a bad movie, probably rather worth watching if you haven’t done so, and if you’re a fan of christian bale.

stardust was next, (which also was the cue for our dear pig vanessa to manifest her one-movie-only ways because she went to sleep after like a few minutes) and it was good in a unintentionally and intentionally funny kind of way. and we could have sworn that it was mildly parodying LOTR and pirates in terms of some scenes and the music. quite funny, really, and quite enjoyable i suppose.

after watching the bloopers reel (vanessa had managed to wake up and catch the last parts of the movie) of stardust, it was time for dinner! since i had my swensens’ voucher thing we decided to go there… only to realise that we couldn’t order baked rice since the offer was only valid for “pasta and main courses”… gah. i had to settle for some chicken-in-a-jacket thing (which was just a nice name for fried chicken, really) but at least it was pretty good. especially the breast. hehe. for dessert we shared a hazel daze sundae, which was yum.

and yup, that was our rather fun day together… been ages since we’ve hung out like this, actually. probably because all of us never actually really have breaks when we’re supposed to… let’s hope we will always have breaks to spend time on in future, eh.

and you’re probably thinking, omg, eeling’s back to her maniac blogging days! well, not quite. but i just kinda felt like it today. so maybe the birthday entries will come… sometime. and okay i WILL blog about it cos i want to remember it yeah :)

and to be as utterly random as usual, oh boy is left jaw/teeth HURTING. and i can feel the pain radiating to my head. damn. i think it’s the somewhat cold weather. it’s so irritating because i kinda want to work but this random pain is making me want to just slack or sleep. hate to swear again, but DAMN. go away, won’t you :(

okay i’m really feeling quite crappy. going to lie down for a while before throwing my laundry into the dryer… so ciao!

and oh boy. i hate to whine but oh gosh the PAIN. help!

welsh corgi cuteness and other things

there hasn’t been any particularly cute puppies at dailypuppy for some time, until teddy the welsh corgi… and boy are welsh corgis (their puppies, at least) CUTE. and not to mention adorable. look at them and you’ll see what i mean :D

seriously too cute for words. i wouldn’t mind being a lonely old lady in future if i could have a dog to accompany me. hahaha.

and here’s another cute one – one of charmaine sheh’s kittens! :D

how very terribly adorable. and it’s such a lucky kitten, to have charmaine sheh as an owner. haha. don’t scratch your owner anymore okay!

in other news, i had one of my worst migraines ever today. i took ponstan, went to sleep and when i woke up it was worse than ever. i think i’ve taken too much ponstan and my body is now immune to it. crap. at least there’s still anarex… which i apparently only need to take one tablet of, although i’ve been taking two thanks to the directions from UHWC… oh well. now i know. and time to go back there and get my ‘free’ meds. i am such a pseudo drug addict. urgh.

and i managed to end up not watching the oscars at all. i woke up too late for the live telecast, then i was sleeping off my migraine at night so i missed the replay too. at least i know who won what.

and to be rather random, i want a new bag. backpack, really. preferably timbuk2. now if i could just bear to fork out the money to get one… and i also need new slippers. comfy ones that don’t wear out in like a few weeks and make my feet hurt like mad. maybe new shoes too, while i’m at it. need to go exercise or something soon. have put on like 2kg since i’ve gone off my reductil. bad, bad, bad. it’s annoying, really. it takes ages for me to even lose 0.5kg, and yet no time at all to put on 2kg. yes life is unfair that way but still.

alright, enough rambling. now to figure out how to induce sleepiness in myself so i can go to bed. not easy considering that i’ve slept most of the day way… maybe, i could actually do some work. kinda wish i was back in hall so i can do it, plus my handy post-it with all my looming deadlines helps to motivate me a bit too.

now to decide if i should do the question that seems easiest for east asian international relations but has the worst deadline (like, 5th march) or the other question which seems more icky but has a slightly better deadline (17th march). decisions, decisions.

and yeah okay this is really good bye. BYE!

stop and stare/keep on moving but i go nowhere

this gorgeous thing is how cool la! it’s called a SpaceStation and it’s well, meant for saving space, organising cables as well cooling your laptop… and if you’ve seen my desk in hall, you know i definitely need this!

unfortunately, this also costs a bomb – 79.95 USD (!)

the other stuff at that website are pretty cool too. wonder if i can buy them in singapore?

in other news, i don’t quite know why but i think i’m in a blogging funk. again. and while i’m engaging in lots of ahem, procrastinating, i’m bored. apart from the two recent birthdays, life has been boring… or maybe i’m just being my usual perpetually picky self. okay i was about to say, what i wouldn’t do for some spice in my life, but on second thought, normalcy can be a good thing too. sometimes.

and well, i’ll blog about the birthday celebrations… eventually.

the niqqi’s PS cafe surprise

i would blog extensively about how vanessa, maryam and yy lied to, tricked and practically kidnapped me to celebrate my 21st, but i’m kinda too busy at the moment.

busy juggling between draft deadlines for the now dreaded anniversary book project, catching up (or rather, starting) with readings i’m terribly behind in, and trying not to play with my new nintendo ds.

anyway, just wanted to say a great big THANK YOU :D to my three “good” friends for all the thought and effort invested in everything. couldn’t have spent my 21st with any better company or food (though we definitely could have done without the $12 water… ouch for your pockets, guys.)

so yup, i had a great birthday :)

and nope, i don’t really feel much difference being an “adult” now… except that i feel lazier and more likely to procrastinate than ever. help.

okay, time to take a shower and decide between my three-way dilemma (is there such a thing as a trilemma?). or maybe i should just go and sleep. ha.

my 21st birthday at 38 braemar drive

AG (arnold guay) and KG (keegan guay). too cute for words, these two.

us ‘kids’ messing around. note how arnold’s glued to the nintendo ds in his hands, and how keegan turned his head back at the count of 3 because he didn’t want to take the photo. lol.

my grandma and (almost) all her grandkids. yup, she’s blessed :)

my birthday cake! stella ordered this double chocolate praline cake from the patissier while aunt joey paid for it. and it seriously is like, the best birthday cake i’ve ever eaten. full of rich chocolatey goodness with an absolutely gorgeous chocolate base i totally dug. i still have some left so hopefully you guys will get to try some… ;)

tanya, sammi and me!

last but not least, me and my grandma (and my birthday cake)! :)))

more pictures to come when i get all of them from my dad, aunt tiara and stella.

in the meantime, i am quite determined to get my nintendo ds lite before the weekend is over. let’s hope the shops i’m looking at have it in stock. fortunately for my wallet, it will be funded by my birthday angpows. i didn’t actually have this party for the sake of collecting them, but they’re still nice to have… especially when i got like close to 10 times what i got from my CNY angpows. hehe :D

anyway, i’m out for the night… erh, morning. and well, i’m just hoping that you know, the actual day won’t actually suck.

but oh well, at least today’s celebration was a good one :)

my xin nian is very kuai le

(omg at the cheena-ness of my title! but i can’t think of anything else.)

gah. the intro/first part of writing is always the hardest. even blog posts are no exception. pffft.

arghhh. i am irritated. am currently experiencing writers’ block. i roughly know what i want to write about, but i just can’t quite piece my thoughts together. to think i used to think that writing came to me quite naturally. what nonsense.

let’s try this again.

okay, i have to say that i like CNY. in fact, it’s probably the only holiday that really does mean something to me. i mean, christmas has never really meant much to me since my family doesn’t exactly celebrate it. and the other holidays are fairly inconsequential save for the fact that it means no school or work. aka more time to procrastinate. haha.

but CNY is different. like my parents actually bother to do up CNY decorations around the house. it’s not like we go overboard but every year they try to figure out how to ‘artfully’ put up this and that decoration to hide the paint cracks on our walls. haha!

and thankfully CNY is never tiring for me because we don’t really go round to everyone’s places. i think i go to a max of like three houses each CNY – my grandma’s place on my dad’s side, then my grandma’s place on my mum’s side, and the occasional visit to whichever cousin who has a new/renovated place or what. yeah most of the time we just hang out at my paternal grandma’s place and since everyone comes round there eventually, we kind of just sit and wait for our angpows there. and of course we pass our time with miscellaneous activities like mahjong (probably THE game of CNY this time round), card games or playing with the terribly cute little cousins.

while my little cousins (the youngest is 5 i think) make me feel terribly old (like oh boy, i’m over a DECADE older than them!) they’re all so cute and fun to play with. everyone’s favourites used to be tanya and sammi, but since they’ve grown a bit, the new favourite is keegan, the youngest cousin. he looks almost exactly like his older brother arnold, except that he’s shorter and has slightly bigger eyes. actually he seems a bit quiet and shy sometimes, but he’s so cute and good-natured i can’t help gushing over him. plus the two brothers have like shaved heads so their hair is really nice to touch? haha. i think they’re a bit more well-behaved this time round and well, they’re just so cute! especially keegan. haha.

and oh boy have tanya and sammi grown up! especially tanya, who i think is already close to taller than me? haha. like the two brothers, they’re also better behaved now actually. for one sammi isn’t afraid of me anymore (she used to ‘discriminate’ against me for being fat. imagine that! hahaha.) although you can tell that she’s not so generous with her toys. tanya is better in that aspect, though she does also have the tendency to be a bit rude. or was that sammi? haha. anyway i still love the both of them and i was all awww when they asked me why i didn’t go up and play with them today (i was busy mahjong-ing downstairs. haha.) before they went off.

speaking of them, i really like the nintendo DS now. tanya and sammi had a DS each, and i was hooked on it that i’ve changed my mind. so instead of getting a PSP for my birthday, i think i’ll be getting a DS instead. the reason is quite simple really, it’s that there are more fun games on the DS. sure, i love the rpgs and whatnot on the PSP but the little games on the DS were just so addictively fun. wait till i get it and let you guys have a go on it, then you’ll see what i mean. or maybe i’ll get like, both the PSP and DS. like use my birthday angpows to get the PSP and then save up for the DS or something. yeah i know that’s kinda extreme but hey, it’s not like you don’t know what i’m like, right? haha.

still on the subject of family, i’ll be celebrating my 21st with them tomorrow :) the good thing about having my birthday so near CNY is that it saves me the hassle of coordination. since everyone’s been around at my grandma’s place i just told them that i’ll be celebrating on saturday ‘here’ and would they be free to come? haha. there’ll be lots of food, cake (can’t wait to try the one stella’s buying for me from the patissier!) and of course, birthday angpows. hehehe. which is the other good thing about having it near CNY. :D

and oh yes. does anyone want to play mahjong??? after playing so much today my hands are itchy for it. we played with money (very small bets of course. like 10/20 cents. haha.) and while i ended up losing a bit in the end, i still want to play! haha. liked the way i won like 9 bucks though. i was like oh boy i’m so not going to win today after missing a couple of chances to win big earlier. then i managed to draw like two tai’s in a row (winning 30 cents in the process because i had the cat and the mouse) and the best part was that i then 自摸-ed to win. so i got $3.20 from everyone and recouped my losses from the previous round. unfortunately as we went on playing (with different people), my luck faded and i lost quite a bit. oh well, it’s the playing that’s fun, isn’t it? i have a mahjong table at home now, so yeah, don’t feel shy and invite yourself! haha!

and oh oh oh! i almost forgot about this. we were kind of planning to go visit ‘aunty carol’ so i messaged her to ask if we could. the bad news was that she can’t make or receive any CNY visits because her relative has just passed away, but there was also good news in the form of her being pregnant again! she’ll be giving birth to a baby boy in april. cool, isn’t it? although it is kinda sad that we haven’t been in touch for so long we only know now. but better late than never! i think we should go visit her soon. maybe during our midsem break. i hope it’s not coinciding with the JC holidays? i have no idea.

anyway, i have a good feeling about this year. i hope i’m not counting my chickens before they hatch, but this year, at least the beginnings of it, has definitely been much better than last year. i’m happy in a way that i didn’t think that i would ever be, and that makes me… happy? haha. well i have crap coming towards me in the form of commitments i am weary of, but i’m just kinda ignoring all those except for when i actually have to deal with them.

yup in short, i’m happy, hope that i’ll always be, and that you will be, too! haha. and of course, have a happy CNY!

all i wanted to say / all i wanted to do / is fall apart now

evidently, i am having the worst blogging funk in my life at the moment. either that, or i just have lost all inspiration and desire to blog… wait, don’t they mean the same thing?

anyway i’m having this strange tug-of-war in my mind over whether i should still be diligently blogging (or not). on one hand i will feel like strangling myself for not copiously noting down every teeny, irrelevant detail of my undoubtedly mundane life but on the other hand, where on earth should i actually find the time to blog? the readings (all unread, of course) are starting to pile up and my heart sinks whenever i think about the anniversary book project, which i’m increasingly feeling BLAH about.

well actually i’m starting to feel the same way about most of my other hall commitments (read: elephant monkey cow.) and boy can i not wait to be rid of them. i’d rather just concentrate on studying. which is so much easier that it almost borders on relaxing sometimes. except when i actually have to do it, of course, then it becomes a throughly procrastinable task.

oh boy. i’m like breaking 2 of my resolutions at one go now – the less procrastination and sleep earlier ones. oh well.

anyway, if you’re here because you’re wondering how i’m doing, well, i’m fine. except for the fact that the first three weeks of the term has flown by without me really noticing it. which is bad because it means a hell lot of undone readings. crud. but apart from that i’m okay. i’m not particularly stressed (which is bad) about anything of real consequence, which is good because it means i’m not going through the hellish period i experienced last semester. i shudder at the thought of having to go through anything similar again…

yikes. i’m less than a week away from being old enough to be considered an adult. initially i was like yay let’s celebrate and get loads of presents but now i’m feeling a bit more like heck it, it’s way too much trouble and i’m feeling a bit too lazy to really care.

[note: a segment of cryptic vagueness was deleted here and i'm like too lazy to completely re-edit. hence the slight discontinuity...]

anyway, if you’re ahem, intending to get something tangible for me, please feel free to go ahead! haha. as for what i might want, please refer to the christmas list but strike tvb calendar, hair brush and lifehouse’s who we are album off that list. everything else still applies. except for slippers. maybe. and you could maybe add “bag” to that list too. and as for which tvb series with charmaine sheh i want, any one is fine! except for hmmm country spirit. if they have canto audio and english subs i’ll LOVE them. seriously. but the older ones don’t have english subs, unfortunately. and oh yeah i don’t mind movies with charmaine sheh in them too (yes she’s acted in a few. not fantastic ones but at least she’s in them!).

hahaha i bet everyone is cursing my thick skin now. but better to get something i like, right? i’m kidding (marginally), actually. like i said, it’s the thought that counts. and all the better if, you know, i don’t get them months after my birthday. HAHA.

alright, now to decide if i should watch the videos for east asian tutorial (will be a terrible student if i don’t) or go to sleep (recurring migraine since friday might recur again). hmmm.

and oh yeah, change in layout. was irritated with the previous one for minor, perfectionist reasons.

Angel of Mercy
How did you find me?
Where did you read my story?
Pulled from the papers
Desperate and hardened
seeking a moment every fix

All I wanted to say
All I wanted to do
Is fall apart now
All I wanted to feel
I wanted to love
It’s all my fault now
A tragedy I fear

Angel of Mercy
How did you find me?
How did you pick me up again?
Angel of Mercy
How did you move me?
Why am I on my feet again?
And I see you

onerepublic – mercy