what a beautiful smile

happy nights: canceled tennis, tomyum dinner at marina with sugarcane competitions, the messiest ben&jerry's ever, and chatting at harbourfront. then we spontaneously decided to go weiming's house for midnight guitar hero, resulting in missed trains, running for last trains, and waiting around!

it was fun though, we ate cup noodles drank fizzy coke and watched antm before descending into guitarhero-frenzy. I LOVE LOVE LOVE THE DRUMS and my guitar skills aren't too bad either! the only drawback, feeling like death now, sleeping at 5am is bound to kill many many brain cells somehow

my new favourite retarded application: poladroid. spastic but fun (((:

and i watched harry potter: the half-blood prince last night at westmall! ok the four of us had agreed beforehand to have low expectations so nobody would be too disappointed by the movie. true enough, i ended up being surprised and delighted! hahaha. the movie was not awesome but it was far from terrible too, i thought the cinematography in particular was excellent. it seems so fast, now there are only two movies (one book) left! - marking the end of an era.

sweeter than heaven, hotter than hell

so many things have happened since bangkok:

i became awfully sick after returning, hit with diarrhoea vomiting fever bodyaches and migraine. that was a dreadful night, sleeping and tossing in pain - but miraculously the next day i was perfectly healthy! still not quite sure what on earth it was.

one saturday night, i also had drinks with yonghan and renjian! at our favourite german pub. i love how cheap hoegaarden is there, it is a pity that place closes so early. we completely talked nonsense, they reminisced about old times, and then trooped down to a nearby prata shop for eats till 3am. i received plenty of well-intended advice too! - hanging out with them makes me feel so young and ignorant, but in a good way.

i went for church mass at st. mary's on sunday! it was good, i like how calm i feel after. now is the time to look closer at religion and think about what paths i want to take, i feel like this has nagged me for SO LONG i need to deal with it. after church cheryl and i shopped in town, we ate budget macs and CAMWHORED last minute. tuesday night i also went for alpha camp with siting and kenneth at clementi bible church, the people were really sweet and nice and i have so much respect for them willing to give their time and effort to bring others to the faith. unfortunately i felt very unsatisfied and left with many unanswered questions buzzing.

for two consecutive days i went for interviews at recruit express with peijun. oh my god it was such a hassling experience, we were both SO PISSED off. it is ridiculous how many hoops they make you jump through! just for a 2 weeks temp job. personality test, 1 hour long interviews, come-back-after-lunch interview, come-back-next-morning-8am interview... the first day it was still ok, we shopped afterwards and had a good time. but the second day we just got irritated, and sat in toastbox after the morning interview complaining and talking for a good one hour plus.

there was also that wednesday i went to chill at cheryl's house, it was so gooood. so relaxed, swimming, talking, tv-ing, and snacking unhealthily on bags of chips. we watched ghosts of girlfriends past, i thought it was so-so only. maybe it was the lousy video quality, or i just didn't find it very insightful/funny. sidenote: i am STILL watching how i met your mother, it is awesome!

friday night we were supposed to go clubbing, but xueli is a retired clubber! so the plan was drinks at no.5 instead. unfortunately we forgot friday night is SWARMING with people, so no.5 and acidbar were out of reach and five of us ended up in heaven's loft instead. hahaha i had my stairway to heaven version of long island tea, while the rest had beer/girly cocktail/apple pie/ben&jerry's. it was a good good night, we talked laughed giggled till 1am, danced down orchard road (very smelly in the moonlight i might add), had fries and garlic chilli (FTW) and laughed somemore. finally at 3am we retired to take NIGHTRIDER home, so all in all it was a budget night out.

saturday i had lunch with the clique at jurong point! and we ate the usual thai food, the claypot tomyum was awesome. then three of us headed down to my favourite HOME AWAY FROM HOME: IKEA. i looooove that place, everytime i go there i come back feeling rejuvenated and relaxed (does that even make sense? hahaha). and shopping there with meizi/shimin is the BEST because they are the perfect ikea friends to have. how do i explain this? they are in for the full experience, they look at everything touch everything comment on everything and have a good time too. we discuss colour combos and texture-matching and launch into commentaries on what we want in our homes, and the very best part: they actually buy things too. not like shopping with boyfriends! ugh! they are the worst, they just keep wanting to move on and not appreciate the sublime beauty.

the following sunday i was supposed to go church again! but unfortunately i was a pig and couldn't wake up. but after we had lunch at amk hub (overpriced foodcourt) and we headed to weiming's house. rest of the afternoon was spent with the most fantastic wii and GUITAR HERO. omg i loveee it now, i lovelovelove the drums! we played our favourite ravin rabids again, shux also turned up and gave all of us her freshly-baked oreo cheesecake which was divine. after she comes back from orientation week i shall haunt her house for more good fooood.

there was also the monday where peijun and i went to sign a contract (but the job was revoked TWO HOURS LATER how ridonkulous) and went to do our hair at kimage. i have never sat in a hair salon for so freaking long, peijun was STILL there when i left. now i have ahlian highlights, and she has curls. not absolutely fantastic but for the dirt-cheap price i suppose it is worth it!

aaaah. i need to get a job before the rest of my holidays just DISAPPEAR like that.

one night in bangkok

bangkok was awesome! - absolute shopping paradise. i have never seen anything like platinum mall, i want to go back already. too bad charlene could not make it; if not i am sure the trip would have been EVEN MORE AWESOME because one more girl thrown into the shopping mix would have increased the HIGH factor exponentially!

ooh and we watched Up! in 3D, it was amazing. i love that movie so much it is going into one of my favs. the opening sequence was brilliant, emotions relationships all conveyed into one short strip with beautiful music. carl and ellie are my idea of true love, the perfect couple growing old together and comfortable familiar with routine. it touched me so much i cried 3 times throughout the show! - aside it was funny and refreshing, and the 3D artwork was just gorgeous. i have so much respect for pixar and the masterpieces they create

give me my romeo, and when he shall die, take him and cut him out in little stars, and he will make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night.

-shakespeare

so i have been reading two strangers' blogs for over two years now, one guy one girl; who were very much in-love. i adored the way they wrote, from outside glance their love looked unbreakable. there were quotes from love-letters and poems, no excessively corny or florid cliches; it was a very lyrical and mature-sounding relationship with mutual respect. yet (6? i guess) years down their relationship is suddenly in shambles, i wake up one day and read about all the hurting and i feel so instantly disillusioned. like my role-model of perfect love is GONE so what is left?

i am not trying to be cynical but it seems people who ponder or contemplate too much wind up hurting themselves more, sometimes it is best to be a little airheaded and bimbo and just SMILE through it all (like various people i know)

i had an awesome week before i left for bangkok!

saturday: met peis cheryl and shuxx for dinner at kenny roger's. as a general rule of thumb i hate that place but the food turned out pretty all right, especially the glazed ribs mmmm. shuxx also gave us some of her homemade-baked-cheesecake, which was really good.

sunday: i was supposed to go cheryl's church but ended up going back to malaysia! very chilled, laidback, plenty of napping on sofas, listening to my uncle and his uproarious jokes, and some of the best bittergourd soup EVER.

monday and wednesday: DRIVING! and this reminds me i need to book my driving test date soon, i MUST get my license before i start work (3 years too late).

tuesday: went for a job interview with siting and also to collect my convocation gown. i can't believe graduation is happening! it was damn annoying when we got lost and couldn't find the shop, thanks to someone's refusal to print the map. -.- but we managed to find it after numerous phonecalls!

wednesday (again): fishing with honghan suyi kenneth at seletar reservoir! unfortunately all we caught were a few mudskippers, unlike the old ahpek at the pier who reeled in huge peacock basses. but it was very relaxing, and i had my FIRST-EVER meal at chompchomp (after how many donkey years?) was supposed to go clubbing that night but didn't feel too good so just as well!

thursday: we played wii at shuxx's house! which was DAMN FUN. and WHY does everyone kaobei about my avatar, i still think it is damn cute (although a little distracting hahaha). i officially rock at retarded games like ravin rabbits, but completely suck at wii-tennis. i want to buy a wii soon too!

and that night we went to night safari courtesy of anusha's aunt, who had free tickets! it was all right, but we kept giggling at all the wrong things - farting porcupines, weird tour-guide english, tram ride, etc.

friday: met peijun angeline and yonghan for dinner! we ate MOF and talked silly things, so nice to see them all together again. peijun's stories about exchange in Berkeley were especially exciting! - and poor yonghan was probably bored out of his brains for about half an hour when the three of us girls blabbered on and on about future working lives in the big 4. hahaha oops.

my head is pounding and i feel permanently nauseous, side-effects of too much midnight sake. two movies this week: taking pentham 123 and the much-anticipated transformers 2. the first was so-so, the second pretty good; but none amazed me and were too action-packed for my enjoyment. i want something slow brooding thoughtful and beautiful, something that will calm me down between my shifting moods.

right now i am treading a tightrope between emotions, they all feel fleeting and transient - nothing solid. these days i am neither extremely permanently happy, nor sad or depressed; just always hovering at boundaries and edges in between, here nor there. it is a combination of too much time on some days, too little on others! need to find things to DO soon. like GETTING A JOB, or (more frivolously) watching a new drama.

from man walks into a room:
"you fall in love, it's intoxicating, and for a little while you feel like you've actually become one with the other person. you think you'll never be lonely again. only it doesn't last and soon you realize you can only get so close, and you end up brutally disappointed, more alone than ever, because the illusion - the hope you'd held on to all those years - has been shattered.

but the incredible thing about people is that we forget."

sometimes i am such a fool. i think i am recovering fine, and i am - for one whole month we stopped contact and i forgot, almost moved on, did other things and got on with life. then when msn conversations resume, awkward meetups and outings continue - who am i kidding? all the old feelings come back. i pretend it is just good friendship and sometimes it feels that way, sometimes i am platonic and calm and not interested. other times, like today; some old things flood back, i remember the one time i asked in hall "so what happens when you don't love me anymore?" how could i have known at that moment how prophetic those words were.

i know these are occasional bouts and overall i am all right, i am not crying myself to sleep or thinking much. i am going out and having fun! and getting into the swing of things. but i want to get rid of this completely! and i am not sure if it is actually the person i miss, or the habit and routine; always having someone to say random things to on msn, to go out with, hugs and all. it is such a terrible thing to realize, how emotionally dependent and attached i become to any single person. i need to go cold turkey and rip the bandage off, EVERYONE has been giving me advice and it is good advice but i don't have the guts to do it, well i really need to follow it now.

the holidays have been rushing past! three weeks have flown over just like that; i have three months left, but before i know it these too will be gone! there are still so many things i have not done nor recorded, to be filed neatly away in memories.

(1) there was pasta dinner and Angels and Demons with xiefen, the movie turned out really good! i liked it even though there were both rave and critical reviews from friends. the best part was seeing them run around rome and recognizing churches, statues, and especially the awesomeness of the Vatican; i will never forget that feeling of amazement when i first stepped into st. peter's square.

(2) there was a vague shopping trip with shuxx at raffles city, although for the life of me i can't remember what we bought or what we even looked at! just talking talking and donuts at j.co.

(3) that weekend, my family went to sally's baby son's 1-month at the grand copethorne. it was a grand affair, we feasted on fantastic food. i have never had such a lovely buffet for SO LONG, there was seafood paella and the best salad ever with beef juices and bread pudding and cheesecake and much much more. the baby was cute but kept sleeping, and there were the MOST ADORABLE CUPCAKES. so adorable in fact we couldn't bear to eat them, and instead just camwhored with them. after the buffet, we also visited some southeast asian contemporary art gallery which was very cool, and my sister and i shopped till my legs literally died in my heels.

(4) i went to send cindy off to europe! at the airport with shimin. i miss those days of travelling in europe man! we also ate popeyes chicken, walked around clementi mall (oh my god it was PUNY), and i threaded my eyebrows for the first time ever. very very shiok and painless and FUN (((: and cheap. i can't believe it took me 21 years to discover the allure of nice brows.

(5) wii at shuxx's house with joel! we lunched at angmokio (that place still feels absolutely foreign to me), and then walked to her place where we spent the rest of the afternoon. omg the mario games are so retarded but YESSS i trashed joel. and i think i am the worst at wii sports, i am just awful in tennis baseball bowling boxing you name it! my score for the Wii-Age was the highest by far too. but it was damn fun. especially with my ugliest avatar in the world, joel was damn mean and kept calling it susan-boyle.

(6) dinner at TCC with pasta 1-for-1! the outlet at millennia is fantastic, secluded with cushy chairs. but the food was passable only, it was the company that was much better! i still can't believe people like yeewei and edwin have started work FULL-TIME, and are meeting new colleagues and juggling new responsibilities. it all sounds so grown-up!

(7) there was that trip to little india with anusha and haowen! we ate indian food courtesy of anusha's recommendations, i loveddd the butter chicken. YUMM. and then we literally rotted in the restaurant for about two hours talking about nothing in particular, phoenix claws and all. when we finally emerged to look for threading salons, it was freaking HOT, like there were heat-waves coming up from all over the road. there is something wrong with the weather, i literally melted and felt the sun bake my skin.

(8) clubbing last wednesday at zouk with siting and a group of her friends! funfunFUN. we queued close to 2 hours before that at butterfactory and got so immensely fedup that we cabbed down to zouk, where we had instant access. and siting's brother happened to be at zouk so there were FREE DRINKS!!! there were cute guys, and yes i get that mambo is fun and high but i still feel unfamiliar with so many songs. again on the way to zouk and on the way home, the cab uncles rambled on and on about amusing things; and they always like to start conversations with "girl ah going clubbing?"

(9) the singapore zoo! free tickets courtesy of kenneth. it was good to go after so many years! i always like looking at animals and natural things, although some animal behaviours were... a little weird. there was an orangutan that vomited all over the glass and made a little kid next to us stare at it in complete horror; and a monkey that had an erection. not to mention numerous animals that shit in full sight! okay i get that it is a natural thing to do but i always thought they would have a little more discretion?

and i love this picture of the baboons, it was like an old baboon couple we spotted sitting in front of a waterfall. just frozen in position like that! faces turned to the waterfall breeze, cooling themselves and amiably slacking away. the male baboon's pose is damn classic coffee-shop ahpek.

(10) our 301 group! less ling, met at walawala for drinks. it was supposed to be timbre but it was TOO FAR and i was also worried about the weather. thanks to very good fortune we managed to get seats! too bad jason and yifang came so late, and lenny had to leave so early. but it was good. and i FELL IN LOVE with Jack from EIC that night, he was so charming ((((:

(11) meizi shimin and me went ikea!!! it was a happy happy trip, we giggled at everything and looked at pretty things and meizi and i bought quite a few items. i also pigged out on tomyum! there is something about ikea that always comforts me, it is so cheesy i know but everytime i go in and see the little showrooms, dim lights and cozy cushions, i just feel peaceful inside. i am so hopeless.

(12) went gymming on sunday! it was an excellent workout, arms legs all stretched and toned. and we ran 3km at NAPFA pace! commendable after so many years of inactivity.

(13) met cheryl xueli shuxx for dinner at sushi tei. the daidai-roll is damn YUMSS((((: we tottered around looking at kate spade agnes b coach for wallets, i still cannot decide if the kate spade wallet is indeed worth the price! and finished it off with new york cheesecake at bakerzin. good food and excellent company!

(14) and clubbing again with siting, peijun and her friend siewee at st james powerhouse. oh my god that place was AWFUL i am never going back! the crowd was weird (robot-dancing orange-glasses guy??), kept shifting around, the dancefloor cramped, and the music completely hopeless. i've never felt less like dancing before. i swear towards the end there was a song that was exactly like a bee humming, only with a beat, and it went ON and ON. ate prata and drank milo at the coffeeshop after that until the trains started in the morning!

in between there has been plenty of swimming! at least four times with xiefen, meeting wanyu, and a super long swim with christin. that was the ultimate, we literally baked in the sun for two hours and watched the clouds go by. absolutely gorgeous, i closed my eyes and almost felt like i was on a beach far away somewhere!

and i am finally slowly getting somewhere with my driving, although i still find the clutch and gear-changing extremely difficult, hopefully i will get my license soon!

TAIWAN

so i finally edited photos (out of a gazillion) for taiwan, i know if i don't get down to it NOW i never will. case in point: dozens of places in europe i still have not written about and can no longer be bothered with. all those memories are leaking away, so yessss i must capture every detail of taiwan now while i still can!

we went with a tour group, 7 days + 2 days personal extension for free and easy in taipei. the SIA flight there was THE BEST because the plane was half empty and i got an entire row to myself!!! so i propped my legs up, watched Curious Case of Benjamin Button (but gave up halfway too boring) and Bride Wars. our first evening there, we drove down to Yilan, met our super-funny kaobei tour guides Xiao Yang and Ah Long, and went into a hot spring for the first time. no kidding, all of us suaku singaporeans DIDNT DARE to undress in front of each other and go in naked, so we went into the pools with towels. the taiwanese ah-mas that walked around kept giving us dirty looks hahaha.

we also went to explore our first 7-11 in Yilan night market, which was to become a familiar stop for the remaining days of the tour. their 7-11 is damn cute, it has all sorts of nonsense and snacks and is overwhelmingly exciting to look at. and their collection of bowl noodles is awesome!!! i bought two bowl noodles for two consecutive nights, devouring it in relish in the confines of the hotel rooms. and they also have this "hot-pot fastfood" for sale.

the next day we went to visit some huge tua-peh-kong, it was a very serene temple. then it was off to some tea plantation where we picked some leaves and made our own tea-leaf eggs! it was very fun and the eggs were super delicious, with soft runny egg yolks - like poached eggs but hardboiled. unfortunately, because we were a bunch of blur idiots, we left the eggs overnight in the bus - rendering them rotten and unfit for consumption the very next day. what a waste!

we bussed down to Hualien next! to visit the famous Taroko gorge. to be honest it was quite disappointing, partly because of the weather but partly... i don't know, the tourism board's photos were deceiving? hahaha. the scenery was good but i remember feeling more awesome even for the view on mount stong in malaysia. but it was all right, we had to go through a mini passage of cave tunnels to reach some temple perched in the middle of the rock.

before going to the gorge we also stopped by a marble factory, okay they said it was because hualien is famous for production of marble which is true but the main reason is because marble-factory uncle wants to sell us his jade pendants! that said, it was very cool walking around and seeing huge ugly chunks of rock being sliced by diamond-blades, then polished into marble slates.
and then there was the sun moon lake! we went to these two pagodas which are supposedly for good luck, you have to go in through the dragon's mouth and come out the tiger's maw. if you do it the wrong way round it's bad luck! and we climbed to the top of the pagoda, the view was lovely. i also realised that for all the taiwanese temples, their pillars and awnings and arches are painted this different shade of red - its a bright shiny patent crimson, very different from the ones in china and in singapore.

there was a stop at a peacock garden along the way, it was amusing but the peacocks were damn noisy with their courtship calls, howling endlessly and fluttering feathers vainly. and the peahens just had this "whatever please shut-up" attitude hahaha. females of all species are alike!

there was this long arduous 7-hour bus ride from hualien to kaohsiung, i never want to be stuck in a bus for so long ever again! some of the roads were absolutely bumpy, it was mountainous and treacherous and we COULD NOT SLEEP at all because we were thrown from side to side. but the view compensated for it, it was awesome! meizi and i were bus-buddies for this leg and we were both just stunned, we kept staring mesmerized out of the window for at least 2 full hours, it was amazing how we just looked and looked and looked. (and everyone else on the bus slept) for me, it wasn't just because the seaview was gorgeous, it was that sense of wonder because it was THE PACIFIC OCEAN and AMERICA IS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF IT. and i had plenty on my mind, but the view really relaxed and calmed me in so many ways.

we arrived at the city of Kaohsiung after that, i hated the place, it was polluted crowded and messy. and just boring. there was this Dream Mall that we went to but it was far from dreamy i can assure you that, more like a nightmare because of the surging crowds of people everywhere.

and we went to janfusan theme park!!! perched on top of a mountain. i was lazy to take pictures along the way so this is like the only one i have, of the night when all the trees glittered and they had fireworks. we tried almost all the rides except the most lethal one, this disgusting 90-degree plunge into a hole into the ground aptly titled G-5! the one i am most proud of is this ride where you sit on these chairs and it vertically shoots you up till the top of the tower DAMN HIGH, and comes plunging down super fast. omg it was soooooooo fun and terrifying i screamed and laughed and cried all at the same time! i think my tolerance for thrill rides has exponentially increased.

kudos must be given to our tour guides, they were super chatty and informative all along the trip. they literally told us everything about taiwan - from habits and politics and gossip - to little things, like army enlistment and bing-langs and pop culture. it was very cool. and there was an uncle on the tour group who was the GOD of lame jokes, he had this endless supply and KEPT ASKING THE TOUR GUIDE. like maybe one per hour. shimin kept saying, "HOW does he remember so many? like. HOW? TELL ME HOW."

and we finally made it to taipei! our last two days of free and easy was AMAZINGNESS. we had all this freedom, we slept in late ate in bed walked everywhere and played stupid card games at night.

and the tour group also dropped us at the military academy! where supposedly, in the tour guide's own words, only the most elite, well-trained, smart, tall and HANDSOME guys qualify to be the guards. they have to stand absolutely at attention and cannot move a smidgeon. unfortunately, we all felt the guards were not shuai at all! some mixed-blood looking guy in a western suit with a walkie-talkie at the side caught my eye instead, but i was too shy to ask for a photo (:


and we celebrated shimin's birthdayy!!!! it was a big coincidence because another guy (the lame-joke uncle) from the tour group had the exact same birthdate. so we secretly tried to call the tour guide the night before to ask him to help us prepare a cake, and he was like "Y'ALL, i already KNOW." there was a mini party in our taipei hotel! with a cake, peaches, and some buffet spread thing. it was cute. and thanks to cindy and meizi, they developed one of our taiwan photos in a hotel as part of the gift. as cindy was my roomie for the night, both of us were to burst into shimin's room at midnight - so we prepared present and cake, and tiptoed outside the door... only to hear shimin chattering away inside, waiting FOR HER HAIR TO DRY and refusing to go to bed. TSK. so we stood outside the door like idiots, waiting until meizi gave us the signal and they went to sleep before we burst in shouting 'SURPRISEEEE'.

oh and the shopping in taiwan, what description of taiwan would be apt without talking about THE SHOPPING? i have never ever shopped like that, we literally buy something from every single shop we stepped into. it was cheapcheapcheap. at the end we threw out all our buys on the beds, this is what we got, excluding from my last-minute purchase of two pairs of heels on the very very last day itself:

meizi and cindy

shimin and me

and we ate tons too! the tour group gave us so much food we always ate until bursting at every meal. then there were three nightmarkets we visited, including the ever-famous shihlin where we had huge chicken cutlets which totally trash the singapore shihlin stall one, and were damn cheap at only $2. there was an amazing big-intestine meesua we had at ximending, my favourite BEEF NOODLES at some roadside stall, delicious guo-tie, and mango snow. other things included: smelly toufu (and i still hate it), huge sausages, oyster omelette, red oil wanton mee (DAMN NICE), dan-zai mian, bazhang, coffin bread (this sinful toasted thing with tons of cream and butter and chicken filling on top), curly sausages, papaya milk, pork buns and actually LOTS MORE i can't recall.

OH and there was this Tian-Bu-La (sweet not spicy literally), this thing similar to yong-tau-foo we ate in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere in taichung. it was SO GOOD. and there was free hot radish soup afterwards that i slurped until the bowl was empty. the auntie was like, "you girls are tourists right? so cute!" and we praised her and she was like "i've been here for 20 years (((((:" no wonder lah, there were newspaper articles featuring her stall stuck all over the walls. and and and, i must mention, i drank sooo much milk tea with pearls, like one everytime i went out on the streets. loved it.


and finally, nearing the end of a super long post, i have got to mention the HOTELS. they were super luxurious and fantastic! first night we thought it was all right, SECOND NIGHT meizi and i squealed when we entered because we realized each of us would have a DOUBLE BED. and the ambience was fantastic with paraquet flooring. THIRD NIGHT cindy and i squealed even more, because it was SO PRETTY and well done up and modern and zen like and CLEAN and there were flat screen tvs. and the last night meizi and i SCREAMED because we got this ubercool bathroom with a jacuzzi and a TV NEXT TO IT in the bathroom. and a shower that was so damn good - it had the rain-bath thing on top, four nozzles so you can have a shoulder and back and thigh massage, and some STEAM ROOM function thing. all four of us girls soaked our feet in the jacuzzi that last night in total shiokness.

so yes. I LOVED TAIWAN(: it was a great experience! good to be home, but it was a well-deserved break and grad trip. and i think i am hooked onto travelling now, YES, many more places to come!