It's finally here!!

Come Saturday, I'll be participating in my 1st flea market ever! So just a reminder for those reading this (which I believe, is few, as my blog has yet to achieve cult status), pop on down, especially if you have nowhere to go or some spare cash to spend.

Date: 28 Oct 2006 (Saturday)
Time: 1pm to 7pm
Venue: *Scape (behind Orchard Cineleisure)

I'll be there, hot and sweaty, peddling my wares. There'll be pretty earrings, bracelets and necklaces for sale. May I add that each piece was painstakingly pieced and strung together with the utmost care and patience. And they're going at incredible prices!

As the name suggests, you may catch some fleas from the pre-owned clothing and bags that'll also be on sale! Seeya there! :)

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I dropped by Vivocity after work today to get some gifts and I was floored. The shopping centre is incredibly spacious and all my favourite shops are there! You name it.....Zara, Forever 21 (ridiculous for a 27 year old, but hey, I've been said to look 18), Topshop, Tangs etc etc. Honestly, the place is so huge I didn't have time to explore every nook and cranny. Walked and walked till my feet hurt so badly...blaming it on my stupid power heels! Anyway, can't wait to go back again! With a wadful of cash and credit cards, of course!

Stoned

Can you imagine a teacher asking you a question like 10,000 times, head nodding in unison, whilst you sit back in your chair staring blankly back at him, thinking all the while he's addressing your neighbour? Your helpful neighbour, expectedly, wonders at your lack of response but makes no move to prompt you.

The teacher reckons you don't understand his question. Truth is, you're feeling so stoned nothing registers in your mind. You're listening to everything, but hearing nothing. Eventhough you're aware he's looking at you, your mind crawls so slowly you don't associate the looking and nodding with the question.

I must be feeling really bushed! May sleep not be too long in coming......

Toilet habits

What Your Bathroom Habits Say About You

You are a very considerate person, but that doesn't mean you let people walk all over you. Your idea of fashion is jeans and a t-shirt. Clean, if you're lucky. You have the perfect blend of confidence and class. You're proud of who you are - but you don't broadcast it. In relationships, you tend to be very romantic and demanding. You'll treat your partner like gold, but you expect a lot in return.

What Do Your Bathroom Habits Say About You?

The Prestige.....

......rawks! Complete with twists, ambuigities and 2 yummy-licious men, this show will stun and amaze you! Sorry, can't say much about the lady as her role was way too insignificant!

Catch it at the local cinema near you!

Hey amigo!

As I grow older, I find myself becoming less and less sociable. A new colleague joins the firm and I try my utmost best to avoid eye contact with her. Not that she's ill to look at, but I dread having to make small talk about the haze, PSI level etc. However, that new colleague of mine has large, twinkly eyes that are incredibly hard to avert. Though I'm curious about her, I'm still reluctant to step out of my cubby to get to know her.

Is there something wrong with me? Is age killing my willingness to break out of my social circle and make new friends? I find this theory a bit hard to swallow. Afterall, I'm not like that all the time. Beyond the work realm, I'm actually quite happy to talk and mingle around, though it helps when the other party is a ball of fun. Dull and spiritless people, well, they just bore me to tears.

Or maybe I have become more finicky in my friend-selection process. I am aware that many people I meet along the way end up being mere acquaintances. I fully understand that the paltry amount of time I have on hand is just insufficient to develop a newly-formed friendship into something more meaningful. And finally, my demanding job has siphoned away all my energy, making whatever else requiring effort seem like a gargantuan task.

Accept it, this is a natural phenomenon that's impossible to steer away from as one grows older. I doubt that at 27, I can be adding 20 new friends a day to my Friendster account like a 15 year old can.

The name game

Final instalment of Part 2 of my French course. Am really loving the learning! :) And my classmates are awesome, all immensely real and pleasant. Of course, I'm not denying that there are a few oddballs here and there, but let's not be mean here. At the beginning, I had a little difficulty grasping all their names, and had to resort to nicknames, all affectionately bestowed:-

• "Sister" - Just the kind I would like to have. Kind, caring and possessing maternal tendencies;
  
• "Fu (4) gui (4) puo (2)" - Translated, this means prosperous lady. Laughs heartily and definitely enjoying the finer things in life, this lady;
  
• "The non-chinese" - No offence here, we named her that only because she's the only eurasian / non-chinese in our class...no discrimation intended!;
• "Teacher" - A petite, effervescent (read: talkative) girl who's actually a GP (wow!) teacher. Incredibly knowledgeable and cycles to school; and
  
• "The late comer" : Joined our class late, perpetually comes to class late and absented herself today *shakes head in disapproval*
  

Incredibly, X knew exactly who I was referring to when I made references to them! I wonder what they nicknamed X and I. The twins / sisters / buddies? The hotties? The weirdos? Freaky duo?

P/S: I managed to pass my French written test (see entry on "French fries, anyone?"). In fact, I more than passed, I got a 16/20! P was real disgusted that I was complaining so much....hehe.

Food scare

I was darn hungry this morning! Stomach was growling away and screaming for nourishment, but all I did was ignore its calls of plea. When lunch came along, I was looking forward to my favourite maggi mee with fish slices from the market. So off I strutted, in eager anticipation of yummy-licious mee.

After buying a bowl of piping hot mee, I was happily stuffing my face till I stumbled onto something the colour of seaweed. I picked it up delicately with my chopstick, wondering what new ingredient they've added to give the mee such a tangy taste. Lo and behold, I discovered, to my horror, that it was a tiny cockroach! The revelation hit me kinda slow, for instead of spitting out the contents of my mouth, I took a great swallow. Oh man....Zoe Tay would have been so proud of me.

Though I've had my fair share of finding hair in my food, I've never been punished with a roach / bug / millipede before. Feeling dazed and slightly traumatized, I put the badly scalded carcass back into the bowl and returned it to the mee auntie, who chirpily offered a replacement. Thanks auntie, for ruining my otherwise excellent appetite! I'm swearing myself off this freaking dirty and unsanitary stall. Ugghh!

I'm glad this lousy Monday is finally coming to an end. Am already looking forward to the weekend.......

Great Expectations

Lately, an incident set me thinking about whether it's right to have expectations of others. As a parent, do you expect your kid to score his As in school? Would you expect your best friend to listen to you when you're down?

Why do we have expectations? Is it because we want to see the best in others? Does familiarily cause us to take things for granted, hence forming expectations? Or should we blame it on our own selfish motives?

The worst scenario is when expectations are set too high and they're not met. Both parties feel wretched, one from disappointment and the other from helplessness.

Wouldn't the world be a much sweeter place if we could just love one another for what we are?

They came back...and boy was I glad when they left!

X and I couldn't wait to catch the movie screenings for the 2006 French film festival. X decided on Les Revenants, aka They Came Back, as it was classified as a horror movie which tantalised her tastebuds.

The movie opened with a stream of walking corpses with deadpan expressions streaming into a small town in France. Mind you, this isn't your typical zombie-eat-man movie. The "zombies" looked every bit human, but were characterised by their blank expressions and languid movements. These zombies came, stayed and left again, creating psychological and sociological havoc in the lives of the living. It focused on how 3 families re-united with their supposedly-dead loved ones struggled to accept and live with their anomalies. It was intelligent, thought-provoking and had the makings of an excellent movie. However, there just wasn't enough punch in its execution. It came out slow, dreary and yawn-inducing. Definitely a no-no for Friday night entertainment.

Not to fret though, plenty of good movies in the pipeline. My To-Watch list consists of:

1. The Departed (starring favourite man Jack Nicholson (oopss!!), Matt Damon I mean, and the sexy Leonardo diCaprio)
2. The Scoop (with babelicious Scarlett Johansson and hunky-dory Hugh Jackman)
3. The Black Dahlia (with real-life sizzling-hot couple Scarlett & Hartnett)
   

Anyone interested? Better still, if you have free tickets, please think of me...aren't I your best friend? :)

French fries, anyone?

3rd French test...I think I might just fail this one! I screwed up my spelling, I didn't insert any of the goddamned French accents and my conjunctions were all hay-wire! Bummer!

Don't get me wrong, I love the language. To hear it spoken (fluently of course!) is like music to the ears. Mastering the language, however, is proving itself to be a formidable task. Here are a few of my gripes:-

1. French accents - Inserting the ' (the regular apostrophe), ^ (little triangular cap) and ` (rightward slanting apostrophe) on top of the magic letter of each word baffles me. Who invented that miniscule detail?!

2. Pronounciation - The "hhhhhh" sound is a killer. Pronounced correctly, it's supposed to sound like a gentle gargle. In my case, it sounds like a bad case of sore throat. Arrrgghhh!

3. Gender - Table is female and hat, male. A dog is always male (even the bitch). So is the cat. Why aren't animals given the right to embrace their own sexuality? And what determines the sex of an inanimate object? God knows. (BTW, God is masculine in French too)

Last lesson cum test next week. I will miss my classmates and teacher when it all ends. *sob*

LIME Flea Market

At the end of a tiring workday in the office, an unexpected e-mail appeared in my mailbox with the following announcement:-

Hello lucky people! We are glad to inform you that you are successful in your application for LIME Flea Market @ *Scape. The details as follows:

Date: 28 Oct 2006 (Saturday)
Time: 1pm to 7pm
Venue: *Scape (behind Orchard Cineleisure)

I'm finally going to set-up my own flea stall! I've been talking about it for ages but it was all talk and no action. Ironically though, I won't be selling my own stuff this time (am helping puppy's momma with her hand-made earrings and necklaces). But I'm excited all the same! :)

Come visit me, y'all! Whether it's to browse, say hi or buy earrings! I promise to give you a discount!!!

Excusez moi, are you a model?

I love the current season of America's Top Model, or Survivors in bikinis, if you like. The show features a bunch of girls pitting their worth to win a modelling contract. Each week, the contestents are put through a series of themed challenges. The judges then contemplate and concur on the "weakest" contestant, and that ill-fated gal is booted from the contest.

What struck me most this season was the disparity between the stronger and the weaker contestants.

First up, we have the tough, "never-say-die" babes like Jade and Neneh. Personally, they scare the shit out of me. They're not in the competition to make friends and they're not afraid to offend. You wanna hate these gals coz they're so arrogant and full of themselves. Yet, there are some admirable traits like self-worth and determination.

In contrast, we have the softer and perceptably weaker gals like Gina and Brook. They are pleasant, sweet and just a tad whiny....but they sincerely want to be your best friend. These gals are the constant butt of derision and mockery. They cry too much, they don't stand up for themselves, they have zilch self-confidence...you get the drift.

Put these 2 classes of personalities together and what do you get? A cat and mouse situation. My question is: Do the strong sub-consciously become bullies, or do the weak let their insecurities and lack of self-worth feed upon themselves?

With these thoughts in my mind, I straighten my back and strutted my way home, to the tune of Rupaul's sashay, shante shante shante. I've never wanted to be a model (for obvious reasons), but tonight, I wanted to feel like a model.

I am a laggard

It's finally happened!

Tempted by and finally succumbing to curiosity, a blog (mine!) is born. I have always pooh-poohed friends who got caught in the blog fever early and swore that I will never have the time nor will I ever be bothered to start something of my own. Well, I prove myself wrong.

So what do I write in my blog? Pour out my sorrows, bitch and complain about people and work, do reviews of movies / songs / food / books or write about this humdrum existence of mine? The possibilities are endless, and I have yet to decide. In fact, I might just do everything, with "bitch and complain" taking the predominant function of my blog *keke*

There are a few reasons which compelled me to start a blog. Here are a couple:-

1. I have too much free time on hand
2. Diaries are passe (and I have bad handwriting)
3. I wanna be hip and cool like my blogger friends
4. I have free & unlimited internet access
5. I need to (desperately) divert my attention from shopping websites

I stare into space...experiencing my first bout of writer's block. Tune in for more musings and ramblings tomorrow. Yeah!