I played lots of badminton today. Haha. It was great exercise. I love badminton. I think I might even choose it as my CCA. Haha yes you heard me right. I'm going to be in a SPORTS CCA. Hahaha... Not many people turned up today but it's ok lah, since there were only two courts. We have some badminton pros and they're scary man. When we played doubles, they were just shooting really fast and furious balls (ok, take it in the badminton sense ok? I don't know how to describe sports action) so I was like telling my fellow nothing-to-do at the other side of the net, Ok, let's go take a water break now... Haha. But it was cool lah. Had a good time. Hopefully we'll have it more often. The CC also has karaoke, haha. Maybe next time we'll do that. Then I went to Clementi Central with my two little sisters for dinner and to collect photos haha. Good thing I walked past Giordano! Coz I saw that they finally had ladies' jeans going at $19!!! You don't know how long I've waited to see that big red $19 sign go up. Heh. Made the girls hold my stuff for me so that my hands could be free - I was just so excited - to check out the jeans. Turned out that they only had one design for size 26 so I went to try that on. It was called hiphugger bootcut (which I like), but there was no lycra. Aiyah. The colour was also not super nice, just ok. Haha but I just couldn't pass up that chance to get my jeans at nineteen bucks! Ok why am I typing all these now...haha maybe coz I feel guilty about making such a fast purchase. Really, I was just like, eh $19! Got size 26? Only one design? Nevermind! I go try! Ok not bad! Need to alter length! Ok pay now, collect tomorrow! And it was all over. Haiyah, I hope it turns out well tomorrow!!! Baleno has 50% sale storewide, by the way. Samuel & Kevin looks good too. Tomorrow will see further. Today didn't have time to check them out. Went to KFC for dinner and ordered the Chicky Meal haha! Got the dunno-what Spiderman toy. See at church which cute boy to give it to... haha. Today Jeremy (the baby) came over for a short while and he fell down the stairs!!! I felt so terrible. Sigh. Ok and the Portugal vs England match? I just felt sad for England lah.

We sold the house! AND bought Blue Horizon! TODAY! Wow... God really is amazing, you know. Really thank Him for giving my parents the wisdom to make all these big decisions. Imagine buying and selling in the same day. When we have been trying to sell for the past two years... Ok, actually I think we have had the intention of selling since like ten years ago but it only got very active (and desperate) about eight years after that, and now, it sure is hard to believe that the house has finally been sold. Am I dreaming? I really can't believe this is happening! I came home from orientation to this good news but it only sunk in after my Thai class. In fact, wait, has it even sunk in yet? Haha. After so long...my mum is finally getting her dream fulfilled. All these years of her having to take care of us and the house, as much feelings as I have for this house, I also want to move out because this is what she deserves. Blue Horizon! We got the third floor unit, by the way. :) But we can't move straight into the apartment. We got to rent a flat somewhere and hold out for a few months first. But as my parents say, good things are worth waiting for, and what's a year when compared to ten? Those are all true, I guess. And I'm also glad for my mum that she doesn't have to keep cleaning up the whole house anymore just because there's going to be another viewing.

Wore all black tonight for Thai class and my teacher thought I'd slimmed down. Haha I wish! Ate fried chicken wings just now, so I know this won't be very possible anyway. Orientation was fine. I woke up this morning feeling ok because I knew that it would all be in God's hands and I had nothing to worry about. It turned out to be true. Nothing embarrassing or difficult or rudely annoying happened. Heh. My class is pretty nice. In fact I'm feeling excited about starting school on Monday...well I'm just curious to see what it's like lah. Everything would be so new. We have to bring our laptops on Monday but I don't want to carry it in that backpack! Heh. Anyway, Mondays are the worst. 8 am to 5 pm. Sigh. At least no classes on Wed and Thur mornings. But everyone (seniors and lecturers) says that Mass Comm is gonna be A LOT of hard work. Why did they have to emphasise that. If it really is true, then I won't be having much of an outside life anymore... and that's precious to me. Like my weekends are precious to me. Ok what am I talking about... I should get some sleep.

Had retail therapy yesterday! Was good. Bought slippers and crop pants. The crop pants from 37degrees only cost $15! So don't need to buy from Giordano already. Heh very good. Oh I sure will miss Flowers in the Attic. I love hanging around in the shop. Yesterday, I went through their stuff so many times because my friend was busy and I had to look like I was doing something...oh I don't know why...probably because I got all nervous with the boss around. I'm afraid of the boss! Haha. Oh anyway, two of their dresses are featured in this week's 8 Days. The rose print black tube dress is nice. Just that I have too many rose print stuff already, and I don't wear tubes. Haha now did that sound right... Ah, it's not that I can't go to the shop anymore just because my friend won't be there. But it'll just be different, you know what I mean right? Oh, but I gotta tell you about the arm-chair they have in the shop. It's so comfortable that the moment you sink yourself into it you never want to get up. :)

Ahhihh and I did some stupid stuff in the bookstore yesterday a la our RGS days ha ha ha. I don't know how to explain the game that we have but it sure is fun. It takes a lot of intellect to play that game too! So don't say we are...ah, whatever. But she was the better player yesterday. Oh why am I even admitting this here... Anyway, then we chanced upon the complete works of Shakespeare and that came at just the right time because before that we were trying to recall one very interesting passage from Julius Caesar. "touch thy instrument a strain or two"... Hahaha. Classic literature moment. I bet we'll all still remember this passage and quote it flawlessly and (ahem) passionately even when we've long forgotten the petty quarrel between what's-his-name and Brutus, the funeral speeches in Act 3, and uh, what else ah... heh. I never really liked JC actually. Just that passage because it never fails to make me laugh.

Viewed Blue Horizon today! It's cool. I'm really excited to be moving there. Ok, I shouldn't talk as if everything's been confirmed. But yeah, I think it's like 90%... Anyway, the bedrooms are really small. The moment I walked into one, I knew that all my dreams about how I wanted to do up my room had to be revised immediately. Haha sigh... No wonder my mum said that if I really wanted a walk-in wardrobe, I could just hang all my clothes in my room and walk in lor. Haha. And I was thinking of having a changing room corner, but now that doesn't seem possible either. Aiyah, I just gotta draw up new plans again lah. Haha. Before I saw the showroom, I was just taking my cousin's room as the example you know. Coz they live in a condo and oh, I don't know how my brain works...haha. The kitchen floor is so tiny too! Haha my auntie was saying that my mum would be like "oh, I finished mopping it already, now what...mop again! then..." hahaha. We had to hold this extended family conference about which floor and which unit we wanted our home to be and it was like such a major thing. So incredible. Haha. Coz my dad likes the high floor where there'd supposedly be breeze. But we've been living in landed property for 16 years and have survived without a breeze what. And we could save the money from not buying a high floor apartment and use it to buy fans or even air-cons for him! Heh. I like the third floor unit. High ceiling, private space, pool view, much much cheaper, same floor as the carpark, not to high up if the lift breaks down......

Tomorrow's orientation!!! I'm really nervous. Sigh. Oh, I finally realised that I did actually have the login ID and password to enter npal (some student web dunno-what) so I found out my timetable. Bad timetable! Will fill you in another time. Better rest and get ready for O tomorrow. Sigh.

Hey!! Now got music har?? So cool right!!! Haha ok so I'm repeating whatever I said on the tagboard but that's because I'm still in the same state. As in the "wow! got music!" state. Heh. Yes, I haven't gotten over it yet. (Thanks, Nic.) Well I've seen other blogs and I'm just so AMAZED at their designs. How do these people do it??? I'm so bad at html and stuff. My blog looks so boring compared to theirs. But, now, I've got music. Hehehe.

Baked today!!! Ok, ok, yes Erica, it was my MUM who baked and I was her diligent, enthusiastic, hardworking, attentive, helpful, full of initiative, assistant. The (mostly walnut and very few choc chips) cookies turned out pretty good!! Just that they're very, uh, fair. I mean, in terms of cookie colours (golden brown is ideal), they're very fair. Yeah, yeah, just like the one who helped to bake them right. I was actually quite tickled at the similarity. Heh. We started out with a mixing bowl and a wooden spoon and the butter was so hard! Then my Mum suddenly said, "Ok, let me get out the electric mixer." And I was like, what??? We have an electric mixer??!!! Hahaha. But the electric mixer wasn't any better!! Haha can you believe it. The two mixing things just stayed there. As in they didn't move around the bowl. So how much can you mix like that?? So we went back to the manual method. At first we thought the cookies weren't going to turn out well but thank God, everything was ok. Just the colour. Yeah. I wanted to dye the cookies red in the first place!! I think red cookies would be cool. No?? Or violet!!! Heh. Anyway, will be giving away the cookies to my friend at Flowers-Attic, Erica (so that she'll get so fat that I'll look skinny next to her heh!)...yup that's about it.

You know, I was telling my mum about how I think I should form my own gang. Haha. As in there're like a few funny gangs in church...the Butterfly Gang, the Firefly Gang, the Dragonfly Gang, the Honey Boys, the Waterboys... yeah, so I'm the honourary member (yes, Nic) of the Butterfly Gang. It's basically pink, butterflies, and short skirts. So you can see why. Haha.. But anyway...yah my mum was saying that I could be the Dragon Girl Gang. Hahaha. And she would be the only other member. I would be Xiao3 Long2 Nu3 (Dragon Girl) and she would be, uh, Lao3 Long2 Ma1 (Old Dragon Mother) or Lao3 Long2 Sao3 (Old Dragon Ah-Soh). We were all getting very nonsense then haha...but then she changed her mind and wanted a cooler name coz, just last night, we'd given our dad the very you3 sha1 qi4 (killer) name of CAPTAIN ONE-CHOICE. Haha big family joke there. Think I've mentioned it before? Yeah. It's about how he always says things like "You can choose where you want to go for dinner but I'll only go to Tiong Bahru." Like how we always seem to have more than one (his) choice but we don't. Hahaha... Captain One-Choice. I'm so tickled!! My brother came up with it. It's reminiscent of the Superheroes game in Whose Line is it Anyway? don't you think. Haha so yeah, Captain One-Choice, here to bring democracy to the world...hehe. My dad's so cute. He was so proud of the Father's Day card I gave him. I think that will give me a year of favours from him till the next card comes. Heh! Already during dinner when I couldn't finish my noodles and wanted him to help me finish it, I could execute the "You got a card today hor???" so successfully.

So I'm going shopping tomorrow! It's been more than 3 weeks!!! Yes, yes, very proud of myself. I'm gonna visit my friend at Flowers- (yes! just killed the irritating mosquito!) Attic. Her last day is 1 July. :( That's so sad. I don't know whether I can go down next week coz I don't know what my timetable is like... But I guess the first week of school is always uncertain, unfamiliar, unfriendly, uncomfortable, hehehe...

Oh yes more stories about the low-tech Sarah! My friends (they're twins) in NZ have had been trying to have audio conversations with me for the longest time ever but it always didn't work out. And then yesterday, one of them decided to try again. Unwavering spirit of a guy. I told him that I didn't have a mic but he could talk and I would type. And FINALLY, I heard his voice for the first time in 3 years. He sounded so different! All grown-up and all. Haha. Oh, at first he was just talking and I was typing in reply. Then he kept saying that he could "hear me type". And I seriously DID NOT connect anything for the first few minutes. Until it finally hit me (!) and so, yeah, ok big boo-boo there. It was hilarious. He had a cool accent and there I was talking in Singlish (as if Singlish really is a language haha) and sounding ah-lian...heh. Ah, the silly things that happen to me.

Exciting news! We could very well be selling the house TODAY! Wow...after so many years of waiting and longing and dreaming...this could all end today. And after 16 years of living in this house, I've finally understood once and for all what type of house it is. It's an intermediate terrace, not a semi-d, maisonette or something else. I could never get it right before!! But I sure will miss our mango tree, the space we have, the convenience brought by living in this location...ok but moving to Blue Horizon will be just as convenient too. Ever closer to church, market, Ginza, the park (!)... Just that I GREW UP in this house. So many feelings attached to it already. But I guess I can look forward to doing up my new room...and using the facilities in the condo... OHHHH but it's so sad now to think of really moving.

The speakers in this laptop are really really fantastic. Makes my Ah Tao (David Tao) sound even better! Not that he needs any help, of course. Heh. But anyway, yeah, they're really wonderful. Just that LOW-TECH SARAH did some boo-boo and now there's something not quite right with Microsoft Office and my brother says I may have to re-install everything BOOOO......

My shoulders got burnt from learning roller-blading on Wed!! Yes, come and see the new dark Sarah. Once you thought she can never get tanned, but you were wrong. Ahhh ok...I'm not actually darker than before but at least this has proven that it isn't impossible for me to have two-toned skin, like my skin can actually be other than white. Heh.

Giordano has nice stuff!!! I wanna buy the crop pants, white tee, black sleeveless lycra top, and dry-tech top maybe. Do you think OG Giordano will be cheaper??? Because the crop pants looks like it's already on sale at $29... But OG is always 20% off. $29 for a pair of pants that isn't even full length is too much when I can get jeans for $19. Anyway, the white tee and black lycra top, you can surely get at 20% off if you go to OG. Coz OG wants to attract costumers, so they got Giordano to go there and then they absorb the 20% discount. Haha auntie-speak!

I've orientation next Thursday!! Argh I hate orientations. Be positive! Positive! OK I'll be getting my timetable. That part is the most attractive, other than meeting my classmates. I'm in tutorial group T109... And I hope the timetable is super slack.

Just to show you that we don't just no action talk only, wr and I went to the park today! For Real! Haha. But before we set off, my mum and I gave her a dress for her birthday. Nice dress! Just right for French summer. She was one of the two people in Singapore who was selected to go to France on an all-expenses paid trip for 2 weeks! So proud of that girl. :) Anyway, had to cross some big roads to get to the park (I hate crossing roads). Then we talked and walked for quite some time until we saw the sign that said that the bicycle kiosk was actually back at where we came from. Argh. So we walked back. But then it was closed! How can it be closed? Now's school holidays! If you aren't open at 11 in the morning then when are you open??? And so we had to walk back. Again. Then we came to McDonald's. Nice place! And just opposite Blue Horizon only. Another good reason to move there. :)

Back from church camp! It was really good. Such a meaningful 5 days spent. Our youth speaker was so, so good. Now I can't wait for next year's camp to come. The kids were all so lovely too. I had such a good time babysitting them. My parents were even more crazy over this baby. They missed him so much over the weekend and good thing we saw him in church today. Haha. Oh I even went swimming! Yeah, very suicidal. I haven't swam or even exercised since...PE last year?! Haha. And I had to swim ACROSS the pool. Coz we had water games. OK, just the breadth of it. But still. When I reached the other end, I thought I was ready to die. Haha. Good thing nothing embarrassing happened. Just maybe I shocked everyone coz I looked so white. Sigh.

Just watched Bend it like Beckham. Nice show! And so funny...Keira Knightly's mum thought she wasn't straight! That was really so, so funny. And the lump-in-the-throat moment was, of course, when Jess' (sp?) dad let her go to America. So touching...the love of her dad and the rest of her family.

There's just like 2 weeks more before school starts. Sigh. It's hard to imagine starting school again after being on leave for 6 months. So I'll probably just slack in school? Haha dunno. On the brighter side, I'll be collecting the laptop this Wed. And maybe I'll be learning Japanese...though now that I think of it, it'll be quite a struggle juggling Thai and Japanese. I think I've learnt not to have so much on my plate. Should bear that in mind next time. I know my JC friends are struggling with the heavy workload now, especially with exams right after this hols (what a horrible thing, by the way!!!) and maybe some of them think that I'm going to have a better life in poly...but I'm not so sure about that. But I guess at least, for one, I'm spared ultimately from the A levels...which was something I wanted to avoid in the first place. So no regrets so far about not going to JC. There are many other reasons why I chose poly over JC but all these aren't that important now...

Well, ok, it hasn't been all that bad leaving work. I've plunged full force into the Great Singapore Sale and retail therapy is working wonderfully. Heh.

So who went for the Singapore Idol auditions? I know of two people who did/are going to. I think they're still queuing. The queue, I'm sure, is super long! I read the reporter's first-hand account of her audition. The panel of judges sounds quite friendly?? I wonder what kind of criticisms they'll come up with. But it'll be quite unexciting if they follow Simon's style, don't you think. So unoriginal too. Oh well. I hope the show will be watchable.

Today, a Nigerian lady and her two little girls came to our church. Their hair is fascinating!!! It's really a whole different kind of...hair. Reminded me of a freshly mowed lawn. Heh! Don't know why. And their names are so cute! One's called Ti Ti and the other's called Su Su (but pronounced "Chu Chu").

Tomorrow I'll be off to Malaysia for church camp and won't be back until Friday. Hope the sale can wait for me. Haha... Take care everybody.

Oh, what sweet, sad, sad, sad, freedom... There's this routine that I have? Like, wake up at 7:15am because of my handphone alarm, shut it off, switch on the phone, go back to sleep, wake up at 7:45 thereabouts, wash up, think of what to wear, what earrings/bag/shoes to match, pack breakfast to eat in the office, rush out of the house, wear shoes in the car, listen to David Tao, reach workplace, climb 4 storeys worth of stairs (!), check reflection in the mirror, enter office, wear my jacket, fill up my cup with hot water, then it's another day's work! Physics journals, Clinical Approach, Zebrafish... My whole desk would be covered with papers and stationary, so much so that people would probably think: how much work I have, when actually it's all just due to very bad organisation and the lack of a stationary holder. Lunchtime comes and we all head down to the bus that's waiting. And lunchtime conversations are always so much fun and I always learn a lot. How I will miss my colleagues!!!

I really have much to thank God for. For getting such a good first-time job that lets me into the world of publishing, for having such nice colleagues who keep the job from being too boring, for the lifts I get from my dad every morning which make going to work something that is not quite dreaded, for all the little things at the end of each day that I look forward to...Mon: Channel U's Ready, Steady, Go; Tues: Dad can fetch; Wed: 8 DAYS and American Idol; Thur: Dad can fetch and American Idol; and Fri: Arrival of the weekend! So you see, it really is not that hard working from Monday to Friday. And that is why I'm so thankful!!!

My last day of work gave me this very warm feeling inside. I went around dishing out yummy Ferrero Rochers to everyone and then for lunch, two of my colleagues treated me to a meal at a Chinese restaurant at JEC. Then we took a cab back. Saw on my table a little bouquet of sunflowers from another two of my colleagues!!! Was super touched. Even got a present from another colleague whom I wasn't particularly close to or anything like that. Then went to the warehouse for the first time because we had to stick the correct serial number onto the books (which were about dissection, by the way). The warehouse is HUGE! And filled with so many, many, many books. It's interesting to be working in a place that actually, in a sense, makes books, after one has been reading books for so many years...When I was younger, my own amateurish attempts at "publishing" were simply just stapling the books. And now, it's professional binding and real book covers. Just incredible to me. And lastly, I ended the day fittingly with a physics journal, complete with lines of numbers and words that completely don't make sense, as usual! Heh.

Sad, sad, sad! Major withdrawal symptoms now. Went for retail therapy today though, and bought a sling bag from 37 Degrees, the one with a rainbow sling. I like! Walked past one pink shop after another, it does seem like nowadays one can find a pink shop at every turn. After a while, it gets very, very scary.

So many things to write! But it was hard to find the right time and right mood to write...and now that it's finally a Friday night once again...I'm so glad that it's finally a Friday night once again! Weekends are precious.

Office has been strangely very cold of late. What a distraction, especially since I'm rushing the work now. My last day is next Tuesday. I smell Freedom! Sweet Freedom! My fellow temp-er's last day was today, so I brought the camera and we took pictures and rested on the nice sofas outside the office. I think they're from the Life shop. They're super nice! The other day, I got bored and went to try out all the different sofas. The two lady editors who walked past me were pretty amused. Too bad one of them told me that such sofas have to be in air-conned rooms because of their (very nice to touch!) material. Just today, my parents went to check out Blue Horizon and promptly fell in love with it. It'll be ready in about a year's time. I guess there's a high chance we'll be moving there...Will it be the 3rd floor with the pool view or 13th floor with the sea view? Something like that. The three of us are going to view it one day too.

Oh! Fantasia's the new American Idol! I'm super delighted. This is like when Mawar won the 8 Days Bachelor contest and Ronald Susilo won the Japan Open finals. Fantasia's cool. But I think she does better with quick songs than slow numbers, although her Summertime was fantastic. Anyway, she's got a good sense of rhythm, great energy, superb showmanship. Oh, I had no idea how dangerous it was to be working in an office on days like this! I was happily and busily being a good proof-reader when suddenly, I heard my very-free-and-nothing-to-do colleague asking somebody else, "Eh do you know who won Americal Idol or not?" And then I remembered that the results were out in America already!!! I got into such a frenzy that I shot out of my cubicle and went to take refuge with another colleague, but then she said in her very endearing Indian accent, "Oh you got the wrong person, I already know who won." Argh!!! And finally I went to hide at my editor's cubicle. She doesn't have a TV at home, so you can be sure that she knows nothing about American Idol. The ironic thing was, just during lunchtime I had agreed along with her that I would read spoilers. But this is different you know! It is! Anyway really, being in an office where everybody (except me) is well connected to the Internet, radio, telephone is very dangerous!!! I spent the rest of my time in the office with my hands in the ready-to-cover-the-ears position. I came home and stayed far away from the Internet, checked my smses at a safe angle, didn't tune in to the news...Everything went smoothly and my mum and I were kept in great suspense just as the producers would have liked it. It got to the point where my mum said, "If they're not going to announce the results after this commercial I'm going to strangle him!" Him, being the host with the most annoying line, Ryan Seacrest.

To all the readers who have been faithfully tracking the progress of Clinical Approach, you would be pleased to know that I've completed Chapter 70, which is a nice 20 chapters away from the end of the epic medical volume. Did some more physics journals last week. It's things like this that make me appreciate Clinical Approach and Zebrafish more. It was the same case with blueprint checking. Oh that one! I dread it.

I feel really privileged to have gotten this job on my first try at working. It's really quite interesting to be working in a publishing company. My colleague brought me on a tour of the 2nd floor where the artists, marketing people and printers were. The artists use Apple computers! Ok that's quite duh right. Level 3 is the warehouse. And I found out how a book gets published...the whole process...It's really cool lah. To think that I'm part of an organisation that publishes books that are taken so seriously by the intellectual community.

Oh, in the end, Fide didn't come. She chose Sakae Sushi over us. Told you she was pretty smart...hehehe...Saw her in church today and she told us in her little girlish voice that she went to "Sakae Sushi"...Irresistably cute!

I think I have about 2 weeks more at work. The thing is, now that the time to leave is drawing near, I can't quite bear to leave!

We think our mum can be one of the Singapore Idol judges. Other choices include Dick Lee...and, uh...

Finally put David Tao back into the car. Just didn't feel right anymore without his music when we're in the car. His music is great while...yeah...in the car! Haha...

Played the piano for Chinese Service today. Thought it was pretty disastrous. :p The notes, I mean, there are no notes. It's the number kind you know? Do-re-mi-fa-so... So beyond me. Heh.

WELL I went to watch TROY last night! I was in the worst seat ever - first row, right at the corner. I was thinking how wasted it was coz 1)the ticket cost me $8.50, 2)we skipped our dinner to catch the 7:45 show, 3)it's supposed to be an epic and a 5-star movie, 4)the people in it are supposed to be super hot...but I was seeing them at awkward angles and they looked so disproportionate! :p But of course, I didn't watch the movie because of the supposedly hot people (by the way, there was too much nudity!). I didn't even want to watch it in the first place! I had to... And since I had to, I felt that it was most wasted that I didn't managed to get all that the movie was worth. You know, the feeling of watching an epic... with vast sets, larger-than-life characters, grand battles, rich emotional scenes...I was so not interested in the love section though in the end I got very touched by the relationship between Achilles and Briseis, which I'm trying hard to forget right now. Anyway, I guess I managed to capture two-thirds of that feeling, just at awkward angles.

Woke up early in the morning today just to go to CCAB. Didn't exactly realise what a crucial match it was between RJ and ACJC but now it's no wonder why we were all recruited to go down and lend Whui some moral support. Heh. Even her mum was roped in! But it was cool lah. Can see why she's so passionate about hockey. I would be too, if I had a shread of ball sense in me.

As for work, I've just finished Chapter 66 of Clinical Approach and now doing some journals that are making me very, very sleepy in the afternoons. :p I have no idea what they are talking about! There's just A LOT of numbers and symbols...Mind-boggling and the most effective way to make opticians richer. I'm splitting my days between them and dear old Zebrafish. Have confirmed with my editor that zebrafish are indeed fish, and was told that they're the darlings of life sciences researchers because of their thin semi-transparent skin that gives these people a fantastic view of their gut.

One thing I can't understand is why people choose to be scientists. Imagine a life...I mean, you would have no life. Heh. Spend all your life doing research and experiments...But that's of course just a personal opinion coming from a self-confessed science-and-me-just-don't-go-together person. Then how ironic that my first job is science-related! But I can understand that if a person has the passion and curiosity for exploring the way things work in the scientific sense, then......

Fide is coming tonight! I'm simply overjoyed. She's this absolutely lovely little girl I know from church who happens also to be extremely clever. We're gonna babysit her! The first time she came, I was not at home! It was devastating. But I sure am looking forward to tonight. :)

I got a parcel from my Korean penpal!!! There was a notebook, a diary, an address book, a CD of 76 Korean pop songs, lots of stickers, lip gloss, candy...... How delightful it is to get a present like that!!!

Oh, how could I forget to mention this. The most unfair thing happened on American Idol! La Toya got voted off! She was tipped to be THE American Idol. Now my mum says that she won't watch the show anymore since her idol is already out. Heh. But yeah, I seriously feel that there was a great injustice done to La Toya. Do the voters have ears??! Ugh.

OK time for lunch! :)

Started going out for lunch with my colleagues since last Friday. Really thank God for the friends that I've made in the office...like my fellow temp-er, my editor, her friend (girl), her other friend (guy)... It's hard to believe that I spent the whole of my first month in the office hardly knowing anybody, then suddenly, things just started picking up and now I'm going out for lunch with them almost everyday. Haha this really makes working so much more fun. Spent quite some time on Monday listening to one of them talk about how she's preparing for her wedding and it was scary. All those things that you have to do when you want to get married. Heh. But then again, of course it won't be special anymore if you just sign the marriage cert and that's it. Just don't go over the top either. Haha... She has FIVE dresses!!! And she's not even the kind who likes to dress up. Listening to her describe the whole preparation was entertaining! Then later my editor came to pass me a copy of the book that was featured in Sunday Lifestyle last week - the one about society's obsession with slimness...I saw that it was published by them so I just asked her about it. So sweet of her to get me that book from its editor. And then the two of them started telling me about how they were dating three and seven guys, respectively, during their younger days. Hahaha...and I was like, what??? The one with seven guys was seriously way over the limit, don't you think... :p hahaha~

Anyway, tomorrow is the book forum (or something like that) at Tiong Bahru Plaza. Well actually I've been hearing my colleague talk about it for quite some time already. I mean, he's always on the phone planning for it and stuff. Poor guy...you can literally hear how stressed he is through his telephone conversations. And today, he gave me a long description of his sufferings. Heh... The way he told his story was really funny too. Anyway, one of the things he said was that Moses Lim called him to reserve a parking lot for him tomorow. And usually, he wouldn't bother to do such a troublesome thing, but because Moses Lim was so nice, he quickly went to call up Tiong Bahru Plaza. LOL.

Today I didn't have any work to do at first coz the lady who's like in-charge of me was on MC and I'd already finished all that she'd given me. So I went to help my friend do the directory thing. Like, search for Australian manufacturers of therapeutic goods on the internet, key into Excel their address, contact numbers, email, website address, description of core business, etc. Quite an eye-killer job as well. But a nice change from proof-reading. At least now I've been given a computer and a phone (but still no dustbin :p haha), but they're just all at another cubicle.

Haha do you know that there's People magazine in my office...ok actually there're lots of magazines in my office but I was quite surprised to see People there. And the Chinese pub has i-weekly. Next time can borrow from them. :)

Oh this morning I went out of the house with a horribly mismatched outfit!!! :( I almost didn't want to go out for lunch but then my colleagues all thought it was ok. It wasn't!!! :p But anyway, today was the day of the taiti competition in my office. Hahaha... Supposed to start at 6 o'clock this evening. I'd already heard them talking about it since two weeks ago because an email was sent out to everyone...everyone who had a computer lah, haha. But I didn't realise that today was THE day! Saw the organiser explaining the rules to my friend before lunch. There were TWO PAGES of rules!!!?? I had no idea that you could come up with so many rules for a card game haha. But I think it's cool that there're such things lah!!! I would have joined in too if I had known how to play taiti haha. :p Could be a great way to get to know more office people. Haha and over lunch, they were suggesting a mahjong competition next time. Haha that'd be cool too! But then somebody else told me that one round of mahjong would take at least two hours so it's not very possible to organise one in the office. Anyway, took the lift up to level 5 before leaving just to see what it was all about, but it hadn't started yet. Just saw quite a few tables set up. Haha... should be fun lah.

Went with my friend to Clementi Central just to walk-walk and like de-stress after a week of work. Feel really good at the end of each week. :) Did that last Friday too, and we bought the same blouse from Baleno. Wore on Wednesday and went to show Dr. Y haha...that's the funny guy who likes to talk to himself. But he's very nice and helpful lah haha. He saw the both of us and his reaction was so funny. Do you know that he cuts his hair himself??? The back part was uneven and he was trying to explain to me that his hand suddenly got very tired at that time...hahahaha!!! So cute...

Shopped at Heeren last Saturday because my friend from Flowers in the Attic told me about the sale they were having. Such a good thing to have a friend who works there huh! :) Heh. And she's real good to me. I bought a skirt (very nice!!! haha) and a pair of silver lace butterfly earrings. But it wasn't very fun shopping alone lah. :p Anyway, I think fashion merchandising is quite interesting. The bosses travel overseas often and get nice pieces of clothing and accessories to sell in their shop...it's nice.

Last night was the start of Thai Basic 2. Now we're learning how to write the Thai script as well. Felt like I was back in primary school doing penmanship exercises again haha. But it's very very interesting lah. I'm so glad that my mum agreed to let me continue learning Thai. :) And I really really hope that I get accepted into the Japanese course at NP!!! :)

Sigh I just long for the day again when I can sit back, relax, and watch Showbiz at home everyday...hehehe.

LOL I graduated from a ballpoint pen to an ink pen today!!! :) But I was supposed to get my first pay cheque today and I didn't. :(

There's this funny guy in my office who talks to himself at length all the time... He comes in super early in the mornings, and leaves super late. He likes to say, "I'm such a nice guy - why do you want to argue with me?", "Wah, so much work today ah..." and "I didn't eat my lunch again you know?" He's hilarious!!! Can you tell what he's trying to imply??? And I think he would love to stay overnight at the office if he could. He seems to love his job that much. But I would seriously die if I ever have to work with him. LOL. Yesterday, he was going on and on and on about some issue...and I honestly thought that he was talking to himself again. And I was thinking, wow, he has really outdone himself today man, talk so much. But LOL the thing was, he was talking to this other guy in actual fact!!! I only realised it when this poor guy came to call the editor to join in the "lively conversation". (What??) This guy is TOO nice man!!! I didn't even hear his voice one bit while that funny guy went on and on and on and on with his monologue. It's so bad that the other day when all was quiet, I was wondering what happened to him. Heehee... But essentially, I think he's a pretty ok guy. And he offered to buy breakfast tomorrow! :p No, no, of course my friend and I said no thanks. LOL.

There was this human jam at Clementi Central MRT today!!! People were hardly moving...don't know why! And the poor people who were coming up the escalator, when they reached the top, before they knew it, they just bumped into those people in front of them! Bump bump bump!

Oh yeah, I'll (hopefully) be taking Japanese in school. Haven't sent in the application yet, though. Can't find it, heh. And I'll also be continuing with my Thai... yay! :) I love learning languages soooo much!

American Idol tonight!!

Just came back from the airport! Sniff sniff.

Well, MAJOR NEWS. My boss told me that there are actually NINETY chapters in The Clinical Approach to Medicine. NINETY!!! That means I have SIXTY-NINE chapters more to go. Horrible!!! :(

And the new book? It's about zebrafish. Zebrafish Development, that's the title of the book. I still can't figure out what they are talking about even after two-and-a-half chapters!!! There's no mention of aquatic life or that kind of thing, you know... Just about genes and gastrulation (the word that appears the most often) and dunno what else. Heh. And in the first place, what is zebrafish??? Is it a kind of fish or a kind of zebra or what? AND I can't believe that people actually dedicate a WHOLE BOOK just to zebrafish development. :)

Well ok it's still morning - oh, oops, no, it's past 12 already. I was going to say that since it's still morning, I'm entitled to EAT LIKE A KING FOR BREAKFAST. Nevermind, the King can do whatever he wants. Hehehe...

I've finished! I've finished!! I've finished THE CLINICAL APPROACH TO MEDICINE!!! Ahhh...what a load off my shoulders. I think I can become a doctor now. :p

But...this is only the first reading. I don't think I can make it through the second reading. Hehe...

OH, and then I checked with my editor yesterday and it turned out that she wanted all the "non's" to be hyphenated!!! To think that I had so much fun correcting all those non's with hyphens. Haha...It wasn't so much fun anymore correcting them back...

OK at least I will be a safe distance away from that book for the time being. I'm getting the new book tomorrow. Man! Heard it's more than a thousand pages long.

DID YOU KNOW that Beyonce is only 1.61 m tall??? That makes me a grand total of 1 cm taller than her!!! :-D But wait...that's not all... Sarah Jessica Parker is ONE POINT FOUR. It's. Totally. Unbelievable. I honestly think that 8 Days made a typo error. Heh. Oh, and Jennifer Aniston is 1.5 m...short.

My Thai class is having a gathering soon and THEY CONVENIENTLY MADE ME THE COORDINATOR. Just because I'm the youngest is it??

How did you find American Idol last night?? I thought it was the best night so far... Barry Manilow... Ahh he works wonders for those guys. He's the Copa Cobana guy, the Can't Smile Without You guy, and the I Write the Songs that Make the Whole World Sing guy... And so cool that he specially arranged the music for them. Jasmine was seriously good, as well as Latoya. Thought George was bad. :p But John Stevens was not bad at all! His "Mandy" was pretty good! Why didn't the judges like his performance? Thought he handled the beginning of the song well. Oh, my mum (the judge) says that George should sing Tom Jones or perhaps some Englebert. He really can't do Elton John or Barry Manilow. But I think no one remembers Englebert anymore. I don't even know how to spell his name properly.

Ooh surprise surprise...Just found a song by Engelbert Humperdinck in the laptop I'm using now. Haha. So he sang Quando Quando Quando huh...

This week's 8 Days cover story was Kill Bill Vol. 2. I'm really interested in knowing what Kill Bill Vol. 1 is about. Read so much about it in the papers and stuff... All sorts of words were used to describe it. I didn't understand half of them. I'm really curious.

Read the review of Jamie Cullum's Twentysomething in 8 Days. Sounded really cool! So I decided to join that SMS contest for a FREE CD haha... But I have never done this kind of thing before, except for that time when I sent a postcard in for those CDs that Lifestyle was giving away. Haha that's another story altogether. Was looking through the CDs that were reviewed and finally picked the Love Actually OST because I thought it was more 'wu hua', like, you know, so many songs by different singers in one CD. :p LOL. Anyway, I didn't know how to CHECK if I had won the CD or not!!! Argh. OK set my sights on 8 Days...focus... Haha oh but I didn't know how to type the SMS! LOL this is making me sound really pathetic huh? Well, in the magazine it said to type the (CODE) (NAME) etc...then it said to leave a blank between each field. But I wasn't sure if I had to type the <> or not. I didn't. This is all sounding really bad!!! I'm stopping here...

Hmmm (the thoughtful kind, not the disgruntled one)... It's the first night that I don't have to worry about The Clinical Approach to Medicine. I don't really know what else to do for the rest of the night... LOL. Except, when 10 o'clock comes, then it's time for the American Idol results.

I'm listening to some songs from the Wedding Banquet now. The Perfect Woman is such a cute cute song!!!

[An excerpt]

Guy #1: The perfect woman scholarly / At least a PhD
But just one PhD / She should have two or three
In physics and statistics
Guy #2: Come on be realistic
Guy #1: And classic Russian novels from the 19th century
Guy #2: Now how about her breeding
Guy #1: The finest line of course
Guy #2: For Christ's sakes
Are you looking for / A woman or a horse
Guy #1: Her ancestry is vital
Guy #2: Then find one with a title
And maybe you'll get money / When she sues you for divorce
Guy #1: So what to say / She knows ballet
A girl who's fun / Who packs a gun
Secure like me
Guy #2: She's six foot three
Now Simon please / The girl's Chineseeeee
Guy #1: Ok she's six foot one / She wants to bear my son
Guy #2: Now that'll be something else / Conceiving by herself
Guy #1: A perfect woman / Walks with grace
Guy #2: Is grace a woman too
Guy #1: A perfect woman / Knows her place
Guy #2: And knows it's not with you
Guy #1: The perfect woman's / Not a floozy
Guy #2: But you hope she won't be choosy
Guy #1: She knows traditions must be shown respect /
She knows just what my parents will expect /
She matches every item on my list
The perfect woman / The perfect woman
Guy #2: Does not exist

It's Barry Manilow Week on American Idol this week!!! He's cool... Yup I've heard his songs before, but I can't really remember the titles. I think he was the "Copa Cobana" guy...and can't remember what else already. Hopefully, the contestants will have an easier time with his songs. That Elton John Week was seriously a killer!! Hehe... Hmm, by the look of things, I guess either Fantasia or Latoya will win?? But Diana has a good, strong voice too. And she's quite a mature performer already even though she's only SIXTEEN!

So we had the DCG lunch today. Thanks to my dear mummy, we ate grilled chicken wings, marcaroni soup and konnyaku jelly. Delicious! My DCG leader said that the only time she ate marcaroni soup was when she was sick. ||| Oh but the funny thing was that we had a mass chicken-shreading session. Like everyone just gathered around the table and took a drumstick each to shread with our fingers, all the while complaining about how fat the chicken was. LOL. Ok all in all, it was a pretty good lunch. Talked about how most handsome guys at gym were gay..?!! Weird lunch topic. And talked about school too... guess my friends are all quite tired with JC life already sigh. Hmm and quite sad that Claire is leaving for Perth soon. That's one less buddy in church...

It's finally the weekend!

Oh...but it's sad that JPL got out of American Idol. I mean, even though I support John Stevens...but I like JPL too. Can tell that he's a nice guy. AND can tell that every week, John Stevens is super shocked that he's still in the competition. This guy ah!!! Grr... He should have more fighting spirit in him man. Heh.

Hmm...work this week has been pretty much routine. Started wearing clothes that were other than the normal T-shirt and jeans. But when it came to Friday, which was "dress-down day", I was too dressed up! SIGH. When will I ever get this thing right... Heh. Oh and I worked nonstop (no hyphen for "non" but hypen for "anti" because easier to read - that's what I've learnt...haha) on Friday morning because I told my boss that I would finish that pile of work by lunchtime. What was I thinking??! LOL. Anyway, thank God that I managed to do it, although it was like no-chrysenthemum tea, no-KitKat, no-sweets, no-biscuits, NO-BREAK AT ALL for that morning. Heh. And by the time afternoon came, I guess my less-than-outstanding brain was already burnt out, so I could only do ONE chapter (Diabetes Mellitus, in case you were interested to know) and worse still, I couldn't finish it so I worked overtime or else I would have felt like such a failure. LOL.

Went shopping today for birthday presents at Holland V and Heeren. Bought for myself quite a few things too. Somehow the shopping spree syndrome (could be a chapter in my medical journal, seriously) got to me. But especially happy with my purchase of this colourful top from Flowers in the Attic. But took such a long time in the fitting room that when I came out, I was seriously stunned to see this queue of girls in the cluttered shop. It was like, I came out and then I saw their faces and then I quickly looked down and walked away. So pai seh!!! Sigh. Heh.

Well, we're going to have a farewell lunch for Claire tomorrow...

And I wanna watch Starsky & Hutch! :)

Took half-day leave today coz of the matriculation. But first, went with my dad to Clementi Central to pay my school fees at the bank. Sigh what a disaster. Seems like I've been getting into disasters there huh? Heh. Well we had to go to the designated OCBC bank lah, but then we ended up at POSB. Then he realised that we were at the wrong bank, so we crossed over and found UOB. Then the bank teller said we can't (obviously) pay there and she told me where to find OCBC. And finally, we got to dear old OCBC, just like what my mum had told us to do in the very first place - "Go to the Loy Kee Chicken Rice coffeeshop, have lunch then, then go to OCBC which is just opposite." Sigh...

OK then finally got to NP Convention Centre safe and sound. Did all the necessary registration and then got cornered into buying a $5 funfair tic...Also found out that it's "compulsory" to do Flag Day (I thought I'd escaped that by coming to poly SIGH)...And worse still, signed up for orientation camp! What was I thinking??? And then I went to look for my dad who was happily at the laptop corner. NP offers Toshiba and IBM. Guess both brands are just as good... but Toshiba notebooks look nicer!! Haha. Oh yeah, if any of you wants to buy an Apple iPod...I can get it for you at $488...if I buy Toshiba. Gotta tell me by this Saturday hor... :) I thought that this was not bad a deal for those who really want to buy, so I can help you if you want.

Last stop was Queenstown Library -- whoa, quite funky eh. Haha. First time there since it was renovated. The computers are iMacs!!! I so didn't know how to use them man. Why the mouse so funny one??? But they looked really good lah haha. All-white. Super funky. Anyway, borrowed 6 books. Don't know if they're really good or not. Certainly hope so! PLEASE, if anyone has a good book to recommend, let me know. I've been so devoid of books in my life for the past few months.

Haha listening to K-pop songs again, thanks to my Korean penpal, Michelle. Just realised that I have songs by all the singers who were nominated for MTV Asia Awards!! LOL. Yah lah, I slow... But I just watched the nth repeated telecast of the show. OH MY... The Pussycat Dolls??? But I must say that Vaness Wu looks much better with his new hairstyle! OK, not so new already... haha. BoA is very short! Haha :p And wow, A*Mei must be pretty great to be able to dance in those heels!!! Anyway, I bet that if DAVID TAO performed at the awards show, he'll bring the house down. :)

Found a shop in Clementi Central that sells CDs at a much cheaper price than HMV and other such shops. Haha OK the ah-soh in me is acting up again... Hmm but I just saw on TV that Rock Records has put out an album compilation of songs by all its artistes, like MayDay, Fish Leong... Maybe I'll check that out. Can't wait for DAVID TAO'S next album though!!! I'll definitely just buy it!

LOL the Ch U show is soooo funny!!! You know, the Bryan Wong and Quan Yifeng one - SMAP? SWAP? Aiyah, the Ready! Steady! Go! one lah, haha. I must watch it every Monday for my weekly dose of humour entertainment...I literally laugh throughout the entire show!!! It's just so fantastic.

Last night, we were thinking of where to go for dinner...LOL my dad was so funny!! He said, "You are free to choose but I only want claypot rice". I mean like what choice do we have left, right??? LOL we had a major suan-ing session for about 15 minutes in my parents' bedroom. Oh well, we went along with our Chairman Siew just like the faithful followers of communism that we were. Went to Tanglin Halt but there was no claypot rice. Anyway, we still pigged out man. Discovered some new stalls and ate everything from there - fish & chips, bak kut teh, fried chicken wings, mee pok, rojak, cheng teng, beehoon......that's definitely gonna be our new haunt from now on hehe. We started discussing who was likely to win American Idol but we just couldn't come to a conclusion. Seemed like everyone had almost the same chance of winning! Hopefully it'll be John Stevens though. Hehe... Hope against hope! Later, we went to NTUC, and there, the two men started preparing for war and stocked up on lots of rations............... *resigned to the fact that men being men...enough said*

Oh yeah, RONALD SUSILO WON THE JAPAN OPEN FINALS!!!!!!!!! He's my sports hero man, haha. Can't remember when I started supporting him...maybe during the Singapore Open 2002. I'd even wanted to go to the Indoor Stadium and watch his final match! Haha. Oh but but but I'm sooooo glad that he won this time. I was on such a high last night when I'd found out. :) I mean, the odds were against him, weren't they... He playing against Bao Chunlai from CHINA... ANYWAY, RONALD SUSILO IS JUST SIMPLY FANTASTIC!

Gotta go down to NP tomorrow for matriculation. Still don't know what that means. Why can't they just put it as "registration"?? Heh. Anyway, I'm still quite excited about everything. Going to choose my laptop tomorrow also. Yeah, it's compulsory to own a laptop...though I heard that we won't be using it much for school actually. Anyway, since I can get it at a discounted price from the school (ha-ha), then that's ok, coz I'll use it for like church and my own stuff too.

Bought Marie Claire sports shoes yesterday! LOL. They're like 5 times cheaper than adidas shoes and nicer too, in my opinion. Haha. The cut is definitely more feminine. OHHH...but what happened after that was such a disaster!!! Went to Clementi Central to take passport photos at the Photo-Me booth for my poly stuff. Sigh sigh sigh. Only realised that I needed to adjust the chair after I'd inserted all the coins. Silly me!! It's not like I haven't been to the photo booth before. I bent down to adjust the chair and MUCH TO MY HORROR, I heard the "poof!" sound and saw the bulbs go "flash!" and felt the sizzling heat "zzzzz"... Argh. So 1st photo - only the blue background and a tuft of my hair at the bottom. 2nd photo - recovered from the shock and gave a dazzling smile while in the position where my butt was centimetres above the chair. Needless to say, my face turned out extremely big...yeah, coz I was leaning towards the camera. And 3rd & 4th photo - gave a dazzling smile but --- looked in the wrong direction!!! ARGH!!!!!! Good thing I only needed ONE photo. But still...so devastating. And incredibly silly. :p

Well ok...time to call it a day. Still need to think of what to wear tomorrow. Haha :p