i feel old. =( i feel very drained out when i reach home at 12ish from a gathering on a weeknight. i can't do late nights. =( I was no different from a walking zombie at work today and I only felt better after taking a nap during lunchtime. And my throat hurts. Why do I spend most of the time getting throat inflammations this year?! This is so frustrating >=(

i just got back from a secondary school friends gathering at 211 Cafe, and i had a great time laughing at all the silly things we did back then and funny/weird schoolmates we had :) I missed those simple carefree days hehehe :) I can't wait for the next gathering to take place!

=( my wound on my ankle is hurting like mad. I wonder if it gotta do with the lobster ravioli i had earlier on... Are we supposed to abstain from seafood if we have an injury? =\

This week's gonna be an activity-packed week...
Wednesday: Preview screening of Wanted with Ariel
Thursday: Dinner with the kettle
Friday: MaLa steamboat with MTV colleagues
Saturday: Housewarming of a colleague and Toy & Comic Convention
Sunday: Swimming at lil Claire's place! :)

Allo!

Allo, j'mapelle Amelie! I've been here for more than a week and I'm glad to be finally formally introduced on Kell's blog :) We just had the one of the many customisation sessions to come, and guess what, I've got a brand new haircut! The heat was really bothering me, so the haircut came at the right time. It's alot shorter than my previous hairstyle (trust me you'll be shocked to see the amount of hair on the floor earlier on!), and Kells told me that it's not the final length yet. I can't wait to see myself in the final hairdo. :) Her hands were shaking and aching after my haircut because she says my hair is really thick!

And yes, I'm not the only one who arrived recently, Alexis came with me but *ahem* her friend is too busy with life to play and bond with her. *shrugs* That's just life, ain't it?

I hope we'll have opportunities to go out to take photos soon, I love being the centre of attention! :)

Whole truckload of pictures from god-knows-when

There are alot of pictures on my camera from a long time back, so here they are!
I believe these 2 pictures were taken on Vesak day when I wanted to send my roll of film taken on my lomocam for x-processing at Rubys. Too bad it was closed =(





This following picture was taken at the BBQ-cum-camping outing with the girls and guys of my clique :) We were at Changi Beach Park, super uluated man! The picture just reminded me of SwitchFoot lyrics, "I'm a plane in the sunset, with nowhere to land"



I found this photograph while I was packing my room :) This was taken on my birthday, but look at Kelda! Always trying to steal the limelight =( I just realised that.... my parents and us kids are wearing the same colours! Hahahha =)



The following set of pictures is from my cousin's wedding. I helped out at the reception desk and I tell you, it was a breeze! :) We love taking spastic photos and disturbing our lil cousin Claire. We tell her what pose we're all gonna do, and then change pose at the last minute, playing her out! =p















Next up, movie with Mag! We met on Saturday to catch The Happening after her class. :) We had dinner and then we made our way to the cinema where we waited to enter the theatre. I tell you, The Happening is so not happening, save up that 10 bucks for a better use on a Saturday! x(




After the movie, we found ourselves at Gelare... We sat around for a while, before we decided to call it a day :) I love girl days out! We must do it more often!

A moment like this

It was a Saturday well-spent :)

Met Ju Leen, Yi-Long and Jennifer for lunch. We were all late, thus making JuLeen wait for almost 20-30 minutes =X Sorryyyy!

She's sucha sweetie, she got me Wild Honeysuckle body splash from Bath & Body Works and a Blythe sticker for ez-link card from Taiwan! =D

We had lunch at Breeks Cafe, and then met up with Siti before we went down to Syaza's place for the engagement ceremony.

When we arrived, Syaza was holed up in the room with her entourage of people fussing over her =P. We were outside her room, and seemingly talking to the door as we didn't hear any answer from the girl! I thought she has fainted from all the excitement hahaha!

This is the first time I'm attending a close friend's engagement ceremony and it really is an eye-opener :)


When the door finally opened... Our pretty girl!


Adding the final touches...


Gifts from Syaza to Alif


Our contribution! =) It's food basket!




Our girl is queen today, people fussing over her, touching up on her makeup, dabbing away perspiration, fanning her to keep her cool, you get the picture :) Now she's sitting in her throne, waiting for the representatives from the guy's side to come over. She's a whole bundle of nerves, she's feeling warm but her hands were clammy cold.

Our pictures with Syaz!






The representatives are here! :) Exchanging of gifts begin, Alif's aunt slips on a ring on Syaza's right hand and she's officially off the market! :)



The bed full of gifts from the fiance.






There was alot of photo-taking going on hehehe, everyone wants a piece of Syaza! :) There was this weird uncle who kept on wanting to capture us on video. Once is okay, but twice, thrice? A little too freaky for my liking =\


Oops! Siti caught me at yet another of my unglam moments! Hahaha =P
It was nice to catch up wit YiFang =D she even drove Siti and I home... Now I'm very inspired and motivated to go get my license. There's just a difference when I see a guy and a girl drive... :) Okok, must go do something about it!

I didn't know how brightening someone else's day will in turn brighten my day until I tried it yesterday :) It's such a joyful and happy feeling that bubbles inside of me, and the corners of my lips can't be straightened. It was a very simple gesture; all it took was a sunflower with a note attached to make someone feel appreciated.

Now I know how Amelie feels when she sets out to bring happiness into the lives of the people around her :)

Sometimes, you don't need to be on the receiving end to be happy. :)

I want to laugh at the ironies of life.

I remember writing about someone whom I respected and even idolised when I was in poly for one of my assignments; but this person has become someone nothing like the person I respected in the past. He/She has stooped to the lowest of all lows, and I cannot fathom what made him/her do that.

Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha

Well well well... I guess people change...

Back to running! :) It's been a while since I ran because I got a terrible blister from wearing TW heels and my skin came off, and I have an open wound that doesnt seem to heal fast enough. -.-"

Remind me never to buy cheap shoes just because they are on sale. A good (comfortable) pair of heels are worth investing in.

Anyway, it felt good to finish 4km. Previously, I've only tried 2km, 3.2km the very most. I felt so accomplished when I finished 4km. *beams*

Distance: 4km
Timing: 24m 07s

I can't wait to pick up my newly adopted girls tomorrow! :)

I have an awesome sister, she went to get an eye-operation for her doll and got me this box of rement toys! :) I'm so very blessed.

Yay! Kate's swimsuit + float came in the mail! :)

Joy Journal:

- Caught Sex & The City with Magmag on Tuesday and I really enjoyed it! :) I didn't follow the drama serial, but it's no biggie. I love the clothes, the heels and the storyline! I wanna get a fierce belt and pair it with a floral frock :)

- Receiving stuff from sprees in the mail!

- Getting a good Blythe deal. =D I'm getting a Prima Dolly Ginger and Love Mission and clothes for like what, $413.90. Any Blythe lovers would know it's a good deal... =D Gotta thank my sister for looking out for me!



- Ie Ting lent me his company's V9 so I can see if I'll like using a Motorola phone because I'm gonna get the Motorola V8 Luxury Edition phone when mummy renews somebody's contract. *This is just awesome!* So far, I like it :)

- I love my sisters, no matter how irrinoying they can get :)

I never really liked attending funerals.

I don't know why but attending one makes me take a long, hard look at my life and make me face up to my feelings that I've suppressed deep down inside.

Today, I attended my sis's god-grandpa's wake. We paid our respects and went by his coffin and take a look. It felt so unreal. He didn't even look real anymore, it's as if it's a wax figure of him lying in the coffin. I know he has been embalmed but... I don't remember grandpa ever looking like that.

I feel scared. How many more decades do I have with my parents (mainly my mum) around? When their time has come, will I be ready to let them go? These thoughts make me feel vulnerable, scared and helpless because I can do nothing to make time stop. I've always felt like I'm their little girl eternally, and I've never really grown up. When I see stray strands of grey-white hair slowly flourishing on my mum's head, I get worried. I only know what I can do now is to spend more time with them, let go of any resentment I have of them and build a close relationship. I don't want to regret that I didn't spend enough time with them and have very little knowledge about their lives when the time comes...

What am I doing with my time now? What's my life's purpose? Am I living it to the fullest? Or am I just another boat sailing in the sea with no destination in sight and letting the wind in the sail take me wherever it takes me?

Excuse me while I am in deep thoughts... Superficial and frivolous entries will come when I'm feeling like myself again.

I have a saliva problem, that's part of being half german

Denise Keller is hanging around the area near my cubicle, filming for MTV News. She's damn friendly, easy-going and crappy, letting loose a few singaporean-accented sentences here and there hahaha! :)

I'm blogging because I'm stuck in my cubicle and I can't go to the washroom without cutting into their space =\

Quote of the day by Denise Keller: "I have a saliva problem, that's part of being half german" Hahaha! :) It's a good friday...

I had a great day today :)

An unexpected visitor at work and a good game of foosball that kept me on my toes is a great way to end my day at work.

I had a great time at the Night Safari :)

I'm going to bed with a permanent smile on my face. :)

G'night world!

The (sun) damage's done, and I'm back on a whitening regime to regain my previous painstakingly achieved fairness. I feel like killing myself whenever I see skin peeling on my face and feel the dry, leathery texture of my sunburnt shoulders. >=(

I don't care if people tell me I look healthier with my tan, I'm bringing fairness back!

Note to self:
- Slather whole body with yogurt during bathtime
- Apply body lotion mixed with pearl powder nightly (DON'T BE LAZY!)
- Do more hydrating facial masks
- Buy aloe vera gel to apply on face till skin gets better
- Snitch sis's whitening SPF 30 sunblock (she doesn't use it anyway) and use it every morning before heading out
- Finish up the skin brightening supplements and buy another bottle (Watsons' having a sale!)
-Pray for a BBW anda drugstore.com spree so I can get more yummy smelling lotions and Queen Helene Mint Julep Masque!

Redang, my happy place, my lil piece of paradise

I'm back from my Redang trip and I wanna blog about it while it's still fresh in my memory. You know how time dilutes your memory, and I'm not going to let that happen :) Sorry if it's a lil too descriptive (read: wordy), but I really wanna remember every lil bit of it and plus, I don't have much pictures!

28th May: I took half day off as we're supposed to leave for Redang that night. Work was a major pain in the butt because there was so many things left hanging and I felt really bad for those who were covering my work and I ended up leaving at around 3ish. Rushed down to Kino, grabbed my FishEye Submarine and rushed home and packed some extra stuff in. I took my shower and dinner, talked to Yi-Long online and confirmed what time we were gonna meet at Lavender MRT. Sent a message to Ie Ting and told him to relax and take his time since I'm meeting the guys at 8:50pm. It so happened that Yi-Long and Daryl were on the same train as me, we walked over to Golden Mile Complex and bought snacks from the Thai supermart. I bought my favourite milk and chocolate wafers (cheap and yummy!) and wangwang rice crackers so we could all share =D

We walked over to Golden Mile Tower and 'checked in' with the agency. We collected the vouchers and then we proceeded to rest in their so-called lounge area. Then Ie Ting came along and we just sat around, waiting for the time to come where we board the bus. We changed buses when we were at the Malaysian customs, and it was our cue to get comfy and sleep. The seats were relatively comfortable, and the bus sped on the deserted road with the only source of illumination coming from the headlights. I stared out of the windows and I saw the bright stars in the nightsky and I find myself smiling :) I guess I'm easily contented like that.

Sometime after midnight, my coughing fit came back to haunt me. I kept coughing non-stop and I was worried that I would wake people up, so I instinctively reached for the cough syrup and gulped it down with water. I was coughing so badly that I teared. It was not long before I KO-ed. I knew we had several pitstops along the way, I tried to open my eyes but my eyelids were really heavy and I couldn't seem to be able to move my body, and I gave up fighting the drowsiness and just slept on.

29th May: The next time I opened my eyes, the dawn was breaking and I could see the silhouette of coconut trees against the purplish skies. I struggle to stay awake to take in the sights, but my eyelids failed me and I went back to sleep. We finally reached the jetty after some time and we got off the bus. We were slightly lost as the bus dropped us at the jetty for Laguna Resort's guests. I went over to the counter and got directions to the jetty where we are supposed to go to and it turned out to be just further down.


Yi-Long & Daryl

We were early and we had to wait for the 9:45 boat ride. So we put down our stuff and waited... In the meantime, I was pretty much walking around testing out my Supersampler and working the FishEye2. Then there was this group of boys who were having fun entertaining themselves, making music and all that, somehow that put me in a pretty good mood. :)








Waiting at the jetty...

Soon, the boat came and we went on. We went up and sat near the captain. Kate Rose sat in the captain's seat too! :)




*picture taken by Yi-Long!*

The ride took quite a while, we even turned back to the jetty because someone or something was missed out. It was a pretty smooth ride, I'm thankful I didn't experience any choppy waters that Serena told me about. And guess what, we even saw wild dolphins frolicking in the sea! :) Wanted to take a picture of that, but it didn't quite show up in the pictures... Oh well. :)

Soon, we arrived and the boat docked in the shallow waters. There weren't a proper platform for us to get off, instead there was a flight of movable wooden steps for us to get off the boat and into the waters. Thank God for the reviews online, so this didn't come as a rude shock to me. We had our welcome drink and collected the key to our room and went to check it out. And as luck have it, our room was located at the back, where the generator was. I personally felt that it wasn't as bad as the reviewer described. Yes, it might be shabby with basic amenities provided and since all of us were all prepared for it, it wasn't too bad. :) We just hung around in the room for a bit and went for lunch.


Can't resist but to snap a picture of this. Almost everywhere we go, we hafta abide by this no-shoes policy. Guess they didn't want the sand to get everywhere. :)

After lunch, we went to rent our snorkelling gear and lifevests and paid for the entry to Marine Park before heading back to the room to get changed and apply sunblock. 3pm came by, and we strapped on our lifevests and headed for the boat that would take us there. Upon reaching the Marine Park, we had a very short briefing and off we went! I had quite a difficult time taking to the snorkelling equipment because I had problems biting. But still, I had fun! :) I brought along my FishEye Submarine and took pictures! Hahahaha =D


Waiting for the boat to come and take us away!


On the boat!


Look at the fishies!


I wanna be a fish too! =D



Our adventure ended after an hour odd and off we go, back to the resort for tea-time! Food was okay, after tea-time, we headed back to the room. I let the guys go shower first since I know I would take a longer time. I told them I'd go out and take a walk along the beach and would be back. :) It was nice to walk along the beach, watching everyone going on their own activities. I walked till the end, checked out some shops and watched the sky turned a pretty mixture of pink, purple and blue and saw the sun slowly descending behind the hills. After I was done with my shower, we made our way to the 'canteen' for dinner. After dinner we walked around, trying to find a decent place to settle down and play our game of Taboo. While we walked, I can't help but keep looking at the stars above. They were so bright, it's as if someone threw a black blanket over the sky and poked holes in it so the light could still shine through. It's hard to see such a lovely sight in Singapore because the city is just too bright.

Soon, we found a bar and we made ourselves comfortable. The guys shared a bottle of wine whereas I had my magarita, I didn't exactly enjoy it because it wasn't frozen! But anyhow, we had an awesome time playing Taboo and before we knew it, it was almost 11:30pm and we headed back to the room where we had a round of Scrabble. We snacked on our junk food while playing... I suck at Scrabble!!! =(


My tiles - how to win with such tiles?!?!

After the game, it's time to turn in...

30th May: If I'm not wrong, we were supposed to go catch the sunrise together. But hmmm, we all slept till around 10ish! =P Think we slept around 12ish-1am the previous night so yeah... We obviously missed the timing for breakfast, so we got ready and headed out and settled for brunch at some place in another resort.



Oh yah, before that I had a false alarm - I thought I lost my wallet! Hahaha =P I couldn't find my wallet in my crumpler bag and I even went to the reception counter to report loss as I couldn't find it anywhere in the room. I checked my bag several times and I finally found it safely tucked away in a secret compartment of my adidas bag. Sorry for the scare guys! =P

After brunch, we went to rent kayaks! =) Also got a plastic bag to keep my FishEyeSub + digital camera safe.




By the way, this is Redang. The waters are unbelieveably clear, there are even fishes in the shallow waters! This. Is. Paradise.


The 3 blokes


Here's a picture of me! I didn't take much pictures on this trip... Can't help it since I'm so active!




Hello hello!!


Say Hi to my kayak partner! :)

The sun was blazing hot and we really kayaked quite a bit man. Soon, 1hr was up and we went to return the kayaks. We spent the rest of the time just hanging out by the beach, soaking in the cool waters.












I love this picture so much that I made it my profile photo in Friendster, MSN and Facebook, Hahahaha! Someone told me that I look like I'm topless in this shot, but I'm not!!

After a while, the guys engaged in sandball fights and I managed to stay outta it (but I got hit once!!)... It was fun watching them try to hit each other with sandballs hahaha! Then, it was almost time to go back and put down our stuff and grab our snorkelling equipment for our afternoon trip and reapply sunblock.

We went to a different location and it was awesome! I saw so many different kinds of fishes! It was a breath-taking sight... I didn't bring my FishEyeSub thinking we might be heading to the Marine Park again and I wanna concentrate of fishy-watching instead. Oh well... =) I really enjoyed myself... I followed the school of fishes around and swam away from the crowd... And best of all, I felt like I was the only one around as I could only hear myself breathing. It was so... peaceful.. just me and the fishies... :) I was enjoying myself alot more prolly because I had gotten the hang of using the equipment to help me breathe. We went back onto the boat when time was up and went back to the resort. Didn't take any snacks to eat during tea-time as I wasn't feeling particularly hungry so I drank instead. As usual, I went on my walk (this time with my SuperSampler) whereas the guys took their time to shower. After my shower, we kinda explored the place a little.


We sat down and just looked at the beautiful surroundings and thought of how crazy we were to kayak out so far... Hahaha! I guess you can see how chao-ta we've become after a day in the sun! My shoulders were all red and burnt! =(



We went to have dinner and we brought along our games since we might be staying out late. We then checked out the board for our check-out times.

他妈的！They got my name wrong! %$&*!

After dinner, we walked over to Redang Bay as the guys wanna get cans of beer. It so happened that there was some kinda fancy costume party going on, so we just hung around and watched. There was this composer-singer person around to sing us songs as well. =D Oooh, and we saw some unidentified glowing creatures in the sand! After a while, it got a lil boring so we headed back to our room for our nightly dose of Taboo and Scrabble =D

I tell you, Taboo has gotta be the awesomest game around, we had so much fun man.
Daryl was trying to get Yi-Long to say the word "Secret", so he began by saying "I have a dirty little what?" and Yi-Long just burst out saying "dick" and we all collapsed in laughter, so much so that Daryl had to call for a timeout. =P Also, Ie Ting's another one fella who made us laugh. I was paired up with him and I was supposed to get him to say Merlion. So I was going on saying, "Okay, this is a Singapore icon, mythical creature made out of 2 animals" and he said "Orang Utan" *faints* and yes.... we laughed and laughed and laughed man. =)

Then we played Scrabble, tonight it was a lil special as the loser would have to do a forfeit, which is to finish a can of beer. Not so much of a problem for the guys, but I ain't the beer-guzzling kinda girl. So when the game was almost coming to an end, I was already telling everyone that I don't wanna play already since there's no hope for me to be the second runner-up and just give me the beer lah. But Ie Ting has a very smart idea. He decided to up the stakes a lil, and told me that I could draw lots to see if I hafta drink either 1 can, 2 cans or zero cans of beer. So I gamely took up the challenge, and I told everyone I'm gonna pray that I don't need to drink. I also made sure they didn't play cheat by scribbling 2 on all 3 pieces of paper. =D so Yi-Long got ready his camera to film the entire process and I was shaking with nervous excitement as I picked out the slip of paper that would determine my fate and guess what - I picked 0!! GOD WAS LISTENING TO MY PRAYERS!!!! =D hahaha, so in the end the guys finished one can of beer each within 30 seconds while I brushed my teeth. Quite an awesome feeling for me, but not for the guys man hahahaha! They were burping, trying to get the gas out and they were all feeling hot. =P So I was trying to get them to sleep so we can go catch the sunrise together. Finally sleep found us. :)

31 May: I was the first to wake up and I quickly went to freshen up. The water was freezing cold in the morning and my teeth were chattering man. I woke all the 3 guys up and after a while, we popped over to the al fresco tables and waited for the sun to come out.













I love watching sunrise. It as if the Maker's splashing all the wonderful colours on a blank canvas, turning it into a masterpiece every morning.


Yi-long took an emo shot of me hahah!


Kate's feeling a lil emo too...









Soon, we went back to our room, packed our stuff and headed out to check out the room and return the snorkelling gear. :) Had chicken porridge and Ie Ting was showing his 'magic trick' that made me cracked up! =P Then we just sat around, waiting for the boat to come and take us back to the jetty.


Waiting to get on the boat, the sun is killing me!
*picture taken by Yi-Long*

It was quite a ride back... I think I dozed off a couple of times... I tried to ask the captain if he has seen Kate's clothes because I think it dropped when they were passing the bags out from the boat to the shore when we arrived, but he didn't see it so... tough luck. It doesn't matter, it just means that we have more excuse to go get new clothes! =D


Kate's looking mighty pleased at the sound of shopping! =D

We found our bus after we got off the jetty, and we were well on our way back home. We were supposed to stop after 2.5 hours, but the bus-driver kept on going till it was almost 3 (we boarded the bus at around 10ish). We got out and visited the toilet and at the same time, we got ice-cream to beat the heat! I wanted to eat ice-cream while we were on the island but somehow that didn't materialise.


Enjoying my ice-cream under the shade! =D
*picture taken by Yi-Long!*

We then hopped back onto the bus and in another like 2 hours' time, we reached yongpeng and we stopped for dinner. I had some fake ramly burger that wasn't too yummy. =( Then we headed back onto the bus that took us back to Singapore. :)

It was a really good trip... Sometimes, it's the company that matters.. :) I'm thankful that we stuck to our guns and still came on the trip... Anyway, thanks for the memories guys! =) Meet up soon again!