#5.

OMG it's going to be monday again.

and btw, i've officially survived my first 4 weeks of working life :D it's been so fast and furious i don't really know how i should be reacting to this hahaha. in the month, i've moved from happy to stressed to angry to happy and back to stressed again. still many bouts of stress but i guess it's cope-able at the very least :)

and thank God i have been leaving work pretty much on time :D latest 7.30. even though i do bring home some work to do i still am thankful for being able to have some me time (: 

and yes, also thank God for the many awesome people around, like a & d who helped me a big deal when buddy k's not around, and for pam and mav for being there whenever i needed to whine and complain about work. rvians rock big time even in edb :D hahaha. 

and as for work, hurhurhurrrrrr. met two execs on my own and attempted to settle some prob with another coy on my own too. client engagement can get really difficult because of all the prep work, all the whatever unexpected questions they might ask, and even the small talk. i'm definitely not used to acting shou as les would say but at least i see myself improving. like my phone call with coy B turned out to be perfectly all right and i ended up building some rapport too with some common understanding of the problem we were facing. :) phewwwww. and as for coy H, the meeting went well despite me having to handle alone for the first 20 mins. there were so much things i could improve on though, as i thought back of all the things i've said and done. arghhhhh. at least i've managed to set the table for the next meeting tmr. phew.

oh yes, the 3-mornings 101 course was awesome too! wooots. not to forget awesome breakfasts. i'm liking the modules despite how it actually takes some of my work time away (and btw workload does NOT decrease even when you're on course lolll)

as for social life, i can't rmb what sort of social life i had over the past week. HAHA. ooops. i do remember watching F1 from my office tower together with 3 other colleagues while drinking beer and playing monopoly deal! haha awesomeness! and the cars look like toy cars from the building. haha. and they don't look like they're driving super fast too. o.O

oh yes, and dinner and beer with herny den and darius on friday! ate bbq chicken with herny and darius and the 3 of us ended up eating 4 people's share. o.O happens that every time i'm out with them we ALWAYS eat more than usual. -___- the unfortunate result of nz days hahaha. but its nice to hear all the hokkien terms again (note the use of word TERMS and not VULGARITIES hahaha) after all the very angmoh environment that i'm at haha. it was like 3 plus by the time i was home. gosh.

yesterday night was awesome too! ate peperoni with the 4g peeps and we had almost full attendance! haha 90% woots. pizza's really awesome and so was the bus ride to city hall :D i decided to join the polo peeps at timbre for about 2hours at first then head back to look for them but i ended up staying with the polo peeps :/ oops. but to be frank i'm too poor to butter and timbre's just a place i really love. wooooots. sigh better join them the next time or else i'll incur the wrath of them :/ 

but yeah, timbre's awesome :D had 2 pints of beer and another tequila on the rocks :D i think i needed much more alcohol to be frank but i decided shall not spend anymore (poor shiahzy was treating haha). oh yes, the live band was not bad too! called today's special. gotta check them out next time :) i wanna watch the goodfellas in action though!

okay end of update. i'm too tired to continue typing. time to continue hataraki man.

+ guaishou's! :D

week #3.

amazingly i'm on my third week of work already, and somehow it does feel like i've been on the job for quite some time. especially when i read all those reports and see those funny terms - it just feels as if i knew these info for a long long time (thanks to the fact that those things appear really frequently). 

i'm starting to get used to this crazily steep learning curve and this hectic lifestyle where work becomes the main thing, and now that i can barely manage some work-life balance i'm more thankful than i've ever been in these two weeks :) 

wanted to keep an account of me coping with work, because i foresee myself reading this again a year later, thinking back how it feels to be fresh. and when the time comes when i become someone else's buddy, i do hope i'll be someone understanding and helpful, just like how my buddy's been to me. it's precisely because she's this nice that i really don't want to disappoint her, and as much as possible, i want to be someone useful.

anyhow, time for some updates. minimal social activity last week, probably cos i'm just super tired and lazy. haha. 

mon night met my dad at west mall to get my new phone! :D after much struggling, i decided on the htc sensation over the samsung galaxy s2 (since i really think deep down inside i wanted that decide S2 being a better phone according to reviews) :D dad paid for it! :)) haha super awesome! and now that i'm on corp plan, i don't have to pay a single cent and yet get an awesome plan. heeehee. and the best thing is, i'm finally on data! hehhhh. no more "limited to wifi availability" on whatsapp :D

wed night met j for dinner plus walked around ion to shop for a pair of work heels and flats. managed to get a pair of heels after two hours of trying in 12837123 shoe shops, and thank God for j or else i seriously think i might choose the pair that i don't really like instead. this current pair i have now is pretty awesome and it better lasts till i get my first pay. can't afford another pair for now!

saturday had dboat comp in the morning, and all 4 edb boats didn't make it more than the heats. hahaha. but it was fun nonetheless! we talked rubbish much, joked around, and i intro-ed my TE people to my mum who was there for the comp too hahaha. and jon yap subsequently kept calling her "auntie seraya" -_____- seriously haha. went for prata at thomson after that andden new friend mel drove me back home! :D yayyyy.

went out to meet ki and geok for supper at udders west mall at night, and ki and i shared mao shan wang + awesomely choc with waffles which was super awesomeeeeee :D heehee. talked many many things too then went over to bt gombak where jeremin joined us for alif. we were stalking chia sen kai (our old physics teacher who apparently seemed interested in ki last time hahaha) on facebook and we saw his new born baby and his wife! OMG. haha. it was quite funny how we really managed to find him in the end. so random. anyway supper at alif was awesome. :) it was very chillax and the prata and maggi goreng were simply delicious. heehee. so we talked till 12 andden caught our last trains/buses back home. 

sunday was another really awesome day! played street soccer andden bball at ntu with the 07 polo peeps and it was SUPER fun :D starting to really love street soccer now! :D haha super funny chih and jingxin kept passing me the ball near the goal post but i kept shooting all over the place except within the goal post. LOL. but i still managed to score two la. out of almost twenty attempts HAHA. but yayyyy i feel like i'm improving fast after playing twice! at least can stop the ball and pass accurately hehhh. really hope it becomes a weekly thing for us! and bball too omg. i haven't played till my heart's content for this long :) woooooooooots.

went to church after that, then rushed to gv marina to watch the mayday 3D concert with rina wenbin beehui and beehian! haha to be frank i was a little awkward watching mayday in 3D HAHA. like guaishou's face right in front andden you see all the concert footage and that sudden rush in adrenaline that makes you feel like standing up, waving your hands up in the air, and sing along with them. i'm like conditioned to do that already, after so many years.

but i reminded myself how retarded i'll probably looked so i just sat in my comfortable seat, mouthing the lyrics along while looking at guaishou's face. hahahaha.

while watching the movie, i thought back about my very first encounter with mayday, and now it's been 7 years since then. it's quite funny how everything's changed since then - i was still in rv, then they followed me into hc, through my canoeing days, to ntu life, and now finally, work. it's like, so many things may change, including me and the things around, but what stays constant is really mayday. i still love the same old songs, love the same old band, and will probably still be that fan girl all the time for the rest of my life. it's pretty heartening to think it that way. :)

haha but of cos, no more screaming, no more chasing, no more queueing three hours before they step onto the stage. i've already become a super mild fan girl hahahahaha.

and so that's how my life has been. planning two more dinners this week and a few other meetups over the weekend. hope everything goes well! :D

+ guaishou's! :D

museum hopping + polo photoshoot!

18 August, Thursday

the beginning of an insanely tiring 4 days involving loads of walking. o.O

met wenxin for like ten minutes to pass her the dance pants and managed to catch up with her life a little! i miss the days we roomed together already ): it felt very natural to just talk about many random things whenever we see each other right now! too bad i didn't have time for lunch with her but i'll make it a point to organise one before i start work (:

went over to city hall to get lunch with pam and it was awesome (: spent an hour plus eating at the hongkong cafe in raffles city, talking about all the happenings and the people in my workplace-to-be and many other things, and then walking around the esplanade exchange and eventually bumping into my future colleagues derek janice and karen hahaha. they were like "hahaha enjoy your last two weeks" and "oh no no no it's going to be fun working" and "we're going to treat you very well *insert cheeky smile*" -____- super funny la! i was like "shit now i dread work even more". but anyway, i thank God for awesome colleagues! they look like people i can really get along with (: hehhhhh.

after lunch with pam, i met leen at the mrt and we walked to the peranakan museum :) went around the museum on the 1 hour free tour and explored the heritage of the peranakans. and i think i just realised then that aileen's actually one! o.O i always knew j was but not leen. hmm. i think that's cos j looks a lot like one compared to leen!

our tour guide who's a peranakan herself!

loves the portraits which are back-lighted!

a cross between traditions and newer religions

me as a peranakan male!

and me as a peranakan female! haha

uber cute stuff for kids!

the peranakan museum isn't very big, but definitely bigger than the first one i went to - the old ford factory. but i totally loved the design of the whole place and well as the exhibits. it was very nicely done and it was fun exploring the place! we spent about two hours before heading back to the mrt.

along the way we saw this very awesome camera shop near hill st. and it sold many awesome stuff! like the leather casing i've been looking so hard for my jeremiah (the olympus pen btw)! omg. and leather straps too! but it costs like 235 for the whole casing and 69 for the strap. which is simply insane! the most i'll do is to get the leather straps but then again it doesnt look very comfortable so i guess not ): but i do hope to get something awesome from there next time!

we took the train to buona vista after that since leen's got an interview there. i waited for her at the cafe andden at the end of it we headed to jp where j joined us :D we started queuing for swensons and it took us almost half an hour to get seats for 5 when we were right at the front! gosh. soon after we got a seat loi joined us, followed by fw and we all ate happily using toh's groupons haha.

went to ntuc express to get a fan for loi since he desperately needs it for his new home and we had much fun choosing the fans LOL. i was doing a quick analysis for loi using my engineering skills hahaha. but in the end they all chose the other one when we voted -___- angryyyyy. hahaha. after that fw left after a small little episode while the rest headed to wendy's for some dessert while we talked somemore.

after dessert-ing loi went back to his place while the three of us went back hall and slacked. andden the whole night was spent talking outside toh's room when he wasn't even around, with some angmoh called rasmus from denmark dropping by and chatting with us for like 2 hours (to be frank i wasn't exactly comfortable with it cos i wasn't in a socialising mood), andden me running to germ's new room (YAY), talking to the three of them, before heading back to them at the lounge only to get chased out by the guard, and finally talking at the stairway near the toilet before the two of them went to bed.

then i went back to germ's room only to find miang while the rest went to eat their supper -___- was so tired after that so i went to shan's room and sleep.


19 August, Thursday

woke up at 830 the next morning and had breakfast at cant 9 with j leen toh and yuto! loves breakfast at hall  9 :D after the breakfast, leen j and i embarked on our journey to our first museum - the asian civilisation museum! and dammit it was super big o.O the tour itself took an hour and a half and it skipped the majority of the exhibits. so at the end of it we had to walk all the 7 galleries again ourselves, and by the 4th one we were all so tired from the information overload and skipping many things altogether. oh and not to forget my legs were complaining already and so was my stomach. we actually stayed there for a full 4 hours and by the time we were out looking for food it was already 3.

and so you could imagine how tired we were already. but i have to admit, there's just so much awesome exhibits there! i think it's possibly the biggest museum out of the 7 already. the galleries were split according to the different regions in asia, and out of all i thought the south east asia one was the most boring. because the exhibits were just of the different tribes and most of the time i couldn't see much difference between them since they looked all the same. haha. there wasn't any exhibits on the koreans taiwanese and japs though, which were pretty disappointing, but then again i guess their history must be tied quite tightly to the chinese and so they didn't bother having a gallery specially for the east asia.

our korean tour guide!

the 8 immortals 

one of the 3 hindu gods

a smiling buddha

awesome funny looking things!

ACM's main lobby area

buddha and his 7 chakras

j says this seemed very emo.

attaining nirvana

the three of us!

point: to look like a tourist hahaha

well done, j, well done.

i decided to lock them up cos they were too irritating

finally forced leen to take a pic haha

oh there was this temporary exhibition on the terracotta warriors and that was pretty interesting! although i wouldn't spend 5 bucks on it to be frank (i entered in for free since it was free entry for students, and i still have my matric card haha). anyway i was quite amazed by the extent chinese emperors would go to for the sake of not dying "alone". hmmmm.

i love these things. they're just so cute!

wanna bring them home

we had lunch at the sandwich place called the mooba tuckshop. it had a few awards displayed so i was expecting it to be pretty awesome but it turned out only slightly above average ): had the turkey cold cut which i felt was the worst out of the three dishes, the other two being roasted beef and sugar cured salmon. sadddddddd. bought the one dollar ice cream from the ice cream man outside and it was pretty amusing watching tourists buying their ice creams from the english-poor ice cream man for their first time.

turkey cold cut!

sugar cured salmon

roast beef with mushrooms!

the interior

greeeeeedy j!

really exhausted :(

we took the train down to dhoby ghaut after that and headed to our next museum - the national museum of singapore. from the exterior the museum looks hugeeee and i was pretty worried it'll be another acm, especially since my legs were aching pretty badly already. turned out that it's slightly smaller, with the history gallery being the biggest of all and three other small living galleries. i loved the history gallery because when you enter the gallery itself, they pass you this electronic device where you can listen to the guide after you type in a few numbers. oh they didn't have any text around the galleries too since you can easily read it on the device by pressing the numbers next to the exhibit! this gave the whole viewing area a much cleaner look :)

the history gallery is split into two different paths - the personal path and the event path. i followed the personal path all the way and it was mainly about the people and their lifestyles throughout the years. it was a longgggg path and i found myself skipping many things because of the lack of time (we had 1.5 hours for it before it closed) and i couldn't finish it, let alone head back for the events path. oh well. i told myself i'd come back and visit it once again to finish the rest!

as for the exhibits, it was mainly on the different things used by the people of the past, some important documents, and different paintings and photos. along the way you could watch some interesting videos as well, and i found myself sitting down watching this video on an interview with a couple who worked as a performer during the new world days and eventually moving on to ge tais. it was pretty interesting!

those red lanterns were swinging!

:D :D :D

photos by j from here on!

our awesome companion

and so after we got chased out of the gallery when time is up, we rested for a while before heading to the  three living galleries - fashion, film and food. we visited them in this order, and to be frank, while i liked the exhibits in the film gallery as well as the overall design of the place (loved the triple screens area with the red curtains!) i loved the food gallery best :D and it was for obvious reasons - we were quite hungry already, and singaporean food is undoubtedly the best imho. plus the gallery was playing sounds of woks frying, tok tok mee, satay sizzling, etc etc. and the videos were awesome too!

at the film gallery

at the food gallery!

and i think food really connects singaporeans together. no matter where you are, whenever you meet singaporeans, the best thing to talk about is the sucky weather and the awesome food. it can never go wrong! haha.

and so at about 7.30pm we left the museum, and took a bus to 313 for some authentic singaporean food at food republic haha. ordered laksa (thanks to the laksa video which kept replaying in the food gallery) and some rather sucky bbq chicken wings and rested my pair of legs well before heading to new look to look for some shoess for j and city chain for a watch for leen. but in the end, we failed terribly and went out of the two places empty handed o.O

we went forever21 at that's where we all finally bought some stuff - mostly accessories! haha. hopeless us. leen left earlier while j and i continued to walk around the whole store and j got a skirt. didn't manage to find anything (especially since i've got no motivation to spend) and by the time we were done it was already 10. o.O went home after that and slept really well that night after all the walking :D


20 August, Saturday

rested at home for the bulk of the time, before heading out to cck where ying2 picked me up on her car! :D haha i never imagined this to happen to us you know, so it was pretty surreal haha. ying2 then picked cy up at bp and kim and timo at plaza sing before we drove to ecp and got lost along the way haha.

after we finally found a parking space somewhere near macs, we headed to the hongkong cafe next to it since cy kim and timo were highly against macs while ying2 and i were craving for some haha. but thinking that the three of them would be eating western food for the next year or so, we decided to compromise haha.

pam and grace joined us soon after. the hongkong cafe (called C. Nai) served really awesome authentic hk food! :D it was not ex considering the location as well (the rest of the restaurants were like 10 plus ish) and we generally loved what we ordered :) will definitely go back next time! i had claypot rice which was not bad though i thought pam's beef stew noodles were really delicious haha.

my favourite girls :D

DOUBLE-YOLKED EGG! 

after staying at the hk cafe for a while, we went out and decided to head to macs for dessert and forsaking our original plans - blading. haha. kim timo and cy were really lazy plus grace told us that the shop's closed, and so we didn't have much of a choice haha. macs was really full though, thanks to the liverpool vs. arsenal match, and we had to sit at the mac cafe area o.O haha. so basically over there we talked a bit (especially about kim's emo story which we laughed till we choked earlier at the hk cafe hahaha thanks to timo and his awesome summary!) and played opera king where the 4 of us each played as some opera singer and bouncing each other off the stage to get the spotlight. awesome stuff! haha.

the 7 of us!

after macs, we headed to the beach, placed ying's beach mat on the ground and talked :) ying timo and i were talking about how the realities of life set in upon graduation and how many things could possibly change in the coming years. we talked about timo's girlfriend (the first time i've heard from him personally in a year since it began, as it's probably the first time i met timo in a year plus), his life in edinburg, zongyi, etc. etc. it's quite funny how we're all forced to grow up but yet every time we get together we try to be young again.

we lighted up some sparklers we had, had a little accident when parts of the sparkler flew to pam, andden started some light drawing with the light sticks i brought :) then we observed many kong ming lanterns flying into the sky and disappearing eventually and considered buying one until we realised how each of them costs 10 bucks. eventually the few of us were just lying on the mat watching the lanterns lit up the sky.

the very nice kong ming lantern!

yayyyy to my favouritest class!

it was almost 1 when we left the beach. ying2 drove kim cy and i back home while pam's zy drove the rest back. after dropping kim, ying2 cy and i went to bt timah for some supper and we saw old rvians there too! cejin aaron and two others. what a small world actually, especially when it was already 2! had some prata and milo there!

ying2 then sent us home and after washing up i was on the bed, with only 4 hours of sleep before i head up to the pool the next morning.


21 August, Sunday

arrived at the pool at about 9.10am and yh and jx were already there! the rest of the polo peeps reached about 9.40am and soon we were discussing how to take our photos with our equipment and gowns :D

and then the rest of the morning was spent taking many awesome shots! :D haha. i think i'll let the photos do the talking. but to keep it short it was damn fun :) :) i love my polo batchmates! 4 years of awesomeness together, learning all the skills and picking up the sport from scratch, going from nothing to champions at the end of the 4 years! wooooots. and our photoshoot was a huge success since everyone could make it in the end! heehee. super difficult to gather 9 of us together especially when most of us are working already. o.O

presenting the awesomest canoepolo batch!

aero polo peeps!

the GIRLS.

what's grad photos without throwing the mortar board?

and of course, jump shots :D

thanks for the memories. :D

and so, this is my dearest polo teammates (: our next aim? a short trip together!

after the photoshoot, we headed to cant 2 for lunch then i went to suntec for church after claiming my free cup of eskimo haha. first time i joined in the queue in ages! usually i just go in late :/ haha. service was awesome! the worship team played a new song called sweeter than wine and i totally loved it (: you could sense the wealth of emotions in the whole audi when they played that!

Your love is better than life,
Sweeter than wine,
All that I can ever imagine.
Your love is all that I need,
Lord I receive
Your loving kindness and majesty.

(: it's easy to forget God, since He's always present. it's easy to take Him for granted, since He is always doing good in my life. but i thank daddy God for bringing me to an awesome church so that i could always be reminded of His awesome love.

met candy and shihwee up at one of the towers at suntec after walking around millenia walk and after walking around a bit we decided to have dinner at this new fastfood called chicking at marina bay. and it really sucks! gosh. nothing compared to KFC. plus the mash potatoes were obviously the instant maggi ones. omg.

but okay la, the good thing was there was barely anyone there (for a good reason) and so we had a comfortable place and environment to talk :) we talked till 8 plus then walked to muji to get some snacks before going the long way back to city hall. took the train to clementi with candy while shihwee headed back to hall ): jealous max! i wanna stay in hall again toooo.


22 August, Monday

i've finally reached here! omg. the day was spent nua-ing at home, and after dinner i headed back to ntu for some bball :D bball ibg today! hehh. and for the first time, there was actually girls present, and many of them! woahhhh. after talking to them for a while and psychoing them to join the hall bball team with jason and tanyin, we played a match together and it was super tiring gosh. i think i've really lost all my fitness haha. plus my legs were still aching badly from the heavy activities the past few days gosh haha.

but it was super fun! the freshies are really good this year and so i'm hoping at least a finals for this year's ihg :D too bad i can't be in the team to be part of it myself ): oh well. we played for an hour or so before packing up and leaving the place. yuto and i wanted to head to cant 2 to find fw and toh but they said there was barely anything left so we went to the sun instead to get some drinks. sat there for a while then walked back to hall together where i decided not to stayover heh. time to let go already! and plus not very nice to keep imposing on them heh.


23 August, Tuesday

the day i'm just going to slack at home! :D hohohoho. just another 12 days more before work begins. sigh.

+ guaishou's! :D