Square One

There, are you happy now, Barry? Thanks to my ineptness at HTML, less than a month after unceremoniously discarding this layout, I have had to come crawling back to it. Honestly though, I'm quite bored of looking at it. But until I polish up my skills at the language, I guess I'll leave it as this for now.


And, to reward those few of you who stuck by me despite the unreadable text - and also because I have taken a deluge of them - Behold! Random pictures I could have used, but did not, in my last post.

I don't know why, but I have a compulsive habit of personally defecating on my painstakingly-constructed persona of a glam-queen. Build it up, take it down. Xian, this definitely tops (or bottoms, if you want to look at it another way) than what you had on your blog hurhurhur. And September, I hope this gave you a good chuckle or two (Look! I even have whiskers!) - I had you particularly in mind when I badgered my sister to take these shots.
Since I endangered the lives of all the occupants in the car each time I took to the wheel, I was holed up in the back seat most of the way back home, which was a long and boring way to spend one's day. What to do but to whip out the camera and amuse oneself?

You guys have gotta check out the pedicure I got at the resort's spa! We also had a treat of Javanese massage, herbal body scrub and body mask - the latter of which was slathered all over our bodies, clad only in disposable undies, by our Indonesian masseuses. Who could, by the way, individually deliver on anything at all you wanted that was on offer at the spa. You name it, they could do it.

Bad skin on display. Plus, does anyone recognise which Season 5 episode of Sex and the City my pose comes from?

And I leave you with: more goofin' off with the camera settings.

Merry Christmas, Everyone! (Post-Note: And A Happy New Year!)

Ho ho ho to everyone! I just spent my Christmas Day lounging around at home with the brand-new owner of this toothbrush -

- yes, you've guessed it, it's The Boyfriend's. This new-found status was a result of part slow-won trust from my parents, part conniving weaseling from us (read: we never asked for permission. Yet.). With a fat portion of it coming from the latter reason.

... Anyway, cutting the irrelevant show of smug Couple-dom short, I shall deliver what I promised in my last blog entry: The answer to where I'd disappeared to for many, many days on end!

Alright, it was only 4 days in truth, but a little stretching of the truth always makes the story more interesting. My parents' wedding anniversary was last week, but it just happened that me dad needed to head down to Terengganu for work. So he thought he might as well bring my mum along and celebrate their anniversary there! The fact that my sis and I got to tag along was just a fortuitous (for us) detail taken into consideration by our dad - we were there to provide companionship for mummy dearest while he was away at work.

We stayed at two hotels in total - because the trip was hastily arranged, we couldn't get the resort of our choice. So my dad's colleague managed to book us this new place which, apparently, was "quite okay".

But it turned out to be more a chalet than a resort. And think lease-expiring Costa Sands East Coast in recent years, rather than, say, Downtown East. With staff who can't speak English very well. Or operate credit card machines. The lady at the reception counter returned dad's gold credit card (ie no credit limit, right) apologetically after she swiped the card with the magnetic strip facing up. After a long drive of about 7 hours up, that was a show of ill-training we could do without. We waited more than 10 minutes for someone with the necessary training to arrive and clear things up.

To make things worse, at the humble coffee house where we had our dinner later, the waiter spilled a glass of cold water on me, who was already suffering from a cold. Well, that was the worst of it, really. But there were a few other things I noticed about the place:

Crumpled welcome notes

A burn-hole in my sheets,

And, the most jarring one of all,

A smoke-detector/water-sprinkler (or something along those lines) built within the cornice and then painted over. Tsk tsk tsk.

So the next day my dad called up the hotel of our choice to check if they had any rooms available, and, to our utter joy, there were!!!

We packed in 10 minutes flat (our collective personal best) and waited for him to drive over from his workplace and pick us up.

Now I'm sure you guys heard of the floods in Terengganu right? Well, although we were in no danger of being evacuated, it did rain on our arrival at the swankier second hotel, the entire day. So there was nothing much to do but R&R. But the hotel room was designed with windows that opened from the toilet into the room, and you can actually watch tv while soaking in the tub, which was exactly what I did for about an hour that day! Such bliss. Sorry, no pictures allowed of that!

The next day the weather was on our side, and after breakfast, we went for a swim and a soak in the glorious sun.

See the sun on our faces??

*Sound of DJ scratching vinyl to an abrupt stop.*

I wrote the above on Christmas Day, but didn't get to finish it cos I've been a busy girl (what else?) and now, I really can't be bothered to finish it anymore! I was gonna share my story of driving on the treacherous roads of Malaysia, where drivers are fierce and roads are pot-holed, but alas, no inspiration lei. Let's just say I caused my parents two near heart-attacks when I swerved to avoid a dangerously close Benz, and another time when I took my dad's words to "dive in" at a parking lot literally. Maybe I'll upload a few more pictures some time soon, but for now I'm a tad can't-be-bothered.

What, away for 9(!) days and no one's missed me???

*sniff*

So I guess no one wants to know where I went.

Who cares! I'll upload photos soon. When my sis comes back with the camera. *curses*

On another, more sombre note, I was satisfying my voracious appetite for voyeurism and noticed how so many of my friends have been down lately. On reflection, it made me realise how wrapped up in my own feelings I've been, and how lucky I am in truth. I'm a little ashamed of myself, really. And (I know I'm not exactly at my most cogent right now) I'm sorry I never noticed earlier.

Hold On. After all, no one stays down forever! 2005 is almost over; may 2006 start on the right note for all of us.

Soaking In the Mood

Listening to Christmas songs on internet radio now, and oh what a nice and warm feeling it's giving me. I think I must be the biggest lover of Christmas that is not Christian, haha.

Though I like the contemporary versions too, I love traditional carols best. They conjure images of soft snow drifting onto white, snow-covered ground below which lie cobbled pavements that lead up to a cosy little cottage with a warm fire burning in a suitably beautiful fireplace. All in soft focus, please.

Of course, it also reminds me of the days I used to carol with my JC choir. The sound of our voices blending as one - stuff of heaven, I tell ya. Unfortunately, I can't sing along to my favourite songs right now. My throat's hurting rather badly. I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that I went out "clubbing" (ie: drinking) twice last week? (And no, neither of those two girls in the picture is me.)

This wasn't our poison of choice, by the way. Hm, the way that was put, you'd think there was a choice. See, we were at a private bash where there was free flow of drinks (for a limited time only, of course), but we arrived late and by that time, the bar had run out of vodka lime and ribena. And, they used lousy vodka! Bleargh. There weren't any shots either, unless you were willing to shell out money for them. All this led my boy to complain, "The sponsor so ngiam siap!" Indeed.

A Night of Inebriation

I'm such a swakoo, I didn't know that nowadays ladies get free entry into Zouk on Wednesday nights. But then again, I've never been a Mambo fan, so this was practically only my second time there on such a night. It has to be said, though, that these days Mambo doesn't mean retro so much as it means Top 40 hits. But I still heard the very very out-dated (remix of) Macarana, ow ow ow.

Anyway, once the clock struck that magical hour of 11, the guys started going crazy and went on a drinking binge. One of the guys I met there was already quite far gone by the time we were introduced; he took the cheapo route of getting high by visiting a nearby 7-11 first. I didn't see him much the rest of the night - heard that he either goes dancing or starts hitting on girls. Jarvis got really high too (as usual) and I had to resort to confiscating his cards and wallets (yes, wallets - he has two) so for the rest of the 1-for-1 hour, he was screaming, "Gimme back my wallets! I wanna drink! Only 7 minutes left!!! 7 minutes! Gimme back!", amusing the rest of us who were more in control of our faculties.

I wasn't spared the intoxication either - drinks were passed left to right, right to left, up and down, outwards in, inward-out. Madness, I tell ya. When the drinks kicked in - and it didn't take long, because I must be the lousiest drinker there is on this planet - I went quite wild myself. As a result I now have a bump on my tailbone to show for it. For some reason the pillar I was leaning against seemed to slip out of my hand, all the way til I landed, without ceremony, on the drink-spewed floor of Zouk. It was a disgrace I was unaware of at that point in time, but I now hang my head in shame. A hex on all those bastards who scurried out of the way while my poor butt slammed on the floor!

Oh yeah, we took some pictures too, despite Zouk's no photography rule. At one point I even told the bouncer to join in! Thankfully he didn't yank me by the neck and hurl my tipsy self outta there, but instead allowed us to take one shot (check out Jarvis' blue-green eyes! Rather weird, but it sorta, kinda, went with the colour of his tee):

As I have absolutely no idea who took it, I'm afraid it cannot be duly credited

Events Like This Leave Me Broke (But Happy)

I tired myself out playing the grannyish, tile-matching game Mahjongg on Gamerival, but I'm still bored and reluctant to go to bed, so I'm gonna post some photos taken at the Ching & Fang Post-Birthday Dinner last Friday.

Dry ice! Dry ice! Never fails to fascinate.

Like the auntie at the restaurant said it'll be, the"Ali Baba" effect. (That's Ching in the background admiring the teapot-turned-pseudo-lamp.)

The same auntie finds it hard to operate my new camera (really my sister's but I insist we share. I mean, such things have to be inculcated in kids while they're young, no?).

After dinner, we adjorn to the KTV lounge.

But, this being the end of the day that marks the end of the work week, we are all very tired indeed.

Just as I am. Goodnight!

Quickie

I've been too lazy to blog lately.

Yet another feather on the cap of this professional bummer. But I shan't be for much longer, because, yes, I have (finally) accepted a job offer. (For those of you who are wondering, it's an amalgamation of Jobs A and B. But I'll bet you'd be still wondering if you didn't fish for more details from me personally, because I've let on so little. Hur hur.) Nothing's been finalized, and I may have to wait up to another two months before I can finally start training - which isn't welcome news because I do want to stop digging into my well-depleted saving - but that would mean, as Ching reminded me, more time for family and friends.

Went to Wild Wild Wet yesterday with the kids and courtesy of Uncle Edward, and proceeded to get pummelled by the kids. My cousins were determinded not to let me just float idly by in the Shiok/Lazy River (two names to cater to two different clientele) like all of us ought to - I mean, that's the whole idea in the first place, right? But as kids will be kids, they threw the whole spirit of Shiok River down the drain. As I was saying, they eventually succeeded to flip me out of my float, and as I went down into the the water, up popped the right side of my bikini top. I don't know whether the ang moh behind us was grinning cos of his girlfriend's gargantuan boobs, or cos he saw my tinny one (only the right side popped).

And that is the reason why, for all the pictures of the day, I was fully clothed.

I was also humbled by the energy of the Under-12s - we took at least 10 rides on the Ular-La, their favourite attraction at the theme park, each time having to climb up about 5 storeys to get there. Five of them were devoted to taking the perfect shot, but alas, in the end we couldn't find it, and had to settle for this one:

(Edit: Which, by the way, we had to pay only $9.90 for, less than half the price of what it cost back when it just opened. Economics, bah.)

And for those of you who're wondering why I'm going there again this Saturday when I've just been there, well, The Boyfriend's sour about me going there without him (despite saying that I wasn't that interested on an earlier occasion), and so that's why.

New Look!

Eh, but I've no idea how to make the margin for the content a lil wider. I mean, more existent. Oh well, I figure it out eventually. Gimme time. How's it look, though? Not too bright I hope? Colours still friendly? Comment comment comment!