My love, my soul

Yes, its my Samsung Soul.

Oh man... Its freaking beautiful... sleek... and cool...

I don't care about iPhones or what not...

I love my Samsung... I swear I'm going to be their shareholder one day!



Not big enough...

A parent’s love never ends

“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails" (1 Corinthians 13 vv.4-8).

The past 2 days that I've been sick, I feel like I'm treated like a baby again.

Dad & mum are both fussing over me, constantly asking me if I was hungry, if I was feeling okay, if I was sleepy blah blah blah...

Thanks to the Daily Bread , I am reminded that a parent's love never ends.

I feel loved.





Dad & mum, I love you too :)

Let's all show some appreciation to our parents :)

The J-shape curve

I'm sick again. URTI (upper respiratory tract infection) again...

They tell me that exercise follows a J-shaped curve...


Moderate amounts of exercise results in higher level of immune function, but excessive exercise leads to immune suppression and lowers immune function... leading to increased risk of infections such as urti.

For those who are interested, please read on...

Exercise results in the formation of ROS (reactive oxygen species) which increases the oxidative stress of our bodies. excessive exercise exposes our body to these ROS which injures our cells and increases levels of cytokines... leading to poor immune function.

I think that's what I'm suffering from now. Poor immune function... That explains why I'm always sick. I should exercise less? But then I'll put on weight leh... HOW?

Dilemma...

I'll be spending another day sleeping at home tmr... 2 days of MC. I hope my immune function goes back to normal :P

24 things to remember!

Stole this off EJ's blog.. Very meaningful :)

1. Your presence is a present to the world.
2. You’re unique and one of a kind.
3. Your life can be what you want it to be.
4. Take the days just one at a time.
5. Count your blessings, not your troubles.
6. You’ll make it through whatever comes along.
7. Within you are so many answers.
8. Understand, have courage, be strong.
9. Don’t put limits on yourself.
10. So many dreams are waiting to be realized.
11. Decisions are too important to leave to chance.
12. Reach for your peak, your goal, and your prize.
13. Nothing wastes more energy than worrying.
14. The longer one carries a problem, the heavier it gets.
15. Don’t take things too seriously.
16. Live a life of serenity, not a life of regrets.
17. Remember that a little love goes a long way.
18. Remember that a lot . . . goes forever.
19. Remember that friendship is a wise investment.
20. Life’s treasures are people . . . together.
21. Realize that it’s never too late.
22. Do ordinary things in an extraordinary way.
23. Have health and hope and happiness.
24. Take the time to pray.

And don’t ever forget . . .
For even a day . . .
How very special you are!

Weekend!

Its been a packed weekend... lots of activities... tiring but worth it.. heh heh

The weekend started off on Friday night - KTV with Dean and colleagues.

Due to some unforeseen circumstances, dinner with Dean & colleagues was cancelled and I ended up meeting Char & Neil for dinner at PGP. They were there to try out the popular Astons. It looked pretty good I must say (I didn't try it cos I'm supposed to try it with Dean & Karen on wed). I had some Beijing jiao zi thing from one of the stalls. DO NOT TRY IT... it sucks...

That was dinner #1. Met Tim for dinner #2 at Maxwell market. We had the Hakka abascus dish & it was yum! We also had German sausage at the hawker centre... Value for money and the sauerkraut was actually quite decent! Not too sour like most cheap coffeeshop western food stalls...

Then... Headed to meet Dean at Oriental Plaza for KTV with her colleagues. It was some ktv contest thingy within her department. I thought its quite funny... Check out her blog for the videos of the singing! I sang 2 songs!! Most importantly... it was free! haha... her colleague treated everyone!


The geeky me!

Met Tim after ktv for some cheap beers at bukit timah market... the 2 of us finished 1.5 litres of beer... Actually... He drank most of it.. haha.. I think I only drank like 500ml at most... :P

Saturday!

Met mum for brunch. Mum brought me to this Thai restaurant place near her office at Alexandra. The food is pretty good actually! They actually serve mango sticky rice! I thought thats a pretty rare find in Singapore... Or maybe I suaku... :P

After lunch, Mum and I went shopping at Robinsons. I offered to buy stuff for her using the Robinsons voucher and she got so excited... Haha... Robinsons IS the shopping place for aunties... I swear... Mum ended up buying stuff like thermos flask, lock & lock containers & the like... hmmm...

Then I met Nick for service at SJSM and then we went to Tim's house for tennis!! Wasn't the best day to play tennis cos' it has been raining the entire day and the courts were soaking wet. The boys tried v hard to dry the courts using the rollars... while I.... tried v hard to help them by keeping out of their way.. :P Tennis left us feeling ultra famished... then we went to the coffee shop near SJSM for some heartland steak! I think its really a "gem" hidden within coffeeshops... They serve steak on those hot plates.. so when the steak came to us.. it was sizzling! PLUS! Its cheap... its only like $11 per serve. I think the shop is called beef house or something like that... Oh oh and I had to add... The coffeeshop sells a bottle of Erdinger for $5.60 only!

After dinner we headed to Double O for some clubbing action with a few of Tim's friends. It was retro/pop night on Sat and it was actually quite fun having 2 true blue mambo kings amidst us... One of them knew all the moves to the mambo songs! Very amusing especially when the boys are half drunk! haha... We partied till like 2am before we decided to call it a night... I must admit that I'm old liao... party for one night and I feel like my bones are falling apart and I'm like ultra sleepy on a Sunday night at... 8pm... urghhhh

Sunday!

Wanted to go sun-tanning to even out my skin tone. Got funny tan marks after my frisbee games and it looks awful! My arms are black while my neck and belly are white... bad contrast!! The weather hasn't been the best recently... Sunny for a bit then cloudy for a long bit... I think I only managed to catch 15 mins of sun?! horrible... guess I gotta wait for another week before I can attempt to tan it even...

Caught the Kite Runner on DVD the same afternoon. Its a really good show... To those who are still contemplating watching it... GO AND CATCH IT... its really a magnificent film!




"The Kite Runner tells the story of Amir, a boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul, who is haunted by the guilt of betraying his childhood friend Hassan, the son of his father's Hazara servant. The story is set against a backdrop of tumultuous events, from the fall of the monarchy in Afghanistan through the Soviet invasion, the mass exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the rise of the Taliban regime."

The movie was so touching I cried buckets... Really opened my eyes to the sufferings of war, especially in the middle eastern countries...

I think I'm going to end my Sunday night sleeping early, to make up for the lack of sleep on Saturday night... haha... gd nite!!

Tennis season!

My my my... I can't believe the French Open started yesterday! I was still thinking to myself when I should re-subscribe to the sports channels.. haha...

Anyway I just called Starhub and reconnected the sports group! Roland Garros here I come!!



My preview to this clay-court season...

Rafael Nadal - 2007 Winner (also 2005 & 2006 winner!)



Although I think he's going strong this season, I still kinda hope this larakin will prevail...

Novak Djokovic!! He's like... how... how... very... very... extremely... cute!! (also, its because I'm tired of seeing Nadal tugging the back of his pants... its how very unsightly...)



Also... We can never underestimate this champion... although... I'm also quite sian of him winning almost EVERY tournament he participates in...





As for the Ladies...

Justine Henin - 2007 Winner



Sadly she decided to retire just before the start of this tournament, leaving the spot up for grabs for almost anyone!

Liyan's personal take - The Serbian ladies!

Jelena Jankovic AND Anna Ivanovic



Either lady wins I'll be damn happy :)

And after French Open is.... Wimbledon!!



Non-stop tennis action for this girl :)

So happiee.... wheeeeeeeee

kk... time to tune in to Ch 22 !!

NineWest!

Dean's sister went to Adelaide for a short trip. So I got Shan to help me buy Ninewest stuff and got Dillian to bring them back...

Yayness!

Look at my Knock-knock satchel... how cute!



And my new ballet flats... (my current one is almost gone...)


Love them!

Small things like that make me happy already =)

Heard this poem from the movie Harold & Kumar. Its pretty cool...

"I’m sure that I will always be
A lonely number like root three

The three is all that’s good and right,
Why must my three keep out of sight
Beneath the vicious square root sign,
I wish instead I were a nine

For nine could thwart this evil trick,
with just some quick arithmetic

I know I’ll never see the sun, as 1.7321
Such is my reality, a sad irrationality

When hark! What is this I see,
Another square root of a three

As quietly co-waltzing by,
Together now we multiply
To form a number we prefer,
Rejoicing as an integer

We break free from our mortal bonds
With the wave of magic wands

Our square root signs become unglued
Your love for me has been renewed"

-David Kleinberg

Not bad yah??

Lazy Wednesday

Took the arvo off to meet ah Hu & Gaoster for lunch :)

Its the Science Park Healthy lifestyle week and I've been engaging in intense physical activity for the past 2 days. Heh... Played netball on Monday (our team got to the semi-finals!) and played street soccer on Tuesday (our team will play for 3rd/4th position on Friday). We'll be playing netball and soccer again on Friday for the semi-finals and finals :) Feels good to be on the winning team :P

So anyways... My whole body is aching, plus i fell down so my butt hurts... so I decided to take the arvo off! Had lunch with ah Hu and Gao at Vivocity. (Food court food costs so much now... I think inflation rate is much more than our pay rise leh...) After that Gao and I went to catch Harold and Kumar. Its been a while since I paid $7.50 for movies... haha.. cheap thrill...

Anyway the show was pretty slapstick. So if you're in for some brainless humour, go catch it!



On a side note. On Monday night I forgot to wind up the window of my car. My heart also skipped a beat when I saw the open window on Tuesday morning. *gulp* Thank God that nothing was lost. Its also good and reassuring to know that I live in a safe environment that even though my window was left open, people are honest enough to not steal my car... heh... The same can't be said if it happened in a different country!

Saturday

I spent my Saturday night..... sleeping! (zzz)

Can't believe I slept for 12 hours straight... haha.. (apparently not so surprising for those who know me :P )

Not my fault mah... I slept at 4am on Friday night, soooo tiring ok!

Had mother's day lunch on Saturday at some Chinese Szechuan restaurant, not very good. I think the Ba Zhu Restaurant which Shan & Zhixian brought me to in Adelaide was much much nicer!

Then I met Dean at Peninsular to buy skinny jeans! Dean bought 1 grey coloured pair (it looks sooo sexy on her! Sigh, the benefits of having skinny legs!) And I bought 2... haha... one skinny and one not-so-skinny... Thunder thighs... sigh...

And I bought a pair of skates today!! Went to Skateline at Peninsular. The lady was so nice! Patiently explained the workings of the skates to me, how can I not buy from her? Haha, I bought a pretty cheap pair (<$200), a beginner's pair... when I become more zai, I'll get an expert pair! =)



Dean took a short video of me skating.. haha! check out her blog!

Can't wait to test out my skates! Anyone wants to join me?

New Stuff

Mum went to China for a holiday and bought stuff for me (yippeee!)

Its the month of May, I think I'm supposed to buy stuff for her for mother's day lor... but... hurhur... she's the one who's buying stuff for me!



There's the Adidas t-shirt for the Beijing games...



And the perfume that I've been eyeing for ages...



It comes with a mini pouch... so pwetty!





And and and... a pair of "coral" earrings and bangle...


They're quite pwetty too... :P

I made a pair of glasses on Saturday cos I can't seem to find my "spare" pair. I also found out that my degree has increased... *sigh* that's for staring into the computer screen for 8 hours a day!

My new nerdy look!







Okay, I was just being vain... :P

A walk down memory lane...

Was listening to some songs from the 1990s... Think the tunes and lyrics are much simpler compared to current day music... how nostalgic.. I can foresee myself as those aunties who will tune in to 958 or 972 to listen to the oldies... Oh noooooooooooooooooooo






Don't judge me... Judge me when I officially become an auntie !!

Mission XHQOC

Friday & Saturday was spent working on Mission XHQOC (which stands for XiaoHui's Quarter Of Century birthday party!!)

The peeps and I bought a Tiffany & Co charm thingy for her that was outrageously priced (but as long as she likes it!)... and shopping for party stuff to decorate the Mission "site"... I had to lie to her saying that I can't meet her to chill out because I was out on a "secret date"! Only that girl will believe me... :P

On Saturday, as part of the advanced party, Gaoster, Mimi & I went early to decorate the place and prepare the stuff... We sort of decided if our careers fail to soar, we'll set up a party planner business, just like David Tutera! (the dude on Travel & Living)

Alright, let the pictures do the talking!


Twinkle twinkle little star...


What's a party without balloons?!?! Dom wanted to save $6, so we didn't get a balloon pump.. thankfully, Gao's chest was big(strong?) enough to blow up 100 balloons!!


Princess & the prince!


She looks giganormous...


And I have seriously no idea what/who she's trying to prove...

Happy Birthday Sweetie!!! You're a quarter of a century old!! Yay!!

(Just like me... :P)




P.S Dean commented that the blog pic is very nice... Decided to upload more of Joyce's artwork to share!





Of cos, the zhu jiao of the pictures... has to be ME!!!

May Day Holiday!

Its a looong wkend for me! Haven't had such a long break since CNY earlier this year...

The long wkend started on Wednesday evening at Jerry's @ Jln Kayu. Its a western restaurant for those who don't know...

For starters!






Its buffalo wings & deep fried mushroom (apparently the batter for the mushrooms are special home-made recipe!) You can choose the spiciness intensity for the buffalo wings and we got the medium one I think... its not really that spicy (for me lah!) and we thought it tasted so-so only. The deep fried mushrooms on the other hand was REALLY GOOD! Succulent and dripping with mushroom juice! Yummz...

Our mains...





I had a rib-eye steak with mushroom sauce (yes, i love srooms :P)

Dean had cheese burger!



Dean looking greedy!

and Karen had mushroom soup... (she's on diet!! :P preparing to look pretty for her wedding thats coming up real soon...)

May day itself was spent with Daddy and some self-pampering... Pedicure! My nails finally grew bigger (and the manicurist finally stopped complaining about my tiny nail beds...) and it looks so much prettier than before.. haha.. no more one-line toe nails!

More updates on my wkend to come :)

Griddle Time!

Finally got to try McGriddle! Met Char & EJ for brekky at KAP on Saturday morning...

This thing is the bane of all dietitians I tell u...

But.. its yummy... although both Char & I think that the hotcakes were a lil' too soggy for our liking.. overall, sweet & savoury at the same time... NICE.


My McGriddle... untouched... yet!


Greedy me...

We realised that sitting in Macs can really open our eyes to the wide varieties of cars in Singapore... haha...

Some overdue pictures...

Char, EJ & I went to this place called Tea-party last wkend... its located at the corner of sixth avenue and bukit timah road... the place has got pretty cool ambience, quiet and peaceful... Most importantly, the service is great (the waitress went through all the types of tea that they have there...) and they serve pretty good pizza! We had this fusion style pizza called Duck pizza... yummy! (except a lil' too oily... but once in a while ok right, dietitians?)


Tea-party with Char..

Next we're off to Walas! The Unexpected playing that night... what a way to end the night!


The (Adelaide) trio =)

When I don't drive to work...

Haven't been driving to work for the past 3 days cause I'm on course in town, and its freaking expensive to park there... So... back to taking bus in the morning, squeezing with the morning crowd... (eeks)

I've always been listening to the Morning Express when I drive to work but I never realised how funny they are until the past 3 days. FD & Glenn are really a funny couple! One's constantly PMS-ing and the other idiot is constantly annoying him (hmmm... sounds like ah Hu & Gao!! :P ) The duo never fails to put a smile on my face, and its kinda silly when I grin to myself while on public transport... haha...

Anywho... I realised how stressful being on the roads is! Never appreciated their humour until I'm finally off the wheel...

I kinda prefer being driven around...

No... that doesn't mean that I don't love my toycar anymore...


I just need a chauffeur... haha! Any volunteers? :P

French food!

Went to the French Stall at Serangoon with Dean & Karen. Kudos to Karen for introducing the place to us. The food was really good! Thou not exactly the cheapest :P

Dean & Karen's starters - Escargot and Zucchini soup
(I didnt have any starters cos I'm too cheapo! :P)

The escargot was really good! (I stole some from Dean) I love the garlic and olive oil taste..

Dean's Cordon Bleu pork loin. Dean loved it. (I thought its not bad too)

Karen's pork chop. I thought it was ok... but the potato thingy that came with the dish was great!

My beef steak with i-dunno-what sauce. Yummm... Really... The potatoes were good too, had a pretty strong herb taste.. I like...

Desserts!!

Dean had the souffle (bottom), Karen had special dark chocolate cake (left) and I, as usual, got tiramisu (right)!!!

Tiramisu was fwah! Even better than the P&P one. The cheese wasn't too rich and the sponge fingers were not too soggy... All just nice!

According to Dean...

An excellent place to go to!
Nice ambience too
I like it
No air con though but it was alright that evening when i was there...
It wasn't too warm =)

Guess the pictures of the food says it all... Yummmm pity that Dean only took pictures of the food and none of the girls... *why!!* Next time we must force our heads into the screen shots :P


Address:
544 Serangoon Road
Singapore 218166
(2 bus-stops after Mustafa - Serangoon Plaza)

Tel: 6299 3544
(as far as I know, they do not entertain reservations)
Off: Every Monday

Operating Hours:
3pm - 6pm Desserts Only
6pm -10pm Dinner Only

After dinner the girls and I went to Dean's uncle's condo to chill and chit-chat. Love the girls' night out! All the catching up and gossips... haha!

Hope Dean's work gets better =)

Emperor of (Chinese) Rock?

Got $10 tickets from Dean. Awesome.

I love live performances. There's just so much energy, so real, so high!

Wu Bai did a triple encore! haha... love it!



It was quite disappointing for me cos I didn't know most of the songs. I only knew the 'older' songs (yes, I listened to his songs during my teens...) and I can only sing along to the old songs! Some of the old songs which I know...

Tong Ku de Ren


Norwegian Forest


伍佰 浪人情歌 - My all time favourite

Another new voice

Joanna Wang - Let's Start from Here



Joanna Wang - The Best Mistake I've Ever Made

張惠妹 - 如果你也聽說

...

'In spite of everything, Job did not sin or accuse God of doing wrong'
- Job 1.22 CEV

'If we accept blessings from God, we must accept trouble as well'
- Job 2.10a CEV