Fuel for the soul

Falling in love with this new voice...

Colbie Caillat

Okay, I think I'm really slow in catching on... I realised I labeled my music wrong, didn't realise she's the singer of my favourite song!

My favourite song now... Bubbly - Colbie Caillat



Plus she's hot too...

Randomness

Copied this from Jo's blog... Okay... I was bored enough to do it... :P

I give you money and send you into the grocery store to pick up 6 items. You can only pick one thing from the following departments.. what is it?
1. Produce: Fuji apples
2. Bakery: Wholemeal bread
3. Meat: Cod fish
4. Frozen: Ben's & Jerry's Ice-cream
5. Dry goods: Post Maple and Pecan Nut Crunch
6. Dairy: Daisy low fat milk

Let's say we're heading out for a weekend getaway. You're only allowed to bring 3 articles of clothing with you.
1. T-shirt
2. Sweater
3. Undies

If I was to listen in on one of your conversations throughout the day, what 5 phrases or words would I be most likely to hear?
1. "Really??"
2. "I dunno!!"
3. "Can I ask you a question??"
4. "Arghhhhhhhh!!!"
5. "Alright I'm off, cya!"

What 3 things do you find yourself doing every single day, and if you didn't get to do, you probably wouldn't be in the best mood?
1. Morning shower
2. Breakfast
3. Cuppa Coffee!!

Sweet, you just scored a whole afternoon to yourself. We're talking a 3 hour block with nobody around. What 5 activities might we find you doing?
1. Jogging
2. Blasting music and singing along with it
3. Surf the net
4. MSN
5. Personal grooming time!

We're going to the zoo. But, it looks like it could start storming, so it'll have to be a quick visit. What 3 exhibits do we have to get to?
1. I won't go to the zoo
2. No, I still won't go...
3. Nah... no zoo for me...

You just scored tickets to the taping of any show that comes on t.v. of your choice. You can pick between 4, so what are you deciding between?
1. Heroes
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. Scrubs
4. How I Met Your Mother

You're hungry for ice cream. I'll give you a triple dipper ice cream cone. What 3 flavours can I pile on for ya?
1. Macadamia
2. Cheesecake
3. Milo!!

Okay, done! =)

Music for the soul...

Always loved Dean Geyer... Reminiscing the times when Bernice, Char, EJ & I would sit in front of the TV and watch the lady killer perform...

My favourite song...



Jessica Mauboy...



What a wonderful night...

Vday Scam

Vday is a commercial scam I tell you... Restaurants mark up their prices, flower prices are up 3000X and teddy bears too...

Everyday is Vday as long as you're in love... isn't it? At least that's what Liang Jing Ru sang in her song! haha...

On a good note, I received this sms which I thought was really meaningful...

"Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get - only what you are expecting to give" - Katherine Hepburn (1907-2003)

CNY

Happy lunar new year to all...

Hope everyone enjoyed the long break... its once again time to head back to our respective workplaces...

CNY this year isn't quite like the past. The number of relatives you visit seem to get lesser as I get older... or maybe we just don't like to visit anymore... and maybe because I have the option to choose if I want to visit them now...

Feels weird that everyone's asking if I'm okay and suddenly everyone wants to play counselor and share experiences with me.

NO... I don't need your advice so stop bugging me...

I envy those who have big families to celebrate the festivals with... the lively atmosphere... the loud chatters and laughters.

How I wish I was still a kid, when exams was my only worry...

Late Bday Entry

Finally got my ass down to blog about my bday...

First of all, thank you to all who celebrated my quarter-life crisis with me. I really appreciate it... and thank you for all the wonderful presents!!

Lunch celebration with Marabelle - Thanks for the cake babe!


Marabelle and I


The only birthday cake I received this year...

Drinks at Sunset Tavern... The place to be seen... (hurhur)




Kong, Yiling and I...

And of cos... the Peanuts gang!

Me, Keen & Gao


Gao & I (my face was red already... after 2 beers... eek!)


With Xiao Hu! and Dom... and Gao's face sticking out of nowhere... (and maybe Jeremy's head behind somewhere... hmmm)


Everyone! Zhanjing, Dom, Ah Hu, Jeremy, Gao, Keen & I

Then its dinner celebration with EJ at Rochester, this posh restaurant called Graze..

Grazing our food... some Beef lemak thingy and super small portion of risotto...


Our dessert platter! Yum...


Camera whore!


Pretty looking decor...


More pretty looking stuff...

Overall the restaurant was so expensive that we can only graze on the food... hurhur... lame joke...

And also! Dinner celebration with Dean & Karen at Manhattan Fish Market... Thanks girls for the epilator... Smooth as silk! haha...

kk.. Thats about it... quiet little gatherings to celebrate my bday...

Older... but not wiser.... geez....

Nintendo Wii (whee!!)

Went to Ah Hu's house to play the Wii together with Gao on Friday night...

That thing is awesome! It was so entertaining that I forgot about how tired and sleepy I was... hurhur... We played some sports game (tennis & boxing) and also some dumbass rabbit game... haha... Gao kicked my ass btw... I can't play computer games for nuts... OK... I admit.. I'm a nerd... bleah...

Can't wait for next week! Only 2.5 days of work and 4.5 days of rest... Wahahaha!

Yes..I'm a lazy bum too...

I just want to laze around and chill.... =)

Cockroach Encounter

I was harassed by a cockroach last night... in the shower...

That humsup cockroach was trying to peep at me while I was showering lor! I jumped when I saw it... Then tried to be garung... Went in search for the Baygon.. to no avail... Got some newspapers and tried to hit it... I missed...

I was too scared to continue my shower.. The cockroach was 5cm by 2 cm lor!

So... I woke my dad up... to catch it... & smash it into pieces... wahahahaha!

Reminds me of the time I was in Adelaide, when there was this HUGE spider in the shower. Thank goodness I had Joyce around to kill it for me... heehee...

Anyway, cockroach/spider crap aside. Work has been pretty alright. Fantastic colleagues, good work environment, can't ask for more. Just start to realise that once work has started weekends seem to go by so quick. No time to blog, to nua, to sleep... bleah... but I think I'll soon get used to it! or so I hope!

Celebrated my birthday for the past 2 weeks... Will upload the pics once I can get my ass down to doing it :P

Taipei Trip...

So I'm back. It was a fantastic trip! Lotsa sightseeing, clicking of cameras, eating & shopping!!

The gang of us - Brian, Leo, Kenneth, Char, Suyi & I stayed at a newly started backpackers hostel in Ximen... This is really one of the best backpackers I've ever stayed in. Well equipped with all necessary facilities (eg. kitchen, water dispenser, internet, hairdryer & even cotton buds for you to use!!)... And the people who stay there are mostly youngsters (no locals) so its a great way to meet new people. We met an American from California and a Canadian who is on exchange at NUS! How cool...

No pictures at the moment (waiting for Kenneth to upload!), so just a brief summary of our trip below...

Day 1 - Flight to Taipei

Arrived in Taipei in the late evening and headed to Shi Lin Night market for dinner/supper and some shopping. It was super crowded cos' it was a Saturday night... But alls good... we managed to buy what we wanted. I bought 5 pairs of (ge4 xing4) socks... heh heh...

Day 2 - Jade Flea Market, Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall, Taipei 101 and Korean apparel street

So we managed to find our way to this Jade Flea market that was located under some highway... it was very "cheena" selling all the weird stuff... Some guy tried to sell us toothbrush that has bristles on 3 sides, apparently it can give a better clean than most ordinary toothbrush... ha.. weird.. but we didn't buy it of cos... since I do not have enough money to buy any real jade, I bought 2 crystal bracelets... one of my mum & one for myself... they say crystals have hidden power, I wonder how true!

After that we went to the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall, apparently we got this mixed up with the Chiang Kai Shek memorial hall, its not the prettiest architectural structure we've seen, a little disappointed but we still managed to get pretty good shots at this place...

Shot of Taipei 101 from the memorial hall...

Then Taipei 101... the renowned Taipei 101... its a really tall building (duh!) my neck ached after trying to look up at the tip... hurhur...

Okay.. now we're just being spastic...

Last stop for the day was Korean apparel street, we forgot that it was a Sunday and we didnt know the shops close early... so by the time we got there 99% of the shops were closed... disappointed again!! There's a "world famous" tao huay shop just around the corner, so we tried it... its really not bad! For those going Taipei, you can go try it. Located at Dingxi station.

Day 3 - Yang Ming Shan, Zhu zi hu and Dan Shui

Visited the mountain and trekked until my legs nearly broke just for a flower clock... WHYyyyyy

Yes... this is the flower clock I was referring to....

Went to Zhu zi hu to have some wild veggies, really yummy meal!! They served us some veggie called "cat jump over the mountain" (or something like that) and betel nut flower and boar's meat! Exotic... but YUM! a must go place for those who love food :)

Last stop was Dan Shui... Realised the shopping there was really cheap! Suggest that you buy whatever you like when you're there cos you're not going to find anywhere cheaper than that place. Took ALOT of pictures and we even got a street artist to draw a portrait for us... Cool!

Sunset at Danshui...

Day 4 - C.K.S Memorial Hall, Ding Tai Fung, Wu Fen Pu & Miramar Ferris Wheel

Went to the right memorial Hall this time round - the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, very grand looking, pretty well kept. Provided a lot of history of Taiwan, their times under Dutch and Japanese ruling...

Mr Chiang's personal car... They say its bullet proof!

Then went to Ding Tai Fung for lunch... not as good as we expected, we all agreed that Crystal Jade serves better xiaolongbao... there's a renowned "crushed ice" place near the restaurant (apparently 100 steps away) and I must say its really good!

Crushed ice shop

Everyone has been telling me how cheap the stuff at Wu Fen Pu is. Apparently not so... I think its also cos' its winter, we didn't manage to find clothes that we like/suitable for us... so in the end I only bought one white top and one black off shoulder dress/long top... =(

Last stop for the day - Miramar Ferris wheel, for those who watch the taiwanese drama huan huan ai, its the ferris wheel thats featured in the drama. Really very grand and especially pretty at night... Must go! not very expensive to ride on it... oh, and its situated on level 5 of the shopping centre, so its really quite high, not for those with fear of heights!

Ferris wheel in Huan Huan Ai

Day 5 - Mao Kong, Shen Keng Toufu street & Partyworld KTV

Mao Kong - literally means cat empty is one place that I highly recommend people to go visit if they go Taipei. The trip there was exciting and torturous at the same time. You have to take a 20 mins cable car ride to get there and at the end of the ride, you are ~300m above sea level. The view is really quite cool from the cable car, but... the ride makes you really dizzy... I feel like nausea at the end of the ride... heh... but totally worth it! Mao Kong is actually famous for the tea houses and plantations... so... naturally we stopped at a place for some tea... Its those traditional chinese tea style... so thankfully they taught us how to brew the tea! otherwise we'd look so cuckoo... hurhur... We also took heaps of pictures... mostly random/artistic (or so they say...) ones... will upload the cooler ones once I get hold of them!

Tea plantation in Mao Kong


A very cute tea place in Mao Kong


The place where we had our afternoon tea...



Artistic teapot shot...

After that we headed to this place called toufu street (hurhur... reminds me of some TCS8 drama eons ago...) where they sell all kinds of food made from toufu... We tried stinky toufu, not the deep fried ones, the real authentic stewed ones. If you think the fried ones were smelly, this one was 100X worse... (okay.. maybe I'm exaggerating a little!) We also had toufu bread/cake, not the best but was really interesting! I reckon it'll be healthier than normal bread cos' there'll be more protein... (dietitians what say u?) Then we finished off our meal with toufu ice-cream... yum... much better than the Mr Bean ice cream! This toufu street was a 10 min bus ride and 10 min walk from the station, a bit of a hassle, but definitely worth the travel!



Ice-cream shop at toufu street!

We spent our last night in Taipei singing KTV... the Taipei KTV rooms are much better than ours. Seriously, we even had our own en-suite toilet in the KTV room... impressive... haha... but we had a hard time trying to get the songs we wanted cos they used a different system for "ordering" songs... so yup... overall good fun especially when we invited our new found Canadian friend to join us =)


KTV!!

Day 6 - Ximen Mall & flight back to SGP

Having spent most of my money on food and what not... I didn't have much money left for shopping at Ximen. Bought more socks (I need them for work mahhh) and that pretty much sums up my shopping in Taipei... haha... But the Hong Kong boys bought shoes, apparently it was much cheaper than in Hong Kong... well... as least some of us were happy!



I luv egg egg!!



My food...



Ximen Mall...

We all crashed when we boarded the plane. I guess thats what happen when you are sleep deprived for days....

Great trip overall, I hope we'll plan another one next year! Maybe next stop... Macau? Bangkok? Seoul?

TV marathon

Thursday night is TV night... Whee! Non-stop TV programmes from 8pm to 1am...

haha... yes... I'm a couch potato...

This is what I watched tonight:

8pm - 9.30pm - 1 Million Star (Season 1)



This is a Taiwanese singing contest. Even though the contest is over (I'm watching season 1) and the results are already out, I still enjoy listening their singing!! Especially this guy called 楊宗緯 whom I felt should have won but was disqualified mid-way. I think he signed up for the contest using a "fake" age... but anywho... he's singing is still... fwah!

Check out this webpage for their videos (if anyone is interested enough!)

10pm - 11pm: A Model Life with Petra Nemcova



I've raved about this show in one of my earlier post and I shan't repeat myself.

The girls are gorgeous. hot. period.

11pm - 12mn: Super Model No. 1



Another Taiwanese contest. Another modeling programme. You should have come to realise that I love watching model shows. Yes... I'm envious of their long legs & hot bods. Since I do not have any of those qualities on myself to admire...

The thing about Taiwanese programmes are that the hosts usually ask very "daring" questions and they are usually very funny & entertaining... hurhur... (yes yes... i'm a cheena fart!)

12mn - 1am: Tennis - Hyundai Hoffman Cup



Yup! End the night with some sport programme... After oogling at the hot bods of models its time to oogle at athletic bods of sportsman. haha...

My favourite male player is taking part in this event and I love to watch him play cos' he's reactions are always so animated! He's Novak Djokovic btw...

A wonderful TV night would not have been possible without..... Starhub Cable TV...



shit... maybe I should ask Dad to cancel cable so that my arse will not be stuck on the couch all night!

I'm Back!

Finally home after a short 2 week break in Adelaide.

The trip has been great! Everyday single day was a fruitful one, doing stuff, catching up with friends and spending time with my good ol' brother & Katherine...

Watch this video to catch a glimpse of my trip!



A million thanks goes out to Zhixian, Shan & Frank who stayed up all night to compile this video for me! I love you guys... *muaks*

More pictures will be uploaded onto Facebook... or on the blog (if I can get my arse down to it :P) so stay tuned!

Graduate-D

Finally graduated.

Master of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Finally a full fledged dietitian... Whee!!!!


This trip back has been gggrreeaaat!!!

and it continues to rumble...

What do you do when the whole world seems to be tumbling down on you?


Run?


To where?


sigh...

Knocked Out

Cough mixtures are potent stuff... especially "Dhasedyl syrup".

I can hardly remember the things I've done the past 2 days, except for my long, deep sleeps.

Practically in a "dazed" mode all the time and super slow reaction time... Apologies if I went out with you and I looked like I just woke up... because... I was never really awake... hurhur... okay crap... obviously I'm still under the influence of the cough syrup as I'm typing this post...

I wish my cough would just stop... my lungs feel like they're going to pop out each time I cough...

I hope the lil' hamster doesn't catch my germs!

hur.. lame joke...

Hamster!

Dean and family is going to Macau for a holiday, so no one at home to look after her precious lil' hamster. So... she's going to stay with me... wahahaha! Don't worry Dean, I promise to take good care of her... I won't ill treat her... or tug her tail.. or crush her into a ball! :P

No idea what's the hamster's name... but she's really cute... check out her pics...









She's staying with me till Dec 12 :)

Have fun in Macau, Dean!

Complimentary Foot Spa

Dean jio-ed me for some complimentary foot spa on Tuesday evening. Apparently True Spa is giving away free spa treatments, but of cos' they'll psycho you to sign up for some package at the end of it.. Anyway both of us were not at all impressed with their service. Which masseuse actually wear latex gloves to massage?? Ya, mine did... *faints*

The most enjoyable part of the night was probably our dinner.. haha... and once again I stole pictures from Dean's blog...



Dean's meal - Penne pasta with fish roe cream sauce and scallops (i think...) yumm...


Dean looking v pleased with her pasta...


My dory fish and baked risotto... a bit too rich and creamy for my liking... plus.. there was NO veggies at all...



Me with my food... I look deformed.. my head is too huge for my body.. haha...

All these pics are taken using Dean's camera phone.. Impressed that the pictures actually turned out so good! Its a sony ericsson phone... BUT I will still support Samsung... One day.... I'm going to be their share holder... wahhahahaha....

Way Back Into Love

From Music and Lyrics... so sweet...

Hugh Grant - Way Back Into Love

I've been living with a shadow overhead,

I've been sleeping with a cloud above my bed,
I've been lonely for so long,
Trapped in the past,
I just can't seem to move on!

I've been hiding all my hopes and dreams away,
Just in case I ever need them again someday,
I've been setting aside time,
To clear a little space in the corners of my mind!

All I want to do is find a way back into love.
I can't make it true without a way back into love.

I've been watching but the stars refuse to shine,
I've been searching but i just don't see the signs,
I know that it's out there,
There's got to be something for my soul somewhere!

I've been looking for someone to shed some light,
Not somebody just to get me through the night,
I could use some direction,
And I'm open to your suggestions.

All I want to do is find a way back into love.
I can't make it through without a way back into love.
And if I open my heart again,
I guess I'm hoping you'll be there for me in the end!

There are moments when I don't know if it's real
Or if anybody feels the way I feel
I need inspiration
Not just another negotiation

All I want to do is find a way back into love,
I can't make it through without a way back into love,
And if I open my heart to you,
I'm hoping you'll show me what to do,
And if you help me to start again,
You know that I'll be there for you in the end!

Research Elective

The email I received...

"Hi Liyan,

I managed to view the presentation and your assessment for your presentation was a distinction.

Your final report was graded as a credit. It was extremely well written. One of the issues was that you did not follow the format that was requested. More detailed comments will be sent to you on the manuscript.

Well done!

Kind regards

Lynne"

Extremely well written but only credit?!?!?!

zzzzz.... I'm so disappointed....

I take pride in my work... I cannot accept another credit as my grade! urgh!!!

A Model Life - Preview

As requested by Dean...

A preview to A Model Life with Petra Nemcova...



Valeria is the blondie with the super big scarf around her neck. Doesn't she have the girl next door look?

Love her!

*edited*

Another video featuring Angelika and Lucia...



Lucia is the other hot babe I adore!

My Fairy

Was watching A Model Life with Petra Nemcova on Discovery Travel & Living... Its a reality TV show, featuring model wannabes. A bit bimbotic... But... I like leh.. haha...



Anyway there are 2 girls I simply adore in the show. One is called Lucia...


She's an eighteen year old from Slovakia... Look at her green eyes...

And the other girl that I adore....

Valeria Erokhina... 17 year old from Australia with Russian parentage




Beautiful hair...




Sexy look...



Super hot bod...




Super sweet... love her green eyes...




Enchanting... She's got the overall package.. plus she's got great character (in the show la!)



She's what I imagined a fairy to be... So gorgeous, so kind looking...

She makes me go ga-ga...

I'm straight btw...