lick your lips

my london indulgences:

1. Green and Black's Organic Dark Chocolate. 70% cocao solids

2. overdosing on supermarket/food outlet-window shopping. high street does nothing for me.

3. cooking up a storm with just one saucepan and a dysfunctional stove

4. dining by lamp light in dan's room and drinking wine out of coffee mugs (starbucks no less)

5. crunchy nut red and the sainsbury imitation which tastes exactly the same but costs 50p less

sneaky me

it has been a rather exciting week here. not that i did anything freakishly fun over halloween or anything, but by my standards, i've been pretty productive. i've been dropping my resume like crumbs to some random things (like forex trading co.), spent time applying to more meaningful things, and wormed my way into seminars/workshops/presentations by the big consulting firms by pretending to be an lse student. it has all been quite fun and despite the harrowing prospect of being unemployed in ny, i think things are looking up a little. the guy from forex trading co says he wants to see me when i get to the city. and so did ladies from interbrand and marcjacobs. whether they'll lead to anything is really a toss-up given that i know nuts about forex and marcjacobs and interbrand have no positions open now. but at least it's a score. *crossing fingers and praying hard*

and i'm starting to feel less afraid of going to my job in sf now that i've fished around and the prospects elsewhere don't look as good anyway. just needed that peek outside the well you know.

i am feeling quite happy in cold dreary london and maybe it's because my boyfriend is sitting next to me in the lse library. oh well. :)

(for some reason this one failed to show before) us having another cuppa gelato. and our flavours of choice: pistachio, hazelnut and choc (if he wins)/gianduia (if i do). did your mum ever tell you three scoops a day keeps the doctor away?

what was i thinking

once (or for a few of us, a couple of times) in our lives, we make a big boo-boo. yesterday in my enthusiasm for resume dropping, i found this sales position in a forex trading company on the school's career website and thought, yeah i can do sales, what the heck, just drop, not gonna cost me a thing. and since my resume reflects nothing of financial inclination (other than depleting it of course), i thought to write a convincing cover letter. in an amazing few minutes i had conjured up why i had taken a sudden interest in forex markets, how i was "educating myself" and "intrigued" by how political science and economics, stuff i only understood in theory before, came to life in forex markets. oh what a truckload of BS.

and what a shot in the foot seriously. the guy called me back last night and i almost flipped out because it was the last call i was expecting. oh, hi, great, not too convenient right now, would you mind if i called you back? tomorrow morning at 8? sure. ok, talk to you soon, thanks.

at least that's 8 eastern time which gives me a little time to read the company website and some forex news. refreshing my memory of that international finance class i really did not enjoy.

what possessed me to do such a silly thing still befuddles me and i am quite tempted to not call him back. but that would be such a quitter thing to do wouldn't it? i guess i'll just thicken my skin and brave the ten minutes (anything more and i'll pretend i have a bad connection). at least he won't be able see my face cringing away in agony/cursing him to his death when he asks a tough question.

the cave above the waters.

grotto di nettuno. waters so clear i was dying to jump in and explore for myself the beauty of the underwater caves.

capo caccia. vertical drops so breath-taking i lost mine several times. we too were perched on a cliff, just feet away from the edge, and i was desperately trying to capture the magnificence of what lay before me. but this is the best i could do if i wanted to stay alive.

stintino. famous for waters that reflect every known shade of blue. can you see in the waters behind us the azure, the aquamarine, the turqoise? lovely.

how dan managed to drive with half a bottle in his blood beats me. but never again.

God must've hand painted the sea

rena bianca. we stumbled upon paradise, so we stayed a while, bathed in the gentle sunshine, sipping a little vini di sardegna.

santa teresa di gallura. stopped here for a cornetto, to which dan shook his head and said, "of all things, when they have gelato everywhere." but the gelaterias happened to all be closed for the sardinians' three hour long siestas. everything would be shut from 2-5pm--so if you happened to miss lunch, you'd have to go hungry til dinner. evidently i speak from experience. haha

coastal highway views

alghero, oct 04

alghero, oct 04

job searching sucks

aye, it's a cold day outside but that doesn't mean i should be cooped up in this room surfing websites for jobs. or does it. i guess it does because i am in dan's room, stuffing myself silly with more crunchy nuts (this lovely honey coated cereal with peanut bits and cranberry-yummy!) and exercising my right index finger. let the finger do the walking/talking.

i am quite sick of trying to look when the prospects of scoring a good job that'll apply for a visa look quite damn bleak. sigh. but i guess i'll never know until i try eh. and until january rolls by, i will keep trying. oh, what olympic spirit!

back from wonderland

never heard of sardinia until one day elaine said to me, "do you know the longest-living people come from this place called sardinia?" but actually i forgot until she reminded me again recently. it started because dan said, ok, we're going to sardinia. sure. sounds good dah-ling. then i said happily to elaine, dan and i are going to sardinia. looks like such a pretty place from the pictures. jia! don't you remember i told you that it has the longest-living people? hmmm...no not really, but ok, cool!

so off we went this weekend to the wonder of an island off the italian coast. it was truly beautiful, and i cannot come close to describing it anymore poetically. you shall have to see the pictures which hardly do the place justice thanks to the ever-untrustworthy gateway camera.

"a fine remedy for anxieties about insignificance may be to travel-in reality or in works of art- through the gigantic spaces of the world" --alain de botton, Status Anxiety

this i find to be very true, in fact just the day before i read this line, i commented to dan in the car the very same thing. in the midst of breathtaking natural landscapes, i feel so small and inconsequential, captured in awe at god's hand and creation. it makes me feel like everything i'm worried/concerned about is merely transient and will pass away with days, weeks, but these things (mountains, valleys, canyons etc etc) they have been around for eons and will continue to be for as long as our minds can perceive.

cold and wet

aye back to horrid weather. i'm in the room with the heat turned on to max and my extremities are still feelin' a lil' friggin' frigid yeah.

dan convinced me to sit with him through 2 hours of linear algebra (what???). just like in the good ol' jc days, i took out some scrap paper and started doodling. then i felt the compulsion to be productive and whispered to dan that i'd be in the comp lab. he said, ok, let's leave. after a some vain attempts at getting him to stay and listen to the fairly pretty teacher with erect nipples (she was wearing a tight white top lah!) and granny panties, we snuck out one at a time like we were afraid to get caught. haha. then we went to the theatre and caught layer cake. how wonderful to do these things on a whim since we hardly get a chance, given we're many hours and many miles apart.

we also tried to buy some towels because for some odd reason dan has lost all of his and we had to use old t-shirts yesterday. and who ever thought towels would be a rarity anywhere. but let me just say that we scoured marks and sparks, woolsworth's and sainsbury, only to leave with other things but no towels. today i'll try argos and pray very hard i'll be able to get a bundle for cheap because the pound is so bloody strong right now.

i just ate many handfuls of crunchy nut cereal and now i'm feeling quite sick. my nose also won't stop running and ulcers once again taking over my mouth. i am sick in this city, cold, wet and towelless to boot. thank goodness we're leaving for sardinia tomorrow.

omg. can someobne teach me how to change the font colour from red to black??? my sister is an idiot

trendier still

add to that list just one more trend which is quite silly if you ask me: the Zs at tagged on to everything. like,
- baker'Z inn
- LevelZ (condo along farrer rd)
- TapZ gallery (some shop at balestier)
- chocZ (that chocolate place at the esplanade)
- the MetZ (another condo along somerset)
ooh, and many many more, but i just can't pull them out of my pocket at this point.

maybe we're finally feeling the need to pay more attention to the most neglected alphabet (of the alphabet?? hmm. i'm stumped), but perhaps going a little overboard like we did with bubble tea although i didn't mind that quite as much.

trendy singapore

the trends:
- white and glass condos. very "urban" very "minimalist chic", haha all the "key" words that suddenly make it not so cool anymore
- obscure wine places
- plethora of ice cream/gelato joints. for the past ten years or maybe even 22 years of my existence i have questioned the lack of competition to overpriced and overindulgent haagen dazs, and now finally there is a good ice cream palour in almost every neighbourhood in singapore. the only downside to it is that because i'm an ice cream addict, i feel the need to try it ALL.
- tea not coffee
- spas, waxing parlours etc etc. the whole "come out feeling transformed" experience has been heavily exploited and sad to say, i have become somewhat a little convert, doing the occasional pedicure because my feet are quite grotesque otherwise.

3 fast 3 furious

tonight for the first time in a while we had dinner out as one big happy and--except for junie-quite fat family. we then proceeded across the street to watch reese witherspoon scheme and work her prowess and i was quite reminded of some people i know. mei was text messaging her lover throughout the whole movie which got my mum quite annoyed that she almost confiscated the phone. junie just shrugged her shoulders after the movie and said she had no idea what was going on. a sign of true innocence i guess, when the themes of malice, greed and hunger for power are not apparent/relevant to one. then my dear old pops of course fell asleep at some point and did not for a moment appreciate that he had to watch some women dancing around in fancy garb.

we all had driven separately to dinner. for the ride home, mei abandoned me for my dad's nicer car. jun out of pity conjured up some faith in my town bee and poor mummy rode alone.

by the time i backed out of the lot, my dad had already disappeared from the carpark. man, he had a real head start. my mum, disadvantaged by her bulkier vehicle was still manuvering as i made my way out. this was a race to the finish- and we were determined to win. i floored whatever i could of my town bee, zipping quite speedily all the way to holland road. from my rear mirror i saw my mum behind me turning into cluny and i said to jun, "relax, we will get home before her." but how to beat pops? his car so much faster and he already had the head start. then what surprise--my dad and mei were only a few meters ahead of us along holland rd. so i sped past that darn speed camera and past his german monster and gave my sister a high five. whoopie we're winning!

we kept the lead all the way down sixth ave, but once we turned out onto bukit timah, the race got ugly. my dad unfairly took the lead because his car has the pick-up of a (i dunno what, but something really fast) and he just cruised along the straight track leaving me to bite the dust at a 100kmph and rumbling like everything was going to fall right off.

he pipped me to the finish line by about 200m and i thought, oh well, it's ok, at least i'm not the last. then as i turn into the driveway, i see my mum's car. omg she beat us both.

one week more

i have one week left before i pack my bags and head off to london. then new york. sounds damn glamorous, but it really isn't when you have to remember that your mission for the next two months is to look for ways to make ends meet, to pay the rent and feed a rather bottomless tummy. travelling is such fun but now i know why i can't live the life of a wanderer (a question i sought to answer blogs ago). it is quite frustrating to constantly be in transition, not really belonging anywhere. just when you think you've gotten adjusted to life in one place, you're suddenly off again to make life in another. i think it's because of this constant rooting and uprooting that i've distanced myself in many ways--better to be disconnected from everything so it's easier to leave behind.

so i did something yesterday i haven't done since arachnaphobia in primary 4: i went and watched a movie by myself. i was just so damn pissed that my plans to catch a movie had been foiling up for weeks now (no company/no tickets/no time/wrong time) and i was like, wtf, i CANNOT BE A VICTIM OF CIRCUMSTANCE. so instead of my original intention to pop by video ezy and pick up a coupla dvds, i ended up driving all the way to plaza sing and bought a single ticket to about adam. and so what if it was in the first row and i felt like quite an idiot with a craned neck, laughing by myself. i thought: man, this is a rite of passage. it is called "when you grow up you will have to watch movies by yourself because no one else will watch them with you."

it was quite a liberating experience and i am pretty sure i'll do more of it now that i'm no longer a alone-at-the-movies virgin. my sisters are still quite perplexed as to why i did it and almost out of pity for their dear sister who had to go through the agony of going to the movies alone, they both want to watch a movie with me tomorrow. haha. wonderful.

tonight i'm watching the motorcycle diaries. so that'll be three movie nights in a row. i should overdose on them now because i doubt i'll have the money for these simple pleasures in a week.

part-time housesister

my days are pretty routine now. wake up in the morning, if early enough, drop sisters off. otherwise get up, sit in front of my wonky laptop and check email. go downstairs and rummage fridge for stuff i can have for breakfast. potter around thinking what i need to do for the day and then forget those things as i pick up the papers or flick on the tv. i have short term memory loss that's for sure.
before long, it's lunch and i haven't done anything constructive yet. sometimes i meet people for lunch, and on those days, it's a mad rush because i don't keep time until i realize it's like 1230 and i have 15 minutes to change up and 15minutes to get wherever i need to be.
when asked what my plans are after lunch, i rattle off all these things i need to do. then sometime during the meal, i will get a call from jun. "che, where are you now?" lunch. "oh, but can you come and pick me up?" when? "erm. now?" gimme half an hour jun, i don't fly ok. "ok"
so after lunch i go pick my sister up from wherever she is and take her home. once i set foot home, i am too lazy to leave and so i decide that all the important things i have set out to do for the day can wait til the next.
and the days repeat themselves as such. i still have this incredibly long list of things to do but for some reason i am a very very inefficient person. you know i have that book 7 habits of highly effective people. stole it from my dad. i think i need to read it. turn my life around.
once i'm done with this blog, i am leaving the house.

of shower curtains and organic food

there's no shower curtain in my bathroom because i think i was too lazy to put them up when we first moved in. now i have just come to live with it as with other things i've learned to ignore. so sometimes when i shower, i'm plagued by the fear that someone will walk in on a very helpless and naked me. either i live with that worry, or install a spanking new shower curtain and deal with the possibility i might draw the shower curtain one dark night and find a dead body lying in a pool of blood on the floor. we'll see which gets the better of me.

and i am so thrilled because i took ellen and philip (at different times) to the whole foods store in ann arbor and now not only have they themselves become whole food junkies, they've spread the love to their own friends and both have blogged about their whole foods experience! tee hee. we have started a community around a brand guys. funny that it's organic food but hey, this is the power of word-of-mouth and let's-go advertising.

when i have enough money, i will buy whole foods stocks. company with a great philosophy and love for the environment. and they sell good and healthy food to boot. i would apply to work for them if they weren't in austin texas. but i tell you, organic is the way to go. just watch.

zzzz

why am i so sleepy?

biore pore pack

i love ripping out a pore pack strip from my nose. not all the time though- only when it manages to capture a whole bunch of gunk that has been residing under my skin. then i love scrutinizing those oily devils, marvelling at their potential to quietly wreak havoc but now satisfied with myself for putting them out of a job. HAH. i win!

but right now i feel like quite the loser because i am very very hungry having just woken up of course, but i can't go downstairs because i have this damn porepack strip on my face. this time it better be good.

anyway, enough of this facial gleaning.

so i am beginning to get antsy about everything. moving to ny, finding a job there, should i go to sf if not...aye, these things eating into my brain because the pressure to be doing something is so great.

i began my househunting two nights ago and i have a pretty long list now. the only problem is my hit rate on that list is like 5%. i think the rumour that new yorkers are very busy people is true. no one picks up the phone during the day (yes, i call during the day for them). and those that do, are like "i'm busy right now, can you call in an hour?" oh man. am i going to get sucked in myself?? help!

i stumbled across this room going for 600/m which is like insanely cheap for the area. i called the guy and asked about the room. he said i get the living room which he doesn't have to walk through to get to his room. i'll have to share a bathroom, kitchen and dining room. ok, sounds reasonable so far.

"how old are you"

"22"

"where are you from?"

"singapore"

blah blah blah.

"erm, so is there a door/partition separating the living room from the rest of the house?"

"well, there's a curtain." -- a curtain???

"oh. ok"

"i'm not around most of the time anyway"

"oh really? why not?"

"I go to atlantic city. i gamble."

"oh." drunk gambler psycho peeping-tom rapist!!!! omg!!!! "ok, i'll think about it and let you know."

on the brighter side, i managed to get this lady who sounds nice and reasonable and apparently her place is big for ny and she doesn't mind me having guests which is very important. so sleuth RU is on the assignment to give me the scoop on the place. harhar. whoop! (good luck for the interview ru!)

and so my adventure for the night ended with only one lead. :(

and just fyi, the porepack did NOT rip out the gunk as i hoped it would. shit. all that pain and waiting for nothing. NOTHING!!!

another round

this time i got my parents hooked too. what a great family activity i told my dad. what else can keep us all in the same room for that many hours??

yup, nothing else but the perils and adventures of jack bauer and the counter-terrorist unit. man, now that we're done with season three, i am once again feeling the withdrawals: what am i going to do to pass my lazy afternoons? it's a junkie's life kind of, and a funny paradox because i'm like craving a fix of adrenaline while i slouch in the couch. haha

shit, i just checked- season 4 will only be out in jan 2005. crap. and that means the dvd will only be out much later. argh. which means i have to watch just one episode per week when i've been averaging one season in half the time. that will NOT do!!!

really, i know i've been going on and on about this series, but i think that those who haven't watched it ought to pick up a season (anyone will do coz they're all so damn good anyway) and just veg out in front of the tv until you're through. if there's anything i'm advocating, i think it must be this (am i shallow or what. haha). it really isn't a show just for action junkies-it addresses many moral/ethical issues and there's so much intense/intelligent dialogue. plus, with all the research they do, you could pick up a thing or two about being a real agent like i have haha. and of course kiefer sutherland has a sort of rugged sexiness about him too. ooh. ;p

okok, i will stop the obsessing here.