Everyone deserves to be happy

English

2012-02-18T22:20:00.003+08:00

I hate taking any kind of tests, especially those subjects which I don't excel in.

Written tests remind me that despite so many years of school, I am still struggling to construct a cohesive and interesting piece of work in a given amount of time.

I thought speaking wasn't going to be a problem and that it would be a breeze. However, now that I think about it, during that crucial 10 minutes which would decide my future, I wasn't as fluent as I thought I would be. I didn't speak coherently the entire time and the word 'then' kept coming out of my mouth.

The test is over, so I can relax in suspense for the next 2 weeks. On the up side, I no longer have that nagging feeling to do online practices or pick up that library book. All I can do now is cross my fingers.

Please, Lord. I would do anything.

Another Holiday

2012-02-16T00:23:00.001+08:00

To me it's a holiday to be thankful for the people that I love, and to remind them of how much I love and cherish my friendship/relationship with them.

My best friend..

Was so touched cos gen wanted to get me a rose (I love receiving flowers). Even though flowers were sold out, am still grateful cos it's really the thought that counts. I was damn happy lolol.

Really sad cos NTU is so far away and I haven't talked to/seen gen in like 3 weeks.

My sister. Virtual flowers are in right now..

I drew one, she coloured one. awwww.

"we're damn funny"

"we're damn cool la"

Wishing daddy in the middle east..

Spent the day with Char. We swam then grocery shopped, then went back to my house to watch 3 movies (Grease, The House Bunny, and 17 again) and eat and paint our nails. It was a great day! :) Thanks for the sweet letter, love.

Check out these Galaxy Nails! lol. We also decided to declare today (just today) a Lying Day. Shan't elaborate on it.

Anyway, I love House Bunny the movie because..

"My heart is gonna explode from my head"

"The eyes are the nipples of your face"

"You scared me, my heart is pounding like a nail"

Told Mavis Ong to stfu cos she kept tweeting at Ian Somerhalder as if they were pals.

Shall end off with a retarded video of Charlotte on the exercise machine

Candlelight obsession

2012-02-15T20:04:00.002+08:00

Paid a visit to Ikea a few weeks back and bought a box of scented candles with a black tray to lay them on..

I love the fragrance they bring to my room.

Nothing good ever lasts forever.

Happy Valentine's Day

2012-02-13T23:55:00.003+08:00

I love holidays, any kind of holiday that gives people a reason to celebrate.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYONE :)

Flowers during this occasion are crazy expensive, so I decided to draw a flower for all my favourite people.

I have a great bunch of friends and amazing cousins. I can't say enough how thankful I am for them and how much they make me laugh. Love you all muacks!! This rose is for you if you're reading this. It took me super long to draw this, turns out it's soo not easy to draw a simple rose like this. Art is so not my forte.

Spread the love.

xoxo.

Not a very eventful week

2012-02-11T22:15:00.004+08:00

Besides watching the several tv series I watch regularly and indulging in my favourite hobbies this week, I..

1. Read/slept/watched Pretty Little Liars at the National Library. (photo credits: Char)

2. Got busted for leaving early for my Ipad job.

3. Mistook a girl colleague for a dude.

4. Painted my nails which still look as good as new even after a whole week. Brand used: Essie and OPI.

5. Cleared my NYC debt once and for all. Time for save up for the 2013 big trip G and I are planning :)

6. Received an email saying I got the CLEO internship. I start in March, HELL YEAH.

It's been a pretty okay week, full of running errands and going to places I wouldn't normally go.

Feeling rather depressed cos I haven't really hung out with my usual group of friends in forever and life without friends for me is just hell. The people I've been having conversations with are new people in my life and it's just all small talk and 'getting to know one another'. They're not terrible, they're just not my good friends, and I really miss my friends. Everyone's so busy with school, assignments, exams, or just not making as much effort as I am in wanting to meet up.

I'm not in a good mood now and it's not even my time of the month yet.

CNY, Sky Lanterns and lots of Lou Hei

2012-02-06T22:28:00.000+08:00

Disclaimer: most of the photos posted are of my baby cousin Angel :) I just couldn't resist uploading and showing them.

CNY eve: Steamboat at Korkor's house

Am I the only one who feels that steamboat is overrated? I find it rather.. disruptive. You can't just sit and eat what's in front of you. You gotta wait for the water to boil first while there's a bowl of plain rice in front of you. Then, put the ingredients in (fishball, prawns, veg) and you have to be aware of how long they've been inside the pot cos food won't taste good if they're overcooked. Besides that, you gotta pass around the food and there're other food which are out of your reach.

Who wants that, seriously?

Baby girl <3

cows go 'moo'

aww

See what beer does to you, Dad?

CNY day at Vanessa's house:

Didn't buy new year clothes this year, decided to wear something I made instead.

The best cousins ever

2 years old and wearing Ray Bans

Mom's side of relatives: dinner at East Coast

CNY nails

Back at nana's house after dinner

awww she loves to play with my Blackberry

Time to light some sky lanterns..

writing all our personal wishes down..

"I wish for health, wealth and eternal happiness <3 xoxo"

May all our wishes come true :)

Watch the sky lantern video on fb here. Only fb friends are allowed to view the video.

"I want a Chanel bag. No, lots and lots of Chanel bags" "I want to go New York again" "I want to travel the world" "I want to marry Zac Efron" were some of the things Sheena and I said during Lou Hei.

It was (and always is) the messiest lou hei ever. Using a tray instead of a large plate is still not enough.

LOVE

Class cny gathering at Nicholas' house:

It was a good Chinese New Year :)

What I love about this holiday is the food and the collecting of ang paos

The cheena decorations and cheena songs can disappear, I so could do without them.

Time to pay off my debt with ALL my ang pao $..

Just some of the many things that happened this week..

2012-02-03T23:59:00.005+08:00

1. Went for a SPOC interview. Got it!

2. Went bowling.

3. Started on another cardigan for my mom.

4. Went for a CLEO intern interview.

5. Didn't really concentrate during my entire first driving lesson and chatted with the instructor throughout.

6. Got paid good money to carry an iPad around Capitaland Malls. Went to SSC, Bukit Panjang plaza and Lot 1 for the first time in my life.

7. Became friends with my tutee.

8. Made more friends during work.

9. Thought about life.

10. Worried about my future.

11. Clicked here, here and here. Help pls, it'll just take a sec.

Baby Angeline

2012-01-30T23:40:00.003+08:00

My baby cousin Angel just turned 2 on Friday, she's the cutest baby ever and I love playing with her. It's great that she's so comfortable with the rest of the cousins, completely not shy at all.

Been feeling rather nostalgic this past week. Thought about how close our families were; going to a relative's house every Saturday to play, celebrating each of our birthdays. Took a trip down memory lane by flipping through my baby photo album. Couldn't help but scan a few and post them on Facebook. Everyone was just too cute and carefree!

A complete family, bonded relationships with cousins/relatives. I am one fortunate girl :')

Exploring Sengkang/Punggol

2012-01-27T21:10:00.001+08:00

I love going to places where I seldom go to

The day started with a long swim at Anchorvale with Char, then late lunch at Greenwich

I love the waterway park at Punggol

It's so clean, big and pretty! A great picnic place.

We only managed to cover less than half of this huge park.

I look so silly

Singapore is actually not that terrible after all!

With the right company and place, it's totally fun

Isn't my baby cousin the cutest thing ever?

2012-01-25T02:24:00.002+08:00

make animated gifs like this at MakeAGif

Angel's so adorable! She's gonna grow up to be an outgoing and pretty girl surrounded by cousins who shower her with love <3

Thrift Shopping

2012-01-19T18:52:00.001+08:00

"A levels is ruining our friendship, Charis", Rachel told me last year.

JC life really sucks the life out of everyone.

So anyway, now that her A levels are out of the way, we are able to hang out more just like good ol' times.

Decided to go thrift shopping around Singapore on Tuesday afternoon.

Chose great company, but chose a damn bad day to head out.

The sun was scorching, I really felt like I was going to be baked.

So thankful for my shades

First stop: NEW2U THRIFT SHOP, SCWO CENTRE.

96 WATERLOO STREET, TEL: 68370611

Opening hours: 10.30am-2.30pm (Mon to Wed)

The store's really small, but packed with clothes.

Only managed to find one item; a black denim-washed men shirt, $8

Fortunately, it was a Tuesday and students get half price of all items.

So I only paid $4

Thanks to google maps and our sense of direction, we headed to our 2nd store:

MINDS SHOP, 800 MARGARET DRIVE. TEL: 81802095.

Opening hours: 10.30am-2.30pm (Monday to Friday)

This store's a little bigger, but way less clothes. More home deco items.

Anyway, managed to find 2 items for a total of $11.

I bought a long sleeve floral crop top and a striped dress (which I plan to alter into a top).

Rach bought 2 dresses :)

The heat was killing me by then already. Oh global warming, why must you do this to me.

Kudos to us for not giving in to temptation and heading to an air-conditioned mall to eat something cold like ice cream/froyo.

We persevered.

3rd store: THE SALVATION ARMY, 500 UPPER BUKIT TIMAH ROAD.

TEL: 63495312

Opening hours: 10am-6pm (Mon to Thurs); 10am-9pm (Fri and Sat)

The store is HUGE, for a thrift store.

But I couldn't find anything I fancied. Bummer. They sell everything, from laptops and cameras to housewares and greeting cards.

I found a chair to sit and enjoy the air-conditioned. Kinda dreaded leaving the store and out into the sun. It was one of the hottest days in my life!!

It was a pretty long journey back home. Treated ourselves to some froyo at NEX :)

Despite the horrid weather, I was really happy cos I got to visit new places in Singapore.

It made me less bored of this country. There's actually a lot of places/non people-infested places, they're just slightly out of the way and inconvenient.

But once the Downtown line is completely, exploring Singapore is gonna be a hell lot easier.

And of course, that and when I get my driver's license, which I'm realising that it's completely 100% necessary in life.

Here's to my 1st auto driving lesson in Feb 2012.. A license is only a few months away. I cannot wait.

Do me a favour and click here and here?

Zoe Saldana

2012-01-17T11:05:00.003+08:00

Who is she? She's a 23 year old American actress

I'm sure you've come across pictures of her in magazines. I know I have.

Her breakthrough role was in the 2000 film Center Stage.

She also had appearances in Pirates of the Carribean and Star Trek

And also the starring role as Neytiri in Avatar, but who would be able to tell under all that blue skin.

Photo below grabbed from an Urban issue.

She may be a talented actress, have a great body and good fashion sense.

But as you can see from all the photos in this post (as well as more pictures of her on the internet),

Zoe Saldana needs to LEARN HOW TO SMILE PROPERLY.

A day as a waitress.. again

2012-01-15T13:12:00.003+08:00

The 4 of us; Amanda, Jane, Charlotte and I worked an Art Stage launch party on Thursday evening

After working at the Deutsche Bank event at Ku De Ta last year, I swore to myself I wouldn't work in the Fnb line again. EVER.

But considering this job required carrying food instead of heavy drinks, and the pay was $10/hr, I couldn't say no.

Moreover, I still owe my mom $ from my NYC trip :S (spending $5.2K in those 3 weeks in Aug 2011 is really not funny)

The event was held at Malan Road, Queensway area, at an abandoned house.

Creepy much? Not to mention dirty, haunted, and completely not air-conditioned.

But I must admit, it was done up pretty well, and the fans were strong enough.

Although, the fans were pretty useless once people started streaming in and the place got packed.

Refrained from using the toilets

There was a total of 10 staff to serve the food.

Around 7-ish, the event officially started. I almost forgot what a standing job felt like, how tiring it was, and while carrying those food! Gosh, this was just a reminder of how little I work out.. or how I don't work out at all. The place was completely packed and I found it almost impossible to weave my way through, offering those artsy people some refreshments. Was working hard getting rid of the food on my tray to lighten my load. Some were pleasant and politely declined food offered, but most of them were cold and didn't smile back.

And I smiled at them, a lot. I'm sure a bulk of those people invited were pretentious snobs. *scoffs*

Oh well, that's the treatment waitresses get, I guess.

Making a mental note to be more friendly to service staff from now on.

My arms felt like they were gonna fall off and they started trembling. I have no explanation for that but Amanda had that too. Could be a sign of overworking lol.

Took at break at the back kitchen where we snacked on the food, trying every dish available. Then we started taking wine and alcoholic drinks from the bar :)

Thank God people stopped coming and slowly everyone started leaving so there wasn't much work to be done. Packing up was surprisingly smooth and took only a few minutes.

There was SO MUCH food left and they were all thrown away into garbage bags. I swear I saw like more than a hundred chicken wings being poured into the garbage. I could feed a whole school in Africa with that amount of food! Oh man, the feeling sucks but there's nothing I could do. I couldn't possibly fly those food to Africa anyway.

If only there was a way..

On another note, I'm $70 richer after that night!

Losing weight 101

2012-01-12T11:54:00.000+08:00

We girls are forever trying to lose weight. It's in our nature. We can't help it. We try, but most of us fail.

So anyway, Jud bbm-ed me the other day telling me to google about this 'GM Motors Diet'

Click here for the link.

It looks pretty good right? As in, not so torturous.

I'm sure we've heard of many diets like the '5 factor diet', 'eat fruits and veg only for a week' etc etc.

GM Motors diet is only for 7 days and it looks pretty doable! Supposedly you can lose 10-17 pounds which I felt would be a miracle if it could happen to me.

Gen decided to try it too

Day 1: Eat all fruits except banana.

The day didn't go by so badly. Spent the day at Gen's and Xy helped me paint my nails :):)

The requirement of drinking 10 glasses of water made me so bloated. I love water, but 10 glasses? I didn't even need much water to quench my thirst from eating fruits

Day 2: All vegetables

The LOST marathon continued at Sarah's that day.

My lunch at Thai express: Veg with tofu! It was pretty good actually, thank god I enjoy my veggies

Dinner at Kofu. This cost me $3.20 wtf, I was so mad cos I should only pay like a dollar lolol. Day 2 wasn't that tough to get by

Day 3: Fruits and Vegetables only. Any amount. No bananas.

OMG I wanted to die on day 3. I already felt like I was dying.

I felt weak and wanted to sleep the day away but couldn't cos we were still watching LOST at Sarah's.

Her lunch was Spaghetti which smelt SO GOOD, and she had 2 cups of Haagen Daz for snack. I was beyond envious.

Was whiny and being a grouch that day.

Spent dinner at Jade's. There was a dinner party for 10. Her house is freaking huge, it's like a chalet. If I owned it, I would throw dinner parties every other day :)

Day 4: Bananas and Milk. Can eat up to 8 bananas.

No, I could not eat that many bananas, only 5, which is already the most I've even in a day in my entire life. The taste of plain fresh milk disgusts me so I didn't drink. If you're wondering, I usually get my source of calcium from other food products, and I drink chocolate milk occasionally.

The day was pretty manageable :D, surprisingly

Day 5: Beef and tomatoes.

This was the day gen and I were waiting for!!! BEEF. Meat we were allowed to consume! Heaven. Made an agreement and had lunch together at Pepper Lunch NEX, eating the beef dish only. It tasted SO GOOD.

Oh wait! During the start of day 5, I weighed myself and I lost 2KG!! 2KG is 4 days whaduppp

Okay moving on. Told my fam that I could only eat steak that day so my sister suggested..

It's along Kiliney Road.

We shared the 1.2kg steak which was damn good!

Notice we chose tomatoes and one of the side dishes :)

Day 6: Beef and veggies.

It was an okay day. Pretty much slept the day away.

My 5-hour naps are my most peaceful moments.

Day 7: Brown rice, fruits and veg.

Was excited to eat rice, even if it was brown rice. I'm never taking carbs for granted.

Boy was I so happy that those 7 days are over.

This was one of the longest weeks of my life!

So anyway, how much weight did I lose aft 7 days?

TWO KG.

I should've just stopped after Day 4 right? SIAN.

My metabolism ain't high anyway.

Also, I think I didn't lose that much weight because........................................... I cheated a lil :(

I couldn't help it!

Er I kinda tweaked the diet plan a bit? Let's just say there were some cupcakes and donuts involved. Maybe a cheesecake too. And.. I'll stop here.

We were just trying this diet out to see if it actually works! And if I had enough willpower and discipline to follow it closely, I'm sure I would've shed more than 2kg.

I'll probably put the weight back on but that's kinda fine I guess.

Cos, now I know I can lose 2kg in 4 days, I'll go on this diet before some important event next time. Like.. My wedding/ Dinner and Dance/ Party.. etc.

You do get my point, right?

Anyway, do me a favour and click HERE? It's about by far the best make up remover EVER and I have been using it ever since I won a Biore hamper worth $80 from Seventeen mag. Even if you don't care, just click ;) Thanks loads!

Young and having fun

2012-01-10T02:07:00.002+08:00

I seriously love these Aussie girls' guts.

These videos have been going viral on Facebook these few days, especially among Singaporeans

Must watch!

I love how they're dancing and being goofy like no one else is in the room LOL

It's so hilarious cos they're dancing around a Sydney APPLE STORE! In a freaking store

Free country.

I love the song Raining Diamonds too, sung by an Aussie artiste.

2011: My gap year

2012-01-02T12:00:00.001+08:00

"Charis, you're gonna take a one year break? For what?"

"So when are you going uni?"

"Taking one year break is not a wise choice"

Everybody, fuck off.

I did so many fulfilling things in 2011, and had a ton of fun partying.

Here's a summary of how my year has been..

Jobs

Like any other JC grad, I took up jobs, saved up to fund my overseas trips

Worked at Anteprima full-time for 3 months, learnt so much about the industry.

Day job event at Ku De Ta as a cocktail waitress

2-day job as yogurt girl at a cosfest.

Great Eastern HR admin assistant full time temp for 4-5 months

Parties

Of course, with work comes play.. and parties.

I think I clubbed and partied way too much last year.

(first few photos were taken in 2010 after As cos that's kinda when my gap year started..)

CJ post prom

NYJC post prom

Nadia's birthday

The day we collected our A level results. ABB/A whadduppp

Mafia party (Jane, Jud, Par, Kieran's birthday party)

Kuala Lumpur with the girls

Malacca at club Movida

Sogurt Party at Zouk

First night at Filter

Angie's birthday party

Sarah's party

New York City with cousins

Club Providence at Atlantic City with Sheena

Halloween Party

Sentosa Cove party

The night we went Le Noir and Attica

Mink and Filter

Butter with cousins

After xmas party at Butter

Travel

I travelled across the globe (kinda but not really)

Why work and save money if you're not gonna spend it all, right?

Started off 2011 in Spain with the family

then we headed back to Abu Dhabi (UAE) where dad works

Visited the world's first Ferrari theme park and sat on the world's fastest roller coaster Formula Rossa (Y). BEST RIDE EVER.

Malacca/KL trip with the girls, a short trip to reward myself for working a full time retail job of 3 months. Had SATS to sit for the day after I got back to Singapore, fml.

Read about it here and here.

Bangkok with my best friend :) best shopping trip we've ever had.

Read about it here

and the trip of my life: New York City :D

Stayed at Trump Tower and explored the entire city with dear cousin, Sheena.

Shopped till we dropped and currently we're BOTH in debt.

Plus, I managed to catch up with my old friend Georgina who lives in Manhattan as well :) I really miss her.

Read about NYC here, here, here and here.

Our first Yankees game

Celebrity encounters with Brooke Shields (below), Jay Manuel, Kourtney Kardashian, and Victoria Beckham

Used my free time to organise outings with friends and family..

Derrick's surprise bday at NUM

Class dinner

Sunday Tea

Flea stall at scape

Went back to nanyang to catch up with them

xmas day :D

A gap year gives me more time to do the things I love, and like every other person, I have hobbies.

Finished making this cardi recently

Earlier this year, I made this top (above)

and a few berets, 2 as gifts (below)

Crocheted a pouch which I use for clubbing lolol

So I have a thing for strings and like to knit. SUE ME.

2011 has been fulfilling and despite embarrassing things I regret doing, I still love it. That's life anyway. We makes mistakes and we just have to learn from them. In the process, we also learn more about ourselves.

I really feel grateful for all everything that has happened to me and I thank God everyday. I'm lucky and blessed to be surrounded by so many people and wonderful parents who have provided so much for me :') I also have a wonderful best friend who is the most understanding and patient person I've ever met and I can always go to her when I have something on my mind. Thank you :). I love the feeling of feeling loved.

So, how was your 2011? :)

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T18:02:00.003+08:00

The last few hours of 2011 and first few hours of 2012 was spent with my lovely party people at Clarke Quay. Most of us were drunk from 10pm till 5am. I don't even remember counting down to midnight, only everyone screaming 'happy new year' and hugging one other, plus all the crazy photo taking. After-party was spent at Filter where we danced like there was no tomorrow (2012 rumored to be when the world ends you see). Almost lost my phone cos I left my blackberry in the cab and walked out carrying Elenna's iphone thinking it was mine, thank god she has the habit of checking the seats before leaving if not my night would've been ruined. Went to Yello Jello for 5 mins (every second counts). Reached home at 5am (was still drunk) and I remember chasing a giant moth around the house trying to kill it with the fly swatter because it was being such a bother. Attempt failed. Cooked some instant noodles. Slept.

Woke up with a hangover (surprise surprise)

Created a list of highlights I did in 2011 and I'm so proud of myself :') I've done so much and had so much fun. Before the year even started, I already told myself that 2011 was gonna be the best year yet and it really was. I'm determined to make 2012 amazing with my new life in university and all. So excited, really. I would really love to blog all my highlights but some are really embarrassing and not achievements so they're gonna be kept private.

Time for New Year Resolutions, in 2012 I'm gonna:

-Save up 10K for my trip to California after I turn 21

-Read more books (only read one novel in 2011, pathetic)

-Spend time with my favourite people as much as possible and cherish every moment before I go overseas

-Swim regularly

-Clear room

-Be more punctual

-Drunk text less

-Learn how to cook decent food from mom

My goals for 2011 were:

- Go to Bangkok (achieved)

- Go to Australia

- Go to New York (achieved)

- Clear messy room

- Harry Potter Marathon (achieved)

- Learn how to sew

- Make my own top (achieved)

- Do community work

- Clear unwanted ipod songs (achieved)

- Learn piano pieces

- Club in heels (achieved LOL)

I really love the photo above. We look so happy and carefree (cos we're drunk), like we have no worries in the world. Last night was really one of the best nights with those people and by far the best New Year's Eve spent. If there's a reason to celebrate, we celebrate.

Life's short, so live :)

New Year's Eve

2011-12-31T18:41:00.000+08:00

"It's suspended there to remind us before we pop the champagne and celebrate the new year, to stop and reflect on the year that has gone by. To remember both our triumphs and our missteps, our promises made and broken. The times we opened ourselves up to great adventures or closed ourselves down for fear of getting hurt coz that is what new years is all about- getting another chance. A chance to forgive, to do better, to do more, to give more, to love more. And stop worrying about what if and start embracing what would be. So when that ball drops at midnight and it will drop, let's remember to be nice to each other, kind to each other. And not just tonight but all year long." - New Year's Eve the movie

Xmas party and Xmas day!

2011-12-28T11:00:00.001+08:00

My weekend was GREAT!!! I love Christmas, it's a time to celebrate and spend time with the people I love and known the longest <3

The heavy storm was a bad start to my Friday. I was drenched, soaked and shivering cold (useless umbrella) when I on my way to town. Traffic was insane and the entire Singapore were rage tweeting about it. Thank God the rain stopped as I headed to Sarah's to get ready for the party!

Twinkle and Sarah

We were really early (everyone else was late as usual) so they played rock band and monopoly deal

Potluck= A LOT OF FOOD

Pretty brownies bought by Charlotte

TWIN

(above) whatthehell...

Christmas Gift Exchange!!

Budget was 15bucks. I bought a pretty lousy gift actually :( Chocolates. It's so cliche and I should've put more thought into buying a gift. Damn.

Nut and I received nail polishes from Angie and Chin Seng

Dudes drinking Absinthe

I love Ashes hahahah <3

200-dollar bottle

Twinkle Sarah and I headed to Butter for the 'after-party' along with Justine! The night was soooo fun cos we were drinking MOET all night.

Hangover next day. mehh.

Christmas day: Potluck at Korkor's house!

The men and their wine

My family cooked the turkey. Okay, my mom and dad cooked the turkey. Okay, my MOM cooked the turkey, dad helped. My sis and I woke up at 5pm on Christmas day (Y)

Using a chair as a table, KIDS-STYLE

Angel, my almost 2 yr-old cousin was the center of attention the entire night. She's just so adorable and hyper, not those kind of babies who just sleep and eat (me).

She's REALLY heavy, I regretted carrying her once I lifted her up, but held on for the sake of photo-taking

NO IDEA what they're doing

SHO FAT AND CUTE

Korkor's ukulele

The cousins photo!!

KOHs and ONGs

After-party (without adults): Shisha

Korkor was given a bong for his graduation gift so.. he shishas at home a few times a week

Circle of Death

I swore to myself I wouldn't shisha..

We didn't exchange gifts this year, for a couple of reasons like no money, lazy to shop, don't care.

ANYWAY, Christmas is totally not about the gifts, it's about spending time with the best people in the whole world and eat good food and (let's not forget) drinking booze.

So, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Hope you guys had a great one :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!!!

2011-12-25T01:04:00.001+08:00

A shoutout to the people I love dearly and care about: I LOVE Y'LL AND HAVE A GREAT XMAS HOLIDAY MUACK xoxo

Unemployed days so far..

2011-12-21T01:15:00.010+08:00

I don't plan on finding a job till after Chinese New Year, so that gives me about a month more of leisure time. It's gonna be GOOOOD, and I'm gonna complete the list of all the things I want to do. I love making lists, cos I love the sense of accomplishment when I strike things off those lists.

Here's yet another photo of Shaggy

Accompanied Gen to Ikea the other day. She was driving and I was craving the Swedish meatballs, how could I say no? Thanks for driving, Gen!! She wanted to go Ikea to buy a chair cos she broke hers :S

This amazing mirror elongates and gives you the illusion that you're slim! Though I would love to have it in my room/all over my house, I don't want a false image of myself. Besides, it won't motivate me to lose weight at all.

Sunday tea in town

Proud to say, I made this top (above). Yes, 7 balls of cotton yarn, hand-knitted into a top. Charis Koh label lolol.

When photos of the A&F models were posted online, I really didn't give a shit and didn't think it was a big deal. But.. when we were there next Sunday, I was like..

"OMG, I hafta take a photo with them!!"

All of them are hot, duh. But some of them are really good-looking!!! Mostly the non-asian ones (surprise surprise).

This photo above literally made me happy for like a day, I'm saying this at the risk of sounding bimbotic.

Dinner at Din Tai Fung with family

I love dim sum

Given that Singapore is extremely boring, going to new cafe which has great ambience and deco with a good friend and chat for hours is my favourite thing to do.

This was a small cafe along Upper Paya Lebar Road

They serve tea and scones and other pastries.

I was so fascinated with that piano cos the keys were playing on their own, freakin cool.

Lovin' my Anthropologie wedges from New York.

Sigh, miss that place so much. I wonder when will be the next time I get to go :'(

Anyway, speaking of NYC. To those of you whom I told, remember how I went crazy make-up shopping and brought back like 2KG worth of cosmetics? Was digging through my cosmetic box the other day and found many items I forgot I purchased. It was like shopping all over again! Just that they're already paid for which makes it even better.

Found this shade of M.A.C lipstick which is gorgeous! Everyone should get this, it's called IMPASSIONED

Baked Red Velvet cupcakes (icing hasn't been spread on yet) with Fenni for the 2nd time in 2 weeks. The cupcakes taste and look lovely. Good job to both of us cos it's our first time baking this flavour. After that day, I swore to myself that I'm not going to bake for a long time cos I don't really enjoy baking in the first place. I only do so cos I luv the results and eating cupcakes and cookies and cakes and whatever people bake at home.

But baking is so.. the mixing, the hassle of getting ingredients, the washing up, the heat from the oven.. Gosh. Just bring me to Magnolia Bakery to buy cupcakes. Unfortunately, Singapore doesn't have Magnolia Bakery or any place that sells cupcakes which are as good.

Saturday lunch in town

The Fish Garlic Pesto Linguine was sooo goood

It's been forever since I had a meal with Mavis, my super cute and bimbotic cousin.

I wanted to go to Hatched but it is closed on Mondays, had lunch at Mandarin Gallery instead.

I wanted to try Wild Honey, she wanted to try Antoinette.

"Why not we share a main course at one and then share another one at the other?"

GREAT IDEA

Smoked Salmon Crepe at Antoinette

English Breakfast at Wild Honey

It was such a great lunch, the idea was great and I was freakin full after.

My 3rd time sleeping at Sarah's for a Lost marathon. Earlier this month, after her NUS exams, we started watching Lost cos we've never watched before. This was initiated on Twitter and we are watching it together cos we both feel it's too scary to watch Lost alone. Yes, Pretty Little Liars, The Vampire Diaries and The Secret Circle are considered scary shows as well.

I am very proud to say that we are at Season 3 of Lost now, and the show so far is sooo good and kinda mind fucking. I honestly am incapable of remembering every detail of the storyline and get confused at times, during which Sarah scolds me and orders me to get out of her house LOL

Esther, her really cute niece, came over today. I saw her in photos before and found her really cute, but she's MUCH cuter in real life

LOOK AT HER!!! 'I got your back'

My bare-faced photo with Esther. My hair is really fucking shiok, flying in all directions, horrible

She was watching Hi-5. OMG look at her chubby face, sho adorable!!!!

Anyway there's been a lot of unnecessary commotion going on in Singapore lately; the Aaron Tan video and the breakdown of the SMRT

regarding the Aaron Tan vid: I didn't even finish watching 1 min of the video and I was already complete disgusted. He's a bad representation of Singaporeans in general but I honestly don't get why it went so viral in the cyber world. So many video responses and responses to the first responses. Keep it up ah everybody, just keep talking to your recording webcam.

regarding the SMRT breakdown: IF THE MRT SERVICE BREAKDOWNS, take another mode of efficient transport besides the train- er.. maybe the public buses? You people never take buses before? Even if you don't know which bus to take, check the bus directory which is at every single bus stop or check google maps on your iPhone/Blackberry. In the first place, how can you not know how to get around this tiny island. No wonder the general Singaporeans go on tours when they go overseas cos they don't bother/are too stupid to find their way around a foreign land. Anyway, GOOD JOB making the SMRT breakdown issue a big whoo-ha. It's as though if the trains don't work temporarily, your life will be over.

If this happened in another country, what would the commuters there do?? Let's look at New York (fast paced and famous city mind you): Subways are 24 hours and god knows why, but some maintenance are done during the day. When the train service breaks down/maintenance is going on, there'll be a sign to notify commuters. The sign is only but a piece of paper pasted on the wall at the underground platform. Thus, only after people have entered the subway (tap card zone) and gone down the staircase (no escalators) then will they see the sign. What do they do? They 'tap' out and go back upstairs to the main street to take the bus or cab to wherever they're heading to. That's it. They move on.

Adapt. And get over it.

Why all the rage tweeting/criticism on facebook, Singapore..

Singapore is indeed so boring that the general public have so much time to harp on the little little issues that happen around here.

My (Black) Christmas Wishlist

2011-12-17T18:49:00.000+08:00

If I'm not watching movies/a tv series/blog-hopping on the Internet, I'm most probably browsing some online shops.

Paid my first visit to Spanish Moss recommended by Rachel and did my occasional browsing through Net a Porter.

The four dresses which caught my attention happen to be all black. You can never go wrong with black.

If you're reading this and happen to have a very deep pocket, I would be ever so grateful if you fulfill this Christmas wish list :)

Spanish Moss (first 2 images)

Style Stalker Alter Ego Dress

I have the Asian height to rock this dress, but I don't have the money.

American Gold Sacred Heart Mini

Net a Porter (next 2 images)

KSUBI Knitted Cotton Dress

I would knit this, but the holes are too small and it would take forever to complete it.

Temperley London tulle gown

Have no idea what I was doing browsing the 'gowns' section. But If I had some benefit/gala/red carpet event (pfft who do I think I am) to attend, I would wear this.

So there.. My wish list. I'm not asking for the cliche and common 'All I want for xmas is you' wish which never gets fulfilled, because asking for material things are always more practical.

My Disney memories relived

2011-12-14T02:46:00.006+08:00

2 weeks ago, I decided to re-watch some Disney classics since I had time to spare.

I had a disney childhood, disney channel was my favourite channel!

Watched 14 movies over a period of 14 days..

WEEK ONE

Monday: Cinderella (1950)

Cinderella is my favourite disney classic movie! I remember watching it almost everyday when I was a little girl. Since this was like more than a decade ago, we were using those bigass video tapes. All we had to do was pop it into the VCR. LOL

Tuesday: Little Mermaid (1989)

I love Ariel, I love her red hair, and I love her voice. Great movie!! :)

Watched it a couple of times when I was younger too

Wednesday: Hercules (1997)

Wasn't a big fan of this last time cos it was such a manly kinda show and I didn't like how the cartoon characters were drawn (felt that the edges were too.. sharp). But I actually love this movie! My favourite songs from this movie is 'Zero to Hero' and 'I won't say I'm in love'.

Thursday: Snow White (1937)

Snow White's voice is SOOOOO annoying!!! No wonder Cinderella is my fav movie and not Snow White. The songs in this movie is not even nice and I don't appreciate opera-like singing.

Not gonna watch this again.

Friday: Aladdin (1992)

This film was produced during the year I was born (no wayyy)! Aladdin's so charming in this movie <3. And I always found the genie a tad annoying..

Saturday: Lion King (1994)

I LOVE LION KING. It's one of the movies which has the best soundtracks (Thank you, Elton John). The music is so... uplifting and empowering.

And if I'm gonna overhear people say that Simba's father's name is 'Mustafa' again, I'm gonna punch that guy/girl, cos his name is MUFASA.

Sunday: Pocahontas (1995)

So-so movie. 'Colours of the wind' is a nice song.

Wasn't a big fan of this movie, still isn't.

WEEK TWO

Monday: Tarzan (1999)

I still remember watching this movie in the cinema when it first came out. Jane's voice is kinda irritating. It's sooo bleah. Anyway, soundtracks are good tho thanks to Phil Collins.

Tuesday: Mulan (1998)

Watched this so many times on Disney channel omg lol. Not a bad movie, it's kinda more interesting to watch cos it's based on a true story.

Wednesday: Beauty and the Beast (1991)

I forgot how much I loved watching this movie!! Such a touching movie too :'), love the storyline and everything. It's so magical.

Thursday: Sleeping Beauty (1959)

It's kinda boring. Her voice is like Snow White's, opera-like but less annoying.

I love the 3 fairies though but they're a lil bit dumb.

Friday: Peter Pan (2003)

I had no idea Peter Pan was such a recent movie, produced after the millennium!! So anyway, this is a boring movie :S I only like Michael, the youngest boy. SHO CUTE.

Saturday: Lady and the Tramp (1955)

I am not a fan of animals, so I didn't like the movie. I most probably still do not like other disney animal movies like Bambi, and Fox and the Hound. But I did enjoy watching Happy Feet 2 last friday, cos the animation is adorable and the songs are awesome!

Sunday: Anastasia (1997)

I had no idea this movie was based in St Petersburg and Paris :) how I miss those places..

I think I didn't enjoy watching the movie cos I'm quite tired of watching cartoon movies these past several days.

So anyway, though there are plenty of other Disney classics, I am not gonna extend my Disney marathon cos it would start to feel like a chore to watch them instead of an enjoyment.

I'll watch one whenever I feel like it.

SO THIS... Is my disney experience.

Everyone should relive their childhood someday, you know you want to.

Don't give the excuse of 'no time' cos there's always time. Manage time well and you can do so many things you want. Reduce the ridiculous and useless amount of time spent on Facebook/Twitter/Blog hopping to blogs you've already visited an hour before/Staring into space.

2011-12-10T22:22:00.003+08:00

To all those who follow blogs and just can't miss a post by your favourite bloggers, you should use Bloglovin. All you have to do is create an account and choose the blogs you want to follow. Bookmark your Bloglovin account and you won't miss a post ever again. Bloghopping is simplified.

I don't have to worry about which blogs I haven't read in a long time and Bloglovin saves me the trouble of visiting each blog manually to check for updates.

I think it's been around for a long time, I only just discovered Bloglovin a few months ago lol.

Fashion Toast and Bryan Boy are just a few of the many I follow.

Call me outdated, but I only got addicted to this song recently.

I love how it's so hard to sing this song and there are so many great acapella covers on Youtube.

Never thought I'd be setting this genre of songs on replay in my playlist.

So anyway, this week has probably been the worst week of the year. I received the worst news ever early this week. I never felt so lost or confused in my life. I think my mood swings (ohhh the downside of being a girl) kinda of amplified everything. Also, what made it worse was that my best friend wasn't even in Singapore so I couldn't talk to anyone about it immediately. But thank heavens for wifi and whatsapp or I'd have to wait 2 days later.

I spent two whole days at home in my room. I didn't feel better in the end so I guess being alone in a small room is not therapeutic. Solution: get the fuck out of the house and do something. Shall keep a mental note of that.

The week did get better becos I went out and did not talk about it. Not talking about it means not thinking about it and that helps. It's not denial, it's just.. 'putting things off'.

Now, at the end of the week, I feel like shit. Throughout the week, I didn't eat healthily becos I was having 'comfort' food. Look how that turned out: I AM SICK. Ugh, damn sore throat and blocked nose. Resting at home/having nothing interesting to do makes me face my worries which I still have NO solution to so it sucks. My room is so depressing, it's not even funny.

Looking forward to Sunday Tea with my girls tomorrow, GOOD. My life needs to turn around like.. now.

The highlight of the day was playing the piano. I now can play Katy Perry's The One That Got Away. It's not brilliant, but I can play a tune.

No more ugly blog photos

2011-12-05T04:59:00.010+08:00

It's been a week since I got my new camera; Olympus XZ-1.

Getting this is one of the best decisions I've made this year.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT

It has awesome effects like pinhole, soft focus, diorama, pop art etc

And you can increase the shutter speed and adjust the brightness of the flash

When you wanna take multiple shots (for all camwhores out there), this Olympus will playback them as a gif for you.

HOW COOL IS THAT.

Okay, maybe this function has been around for a long time, but I only recently started researching on cameras cos I needed one.

IT fair at expo was last week. Went there twice but bought my camera from a family friend instead cos his shop was selling it cheaper.

I guess the only thing I don't like about it is that it's kinda big cos it's a semi-pro.

Beats a DSLR (gosh, carrying one around is so much trouble) but I still prefer my gadgets pretty and compact.

This is called an organised Clutter. Everything seems to be in a mess but I can easily find my stuff (most of the time)

This past week has been eventful

Friends in uni have finally finished exams so I met Fenni in town

We plan to bake cupcakes sometime this week :)

Hope it'll be a success

Only an awesome camera can make Orchard Cine look so gorgeous

Soft focus mode

Lunch at cine (again)

We ate at Avenue Bistro cos I wanted to use my voucher given by Gushcloud

Total bill in the end was less than $2

Note: If you happen to eat there, please don't take the Carbonara cos it's WAYYYY too salty. Like dead sea kinda 'salty'

'Why do we always give the same face'

Headed to Botanic Gardens station but guess what, the weather spoilt everything

It's been raining all day everyday what's wrong with you, Singapore. You're either too hot and humid or gloomy and wet. In the middle can?

Jane has tweeted before: The weather here is a good enough reason to want to get out of this country.

Amen.

Attention ON the hair <3

Lunch with classmates. It was organised enthusiastically by Derrick Tan but he had a fever at such bad timing so couldn't make it :(((

Oh this is a pic of gen's gorgeous nails. Yes, the camera does it justice. (kay sorry need to stop bragging about the olympus already)

Typical NUS students look like this

Somehow the rain and thunderstorm affects my broadband internet connection. I think.

Rain = slow internet = cannot watch shows = :(

Anyway, Shaggy is a coward despite being 10years old already. He gets so terrified of a lil thunderstorm.

He's pushed down the barrier quite a few times already (notice fallen stool in the background) but this is the first I've seen of him taking comfort and 'finding peace' in lying on the damn thing.

He's so happy ON it. He still puzzles me sometimes.

But he's the cutest dog on earth and I love him even though I take no part in taking care of him!

Recap: Came back from NYC in mid September

And if you recall, I haven't clubbed since Atlantic City

So I haven't clubbed for TWO AND A HALF MONTHS

Hear that mommy? 2 and a half months

*pats shoulder*

*thumbs up*

*smirk*

K sorry

Went to Filter and Mink on Saturday night. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEB!! <3

Pre-drinks at Nadia's

Outside Mink.

So this means I broke my 'no clubbing' streak.

Darn it

Stayed over at Sarah's and we watched 6 episodes of Lost starting from Season 1 the next day

She is too much she takes a lot of photos of herself and this one is taken with her stuffed toy Oscar somemore

OSCAR lolol

It's almost 6am. I did go to bed at 1 but tossed and turned then gave up tossing and turning, so now I'm blogging.

There you go, a blog post. And an awake Me.

I can be so physically exhausted but my mind is most awake at night (God knows why) so I'm having insomnia ughhhh kill me now.

My mind is racing. Not cool.

Wish I was like a Vampire so I could just switch it off.

Eh? No they can only switch off feelings, not thinking. K, bad reference.

Gonna find something else to do now

2011-12-03T15:53:00.002+08:00

Sometimes I feel that I'm different from the majority of Singaporeans, and I'm gonna explain why.

I do not like any Asian desserts; grass jelly, sago, bobo chacha etc.

The only asian dessert I eat is Ice Kachang, but really it's just ice I'm eating cos I always order 'Ice Kachang without the Kachang'.

Call me 'angmoh', but I indulge in ice cream waffles and creme brulees.

I cannot take spicy food for nuts.

When I was younger, it was worse. Mcdonald's chilli and prata curry was spicy for me (ha ha).

Am getting better, but still pretty bad at it. Can't take a spicy meal without taking at least 5 glasses of water and then feel all bloated and fat afterwards.

People always give me shit like, 'You CANNOT take spicy food? ... Not singaporean ah you.'

Er, how about... big deal. I don't care. And what do you expect me to do, torture myself by eating chilli everyday till I get better at it so that I can 'prove my Singaporean worthiness'?

No thank you.

Loads of irritating people in my life. WHY. I'll never know..

Moving on

Being here all my life, I still have not/am not interested in visiting the attractions.

For example, the Singapore Flyer:

It's so frickin lame. Plus, people have told me how much it sucks and not worth the money.

Universal Studios Singapore

This is probably the attraction I want to go the most if I had to choose.

But I'm not dying to go there, not as much as I am dying to get out of this country.

It seems like a great place to hang out with friends and take photos, but unless it's convenient for me, I won't be paying a visit anytime soon.

Snow City.

Pay to layer on rented coats and look fat and roll around in fake snow? Ugh, NO.

Wild Wild Wet

It's been around for a long time now, but I still have not gone there.

Meh, not missing much.

2011-12-02T02:06:00.003+08:00

No words can describe how stressed and bothered I've been feeling these past few weeks.

Yes, even a girl who's in her gap year and not having commitments right now does have her own problems to deal with.

Wake me up when the wait is over, even if it means 10 months..

Ballet

2011-11-27T20:54:00.002+08:00

Asked Adeline to help me take this vid of me cos I highly doubt I'll be able to still do this in 5 years..

How low can you go? Lol

Though I'm not a stick-thin and flat chested ballerina, I'm proud I can do my splits and jumps.

2011-11-25T14:49:00.004+08:00

Grapevine with the cousins and Sherman to welcome back Joshua korkor!!!

He's back for good :) back from completing his Honours in Brisbane.

This month all the cousins will reunite.

Jie comes back from Brisbane tonight.

Charmaine jiejie comes back from New York next month.

Really loving the canon s90 camera shots..

Good job to me for refusing to drink a Waterfall. *pats shoulder*

WHY ARE ALL MY COUSINS SO GOOD LOOKING (above)

There's an extremely valid reason why we're posing like that.

Going to the IT fair for the 2nd time tomorrow, I really hope we can get my Olympus XZ-1 over there. I've never wanted a camera so badly.

*cross fingers*

Hell

2011-11-23T01:05:00.002+08:00

"hell is simply one's freely chosen identity apart from God on a trajectory into infinity."

"In each of us there is something growing, which will BE Hell unless it is nipped in the bud."

My perception of hell has totally changed, and I feel like I have a lot to think about and reflect upon. Guess that's what I should be using some of my free time on.

Having dinner with DT that day made me realise how little I've been reading up on this year. I kinda feel guilty. Need to make up for it by spending more of my time reading books, which is such a torture cos I find it such a bore and always end up falling asleep :( but I know I can do this.

My unemployment has been great so far, I really love waking up late and having the freedom to spend my time in any way I want to.

No, I haven't been wasting my time laying in bed or shopping or staring into space. I have been doing.. other things.

The list of things I can do with my free time is endless, there's never a reason for me (or anyone) to be bored.

Don't feel like ranting or posting pictures to illustrate how my life has been so I'll end here.

Bye.

Love, the Ultimate Freedom, is more constraining than we might think

2011-11-18T00:22:00.003+08:00

"One of the principles of love is that you have to lose independence to attain greater intimacy... You cannot enter a deep relationship and still make unilateral decisions or allow your friend or lover no say in how you live your life"

Lose independence? :( My heart sank.

"Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless- it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation."- Timothy Keller, A reason for God

Irredeemable. Damnation. Darn it.

That's what I've been doing all this while and thought it was right. Now, I'm second guessing myself.

Need to reevaluate my beliefs.

2011-11-15T23:55:00.002+08:00

Today marks the end of another chapter in my life.
Said my final goodbyes to my colleagues before leaving the Great Eastern building at 6pm sharp.
Though I was more than happy to leave, the thought of seeing these people for the last time is a bit saddening. They are such nice people who even gave me farewell gifts, wishing me all the best for my future education and endeavors.

It's crazy how 5 months just flew by like that. This admin job was mundane and repetitive, but it pays well and my supervisor let me take 3 weeks leave for my New York trip. This job paid for my New York trip! And moreover, because it's brainless work, there's no work stress at all and I don't have to rush for any datelines.

Gone are the days where lunch is catered by the company because of a staff survey/event, where food from Ritz Carlton is brought back because of the staff orientation, where we eat at a restaurant to welcome a new staff in the dept, where Valerie hands out food every afternoon for tea break.

And gone are the days where I have to stand in a crowded train for 20 mins every morning and evening because of the bloody peak hours. I hate being squashed and pushed in a cabin full of office people and worse; people who smell. Surviving this for 5 months is a great achievement for me.

1.5 more months till the end of 2011.

People wonder where they'll be in 5 years.
I wonder where I will be in 3 months.

Abu Dhabi (Jan 2011)

2011-11-14T22:54:00.014+08:00

Was looking through photos of the Abu Dhabi and Spain holiday early this year..

and since I don't remember blogging about Abu Dhabi, I shall post up some pics.

Dad picked us up from the airport and we reached the apartment in the evening.

Headed to the beach for dinner since it was within walking distance. There were a number of restaurants along the beach :) The weather was really lovely too.

Dad had to work in the day and he asked us to visit the exhibition near his workplace

Saddiyat island is one of the many islands in Abu Dhabi and it's currently being developed from a flat piece of land

This the plan for the island

There're gonna be resorts, hotels, golf courses, NYU campus (for real), guggenheim. In a few years time, the island is gonna be AMAZING

(above) Looks damn real

Restaurant at the exhibition

Back at the apartment:

I had to make full use of the gym/pool while I was there. It was windy and sunny, love the year-end weather!

Abu Dhabi mall

Zara
Dad brought us to an Italian restaurant at some country club cos his friend was the chef there

Omg look at my jet black hair (ugh) and I remember not enjoying my seafood soup.

Day trip to Dubai:

Lunch!

(above) that's Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. We wanted to go up but tickets were sold out. Oh well.

I forgot what was going on, but we saw a camel somewhere..

and a bird?

The market where sis bought a shisha.

Musical fountain at the Dubai mall! (largest mall in the world)

Eggs benedict for dinner (whatttt)

Looking at the photos makes me really thankful for everything my dad has been doing for us, working overseas so that he can afford our overseas education. I am so so blessed, and I'll never take it for granted.

And I know I wouldn't be visiting Abu Dhabi anytime soon so that makes me a little sadder.

2011-11-14T01:44:00.001+08:00

I can't sleep, I feel very bothered by something. But I can't seem to figure out what..

Sent via BlackBerry

Meet my twin Charlotte

2011-11-13T13:05:00.002+08:00

2011-11-12T00:59:00.000+08:00

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

2011-11-09T20:55:00.002+08:00

Almost every grown up have told me that eating fruits after a meal is good for the body, good for digestion (WRONG).

After a huge steamboat buffet on day during lunch with colleagues, fruits were served and everybody dug in. 'Take some fruits, it's good for you.'

Er.. WHAT GAVE YOU THAT IDEA?
Google? Cos when you type 'eating fruits after a meal' in the search engine, you get directed to this page
And you get 'Never eat fruits after a meal!', 'Always eat fruits before a meal' ... etc.

Truth is, '.. if you eat fruit after a meal, the fruit sugar will stay for too long in the stomach and ferment. This is why people experience digestive trouble when eating fruit that way.'
Find out more here.

It's just office people or grown ups in general; they know less than they think.

My point is.. Don't listen everything you hear. You have a phone/computer, just Google.
Google's your best friend, you just don't know it.

And the whole 'lifting weights will make your arms big' and 'your muscles will turn into fats' remarks are utter nonsense.

Google them.

2011-11-06T02:06:00.007+08:00

Decided to take a look into the past and read my past blog posts, as far back as my first ever post when I was just 13 years old. I couldn't help but cringe. I had a million spelling mistakes and I blogged using the worst Singlish words possible. It. Was. Bad.

I've unpublished all my posts from 2005 to part of 2008. I'm too embarrassed for them to be read. Below are just some sentences I've extracted. Am not gonna delete the posts cos it's still me typing them, it's part of who I was and I still could go back and read em if I wanted to.

Okay, 13 year old me blogged like this..

28 August 2005
'....mi like first time posting in this blog wadsoeva... '

16 sept 2005
'...yesterday already had maths training den finished at 4 plus.. den somemore the day be4 came home from sch at 7.20pm.. hai.. den today had choir.. learn the 'sin ten'song.. lol so many kok kok kok and tut tut lol. cool song..' (WHATTHEHELL!?)

27 oct 2005
'...yay.. im going gen's house nx week! lol i got lots to tell her sia. but last week also went her house wid dt haha! den dt come so late lor.. make mi and gen wait and wait.. =S...'

27 june 2006
'...hey peeps. omg long time nv blog liao hehe..'

How did I get readers? How did my friends want to even write on my tagboard? Why did people even visit my blog?

I was this irritating?

If I had to hang out with the old Charis, I would be bloody annoyed by the way she talks and thinks how 'cool' she is.

But, reading those posts was a reminder of who I was in the past, my thoughts, my feelings, my mannerism. And some hasn't changed up till this day.
I'm still the girl who's dying to get out of this country and wanting to travel the world.
The same big fan of Zac Efron. (lol)
Still bitching about people on my blog.
Blogging about hilarious stuff that has happened.
Posting lotsa photos.
I see similarities and differences and I'm am glad of the differences. Thank God I got rid of my Singlish blogging ways by the time I was in Sec 3. But I was still blogging my day in too much detail (I wonder why I thought anyone would care). I had too many 'thens'.

Anyway... Looking at the photos made me remember all the fun times in TK and I'm never gonna forget those memories.. I loved having a clique and how comfortable it was to hang out with everyone.

Maybe cos my future is blur and I don't even know where da fuck I'm even gonna be in 3 month makes me think about my past a lot and I don't know.. reflect?

Everyone who has had a blog for a few years now should read their archives. You'd learn more about yourself than you actually think.

2011-11-04T22:45:00.003+08:00

Glad to have something to giggle about on mundane days in the office

Ok, seriously. Who names their child Ye Mei You.

C'mon

You're broke? Shut up.

2011-11-02T13:49:00.003+08:00

3600 dollars.

That's the approximate value of money I owe my mom and Sheena.

This is probably the poorest I've been. I'm worse than broke. I'm in debt, thanks to my shopping spree in New York. Good job, Charis.

Planned a strict budget for the month of November. Took pride in myself for having $2.80 chicken rice for lunch today. I believe I have enough discipline and determination. I can do this.

(Boycotting Gongcha till further notice cos it's way overpriced)

Halloween

2011-10-30T19:06:00.011+08:00

Halloween party at Nadia's on Friday.

Went as Katy Perry this year!
Check out Katy Perry's California Gurlz mv here.

Took Fanny's advice and bought the wig online!
only $25.

As you can see, it's freakin longgggg

Spent almost an hour pasting the string onto the heart to get 'hair' effect.

80cm long wig.
Gave it a haircut!

Done.

Party was a potluck so I made "finger" food.
Gettit????

Katy Perry, Tomb Raider, and Charlotte (from Charlotte's web)

Luv this photo.

Thanks char for the awesome deco!!

Black Swan, Pirate, Hooker, Cowgirl, Psychic, Hooker, Tomb Raider, Snooki, Charlotte, Bacon and Egg

Snookie dancing lol

Back at the house: Indian Poker and Circle of Death

the dudes look hilarious wearing my wig on

Great party!!!
Idk why everyone thought I was gaga. Did you not watch the California Gurlz vid?? :(

Hope everyone had a great halloween weekend! :D

500 days of summer

2011-10-27T10:38:00.002+08:00

About 2 weeks ago, I watched '500 days of summer'.

I feel that I had wasted 100 mins of my life watching that movie just to find out that Summer is the name of a girl and the reason why Summer ended was because he met a girl named.. Autumn.

SO FREAKIN LAME.

It's not even a romantic movie.

*yawn*

Not cool.

2011-10-27T10:01:00.004+08:00

"It can buy temporary happiness. But if you constantly buy temporary happiness, you'll constantly be happy."- Genevieve Leong, in response to my question 'Can money buy happiness'

"Why we so pretty."- Genevieve (again), after a few self-shots.

She seldom/almost never says these kinda things, so it's really really funny to hear them. She's obviously joking when she said those 2 sentences (duh), if you haven't already figured that out.

Gonna miss you so much when I go overseas to study (whenever that is).

My last week in New York: Broadway, Celeb encounters, and NYFW

2011-10-23T01:08:00.029+08:00

Last post about New York

Visited the Met on Sept 11, which was the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attack which made a worldwide impact.
There were bomb threats so cops were seen everywhere in the city and we were warned not to go to crowded places that day. So we avoided Times Sq and some other areas.
Honestly, I didn't think much of those threats. I'm glad the NYPD stepped up with the security around town but it was unlikely that the bomb threats were real. They were just rumours.

So.. the Met...

Those who watch Gossip Girl (luv that show) can recognise that this is the place where Blair, Serena and their posse hang out/eat their yogurt before school.

There was an area showcasing witnesses' stories of the 911 and quilts sewn by them

Many of the stories were written by children (around 10 yrs old). I was 9 when it happened. I can't imagine what it was like to witness the attack and chaos that followed.

I love this red blazer Jane let me borrow. It fits perfectly and I look great in red!
Went to Saks to get some make-up after visiting the museum and got so many compliments for it.
Also, I was getting extra-polite service from the staff
I was silently saying in my head 'THANK YOU JANE'

Conclusion: Dress well to get better service

At the exact corner where B and S sits.

Ignore my retarded face and check out my froyo!
Gotta have froyo at the Met
One more task completed on my NYC to-do list :D

Our huge cup was like.. $4? Pretty ex I know

12 Sept (Monday)

S and I did our own things that day so I spent the day alone.

Headed downtown to visit Ground Zero memorial sites

White ribbons hung all around the fences of the cathedral

911 memorial site exhibition:

There were photos/badges of victims of the attack and USA flags

It was kinda scary to think about it and how people are still traumatised from this

Dinner with Sheena at Red Lobster at Times Sq.

I saw like an ex-rosythian there. I can't remember his name and he was with his parents. What are the odds that I'd bump into a Singaporean who was from the same Pri school. On the other side of world.

Singapore is small? The WORLD is small.

Ordered the free flow of shrimp. It was only about $20?? I could order as many servings of shrimps as I wanted. SOO GOOOD and TASTY!

Headed to the empire state in the evening to get the night view of Manhattan:

It's beautiful!

We bought the audio tour which explained to us popular areas of the city and their history.
I love NYC more and more everyday.

Can you see the Chrysler on the left? It's my favourite building. And S and I believe the other tall dark building on the right of the Chrysler is Trump!! We were pretty amused we could see the apt we were staying from the Empire state.

Our first Broadway Musical: Billy Elliot! :D

It was great! I LOVE THE SHOW. Both of us teared cos some scenes were so touching.
Overall, it was really inspirational to watch the lead character (Joseph Harrington) dance ballet. He danced flawlessly, I feel like a noob compared to him. And he danced act after act, it's soooo tiring for him but he had so much energy!!!
I wish I could've taken a photo with him but didn't get the chance :(

The next day: started the day off alone again cos Sheena wasn't interested in visiting..

The Guggenheim Museum. I may not be able to appreciate art much, but it's GUGGENHEIM!!!

Even photographers want models to pose with Guggenheim as the background!

and check out those pegs on her outfit. Sigh. Models are so skinny.

The night before, Jay Manuel tweeted this: (Yes, I follow him)
Broadway and 35th street?! I'm so there. Headed to Herald Sq after Guggenheim. Took a bus 20 blocks down 5th ave. Hey! I'm no stalker, didn't you see 'Come! Find us 2mrw..'. Also, I was kinda depressed that despite being in NYC for 2 and a half weeks, I haven't seen one celeb. I HAD TO SEE JAY MANUEL! And he was gonna be with Kourtney so .. double score!

They were promoting some play station game. I wasn't able to take photos with them but.. standing just a few metres away from them feels so great! So surreal.
Pretty Kourtney. I wish Kim was there, she's SOO gorgeous.

Hi Jay!!! I heard he was wearing Gucci boots that day cos they were mentioned in his tweets later in the day.

Visited Museum of Sex with Sheena. It was a very... visual visit, and informative. The store has pretty hilarious and sick stuff.

The next day, another Broadway Musical: The Addams Family

Had our last Chipotle dinner

I love guacamole!!! I love it I love it I love it. It's my favourite dip and snack, and I really could eat this everyday.

The show did not disappoint. The dances weren't that fantastic, but the singing was awesome.
I'm a new fan of Rachel Potter who played Wednesday Addams. She's amazing and I absolutely LOVE her voice. I followed her on Twitter :)!
And watching Brooke Shields up close is just ... I love seeing celebrities! Idk how to describe it.

Took photos with all the main cast members when they came out after the show.

This is Rachel Potter <3!!! She's extremely talented and beautiful and I completely support her doing what she loves! Such an honour to take a photo with her (tho I look kinda shitty)

And guess who was the last one to come out of the theatre door..
Brooke Shields (duh). CELEB PHOTO!!! :DDDD
My first celeb photo encounter. This photo is precious!!

Went to Moma (alone again, pfft. Sheena and her non-existence interest in museums. hahah but it's okay)

I'd love to have this

You can't see from this pic, but the texture of this painting is so beautiful! I love it. I rarely find art pieces nice because I find it hard to appreciate Art in general.

So my encounters with Jay, Kourtney and Brooke were all planned (sorry la, sometimes you gotta plan to make it happen the way you want it).
But S and I had the ultimate (unplanned) celeb encounter!!!!!

We were walking down 5th ave, and saw like a crowd outside the Prada store.

I was like "what's going on". Sheena guessed that there was some kind of event. I was like.. Noooo, I think there's some celeb in Prada.
But we didn't know who!
So we asked some gathered outside the entrance. They just shrugged. People were waiting outside without knowing who's inside!!! LOL so hilarious.
Guess what we did. We waited outside too.
More people came and some asked us who was inside. I said 'I have no idea'.
We waited for like 5 minutes (still not knowing who's inside). Not kidding.
Some (non celeb) customers came out of the store, so I asked the guy. And he was like 'Oh, Victoria Beckham'.
"VICTORIA BECKHAM" I just shrilled. People around were like 'Who, who' cos they didn't hear what the guy said but saw me jumping like an idiot.
"VICTORIA BECKHAM", I told em.
"Can you not tell them, now more people are gonna come", Sheena's so smart..

Paparazzis were right outside the store entrance and they were tall, big men in casual clothes, and carrying their big cameras. Everyone had their cameras in their hand, snapping pictures of the store, just to catch a glimpse of Victoria.

Why didn't people just go into the store to see her? Because you can't go in unless you're planning on buying something Prada, and no photo-taking allowed inside.
But we really really wanted to see her upclose so S and I went in.

(above) photo taken by my camera. Can you see her? She's upstairs, wearing the pink dress, on the left!

We went in and lingered at the ground floor near the entrance, "looking" at the wallets/bags and "asking" each other for opinions. LOL we weren't the only jokes around, there were 2 women sitting at the shoe section pretending to be calm and all but totally trying to look at Victoria from the corner of their eyes.

She was like less than 2 metres away from me when she walked out of the store with her bodyguard. Everyone outside went wild and camera flashes were just blinding. Gosh, that's her life.

(below) Paparazzi photo.

I just googled this! And this is the outfit she was wearing!!!!! So gorgeous and she's absolutely skinny. I'm so happy with this photo cos you can see a bit of me inside :D Can you see the person in the store on the right inside the store?? THAT'S ME!!!!!!!!! Not kidding omgomgomg.
To get a larger photo, click here. She was wearing Louboutins that day. Gorgeous.

Headed back to the apartment after the excitement died down. We regret not saying at least a 'hi' to Victoria when she was so upclose!! We were too starstruck ughhhhhhh

Do you know each tub is just 6USD?! Those sold in sg is a rip-off! And there are wayyy more flavours over there. I love ice cream.

The reason why were went back to the apartment early was because we had to get ready! For..

The DKNY show! Part of New York Fashion Week. One ticket is crazy expensive but this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

So we showered, painted nails, did our hair and makeup. Lol.

4 of us cabbed to Lincoln Center. Had to be there by 7.30pm.

Free champagne at the waiting area and they also were serving mini cupcakes from Baked by Melissa. I luv that shop.

Photo-taking at the poster board.

I would've drank more chapagne but I didn't wanna be tipsy while watching the runway show.

After an hour of waiting... the doors opened.

Show was accompanied by a live performance of Lykke Li!!!

She sang 4 songs altogether and one of them is "I follow rivers". I really like that song!

This was the DKNY resort collection and it was the last and closing show of NYFW 2011

There's Donna Karen. The show was awesome and I would wear most of the pieces! I only have one DKNY clothing but not from this collection. Bought it at Woodbury.

Cousins at Lincoln Center. The weather was frickin cold!! I was shivering like mad. You can't tell from the photo above.

That was my last night in NYC. I had a flight back to Sg the next morning (which got delayed by 4 hours but why would I wanna elaborate on this unfortunate event).

Going to NYFW was a great way to end the trip!!!

I had so much fun and this is the best trip ever. I'm so glad I fulfilled my long awaited dream of going to New York!! This meant a lot to me.

I had a ton of fun with S too!! Loads of memories to journal down. Those 3 weeks just flew by. Sigh.

It's been more than a month since this trip and I really really miss NYC. And I've been feeling really frustrated cos my college future is still uncertain. The worst thing is that there's nothing I can do and it's out of my control. So helpless ughhhh.

Anyway, that's all I have about NY!! Hope you've enjoyed reading this post.

Taiwan or no Taiwan?

2011-10-22T16:33:00.001+08:00

Dad wants a family trip to Taiwan for a week in Jan next year.

Why I should go:
- I've never been to Taiwan before (part of my travel-around-the-world plan)
- Spend time with family
- Taiwan has good food
- There are places to shop
- Can check out nightlife. When I travel I obviously wanna check out the cty's club scene right

Why I should not go:
- It's with a tour group (HATE tours). Tour guide may be as irritating/ worse than the one we had in Spain.
- Going with parents. So what if they're paying for everything, I have less freedom
- May not be able to club cos of parents (point no. 2)
- Going during cold season; more inconvenient to shop/move around etc
- It's TAIWAN; spoken language is mandarin. Did I mention I get a headache whenever I hear too much of it???

Good thing is that I have a choice to go.

Should I or not?????
Sent via BlackBerry

If I could turn back time, I would..

2011-10-17T02:29:00.003+08:00

Everyone makes mistakes, and everyone is told to 'learn from their mistakes and move on'

But sometimes I really wanna turn back time to avoid those BIG mistakes.
I can't help but ask myself: WHY THE FUCK did I do that?
Sometimes I think I do the stupidest things, when will it stop.

Ugh.

I'm so bothered until I can't sleep.

Work at 9am, kill me.

Singapore is ranked 8th in list of Top Global Fashion Capitals 2011

2011-10-15T01:40:00.003+08:00

I was reading an article in Urban and found out that Singapore is ranked 8th in the Global Language Monitor's Top Fashion Capitals list 2011.
I was outraged.

Seriously??

Read more about it here.

Singapore beat Tokyo.
And sooo many other countries.

I'm disgusted. This monitoring system is obviously flawed. Singaporeans have no/lil fashion sense.
People here wear dull colours and the usual outfit (even to town) is a top, a pair of shorts and flip flops.
People who dress up often receive remarks like "Why you wear so nice" cos it is seen as out-of-the-norm.
To me, a Fashion Capital is not only a place where I could shop till I drop, but also has well-dressed people. Not sloppy dressing.

From article:
"NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the 75,000 print and electronic media, as well as new social media sources (such as Twitter)."

My guess is that because of Men's Fashion Week, Audi Fashion Festival and the opening of the first H&M in Singapore (as well as in southeast asia), there is a lot of hype in the cyber world this year.
And Singaporeans being as they are (having no life), spend a lot of time on the net so everyone talks about it. Thus, Sg moved up 7 spots this year.

I feel that Singapore doesn't deserve the 8th spot because it still lacks so many big brands.
The variety is so small and stores here are tiny.
People here dress alike and follow trends blindly. You could spot several pretentious people walking along the streets of Orchard Road judging by the way they dress.

I came across an article about the sg govt investing millions into the Orchard Road revamp, in an attempt to make the street as much a shopping paradise as Paris' Champs Elysees.
I couldn't help but LOL, cos that's just way too ambitious.

It's good that there's effort put into bringing variety here, but I don't feel it's possible.
Because at the end of the day, being a fashion hub is not the govt's concern.
Moreover, people here are way too lazy and they love giving excuses like 'it's hot that's why I can only wear tops and shorts and slippers'.

Formspring me

2011-10-15T00:18:00.002+08:00

I've finally created a formspring account after contemplating for a few months. :)

Hopefully it's as fun and interesting as everybody says it is.

Ask me anything here.

Knitwear

2011-10-10T22:39:00.004+08:00

The weather's getting pretty cold in New York now..
and because they asked,
I knitted berets for C and G.

Red one's for G

Grey one's for C.

Mailed them out to NYC today, hope they'll like it!!
:)

Blue one's for me!

Are they nice?