So true of my work situation atm.

"It was amusing to see how they handled it, because if they thought about it at all there was only one way out--to praise the ends and ignore the means, a time-honoured custom that justifies almost anything except shrinking profits."

--The Rum Diaries

TAN DIO!

" is it weird that i wanna make you sandwiches and do the laundry while you sit on the floor in front of the TV and play Monkey Island type video games?"

S: That cookie is like, a week old and has been left out in the open.

Me: It's okay. I'm going to cleanse my system with alcohol tonight. S'all good.

HAPPY DRUNKEN NIGHT, FOLKS! See you in 2013. 

Found these in my phone.

His favourite and mine. Lol. So fun, but so unglam.

I am happiest when he is.

I guess this is what love is.

Sent from my iPhone

Random thoughts and things

Hello, neglected blog. 

I'm cramming details of the eurozone clusterfuck into my long-underused brain for what is shaping up to be the hardest test I've ever taken for a job. I'm failing the maths bits for sure, so it's up to the rest of the 4 hour-long test to pull the grades up. 

Yes. 4 hours. Then interview number 3.

And this is only the beginning. 

Exciting times.

On the upside, I fully expect to be able to sleep easier after this week. And stop dreaming of getting fired for putting out wrong flashes. Oh, and be able to do some exercise, finally. 

---

Why don't people talk to other people more in this place. I realise when I'm alone I tend to talk more to random people around me. Like the cashier at the bread shop. Or the person at the next table. Just little one liners or comments about something in our vicinity. Just yesterday I spent a very nice time chatting to this lady in line with me at the bread shop about their products. I guess I looked like I couldn't make up my mind (everything looked yummy) and ultimately went with a scrambled egg and cheese bun on her recommendation. 

It was delishus. It made my day, and I'm talking about both the breakfast and the little chat. 

People should talk to other people more.

Okay. Back to studying. Hey Greece, get yer act together, eh? 

Thing Facebook's latest post-your-private-msgs-on-your-timeline-as-wallposts taught me:

1. I made mistakes

2. I had bad taste

3. Life is good now. 

Q: Why did they send Curiosity to Mars?

A: Punishment for killing cats on Earth. 

Lame joke of the day brought to you by me reading a tweet on Curiousity and then spotting a cat.

RantyPanty

If there's one thing I miss about lighthouse it's that we were largely kept in the loop about everything going on in the company.

Being in a big company now means people say they don't know what's going to happen but what they mean is that "that information is only privy to those above your pay grade."

This job uncertainty is annoying me. Why call me from new York to find out exactly how much I know about US financial news if we "don't know" if we even have jobs 3 months from now?

All I can think of to regain control of my job situation is to quit and find something else. But surely this is premature, especially when I haven't done what I want to with this job yet, and when they're dangling what I want to do (moving with the company) over my head like a carrot.

Jump higher or jump ship? Or just sit and wait for someone else to finally tell us what's going to happen? I hate not having control over something this important.

Sent from my iPhone

Stuff my dad (probably unknowingly) taught me

1. How you look, how you speak, what you eat or where, they all don't matter. What matters is if you have a good heart. 

2. Buying a car in Singapore is expensive and a waste of money. 

3. Live with a view to expand your horizon. (Or: Don't be a frog in a well.)

4. Daddy's rubber band skillz are second to nobody's, and nobody will kill a lizard for you with one like he will. 

5. Quick tempers need to be reeled in. You'll feel stupid for lashing out after. 

6. Even if you're not one to say "I love you", you can show love with money and a post-it explaining the cash, and your not-very-chinese daughter will understand. 

7. Hard work is everything. 

8. You can likely solve your own problems without needing to enlist help from anyone.

9. Let your children make their own decisions, and their own mistakes. 

10. Money doesn't grow on trees, so if you have debts, pay them. 

11. Pray. 

My dad's great. I've seen him transform from a scary, not-to-be-messed-with patriarch into a (sometimes) warm and sweet person. He's always been faithful to my mother and lived with the sole purpose to make sure we were provided for, and that we turned out okay. We turned out okay. He doesn't have much money to give out, but he's generous in his actions (see: number 4) and y'know what? That's worth more than anything in my books. 

Happy Father's Day Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad. I don't know how on earth we manage to understand your strange English or your intentions when you hardly say anything. But I'm glad we do. Please don't stop killing lizards or fixing my aircon/toilet/lightswitch/shoes for me. 

<3

Sudden and random list of awesome Singaporeanisms

I came across the word "mak nenek" and it made me lol, so I decided to compile this list of words and phrases used in Singapore that work here, and make me love this country just a little bit more. Some have meanings next to them, some don't (some are untranslatable). Enjoy!

1. Mak Nenek

2. Kotek - penis

3. Tetek (I'm sensing a pattern) - boobs

4. Sepak - slap

5. Yaya papaya 

6. Leychey - troublesome

7. Chut pattern 

8. Ai sui mai mia - want beauty, don't want life. or, those shoes will hurt but suck it up. 

9. Mai ge kiang!

10. Pang seh - "launch aeroplane", or to stand somebody up

11. Mai ah-neh quan leh! - Don't be like this

12. Mat Rocker

13. ACBC

14. Agaration - estimation

15. Siansation

16. Steady pom pi pi

17. Gostan. - Go astern 

18. 'Thon - "marathon", or stay overnight someplace

19. Lao-ya - lousy

20. Hope - as in, to catch. 

More next time!

Found this while going through my google docs

I think I never posted it because it was too raw and too sad at the time. So here it is, 4 months later. 

When I was young I shared a room with my brother. I fought with him loads. He gave me stitches, I gave him long welts on his back. He slamdunked me WWF-style, I decided his homework would look better with streaks of pink crayon. I was desperate to have a playmate, so he made me a goalpost in his football game. And when we played football inside and broke a coat of arms, I helped glue the swords back and kept the secret from my parents for over 10 years.

And then when I was 14, he left. He went to the US to live the American dream or some rubbish like that. Neither of us realised it at the time, but he left me to fend for myself in the dating world.

So CNY wasn't as great as I thought it might be. I constantly forget that 2 days with family is too long for me. And that as much as I love the de Silvas, they're not immune to asking me when they could be hearing wedding bells, or when they can stop giving me red packets.

I do love that my brother is home tho. It feels right. My mother is obviously delighted and the household is livelier, but I think I like him home because it feels like he's the only one I can talk to. As much as I hate to admit it, we're more similar to each other than we are to the rest of the family, not just in how we look, but also how we speak, how we think and what we enjoy doing. I caught his wife staring at me from across the dinner table once and she said she was just marvelling at how similar we are, especially in our mannerisms. I haven't seen him in 3 years in the now 15 years he's been away.

I hate that whenever he's back it feels like he's never been gone. I hate that when he's back I feel like I wanna spend a lot of time with him but don't because our family isn't affectionate like that. I hate that my brother seems to want to sit down and chat with me too, because that's the only way we can show each other that we care. I hate that I can't get too attached because in a few weeks, he'll be gone again, maybe not to be seen in another three years.

This is one of favourite iphone shots of the trip. It's also the only touristy thing that was done this holiday.

Had a taste of what it would feel like to actually live in the uk instead of just visit it.

I have a more love than hate relationship with the cold (then again it wasn't winter) and a more hate than love relationship with the food (then again I ate mostly at motorway stops). But all in all it's more love than hate, which is bad because I can haz job in Europe plz?

Sigh.

Skiing like a wizard in training

Having a great time so far in France. Managed to get in a few good days of skiing and can sort of go down a decent red run without falling over.

Never expected to love skiing this much. Just got to get a few more practices in to get better. If only these skiing holidays weren't quite so expensive.

Random photo of me falling on my bum on the snow and here I end abruptly because it's time to see a lovely cathedral in Joan of arc city Reims.

Don't want to go home.

Ps/ I love France but these French people could be a little more smiley. Why so glum, frenchies? You have lovely wine and bread.

Ps/ no photo because I don't knw how to attach it from here.

Sent from my iPhone

Random bimbo moment

Why do I always need to pee right after I moisturise my hands? Then I'll wash the moisturiser off when I wash my hands after peeing and need to moisturise again.

My life is so hard. 

Conversations with Boss

Lately our conversations go something like this: 

I send him a link to a charsiew rice place near the office: 

Boss [11:31 AM]:

  that's so close!

  you're evil.

Me [11:31 AM]:

  and their wonton mee or charsiew rice is like $2.50 only

  WHERE TO GET 

Boss [11:31 AM]:

  you suck.

  now i dunno how to get thru today without getting some char siew

Me [11:32 AM]:

  why would anyone ever go without charsiew ever

Boss [11:33 AM]:

  ya i dunno

---

Boss [11:40 AM]:

  i was here yesterday

(sends link to awesome looking zhi char place)

  the salted egg squid was quite yum

Me [11:40 AM]:

  SALTED EGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

  salted egg anything is shiok

Boss [11:40 AM]:

  including just salted egg

Me  [11:44 AM]:

  ya la you've made me hungry now

  i'll get lunch

---

When I'm back from lunch...

Boss [12:14 PM]:

  wat did u get?!

Me [12:15 PM]:

  wonton mee

  across the road..

Boss [12:15 PM]:

  ohhh

  good ah

Me [12:16 PM]:

  not bad! not black enough tho

  hk version

---

Boss sends link of study saying how popcorn is healthy

Me [12:53 PM]:

  PLAIN, yes

  but butter! and caramel!

Boss [12:55 PM]:

  garrett is so rockin.

  but i can only eat for 5 mins

  then it gets too sweet

Me [12:56 PM]:

  i know what you mean, but audrey solved the problem the other day

  caramel mixed with cheese popcorn

  makes it finish-able

Boss [12:56 PM]:

  u are out to kill me

Yoga > cycling > brisk walking > pilates > kickboxing > insanity > > > > > > > > >  running

There's so many ">"s between insanity and running because i really don't mind insanity at all (it's quite good, actually) but dear GOD I really hate to run. 

Why can't I have a job where I have to walk around and be active so I don't have to take time out to go to the gym and run just to stop my arse from expanding to the size of this seat it's always glued on?

Bah. Seeya in a few hours, treadmill.

How to make gifs

Those rice paddies were prettttttty darned awesome.

Actually, all of Bali was pretty awesome. I was apprehensive at the length of time we'd be going (9 days in an Asian beach location? Siao lah.) but I'm so glad we went for that long.

After two glorious days at Gili Trawangan during which I saw not one but TWO turtles while diving, we went to Ubud, drove up to Munduk, and ended the trip with two relaxing days in Jimbaran.

Those last two days were well deserved after the trip we had. One of the two memories that stick out in my mind was the day we started at 2.30am to climb Mount Batur for sunrise and back down again (1.5 hours each way; not too long but the climb was no easy feat!), then went cycling through the padi fields after. We were blistered, bruised and extremely knackered after, but it was well worth it.

The other memory that sticks out in my mind was the drive up to Munduk. We had gone to see the floating temple and a couple of rice paddies en route and had a seafood lunch/dinner at Lovina, but soon realised that if we didn't get a move on, we'd be stuck on the road in the dark trying to find our way to Munduk. This fear grew the longer we were in the jeep, which was pointed nearly straight up on the mountain the whole way. The sun was setting, we were lost (or at least I thought we were lost a lot of the way), we were surrounded by trees, had no street lighting, were miles away from civilisation and were driving on makeshift roads that twisted dramatically up the mountain and melted away into rubble at some points. I remember thinking that if we made one wrong move, we would be tumbling off the side of the cliff, never to be found again.

I kept these thoughts to myself tho, because I could feel Mindy getting more and more kancheong the longer we were in the car. But Mindy's a great driver and after what felt like forever (with everyone we passed along the way saying it was only 5km to go no matter how long it really was), we got to our hotel in Munduk.

Guys, stay at Puri Lumbung. It's peaceful, it's rustic and there's absolutely nothing to do there except enjoy the tiers of rice paddies and the rolling mountain view. Apparently the Munduk village chief owns or co-owns the place so proceeds from your stay in Puri Lumbung go to bettering the lives of the people in Munduk by providing jobs and training. You'll also see donations or stories of famous people who have stayed in the resort inscribed on plaques around the area.

Wow. I haven't written a blog post this long in ages. So I'm going to abruptly end this post here, even tho I have a great story to tell about doing yoga in Ubud. Go back to Bali everybody, and let me know if you need recommendations for the cycling tours or what to see. <3

oh look, it's me.

Source: 9gag.com

Ash Wednesday again

The second I make a promise for Lent, situations come by to tempt me to break it.

Inhale, exhale. It's only been 2 hours into day 1. 40 days to go.

Edit: On the upside, I'm looking forward to making pancakes tonight. :) or just the end of the work day, really.