lights fantastic

so, took leave today so that i would have a long weekend. unfortunately i've been spending it packing and procrastinating about doing research for my project. haha some things never change. got discussion tomoro sommore. oh well. the day is still young. contemplating going for a jog later when it's not so hot. or i could just stay home and wolf down swiss chocs. hmm. decisions decisions.

i'm quite pissed off that the recycling people have stopped coming to my estate, cos almost everyone has already moved out. i have stacks and stacks of paper and mags that are probably just gonna be thrown away with all the other non- recycleable stuff. damn annoyed lor. why can't there be recycling bins for every block like they do in aust eh?? so much for reducing our carbon footprint. pfft. NEA, do something about it please! please ah please.

on the bright side (pun intended), i got my black chandelier y'all! it's bloody gorgeous! translucent black and clear crystals. gonna collect it on sun and unfortunately i didn't take a pic of it. another exciting purchase that was made last week also escaped the clutches of my camera lens simply cos i was waaaay too excited to think straight. that one is due for collection on mon. :) let's just say it's some serious blindingly bright bling, and i wasn't the one footing the bill. can't wait mans! super pretty and suits my fat fingers. wahaha. unfortunately we inadvertently annoyed my future m.i.l. cos we didn't tell her about it until after we got it. oops. talk about faux pas. will need to make amends...

in other news, gonna have to stay in the current job for much longer than i thought. need the stupid bonuses in dec and march ah. sighs. there is, however, light at the end of the tunnel (hoho). due to the intensity of the 4th year course i'm currently in, kavi said that i'll probably have to take lots of leave or work part time during the thesis writing period. i would do this gladly, if it wasn't for the fact that i really need a full time paycheck. what's a gal to do? kavi and i stumbled upon a brilliant idea of cos. the kind that hits u when u're talking about something completely random and irrelevant- until u connect the dots. it's an unlikely thing for me to do, but it's a means to an end. where else can u earn pretty much full time pay while doing a part time job? think hard my friends... the answer will be glaringly obvious. :)

news y'all

righto, on to the big news of the moment- i got into my post grad dip course! woohoo! but of cos they couriered me the letter of offer on fri and class starts on mon. well done. it also seems that they don't accept cheques. must be bank draft, electronic transfer or credit card. wtf mates?? sooo inconvenient lor! this means that on mon i'll probably have to call them in the morn and confirm that they don't accept cheques then do some running around during lunch to get the draft sorted out and perhaps take time off in the afternoon to go down to the school to get these things done before class starts. pfft. this also means that my mum will have to transfer the $$ to my account so i can get the draft on my own. which leads me to another qn- if there is a withdrawal limit per day and the fees are more than that, does it mean that i won't get my draft? does anyone know? it shouldn't be the case i reckon.

anyways, went for the body shop charity makeover marathon with rohana yest. now usually we would do some cam whoring but it was a bit of a let down. whatever the make up artists did to us, i can do on a daily basis also lor. the lancome one 2 yrs ago was sooo much more pro! and the one yest had one vital piece of the puzzle missing. there was no hair styling!! blasphemous! we all know that the most important thing is hair, don't we? was so disappointed i tell u, seeing how my major prob is hair and not make up. sighs. we were gonna have our pics taken but then after we got our makeovers we were like, naaaaaah. redeemed $40 worth of make up at the thingy. unfortunately it didn't extend to non- make up products so rohana felt quite cheated.

the bf met us there afterwards and we went for a 'snack' seeing how we were all hungry. even though the bf and i were heading to nas's open house. haha. had to buy a pair of shoes also cos the ones tt i was wearing were making an annoying noise cos the nail of the right heel had worn through. yeah, any excuse. :) i love my new shoes! i also have another witness in rohana that the bf does exist, contrary to popular belief. haha.

is it just me or does the wkend pass waaay to quickly? sighs.

here comes the brett all dressed in red

so yesterday i brought home my latest gadget... meet brett, the samsung u600/10.9

isn't he gorgeous? had to pay 100 bucks extra cos apparently my contract wasn't up yet and i had to pay to renew it early. bah. paid up cos i wanted the phone soo bad. err and it's a birthday present from the parents anyway. hehe. the bf and i had gone on a hunt in vivo for it without any luck, so we headed to the hello shop at orchard. asked the dude if he had it in red, he went to check, then said there was a last one that was actually reserved, but the person didn't come so i could have it. i was like, yes ahhhhh! i pretty much told him the whole story about how we went all over sg (exaggerate a bit ah) to look for it then he was like ok ok u lucky, here got. i asked, confirm plus guarantee right? then think he got a little scared cos he went behind again to double check and reserve it for me. wahaha. i like. good service. the bf pointed out that his nametag said that he was still a trainee, and maybe he'll get into trouble for giving me the phone. i was like, urhm, mebbe his name is trainee? haha. i got what i wanted so i'm good! like that U2 song says, just gimme what i want, and no one gets hurt... lol

in other news i have spectacularly blown my budget this month. on what, u ask? two words- massages, endowment. i see them both as investments, or so i tell myself just to assuage my guilt. wahaha. somehow i doubt this is gonna stop me from getting new work shoes tho. hmm. ok ok next month have to tighten belt... both literally and figuratively.

i have 4 weeks to my shape 10km run. i haven't exactly been training hard (or at all for that matter) so i'm a little worried. hoping to beat my timing from last year's stanchart. seems like i have to die die start bootcamp tomoro. argh! need to incorporate paying back puasa also... damn me for procrastinating. lucky only 4 days. so yes, wish me luck people. i know i've done it before but i think i was in much better shape last year than i am now.

on the job front, same old same old. skipped work on fri after making a day trip to kl on thurs. yay long weekend! haha. this brings my annual leave balance down to a mere 6 days. some of which i will probably be using if the vietnam/ cambodia trip in nov goes as planned. hopefully it will go as planned ah. was looking thru recruit yest and damn, there's a lot of jobs out there. still window shopping ah, cos if i'm gonna make a career out of it, it absolutely has to make a difference in some way. can't spend every single day doing something mundane. can't do it anymore mans. doesn't help that most of my close colleagues are tendering lor. makes me wanna jump on the bandwagon. haha. of cos i'm not gonna do that lah, not without another job anyway. the search continues.

in the still of the night

a midsummer night's dream. simpang outing. impromptu shopping at mustafa. good company of two great friends.

loot scored:
travel money belt
1GB SD card
toothbrush with cover ($1.90 only! can die...)
walking shoes
pretty saree
pretty slippers (novo, parkway)
good deal on euro rates (the mama $ changer near the bus stop at parkway)

sigh. bliss. was trying on the shoes in the cramped aisle and showing them to kavi and rohana for their humble opinions. then this guy walked by, and he was like, nice nice! so of course i just had to yell at him while he was walking away: nice? u buy for me lah! wahaha. naturally he didn't react to that. boring sia.

anyways, midsummer night was awesome. simpang was awesome. the opening act of the sg arts fest the night before was awesome. will put up pics soon. good way to spend the wkend, though some of my plans got flushed down the loo. this means that the next few days are gonna be crazy before we fly off on our european adventure on friday night.

things to do:
waxing
threading
donate blood
watch pirates
get outfit material for cousin's wedding dinner
pack for trip
take hakka to vet
schedule a much needed massage
pay my bills
find out why they haven't sent me an income tax letter. do i not earn enough to get taxed? so sad.

5 days to EU07!! holy crap!

Operation EU07: locked & loaded

ok so here is the finalised itinerary for the upcoming europe trip... just a list of countries we're going to, transport and accomodation details all u don't need to know mah. well not at this point anyway. haha. total spent so far (excluding food and shopping): less than sgd 3000. wicked eh?

i got me my backpack (outgear 60l+15l, $83), handcarry (generic black sling, $19) and toiletries bag (waterproof, hang-able, lots of compartments. $6 off ebay. $6!!) already too! so exciting. this close to going on a spree at watson's and getting those cute little $1.95 stuff. but i shall refrain from doing so. too many toiletries at home sia. must... control... myself...

special mention: shon has kindly allowed us to stay at her place while we're in venice! even though she'll be back in sg at the time. doh! she stays half an hour away from venice and we're gonna be there for just one night before leaving for geneva on the overnight train the next evening. thanks shon, u're a sweetheart! we promise not to trash yr place. :) not too much anyway. wahaha.

1 June Fri	SIN
2 June Sat	IST
3 June Sun	IST
4 June Mon	IST/ ROM
5 June Tues	PISA/ ROM
6 June Wed	ROM
7 June Thurs	ROM/ VEN
8 June Fri	VEN
9 June Sat	GEN/ LUZ
10 June Sun	LUZ
11 June Mon	LUZ/ GEN/ PAR
12 June Tues	PAR
13 June Wed	PAR/ BAR
14 June Thurs	BAR
15 June Fri	BAR
16 June Sat	BAR/ MAD
17 June Sun	MAD/ IST
18 June Mon	SIN

reinspired

so yesterday, kavi, sang, sarah and i went to an art gallery in chinatown. it was an asian pop art exhibit by an indian artist and i must say, it was wickedly cool. felt totally inspired after checking out her work. so colourful and vibrant! i like... most of the works were going for about $11k. madness right?

this outing made me realise that i could never go minimalist and zen. i kinda love having a whole bunch of stuff to display and explore. which would explain why my room is in a perpetual mess. then again, i also hate having to keep cleaning so many things that are left exposed to the elements. note to self: need to find a happy medium. just realised that i didn't put up a pic of my room after i finished painting it. so here goes:
only one wall is striped btw, the rest are plain (should've had flowers lah but oh well. i couldn't be buggered by the end of the striping. no, not that kinda striping. tho i could accomodate whoever is interested. wahaha). see lah, how to go zen like this?

anyway we headed to little india after that for some makan and shopping at mustafa. they have giant tubs of vaseline for like 6 bucks!! how exciting! i am so totally going there to stock up on stuff for my EU07 trip sia! little did i know that the next time i'd visit mustafa was that very night. haha. i think whoever designed the building should be shot lah. so confusing! exits and entrances all over the place sia! in the event of a fire.... i would not want to be there.

this week has also been very good, fitness wise. gymmed, jogged, swam, kayaked (at bedok res!). unfortunately i have 2 months worth of slacking and overindulgence to undo. it's a vicious cycle people! jangan marah lah. everyone has weaknesses... haha. battle on! got jp morgan run in 8 wks. argh!