my sister's big day

i bought the pillow! pretty? plus it suits the garden theme!

 

it was drizzling throughout the ceremony, so it was kinda rushed. heh. The paper that had to be submitted back to the registry was peppered with raindrops. :)

loved the flowers lots!

 

fooling around with the camera...




 

ROM

please don't rain.
i really don't want to have the ROM in the house. *pout* Will spoil the whole effect.
I'm tired. want to sleep.. but have to wait for the wedding guy to come. I'm sure i can have a little nap right? hee
Phone keeps ringing! irritating.

crap mummy just woke up. so much for my little nap.

Choices

Choices.

why does our life involve making so many choices?

I'm tired. I feel as if I've made so many important choices and decisions in the last few months. sometimes it's the right choice. sometimes it's the wrong one. and most draining of them all - choices that you will never know whether it's right or wrong. And once you made a decision, it doesn't meant that you are done with it, you can leave it as it is. We have to bear the consequences of it.

I was so glad that i finally got myself an internship. it is so demoralising that it's so difficult for me to get one, so even though i didn't get this though my own capabilities, i was relieved. happy. excited. enticipation.

but now
i dread it.

i'm forced to make another choice. the internship requires too much commitment. i have to decide where to put my time. my friends. my family. my boyfriend. myself. dance. I want all, but it's impossible to. It's not fair. Somehow it feels as if i made the wrong decision to take up the internship in the first place.

Stop Wasting Time

My mum put an article titled "Stop Wasting Time" on my desk a couple of weeks ago. Well, she's obviously trying to put across a point to me, but i shall prentend to be a little dense and not get it :P
Anyway, I just thought I'll share the contents of the article, since it's project peak time and the exams are just looming round the corner.

Efficient vs Effective
which should we work on first?
Efficiency menas doing things right
Effectiveness means doing the right things
The best answer is to improve your effectiveness first as it is much better to aim your sights at the results than to worry about the process. Too often, people get bogged down in the menas and lose sight of the end.

Eliminating Time Wasters
some problem areas common to most people:

• scheduling less impt work before more impt work
• starting a job b4 thinking it through
• leaving jobs b4 they are complicated
• doing things that can be delegated to another person
• doing things that actually are not a part of your real job
• failing to build barriers against interruptions
• socialising at great length between tasts
• handling too wide a variety of duties
  

haha. i so do many of these...

Setting Priorities
1) Parkinson's Law: work tends to expand to fill the time allotted for its completion. Therefore, setting priorities is very important. If you do not know what your priorities are, your other work will expand to fill in the extra time -- hence taking you longer to accomplish less.

2) Pareto's Principle: 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts


Using a 'to do' list
According to them...

• the list gotta define a specific amount of time (if possible) for each activity to prevent the work from 'expanding'.
  
• activities should also be listed in order of priority
  
• it is helpful to spell out the result as well as the process. Stating when, where and what you are going to do increases your chances of doing it successfully.
• As the days goes by, check off completed activites and make any notes that seem relevant. In the evening, make out a new list for the next day and include any activites you could not complete the day before. Always save your lists for future reference and evaluation.
  

Vietnam pics

Boring BP class, so here i am updating my blog again. I went to Vietnam in early September. A very slow and free & easy kind of trip, but i enjoyed it and spent time taking lots of pics. So here's some to share :)

my bestest and fav pics of vietnam

pic 1 - nice hot guy just happened to turn his head when i took the pic! *grins*
pic 2 - night shot of semi-roundabout of ho chi minh, beside the river. was taken from the roof of the hotel
pic 3 - young nuns, wearing the traditional vietnamese hat, walking through the grounds of the citadel, Hue

i like this pic. I was pretty much following behind my parents most of the time in the streets of Ho Chi Minh, cuz i was busy snapping pics here and there. And this is a simple shot of my mum and dad, being a nice sweet couple even at this age. I hope my married life would be like that too in future. :)

 

A city full of crafts

My mum and I had a wonderful time shopping and looking at crafts in Ho Chi Minh. Unlike most places, each shop offered something different - embroidery, cards, imitations of famous paintings, Vienamnese paintings, baskets, lacquer ware etc. Okay, maybe not EACH shop, there is no doubt that are repetitions here and there, plus some imitations, but there was enough variety to satisfy us :)
And for those who just like shopping for clothes, there are a couple of places where you can get them. I only managed to get 2 tops and a skirt, but my bro buys loads back. (not that i'm complaining, since i get nice stuff from him. heh.)

p.s. ALINA ROX! :)
(disclaimer: the owner of the blog did not write that statement)

 

The second last emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty. He was a very small sized guy who was very interested in French culture. So his tomb has a mixture of culture. Famous for being the 'puppet' emperor in history texts, what is not really known is that he is also homosexual and vain. In fact, he went to France and requested for replicas of himself to be made. :)
But i think that it is because of these factors, his tomb is the most impressive and has the most architectural value in Hue.



A common sight in all the tomb compounds.


The Citadel

Hue, the old capital of Vietnam

 

Vietnam sights - Ho Chi Minh, people

 

Vietnam sights

 

Vietnam sights - Post Office, Ho Chi Minh

 

I LUURRRVVEEee Vietnam food!

Weddings

It's fun to do wedding stuff. Like choosing where to get your wedding gowns, deciding the theme of it, looking at wedding magazines, going to wedding shops. White is a beautiful colour, and it makes shopping pleasant.

No worries, I'm not planning to get married yet :)

My sister is ROMing early next month, and I sort of been helping out with minor arrangements. It will be in our house, in the garden. We got some guy to help do the decor. He has shown some promising stuff in his photos, but at the same time, I don't trust him in certain factors. Like he doesn't give the wedding image. I just hope he does a good job. haha. Anyway, the theme for the day is lilac. It's gonna be all lilac flowers. yippee! Not that i like lilac, but i still think it's better than pink! *grins* I went to a some internet bride forum the other day, and it's facinating! It's where all the kan cheong brides-to-be gather to seek advice and contacts from each other. Some talk about their nerves, some fret about the big dinner they are planning, plenty are looking for shops with good ROM dresses. I found a pretty wedding ring pillow at the site and actually met the lady in tanjong pagar mrt to buy it from her! haha. I got ideas on how to write a proper wedding invitation from there too.

It's been fun. Yet i cannot imagine myself having to plan for my wedding for one whole year. Most people have their weddings about a year after their solemnisation. I think that's weird. It's like postponing the celebration of a big event. I think it throws away the kick or the high you get from being a MRS. I also don't like the fact that there are some stigmas or 'proper procedures' to weddings. Like my sister had to get a nice glam dress just for her ROM. I want mine to be nice, casual, maybe cutesy. haha. It has to be comfortable, not just another glam dress to don on. The stoopid wedding guy doesn't approve of such a notion though. But this is the practical Singapore way, and I won't be surprised that I might end up following them in future.

Anyway, below is the invitation I made for my sis for her ROM. She insisted on suzy zoo. :P

my long overdue pics of cambodia

steep worn out steps.
see those tiny pple in the shelter? They were taking wedding pics, but it started pouring heavily. I was initally really upset with the rain as i barely even started touring the area. But luckily it was multiple short downpours, so i managed to get different types of photos :)

isn't this gorgeous? guess there is always certain beauty with rain. And you don't often come by a picture of Angkor Wat in the rain ;)

my all time favourite. I was trying pretty hard not to be obvious about taking a picture of a naked kid bathing. But seriously, I just couldn't resist it.

I guess that what i love so much about Cambodia, especially Seam Reap. It just seems so nice and slow and carefree. And in this pic, there seems to be little segregation between the locals and the tourist areas. The beauty of Angkor Wat would definitely not be the same without all that greenary surrounding it. It is rare to find a city still kept in its natural conditions, i.e. no city background etc. I'm just glad that I managed to be there at that time to see Seam Reap in this light as from what i've heard, such calm and serenity is somewhat lost with crowds of tourists during the peak season. I really hope to go back soon as I barely covered the area.

First day of school

School has finally started for us SMU students, so no more doing nothin but slacking at home or dancing.

I realised that after having a 4 month long holiday, going to school on the first day of the term somehow feels like the first day of my freshmen year. Sporting a slight cough and sniffing the whole day, it really reminded me of my first day 2 years ago. It puts you in a non-conversational mood, which isn't really good for a first day. Walking towards school this morning, I barely recognise the people around me. Unlike last year, where you walk a few steps and you end up meeting someone you know . The whole of today, I easily did not recognise more than half of the students I saw, making me feel even more out of place. I suppose that's inevitable; The campus has grown bigger, the junior cohort has grown in numbers, many of the seniors that you are familiar have graduated and many from my own batch are on exchange overseas.
This is when you realise that you are an oldie, not some lost freshmen. A third year. The point of time you start thinking of ways to graduate with decent grades instead of finding ways to get more involved in school. You would no longer gonna be excused for the little mistakes you make, and more is expected out of you. Crap. Time to grow up.

i love the rain. i love the rain.. i love the rain!!!
I LUURRRRVVVEEE the rain!
Room door is wide open, the smell of rain and the wind just blowing right into my room..
making my little heart dance with joy.
pitter patter.. i can't ask for more :)

Changes

Ack. 2 more weeks to school.
What happened to the holidays??!!!!
Just disappeared into thin air. It's so easy for the days to just go by like that. And it ain't as if i'm doing something really fruitful. Rummage was at least an experience. Right now, I'm doing convocation. and it's bloody hell wasting my time! grrrr... patience. I expected this but..well. nvm.

Changes. Like everytime before a new year, or in this case, a new school term, I like to make changes around me. Call it a gemini charateristic or something, but yes, sometimes i do get bored when I'm stuck with the same thing after a while. But I guess it's the same with most people, change helps to make things more interesting, at least it wouldn't feel as if we're mundane and boring creatures :) Yet at the same time, I'm quite a traditional person. Sometimes I prefer things simple and in the old ways. I do prefer VCRs to DVDs at times, paper and pencil over the lappy most times, brochures over the internet etc, and oh! chess must be played with chess pieces (unless the computer version has real fight scenes when you eat other pieces up) .

Okay. as usual, I'm digressing. (now you know why it takes a zillion years for me to do an assignment, and can't write a GP essay that doesn't go out of point). Sooo... anyway. I'm into this whole CHANGE thingy, cuz i'm happy that my room is mildly revamped! What a wonder a small little rearrangement can do. My radio is now on my table, i got a corner for my watches in my side shelf and my thousand and one knick knacks are on the shelf now. i.e. my table is A LOT neater, my laptaop adaptor no longer has to be strapped across my bed when i use it, and i no longer have decomposing roses on display. And obviously the happiest person from this is my mum. She's been bugging me like forever. heh. Now i just have to find the mood, materials and a creative mood to kick in so that i can neaten up my corkboard and make it more useful.

2nd change. My mum, sis and I went to make new glasses! Daddy wanted to too.. but the funky glasses doesn't suit him. He looks best in his frameless ones now. Anyway, Greeeeennnn is the colour for moi! No longer the silly purple thingy that gives me a headache because my lenses is of a degree that is too high for me.

3rd change. Still pending. my hair. Somebody please give me advice. (okay, i know this sounds alittle bimbotic but i can't decide) Should i cut it short short? shoulder length? or leave it cuz the curls are still daaaaammmmnnnn nice and i will never ever have the patience to keep it so long again. Pls comment! heh. shameless me.