The Art House

I've always loved this place and been waiting for a chance to watch a performance there. I recently got the opportunity - LADC graduating scholars did a showcase over there and it was awesome. Enjoyed myself tremendously.

The Art House is still as great as ever... with displays of little snippets of old Singapore. The pics here don't do any justice but would recommend it as a nice little place to tour when free. I have to admit that being there again brought back some memories but i guess some stuff are inevitable.

As you can tell.. it was raining after the show... but it was nice rain. (yes... me and my rain moments).. but i think this was one of my nicest rain moments :P I walked barefoot from the Art House to Raffles MRT cuz I had horrible flip flops.. it was fun! haha. but we still got wet lah.

Anyway.. this post is technically WAY overdue..I was internet-less for one whole week.. it's absolutely depressing. Anyway, the result of that is that I FINALLY changed to singnet broadband from pacific internet cuz well simply put, i needed a new modem and it's erm.. half the price for twice the speed. yes yes.. silly me. Hopefully this will put an end to my 3 year? continuous internet problems...

I'm stuck at work doing nothing cuz both my supervisors are not around and thus have no work to do.
Well.. technically i still have stuff outstanding, but require clarification from people who are not around :S
i am officially bored.

Kinda thankful that my mum's dept is having a christmas lunch later. Can crash! hee... and there will be really good food.. so how can i resist?

I had a really wonderful day yesterday. Had training in the morning, and I tried being a "guy" (just the casino bit). And I am aching a little cuz I had to hold a stronger frame yesterday. so pathetic right? But it was really fun.. i love trainings. and i really really like the dance studio in the cca room. The day was made more perfect as finally, after so long, zm had dinner at my place and everything went smoothly. I guess that really means a lot to me cuz i'm just happy that he finally managed to spend some time with my parents... peacefully. It's been something that I want for a very very long time. My mum made the effort to cook really great food last night even though she was injured.. and zm and i just pretty much gobbled everything up. He will be coming for dinner this sat again for tang yuan and christmas eve. haha.. 3 times a week after so long! a bit overdose but wth. :P

We also connected my 8 year old speaker to our new study area and amazingly it's working despite its pretty dirty looking state. I essentially created a nice area for me to watch all my videos and animes just across my room! yippee!! *grins*

ok. i shall now try and find work for myself to do. sigh.
looking forward to my one week leave! heh.

manda. alina. slumber slumber k?

no mood to blog! i so need to try and fix my vista settings.... nothing ever loads properly and that's depressing. Anybody a vista expert? lazy to play ard with my com. haha.

Anyway, i've starting my internship at Philips doing HR. lol. indecisive me.
It's HR, but i kinda enjoy it. the peeps there are no where near my age but they're nice, and i get quite a bit of freedom. I suppose it's a nice holiday internship.

i miss dancing. caderas peeps are like going union like crazy but i can't :( pout pout.

manda is leaving in less than a month's time to France! will so miss her... think i'm going to be really lonely in school next term... :(

dear all,

i have wonderfully lost my phone AGAIN. yesh AGAIN? HOW? i left it in the toilet AGAIN. and it disappeared within 15mins. lots of f-ing dishonest people in Singapore unfortunately. seriously. sometimes i wonder why i need to be so nice.

pls text me your number again unless ya sure i memorized your number by heart.

A nice day + misc

I realised that it's been a while since I heard my dad laugh. It's not because he's not happy.. as in.. he has always been cheeky and i do always see him smile, but not really laugh? like tickled by something kind of laugh? Maybe cause I'm hardly around him, except when he sends me to school or back home, which usually only involve small talk or news here and there. Well, i heard him laugh today, and it felt good. :) It was just cuz he was watching scooby doo 2, I guess somewhere inside him, he is still a kid who appreciates simple humour. It was really nice.

My sis called me from hawaii today and we did talk for quite a while. :) I was pleasantly surprised cuz phone bill very expensive... but maybe she spend too many days with hubby already, need other people to communicate with. hee. She asked me whether i wanted anything from there or Tokyo (fyi, she's on her honeymoon). So nice to have an elder sis right? heh. Anyway, glad she's having a good time.

I did my first photoshoot today. well.. not much of a photoshoot, just went around taking photos for my VDM project. Tiring work I must say, but it was an enjoyable group to work with.

Purchase of the day: Stikfas!! so excited! they were selling it for $2 for the really really basic pack at the flea market in school. I bought one red and one yellow, plus one bigger set. I hope bf likes it too... *grins* So excited! Sometimes i wonder whether i was born a girl. haha... must be all the LEGO upbringing...

i want to buy an MP3. ren bu zu le! Thinking of the Creative Zen.. Pretty nice... enough to excite me but not too expensive? Still ex... that's why still considering :(
Any other MP3 player recommendations?

I wish i can dance better. it's really quite depressing. I amire Esther's determination... wish i can be determined as her. but i'm so easily demoralised these days. :( I'm FINALLY learning a new routine, we are doing a salsa-hiphop routine. haha. All the seniors just lack the groove lah. regrests not taking proper hip hop classes. I want the groove too! I'm so soft now.. gonna need lots of practice. help buddy!!! hahah.

having work overload now. well.. technically it's not really overload? just that i do reports REALLY SLOWLY. it's quite depressing. can't seem to collect my thoughts properly, feel as if i'm back in JC staring at my GP essay questions during exam and only start writing like half hour after the exam has started cuz i just can't start? The points are there, i just can't start and connect the dots. Frustrating.

SBM Fun Fact 2: Why Reebok failed

This TV advertisment was part of one of Reebok's marketing campaign called UBU (1989 to 1992). It is fun entertainment but definitely not an image any normal consumer would want to associate with. In fact, i do kinda find it freaky weird. What were they thinking?

SBM lesson fun fact

Do you know that Facebook had a growth of 2424% in 2006?
And considering that many of my friends only joined facebook this year, I'm quite sure the rates are still super high. the wonders of digital media...

Thanks Twin!

my bro and his sleepy eyes. heh. he blames it on the flash.

Rouge bar counter. Our first ever clubbing session together was here long long time ago. Now it is more like a chill-out place. The good thing is that it wasn't crowded.. so we could chat and catch-up :) Great DJ, and great band with 3 vocalists. Perfect solution to my not-so-great day.

French Beer! had it the first time when I was in Paris. Bit gas-ey but not too bad :)

Sister's "Hen Night"

during the mid-term break, my sis had her 'hen night'. It included a wonderful japanese dinner near Corpthorne Hotel, mambo @ zouk, a night stay at Swissotel Hotel, and of course R&R session at the hotel pool the next day. I had class on thursday morning and didn't join the R&R session, but it really felt great waking up at 8.30am (instead of 7.30am) and walking to school for a 9am class. lol. jealous? After class, went back to the hotel and studied a bit by the hotel pool and had a clean bath b4 my meeting. Too bad i'm not paris hilton or something, would probably propose to stay in swissotel for the rest of my school days. haha.

Well.. all i can say is that the hotel was GREAT! i didn't have such a fantastic impression the last time i was there (Amanda's birthday). But this time, with the perfect view (think we got the best view possible) and a bigger room, it was really quite an experience. It was like a pampering session. heh.

Mambo was interesting. After all, how often do I get to club with a bunch of 28 (plus minus) year old people! They definitely did enjoy the mambo music. My sister is already beginning to feel her age and didn't really last the whole night. heh. But she did get picked up! by a guy with the most horrendous pick up line though.

As a whole, it was a cool experience, hope my sis did enjoy herself despite the initial stress :)

Sis's hen night pics from Swissotel room

how i'm feeling right now

Facebook's Little Treats

As we all know, Facebook is currently the latest craze around, even our Profs and parents are beginning to use Facebook. (which is a funky yet scary thought). Although I've been holding on to a Facebook account since god knows when, I only started using it during my exchange because a) it was easier to post photos b) it the was the common medium used among the students, whether you are from Hong Kong, Switzerland, Canada, or Argentina. And only from last week, I finally started addressing that whole long list of invites on the right side of my homepage. It was kinda scary how it kept getting longer and longer as more and more programs get introduced to Facebook. I used to think that it was a list of stupid and complicating programs, and was wondering why my friends were spamming me. But as I started to explore the extensive list, I realised that I was getting addicted to these little ingenious add-ons!

In the last week, I started buying people drinks and pastries, decorating other peeps rooms (and working on mine), played pac man, and adopted a fluffy white tiger (which I haven’t figured out what I’m supposed to do with it. Lol)
I seriously think that by introducing these interactive little programs, Facebook has successfully evolved from the Friendster era. It’s not just a platform to connect people, but enables us to interact and shower bits and pieces of love to others. After all, there is no denying that it’s difficult to meet all our friends during school term, doesn’t mean we cease all contact.  I just wish that they allow me to mass reject invites though… there is only ‘this’ amount of add-ons I need on my Facebook.

Mondays

I think I have a love-hate relationship with Mondays this semester.

On the down side, my Mondays are my longest days. I start school at 8.30am and have a second class from 3.30pm to 8pm. Between classes, it is usually filled up with meetings. So essentially, I can vote it as my longest day in my whole SMU life.

On the up side, the company is great. I spent my Mondays (8.30am to 3.30pm) with my SP groupmates: 3 year three boyos who have been doing projects together. They make the lesson and the meetings erm.. entertaining… with crap talking and jokes. Vf is the head crap talker, and tk is the backup crapper who sides vf cuz he know he will lose the battle if he takes his own stand :P. wj is often on neutral ground, sometimes on their side, sometimes a receiver of their jokes too. I seem to be always on the losing end, though I try my best to hold my ground… the rest just goes right past me. I think my ignoring skills have improved 

Although I have to admit that at times hanging out with them is rather draining (considering that I tend to have very little energy in me in the first place. My ‘energizer’ battery only functions up to Week 2 of school term now), I still do enjoy it.

Last Monday, I had two virgin experiences. One was my virgin non-caderas related Frujch experience. The library is soooooo dammmmnn crowded on Monday afternoons that Frujch might just become my new hiding spot. Had a Chocomint milkshake which did a pretty decent job on brightening my Monday. 

The second virgin experience was me finally doing my own design using Photoshop/InDesign for my VDM (Visual Design in Marketing)assignment. I’m sooooo proud of myself. LOL. Really! VDM classes usually work like this: Prof will first start class late, he then teaches for about 15 mins to half hour about some concepts of design. For the rest of the class, we are grouped randomly to do the assignment for the day. The practical assignments are a really good idea, but it is ABSOLUTELY DEPRESSING when you DO NOT know how to use Photoshop! (My OS system dieded so I did not have my lappie with me for several lessons). And considering the time limit and a missing lappie, I never got the chance to get hands-on experience. Last week was an exception cuz the assignment was pretty much an individual assignment….and I’m just so proud of myself! Haha. I know.. a bit bhb, but I suppose I finally learnt a tweeny bit of photoshop? It’s far from fantastic. but nonetheless a stepping stone? And I think I get a high from using Photoshop.

we were supposed to do a taxi/bus ad for a retail store at 'wangs', which is essentially angs. As i said, doesn't look great, but made do with what i have? heh.

There is something wrong with my blogger settings.. especially the dashboard. It's like it lost all it's formatting and left with the practical aspects of it only. Is it just me? or any of you facing it too?

testin :)

I'm super duper tired. SOOOooo not used to school life at SMU. Not to mention that i have decided to equip myself with three 8.30am classes a week. I have to admit that life in St Gallen has spoilt me terribly :(

Anyway, i'm stuck in my project management class right now.... which is soooooo not effective. I've tried paying attention out of respect to the prof, but seriously, he's not teaching anything!!! I'm quite sure all of us can learn more by spending this time reading the textbook rather than sitting in his class. It's kinda frustrating, considering how i had high expectations for this course. Project Management is a lot about application, but this guy, even though he's still in the working world, teaches us as if we're either in Year 1 or perhaps even JC. growls.

So while i'm struggling to survive in this class, shall share with you the only 5 decent pics i manage to get at Night Safari last Saturday, without a tripod. it's kinda pathetic, but considering that i didn't manage to get even one pic the last time i was there, I suppose it's an improvement. haha.

Check out the highlighted abs. haha

Leopard spots

All in all, it was an enjoyable evening. It was pretty quiet and a good evening stroll. I love acting tourist with zm right now. haha. I suppose we're just trying to relive our europe days? heh :)

Note to those who feel like going Night Safari soon! They are having 50% off entrance fee for POSB card or starhubs bill :P

it feels as though i just lost a friend
but i really hope that's not true.

My HP com has dieded

Hi. I received the HP Pavilion Tablet on 22 August 2007 (less than two weeks ago) and I am very unsatisfied with the product. It has been very unreliable, despite it being a new laptop.

First of all, I ordered the product via the student promotion for various reasons: good price, reasonable reviews and a delivery date of 13 August, which was before the start of the school term. Unfortunately, there was a delay in shipment and I was only able to collect it from 20 August. This nonetheless has interfered with my school term and brought me inconvenience as I had to borrow a laptop from a friend for a time being.

Worst of all, I have been experiencing a lot of problems with it. This includes sudden closure of my applications such as Windows Media Player, Windows unable to start (but did after I off and on the laptop again), the blue screen popped up once during usage and also sometimes long loading or shutting down time. There was once where I waited for the laptop for about 15 minutes to shut down but it didn’t. The screen was black but the laptop was still running (with the button lights still on). There have also been requests for the system to check one of the disks for consistency. I don’t know whether this is a problem with the Vista interface or perhaps the compatibility of your product with Windows Vista or the product itself.

Currently, I am unable to start Windows. Upon switching on the laptop, I face a screen which tells me that Windows is unable to launch. I have tried the Startup Repairs a couple of times, but it does not work. I called your HP Customer Careline today and requested for a pickup. They say that they can only pick it up tomorrow and it will take about 7 to 9 days for me to get it back.

I have no choice but to use my more than 3 years old IBM laptop to support this uncalled for interim period. It’s really a big disappointment after switching to buying HP upon hearing good comments of your products from my mum who is a HP user. Another reason for my this purchase was the reputable customer support. Is it true?? I hope so … I would therefore urge your organisation to look into my problems urgently since this is my final year in the university.

Looking forward to my “brand new” laptop back with all problems rectified soonest possible to facilitate all my pending projects.

Thank You.

-letter written by me, edited by mum-

School starts tomorrow!!!!

@ 8.30am!

so screwed lah... dunno whether i can get up or not. haha. First day of school... still seems scary even though i'm forth year. How pathetic right? oh wells...

first week of school doesn't look that positive to me... like I never had to do so many things in a week for some time! Sigh.. the hazards of exchange. It took me lots of courage to walk into my parents room just now to tell my mum that I won't be home from Monday to Friday for dinner cuz of dance. I'm quite sure that's a record breaker. It's amazing that i managed to walk out of the room without mishaps. heh.

Was looking through my course outlines yesterday and it looks so damn heavy! My st gallen mods look absolutely puny compared to these... help! Oh well.. hope i can handle it! I've been too spoilt for the past 8 months. lol.

Year 4.. feel like an oldie. one more year of school to enjoy :)

new skin... again

yup yup.. i know.. look as if i got a lot of time again :S
think white-based skins still suits me better...well.. at least i can post bigger pics now! heh.
anybody by chance know how to add 'comment' links to the posts?

Happy National Day!! heh. i'm tempted to wear red and white today after seeing loads of school children doing so yesterday. maybe i should :) Anyway, planning to catch the fireworks later.. hope it's possible... heard its good.. and i must say that i fell in love with them ever since 2005's NDP. zm's trying hard to find a good spot. *hugs*

i had prata at jalan kayu with my parents yesterday and since it was an eve of public holiday, we had to wait like 45 mins for our prata to come. I suspect they ran out of dough or something. :S Our drinks didn't even come so eventually I went to get them myself. haha. I suppose there's nothing different about the crowd at kayu... groups of peeps my age or older hanging out and families with kids in pajamas. But what I really can't get out of my head is seeing an Indian foreign worker who walked past the place wearing a singlet with the words "Track & Field C.H.I.J" at the back of it! It's just weird!!! I know I have passed some of my IJ tennis shirts to my maid to send back to the Philippines and it's likely that some guy is wearing them (cuz most of our tennis tops then were guy cut), but that's not so weird if our school isn't there right? oh well...

I bought a new lappie! well.. not really.. just paid the deposit cuz it's not in stock yet. just hope it comes soon. I dunno about you guys, but my ibm has become really really slow!!! It managed to survive St Gallen's pace of life during the past term, but i really doubt it can here. i have no idea why it's so jialat, but my mum and sis got frustrated using it and thus i got the budget and approval to look for another one! heh. I'm just glad i managed to find a cheap deal: $1499 cuz of some student promotion. The perks of being a student :) ..... one more year to enjoy it!

I was at first considering the macbook student promo (especially since i just lost my 1 year old ipod *grumble*) but i suppose this lappie offered a price and specs that i couldn't resist. Not to mention that i'm only gonna use it for another year and probably gonna be a spare home computer so it has to be one that everybody can use. so anyway.. yippee!

Moving on.. had a great dinner with my parents recently, grilled western food! It was in our garden with nice cool breeze. Sometimes i really do love my home environment - I think it's the perfect cosy restaurant. Was joking with my parents that we should start a one table per night dinner restaurant at our place, no need to pay rental. heh.

Menu: salad, grilled prawns and chicken, nice warm soft and crunchy bread, red wine..... and ended off with ice cream and peppermint tea! all in the comforts of my home... jealous? hee

About today...
nothin much actually, just went for dance... and i really lack stamina. Was kinda panting just after one run through.. pathetic. Not really sure whether I'll be performing the item though.. things seem to be a bit messy, but i'm just glad to be back dancing. I can't help wishing that i've been around to learn or the new items with the rest of the girls.. but we can't have everything right? At least this is a lot less stressful. heh.

Zhimin and I bumped into 2 students from St Gallen today. Kinda cool, especially since both of them were my classmates last term. zm says that somehow he feels 'more at home' after seeing them and misses the german accent. lol. aiyoh... that boy is ready to migrate there already. I suppose it's true to a certain extent... glad to see them.. but home is home. :P Anyway, pity the exchange students coming this term. Housing rental is sooooo high now.... definitely affect budget. They got a river valley apartment for $2600 a month I think. I'm quite sure it was probably $2000 or less for last term's students. Then again, that probably won't really affect students coming from Europe in general.. just the Asian students. tsk tsk... unfair world :P

heh. it's 1.38am and i'm spending my time playing simple pretty games. I'm pretty bad at it though. but it's so pretty!!!! heee. this one is called winterbells.
okay. i know.. it's girl thing :) but bf is playing it too :P
but for those who are bored at internship or sth, no harm having some pleasant fun :)
http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/

this was taken on the same day but the rain started forming from the afternoon. after seeing this, i could really picture how rain just spreads out from the mountain regions all the way to the sea. Well.. watching Planet Earth helped too :) I honestly think that this is the most gorgeous and scariest rain I've seen. Just look at how the clouds form!!

swiss army knifes. cool right?

this is pretty much a waterfall in the mountain/cliff. I think that at times it looks like a huge toilet bowl with the water flushing down. heh. in a way, it doesn't look that impressive, but the impact of rushing water in an enclosed area is pretty poweful.

landing!

Hotel Staubbach


morning walk

my little japanese mum (she's really proud of her japanese-made umbrella)

wish i can do that

cows!!!! and cowbells :P

candid shot by sis

the Lauterbrunnen Valley. there are 72 waterfalls that lead to this valley. gorgeous right?

Staubbach Falls. Waterfall just outside my hotel.