回到现实。。。

11th Feb-  met up with realreal and silvana for dinner at bishan junction 8... and of course realreal is pregnant, and due in april!!! and it's a baby girl :) had subway for dinner whilst waiting for silvana... and then realreal left shortly after silvana arrived cos she was not feeling well, and silvana and I went to hunt for ice cream and chatted for quite a while... 

12th Feb- went for a haircut at boon keng station... and it felt weird to have a male hairdresser actually, touching and washing my hair... after that, went to fetch mum at work, and we went to IMM for dinner, and I had roti prata, which was really nice and fresh yummy! and sundae after... and then papa gave me a lift to buona vista where I met up with jo, huimin and fran for karaoke again at NTU... all of us agreed that 2 hours definitely not enough, we were pretty much rushing through the songs and only singing a few lines towards the end... and after sat outside and chatted for awhile... 

13th Feb- finally took a bus down to far east plaza to do some shopping, bought myself some new tops, and a bag at wisma isetan... wanted to eat long john silvers but did not manage to find an outlet eventually... met up with mum for dinner at macdonalds double fillet-o-fish yummy! and iced lemon tea! at great world city, and shopped alittle whilst waiting for dinner with Mel... went to shop at Zara, and they were having a sale, and there were quite a few nice tops, went to try them on and some I could not even fit my head through... that's how disgustingly small the sizes were :( finally met up with Mel for dinner at this gourmet pizza place, and she was still the same, pretty much spent the whole night complaining of her poor work life balance, and not having a life... although it seems like June will be a busy month but hopefully fun month as well, cos Jo, Huimin, Fran and Mel are all coming to visit that month... yay!!!

14th Feb- day of my leaving :( went out for lunch with uncle jeffrey at city square mall, decided to have lunch at seoul garden... not nice, and it definitely did not help that my stupid period decided to reappear on the day that I am leaving, sense of deja vu anyone???!!! and so I was going to the toilet multiple times, and the stupid toilet at city square mall actually regurgitated when I tried to flush and all the water spilled onto the floor... thank god it was clean water, otherwise it will not be pretty! after that, papa and I caught a bus down to orchard central for coldstone ice cream... walked around the shops there, the thing is... they have some very unique clothing stores there, but all out of my affordability range... after that, we caught a bus home, and went for dinner with mum at Nex... as expected it was so crowded, probably becos it was valentines day... i finally got to eat long john silvers, and it was such a disappointment... just did not taste nice... shopped around for abit as well... and then went home to watch some movies to pass the time... watched the wolverine movie, not very nice actually, and then moved on to this jackie chan police movie, and I fell asleep about 1/4 into the show... oh and received an email in the afternoon saying that my flight was delayed for 2 hours hence we left the house at approx 0130, and then when we were on the way to the airport, received another email saying that the flight was further delayed by an hour, but there was no way we could have turned around to go home, so we ended up checking in really early, had macdonalds again for supper, and just sat around the airport... finally it was time to say goodbye, felt really stoned, and did not realise that I should not fill my water bottle prior to checking into the waiting lounge, hence I ended up having to finish a whole bottle of water... and having to go to the toilet approx 10 times in the first few hours of the flight... and to make things worse, there was a medical emergency mid flight, and they were calling for any medical personnel... and then received an annoucement saying that the plane had to be re-routed to Perth to unload this passenger for medical treatment... so we landed in Perth, but not allowed to get out of the plane, not even allowed to stand up and stretch really... and we were there for almost an hour before taking off again for Sydney... and so by the time I finally landed I had probably spent approx 12 hours flying... could not really sleep well either cos of the general airsickness (although I did not take the ginger tablets cos I was so bloated from all that water), and this stupid person in front of me again tilting his chair so far backwards, and having a person sit next to me... and occasional turbulence... finally arrived in Sydney at approx 2000 on sat night, had to queue up for quite awhile at customs, but thank god I went straight through quarantine... so finally got back home, showered and had a good sleep... unpacked the following day, went for dinner with auntie and them at this chinese restaurant at chatswood which was not very nice at all... and it's back to work :(

1st day back at work... of course everyone who knew I was on leave started asking abt my hols, how was it, how does it feel to be back etc... and apparently found out through Kara, that during the 3 weeks I was away, MRT only had like 1 pt a week, man that would kill me... the new PT Rachel seemed ok, but probably alittle inexperienced? John stayed for another 6 months, which is good and that he would be solely looking after MRT pts in addition to supervising the new regs, and clinics... 2 new grads started in the acute office, and Andrew moved to rehab to help out... wonder what's going to happen in rehab when nicole goes off on maternity leave in march?? Rennie actually scared me when he msged me saying that I would have to do lymphoedema... which got me thinking that I might have to go back to cancercare to cover for Kate when she leaves, no freaking way!!! I will resign if I have to wait with the evil person for another day :( did not get to see you know who until wednesday when it was pouring so heavily in the afternoon, waved at a distance, and the following morning, but yet to speak...  its not avoidance is it??? what did I do?? so now, survived the first week back at work, and truly it felt like I have always been at work, what holidays??!!! I am already looking forward to easter and June and our planned roadtrip...

WisH tiME Would StoP...

5th Feb- did not do much during the day, went to meet up with jo and fran at tanjong pagar to 'jog' to gardens by the bay... ok it was far, but they jogged slowly becos of me and by 3/4 of the way, I was already walking and breathless... although I have to say, there were quite alot of people also jogging along there, the scenery is really nice, especially at night... so we finally arrived at satay by the bay, where we had satay of  course and chai tau kuey for dinner... before walking back to tanjong pagar, had a little pitstop at the children's playground and it was really nice there, there was a water feature and reclining seats and music... jo's workplace is really nice too, with nice clean toilets and shower facilities... so we had a quick shower and jo's sister gave me a lift home after... 

6th Feb- the curse of eating all the good and heaty food... woke up with a brewing sore throat and runny nose... and today was the day that huimin and I were going to the aquarium... decided to go ahead cos we already bought the tickets... met up with huimin at harbourfront, where we caught a bus into resorts world, and from there, walked to the aquarium... the whole place was swarming with china tourists and playing CNY music in the background... the aquarium was really nice, my fav would definitely be the ocean viewing aquarium... huimin and I sat there taking pics and getting excited by all the different fishes... and there was also a little pond where you could touch the smaller fishes... an amusing dialogue I heard between the staff member and a china tourist was- (in mandarin) tourist- eh can we take the fish out?? staff- of course not, this is not a market! haha... huimin kept calling the tourists 'ah tiongs" and they were really annoying at times actually, blocking the exhibits for so long... after that, we had dinner at macdonalds and finally got to try the new nacho cheese fillet o fish... I still preferred the original one and said the same to huimin... by then, my cold was gradually worsening, we decided to take the boardwalk back to vivocity, and it was actually quite a nice and 'romantic' walk back becos of the lights along the way... huimin and I took alot of pics that day :) but unfortunately, bcos I was progressively becoming more blocked in the nose and coughing and sneezing every 10mins... I decided to cancel the dinner with the girls on friday...

7th Feb- however, despite saying that though, as papa says, sometimes you have to "以毒攻毒“。。。 which was what I did by having prata for breakfast in the morning... !!!! so we went to henderson for prata, and unfortunately I did not order fresh ones, and the lady mixed up the orders hence I ended up eating some egg pratas which were not nice at all... and then at night, went to meet up with mum at wisma to buy pongie's dress, and then took a slow walk to orchard central (nothing much there, and compared to the other shopping malls, it's really quiet), and then to PS, where we had swensens (yummy!!!) I got to eat both the 49ers and fish and chips and the choc malt ice cream! and we bought alot and I mean ALOT of disposable panties from John Little... and also bought myself a wallet from charles and keith finally! actually preferred the white and silver one but knew that it would become dirty really quickly so settled from a red one... 

8th Feb- river safari day trip with huimin and fran... thank goodness we got there early, and managed to get tickets to the first boat ride... and even being really early, there were already alot of people there, both locals and tourists... the boatride was nothing fantastic and it was really short like 10mins... and if you missed out on the animals, there was no way to go back and see them again...  and most of them were like ether hiding or sleeping somewhere hidden... after that, we toured around the place, it was not very big, but there were already massive crowds everywhere, and the queues for the panda and boatride was so long, we were like thank goodness we were early and we actually went the opposite way in the panda enclosure  accidentally, and only realised that when we saw the long queues outside... and it was sooo hot and humid that day... my fav one was probably the dugongs, we spent quite some time in there, partly also becos it was air conditioned... after that, caught the bus back to choa chu kang where we had macdonalds for lunch again, this time we had the double fillet o fish... yummy! and after that we just shopped around and then home... and then had a short nap, before it was the buffet dinner downstairs, and uncle david and jeffrey came along for the dinner as well... nothing was nice actually... and there was no ice cream this year :(

9th Feb- went to pasir ris to meet up with 8th uncle for breakfast, it was meant to be my treat, but of course, he paid for everything... felt like a pig after, ate prata, mang zhang kuey, hum jin bang, and drank milo... after that, went to Giant supermarket to look for a weighing machine... and after that papa dropped us off at pasir ris shopping centre, where we walked for abit and then took a train to aljunied to visit the temple there, it was sooo hot and sweaty again... and becos I ate so much during breakfast, my tummy suddenly ached so badly that I had to pause mid praying to go to the toilet... thank goodness the toilet was relatively clean in the temple...  after that, came back home and had dinner at home that night... 

10th Feb- stayed at home during the day, and found a website which could DL movies, which also has some korean dramas... skyped a little while with nainai, and prisy, and then caught a train to tiong bahru to walk for abit, did not find any nice clothing, but bought the hairband and some pimple cream, and for some reason, there is a greater variety of pimple cream here as compared to sydney, and finally ate my tutu... had to resort to holding the tutu with one hand and taking a pic with the other hand all whilst standing in a corner... and then caught a train to buona vista to meet with siti and veena... and of course, they were not aware that my phone does not have internet outside, so apparently they have been trying to whatsapp me, and all the while I was waiting at the station for them... so in the end, after approx waiting 30mins, I rang siti and found out that they were also waiting and trying to whatsapp me... so in the end, our dinner was cold, we were late for ktv, and had to climb all the way up to this NTU building on a small hill where the ktv was... the room was quite small but the price was quite reasonable if you are with a big group... so we were mostly singing english songs that night, and there were alot of weirdass songs out there which I did not even hear before... so we actually stayed there for approx 2 hours and then siti wanted to introduce us to her husband so we met up with him at the station... and then reminisced about NJC for awhile... well... it was nice to look back and laugh about that 2 years in my life but still think that other than the friendships, those 2 years were a total waste of my life and time...

DoEs AbsenCE maKEs the HeARt GrOW FondEr?

31st Jan- CNY, visitng uncle david's house first, met up with all the relatives and cousins and cousin-in-laws whom I have not met... had lunch which included pizza, satay and luckily mum fried some noodles cos I did not really like the pizza and satay... did not get to stay long at uncle david's place cos papa wanted to go ah ma's house for the next round of festivities... all I can say is most of the cousins and uncles and aunties looked like they have lost some weight, and the 2 new members to the family seemed nice... next up was ah ma's house, which as always, was boring, cos I don't really talk to them ever... and the food was not great either, and the fact that ah ma's house is quite small and hot, made it worse... all I can say is that thank goodness I only see them as and when I am here during CNY otherwise they are not people whom I would want to get to know, except for ah ma of course, and 8th uncle... after that, went to the temple to pray and visit 爷爷。。。 and then after that, came back home and uncle patrick and family were already here... purposely left the door to the room closed hoping that they would get the hint not to come in but of course not... anyway, it's exhausting despite not having to help out with the cooking but the cleaning up and having to entertain is tiring in itself... no wonder pongie does not like this part of the day... anyway uncle david and family came a little later, but not close to the cousins there as well... so by the time dinner was completed and the last of the relatives left and cleaning up, it was already quite late... and we were all exhausted... 

1st Feb- had this crazy idea to go visit the river hongbao that day... so mum and I took a train down to the esplanade first and it was soo hot that day, and there were quite a few people there at the river hongbao already... not that great actually... and after that we got lost trying to find the bridge linking to the gardens by the bay, eventually got there, and we were starving, initially thought we could have lunch at the marina bay sands foodcourt but it was packed, so no choice in the end ended up eating burgers at gardens by the bay, expensive and not very nice... should not have ordered the milkshake, I drank most of it and ended up feeling so bloated... and then after lunch, I thought I could finally go and see the conservatory, but of course  not, there was a long queue at the ticketing counter when we got there... it was so disgusting... in the end, we sat for awhile and decided to head home... 

2nd Feb- went to macritichie reservoir in the morning for a walk, and it was already quite croweded when we got there... after that, decided to go check out the nasi lemak place that came to the singapore day in sydney, and of course, got there and there was already a queue... ended up waiting for approx 30mins and we finished the meal in approx 5mins... and that's with taking pics in between... the rice and chilli is probably the only things that stood out, otherwise everything else was the same... but of course, singaporeans being singaporeans there was an even longer queue when we were leaving... decided to go chomp chomp for dinner and we ordered stingray, satay... hmmm, both were not the best... but it was not very crowded cos only a few stalls were open that day... and after that, papa suggested that we go to the raffles town club for a free movie, and we ended up watching wrath of the titans... it was alright, probably not a movie which I would pay to watch though... 

3rd Feb- went to bukit merah central again for breakfast, had nasi lemak, ok it really was no longer as nice as last time... met up with wanjin for a movie called the monkey king, I thought it was alright, there was a few funny parts, but alot of CGI of course, had lunch together before that, I ordered the 鱼片米粉... not nice... but I did manage to eat famous amos cookies... after that met up with mum and papa, walked around for abit, went to taka and wisma, bought a dress at dorothy perkins for pongie, and had another dress brought over from another outlet cos they did not have her size in this outlet... and then went for dinner at marche at 313... it was quite crowded both at the movies and at orchard in general... we were all not very hungry, so we just shared 1 pizza and 1 drink... it was alright, nothing fantastic actually... after that went to visit the really high class and new robinsons, all the clothing were at least $100 and above, and that's after discount... nothing that I could afford actually... 

4th Feb- went to walk in the morning at macritichie again, and then went to whampoa for breakfast, this time I had mang zang kueh and soya bean... and also got to buy my butter bread... after that, uncle jeffrey rang and invited me for lunch at nex... walked around for abit and ended up eating korean food at the foodcourt, again not very nice... and not authentic, it's all chinese cooking... after that, walked around the place again and we had baskin and robbins ice cream, which had the same flavours... and after that, uncle jeffrey dropped me at aljunied mrt, and I took a train down to bugis village to buy the caps for pongie and xtine... and then took a train to jurong east to meet up with siti and veena... siti suggested that we eat at this restaurant called paul, it's more a pastry restaurant , and I ended up eating dessert cos did not like any of the mains and it was quite expensive... and the 3 of us ended up also eating dessert, and then deciding to eat at macdonalds... so siti still looks and acts the same even though she is now a married lady... veena has lost weight but she is still the same too... we were debating when the last time we met up was, and we could not remember... and now I realised after looking through facebook (one of the better uses of facebook), that we have not seen each other since 2010, wow that's like 4 years ago... time really flies :(

was debating on whether to download the korean show the prime minister and I... cos initially after reading the recaps, it seemed promising even though I was initially against the pairing of yoona and lee bum soo... and then it was the last episode yesterday, and after reading the comments of the ending from netizens... not quite that keen anymore in watching the show... so probably now waiting for the kim soo hyun show to finish... 

新年快乐。。。 龙马精神。。。 心想事成。。。HUAT AH!

1st post for Feb 2014... Welcome to the Year of the Horse :)

24th Jan- day of my flight home... not a good day all in all, starting from the the morning, suay suay it was the heaviest period flow day, and my luggage was overweight for some reason even though there were not much stuff in it, except the cheese, ham and uncle's moisturiser and wine... in the end, had to stand aside and start repacking the luggage... and the flight back on Scoot was not the best, some turbulence, the smells of the food that people were eating were all making me want to puke... and the long flight... in the end, when I finally arrived at Changi airport, had a headache and still feeling pukey, even after eating the fishball noodle that I was looking forward to... finally arrived home, unpacked and slept... unfortunately, jetlag combined with 时差... resulted in me waking up at 0400... it was actually quite windy and cool the first few days and then the heat returned :(

25th Jan- went to Redhill market to eat my long awaited chee cheong fun... the stall, auntie and uncle still looks the same, the market still looks the same, except being so crowded due to CNY... the coffeeshop did expand a little though... my chee cheong fun still looks and tastes the same... yummy :) after breakfast, did a driveby to nainai's house, although now bryan and his wife are staying there so we can't go up... after that, went home, did not do much, was looking for the soft toys ie Lumpy... went to this place for dinner that night, and had fried fish, and youtiao... the food was not that great, the only thing that was really nice was the sambal chilli that they served the fish with... in the end, we actually 打包 the chilli back home :) after that, mum and I went to Taka to join in the annual foodhall festivities... it was of course crowded with people sampling and buying CNY goodies... bought some 酸梅 for myself and got to eat fresh kueh bulu... yummy :)

26th Jan- went to whampoa market to eat breakfast and do marketing... ate my 云吞面, I have to say, the fried wanton not as nice now... and got to drink my 豆花水... that was yummy as always... went to buy the bread but they were still in the process of baking so only managed to buy a small butter bread... after that, we went to visit ah ma and met up with papa's relatives, especially 8th uncle... he's probably my fav uncle among everyone else on papa's side of relatives... he bought mang zhang kueh and hum jin bang for me... which I am sorry to say was not very nice... we decided to visit the gardens by the bay in the evening... and we were lucky cos we arrived at the same time the lighting show started, it was really pretty... too bad my camera is not the best in capturing stuff at night... only the supertrees were open though, so did not get to see the rest of the gardens...

27th Jan- went to collect my passport, now my passport number is different from my IC number, which is really annoying... cos now I have to whip out my passport everytime I need the passport number details... after that, papa and I walked towards bugis, and ate hainan chicken rice at a coffeeshop opposite the national library... the rice and chilli were really nice... and after that went to laminate my cluedo cards, and then walked abit of bugis, and went to have dessert at this really traditional looking dessert place opposite bugis junction... it was not very nice... but I got to eat my 面包夹ice cream... it was really yummy :) after that, we went to fetch mum at work and went to eat din tai feng at JEM, the new shopping centre... oh the 小笼包 was so good... 

28th Jan- went jogging in the am at lower peirce reservoir, it was quite ulu when we first arrived, but more people arrived as we were leaving... after that went to eat roti prata, yeah I know, it was pretty contradicting... after that I even stopped over to buy 豆沙饼... roti prata was not the best, but the 豆沙饼 was really nice... after that, I went to bugis junction, bugis + and village to look for the stuff for prisy and pongie... it was really crowded even though it was a weekday... after that, went to the 观音庙 to pray, then to OG to buy pillow for pongie and also bought some jogging shorts... met up with Jo at Toa Payoh for dinner in the evening... had time to walk around the place cos she was late,. it still looked the same though... we had Ya Kun Toast for dinner, and it was not very nice actually, don't understand the hype around the place... Jo is getting married in Jan 2015, happy for her, told her will try and be back for the wedding, but not sure yet at this stage though... 

29th Jan- went to Whampoa market again for breakfast and marketing, this time I ate fishball noodle cos there was such a long queue the other day, so I thought ok I will try and see if it was really nice, and in the end the vedict is that I don't think so... it tasted like all the other fishball noodles I ate, nothing very special... after that, I caught a train to chinatown, and it was so hot and getting crowded, so the whole time I was thinking to myself that I must be mad to be there at this time and weather... after that walked down to central shopping centre at clarke quay, and decided to treat myself to lunch at the blisshouse... ok I have to say the decor was really nice and something difference, but the food was crap... and the staff there probably took pity on me cos I was all by myself and took some pics for me... after that, I was pretty tired and hot already, and btw, clothing here are no longer cheap... but decided to take the free ferry ride to marine bay thinking to go see the river hongbao... when I got there, I decided it was probably not worth the heat and aching legs, so ended up going home instead... although managed to take some really good pics of the merlion, marina bay sands... met up with huimin and fran in the evening for dinner, huimin suggested having korean hotpot, so we walked from tanjong pagar mrt to chinatown, and had to queue cos it was apparently quite popular... the kimchi pancake was quite nice but the seafood hotpot was not to my liking so did not end up eating much... after that went to take some pics along chinatown, it was still quite crowded even though it was like 2200... chatted about a few things including me potentially trying out blind dates :(

30th Jan- CNY eve, went to Bukit Merah Central to eat nasi lemak, sadly it's not as nice as it used to be, dunno why but the luncheon meat tasted really weird... but I felt back and finished it all cos the auntie cooked it specially for me... after that... went home and mummy had a half day off that day, so met up with her at Boon Keng station and walked around for abit thinking that we could buy some kueh bulu but it was sold out and people were pretty much closing so in the end had macdonalds for lunch, I was looking forward to having curly fries and iced lemon tea, but the fries turned out a disappointment, even the fillet oh fish was not as good... the only yummy thing was the iced lemon tea... had our reunion dinner with ah ma and papa's youngest brother that night... I ate chee cheong fun for dinner that night, there was so much left from when papa's sister bought on sunday...to be continued :) one week down, 2 more weeks left :(