New chapter and Proposal Planner.

A dear friend (ahem, ADRAIN) is starting a new chapter of his life. He proposed and he's getting married next year. I'm over the moon, Adrian.

The same ADRAIN (I spell his name wrongly just to PISS HIM OFF! It's our thing.) who turned down my Chanel goodie bag.
The dude whom I helped won money at the casino. He is engaged.

Quite a few of friends are engaged. 2 proposed this month, some have been engaged for longer than I can remember and some have found new love. I am the Proposal Planner for my friends, giving them tips and things to plan and look out for on the special day. And I go ring shopping with them at Tiffany's.


I have 0 experience at this wedding business but people strangely flock to me for relationship/proposal/wedding advice. I should start charging.

It shouldn't come as a shock at the staggering number of engagements, but I guess most of us have been lucky to have found people we really like. It is a great way to end 2007 and start 2008.

Next year - Year of Weddings.

Can't wait!

iTunes radio, More Than Words, and the big Move.

symin.blogspot.com has discovered iTunes radio. My god it's the best thing ever to have at work!



There are so many stations to choose from, classic rock to sports. I can now choose my type of music, and listening to it nonstop for the entire 9.5 hours while I'm at work. Commercial free with no static. 2007 looks like it's ending on a good note.

And my all time fave song came on.


Extreme - More Than Words.

Cheesy and somewhat tacky video, especially the hairdo. Guys with long silky mane = "Hi, I'm so comfortable with my manliness that I'm willing to go andro" *flicks hair*

.
.
.

In my previous post 3 years ago (!!), I mentioned about how special this song was (and still is) to me. Read about "Childhood fantasy 1", here.

Brings a big smile everytime I hear the song. Especially when J sings it too! We were driving in Palma for my birthday last year. Reception was poor because we were along the coast with all the mountains, tunnels and whatnot. But when the song came on, it stayed on one station. =D


-- Best birthday present ever!

Anyway I just got a call saying that the contractors will be arriving tomorrow morning to pull apart my current apartment. So that means I have to move in to my new flat tomorrow night. I am in between places at the minute because the new place is still not clean enough to my standards. All my things are still in boxes and it's not fun looking for a clean change of clothes among the boxes and bags, only to find kitchenware. Honestly.


Woe is me! Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh


4 more days till J arrives. I can't wait to show him my new crib aka "Third World Slum", fondly [highlighted in turd color and] named by yours truly.



Links:
http://symin.blogspot.com/2004/12/childhood-fantasy-1.html

I *heart* tealight candle holders.

I love my tealight candles. It makes the room/place softer and warm.

You have to agree that white fluorescent bulbs are depressing. I don't need my life to get worse when I get home. Especially my new place with fluoro tubes. Honestly it saps happiness right outta me everytime I step in there.

-- It's like a noose around my neck...


IKEA has some festive ones and I saw pretty tealight candle holders in town. I was tempted to get them, but honestly it doesn't feel right to buy a $20 glass cup to put a tiny candle in.


$3.90 sounds like a pretty good deal to me.


Bird cage white lantern
http://www.housetohome.co.uk/products/type/garden/Cream_wire_tealight_lantern_25132.html?subslug=



Price: $2.99


Alessi Cactus tealight holder
http://www.psyche.co.uk/homewares-147.html?all=all


Price? 20 friggin pounds (?!!!!)

Home deco is expensive business.

Home decorations: Fruit bowl and flowers.

I'm getting into the whole "Let's make my flat interesting" mood. I saw this Alessi fruit bowl and I was gone.



It's bright red and it looks like a coral! I love the sea and this cannot be anymore appropriate. It is just too pretty for its own good.


I want to get some flowers for my room too. I think a place needs flowers to make it more personal and homely. I mean, I spend most of the time in my room when I'm home so it has to be my personal haven, right?



This is my "Let's go all white 'Devil Wears Prada' style" pick. Timeless, chic AND pretty. I saw potted orchids and they look beautiful too.



Anyone interested to get my a housewarming gift? =)

Hands.

J emailed me recently and brought up something about the island where we held hands (sort of) for the first time. I was climbing uphill and we were going to check out a derelict bunker near a nuclear test site. Yes, it would make a fantastic first date (sort of). And yes, we go to offbeat places.

-- Beautiful island by the way.

It is quite amazing to think about the whole thing. Given the fact that he doesn't remember anniversaries ("Men are bad with dates", he says), it is sweet that he remembers the place. Or approximately when we first held hands.

And how strangely coincidental too. We held hands exactly 2 years ago. Today-ish. I think.



It is also strange how things have changed since then. We were friends and I don't think either one of us ever imagined us to be where we are at now. He was that guy who spoke only when spoken to, plus he ignored me most of the time and just walked right past me. I still remember how annoyed I was!

What a twist of events, won't you say?

Sydney Festival 2008.

Taking Sydney to the streets
-- By Simon Ferguson
December 14, 2007 12:00am

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22919899-5006009,00.html

"Saturday January 5 will see city streets transformed into gigantic free dance and music events. Many acts playing for nothing that day will be part of the ticketed festival later in the month.

Children's events in the afternoon will give way to teenage dance parties and then grown-ups get to join in with couples dancing, a white-hot dance party and finally the climactic gigs in The Domain where Paul Kelly and Brian Wilson will play to an expected 100,000."

Why the flying fish am I here in Singapore? *Mopesssssssssss*


Flying off to Melbourne tomorrow morning for my brother's convocation. Will be back on Wednesday. [See, I wrote this post before I left but somehow clicked on "SAVE NOW" instead of "PUBLISH POST". Yeah I am a genius.]

Have fun decorating your xmas trees!

xoxo,
Rach

Links:
Sydney Festival 2008

Incredible disappointment, anger and pure stupidity.

A friend of mine, Ling, got into serious trouble. She is now in massive debt because of her scumbag ex-boyfriend. I offered help, and got a lawyer friend to listen to her. It was a sordid tale of incredible Jerry Springer proportions.

To me, it is just a simple case of mismanagement. There were so many red flags along the way. She could have broke up with him and cut her losses. She could have sought help before the figure snowballed to a sum that is out of her control.

There were so many times she could have just left. But she didn't.

It is disappointing to see a friend whom I've known since kindy to end up in such a state. She was supposed to be the street smart one. It is even more disappointing to know that she is not taking charge of the situation now that the "dream" is over.

I am not the bloody Salvation Army. She's a grown up now, so grow the f*ck up and deal with it. No one is going to mother her and deal with the situation for her.

I am just very angry that she is still not taking responsibility for herself. You get into this mess, you figure out how you are going to solve it. No one besides her own family will be willing to put their lives on hold.

At this juncture, her only hope is her family. I just feel incredible pity for her family who is still in the dark. I am feeling so sorry for her poor folks.

The Cranberries, Linger and million little pieces.

The Cranberries - Linger



Sometimes the things you do or don't do may not be significant to you. "It's just a small thing," you say. It isn't. It is mean. It is cruel. It tears people into a million little pieces.

You have no idea.

Moving, furniture shopping and high threadcount sheets.

Now that the actual moving day is approaching, I have more or less accepted the (cruel cruel) fact that I am going to have to get used to no air conditioning and fantastic view of the city nightscape.

I have accepted.. oh who am I kidding? Argggghhhhhhh!!!

-- Nice painting by the way.


As I have previously mentioned, house moving is one of the most traumatic life experiences in a person's life. And this is going to be the 3rd time I'm moving on my own.

[Read about my 1st moving experience here, House moving.]

I have lots to pack, but with 2 house moving experiences on my belt, it should be easy breezy. I moved twice all by myself. C'mon, if I can pack up and relocate to ANOTHER bloody CONTINENT, this should be a walk in the park. I mean, how bad can it get the 3rd time round?

I'm starting to swell with pride at my amazing ability to relocate without much help. I carried heavy boxes and my telly. Go Girl Power!

I have to pack

• all my clothes, old and new
• all my shoes and their shoe boxes
• my pretty bags
• telly (thank god I bought a flatscreen. This is foresight, my friend.)
• dvd player and all the dvds
• Playstation 2
• stationery
• magazines (they are heavy! 200 pages multiply by over a year's worth of them. )
• books (novels, reference books etc.)
• toiletries
• loose items (my aromatherapy set, flower vase, pretty tealight holders etc.)
• small electrical appliances (table lamps, iron, kettle etc.)
• computer stuff (cables, dvd writer, extensions etc.)

I think that should be it. Well, that's all I can remember anyway. Before I drift away to make a mental list of things to pack and NEVER to return again, I need to buy things for my new flat.

I need to get a few pieces of loose furniture to make the place more livable. I was thinking of going all white for my bedroom, a la "The Devil Wears Prada". So chic!



Until the horrible truth sets in. White is probably going to get dirty. And too clinical for a bedroom for it to feel homely.

I need a tv bench. Not a table, a bench. That's what the people at IKEA calls it.

-- Friel tv bench

And the good people at IKEA is going to charge me $399 for a piece of furniture I'm going to put together myself. What the fish?

I need a mirror. Please, I need to find out if my hair is standing up before I step out of my flat.

$9.90? Sold!

I need a cabinet. The landlord has a wardrobe I can use but it's too small. Honestly the woman underestimates the amount of clothes a 20+ year old owns.

Lady, before I started PAYING rent for your flat, I used to spend all that money on clothes to make me feel better. And look better. You know what they say, if you look a million bucks, you feel a million bucks too.

$99??? Ka-ching! I'll probably use the top of the cabinet as a dresser or a decorative space where I put a coral and photos.

Nate approves too.


I need bedding. I was actually looking forward to getting silky crazy smooth high threadcount sheets until Reality gave me a tight slap across my cheek.


-- Oh silky crazy smooth high threadcount sheets, come to me!

"Dudette, you should spend your money on something practical and worthwhile instead of blowing it on luxe bedsheets!"

I wanted to retort that I need precious sleep and 1 sure-fire way of getting that is laying my tired body on silky crazy smooth high threadcount sheets. I held my tongue back.


-- Farewell luscious 1000 threadcount Sheridan Manon sheets!

Note to self: Food, bills and savings far outweigh the pros of silky crazy smooth high threadcount sheets.

I think bright and cheery is good.

But will yellow + brown (the wardrobe) make the room dowdy?


Black and white and totally mod. Soothing works too, because after all I am trying to get some precious shut-eye.

Loud clashing colors may just keep me up. =/

Since I'll be horribly broke till I work out my new expenses, I guess there won't be exciting shopping posts about the incredible joy clothes shopping bring me. Maybe ones on house deco, and less on raspberry pink cardi. I want a raspberry pink cardi.


p.s. Blogger f*cked it up again and I lost 80% of my post. I had to retype everything from memory. Goddamn it!

Fever interrupts your sleep.

I'm burning up and the thing that sucks about having a fever is that you get hot. Or rather, you stay hot for a long time.


-- Gorgeous silk pillow cases.

You try and sleep, and 10 minutes into it, your comfy spot gets really hot and uncomfortable. You move to another spot, but it's too cold. Your body probably warms up the spot 5 minutes after you lie on it, and it gets just nice and warm to snuggle up and drift off. But you burn up the new place and it's time to move again.

Repeat these steps for 1 night and you wake up more cranky than ever.



I totally get how Goldilocks felt when she was trying out all those chairs and bowls of porridge.

Flu-ey, waffles, busy December and pointless update.

Nothing interesting to update, except that I'm getting more flu-ey by the minute.

It's raining so heavily outside that I can't see the next building. And the icing on the crappy cupcake that is my life? My washing is all outside. I think they'll be disgustingly soaking wet by the time I get home.

-- Yummy waffles smothered with creamy peanut butter.

On the upside, the lady at the cafeteria make me peanut butter waffles for breakfast this morning. I think she was feeling sorry for me, since I was sniffling and my eyes probably looked bloodshot or something. Waffles are not on the menu. The feeling of having waffles for breakfast on working weekday almost feels like the first time you discovered the 1 Up mushroom on Super Mario Bros.


-- You mean I get 1 more life!?


December is starting to look busy. Attended 1 high school mini gathering last Friday because Snag Puffy Combs is leaving for Sydney soon. Lucky bastard. I want to go back to Sydney!

15 December - Flying to Melbourne for my little brother's convocation
18 December - Flying back to Singapore.. =(
21 December - Another high school mini meetup
22 December - Moving Day: Episode 1
23 December - Moving Day: Episode 2
24 December - The last time I heard, I have a party to go to.
27 December - My Captain J should arrive if the office doesn't mess up.

Damn it's only Wednesday.



Actually I did heaps today.

Language, cabbie, exams and killer teddy.

I am on course. The company sent me for a Java training course on application servers. Good luck to all the application servers that I'll be laying my hands on. I wonder if they will turn out alright.

Yup, that's me sneaking in a bit of a chat in class.

I find the term "on course" funny. I'm not sure if it's a slang, or it is just weird on its own. "I am attending a course" sounds more logical than "I am on course". Just like "I am on off" when they actually mean "It is my day off from work". "On off". An exact opposite of each other. How ironic.

I was on morning shift and I flagged a cab to work. (Ed: I'm not wasting money. It's paid by the company.) Big mistake. It was one of the most "what the fuck" conversations I've ever had.

Me: [insert government agency] please.
Cabbie: Why are you going there? You looked like you just got off work.

Feeling incredibly insulted at 6am in the morning, because who the fuck gets off work at 6am near a clubbing district?! What kind of work are you talking about, f*cker? I mean, here I was, minding my own business and pissed at having to wake up so early for work, a cabbie was insinuating something downright dodgy.

-- This looks normal, right? It's not me, but I wore something similar.

Dude, I'm wearing a hoodie and a long black pencil skirt. And sensible flats. What kind of job do you think I do?

Cabbie: (Probably not sensing his impending doom, he chose to continue) Oh you are going to [government agency]? It's school holidays now, don't you get holidays too?
Me: No.
Cabbie: A lot of primary school kids failed this year's PSLE exams? Did you guys set especially hard papers?
Me: I don't set the questions.

Hey, if 4% of kids fail their PSLE exams this year, JUST LIKE THE 4% WHO FAILED IN THE PAST FEW YEARS, then don't you think maybe, it is the kids who should have put in more effort?

I know it's mean but if 96% of their peers pass, and 1 was only 4 points away from FULL MARKS, can we just even entertain the thought that it's not the world who picked on them, it's them?


I'm not trying to be mean. Nor unsympathetic. Really... some kids just have a little trouble catching up with their peers. But that does not mean that people set exam questions to fail them just so to make them feel even worse about themselves. I don't think normal people do that.

[Just checked the press release. Hey only 2.3% didn't make it this year.]


Jackass Cabbie. I was mistaken for a street walker who set hard papers to torture 12 year olds and then jet off for month long holidays. Thanks Cabbie, that's exactly what I need for a Friday morning.

I feel like killing people right now. Grrrrrrrrr!!!!


Killer Teddy. Only in Japan.


Quick updates on several things:
My Captain J has to train 4 new officers on this swing because a lot of people quit due to the poor less than favourable salary package. I don't think he's feeling very good about his job at the minute.

I may have found a place. Good to know that I'm not homeless. But bad to realise that I may never have enough money to be a home owner. And it is tricky to split the bills. This sucks big time.