chervalier

So I’ve taken the longest time ever in my life to finish a book lately.. I bought “The Eight” by Katherine Neville some time around Christmas 2009 and never got around to reading it. (OK WTF I just found out the whole book is available online.. -__-”" Read it here: http://a1018.g.akamai.net/f/1018/19025/1d/randomhouse1.download.akamai.com/19025/The_Eight.pdf) I started reading it at the beginning of this year, but never really had the time to finish more than 5 pages at each reading (*cough* toilet session *cough*)..
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I’ve finally had enough bowel movements and random gym sessions to get me nearly to the end of the story, and since it’s getting pretty much more exciting, I’ve been getting quite caught up in the plot, causing me to possibly hallucinate a lot =P
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I love when books do that – create a premise so engaging, believable and exciting that you can’t help but see signs all over in your own reality.
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The Eight is a really interesting book about the chess service of Montglane, which apparently holds a secret formula that could destroy the world if in the wrong hands, yadda yadda. It’s all very Dan Brown esque, and I love me some mystery thrillers, so I’ve been really enjoying the book.
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It also reminded me of another book I’d read when I was much younger (in my teens) – The Conjuror’s Game. TCG was also about a chess game with evil forces, being played out in the real world, and innocents are caught up in the middle of it. I love how books I’d read before come together with books I read in the present and seem to hint at some sort of conspiracy, or at least some kinda shared universe. For all we know, The Conjuror’s Game (Midkhell, I think) could be the very same chess game that The Eight is about.
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Oh the magic of the literary world =) I love how books really stimulate my imagination and weave themselves into my dreams.
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On that topic, I’ve been thinking about starting a list of books I’ve read. While that list is going to be impossible to complete, (I’d read countless Enid Blytons when I was younger, and lots and lots more other books) I’m going to try to at least have some kind of record, because I hate when I read an amazing book, return it to the library/friend/whatever, then forget the title altogether.. Then, when I want to relive that story and search for the book again, I draw a complete blank. It’s happened to me many times and I hate it. So, from now on, I’m going to record the titles of the books I’ve read and maybe even a small little summary and some thoughts.
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We’ll see if I am able to do that.. Haha. In the meantime, what are some books you’ve read that you think I’d like? And do you have a “I READ THIS” list? =) Alright, cheers y’all. Ciao! =)

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This isn’t easy, this blogging everyday thing. It’s a commitment, and I hate making commitments because they’re so demanding! However, I’m going to keep at it to prove to myself that I can see something to the finish.
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My short-term goal for this ABPAD thing is to make it through a month of daily blog posts, before cutting myself some slack. After all, I will be traveling in October, and I don’t expect to have wireless so readily available when I’m abroad.
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As far as decent content goes, I’m not going to be able to say much here for several reasons:

1) I’m paranoid that people who read this might stalk me… So I won’t be giving away too many details
2) This outlet is a bit too public for me to post anything really meaningful to me, unless I password-protect it.
3) All the good content-ideas i have in my head would take up so much time to write, and definitely would not be feasible to feature in an ABPAD post!

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So… Yea.. You’ll be treated to my random, mundane ramblings here. I do have more interesting posts on my tumblr, which, for now, is kinda my safe haven.
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On that note, I’d like to announce plans for a redesign of chervalier.org . My coding skills are definitely not what they once were, but I shall try, dammit! So stay tuned for better content and organization coming your way. Projected date of completion: End of October (hopefully 2011)
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Anyone wanna help me with code? Layout? Art? All help is welcome =)
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There you go, another meaningless entry for today’s ABPAD! =) I’ll be back tomorrow for the last ABPAD this week. Whew!

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Wow, that’s a whole week of ABPAD entries! While it isn’t an excellent achievement, it is pretty commendable to me, at least =)
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I’ve been writing a lot lately, and in more creative ways. I’d stopped writing “poems” (I use the quote marks because I really don’t see myself as much of a poet) since I graduated from Junior College (back in 2005)..
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I used to write about “love” (again, the quotes indicate how fallacious this term is, when used in that context), and how it tormented me. Then, when I became less affected by such affairs, my inspiration or desire to write poetry grew less pressing. I focused more on schoolwork and essays, and soon lost all desire to write poems.
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Yet, in this week alone, I’ve penned 1 whole “poem”, numerous disjointed rhyming verses, and half a song! I think it must be this ABPAD thing that’s getting the words to come out of me. Writing is kinda like a trickle of water. The words are like water, trying to flow out, but can only flow freely if the gates are open… Once the gates are open, the water flows more freely and abundantly. (Not entirely accurate a simile, but you get the idea=P)
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I think this is pretty good, even if a bit time-consuming. I’d love to write more. Get those words out. Let me know if you want to see any of these “poems” I’ve written.
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PS I think I wrote over a hundred “Tormented by love”-type “poems” from 2004-2005 lol. What an emonemo.
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Alright that’s it for today. See y’all soon! Ciao!

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Daily updates, yo! Proud of me?
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I need to stop writing poems in my head just before I fall asleep because I can barely remember them the next day, what with all the weird dreams I have at night. I wrote a pretty neat little verse in my head last night, but thought, hey, I can remember this tomorrow. So I chose not to get out of bed or even reach over for my phone to jot it down…
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And now I’ve forgotten it. I remember the gist of it, but have completely forgotten the words. And my crazy brain brought me another crazy dream that was kinda sweet that I kinda wanted to relive. Oh wells.
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Crazy days, people? =) Anyhow, I may have to make it A Blog Post Every Other Day soon.. =P I don’t know how long I’m gonna be able to do this blogging everyday thing… It’s not gonna be easier blogging every other day, though, because I’ll probably end up forgetting when I should be blogging! ><
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We’ll see. I doubt this meaningless drivel is important to anyone, so I’ll sleep on it for now. And hope I don’t come up with more poems that I forget the next day -__-”

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i’m very very sleepy, but I shall continue blogging because, well, I made a commitment to.
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Today, I’ll tell you all about how my online routine has changed.

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Or not..

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Sorry guys, I’m kinda tied up right now but I promise to be back tomorrow! This counts as a blog post, even if there is no real content, right?

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How’s this for content: A really quick movie review of Source Code!

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I recently watched this and man, Jake Gyllenhaal… To settle for a lifetime with a really hot girl in the body of a less-hot-than-yourself guy.. That’s awesome. And to die so many times in an hour… I felt the movie, on the whole, was really great, although I didn’t realize that the premise was parallel universes at first. If I had known, I wouldn’t have felt so settled and stubborn. I kept railing at Capt Stevens for being dumb, because I thought the source code was just a simulation.

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After watching the movie, I did as I usually did after watching a great movie – Googled and Wiki-ed it. I was looking for answers as to how he could exist in a simulation, till I found several that explained that the source code was creating parallel universes… Which makes more sense, but brings with it a whole lot more questions… I’m not gonna delve into those right now, but I wanted to point out a rather ridiculous interpretation of the ending – that Capt Stevens had died and gone to heaven, which, for him, was an extension of the alternate reality – one where he prevented the train from exploding and went on to live happily ever after with Christina.

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For some reason I felt this interpretation was kinda shitty.. I can’t remember why now.. >< Hmm.

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What are your thoughts on Source Code? Have you watched it?  =) Ok sorry for a really rather lousy blog entry. Back tomorrow!! Ciao!

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I think to myself a lot. In my head, my voice is as clear and audible as (trying to find a suitable simile -__-”) the song of a nightingale. *cough*

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I went for a massage Wednesday evening.. The kind where you pretty much strip down to your birthday suit and let someone rub you all over in oils and creams. I wanted to post a full transcript of my internal monologue/stream-of-consciousness, but that would be too messy and crazy, so I thought I’d just put up some choice selections…

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“I really really hope I don’t fart.”

“I’m so glad I went to the toilet before coming here.”

“I’m so glad I went home and had a quick thorough shower before coming here..”

“I wonder if she thinks I’m fat. Oh my god please don’t be lesbian. Ok, that was WAY close.”

“Oh crap. I need to take a dump. DON’T PRESS ON MY KIDNEYS!”

“Ohhh this feels goooood.. This is awesome.. This… OMG ELBOW ON NECK! ELBOW ON NECK! HER.ELBOWS.ARE.ON.MY.NECK!!! WTF!?!”

“I really should try to sleep. That’s the hallmark of a good massage afterall, right? If i fall asleep? It means I was really comfortable!”

“Ok, I hope she didn’t hear that. It was kinda quiet. Hope it isn’t a silent killer. I think I should cough to cover up the next one.”

“TOO CLOSE! TOO CLOSE!! THAT WAS WAY TOO CLOSE!”

“I wonder if they change their sheets. How clean is this towel I’m on? Ew I’m going to take a shower as soon as I get home.”

“Wow, she has really smooth hands….”

“Poor dear, I think she must be really tired. I feel bad. Maybe I should try to shrink a bit so she doesn’t have to expend so much energy”

“Rainbows… Butterflies.. Kittens.. I’m not wearing anything =(”

“I’m on a horse”

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More, I think, but I can’t remember all of them, and I think you get the idea of what I’m like at a massage now.. Heh. Enjoy!

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Consistent I’ve been, eh? Yoda I speak, no? =)

Coming up next post: My new daily online habits. Stay tuned! =)

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ohai there!

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what’s that you’re saying? I’ve been rather consistent? Why thank you. I like to believe I’m a changed person who is now able to show commitment and dedication. Although I’m still a rather bad commitment-phobe, I’ve taken on lots of commitments and seen most of them to the almost-finish (as they’re mostly unfinished as of now… not because of my own doing but because we’ve not reached the end of the timeline yet =P). I’m not very proud of myself YET, but I believe in time to come, I will allow myself to be =)

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So let’s do a recap of my awesome Tuesday =) It was a public holiday – Hari Raya, and so despite wanting to spend the day relaxing at home, I decided to make plans with Ben to go for that long-discussed K session that we hadn’t been able to arrange! We made the date 2 weeks in advance, and finally went for it! Woohoo! I had a blast, and Ben was awesome! It was a bit too short, but quality time as always =)) We’ll have to catch up more soon, Ben!!

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After karaoke, I headed to 6th avenue to meet my darling darling Ann~~ Again, we made use of this public holiday to meet up for a quick chat. Since both of us wanted/needed to be home in the evening, we decided to meet for tea and a quick catch up. It’s always great to meet Ann and catch each other up on our lives =) Tuesday was no exception.

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I feel blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life =) Thank you guys! I always wonder why I’m so lucky, because sometimes I feel like a downright undeserving person, but having people like you guys makes me feel a lot better about myself. After all, if amazing people like you guys can be my friends, then the “haters” (lol) are probably just sad louts who have no friends, or have really sucky friends or something. Whatever their problem is, it has nothing to do with me, and none of it is my problem. I have my friends, and my rockin’ awesome life! =)

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That was waxing philosophical a bit, I apologize.

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I have plans for this domain. I needs to brushes ups on my design skillzes. Hopefully I can find the time to follow through on these plans!! Busy busy busy! ><

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So till the next update, ciao all! =))

(PS Coming up in the next post: My massage interior monologue/stream of consciousness)

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so… I took a day off yesterday as it was a public holiday here in Singapore.. So technically I’ve not missed a day at all! ;P

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Saturday – Sunday: Crazy night till day

Since this crossed the midnight mark, I didn’t know which day to put it under, and so you have the heading as above..

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After our sumptuous dinner, we headed off to Ms KLW’s place nearby in a short but eventful car ride..

One eventful car ride... OF DEATH

A short 5 minutes later, we got to KLW’s place and, well, to cut a long story short, indulged in a night of crazy drinking games, (complete with Martell, Shoju, Singapore Sling, Vodka, and other assorted spirits). I’d brought an innocent little game to play – Chattabox, but it required too much brain effort, so we moved on to dumb but crazy fun drinking games =P We played this game with 16 card lying face down (dunno the title) first, as a warm up, then moved on to the main game of the night – LKJAIUOJK:RLT (in other words, I don’t know the name of the game).. It involved setting up rules for cards and going through the deck. Pretty fun shit! =) We had a crazy night watching each other’s thumbs, avoiding people’s questions, ending every sentence with IN YOUR VA***A, screaming commands in Chinese, coming up with EPIC rap songs, and #winning at everything! =P

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Several rounds later, KLW’s cousin, Robert (or, as I call him, Robot) joined us at about 2am, bringing tao huey for us! =) After a few more rounds of the game, most people were drunk, crying, knocked out, or trying to remain upright. We abandoned the game, KLW decided to turn off the lights and turn on the music, and we started impromptu clubbing in her room. It was pretty amazing =) Certain people were a bit too nuts, jumping about the whole night, but all in all, it was a fun night. (I must note that I’d been the only one who’d not touched the alcohol. I did accidentally drink one or two diluted drops of Martell and instantly broke out in a rash. Joy)

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We were also infuriated that we’d waited all night for the results of the Presidential Elections to be announced, but it took so much longer than expected that by 3am or so, we had given up waiting.

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Having an early day to prepare for, I decided to leave early, and left the house at 340am or so.. Thankfully, her place was only 5mins away from mine (by cab), so I got home and cleaned up and rested, in preparation for the next day. Sadly, I was still having rather bad diarrhoea -__-” so I took another charcoal pill and went to bed at about 530am.

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Sunday – Blogger madness! =) (And apparently a bit of history -__-”)

Met up with Brenda, Dayna and Chien*! (Supposed to meet Terry too, but we really have no fate =( ) Chien had come to Singapore all the way from Brunei (and also the UK), and we friendly Singaporean bloggers were here to bring her around! =)

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* – everyone called her Chien Yee, her real name, but for some reason, I got stuck calling her Chien.. Possibly has to do with her username? haha <3

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Like Brenda mentioned in her blog post, you don’t start out blogging hoping to meet fellow bloggers and making friends. Blogging is a way to express your feelings, and update your existing friends about the happenings in your life. Nevertheless, a bunch of us have managed to become fast friends thanks to our common activity of blogging (and other miscellaneous web-design-related activities).

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I’ve been blogging since I was Sec 1 or 2 – 2000/1 was the year, and babybluz was the screen name I used. Since then, I’ve jumped from blog to blog, host to host, domain to domain. From babybluz, to Sereneternity, to Soliloquy, to SilenceEverafter, to BraveNewBlog, to hollowmimicry, to Cherffalo, to Chervalier.. It still blows my mind how many online identities I’ve grown and ditched.  I’ve owned domains like http://silence-everafter.org, http://dontfallinlove.net, http://spankyfacade.com, and a couple others I can’t remember. I’ve run several CCA websites, worked on backend coding for a friend, and still I feel like a fish out of water when it comes to designing.

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It kinda boggles me that after years of experience, I’m still kinda a beginner at this. I used to be pretty boss at coding, but having left the scene for a year or two has left me floundering – all the deprecated tags, validation etc now throws me. Coding is so different now. It’s so much more cut and paste than it was before. But everything also looks so much nicer than it used to. And here is where I come back to the topic – how I met these fantawesome people =P

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When I came back to the blogging/webdesign world, one of the first things I did was look for a forum to join. I used to be part of the Coloration forums, and I was even a Coloration reviewer (lol), back when tiny fonts were all the rage, and celebrity layouts were the norm. I remember loving the feeling of being part of a community and searched for a similar one. And I found Snark. Through Snark, I met many awesome people, one of them being the first Singaporean I came across on Snark – Dayna ! =) We rejoiced in our fellow Singaporean-ness, and our shared love for beauty products and reviewing them. Through Dayna, I came to know of Terry and Brenda, as well as Ivy.

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We slowly got to know each other better through our blogs (and facebook =P), and Christmas that year, I received gifts in the mail from Terry and Dayna! I was amazingly touched! Terry had given us handwritten and hand illustrated letters with gift vouchers to the Body Shop! How sweet! Dayna had thoughtfully packed for me sample products and also, a BIG-HEADED ELMO which I absolutely adored!! In my mind, I realized that these were *real* people, and I think from that point on I started considering them as friends, rather than strange shapeless things that exist behind blogs.

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Long story short, we’ve had several AHMAZING meet-ups (to confirm that we were real people =P), except that Terry and I have, to date, not ever met each other.. Which really blows. =( Go read Brenda’s blog for more on our shenanigans, but for now, I will post some pictures from Sunday, when Chien (whom Dayna and I know from Snark, and Brenda knows coz Chien reads her blogs =)) met up with us in Singapore! =)

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Again, images are hotlinked from FB for now.. I will upload them myself soon! =P

beautiful people =) (they'd met earlier as I couldn't join them so early)

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i NEED to meet Terry in person!

the great thing about meeting with bloggers is there's always a camera ready =P

=) welcome to Singapore! =)

awesome Chien is awesome =P Brenda's picture here is amazing, love the colors and comp!

More fun pictures can be found on FB if you’re a friend of Brenda’s =)

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so that concludes my amazing weekend! How was yours? =)

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(Next post: watch out for my amazing Tuesday!! (a public holiday))

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ABPAD = A Blog Post A Day

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Since I’ve been so great at keeping all my OTHER resolutions thus far (pursuing quite a lotta things that I’m not sharing on a public domain (as yet)), I thought I’d better keep that promise and put up a blog post a day =)

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I’d also unabashedly declared it to Dayna, Brenda and Chien, so I might as well follow through with this.

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While we’re on the topic of keeping resolutions, I’m gonna be changing the look of this page very soon to a more blog-like layout, as opposed to the messy, magazine-wannabe layout it now is.. =) Hang in there!

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So, I’ve had a rather extreme weekend.

Thursday – the Fever

The terror started on Thursday, when I started to develop a fever for no apparent reason. I felt feverish and cold at about 6pm, went home and took my temperature – 37degrees. Seemed kinda normal, so I went out for a bit and may have pushed myself a bit too hard. Came home and measured my temperature again as I was feeling abnormally cold, and shivering all over. Temperature had gone up to 38.3 and was climbing. I took a shower in an effort to feel better, then measured my temperature again – 38.7degrees.

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Worried, I popped 2 paracetamol and drank a cup of water. After a torturous hour or so of shivering and emanating heat, I measured my temperature again.. 38.8 degrees. Long story short, I waited for my parents to come home to take me to the doctor, but when they got home, it was kinda late (945pm?) so my mom was like, “Just take panadol and go to sleep and you can go see the doctor tomorrow.” I dried my hair and went to bed at around 11pm.. Woke up at about 0130hrs feeling very very cold and yet knowing that my body was very very warm… Tried to get back to sleep but couldn’t. Succumbed and checked the time – 0150hrs.. Still a long way to go till morning.. So I took another 2 paracetamol and tried to go back to sleep..

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Friday – the Runs

When I got up (645am) the next day, I was a sweaty mess, but it seemed like the fever had broken. I decided I was in shape to go to work, so I did. In the office, my fever started to return, so I took 2 paracetamol again. Then I realized I had the runs.. >< That, together with the fever, made me think I’d possibly gotten food poisoning or something, so I was all, “Ok, let’s just let my body get rid of everything that’s bad in it..” So I had the runs for every half an hour the whole day…

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Finally, when I got home at about 6pm, I told my mom about it and she made me take a charcoal pill because my logic was unsound – apparently diarrhoea isn’t that great a way for your body to get rid of bad stuff in your body. I obediently took the charcoal pill, along with 2 paracetamol. Had an early night, since my stomach was feeling weird.

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Saturday – the Jogs and the Crabs

So I got up the next day, hoping to be fully recovered, since I had a date with my friends for a Crab dinner extravaganza… Only to find myself jogging to the toilet 5 minutes later. The effects of the charcoal pill had worn off, and whatever it was I had eaten was evidently very vicious and wanted to torture me for days. I had a (hopefully) non-irritating breakfast and popped a charcoal pill. Thankfully, I no longer had a fever!

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Still suffered from a bit of diarrhoea (less frequently though, therefore now called “the Jogs”), but since I was dying to meet my friends, I decided to suck it up (not the diarrhoea, EW) and head out to meet them!

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We went to Crab Specialist at Choa Chu Kang Avenue 3 (Sunshine Place) for our Crab Dinner. This seafood “restaurant” is one of the places my family frequently goes to for dinner. The crabs are relatively big and usually very nicely prepared. I’d recommend the Crab Beehoon Soup (usually served in a claypot with mother awesome soup) and Chilli Crab. That evening, we ordered the following:

• Sambal Kangkong
• Hotplate Tofu
• Sweet and sour pork ribs
• Chilli crab (2 crabs)
• Black Pepper crab (2 crabs)
• Salted egg yolk crab (2 crabs)
• 2 X 10 fried mantou

Oh don’t worry, there were 10 of us =) I’ll let the pictures do the talking now! =P

Montage from mel's phone =) Image currently hosted by FB, gonna upload mine later =)

the ten of us! =)) <3

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Do note the cleaned plates =P We had a fantastic dinner, good conversation, then headed off to Giant (a supermarket) nearby for some groceries and snacks for the rest of the evening..

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I think I’d better leave the rest of my weekend recap for another post. I might run out of things to update =P Coming up: my extremely awesome Saturday night and my wonderful Sunday =)

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Till then, toodles~

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During my recent trip to London, Val and I had a blast at the British Music Experience! This was one of the recordable and retrievable content from that day =P We were looking at a lady on the screen in front of us and basically following her steps =P See below! (Give it some time to load. It’ll show the “get your own video” thing for awhile)

It was SUCH a blast! I thoroughly enjoyed myself at the BME. Everyone should go try it! =D Ok love you guys ciao!

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