chervalier

so this post is gonna be all about different levels of attraction to people.. I’ve wanted to post about this for awhile since, well, it’s something that I’ve had to explain to quite some of my friends..

See I’m the kind of person who likes people on a varying level of degrees.. Much like most people, actually. We have stages/phases of Liking, as I’d like to call it.. And different people have different definitions for the same “stage” .. For instance, a crush is defined by some of my friends as much less serious than I define it.. So when my friends ask if I have a crush on someone, I say “NOOOOO” vehemently and they’re taken aback.. Heh.

So here’s my take on the different Stages of Liking (hereby titled SOL)

Starting from the least serious:

STAGE ZERO

Stage 0) Just to be meticulously accurate, stage 0 is apathy. Defined by a total lack of attraction or dislike towards a person. Negative stages will reflect the exact same amount of feeling toward a person, only the emotion is opposite (negative.. like dislike or hatred)

STAGE ONE

sure, I agree

Stage 1) I call stage one Agreement. It’s when you agree/acknowledge/admit that this person is attractive, but either you don’t like his/her character at all or you don’t know him/her well enough. You just think that you could see what someone else sees in the person.

STAGE TWO

Stage 2) Two is Attraction. When you feel that a person is good-looking/hot and would do the person. This is different from Stage 1 in that you don’t agree with general opinion (which is passive) but you actively find the person attractive. It’s still on a very low level though, and you still might not know this person well at all. However, you definitely don’t hate this person’s character.

STAGE THREE

Stage 3) This is the subjective/messy part where people might not agree. Most people put “crush” here but I’d put Appreciation as stage 3. Appreciation happens when you start to appreciate the person for his/her character and enjoy hanging out with him/her. You could even start imagining yourselves going out on a date and perhaps maybe even (note use of numerous qualifiers) probably see yourself in a relationship with this person.

STAGE FOUR

Stage 4) Here comes the Crush.. Stage 4 (the Crush) is defined by a desire to talk to and hang out with the person, as well as the wish to end up in a relationship with the object of longing (lol).. Here’s where my definition of a crush differs from what I know a lot of people have defined. I personally don’t develop crushes on people I know nothing about or have not spoken to on a regular basis. Some other people, however, are perfectly ok with labeling their attraction to some popular person in school as a crush..

STAGE FIVE

Stage 5) Beyond the crush, relationships are starting to solidify and we’re delving into words that have more weight to them. Stage 5 is a stage of Liking. You may or may not be in a relationship with someone but you have definitely had enough interaction on a regular basis to develop strong feelings for this person. You are concerned for their wellbeing and would do things for them that take up your time. You think about them a lot of the time but you still live separate lives.

STAGE SIX

Stage 6) Here comes the big L-word. We move from Liking to Love. I don’t think I need to explain this too much but most times at this stage, you’re in a relationship (not necessarily all the time) and you feel intimate with this person. You care deeply for him/her and (without being too explicit) would do things with him/her.. You feel the need to spend special occasions together and not only do you care for this person, but because of your feelings towards him/her, you also feel a certain amount of affection and concern for the people in his/her life (ie family members or close friends) Also, you’re ready to commit to this singular person by this stage.

STAGE SEVEN (& beyond)

Stage 7) Anything beyond Stage 6 is slightly scary. I have one all-encompassing stage for everything beyond Stage 6 and it’s called OBSESSION. Yup, Mariah Carey’s song indeed. Obsession is when you are so driven by your feelings for a person that you feel the need to see/hear from/talk to that person all the time. You resort to stalking the person (be it on facebook or in real life) to catch a glimpse of him/her or to find out what he/she is doing..

I wasn’t sure if I should put Obsession in the list of Stages because it isn’t really an emotion or a stage of loving-feeling towards a person. However, it is an emotionally-driven stage that does fit in on the spectrum so I left it in.

———————————-

And there you have it, the complete list of SOL. Of course the above is just MY personally defined list of stages and should not be used as a guide to all women/men out there.. Though if you want to talk to ME about how I feel about a person, this would be a pretty good scale to use =)

As for the question in the blog title… Hey I’m notorious for keeping my private life private (kinda) so did you really think I was gonna even acknowledge such a question? It was just a teaser to get you guys reading =D

Enjoy, guys, and ttyl! =)

PS and Disclaimer: None of the images used in the blog post are mine. I ran a search on Google and found them. No infringement intended.

Popularity: 18% [?]

I’ve wanted to post this for awhile now.. I’ve been crazy about a Taiwan television drama for the past few weeks.. If you have me on msn you’ll notice i’ve been squeeing about this show for abit.. My MSN nick’s “光阴的故事！！ 美元恋FTW!!!” Hehe. 光阴的故事 is the title of the show.. Roughly translated, it means “The story of the passing of Time” or “The Story of Time” or even more directly, “Time’s Story”..

光阴的故事

It’s a very sweet back-to-the-old-days kinda story about people living in the village areas of Taiwan from around the 1950’s all the way to modern day Taiwan.. It’s pretty long and draggy but the characters are endearing and funny (quirky would be a better word) and you’ll start to feel as if you know them after awhile.. In fact, before I started watching this show I thought it was pretty stupid but I started to watch it because I wanted to spend more time with my mom so I watched it with her (she likes it haha).. Now I’ve really developed a liking for this show and am watching the entire series on tudou, heh.

光阴的故事！！

My favorite part of the show has to be the development of the relationship between characters 许毅源 (xu yiyuan) and 孙一美 (sun yimei).. The term for their relationship is the second part of my msn nick.. 美元恋FTW!!!  Haha minus the FTW of course.. I added that part. The guy’s name, Yi Yuan, sounds like One Dollar in Chinese, so they all call him Ji kou/r (which is one dollar in Taiwanese) .. The moniker for the couple is Mei Yuan, which means USD. Haha. Anyhoo, that aside, I really really really love this couple.

美元恋FTW!!!

美元恋FTW!!! (towards the end of the show when they're happily-ever-after-ing)

美元恋FTW!!! Getting married (which was hilarious btw)

More accurately, I really really love how sweet Yi Yuan is to Yi Mei (the guy is to the girl).. I don’t believe that such a sweet guy exists (something I’ve mentioned in an earlier post)… He’s protective, loving, caring, thoughtful, sensitive, and just so much more!! Soooooooooo sweet omg.. Like the perfect boyfriend / husband!! *sighs*..

sweeeeeet...

so cute!

their first kiss!

hugs!!! *sigh* don't you wanna be hugged like that? so sweeet!!!

after getting married.. still so cute together!

I utterly love seeing this two together.. She’s really cute and a little bit stupid.. She’s also very nosy and cares a lot about her friends. He cares a lot for her (after falling for her, of course) and is so loving and protective and oh I could go on and on..

hehe so cute

their first dance together! <3

Sigh if I could find me a guy like that in real life!!! Though I actually don’t think he’s very good-looking… (He’s kinda Jay-Chou-ish which isn’t bad.. Haha) but this picture below seems to want to prove me wrong.. He might be quite good-looking!

Not too shabby=)

Hehe. Anyhoo, it’s a great show with solid acting (most of the time) and interesting characters. I love it and you might too! =) Go watch!

Popularity: 15% [?]

there hasn’t been a post about what I’ve done for like EVER.. and what’s a blog without some udpates about my life? So here’s what I did today since I actually got out of the house today.. Heh.

My first appointment was at the Dentist for my Invisalign! I’d gotten my mold made and wisdom teeth extracted previously for this so I was gonna get the aligners fitted today! I thought I’d take a before-and-after picture.. So here’s the shot I took at home..

eh.. me. Heh. (note the non-protruding lips!)

Of course, I got a little trigger-happy and took some more pictures.. Lol.

Trigger-Happy 1

Trigger-Happy 2

Oh yeah, forgot you have to SEE my teeth before the trimming and stuff.. haha. Here’s one..

Take a look at the teeth.. Haha

Yup.. I don’t have a perfect smile, orthodontia-wise.. I dunno how many thousand times I’ve been told (by random strangers, no less) that I have a nice smile.. Haha. I got very suspicious of these people because I have some NASTY teeth haha so anyhoo, after MUCH (annoying) prodding and nagging from my Kor, I finally got off my ass and went to get my Invisalign journey started.

It costs a lot to do Invisalign because it’s truly invisible.. You’ll see my pictures later.. Anyhow, after an x-ray and diagnosis by your doctor and the people in New York (takes about 3 weeks to get their response), you’ll get a detailed breakdown of how your teeth are going to shift and how the final product looks. My entire process will take about 40+ weeks.. 38weeks for my upper jaw and 40+ weeks for the lower jaw .. I have to change a set of aligners every 2 weeks to shift my teeth..

So I went down to the dentist’s today and had to get my teeth trimmed.. I was worried that it was going to hurt but I didn’t feel a thing.. Save for the usual discomfort at the dentist’s, like having to open your mouth for really long and hear some drilling sounds etc.. The only pain came from having to put my aligners in and out and in and out so that my dentist could put my attachments on.. Then again, my dentist said at the end of the session that my threshold for pain was quite high (meaning I’m quite tolerant of pain) so don’t take my word for it.. I deal with massive menses cramps every month so pain is slowly becoming a non-issue to me.. (though I’m still terrified of pain)

Anyhow, here’s what I looked like at the end of the day (fast forward a bit because I only took these pictures at the end of the day lol) with my attachments but WITHOUT aligners.. (to brush teeth first, before I went to bed) WARNING: quite fugly picture haha.

teeth trimmed.. and can you see the attachments? (pardon the fug)

You can sort of see the attachment if you look closely but otherwise, you can’t since it’s tooth colored..

my nifty invisalign case to store my aligners!

aligners!

lower aligner.. kinda like dentures lol. TRANSPARENT FTW!

Yup that’s what they look like. Here’s how I look after fitting them on!

with aligners on! tada! can u see them?

So? Do you notice any difference? Oh by the way, I’m wearing a TUBE dress so I’m not naked or anything like that haha. Anyways, there isn’t really a difference when I smile but when I close my lips I look like I have a jutting out jaw (since I have to close my mouth over additional stuff), which displeases me but I have to live with it I guess.. =(

By the way, pardon the lousy pictures.. Used my phone’s camera to take them haha.

After getting my aligners, I went down to City Hall to pick up my book that I’d pre-ordered months ago… Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol!!!!

I got it, YAY!

Yay!! I’m quite a fan of Dan Brown’s books so I was excited to pick up my book today..  At MPH I also bought another book — The Eight by Katherine Neville.. Sounded interesting so I bought it using vouchers provided by a good friend =D Hee. I also bought a book called Almost Impossible Word Puzzles.. I had bought a similar book of Logic Puzzles earlier this year and quite enjoyed it (plus the cover is really pretty and “posh”) so I bought this one since I love word puzzles..

Siying met me at MPH and we headed off to Paya Lebar MRT to get to our Volunteer meeting at CDAC.. We picked up some finger food on the way and got to the CDAC building safely. Lol. Then came the tough part. I had to remove my aligners by myself in the public toilet before I could eat…

This was horrible and well, bloody. My dentist had taught me to put in and remove my lower aligner and just to put in my upper aligner but not how to remove it.. He went through it theoretically with me but we didn’t actually do it because he wanted to leave it in longer..

I now have a phobia of removing my upper aligner.. Everything else I can do.. Just removing the upper aligner scares me. Haha.

Anyhow, our briefing (part of my project onv olunteering =)) was informative but boring and unnecessarily long at times.. Siying and I were glad to find that we were placed in the same group. We’re excited to be part of this project. We’ll be helpers at an event organized by Project CARE – a joint event by Lions Befrienders and CDAC..

What we’ll be doing is accompany (what the CDAC calls) “vulnerable” elderly to do some grocery shopping at NTUC at Jurong Point.

NTUC Fairprice

FairPrice has kindly sponsored $30 worth of vouchers per elderly participant for use at their FairPrice outlets. Us volunteers will be helping the seniors carry their things around, pick out stuff for them, helping them to budget and basically keep them happy =)

I find that this activity is really meaningful and I really hope that the seniors can benefit from it. At the end of the event all participants (volunteers and elderly) will be having lunch together at Safra Jurong and enjoying some activities and games there too. What I really wish is for the elderly people who may have been neglected to have a chance to feel cared for and enjoy themselves in their golden years.

When the briefing was over, Siying and I went to Mac’s for supper (remove aligners again, less bloody, slightly less painful) and took the last train home! We had a nice long chat about all sorts of things (mostly boys, haha)… And we talked about how we were going to WIN A LOT OF MONEY tomorrow at Mahjong!! Woots!

MAHJONGGGGG

I’m not looking forward to the pain my dentist cautioned about that should happen tomorrow but I’m looking forward to a day of MAHJONG!!!

So this was my day. How was yours? =)

Popularity: 13% [?]

it’s possible this blog entry was in some way spurred by a very odd dream I had last night.. don’t get me wrong, it was an amazing (albeit short) dream. I think it had something to do with the fact that I had just watched a Friends episode before I went to bed — TOW Rachel’s Book. In that episode, Chandler and Monica begin preparing their wedding and Monica brings out her wedding book etc..

Anyway, my dream was soooo sweet but a bit out of character for me. I dreamt I was at my wedding. No shit. My groom was the male protagonist from Wild Child, but Asian. Honestly, dreams are weird. If they aren’t weird, they aren’t dreams.

yup, this guy on the right

and since dreams are effed up, he was Asian.

just a pic for gratuity =P

So yea that guy (Alex Pettyfer.. I had to wiki it) was my husband-to-be and man I was sooo happy in my dream! It was really weird coz

1) He was Asian in some way that wasn’t really visible (though I think in my dream his hair was really dark and so were his eyes or something) [and no shit, somehow even my subconscious wants me to marry an Asian guy, not a white guy. so much so that a white guy was turned Asian.. ]

2) He’s not even my type! I haven’t even thought about this dude since I last watched Wild Child! He’s not one of those guys I obsess over (like Li Yuan and Xu Yi Yuan)

Anyway, back to the dream. We were walking around in the ballroom before the guests arrived, I was in a pretty white dress twirling around (seriously, this shit doesn’t sound like me) and somehow I was surprised by the wedding. It was some kinda surprise party wedding.. Then the guests turned up, congratulating us etc.. At one point one of my aunties started hounding me for $600 that she had passed to me like, an hour before the wedding. For some reason. -__-”

Anyhoo, that isn’t the whole point of the entry. I wanted to blog about this because I was thinking about a friend of mine and wondering if he/she would end up with his/her (don’t want to reveal the identity of my friend LOL) current partner and wondering if they DID get married, whether I’d get invited.

Have you ever wondered whether you’d get invited to a friend’s wedding? It’s interesting because on the one hand, you want to get invited because it means your friend remembered you or felt you were important enough. On the other, you don’t want to have to go and get a gift, find a date etc.

You don’t face this situation with REALLY good friends. Those you know for SURE you’d get invited to. I’m talking about good friends who you don’t talk to ALL the time or friend with whom you don’t know where you stand.. I started thinking more about the issue of wedding invitations because it’s the one big party everyone has in their lives. Whoever they invite to this party will be part of that person’s history. Though you could say the same for 21st birthday parties, I think weddings are WAY bigger.

Some ex-classmates of mine have already gone and gotten married. I was not invited to any of those. I don’t feel sore about it, just a bit left out I guess. I didn’t expect to be invited because I wasn’t really close to them, but when other common friends are invited and you aren’t, you start wondering what you did wrong. Lol. When the reality is probably that the couple probably had to cut down on guests they were inviting for cost-saving purposes.

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Since we’re on the topic of weddings and having to attend them, I started thinking about the tradition of the bouquet toss. Sometimes it seems humiliating to me to have to stand and be labeled “single” (more on this next time).. It seems like many women out there place huge importance on catching the bouquet at weddings since well, many shows have women fighting tooth and nail over the bouquets…

bouquet toss 1..

bouquet toss 2.. look at the crowd behind the bride! and the anticipation!

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m one of those girls who completely shuns the bouquet. I mean, sure it’d be fun to catch the bouquet but MAN the response from everyone around you once you catch it. I hate when my relatives ask about my love life. In fact, in general, I don’t talk about my love life much except to my close friends (with whom I talk about my love life endlessly)..

Thing is, I don’t think that’s the real reason why I’d shun the bouquet. I think there’s some other reason I don’t want to and I don’t know why. It’s definitely not that I want to remain single all my life or something (though I do have a problem with commitment). Oh well, not a problem I’ll have to think about soon anyway. I’ll wait till the wedding invitations come in to start shuddering.

Will I be invited to your wedding? =D

Popularity: 44% [?]

I don’t know why exactly, but I’ve recently been spurred to sign up for some volunteer activities so that I can make some contribution to society.. It could be because of that silly TVB Drama with the dogs and cats in it with its overt animal-loving-volunteer-supporting message that got me to do this.

Volunteer!

I’ve always had a latent desire to volunteer in some way. Well maybe not always, but since at least a few years ago. When we were still in school, we had chances to volunteer and have it contribute to our Community Involvement Project (CIP) points and those were definitely fun times. Somehow, though, that didn’t really feel like volunteering. I guess it’s because we were doing it to gain the points we needed to graduate from school.

I remember being involved in Flag Days, Bake Sales, visits to Old Folks’ Homes and all.. Volunteering as a docent in the Asian Civilizations Museum was also one of the best experiences I had, and the craft-day volunteering we did at the National Day Istana Open House was also very enriching. It didn’t, however, give me the same sense of satisfaction and fulfilment as it would have if I weren’t doing it for school.

I once went with my church to a nearby Old Folks’ Home to give out food and gifts during the Christmas season. The church choir performed for them and the residents were all smiling and grateful. That, I must say, was definitely the best experience EVER. Being able to do something to make someone happy without a selfish thought for yourself is probably the best thing in the world. Well, maybe not the best, but it definitely ranks up there with all sorts of other pleasures.

I want to be able to help these people in need, because I feel so lucky in so many ways. In my previous blogs I’ve mentioned several times how lucky we are to be healthy, whole individuals with much of our needs cared for. The fact that you are on your computer reading this right now goes to show that life isn’t all that bad for you. You can read, you have electricity, you have a computer (or have access to one somewhere). You can use your fingers, you can understand what I’m saying. All the above are things to be grateful for.

So let’s give what we can to the people who are not as privileged as we are.

My special areas of concern (I can’t think of a better way to phrase that, but I’d say these are my soft spots) are the Elderly and underprivileged children. I am especially passionate about these 2 groups of people because

Elderly people need our love

1) I love my grandma and I know she has led a hard life. A lot of people at that age have led a tough life and most of them who have ended up in homes have been abandoned by unfeeling children or maybe have no children to support them in their sunset years. I know I don’t want to see my grandmother in any situation except being loved and cared for after all she has gone through. Similarly, I think many of the elderly folk deserve love and care, if not from their families then from complete strangers who can make them smile and realize the world isn’t that harsh after all.

Beautiful, innocent, sweet little children

2) Children, especially young ones, are the most innocent creatures on Earth (despite being born into a debt of sin.. yada yada.. lol).. I don’t think they have to suffer for things they haven’t even done. What’s more, what you could do for them in their childhood could go a long way in nurturing and shaping their futures. What greater joy is there than helping a poor child find his/her place in the world and seeing him/her succeed? Even just a smile and a hug is enough to brighten anyone’s day. I dare you not to be moved by the innocence of a young child in need.

So I’ve signed up with the NPVC (National something Volunteer something i think) and registered for a whole bunch of volunteer activities.. The only thing stopping me from going all out and volunteering is my fear of committment (to anything that requires my time).. Still though, I’m gonna make an active effort to try

Volunteers - a Gift to the Community.. Are you?

How about it guys? Anyone wanna join me? =)

(filed under Projects coz it’s a project I’m embarking on wheee!)

Popularity: 25% [?]

I haven’t blogged in awhile, so I thought I would.. I haven’t been up to much lately, but recently I’ve felt like putting down my thoughts in Chinese.. I think it has to do with the fact that I’ve been watching TVB Dramas online and reading a lot of chinese material (forums, blogs etc) so I just wanna express myself in my second language for a bit. Plus, everything always sounds so much more poetic in properly-constructed Chinese. Heh. So here goes! =)

最近整天在家里上网，看电视。。 也没做什么。。 找工作找了一会儿，现在正在等电话通知我去应征。。 同时手头又有点儿紧。。 呆在家里就变成了最理所当然的事了。。。

呆在家里的好处很多！不必花钱，不必化妆，可以整天看电视。。 看电影又是免费的。。 也无需买东西吃。。 饿的话就吃面包，或煮面吃。。 太爽了！可惜这种生活方式真的对健康没有好处。。 我快变肥猪了！ 想去健身室运动一下，可是一想到得交健身室的入门费就马上打消念头，还跟自己说可以在家里做一些仰卧起坐, 推升, 或原地跑步之类的。。

认识我的人都应该知道我到底有没有做到了。。 呵呵。。 本小姐懒惰虫的个性是很难改变的。。 一生下来就是个懒惰虫，没救了。。

其实我今天想和大家分享一下我最近正追看的一部戏。。 你们也应该听说过。。 就是由罗嘉良及胡杏兒主演的《当狗爱上猫》。。。 嘿嘿。。。 你们一定听过或看过吧。。。

TVB drama 当狗爱上猫

其实当我刚留意到这部戏的花絮时，我真的觉得我不会喜欢看。。 因为我本人是一个不大喜欢动物的人。。 哈哈！你们吓着了吧！在今天的社会当中，好像很流行“热爱动物”咧。。 有好多人一看到猫阿，狗阿之类的动物都会像看到宝似的，会尖叫起来，而且还伸手去摸摸它的柔毛。。虽然如此，我还是对这些动物有些恐惧感。。 面对它们会觉得浑身不自在。。 可能跟我的洁癖有关吧。。 我一摸着这些动物就觉得得马上洗手。。

有时候我认为大部分自称“热爱动物”的人都是为了形象才那么狂爱动物的。。 唉，还是别说了。。 不然可能会惹上一身麻烦。。 话归原题。。 《当狗爱上猫》 这部戏还真让我对猫猫狗狗产生了微微的好感。。。 不知为什么，看着戏中的“小巴”及CanCan跟戏中角色的互动之后，觉得它们真的很有灵性，还颇有一点可爱之处哦。。

猫咪 CanCan

狗狗小巴！

呵呵。。 可爱吧！！ 在戏中，它们还会说话呢！CanCan还妒忌小巴跟其它的狗一起散步。。 真可爱！！

久而久之（不知道用词对不对。。 呵呵。。）我还真的对这些动物感觉有点喜爱。。 大家别误会哦。。 我还是有一点恐惧感。。 就像我对陌生人的婴儿一样。。 不敢摸，不敢碰。。。 对婴儿我是怕会吓着他们。。 动物呢我是怕。。 肮脏吧。。 也有一些担心会被它们咬。。

哈哈。。 今天竟然给你们发现我不只是个懒惰虫，还是个胆小怕死鬼！真没面子！好了，话说到这儿。。 诗情画意的意志都没了。。。 可能得去读我的《书剑恩仇录》来激发一下我的诗意吧！嘻嘻。。 好了！下次见！

Popularity: 17% [?]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SINGAPORE!

ournationsflag i hate getting hits thanks to 1000+ people googling this

Today was a victory for Singapore in some ways, I believe. We had the most entertaining and extravagant National Day Parade yet. We made it into Twitter’s trending topics, putting Singapore on the map for a very dubious reason (Singapore Idol 09). So yes, those were some small victories. In my opinion we’ve also seen the best batch of Idol hopefuls this year, so that’s another small victory.

We did, however, see some EPIC FAILs during the National Day Parade. SM Goh’s listless waving when the camera panned to him, President Nathan’s ever stony face.. The utter irrelevance of the “chapters” to the content of each chapter.. The SOKA performance literally had their performers unable to think out of the box with their odd box-enclosures for their performers’ heads.. The list goes on.

Yet despite all these fails, I found this year’s NDP highly entertaining and so much more engaging than any I’ve ever seen. The location was breathtaking (especially as night fell) and the integration of water features (lighted boats! gorgeous!) made for a fresh take on the usual Parade.

I’d long wanted to blog about how perfect Singapore is to me. What a better time to do so than *checks clock* oh crap. The last 14minutes of my country’s 44th birthday?

After having been overseas many many times, I have arrived at a conclusion. Singapore might not be a place I want to live all my life, but it is definitely my home. Where else can I find everything I need? I realized this about a month or so ago when I fell in love with 书剑恩仇录 (shu jian en chou lu), a television drama based on a novel by Chinese wuxia (martial artis) novelist Louis Cha, again. When I scoured the Internet for episodes from the show, my searches yielded disappointing results.

The only efficient-loading videos of the version of the show I wanted was dubbed in Vietnamese! No offence but hearing my favorite characters speak in a foreign and strange-sounding language really grated my ears. In a desperate bid to satisfy my longing (this sounds soooo wrong), I rushed out of the house to the mall nearby and headed for the VCD/DVD store.. The emotions of gratitude, relief and utter euphoria that welled up in me the moment I saw the box made me so giddy that I hugged onto the box for dear life.

Not only did they have the version I was looking for, they were selling it at only S$19.90!!! Can you say cheap!?!??? The new version of the show was going for about S$29 (special offer, too) but I wasn’t so interested in the newer version (since I could get good quality versions of it online =P)

After making my purchase, I floated out of the store on a cloud of sheer happiness. And that’s when it hit me. If I had been living in the States like I had planned to, this moment of happiness would never have happened. (Oh please pardon my OTT style of writing here. I NEED to exaggerate how I felt because I truly felt indescribably happy). I highly doubt there would have been a single vendor in the States that would have had copies of this version of the show, especially so long after it had aired on television.

That led me to think about what other things I would never have been able to find in the States easily if I had needed to. And I came up with a pretty long list. Nim Jiom Pei Pa Gao (i love!), Salon Pas(i know this from experience), Roti Prata, all sorts of bizarre Singaporean food cravings, cheap electronics from Sim Lim, cheap nail cutters or other knick knacks from Pasar Malams… I think I might have killed myself if all these needs presented themselves at the same time when I was there.

It opened my eyes to how unique Singapore is, and how so many of her strengths lie in the little nooks and crannies of Singapore’s society. It’s not the big things that make Singapore beautiful (like excellent healthcare or efficient public transport).. It’s the small, delicately precious things like the cobbler at the nearby MRT station (who scolded the crap out of me for ruining my shoe), or the aunties pushing their market trollies home after a trip to the wet market.

It’s the mwah chee that I love from Pasar Malams, and the aunties who run the small news stands beside MRT stations. It’s knowing I can go see the Chinese doctor when I sprain my ankle or catch a Jack Neo movie anytime I want. It’s everyone speaking Singlish, it’s the funny ah bengs and their hokkien jokes.. It’s so many things I love that can’t be found anywhere else.

On top of everything else, it’s being with my family and seeing my aunties and uncles stand and recite the pledge, making us kids stand and sing the National Anthem. It’s trying to recite the Chinese National Pledge in Cantonese and laughing a lot while we’re at it. It’s making fun of Singapore Idol Auditions and laughing at the parade.

And so, as the clock strikes twelve on your birthday, I wanna say, for everything you are I love you, my sweet Singapore =)

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“why so many posts all of a sudden?” you might ask… well.. Maybe it’s because..

I’M FREE AT LAST!!!

Approximately 7hours ago, I finished my very last exam of my college life. And so as of 7hours ago, I have been an official member of the “Unemployed”. Yea well. It’s frightening and yet liberating at the same time, to be on the precipice of something completely new. It’s frightening to me because I’m afraid that

1) There’s no job out there for me (in these times, who isn’t afraid of this??)

2) The first job I take up ends up becoming a job in which I’m stuck for life

3) I hate my job

Yea you see what I mean? So much to be afraid of. Of course, I know that there’s a lot more to look forward to (like a decent income AT LAST omfg) but fear is pretty much holding me back.

ok FINE. So it isn’t fear that’s holding me back but pure, unadulterated SLOTH. I’ve just been too lazy to get off my ass and update my resume and send it out to the jobs/companies I’ve been interested in for awhile now.

I wish I would get off my behind and do it.  I probably will soon enough (tomorrow? hmm) but for now, thoughts of all the various things I want to do whirl around in my head. Like getting this blog officially up and open, for instance. The perfectionistic side of me refuses to let me open this blog before I’m done making a new layout and filling it up with content and all. That really, totally, sucks.

Lots of things to do, but lots of laziness to overcome. Ahhh, will I ever get to all my ‘projects’? Only time will tell…

Oh and a quick update on what I’ve been doing this past week.. NOTHING. That’s right! I’ve stayed at home and done NOTHING! It’s awfully liberating. Try it!

Oh wait. I have been doing something…

I've been doing him

Yea. I wish. You know I love him. Heh. Alright, till the next time..!

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So I held off from blogging since I didn’t really have the time and inclination to blog about the things I really wanted to blog about, but I felt that I should have more than just ONE measly little post before I officially open the blog… So here’s a quick blog about what I’ve been up to in the past few days

I’ve been a busy busy busy social butterfly.. Sometimes I really think that having too many friends has its drawbacks but hey, I’m not complaining. I love my friends. I just wish they didn’t ask me out all on consecutive days..

Beginning on Thursday.. I had a nice chill morning with Siying.. Met her at Lot1 and we packed LJS and Mac’s ice cream to bring to my house for lunch, and rented a movie.. The movie we chose was Knowing – starring Nicholas Cage.. It had an intriguing synopsis about a time capsule and a seemingly possessed little girl so we thought it’d be cool. I will review the movie in a separate post. It was pretty good =)

Siying left at some time after 3pm and then I got ready to meet BrunchBuddies in town for a little reunion =D After meeting up with Ann, we decided to spend the evening at Partyworld for a night of karaoke fun! When we traipsed all the way to Heeren, we realized that the old Partyworld wasn’t there anymore >< (what losers lol) so at Joce’s recommendation we headed for Cash Studio at cuppage . And we had a helluva time!! =D It was awesome.

The next day, I was asked to meet Val and Jasmine for dinner (kinda last minute, like a day before or something lol) We just sat around and chatted. It was pretty chill =) We ended up at Scott’s lounge (I think) at some hotel and I totally loved the ambience!

Saturday was a day that had taken a lot of planning… kinda… Met up with a bunch of UB people, mainly Steph’s clique.. lol. We had lots of fun playing board games and all =D We’re gonna try to make this a monthly gathering thing so we shall see=)

Fun with the UB Girls at Settler's!

Sunday.. I wasn’t supposed to be able to make it for this dinner (as I had family committments) but I was peer-pressured into going.. After church, val picked me up and we went straight down to the Rail Mall to meet Jaytee and Shumz!! (Note: it was after church, and I had to do a reading at church, which required pretty formal-ish clothes, which explains my attire!!! ><)

hooked! reunion with njbunch!

yup and that marked the end of the uber busy weekend for me. *wipes sweat off brow* whew! Thank goodness it’s over. It drained all my resources dry!!

But I know I wouldn’t miss a second of it. I love you girls =D Till the next time, ciao!

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