kay's space

we've moved

2008-02-07T22:33:00.000Z

follow me to

http://kayspace.tumblr.com/

the CC field

2008-02-06T09:10:00.001Z

This is a little excerpt on the need for cc-ing people in emails. I find it rather amusing because at the end, the take out is - please cc the whole world in your communications.

However:
Where there is an Account Director LEADING an initiative their relevant Account Manager will be assisting so please make sure to e-mail both of them in any correspondence.

Where there is an Account Manager LEADING an initiative their relevant Account Director will be overseeing and making sure we are addressing all your feedback so please cc the AD in the correspondence if it's on a strategic level otherwise the AM will be able to feedback to their AD.

And please contact myself on any new initiatives and concept development and cc me as well on any creative development feedback.

XXXX and XXXXXXXX continue to oversee all initiatives and we will keep them in the loop :-)

Who should I cc now?

Fellow travellers

2008-01-20T01:46:00.000Z

I don't think I'm particularly "out there" when it comes to making friends. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for getting to know people and making new friends, but I think I'm past the stage/age of getting to know someone for the sake of getting to know someone.

Having always lived in one place before I moved to London, going out of my way to make friends has never been necessary as it sort of is now. At the same time, being here's also taught me that while we may go [out of our way to try] and make friends, it's friendship that finds us, not the other way round. Some friendships are two people travelling the same journey together. And some friendships are like two people who've met in a shoe shop and have decided to buy shoes in the same transaction to make use of the "buy-one-get-one-free" offer - you can try but the chemistry just isn't quite there. Neither friendship is wrong. But the friendship that finds two individuals and joins them on a journey is that much richer and rounder a friendship.

I'm really excited that in a week's time my friend is coming to London. We met 4 years ago and have experienced life's twists and turns and is one of my best friends. And fingers crossed in March & April, I'll have my twinnie, and another friend of 4-years visiting. These are the friendships that have found us. And they're truly the best kind!

More at Sunday Scribblings.

and it's over

2008-01-16T21:57:00.000Z

The creative review was on Tuesday and now it's over! Whoohoo!!! It was an intense, manic two weeks following the Christmas and new year holidays, with almost a full day's work on a Sunday and working 14 hour days on many days. To celebrate, the team went out to The Bleeding Heart for drinks (I ❤ champagne) and to Smiths for dinner.

The creative review was harrowing even though it wasn't my first creative review. I'm tremendously scared of making presentations. I got away with it at uni and back at Batey but last May was the first time I had to really present and I bombed. This time, I blazed through it, and I was really happy with my performance. My goal for this creative review was to inform/educat [the clients] and to impress [my colleagues and bosses]. Mission accomplished through coming in to the office early every day to read my "Speeches & Presentations for Dummies" book, with very useful advice from my business director.

You'd think that I'd be able to leave work at a decent hour post creative review; I left work today at about 8:30 p.m. after battling with 3 HP colour copiers. Back to the ol' grind. I'm looking forward to the weekend.

In the wee small hours

2008-01-07T22:56:00.000Z

In the wee small hours of the morning
When the whole wide world is fast asleep
Part-participated in an all night shoot organized by members of the Flickr London meet up. I say "part-participated" because the event started at 5 pm Saturday to last through to sunrise Sunday morning; I only started shooting at about 6:45. This is one of my two fave shots - the other's

It was pitch black when I left the flat and so cold. My toes hurt from the cold but it an absolutely fantastic early morning. Finished off with a bacon, cheese & egg crepe down by Gabriel's Wharf.

English food

2007-12-30T23:12:00.000Z

English food generally has a bad rep. While I wouldn't cite it as a cuisine I'm personally a big fan of, there are some amazing redeeming English foods. Last Christmas, I had my first trifle - raspberry at Wendy's and mandarin orange at Julie's. And I absolutely loved it.

I also really like grilled sausages and yorkshire pudding, as long as the sausage are the meaty kind with very low fat-and-other-unknowns content. I like Sunday roast chicken and I love breakfast fry ups sans baked beans.

This year I had trifle again - raspberry and mandarin orange again, and loved it again. And I also learnt on-the-job how to make a trifle, which is actually dead easy. Slices of swiss roll on the bottom, topped with jelly (the type kids love!) and fruit (preferably the same as your jelly); chill till jelly has set and top with double (thickened) cream whipped till it stands in stiff peaks - you can add fresh fruit to your whipped cream topping for added flavour! Chill in the fridge so that the cream will set.

This Christmas, I also made my first banoffee pie. I bought a can of Nestle condensed milk so you can get the recipe here and it's dead easy to make and super yummy! I didn't have the opportunity to take a picture of it before we polished it off but it looked something like this picture (which I got off the Nestle website, just in case you were wondering).

I'm still not a fan of the usual English fare and I don't condone not trying new foods, and cooking beef until it's tough as leather, but it's the love and effort that someone puts into making a dinner for his/her family that really counts and makes English food not so bad to eat!

Read more on Sunday Scribblings!

Merry Christmas

2007-12-25T01:02:00.000Z

It's Christmas. It's 0103 hrs on 25 December. It's cold. It's windy. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that I've been in London for ~15 months and that it's my 2nd Christmas away from home. Christmas has never really been the same since my 1st aunt Dai Khoo Chare moved to Perth and isn't usually back in Singapore for Christmas though she tries to be back for CNY. So instead of a family-filled Christmas and Christmas hanging out at Cheri's, we have more lavish office Christmas parties with drinks galore and some food. And a more friend-filled Christmas in lieu of family here.

Picture taken at Exmouth Market on the way back to the office after the team lunch at Santore which wasn't a bad restaurant though can in no way compare to last year's restaurant which was coordinated by Mimi. But then we had a bigger budget! I don't remember who it was but someone said "I like the way the windows look aginst the light" and I looked and realized "Hey, I like it too!" Good job!

foggy London town

2007-12-22T01:52:00.000Z

It was an absolutely foggy night tonight; the streets were misty from the fog. It reminded me of the Frank Sinatra rendition that my dad used to listen to when I was younger.

There is a certain something about London. We complain about the cold and grey but when night falls and greys turn to midnight blues and blacks, the cold takes on a strange, almost welcoming dimension. It feels right that it's cold in London for Christmas.

We were walking on the Hungerford Bridge tonight. The 2nd time in a week. Earlier on in the week I took this picture and you can see all the lights, Big Ben etc, clearly. Tonight you could hardly see a thing other than the London Eye drenched in haze and a few random lights in the Thames. That's ol' foggy London town for you!

personal thoughts on Shakespeare

2007-12-19T20:27:00.000Z

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

Although in school I studied Shakespeare in Literiture class, I haven't touched Shakespearean text since I was 15. Some time ago, Suzie used a quote from sonnet 18 shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. In truth I don't really understand it. But it makes me smile and it makes me feel strangely happy inside. It's difficult to explain.

~~~~~

I'm really tired, today and yesterday. I went to bed at 10 yesterday and slept for 10 hours only to feel so exhausted this morning that I went to work bare-faced, my guard down. Too tired to be social, I spent my 25-minutes of lunch sitting in the balcony trying to read a few pages of "World Without End" but constantly being interrupted by frantic checks of my mobile - would anyone call during lunch? Yes, it turned out. It would appear that I don't have rights to a lunch break.

The physical aspect of work I can manage, and I thrive on being busy and contributing. What I find exceeding tiresome is the politics of work. I understand that everyone loves a juicy tidbit of gossip - that is inevitable. But when tiny and small-minded individuals ask pointed questions designed to cause rift and mistrust, and I have to shield my back from those knives on top of legitimate work, that's tiring. Exhausting.

I think I may go to bed early today. Again.

the long and short of it

2007-12-16T22:31:00.000Z

I've had a long side sweep fringe forever! Recently (for about 6 months) I've been toying with the idea of getting fringe cut again. When I was home in June, I asked Randy (my hairdresser) and he didn't want me to do it By last Friday night however, I had more or less decided to do the deed. So Saturday morning, I had my bin in front of me, a mirror on a chair opposite and I snipped! My fringe (bangs) now sits decently tidily on my eyebrows. I don't really know whether I like it yet. You see, I'm really into the whole 60s look and the long fringe, when behaving, contributed massively to the look. The only problem was that it was sometimes very difficult to get behaving properly! Anyway, let's see what they say when I go in to work tomorrow!

christmas 2007

2007-12-13T13:47:00.000Z

I'm not looking forward to Christmas this year, not at all. It doesn't feel special, it doesn't feel like there's really much to celebrate or be happy about. Being in London does make it feel like Christmas just becasue of the cold but Christmas is or should be about family and friends and I don't have family here and I don't have my friends here either.

The lights are up in Oxford Street; I've skated in Hyde Park and been up the ferris wheel in Winter Wonderland. I've got a single strand of Christmas lights and just one roll of gold twisty ribbon. I've been to parties, I've had my champagne. But it still isn't Christmas.

I have a fave grandma

2007-12-09T19:47:00.001Z

L1010255, originally uploaded by Ming KM.

This is a strange picture I've picked to represent this post's main topic content but I'm really missing my parents, my Mama - she's the best grandma in the whole wide world, she's my favourite grandma, she's my cousins' favourite grandma! I think each one of us in the family is lucky to have her in our lives.

We've all heard of in-laws from hell. Even though I see examples of that on TV all the time, my closest example of in-laws is my mom and my grandma and my mom loves my grandma - they shop together, they travel together, they cook in the kitchen in ease with each other - and my grandma's favourite daughter-in-law is my mom.

I often say that I have one fave grandma and one 2nd fave grandma. There's no competition really. My fave grandma remembers my birthday, she told my dad that a person of my character needs to be told the reason why when given a "no" answer. My 2nd fave grandma only every tells me to "be a good person" without really explaining what a good person is, and when I was in school, only told me to "study hard." When I went back to Singapore in June all she said was that I'd put on weight (because that's what happens when we eat all the ang moh food. She didn't notice that I'd actually lost weight.

Yeah, there's no competition. My Mama is the best in the world and I love her to bits and I wish I could see her more often and I'm going to call her tomorrow to tell her that!

More competitive stuff on Sunday Scribblings.

home cooking

2007-12-03T01:03:00.000Z

What's it with Singaporeans (Malaysians, maybe Asians in general) that we seem to gather and commune over food? Last night was a Singapore pot luck Christmas party hosted by Winnie and Pete. Brits are rather unaccustomed to "pot lucks" it appears. We had char kway teow, satay, har gau and siew mai, roast duck, chilli crab, and fu choke tong shui.

Today, EL came over and we made salmon garlic fried rice and (more) chilli crab. Prima pre-mixes are fantastic. Some weeks ago, we made chicken rice from pre-mix - it's quite good indeed. I was very impressed at how simple, though tideous it is. We even made the chilli from scratch and it was goooooood.

I never made any "local" food back home in Singapore. Whenever I had friends over, I made non-local food; tiramisu, lasagna, stuffed mushrooms. I would never have thought of making chicken rice or chilli crab but here I am. Some time ago I tried to make oyster omelette from a recipe I found on the net. There are so few oyster omelette recipes! It didn't turn out very well and at the moment, I still have to rely on Kiasu or Singapore Garden for their ho chien :)

strange

2007-12-02T01:16:00.000Z

For some strange reason, I'm finding it very difficult to write these days. Emails are difficult to compose and need discipline and I have absolutely no idea what to fill my blog with. Updates perhaps?

Last weekend Sue Ern's sister Lynn Ern travelled down to London and stayed the Friday night with me and we went to the musical Rent together with EL. (Rent is very good, by the way.) Because she was in London, we did the touristy Portobello Road Market after dim sum lunch at Laureate before we split and I went to Evonne's for an early Christmas party, my first Christmas party. I met Lynn and her friends for dim sum again on Sunday because she'd left her glasses in my flat but I have to say that it was an interesting lunch. I hang out with my cousins whenever I can and I never feel any weird gap between us. And because I've known Lynn for 14 years since she was 5, I don't feel awkward with her either. But her friends made me feel really old and I felt like I didn't really know what to say to them.

Went to my 2nd Christmas party today, this time hosted by Winnie at Pete's place in Greenwich. In true Singaporean style, it was potluck with satay, chilli crab, char kway teow, roast duck, fried rice and the bean curd skin tong shui that I made. Pete's place while not THAT much bigger than ours was much better laid out and furnished. And of course, thbe bedroom wasn't coffin sized. Tomorrow, EL's coming over and we are trying our hands at chilli crab, from a Prima pre-mix sachet (the chicken rice pre-mix is fab - do try it!)

I really hope that this mental/writer's block resolves itself soon and I can go back to writing. But in the meantime, more Rome pictures can be found here.

lunch at the Quartro Mori in Rome

2007-11-20T22:24:00.000Z

my roman holiday

2007-11-19T23:28:00.000Z

EL, Andrew and I went to Rome last weekend, for five whole days. And it was beautiful. Gorgeous. Overcast on one day, but blue skied the rest! And much warmer than London! EL was in Rome only on the first and last days and touring the Amalfi Coast for in between.

I don't see how people can spend just three or even five days in Rome! While not massive, there is so much to see and do and what slows one down is not the size of Rome but that public transport is not the most convenient for tourists! The tube stations form a perimeter around the heart of central Rome but unfortunately don't run across it! Though there are buses and trams everywhere, unless you plan ahead and purchase a ticket from a tube station before you start trooping across the city, it is virtually impossible to buy one because the buses/trams don't sell them on-board. We ended up walking everywhere and tiring ourselves out by 6 or 8!

This was the pizza place that we went to (and kept going back to)! It's near the Trevi Fountain on the Via Basilio (I think, or it could be the Via San Nicola). It's easier to tell a good (or bad) pizza place from a pasta place because a good pizza still looks succulent despite not having been cooked on the spot. Andrew and I did have an amazing meal at a little tucked away restaurant known for their seafood near the Vatican City called the Quartro Mori. We didn't even order; the waiter just said that he'd bring us some apetizers, risotto, and some grilled fish. And we didn't expect the bill to only be 30 euros per head including a bottle of wine!

To be continued..... :)

i'm my father's daughter

2007-10-28T00:51:00.000+01:00

Parents, Camden Market

I don't know how long I was in hospital for; I was only a year old, two maybe. I was in for encephalitis, which is "an acute inflammation of the brain, commonly caused by a viral infection" according to Wikipedia. I was in critical condition, and doctors told my parents that I could very well die, or if I survived, there was a high chance of me becoming a vegetable.

Obviously I don't remember any of it and there aren't any pictures of me during that period. I can only say that I'm here today, and not just alive and kicking, but thriving and doing fantastically well at everything I set my mind to.

My dad's proud of me. I can hear it in his voice. I said this once to my uncle - Uncle Patrick - that "I am my father's daughter" in defiance when my dad said something about me. I say it now again when I say that I'm proud to be his daughter and I'm love my parents. And I'm glad the doctors in the hospital were wrong. I mean, can you imagine me - a vegetable?

http://sundayscribblings.blogspot.com

i'm tired... really tired...

2007-10-26T18:37:00.000+01:00

saturday in southend

2007-10-20T23:52:00.000+01:00

Southend Pier

Southend Pier is a major landmark in Southend-on-Sea. It extends 2158 metres (1.341 miles) into the Thames Estuary and is the longest pleasure pier in the world. Sir John Betjeman once said that "the Pier is Southend, Southend is the Pier".

The trip to Southend was good I think. We got a group ticket (4 for the price of 2) and spent a whole day there taking in the cold sea air relaxing away from London. First off was food, coz we hadn't had anything the whole morning; no breakfast. Since it was a seaside town, we decided that fish 'n chips was the only way to go. We passed by a restaurant-looking place and decided to walk further and came to a little cafe that looked like a hole in a wall. The owner was a lovely snowy-haired old man who told us that he guaranteed that his fish 'n chips was the best. And because he was so sweet about everything, we decided to refuel there. It was a good plate of fish 'n chips.

We took a walk out on the banks by the sea but because it was low tide, all that we could see were mud flats which didn't make for a very pretty picture. Beaches in winter look so different from beaches in summer.

We timed it nicely to get to the pier at about sunset and I experienced the most gorgeous sunset of my life. I took about 30 shots of the sunset alone. Immediately after the sun set the chill of winter came over and settled like blanket. Still we walked the entire length of the pier but went back on the train.

Every Saturday in Southend till the first week of November there are fireworks. I'm so glad to have caught the fireworks. This display was much more enjoyable than the New Year's one at Southbank because there weren't millions of people backed up against one another and there was room to get gorgeous pictures of the fireworks! More pictures soon!

We left tired, but happy troopers!

my mac, my baby

2007-10-14T01:09:00.000+01:00

It's been two weeks and I think I finally have my Mac back, for now at least. Two Fridays ago, I took my Mac in to the Apple Store because the track pad click button thingy suddenly didn't respond. (I had moments earlier panicked and thought that it was a software malfunction because the click button had stopped responding just after I did a Firefox upgrade.) The guy at the Genius Bar said they'd replace the top panel, and when I mentioned that a couple of my keyboard buttons were sticky he said they'd take a look at it too. The first time I got my Mac back, they top panel was nice and new but the buttons were still sticky. The lady there said. "Oh yeah, they took the buttons out and pressed them back in but there's nothing more they can do. Unless you change the keyboard. But that will cost you." And I replied, "But isn't that covered under Apple Care?"

And so here I am, with a new keyboard today, two weeks after first taking my Mac in to be serviced for the track pad clicker. I figured - I've got another 7 months of Apple Care left, I might as well make use of it and get as much of a face lift as I possibly can while it still lasts. Happy as a lark.

Now, if I can only get my hard disk replaced and my OS re-installed.

Southbank

2007-10-08T23:15:00.001+01:00

Southbank, London

I love living by (near, actually) Southbank. Flat's less than a ten minute walk to the Embankment with the bars, restaurants, museums and street performers just across. My favourite time for a walk is Sunday afternoons, when the book vendors haven't packed their wares up yet.

I came down with a temperature and a stuffy nose last night. I could have gone to work and worked through the flu but I decided to stay home an get some rest in order to recover, so instead I stayed home and slept the extra hours. :)

It's turned cold here in London. We haven't turned on the heating yet but I wear two layers on in the evenings, a winter coat, thermal vests sometimes, and my boots. What's most telling is how early the sun sets these days - by about 7 it's completely dark and that's the depressing part of winter. I've come full circle and survived my first four seasons in London. Where will I be next year?

team soiree

2007-10-04T23:21:00.000+01:00

I so feel as if I've been stretched in too many directions recently. This week alone I've been out the last 3 evenings, 2 of which were work do's. Winnie wants to club tomorrow and Lydia's keen to club. I've never been a clubber and though I think I'd do it for friends, I don't know how much energy I will have by 11 pm tomorrow night.

Dinner tonight was with Philippa - the business director - and her hair teams - care, colour, and style. She lives in Ballam which is South London. It has a very "neighbourhood-y" feel to it. It feels like Fulham minus the pretentiousness. Her house was nice and about the size of my ex-abode in Fulham just furnished and decorated more nicely. The food was altogether pretty good in an average sort of way as we had sausage cocktails, (piping hot) quiches, various salady dishes. And loads of champers which is always a crowd pleaser.

On the tube to Philippa's, Danielle and I were chatting and conversation led to
"Oh, so where do you live?"
"I live near St. Paul's."
"Oh that's cool... So is it your flat?"
I started blankly, "Um...?"
"What I meant was did you buy your flat?"
"Oh me? No... I just moved to London a year ago."
"I thought you had always been here...."
And so goes the conversation and I explain why I have a tendency to sound more American and where I went to school and all that.

Me? A Londoner? There's a group on Flickr which says that you're eligible to join the group "London by Londoners as long as you've lived in London for 6 months, so I guess that makes me a "Londoner."

Danielle asked me if I'd ever go back to Singapore. I don't think so. I don't want to anyway. I may not stay in London all my life but I won't return to Singapore for good. Singapore's just really not me.

through the lens

2007-10-01T22:50:00.000+01:00

I got a fisheye lens converter that attaches onto my FZ50 and (and this is exciting) a Lomo Fisheye camera as bday pressies; and an Olympus TTL flash unit and a mini tripod from my dad. And my dad helped me convert a messenger bag I'd bought online in Singapore into a made-to-fit camera bag for my FZ50! How exciting.

The thing I like about photography is how the camera can capture images that we see all the time, in a slightly different viewpoint. One thing that amazes me is how difficult it is to capture a good shot of leaves in trees.

Hopefully the weather's better tomorrow and during lunch I can make my way to the corner shop at Farringdon tube station and pick up a roll of film for my new Lomo Fisheye. It's been years since I've used a film camera - the one I used was a (blue) Ricoh on holiday in London with my mom. Then I bought a Fuji Finepix which I subsequently dropped and decided not to fix. A couple more years went by before I got my first Panasonic FX7 in pink followed by the FX07, my dad's hand-me-down FZ50 and Leica Digilux and now the Fisheyes!

The weather's turned and the sun is setting earlier and earlier. It's a little depressing and when there are grey clouds in the sky, pictures get more washed out. But maybe I'll be blessed with a gorgeous clear, blue-sky day or two :)

dim sum sunday

2007-09-30T19:40:00.001+01:00

Shanghai Blues, dim sum restaurant

Because Winnie & Pete, Evonne & Jamie were away last week and couldn't make it to lunch at the Villandry with the rest of them, we decided on a belated celebration (but more of an excuse for some yummy dim sum) today at Shanghai Blues instead of usual haunt Laureate. The food's a little more expensive than Laureate but ambience was really nice, and guest list for today's little fête included my colleague Caroline and her boyfriend Thierry, Damian and Steph whom we've met before for Indian food and the Brick Lane festival that never happened.

Yay! So now I can add another restaurant to my fave list of London restaurants/cafes. :)

my parents were here in august!

2007-09-29T23:48:00.000+01:00

About two months ago, my parents visited me in London. My dad hasn't been in almost 20 years (I was 11 on his last trip) and my mom in 7 years (we came here in 2000). They were here only for 12 days; I think 3 weeks, 4 weekends would have been a better length but London is an expensive place to live in even though their budgets were relieved by free plane tickets. [My dad used to work for SQ and as a retirement benefit, both he and my mom are entitled to a free plane ticket anywhere in the world once yearly, and on other occasions they pay 10% of the ticket price.] It was nice having them here, although minor "altercations" reinforce the knowledge that my mom and I can't survive in close quarters - "Neither can live while the other survives" (Harry Potter). My mom cooked dong gu jing chee yoke and loh chee yoke and was appalled at how dusty the flat gets just the next day after a thorough wipe. My dad enjoyed looking at London through his camera and eating cream puffs.

The first three days of their holiday, my parents and I went on a road trip - London-Newport-Chester-Lakes-London. Because my dad drove and I was navigating, my dad kept saying to my mom, "Take a picture, take a picture." It was a whirlwind road trip but enjoyable as we stopped off at any little town that caught our fancy. I haven't finished uploading all my roadtrip pics to Flickr yet but some are already here and I've got loads more, plus my dad's retouching his photos and I'm eagerly awaiting his.

My dad teared when we parted at Earl's Court. We had a lot of fun in London, taking pictures, he with his VLux1 and me with my(his) FZ50. I'm definitely a lot closer to my dad. I've got his sense of humour that my mom just doesn't get and his approach to life is simply "everyone's gotta live his/her own life." I wish Singapore were closer and I could hop on a train and be back for the weekend; we'd just go out and take pictures!

breakfast

2007-09-26T14:28:00.000+01:00

©John Huck

This just in from my office's news highlights. What people eat for breakfast. :) It's a really interesting project!

I like.

Links:
http://jonhuck.com
http://jonhuck.com/breakfast/index.htm

happy birthday me

2007-09-24T19:03:00.000+01:00

My second birthday celebration in London. It's very different from my first when I got lost trying to get from Euston to Oxford Street. I think I'd be very different from the me back then. I wonder what the me next year will be like?

Happy Birthday

a snapshot of perfection

2007-09-24T15:58:00.001+01:00

, originally uploaded by kayspace.

I love this shot! The blue of the sky was simply amazing!!!

a precious collection

2007-09-16T22:15:00.000+01:00

I have a big box of old letters and cards back home in Singapore that I've had since I was in my teens. And here in London, I have a little stack of cards that my family and friends have sent me since I've left. The latest card is a birthday card I received from my twinnie that my parents brought over with them when they holidays here in London about a month ago. My brithday's in five days on September 21st and I've opened the card like she knew I would but I haven't the present yet.

I also have a furry collection here in London. Some may say I'm too old for soft toys but I have a purple teddy that I've had since I was about 19; Raspberry has been everywhere with me! There's a ginger cat aptly named Cat that I bought in Canterbury. There's Antoine who's a very very old teddy bear. And Monkey (guess what he is?) from Aledburgh.

And of course there's bags & shoes. I was at Aldo today and saw a bag which I liked. Quilted beige patent-finish small messenger bag. I figured I'd think about it and not by it on the spot but I'm thinking about it and maybe on pay day I'll make a trip to Aldo :)

More collections at Sunday Scribblings here.

gone?

2007-09-15T01:30:00.000+01:00

I carelessly lost my pair of sunnies today at the client's offices. I have already emailed my client to ask if she can send out an all-staffer but the likelihood is slim. True, the sunnies weren't the best fit because my nose bridge is practically non existent but the overall look was something that I really liked, and that particular pair had been heavily adjusted to compensate for the difference in my ear heights so it's not a simple case of either spending more money here and getting them or getting a new pair in Singapore coz they'd still have to be adjusted.

I'm bloggng about it because I can't sleep when prior to suddenly remembering, I was really tired. It shouldn't mean so much to me but it does. The next steps are difficult. Working on the assumption that the existing pair is absolutely lost, should I get another pair of the same in London? In Singapore shipped to London which won't fit so well? Or shop for yet another pair that fits way better? :D

Sleep please come.

a picture of mine, shortlisted

2007-09-12T18:42:00.000+01:00

About a month ago or so, I went to the Innocent Village Fete. I submitted some of the pictures I'd taken to the Innocent pool on Flickr and found out today that one of them

was shortlisted in the Innocent best pics competition for the "Best picture of bunting" category. Please click here and click on the link to vote for my picture! Besides the obviously yummy prize of a year's supply of Innocents, it's quite exciting and new to have one of my pictures in an actual (well some would argue that's debatable I suppose) competition! But that's besides the point anyway.

I'm also very happy that a friend commented that my Munich pics looked good and sharp. I'm a very new photographer in my opinion, having only begun shooting madly with my FZ50 after my trip home in June.

Constructive criticism and commendations are very welcome as I desire to improve and take as many great shots as my dad! :)

thanking you

2007-09-06T23:16:00.000+01:00

Corrinne May is the only local (and by that I mean Singaporean) singer/songwriter that I like. A lot. Check out her website here. I first heard of her songs off my cousin's song list in Perth in 2003 - Fly Away it was - and when I returned to Singapore I found that my dad had bought her CD. Henceforth it was mine.

I like Corrinne May's songs. She feels very real and sometimes it feels as if she echos exactly what I'm thinking, what I'm feeling.

I'm listening to her third album now. Joel told me a few weeks ago that she was releasing a new one and that he'd get a copy for me. A few days ago I saw a package on my desk at work.

Joel, thank you for the CD and above all thank you for being my friend since we first met at Van's house in 2003! I was putting the DVD away in my disc folder and saw the Post-It notes that accompanied the CDs and DVDs. How apt that the song that's playing right now goes

"Everyone needs a friend a to hold
When it's cold outside
And there's no place to go
Everyone needs a friend a to hold
All alone I cried
There was no place to go"

It feels strange that it's been a year since I left "home" and the weather's turning cold yet again. Time seems to move more quickly when the trees mark the passing of time distinctively. It feels strange but good. I'm glad to be listeing to Corrine May tonight.

a moment

2007-09-06T00:26:00.000+01:00

I was walking from Leather Lane to Gray's Inn Road last Friday, through a small road, when I came across this scene and I thought to myself "the sun's pretty much almost perfect on the building against a pretty much almost perfect clear blue sky!" And I didn't have my camera with me because I didn't think I would take a picture of anything! I guess the moral of the story is always be prepared. Good thing my phone's got a camera function. It's not ideal but it'll suffice to register this moment having taken place.

One of my friends lives without a camera and uses his camera phone for everything. Granted he's (probably) got a better camera in his phone than I do. But I just can't imagine myself without a proper camera, especially on a holiday! Since inheriting the FZ50, I've taken more pictures in a span of 2 months than any given two months of my life!

It's my birthday soon and one of my pressies is going to be a polarizing filter. My dad gave me an Olympus flash as an early pressie when he was here. I'm looking forward to loads more pictures and have asked Jayna to give me a shout if Eamon & her organize any more photo taking expeditions. How exciting!

life's what you make of it

2007-09-04T23:02:00.000+01:00

A friend of mine once said very wisely that up to about 30 your face is generally the face you were born with. After 30 though, your face is what you make it to be, and by the time you're about 50, the face you have is the face you've made.

I say this because of a little encounter in the office building yesterday at about 6 when everyone was heading home.

I left the office and made my way to the lift lobby where I saw the a set of lift doors just beginning to close. Naturally, I said "oops, sorry" when I pressed the call button and the lift doors re-opened for me. Inside was a woman I've seen around. She displayed utter irritation that I had gotten into the lift and behaved as if the seconds were a matter of life and death (maybe they were - who'd have known?)

She was anywhere between late thirties to late forties - I can never tell accurately with white women. With hair the texture and colour of wheat that I've learnt is considered blond. She had thin, pursed lips and a furrowed forehead.

She might have been a handsome woman but she looked like a shriveled up prune. That was her face. It showed that she really wasn't happy with life. I was both bemused and feeling sorry for her.

ratatouille ala kay

2007-09-04T13:38:00.000+01:00

Just discovered that what I've been cooking for a while now is ratatouille or an omnivorous version of it at least. Ratatouille is a famous Provençal/Niçoise vegetable stew popular in autumn when vegetables are abundant and inexpensive. I added oven-cooked sausage pieces and bacon because I'm a meat eater and I didn't have any courgettes but the rest is pretty much the same as the traditional ratatouille. (I hadn't even heard of ratatouille until the movie!)

To make ratatouille ala Kay:

(please adjust portions according to how much you want to make; this recipe makes 4 large portions or 6 just-nice portions)

1 aubergine
1 large onion
1 large pepper (I used green)
3-4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1 box good quality sausages (12 thin ones)
8 rashers of bacon
Courgette (I didn't have this in mine but it's in most ratatouille recipes)
2 cans/tins chopped tomato (so I didn't have to chop and cook mine from raw)

In an oven, cook sausages till the skins turn crisp. Fry bacon till slightly crispy.
Fry chopped onions in oil over low heat until soft. Add the sliced garlic and continue to sauté.
Add peppers and cook for a few minutes. Add the aubergine and fry till coated with the oil in the pan (some people recommend sprinkling salt on the aubergines and pressing them to draw out the water but I don't bother).
Add the sausages, bacon, and tomato. Add salt and pepper to taste and sauté till done.

Voila. it's fantastic! I'll take a pic and post it with this recipe soon!

reunion

2007-08-30T00:53:00.000+01:00

I'm back in London after a fantastic weekend in Munich. In the picture above you see (L-R) me, Chian Chiew, Xuehong, and Harold. We are just four of a Sunday school class way back then. You could say we grey up together though it wasn't till our teens that we got to know each other. Some 8-10 years back, we lost touch with each other as we went our separate ways. It wasn't until I moved to London that I got to know that CC was in the UK through a friend, and then got in touch with Harold, and then we all finally found out that XH has been posted to Munich a year ago for a year.

The world's so small though sometimes it isn't small enough I fear.

Though I had seen CC and Harold separately on previous occasions, this is the first time we've all been in one place at the same time. It was fantastic! It was hilarious. Sleeping arrangements were reminiscent of old chalet days where we squeezed in together in a tiny room. All of us commented that none of us seemed to have changed. Harold is still Harold with his linen shirts and shoe bag - just with longer hair and a goatee. XH is still XH with his polo tees - more tanned from the hot summer the rest of Europe's been having. And CC's still has the pair of jeans she had when we were both still in touch! A few more wrinkles, a couple more pounds and less hair on some heads perhaps :)

We were in Munich (city) on the first day. CC missed her connecting flight in Frankfurt by just 2 minutes and had to take a train which cost her more moneyand 5 more hours! We journeyed to Salzburg on Sunday and were amazed at how cheap the group ticket was! And took in the BMW museum, the Munich Olympic stadium and some shopping on Monday before heading back to London. Pics to follow at a later date.

rest and relax

2007-08-22T21:54:00.000+01:00

I didn't realize it earlier but tonight's my first night of real and relaxation because my parents have been here in London for the past almost two weeks and I've been away for research groups (in Cheadle Hulme, Manchester?) and tonight it's me, me, just me in the flat. I'm listening to Corrinne May and I'm looking forward to Friday, to the books that I bought from Amazon.co.uk arriving, to my trip to Munich, and to my new Corrinne May album (her third) arriving because Joel's bought it for me and is sending it to me. I'm also looking forward to the photos from when my parents were here being all nice and organized but I'm not exactly looking forward to doing the organizing - just shy of 700 pictures.

The weather's been shitty recently. The weekend that my parents arrived was glorious and we had pretty good weather during our road trip. But it's all grey and gloom now and today, the sun seemed to set at 6. Is this the end of summer then? I almost forgot but I've been here in London for a year! Last August seemed warmer and sunnier.

I can't believe how time's flown. It's mind blowing that I've been in London for a year. Over dinner, a friend was telling me how she misses her friends back in Singapore. I do miss my friends and going back in June was great but it solidified the feeling that I just don't belong in Singapore anymore. I do have many things to be greatful for and I'll probably save that for another post.

thinking about food

2007-08-14T12:59:00.000+01:00

I'm bored and I'm hungry. But there are more things against me. The sky outside the window is grey and overcast so it must be chillier and I don't have any of my cameras with me so I'm not too motivated to go out and take pictures.

My parents are here in London. They arrived last Wednesday and are leaving this Sunday. I'm glad to see them although close proximity with my mom has proved challenging, yet again - arguments on Thursday night and Friday night continuing into Saturday morning as evidence. My dad and I get along great!

So far, we've had roast duck and crispy roast pork da baoed from Four Seasons Chinatown, dim sum at Laureate, and burgets from GBK. (They really liked the burgers though my mom's not really a burger fan.) We were so eager to tuck in to our burgers last night that I forgot to take a picture of my dad's avocado and bacon burger to add to my Flickr burger set. It's currently looking a little sparse because I keep ordering the same burger each time I go. Friday night I'm taking them to Tayyabs for Indian/Pakistani food. There's so much to see and do, and so little time.

Right. So now I really should decide what I'd like to eat because I'm absolutely famished! :)

waiting

2007-08-13T15:14:00.000+01:00

A couple of weeks ago, I was devastated by a turn of events at work. No, I'm not quite 100% yet. And no, I don't really know if I will be soon or ever; here at least. I'm torn and I'm worried. I'm worried about things that I don't have much control over and that worries me too.

So at the moment I'm just making the best of the situation and I'm waiting. Waiting for miracles. Waiting for a sign. Waiting for stuff to happen. Waiting.

The Innocent Village Fete

2007-08-07T16:14:00.000+01:00

Saturday was a hot and sunny day, perfect for a day out at Regent's Park for the Innocent Village Fete. This must have been the hottest day in London all summer! Has summer finally arrived in London? I believe we never quite know the answer. My parents are arriving tomorrow morning and I don't know if they've packed summer clothes or warm clothes.

More pics at here.

still moving forward

2007-08-04T09:37:00.000+01:00

Last night, I went to a screening of a bunch of short local films at Angel with a bunch of fellow locals. By local, I mean my local - Singaporeans. Shoba, EL, Evonne and I. There were a bunch of ang mohs at the screening and I wonder what they thought, what they took out, and whether it made any sense at all to them. The films were all subtitled in English, even the English narratives because it was real people talking to camera and we all know that your average Singaporean doesn't speak English, he speaks Singlish. (There's also Manglish apparently, which is the Malaysian form of English).

Walking back from Angel with EL, he said, "You know, I don't think I'm ready to go back to Singapore yet. Seeing those films about Singapore, set in Singapore, I dont. Yet." I replied that I felt exactly the same. Sitting and cringing in the basement room, I have to say I felt the same way but a step further. I don't want to return to the Singaporean way of life. EL said something else that was pretty spot on - he said that he could see himself returning to that way of life but he didn't want to, yet. But for me, I never fit in back home and I was always different.

It's not all great at the moment and I must say that I've come to a hurdle. I need to cross that hurdle and move forward because I don't want to move back.

My parents are coming to London for a vacation and I'm really happy to be seeing them soon. I miss them. I miss my room. I miss my (favourite) grandma. I miss my twinnie. I miss a lot of things. But Singapore's no longer my home and I'm not a part of it and I have to move on.

Read more decisions, small or gigantic at Sunday Scribblings.

south bank by night

2007-08-03T14:10:00.001+01:00

I've been home the last few days, not really doing anything. I'm online but I'm not directed. I was surfing Flickr last night when I came across a discussion thread all about night shots with the FZ50 and decided that I wanted in on the action. Realized that I've never taken a night shot with the camera since getting it end June so I had dinner and waited for the sun to set.

It was an inspired night. It was fun. It was tiring.

Hampton Court Palace

2007-08-01T11:32:00.000+01:00

EL, Shoba, Andrew and I went to Hampton Court Palace on Saturday. It was nice to get out of London for the day, especially after Friday's turn of events. And we were blessed with sunny weather through most of the day. Click through to take a look at my Hampton Court Palace pictures on Flickr.

We returned to London tired, a shade darker perhaps(?) and happy.

always look on the bright side of life

2007-07-31T23:14:00.000+01:00

The week has been a bitch so far and isn't going to get any better for the next two weeks or so but ...
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I have a new blog template and I had TWO soft shelled crab hand rolls. I like soft shelled crabs. :)

the head bone connected to the... neck bone

2007-07-30T22:21:00.000+01:00

I love books. I remember when I was a kid my mom stopped bringing me to the then-fashionable place to go if you want to buy books Times the Bookshop because our book expenditure was getting out of hand. She brought my brother and I to the library to get our first library cards and to the second hand bookstore - Sunny Bookshop at Far East Plaza. I was about ten. [Sunny Bookshop has since expanded to occupy twice its original floor space and the owner doesn't man the shop anymore!] But anyway, I love books.

My collection of books here in London isn't overwhelming but it's growing and occupying more space on my Billy bookcase from good ol' Ikea. I am currently reading Harry Potter and The Good Fairies of New York. There's a wonderful little bookstore in Exmouth Market that I absolutely adore. It's small and quaint, yet new. It's got a wide variety of books for the size that it is and isn't as overwhelming as the mega bookstores. Each time I step inside, I want to buy something, be it a novel or coffee table book or recipe book.

This is where the title of this post starts to make sense. I really do wish I had my own place. Buying property in London is expensive but a girl's gotta learn the ins and outs of her finances doesn't she? The next book I'm buying is this one. The good thing is that it's UK-centric which means that if I want to buy an apartment (a flat, a house - whatever) in London, I'll have a better idea of what to do and how to plan forwards it.

I will have wall-to-wall book shelves with books in it. I'll have CD and DVD compartments built into the bookcases. My books will not be double stacked. I'll have a large arm chair with comfortable and pretty cushions. A comfy sofa. I'll have a nice square or rectangular coffee table. I'll have a rectangular dining table and a kitchen that's large enough to fit a small table for quick breakfasts and snacks. I'll have a bedroom that's large enough not only for just a bed but with adequate walking space on either side of the bed, a desk/dresser, and either a walk-in wardrobe or built-in wardrobes so that there are no corners to bang into. I'll have a bathroom with a bathtub and a little window. Everything will be white-based with colour in the accessories so that I can change colour schemes to suit every whim and fancy.

I want a place that I can call my own. A place that truly feels like home. I want to be able to hammer nails into the walls! I want my bookcases to line the walls for the home I will one-day call my own.

(in)finite ego

2007-07-30T19:14:00.000+01:00

In a random conversation over dinner consisting of 1 Brit, 3 Singaporeans and 1 Malaysian, an acquaintance summed up the egotistical difference between the Americans and th Brits like this:

To the Brits, amount of ego is finite. To the Americans, it's infinite. Simply put, for one Brit to be higher up the ego ladder, another must be lower; ego is finite. An American doesn't need to make his counterpart feel inferior for him to feel superior; ego is infinite.

The first instance was clearly demonstrated in two separate encounters. In a group setting, someone said "Don't put too much stress on xxx. He's not a creative." He said that a few times, as if being a creative was an exalted position over another position. And in another situation, someone else was bragging about a recent promotion that occurred in about half the time it usually takes for others to achieve.

I am sure the feelings of pride and ego are justly felt but along with feelings of pride, I can't help but think the theory of finite ego. Now isn't that strange? I haven't had the chance to verify this by interacting with more Americans but isn't that a thought?

Anyway this little nibble is coming in a little late for Sunday Scribblings but the thought's finally here and I've been grappling with trying to connect my thoughts coherently the whole weekend.It hasn't been a very good end to the last work week so perhaps that's why. Read more here.

not quite recovered

2007-07-25T23:04:00.000+01:00

I've been sick pretty much all weekend and am still am. The usual suspects - first came Sore Throat, then Fever, followed by ol' Stuffy Nose and Koff-Koff. I had planned to queue for Proms tickets with EL on Sat night but I decided to rest instead, since I already had tickets to the following Prom on Sunday. I missed Faure's Cantique de Jean Racine and In Paradisum live and was listening on the radio instead. I thought waking up for the Proms on Sunday would be easy since I slept early Saturday night but I woke up at 10:13 am and the performance was at 11! I guess I was more tired than I'd thought. Ended up missing the opening piece but the rest of it was fantastic. I got some realy good pics too!

The Blue Peter Prom was a prom meant for the family (with familiar songs "My Favourite Things" and the theme from Harry Potter "Harry's Wondrous World" so it was a fitting end to the Prom that balloons were let down from the dome into the maddening crowd.

Am not quite recovered yet but thankfully I spent a day resting and bumming around mostly. After yesterday's 12 hour day at Egham I was absolutely knackered. The food at the Loch Fyne was good though I think my taste buds were probably only 50 Egham, as I discovered, is such a small town; Jayna showed me the high street (you can walk from one end to the other in 5 minutes) on Tuesday when I stayed over at her's. She was so sweet to house me for the night - thank you!

Will stop and head to bed now. I've to go in just a little earlier to try to set a few things up for a meeting tomorrow, and unfortunately I was asked to get these things ready only at 7 this evening and official work hours end at 5:30. Fingers crossed.

domesticity

2007-07-17T00:10:00.000+01:00

Cheri's nick on MSN today was "A man does what he can. A woman does what he can't." Or something to that extent. :) I think I understand my mom's frustration as she says that she does everything around the house and isn't thanked for it. I got back to the flat today at about 6:15 or so and magic-mopped the floors, ironed all but the bed sheet, and cooked dinner. Domesticity isn't quite my thing. Baking brownies and the occasional choc chip cookie is one thing; having to plan what to eat on a daily basis is another. One can understand why home-making is a full time job. Planning a meal is a task in itself worthy of a mini event coordinator!! Men just have so many excuses for things undone.

Yesterday I attempted to make oyster omelette. Sans oyster of course, because I don't eat oysters. I followed this recipe. Looks easy enough. So they said. My sweet potato and water mixture thickened to resemble brain matter and tasted distinctly of goo and salt. I felt as if I were eating children's glue that someone had accidentally(?) salted! And I'm not a bad cook and I actually can follow a recipe. Needless to say, I threw the Salted Mock Brain Matter away, and I ended up having a delicious dinner of Indomie Mee Goreng with mushrooms and a fried egg.

Finally carved out some "me time." Instead of sitting on the sofa which is ever more comfortable, I took my iBook to the desk-sized table that masquerades as a dining table, and copied all my photos off various memory cards to my HDD. Sometimes I wonder if I'm good at it - either taking pictures or writing, which are expressions of creativity. Drawing and painting I know I can't do, except for doodles.

being and doing

2007-07-10T23:04:00.000+01:00

Regent's Park, Sunday 8 July 2007

Just before I left Singapore to return to London, Joel and I had a conversation about "being" versus "doing", how there was a natural progression from "being" towards "doing" but not so the other way round. Today's post is not meant to be a lesson in philosophy.

I'm just tired. I don't know why but I've been tired. Last week, my first week back in London, I was mainly jet lagged and managing to wake up at 6 in the morning, even making it to the gym before work. But of course by about 9 or 10 I'd be absolutely drained. This week, I'm finding myself unable to pry myself from bed in the mornings, and tired to the point of being cranky and almost in tears at night. I want to do things - arrange my photos, blog, clean(!) - but I don't have the energy to. Plus I'm sniffley.

It's good to be. When you are, you can. There's energy in doing when it stems from being.

Last Sunday, I went to Regent's Park with EL (and met up with some of EL's friends and friends of friends) for about hours, I was just walking/sitting in the park, listening to music, appreciating the sunshine and blue skies. Time passed neither too quickly nor too lethargically. There was a jazz violin concert-in-the-park. People were sitting on mats on the grass. Or deck chairs for rent. I sat on my Birkie lookalikes in a white skirt.

In Regent's Park on that Sunday, it was nice to simply be.

marching to the beat of a different drum

2007-07-04T18:39:00.000+01:00

A thought struck me today, as I chanced upon a new friend's photo archive on Flickr. The thoughts still a little raw - undeveloped but brimming with potential. In my primitive little mind, I have a(n unproven) theory that people who are different express themselves very, well... differently. (I think I need a thesaurus and a few English lessons.)

I think that people with wanderlust in them, people who don't quite accept the way things are and constantly challenge societal norms, people who's reality is larger than the actual world they physically live in... These people see the world through different eyes and express themselves more and with less frivolity than people who are generally happy with the status quo.

Landing on Purdey's Flickr page, my thought today was - the people whose pictures I love looking at, and whose blogs I visit and re-visit - these are my kind of people. And that's why I feel connected to them in some way.

Related: My post on Roots that I wrote as part of the Sunday Scribblings writing project/community that I try to be a part of and participate when I have something relevant to share.

more singapore

2007-06-26T17:03:00.000+01:00

Reverse chronological order - today's events:

Went to Jesiee's place in Bukit Batok to take a look at her new flat. It's nice. She's moved into a 2-story HDB place. Previously she was staying in a huge house that her parents and brother had rooms in and though Melvin and Jes were the main occupants, at least to me, it didn't quite feel like home. I really liked hanging out at their flat tonight even though I was so tired and pretty much zoned out.

Jes and Melvin kindly picked me up from Maxwell Road where earlier, I had dinner nearby at Food Alley with my parents and the lady who used to babysit my brother and I when we were kids and housekeep. Dinner was fast and efficient, with minimal conversation. "Normal" Chinese meals facilitate this lack of conversation with the food coming all at once and everyone concentrating on grabbing their fave bits as opposed to "Western" meals where courses are separate and each person has his or her own helping. Dinner was over so soon that I actually had moments to spare and walked to the Red Dot Museum on Maxwell Road where I took this picture above.

I'm really tired. I think I might even be falling sick. My dad's not feeling too well and apparently my brother's sick too. My cold might have been brought on by not sleeping till 3 a.m. last night (was organizing more photos and then I decided to watch just one episode of Miami Ink) and this morning's early start to a day riddled with seeing many people - Jo to pass her the CDs, Tim for coffee and a tour roound his new office, my cousin and grandma for lunch and shopping - all in the unbearable heat and humidity.

I think I am ready to go back to London. I think Singapore's showing me that i've outstayed her welcome. Though London's always dreary, I'm looking forward to low humidity. And though I love my mom to bits, I'm looking forward to my clothes not being ruined with her haphazard washing/drying methods.

malacca

2007-06-20T18:52:00.000+01:00

It's true. Unless you're retired or jobless or don't give damn, there really isn't enough time in a day to process and upload all the pictures that you can take in a single day out. Here are some pics that I shot on our road trip to Malacca - Joel, Cheri and I.

I've spent the last four hours retouching and uploading 19 photos. My dad's taught me how to tweak photos so that they look better and I've been having a ball playing with Photoshop. Here's Cheri, Joel and I in a little cafe on Jonkers Road/Street having our flavoured lassis. I had strawberry (what else?), Cheri had a lycee mix and Joel had a dragon fruit one! Just look at the colour!

For more of my Malacca pics, follow this link to Flickr.

independence

2007-06-19T18:31:00.000+01:00

Had an interesting conversation with a friend today over coffee. The best word to summarize the conversation would have to be "independence." We Singaporeans are a sheltered bunch. Our grandparents did the hard work by braving the storms and seas, travelling across the ocean to reach Singapore, the promised land. Our parents too had a hard time, forging and paving the way through sheer hard work, many coming from poor backgrounds and very difficult times.

This generation, my generation, have had it good. We live with our parents until "adulthood" which in Singaporean speak means until we get married and "leave the nest." Sure, we contribute to the expense pot and we may do our bit around the house. But many of us, in our late 20s or early 30s, have no idea of the responsibility that comes with independence. And our parents baby us and shelter us, and yet we think of ourselves as independent individuals?

Independence isn't being away from your parents. And independence doesn't mean complete freedom laissez-faire style. Independence is signing a lease on your first and second and third apartment/room. Independence is needing to get that toilet fixed. Independence is washing and ironing after working the whole day. Independence is being responsibile for yourself and being responsible to the people that are in your life. Independence is knowing that if you want a roof over your head, you're jolly well going to have to work for that roof and pay your bills on time.

I wish Singapore (its people and its systems - political or social) didn't mother us so much that it smothers us. I wish moving out after uni wasn't such a taboo thing. Perhaps it doesn't help that geograpically, Singapore's so small but I wish we didn't depend on our parents to cook our food and do our laundry.

That's one of the things that I've learned being away. I appreciate my parents and all that they do for me. But I appreciate them because I appreciate that in my life, I have to do those things now.

singapore's better for...

2007-06-18T17:34:00.000+01:00

Chocolate martinis. Sara and I at Morton's for martinis.

"Local" food - of course! After Morton's, Cheri and I stopped off at Newton hawker centre for a spot of gooey oyster omelette. I promised pictures so here they are!

camera crazy

2007-06-15T18:18:00.000+01:00

My dad's eccentric with his cameras. For as long as I can remember, he's loved taking pictures. The stacks of photo albums in the cupboard attest to that. He used to have shelves of old film cameras, many of them Leicas, when I was a little girl. I was probably about 10 when be bought a "baby Pentax" for me and I remember that I loved taking pictures when I was that age.

He's gone digital now. Almost everyone has I guess, even if they do still shoot with film. And these are the cameras that he has in his little collection. Some of the cameras are hush-hush - my mom doesn't know about them. And she hasn't noticed that the camera has grown in size and most recently, acquired a little red dot. [My dad's gone from the Panasonic FZ1 to the FZ8 to the FZ10 to the FZ20 to the FZ50 and finally the Leica VLux1.] She thinks it's still the original camera.

In previous post I briefly mentioned inheiriting the FZ50. The story is that when my dad first bought the FZ50 upgrading from the FZ20, he needed to "get rid" of the FZ20 so he sent it to London with EL for me. Recently, after having no more legitimate excuse to upgrade from the FZ50 to the VLux1, he started playing the lottery buying the serial number of the FZ50 and won a small sum that was enough for feed his addiction. He then passed the FZ50 to his sister and now I'm trading the FZ20 for the FZ50.

My mom has no clue.

When I head back to London I'm also taking the Digilux 1 with me. I also have a pink FX07. And my grandma is the proud new owner of another Panasonic model (she's 80 this year and speaks no English and takes beautiful pictures). Three generations of happy clickers. I guess we're all a little eccentric. Read more on Sunday Scribblings and check out my photos.

crazy lazy

2007-06-13T16:12:00.000+01:00

I can hardly believe I've been "home" for 5 whole days. It's been quite a whirlwind, errands - new contact lenses, new glasses, new sun glasses, dental appointment - and meeting friends for movies, drinks, coffee and food that I've missed - chicken rice, oyster omelette, fried calamari, and chicken wings! It may not sound like anything special but London's versions of these foods just aren't up to scratch!

And in between, I've managed to generally wake up late (I woke up at 4:30 pm yesterday!) and shop (I bought Korean make up, track shoes, and a top)!!

Part of me can't believe I've only got a little over 2 weeks more in Singapore. It's so easy to feel at home here but I don't think either Singapore nor London is quite home. In a perfect world, I'd be able to extract the bits of both cities that I like and build a perfect home. It's really nice to see my friends and family and that's what I miss most in London.

My dad and I have been having father-daughter bonding time late at night. We are late sleepers and we talk most about photography. My dad's an avid photographer and though he's not professional he's definitely not your run of the mill point-and-shoot. He's using the Leica VLux1 at the moment and I'm inheiriting the Panasonic FZ50. Last night, I had my first lesson in amateur retouching! And while the relationship between my mom and I is moving forward, I think that my brother and I will never have any sort of civil relationship. I bought an Arsenal football and key ring from London for him and all the thanks I received was a curt "Hello, thank you for the Arsenal football. It's appreciated."

More errands to run. Next up - my visa application!

there was never a better time...

2007-06-08T20:35:00.000+01:00

... to write about spice - that's this week's Sunday Scribblings topic - because I'm back home in Singapore where everyone's second favourite hobby is eating and is one of the largest consumers of chilli.

Joel picked me up from the airport today because we (my dad and my fave grandma) were giving my mom a surprise coz it's her birthday today. My grandma was in on it so that she could suggest the mahjong session - the only way to keep my mom awake! I also saw my best friend (my twinnie) and we drove to Newton Circus for a spot of late night supper (something that's virtually impossible to do in London because everything closes so early!)

To start with, we had Oyster Omelette, something sorely missed while I was in London at Newton. Oysters (which Cheri ate up) and eggs and starchy goo fried with chilli! It's superbly yummy! It wasn't quite enough but we thought a second plate would be too much. So I ordered barbecued chicken wings that came with chilli. Next on the list is chicken rice and I'm not sure if it's the chicken, the rice or the chilli that I'm hankering for. For those of you who haven't tried chicken rice, you have no idea what you've missed out on all your life. Here's the recipe. I haven't tried it myself but if you can't actually go out and buy one conveniently, it's the alternative. It's the chilli. Always.

I never used to eat spicy stuff, let alone chilli. That's really rare for a Singaporean. I would have the occasional (mild) green curry. But I've developed a liking for chilli and curries. My aunt made curry for my cousins and I at my flat in London when they were there last week and I lapped it all up without major damage to my tongue. There is one thing that I will still not touch, as a Singaporean though, and that's durians.

I'll post pictures of the food I'm enjoying here in Singapore so non Singaporeans will get an idea of what foods we enjoy here. But for more spice, head to
Sunday Scribblings. For now.

i heart today

2007-06-06T12:34:00.000+01:00

I'm at a shoot now. I'm in a studio that looks like ex-warehouse, in a rather industrial part of north London in Kentish Town. There's not a lot to do here and it's more so that there's someone here. I brought my laptop with me and I've got time to do my own stuff.

I'm actually quite glad to be on this shoot because it almost feels like a break from being absolutely swamped at work. I never thought working in London would be as busy as working in Singapore. It seems that advertising, no matter where you are, is the same the world over. And for something that doesn't really count as being life and death. This down time is also good because of all the non-work-specific issues that have been going on that are really taking a toll on me. In a people-oriented business like ours, it's really a challenge to handle all your clients; and sometimes internal clients are even more difficult to handle.

36 hours to go and I'm really looking forward to going home. I've been thinking about home for a while now, ever since I confirmed the dates of my vacation in order to get the visa sorted. If I haven't mentioned it on my blog yet, I've got my work permit approved and I've got a visa to allow me to stay in the UK for another 5 years! That's entirely fantastic. Sometime ago, I was so worried about my visa status and the thought of having to return to Singapore for good was depressing. I don't think I would qualify for a highly skilled migrant visa so it's a good thing that this came through. There are many people to thank for it.

We get fed pretty well at these things. Breakfast included gourmet cereals, fruit, smoked salmon, cold cuts, cheese and danishes. And lunch was really yummy with a whole piece of grilled salmon, duck confit and other stuff that looked good but that I didn't try. Oh and we have Green & Blacks choccies. I think Media gets it slightly better than Creative but we have perks too. They get premieres and special invites which is really fun and financially handy!

My car's coming in a while to drop me at my next meeting so see you later! xx

family

2007-06-05T22:48:00.000+01:00

My cousin, Steffy, who's been here in London for 10 months on an exchange programme, is leaving for Greece on Thursday, the same day that I'm flying home on. After a trip to Paris, Steffy wil fly back to Singapore before heading back to Perth to complete her undergraduate degree. I will just miss her in Singapore because she arrives when I leave.

My other cousin Jasmine who has been Edinburgh is also returning to Singapore.

It's been really nice having family here in London. I'm really going to miss Steffy in particular, because she's been so present in my life the past several months, meeting every couple of weeks or so.

I guess that's the most difficult thing about uprooting. not having any family and friends. I mean, there's always new friends and getting to know new people but I don't like deliberately trying to make friends. I know some people consciously obtain new phone numbers and all that but that's just not me.

Anyway I do miss home. Very much so. :)

i'm a city girl

2007-06-02T11:21:00.000+01:00

I live and work in London, one of the largest and busiest cities in the world. I am from Singapore, a country so small that there's no 'countryside' or 'rural' although being 10 minutes from the heart of the city, I consider folk living in Jurong or Pasir Ris totally "ulu". There's no prize for guessing what type of girl I am. I'm a city girl through and through. When I was deciding between continents, my choices were between Sydney, New York and London. Huge cites.

I've been traveling a little in the UK. Andrew's from Ipswich so I've been a few times for family gatherings. A road trip to Devon. A weekend in Henley. Climbing a mountain in the Lake District. While I fully appreciate the calm and serenity of the country, I daresay, I could not fathom living in the country. It must be the "Singaporeaness" in us coming through when EL and I say, in every town that we go to that we could "stay here for X weeks sanely with a car and high-speed unlimited broadband." Devon got 3 weeks because with a car one could drive to many other parts of Devon. Coniston got 2 weeks, max. A weekend in Henley was too long for me.

The city girl in me is also evident in that I live in Zone 1, near St. Paul's Cathedral. I know that I probably won't be able to or want to live in Zone 1 forever. I'll probably trade in the convenience for a larger house at some point. But at the moment, I love that I'm a 10-minute walk from the office. Night buses (not that I've been on any) are great. And a Starbucks and a Costa vying for retail space around every other corner.

One of the drawbacks of living in the heart of Central London is the supermarkets. I love huge, expansive supermarkets. Supermarkets that actually stock the elusive buttermilk. So many times I've wanted to bake scones or muffins and I've got every single ingredient save buttermilk and I've had to scrap the idea. Big supermarkets are present in Zone 2 but sometimes the inconvenience of carrying groceries back in the tube is enough to detract from that desire. (And for those of you who've been in the tube in summer, you really know how unpleasant and uncomfortable it is).

I'm going home soon. Home to Singapore. What I'm looking forward to in that city are - coffee shops opened till 2 or 4 in the morning; cheap, delicious eating places opened 24 hours, shops that close at 9 or 10 at night (how can normal office workers even make it to late night shopping if the shops close at 7?); and of course, my family and friends.

What sort of person are you? More on Sunday Scribblings.

a gallery affair

2007-05-29T01:16:00.000+01:00

Renoir

I went to the National Gallery last Saturday and saw an exhibition of Renior's Landscapes. It was magnificent. I highly recommend getting an audio guide for amateur gallery goers because there's so much more depth and story that can't be gleaned from just looking at a painting. Of course, the counter argument is - who needs depth and story? The painting should speak for itself. And art is, afterall, art. Anyway, being very much the amateur, I noted down all the paintings that I liked and you can go do a search and see how you like them.

1. Claude Monet painting in his Garden at Argenteuil
2. Luncheon at La Fournaise
3. The Skiff
4. La Place St-Georges
5. Madame Renoir with a Dog
6. Arab Festival
7. The Wave
8. The Railway Bridge at Chatou

I like galleries. I would love to say that I love galleries but I don't; I have to be in a mood and it has to be something that interests me. No modern mumbo-jumbo for me - I went to the Tate Modern once and couldn't fathom anything that I saw in there and all I wanted to do was leave. I like traditional paintings. I don't have a particular style or period. I just see things and like them, or not like them.

That's one of the fantastic things about London. There's always so much to see and do here.

cooking's simple, sewing's not

2007-05-27T23:28:00.001+01:00

I'm not a domestic person. I like clean but I don't like cleaning. That's the sort of un-domestic person that I am. But what I do like is cooking and baking. I get that from my dad's side of the family. Tonight we had EL over for dinner and I made steamed pork mince with Chinese mushrooms, and oyster sauce vegetables. And then I rolled up my sleeves and made orange chocolate chip muffins and in the process of doing so, had a little mishap with the electric beater and ended up with brown sugar over the work top and hob. Which I am absolutely loathe to clean up and which Andrew has kindly said okay to helping me clean up. That's about the only part of domesticity I find simple and enjoy. Even more complicated recipes - it's all about following the recipe to the tee and that's quite simple to do.

Back in school we had "home economics" class where girls learn to be housewives. We had two sections - cooking and sewing. I remember I pretty much aced cooking but when it came to sewing our own pair of culottes, my mom and I were hopeless and after managing to cut the material in the pattern of the culottes, we took the cut material to a seamstress and got her to sew them up for me for a fiver. My mom even asked her to make a few mistakes so that it'd look like the work of a student. My aunt's who cook/bake well generally are very good at handicraft too but I guess I only inherited the kitchen part of the talent. I can generally hem and sew buttons that have fallen off but my cousin Steffy has actually taken dresses in and altered sizes (complete with darts and all!) and lengths of skirts (from maxi to mini) all without the aid of a sewing machine. Oh! And the only thing I can knit (and you'll note that I say knit because I can't purl) is a square OR (this is very important as it means that I can knit more than one item) a rectangle. Right-angles are mandatory in my knitted designs.

For more simple stories, visit Sunday Scribblings

vying for my attention

2007-05-17T22:49:00.000+01:00

As I sit here typing this post, I'm very aware that there's so much vying for my attention. Working as an account manager in a ad agency, my day (and to a certain extent night) is all about multitasking and juggling multiple balls at a time. But now I'm juggling between Dexter, Grey's Anatomy and my book Sabriel. Unfortunately Dexter's on a pay-to-view-open-to-US-audiences-only channel and you can't access the website unless you're logged on to a US ip address. Dexter's really cool. It's based on a book and it's about a serial killer - he kills other killers, people who deserve to die, sort of like an avenger. It's absolutely engaging and I love the opening credits that show [Dexter] preparing and eating breakfast; the way the ham & eggs and blood orange are sliced are all shot to mimic human flesh being slashed and blood spurting from arteries. All very gory and gruesome. Very dark but so cleverly written and art directed - well, "beautifully" hardly seems like an appropriate word.

Then of course there's Grey's Anatomy and I'm up to season 3. I've kind put that on hold for Dexter for the moment. Andrew prefers Grey's Anatomy but I think Dexter is so much cleverer and ingenious. Grey's Anatomy is for drama and for McDreamy. Ah.. McDreamy... Sometimes when EL and I talk we talk in Grey's Anatomy speak and you know it's not a good thing when everything can be described with references from Grey's Anatomy.

Then on the train I'm enthralled by Sabriel and it's a good thing that it's a book so I read it in my in-betweens like when I'm on the tube or waiting somewhere.

Oooo I can't wait for the weekend!

it rained in Henley

2007-05-15T23:51:00.000+01:00

Henley-on-Thames

It rained almost the entire weekend when I was in Henley. The rain brought with it a slight damper to the afternoon, with EL and I spending quite a bit of time in a Starbucks, me indulging in a caramel frappaccino with java (chocolate) chips. We did make our way to an Indian food/cookery demonstration and sampled a chicken drumlet which whetted our palettes for Indian cuisine and told our empty stomachs that it was time to eat. After paying a £2 toll, we entered the arena of scrumptious smells and gourmet food.

I was in Henley that weekend for Anne's 50th birthday party aboard a boat which sailed along the River Thames (Anne's half of Anne and Mick who were my landlords in Guildford and parents of my friend Jo who' English and working in Singapore). The party on the boat ended at about 11:30 (too late for me to take a train back to London) so I stayed over with them at a B&B. The after-party party was at a pub and by the time we got home it was 2:30 and I was absolutely knackered but what a night!

I forgot about the rain.

Sunday came and it was raining again. The sky was overcast. Waiting at the train station at Henley, and then at Twyford, I was freezing. That and with the weekend ending, I spent the rest of Sunday quietly at home watching Dexter and cooking at leisure.

my twin

2007-05-10T23:32:00.000+01:00

I have a twin, well sort of anyway. She's my best friend Cheri and she's in Singapore while I'm here in London and I really miss her so much. I'm at her house or she at mine almost every weekend, just hanging out watching DVDs. She's the only person I can vege out watching copious amounts of television with. We drive to weird places to have food and go out for coffee in the middle of the night. Sometimes when we talk we finish each other's sentences and we understand what the other's thinking, particular when her mom wants to tell us something that we don't particularly want to hear. Her mom calls us twins. She's my twinnie. My bestie. She's the one and only with whom I got drunk with on water. We stalked Yewie together in her car when I had that crush on him! I love her.

But there was a period of time when we lost touch totally. After A'Levels, I went on to NUS and she went to Perth to do her degree. Different schools, different continent, different lives. Starting to go out with boys, we just grew apart and when one of possibly both of us moved and changed numbers, we just lost contact. I remember crying whenever I thought of our friendship being lost. Then one day, her mom - who's an estate agent - was showing a client an apartment in my apartment block. Tentative contact was made. Do you believe in a greater power? I do. And we're best friends even though I'm now an ocean away.

I'm really thankful for this 2nd chance.

the in betweens

2007-05-08T13:22:00.000+01:00

This long bank holiday weekend, I went to the Lake District with a bunch of people. A big bunch of people. There were 15 of us in all and of the group, I knew EL and Andrew. It was a thing organized by a friend of EL's or a friend of a friend of EL's but I'd wanted to go see the Lake District again (my last trip was when I was 10 with my parents) and I don't have much time to plan.

The weather was a little overcast on Saturday and it rained on Sunday but I managed to climb up The Old Man in Coniston. Half the group hiked the more robust route and 5 of us did the "easier" route. Which wasn't really that easy because the common part of both routes was the hardest part of the journey. We stayed in a youth hostel with multiple bunk beds in a room (I shared with another 11 people) and communal 'facilities.'

As I tried to get to sleep in the uncomfortable hostel bunk bed, sleeping in a washable 'sheet sleeping bag' designed to minimize direct contact between bedding and skin so that the actual bedding didn't need to be washed so frequently, I realized that I'm yet at another in-between. I don't feel old enough to be quite the fuddy-duddy but I think I've passed the stage where couch surfing and 'roughing it' and going on expeditions in a large group of relative strangers is fun. The last time I 'roughed it' was my climb up Mount Kinabalu and though that wasn't exactly a 5-star experience , it was fantastic because the company was fantastic and though I started off not knowing all of them, they've become a bunch of people that I love to hang out with. This trip, the Spaniards were always speaking Spanish and the Aussie/English couple just felt aloof. While it wasn't at all a bad trip, it didn't have the same feel of comradery that we developed through going to the same church and close interaction every week, running, training for the climb, and food of course.

Anyway, the moral of the story is - I don't think I'm going to be hostelling any more. Even if I go in a group, I'll let the rest of them stay in the hostel and I'll stay in a B&B. After all, the hostel wasn't that much cheaper than a B&B netting at about £25 per (awful bunk) bed (with communal facilities) versus £25-35 for a one-person or twin share room in a B&B. I've not quite reached the 5-star-only luxury accommodation level but I'm way past bunk beds and a sheet sleeping bag. :)

a weekend in the home of Chaucer

2007-05-01T23:30:00.000+01:00

This weekend past was spent in Canterbury with fellow blogger Kamsin.

I saw Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales in abridged-retold version (about 1 cm think); translated into modern English (about 2.5 cm think); ye old English (about 3 cm thick); and in all it's unabridged, untranslated glory with study notes (about 4.5 cm thick). Kamsin's an English teacher and cautioned me against getting the origianl version. In the end, we settled on a tour of the Canterbury Tales with life-sized figures and a headset with the story's narrative (condensed, of course).

Strangely, seeing the English countryside (okay, it's a city, but it's still not as "city" as London) made me feel homesick - for Singapore. What's the obvious connection!? I think it's because there are fewer distractions and given time to think, my mind wonders where my friends are, how my family are doing.

A picture speaks a thousand words - check out my photos on Flickr and step into my world.

Wings

2007-04-29T23:53:00.000+01:00

Here I am waiting
Abide in me I pray
Here I am longing
For You
Hide me in Your love
Bring me to my knees
May I know Jesus
More and more

Come live in me
All my life
Take over
Come breathe in me
And I will rise
On eagle's wings

My contribution to Sunday Scribblings this week.

photography

2007-04-28T00:05:00.000+01:00

Devon

This is a montage of some of my favourite photos taken on my road trip to Devon. They're on my Flickr page that Andrew got for me as one of my Christmas pressies! (Well, I received it after but I felt it was anyway.) Didn't think Flickr was anything to write home about until I started getting acquainted with the Pro features. And now I'm hooked. Flickr isn't paying me for this and honestly, probably only a handful of people are going to read this post but it's really cool. I login in multiple times each day, most times just to browse my friends' photos or random photos (do a search for "pink bench" in Flickr and there are some amazing photos!)

*random one-liner* I've just joined the the Color - Things Pink group on Flickr. :D I'm lovin' it!

Back to the inspiration behind this post. Looking at other peoples' photos on Flickr, looking at my friends' and family's photos, and learning more about the way I take photos, there is no "best" form of photography. My dad is ever-disapproving when shown "people" shots - i.e. person in the middle of a picture with lots of foreground and little background and context; the person could be anywhere in his opinion. But my cousin Jasmine loves taking pictures where she's the main focus in the picture, and "interacting" with the elements in the picture. Her blog pictures are a prime example. Picture composition and skill are every bit as important as energy and enthhusiasm and spontaneity is what I say!

Ever since my company held a photography workshop that I attended, I've been thinking about my own photo-taking. My dad loves photography and as a child, I was one of the first of my friends to have my very own camera. I had a baby Pantex which I loved. My dad even bought me a book on photography meant for children but he said he found it useful too. But then I got out of it. For a while, photography to me was just about me in pictures which changed when I came to the UK. The first month in Guildford, not haivng anything to do, i'd go out and take pictures of "stuff" and I'd take pictures of everything so that I could show friends and family back home the things I saw.

Tomorrow, I go to Canterbury where I'll meet up with Kamsin for the first time. We've been reading each others' blogs. Kamsin's very generously provided Andrew and I with a night's accommodation on a comfortable floor. And I'm really excited. First time I'm meeting an online friend. And from the pictures, Canterbury's beautiful.

I'd better get to sleep.

a fresh flower blue

2007-04-24T10:58:00.000+01:00

Bently Woods

A Fresh Flower Blue by Agatha Lai

It's a fresh flower blue
I wrap it in a sheet
I love its scent, it's hues

It sips the mist, the dew
and leaves an odor, treat
It's a fresh flower blue

Its pets, the bees and crew
they meet, they greet, they eat
I love its scent, its hues

From dawn to dusk they woo
and bask in rain or heat
It's a fresh flower blue

There's a flower for you
There's one for me. A treat!
I love its scent, its hues

The day I say adieu
I send you one so sweet
It's a fresh flower blue
I love its scent, its hue.

I'm not particularly big on poetry, but there have been some poems that have somehow struck a chord in me. And this picture of Lucy was so lovely it screamed to be shared with the world.

beauty

2007-04-22T22:35:00.000+01:00

Mount Kinabalu, East Malaysia

Shakespeare's 18th sonnet

what roots?

2007-04-20T22:26:00.000+01:00

Castle Droco, Devon

This weeks post in "rooted" and I couldn't think of any of my roots to write about. My enthnic roots are Chinese. My 'born and bred' roots are in Singapore. I have no home of my own - hence unrooted - and I have actually just uprooted myself from the only life I've ever know and my friends and family and come to London to achieve my ambitions.

My recent posts have been short and sporadic and about not having any internet connection. I've been too busy to post at work and I actually broke my cardinal rule about not visiting my own blog from the office computer but I got desperate. 3 weeks without the net is really a stretch for me and I hardly have time at work to sit and write. So you can imagine the flood of feelings of familiarity when I finally connected myself to the world again this evening. Yeah, BT actually came through and I have broadband. I have an activated phone line too but no actual phone.

And it was then that I realized - my roots aren't real; they're virtual. My friends. My network. My connections. Of course, part of the reason is that I'm here and my friends are back home but I've got friends in Australia, the US, France, Malaysia, and Indonesia as well! My roots are virtual. My roots are high-speed fibre-optic connections that keep me grounded and keep me sane.

I'm really glad to be back, everyone. Visit the website for more Sunday Scribblings.

accents

2007-04-18T19:21:00.000+01:00

I've just come off the phone with my client. A very loooooooon and tideous call, just because it was so bloody long. The content of the conference call defnitely didn't justify the length of the call. And as I sat in there, listening mainly, a thought came to my mind:

Turkish accents aren't really very attractive when speaking the English language. This thought probably arose from a question I saw on Yahoo Answers on which accents were the best and worst. Also, I spoke to my 14 year old cousin recently on MSN and she said that one of the reasons why she preferred living in Perth to living in Singapore was the accent.

Anyway it's late and I still don't have internet at home. It's stressful.

wassup?

2007-04-12T19:05:00.000+01:00

The weather's been gorgeous, these two weeks. And particularly on the days that I was in Devon - I've never seen as much sun. Ever! But the Devon post will be for another day!

I've moved out of the flat in Fulham (yay! No more British Girl! No more ginger hairs all over the place! No more leftover crumbs! No British Girl!) and moved into the St. Paul's flat with Andrew. The new flat's okay. It's got potential, but when we first moved in, it was absolutely filthy! The previous tenant was a woman Chinaman and they are a filthy race. Dust-hair balls in all over the floor, muck in the sinks and I won't even begin to describe the filth in the toilet - safe to say, it took Andrew a good 3+ hours to get the bathroom usable.

We're still not there yet. The wardrobe that came with the flat was really horrid with chicken-wire-in-a-frame doors. We went to Ikea and got two new ones to section off a part of the flat for storage as there is no built-in or under-bed storage. Every day seems to be unpacking and packing. The neighbours complained that we were making too much noise past 11 when we were whacking nails as we were trying to put up the storage.

There is no internet connection at the flat yet. I am seriously deprived. My previous policy of no blogging at work has been totally disregarded as I am currently typing happily sitting at my desk listening to Kurt Nilsen. The net's my survival tool - it keeps me in touch with my friends and it keeps me sane by providing me with a channel to express my thoughts.

The good thing is that I've managed to upload quite a few photos - click here to go to my Flickr page.

Since the eye-opening (intermediate) photography workshop that we had at work about 2 weeks ago, I've been toying with the idea of going digital SLR. The control that you get with an SLR is simply far superior and gets you far more interesting shots than with a simple point and shoot. But I was on Flickr today and saw some pics taken with a Panasonic FZ20 (that's what I have besides my FX07 and I love both) and they were really amazing. I guess it's also about learning what my camera can do and how I can fully utilize it before I spend £400+ on a DSLR.

Jayna's pics are amazing and I think she's a helluva photographer. She's got pics here and here

Being alone (my family and friends are back home and though I have friends here, I miss the ones I left behind) here in London has its ups and downs. The freedom and autonomy, in some senses, the independence that I'm forced upon, really does make one grow up a lot faster. But sometimes it's difficult to make new friends, and make good friends. Don't take your friends for granted. They're very very precious! EL said that he sometimes feels the same way. I suppose it's something that's common for every person who's left what he or she has known on a great new adventure.

I really hope my parents make it to London soon and I hope that my visa gets sorted soon so that I can take a holiday back home too! It's 7:25 in the evening and it's still light out. I think I might leave the office and the lure of a fast internet connection and enjoy a walk and continue packing the mountain of stuff that Andrew and I somehow have managed to accumulate separately - me in 7 months and him in 18!

Take care!

fried wontons - the taste of home

2007-03-25T18:31:00.000+01:00

A couple of weekends ago, Colin and I went to Oriental City, where I bought wonton skins, and last weekend I made my mom's famous (at least to me!) fried wontons! I thought I'd share a taste of childhood, a taste of home with two [extremely] simple yet yummy recipes from home. All ingredients are estimated - go with the flow!

Fried Wontons
Mix some minced pork and some chopped prawns together and season well with salt, pepper, soya sauce and sesame oil (the sesame oil defintely does make a difference). Spoon some of the mix into store bought wonton skins (they're pale yellow before they're cooked) and seal the wontons by dabbing water along the edges of the skins and folding into triangle halves. Deep fry till golden.

Mom's Omelettes
I generally make too much mince and prawn mix and have leftovers. Make the yummiest omelettes with the leftover mix by adding enough eggs to beat. The egg mixture should be heavy enough with the mince with enough egg to carry the mince. I usually like to add a touch more sesame oil because I love the smell! Fry till golden on the outside and cooked on the inside!

I am the wonton eater in the family. My mom usually makes a plateful and each of them would have three, maybe four fried wontons and my mom'd make a whole load especially for me. I think I usually have about 15 or so at a go, but then I don't eat anything else with it. Being away from home has made me so much more appreciative of my parents and I miss them. The next dish I make from home will be steamed pork and mushrooms! Bon apetite!

Check out Sunday Scribblings for more kitchen posts!

cold

2007-03-19T21:50:00.000Z

It's cold here, in London. Last week was a glorious week of blue skies and warmth beyond belief! Much of it due to global warming I'm sure, and just FYI I'm pro recycling and pro waste reducton. Today however, there was a great chill in the air; some of London even saw snow for a brief window in the day.

What's colder though, are the hearts and minds of people. I'm guilty - when I hear that someone in the tube ahead of me has fainted my first thought is "shit another delay!" Before I came here, I was warned that London is a big place filled with empty people and it's true that London is a harsh place where its dog-eat-dog and every man for himself.

I'm moving out of Fulham. The catalyst (another lesson - never rent from a "kee-ling") was the rent increase; it made living with British Girl and her habits absolutely unbearable and brought out the worst character flaws in him.

It's always a dilemma, it's always caught between a rock and a hard place or the devil and the deep blue sea. Whereas I'd like to stay on good terms with everyone, I have to constantly remind myself that I'm not here to be used as a door mat and I'm not here to be a professional friend to all at my own expense. My deposit of £970 is a lot of money and it was my mistake for not having the experience to realize the importance of a tenancy agreement now that I am still not 100% sure that I will get it back.

If you cannot grasp the severity of the situation, understand this: I cannot keep injecting money into an investment that's doomed for failure. I have done more than what's needed, I have been more than cooperative and taken the initiative. The landlord should have returned my deposit. And you should have accepted a flatmate much sooner. I was ready to move out by the first weekend of March. Just look where we are now...

You really don't understand the duress I've experienced; not when you're partying and boozing up, not when you're sitting on your butt watching bad TV in the living room when you have a TV up in your room. You have no idea how little of a home this place where I park my stuff is and how much I hate going back to it.

And jumping to conclusions because you're not reading your email on important subjects, and making decisions that concern me independent of me and then blaming me for something - I've simply lost respect. And you've watered the seed sown - that London is just a big cold place where no one cares for anyone but himself.

I'm lucky. I'm lucky that I've got a place to go to soon that I can call home. I'm lucky that it will be a place that we can hang up our coats and sit on the sofa and drink coffee like in the movies. Leave the old bags behind, they're only slowing us down.

random friday

2007-03-09T23:08:00.000Z

It's Friday. I think I must be getting old because I actually like staying home and chilling out - more often than not, online and emailing or blogging. I see the throes of people queueing outside the Blue Man Group theatre for Guanabara and I think "stupid." I guess a large contributing factor to the sentiment behind tonight's post is that it's been a helluva week. Sure, what week isn't (?) but it does seem like it's been an extraordinarily hellish one.

There are people outside Guanabara shouting, arguing. A glass bottle shatters and shards of glass skim the surface of the ground. Two distinctive voices - a girl's and a guy's - raise in anger. Yes - I'm definitely very happy to be up here in my PJs.

*Egad* I just realized that I'd spent too many lines on British Girl. Suffice to we're totaly different - I'm normal, she's sub-normal. I didn't go home last night and I'm not tonight either. Tomorrow I'll be in Ipswich. That's all good because I really don't want to see any of them at the moment. I don't know if they've realized it yet but if they don't find someone for the room, they're going to be straddled with bigger bills because I'm not putting another penny into this house. *evil grin*

Flew to Geneva on Tuesday and had 2 long meetings. One was bad because it was a thinly-veiled murder by backstabbing.

Went to Kulu Kulu for sushi tonight. I am proud to say that I eat seaweed. I used to not eat raw fish, wasabi, and seaweed. Now I love em all! Sat down next to a couple - an ang moh and a woman Chinaman. The ang moh was speaking Chinese and he spoke it with the official cheena accent! It was all quite amusing and rather cute. His Mandarin was definitely better than mine and he knew all these fancy schmancy words and phrases. The woman Chinaman was rather pretty but pretty typical.

Homo Boy was cooking tonight. He butchered a piece of salmon steak - gave it first degree burns beyond recognition. I'm counting - 23 days till freedom from British Girl, Homo Boy and the band of merry flatmates
.

brand new clothes

2007-03-04T20:15:00.000Z

Dictionary.com defines "superstition" as follows:

a belief or notion, not based on reason or knowledge, in or of the ominous significance of a particular thing, circumstance, occurrence, proceeding, or the like.
a system or collection of such beliefs.
a custom or act based on such a belief.
irrational fear of what is unknown or mysterious, esp. in connection with religion.
any blindly accepted belief or notion.

Some superstitions are or could be based on plain ol' common sense. For example - it's unlucky to walk under a ladder - but that's because the ladder could genuinely fall on you! Or don't open umbrellas indoors - think about it, opening an umbrella in an enclosed space could mean poking someone's eye out or knocking into furniture.

Me, well, I do notice that I tend to wear a (at least one) brand new piece of clothing on my first day at work in a new company. I see it as new beginnings call for new things but is that a superstition in itself? It's not blindly accepting a belief; it's not an irrational fear. It is, however, an act based on a particular belief - that a new beginning warrants a new outfit.

I remember many "first" outfits for work. Most of them black. New things make me feel good about myself, gives me confidence. And I guess that's all that really matters, superstitious or not!

Read more about other bloggers' superstitions here and don't believe everything you read!

the peculiarities of London

2007-02-24T19:25:00.001Z

Separate hot and cold water taps - why would anyone want scalding hot or freezing cold water... Shops that shut at 6 - what about the us Londoners who work Mon-Fri and finish work at 6... Supermarkets that open at noon on a Sunday... Coucil flat owners that think their flats are equivalent to private flat rental prices... Landlords who show potential tenants a smelly, grimey, mucky flat... British Girl leaving crumbs all over the flat and watching terrible TV programmes... Homo Boy leaving his meat (cooked) out in the kitchen for 24 hours and then eating it... Brits not knowing what blood type they are - in case of emergencies please test my blood first before a blood transfusion... English dumplings - balls of tasteless dough rolled into a ball the size of a small egg... Animals being treated better than human beings... Ketchup with everything... English food... the English ordering their steak well done... Carpeted flooring and people walking around in their shoes indoors - just imagine the dirt, grime, germs and bacteria amid the carpet fibres...

These are some of the things about London and living here that just utterly baffle me. I love London. I love it I love it I love it and I wouldn't trade being here for anything (except maybe being in NY since Londoners themselves rave about how amazing NY is!) But I am absolutely perplexed at some of the things that I see here in London.

At least in my new flat, there are mixer taps in both bathroom and kitchen and hard wood floors. I'm really happy that I've managed to settle one end of my flat problems and regarding my flat in Fulham, no one seems to want to take the room at the increased rate (why would they - it's not worth that much!) but I've been advised and I've decided that the easiest thing if no one takes it, is to use my deposit to offset the rent as far as possible until I break even.

I've been walking around the whole day and for dinner - it's a Crispy Oriental Duck purchased from M&S that Kay Hong said is absolutely fantastic! Bon apetite!

This was a post written for Sunday Scribblings. For more stories about puzzles, click here!

chocolate

2007-02-20T23:52:00.000Z

So here I am - it's almost midnight. I'm sitting on my bed, indulging in Lindt chocolates, flown from Geneva. Pete asked me earlier this morning - why do my posts sometimes "disappear" and for a moment I had no idea what he meant but then realized he'd seen a post that I wasn't really happy with and so had taken down. I guess I do do that; writing for me is a form of catharsis - when I have too many things on my mind, I need to write. As a result, some of that writing starts to sound like a string of complaints and no one really wants to read complaints! So I feel guilty that I've ranted and take the post down.

I guess it's been a very stressful few weeks for me. I've posted about being sick and taken it down. I've posted about my nightmare landlord and taken it down - but in my opinion, I think my landlord's crap! My landlord is of south asian ethnicity and I've just been told - never rent from these people - they're the worst kind of landlord! So yeah, I've been stressed and sick, and now that I'm recovering and still stressed, chocolate is a good friend. Anyway, there's no telling when/if I'll have to move and the few things I have at the time of the move, the better. I so need a chocolate martini from Morton's at the Oriental back home. The chocolate martinis I've tried here do not hold a candle to Morton's.

They don't have much Hershey's here in London. Whenever I bake, I use Hershey's and my brownies taste absolutely fantastic. The semi sweet baking chips are also fantastic in muffins and stuff. But when Yvette, one of the girls at work brought some Hershey's Kisses back, everyone was slamming the chocolates as absolutely terrible. I'm not a huge fan of Kisses but I think their Cookies 'n Cream chocolate is their best.

Anyway, I'm going to put my chocolate away and go to bed. I'm so tired.

a revelation

2007-01-30T23:52:00.000Z

I never quite understood it when I was told "Buy property. The first chance you get, buy property." Oh sure I always did believe in the idea that paying rent was just throwing money down the drain, but I never understood the implications of owning property. Until now. You see, my landlord has "decided" to raise our rent by "about" £25 per week per person. That's £108 a month and the equivalent of about an 18% hike. I've decided that its not worth it.

I don't want to pay the additional £108 to still live in the same house with British Girl and her awful leaving-bread-crumbs-around-the-kitchen habit. I do not want to pay the additional £108 and have to suffer for an hour on the underground - London transportation prices are one of the most exorbitant in the world at £5.50 for a single trip ticket cash fare.

On a cattier note, British Girl and I must really exist on parallel and never meeting planes. If she's hogging the TV in the living room (and she has a TV in her room) watching god-awful boring and painful programmes, I'm on my computer. If I manage to snag the TV from under her greedy little paws, I'm watching CSI or some other US sitcom or drama and she just sits there reading the property section of the papers. I find it difficult to say anything to her at all.

Back to my revelation. I wonder how my parents did it. Manage to buy a private apartment in Novena and raise two children. I wonder how the receptionist does it. How the tea lady does it. I wonder. But that's my new goal I think. To own property some day. And something tells me that I must start acquiring the necessary knowledge even though it pains me to trudge through contracts and law. Oh boy. But I don't want to be throwing money down the drain forever. No siree!

my fantasy

2007-01-23T00:25:00.000Z

It's Monday night today but my Sunday Scribbling topic of Fantasy has just come to me. In my ideal world, the earth will be encased in a climate controlled bubble with wireless internet points everywhere so wherever I am, I will always be able to be connected to the internet, because I live to be connected.

I write this tonight because the British work system has somehow failed again. The flat's on an Orange broadband plan and we were getting the account switched to another name. Apparently the switch should have taken only a couple of days (which was already too long for me!) but by day 4, the internet was still not up. Called Orange. Orange said that it would take a week. It's not past a week and tonight, in order to write this, I'm connected to another connection that isn't very strong nor reliable. I was balancing my iBook on one knee at the top of the stairs at one point.

The weather's taken a turn for the worse. I know everyone (and the papers too!) says that this is the mildest winter London's seen in a long long long time and I'm torn between understanding the threat and severity of global warming and the enjoyment of a winter where I'm not freezing my butt off as much I would have sans global warming.

ButI'm makiing an effort to be a "greener" person. I'm recycling and I intend to start using a mug at work instead of paper cups for my morning cuppa for obvious reasons. I see the number of paper cups that Oksana goes through each day and I think that if everyone just made a little more effort, London might survive the floods and live to see another millenium.

Is this a fantasy? Or is this potential?

For more fantastical stories, visit Sunday Scribblings.

where I belong

2007-01-17T23:57:00.000Z

There's the physical location and then there's the people around you. Home is the place that I go back to each night and put my head on the pillow and go to bed. Home is the people around me who love me. Home isa refuge, a sanctuary against the harsh, unforgiving world. Where I belong and who I belong to.

There are signs you know, signs that say "I'm really feeling down today..." The chocolate biscuits I love taste like sawdust. Tired, I want to sleep but my mind's running with no signs of stopping. I wish it weren't so cold and unsafe so that I could put on my running shoes and run it off and come back exhausted and ready to fall into bed

When I was home (in Singapore) Cheri and I used to always love doing things to our rooms. We rearrange furniture, clean up our rooms which kept getting messed up ever so frequently, and our fave shops were Ikea, quaint little furniture & furnishing shops in Centrepoint, and out of the way warehouse sales that her mom would drive to.

Here are some pictures of Sarah Jessica Parker's character's - Carrie from Sex and the City - house, and I really do like the look and feel of this apartment. In my own place, I'd like walls of book shelves for al the books that I have and will continue to accumulate. I particularly like scouring the South Bank for 2nd hand books that seem to have so much more life and character in them. I'd have lots of warm lighting and lots of photos and pictures in antique-y white frames. And a walk-in wardrobe definitely.

I've a picture painted about what my life should look like. In truth, it never included moving to London, not even temporarily. And my life is nothing like what's in the picture. It took Carrie six years. I don't know how long, or if ever, it will take me to complete this season of my life.

I miss Cheri. I wish I could go to her house right now and paint our nails and get high on water. I want to drive out to a Starbucks and get a Christmas edition Toffee Nut Latte at 2 in the morning. I wish that she were here.

grocery shopping at the borough markets

2007-01-08T23:09:00.000Z

Had a really fun time exploring the Borough Markets on Saturday. I'd heard lots about them from some people at work and it's feels like it's been a long time since I'd been exploring and Simon mentioned that the Borough Markets is a really great place to take photos. So armed with my new Panasonic FX07 (it's *still* pink, but with a 28mm lens), an empty bag and a rough menu plan for dinner, it was on the the Borough Markets on a rainy, grey, Saturday.

And here are two pictures of the Southwark Cathedral. It's the oldest gothic cathedral in London, according to the information posts around London Bridge. Just a stones throw from London Bridge Station, I bet the Borough Market evolved from the markets of old (in medieval times) when people used to bring their wares to the town square for trading on Sundays (church days) as this market is just outside the grounds of the church. The church itself was beautiful. Quiet but with life within.

It was a fruitful day. In the shopping bag were - a jar of pesto which I bought from a gorgeous looking Italian, 2 squid, flat-leaf parsley, and large handfuls of field mushrooms. And that translated to a stuffed squid and tomato bake, with fried calamri and sauted mushrooms for dinner. Yummy!

crumbs

2007-01-08T21:59:00.000Z

I haven't had much time to myself lately (read: time alone for me and my Baby and an internet connection. Today was a rather crummy day so instead of heading out to paint the town, I decided I'd have a quiet night at home, just me.

First on the list was dinner. I didn't have any lunch today because it was so cold and I didn't want to venture out, walk to the atm, and then go buy food. (I had a cup of tea and a pain au chocolat which is hardly lunch.) Made Korean instant noodles (what a gourmet I am!). Settled in front of my laptop which is at this moment on the dining table and started watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. Kinda geeky but I love geeky and I couldn't stomach the crap that Amy was watching on TV in the living room.

And because I have so many overdue photos (yes dear cousin Jasmine, I finally got down downloading them and they're being sent to you as I type) I decided that I'd better get them off my camera and onto my laptop so that I can upload and share; after all, I got a nice little after-Christmas pressie from Andrew in the form of a Flickr Pro account and I don't have monthly upload limits now.

So, coming soon - pictures from my Saturday trip to the Borough Markets and some Christmas pictures if I ever get them off Andrew's MacBook Pro.

Anyway, today was a rather crummy day because it's taking me more time to get back into the working frame of mine than it does back in Singapore. I think it's because Christmas is such a big thing here in London; 2 weeks prior to Christmas, everyone was in a holiday mood and there were more lunches than there was actual work! And I was unofficially of between Christmas and New Year's! I was disappointed in myself today work wise and endeavour to do much better tomorrow.

mon destin

2006-12-30T19:35:00.000Z

This week's Sunday Scribblings post is titled 'Destination'; add that to how Bernard and Shoba were talking about the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme visa during dinner on Thursday, I found a 'self test' on the net and I don't qualify.

I wonder where I will be a year from now. Or less than a year, actually - 9 months. I absolutely love London and everything that's in it and around it and to leave London, no, to return to Singapore, would kill me.

Apparently, they just changed the HSMP requirements this November. After seeing the hell that Yvette went through, applying for her visa twice because she was rejected the first time round, paying the heft application fees - 300 quid each time - I'm kinda feeling down because I London is home. Singapore isn't.

Joel sent me more DVDs that I received yesterday through the post and in it, was a Christmas card. He wrote that he's proud of me and respects me for having done it but I haven't quite done it yet. I haven't done everything that I need to do that will guarantee me long term stay in London and now it looks like I can't.

So what does the future hold for me oh Great 2007? I know that it isn't in Singapore because I wasn't happy in Singapore. :) Qu'est ce que mon destin? Dit moi!

tongue-tied with titles

2006-12-23T00:46:00.001Z

Okay, the radiator leak problem has been sorted. The repairman from British Gas came at 4:16 p.m. - a mere (if good) 3 1/4 hours or (if bad) 8 1/4 hours later than scheduled. I bet someone's hand is sore. But saying that, he (the repairman) was actually a lovely man.

Jasmine, another cousin of mine, is arriving in London on Boxing Day. She's on a 6-month long exchange programme at the University of Edinburgh and will be stopping by London before journeying to the land of frozze. It's now exactly 0 degrees in London and I'm finding the winter weather extremely cold so I really don't know how she's going to stand the Scottish weather. I'm really excited she's coming to London and as Steff will be working next week and I'll be (unofficially) off, I guess I'll bring her around - to Camden or something.

I bought a new camera. I bought the Panasonic FX07. It won't look any different from my old camera but it will have a 28mm lens. Ooo! I'm excited! And actually, getting tired, so that's all folks!

i'm bored

2006-12-21T11:23:00.000Z

I'm on annual leave today and tomorrow, and next week though I'm not officially on leave, company policy is that you don't have to come in unless you have to come in. Most of Europe is away on Christmas holidays anyway and my clients won't be in until the 2nd of January, earliest. What a fantastic privilege! I wonder if many companies here do it. It's also a bank (public) holiday on Boxing Day! But I'm here right now at home, woke up at 8:30 today because I'm expecting a house call from British Gas because my radiator sprung a leak - I thought it might have been condensation but it was a leak according to Sunil and he should know better than I. It's 11:38 now and I'm really wondering if the British Gas people will come. This last week, I've experienced such bad and incompetent service that last night, I don't think the comedy club performance would have made me laugh.

This in, latest. The British Gas repairman will not be coming between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. today as originally scheduled because he's wanking himself and will now come between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. British Gas could not call me because they did not have my telephone number (read: they lost that little scrap of paper that the lowly-paid call centre person jotted it down on because he was wanking himself). How utterly - well, the word spastic can these people and companies be? I swear - the British economy is run on the hard work of foreigners - South Africans, Aussies, Kiwis and the Chinese!

And since I'm in a "let's beat the British" mood right now, I have had terrible retail and transport services experiences in the last week or so. Ikea prices its merchandise cheaply (it's still at least 3x more expensive than Singapore's Ikea prices) because they know that their customers can afford taxis and their delivery services. The nearest Ikea is in Zone 3 (because people who live in Zones 1 and 2 can afford to go to Tottenham Court Road or John Lewis). And the best thing - not all the buses that go to Ikea run every day. I found that out when I last went to Ikea. Brilliant, no?

Argos is another retailer that I have issues with. A double valance that is at least 4 inches too big for a double bed. How fantastic is that? A foldable drying clothes horse with one jointy bit missing. Great. What's a 50% discount off nothing? NOTHING.

I'd go back to bed now if Steff weren't coming over for lunch. She was supposed to be here at 11-ish but she's between 30 minutes to 1 1/2 hours late. Had it not been for wanking British Gas repairman, I'd be really mad. But she's my cousin and I've been well trained by Cheri in the art of waiting. I'll go read Perfume now.

christmas work lunches

2006-12-19T23:15:00.000Z

It's 6 days to Christmasand tomorrow's my last day at work before we break for Christmas! But the whole agency's been working half-mast the past week or so and I've had the luxury of three Christmas lunches and a Studio 54 Christmas party!

Today was the account management lunch and we went to Dollar Grills and Martinis somewhere in Farringdon. We had a pre-ordered lunch from a pre-determined set of lunches and though I chose the burger and the chocolate creme brulee (we could only choose 2 courses not three), I got away with a starter as well of tuna wrapped smoked salmon which was quite good. Red vino vino vino today and a fantastic peach & berries juice that looked absolutely divine!

Last Friday was the best though. We had a combined team lunch and we went to Passione at Charlotte Street. For those of you who haven't been to Passione yet, click here. Passione's menu wasn't exhaustive; it was rather limited actually. But what they didn't have in terms of alternative, they more than made up with fantastically good food. I had the grilled bread with chicken liver cooked in butter, sage, rosemary and vin santo starter, followed by loin of lamb filled with artichokes, sheep's cheese and mint served with winter vegetables main. I didn't end up eating the veggies; I've decided I don't like winter veggies very much. And for dessert - tiramisu. Utterly gorgeous food, cooked to perfection. Now I know how lunches last three hours - loads of food, loads of space in between, and loads of champagne and wine peppering the afternoon. Utterly yum! I run the risk of sounding like a total country bumpkin but I do believe that this is the most expensive meal I've ever had in my entire life.

And finally on Thursday after the company meeting, it was another combined lunch with my other boss at Demartinos. I ordered the lasagne which though tasted good, had too much lasagne sheets and too little meat sauce. And creamed spinach on the side. I wouldn't recommend the lasange to anyone else but the spinach was good. Think I had red.

I've rather been into red recently. The night before, I made (or tried to) baked aubergine with beef and peppers and Andrew bought a bottle of nice red wine with cassis and another undertone. It was a fantastic, utterly drinkable red wine.

I know this is a very foodie post but with Christmas just around the corner, parties and lunches abound and half the work day is spent on eating and being merry. I didn't have anything for dinner tonight but that's more than fine. Tea!! Tea!! Tea!!!

operatic withdrawal symptoms

2006-12-12T14:06:00.001Z

I haven't been to the opera in a while and there quite a few performances that I'd really like to see. At the Royal Opera House alone, I want to see

A jazz ensemble do The Twelve Days of Christmas
The Nutcracker
Carmen

So many wants. So many limitations. Jayna also wants to go see the Nutcracker so that'll be fun. This weekend, I might be going back (hahaha... "back"...) to Guildford to visit Anne and Mick. I can't believe it's been about 5 weeks since I've moved out. Where has all the time gone? Moving to Fulham has been great. I love the flat and I love living in London (Fulham especially). I've also pretty much gotten used to my new flatmates. Simon and Sunil are cool - Simon recommended the Logitech MM50 portable speakers for my iPod which I bought on his advice and absolutely love and Sunil and I have even been out to Ikea once and Peter Jones another time! Definitely fun guys to hang out with.

Okay! Well, I'll plan to go see some of the performances I've written about above and I wish everyone Happy Christmas Shopping!

Oh.. and btw, the "remote" email function of blogging absolutely sucks. Blogger screwsup HTML code, adds line breaks where there shouldn't be any. It's just much easier typing raw code.

it's a missy higgins night tonight

2006-12-12T00:16:00.000Z

I'm here in my room, listening to Missy Higgins from my new iPod speakers. I don't know why but somehow it feels good to be typing on my iBook and not listening to music off my iBook speakers. The music seems more incidental and reflective as opposed to being the main focus of what I'm doing.

Tonight's a Missy Higgins night. I'm sure I must have written about her at some point before but she always comes back in a different way.

I miss Cheri a lot. We chatted today on MSN - middle of the night for her, after work for me while I was still in the office. Speaking to her today, I realized something. Quarter life crisis at 25 was an acute realization of "Shit! I'm 25!" There are other things to worry about now, all wrapped in the knowledge that time (youth) is limited; our every action affects us and the people around us; and the scary future. No, we're not freaking out but we ar thinking more about the 'what ifs.'

My favourite Missy Higgins songs are "The Special Two," "The Sound of White," and "Any Day Now." Her voice is brilliant and her songs (she writes them) are just so real.

It's my first Christmas away from my friends and family. I'll miss them. I already do.

punishment & reward

2006-12-08T23:50:00.000Z

My brother (my next of kin, the person who also shares my parents shared DNA) and I have never got along. Where some siblings are closer than close, even if they are of different genders, the closest my brother Ken and I have even been would be arguing. So it's not surprise when his punishment - is my reward. Some of you might be shocked but it's just life. You can choose your friends but you can't choose your family.

Once when we were little, my dad was looking after us when my mom was out. I must have been about 5 and Ken about 3. We were doing art and craft and somehow, my brother smeared wet glue over an old radio's speaker area - the type that looks like honeycomb. I don't remember details like whether my brother did it when my dad wasn't looking, or whether he did it to test the limits of my dad's "no," but I remember Ken was punished for it.

How can you punish a three year old kid? I know of parents who hit their toddlers to teach them right from wrong. But my dad strongly believed that three was too young to inflict physical pain on and so.... he made Ken stand in a corner, face in!!

Hah! That was my reward. At 5, I was happy when my brother go punished. I remember the feeling of immense glee as he stood face in, in the corner, crying his eyes out.

The relationship between Ken and I never got better. The next time I felt righteously triumphant over him was when he got his O'level and A'level results. At secondary school level, I was in the 4-year "express" stream and he was one up on me by being in the 4-year "special" stream. So he took Chinese as a first language whereas I took Chinese as a second language. I got a C6 for Chinese (the lowest grade to pass) and when he did his - he failed Chinese as a first language and also barely passed Chinese as a second. And we did equally well in our O's and A's. So - what's so "special" about him anyway? Hahaha...

Since coming to London (and I've been here exactly 4 months) Ken's sent me one email. I think he did it under duress - my mom probably pressurized him so much he thought might as well send the stupid thing! I've replied the courtesy email with my own courtesy email. :)

hahaha

2006-11-28T22:05:00.000Z

I thought I'd tell you guys that I won!!! hehehe. What the hell am I talking about? I'm talking about our hunt for The One.

So we interviewed Potential 2 on Saturday (Potential 1 whom I preferred was interviewed on Tuesday). British Girl was practically drooling over Potential 2 and he picked up on that and talked mostly to her. When he left, Nick & Kath asked us what we thought - 20 seconds of uncomfortable silence - I was the first to say something. "I prefer Potential 1," was all I said. My other flatmate seconded that almost immediately.

So it's been decided. We get Simon as our new flatmate. I'm happy. We get my preferred person and I win hahaha!

what do i do?

2006-11-28T21:50:00.000Z

"You work in the accounts department?"

That's the most common question I get. Most people think that an account executive / account manager is an accounts executive / accounts manager. Right. What could be more different? Anyway, for people who don't - I found an pretty decent description of what I do:

Advertising account executives act as a link between their client and the advertising agency. They may report to the account manager, but they have responsibility for the project management of their clients' campaigns and deal with the day-to-day work, ensuring it is produced on time and on budget.

Advertising account executives put proposals together and set up meetings to present the brief and estimate costs to the client. They work closely with their clients throughout campaigns.

The role typically involves handling the accounts of three to four non-competing clients, co-ordinating the activities of the advertising team and administrative staff.

Typical work activities revolve around the running of advertising campaigns:

discussing the products, services and advertising requirements of each particular client;
setting up meetings with clients and other agency staff;
delegating work to other members of the agency team;
briefing media, creative and research staff, and formulating marketing strategies;
liaising with, and acting as the link between, the client and advertising agency by maintaining regular contact with both, ensuring that communication flows effectively;
overseeing the status of advertising campaigns;
negotiating with clients and agency staff about the details of campaigns;
presenting campaign plans to clients for approval or modification;
meeting deadlines and prioritising tasks;
handling budgets and managing campaign costs;
writing reports, keeping records and financial details;
helping to secure new business;
undertaking administrative tasks;
handling the profitability of accounts;
in some cases, managing administration staff;
gaining, maintaining familiarity with and keeping up with changes in the nature of clients' products, business culture and competition;
monitoring the effectiveness of campaigns;
arranging and chairing meetings.

There you go! Now don't mix up an acount manager with an accounts manager. I don't want to be associated with British Girl. (Of course, my finance person in the agency is cool. We're just kind of different. But in a good way.)

4 bottles of beer and 1 weird nut

2006-11-22T23:50:00.000Z

I live with four other people at the moment. One guy of German-Indian parentage who looks pretty much Indian and sounds British. One British girl, young, graduate worker. And a Kiwi couple. We have a 4-bedroom Victorian flat in Fulham. Nick and Kath (the Kiwi couple) are moving out beginning December as they have just bought their own flat and last night, all of us interviewed a Potential.

Now, I've been feeling rather weird about British Girl for a little while now. She's left of the middle, slightly strange. She works in finance and she's home by about half six every day (or every day that I manage to get home early);she's already back at the flat, wearing her casuals and lying in front of the TV in the living room. I usually pop into the living room and say hi if I notice someone in there. So I'll pop in, see her lying there and say hi and ask "how're you" or "how's work" or "how's it going" like everyone does as a matter of courtesy here. And most of the time she'll give me a "fine thanks" reply and continue to stare at the tele blankly. Last week, Nick made dinner and I acceptd his invitation and a bunch of us sat at the dinner table for lasagne; British Girl hardly said a word. I think she wanted to, but somehow, lacked the social skills and/or confidence to do so.

Last night, when talking about the Potentials, British Girl said that she didn't know about a particular Potential because he seemed so 'together' and had his own set of friends and then it kind of drifted off. Now - does that seem strange to you at all? British Girl doesn't want to share a flat with someone who has his/her own life and friends? British Girl has a long distance boyfriend but doesn't do anything else (so it seems) apart from lying on the sofa watching tele but why should everyone else not want/need/have a life and friends? She is so weird. I actually do hope that the One has a life and friends because it would be so tideous to have another boring person in the flat. Andrew said that British Girl probably just wants to recreate uni life where everything centered around a core group of friends or flatmates or something. I just think she's weird and boring. And she's pretty much got bad hair days every day - out-grown rebonded hair that's oh-so-curly at the roots in a naturally red shade.

I like Nick and Kath best and I'm sad to see them go. Nick's this really easy going guy and Kath's just lovely. There's also the German-Indian guy who's basically alright.

So there you have it. A summary of the people living in this flat. Me - you already know. :)

For more nemesis stories, visit Sunday Scribblings.

the short autumn days

2006-11-11T00:08:00.000Z

Autumn is a really beautiful season. I'm awed by the changing of seasons each time I see the reds and golds on the trees. Especially now that daylgiht savings has kicked in, the sun sets at 4:15 and the day seems over before it's really started. I'm told that this has been a very mild autumn though, with many blue-skied days, crisper and colder than cloud-covered ones.

I've been in the UK for 3 whole months now - I arrived on August 10 and it's November 10 today. It's been the most exciting time in my life. I love living and working in London. I've been working for 8 weeks. One of my favourite films is Sabrina. It's about a young, naive girl, in love with the boss's son, who's sent to Paris on an apprenticeship. She returns a woman - graceful, stylish, and confident. And still in love with the boss's son. I like the way Paris changed Sabrina in the movie. I've always thought I might, change I mean, if I got out from under the shadow of "home". Perhaps... I know of some who would say that I have already.

I'm going to talk about a restaurant that I went to today for a working lunch. We went to Crazy Bear for lunch and Malka ordered from the tasting menu. On the menu were:

They ran out of the green curry so they replaced it with a yellow curry tiger prawn dish. And ohmigoodness - my favourite was the duck, which was amazing.

I'd really like to keep living here. One of the girls from work is having trouble obtaining a working visa here and I'm just a teeny bit afraid that when it comes to my turn, I'll have difficulties too. But it's too soon to worry about it. Let's just focus on going permanent.

It's cold in my room at the moment. The heater goes off at odd hours. I don't know why. I've got an eary start tomorrow so it's way past my bedtime and I should sleep but I wanted to write because I haven't in a rather big while actually. See you soon.

there are no hangers in london

2006-11-08T00:39:00.000Z

After what has seemed like a neverending quest, where I seriously was contemplating the lack of hangers (at least, the cheapo plain plastic ones) in London, I have finally found and bought 40 white, plastic hangers from 24-hour Tesco's at Surrey Quays. I moved into my flat on Sunday and didn't really have a good nght there. It felt so foreign and unwelcoming. My clothes were (and are, as I type this) still in my suitcase and there was no internet connection at all! I was intending to go see some fireworks on Guy Fawkes Day but all my energy was sapped moving and dashing around trying to buy - bedsheets!

Monday's hanger shopping expedition was uneventful; I did buy pink gloves, some lingerie, thermal leggings and black leggings though. And whilst roaming the streets of Chinatown in search of the elusive pound shop on Berwick Street (and I had forgotten to bring myy A-Z), I walked past a Chinese hair salon and simply had to get my hair cut. So that was my Monday. Got a whole lot of stuff done. Except for the blasted hangers. My bigger-than-local Sainsbury's didn't have hangers. Argos online didn't have hangers. Woolworths online didn't have hangers. Places like John Lewis and M&S did, but they were the big clunky, more expensive ones which I didn't want. (I did see some fabric covered ones which I do want which were from John Lewis.

Monday was also the day I spent cleaning my space and some of the common areas that I will be using. I was very irritated when they hadn't cleared space for me in the kitchen and toilet. Apparently, food is not stored by owner; they're stored by category. And whoever wants to use it just uses it. You see, 3 out of the 4 of them (yes, even the new girl) cook for each other. The plus is that you cook a larger portion and don't have to cook every ay of the week. But what happensif your tastes are vastly different from that of the others? Or if you're a gourmet and like Taste the Difference food while they like Basics? And if they want to be tied down to the commitment of making sure they're home X times a week, I certainly do not. Anyway, I cleaned out a cabinet in the kitchen - it was just bad utlization of space. The cabinet was filthy. Urgh! Between that and the toilet shelf, I used up more than half my kitchen towel roll.

I was contemplating purchasing them online and paying 50p for a hanger when Andrew suggested Surrey Quays after I told him that Steff said that she bought hers from a Tesco Extra. So after work we trooped down, me in my Nine West stiletto boots. And came back armed with forty hangers, a salt & pepper mill set, more sheets and pillowcases, a set of three food storage boxes, an all-purpose wash basin, a washing brush, and a clothes rail that hangs onto the radiator. Oh, and a pair of slouchy olive suede boots. I struggled to carry three full plastic bags, my handbag, and that rail with my two hands which are almost an inch longer than they were earlier.

I am happy to report that as of tomorrow, I can start unpacking my suitcase and start arranging my clothes. There's a lot left to be done in this room though - the lampshade needs to be changed (the current one is simply filthy; the upper shelves in the wardrobe need to be cleaned; everything that isn't in use must go into storage. Shoes must be sorted; I am thinking of getting something for my room. I definitely need a bedside table. Bookcase? Table? Chair? This is a very expensive but fun exercise.

But this place feels nice. I had a good sleep last night. I really just want good things. :)

i heart the royal opera house

2006-11-01T00:18:00.000Z

Because Andrew's flatmate Liora is a resident Royal Opera House singer, I've had the privilege of attending quite a number of performances in the last month or so. My first performance was Faust which I thoroughly enjoyed even though it was a challenge for my neck and eye muscles to move from foreground to ceiling for the surtitles. The good thing about opera is that is it a song and lines and/or verses tend to be repeated.

A performance I didn't enjoy so much due to a lack of understanding and appreciation of modern dance was a ballet accompanied by the music of Stravinsky. There was no doubt to the artistry and skill but I left without taking home a message. I guess it's the same with me and modern art - I just don't really understand/appreciate much of what is coined modern.

Liora performed in a new opera called Bird of Night which was a Caribbean opera about a young girl who wanted to turn to a "bird of night" like her gran to help people and her journey through treachery and wickedness of people with selfish intent. It was an English opera but more difficult to understand because of the Creole English, the less than ideal orchestra pit without an orchestra pit's usual cover, and less than perfect ennunciation of each word, made more difficult to understand because of the sheer volume of words squeezed in I think. Andrew and I were piecing the story together during the interval and Liora said that this was the general response.

Coppelia was the next performance and I prepared before hand by reading a syopsis of the story. It was a ballet, story style, about a young girl saving her fiance from a doll maker's evil plans to infuse his previous doll Coppelia with the life of her fiance. Very animated with cute period costumes, I thought that this was a much better ballet than the Stravinsky one.

But nothing prepared me for Sleeping Beauty last night which was simply a magical performance. Story, choreography, skill, music, set and lighting worked wonderfully together to create the most beauty ballet that I'd ever seen. I know I haven't seen many but the music was enthralling, the costumes glorious, and the dancing absolutely brilliant! I think the performance must have been packed because we were further back this time (and I was sitting next to a very obnoxious man) and I was at the edge of my seat, watching the performance in its entirety and not focusing on minute details.

London is absolutely fantastic and I'm really loving it here.

shopping!

2006-10-29T12:33:00.000Z

Last weekend was spent scouring the shops to get an idea of what the prices of duvets are! Didn't buy anything. Yesterday, I bought my very own duvet - from Marks & Spencer - and at a good discount (my next alternative was Argos). I bought two pillows too! Now all that's really urgent to buy are bed clothes!

But the weather's so nice I'm torn between wanting to be out in the open and needing to settle my bed clothes. This morning, I woke up at 9 and looked out the window and saw hints of sunlight and knew that it'd be great for a run. I took Andrew out for a run and we ran over the bridges and along the south bank and it was a good run. The sun was shining and I wasn't cold until we stopped to walk near St. James Park.

I wish Cheri were here. Starbucks will have their Peppermint Mocha and Toffee Nut Latte soon and Cheri and I always go nuts over those drinks. I don't touch peppermint but I'll take her word that it's good. Wednesday - this Wednesday, I'll walk down from the office and order a huge cup of Toffee Nut Latte.

I'm so excited it's only a week till I move into Fulham. I paid Michael the bond money and I've transferred the rent money to the landlord. The downside to the flat is that there is no full length mirror (horror!) and in the little recess between the two wardeobe doors where there should have been a shelf or a bookcase, there is none. I would like one but I don't want to spend on furniture in a house that isn't my own. But I am so excited!!! !!! !!! !!!

grey

2006-10-27T17:40:00.001+01:00

The weather is just awful. Now I know why the English always manage to find conversation in the weather and transport (how the roads are always jammed, or delays on the trains/tube lines). I can honestly say, I work in a very grey London. I savour the scarce rays of sunshine here in London and take every opportunity to warm my face under the clear blue skies before the clouds take over and everything's basked in a dismal wintry grey again.

I'm feeling a little down but I highly suspect that it's just winter blues (or greys). This is my first winter. My first time away from home. My first time without my friends and family. On the flip side, I have an exciting adventure ahead of me. Ten days from now, I'll be moving into my first flat (it's a flat share, don't start getting too excited) in Fulham. Because I'm blogging remotely, I really don't remember if I'd said anything/much about moving into London. Well, the short story is - I decided that the slight increase in cost was worth the time saved commuting between Guildford and London and started looking on Gumtree. Saw an ad for a place and it was in Fulham and there was an open house and decided to go. When I reached Fulham Broadway, I fell in love with the area. Looking for a place after that was easier because it was a more targeted search. I think Andrew and I went to about 12 flats (because he did go flat-hunting with me for which I am very grateful for) - some I liked very much, some I hated - before a win-win solution was struck. I am just around the corner from a quaint little place with nice cafes, restaurants, a deli, and a Waitrose (where you can get Terry's dark chocolate oranges.

It's the end of the work day and the week now and the sun has set. Yahoo weather said 17:43 but it's only 17:39 and there's already no trace of sun. Alors, bon weekend mes amis!