old acquaintances and gasp!

Met up with some friends from my previous internship last year at BDO Raffles for lunch today, and after that we decided to hop up to the office to showcase our gorgeous faces...haha...I saw Samantha and she's changed so much! She looked really pretty now with her long hair and as usual, her taste in clothes are still very impeccable!

Also saw Clara, Geraldine and finally Ruolin, the gal whom went on her BDO exchange to the london office last year! The office sure brought back lots of memories!

After that, Jinli and Jiaquan went to Orchard and we continue to talk over coffee and dinner. Can't believe it's been 1 year since the internship! It's times like today that you know you have made friends that you can rely on even not meeting for 1 year! And this just goes on to show that Friends made can be for life, are you seeing this Montse, Whitney and Rob?? haha...

and now to the gasp part! I got my FIIM results! and it's not C! haha...I got a B-, which I'm pretty happy and surprised...but! Should I appeal and try to make it a B? I mean, I should be very happy I did not get C+ right...but a B- is still gpd of 2.7 whoch means it'll only make my CGPA crumble again, yeah, nothing new...whereas B is 3.0 whoch also will make my CGPA crumble...haha...so actually, there's not much difference be it a B- or B...

something long overdue

well, since last year, even before I went for my exchange in Vienna and bought tons of gorgeous shoes and bags and clothing on that European trip, I had been charged by my military unit for failing to fulfill the mandatory law required by Singapore's legislation to take the yearly fitness test, IPPT.

Yes, indeed, and I did not turn out to answer my charge then and just when I thought my unit had forgotten all about it, I got the letter from the centralised military unit telling me to answer my charge. The letter actually came at a very apt timing cos I am, which I'd already stressed countless times, internship-less and rotting away at home, I'm just taking this as an opportunity to clear all the back log stuffs and complete things which I could have done the past 2 summers had I not gone overseas.

So, I put on my military uniform today and went down to the centralised location at Depot Road instead of my service unit all the way at Lim Chu Kang opposit the cemetery. Was all prepared to pay the fine when the officer charging me for my 'serious' (that's what he really said) said that I have a good record and since it's my first time evading the fitness test, I'll be let off with just a warning. Good, save me from my fine moolah.

On the cab back, I was also trying sort things in my head and try to attempt something this holidays. Stuffs like learning how to drive (I swear all those BMWs shooshing past my cab has some triggering effect on me!), lose 10 pounds, find info in on CFA, and also, trying to think of subjects to take in my last year so that i can achieve the impossible, getting 2 terms of continuous 4.3 GPA! haha, ok, the last one is really just some vivid imagination of mine at work.

I have also been busy downloading tons of music from pirate bay: Ministry of Sound's Summer anthems 2007, Mika's life in cartoon motion, Daughtry's home, and rihanna's good girl gone bad...I realised that techno really caught my liking ever since Europe, not that beng kind of techno, but rather, European-ish techno, more like dance I'd guess...

Gonna meet ex colleague of mine from BDO last year for lunch in downtown amidst all those bankers and happy students on great internships (I'm really sore over not getting any internship, can u see?) but before that gonna wake up at 9 to catch miss universe..really need some babes in bikinis!

sunburnt remedies

ok, i tried taking a pic of my sun burnt back but realises its just to farking tedious and i just cannot seem to make it look non sleazy (i mean a naked back up close just does soooo much to a vivid imagination, u noe, and this is suppose to be a very healthy blog about my materialistic indulges)

so, as i was saying, i was, or rather, am sun burnt so badly cos I spent like 6 hours under the sun on Friday after my disastrous FIIM exam by the pool. But the thing is that my skin is not peeling, or at least, yet.

So, i googled up remedies to cool my skin cos apparently, the exorbitant amount of moisturizer applied last night does not help my burning skin, and I found that apparently, brewing a pot of tea and patting tea (of course, the tea has to be brought to a cooling temperature, or chilled) or spraying tea over those burnt areas is good. So, I brewed a pot of tea (Darjeeling from Waitrose, a British chain, no less) and started applying to my face and body and I personally can vouch for the ultra-effectiveness of this remedy! My skin does not feel as bad as before. Well, the tennins in the tea does work wonders!

Sun, Sand, Sea and Rain

Lauren and I went to the beach today! Yup, we decided to head to Sentosa for a day of sun tanning since we bothe are internship-less. haha...but! it rained from noon to 2! What to do?Well, we walked around Vivocity, and had lunch at Harbourfront while it drizzled.

Finally, the sun came out and we both were so excited and decided to quickly find the new Sentosa express train location in Vivo and get out fai white asses to the beach.

Alas, we had immense difficulty trying to find the blardy train station within Vivo cos apparently, all escalators reaches L3 where signages indicate the station. But, please look at the photo:

L3 was a big sprawling open park (look at the sunshine!) with a few seperate small boxes (background) and we do not know which of these boxes the train station is, so we were walking round and round and finally, after asking some folks who work there, we were guided the direction.

See how happy Lauren is after we found out where the train station is!

And I cannot help but get freaked out by this hanging man: one moment, the corner of my eye sees the lil' boy playing in the puddle of water, the next, I saw someone hanging there...

Anyway, after the 3 bucks of admission, and 2 minutes on the train, we were finally at the Beach front station on Sentosa. And look at how pretty the beach is on a lazy Wednesday afternoon. Oh, and there's this beach volleyball competition starting today so despite the lack of toned bodies that appears on weekends, there are still some very toned bodies of professional volleyball players!

Lauren was so excited (me too) when the sun came out and we can finally get a tan on beach!

We found a nice little spot below a palm tree and rested there to get our BBQ session. Here's a treat for you guys! Since I figure no one's interested in my flabby white body, I shall treat you all to Lauren instead! Jeremy...aren't you happy I got this shot for you? Haha...

what's with those cliff hangers?

This is a very very sad week. All my favourite dramas have ended their run and I gotta wait till Fall before they all make their re-appearance. CSI, CSI Miami, CSI New York, Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives. Internet downloading will never be the same again for upcoming months.

On a good note, Bree finally came back to Desperate Housewives after a long disappearing act abut the real shocker for this season is the finale where Gabbie realised that Victor may not be that perfect husband she wanted, Lynette realising she have cancer, Susan making a last minute decision to hold her wedding with Mike and ...gasp!...Eddiie hanging herself after getting dumped by Carlos. Too much to handle. I really want to know if Eddie did die...maybe her rope (actually, it's a scarf) which she used to hang herself will snap. Maybe... i mean, she's the only non pretentious housewife around ain't she? And...who doesn't like a slut in the neighbourhood to spice things up?

Oh and CSI...Sara got placed underneath a crashed car all left to die while the team tried to search for her...anyway, I don't really fancy Sara so whether she goes and get killed or not, I don't really care. Just keep Catherine and Grissom on air and I'm a happy viewer.

As for the dear ole' Betty, I am so fed up with her shall-or-shall-i-not date Harry mood that I swear if not for the brilliant gay guy and the bitchy assistant Amanda, the show would have been off my radar. Shocker was that Amanda turned out to be Fay Summer's daughter which means she may very well be Meade's daughter too...looks like Daniel and Alexia have a new sister...and a true real woman to boot too! And it was so devastating that Betty's sister's husband got shot in a mama shop while trying to buy something for his son (who clinched the leading role in his school's West Side Story play)

Gish, bring back my favourite TV shows please...all the pristine beaches cannot entertain this desperado like those TV bitches.

My.Oh.My.

Dad is back for 1 night only on transit before flying back to Brunei tomorrow morning. Just found out that he is leading such an amazing life that I have to blog about this piece of news I just heard.

Apparently, he was supposed to be in transit (though theoretically, it's not really transit-and-wait-in-the-airport per se) as he was in Jakarta (for what purpose, I don't know) But here is the juicy part. I was asking him why he went to Jakarta and he gave me a totally blank look. He acted as if I was spouting nonsense from my Cadbury high cos I was happening to be munching on them.

Well, turns out that I was wrong. He did not go to Jakarta, but rather, he went to East Timor. Yes. East Timor. Gosh, what the hell was he doing there then, I proped further. His reply? For fun and to check out the place.

I don't know how some of you choose to interpret Fun, but for me, certainly the words 'Fun' and 'East Toimor' do not fit together.

New York, Barcelona, London, Tokyo. Yes.

East Timor. No.

Anyways, I had decided to make a trip to Borneo this June with Mum since I cannot get any internships. Besides I cannot let Mum have all the fun in Borneo while I was away for the past holidays. So come June, I will visit Kota Kinabalu in East Malaysia with Mum after years (on my part) of not been there. Maybe we'll hop over to Brunei and look Dad up at the same time. Just hope he'll not be in East Timor again.

Speaking of Kota Kinabalu, it's actually a lovely place (read: boring) but there is good food and great beach resorts set besides the South China Sea. I'm eyeing on the Shangri-La Tanjung Aru Resort and here are some lovely photos!

Now that do not look very bad huh? but here's a place in the hotel you will NOT find me:

The above is hell in paradise, epitomised.

It's that time of the year...

Considering how we are approaching June, some lovely creatures are making appearances at our local friendly grocers this time of the year. Mum bought some lovely Thai Honey Mangoes back and these succulent juicy fresh fruits are so farking tasty! I have already had like 20 of them ever since Mum got them a week ago!

I've been averaging around 3 daily and yummy! Bring more back!

a new stud at home

haha, i went down to ikea today with mum to get a new coffee table. We were feeling rather adventurous so we decided to make a trip to the far flung ikea in Tampines since there was free (yes, FREE) shuttle bus from Bedok and Tampines MRT station to the newly opened Ikea (ok, it's not that new cos it was unveiled last year i think, but I've never been to this branch before)

Mum and I also realised why they provide free shuttle daily to the Ikea - cos the location sucks. Period.

Compared to the extremely convenient Ikea at Alexandra with a nice mix of expatriates clientele, the one at Ikea, fear not, does have its far share of gorgeous expats despite a lazy Friday, but there were also more students from schools in the Eastern areas going there for their lunch, and alot alot ALOT of semi-retired and full time retirees who have nothing better to do than to go there to check out those Ikea displays.

But one saving grace is that the Ikea at Tampines has 2 other gigantic stores besides it. A huge Courts Electrical and Appliance store and Giant, a grocer. Mum and I had lunch at Ikea then hopped over to Courts to get our much deserved new mattresses, then back to Ikea where i bought lots of crappy stuffs like candles, a new frying pan, hangers etc etc...

Incidentally, local Ikea also started to stop giving out free plastic bags so we got another of those Blue re-usable shopping bags cos I forgot to bring the one I bought in Vienna down.

In case you are thinking that that's all, well, I got more to complain bout this Ikea. There seemed to be no taxis in sight! The location is so far flung that unless there are people going there, it's impossible to get a cab! I'll not be patronising this outlet anytime soon, that I am sure.

Gotta run, I am meeting pals for a night of mahjong...haha...

Something Cultured

No, not cultured like a yogurt...but rather, cultured like a true bona-fide art aficionado. Si, mis amigas. Yours truly went down to the Singapore Arts Museum today after weeks of wanting to see the special exhibition by China artiste Fanzhi on Idealism.

Ok, and the other reason for this trip was due to the fact that I had 2 hours to kill after my less than 30 min FIIM meeting with my groupmates (quite an unproductive meeting, may i add) before dinner with Wanwen. So, what can a bored guy do? the museum's just across the street, so I might just as well...





Now, Let me share with you more on the artiste...All I know from what I've read is that he's an idealist (is that the term for painters painting potraits that are idealism in nature?) Ok, and he's from China. Yup.

Ok, ok, I am really captivated by those paintings since I've seen it on the news cos I remembered a potrait (which I've managed to snap secretly) from the papers which shows a guy dressed in communistic gear and the painting just looks so alluring. So alluring to my attention that I forgot the painting's name. Haha...Look at it for yourself and see if you've been attracted...haha...


But my ultimate fave is this tribute (??) to Warhol! I love it! Made my admission of $4 so worth it.


Sadly, our interiors are not as grand as European museums so, this is all we've got. A preserved pre-WW2 building which used to be a church then an all-boys school and todate, a museum. Not very bad actually...don't be so picky, ok? haha



Courtyard









Darn, gotta run, late for dinner!

near death experience

ok, maybe the header was too dramatic, but knowing the dramatic in me, the title is actually very much apt for this post.

There's no photos cos seriously, I was so traumatised by what had happened just now that...i think i need to go shopping...

What was the big deal? well...yours truly was stick in the elevator just now.

Yes...Stuck.In.A.Elevator.

Sense my excitement?

With a primary school kid and her maid. Oh, did i mentioned I bought groceries too, so my ice cream melted and orange juice became warm and what else? Yes, my 2 bratwurst and 300 grams of breakfast ham suffered too.

Why am I in bout of unluckiness lately? Taxi failure at busy junction few weeks back and now this!

Ok, actually, the time spent stuck inside the lift was not that bad. The fan and lights were still on; only the life failed to move. I pressed the emergency button for like 10 min and since they just re-furbished the lift, 4 walls were covered in protective gear and there's no emergency number to call/dial. Those town council folks are soooo smart to only post notices with numbers outside the lift. How do stuckers like me get to see numbers when I am in the lift? Rely on reflections from the non-reflective surfaces of the walls outside?!

Anyway, the notice inside does not help much too: In case of emergency, please stay calm and do not panic. Press the emergency button and wait for help to arrive.

Yes, I did folow those instructions. In fact, I even called 995 (911 of Singapore) to tell them to send 'convey the message that I am stuck with 2 other folks to the town council' .

In between wait, I had time to look at my mails, eat 8 squares of chocolate with almonds, call mum (who's 3 floors abov my stuck lift) and also, lament my suay-ness (unluckiness) to Tina and provide her some late afternoon destress talk.

Help arrived and they fixed the problem. Immediately, I left the lift and climb stairs for the remaining floors up. The exit was not as dramatic as I envisioned though...

Now, who says I am a vain guy?

Ok, i think by now most of my pals know of my weakness when it comes to shopping: Bags and Shoes, and in fact, I came across this article from Purse Blog to justify my weakness and i find it oh-so-appropriate:

Men are more likely than women to opt for a luxury brand when buying handbags - and it’s the label, not the price, that counts, according to a survey of wealthy shoppers.

The Luxury Institute said the demand for luxury bags remains strong, with about one third of 1,500 wealthy American shoppers surveyed buying a branded bag in the last 12 months.
“The luxury handbag is the accessory that defines the wealthy woman and is a major profit driver for luxury fashion brands,” said Milton Pedraza, chief executive of the New York-based researcher focused on wealthy consumers.

The Luxury Institute found that men were more likely than women to reach for a luxury label when buying a handbag - 73 per cent of men, compared with 50 per cent of women - and over three times more likely to choose luxury French brand Chanel.
But overall, US label Coach has become the most popular bag among wealthy shoppers, leading with a 29 percent market share with other brands compete heavily for the rest of the pie.

The survey of shoppers with an average income of $US308,000 and average net worth of $US3.1 million found Coach was the most familiar brand of designer handbags, recognized by 52 per cent of respondents.
That compared to 24 per cent for Gucci22 per cent for Louis Vuitton, and 21 per cent for Prada

But familiarity with the pricier Italian brands rises as wealth increases, according to the report.

Looking at consumers whose yearly paycheck was above $US300,000, the survey found that 38 per cent were familiar with Coach, while 34 per cent were aware of Gucci.
Price did not come into the equation even though bags from luxury fashion houses such as Chanel, Prada and Gucci, owned by parent company PPR, can cost in the thousands of dollars, while Coach bags generally cost hundreds of dollars.
Consumers said the price was not as important a consideration as quality and reputation when judging between luxury brands.

it's all coming back...

before i fell asleep last night, I suddenly remembered the very interesting Q asked by the lady at JP Morgan for my interview : So, you like to read, why don't you tell me about the last book you've read?

Yes, that was actually quite a highlight of the interview and I don't know why i got that vital info erased from my mind. My reply? Well, haha...I said the last interesting book I've read was The Time Traveler's Wife, cos the book was soo unique and complicated due to the time traveling factor. Of course, at the back of my mind, I suddenly realised that I had been tricked cos maybe what she expects from me is "Well, the last book I've read is actually some Finance book" Ha! I got bam-doozled! Damn! Then I quiclky add on that I like magazines like Econimist and Newpapers too cos they are so convenient and interesting. True! The Economist is very interesting, in fact, with that kind of price for a magazine, I think Economist trumps all otheres hands down for it's price/wordings ratio.

Great Dinner for Mum

Ever since my foiled attempt to leach onto Steven's sister to try the utterly devastatingly great succulent Peking Duck from Ming Jiang Restaurant at Rochester Park, I have been attempting to come up with some excuses to persuade Mum to try it our with me.


But, Rochester Park is just way out of place for folks who do not drive, so, I decided to hop over to the other Ming Jiang at Goodwood Park hotel in town instead. Much more accessible. Adeline also raved to me about the great braised Pork Belly which i die-die-must-try.

And I had a great excuse: Mothers' Day. Ha. Yes, I am a very filial son who really wants to pamper his mother to a great meal in a fancy posh Chinese Restaurant. I am also the one filial son who happened to realise that Mum cannot exactly eat all those food which I wanted to try due to health reasons. Oh well...the world does revolve around me , so...too bad for Mum I guess. But she did had a great time there and she did sample most food and she had praises for them all!

I ordered a bowl of braised shark's fin in superior stock for myself (Shark's fins has high cholesterol, so non mum-friendly) The soup base was wonderfully aromatic and the fins were really good! At 68 bucks a small bowl, it is pricey but then, the fins and soup was really that good!


Then, I order half a Peking Duck (the skin has cholesterol too, so ain't mum-friendly too!) The skin was good and crisp. I decided to eat the meat from the roast duck as it is and find them a bit tough.


Then, I ordered a portion of Braised Pork Belly for Mum and Oriental Beef Steak for myself. The belly was really tender and nice, but even that small cube, it is frighteningly high in fats and mum only ate half. Very rich and actually, filling! The beef steak was great, the meat wonderfully marinated and not tough at all!


Then, we got a dish of Fried Scallops with Asparagus in X.O. Sauce. Great dish, both of us loved it.


Lastly, I got myself a dessert called Mango with Pomelo bits. Not bad. Oh, and in case you, like the dumd waitress, think that I'm the one footing the bill cos it's a celebration of Mothers' Day, wrong! Of course, it wasn't Mum too. One important sentence: Daddy's supplementary card for Mum.

Vienna Beach leaves on...

I met up with Tina's friends last night and headed to my favourite club, Zouk. Ok, Tina was there too...haha...I just like how i kept misleading people that it's tina's friends though she's there too...haha...

ok, anyway, Jilian realised that I should bring some friends of mine along in case i cannot tolerate them and their girl talk, so who else to ask other than Kenneth? haha...And! since I figure that Ken will probably take ages to meet me for dinner, I decided to ask Brandon along so I can meet up earlier for dinner before hitting the club.

The gals had some drinks before going down to Zouk at Emerald Hill and Brandon and I, after our dinner, went to look for them and made our way to the club together. And here's where the fun starts. Entrance was 28 bucks with 2 drinks but since all drinks were 1-for-1 till midnight, the alcoholic me got muchos muchos drinks. Got 2 jugs of Malibu Pineapple to sweeten things to a start and finally, Kenneth got there and I got 20 Tequila shots... haha...yes! 20 tequila shots!

And the girls only took like 6...so that leaves the 3 guys with the rest... Then we used our coupns to get beer and to end the night on another sweet note, I got for myself and the guys a Rainbow shot! Awesome.

Still pretty sober on photo huh? haha...

Jilian, Debra and Tina at Emerald 5 before Zouk for their Martinis

Oh, and on a very important sidenote:

Elise and Huiling...we have to do Zouk soon! haha...

the opera and two blind phantoms

no no! it wasn;t me who went to watch the phantom of the opera at the esplanade..rather, it was tina and her friend jilian. I had dinner with them and let me tell you...those 2 gals were dressed up as if they are VVVIPs on opening night for the broadway show. As if.

Reality: They were gonna be sitting on Circle 4 (like the 4th or 5th floor) with tickets bought over eBay! haha...Well, to give them some justice (and much deserved class) they did have a pretty good seat in the house (or at least, from what i was told) But the important thing was that they got those seats from an Italian expat lady who can no longer make it to the show cos she has something on (forgot her side of the story)

So, those two gals brought along with them the essential opera/broadway/concert/performance in cheap seating item - the binoculars. Again, let me tell you...with those bino they have with them, looking at the stage is no problem for them, in fact, with those binos they can even see all the way from Singapore to Malaysia's JB across the causeway! Though i think if its me, i'll probably be too busy checking out those folks seating in the premium seat and try to make put which is a 8/10 or a 1/10 or another lucky bugger who got cheap eBay tix off some expat.

Botak Jones and a surprise!

No, the above is NOT botak jones (botak is malay for bald), but rather, wedding bells ringing Adeline at her gown fitting! I wanted to save the photo till the last but she's too gorgeous to not be on the front of this post!


Adeline brought me to try out Botak Jones when we met for dinner today. Apparently, there's this Botak Jones outlet just across the street from my neighbourhood, Bishan. I had Fish and Chips and just as I was questioning whether to take the Regular or Large serving, Ade assured me tha a Regular will suffice. Luckily for her advice cos the Fish and Chips was gigantic even at regular! Even with the help of Ade, we cannot polish off the fries and those two pieces of fish fillets were also so long, the 6 bucks were so well spent on it!

Ade had the Botak Burger and the beef patty was even thicker than the burger bun itself! Gosh, Botak Jones do serve good food at extremely affordable prices! And! It's within walking distance from my place! Wished I had a camera to capture all those food but rest assure cos even though there's no food today, i got something even better!


Well, remember when I said that Adeline's getting married? And she has a gorgeous Singapore Airlines pilot fiance (or is it husband)? Well, I have got photos here! haha...yes yes, another eligible bachelor off the market, gals out there...don't you wish you have a pilot hubby to pamper you too? haha...and look at all those photos, somehow, isn't Ade glowing from being in love?








When will my princess in her Dior couture gown come swoon me and sweep me off the ground?

Speaking of gown, Ade went to try on some wedding gowns last (or 2) week(s) ago and she opted for this gorgeous low back one:





I so think she made the right and perfect choice cos Ade's has a great back! And the lace is just so weeding-ish and chic! I cannot wait to attend her wedding!