Wish List

This is for you GJ, because you never know what to get me. (It is in no particular order or rank)

• My Fair Lady Tickets
• Damask Laptop Bag
• Kissing Kid Pendant (would make a nice stocking filler!)
  
• Anything from ASOS Women/Beauty
  

what's ur guilty pleasure?

come on, come on, fess up fess up
#1: VOGUE - in the words of divine Carrie, "sometimes i just felt like it fed me more
#2: online goss HOLLYWOODRAG! makes u thankful for ur mediocrity
#3: TCM - turner's classic movies - they don't make them like they use to
#4: design*sponge - because the world is too ugly otherwise
#5: Nissin Spareribs instant noodles - with soup that doesn't taste like dishwater!
#6: Any Next Top Model show - reality can be cruel to models too
#7: Wallpaper*
#8: http://www.asos.com - cheap, imitations of things too expensive to afford and online
#9: H&M - fashion equivalent of instant noodles, online shopping too!
#10: custom personalised stationary - email just doesn't have that edge

new place

I am lazy and now i finally found someone who actually took pictures of our new place. HAH!
We all live in the towerblocks in the background...don't you just love the lake view?
City centre living to the max..we had a samba band parade right out our window...
Our living room, both sides...

ever wished?

that you could go send a message to your future self so that you can send a message or sign back to yourself to save you from making stupid decisions?

you can just turn the mute button on some people and turn the blind button on some?

people would come with their descriptions and price tag like something you buy online?

that the arseholes of the world get it socked to them like they deserve to?

your parents would never grow old?

love is...

dried orange skin cut out into letters in a silver frame
his list, my list, being on each others list
3 hour discussions on the merit of KH,KB & SJ
being next to SJ on the list.

constructive critcism on flatulence
style, loudness and fragrance all play a part
congratulations on a good one to boot.

you're invited

party.drink.eat with us @ 7.30pm at our new home

address:
klopsteen 8
2496SM Den Haag
06-30448289

if you're coming, let us know...

Seeing Double

Why do I have 2 taskbar? And how can i get rid of it.

 

I sat down with all intentions to blog my heart out but i got sidetracked by the fact that now i have 2 recurring taskbar and there doesn't seem to be a way in the world that I can get rid of them.

 

I wanted to talk about my hunkering for asian culture and food since I'm living in the Netherlands now and how i chose to delete the fact that I am overseas and settle for the phrase "living in'' because there is no real overseas and whoever said the grass was greener on the other side was just confused because he/she actually crossed over to the other side of the lawn and looked at their own lawn. so there is no other side. there is just the side you are looking at.

 

i miss a lot of things back there but i cherish a lot of things out here. superficial things. things not worth mentioning. it doesn't matter that i feel like i'm living a lie out here, because i just had the impression that studying overseas was meant to be more of a suffering experience, but i'm having perhaps too good a time.

 

who can tell, meanwhile, if you want to help me...tell me how to get rid of the double taskbar.

 

self inflicted pain

I love my new laptop,

but it's 354 X 284 X 35.2 mm

 

it doesn't fit a single thing. Not

no sleeves or totes or cargo slim

 

I NEED A CUTE, DESIGNED BAG which a girl can carry around without relegating myself to be a plaid shirt wearing, khaki pants dragging tech student.

 

WHY ARE THEY ALL SO EXPENSIVE OR UNAVAILABLE IN THIS FUCKING COUNTRY!??

New house, New Laptop, New state of mind

It's been a long break from Blogger.

I was angry at your picture uploading speed, It's just such a god-damn hassle, but then again, I might not be doing things right.

 

Welcome my new house, it's 70% done in terms of decorating to my taste, like an uphill slope, you know those last 5% are always a bitch. I am up late at night doing laundry, vaccumming, cleaning and watering my plants, which is crazy but makes me strangely calm. Subscribing to the huisje, boompje, beestje (house, tree, pet...it's dutch, don't ask) mentality after all these years of declaring non-mediocrity.

 

Welcome my new laptop, I finally decided to return to portable computing after reluctantly admitting that my IBM is more than gone and I'm just holding on to a headstone of it. It was so small and so light and so damn cute for it's time, but those times are gone and I'm settling for a powerhouse by ASUS, because I'm an APPLE girl at heart with an ASUS budget and yes...mostly I am cheap. I need to know I'm getting bang for my buck and APPLE, you better make your 700EUR more than just on good looks, even though I know more than anyone good design is frankly worth a lot.

 

Dear Sonia, I hope you are happy where you are and I can't believe that barely a year ago we just left after a nice coffee at International Plaza and you've finally made it out after your long awaited exile on that island.

 

Will try again with pictures soon..thiS is my dream

 

Outta Here

Many people are moving around lately.

Sonia is in Melbourne.
Boh is thinking about coming to visit.
Jan has left NYC to go to London..good ol london town to visit.
Tony just came back from Seattle.

I AM LEAVING THIS CRAP OF A HOSTEL. and moving into a new swanky maisonette which i can decorate all by myself(cue gleeful evil decorator's laugh)

Promise to put pictures and more details soon.
Wish me luck with the dutch menial labour force and contractors.

ME.You

Arena (known to self and others) independent, organised

Blind Spot (known only to others) caring, intelligent, powerful, spontaneous

Façade (known only to self) adaptable, extroverted, observant, sensible

Unknown (known to nobody) able, accepting, bold, brave, calm, cheerful, clever, complex, confident, dependable, dignified, energetic, friendly, giving, happy, helpful, idealistic, ingenious, introverted, kind, knowledgeable, logical, loving, mature, modest, nervous, patient, proud, quiet, reflective, relaxed, religious, responsive, searching, self-assertive, self-conscious, sentimental, shy, silly, sympathetic, tense, trustworthy, warm, wise, witty

Dominant Traits

100% of people think that W_T_G_Z is caring
100% of people agree that W_T_G_Z is independent
100% of people think that W_T_G_Z is intelligent
100% of people agree that W_T_G_Z is organised
100% of people think that W_T_G_Z is powerful
100% of people think that W_T_G_Z is spontaneous

All Percentages

able (0%) accepting (0%) adaptable (0%) bold (0%) brave (0%) calm (0%) caring (100%) cheerful (0%) clever (0%) complex (0%) confident (0%) dependable (0%) dignified (0%) energetic (0%) extroverted (0%) friendly (0%) giving (0%) happy (0%) helpful (0%) idealistic (0%) independent (100%) ingenious (0%) intelligent (100%) introverted (0%) kind (0%) knowledgeable (0%) logical (0%) loving (0%) mature (0%) modest (0%) nervous (0%) observant (0%) organised (100%) patient (0%) powerful (100%) proud (0%) quiet (0%) reflective (0%) relaxed (0%) religious (0%) responsive (0%) searching (0%) self-assertive (0%) self-conscious (0%) sensible (0%) sentimental (0%) shy (0%) silly (0%) spontaneous (100%) sympathetic (0%) tense (0%) trustworthy (0%) warm (0%) wise (0%) witty (0%)

Created by the Interactive Johari Window on 20.2.2006, using data from 1 respondents.
You can make your own Johari Window, or view W_T_G_Z's full data.

Riverside

I feel like a sua ku (mountain tortoise = ignorant country bumpkin) who's been away from Singapore for too long. I can't believe it, they bloody went ahead and started to construct a dome that's covering the old river side, to protect it from the elements... or eithere that in my abscence, we've been taken over by the Galatic federation, or more likely, as successful as our local governments bid to push Singapore as a ideal convention destination, we have won the bid to host the Intergalatic Games this year. But it's beautiful, and I don't care, I'm gonna meet someone for drinks there, before I leave!

Mom's Cooking

My mom is the best cook, par none. She cooks something she's tasted once, right down to the exact detail and even better...most of the time. So since her only daughter, me is back after half a year of potatoes, she's making all efforts to force good food down my throat, before I fly back and get emaciated with potatoes. It's the true chinese custom of feeding your children to make them fat, perhaps because in the past, they sell the children off by the kilo. I'm making my mom one rich mother.

Genting - Singapore

Ink Tattoos: things you do on a very bored road trip on a very asleep brother, who has no skin sensors left due to army training! Awesome...but the ink ran out after i drew his skin, either the skin was too bumpy or too oily...Groosssss

Genting Day 3

I love Coffee Bean And Tea Leaf, they serve the nicest frappacinos and of course the most delicious tea. Spend the day, reading magazines and wasting time away with Nix and Tony. and when we're hungry we just go up to Tong Lor Wan for a quick meal ofFried Golden Rice with Caviar and Prawns, that's a Ribena (Cassis) Creme float and that's tony and nixon making a fool of themselves watiing for our food.


Coffeee...I miss blended ice chocolate covered coffee bean drinks ...

Genting Day 2

Woke up bright and early, dad and nix tried on the new shirts we bought them. Too lazy to translate now, but it's funny...for sure.

Spent the entire day hanging out at the cafe's watching FEARLESS with Jet Li in it, and then getting ready for the New Year Reunion Dinner, which is as big a dinner as it gets in our culture.
Check out photos below,
then spent the rest of the night, staying up for the crackers and outdoor celebration with fireworks, while poor nixon battles a case of food poisoning. Really letting go of the old year and receiving the new, for his case!

Genting Trip Day 1

Waking up bright and early to head up the road to drive to Genting. We've been doing this for a couple of years, and every year...it gets easier to wake up, but i seem to get sicker on the road. so Finally, after 6 hours of driving, stopping for greasy foood and the warm warm weather of smog and plantations along the Malaysian Highway, we arrived at Genting. Immediately, mom and I manipulated dad into letting us go down to Kuala Lumpur for shopping, because of the following reasons:
1.We don't care if the bus will make us sick, no one sells cheap BAPE Sta and underground brands like Sungei Wang
2. Come on, it's half the money, since the exchange rate is almost 2 to 1
3. I know, I know ...they have the best hongkong style cafe food outside of Hong Kong, this side of the world

So we make our way down, to the shuttle, took us 1 hr 45 mins on the huge bus, with tony falling into different states of sleepiness and trying to maintain his look! Halfway, we hear people say that we're headed to Pekeliling, but we thought we needed to go to Sentul, so I was making fun of my usually directionally challenged mother that she got us lost again. But thank goodness, we arrived there, hopped onto the new light rail system (TAKE THAT MOBILITY!) and went to shopping heaven.
I love it when the light rail is attached surgically to the facade of a shopping mall, how can there be any other more elegant solution, get on train, get off train, smack right into the window display. HeaaVEN.

Of course, I cannot resist photographing tony, the vain, with a nice backdrop of Caesar Pelli's twin towers...too bad we don't have time to go shop there, there's like an entire podium of 7 storeys worth of shops there. Hmm..last time i remembered, prada was there, with her apricot lighted stores. Got off and all of us were just plain hungry, having eaten nothing since 6 am. So mom suggested we hit a small hong kong style cafe, which of course she couldn't find and remembered. Cue 30 mins of wandiering around in different directions around the building block, and finally finding the back entrance of the cafe pretty much by mistake. Too tired to complain, just ordering food and drinks before we get ready to shop till we drop.
Mom and Me
Oooh, Ice tea, the real kind, with sour plums inside with coffee and tea mix called Ying Yang. Guaranteed to give you your caffeine kick.
This was well worth the long walk, pumpkin baked fried rice, with porkchop and an egg on top and oven baked in a fresh pumpkin, you can literarily scoop up the creamy pumpkin flesh with each scoop of your rice....it totally melts in your mouth So this is how we spent the rest of the afternoon, trawling through Sungei Wang, buying Juicy Couture, Obey, DCSHOECO, no label and BApe Sta stuff..at dirt cheap prices. They are all real, but just really really cheap here.
Tony at Zang Toi's, right after he bought his second leather BAPE Sta...
After hours and hours of shopping, we were just sooo beat, we had to stop for tea at Zang Toi's cafe for a nice nice mint ice tea. Yummy and of course, it doesn't hurt that you're sitting in the middle of a few designer's cafe Busy Busy Sungei Wang, so after taking the light rail in the wrong direction, we had to cross 2 stations, to get back on the right line to head back to Pekliling to take our shuttle bus back up to Genting. Of course, this time..It was totally my fault, with the train directions.
So on the way back, our shuttle broke down halfway between KL and Genting, and we were just sitting in there, waiting and waiting, while tony checked out all his BAPE sta that he bought up in Sungei Wang....and you people complain that girls buy too much shoes! HA!
We ended up at night, trawling through first world, and nixon saw a ferrari which he loved.

Home Day 4

I finally ran today. by the beach yoooppeee!!
I need to shower and swim...
but went to parkway to get a hair straightener instead. Ceramic plates from Revlon. Hope it works
I almost forgot the sensation of being stung by a mosquito and itching ot death. Thanks to the great mosquito legions we have..they haev made it their duty to remind me.
Start to clear up the blog block and try to blog about home as much as possible.
Tomorrow we'll be on the road to Genting/Malaysia for CNY again.
don't think i'll be contactable.

Home Day 3

Breakfast with grams and my aunt .. because mom wanted to give her money for CNY.
Trawled around parkway..which is totally different now and decided to head home to go to Bugis Junction with mom. Had my first iced coffee...mmm..i missed that so much

IAP friends at conference hall.
We made a mistake and forgot about daniel..OOPS
Promised to take him to dinner once instead.

Rushed back to Katong for my manicure/pedicure appointment. Love what anne did. It actually matches my phone!!

Had all the jeans tailored to fit and went home instead.
Sleep deprivation is catching up with me. I lie there at 4pm..and I concussed.
I didn't see daylight anymore...woke up at 11 am..feeling groggy and drowsy..chatted online with V &M and whoever else online.
decided to go back to sleep, but ended up watching las vegas, jeremiah and what not on tv before drifting off

Home Day 2

Wake up to go to meet grandma and aunty to go get my cousin Ricky who just arrived from Oz and is staying at his wife's apartment on Holland Road. He's marooned here, on his way to Delhi, but his wife is at a conference so we collected him and took him out for breakfast so he can meet my grandma.

Drop him back home to rest, went to get my hair colored. Which was SUCH AN ORDEAL. The colorist, i don't particularly like, but he's good at what he does. He decided haircut no.1 is a disaster and after bleaching my hair, re-cut it...hence haircut no.2...
he might be an asshole, but he knows his shit.

Ricky came by for dinner,and he got a haircut too... We had good ol home curry, ribs , prawn fritters and rice. Mom took him out walking around old Katong, where he used to visit with his dad to bring back some nice memories. Stop for lemon gelato on the way...umm..good when it's 28 degrees in the evening.

Tried again to sleep..this time...i wanted to finish watching chicken little on dvd..and halfway through it, mom comes in...all insomaniac..and we just took off for midnight noodles at Bedok..and take the chance to finish New Year shopping for the house.

I love Singapore..everything is 24 hours...at least the things you need. We bought mandarins, goodies, cookies, and even a brocolli (don't know why, don't ask) at Bedok..at 3 am in the morning..and we had help carrying everything to the car by the shop assistants. If this is not good service, I don't know what is.

Bedok North Blk 85's Famous minced meat noodles

Fried Carrot Cake, which GJ totally misses

Crawled back to bed... mom wants to run again tomorrow...

Home Day 1

Home sweet home, even the weather is co-operating

It's 26 degrees , breezy but not super sunny or warm.
I can totally survive this weather.

Had to buy a new crystal studded havianas (well not have to, i could have bought $2 slippers, but of course i buy the cushier havianas) and a mini skirt and shorts because i'm so stupid with packing, I only had jeans and this is too nice a weather for jeans

Went around with mom to get food for a nice welcome home dinner with steamboat and grill, we had sashimi, sliced beef, chicken, pork and a fantastic dinner

Tried so hard to keep away that night, for fear of messing up the time again.

Very very painful...but I managed to get haircut no.1 at least that day. Try to sleep as mom promises morning jog tomorrow at the beach

Flight Home

Waiting at schipol for my flight home...this will be 6 months since i was last home..
a little apprehensive about the flight, well and mostly about being home.
But the prospects of good food, family and ang pow is helping me stay on the flight.

Great...I get the cow herd of holland again on my flight. This is a phenomenon whereby everyday, normal dutch citizens get REALLY REALLY nervous and panicky when they have to fly or travel.. symptoms observed:
1. They all line up at the check in counter like it's for free diamonds , the queue is messy and LONG....why??
2. They are rushing at the gate to go through the detectors, they line up all the way around the corner, pass the toilets, down the travelator side and pass the other gate...while there are empty seats around in the waiting areas
3. Once they get through, they start to queue to enter the plane, even when it's not time yet...observes queue the goes all the way and joins up with that of the detector queue
4. Shoves and pushes through the aisle of the plane, and you get jams because 2 fat ladies like to stand IN THE AISLE for FOREVER to put their luggage, adjust their hair, etc etc
5. You sit, and your surrounded by sounds of BOE BOE BOE , because of course..the cows say boe in holland
6. You notice, if one cow turns, the others ALL FOLLOW at lightning speed.
7. You're next to a couple and the female cow, has obviously never been on the plane before, so whatever you move or touch or take during your flight, she will photo-copy you.
8. There is another old cow in the aisle, telling people he's a major etc etc, and talks so loud, that 2 attendants have to come and "forcefully smiling" persuade him to sit down , or else
9. You hear talk about travelling and being to places SO INACCURATE AND FALSE...you just don't know what to say anymore....how can people claim to be to places they have obviously never even been to before
10. You have no more elbow room even as you're on the aisle seat, because the cow next to you is so big, she takes your elbow rest, and on the aisle side, some cow is standing with her huge ass next to you, as she's chatting to the other cows mid-flight..

everyone go: BOE BOE BOE BOE BOE

that and 4 hours of turbulence on a 13 hour flight....
I got really really nauseous

Friday's Two Faces - I AM DRUNK & HAPPY

Got to G's, smell of good cooking wafting through the old canal house.
This was celebration night, for all of us and the 2 teachers for surviving the semester, but clouded by RMR's over eagerness of desire to share our grades with us. still, we stuck to the plan of making too much cocktails too generously, so that everyone will be drunk enough not to notice.

Headed back out to the nearest AH for ingredients and booze... had time to chat with Anais, who is actually the sweetest thing alive, like liquorice...
TOo much booze, too little men to carry them, lesson learnt: never send the boys to get booze, they blew the budget and got whiskey too.

Got back, started to man the lemon pressing station while M starts the Mojitos out, gets alcohol-free RMR to take some, but overheard him telling Dirk and Gepke that their reports sucked while walking in to serve drinks....OUCH....tell M to start making stronger Mojitos
Manning stations between hallway (aka the BAR), the dinning room and the kitchen, feeding the cook cocktails and his friend, Alta got a non-alcoholic one by mistake.

Night went by under a haze of mojitos, malibus with pineapple juice (YUUUM) and tequila shots and pasta and vegetable stews ( needed more salt). Then the party began, with a drunk V, hugging everyone including G and boyfriend telling them in whispers (loud whispers) "I'M NOT DRUNK...REALLY .... I AM JUST PRETENDING" of course, everybody knows the universal rule that drunks protest their own state when they are gone and drunk.

He was great entertainment , snapping his fingers at people to FOCUUS on him (fucous - f*** us) ... i'm tempted to clip the movie of him i filmed here..but i have no idea.
He started to pour out his life story to us, and hugged everyone....

I was so sad that i had to leave early, i wanted to witness his embarassment more, as we kept pressing whiskey in his hands. Tried to hand him his hoodie, which he proceeded to shove his right arm into the left sleeve of. Decided, with a pang of guilt, maybe I should take him home, but he didn't want to, so we just let him be.

Heard after that he literary jumped on people, hugged them the night through.

Made our way back with M, Fleur and Shih Chi, to delft, too tired and gone to walk home....so..we caught a mercedes cab from the station....and decided since this is our first cab ride in a LONG time (yes, we are that deprived in delft) to wave like Queen E / Paegent Queen in the car..:D
I've got that hand movement down to a pat + tilted chin and elegant gaze...:D

We have to do this all again...the drinks, the company, the drunk and of course the fun
(pictures will be posted later)

Friday's Two Faces - I AM ART & CULTURE

Got up real early, caught the tram to the station with M to be on our way to Den Haag for a day of culture and refinement visiting the nation's musuem with our esteemed professor, RMR...
tried to be late..well not tried..was just late..because of said tram/train...it's not my fault the stop train came first.
But still we were met up by the group and had a whole morning/afternoon of dutch impressionist and romantic artist in the Mauritshuis, where we saw van Mieris (humourous guy...great thing to have in a house full of dead artiste with dead drawings of deader people) who had brothel scenes, with copulating dogs and oysters as inspiration, a nice sojourn through a pouring (1 degree) rain and a nice lunch at a cafe on the square in front of the musuem (free lunch! thanks to RMR)
Proceeded to Amsterdam for th Rijksmusum, where I got a picture of a fat boy..I LOVE IT..it's just so weird it's funny. Saw dollhouses built for adults, without their working miniature fountain and garden (alas) and walked the line down Keizergracht for a night of cocktails at G's place.
(pictures will be posted at a later date)

Sassen and test

Just finished the final test...yooopee
we had like 5 inches thick of papers/readers to read for the open book exam
out of which..perhaps only 10% was evident in the test questions.

Lovely...
to boot...the dutch students had a different reader from the internationals...but hey guess what..
in the spirit of equality...everyone gets the same test.

Now ... we await the results

Hello...i'm from Singapore

You know what you hear and think about all Singaporean kiasu kias...well i'm one of them and I'm super grateful for the MOE to drilling me into a book-eating, text-digesting machine. I can eat and lap up any bloody subject and text as long as you tell me i have an exam on it. And frankly, I think i bloody earned this ability, after 18 years of having to do it 3 times a month at least and hearing the words, okay, you have a mid-term exam tomorrow...and you go like wah..again?
So..now i'm super pissed..there are these buggers from god-knows-why "developed" better countries who think they are so smart...they can't even read english articles properly...they waltz in and in a "friendly-exchange" try to weasel you out of your notes and information to pick your brains....
Forget it man...no fucking way I'm gonna help educate you while i'm here studying my brains off...no way..you don't even know what time the exam is. Besides...do i look stupid to you? I've got 6 years of primary, 4 years of secondary and 2 years college of hard-core test and exam studying under my belt...you think i'm gonna past my notes to you?
Helllooo..I'm from singapore and I'm proud of it

Final Presentation (REALLY)

We had our final presentation of the semester at the Province House of South Holland in Den Haag in the Parlimentary Room. You cannot imagine the relief...the first part was an exhibition, where everyone shows off their panels and presentation and after which we debated. FUN
Setting up the panels ... imagine walking with them in the fog and cold at 8 am in the morning.
Me, Vic n Fleur...Gorgeous in Black of course
Our beloved studio master, Remon ... with his wildly individual pants
Debating session
Wireless Group
Group 2 ... well mostly everyone...of course
after that..we all went off for a oily greasy good chinese meal in chinatown....YUM