*197 - when september ends

To anyone who cares: I shall make more filigree earrings one day, but right now I've got to work on a gazillion orders (didn't realise Dreamcatcher would be so popular - gotta make at least 6 pairs from yesterday's orders!), so it won't be anytime too soon! ):

Don't quite feel like writing much because I'm drowsy. Sleeping at 2 and waking up at 6 or 7 on consecutive days without naps isn't enough rest for piggy me. So here are some pictures (:

Say hello to Mingchuan! :D He sent me this photo, together with the next one. Thanks, hope you don't mind that I cropped and edited them!



Say hello to Bodyguard Tubby! :D Oooo, quite buff ah? I can sense his head swelling and exploding as he reads this, yes Tubby? Hehehe mine all flab no muscle.



Dance schedule changed, and the class has been shifted to another day. I would have said that Maddy and I had made a wasted trip all the way to town, but on second thoughts, it was nice wasting my day away bumming around with her (:

Besides, we bought lousy jazz shoes! Yay! So cheap! Blister-inducing! But they work well! Thumbs up! (Check out the toot stockings they gave us to try with the shoes.)



Had a most awful time walking all the way from Arab Street to Suntec in the rain, with only my little purple umbrella for shelter. We were dripping from thigh down, and our arms and hair were drenched too. But thankfully (and surprisingly) my clothes remained pretty dry. Headed straight for the toilet to repair the mess.



After realising the class was cancelled, we walked about and settled down for mocha + ice cream. We were disappointed with how un-glorious it looked in the photo. Looks so small and lousy right? But we could barely finish it in the end.



It took us about 7 tries to get a photo containing both of our faces and the drink.



The rest turned out mostly like that - off-centered, blurry, minus the drink. (You can see the spoon in this one though!)



'Twas pleasant, sitting there chatting about this and that (like Tay-Sachs disease and fishball-shaped Daddies). I like Maddy. Hehehe. (: Dancing buddies till we're grannies. (:

*196 - battle of the fingers

Elisa & Evelyn has been updated! Sent out a quick email to our mailing list, and voila, the orders came pouring in within seconds. Elisa's looking after the emails at this moment and is on the verge of a heart attack. She's been replying to emails non-stop since about 15 minutes ago.

Sorry Angel, someone snapped the butterfly filigree one up within 5 minutes! ):

And Sandhya, the lelong Dizzie Lizzie was the first to be gobbled up! I'm so sorry.

Seems like a race to see who can type faster and order first. How come everybody was checking their inboxes when we mailed? Too cool (:

I believe I have loads of Dreamcatchers to make, in a variety of colours. Sliced and battered fingers, here I come! :D

-

Results have been good so far. Good by my standards, perhaps not yours! (This is a general statement, I'm not talking to anybody in particular hehe.) No straight A's for me, but I'm more than happy at the moment (: I mean, improving by 4 grades for Chemistry is a miracle even though I still didn't get an A. Praise God for the results, it's all by His grace (:

Elisa was most aghast when I got her to guess what my Chem S marks were. Single digit score out of 60, unless you count .5 as a digit! It was hilarious. The scores in my class ranged from about 3 to 10? (I'm not sure of the exact figure.) Hehehe.

Jitterbugsing with Maddy at last tomorrow! Can't wait, I miss dancing. I am however stiff as a board and have lost all vestiges of technique.

I still haven't finished my uni applications. Sigh.

Mummy and Joel both aren't in Singapore. The house feels strangely empty. Ate a lonely dinner tonight.

School's been swinging wildly between electrifying (the moments just before we get to know our results) and dry (going through the questions). And I've been sleepy, sleepy, sleepy. (Maybe Jon knows why.)

And constipated. It hurts a lot, you know.

To Sherlene: Thank you, I suppose that can only be a good thing! Better than looking uglier in real life, right? :D

Oh no, I think this could be how bimbos blog? - Completely muddled, embarrassingly frivolous, pathetically trivial.

Heeheehee.

*195 - postal service!

The resident class photographer ie. myself (self proclaimed, of course) is done with compiling the east coast photos! Click the image, or visit the link on the right under "pictures". Do spread the word for me, to anyone who went on that day (:


If anyone wants the original, big photos, find me online and I'll see them to you (:

Headed to Justin's place today, to deliver some earrings and a necklace to a customer, Nurul. Because Elisa & I realised she lived really, really close to Justin! So I hopped onto his bike, Justin wore rollerblades, and Christine decided to tag along and used her skate scooter. It must have been quite a funny sight, the 3 of us arriving at her doorstep in a variety of ways!

Took a photo with Nurul for a Secret Something which I shall not talk about, and also because I thought it was quite cute lah. Delivering a parcel by bicycle, so primitive! :D I'm blanking out her face because I definitely didn't ask her permission to put the photo on my blog, so just in case. (:


(Whoah, my face is seriously pink.)

One wonders what a cup like this is doing in Justin's house. When his family consists entirely of skinny people. (Undertall, perhaps? Teehee :D) Well I suppose it makes very much sense indeed, if you don't look at it in the sarcastic way it was meant to be!



And today, Elisa uncovered her talent for wire twisting as well! So I'm no longer the only skilful wire bender in the house, sigh! Hehe.



Pretty! Very avant-garde.

And of course, every photoshoot is accompanied by a series of Evelyn's Silly Faces. I never tire of laughing at myself :D



The neighbours must think we are awfully peculiar. They always stare whenever we venture out of the house for a phototaking session, especially since the brick wall actually ends too close to the top of my head, so I have to half squat the whole time, which looks terribly unglamorous as you can imagine, and gives me thigh cramps.

Elisa & Evelyn will be updated soon, I promise (: We've been busy!

*194 - 3q! (:

Since the last time I talked about tan lines, I've acquired 2 more - spag strap and halter tan lines. Yelp.

Getting to ECP today was a harrowing experience, I realised I've never gone all the way there by myself before. It took me more than an hour and a half to get there! Bus, MRT, bus, walk. Got lost amidst the HDB flats for a while at the end because Tubby wouldn't pick up his phone to save me ):

But anyway, got there safe and sound, and just in time to rent rollerblades with the rest! (: Trying to be creative with my photo editing here, so bear with the pinkness. It's only pink because it matches with my blog lah.





The most strenuous part of rollerblading was, perhaps, teaching Tubby to rollerblade! But he learnt fast, and he only fell a few hundred times :D Haha! Marcus was terribly pro, Michelle came in a close second. The rest of us sort of wobbled around, but it was fun.



At one point, Jon, me and Tubby fell like dominoes on top of each other and lay in the middle of the road for a while in pain. It was quite hilarious and now I have the coolest bruise on my hand ever - it has a funky gravelly design on it, and it looks just like the texture of the road! This marks the 2nd time I've fallen while rollerblading. The first fall years and years ago caused a fractured tailbone and I've had a phobia of rollerblading until recently.



Haha! Gabrielle please tell me if you want me to take that photo down, I thought it was cute but I personally wouldn't like to be caught mid-yawn!

So we had lunch and dessert after that, and Marcus was tempted to gobble down my entire portion because I was eating so slowly. Yum yum yum (:



Some went off to bowl, the rest of us trooped down to the breakwater to escape the sub-zero climate in the bowling alley. It's somehow therapeutic, at least for me, to just sit there and watch the water lapping up and down the rocks. It's all so picturesque and ... unpredictable, God's creations are truly beautiful. (: Sat there having a nice long chat with Joel, at which point I discovered to my horror that I am physically incapable of hunching my back (he reckons the best I can do is to hunch my shoulders forward).



Mingchuan very kindly gave Jon Gab and I a lift to Bishan, and Daddy picked me up from the station, which cut my travelling time by more than half. So I reached home by 7. Yay (:

It was a pleasant day, not that we actually did very much from morning to evening, but it was more about the blissfully inane lazing about, the time spent with each other, the sense of not having to mugmugmug for now at least, and, well, just good old bumming around (:

I'll upload all the photos soon, give me a bit of time guys, and I'll let you know when it's up (:

-

In other news, Elisa and Evelyn has MOVED! We have our own domain now, much easier to remember than the whole fluidskiesblahblah. Isn't it great? (: To the people who have kindly linked us, please change the links! You can copy and paste from our "about us" page, or just change the html if you know how (:

On a related note, I decided last night after penning down that entry about not having enough jewellery for myself, and perhaps spurred on by Angie's little comment, that it was time to make earrings for me! Was terribly pleased with how they turned out, especially since I slaved over them for hours (: Then Elisa took one look at them, gasped, and insisted that I had to recreate them and sell them! So, I shan't be special anymore, but it's okay. Make more people happy with my designs, I ownself also happy lah :D (Hehe Angie! Your favourite word!) Besides, it's near impossible for me to create 2 exactly the same earrings, so they'll all be slightly different (:

Dreamcatcher. Available soon (: As well as the other filigree earrings!



(So to Angel, nope, we haven't put them up yet! But because so much so much sooo mmuuuuccchh work went into them, we're probably making them slightly pricier than usual, and see the other side first before you decide to buy ok? Cos they're asymmetrical! (: Thanks a lot!)



This picture was the reason for my arriving at ECP nearly 2 hours late, haha! On the spur photoshoot with the sister, who woke up as I was about to go out.

Whoah, talk about a super picture intensive post!

*193 - filifilifiligree

Went crazy with wire twisting last night ... it took me nearly 2 hours to make one earring, and I don't think I can ever make a similar one so it shall have to be an asymetrical, one-off piece.



Not the best photo, sorry!

Tubby - Yes, new one! I shall tell you why tomorrow haha!

Angie - If I kept everything I made, I would have truckloads of jewellery by now! But it's really nice of you to give them to your friends (: I should do that more often, yes, friends? Hehe!

xY - That's the name of an RGS teacher, teehee. Hope leavestohoney's doing well! If anything spoils don't worry just give it back to me I'll mend them for freee (:

Justin - HELLO :D I haven't eaten dinner because I think I ate the equivalent of something like 20 dinners with you just now. Chocolate fondue ooo (: And you're 5th actually, lousypok.

myname - It's slightly different, I think! I took my sister's plum crumble recipe, and turned it into apple. I loved the cooking classes in RGS (:

Ooh I <3 my pretty tagboard -pink with bimbotic delight-

*192 - lovely new tagboard

Thank you flamers, asd, dsa, and the latest ads, plus all other permutations of those three letters (although I do suspect you are one and the same), for prompting me to get a spanking new bimbotically pink tagboard with additional functions hoho. Flame away darlings, at least it'll be pretty now (:

And thanks to Jeslyn (don't know if you read this?) because I got the cbox link from your site (:

*191 - $$$

Elisa and I were just talking about the fact that we are tragically lacking in jewellery, which is Most Ironic since we make jewellery. I think it's a matter of laziness in my case - I put so much effort into making each piece that I really can't bear to wear it, I'll rather sell it away and make someone else happy. Plus it feels like a sad waste to buy jewellery when you know you could very well make it yourself with some effort.

And besides, I'm a self-admitted cheapo (I think I've talked about this at length with Banana before) and much as I like shopping around, I hate parting with my money unnecessarily, and only sales and bargains make me truly happy. I don't (or at least, rarely) splurge because I can't bear to, and why spend a few hundred bucks on a top when you could buy 10 nice tops of decent quality with the same amount of money?

I'm not sure if this is the reason but it could be because I've always been on an allowance since I was a kid, and while I know I can always ask my parents for more money, I prefer not to. I enjoy being independent, or at least, as independent as having an allowance (technically still your parent's money) permits, which is why I cover almost all costs from my own pocket - dance classes, transport, school books, all the miscellaneous class stuff (photocopying funds ugh), food, shopping ... and I don't ever once recall being "broke" in my life.

I know there are lots of people with no regular allowance, just take money when you need it. And the rich kids whose allowance might as well not be called allowance anymore because it's almost infinite. Haha! Whatever makes you happy, but I'm definitely giving my kids a reasonable, regular allowance. It might seem annoying to the kids at first but I think it teaches them the value of money and the importance of saving, and I think ultimately you feel happier scrimping and saving and finally treating yourself to something you've been wanting to buy for ages, rather than to just being able to purchase it with a snap of your fingers.

And to end off with a happy picture: My homemade apple crumble sitting in the oven, nicely golden brown, cooling off and nearly ready to eat even as I type. (:

(Although in the picture you can't exactly tell that it's apple crumble.)



Yeah, I know my Engrish is atrocious in this entry but I can't quite be bothered (for once!) to be grammatically perfect today.

*190 - double burger

One of the meatiest burgers I've ever seen! Even Carl's Jr patties pale in comparison.



Botak Jones, again. There's actually another even larger burger, with 3 patties, can you imagine that. We ate and ate and didn't finish our food and we could hardly stand up straight to walk home after that. (I live about 3 bus stops away.) Yummy, no doubt, but not for the small-stomached!

...

In other news, I'm tired. I don't know why. And my feet really, really ache. Hm hm hm.

*189 - shopping casualties

So, I found this somewhat amusing, in a sad way (if that makes any sense).

Maddy Nat Sarah and I were supposed to go Jitterbugs-ing tomorrow. Messaged them to say that I'm sick and I'm not sure if I can dance tomorrow.

Maddy replied to say she sprained her toe while shopping.

Nat replied to say she pulled a muscle while walking around Orchard.

And my cold was exacerbated thanks to the tiring shopping trip.

First, dangerous studying. Now, dangerous shopping. What next, haha! I'm rather disappointed though. I've been looking forward to dancing so badly that sometimes I'm kept awake at night going through sequences in my head. (Mostly, it's gruelling ballet barre work. I think I'm paranoid about losing technique and flexibility haha.)

I hope Sarah (the only healthy one left of the lot hehe) isn't too sad ):


Anyway I have something to remind myself about: Be thankful I'm Singaporean. A few hours in Malaysia today reminded me of that. Despite the cheap food and um mostly cheap everything over there. Yeah. Singapore's cleaner and greener and safer, and much as I complain endlessly about the service industry here at home, I realised I'm actually quite pampered over here. You won't find security guards who lead you all the way to a site under renovation, for example, when you ask where the food court is. You won't find tired and bored shopkeepers sitting on the floor amongst their clothes racks, for goodness sakes.

You won't find a Delifrance sandwich that is anything less than overflowing here. This is the flattest Delifrance sandwich you will ever see. I think I finished it in less than 10 bites, when it would normally have taken me at least twice as long.



This warrants a new paragraph because that got me really pissed off today. I believe franchises should upkeep a certain level of quality in every single branch in every single country, and there's really no need to scrimp on a few more spoonfuls of chicken since chicken's so cheap anyway, especially if those few more spoonfuls would make a satisfied customer. I mean, the benefits of having delighted customers far outweighs the cost of a few grams more of chicken. I don't know. I guess that's just my take towards service - delighting customers should be of utmost importance. Especially if you work in the service industry, you should be working there because you enjoy making your customers happy, and not just for money. If the service industry's filled with people who don't want to be there in the first place and can't be bothered to go the extra mile for a smile, then all the campaigns and training programmes in the world won't be able to help.

Whoops I think I deviated a bit.

Anyway it's not just the service. I'm so glad for Singapore and her strict laws and non-corrupt police, and the fact that I don't have to guard my bag with my life for fear of being robbed. We don't have to worry about the car being vandalised here. Noone's allowed to smoke indoors (I nearly choked to death today). There are directories and working aircons in all shopping malls. We don't have any natural scenery, but at least there are lots of trees and little plants in the midst of the concrete jungle. Going from the Singapore checkpoint to the JB checkpoint was like entering another era. I'm so glad my parents came here, or I could be living there right now.

I guess I should really be thankful for what I have here. Although I do believe that Malaysia has its charms, and if I were born and living there, I would probably be fiercely patriotic. But I'm Singaporean, and I like it here. (: There certainly are things I dislike about our country. But at the end of the day, (and this is as cliched as it gets) it's home (:

(Something tells me a Malaysian version of asd will be after me next. I'm not trying to put down Malaysia, every country has its good and bad points, and I admit my country's not perfect as well. But it's just that some of my bad experiences there today made me realise that I should be thankful for what I have here.)

(I Hate with a capital H the fact that I have to put down disclaimers and validate all my points because I don't want to offend anybody unintentionally when I blog. Shrug. Guess that incident taught me to be more wary. Blogging's not just about me I guess. Although I always feel that if you don't like it, just don't read it lah and you shall be happily ignorant and I shall be happily expressive.)

*188 - byebye prelims (:

So this is a little belated, but, prelims are over at last (:

Bio MCQ yesterday was simple enough, but I got quite a handful wrong from carelessness and lack of studying the details, so that was quite a pity. Placing the 2 core Bio papers more than 1 week apart was a bit heartless ):

Math S was hahaha funny, as I went through the paper I circled the questions I didn't know how to do, and in the end almost everything was circled and I didn't have time to go back to try them again anyway. Whoopsies. Looked to my left in the exam venue and saw rows upon rows of brilliant F Math students who probably found the paper easy-peasy.

But never mind about prelims for now, I shall only worry again when school begins next week.

Popped by Justin's house after Math S to watch Chocolat, a beautifully quaint and somehow poetic and fairy-tale-like film. The storyline was rather different from the book, but really nice nonetheless. I love French (: Anyway, I was mildly surprised to see Johnny Depp acting in the film (as the river gypsy who seduced the main character haha).

Went for a cycle after that, which has long-lasting consequences until today (my butt bone aches!). Rather thrilling because of all the cars and because it was night time, and I'm definitely not a confident cyclist! I used to cycle around all the time as a kid, but evidently lost the skill over time, and I haven't got very good control over the bike right now, hehe.

Cycled to a hawker center dinner (: Good local food - Hokkien mee, prawn dumplings, and frog porridge!! I was actually imagining a nasty green creature nestled in the middle of a bowl of porridge, but nah, it didn't look like a frog at all.



Quite yummy (:

On the way back: Ribbid ribbid croak croak.



I have to say, I make a better frog than Justin.

And because the round concrete thing was so fun to play with, I decided to try an arabesque. Wibble wobble lack of technique eek.



I miss dancing, yeah.

Anyway, went to JB and back for a short shopping trip with the girls of the family today (ie Mummy and sister). Particularly exhausting because I was obviously falling ill but trying to pretend not to. Right now I'm nursing a bad cold and I can scarcely keep my eyes open anymore. I don't want to fall ill now, not when it's time to relax and have fun! But really have to thank God for keeping me healthy over the exam period (: Definitely better now than a week ago! (:

*187 - cut it out please

It's not so bad if you just poke fun at me or hurl anonymous insults at me. But don't insult all my friends' names, I don't want any of them to be upset even if it's all in the name of fun.

I don't even know if you're asd or dsa or maybe even one of my friends, but I'm deleting everything anyway.

*186 - biotech, chem s

I found Biotech pretty tough. The essays in particular, which seemed a little GP-ish, and some of the structured. And because of my policy of never leaving blanks, I dutifully filled up all the spaces with rubbishy answers, and I was rather tempted to seek Mr Tan out after that to beg him to please not laugh at the stuff I wrote, because under exam conditions one can't be too creative and so the answers I invented on the spot were more absurd than anything else.

Chem S later, Bio 1 tomorrow, Math S tomorrow. Then we shall be done. (:

I'm not sure what to do about Chem S, tried looking at some past year papers and saw, in the answer sheet, an unintelligible muddle of out-of-syllabus stuff like the Grignard reaction, the Sandmeyer reaction, the Diels Alder reaction, the Williamson synthesis ... Well, maybe some smarties out there actually know what all these mean, but the regularly-nearly-failing-normal-Chemistry-papers me hasn't a clue.

Me, of all people, taking Chem S. Hahahaha.

[edit, later]

What I have to say about Chem S now that it's over: Hahahaha.

I finished about 45 minutes before the time was up! Virtually wrote nothing for 2/3 of the paper. So I had lots of time to invent "creative" answers to fill in some of the blanks (:

Nearly there, nearly there. 2 more papers to go and then I can collapse into bed and sleep away my up-and-coming cold. -sniff-

*185 - chemistry

Even though there are still quite a few more papers, I think we're all beginning to slack off. Or at least, I am. Biotech is killing me, nooo. Aspergillus niger. Thiobacillus ferrooxidans. Lactobacillus Bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus! Pseudomonas Nitrosomonas Clostridium Methanococcus Saccharomyces!!!!

-breathes-

Terribly perturbed after Chemistry today because everyone seemed to think it was "okay" but I personally thought it was disastrous. (I always think Chemistry is disastrous.) (And it always does turn out disastrous, yes.)

Sent a panicky SMS to Mr Koh after the paper, who was really really nice and cute, and was pleasantly surprised with the extent he went to to console me. And he ended off with a cheerful "Chin up! :-)" so cute right? Yes, I was being a pest of a student yet again, I always regret sending the teachers panicky SMSes because it all sounds quite irritating and attention-seeking on hindsight. (So I really shouldn't be typing this out here haha.) But it tends to happen in fits of stress, like "HELP I AM GOING TO FAIL THE PAPER IT WAS SO TOUGH".

Ok, so. Maybe I should do it here instead of kachiao-ing people unnecessarily.

HELP I AM GOING TO FAIL BIOTECH TOMORROW.

*184 - asd

Justin's hamsters gave birth.


I circled them in pink, because they're hardly visible, haha! Tried to take a photo of myself holding a hamster, but they kept trying to scramble out of my hands and I nearly dropped them several times. The last straw was when it pooped on my hand, ew. So a photo with their cage will have to suffice.

Anyway. My mugging session was interrupted with my very own thoughts swimming around in my head. So I "blogged" on a piece of paper to let it all out. If you're remotely concerned with the whole asd issue you can try to plough through the pink mess, if not, just skip it (:

Warning: tragically untidy handwriting up ahead







I think that shall be the end of anything to do with asd that I write here. Yup.

On to happier things.

You know your boyfriend really loves you when he covers your head with his hands in the rain,
when he shelters you from the rain and wind while waiting for your bus,
when he gets unnecessarily cold and wet waiting with you as the vehicles zoom by and the water WHOOSHES and drenches both of you from thigh down,
when he has to run back across the road in the thunderstorm once you're gone to catch his own bus home ...
When he could have simply stayed nice and dry on the other side in the first place.

And you know your Mummy really loves you when she braves the torrential rain and saves you from the bus stop with a giant umbrella. (Even though after that she seemed to only be concerned whether my shoes were ruined haha!)

But yes, simple things like that make me feel :D :D :D

*183 - dangerous studying

Studying is unhealthy.



Sliced by my Bio file!

(That's my forearm by the way, I realise it looks like a random slab of meat.)

And thanks to the people who've stuck up for me, I'm still eagerly checking my mail but no sign of Mr/Ms ASD. I suppose somebody was feeling particular bitter that day, and I suppose my sarcasm didn't help things. When my feathers are ruffled I tend to transform into the Ice Queen of Sarcasm which makes everyone think I'm the absolute meanie. Even the tips of my fingers turn icy cold, haha! -shoots deadly ice daggers from fingertips-

(But I still think it's quite funny to have misspelled Singaporeans as Singapoeans twice in a row though. Sounds cute and teletubbyish :D )

*182 - math & physics

Math - I thought Paper 2 was shockingly difficult. Thank goodness there's a general consensus that it was a toughie, but I still wish I had prepared more for statistics, instead of reading through just the day before ):

Physics - Crazy MCQ, it seemed like the most difficult one out of all the other prelim papers I tried, and there was simply no time. Very cruel and tricksy. Paper 2 not as bad, but I had no idea what the entire resonance question was about.

Thank God for getting me through so far, before each paper I sit in my seat quaking in fear but once I say a little prayer and it's time to start, it's not so bad. (: Like Jon says, we're halfway through!! Wheee (: Hang in there guys, don't be demoralised by anything that has happened (eg. Tubby feeling nauseous after Physics haha) and just keep looking ahead. I've been praying hard for all of my friends (: We'll get through this!


Dear asd,

I actually typed a long reply here, but I realise it's not very nice of me to carry out a conversation in public. It would be nice if you could leave a contact but if you don't want to hear from me, suffice to say, if you've never laughed at anyone in your life, be it the crazy things your friends do or the Chinese in China (whose translated Chinese to English notices are unintentionally hilarious) or all the funny things people do, I think it must be terribly dry and wearisome to be you.

Contact me, and we can work things out in a nice polite fashion, unless you would prefer to remain anonymous.




Okay! The ground's a little wet here, so altogether now! One, two, three ... carefully ... slip!

*181 - eden

Ohmygoodness. Eden is SOLD OUT. Within slightly more than a day! We actually imported 4 hummingbird charms from US, and 4 people have ordered, so ... no more! Hehe. Lucky people who got them early (you're the third, Sheryl :D) - I think the hummingbirds are really special and different.

We have quite a few more little daisies though, so I suppose anyone else who orders will have to buy 2 similar daisy earrings instead of 1 hummingbird and 1 daisy.

It kinda scares me, though, thinking about the hours of wire-twisting I shall have to do once my Prelims are over! But then again, it's exceptionally fun to make, because there isn't a standard twirly pattern to follow, and I get to design it as I go along (:

*180 - tomorrow's papers ...

Guess which subjects are tested tomorrow?






Foxtrot <3

*179 - anonymous tagger!

Because I can't resist showing off my handiwork, in it's golden twisty glory:



The first of it's kind! (: It's hellish to make though, I must have ruined metres and metres of gold wire experimenting.

Temporarily sold out due to dearest Sha, our ever-faithful customer (: Will only be able to get another pair done when the Prelims are finally over. It makes me all warm and fuzzy inside to have it snapped up within hours of putting it on the site! Thanks Sha (:

-

To the anonymous tagger: I know the Internet is a powerful shield, but if you have a bone to pick with me, tell it to me personally and I'll be glad to entertain.

And I helped you delete one of your (accidental, I assume?) double posts so there's only one copy of your message left on my tagboard. Just so you won't appear as ditzy (:

And yes, I do see the irony in the spelling error, you sure have a sense of humour! :D

-

(And this comes right after Tubby mentions something about anonymous taggers on his blog. Startling coincidence!)

-

I've always wanted to blog about the Singaporean culture. Don't we all openly mock Singlish, kiasu-ism, and everything else? GASP SHOCK HORROR I think it might be only me! [/end sarcasm]

And the thing is, we still continue to do everything that we jabbed at. I mean, I for one speak Singlish for sure, it's not just about broken/poor English or the "lah"s to me, but more of the Singlish tone. Even an English-bred Singaporean speaking grammatically perfect English is instantly distinguishable as a Singaporean. I'm Singaporean through and through, I shake my head at many of the things we do, but I'm proud of us in other ways.

-waves flag-

But! I still think the weather sucks. (Ok, so this is more about Singapore than Singaporeans.)

Anyway, time for school ): I think I'm late.

*178 - disastrous photoshoot

An image-heavy post up ahead, purely for entertainment value.

A lovely selection of absolutely unflattering photographs of myself (: All silly faces done in the spur of the moment, obviously, I wouldn't be as pathetic as to actually plan them out beforehand lah :P Taken by Elisa aka The Photographer, who has a tendency to click the shutter once every few seconds, in case a good shot is captured by chance, and to stress me out (I suspect).



Do you think it's odd that most pictures on people's blogs are the pretty, becoming sort, whereas I delight in putting up horrible photos of myself? Hehehe. Well, it all works out for our amusement, and one day when I grow up and become rich and famous and pretty (muahaha) you can use these photos to blackmail me. For example, "Evelyn used to be so ugly in her teens!! MUST BE PLASTIC SURGERY!!11!"



(Meant to end off with a 'normal' photo but I realise this is actually quite a bad one too. Oh well!)

New twisty earrings - I couldn't resist. Haven't done a spot of studying today, and it's 9 pm. Whoopsies.

EDEN

Also, vote for us! You'll have to register first. More info on our site (:

*177 - physics, and the thesaurus

Physics - Better than expected, because of the freedom of choice (6 questions choose 4, plus 3 fluids), so I happily omitted the topics I don't like to do. Really, really thank God because I know how disastrous my Physics can be (: I won't do brilliantly of course, but I'm just thankful that this Paper 3 doesn't spell disaster for me.

This means I have to study extremely hard for Paper 1 & 2 though, because looking at today's topics, yucky topics like Electric Field, Quantum Physics and (horror of horrors) Gravitation are going to be tested.

-

I just did something rather silly. Mummy sent me and Justin out to wait by the gate (it's remote controlled) to open it for the computer van, because we just ordered 2 new computers. So we sat there by the road with our notes and fried our butts on the hot concrete, and waited, and waited, and waited. Opened the gate for some cars and vans.

20 minutes after the van was supposed to arrive I called home to complain to Mummy.

Imagine my shock when she told me that they had arrived, and left, about 10 minutes ago.

Bleugh! Turns out that the computer van was disguised as the furniture lorry, and I had actually helped to open the gate for them. Haha, so that was my airheaded moment of the day :D

-

I want to blog about something funny but I don't know if I should because it's mean. Maybe I shall just copy from my sister's blog! (Push the blame to her! And because she let me :D ) And do up another post later tonight to push this one down, ehehe.

Ok my sister and I just spent several minutes laughing at jewellery descriptions, and I know it's rude and I risk fallout from the close-knit jewellery community but these are truly the funniest I've seen so far (and there are a plenty, yessiree).

"A silver butterfly evinces a salient effect of the green and crystal white spherical swarovskis, gesturing the classicism and conformity of this pair earrings."

Haha. Hahaha. More?

"A glass bead that shares the colours of blue and white with a tinge of silver creates a soothing oceanic and amicable touch to its broad view."

"This graceful yet extraordinaire pair of earrings was punctiliously put together."

"...red and crystal white swarovskis attached to it devises a simple yet dulcet overall."

If jewellery had feelings I think they'd be quaking with embarrassment ("Aiyoh don't say until like that lah, I very paiseh like that").

To the person(s) I quoted: You make pretty things, but really you'll have to put the thesaurus aside. Otherwise annoying and rude people like yours truly will start quoting you for entertainment value. So-so language is okay, baddish language is forgivable (we're all kind, aren't we) but this is really too terrible not to laugh at. Just write normally and nobody will bat an eyelid (as it is my eyelids have batted themselves to a pulp muahaha).

[I will probably delete this in a few days, so that everybody will continue thinking I'm nice and polite.]

I think it's hilarious! Darlings, please appreciate our cutesy item descriptions, because we don't type them out in Microsoft Word first and use the thesaurus on every single word.

Actually, let me try!

Original: "The squiggle isn't exactly a new concept, but then we think no one does it quite as beautifully as we do. ;) These earrings are surprisingly funky, thanks to the generous swirls. The ivory rice pearls add a lovely touch of class."

Thesaurus-ed: "The undulating line isn't precisely a novel philosophy, however we cogitate not a soul does it relatively as gorgeously as we do. ;) These earrings are without prior notice funky, credit to the munificent twirls. The ivory rice pearls affix a divine stroke of refinement."

Hoho! That was fun. I do suspect that's exactly what the writer did - using the thesaurus on every word that allows it, but in the process turning the sentence into an unrecognisable and ungrammatical mishmash of bombastic words.

To be honest, Elisa & I delight in looking at other (Singaporean, mostly) earring sites and laughing at their disastrous English. Not that our English is very high-class like that lah, but from everything we've seen so far, I do believe we're above average :P

Oh, Singaporeans.

*176 - biology

Bio - A mad sprint to finish the paper, but apart from the dreadful lack of time, I suppose it wasn't too bad, thank God (: The questions weren't as ambiguous or unexpected as previous common tests I believe, so if we don't do well, we can't blame it on the tough questions anymore :P

My right hand was severely paralysed after the paper, and I think I owe the teachers who are marking my illegible scripts a big apology. At times like these I wish wish wish I were ambidextrous. (I try once in a while, but practising is never a long-term affair because it's too tedious and messy.)

-

The Long-Awaited Parcel from US arrived today! It was nice and rattly and delightful to peel open. Too bad I'm taking a hiatus from jewellery making until the prelims are over.



Parcels in the mail = :D :D :D

-

Physics early tomorrow, I have a few hours left to study before I collapse into bed. I'm so exhausted; the brain is evidently not used to so much thinking.

-

And, this is an emergency announcement - If anyone has found a ziplock bag containing a pair of dangly earrings and a little piece of paper with our URL printed on it, PLEASE return it to me!

Left it at the open lockers outside the RJC library. Someone must have picked it up between 12 to 4 pm. Contact us at elisa.and.evelyn@gmail.com. Thanks!

-

Hahaha I just received 5 consecutive SMSes from Mr Lim, explaining to me a question I asked about Gravitation. He's quite a dear, really. (:

I tend to SMS teachers questions whenever I panic, and I always feel a tad guilty. Imagine how annoying it must be to be peacefully recovering from a horrible day at school filled with horrible students, and then your phone beeps, and then you have to waste your SMSes on a pest of a student, and your peace is shattered.

Poor teachers.

*175 - math & chem

Math - Okay la, a few blanks only, but it depends on how careless I was. (I usually lose more marks due to carelessness than anything else.)

Chem - HAHA. I was worrying about getting drowsy some time before the paper, because of the after-effects of lunch, but it turned out there was no need to worry. You can't even begin to feel sleepy when you're having a huge adrenaline rush from realising that you don't know how to answer anything and the three hours seem to pass by too quickly.

Not quite a promising start to the Prelims.

Covered a white board with little purple scribblings about Nervous Control, Pee Formation (um I mean Kidney), Photosynthesis and Respiration for an hour plus after the Chem paper. I don't feel adequately prepared, but Bio papers are actually kinda fun, because sometimes it's possible to be creative or use your common sense and make up answers on the spot, which might actually be correct. And Bio is the most interesting anyway, but not when it's in the form of an exam paper.

Perhaps I should move on to Physics for now, because Physics (like Chem) is my downfall.

I'm not sure if you can tell but here's how I feel right now:



"TEEHEEHEEXX I am going crazy" -evil glint in eyes with wide plastic smile-

*174 - pre-prelims

Today, I did my first Chem Paper 3 practice and I finished it 45 minutes before the time was up, because I kept skipping questions I didn't know how to do. I calculated my marks (generously, I should admit) and now I'm scared, scared, scared. How to aim for an A when I'm perpetually nearly-failing?

The Math practice papers have been teetering on the edge of just-about-decent and unsatisfactory. Very risky.

And today was the first time in 3 days I actually saw my dad, because I've been coming home pretty late nowadays. Studying in school is more productive than studying at home, because the instant I step into the house, I am unable to do any form of work whatsoever. And studying in school is never short of entertainment, at least, if you're studying with a bunch of ruggers. (That is both good and bad.)

I really really don't enjoy studying. I wish I could be up and about doing something I enjoy instead of struggling with disgustingly useless things like turning one complicated trigo equation into another complicated one (what's the point, pray tell me), or figuring out the pH of a buffer solution, or memorising formulae like F = 1/2 Cd pAv^2. Like, who cares, man.

I want to quit school get married and spend the rest of my days making pretty earrings galore.

Well, perhaps not.

Mugging hasn't been great, I mean, it's one thing to read through all the stuff, but it's another to be able to apply the information to the questions and put the formulae to use. That's always the problem, isn't it? Plus, my attention span is getting shorter and shorter, I don't know how I'm going to get to the end of all the 3-hour-long papers without getting getting bored first.

I shall go to bed early tonight, because I am aware of the disaster that ensued during the last Math paper from a fitful night's sleep. The phase of insomnia has passed (oh, it was terrible), so I'm hoping for the best (:

Strange gurgly frothy noises coming from downstairs. I believe my brother is making chocolate meringue. It is no wonder, looking at the amount of food I've been consuming, that I've been diarrhoea-ing daily (it's the really gross painful liquidy kind of diarrhoea too), because all the rubbish that has been going in has got to come out somewhere, doesn't it?

So, the papers start tomorrow, and I haven't even got a panic attack yet! (The grumpy tantrums don't count.) I've only cried once over my work recently, I think, and that's quite a feat, don't you agree. But even as I type this, I'm getting increasingly stressed out about the fact that I should be more stressed out because, like, HELLO, the PRELIMS are beginning TOMORROW and I am fantastically UNPREPARED and omg I just worked myself into a frenzy and my heart is pounding (atrial systole! ventricular systole!) and I think I shall be off to do some last minute cramming and God bless all of us.

*173 - high on crack

Elisa says, "Look fierce. Look cool. Look ... drugged."



So this is me, eyelids a-flutter, giving my best PEOPLES, I AM HIGH ON DRUGZ, YO face. (Doesn't that just crack you up? My (extremely witty!) puns, too.)

It's even funnier when I tweak with the colours and turn my lips a nasty shade of blue/grey.



Unfortunately, using that photo would have been detrimental to our sales, so we tried a few more times, and got a couple of "normal" shots like this one.



The choker sorta doubles up as a bracelet, which is cool. And did you know, twice around the thumb is once around the wrist, twice around the wrist is once around the neck, twice around the neck is once around the waist, twice around the waist is ... ok I can't imagine what twice around the waist could be.

Devil's Advocate

It's already very nearly Friday, which means the weekend's almost here, which means Monday is around the corner, and we all know what that means.

*172 - burnt

Inexplicably sleepy.

Unpleasantly hot-tempered. (Ask Justin.)

Tragically behind schedule.

...

(Trying to think of a positive one.)

(Um, I think I give up.)


[edit]

After a nice warm shower, I realised I should stop sounding so emo because there are really so many things to be thankful about. Blessed with an ever-loving and ever-tolerant boyfriend, whose fabulous parents take turns chauffeuring me to and from school, blessed with the company of fellow mug-in-school-ers, blessed with as perfect a family as I can imagine, blessed with the peace of God which is the ultimate cure to all my worries and stress.

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
- Matthew 6:33-34

Flipped through Hanyi's handy (& tattered!) Bible verse book briefly today, and saw this one (:

*171 - MORE BRAS! :D

Went back today with Mummy for more bras & undies (: Shall spare you the details, but I'm very pleased with the loot. Spent a mere fraction of what they would have ordinarily cost! -beams-



Bras galore and Aunties galore! But it wasn't half as crowded today as it was yesterday, and it already looks pretty packed in this photo, haha. I dearly hope noone in this photo comes across my blog, because I wouldn't fancy being caught on camera buying bras myself. (Or being labelled as an "Auntie" for that matter.)



Another Sunday spent with the Boyfriend (: We were late (thanks to my underwear-spree) and took a long time to finish up our very heavy lunch (as can be seen), so we had to go to the 2nd overflow room.

Pastor Mark was preaching, and he's the cutest pastor ever, i's impossible to feel bored listening to him! It doesn't matter how many good deeds or bad things we do, we are still children of God in His eyes - we don't have to be the "perfect" Christian to receive His blessings, but because Jesus died on the cross for us, all our sins are taken away, and we can now receive all of His blessings (: No more condemnation! We just have to believe. (:

For some reason, I've hardly touched any work for the past two days, which spells D-O-O-M, unless I get off the computer now and start mugging. So off I go!

Strangely tired tough, both of us fell asleep on the MRT and missed our stop. Goodness me. Perhaps I should turn in early for once, seeing how my plans to wake up late never work out since I'm innately an early riser. Yawn!

*170 - BRAS!! :D :D

Thank you Sheryl! (:

If not for her, I wouldn't be sitting here smiling at ten new bras, which would have ordinarily cost about three hundred dollars but now cost only fifty-seven dollars!!! Ohmygoodness that works out to less than $6 for each bra!!!

(Ok, end of excessive punctuation.)

It was an enormous Auntie-battle, the kind where the Aunties push and shove and fling bras wildly in the air, and poor polite me stands at the side trying not to be trod upon, waiting for an empty spot to dive into. In the end, I only managed to find three good bras in my size (the other seven being my sister's), and Mummy is appalled at my abysmal effort. So she's going back with me tomorrow and she shall be The Ultimate Aunty and stab all the other Aunties with her sharp elbows and grab all the good bras for me, whee (:

(I have a feeling all the boys reading this got the goosebumps after reading the title and left off there. Or perhaps not. :P)

(Anyway Syuan, about the photos, I attribute their professionalism to my sister who is a photographer, and her super cool digital SLR. And me being a Photoshop genius, of course. Hehehe -wink-)

*169 - revamped!

Clickety-click!

We've given our website a makeover! Easier navigation, hoorah :D

Ironically, the above pair of earrings aren't up on the site yet, because I haven't thought of a name for them. I'm not looking ideally glamorous in the photo either, having just arrived home from a mugging session, dressed in rubbishy clothes with greasy hair and tired eyes. And oops, the earrings aren't hanging properly! ):

Anyway, take our survey, give us your suggestions and feedback, so we can continue to improve (:

[edit]

She's called Shirley. And she's up on the site! (: