*208 - mutants

Behold.

*207 - part two

I think Miss Wu really saved me from an untimely death today. (Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating too much.) But looking back, God really blesses me, He put the exact person in the exact place at the exact time for me. One lift later and I wouldn't have met her along the way. Stammering "thank you" was all I could muster at that time but it really isn't adequate. I shall pass a message from Joel to her I think, the next time they have Bible study haha.

-

So, had a chat with Ms Lim about my crisis today, who hasn't heard any complaints from her about me since day one until now, so she guesses that it's a matter of being swamped with recommendation requests and all. That could be the case, I suppose, and somewhat understandably, except something's bugging me - it's only MY recommendation that she's majorly stressed up about. She made it a point to be extra loud in her praises and good lucks and encouragement to other people while I was waiting for my turn, even though their forms were in huge messes and everything was wrong (no return address, etc), which made my address mistake seem a little minor in comparison. Smiley, good-natured, earnest, gracious, the way a teacher normally acts.

She turns to me, black clouds descend thunder rolls lightning strikes, and heated scolding commences. At least she didn't really shout this time. (Cannot shout in staff room lah.)

I was trying my best to be respectful and humble and said sorry sorry sorry, looked suitably upset, and everything. I mean, I really was.

A bad recommendation would have to be backed up with evidence, and for the life of me I can't think of anything majorly bad she can truthfully write in there. I know for a fact that she had always liked me because I pay attention in class, I do all my work, I get the A's, I have friendly little chats with her whenever I meet her along the corridors, I respect her as a teacher. If I really did something grievously wrong, I must be blind not to have noticed.

Or maybe she will write, like what she was ranting about, "very troublesome and inconsiderate - enjoys bothering me for recommendations". Or "Extremely careless student - gave me the wrong address for this envelope." Haha! No I'm just kidding. Anyone sane would realise that that speaks volumes more about the teacher than the student.

But I still wish I knew what on earth I did to completely transform myself from pet student to most-hated-student-who-must-be-punished-with-extreme-malice.

-

Really pray that God will remove anything that's bothering her or stressing her out, and give her the generosity and kindness of heart to write a good recommendation for every single student. And that I will be able to let go, not bear grudges, and leave it in His hands.

*206 - C*** fan, hoho.

[edit]

A big thank you to everybody who asked if I was ok, whether through a phone call or SMS or online. Or the tagboard in Syuan's case haha. Really appreciate it (: I'm fine, I'm just puzzled cos I haven't figured out what crime I could possibly have committed unknowingly to incur such wrath. Going to talk to Ms Lim if I can today, and then I'll look for her, and see what happens lah.

[/edit]

Teachers shouldn't be allowed to terrorise their students like that.

So damn upset today.

I don't know why she's so furious at me. I really don't know what I did. It can't be just because I got the address wrong and requested for the envelope to paste the correct address over, right?

Maybe I talked too loudly in class on the last day of school while she was having her consultation sessions. But even that minor little offence doesn't warrant a reaction like that. A complete change of expression from giggly and happy to sullen and pissed off the moment she saw me. Couldn't even face me to talk to me. Which meant I couldn't hear what she was mumbling about towards the opposite direction, which forced me to say "Sorry?", which resulted in her yelling at me, in the canteen.

I was so shocked and upset after that that I had a crisis in the handicap toilet while Justin paced outside for more than half an hour (poor, poor boy). And so we missed Chem revision lecture, whoops.

Subconsciously noticed that when I cry, I am unglam to the max. Everything turns red and swollen, even my lips, which is quite a mystery. I mean, I understand that my eyes and nose get red and swollen. But my lips??

Whoops, out of point. Anyway.

Looked for her "after her lunch" as instructed (or more accurately, as yelled at). Nobody picked up the phone. Sent random teachers in to check if she was there. They came out saying she was busy. Stayed till evening just trying to contact her. At the end, finally got through her phone, and someone else informed me that she had gone home.

Thank you very much.

I'm just worried that she'll write me a bad recommendation. Teacher's evaluations are so damn important in US universities, especially in those where everybody who's applying gets 4A's and 2D's and what sets you apart from the rest is your essays and your teachers' essays. It's so easy for her to tick, tick, tick in the wrong columns and jeopardise any chance I have of getting into any US university.

Suggestions, anyone? Bribe her with earrings? (Actually maybe I really should make for her and Ms Lim! Won't that be nice? :D ) Switch referee?

I guess I just have to leave it in God's hands. Mummy just came in to pray for me after I ranted and raved over dinner. (And brought along the "there can be miracles" song for me to listen to, so cute hehehe <3) I'll try my best to be nice to her despite this, and try my best to believe that under the nasty exterior she still has a generous heart. God works miracles, whether I am to get into any university or not, it is His will, and if I don't get accepted, it just means that there's something better out there waiting for me. I'm in good hands, I know.

I mean, I know it, but it's hard to remember sometimes.

Sigh.

(Everybody, please pray with me that she doesn't blog surf and find this. Hehe! I'm not so much angry, but more perplexed, and upset that I might have a bad recommendation from her. If I don't get into a university, I want to be rejected because they honestly don't need me, not because of a bad reference. I want to be her pet student (haha) again because I don't want to leave a bitter taste in her mouth forever, but right now it is more urgent that I get a good recommendation from her, and that's why I'm harping on it so much.)

-

In other news, completely dumped one of my essays and rewrote another on a completely different topic. The previous one made me cringe, and that's never a good sign.

-

Wah so scary. Daddy just said to tell him what happens when I go talk to her tomorrow, and if anything really really bad happens he'll go have a chat with his pal, Winston. Heh heh. But don't worry it won't come to that lah. She's actually pretty nice if you're in her good books! Which means she's fully capable of being kind.

Nice, democratic me.

*205 - 26

We ate so much today, it's really kinda gross. First stop: NYDC. Deliberated on the menu for ages before settling on sharing a "Big O Cheesecake". Oooh.



Worked backwards from there and hopped next door to Crystal Jade for our main course! Shared a monstrous bowl of la mian and my favourite xiao long baos. Exceedingly salty, but very yummy anyway (:


(Doesn't he look rather husband-ish in the 1st photo? :D Like how my Daddy scoops food for my Mummy!)

Went for service, ended up sitting on the cushions at the back! Pastor Prince was continuing his series of sermons on divine strength and youthfulness. The story of Sarah is really quite amazing. Imagine kings wanting you for their harem because you're stunningly beautiful, when you're 90 years old! Wow.

Justin was unusually peckish today so after service we had Yami Yoghurt with granola, it's always granola because that's my favourite (: AND chicken cheese sticks from Burger King, gosh. Consoled myself by squishing them between serviettes and watching the oil ooze out.

Oh yes, while checking out some shoes I discovered the ugliest platform slippers ever. On sale at $10 - it's no wonder that they're on sale, who would ever buy these at $40?! In fact, even if you offered them to me free, I wouldn't dream of wearing them.


In case you can't tell, they're hefty chunks of black rubber with pink polkadots and lines and thick black plastic straps. Actually, they look interestingly funky here but in real, they're quite awful.

The second photo came as a surprise - I'm still (a tad) shorter than Justin in those slippers!! Seems like he's taller than I thought. I suspect I have the impression that he's very very VERY short, because of the primary school days when he used to be perhaps a head shorter than me. Hehehe shortie :D But it's okay, it doesn't matter :D And at least he's taller now!

And I shall end here. Hoorah for abrupt endings :D

*204 - the **********s are killing us

Air quality index in Singapore reached an all time high of 130 yesterday, apparently. Kept catching whiffs of barbeque, but it always turned out to be the haze. On hindsight, remaining sluggish at home might have been even healthier than exercising - gulping down lungfuls of smoky air didn't feel too great.

Consequences: Pounding headache, itchy eyes, and very possibly, decreased life expectancy. Huff puff cough wheeze.


Anyway, today's a special day, the haze ain't gonna spoil it, and thank you xY for always remembering <3

*203 - last day of school

Last official day of school today. I'm going to miss a number of people, but to be honest, I'm happier than anything else. Anyway it's not as though we won't see each other ever again. Tata to 6 am mornings and struggling to stay awake in school!!

Just wrote down a couple of paragraphs but the sensitivity of the issues has made me delete them. Perhaps to sum it up: J1 kinda sucked for me, J2 was better. Definitely more happy moments with the class this year as I found some closer buddies, but the memories of certain events certainly don't thrill me. The immaturity, cruelty, deceit and cunning manipulation I've uncovered here, not referring to 1 person/incident in particular but a few, not just referring to the class but elsewhere as well, have really shocked me. I've met characters I never thought could really exist. One would have thought that 18 year olds were more principled and decent than that.

But I'm feeling pretty cheery today though, so I shan't dwell on that too much for now.

Anyway, last day of school = photo time! I've been carrying my camera around in my bag mainly because I've been forgetting to take it out, but it did come in handy today (:

Class photos with Ms Lim! To think how we all used to shake in our shoes (and long skirts) at the mention of her name. Now I wish I were as sound-minded and experienced as her in dealing with difficult situations, and I think it's great how she shows she really cares for us without turning into the overly-friendly-and-bulliable type.


And with the girls (:





After Mr Koh very kindly let us off more than an hour early, we trooped to the watermelon steps to take photos. Noone was around to help us so we placed the cameras onto the ledge, set them on timer, clicked, and FLEW down the entire flight of stairs and SPRINTED onto the field and stood there screaming and waving for a while.

Well, this was the result.



So, we decided to aim nearer and turned the cameras around to point towards the Sports Hall instead. Flew down the stairs and sprinted again, together with the other girls who joined us. And yay! It worked this time!



Then Matheus turned up and saved our lives. (: Thanks Mr Photographer!



After all the sprinting and jumping in the sun, most of us were sweaty and dishevelled, and that was enough exercise for me for the day. (Haha.)

Don't we all look so happy (:

Ask me for the original photos if you want! (:

*202 - bimbo talk

Gabrielle, Huiwen and I have resolved to speak standard English from now on, to prevent sounding like bimbos during interviews. Cultivating good habits, hurhur! So if you hear us use Singlish or superfluous words such as "like" "y'know" and "as in", please tell us.

As in, we can't, like, afford to appear bimbotic during the interviews, which are, y'know, terribly important.

*201 - essayysss

Now that I'm half-done with my early decision application, I'm taking a look at the other universities I'm applying to, and to my utmost horror I have three more essays to write. Just when I thought I was done.

Less than a month to complete the Cornell application.

Panic.

*200 - bloopbloop

Making 8 Dreamcatchers in a row tonight, plus 6 a few days ago, has not been easy on my fingers. They do look pretty when put together though (: Too bad I've sold the some away or I would have a lovely mountain of them, in all the available colours! Oh well.



It's pretty cute thinking back with Elisa on our beginning days (not too long ago really!) when Emmie, our very first pair, was a major achievement for us. We would never have conceptualized such complicated twirly wurlies at that time for sure. And now business is booming, so much so that we have to declare a 1 month hiatus soon - A levels for me, bar exams for her. Business offers (some sound enticing but others, hmm; can't really trust anyone with a name in sTiCkY cApS to be very professional) have to be turned down, sadly, and our intended bazaar postponed. Oh well. After November we shall go on a crazy earring making spree to make up for it all (:

Bought the classmates gourmet (haha, or so Candy Empire claims) snowflake chocolates the other day because chocolates make people happy in general. (Sorry Gabrielle.) Unfortunately the bag never got back to me so I didn't get to try one, but I heard they were pretty nice so yay!

Got Justin a fish-shaped chocolate because I thought it was funny. Elisa looks at it and rolls her eyes saying "he has to be special doesn't he?" OF COURSE :D Haha! Anyway I chose the fish because it was so strange and who the heck buys fish-shaped chocolates?! The heart-shaped ones might be more typically romantic but, yo, fish chocolates are cool man.



Fish face! (: And they actually have scales and stuff, ooo.

The boyfriend's birthday coming up soon, everyone be nice to him. Hehehe.

*199 - jitterbugsing at last (:

Silly friends who refuse to tag with your URLs! Hehe but it's okay, I can actually find most of you again. (:

Angel and I just did something evil (does anyone see the irony in that statement?), I'm feeling bad, but slightly only. Hehehe.

So, Prelim results have pretty much been finalized, even if I fight for the couple of marks for Bio tomorrow (the only motivation for going to school) I would never jump a grade (I just want a higher B in case they moderate). And my parents are so cutely pleased with my grades. SMSes because Mummy was in Malaysia and I couldn't resist SMSing Daddy my Physics marks (he loves Physics and he knows I have problems with it).

Daddy: "That's fantastic! Well done."

Mummy: "Wow, u were so worried about physics. Well done. God honours yr hard work. I thank our god 4 his goodness."

Cute right? (: They rarely say anything about my results, so yeah. Pretty happy. (: God's grace, like I always say, because it's always true! I wouldn't have survived the one week of intensive studying where I covered every single topic in record time otherwise. Praise God. (:

-

Yesterday was a fabulous day, because Maddy and I took 2 consecutive dance classes! Jazz and Lyrical Jazz. Terrific! Except that we had to go through the warm ups twice, which was torturous. Easily did about 200 crunches, with legs in varying positions (bent, straight above, in center splits, etc), and a million painfully slow leg raises. And push ups and blah blah. At the end of it all, our stomach muscles were trembling so badly that we looked as though we were having seizures on the floor more than we were doing crunches. And the choreography was great this time round (:

Felt wonderful to be sweating after weeks of leading a sedentary lifestyle, and of course dancing makes me happy, so happy that I was reduced to a weak giggly babbling mess after that. Thank goodness Maddy tolerates me well. Hehehe.

Shared a cab and reached home by 11 pm. And I conclude it wasn't a good idea to be out late on a school night because today my eyebags have drooped practically to my cheeks and I've been swinging wildly throughout the day between bubbly and irritated/stony. Aching like crazy today, with a bruise along my spine from too many crunches, but I've endured worse.

And if you can't tell, I've really, really missed dancing.

-

Mummy just came in and suggested that I go to sleep because I look really tired. Wow, when was the last time I napped? Actually, maybe last week. But I don't often. So. Must obey my mother. Must go to sleep now. Yesss.

*198 - new computer

OMG I JUST NEARLY DIED but it's okay I'm alive and kicking now.

-heart thumps-

I lost my username to log on to Blogger and was frantic with worry for a while, before I realized I could actually request for it to be sent to my email. PHEW. Anyway the reason why I forgot it is because I got a new computer! (: So all the cookies are lost and blahblah. Obviously haven't manually signed in since, um, I can't remember how many years ago!

Anyway. I'm not in tune with technology and gadgets and stuff, so I don't know if the new computer's good or not, but it certainly is prettier than the old one. Nice big flat screen! (: Although the little silver speakers do seem kind of incongruous.

Transferring files from here to there is quite a hassle, but it brings back a lot of nostalgia.

Looked through all my movies - rediscovered the prom queen competition thingy, the OG fun, the gym concert preparation, etc etc.

Read through all the documents in a mysterious folder labeled "Misc". Rediscovered:
- the Silly Exam I made in Rosyth back then when Janice Heng was my best friend,
- the Cinderella series that Mel Tan, Jingwen and I wrote also in primary school,
- the short story about Itsy-Bitsy land that my sister wrote and I continued when I was 12, and back to my sister and then me when I was 14, and is still unfinished because we were supposed to wait a few years before commencing again,
- MSN convos from a certain period in Sec 4 that brought me back down that ever bumpy and painful road of "What The Hell Was I Thinking" (I wonder if you still read this),
and lots of other stuff.

In fact, I'm so hypersensitive now from a few things that happened today, on top of the trauma from nearly losing my blog, plus the nostalgia, that I could just begin weeping right now.

Anyway, to everyone who tags, and even to people who do not normally tag, can you PLEASEpleasePLEASE leave your URLs behind, because I forgot to save my favourites or history! No need paiseh, I like to read all your blogs. Yup, that would be great, thanks (:

*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.)