Oz Pics up at last

Here.

Enjoy.

it's now the lights

the lights in my house are acting funny now.

they flicker and shut off by themselves.

and yet they work fine the next day (evidence that bulb ain't blown).

i need either a really good electrician or lots of prayers and "house-cleaning".

sigh..

I'm Special

A very nice and touching word I found in Australia. For all who need some encouragement, as we all do sometimes..

I'm special. In all the world there is nobody like me.

Since the beginning of time, there has never been another person like me. Nobody has my smile, nobody has my eyes, my nose, my hair, my hands, my voice - I'm special.

No one can be found who has my handwriting. Nobody any where has my tastes for food or music or art - no one sees things just as I do.

In all time there's been no one who laughs like me, no one who cries like me and what makes me laugh, or cry will never provoke identical laughter and tears from anybody else ever.

No one reacts to any situation just as I would react. I'm special.

I'm the only one in all of creation who has my set of abilities. Oh there will always be somebody who is better at one of the things that I'm good at, but no one in the universe can reach the quality of my combination of talents, ideas, abilities and feelings.

Like a room full of musical instruments, some may excel along but none can match the symphony sound when all are played together.

Through all eternity no one will ever look, talk, walk, think or do like me. I'm speical, I'm rare and in all rarity there is great value. Because of my rare value I need not attempt to imitate others. I will accept - yes, celebrate - my differences.

I'm special and beginning to realize it is no accident that I'm special. I'm beginning to see that God made me special for a very special purpose.

He must have a job qualified for me that no one else can do as well. Out of all the billions of applicants, only one is qualified, only one has the right combination of what it takes..

That one is me, because, I'm Special.

It is strange to say the least to be blogging at 3am after an exhausting Expo day of rush, rush, rush... Oh well.

Went into JB with Alan. lexyiu and Juan on Friday. The scene still lingers in my mind and I'm sure that had I had my camera with me, I would have taken lots of photos.

JB is a place that seems steeped in ramshackle romanticism. The streetsigns, potholed roads and thickly begrimed windowgrilles all speak of the 1960's, just as if the city was arrested in time. One can almost imagine the town in its heyday, mosaic floors still sparkling and porcelain tableware unchipped; marbled table-tops in coffee shops redolent of the aromas of fresh baked bread and home-churned kaya.

Part of the charm of JB is that you never know what might be around the next corner. Scruffy lean-tos with corrugated zinc roofs might neighbor a large, modern-style villa; narrow unkept residential lanes open onto spanking-new hotels. There does not seem to be any concept of 'zoning' here.. Oh well.

Best of all, the sunset. Have rarely had the chance to see one like this in Singapore, what with black clouds en masse in the sky. Somehow, the Sun managed to peek through the drizzle at only 730pm and a rich, slanting yellow light diffused into the car. How unlike the insipid, dull dreary daylight of everyday life. =)

Who Does What?

A man and his wife were having an argument about who should brew the coffee each morning.
The wife said, "You should do it, because you get up first, and then we don't have to wait as long to get our coffee."
The husband said, " You are in charge of cooking around here and you should do it, because that is your job, and I can just wait for my coffee."
Wife replies, "No, you should do it, and besides, it is in the Bible that the man should do the coffee."
Husband replies, "I can't believe that, show me."
So she fetched the Bible, and opened the New Testament and showed him at the top of several pages, that it indeed says.......... "HEBREWS"

No spirit of Fear

Something odd happened to me last night.

As some of you might know, I am alone at home nowadays, my parents being overseas till the end of the year. At about 1+ am, as I was preparing to go to sleep, I heard the sound of my main door closing, and then subsequently the toilet door.

I thought it might be due to the wind and so I went out to check. Everything seemed normal.

After I returned to my room, I heard a male voice I had never heard before call my name, "Ming", once.

This really started to freak me out as who on earth would be calling my name at 2am in the morning? The sound seemed to come from the main door but there was no one there. Strangely enough, the first thing that came to my mind was that perhaps something had happened to my parents and I began to pray for their safety.

As I closed and locked my bedroom door, I then heard footsteps pacing back and forth. The sound was similar to someone walking with slippers on and it seemed to be coming from the living room.. A bit difficult for me to hear footsteps from the corridor outside behind 2 closed doors isn't it?

It was about 3+ by now and I was still praying and reading my Bible. I don't know how I managed to get to sleep but eventually I did and woke up this morning with everything in my house seemingly normal.

___________________________________________________________________

Some people called my tale weird, others called it spooky, one of my colleagues actually asked me if it was just a figment of my imagination.

I definitely was not dreaming though, and this has never happened before in this house.

I don't know whether that occurence was natural or supernatural, but I think in both cases I need to be really cautious. For one, if it was some person aware that I was alone at home and trying to 'prey' on me, it would not be wise to stay at home alone, given that I usually stay out quite late.

But whether supernatural or not, I need to seek my Father's guidance on what I should do. God has not given me a spirit of fear but of love, power and a sound mind (thanks Sam for the encouragement) and indeed, rather oddly, I am not afraid. I want to find out the cause of the disturbance and deal with it if I can, or turn it over to a higher authority if I cannot.

Thanks to all those who have heard my tale in my initial moments of shock and gave advice and encouragement. Thanks Juan for helping me take my mind off this and offering to come and help to pray over my house with me.

So if you read this and you are a Christian, do help me pray for my own safety as well as for my parents, and I want to get to the bottom of this.. Hoho. =)

OZ stories III

Day 9 – Friday 3/12

Made our way back up the coast from Albany. Started out with going to the town of Denmark, on the way back. Near Denmark, there are more rock formations and pristine beaches. We also stopped in Walpole, again, for lunch. The café in Walpole was a tiny little place with great sandwiches, souvlaki, quiche and homemade scones. A pity I can’t remember the name but it’s the only café in Walpole that’s on the 2^nd floor, the others all being one story buildings.

Besides that, in Walpole we went to see more trees. The Tree Top Walk was something, but there is another, Mother-Of-All-Big-Trees karri that grows on one of the hilltops – the trunk is large enough to fit a minibus in.

Next diversion on the road was Mandalay Beach – a very windy place, with an awesome boardwalk that lets you experience the wind in your hair. Like a lot of wind in the hair. Heh. The boardwalk ends with a long series of steps down to a pristine beach where the sand is as fine and white as powdered sugar. The coast is awesome and the ocean wind really cold – it blows in off Antarctica, after all.

Somewhere far far down the road home, we stopped in Pemberton. Pemberton is another blink town that is famous for a 60m tall tree called the Gloucester Tree – famous because it is used as a fire lookout. The tree has spikes hammered into its’ bark which allows people to scale it. Jules did the tree – up and down – in under 15 minutes. My cousin rocks. =) Around the area, for some reason lots of colourful birds gather and we spent such a long time trying to entice them into poses for picture taking.

Finally, we arrived back in Bunbury after a long long drive. Dinner was as good as ever – thick vegetable soup with bread slathered with cheese. And also as much as ever, with enough left over to supply 2 more meals. Heh.

Day 10 – Saturday 4/12

Winery day! Went down to Margaret River, about 1½ hours southwest of Bunbury. The region is packed with wineries and the wines are so cheap compared to what we get them for in SG.. even with price conversion, the wines here are like 2-3 time cheaper than what they are sold for at home. Slurp…

On the way down, we stopped at Jesters Jaffle Pies to pick up pies for lunch. Their pies are really good and packed full of ingredients. We also stopped in Busselton which has a famous 2km long jetty.. Did not bother to walk along the jetty, just did picture taking. Heh.

In the Margaret River region itself, we visited Happs River (very good, award winning and I like their wines, they also have a gorgeous resident tabby who is so good to pet), Cape Clairault (also rather good but don’t really appeal that much to me), Moss Brothers (also award winning but the normal price wines were too sweet and the good wines were too expensive for kiamsiap ole’ me), Amberley Estate (which has gorgeous grounds and a fairly cheap-by-winery-standards lunch), Lenton Brae (really expensive but with a gorgeous dog named Ben who licks walls.. hmm). I kept on having to go toilet because of all the wine and water I drank.. oops. =P

No time to finish more wineries, even though many others are reputed to be excellent as well. I wanted to visit a cave, the region is karst which means limestone, so there are many very pretty caves. The one we visited was Lake Cave and even though we left the wineries at 3pm, we barely made it to the last tour of the day which was at 3.30pm. Lake Cave is purely a tourist cave, though they have adventure caves as well where you get to put on caving gear and really crawl through the tunnels.

Lake Cave is situated in a huge doline, which is cavey language for a large hole in the ground. You have to descend into the hole by a series of steps, the first few of which were cut in the 1900s when the cave was first developed as a tourist attraction and are truly hairy. When you reach the base of the doline, another series of steps takes you into the ground to the cave proper. The cave has a lake that runs its entire length, which means it floods when it rains.. erps. Formations in the cave are very interesting, with a ‘table’, sphinx, dragon, rabbit and duck, and lots of straws and shawls. 2 of the straw formations were damaged 55 years ago and have grown only 20-30mm since then, so just imagine how slowly they grow.. wow.. The limestone that forms up the cave is really dense and heavy, so a small block can weigh a few kilos.

After Lake Cave, we went to a deer farm (eeks) where you see live deer running around outside, and then step into the shop and see deer meat for sale. Not the most appetizing thing, that.. erps. I bought myself a cute beanie though in green and blue shades. =)

Excitingly, we found a Coles supermarket in Dunsborough that stayed open till 8pm (whoohoo, what a bonanza in this everything-closes-by-5pm country)

Dinner was done by my mum this time round, a change from Aunt Eng Lan’s cooking. They are both very good cooks with differing styles. We had prawns and beef stew, excellent as I was starting to miss Chinese food. Jules entertained us a lot at dinner with his horrible Cantonese pronunciation… erps.

Day 11 – Sunday 4/12

Lazy day as nothing is open in Bunbury on Sunday. Watched Hero on DVD, so ironic that I have to come to Australia to watch a Chinese DVD – that’s cos my parents don’t buy DVDs and my uncle and aunt do.. oh well. *shrug*. Had to also pack for moving up to Perth tomorrow, my bags are really grossly overfull with my stuff, my parents’ stuff, stuff to give to others, stuff my aunt wanted me to carry back to give to XXYY so and so… blah de blah de blah. Cannot imagine how I will manage to lug all that by myself to Expo and then to Yew Tee. Oh dear..

OZ stories II

Day 7 – Wednesday 1/12

Made our way down to Albany, stopping countless times along the way in blink towns for all sorts of stuff. Stopped at the Fruit Barn in Donnybrook for fruits (the ever-present bananas) and an apple pie, which Jules subsequently squished (“Julian, Julian, pudding and pie, squished them all and made them die”). Then in Kirup for meat pies and Balingup for a shop called Tinderbox, which sells really interesting formulations for acne, eczema, baby rubs, pregnant women rubs and whatnot. And then Manjimup for cherry hunting, but no cherries. Apparently the season has been too cool for cherries to ripen. Ha, those people have a Cherry Festival this weekend.. see how they have a cherry festival without cherries!

One thing I’m really impressed with about Oz is that the toilets are really clean. I mean like really well-maintained, even the public toilets in the parks and remote beaches come with toilet paper and don’t smell. Speaks a lot about public consciousness here. =)

After all those stops, we made it to Walpole, Nornalup and subsequently the Tree Top Walk at about 3.30pm. The Tree Top Walk goes through the Valley of the Giants, huge karri and tingle trees that can go up to 40-60m in height and have a trunk larger than an MPV. Suay-ly, it started to drizzle when we were up on the top of the Walk, and we had to hurry back to ground level. Really weird, taking out my umbrella on top of the Walk and traipsing down the metal struts looking for all the world like a China girl. Oh well. On the ground, the Ancient Empire walk was also rainy but we got to see the root systems of the trees – they have buttress roots, so you can walk in between the roots and since they are so large, 20 people can stand together in the space of one trunk.. you get the idea.

On the way from Tree Top Walk to Albany, stopped at a place called the Elephant Rocks and Greens Pool. Greens Pool is a sheltered inlet, amazing in the large (to my Singaporean eyes) waves of the Great Southern Ocean. The water looks like it has had blue food dye poured in it (in the words of Dani) – really bluey, greeny, and clear.

Elephant Rocks are flat rocks that jut out into the sea; I still can’t figure why “elephant”, but the scenery there is first class. Plenty of small beach trails to explore, jump across the rocks on the seashore, enjoy the cold south winds (that blow off Antarctica, one would imagine). One mystery is that down one of the paths, we saw a wind vane, solar panels and a small fenced-up pond with a lifebuoy, but no discernable sign of human habitation and no reason for all this stuff to be there on the beach. Weird eh.

Albany was reached after sunset, we decided to grab food before going to the motel. Ate at the Venice restaurant along York St, Albany’s main street. We had pizza and a seafood basket (fish and chips again, sigh), which was a fairly good if salty dinner. Finally we got to the Albany Court Motor Inn (some combination of these 4 words anyway) and settled into 2 3-bed rooms. Sleep at last.. =)

Day 8 – Thursday 2/12

Big breakfast of steak and ham sandwiches that we had brought down from Bunbury the day before. We went to see all the rest of the Albanian sights we hadn’t yet seen, starting from the Gap and the Natural Bridge. The Gap is like someone smashed a knife down from heaven and cut a block out of the coast – the water rushes in and foams like crazy. The spray gets thrown up all the way to the top of the cliff where we are standing, about 25m or so. The foam is something powerful, man.

Natural Bridge is a formation where the center of a limestone wall has been worn away, creating a gap in through which the waves rush. Huge sounds. But the Gap’s better.

Interestingly, the place where the Gap and Natural Bridge are have been matched to the corresponding coast of Antarctica, in terms of both the shape of the coast as well as the patterns of rocks. Supports the theory that Australia and Antarctica were once part of the same continent.

After that, we made our way to the Blowholes. They are cracks in the rock where spray is forced up through, but there wasn’t any spectacular blowing as the waves were not big enough, and the wind was in the wrong direction.

Jimmy Newhells harbour was next, a pretty little harbour that was very well sheltered from storms. Then Frenchman Bay, a very very very pretty area where we had a ‘picnic’ sort of lunch by the bayside. Waded in the sea and got my jeans wet, had to wear Jules’ huge shorts (which were like ¾ pants on me) back to the motel. Ah well.

Sandalwood Factory was next, some out-of-the-way out-of-the-world place that sells emu oil (yuck I don’t even want to think about how they GET the emu oil) and sandalwood stuff. Strange people. My mum and dad seemed very happy with the sandalwoody smell and bought heaps of stuff.

Also went up Mount Clarence, a hill with good views of Albany and surrounds. Very cold! We drove to Middleton Beach and Emu Point in search of dinner, both very gorgeous places, and ended up eating at a fish and chip place in Middleton Beach. (Is fish and chips starting to sound familiar to anyone.. hoho). Was supposed to be a takeaway and we didn’t know and ended up eating inside, they had to wait for us to close.. Oops.

Thursday is supposed to be late night shopping, but by the time we got back to York St at 8pm, most shops had already closed. Managed to pick up a bangle from a shop named Tutti Frutti at Albany Plaza. Funny, me.. The damage so far, one pair of earrings, one bangle, one brooch and one necklace, and NONE OF THEM MATCH EACH OTHER. Hahaha..

OZ stories

Day 1 – Thursday 24/11

Arrived in Perth. Got to serviced apartments (Aldernay on the Hay, East Perth) at about 3pm. They are very well equipped and cheap. Managed to get down to the city center of Hay St mall to have a look but the ruddy shops close at 5pm.. sigh. Crazy, how do people here go shopping. Ate chips (yumm, yumm, the way potatoes are done here is great) Went back to East Perth for dinner. The café we happened to step into was run by (guess what) a Singaporean who’d migrated there 3 years ago. Talk about coincidence. Supermarketing at a ruddy run down place down the corner yielded some surprises – bamboo shoots and taugay CANNED and sold under the label ‘Asian Vegetables’. Good grief, imagine canned taugay.. hoho.

BTW there are 3 buses in Perth that cater specially for tourists (they go to all the major attractions and hotelling areas) and they’re free. Normal bus services are also free within the city limits, which feels so good. Heh.

Day 2 – Friday 25/11

Day of frustration. Mum wanted to watch “Dirty Dancing”, some supposedly good show tonight. But the price on Friday is like $10 more than Thursday, cos it’s considered a ‘weekend’. Drat, should have gone yesterday.

Walked around Hay St (again) for less than an hour because we had to meet parents’ friends Uncle Lawrence and Aunt Susan, for lunch. They live in an uppity suburb called Winthrop that’s near Kings Park and UWA. Very nice and cold house with a great garden. They had other guests, a couple from Germany and we ended up eating HORRID food at a Chinese restaurant near their place.

I’ve realised that when travelling with parents, cannot expect things to be done on my time (ie. Strict tight schedule), because they are obliged to spend lots of time on pleasantries and small talk. So by the time “lunch” was done, it was 3pm or so. Sigh.

Aunt Susan suggested going to Subiaco (ubercool suburb with a Friday flea mart) or Garden City, which is a suburban mall near Winthrop. We did Garden City first, thinking Subiaco would be open later, and yes you guessed it, by the time we finished GC, Subi would be closed by the time we got there. Sigh.. So, back to the inimitable Hay St for the night. Apparently Subi is a suburb, so their shops would stay open late on Thursday, whereas Hay St is city center, so it stays open late on Friday. Sheesh, should have gone to Subi day before.

Met my Uncle Toney and cousin Julian in the city at about 9pm, they had driven up from Bunbury to meet us. They brought us to dinner at Northbridge, which is renowned for its food, but we ended up eating at (of all places) a FOODCOURT due to my father’s desire to stop walking around choosing restaurants. Subsequent to dinner, went to my mum’s fave café at 44 Kings St for coffee and cake. Cake was lousy, coffee was slow, place was cold and I was sleepy. Not an auspicious combination for a good time, heh.

Day 3 – Saturday 26/11

Did the drive up to the Pinnacles, a rock formation in the desert about 2 ½ hours drive up from Perth. Introduced to the concept of ‘blink towns’ by Jules, ie blink-and-you’ll-miss-them towns. Plenty of them exist scattered throughout WA, with populations of 1000 or so and not even a single traffic light in the whole town. The state classifies its population into ‘city’, ‘rural’, ‘remote’ (whoa, rural not enough hor), and get this – ‘very remote’. Haha.. That’s what you get with 3 million people scattered in a state that could contain a few good-sized EU members with space to spare.

Arrived at Cervantes, a town of about 1000 or so, for lunch. Funniest, we stopped at a tavern first (the word ‘tavern’ should have warned us already) and the carpark was full of trucks; me and Jules walked into the tavern and this whole bunch of rednecks (or bogans as they call them here) turned around to stare at us. Hoho, 2 Asians walking into this remote tavern must have been a rather strange sight. We cleared out straightaway.

Now the classic eg. Of time wasting. Across road from tavern is fish and chip shop. I recommend fish and chips for lunch but get shot down by uncle who wants a sit-down lunch. So off we go looking for a proper sit-down lunch and eventually after lots of wrong turns end up at the Cervantes Motel, where one solitary staff member runs the reception, café and shop area and takes almost 20 min just to take our orders. The order? Oh yeah, you got it, FISH AND CHIPS. *sigh* And yes, once we sit down for lunch, more chatting and pleasantries and by the time we get moving to the Pinnacles, it’s about 3pm. Yay for a 2 hour detour that landed us the same lunch we could have gotten in a quarter of the time and price. Result – we managed the Pinnacles, but not a visit to New Norcia (which would have been on the way), Australia’s only monastery town. Sigh..

Pinnacles themselves are cool, thousands and thousands of limestone pillars in weird shapes sticking out of the sand. Apparently they form by the reverse process as stalagmites, they form due to water dissolving the softer areas of rock between the hard limestone and leaving limestone formations sticking up out of the desert soil. =) The best time to see them would have been at sunset, but that would have meant driving back to Perth along unlit roads (even Australia’s major highway, the M1, is not lit between cities), so I guess that’s why we turned back early. Ate at Woodpecker’s woodfired pizza in Subi. Their pizzas are good, salad is OK and soup is really salty. Down the road from Woodpecker’s is Sicilian’s, another café where we bought very good cakes.

Day 4 – Sunday 27/11

Drive down to Bunbury begins. We stopped in Fremantle, Perth’s port – it has a good market on weekends, and this weekend was no exception. It was also during the period of the Freo festival, so even more buskers, shops and performers were in the street. It was really a carnival atmosphere. There are really interesting shops – something called ‘Salty Dog Surf Shop’, ‘The Pickled Fairy and other Myths’. Krazy Tees sells very interesting T-shirts, with captions like: “Fat kids always win at seesaw”, “Fat kids are harder to kidnap” – with a graphic of said fat kid being unable to fit in through car window, etc etc.

Bought myself a purple button necklace (way cool) and a brooch with glass beads. Had lots more Freo-ing to do but time was up at we had 2 hours to go to get to Bunbury and we had to reach by 6pm to attend church where my other cousin Danielle was playing piano. The church, St Mary’s had actually been destroyed by a cyclone previously, so services were held in a makeshift hall that belongs to some school or community club. The priest is from Sri Lanka, interestingly enough.

Dinner that night at my uncle Toney and aunt Geraldine’s house, was pasta. My uncle and aunt, especially aunt, express their love through gift-giving. So, the pasta dinner was WAY in excess of what normal people eat. Heh. Although my aunt is an excellent cook, everything is done to excess – she has a fridge, a freezer the same size of most peoples’ normal fridge, a larder the size of a HDB storeroom and all are packed chockfull AND more food scattered around the tables and kitchen. Can you see the fats accumulating on me already.. sigh..

Day 5 – Monday 28/11

Went with Jules and Dani to the beach to tan in the morning. After 2 hours of lying in the sun, Jules is darker all over, so is Dani and I am NOT. Sigh. Except for the sunburnt bits around the edges of the back of my swimming costume where Dani forgot to apply sunblock on me.. Thanks Dani, for giving me the weirdest tanlines possible.

Lunch at some fish and chip shop in town, was very good indeed, with fish and chips, squid, mussels and a killer clam chowder. They even managed decent desserts (tiramisu and some fruit and nut slice). Cannot remember the place name but it’s near a bar/restaurant called Barbados and a sweet shop called Taffy’s. Taffy’s, for the record, does very good white chocolate pretzels and Tigereye (which is dark choc, white choc and peanut butter all mixed) and oddly enough, not-good saltwater taffys. I bought their sampler to try and will probably be going back to get the Tigereye to bring home. The whole eating area overlooked a recreational activities bay, so people were constantly zipping past on their powerboats.

After lunch, at about 3pm again, we went to Bunbury’s city center. Bunbury is the 3^rd or 4^th largest city in WA, and apparently one of the fastest growing, but it still feels so small town. People park on the streetsides for free and there is so little traffic on the road you can just walk across practically without looking. Jules and Dani brought me to Hillzeez, a surf shop that had specials on their bikinis, but I can’t fit any of them, boohoo. Their sizes are 8, 10, 12 etc and I am in between them. Sigh. The bargains were really good though, 50-70% off for brands like Billabing, Quiksilver and Seafolly, so you would pay something like $30-40 in total for what would have cost $100 in Singapore. Oh well. Other shops that were pretty good included Brazen, Flirtatious and Garbage (I thought their names were really strange) and I got myself a nice blue and gold top. Also got some temp hair dye to do on Dani and Jules in vivid violet. The range of cosmetics, haircare and body care products here is really amazing and cheap. Mum bought self-highlighting kits and red-hair-care shampoo (ie it restores the colour of hair that has been dyed red. Cool.)

Dinner at home was beef rendang, steamed fish and egg with asparagus and mushroom. Yumm.

Day 6 – Tuesday 29/11

Woke up early in the morning (OK, not that early, 7am or so) to go to Koombana Bay to watch dolphins. Erps, no dolphins came even though we sat at the chilly beachside from 8am till almost 10am. There is a group of about a dozen wild dolphins who live in the bay and they will come in almost everyday to interact with the people, but apparently not today. The amazing thing is that the dolphin interaction center is staffed by volunteers, and they come from all over the world – lots of Asian faces, from Korea, HK, Japan included. The hut where the volunteers wait for the dolphins is called the Koombana Bay Hilton. Heh.

Returned home after for lunch, which was the leftover pasta. Still just as good. Went down to Bunbury city center again for more walking around. Tuesday is the day waffles are half priced at Gelare, so we had waffles – ooh, heavenly. Bought myself a pair of earrings in red and blue.

Dinner again at home; steak, sausages, potato salad and greens, typical gwailo food. Heh. But very good gwailo food indeed. Tomorrow we are going to Albany down south, so will pack clothes tonight. Enroute, supposed to go to the Tree Top Walk and Margaret River – am keeping fingers crossed that we’ll make it in time. =)

AWAY in OZ

Dear all,
Will be away in Perth, Australia from today, 24/11 - 712.
whoohoo am typing this at the airport after failing to get an internet connection at ahru's house last night. *sianz*
Will see you all back soon. have a minute and 32 seconds left to use comp so bye!

ANNOUNCEMENT: UNI APPLICATIONS Part 2

Dear students,

Will be away from 24th Nov - 7th Dec.

Thus, I cannot handle any new uni applications that need to be sent by 15th Dec. Chenghao, I'll send yours before I leave.

If you need me to write you recommendations, please leave on my table and I will handle when back.

Forbidden Part 2

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Goodness. Now I can't see my cbox. Well done, SmartFilter!
For the record, am having problems with my MSN in school too.

Noooooooooooooooooo....
*fades off into dying oblivion*

My father, the suaku

The usual morning rush for the washroom culminated in my father plodding in after I'd stepped out.

Immediate anguished shouts resulted.

"Eh, come here! Why is your urine like that?? BLUE ONE!! What's wrong with you??"



Hm, apparently my father failed to realise that my mother had placed those 'water sanitizers' in the water tank that turn the water blue.

And just for the record, I DO flush the toilet after I go.

Sigh, my father the suaku..

Lines from Star Wars that can be improved by replacing a word with 'Pants'

(Can you recognise the original line?)

1. I find your lack of pants disturbing.
2. You are unwise to lower your pants.
3. Chewie and me got into a lot of pants more heavily guarded than this.
4. The Force is strong in my pants.
5. I cannot teach him. The boy has no pants.
6. Governer Tarkin. I should have expected to find you holding Vader's pants.
7. I think you just can't bear to let a gorgeous guy like me out of your pants.
8. Your pants, you will not need them.
9. These aren't the pants you're looking for.
10. You came in those pants? You're braver than I thought.
11. Pull up! All pants pull up!
12. I sense the conflict within you. Let go of your pants!
13. Alderaan is peaceful, we have no pants!
14. The pants will be down in moments, sir, you can begin your landing.
15. In his pants you will find a new definition of pain and suffering
16. That blast came from the pants! That thing's operational!
17. Great, Chewie, great. Always thinking with your pants.
18. I've just made a deal that will keep the Empire out of our pants forever.
19. A disturbance in the pants. I have not felt this since near my old master...
20. Lock the door. And hope they don't have pants.
21. Looks like someone's beginning to take an interest in your pants.
22. Jabba, please take these pants as a token of friendship
23. Your pants can deceive you. Don't trust them
24. Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your pants.
25. It's your father's pants. This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight.
26. Look at the size of those pants!
27. You knew my pants?
28. Search your pants, you know it to be true.
29. Yahoo! You're all clear kid. Now let's blow these pants and go home!
30. I've got a bad feeling in my pants about this.

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Access denied by SmartFilter content category. The requested URL belongs to the following categories: Entertainment/Recreation/Hobbies, Games.

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What the heck.. I can't believe school is clamping down on this too!

First, I can't access sites on abortion (for my lecture notes!) from school because of the gory and graphic content.

Now, I can't access quiz sites or games sites. Gosh.

Come on, what am I supposed to occupy my time with during the holidays when I'm waiting for my students to finish their activities so that I can go home?
What am I supposed to do when I am waiting for students to come see me for remedials and I have nothing else to do?
What am I supposed to do when I simply need a break?

I feel ridiculously restricted by these moves. No idea who's initiated it, but like every other restriction, it is unspeakably frustrating.
Things like not being able to install programs on my laptop.
Things like being locked out of the staffroom on Saturdays or during holidays when there is CCA. Even though I have to be back in school, there's no place for me to go and I end up having to squat in my students' CCA room for the whole sweltering day.
Things like not being able to access certain websites that are not even particularly risque or gory. Just that they happened to trigger some nanny program which summarily bans them.

Hello, people use nanny programs to police what their young impressionable children, who do not know better, read on the net right? For goodness sakes, we are mature adults who have the sense to prioritize and know the appropriate thing to do.

I wonder what's next..
No more reading of blogs?
No more accessing private emails?
No more accessing sites that are not expressly related to education and subject-based content matter?

Sheesh.

I am not frustrated because I love playing games so much.
But because I feel as if I am being treated as if I don't know how to live my life.

Here I am waiting..

Waiting for my tuition student at her house, as SHE is waiting for a cab outside her school to come back home. Drat, if I had known, I'd have hung around Orchard for longer..

Have just noticed that Topshop in Wisma carries a whole range of cute / cheeky / downright naughty products. Could not resist and got myself temp tattoos from Miso Pretty and a vintage-looking large shopper. Even my mum was bowled over by the cuteness. Hoho.


The company responsible for all his? Blue Q.

still living a caveman life

without a working internet connection, life sucks.

have to resort to running all over the place to get myself connected.

screeeeeeeeeweddddd up...............

Food review: Hilton Hotel High Tea!

Venue: Kaspia Bar, Hilton Hotel lobby, 2pm-5pm weekdays.
Price: $15+++ per person, DBS Cards' promotional price.

The holidays give me a bit more flexibility with my time, so I went with my mum to try on Tuesday.

Everything is done in miniature, from the teacup-sized vege lasagne to biscuit-sized cheesecakes.
All the better, because you get to try everything without feeling sinful.. Well, not THAT sinful at least!

Service is good; of course, what would you expect from Hilton Hotel? Just walking into the lobby made me reel into 1980's nostalgia, with the marbled floors and grandiose chandeliers. That kind of atmosphere speaks of chi-chi tai-tais with bouffant hairdos and immaculately manicured nails lounging their afternoons away. The Kaspia Bar itself is a cozy 40-or-so-seater with the food spread over 2 tables.

The lasagne is good, as well as the beef kway teow (again, served in teensy little bowls) which my mum simply loved. For the savouries, the spring roll in Vietnamese style (ie rice paper wrapping, not deep fried but served fresh) is also yumm. There was also oh-so-cute chawan mushi in teacups with generous helpings of mushroom, chicken and prawn within.

The finger sandwiches were also oh-so-fresh and servings were very generous. I only bemoan the lack of choice; there were only 3-4 types of sandwiches available.

Desserts.. Ooh, yummy! Cheesecake rocks.. Hilton cheesecake is not renowned for nothing. The hazelnut praline cake was excellent too, although very sweet.

The scones were delectable, although a little soft for me, I'm used to Fosters'-style scones which are more like a cross between true scones and rock buns. The scones were chock-a-block with currants and citrus fruit pieces, which was a nice touch - not the cloying sweetness of all-currant buns.

Also worthy of mention - berries in strawberry jus. The ice cream flavours were also rather interesting - blue ginger ice cream and mint sorbet.

All in all, very much worth the $15 for a nice relaxing afternoon feeling like a tai-tai. Do book a table and go early (before 3pm) to avoid most of the crowd. Not many people seem to be in the know though, as there were at most 20-odd people even at 4pm. It makes all the more relaxing, not having to queue for the food. My only peeve is that it's a smokers-allowed area, so you might be averse to the all-pervasive smell of cigars.

The school holidays have crept up on me unannounced

.. robbing me of the jubilation that comes with anticipating a long stretch of off days. Also stripping me of the urgency to finish up stuff before the hols so that my hols can be uninterrupted, which (kind of) explains why I'm back in school again, today.

Another factor that drives me back to school is the demise of my dearly 'beloved' computer yet again. No working internet connection = run back to school to get stuff done. Drat.

At the start of the hols, of course, one always draws up a list of 'resolutions', and I am no exception. Here goes:
1. Read all the books I've been wanting to read this year. That includes finishing the Bible, too. =)
Accomplished so far: all of Harry Potter, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Tamuli by David Eddings, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, 1984 by George Orwell. Not a bad list, I must say. Heh.

2. Cleaning out my workstation and my room (ouch, ouch, ouch).
The room part has to get done by 18th Nov, when I've chope-ed a stall at flea market with my dear Jan. Aiming to sell off at least $100+ worth of stuff, and subsequently post the rest on my online yahoo auctions. Need more cash!

3. Lose weight and get a tan.
No difficulty in the 'tan' part, seeing as I'm going to Australia where it's high summer, but for the same reason the 'lose weight' part might be a bit hard to acheive. Oh well, aim for the moon and fall among the stars.. 5 kg! yeah!
For some obscure reason, too, many weddings and parties tend to be held at the end of the year. Am running myself ragged attending all; from Friday till Sunday, for instance, I attended my staff dinner, 2 weddings and a birthday celebration. Waistline Expanders 1, Ming 0.. sigh..

4. Sort, catalog and upload my various photos.
'nuff said.

5. Meet up with many dear friends whom I seldom have a chance to.
You know who you are and you know I'm 'aiming' at you.. hohoho.


Oh well.
Time to get my work out of the way anyway.. shall flop back to Excel and Word and face the mountains of stuff therein.

Came up with a quiz too, from Jan's site. And you can check your scores too.

And yes Jan, I barely passed your quiz. =P

The correct use of evolutionary terminology

A population of ants exists in the isolated habitat of File Drawer on Anna's table. They filled the niche of eating papers, ink and irrtating humans.

Today, a strong artificial selection pressure was applied to the population. Like all artificial selection, the end result is beneficial to Man and the rate of change in allele frequency in the population gene pool is much more rapid than natural selection can bring about. This is a directional selection favouring those ants that display a phenotype that allows them to survive in the presence of the selection pressure, which is Liquid Detergent.

Since there is no pre-existing mutation in the population that created a beneficial allele that allows the ants to be resistant to liquid detergent, all the ants were killed by the application of this selection pressure. This illustrates the importance of genetic diversity in a population, for now one can reasonably assume that there was no variation at the "soap resistance" gene locus, if such a locus ever existed. Hence, no ants are selected for in this exercise, no ants survived to reach reproductive maturity and no ants were able to pass on their alleles to their offspring.

If one or two ants survived, the population would have gone through a genetic bottleneck. The subsequent generations would have even less genetic diversity.

It is also interesting to note that the population on Anna's table is an isolated population. Perhaps Founder's Effect might apply to this population as they have obviously colonized the file drawer from another, faraway region. Interestingly, since physical reproductive isolating mechanisms are in place, had we left them alone, over time the population may have evolved enough to form a new species.

In English:
We found ants on Anna's table. We sprayed liquid detergent on them. All died.

This post is also published at theonlinebioblog.

List of things to do:

I'm not even going to write them down because there's just too much.

The blank list makes me happier... hoho talk about self delusion. =P

OK.. off to work..

Short blog:

Am looking at the many challenges and much work ahead of me and wondering if I am doing the right thing leaving my comfort zone.

It is most certainly uncomfortable and I feel so much more exposed and naked because I am no longer sheltered.

But the Bible says that one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is not fit for service.

And so I turn my face to the uncertainty of my future. What else does the Bible say?

That those who are weak, in us He is shown strong.

So I'll hang on upon His strength.

If I had $200 to spare..

I'd choose between

a. buying a portable HDD
b. buying a new suit at LVER - which is SO gorgeous but so ex
c. taking myself off to Bangkok / KL for a weekend
d. rebonding and doing hair treatment
e. a spa, massage, mani and pedi package

sigh... dreams...

Sad life..

House, M.D.

Recently I watched Histories, my very first episode of House (aka Dr House is in the house).


Oh my goodness, it's fantastic! I found myself sitting straighter and paying close attention to the screen while trying to figure out the cause of some woman's symptoms.

House is fantastic at piecing together random clues and no-one-would-think-of causes for patients' symtpoms. He diagnosed a tuberculoma and rabies correctly when everyone else thought ovarian cancer and meningitis. HWAH.. well done.. And I love the way he oh-so-coolly told a student doctor that she was revealing too much cleavage.

Chris: You're reading a comic book.
House: And you're calling attention to your bosom by wearing a low-cut top. Oh, I'm sorry – I thought we were having a ‘state the obvious' contest. I'm competitive by nature.

WHAT a put-down.. hahahahahaha.. Mean and evil, I like!

Excerpt from the epsiode "Maternity":

House: Lift up your arms. You have a parasite.
Jill: Like a tapeworm or something?
House: Lie back and lift up your sweater.You can put your arms down.
Jill: Can you do anything about it?
House: Only for about a month or so. After that it becomes illegal to remove, except in a couple of states.
Jill: Illegal?
House: Don’t worry. Many women learn to embrace this parasite. They name it, dress it up in tiny clothes, arrange playdates with other parasites...
Jill: Playdates…
House: (showing her sonogram) It has your eyes.

And from another episode:
Chase: We have two hours to figure this out. Either we restore the bloodflow or he loses his eye.
House: Forget the eye. Tell him to use the other one to look on the bright side.

Of course, the fact that I gush about this might just be due to the fact that medical terms and stuff have always fascinated me. Maybe I am a doctor wannabe deep inside? Hoho.. But I don't think I'm hardworking enough to see med studies through. So I'll just sit back, relax and watch House use his brains and wit to conquer the ER. =)

Here is X

Some smart student.. =)

You get what you deserve..

A farmer had been swindled several times by the local car dealer. One day, the car
dealer informed the farmer that he was coming over to purchase a cow. The farmer
priced his unit as follows:

Basic cow                                   $499.95
Shipping and handling                        35.75
Extra stomach                                79.25
Two-tone exterior                            142.10
Produce storage compartment                  126.50
Heavy duty straw chopper                     189.60
Four spigot/high output drain system         149.20
Automatic fly swatter                        88.50
Genuine cowhide upholstery                   179.90
Deluxe dual horns                            59.25
Automatic fertilizer attachment              339.40
4 x 4 traction drive assembly                884.16
Pre-delivery wash and comb                   69.80

FARMERS SUGGESTED LIST PRICE:                $2843.36
Additional dealer adjustments:               300.00

TOTAL LIST PRICE (including options):        $3143.36


Hoho.. Maybe I should learn to 'price' my services accordingly?

Have been too busy to blog much lately. But I'll be back! argh!

See where being greedy gets you..

Snake bursts after gobbling gator:
An unusual clash between a 6-foot (1.8m) alligator and a 13-foot (3.9m) python has left two of the deadliest predators dead in Florida's swamps.

Full story from BBC News.

B.O.O.K (I love this)

Introducing the new Bio-Optic Organized Knowledge device--trade-named: BOOK.

BOOK is a revolutionary breakthrough in technology: no wires, no electric circuits, no batteries, nothing to be connected or switched on. It's so easy to use, even a child can operate it.

Compact and portable, it can be used anywhere -- even sitting in an armchair by the fire -- yet it is powerful enough to hold as much information as a CD-ROM disc.

Here's how it works:

BOOK is constructed of sequentially numbered sheets of paper (recyclable), each capable of holding thousands of bits of information. The pages are locked together with a custom-fit device called a binder which keeps the sheets in their correct sequence.

Opaque Paper Technology (OPT) allows manufacturers to use both sides of the sheet, doubling the information density and cutting costs. Experts are divided on the prospects for further increases in information density; for now, BOOKS with more information simply use more pages. Each sheet is scanned optically, registering information directly into your brain. A flick of the finger takes you to the next sheet.

BOOK may be taken up at any time and used merely by opening it.

BOOK never crashes or requires rebooting, though, like other devices, it can become damaged if coffee is spilled on it and it becomes unusable if dropped too many times on a hard surface. The "browse" feature allows you to move instantly to any sheet, and move forward or backward as
you wish. Many come with an "index" feature, which pin-points the exact location of any selected information for instant retrieval.

An optional "BOOKmark" accessory allows you to open BOOK to the exact place you left it in a previous session -- even if the BOOK has been closed. BOOKmarks fit universal design standards; thus, a single BOOKmark can be used in BOOKs by various manufacturers. Conversely, numerous BOOK markers can be used in a single BOOK if the user wants to store
numerous views at once. The number is limited only by the number of pages in the BOOK. You can also make personal notes next to BOOK text entries with optional programming tools, Portable Erasable Nib Cryptic Intercommunication Language Styli (PENCILS).

Portable, durable, and affordable, BOOK is being hailed as a precursor of a new entertainment wave. BOOK's appeal seems so certain that thousands of content creators have committed to the platform and investors are reportedly flocking to invest. Look for a flood of new titles soon.

Via Mikey's Funnies.

ANNOUNCEMENT: EMAIL RECOVERED

Yes, I've gotten my yahoo account back. Yayness!

my email stands: firstcor1614@yahoo.com =)

ANNOUNCEMENT: UNI APPLICATIONS

Dear all,

It's that time of the year when everyone applies for Universities all over. To make your life and mine easier, please:

Try to give me all the materials necessary (forms, envelopes, anything else you have to send) at one shot. Do not give me your forms piecemeal.. I will end up worrying if I've included everything you need in your application!

Please remind me of the dates your uni applications have to go in, especially if you're applying to US unis as they have widely varying application deadlines.

Do tell me if you're doing your UCAS application and need me to approve / send / write a reference. FYI, you need to choose me as your referee - Miss Wang Hui Ming, else your name might not appear on my list. Finish your ref first AND then send to me for approval! Inform me again AFTER you have sent to me.

It is usually fine to give me your application forms AFTER your A levels, unless:
1. you're applying for Oxford / Cambridge
2. you're applying for Medicine in UK
3. you're applying for Early Decision in US (again, dates of these vary with the universities)

So don't worry overmuch about your applications - this is the time to focus your attention on your studies yeah? =) I am always available if you want to talk to me about studies / courses / unis etc even after your A's, cos I will be back in sch almost every day from 8/12 - 31/12 (doing Orientation next year = cannot slack in Dec) - just drop me an sms.

jiayou!

ANNOUNCEMENT: EMAIL HACKED!

Dear all, an announcement.

My email (firstcor1614@yahoo.com) has been hacked. Please ignore any emails sent to you from that address.

For the moment, I will be operating from
1. my College email (wanghm@hc.edu.sg) - email me there if there's any school-related stuff
2. my gmail (firstcor1614@gmail.com) - For church, UM etc.

Because I don't maintain address books for either of these emails up to this point, I would greatly appreciate an email to the gmail so that I can get YOUR email correct. I've been sending out things over the past few days based on my memory and it's probably no wonder if I haven't got it right.

If anyone knows any way to un-hack my email / find the perp, do leave me a comment. Thanks!

*sorrowing ming

Welcome to Uncylcopedia..

the content-free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

Filled with useless nonsense and impractical rubbish that will make you fall out of your chair laughing in incredulity.

Like how to increase your iPod Nano to 200GB, thesauruses (or should that be thesaurii for plural?) and a rewrite of Aesop's Fables.

Please enjoy. =)

You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan. You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists. Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 93% Neo orthodox 75% Emergent/Postmodern 68% Charismatic/Pentecostal 64% Reformed Evangelical 64% Fundamentalist 64% Classical Liberal 50% Modern Liberal 50% Roman Catholic 36% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Harry Potter. You can be a little reckless and hot-headed at times, but a more brave and courageous friend would be hard to find. Harry Potter 85% Albus Dumbledore 75% Hermione Granger 70% Remus Lupin 65% Ron Weasley 60% Severus Snape 60% Ginny Weasley 55% Sirius Black 55% Draco Malfoy 10% Lord Voldemort 5% Your Harry Potter Alter Ego Is...? created with QuizFarm.com

desperately wanna do

1. rebond, trim and dye my hair so it stops looking like a patch of uncontrollable grass

2. go shopping and spend all the money i want

3. NOT have to talk for an entire day unless I want to

4. loseweightloseweightloseweight.. like at least 5 kg

5. have a rest DAY.. not just a rest hour in a day, if even that.

6. go somewhere for a short escapade.. Sentosa, JB, wadeva!!!!!!

7. read books.. any books.. a day in Borders would be nice

tata.. continue dreaming. Ok back to work...

Miss-communicating..

It seems like nowadays everyone's too busy and tired to chat, whether face to face, via phone, or online. It's barely 1230am, and I have a grand total of 4 usher friends, 3 CG members and a teensy smattering of other people I know prowling the online world.

I miss the days when I'd have 6 or 7 MSN conversation windows popping up the moment I signed in, with different friends clamouring on various subjects and I could spend hours just answering MSNs. I miss getting alternately frustrated and entertained in turn by the silly conversations that ensued. I also miss the days of sitting around in church and chatting with friends as we wait to do the work we have to. I miss going out for dinner / shopping and talking fluff about cosmetics, clothes and embroidery (ME not the one doing the embroidering FYI...)

But I haven't had the energy to do that for weeks and it seems neither do many others.

It's again a time of preparation, this time for our big move to Expo.. so many things to think about and plan. Everything is shiftin into high gear, when there are barely 2 months to go.. I used to think I was busy... Oh boy, was I wrong! =P

The amount of stuff to do just keeps on increasing, but then again, so does my capacity to cope, with the Holy Spirit alongside. Every time I feel like I've reached a comfort zone, the bar gets raised another notch.... argh... the flesh gets poked out of complacency.

I want to be able to cope with the work I have to do.. To have victory over the mountains piling on my table and the ever-increasing admin. But more than just that, I want a comfortable-enough victory that I can get my free time back!

*Wail.. I miss communicating..

timmortalien

Timmortal as usual writes fantastic stuff.

Sent to Jan, and she replied "Timmortal is not mortal".

Hm, what does that make him?

Alien.. TimmortALIEN?

sorry la.. *yawns hugely*.. i am crapping.

Hm hm, anyway.. I like Timmortal's writing - he is so real, and yet so poetic at the same time. Same thing: I like Kennysia - he is so real, and yet able to see the funny side of life.

So on and so forth...

i freaking fell down the steps of the bus!

ultimate maluation.

resulting in or cheh from knees downwards.

not going to wear skirts for a week till the ugly abrasions heal.

~dratted bus

And this, I cannot believe.. No wonder there is no picture!

You have a sexual hidden talent You have a sexual hidden talent. You might not look it but you are a dynamo in bed. Most of your lovers think that it is from years of practice, but really, you were just born with it. Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

You've got your earplugs in all right..

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Singapore opened their casinos just in time

You will be famous for being a Poker Star You have incredible intuition, and although you don’t desire fame or fortune you will eventually get both. Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Even I, amaze myself

.. with my ability to be mean and horrible.

On flipping through the latest S magazines to be dumped on my class:
"ooh.. all the models have no make up on.. for the quality of the magazine you'd think they could afford a makeover.. Cheapos! LOOK at that PIMPLE!!... Gosh that guy looks like a cheeko. It's the eyes and the lopsided grin."
[i have to not say the name of the mag in case i get Googled and fired. Heh. But 04S75 knows what I'm talkin about.]

On walking into an MRT train with a train-long advertisement for the Army as a career:
Are we having a mass-advertising campaign to heighten Singapore's awareness of dengue fever?..the satellites in those army ads REALLY look like giant mosquitoes, and the 'tentacles' do NOT help the image in the slightest..
[I suppose people dissing MRT trains should happen often enough that I won't get prosecuted for doing it. Heh.]

There's more but none come to mind at this hour of the morning.


ooh yeah, Soup Spoon at Raffles City B1 is great. The Velvety Mushroom Stroganoff is to die for.. -slurp-

Name and Birthdate

Following in the footsteps of Raine, I went to this site and dutifully entered 'WANG HUI MING'..

There are 11 letters in your name.
Those 11 letters total to 63
There are 4 vowels and 7 consonants in your name.

Your number is: 9

The characteristics of #9 are: Humanitarian, giving nature, selflessness, obligations, creative expression.
(wah! I am so nice meh??)

The expression or destiny for #9:
The expression that you exhibit is represented bythe number 9. Your talents center in humanistic interests and approaches. You like to help others as you were intended to be the 'big brother or big sister' type. You operate best when you follow your feelings and sense of compassion, and allow yourself to be sensitive to the needs of others. You work well with people, and have the potential to inspire. This suggests that you could successfully teach or counsel. Creative ability, imagination and artistic talent (often latent) of the highest order are present in this expression. It's possible that you're not using or developing all of these capabilities at this time. Some of your talents may have been used at an earlier time in your life, and some may still be latent. Be aware of your capabilities, so that you can make use of them at appropriate times.
(ahem ahem.. someone please give me a paintbrush now)

If you are able to achieve the potential of your natural expression in this life, you are capable of much human understanding and have a lot to give to others. Your personal ambitions are likely to be maintained in a very positive perspective, never losing sight of an interest in people, and a sympathetic, tolerant, broad-minded and compassionate point of view. You are quite idealistic, and disappointed at the lack of perfection in the world. You have a strong awareness of your own feeling as well as those of others. Friendships, affection, and love are extremely important.

Undeveloped or ignored, the negative side of the 9 expression can be very selfish and self-centered. If you do not actively involve yourself with work that benefits others, you may tend to express just the opposite characteristics. It is your role to be very involved with other people and their needs, but it may be difficult for you achieve this role. Aloofness, lack of involvement, and a lack of sensitivity mark the low road of this expression.

Your Soul Urge number is: 6

A Soul Urge number of 6 means:
With a number 6 Soul Urge, you would like to be appreciated for your ability to handle responsibility. Your home and family are likely to be a strong focus for you, perhaps the strongest focus of your life. Friendship, love, and affection are high on your list of priorities for a happy life. You have a lot of diplomatic tendencies in your makeup, as you a able to rectify and balance situations with an innate skill. You like working with people rather than by yourself. It is extremely important for you to have harmony in your environment at all times.

The positive side of the 6 Soul Urge produces a huge capacity for responsibility; you are always there and ready to assume more than your share of the load. If you possess positive 6 Soul Urges and express them, you are known for your generosity, understanding and deep sympathetic attitude. Strong 6 energy is very giving of love, affection, and emotional support. You may have the inclination to teach or serve your community in other idealistic ways. You have natural abilities to help people. You are also likely to have artistic and creative leanings.

If you have an over-supply of 6 energy in your makeup, you may express some of the negative traits common to this number. With such a strong sympathetic attitude, it is easy to become too emotional. Sometimes the desires to render help can be over done, and it can become interfering and an attitude that is too protective, rather than helpful. The person with too much 6 energy often finds that people tend to take advantage of this very giving spirit. You may tend to repress your own needs so that you can cater to the demands from others. At times, there may be a tendency in this, for becoming over-loaded with such demands, and as a result become resentful.

Your Inner Dream number is: 5

An Inner Dream number of 5 means:
You dream of being totally free and unrestrained by responsibility. You see yourself conversing and mingling with the natives in many nations, living for adventure and life experiences. You imagine what you might accomplished.

Then, I went on and clicked on the Birthday link at the bottom of the page and hey presto..

You entered: 9/17/1979

Your date of conception was on or about 25 December 1978.
(whoohoo I am a Christmas baby)

You were born on a Monday
under the astrological sign Virgo.
Your Life path number is 7.

The Julian calendar date of your birth is 2444133.5.
The golden number for 1979 is 4.
The epact number for 1979 is 2.
The year 1979 was not a leap year.

As of 9/26/2005 11:02:02 PM CDT
You are 26 years old.
You are 312 months old.
You are 1,358 weeks old.
You are 9,506 days old.
You are 228,167 hours old.
You are 13,690,022 minutes old.
You are 821,401,322 seconds old.

There are 356 days till your next birthday
on which your cake will have 27 candles on it.

Those 27 candles produce 27 BTU's,
or 6,804 calories of heat (that's only 6.8040 food Calories!) .
You can boil 3.09 US ounces of water with that many candles.
(oh my goodness hilarious! Next time people ask my age I'll tell them this)

In 1979 there were approximately 3.1 million births in the US.
In 1979 the US population was approximately 203,302,031 people, 57.4 persons per square mile.
In 1979 in the US there were approximately 2,152,662 marriages (10.1%) and 1,036,000 divorces (4.9%)
In 1979 in the US there were approximately 1,921,000 deaths (9.5 per 1000)


Your birthstone is Sapphire
The Mystical properties of Sapphire

Though not meant to replace traditional medical treatment, Sapphire is used for clear thinking.

Some lists consider these stones to be your birthstone. (Birthstone lists come from Jewelers, Tibet, Ayurvedic Indian medicine, and other sources)

Agate, Moonstone, Lapis Lazuli

Your birth tree is

Lime Tree, the Doubt

Accepts what life dishes out in a composed way, hates fighting, stress and labour, tends to laziness and idleness, soft and relenting, makes sacrifices for friends, many talents but not tenacious enough to make them blossom, often wailing and complaining, very jealous, loyal.

(haha.. I even have my own song then... Lemon Tree!)

There are 90 days till Christmas 2005!

The moon's phase on the day you were
born was waning crescent.

my blogger remembers me!

wahaha.. Just downloaded a new program called CCleaner, it cleans up unused files and temp files so that my beloved lappy'll run more efficiently.

Utterly efficient, only that it cleaned off my URL history too. Drat I should unclick that box the next time I run it.

I'm having to type in URLs like blogger.com, jannesis and rainesong for the first time in a long time.. But guess what, my blogger fields still show up my ID!

*so touched*

awwwww... Blogger I love you..

crunches and munches

A new MSN conversation this morning..

crunches says:
hey

ahming: It is a new day.. says:
wats crunches?

crunches says:
flabby tummy, weak, need to do more crunches

ahming: It is a new day.. says:
ah i see

ahming: It is a new day.. says:
I will endeavour to do a related exercise

ahming: It is a new day.. says:
it's called Munches

crunches says:
HAHAHAHA

munches says:
teehee

as a man thinks in his heart, so is he

Read this on bunn's blog.

So often, what we can do depends on what we think we can do, rather than what we can actually do. After all, each of us has potential way beyond what we've expressed - We use only 3-5% of our brain capacity, actually. Don't limit yourself by thinking that "I can't"...

1. You have much more potential, confirmed!
2. Even if YOU can't, GOD can!

I need to stretch my mindset!

I AM

I am that baby who stared my father in the eye immediately after birth, as a premonition of things to come.

I am that baby who could finish a bottle of formula milk in five minutes flat.

I am that baby whose mother dropped her into the deep end of a swimming pool in an attempt to test her belief that all babies could swim.

I am that child who wished for a sibling to share the pain and joys of life, and whose wish never came to pass.

I am that child who caught a lizard with my bare hands and ate it.

I am that child who was torn between two warring parents, did not know who to believe, and ended up with the mindset that I was the cause of it all.

I am that girl who weighed 70kg on a 159cm frame in secondary school.

I am that girl who was depressed enough to comtemplate suicide, yet never courageous enough to carry it out.

I am that girl who was the outcast of the class and of the family. I am the one who developed a facade of happiness so impenetrable that in time, even my own parents came to believe I was content.

I am that girl who was raised an angry, bitter anti-Christian home.

I am the same girl who gave my heart to Jesus in March 1997, and watched myself change over the subsequent years from a pretender to a true possesor of joy.

I am the student who never studied.

I am that student who barely made it through university because of a lack of finances.

I am that woman who was jilted and cheated on, and found out the week before my best friend's wedding where I was the bridesmaid.

I am that woman who has felt utterly left behind as I watch my two best friends walk to the altar.

I am that woman who has learnt that strength is the province of those who choose to continue to walk in their difficult journey.

technorati tag: iamthatguy

Ramly Rhapsody

Ah... who can resist the Ramly burger?

I stood at the Yew Tee pasar malam and watched my burger come into existence.

Meat patty sizzling on the grill, the slathering of spice powder and sauces and cheese, all wrapped up in a whole fried egg and squished in the space between two buns.

I savoured the burger under the cold, humid night air as I walked home.

~yummy~

electric sheep..

e-comix.

Scent-sation

Have I ever mentioned that I cannot STAND guys who drench themselves in cologne / perfume?

I think it stems from my grand-dad always having super strong cologne on, everyday. No matter where he went, you could always tell he was coming or had just gone by the strong unnatural smell that lingered in the air.

And I've always had a super sensitive nose. Someone could be smoking a single cigarette ten meters away in still air and I would be able to tell. So you can imagine, having someone with strong cologne around is like having an continual assault on my nostrils. No wonder they run all day long! No wonder all the pi-sai builds up! (It's a defence mechanism, I tell you..)

It's not that the smell is not nice. Just don't make it overpowering.

(Now, if ONLY the person who I am talking about would read this.. But somehow I doubt so! Drat! Back to the reality of nostrils-under-war..)

i miss Mongolia!

Stolen from Suhan:
Wah man! This SO reminds me of Mongolia.
Ok, it's Tibet, but WHO CARES???

Imagine playing pool under the big blue sky!
Wah.......... I wanna go for holiday!!!!!!!!!

Birthday blog!

It's time to blog about my weekend! Yes, my happy, fattening and tiring weekend.

On the 16th, Friday night, my parents booked a room in Orchard Hotel.

Room number was 1503, a tiny but cosy room. My daddy even bought me a flower! whoohoo!

Had dinner at Hua Ting restaurant on the 2nd floor of the hotel.

it SERIOUSLY rocks! Hm, there was braised pork neck in claypot (very good), beef tenderloin rolled in chopped walnuts and served with plum sauce (the highlight of the night in my opinion), french beans with deep fried golden mushrooms (the one disappointment of the dinner, because it was so normal), and e-fu noodles with shredded preserved vegetables, chinese mushrooms and pork slivers. Salivate, anyone? I probably should develop the habit of bringing my camera around and taking pictures of food dishes so I can post them up and save myself the descriptions. That is SO like my uncle - when he came to Singapore in March, he took pictures of literally every food item, including fruits, cheng teng, ice jelly etc. Ha!

To top the dinner off, we walked to Hui Lau Shan down the road for mango pudding and mango ice cream. Yummy..

After that, I did something I really enjoy - went to Borders and stood there and read books simply for the sake of reading. Reading has been a joy all my life but too often I end up reading things because I have to and not because I want to. Oh well, two hours of pure unadulterated silly reading pleasure, all the way till midnight, was therapeutic! I read a silly book called 'Granny' and then started on another called 'Empress Orchid' by Anchee Min. The 2nd book was good but I didn't have time to finish.. darn.. I will go back to Borders to finish reading it someday.

For lunch on my birthday itself, I met G at Holland Village and we ate at Original Sin.

Goodness, I never knew vegetarian food could be so good! On the menu: Capri, which is a dish of roasted zucchini, eggplant and portobello mushrooms on a bed of herb mashed potato and tomato-based sauce, as well as a Mezze plate, which was pita bread with hummus, yoghurt, eggplant and pumpkin dips.

Stuffed till full full, and went to walk around Holland Village. Also another of the small things I enjoy in life - being able to walk around with no agenda in particular and not have to rush here, there and everywhere. G got me flowers also.. hey hey! Must have taken a leaf out of my dad's book..

Fast forwarding to Sunday night, where we had more food at Chomp Chomp. I went after church with Wenhui, Beatrice, Eugene, Jeremy, Matt Loh, Matt Teo, Esther, Hui Erl, Rachel (Mrs Loh), Rachel (YW), Yew Weng, Alex Yiu. Again, ate until silly. Sugar cane in giant glasses, satay, chye tow kway, fried rice.. yummy.. they also called dumplings, or lua, sambal kangkong and a whole host of other things that I couldn't / was too full to / was too tired to eat. *slurp*.. I wanted to try the tow huay too, but no space.. sheesh. Kenna scratched by a large cat with a long tail which kept on lurking around under our table. Fortunately I was wearing jeans or else there would be more than one scratch. Ivory ah.. I don't know how you can tahan 50 and Ke-ai! aiyoyo!

Okei. Enough about all the food I ate. Time to get to work, to dieting, and to losing all those calories!