It came and went...

Christmas came and went so fast. It's sad cos it's my favourite time of the year and it's the last one before I leave. Had family dinners on christmas eve and day itself. On eve, I had alot to drink. I don't usually drink alot so 3 glasses of wine was more than enough. Mind you that my granduncle poured alot into the glasses. The food was good and I was glad that everyone enjoyed themselves.

Christmas day! Opening up presents. Actually I already knew what I was gonna get for christmas but I was waiting to look at my family's faces when they opened up my presents. Pretty happy that mom and dad liked their present - a family album at last! I was surprised by one present though. I knew what it was but I didn't expect where it's from. So...thank you zeren! Hopefully my present to you can last quite long?

Here are some pictures from the 2 days:
me and my sis

fievel having a go at the tree

Our ice cream log cake

Our christmas tree

Updates
Next week I gotta start clearing and packing my room. Better to start earlier so that I'll get a rough idea of what i need. Already I've been writing down the list of things that I need to get.

2 people talked to me about how I felt living in Australia. So far I've been able to explain to 2 of them that I can only picture the worse case scenario in my head but I know that I'm gonna get something different. You won't know until you experienced it so best to take it a day at a time.

It bugs me that my mom's relatives are not very supportive for my mom. She'll be alone here at the beginning while two daughters are gone. The thing about that side of the family is that it's all about competition and whose kids are doing the best. I don't know why cos we're all grown up and it's so passe! The old folks are the one who should grow up.

Anyway, enjoy your new year!

Oprah's Favourite Things 2005
- Philip Stein Teslar Diamond Watch
- Burberry Coat
- Burberry Purse
- UGG® Australia's Uptown Boot
I want one of these!!

- Garrett Popcorn Shops' CaramelCrisp® and CheeseCorn™ Tin
- The new Apple iPod
- "The Oprah Sweater" by Ralph Lauren
- Pure Color Cords
- Lovely by Sarah Jessica Parker
- BlackBerry 7105T™ from T-Mobile


- Brownies from Moveable Feast Geneva


- Nike Free 5.0 iD®


- Kashwére® Shawl Collar Robe
- Croissants from Williams-Sonoma
- Hope in a Jar from Philosophy
- "Grace" Basket from Philosophy
- Oatmeal Cookie Dough from Fox & Obel Market
- The Oprah Winfrey Show 20th Anniversary Collection DVD
- Sony VAIO® FJ Notebook

Oprah, I just wish for a ticket to your favourite things show next year please. Visit here for the list and pictures.

Little Updates
Met up with my secondary school and poly friends over the weekend. So much differences between the two gatherings. Just glad that I was able to make someone smile when she was down.

My driving's rusty!! I haven't been driving for a month. When I finally got back to it last week, man, i suck but the instructor was kind enough to help.

Been having little photo shoots with fievel. He's so easy to take these days!

Collected my fox long pants from alteration. I love them to bits cos I know i'll need them badly to keep me warm in Adelaide.

Still have 10% left with my parent's christmas present.

Proud of myself for the way I stand up to my parents. They love to jump to conclusions all the time. Mostly i find it's a waste of time to explain to them cos they have selective hearing. Thankfully, now my dad gets the picture.

I've got sinus now. :(

Jason Hahn did a special list in his column in 8 days. Thought I give it a go.



1. Zeren
2. Time with family and friends
3. Trainer job. Best job i've done so far.
4. New friends i made from my job. Great people.
5. MTV
6. Johnny Depp
7. Public awareness of customer service.
8. Fievel
9. New found discipline I found in keeping in shape.
10. Pictures
11. Chronicles of Narnia. Make movies on all books please.
12. Fox clothes.
13. Amazing Race: Family edition.
14. Talking to my students. Naughty or nice, they still make me smile. Even a little boy called Gary.
15. Sashimi. Still can't get enough of it.
16. Passion of making things for people
17. Taking pictures
18. Food from the coffee shop downstairs my place
19. Computer games
20. Air-condition
21. Bintan
22. Soundtrack channel
23. More confidence
24. Women Secret
25. Zeren



1. Family members who tend to talk more rather than listen.
2. Bad customer service. So what if you're in the high end business, your pay is just the same as an office worker. Maybe lower.
3. Racist Riots in Australia. Better write my will soon. :(
4. Ungracious singaporeans
5. Weird weather
6. Perverts in Hougang swimming complex. They should have an old man private pool enclosed with brick walls.
7. My sister's daily complaining
8. Expensive driving lessons.
9. Perverts at the coffee shop downstairs my place.
10. Fake people.
11. Bootlickers. Population seriously need to be controlled.
12. A guy called Ben.
13. Lack of places to go in singapore
14. Construction at my place. Shutting down the electricity from 8.30 - 5.30 sucks.
15. Noisy and nosy neighbours
16. Mysterious bruising in the night. That's freaky.
17. Girls who expose their butt cracks. Two words: Not cool.
18. Service at ssdc. Wouldn't let me book an earlier test date.
19. Shouting at my students. I hate to shout.
20. Losing inspiration. Happens alot.
21. Losing hair. Too stressed.
22. Expensive plane tickets to Adelaide.
23. Inconsiderate drivers especially taxi drivers. Can't you read the 'L' plate?
24. New lane barriers at the pool. It's in the way. Duh!
25. Survivor. Give it a break.

Reality Kicks In

The last sms of the night came in just before I was about to head for bed where the words 'suddenly', 'so soon' was so prominent in my head. The next morning I woke up feeling sad. My eyes felt sore but I didn't even lay any drop of tear. I told some of my friends when I'll be flying off and the words 'so soon' always came up. I put up a brave front cos I've avoid it, focusing on things I want to do for people instead. Only after the finalisation of the tickets and all, that's when reality kicks in. I don't know what to expect in January, I can't even imagine it. I'll just try to do my best to spend more time with the people around me. Cos I won't be seeing their lovely faces for 10 months, maybe longer.

Even though there was a gathering last night, what drew me was the planes. Every plane flew by and I had this itching feeling that I should look up. And then I imagine myself on that plane.

Fievel somehow senses the sadness for the past 2 days. He's been pulling out stunts that would make me laugh and direct attention to himself solely so that I could not think about other things. I love that little guy to bits and how I wish i could take him with me.

It's sad to know that one person (maybe more I don't know) feels the same way as I do. I wish for him to be brave.

Dec 4: Important occasions for 3 people

Happy Anniversary to Mom and Dad!
29 years together and blessed with a handful of two big fat troublesome buffalos!

Happy 21st Birthday to Ailian!
Having two days of celebration. Hope she enjoys both of them. Celebrated her birthday yesterday. A good crowd or maybe too many. But I feel bad that I didn't carry my job out properly as the photographer. Took too little photos on my part. 60 is very little! Anyway here are some pics:

Our polaroid

pam, ailian, jingyue & me

me, jingyue, ailian, pam and wanling

Our cute wanderer

Us with tian jing (good magician!)

one of my fave pics

Back to other stuff
Taking pictures yesterday made me feel like taking more pictures of people around me. Suddenly I realised that I won't be seeing them that often. :(

My grandma (maternal) popped over to stay with us for the weekend. Yay! I miss her! Haven't seen her in 3 months or longer. Somehow I wish I knew how to speak teochew properly cos we're communicating to each other in broken chinese. I love her to bits and she's so fun. She'll be the first one I'll take pictures of for my project.

Finally done with the visa application and the medical checkup. I'm pretty disappointed in the checkup. The doctor found excessive white cells and I have no idea where I got them. I asked her how do people usually get this and she diverted the question. Talk about adding to my worries but she says it won't affect my application. Yeah like still, I want to know what's the cause. Duh! She prescribed to me awful antibiotics. They have this funny taste that it affects my meals. I feel like puking after every meal. Twice I nearly came to doing so. 2 more days of medicine hell!

Now I'm settling the plane tickets. More or less, I've got the reservations. Going down to make a deposit soon. After checking the dates, I'm already starting to feel sad. It's really sooner than I thought. :(

Accomodation wise, my sister managed to located a two bedroom apartment with a washing machine, oven, 2 bedrooms. Sounds like a good deal with the price but i'll only be able to make a booking a week before I leave. They want to see the deposit upfront. Other than that, I'm just hoping I won't forget what I learn in driving. Waiting for january to take my dumb test.

Gotta figure out what to get my dad for x'mas. Not sure whether i should do the same as what I'm gonna do for mom. I'm just happy that I already have 1 1/2 presents done. Especially when the second most difficult person is dealt with!