CNY 2009! post cny feelings

actually u noe what. this year's cny's a BLAST! (at least so far, haha.) much better than i had expected. cos first of all my paternal side of my family did have a last minute reunion dinner alst night at er gu's house. it was very very last minute, so dun blame me for not blogging that i changed my pre cny feelings from bored to excited! haha. then today i am going to er gu's house again to bai nian and then samuel will come to my house! yay, it will whales of fun. (i hope it is the correct whale here, haha).

lemme recount yesterday's reunion dinner. anyway, i went from church with auntie wan teng and skipped 2nd service. at home, i had planned to nap a while, but one moment of folly and i washing my hair, so i couldn't nap anymore, haiz.. i decided to read the papers and practise my guitar pieces. haha, i have become very diligent in practising it cos i want to master the runs till they are seamless and on par with the perfect syf standard. i would say, progress is on the way. :) then my hair was slightly drier, so lay face down on my sofa and turned on the ceiling fan to blow dry my hair. and when i just got myself into a comfortable position, my family came home. my mom was going to cook while my sisters and dad were going to do last minute shopping. i meant that the sisters shopped, my dad mainly paid.

so we went to heartland mall, i bought a pair of shoes that were uncannily the same colour as the dress i had bought on wed night. yep, i remember being a little hungry, so i purchased a value pack of the kinder brueno pack. hehe, i munched away and then dad bought a cup of bubble tea for er jie and me, it's a rare treat esp in my usually health concious family, oh i forgot, my mom was absent that why we had to no objections! :)


headed for home, i used the com and watch the miracle singer, vitas. haha, he falsettos or rather 'screams' with this very shrill sound and i love it, cos it is so smooth, unlike other incompetent singers who would sound so strained going as high as him. by 6.20, my family w as ready to go. i was quite excited to meet my cousins. :)

when we reached, we were not the first as what my er jie had expected. well, there was mama, er gu, da be (oldest uncle) and my cousin chong kai (his brother is chong han, the guy in currently china and was featured in the news), er be (second uncle) with his family which consisted of er be mu and esther (my cousin), wu shu (fifth uncle) and his wife, si shu and family did not come, i guess they had something on. :( however, there were unexpected guest (i do not mean unwelcomed in this case!), there was a family from china who are my distant relatives (they live with er gu). both figuratively and literally. it consisted of the parents and their 17 year old daugther, lucy. figuratively cos they are from china, so of course distant in terms of distance, but literally cos the mom is my dad's cousin, so lucy is my distant cousin. my impression of her was that she's tall, pretty and has really nice eyes, a real chio bu. haha, fianlly i have a good looking relative (haha, im so mean!) anyway, her mom was very hospitable (reminded me very much of mrs xu from china, in case u have forgotten, my china buddy's mom), i was freaking tensed when they were seaking chinese, and whenever she commented at me or looked at me, i just gave her a smile, cueing her not to go further, if not i will just die speaking chinese. haha, and lucy, good thing she has english background, so she could understand us more or less. :)


while waiting for the food, da jie, er jie and i viewed photos of the yester years, every thing was to memorable in their ways, and i even saw myself when i was P4, when i had the luxury of keeping my then straight hair down. haha, if i keep my hair down nowadays, i might be dubbed the albert einstein look-a-like, which is not a complement at all! er jie was very very friendly and she gave lucy a mini intro to almost all the relatives that were 'imporatant' to noe.

following that, it w as dinner time! the food was decent, but i was on a diet, so i just took a little of food. the teens sat together at one table and we had many many interesting topics which mainly covered education and china etc. lucy's here for some study thing, hah, im not very sure actually.

after dinner, i was pressing everyone to play cards games, but i think everyone prefered to talk. so i was a little bored here, cos im not so vocal. the next highlight was taking photo. haha, very funny cos lucy's dad is the photographer by hobby and was super super meticulous about everyone's position in the pic. so we waited for about a good 5 mins before everything was perfect in his eyes. we took a few shots and then the teens went down to play sparklers. it was really fun and for the first time i think, i actually dared to hold the sparklers in such a way that i hand was so close to the sparks and i could feel the burning sensational. though it might be nothing new to u, but im proud that i have become bolder, in the more dangerous way.

to wrap up the fun-downstairs stint, we raring for a jumpshot, which took ages.. lol, let me explain below, with the pics. after that , lucy had to go for some gathering with her parents, so she left us there. we cleared up and then went upstairs.

in the house, er jie and i played our hearts out on the organ (we treated it like a piano, not that we know how to play an organ) i mainly took the upper range of keys and she, the bottom range. we played a wide range of songs, from chinese new year songs, pop songs, christmas songs, christian songs and even singapore communtity songs! lol, and chong kai, esther and da jie had a good time singing their hearts out. hehe. then came my the channel countdown thing. and i caught dai yang tian and jeanette aw in action!!! whooo! dai yang tian is so shuai! haha. after watching till 11.30pm, we decided not to impose on the host any further, so we left.

last night was truly more fun than expected! :) i loved it.

pics :


here's er jie in action, being super approachable n friendly to lucy. :) i dunno what to say, so i look away. lol


family pic, taken with my family cam, quality not there, but at least everyone's in! haha


sparklers! at first during dinner, we were trying to tanslate sparklers to chinese for lucy, but she's smart enough, she noes. but im envious that in the china, they are allowed to release fire crackers and fireworks! not professionals, but just any citizen 30 and above. haha, singapore would be burnt down if we did not implement the ban.


this is lucy. for ppl who dunno. :)


jumpshots taken by mum. we had about 20 NGs ('not good' in directorial terms)! that was so crazy, haha, never in my life did i have to take so many pics before getting one successful. haha, im glad my clique's more experienced in this aspect, if not, we wouldn't be about to steal time between lessons to take jumpshots!


this pic: mum's toooo late, we have alr landed

mum's too early, we heven't taken off . haha, er jie and i are each other's laterally inverted equivalent.

momentarily gave up on jumpshots, all girl cousins here!

the roses and the thorn.. lol

the lone success! er jie cleverly suggested using timer instead of mom manually taking the pic. and it worked! haha, why didn't i, with all my wealth of experience in clique photo taking, not suggest that earlier! haha, im so dumb!

u noe something, i have truly talked a lot a lot here, that means that im finally happy and back to my normal self, cos i can express myself properly. finally... :) festivals and breaks from school does WONDERS!

Pre chinese new year feelings

(to hui qi, ur wish is answered :) )

this year's chinese new year is really dull for me. apart from having a little fun in the baking aspect, (i have been filling my time with making pineapple tarts with my mom), i feel no excitement in the air... and oh, the bad part of cny this year's my extended family's not going to have reunion dinner just cos no one wants to open their house. last year and for many other years, it was held at my house, until to was almost every year and then i think everyone got sick of it.. lol, but they don't open their house then what to do. then i persuaded my dad to hold it at a chalet, but he didn't listen, so know he has to be content with no reunion dinner! i really dun mind that at all! cos im not close at all to my paternal side.

side tracking, i saw my cousin in the chinese papers! it so happened that it was the first handout of newspapers from school (this happened like last week) and i remember cooling down from morning run and felt rather uninterested in anything. then someone put the papers on my table... lo and behold! i saw my cousin chong han on the front page! whoa, i was so perked up by that. haha, he's such genius in mandrin while im the opposite and so effectively bilingual too. im envious that he's having such a good life now (eating good food and putting on lots of weight!). i noe i noe.. must study hard then can.. haiz..

however, something to look forward to is seeing samuel!!! im sure he's getting smarter than me haha and soon will be able to talk on the same wavelength as me. and he's sure taller n more handsome too! hehe. :) he's so adorable and i love him sooooo much!! let me show u some pics of him! :)

here's samuel at 2! so darn adorable!!! and note his baby fats on his face. :)

chinese new year 2007. he played his violin and i played my recorder, haha, i dun think these instruments really match but who cares, we had fun! anyway, samuel's baby fats are dimishing. :( in the background is my beloved grandma! i lub her loads too!



the most recent pic i have of him. taken last year feb. he's so toothless here, tsk tsk, so this year he sure more handsome lah, got teeth alr. haha

i love samuel. heehee.

Bored

hello blog, im so sorry for neglecting you... i noe my post here are pretty much scant and could in no time be what it is called, endangered species... lala, but i admit, im a little sick of blogging. duh, im at a loss for words whenever i want to say something, like im experiencing a drought for words in my mind... or could it be a deluge, too many things to say then dunno what to say. all i noe is that theres some disaster occuring in my brain, making me unable to do what i want. haiz... anyway, i find reversi a very good fun. it challenges ur skill.

hmmmm.... school's fine.. just yesterday, i was so weird! i just felt that everyone was not nice to me... gah, i just miss last time lah... n curriculum wise, everything is so confusing. i just wished that was less blur.

okay, im currently experience a drain of words. my eng is getting horrendous. so i shan't talk anymore.

The little nyonya : the final chapter

yipee! due to overwhelming response on the finale of little nyonya, the script writer of the little nyonya has decided to write the very final ending of the show. so will chen xi and yue niang be together??? find out this sun 9.55pm! hehe!

The little nyonya!

my da jie asked why i nvr blogged anymore.. haha, i replied that i have nothing to talk about.. gah! but then something popped into my mind! that is the little nyonya! haha, im so sad cos it has just concluded... haha, i am well aware that this is my first post for the year, but since the little nyonya is so sensational, it is worthy of the honour of being the first. furthermore, the last episode had a whopping high viewership! 33.8%, wow, that's... overwhelming! even my parents watched! that's big news cos the past show they watched was dae jang geum. haha, the little nyonya is like dae jang geum, but slightly more superficial. i doubt i will ever have a singapore drama as good in the coming years. boohoo. i really love little nyonya! :(

little nyonya is going overseas to malaysia, china and other asian countries! i'm sure it will do very well! haha, heard from my mum that she heard from her friends that when holland v went to malaysia, ppl closed show early just to catch it, lol. i think little nyonya with do the same, only more large scale! and jeanette aw is getting really famous now! her past character or mo jing jing was nice, and now she's going to capture viewer's hearts!

through this drama, i have become a huge fan of jeanette aw and dai yang tian! haha, i love them but im not crazy enough about them to hanker after them and go for roadshows or star gathering sessions, haha, im not that desperate. but they are really GOOD LOOKING and act well. as for ppl who criticize jeanette aw so much, i guess they have bias, which is not good. we have to be open minded. :)

the ending! i had guessed right, but of course it would be best if yueniang went with chen xi, instead of the almost unknown paul. haha, but i think the match is not bad lah. haha.

next up! table of glory, which is not coming anytime that soon, but i'll wait, cos i wanna see dai yang tian in action! he is so awfully cute! hehe.

okay, tv aside, school's okay... but i still look back to past times when i think i was much happier.. haiz.. i wish to say it here, but i shan't... haiz, im just so emo... :( nvm, i'll think of happier things, must be positive.

Sleepover at joanne's!

heya! im back from joanne's house! we had stay over and it was super fun! here are the details as i remember it...

yesterday, i was really thankful to God that i was well enough to go out. :) i met nat on bus 53 as we had planned and began our 'arduous journey' joanne's house, which was located in some unknown part of singapore (at least to me) and the only clue about where her house was this phrase - kranji war memorial, and i had no idea where that was too. anw, we took 53 to bishan interchange and then mrt to kranji. there, we met emelyn and took a cab to joanne's house.


in the bus! haha, good thing we sat right at the back, if not ppl might think we are crazy. lol. this pic is taken by nat. :)


the second shot, this pic by me. compare compare! nat chopped off our heads while mine is so fitting!

after a manoeuvering around in the private estate of jalans, we finally got to jalan kasau and down the lane was joanne's house, it was the only 2 storey house along the whole row of houses. joanne came out to meet us. my first impresssion of it was very positive. if i were an architect, i would say that the house has one of the most neoteric designs i've ever seen, both its interior and exterior. and if i were a normal person, the house was just plainly cool! :) i like the shades of glass and white paint! also, the spaciousness was another huge plus factor. the only thing was that the house had nothing special to surprise me, like maybe some booby trap somewhere! everyone in their family had a room for himself and there was a toilet for each room. there was even a lounge, haha, so much like some resort here.

we went up to deposit our stuff in joanne's room and then settled on the comfy sofas of the lounge (or u could call it a mini cinema in the night) and watched kit kittredge. the movie was so so, but i guess it warmed us up for the fun we were going to experience!


in the lounge! cheers gals!

emelyn! moi dear gal!

after the movie, we decided to have some hands on activies, like making konnyaku and baking. we first made konnyaku and then nat and i went online to search for cookie recipes. we finally got down to one which was oatmeal cookies! so we got cracking! cos i was one of the more experienced person there, i did more of giving instructions and ensured that every thing was going smooth. it was pretty easily to make the cookies and we were done with it by 20 mins

having a go with konnyaku! teehee and later we tried baking

while wawiting for the cookies to bake in the oven. seen here with our star game for the stay over, that is taboo! haha.

after baking, ruth had to leave, so it was only 5 of us. we sat around in the living room and played a few rounds of taboo. it was superbly fun! haha. after that, we decided to play badminton before it was dark. we made our way to the nearby park and played badminton for about half an hour. hehe, i rmb very clearly that i was mooning about the little nyonya, why yueniang married paul.. haiz, though paul is a good guy and yueniang would finally have good life with a british man (a good point that emelyn brought up), i felt that this paul guy is so unknown!!! haiz, but i guess that's better than she breaking up chen xi's marriage or staying single (i will talk more of xiao niang re later!). :) haha.

at the park, i paired with nat against joanne and emelyn for badminton while xin yi watched us. haha, she didn't want to play... :( although i was still recovering from my illness, this exercise was really good as it made me sweat! haha. i felt much fitter and better from my illness after the workout. at 8, we made our way back to the house as we wanted to shower, eat, etc and be on time to catch xiao niang re!

dinner was sumptious! i loved the chicken wings! haha! after that, xin yi left. emelyn and joanne went to shower and nat n i were preparing ourselves for xiao niang re! hehe! i watched a little of soccer, man u vs m'borough, it was pretty boring cos there was no goals. and even though i was an avid fan of man u, when 9pm came, xiao niang re took the front seat! all four of us watched the show. this episode was very nice, though i won't good into details. hehheh, even auntie hwee keng also loves the show!

after xiao niang re, we played a few smashing rounds of taboo! it was so darn hilrious. once natalie described dreams as la la land... LOL i laughed so hard that i could only rock back and forth and no word could come out of my mouth! there was another time when emelyn was describing kangeroo and she said to joanne, animal from the place she went last year (australia), hop hop, and joanne dumbly guessed grasshopper! LOL! i mean kangeroo was such and obvious answer, haha, but under pressure, all the funny expressions and answers come out, it w as pretty interesting! half way through our game, nat had to go. haiz, we were begging her to stay, but she had homework to complete, so her parents didn't allow her to sleep over. :(

oops!! u can't say that word. heehee

after nat left, jo, em and i played taiti. haha, guess what! for the first 3 rounds straight, i had 3 tis! and to prove that the cards were indeed shuffled, i got different tis each time of course. i hid my smile all the time! ho ho.

after many games, we proceeded to watch the nanny, a comedical sitcom. and when it ended, we watch a midnight movie. haiz, i forgot what it's called, but it is about racial violence and dispute. it was pretty good and after watching it, i so much appreciate the peace and harmony we have in singapore among the multicolour of races and nationalities. btw, this movie so reminded me of this poem i had read in an email my dad sent me. it is very interesting.

The best poem of 2008

This poem was nominated by UN as the best poem of 2008,

Written by an African Kid

When I born, I black

When I grow up, I black

When I go in Sun, I black

When I scared, I black

When I sick, I black

And when I die, I still black

And you white fellow

When you born, you pink

When you grow up, you white

When you go in sun, you red

When you cold, you blue

When you scared, you yellow

When you sick, you green

And when you die, you gray

And you calling me colored?

haha! back to the recount, when the movie was over, we turned in. very very tired. it was 3 am.

today, i woke up at 10.30am! that's that latest in ages! haha, we went down to prepare our breakfast! we made bombay toast cooked the sausages. on top of those, we had chengtng and tomato and cucumber and papaya. heez, it w as delicious!

brunch spread! it was really fab, our bombay toast. :)

the ppl who slept over. :)

and for the last time, we watched the beginning of the movie norbit and then em and i bade farewell to joanne. :) this stay over was truly enjoyable n i could get to know my friends better. thanks joanne of the opportunity! :)

last pic together.

em n i were fetched by auntie hwee keng to the mrt. thanks auntie! then we travelled to bishan together n then parted ways. during the journey, i learnt about her hobbies, haha, very passive but admirable ones!

at j8, i bought a copy of 8 days, haha, just to read the synopsis of the little nyonya! haha! n u noe something, (spoiler) yuzhu did have a son. and i suspect that anqi is actually yuzhu biological grand daughter! i bet!!! haha, with anqi under-the-lip-mole in the first few episodes is so like joanne peh's. that may be some coincidence, but i think it is so... furthermore, it's supposed to be a consistency mistake on the part of the make up crew cos anqi did not sport the mole past the first few episodes, but maybe they purposely did it so that people will not suspect that anqi is not yueniang biological grand daughter and yueniang supposed son actually yuzhu's, but since she's mentally unsound, yueniang took custody of him. ai yah, this is unproven theory, but i think it is so true. haha, but forgive me if it is not! hehheh! ;)

Emelyn

on tuesday night at about 11pm, i received a very pleasant surprise from emelyn. :) she had given me a note to wish me a blessed christmas! thanks so much emelyn! i love you so much (not in the wrong way of course, but as a beloved sister in Christ) your note cheered me up cos i was a little down at that moment. i was so touched that i even cried. haha, maybe i went overboard with my emotions, but i was really happy to receive ur note! i never expected that u would send me something via my sister. n u noe what, i also have something for u! it's perishable (haha, big clue here!) so i really hope we meet up soon! i really wish to see you soon and u will always be my best friend in fe along with lin yan! haha, that's a privilege! no lah, jkjk, u are so nice! :) we must keep in touch! adieu!

Secrets part 2

i have discovered a few more facts about myself and wouldn't mind making them public.. since i have nothing better to do...

1. i really like good historical dramas! what i mean by good is not those crappy ones with a bad story line and acting. (it started with huan zhu ge ge, then the duke of mount deer deer 2000, da chang jin!!! and finally now it's the little nyonya!) coincidentally, all these dramas have rather good osts, so music does play a part!

2. if ever (ever and ever) my education does not work out for me, i will consider being a chef or baker. haha, i noe that's so shocking. haha, but i have always fancied cooking and baking since young. cos i helped out my mum esp with baking and occassionally with cooking. :) but if i am given the chance, i would want to do architecture. it is more or less confirmed, unless i change my mind at the last minute.

uh oh, that's all i have. :)

Carpenters!

dearest blog, i have been having a fetish for carpenter songs. i noe they are soooo old songs. but they are soooo nice! haha! i used to only like top of the world. now i love almost their whole album! however, i think it is a compromise on my part as it is worldly music, but they are not that worldly huh... hehe, but i think some of the lyrics are very funny. like ticket to ride, and the song the end of the world, where there is like 'Why does the sun go on shining? Why does the sea rush to shore? Dont they know its the end of the world cause you dont love me anymore?... Why does my heart go on beating? Why do these eyes of mine crying? Dont they know its the end of the world? It ended when you said goodbye' awww. so touching.. haha, but the tunes are great, i just like them, they are my taste of songs, haha, it's pretty subjective. :)

Camp pics (ck)

before i say anything else, i am very puzzle why ppl are saying that im funny and cute (look at the tagboard). haiz, im not at all lah! and huiqi is a laughing freak that's why she keeps laughing! u will see later in the ck camp pics, they are vital evidences for this fact!


noelene's group (their very boring group name) and cheryl, camp mistress! and iva, camp comm!


group itch! haha. at least this group name is better. those 2 ladies smiling are isa (L) and tze yan (the unglam woman!)


my group, gluteus maximus aka backside, butt2, butt2us... nat, ur mouth a bit big huh! actually not all members are around in this shot.

cheryl and isa. :) isa, me and elisa have names that are very close. isa, lisa and elisa. yeah, i noe u can see that....

elias (same letters as elisa!) comm member too, and vice camp master

first congregation.

during workshop in the night

morning exercise! hehe, this is like in school training.

we were supposed to be jogging and look at these lazy bums!

playing h2o

being chased by noelene, did she catch me? i think not!

morning devotion! led by michael and we were facing the sea.

josiah and i, the guitarist for camp, in action

pastor goh delivering his 2nd message.

it was lunh time and i discovered this amazing tiny pineapple bud! this is kongwee's finger in comparison to the fruit, it is so cute and small!

lunch time!

my games! the plastic bag game, we can see who laughed when the bag was on the ground!

aha! look at huiqi! she is laughing with her mouth agape! this is my evidence! ;) btw, this is the fox and squirrel game! it was pretty high activity and quite tensing!

finally, tze yan and josiah were the last ones standing. josiah won! haha cos tze yan got too flustered and lost concentration

my can can game! i am briefing the campers

this is the model example of how to transport the cans. no hands and the cans must be in contact between the 2 players.

the sponge captains ball. everyone loved this game although it made them smell! egg water, can u imagine it! i wouldn't have liked it if i had to play!

prof hanko! he is a really good preacher. one of my favs!

kong wee and the other ks discussion group

prof hanko and my discussion group! he is very down to earth despite his wealth of knowledge

dinner time! itch's turn to serve!

free time in the night and a number of girls were playing mrt. and where was i?

here i am! i was with the singing group which consisted of fe ppl. :) such as sharleen, tabi, phebe, pamela, ezra, tim quek, josiah and i. later iz chan and iz tan joined for a while.

morning devotion by boaz, i m playing the guitar, obviously. and iz tan taking over josiah

prof hanko talking and wilma and elaine at the back! they were the most esteemed guest of cerc during their stay in singapore. :) sadly, they had just gone back today. :(

prof hanko! :)

the last morning devotion by marcus. the mood was rather down.

first formal shot!

second formal shot! but some people premature lah, they informal a bit alr. haha

informal shot! everyone pointing to cheryl, our star! :) aiyoh and nat 'open coffee shop'!