post-trip thoughts on sunshine coast

i'm supposed to be catching up on my work right now, but it IS a sunday... so whatever.

so after having had our fun at gold coast, we bade our little apartment goodbye, feeling rather nostalgic at that. it was around a two-hour drive up to sunshine coast, but there was some jam at some part, according to le bf. i don't know, i was fast asleep in the car for we had set out on an early journey. heehee.

our final destination was that of noosa, but along the way we stopped by peregian beach and sunshine beach. but we still felt that the best beach is still at gold coast. no wonder for its reputation. but of course, our favorite beach still is flic en flac, mauritius. or maybe it is ile aux cerf, mauritius - solely for the reason that the waters are so much calmer, more serene, that you feel at peace with yourself and you know the waves are not gonna swallow you up if you step into the waters. the waves in sunshine/gold coast are HUGE. good for surfers, but not for weak-hearted people like ourselves. we prefer diving, thanks.

we tried to find a nice japanese restaurant, stated to be at peregian beach, but after a good walk around, we decided that the restaurant no longer exists. and what did we have for lunch again? fish and chips. i am still so sick of fish and chips. chips especially. ew.

and when we got to noosa, sunshine coast, i absolutely fell in love with the place. it had that bohemian kind of feel, just very relaxed, laid-back, kind of small town, self-sufficient, and just contented. and we also read about this very nice gelato called massimo's. when i read about it, i was thinking, how nice can the gelato be? after all, we had fantabulous gelato in italy, home and land of orgasmic gelato.

and of course, i am writing this because the gelato was oh-my-goodness orgasmic! it's nice, light, and slips right down your throat. we had the macadmia and rockmelon, and le bf and i were taken aback by both flavors equally. in total, in the one full day we spent in sunshine coast, we had 5 cups of gelato (between us of course). we had it for pre-dinner, sitting by the beach and enjoying the atmosphere of people playing and the scenery. we had it for breakfast on our last day in sunshine coast, which was also our last day in australia... just holding our gelato, and strolling down the beach.

and of course, dinner on our last night was at this cozy little restaurant (also by recommendation) overlooking the beach, by the sunset. as we got to the restaurant early, we had pre-dinner drinks, and when the sun went down, dinner was served. all in all, a perfect ending to our trip.

anyhow, as we stayed at sheraton noosa, where there was free internet usage at the business centre, le bf and i took the time to catch up a bit with our normal life. and that's where i checked my gmail and saw emirates offering us an upgrade to biz class for 150 aud (per seat of cos.) and we totally jumped at the offer. okay well, i totally jumped at the offer, because i knew for sure that it was a bloody good deal. and le bf TRUSTED my judgment. so we upgraded ourselves, which was a very good decision, for i had dreaded the red-eye flight back to sg. plus, the flight was 2.40 am in the morning (aussie time), and we would have spent the entire day out having checked out of the hotel by 12 noon, and the business lounge would be perfect to freshen up. and i was not wrong at all. more on that later.

on our last and final day, we took a VERY SLOW drive back to brisbane airport. having had our final cup of gelato, we took a final stroll down the streets of noosa, packed our bags, and checked out of the very nice sheraton noosa (albeit a little old). totally loved the in-suite bathtub jacuzzi, resting our very sore feet in the hot bubbly water. -loves-

along the way back, we stopped by at the Big Pineapple. and this is where our trusty little GPS friend failed us and brought us to an empty piece of land. well, the 2nd search result by our GPS brought us to the right Big Pineapple, but not before getting many curses from us. and the Big Pineapple, well, nothing more than a big pineapple (literally) and a pineapple plantation. there after we decided to head over to sunshine plaza - this shopping mall built over the river. it was huge and very different kind of concept and feel from the usual shopping malls. think something like robertson quay with a huge mall and shops along the singapore river. having expended quite a bit of our budget at harbortown (fabulous factory outlet shopping less my fave coach), we curbed our shopping bug (or rather i did) and decided that we should watch transformers again! for just the sake of it. and we loved every bit of it. again. even though the tickets were exorbitantly expensive. (15.50 aud per pax!)

so that was our last activity in australia, and we headed back in a night drive back to brisbane airport, where we bade our car, something that was so important to us during our trip, farewell and returned to avis, in good condition no less.

and the lounge was just a treat of us, as we just relaxed after a long day. the shower facilities were more than decent but not extravagant, and a hot shower is always more than welcomed. the food was also decent, and i was glad i took supper for the in-flight food was.... never mind. surprisingly, i gave alcohol a miss on this flight, much to le bf's surprise. my reason for that: 1) not flying economy. 2) not on business trip. both of which are stressful activities. plus, the selection of alcohol just was not there.

i must say though, even as welcomed as this treat was, the experience of flying business class on emirates and that of sq is completely different. well, yes, the hardware of both airlines are definitely comparable. for some reason, i prefer the IFE on emirates than sq, even though i can't really say why. but in terms of software (and i do mean people relations), there is no competition at all. and the selection of food and beverages (and of course alcohol) was severely lacking on emirates. so yes, that really explains the premium that sq charges. i could go on forever, but i won't bore you to death.

all in all, i managed a good sleep on the flight back, and as usual was rudely awaken (by le bf) to get up and eat breakfast (yucks), and it was back to home sweet home (where i was knocked out for the entire afternoon, napping from 12 noon and waking up thinking it was only 2 pm, getting a shock seeing the time at 5 pm.)

and then, what could be better than receiving welcome home flowers?


absolutely love the new design of this bouquet. it's in the shape of a heart... so pretty!

i might have missed out some thoughts, which of course, will be added later on. for now, i'm out!

iPhone madness

blogging this from my newly-bought iPhone..

so le bf and I crazily spent a good part of our saturday queuing up for the iPhone. and now we are both very excited and intrigued with our new babies. was it worth the wait??? well... having the iPhone now certainly feels damn good... so let's just leave it as that. shall continue on the exploration.

laters pple!

bonus

the best part of getting a bonus is not the fact that you see a delightfully fat paycheck sitting in your bank, although yes, that feels pretty damn awesome.

but really, the best part of getting a bonus is sharing it with family. to me, it is especially delightful, and you will know why i say this later on. but really, the joy of sharing and seeing the surprise and delight on the faces of your loved ones, it's a sense of happiness mixed with pride for both the giver and the receiver.

so le bf and i took his family out to dinner (at ah yat no less), stuffed our faces till we were too full to even have any chili crab when it finally came. and after the dinner, le bf's mom tried to pay us back for the dinner, even though it was already explicitly mentioned that it would be OUR treat. and it's just a nice fuzzy feeling when she said that us youngsters should save more money.

and calling the mothership early in the morning to tell her of her present sitting in her bank account... and getting the same message that we should save our money.

and attempting to give my aunt some, which she just refused to take and only allowed for a small token, just for me to express my appreciation.

really, the joy of something good is only felt truly when it is shared, and it is really just especially heartwarming when the elders all 'pretend' to accept your gift outwardly, but inwardly try to give you back some. because they know that the money is hard-earned. and because they know that real joy lies not in receiving the gift, but knowing that your child has grown up and capable and is able to provide not just for themselves, but for the family as well.

and that is why i feel extremely blessed.

post-trip thoughts on gold coast

so with the advancement of technology, facebook seems to have replaced blogspot in terms of photos, so whoever wants photos, please head over to facebook for your viewing pleasure. and this place shall be reserved for the more in-depth albeit private thoughts, not meant to be shared by the facebook space.

on the whole, it was a very good and relaxing trip - completely what a holiday should be like. no rush, plenty of rest, good fun, sights and scenery, basically just to get away, perhaps make belief that there is life outside of working, to recharge so that you won't burn out. and the best part of this holiday is the make belief that we were back to our mauritius lifestyle, albeit a short-lived one.

our apartment in gold coast, broadbeach, was simply fabulous. we were informed that we were upgraded to the one-bedroom suite upon check-in, and it was really just awesome. instantly, we were transported back to our mauritius life - the fantastic view from the balcony, the weather, the sunrise/sunsets, the nice kitchen and bathroom and just slacking in front of the television channel surfing. it was like playing house all over again and we simply loved every bit of it. pacific fair was just opposite of our place and well within walking distance. but le bf insisted that it is really too far and we must drive there, solely for the fact that we had rented a car. and what did pacific fair have????

KRISPY KREME!!!

i am so glad that i have turned le bf into a krispy kreme lover! -dances around in joy- orgasms are always better when shared. oh, krispy kreme with coffee.... -melts away-

the beach was just a very quick walk across the road, and the sunset was just beautiful. the sand nice and soft, the waves huge and intimidating, getting my jeans wet for i hadn't seen the wave sneaking up on me. but it was good fun as le bf laughed at me as i tried to dodge the wave by trying to outrun it. we strolled till the sun set before we headed home for le bf to whip up dinner for us.

previously when we traveled overseas as students, we'd only limit ourselves to having one good (usually defined by expensive) dinner. but on this trip, we seemed to have countless meals at restaurants which caught our fancy, guided by recommendations of magazines, books or heresay. the oysters tops the list of our fave food over there, and it's really a welcomed relief from the overdose of fish and chips and more chips and more more more chips. but really, i think i'm really just appreciating my heritage and i still heart asian food bestest. a few days away from home and i was simply craving for something soupy. like, ramen soup, or just plain clear soup. so that's why when we came back, i whipped up two pots of chinese herbal soup for the family and le bf, and completely OD-ed on it.

there was this restaurant we dined at on the first night of our stay in gold coast, but the name has just slipped my mind. the salad i had was just simply perfect - avocados, smoked salmon, fresh tiger prawn, fresh oysters with tossed greens. and i couldn't finish it. le bf had the poached salmon with rocket (love rockets!), and that was really good too. all that washed down with a beer. just the perfect restaurant, near the beach, good service, a great experience altogether. we had planned on going back on the last night of our stay. unfortunately, we overestimated on the groceries and that night was basically finishing up all the left-overs before our drive-up to sunshine coast the next day.

the worlds - namely seaworld and movieworld - were pretty much a disappointment. but, le bf was very thrilled to meet his all-time fave, bugs bunny. as for me, i was super delighted on taking pictures with tweety, twice over. as we were queuing up to pay for our purchases (namely a bugs head cushion and a tweety head cushion), the guy tapped me and said, 'tweety's over there.' and so we went over to take a few pictures with tweety. and tweety saw le bf holding onto the tweety head cushion, grabbed it from le bf and held it as we took pictures together. uber cute and just reinforced my love for tweety.

on the whole, even though we were entertained at both worlds, we couldn't help but make the comparison to disney. and really, disney does it so much better - in terms of entertainment, atmosphere and basically having a magical experience. so we decided to ditch dreamworld and save the money to enable us to continue on to our disneyworld dream.

so that was pretty much my experience with gold coast. the last i was there was when i was 9 years old and i really cannot remember much of it. but when i stepped into pacific fair, i told le bf, 'i've been here before. this place looks so familiar.' and lo and behold, when we reached singapore, i turned the photo albums and there it was - pacific fair. amazing depths our memories can hold.

that's all i can think of for now. next up, my experience at sunshine coast where we fell in love with the delicious gelato.

g'nite pple!

the Michael Jackson trip

and so i'm back!!!

and yes, as you can see from the title, i will term this trip the Michael Jackson trip - solely for the reason that right from the beginning of the trip to the end of the day, everyday we would hear on the news (Sky News, CNN, whatever local channels) news about Michael Jackson and we were never in any lack whatsoever of the timely updates/gossips. don't get me wrong. i absolutely ADORE (and still adoring) Michael Jackson. i think he's the best dancer ever (not like some wannabe dancer who thinks ballet can be picked up if done intensively. get over yourself already. seriously.) and i love love love his songs. every time i hear 'Smooth Criminal' it always brings back very fun memories (aliP and june should know why), every time i watch his mtv 'Thriller' - something i find oh-so-familiar... (hmmm...) it's really a pity that he couldn't fulfill the final showdown. that would have been awesome and fascinating, not that i had even a millionth chance of going.

but enough on that already. so ANYWAY, my trip was AWESOME. and it ended with a bang by being offered to upgrade to business class, using the full facilities of the lounge and just enjoying business class WITHOUT the business travel for once! more on that later.

i must say, australia just doesn't excite. but other than that, it was a nice, relaxing self-driven trip, just spending quality time together. our service apartment in gold coast was absolutely just lovely. le bf and i had tons of fun playing house. sunshine coast was absolutely just adorable, strolling along the beaches eating our stunningly delicious gelato...

oh i could go on forever, but i really need to repack my life. seriously. the thing i hate most after packing? unpacking. and coming home to seeing 5 new credit cards waiting for you. okay i know. seriously getting out of hand. i just find it much easier to hear the person say, 'we're sending you a credit card with 5 years of annual membership free. you don't need to submit any forms. just mail back a copy of the brochure that we're mailing to you, that's all.'

and that's how i ended up with 5. whatever. still earning the same amount, so i am still not rich.

and i must SO BITCH because i am SO ANGRY that they reduced the pass discount for SK-II from 20% to 10%. -hurls a stream of vulgarities too explicit to be posted- whatever. i am looking for alternative sources of miracle potions. so you can take your discount and STUFF IT IN YOUR FACE. so there.

anyway, i will be back, when i'm finally done with whatever i need to do...

completely stoked

that i am finally going for my holiday. the past few days have been whirlwind and i'm just glad i got past it... first.

anyhow, it's flying off to brissie this afternoon, so what the hell! but not before receiving some good news first in the terms of monetary rewards (now i'm all geared up for factory outlets!). so what else could be better?

hmm... like catching the transformers: revenge of the fallen, before you fly off?

all in all, it was a real treat for transformers fans, so many transforming scenes that you're completely just either fascinated or plain bewildered, so many brilliantly choreographed fighting scenes, various formations of planes, vessels and cars (fabulous advertising done for chevy) and all with plot. but well, about the plot... never mind.

well worth the 2-year wait of the visual feast and effects. bumblebee still ranks top for me, and i really do love the twins as well, despite all the negative reviews of them (which are completely uncalled for anyway...) and always always fascinated as ever with all the transforming. a bit too much, but better more than less. you come out of the movie theater, feeling that your money's been completely worth it, not because the movie was fabulous, but because of all those sequences and effects.

so there you have it. i loved it! i don't know about you. but i will so definitely get the dvd.

i'm out! be good people!

reeling

from the bad weekend. i absofuckinglutely hate it when people don't give due respect. i hate it when people don't think of the big picture. i hate it when people don't think about the consequence of their actions. i really really hate it when people don't know their placings.

and the thing i hate the most is, knowing the consequences, knowing the placings, knowing the end-result, and yet still committing the error.

does that make it any better?

whatever. fuck you. or maybe, you don't ever deserve to be fucked.

little enjoyments in life

like buying a full apple strudel back for the family and boyfriend... just because you saw it and wanted to.

like spending the entire afternoon till evening till it's raining, cutting and dyeing your hair. just for that extra special oomph effect. red is still the current fave and will be for a long time to come. and what an apt way to end the week, after seeing red for a good part of it.

like enjoying a morning dim sum session with star team (less von because she had to be the maria for the day...)

like seeing the heineken ad (the one with the men in their heineken storeroom out-screaming the women in their walk-in wardrobe) and still smirking at the underlying sarcasm portrayed by the men in the ad.

that aside, this week saw me confronting my nemesis, coming to terms with it and glad that i am able to convince, not only myself, but also of others, that the 30k was more than worth the experience - the sort of experience that you cannot get even if you wanted to pay the money for, the sort of experience that you cannot get even if you wanted to, even if you had 2 or 6 or 10 years ahead of me. because that is the sort of experience that carves out the person that you are, like the phoenix that rises out of the flames to prove its worth. and even if i had the power to turn back time, to give myself a choice of whether to make it happen again, i would. painful as it would have to be, that is the sort of experience that i am proud to say that i have, that no one else, even if put into the same situation, would have been able to derive, to make me the person that i am. and for that i deserve to be proud.

i've been told, over and over again, that i sound so much more matured than my age. sometimes, i mistake this as people trying to say that i look more matured than my age, which of course, is a bloody insult. but after clarification, they really do mean that i think more maturely. and i really do take it as a compliment. because that is something that even with 60k, you cannot buy it. you can say that it made me a more cynical, jaded person. but i would very much rather be jaded and cynical rather than deluded or just simply ignorant.

and funnily enough, this afternoon whilst with my fave stylist, flipping through magazine after magazine flippantly, i chanced across the horoscope section and quite accurately (for once) my horoscope said this month would see people putting me down, but all i have to do is to let my confidence shine through to prove the naysayers wrong.

just a sidenote to say that i do not believe in horoscopes, and this is what i call a pure coincidence. because i have flipped through countless horoscopes and they have always been horribly inaccurate. and i really do believe that such horoscopes in magazines are just randomly written by some really bored writer who didn't manage to impress the editors and hence condemned to write such boringly random stuff. so anyway...

confidence? never been told that i had lack of any to begin with. so, just watch.

finding my true love....

tonight was the night. the one night i had envisioned for a long long time to come. a night filled with multiple orgasms, going back to the love that i had left for a while.

what were you thinking?

or if you know me well enough by now, you would know that i am either talking about shoes or food. i can't really remember anything else i associate orgasms with other than shoes and food...

so tonight was dinner at jurong hill!!! ohhhh how the teppanyaki beef melted in my mouth... we had a huge variety of food - shitake mushrooms, king prawn, new zealand beef, soft-shell crab, teriyaki chicken, salmon... omg... I DIDN'T REALIZE I ATE THAT MUCH!!! and to top it off, mango pudding!

le bf's entire family clan took up more than half the teppanyaki area, and it was a good night of friendly family banters, listening to good old stories (heard for the nth time), and just soaking up the relaxing atmosphere.

i'm feeling so fricking fat right now, bloated and all, but i still maintain it was well-worth all the calories and light lunches for the next few days.

it was a good mid-week break. sometimes, it is good to put your foot down and assert your night's off. but of course, i do think i more than make up for it at all other times.

i can still feel the food trying to get digested in me. -burp-

you know...

that age is catching up on you when all you miss is two precious hours of sleep and your skin condition is less than perfect. and then throw in a bad hair day. but i quote biscuit when i say, every glam queen has her off day. so be it.

that someone told me, you look really good playing pool... but you're really lousy at it. *ouch* but i plead 10 years of rust.

that i really am very competitive. and if someone tells me that i cannot lose, i will do everything to make sure that i won't. but that still doesn't mean that i won't lose. comments such as, 'claire this is so not your standard' or 'claire you better win xxx' drives me crazy, gives me the adrenaline rush that pushes me over the edge to ensure that success is secured.

that i am really looking forward to my next holiday. which is happening in less than 23 days' time.

that i really cannot stand people who are posers. really really really. stop it.

that subconscious planning is more important than you really give it props for. i call it subconscious because if your plan doesn't really make it through, at least you can console yourself that you didn't really have it planned. but if it really works out, and you know it's the way that you planned it out in your head without saying it aloud, that's what i call successful subconscious planning.

that for some reason, i am craving for black pepper crab now.

that i am extremely jubilant that i made it home just before complete darkness today - for which i tribute this entry to.

nugget of wisdom - 1

'hard work will never kill you. politics will.'

-_-

and that title completely represents how i am currently feeling.

glad to just have got past this taxing week once again, gently reminding me that it is time for my holiday to take place - which i am glad that it is taking place in a month's time. now, just a reminder to plan and book. i'm usually really not a last minute planner. but i usually am a really great planner, so i am not too worried.

that aside, new blog layout! as they always say, change is the only constant. it really is summer now and winter ought to be forgotten until december comes. or until i get to brissie. the new picture is taken atop empire state building, overlooking the ever fabulous nyc in the sunset. photo credits to jw, who has just returned from her trip there, and reminding me ever so much that it is time to revisit the place which i will always hold fondly in my heart.

for now, i will be content to dream.

fantabulous weekend!

after having a stressful two weeks (and it just keeps getting more stressful doesn't it...), it was a well-deserved respite, brief nonetheless but still respite, from the accumulated stress over the weeks. it was off to batam, fast becoming our yearly pilgrimmage now, staying at our all-time fave harris resort, and going for the ever fabulous THREE hour spa!

all in all, a great weekend!

the highlight of the trip: SPA. it was orgasmically wonderful. we were given our hut overlooking the sea, and by the end of our massage, as we soaked in the tub, jacuzzi and all with plenty of bubbles (nearly allowing us to play hide and seek), watching the sunset over the sea, sipping my all-time favourite ginger tea.

other than that, it was pretty much eating and sleeping, watching teevee as manchester united won the premier league cup for the 19th time, and 3rd time in a row.

so that was my boring but really good weekend. i feel all recharged and ready to take on the world once more.

tomorrow i will sing a different song, but for now, it is bring it on!!!

tired

what is the point of having a public holiday extended weekend, when you have to work 17 hours the day before... which is effectively two working days? it was another complete mad rush and i was constantly on my toes trying to keep my mind fresh, without realizing that i had one krispy kreme, one can of root beer, and then 4 slices of pizza from pizza hut - which i might add, was LATE by half an hour (waiting time was a total of 1 h 40 min), the delivery man forgot his garlic bread, and the 'hot' sticker on our pizza was NOT HOT. and no, our pizza was not free.

and then when we called to complain, the operator said the restaurant manager will call us back. and he/she did not!

but we were too caught up to even remember that and by 1 am, were clamoring to get out of the damn office.

and when i finally hit the sack, my head was spinning and i was out for the next 12 hours.

and that's how i spent my public holiday. half-gone.

BNE... here i come!

today, i felt like an idiot. i was so excitedly tired booking my BNE tickets that i missed out one number of le bf's passport number. so now i have got to call the office up to make amendments.

but still!!!

i'm going to brisbane!! like... finally.

and no, i am not using my free ticket. because emirates prices are SO BLOODY CHEAP! 427 sgd per pax!

it's ridiculous i tell you. last year i was paying close to 700 sgd for sin-tpe on sq. and the flight time is 2 hours shorter.

i'm really looking forward to my long getaway. but for now, i'm really looking forward to my spa getaway in may - THREE hours of spa plus free usage of spa facilities, one night's stay, breakfast and lunch included, ferry tickets and a free bowling game thrown in. all the above for just 150 sgd. amazing huh.

i need to melt away into nothingness.

g'nite world.

this weekend saw jw and i at dive expo@keppel bay, shopping around for dive packages, looking at potential places to go to keep up the dive hobby, reminiscing on the fact that i wouldn't have to go through this if we had clear blue seas with marine life aplenty and reefs that don't look like alien formations. but of course, all that comes with a price, depending on how you look at it.

and at the same time there was boat asia taking place. for some reason, we had to walk through the boat asia exhibition, where there were many luxury yachts on display - the real deal, not replicas. it was truly amazing. the boats, just gleaming right smack in the middle of the exhibition, seemingly giving off this haughty stance, subtly saying, 'i am so up-market.'

but in my mind, i was thinking of the motion sickness that i would experience in the cabin below, the stink of the engine oil as the engine roars to a start, the erosion that will take place over time with the constant sea water exposure. okay my imagination ran a bit wild.

i went back and told le bf of the luxurious yachts, to which he said, 'okay we sell off our flat and we live on the yacht ok?'

haha. no way. i'd rather have a private jet please thank you very much.

so back to dive expo, well, the possibilities of places to dive at widen, yet again, from the throes of christmas island to the renown sipadan. but we have yet to make the decision. time and cost are both factors that, as usual, constrain our decision-making process. but we shall perservere on to upkeep our diving streak.

lesson i have learnt this week

is that karma is a the biggest bitch of all.

sometimes, you really need not wish the worst upon the people who have brought grievances to your life, plotting revenge so that the other person knows exactly how you feel, harboring anger on the way in which things were done which were not to yours, or anyone's, liking.

because karma is really the biggest bitch of all. twice over i might say.

at this time i am reminded of this proverb (did i ever mention that i love proverbs?):

he who laughs last laughs best.

so i shall save my laugh for the very last.

and also, i love idioms, so here's one too, in line with the moral of today's story:

pride comes before a fall.

a timely reminder to myself.

my day off

i decided that my soul needs its time to recuperate from the harshness of my daily life. it's turning into a ritual-like quarterly activity now, i realized.. but i really do enjoy breaks like these.

sitting in mccafe at west coast park, sipping my cappuccino, watching le bf in front of me mugging hard for his upcoming cpa, alternating between reading the world is flat by thomas friedman, asian geographic and surfing on my handphone. the girl in front of me is on her laptop, surfing jobsdb, a few tables of muggers, some retirees just reading newspapers..

in essence making me thankful for this mini break away from work, enjoying the non-crowded weekday lull periods.

i shall get back to my reading. xoxoxo

sleepy on a saturday night

feeling a bit adverse to the beeping of my work phone these days. can't signal much good news now, can it?

it's been a rather interesting week. work has been very immersive, and that is in fact a very mild way of putting it. it seemed like a mad rush from the start to the end, which culminated to a rather okay ending, as i may put it.

sometimes you feel that you're being put in the oven, being in the heat of things (which is not necessarily a bad thing i may say), you fail to see the perspective of things, but rather concentrate on wiping off your perspiration and trying hard to cool things down, when in essence, what you shud be doing it heading for a cool drink, relax yourself, chill your mind and you will realize that things will either get better or smoothen out on its own.

to put it simply, things will work out on its own, as long as you have it all planned. plan a, plan b, plan c, plan a1, a2, a3, b1, b2, b3 etc.

so in this week, i've found out that armani at hilton and forum closes at 7 pm, while the taka one opens till 9.30 pm. armani takes at least 1 week to do alterations for suits. hugo boss at taka opens till 9.15pm and the fastest pants alterations can be done by 12 pm the following day, while jackets take at least 2 - 3 days.

amazing what my job entails huh...

and also, i found out that british airways, with its strong reputation for losing luggage especially going through heathrow airport, has a policy of paying out only S$230 for each lost luggage. but when pushed, can go up to S$1200. but still, having known that, i would still opt not to check in any luggage, especially when transiting through ANY london airport.

i'm out for supper. laters pple.

jaded.

at some point in time you will start to feel jaded and tired and basically everything that you looked forward to will slowly start to fade away into the far distance until you cannot remember what you looked forward to in the first place.

at some point in time you will need to reevaluate why you put yourself through all of it, to remind yourself once again what is the whole point.

sometimes you just need to shut your mind off and do what you're just supposed to do. because smetimes, thinking and feeling too much will just kill.

jw and i were talking about traveling, and i remembered i kept a personal e-diary in the early days of mauritius. so i decided to delve into my laptop (the same one i brought to mauritius) to look for the personal diary. and i found this entry that i had typed on word, ready to be posted on my blog when our internet in the little apartment was set up. but i guess i forgot to post it up on my blog when my internet was up, because there was just too much to blog about then. so here it is now, two years late, but i can still sense the joy and ecstasy bursting from within...

3rd August 2006

I'M IN MAURITIUS and LOVIN' IT!

the weather here is fantastic. constant air-conditioning, but does get a bit chilly at nights though.

i managed to get a great apartment with a great view. out of my balcony, i see this great big hill that puts bukit timah (mole)hill to shame. and when evenings come, i can see the sun setting. a very spectacular view. the apartment is very nice and spacious. 3 bedrooms, 1 living and 1 dining room, joined together, kitchen and two bathrooms. and definitely room for people who want to come visit mauritius to come stay with me! i charge 20 sgd a nite! i might waiver the charge for great friends though.. hahaha. no, seriously, if you're interested to come to mauritius, now would be a great time. lodging is FREE! just tell me the dates so there won't be a jam-up in the apartment.

i've been up to my neck with all the administrative and paperwork and settling down. spending quite a bit of money and feeling damn bad towards the mothership. i'm just glad and thankful that she's so supportive of my decisions and all she wants of me is to be a good daughter and study hard. -sigh- i miss her already.

but to me, i must say that the money is really worth the experience. there's nothing like going overseas, getting thrown out of your comfort zone, missing familiarities blah blah blah. it's just a very different experience, and i might say, essential experience. i think it really makes you think and behave like a responsible adult. you really have to do everything yourself, watch your own back, learn to discern the friendlies from the untrustworthies, be on the constant look-out. i admit sometimes i do get scared, so i'm very thankful that le boyfriend and jiawen is with me. but like i said, i think it’s really very much different than staying in sg, where your parents are close by and you can just rely on them to help you out in situations. wheras when you’re overseas, your parents are not there to help you, you really need to just help yourself, if not no one will.

so we went down the the university yesterday to settle all the admin work. beautiful campus! very much like our old campus, just a bit older and worn out and bigger, but very nice all the same. oh oh, and we saw a HUGE rainbow on our way there and back. you can imagine the look of glee and delight on mine and jiawen's face when we saw the rainbow and started snapping multiple pictures of it. rainbows here are very common. remember my squirrel entry sometime back, on how i squealed when i saw squirrels in new york? well... heh. you can't blame me cos there are hardly ANY rainbows in singapore. which reminds me, on my way back from bangkok the last trip, i saw a rainbow below the plane, but le boyfriend was too slow in taking out his camera and by the time he did, we flew past it already. -shakes head- not star team material lah...

right now, we're all still trying to adjust to mauritius time. it's 4 hours behind singapore, so we go to bed at 10 pm here (which is 2 am sg time) and wake up at 7 am here (11 am sg time). the town i'm staying in is called quatre bornes. which means four boundaries in english. oh, the people here speak french. supermarket labels are in french. so i expect myself to speak colloquially by the time i leave this place. the problem is, people understand english too. so i just reply 'hello' when they say 'bonjour' to me, so they'll start speaking to me in english. so there's less motivation to learn to speak it. my apartment is about 5 minutes from school, and very accessible by bus. we're still a little confused by the bus routes, but anyhow, when in doubt, we just ask. though sometimes we get differing responses from people...

oh, the flight here was fine. i think i'm born to fly business class. hahaha. okay, so i didn't even need ANY medication or wristbands to curb my motion sickness, and enjoying my smoked salmon (and jiawen's as well) and drinking white wine and champagne. i thought i was going to get motion sickness from eating too much. but all i did was lower the back of my seat, stretch out my legs, and rested a bit, and i was fine. and i could even watch a movie without feeling sick. i think i don't suffer from motion sickness when i fly. i suffer from economy syndrome. hahaha.

all in all, i'm very thankful that we managed to find and move into an nice apartment. although it's a little over our budget, but it's a very secure place in a nice town. so far, haven't done any sightseeing. just waiting to sort out bits and pieces of details before we start exploring the island. like right now, i'm stuck at the apartment cos we're waiting for them to deliver the bed and wardrobes. and then we need to set up the internet. and the things to do just keeps coming in. good thing we came slightly early. although, orientation is just HALF A DAY. so that leaves us almost the entire of next week to go around the island. can't wait to explore other parts, hopefully climb up some of the hills. oh, it rains occasionally here, but the rain is fine like mist, and it's always just passing showers. very nice, but when it gets too heavy, you freeze up into an ice cube.

okay, that's all for now! and oh, if you didn't already notice, i'm just typing this without internet, so it's a bit backdated.

of ironies

feeling extremely exhausted and quite thankful for the long weekend around the corner. it's the only thing that keeps me going this week. yet at the same time, there is just so so so so so much to be done that four days this week is just not sufficient. but i know my limits and i know that i am reaching them very soon. how ironic.

actually, i just want to say that i really do not envy the job of an auditor. today at lunch, i gave this really pained smile to one of the auditors. pained because i felt like i could not genuinely smile, knowing that i have been mean and difficult in the recent past. pained because i felt a twinge of sympathy. after all, we are just doing our jobs and they theirs.

but it really really irks me that there are already a gazillion and one things to do, that were due yesterday mind you, and then it just adds on to the piling work, which you know has no value add to you anyway. and you just get really frustrated because as much as you can hinder the process, you can't stop them from doing their job. since effectively, you're paying for it anyway. so ironic.

some time back, someone said, 'cutting the nose to spite the face'. not the first time i've heard of this proverb. but my colleagues burst out laughing on hearing it. so we ended up spending the next 5 minutes of the meeting wiki-ing for the origin behind the saying - which i must say was quite a disappointing and uninteresting origin. essentially it means that you shouldn't do something hurtful just to prove your point, and end up hurting yourself. seems ironic.

oh well. such is life.

i need a holiday

i never knew that having a free ticket at hand could be such a stressful event. i know not what to do with it and i know not where to go. there are just so many places that i would like to go.

should i revisit the big apple? watching confessions of a shopaholic last night has caused the itch to want to walk the streets of manhattan to discover if the mannequins really do wave and wink at you, enticing you to buy that oh-so-delicious pair of shoes.

should i do tour de europe once again? having been reminded of my europe trip, thinking back to the orgasmic poyet chocolate, strolling down lac leman, bitching about italian trains, falling in love with vatican, venice and vevey, eating msg-laden pseudo chinese food in the streets of paris, oh i could just go on and on and on forever. is it time to fulfill the promise of benelux in 5 years?

should i go to tokyo? oh those onsens. don't even get me started.

or fukuoka? the more rural, rustic and relaxing side of japan - something which i deeply appreciate and enjoy.

is it time to revisit brisbane? it's been so long since i was last there. maybe it is time to pay dear bugs a visit. enough of disney for the time being. oh i remember the beaches of gold coast. the waves scared me and the wind blew me away. and i loved it.

how about new zealand? hearing about le bf chasing bunnies and just laying down in the green green grass... that is what i call a holiday.

see my dilemma now?

and these are the kinds of stressful things that i should have more of in my life.

earth hour?

yeah i did my part alright. i slept right through it.

i realized that weekends are getting more and more obscure in my life. if not engulfed (no pun intended) by work, it is used to heal illnesses.

i tell you, i am really getting very irritated with my own health. just as i thought i was on the road to recovery, trying to self-heal without the external help of meds and supplements (trying not to rely on them too much), i suffer a relapse, which saw me at the doctor's on friday. and even with the doctor's insistence that i take the day off, i refused the mc and went back to work, with all sorts of meds to take for the day and the night.

i'm already basking in my amazement that i refused the mc. second time in a row that i refused the mc. this was so unheard of in my previous job. and as much as i disagreed with the course, 'management of people at work' during my uni days, i must say that the one and only thing that i think is applicable is the motivational theory.

but well, that aside, i do think that my immunity system is building up on its own. as it is, i'm already starting to fall ill less easily and less times over a certain given period. and of course, i do maintain healthy eating, as and when possible.

oh well. whatever. at the very least, i did manage to catch up on sleep (always the recurring trend these weekends). there's always the next weekend to plan and look forward to. and now going to enjoy what's left of it.

laters people.

1

countless weekends burnt, sleeping hours lost, stress inflicted, wrinkles deepened...

all for this.

okay. yes. there is satisfaction. -smiles broadly-

at mid-week

thankful for the fact that this is one of the 'slower' weeks. i enjoy that i am leaving before sunset.

it is nice to hear some form of concern from friends.

'claire, i always worry about you. your work... so stressful... your health....'

-touched-

in an amazing feat, i managed to get out of the sickly feeling of having the flu. right now i'm in the getting well stage, so it's all good.

i amaze myself sometimes. i like the fact that there is motivation to keep pushing myself, to want more, to achieve more, to gopherit and enjoy not only the challenge, but also marvel at the outcome of it.

when life is good, life is good. but sometimes, out of the blue, something just has to happen to catch you offguard. at the end of it all, you just hope for a rainbow.

time check!

and yet another week flies by.

sometimes, we immerse ourselves so deep that we fail to realize that time has just passed us by. a quarter of this year is gone. and what have we achieved so far? other than job achievements, that is. other than the fact that every (available) weekend is spent doing facials and catching up on sleep to cancel out all the bad debts accumulated over the week, and spending quality me-time, bf-time, family-time. no no, don't get me wrong here. i do enjoy my 'rituals'. in fact, i am thankful for just the fact that i am able to perform my weekend 'rituals'.

my point here is that, it's already going to be APRIL??

-hyperventilates-

where did all that time go to? seriously? i mean, yes, there was hokkaido (still stuck there really) and then hong kong.. and it's already april? that is like one quarter of the year gone by. i really need to stop running. the most ironic thing is that, you're expected to run the fastest because of your young age. the thing is, only when you've passed your golden years (which essentially i am having mine now!!) that you start to slow down and enjoy life and fruit of your labor.

NONONONO. i will not accept that. i want to enjoy each moment as it is.

the funny thing is, when i was back in school, i thought that the next 20 to 30 years will fly by in a blur, just going through the motions of life, and then *BAM*, you're into retirement and start to enjoy life again. but now being in the supposed worst stage of your life (you're supporting the economy, society treats you the worst, you start to have dependents instead of being one yourself, etc.), i really really want to just enjoy the time as well.

to be thankful for everything that i have. the enjoy every moment as it is.

my dubai-bahrain experience

finally, i get a saturday of peace!

not that i enjoy having saturday nights of peace, but it is nice once in a while, to sit back and relax, catch up on reading, mindless surfing, chatting up with people, and basically, just relaxing. but only once in a while. i do enjoy my usual saturday nights a bit more.

so moving on, with my recent trip to the middle east, i do have thoughts to blog about. well, right now, it's still a feeling of disequilibrium. somehow because the appearance of the place doesn't quite match the feeling that i had when i was there. i'll try to explain that as we go along.

on a lighter note, when i reached bahrain, or in this case, the full name is Kingdom of Bahrain (sounds grand), as it was a public holiday and we had no meetings arranged (no i still had to work till 2 am sg time), we headed out to the mall to get our lunch and some groceries. and as i walked through the mall into the food court, i gasped and did a double-take. and my boss looked at me and thought i went crazy. but it was because i saw...

OMG OMG OMG!! KRISPY KREME!!! i was SO HAPPY! i knew that immediately i would have to buy them! omg the feeling of seeing and being so close to krispy kreme was orgasmic enough. i can just feel the donut melting in my mouth now...

so happy with my purchase of krispy kreme!!!!

yes, i only (repeat: ONLY) bought 4. because i knew that i couldn't finish them. the girl at the store was so nice. she tried to get me to buy a dozen, but i knew it would be impossible to finish (1 donut is about 25o kcal. so if i bought a dozen, that would be 3000 kcal worth of donuts!) but i told her that i was gonna fly off on wednesday and there was no way i would be able to finish them. she was asked me where i was from, and i told her that i was from singapore and she nodded her head, impressed.

and when i headed back to my hotel, i made a cup of coffee, sat back and enjoyed my krispy kreme with coffee. ultimate heaven. the simple pleasures of life.

so that was my krispy kreme experience in bahrain.

moving back to my trip, i took the red eye out of singapore to dubai. did i mention, i hate taking red eyes? touching down in dubai, it was 3 am in the morning (time difference between singapore and dubai is 4 hour difference, sg ahead) and i was groggy from being awoken for my breakfast. thank goodness the hotel gave us a super early check-in with no extra charge, and even gave us an upgrade because they had no studio apartments available at our check-in time. so we got the one bedroom apartments, which was HUGE. there was a full kitchen, complete with microwave, pots and pans and cutlery! and then moving in was the living and dining area. there was a utility room where the washing machine was, and another room with the ironing board, and another toilet on the outside. and then there was my room of the night. there was so much space, i felt a bit freaked out and confined myself to the comforts of my room, for that was more than enough space for me. and thereafter promptly fell back into sleep.

a picture of the living and dining area.

after a good rest, it was time for our lunch meeting. it being a sunday that we were there (the work week is sunday to thursday), we took it easy by having lunch at the country club near our hotel, by the creek.

the sight that greeted me was one that i was truly impressed with. the day was sunny, yet it was cooling, with a temperature of 18 degrees celsius. we sat outdoors, under the shade. and it was a good mix of business and social talk. it was a rather relaxing atmosphere, good for a sunday afternoon lunch.

view from my table. you can see the city horizon in the distance, and if you're observant enough, you can see the cable cars. and also spot the current tallest building in the world.

and me with my dessert. the banana ice cream on top was absolutely delicious. and yes, you can see that i was totally indulging, with my nice oyster bay white wine (still prefer riesling though) and my tea.

and see if you can spot me in the pix! (not that difficult right...)

as we were leaving, the customer was telling us of the aquarium upstairs, so up we went, and the view was superb once again, this time indoors, air-conditioned and overlooking the creek. and yes, that's me with the aquarium.

and do you see my boat in the distance? haha yeah right. if i own a boat, i'd own one in mauritius where i can go diving every other day as i please.

and this is the outside of the country club.

and the view from outside our hotel

and what is this entry without a self-shot?

and that's a close-up view of the tallest building. you can see that when the wind blows, it gets dusty. this is more of a dust storm than sand storm.

so after our meeting, and a good rest, we headed to the shopping mall. city centre is filled with all the brands and shops that we are all so familiar with. topshop, zara, mango, blush, levi's, and carrefour. and there were several shops with good buys, and i saw shoes that were oh-so-orgasmic! i tried on several pairs, and they were so comfy, real leather, and reasonably priced. but i didn't buy because i refused to buy yet another pair of work shoes. and i do have enough pairs for now. so yes, even my duty travel allowance couldn't tempt me to part with the money. (i am so disciplined!)

but truly, the mall was huge, there were so many things to buy and shop. the thing is, during our lunch, i didn't quite feel out of place, as the place was filled with plenty of foreigners (ang mohs) and people dressed like it was a sunday afternoon lunch (i.e. not conservatively). but in the mall, even as i was in long-sleeves and jeans, it was rather obvious that i was out of place, getting weird stares because people aren't quite used to seeing a chinese girl walking around, on her own no less. it was not a very nice feeling, and at some point in time, i did feel like i was being judged for who i was, what i was wearing (or not wearing in this case) and doing and etc. but also, maybe i was being overly sensitive.

also, i did feel that as much as the entire place was so modernized and cosmopolitan, yet the atmosphere of the place did not quite feel the same. and hence the feeling of disequilibrium.

it was quite the same feeling in bahrain. but pictures first!

the drive from the airport to our hotel.. i just love this picture. i don't quite know why though..
and the twin towers in bahrain - a must have for every modernized middle-eastern country. you have it in dubai, you have it in bahrain.

now, i came to realize that both cities essentially had the same 'mould'. the water fountains were the same, both cities had twin towers, and both cities had City Centre as the shopping mall, with almost all the same shops! (less krispy kreme)

and a close-up shot of it, just outside of our hotel. i didn't manage to capture the 'fan's in between the building, an invention to make use of wind technology to generate electricity. so on windy days, you can see the fans move. a total of three large fans (think ceiling fans but placed vertically) in between the buildings.

and just so you know that middle east isn't full of sand, sand and more sand, there were pretty flowers lined up outside of our hotel, bringing much color to the city.


and a night shot of the twin towers once again. the picture, for some reason, (maybe wind too strong) turned out slightly blurred.

so all in all, that was my trip for you.

i am very impressed, and like i said earlier, an eye-opening experience. it is a place that i would not mind going back to (less the very very dry weather), but not on my own expenses.

okay, time to go out. laters people!

xoxoxox

the kor's wedding... and how amazing i am.

so the pre-wedding dinner took place on saturday night. i was flying off to dubai on saturday night. so i packed my bags, put on my dinner dress, did my nails and even had time to squeeze in a hair cut, and went for the dinner, with le bf in tow.

us with the wedding couple...

and us bored and cam-whoring like it was free (it IS free...)

and the chua family..

and in between yum sengs...

and the entire clan... don't ask me why we're in the centre of the picture. it just happened that way.

and after the ritual yum sengs, le bf sent me to the airport for my duty travel (therein killing yet another weekend).

so the ROM took place on thurday afternoon. i flew back on wednesday night, touched down on thursday morning, and went for the kor's ROM. and even had time to re-do my nails in between.

how love is that???? and how amazing am i???

and the sibling shot...

and the entire clan once again. i look horrid yes i know. but what do you expect after country-hopping. singapore-dubai-bahrain-dubai-singapore, in just a span of 5 days? now am i amazing or what?

now don't ask me why i'm so tired. you try that yourself and tell me.

this is my third entry in a row. see below for the other two.

i am so out.

g'nite!

macau 09

i think as of now, all of you will be like, oh you went to macau? yes i did. dammit. i have this awful backlog and i need to keep moving.

so yes, we head back to macau, where i visited and was under-impressed with the city - all thanks to the bad haze that made the supposedly grand buildings less grand than it was. not much really, just that our stay at the venetian hotel was really really awesome!

le bf insisted on staying at the venetian, even though it cost a cool 500 bucks plus sgd a night! me? i wouldn't have parted with my money. anyway there are pretty decent hotels that you can get at half that rate. but anyway, it was a VERY enjoyable stay. really. the room was just awesome. it was the best place i've ever stayed so far.


as we entered the room, to our left was our bathroom. my my my, the bathroom was HUGE.


and then our bed, which was nice, soft and really comfy. even with my hurt ankle, i felt that the support of the bed, right down to the ankle was really good. my ankle felt very comfy that night, and it was a really good nite's rest, away from the hectic and busy busy hong kong.

and then after that you take two steps down, and you reach the 'living room' area, complete with your personal business center with internet and fax machine. and two televisions in one room. finally for the first time, i get to watch what i want to watch.


and our room overlooked the mini golf course. actually it's just a putting course. 18 holes nonetheless.

after much ooh-ing and ahh-ing and enjoying our luxurious suite, we decided to head down to the shopping mall just below. that was pretty much our macau stay. the venetian was huge enough to keep us entertained throughout the evening and night that we had. it did remind me of caeser's palace of las vegas, with the entire concept and the clear blue sky.

shopping-wise, there was much variety of choice, ranging from the normal brands to the high-end brands. we pretty much just walked and walked and walked, and there was just so so so much to explore and see. and when we got tired of walking, we went up to take a rest, enjoy a bit more of our room, and then headed out for another round of shopping. ultimate shiokness.

and what is this entry without my self-shot? and the gondolas that so reminded us our our venice trip... -bliss-

the whole place just reeked of luxury and money. but the draw of the casino failed to entice le bf and i, because having lost a considerable amount of money during our cny annual black-jack, we knew that this is not a good year for bets.

the nice thing about the venetian (other than the fact that there was an official manchester united store which le bf went absolutely crazy about) was that they had several groups of entertainers going around entertaining the crowds. they had jugglers, musicians, dancers, and people doing magic tricks, adding to the atmosphere. it was more amusing than entertaining really.

and a night shot of the venetian! absolutely prestigious looking in the night, because you can't see the haze. or rather, the lighting makes it stand out from the haze. (i really really like my camera)

and of course, our signature shot of happiness!

there you have it. our macau trip - uneventful but a nice close to our mini hong kong/macau trip of 2009!