coming to an end

my sis's confinement period is ending this wk. feeling a bit sad coz she will be catering food from a supplier for dinners, and we won't have anymore excuse to keep running to her house to see her and the baby and the dog...and also the husband la, hehe.

a bit sad.

tai tai huhh

in today's paper, there is a feature on a tai tai. pg 21, main.

one of her replies is really qian4 bian4 (in need of beating up!).

Q: How does a taitai spend her money?
A: I indulge in retail therapy. Spa retreats and holiday travel on business class are essentials, not a luxury. I have no budgetary constraint, whether the purchase is a luxury car or a diamond-studded watch. I pay cash for things like my carS.
But what I spend is only a very small fraction of my income, so that makes me very much a saver.

?????????

ARGH

why got pple like dat???

short lines from punggol

1. saw a sign on a door in suntec.
"This door is alarmed. Use only in emergency."
(be kind and don't frighten the door unnecessarily!)

2. a mother was washing and changing her son's entire set of clothing in the city hall mrt toilet, in full view of all the queueing females. should have at least done it in the baby's rm or the cubicle. the boy was at least 10 yrs old. i think he peed/pooed in his pants.

3. sat in the immediate downstream region of a mature woman who kept chatting with her companion in the NEL train.
bad news: she had extreme bad breath.
good news: after taking the train from dhoby ghaut, she mercifully got off one stop before me, at sengkang.

things that free and unemployed pple do

include going to the new library on a weekday afternoon, where the unemployed meet the retired. =D

yup, i went to the new national lib with jaclyn on thurs, and we explored the building like a couple of mountain turtles, behaving even more mountain turtle than the hordes of retirees already there.

hmm, the lib had a nice lobby, and we were looking at the "directory", trying to figure out which floor to go to. uh... there was a sign saying: "Only the books in Basement 1 can be borrowed." uh... ok. that was a little disappointment. i thought the new lib would have one floor for english fiction, one for non-fiction, etc. granted, there are reference levels like the sing-malay collections, but now that we have no more term papers to write, it's not very useful to us.

ok so off we go to the BASEMENT.(like a cellar or a dungeon!)
the lift lobby was wide. there were 5 lift wells, on 2 opposite walls. so 3 lifts on one side and 2 on the other. suddenly we heard a soft "ding". ok, our lift is here. but wait.... which one is it? i noticed one set of doors opening. damn...it's at the extreme end. i ran to that lift, trying to get to it before the doors closed. i think they did close before i managed to reach the "up" button to call for the lift. ughh
looked so dumb. i was wearing sneakers n jeans, and i almost missed the lift! argh! can't believe it. and as mentioned earlier, the lobby was wide. it felt almost like i was playing dog and bone.

ok so we got to the basement. we all know that u shud switch ur hp to silent mode, no talking in the lib, no eating n drinking, etc. but do u know it's an offence to SLEEP IN THE LIB? yup, that's wat one sign said. could be for two reasons. a sleeper would suck up precious aircon and take up precious seating space, or a sleeper would sometimes snore loudly, disrupting everyone else in the lib who truly want to read. the sign didnt state "No sleeping. Fine $500", so maybe a librarian will roam around and poke any sleepers awake.

we browsed thru some foreign newspapers and tried very hard to borrow at least one chinese book each. ugh. i went thru all the shelves, but none interested me enough to even read the synopsis. HAHA...time for the english side! =P

english non-fiction. i zoomed into the "astronomy" and "physics" section. yay! hehe..i found a few bks of interest, and chose to borrow one of them. the title is Strange Matters- Undiscovered ideas at the Frontiers of Space and Time. =D
i don't think i can handle 2 serious books for each loan, so off i went to the fiction part.

uh, i can borrow a bk just becuz it's new, and i reasonably like it. that posed a problem. i walked out of the fiction section with 5 thick novels (plus my strange matters) and dropped my pile of books twice. i borrowed all six bks in the end, and my shoulders ached from the load in my bag.....

borrowing the bks using the self-service machines gave a little surprise. first, i made a really dumb booboo which i hoped nobody saw. the screen had a msg, asking me to choose the language. i tapped on english, of course. the problem is, i tapped the blue zone where u are supposed to put the bks, thinking that the system is like my laptop with the built-in mouse. ugh. after tapping a few times without a response, it suddenly occurred to me that hey, this might be a touchscreen u know. and so it was. *embarrassed*
ok. english selected. time to insert the lib card. then i saw an unfamiliar message on the screen: Are you using someone else's card? It is an offence to use an unauthorised card.

uh...that stunned me for a while. i was just going to insert my mother's card. hahahha...coz i had 6 bks mah. heck care. they shud remove the msg...it doesn't have any real effect.

while borrowing the bks, jac found she had 2 unpaid fines. so off we went to the conveniently-located e-kiosks where u pay fines. the machine deducted the amt for 2 fines, and printed out the receipt. yay, all's fine! (cuz not, otherwise i won't bother to write this out)
she could borrow the bks on that card, but hte record still showed she had one unpaid fine, still being processed. so we went to the counter and asked abt it. the staff just popped the cashcard into the nets machine and printed out the entire usage history of that cashcard! so anyone can track u so easily! with just a nets machine.......
anyway, the lady said yes, the amt was deducted from the cashcard and she'd get back to jac the next day.

ok..so far so gd. then we both went to another 2 e-kiosks to top up our cashcards. i put in my atm card, pressed my pin, then put in the cashcard. trouble struck when the machine was "processing"my cashcard. there was an error msg: "the operation could not be performed. please remove cashcard."

hey! did the money get deducted from my account and fly to outer space? my pin was accepted already! ughhhhhh.....i had no receipt no nothing, so i walked away with a DEEP distrust in e-kiosks.

@#@#^*&@2................ at least i have a pile of bks to cheer me up. =)

holland v

i played tennis with sharon poh yesterday and now i have slight blisters on my fingers. i didn't know how to hold the racket properly, and didn't bother too much, as long as the ball could cross the net decently. i had quite a few hits that went sky high...hehhe....i'll work on it! =P tennis was fun!

we went for dinner at holland v, and got stopped by this ang moh young man along a road.
"Hi, I'm doing an experiment here. Would you like to help me out?"
He was wearing a hat, and holding a deck of cards. We hesitated a while, then agreed. I had no idea what he was up to.
He then proceeded to perform a few card tricks, which were quite gd la, i admit. =)
things like finding a specific card in the whole deck, etc.
"Actually I'm working for a charitable organization, which feeds a young british/australian boy who likes to wear hats and do card tricks. Kindly donate $10 or so to this organization."

then he smiles at us.

uh.........ok... no way are we gg to give him like $10 each. in the end we gave $2 each. he thanked us and walked away. sharon got to keep one of the cards as a souvenir.

eh, i think we were not exactly conned because we parted half-willingly with our money. hehe, it's the first time i encountered such a thing! sharon said it's quite a common thing in uk n us. hmmm.... interesting. i wonder if it;s very rude to say "no, i don't wish to give u any money. bye."

argh!

i've refrained from writing this blog 3 times, but i really cant take it anymore. welcome to the marder-bashing time.

a stack of stools needed to be brought downstairs to the car. she said to my farder and i "either one of u carry". farder old man, so i carry lor. farder went down to car. she then emerged from the kitchen with 2 bags of stuff, quite heavy. then she lost her mind and started ranting at how stupid we are, why never ask him to carry the stools down, now she has to carry both the bags of stuff. i'm damn used to such rubbish, so i just ignored her and locked the door, etc, and went into the lift with her. she shrieked and screamed and stomped her foot, like a 4 yr old, all the while raving abt how stupid we are. we were not alone in the lift. our sole companion, a 9yr old girl, looked terrified. marder even asked her "you say she stupid or not, har??" i pity the girl.
HELLO! u want to act like a toddler, it's bad enough to do it at home! how can u even carry it outside, and behave like s*** in front of strangers? she later screamed that she wanted one of us to carry the stools and the other to carry a bag. but all she had said was "EITHER ONE OF YOU"...how were we supposed to know there were 2 BIG BAGS TO CARRYY??!!!!

another time, she couldnt find the car which my farder had parked the day before. she was going to be late for work. she hammered on the front door, screaming and shrieking like a lunatic, and all sorts of weird body lang came out. my farder was half-dressed, but had to run downstairs to find the car with her. once again, the lift was full of neighbours and she shrieked all the way down.

driving. first gear, accelerate, neutral until almost zero speed, then 2nd gear, accelerate, neutral until almost zero speed, then 3rd gear. WTH is the use of changing gear when u drop to zero kmh again? i voiced out my query, minus the expletive of course. once again, she shrieked and screamed and stomped.



can someone pls tell me how to have the littlest bit of respect for her?

yay!

hehe...thks all for ur concern!
of cuz, special mention to yilin who has offered to be my guarantor. i won't run away, no worry, and dont run away on me too! =P

yay..hope the medical examination and all other procedures go fine... =D

u know ah....been talkin with a lot of frens abt working, for the past 3 mths. one thing that irritates me is when they say stuff like:

"Aiyah u girl nvrmind lah......Few yrs down the road you taitai already maybe dont even need to work...."

*ROLL EYES*...

This is a Public Appeal

an unexpected crisis has occurred.
i have the letter of acceptance sitting on my desk, ready for submission by the Monday deadline. except that i cannot find a second guarantor.
i refuse to believe that my quest for this job can be thwarted by this.
please help if u can.

a guarantor for the 60k edb training and attachment program
-- gainfully employed, sg citizen/pr, 21-50 yrs old, not bankrupt, not edb employee.

have failed in a few approaches, and i felt like an insurance agent for a day.

i HAVE to find ONE MORE! (my sis is one already.)

edit: yay! yilin is my 2nd guarantor! muackz! =P

literature : F9

i read "To kill a mockingbird" at one shot this afternoon, experiencing all the ups and downs as Scout and Jem grew up in Maycomb. when i got to the last part, i was exhausted and read quickly abt how bob ewell tried to assasinate the kids.
the sheriff, heck tate, said that ewell had eventually fallen onto his knife and killed himself. i thought that's the truth!

only today did i realise that, NO! boo was the one who killed him! arghhhhh
how could i have missed that point after reading this bk for so many years?? (first read it when i was 9)
goodness!
haiz....no wonder i never excelled in lit.

ever listened to water boil?

it can be a kettle of water heating up, or a pot of water on the stove. just when the water is starting to heat up, and u can see tiny bubbles forming, do u hear a metallic "clicking" sound?

"oscillating/unstable/always expanding and contracting" bubbles produce snapping sounds when they collapse/break down; that's how the deep sea snapping shrimp make their sounds. i feel that the sounds i hear from the heated up water is due to such oscillating microbubbles too. the very first bubbles that form are the tiniest ones, and the later "generations" of bubbles are bigger. so when these tiny bubbles collapse, they make the snapping sound.

or can anyone tell me why there are clicking sounds when u are boiling a pot of water?

uh-oh

ST Pg 26

"Malaysia aims to be regional aerospace hub"
-- M'sia aims to be a regional aerospace maintenance, repair and overhaul hub by 2015, as part of its plan to go into high-technology industries...convert Subang airport into the M'sia International Aerospace Centre....hangars which could service the biggest wide-bodied aircraft." (uh, why not just say plainly A380s?)

well well.... sg also wants to be (or is she already?) THE MRO hub.
this is obviously directed at sg lor. sigh....

hehe, GH, don't start a fight with me...=P

been sick

1. had throat infection.
i almost couldn't breathe during the night because the back of my mouth/throat was so swollen. spent 2 hrs waiting at the doc's because although the clinic opens at 9am, the doc comes in only at 9:45am. this situation isn't unique to this clinic, but happens elsewhere too. i think it is pretty pointless.... anyway, i was patient no. 6, so i thought it wouldn't be that bad. (i reached the clinic at 9:15)
wah lau..... each patient took like 15 to 20 min lor!
i was a bit grumpy when it was finally my turn, and was ready to show my grouchy face to the slow-poke doc. i didn't.

he was so nice and smiley and, um, rotund, that i couldn't bear to be grouchy. this reminds me of a phrase in some book (to kill a mockingbird, maybe).
"anger just doesn't stick to her"
anyway he was quite patient lah, and asked me a lot of questions like how frequently does my infection occur, etc. i asked him the root cause of the infection and together, we went through several possible causes, eliminating them one by one. in the end, we concluded that it was due to my body's low immunity (uh..becuz of the late nights, heheh..).
no wonder the wait was so long! i think i took abt 15 min too for my turn. =P
somewhere during the check-up he asked if i was schooling or working. i was tempted to say "neither" and then be amused at his surprised face for a few seconds. but then, becuz he was so nice, i couldn't say it out. =so i said i just grad 3 mths ago from mech eng, nus, and am looking for a job.
then he said, "Oh! mech eng, nus? a few days ago i also had a lady who just graduated and looking for a job! i can't rem her name....hmm...."
he didn't manage to rem. but he said. "Hmm, u better get well first before going for interviews, otherwise u will jeopardise your chances."

so nice right? hehhhee

2. job offerS.
(i) my monday interview at a valve company was quite successful, and the interviewer discussed salary, leave, benefits, etc. the HR manager was on leave till 15 Aug, so i have to wait till then for a response. he also said "meanwhile, don't apply for any more jobs."

(ii) on thursday, i got a call from edb regarding the training and attachment program with rolls royce. i was invited for a briefing on 17th Aug. they will give me the contract then. i have to pass a medical examination, sign the contract and then i'll be on my way to the UK. WOOHOO!!!!

(iii) on friday, someone from ST (not straits times!) called me.
"Uh, Miss Khoo, are u currently in any employment?"
"No."
"We are having some changes to the recruitment process, so there are some delays. we are reviewing your application for XXX engr. Are you still interested?"
"Uh, yes."
"I'll let the person-in-charge know and we'll get back to you."
this one is really unexpected, because the interviews were more than 2 mths ago. i thought it's a gone case already...

to summarise...i think after a very long drought, i suddenly have 3 potential offers which i am considerably interested in. (zephan-boy, have u been blessing me?)

=)

ndp video

NDP video

scroll to 1 hr 10 min 15 sec

our auntie-nation

nono...the title of this post has nothing to do with my new status. =P
40 yrs old already mah, so sg qualifies as an auntie! actually my first instinct was to write "uncle-nation" but then realised that countries are all female! hehe

well well....so my father received this sms two days ago. wah!!! petrol at 40% discount!!!! on national day, 4pm-8pm!
our nissan sunny was starving, and the "no fuel" light was on, so we happily proceeded to get a (hopefully) super-discounted full-tank.
there were 3 petrol stations side by side, caltex, esso and shell. esso and caltex were almost empty, while there was a long queue of at least 15 cars at shell! hmm...is the discount only at shell? we were not abt to join the mad queue so we just went into caltex, our usual station. first thing my father asked the attendant was, "Eh, why shell got long queue? Got 40% discount is it?"

the elderly attendant laughed and shook his head in despair. "Don't have lah, bluff one! everybody ask!"
hehehhe..... aiyah. what a waste. it'd have been a nice national day present for the drivers. =P we still fed our sunny to the brim.

another car pulled into the station to re-fuel. i watched the driver mouth the words
"... 40% discount?"
attendant shakes head & hand.
driver drove away... HAHA

anyway later i heard via the radio teochew news that this was just a rumour, and nobody is giving such good discounts. =(
not even spc. hmpf!

have u learnt dance no. 40?

haha... if not, u can learn by looking at the 29 figures on H6.
uh, pardon me, but this dance seems to involve only the upper body, so i think it'd look quite stiff and weird. (guess what? u can even try to do it while sitting down!)what a couch-potato-friendly dance..yeah yeah!!

hehe.. last night i took the NR7 home, and i passed by orchard rd, SMU campus, the national lib, my old house at kallang (there is going to be a new expressway right next to the block). i remembered i went for a NDP at the stadium when i was still quite young, and we walked back through some dark alley and the Geylang lorong 5. there were creepy old houses on both sides of the road, and we wouldnt have gone this way if not for the crowds of red and white also walking the same way. for some weird reason, walking along lorong 5 to home was one of my most vivid ndp memories.
perhaps it has something to do with it being my first live ndp, or maybe just becuz i've never walked along a dark road in my life yet.
well, unfortunately, the creepy houses and lorong 5 have made way for the new expressway, and the place has become a huge open area with a 4 lane road. no more crawling cars along the narrow lane, no more tree branches ready to grab unsuspecting passers-by.... and no more creepy shadows. no more lorong 5..

oh..n the expressway has also devoured in its path my mosquito-infested park where i learned to cycle ard sharp corners, before i graduated to east coast park. those mosquitoes were really something. each bite swelled up to a 5cent coin size.
(do we seriously need another expressway? but this is just a pointless ques.... the whole thing is just a very typical example of development.)
just leave me to preserve my memories...

i.. i need..... i need to...

use the toilet!

nah....that's not it.
i need/want to bulk up. i hate to say that i have shrunk at least one g2000 size, and prob like 2 inches off my waist. =( i dont like my skeletal look, and the fact that my muscles are visibly wasting away. boo hoo

the time when i best loved my body was in uni yr 1, when i was busy playing sports of all kinds (ok la, a few kinds only!) i could really feel and see the difference between then and now. sigh sigh.

i think even playing badminton occasionally (ie. once a yr) doesn't help much. i need to embark on a 3-days-a-wk, at least 30 min each session kind of exercise routine. anyone can help?

can't breathe

post-coffee + pre-interview = can't breathe

*gasp*



*GAAASSSPP*

bz bz

been shuttling between mt. alvernia, punggol and home, bringing meals to the new parents, etc. the baby was well enough to go home, fotunately, but a uv-light cot had to be rented for the baby. hmm...i should stop calling the baby "the baby"...Zephan!!

Hopefully when they go back for a checkup on monday, everything will be fine and the baby (oops, zephan) can finally sleep in his own nice comfy cot..=P

very weird. i actually had one recruitment manager email me back, saying that he was very impressed with my results, and arranged for an interview on monday. i was slightly taken aback, coz i was no first class-er. i dunno what i'll say if he does offer me a job on monday, coz i'm still hoping to get the edb trainin n attachment thingy. sigh..... =|

aftermath

sigh..zephan can't go home for 5 more days yet coz he's got a bit of jaundice.
dunno how my sis will feed him though, coz she has no bed at the hospital liao.
anyway, couple more pics here. Day 2


one of the rare moments when his eyes opened..


yawwwnnn..... it's so tiring to squeeze out of the tiny womb. lemme sleep..

i saw

when we drove my sis to hospital one late tue night, i saw something curious. we were in the car, and i saw a shadow of a cross on the middle of her tummy. it was very clearly a cross, with no other shadows nearby. i was surprised. could the cross have come from the church across the road? not really, coz the church's cross is neon-light illuminated. then i realised the shadow had been cast from a little beaded figure my father hangs on rearview mirror. this beaded figure has arms and legs spaced out like the gingerbread man, and must have twisted on its string in such a way to form a perfectly dimensioned cross.

dunno if it is of any significance, but my sis had a smooth delivery and just mild side effects from the epidural. =)

Announcing the birth of ZEPHAN LIM !!

tue
2359: check into hospital, sleep

wed
1028: Ben's msg--> Handphone not on in the ward. Nothing yet. Water bag broken by doctor and inducing medicine given. waiting now.

1354: WEYY...WEYY!! Zephan is born after one hour of labour! =D

weight = 3.2kg
length = 50cm
head circumference =34cm

Both mother and child (son) are doing great!!!

at home
placenta pic for the adventurous ones


just born...still wet!


measuring his head circumference


and his length


Doctor, Zephan and Trina (Yiting)


and the happy new father....Ben. =P

PSHHHHhhhhhhh......!!!!

last night i was all alone at home, while my parents visited my grandpa in hospital. as usual, my laptop was on the coffee table in the living room, and i was playing Sims 2. at the same time, i was watching the awful Shen Congye abuse poor Cen Fei, who just had a miscarriage.

*BZZZ..PRAP..PRAP...BZZZ*

damn. that sounds ominous. A big beetle.
A REALLY big beetle.

Or a cockroach. (wail...why are my parents not around? =\ )

i stood up and surveyed my surroundings. nothing suspicious in sight (otherwise have to call 999). no more sound.
i was quite sure there was some insect somewhere, and i got into battle ready mode.
With my eyes constantly on the look-out,
1. I re-checked my immediate space, to ensure the enemy was not within striking distance.
2. I reduced the tv and laptop volume, so i could hear any rustling sounds better.
3. I paused my game coz i dunno how long this thing would take.
4. I re-positioned my laptop so that i wouldn't trip over the power cord.
5. I picked up a section of the newspaper and folded it into a baton with a flat striking surface, not just rolled up.

baton in hand, i was ready.

suddenly i saw IT. IT was a 生龙活虎 (live dragon live tiger...meaning very lively!) COCKROACH!!!! instantly i could feel the changes in my body. I felt warm and my nose was starting to get moist with perspiration. my heartbeat quickened as i contemplated my next move. Fight or Flight?

A quick scan of the living room revealed that a can of insectide, my weapon of choice, was not available. I'd have to get it from the bedroom. that meant movement which could attract the damn cockroack to me, or reduced vigilance on IT which would allow IT to scuttle to some dark unseen corner and ambush me unsuspectingly.
No, I'd never be able to kill IT with my miserable baton. (i had taken the classifieds, which are really pathetic on mondays). i moved quietly and slowly, hoping IT would not detect anything.

*heart thumping* (what if IT flies towards me? don't forget, it is very lively and its feelers are always moving!)

I eventually grabbed the insecticide and moved towards my target, silently and slowly. I tried to approach IT from behind, thinking that the element of surprise could help me overpower this hideous creature from prehistoric times.

before i made my last move, i made sure that my stride was wide, and my stronger right leg was my back leg; so that at the crucial moment, i could lunge forward a longer distance and hence give IT a more intense spray. (think of playing pepsi-cola-123). IT scuttled a bit. That's my cue.

I lunged forward with all the speed i could muster and sprayed at the target. It ran around, and with newfound confidence, i kept my finger pressed down and aimed at IT all the time. After about 15 seconds of nonstop spraying (PSHHHHhhhhhhh......!!!!), IT flipped on ITS back and kicked ITS legs in the air.

Triumph!!!! WOO HOO!!!!!

I stood still, chest heaving slightly, hand trembling slightly and nose pretty wet with sweat. I did it!

I placed the insecticide in a prominent place so my parents would know to collect the spoils of war. I then went back to my game.

bugis mrt

i think the mrt has changed its lightbulbs over the wkend. it now looks like the artic, with cold white lights. instantly the temperature seems to have gone down 20 deg.

moving on

my sis is giving birth tm... and when i thought of that, a song popped up in my head and i started singing out loud. << 红蜻蜓 >> by 小虎队. my sis and i have liked this band (Little Tigers) since her teens, when she had every single cassette by them.

当烦恼越来越多
玻璃弹珠越来越少
我知道我已慢慢的长大
红色的蜻蜓曾几何时
也在我岁月慢慢不见了

translated as:
" When there seems to be more troubles
and less marbles
I know I'm slowly growing up
Dunno since when, the red dragonflies
slowly disappear..."

after singing two lines, i started tearing.....=|
coz i am suddenly reminded of the times when we still shared a room in our old flat, and we chat into the night. when we were still seeing each other everyday and knew almost everything abt each other. now she has married, and is going to be a mother. of course i;m happy that everything's gg fine, but sometimes i still wish that things could be reversed. marriage was one big milestone. becoming a mother is another milestone and i suddenly feel sad all over again. dunno why also.

think i'll never get over this issue, and it's a little ridiculous coz there isn't any concrete issue to begin with.