Hello hello.

I don't know if people actually read this but here goes just incase.

The flight to Dayton wasn't a great one but I'd have to say I'm grateful I'm here in one piece- I don't like flying. Basically connecting times were too short so we dashed through both Narita and O'Hare. Missed the flight from O'hare so was delayed by 2 hours but whatever. After awhile I was too tired to care. But we got here, finally (: Kyle and Jojo helped me move in to my spanking new (not so... it's been round for 40 years?) apartment! It's huge & I love it.

Spent the first week basically moving my roommates in, going grocery shopping with them and their parents, having Peer Advisor training, going for maybe an hour of the Davis Center orientation, going to wahfu with the roommates, secondtime around, a party, sleep (hurrah), and work. This is all good because 1) I've earned like 20 hours of cash! 2) I got to see the people I missed so much over the summer 3) I am psyched for the year ahead as I get to know the people in the Peer Advising office and Davis Center better. There is going to be so much to learn and do!

Also been calling the family pretty often cos time allows which is great :D

The nature of todays meetup with 2 of my favourite people was quite random & eventful. For 1, they were both earlier than me. HAH. Then to SoupSpoon, where my Mushroom soup was more like plasma; way way way too thick for human consumption. Gelat after 3 mouthfulls :( Then to Ben&Jerry's despite almost exploding with soup for ice-cream, a paper mache cow, and a very terrifying but nonetheless entertaining round of 'Would You Rather'. Our party was cut-short when Val needed to go off to dance :)

Love you two, I'm going to miss you so much when I'm off again! But I bet you guys will be so busy with uni and such to think of me, which is great :) I'm psyched for yall, and can't wait to crash your hall Val and the SMU cafe with you Chels <3

Tuesday, 14th July.

Got up before the sun was even up, and took the 858 to the airport to send Sandhya off. Today was the day :( San if you see this, as much as I, & many other people hate to see you going away to study (and as we all know, potentially forever!),  we know you are going to shine. You are very special to me and with both of us away from home, you can complain about the cold andd I'll get you! And vice-versa! <3

Had lunch and yumza durian pudding from People's Park Centre with Robson :D Eh, sorry San and I are abandoning you. Heh. We can facebook!

Monday, 12th July.

Food for thought; Always, always, always be grateful for what you are blessed with. Because many people don't realize how lucky they are till it's too late.

Sunday, 11th July.

1) Chels! WHOA GIRL, so much to upate me on. Hee. Can't wait for Thursday when we finally meet as a trio. HEAR THAT VAL!

2) Tim Loh! Had lunch with my lovely long-time co-kidscentral OMG-they-recognized-us-damn-how-paisei friend :) Was lovely, and full of chat as usual. After 5 years, I think we made a breakthrough, which was real nice. HTHTs :D

3) San's farewell party! So San had a little farewell at her party which was good fun. We played taboo again which was great, I always get hyper when we play taboo. Haha. Also San, your family is lovely, I love them! :) I'm sure they will miss you so much, and you too :/

Thursday, 8th July.

Me + 2 hours of sleep = catatonic = Not good. Whee!

Wednesday, 7th July.
Today was a wonderful Wednesday! Met Robs, Clif & San for dinner at Cedele :) My favouritest carrot cake place, and now, the  best salmon sandwiches too! Then San and I headed to her place for 2nd dinnner, then we were off. It was really a night of good, fun. At Supper we had drinks then got bored and headed to Rebel which was better in terms of music and in my opnion, despite a smaller space, a nice, cozier one. Getting to the bathroom was a pain cos we were in the middle of the pit but heck, I had a good time. Kinda makes me excited for when all us girls (& Parker, Alec, and Connor) go to Masque back in Dayton :D Watched the soccer match amongst many riled up fans at the Satay club, yay Spain!

Oh, if I make it to work tomorrow, I'm quite the superwoman. Just saying.

Monday, 5^th July.

 

“Have fun at work darling”

“Yuh, Back to the bump & grind…”

 

Was outta the house bright and early after being fed scrambled eggs by my kid sister (Tasha 1 Me 0). Nonetheless, I was fed, happy, sleepy, and on my merry way. Had a number of things to do once I got in which was nice—I prefer being busy, it makes time pass faster. Sometimes that might not be the nicest thing. But I find it usually helps me get through the day easier. Ate some pasta which I’d made for lunch (Note to self: Pasta grows, and grows. So cook less pasta).

 

At 5 o’ clock sharp, the Vaseline team and I trooped out of the office for a client’s farewell. While mildly awkward every now and then since I didn’t quite know many people from the team, it was good fun. We were such tourists! Took the Hippo Bus (an open-top bus) around Orchard and the Marina Bay Area. It was probably my longest ride ever to get to the Botanical Gardens where we had dinner at Halia (Ginger in Malay) Gardens.

 

Sunday, 4^th July.

 

Happy Birthday America. In your honor, we at home on our tropical island sang the national anthem led by none other than my little sister, Natasha, who passionately sang it word for word, hand on heart. (Heresy!)

 

Other than the usual church, lunch, flirty Indian boy, buy vegetables from our Veggie Lady, we were trying to figure out something different to do since Tasha didn’t have school tomorrow—WE <3 YOUTH DAY.

We ended up on a train to nowhere then decided along the way we would venture to the unknown—The Circle Line. (Jang jang jang) Pfft, it wasn’t any different than the MRT.

 

Anyhoos, ended up at the Esplanade, had some yum equivalent of Coldrock Icecream then headed to watch CodeRed at the Esplanade Promenade by the Bay. They were actually really good! Local band, and I haven’t heard all that many. The lead singer’s voice was very easy on the ears and they had a cool combination of instruments—cello, drums, electone, bass, electric guitar, some percussion, a xylophone. We then did touristy things like pose suggestively with brass sculptures at Cavanaugh Bridge. Sweet.

 

Time may not be on our side, but we’ll make the very best of it <3

 

Saturday, 3^rd July

 

It’s most strange; I usually take a good 13 seconds to figure out where my weekend went. Okay, got it.

 

After a leisurely breakfast with Tasha and mum, I headed to Orchard to meet Miss Abby Kor :D long time no see but we hit it off right away like always. I’m so excited that you start uni so soon, albeit hearsay it’s like Jc but tougher, I’m sure you’ll find ways to enjoy yourself. Our little Sentosa plan was a washout with the rain but that was okay, for I decided I would treat myself to a little material goodness with what pay I have from being an intern J got myself an awesome Jim Henson Fraggle Rock tee (yay yay yay), MNG jeans, f21 skirt & a shirtdress I’ve been looking for for ages. Huzzah to a successful haul.

 

Friday, 2^nd July.

 

The best thing about this specific Friday is that I spent it (at a spa) with mum! Met her after work for a facial and whathaveyou that spas do. As usual I knocked out (Mum, “what a waste you are! They could have just left you there and done nothing you’d never know!” me, “teehee.”). then we had some yum-worthy wanton mee at cuppage, did a spot of speed shopping at Zara, then raced down the stretch of Orchard so dad could get us lucky ladies <3

 

Thursday, 1^st July.

 

Note to self: never sleepover at a friend’s on a work night.

 

Also, IT’S JULY. (where has the 1^st 6 months of 2010 gone?)

 

San’s place was fun! I do however think we must be getting old—we had dinner, got to her house, watched glee. Then were too tired to go clubbing. Hahaha so we just ended up playing a few games of pool and hanging out J good fun.

 

Either way, I made it to Vaseline for a shoot on time (hurrah!). Met mum, ee Helen, and ee J for lunch at SkyLuck, the Thai place near work. Was good fun catching up with them. I even got the scoop on some scary dental surgery! Hah.

 

Wednesday, 30^th June.

 

An exciting day! Work wasn’t bad at all—spent it helping with a great poster to be done for a client’s farewell, and being briefed on the new account I’ll be helping with. And and and, it has been finalized—I’m going to be here an extra 2 weeks! And I’m actually really excited cos 1) the company dynamics are great 2) the people are cool 3) and they promised I would learn something of value. What a sweet deal J

 

And I get to see San for good 12 hours—sleepover! Before the girlie leaves for Perth L Booooo. Australia keeps stealing everyone away.

 

Tuesday, June 29^th

 

An ordinary day in the office.

 

Lunched with Norman which was fun, then went to Ngaio’s farewell thing after work. It was a good time; nice location, cool people, and good weather. That’s always good, esp with all the flooding recently (Note: Natural disasters and Singapore don’t go together sp the fact that just the shopping district flooded last week for a few hours = HUGE HULABALOO) Oh S’poreans, wait till the tornado warnings in Ohio go off every so often here, our island would be a mess of terrified people. Hah, the very thought.

 

I’m going to miss Ngaio! Even though we only worked together for a little while, I’ve learnt a lot from her J London will be a blast though!

 

Mon, June 30^th

 

Not bad at all. Got assigned to a new project (yay!) And went to lunch with a bunch of the Accounts people which was real nice. Esp since I’m real new to Accounts and all that. Met Chels and Val after work at Liang Court for TamPoPo ramen, was a nice little catch-up. So many things to update each other on—esp on Val and Chels’s part (:

 

Sunday! June 29^th

 

Ehhhhh, oh right. We went to TAK PO on SMITH STREET for kick ass dimsum. Well, I wasn’t happy with the hargow—skin too thick and gooey. Bummer. But it was a nice little heritage tour with the fam. Even bought a ‘I <3 SG’ shirt, how patriotic!

 

Also, this marks my halfway point. & weeks of my first summer vacation has flown by. Which means I’m 7 weeks from UD. Mixed feelings for sure, hum.
 

So... Imma failure. I will blog soon, like, tomorrow night. Serious! :D

Spent the past 4 days in Malaysia Truly Asia in Port Dickson, Malacca, & KL. Went with the fam and it was a short but great trip!

Day 1: Spent half the day driving from Sg to Malacca where we stopped for a spot of shopping- ie: The Best Pineapple Tarts. After mum's of course. But still, yummytastic. And Chicken Rice Balls for lunch! They're not actually as good as real chicken rice cos the rice is kinda mushy, but it's so novel it makes up for that. Yum in our tum and we went on to PD. Or as Tasha wrote on her immigration card, Port Dick. Bahaha.

Got to the Avillon Admiral which was pretty darm sweet. Our rooms had the sea with yatchs as our view and the resort had a private beach. Oh how I love tropical weather and a nice beach!

Day 2: Was an epically lazy and perfect day. All we did was Swim, run around in the water, catch some terrified crabs, go to a Pasar Malam (Night Market in Malay), eat seafood by the sea with the waves crashing against the restaurant. Bliss.

Day 3: KL! Or Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. Pretty much shopping haven. My only grite with pretty much every single shop in Times Square Berjaya Shopping Mall-- trying clothes? Nope. No such thing. So you pretty much see something you like, hold it up to yourself, and suppose you can wear it. WHICH DOESN'T WORK FOR ME. And PS: there is NO such thing as FREE SIZE. Dear American friends, some asian retails shops have this crazy idea that clothes come in a size called free size. These items are usually stretchy (spandex etc) thus seen as one size for all. NONSENSE. Other than that, cheap pretty clothes and great club music blasting in every frickin' shop so loud you cant talk to the shop keeper with yelling. Highly stressful but good fun. Esp when Tasha, Mum and I would start randomly dancing whenver Kesha or some other artist with annoyingly catchy music would blare.

Then Turkish kebabs for dinner, nom nom nom :)

Summing it up, blazing hot (perfect) weather, great company, clubby music, a new pair of snazzy shoes, a much needed break.

Enjoy the sun friendys.

My past 2 days were spent at workshops at The Arts House- working. Contrary to popular belief, I was thrilled to be working. This workshop made me very happy for several reasons I shall sum up quickly due to lack of time.

1) I love the Arts House. Its one of my favorite places outside of home. Perhaps the location but more likely my experiences there- The Runaway Toys, Love of Three Oranges, and it just gives me a good feeling. It inspires- thanks to the beautiful architechture and art work- and just makes me glad that even in the CBD there are still a good number of art hubs. Yay Singapore.

2) My brain got to work! I was fortunate enough to sit in meetings and discussions with a bunch of smart, creative individuals, which was really rather mentally stimulating. Ideas flowed and new concepts (well to me at least) just made me happy. Kinda felt like school, as people presented and I, of course, scribbled notes. Haha. So that was great, truly wonderful.

3) Food. Thai and Indian, probably two of my favorite cuisines.

4) Feeling somewhat important though really, not quite. Hahaha. I mean, I was important enough to be allowed to take cabs around to run company errands like to get presentaion material, and yada yada. I was pretty much like Anne Hatheway in Devil Wears Prada, just less galmorous and with a much lovelier boss.

So... while milling around getting Milo (Like Asian hot chocolate!) in the office on Monday, HR head tells me I've been transferred. Transferred?! I say. Yes, transferred to assist an account manager with a workshop. It was as if God had heard mum & I talk about wanting to try another department out since I didn't learn much over the first few weeks :D :D :D So now, I'm pretty much a mini Personal Assistant. And I'm having a ball.

It's only been 2 days but seems like forever thanks to the running around. As much as it stresses me out having to meet deadlines for random tasks I'm assigned, I'm on my feet running errands (I even get to ferry around in a taxi on Corporate Tasks! Hee), talking to people from different departments, sitting in on important and extremely interesting meetings, interacting with smart and creative people. I actually look forward to work, which is great. I'm so excited for tomorrow- I get to attend a workshop with some clients- perhaps something that I might potentially pursue, or not. We'll see!

On a not-so-exciting note, visited the lovely Dentist Mary. Thank God she didn't have blood splattered
ALL.
OVER.
HER FACEMASK...
like she was an extra on Final Destination- not cool.

I conquered both sides today- Mum's, & Dad's. Quite a feat in my opinion considering they are on 2 sides of the island.

Visited mama (mum's mummy) with a bunch of groceries which was fun as always! Then visited the Kleinmans with Aunts and all in tow. Got to meet my adorable little cousin Coen, he's a darl. Smiley and not cranky, how wonderful. Was nice! Got questioned by my uncles on what I'm doing with myself, what I do on the weekends in college, etc etc. Didn't  believe me that I didn't get myself all wasted over the weekends, haha, how typical of the Kleinmans :)

Today was a lazy day- stayed home and rested since I'm down with some nasty virus thats been doing its rounds. Spent the morning scanning photos from yesteryears which made me very happy.



Also got to skype with Katie Falter which was fun! Hearing about her summer was nice and discussing how we DO have pizza was interesting too. It poured buckets today which instead of having a cooling effect, increased humidity. Hah. Anyhoos, sploshing home in the rain with mum was a good time and so was discussing how I would buy a pair of PCK boots and decor them for the winter.

Met Chels at Raffles City to prep Val's stuff for her 19th birthday :D It was real nice meeting up again cos we've been so busy with work and whatnot. Went to Timbre for dinner and drinks and present-giving! Val, glad you liked the underwater cam we got you! Had a Duck-Mushroom Pizza which was extremely good. Thin crust, my fave.
Then to the Esplanade for Eonnagata- a very abstract dance-theater piece as part of the Singapore Arts Fest. Some parts were cryptic and semi-frustrating as I tried to understand how it related to the story but for the most part, enjoyable. I liked how the dialouges helped the audience better understand the complex story, and how parts of it were in French which was most apt since King Louis wrote a few letters to Charles de Beaumont. The dancing was something I hadn't seen in awhile- instead of the mad thrashing sort of modern dance often staged, it was more thoughful and deliberate which made the characters appear extremely engaged and in character. Also, the costumes. Definitely brought out the struggles (caged underskirt frames ala feeling of entrapment) he went through and were super cool just because they were. Overall, pretty darn brilliant. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2009/mar/03/eonnagata-sadlers-wells-dance-review-judith-mackrell)

So, Happy 19th Val :) Hope you had a magical day and enjoy the rest of your birthday weekend! Love you to bits <3

 

 

First off, this is unlikely to last long. As with my past... 5 blogs? Haha. I'll try, promise :D

So I'm home in sunny Singapore. The weather hasn't changed, it is as hot and humid as I remember it. Ignoring my complains and constant whining, there is a morbid sense of relief that this weather tells me I'm home. And truly, there is no place like it. I spent the first two weeks lounging around the house with Mummy and my kitty cat. Pure bliss. Then I started work/ interning- its been alright. Learnt a little and seen a bit of how a mega advertizing company works. Pretty neat really.

Meanwhile, Mum and I can't tear our eyes away from the window of our 12th floor flat. Imminent rainclouds cause undue stress as our clean, fresh laundry hangs out our window. (For my lovely American friends, we dry our clothes by hanging it out our flat. On a wodden bamboo pole, its stuck into the wall of our flat. Knda like a solid clothes line. Its so sunny we dont need dryers! But the rain is a bother- so we gotta keep a look out!). To make it easier for everyone, I did what I'd usually do- take a picture! :D This is the view from my flat- you will see the grey building (a new hospital), the train tracks or MRT (Mass Rapid Transit), and the next flat cos Singapore is crowded like that. Enjoy!



To everyone waiting for uni/ enjoying the summer vacation, enjoy the break while it lasts :) Special shoutout to people going abroad- like Emily Mills to Spain and Nadler to France- jealous much! Soak in the culture and eat local food. Don't forget pictures for all of us!

Peace and palm trees!