Tanglin Mall Xmas

Spent some time taking post-dinner gratuitous photos at Tanglin Mall. Even PS and black dress couldn't save me from looking flabby from too many sumptuous meals. Ok, enough about me and my poor weigh management skills. I salute Tanglin Mall for the superb job they did with the decor. They have decided to go green with the decor this year. Kudos to the management!

Although I doubt that they specially went to source for the recycled materials, it was a creative attempt at using everyday objects for a project like this, saving a few trees from becoming contractor plywood.

For example, the roof of this gingerbread house is styrofoam plates.

The precious convertible has Pepsi cans for wheels, aluminium foil for its bumper, newspaper mache mudguard, bonnet overlaying styrofoam (which of cos is still not that eco-friendly). And whoppee...I get to be car model!!!!

This watch tower is impressive. It has egg trays for walls, giving it a cyber high-tech feel. And Jasmine's 2-tone pumps from foxtrot are yummy! haha maybe becos I had something to do with it.

And this is the bestest xmas tree ever.

MIL from hell

I have to pay homage to the MIL. It was her birthday. Actually she chose xmas as her birthday becos they had lost records of when she was born. If I were her, I wouldn't. One less occasion to celebrate, one less gift to receive and everyone forgets about her on xmas. Because of her, all my christmas-es have been miserable for the past decade. It was a relief that nothing eventful happened. In fact, afterwards, I told D that meeting her was like waiting for a time bomb to explode and he told me he was about to say that.

Her choice of dinner conversation was who and who got cancer and spent $xxxxxxx amount on treatment etc. Who and who was sick and where he got medical help. There were moments I thought she was gonna veer towards how unfilial we were compared to so-and-so's son and kick up a ruckus like last june when we last met. That was the day before my operation and she was unhappy that we didn't tell her about it. She started her litany about how I never regarded her as my MIL and threw me names. It got so bad I almost walked out on her. I never spoke with her since then.

Dinner lasted an eternity as I tried not to let my eyes glaze over. I nodded and agreed on everything she said, and obligatorily nibbled on a few choice pieces of food even though I was stuffed, all these to keep her happy. After that we had to solve her DVD player woes at her place. I warmed her sofa for 15min as I felt my brains crunching to a halt listening to her bleat on about how her DVD from Israel has "a choice of NINE LANGUAGES". I mean if you pay USD40 for a measly DVD, I would expect it to have like a thousand languages. Thankfully we managed to solve the problem and make a hasty escape. I cheerfully announced, "Goodbye, mother" and trotted off as quickly as my 4-inch heels could carry me.

I suppose I wouldn't win an prizes for daughter-in-law of the year awards. I think perhaps she would raise both hands in animated agreement. But well, she's not perfect either.

Christmas Eve

I made some time for merrymaking this Xmas at our very own D & D. Vivienne and I both turned up in hot pink! We decided to stick together as the Pink Ladies.

This is Waiwai, a multi-talented lady who paints. She is like the next Martha Steward. I had a wild time at her annual party held at her cosy place complete with a real pine tree, crockery in xmas colours, nuts, a WHOLE table of desserts on top of a 10 course buffet!

And this is me with another SQ girl. The rest are already ex-SQ. You may have noticed I finally plucked up the courage to wear my fake hair. The hubby went..."er, are you sure or not?" when I strutted out with it. Too late for regrets. I was greatly relieved when some people couldn't tell it was fake. Someone asked me if I used curling tongs. Yay!! Others thought my hair grew (VROOMZ!) in the period they hadn't seen me. Hee...

Yup and that's me with someone else's baby. She had huge eyes and looked like a present wearing this pretty tartan red/green dress complete with velvet ribbon. And that's baby's hot mama besides me.

We made off with 60? balloons and had fun cam-whoring with them at Waiwai's place. How often do you get this big a bunch.

Avatar

I have been getting serious dark eye rings, and spare tyres around my middle. Also have been carefully cultivating a pimple plantation on my face thanks to Royce chocolate (too good to stop!) and late nights with big screens and small screens.

Yesterday was a midnight sojourn to Junction 8 to watch Avatar, the hottest James Cameron movie. It lives up to its name I must say. The concept was well thought out and there was quite a lot of attention to the finer details such as an alien language, alien plants and animals, floating mountains etc. It was a mish-mash of Pocohontas meets Eragon meets Matrix.

I didn't fancy the blue reptile skin the "natives" had, and the movie was inconsistent with the landscaping. If this was a different planet, how come some portions looked uncannily like tropical rainforests while others was filled with wonderful, awe-inspiring plants. The scientific gibberish they came up with to explain away this new technology also whizzed past my head.

Other than that, there were many moments of "WAH, so niceeee!" from my friend Angie. I also liked some of the cute plants and insects they had and how the ground lit up when stepped on. Furthermore, I must say the protagonist had spunk. She was all attitude, and it was cool. The plot was also refreshing and kept us guessing on how bows and arrows were gonna win the spaceships and helicopters.

I'd sum up with "this one must watch!"

Biscuit Teacher

I have been a certified couch potato recently, totally obsessed with this Biscuit Teacher and Star Candy korean drama series. Late nights ensued and I found myself stuck to the telly till 4am sometimes, unable to stop. Nothing much got done this week. All my spare time was spent with my best friend, Mr TV.  Having never been a fan of Korean drama, I was surprised to find myself being so devoted. In my defense, I didn't buy the DVD. The hubby did, thinking it was just a movie. (yeah, some finger-pointing here). Btw, I highly recommend 200 Pounds Beauty; it's a bag of laughs. Or even The Scandal Makers, featuring a curly-haired little imp.

This story is about a teacher who returns to her former school because of the art teacher whom she has a crush on. They almost got married but she finds herself falling in love with her student, who happens to be the nephew of this art teacher. The plot was a bit far-stretched in the sense that there were so many unbelievable obstacles to overcome. Plus the students don't seem to have to study. I wasn't impressed with the choice of lead actress Kong Hyo -jin. (Aiyo, I can never remember how to spell these Korean names!). Kong was not exactly eye candy and drifted through the show with knitted brows. Her insipidness is totally irritating! You wanna slap her character and ask her to wake up her idea.

Since in Hollywood movies, all men are tough cookies, and even in Asian films, men shed blood and not tears, it was refreshing to see Korean men weeping openly, although it did get a bit too emo at times. I watched Gong Yoo in Coffee Prince but he didn't make much of an impression then. In this series, he was so charming in his role as a pre-U student wooing his teacher. He had such cute puppy eyes and the messy crop of hair that makes you wanna run your fingers through! Totally adorable! It was kinda a stretch watching him play a 19 year-old though. I mean, just look at that physique. Which teenager looks like that?! At that age, we were plagued with pimples and most boys were scrawny and awkward. I just finished the ending an hour ago. It wasn't much of an ending, which was very disappointing.  Why couldn't they just walk off into the sunset? But anyway, for me, phew...life can go on again.

Installation Art

Cool installation art at River Walk near Boat Quay... melted plastic. Probably the artist's take on the current climate crisis. I liked the ipod one best. It makes a stronger statement when an icon of today's information age melts down. You probably wonder what the last pic is about. Me too! Haha, my lousy camera phone doesn't do a great night shot and I can't remember what in the world it was!

 I'm getting the Canon D500 soon, so look out for great pictures! It has been a hot seller, according to my friend in Canon, so much it's all out of stock till Tues. I think it's the HD video recording function, plus you can take stills while shooting. Can't wait for it to arrive...

Cute Kitty

If you haven't watched this video, you're missing a really cute kitty. I'm more of a dog person generally, but this lil kitty is so adorable it's almost unreal. Will definitely bring a smile to your face!

Traffic Watch

I was driving today and here's another of my self-exalted 'insights' into Singapore motorists:

If you're trying to filter left/right, putting on the signal just makes it harder for you to change lane. The car behind, seeing that you need to get into his/her lane, will rarely slow down. Instead the driver will SPEED up so that he wouldn't have to give way. "Get thee behind me", he thinks in his heart, and let whoever is behind be that loser who has to lose his place in the queue.

The way to change lanes is to move slowly and keep a lookout in the rear mirror for a chance to overtake. The moment it comes, quickly signal left/right and step on the gas at the same time, gaining your territory at lightning speed. This way, the driver cannot claim you didn't signal, and he gets a quick warning of your sudden intentions!

If this type of aggressive driving is too much for your frail heart, do what I do sometimes in heavy traffic.   Since you can't bulldoze your way, the alternative is to inch in bit by bit, edging into your desired lane slowly. Stop when the vehicle behind honks. It probably can't move past you already. Victory is yours!  It is likely that the driver behind will curse your grandmotherly driving skills, but because you're so slow and cute and gentle, he will be compelled to watch out for you! It's the "pretend you don't know what you're doing" technique.

If you're a biker, it's actually SAFER to be in between lanes than to take the middle of a lane, as the driving school teaches. Because bikes are SO small, we are virtually invisible to drivers, who will come as close as a meter behind before they realize you're actually there! And because there's so much space between you and the car in front, he thinks you're just a nuisance blocking his way to his destination. Besides, if a car abruptly stops, you get more braking distance between lanes. Usually there will be a clear road ahead to carry on with your journey while the rest of traffic halts to a stand-still.

Time for a laugh

Time for a silly joke...

A man and his wife waged cold war after a massive fight.
The next day the man had to be at the airport at 8am. Since they were not on talking terms, he wrote a note on a piece of paper and put it on his wife's pillow when he went to bed.
When he woke up in the morning, he was flabbergasted that it was already 9am. "That wretched woman didn't wake me up!" he thought. Then he noticed a piece of paper on his pillow. It said, "Moron...so late already still don't want to wake up!"

New look

Just in case you're wondering if you're on the right blog. Yeah, it's still me. Was tired of the old grey gloomy, sombre, dingy look. Grey is SO not me. I'm not entirely satisfied with this one either. But it'll do for the time being.

UN Climate Change Conference

The macabre photo below is a sculpture installed in a water feature is pictured outside the congress centre, before the opening of the UN Climate Change Conference 2009 in Copenhagen, December 7 to 18.

On a lighter note, while the politicians busy themselves with saving the world,  a group of prostitutes has decided to offer free sex to delegates taking part in the UN Climate Change Conference in protest against the city's attempt to dissuade conference-participants from visiting brothels. Talk about perks of being a politician. I wonder how many will take them up on the offer. The picture above is taken on a street in the red-light district in Copenhagen.

Dumbbell

Yesterday Tiger went to school and shi fu Mr Patrick Wong decided that Tiger had to upgrade his dumbbell from

to this

As you can see, he has a crestfallen look on his face as he thinks it's training time again!  It's like "Oh oh...this can't be happening at home. "

My poor doggy is carrying a dumbbell the same size as a retriever's. We had to train Tiger to "fetch" and "hold" the dumbbell and it is quite cruel cos in order to train him to "fetch" it, we put his ear against his metal choke chain collar. If he lurches forward and bites the dumbbell, nothing happens. If he refuses at command, we have to pinch his ear against the collar and oh my, he SQUEALS like it's the end of the world. Every time that happens, I swear my heart aches more than his ear. Thankfully, Tiger is a smart boy. He learns fast and is very obedient, so I don't have to feel like a monster every Sunday.

I think he enjoys going to school though. Even before we leave the house, he gets so excited seeing us lug his school bag out of the storeroom. When he is training with me, he has this serious, laboured look on his face. But when I say "OK", he leaps for joy and runs off to find his friends. Tiger's really mischievous cos he will go round the class and make new friends, sniffing their butts and trying to kiss them. Some dogs aren't accustomed to being 'French-kissed' by another dog and they yelp to get Tiger off their backs. Maybe their owners don't kiss them enough. I can't survive one day NOT kissing Tiger or sniffing in his fragrant doggy scent. It makes me happy!

In case you're curious, he sleeps with me on my bed nightly with his head on my arm until his fur gets us both warm and sweaty; that's when he looks for cooler pastures on the ground. I think I'm not alone in this dog-in-the-bed thingy. A recent report says that a third of American dog owners allow their dogs to sleep with them. A lot of people think it's dirty and disgusting, but I think the benefits outweigh the cons. I've woken up in the middle of the night feeling frozen from the aircon and turned over to the hubby for some warmth, only to find him just as cold as me. That's when Tiger comes into the picture! I'd actually get up, search for him on his little pet bed and lug him into bed with me, feeling so snug as his warmth spreads over to me. It's almost like heaven. Incidentally chiengora (dog fur wool) is great for keeping warm. I've got a whole box of Tiger's fur collected so that I can make my very own dog hair scarf!

photo

Here's one for a lazy sunday...

Look carefully at the photo. What do you see in the background? The girl in pink has exposed her butt! Arggh! Another case of silly people who take stupid photos.

Ok time for an eye  check. The "butt" is actually the photographer's shoulder. Gotcha!

Bitching about the Neighbours

It's midnight and it's so wonderfully serene here at home. I'm in a whiney mood so I think I'll indulge in everyone's favourite activity - gossip. The last 2 weeks, 4 neighbours have moved out and another unit looks set to do so this month. 2 families opposite mine have gone away for the holidays. I especially enjoy that the China family on the third floor is gone for a while. It is a respite from the constant yelling and bickering and wailing from children, loud cheena music and invasion of privacy.

I know I'm bitching here, but this family has a culture of loitering on the balcony. I don't know if it's the mainland Chinese culture, but when their friends visit, perhaps 7 people and a baby will be squatting or sitting on the 4m by 1.5m area talking and smoking into the wee hours. Everyday the balcony will be used by the babysitter or granny to feed the 5 year-old kid, who will use a pencil to knock the metal railings so that there will be a jarring metallic noise. Sometimes, the dad will roll about on the floor of the balcony with his son. On one occasion, I checked out the non-stop crying outside only to find their toddler locked out in the balcony in the hot afternoon sun. What is it with this family and the balcony? Hellloooo....there's a certain area called the "living room"! I hope that they will be away the whole month!! Happy holidays to you my comrades neighbours.

The other thing I'm happy about is the ground floor Indian ladies moving out. They have this weird vibe about them. Whenever I swim, they will 'coincidentally' happen to walk out of their apartment, presumably to 'check' on their cat. In fact, if you so happen to chat with other neighbours in the pool area, that will be sure to garner at least a peek or two from behind the curtains. My expat neighbours told me on the day they moved in, one of the ladies invited herself into their penthouse to have a free tour!! Once, I found the oldest lady hanging out just outside my door. Totally peculiar family! Anyway good riddance.

SlimFit Ad

This commercial by Slimfit is so cheesy I can't stand it! It features two actresses Priscilla Chan and Ong Ai Leng throwing cursory glances at each other's cleavages as they discuss how they amped up their bosom friends. Well first of all, the problem I have with these breast-enhancement ads is the way the breasts look - like chicken fillets tightly snuggled together. Totally unnatural. I wonder how much tissue paper they stuffed into the bra to make it look that way?!! wahhhaha, so mean rite! But seriously, if I were a potential customer, the way their breasts look would turn me off right away.

If you walk around the streets, who actually wears these type of dresses with their cleavage so tightly squeezed together like there is no tomorrow? I think the gals in the commercial could hardly breathe it must be a challenge not to look so uptight. But well, these are actresses we're talking about, not untrained   calafare.

Anyway, I don't think these sort of breast enhancement treatments work. Rather than pay $10k for 30 treatments, ladies looking to build their 'assets' should just consider Macrolane. That's a filler that's directly injected into the breasts. Beats traveling 30 times to some salon, get fixed up to some machine and undergo some masseur's kneading with no guarantee of results.

Update 4 Dec 09:

Still getting bombarded by Slimfit's Nano Technology for Breasts...

Can you imagine how a Singlish spoof on their ad would go:

Ong Ai Leng: Wah, someone throw away bra ah...why so wasted?
Priscilla: Yalor...now my boobs quite boomz mah. Bra too small liaoz thanks to Slimfit!
OAL: Eh, you also go ah? They quite good hor? (throws a glance at P's bosom friends)
P: Yah now mine big big. Wahlau I feel damn chio lor.
OAL: Me too, some more use herb only siah! Hurry hor..call slimfit now lor!

BORING wedding...yawn

Yesterday I attended the most boring wedding dinner ever. It was Eileen and Derrick's big day. She's like my long-time-but-not-very-close-friend from cell group and we were students when we got to know each other. So I thought it would be swell to attend her wedding. David didn't come along even though he was invited.

So I put my best (brave) face forward and braced for a lonely night out, hoping that I would at least know someone from somewhere. Alas, it was not to be. Table 17 was full of Eileen's mahjong clique and there was only a couple of people I know by face somewhere in the sea of people. In my typically not-so-punctual style, I arrived only to find a seat between two men. One was an "uncle" type and the other was a 20-something young man, both engaged in an animated conversation about stocks and shares. There were two seats between them so their volume was pretty loud. I felt like an intruder as the rest at the table took a casual glance at me and resumed with their insipid chatting. I plopped my butt on the seat to find myself largely ignored, virtually invisible, stuck in the crossfire between the two gesturing yakking men. Not even an acknowledgement of my presence. Impeccable manners some people have. I mean, at least say hello before resuming whatever topic. No one else on the table would meet my eye.

Salvation came in the form of another young man named Alex who sat on the empty seat on my left. He introduced himself and made conversation. Now that their view was cut off, the spell was broken for Mr Right Hand Side finally, and I was able to introduce myself. Whoa, I actually got some attention from him. Woohoo...I'm not invisible! I actually made it alive for the next 2 and half hours indulging in gastronomic delights. Had 3 bowls of sharksfin soup fyi cos 3 people from the table moved away later. Eating sharksfin seems to come with a stigma nowadays. I wouldn't normally order sharksfin soup at a restaurant, but well, since it's already been served, why let the poor shark die for nothing. Yeah, I know it sounds lame..OK, I enjoy the taste of sharksfin soup and I've been a glutton. Happy?

So if I may philosophize here...the moral of the story seems to be: Wise man attend wedding with friends. Foolish man die of boredom.