Top Ten Moments

My last post of 2008. Of course it has to be the moments of the year! Memories are so important to me and here are my top ten moments of 2008...

10. Aunt Angie had a haemorrhage just this month. She made it through her operation and after having her head drilled, she managed to recover the best she could. She can talk a little bit but her left side is paralyzed. She still has her good and bad days, she won't ever be the same again and she's going through intense therapy right now. All the best Aunt Angie... I'll always be your baby marshmallow...

9. Alone for 8 days. Sister in Europe and Mum in Perth visiting my aunt. I think regular readers of my blog will know what I'm talking about so I shan't elaborate too much!

8. Snow. The first time I saw snow (in Korea) was actually at the ski resort. But that wasn't 100% natural snow. What stands out for me was the night we were shopping in Seoul. Christmas lights and music surround us. It was freezing cold and windy, then... it started snowing. Ah... that was real nice. And something I can cross off my bucket list! :)

7. Driving around with my cousins. 2 of my lovely cousins passed their driving this year, so congrats! Ruyi and I drove around a lot with her dad's car and when I was alone, we rented a car! Man... we got lost a lot! But its so fun listening to the radio and singing along. It sure is a far cry from sitting on Jac's bed and pretending we had our own car! Haha...

6. Singfest, Jason Mraz. My supervisor at worked presured me into doing the other feeding trail. I brought my scripts along and was pretty stressed out. Some of the other acts there were pretty good but Mraz really stuck in my mind. He came out and did an awesome warm-up before jumping into The Remedy. Then afterwards, he had everyone raising their hands in the air, singing along to a section in Marley's ''Three Little Birds''... every little thing, is gonna be alright. And it was.

5. My first job. How many posts did I have about this job? Enough. As much as I complained about it, I totally have no regrets. Sure, it was 6 months of my life but I did meet some interesting people and some nice ones as well! It taught me so much and after having such a rough working environment, I am so ready to see what's next!

4. Birthday Surprise. Boy, I did not expect such a sweet thing to happen to me! To me! It was a fantastic way to book in my 20th. Thanks cousins!

3. Korea trip. 2nd time out of S.E.A. Í don't like tours but I'm so glad that I managed to experience another country. Plus, I paid for most of it myself!

2. Vietnam and Malaysia trip. After working so hard for my last semester in Poly, I was sooo looking forward to this trip. During the late night cram sessions, I was visualizing my feet in the sand and looking out at the ocean. And I did that! Plus, it was my first time in a 5-star hotel (in Vietnam)... cool man. Then about a week after that, we were off to Malaysia in our good old drive-up! Ah... fun times.

1. Graduation. That's really the big thing this year. After 3 years, it was over. I remember going back to school for the first time after the exams with my best friend to collect our robes. We went through secondary and poly together, girl! Then finally on graduation day, we all put on our robes, smilled and went on stage to get our diploma. The girls got me a cake for my b'day and we went out to watch Prince Caspian after that. Graduation was a big aww moment and one that would stay with me for a long time.

So there it is… my top ten moments. Hopefully next year I would have so much more to choose from.

Now I’m just waiting to eat dinner and kinda shaking my head at my sis who’s trying to arrange flowers. She looks stressed man… Haha…

Happy New Year Everyone! :)

Top Ten Movies

2008 was the year of sequels for films, I think. Madagascar, Narnia, Travelling Pants, Batman, Hellboy, Mummy, etc... A lot of good and some bad films.

Some bad films include:
My Best Friend' Girl starring Dane Cook, Kate Hudson and Jason Biggs. It was bad directing, bad acting and even... bad lighting! I watched it at CCK some more... So it was a bad movie in a bad theatre.
The Winx Club wins the worst film of the year for me. Yes, it was a kid's film and ya, I didn't really want to watch it. Boy, it was a bad film... even the kids looked bored! Ironic thing is, the company that made the film is gonna open a branch here. Wtf?? The storyline seemed ok but the direction sucks and the voices for the characters were worse. I mean, how many times can one giggle? A lot apparently... The characters were sooo not proportionate. And I swear, sometimes they looked a little like hentai characters. Don't ask me how I know what hentai characters look like ok...

Enough about the bad. Here are my top ten films of the year:

10. Mirrors
9. Australia
8. Jumper
7. Iron Man
6. Mamma Mia
5. Bolt
4. Prince Caspian
3. The Dark Knight
2. Atonement
1. Kung Fu Panda

Mirrors is a scary movie. I really don't watch these kinda movies but it had Kiefer Sutherland so I had to give it a try! And it was awesome... Usually I would avoid horror flicks cos they have bad endings and they scare you needlessly. But this had a storyline and a rocking ending! The best horror films, I find, are the ones that chilll you and leave you thinking about it when you walk out.

Australia is a very late entry. I watched it only last week. Wah, damn long show man... 2h 45min! Nicole's melodic voice and Hugh's AWESOME body is enough reason to go watch this show. But surprisingly, it has so much depth to it! And I bet if I was Australian and knew it's history, it would mean so much more. This show will have you on the edge of your seat and screaming to go to the toilet. Go watch it... :)

Jumper and Caspian aren't that fantastic but they were well made films. Very good effects. And they also have my celebrity crushes Hayden Christensen and Ben Barnes! Hee...

7, 6 and 5 were a whole lot of fun. In Bolt, there's one part (the trailer park part) where it tickled my funny bone and I couldn't stop laughing! I was tearing, mind you!

The Dark Knight. Enough said. So much going on around this film and I think it speaks for itself.

Atonement was actually released December 2007 but it only reached us January 2008. It was very long but fantastically made. A good director really goes a long way. And the story... wow. Its just fantastic. I really recommend watching it. Just make sure you're not sleepy (cos it can be quiet a lot) and go to the toilet first. :)

Kung Fu Panda! Man, I love this movie. I look like the Panda (which I find cute) and I watched it during the training week for my last job. It was a real motivation for me and it definitely played a part in me staying on!

So there it is. 2008 in film was alright. Here's hoping for more better films in 2009!

P.S. I decided not to take the advertising job as it wasn't what I expected. It was more of a sales job which is so not my thing!

Top Ten Books

I didn't read that much this year... as compared to my previous years. Mostly because in the beginning of the year I was busy with studying for final exams, finishing projects and anything that has to do with ending the school year.

Then sometime around June, I started working. And for about 2 months, I was busy learning my scripts and reading a lot of animal stuff like encyclopedias and online stuff. So the following list is really just about 8 months of reading...

My top ten books this year are:

10. The Tenth Circle ~ Jodi Picoult
9. The Tale of Two Sisters ~ Anna Maxted
8. Mister Pip ~ Lloyd Jones
7. The Last Lecture ~ Randy Pausch
6. My Best Friend's Girl ~ Dorothy Koomson
5. The Alchemyst ~Michael Scott
4. Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox ~ Eoin Colfer
3. Marley & Me ~ John Grogan
2. The Tales of Beedle The Bard ~ J.K. Rowling
1. The Infinite Wisdon of Harriet Rose ~ Diana Janney

Bet you thought that I'd put Beedle first right? I like Harry Potter books and although Beedle was awesome, it didn't strike me as much as Harry did.

10, 9, 8 were alright books. 7 was a really touching one, about this professor who has terminal cancer so he wrote this book for his kids and others. 6 was a really touching story about this woman who found out that her best friend had a baby with her fiancé.

Marley &Me was really nice. I remembered I read a large part of the book when I was on a train in Vietnam. My cousins were playing cards on the top deck and I was in my own world at the bottom deck. I stayed away from this book for a while cos my dog just passed away and I didn't want reminders of having a dog yet cos her death hadn't really settled in. But when I finally picked it up, her death was already thoroughly accepted.

Artemis Fowl took up a few years of my teenage life and its just great fun to read! The Alchemyst.. although totally a teenage fantasy, it was entertaining. And its so movie material...

My No. 1 choice... Harriet. It was the first book that I thoroughly enjoyed this year. Its about a teenage girl who is very much into philosophy and not into boys that much. And how the author slips into her mind is oh so entertaining. Highly recommended.

Christmas!

It was a fantastic christmas party at Shaun's last night. But everyone else had to work so we had to cut it short or else I'm sure it would've continued on into the wee hours!

And... it was the first time I did like a live performance! It was a mini one and I sang on their mini stage with Cousin Jason. So cool... live acoustic set man... my fav! We performed Stop & Stare, Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You and Complicated. The mic was a bit too loud and echo-y and I couldn't hear myself, plus we were totally improvising so we went off-key sometimes. But its so fun to perform... My mum later on said that I got like ''no shame'', getting up and performing like that. Hey, I used to talk at work in front of hundreds of people!

The food was amazing man. Christmas chicken and ham and even some sushi! Haha... And the cousins took a group photo together! We haven't done that since CNY this year man. So let the pics speak for itself...

Cousin Chloe. She's adorable! Not even 2 and walking like mad!

Christmas Eve

Nothing much going on around here. Just waiting around for Christmas I guess... But I got a very special present today! I had an interview with an advertising agency... I got a call back about 4 hours after I left the place and I was shortlisted! So I'm gonna start my training on Monday, 9am. Yea!

Seeing as its end of the year, I've decided to make as many countdown lists as possible, just to roughly summarize my year.

This post also marks my 100th post! Woo! A little over a year ago, someone whose name also start with K convinced me to start a blog... and here I am. Its a great place to practice my writing and to let people know what's going on with me. If only I got more feedback... :)

Since its Christmas time, a time of mass consumption (hee...) I've decided to compile a list of 10 of my favourite purchases this year.

10. Dickies bag with my own MCR patch
9. Chanel lipgloss
8. Lee Cooper shoes (I wear them all the time)
7. Lots of Amethyst stuff
6. Lots of CDs
5. Face shop stuff (in Korea!)
4. Lots of Books (special: HP extra and Artemis Fowl)
3. Lots of DVDs
2. Samsung handphone
1. Olynpus camera called Violet

There ya go... my top ten items this year. And the special thing is... I actually paid for half of these items with my own money that I earned! Haha...

Tomorrow is the Christmas part at Shaun's house. I don't even know what time it is man!

Patriotic, maybe

I was at Jurong Point on Friday night, by myself, to pick up dry cleaning and to feed myself. Boy, was I pissed by the time I got home. And I was there barely an hour!

I love my country, don't get me wrong. But the only thing I dislike about it is... its overcrowded!!! We're such a small city and people are just everywhere. I can't walk 10 steps without having to step aside to avoid some idiot who's in my path! This made me think back to the 2 weeks I spent in Perth. It was so relaxing... People weren't in a rush, you have all the space in the world to walk and you could actually get a seat on the bus! There's no way you could do that here. Unless you go out at like 4am...

Which reminds me: the times when I am thankful for being a Singaporean (besides National Day) is when I am out in the wee hours of the morning. The time when people are already in bed or before they come out for another hectic day. There's hardly anyone around and I can finally breathe and take in my country. I see youths out and about at 4 in the morning, I hang out at a 24 hours food joint, I stop by 7-eleven to get a drink, etc...

That's when I appreciate my urban oasis. When things wind down in this concrete jungle and I finally have space to take it all in. Its clean, its safe, its my home.

Then the alarm rings. People wake up and go about their daily lives... And that frown returns to my face...

Oh well... I'm definitely patriotic, maybe.

In Good Company

My aunt is in hospital in Australia. So less than a week from our return home from Korea, my mum flew off to Australia to see her. My sis is on vacation in Europe. I don't really hang out with my dad. So basically, i'm alone. For the 1st time in 20 years. I've gone overseas without my family before but this is the 1st time i'm alone at home. I think i'm doing darn well! I feel more independent and more of a... adult! I though that I was totally dependent on my mum but i'm glad to find out that I can do things on my own. Awesome!

That's why i'm real thankful for all the great company I have! Mum left on Mon and i've been going out everyday since then with my cousins and friends. Thanks guys!

My cousins and I had a sleepover and we also rented a car! Now we have 2 drivers (i'm waiting till I earn my own money then I can really get my license) so they took turns in driving. It was real fun chilling to the radio and seeing the world go by. And we could go wherever we wanted. I finally got to see Dempsey Road and satisfy my craving for Waffletown!

We also went Sentosa for a short tanning session. First time I purposely went to tan. Other times its usually some other activity that would get me dark. But I don't get dark. I'd get pink, look ever so slightly darker, then I'd go back to my normal shade. Anyways my skin is red and a little itchy right now! At least my tan lines from work aren't so obvious now!

At Dempsey Road we went to have Ben & Jerry's. Man, that place is nice! It has an old English castle-like feel to it. The atmosphere was amazing... Plus there was a 2-man band playing good acoustic covers of good rock songs. Can I use that place for something? Haha... I admire local musicians for playing live sets. The Singapore crowd is dead. Dead! They won't even applause a little bit after they were done with their song. I know how it feels when people don't appreciate your performance, so I was glad to say I started the applause! Hee... Dempsey road is nice but super inconvenient if you don't have a car and way too dark if you do! Here's some pics...

It's Friday and I have nothing to do. Guess I'm gonna stay home then. Urgh... I hate being alone at home at night.

Korea!

Wow, it was a real fun trip! We went to Jeju Island and Seoul. We got to meet some interesting people, stay at nice hotels and... see snow! After 20 years of existence, I finally got to see snow. And the best thing is, its the first time that my whole family saw snow, so its a nice experience to share... Here are some highlights from my trip...

Jumping for joy on top of a mountain

Aiin's Miniature world

Yes, that's my butt...

No, we didn't stop in Paris, but its one of the dreams!
New York is also one of the dreams

War Memorial

It was surreal to go in the actual planes and tanks that those brave soldiers were fighting the war in. I can't imagine what must've been going through their minds

FOOD!
Korean food is very simple. Sure, we have Korea food here, but its altered to suit our taste. So we had authentic Korean BBQ, ginseng rice, noodles... and of course, Kimchi. Man, they have Kimchi all day! Even in the morning right beside your scrambled eggs! Haha...

At Everland resort (mini Disneyland), freezing, drinking beer and eating sausages in Holland Village. Yup, you heard me. A Holland Village in Korea.

Kimchi school! The Kimchi we made was given to the orphanage. Btw, Korean kids are the cutest!
At Dunkin' Donuts. All their shops were so nicely decorated, the donuts fed us and their hot Oreo latte kept me warm!
Coffee Bean, my fav (sorry ting) was all over and it kept me warm too!

Of course, after eating so much, I started to look more and more like these corn dogs... Diet!

Teddy bear museum

We weren't supposed to enter but we did anyway! My sis couldn't get up but I somehow did! :)

At a Teddy bear museum. I know... I really look like the Teddy. Round.
At Everland resort again. We were almost lost but my navigation skills got us through! Ahaha...

We really weren't prepared for the cold and when the wind blew... we braced ourselves!
Dragon Ski Valley

Supposedly where they filmed Winter Sonata. Sis and I got to ski! I took to it pretty quickly but didn't do much cos we weren't allowed to go up too high and it was tiring climbing up by yourself. It was -12 baby!!! Woo... damn cold but I got used to it... with snot running down my nose! Urgh... Here are the pics!

Hmm... when did we take a non-goofy pic?
My snow angel. Mind you, I did this in the middle of a shopping centre square and people were staring! But I think when you're on Holiday, the normal rules don't apply! :)
This little girl is called Cheryl and she's damn cute! Real sweet and nice and tells the most ridiculous jokes!

My tour group. Got some damn tau people but some real nice ones too. Just before this pics was taken, we were all throwing snow balls at the driver and tour guide. Damn fun.

Family pics

How do we look in our Korean costumes? People keep saying my sis looks like a Korean actress. Anyone knows who? (tag please)

Ah... in the snow after a warm dinner and good shopping. Who could ask for more?

Us with our tour guide. She's from Taiwan, is damn funny and straightforward. Thanks mei ren yu!

Last but really not least... the stuff that we bought! A whole dining table worth! Haha...

Here's some items that I was real happy I bought:

• Adidas special shoe made with bamboo! And... it was at a factory outlet, a whole shopping mall of cheaper branded stuff! Only $40+!!!
• Gucci and Roxy perfume like SGD$20 cheaper than here!
• The Little Prince umbrella
• A ton of face shop stuff! Really, a lot! I spent almost SGD$100. But some of the stuff there is half the price here man!
• Chocolates
• Little souvenirs for cousins and friends
  

It was a just nice trip, really. Not too long nor short. I liked Seoul. Its like a cooler version of S'pore and their heritage is everywhere (Something you don't see too often here). The architecture is fantastic. The people are cute. Food is nice, healthy and simple. Would I go there again? For sure! Maybe in like 5-10 years?

Hmm... where will I be going to next? Haha... :)