met up with peter last night. i'm not sure if you'd call that a date or not. we had coffee, a bit of chat, a bit of laugh. was that a date? i'm not sure cause i haven't been on too many of them. dates ... that is.

only one comes to mind as a actual date. it was back when i was ... 16? 17? a friend's of my brother asked me out and i thought, "sure! why not! let's give this dating thing a shot." that's the one and only time i went out with that guy though. it's not like we didn't have fun. we did. watched a movie. went to the arcade. just plain hung out. so what's the difference between that and hanging out with friends? i didn't see the difference plus it wasn't like i was into the guy so we never went out again. he's still my brother's friend and we're kinda friends as well, i guess.

then there was this french guy who picked me up from coffee bean. i had just gotten back from melbourne and was job searching. had just hand delivered a resume to a company in town and thought i'd hang for awhile. then i met him. i don't even know why i let him pick me up. he wasn't even cute! turns out he's sort of a horny guy. probably out searching for a cheap lay. only went out with him like twice i think. then it was buh-bye!

right. and in between that, i had this course mate who liked me. i knew he kinda likes me but we're mostly friends really. i don't ever think of him as boyfriend material. this is gonna sound really bad of me but ... he's fat and not even ok looking. okay all you people who wants to bash me for not liking fat ugly people do so now or forever hold your peace .... we'd hang out. go dinners. watch movies. never once did i think those were preludes to a certain something that would happen later ...

we were out in the city (melbourne at that time). don't remember what we did but i think we went to watch the 'wedding singer' ... the one with adam sandler and drew barrymore. then we had a delicious italian dinner. mmm ... yum! then we hopped on the train to head home (we students all live around the same area). it was in the train when he popped the question. NO! not THE. geez! only that he asked me whether i wanted to be his girlfriend. of course i told him no and i don't think of him as a boyfriend and that we're good friends. then he asked, "why? why don't you want to be my girlfriend? don't we have a good time when we hang out? i'm a nice guy aren't i?" i went "yes. yes. yes. but i still don't want you as a boyfriend. i don't feel anything for you but friendship." you'd think he'd leave it at that wouldn't you? but no! he had to insist that i tell him the reason i don't want to be his girlfriend. i was like, "haven't you hear a word i've said? i don't feel anything for you. that's why! plus, i don't really want a boyfriend right now. i'm happy being single."

at this point, i was wishing that i could just walk away from him but the train's moving. even worse, we'd taken an express train and it'll arrive at one station before the one i'm getting off which was his station. wish i could have jumped off or something cause he was making me feel really uncomfortable. i stayed silent till he got off. then i headed towards my friends place which i was staying over at that day. of course i told her what happened and she agreed that he shouldn't have placed me in such a spot. all i could say was "hell yeah!"

ever since that day, i've avoided meeting up with him. oh we wen't out for dinner once last year. i was hoping he'd forget the whole incident but i sort of feel that he still likes me that way cause he asked me whether i was seeing anyone at the moment. why i wasn't. as if my explanation of not wanting a boyfriend is baseless. so, yeah, haven't spoken to him since that dinner. it's kinda sad to loose a good friend you can hang out with due to all this crap!

then there's this guy, simon, whom i met at the choir agm. he's a malaysian working in singapore. when he came back for a few days he asked me if i'd like to have coffee. again i went ... yeah. sure. why not. a bit of chat. a bit of laugh. and then he asked whether i watch movies. i'm thinking, "okay. here we go!" but said "sure i do." thing is he didn't really ask me to go for a movie just whether i do watch movies or not. so i took it, the question, literally in the hopes that he gets the idea and switch topic or something.

so ... that's the extent of my dating life. pathetic isn't it? maybe. but mostly it's cause i don't really feel like having a relationship so why date at all?

people say a lot good things about relationships. about how it helps you grow. enriches you life. makes feel things and all that. even though relationship eventually goes sour at the end, you still learn from it and it makes better person. more experience with life.

probably that's what's missing in my life. i always feel like life is pointless. i'm just going through the motions. i don't matter in the whole picture. nothing would be missed if i should suddenly dissappear. it's like what eponin sang "without me, his life would go on turning" in the song 'on my own' from les miserable. in my case, it would go "without me, the world would go on turning".

i really need life experience. most thing i know i've learned from books and i feel i've been sheltered all my life. i need to experience things.

on that note, i think i'll see how things with peter goes. i might actually give the boyfriend-girlfriend-relationship thing a go. he asked what i was doing this weekend and i said i didn't know. he said he's mail me. but he didn't today. maybe sometime this week he will. maybe our meet didn't go too well. don't know.

and life goes on.

created a little site to place announcement for auditions that i come across on the internet, newspaper, ...etc. check it out at http://auditions.blogspot.com.

i've got more to add but don't have the time yet. would do it later. if you have audition information, email me the details and i'll place them there.

first practise for the new dance formation team happened yesterday morning. pretty good effort too. learned some new moves. relearned some old ones. one hour and forty five minutes later, it's over. nice having a little aerobic exercise in the morning. :) following that, had a regular set of big mac meal. mwaahaha ... all the burnt calories regained.

then, more dancing. practise the competition routine with my partner for over an hour before we stopped. me out of exhaustion and him cause he's gotta go chauffer his mom.

crashed out at prem's place for a few hours after sending my car for a wash and vacum (finally!). they were watching 'the corruptor' showing on astro. i didn't remember the movie being so utterly boring the last time i saw it. granted, i still have no idea what chow yun-fat was mumbling about throughout the whole movie. he really need to learn how to speak english before he justifies himself a hollywood actor and his big fat paycheck. just stick to hong kong movies mr.chow until you do, okay?

i brought prem the lavay smith cd i had and she made a copy of it there and then so i could take it home on the same day unlike my russell watson cd that she held hostage for over two months. also brought her the vcd of Amelie ... the french movie that's been garnering really good reviews. it's a light and cute movie. i like.

next headed over to one-utama to check out the seating for the musical 'fame'. yay! a musical finally coming to town. yes? no! not really. i'm still recovering from the shock of the ticket pricing and the seating for the prices. almost 75% of the seating has been allocated to the most expensive ticket (RM250). the cheapest tickets (RM100 - evening show; RM75 - matinee) only occupied 2 - read my lips - 2 rows at the back of the third floor! the next cheapest ticket (RM150 - eve; RM125? - matinee) isn't much better either as they occupy the next 5 - 6 rows in front of the 2 rows and also only at the third floor. the second most expensive tickets (RM200; RM175) are loosely speared out throughout the theatre space of all three floors. eveyone's reconsidering if they really will go for the show. we were all thinking of watching it at the cheapest ticket but if we're not going to see anything at the back of the third floor, we might as well head off to the rental store and get 'fame' the movie on tape! hmmm ... maybe i'll get my sisters to get tickets ... student price is only RM50 and they get a seat at the back of the ground floor ... then i'll take trish's ticket (stef wants to watch too) and watch the show ... hopefully they won't check for student identification on entering the theatre.

still reeling from the shock, prem and push dropped me at the car wash to pick up my car ... my car has never looked so clean! the interior is clean! all trace of dust, sand, grime, gone! yay! headed onwards to the studio for more practise. still tired. wasn't able to practise for too long. had about an hour practise before i called it a day. exhausted. thoroughly drained.

took a shower. plopped in front of the tv for a bit. took dinner in front of tv. started nodding off while watching 'early edition'. switched off telly and went to bed. it was 8pm then. when i woke up next, it's time to get ready for work. wow! haven't gone to bed at 8pm since ... i can't remember. never went to bed early even when i was a kid of 5. probably did when i was a toddler but i can't remember.

it amazes me that i managed to do this - practise, practise, practise for a whole day - every week for about a year when i was doing ballet during my teens. i guess there is something to this age-stamina thing. either that or just cause i haven't been as active after school years and the stamina's deteriorated. yeah. that's probably it. well, it's better that than to think that i'm getting too old for this, isn't it?

• Just checked Rach's blog. It's gone! Rach! What happened?


• The following is a snippet from a mail I received.
  

  Well, if you really have RM50 to spend and no singing teacher, I suggest we go
  out for dinner instead!
  
  let me know when you're free
  

  
  Question ... is he asking me out or am I reading too much into it?
  

My brakes doesn't seem to be working too well. It's a good thing I wasn't speeding when I found that out. Crawled like a snail this morning to get to work. Have to tell my dad about it. I'm not sure where to take the car for servicing. There's the wireman and then there's the mechanic. When do I go to a wireman and when to a mechanic? People should write stuff like this down or tell us about it during drivers ed. Driver's ed's a waste of time here. All we do is sit there for about 6 hours listening to some guy drone on and on about nothing of importance. Some people slept through the class and some started flirting with some kids - kids mainly cause someone 21 while most were only about 17. Anyway, it was a waste of time.

It's Friday today. Maybe I'll start giving all the potential voice coaches a call later. There's this one guy who seems to be teaching a lot of the members of the Selangor Phil Choir and come highly recommended by Cheryl. Although Cris says that he's all booked, Cheryl thinks that I should call him up and try and that he might take me if he thinks I am serious and have potential. Hmmm ... I'm not sure whether I have potential but I'm serious though. So, fingers crossed.

Had a discussion with some people yesterday. My dance partner's setting up a dance formation team, in which yours truly is included. He's actually come up with an agreement letter in which we'll have to sign, indicating our commitment to the team. Letter includes code of conduct and even practise wear. Geez! Practise wear. Can't we just wear anything so long as we can dance? First practise session is this Sunday at the ungodly hour of 9.15 am. Hey! It's Sunday! Nobody should get up before 11 am. ... okay fine, 10 am then.

Hope this works out. I don't mind making some money on the side. Especially now that I'm seriously thinking of taking up voice lessons. Someone suggested Eddie Chin, a well known baritone in Malaysia. However, he's gonna be expensive. According to an ex-short-span-student of his, he charges $90 per lesson. Whoa! Would really, really love to though. Will have to think long and hard about it before giving Mr Chin a call to check he's still taking in students.

Right. So this new classical crossover guy. His name's Josh Groban and he's a baritone. I'm not much for voice quality and the whole shebang about how good a person's voice is. I only know what I like and what I don't. And I like his voice. Some says he's more pop than classical and that's fine. I love mixes. I think mix can be a good thing. Anyway, this guy's been on Ally McBeal twice. Guest-ed for other classical crossovers such as Sarah Brightman (love) and Charlotte Church (dislike).

I saw two clips from Ally McBeal in which he sang (of course) from this site. At the end of the clip/song, I had tears in my eyes and a wide smile on my lips. Must have looked like an idiot but thankfully, everyone at the office has gone home. Then after watching the second clip, I could have bawled right in front of my PC ... at work! But I didn't. I'm quite controlled about this bawling thing. Unlike when I was a kid where I cried at every chance.

So now, I have a whole collection of crossover that I like; soprano (Sarah B), tenor (Russell Watson) and baritone (Josh Groban). What else am I missing in this collection?

To listen to Josh Groban's entire debut CD, goto http://www.buzztone.com/josh. Tell me what you think. Am I being pretentious again?

Fuck! I forgot I disconnected the line before I clicked post. Darn! Everything's gone.

Next time, when I'm writing at home, I'm gonna do this. I'm going to write in notepad first and then copy to blogger. That way, it won't get lost.

I was just saying that I've just finished putting my towel stand together. Yeap! I finally got myself a towel stand. Not the gorgeous, expensive $170 I was salivating over but a cheap yet nice substitute. Twas only $31.90 from the new Ace Hardware store in MidVallley Megamall. It's not completely altogether as yet. Eight of the screws they gave were too small. Will have to go the the shops to try and get them at least one size larger. BUT ... the stand is standing. The only unfinished parts are the handles.

Another good news! The window man finally came through. We thought he'd given up ... I mean we've almost given up on him. It has been more than two months since we commissioned him to make the window. The window's for the hole in the wall between my room and the kitchen. Finally the 'titanic' and 'deep impact' posters (which were serving as temporary covers) have been taken down. Thank you guys, you've served me well ... and now, it's off the the bins for you. Muahahahaha!

Such an ingrate!

Choir's restarted. Good turnout -- which not doubt start dropping off like flies as the weeks go by.

Discovered a new classical crossover guy two days ago. Will tell more tomorrow. I'm too sleepy now. Will reconnect, post this and go to bed.

Hurrah! Finally finished my part of the proposal. Hope what I did was what they asked for. I've never done proposals before.

Could have finished it much earlier I suppose but I've been delaying and post-poning it cause I don't know what to write. I'm not good at making things up. Embellishing is not my forte. Straight. Direct. Factual. That I'm better at. Which means I would have been a sucky businesswoman. Won't be to good at being a consultant either I suppose.

Let's just hope that my incompetence doesn't show too much. Praying and hoping that I'd still have a job after the proposal's been viewed. *fingers crossed*

Well, off to do programming and debugging work that I've put off for the past week and a half.

JAVA CODES! HI! I'm back. Did you miss me? *empress hugs the monitor* *smooch* *smooch*

Chinese Horoscope. Which one are you? Are we compatible? I'm a sssssssssssnake ...


The Charming RAT (1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996)

The Rat person is charming and ambitious. They are alwaysbusy and seldom
able to relax fully. If not, they get bored easily or get bad tempered. They
enjoy going to parties or having a quick round of chat. Rats like to reach
their goals by fair play. They are shrewd and not easy to be fooled.

Rats are lively, sociable and easy to get along. They are ambitious and like
to see others put in an honest day's work. The Rat is a real family person
and devoted to their loved ones and family. At home, does not reveal any of
the mean personality traits. Rats make good advisers to others but not to
themselves and are generous to those they truly love even if not loved back.
Rats are also hardworking and thrifty and able to sense danger. Are honest,
meticulous, and intelligent.

On the negative side, Rats are practical but lack courage. Can be
extravagant and greedy. If the Rat is not careful, the greedy side of the
Rat could lead to all kinds of trouble. Rats are secretive, self-indulging
and self-seeking. They love to criticize and gossip. Rats should avoid being
over-work and being over-ambitious. Avoid trusting another Rat or those born
in the year of the Rabbit and Ram.

Career: Suitable in the Service Industry:
Male: Advertising, Food & Beverage, Hotel, Music, Mass Media, Research.
Female: Beauty, Fashion, Film, Hotel & Writing.
Romance: Gentle and loving. However, can get into extra-marital affairs.
Younger Monkey and Dragon make good companion for the Male Rat. Female Rat's
ideal partner is the Dragon or Ox.

Excellent Match: Rat, Dragon, Monkey
Pairing Best Avoided: Horse, Rabbit, Ram
In some instances, be more understanding and tolerant: Ox, Tiger, Snake,
Rooster, Dog, Pig



The Hardworking Ox (1901, 1913, 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985)

The Ox person is not happy with change and prefers conformity and
convention. Ox people love the traditional value of hardwork and a stable
family life. The Ox person enjoy material things and they are more than
prepared to work hard to acquire a lifestyle that suits them. Oxen are
generally calm and placid and rarely lose their temper. In the rare event
that they lose their temper, it would be wise to keep clear as they are
capable of fearsome rages and an Ox on a rampage is very dangerous.

The Ox person is reliable, sincere and generally cool and patient. They are
neat, modest and seek solitude. They have few friends who are however very
faithful to them. Ox loves their food and drink and likes to stay in their
luxurious home. Ox person is good listeners, is systematic and likes
convention and tradition. They are also highly principled, strong,
determined, stable, dependable and reliable. Ox person is reliable, fair and
thinks carefully before speaking his mind, loyal and seldom jealous. Are not
great conversationalists but are full of substance and interesting. Not
romantic but can be passionate. They are family oriented and faithful.

Ox person is stubborn and difficult to change views and can be carried away
with convention thus considered too rigid. Is dogmatic and lacks humor. Oxen
are not generous with money and naive about love and find that those close
to them fail to understand them. Yet they are patient and caring and makes
good friends. An Ox person tends to bear grudges for a long time.

Careers: Doctor, Lawyer, Teachers and Writers. Will accomplish much early or
when they are old.
Romance:
Male: Preferably someone younger, born in the year of the Snake.
Female: Younger Rooster

Excellent Match: Rat, Rabbit, Monkey
Pairing Best Avoided: Horse, Dragon, Ram
In some instances, be more understanding and tolerant: Ox, Tiger, Snake,
Rooster, Dog, Pig



The Lively Tiger (1914, 1926, 1938, 1950, 1974, 1986, 1998)

The tiger is highly regarded in China with almost magical powers to keep
thieves and ghosts at bay. A Tiger person is "born to command and not to
obey". Tigers are charismatic and dynamic. They are courageous and respected
even from those that oppose them. Tigers are "fighters" and stand up for
what they think are right.

A Tiger person is courageous, dynamic, and independent. Are committed in
doing things and completing it. Tigers are warm, sincere, honorable and
humorous. Tiger person is also tolerant, understanding and generous and is
capable of great generosity and a good friend to have. They enjoy a good
social life and sentimental and enjoy family life.

Tiger person is capable of making impulsive decisions and this may prove
disastrous. They are generally optimistic but should they sink into a
depression, it is harder for them to recover. Tigers are rebellious and
unpredictable, always tense and in a hurry. If you are around a Tiger
person, do expect a roller coaster ride. Tigers are also ill tempered,
egoistic. Enjoys taking risks but must learn not to rush things without due
consideration. They like grand tasks but do not check detail. They usually
like to operate alone and does not like anyone to challenge them. Hates to
obey others and dislikes interference.

Career: Will achieve success early in life but will meet with obstacles, as
he is usually arrogant. Refrain from acting on impulses or it may result in
financial loss.
Romance: Both Male and Female are possessive and career minded and this may
result in tension at home.

Excellent Match: Horse, Dog, Dragon
Pairing Best Avoided: Snake, Ox, Monkey, Rabbit
In some instances, be more understanding and tolerant: Rat, Tiger, Ram,
Rooster, Pig



The Diplomatic Rabbit (1903, 1915, 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987)

A Rabbit person is peace loving usually kind. Sweet and popular with an
well-ordered life. Rabbits are not weak; they merely avoid any fight and
have great diplomatic and negotiating skills. Their homes will have the very
best furniture and always beautiful and they derive pleasure from these and
they prefer to spent their time at home and family rather than going out for
entertainment. Rabbits are symbol of longevity and often live to a ripe old
age.

A Rabbit person is calm, gentle, discreet and reserved. They are gracious
and good mannered. Rabbits have good memory, intelligent, farsighted and
intuitive. They are methodical and also make good counselors. Rabbits also
have good business acumen and are lucky in business. A Rabbit person is very
sensitive, a little touchy and suspicious. Has regular mood swings. Rabbits
are also indecisive, not always fair.

Career: Active imagination and good at arts or customer relations.
Romance: Are ideal lovers because they are accommodating of other's
shortcoming.
Male: Not faithful in love and has an urge for sex. Gets into extra marital
affairs easily
Female: Good mothers and wives

Excellent Match: Ram, Dog, Dragon, Pig
Pairing Best Avoided: Rooster, Rat, Tiger
In some instances, be more understanding and tolerant: Ox, Rabbit, Snake,
Horse, Monkey



The Self-Confident Dragon (1904, 1916, 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988)

The Dragon is the symbol of ancient China. The folk tales on the Dragon is
endless. The Dragon is revered with equal status as the Chinese Emperor as
his throne is the Dragon and only he can wear the Dragon robe. The Dragon
year is popular with every Chinese parent who hopes for a Dragon child. A
Dragon person is interesting and has lots of charisma. Are highly
intelligent.

A Dragon person is lively and full of vitality. They are determined and have
lots of self-confidence. Dragons are strong fighters, follow own judgement
and can take control and deal effectively with any problems. They are also
admired but have few close friends. In love relationships, they are filial.

Dragons are dictatorial. Can put up quite a fight. Not prepared to listen to
other's advice. Very arrogant, direct, lack patience and tolerance can lead
to poor judgement. Dragons seldom agree with their elders, blunt and direct.
They are also eccentric and egoistic.

Career: Businessman, Actor, Athlete and Singer. At middle age, take care not
to be complacent or careless.
Romance: Self-centered but needs to be loved. Tend to marry late.

Excellent Match: Rat, Rooster, Monkey
Pairing Best Avoided: Tiger, Ox, Dog
In some instances, be more understanding and tolerant: Rabbit, Dragon,
Snake, Horse, Ram, Pig

The Enigmatic Snake (1905, 1917, 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001)

Snakes are universal symbol of evil but the Chinese Horoscope; the Snake is
not the evil snake we like to commonly like to associate with.

Snakes are intelligent, talented, determined and a great organizer. They are
philosophical and good thinkers. Snakes are shrewd and thus make them very
good in business. They enjoy the pleasures of life and love to accumulate
money. Snakes are romantic and charming.

Snakes are mysterious and keep their thoughts to themselves. They have good
memories and can bear grudges for many years without ever expressing them
until the time is right for revenge. Snakes are capable of lies although
they do not do it often, if they do, they feel that they can get away with
it. A Snakes person does needs lots of security. High moral principles
applied mostly to others. And never let opportunity slips by. Stubborn hates
to listen to others and find failure totally unbearable.

Career: Politics, Entertainment, Sales and Public Relations. Success
short-lived in early life but good in later life.
Romance: Possessive and jealous. OK to misbehave but does not allow partner
to mix with opposite sex. Charming and easy going is irresistible to the
opposite sex.

Excellent Match: Rooster, Ox
Pairing Best Avoided: Tiger, Snake, Pig
In some instances, be more understanding and tolerant: Rat, Rabbit, Dragon,
Horse, Dog

The Eloquent Horse (1906, 1918, 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990)

A Horse person is generally popular and is the heart and soul of every
party. In ancient China, the Horse symbolizes freedom and a distinguished
career.

Hardworking, adventurous, fast, cheerful, popular and confident. They are
lively, cheerful and sociable. A Horse person is elegant, independent, loves
to travel. They make friends easily, helpful and loyal. They are not petty.
Horses are clever but not exactly intelligent and good at promoting grand
ideas. They are constantly on the move and enjoy experimenting with new
things or meeting new people.

Quick tempered but heart is in the right place. Likes to take center
stage.
They are also impatient, takes little advice from others. Horses are only
concerned with their own freedom and do not consider other people's needs.
They are also have swings of moods and thus become inconsistent, talk too
much and cannot keep secrets. Horses tend to rush others but unable to keep
to their schedules, impulsive and stubborn.

Career: Generally will do well in the chosen career. Own business, Public
Relations, Tourism and Commerce.
Romance: Make good friends and lovers but because they enjoy freedom and are
strong-headed relationships will not be long lasting. Tend to marry young
and divorce young.

Excellent Match: Ram, Tiger, Dog
Pairing Best Avoided: Rat, Monkey, Ox, Horse
In some instances, be more understanding and tolerant: Rabbit, Dragon,
Snake, Rooster, Pig



The Artistic Ram (1907, 1919, 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1991)

The ram is a symbol of social success and good career in China. Generally, a
Ram person is elegant, charming and creative. However, they are the most
moody amongst all of the Chinese Horoscope signs. Rams are very romantic,
gentle caring and endearing but a bit bossy.

A Ram person is quiet, restful, patient, artistic, adaptable and gentle.
They are easy going, make friends easily, gentle, compassionate and
affectionate. A Ram person dislikes strict discipline, fond of children and
most of all artistic, creative and fashionable. They also enjoy comfort and
love of the home and this is where they really feel safe.

A Ram person is extremely sensitive and will take comments very
personally.
They are also dreamers and on occasions are pessimistic and worry for
nothing. They can also be lazy and are indecisive. They are also poor in
business as they are disorganized but do make good craftsman, artists or
writers. Can be moody at times, fear taking the initiative and can be gloomy
at times. Like to be loved and hates to be pushed around.

Career: Dancing, Music, Writing, Hair Design, Beauty line and the arts.
Career successes slow and steady Unwilling to job hop or way of life thus is
very successful due to their perseverance.
Romance: Look for stability and commitment for family.
Male: Good Husband but tend to be chauvinistic and has high expectations of
wife.
Female: Good wives and mother but need recognition by their husband.

Excellent Match: Rabbit, Horse, Pig
Pairing Best Avoided: Rat, Ox, Dog
In some instances, be more understanding and tolerant: Tiger, Dragon, Snake,
Ram, Monkey, Rooster



The Quick-Witted Monkey (1908, 1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968)

Monkeys are intelligent, quick-witted, and resourceful

Monkeys are fun loving, full of energy, fantasy and plans. A Monkey person
is clever, cunning, agile and lively. They are good problem solvers. Monkeys
are intelligent, adaptable, and sociable. At parties they are at the center
of attention due to their charm and humor. They don't hide their emotions;
likes jokes but are restless. Monkeys are immune to insults.

Monkeys can be unscrupulous, selfish and devious. They can be dishonest and
inconsistent. Monkeys have little respect for others, easily gets jealous
and are yields to temptation.

Career: Creative field: Advertising, Sales, Marketing and Mass Media.
Success comes early.
Romance: Immensely attractive to opposite sex. Before marriage enjoy fun and
entertainment and enjoys company of many members of opposite sex.

Excellent Match: Dragon, Rat
Pairing Best Avoided: Tiger, Horse
In some instances, be more understanding and tolerant: Ox, Snake, Ram,
Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig



The Methodical Rooster (1909, 1921, 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993)

Roosters have keen sense of observation and like to be noticed and
flattered. It is not easy to fool a Rooster and they make good
troubleshooters. They are conscious of their appearance and what they wear.

Funny, witty, braves, enthusiastic, efficient and honest. A Rooster person
is very intelligent, a good thinker and has an excellent memory, alert and
organized. They are intelligent, entertaining and strong willed but generous
to friends. Roosters are clever at finance, confidant and an outstanding
performer. They make great hosts and enjoy entertainment. They always keep
their promises.

Roosters are boastful, easily critical and have their strong opinions. They
are notoriously picky and easily misunderstood.

Career: Systematic and Flexible. Advertising, stage acting, human resource
management, Public Relations and Financial management.
Romance: High expectations and tend to marry late.
Female: Attractive and good at housework. Make good wives and mother.

Excellent Match: Ox, Snake, Dragon
Pairing Best Avoided: Rabbit, Dog, Rooster
In some instances, be more understanding and tolerant: Rat, Tiger, Horse,
Ram, Monkey, Pig



The Faithful Dog (1910, 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970. 1982, 1994)

The Dog is a symbol of loyalty and wisdom for the Chinese. It is one of the
most likeable signs of the Chinese Horoscope. The Dog values honor and enjoy
helping other people.

A Dog person is loyal, honest, affectionate, and deep sense of justice and
fair play. They are willing to fight for principles. A Dog person has great
respect for tradition, moral and is very honest and straightforward. They
are warm and good active workers. A Dog person is also intelligent,
intuitive a good listener and have good judgement.

Tends to overestimate dangers, sometimes bad tempered when cornered.
Sometimes, simplistic, suspicious and obstinate. They are not happy in love
and hot headed. A Dog person is also full of anxiety.


Career: Social work, Government Servant, and Security Services. Fair better
during middle age.
Romance: Committed. Make good spouse and parents. Loyal, thus make good
partners. Usually find true love after many setbacks and heartbreaks

Excellent Match: Tiger, Rabbit, Horse
Pairing Best Avoided: Dragon, Ram, Rooster
In some instances, be more understanding and tolerant: Rat, Ox, Snake,
Monkey, Dog, Pig



The Affectionate Pig (1911, 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995)

The Pig stands for wealth, family and prosperity, happiness and good luck.
Pigs are considered `jewels' of the Chinese Horoscope, as they are honest,
upright and thus very popular.

A Pig person is open, straight forward, and simple. They do not know how to
be devious or underhand but are frank, honest, and trustworthy. They take
initiative are diligent, calm, understanding and gallant. A Pig person is
tolerant and avoids disputes. They are peace loving, enjoy the good things
in life but are not over-indulgent.

Unfortunately, due to the trusting nature of the Pig person, they are easily
swindled. They are willful, obstinate, often make mistakes, and have poor
arguments. Materalististic but self-sacrificing.

Career: Lucky with money. Suited for most jobs and leadership position. Can
consider Architecture, Accountancy. Avoid business because can easily be
cheated.
Romance: Family-oriented. Marriage is happy and long lasting. Faithful but
not romantic. Make good husbands or wives.

Excellent Match: Rabbit, Ram
Pairing Best Avoided: Snake, Monkey
In some instances, be more understanding and tolerant: Rat, Ox, Tiger,
Dragon, Rooster, Dog, Pig

My clean traffic record's got a smudge now. Got my first ticket last night trying to scrimp on parking. Now I have a $30 ticket (considerably lower than what i thought it might be) for illegal parking courtesy of the city council. Darn it! And I was so proud of almost finishing my probation period without a ticket. Probation ends in march. That's only two months away. Hmmm ... come to think of it, I don't know where the city council office is. How am I gonna pay the ticket?

The mass birthday happened last night. Great night although much more subdued compared to the one we had for Alex. Had dinner at Chillies (turning out to be a regular haunt for the musicals group) and again karaoke afters. Rach took some pictures of the outing and it's up in her blog. I look like a spaz in that picture. Didn't know it was gonna turn out as a close-up! Was never good with close-ups. Actually never look good with non-close-ups either. I don't like being in photos. I always turn up looking fat and ugly.

Yesterday seems to be a night of many activities. The ex-uni clique restarting the thursday tennis session, the musicals clique's mass birthday, Sze Yoong's birthday (a girl from the dance studio) and Stef asked me to play tennis with her. It's like when it rains it pours ... but in a good way. I like having activities. Makes me feel like I have lots and lots of friends.

After the mass birthday, I mossied on to Sze Yoong's party at the Mutiara Rouge. If it hadn't been for her friends, the Rouge would have been almost empty. A far cry from the couple of times that I've been there. Guess the novelty's over and the crowds gone. Didn't do much salsaing. My dance partner couldn't make it plus I forgot most of my salsa moves so I couldn't teach the guys what to do. Should have gone with Rach, Alex and Grace aka Puff Mummy to where ever they were going and skipped this.

Just got a call from Azfa with an offer to go to Club Med for 3 days 2 nights for the bargain price of $420. Wow! I'd love to go. But let's not be rash. Let's think about it for a few days. Told her I'll call her back in a few at most next week with my answer. There was a plan for a family getaway to Thailand for April but that was said last year. Not sure if it's still gonna happen.

Hurrah! Holidays! I love holidays! Especially holidays by the beach. Need to get a new bikini. Woo hoo!

A friend of mine asked me if I'd like to join her for a meditation session. I, being of a person that does not do things requiring lots of concentration and persistance, told her as much and demured from the invitation. I know me. I can't meditate if my life depended on it.

Meditations requiring the clearing of one's mind; I can never do. The littlest sound distracts me. I know. I've tried it when I was about 15, I think. My mom dragged me along to the vihara/temple where they were offerring meditation classes. Try as I might, I keep hearing the sound of cars passing at a road nearby, the turning of the ceiling fan, a barking of a distant dog, the croaking of the frogs; everything except silence and the sound of my own breathing and only my breathing. That's what the instructor asked us to concentrate on. The sound of our own breathing. Out. In. Out. In.

I can't even do a simple thing like that. My brains kept going, 'Am I doing this right?', 'I should be thinking about anything, should I?', 'Shouldn't even be thinking about thinking right?'. Meditation's just not for me.

My friend however, delightedly informed me that this was not the sort of meditation we'd be doing during that session. Her type of meditation involves visualisation.

Another problem. I can only visualise given details of what I should be visualising on. Not just 'imagine a deer'. I would need at least info about the colour of the deer and it's size. How am I suppose to visualise without details. Oh sure, I'll get a general image of a deer but my mind would feel like something is missing.

Then she went, 'Oh, you must be more of an audio/sound person? or a feeling person.'

I've never really thought about what sort of person I am in this sense. Visual or audio? I think I'm more of a physical person. Movement. Touch. Using my hands and body. Using what I have. Yeah, that's it! I'm a physical person. That'll probably explain why I like dance and crafts.

In dance, you can feel it when you've done a particular step correctly. It just feels right, at least for me. When you do it wrongly, something just feels out of place. Y'know? It just doesn't flow. Doesn't move.

This probably also have something to do with me like being in control of things that I can control. One of the reasons why I'm a programmer. It's simple. For a programme, it's zero or one. True or false. Right or wrong. If a programme doesn't work, means there's something wrong with it and it can be fixed ... eventually.

Well, sort of. Doesn't work for Visual Basic though. Some events just fly from one to the other. I made an ActiveX control once, in VB, and it worked differently in different machines. Found out that in some of the machines, the event handling goes in different order. I don't know how to fix that. Doesn't make any sense to me and I didn't think it needs to be fixed as it was not due to my code (nothing's ever due to my codes ... hah!) Wonder if they're still debugging it.

I digressed didn't I?

Anyway, told her I'm not interested in meditation but she said she'll call anyway when the time comes. Just in case I've changed my mind by then.

Something for all the Lord of the Rings fans. You can download a 2002 calendar from this site. Save them as wallpapers or just print them out. I'm going to print them out once I get home!

What 2002 has in store for Sagitarians (including her imperial highness ... Empress) as stated in CLEO magazine, Malaysian version, January 2002:

You: From March to August, if boredom sets in, dig deep - working out the meaning of life will lead to great new hobbies and people. By Septemberm the travel bug will bite - compormise and you'll have an amazing time, but wanting everything your own way could blow it. Men: Until July, your high expectations could scare guys off but from then on, you're likely to meet a humanitarian who is as concerned with the state of the world as he is with his wallet and looks! Doing things you feel are worthwhile will lead to Mr Perfect. By November, there'll be fiery passion and words, but making up will be fun! Love will get serious in December. Work: Until March, under your happy go luncky exterior fighting for what you want will bring powerful results. Concentrate on your dreams, and you'll get the success that you deserve. But from Auguest, be careful that you don't wear yourself out. Pace yourself, promotions will come your way. Friends: Until May, if a friend tries to knowck your confidence, give them heaps! They may have issues, but taking it out on you is not an option. In June, you'll be full of fun, but very blunt, so try to be gentle with your more sensitive friends! Affirmation: This year I am attracting people who will enhance my life on every level and support my dreams.

Sent out a mass sms message through mtnsms to people who might possibly have plans for tonight asking whether they did and whether I could join them. I was that bored. Received two replies. One from Azfa saying that she might be meeting up with this other guy that we know, his name escapes me right now ... ah yes! Ruben. Another from Push, asking whether I was still bored.

Replied to Azfa and asked whether she's like to hit the clubs tonight and we did. Just got back from it in fact. Was there for only about 2 hours. A short period. Wouldn't have minded staying out later but she had to go home ... curfew. Went with 2 other girlfriends. Pretty good outing compared to just sitting at home. Was quite fun ... they did a lot of bitching about this girl that we went to school with. I don't mix with that girl so I don't know any juicy story about her. Just contributed to the things that they could do to get back at her.

Bitches unite! Muahahahaha!

I really needed to go out. Haven't gone out for quite awhile. Not even during the weekend preceeding New Years. For 4 days, all I did was sit at home during the day. Only day I went out was on Monday. To the beautician, to watch LOTR and then No Black Tie for Maharajah Commission's (friend's band) performance.

I've been a pretty good girl, just staying at home. Needed a little break.

At home and bored!

Ex-Cambridge students and I don't seem to be on the same page on anything. My company's has lots of them and I am currently working with one of them. You just can't imagine the amount of time required to get a simple straight answer from them. It's like talking to a politician. They say a whole bunch but I never get an answer to my question.

Yesterday evening, just before leaving work, I had a discussion with that colleague, y'know, the one I always bitch about. It was really just me asking a question and then him trying to answer. I call it a discussion cause that one question took him half an hour for him to reply to a semblance of what an answer is to me. The answer finally came when I asked hime to just give me a simple yes or no answer. I felt a bit like a lawyer cross-examining a person on the stand and that person was trying to justify his answer. Thank goodness I didn't choose to study law instead. I'd probably be bald from pulling my hairs out out of frustration.

Today's a boring day. Woke up. Mopped the whole house ... all two and a half floors! I used to do this almost every week last time but I've been shirking my duty. One excuse after another for escapes. Bad Empress!

Had planned on giving the car a wash and vacuum but woke up too late for that. The sun's too strong. I'd get burnt if I did. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow.

Master procrastinator at you service!

Tore the plastice covering for the photo album I both a few weeks ago. I am finally going to place all the photos I took in 1998 into a photo album. Master procrastinator that I am, it only took me three years before getting started.

I wonder how long it'll take me to actually place all the photos's in. Started on the first stack of photos. About half way through. Not a bad progress considering. There are about 3 more stacks of photo's that were developed in 98 and then a few more graduation pictures, friend's weddings, random pictures from 99 till now.

Frankly, spending the whole day in a meeting does not a good day make. Not even on a normal working day much less the first work day of the new year. BUT ... that was what I did. The whole day today. Discussing about things that have been discussed about last Friday albeit with more decisions made. Still, I am stuck as to what I am to write for my part of the proposal. Have to go look up some products for my part of the proposal. Quite an impossibility I think considering people don't usually place their product for everyone to sample. Not a lot anyway ... there are some but not a lot. Have to look for that some.

Had a pretty good weekend. Managed to watch Lord of The Rings on Monday. It was excellent! I wanna go watch it again. Kinda have a crush on Legolass right now. He's so perfect. Not a hair out of place the whole time. This, of course, will no doubt pass once I see another cute face in another movie. Haha! But for the time being, he's gorgeous. At least in the as an elf he is.

Spent the whole day yesterday as a couch potato. Something which I haven't had the pleasure to do for a long long long long time. Woke up at 2pm. Had lunch and then just plopped in front of the telly. Watched 'Blackadder', 'Jeepers Creepers', 'Takedown', '10 Things I Hate About You' and finally 'Voyage of the Unicorn' on Hallmark.

Ah! 'twas a blissfull day indeed.

My sinus is really acting up today. The whole day I had to go about feeling as if I were about to sneeze. Actual number of sneezes to built-p to sneeze had a ratio of about 1:20. So, you can just imagine me sniffling throughout the day about to blow at any second. Really irritating!

Saw two VCDs tonight. Oh yes! Didn't manage to catch LOTR this afternoon. It was sold out. Anyway, the two movies. One's 'Not Another Teenage Movie' and the other's 'Blow'.

If you ever get tickets to the former, just throw it in the dumpster. It's total crap. It's suppose to be a spoof on teenage movies like how 'Scary Movie' is a spoof on scary movies. Where 'Scary Movie' is crap but really funny, this was just plain crap. I don't have anything else to say except it is crap! CRAP! CRAP! CRAP! How it ever got into the top 10 grossing movies when it opened is just beyond me. Probably people were just curious like I was. Geez! What a waste of my time. If only we could get a refund on time.

Now 'Blow' is a totally different story. I'd recommend it. Really! Not only because the totally gorgeous Johnny Depp is in it but it's got a really great story. A true story. It's the real life story of George Jung, the pioneering drug dealer in US? Or something like that. Either he pioneered it or he was the one who became really really successful with it. What I'm wondering if whether he's such a good person as portrayed in the movie. He seems to be such a nice guy that people keep taking advantage of him. If he is, then I feel kinda sad for the guy, even though his drug trafficking have probably killed countless number of people and not to mention the number of lives destroyed from drug addiction. *Empress recommended movie!

The day started well enough. Sun was shining after two whole days of gloom. My throat doesn't feel as sore as it did, couldn't even sneeze without it hurting like the devil. It still feels a little scratchy but much better than yesterday. Trish called to ask whether we wanted lunch (it was about 11.30am at that time), so we didn't have to drive out for lunch when I eventually decide to get out of bed. Little did I know that they day will end so badly ...

We meaning all the sibs, my brother, Stef, Trish and I, and also my grandma. Parents went up to Genting yesterday and spent the night there, as usual, nobody was informed of their plan; neither did they call home to inform us at home that they weren't coming home.

Anyway when Trish got home with lunch, a fine meal of Bak Kut Teh, we all ate together, not Trish though cause she ate with Kenneth (her boyfriend) earlier but she was there at the table as well. Everything was great. We ate, we talked, joked, talked about our parents; indeed a rather rare occasion. After that, I escaped from cleaning duty by heading over to Yee Sing's house with Trish. Yee Sing was swimming with Gavin, her little brother, in her little plastic Winnie the Pooh pool on her porch. It was fun playing around with the kids.

When we got home, we started planning our escape from the house before our parents got home. Y'see, the parental unit called earlier while we were having our lunch informing us of their imminent return. Mummy sounded a bit terse so we assumed that they didn't do quite well at the casino. Parents not too companiable after a loss at the casino. The girls had originally planned to watch Lord of the Rings today but I can make the afternoon show as I have to attend my friend's 'open house' at 4pm. It was already 2pm. So the movie outing's post-poned to tonight. Decided to just shower, change and then just hop on the car and decide where to go later.

So I did ... shower and change that is.

After that, went to Stef's room to wait while she gets ready. While there, Trish joined us and we decided to go to Coffee Bean while they wait for Bro who's going for a haircut before they join him for 'Behind Enemy Lines' later when I leave for my 'open house'. Bro agreed.

Parental units got home before we manage to get out of the house. Papa told me I had a couple of mails. One's an invitation from Monash, my old university, to the Monash Open Day on 5th January. The other's from Amazon. Hurrah! My secret santa gift has arrived. Lavay Smith and the Red Hot Skillet Lickers's Everybody's Talkin' Bout Miss Thing! Thanks Chris! I finally get to listen to Lavay Smith. Am litening to it even as I write. It's fantastic.

Anyway, off we go to Coffee Bean and bro to the haircutters.

Had a nice chat with the girls about this and that. Trish suggested that I make a crossword puzzle with local flavour and sell it to the magazines, we've been doing the crossword magazines that Trish bought when she was in Australia for the last few days. Sounded like a pretty good idea although I'm not altogether sure that it hasn't been done before. That and that I'm not entirely great with words enough to make a crossword puzzle but it was still a good idea. Stef brought up that we've not been to Insomnia for quite some time and suggested that we go there tonight. She wanted to play Pictionary there. Trish then suggested that we get a set for ourselves instead of going all the way to Insomnia. By that time, it was already 4pm so I had to go. Bro was gonna pick them up after his haircut so I left with those two planning to purchase Pictorial and skipping the movie cause they'd be eager to start playing.

Azfa's 'open house' was alright. Met some old classmates, chat, laughed ate. The usual when you meet up with old friends and the usual Hari Raya food; ketupat, rendang, nasi minyak, etc. Left about 7pm.

Got home. No sibs in sight or at home. Am informed by mummy that they've gone to MidValley to pick up Renee, bro's girlfriend. Took my new CD to Stef's room, mummy's watching TV in mine, called Stef to check her coordinates and to check whether we're still watching LOTR. Confirmed mummy's info and affirmative to the movie.

Reading and listening to Lavay Smith when Stef came into the room and literally groaned when she heard what was on. Another of her sister's weird music.

We're not going for LOTR anymore. Trish said that papa wanted to watch as well when Stef called her to check the time for the movie.

Trish got home later and we started to play Pictorial. She actually bought it! Only two teams. She and Kenneth, Stef and I. We won! Yay! It was fun except for one part when we almost stopped when Trish kinda said that Kenneth didn't know how to draw, she didn't know what the heck he was drawing and Kenneth retorted "Don't play-lah! You draw everything if you're so good!" Doesn't sound really funny but they were having a disagreement and I don't know why we, Stef, mummy and I, were laughing. I was hoping that it'll sort of lighten the mood a little if they thought we weren't taking it so seriously but Trish made a remake about it. So we stopped laughing. She manage to console Kenneth and so we continued playing.

After we finished the game, we broke for a little snack. Bro and Renee brought home something when they went out for dinner. Started another game after that. Here's were the trouble starts ...

It first started when Trish and I disagreed as to what is suppose to happen when we decide to skip a card (it was decided earlier on that if we do not know what the word meant, we can skip that card and draw a new card). If the first card's an all play card, even though we're not in an all play box on the booard, does it mean that the second card remains an all play? I said that it doesn't. That it depends on whatever's on the second card. In the first game, we played that it would still be an all play ... earlier in the game that is until my brother stopped by and said that it should depend on the second card. I thought we changed it then but I wasn't sure. She was quite sure that we didn't and we went on for a few minutes about that. I finally conceeded that we should play the second card as an all play but she somehow figured that I gave in reluctantly and was moody after that. I really don't mind any way we play it. REALLY! I don't!

This created a sort of tension on the second game. Even Stef asked Trish if she still wanted to continue play cause she's really moody now and was really quite. No extra words. All smiles gone. Only a tolerant facade as a replacement of the joyous one of the first game. I didn't feel much like playing anymore cause she's in a mood. I hate these sort of tension.

I the middle of play, she asked Kenneth to trade place with her. Kenneth was seated across left diagonally from me. I suspect that it had something to do with my spaghetti straps (mummy just had to make a comment on my dressing! *frust*). I didn't feel like changing when mummy commented on my top but I took a throw pillow and placed it in front of me when they traded placed. Hey! So sue me for having breast!

Several cards later, she took a card and then just threw it down. I think Stef just picked it up assuming that it was but I asked Trish if it was. She bit back that it was and that she told Stef that it was. Ack! So untrue. She hasn't opened that treasure filled mouth of hers since that disagreement we had at the start of the game except only to try for an answer when it was her turn.

My temper kinda snapped then. Just one card before this, I'd decided that I was going to beg off after one more card with some excuse cause I just can't stand the tension any longer but her retort was just too much for me at that time. I threw the pillow and stormed away yelling "I'd had enough! I quit! I don't want to play anymore! I know, I'm moody!" (Sounds so childish doesn't it?)

But when I heard her say, "We know!", I just had to turn back and tell her that it was because she wasn't into the game anymore ever since our disagreement. That she was the one who was all moody. Somehow or rather she answered back something about my breast being showing. I don't know why that should be a problem. I wear spaghetti straps lots of times so it's not like it a rare occurence. So my cleavage shows. So what?

"Are you afraid that I'd steal your boyfriend?", I replied. "I saw the way you starred down on him when we accidentally bumped into each other the other time." That was really long ago by the way. Then I don't know what else I said. I was babbling incoherently after that venting my anger.

Volatile aren't I?

Poor Stef, Kenneth and Mummy. Innocent victims of two moody bitches. I later apologised to Kenneth for having to witness the outburst and Stef for spoiling her game. Mummy was just there watching so I don't think there was anything to apologise to her about.

I found my sports top that Trish gave me on the floor outside her room when I went for a shower. Mummy must have mistakenly placed it in her clothes pile.

Now I'm not sure who'll gonna be watching LOTR tomorrow. I really don't think Trish will be there and I hope that she won't cause I can't face her yet. I'm don't think I have anything apologise to her about and she definitely thinks the same so we'd probably be at odds with each other for awhile. We don't really say sorry after an argument and a period of non-speaking we just tend to gradually start speaking again. I'm sure this is the case this time as well.

What a bunch of messed up sisters we are.

Yay! I'm off. Ciao!

WAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!

I'm so sleepy! I wanna go home. Was about to when my idiotic colleague asked me to look at a buggy code! *sniff* *sniff* Really want to go home now.

Hmmm ... maybe I'll tell him I'll do it later when I get back to work on Wednesday. Yeah! That's good. I'll got tell him that.

I think I've got Alzheimer's. Yesterday I forgot to lock my car door after getting back from lunch. I'm lucky the car didn't get stolen or my radio stripped ... bad luck for them if they did steal the radio ... doesn't work properly. Then just this afternoon, when I was about to drive back to the office from home after lunch, I think I forgot the hand break. I'm not too sure. It's either I forgot to pull it when I got home or I disengaged it just after I got in the car to drive.

I can't remember things that happened two seconds ago!

Maybe it's the lack of sleep. They were showing 'Scent of a Woman' at 12.30am and I watched it till about 2am. Didn't finish it. Was too sleepy. Couldn't keep my eyes open. And this morning, didn't feel like getting out of bed. The whole day and even now, I feel like a zombie. Kept falling asleep during a little discussion with my colleagues just now.

Darn it! It seems I have to rush for a proposal. Have till next Thursday noontime to finish it. That only gives me one and a half day! I'm off work on Monday. Didn't wanna have the weekend then work on Monday and another day off of Tuesday (new year's!). I'm gonna have the whole stretch. Most probably should do the proposal when I'm at home then but I rarely work at home. Don't work at home unless it's absolutely a last minute thing. Nobody should work at home ... unless, of course, if they work from home or something to that effect.

Was going to blog yesterday before heading for bed but blogger was down. Stupid crackers. Leave blogger alone!

Everything seems to be down for me these few days. Couldn't log into Yahoo! Messenger yesterday and I still can't today. I don't know what is wrong with it. Able to retrieve Yahoo! Mail fine. They use they same login information so I don't understand why I can't use Messenger.

Embarassing moment yesterday morning. Got to work. Parked my car and as I was walking towards my yellow office building, a guy went, "Psst! Psst! Excuse me miss but your zip's open."

Ooops! Luckily, he wasn't a colleague. Would have been even more embarassing if it had.

Work was boring.

After work, had coffee with this guy I met at the choir AGM. I think he's interested. I'm not though. I usually don't mind going out for coffee with people after I've determined that they're not psycho ... a friendly coffee that is. No ulterior motives. I'm not good at these things. When someone asks you if you'd like to have coffee, if you answer yes, does it automatically indicate that you're interested? I just assumed that you'd like to have coffee and a bit of a chat. Nothing more. Is that too naive of me?

Plus, is there a polite way of saying no when a guy/girl asked 'Would you like to watch a movie?' or was it more like 'Do you watch movies?' Well, I just kinda stuttered a reply towards the negative. I really don't know how to reply to that question. Saying 'yes I'd like to watch a movie, ...' or 'yes I do watch movies, ...' and end it with ' ... but not with you' just seems a bit harsh. So, is there a polite way of rejecting an invitation like that?

I had a conversation with Mogan and my sis the other day over dinner about something like this. Mogan's wondering about his situation with this girl that he's interested in. They were suppose to meet up for dinner, supposedly just as friends but of course, Mogan likes her and would like to be more than that. She's been postponing the dinner with some excuse or another. Mogans wondering if she's trying to avoid him. He's told her that he's cool if she's not interested in him but she has to tell him that she isn't interested.

For me, if a guy that I'm not interested in asked me out and I know he's interested in more than friendship, I'd just make up some excuse and decline. Hoping that after several times of this invite-decline, that they'll get it and leave me alone. However, if they get the courage enough to ask to be more than friends, I'd tell them that I'm not interested and that all I can offer them is friendship. If they accept that and don't press the issue, I'd be cool to hang out with them. I hang out with guys all the time. Be it solo or in a group. All are welcome as friends.

Just think that there needs to be a certain amount of attraction from my side as well for someone to be my boyfriend. A person might be nice and all but if I'm not attracted to them, what can I do but remain friends? I usually go for looks but I know a guy who some says is quite good looking and I do agree and he's interested ... I think. BUT ... when I hang out with him, I'm not comfortable. There's something about him that I don't like. Can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe it's the cigarette. Maybe it's his attitude. It could be anything or nothing but I just don't feel like I'd like him as a boyfriend. So, I've been doing my evasion routine.

Maybe I'm just setting my standards too high. Shouldn't be so picky. Mom's advise is 'to get a guy who loves you more than you do him.' Sound enough although not particularly romantic is it?

People wonder why I don't have a boyfriend at the grand old age of 24. All I can say is that I don't feel that I'm ready for a relationship. I don't feel mature enough. I don't want to be in a relationship just for the sake of being in a relationship. I want to be in one cause it feels right. Whatever right is.

Idealistic romantic stuff that's probably not possible in the real world ... but it could happen.

A girl can dream.

Okay ... my comment system is working ... sort of. My comment count isn't working yet. I'll have to check what's wrong with it.

In the meantime, start blogging back and ... MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I need to go to sleep earlier. On Friday night, I slept at 6am (Saturday morning). Saturday night, again at 6am (Sunday morning). Then Sunday, this one a little earlier, at 3am (Monday morning).

Not that I was doing anything important at all. I was making stars mobile to hang outside my sliding door for christmas deco on Friday and then on Saturday and Sunday, I was just reading. Okay, so, the star mobile thing is excusable cause I wanted to have it up before the carollers came on Saturday night but what's the deal with sleeping late the other two days ... and today!

Tonight, right now, I came on to look for a word for 'Summerhouse' for a crossword puzzle that I'm trying to complete. Actually, I knew the word only that I got the connecting word mispelled. That caused me to looked up the dictionary searching for a non-existance word. Fortunately, manage to find the mistake once I found the definition for 'Summerhouse' in dictionary.com. The word was 'Gazebo' ... I knew that!

Okay, anyway, a bit of recap on what I did since since the last time I posted.

* Birthday dinner ... was quite delicious. Pretty good birthday too although there wasn't any present :(. Mummy got me a chocolate walnut cake (big difference from the 2nd hand sponge cake huh?), I consider that a present and papa paid for dinner so that's another present. Everything feels pretty nice.

* Choir christmas party. Loads of laugh. Fun fun fun all around. Food was good too (tom yum soup was yummy!). Everyone got presents cause everyone had to bring in one present for exchange ... so that was good. Took part in two party games. Won one but couldn't finish the other ... you try finishing a bottle of coke without burping!

* Final Streetvoiz performance for the year. I thought we totally sucked! However, Cris thought we did okay ... so, maybe I just have a different opinion on what's okay. I felt like we were so rushing through everything. I didn't have time to take a breath much less swallow! And the hall was so hot! I was sweating like mad and I had to hold the mic through all 11 songs that we sang ... they had two mics but only one stand ... why's that? I haven't a clue!

* Christmas eve dinner. We had a turkey for christmas dinner for the first time! And it was pretty well done too. Kudos to Trish for cooking the turkey. I was totally stuffed. After that, we started on the crossword puzzle. All sibs were helping out but they each dropped out like flies ... one after another ... till there was only yours truly. Managed to finish it with the help of a little pocket dictionary. Yay! ... I was cheating you say? Nope I don't think so, it's a competition crossword and if it's completed, we can submit it in and win a prize if your entry is drawn from a ballot. I don't think anyone would be foolish enough not to complete the puzzle anyway they can before submitting it, do you?

Okay, that's all for the recap, I have to go wrap three more presents and chuck those under the tree. Ciao.

I'm getting sick of looking for free host to enable my commenting system. I'll go home later this afternoon and give it one last shot. Somehow, I keep getting the 500 Internal Server Error error. Is there something wrong with the code or is the cgi capability just not activated for new users?!

Anyone with PHP or cgi wanna host lil ol me?

Countdown to two dozen years of life - TODAY!

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Happy Birthday to me!
Happy Birthday to me!
Happy Birthday to me!
Happy Birthday to me!

Countdown to two dozen years of life - 1 day to go.

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Something interesting from 'The Phil News', the Selangor Phil's newsletter, which I found last night while clearing my choir bag and placing reinforcement rings on my scores.

TOP 10 REASONS FOR BEING AN ALTO

10 You get really good at singing an E flat.
9 You get to sing the same note for 12 consecutive bars.
8 You don't really need to warm up to sing 12 consecutive bars of E flat.
7 If the choir is rough, it's unlikely the altos will be blamed.
6 You have lots of time to chat during soprano solos.
5 You get to pretend that you are better than the sopranos, because everybody knows that women only sing soprano so they don't have to learn to read music.
4 You can sometimes find part-time work singing tenor.
3 Altos get all the great intervals.
2 When the sopranos are holding some outrageously high note at the end of a piece, the altos always get the last words.
1 When the altos miss a note, nobody gets hurt.



TOP 10 REASONS FOR BEING A BASS

10 You don't have to tighten your pants to reach your note.
9 You don't have to worry about a woman stealing your job.
8 Or a pre-adolescent boy.
7 Action heroes are always basses. That is, if they ever sang, they would be basses.
6 You get great memorable lyrics like bop, bop, bop, bop.
5 If the singing job doesn't work out, there's always broadcasting.
4 You never have to learn to read the treble clef.
3 If you get a cold, so what.
2 For fun you can sing at the bottom of your range and fool people into thinking there's an earthquake.
1 If you belch while you're singing, the audience just thinks it's part of the score.

Trying to get the dotcomment comment system to work. Registered for two free hosting service and placed the codes in one of them. Still not working yet. Will have to see what is wrong when I get home.

Tis raining now. Should better get going before it starts pouring.

Wish me luck with the comment system. You'll soon be able to blog back again .... MUAHAHAHAHA

Countdown to two dozen years of life - 2 days to go.

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Back in my cubicle after 4 blissfull days of no work.

Countdown to two dozen years of life - 3 days to go.

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Ooops! Missed yesterday's countdown. Was out watching Spy Game, the movie starring Brad Pitt and Robert Redford, with Stef. Excellent movie. Stef thought it was a little slow but I thought it was great!

Anyhoo ...

Have you ever gone to a shoe shop and requested a shoe in your size or whatever size you were looking for? What does the salesperson tell you when they don't have it? Do they recommend another style of shoe which they do have in the requested size (which I think is appropriate)?

I went to look for the pair of sandals that my grandma's been pestering me about ... yes pestering ... 'Have you bought it yet? Have you bought it yet?', she'd go every morning since I told her that my aunts have left money asking me to get it for her. Well, I finally went yesterday. Found the sandal and asked for a black pair in size 6. The salesperson came back and said, 'No size 6, size 8 can ah?'

I was thinking of course not what would I do with a size 8? But I didn't voice that out. Instead, I asked whether they have it in brown. Same thing, 'No size 6 ... but got size 8'. I went, 'it's okay thanks' and left the shop. All the while wondering why people would offer shoes two size larger than the one I've requested for just cause they have it? Do they think whoever I was buying the shoe for would be able to wear it? If so, why would I ask for the one which was two size smaller in the first place?

Just thought that was a weird way of selling.

Countdown to two dozen years of life - 5 days to go.

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Today marks the last day of Streetvoiz's last christmas performance. I'm glad that all the christmas programs are over and done with. It's was tiring work ... now all we have to do is sit back relax, wait for the money to come in and for the Selangor Phil's christmas party the day after me birthday. There is a little thing that some of us from Streetvoiz will do on Sunday after the party. Some children's party at some place ... suppose to get together on Friday to practise some songs for that but Friday's my birthday so I told them I might not be able to attend practise ... I'll try my best. A birthday dinner just won't be a birthday dinner without the birthday girl would it?

I have no idea when the tradition of having a family dinner on someone's birthday started. It sure isn't the norm as I was growing up. I still remember the pandan sponge cake, mom brought back from visiting a friend at the hospital who just gave birth, that was passed off as my birthday cake! How pathetic was that? Anyway, the whole of this year, whenever it's someone's birthday (family member only, of course), we go out and have a family dinner ... not that I'm complaining of course, just that ... it's not the norm! When in the world did we adopt this tradition?

Back to the what I did today stuff ...

Got up so early for a Sunday and couldn't get back to sleep. So, I gathered the two videos that two very kind soul mailed to me to watch them. Thanks Elsie and Nicole. I must have received Elsie's tape like two months ago or so ... just couldn't find the time to pop it in the video to watch ... that and that the vcr's in my parent's room and I don't like watching it with them ... my mom likes to add to the script ... this morning, they were at a cousin's wedding so their room was free and all sibs were still asleep. Hence, the perfect time to indulge in my dose of Russell Watson; that was what was in Elsie's tape. She'd kindly recorded RW's concert at the Taj Mahal (in America not India).

Fabulous concert! And there were duets with Lea Salonga and Natalie Cole. Just yesterday one of the Streetvoiz guys were saying that I should sing Lea Salonga songs while we were bumming and singing while waiting for the technicians to set up the mics for our second gig. Is that freaky? Usually don't talk about Lea Salonga and then twice within half a day. Maybe it's a sign ... of what I have no idea. Hah!

After that, watched Nicole's tape. It's a scooby doo episode with the Big Bad Voodoo Daddies as guest stars! Tres cool!

Hmmm ... I'm thinking of recording the RW duets and the BBVD song onto MP3. Don't quite know how to do it yet. Will have to think about it. If anyone knows how to, email me!

Next, time to put on my toolbelt and assemble grandma's 3-drawer chest. Did that in about 2 half hours and then it was time to rush off for the gig ... that's after a quick shower, change of clothes and make-up. I think I made it in record time getting to Lot 10 - the venue of the gig. I thought I was going to be late but I was just in time. That's due to the really smooth traffic on the way to Lot 10; all thanks to the long weekend due to Hari Raya, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadhan.

Went to a Muslim friends house for 'Open House' after the gig. Had yummy Hari Raya food cooked by his wife - am told that she owns a restaurant at a really trendy part of town. Ate, talked, laughed and then tis time to go home.

Listening to the Royal Crown Revue that Danny burned for me on Friday. Good stuff.

Countdown to two dozen years of life - 6 days to go.

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Hurrah! Finally installed the modem into my home computer and it works (evidence #1: this blog!). Have had the modem for two weeks now and didn't have a chance to install it till 2 days ago. After which I discovered that Windows 95 does not support USB ... the modem's USB. So, had to go get a USB supporting Windows that my system can handle. Got Windows Me. Installed that, installed the modem and voila ... Emp is blogging from home.

Yay! Placed the tinsels on the christmas tree and it looks great. Decided to end the search for perfect long dangly ornaments. Tinsels filled up the space ... although, I do think a few long dangly thing might make it nicer ... Stef says to stop placing more thing on the tree though, so ...

I'll try to stop.

If anyone knows of a comment system that I could plug into my HTML please email me. Reblogger went down and had SnorComments for all of 2 days before it went down as well. I don't have a place where PHP or cgis can be placed. My only host is blogspot. So no code/file uploads.

Countdown to two dozen years of life - 7 days to go.

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Christmas Search Continues

Friday, Dec 14 -- The search for the perfect long dangly christmas ornaments continues. It has been reported that Emp and Stef was spotted again at a mall last night searching for the final batch of christmas ornaments to be placed on their already, fine looking, christmas tree.

However, according to reliable source, they were seen carrying packages which were not from stores offering christmas ornaments. Further investigation found that the packages contained a bandana (Emp's) and some knickers from Topshop. They were also heard arguing over who gets to purchase the fab looking pink Friday knickers from Topshop but luckily, the matter was resolved with Emp graciously opting for the thongs so that Stef could have the bikini knickers.

As to their original objective of purchasing christmas ornaments, 'We will journey on and search for those perfect ornaments tomorrow and in another mall,' says Emp.

We at Empress Times would like to wish Emp and Stef the best of luck in their search. Hopefully they would be able to find them before christmas is over.

Hey let's hop on the KPMG bashing bandwagon. Apparently they're causing a big hoo hah about a guy linking to their site without agreement. Oops! I've just linked them ... twice! I don't think I have an agreement. What will they do to me? I shudder to think. Read the whole article here. There's even a KPMG theme song. It goes something like this ...

"KPMG/We're strong as can be/A dream of power and energy/We go for the goal/Together we hold/On to our vision of global strategy..."

Oh yes, you can read the email that was sent to the guy and the fella's reply here. Classic stuff!

That was freaky! I was typing in todays blog and all of a sudden, word start disappearing. Then when I clicked post, the whole browser disappeared. Wonder what happened? Maybe I should do a proper shutdown to clear up memory. My PC hasn't had a shutdown since Monday ... but it's only been four days. Should be alright. I've gone through weeks without shutting down with no problem at all. Hmmm ...

Anyhoo ... as I was saying, Snorland's down. Another comment system having problem. Too lazy to look for a new comment system right now ... so if you want/need to comment on anything, email me instead.

On a cheerier note, the new christmas lights are up! Yay! The tree looks great but still a little bare. Am on the lookout for more christmas ornaments. Long dangly ones I think cause the ornaments on the tree now is pretty rounded - they're all christmas balls ... red and white ones. It's also got two long ribbons threaded through the tree, an angel almost at the top, two turtle doves (*and a partridge on a pear tree* ... just kidding) one each beside the angel and, of course, a star at the top! Wish I had a digicam *hint* *hint* so I could take a picture of it and show it to you. So, long dangly thing will lengthen things a bit and make the tree look nicer don't you think?

Still in the glooms.

Went out full of christmas spirit after dinner to the mall to get more ornament for the christmas tree. At the end of the trip, I was down in the dumps. All trace of christmas cheer gone!

Why?

Well, once we (my dad, Stef and I) got to the mall, we went to the bookshop to get a large envelope which we needed to mail the present we've bought for Fehn, our cousin in England. Christmas spirit, still high. Found the envelope, browsed the bookshop a little and then headed to the CD store cause my dad wanted to look for a christmas CD by Ray Conniff(?).

We separated from papa for awhile so that we could go to Living Quaters, where Stef said they were selling some nice christmas ornaments. ... It's closed. Chrsitmas spirit, lowers but still good. Went to the CD store ... Papa couldn't find Ray Conniff. So, he headed to the next CD store in the mall. We, went to Body Shop cause they've got so many lovely things on display we just had to go in for a looksee. Stef bought a couple of floating candles and then we were off to join papa.

No Ray Conniff ... but there were a whole bunch of other christmas cds available. Stef and I recommended a 3-CD compilation to my dad. It has a slew of people in it from Mariah Carey to Judy Garland! So, that a pretty good CD. I didn't notice that the first CD was a songs 'in the style of ...' thing until this morning. Meaning songs in that CD's not sung by the original artist. I think. Not sure yet. Must go home and try that CD tonight. ... Anyway, papa wasn't too sure about getting the CD. We told him it should be good and then he finally said okay. Then, my big mouth of a sister said that I would/should pay for the CD and papa seconded the suggestion stating that since he's retired, he doesn't have money. Hah! What about the new gizmos he just bought! ... But fine, okay, christmas spirit was still good, although was quickly heading south, so I paid for the CD.

Next stop, new christmas lights. Needed new lights for the christmas tree. Our old lights are red and sort of make the tree kinda gloomy. Needed something brighter. Clear or yellow lights maybe and preferable doesn't blink/run. I don't like running lights. Too distracting. Too busy. Found it at Tops. They had 3 colour options. Clear (which is sort of a yellow), orange (darker yellow) and blue. Plus, they have a button which allows you to decide whether the lights should blink, run or just light. Pretty cool I think. I picked the clear lighted one cause I wanted the tree to look brighter and I pointed to one of the tree that had the clear lights on as example for my dad. He stood there considering whether the example was actually the orange light instead of the clear. I told him it was the clear light and the salesperson attending us confirmed it.

Nevertheless, we headed to the tree to check out the multiple light options to see how it looks on the tree. I thought it looked pretty good and since our tree is a shade darker than the example, it'll look even better. At this time, Stef who was browsing elsewhere had joined us. Papa still stood there doubting the lights were clear instead of orange. I told him that it was and also told him that the salesperson had confirmed that but he was still looking at it doubtfully. ... Christmas spirit going a notch lower. ... So we stood there argue the colour of the lights for a few minutes. Then he asked the salesperson, again, whether the lights are the clear lighted ones. This time the salesperson said, 'It's orange light.' The gall of that woman!

'Oh! Wait, no no I think it's the clear light. I'm not sure. Looks quite like the orange light doesn't it', she continued.

Incredulously I replied, 'It's the clear light, I'm sure.' Of course it's not the orange lighted one! Was I the only person there who's not colour blind!

Then papa was pondering again. I went, 'Pa, it's the clear light, really. It's the clear light.'

'Why don't we try it and see.' said papa indicating the clear light box that he was holding.

I insisted that it was the clear light and we do not have to test it. Why do these people not listen to me?! Then Stef said the thing that had my christmas spirit plunging down to the negatives. 'Why don't you just shut up? Shut up and let papa try it if he wants to.'

Whatever happened to respect for your elders? How can she just tell me to shut up! Especially since I know I'm in the right! So, I just stormed off and said, 'I'm going to buy the ice-cream.'

I didn't speak to them the whole time walking to the car nor did I inform them that I was gonna stop at the bank to update my passbook. Just drove in silence. Got to the bank and fuck! the fucking passbook update machine's not in service. Argghhh!!!!!!

Got back and went straight to my room. Trish was there watching TV. Left soon after I went in. She always does. Changed to comfy clothes and sat watching whatever Trish was watching. It was some comedy festival thing filmed in canada in 1995. Pretty funny stuff. It's like the Universe is trying to cheer me up. Had a bit of a laugh and felt slightly better. Then surfed the channel a little (little cause I only have 4 stations and 1 station which depends on whatever the upstairs cable decoder's tuned to) before settling on the cable channel which was showing 'Hurricane'. Very good show. It's about how these 4 people who helped free Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter from false imprisonment after one of them read his book. Makes me feel better that such people do exist.

Went to bed feeling slightly better.

There's a new TV in my room. A 29" Sony Triniton. Great isn't it?

Well, I'm not so sure. For one, I didn't buy it. My dad did. It's only in my room cause it was previously the dining room and we've always had a TV in the dining room and so the aeriel cable is there. There are plans of moving the cables to the hall ... or maybe the soon to be AV room that is to be built (god know when). So, for the time being, it's in my room. According to my sis, Stef, this proves that I'm papa's girl. He gets a new TV and it's placed in my room.

Actually I'd rather not have the TV in my room cause then my grandma, sister or whoever's on that floor at the moment who wants to watch TV will be in my room. The whole point of me having a room for myself is just that ... so that I HAVE a room for myself. Not shared with everyone else. I can't even change in peace cause my grandma would probably be in the room and I really dislike chasing her out of the room when she's watching the TV.

Thirdly, the money used for this recent purchase would be from my dad's retirement funds. It's okay if he wants to indulge a little but a new TV on Sunday and a whole speaker system and DVD player two weeks before that is really expensive. The money will dwindle away and where would he get more? He has plans of having his own GPRS mapping company, which he has already registered for, but who's to know what business is going to like? He might profit ... which would be great ... but he might also make a loss and then where would he be with all the money gone? Of course, I'll try and give whatever I can ... I won't see my family starve ... I'm not entirely heartless ... but I'm not exactly making a whole lot. Just enough!

Why is he acting like he's as rich as Croesus when he's not? Mid life crisis?

Sometimes I think parents are just like us. They like to indulge in things that pleases them and would do it whenever the opportunity permits. Just that when they have kids to support the opportunity doesn't permit that often especially since the cost of a University education is so bleeding high now. However, I still think papa shouldn't be using all this money to purchase all these gizmos. He still has two daughters that are still in school. One of which should really, really be enrolling for University SOON! The other has one more year of high school before University. That'll be two kids in University in one go. That's a lot of money. Hopefully, they'd be able to get scholarships. They're pretty smart unlike their dumb geek of an elder sister. ;)

Still ... like us, when our parents tell us not to do things that we want to do, parents don't listen to us either. So, what we have here is a deadlock. We don't listen to them; they don't listen to us. We can only hope that the outcome is not disasterous.

I never knew singing can be so exhausting ... but then, I don't know a lot of things and that's just another thing I've found out that I know I didn't know.

Saturday's performance with the Selangor Phil Choir was pretty good ... meaning, we didn't get booed, we didn't start at the wrong time and did things as we were supposed to do ... although we did start about half an hour later than scheduled. We, the choir, blame Phillip (the conductor) for that cause he was late! ... as usual. He in turn, blamed it on the traffic; which was really very bad that day. And then he had a little spat with Cris when she complained about him changing the music arrangements, yet again. Things were okay once we started singing. It was at Starhill, a shopping complex. Not much audience audience there. People are too busy shopping.

After that was the small choir's turn. We're called 'Streetvoiz'. Things were so-so. I wouldn't say great. Okay. ... up to the last song that is. We kinda bungled up 'Feliz Navidad'. The piano started in a C. We practised in G. And we couldn't really hear the piano cause it's muffle; it's a clavi, not a real piano, so we kinda didn't know when to start. We sounded really bad for that and had to restart the song. Sounded passable after that.

A few of us went to have dinner at a place near our next performance. I had capati with curry mutton. Yum! Haven't had that for quite awhile now. It was delicious. Then headed back to the hall where we performed on Friday night to fix up the decorations before the performance starts. Apparently the decorations were kind of a joke. Was told by some that the decorations were falling down while we were singing on Friday. Wow! Must have been a rousing performance! Haha.

The audience was more responsive that day compared to the night before. They sang with us when asked and clapped more! :) We did make a mistake though in one of the song. Phillip forgot to cue us in and we were waiting, unsure as to whether we should go ahead and sing or not. Thankfully he cued us in at an appropriate time and kudos to Wen Li for improvising on the accompaniment.

Was totally drained when I got home on Saturday night.

Slept till late on Sunday and then had to get ready to go for more performance in town. Streetvoiz had two sessions and Selangor Phil had one. Everything went well. Streetvoiz got an encore on the second gig ... planted audience from the Selangor Phil choirsters. Thanks all the same guys. Thanks to the few groupies we have as well.

Exhausting work, singing. Can't wait for next week when we'll do it all over again. Next weekend only Streetvoiz will be performing at the shopping complexes while the Selangor Phil will be singing to a group of nuns at a convent. After that we will have a Christmas party a week after that.

Yay! Paaarty!

Changed my comment system to SnorComments. Didn't notice that Reblogger was down. Should pay more attention to what's going on with my blog!

I don't know what's wrong with me. I know I have a long day today. I know I have work today and I have to wake up early (for a saturday anyway). ... but when a call came in yesterday asking if I'd like to clubbing at Movement that night, I said 'YES!' ... AND that's after my choir performance ... after a full day of work. I was really tired after the performance but I changed and drove out anyway, with the hope of a night of hopping and bopping. I guess I should thank my friend's bosses that they changed their plans and spent the night at a pub instead. These were guys from BAT (British American Tobacco) so there were a lots and lots of smoking and drinking and pool. Pub scene is really not my thing. I don't smoke and I don't drink. Which is why I like going to dance clubs. At least I can dance there. Anyway, since they were just going to hang out at the pub, I made my exit early ... at about 2am! If we had gone to Movement, I do not doubt that I'd only leave at about 5am. I guess you can say that dancing kinda reenergizes me,

... but really, I'm grateful for the change of plans cause I'm still dead tired now. Alarm rang and I just slapped it off. Not like I don't do this every single day ... just that today, I really went back to sleep instead of just lying in bed for a few waking myself. Didn't get up untill half hour later and I've got bags under my eyes and the feeling of numbness in my head from lack of sleep. I think it shows cause someone said I looked 'blur' when I came into the office.

I really need to discipline myself to say no to an invite to a night of debauchery ... more so when I'm tired. Perhaps I'm trying to catch up on my late teenage years. I hardly ever go out at night when I was a teen. Not even when I was old to enter a dance club legally. In fact, I bet I can count the number of times I've been to a club on one hand. Guess I was kind of a geek then. Still a geek now. (a dumb geek ... according to my sibs) People don't really change too much do they?

Did a test and here's the result

If I were a work of art, I would be Edgar Degas' Dance Class. I appear soft and gentle, but hide a core of rigid structure and discipline. I work hard and follow orders, because I am determined to succeed, but remain attached to displays of frivolity and maintaining my appearance. Which work of art would you be? The Art Test

Well ... didn't quite finish my post yesterday. Got too busy and now I don't feel like finishing it. If I ever do feel like finishing that I'll edit it. Otherwise, just ignore it. It was only going to be some stoopid thing about how I don't feel mature yet. Don't feel any difference from when I was 15 or now ... 15 days to 2 dozen years. Just a stupid blah blog.

Ignore it. Ignore it.

So tired yesterday. Only got home at 11.30pm and didn't even manage to get dinner. Had choir practise till 10.15 (sang our throats sore ... performance is this Friday!) and then went to pay my credit card bill in town (there's only one center where I can pay it ... unless I mail a cheque ... but I don't have a chequeing? account so that's moot). Was dragging my feet when I got home. Had my dinner, shower and went straight to bed! Didn't even watch the telly. Quite a first for me ... being a TV addict and all. But I was too tired. Fell asleep with the lights on. Woke up in the middle on the night/early morning and switched it off.

Why or when do we say that someone is mature or immature? How do we define maturity?

I got the following definition off www.dictionary.com.

mature adj 1: characteristic of maturity; "mature for her age" [ant: immature] 2: fully considered and perfected; "mature plans" [syn: matured] 3: having reached full natural growth or development; "a mature cell" [ant: immature] 4: fully developed or matured and ready to be eaten or used; "ripe peaches"; "full-bodies mature wines" [syn: ripe] [ant: green] 5: (of birds) having developed feathers or plumage; often used in combination [syn: fledged] [ant: unfledged] v 1: develop and reach maturity; undergo maturation; "He matured fast"; "The child grew fast" [syn: maturate, grow] 2: grow old or older; "She aged gracefully" [syn: age, maturate]

oops! will be back. boss is around the vicinity. must act busy.

*snifffff* ... MMmmm .... the smell of coffee. Delicious. Just the thing to wake me up on a day like today. I'm not much of a coffee person. Sometimes it works in waking me up and sometimes it doesn't. There are some people I know who drinks coffee in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening and then at night. Basically, they drink coffee all the time. Not sure how good it is for their health though. Some researchers found that the acidity of coffee's not good for health ... but then researchers have also said that chocolates weren't good for health once but now they are. All depends on the researchers huh?

Wonder why coffee works on some people and not on others. And for me, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Really don't like a coffee high though. Especially after an all nighter. I'd be like a zombie after taking coffee after an all nighter. My head would feel like all the blood's up there over on my forehead area. So, everthing sort of concentrated there. And then I won't be able to sleep when I really need to! Eyes wide, coffee high, tired as hell and can't sleep. Terrible.

I've finished my coffee now. Nope. Doesn't work this time. I'm still real sleepy. Maybe I should have gotten a bigger cup. Took a small cup this time.

Racheal must be thinking this girl's crazy. The other day she's talking about chocolates and now coffee. Haha ...

Am doing some window shopping when I fell upon Topshop which had internet access. So I thought I'd do a bit of blogging.

So, the operetta last night was 'interesting'. The show was 'Porgy and Bess'. Porgy had a magnificent voice. Really booming. Bess had a pretty nice voice as well and so does the rest of the cast. However, I don't think that Kallang Theatre's such a good place for an opera where the singer do not use microphones. Y'see, when the singers are upstage, they sounds really good and really clear. Well, as clear as any opera singer can sound anyway, pronunciation wise that is. Anyway, when the move further inwards on stage, their voice doesn't really come out. So you can't really hear what they're singing about. Plus, I sat at the stalls, which was downstairs, the slightly pricier seats. Not a good investment, I'd say. The seats are not very well raised and they did not place the seats in such a way that the person behind a row would be able to get a clear view. I had a tall woman sitting in front of me. I'm really short. So, I had to seat a lot to my left so that I'd be able to see what's going on on stage. Does my side hurt after the show.

Well, I'd better go. It says maximum usage for this terminal is 30 minutes. I'm sure I've not exceeded it but I've got more window shopping to do. Will blog more when I go back to Malaysia.

What a great night. What a great meet. I don't believe I know when I'd laughed more. The musicals crew meets at last. More than three person this time. This time there were seven people. Seven! What a feat! Congratulations Grace ML for achieving this. We had a great time celebrating Alex's birthday tonight. Alex, tonight, was the thorn among the roses, james bond with his bond girls, a maharajah with his harem .... haha ... he was the only guy who managed to turn up. Besides being the guest of honour of course. We had a bunch of starters. Nobody ordered any meals nor did we have deserts. Weird dinner huh? Was good enough though.

So, what does a bunch of ex-musicals course people do after dinner? Sing of course! After cake, we adjourned to the karaoke on the third floor. Sang our heart out. The song changer was chronic though. Had to wait a century before they load our songs. OMG! I love Fang's voice! Wish I could sing like her! Left slightly after midnight. Rach's got a curfew. The rest had to work. Should have done this on a weekend instead but I wouldn't have been able to attend if they did.

Great night. Can't wait for the next meet. Hopefully the next time will have all these people as well rest of the crew. That is, if they can spare some time from their busy life to attend.

I've finished packing for Singapore and am watching Roswell now. Bachelor Girl's song is in this episode. Can't recall the title of the song off my head but it's cool that they are in the show. Didn't know anyone outside Australia knew them. Don't think anyone in Malaysia still knows them either after their mini concert eons ago.

Anyway, will go read Rach's blog now. She's amazing. Love the way she writes.