I just came back from a super duper feast with my friends. It's a birthday celebration planned by me at Kuishin-Bo, Suntec City. The last time I went for their dinner buffet, I didn't attack the seafood, mainly because I am lazy to peel the crabs and prawns. But today, there were 4 lovely people who dedicated their time attacking the seafood and also spoiling me with all the peeled prawns and de-shelled crabs (although I only ate one prawn but I do appreciate Dagen's effort!). It was another makan session where we spent the time pigging out and laughing loudly with and at each other. Today however, was a little more special. Besides being the birthday of my good friend and my cousin in KL, my good friend and her boyfriend (who is also a good albeit irritating friend) announced their engagement and showed off the lovely engagement ring which sparkled incessantly under the lighting. So this makes the second engaged-to-be married-soon couple out of the four couples I know. Yay!!! I do feel happy for them and at the same time, I'm happy that I do not feel envious of their status. Strange as it may sound, I don't feel the urge to be in the same boat as them right now...and that relieves me...heh heh...

Congrats to these four wonderful people...!!!
My pockets are going to be "kang kang" soon!!!
Remember what I said about a buffet wedding lunch/dinner....hahahhahahahaha...

Lately, I've been pondering. Just wondering about my life and whether I should keep living like this. Changes are happening rapidly around me and yet I feel like I'm at a stand-still. My friends seem to have an aim, a direction which they are pursuing. I feel like I'm making no progression. Perhaps there are plenty of things I wish to do, but I give myself excuses and procrastinate. Now I just want to stay away and think. To decide. And yes I am tired of it all. I'm just running round and round in the same spot. Just living a meaningless life. But I do not know how to change this. And this depresses me.

Yes, my posts have become extremely infrequent but in my defense, I am too tired to write in weekdays and I usually play all my weekends away. Haha...excuses excuses excuses...

I went down to Paradiz Centre for dinner at Hey Hey Hotpot with the gang. There were eight of us so we had two tables joined together and chose two different soup bases. I was thinking to myself that this place had better be good otherwise Dagen was going to get it from me. It was his enthusiastic recommendation of the place that got us down there and it wasn't cheap for a normal steamboat buffet. It's $25++ on weekdays and $27++ on weekends and we paid $32.50 each.

We made a reservation to ensure we could get a table on a Saturday night and I'm glad we did. The place isn't very big and it was practically full that night. Still, a location at Paradiz Centre is pretty weird. I would never think of going there if no one told me about. It's like some ulu pandan place in town where I have never been and I realized that I have never been to this Cathay place as well. We walked from Plaza Singapore and I kind of got disorientated. Fortunately I could just follow blindly, haha. Anyway, back to the food.

My table chose the fish soup with green apple which the other table had herbal chicken soup. I know fish soup sounds weird for steamboat but I do not like herbal soup so I refused to have that at my table. Very seh gor but I don't care...hahhahaha!!!

Their buffet menu had both cooked or uncooked food (for the steamboat) and I love their "satay" chicken. It's chicken pieces marinated and cooked on satay sticks. That was delicious though a little too salty after a while. The variety for the steamboat was pretty good. I had the tofu and it went really well with the soup. They served beef, chicken and pork and their beef and pork were finely sliced in shabu-shabu style. The beef slices even came on a tray of ice! Presentation was good and they also had golden mushroom wrapped with meat slices. That was yummy although we did get overindulged in meat that night. Their meatballs seemed handmade which ought to be good but I hated the smelly vegetables they added in. Their chilli sauce had the same vegetables as well and I couldn't take it. Oh yes, their chilli sauce can be mixed to your preference but it was too sweet for my liking. It tasted similar to satay sauce and I would have preferred sambal chilli. The most fascinating items that they had were these tiny dumplings filled with either custurd, prawns (har gao) or char siu (they call it char siu bao). You had to cook them for at least two minutes and I didn't think dim sum and custurd would go well in soup. However the custurd one tasted alright and I liked the char siu bao. The har gao had cheese in it which made it rather powdery. Still, it was something new that I had not experienced before.

Another highlight that night was seeing Terence Cao or Cao Guo Hui as others might know him as. Dagen was pointing out to us that he was over there but I thought that he was talking about the television (and I was not the only one who thought so) and I didn't really bother about what Dagen was saying. After all, he is an actor and it's not unusual to see him on the tv. After a while I looked up from my bowl of soup and realized that Cao Guo Hui was actually there in person. Apparently he and a partner owned the restaurant and he was there to help out. I must say that he is really good-looking. He does look so much better without the make-up and he looks so charming when he smiles. So us girls spent the night ogling at him, hahahhaha! Eye candy for the night!!! He also came over to our table and recommended their dessert which was either almond jelly or osmanthus jelly. By the way, his English is good. He didn't speak broken English or Singlish. I chose the osmanthus jelly which was not too sweet and tasted interesting. I gave half of it to Ah Hao but only because I was too stuffed to finish it. It won't be something I will order on its own because one small portion costs $4.80.

Some of us went back to my place for mahjong after dinner. Now I make people to weigh themselves when they first arrive and when they are about to depart. Haha...just another service I provide since I have a digital weighing scale. Besides, my friends seem to enjoy the process of seeing their weight go down after mahjong. Then we can tell ourselves that mahjong is good exercise that can help us lose weight. It's a delusion but at least we are happy.

Lovely Saturday night...I do recommend Hey Hey Hotpot. The soup is good and the food quality is great. Pity about the chilli but you can't have it all. The price might also deter some people so I guess I'll go back only when I'm feeling rich. Heh heh...

Phew these few weeks have been crazy. I'm really tired from work. This month, work involves standing up most of the time and with lots of physical movement. So basically, my legs ache to the point of cramping and my left hand and thumb are hurting. My colleague tells me that this is normal. I figure I just need some time off to rest the affected parts but rest won't come so soon. This month I'm also involved in the accreditation of one of our labs. My boss has kindly asked me to sit in on the process to learn and be a back-up in case the lady in charge happens to be unavailable some day. It's nice to have a new learning experience, anyway I'll be working in that lab soon. However, there's been a huge amount of technicality and sometimes I struggle to catch up. These people are engineers and not scientists and most of the time, they are more interested in equipment issues, not the work that is actually performed in the lab. So in the past two weeks, I've been hearing a lot about exhaust fans, AHUs, back-up generators, motors, pressure maintenance and some programming. I just hope that I can remember enough to be a proper back-up should the need ever arise. Accreditation went very smoothly today. There weren't any major problems and there were just a few suggestions for improvement. I'm glad this is over. The technical engineering talk was starting to wear me down. I don't know how my dad does this.

I celebrated my birthday two weeks ago. No photos to put up this year though. It was a very casual day out with friends except for me getting a nice and expensive present and being the special girl for that day. The plan was to go down to JB for a nice shopping and eating trip. A friend backed out because she had heard about the rioting in KL and Penang and was worried that it might affect JB as well. The rest of us were supposed to go ahead, but it rained so heavily that day and we cancelled that whole trip. Instead we went down to TM to catch Kungfu Panda which is a great animation. I loved every moment of it and was laughing from the start to the end. My favourite parts had to be:

1. when Master Wu Gui caught Po stuffing his face with the scared peaches
2. Mantis giving Po accupuncture and Po's face cramped up in front of Tigress
3. Po's big, fat butt squashing Tai Lang's face as they were falling down the stairs
4. Po imagining the dragon scroll to be food so that he could jump up and grab it before Tai Lang got it

After the movie, we had a nice and simple dinner at a nearby coffee shop where Chris and the rest surprised me with my present. It's a Philips Audio Video player for me to use as I travel back and forth from work. Yay!!! Now I can watch all my serials if I can't get a seat on the train and I can listen to the Morning Express as I head down to work. It's definitely a useful gadget so I really, really like it!

I've been so lazy to blog these few months and it feels like I don't really have much to write about. The weeks fly by and I do the same old stuff week after week so there's no need to keep repeating my weekly schedule. Yet there are some new things that have happened but I don't feel like elaborating. Instead, I shall do a quick run-through for the special activities that I have been involved in.

1. Went to Bangkok for 6 days in March with Chris, Ju, Mr Tan, Hao, Kit and Da. Ate lots of local food, good restaurants, major shopping every single day. Had a really good and cheap Thai massage and spent fantastic quality time with great friends. Will definitely want to have another holiday with them next year.
2. A colleague chose to transfer out of the lab and I got nominated to take over her current new duties. Now I'm officially the deputy technical manager in the lab. Means more work, same pay but with more chances to learn, learn, learn. Procurement and equipment maintenance is not as easy as it sounds.
3. Took a 10 days holiday to Turkey with Mum and sister. Surprisingly I enjoyed the trip. Wanted to go to Egypt at first but something screwed up that trip. No regrets going to Turkey and will definitely encourage people to go. Beautiful sights, rich culture and history. Food not so nice unless you like salads, olives, cheese, tomatoes and there's hardly any spicy food. Made some friends on the tour; we were lucky because most of the tour group were in the 20s to 30s age group.
4. Signed up for the Shape Run with friends. Will be running 5 km in July. Been practising. Am surprised that I can actually run 5 km without stopping and complete in 35 to 40 minutes. Will keep training. Want to complete within 30 minutes if possible.
5. M's leaving in 3 weeks. Don't think will go to the airport to send him off. Just spend more time with him these remaining weeks. There goes another tennis and makan buddy for 3 years.
6. Stopped going out with K after some incidents which lead to disappointment and a total "can't be bothered and don't care anymore" attitude. Strangely, this wasn't as hard to do as it sounds. Must have been really tired of the whole episode that I didn't think it was worth any time to worry about. Anyway K has asked (very politely) to meet up this week. Will be meeting him (answered him very politely) and will probably behave very politely.

Since Chinese New Year is still ongoing and I didn't get to touch any mahjong during my trip back to M'sia, this weekend has been like a mahjong make-up session. I played at Chris's house on Saturday and won $18 then I played at Mike's condo by the sea a few hours ago. Keong kindly sent me home at 11.40 pm and I rushed to get to sleep since I have to be up at 6 am. But I can't get to sleep. I'm very awake with so many thoughts running around in my head so I might as well come online and write them down. Perhaps I will feel more settled once I've done that.

I've been quite touchy recently and I'm not sure why. Maybe it's that time of the month, maybe it is long overdue. Suddenly I feel tired of being the one who is always in charge of organizing and planning events for the groups. Before Chinese New Year, I actually blew up at my friends for cancelling our plans for dinner because they told me extremely last minute. We were supposed to meet for dinner and they only informed me at 6 pm when I got off work. Plus it was everyone cancelling at the same time. I got real pissed because I had cancelled dinner with family because of them and they really should have let me know sooner so that I could at least still go for dinner with my parents. Of course they were all sorry and apologized and I forgave them and we were supposed to put this all behind us. But then today Keong said something that made me think about this all again. He was telling his friend that I was the "mother" of the group and was good at cooking and taking care of people and that everyone called me "mother". This, of course, is not true. Only Mantou calls me Ma and the rest just call me Wei Wei. Still it got me thinking. Do everyone really see me as the mother figure? Do everyone automatically expect me to always do the planning and the cooking and all that? I really hate to admit it but I think so and this does not sit well with me. I guess I'm tired of being the one that everyone relies and depends on. I'm tired of being the problem solver and I'm tired of people only coming to me when they want something from me or want me to do something for them. I want people to step up and stop letting me be the authorative figure. I guess Steph was right.

So I have decided. For the next few months, I'm going to stop organizing gatherings and outings. I'm going to stop planning for people's birthdays and worrying about what to get them. I'm going to take a break and see if anyone actually steps up. Perhaps it was my fault for being so assertive and always being the first to initiate plans. So now I'm going to stop, right after the dinner I have planned for the coming Saturday and maybe a Ubin cycling trip the Saturday after. Hey, old habits die hard and I do really want to go to Ubin. Haha!!!

Jon McLaughlin - So Close

This is from the Enchanted soundtrack.
What a lovely song...sigh...

You’re in my arms
And all the world is calm
The music playing on for only two
So close together
And when I’m with you
So close to feeling alive

A life goes by
Romantic dreams will stop
So I bid mine goodbye and never knew
So close was waiting, waiting here with you
And now forever I know
All that I wanted to hold you
So close

So close to reaching that famous happy end
Almost believing this was not pretend
And now you’re beside me and look how far we’ve come
So far we are so close
How could I face the faceless days
If I should lose you now?
We’re so close
To reaching that famous happy end
And almost believing this was not pretend
Let’s go on dreaming for we know we are
So close
So close
And still so far

The First Day of Year 2008

I'm spending this day at home, cleaning and throwing out stuff I don't need and can't use (like coupons and vouchers that expire 31 Dec 2007). At the same time, I'm waiting for Keong to call because he promised to play tennis with me. Actually, last night I dreamt that he would pang seh me today and as time passes, the dream seems more and more likely to come true. I have this feeling that he's sleeping at someone's house at the moment after all that partying and drinking last night.

Still, I'm satisfied with what I've done so far...

1. do laundry
2. clean and sweep my room
3. put new bedsheets for my sister's (she's coming back on Sunday!!!) and my bed
4. file up all my bills from December
5. throw away coupons and vouchers
6. clean up my computer by saving, burning and deleting files
7. ate some leftovers from last week (I need to clear the fridge too)
8. put photos into photo album instead of leaving them on the table to collect dust

I am looking forward to this year. I think there's going to be a lot of good things happening. I dreaded the arrival of Year 2007 because it meant that I would have to return to Singapore. But I think Year 2007 went pretty well for me too.

1. went for the Australian Open 2007
2. got rid of my mole
3. got a job I enjoy
4. had plenty of outings with friends
5. have an income to support all these outings
6. tried new food and new eating places
7. bought lots of new clothes without feeling guilty about spending money
8. am able to start giving my parents pocket money (AHAHAHAHAHH!!!)
9. got an MP3 player
10. had a great birthday and gave some friends good birthdays as well
11. got a lovely new handphone
12. converted my driving license
13. made new friends
14. started playing badminton again

So, as this new year begins, I have lots more memories to add to my collection. I do wish Milo and Steph could have been in more of them but there's nothing I can do about that. This year, for once, I'll make some resolutions and try my best to keep them.

1. play more tennis (at least once a week)
2. play more badminton (at least once a week)
3. spend more time with family
4. stay in touch with my old friends
5. get in touch with long lost friends (this is hard though)
6. go travelling with Mum and sister
7. go travelling with friends (preferably Taiwan *hint hint*)
8. do something different with my hair
9. eat out less and cook more
10. go cycling at Pulau Ubin (been saying this for years now)
11. stop being so hypocritical at work

Ok I shouldn't add too many to this list. Otherwise I'll end up doing none. I would like to visit Steph and Milo but I really don't like going to KL and the air tickets to Brisbane are really expensive at the moment. We'll just have to see what happens. Maybe I'll get a good pay raise this year??? Haha!