time out

been reading The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenger. What a book! Both romantic, intriguing and quite inventive a plot. I must admit to not being too interested upon hearing the title. It sounded somewat sci-fi and maybe a little like Thursday Next's Dad from the Jasper Fforde series of books (which I love btw, and with whom i had the good fortune to meet and interview and have sign my books)

but i was wrong and i am so glad i found the book at the queenstown library and borrowed it. now i just want to own a copy of my own! although it is quite possible that i might not actually read it again anytime soon. its like my friend and cds. i burnt him a copy of the killers but he loved it so much he went to get his own copy. whereas i am actually quite content with just having a copy of cds although i do love some albums so - like damien rice's O n Muse's Absolution. i guess for me using the ipod has changed the way i look at music. in the sense that because i dont actually take out the cd to listen to, i dont reall see the need of owning the actual stuff. (of course when it comes to a band like pearl jam - yes i know, still stuck in the 90s - i want to own every studio album and do. except for that 'best hits' one they just released which i think is bullshit. of course owning EVERY pearl jam album is ridiculous cos of the numerous live albums they've had out)

but another friend recently got his hands on a g4 20gb ipod. and that poor fella doesnt reall know how to use it. i think it's been a month since he's got it and yesterday i had to teach him about playlists and on-the-go playlists which i dont think he truly understands. i put it down to the fact that he's a technologically unsavvy 30-year-old. now if i could only convince him to hand over his ipod, i've run out of space on mine! i never thought that was possible on a 40gb but ladies and gentlemen, i've got more than 4000 songs and that seems to be about it.

maybe i just have to go out and get another one...

taking a break

so i got a day's mc and tomorrow's a public holiday. but i've gotta return to work on saturday and do some story on the red cross.
(as someone said i always seem to get this kinda stories to do. whether at this paper or the previous. let's see, volunteers, more volunteers, cattery volunteers...)
i'm not complaining though. i think what they're doing is really quite amazing.

anyway, i saw an ad for this month's Her World and something just starred right at me. Generation Whine.

i think i'm most definitely part of that generation. i know i whine, i complain and i grumble far more than i should, especially this year. when instead i should be more than happy with my lot.

take today. i could be freezing my ears off at the office but instead the supes have kindly let me really use the mc and sit around at home, reading, watching dvds and listening to Snow Patrol. then again, could they really have said no? i'm not entirely sure.....

idd

ì got a call from the uK today and that sorta threw me off balance for a while. the call came in on my mobile, caller id only flashing "call 1" - an unidentified number.
well this has happened before, with pp calling from payphones and unlisted numbers and of course overseas but i dont know why, i didnt think it was an overseas call. and i DID NOT recognise the voice.
has it really been that long? well yes, about 3 months i think.
but i honestly was confused for a while, altho he thought i was pretending. of course i didnt admit to not knowing!

it was nice to have a chat with this person i hadnt spoken to for a while. i guess i miss talking to pp on the phone. smses and emails whie convenient are just no substitute.

and yes, for once this entry wasnt entirely on work, but work has to come in somewhere and here it is - it was a tiring week. i keep feeling like the office totally zaps my energy. i'm tired most of the time, and i feel like i never fully leave the office. plus i tire more easily when i run and i hate that. why is that really?

but it wasn't a totally hairpulling week and i am still questioning whether this place is right for me - the same issues keep running in my mind but somehow today, i've managed to keep my sanity and not blow my sunday worrying about work.

helped also that had a nice lunch with family at ichiban boshi at great world and went to car showrooms where i somehow bumped into someone i wasnt expecting to see. and fell in love with the mazda rx8. what a beauty! what a 130k beauty! ingeniously its a four day sports car altho when u look at it u immediately think its a two-door. the honda integra (which we also checked out) pales in comparison! but price is steep. also had a look at the mazda 3 which has tt wonderful option to drive in manual, clutchless, much like the alfa. i like that option. i like the idea of changing gears without having to dick around with a clutch pedal. how fun that would be!

of course the final decision does not rest on me. but man that would be some car to drive!

interesting how..

i seem to have lost a good friend to his new girlf!

now that he's got himself a new girl, he never hangs out with me no more! ok not like we got together that often, but it was nice to catch up once in a while, and now it's like...'free for coffee this weekend?'
'sorry no'

!!!

2004

since i seem to b in a somewhat reflective mood today i might as well write a little about how last year was.

2004 was a major year for me. it was a year of change. a new job with a new challenge - i was finally a journalist and i loved it. (i still am of course and i am indeed thankful for having a job this year). i was on my own, relationship-wise but i made so many new and good friends. then i did meet someone who meant a lot to me. but i dont want to talk about him here.

my job took me places - margaret river (just after i returned from a personal trip to see radiohead in sydney) club med cherating and tokyo (this is the crazy part - i found myself on the UA flight back to tokyo just 1 1/2 days after i landed in Sg from tokyo - another personal trip)

my job let me meet people - Colombian artist Fernando Botero, photographer Russel Wong, authors like Chang Rae Lee and Jasper Fforde, film-makers, the beautiful, talent and blind Jessica Callahan, the inspiring Siew Ying of Metta Cats. honestly the list could go on and on.

so i've been very fortunate. of course there were days when i just wanted to pull out my hair and scream but those were far and few.

i've also worked with a good bunch of people. sad to say that we've had to split up and be redeployed in different departments, different papers and some, sadly, retrenched. i hope we somehow remain in touch. an alumni of sorts.

apart from all things new, i've also still had a good bunch of friends to drink coffee, watch movies, go wakeboarding, go shopping and just hang out and talk with. so thank you, if any of you actually read this (probably one or two), for being my friend.

here's what i hope for the new year.
i want to do well in my new job, work hard work smart and not have to find myself stuck in the office way past midnight everyday (*shudder*).
i want a life outside of the office. i dont want work to consume me.
i want to meet more people, make more friends and hopefully meet someone who's right for me
i hope that my family and friends will be happy healthy safe and sound.
i want to write more. and not just for work.
and i want to travel more, although it's highly unlikely that i'll be on junkets this year. so it'll have to come outta my pockets.
i want to continue exercising regularly and eat better. (ever since i've done that organic food story, i've been wondering what kinda crap i chow down on everytime. but if i really worried about that the whole time, that would be crazy. it's impossible to eat healthy all the time. i guess i can start by cutting out packaged foods, which prob comes straight from hell. mwahhahah)
i'd like to watch many more movies, read many more books, listen to much more music. and make the time to do all that (re: "i don't want work to consume me")
and i'd also like to make plans to study overseas. to figure out what is it i really want to do with my life. that's probably one of the biggest mysteries.

butterflies

work begins tomorrow. and i couldn't sleep well last night. i feel like i'm not kicking off this year on a good note. i'm worried about high expectations and not living up to those expectations.

but the most immediate concern on my mind today is story ideas. i've been wracking my brains to think of some... any... anything at all. but all i come up with are things more for the lifestyle section. frivolous trivial matters. i've been trawling international papers to see if anything there can be translated to sg terms.

my situation is currently quite hopeless. but 'm going to say fkit and go shopping later. i need some brainless activity. and new clothes.

meanwhile, here's some food for thought. Saw it on Alas A Blog. The gist of it:"How can we stop the obese from becoming more obese? Pretty simple. Stop feeding them!"

sila evason hideaway

here are some pictures of the fab resort on koh samui which thankfully wasn't affected by the tsunamis.


this is the resort seen from the beach which is shared with another hotel. (we stayed on the sunset view side. this is the sunrise view)


view from the balcony area (on the lower floor)


this is the gorgeous infinity pool (and not the villa's pool which is also an infinity one but a little blocked by greenery)

lesson learnt

this is actually something i learnt some time ago and totally forgot on nye. me and tequila are not a good combination.

so i began 2005 with a hangover and a queasy stomach from the alcohol (it's really the tequila)

but dec 31 was interesting.

uni friend got married and it was a bit of a military affair with that lovely guard of honour thing. but chinese wedding dinners are chinese wedding dinners. the usual food, the usual waiting for an hour before the show got on the road, and well, honestly, it was boring. oh and plus ENYA was on repeat for the later part of the night.... sigh.... it was as bad as stepping into cold storage and hearing damn cny tunes this evening..

but after that, headed to chjimes to join some pp for their late dinner (which took ages, but i suppose it was because of nye and all) we ended up running back to swissotel and up to the 55th floor because we had this phobia of counting down in the elevator. we made it. with a couple of minutes to spare. pity there were no fireworks because (1) we had the most perfect room for catching the fireworks (just facing the padang/esplanade (2) without the fireworks u cldnt really know when to say woohoo happy new year.

plus i pity the fireworks pp who must have planned a lovely show only to have their job cut out of the picture at the last minute.

anyway, pp brought plenty to drink. no champers tho!

it was nice to just hang around, chat, listen to music. and altho some started leaving four of us were left watching the sun rise and then we really had to crash cos it was too bloody early . but checkout was 3pm thank heavens. so we had til then to sleep in. but of course i woke up feeling crummy, dragged myself home and went to sleep somemore, not having eaten anything since the night before. lucky mum had a great dinner of pumpkin soup, pork chop, omelette, salad and almond jelly for dessert.

happy new year, hope 2005 will be an eventful one.
i know mine will be = new year new job. freaking out a little bit with the prospect of that, you know, being in 'the big leagues" as EVERYONE kept reminding us (well, as least the 3 pp who will matter the most to my career)