Jeanie in a bottle

Cupid's a' Callin..

2009-02-14T22:36:00.035Z

February has always been my favourite month of the year.. Firstly, it's the month that houses my birthday (although I have to admit that birthdays aren't nearly as fun as they were when I was little.. this growing-old business does not sit well with me at all!) Secondly, it's also the month we celebrate luuurve! It's a great wonder it isn't everyone's favourite month! Haha..

Anyway, obviously, not one to lose out on celebrations, I got to celebrate both special days.. My birthday wasn't a big one, just had an 'intimate' dinner with close friends. No wild or big parties, which is another sign that I am growing old.. You know, turning 27 sucks! No more hiding behind the '26 is still mid-twenties' excuse, since 27 is officially LATE twenties! No more, let's enjoy our twenties while we can, now it's just, let's kill ourselves before we hit the big 3-0! Sighhh.. I wish we could grow younger, that would be great rite? Like the curious Benjamin, haha!

OK, no more ranting.. these are some pics of my 'celebration' dinner. The best part of the night was when my darling WS surprised me with birthday cupcakes! Apparently he spent the day running around arranging the surprise at the dinner, of course, with the help of our friends. Plus, he surprised me with a lovely birthday gift, so altogether, my baby got a lot of loving from me! ;)

So I better stop before this turns out to be a 100% lovefest.. so here are some lovely pics, followed by some more of Valentine's!

Me & my cupcakes! They were so cute!

My darling made my birthday so special.. thanks so much, baby!

F.R.I.E.N.D.S?

Someone was soooo happy to spend my birthday with me! ;)

Yummy steak & chocolate fondue.. ok, have to admit though, it looks better than it tasted!

My beautiful cupcakes!!!!

Soulmates? Yup, the boys fit as well as YJ & me!!!

The new Mr & Mrs!

My lovely gift.. ok, so it doesn't look great, but it was exactly what I wanted!!

Since this year's Valentine's Day fell on a Saturday, I had the marvelous idea of going for an 'exotic' holiday, to be uber-romantic... I had big ideas - Reykjavik (too cold), Berlin (a tad boring), Venice (I've already been and it's not that big a deal..), Prague (we're going in Easter) or Gran Canaria (too far for a weekend trip). As if that wasn't bad enough, WS put his foot down and said what I've been trying to deny - "NO MONEY". Apparently he wants to save up for our wedding (he hasn't even proposed yet, that self-confident ding-dong! But seriously, of late, we've been sooo broke!) So unfortunately for me, no romantic getaway. Instead, we were stuck in sad ol' Manchester.. (WS suggested somewhere local, but as you can remember from this entry, no more local holidays for me!)

OK, so it wasn't a bad Valentine's Day at all.. (I guess it just paled in comparison to my initial extravagant ideas!) WS booked us a romantic dinner at Albert's Shed, a restaurant in Manchester. Right, hands down, the best restaurant we've ever been to in all of Manchester! The food was absolutely delicious, the service was really good, ambience was wonderful and the overall experience was fantastic! We really enjoyed ourselves and will definitely be going back soon..

I was later surprised with a lovely bouquet of roses when I got home! (I must admit, WS is definitely getting better at this surprise business! ;) ) They were so pretty and the roses were huuuuuge! Hehe.. so as you can expect, here are my pictures!!! (A word of warning: there are some seriously loved-up cam-whoring going on here, so avert your eyes, oh thee faint-hearted!)

Me and my yummy roast duck leg.. the garlic mash potatoes were absolutely divine & the roast root vegetables were out of this world!!

Enjoying the decor at Albert's Shed..

WS enjoyed his roast lamb shank.. doesn't look much, but it was huge!

Love is truly in the air! Haha..

More cam-whoring..

My beautiful roses..

Scrutinising for bugs?

Even more cam-whoring!!!

Aren't they just gorgeous?

OK, that's all for me for now! Have I mentioned how much I love this month?

It's comeback time!

2008-12-25T20:03:00.001Z

For as long I've remembered, people have told me how annoying my obsession with Ronan Keating & Boyzone is.. so no one was thrilled with the new of their reunion, apart from me, of course!! My high school sweetheart, my first love, the one that got me through all my hard & tough teenager times.. oh, and of course, the rest of the lads mattered too, otherwise, there wouldn't be any of those wonderful tunes like Love Me For A Reason & I Love The Way You Love Me..

Anyway, when I heard that they were doing their reunion tour in June, I just had to go... there was absolutely no way that I would miss them after their 8-year split! Hehe.. so anyway, got my butt down to London to watch them perform at the O2 and managed to drag good friend PY to go with me cos' guess what? She was a fan of Ronan & the boys too!!

At the O2.. I was very impressed with the venue, it really was an entertainment venue!!

OK, these aren't the photos from my camera, but damn, they look good!

They still look as good as they did and they definitely sounded as great!

OK, again, I can't take credit for this either.. but does Ronan not look hoooottt??

Ooh, they did this grown-up thing.. where they sang & danced HALF-NAKED on stage.. Oh, those abs!!!

Ooh, they did this thing at the end where they stood on this moving stage over our heads and sang No Matter What.. it was amazing!!

Lucky for me, I got a seat quite near the stage so got to have a close look at the boys!!!

An explosive performance! They sang lots of the famous chart-toppers but also had some non-famous songs for their real fans.. like me!!

It was so good to watch the boys back together again live!

All in all, the whole concert was a fantastic production & fully enjoyable, I shouted so hard that I almost lost my voice... long live Boyzone, I'm so glad they're back!!!

Courtesy of heat magazine.. need I say more??

PY & me at our favourite London hangout..

No, I did not drag WS to watch Boyzone with me.. for that, he was truly relieved!

OK, that's all that happened in London.. ok, not all, but that's all that matters! ;)

More from Netherlands!

2008-12-13T23:08:00.000Z

Our story in Amsterdam continues with Part 2, in pictures, of course! :) We spent one day in Zaanse-Schans, a quaint little tourist town just outside of Amsterdam. It's the only town left in Netherlands which still have real, live, working windmills, and I'm really glad I got to see them!! The landscape was absolutely picturesque, it was like walking in a postcard! Anyway, a picture is worth a thousand words, so here they are!!

We had to take a little canal boat to get to the tourist spot!

This is the entrance of this lovely little town.. so picturesque & serene...

This is the first of many beautiful pictures taken in this beautiful little town!

This could be a holiday postcard, right?

I may not look it, but as we were standing on the first floor of a real windmill, I was terrified!!

I love this shot, do the fields make me look like Anne of Green Gables?

Look what I found?!!

Another good shot? ;)

We visited a traditional clog workshop, I've never seen so many clogs in my life!
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Look, a real Dutch milkmaid!!!

Look what else I found? Heehee..

This is a real grinder for chalk that we found inside a real, working windmill!

And this concludes our holiday trip in Netherlands! It was fantastic and we said that we definitely would go back again! Those of you who haven't been, you must go!!!

Tulips, cheese & cannabis.. where else? Amsterdam!!

2008-12-01T11:14:00.010Z

In the spirit of good Jean-type blogging, here are more photos of my trips & trots.. Sorry I don't have any serious, insightful blog entries, but honestly, how many of you actually enjoy them? Aren't pretty photos much better? ;)

Blog Entry - April 2008

I have been sooooo broke lately, it's ridiculous! It's that time of the year again where all your car crap (pardon my language) is due.. Car insurance, road tax, MOT, service etc are all costing me wayyyyy too much! Who said having a car was easy? Sheesh... Plus, I had to buy my air ticket back home to attend dear TS's wedding. Unfortunately for me, that's costing me a whole extra bundle of cash too.. Sighhh..... all for the sake of friendship, eh?

The other thing that drained me, which of course, is entirely my fault, is my recent trip to the Netherlands.. Yes, after all these years of wanting to go to Amsterdam and the famed Keukenhof, I finally got a chance to go at the right time! :) We were only there for 4 days but it was an amazing time anyway, especially since the weather was gorgeous! Sunshine and light breeze, with maximums of 22 degrees Celcius! (I sound like the weather girl now..)

The only drawback was stupid KLM, who left our luggage behind in Manchester for 2 whole days! That completely ruined half of my trip, cos we had to spend time and money hunting around for clean underwear, socks, pyjamas and amenities. Plus, with the added trouble of having contact lenses? Overall, it was not a very pleasant time.. Lucky for us, our hotel people were extremely helpful and we managed to claim most of our Euro $$$ from the airline, so overall, at least, the trip wasn't completely ruined!

I must say that I found Amsterdam to be one of the most beautiful cities I've visited in Europe.. it had the perfect combination of buildings, greenery and of course, the city's landscape was enhanced greatly by its numerous canals.. Overall, there was a tranquility amidst the vibrant citylife and I found that extremely inviting.

The buildings that flanked the canal were all very beautiful and it was obvious that there was much thought and meticulous planning put into the development of this charming city. The city council has also put a halt on canal houses and canal boats in the city so thankfully, the canals were not overcrowded and instead, exuded a peaceful atmosphere. There were people from all walks of life and the variety of food available was simply endless!

WS and I went together, which was really nice cos' it was a romantic holiday for us.. unfortunately, that meant very few pictures of us together cos' let's face it, setting up the tripod can be very tiresome. Coupled by the fact that our first 2 days in Amsterdam were clouded with our missing-luggage problems meant that we really couldn't be arsed to take that many pics in Amsterdam city itself. So sad... Luckily, by the time we ventured out to Keukenhof to see the tulips and to Zaanse-Schans, a historical Holland township, we had our clothes back so that meant lots of pics! Here they are, so do enjoy! (You just absolutely have to look at all the pictures, especially towards the end.. no regrets, I promise!)

View of a canal in Amsterdam city..
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We visited the real house where Anne Frank stayed and it was a chilling experience..

On a canal cruise.. I swear I got a tan from that hour!
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Enjoying a traditional Dutch meal - hotspotch!

Of course, one couldn't miss the oh-so-famous yummy Dutch pancakes!

These are called poffertjes.. yummy!

Can't get enough of pancakes! ;)
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The main reason we went to Netherlands in April was to visit the Tulip Festival at Keukenhof, a quaint little town just outside Amsterdam. My parents have been showing me pictures of them enjoying a romantic spring in Keukenhof some 25 years ago, and I've dreamt of visiting this place ever since I was a little girl.. Of course, I never got the opportunity to come (despite telling everyone else to come visit this beautiful place), as there were never any term breaks during this time whilst I was at medical school. So finally.... here I am!!!

The beautiful Keukenhof Gardens..

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Calm & serene.. stunning beauty!

Beautiful, innit? Of course, the flowers look great too!

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My favourite picture!

Such picturesque surroundings..

The sun was glorious!

Pretty flowers everywhere!

I loved these blossoms.. has such an oriental feel!

They had an interior design show too, which was very impressive..

I loved the vibrant reds!

Nothing says Holland better than windmills eh?

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Up close the flowers look even more beautiful!

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WS tries his hand at artsy photography..

More artsy photos.. he caught me unaware in this one!

More pretty pictures of us... ;)

I love this shot.. it has such a romantic feeling to it, don't you think?

More fun in the sun.. not complaining though, the photos turned out gorgeous thanks to Mr Shine-brightly aka The Sun!

Last shot of the day.. looks like a Wedding photo backdrop eh? Now don't start getting ideas..

And that concludes the first part of the Amsterdam series.. haha, are you waiting at the edge of your seat for Part 2???

Scottish Sensations

2008-11-13T00:16:00.003Z

Blog Entry - December 2007

AK, one of my 'ji mui's, came to visit her sister in the UK recently, so I decided to go visit her.. Unfortunately, she decided that she wanted to go visit the land of Scotland up north, so I had to haul my lazy ass all the way up to Edinburgh and Glasgow to accompany her. Sighh, the things you do for friends eh?

3 and a half long hours later, I arrived in gloomy Edinburgh.. As it was my third time visiting this pretty city, I wasn't superbly excited. Luckily, I got to ogle at Scottish men (especially Scottish men in uniform) who were, by the way, absolutely yummy - enough to get my adrenaline pumping! Plus, their Scottish accents were soooooooo delicious!!! Yum!

So the 4 of us - AK, her sister VK, our old school friend KT and myself decided we'll do the touristy thing and go visit all the touristy sights of Edinburgh - even though I've been to Edinburgh about 3 times now and frankly, as beautiful as the city is, it doesn't really change, does it? So we trotted about Princess Street, visited the Edinburgh Castle (this would be my 3rd time now!) and went walking around, enjoying the Edinburgh scenery. A costly affair to see these sights for the umpteenth time but we had lots of fun hanging out and I definitely enjoyed myself! So I guess no biggg sacrifice there huh?

Anyway, here are some pics from Edinburgh!

Now I can't remember exactly what this place was, but something along the Edinburgh Council Place or something like that.. some administration buildinglah! KT was just impressed with its architecture! hehe..

At Edinburgh Castle.. good heavens was it cold! Wintertime in Scotland, not a good idea..

Enjoying the view!

While some enjoyed creating some sort of view...

Edinburgh City certainly looks amazing from up here..
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Christmas market time! Hot chocolate and yummy pancakes galore!
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On our second day in Scotland, it was decided that we go visit the Scottish highlands.. By highlands, I mean Loch Lomond and its' surrounding lakes. Not that far from Glasgow, where KT stays (btw, thanks for letting us stay at yours!), but far enough to make both myself and VK nauseous.. (the poor girl was actually physically sick! Lucky for me, I had Stemetil at hand so I was alright! ;) )

The scenery was gorgeous and the photos were beautiful.. but rest assured, I won't be visiting these lakes again - not worth my motion sickness! Heehee..

Look at how beautiful everything is!
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Cheese!

I love this shot - absolutely gorgeous! Oh, and the scenery looked stunning too! :P

For old times' sake!

Meet the superheroes! Or was it James Bond & his Bond girls? I forget..

Look at how gorgeous the sky is.. and the crystal clear water.. Sighhh..
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KT's a more professional photographer than I am, so.. we end up with an artisty shot! Not bad..
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More artsy-fartsy stuff!

We are his car models.. oh btw, KT drives like a bloody maniac, as if the Scottish B-roads were the bloody F1 race track!
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Young, sweet VK and me.. we're at another Scottish lake spot!

Better remember this shot - won't be back in a looooong time!
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And that concludes our Scottish trip. It was really good to see AK & I'm glad that she enjoyed herself! Was it worth all the trouble? Hmm.. lemme think.. haha, of course it was!

Road Trip 2008

2008-11-01T17:17:00.012Z

With the real problem of the credit crunch, we (myself, WS, YJ & AT) decided that we couldn't really afford a holiday abroad, no matter how cold this stupid country can get. Although places like Malta, Tenerife, Gran Canaria & the Caribbean all sounded like nicer (and warmer) places to be, our wallets are as thin as supermodels. Not ones to give up, we decided that a road trip in the UK would be an acceptable alternative.

We decided to drive down South and visit the historic town of Shakespeare, Stratford-upon-Avon, then be real tourists and visit Stonehenge. Finally, our trip would be concluded in Bath, another historic city which YJ & AT have not visited. So, in true Jeanie in a Bottle fashion, here are our pictures!

Shakespeare's statue stands proud at the entrance to the historic town of Stratford-upon-Avon!
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The four pillars of Shakespeare's work - History, Comedy, Tragedy & Philosophy..
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Visiting Shakespeare's birthplace. Although our visit to this 16th century cottage was very historic, we reckon living in the Elizabethan period would not have been very nice...
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Visiting Anne Hathaway's 16th century home.. (Anne Hathaway, as we learnt, was William Shakespeare's wife. Did you know that he was 18 and she was 26 & pregnant when they got married?)

How many cottages have you seen with a real thatched roof?

One of the more modern shopping arcades in Stratford-upon-Avon town centre..
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Lunch was served at a very swanky restaurant - Bensons. The food was absolutely, amazingly delicious!
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Unfortunately, we were so hungry (& greedy) that we devoured our lunch before any pictures could be taken. Fortunately, dessert was not forgotten..

Stonehenge.. arguably, the most famous pre-historic site in all of England!

Thanks to our tripod, we managed to get a group shot.. cheese!

Can you believe that these stones are over 5000 years old?!!

UNESCO has named this one of its World Heritage Sites.. no wonder, they truly are a wonder!

No one really knows why they were built.. A place of worship? A sun-calendar? Aliens?

We got to meet the Stonehenge model of the year.. we all have to take pics with him! :P
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Chilling out at our hotel, the Express by Holiday Inn, Bath. We were thoroughly impressed with the hotel & its affordability..

WS & I visited Bath many years ago but unfortunately only managed to catch the Roman Baths.. so this time round, we just had to go see The Royal Crescent!

Busy Businessman?

Don't be fooled by the clear blue sky... it was coooold!!!
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Stuck in a traffic jam with nothing to do!
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And with that, we took a slow drive back to wet ol' Manchester.. Even though it wasn't the most exotic or exciting holiday, I think the company was brilliant so we really enjoyed the trip! Plus, I definitely got to learn more about English history.. so that's always a plus!

Disneyland Paris - Day 2

2008-10-07T20:54:00.029+01:00

Blog Entry 4th December 2007

OK, you've gotta admit, the photos from Day 1 was awesome right? :) Well, it was awesome for me and WS, that's for sure! The parades were amazing, it was so fun to meet characters and of course, the whole experience was absolutely magical! (Btw, did I mention that we visited both Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios? Will write more about the studios later..)

Day 2 was just WS and I, as J & CY had to return home.. Since we didn't get a chance to enjoy many rides as we were busy gawking at every magical thing we came across (honestly, we felt like we were 5 ok!), we decided that Day 2 was going to be all about enjoying the adventurous side of Disneyland - we hit the rides!!! Gosh, it was so fun.. Disneyland definitely has some of the greatest roller coasters I've ridden in Europe! (Not that I've been on many roller coasters in Europe.. :P)

We managed to go on Space Mountain (it was so cool!!!) and Crush's (from Finding Nemo).Coaster, which was totally awesome!!! (we were in this shell-like car, and then the best part was spinning down the Eastern Australian Current.. honestly, it felt like we were really doing that!!! But Day 2, we hit the other biggies like Big Thunder Mountain, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Zoom, Peter Pan's Flight (which was REALLY like flying over London at night!), Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Tours, It's A Small World and many more.. Sighh, our adrenalin level was pumping by the time we finished!!

The entrance... obviously!!!

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There were many interesting shows that were being put on at the Magical Land and we had the opportunity to catch one of them - Mickey & Friends' Winter Wonderland.. It was so cute, getting to see the mouse and his friends dance around, ice-skate, sing and put up and overall, wonderful performance! (Again, reliving the 5-year old days.. ;) )

This was Minnie Mouse's big entrance.. she slid down the slide oh-so-gracefully!

Mickey & Minnie are so cute.. they look so in love!
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Who knew Donald Duck could sing AND play the banjo?
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Pluto and Goofy were absolutely adorable!
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We managed to head over to Fantasyland and enjoy the It's A Small World ride.. as a child, it was closed when my family and I visited Disneyland LA, so I've always wanted to go on it. Have to admit, it wasn't the most thrilling, but definitely very entertaining.. the music was good and the little paper dolls were so cute!

London, United Kingdom!

Little Japanese dolls in cute kimonos!
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Red Indians!

We went to enjoy the Star Tours - a Star Wars adventure which was out of this world! ;)

At Walt Disney Studios.. it was very educational!

Look who I met? Had to chase him a good distance around the Studios though..

Meeting the scary monsters.. Sully was soo cute but scary at the same time.. and boy did that bear hug hurt!

After waiting for such a long time.. we finally got a chance to meet the Mouse of the hour!!! He's sooooo cute!
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Had to fight a few kids off to get this pic! I don't care..

Haha, I got a photo with the cute mouse whilst WS's mouse was the not-so-cute Ratatouille! :P

The oh-so-famous Mickey Mouse from Fantasia...

As night falls, the Christmas lights are lit up round the magical land!

As the street lights of Main Street get illuminated, my breath is absolutely taken away!

The night show was amazing.. we had to elbow our way through the crowd to get near to see these cutesies perform!

And the star has arrived... Mickey!!!

And finally.. Sleeping Beauty's Castle is lit up as the grand finale! Goosebumps... It was amazingly beautiful!
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And that concludes my incredibly amazing trip.. as you can tell from my generous use of adjectives like fantastic, incredible, amazing, magical etc, it was truly an enjoyable trip! For those of you who haven't been, I highly highly recommend it.. and to those of you who have, shall we make a trip together soon?

Disneyland Paris - Day 1

2008-09-28T13:18:00.002+01:00

Blog Entry - 3rd December 2007

As the title suggests, we decided to go to Disneyland Paris (on a whim, of course!) to celebrate WS's birthday this year.. hehe.. well, originally thought of going down to London and celebrating it there but it cost too much so we thought we might as well go to Disneyland Paris.. hehe.. we were only there for 2 nights with J & CY, but had soooooooo much fun! I've only been to Disneyland LA as a child so I barely remember the experience.. Can't wait to visit the other Disneylands!!!!

Plus, this year was Disneyland Paris' 15th anniversary so they had extra special stuff all year round! It was amazing!!! More characters wandering the streets, lots of meet and greets, and of course, many many amazing parades!

Anyway, they say a picture is worth a thousand words so here's a million of them! (I seriously need to sharpen my writing skills.. haven't written a proper piece on this blog for ages!!!)

'Twas a beautiful sunny day when we arrived in the magical land.. but don't be fooled, cos' it really was smack in the middle of winter! Ah well, at least we got pretty pictures, eh?

As we stepped into the magical kingdom, it was like being whisked to a different world altogether! First stop: Main Street, USA!
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Guess who was the first 'person' we met? Haha.. unfortunately we were too late to join the queue.. to sit with with him in his special sleigh of course!

Main Street, USA - every bit as magical as I remembered! It was literally like stepping into a cartoon, everything was so brightly coloured and pretty! Goosebumps!

As it was Christmas season, they put up this humongous Christmas tree on Main Street!

And finally.. at the end of Main Street, we find the most magical thing of all - Sleeping Beauty's Castle!!! Sighhh...

Minnie decided to come out and give us a great performance! She was so cute and could dance really well too! Did I mention that she speaks French too?

Oh my gosh, the merchandise shops in Disneyland were absolutely amazing!!! I wanted to buy this beautiful Princess Ariel tiara but everyone said it won't go with anything I currently own.. annoying!!
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Then I thought I'd go for Princess Jasmine, but no...

In the end, CY and I just settled for Minnie Mouse ears.. :P

Ahhh.. the magical Disney parade.. it was absolutely magical!!! This particular parade was the 15th Anniversary parade...

Alice in Wonderland!!!

A trip to the future lets us meet up with the guys from Toy Story!

The pride of Pride Rock.. it's Simba and the gang! (PS: Can you see how many people are gathered around? I was cheeky enough to run to the front so ended up sitting on the road itself, watching these people walk by right in front of me!)

We did get a chance to meet Goofy after all!!! :)
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Making a trip to Belle's Village.. unfortunately, we missed meeting the Beauty & the Beast!

Enjoying the bright lights and fun atmosphere of Disney Village.. it had loads of restaurants, shops and stuff - all with specific Disney themes!

One of the hundreds of Disney Stores at Disneyland..

So do you think Goody And Winnie the Pooh make a good pair?

The magical land comes alive as the sun sets, with bright beautiful lights lit all over... breathtaking and just.. goosebumps!!!

And that concludes Day 1.. tiring? Nope, just extremely exciting!!! ;) Next up.. Day 2!!!

Resurrection!

2008-09-21T17:10:00.005+01:00

Greetings everyone!!! It has been awhile, hasn't it? Anyway, I am here to make a proclamation: I have decided, with the revival of the Internet in my oh-so-hollow life, that it is time for a resurrection.. of my blog, of course!

I have been 'MIA' for a good while now (I heard the FBI is looking for me.. :P) and I blame it all on the lack of Internet at arms' reach. I've just moved out from my hospital accommodation into a brand spanking new flat (ok, I exaggerate, it's not brand spanking new, just new.. oh, and I don't own it, of course, am just a poor tenant), so instead of having to share a communal computer and Internet connection (which was always full and in which I had to walk 50 steps including climbing a flight of stairs), I now have the luxury of Internet at home, at my fingertips, 24/7. Definitely a welcomed change.. so this year, I can blog to my heart's delight! (Time permitting, of course.. which nowadays, I'm finding very difficult to find time to cook for myself, let alone blogging!)

Ok, updates.. for those of you who actually care.. I'm still working, I'm still pretty, I'm still hip and hot and of course, funky and finally, I'm still not single.. (only difference is, I'm not living with WS anymore, he had to move further south for a new job.. :( Guess there were perks with living and working in the same hospital after all!) Oh by the way, and I'm still as narcissistic as ever!

Work has gotten more demanding.. Being upgraded to a second year doctor isn't as exciting as I thought, in fact, it means more responsibilities and a heavier workload and that, I do not enjoy. I'm back late every evening from work and am always, always knackered. That means I end up lounging in front of my new TV watching reruns, thus, I'm way way behind on the work I have to do outside of working hours. Sighh.. sounds like excuses? Maybe it is, maybe it is...

It doesn't help that my social life has expanded to become a little more interesting nowadays, as I've picked up a few good friends along the way.. We've befriended 2 of WS's fellow IMU-Manchester people, AT and YJ, so we have been hanging out quite a lot with them.. our daily/weekly activities include gossiping, makan-ning, playing Wii, Monopoly, Pictionary, swimming and well, just chilling really.. it's really fun for me, as at least I've got good company when WS's not around and don't get too lonely. :)

Ok, so that's the latest news from my front.. the next few posts that I will put up will be sorta backdated entries.. from our trip to Disneyland to Amsterdam and London.. so do look out for my fabulous pictures!! Until then.. toodles and welcome back!!!

Home sweet home

2008-02-04T01:07:00.009Z

It's been awhile since I got to enjoy the comforts of my own home.. my parents home, that is. And boy, does it feel good to be back.. OK, so I have the crummy hot, humid weather, the family politics and the horrible traffic jams, but damn, it's good to be home!

Ok, so my pleasure will only be short-lived, since I only get bloody 2 weeks off.. but nevertheless, it's nice to be home where you're pampered and of course, where i get endless cuddles from my lovely lovely 2 boys.. hehe..

That aside, this holiday is pretty much gonna be jammed packed! Chinese New Year beckons and although it's great to be back for Chinese New Year for the first time after god-knows-how-many years, I still don't like travelling around to 'balik kampung', especially since my new house is soooooooo nice! (hehe, not bragging, just enjoying..)

Did I also mention that this is the first year I celebrated my birthday in Malaysia in a long long time? hehe.. It's fun alright, but boy, do I hate growing old...

I should probably think of more musings for this pensive post of mine but could I really be bothered at 1am in the morning? Probably not.. what I can be bothered is to put up lots of photos of what's been happening around here.. :) Actually, I couldn't even be bothered to do that. Maybe next time..

Holiday escapade - Part 2

2007-12-15T18:13:00.000Z

I was initially quite apprehensive about going to Lisbon as I heard someone tell me that it looked a lot like Malacca.. but having just come back from there, I can assure you, that it bears absolutely no resemblance to our good ol' Straits' state.. there wasn't any red paint on any building!

Anyway, we only spent like 2 days in Lisbon, and so obviously, didn't get to do too much touring.. it isn't as bad as it seems, cos' Lisbon isn't that big and there isn't as much to see as like, Barcelona or Paris, so we didn't miss out on much.

Ok, my favourite part: pictures!

This is the Monument to the Discoveries, which is, as the name suggests, is a monument dedicated to Portugal's significant role in travel, exploration and discovering different cities in the world!
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And of course, Malacca was one of them!
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The weather was gorgeous!

Praca do Comercio (Commerce Square), sits at the mouth of River Tagus and was historically considered to the entrance of the city since most people came here by boat..
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The central monument in Praca do Comercio

The Torre de Belem (Tower of Belem in English), is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it served as a fortress guarding the entrance to the city of Lisbon via the River Tagus
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Inside the tower..
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The triumphal Arch that leads to the main shopping street, Rua Augusta

The Santa Justa Elevator, an elevator that connects the Baixa (lower city) to Bairro Alto (upper city), a very historic-looking area of Lisbon
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We visited the magnificent Castelo Sao Jorge, the Saint George's Castle, which sits atop a hill guarding the Tagus river..
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The view was absolutely breathtaking!

I wish I could tell you what architectural style this was..

More views!

Enjoying a yummy course of good ol' Portugese food!

Holiday escapade - Part 1

2007-10-22T16:15:00.000+01:00

I have just returned from my glorious, glorious holiday in the sun and am absolutely gutted that I'm back here, in the cold cold weather, ready to start work tomorrow... WS and I had a fantabulous time - it was a really nice rest and relaxation holiday, but still, as we managed to do quite a few touristy things we are quite tired out!

Anyway, we first jet-setted off to Palma Nova, a beautiful beach resort on the gorgeous Spanish island of Mallorca. We stayed in a 3-star hotel (which was pretty cheap!) but we were thoroughly thoroughly impressed! Our room was very clean, looked new and spacious, but most important of all, had a fantastic view of the beach! It was breathtaking.. plus the hotel's location was superb, smack in the middle of 2 gorgeous beaches- it was like we were in paradise itself!

Promoting the hotel.. it's worth the promotions though, it's a really decent hotel and it serves darn good food too!

This is the view from our room balcony... how gorgeous is this???!!!

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OK, so here are more pictures of our trip.... this is the first part, which is in Palma Nova.. our 2nd part of the trip was in Lisbon, but will upload pics to that later.. for now, enjoy!

How gorgeous is this?

Enjoying some Spanish paella by a beachfront restaurant... I don't normally eat seafood, but good lord, the prawns were fresh and succulent, the crab was aromatic and fragrant and the whole dish was just.. scrummilicious!
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Time to hit the beach...

I love this shot... the ominous clouds above provide a very scenic photograph!

WS's photography skills are certainly getting better... ;)

Feel like a model? Hahaha..

Our sand masterpieces... WS's is on the left - a very impressive sand castle, if I do say so myself.. As for mine... what can I say? Was born to be a sculptor!

After a hard day's 'work' at the beach..

Enjoying a round of mini-golf.. this place, called Golf Fantastica is truly fantastic, the landscape is amazing, with waterfalls, lush greens, tropical flowers and trees and such pretty rivers!

WS beat me in the game though.. so that kinda sucked! He beats me at all sports!!!
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Following in the footstep of Tiger Woods?
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I scored a hole-in-one!!!
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Paradise!

If I lived here, I'd stay lazing on the beach all day..

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Ooh, I forgot to mention an extremely important and eventful time for me whilst I was in Palma.. We went to Marineland, a marine park (d'oh) which was ever-so-famous for its dolphins and dolphin shows. Despite the horrendous weather (we were caught in a freak tornado and managed to see the first twister ever to hit the island of Mallorca - death's brink? You decide.. it was on national news and apparently there were 4 surrounding the island. Kinda lucky huh?), the trip was friggin' great because... we got to go for a Dolphin Encounter! (which, as it says on the tin, is an encounter with dolphins... d'oh... again!)

Everyone loves dolphins cos' they're so cute and so bright.. but I've always had a particular interest in marine mammals, specifically orcas and of course, dolphins - did some high school projects on it, dreamt to be a whale or dolphin trainer, tried to do marine biology as a degree instead of medicine, that kinda thing.. So you can imagine how incredibly psyched I was to do this!!!

It was awesome.. got to learn a bit about dolphin biology and anatomy, then got to touch the fantastically beautiful animals, then got to do actions with them that their trainers do!!! Got drenched with salt water in the process but it was awesome! And of course, most important of all, got a close-up photograph with the gorgeous animals as a momento! (PS: Can't get my scanner to work, so will post my up-close photo with the dolphins later on..)

Some action shots (courtesy of my new 'old' camera.. cool huh?) of the dolphin show:

Jumping dolphins!

Walking-backwards dolphins!

What a cool job!!

Kissing dolphins!

Flying dolphins!

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Ok, that's it from me for now.. next stop, Lisbon, Portugal!!

Me and my Zac...

2007-10-12T12:06:00.000+01:00

"I don't dance!" Ok, ok, I do dance.. but that's one of my favourite songs on the soundtrack from High School Musical 2.. YES! High School Musical 2!!! More of my gorgeously sexy and incredibly hunky ZAC EFRON!!!! :) Hehe.. gosh, this awesome sequel is as good if not better than the original High School Musical so you can imagine how fantabulastic it is! Plus, Zac is sooooooooooooooooooooo much better looking in this!!! He's soooo hot that he was even recently crowned The New American Heart Throb by Rolling Stone and appeared as their coverboy in their September 2007 issue!!!! (Check out his rock-hard washboard abs!!!) How hot is he!!! Yummy yummy yummy, I've got love in my tummy!!!

He's gotten soooo big lately it's crazy!!! Everyone loves him and he's been featured everywhere thanks to the success of Hairspray and the High School Musicals!!! Now, let it not be forgotten, that I SPOTTED HIM FIRST in the original High School Musical and had already professed my undying love and admiration for his incredible talent and of course, gobsmacking good looks! (see here) Did I mention how much I love his piercing hazel-coloured eyes???

Anyway, that aside.. it's been awhile since I've last blogged.. things have been a bit crazy around here. I've finally ventured into the working world and am officially financially dependent! Unfortunately, that also means no more lazing around and wasting time as I so fondly did as a student.. Sighh, the plus side? Payday!!! Hahaha..

The other plus side is that I am now, working in the same place as WS, which means I get to see him everyday.. which is definitely more fun than what we've been doing for the past _ years.. I thought it'd be difficult to get used to, considering how much time we've spent apart and also, considering how I like my own space and my own 'me' time, but it's actually been pretty easy to adapt.. when we do spend time together, it's great, but we also have plenty of time for ourselves, which is great too! Haha..

The only problem I have now, is the fact that I'm spending wayyyy too much money! I've finally plunged myself into my favourite brand of makeup - Bobbi Brown! (Loved it from the beginning of time and now that I've tried it, love it even more!!!) Plus, spending loads of money on everything now that I've finally got my own cash.. Like, we're going on a holiday next week to this beach resort on a Spanish Island called Palma de Mallorca, it's going to be soo cool.. then we're jetting off to Lisbon in Portugal for a very touristy cultural experience! (Though some have said it looks like Malacca, hehe..) We were supposed to go to New York but unfortunately, couldn't deal with the visa etc in time so guess we're gonna have to save that for next year..

Anyway, that's just a little update from me.. hopefully I can share my photos from my upcoming trip on here soon.. (I know, I said that about Budapest and Greece too, rite? Okok, slowly but surely, it'll appear...)

Nottingham.... the finale!

2007-07-18T11:30:00.000+01:00

As some of you may already know, I'll be leaving Nottingham for good very soon. Although I'm going to miss it (and of course, the people in it!) very much, it's sorta bittersweet for me too as I'm looking forward to the next chapter in my oh-so-boring life...

My parents have just returned home, after coming to attend my Graduation Ceremony (sob, I'm not a student anymore!) and even though there were ups and downs, I still miss them dearly. I'm very lucky that my parents are very supportive, both emotionally and of course, financially! My graduation present from them was a lovely and wonderful tour of Greece! It was absolutely wonderful to be immersed in such great history and culture that it was worth every drop of sweat! (and there were many droplets, mind you, considering it was 39 degrees celcius everyday!)

Anyhoo, I'd put up my Grecian pictures next time but for now, here are some pics of our time in Nottingham, both pre-grad and of course, on graduation day!

My mum forced us to go to Sherwood Forest! It was very wet and muddy..

Robin Hood and Maid Marian? Oh, and of course, the bronze statues looked good too.. ;)

My dad's favourite restaurant - the Carvery.. Toby's actually!!

Camwhore moment in the Carvery!

Saying goodbye to my house.. so sad!

~~~

OK, next up, will be pictures of my Graduation Ceremony of course! It was a rainy day, unfortunately, so we had a rather wet ceremony.. Nevertheless, my parents seemed really happy so it was all worth it. For me, it wasn't as exciting as I'd hope.. I think it was cos' this is the second time around (I graduated 2 years ago with my Bachelor of Medical Sciences (Hons).. see here) and also because it just didn't feel earth-shattering, life-changing etc. (even though it was! I'm no more 'Miss', I'm 'Dr'.. of course, I'm not going to stop using 'Miss' because I'm absolutely obssessed with keeping it!) The main good part for me was all the pictures!!!

My parents & me.. d'oh!

This is my favourite shot of the bunch... the Power Couple! Don't we look like we're headed to Wall Street?

Miss today, Dr tomorrow!

Welcome to Graduation Summer 2007!

Inside the hall..

Good thing we had some bouts of sunshine..

Group pic.. this may be the last in a long time.. :(

Girls with their counterparts..

We took this shot last time round...

With good friends - (L) Housemates N & KMD, (R) With JW,(Below) And SY

(L) My darling SM, (R) With N, my not-so-secret admirer,(B) With SRR and A

(L) With JL, (R) With the sweetest girl alive, KH, (B) With good pal PD
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Ok, random shot.. but the flowers were so pretty!

Dad was so proud of his new hat!

It could've been such a pretty summers' day..

Ok, this is my absolute favourite shot of them all!

All in all, it was a generally happy day.. My only sadness is that I was smiling way too widely in most my pictures, making me look like an over-happy fool! Sighh.. what to do? Anyway, that's all for now.. watch out for next time, with pictures from Greece and of course, my Hungarian holiday!

Blood is thicker than water?

2007-06-26T16:09:00.000+01:00

Ok, even though the date on this entry is 26th of June, it's actually the 26th of July, 2007. Why did I lie? Well, it's been SOOOO long since I last blogged that I've got too many things to put in just one entry. Hence, the need to modify dates to my liking! haha..

Anyway, these are just some pictures I took with my family whilst I was home recently. You know how much I adore my 2 not-so-little brothers so obviously, this is gonna be jam-packed with their faces! :)

Also, I was lucky enough to make it for one of my closest cousin sister's wedding ceremony. I haven't been back to my hometown for about 3-4 years now so I've missed out on a lot that's happening.. mainly, the number of nieces and nephews I have!!! It's crazy ok.. I now officially have 14 nieces and nephews, ranging from 0 to 15 years old!!! Anyway, it's so fun to play with the little ones and they're all so darn cute! Sighh.. the things you miss when you're so far away from home.. Nevertheless, I enjoyed myself immensely, being around these kids although it just serves as a reminder as to how old I am.. (February is approaching - gasp!)

OK, that's it from me for now.. until the next 'brilliant' post then!

So what else is new?

2007-06-22T10:23:00.000+01:00

Just a quickie...

I'm not in my comfortable home anymore in Malaysia.. I've just returned to the UK 2 weeks ago and it's so miserable.. haha, no, I'm just joking, it's actually alright. Why? Cos' I'm not currently in my own house, wasting away, but I'm doing my shadowing attachment in my new hospital. OK, that sounds sooo boring.. but the not-boring part is, it's also WS's hospital, so I get to stay with him and see him so much more often than I've ever had!!! :) Hence, the smile on my face despite missing my family terribly so..

Anyway, the only downside is that Internet is a very restricted and limited commodity, so I don't even get to check my Hotmail or Yahoo.. which is really annoying! Also, I can't update cute photos or videos or anything on here.. cos i'm using a public computer! Once again, grrr...

But never fear, I will prevail.. next time you hear from me, you'll get to see my lovely lovely pictures of my lovely lovely boys, and of course, my Hong Kong trip too!

So until then...

The name's Choo.. Jimmy Choo!

2007-05-30T18:44:00.000+01:00

You'd never guess who I met tonight! Ok ok, from the title, I guess you could.. yes, I not just met, I had dinner (which was paid for by him, of course) with the legendary Jimmy Choo, GOD of shoes!!!

With the legend himself.. Dato' Jimmy Choo!

So how did I get this amazing opportunity? Well, to cut a long story short, my mum's friend knows him and invited us to her Retirement Party, of which Jimmy Choo was going to be there.. I was so excited to go and was like completely starstruck ok! I spent the whole night at dinner with him.. I spoke to him, shook his hand, listened to him karaoke, saw him dance of course, took pictures with him!

Oh, and did I mention that I printed out one of his classic sandals, and got him to autograph it for me? I'm sooo going to frame this ok!!!!!

He's a really nice guy and was definitely very humble and down-to-earth.. It's too bad I didn't get to know him better, cos' from what I hear, he's always happy to give people a pair of his ever-so-famous shoes!! Gosh!! So starstruck!!!

Ooh, on another similar note, I also got the opportunity to meet Mr Lew, the owner and founder of Lewre International.. another shoe and bag moghul!!! Haha.. he was too very very friendly, and he couldn't stop praising me and my voice (I took a chance and sang at karaoke, you see).. he kept saying I should try for the likes of Malaysian Idol! hahaha..

Anyway, celebrity sighting aside, my elective/holiday is now coming to an end.. I'm sooooo sad that my holiday's over!! I don't mind going back to the UK, just so sad that I have to start work and my days of lazing and wasting my time away are over.. Sighhh... Plus, I'll miss my family (especially my two lil' brothers!) soooo much! Ah well, all good things must come to an end, so what to do?

For now, all I can do is share my pics with you.. nothing spectacularly interesting, just some really nice shots with my beloved 'ji mui's (that's girlfriends for the Chinese-ignorant!). (PS: I'll update my blog with my Hong Kong trip soon.. that's gonna be a long one! haha..)

~~~

Weekend @ Secret Recipe, Sunway Pyramid & Paddington Pancake House, The Curve

The girls and I decided that since it's my 'last' weekend at home this time around, we'd spent as much time with each other as possible.. we started with lunch at Secret Recipe followed by shopping and Starbucks (of course!), dinner at The Curve and finally drinks at Station One.. Needless to say, I was dead beat when I got back! But luckily, the photos turned out good so that's always a plus! Haha..

We're just missing one.. (EV was running late)

With Bestfriend MY.. and yes, she's super-chun!

I think she was jealous of my BEAUTIFUL hair and just had to ruin it!

But revenge is sweet...

As if being stared at by everyone in the restaurant for taking so many photos wasn't enough, we had to make a scene..

More horsing around.. I love this pic!

Err, was this supposed to be cute?

With AK.. of course, she's a good friend.. a 'ji mui'!!

So this is how we'd look if our faces were disfigured... Phew, thank God/Buddha/Everyone!

KSA's such a sweet girl..

Unfortunately, being sweet doesn't guarantee being a good 'poser'!

EC finally discloses where her true affinity lies..

But I told her that I wasn't interested in women.. and so we remain friends..

She then decides to hit on KSA ala Hong Kong teenage girl!

We're definitely sweeter than the pancakes!

With EV at the Paddington Pancake House

We bumped into our old schoolmate, TWK! So random!

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AK's Birthday @ Vivo, The Curve

Miss K celebrated her quarter of a century's birthday whilst I was back this time around.. for me, it was really nice, as it's been awhile since I got to celebrate someone's birthday together.. (big sigh!) Anyway, it was really fun and we had a great time! Unfortunately for single ol' me (okok, so I'm not REALLY single, but effectively single whilst I'm back in Malaysia), the night was full of couples.. AK and her bf, MY and her bf etc. etc. Lucky for me, KSA was my date (how often do I get to date a pretty girl, huh?) so we weren't too lonely! Haha.. (No, we're not trying to console ourselves ok...)

The birthday girl!

All smiles..

KSA's my date for the night

SE trying to steal her away from me to avoid dating OWK!

Girl-power time! The closer the merrier!

I honestly don't know what they were doing!

Another Darlie-advertisment moment..

At some point, everyone was trying to cake Miss K, but everyone was definitely apprehensive.. After all, she's not such an easy target like bestfriend MY! Having said that, I have to give the guys some credit, they did not let the fact that Miss K herself is err, quite fierce while her bf, being quite err, big? bulky? whateverla, could have easily taken down any one of the guys there in no time (sorry boys..) stop them for trying! And alas, we triumphed!!!!

A cake-on-nose situation for the buffday gal!

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Bestfriend MY @ everywhere

NB: Just a small section dedicated to Bestfriend MY and her antics, pornographic and otherwise.. (Sorry gurl, the temptation's too strong but you know I love you, right?)

I'm sure you're all familiar with this pose.. and of course, the girl looks so happily willing!

They thought no one would notice them trying to steal the limelight away from the birthday girl.. tsk tsk!

It's a bird, it's a plane, no, it's just something MY saw.. at least everyone (except her bf) is trying to look interested!

And here again, AK tries to be nice by listening to MY's err, monologue? whilst KSA just isn't bothered at all..

~~~

That's it for now.. until next time!

Breakfast with the Morning Crew

2007-04-17T16:29:00.000+01:00

Guess what I've been up to lately, here in lovely Malaysia? You'll never believe it!!!

I'm gonna frame this shot!

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I managed to land myself a little gig a GUEST DJ on HITZ.FM with the MORNING CREW yesterday morning!!!! Crazy, huh? I was lucky enough to be chosen to replace Rudy, of the Hitz.fm Morning Crew (you know, the famous JJ and Rudy?) for one day cos' he had to go on leave. Talk about crazzyyyyy huh? It was absolutely awesome, my 4-hours of fame! Never thought I'd ever be able to be an announcer on NATIONAL RADIO with 1.3 MILLION Malaysians listening in!!! I'm still in shock!!! Plus, I was also on the air on Sunday for the Hitz Hot 20 so that's 2 gigs altogether! I know it's not that big a deal la, but I'll always remember this fantastic opportunity!!! (Apparently, they really liked my voice and the fact that they couldn't shut me up at the audition.. so who said being a mulut murai was a bad thing, huh?

So how was it? Absolutely FANTASTIC!!! It was awesome, I tell you! I got to meet JJ, who's pretty much like a celebrity now in Malaysia.. he's awesome man, really down to earth and refuses to admit that he is a celebrity! He was really patient with me as well, being the complete amateur I was, and took on the huge responsibility of running the show without his trusty partner as well! I bet it wasn't easy, having to be like the mentor/senior but he made it look like it was like, "No sweat man!". Oh, and he was just a barrel of laughs, absolutely hilarious guy! I learned an fantastic phrase from him: "Cannot help itla, born come out like that!"

JJ, if you're reading this, thanks so much, man! It was great to have an opportunity to work with you! And no, I'm not that crazy, right?

This is JJ (and me, of course!)

JJ was fooling around with my phone..

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I was also fortunate enough to get to meet loads of other really cool people. My producer, Junior (I've always wanted to say that man.. "My producer"!!!) was super super cool, he was again, really patient with me, and really personally made sure that things were running smoothly with me and all. I really envy him, he's so young and already he's so successful!

Junior, thank you for this amazing opportunity and for coming in on your day off to 'jaga' me! I owe you and the boys a million for this!!

With Junior, the producer of the morning show
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I also got to meet many other really cool people! I met Natalie, who does the show from 10-2pm everyday.. she's so pretty and so so so cool! She's super duper nice too! I met Brian, the show's Programme Manager and even though he had to be like all serious for the show and all, he was still super nice and kept reminding me to have fun. In fact, they all kept reminding me to have fun.. which I did, so that's great!!! I also met Pietro, Prith, the traffic lady, and many more! So cool!

With Natalie..

With Brian, the programme manager

I discovered that being a live announcer on Malaysia's No. 1 radio station is not an easy task! There are so many topics and words that you can't say on the air, but the most difficult part is coming with interesting and snappy stuff to say on air. Oh, and it wasn't easy to not stutter or make loads of mistakes like me either.. these guys aren't called professionals for nothing! Nevertheless, it was really great - was up-to-date with my celebrity gossip, got a few interesting callers who called in and talked to me and of course, pulling that awesome Gotcha on my sister!!! Hahaha... (She's still annoyed at me now everytime it plays on air!)

Anyway, it was all in all, an amazing experience and I would love to do more stuff like this in the future.. beats doing medicine any day!!! So many things I liked about this gig - meeting loads of cool people, hearing myself on the air, oh, and of course, being famous for one morning: so many people called me and emailed me to ask me about this! Hehe.. thanks y'all for your support!

Junior again

JJ, hard at work

Ghetto fabulous? Pietro, Andrew, JJ and Junior

Natalie having fun on her show

Ok, that's all for now! I've had an awesome weekend/Monday so hope the rest of the week will be great too.. Woohoo!

Status Update

2007-04-14T13:02:00.000+01:00

I've been MIA for quite awhile now, and for those of you who were worried about me, my sincerest apologies! I've just gotten back home 2 weeks ago so things have been a bit crazy hectic around here!

Firstly, the news (haha): I PASSED ALL MY EXAMS!!! I was and still am, so friggin' relieved! Having been so sure that I failed at least one paper, you cannot imagine the relief I felt when I slowly opened that deadly envelope. It was definitely, one of the most terrifying moments in my life! Nothing in this world will persuade me to relive those torturous 3 days, this I swear!!! Heck, it was so traumatising that I even started to rhyme!

There really isn't any 'secondly' or 'thirdly'.. I'm currently doing my elective posting in Universiti Hospital and it is definitely the most chilled out, guilt-free period I've ever experience! No one really cares where you go or what you do, after all, we're only elective students, especially since I've passed my final exams! I should be partying.. woohoo!

But no, I haven't been.. I'm still trying to adjust to the early mornings so any free time I get, I just kinda hang out at home with my lovely lovely sweet boys; playing games with them and bringing them out for food etc and of course, my latest favourite pastime: snoozing.. hahaa.. I did go back to Penang for a food fest last weekend though, I'm sure I put on some 2 kg in that weekend! Not many pictures to show, I'm afraid.. but here are some we took:

With my 'leng chai's..
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Family pic.. I haven't had one of these in ages!!!

Horsing around..

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I also met up with my dear 'ji mui' for dinner and ice-cream last week.. It was sooooo good to see my girls, and I'm so grateful they took time out of their very busy schedules to come see me! Hehe.. hopefully, this trip, I'll be able to spend more time with them and feel what it's like to be part of the gang again.. hehe..

Pretty maids all in a row..

With best friend, MY..

How long has it been since the 6 of us have taken a group pic?

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Ok, that's it for now.. nothing much to write and certainly no poems!

Waving goodbye to hope, saying hello to defeat..

2007-03-28T01:59:00.000+01:00

For those of you wondering why I've been MIA recently, I was busy taking my medical FINAL exams.. Yes, the ultimate test to whether I will graduate a doctor this July.. So yes, it's quite a big deal, in fact, this is my biggest exam yet! (For those of you who weren't wondering, well, I wasn't thinking of you either! :P )

Anyhoo.. Now that it's over, I can finally breathe a sigh of relief.. or can I? I think the only time I can truly breathe will be after the results are released. Until then, I'm afraid that I'm just going to have to stay depressed. Yes, you heard me right.. depressed, despondent, disappointed, dejecting, desparing, disconcerted and all the other 'd' emotions.. In fact, I'm not enjoying my freedom as much as I should be; simply because I'm so depressed and convinced that I flunked at least one of my exams. Which means, I will be back earlier from my elective to take the resits. Which means I'll have shorter break. Which sucks. Sucks so bad! On the bright side, I'll still have a chance of graduating in July, as long as I pass the resits, of course!

I would love to bore you with the details, but instead, here's a poem I wrote during today's exam that would pretty much sum up how I feel.. It's a rhyming one too, and yes, the exam was SO bad that I had so much time to compose poetry, as I couldn't answer so many of the questions. The truth is, I could feel myself giving up the moment I saw the first question. I think I lost the will to try at that point. I kept trying to concentrate, and boost my own morale by motivating myself, but I think I could recognise defeat when it stared me right in the face.. And so here I am, moaning about it to whoever who'll listen. Sighh..

Anyway, here it goes, tell me what you think! (The title of this poem is 'Results Day', i.e. when I actually receive my final results)

Results Day

Oh, the shame!
Now who's to blame?
Me, of course, I've now lost my life's aim
My name will be maimed, I feel so ashamed
And I now know, I'm not good enough to be famed!

Oh, fame!
What's in a name?
It's not like I'll ever claim the fame,
Life's just a game, and a cruel one, I now proclaim
For now and forever, I shall be shamed..

Oh, this is so lame!
I've gotta focus on my aim
To finish this paper, and go party til' tomorrow came
For now, I'll just be tame, sitting here like a lil' ol' dame
And think of all the ways, to hide from the shame..

Oh, the shame! The shame!

Sexy back - Justin Hartley on CSI:New York

2007-03-04T00:30:00.000Z

Just a little update to treat all you girlie gals out there..

My current #1, Justin Hartley, recently appeared as a guest star on CSI: New York. Not only did he deliver a stellar performance, he looked absolutely amazing - it was the most glorious 40 seconds on TV ever in the entire history of television!

Good news! Initially I only had the link to the clip on YouTube here but now, I managed to learn how to embed it in here so you can watch all 38 seconds right here!! Woohoo!! So here you go: enjoy and get a floor mop ready to wipe away that drool!

PS: If you want to watch the video here in my blog, please click the 'Play' button at the bottom left of the video clip. If you want a new window to launch so you can watch it on YouTube, you can click anywhere on the video itself! Thanks!

Three-in-one.. what a bargain!

2007-02-19T00:19:00.000Z

As I've been busy with that-which-must-not-be-named lately, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to cram 3 posts into one. It's equally as interesting, I assure u, as there are loads and loads of pictures to see, but it's just not as verbose as I'd like it to be.. (Lucky for you, huh? :P)

4th February

I had been prepping myself since the month before to avoid thinking about this 'special' day.. The thing is, it's not just any ol' birthday, this was a so-called important milestone in one's life and I was dreading it (as I do most of my birthdays, which I'm sure you all know since my annual freakout beginning January 4th has almost become a ritual!). But since that-which-must-not-be-named is coming up soon, I figured that I'd use that as an excuse so that I didn't really need to celebrate this day, not least because it reminded me of how old I really was! It worked, and even as the day approached, I wasn't the least bit excited and kept telling myself that it was not a big deal and just another day, which of course it was.. The fact that I was due to be in London for a revision course on my birthday itself also helped, so again, no chance for any major celebrations.

I had a great time in London with good friend PY, and the revision course was really good, don't regret going to that at all! And for the better part of the day, I almost forgot that I had turned __ (apart from the unkindly remarks from my not-so-considerate friends! :P).

Unfortunately, when I arrived back home that night, alone in my room (WS is on nights), that's when it hit me - not only was I older, I was lonelier too. It was really depressing spending my birthday like that, and I was actually quite surprised that no matter what I told myself, deep down inside, my birthdays actually meant a helluva lot to me.

It was at this point that I finally decided that from this point forwards, I am going to embrace my future birthdays with open arms. I am going to celebrate the fact that I am still alive and still have so much more to look forward to. I am going to seize every moment and live my life 'Carpe Diem'-style. Growing old is inevitable, so instead of trying to fight it, I might as well enjoy it! So this is my new birthday's resolution, to be happy about taking one step ahead in my life every year..

Maybe this is what they mean by growing...

~~~

12th February

There are many February babies around, and it saddens me sometimes that I'm not as special as I'd like to be.. (although luckily, I'm the only one who's actually born on the 4th!) Having said that, although sometimes one does want all the attention on one's self, it's quite fun to have a shared birthday party with people and invite loads of good friends. That's exactly what KMD, MNMU and I did this weekend. We thought that since everyone wouldn't want to go out on 3 separate occasions to celebrate our birthdays individually, we'd just gather everyone together and have a big do! It was really fun, and I think it was a break which we all needed.. I definitely had a good time!

Group pic; clockwise fr L: MNMU, JT, me, SR, JW, NK, JL, KMD, SY, M & JL

We went to Antalya, a Turkish restaurant that I have only recently discovered. The ambience, although quite romantic, was actually very well-suited for a birthday bash, since there were a few more tables around us with a big, noisy crowd. Plus, the service was pretty good, and we definitely were enjoying ourselves as the night went by.. (although I have to say, that since there was 11 of us, it took quite a while for the food to come out, which gave us plenty of time to pose for the camera!)

Small group pic

Another small group pic

Housemates!

Yet another small group pic

Horsing around.. we really had a lot of time!

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After we finished dinner (which by the way, was scrumpilicious!), fresh fruits were served to us on a lovely platter, followed by turkish delight sweets, which was really good! As we finished our dessert, we thought that we should probably go on and head home, since dinner was over. Boy were we surprised! Suddenly, the waiter brought out a birthday cake with candles and everyone started singing the birthday song! We were really shocked but it was a pleasant surprise, nonetheless! KMD, MNMU and I blew out the candles and cut the cake (again, this was heavenly! It was a chocolate sponge with an oh-so-light cream which made it the perfect combo, especially after a heavy meal!)

Make a wish!

Birthday buddies, KMD and MNMU

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The best part of it all was, we found out later that this cake was actually compliments from the restaurant! None of us actually planned it, and it was only because the boss approached our table earlier in the evening and enquired as to what the occasion was. We didn't expect a free delicious cake at all!! :) So you can imagine that we were all pretty happy after it all.. good food, excellent service, free dessert - we're definitely coming back next time!!!

Group pic again!

SR and me - don't we look so good? ;)

& finally, a very happy buffday girl!

~~~

17th February

It's the eve of Chinese New Year and since we're so far away from home, we can't celebrate it as wonderfully and lavishly as we'd like. So, we decided to have a nice Chinese meal in a nice Chinese restaurant, get dressed up and go out and have a nice time! Unfortunately for us (and of course, for them) the best Chinese restaurant in Nottingham, Mandarin Restaurant in Hockley, was involved in a fire recently and was therefore, closed whilst they sorted things out. This did not bode well for us, as from experience (and from reviews from people we knew), there aren't that many other good restaurants serving Chinese cuisine. We settled for a moderately well-known restaurant in Wollaton Park, named Mr Man's and unfortunately for us, were very disappointed. The service was fairly lousy and the food was far ffar far rom the level we expected; we definitely won't be returning there again nor recommending it to anyone else, I'm afraid.. Nevertheless, we had a good time and it definitely beats staying celebrating CNY on our own. Besides, we always love a good excuse to get dressed up and go out!

Here are some pics of the evening..

Pretty maids all in a row..

Old friend AC joined us too

Say cheese!

Later, having drinks at Frankie & Benny's..

Smile for the camera!

Little girl getting away with a treat!

:)
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In the meantime, would like to take the opportunity here to wish everyone a very Happy New Year; Gong Xi Fa Cai; Xin Nian Kuai Le, Wan Shi Ru Yi! May 2007, the year of the pig, bring everyone joy, prosperity, happiness and lots of love!

~~~

OK, that's all for now.. for now, do wish me good luck in my fruitless, futile efforts at revising and pray for me that I'll pass my exams first time round!

P/S: I also had my radio debut a couple of days ago on BBC Nottingham! I had a 5-minute interview live on air with the radio presenter about how the government's new legislation affects overseas students and doctors. It was quite generic, as the main reason was to raise an awareness to people out there about this problem, but had an awkward question from the presenter which I managed to side-step inconspicuously!! Looks like all those years of rehearsing being interviewed as a Hollywood star paid off!

Status update

2007-02-18T23:35:00.000Z

They grew! My flowers grew! It's only been about 4 days but they've bloomed quite a bit and are visibly bigger now! Looks like the 'flower food' really helped! I'm so happy!!!

Cupid's gift...

2007-02-14T18:02:00.000Z

My doorbell rang at 8.30 this morning, just as I was leaving for the hospital. I was quite surprised, since I had absolutely no idea who it was.. I opened the door and there was a guy I didn't recognise standing in front of me. He put a box at my feet and handed me some electronic thing to sign..

There was a card attached to it, so I opened it and guess what it was? It was a Valentine's Day surprise from WS!! How sweet is that!! I was so thrilled that I ripped the whole thing apart and found a beautiful bouquet of red roses! Sighh.. you can imagine how delirious I was by then! (And shocked too, WS is very rarely this romantic, as some of you might already know! Well, I guess it makes it all the more special when he is, huh?)

One dozen red roses!

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Unfortunately for me (but fortunately for him!) he's at home now, celebrating CNY with his family while I'm stuck here thinking of different suicidal techniques. Ahh.. what can I say, resignation is the life for me now as the exam date approaches! I digress. Anyway, this was certainly a great surprise for me, especially since I had decided that we weren't gonna celebrate Valentine's this year cos' of the thing-which-must-not-be-named is coming up soon and WS's not around anyway. And here I am, enjoying the lovely sight and scent of my wonderful surprise! Isn't life just so beautiful?

Close-up: aren't they just lovely?

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Ok, I shall stop gushing now, before everyone pukes.. I'm just here to show off my flowers (& photography skills)! In the meantime, just wanna wish Happy Valentine's Day to everyone: Have a good one, cos' I did, even though my darling isn't here!

They look so happy sitting in the vase, don't they?

And finally, my attempt at professional photography.. I think this looks fabulous!

Just fun, that's all..

2007-01-29T23:49:00.000Z

I had a very fun & enjoyable weekend in Manchester with WS and my friends over this weekend.. So fun that I completely forgot that my exams are just around the corner! It felt so nice and truly blissful to be normal again, y'know? It felt like I was escaping reality.. Ahh.. such bliss!

Anyway, it wasn't completely unwarranted (before you go off and nag at me!).. I went up last weekend to attend a revision course for exams ('twas very good, even though quite expensive.. Oh, and I had an extra bonus! I got to sit next to Cute Medic ___, who for those of you who don't know, I've had a mini-crush on since first year cos' he's oh-so-cute and handsome!) and to have a pre-birthday celebration with my friends and WS.

It was lovely lovely indeed!! The party guestlist included JL, CY, PY and good good friend NT, who came down from Leeds to join us for the day and dinner.. It was only meant to be a day-trip for him but after we exerted upon him the greatest emotional blackmail ever, we managed to force him to stay with us for the night! (Notice how I used the word 'forced' instead of 'convinced'? WS doesn't think he had much of a choice, the way I err, coerced/pressurized him into it! What can I say? We haven't seen him in like 6 months, we all missed him, we were all gonna have lots of fun and I can only hope he enjoyed himself! :) )

Anyway, we had a not-so-great dinner at Panama Hatty's in Manchester city centre (the food had deteriorated in quality since the last time we were there) and then came back to WS's (and JL and CY's) place for dessert and fun & games! In fact, they sorta surprised me with a lovely lovely birthday cake - I was so happy! (I haven't had a proper birthday cake in ages!) We then sorta just hung out, brainstormed for our hopefully, mega-fun group holiday in the summer, played poker for about 5 minutes, and finally delved into my birthday prezzie from NT - he got me 'The Da Vinci Code' board game! No, it's not to do with the movie, it's just a fun game with loads and loads of quizzing puzzles that only functions to wrack your brain! Hehe.. No but seriously, we had loads of fun!!

Anyway, a picture is worth a thousand words, so here's like a gazillion! ;)

Waiting for our table, having drinks..

A very badly-taken pic by the waitress.. unfortunately, it's the only one of all 6 of us!

Yummy starters to share!

With WS, NT, JL & CY

With PY

Look at my pretty pretty birthday cake with sparkly candles!!!

I also got a birthday song!

Thanks darling, for the beautiful cake!

Pretty cake again! (You can tell I was excited about this!)

I made 2 wishes that night!

Good pal/buddy NT! He's absolutely awesome, and works out pretty great cos' he's WS's best friend!

OK, that's all for now.. I think I'll be going out with my other friends to have dinner and all that soon.. so look forward to more pics next time!

Ooh, btw, forgot to mention that JL, CY & PY got me such wonderful birthday presents - stuff that I wanted from Benefit cosmetics!! Woohoo!!! Thanks so much guys!!!

Guys, guys, guys!

2007-01-17T15:08:00.000Z

How much do I like guys? The answer is: A LOT! Especially cute/hot ones! Much much more than I can say..

As long as I can remember, I have always always been a little boy-crazy.. I think it all began when I hit puberty at a tender age of 11, and I still remember very clearly my first crush! He was in the year above me, and was awfully cute (though a little short) so I decided to befriend his little sister (in the year below) just to get the scoop on him. Nothing happened between us - puberty was not kind to me - I gained soooo much weight, had to start wearing awful, huge, glasses, was effectively tallest and biggest in my class, grew enormous boobs that made me so self-conscious that I overcompensated by hunching (prompting my family to call me the Hunchback of Subang) and started realising that many many boys around me were complete idiots!

Ever since then, I have consistenly had a new crush/guy-I-kinda-liked every single year, most of them far far older than me.. (did I mention that the boys around me were way too immature for me?) and as I have been made aware by my 'lovely' friend, JW, up until now, in University, I'm still doing that.. On top of that, I'm mega-crazy about handsome and cute hunks I see on tv/movies (I remember keeping a list of all the cute guys I liked on tv and I had to stop writing them down cos' my notebook ran out!) and until today, am still crazily in love with my top 10 men... Sighh..

I guess I can't really help it, you know.. I get really obssessed about the guys I like (real-life and otherwise) and just can't stop thinking about them.. I think it's in my genes, this boy-craziness.. And everytime I get to talk to each of my crushes, even on MSN, I go delirious with ecstasy! Oh, you haven't seen what happens to me when they start touching me, even like a gentle nudge on the back, or the casual-draping-his-hand-over-your-shoulder thing, or just touching my arm! (I do sound like such a slut sometimes, don't I?) Anyway, that's the reason why I can't wait to go out with many many many many cute guys and just enjoy being with them! Sighhhhhhh....

Unfortunately for me, I have never had much luck with my crushes.. most probably cos' they were way out of my league. I've always plotted to get close to them by various means, and the most common one I use is via their not-so-good-looking-but-more-friendly best friend. Looking back, I have been doing that since I was like 14 or something. Problem is, up until now, I do it SO well that people end up thinking that I like the guy's best friend instead! It's infuriating, I tell you.. I keep wanting to shout at them, "It's his best friend I like, I'm just using him!!" but of course, I don't..

Anyway, why am I blogging about this? Oh, you see.. cos' I HAVE to tell you about my latest squeeze:

His name is Justin Hartley and he really is hotter than the sun!!!

Look at that defined jawline, those dreamy eyes, that chiselled face...

Ooh, sexy back!

Who is he, you say? Well, he's guest starring on Smallville now (but not for long, *sob sob*). Ooh, did I mention I love his little chin dimple?

He plays the Green Arrow/Oliver Queen in it, and is amazing! Here he is in costume.. would 'ya look at those arms???!!!

Ooh, on a completely different note.. SY and I went to watch FAME the other day.. it was absolutely amazing!! Definitely one of the top 5 musicals I've seen so far! I think the best thing about it was the dancing.. Wow.. the dancing.. that really had me floored!! It was so energetic, so amazingly coordinated, and there was such a good mix! There was ballet, spanish dance/tango-ey type of thing, pop, jazzy, hip-hop.. everything!! Many a time throughout the night, I even had to pick my jaw up from the floor!! hehe..

The vocals were nothing short of great either.. the storyline was such that there were many many parts of equal importance in the show, i.e. lots and lots of very very good singers! It was truly breathtaking.. Oh, did I mention one of the main actors were oh-so-very-cute? (we had binoculars so got to see even though we were sitting in the upper tiers!)

Anyhoo, SY & I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves that night and like I've said, although this isn't the absolute best I've seen so far, it's definitely up there in the top 5!!!

(Of course, at this point I have to mention how unprepared for my exams I am and that I'm totally totally f**ked, excuse my language.. Oh, and I've just started my Orthopaedics & Rheumatology attachment and I was diagnosed (and re-diagnosed) by the Consultants with generalised hypermobility syndrome! Apparently, it explains my incredibly lax ligaments, good flexibility, constant spraining of every joint and incessant clicking! Go figure!)

Happy New Year!

2007-01-17T14:51:00.000Z

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone! (Ok, ok, I know this is quite belated, but still.. it's better late than never, right? ;) Besides, my new year's resolution is to stop procrastinating and I've vowed to start next month!)

Anyway, my holidays have just gone, and they really did come and go in a blink of an eye! Sighh.. I'm now back in school, just started the final attachment of my final year (gasp!). Boy, do I miss those 3-month summer breaks!!

Ranting aside, I had a rather quiet holiday this time round. It was meant to be one where I was to catch up with work and reading, since my exams truly ARE around the corner. I even swapped my not-so-quiet house (with Internet, tv, easy access to shops & entertainment), for boy-boy's quiet and lonely hospital accommodation (with no Internet access and no easily-accessible shops around) in Manchester in order to have a more conducive studying environment; even though he was working nights (which meant I only saw him for about 2 hours a day). But as usual, I still managed to waste lots of time time just well, faffing about, really.. watched the whole series 1 of Beverly Hills 90210 (Luke Perry is so cute!), beat all the high scores in both my new phones and WS's new phones' games (yes, I have 2 new phones now.. so exciting!), re-read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix & the Half-Blood Prince for the umpteenth time (can't wait for the 5th movie (even though Harry is super-whiny) & 7th book!) and catching up on my beauty sleep.. So exciting, huh?

On the plus side, I did quite a bit of shopping this year at the Boxing Day sales, so I was quite pleased with that.. :) Oh, and it did help that boy-boy wanted to pay for everything! (No, of course I didn't accept completely, what kind of girl do you think I am?!) So as much as I want to write loads here, I err, can't.. cos there simply isn't that much to write anyway.. so I'll just put some pics up (as usual!) for you to enjoy looking at my pretty face! hehe..

CY (centre) celebrated her buffday with us at a Korean restaurant - first time tasting Korean food for me, it was quite good!

*smile*

With good friend, PY - don't we look lovely!

We took a short walk around Manchester town (on the way back to the car) and it looked so lovely with all the Xmas lights!!

WS & I celebrated our _th anniversary with a lovely (and very costly!) Japanese dinner.. it was so yummy!!! Oh, and don't I look so good in my brand new & very sexy MNG top! ;)

Here's our starters, sashimi moriawase! Sorry, but this is the only photo of the food we have.. the rest kinda got gobbled down too quickly!

Ok, that's all for now.. will update you with more musings and photos soon enuff.. (I have to reserve my brain cells for proper studying and not blogging, I'm afraid) For now, hope everyone keeps their new year resolutions like me!! ;) (Ooh.. btw, I meant to put up pics of my Germany trip when my dad & sis came to visit.. okok, I'll do it next time, I promise! Now, what was my New Year's resolution again? :P)

Everybody loves me!

2006-12-16T17:09:00.000Z

I am in SUCH a good mood!!! Never mind that this week has been crazy/hectic and I'm quite beat.. Never mind that I've got one more week to go before my Christmas holidays.. Never mind that my last week happens to be my anaesthetic week i.e. early mornings and late evenings.. Never mind that my exams are in 3 months and I haven't started studying.. Never mind that I'm not getting the peace and quiet I need to rest and start studying.. Never mind that I'm completely broke.. Never mind all that!! Today, I'm just ecstatic because everybody loves me!!! (everybody that counts, that is.. :P)

My family are in Singapore now, having a great family holiday.. I was really bummed that I wasn't able to be there, especially since my WHOLE family is there including my delightful brothers! But.. my mum and dad made that up for me! How? Hehe.. they bought me what I've been greedy for for so long.. a Nintendo DS Lite Console!!!!! Hehe.. These gadget thingies are cheaper in Singapore, of course, but I merely mentioned it and next thing I know, I've got a new toy!!! Hehe..

As if that's not enough.. I was so happy when I heard the news this morning, I phoned WS immediately to share in my joy and guess what he said? He said that he was originally going to buy it for our anniversary present! So sweet, right? I mean, I already have my present from him.. my gorgeous Tiffany's ring.. but he said that it's nicer if I had a present on the day itself! Such a sweetie-pie! WS is so generous like that.. Take for example my Christmas present. When shopping in town last week, JW and I stumbled upon a whole new range of very very gorgeous (but pricey) make-up and skincare products from Benefit and immediately fell in love! So I thought it'd be a good idea to ask WS to buy something for me from there for Christmas and he said yes immediately, no questions asked! It was so fun! And today, I went to get it.. I'm so happy now!!!

Ooh, and yesterday, I got an amazing phone deal with my original phone provider and now, having to pay next-to-nothing for my contract, I'm getting a brand new spanking Sony Ericsson w850i!!!! Neat huh? Ooh, it's the white one as well, so it's ultra-cool!!! I haven't actually got it yet, have to wait til' Tuesday.. so whilst I am super-duper excited, trying not to be too elated just in case I'm disappointed! (But it's so hard not to be ecstatic!)

So tell me now, how can I not be on top of the world with such great news??!!! :) I'm riding the euphoric wave now!!!

It's also Christmas season and I absolutely love Christmas in this country! Although it ain't no white christmas, but when there's Christmas lights everywhere, Christmas carols heard around every corner, the mad rush for Christmas gifts.. sighh.. I love it!!! :) Ooh, I also absolutely love the German Christmas markets they have around here.. How I wish we could've gone when we were in Germany.. too early, apparently.. sighh.. Nevertheless, I'm enjoying every moment of this season and am a total sap for all these kinda things.. but isn't this season for giving absolutely amazing??? :)

Christmas market!!

This is our town hall, all 'dressed up' with beautiful Xmas lights!

Photographer's lil' game.. Looks cool huh?

Look at the madness behind us!

(Photos thanks to good friend Mohd Nazri, amateur photographer.. see his work here!)

On a completely separate note, I went to watch Chicago, the musical, at the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham the other day.. it was really good and I was very impressed! It wasn't like your conventional musical with loads of costume changes and set changes.. This just had the one set and the one set of costumes, so it was very interesting how it played out. Of course, the singing was amazing and in fact, the actress who played Roxie Hart was Jennifer Ellison, who apparently also played Meg in the Phantom of the Opera movie. Cool huh? The dancing was really cool too.. slick and smooth.. very sexy! Having said that, there were a few bits which probably were better in the movie though.. Ah well, can't have it all, can you? Anyhow, I was definitely impressed and would recommend everyone who enjoys a little murder, deceit and deception entwined with song and dance to watch it! Haha.. no no, it's for everyone else too!

Anyhow, I'm so happy today that just thought of sharing it with all of you.. Knowing that so many people love me, I wanna share my love for everybody for Christmas too! So wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a fabulous New Year!! :)

Pas de bourree, pirouette and land!

2006-12-07T13:10:00.000Z

Friends JW, JT and I went to watch our first ballet the other day, at the Nottingham Royal Concert Hall. We watched 'Swan Lake', performed by the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre. All I can say is.. WOW!!!!!! It was an absolutely fantasticaly incredibly amazing show and I'm so glad that I went! Needless to say, this won't be the last ballet show I watch!

Apart from the fact that it brought fond memories of my early ballet years flooding back to me, everything about the show was nothing short of astounding! Swan Lake is set to Tchaikovsky's luscious and ever-so-famous score, and tells the story of the beautiful Princess Odette-Odille, who was cursed by the evil Rothbart to be a swan. She meets the courageous Prince Siegfried and they fall in love (of course!). Well, I shan't reveal too much about the story, you can go read it up for yourselves, but in this version, it was indeed a very happy ending!

I was thoroughly impressed with the whole show and did not feel bored or let-down at all! The dancers, every single on of them, including every single member of the corp... it was amazing! They were all perfectly in-sync, coordinated and incredibly graceful! And the men! Although men in tights don't really do anything for me, but these guys were.. wow! Especially the prince! Wow! I mean, it would be every geeky medical student's dream to study anatomy of his legs and arms... and every girl's dream to study his ass! Gosh, his muscles were so toned and well-defined! Of course, the prima ballerina was amazing too.. perfect is all I can say!

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The costumes were lavish, glittering and nothing short of opulent, while and the set was not just grandeur, it was magnanimous! This I'm not exaggerating.. I was thoroughly impressed with all the artwork - the backdrop was so real, with its 3-dimensional effect, and the stage itself was adorned with props that really made it feel like you were right there, amongst them, enjoying the royal ball at the palace and feeling terrified by the evil bird-thing at the enchanted lake. I was totally mesmerized! You can see for yourself in these pictures, they truly looked exactly like that in reality!

Anyhow, the point is, if any of you have a chance to go watch a ballet, especially by a world-renowned ballet company, go for it! Even if you don't have a dance background, it'll definitely be entertaining and a thorough joy! What an experience!

Blast from the past

2006-11-27T22:16:00.000Z

Something happened tonight.. something I didn't expect.. I thought it was a dream, I thought I saw a ghost.. But it was real alright, it happened, and now I can't stop thinking about it..

I ran into him tonight, after all this time.. I thought he had left, but he hadn't.. he was still here..

When our eyes met, that flitting moment felt like eternity; everything seemed to stand still - time stopped, the world stopped, my heart stopped; and nothing else seemed to matter except for his gentle smile, modest nod and trademark wave, acknowledging our encounter. I was too shocked to react, too stunned to even think; but still managed to smile politely in return - how I accomplished that I'll never know!

Moments passed as he walked by, and I began to regain sensation in my body. And that's when it hit me, like a bullet train - I felt my heart pounding furiously in my chest, as my head began to reel and I felt the world started spinning beneath my very feet.. I was suddenly flooded with memories, with feelings; flashbacks from moments in our past. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't think - all I could do was feel.. feel the overpowering storm of emotions - a mixture of surprise, anticipation and hope, combined with 4 years worth of pain, rejection, grief, longing and desperation... It was all too much to swallow..

And it all happened because of that one moment.. a moment that I had been dreaming and yearning for over the past 4 years.. a moment that has played out in my mind over a million times.. a moment I thought would give me great happiness and relief.. a moment I desperately want to hang on to.. a moment that has never happened until now.

I didn't expect to feel this way.. I felt like I was trapped in a whirling tornado, felt the world crumbling around me as I stood there, watching the bus drive away.. I thought I had gotten over it, had left all these woes behind me, that I had moved on with my life.. I thought I had succeeded in forgetting.

I was wrong.. As I walked away, I felt him.. I could hear his kind words, his joyful laughter; I could remember sensing his grief and pain, his insecurities and frustrations; I remember sharing in his hopes and dreams, rejoicing in his happiness .. I recalled how it felt to be leaning against my pillar of strength in times of need.. I could feel his tender touch and his warm embrace.. I reminisced in how he filled the loneliness in my life and the emptiness in my heart.

People say to be careful for what you wish for, and today, never then before, I realised how true that is.. And yet, I continue wishing - I wished I never saw him, I wished he never saw me.. I wished I could keep on believing that I was forgotten, not forsaken.. I wished I never met him, I wished I could forget him.. I wish he would return to me and that he could stay.. I wish this loneliness will melt away, and this hopelessness will disappear, this yearning will be fulfilled and this desperation to finally cease.. I wish I could be put out of this misery and anguish.. But most of all, I wish I could finally move on..

You can never have what you want.. that's how cruel life can be sometimes. Perhaps now I understand what Julian Cheung was singing when he sang, "When you can't love someone, you will long to love them even more.."

Pish-posh weekend

2006-10-12T22:19:00.000+01:00

You must be thinking, "What the heck was Jean, this narcissistic b**ch doing, showing off gorgeous photos of her gorgeous self on her blog for the whole world to see?!!" Hehe.. well, let me tell you the whole story...

I was in London last weekend and had a truly truly wonderful time! JT had won a free makeover and photo shoot from a magazine competition and was allowed to bring 3 friends, so naturally, she brought JW, SY and me! Hehe.. It was so fun, rushing around, changing clothes, and posing in front of the camera.. the photographer was great and I felt great and so at ease, posing around as if I was a true model! I swear, this was what I was born to do! (Along with acting/singing/dancing of course! ;) ) Anyhoo, we had an absolutely fantastic time and I love my pictures! (Ok, there was a catch - we had to pay for the photos cos' of copyright and all.. but I don't care, I look absolutely fabulous and that's all that matters!)

Anyway, that aside, we had an absolute blast in London! Eating, shopping, meeting up with friends.. it was great! And... instead of shopping on good ol' Oxford Street, we actually ended up on Old and New Bond Street! And no, not just window-shopping and ogling at Cartier, Jimmy Choo, Gucci and other brands that I haven't even heard of! No, this time, we actually did shop.. Hehe, it was so cool ok, going around and being treated so well!

So what did I get? Well, actually, WS bought a lil' something for me.. I absolutely absolutely love it and hope that this is just the beginning of my collection! ;) Here it is:

Here's the little box and ribbon that it was wrapped in.. any guesses what this is?
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Haha, you might have guessed it; Bond St + Blue Box = Tiffany's!!! Isn't the ring just absolutely gorgeous???!!!
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This ring is actually from known as the 'Open Heart' ring from the Elsa Peretti collection at Tiffany & Co. (And these beautiful pictures are actually taken by a great photographer (and friend) Nik Qisti! You can find more of his work here!)
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Needless to say, I'm extremely happy with this lovely present!! Hehe.. So happy, that I very impulsively but not regrettably, in a spur-of-the-moment bought him a present from one of the shops on Old Bond Street in return! Hehe.. I can't say what it is because I haven't even given it to him yet, so I ain't gonna spoil his surprise! You can ask me later.. ;)

I also met up with good friend PY, and her mum (who is a good and long-time family friend) who happened to be in London that weekend! It was really really great seeing such familiar faces and I was certainly reminded of home sweet home... JW and I stayed at HP's place in London, which was great cos' that meant we got to see her. Unfortunately, being the busy working lady that she now is, we didn't have that much time to hang out with her. Oh well.. at least we got to see her! Hehe..

Anyhow, all in all, this trip turned out to be absolutely fantastic and it was great to take a break and get away from all the hospital and school stuff! Plus, I got to have my yummy Japanese food and bought a mooncake all for myself (yippee!). What's the conclusion? I'm a happy girl!

This is one of the group pics we took.. don't we all look so good? (PS: If you see anyone you like, you're welcome to ask me for an introduction! ;) )

Finally, please do visit my online album here where you'll see that I've put up every single one of my photos taken on that day along with the group pics.. I truly hope you'll enjoy them!

Snap snap!

2006-10-10T22:16:00.000+01:00

Click click!

2006-10-09T21:00:00.000+01:00

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More.. coming soon!

I love...

2006-09-27T21:32:00.000+01:00

I was talking to ol' friend JW the other day, and she made a remark about me. She said that I tend to obsess a lot, i.e. I get crazes: I find something I like, then get absolutely engrossed and preoccupied with it, thinking (and talking) about it 24/7 . Then it fades and I'm normal again until something else comes along. Obviously, I disagreed with her choice of words.. obsessed is such a strong word! To me, I think I'm just being passionate (cos' that's just me), not obssessive. Although I have to admit that it's a very fine line.. (And having said this, I'm sure those of you who actually know me fully agree with JW since I am exactly like that!) Anyhow, I refuse to have this 'stigma' attached to my name so for now, let's just call this passion, ok?

Following on from that, I have a new craze.. it's a Disney Channel original movie and was just released early this year. Yup, it's High School Musical alright! Oh my gosh, when I first heard about it/saw the advertisment, I knew that I was going to like it. After all, this is my forte - singing, dancing, acting! But when I actually watched it, I was blown away by how incredible the movie was! The actors were absolutely brilliant, and I do mean brilliant.. the singing was of star quality, the music, all original, was so catchy and just sounded great.. and best of all, the dancing. Ohhh... the dancing.. it was absolutely brilliantly amazing! The choreography was simply excellent (they won an Emmy award for Outstanding Choreography!) and the dancers were brilliant - perfectly coordinated and most important of all, looked like they were so energetic and like they're having so much fun!!!

What's the story? Well, it's a typical American high school where the main character is Troy, the all-star, coolest-guy-in-school who everybody adores. He's the basketball captain, the playmaker and is the one who's going to bring the regional basketball championships home. But then he meets this girl, Gabriella (played by Vanessa Anne Hugdens) who is a maths whiz, i.e. nerd, and they both discover that they both love singing, especially together. Without giving too much away, it's basically about following your dream, breaking free from stereotypes and acceptance amongst everyone regardless how different they are. All in all, a very feel-good, everyone-lives-happily-ever-after movie: true to Disney, alright!

Need I say more?

Of course, with every movie craze I get, there must be a guy who I am very fond of, to say the least.. this time it's the lead guy, Troy Bolton, played by Zac Efron. I (and all my friends whom I persuaded to watch it) thought that he was absolutely amazing! Definitely a rising star, I'll certainly be watching out for this cutie in the future! I mean, he's an ace actor, and I mean, really really good.. he's a great dancer, has loads of style when he dances so much so that he completely stands out from the crowd, and he's an awesome singer. Plus, he's really cute (and adorable) and absolutely charismatic too! What more could you ask for?

This was taken from one of my favourite scenes in the movie - isn't he so cute?

Here is him in yet another scene of the movie, enjoying his singing.. Look at the expression..wow!

And just in case you didn't get a close enough look at him, here he is!
.

Anyhoo, I just thought I'd share with you my amazing experience with this movie.. I absolutely love it and according to my sis, on the Disney Channel (cos' I can't afford to subscribe to it), they're also play the 'sing-a-long' and 'dance-a-long's. So cool! But to be honest, don't think I really need it. Know why? Well, I've watched it so many million times, and listened to the soundtrack another couple million times that I can sing to almost every song now!

But that's not my biggest accomplishment. Get this: there's this huge, energetic and really cool finale dance at the end of the movie.. and in keeping with my latest 'trying-to-get-into-shape' thing, I decided to try and figure out the steps! After a gruelling 3 hours plus, I did it! Mind you, not an easy task at all!! Then I've been spending another 2 hours plus teaching JW and JT the steps, and dancing together cos' let's face it, it's much more fun to dance together! (We've still got a bit more to go..) Gosh.. these few days have been absolutely exhausting for us ok! But it's sooo cool.. we enjoy dancing it soo damn much, we get great exercise and sweat like absolute pigs and at the end of it, feel frickin' fantastic afterwards!!!

I've always said that this has been my passion.. there's nothing more I want to do in the world than dance, sing and act for a living. Heck, you don't even have to pay me, I'll do it just cos' I love it! Sighh.. unfortunately what am I doing? Medicine.. f**kin' medicine.. Really, one of these days, I'm going to stop whining about it and instead, go follow my dream and break free.. Disney style!

Our lovely date

2006-09-15T12:36:00.000+01:00

WS's one week leave is coming to an end.. and that means that once again, I'm going to be all alone, sad, miserable and well, lonely. Sighh.. I really wish he didn't have to go.. This week really flew by for me and I wish we had more time to spend with each other. Double sighh... I'm really going to be counting the days before I next get to see him.

On the up side, we went to watch Grease, the musical, last night.. It was really quite fun and very enjoyable. We were thoroughly impressed with the singing because boy, did the singers have amazing voices!! They stayed almost perfectly true to the original 1979 movie so that was quite impressive too.. The only thing that I was kinda disappointed with was the dance choreography. I expected to see so much better, especially after watching Saturday Night Fever in London (which is pretty much a similar kinda show).

The other thing that bugged me was that I was very annoyed throughout the whole show because the whole theatre was very noisy/rowdy. There were tons of school kids and they obviously can't keep quiet.. It was great that the energy level was very high in the theatre, but sometimes you want to hear the actors sing/talk, not the people around you! There was this stupid lady sitting right next to me was singing along (with her 11-year old pudge daughter) to all the songs and it was soooooooo irritating! I mean, I didn't pay all this money to hear you sing, lady.. I want to hear the professionals, thank you very much! Plus, the theatre very cleverly opened a confectionary stall outside all the doors, so basically, throughout the 2-hour show, you could hear people opening sweets packets, slurping on drinks etc. It was highly disturbing!!

But ranting aside, it was quite a good, fun and highly amusing show and I'd definitely recommend all you John Travolta/70's fans to go watch it.. (Have to admit though, like I've said previously, I was definitely more impressed with Saturday Night Fever.)

Ooh, we took some pictures inside the auditorium with my brand new spanking phone! Unfortunately, being that it's a cheapo one, the quality isn't great.. Plus, the lighting in the theatre was quite dim so that doesn't help either! :( Ah well..

Can't really see us, it's too dark!

Illegal photo of the stage!

Anyway, the next part of our date was a very romantic dinner at Petit Paris, a very lovely and authentic French restaurant in the heart of Nottingham. We ordered a 2-course dinner - WS had duck with walnut and asparagus salad for starters and chicken escalope with rocket for the main course while I had Mediterranean fish soup with croutons, mustard and emmental for starters and pan-fried duck with creamy potatoes for the main course. Wish we had taken some pictures, but oh well.. hehe, we were too hungry!

In the restaurant

Then we came home and took more photos!!! Hehe.. (Ok, these ones are pictures from a proper camera!)

Me!

Well, that's the end of our lovely date.. Sorry it seems like a step-by-step walk through everything, but it's really for my sake, I wanna remember this wonderful day!!

Ooh, WS bought a new phone too.. and his is really a brand spanking new phone.. It's the Sony Ericsson k800i with the new 3.2 megapixel Cybershot camera so obviously, his photos are going to be far better than mine! :P So jealous..

;)

The only thing that's better about my camera than his is that I've got this cool application called 'Face Warp'.. like its name suggests, it can warp your face into all different kinds of funny things! Here's an example:

This is WS, looking quite normal (taken with my phone)

This is him, all twisted!

While this one's called 'Insect'!

Ok, that's it from me for now.. again, not the most intellectual of my musings but at least it's entertaining! (Well, if not for anyone else but us! Hehe..) Til' next time.. toodaloo!

Red roses..

2006-09-13T21:59:00.000+01:00

I've only ever been able to appreciate art from the Impressionist era, and without a doubt, my favourite painter is Claude Monet.. I find his pieces enticing, hopeful and captivating - drawing the viewer into his world, allowing him/her to see it from Monet's own eyes. So when I stumbled upon a quote from him the other day, I simply must put it here.. and it so happens to be within context! :) Monet said, "I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers." My love and appreciation for flowers instantly grew..

My darling is currently staying with me for a week... (he's on his quarterly leave) And as although he can sometimes be a pain (he forced me to complete shifting from my old house to my new house AND finish unpacking), I'm loving it completely that he's here.. Plus the fact that my new room's got a double bed does make it even better!

Anyway, my sweetheart surprised me today with a lovely, and I do mean, lovely, bouquet of red roses.. they were absolutely beautiful and not just like normal roses, but huge ones!!! (I also accidentally found the receipt, and they weren't cheap!) I was absolutely ecstatic and spent the whole afternoon taking photos of them (and of me, of course!) so I'm just here to show them off! Hehe..

So here they are...

My beautiful bouquet..

Which is prettier? ;)

Aren't they just gorgeous?

My attempt at taking a 'professional' shot.. Are u convinced?

A little close-up

Another new thing I'm trying.. ;)

And finally.. my favourite shot of them all...

Tadaa!!!

Ok, that's it from me for now..

The course of true love never runs smooth..

2006-08-28T20:56:00.000+01:00

Ok, Ok, so maybe I'm being somewhat melodramatic here, but I do like to quote Will at every opportunity that I get.. (see here) after all, he is only the best writer in all of English history. ;) So what spurs this sudden burst of err, drama? Well, I've just arrived back home after spending the weekend with WS.. Bet you can guess what's this going to be about!

And so the story begins... (again, I apologise for the dramatics.. teehee!)

WS and I have been dating for quite a long time now.. Unfortunately, the greatest bane of our relationship has always been that of distance. Of the time we've been together, I believe that we've only spent 1/3 of our time being physically together. And that to me, (and him, of course) really really stinks.

We've actually coped very well with the distance over the past years. I'm probably confident enough to say that we've pretty much mastered the art of keeping our long-distance relationship going. But after all this time, I'm beginning to get really really tired of this. And I mean, really really tired. It's getting very frustrating, expensive, tiresome and frankly, quite ridiculous. I mean, how can you expect our relationship to move forward if we're not even living in the same region? (Ok, granted, this has improved vastly from when I was in the UK and he was still at home, but still, being apart is being apart, full stop. We don't get to see each other whenever we want to, as we wish, or enjoy being part of each other's day-to-day, mundane lives..)

At our age, everyone around us is beginning to talk about marriage and spending the rest of their lives together. Not that I want to, but WS and I can't even begin to discuss that, simply because we've never even tried near-distance dating before. How can we even think about living together or getting married? It's just not going to be a very fruitful discussion.. Well, at least that's what I think. WS's a little more optimistic than I am, and am sure that he wants to marry me! (Bless him, my sweetie-pie..)

Anyway, as I was saying, as our relationship grows stronger, it's getting tougher and tougher to be apart. Nowadays, everytime we have to say goodbye after we see each other (which is currently about once a fortnight), at the risk of sounding overdramatic, it feels as if someone's ripped my heart out of my chest and can't stop stabbing it furiously. I have probably shed enough tears to fill the Pacific in the past few months! It really is silent torture - tormenting us bit by bit as every day passes..

Sometimes I wonder.. that if we were not together in the first place, maybe it won't hurt so much, maybe I won't be so sad and just maybe, I won't have to ride the emotional roller coaster everytime I spend some time with him.. It seems like such an easy solution to our pain, doesn't it? Unfortunately, (or should I say fortunately?) WS doesn't agree with me.. he doesn't believe in just giving up what we have and can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel. In a way, I'm really glad that he and I don't see eye-to-eye on this one, as I'm counting on him to remind me that our perseverence will be worth it. That we will be together properly, sooner or later.. (I'd rather it be sooner, of course!)

I guess then, and only then, can we start thinking of whether we're going to have that future together, or whether we are completely unsuited for each other when we're actually in close proximity. I guess we're one of the 'funny' couples where the ultimate test of our relationship will be whether we can be together physically as opposed to whether we can be apart and still maintain a relationship. (I always knew that I was unique, special and not normal.. ;) )

So I guess good ol' Will was right after all.. this path truly does not run smoothly..

We do look quite happy, don't we?

True love? You decide..

Fun in the sun!

2006-08-01T22:30:00.000+01:00

Having been here for about 4 years now, I think the British mentality is slowly creeping its way into my highly absorbable and gullible head. It's August now, and unfortunately, that only means one thing - summer is ending. *sniff sniff* (See what I mean by British mentality?) Anyway, never being one to give up any opportunity to have fun, I suggested to WS that we headed to Alton Towers, one of the biggest theme parks in the UK, for a day of fun in the sun! (Corny, huh?) It worked out well, cos' this is only the beginning of my final year, so I'm ok to slack off (says me, of course!) and WS was having his 4-week summer holiday. (which incidentally, was super precious since it would be the last holiday he'll ever have of that length. I mean, you can't take 4 weeks off work for no reason at all, can you?)

I digress. (And I ramble too.. ;) ) So, after much planning, we decided to go. We went with our old friends, JL and CY, and another old friend, NT with his gf, KF. It was super-super fun and as exhausting as it was, I'm so glad that we went! (We did run into a lot of trouble with booking and stuff, but I'll rant about that in a bit..) This makes my third time, and WS's second, since we went together with my Nottingham friends some time ago. But J, CY, NT and KF hadn't been before, so there was still much enthusiasm and excitement! (And no, not just from me.. :P)

So here are the pics of us throughout the day.. But first, allow me to show you the official Alton Towers photos which we bought.. all very nice and of high quality/calibre! Hehe..

At the river rapids: don't we all look so perfectly poised? heehee.. :)

One of my favourite rides: The Flume. We made JL sit in the front, so he was soaked through! Hehe.. also, I was so brave to open my eyes all the way, so bravo to me too! (I didn't actually buy this photo so a big thank you to CY for letting me copy it!)

The Oblivion (Yes, the one with the 90 degree vertical drop!): This was definitely my absolute favourite ride of all! Granted, I wasn't brave enough to open my eyes, but the adrenaline rush was absolutely fantastic! Though I don't think WS enjoyed it too much.. I managed to drag JL and NT up too, and I hope they had a good time! (CY and KF were too scared to go) If you look carefully, the bit on top is a photo of us too, can you spot me?

Ok, now back to the photos we took:

All geared up and ready to go!

This was our first ride of the day - I was soaked through!!!

This is 'Air', the one where you're suspended like Superman.. It was so cool!

This is the 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' ride.. we even got to ride the ever-so-famous glass elevator and I was very impressed!

Unfortunately, as you'd expect with British weather, it started raining while we were queieng..

Inside, on the ride.. nice and dry!

This is just a picture of a pretty cottage, pretty flowers, and of course, pretty us!

With KF and NT

With JL and CY

Horsing around..

No, I'm not feeling her up.. we're just really close! hehe..

More horsing around..

We always have an extra head in the pic when JL is around..

Group pic!

And lastly.. WS and I took a similar pic together in Genting Highlands some 4 years ago. Didn't realise that it was the same pose until I came back.. It's my favourite photo of the day and yes, my eyes are closed!!

All in all, this was truly a great day for all of us.. We had so much fun, but more importantly, it was the first time in a long long time, that we all got to hang out and do something together. So despite all the problems, I'm still glad that we went and can't wait for our next outing!

Footnote: What problems, you say? I'll tell you!!! I booked tickets with Alton Towers before we got there, but they basically f***ed it up and I couldn't get them, even after being bounced around and queing for almost an hour. When I finally got them, again, they had f***ed up again and had to redirect me to another queue.. Grr.. Worse still? When I reached home, I found that they had charged me twice, so now, after making like a million phone calls to them and my bank, I had to go in to my bank, request a statement and then send it in to them. Could this get any worse???!!! I hope this will be the end of it, otherwise, I'll scream!!!!!!!

I'm back!

2006-07-20T12:31:00.000+01:00

I'm back!!! Yes, after 4 wonderful, blissful weeks, I'm back here, in the UK and I'm not happy. First of all, well, I've officially started my final year (gasp!) so that means in exactly 1 year's time, I'm going to qualify and be a real doctor and will be set loose on the innocent public!!! Eeek!!

Second and probably most important of all, it's so f***ing hot in this stupid country!!! Yes, the weather has been completely atrocious lately.. in fact, at 38 degrees celcius, yesterday was the highest temperature ever recorded in British history! When you get to temperatures higher than the internal body temperature, that's just wrong. Plain wrong. And yes, even though I come from the tropics, it's never this hot because we always have air-conditioning and always a storm immediately after a hot day. So it's NEVER this hot! It's so hot that I find it difficult to function. In fact, as I'm sitting here typing away, I'm sweating in the worst place ever - behind the knees! And mind you, I just took my 2nd cold shower of the day!

Ok, done with the ranting. Just needed to get it out of my system! Anyway, I haven't been doing much, to be honest. Since I'm doing my attachment in Derby, it involves travelling about an hour a day up and down, plus the fact that I'm in til about 5-6 most days, my time is severely limited. Sighhh.. Plus, WS has been staying over for a few days, so he's a major distraction.. (Don't tell him that, otherwise he'll insist he leaves! :( ) Not that I don't enjoy his company, but cos' he's around, I'm always wanting to hang out with him and watch shows and stuff.. Plus, even though he's doing a lot of cooking for me in the evenings, I like to cook and bake for him, so I've been busy doing that.. hehe. I made a chocolate fudge brownie with soft cheese the other day for him. It wasn't bad, considering it was the first time I tried that recipe, but it wasn't the best either. This week, I'm planning to make some chequerboard cookies for him! Hehe..

Speaking of WS, I attended his graduation ceremony last week. Yes, he's graduated now and is now, officially a doctor! (And I'm dating a doctor.. heehee.. ) Oh by the way, he doesn't know that I've put up all these pics on my blog and if he finds out, he'll kill me.. you know how shy he gets!

My proud graduate!

All smiles..

Graduates doing their thing.. embarassingly, they were the only ones!

Kampung Malaysia di Manchester

Beautiful backdrop.. it really feels like we're in a foreign country!

My cousin, CC turned up for the event as the official photographer! (He's really good!)

With PY and CY, also proud graduates..

WS & his family

WS & his housemates.. all proud doctors now!

& finally..

Ooh, and one last one.. doesn't he look dashing??!!

Final destination: Hong Kong!!

2006-07-13T21:24:00.000+01:00

Our final stop was in Hong Kong, and it was definitely my favourite place of all! :) However, due to time constraints, we were there for a grand total of one and a half days.. So sad, huh? Ah well, at least it's an excuse for me to make a few more trips back there in future! Hehe..

We stayed at the Park Plaza Hotel in Causeway Bay, which was like one of the most vibrant, lively and busy places in Hong Kong. There are plenty of shops around so that's the best place for shopping! There's everything ranging from Sogo for branded stuff (like LV and Gucci etc) right down to little shops selling little cutesie things (like hairclips and handphone accessories), so really, there was lots for us to do! Plus, there were food shops EVERYWHERE! I had such a nice time trying out all kinds of food and boy, was the food G-O-O-D!!!! Even the tiny hawker-style stalls selling egg tarts and 'char siu pao' were so scrumptious! Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures, cos' they're all someone else's camera and I still haven't obtained them.. hmphhh!

So what pictures do I have? Ahh.. this first one is probably worth the most! I bumped into him on my flight from Shanghai to Hong Kong..

Yes, he is a Hong Kong celebrity! His name is Chin Ka Lok!

I also bumped in Lam Po Yi of the Healing Hands fame in Beijing.. he walked right past me and pretty much brushed my shoulder! Unfortunately for me, I was too starstruck to flag him down for an autograph/picture. So sad..

This is the Hong Kong Chek Lap Kok International Airport, it's an important picture because I first saw this in the famous Cantonese series, 'Triumph in the Sky' which filmed many of its scenes here!

Perhaps one of the best thing in Hong Kong was the scrumpdiliumptious food! At the risk of sounding like a true fatso, it was definitely a case of 'yummy yummy yummy, I've got love in my tummy'!! Hehe.. As we stayed in Causeway Bay, there were plenty (and I do mean plenty) of food shops in the area and they were all delicious! It wasn't like it was high-classed posh food, it was just normal food: noodles, congee, fried dough bread, my favourite egg tarts, the oh-so-famous milk teas.. just very typical Hong Kong food which I thoroughly enjoyed!!! We tried so many different things, it was great!!!

Yummy.. mango pudding!!!

We also drove all the way up to Victoria Peak to appreciate the amazing skyline view of Hong Kong at night. (We were also there for a very fancy meal courtesy of Jack from Bausch & Lomb International.. yummy!) Unfortunately for us, the mist was so bad that we could barely see past our noses.. So all we have is this picture of us in the carpark.. :(

We spent pretty much our whole day in Hong Kong shopping.. hehe.. But I wanted to bring my mum on an 'educational' tour so I brought her to a famous shopping mall, Pacific Place, which is full of really high-classed, branded stuff! Even though we were there on the first day of the Summer Sale, (and it was great to see that even Gucci had 30% off!) we didn't buy anything cos' I couldn't afford it and mum didn't see the point of paying for a name.. :( Ah well, luckily for me, the sale also extended in many other shops so we bought loads and loads of stuff from places like Esprit and Giordano! :)

Like my hat? :)

Mum took these pics for my sis..

Nightlife in Hong Kong is absolutely fantabulastic! Since Causeway Bay is one of the very popular hangout spots, even at night, it was amazing to see how bright all the lights were in the area, even at 12 midnight! I told my mum whilst we were walking around, that it felt like it was 8pm, since there were so many people about and there were enough neon signs were enough to blind you! I also went clubbing in the ever-so-famous place, 'Lan Kwai Fong', which is famous for its vibrant nightlife and apparently, was a popular hang-out spot for celebrities. Obviously, I just HAD to go, so I finally convinced my parents to let me go with one of the Uncles.. (to be fair, he's much younger than my dad and really quite fun! he's like 40 and acts like 14 so definitely good fun!) Unfortunately, we didn't see any celebrities.. Sigh.. Oh well, we did take loads of pictures though, but again, unfortunately, they're all in his camera and I haven't gotten them all from him. Next round, ok? :)

Well, here we are, at the very end of my summer holiday.. hope you've enjoyed reading about it as much as I enjoyed well, experiencing it! :) Back to normal life now.. Sighh..