Woah...

Does Santa Claus' wishlist grow to this length?

Hmmm.....I just got a crazy idea. I'll give a handmade tulip to whoever can correctly tell the contents of the fax. Just tell me the name of the company which sent this fax and what type of document it is. Of course, that means I'll be donating $2 to CCF for every correct answer. However, for every attempt with the wrong answer, the person who didn't guess correctly will have to buy a tulip from me.

Anyone feel like taking up a challenge or wish to try their luck at getting a tulip FOC?


Note: the comments has been disabled, so you can send me your answer through other means like email, MSN or SMS.

Doing my part

I'll be selling tulips on the 4th of September (Sunday).

New temporary job? Nope.

The proceeds from the sale of the handmade silk-cocoon tulips (yes, they're fake tulips) will go to the Children's Cancer Foundation (CCF). As far as I know, I'll be selling (actually I kind of see myself as a tulip peddlar) tulips in the central zone from 2 to 6 pm. Exact details will only be released on 4th September.

I'd like to appeal to everyone: if you happen to be out on the 4th of September and you see people selling tulips, please buy 1 from them. Or if you prefer to buy them from me, give me a call or a sms, and I'll gladly inform you of my location. Each stalk will be sold for $2.

For guys who wish to let their other half know that they are the perfect lover, tulips are the way to go (hope Ahqiang reads this). Similarly, girls can do likewise to express their feelings (Min!!!).

Alright, charity should be done on a voluntary basis, an action that comes from the heart because of a desire to help the needy, not because someone asks you to do so.

Please don't run away from me when you see me on that day.

Breakfast

My mom bought an interesting-looking loaf of bread yesterday. Well, I call it interesting because the brown stripes that run across the loaf are very distinct (yet it tastes as plain as any other white bread would, what a disappointment). Or maybe I'm just too brain-dead in the morning to come up with a better adjective. The colouring on the bread is a little too bright perhaps.

Bright colours on food can sometimes turn off one's appetite, maybe with the exception of desserts. Therefore, creating good visual appeal is also an important part of culinary skill.

Maybe this loaf of bread is targeted at appealing to kids.

If I were to speculate the origin of the phrase "crash course", I would say it most probably came from the first aircraft pilots who learned to land the hard way, because they didn't have any instructors (since they're the pioneers).

Thus a crash course means a course that people take up to learn something very quickly, sacrificing time for guarantee because of the lack of choices.

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People who have been keeping in touch with me lately would know that I'm still hunting for a job. Today, I started a temporary part-time job, carrying out surveys through phone calls. Carrying out surveys is definitely not my cup of tea. Talking to strangers through telephones is even worse.

Till this point of time, I still haven't figured out why I simply can't speak normally (if you take face-to-face conversation as normal) over the phone, especially to strangers. I'll mostly go quiet and let the other party speak when talking to friends, and I'll stammer when with speaking to strangers.

Don't ask me why. I wish I knew myself.

In that case, why do I still take up this part-time job? That's because my friend (who hired me) needs to fill up a quota of 150 surveys by the end of this month and she couldn't find anyone else to do it. I wouldn't have agreed if she hadn't told me she was urgently in need of help.

After all, I need to overcome my weakness sooner or later.

For my first day of attempting phone survey, I've had my fair share of unfriendly and friendly customers. Of course there were much more unfriendly ones - people who came up with all sorts of excuses not to do surveys, like "having meeting now (at home...must be video conferencing)", "call me back at night/during the weekends (they know we work during office hours too)", etc.

Naturally, my stammering was a complete put-off, let alone the fact that I was doing a SURVEY. Can't blame anyone for not wanting to do a survey for me.

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At the end of the day, I feel that I'm taking a "head-bang-wall" course on improving communication skills, by doing something I don't like to do and don't have to do.

On the other hand, maybe I can learn more effectively in this way.

I felt a great affinity for this photo the moment I took it. It wasn't just because the cutie-pie of a hamster belonged to me, the big roomy cage it was in belonged to me, and that I had to wait for minutes to capture this shot.

This is why.





That's me when I was less than a year old, still sleeping in a sarong (a big piece of cloth bundled and secured in a specific way). My parents told me that I would always stick my head out of the sarong when I woke up. Unlike most other toddlers who would wail the moment they'd awaken, I'd just stay in this way quietly until my parents realised I was awake. Gave them a scare when it first occured (they were afraid I'd topple out).

Coincidentally, Furball was also less than a year old when I took its photo. That pipe it's in serves as its bed too. See the similarity? Maybe I'll just put them together for a clearer view.






Like owner, like pet.

I came across a lot of old photos while digging for this one. The greatest beauty of photographs lies in the wonderful and happy memories they bring back. However, I'm not going to post up any more photos. They remind me of too many things.

学华语

There's a well-known Chinese saying,

"病从口入，祸从口出"

which, translated directly, means diseases enters our body through our mouth, while trouble are caused by the words we speak. Alternatively, it can be summarised as problems arise from the use of our mouths.

A classic example happened to me today. I was due to meet Fengchun, Yuxiang and Wenhua for cycling at East Coast Park, but I happened to be early. Thus I got myself a seat in McDonald's (East Coast Park branch) and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

It was approaching dinner time and the crowd inside McDonald's was growing. Feeling bad about hogging a table all by myself while there were so many others waiting to get a seat, I decided to leave McDonald's and engage in my favourite past-time: sea gazing (think star gazing).

So I got out of McDonald's, sat down on one of the break waters along the beach, and informed Fengchun of my relocation. Fengchun arrived not long after and joined me in my sea gazing on the breakwater. Having experienced the beauty of Pulau Tioman, we were actually quite put off by the sea water around Singapore.

Ok ok, I'm getting to the classic example already.

Halfway through our comparison on the sea of the 2 places, I suddenly commented,

"今天的浪好大。" (The waves seem bigger today)

Just as I completed my sentence, an extra huge wave crashed against the breakwater and sent showers of brine flying towards Fengchun and I. The waves got Fengchun right in his face and soaked his T-shirt. I managed to turn away in time, but the back of my T-shirt and my bermudas did not escape the ordeal.


Moral of the story: watch what you say.

Garlic Fondue

Fondues is one of the most straight-forward things to make. All you need is the right chocolate mix, heat it to its molten state, and finally, something cool to acts as a core for the chocolate to harden around and presto! Of course, things are straight-forward only after you have found the correct chocolate mix.

However, what can you do if you can't find the right chocolate mix? Ah, this is where improvisation comes in. Suppose you want to eat, say garlic fondue, right now at home where you're comfortably seated, but you don't wish to invest in the machine that churns out molten chocolate, and neither do you wish to hunt for the right chocolate mix.

Maybe you can't exactly have molten chocolate solidified around a garlic clove core, but to have something that tastes chcoolatey and garlic-ky at the same time is not impossible. The cheapest and easiest alternative, is to go down to the nearest confectionery, buy a freshly-baked garlic bread and a bun smothered with chocolate rice, pack them into the same plastic bag and leave them together for 15 minutes, then eat the chocolate rice bun directly from the bag. Try to breathe more deeply while eating.

The sweet chocolatey taste in your tongue, combined with the aroma of garlic, will make you feel as though you're savouring garlic fondue. Remember, the sense of smell does play a very important role in making out the taste of food.

At least that's what I felt when I ate the bun my mom bought for me.



Note: Author has never even seen a fondue in life, let alone eat one.

The nation's big day

I went back to watch the fireworks again last night, on National Day itself. Perhaps I just can't live with sub-standard photos of the fireworks I took last Saturday.

Instead of using slideshows again, I'll just link to the photos directly, because GFoto takes too long to load (must spare a thought for my friends who are working). Only the nicer ones are uploaded.

I've been reading the Inside Track for the past few days. The 160 pages thick guide made a good collector's item. At least I thought so. It is filled with all kinds of information regarding Singapore, be it history or current affairs. The most relevant of all (to me), would of course be the section that states where all the good food are found.

Current progress is at page 103. There's a game too, located right at the middle of the guide. Didn't really look closely at it, but I think it'll be a nice idea if Settlers' Cafe would use it. After all, it would help to add some 'sense of identity' for the local gaming community.

My 25th birthday present

Not exactly put to good use, but it's the best I can manage. Special thanks to Yuxiang and Fengchun.

Remember

Though it's probably quite a 'show-off' thing to do, I'd still like to put this down to recall for the later years to come:

I received probably about 20 "happy birthday" greetings (in the form of MSN messages and SMS) from my friends. Some were advanced, mostly just-in-time, and the rest belated. But whatever the case, it's pretty heart-warming to receive greetings for the whole day (or longer).

Especially when I'm the kind of person who can't remember others' birthdays. Or maybe I can remember their birthdates, but not on the day itself.

I'm so terrible... Must check Friendster everyday from now on.

Sing your way home

"Oh 第一次我。。。"

I went for my very first interview yesterday. Read the "Recruit" on Saturday, sent out resumes on Sunday, and the HR called me on Monday to go for interview on Tuesday. Fast-paced urban life.

The company that called me was situated near Expo (about 15 minutes walk from there). Which means it's very far from my home (at least 2 hours of travel). Thankfully, the interview was at 11 am, so I didn't had to wake up too early.


"灰色是不想说。。。"

I was the first to arrive (10 points for me) among the 4 who went for interview at that time slot. The second was a guy from India who had worked in Singapore for 7 years, and his last job was at Tuas. Third was another guy who spoke in a foreign accent (I think he's from Southeast Asia), though he's applying for a different job. The last guy came while I was being interviewed.

Funny thing is, everyone who came for interview was wearing a grey shirt, but I was the only one with a tie (another 10 points for me).


"我，我不明白这个年代怎么还能说读好书就会发财。。。"

I barely stepped into his office and he immediately shot out the first question.

"What class of honours did you get?"

Of course he didn't just stop there.

"What did you get for your 'A' levels GP? What about your 'O' levels? That means your command of English is very poor, right? (does this count as a question?) What about your Chinese then? So your language proficiency is no good. (Ok, this is not a question)"

That was just the first barrage (my score dipped below zero from there). The later questions were the typical interview questions.


"向左走还是向右走。。。"

I arranged with Jiaxiu to have lunch together because her workplace is just nearby, not more than 10 minutes walk away. However, I walked for 45 minutes and still had not located her. All because I misinterpreted her instructions. What an idiot.

45 minutes under the hot sun was more than sufficient to drench my shirt, but perhaps the weather wasn't satisfied with the result and decided that a downpour was in order.


"喂喂喂， 你在哪里呀。。。"

Luckily, I was near a bus stop when the rain poured, so I wasn't too badly soaked. Walking was out of the question, so I arranged with Jiaxiu to share a cab to Bedok. Somehow, the grey bus stop and the grey weather camouflaged me and the rare empty cabs passed by without noticing me.

In the end, Jiaxiu had to hail a cab to look for me. However, I had absolutely no idea where I was. I could only give directions according to the neighbouring landmarks.

Despite all the experience the cab driver had in moving through the area, he could not locate the bus stop I was stranded at. For about half an hour, Jiaxiu called me repeatedly over the phone to double (triple, quadruple, etc) check my location. I noted that the fare was already $6.90 when the driver finally located me.


"我真的好累。。。"

I stood most of the way on the train ride from Bedok to home. If it was the peak hour, I'll be standing all the way home. Call me a weakling, but I'm not keen on this job already.