and the pretty boys are all gay...

so what hope is there for women if all the pretty ones are gay? sighz...

fangirl-ing...

i seldom fangirl, but when i do, i really become a rabid fangirl. the last time it happened was for F4...i was one of those idiot girls who queued for hours to hold their hands :P (okay, that was embarrassing to admit.)

sad to say, i feel the fangirl in me waking up. i don't want to imagine what kind of silly things i'll be doing next...

*edit to add*

well, that didn't last long, did it?

happy endings: asian boys vol 3 - a review

one of the (very few) perks of working here is the occasional dramatic treat. this year, i've had a chance to catch a couple of plays by local companies - titoudao by toy factory and blithe spirit by w!ld rice. yesterday, i had the good fortune to catch the latest offering by w!ld rice, happy endings: asian boys vol 3.

this show was not on my radar of "shows-to-watch". in fact, i ignored every advertisement on it (despite being a friend of w!ld rice and having access to early bird discounts). not that i'm homophobic...i just wasn't interested in a play where (i thought) the selling point was the fact that it is based on a topic considered "taboo". but when my colleague procured a couple of tickets to the show and invited me to go, i thought it was too good a chance to miss and agreed to watch it with her.

i'm glad i did. the story was moving, captivating, and made me think. it wasn't just about homosexuality, it was about a lot more: growing up, finding yourself, seeking love, understanding people-to-people relationship...so many things that i can identify with. as ivan heng, director, said in the promotional video, "you'll see yourself on stage."



(note: i know a lot of other bloggers have linked this clip, but this is probably the only link that would still remain because both w!ld rice and sistic will remove their webpages once the show is over.)

i did...and my heart ached as i saw myself in chris' happiness when ken first held his hand, in sylvia's pain as she tried to keep her dignity when chris asked for a breakup, in the longing in ken and chris' voices in their last phone conversation.

but that wasn't all that made me love the play. there were a lot of funny bits in the play (302B? 302A?) that made me giggle with delight. alfian sa'at is an excellent playwright...his gems of humor amused me to no end, and the cast was wonderful in their portrayals of their characters.

ben xiao was excellent as both joe, the author and chris, the protagonist of the novel joe was writing. i could be a bit biased because of his looks *grinz* but he had the fresh-faced, innocent look that was perfect as the uncertain, confused chris. pierre goh as attractive, charismatic kenneth widjaya was a (eye-candyish)pleasure to watch, and genevieve lim as schoolgirl leader/debate team captain sylvia reminded me exactly of the overachieving rafflesian i knew from my secondary school days.

honestly, i will never be able to put in words my feelings for the play. i can only hope that i will never forget the joy i felt, watching it for the first time and the acute pleasure at seeing the story unfold in front of my eyes. go watch it...it is a brilliant play. (oh, and i want to read peculiar chris!)

(final note: i was reminded of the only other local play i know that i had the privilege to be involved in. and clips of my jc days, of staying late for rehearsals, of memorizing lines, of wardrobe hunting, of playing gin rummy backstage and praying for a good show at curtain call etc...flashed by. ah...those were the days...)

gearing up

not a running post this time. although...i'm going to have to make up a run tomorrow since i didn't run on tuesday.

no, i'm gearing up for a job change. the 2 interviews back-to-back this week convinced me that i'm happier seeking another job than staying where i am. thank goodness most companies accept email resumes...i can just imagine the trouble and cost to send copies of all my certificates all over the place.

i passed my M5 exam just an hour ago. it was scary pressing on the "finish" button...i had about 20 answers which i weren't sure about (passing mark is 75), but after i answered everything and went through all the questions a couple of times, i didn't think it was going to do me any good to sit and think (i had 1 more hour to reconsider all my answers) .it was a relief when the screen told me i passed. definitely been too long since i needed to use my brain for any exam...

unfortunately, my stupid brain seems to be going through the interview today, coming up with new answers to the questions i answered. *knocks head in an attempt to clear it out* i really do want the job, but if they don't appreciate that i'm so keen on it that i'm willing to take a pay cut to join them...then maybe it's for the better.

so...job search in earnest now! ganbatte!

interviews...ugh...

i hate interviews.

oh, i know everyone else hates them too.

but i really really loathe them. because i have to admit, i really plain suck at them. half the items in my resume are so long ago that when i'm asked about them, i can't remember anything useful.

and i end up making up half the things that come out of my mouth.

i just have to pray something goes right tomorrow and i'll have a new job waiting for me soon enough.

still running...

this is the 3rd week since i've started training, and i'm proud to say i have not been skivving at all. i run twice a week, usually on tuesday and one other day, while still going for 2 ballet classes a week. wow...i really am proud of myself...

anyway, having joined sgrunners, a local runners' forum, i found out about this nifty little website that allows me to map my run and measure the distance i ran without having to resort to using the street directory and a piece of string.

i just ran 5.89km without stopping. amazing...maybe 10k isn't impossible after all.

next expected race? the swissotel vertical marathon in nov. wanna run with me? watch this space...

random things i get peeved about

why are there 11 seats in a row in the Indoor Stadium?

jacky in concert

now i wasn't planning to go for the concert at all, though i did have a little urge to buy a ticket when i first heard about it. but not having anybody to go with plus the steep prices had me putting that idea out of my mind despite the adding of 2 shows.

until a recent youtube encounter with my favorite jacky song which made me cry.



using my privilege, i found out that there was 1 last seat in the lowest price category which wasn't in too bad a position. so, since i had just received my bonus, plus a little egging from k, i bought a ticket and attended the concert last night.

jacky really deserves his title of 歌神. for 3 solid hours, he sang his hits in both mandarin and cantonese. sad to say, i didn't enjoy them as much as some of his fans did, since my favorite songs were the less well-known ones (like 她来听我的演唱会 above, 忘了哭, 结束不是我要的结果...ok, fine, i like the sappy you-don't-love-me songs (>.<).) but he was fantastic anyway.

his voice is still as amazing as ever, and he is just so personable that you can't help but love him. if you're going for his concert, you'll definitely enjoy it.

good luck, bro

it's not even 12 and i'm already falling asleep onto my laptop. this doesn't bear well for the rest of the day, does it?

i was really exhausted last night, so much so that i didn't manage to get any studying done at all.(except for what i managed to read on the bus on the way home, but i nearly dozed off then too. it certainly doesn't help that the chapter i'm reading is really a bunch of technical terms that require phrasing and re-phrasing to make sense of the sentences.)

anyway, i fell asleep in a daze last night, and woke up this morning to a bustle of activity at 6am. bro left this morning for perth for the next phase of his pilot training, and since it's 10 months long this time, the whole family wanted to be there to send him off.

bro and i were close, though probably not as close as my younger sis and him. the three of us used to be really tight until life (and love) made it harder for us to hang out together very often. he's a real gentlemen...smart, articulate and funny, and i really love him for being the man that he is. yes, proud sister here.

good luck, bro. don't come back too early, you hear? we'll see you in december.

reinventing myself

at the grand old age of 2x (hey, either you know it or you don't), i have decided that i am bored with me and will now try to make myself as different as possible from the person i was.

well...not really. i'm just trying to try different things. i've changed some aspects of my life, added some stuff, taken some stuff out...hopefully that will make me a more interesting person and i'll fit into my skin better. here's the list:

1) change my appearance

yes, after eons of curly-wurly-unruly hair, i've rebonded my hair. for years, i have been advised not to do so because i have very fine hair and a round face. as it turns out, almost everyone who saw the "drastic" change agree that i look a lot better with rebonded hair and in one case, i was even told that i "should have done so earlier". yea, i should have. i save a lot of time fighting with my hair in the mornings now.

2) get more active

throughout most of my school days, i was a homebody. i would go home after school/ecas and just stare at the google box, play playstation games (yes, i am a female gamer and i'm proud of it), do cross-stitch, read, or any of indoor activities that doesn't require physical exertion. then i took up dancing, joined a gym (which i subsequently quitted) and attempted to add more exercise into my life. now i've progressed to the next stage, where i'm preparing to take part in races, and i plan to add even more activities into my life. better to do try them now while my bones are still able to take it...

3) revamp my wardrobe

i admit, i've always been a closet auntie. i don't like to pay very much for clothes, or accessories, or shoes. in fact, i've never really liked shopping. i don't care how i dress on my days off, can't be bothered with makeup on weekends.

then i discovered that i'm not that bad-looking and i do look good in some outfits.

so there has been a period of shopping, resulting in new dresses and shoes (i own more shoes now than any other period in my life). i now do find some kind of pleasure in making myself look good, and i like hearing "you look good!" from my friends and colleagues. shopping is still a hassle, but it really can be great to find something that suits me.

4) travel more

there will be more travel in my life. the good thing about working is that you get enough cash to do the things you like to do, and i've always loved to travel. besides the US trip planned in august, there's the planned KL shopping trip at the end of this month and a possible taiwan and perth trip in the not-too-distant future.

i still have my dream of moving overseas for a few years too.

5) party more

as a homebody (see point 2), i missed out a lot of fun during my uni days. so, since i have younger gals around me who are party-goers, i tag along and enjoy the fun i never had, like our occasional ladies' nights. especially since i don't have that many years before i might not get in the door.

6) change jobs

no elaboration needed! (>_<)

like a square peg in a round hole

it's a horrible feeling when you feel like you don't belong. i've felt it often enough, especially throughout my schooling years. things became better when i started working when belonging to a clique mattered less than your ability to get things done.

but when you feel that you no longer belong in your job, in your position, then it becomes a little more difficult. you want to leave, but you can't because you need the cash, the bonus, the experience, etc, etc...

it's a very painful feeling. and so the job search will become a little more desperate, a little more earnest, and alternative plans will have to be made.

and one more thing...when you work with incompetent people? you either need a lot of patience, or you really need a new job really really fast so that you can slap them the way they need to be slapped.

making plans for the future

sometimes i really don't understand blogger. the title bar gives me headaches each time i want to post, then it fixes itself. maybe it's a sign i should switch to some other blogging website.

anyway, back to the topic of the day. and it is...the future. yes, i'm busy making plans for my future again. it seems like i keep making new plans which keep getting postponed/cancelled due to ongoing circumstances, but i've finally made one which will (hopefully) last me for a few years.

first things first though...i need a new job. and not just any new job. i need one back in my old industry, in a place that allows growth. it's the only place where i foresee myself working for a number of years instead of the 2-3 years' timeline i'm working with at the moment.

i know i haven't been working very long at my present company, but the bads very often outnumber the goods, and there are absolutely no growth prospects here. if i want a place where i can continue to grow and learn over the next few years, i need to move.

now i just need to get my foot in somehow...

all hyped up about running

saturdays are always busy days for me. with my korean class in the morning and usually a dance class in the afternoon, i'm always worn out by the time i get home. today was supposed to be a change for me. k and i were planning to go to sentosa for some fun in the sun, but the rain this morning put an end to that plan. (T_T)

because of that, i'm going to be in pain for the rest of tonight and very likely the whole of tomorrow as well. adding a tough stretching class to 4.5km jogged last night is almost certain to kill me. i hope i can still walk tomorrow

now this is a strange thing...i had been looking for something new to occupy me and i think i found it - running and taking part in races may be the next big thing in my life.

the funny thing is, i've never been one to run in the first place. i hated to run when i was a student...i would do the minimum and never extra. but for some strange reason, i'm actually getting excited about doing the great eastern women 10k run in october...and maybe even the stanchart marathon at the end of the year (not the full one, i'm thinking about the 10k or at most, the half marathon).

then again, this might be another of those 三分钟热度 interests i have had so many of. let's see if i'm still running a month from now.

do i look different?

i took some passport-sized photos yesterday. (yes, i know you know why i took the pictures, just don't say it out loud!) comparing them with the last set of photos i took (when i was applying for my present job), i wonder...how much have i changed?


well, my eyes are still as small and my eyebags seem to have increased in size...and let's not go into the chubbiness of my cheeks and the roundness of my face. (-_-)"

still, considering that there is close to 2 years' difference between the pictures, which one do i look better in? or more importantly, which one do i look younger in?

free food and booze at timbre \(^ ^)/

thank god it's friday! another week has passed and the weekend is here again. k and i had a great time last night at timbre and shopping at bugis street after that.

what were we doing at timbre on a thursday night in the first place? well, that's one of the perks of my job. we were there for the press launch of WOMAD 07. it was a cool place, and WOMAD is a cool event with great music. i wish i would be around during the festival....phooey.

this was my first press launch since i joined the company...i missed out on a lot of them because all the major accounts i worked on belonged to someone else first. i nearly missed out on this too, because i was half-considering to give the account to someone else, but i'm glad i stuck with it. even if i can't be there, at least i got to enjoy myself last night. the food was good, and the drinks were free! \(^ ^)/

k and i shopped at bugis street after that and bought a dress each. i loved the dress i bought, but found out that i was missing a ribbon only when i got home, so i'm going to have to make my way down again today to get it.

friday nights are usually quiet for me. i got an invite to go to arena at clarke quay tonight, but i think i'll go home and go for a jog instead. there's only 6 weeks till my trip, i really should get myself fitter before i leave. and my korean homework isn't done yet...and there's the M5 exam to study for...

my new blog!

i'm a blogger. have been for years. but i've never ever put up my face, my name or anything that i can be identified easily by on any of my blogs.

but now i wonder, why not? i want a place where i can talk about what i did today, where i went, who i met...ergo, new blog! ^_^

this blog will chronicle my trials and tribulations, my ups and downs as i stumble my way through this long journey called "life".