Gone 3D2N

I am going to our neighboring country for boot camp *crys*
Actually for my company's team building, but after I took a look at the photos I think its more like boot camp.
Doing orientation games that are sooooo outdated, leaving in so-called chalets that are in the middle of the jungle. Grass, Mud, Insects everywhere. You get the picture. The kinda days where your underwear is never dry cos you constantly get thrown into the murky yellow brown river water.  Yucks.
WhywhydoIstillhavetodoallthesewhenIhaveoutgrownthisstage???? *wails*

 

I am Singaporean

Inspired by Mr Brown

My name is Handsel and it doesn't mean anything.

I live in Singapore and studied here all my life.
I followed through the competitive, merciless education system, emerging a graduate with little sense of the future.
I take the MRT everywhere, now I can repeat the terrorist warning messages in English, Mandarin, Malay and even Tamil (at least the numbers 999).
I love the national flag, and can recite the pledge in both English and Mandarin.
I sing Majulah Singapura proudly, although I do not understand what the malay words mean.
I read every sign in all three languages and stare hard at the Tamil words, hoping one day I will recognise the word 'Fine'.

I love my country and hate being mistaken for nationalities that I am not.
I silently sing Kit Chan's "Home" and queue proudly at the "Singaporean-Welcome Home" lane when I am back at the best airport in the world.
I am afraid to say my real name incase I kena the sedition act and I am a Singaporean.
So say we all

Of cars, buses and helis....

Yawn Yawn Yawn. Yet again, I am falling asleep.

I have been so bothered by details of planning for LA and LV that I'm frustrating myself.
And to think I was never a 'need to know all the details' person. I think some people I know will hyperventilate over this. *winks*

Having said that, I think it is still important to know my itinerary in general and how I am supposed to get from place to place.
Things like whether driving makes more sense, or getting a bus, or taking an expensive helicopter ride. If moolah were aplenty, things would be easier. However, I feel it will be stupid if unnecessary money is spent when it could have been saved with a little more research.

Now, the plan is to tentatively drive from LA to LV, then drive the next day to Grand Canyon. Easy enough right.

Here comes the part that complicates the whole thing,  my flight back home is from LA at noon. So, I have to make that 6 hours drive, more if I get lost, back.  Plus time to check in, this means I have to start driving at a ridiculous 3am in the morning. This makes paying for an extra hotel night so dumb. Oh, did I mention that I so wisely booked my hotels already?

Either I drive at 3am, or take the 1am bus, which makes more sense because its safer and less tiring.  Then, the money factor comes in because it is cheaper to get a round ticket trip instead of a single ticket. See how this totally negates my initial plan of driving.

Confusing right.

and, I yet to check out the car rental rates, bus schedules, helicopter trips......

 

Time..

Sometimes I think time isn't enough.
I left the office at 8pm last night. It was not too late though. In fact, I deliberately waited for 8pm to leave. I had finished my swim at 720 and figuring it makes no sense to go back at that time, I went back to the office to read the newspapers.
So, I reached home at 8.15pm. Dinner and it was like 9pm when I was done. Watched a bit of the shows my brother recorded for me and it was 10pm.
10pm was desperate housewife time. Mull over my claims , surf for hotels, at 11pm and it was like time for bed.
Crazy, I felt like I had no time to myself. You may disagree, but I hate it when I am too tired to even read.  I didn't need to bath because I did that before going home.

So, I resolved to leave office at like 7pm latest today.

But, my mum's incessant nagging when she sent me to work today made me change my mind. If I could freely surf and do my general administrative stuff in the office. I will finish it all and go home only for dinner. My mum is downright ridiculous. She happily spins stories and starts believing in it and accusing the whole world. Sometimes I wonder why I keep pushing off plans for the next overseas trip with her. I am not sure if I can take it.

Now I understand why I hardly miss home when I am travelling. And, lets see what time I will leave the office today.

 

From LA to LV...

Am planning to go LA then LV.
Anyone has any tips for me. Which hotel is good?
I have been surfing and I am looking at Ramada Inn Hollywood in LA and Harrah Hotel and Casino LV.

Looking at not too pricey hotels, but I do not mind paying a bit more if the location is good. No point paying for a really cheap hotel and then paying through the throat for transporation.

And, how do I get from LA to LV? Someone told me drive. I googled and saw that there are bus trips but the timings will prob not make it in time for my flight. My flight is at LA airport.

Advice Advice anyone?

Finally back.

I am finally back after 1 week in Penang and 1 week in KL.
I had enough of Msia, nothing beats being back in your own country.
The trees look greener, the ground cleaner and the sun brighter.

Am so tired. Even after sleeping for 12 hours. I love my country.

Lunch is exciting.

Lunch was an eyeopening affair today.
One of my Thai colleague was telling us about his gf, and then revealing that he/she is transsexual. We were like gaping in astonishment when he went on to graphically describe their sex life. He claims that the girl/guy can have orgasms I was like huh, really ah. If he had been a better looking guy, I might have been so grossed out but he is like pimply, in short ugly.

Then, another colleague received a present from our Thai colleague, It was a dildo/vibrator. Seriously, I have no idea whats the difference although she claimed there is. Woa, it was like rubbery, kinda thick and big in my opinion, it was like weird feeling it. I cannot imagine stuffing something like that into myself just to climax.

I am not particularly conservative but I am still reeling from the whole experience. *shugs*

 

In reality,

730am: I woke up and stared at my phone. Turns over to look at Alboy and he is deep in sleep
731am: Fell back to sleep
800am: I woke up again. Turns over to look at Alboy and he is deep in sleep
801am: Fell back to sleep
830am: I woke up again. Turns over to look at Alboy and he is deep in sleep
831am: Fell back to sleep
845 am: He finally stirs and went to wash up.
846am: Since I could not do anything, I fell back to sleep again.
915am: I woke up and washed up
930am: Left the house
1015am: Arrived at Redstart
1115am: Paid the bill. It was pouring heavily so Alboy immediately fell back into slumber in the backseat of the car.
1145am: We drove off.
1215pm: Both of us fell asleep in the car at his workplace carpark
1pm: Alboy woke up to start work and I continued sleeping

Amazing eh, I am so amazed at myself at how I/we sleep.

 

The plan

730am : Alboy wakes up and starts washing up
800am: I wake up
845am: Reach Red Star
1000am: Finish Breakfast

Isn't it great to have everything done by 10am.
Then, we can laze around, town, catch a movie. nap. Nice.

However, what most likely will happen
730am : Sleeping
800am : Sleeping
845am : Still Sleeping
1000am: Still Sleeping
1200pm: Waking up
1230pm: Wake up and start to wash up
1pm: Alboy is still washing up
1.30pm: Alboy dresses
2pm: Leave for Redstar
3pm: Reach Redstar for breakfast just as it is packing up

Well, I'm not exaggerating Such things has happened before because Alboy and me are such deep sleepers. We belong to the rare breed who can sleep for 16 hours straight even after sleeping a full 24 hours prior to that.

Lets see, and I will update on Monday how things go.

 

Smile and show your teeth!

So, my nose has been leaking non stop for 2 days now. My lungs feel so clogged up. Its crazy and I haven't swam for 3 days. I bet I just lost all my stamina. It happens when I go under the weather. I need to weight myself. I wonder if I lost weight.

Recently I  been told that I grind my teeth at night when I sleep. Alboy told me it was this hideous loud grinding noise. Of course, I dismissed him. One week later, my dentist asked me the same question. Apparently there are some tell tale marks on the inner side of my cheeks. Damnit. Now, I either risked my teeth eroding or I have to wear a guard to sleep. Like a muzzled dog. My dentist told me to monitor the problem - I wonder how, I wouldn't know if I grind my teeth in my sleep eh.

I  been exceptionally conscious of it since then. I loosen my jaws before I sleep. However the thing is, my jaws feel extremely tight when I wake up and I am pretty sure I grinded them in my sleep. Alboy says the trick is to stuff a carrot into my mouth at night.

As if that is not enough, I have recessed gums too. That leads to my dentine being exposed and thus the most painful sensation everytime I been eating sweet food. For the longest time, I thought I  had a cavity and all my dentist tell me otherwise. So, now its because my gums are recessed. Sounding like an old woman eh. I now have to use a soft toothbrush and a sensitized toothpaste. I been using a whitening toothpaste which I shouldn't because it will cause the gums to recess even faster. Crap, how to have white shinning teeth like that??

Give me a break. I'm not that old to have all these teeth woes.

 

Alas, the guilt of work

I was expecting myself to type. It feels great, but instead I think I will do a - It feels strange.

Yes, my weak self gave in and I took MC today. It wasn't all that unjustifable. I had been having this nagging pain in my throat for about a week. Yesterday, I felt slightly feverish as if I might fall sick. That however did not happen and I broke out of it before I went to bed last night. This morning, I simply lost all motivation to work. In fact, I debated about it for a precious 20 mins at 7am this morning, ultimately convincing myself that it was no harm. Afterall, I had not taken a single day of leave or mc since the start of the year.

This time I did not have to wait 1 hr for my mc, since I had fully grasp the routiness of the doctor's schedule. I went right before he closed for lunch and waited only 15mins. The doc was a bit of a strange thing. He actually gave me an MC for tomorrow instead of today, and argued with the nurse when I pointed it out.

I dutifully spent the whole day sleeping after finishing the last chapter of "The rule of four". Not a recommended read. Perhaps its because the book is authored by 2, that makes the flow somewhat strange. It never fails to amaze me how much I can sleep. I ate dinner on a full stomach and feel werid.

Perhaps, I should have just taken mon and tue off and scotted off to hk with missy y. Alas, the guilt of work.

Am planning to take next friday off, however, I have a feeling I might be on standby for an event and that my leave will not materialise.

GSS is starting, when does Club 21 start it sales? I saw some oh so pretty but pricey stuff, the stuff that is only worth buying during a sale.

Cinderella outfit

Today I wore a skirt to work and its amazing how many comments about it I got.
They think I look pretty in a skirt , which baffles me because essentially I am the same person. I didn't apply any make up or style my hair. My tiny eyes were half closed, I still feel like a slump when I entered the office. There must be something about the skirt, or maybe that its the first time I wore a skirt on a normal work day since I started work.

More on my outfit, I have named it the 'Cinderella outfit'. Its knee length wrap flare skirt - green with purple trimmings paired with a whitish beige singlet. Seemingly apt eh. If you cannot picture it, go watch Waltz Disney Cinderella. Its what she wears when she does her household chores.

Am going to watch DVC code later. Yippee

 

Music feeds the soul

I was never a music bluff. Most of the time I listen to songs without knowing the lyrics or the singers. An mp3 player has no use to me. In fact, I only have 1 mp3 (my ringtone) in my sony walkman phone. A waste really.

Today I made myself a 7 thousand dollar radio. Yes, using equipment meant for more advanced applications, I made myself a radio. It was fairly simple considering all you needed was to capture the correct radio frequency signal and strip it down.

I love the sound of music at my work place. At my old seat, my malay colleague keeps the radio on all the time. Subconscioulsy, I was kept fairly updated with the latest release. Eversince I moved into the quiet serious corner, I didn't dare bring my own radio in the fear of breaking that intense silence. I started to lose touch with songs - which was good only in one way because Beyonce "Check on it" was just so painful to the ears. I call it the niam keng song. It just rants and rants. Now that I hear it less often, its actually not too bad.

Today I had an excuse to build the radio because it was needed for some demostration purpose. Also, half the people ard were not in. The other half were newbies who I know I can override. The sound of music. Fatabulous.

Tomorrow, I will try pushing the line to see if I can keep it on during the day.

The DVC Race

Yes, I raced.

In an oversized T-shirt too. Two L shirts were stuffed into the race pack that I got and I was too lazy to change it into a smaller size. I knotted the shirt at the waist but it just keep coming apart as I ran, thus slowing me down a lot.

It was fun. Alboy was so hyped up about winning that I was amused. He ran from station to station. I never seen him run so fast before. In fact, I wasn't even sure he could run because he has one prone to injury knee. He was really fast. Most of the puzzles were solved by him.

He solved them even before I could take a proper look at them. So much so for being short. I could hardly peer over other's shoulder. So, I decided to take on a different approach. While Alboy looks at the puzzle, I will go towards the race marshal and blatantly look at the answers others have, rush back to tell Alboy. I guess I am better at cheating.

It was a mad rush from station to station. I lead on the trains as Alboy almost never takes the train. Yet, I still was baffled as to which was the only yellow mrt station around. I asked all my friends and everyone told me commonwealth. I thought so too. It turned out to be Toa Payoh. Well, it figures, all of us live in the West and hardly go further than Orchard.

Anyway, it was great fun. The downside - My legs actually ache today from all that running. and to think I swim almost everyday and just paid 400 bucks to renew my pool membership. Crap.

Symbols

I read this somewhere:

$ is just a symbol but I need it. Damn it!

In response, the next one read:
I luv symbols.

 

Home early

Today I was home early from work. However early has evolved to take a meaning of leaving at the office at 8+pm.

Crazy eh. I used to feel that my day has streched too long if I stay beyond 8. Now I feel, eh, not bad. Bad Bad.

In a way, I cannot wait for these 3 mths to be over soon. Then I be offcially doing stuff I am paid to do instead of being in the training phase. 3 mths, 4 mths max. The though of an extra month is tortorous though.

I forgot that I left work early today, I should have made a trip down to get my hair cut. Now, looks like I have to wake up early on Sunday to go cut my hair. Its too long and out of shape.

You know what, I need some gelato now. I have grown out of eating ice-cream unless they have a gelato kinda quality. It has evolved to the state where if you put a tub of Ben' and Jerry beside gelato, I am not sure what I will choose.

Its a rich man's world.

I was going to blog about how great it was to have Fridays feel like Saturdays because this means that we have 2 more days of rest.

But, while waiting for blogger to load, I checked my bank account and got a little depressed. My insurance payment is dued this month and that adds up to almost a thousand for both my mum and I. The problem is I have done my usual transfer of money to my savings account and I barely have enough to pay from my normal account. Confusing eh. Well, like most people I have 2 accounts to make finances clearer. It distresses me to think that I have to transfer money back to my normal account. That would equate to not saving for this month. It makes me mentally imbalance.

Anyway I saw this ncie dress. It wasn't exactly a snug fit but I could still wear it without alterations just that I have to be extra carful not to expose my cleavage too much. I would have bought it if it were much cheaper. I initally thought there was a 15% discount but apparently this dress was in the excluded list. Why do nice things always have to cost so much.

I'm so happy, oh so happy today....

Really so happy...

It’s the happiest day in my worklife since I started work!
Why? Cos I skived!

I skived! I skived! I skived!

Before you prejudge me as someone who finds every opportunity to skive, I don't. I do my fair share of work, just that sometimes things plateau and your morale is on the low side, it feels really good to skive.

I did not work the whole day at all, although I did check and reply my emails when I got home.

I bought a cinderella skirt. Its a green skirt with purple trimmings. I was wearing my $5 coat white singlet today. Pair it together with the green skirt and I look just like cinderella singing while doing her household chores. I will wear for you guys one day. Its the longest skirt I bought. At knee length - even longer than my school uniforms.

I went expo for the bookfair. I love books. I bought Life of Pi, The rule of 4, Black Beauty, The Orange Girl, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Douglas Adam, Alice in Wonderland at $39 in total. Lovely.

I reached home at 6.30pm. Imagine its wonderful. Usually 6.30pm marks the start of the 2nd shift at work. The evening sun was so warm to the skin. A lovely kind of warmth. I took in the sights and sounds as I see office workers carry food home, smelly school kids with their mums. Its really lovely. Although I did wonder how the office people actually manage to reach home so early. I conclude that to have a healthy lifestyle or in fact to have a life, you should be out of the office by 6 and indulge in other stuff. However I do not think that will happen at my workplace.

Also in between, I manage to try on some dresses for all the weddings I have to attend. Nice dresses but so ex, so I am on a wait n see mode. The irritating thing is most other girls wear the same size as me and the dresses get sold out so fast. The dress I saw was really nice, in fact it was featured in the SFF recently.

Oh, the best thing was. I was actually sitting on the bench in front of the shops waiting for them to open at 10am. I went in immediately after they opened. It was a wonderful feeling. No queues at the fitting rooms and all the service staff at your attention.

I was smirking at I made my home at 6pm when I saw all the office people start their shopping.
Oh, so happy. Really.

STM?

I have just finished re-reading catcher in the rye and it really is a lovely book. I read it once long long time ago in secondary school but kinda forgot the storyline. I love Holden.

I still cannot figure out how I can forget the intricate details of books that I read. I remember everything I read before age 10 perfectly. I start to forget details from age 12 to 20 , and I simply do not retain anything from age 21 onwards.

Its like I know SCUBA stands for Self contained underwater breathing apparatuses, Yahoo stands for Yet another hierarchal officious oracle but I cannot for the sake of my life remember what laser stands for. I distinctly remembered learning it in JC. Yet, I cannot remember.

Facts I read from my Charlie Brown Encyclopedia I remember them all. Now when I read "The handy history answer book" I remember nuts. Not even the next day. I know I read about Saladin few nights ago but now I cannot even remember what his significance is. I only remember he appeared in the show 'Kingdom of Heaven' Duh, see I cannot even remember the show's title. I only remember that his father slapped him when he made him a knight and the father died.

I was going to comment last week here that I seemed to be taking the lift at work in the morning with a bunch of guys. I am usually the only girl in the life. I was about to comment that it really is a guy's job to earn the dough. Really, 4 days in a row, I was the only girl in the lift in the morning. Then yesterday, I took the lift with a bunch of girls. No guys at all. Today, I took the lift with two heavily pregnant ladies. Sigh, there goes my theory.

Of afternoon sun and getting darker.

Today one of my colleague came from a 2 week reservist and it seemed so long since I saw him. Within that span of time, so many things happened - so many things that seemed so long ago.

Let see, I last saw him when I went MoS. Since then, I went bought so much stuff (short for shopping and listing out my purchases cos it scares me such), took time off, bought 2 pairs of shoes, attended a malay wedding, a colleague's wife gave birth. It just seemed so overwhelming. Am going to watch west side story on Friday. Yeah!

I'm getting tanner from mid day scorching sun swimming. Its so hard to swim after work these days with the stuff I get to do. If I miss my mid day swim, chances are i dun swim. Two reasons, I get plenty of flake plus the people ard me work so hard, it seems so wrong to go swim. I am under sever peer pressure. I try not to swim every day during lunch because I hate the lunchtime crowd(apparently day gym is cheaper) and because it is so not good for my aging skin. I have to keep reminding myself that I am no longer 18. Should make it a point to moisture myself after afternoon sun swim.

Thus, I only swim like 3 times a week. Last week I swam only twice cos it started raining the 3rd time I wanted to go.