Thursday, February 09, 2006

27 Jan 06 to 3 Feb 06

Received quite a few comments abt my blog being stagnant for a week。The reason is simply because I do not have nay access to internet for the past few days.

Hmm let me recapped (Gonna to be 流水账)

On 27 Jan 06 (fri), went to the shop where my friend is working to get my new phone. If only I had thought of asking for her help weeks ago. Then I do not need to endure the frustrations of carrying two spoilt phone for weeks, Anyway, how fortunate i am to have a friend who is working for the same company as my mobile's service provider. 1stly, I do not need to queue -- simply just head to her counter. 2ndly, she had gone the extra mile of checking to see if I qualify for any corporate plan (which I Do), and helped me to make the conversion. Henceforth, my phone bill will be charge at the basic rate of $14 a month! 3rdly, I received extra freebies -- 4 packets of Ang baos and 2 mandarin oranges.

So this is my new mobile phone. Panasonic V2. Not a new model as it was introduced in Aug last year. But at the price of $68, it's a good bargain. I took the pink model instead as the black ones were out of stock. Had create a pink and purple beaded chain to match the Pink & purple handphone pouch which Ah Shui had given me as a Christmas present last year. So matching and ""so me".

28 Jan 06 (sat).

So it was 年除夕, and as a family tradition, we went to our paternal grandma's house for reunion dinner. Not a reunion dinner (as usual) as aunts and cousins were not around. Watching the countdown program, and it's such a disappointment.


29 Jan 06 (sun)
Frankly speaking, I dun enjoy CNY as much I as did when I was younger. And this year is the 1st time that dad 's ang pow was the smallest we had ever received from him... (less than a blue note). Wonder what happened to the bonus I had given him..

Last year, my siblings and I took a pic together while we were on the way to Grandma’s house. Yeah 3 of us goofing ard at the backseat.
This year, we did the same:

See how my bro could give a sweet look then turned devilish at the next moment!

Nothing interesting to watch on TV this year. So sian. Imagine how happy I was when I can escape after dinner to join my friends for movie.

Meet up with ML, & XM at Orchard Cineleisure. Bought a can of milk coffee while waiting for them. I need my doe of caffine! Then it was confirm that JH, Du, JH & his bro will be joining us. As I had to visit relatives the next day, and i am not interested to watch Heirloom, I only joined them for Fearless ( 霍元甲 )only.

What a relief that instead of being "sotong" I was rather sharp that day. First, I spotted two blank tickets from the stack of tickets we received form the ticketing operator. Turn out that they had failed to generate 4 tickets for Heirloom. They rectified the prob by issuing handwritten tickets. So friends, please check yr tickets after u bought them ok.

Since we had abt 2 hrs of free time before the movie 霍元甲, XM, ML, JH and I went to have coffee at starbucks. Oh yah , that means I had "double shots" of latte. I tried their promotional item , and as always, I took pic of it:

Mocha Valencia Frappucino.
It had quite an unusual twist of orange-- not my cup of "coffee". hahaha.



Quite enjoyed watching 霍元甲, though we were seated at the 2nd row from the screen. It wasn't as violent as I expect. Perhaps I had prepared myself for some horrifying scene upon knowing the movie was give a NC16 rating. At the opening scene, I was so excited watching 霍元甲 fighting 3 ang-mos opponents that my fists clenched naturally when ever I saw the opponent striking Jet Li.
Like the parts where they injected some philosophies in the movie, especially at the scenes where the blind lady took care of 霍元甲 and the scene where 霍元甲 and his jap opponent have a chat over tea. Can’t remember the exact quote, but it was something like the tea leaves to not come in grades, it is Man who grade them. And 霍元甲不愿去评价它们，只想简简单单，开开心心地享受杯中的茶。
电影的结尾蛮感人的，但我没有落泪。 也许是本人认为霍元甲那么做有点愚蠢吧。结果还被那位感动到落泪的朋友骂我们“没良心”:P

As JH and I did not watch heirloom, we left the 5 of them to catch our transport home. Now it was the 2nd incident of that nite/dawn where I was rather sharp (thanks to latte!). We waited for quite sometime and then me, learning my lessons, realized that something was amiss. For the pass 30 minutes, I only saw SBS nite owl service, there wasn’t any “yellow NR buses” in sight! So I walked over to the notice board, and figure out that there was no NR buses in operation, as NR buses on operate on Fri, Sat and eves of public holidays! JH seems to find ways to convince himself that there should be NR lines by stating since the next day is 年初二， today can be an eve of a holiday (which I rebuked that Today is a holiday), Then he pointed out to the notice that 174M also stated that it operates on Fri, Sat and eves of public holidays but we just saw a 174M bus passed by. Then I pointed out to a special notice, informing commuters of the “special few” SBS Nite owl services that will continue to operate during Chinese New Year. I was more fortunate than him, while he was left with the “best choice” of taking 174M and drop off at Bukit timah and walked kilometres home, there was a bus service 162M which I could take which passes through my town.

Think we always took for granted that there will be NR buses whenever we hang out late in town. There was another group of teenagers who walked over to check out the notices after waiting for their buses for quite some time, and I confirmed with them that I did not see any NR buses for the past half an hour.


30 Jan 06(Mon)

Day Two of CNY. We din go to our maternal grandma house as aunt had called to tell us that our uncle(the one who married a C**** wife who is just a yr older than me) was throwing things in their house, And u tot u only saw this on TV right. Think was the 1st time in our lives that we din go to grandma’s house on CNY Day 2.

So we just go to our “lua peh kong”’ house. Watched TV and just slack there while the older generation talk and the younger generation play. Went home to repack my bag before I left for ML’s home。 In summary, it can be described as : talked --> wait for Ah Du , Jia hao & his bro à snacked on CNY goodies --> watched 百年好合on TV --> then headed for Chongqing Steamboat.

Hey, we din eat any seafood (except a few slices of fish lah) that nite, but ate lots of meat (mutton, beef, pork). Played a “mutated version” of “who wanna be a millionaire” that ties in with Truth or Dare (or what Ah du termed as “真心话大冒险”). The Prof Wu-la set the questions / hahah. Anyway dun thing any of us choose to do a “dare”.

Left the place at ard 1am and walked to Esplanade. I was like dozing off to sleep when I din participate in their chats. Can’t be blame right? It’s natural to feel sleepy after a hearty meal.

31 Jan 06 ( Tue)

I was thinking in the morning: “Oh no, I am gonna get fat with another round of steamboat tonite” . But then I had to forgo my steamboat dinner with friends after my uncle sms me to ask me to help my cousin with her maths in the evening…
Anyway, I did follow my agenda of the day – Visit EL’s home. Haha Everyone was late, and since I was in a cab, tobang EL, SY and Sips. Was shocked to see so many ppl in her house, wich EL explained that her father’s students also came to visit. Thus we hang out in her room instead.

Shall I call her room “The Red Chamber”? Her room is so “stylishly “ red. I expected to see a pinkish room instead. But saw her red marbled-effects walls decorated butterflies and branches. She got the potential to be an interior designer! Haha.

After an hr, Chengyao, BR, came. We sang “live!” in her room,-- she played the keyboard while we sang. Then we chomped on CNY goodies (eat again!) and did some stupid poses in front of the camera while waiting for the rest to arrive before we set off for steamboat.

Ok here are some of the pics taken: (click for larger view)

Ah Du , Jiahao & his bro came just as I was abt to go off, and everyone was so excited to see Ah du . Dunno who was the one who urge him to go to the living room to play the piano. Haha at least I managed to hear him playing 《枫》。

(This is for my reference – refer to super super private blog for what happen after visit Esther’s house, before I wnet home).

I think my dinner at home was even more sinful than steamboat – Chicken Rice! Cousin’s gifted problem Maths homework was more like a puzzle than maths to me me. I could only solve one out of the two. Anyway, her parents were Uni grads, if they can’t solve, I shouldn’t feel guilty for not manage to solve both questions.

( This is for my own reference too – refer to super super private blog for what happen at nite)

1-3 Feb

I was away from work. Not tat I had 3 free off days, but I had to attend a 2.5 day course.
Arghhh!

Saw Yoyo’s test on Friday afternoon. And he wrote my surname as “li” instead. 太习惯称我为“李太太”了吧！

Shall stop here. Shall report on what happened on 4-5 in the next entry.

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