Cadence

(A melodic or harmonic configuration that creates a sense of repose or resolution.)

"But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever." - Psalms 52:8

Sunday, November 30, 2008

the wedding we've been preparing for

wow, since i woke up at 5am, it felt like the whole day would never end.

wedding planning is incredibly crazy... and i totally didn't expect this. but thank God for chiwern and chinling who made my job tons easier, and alvin who was my pillar of support, sometimes literally for me to lean on when my feet were aching beyond compare.

it was really good experience though, seeing how everything was up in the air the day before the wedding and then how everything just settled in place during the wedding. and also how the bride was absolutely not bridezilla-ing and just a picture of bliss... and the bridegroom looked so happy in the pictures when jun and i were reviewing them! XD

kinda sad though, that there were so many people i wanted to talk to during the wedding because chin's friends were pretty much overlapped with mine; and so many people kept calling out to say hi to me... but that was all i could say before awkwardly going, 'so sorry i gotta go find xxx!'

man, i hope this wouldn't be the case during my own wedding.

but i'm not saying planning sucks though, coz this was really invaluable experience of working with alvin. after working with him in nus for so long (wow, coming to 3 years?) i finally figured a way our differences can function together. and it worked!! i thought we did really well together!!

heeh. thinking about it makes me happy. just like thinking of him in a suit. *wiggles eyebrows*

alrighty, i will catalogue the wedding after facebook gets flooded with pictures because i only have a few banquet pictures where my camera decided to freak out on me so everything looked blurry. :(

Friday, November 28, 2008

coffee addict

recently the brand of coffee that my family drinks changed its formulation... to GROSS SUGAR WATER.

it sucks so bad, it doesn't even taste like coffee anymore. but i told myself, NAH, i'm not dependent on the caffeine! i'm still doing my work fine!

until today.

after the rehearsal i was pooped. waking up this morning almost killed my eyes, and i was walking around like a lifeless doll with squinty eyes. after lunch it was even worse; my eyes were hurting SO BADLY and i started to develop a headache.

then alvin walked in (also suffering from wedding planning effects) with hot coffee.

that just un-did me. i turned around to ask for some... but he'd finished everything in a gulp. :(

then i realized we had coffee (nescafe too!! strong strong strong... maybe 2 packets in one cup @_@!! awesome stuff!!) in the pantry! i mustered up all my energy to stand up, reach for my cup and fumbled for my stirrer, and made my way towards the pantry/heaven.

...

ALAS!!! SOMEONE EVIL FINISHED ALL THE NESCAFE $%@#&%#!!!!!!!!!!

GRAHHHHHHHHHH.

with as much of a maniacal glint my squinty tired eyes could hold, i started to rip open all the cupboards in search for my elusive coffee. in the end i settled for some columbian freeze dried coffee... but must add your own sugar and MILK.

i shuffled to the fridge. hey there's milk! great! and it's L's! she's nice, she'll lemme have some. :D:D:D

shuffled back to the pantry; sugar sugar... WAH GOT BROWN SUGAR HURHURHUR.

shuffled to the hot water dispenser, shuffled back to throw away the rubbish...

WAIT! WHERE IS THE WASTE BIN NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

upon hearing my yelling, L (she's so helpful! *hugggg*) said, 'eh must throw outside!'

i sounded like a retarded kid: 'uh... outside... *whine*'

'yeah to your left.'

'ok... left, to my left, left... uhhh...'

i turned to my right. after 2 seconds my brain actually caught up with me (WOW!) and i shuffled back. by then L and R were laughing their head off coz they were watching me shuffling around with deadweight feet and squinty confused eyes.

sigh. but as i was stirring my coffee... this vacant smile just spread across my face... ahh... i can smell you...

:)))

i love u, coffee. *snuggle*

mmm...

Thursday, November 27, 2008

highlights of the week

soooo...

my bangkok trip may well be ruined without refunds from tiger airways and my work is just suddenly flooding me and there's a wedding to runnnnnnn...

but first! relax! go shopping!

THE TOPSHOP SALE was such. great. therapy!! having some time to kill before going for Chiwern and Chinling's wedding rehearsal, i headed down to Vivocity with one goal - to find myself a big clutch bag. in gold.

and i am HOW BLESSED because i'm on leave today when i got notice that topshop was having a sale; 40% (!!!!!) and it's ONLY TODAY.

HURRAY!!! :DDD

i strolled in and asked the salesgirl with a conspiratory tone, 'closet therapy. still on?' the salesgirl grinned and nodded.

thing is, if you mentioned 'closet therapy' to the cashier, you get 30% + 10% off! i tried to stick to looking for just the clutch at first... but it was a lost cause. soon after strolling out from the bag and accessories area, i started to eye the dresses. i don't buy tops from topshop at all (haha, the irony) because sometimes the tops are $99 and their dresses at $129... hmmm... i'd rather get a dress.

and and and! reiterating what i squealed to alvin over the phone - i've suddenly come to realize that i'm not stumpy anymore and i actually look nice in dresses!! and topshop's dresses are super flattering on me!! *pleased*

YAY WITH A BIG Y! (erm, and an 'a' and then another 'y'.)





















i bought a simple dark green (not green like the example above) dress; $99 slashed to about $62!! which is really flattering on me without too many details... this brings my green dresses up to a total of 3 now. acks. all different shades though, christmas green (or the tkgs dress, if you will!), teal and turqoise. heeh.

and then!! i also found myself a huge ass gold clutch!! $45 after discount! XD




















and then the best thing i found and just totally fell for was this:




















looks kinda ugly and shapeless here though. never mind! :D it's really gorgeous! $80 from $129!

AND ON TUESDAY WHILE ALVIN WAS GETTING HIS HAIR CUT, I BOUGHT SHOES!!!

one pair of gold (hence the gold clutch) and one pair of black rounded-toe heels for my cutesy green dress.

ARGH THIS IS WAY TOO MUCH FUN. *delirious*

oh alvin did some shopping too! i was hoping he could get a new shirt, and might as well get one to match my outfit for the wedding, so we went straight to g2000 after i bought my heels.

gosh shopping for him is really fun. at first i was quite unnerved by how uncomfortable i was... this is not my zone man; i can't choose TIES with SHIRTS! *head explodes*

coz then you must look at the colour, pattern of the tie and the shirt and match them up and what if there're some dos and don'ts that i am ignorant of... *sobs*

but a sales assistant came to help and he was fantastic!! as he brought out the ties, we eventually picked a purple tie for alvin's light blue shirt. sounds weird, but it's not! then we wanted to take a look at how the tie would look suited up, so alvin shrugged on a nice jacket to see the effect...

and i was totally checking him out. with a slightly parted mouth.

I COULDN'T HELP IT!! his hair was just trimmed by his hairdresser (who does it well because 'she knows my head's shape!') plus the lethal combination of jacket and shirt... *sigh*

lao nua, you know? really lao nua.

anyways, he gave me his 'Magnum' when he spotted my admiring gaze. i rolled my eyes.

---

after the rehearsal i came back to do some relaxing bath time and hey! first time putting on a mask just to try, yo! :)

15min after plastering it on my face and admiring how i can still breathe with it on (hehe, i am amazed by loads of stuff) this weird cat started to caterwaul. actually i think it was just trying to scare off another cat... but cat #2 was super nonchalant while cat #1's tail was so bushy that it looked like it was being electrocuted.

i know all this because being an avid cat lover, i am also an avid cat watcher. so i stood at my bedroom window, staring... hey i know that cat! it's that bloody fat cat that purred and then bit me with a vengeance. grrr. i stood at my window, hoping that cat #2 would scratch fat cat #1 (revenge is sweet. but i really love cats!! just not those that're psychotic) when neighbours started appearing.

i continued standing at my window, waiting to see if my neighbours would chase fat cat #1 away because it was making such a strange noise (it was so loud, there was a slight echo) when i spotted my neighbours bending over and they seemed to be trying to see who i was...

OH CRAP MY MASK IS STILL ON!!!

i must have looked like some idiot from the nightmare of elm st. damn.

BUT IS OK! with the powers of g2000, topshop, novo heels and rejuvenating masks combined...

WE WILL LOOK NICE FOR THIS SATURDAY'S WEDDING!! IT'S FINALLY HAPPENING!!! XD

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Singapore Grand Prix 2008 (Day 2 and 3)

i am finally blogging about my Grand Prix experience!!

i had the best time at the Grand Prix. and i don't regret paying $700 plus for two days at all.

here're the memories that will stick with me forever. :)

we got Day 2 tickets from Greg (thank you so much!!!). thinking i was only going to be at the F1 for one day (and not watching the final race boohoo) i got there super early to catch the excitement from the earlier races for porsche, bmw and aston martins. but alvin was late! so i just stood there hearing everything but not seeing a peep. :(

when alvin finally came, i was a little disgruntled about missing the aston race so i refused to stick my earplugs and declared, 'we're not even standing near the...'

the noise from the cars that zipped by completely drowned me out and i had to clap my hands over my ears to STOP THE PAIN, MAN... THE PAINNN OWW.

after all that noise we walked off to another standing area to get closer to the cars and AGAIN, i didn't have my earplugs on in time... and we were standing like, right next to the track! T_T

the photographer on duty:

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a very distracted me

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AWESOME!!!

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after the BMW race was done, we had about an hour to grab some ice cream and settle down in our seats (the sun had gone down and the seats were more comfortable then).

an entire tub of haagen dazs! i burnt my leg when i put the paper bag on my thighs though; the dry ice was leaking. bleurgh.

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here they come!!

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the singaporean racer actually spun a few times at our turn. woah.

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this completely portrays our individual interest in the F1. hahaha.

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an odd sight.

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dinner time! everything was $8. i nearly stabbed myself coz it was so EXPENSIVE.

the gorgeous sunset

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padang grandstand!! :D

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check it out! lewis hamilton making his warmup rounds

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*thumbs up!*

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alonso (the yellow one) he was doing so well in the warmup! was starting to get really excited for him.

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ooh, accident...

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by this time alvin was falling asleep already. we had to quickly go grab some good coffee before he gets all narcoleptic.

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at the cookie museum at esplanade.

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i love the F1 tickets.

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back to the tracks for the final timing rounds...

MAN!! NOOOO ALONSO NOOOO... he crashed out and lost all his lead. :(

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as we were walking off after day 2 and taking shots of how bright the floodlights were...

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i commented to greg, 'hey it'd be cool if alonso caught up all the way from the last place in the grid, no?'

greg, 'yeah that was what schumacher did, that's why he became so famous.'

me, 'ooh. well, maybe alonso can do the same.'

hehehe.

end of Day 2!

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---

i was only going to know whether i could get tickets to the final race just before i go for service, so i prepared two bags.

i brought this bag to service:

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while i had my F1 bag on hand:

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ok, let me just say that i don't feel comfortable at all for skipping service just to go for F1. my reasoning at that point was just that i spent a lot of money for one ticket so i didn't want to waste it. but yeah i felt guilty all the way till now. i won't do it again man, it was a mistake. sigh. oh well, what's done is in the past.

so after i got the confirmation from the seller, i grabbed my 2nd bag and raced down to novena to pick it up, and catch the aston martin race that i'd missed yesterday. and we were sitting right at the seafood restaurant where we celebrated jack and pete's birthday! it was the esplanade grandstand i think, and the turn right before the finish line.

this area's scenery was gorgeous and it was away from the sun and facing the sea, so there was a nice breeze. :)

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oh all the BMW race cars had the word 'Cadence' on them. haha!

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checking the track

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ASTON MARTINS!!

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the singapore flyer right behind us

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my earplugs

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alvin's noise reducing earphones that were fantastic earplugs

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then a surprising thing happened. alvin saw his schoolmate, brian... and his seats were right next to us! after a short chat with him and his girlfriend, april, we realized that we'd both bought our tickets from the same seller! HAHA!

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me and my handycam

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april!

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the racers' parade - massa

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hamilton

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ooh going to start, going to start!! *glee*

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night fall! and the lights are all on!

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the lewis hamilton fans (mostly from UK)... i wouldn't call them mclaren fans though. haha.

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the ferrari fans... mostly from India.

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and it's on!!! lewis hamilton in the lead!

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ferrari! (i need to see the helmet to know if it's raikkonen or massa)

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after an insane number of crashes, overtakes and drama, it was the end. alonso won!! :D

the safety car.

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after the race, we found a way onto the track so we climbed over the barricades and ran all the way to the pit stop!

*gasping for breath*

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aiyah, sad place.

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happy place!

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'kinda ok coz i'm still in the lead' place

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in front of us:

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behind us:

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the crazy chicane that was the cause of most crashes

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burnt rubber

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and it's time for home home home! :D

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