brrr... it's cold in here..

must be some toros in the atmosphere.. haha.

no lah, no toros here.. just lots of snow and a horrid lack of humidity.
it's freezing here!!! it hit -30 celcius last nite. brrrr....

my face nearly froze off yesterday amd i lost feeling in my toes and fingers on the walk back home from the gondola. grrr... thank goodness for central heating!

ok lah, time to go get changed. we're going with the entire family to the sled run today. take the kids out and have some fun followed by some heissschokolade and pommes frites (heh, i have all my food names down pat in german.. a girl needs to eat, no?)

update more later..

phew

today was the most hectic day before x'mas break that i've ever had. i was looking forward to a xmas party at 4pm thinking i could scoot off after it and get ready for our trip. but it wasn't to be. was stuck in a meeting till 520pm. grr.

anyhow, am all packed up and ready to go... heading off soon for dinner with the parents before meeting celin and hugh at the airport for our flight. they showed up this morning at 4:30am. *yawn*.

i'm pooped. i'm physically exhausted. hopefully this means i can get some sleep on the flight! =)

everyone have a merry xmas and a happy new year!

till next year, over and out!!!

stupid, stupid, stupid

man. i'm such an idiot.

i tried to have breakfast today (one of those dumpling things) and ended up spilling a whole load of black sauce on my WHITE t-shirt and LIGHT grey pants. so after unsuccessfully trying to clean the stuff off (which of course only made it spread and look worse), i resigned myself to fate and trundled off downstairs to buy a replacement so that i'd at least look presentable.

giordano wasn't open when it was supposed to be - 10:30am. i, of course, stood outside their door at 10:35am and was like "hello??? it's 10:35!!! err.... you open or not?" then i barged in and guess what? i ended up picking up the EXACT same thing that i was wearing this morning.. a white t-shirt and corduroy pants. the exact same corduroy pants i bought from giordano earlier this year. only as a concession to practicality, i purchased them in another color. not a color i'd normally choose - green, but ah well, beggars can't be choosers and they were 50% off so i really couldn't afford to be picky. now it's to see if i'll wear them again after this. thank goodness i work above a shopping mall...

so yeah, i'm not even half way through my day and i'm exhausted from all this drama. and i'm down $35. of course, $35 ain't bad for a WHOLE new outfit.. but man, i'm a walking advert for giordano. right down to the shrug i had on this morning that miraculously escaped the sauce..

i'm tired. can i go home yet?

early x'mas pressie!!

WOOOOO HOOOO!!!

I got an early christmas present in my pigeon hole today at work! My results were mailed to us and I just opened the envelope with them... I'm so stoked!

Not only did I clear all the papers, but I actually got good grades. Man!! That's just totally mind-boggling! Fwah! I guess all that last-minute mugging worked.

Yeay! Now I can enjoy my X'mas break!!

Thank you, God, for this! =)

tis the season to be jolly...

it's so odd. i can't believe we're going on vacation tomorrow. eeps. we packed up yesterday and we're pretty much all set, but the euphoria hasn't set in. there's still work to be done, and i'm still ploughing through reports at work. grr.

we're having dinner tonight with my parents tonight before we head off tomorrow.. =) more eating! woo hoo! i just met with joan, fran and janice today for a quick catch-up and it was great. pigged out again. i'm bloated.

ok, back to report writing.. bleah

i.am.so.full

man. i'm bloated. ugh.
we got back not long ago from a farewell lunch for my colleague. indian buffet. big mistake. too full and waaaayyy sleepy.

bad food coma. groan.

press on.. press on..

it's my cousin's wedding today, so i'm all geared up for more eating at the wedding dinner tonite.. =(

i hate waiting

man, i hate waiting. i hate not knowing. i'm the sort of person who reads a book as fast as she can to get to the end so that she knows how the story ends and THEN goes through the book again slowly. i'm the sort who wants to know what happens to the heroine BEFORE watching a movie. yup.

i'm waiting on tenterhooks for some news on wednesday. sorry to be cryptic, but i needed to vent, and it's not public knowledge yet, so i can't say.

but man, i hate suspense.

sleep is my friend!

i'm such a pig. all i've been doing the entire weekend is sleep, sleep, sleep. well, that and finish up the santa claus shopping spree. we finally managed to get pressies for the rest of the buonerba clan yesterday. and believe it or not, the hardest one to shop for is the one-and-a-half-year-old! you would think he'd be the easiest, but no, really.. what does a hyper 1.5yr old boy who's DA MAN want for xmas? hmm....

so we got something cool for him. may have bust the budget a little, but since we're on the good end of the currency exchange rate, we didn't bust it by tooo much!

now it's time to wrap, wrap, wrap. and pack, pack, pack..and clean, clean, clean. our house is a pig sty. ugh, we need to clean before our guests arrive. we need to do laundry too. and all i can think about? sleeping... hah.

one more week of work before we go!!!! woo hoo baby!!!

ugh

i had the WORST headache and nausea yesterday. bleah. i had an external meeting in the late evening and couldn't bear the thought of going back to the office so i headed home from there. =( was soooo carsick on the way back i thought was going to barf in the cab. that's what you get for not sleeping well. a headache that won't go away.

so i slept and slept yesterday like there was no tomorrow. i took a nap and woke up when kale was home. attempted (unsuccessfully) to have some dinner and then crashed again at 9pm!! i joked with kale that his wife has turned into an old woman. bleah.

i woke up this morning half expecting to feel like doo-doo. thankfully it wasn't so bad. although i have to say the remnants of the headache have been haunting me ALL day. it's definitely bearable though compared to yesterday. am thinking of bailing on the trip to m'sia this weekend so that i can stay at home and sleeeeeeeeepppppp. sounds wonderful!! thankfully the husband isn't too heartbroken about missing the trip..and there's a chance he may go without me.. but right now he seems to be ok with staying. too many things to do before we leave for xmas. too many errands to run and too many presents to buy. we're still waaaay behind on xmas shopping. sigh.

ok lah. just thought i'd grumble. see, told you there'd be a grumble on my blog before you know it. hah.

peace out.

Oi! Sleeping Beauty

As a xmas pressie, I bought tickets to a local play "Oi! Sleeping Beauty" for the parents. My mom has always wanted to go watch a show together as a family, and I figured this would be a good light-hearted thing to go catch. Nothing too serious and deep.

It was awesome! Totally campy and Singlish! The singing was great, the jokes were totally fresh, and all in all, it was worth the money and time.

The best part of it was that there were a lot of little kids in the audience, and the play had something for everyone - the usual jokes and loud costumes for the kids.. and the snide innuendos for the adults. The cool thing was that the play was really interactive and the audience actually got into it. Pretty cool to see in stiff ole Singapore. Shows that Singaporeans really are loosening up a little.

Ok lah, enough plugging the play... go see it if you haven't!

wow

i'm having difficulty reconciling how normal and mundane today seems when it should so totally seem different. haha.

how true...

i went for lunchtime mass today on a whim. well, not really a whim, i sorta planned it yesterday. but anyhow, it's not a common occurence altho i'm trying to make it one.

i'm lucky to have a church 2 blocks away from my office and it's one of those old stately buildings. no a/c, but very rustic with loads of atmosphere.

i remember the very first mass i ever attended was with kale in Stanford in Tressider Union. i remember thinking the homily was really quite apt and mentioned as much to kale as we walked out. and i'll always remember what he said. he said that that's the awesome thing about church, the homilies always speak to you in your own little way - if there's something you need to hear, or something you should hear. the same homily can mean a vast number of things to the different people gathered to hear it, but each takes something away from it.

that was how it was today. the priest made a good point. he said that he sees many of the people there at mass everyday. he then asked "what's your motive for coming to mass? is it to come and be blessed so your business will be successful?" he said that it should be to ask God to show you how to love Him more.

it touched me because to a certain extent, he was right. i went to mass today cos i wanted to seek comfort and i wanted to be blessed. i also wanted to seek atonement (sorta) for putting other things before church. and so his comment hit home.

it reinforced what Becky told me when i called her a few weeks ago to say that i was beginning to lose faith in mass cos i felt i wasn't getting anything out of it.. she advised me not to look at it as a time where i get something out of church, but as a time that i set aside for God. a time that i give back to God. and that resonated with the homily today.

so yeah, didn't mean to get all preachy on this blog. but eh, i was pretty touched, so i thought i'd share. i'll probably still gripe about something today to even things out. haha.

ok, so this isn't the gripe i promised...

but i received this in my inbox today and it was too poignant not to share.

The Best Prayer I Have Heard In A Long Time............ Let’s remember the spirit of Christmas!
 
Heavenly Father, Help us remember
that the jerk who cut us off in traffic
last night is a single mother who
worked nine hours that day and
is rushing home to cook dinner,
help with homework,
do the laundry and spend a
few precious moments
with her children.
 
Help us to remember that the
pierced , tattooed, disinterested
young man who can't make
change correctly is a worried
19-year-old college student,
balancing his apprehension
over final exams with his
fear of not getting his
student loans for next semester.
 
Remind us, Lord,
that the scary looking bum,
begging for money in the same
spot every day (who really ought
to get a job!) is a slave to addictions
that we can only imagine in our
worst nightmares.

Help us to remember that the
old couple walking annoyingly
slow through the store aisles
and blocking our shopping
progress are savoring this
moment , knowing that,
based on the biopsy report
she got back last week, this
will be the last year that they
go shopping together.

Heavenly Father,
remind us each day that,
of all the gifts you give us,
the greatest gift is love.

It is not enough to share
that love with those
we hold dear.

Open our hearts not to
just those who are
close to us,
but to all humanity.
 
Let us be slow to judge
and quick to forgive,
show patience,
empathy and
love .
 

things that make you go "awww"

we attended one of my colleague's weddings last nite. it was a fabulous affair. none of that whole boring sit-down is-it-over-yet kinda things. this was a one of a kind shindig.

the groom's brother went to high school with me.. and he also happens to be the lead singer of a local band which plays in a few bars around town. we wanted to get them for our wedding but they couldn't make it.

anyhow, it was a beautiful, heart-warming wedding. it was one of the few that kale attended with me (with the going rate for angbaos, we try to minimise the number of weddings we BOTH attend). and i'm glad he did. it was nice to sit with him at the table and listen to the groom sing a song to the bride (a U2 number cos he's sooo hip) and watch as they slow-danced. i dunno what it was about the evening (perhaps it helped that my lovely husband had a couple of glasses of wine and was more affectionate than usual.. haha) but it was an unusually fun evening.

the "awwww" factor hit the roof when the groom's brother broke out a song for the slow dance. i have no idea who sang it (some whiney british dude, i think) but for those who know which song i'm referring to, it's the "you're beautiful... you're beautiful, it's true" song. and i just sighed..and swooned.. and did one of my totally over-the-top "awwwww"s. the hubby looked at me and started cracking up. what can i say, i'm just a total softie. and a total cliche. oh well.

so yeah, lest this blog begin to sound a little too mushy and rose-tinted (ahem, ahem), i shall stop gushing. i promise i'll grumble about something tomorrow just to even it out, kay?

2 weeks and counting!

woo hoo!!! 2 weeks and we're on our way to a white xmas!!!
hee...

for now tho, it's all about trying to drag my very unwilling husband xmas shopping. haha.

little things

i received an email on tuesday that was kinda traumatic. the email was inappropriate and i simply didn't know what to make of the email.

but this post isn't about the email, that's come and gone. it's about how important it is to be able to discuss things with your spouse. i realised that you should never keep things from each other cos they'll come back and bite you in the arse anyhow.

i'm glad that i'm able to share my problems with him, no matter how trivial they may seem to him. and thank goodness for serendipity. that email made me realise how lucky i am to be where i am right now in my life. it could have easily turned out so differently.

much delayed pictures...

here are the pics from my company's D&D last weekend.
our table finally decided to go ethnic.. BUT at least 3 ppl didn't show up and half of those that did didn't dress up. bleah.

so anyhow, here are the pics from the night. i have far fewer pics than i did for the previous D&D. it just didn't seem the same. all my "kaki" were no longer around. and somehow, the spirit seemed lacking. the entertainment was good, but eh, just wasn't so cool. =(

was a good distraction before my final exam though, i must say! so anyhow.. here are the pics.

The IP folks
With the Dato'
Blurry pic with Kiren
With Jennis and Janice

party on!!!

woo hoo!!! my exams are OVER!!! well, for this semester again...

one thing this class has taught me is to appreciate the weekends when i don't have to study. i felt soooo liberated today! met up with dawn right after the exam to do our hair.. and we spent the -whole- afternoon there. poop. met up with kale for dinner and just made it home after some xmas shopping. parkway is CROWDED. whoa.

anyhow, this was the first time i didn't even feel like discussing the exam answers after the paper. i just bailed and headed off to orchard... =) now all i can do is hope that i did ok and i won't have to retake this next year!!!

i have some pics of the dinner and dance yesterday.. but will put those up tomorrow. need to crash now. sleepy lah. couldn't sleep last nite due to the copious amounts of diet coke i drank at the dinner and then woke up when the hubby's alarm went off at 5:30am and couldn't get back to sleep cos of nerves. bleah. dazed and pooped now.

g'nite y'all.. update more tomorrow.. =)

another one, just because

Kelly Clarkson Shares Your Taste in Music

See her whole playlist here (iTunes required)

Which Musician (or Group) Shares Your Taste in Music?

lalalala.... bored, bored, bored..
internet memes are fun!

just for fun...

Your Summer Ride is a Beetle Convertible

Fun, funky, and a little bit euro. You love your summers to be full of style and sun!

What's Your Summer Ride?

so me, don't you think? =)
of course, i prefered the cabrio when they had it.. but i'll settle for the beetle convertible. i'm not fussy. haha

the day so far in point form

- woke up to my alarm (aka my cellphone) buzzing
- hit the snooze button TWICE
- turned off the alarm and fell asleep again
- luckily kale sms'ed and woke me up for good
- woke up with the same damn headache
- rushed out of the house to get a cab to school
- got some breakfast at the canteen
- sat through 3hours and 15 mins of intense stress
- came out feeling even sicker cos the guy next to me was sneezing and sneezing and sneezing. EUGH. and he didn't cover his mouth. DOUBLE EUGH. the hypochondriac that i am was certain i was going to catch something. headache came on with a vengeance and even an "actifast" panadol didn't help. =(
- bailed on studying in school.. got a ride out to TB with classmates to get lunch
- had steamboat.. yummy .. comfort food
- am home and about to crash (i need sleep)

the fact that it's almost 3pm and i haven't started my copyrights and designs means that there shall be NO tv for me tonite. need to spend all my time this evening and tomorrow studying cos there's our D&D tomorrow nite. =(
hope i get enough studying done...