"There (Provence) is nowehere esle in this world where you can keep busy doing so little and enjoying it so much..

Max sat on the rim of his bassin, head between his knees, wondering if the heart attack would come before or after breakfast...

He put black pepper and two generous pinches of sea salt into a bowl, grinding them together.. A few drops of balsamic vinegar -deep deep brown- went in next, and then a long steam of olive oil, greenish yellow in the sunlight. Finally, a cherry-sized blob of full-strength Maille mustard from Dijon.. he tore off a a piece of baguette, mopped it into the brown puddle that he had prepared with such care, and offered the dripping bread to christine... "Here take the try and i'll take the rest, we will eat outside" "

-Peter Mayle, A Good Year

right now, it is the only thing that
takes my mind off much unpleasentries.
go read ittttttttt...

another thing- i realised that when you start smiling at people, strangers or at even lifeless objects, you do feel a little better about the world.
don't i sound like a reader's digest magazine?

baby ring.

remember the pregnant lady sitting next to me?

i think she is the ringleader of her department.. no kidding! this morning, her table was periodically frequented by her croonies (different people but all devoid of volume control) laughing and joking with her, discussing about how "peeeeely-dry" stomachs could get during pregnancy --> things i have to put up with at work.

then after lunch she returned with a huge bag of champion knockoffs and suddenly the office was respondant with oohs and aahs over her buys, with a raspberry-coloured winter jacket that she had bought for her daughter, earning the most praises.

when she was suddenly bombarded with work, her croonies were *again* all over her, listening to her grip and grape about how buay song she was and that if she were not happy, she will just not come to work next week. (hallelujah!) and erm right now, she happens to be munching on a kaya roll that her (equally pregnant) friend has brought over for her, to ease her stress level.

mind you, her favourite phrase is wah biang! and she referred her daughter and son to as "ah girl" and "ah boy" -one can only imagine she would have been one of those who lined up 6 hours for a hello kitty toy..-

i suddenly feel like i am going to enjoy work just a little more...

tea for one and a half.

my new (and third) seating position aligns me directly next to one (of the three) pregnant ladies on my floor. and everytime i watch her indulge in breakfast (or for that matter, in a mcflurry yesterday) i cannot help but guss over how lucky she is. right now, she is onto her second pastry, which what resembles an apply turnover, from delifrance and i am just wincing with the crumble of every puff and crust. *groan

no wonder hollywood stars love getting pregnant...

anyway i made my maiden trip to bugis junction for lunch yesterday and boy oh boy it sure is happening! no way like those dinghy "shopping malls" that ought to have been torn down eons ago.. it is like a mini orchard road shopping centre (though without the likes of zara and ho-high fashion boutiques) and the food -there we go again- vicinity was amazing.. they have ya kun, rotiboy, tio glutton.. ok i know, right now i sound like a major country bumpkin's pumpkin but i am just amazed by how somewhere more than five train stops away from town can produce such a profusion of interesting outlets.. no prizes for guessing where i am heading over for lunch today!

girls and monday.

for lunch, ade, den and i celebrated vanessa's birthday at sanur indonesian resturant.. food was alright- considering how i had indonesian food the sat night before at tambuah mas (paragon) but the company was excellent! i also found it amusing that we ordered their signature seabass.. four girls disengaging any remotely feminine qualities to work their way through a fish? -one word: gluts. but i do feel that tambuah mas is definately more value for money so babes, remind me to take you there ok?

and as if that was not enough to break the hum-drum of office workday- darrelle and mel gave me the surprise of my life night by showing up at my doorstep unannounced! and to think i actually thought they were ice-cream peddlars.. hoho. anyway after their pain-inducing tickle-mania of a foot reflexology, we headed over to chomp chomp where they (as afternoon's guilt forbade me to eat much) indulged in satay and chicken wings.. well apart from the drinks uncle trying to bribe us with a packet of tissue paper to make up for darrelle's rancid teh peng, i absolutely loved yesterday though my tummy just doesnt quite agree..

in short, yesterday was definately funfunfunnnnn!

back to work___________

living it twice.

does not living the 'time of your life' mean that you do not 'have a life'?
what if the 'time of your life' does not include wasting away in some bar or jet-setting in monte carlo (or pahang for the tigerairways $9.98 flights). what if 'life' to you means hanging out with your family, enjoying some well-deserved reading time or just marvel at nigella lawson whip up something on discovery channel? does that qualify as solid defense when someone accuses you of 'not getting a life'?

right now it is my four-month break and i really do ask myself why i embarked on this internship so early. i try to convince myself that this is what THEY do- you know, those who eventually want a headstart in our careers. i am not exactly unhappy but when i see people having fun partying away, am i suppose to feel envious? i guess when i ask myself such a question- the answer is probably no. i am going to just end off here__

i JUST caught the aviator yesterday. and it occured to me that if frank abangnale jr. (from "catch me if you can") were to bump into howard hughes (from "aviator"), a very good conversation opener would be, "HEY, the same guy played us in our biographies..."

brew me a man.

last night i made it a point to get home before ten to catch denise -wai, your favourite- keller as our femme fatale in eye.for.a.guy 2. somehow it seemed as if the show producers had memorised a concoction of who to cast as the ten wishabees, as if it were a sure-win-sure-A1 formula (author's note: how very o-level style)

there will almost DEFINATELY be
- at least a couple of ABCs, who with their overpowering confidence believe that they can use their cushy accents to intimidate the "made in sinGAHporeans" and charm the missus. very charming. very delectable to dislike. but they usually provide the entertainment, so they will stay on the show for as long as the producers deem them to be useful

-next up: more mix-parentages. bearing strong likeness to a euro-league series, only those who are at least one quarter portugese/ greek/ dutch/ spanish* need apply. well, like the united nations, we cannot always let the americans dominate the show right?
* delete accordingly

-yes, yes we are getting there! the J.O.C.K who still lives in a make believe world that every girl wishes to be their other (not better, mind you) halves. though milder than candidates from mtv's spring break, their brawny abs-o-too-much really do have more personality than the dudes themselves. nah, they won't win the show as no girl can stand any guy who spends more time waxing/ gelling/ slicking his hair than her. unless of course, she really is the girl who has always hoped she were the 'rugger's chick'

-now who can forget the loser? he will stay on not for his down-to-earth/ time-to-move-out-of-mummy's-place niceties. not for his sincere eagerness to look at a babe in her face, instead of her back (when she does walk away yet AGAIN). he is mr sympathy vote, designed to let the femme look as if she is impartial and the type that "does not go for looks." will he win her heart finally? well, is chicken tuna?

-then comes the "made in sinGAHporeans" (see above). though they usually form the majority, they stink they smell and reek of 2D-flat personalities. just ask them to pronounce foie gras and creme brulee and watch yourself cringe like a mimosa that has been poked. if they were the only ingredients in the show, SDU would have as much success as a ice-seller in north pole. but but but they might just win the girl (on tv, at least) as the governement would want us to believe that these colourless personalities are the ones that we must have 2.3 kids with.

haha. stay tuned guys.
eye for a guy2 wedesday nights 10pm.

shopwoe.

i honestly need new clothes for work. but boy am i reluctant to get them.. here, they do not allow jeans nor have a casual friday, so i guess my jeans will just have to assume their monumental position on the clothing rack. thing is i am so reluctant to get office i.e. polyesterish-shapeless outfits just for my internship and god forbid, will i ever need them in the future. and well, my allowance doe not exactly allow for parisian-designer-worthies too. grr..

do you finally understand?

最終的に理解するか。
вы окончательно понимаете?
você compreende finalmente?
usted finalmente entiende?
infine capite?
너는 마지막으로 이해하는가?
comprenez-vous finalement ?
definitief begrijpt u?

-in japanese; russian; portuguese; spanish;
italian; korean; french and dutch

first day.

given a stack of international sos publications and powerpoint material to familiarize myself with the ongings of the company. fyi: http://www.internationalsos.com/

well, by right i am suppose to be enjoying myself, considering how this is suppose to be my honeymoon week.. and i guess it really helps that i have been given a notebook *which is why i am blogging after lunch* to vent my boredom (though i have not resorted to dowloading msn). anyway, i am so seriously tempted to read the books on the table that i am currently residing at- 'the tapestries' by kien nguyen and 'midnight children' by salman rushdie, not to mention the ishiguro novel that is hidden in my paper bag.

but of course i am the model intern *smirk so i shall not resort to such unprofessional measures to keep myself sane!

then again, it is really not that bad- on top of my very own notebook. i have a jiffy-cool employee pass which never fails to excite me when it 'DINGs' of approval as i pass through areas 'reserved for employees only'. i have my personalized office email account too..

did i mention that i have been given a table which faces the pantry? oh, cruel joke no.1.. as if i needed any further distractions. sigh, and the very fact that raffles city i.e. vnc, marksandspencer, ninewest is within five-minutes walking distance happens to be cruel joke no.2. well, good thing i can never run out of places for appointments too as chijmes and bugis junction are within the vicinity as well. and i almost forgot! i can see the ongoing construction of our new city campus right my office.

arh, better got back to 'work'!

lazyblog.

a too-brief-too-quick update:
-sold my soul for my internship at international sos for less-than-mininum-wage-pay:
so if you wanna have kunch with MOI, be at city hall from 12nn-1pm
-reading kazuo ishiguru's never let me go on clones.
-still hooked on wholemeal bread
-had dinner at ikea last night (finally my family has managed to steer themselves ayway from sushi tei!)

first the best.

as my exams conclude with a mini-bang and major feast at haha!marche, it suddenly dawned onto me that i am done with university year one. it is amazing how time has just taken all of us by surprise- whipping us up into a whirlwind of project deadlines and unsuspecting nerd-dom, thus finally crawling to a snail's pace during the exams then eventually picking up its pace during the helluholidays.

oh well, it is time to admit that i am actually aging. phew*

green-eyed for the maroon guy.

wai has just returned from her hoowhoppiesshelluvatime with maroon 5.
what the heck am i doing here stuck in my mum's office trying to cramp business law?

i'm sooooooo jealous!

home and away.

i have got a half-drunk mug of green tea (that has turned cold) in front of me. still trying to induce a hint of analytical skills for my paper tomorrow, whilst facing a blank monitor screen when coldplay's 'yellow' suddenly plays on power98: i thought of you, wai..

- come home soon!

within a leap.

my virgin trip to ballet under the stars was memorable. my mum, in anticipation of the big day prepared a english-worthy picnic of salad, with 3 types of bread- pita, corn, wholemeal loaf plus salami, sausages and brandy butter, whilst i hogged the peanut butter. it looked like the perfect country picnic setting which was definately ironic when a caucasian man, who was sitting in front of us, suddenly whipped out a packet of chicken rice for his 'feast'.

and it was a bigger surprise when i saw C-H-O-O and it was this weird as i was just reading her blog before i left home. poor girl has exams on tues as well and in true singapore-style, both of us compared the respective school notes that we brought along to the ballet. no idea if she had any luck studying though as i found it wayy to distracting to be scribbling about the vast arena of green fields and colonial white settings.

ade needs some help getting motivated for the exams. it is saturday night and our first paper is on monday.. i have no idea what other motivation or sense of urgency she needs. haha.

To be ignorant of one's ignorance is the malady of the ignorant.

A. B Alcott

happy birthday, mum!


i know you want this for your sixthieth birthday, which by right is suppose to give me a decade to save up for but since you profess to be 35 (yrs old) every year.. i guess- LUCKY ME then!

another post-exam "TO-DO"

treat, not trick.

One day in Couture LaLa-Land,the Lacroix wives decided to hold their daily tea parties. the affair with dessert was always a god-forbid-hair-raising-nail-polish-chipping affair, but the Lacroix wives never lost their cool and finally decided on


warm tahitian vanilla truffles with a dash of cinnamon


tropical hawaiian pudding with peach&cherry swirls


Lucille's favourite blueberry meringue with shredded coconut


and highlight of the day:
triple berry souffle delight topped with whipped cream

Hyatt Regency HONG KONG

SPRING TRENDS DECODED.
right up next to this on new york times bestsellers, i am sure

CATCH OF THE DAY:
angeline the trout
*includes pout as a side-dish

SMUve with me.

the latest buzz to hit SMU is the SMUve poster: designed to create a more brou-haha welcome to the city campus, these posters are glossy with eye-popping colours and they feature SMU students trying to outgrin the chesire cat, some looking spiffy in their forever21 spangly tops, whilst others attempt to look like donald trumps with better hair, of course!

i cannot help but think if these will start a "hey i'm on a SMU poster, smiling as if the my uberture rivals have just fallen into potholes".. i mean, it is bad enough we have people going around proclaiming "hey did you see my m1/ singtel advertisment? yar.. i was in for like 2 seconds and my face was ablur 'cause i am just an extra.. but did you SEEEEE how much good i look?? "

arh, we are going to have so much fun.

m.u.gaboo

right now, i am on my way through 100 multiple choice questions for managerial accounting. (on question no.6) so far so good..