Dinner @ Food Republic Wisma

Yeh! Finally got to watch Bourne Ultimatum this afternoon. Wanted to watch it when it first came on, but either too busy or cannot find people to watch with. Now, only shown on small screens liao. Was going to either watch by myself this evening or watch with this guy i got to know online recently.

But a colleague said he was free this afternoon, so went to watch with him.

Now, having dinner with him over at this korean restaurant inside food Republic at wisma. Not bad, the food. Finally, got to try the hot stone mixed rice i always see in the korean dramas.

On the topic of charms...

Since we're on the topic of charms, Tiffany's website some rather unique ways of wearing charms other than on your bracelets and necklaces. And since it's Tiffany's you'd be heralded as the next fashion thing rather than what a weirdo. *laugh*

Here's my personal favourite - attach a charm to your belt loop or belt.



Another idea - add some class to your bags.














One more - jazz up your pony tail and hair accessories.



Of course, super expensive handphone attachment.














Last but not least, put it on your shoes. The charm will be more expensive than any of my shoes...

Lovers in Prague

Just spent a small fortune on 2 korean drama DVDs earlier this evening.

Like a year ago, caught a couple of episodes of the drama on cable and liked it so much I decided to buy the DVD series... So what is the show about?

In Lovers In Prague, Foreign Affairs Officer Jae-Hee (Jeon Do-Yeon) tries her best to keep a low profile in Prague as the daughter of South Korean's president. Putting her life back together after a painfully silent separation from Young-woo (Kim Min Joon) was no easy feat. Things take an unexpected turn when she meets Sang-Hyeon (Kim Joo-Hyuk), a police sergeant who arrives in Prague attempting to mend the broken relationship with his girlfriend Hye-joo (Yoon Se-Ah).

Apart from the well paced story, another aspect I quite enjoyed was that they actually shot part of the drama in Prague amidst the cobblestone roads and the old architectural landscape. Even in the flatness of video, the scenery is breathtakingly beautiful.

Of course, the fact that I've been there walking the same streets and Charles Bridge further adds to the appeal of the drama series. Notice the latter in the photo on the left?

Performances from the three main leads have shown to be consistently strong. Joo-Hyuk's rough and rugged police sergeant, Sang Hyeon, completely deserved the Best Actor Award. And while I didn't really like Jae-Hee at first, she definitely grew on me as the story progressed.

The few Korean dramas I have seen so far... The female leads are seriously UGLY... at first sight anyway. They always have to take some time to grow on me. The cutest guy is also always the one who loves the (ugly) female lead but she would inevitably love another, often seemingly impossible, guy. The other guy would often not be the cutest, but they do have a charisma of their own.

For those who have not seen the show, any guesses as to who are the female and male leads of the show?

And the more I watch the show, the more I also love the OST. I hope I will resist for a while and not buy the OST, like I did my previous K-drama. Perhaps there's someone out there who may have the OST and is willing to lend me for a spell?

Click here for the official site of the show at the Korea National Tourism Org.

To buy or not to buy...

Went into Tiffany's at Taka with a fren this afternoon.

Fell in love with their Charms collection.

The silver necklace selling for SGD390++. Medium link chain. Stirling silver. 16" long. It looks fantastic on its own.

Sigh... I always had and still have a thing for shiny frivolous stuff. Used to visit Bits and Pieces to buy their ear-rings every other week. Wow! Quite a big step up from Bits and Pieces, eh, if I were to start buying from Tiffany's? I think the prices of their silver is even higher than the price of gold.

The bracelet is not too bad, going for SGD225++. Also medium link chain. Stirling silver. 7.5" long.

Each charm is for an extra SGD225++. Love the Return to Tiffany heart lock charm.

Debating now whether to buy or not. And if buying, maybe can get Linda to buy and bring back in time to wear for Jiasong's wedding. Of course, my fren's wonderful suggestion was to get someone to buy it for me. Get real! Yoohoo!!! Anybody out there who would like to get me the necklace or the bracelet???

The US website lists the prices as USD215 for the necklace, which comes to only SGD326. Not sure if there are any additional sales tax, and whether Linda will be able to get any tax claims or something.

The bracelet and charm are listed for USD125, which translates to about SGD190.

Actually, the charm may look pretty good on a simple chain, eh?

Will try that design the next time I pop into Tiffany's. But must remember to bring a fren who will stop me from buying it. Only to let me try the design. Not to actually buy the thing. *grin*

Well, anyway, here's a last call... Anybody out there who would like to get me any of the above-mentioned jewellery pieces? Aiyah, might as well lah, any SINGLE and AVAILABLE and ELIGIBLE GUY out there who would like to get me any of the above-mentioned jewellery pieces? *grin*

More teething problems

We wait and wait... Good thing was it allowed for my dinner group to chat, i guess. But i was hungry when i arrived...

I think some 30 odd minutes passed before the first dish arrived. And it was mine! I thot at first that they wanted to serve all our orders together, that's why wait so long. But that wasn't the case.

My fren - Sinyuan - who ordered chicken on hot stone came some time after mine. The funny thing is - her dish was raw food. She was to do her own cooking on the hot stone (see photo). Maybe the 40 minutes was to wait for the stone to heat up? But that's really stupid.

Then, we had to wait again after the waitor brought the dish over. Why? To bring the utensils for my fren. On another trip? Duh! The side salad for the dish came as my fren was halfway through her chicken.

Lousy restaurant

My dinner last nite - some tofu dish in a paper hotpot at Urban East Bistro @ Esplanade Mall. Urgh! Please do not visit this restaurant! At least not until the end of the month. Why? Sigh...

Lady boss was totally impatient when we didn't know wat to order. Asked her wat she'd recommend, she said everything's there on the menu. Duh! Then promptly complained that she's very busy and couldn't attend to us. And we were to call her when we were ready to order. Fine... So that's wat u call 'service'?

Look of happiness

Yeh! I got bronze for my 2.4 km run just now! Finished in less than 16 minutes. About the same as my timing on Monday. But a bit more tired - kenah stitch during the 4th lap. Prob coz of lack of breakfast.

Waiting for Can and the rest for their runs and walks to finish. Then gonna make my way back to school for 4E2 remedial. Brought 2 stacks of marking with me - hope i'd finish at least one of the stacks, if not both.

Paper Cut

Ouch! Got a paper cut on my arm just now by a stack of papers for 4E2. Haven't had a paper cut in ages. It really hurts!

Yeh! My class seems cleaner these days. Gave them a scolding and threatened to make them stay back to clean up other classrooms if I ever find food wrappers and drink bottles in the dustbin again. Why?!? Why do they need such negative motivation? Dun they really that the classroom will be a much nicer environment to work in if it's clean and tidy?

Waiting for a fren to reply msg to see if he can give me a lift home. Most prob not. Sigh... Will have to lug back my backpack, 2 plastic bags of marking and my laptop home all by myself...

Dun even know if got time to do all the work I'm lugging home.

Have to wake up early again tomorrow for stoopid 2.4 km run. Then rush down to school for 4E2 remediation. Thank goodness some of the gals came by just now. Passed them the papers to be done for tomorrow so I can still dilly-dally a bit after the run tomorrow.

Then rush back home, wash up and hopefully can grab a short nap before dinner with my friends. Yeah! At least, I have fireworks to look forward to tomorrow night! Highlight of the weekend...

Unless... I can find someone to watch the Bourne Ultimatum with on Sunday. Been asking if anybody want to watch with me, but no response so far. Dunno if everyone's just busy, watching the show with other people, or I'm just not popular enough.

Sports Day Photos

Okies! Finally did up a slide show of the photos my students took of our Sports Day on the eve of National Day (8th August 2007). Had a lot of fun that day. Was I/C of inputting the scores of the various events into the laptop. Used Excel to quickly churn out the final results of Best Class, Best Competitor, etc. It was cool!

Then, my OSL team managed to successfully sell all their fish-balls, hot-dogs, chicken nuggets, curry puffs and canned drinks. We did have 15 cartons of canned drinks left over... But well, that's another story...

Anyway, enjoy the photos! Click on the video below to see it in its full size of 600 by 475 pixels.

Ups and Downs of the Day

Another day of much ups and downs...

Let's see... Didn't manage to do any work when I went to sleep early in the morning. Brought all my papers back home only to bring them back to school... Didn't set alarm, etc, but thankfully managed to wake up in time. Did wake up at 4.30 am. Was contemplating whether to do work, but went back to sleep without a second thought.

As I mentioned, woke up without doing any work at all. Managed to grab a cab more easily this morning, and reached school in time to put down my bag, papers and laptop. LH spoke for a while this morning and took away one of my free periods. ML then came by and plopped down a relief. Urgh! One less free period.

Quickly sat down to print out work for my 4T and 4E. Passed up some overdue admin stuff. Grabbed a quick breakfast of lor mai gai (ew... just remembered how oily it was. darn. there goes all my running.) and even packeted lunch, just in case.

Turned out to be a wise decision. Coz I barely had time to eat lunch, especially after I started marking my 3N papers. Was hoping to finish before my lesson with the 3Ns. I didn't. Thank goodness. Coz I forgot to check if there were absentees. Anyway, had a pretty good lesson with the 3Ns. Started on quadratic functions. Will try to do up the quadratic puzzle thing and have a competition on Thursday or Friday.

Feeling good after a good and productive lesson.

Then, continued marking the 3N papers while the 4E did their 2nd MCQ test.

!@#$% Accidentally knocked over my water bottle and it spilled tea all over my table. Barely missed my laptop but argh! Had to spend time to mop up everything and got tea stains over lotsa papers...

After that was 4T. Was late coz of the tea accident. Haven't seen them in about 1-2 weeks. Wouldn't be useful to give them back their Prep papers. So, same thing. Gave them a 2nd MCQ test like the 4Es. During this time, finished marking the 4E 2nd MCQ test. Argh! Not sure if the past year O-level paper was easier or the kids just distracted by their other subjects' Prep Papers. The 4Es did worse for the 2nd MCQ test which I took from a past year Prelim Paper from another school.

What a downer.

But yeah! School was more or less done. Messaged AT and he replied that he could give me a lift! Yeh! Time to get new shoes. Retail therapy also perks me up! But alas, he had errands to do over at Bukit Timah, so I asked him to drop me off at Holland Village. Cannot shop for new shoes, at least can be more productive and do marking. And get a good healthy Caesar salad from Coffee Bean.

Sigh... I think that was when things just started to go downhill. Coffee Bean is presently closed for renovation. Only outdoor area available. Couldn't decide what to do and walked over to Starbucks. Found a great couch seat to rest in. But Starbucks got no food for dinner, so I walked over to BK for a Mushroom Swiss Single Burger meal. Put in some 2.5 hours' worth of marking and decided it was enough. Wanted to grab a cab home but realised I didn't have enough cash. Ok, off to the atm. While waiting at the atm, so many empty cabs zoomed past the atm. But when I had the money, no empty cabs in sight...

Waited all of 45 minutes. Empty bus came before any empty cab came by. Well, might as well think of it as I saved money...

Highlight of the day: Found a new online friend who calls himself 坂本龍一. It was amazing how we just clicked (or seem to) and started to chat without knowing nuts about each other.

Flowers

Starting to talk about flowers with kestrel who recently posted about flowers and their meanings on her blog...

Baby's Breath: Innocence
Begonia: A fanciful nature
Carnation-red: Alas poor heart
Carnation-pink: I'll never forget you
Chrysanthemum-yellow: Slighted love
Daffodil: Regard, You are the only one
Daisy: Gentleness, Innocence, Loyalty and Romance
Forget Me Not: Faithful Love, Undying Hope, Memory, Do Not Forget
Lavender: Loyalty
Lily-white: Sweetness
Lily of the Valley: Humility, Sweetness, Return of Happiness
Rose, Red: Love and Desire
Rose-single red: I Love You
Sunflowers: Pride
Tulip: Love and Passion
Tulip-red: Declaration of love

I sure miss getting flowers. Not that I've received many...

From what I can remember, Zien bought me once before, in J2, I think. He had to hide it in newspapers so that his aunt won't find out. It was hilarious coz he brought this huge box with him. I had to open the box, dig up the newspapers, and viola, find the flowers within. Can't remember what occasion it was for, though.

Got some tulips for my Prom night. And I remember faintly getting a small pot of roses while I was visiting London. Boy, were the fresh flowers cheap and good in London!

Oh yes! They were the cheapest in Vietnam! When I went Hanoi for community service, found out how cheap roses were there. The students buy it like we buy sweets and would give to their friends for no reason at all. And, it's perfectly alright to give away roses which you received from someone too.

Got a bouquet of plastic sunflowers from Varian but they got thrown away accidentally by my mum. I remember screaming at her until she said she'd go down to the rubbish chute to retrieve it. Of course I stopped her in time but my mum never dared to throw away anything from my room after that... *grin*

Got a bouquet of a real sunflower from some friends for my 20+ th birthday. But, had to throw away all my dried flowers some time back coz they were all growing mould under my bed.

That's about it... All the flowers I have received so far... Oh yes, mustn't forget, got a couple fake flowers from the past Teachers' Days too.

I sure miss flowers. *hint hint*

I would say roses are my fave. Any colour, though I do prefer those with strong colours, like a deep red, brilliant yellow, rosy pink, champagne white... They smell great and they dry great. Used to love tulips but they are horrible to dry. Coz they dun dry at all. They just turn all soggy, wrinkle up, and start to, like, rot...

Used to go Chinatown market to buy flowers ($3 for a dozen roses, $1 per stalk of lilies, etc) every other week during Secondary school to practice floral arrangement. Now $3 for a single stalk of rose more likely...

And tell you a lil secret, I like buying flowers so much, I have even bought them for myself. In fact, I still do. *laugh*

Okies. Gotta get back to work. Ciao!

I covered 5 km today!

Yoohoo! Had a long day in school today. Kinda upset because my Sec 4 students still not very on task with their revision. Been doing all I can to prepare papers for them to try, but most of them dun even want to try the papers. How can I gauge their level of knowledge and help them better? Sigh...

Then it was time for my 2E Common Test. They took ages to settle down, and food wrappers and drink bottles were everywhere. Want to scold them because we lost the Best Class Award to 2E4. For the past 2 months, the class has been so dirty, untidy and food wrappers everywhere. Not sure if it's because I didn't put up a duty roster. But I was hoping for everyone to take responsibility to keep the class clean... How can I push the idea across? Hm...

Anyway, managed to finished setting one of the MANY papers I have to set for Prep and Prelim and EY Exams... Got many papers to mark, but decided I need to go running with Angela and Alex. They also agreed to go Clementi Stadium to run because I have to run home to change into running gear. Maybe should have taken bus to go home. Took cab home, quickly changed and met up with Noel. Walked over and reached the stadium just as Angela left her home!

Finished running my 2.4 km in 17 minutes 08 seconds. Ok, again, it was more of a jog. My main aim was to not stop and I didn't. I know I was going at a slow rate but it was ok. Even managed to talk to Alphonsus for an entire lap when he called on my 5th lap. Then, managed to squeeze in a further 2 more laps after resting before the rest of the group came in. Wasn't feeling tired at all, so decided to run another 4 laps. I miscounted. Wanted to run 10 laps in all today to reach 4 km. But, forgot the 2 laps extra I did while waiting for Angela, etc. Therefore, I covered 5 km in all today! Yoohoo!

Dinner was a little disappointing. Wanted to eat porridge but stall owners on holiday till next Monday! Nothing but fatty food galore in Clementi market. Was thinking of not eating, but thot I'd prob get hungry later and end up eating instant noodles. So it'd be better to just eat something.

Well, dun think anyone's interested in what foods I had, etc. Now, on a high after my run and dinner. Gonna finish up my 4T marking, then go and shower. Can't shower as yet. Just finished dinner not long ago.

Okies. Got work to do. Ciao!

Jacky Cheung Concert

Sorry this is way overdue...

Concert was on 15 July 2007, Sunday night. Sorry it took me almost a month to churn out the photo slide show.

Enjoy the photos! Click on the video below to see it in its full size of 600 by 475 pixels.

KTV Session at JB

Yup. Went over to JB for a KTV session. Here are the photos from my camera. Will upload other photos once I have them over in my hdd. But for now, enjoy these few first!

Click on the video below to see it in its original size of 600 by 475 pixels.

At Seoul Garden with my Sec 4 girls

So sorry it took me a while to transfer the photos from my camera into my brother's desktop to do up the slide show...

After Sports Day, was supposed to help some students out with their Physics. But in the end, only spent some 15 minutes going through Physics while we waited for a table to be available for lunch. We had our lunch at Seoul Garden - yup, BBQ. We ate from 2.30 pm to 5.30 pm... Boy, can the girls eat!

After lunch, we had a lot of fun taking some NeoPrints. Wow, haven't been to Seoul Garden and took NeoPrints in exactly 10 years. The last time I did both things was when I was JC 2, and had BBQ at Marina as farewell dinner with my JC CCA. Then we took NeoPrints with the Exco members.

Click on the video below to see it in its original size of 600 by 475 pixels.

How I look after a 4-km jog

Yup. I call it a 4-km jog. Coz it took me 36 minutes and 49 seconds to complete. Think it was pretty slow. But main thing, I did not stop! I maintained my pace for at least 3 km. Got slower during the last km. Had to keep talking to myself that I dun need to stop...

Also realised at the end that my knee pain either went away after the first km or I managed to push it out of my mind. Whichever the case, I still have to remind myself to year my knee guards...

Okies. Reach home liao. Time for a quick shower before running off for ktv session. Yoohoo! Can't wait!

Shopping Therapy

Decided to go watch The Simpsons Movie by myself today. It was ok. Like Homer said in the beginning, it was stupid to pay good money for something I could get for free on TV. *laugh*

Didn't get as much laughs from the movie as I had expected. It had its moments, but I think I enjoy the 'free' episodes better. So, decided to engage in some shopping therapy to cheer myself up.

Got some wonderful ciabatta bread from peck at taka basement. Wanted to borrow storybooks from orchard library but it was closed. Decided to splurge on one of those fashion mags I mentioned before. Then, found this jap magazine on putting up great hair arrangements. Yup. Bought it too. Then, yes, another then. All these 'thens' are impulse buys, you see. Bought 3, yes, 3 books by Ji Mi. Totally expensive artsy books with pretty drawings and pretty words.

Was still hoping to run over to Far East to take a look at dresses and shoes. But in the end, spent some time to buy a cardigan for tmr. So, thankfully, no more time to do any more shopping. *grin*

Looking forward to long weekend

Waiting for kids to eat lunch. Apparently, they want to ask physics questions. At the moment, however, the kids are taking ages to decide where to go for lunch...

How I Met Your Mother

Hm... Feel like buying the videos of the show. Pity it's only 30 minutes per episode. No kick...

But they can really fit in a lot of jokes in 30 minutes.



Here are the Episode recaps.

Caught it by chance last Thursday as I was rushing to finish folding stars for the Chinese students who came to visit Singapore from Foshan. Was captivated coz of Alyson Hannigan. Loved her in the later seasons of Buffy. Felt her character really came a long way through the several seasons of Buffy. Pity how the scripts for Buffy made the show end. However, can't say much for Buffy. So many seasons, so many episodes. Only caught one or two episodes here and there. Another show I would love to get my hands on.

Okies. Finished watching show. It's very late liao. Better go sleep. Nite nite!

New Fave Show

HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER is a comedy about Ted (Josh Radnor) and how he fell in love.

It all started when Ted's best friend, Marshall (Jason Segel), dropped the bombshell that he was going to propose to his long-time girlfriend, Lily (Alyson Hannigan), a kindergarten teacher.

At that moment, Ted realized that he had better get a move on if he also hopes to find true love. Helping him in his quest is Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), a friend with endless, sometimes outrageous opinions, a penchant for suits and foolproof ways to pick up women.

When Ted meets Robin (Cobie Smulders), he is sure it is love at first sight, but destiny may have something else in store. The series is narrated through flashbacks from the future.



It's showing on Star World right now! Ciao!

Mobile Blog

Anyone noticed how I'm blogging more often?

That's because my new phone comes with a mobile blog function! After taking a photo with my camera, or just choose a photo from my memory, I can send the file to Blogger.com with a blog entry!

So exciting! I always have so many things on my mind sometimes that I would write down - hoping to blog them later, but always forget or can't be bothered after the time has passed.

But now! I can blog anytime I wish to. On anything that comes to my mind! Haha!

Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

1. Be Proactive
2. Begin with the End in Mind
3. Put First Things First
4. Think Win-Win
5. Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen the Saw

Overcome our own short-comings, to empower others and promote interdependence. Communicate openly with each other and create win-win solutions.

Only then can there be continuous improvement, innovation and refinement.

Of course, trust is at the root of all successes or failures.

I have to trust myself. And others have to trust me. In my character, what I am as a person, and competence, what I can do.

But is this trust there? Me in myself. Others in me. I guess the question answers itself.