Archive for July, 2008

Meet & Greet with The O.C. cast

July 31, 2008 · Filed under family, friends, music · Tagged , , ,

Last Saturday, the girls (all of them! How impressive!) came over to mine for a, as I called it, Meet & Greet Session with The O.C. ‘mother and son’ cast – starring Kirsten and Seth (that said, Sis doesn’t even know the names of the cast so it was completely coincidental that Kirsten and Seth are named as such).

I’ve been meaning for them to meet the children and now that I’m going away, there’s no more excuse to delay the meet & greet any longer.

Kiks (yes, they’ve nicknamed Kirsten as Kiks and I suspect it’s Annabelle’s doing) was asleep most of the time the girls were there and 30 minutes before we were scheduled to leave for the next destination on our itinerary (just KTV lah. haha), they bugged me to wake Kiks up. I asked Mum to do the dirty deed and Kiks was surprisingly un-grumpy.

She greeted Pam (she can’t pronounce ‘Pamela’ properly), Belle (she loves saying ‘Annabelle!’) and Sue while she was having her dinner. She asked Mum for broccoli and Belle was exclaiming she couldn’t believe Kiks knows how to say ‘broccoli’.

Both Sis and I could see that Kiks has won a big fan in Belle, given how everything she says comes with a Belle exclamation. Sis asked me after, “Is Annabelle always like this (dramatic) or was it just that day?” I chuckled and said, “Erm yes, Belle is always like this…” Sis loves how Belle’s glasses matches her personality.

Seth was awake the whole time the girls were here so he had to do the entertaining on his sister’s behalf. They were passing him around like a baton and Belle refused to carry him at first, afraid at how small he was. Though I didn’t think he’s that small, given how fat he is actually…

Sue got her wish of biting poor Seth and Daph coo-ed and aah-ed over the boy. Bern got the most ‘quality’ time spent with Seth, given how much earlier she arrived (surprise! surprise!).

Later, the girls and I headed for KTV at Chinatown and then to Ready Set Glo at Zouk and if not for me taking the opportunity to leave the dance floor when the DJs were spinning a song that goes “We gotta G! O! Let’s go!” at 3am, I wonder what time we would really call it a night. In fact, the rest still went for ‘drinks’ at macca’s after Sue and I K.O.ed and headed home instead.




Photos stolen from Sue.

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Seth’s head spasms

July 29, 2008 · Filed under family · Tagged , ,

more about “Seth’s head spasms“, posted with vodpod

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Play Day!

July 29, 2008 · Filed under family, love · Tagged , , ,

In a last bid to spend more time with my family, I headed over to my sis’ place yesterday to play with the little ones. I arrived, had lunch and all the while with Kirsten trying to get my attention when I was chatting to my sis. That little girl made me feel so loved! According to sis, she was happier than her usual cos of my presence. *triumphant grin*

Sis ‘fainted’ on the floor and asked ‘Dr Kirsten’ to treat her with her medical kit but fussy ‘Dr Kirsten’ insisted my sis to ‘faint’ on the day bed instead. Such exasperation with the doc! Seth was just happy in his little yellow rubber chair (forgot the name for it!)

We proceeded to make white milk bread (or rather my sis’ helper did) with their new breadmaker. Kirsten and I were both thoroughly intrigued and I carried her to look through the little window on the breakmaker every five minutes cos I was equally curious. The bread was so cute and round at some points that I was tempted to open the breadmaker to pat on the roundness of the bread and Sis had to warn me not to cos of the yeast. BAH!

Then Sis suddenly said the magic words, “Who wanna go swimming…” softly but somehow, Kirsten’s ears must be tuned to the magic of the word ‘swimming’ and she immediately looked up at Sis earnestly, imploring her to say the magical words again. When Sis said louder this time round, Kirsten jumped and said, “Me!” and immediately pulled me to her room, in search of her wet suit and then to the storeroom for her float.

She was so over the moon that it was really hilarious to watch. According to Sis, the poor girl hadn’t swam for nearly 6 months, since Seth came around. And we also brought Seth down for his first swim!


These are Kiks’ (the nickname my dear pals gave her. But more on that later.) “Cheese!’” expressions. She literally say ‘cheese’ out loud.

I had hardly seen Kirsten this happy – such a funny sight! At some point, that ambitious girl wanted to go without her float and I was holding her and she tried to push my hands away. I did let go and she swallowed a fair bit of chlorine (and maybe some pee too…) water. hahahaha! Sorry, evil aunt alert.

Seth took to the water surprisingly well. He made some faces in the beginning when Sis put him slowly into the float he inherited from Kirsten. The float was a gift from me when Kirsten was Seth’s age. Isn’t the sun shade hilarious?! After a while, he just got bored and plonked his head on the float while Sis pushed him around.


Who’s the duckie!

I saw this duckie towel Sis passed me and I couldn’t stop laughing for a full minute. It’s so funnnnyyyyy!!! It’s from Aussino and she told me there’s a frog one as well. I wanna buy that for Kiks too!

Sis brought Seth up for a bath first and 20 minutes later, Kiks and I followed suit. I made her wear the duckie towel and all the aunties around the pool couldn’t stop laughing when they saw her and you should see that proud face on Kiks’ face.

During dinnertime, Seth turned a little spas and started doing these jerks with his head. I’ve got it down on video. See the post above!

Matt came by after work and having not seen Kiks during the weekend, he must be damn enthu to be willing to pay that $26.30 for that bloody cab ride! He was happy to spend that bit of time playing with her and with the fresh loaf of bread, we headed home at 9pm, all ready to hit the sack.

Damn, Sis and her family is gonna move near home by the end of the year and I’m moving away to HK. :(

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Pensive.

July 25, 2008 · Filed under family, friends, love, my life · Tagged

Nobody knows if this is for good. But it could most probably be.

And it didn’t really hit home till a few nights ago when I sat alone pondering, long after Matt had fell asleep.

I thought of the people and things I’m leaving behind. And my heart got heavy.

I thought of my parents, my little niece and nephew and the thought of separation is almost heart-wrenching for me. I thought of my friends and I suddenly felt sad.

It’s true that HK’s not far away but it’s not the same when you’re not there. It’s HK for now but in the most ideal situation of my job, I (hopefully) may end up somewhere else in the world in a couple of years’ time.

Just like every one who has grown out of a friendship/relationship before, we know this will not stay the same… We tell each other seas apart will do nothing to what we already have and we know we can keep the memories we’ve all created together but how about the future we’ve yet to spend together?

When I do come back, will I not understand the private jokes that we’ve always had cos you’ve made new private jokes? If my stay overseas has changed me a little, will you still accept me for who I am?

Last night, I told Matt suddenly that I don’t think I’ve been a good enough daughter for the mum that I have. I said the things I’ve yet to do with her, the places I wanted to bring her to and I only have 12 days left… Then I started to blabbered and choked and I couldn’t hold my tears back.

And the niece and nephew I love so dearly. Will they forget their aunt? Will Kirsten still endear herself to me like she does now when I only come back occasionally in future? Will I still be the only person other than her parents she’ll allow to carry when she’s cranky?

But somehow, I still refuse to think of how hard it could be for Matt and I to be separated. A lot of couples have done it effortlessly before, why couldn’t we? As my mum said, “If Tony Leung and Carina Lau could be together for 19 years and survived all the months of separation during filming and still get married eventually, I’m sure you and Matt could do it too.” Aw.

I keep the faith that he would join me in the near future but meanwhile, we could only rely on Skype, those occasional weekends in HK or SG, trust and love.

I’ve booked my ticket and my flight is scheduled to leave in the afternoon on 5 Aug. Both my mum and Sue told me they’ve applied for half-day leave. Pam told me she’s gonna try applying as well and all while I told them they don’t have to. Cos I’ll be a blabbering mess and I’ll be utterly embarrassing.

Matt had to rearrange his work hours so he could send me off too though I would see him during the National Day weekend. I told him he didn’t have to and he insisted he wanted to. I said, “But I’ll be a mess at the airport!” and he replied, “What if I want to see that mess?” and those words touched me so deeply.

I am probably just being melodramatic but bear with me for the next few weeks. That said, it’s not to say I’m unexcited about how different my life would be in a matter of two weeks but as I was just telling Jules, there’s a lot of mixed emotions and I want to feel them all.

Excuse me while I become a blabbering mess again.

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It’s happening

July 24, 2008 · Filed under love, my life, work · Tagged , ,

Five and a half weeks ago, Angelia called me from Hong Kong, asking if I was keen to join her team at WGSN as she was looking for someone.

We’d talked about it casually for the past 6 months but I didn’t expect anything to materialise so quickly and I remember I was in the cab on the way home with Minie and Lifang after Lifang’s birthday dinner when she called.

I’m sorry to say my immediate response wasn’t me jumping for joy. I would have, if the call came three months earlier but my first thought was Matt. :/ The company, job scope and career growth are everything I could possibly dream of but funny what love can do to you sometimes.

However, in my heart, I had never said ‘no’ to the job. I know I want it and I know something can be worked out. But out of respect for Matt’s job privacy, I won’t say more on public domain for now.

This afternoon, Angelia called me from HK with the official offer. Two review assignments and two interviews with both a London editor, herself and the HK GM later, the job of Associate Editor, Retail & Events is finally officially mine.

Matt and I have bantered about the job and HK every now and then for the past couple of weeks but still, knowing that it’s really happening brings the reality to a different level altogether.

I was excited and yet equally scared at the same time. I had never really lived overseas on my own before. Unlike most Singaporeans who’ve been to HK umpteen times, I only spent a grand total of three hours there and it was mostly spent in Lane Crawford. Other than Angelia, I don’t really have friends there.

But strangely, a couple of hours earlier as I was lying in bed reading next to Matt, I started to feel this intense sense of realness and excitement rising. “Oh! It is really happening! Let’s do this!”

Separation’s gonna be a real bitch but to look on the bright side, the future will also be really exciting and maybe, my long-time dream of being a nomad may just come true. So come 5 Aug, it’ll be “Hi HK! :)” and “Bye SG. :(“

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Tony! You married the wrong woman!

July 23, 2008 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged ,

That should be me next to Tony instead… Sue, photoshop my pic to replace Carina’s can??

Aw, look at that face. He’s all of 46 but still so boyish and youthful. Carina’s one lucky woman to have Tony (and that 12-carat Cartier engagement ring).

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Free gift with purchase

July 22, 2008 · Filed under beauty, my reading · Tagged , , ,

I’ve just finished reading the book Free Gift With Purchase, My Improbable Career in Magazines and Makeup. Written by Jean Godfrey-June, the beauty director of Lucky magazine, it’s witty and hilarious and the first book I had read from beginning till end within the span of less than one week in a long time. 

The book follows Jean’s stay at Elle and then eventually Lucky. My favourite parts of the book, other than her interesting beauty tips (“Any two random lipsticks you’ve ever bought – any – when combined, will always be flattering, no matter what your skin tone.”), are her descriptions of working in both magazines.

The latter, as any Lucky fan would imagine, is as how the readers perceive it to be. Everyone gets along with everyone (although I’m still sure there will be a few who don’t) and how they want to make the magazine as relative as possible. Nothing too high fashion and fantasy-like. It’s all about your best girl pal sharing with you the best fashion tips she has.

Meanwhile, Elle was a lot more dishy. The international creative director and photographer Gilles Bensimon, though Jean never named him outright, was a diva and playboy as rumours have it. It’s all a power play and as we’d all imagined, they and Vogue are arch rivals. And most of the staff there, no matter how loved you were, got fired eventually.

And now that I’ve read about current fashion director Nina Garcia’s recent departure from Elle, it was true that it’s a power play from the two current big wigs at the magazine too!

Maybe it’s just my interest in beauty writing and fascination with the American publishing houses and publications, Free Gift With Purchase really offered an insight!

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Why does it always rain on me

July 18, 2008 · Filed under food, love · Tagged , ,

I was prepared for grocery shopping in a typical neighbourhood supermarket, filled with fight-or-die aunties. I put on my headphones and tuned out into my own world. I got my trolley, with shopping list in hand and embarked on the task ahead.

I couldn’t believe the amount of vegetables I needed:

  • English spinach leaves (can’t find English, could only manage local! Do I really need to be this specific?!)
  • Iceberg lettuce (I kept staring at what I wrote and I was like “iceberg lettuce?! Wtf is that!” and I saw the sign saying ‘Iceberg Lettuces’ in a basket and I was happy. I found what I needed, I’m not gonna question what it means.)
  • Raspberries (CAN’T FIND IN NTUC! UGH!)
  • Sage leaves (have no idea how it looks like and after making several rounds in the fresh produce areas, just can’t find! Damnnit)
  • Rib-eye cut beef (None of the signs say ‘rib-eye’ so I asked the lady behind the counter and she said cube roll cut is the same. But but, cube roll sounds so… unsophisticated…)
  • Prawns (I was staring at the tiger prawns, white prawns and grey prawns. Ok, grey ones are out. Shit, tiger or white… White is fatter and more expensive. Should be better then! So I got the white ones.)
  • Scallops (why are they all frozen! Isn’t there fresh scallops?! Damn, I got a frozen pack anyway. S$16! Bah.)
  • Mango (There were only five mangoes left and four were green and the only yellow-orange one was bruised as hell. Ugh! Didn’t get it in the end)

You see, if anything goes wrong later, you know I could easily blame any of the above factors. Wahahaha!

And after an hour in the supermarket and more than a hundred bucks later, I just realised I forgot carrots!!! Tian ah! 

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“My perception is not your reality.”

July 18, 2008 · Filed under friends, thoughts · Tagged ,

Each of us has a perceived image of ourselves. This is who we think we are and it’s also who we believe (or hope) our friends and family perceive us.

Then, there’s the self that your family and friends really view you as. Sometimes, there could even be a few of these ‘selves’ as some of us could portray a different side of us to different people.

And it got me thinking, “so which is the real self?”

Another side of me thought, “Look, it’s been proven humans, especially women, portray different sides to different people, not because they’re manipulative but just being smart (then again, this can be a different story for a different day). Some people take to different personalities but that said, the said person is not being fake but just showing one side of his/her many different sides.”

But what if your perceived self doesn’t reconcile with the people closest to you? Will that simply become a lack of self-awareness?

Differences with my close friends could bother me for weeks and it frustrates me to no end why they could be so oblivious and not see where the fault lies in them. (That said, they could feel exactly the same about me.)

Sometimes, I take the risk of being honest with them (cos that’s what good friends do for each other rather then allowing them to continue living in their own lala land right?), thinking they would be able to ponder about what you have to say cos supposedly, what you said ought to have some importance to them. No?

Most times, depending on the friend, the situation gets resolved and the matter actually helps to deepen our friendships but well, I guess you can’t always expect the target to hit the bull’s eye.

And when that happens, I can’t help but feel saddened by how unaware the said friend can be of herself. And I can’t help but lose a little of my respect for her. The worst part is, she doesn’t even know that.

If I can help it, I wouldn’t want to feel this way. Why would I because it bothers me every time I think about it?

But just like the subject title “my perception is not your reality” (a statement I learnt in school), I try to remind myself that though we all live in the same world, we also live in very different ones.

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New toy to play with

July 17, 2008 · Filed under beauty · Tagged , ,

 

I came across the information of this yet-to-be-launched Givenchy mascara called Phenomen’Eyes and was greatly intrigued by its looks.

 

Look at the application wand! Have you seen anything like this before? Apparently, this patented spherical brush is supposed to simplify application, making it possible to reach every eyelash at any angle. I always have difficulties applying the lashes at the inner corner of my eyes and I’m interested to find out if this really works for that hard-to-reach area.

I sound like a mascara fiend, from the way I wrote about it here and previously. I enjoy my cosmetics but if I have to pick my must-have, it’s gotta be Benetint. It’s a costly S$65 in Singapore but I really love how naturally rosy it makes my cheeks look and how my lips look like I’ve just bitten-on-it-and-not-lipstick-red kind of red.

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