Ya I know most of you have only heard of belated birthdays. Apparently I forgot to report the death of Joshua's pet bird, Rainbow, who stayed with us at Gambir Walk when Joshua and his parents went for a holiday towards the end of 2004 around Christmas. Rainbow passed away some time before or during Christmas season and according to Joshua, just "collapsed down dead".
Allow me to reintroduce Rainbow abit. It flew into Joshua's house one day towards the later months of 2004, and was severely injured, probably attacked by another predator bird. It was nursed back to good health and lived till a ripe old age of We-don't-exactly-know-how-old.
But I believe it died of old age lah. Is anyone good about birds enough to tell me what kind of bird Rainbow is?
Anyway, missing Rainbow, they decided to give another pet a good home. 3-month-old Cockatiel, subsequently named Glory, was bought from a petshop in Bedok that does not simply throw all their birds into the same cage and let them rot there amidst stray pigeons.
3 month old Glory is curious about everything and anything including disposable chopsticks that he keeps slotting through the cage grill.
Also possesses the unorthodox habit of crying for attention with this weird 'stereo' sound in its throat. See the video and you'd get what I mean. Through Glory I also found out that if birds trust you enough, they love to be scratched at the neck!!!
Told you Chubby is the boss of the house!
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 12:52 am
Don't Fall Down..
Sunday, January 29, 2006
The last thing I expected for me to happen inside my own home is for me to fall down.
Especially when it was on New Year's Eve.
It was crowded as usual. That's the best thing about living with your grandparents. During the Chinese New Year, you just have to sit back and relax and all your relatives would flock over.
Of course I'm just saying that it is convenient only during the Chinese New Year. There were times that it kinda gets on your nerves when your grandpa nags you to eat five times when you alreayd told him 10x that you have eaten.
Ok, so everyone was arriving for the yearly reunion dinner and Ah Gong was standing there by the door in the living room. He was very enthu about the whole idea of everyone getting together.
"Eh?? Who take cab come?" He said in Hokkien.
I walked up and stood beside him with my finger on the switch to open the gates. As I squinted my eyes to see who arrived, I almost fell down. From laughter, mind you.
Ladies and Gentlemen, introducing the new taxi of Singapore............
The Mitsubishi Evo9!!
Meanwhile let me end with Ah Heng's advice, as I quote directly from him "This teaches you a lesson: NEVER buy a yellow car!"
Enjoy your new year holidays but please remember to do your journal TP Marketing!
Wishing all of you a bountiful harvest (of red packets), a smooth sailing school year (with lesser projects), a black-out for every test you take in the lecture theatre (can there ever be a luckier cohort than TP Marketing 2003-2006?) and.. well.. success in whatever you do from busting pimples to losing weight to getting together with the girl/guy you want or having a more disciplined dog or going to your favourite tour destination for your graduation trip to having a less cluttered room and getting into the University of your choice. HAHAHA!!!
Lastly, good health for the entire year of Woof Woof 2006(and your entire life as well)!!!
Within the next few posts I would start to introduce Glory to all of you. Cool name for a cockatiel. I think I'm going to get myself one. After seeing Joshua's Glory, I am so infatuated with keeping birds. I mean, it talks, it's smaller than scary large shrieking screaming parrots, food is less expensive than dogs etc etc. I might train one to help me walk the dogs even!
Imagine one standing on Chubby's back going "No! Bad Dog! Go home Chubby! I say Go HOME!"
*Flies to Kilo and nibbles one of Kilo's ear*
"Go left Kilo! Turn! Good Boy!"
*Flies around Didi's head*
"Bad dog Didi! Bad dog!! Let go of the jogger's leg! Nooo!! Baaaaaaad Dog! Mummy's going to kill you!"
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 9:58 pm
Boring Eve?
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Have no fear! Cindy is here!
Yea. I know that some of you are plain bored with stupid irritating cousins clambering all over you fighting to touch your computer (that you are unwilling to let them touch) while some of you are not even celebrating at all.
So, since I know you have a whole load of loading time on your hands, you can watch these videos. Hahaha!!!
I think the dance-steps are cool. When I was in that silly Sec 1 Dancers thingy for Bendemeer Sec's official opening, those dance steps didn't even come CLOSE to this. Of course we were only children but.. my gosh.. I should just shut up and you should just watch this:
It's one of Rain's performance. All the ladies in my family, from Mum to Aunt to cousin-in-laws, and some of my buddies as well, are gaga over him.
If you are lazy, you can just go ahead to view the next video. A super short imitation of Rain by Xiao Zhu (Luo Zhi Xiang).
Happy loading!!
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 3:45 pm
Eve Eve of the Dog Year
Friday, January 27, 2006
Today is Chinese New Year's Eve Eve. Please get your lazy bum off the computer chair and go do some cleaning up of your room. It looks horrible. I can see it from where I type.
LOL!! Just kidding lah...
I'm having severe cramps right now as I type. Which brings me back to what someone in school said after our first paper. Something to do with double-redness on Chinese New Year; you wear red + inside also red, if you get what I mean. If you don't? Well, let it stay that way.
There were many silly things happening. Last night while I was staying for today's last exam paper (Global Marketing), Chubby puked on my notes. It was yellow puke. Smelly puke. Ewwwgh.
I seriously hope you're not reading this before the reunion dinner.
But then again, some people are still puking from my dead skin photo from yesterday. If my deadskin can be converted into drugs, I think the person who tries to bring it through Singapore customs(and gets caught) would have been slapped with the death penalty.
Ohh, Mum's nagging something about collecting the chicken and duck that we ordered from the supermarket. Got to run! Will blog again later today because I'm in super good mood!!! Yay! Exams are over!!!
No wait, there's still journals and project submissions and presentations. What the shit!!!
On second thoughts, maybe I'd not blog today. Instead, by popular demand, I shall end off with ANOTHER classic Ms. Swan video, some sex hotline sh*t... Enjoy :D:
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 2:53 pm
Chinese New Year is Approaching!!
Thursday, January 26, 2006
If all our families depended on us, the Marketing students to get Chinese New Year decors at home done, it would not have been possible to get it done.
YES! I am so blardy grumpy! Yes! I one day don't complain about TP I will feel itchy all over and can't sleep in peace.
Oh well...
Thanks to Mum and a whole load of other people, the CNY decors at home are more or less done. The only thing I contributed to this year was to buy the big big pineapples that we always hang at the stairway landing every year.
And, even that one single thing was screwed up. I bought the wrong size. It was too darn small. You should see our old ones. They were huge. But so old and tattered and torn that we threw it away this year to get new ones.
The new ones were babies compared to the old one. But guess that have to do:
Costed me $20 for both somemore. Got ripped off. Wait till after new year then I will buy. Hahaha! Oh yea, it's always the best bargain to shop on Eve night itself because everything has to go and is cleared real cheap.
As a form of apology, I bought a tied-up bunch of baby bamboo shoots to place in the living room, only to realise that there was already another THREE plants in the living room. One was those baby *'gam guat' tree. The other is some *jin qian shu (money tree or something). And another, was the yearly pussy willow that wasn't even decorated yet.
*Names of plants are not accurate and based on what the author can recall with her poor memory
Thankfully there was still some space at a corner for the bamboo to be placed. But then I realised the person who tied the bamboo thing didn't do it correctly because the plant was slanted.
New year is not new year in our house without some new orchids (that eventually ends up flowerless and has to be transported all the way to a factory in Jurong industrial estate and eventually comes back when flower miraculously grows again and the cycle goes on and on and on).
Poor orchid was placed beside our dining table all the while and was dying because of inadequate sunlight. So we moved it out to the airwell and that two days that it was out there, it rained like nobody's business till the orchids (three differnet types planted together) was half-dead, battered by the torrent.
So we quickly brought it back into the house and IT STOPPED RAINING.
..................
It was also discovered that in our haste to quickly decorate the house....
We forgot to take some of the price tags out from the decors...
Remember in one of the posts I said even Chubby has bought his new year clothes already?.. Well....
All hail Chubby, the sleepy fist kungfu master!!!
You can call me Wong Fei Hong, handsomest version!
To end this delightful post, I shall give you a super disgusting photo:
It's not drugs or what. Unless you're Manda, you'd never in a million years guess what powder is that. Well, you see, I recently bought a filer from Body Shop. Those to file off the dead skin on your feet. I was born with dry skin. And all that stupid skin (in powder form now) there was filed off my feet.
HAHAHAHAHAHA!! DISGUSTING RIGHT? But you know how shiock it was to see THAT much deadskin come out? At least mine is off my feet and AWAY from me. Yours are still hanging onto ur heels and all over. Yucks! YOU are the one that's disgusting.
Hurry, go get your 'feet filer' at Body Shop (or anywhere else). Costs I think $6.90 or $8.90 only. And just in case you are wondering, no, I don't think this is a girl-only product.
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 5:16 pm
Compared to Tinker
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Kilo IS AN ANGEL...
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 11:26 pm
Celebration After First Paper
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Well, according to some from T10 or don't know what our name was supposed to be, we always go out after our first examination paper. It's a celebration of sorts. We don't know celebrate what also, when it honestly should be celebrated after the LAST paper.
Early celebration I guess. Well, we have to be this SUPER optimistic or else we'd be jumping off the school building in mass suicide.
We went to Parkway to take a walk after having our lunch there. My mind kept going back to the changpao (I think that's what the male version is called) that I had bought for Chubby for Chinese New Year.
Speaking of which I haven't shopped for my CNY clothes yet!! Even my dog bought his already!!! Life is getting ridiculous.
Anyway, we were walking out of Isetan when we saw those tikam tikam machine.
You know, those that we played like crazy when we were kids. Put a coin in, turn the knob thingy and wait for the stupid plastic ball to come out (by the way the dogs love to play with those cos they're very roll-able).
One had all these characters by Pixar/Disney. There was this super cute Squirt one; the baby sea turtle from Finding Nemo. The little turtle who said "Sweeeet!" and the big turtle, Crush, says "Totally!" in his Australian surfer slang.
I put in my dollar and out came... Mike Wazowski of Monster Inc.!!!
Photo courtesy of http://animatedvd.zaup.org
Well, tough luck. At the very least Mike and Squirt are both, well, green.
Then, Shaozong came over to donate his one dollar for another try. I was already super disheartened and gave up the idea of ever getting Squirt.
"I put in ar..!" I told him, with the coin right at the entrance of the slot. "Put in la!" he said in a super don't care attitude, and instantly in my brain I was saying "Here we go! Wasting away our $ at some stupid tikam machine who's just going to throw me another shit that I don't want."
And OUT CAME SQUIRT!
You would not believe how long it took to find a decent Squirt picture.
Squirt is a really weird-angled character. He looks so cute in the movie. But in reality, the softoy that they made of him looks hideous that I totally gave up the idea of getting one.
Weird right?
..However, not as weird as this:
Huat sitting on the miniature Merry-Go-Round. Caught red-handed!
Other than that, there was something really cute that I got. A pen. I know I just bought one from Dickson's friend however this pen was irresistably attractive.
I just had to get it.
Nice right?
You know what's the most important thing about this pen? All of us often have problems. Especially when at this age and being a poly student and all, we hate to bring our pencil box out, so we only take that very few (or sometimes even ONE) trusted pen out to use in school.
But the thing is when you don't use a pencil box and just chuck the pen into some ulu uninhabited corners of your bag, more often than not you find yourself digging for it at the time you need it most, and urgently!
But this pen, ladies and gentlemen, requires no digging, nor do you have to hang it around your neck since precious neck-space is already reserved to hang your similarly precious handphone.
This pen, shall thereafter be named, Wu Di.
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 12:50 pm
Eerie Bus-Stop
Monday, January 23, 2006
How many of you don't know by now that I actually live opposite a cemetery? Not directly opposite but nearly. Well, if you insist, there is one miserable apartment block (those two units per level kind) that is blocking my home's view of the cemetery.
Adventures that took place with Xclusives within the cemetery before exhumation works started and it was fenced up would come another day.
Today I want to talk about the silly bus-stop opposite my place. Which in other words means it's on the cemetery side.
There was once I left my house at night. It wasn't very late. 8++pm at night and because of the place I was heading to, it was cheaper for me to cross the road and flag a cab.
Believe me. I stood there for almost one hour and a half and NO CAB stopped for me. A handful were empty. They just refused to stop. I was mortified. My friends were going to kill me and then I could be conveniently buried in the cemetery right behind.
Some cab drivers didn't even bother to turn their heads to look at me, preferring to treat me as invisible. Hello? I wasn't even wearing full red that day. Very scary meh?
Finally, when I got up a cab, the cab uncle turned around and asked me: "How come you wait for cab here?".. "Um... cos I stay opposite..??" I said and pointed to the houses on the opposite, half wondering what a stupid question it was.
I've many friends who wondered whether I had ever waited at that bus-stop alone before. Well, I did. Plenty of times, in fact, 8 out of 10 times I waited, I was alone. But of course it was during the daytime. I'm not a night owl. Usualy can't tahan late night events unless of course, it's a cemetery-related adventure.
But you know what was really the scariest thing that happened to me at that particular bus-stop?
It all happened.. On.. I think.. Thursday... or Friday.. No, wait. Saturday...
AIYA Whatever lah! The day not important right?
Well, the thing was, it happened in the DAYtime. Thankfully, I was not alone, or else I would have pee-ed in my pants. Ok, please stop trying to imagine that. It's disgusting.
As I was typing, I was not alone. I was with Xiang. My saviour for the day.
We had to cross the overhead bridge to get to that Eerie Bus-Stop and I was talking very animatedly with my hands flying through the air that day. You know those fashion designers and how they bitch and shout out orders backstage with one hand on the hip?
Yea, imagine something like that. In order to irritate the sh*t out of Xiang I was doing something like that in a very bitchy Her Highness voice.
Xiang was, as he usually was, quiet, listening (though not necessarily paying attention), and walking beside me while looking out for the bus.
Oh let me tell you this. When I go out with people, I have this stupid habit of NOT PAYING ATTENTION to the bus that arrives at the bus-stop. I don't know. I guess my friends have more of this habit than me. I'd usually day-dream and stare at the floor while they keep their heads up and looking at the bus number.
Eeeks! Out of topic!!
I was standing on the right, and he on the left, cos it was nearer to the road and he felt the need to 'block' me from the traffic.
(Yes, girls, you're supposed to go "awwwwww"..)
As we reached the bus-stop's first seat, he suddenly said, "Cin! There's a snake!" and pointed to the bus-stop seat that was dangerously beside me.
Can you believe it? After making that WHOOPING statement, he continued to walk further down while I stood there, shocked, and my legs gave way as I nearly stumbled onto the road.
Yea. Kinda like legs become jelly. I can't help it.
It all happened in a matter of seconds. He said "Snake!" I spotted it out of the corner of my eye, and then went limp.
That chicken mcnugget continued walking when he was supposed to 'hop' me as I carried on with my dramatic fainting-&-falling-down action. One of my hand was even holding on to my forehead!!!
I recovered enough to take two precious photos of the dead snake, and no, it didn't shed skin or whatever. It was truly dead till the internal organs were flattened and spilling out from the undersides.
I wonder who killed it.
Disgusting!
Is seeing a dead snake right before CNY. Auspicious?
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 12:50 am
Waking up on the Wrong Side of Bed
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Think I slept in an awkward position last night. Now my neck hurts like anything. I hope someone would just twist it and break it so that the haunting pain would go away.
But I think that even if you sum up the pain in my neck, it wouldn't be able to beat what this guy went through...
PS: The great dancer is RAIN. YES! EVERYONE'S FAVOURITE WEATHER!.. I mean.. actor... and I also thought I saw Jiang Hui Yuan for 2 seconds? Tell me if you really see her too..
Meanwhile, try not to stay at home and rot too much. It's exam week and then CNY. It is a test of our capability of balancing (once again set by TP), by coping with one of the biggest holidays of the year and our examination at the same time.
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 4:49 pm
The Day In The Life of..
Friday, January 20, 2006
Cindy Lim..
Traveling to School: 45 Minutes
Waiting for Lift at school: Altogether 7 minutes
Things that I did in school: 1 Minute to walk to lecturer's room to throw my journals into the designated boxes
Traveling home from school: 45 Minutes
Very bo hua...
Got a call today from my Careperson to tell me that I passed my SIP. Why am I not surprised?.. Wonder how's the rest of TTG Exhibitions doing over at Davao. OEI TTG-IANS. YOU READING THIS?? SAY HI AT MY TAGBOARD OK??
I guess it's been quite a long time since I flooded my blog posts with dog pictures. Since some of you are so super convinced that I don't even like Didi AT ALL, I shall show you how much I love him by making him the main model with the most number of photos posted up.
Ok, first shot, so it wasn't quite accurate. At the very least I got hold of how he was virtually SITTING on the steps.
How many people can get a clear close-up of Didi's face! Not even Junwei!
Just to spite him even more, here's another close-up where Didi is almost looking at the camera.
Didi doing half hand-stand
Ok, yes, he's cheating on the hand-stand thingy
The Dog.. (pirated)
Wasted photo because of his eyes. At least he was smiling!
I often wonder those people who 'plays' with cameras. You know.. the all sorts of serious and expensive looking equipment, can they tahan seeing my blurred photos? Or seeing it makes them feel like punching the monitor?
Anyway, Serious Camera Men (and Women), I apologise for having you to go through seeing such ugly blurred photos. That's cos I'm using a pathetic 1.3 megapix :(
I guess you have enough of Didi to last you for the rest of 2006!!!
Next character, how can we forget. Everyone's favourite lao ah pek, Chubby Lim pudgey poochy baby-face darling!!!!
Have you ever played 'Where is Wally' when you were young? Bet you did. My bro and I used to be absolutely crazy over 'Where is Wally' when we were midgets. You know, those big picture books, sometimes accompanied with a magnifying glass, and Wally, a fella with glasses and in red and white stripes would be hiding somewhere among the millions of humans in the picture book.
Maybe after I graduate I would find one of those Wally books to fool around for a little while. Ok, I almost forgot to mention, Chubby is somewhere in this photo. See if you have super duper eyes to spot him. You can click on picture to enlarge.
No tricks. It's exactly the same photo as the above. And Chubby is REALLY TRULY in the pic. Look carefully. Answer shown below.
Answer: Right smack in the centre of the bed camouflaged with the blanket.
(Loser!)
La La La.... I shan't put up many photos of Kilo. The poor baby is having a bad case of flu after my parents and I were down with it. I think the only person who hasn't got the flu is my bro. From this, you can tell of our scarce interaction with each other.
Kilo is a cute and obedient dog. Everyone knows that. However, once he falls sick, he looks terrible and acts terrible, as we have learnt from the previous time when he just came back from surgery.
His flu was that bad his eyes seemed a little swollen (I kept putting eyedrops because I thought he got whacked in the eye by some stupid plant or something).
Did anyone care enough about me to buy my handphone number? Because it won FIRST FRIGGING PRIZE LAST NIGHT!
Thanks to Shufang for letting me know. I asked my mother if she did buy she say she did. But it couldn't get in. She likes to buy the last 4 digits (1230) but forgotten to buy the FIRST four digits that won.
See? That is life!
I hope you enjoyed Yang Yang's video. Sorry that I had to turn the camera at a weird angle halfway through.
Till today there is still alot of hoo-ha over this pianist who skipped National Service. He only came back to visit his parents since they could not fly out to meet him. Who knows, came back, everyone made alot of noise about him not doing NS.
Because he's over 45 years old already they can't send him in, so he was slapped with a fine...... of a mere few thousand dollars.
Some people say the fine was too little. Some people say he's very filial, why should we fine him. Some say he is a talented musician, why fine him when he can make invaluable contribution to the music and arts local scene.
Why don't fine? Skip NS wor! I read this article this morning in the TODAY newspapers, written by a lawyer. And personally I feel that he made alot of sense.
Skip your NS and just pay a certain amount, don't care is 3K or 10K. Isn't that too cheap to be a Singaporean? NS should not be measured financially. If you really really don't want to serve at least have the heart to 'geng' some sort of injury and go serve as a clerk. After two years you pass out also considered to have finished serving your NS.
All I saw was a filial NS-defaulter who wants to come back to visit his ageing parents. Full-stop. He turned his back on Singapore a long time ago already. If, within that period Singapore were to be under any sort of attack and faces the possibility of extinction, the only thing he would do is to find some ways and means to get his parents out of here.
.......I still don't understand. Why can't he ask someone bring his parents to JB and he meet them there???
Image courtesy of Channel Newsasia
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 1:47 pm
Yang Yang's Video!!!!
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Taken quite some time ago. Mum was carrying him with the rest of the people in the background doing 'baby talk'.
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 10:14 pm
Ms. Swan 'Clubbing'
Currently creating account with the best of the best youtube.com so that I can share my videos with all of you. Short videos only, of course (so that upload time is faster). Download a few-minute video of Ms Swan and I had half of you complaining to me already. ZZZzzz.. If all goes well, my first uploaded video of everyone's favourite baby, Yang Yang, will be up within tonight. Meanwhile, I shall leave you all in the capable hands of Ms. Swan.
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 9:56 pm
Come on let's...
Monday, January 16, 2006
drip again... like we did last summer... yeaaaa
let's drip again.. like we're sick last year....
Do you remember when.. things are really boring.. yeaaaaa...
Let's drip again, getting sick time is here.....
Not true meh? This is the time when most of the people fall sick, because it is the project deadline time and the time for end of semester papers. Originally, Marketing students don't know the meaning of end-of-sem papers because we are project-based.
Unfortunately, as TP is, well, TP.. it has to push back our mid-semester test all the way to the back until we're taking it almost the same time as the rest of the school who will be taking their end-of-sem.
I'm feeling sian because as usual, my throat is acting up again. And it is accompanied by, as the song hints, a very watery nose.
Whenever I clean Chubby eyes and have to look down, the mucus just threatens to flow out. Now that seriously is ticklish. That's more ticklish than when Xiang tickles me because at least when he does that I can kick the living hell out of him.
I think give me a few more days of this and the skin at the base of my nose is sure to peel.
Let me share with you the proven method, as well as its ups and downs, of completely stopping dripping nose tap.
Stuck a piece of tissue into the nostril. Of course, as we all know, it looks disgusting, but it is the best thing to do (strictly at home, of course).
But there is a fun part out of it. After it has absorbed the maximum amount of mucus, you can actually go to the toilet and stand 1 metre away from the toilet bowl and snort it out.
The down side would be, sometimes when you don't intend to snort it out, it still comes out anyway. Especially when you sneeze. And the worse problem, as I had just discovered 30 seconds ago, is that you get too comfortable with it that you forgot the tissue is in your nose.
That is until you drink something, like hot Milo for example, and realise that your tissue is already partially dipped into the drink. LOL!
Ok, I think I've disgusted you enough for today. Just to let you all know, if my handphone is off, it means I'm sleeping and dead to the world. Please don't bother calling me because I'd call back once I'm awake. Especially you, Chen Weixiang!
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 8:05 pm
Bathing the Buddha
Sunday, January 15, 2006
Went to Chinatown today. It was crazy, but at least the weather was quite cooling and I didn't sweat alot. Was so glad about me not sweating that I asked Xiang to touch my neck to boast to him that I didn't even sweat a single drop. Xiang was weird today though. He was wearing my favourite shirt, (as in a shirt of his that I like alot, not wearing MY shirt) which was with the whole collar and long sleeves thingy, and was.. for lack of better description, sweating like a pig..
Not everyone's body responds to the same level of heat the same way. To some people, it was frigging hot, because they sweat like nobody's business. The worse was they push against you and your arm and theirs brush against each other. And me, being the non-sweaty one is so disadvantaged. Next time I will not bathe and I will sweat so much that 5-metre radius of people around me can SMELL my existence.
Xiang discovered a pretty interesting thing that I eventually bought for my Dad today. It's a gourd. Hu Lu, as it is called in Chinese. Most of you have seen Ji Gong, and know that he carries one around with him all the time (it acts as a water bottle).
Now this is the real deal. It's dried up already and the insides is hollow. If you shake it, you can even hear the seeds rolling around inside the hollow dried-up fruit.
I was in a dilemma. Didn't know which one to get for my Dad. There was a Guan Yin one and a Ji Gong one where the Hulu shape is very good and rounded. Some of the Hulus there really cannot make it. Some kind of mutated shape. But I guess it's up to the individual's preference.
Remembered Dad once mentioned that you can't anyhow buy pictures of gods or deities and anyhow place it anywhere you want in the house. I played safe by choosing one with a good meaning like Nian Nian You Yu. Damn.. how do you say Nian Nian You Yu in English?...
Ok ok, here goes my horrible translation: Year Year Got Fish.
More sensible meaning: Every year there is fish.
The 'fish' word has two meanings. One is.. well.. FISH.. the other meaning means 'excess' or 'spare'.
Chinese like this phrase because for those who work, it would mean that every year they would have spare/excess (specifically referring to) money.
However, if someone is in the retail line and whose livelihood depends on selling things or whatever, wishing someone Nian Nian You Yu would get you slapped.
Nah, I'm just kidding about the slapping part. But you really can't wish someone that because it would kinda mean that your goods would not be sold, thus you'd have excess goods leftover.
So, played safe, AGAIN and bought a Zhao Cai Yun Bao (Beckoning to money and luck) one.
Thanks for bearing with me and reading the entire story. Now I shall reward you with a picture of the Hulu:
The Hulu
After that we got out of the crowded parts of Chinatown and stumbled upon the site where the Budda Tooth Relic Temple would be built (Please tell me I got the name correct).
There were the 12 buddhas representing the 12 zodiac animals there. We were supposed to bathe our own zodiac buddha. I found out that my bro and dad's zodiac sign was going to clash with the year of the dog's, so prayed for theirs (as well as mum's since I gotta be fair). They're born in the year of the dog, dragon and snake respectively.
When I was at the dragon's side, I closed my eyes and pray. Opened it again and realised I could not find the stupid scoop to bathe the buddha's statue with. I remembered the lady before me was holding on to it so I turned around to look for her.
"Wa!" I accidentally blurted out when I realised the long queue of dragon people behind me.
Hurriedly I got down and walked to Xiang who was waiting for me. "The lady before me walked off with the nice glass scoop!" I said.
"No lah!" he pointed at the person after me who was happily bathing the buddha already. "It dropped into the water you didn't see ar?"
So embarrassed. I went to pray at the dog's side for bro, then the snake's for mum, and since there was no longer a queue at the dragon's side, I hurriedly ran up the stairs to bathe the buddha.
In my haste, I accidentally knocked the scoop against the buddha statue (on the head somemore!). It was just a very unintentional and light knock.
This hurled me back into my memory two years ago on Vesak Day.
I don't know what got into me. I woke up at 5am in the morning that day to go to the few temples that my parents always frequent on Vesak's Day.
First temple, of course, would be the one at Si Bei Lor. Wa, now then I realise if you type that street name in English it actually reminds you of a vulgar word.
I don't know what's the english name for that street. I think everyone in the entire world calls it Si Bei Lor.
Next stop would definitely be Burmese temple. It had some story behind it. OH! I remember. We had problems selling our old house at Boon Teck Tower. Parents went to pray at the Burmese temple (it was quite close to our old home) and made some kind of promise that if our house is sold, they would come back every year during Vesak.
Within three days it was really sold.
Thus every year they really went back.
But the Burmese temple was the most fun. You could knock a bell, queue up for holy water, I mean many 'fun' things to do unlike the usual temple where it's just 'pray and get out and away from the crowd'.
Among those was also one that involved bathing a little life-sized baby buddha.
I remember it was made of brass and had a really friendly warm smiling face. I scooped water and let it trickle down the little baby (that was like my very FIRST time I bathed a statue) then suddenly 'gong', accidentally, my scoop hit its head. Now that one was also unintentional, but it wasn't a light hit. It made quite a resounding noise, in fact, especially since the buddha was like made of brass!
That shocked me as well and I almost dropped the scoop into the buddha's leg instead. Thankfully I didn't. Well, Buddhism always teaches us to be magnanimous and forgiving right? So I guess I didn't get into too much of a trouble.
And then I went into the temple and kneeled down in front of this monk where he tied an orange string to my hand. When I was young, I once asked mum if I could go home and cut the string. Mum said (and I don't know whether it's true or she just wants to lie me into leaving it alone) that the string was suppose to protect you, and once it's done it's job, it would automatically drop.
I guess some of you know, that string lasted 2 years on my right wrist! In fact, I didn't even go to the following year's Vesak Day, not because I was lazy but because I didn't want another string on my hand (though I was told they'd cut off the previous year's one).
Right, as usual, I am very sucky at ending blog post. So.. tata.. ending here..!! Remember to come to TP's openhouse this Tue/Wed/Thurs!!!!!
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 11:40 pm
You are my Sunshine~
Yay! The second consecutive day WITHOUT rain. The time is 2.53pm now and I hope I'm not too early to say that.
Bad thing is, it's near to impossible to do any Chinese New Year shopping because the world out there is CRAZY. No parking space (seems like everyone's got themselves a car what with PLUNGING COE and soon-to-be lowered import tax or something), and the shops are squeezy and crowded.
Soon, everyone's nerve will be ready to explode like a lighted firecracker.
But that day, is not today. Today, we shop!
Let us reflect back on the changes compared to a year ago on the previous Chinese New Year of 2005.
Didi has learnt how to wink. Unlike the previous year where all he knows is to walk so near your legs when climbing up/down the staircase that you'd accidentally kick him to the bottom of the stairs.
Kilo is still currently learning how to irritate strangers by kissing them. Lessons kindly sponsored by Cindy the Great. I think my eyes look kinda swollen in the pic. Eeee....
I got to know a great bunch of peepz at TTG Asia who helped me alot during my attachment (not everyone is in pic).
Chubby has learnt how to terrorise and bully smaller non-animated and lifeless objects such as my earrings and my little Husky softoy that Melanie bought for me (Sorry Mel, but it's safe now).
But the most drastic change that took place was............... Oscar.
He grew. Alot.
I bought him this container once from the $1.99 shop when it was still $1.99 (now because of GST I think become $2.01).
Since Oscar hates water so much, I bought him a shallow container that was big enough for him to swim around and eat his dry food and then proceed to climb out and dig a hole somewhere to sleep in the dark (his favourite thing to do).
Unfortunately, he grew out of the container soon enough. Oscar's habit was, when he sees me putting that container down, he'd run and dive into the container himself.
It's a really cute sight. Until one day when both me and him realised he could no longer dive.
He hit the bottom of the container headfirst and stayed there while little birds were flying around his head:
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 2:52 pm
Need More Creative Ads
Saturday, January 14, 2006
I know Singapore has limited land space, but I think we are still big enough to do ads such as these that are so awfully cute!!!
Think about it! When was the last time you saw an ad that made you went "Wa!" Here we come world, the newest batch of TP Marketing grads!!
(Later end up only Nur among all of us went to Advertising..)
But anyway, photo courtesy of no one else but MY MOTHER again. At least she didn't screw up on this one.
I think one of the main point of advertisements is sometimes you want people to see the commercial and can already guess what brand is it. I so seriously feel that it is a Nike ad.
I need someone to tell me if I will get killed for not turning up for the Entrepreneur talk this morning or not. I'm aware only participation marks will be affected (they'd probably minus 3 marks off my overall grades).
Have you ever seen a POLYTECHNIC that asks a student to come back on a Saturday morning at 8.30am for a talk? Hell, not only the student is inconvenienced. Even the speakers who gave the talk surely find it troublesome. I can imagine what went on in their minds "What kinda stupid timing is this?"
That is downright STUPID. 8.30am on a Saturday morning. Wa biang! No breaks after attachment, start school immediately, 5 projects to hand up within two and a half months, 5 individual journals to do along with one super EXTRA portfolio.. SCHOOL FEES REMAIN THE SAME! They should be paying us to do so much things in so little time!
Think they want us to excel in stressful situtions. TP, do you know there is a THIN LINE between stressful and suicidal? And let me remind you, you really do have a very nice 'stage' that allows people to jump off the building. Imagine if they jump off at the concourse. No matter how police barricade the area the media sure still able to take pics de. I mean, TP has a wonderful 'open concept' doesn't it?
.... Ok ok.. I admit. I'm talking like that becuase I haven't had lunch yet. ARGHHHH...
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 3:11 pm
Female Version of Mr. Bean
Except 100000x more irritating. Ladies and Gentlemen... Ms. Swan...
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 12:12 am
My Mum and Cameras
Friday, January 13, 2006
What a rare photo of my cousins, bro, the girlfriends, and me from my paternal side.
Let me tell you what's wrong with the picture. There are two people missing. One's Good Jerk, the other's my beautiful cousin-in-law, Doris. You can obviously see half of Xiang's shoulder in the photo. At least his shoulder was in. Doris, who was standing beside Ah Hwee, was completely out.
And let me tell you another thing that's wrong with the photo: the photographer is my mother. I'm still waiting for photos taken by our other 3 backup cameras including the official camera for the wedding, whom I am pretty sure did not accidentally leave anyone out of it.
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 11:32 am
Medieval Times
The roof is leaking.
The toilet light spoil from the leak (my guess). It's blinking non-stop. Do you know the last time my stupid toilet light blew, I use the toilet that time had to move my entire lamp into the toilet? Imagine me, carrying one super heavy-based lamp. Whoa!
And then Oscar moved into my room instead. The stupid terrapin knock at my balcony door with his shell every morning asking to be let into the room probably because it was too cold outside.
Now he is camping behind my TV and looking around right now as I am typing this sentence.
But you know what's worse? The frigging water heater system in my house is SOLAR-POWERED!
Now, peepz, WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU SAW THE FRIGGING SUN!
Heck I can't even remember when was the last time I bathed with hot water from the tap at home!
Now, before bathing, I had to fill up a tub (those kind that you bathe babies in) and then BOIL WATER to add inside.
Is that pathetic or is that pathetic? Don't tell people I'm living in Singapore; they'd never believe you.
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 12:00 am
Customise Pens
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Looking for pens with your own name? Check out the ones above. I bought mine from Dickson's friend and thought all of you would be interested as well. Just tag on my board or call me up straight. Costs only $3.90 for one name. For two names (that means one on each side kind) it's $4.90.
Available colours are shown in the photo.
I'm trying to get one done for my grandpa in Chinese word that reads 'Ah Gong'. Hahaha! Don't know if that's possible.
Talking about Dickson.. you all remember him don't you? That Tay Ping Hui lookalike:
Uncanny resemblance. Since it is compulsory for me to credit the photographer... Mr. Quek Junwei, who at that time I think just bought his camera or something and is shooting everyone and everything.
Bless the weather! Now I fully understand the meaning of the song that He Yao Sun (forgot her English-spelt name or her ang moh name) "I can see the sun... I can see the sun with love.."
Hope I got lyrics correct. Hahaha! SHIT. GOT TO GO SCHOOL!
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 10:58 am
The Day Didi Went Away
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
It was quite a mistake. The previous day at around midnight, when the rain finally stopped for 20 minutes, we took Didi and Kilo out without their leash on. There were no people around with their dogs, except for the occasional car passing by which the dogs didn't give a heck about.
The following day, Mum and I left the house as she was fetching me to school. Our neighbour's contractor came to talk to my grandpa but to no avail since ah gong didn't understand what on earth he was talking about (he only understands hokkien and malay).
It was during this time that the contractor came over that Didi ran out through the wide open gates. No one noticed. No one saw. Didi thought he would be able to walk out by himself again and away he went.
We were this close to losing our baby Shetland, and yes, I am lying to myself. We all know Didi is an old ah pek Shetland already.
When Mum came home, she was driving when she saw in the rear mirror Didi chasing after her car. She stopped the car and looked around for any sign of our maid whom she assumes would be with him.
Nope, nobody there.
By then, Didi had ran to the front of the car and was barking non-stop while trying to peer into the car (probably to see whether it is my mum). Ma then opened the door and called for him. At first he shrank backwards but when he heard that it was my mother's voice, he just jumped into the car.
I'm still quite amazed at how he knew it was our car of all cars but then I suddenly remembered that it must be due to all that pee-ing at the four tyres of the car.
That wasn't so bad. But Didi was dumb. He shouldn't have loitered around. Sitting outside our gate and barking his head off would have done enough for the people at home to open the gates to let him in.
In fact, that was what Chubby did before.
Whenever someone came, he would take the opportunity to walk out of the gate to the dustbin area and pee there before returning. I was used to this habit of his, but not my grandpa.
Once, when my Aunt visited and her husband came to fetch her back, Ah Gong closed the gates after he left, not knowing that Chubby was still pee-ing outside.
I was just finishing my dinner when I could hear Chubby barking. Now this dog is like my shadow. He's always somewhere near me so it was really weird to hear him barking from elsewhere. I ran around and shouted his name.
Finally, I ran out to ask Kilo who doesn't seem to be very enthusiastic in helping me find that dog.
Kilo
After all that commotion and I finally realised where he is, I opened the gate to let Chubby in. That stupid haughty a$$ of a dog just walked past me without even greeting or whatever. It was as if it was only right for me to open the gate for him. As if I owe him one or something, you know.
I don't know what they say about dogs but Shih Tzus are like cats to me. Hell, even Mr. Meow didn't even need anyone to open the gates for her when she was with us! Cats, just squeeze under the gate or jump over and they're out.
In fact, she's SO smart, she could even open the gate so that Kilo could accompany her to catch some cockroaches back.
