merry christmas!

merry christmas!

Have a blessed one y'all!

three's a crowd

three's a crowd

So one day, WTL didn't wear me out enough, and I decided that it would be an excellent idea to bring all 3 dogs out for a walk. With ONE leash. Because Kiki (mother) and Bimo (brother) came over for a visit and no one had ambitions so grand as to walk all 3 of them TOGETHER, there was no extra leash. But me, being me, was so excited about seeing all 3 of them that I whined Glenn into bringing all of them down for a walk with me.

It was a nightmare from the beginning. The moment we took out the leash, all 3 of them started whining and barking NONSTOP. Because all 3 of them were excited about going out. And when we finally put on all their collars and ushered them into the lift, the lift had to open on the 6th storey, where an Indian couple was waiting for the lift. The 3 doors, all hyped up and unleashed, dashed out of the lift barking at the top of the lungs. The Indian couple wanted to kick our furry monsters! ): We apologized profusely, and then hung on to them tightly when the lift door opened on the ground floor.

Glenn, knowing the dogs better than I do, chose to cradle Bubblez and hold Bimo on the leash. So I was left with Kiki. Now, Kiki is the size of a little sheep! And she has the energy of a cow! She kicked and struggled and scratched until I yelped for Glenn to decide on a spot to let them down. Once they were all running amok, things were good for awhile. Until we realized that Kiki has the tendency to run and bark at every human being who was not us. Especially little kids.

Kiki is in the bottom right photos - doesn't she look like a sheep??

Looking good for photos huh?

This is how it was like in reality!

Always trying to run out of sight.

So we had to move them away! Away from the the shady playground and into the sunny exercise corner. Once we were there, we let them all roam loose. Glenn stood in the shade holding on to Bimo's leash while I ran around like a headless chicken chasing Bubblez and Kiki to make sure they didn't get lost. Or knocked down by a car. Or kicked to death by someone else they terrorized. Or actually catch a bird and kill it. Or get scratched by a cat. (Yes, Bubblez is scared of cats.)

I tell you, I played 2 full touchrug games that morning, and nothing came close to chasing 2 crazy dogs who love to chase people and birds respectively!! And on top of that, they each shat at least twice and I had to pick the shit up while still yelling BUBBLEZ COME BAAAAAAAACK and KIKI SIT DOOOOWN! Glenn decided that his job for the afternoon was to remind me that it was NOT a good idea to bring all 3 of them down for a walk at ONCE. So he only came to help me when I was on the verge of tearing my hair out. So mean right!

And when we finally headed home after 30mins, we were EXHAUSTED. And the dogs? Happy and satisfied. No more barking symphony for the rest of the day. :D

Favourites, at the end of the day.

best memory: october

best memory: october

Cup noodles and Paddlepop icecream after training. 11.11pm wishes and peeking. Being the last souls alive in school in the middle of the night, filling the crisp cool air with our jokes and laughter.

my miracle water

my miracle water

As much as I've been itching to try THE miracle water, contemplation continues because of its pricetag and mixed reviews. So anyway, I want to share MY miracle water - Avene Thermal Water! It's the best thing ever, and it's a mere 10bucks.

I use it to replenish my skin's moisture during long days in the aircon room. You might ask why not change to a richer moisturizer, but my skin is CRAZY on oil production so anything heavier than what I'm using now might make me a target for the USA a new oil field. Hahaha. So I'm sticking to this spray, and I'm so used to it that a couple of hours into my day and I find myself reaching for my facial spray. It also perks you up a little because it's so cooling!

Even if you don't have the oil field/desert dilemma like me, the miracle water is great for setting makeup as well, so you don't look all powdery and flaky when you first step out of the house. On other days, I use it to freshen up after I wipe off the sunblock with facial wipes at the end of trainings. Even when you're not doing rigorous exercise, you can use it to cool off from our insane weather. There're a million other uses for it - like soothing skin irritation after waxing or shaving, calming sunburnt skin and whatever else you like to do with it! Because it's just water.

But it's awesome water. It's miracle water. So miraculous that I decided to create a new label (a in, new label in my blog and not some new cosmetic label or anything, wish as I might, haha) for it, and hopefully other awesome stuffs that I wanna share. :D (Well fine, this post probably has something to do with my boredom level with my essay at the moment. Hahaha.)

best memory: september

best memory: september

Friends coming home. A surprise from Phuay when she flew back for 5 days. I always miss my girlfriends terribly during term time, and the phone call from Aussie bringing the news one night followed by tea at Dempsey a couple of days later totally made my recess week.

Or just people being in the same place at the same time. It just feels like everything's falling into place. I was so happy to meet up with my exchange friends when Pui and Robert came over to Singapore together! :D Ping, we missed you!

those montreal nights

those montreal nights

I was terribly undisciplined with my bedtime when I was in Montreal. For as long as I can (or want to) remember, bedtime was usually when the boy calls to say goodnight. So with 5 hours of time difference and a few thousand miles between us, the daily goodnight calls went into hiatus for 4 months. So did my regular bedtime.

Without the routine, without a worried Mom to knock on my door at 3am because my light is still on, I became a full-fledged nocturnal, especially when deadlines are near. Since I was on exchange, I also picked up the habit of starting on work some 24hrs before its deadline.

I'd make coffee for myself at 1am, so that I could stay up all the way till about 7 or 8am, and my surprised roomie would wake up to her day while I end my night. I know it's very unhealthy, but I actually miss the crazy nights somewhat. I really enjoy the hours when the sun starts to come up, and I'd watch its reflection climb the building across the street. Here's what I mean:

Tonight, I'll be attempting a Montreal! And let's see what morning brings. (:

grief on a rainy afternoon

grief on a rainy afternoon

The rain, grey and heavy, falling.

The grief, dark and swollen, breathing.

The love, warm and present, smiling.

For the girl with her father's smile -

the rain will clear,

the grief will ease,

but the love, the love will always live.

shoe/bag dilemma

shoe/bag dilemma

With nearly 30 pairs of shoes, I couldn't find a pair that matches the simple blue dress I chose to wear for a date last Sunday! I sought advice from two dears of mine, Meljane and Kaiyi, before finally deciding on one pair that seemed to match the least. Kais and I even had a skype session with my tower of shoes.

See, I have at least 3 pairs of black shoes, that'd easily go with the blue dress, but horror of horrors - I'm SUCH a shoes girl that I totally neglected my bag department. I do not own a black bag! The closest thing to a black bag I own is a glittery black clutch, which is way too formal for a casual Sunday afternoon. I also didn't want to be too matchy with blue shoes, and my red shoes are too uncomfy for a whole afternoon of walking. See, so troubled!

I really wanted a relaxed but classy look for the afternoon, and for some reason, I was adamant about using my brown holiday sling bag. So here's the look we (Mel, Kais and I) put together in the end. Haha!

Green/nude shoes from Nose, KL.

Dress from BonitoChico.

Chain from Tiff&Co.

Bag from H&M.

thru the boy's eyes

thru the boys' eyes

What do you think of when you walk into a store with decor such as the above? COSMETICS! FACIAL CARE! EVERYTHING PRETTY!!! Right? And then you start the endless debate on which brand, which product range, which shade, which price, which... It goes on.

Now, let me share with you what was going on in the boy's head the whole time I was battling the million little voices in my head. When I turned to him, and asked him, "So how, babe? Which brand to go for!"

He replied calmly, "Have you noticed how they cut the whole piece of acrylic just so they can fit ONE product nicely into each slot? Every slot has the exact dimensions of the product it was made for. Now, what if the company decides to change the design of the container? Or even simpler, make bigger bottles of whatever's inside there? It's not very practical, is it?"

See these were the little potholes that attracted his attention.

And there were MANY of them. Bad.

I blinked twice, and dragged him away from the little potholes on the cosmetic shelves and ventured towards another counter with perhaps less precisely cut potholes.

"Hmm, should I give Sephora's house brand a try or should I stick to the tried and trusted but very expensive M.A.C.?"

He went on, "And now if you look at the way these mirrors are tilted... A girl your height would find it perfect. But how about a taller girl? See, someone my height won't be able to see her face in the mirror. What if there was a sudden increment in the average height of the population?"

I plodded on, dragging him towards the very pretty display of the colourful Sephora bath gels, hoping it might distract him a little. And what can he say about a simple glass cabinet, right? Afterall, there were neither precisely cut potholes nor weirdly angled mirrors.

But the boy proved me wrong: "And I was looking at all these shower gels. Notice how certain colours are never full while others are filled to the brim? And it's the same old colours with an empty gap in the bottles. I suspect there's ethanol in those few colours, and the ethanol evaporated, therefore leaving the gap."

I marched out of the store, with the boy in tow, and a sweet smile on my face, "Let's go look at boys' stuff now." I was truly afraid that too many long minutes of boredom would do further damage to both our brains.

Post-script: Photos stole from all over Google and her.

my fav girls in nus

my fav girls in nus

Ever since I left JC, I've been increasingly lazy to make friends. I think I've evolved into a social hermit in university. I go to class, be nice and civil to everyone, make a couple of precious good friends, and then run off to hide somewhere with these few close friends I've made. And really, there have been precious few classmates who became close friends.

So, if it weren't for my touch team, I'd probably be a social outcast in school. Everytime I think about my time so far in NUS, these girls are always close to heart. Nothing in the world really replaces girly afternoons spent laughing over nothing in particular, or smearing mud off each other's faces after trainings.

We've recently finished our SUNIG season and came in 3rd. I thought I'd be more disappointed with our final standing, and I was surprised to find out that I wasn't. It's been a special season for us as team. We grew closer, and pulled each other through tough times. When we came together, I do feel we gave our best under circumstances. That's not to say we played our best because we know we play better touch than that. That's a pity, I can't deny, but more important than results on paper, I think our team won a bond that no medal can replace.

So this one's for my favourite girls in NUS. I'm so glad I decided to stay on in Year 1 and hung on till now. It wasn't always easy (eating mud and collecting scars and cursing refs), but we made it through. We made it to become a real team of friends. I love these bimbos!

From lazy Starbucks afternoons,

to silly antics at carnivals,

to taitai Sunday brunches,

to ultimate camwhoring sessions,

to playing sparklers after trainings.

Alf, before you complain about your absence from this post, I dedicate one whole photo to you okay.

And of course, Karen, the best coach we could ever have. (:

fb status: in rehab

fb status: in rehab

Yeah that's how my account looks like to me - I can't even view my own profile.

My name is Meng, I am 21 this year and I have a problem - I am a Facebook addict. No, I'm serious. The amount of time I spend on Facebook is unhealthy. Of the 18hours I'm awake everyday, I probably spend 16hours on Facebook, unless I don't have connection. Even when I've replied every notification and laughed over every funny comment twice, I am still on Facebook, surfing aimlessly.

As you can probably predict, it is not very congruent with my goal to conquer the ever-growing pile of notes on my desk. So friends, I've made the painful but noble decision of locking my FB account. I gave Glenn my password and told him to change it and keep it safe from me.

That boy did it without warning while I was still happily surfing Facebook like I would on a normal rainy afternoon, and then suddenly the message "Please log in to continue" popped up! Oh Internet, let me tell you - it felt like the beeping of your oxygen tank while you realize you won't surface in time. I desperately clicked "Comment" multiple times, hoping that last comment of mine will get posted. I was just short of breaking out into spasm and gasping for breath.

It's been 6 hours. And I've been feeling like a social recluse every single minute. Now thank God I didn't decide to have him lock my blog for me.

le rendezvous

le rendezvous

Glenn and I have a problem in our relationship - we cannot find time for proper dates. We try and make up for it by meeting for lunch in school, going for tuitions together every Wednesday (we have tuition in the same house at the same time, but different kids) but it's never really the same as a real date.

The last time we went on a proper date was on the 11th of the last month. That's our special day of the month. And I can't even remember what we did. Oh yes, now I do. We went around the island trying to buy me a camera but ended up at Dempsey's B&J where I stained my lovely white skirt with Fishfood icecream, which is BROWN if you must know and gloat about it.

This time, we didn't wanna travel much, and decided on having a cosy little dinner date somewhere nearby. After hearing his several ravings about La Petite Cuisine at Serene Centre, we had a French dinner date. Sounds mega atas, no? To be truthful, I was secretly rather excited about it! La cuisine française? Biensur!

I kept spouting random little French sentences from the whatever remnants of French knowledge that's left in my brain from 3 sems of French and annoyed the hell out of Glenn throughout the evening. I mean, I even wanted to correct the French grammar on the menu just so that I can be a pesky little bimbo of a patron. In return, he tried to be as ah peh as possible, pronouncing the French words in the most awful ways and emphasizing every un-atas bit of the restaurant.

But when the owner of the restaurant came to do her "Bonsoir-bon-appetite" rounds, I'd managed to snatch Glenn's unglam bottle of chrysanthemum tea away and I replied a chirpy "Oui, merci beaucoup!" Score!

Hahaha seriously, I don't know why we do these things to each other either.

And verdict on La Petite Cuisine? So-so French cuisine that's a tad below the average Parisien cafes but set in a rather cosy corner of Bukit Timah. The alfresco corner was cute, but really, the evening was still too warm for comfortable outdoor dining. Final say? Expect no atas French fine dining and you'll have fun at a relatively authentic French dinner! (Hint: you might want to begin by annoying the boyfriend and then spending the whole evening engaging in a meaningless tiff. Hahaha.)

Since we were at Serene Centre, of course we had to skip over to Island Creamery for some dessert! My new favourite flavour is Pear Sake. I've always loved sorbets but this is super yum It simply tastes like frozen pear, which is how all fruit-flavour icecream should taste like. We also spent a good 10 minutes debating if Island Creamery takes down the photos on the walls once in awhile. Anyone knows??

Just because I said I'll put together a photo so it looks like he's gazing at me in awe. HAHA.

DIY: liese hair colour

DIY: liese hair colour

I got bored of my hair, and decided to give it some colour! But having depleted all my savings running all over the world, I bought a bottle of off-the-shelf hair dye to try. After hearing several friends pay compliments to the new Liese Bubble hair dye, I gave it a try!

Now, I was pretty worried about what the stuff would do to the quality of my hair at first. The last time I dyed my hair the DIY way was when I got caught for my highlights as a wayward JC girl. Oh my poor hair. It just withered into black hay. Dry and fizzy. No, dry and fizzy plus waves.

But none of that this time round! My hair felt normal, and the colour turned out very natural! I was worried that the roots were lighter than the ends at first, but then I realized it was cos of the light. Hahaha.

Would I try it again? Well, it's 120bucks vs. 20bucks. So yes, I would!

how to impress your atas date

how to impress your atas date

I've been studying the entire afternoon, and I actually came across something I'd like to remember for most part of my life. So do consider yourself having received the geek alert yeah? Here goes!

Ever sat in a classical musical recital or a ballet recital or a Shakespeare play and wondered what the hell is going on, or where the hell is the attraction/entertainment you've been looking for? Ever sat in one of those with a date who's just drowning in the atasness and chimness of the performance? Ever left one of those with torpedos of questions rained on you by your date?

Most importantly, ever wondered what to say to appear the more intelligent one?

Here's what you can do - decipher the atasness and chimness of the above mentioned. Shoot a question back - do you know why you enjoy what you enjoy? (And to promote the possibility of a second date, proceed to ask, and do you know why your enjoyment makes you so classy? *Winks*)

It's because high art is such due to these reasons:

1.) It's inaccessible. Therefore exclusive. Therefore the price you/I paid for our ticket.

2.) There's emotional distance. You didn't have a big O right there, did you? Yeah well, you weren't supposed to anyway. But if you're looking for one...

3.) Someone with a memorable name was behind the production. Of course we didn't pay the premium price to watch Shakespeare wannabe. It's gotta be Shakespeare the man himself.

So there, note to self in case I ever need to impress any future atas date. Because just like you, friends, I've been caught forcing my eyes open with tooth picks during a classical recital and then raking my brains for profound vocab to make up for the lack of content in the conversation afterward.

Needless to say, there was no second date.

But now. Ah, the pleasures of being an arts students sometimes.

korea photologue

korea photologue

Because the crazy schedule of school does not allow for time to write a huge deal, I shall do a simple photologue of the Korea trip with the Touch girls before the memories start to collect dust, like the Europe, America and Canada ones are doing at the moment. I promise I will finish those travelogues one fine day. Some day. Haha.

And for now, I've put together a couple of collages to tell a quick story of our very exciting Korea trip. Of course, with our plane caught in a typhoon then being diverted to Japan en route and then almost getting ourselves killed by trying to walk ON (not even along) the train tracks, Touch girls are always full of surprises.

We had to pose for a school photo (despite them not giving us a single cent) in that less-than-pretty orange thing, with Shena Na sending us off. I simply refused to wear it onto the plane. It will kill ANY chance of being upgraded to biz class or first class. Hey, a girl needs to keep her dreams alive yeah?

Because we flew Cathay, we had to stop over in HK. None of us complained because that only meant one thing... FOOD AND SHOPPING! Okay fine, that's two things. We were happy girls with the yummy dim sum and dessert. Never mind that it was actually Crystal Jade that we ate. We did have the kickass authentic dessert!

Oh, that's us in Osaka, Japan for an afternoon because we were caught in a freaking typhoon when we were trying to touch down. We were caught in SEVERE turbulence for a good 20 minutes, and I saw my life flash before my eyes and rewind and play again and rewind and play again. We were all pretty sure the plane was going to crash and so thank God for insurance. The only good thing that came out of it was a comfy Hilton hotel stay in Osaka and an hour to explore the area around our hotel!

We hit the food right away the moment we finally got ourselves to the correct country - KOREA. Indeed, food never disappoints. Ginseng chicken, authentic Korean BBQ... I can't even begin to remember what else we ate because we were constantly at it, but oh yum.

And of course there was the shopping! Oh my, these girls are the craziest shoppers I've ever met. They just shop and shop and shop and they never get tired! Me, I got sick and tired of the same old things and the bargaining after the first trip that I just never really dragged myself to go a second time. It was only when I saw everyone's purchases that I went like, Hmm maybe I should have shopped a wee bit more. But still, I managed to score a huge stack of face masks and some great steals.

The other thing that stopped me from venturing out for a second shopping trip was the PEOPLE! Omg, Korea is so not my country. "Excuse me" does not exist in their vocabulary and bumping their way through crowds is a way of life. When I thump on the umbrella that was threatening to blind me, the man holding actually sniggered at me. What kinda person sniggers at a poor soul whose eyeballs he almost pierced? Oh good Lord, just based on that, I was pretty happy to leave the country when it was time to.

Touch girls being sports girls, of course we went to Korea with a sport to play - an international touch competition held in Seoul every year. This year, there wasn't a women's cat, so we played in the mixed cat, and came in second. Everyone's jaws hit the ground when we won the first game - simply because we were girls. But these same people were SO rude during the finals! We kept hearing comments like "Oh yeah, of course the referee is biased, he's hoping to get lucky with one of the girls."

HELLO EXCUSE ME?? If we're good, we are GOOD. Take your men's pride home and stuff it up your sorry little arse. Sickening MCPs. I was completely taken aback at how sexist and childish they were. And mind you, these were fully grown adults. Probably with degenerative brains. How else do we explain their behaviour!

Oh, and to add to all that excitement, I just have to tell you this - we barely made it to the tournament. Shan insisted that she saw a woman walking ON THE TRAIN TRACKS towards the competition grounds. After 3 steps, common sense got the better of us and we turned back. 2 minutes later, A FREIGHT TRAIN CAME WHOOSHING BY. And that's how we almost made the Seoul headlines.

I surprised everyone by opting to go to the Palace with Karen and Zuozuo on the second last day! I even dragged our resident little monster along. :D I was actually more interested in the cultural stuff than the shopping this time round. And I was so disappointed we didn't see any girls in the traditional costumes dancing around the palace! Ah wells, maybe I'll give the other parts of Korea, like Jeju Island, another try another time. As for now, I'm pretty damn happy to be back in the land of "excuse me's".

happy place: starbucks

happy place: starbucks

Now that school has started for real, I constantly find myself trying very hard to squeeze out periods of study time. It's always school time, tuition time, training time and sleeping time. I cannot study after dinner and before bed, because I always get distracted by TV and the seductive Internet.

So when I actually find a block of hours to sit down and Starbucks (or even the school library to just study), I am a very happy girl.

best memory: august

best memory: august

PMS, in order. (:

Dinner with BOTH of my oldest best friends, a first since I came back. We've all been so busy, and attempts to meet up failed at least 3 times. I'm so glad it happened this time, and we sat chatting in the restaurant till it closed.

walking the bubblez

walking the bubblez

Bubblez, doing her favourite thing - chasing the poor little birds.

This is what I do when I get bored or stressed or unhappy. I go over to Glenn's place, and I feel loved right away. Not always from him (you know, boys being insensitive boys take awhile to figure things), but always, always from his dog.

Even before I step into his house, Bubblez already makes me feel as if she's been pining me for me forever. Everytime I press the doorbell, I'd hear her trot to the door, and try to sniff through it. Then all I have to do is whisper her name, and she'd start barking and whining and commanding Glenn to get the door. How else do you feel unhappy when you know there's a cute ball of fur begging to see you!

Needless to say, the moment the door is opened, she jumps right up to me and tries to kiss me. Hahaha as much as I love her, I don't fancy her wet sloppy kisses too much!

Usually I try to bring her out for a walk everytime I go over. And she gets soooo excited about it! As soon as we put on her collar, she'd start running to the door, and back to you, and whine at you to "get out already!" She's pretty much trained now, so we can walk her without her leash, except there is still the risk of going hoarse yelling her name when she finds 1.) birds to chase, 2.) cats to disturb or 3.) food to eat in secret.

And a little more on #3... The little thing is really sneaky and too smart for her own good! When you catch her eating food that she's not supposed to, she PRETENDS to be the angel of all dogs. She gives you the most innocent and obedient look, so that when you yell at her to sit down, and give her two sayangs of a beating on the backside, people around you start to whip out their phones and key in the SPCA's number.

I swear, if there were a dog personality competition, this darling would take the cake.

See, she even scowls!

What kinda dog scowls??

sophomore no more

sophomore no more

Third year in school feels old and new at the same time. Thanks to the lovely break in Canada/US/Europe, I feel all refreshed and ready to tackle another semester of madness. Also thanks to the few months spent away from the NUS campus, I am back to getting lost on campus. Where on earth is LT14 again?? I swear they only went up to LT12 for FASS! So far, it's been 3 days of school, 3 days of cab, and 2 days of getting lost. Fail much! Haha.

Yet at the same time, I look old enough to warrant a question on the whereabouts of the POSB ATM from a Y1 freshmen when I was walking along the Central Library walkway with Fadilah. We were fairly bitter about it for a moment. Hahaha. But there's no denial; we've lost our freshie glows. Yes, freshie glow is the term to describe that ethereal happy aura that surrounds there fresh young things as they wander about school in their Monday bests hugging new friends.

Me? I've gotten so used to school that I seriously cannot be bothered to dress up anymore, especially on training days. It's gotten so bad that when I went to get a haircut after school, my hairdresser observed "Hmm, you really do like sportswear, don't you?" So I guess the sloppy clothes and flipflops have to go! I WILL dress up for school at least one day a week! That creates one more reason for liking school. (:

Yes, you didn't get me wrong. I've been meaning to reveal that I actually do like school! I've been secretly looking forward to it for a couple of weeks now actually. I call it the Glenn streak in me - I'm a secret workoholic. Hahaha. I absolutely cannot stand long days spent lazing around at home. I have to have a packed calendar and there's a certain thrill to rushing from place to place and finally crashing into bed at night.

So that's exactly what I'm going to get this semester - busy, busy, busy. With 4 tuition kids, regular touchrug trainings, Turbo Tryzone carnival, Korea trip in the middle of the term, Winter Touch League every Saturday and the grand ambition to pull my CAP up one final notch, world, you are going to miss my existence elsewhere for awhile.

And goals to keep me in check for the semester:

1. Keep up with readings every week.

2. Less Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook.

3. More regular blogging.

4. Time for family, friends and boy.

5. Punctuality. For classes at least. :D

Bonne chance à moi!

greece, gorgeous greece (1)

greece, gorgeous greece (1)

Athinas

Can you stomach another holiday post? Because that's exactly what you're gonna get. And this one was drafted right after the best part of Europe, so you might wanna get a pail in case it makes you puke. Haha. Here goes!

As the 737 flies over the Mediterranean seas towards Milan, I'm already missing Greece. The ancient ruins of Athens, the blue and white dome tops of Santorini's rooftop houses and the medieval town of Rhodes still beckon with all their charm. Greece, of history so old it dates back to the beginning of time. Greece, of seas with a million shades of blue. Greece, of Gods and Goddesses, myths and legends. Greece, I could stay there forever.

Yes, as you can tell, I'm completely charmed over by Greece.

From the moment we saw the aquamarine seas surrounding the islands from the cramped, upright seats of Ryanair, we were already in love with Greece. Even when we set foot in Volos (have you ever heard of Volos? No, me neither), where possibly the smallest international airport in the world (it's probably twice the size of your living room, no kidding) is situated, not knowing how we were gonna get to Athens or whether we could even get to Athens on the same night, we were still happy that we were in the country. And even upon reaching the bus station and realizing that there was actually a bus to Athens that very night BUT we didn't have enough cash on us to get those bus tickets, we were still semi-rejoicing over the fact that we found ourselves a cheap flight to Greece. Of course, the Greek Goddess of Luck worked her magic, and we first found a group of very nice HongKong kids who were willing to do a private exchange of GBP with us, and then we (okay, not we, but Glenn) ran quite some distance and found an ATM that works! Greece!

This is where I attempted to jump off the plane.

Welcome to Volos, Greece.

When we finally got to Athens the capital, it was close to 1am, and a whole TROOP of cabbies surrounded us, blasting us with suggestions and prices. After much bargaining and some threatening, we managed to get a cabbie who agreed on a flat fare of 10 euros for the 10min ride to our hostel. I couldn't help giving myself a pat on the back for checking how much it's supposed to cost, because otherwise we'd have been victims of the let's-milk-the-tourists-dry scheme. But well, it was all part of the crazy Athens charm.

In daylight, the city is completely different. Well, not completely. I mean, of course there were still gypsies who "accidentally" bump into you so that you drop your wallet into their waiting hands. And strange men trying to coax you into buying the bloody dog hanging in the window while stroking your arm. But in general, the city is pretty safe in the day. I guess with PLATOONS of soldiers and police around every other street corner, it's kinda hard not to feel safe.

But once you step into the touristy areas around the Acropolis, you can stop clinging on to your handbag and start behaving like a normal tourist again. And finally, after a rather steep climb up the Acropolis itself, the view of the city just takes your breath away. My favourite part of exploring the Acropolis was sitting on the edge of the hill with my eyes closed and imagining the ancient Greeks walking the same grounds as I walked. I'm not even a huge history fan, but that feeling of being connected to people from thousands of years ago is simply amazing.

Reason #1382975 why I wanna be Greek - their little oh-so-charming streets.

Ahh, there you go, THE tourist shot.

And when the tummy starts to growl after the long walk around the Acropolis, stop by any local eatery for their 2 euro kebab and grab a cup of fresh orange juice for 1.50 euros, and you'll have died and gone to Greek heaven. It was a much appreciated break from the big, expensive European cities for us. Hmm, cheap food, breathtaking sights, city madness... What's there not to love about Athens?

Fresh fruit carts, 2euros Kebab, 5euros Fendi's and a happy boy.

best memory: july

best memory: july

Attending Fran's 21st birthday party on a kickass cool yacht the day after Sports Camp '10 (which I attended the day following our return from Europe), and staying up all night to catch up after the party ended. Quoting her, I do wish we permanently lived in the same country.

Post-script: Kais, we missed you!

surprise for the 24yo

surprise for the 24yo

For Glenn's 24th birthday, I decided to go ahead with a 'first' for both of us. I decided to plan a little surprise party for him! Now, as all of you know, we practically spent every single cent we had in our bank accounts, and therefore, this party had to be BUDGET.

Fancy dinner parties were out. Anything that involved the booking of a location was out. Even an elegant Sunday brunch was out. All the kind of parties that I usually throw or attend were all out of the question! That left me to think up a free public space and food that doesn't require us to pay 10x the cost price. And here's what I came up with: picnic at the Botanic Gardens!

The initial plan was a no-brainer - throw together some food, grab the old beach sarongs and bring a set of poker cards or something. But halfway through, the prettyist in me took over. (Prettyist as in perfectionist, you know? Perfectionist strive for prefection. Prettyists strive for well, pretty.) There was a sudden, urge need for the whole thing to be pretty. The prettyist demanded "It's a BIRTHDAY. We CANNOT have mismatched sarongs and random tupperware sitting around. We must have a GLAM-A-ROUS picnic!"

So off I went around looking for cheap but colour-coordinated picnic stuffs. The picnic mats should match the cups which should match the serviettes, while the fork and spoon should match the food containers and blah bah blah. Dear Internet of Singapore, you will find it easy to find cheap picnic stuffs. You will also find it easy to find colour-coordinated picnic stuffs.

But when you combine the two criteria, IT IS NEXT TO IMPOSSIBLE! I went to Spotlight, then I went to Daiso, then I went to the party shop at Holland V, then I went to NTUC, then I went back to Spotlight again, and finally I bought some of the party stuffs in plain view of Glenn because there just wasn't time for me to make even more trips. Hahaha thank goodness the boy isn't too observant.

And in the end, we did have a rather pretty colour-coordinated picnic. I even decorated some trees, and I can't thank my bimbos enough for coming all the way down to help me out. I was real embarrassed to ask for help at first because this was how it had to go "Hey, can you help me set up a party that you're not invited to? That's totally not offensive right? You will still invite me to all your parties right? And I am still your best friend right? RIGHT???" Precisely because of that, I'm really, really thankful to my lovely girlfriends for offering to help. :D

My minions for the day and I, abusing the trees.

I think it turned out real pretty. (:

Glam little picnic!

I went COMPLETELY crazy with "glaming up" the picnic. I suddenly decided that there should be a centre piece in the middle of the picnic mats, and therefore I needed to get the sushi mat thingie. And I also decided I didn't want to deal with any leftovers, and since Glenn was very much amused by the noodle box we saw in Europe, I went hunting for some noodle boxes for the food.

And because the noodle boxes were so pretty, and I bought some twine to decorate the trees, I decided that I needed to tie some serviettes with them. Then because the fork was white and the spoon and blue, I had to add something blue to the serviette, so I bought some blue tape to personalize the cutlery.

Finally, I decided we should have some wine (the very word itself already sounds glam!) to make it REALLY glam. So I went to buy some disposable wine glasses, and at the last minute decided I should tag the wine glasses so that people don't mix up their glasses, and so that, well, they can match the cutlery sets.

I know, friends, I know. WHO ON EARTH tries to colour-coordinate a PICNIC? I just had to indulge the Martha Stewart in me for a day.

I wasn't very far away from stabbing myself in the throat with that fork halfway through tying the serviettes. Hahaha.

And Glenn, oh Glenn is the funniest person to surprise ever. The cover story was this: I was celebrating my very belated 21st birthday with Sarah, Peiyan and boyfriends and he simply HAD to be there. I even went to the extent of having a little fight with him about the clash of dates! Haha. Then I kept pestering him for the details of celebrations with his friends (who were all in cahoots with me to turn him down). The poor boy was so sad when everyone basically ignored his attempts to plan his own celebration! Hahaha.

So when I met him at the entrance and led him to where the whole party was waiting for him, he actually thought that his friends met up without asking him along! The silly boy only finally realized it was a surprise when I turned his head towards the decorated trees. Hahaha. Too funny!

"EH! What are you guys doing here!"

God bless this boy for matching my colour scheme.

I would have dyed the noodles blue if I could, believe me. Hahaha.

The birthday boy cutting the cake.

When all the food were wiped out, we had a little game of Pictionary. It's such a classic, and it never fails to entertain at gatherings and parties. Especially when you have friends who draw a single flower, and declare "That's all I can do, the rest is up to you guys to guess." when the word was ORCHARD. Hahaha.

See, the prettyist even demanded I decorate a jar for markers.

Desperately trying to draw a "tramp". Haha.

And finally, I just hope you had as much fun as I did, despite your total oblivion to my very important colour scheme. Haha. Happy 24th birthday, darling! (:

Photos stolen from Jun.

You can see her whole album here!