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.