the gone and forgotten fitness

have been craving for aglio olio ever since ES ordered the garlic prawn aglio olio at coffee club.

to satisfy my craving, i made it for dinner just now! yep..burpz. think my aglio is quite decent tasting with a dash of spiciness from the chilli padi. drowned the pasta in olive oil and indoctrinated myself that olive oil is healthy as the excess oil splattered around the sides of my lips.

supposed to jog just now but changed my mind as i felt the pain caused by my new blister rubbing against my sports shoes.

urgh. i shall jog tomorrow! Speaking of jogging, I went jogging at punggol park on CNY day2 with ES. He chose to jog there instead of the usual 1 round route I like to take. Reason was that he could go more rounds around the park if I cannot tahan. He foresee that I would be sitting at the bench waiting for him to finish his jog.

Reality bites. ES surrendered at the 3rd round and trudged towards the bench which was calling out to him. I was shocked. He asked me to go ahead without him and I thought he meant he would catch up. He didn't. And when I completed 2 more rounds, he was still planted on the bench, enjoying the breeze and taking in sights of the tranquil pond.

where's my fitto and macho ES?!!! doko....doko... ngor wan mm fan loi le.

Chinese New Year 2009

Dong Dong Dong Ciang! Happy Chinese Niu Year mina san! Wishing all a real healthy and happy year ahead! yep, decided that it would not be meaningfuland important to wish everyone a prosperous year this year. Health and happiness takes priority in times like this. Genki yO!

As usual, got woken up by all the cheena CNY songs otosan was blasting at 9am. yes. wee hours of the morning at 9am! did some last minute spring cleaning and chauffered my okasan around doing grocery shopping as it was mission impossible to find a parking lot anywhere. Going to have an early reunion dinner tonight...yummylicious..crabs crabs don't run!

~ otosan was trying to be helpful to tilt the zhou wordings facing front for my phototaking.. but little did I know he used his GU strength and the whole lantern came off the hook.~

~ happy colored hana for the niu year!~

ngor yew fan gao.

eyes super aching and sore. a sign of excessive tvb? The only plus point is that I can understand quite a bit without chinese subtitles now! HAHA.. Ngor hai gong fu yan. Lei mou tai soy ngor!

okay...eye tired. had a really disrupted sleep last night. can't remember what i dreamt of but definitely something weird enough to tire me out.

oyasumi!

Getting CROC-ky & the art of Artistry

I hate crocs. I remember Lau Ju li brought the sample slippers to office for us to try coz her aunt was marketing them. That was 2005? Then, no one has heard of crocs. She took the sandals out of the plastic bag and I wanted to puke at the audacity of the colors, size and shape of the ugly cheapo looking piece of plastic feet protector. In fact, I hated each and every contour of the sandals. No one really gave a 2nd look and very quickly, she kept them into the plastic bag where they should belong.

Who knew that 3 years later, people are trotting down orchard road and to NTUC in crocs. I'm still not a proud owner of crocs. I maintain my stand that they're not aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

However, I am now a proud owner of another of croc's collection, crocs o-dial hp case! haha.. they're so kakooi! I can put my cards, money and hp all into the same pouch! They provide a lanyard where you can sling it over your neck, or you can simply hold it by the short strap and there's a hook behind for hooking on your pockets. dam cool la. I've tried and yes, the material is good for scanning of ezylink cards.

Besides, I'm a new fan of artistry products!

~ from left: Time Defiance Skin refinishing lotion, Polishing Scrub and Make up remover~

If you want to know more, you may contact me for more info!

Super-imposing 3 pics of different exposure levels

learnt some photo shop technique from the class. it's sad but also fortunate that we can enhance pictures now using technology. Baimei emphasized that he uses alot of photoshop to enhance the color, add effects and also color contrast to perfection. There's only 1 thing photoshop cannot enhance. Sharpness of the pic. How true. So, this becomes the main target and motivation for photographers to continuously hone their skills to get that blade sharp shot.

Anyways, 1st pic is a normal pic taken at sentosa with an overcasted sky during sunset.

The 2nd pic is done by superimposing 3 pics of different exposure levels together. You'll need to play around with the opacity to get the effect you want.

Slow and steady wins the race?

A packed week ahead. My only energy rush is the weekend when I can enjoy a good jog, a good brunch and maybe spend a little time with ES, watch SAW and grossed ourselves to the max. He's been like busy recently so can only spare that little friday evening with mochi san. boohoo. Anyway, quality counts more than quantity. *Mochi is in a state of happy hypnotism.*

oh, i started on my photography lesson last week and already wondering if I should ask for a refund.

The instructor is 80 years old with a huge passion for photography. I really take my hats off him for that, I do. Imagine 80 years old, having to speak for 2 hours and read stuff off powerpoint slides, move the mouse to click on pictures, project his voice to a class of 25 tired working adults who unknowingly display different expressions of fatigue and boredom.

He's just a bit too soft, kinda monotonous, not lively, not humourous and..very old. Haiz. For a person who prefers kickboxing to pilates or yoga, cardio exercises rather than toning exercises, it's really quite tortorous. I simply have no patience to watch that particular bicep muscle tone up over many many rounds of boring routine toning exercises. I'd rather jog and see immediate results through the perspiration pouring down my forehead.

Yep, taking his lesson is like the former which perhaps yield better results in the long run. So mochi san... patience is a virtue. *Mochi is in a state of happy hypnotism.*

tin yat hai next lesson wor.... mochi san! can ju ah!

OC reunion with wii 10 Jan 2009

January. A month of many reunions. Reason being that many bdays fall in Jan and with the new year celebrations and CNY preparations, it is a perfect time to meet up.

buddy tan invited us to her place..bkt gombak, an area of singapore which I 1st stepped into yesterday. Quiet neighbourhood but really located at the outskirts. Besides the location, buddy tan was a great host!! We had a feast and fun with her wii. My 450d kept KS and WC occupied for some time also. Those who weren't interested in either activity, felt completely comfy just snacking and yakking away.

~belated bday for buddy tan~

~ 霍霍霍霍霍霍霍霍！~

~totally engrossed and punching their guts out.~

~ the gals doing 1-6 neoprint demo~

~strawberry shortcake from 4 leaves..yummy, fluffy and light. suki da yo!~

~ early CNY reunion dinner~

~ the spread by buddy tan's mama and papa san. really sumptuous!~

~lu dan looked super appetising. the darker the better!

~ the story of juan juan juan.. buddy tan and KS demo how you should play wii~

~tranquil view from buddy tan's place...we loved the cooling breeze!~

steals from Bugis Village

haven't been to bugis village for some time..used to go there during school days I recall.. heh. surprised that the clothes there were pretty decent looking n only selling at $10 each. cheap cheap! got 2 tops from there....too hard to resist. except that they don't allow trying and they are all free size. ya. 10 doru lor..what u expect?!

~realised that it's too short to be a dress! gotta go with jeans or pants.~

~loved this for it's huge pockets! haha.. appropriate for CNY for cai shen ye to put okane in my pockets!~

~both have to go with belt to to look more chic!~

Retail therapy ramblings

I'm still home. buddy ng will scold me for being lazy. ya.. I am. I am actually giving mayday a miss. and it's a free ticket! haha. crazy right.

Anyway, I figured that I'm too lazy to make the trip there and back. Stadium Green is like soooo farrrr.. okay.. mochi, you're just lazy. period.

Finishing last episode of tong tian gan tan now!! yosh!

it's a lazy sunday.

Not much new year mood again this year. getting worse with the passing of each year. Are we too old or we just can't be bothered anymore? It's ironical that people queue to watch movies during CNY and malls are starting their businesses earlier each year. From what I can recall, malls used to start biz only on 3rd or 4th day of CNY. In recent years, everyone is shopping their ang bao earnings away on 2nd day of CNY.

Maybe next year malls will open 24 hours for a change and in bid to scrape in some post-CNY sales to handle the recession.

went shopping with zhe and sharon san yesterday. gawked at how ugly and auspicious looking the clothes are with CNY round the corner. Totally ching chong and ang bao looking. I saw a lady picking up a cheongsum which looks exactly like a chinese fengshui painting. I guessed that her bf found the design repulsive also as he was looking out of the shop all the time. I had this incredible urge to ask her to put it back. She will think I'm weird if I did. Will you think a person is weird if a stranger comes up to you telling you that you don't look nice in the dress?

I had the experience of someone telling me that I look nice in something, not ugly. But I also had people advising me on the colors coz I think they can't tahan how bloody long I take to choose among colors.

I believe sincere comments are always appreciated. But if it's the same lady who tried on that fengshui painting dress telling me my dress is ugly, I would immediately lock in my purchase.

Flightless bird

The tune is haunting. was humming it the whole day at work besides the time when I was at the meeting. beautiful song but the lyrics abit too poetic for my appreciation. Nice song still, OST from Twilight.

Are we all flightless birds? Given wings, supposedly empowered with the ability and choice to fly but bounded somehow..some way.

Flightless Bird, American Mouth - by Iron & Wine

I was a quick wet boy
Diving too deep for coins
All of your street light eyes
Wide on my plastic toys
And when the cops closed the fair
I cut my long baby hair
Stole me a dog-eared map
And called for you everywhere

Have I found you?
Flightless bird, jealous, weeping
Or lost you?
American mouth
Big pill looming

Now I’m a fat house cat
Nursing my sore blunt tongue
Watching the warm poison rats
Curl through the wide fence cracks
Pissing on magazine photos
Those fishing lures thrown in the cold and clean
Blood of Christ mountain stream

Have I found you?
Flightless bird, grounded bleeding
Or lost you?
American mouth
Big pill, stuck going down

噢买尬..it's 2009!

I would feel unusually verklempt whenever it's the beginning of the new year.

Choked with emotions from what I accomplished this year, resolutions I did not manage to keep to, happy things that happened to me and my loved ones, unhappy episodes in 2008, the hopefulness for a better year ahead, the excitement that is in store in the brand new year.

It is very true that we are the ones who hold the power to determine our own lives. So let's make the best of it!

Spent a quiet new year with ES coz his stomach wasn't well... again! yucks.. he's been eating rubbish la..and never exercise. horrible. hmm. Health is important. I want to maintain good health and be more conscious of what I eat and do my exercise fervently.

We watched 10 episodes of Jia Hao Yue Yuan and that was how we spent our new year. haha. We watched TV for a year!! That's also what I want to do for 2009..watch more tvb dramas! okay...lousy resolution.

It's just another day frankly. So those who did not party the NY away just like what 70% of the world is doing, it's really no big deal. What you've missed is probably rubbing of shoulders with the sweaty crowd, long queues at retail outlets and toilets, pricey NY menus, midnight charge cab ride and alcohol that eats away your liver.

Seize the day. Everyday can be a party.