Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Ohmmmmm....


Attended my first trial yoga class in Shanghai, and signed up immediately after. One of the main reasons being that it's like a 7 - 10 min walking distance from work, and there's hope in my spine realigning itself (which also means I'll gain AT LEAST an inch in height) HEH! Also, they were having a promotion: buy 2 months get 1 free. Not too bad, at least I don't have to commit for too long a period of time. Today was a beginners class, tomorrow gonna try Hatha Yoga, and the next day pilates, just to see if I have a preference. Pilates apparently works your core so I'm VERY interested in that. By the way, I've put on ANOTHER 2 kgs and eventhough I'm quite happy with the OVERALL effect of the gain, I'm getting a little worried with errrm certain regions... *shudder*

Monday, January 29, 2007

I WANT MY PHONE BACK!


I Lost My Phone!!! AARRGGGHHHHH!!!! I'm so ticked off! Of course it was my fault... left it in a cab, and it HAD to be the one day when I forgot to check the backseat after I got out. I can't decide which stings the most, the fact that the phone was expensive, the fact that I'd had it for less than a year, or the money I'll have to spend on getting a new one when I can put that money towards my Holiday Fund. I repeat... ARRRGHHHHH!!!! And the PHONE NUMBERS! I know I backed them up in my laptop, but I can't seem to find them anymore! I now have a sneaky feeling that my list only appears when I connect my phone to my laptop. AAARGGGHHH!!! The more I think about it the more the whole thing burns me up. The thought of some stranger browsing through my pics (not that there are any scandalous ones, just ones of me looking terribly drunk :p) and reading all my SMSs!!! The danger of having so much memory space to the point you can't be bothered to delete the old ones. My sis was a real comfort. Her response to my ranting about photos was "Well I hope I don't see pics of you on the internet any time soon. HAHAHAHAHA! Damn the woman! Oh well lesson learnt, DELETE ALL INCIRIMINATING INFORMATION FROM PHONE! AARRRGGHHHHH!!!

Saturday, January 27, 2007

I Want My Shower Hose!!


The first problem I had with my bathtub when I moved in to my current place was that the plug, once put down, wasn't able to pop up again, which obviously meant, well you know what that meant. So in absolute frustration, I yanked the entire thing out and of course wasn't able to put it back in again :p I was therefore left with a gaping hole in my tub and no way of ever pampering myself to a bathful of bubbles. And then, a very sweet (and oh so cute) someone remembered my dilemma (well I was whinging a little), and bought me the most adorable rubber plug which had a little orange rubber coral on the top and a little yellow rubber crab attached to the cord. Hooray! Bathtime problem solved. 1 WEEK later, the shower hose sprung a leak. Showers therefore involved very careful placement of myself so that the water spurting out of the damn hole wouldn't spray all over my warm fluffy towel. Being the busy person that I am (:p) I'd put off buying a replacement. Tried my whinging technique on the very sweet and oh so cute someone but didn't work this time (rats...). And now I'm stuck because a few days ago, the damn hose decided to split itself into 2 and conveniently forgot how to make itself whole again. Showers have never been trickier... DAMMIT!

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Impatience or Just Plain Bitchy?


One of my main reasons of moving to a foreign country is now starting to get on my nerves. Despite my best efforts to be understanding and respectful of the people and their culture, there are times when I just wanna yell and scream and call them names. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate anyone, it's just that it's rather frustrating sometimes to juggle respect for another's culture and way of thinking, ESPECIALLY when it involves efficiency, while scrambling for a deadline. For example, the need to order stationery ONLY when someone needs it instead of buying, let's say a box of 24 pens to keep in store in case anyone needs it. A typical phone call to the stationery shop would go something like this.

"Hello, I'd like to order 1 black ball point pen, 2 rulers, 1 stapler, and 1 highlighter".

The best part is, the store will ACTUALLY DELIVER those 5 items! I'm sorry, but... HUH?! I understand that they had a rough past and it has translated into who they are today, and I respect that. But seriously, sometimes it's hard to keep your cool when you're faced with something as ridiculous as what I've just described.

Now I hate to admit it but once someone gets on my nerves, his name is forever printed in my 'Little Book of People to Avoid and Ignore'. I know I know! It's horrible but I can't help it! Someone at work already has his name carved in stone and I think according to C. he senses it coz he's stopped coming up to me with questions and has momentarily attached himself to her instead (hehehehehhe). Of course then I'll feel guilty and try to make up for it by being extra nice to the fella. :p Sigh... I'm awful. But it's all about the learning, and adapting, being mature and professional... so, I've made a mental note to be a little more patient and just shrug my shoulders and laugh about it... how else will I preserve my sanity?


Monday, January 22, 2007

"Wanderlust, Meet Shanghai; Shanghai, Wanderlust"


After 2 months here, I'm ashamed to say that I've barely gotten to know Shanghai; (in my defence, it's too freaking cold to be wandering around on foot checking out the sights). But seriously, restaurants aside, I don't think I'll be able to take a visitor down and show them the real Shanghai. I have therefore gotten myself a Berlitz Pocket Guide and worked out a game plan; I'm gonna be a resident-tourist. Every weekend or weekday evening (if I get off work early enough) I will check out AT LEAST one place; try every single bar along the road where I work; put That's Magazine (or its equivalent) to good use and sample a new restaurant every week; WIsh me luck!

*It's Monday morning and I spent the entire day at home on Sunday... I'm hopeless*

Sunday, January 21, 2007

For the Love of Cuddles


It sucks sometimes when all you want is to have a cuddle but there's no one around to give it to you. I'm a sucker for those and can get rather grouchy and cranky when I don't get any. And it's true for alot of people if not all. Everyone needs a little affection once in awhile, the physical touch of another human being, to feel safe and secure, to feel that someone cares... and if we aren't able to have it, we put up our defence mechanisms and pray that we don't think about it as much... we drown ourselves in work, go out with friends, some drink themselves silly, get a hobby, whatever... all great ideas, but none, in my opinion, sustainable for long. And when the defence mechanisms eventually start to break down, that is when I really really wish I had a good guy friend I could go to for some TLC. Someone who would be able to hold me till I fell asleep WITHOUT all the complications that could possibly surface when 2 people of the opposite sex find themselves sharing the same bed. Wishful thinking, I know...Which therefore leaves me only one option, to find someone who is simply NOT into women and who's VERY much into cuddles... I think I'm going nuts.

Sweet Victory... Well Almost...


I ALMOST whooped a guy's ass at pool today. He'd gotten on my nerves 10 mins after I walked into the bar... loud, brash, obnoxious... chinese guy claiming to be Canadian but with an accent that was a mixture of every other country BUT Canada. Nevertheless, me being me, decided to give the guy a chance, maybe he wasn't so bad afterall... Yeah, right! The last straw came when he made a racist comment. From that point on I was determined to put up a fight if not take him down at pool (NOTE: Do not be misled, I am a mediocre player. Lucky for me, I apparently get better the more I drink!) Unfortunately we weren't able to finish the game coz the bar was closing. Oh well, I'm just glad he didn't have any reason to gloat... the asshole...

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Pot Calling the Kettle Black

Behaviours that you once disapproved of in others are suddenly OK when you do it...

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Arrrghhh!!


*Warning: author is in a self-pitying mood*

These last few weeks have been a little crazy. Deadline for one thing is almost immediately followed by a deadline for another. And little ol me is stressing herself out (to the point of having nightmares) of not being able to meet said deadline, and I'm back to my bad habit of forgetting my dinner. I would say that part of the stress is due to the fact that the 'assignment' involves a fair amount of creativity, something I find rather challaneged by. BLEH! If all goes well I'll be done by Friday night, otherwise, it's gonna be bye-bye Saturday and Hello work... again. I'm praying hard I won't have to stay late Friday. Moi has a hot-chocolate-and-marshomellow date. Now who in their right mind would wanna miss that. I also hope I won't have to go in on Satuday coz I'd been invited to a pot-luck dinner party that evening (meaning I'll need the afternoon to shop and cook) and it would be a great chance to meet new people. And I can start with the host! hah!

Holiday plans are all coming to naught. My initial plan of making a trip up to Beijing during the Chinese New Year (or Spring Festival as they call it here) went down the drain for 2 reasons: i) the person I was hoping to meet in Beijing was smart enough to make plans to run away to warmer climes - Malaysia, and ii) friend of mine who'll be country hopping around Asia will be down and will most definitely NOT have clothing thick and warm enough to withstand the temperatures of Beijing. Next option was to take a 3 /4 hour flight to Hainan island where the sun will be shining and the sea will be warm and i will be able to get my tan back!! But I heard it's gonna be jam packed with people and is probably too late to get any form of accomodation by now. Option 3 hit me a couple of days ago while I was stabbing the keys on my keyboard and cussing the damp weather. If I can't get the sun, sea and sand, I can still run off to a place where the temperatures are at least a little more bearable... like Hanoi! (between 16 to 20 degrees on a good day I think, as compared to 2 - 6 deg here) Plus, it would be a great place to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life and just C-H-I-L-L before A. flies in on the 18th!! Unfortunately a certain someone will be away on those exact days, so there goes my accomodation ( ;) just kidding G.)

So yeah, I'm fresh outta ideas.

Ok time for a beer and Scrubs...

Monday, January 15, 2007

Hello 2007!

Oh i forgot to report on the events leading up to the new year. Let's see, J. was down and funnily enough despite my plans of planting myself in the kitchen, we ate out most of the time. Which is a good thing, since food in Shanghai ROCKS! Despite that fact, J's first few meals consisted of every other cuisine BUT chinese.


Did the touristy bit on the Bund on Saturday. Even took the bund tunnel train across the Huangpu River to Pudong. Nothing spectacular really, the strobes and laser lights werea rather cheesy, and there are other much cheaper ways to get across to the other side of the river (like the 1.50RMB ferry), but it's just something that you gotta do at least once. I rather enjoyed myself and was quite happy to have paid the 40RMB. Once on the other side, we hit the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. Got ourselves the 100RMB ticket and went all the way to the topmost observatory level (the Space Module - 350m). I thought it was well worth the money (if you convert it to Singapore $$). The view was spectacular and you could see for miles on end and photographs just didn't do it justice! (It also didn't help that we were taking shots in 'Night scene' mode WITHOUT a tripod...)


New Year's Eve was spent pigging out (I'm not proud of it! OK, maybe a little) at the champagne brunch at Westin Hotel. We got there at 1130hrs and left at 1500hrs. How's that for making our money's worth! The best part was, when I made reservations for the brunch, I forgot that I'd accepted an invitation for Singaporean style dinner that same day :s :s. We had 4 hours to rest and digest before having to run off to venue #2. Still, we managed a decent portion of food. I mean, it just wouldn't do to be rude now, would it. :p Food was great, wine was a-plenty and we were all in high spirits to the point the karaoke set was switched on (but of course). Bellies full and wine almost coming out of our ears, we took our leave around 0100hrs and headed to a rather pretty club by a lake where drinks were a tad more expensive than the usual places I hang out at (still a little cheaper than in Singapore though) and the shisha was AWFUL. Oh well... Happy Belated New Year people!!