Saturday, February 24, 2007

Salam!


April 30th will see me in Dubai for a week where I can look forward to being all dressy and fancy and riding around in fancy cars (courtesy of J. or should I say his neighbour). Now just so everyone's clear, I'm not big on the fancy, bling-bling, wine and dine combo. It's too much of a chore and too expensive an image to maintain. But getting out my stilletoes and cocktail dresses (that I barely ever wear but have just because they're pretty) and being zipped around in a Porche for a week makes for a nice change ;)

Anyway, what I'm REALLY excited about is the DESERT SAFARI that I intend to go on!! Camel riding and dune bashing in a 4WD sounds exhilirating, don't think I'll try sand boarding though... Watching the sun descend from the top of a sand dune... then when day light has faded, relaxing by a bonfire while savouring an Arabian barbecue in a Bedouin tent and sipping cups of traditional coffee and finally, reclining on carpets with a sheesha while belly dancers shake and shimmy to the beats of traditional arabic music. Oh how absolutely glorious!!! I'm so looking forward to it!!

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Happy Anti-V Day


OK so it's valentine's day... that time of year when most couples go googly eyed, the singles feel like crap, and flower shops rake in the big bucks, thanks to the few guys out there who think that buying their better half 2 dozen roses for triple the price, means "I really care for you". Thankfully, moi is resistant to such overrated celebrations and have always (and always will) treat it like any other day. So while sickly sweet love was in the air and couples were getting all mushy, I checked out a Turkish restaurant that I'd been meaning to try, by myself, made friends with the owner and an hour later, surprise surprise, we have dinner plans for sat. HEH! Made another new friend!

PS: Just as a clarification, I LOVE flowers! I buy them for myself whenever I can! Though of course it'd be great to receive some once in a while, I just don't see the point of wasting all that money on one particular day.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

My Ever Shrinking Social Life


I finally understand how some people are able to remain unfazed when they realised that their work had somehow snuck up on their social life and leeched off it to the point of oblivion. I'm at the mouth of this particularly nasty spiral and I'm hoping I'll come to my senses soon enough and dig my heels in / grab on to anything I can find before I get sucked in entirely and become like one of my superiors... (she's beyond help!)

I've stopped making plans to go out, due to the fact that more often than not I'd have to cancel coz I'm either too tired or I gotta stay late. The weird thing is I don't find all this particularly frustrating. I wouldn't say I've accepted the idea, more like motivated to do so due to the fact that I'm in a start up company and we all just want to make it work.

Anyway, so how did I realise that I'm so close to falling into this spiral? When I canceled, yet again, on someone I was supposed to meet tonight, and not being the least bit bothered when he bade me a very curt goodnight. (he was obviously fed up with my 'excuses') I'm treading on dangerous ground...

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Retail Therapy


While most females seek therapy in shopping, in particular clothes, shoes, bags, jewellery... I prefer to throw my money away at supermarkets :D Cruising the aisles and randomly throwing snacks and tid-bits into the cart is soooooooooooooo soothing. And it gets even better once I move to the fresh food section, coz that's when my brain starts scrolling through all the recipes I have stored in there (which isn't alot really) and I start planning my dinner menu for the next week. Fun Fun Fun! Now grocery shopping will be even more fulfilling coz I found all the oven trays that I thought I didn't have! Woohoo!!! Roasts! Casseroles! Cakes! Brownies!! Oh I can't wait!

Masquerade


Oh the cruelty of it all!!! Word was out that the Italian community was gonna have their Carnavale on Friday! A MASQUERADE party!! How absolutely divine!! Of course the 5 hip and happening women at work (moi included) got all hyped about it, envisioning the costumes we would wear, whether a mask would look better with or without feathers (that was me) and the people we'd meet. So there we were pouring over the website trying to locate the venue, only to be rather stumped when we couldn't recognise any of the roads. So we'd simply put it down as i) it was outside Shanghai city centre, or ii) it was held in the newest place TO BE , so new that we didn't even know it existed. That's ok, the next step was to simply call the organisers up and ask for directions. It was then we realised that instead of beginning with a 021 (state code for Shanghai), the phone number given began with a 010... The party was in Beijing... BLEH!

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Oh Beautiful Sunshine!


It's early February and it's 21 deg outside!! Baby-T Weather!! Oh if only it would last. But like every thing good, there are it's pros and cons. And last night, this lovely weather left me with a widening hole in my pocket. :p Why? Well, you see, I was in great need for a pair of boots, so decided to go shopping after work. While on a typical winter evening I'll be dying to get into the comfort and coziness of my home ASAP, Monday saw C. and I leisurely casing the streets of Fuxing Lu - boot hunting. Afterall, it was a fabulous 17 deg! Needless to say, I came home with more than what I'd set out for. AND I BLAME THE WEATHER! And the fact that everything's so cheap here heehee!!! SHOULDN'T COMPLAIN!

Sunday, February 04, 2007

That Dirty Ol Habit


There's many a time when we do things out of pure habit... looking at your wrist repeatedly despite not having a watch on; adding salt when there's already ENOUGH in the dish and thus insulting the chef (moi); or adding tomato ketchup to EVERYTHING you eat, including steak :s (I swear that's not solely due to a preference in taste... )

My biggest habit would be chewing on my thumb nail when I'm thinking or when I'm upset. I'm surprised I've not ripped the entire thing off by now.

I've forgotten what I'm supposed to get at. Damn.

Saturday, February 03, 2007


It's hard when the rose-coloured glasses you'd had on for several years finally cracks and you see the person whom you thought was perfect and thought the world of, as he really is... just a regular human being, who doesn't care as much about you as you'd led yourself to believe. It stings and it hurts, but hey, you gotta face the truth at some point. Better now than 10 years down the line.