Life For Rent

And what a day it has been! Woke up groggy cuz I slept kinda late but it has been a good day.. a good day indeed! The worst of the year so far happened last week.. but it ended well with a date with Tak and it has been good.. pretty good thus far, first day back at work. Maybe Tak brings me good luck. Tak’s such a silly goose at times.. aiyo.

So anyway back to yesterday… what was the thing I did? We celebrated Ceddy’s birthday! I conned him that I was going out on a date haha but I went to get the cake (I did my home work!) and stuck to plan and headed to Ridout’s Mac where the rest were to spend the night studying. These folks have been studying at various over the past few weeks, I bet they dun wanna see another Mac in a loooong time once this is over!

And here’s the cake! Very nice at a pretty reasonable pric. Not too sweet, not too rich, not too bitter and the lil crumbs below are something I have never eaten before! It is goooooooooood… Thank u Tak. Without your recommendation I think I may end up with some crappy cake that I’ll hate to buy even.

And that’s all of us. Rach and Keong the boyfriend at the rear, with Vanessa, me and Ceddy the birthday boy at the front! OMG look at the compooter on the far right. That’s Keong’s lappy. He was supposed to be doing his work, along with the rest (yes yes I am the odd one out), but he pa game lei! WAH LAU!

Introducing the new MacChocolate! Created by me! 2 bites one left one right, 10 times the fun! Okay so I am the greedy chub. They said chocolate helps with my pimples. Whoever said that lied! Yes that is the result from the horrid horrid week. SIGH. But the week is over and I am looking for better weeks to come.

Happy 24th Birthday Ceddy! Ceddy is still single you know and he is very much available but only to the right person. I know ceddy’s style.. so if YOU think he is cute, and you wanna know him, let me know!

I love these cartoons. They can be so funny!

I am up to something, later, Sunday. I am gonna do something… for someone. No I am not going to go to Super Sunday. But it is gonna be special. Hopefully.

More details, soon!

I am just home and I was at Raffles City when Earth Hour happened. Totally disappointing. I think the management should be ashamed of themselves. Only 3 outlets it seemed took it upon themselves to participate in Earth Hour. They are Starbucks, Body Shop and Island Shop. The rest did not even dim the lights. I was quite disappointed actually. I walked into Body Shop to get myself and Tak something and I hear the sales girl at the door explaining to people what was happening. Despite ALL the media coverage there were many people who were NOT aware. So much for being overhyped, when the media apparently hasn’t reached out enough. Kuddos to everyone who took part in it. You guys are a fabulous bunch of people. Maybe I am over hyped bout it too, but seriously for those who are anti against it and come out with a trillion examples why it does NOT work, I say piss off, and if you think you can do and manage a better campaign then GO DO IT. The idea is, people are making the effort. At least it is a step towards something with a statement to be made.

Now that Earth Hour is over, what’s next?

A lot has been critisized bout the effectiveness bout turning the lights off for 1 hour in a year.  I disagree with many posts on it, saying what does 1 hour do, or better still, what does turning off the light do? Turn off air-cons and all! My opinion is that the rewards are not tangible and measured in absolute terms like how much the earth saved in the 1 hour.

If air-con was to be turned off, how many will follow? Do u think the radio stations will turn off the air-con for an hour? They could, and simply pre record the show for that hour in advanced. What does THAT do? Little. The benefits to me are not so easily measured. Pretty much like in a disaster, if your computers are destroyed, what is your loss? Your loss is NOT the cost of replacing the computers. The loss is quantified by loss of man powers, productivity and more importantly, DATA and reputational losses. These run into billions of dollars.

The more reasonable and the more people the movement reaches out to, the better the effect. Turning off your lights is simple. Anyone can do it. Air-con? Shutting down a power plant even? Not very possible. Try turning off the aircon in malls. How are restaurants without alfresco dining and retail shops gonna survive?

The movement will then become that of annoyance, rather than being something positive, to show how EASY it can be to be green. Every little bit counts and if everyone does their part in their little way, it will add up.

I do agree, that the movement should have more follow up. This should not be a once off thing. What happened to the bring  your bag day? Sure it will cause a lot of complaints initially as there usually is after a change, but let people get used to it and they will remember. It is easier to remember if say, the last Fri of the month becomes a no bag day. I mean, people remember which fridays are late night shopping here right?

So while Earth Hour appears to be overrated, it appears so to be cause there is not enough follow through. U do it today, by tomorrow you forgot all about it already. It will be nice to see coverage on what happened during Earth Hour, how much was saved collectively, and reviews by people who participated on how easy it was to take a little effort to remember about Mother Earth.

Look at it like World AIDs day. Once a year, but activists continue their work throughout the year. The media, the coverage, and all. We need more work. Change should not be drastic, else no one will follow it.

Thank you Jayme for the reminder.. yesh I ISH doing my comp based training at home. I need to accumulate training hours for points in order to stay certified in my industry.

Woke up to a sunny afternoon, thought bout going to the pool to swim and tan and gym a little (I told the counter staff that I will go today if the sun is out cuz he said I was getting fat liao… oops!) Maybe tomorrow ok uncle!

So I have been helping jayme with her blog cause she is going into blog shopping  and all.. I will definitely post her link when it is ready. I also bought some products at a recommendation.. very quick service. It will be one of my beauty secrets if it works! Bought something from the internet too.. hee hee.. that one ish secret! Chatting with Ox also.. showed me a photo of his painting of Toffee the dog… so cute! Aiyo… all I have is furby

MP3 player is playing Spice Girls’ Say You’ll Be There. Such an oldie now.. but I still love it! Madison Avenue’s Who The Hell Are  You! Love it too. Then I didn’t know the link between the songs that I like.. now I know. Dancy house beats with cool vocals with attitude. It is.. sexy!

I kinda like staying home.. listening to my MP3s doing my stuff.. talking to friends. A lazy weekend yeh but economic crisis lei! No choice. Bo bian! Have to compromise and find fun stuff among stuff..

Remember it is Earth Hour a little later at 2030hrs! Pledge your support via Class 95FM’s website, class95.sg!

Coming up on my mp3 list, NKOTB, Ronan Keating and Evanescence! Mean time, swing out sister with Am I The Same Girl! WOOO HOOO!

Ok time to get back to work. Have a good weekend my darlings!

Before I go into the whole thing, I have come to know that my date told me someone likes my sets and has downloaded my sets. Date calls him a fan. Well I am not that big or anything la I just do what I enjoy for myself and friends. I am just glad some like the music and had fun with it. Special hello to Eric! And hello to all my set lovers, you folks are my darlings and I hope it has brought a smile on your face at some juncture. I listen to my own sets when I’m in the gym (which isn’t regular) and in between workouts I gotta take them off cause I end up talking to people and exercising my mouth more…

And yes so in the afternoon I received a text message. Let’s call the date, Tak. At first I wanted to eat around my office but decided I wanted out of there instead. He swang by the office, and we left for my home ground, the country club. Ate dinner.. chat chat chat.. got to know more bout Tak and for Tak to know more bout me. I thought of going for dessert and beer at the poolside but decided otherwise. Went straight to the jacuzzi corner! One of my fav spots. I do hope they will never take it away. I won’t go into much details.. but let’s just say I never thought I’d wander into the bushes next to the jacuzzi house.. I proned onto red ant nests before in the army and I was quite fearful of stepping onto snakes and goodness knows what else is lurking among the trees and bushes, but we got lucky. Phew.

it was a very nice date and initially I had my reservations bout going dinner with Tak cause I was tired. I still am now! It being a Friday and I usually feel quite ‘unglam’ on Fridays but heck, Tak took the lead in asking for a dinner so I decided not to disappoint. I mean, we don’t really have anything to lose.

I think I am rather glad we did. It allowed us a chance, and for me to see things in a different spectrum. It would be obvious by now how much I would have learnt from the last couple relationships and what I will expect (or rather not expect maybe) from the next.

There are some good and some bad things from today. Well mostly good. Let’s run through them first. I have to say I was quite impressed with Tak and although we have a huge age gap in between, the bridge between is undoubtly some form of chemistry. Now with that being said, I can always turn around if fondness was one sided (from my side), or if there was a complete lack of chemistry we’ll pehaps keep in touch as friends. Or maybe not. We talked bout Tak’s friends, he shared his concerns, and some stuff bout his family background. What I sense is, there wasn’t much of a holding back. We both allowed each other time to talk bout stuff (taking turns) and I felt quite comfortable. Totally in fact. Tak talked bout the close friends he has (3 of them) and I spoke of mine. I talked bout Rach and the other 2, about my bestie and how weird it is that we don’t really keep in touch but our bond is quite strong still. He won’t mix well with my gang but that doesn’t make him any less important too.

I don’t know what is it with folks these days. They sorta grow up too fast. I actually feel victimised cause now it means people like me have to work doubly hard to stay ahead of the pack. But that’s another thing.

I am quite fond of Tak too and it appears to be mutual. The one thing that worries me is, I couldn’t find a point anywhere to deduct. Which technically is a bad thing. There must be some points minus off somewhere but I can’t. But I will tell you what made that score. Tak allowed me to feel comfortable with myself, being myself. Physically and all. From appearance, to character, to everything. Just being myself. I didn’t feel I need to hide the uglier parts, or needed to do or say something to impressed.  Extra points for taking the initiative as well. I don’t wanna compare cuz it is not going to be one, but looking back at my past relationships, it was the other party who took that first step in meeting up for a date, a meal or whatever. Let me just state, not everyone who does so makes it through. Most actually, didn’t make it though. And now that I am fussier (or so I would like to think), it must take something really gorgeous to sweep me off my feet in some way? I look at Glenn Ong and Jean Danker and how both actually didn’t want to date anyone in the same industry again but chemistry made them kick that notion off.

I am not gonna rush this through hopefully. I think we made quite an important decision bout something today (which I won’t mention here) but the implication was that, it wasn’t pure lust that we had for each other. And I think it is very important to seperate lust from affection and love.

So in summary (cause it’s late and I have a call to make before I head to bed), it felt good. It felt something right is in the works. I don’t know at this juncture if Tak will be a  good partner to me and if I will be a good partner to Tak. But I’d like to take this to the next level and see what brings. One thing that is very important to me too is that cause Tak is younger, I was looking for signs that I was talking down to him cause I don’t really want that to happen in a  relationship. Not romance at least. I don’t want to be with someone and see myself guiding the person in everything. That, has stopped since. I found myself tallking to Tak like my peer. I don’t know how much I can offer at this point, but I can definitely offer respect and the recognition of an individual being himself going through life with me.

And oh yes, thank you Eric for the kind words. U don’t know me though and u could be dead wrong bout me LOL.. but thank you for your very kind words.

Good night everyone!

PS – To rach and my beloved friends, you’ll prolly see Tak someday. if any of you can guess what he studies, you’ll get a treat from me.:P

I have been away due to loads of stuff at work and keeping up with my MSN chats. Over the weeks I have been tallking to people whom I knew a long time ago but stopped contacting for quite a while. It is nice to get to know people now that I am on the other side of the fence.  There were a few who were promising but there wasn’t much of a follow through. Not destined perhaps. Yet there are others that we’ve had a mutual attraction towards one another. So let’s see where this goes.

I also chatted with my ex yesterday to see how things are. Not too good apparently and unfortunately. But we did talk bout some stuff again. The difference is, months later there isn’t as much emotional turmoil. I for one, have moved on. The ex however hasn’t quite caught up. But as someone whom I have shared a part of my life with, the ex is nevertheless special. We may have parted ways and we don’t see eye to eye on a lot of issues especially on our perspective with stuff. Age gap, maybe? I don’t know. Doesn’t matter that much anyway. So yes we may have parted ways but I cannot see why we can’t be friends still once we have gotten past a certain stage. Horror of all horrors is when you see your partner return back to the ex cause they have gotten close enough again to rekindle some love perhaps. It might happen, it might not. I cannot speak for others, but I know how I react to things and how I feel once I have gotten past a certain stage, and if I have committed to someone else in a relationship. Never say never indeed. But if you think about it, if your partner decides to go back to the ex, and the ex wants him back, what can do you? U wish them the best. Over the years as I grow older, I see things in a different perspective. You’d just want your partner to be happy, whether or not you’re together. It takes a lot of years and some experience to truly understand this.

I have been courted, and I have sorta rejected certain people along the way. In no random order and no names mentioned as well, some of the reasons why I did not want to pursue anything further are-

- A total mess up. You can’t decide who you you adore, who you like and who you have a crush on. You jump from one guy to another. Today this guy interests you, tomorrow another one. I might have given this person a chance to see where we go if it weren’t for this. Yes I may be natural ‘guider’ but such characteristics I want nothing to do with it. If I cannot trust how you really feel from the beginning, it is not gonna sit well with me.

- Desperados. Okay maybe that is a strong word. I know how they feel over the years and now that I am single they have every right to press on. Yes maybe we did a few lays in the past. After all these years they are pinning hopelessly on another lay just to see me. It actually feels quite weird, and the more they tried to push their way through the more I pushed them away. I warned a certain ndividual to specifically stop pushing me. Didn’t stop. So kaput.

- Unimpressive one liners in my mailbox. I was very tempted to show an example here but I decided I couldn’t really be bothered much.

Enough for now. Don’t want a never ending list.

What interests me? Being polite, with a comfortable amount of interest in me without pushing the boundaries way off. I like a lil bit of flesh (on the physical side) cause it makes the person very huggable. All those ‘model’, ‘hunks’ lookalikes may actually attract a hell lotta people out there, but not me. I’d like an average person who’s pleasant, can communicate with me on a certain comfortable wavelength, neither patient nor impatient to pursue something further, and polite. Did I say that already? I won’t go as far as to say the person must like me for who I am etc etc cause come on, we are not at that stage yet. It is like a resume. It doesn’t get you a job, it earns you 1 foot through the door for an interview. THAT’S IT! A pure date to see where things go. I could date 1, or 2, or 10 all at once if I wanted to but due to time and me just being me, it is likely I’ll take my time through one by one. Unlike the heterosexuals, I have all the time in the world. Literally. And if you know me by now, I am never in a hurry to be in a relationship with someone, nor in a hurry to get out of one to be with another.  Of course as a ‘legal’ disclaimer, I cannot say it will never happen. I can only say it has never happened.

Moving on from that, I was on my way home and I thought bout something. Between me and rach. The union and bond between us iis something that I can’t really describe in words. Kuddos to her for taking the first step to talk to me years ago. I am still the same as I was then in that sense, isn’t it Rach

What bothers our partners was how close we were. Perhaps it is just us. Perhaps no one will ever comprehend why we are so close. Maybe we don’t understand it ourselves! But as two peas in a pod, we tend to react the same way to people around. And partners will wonder, why we can push them away and say we like our privacy our alone time blah blah, but yet when Rach and I meet we bond like nobody’s businesss. Contridicts all that we said bout ourselves. And I cannot blame partners for being jealous. Yes jelous. It is not a guy and girl issue. It is the issue of why we can be so close to each other, yet not as close to our partners? Shouldn’t partners be even more special? I actually agree… but I failed in the sense I must have made them feel they are notches way below. Jealousy. It leads to resentment. I take a very careful stance as much as I remember when I am out with her and her bf. I can understand how he feels… we literally make it as if our partners are not around! It is not only disrespectful but hurting too. I had partners who were quite emotionally and attention demanding. Her bf is such too. So I have to make a consious effort not to leave him out all the time and get him upset with rach. Of course he’s quite sensible and actually understands and sees why we can be so close, but humans are humans. Doesn’t mean you understand something means you are totally fine with it. Right?

To be honest, I have every confidence that he knows and can treat Rach well. What I don’t know is.. unfortunately for better or worse, is what she is capable of doing to him emotionally. There are some who will finally see the light eventually. Some who needs a slap and then they learn and see the light (like me) and there are some who will never see it.

2 exes ago (and a demanding one as well) saw me grow a little distant from her. I couldn’t do a lot of things cause of the demands on one end, and she also knows better than to keep insisting.. she sorta backed away and allowed me and my ex to do our thing. When my ex and I broke up, it occurred to me how much grief I could have caused others around, over one partner.  Yes, a partner is important, but honestly, not important enough to make me forgo stuff I don’t wanna forgo. I made a promise to her that it will never happen again and that there is no one, absolutely no one, who can force their way through between us. If the partner cannot deal with it then I am sorry but perhaps we are not suited for one another. She is very dear to me and I cannot understand why she is not as appreciated as she should be. Maybe it is linked. If she was the hottest girl in town maybe she won’t be like the way she is. Misunderstood.  I am often misunderstood too cause I am not as friendly as people hope I’d be, to the point of being aloof.  it doesn’t bother me a lot, cause I am here to live my life, not live a life someone wants to see. We have our suitors, and despite all the nonsense in our lives, we are actually nowhere near being the most tragic story in the world. Yes we tend to be a little ‘atas’ but we have proven we don’t look down on other people, nor up on others in terms of net worth. Her bf comes from a  humble background. My ex also comes from a very humble background. My mom always tells me to find someone older, who can guide me, and who has a successful career. I don’t think after 29 years, she knows her son one bit. Not one bit. Anyway it was my grandma who brought me up… she knows me. She always speaks of me in a very proud manner even till today. My dad’s gorgeous too. My mom? All I can say is, too little too late. I felt like telling her during certain moments, that she didn’t give birth to me. She had me taken out through an elective C section. She took medication to prevent breast milk from forming cause she didn’t want the trouble of breastfeeding. She barely took care of me when I was young. I may sound harsh, but whether or not she’s around, does it really matter a lot to me? By the way she did the C section and no breastmilk thing for my other 2 half brothers too. She did take care of them, with the help of 2 maids of course.

Anyway this isn’t bout her. My thoughts are on rach and I. I am not trying to rationalise or understand. It’s just a thought. It is nearing the end of march now. It has been 4 months since the breakup. I have progressed quite a fair bit I would say. For the kind of relationship we had, I personally think it was quite a feat. To curb my emotions (Read: heartache) I did what I had to do within me. Rach thinks if there is one person on earth who can turn his back on something or someone overnight, it would be me, well she is probably partially right.  However in doing so, a part of me will also change. It is like a side effect. But this time round it seems to change for the better. I don’t get sick anymore. I have almost, lost my ability to throw a temper. My ex admitted he did and said a lot of things over the past few months to irritate me and to make me hate him, on purpose. Half a year ago, it might have worked. I would have thrown such a huge fit over what he had done, all hell would have broken lose. Along with every bone and object within vicinity. But no not anymore. I was very disappointed over a lot of things, very disappointed, but it didn’t amount to anger. Or hatred, as he had hoped. Perhaps it is the book I have been reading. Perhaps it is an overall ‘moving on’ effect. Maybe cause I am hitting 30 in a few months. I don’t know.  I can change, as quickly as how I can change the shape of my body. I am a fat ass right now. But if I really wanted to, I will put myself through the ‘mighty mark system’ for 30 days and I will come out very different, this I can assure.  The changes can show itself over a very short period of time. I cannot understand why, but I accept that’s how it works for me.

Moving on, the question people would ask me is if I am seeking a new relationship? The answer is, no. I have never sought one in my life and I have no intention of starting now. I would like to get to know more nice people around. Improve my positive aura (hee hee!). Seriously, I don’t mind being friends, date, and if it all goes well, then so it shall.  Am I ready for one though? 1 month ago I’d say no. I see signs of me hitting rebound stages, so I stayed away from people. It is quite different now. How am I so sure? My own personal test is, if you can meet your ex, look at the person from top to bottom, talk to the person and have no real reaction from within, you are over. Sure, you will have a soft spot. But if you feel a surge of emotions, be it hurt, sorrow, joy or whatever, then no you are not over. Some people will never be over their ex partners. My ex is one probably. We talked bout it a long time ago and I asked if his ex appeared would he stutter, be at a lost for words, etc? He said he would. Not cuz he still loved him, but the person had such a impact on him. The ‘power’ lingers.  Now, I have joined that list of exes probably.

So in short, I don’t seek one, nor do I avoid one. If people upset me, irritate me (Rach will remember just a couple months ago how much I can curse and swear when I show her messages from people) but I don’t think she has heard any from me over the past month. The idea is, if you upset me, I will just ignore you. I won’t talk to you, I won’t answer you. There is only one reason why and that’s cause I don’t really care. If I allow people to upset me and I screw them back, each and everyone of them, I will burst a bloo vessel in my head one of these days I swear.

I am more calm (by the way the rebound on the market saw money evaporating from my account like smoke, even my broker Jay was badly affected emotionally but this time round I think I beat him), more level headed. I think if I ever change vocations, I will work in the diaster recovery and business continuity planning division. Be a crisis manager of sorts. When everyone is panicking, as a crisis manager you cannot panic cause everyone looks at you for assurance and direction.  It is VERY hard work being a crisis manager believe me  cause the amount of planning and experience one needs to do a good plan is amazing. There are trillions of considerations to consider. One example I can give is.. a lot of BCP plans will call for activation of key staff, management, and vendors to move people, equipment. Let me ask you. If we had a viral outbreak here, do you think your staff will wanna work? Will your vendors even turn up to move your machines? They will tell u to F off, they need to take care of their family. Fire them for all they want. Ok maybe not so drastic but your key support has suddenly crumbled. In a real disaster, the plan will fail even if was tested a trillion times during peacetime.

And a lot of plans do not factor in local regulations, especially fire regulations. If it is non compliant, they can and they will force u to shut down operations. So u set everything up and they tell you, shut it down. What are you gonna do?

Not so easy anymore eh. Anyone can do a BCP strategy, almost. But can it REALLY work in a disaster?

I cannot be certain my plan will work. But what I do know is, I am anal retentive enough and will consider multiple scenarios, and of course, multiple plan Bs and Cs in case the primary plan fails. By the way, other considerations include this techncal term we use, to define how long a business can be shut down before it goes bust. Eg a bank, how long can it remain offline before it gets sued, customers lose confidence and the press is all over and the reputational damage is FAR worse than the tangible damages that can be assessed almost after a disaster strikes. As u know, a computer server may cost say 5k. But the information it holds, and the implications it has when the data is missing can amount to billions of dollars.

So it has been a yak yak yak night. I normally blog only when the inspiration flows and I just type what heads out of my mind. I am sorry if it was too lengthy and it bored you, but hey you could have just flipped to another page anyway.

I am done here now. Time to head to my other blog.

Oh yes, Earth hour, this Saturday. Rach you too must off light ok. Cuz I am gonna support the whole thing.

How? Well, at 8.30pm and I am on the roads and stuff, this is what I will do.

I am gonna turn off my headlights!

I have finally opened up my package from the US. My 3 pj bottoms! It has been a TRULY lousy day and it had everything to do with the DAMN BULLS. Man I feel like taking a piece of steak and toss it in the air. Such a lousy day and to make things better for myself, I yanked out my ‘emergency trick’. I bought these quite a couple months back and I have left it unopened cause I didn’t need to use them so soon. But today is the day I open them and try them on man! And hopefully I won’t be extra pissed by it! Those who know me know I am a fan of these, and these are really comfortable with very cute designs! I had better take advantage before I get too old for them. Or is there even such thing?

Here’s the newest to the collection. One out of 3 new ones. It feels really nice! I also have the black playboy one with bunny prints, spongebob, homer simpson (which has somehow gone mysteriously missing… I wonder what happened to it hmm) and a few others that came in a different fit. I think this is cute!

And here is the other one. So cute! I have to say one thing I dislike bout these 2. Okay 2 things. First, they come with a fly.. but with no buttons! Aiyo cannot la.. will zao geng one. I guess it is not for house parties or where outsiders are around. It is for me and maybe.. someone who appreciates what I have. KAKAKA! Ah yes the second thing that annoys me… they last too long! I thought it wouldn’t last a hell lot at 14.90 USD a piece. But they lasted for like years now! At least the one I am wearing. A little faded but other than that the only sign of aging is.. if feels super worn! I LOVE IT!

This one is more ‘grown up’ haha.. and it does have a button! yay! I don’t know what the tag is there for. I read it, had no clue so I just yanked it off. Seriously I aint walking around with something sticking out you know…

Moving on, come 28th March (that’s this Saturday) Earth Hour happens everywhere at 8.30pm local time. Switch off your lights and as what the trailers go.. think of what you can do in the dark! The sillyporeans here are in support of Earth Hour. I may not be a green traveler but I support earth hour in the fight against climate change. It is’nt too hard, just 1 hour. 1 hour may mean nothing much, but if everyone plays a part and makes a consious effort to fight climate change, we might be able to extend earth’s life for just a little longer.

I am in for it man. And this is what I will do. Between 2030hrs and 2130hrs.. I will..

Well, I shall tell you what I will do in just a bit! Soon!

Alright let me dig back at the lil memory folder and share some of the shots from there. 9 days, 8 nights. Wow. Not a drop of rain. Plenty of bird poo in some areas though. Most of the time we were either too wet or too busy to snap pictures, and I know I did some photos before but let’s do it from the top again. All in 1 post, right here!

So that’s the Sugarpalmgrand Hillside resort once again. Up on a hill indeed. Definitely not the place to be for those who are not very mobile. They have a total of 13 lil pools spread across the entire site.

And that’s the lowest tier pool. The one with the small pool bar. Honestly I think the pool is great for washing off the tanning oil only.. LOL! But the little waterfalls are great to get heat out of your body, especially if you are a little red and burnt. It helps a hell lot and I love the feel of water pouring over me. With force! And no, for those who are wondering I do not like golden showers. It’s too warm!

And thats my bed at the Jacuzzi room. Is it a queen or a super twin, I have no idea. But I am so close to the see through bathroom and even though there are blinds, I could peek through! HEH!

On the on far right, that’s Rach’s bed. Smaller. She’d love to say that cuz mermaids don’t need a large bed as compared to whales. Ok she didn’t say that but I know she is thinking of that the moment she stepped in!

And that’s Furby and Kirby on the bed watching TV as we head out. I am not a green traveler I have to admit. I do not like to walk back into a warm room. Whether it’s hotels or motels or resorts or anywhere. I don’t like walking in from a very hot environment and enter a room that’s even warmer! Furby and Kirby… you know, we used to sit and watch TV like that. I guess that’s a long time ago anyway. Should I have left kirby behind or not, till today I cannot answer that question. Kirby, is locked out of sight, while Furby sleeps with me every night.

That’s our little tub after our nightly soak. I am sure the foam fell 5 stories below even. We had it for 5 nights after which we switched to another room on higher ground. And no, it wasn’t high enough to be cooler.

Another shot of the same tub in the day, before we make a huge mess out of it. The good news was there was no rooms opposite us. The bad news it was another motel and next to it a little construction going on in the day. I even washed our clothes in here, but very quickly realised it was not a good idea despite having nice powerful jets.

ta da! That’s the person who is responsible for all the foam and bubbles. I mean look at her… I almost couldn’t find where her head or feet were. She could have been hiding somewhere, waiting for me to enter and pounce on me!

There were fireworks everynight outside our area. Don’t know why. Maybe it’s the CNY season? I think fireworks are fun… not too fun if you are right below though. I would say fireworks are one of the most brilliant thing ever invented.

Here’s the night market, at Chalong I believe. Or is it the phuket town market? I can’t remember now. I think it is the latter. Chalong temple had a one off night market and if you are nice to the cab driver he’ll bring you to the right places. Most Thais are honest in what they do still and I am quite thankful for that.

Worms anyone? Plentiful everywhere. They are heavily seasoned and tastes a bit like chicken salt. I didn’t try these here though cuz they don’t fancy me. Not exotic enough. Maybe I will try eating a live fish, if they had one.

Here’s food we ordered from the road side stall. Rach likes it too. I think she has problems with it being very peppery though. But it was all good, for 30b, which is around S$1. I had 2 bowls. Okay okay fine I am a WHALE..

Banana feast for deserts!  With chocolate syrup! Yum! It was a nice treat. Chocolate and banana.. though those two aint in my top list but they go very well together… yum!

Our little sunday night CNY reunion dinner. So nice! Absolutely no regrets. It was very fun choosing the food, seeing it, smelling it, tasting it and then swallowing it. There’s someone I know who would eat, and then puke food out telling me cuz he is full. What I can say is, if I did the same thing, my bod would be a trillion times better than his. But I love food too much and I think it is a sin to even leave remainders behind, much less puking it out. I mean come on, show some respect for something that was once alive, but is no longer so in order to feed us.

Our grilled prawns. And no we didn’t order 8 nor got charged 280 bucks by those tourisy rip-offs. Food that’s fresh should not be fried. So ours were all steamed or grilled, save for the crab which I think across Phuket isn’t fantastic as I prefer the ones we have in Singapore. Big fat and juicy claws and pincers!

The fish! Done very well with simple soy sauce. I had 2 servings of rice to go with this! It was cheap and good enough we had it for another 2 nights thereafter!

The lobster! I don’t recall even eating lobsters before and Rach said they cost a lot by weight. But what the heck, we were on vacation and it is CNY! I spare no expense. It’s nice.. but I am not sure if lobsters are worth the price. I am quite happy with other cheaper forms of seafood.. like chuk chuk.. la la.. oysters.. sea hum even. Ok la those are scavengers I guess. Hep virus risk.

Words cannot describe it so I shall let actions do the work instead. SLURP! Did I already mention.. that when the food came everyone looked. LOL! The servers there also recognise us in subsequent visits. Maybe cuz there are really not many asians around. Phuket being predominently visited by Europeans that season who are escaping from the winter back home.

Food… done’ded! BURP. But we went for drinks after that still and waffles? Quite a feat we did I must say and I am very proud of Rach for not bailing out on me too early by declaring “I AM FULL LIAO” and then look at me with puppy eyes.

Boat trip to Phi Phi Islands, via Simba tours. Highly recommended. Owners Geoff and Jenny are really great! I felt like a VIP without paying VIP prices.. really. See, I am not that hard to please!

That’s tour lead Bam Bam who is like the biggest joker of the year la! I think he has also gotten to know many people from all over the world, which reminds me that I will have to send a photo to Geoff as I promised! And that’s Jenny, far right in blue. She makes VERY GOOD cakes omg. I don’t usually like cakes cuz it clings onto my teeth and all around my mouth but hers is GOOD… omgwodetian. Banana cake was it?

I swear, if there is one place on earth where I will do without the TV or mobile phone or comp, this is the place. SOOOOO NICE and serene. Your blood pressure just falls, as you nod off to sleep. Just toss me good company, some beers, a nice blanket for the night and I can snuggle with the person all night long under the stars, against the sound of gentle crashing waves.. with a nice coconut drink maybe!

I wasn’t even interested in food and drinks.. I just wanted to be left alone and ZZZZZzz.. so nice! Well I did take a couple sandwiches which were really nice too. I wonder how Jenny did them. Geez!

As for the princess… as you can see… fast asleep on the throne. She looks so harmless when she sleeps. Different story when she is up. hahaha.. Oh okay to be fair that’s what my ex said bout me too. She’s fierce la.. I can prove it. The second she  reads this she will go NA BEI!

And by the end of the day.. we were all tired but happy. Thanks Bam Bam! Btw,  I wear transition lens specs… so I don’t have to bother changing specs at all. Grew quite sick of doing that. Someone asked me if I owned the same pair of frames in 2 shades. No I don’t.

That’s her paraglide ride! Not cheap, but quite fun I reckon. The one in blonde is a  guy we call monkey. He climbs everywhere! He reminds me of Shahrin my ex trainer and gym buddy. It is in their blood to be fun and fun loving. You know you are in Thailand, at the beach. Let your hair down! haha.

Up up and away! It does look like they are both up to something. Maybe playing TOP and BOTTOM. Only they know what happened up there… I was just doing my job on the ground..

Monkey simply swung up the ropes on take off and he isn’t even attached to any safety harness! Wah lau! What if he fell?? Rach will be horrified!

And that’s our CNY holiday at Kata, Phuket. View from the top of the resort. The seafood place is on the left while the beach is on the right, a 5 min walk from our lobby. I miss the place now! Just posting and going through the photos again, I thank God for the memories I have. New ones will be created over time, but the old ones remain special and priceless. Always.

Coming up, Perth in Sept for the princess’s graduation. We might head back down on a road trip to albany, or head north instead. Anyone wants to go? We have enough qualified drivers so that’s fine. Tickets last I checked via jetstar, only $220! And that’s all in. Last year’s March had taxes amounting to $340 alone. Good deal! Can I tempt everyone with the gorgeous chilli mussels there? They are to die for!

I had another email via SWYSWSY (Say What You Say, What Say You?) asking for that lil clip I did back a few years featuring Mr Voice.

Okay the story once again. It was done in July 2005. I had just completed this threadmill challenge, my birthday was round the corner, and my dog Diesel had just passed away. So I was home, sad, sore (from the challenge) and bored, and I decided to do something whacky to sorta distract me and cheer myself up so I took up my $5 mike, plugged it into my system and did whacky stuff. I used to do one or two prior to that, show casing what’s in my ipod (hence the title, and woofie was a pet name given to me by someone then), joke of the day, did you knows, and basically some stuff I have collected over the time I was with the then known perfect 10.I put them together, had Mr Voice join in as well and did some cool stuff on the fly. That would have been the last.

Rach and I did this video thing while we were really bored in Suntec some years ago, she as Justice Bao (I think her law studies is making her ‘walk fire enter demon’) and me as a defendent, I think? I can’t remember but it was quite long and it was quite hilarious. It happened so long ago I can’t remember who filmed it. Ben maybe? I think I’d better ask him hmmm..

So yeah generally that’s it.

And here it is again -