Annoyed....

Just received a call from a salesperson who was trying to sell me this hotel/ restaurant membership.  I know that I used to be a member but I am NO longer one and I am NOT interested in getting it again.

Which part of NO did she not understand?  The ‘N’ or the ‘O’?  “No, I’m not interested” means NO…it is not an opening line for you to start telling me how worth it this membership is!! Woman…you KNOW that I used to be a member and the fact that I told you that I’m not getting it again for the simple reason that I did not make full use of it means….NO!  

Ughs…some salespeople really need to know when to shut up and just move on.  

Broke~ *sniff*

*Stares into the black hole known as my wallet*

My wallet is in peril. Rather, my bank account is in peril.

I've been smacked with a $450 medical bill just last week thanks to a blood test. I had to draw 3 tubes worth of blood (nurse insists that its less than 9ml) for what seems like a thousand hormone tests. Each hormone test costs $30 something and the consultation fee alone was $80. *faint*

You must be wondering why I'm doing a battery of tests. Basically, I've recently found out that my hormones are out of whack and I need to fix it QUICK.

This hormone shit is really putting me out of whack. My mood swings are terrible, my attention span is affected, I'm more blur on certain days AND it's causing me to put on weight!! I go to the gym at least twice a week and I have pilates every week as well as weekly taiji lessons. No weight loss nor maintenance. Worst thing is that it is causing me to skip my periods with very painful periods when it does come. Ok...I shan't go into details.

Ladies - lesson learnt for me is this: even if it seems like a small issue, just talk to your doctor about it. Health is very important AND you'll never know if it'll get worse with age. Best to nip it in the bud!

Baby Jaz's 1st Birthday

Went to IL's daughter's 1st birthday party on Sat afternoon and she's adorable (the baby of course) and she's looking more and more like IL!! Even her 'boyfriend', CL's son was there and it was just good fun to see babies interacting with each other. Oh...my maternal instincts are out in full force...I want a baby too!! Haha...that probably scared off half of Singaporean single heterosexual men. :P

Anyways...here are some pics from the party minus babies as I haven't gotten permission from the mummies to post them on my blog :)


Hmm...what will baby choose first??
Hahaha...she immediately went for the chicken wing...THRICE!!! This is a baby who'll never go hungry.

Highlight of the day - THE CAKE!! Adorable, isn't it? Except for the chocolate supposed-to-look-like-Minnie-Mouse bits at the corners. The whole cake is edible except for the candle and plastic toys. Too bad I left before eating a bite of this cake as I had to rush off to Orchard for Her World magazine's "Make Me Over" workshop/ seminar.

Happy Birthday Jaz!! Hope you like the dress that I bought for you and stay cute always!! :D

It's a jungle out here in Singapore

Came across this blog today (thanks Kenneth for the link) and I agree with her and we Singaporeans are ignorant about the abundance of flora and fauna on our tiny island. We think that wildlife is non-existent here but it is not true! There are tons of wildlife to be found. But having said that, the sad truth is also that our rapid urbanisation is killing precious species. I shan't repeat too much of what this blogger has said and I shall leave you to read her post.

The link is: http://kentridgecommon.com/?p=5537

Cheers!

I wanna watch more movies!!!

This is terrible…I’m looking through the movie section in the newspapers and websites AND I WANNA WATCH MORE MOVIES!!! I’m spending too much $$ on watching movies. I’m going to go broke from just movies. But I love movies…. =(  I can’t wait for Glen Goei’s “Blue Mansion” and I want to watch “500 days of summer”, “Amalfi”, “Tokyo Sonata”, the meatball animation one, “Caroline” and many more!!  Terrible, terrible…*stares at bank account balance* terrible, terrible….*sigh*

Movie review - April Bride

Went to watch "April Bride" with Siew Mai yesterday evening. The movie's title literally translates to "Bride who has 1 more month to live" and it is about Nagashima Chie who was diagnosed with breast cancer in her twenties. However, she fell in love with a salaryman whom she met after her diagnosis. She keeps her condition from him until she has to undergo a surgery to remove her breast. Nonetheless, her cancer returns and spreads to her bones. With only a month left to live, the movie depicts how her boyfriend sticks by her while she struggles with her illness. In the end, he marries her in April, just a short bit before she dies.

The pace of the movie was a little slow and of course, there were several tear jerking moments. However, I liked the fact that the director didn't try to glorify Nagashima's illness nor over portrayed the devotedness of the boyfriend. Good chick flick where the guys will get bored while their female friends get weepy. Definitely one for the DVD rental.

***

The movie experience was spoilt for me by this irritating couple who was sitting next to me. Firstly, the guy had to open his legs so wide that it pressed my bottle of tea against my thigh. He was obviously dragged to watch this movie by his girlfriend so he was completely bored from the beginning. To make things worse, he kept sending text messages and when he was waiting for a reply, he turned his phone towards me...which obviously irritated me. Imagine, you're trying to watch a movie and you get random glares of light on your side. Ughs. Then his girlfriend tried to grab his phone away from him and then they had a few friendly tussles. Hello. YOU are not the only people in the cinema or row. Have some consideration for those around you for goodness sakes!!

The highlight of the evening was when we suddenly heard Shania Twain belting out "You're Still the One" and it was actually somebody's mobile phone ringing. Oddly enough, that song kinda fit the scene where Nagashima was lying in her hospital bed and her boyfriend was comforting her. Ultimate spoiler was when mobile phone owner said (not whispered) "I'm watching a movie. Ya...ya...ya...I'm now in the cinema." WTH. -__- Seriously...ughs.

Birthday celebrations Part 5 & 6?

Yesterday was my actual birthday and here are some pictures of the wonderful celebrations that day! It started off during lunch where my boss treated me to lunch at Kuriya @ Great World City. I thought it was on L2, which it used to be but they moved to the ground floor near the office block. We walked a few rounds before going to the correct one. How embarassing...even my boss went, "Eh...I'm treating you to lunch and you're making me walk for like 20 mins before we find the place...not paiseh ah?" She was half joking and obviously exaggerating the 20 mins. :P

Anyhows...here are some of the pics from our lunch (I forgot to take some of them but anyhows...I'm sure you've seen sushi and soup before):

Crab and grilled fish on a special leaf (can't remember the name).

Broiled items: Hamachi with mushrooms, carrots and gingko

Dessert was seasonal fruit with coffee mousse cake and vanilla ice cream. Very yummy!

My colleagues were very nice to have also organised a mini birthday celebration for me in the office! One of them had insisted that I go back to the office at 2pm first before going to the photoshop to develop some photos needed.


Later that evening, I had a nice quiet dinner with my family at Mezza9...

Mm....spring rolls...gotta love the sauce but I put too much on mine and I tasted more sauce than spring roll. :P

Yummy crab cakes to share...yay...real solid crab meat in them...mm.....

If you look to the left, can you see the tiny brand printed on the salt and pepper grinder/ shaker?

Click to expand.

Yah...never knew Peugot made these as well. Thought it was just cars.... hmm....


And for the main entrées.....


Gor and I had the mixed grill that has tenderloin, half a roasted chicken, lamb chops and sausages. Oh...let me tell you a roll-eyes moment with the waiter. We had a choice between pork or chicken sausages. Here's how the conversation went:

Me: Oh, how many sausages are there?
Waiter: There are 2 m'am.
Me: Oh, can we have 1 pork and 1 chicken sausage then?
Waiter: Sorry m'am but the pork sausage is very large and so they slice it up while the chicken sausage is smaller so they can give you 2.
Me: *Rolls eyes and then looks at Gor* okkk.....

So we settled for the pork sausage in the end. Look at the pic. Do you see the pork sausage sliced??? It is STILL 2 sausages. -__-

Parents both ordered the tenderloin and they said that it was very good. Came with a side of grilled peppers and salad.

Mum left my cake at home so off we went for the cake cutting! :) Yeah...2 cakes in a day...thank goodness I went to the gym on Monday.


My deliciously light but creamy cake from Gobi Desserts again! I'm seriously not advertising for them but their cakes are delicious! Better than Bakerz Inn by a hundred fold.

The 600g/ 700g cake comes in this adorable cake box that resembles a carousel.

Downside of this cute box is that it is darn difficult to put it back together once you've opened it.

Below: Baileys hoping for a bite as well!! Blurred photo courtesy of Gor *gives Gor "The Look"*.


A probable Part 6 to my celebration happened today because my workplace held a Deepavali Bazaar where 2 henna artists were hired to give us free henna art!

Nice, nice nice???? Hur hur hur....

Thus ends my Birthday celebrations! Wee~~~ I love birthdays!! ;)

Birthday Celebrations Part 3

Today is my actual birthday! Woohoo! Happy Birthday to me....happy birthday to me....ladidadida

After Sat's bash, the celebrations kinda continued on Sun with me meeting up with Siew Mai for an early dinner in Bugis Junction followed by a free music performance by local bands at UCC. The quality of our local musicians is really amazing! I wholeheartedly support local bands and local artistes!! Singapore rocks! Honestly!!

I'm going to have a nice quiet dinner with my family later and will post the pics up too!!

My colleagues were also nice enough to throw me a mini birthday bash! Thanks S for running across to get the cake (and telling me to 'better come back by 2pm')! Thanks to the rest for being so sweet :)

Birthday Celebrations Part 1 & 2

Hiak hiak hiak...my 5-day birthday celebration kicked off on Fri evening when I met up with Sing and Siew Mai for dinner plus karaoke till past midnight!! Woohoo!!! We rock!! Hahaha...haven't gone karaoke for a loooong time and it was just so fun.

Siew Mai has been out of Singapore for such a long time and then she kept singing wrong words for some of the Chinese songs!! Her excuse? Dyslexia. -__-;;; ROFL like that's applicable to chinese characters! =P Well, at least she tried.


Sat's celebrations started at 3pm for the matinne "Hossan Leong Show". Verdict? Um...felt more like the product placement show with Hossan in it. I know that you need to thank your sponsors especially in theatre where sponsorship tends to be scarce. But...still? Wonder whether the only thing NOT sponsored was the plastic bag used for the goodie bags. =P

After the show, LF, YY, Sing and I hung out at Bugis Junction's Fish&Co. and we ordered the Seafood Feast. The king prawns were VERY good. Unfortunately for them, I dug my spoon into the rice and came up with a strand of hair. Ew. Got them to give us a new platter so we ended up having eaten 1.5 platters. Full...onto City Hall!!

I met up a client at 7.15pm at Raffles City's Starbucks to pass her the baby pink Samantha Vega (yes...I still have 3 left) as well as waiting for my bro to pass me my birthday cake. So sad right? I actually have to bring my own birthday cake to the place....

The MAIN celebration was held at Timbre@Substation and here's a quick look at what we had...

Tandoori Chicken pizza! Mm...surprisingly good. We also ordered a Peking Duck pizza but I forgot to snap a shot.


Salmon Salad that moon ordered!! *Gasp* Those who know moon will know how anti-vegetable she is BUT she actually asked me, "Do you want to share a salad?" *jaw drop* I must buy 4D 1010. Amazing.

Stable pub grub: fries!! I love thick cut fries and these fries make the 'cut'. Unfortunately, the sauce was a cross between mayo and salad cream...which was NOT nice. Give me plain ole cheese please!!!

Siew Mai's balls...LOL...ok, her mini burgers. Horribly funny joke especially after someone said that Siew Mai emasculates men! Haha...hey...3 balls in the pic! She's got more balls than most men!!

We opened 2 bottles of white wines but they were all so young. The Aussie one was a 2008 Riesling while the South African one was a 2009. The aussie white was flat. Imagine...a riesling tasting like cooking wine. Ugh. Flat. Yuck. The South African one was $5 cheaper but yet it had some saving grace. It had an interesting nutty aftertaste which didn't go down well with YY and LF. Perhaps we should've stuck to the house white. -__-; They had a good selection 2 weeks ago when I was there with Sing and X. What happened man? PLEASE bring in a better selection of wines...pls add dessert wines like moscato!!

Towards the end of the night...I needed to give my sweet tooth the fix and hello Bellini *grin* Whoever thought of putting peach and champagne together is a genius! :) That red slash is the G.H.Mumm logo. I do not like G.H.Mumm...so what if its the official champagne of the F1? Give me Veuve or Cristal anytime over G.H.Mumm.


Wee~my birthday cake!! Thanks mummy for ordering the cake and thanks Gor for picking up the cake! This cake is aptly named 'Chocolate Therapy'. If you LOVE chocolate, I highly recommend this oozing chocful concoction of pure chocolate indulgence. I promise I won't tell your cardiologist...and chocolate is full of antioxidents!! =D The cake is from Gobi Desserts www.gobi.com.sg.

The band that was playing last night is called "Goodfellas" and they're very good! Turns out that the lead singer stayed in the same hall as Sing and Siew Mai in uni. Even I found him familiar...wouldn't be surprised if he were chummy with my ex. Singapore's getting a wee bit too small... =P

I loved the moment where the band stopped singing for one stanza of Oasis' "Don't look back in anger" and then my table was the only one crazy and high enough to really sing that full stanza!! Shiok!! Hahaha...really enjoyed myself!!!

The celebration continues tomorrow with a full body massage after work...hehehe...and on Tue (the actual day), I'll be having a nice quiet dinner with my family. :)

Shoutout to the lovelies who attended yesterday's celebration! You guys rock!!!

Gotta love birthdays!!

Taking orders for the uber cute Cher Eco bags!!

**Direct from Japan** Cher Ecobags SPECIALLY for the month of October!

Super cute Cher Ecobags!

100% authentic, direct from the factory!

www.oct1983.com.sg

Cher was created by Yoshiko Yamazaki and takes inspiration from the Californian beach culture.

The Eco bag was originally a free gift given out with copies of the Japanese magazine "Sweet" but was made incredibly popular by celebrities such as the model Rinka.

To the left is the limited edition Cher-Snoopy Tote, which we're taking orders as well! Special Price of $30.

PRICES:

S size - $25

M size - $33

L size - $40

Prices stated are exclusive of postage. Please refer to www.oct1983.com.sg for purchase details as well as more information on the bags.

Thank you!!!

Movie review - Surrogates

When I first saw the trailers, I thought that poor Bruce Willis has been stuck into the action-thriller genre. Ah well...do what you do best, right?

I didn't really read the synopsis of this movie before going into the theatre but I knew that it was about Surrogates, which are robots that humans control through their minds. As such, humans no longer have to injure themselves unnecessarily as these surrogates will take the punch while their operators will get to 'live' through those moments in the safety of their homes. All hell kinda breaks lose when one surrogate gets fried and his operator is also killed in the process. FBI Agent Tom Grangier goes on a mission to find that weapon and to bring the murderer to justice.

Within the first 5 minutes, you start wondering whether this movie is like A.I. or other movies where the robots start having minds of their own and then take over the world. Thankfully, this isn't one of them. Instead, it is about human complexity and that what makes us human is the fact that we feel and that we're vunerable.

Nonetheless, this movie doesn't have complex layers for you to sift through and the themes are pretty easy to digest and predict. Good movie to watch with all friends with a large tub of popcorn!

Party Woes that ended with good food and drink!

I went to Oosh's re-launch party on Thu together with Siew Mai and Mel Li where there was supposed to be free flow of drinks from 7.30-10pm. Sounded like a great idea, right?

Siew Mai and I were there early and thank goodness for that, because we actually managed to get food. Now comes the part where this event taught me what NOT to do during an event:

1. The invite reads "An Exclusive Invitation". How can that be when they were NOT checking people's invites and was just letting any Tom, Dick and Harry enter?

2. There was poor crowd control

3. Understaffed

4. There wasn't any drinks list on the tables to inform guests what was on the free-flow list

5. Wait staff was "blur" like sotong...couldn't even tell me what's on the free-flow list and gave us bottled water when we asked for Oosh Cocktail (does this even exist?)

6. Faster to get drinks from the bar but the bars were so crowded that our tables were being knocked, drinks spilt but nobody to help clean it up thanks to pt. 2-3

7. Poor communication as to what the event was about. It is supposed to be the relaunch of their alfresco pre-club but they didn't make that clear...felt like any day out at Oosh with more people

8. Female toilet was starting to smell by 8pm and the bin was overflowing with tissue paper

What was really bad was that there was different information going on between staff. Mel Li asked me whether there was wine on the free-flow list. I wouldn't know since there wasn't a list to see AND the waiters were not giving us good information. I overheard someone ask that same question to the bartender and his reply was, "You've got to go over to the wine cellar at that side." I pointed Mel to the direction of the wine cellar and she came back saying that a staff there told her that it's a VIP area so she'll have to order her wine from the garden terrace bar. She walked over to the garden terrace bar but was unable to squeeze in an order. She gave up on the drinks and decided to order some food. Catching hold of a waiter was so tough that she tried to get hold of one and he never walked to our table. He must've forgotten OR he lost the direction that Mel was walking towards. By 8.15pm, we had it with the place and walked out for a proper meal at House! :)

Pardon the really dark photos. Low lighting's pretty bad for phone cameras and the flash from my phone caused all the photos to be overexposed. So we just have to make-do with these dark photos...

Love the menu!! It is in a newspaper format and the 'ads' in the menu were just sooo cute as they were essentially about the food.

Truffle fries! Before you start thinking that it is fried truffles, it is NOT. It is just your usual french fries drizzled with truffle oil. Not bad but I like my french fries thick. I think they put MSG inside.
Seafood Threesome - Sotong, prawns and mussels. The sauce was like a sweet dark soy sauce and oddly enough, this dish reminded Siew Mai and Mel Li of Newton Circus. -__-;

Curry Chicken crispy pizza. The pizza's really thin and snaps like a papadum. Top that with curry chicken and I really felt like I was eating papadums with sweet curry chicken. Not bad...but not on my "WOW, I've got to eat that again!" list.

We ordered a bottle of '07 Aussie Muscato as well and I love it! Crisp, sweet with a slight tangy aftertaste and the aroma of fresh citrus fruits. Too bad budget only calls for 1 bottle. I think I could've drunk a bottle by myself. :P

Thank goodness we saved ourselves by walking out of Oosh earlier in the evening. We might've spent more money but we managed to eat/ drink good stuff with great conversation, which is the objective of chilling out together, isn't it?

I'm really looking forward to my birthday party/gathering! Hopefully it'll be a repeat of good conversation, music and food!

Cheers to that!!

Birthday Wishlist 2009

Hear ye, hear ye…this is my annual birthday wishlist!  Some of you might be saying, “Wah…so haolian…got birthday wishlist.”  I assure you, in no way is my birthday wishlist a way to demand presents.  It is just that buying presents is never easy, so I come up with a list every year so that people know what to get for me…rather than buying me stuff that I either won’t use or chuck aside.  Agree?  Anyway, here goes!

Mel’s Birthday wishlist 2009:

1.                   Voucher from Paris Miki/ Yes! Optical shop as I need a new pair of glasses

2.                   Shower foam from Body Shop/ Face Shop

3.                   HAND cream from Crabtree & Evelyn – Nantucket Briar

4.                   Feet reflexology/ massage vouchers

5.                   Spa vouchers

6.                   Manicure/ Pedicure vouchers

7.                   Ice-cream maker

8.                   All in one semi-pro mixer/whisk…those that aren’t handheld

9.                   3-4 bottles of Menicon O2 solution for my contact lenses – need so many cos I use them up pretty fast!

10.               A playmate for Baileys – another cocker spaniel would be good :D

11.               A universal aircon remote control – I’m sick of ‘fighting’ with my bro over it

12.               Contribution to the “Mel’s new clothes closet” fund

13.               Nice dressy watches that I can wear to work

I must stress what NOT to give me:

1.                   Jewellery…unless from Tiffany’s/ Harry Winston…hahaha

2.                   Body Lotion – I’ve got enough of those to fill up my bathtub and soak in it

3.                   Photo frames – even if there’s a proper photo inside…exception is for my painting that’s approx 50cm x 70cm (will update the exact dimensions later)

4.                   Stuffed animals/ soft toys

5.                   Mugs

6.                   Keychains

7.                   Notebooks

8.                   Pens – even if they’re expensive

That’s all for now folks!

Cheerios!