Kohsuke's Singapore

been a damn right crazy week. Kohsuke arrived in Singapore on 21/3 and from there on, i believed he and the bunch of us have travelled through the whole of Singapore.

i'm super tired albeit being super happy cos i know Kohsuke had a memorable time in Singapore and that he made good friends here. To my dear dear friends who selflessly gave your time to him and me, a big thank you along with a teddy bear hug.

Its not where you are; its who you are with. How aptly this phrase applies to one's stay in Singapore. So, had better make sure you have friends in a certain country before travelling there along especially if its to a super small country like Singapore where finding things to do and places to go are already chores on their own already. That being said, bringing Kohsuke around Singapore made me realise how beautiful Singapore and NUS actually is because i saw things from my foreign friend's point of view.

I appreciate Singapore and Sentosa (haha!) more than ever now. (: Singapore is fun on its own but it'll be so much more of a lovely trip if you had local friends with u. I bet Kohsuke will agree with me on that :D

Not forgetting the two beautiful ladies Jing Yi and San San who were with us too. Sorry babes, i only have the pics ah yi sent me in the computer i'm using now. Will upload your beautiful pictures soon :D

Yo! We sent Sentosa and took many crazy pictures! The best part would be the night show - Songs of the Seas- where we were all seating under the heavy rain watching the laser-show! I'll never forget that pitiful sight of us under the heavy rain all drenched and cold whilst trying to enjoy the show :)

After the show, we went to get some beer and cam-whored on the roof of Vivo-city! Very ideal place to just chill with your friends! I think, that was the highlight of Kohsuke's whole trip to Singapore we just had crazy fun, beer and lots of rendition of 'Hardo-gay' from Ah Yi and Kohsuke. :) Tanoshi-katta neh. Kohsuke said he has been to so many countries and Singapore is, insofar, the best country he has ever been to. :) Wahhhh, it made us swell so much with Singaporean pride that we gave him a Kallang-wave. *grins.

Then it was soon time for Kohsuke to leave Japan. I still can't believe how all of us made it to the airport by 8am! (: Amazing mind-over-body effort peeps :) Without you guys, everything will not be a s special as how it had turned out to be!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love you guys :) very very much. Kaimyo-In students two thumbs up mannnnn! :D

just talk talk.

3 days and 9 hours of sleep. (: Cool, i'm either gonna evolved into a superwoman or a corpse.

By and large, it'll be the latter as i've been feeling rather sick these days. As of now, i so want to puke my guts out. haha. But ohs well.

Today i had a very interesting conversation with 3 of my friends. Guo Hwa was asking us what we would think of when we see coffee.

Ken: Bitter

Me: Makes me happy

Guo Hwa: Addictive.

Liang Yi: Grandmother.

Apparently, what we would think of when we see coffee is actually reflective of the sentiments we have or would have towards sex.

Our answers were all not politically correct but the one that amuses me the most till now would the the GRANDMOTHER answer. (: My friend thinks of grandmother when he thinks of sex.

Sounds terribly wrong des neh.

Yesterday, was a reunion of MAD4 - Mae Anthea Dolly and Loreen. We've been sisters since we were 13 and look as us now! 21 and looking not the least different from when we were 13. ha. who am i trying to kid. :) Learnt something: milk after uber-spicy-sze-chuan-chilli-soup is the key to a non-painful aftermath.

I wanna sleep now. I just came home from Timbre @ Substation a secluded pub tucked on the side of quiet Armanien Street. The drink was nothing to rave about, i got a medicine-tasting-lychee-freeze-that-costed-me-$14-blah- Despite so, i enjoyed my time there as the band was awesome! - The Goodfellas! - one of the best or even the best live-band i've ever watched perform. Shirley and The Unexpected is good too but the covers by The Goodfellas were more to my preference. Pity i had to leave earlier than my peeps as i was too tired (ha. how interesting this is right now as i blog)

i'm just plain talking. i'll go sleep now. Kohsuke and Kensuke comes in later!! (:

cheer up mae. (:

Actually, i had every intention of going to bed right now as i have a long day tomorrow. Demo, i received a message on my MSN whilst i was offline.

It reads "Mae san, why never update blog?"


Just for you (: I will blog.


Something odd happened today, before evening prayers started in our temple this evening, i suddenly felt very downcast and my mood became melancholic. For whatever reason, i'm not sure.


I was of course superbly overjoyed at the sight of our new temple and our wooden Joju-Gohonzon but my life condition today was a little on the wobbly side.


Anyway, what was important was that 'sad' moment of mine made me decide to CUT MY HAIR! hahaha :) Which was really a wise thing to do considering how much my hair's been looking like a bush these days. hehe!


After cutting thy hair, i reflected on that sudden sad moment (haha, being dramatic) and realised that probably i had been very self-centred in my thinking and thoughts these days. It was all about me me me and me.


Dwelling on trival matters of the heart. Dreading the day i leave Singapore. Lamenting about how much i miss school and all the gibberish about missing the intellectual environment of school. Meandering through my days in boredom and refusing to do any productive.


**Dang** the above has been what i have been doing these days.


How frigging irresponsible i have been leading my life like that?


No more irresponsible living from tomorrow onwards.


I'm disappointed with myself.


How did i like myself become so narrow-minded?



I'm looking forward to my brand new day with my brand new HAIRCUT. hahaha!! :D
Hopefully, i can keep my hair looking like that for many days to come. (: YA YA! I know! Its definite HIGH TIME for a change yeah peeps :)

yes. And everything commences now.

(:

Fighto!

Breakthrough! I fixed my laptop! hahaha

Hohoho! I've fixed my laptop - single-handedly! I have two relatively-tech savvy (relative to me :P) brothers but i think they couldn't care less and left me in the deep blue sea. And so, after HOURS AND HOURS of messing with my DELL; i've finally trouble-shooted everything. HA!

From being absolutely technologically-challenged to being less of a klutz with computers. An achievement for me indeed :)

I'm starting to fill this bond with my laptop after the hours and hours meddling with it. I had entertained the thought of changing my laptop. But looking back now, me deeming it 'inefficienct' may have stemmed from my very own impaitence. (-_-)

(: From today, i'll treasure my laptop even more.

Thank goodness for online-help forums and my laptop's hardiness. :) I once crashed my friend's laptop with a single light touch of my finger and now things are looking a little more hopeful for me.

*grins. okay, fine i'm making a hooha out of a little small achievement of mine.

But, by gholly it sure feels good fixing the damn problem (:

hmm.. the weather's been pretty bad this few days. It has been raining heavily today again..Singapore's been kinda cold these days. Hope it stops soon, i have to be out this evening and the weather is dampening my spirits.

haha. But, no excuses. Gotta go get ready now (: Ciaoz!

Cantonese and me.

I was borned and raised in a Hokkien-speaking family. Though, till this day i
m unclear whether the words that sprout out from my mouth is authentic Hokkien, Singaporean Hokkien (one that the Taiwanese people can't understand) or the Teochew-kena-mixed-with-Hokkien kinda Hokkien.

But one thing's for sure.

I SURE don't speak any Cantonese!

Imh Sek Teng, Imh Sek Kong or in my own grandparents' tongue "Buay hiao tia, buay hiao kong." The only Cantonese i know is limited to "wheres the toilet" "go to hell" and whatever Dim Sum food name there is.

Now, I'm gonna to embark on the impossible and that is to learn Cantonese. Truth be told, i have no interest whatsoever in the Cantonese language. Not that i have anything against it or anything, just that i'm totally clueless and am an absolute NOOB in it and i have yet to master my own dialect. Hence, i am a bit hesitant. But, i took a leap of faith and yesterday i was trying to communicate in basic Cantonese with some of my choir mates.

One of them thought i was speaking Korean!!!! (o.O)??

I then turn to an Uncle nearby and spoke to him and he understood only 1/10 of what i was trying to tell him!!

How encouraging eh!

haha (: Anything tough is always worth a fight eh!
Anyway, Hong Kong and Guangzhou is the land of the speaking Cantonese campaigns so i better fight hard.

Any Cantonese speaking friends out there???

jit bai jiat lat liao la.

The Spirit of the Hokkeko.

The last two days and past weekends, a placed dubbed SPIKO - Spirit of Hokkeko - has been our lil' home. We spend our whole weekends in SPIKO- eating together, sleeping together and practicing our cultural items together. Normally, spending so much time with people, and the SAME people for that matter, would invariably bring out the worse in everybody. Arguments have a tendency to escalate into fights when everyone starts taking everyone else for granted and the environment for granted.

Interestingly, what is happening is quite the opposite in a place called SPIKO. (: SPIKO is bringing out the best in everyone and maybe it has something to do with the place being called The Spirit of the Hokkeko. What an apt name :)

Being in The Spirit Of Hokkeko aka SPIKO brings out the best in everyone. We see everyone, from the main performers to the unsung heroes - the nannies and the logistics personnel tirelessly doing their best just to deliver a seamless and perfect performance.

It was nerve-wrecking for me during the evening's rehearsal; i had to conduct the choir as our conductor was away this weekend.

It was nerve-wrecking because i knew nothing about music and i had to lead my choir on the front. But guess what, at the end of the day, they were guiding me and not me them. (: My worries unfounded eh, this is a performance of faith and all i have to do is to have faith, not in them, but in what binds us all in a common spirit - that of the Hokkeko's.

:)

Come sunday will be the most beautiful day of my life and because of our faith, to all 300 performers- it will be the most perfect day.

Practice, Protect, Propagate.

Emo Elmo.

missing u~
Have you ever loved someone and they had absolutely no idea whatsoever? Or fell for your best friend in the entire world, then sat around and watched him/her fall for someone else?


Have you denied your feelings for someone because your fear of rejection was too hard to handle? We tell lies when we are afraid… afraid of what we don’t know, afraid of what others will think, afraid of what will be found out about us. But every time we tell a lie, the thing we fear grows stronger.


Have you ever noticed that the worst way to miss someone is when they are right beside you and yet you can never have them… when the moment you can’t feel them under your fingertips you miss them?


Have you ever wondered which hurts the most; Saying something and wishing you had not, or saying nothing and wishing you had?


I guess the most important things are the hardest to say. Don’t be afraid to tell someone you love himor her. If you do, they might break your heart… but if you don’t, you might break theirs.



Have you ever decided not to become a couple because you were so afraid of losing what you already had with that person? You can’t tell your heart what to do. It does it on its own… when you least suspect it, or even when you don’t want it to.



I just stumbled upon someone's blog and i found the above. I believe most of us, or everyone of us, can relate to that matter like this..




Well, i have nothing to add to what that was copied. Being emotional at 12.14am whilst everyone is asleep and nothing seems to be interesting on tv isn't an ideal way for me to end my day. So, anyways..



I've been thinking that maybe it wasn't just a good idea to stop school for one semester after all. I miss school- the intellectual environment, the days of discussion, the time in the library and my university mates.

Everyone of them is in school and busy with projects and reports and are only free on weekends, many a number are really sweet to make an effort to keep in contact with me and ask me out for a drink or two. There are absolutely no complaints about my friends; as friends, i'll give them a 110%! :D



The problem lies with me. I figured i enjoy being a part of something bigger than myself- be it a school, a company or an organisation and the only thing keeping me sane now is my faith and from faith stems my optimism which then fuels my everyday with spirit. I miss all of those who have walked my years of college and university with me. I miss them terribly- especially the times we have drinking some funky-juice-concortion the Arts Canteen comes up with, the complaints from the CMN majors, the lamentation that our Japanese teacher is speaking too fast for comprehension, the early hours, the late hours. Just about everything we complain about - is missed by me.



That is not to say i am not enjoying my days now. I am. I really am (: I realised alot about myself, made new friendships and am ravishing the days in my life. Such is life, you move on and yet ever so often you still will look back and ask.. 'what if.'



Well, let this had better be the last time; I'll be damn if i were to let this happen again.
Thank goodness for this blog! :)

Food journey.

Ma Maison's is a lovely cafe tucked in a little corner in Parco Bugis Junction. The Omu-rice was delicious and so was the sea food rice and so was every other thing we ordered. We were just shamelessly tucking in into each others food. All 6 of us didn't had the pleasure of being the first to savour own own main dish, someone else was always helping one's self to the food before the person who ordered it could taste it. :D Very family-like huh (:








But, the uncontested winner of all dishes would be the brownie ice-cream dessert! (: Hui Ting ordered it and i finished every thing on the dessert plate for her very happily and quickly.

Well, as Nigella once said "Too much of a good thing can be wonderful." (:

After lunch, we went to the older side of Bugis. It felt almost as though we had went back in time and arrive in old-time Singapore's Chinatown. There weren't many pretty sights there and so we headed back to modernity where Sansan and i proceeded to meet up with Guo Hwa and Ken.

(: We went V8 for dinner and then MOF @ My Izanuya. Nice desserts la. We spent out time yakking and yakking till the staff had to politely tell us.

"Sorry, its 11pm and we close at 11pm." heh.

The bunch of yakking penguins. along with san san (:

I realise theres nothing much to do in Singapore huh -well, at least we are enjoying doing the nothing much we can do (: I have a long day tomorrow and have to sleep. Good night people.

A Mosiac artist asked reporters "what is the most Singaporean food in Singapore?"

Makes me wonder.

Hello hello again! Sh-Boom and hoping we'll meet again! :)

On this date 6th March 2008- Singapore reached a pivotal point in her country's route to Kosen-Rufu. We, at Nichiren Shoshu Singapore rolled up our Joju-Gohonzon this evening after evening Gongyo and now we await for the much-anticipated opening of our temple - Kofuzan Kaimyoin.



This evening was to a certain extent a poignant moment for me as i recalled the days i've spent infront of the Joju-Gohonzon chanting for my family's happiness and for my problems/worries to resolve themselves. Not long after, it was also with this Joju-Gohonzon that i learnt to practice for the happiness of others ahead of my own. This five years the Joju-Gohonzon was with us marked my most impressionistic and learning years that would nodoubtly set the foundation for my future and vista.



It was a more than a worthwhile journey i had taken; marked by the the resplendent years i've experienced with the heightening of my consciousness as a Buddhist. And today, i bid farewell to the Joju-Gohonzon that has guided me with the Buddha's wisdom, felt immense gratitude for the honour of having walked a course of my life with him and was left affirmly determined to be a person Nichiren Daishonin will be proud of .



Now, we have to move on and look forward to our wooden Joju-Gohonzon and progress on this splendid walk of life as Hokkeko believers.



(:



Hello hello again! Sh-Boom & hoping we'll meet again! What i had written seems a tad serious yea. haha =o) Anyways, i had a very serious day today but the past two days was anything but serious.



we were always..
EATING.

WONDERING WHAT TO EAT NEXT.

DOING NOT SO SMART THINGS LIKE TAKING PHOTOS WITH A BLUE GORILLA OR LIKE THAT GUY THERE ATTEMPTING TO LICK THE EAR OF ONE

AND JUST TAKING IN THE PLEASURE OF SPENDING TIME WITH EACH OTHER \(^-^)/

<3

aiyaya! We even taught Sansan how to rollarblade! Well, she only learnt how to balance herself and walk on her wheels V-shape at a time. Liang Yi on the other hand, i learnt, he can blade but he cannot stop!! hahaha :P So because of one friend who can't blade and another who cannot stop, we did not even manage to cover more than 200m of the rollar-blading tracks! $30 for the distance we have covered! 'Yue Wang Qian ah!' :D



*guffaws. Now thinking about it, its reaaaallllyyy funnyyy laaa. We walked and walked more than we blade :P But it was a uber fun day especially when we found an abandon fun-fair near the Beach.

I think the fun fair brings out the childish side in us. Like how it did with this guy here :D

I had my fair share in the childish pie la. (: haha Whilst trying to get myself on a little car to take a picture for fun, i got stucked!! hahaha :) We were laughing so hard my tummy hurt and i looked super stupid and clumsy trying to myself in and getting myself out after trying so hard to stuff myself in. Its been quite long since i laughed till i had the stitches; it was a very good feeling (:

Lets hope there'll be more of stitches this coming week! Oh! We are heading to Ma Maison tomorrow and i'm looking so much forward to it. I'll come back and give a rave review of the food yea. heh. Omu-rice here we come :D

We eat too much.

hey you earthlings! How are u all doing? (: Very good i hope! Me too! haha. I think i've been hanging too much with people that even when i'm not with them i'm still seem to be talking to them. Must be the coffee!

Anyway, Coffee today was really good! I bought 3 cups of coffee from Ya Kun @ Clarke Quay Central. 1 for Sansan 1 for Liang yi and 1 for me. hehe. So sweet of me right! I proudly bought them $2.60 worth of coffee and didn't aks for the money back :D And for that $2.60 & the high from Caffine, they decided to style my hair and give me a newwwwww looookkkk...




Blah blah blah.. So here i am with Doll in the evening.

can't really see it clearly here though. But it was interesting la, Doll almost couldn't recognise me. Haha. Which is bad! Considering we have been friends since we were 13, its a clear sign of how 'fixed' my hair have been since! haha :) Okie okie, i will be more flexible to change now (:

Gosh today was just eating and eating and more eating day. Coupled with a talking here and there, the price we paid for our food was more than worth it huh. (: maybe i should change my blog to a food blog since me and my friends are ALWAYS eating. Darn. Heres our food trail tod.

Lunch: Waraku Resturant

Mid Afternoon snack (HAHA!!): Ice-cream @ Azubo Sabo

Dinner: Thai Food

Mid Evening snack: Ice cream @ Swensons.

Not that we have alot of cash to spare nor that we are greedy. Rather, theres nothing else to do in lil' island Singapore laaa. So we just eat eat eat and talk talk talk lor. And because of today's eating rendezvous we heading to the beach for some rollar-blading tomorrow. (:

Sigh, i think we should stop eating so much people. And find healthier things to do when we are together. Tomorrow, will be the new beginning (: