Hello May!

It's been a while. Hello! I've missed you, blog. And what better way to start writing again than in this brand new month where change happens? Changes! I believe in changes! Tina for President, y'all!

Okay, just because I keep yelling 'changes!' doesn't exactly qualify me to be the next Obama, but hey, I'm embracing changes for once. If you know me at all, I'm usually terrified of changes and surprises. But because it's the new month and all, well, let's try to change that mentality, shall we?

Of course this has nothing to do with the fact that I'm starting a new job tomorrow in 4 years. How am I feeling, you ask? Well, honesty? Nervous. Very nervous and excited at the same time. After being a senior, I'm back to being the newbie who doesn't know where people keep their papers! You know what I mean right?

I'm also excited for that, though. I'm looking forward to the things I can bring to the table, to the changes and ideas that I can offer, to the new colleagues and supervisors that I'm going to work with. And most of all, I'm excited for the new challenges and opportunities in the months and years to come. I am!

I guess having these butterflies in my stomach is normal. I am looking at the positive side of things and I believe that the next job will be better. Now, will you ride along this new journey with me?

I will try my best to update this space more often. I'm sure I have a lot more stories to tell, and I will have more time on hand too (hopefully) because the office is quite nearby and I won't spend 3 hours of commuting every single day, so I think I will be more productive and efficient with my time.

So let's raise our glass and cheers to change!

Happiness Project - Day 8

1. Watched a couple more episodes of Arrested Development and I lost counts on how many times I burst out laughing! It's so hilarious and superbly written!


2. Finished my article for the day (yes, despite weekend, I still had to submit my writings), but I managed to get it done.
3. Went to see Kick Ass in the evening. Gosh, I've been wanting to see this for a while, and I was so excited to finally do it. And it was awesome! Really, really good, funny, cool, silly, heartfelt. And the soundtrack was really good. That Hit Girl character is the coolest, haha!

4. Finally got to get you another postcard :)
5. Ate KFC egg-tart for supper. Hmm, yummy!
6. Just want to post some random pictures.

Look at this really cute coaster. Guinness is like the God for the Irish. If you know the band, The Script, in one of their song the lyrics go like, "It was Dublin City on a Friday night, you were vodkas and coke, I was Guinness all night.." which I thought was really funny and awesome. 'Nyway, random bits there.

Upon seeing this, my sister was like, "Eh, I didn't know what the point of actually having to tilt it 45 degrees and what's with all these techniques.." and I was like, "Um, I think it's just for the presentation, people like it if their beer is all foamy and it looks more appealing!" To which she replied, "Huh? I don't think I like drinking the foamy part! It's yucky!" Well, so people, enlighten me please. Is it really just for the presentation of it, or is there some rationale, functional use for having to pour it in a certain way?

My first drink of the night. Vodka with lychee juice, and it actually tasted really good! Although for the life of me I couldn't tell if they really did put the vodka in or not.

Sorry, just a random picture. One evening I just decided to try putting blue eye shadow. Sis just got this eye-palette with 98 colors, imagine! Anyway, I couldn't decide if it looked good or not, but I liked it. Probably not to be worn outside, I would probably scare some kids away.

And this was when we went for a wine-tasting in Wine Mansion. My friend worked there, and she invited me to bring some friends so I brought my lovely colleagues. It was a nice evening, I wasn't an expert in wine, but we were taught how to appreciate wine, how to look at the color and hold the glass properly, and things like that. We tried out four different wines that night, and there was also a buffet spread. In the end, I bought a sparkling wine, and I really liked it. I recommend it if you guys are interested. Their prices are affordable too!

Alright, until next time, folks! :) Good night and stay happy!

Random pictures again

So. I'm so happy it's Saturday and I have the day off from work. It's like, I'm so living in the moment right now that I don't even think about the busy days I will inevitably have in the next week. All I know is that today and tomorrow are still holidays, so I'm not even gonna let my mind wander off from that. Today is a huge slacking day, and I'm loving it!

So in this bimbotic moment (where I shall not use any parts of my brain to think of what to write, since I do that on daily basis already), I'm just gonna post some random pictures taken by my new camera! Who's got a new toy? Me! Me! Me! Pick me! Pick me!

Okay. Sorry about that. I warned you! I'm not gonna even think! My fingers are moving on their own!

So check this out. This is a pathetic little corner in my room (which is obviously, a huge mess) where I normally sit and use the computer. It's filled with my junk (hair dryer, books, and ridiculous amounts of cables swirling around), but that's not what I wanna show off here. Anyway, I really want to look for skyline poster to put on that empty wall right behind the table. I have yet to get one! Unbelievable!

The magazines that I keep in my desk at work. And the manager actually came to me one day a few months ago and gave me that little 'tiger' soft toy because I'm a tiger baby! So now that little tiger sits there all day, looking at me working with its two big cute eyes.

And this is my desktop wallpaper! I actually set my work computer to have similar wallpaper too. I don't know, I feel more inspired every time I see city structure and lights like this. I love it!

Eh, I have no explanation for this, aside from that I was just testing some features from my camera! Honest!

I use more contrast feature in this one. The color is probably a little darker than normal. Anyway, I'm loving the camera so far! See, now I have a reason to take more pictures again. Good for me, bad for you. Sorry!

Alright. It's past midnight now and I need to lie down! I need as much beauty sleep as I can get. Especially when I will have to stay 'til 8 for work this Monday. Yeah.

Tell me about your weekend too, though. Last night I had drinks with my colleagues after work, which was awesome. So, how's yours? Til next time, good night!

My new toy =)

Yoooooo!!

This is gonna be a short post because it's 10 at night and I'm apparently a boring grandma right now who has to sleep past 10 simply because...well, I'm old and boring.

But! I'm excited to say that I've just got myself a brand new camera!

After pondering for..let me think, 2 days? Well, I knew I've wanted to get a new camera for a while now, and I've been missing the pleasure of taking pictures (not just of myself, please!) but there hasn't been that final push to say, "hey, okay, now I really need to get it soon."

So last weekend there was this electronic sale happening and I dragged my friend on a Friday night to check it out. Bless her, she agreed to accompany me. We headed straight to Canon booth immediately because everyone's been suggesting me to get Canon. The sales person at that time couldn't do much convincing though, so I wasn't one hundred percent sold. I told my friend I would think about it overnight and make up my mind.

All Saturday I kept pondering, and I was talking to a colleague of mine at work. She basically said, "Aiyah, just get it LAH. I mean, it's camera, and you need it. You will always use it." And my sister, although she was pretty neutral about it, also told me to better get a good one which costs more rather than something mediocre.

So I finally came to a conclusion to just get it. So what if I had to eat white rice just with soya sauce for the next week or so? So what?

I'm kidding, by the way. I don't know. I thought it was a pretty good deal, but who knows. I'm the most un-technical person out there.

Then, on Sunday, I dragged another friend to the sale again. What did I do to deserve such selfless friends like these! (I know you're reading, Nick, so you're welcome!) And after about 15 minutes of deliberation, we proceed to make a sale!

And check this out! Isn't this a beauty! I'm such a dork, I know. Please bear with me.

I haven't properly tested it out yet 'cos I just got it last night and I just managed to charge it. It's quite hectic at work today so there's no time to play camwhoring around the office. But! I'm excited nevertheless, and I'm gonna use it really soon!

Oh gosh. I didn't realize I was babbling. Yeah, that tends to happen. Okay, I'm gonna hit the sack then. Good night everyone!

Welcoming April

So. The long weekend is over. Not that it was much of a long weekend for me, anyway. I worked during Good Friday so. But hey, I'm feeling quite good about everything right now.

Prolly because of this, but eh, no.

Work is doing well, I mean, it's work. When have it ever gone excellent? Haha. But I'd take 'well' anytime. I feel more involved in the company, and I'm the happiest at the end of every month. I give you one guess why. ;)

Sorry in advance for not updating this blog regularly anymore. Seriously, I have nothing interesting to say. I'm so boring now, I'm living vicariously through y'all. Perhaps also because all I do for work is write. And then I come home and write some more? Well, I am a nerd but even a nerd has to strike a balance sometimes.

But! Exciting things are about to happen! Our new magazine will be out in a month's time and I'm excited! Also, I'm looking forward to see my first byline in another magazine, which I'm sure you won't miss out since I'll be boasting about it here and maybe scanning it to the computer! And my best friend and I are planning for a trip to Aussie in a few months. EPIC!

Okay, I may explode if I get more excited than this, so I'm just gonna stop.

PS. I really need to get a new camera. Hey, there's a Great Electronic Sale this weekend, who wants to come with me? :)

Random catch-up.

I feel good starting work again! And with all the wedding fairs coming up, plus the website and the magazine, it sure is gonna be a packed month, and for once I'm not complaining. Bring it on!

I guess I can talk a little more about my time in Jakarta, but there really isn't much to say at all. Most of the time I'm with my dad and I realize I'm getting more and more like a kid whenever I'm around him. I wonder if it's just a way to compensate a loss of a parental figure, and now since Dad is the only one I've got, I'm scared of losing him.

It's good that now he's busy with his activities at the sport club and travelling with his friends. I'm down with everything that keeps him occupied, and we'd always love it when he comes to visit. Blah, I so have an Oedipus complex. Okay, not that extreme.

I'm excited about life now! And I'm so grateful I have amazing friends to share it with. This year is gonna be better, I can feel it.

Have a great week ahead, guys!

Back!

I'm BACK!!!!!!!!!

I'm PUMPED! And that's all capital letters for you! =)

I haven't disappeared from the face of the earth, please! Well yes, I've been 'evicted' to a place without the luxury of internet! Oh how I've been taking this for granted, my sweet sweet internet. Anyway, to be fair, it's not like I had absolutely no internet or anything, in fact, I had my blackberry which allowed me to be online 24/7. So why am I complaining, you ask?

Well. First of all, have you ever tried typing and chatting away for hours with blackberry keypads?! I could still maintain a steady speed, which meant I was typing furiously non-stop without breathing. Now it's not really as easy as it sounds. If I could put that under 'skills' on my resume, I would. Not everyone can do that, I'm telling you.

Yeah. So I'm pretty happy to be back here with my laptop where I can effortlessly dominate all conversation in messenger. Ha! Ehem, not that I want to dominate or anything. Eh, I'm just saying.

Okay, I'm not gonna write much now, 'cos I have lots of catching up to do. You know, videos to watch, songs to download. Ehem. But I'm back! Damn happy to be here! And also, I'm in the 'redecorating room' mode. So, we'll see what's gonna happen.

xoxo

flu

The only thing worst than having a toothache and a flu, is having a flu.

Seriously. May sound simple enough, but it's irritating as fuck.

I woke up this morning yet with another stubborn flu. And normally I would curse, let it rest, and just swing with it. What else can you do, right? But now, upon my departure to Jakarta pretty soon, my current state of flu and mild fever are hardly good signs. Wait, they are bloody bad signs.

So now the challenge is to recover from it fully before Tuesday, which is what, 3 days away? No problemo. Easy as fuck.

Test, The Fountainhead

Today two things happened.

I passed a dustbin on my way to class, and it was yellow.

Oh no, they weren't the things that I'd like to say here. I thought that was a good build-up? Okay, sorry.

As you know, I had my first chinese test last Friday. Everyone's supposed to take the test when they have been in the school for a month, and I guess I fit in to that particular category. The day before, one of my classmate approached me during break.

“Look. Here's what you got to study,” she began, flipping my book. “Here, here. Here. Oh, and here too. You'll be given pictures and you should know the chinese words and the right quantifier for each object.”

I quickly took notes, a rise of panic started building up. I thought it's gonna be all written? All multiple choice questions? My voice was nothing more than a silent muffle in defeat.

“Of course not. There are listening and speaking test also,” she said. I thought I noticed a pleasure in her voice, but I must have been imagining it. When I looked at her again, she almost looked radiant. Gloating.

“Oh, don't forget to learn these and these too. Memorize all the words. You also should know how to ask for price and bargain in conversation.”

I jotted everything down helplessly, there was so much to learn in just a day. It's official, I suck at this. I should just stick to what I know best, like posing or something. Chinese? What was I thinking?

After class, I took my baby sister to Holland Village for dinner so it was safe to say that I didn't do any studying at all that day. The exam was less in 6 hours away when I woke up on Friday morning. Scrambling, I just tried to memorize everything I could, to not much avail. I guess I just had to bullshit my way to the test again, like any other tests I've ever done before. It gave me a little comfort.

Of course, I was in denial.

Anyway, to make long story short, the exam turned out to be all so very easy. Even at the rate that I studied (if you could call it studying at all), I felt like I've overstudied!

So today I got the result, and I got a perfect score. “Very good!” my teacher wrote it at the front page of my paper, she was grinning broadly, expecting me to scream, shriek, cry, laugh, and possibly faint. Well, of course I was delighted, but I almost felt as if I cheated. As if someone's gonna come out from under the desk and yell, “GOTCHA! That was a fake paper! Now HERE is your real exam! You don't think for a second that the exam's gonna be THAT easy, do you?! DO YOU!”

The other thing is this: this afternoon I finally finished The Fountainhead. I was on the bus, and I wish I were at home, because then I could probably let out a big, loud, happy sigh. The fact is, I'm utterly satisfied by this book. It's an experience in itself. The part when I simply couldn't stop reading it during the first chapter, how I was almost scared to continue because I knew something big was gonna happen in the story, how I consciously slowing the speed at which I was reading because I didn't want it to end, and that it was just like everything I wished it would be during the climax. Overall, it's been more than enjoyable, engrossing, and stimulating.

Was I just being a complete nerd for 3 seconds there? I'm serious, don't you just love it when a book can make you feel that much emotions?

The next book that I'm gonna read is so gonna fall short in comparison. I don't like it, but at the same time, I hope nothing else would come remotely close. I realize the irony in that. But we don't have to be logical all the time, do we?

Flu, nails and goatmilk soap

Hey world!

(Or rather hello to me, since I'm probably the only person who's gonna read this)

I'm now in a better position to write, compared to last night, or rather, this morning, so to speak. Last night I was as better to write as a giant penguin if you ever try to give it a pen. Why, you ask?

Okay, let's retrace the steps. The whole day yesterday I was out, having a good time, being perfectly normal and healthy as the Hulk. I even did sit-ups and a little bit of rope-jumping at home. (Okay, I made that up.) I had my greens (technically, there were lots of veggie in my noodles I had for lunch, but then I gave them all away to Cous, because I'm nice that way.) At night, in yet another act of kindness and selflessness, I cooked everyone spaghetti for dinner. (which everyone praised, not that I'm boasting or anything.)

Everyone knows I'm the master chef in the family. (But just because I'm the only one who ever cooks. Quite a deluded, undomestic bunch we are.)

I didn't have enough sleep the night before because I only went to bed at almost 5 am. (I don't know whether this would affect the story, but thought I'd just put it out there.)

I probably went to sleep at 1 am last night, which is normal. I had to stop reading my book (“The Fountainhead”, I can't stress it well enough, that it's the single most brilliant story I have ever come across.) because I was afraid I would finish it. Weird logic? Well, not really. (I had to stop myself from reading it too fast, I would very much like to prolong the pleasure.)

So everything was good up until this point. But then suddenly, at 4 am, I got abruptly woken up. Not by the rain, lightning, or loud noises in the house, in fact, it hadn't rained then, and the only voice I heard, was just a quiet hum of the air con. But I snapped because my nose was running and I kept sneezing.

I stood up to grab a tissue, and blew my nose. In my half-asleepness, I threw the tissue to the trash, and crashed back to bed. A few seconds passed, and I sneezed again, my nose still running. Now, imagine this happened for about, a hundred times. Okay, fifty times. All in a matter of seconds. By this point, I was wide awake, loudly cursing at nobody in particular. Just right after I blew my nose, I already had to grab another tissue because it just wouldn't stop.

I turned off my air con (although it wasn't cold), and sat silently with my puffy nose. I looked around, but it was freaking 4.30 am, what could I possibly do? I simply couldn't go back to sleep so I logged in online, and tweeted about it. I talked to my friend, another nocturnal creature who was still awake at such hour, god bless him. We talked for half an hour, and decided I should try to lay down again.

You have to know that I have quite a good resistance to cold, at least probably compared to most people. This works the opposite way too though; I have little resistance towards heat. I sweat a lot easier too. I have to have my air con to sleep (although I know I shouldn't, especially with my condition.) I turned it back on, but set the temperature to solid 25 degrees, and gave another attempt to sleep.

It took me probably another half to an hour to do so, because my nose would still be running and I would still sneeze but I have ran out of curse words to mutter at this point. I was just, tired, for goodness' sake.

I'd like to think that this is just a series of unfortunate, unlucky situation, that I'm just having a terrible flu, and that in no time I will be as good as new. Of course that's the case, but I don't know why I would suddenly catch this flu at 4 am without no sign and warning whatsoever.

Maybe this is just a sign. The really rare occasion of me trying to be domestic, and I got slammed with a massive flu! I have a feeling this is the universe's way of telling me that I should just stick to slacking. Oh, excuse me, I simply have to blow my nose again.

Okay, end of story! No more nose-blowing talk any more! Now, it's time for the bimbotic portion of the program, if you don't mind.

Yesterday I had a great time with the family, and us girls had mani + pedi at JP! (oh the perks of having sisters!) I didn't know we would be getting those when I went out of the house, though, and I was wearing an closed-toe wedges. (A disaster for the newly pedicured toes!)

The attendants all looked at me sympathetically, asking me if I brought another sandal! Why would I go around in the malls wearing shoes and bringing another shoes?! I'm not that busy nor famous. I almost cried when I saw the colour on one toe was starting to smear when I just started trying to wear my shoes!

My sister bought me a cheap flip flops, in the end! So my toes were saved!

I wasn't so crazy about my fingernails colour yesterday, but it definitely grew on me since! So barbielike! I'd post the picture later on, since Blogger is messing about again. Ggrr.

Also! Just a random question, why has nobody ever told me about goat milk soap before? It smells absolutely amazing! (I warned you about this being random) But yeah, it smells very milky, a bit like Dove, just cheaper! I was bathing in it with my shower puffs and I still smell like milk! Wouldn't it be great if we all smell like milk? Hahaha.

So yeah. What else should I mention? Hmm, I'll post more pictures on the next post! (As if it needs more) But for the time being, have a great Sunday, you.