tell me about it

Max and Bin sang this song for the NaIMs Poise Bazaar just now, and I must say they sounded really lovely together. Carrie Underwood sang this song for American Idol and I absolutely love it. It’s really meaningful too…so here are the lyrics. It’s so true of people nowadays, that we just keep trying and trying and keep looking for love; that it takes so many stops and starts and failed attempts to finally find the one you were searching for all your life. So don’t give up, you never know when he or she is just around the next corner. And you’ll never know if you don’t try.

I set out on a narrow way many years ago
Hoping I would find true love along the broken road
But I got lost a time or two
Wiped my brow and kept pushing through
I couldn’t see how every sign pointed straight to you

Chorus:
Every long lost dream led me to where you are
Others who broke my heart they were like northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you

I think about the years I spent just passing through
I’d like to have the time I lost and give it back to you
But you just smile and take my hand
You’ve been there you understand
It’s all part of a grander plan that is coming true

Chorus:
Every long lost dream led me to where you are
Others who broke my heart they were like northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you

Now I’m just rollin’ home into my lover’s arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road that led me straight to you

It’s entirely Kay Lii’s fault.

I’ve been looking for people to buy Birks with for quite awhile now, ever since I found out they’re much cheaper when you buy them online. You can save up to $30, $40 at one go especially if you share shipping charges.

And here comes Kay Lii to the rescue with Birkenstock’s latest collection. *jawdrops* I am so in love. I am saving up to get a pair. Must. Have. Birks.

Also, great indecision follows. I can’t choose! How do you choose?? Derelyn, if you feel like buying Birks, let me know :D

This is gorgeous:

So is this:

And this! Is so pretty!

This pretty too! But so pricey WAILS!

Am losing ability to form coherent sentences!

Want this too! Want them all!

And this one!!

Weeps. My eyes are much bigger than my wallet.

Anyone love me? :D

Sometimes all I need is a little reassurance from you. Especially when sometimes love just seems so hopeless and so lost, especially when nothing around me seems to be going right. And that’s when I just need you to squeeze my hand a little, to look at me with those eyes of yours, to enfold me in your arms, and tell me everything’s going to be all right.

And when you do, I can make myself believe it will be.

Thank you, baby. For you, the bank’s always open.

“If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them. Buildings burn, people die, but real love is forever.”
~Sarah, from ‘The Crow’

If I were a guy, and if I were you. If I had a girl like her who loves me, and puts me above everything else. If I had someone like her to hold and cherish and love and pamper. If I had her, like you did. Then I would never, ever let her go. How can you hold such a prize and bear to give it away? How can you even risk losing someone as precious as all that? I really don’t understand. I guess you’ve got your reasons.

I’d never risk Camel like that, never. Do you throw diamonds away? Do you treat gold like dirt? When you’ve got something so precious, so rare, so beautiful, you hang on to it. You keep it carefully and treat it like it deserves to be treated.

All I can say is, if you don’t appreciate what you have, don’t cry when you realize you want it after all and it’s gone forever.

I suppose I shan’t preach.

I’ve created a new drink, that I’ve named Maxmix in dear Maxine’s honor. Heh.

Warning: Can be thoroughly lethal.

Ingredients:
Ice
SKYY citrus vodka
Beer (We used Tiger, because it’s cheap)
Pineapple juice

Mixing Instructions:
1) Place two or three large pieces of ice in a tumbler.
2) Pour SKYY citrus vodka into the tumbler until you’ve filled it to about 1/3 a glass or more, depending on personal taste.
3) Pour in about one shot of beer
4) Top up with pineapple juice
5) Stir.

Now drink. Ahhh. Absolute heaven.

But not Absolut Heaven! Because I am never buying Absolut vodka again. All hail to SKYY Citrus vodka, because it’s smooth, delicious, cheaper and tastes a hell lot better than Absolut. We got quite high on Maxmix last night. We would have had more to drink, if Hobbit hadn’t come round and sneakily drunk up almost a quarter of a bottle in the guise of playing the drinking game with us. Heh.

Seriously. I am a genius. Maxmix tastes really, really good. I still have a whole fridge full of pineapple juice so I’m going to bring my Malibu in next week. We’ll have another jolly drinking night and see if Maxmix tastes as good when you substitute SKYY with Malibu. :D Or maybe we’ll be cheap and forgo the beer.

I am a GENIUS.

When I have my own house I’m going to have a fully stocked bar with lovely liquor like Curacao and Advocaat and Malibu and SKYY vodka and Amarula and Amaretto and I’m going to create my own mixes. Because I am a drinks mixing WIZARD.

Heh.

Well, here we are again
I guess it must be fate
We’ve tried it on our own
But deep inside we’ve known
We’d be back to set things straight
I still remember when
Your kiss was so brand new
Every memory repeats
Every step I take retreats
Every journey always brings me back to you

After all the stops and starts
We keep coming back to these two hearts
Two angels who’ve been rescued from the fall
After all that we’ve been through
It all comes down to me and you
I guess it’s meant to be
Forever you and me,
After all

When love is truly right
(This time it’s truly right)
It lives from year to year
It changes as it goes
Oh, and on the way it grows
But it never disappears

After all the stops and starts
We keep coming back to these two hearts
Two angels who’ve been rescued from the fall
After all that we’ve been through
It all comes down to me and you
I guess it’s meant to be
Forever you and me, After all
Always just beyond my touch
You know I needed you so much
After all, what else is livin’ for?

After all the stops and starts
We keep coming back to these two hearts
Two angels who’ve been rescued from the fall
After all that we’ve been through
It all comes down to me and you
I guess it’s meant to be
Forever you and me,
After all.

Spent all of tonight quickly drawing up three advertisements for CS331 with Max; three advertisements for a tattoo parlor, aimed at people who wouldn’t normally get tattoos. Max and I decided on old people, mothers, and judges. Our tattoo parlor is called INKdividual, heh heh. It was her idea! I’m not the only lame person around!

Lesson One: Do not leave your homework until the last minute, or you will get very little sleep before having to wake up for your 9am tutorial the next day.

Rather proud of our adverts. Here they are:

This is my favorite, even though the tats didn’t come out that well. I’m not that good with Photoshop yet :/

Thank God this mother came with her own tattoo, so that I didn’t have to slop on a very fake looking one. Heh.

Judge with a skull and crossbones on his neck. Don’t ask me why we picked judges :/

Dearest Adrian, Tiffy, Joanna and Colin (in order of appearance),

Beautiful performances from all of you. ‘The Brutal Affections of His and Her’ was a marvellous production.

There were times when you literally had me on the edge of my seat. There were moments when I let out loud whoops of unrestrained laughter. There was even once I nearly teared, and I caught myself nodding in agreement to some things that were said.

Bravo, all of you. Kudos especially to Joanna and Best Friend. Your play was by far my favorite of the three. It helped that Jo is such a consummate actress, and Col, you were so heartwrenchingly innocent and helpless and bewildered; I quite wanted to wrap you in a motherly embrace and pat your back soothingly, and wag my finger at Jo for having upset you. Definitely good acting, the Colin I know is hardly innocent :D

Jo, my dear girl, I hope one day I see your name up in lights. You are perfect in theatre. If I had enough money I would drape your dressing room in fine Parisian silk and spell your name out in sweetheart roses. I think I am becoming a rabid fan of yours. Heh.

I had a brilliant evening watching you guys tonight. Thanks for a wonderfully worthwhile time.

Love,
Beth

I do dislike trolls. While some I am able to overlook with nothing more than calculated, amused tolerance, some wear my patience thin. These will bear the brunt of my wrath.

I’m a dedicated fan of honesty and openness on the Internet. I value it as a largely uncontrolled medium, where most anyone can say anything they like without fear of reprehension (unless you are the SDP making a political podcast, then of course the gahmen will find a way to stop you). I tend to tolerate trolls because I do believe that they have a right to say what they will as much as I do; even if they aren’t particularly coherent or eloquent.

What I am in favor of is intelligent discourse. What I ultimately dislike is brainless flaming (for good examples, refer to the trolls on Xiaxue’s blog) and uncreative insults. For God’s sake, get a life and get some education.

I’ll take your criticism if it’s constructive and well thought out. If you have nothing better to say than “duh, yoo is stoopid”, then seriously. There are better places for you to do so than here.

Because if you waste my precious time with your pointless, witless banter, then, as my brother says: “I believe in free speech unless it’s on my server, then I pwn j00, b1tch.”

I missed the National Day Parade for the first time in maybe ten years, I don’t know. I’m rather upset, but then again it was at the Padang, and I don’t like the Padang as an NDP location at all. I’m very fond of the Singapore Outdoor Stadium. I’ve actually gone to watch the parade at least five times…I have a ridiculous soft spot for the NDP. It’s the one day of the year I enthusiastically belt out Singapore songs and wave my flag high up in the air “SQUEE! SINGAPORE! LOVE LOVE LOVE!”

The rest of the year I hang my head and pretend that it means nothing! Nothing at all!

No, but seriously. I do love this country, no matter how boring and sterilized and served-up-on-a-platter it is. Yes, I complain - don’t we all? - about taxes and prices and monopolies and our so-called democracy and God only knows what else. Sure, it’s rotten to sit around on a Saturday afternoon and everywhere you can think of to go, you’ve already been. Okay, so Singapore has no character of its own, so its clean and shrink-wrapped and packaged up into bite-size pieces.

Still.

I love Singapore. I love how I can walk the streets at night and not worry about crime, when Indonesian friends can relate blithely how they’ve been mugged no less than three times with knives held to their throats. I love how clean and green it is, the rows of rain trees and palms and bougainvillea hanging from the overhead bridges. I love being half-an-hour away from everything, if you’re in a car. I love how I don’t have to bother too much about politics or be concerned about a corrupt government, because the PAP hasn’t gone wrong (much) and I can pretty much trust them to do right by Singapore (I’m only annoyed that I can’t vote for President this year). I love that I can be undoubtedly, proudly Asian and Chinese, and also be unashamedly Westernized - no other Asian country uses English as their main language. I love it that I can fly to Thailand, or Vietnam, or any other Asian country to savor the foggy, chalky air, the dusty streets, the greasy slimy underbellies; and be able to return to clean, sanitized Singapore when I need to recharge.

When I was younger and determined to be different, and Westernized, I used to say that I would one day fly from Singapore’s shores and emigrate somewhere else; especially when so many of our close family friends did the same. But now I’m older, wiser, less abrasive, and more comfortable. I do admit that maybe I’m staying out of a sense of lethargy and inertia, but I also know that I’m staying in Singapore because of a sense of familiarity. Feeling instinctively that this is the best place to bring up my children with that perfect mix of Asian and Western culture. Knowing that if I ever left, I’d always look to returning to Singapore in a few years at most.

Because, really, Singapore is my Home Sweet Home.

Happy 40th birthday, you. :)