Monday, 21 Jul 08
Ode To Joy
The Muppets becomes self-aware with YouTube :D
Oh, I just love Beaker.
Mew
Tired.
My kids are involved in a police case this week.
Why can’t they just leave trouble alone?
:(
Sunday, 20 Jul 08
Birthday happies
Okay, I’ll have to admit I did sort of have…a fleeting hope…for a dinnery celebratory type thing with church people. But I honestly did not expect Clarence to engineer that surprise party for me, or maybe I was just being deliberately clueless, or maybe…I really am clueless. Darn. :)
I thought it was just going to be happy fellowship with the BS group after Bible study, but the penny only really dropped when Shoo walked into Gina’s house. :/ Heh. So here’s to a truly successful surprise and a really happy birthday for me :) Thank you so much everyone who contributed (and Joanne even!) to my party thingy :)
The wonderful man behind it all <3
Sneaky girls who sneaked my party!
More girls!
Conniving BS leader Gina who lent her lovely home for the event
Mosling and Clairol Jojoba :D
Such a happy birthday :) My actual day was wonderful - spent the afternoon happily cleaning the car with Clarence (mm, polished leather); after that he took me out to buy my surprise present - A PAIR OF HEELS FROM ALDO! *drools* My first Aldos! They’re mega high and sexy and make me so squealy happy. Heh. I’m the kind of person who just can’t bring myself to pay lots of money for bags and clothes; I’d rather buy several cheap items than one expensive thing. So when we went to Raffles City, I had no idea where we were going until he led me up to Aldo:
Me: Aldo? We’re buying me Aldo shoes?
Him: Yes. I’m tired of your feet hurting. We’re going to get you a nice pair of shoes.
*cue idiotic ear-to-ear grin and lots of girlish squealing as I kissed him on the cheek and practically danced into the shop*
Hee.
After that we went off to Club Street for dinner at a little French bistro called L’Angelus, where we had some of the best (and definitely largest piece) of foie gras ever. Man…it was pure delight. The outside was crisp and crackling, the inside disgustingly melty and sweet. It was depressing to have to finish it all. Clare had the rib-eye steak with potatoes au gratin, while I went for my long-dreamed-about confit de canard, with home-made potato chips fried in duck fat. To pair off we had the lovely house red, which I forgot to take note of and now do not know what it was :( But it was an excellent excellent meal, and beautiful company as we celebrated not only my birthday but our one-year anniversary :)
Happyness.
<3
We visited Mosling after that, and then went to watch Dark Knight with Joel and Bing; it is a brilliant movie, but horribly dark and psychotic and DO NOT BRING YOUR CHILDREN TO WATCH THIS MOVIE. Heath Ledger is seriously explosive in this role and he will be remembered forever for it. Deeply disturbing and psychotic. He’s riveting to watch and entirely frightening in the depths of his anarchy and proclivity for bringing about wanton death and destruction, as well as bringing out the worst in people. His “social experiments” are, frankly, terrifying; makes you wonder what you would do if you were in such a situation.
Liulian feast!
The annual durian feast returned for another splendiferous celebration of the king of fruits! I’m so blissed out because this year I’ve had So. Much. Durian. Mostly thanks to Clare, our van, and our spontaneity in our united, unceasing drive to gobble up just about as much of the creamy yellow flesh as we possibly can before durian season goes away.
Even after arranging and planning for the durian feast on Wednesday, we both still gave in to our hankering and snuck out on Monday night to satisfy our craving for durian :P
I simply cannot understand why people think durian is stinky :/ There is no part of me anywhere that can possibly connect the lovely fragrance of durian with a bad smell! People compare it to stinky socks, to rotting fish…seriously, I wish stinky socks and rotting fish really smelt like durian. What a lovely world that would be (though probably very confusing; I would probably be seduced into an old laundromat thinking they were selling durian).
Mos had a really good lobang for wholesale durian, so last week we jointly purchased 60kg of D13 for only $2 a kg (gasp!) along with some Golden Phoenix, Mao Shan Wang, and chestnut durian. It was each man for himself and too bad for the latecomers as we dived straight into the pile of luscious durian.
This is what 60kg of D13 looks like (minus the chestnut durian and Mao Shan Wang)
Huge ass durian!
Creamy and luscious yellow flesh
Sen savoring durian
Finger-lickin’ good!
Never knew Serene had the hidden talent of being able to skilfully prise durians open
Just look at that yellow
Everyone looking on approvingly
We ate about 45 kilos worth that night and packed the rest. I liked the Golden Phoenix durian - they’re very small (cute baby durian!) and pale yellow with a bittersweet flavor. The chestnut durian was pretty good too. I like my durian bitter and really creamy, so having had my first taste of Mao Shan Wang I was pretty much hooked :P Too bad Mao Shan Wang is so expensive :(
Can’t wait for more durian :P The durian we had on Monday at Serangoon was really pretty darn good too, for cheap durian! Super creamy and nicely bittersweet.
Oh and we also found out, courtesy of Mervyn, that washing your hands with a clean durian seed really clears your fingers of the smell. Seriously. We were all really skeptical but it actually works. After you devour the flesh, take the seed and scrub your hands with it under running water, without any soap. It really works :)
Thursday, 17 Jul 08
Connections
From behind the curtain of her hair, her eyes are slowly welling with tears.
***
With wonder, she traces her finger slowly along the curve of the indecipherable black ink blot. It’s almost unreal, she thinks, I can’t believe this is happening.
“Mine,” she says slowly, trying out the word like a candy in her mouth, a new, tender smile growing along the edge of her lips. “Mine.”
***
She looks across at the two heads bent close together, and unreasonable panic and anger start to swell in her chest. She fights it - oh, how she fights it; knowing there’s absolutely no reason to feel this way - but already she can feel the smile slipping off her face and her jaw stiffens into a mulish line.
Her fist is clenched beneath the tumble of cushions on her lap, and she grits her teeth. Mine, she thinks fiercely, as she tries to drag her peripheral vision away.
She fails. Mine, she thought again, but she couldn’t stop the frisson of imperceptible paranoia that ran down her spine.
***
It’s almost completely silent in the hall, apart from the occasional sniffle, and she cannot decide if it is better to watch or to turn away. Or, rather, which is worse. In the end, she lifts her head at the last minute, and watches the metal doors slide closed. A roaring fills her head and her knees crumple, but now she cannot tear her eyes away even as people rush to her side to lift her up.
Her lips are numb, but she manages to mouth the word “Mine” before her eyes roll up and her world goes blessedly silent and still.
***
The teddy is her constant companion, and so it comes as a complete shock when she is ordered to share. Her rosebud mouth is round in an ‘O’ of utter indignation as her precious teddy is taken from her, and mere seconds elapse before a desolate wail is heard. She beats her little fists angrily on the wall.
“Mine!” she howls, and she will not be denied. “Mine!”
***
From behind the curtain of her hair, the tears began to fall.
Wednesday, 16 Jul 08
Liulianliulian
Durian feast tonight!!!
Pictures to come of us in our durian glory!
<3
Monday, 14 Jul 08
Playing catch-up
Why does the weekend always fly by so fast?
And as it turns out, my original plan for the weekend was rather altered - ended up not doing half the things in that previous post. But I still enjoyed my long weekend :) And it’s a long time till the next one - in August, National Day weekend. Long, long way away.
So for now it’s back to school and another week of lessons and trying to deal with students who aren’t interested in learning English.
Joy.
On the bright side, we’re catching Hellboy 2 tomorrow, and there’s choir on Thursday, and Bible study on Friday, and then Saturday’s my birthday and it’s gonna be a happy eating weekend :) Food food food!
Friday, 11 Jul 08
Sweet dreams are made of these
It’s a haze of happy and a delicious feeling like I’m swimming through a pool of sunshine and butterflies and glitter.
Well, after work, that is, and especially that feeling of wonderful triumph knowing I’ve made it through another week. It’s Friday, people! It’s FRIDAY. Drink in that smell of freedom wafting through the office. I have two periods of Lit to go and weekly staff meeting and then I’m going to waltz out of here and into my darling’s arms. We’ll go on a jaunt for dinner and shoppy shoppy for car-related pretty things and savor the joy of embracing the weekend.
And then on Saturday we’re going to load our bikes into Kandi and go cycling at East Coast Park. Mahjong in the evening at my place with the usual suspects, and supper after (a poorly-hidden excuse to show off our new baby to the mahjong gang and allow them to romp gaily in our backseat - though not in such a way as the word “romp” rather implies) (”You have a love seat in your van!” Slim was greatly amused; I not so much - “Please don’t use that term in front of my mother, she will never let me sit in it again”).
Sunday it’s back to work with tuition in the morning, then I’ll probably spend the afternoon marking four packs of scripts (sigh). Church service in the evening and then dinner at home with the family - we might let them take a test spin in the van, but that all depends on how well they behave. Maybe we’ll even catch a movie after dinner, because you know why?
MONDAY IS A HOLIDAY FOR ME.
*dances wildly in glee*
And I’m going to spend Monday scrapbooking (maybe, if I can get my hands on more cardstock) and leveling up in Final Fantasy. All right, and finishing marking, if I don’t finish on Sunday. And lesson planning. And formulating worksheets.
But doesn’t that just sound like a glorious weekend to you?
It does to me ;)
<3
Wednesday, 9 Jul 08
Kandi Krazy
It’s crazy how happy this funky chillmobile is making me. Hurhur. Today we vroomed down to Ikea to get a happy rug for the back - and wow, we found one that fit EXACTLY to the back of the van. How fortuitous is that!? It’s happy and stripey and makes me exceedingly bouncily glad. Even sat in the backseat to test the chill vibes of our van on the way back, with my obliging darling driving and not minding one bit. Heh.
Okay…next I’m going to have to conquer my laziness and go learn how to drive so I can actually make full use of the van!
Although just the thought of driving a stick shift in Singapore makes chills run up my spine.
I can do this, I can do this, I can do this.
<3
JADEITE