Rainy Days, Long Weekends, & Christmas!

Things that make me smile:

• Yipiee.. it's a Tuesday and I'm not at work!
• It has been raining for hours on end and I'm not at work!

Oh well, guess I'm just very very happy to be at home on a "work" day... this was supposed to be my super duper long "recharge"period, but due to unforseen circumstances (re: deadline), I've had to cancel most of my leave. But... am still happy that this Christmas break has given me loads of opportunities to just cuddle up and spend time with Jules. Am especially happy this morning coz I was able to really "sleep in" this morning admist the pouring rain without my mummy chasing me to get out of bed! "Yippie"!!! I'm actually getting quite an inexplicable kick from just idling in bed... think I'm deprived.

Hmmm... for some reason the Christmas cheer has really gotten into me this year (as opposed to my gloomy state of mind a year ago). In fact, this year, I've managed to send out Christmas Cards to an unprecedented 70% of my Christmas List! So, to all those that have received my classic circular cards, hope you enjoyed reading them... to those that I've missed out... really sorry, but I'll try harder next year!

I've also completed quite a bit of shopping...

• Christmas prezzies for the gang, Jules and my little sis... wasn't anything much, but I hope that you guys will find some use for them
• 3 new pairs of shoes!!! I averaged $30 for each pair... just hoping n praying that the current rain will not damage my new purchases in record time
• 1 new bag! After MONTHS of searching, I finally bought myself a 9west bag that is suitable for both work and play! Okay, so it's not black... but it's a good size (it can fit my story book!!!) and I'm just smug about it!!!
• spent 1 hour at Kinokuniya yesterday browsing through books... and I bought... only 1 book ("applause"!!!) entitled "Days of being WILD - GE 2006 Walking the Line with the Opposition"... shall give you my take on it when I'm done.

All in all... with the Christmas eve celebration (actually TV marathon) at S's place, the Christmas prezzies from everyone, and the generally leisurely pace, and the tons of rain... this Christmas was a good one indeed!

Five ways to pamper myself this December

So the birthday has come and gone… and this year it was again another rather subdued affair. Attended a wedding dinner with Jules the night before and was introduced to his extended group of friends. Whilst he stayed to party with his friends at New Asia Bar, I headed down to meet the usual gang at St. James Power Station. It has started becoming the new “hangout” place for us I think… and along with it, champagne has become the drink of choice. I don’t know how we worked out the maths amongst us, but along the way, we kinda decided that it was more worthwhile to drink champagne then beer???

S&L bought me a very interesting prezzie… okay, maybe not interesting, more kinky… erm… then again, maybe kinky ain’t the word… sexy? Well, whatever it is, am guessing that they spent quite a bit on it, so thank you people, but I really don’t know when I’m gonna put it to use.
The actual day was spent lazing around at home waiting for Jules to wake up… in the end, I kinda gave up and went with L for her dress fitting… *whistles* gal, those dresses are really hot!!! (i.e. I won’t have the guts to wear them!!!) And I insist that I want the evening gown to be worn during my wedding!!!

Anyways, had dinner with the family & Jules at WildRocket @ Mt. Emily. Dinner was yumms… much better than the miserable experience at Jxxx during Dad’s birthday. The place was a tad bit cramped and crowded by the time it hit 8.30, but in general, it was a fabulous dining experience.

The highlight of the day? My prezzie from Jules! Will post pictures of my newly christianed “Frrr” soon *cross fingers*. Anyways, Frrr is actually a freebie resulting from my new pair of sparkling studs, but he is definitely going to be much loved and treasured.

So… it was only just a couple of days ago that I realized that I’ve not gotten myself a prezzie… Since we made a very huge commitment a couple of months back, it’s been tightening of the purse strings… On impulse, I more or less decided that I shall pamper myself this December (sort of a birthday cum Christmas prezzie to myself thingie).

And the list is as follows:

• New pants!!! Striped, checked, grey!
• New work tops! In my list are long sleeved shirts, sleeveless tops to hide under jackets, and really, anything that’s nice
• A pretty pretty work bag! Am gonna just close both eyes with regards to cost (okay, within reasonable limits) and buy the first pretty bag that I fall in love with
• A pedicure and a manicure (hmmm… then again, not the manicure)… the image consultant said that the only time when open shoes are permissible is when (a) you are wearing pants and (b) they are painted!
• Many many different pairs of shoes! I have a habit of only having 1 comfy pairs of shoes at any one time… as such… they wear out really really fast!

Am pretty sure I’ll be adding to this list as time goes on… but for now, am quite contended with the current list. Of course, I have no idea where the money is going to come from as my company does not pay AWS... *sobs* Any sponsers?

My brain is like a sieve

It’s scary really… how I am hard pressed to remember certain events / things / people / details which used to be important or part and parcel of my life. Of course, for every little (or rather big) “thing” that I forget, there will be the corresponding event / thing / person / detail (you get the idea) that I would love to forget but insists on sticking in my memory.

An example of my fickle memory (and this relates to a certain individual)

• For the past two weeks, I clearly recall three instances whereby I’ve accidentally dialed a number subconsciously. I could be trying to call L and I end up dialing 979xxxxx.
• Was at Macs during lunch today, and I started remembering my only lemon tea, no chili sauce days. And then I tried to remember… does he eat beef? Some part of my brain said no (along with the “but then I’m really not sure”), and then, of course, if was followed by, “then what did I eat”?

If it was to be argued that I subconsciously dialed the wrong number as it used to be a habit… so too, should it apply to what I used to eat in Macs.

That anomaly aside, I realized that it’s often the embarrassing incidents or the errors that stick in my mind. I may not remember my first kiss (okay, I actually do, it was with ‘ST’), but I can remember the first time I got drunk and made a fool of myself (along with the 2nd, 3rd, and every subsequent time I disgraced myself at Zouk), the stupid things that I’ve said to upper management, interviewers, guys that I’ve liked, guys that I’ve disliked, people that I’ve hurt, etc, etc. It made me wonder whether it’s because I’m actually very mindful of what others think of me. Could that be the reason why the “negative” episodes stand out more than others???

Right… now my brain hurts. Not even sure where I’m going with this, just that I feel that I’ve been extremely forgetful of late, and I can’t seem to differentiate between incidents that have happened, versus incidents that happened in my dreams. There seems to be a lot of “déjà vu” around, followed by periods of sheer memory loss.

Typical daily incidents that I cannot remember

• I think I’ve written down a piece of information / changed my flowchart / filed something away / gotten the printouts from the client, but I cannot find it in my documentation
• I vaguely remember asking my client a question, but I cannot for the life of me remember what he / she said
• Worse, I think I know what he / she said, but I don’t know if it was a figment of my imagination (i.e. in my dreams, or worse, in my day dreams)
• I can’t remember what are the things that I’ve blogged about vs. what are the things that I told myself that I will blog about (yes, now you know, if you are reading many posts that are related, or are exact replicas, this is the reason)

Can I actually be losing brain cells or memory cells at this age? Or is it just stress? (if yes, pray tell, why am I stressed?)

For now, I’ve decided to pen down all interviews with clients in my trusty notebook… and then ask my friends to forgive me if I keep forgetting things that I’ve said to them… and maybe I’ll start eating some ginko nuts or something (I heard they aid ze memory)

:)

Temptation

Ever so often a chance comes by and dangles itself at your nose... do you or do you not leap? Just had such an experience a couple of days ago, and as usual, I leapt... Yes, I'm hopeless, but I'm curious as well. But this time, I know where the lines are drawn...

Time is just rushing by

For some reason, every end of year is one big rush. There's always so much that I set out to achieve, and of course, the end result is always a small percentage of the goals. Perhaps in a way, this year the list of items have been impounded by the fact that I've also got a job deadline for an ever increasing number of assignments, as well as the fact that I've got to spend more time with Jules! Me thinketh that it really is time to "buckle down" and organize myself.

Obviously, things have not been just all dreary... there's always all the social stuff that has been keeping me occcupied.. and I guess that's a part of the highlight of the week. A recap of the past couple of weekends:
- Lee Hom live @ Mandai with S and P... I am now a bigger fan than ever
- Champagne Brunch (hee.. atas living) with the gang minus the two bunnies

- Mulitple visits to St. James Power Station
- two weddings in one day!
:) Any wonder why I have no time to pen down my events?

Actually have plenty of hilarious photos which I am tempted to put up... but I think I'll get killed... so scroll down for the tamer variety, and let your imagination do the rest!