Someone has been away in New York for more than a month. We haven't talked during this month (because he doesn't have a phone there) and we haven't emailed for the past week. I wanted to see whether he will email me without me initiating it. Apparently not.

Is this a silent breakup? I told myself to let it go as I should have done long ago. The head says yes but the heart says no.

My handphone rang just now and it was a private number. My heart skipped a beat. It wasn't him.

I miss him.

Pathetic. Loser. I know, I know.

# posted by Shopaholic : 8:58 PM

So, I had a self-declared holiday today. I called in sick this morning and went for a scalp treatment.

# posted by Shopaholic : 8:56 PM

What day are you?

# posted by Shopaholic : 12:50 AM

What kind of little girl were YOU?
brought to you by Quizilla

What to do? I grew up with a brother, male cousins and a bunch of kids who enjoyed games like 'Rounders', similiar to baseball except you use your fist instead of a baseball bat. I did have my Barbies, legos, 'zero-points' and make-beliefs too though.

# posted by Shopaholic : 12:37 AM

First, I checked out the Mango sale at Shaw together with Nic-aholic. I think age must be catching up on me. The massive crowd really turned me off whereas it used to be that I would hop right in, squeeze my way to the front and rummage through the dumps of clothes. Anyway, I didn't find anything I like. Nic-aholic managed to find a pair of creamy-white pants at a bargain though.

Next, Sleepaholic and Workaholic both arrived at about the same time and we headed to Crystal Jade at Scotts for dinner. I had the Shanghai La Mian and we ordered a plate of vegetables to share. After consuming about 80% of the veg, sharp-eyed Nic-aholic spied a small worm on the veg she's about to bite into . We kept the evidence and complained to a staff who offered to change the vegetables for us which of course, we didn't want. So, she waived the charge for the plate of vegetables. Her explanation for the worm was that it showed how fresh their vegetables really are as they don't use much pesticide. It was a funny scene in that we were at the same time complaining about the worm and yet, tucking into our noodles heartily.

Finally, we headed to Aquadisiac, Wisma to chill. Along the way, we met Daf, Sleepaholic's buddy, whom we invited to join us. The most memorable thing about the place was its washroom which is constructed out of frosted glasses and even the sink is transparent with fishes swimming in the tank below the washing area.

# posted by Shopaholic : 12:12 PM

I guessed victory for England and France in the 2 played matches. I guessed wrongly in both instances. Thank god I didn't place any bets.

# posted by Shopaholic : 12:05 PM

Cool brainteaser, Bill Gates and Petals Around the Rose, first seen on SuperStar.

I got it on the fourth roll , secret lies in the name of the game.

# posted by Shopaholic : 6:15 PM

This morning, when I came back into my room after a shower, I saw a small lizard running across my bed and pillow! Eeeeeeks!!! I quickly chased it off but I'm not sure where it disappeared to or whether it will come back. I have this fear of it running across my legs when I'm sleeping. Think I dislike lizards even more than cockroaches!

# posted by Shopaholic : 10:59 PM

Just got back from a drink with Alcoholic and Nic-aholic at Liquids Cafe along Railway Mall, Upper Bt Timah Road. I managed to catch the announcement of World Idol results. In almost all but 2 of the countries, Kurt Nilsen topped the chart with Kelly Clarkson coming in 2nd! Alcoholic, eat your words.

# posted by Shopaholic : 10:54 PM

The haze is back.....Forest fires and the slash-and-burn clearing of forests by Sumatran farmers, aided by winds blowing Singapore's way, have caused this yet again.

There's a smoky smell in the air when I went out for lunch this afternoon. *cough cough*

# posted by Shopaholic : 8:15 PM

My Personal Training sessions are coming to an end soon and the trainer asked whether I would be interested in getting another package? No way in hell!

Before I signed up, the person selling me the package promised 2 extra sessions for free but he didn't communicate this to my trainer and now it seems as if it's my fault for putting the trainer in a spot.

Also, claims for results of obvious weight loss are made. Well, I haven't lost a single kg despite diligently going to the gym twice a week. To the trainer's credit, although I haven't lost much weight, I do notice more toned muscles.

# posted by Shopaholic : 10:29 PM

Monday's almost upon us again. If only they can make weekends into weekdays and weekdays into weekends. Know what I mean?

# posted by Shopaholic : 11:00 PM

Sleepaholic provided me with a link to some Classic '80s games. Really brings back some fond memories of the days of Nintendo games when I used to indulge in Super Mario Bros etc. My favourite games on the site are Pacman, Donkey Kong and Tetris!

# posted by Shopaholic : 9:43 AM

One thing which makes me very sure that I will not be staying too long in my current company is the information flow. Information essential to my work.

For example, I'm working on Project IVT with Second Boss and Su which we had to postpone because of Project SX as it's of the highest importance currently. Due to complaints from clients as we had to work on Project IVT intermittently, Su asked Second Boss to send an email out to the client informing them formally that we will be postponing the project. He did, but left me out of the CC list. Which Su protested on my behalf and later got reproved for by him in private for not knowing when some information should not be passed on. WTF is that? I'm involved in this project and why shouldn't I be informed that it's formally postponed? What if I had tried to get information from the client and got scolded?

Another classic example. There was an email regarding Project SX's procedures which Boss forwarded to Second Boss and Su some time ago. During a meeting yesterday, they talked about it and seemed to assume that I knew about it. As this is essential to our next stage of work, I asked Second Boss about it. He insisted that the information was passed on to me already. I told him perhaps I might have missed it and could he forward me the email again? When he did, it clearly showed that I wasn't in the CC list and I brought that up to his attention.

So you see, information in this department is used as a form of power play. I have no complaints if these were sensitive information but these are actually information having direct influence on the performance of my job.

Anyway, I'm actively on the lookout and has been to an interview with an employment agency specialising in my field of work. I will not be moving on hastily though. This time, I need to plan my career move more carefully.

# posted by Shopaholic : 1:27 PM

So many places on sale! Song & Kelly is having a 10-50% sale after which the clothes are still expensive!

My heart still aches for my hot pink Song & Kelly dress which I wore for the second time to my cousin's wedding. Some water dripped (from the bottom of the glass) while I was drinking and they left ugly splotches across the top of the pink chiffon/silk. I sent it for dry-cleaning immediately the day after but the laundry didn't remove the splotches. The claimed they couldn't.

So, I asked my Aunt P.Tin to help me send it to a laundry lady she knows. It's been 2 weeks and there's no news of it yet. I do hope they can get it back into perfect condition. It's so freaking expensive and I've only worn it twice! Besides, it's only water (I swear!). What kind of material can water stain?! Silk, apparently. So take heed and run if it rains while you are wearing silk.

# posted by Shopaholic : 6:58 PM

After watching World Idol, I was blown away by Kurt Nilsen's (Norway) rendition of Beautiful Day. Such a wonderful voice. My favourite idol thus far, on par with Clay Aiken. Only when I searched the websites did I realise that he actually won the World Idol competition. Definitely well-deserving.

My opinion.....

Others who stood out: 1) Kelly Clarkson (America), 2) Guy Sebastian (Australia) and 3) Will Young (England)

Idol looks: 1) Heinz Winckler (South Africa) and 2) Alexander Klaws (Germany)

# posted by Shopaholic : 11:34 PM

Yeaaah, I found another site for the Internet Mahjong Server I used to play at (the old one shut down)! Come play with me if you like mahjong.

# posted by Shopaholic : 10:27 PM

I received the following story in an email. Very meaningful considering the competitive society we live in. We should take heed and savor life and the journey rather than become so fixated on our monetary (or other) goals.....

She sat in 14E, and I sat in 14D.

She was rural, and I was urban. She was backward, and I was sophisticated. She was homey, and I was 'professional'. But she could see, and I was blind.

"They sure do put these seats close up against each other, don't they", she said as I sat down.

Her face was ten inches from mine. She had basset-hound cheeks; her eyebrows peaked over her nose; and her jowls sagged. She smiled so widely you could see the cavity on her upper side. Her neck seemed to lean out of her shoulders at a forty-five-degree angle, leaving her head in front of her shoulders rather than above them. She wore a Dutch-bob haircut and a blue, velour pants suit.

I don't know if she was old or just looked old. But I do know one thing: She'd never flown.

"I don't do this too much, do you?"

When I told her I did, her eyes widened. "Oooh, that must be fu-un." (She could add a syllable to any word.)

I groaned to myself. I already had a bad attitude. My week had been hectic. The plane was late and overbooked. I had a toothache and had left the tooth medicine at the hotel. I wanted to sleep, but I had work to do. And now I was sitting next to Gomer Pyle's mother.

"Oooh, boy, look at that one!"

She pointed at the plane ahead of us on the runway.

"Is this one that big?"

"Yes." I hoped my brief response would show her that I wasn't up for chitchat. It didn't.

"I'm going to see my boy in Dallas. Do you ever go to Dallas? I hope he's OK. He had a stomach flu last week. He's got a new dog. I can't wait to see it. It's a Labrador. Do you know what that is? They are big and lovable."

She was uncanny. Not only could she add a syllable to every word, she could answer her own questions.

As we were taking off, however, she got quiet. For several moments she said nothing. Then she suddenly let out a sound that would have called the pigs for dinner.

"Oooooeeee, those trees down there look like peat moss!"

People seated around us turned and stared like I was E. F. Hutton.

"What river is that?"

I told her I didn't know, so she flagged down a stewardess.

When the drinks came around, I asked for a Coke; she asked for the list.

"Tell me again?" So the stewardess told her again. "Oh, it's so hard to choose," she giggled. But she finally chose.

When they brought her the drink, she exclaimed that she didn't know apple juice came in cans. And when they brought her a sandwich, she opened the box and proclaimed loud enough for the pilot to hear, "Why, they even put mayonnaise in here."

When I pulled out my laptop computer, she was enthralled. "Now isn't that clever."

And that went on for the whole flight. She didn't miss a thing. If she wasn't staring out the window, she was amazed by a magazine. If she wasn't talking, she was 'oooh-ing'. She played with her fan. She turned her light on and off. She toyed with her seat belt. She savored her lunch. When we went through turbulence, I looked over at her to be sure she was all right, and she was grinning. You'd have thought she was riding the Ferris wheel at the county fair!

It occurred to me, about mid-journey, that she was the only person enjoying the trip.

The rest of us, the 'sophisticated', were too mature to have fun. The man in front of me was discussing business trips to Japan, dropping more names than the U.S. Bureau of the Census. The fellow behind me was ordering beers, two at a time. The lady to my right was up to her eyebrows in paperwork. And I was staring at a computer screen, eyes tired, mouth hurting, stressed-out, trying to find a message for stress-filled people and never noticing that the message was sitting beside me.

And I might never have noticed had she not leaned over and said to me at the end of the flight. "Son, I may be out of place in saying this, but you've worked the entire trip. You need to relax, boy. You need to put that machine up and enjoy the journey."

Gulp.

I smiled weakly and mumbled some excuse about needing to get the work done before tomorrow. But she wasn’t listening. She was squeezing her hands together in excitement as we landed.

"Wasn't that a fu-un trip?" she asked as we were leaving the plane.

I didn't say anything. I just nodded and smiled. Off she walked, bouncing down the concourse as curious as a six-year-old. I watched her as long as I could, then turned to go to my next flight with a lesson learned.

I resolved to keep my eyes open.

It does little good, I decided, to make the trip and miss the journey.

by Max Lucado

# posted by Shopaholic : 2:42 PM

I am heading back towards my office tower after lunch, crossing the road at the junction of Lau Pat Sat. My steps are hurried as I'm a bit late and I hope to be creating the illusion of being hard at work before Second Boss gets back.

I notice that this middle-aged man, of average height in T-shirt and jeans, suddenly falls into step beside me. I increase my speed, so does he. I slow down, so does he. He also starts mumbling something while staring at me, as if directing a question at me, but I can't make out what he said.

I frown and ignore him, looking straight ahead. Luckily, my destination is only a short distance away. Even when I walk into the building (guarded by tight security, luckily) and wait for the lift, he still stood outside peering at me through the glass panels until I go into the lift. There is such a weird look on his face, I feel a bit unnerved.

# posted by Shopaholic : 2:04 PM

Since young, I have always been on the fleshy side.

The momentum goes like this: Put on a few kilos, maintain that weight for a period of about 1-2 years and it goes up again.

During my first year at university, it hit a point when I look at the mirror and find myself disgusting. I turned to help from a doctor who prescribed me with slimming pills. After about a year, I attained the lowest weight I have ever had since Primary School. There were even people telling me I should put on a bit of weight because my face looks haggard so thin. To tell the truth, it didn't really feel like my body.

This "slim me" lasted only about 5 years, until my first year of work. I had 3 meals a day instead of the 2 before. Slowly, the fats started to pile on again.

So you see, this has been a long-lasting battle with the bulges.

Ever since last Sept, I have been taking the healthy path to weight loss - exercise and sensible diet. The second part more so after I started my sessions with a personal trainer. I didn't want to use slimming pills again because the side effects were really bad after some time. They include heart palpitations, insomnia and worst of all, gigantic pimple breakouts.

Currently, I go to gym twice a week (most weeks). I hated running in school and skipped PE lessons just so I didn't have to run the 2.4km. I'm now running 45 min on the treadmill twice a week. I used to have Big Baos, carrot cake etc for breakfast and I especially love my teh tarik in the morning. I gave all these up because of the high fat content. The teh tarik was the hardest thing to cut. I now eat sandwiches for breakfast, together with a glass of low-fat milk. I had sliced fish soup for lunch twice so far this week (how much healthier can you get?).

Even with all these changes in my lifestyle and diet, the weight and fats are not decreasing.

Other than Su, the only person in the company I'm quite close to is a secretary from another department. Let's call her Tine. Yesterday, the 3 of us were shopping after lunch and she repeatedly made remarks about how fat I am. Granted, she said that I had a pretty face and would look fabulous if only I lost weight. She might have good intention, but saying it once is enough. She did not have to repeatedly call me fat. I felt that it was slightly derogatory. However, I decided not to take it to heart and just forget it.

Today, I went up to her office to get something. While I was at her table, a gal from another department came by to collect a cheque. Tine said to her, "How come you took so long? You said you were going to come down immediately. Even the fat horse (literal translation) here (meaning me) took faster than you." When the gal expressed shock at her statement because it was so rude, Tine went on to say: "Well, she had to defy gravity and come up to this floor while you are coming down."

That was such an insult coming from someone I treated as a friend. I have no idea how to react at that moment and just smiled and excuse myself after that. Even Su was shocked at how rude Tine was when I told her about it.

Tine also told Su that maybe the fatter guys will like me. When Su replied that I might not like them, Tine basically said that I had no reason to be picky given my size. Does being plump means that I do not have a right to choose? That I have to settle? That I should just be grateful if someone's interested in me?

Later at the gym, the trainer was trying to guess whether I'm attached. He said probably not because of my size.

There's only so much a gal's ego can take. I'm doing everything I can, short of giving up the occasional treats I have (dinners with friends on Friday nights) or starving, I'm not sure what else can be done.

# posted by Shopaholic : 10:18 PM

My mom had cravings for durians so my dad bought some home. Between the 3 of us (brother already asleep), we just wolfed down 7 durians, at 12:40am.

# posted by Shopaholic : 12:38 AM

At Sleepaholic's request, I attended a briefing with her today after work. The briefing is for new volunteers for Food From The Heart, a volunteer food distribution program which delivers unsold bread from bakeries to welfare organizations etc.

Interesting really. I would never have considered charity work, simply because I'm too caught up in my own selfish needs of work, play and relaxation. However, to hear the founder talk with such passion about their activities inspires and motivates me to be a part of something so meaningful as well. So, in the spirit of giving, I signed up as a volunteer too. Not a weekly commitment for me though, more of an adhoc basis as and when they need help.

Surprisingly, there was a full turnout at the briefing session and everybody were extremely enthusiastic, some of whom even signed up on the spot to "start work" next week. Who says Singaporeans think only of themselves?

# posted by Shopaholic : 11:01 PM

I was having lunch with Su at Sushi Tei, Far East Square today when I noticed a cute guy sitting at the counter seat beside our table. On closer inspection, it's actually Pierre Png with Andre De Cruz (of the Slim 10 lawsuit fame). She has her hair cut into a short, permed and chic style and is plainer in person than on TV. He was wearing a Pasta Mania T-shirt, which I can't comprehend why. Surely they have more than enough money to buy decent T-shirts now? But then, he still looks hunky. hehe.

Veil and Gripz at Change Alley are having sales (30% and 50% respectively). I saw several items I liked at Veil but they are out of my size.

# posted by Shopaholic : 8:38 PM

Ginvie and Mydaemon stopped by my house earlier this afternoon and we conducted a makeup lesson for Mydaemon. She's a rare gal in that she has never used them before. I can see why, not much of a need when she has such great skin. (Woman you should really show off your figure with a sexy dress and shock Teddy. hehe.)

Congratulations (sets off fireworks) to:
Workaholic - for her promotion and pay rise, her reward for all the hard work she put in.
Ginvie - for her new job, one way or the other.
Mydaemon - for her upcoming happy occasion ( which is up to her to disclose)

# posted by Shopaholic : 11:05 PM

First seen on Two Eggs. Not sure which part of my life this refers to.....

You're The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe!

by C.S. Lewis

You were just looking for some decent clothes when everything changed
quite dramatically. For the better or for the worse, it is still hard to tell. Now it
seems like winter will never end and you feel cursed. Soon there will be an epic
struggle between two forces in your life and you are very concerned about a betrayal
that could turn the balance. If this makes it sound like you're re-enacting Christian
theological events, that may or may not be coincidence. When in doubt, put your trust
in zoo animals.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

# posted by Shopaholic : 10:00 AM

Yes!!! I passed all 3 exam papers.

# posted by Shopaholic : 7:27 PM

First seen on My Superstar.

Errr, somewhat true?


You're a Spirograph!! You're pretty tripped out,
even though you've been known to be a bit
boring at times. You manage to serve your
purpose in life while expending hardly any
effort (and are probably stoned to the gills
all the while).

What childhood toy from the 80s are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

# posted by Shopaholic : 11:50 PM

Lots of things happening since Sunday. They are however, events which I cannot blog about here. Therefore, pardon the lack of updates.

I just came back from watching Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban. Brilliant movie, or shall I say brilliant story. I love its magical feel and settings. But I can't say that Workaholic or Sleepaholic felt the same way about the movie. hehe.

I fell in love with another pair of shoes. It's pink (yes, again!)with 3 flowers across the front strap and 3-inch pink heels. Super expensive (S$80) and super impractical (too high for daily use, even for me). I'm practicing restraint.

# posted by Shopaholic : 11:07 PM