Wednesday, January 29, 2003

Happy Chinese New Year!!!

and to the fab gals in London: hope to see you this weekend. Sorry for the late notice, I've just decided yesterday that I should go, after my boss happily decided to end the internship earlier than expected. Yay nice, generous bosses :D

Sunday, January 26, 2003

Big shout to Jenn: HAPPY 21st!!
That was some crazy partying last night. Mucho dodgy drunken dancing + giggling involved.
Jen, Mike, Joyce + Soohyun: mercy buckets for being such brilliant partners in crime. The plan to get Jenn hammered was executed seamlessly ;)
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I should stop watching Sex and the City so often. Is very very bad influence for it brought out the shameless side of me last night, after a mere 2 drinks. My usual self, the shy Princess of Decorum, was nowhere to be seen. I can't tell if the thick-skinned audacity was substance-induced, or if I'm getting older quicker than I realised and had lost all sense of humility. For the first time ever, I asked for a bloke's number.

The minute I walked up I realised I was making a mistake. From a distance, the blurred vision (from my contacts and drinks) made the guy look much better . Oh god. He saw me. Was too late to turn back.
"Excuse me, do you think I can have your number?" Oh god oh god what on earth was I doing.
"Erm..." Long ever-lasting silence. "That's very forward. I prefer to have a conversation first." Someone please bury me.
After an eternity and a half of awkwardness, Random Bloke reluctantly gave me his name and number, but I was too nervous and regretful to remember much of anything (for he is no looker upon closer inspection). My wimpy self decided to make a quick escape with some lame excuse about getting a pen.

Shameless behaviour ensued. After arriving at the club still engulfed in the crappy mood of "what was I thinking", I wanted to hit the dancefloor with my mates. Too bad everyone else was busy drinking. Out of nowhere, a studly white man asked me to dance. With "oh what the fuck", off I went. Is it the feature-enhancing darkness? the vast improvement over the last blunder? my low self esteem?
Good Looking Man was unfortunately also dodgy and too touchy-feely for comfort. To my aghast, the slimey man was an MBA student from my school. Aaaah! Somebody save my soul. What if I run into him at school? With that horrific thought I broke off in search of my friends.

I couldn't stop thinking about my gran's words of caution on saying no to men: "Don't be a soft-shell crab." Am I an over-aggressive alpha female crab? a soft-shell crab? �j�h��? �*o��? Aaaaaah. I'll shut up and stop boring you to bits.

Saturday, January 25, 2003

Senior ball blues:

If only finding a man for the occasion is as easy as finding the perfect dress. The idiosyncrasies of American expectations make it look like feminism never existed. A girl can have the perfect frock that makes her feel a million bucks, (a white Sophie Sitbon number in my case: a reworked, too-good-to-be-true hand-me-down from my skinny, former-social-butterfly aunt) and still be socially inadequate / inept because she brings no male company to the party [read: Norma No Date] :(
In the eyes of peers, graduating from CLC sans Prom meant that I had a deprived high school experience. No men in tux, no limos, no hotel ballrooms, no cheesy pictures of couples.
Not that I missed out on partying: I had more than my share of Christmas Eve balls, when having polystyrene snow fights with my bros and cousins was enough to entertain me well into the wee hours of Christmas Day.

Tuesday, January 21, 2003

the road home from work is an obstacle course. Literally.
the "shortcut" involves climbing over / under multiple locked gates, trains on railtracks and more fences next to the ROTC building. It's my only workout after my daily 8-hour prison term in the suburban office, 1 hour away by bus.

Hence, the "brue-brack" knees, in the words of my dad.

Sunday, January 19, 2003

when you need to shop, you need to shop:

even if it's -14'C outside and takes a 4 hour busride to get there.

Being the impulsive nut that I am, "I aint seen the Bright Lights on this side of the Atlantic for two years!" seemed like a good enough reason for a day trip to the Big Apple.
Armed with subway + street map and memories from a past life, I thought I'd be all set, orientation-wise. Duh. The streets of Soho looked familiar like a deja-vu, but I had no idea where I was heading and ended up circling around the same few blocks. (I was trying so hard to look like I belonged there. Maybe too hard for me own good.)
In the end, i did less damage to my wallet than I had expected. Which leaves me an excuse to make a second visit...

I did however make my second goal of the trip: the latest show of John Maeda, renowned computer graphic artist / MIT Media Lab professor, in Chelsea. It left me totally baffled, but upon reading the brochure, it all made sense - in that quirky sweet Maeda way.

ps/ When you walk into the Prada flagship thinking it must be the latest fashion / art museum, you know you're no longer in the league of trendy urbanites :P

Thursday, January 16, 2003

3 silly things I've done this week:

1. Cut my hair rediculously short when it's -9'C outside.
2. Erased my existence from a digital photo - freaky how easy it is to remove your physical presence.
3. Cut, pasted, scribbled and doodled with the enthusiasm of a 3 year old in kindergarden, all in the name of a "collage animation" class @ the School of Museum of Fine Arts

Sunday, January 12, 2003

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Friday, January 10, 2003

am back in hell (ie. school) *sigh*
and American Airlines has yet again lost my luggage *x$%y@!!!*
is the third consecutive time airlines lose my bags coming in from HK. Hate this country for its monumental inefficiency in public transportation alone.

Tuesday, January 07, 2003

Successfully revived my broadband connection and can blog again! [HK is getting so boring / depressing that I'm staying home to blog]
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10 most memorable things in Cambodia:

10. Alternative crustaceans for gourmet: grasshoppers + beetles the size of your thumb
09. Inversely sized flora + fauna : wasps the size of your thumb, 1cm long red ants, frogs the size of a fingernail
08. A high Modernist, Swiss funded + designed charity maternity ward in the middle of Siem Reap, buffalo + paddy country [i really want to know who designed it. It was pure cheap chic: bare bricks & concrete + bamboo louvres for shade]
07. Crowds of 3-year-olds selling postcards and souvenirs everywhere, "One dalla, you buy?"
06. Amputees of all ages begging
05. Giangantic buttress roots huggable by 7 people, silently crushing ancient temples beneath them into rubble
04. Granny-aged Western backpackers getting around on motorcycles
03. Tomb Raider was partly filmed in Angkor: they built the village set on top of a pond.
02. Pot-smoking, badge-selling police at Angkor
01. The stunning temples, needless to say.

Plus the sunny hot weather [35+'C everyday], the cutest baby boy I've ever met, the fresh fruits, the yummy cuisine [think Thai food, more fragrant, more fresh herbs + fruits, less spicy]....Pineapple fish soup, lobster lemon soup, banana flower soup.....yum :d