Close Shop

We're all going on a summer holiday
no more working for a week or two.
Fun and laughter on our summer holiday,
no more worries for me or you,
for a week or two.

We're going where the sun shines brightly
we're going where the sea is blue.
we've all seen it on the movies,
now let's see if it's true.

Everybody has a summer holiday
doin' things they always wanted to
So we're going on a summer holiday,
to make our dreams come true
for me and you.
for me and you.

- Cliff Richard

A lump

TL's gonna bring his notebook on our holiday! The travesty! nah, I don't care, as long as he keeps his working to the toilet whilst G and I sleep in peace..

He also mused about what there is to do in KL.. I spoke to LG this morning, and briefly reminisced about the fun we had during our last trip there.. I don't remember the shopping, I don't really remember what we ate there (apart from BKT).. the only significant things which stay in my mind are (as I said in the earlier post) talking half the night, acting like 8 year-olds on the swing, monkeying around during karaoke...

What we concluded is that we did things we would have done in Singapore anyway, but it's just that we were "forced" to spend 3 days together all the time, with minimal external interference (e.g. incoming calls).. and you know how even with some of the closest friends, it takes a little time to "warm up" before you can be totally silly and giggle at everything or talk about things which are somewhat risque? and perhaps it's easier when you know you have 72 hours ahead of you with someone instead of just 8, 2 of which are in front of a flickering screen or 3 of which at bags / shoes..

And that's what I'm looking forward to with the HJ-gang: all of us "huddled" on HJ & GN's king-size bed watching tv or playing In-Between...

And, LG, I miss you already...

Soft

Caleb's written the nicest post I've read in a long, long time..

It's interesting that the nicest posts aren't the funniest ones, nor the best-written ones.. it's the ones which latch onto a tender place in your own heart..

I spend 3 weekend days in a month with the HJ/TL-bunch of friends, and I've always known that the impeccable company aside, part of the reason is that I really want for certain things not to change, and to recapture the days of our youth.. I only need to think of the ridiculous horsing-around and side bets at the basketball court of our gym..

Honestly, I feel that I've grown apart from 1 of my best friends over the past 1 year plus.. and a big part of the "why" is because he's with someone else now, and it's just not possible to have the time to sit down and do the things we used to do...

And, I was really looking forward for LG to join us in KL (now she can't cos her parents want to do some house thing), and for sentimental reasons more than anything else.. It was our only trip together, we lay in bed and talked half the nights, I have a photo of us on the swing outside a bak kut teh shop in KL.. I want those moments again...

Therapy

I know 3 different male friends who recently went for job interviews at this very significant company, and all 3 had the same thing to say about their experience: the interviewer was a right prick!

Apparently the company is looking for the "perfect fit", and so they're actually interviewing almost 40 candidates (at last count).. all 3 candidates were insulted, cross-examined, interrupted and essentially abused by the same very obnoxious interviewer..

We suspect the interviewer is using the candidates are objects against which to vent his/her frustration.. why pay to see a shrink when you get this free employee benefit?

Hee Hee

Didn't get the joke initially? I didn't either.. read the quote aloud!

Link "stolen" from: Buttermilk / Ad-rag

Funny that I can still laugh.. I came home early today to work out my financial situation, and boy was it ugly.. especially my CPF investments for this year

Bad Mood

Lost all that I made last week on the IPO, and a bit more...

Anyways, spoke to a friend a few days ago about the reasons why we left practice, and I realised (as a surprise to myself) it was actually more a "what I have become" reason than a "I want a life" one..

When casual acquaintances and interviewers asked, I always said that the reason why I moved in-house was for the better life, more meaningful work, better bosses, etc. In a way, it's very true, since in a firm no matter what you are just a hired gun and you move on after you've eliminated the enemy / are eliminated.. whereas now I can see the product of my labor around me everyday...

More than that, it scared me sometimes the things I thought / said then.. you're trained to think only of how you are going to get to the end-game objective, and ignore everything else.. friends would ask what they should do if they had abusive husbands but nevertheless wanted to preserve the marriage.. but I'd hear only the part about the abuse and how to get a divorce quickly and the most out of it.. get a personal protection order now, and file a police report everytime he threatens you, so that you can show a pattern of abusive conduct and hence get a favourable outcome if you ever wanted a divorce".. Did I ever stop to think that this would effectively blow all chances of a reconciliation out of the water? No.

Win-win solutions? My ass.

But someone told me today I've gone soft.. So be it..

I'll try

Doesn't it really suck when sometimes what you most want to hear, when you are talking to someone who means the world to you, is "I'll[/we'll] try my best", but what you get instead is "it's gonna be difficult"..

Thoreau

Thanks to Ivan, for the inspiration for this post on Messrs. Thoreau and Emerson... Can't say I was a great student of either's writings, but there are a few lines from either I can spout readily..

Remember the days of alpha-numeric pagers? Or hang on, even before that, the days of pure-numeric pagers? Where people would sms "5211314" which translates from mandarin to something along the lines of "I'll love you for my life and eternity", or how if you read certain numerals inverted, you get "I love you".

Anyways, in a mis-guided (i.e. thinking that that was what women want) effort to win the heart of a girl, I'd trawl the internet for friendship (and the occasional lovey) quotes to sms to her.. those were the days when to page in words, u'd have to know the alph-numeric keypad really well (since you can't see what you are keying in) or get this software which sends it out via the modem..

Did I ever land the girl? You say leh?

Anyways:

Thoreau
The most good I can do for my friend is simply be his friend.
The language of friendship is not words but meanings.

Emerson
The only way to have a friend is to be one.
He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, while he who has one enemy shall meet him everywhere.
It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can be stupid with them.
A man's growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends.

Eureka

I'll be the first person to point out that I'm not normally one for foreign / arty movies, but I was totally sold on the original Japanese Shall We Dansu? when it was screened...

When I heard that they were coming up with a Hollywood version, I derisively swore that it would be a far inferior copy because the desperation and emancipation that the Japanese salaryman felt was peculiar to Japanese culture.. though that didn't stop me from trying to time my dance lessons to see if more chicks would sign up for classes after the show started screening..

After running with HJ on Saturday, we ordered KFC and Macs to his place, and watched the Hollywood Shall We Dance on dvd.. bo beh zao compared to the Japanese one, but 2 good thoughts / quotes therefrom which apply to many things in life, and especially why I (/we) blog:

a. this line from Henry David Thoreau along the lines of "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. what is called resignation is confirmed desperation"

b. a line from Susan Sarandon where she said the main reason why people get married is because they want / need a witness to their otherwise insignificant lives..

True, ain't it? I do the same thing almost every week... sometimes I eat at a nice restaurant, sometimes I meet a person who stirs up my hormones for a week or so, sometimes I seal a particularly difficult agreement, but it's all the same after 1 year... it's insignificant, and blogging / having a life partner lets us know / pretend that there is someone out there who's witnessing and caring about what we do in our lives..

It's fueled when people leave comments endorsing your decisions or encouraging you to take one.. I bet if you were to suddenly ban stat counters and comments today, the masses of people blogging would diminish greatly over a month..

In a way, it makes me a wee bit surer that what I want in my life partner is more a companion than anything else..

Hmmm..

When you see a blog which hasn't been undated in eons, do you wonder what happened to its owner? got sick of blogger? died in an accident? found a new boyfriend and hence no need / time to blog anymore?

There is no real content in this blog, but it really fascinates me....

It's a small world after all

A friend told me of a restaurant in KL called Third Floor "you just have to try"... I heard the heavenly words foie gras, truffle oil, marbled beef, etc.

Googled it, and I was surprised to see how hard it was to get a review of the restaurant.. after all, I guess things go awry when your search string involves words like "third floor"... but there, on result no. 27, was Ditzy Spice's in-passing review... the world's that small huh?

+++

Unrelated reminder to myself to apply for the Ausgroup IPO when I see my blog tomorrow, in case I forget.. in case anyone is interested, June forward NYMEX and Brent oil prices are up to USD55 a barrel again, and this seems like a good proxy to the industry.. SPC's Q1 results out on Thursday; let it be a 2-hit combo!

Pensive

Something's not right...

HJ called me last week to tell me that HSBC's launching a new card and the highlight (for both of us) was the gym membership.. he mentioned something about it costing some money, but I was ordering my yong tau hoo items at that time and so didn't pay much attention..

Being the cheapos that we are, we signed up for the OCBC plat card last year because of the free membership to Marriott's gym, but have since been told that OCBC isn't renewing past June this year.. just as well since it's next to impossible trying to book a slot these days..

So yesterday when they had plastered BT with like 8 pages of ads, I thought I'd go sign up, especially when they said the first year membership was free... submitted my CPF statement online and everything..

It was only late in the afternoon when I met HJ for our run that he asked me if I was going to pay to use the gym.. dang! the gym membership's an additional $120 a month! so it seems like I'm going to be left without a nice gym to use... pardon me, but I think California Fitness and Planet Fitness are stinky...

+++

Separately, colleague's gonna be on leave the whole of this coming week and so it's 1.5 people left in the team.. nothing major better be happening!

+++

You sometimes wonder how dogs seem to know who they can bully and who they can't... by now, Cody more or less knows how to:
a. avoid malays.. haha.. I'm exaggerating a little, but given previous experiences, ...
b. pick on little kids to harass
c. nuzzle girls who will sayang him back
d. amuse everyone by licking the scalp of a bald man

Scentimental Value

Been looking forward to the KL trip with the gang so much that I sub-consciously deceived myself into thinking that the long weekend next week starts on Friday rather than Monday.. it sucked to be told last night next week's a 5-day week..

There was something really good that could have happened this week that I passed up on.. I amaze myself sometimes..

Anyways, the word of the day is scents.. favourite smells.. needless to say, they come from girls.. was wondering if the smell of bak kut teh would make it to the top 3, but nah..

1. Bath & Body Works Country Apple: a certain someone smells like that
2. Aqua di Gio: another certain someone smells like that
3. Clairol Herbal Essence: when I smell that on the wet hair of almost any girl, mmmmm.....

I need a snuggle

Can't remember where I got this pic from, but whoever you are, thanks!

Holy Kao

Ditzyspice has tons of fluffy stuff to make her look pretty.. decided to copycat her list, so here's mine *cheeky grin*:

Face
Dove Facial Foam

Body
Shokubutsu, Green Tea Oil scented
Eternity Body wash

Hair
El cheapo 1000ml for $5 brandless shampoo

Ditzy Spice 19, Polarbear 4.. game, set, match!

Cha Ching

Applied for 50 lots of Pearl Energy and got 3 lots yesterday..

Aiming for $400 nett profit... to cover:
(i) KL trip, and
(ii) the $50 I lost as a result of betting with HJ whether the government was going to build 1 or 2 casinos..

Edit: $575 nett in 6 minutes..

Free

You know a secretary's got no work / boss is not around when...

... she tears apart the bouquet of flowers which was given to her by boss for Secretaries' Week this morning and decides to cut it to the right length, remove some leaves, etc. in the pantry to make a new flower arrangement...

Moooo..

They're selling the cows! 200 on auction for charity..

Heh

A big-time lawyer's blog: Anonymous Lawyer

Runway

I was driving out of Changi Village 2 Sundays ago after sailing and noticed that The Gate was finally closed..

It was in the papers (I think) more than a year ago that they were planning to closed up the small road running between the runway and Selarang Camp for safety reasons. Not long after it was announced in the papers, a few of us drove there 1 night to see it for the last time...

I guess there are a few places in Singapore which I remember exactly... the orange sodium lights, the windiness (windyness?)... the concertina wire and 3 concrete blocks which were placed a few years back to stop people from going even further into the road (which KC insists we've ever been through in the early days, and which had an even better view).. sitting on the car boot and lying against the windscreen (and damned nearly creating a dent in the metal in the process) watching planes..

And I remember how angry I was when I read that there were going to close it..

I remember how there were 2 "sections".. the making out section just past where The Gate now is and where you can drive right into the darkness offered by the leafy trees... no view of the runway, but obviously not important when you had other priorities...

And the fence section, where you could drive right along the fence and see the planes land and take off... play see who can identify the airline first... whack nasi lemak... the conversations, the laughter, the dreams...

Tired

Brain Screwing

When my supervisor left last week, he passed most of his outstanding files to me.. Given that, and my messy desk / cupboards, I decided to rearrange my stuff and file whatever I can into neat rows of black files..

So I've been throwing away and filing stuff for an hour or so each of the past 4 days.. I try not to show that I know, but I can see my team-mate from the corner of my vision eyeing me as I stand directly in front of her when sorting papers out and using the big-ass hole-punch (no, not big ass-hole punch).

She couldn't take it yesterday, and finally blurted out, asking if I was planning to leave as well.. hee hee, she must have had a few sleepless nights fearing that she will be the last 1.5 people in a 3.5 person team..

Alarm Cock

Had dinner with YB last night, and we were bitching about a certain mutual friend.. She sent me an sms this morning at 0600 (I guess she woke up early to go to the gym) mentioning how coincidentally the said friend sms-ed her overnight..

For some reason I thot the sms alert sound was the phone alarm clock for 0645, and I woke up, brushed my teeth, showered and changed, only to realise that the rest of the house was dark and it was only 0620..

Man, that sucked...

Holy Cow!

I want one too! A orange one at that... will pay good money.. haha..

Too bad no one's selling them on Yahoo! auctions..

Encik

I take the 0739 bus no. 97 to work everyday. Almost every morning, I see this Warrant Officer on the bus who's at Ayer Rajah Camp.. in the mornings, his face is always pale..

On occasion, when I see him on the bus on the way home, his face then's always red...

Not only has he discovered the Tiger, he knows it intimately.

In Good Company

Watched the movie In Good Company for the first time this evening.. and I must say I thought it was really good! Of course the female lead was pretty, but she had something special about her, a glow or something...

And it was really nice watching more and more of the movie and sensing that there wasn't going to / shouldn't be a happy ending as far as the Carter and her were concerned, and the producer didn't sell out at the end.. I love bittersweet non-sell-out endings..

Lamb Chops

Hadn't seen the HJ gang for a good 3 weeks because of the trip and the post-trip siane-ness, so it was high time we caught up yesterday..

For want of good movies to watch (apart from the horror ones which HJ is piss-in-his-pants scared of), we settled for Wet Dreams. Need I describe the show? 4 teenage boys with roaring hormones in an all-boys school, a pretty female trainee teacher who in turn had the hots for her former teacher who happens to be her mentor in the trainee-teacher program.. you know the story..

Followed by dinner at the Dubliner.. splendid lamb chops, which unfortunately was only the starters we shared and not the mains.. TL got a foam moustache drinking my Guinness, tho I was too slow to get a photo of it..

With the HJ gang, we've always spoken about taking holidays together, but the only ones which I remember have materialised were:
a. geo camps to St. John's Island, and Kuantan, in secondary school.. haha
b. HJ, GN (HJ's wife), GL and SG (GL's gf) going to Gold Coast together..

Somehow the trips are never fated to be... earlier in the year, we spoke of Tasmania, but that remains to be seen.. anyhow, last night we hedged our bets w.r.t. far-flung destinations, and will decide by next weekend if we're going to KL together over the long Labour Day weekend.. I know it's not significant as far as destinations go, but it's possibly the first brotherhood trip.. GY will be there too since he, being the lovely dovey budgie, will be up in KL visiting his fiance. So TL, just say yes!

Am really looking forward to the trip - if nothing else, I need new boxer shorts from Factory Outlet Store..

The New Age Post Office sells:

a. Taufik stamps... now you can lick Taufik's behind whenever you feel like it..

b. Insurance... thank god they weren't pushy about it, to the consternation of this guy standing behind and watching over them, presumably the insurance companyrepresentative.. I'd have been rather pissed off if I had to wait for 10 minutes to buy a 70-cent stamp just because the SAM machine was broken and the man in front of me in the queue wanted to hear more about how he could be rich if he contributed a modest $300 a month towards some Regular Savings Plan...

The Days to Come

Rating: R(W): Ranting (Work): Unless you want to read ranting, please skip.

Remember I always spoke very highly of my supervisor? Well, he's left the company as of this past Friday.. far better money, new challenges, being with family, etc.

It's almost always been great working with him, not least because we shared the same views on many work-related issues.. it was fun fighting on, and winning, where others would have capitulated..

Dunno if I've ever written this down, but there are 4 people in the team in Singapore.. when you minus-off half a person (the big boss) from the team because she has to manage regulatory compliance, management, travelling, etc., we were effectively a 3.5 man team.. now that he's gone, we are 2.5 people..

As it is, he and I were a tag-team.. 70% of his work has been passed to me since I'm more familiar with the existing files, and that type of work.. Already, I work an average of 11.5 hours a day.. then now how? I can't possibly work 14 hours a day on this kind of salary / benefits..

Yes, a replacement will come in in due course.. but in due course will easily be 4 or 5 months..

Negotiate for more money? Don't think I didn't try that... my supervisor and I get along well, and I've always told him that a longer term problem was the salary gap between my classmates in the bigger companies (performing the same function as me) and myself, and before he left, he spoke to boss on my behalf... all this is second-hand information, but what he told me was that Boss first said that I was getting "market rate", and when "confronted" with the information that I wasn't, she said that I get other perks which others don't get? What? Business class travel? (i) most others get it as well (ii) between the $1000+ more and business class tickets / FF miles, you can keep the latter... Nice internal "clients"? Don't make me laugh...

In a way, one of the few, and the biggest, reason for me wanting to stay right now is that there are a few projects in the works which will really expand my experience and bolster my CV.. but considering the impending workload and lack of experience I have on some of the projects, I find that there are days when I'm hoping that the project gets suspended or killed.. which in turn defeats my reason for staying..

How now, brown cow?

Horrors!

I always pride my superior spelling skills, but horrors of horrors, I got 15 out of 23 for this test... try it!

I blame it on (i) American spelling and (ii) auto-correct in Microsoft Word..

Recovery

Realised Blogger now has a "recover post" link to recover posts which you lost when their system screwed up? hee hee..

It's strange, but everytime I come back from a longish trip overseas, I just feel like going straight home after work, and not being very friendly to people.. over the past 4 days, I've only been out 1 night, and have spent the rest of the evenings watching CSI: New York, The West Wing (the most recent episode rocked big time!), Law & Order: Trial by Jury and The L Word.. have only watched first 2 episodes of The L Word, but wooh! Sux when the prettiest girl (in my opinion) goes to The Other Side...

Blogging is a release

There is something I really wanna talk about, but I guess I should wait until Saturday when the event has passed...

In the meantime, I got my annual review letter today.. a promotion of 1 pay grade, and an 11% pay increase... Good? Not too bad I'd say, if not for the fact that my law school buddies are hauling in 20% more, pre-bonuses and everything...

What am I gonna do? Nothing much for the moment really, since there is quite a bit more I wanna learn at this current place, but I'm definitely gonna tell my boss that my peers are earning $x... she might not be able to do anything much abt it, but at least she knows she can't keep me long term if this continues..

Only for the True Romantic

Mont Blanc's just introduced rose-scented red ink.. somehow, I feel like laughing (derisively)...

Hee Hee

Call this telephone number: 6333 1411

Come on, try it!

Ingenuity or Desperation?

I've never flown any of the budget carriers out of Singapore, but for some reason, I'm rooting for Jetstarasia over Tiger Airways, Valuair and got one more right?

But you may have heard that they have been shafted big time in not getting landing rights in Shanghai, etc., not least because they decided to fly to Taipei before commencing services to Shanghai.. to the extent that they are looking for takers of their soon-to-be-delivered planes, ostensibly because they do not have enough passengers / routes...

Fear not though.. check out their new deal!

Your chance to fly to Perth (and back) for S$278!

To Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide or Brisbane for S$488.

No, Jetstar Asia doesn’t fly to these destinations. BUT as our customer, you can fly to Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide or Brisbane for these amazing prices.

If you have purchased a Jetstar Asia return ticket from 5 to 15 April 2005, simply present your Confirmation or Itinerary receipt at Qantas’ preferred travel agent in Singapore before 30 April 2005, and you can book one of these special fares.

A case of daddy rescuing his little daughter? In any case, I think it's a great deal! Imagine 2 separate trips to Shanghai and Sydney for S$700+!!

Amusing Musing

Was talking to TL last night, and 1 of the things we discussed was: Are there ever times when you can only remember the beginning and end of intense moments? Like when all you can remember is someone you love saying for the first time "I lo.." and then "...ou", or when you are reaching to hug or kiss someone, then the next thing u can remember is the parting bit?

It happens to me.. but not to TL.. does it happen to you?

And in case ure wondering, no, I don't suffer from premature ejaculation.. heh..

Giza Geezer

It felt like a million bucks stepping out of the plane in Cairo and having a suited man holding up a sign with your name, who then proceeded to fill in my immigration card for me in Arabic.. god knows what he wrote, but I managed to get through customs.. for all I know, it was "I promise to become a good muslim and go for my snip-snip tomorrow"...

The hotel was in the middle of the freaking desert! Saving grace - it has the white sheets and goose down pillows I so love.. if only there was someone for me to cuddle with...

The sucky thing about travelling alone in places like Cairo is that the very moment you stop to take photos or read ure map, someone will come up to you and pretend to be your friend and try to bring you to his "cousin's" shop... geez, you must have 40 cousins because got perfume shop owner lah, got hostel operator lah, for papyrus factory manager lah, etc.

And some are really smart.. asking you seemingly innocuous questions that you don't see the harm in answering honestly, only to be trapped later.. e.g. when I answered that no, I wasn't a muslim, and yes, duty free alcohol is much cheaper, I'd be asked to help him get some whiskey from the duty free shop..

Frankly, the old ruins were a dissapointment because they have been "restored" with new smooth walls, etc. such that they look like new-ish buildings.. that said, the Giza day tour was magical.. being in the desert riding an animal that made sounds like an Ework really felt like I was on the set of Star Wars...

There was a day or 2 in Cairo when I felt so alone it was totally depressing.. didn't help that the people were were trying to swindle you every chance they had... thankfully I switched hotels to a far cheaper dingy one ($65 a night, all in) after the 2nd day, and there were a lot more friendly independent travellers with whom we went on tours together..

Decided to spend almost all my Egyptian pounds the last night there, so a fellow traveller and I went to la Bodega, which served pan Asian food and Egyptian wine.. yums to the former, yuck to the latter...

It's amazing how sandy / dusty Egypt can be... I was cleaning my ears the morning after I landed in Singapore, and still found bits of sand in my ear.. heh...

I know this sounds like a pretty boring account.. I guess the Cairo trip generally was equally uneventful.. oh! I know what was interesting.. I stepped on a bathroom scale and was 4kg lighter than the day before I left! haha.. must have been a faulty one, considering I must have eaten 15 eggs in my 10 days overseas..

a 

I need!

It totally sux seeing how nice and cheap cars are overseas... a 200hp Golf GTi costs USD22k in the U.S.... man!

Arabian Nights

I don't even know where to begin.. the picture above's of the scribblings I made about the things I wanted to blog about.. needless to say, my handwriting's freaking messy and I forget some of the points I wanted to make.. like I've got what looks like "Pee" at the bottom, but dunno what on earth it was w.r.t.

I guess chronological's a good way to start until I get distracted...

I was slated to fly on Wednesday morning and was secretly glad that my dept. boss could only take a later flight as this meant that no one was around to cramp my style.. as my supervisor said, you want to be able to fart with impunity and try sleazy lines on the air stewardesses during the long flight..

But boss' meeting on Wednesday morning was cancelled and she could fly with me.. eeks! Thankfully she didn't get the seat next to mine.. the "fully" flat bed made time pass a lot faster, tho of course it's not all flat and you have to squirm around until you find the right "ahhhh" spot where the crook in the seat fits your back contour..

As the taxi fare from Heathrow to our hotel in Canary Wharf would have costed around 70 pounds, we had to take the Tube all the way.. hardly any fun when ure carrying all your luggage with you.. Along the way, boss mentioned that her niece was going to meet us for the evening, and I was thinking: whatever...

But as we stepped into the hotel, I spyed a Chinese girl.. the right height, wonderful hazel skin (in the yellow incandescent light of the hotel lobby - I later realised she was actually quite fair, but in a really nice kinda way), a truly happy and totally disarming smile when she looked in our direction - at my boss of course...

I don't think I believe in love at first sight... not in the conventional sense of the word at least.. but I guess it was a not-too-distant second: Love at First Night.. and nothing like the little filthy ones amongst you are imagining.. the 3 of us went for supper together, and I dunno what it was about her (henceforthwith known as "LY"), but... if I had to put my finger on something, it would be how smiley she was, and the way she looks at someone when talking to them..

Of the 5+ days we spent in London, I saw her on 4 days.. when we parted after lunch on Thursday, I thought that was the last I'd see of her for some time, and mumbled something lame about sending her the link to my Egypt photos if she'd give me her email address...

Was supposed to meet JH for supper on Thursday night, but our dinner with our service providers at Plateau took way too long.. it's wonderful being wined and dined by people who want to earn your money.. heh.. the fanciest place we were brought to was Hakkasan... my first Michellin star experience.. splendid fusion Asian food for some of the most jaded palettes.. I'm usually not one for expensive food, but this I'd recommend to anyone going to London..

That Thursday night, I must have edited 4 times the sms I wanted to send LY.. aiyah, you know, how I'd love to meet her again when she comes back to Singapore.. little did I know that I'd see her the next day, and on Sunday.. and each time, I could only say that I was happier to see her than the last..

On Thursday, boss' garrulous husband flew up to join us.. that meant that there weren't many opportunities to talk to her.. in fact, it felt 16 again, finding reasons to go with her ahead of the 2 "adults" to buy tickets to the London Eye, etc. I do admit that it wasn't easy finding common interests to talk about, particularly when our lives are quite different.. I studied in Singapore all the way and work in a rather technical field, whereas she's studied in Tasmania, Liverpool, Bristol and London, and is pursuing architecture..

And by now you may be thinking "balls, just go for it lah!"... well, she's gonna be away for the next 4 or 5 years, and even then, not just in London.. but I know I'd be most interested if she were back for good, because I'm already thinking / know what I wanna get for her..

OR by now you may be thinking "you bastard, just 2 or 3 weeks ago, you re-professed in your blog your love for LG"... I can only say that I still love LG, very much so... but it's been a long time and I'm not sure she will ever feel the same way about me.. if she says yes today, I'm definitely in..

LG, if u ever do feel that way, be sure to let me know.. I gave her a $10 calling card (hmm.. something tells me I might have blogged about this already) to call me in UK and Cairo.. there were mornings when we spoke for 20 minutes or so.. it was almost like being in Singapore, the kind where there's no lag / echo and you can hear how happy someone is hear your voice...

Didn't get to do much sightseeing / shopping of the stuff I wanted until the last day when boss & husband flew off on an earlier flight.. I managed Westminster Abbey and bits of Hyde Park before hitting Regent and Oxford Street.. If there's 1 store you must visit in London, I'd say it's Liberty... the website doesn't do it justice, but when you see the stuff, you'd be amazed...

And of course there's Hamleys the toy store.. it was really crowded so I couldn't get near, but I think there was a limited-time booth where you get to record a message in your voice and they will place the recording-player in the bear so that e.g. when you hug the bear, it says "Miyagi, I lurve yooouu..."

OK.. getting really zonked again.. will add new instalments tomorrow or something..