If anyone of you go to Pacific Plaza some time till the end of this month, you will see a shopping concierge boy donned smartly in a suit with a Fullerton Hotel name tag that states 'Samuel'. Check out the youngest candidate potentially to be awarded the Best Service Award 2007~he is only 16 years old by the way! Though he looks like he's in his 20s. I bet it's his way of making people think that he is responsible and reliable enough in his work. What happened was that I was busy making my rounds around town with tons of shopping bags to return from my recent photoshoot when he offered to help me bring my stuff over from Pan Pacific to Far east Square! And the journey didn't stop there. He continued to hold my luggage while I made my deliveries from Far east, to Takashimaya to Lucky plaza to Heerens! I swear I would have been completely exhausted beyond recognition if not for this extremely helpful boy!
Not only was he good at his service as a shopping concierge, I noticed that he was one person who has given me hope that chilvary still exists in this time and age! He was gentlemanly and apparently he is slogging so hard as a conceirge during the day and makes deliveries at night to feed his gf's lavishly extravagant lifestyle. Someone should knock some sense into that poor boy's head.
To reward him, I gave him a Mac lipstick to give his gf for christmas and he reluctantly accepted it. At night, he smsed me to thank me because my lipstick made his gf really thrilled and happy. To repay me, he's going to give me a teddy bear for christmas!! Hahaha....

I really feel blessed nowadays to have these strategically placed strangers in my life especially whenever Im in desperate need of help. I thank God for rendering His help through these people and at the end of the day, they are no longer strangers but friends to me. I'm at awe with God's christmas gift for me.
Love Him.
***
Merry Christmas to all of you! Brace up despite the perpetually gloomy weather!

***

Ser's recommendation of places to hang out:

No. 1) Bar Fly: situated at Clarke Quay near TCC. Rather sheek , classy, very 'three on the bund' Shanghai inspired. Drinks are not too expensive too.

Yan Bin sipping a cool glass of strawberry margarita(my phone isn't too good with night photos)

No. 2) The Wine Company at Evans Lodge/Dempsey Road. The one at Evans Road serves meals and the one at Dempsey food serves just finger foods. Their specialty is the cheese platter and it goes well with wine. Food is reasonably priced and the atmosphere is something refreshing. I liked the warm mushrooms and char kuay teow the best!Simply tantalising!

Reina sure knows how to wine and dine.

***

Zhen at Gap event.

Lastly, I leave behind a snippet of Zhen's life as a fashion writer. Flashy, colourful, high people mingling, that leaves one jaded by pretentiality.

Yay! My Christmas Present from Mag!! My Villeroy and Boch mug. Happiness!*Beams*

I feel like the apprentice of little miss devil wears prada. Picking up her mess. From the way I see Zhen gets tortured at her work, I just wuna thank my lucky stars for never ever going to enter into that kind of industry. The people are snooty for just very surface kinda reasons and it irks me. It seems that the lovable incompetent gets his or her ass booted out by the Incompetent jerks. There's no room for even the lovable Competent. This place is merciless for frivolous reasons and that's plain stupid. Anyway, I don't really care.
I think my legs and fingers are going to rot from all the preparation for our photoshoot today. We worked with our feeble limbs for 9 hours straight under the command of a very demanding person whom shall not be named.
Anyway Christmas is coming!But somehow, I feel a little distant from the whole meaning of it. What's happening?

Welcome back Goof. Your birthday celebration with Poh Hwee is going to be held at Dempsey Road on the 23rd Dec. Be at your resplendent best. Happy Birthday honey=)

Many birthday wishes to the friend across the causeway too. Cheers mate!

Some updates---

1) I'm working for Zhen at 'Magazine'( sorry , have decided not to reveal the real name of company) for three weeks to help her out during this end of the year crunch time. Think fashion, think carrie bradshaw, private exclusive events (I just went for the opening of Gap...hope for more to come!), rubbing shoulders with celebrities, think Sai Gang and deadlines. *gasp*. Luckily I'm not in this industry. ..hard to rise, and worse, filled with very pretentious and snobbish claw claded women. Nasty.
But so far, it's been kinda fun!

I have a speed dating issue to cover. I need a guy volunteer on the 20th December to take part in this. Can anyone please volunteer? I have already been rejected by Kelvin Phoon and Elgin Teng. Those two conservative peeeeegs. It's going to be fun. And besides it's free. SMS me ok?!

2) I am quite upset with my grades. They were atrocious. Not at all close to my expectations (and they have already been aimed rather conservatively..fucks) May I say that's only an understatement. Luckily Ernst and Young have already employed me. Otherwise I would have wasted my time at university. Thank God.

3) I got screwed by my father for not playing the game of life well. Basically he's still disappointed by the Credit Suisse incident. He even bought me a book called ' It is wise not to be too honest'. It's written in Mandarin btw. I think no one wanted it this way. And there was no time and neither did we imagine how draconian it turned out. I feel upset that my dad is disappointed in me. Because I've always felt that i've proven myself quite well in terms of being street smart. I guess not to him. Humdrums.

4) In relation to point 3, I'm thinking whether I should just take up the platinum job to prove to dad and train myself well. Perhaps, I'm not that well equipped as yet. I can feel a little uneasiness inside me. Maybe I had it going well .....too well.

5) I fell out with the same person over and over again. I wonder when will it ever end properly.

6) However, my 2 malaysian friends have been contacting me ever since! It's really heart warming to hear from them. Imagine everything unexpected woven into a friendship.
I think that's been so far the only highlight of my week.

I miss all my friends.

Sha and I embarked on an impromptu journey to Johor Bahru as a substitute for our pilgrimage. Our shopping and eating day excursion was not enough for us after having gone through 3 hours of customs in which we experienced the worst and most excruciating queue ever! Packed like sardines in a non air conditioned room, we were all jostling elbow to elbow, gasping for breath till the extent that Sha was about to faint. Finally, we reached the state of Johor, and we decided to stay over for the night so that we could shop till our hearts content. It was absolutely a crazy idea especially we had nothing but our passports with us. Moreover, we were a little afraid especially hearing many horror stories on the papers about people getting murdered and hacked for just 50 ringgit. In the end, we decided to play by ear and only decide at the time when we were finally satisfied with our shopping.

Basically, this little adventure of ours was meant to serve as our time out from life's jadedness; a time for self-discovery; searching for any parts of ourselves that were lost along the way; and to chance upon hopeful serendipity. With God's blessing in the midst of potential danger and chaos, we accomplished what we had hoped for.

Our new hair colour-photo taken with my new Nokia 6288 built in camera.

Francis, a 21 years old cute boyish chinese malaysian, was our first participant in our quest to establishing a meaningful bond with someone in Malaysia. He was actually one of the sidekicks who helped to wash and blow dry my hair when we went for a hair dye treatment. It was really cheap! For just 70 SGD compared to the 160 SGD I usually pay back home. After complaining about the itchy sensation the chemicals got onto my scalp, we started chatting and immediately cliqued! He got us all psyched up when I asked him whether he wanted to take 2 gorgeous girls out for a night of partying. He was pretty interested in taking us out but couldn't confirm anything as his friends were not too sure on going out. He also helped us along with places to stay that were affordable and decent.

Shopping at City Square took us the whole day and by the time we stepped out of the building, it was close to 11pm. Stranded in a rough city and having no decisions, we took a breather from our anxiety and fears as we stopped by a mini van selling sticks of delicious skewed meat and other kinds of food and ordered some for ourselves. That was when we met our second fatefully placed kind and pretty good looking stranger-Ah Ben. Ah Ben was happily eating with his other friends when I approached him for any places to stay and area code for me to contact Francis. After much discussion with his friends and how dangerous it was for 2 young girls to be galivanting in dangerous Johor at night, he volunteered to drive us to 'Hotel Sentosa'. And so we ...Did. We hopped into his car as he drove us to our destination. Along the way, he told me he was 25 years old and the only time he had been to Singapore was only to Woodlands for a day! To our delight, Ah Ben was so gentlemanly as to let us stay in his car while he went up the hotel to check for vacancies and even saw that we checked in properly. The room was decent and clean, for just 70 ringgit a night. We took it.

Francis on the other hand, called to check on us to see whether we were ok. He was totally shocked when he heard we had actually gotten into a stranger's car and was worried sick!hahaha...In the end we gave up on the clubbing as we were too shagged out to do anything.

Sha and I having Hong Kong food at Jusco

Caught a glimpse of Victor Wong performing at Pelangi. No idea who he is though. Some Taiwanese superstar.

Ok, there's quite a few stuff I want to reflect about with regards to this trip-

Firstly, I want to brush up on my Chinese. I didn't expect myself to be using Mandarin to converse with the Malaysians. I thought I could just leave it to Sha since she was back to her ancestors' land. I was so wrong. But anyway, it felt good conversing in Mandarin and I so want to speak my mother tongue fluently.

Secondly, I wonder how ugly I might have looked if I was born in Malaysia and not Singapore. I swear their clothes sense is very distasteful to the cosmopolitan eye. I couldn't even find any clothes that were suitable for me-they were either very OG looking, or very taiwanese and Japanese inspired. Pardon me. It's just the way I see it. I can't help it. But on the other hand, I might have become less of a materialistic bitch and be pleasantly simple.

Next, I find that the 2 Malaysian boys whom we had made friends with are really down to earth and simple guys---a stark contrast to some of our local boys whom I think have zero EQ skills, and on top of that, very complicated. I definitely would rather have the company of sincere and gentlemanly guys, who do not have ulterior motives up their sleeves and are genuine in helping you without any form of repayment. And really, although i've always thought 'Cheena' and I don't go together, I realise that I actually value sincerity and company above such notions. They just become transient to me. Seriously, I don't mind hanging out with simple guys like that, than to go out with a pompous and obnoxious cum sleazy, touchy banker at a fancy restaurant (that date gave me the goosebumps and it's so going to be my first and last time with him). At least, I don't have to spend time wondering and delving into his complicated mind. I prefer cordial, I prefer simple.

And lastly, I thank God for protecting Sha and I in our dare devil endeavours. Come to think of it, we were lucky to have made it alive! We also managed to exchange numbers with ben and francis so that whenever any of us visit each other, we know who to call.

Just blessed.

A huge load off my shoulders from exams. Today's melayu exam was not as easy peasy as what prof declared in class-'Ahyar, very easy wunnn.' Growls. Some son of a shit was actually busy SMS-ing his friend for answers. I stared at him , totally shocked by his utterly blatant behaviour. I know it's none of my business, but i was totally pissed and indignant by his behaviour because i eff-ing studied melayu pretty intensively and here is this freaking dude copying his way through. The worse part was he actually went up to Prof and acted like a good student, pointing out a spelling error in the exam. I felt like going up to Prof and called his bluff. I even toyed with the idea of telling prof to sit right behind of me because i suspect some people around me are dubious. The lack of time and time wasted due to this tapping of sms buttons that distracted me made me shake off the idea finally and continued with my work. That son of a M actually finished faster than me. Anyway, i managed to complete it but had no time to check through my answers. Sigh.

I made sure I had a blast today after paper. Went for a nice japanese dinner and James bond movie at marina sq. My goodness, I was caught at the edge of my seat as I was superbly captivated by every minute of suspense, action and twist of plots. i love daniel craig. He has this air of dashingness that makes me flutter!hahaha...
Ended my evening clubbing at Attica. Now i'm dead beat tired. but positively satisfied.
Going to slack my 3 months like no tomorrow. After all, when will i ever get such a chance to relax? hell no.