My obsession with Hotpot.

Mommy's Pre Birthday dinner conversation by random....

Daphne: We had Hotpot for Supper yesterday night as I was really hungry from Dance Prac....

Le Brother: Wait didn't you have hotpot for dinner the other day when you brought back the Stuffed toy(s)?
Daphne: *goes into deep thoughts*
Dilun: Come to think about it, from Friday to friday (7 days) you ate Hotpot for 5 days.

Daphne: Really?

Friday - Kelvin, CY, Dilun Daphne - Shi Li Fang@ Thomson, I brought home a cat/tiger looking toy for Trixie.
Saturday - Thai food at Orchard Tower with Lulu, Hanwei, Dilun because Raw prawns is yummy!
Sunday - Post Dance practise at SMU, as usual I was starving after all the physical stuff from practise, and city hall was too crowded.... We (Dilun and I ) escaped to Kallang Mall for Sukiya Hotpot..
Monday - Met Claudia for Dinner and was raving to her about how the boys brought me to Shi Li Fang and how I scored the toy... We did it again :D
Tuesday - Valda, Jas, Queenie for dinner at Hai Di Lao.
Wednesday - Walked the dog to "fetch" dinner from Holland Village
Thursday - post practise binge eating, we had hot pot at Bugis because I'm a hungry girl.
Friday - Mom's pre birthday dinner at Little Diners (Today)


Indeed 5 / 7 days of Hotpot dinner.
Mom didn't even bat her eyelids.

If you could only eat one type of food for the rest of your life, this would be it.
HOTPOT FTW

It has been a life long relationship with Steamboat, only that I have taken this week waaaaaaaaay too far by eating it 5 days in a week. :D
Strange how I did not even notice it, until Le brother mentioned it.

oops

Summing up the first quarter of 2016

I noticed that this space here has been rather dead lately, and the boyfie made a passing remark about this dead space here...


I have not been much in the mood to post up here, and figured that I would eventually find time to do so (I hope), so tonight's the night where I am full of blabber..

2016 has been good this far..
with plenty of weddings within the family

March saw us through 3 weddings.
In July, there will be another 2 weddings to attend to,
December 1 wedding.

My cousins/family friends are all getting hitched in the same year!
Goodness!

Weddings aside,

 It's time for Timeline fillers, the first quarter of the year vaguely goes like this:

January 
New Year Celebration
Spent my eve with Claudia over a nice quiet dinner, as we explore the coming year with a  
mixture of work and life to come for 2016, and I met DL for a count down at Marina
Square facing the floating platform for my favourite fireworks and hotpot supper after!

I started the first hour of the year stuffing myself. Auspicious or what?

             
Chinese New year Celebration
The usual fan fare of relative visiting, since parents are both the middle kids.
This is officially our first year of visiting without daddy around.
It is funny how much difference a year on actually feels.
Nothing is quite the same, but yet life goes on.
I guess it really gets easier as time creeps on..

February 
Birthday celebrations starts!
Da started hers with a pool side celebration, and I received an early surprise party from Claudia, over at Kelvyn's place with Dilun as the accomplice on the pretext of a CNY gathering.

Unlike my social butterfly sister, I usually prefer mine to be a closed and quiet affair, so the build up events towards actual day was just plenty of dinner and stuff with close friends!

Every birthday in my recent years, I am reminded about how blessed I am to be my mommy's daughter, all the love I have been bestowed by my family, friends, and spoilt further by the boyfie.
I am indeed blessed + my smelly Trixie Wixie who loves me with all her heart.. just because she always gets food from me?
Hahahah


March
Taiwan!
Holidays are always happy days!
It was a fairly good birthday trip.
I started my first minute in Taiwan drowning my phone and camera upon disembarking the plane.
It was a disaster fishing out my wet toys out from my bag.
My heart sank like titanic, when I discover that both my toys are 1 step away from the grave.

I'll leave the actual Taiwan post for another post, when I feel like being extra hardworking about posting pictures in here.

I'd just say that I ended the trip a very happy girl.
WE bought extra luggage weight, and we were still 8kg overweight.
I reckon my 60 pieces of face mask was part of the reason...along with all the black sugar cubes that I bought as souvenir...
We were very lucky that we got away with the excess 8kg baggage.
YOLO!
---
April 
The month of YOLO
It is quite a depressing month being home bound after a 9 day vacation.
I tried to increase random new activities to feel little more motivated about life!
In it, I went for a couple of new achievements that I set out for myself..

Change my hair style ✓
I gave myself a hair cut on a whim and fancy, Chopped off half my hair's length because I needed a perk me up to feel better about my post holiday depression.
Besides it has been years, since I last changed my hairstyle.

Picked up Kizomba ✓
Attended Azlan and Mabel's weekend Kiz workshop, and in the dance frenzy process I got myself 2 pairs of new dance shoes..and I am pondering on whether I should customise the third pair... because customise is always more swag right?

Depressing as April may sound, I actually ticked off 2 of my resolution checklist this month!

I have also tried Canvas painting at Arteastiq, and the completed painting is now sitting on the wall looking a little odd in my room.

This pretty much sums up what I have been up to.

Trixie on the other hand, decided to YOLO as well.
She snuck out of the house, and went on a lift adventure alone, and got lost for approximately 15- 20 minutes?
My mother lost her, and found her before I could even reach home to organize a search party.
Thankfully for friendly and useful neighbours!

xoxo

treading down memory lane

It's one of those iponder sort of days, and I figured that I came a long way with this blog.
It has been slightly over 10 years, as I lay out bits of my life here.
I randomly clicked through old post, and it struck me how much I have changed over the years...
despite the fact that I insist. I am very much still the same ole Daphne.

I did so much growing up over the years, that often, I miss the laid back bummerina who is rather happy in her own little bubble.

Comparatively to the person that I have become in recent years,
I would say that my world has shifted.

Greater responsibilities - check! (I'm not quite sure about greater powers though..)
#punny #spidey
--
I become less self centred, and more people centric - I think!
But I am still very stubborn and am not easily coherced or swayed into group thinking.
I am still thick-headedly in love with myself.
--

I share less about myself online, than I did years ago.
Partly from writer's block, topic block - seriously its a fine line between over sharing my life,
and boring people about my life lately.

In sharing less about myself, I do feel less vulnerable in meeting or exposing myself to nonsense from people in general.
People who would abuse what I would write, and twist it into an entirely new plot.

I wrote something about being unhappy about my pigmentation a few post ago, and the next day I kana upsell left, right, centre, and down on some MLM skincare products.
that's it. I have enough!
*slams door*
seriously... its not up to anyone to talk down to me, just because I casually nitpick on myself.. its not an open license to address my issues to me.
If I did not ask you about it, I don't think your views matter to me.

In fact, if I counter pick, I doubt we'll still be friends after I'm done.
heheh..

--
I learn to "unfollow" people who do not value add into my life.

I try to open my world to the skies out there.
It seems to me that very little people are updating their blogs much.
Focusing a lot of Dayre, instagram.
I signed up for Dayre - but I can't bring myself to "report" what I did on a daily basis.
Even my own mom does not demand this of me, how can I.... do this online?
lol.

Instagram, however seem to have kept its foothold on me.
It's like a free subscription magazine for me with no limits, no censorship, visual fest I must say!
*sings a whole new world*
However, there is one big rule that I lay down strictly.
I do not follow my friends (with the exception of good friends, boyfriend, interesting friends etc)

Imagine having to scroll through Facebook to get myself updated, and opening up instagram to see the same set of stuff all over again.
*rolls eyes*
Why would I need to see something twice over?? crazy right..
The entire idea of social media is to entertain myself.
Not study my friends like a text book.
I'm not doing politically correct moves, just to please people.
I'm not fake that way.
But if my girls specifically request for me to follow them, I will.
I'm not a meanie. I understand that numbers matter to them for advertising purposes.

I Digress...

I speak Mandarin more fluently now - from my countless trips to China.
I scold people pretty well in my mother language, and I pick up new catch phrases while I'm there.
It still takes me a while to change back from language to language preference whenever I'm back.
It's not like I'm incapable of insta-switch. But speaking normally takes a while, change of lingo, attitude etc.
--
My hair becomes boring, my dressing becomes boring, my nails looks like shit half the time (because i used up my energy dust to focus on something else, rather than to have pretty nails every week now)
The nails thingie came from an observation made by Caroline.

I utterly surprised her with my chipped up nails when I met her for tea.
Compared to how I used to be back in SIM days - I'd say my nails are always pristine and freshly manicured with new design in the past.

Now, only when I'm up for it, or i'd just stick to french mani in loud, happy colours.

Wahhhhh I feel like an old hag, thinking about this.
:(


Spend less time playing and creating random craft projects...

well... I gave up some of my favourite stuff in exchange for other lessons in life...
like checking emails...
sending out packages for Addadress..
catch up on sleep..
spend proper time with friends and family and trixie
most importantly, keep up with the day dreaming.

Man without dreams, is like bird without wings.
I mentioned this in 2009 and 2014
Both were consistent in fretting about my career path and choosing the option of the less treaded path.

Some days, I wondered if I would be better off, taking up a normal job, drawing monthly salaries with limited worries.
The rest of the days, I'd be like Never!

As le boyfie points out to me...
waking up early to beat the morning traffic (to make it to office on time) will probably be my biggest motivation in doing what I do.
Fighting to squeeze into public transport, or beating the crowd, takes a huge toll on me...
my mood dips terribly, my energy level depletes tremendously, I get grouchy and scream at people.

Whenever I happen to be in train stations during rush hour, I'll always have the urge to take a picture of the over-pouring/overwhelming human moving along escalators, and caption
It's the end of the world! Run for your dear lives!!

Good lord.
I am thankful for what I have been tasked to do at this point in my life.

In a blink, it's approaching the end of the year.
Where have all the time gone? What have I accomplished?
I feel like a snail.

In about 2 more months, Daddy would have been gone for a year.
It does not feel like I've made much progress emotionally, but I must have, in my own weird ways..
I stopped questioning about his sudden departure.
Surely everything happens for a reason, even if I cannot fathom it now.

I think I'm okay now, singing his favourite songs at KTV.

that  I can talk about daddy normally without cracking up.. I am also quite skilled in changing topics conversationally when it gets touchy.

However, I do get moodier before my trips to China.
It is something that I cannot avoid.

I visited the area that he passed away in my recent trip, and I'd be reminded of things he tells me, and what he has done for me. Sometimes it gets a little painful, after all, China memories with dad seems pretty specific for me. In singapore, it is more like a shared property with the siblings and mom, if you get what I mean.

With daddy gone, It does get pretty awesome perk wise tho.
Whenever I head over to the temple, aside from saying hello to the gods, and thank them for taking care of all my precious and I,
I'd also throw in an additional liner for them to send my regards over for daddy.
#godiscool #moreAirtimewiththegods

Also, It's like the 7th month (hungry ghost festival) right now, and I feel no fear!
Hey! my daddy's here to protect me. I'll just need to scream Daddy! and he'll appear to smack the ghost away.
Wahahahah. wtf!
(kidding)

Whenever I'm in China, in the past - I'll stay out anything from midnight to 3am, either working in the office, massage, KTV, supper, movies, bunk into random hotels with friends and crawl my way back home to daddy's at 6am in the morning.
Uhuh..

In recent trips without daddy around, I will get nagged at alot more about being back in the hotel before 11pm. -_-"
Alright. in response to my past activities,
I now watch tv in my own room and press my own feet singing all by myself~ by Celine Dion.
lol.
In truth, I'll just raid the supper stalls located right outside my hotel, and stuff myself silly with the cheap yummy food until my tummy forbids me from eating more.
#cheapEntertainmentInchina

As I was saying earlier, I was in China on the first day of the 7th month.
Mom texted me a reminder to be back early. I detect additional smugness in her text.
It's as if the hungry ghost festival gave her reminder a 10% power up.
Tsk.

In anycase, I kind of fancy the idea that Daddy's back at home hovering around, enjoying and doing his own thing, and I also noticed that the dog is sitting/begging to blank spaces of late.
Its only something that she does, when people are talking to her, or when she wants something (usually food) from me.
Now she does it at a far distance from me. Like sits outside my room, when i'm in the kitchen?
I'm not trying to spook anyone out here, but its just a new trend I noticed with le doggles.

Alright, enough rattling.
It's odd, I shan't share to scare.
I need to get back to work, or crawl into bed.
adios

Tomorrow.

I don't know about tomorrow;
I just live from day to day.
I don't borrow from its sunshine
For its skies may turn to grey.
I don't worry o'er the future,
For I know what Jesus said.
And today I'll walk beside Him,
For He knows what lies ahead.

Many things about tomorrow
I don't seem to understand
But I know who holds tomorrow
And I know who holds my hand.

Hearing the news of Daddy, my world sort of crashed.
I was the one who received the news.
The one who last saw him last month.
The last to say goodbye to him on the phone on sunday and I'm sorry that I didn't tell him more while I still could.

My dad passed away on 11 november around 2.30am.
He had a heart attack while he was out with a few of his friends, in China.
the past week has been a mess. 

Between frantically trying to make my way over to China, pacing at the airport, eventually the multiple trips back and forth to the authorities, mortuary, and daddy's apartment. 
Everything seemed to me a blur.

It's been slightly over a week since he left us, and there's so many regrets left and so much angst. 
Why did he have to leave so soon
Why couldn't he have lived longer ~ to enjoy the fruits from my labor?
I needed time, but time wasn't in my favour.

I resent.
but yet I can only force myself to believe.
It's really hard to find faith at such trying times, but yet the amount of hands that reached out to me in my time of need is incredulously well timed.
Ask and you shall be given.

I find consolation that daddy's in good hands, and he's in a better place now.
Creepy as it might sound, and I'm not delirious (yet!), but daddy told me he's alright, and he could still joke about it.

Perhaps that's the only reason why I'm holding up so well to date, because I know he's still with me, and like I said, he's being taken care of.

In the span of days of my dad's demise, my family and I has been well taken care of by friends and family. 
For this, I will be eternally grateful to all of them, for reaching out to us in our troubled times.

Relatives that supported and helped in every way that they could, and even flew over to be with us.
My friends who offered to fly over to China, just to offer support and help, and those that stayed with me at the wake every day/night. 
The number of bubble teas and food that I've received to cheer me up in the span of 3 days is insane. 
From what I heard, we're probably the first wake to ever serve bubble tea to friends on venue.  *laughs*
The texts, calls and emails that I've received from friends and family to check if I'm alright.
I know I'm loved. I know everyone cares for me.

The list of stuff that I need to accomplish for daddy seems daunting, but I'm my daddy's daughter. I'm his little warrior.
I will solder on, I will survive, I will flourish.

I miss him, but I won't forget what I need to do.
My dad lives in me, and I will continue his legacy in my own ways, 
just because its what I have to do, and that's what he wanted me to do too.

It'll probably take a while for me to bounce back, but baby steps is good.

One of my last few proper pictures of myself, taken with daddy that I'll always treasure.
I miss you, daddy. I'm sorry I couldn't do more.

Blast from the past

Cleaned up the photo album cabinet and I discovered old pictures of everyone!

I emailed daddy some of his old black and white pictures during his teenage years just for the fun of it. 

His first question to me was 

Where did you find these from?! 

And the second email to me was... Who do I resemble? 

Handsome right? 

I replied him with a gaggy face, and told him he's picked up from the dustbin, since he doesn't resemble my grandparents. 

Haha. 

This dustbin trick never grows old on me. 

Oh, I picked out random pictures from the past, and these would be at my second birthday party! Always pleased in the presence of cakes.. 

My mom obviously chose my wardrobe during my toddler days, but I'm still in love with the cropped top flutter sleeve with high waist pants and a contrast sash set outfit.

Oh and no one touch my fluffy kitty please!

I spent the later half of my childhood dragging kitty on leash around the house, like a dog, and kitty turned grey at the bottom from too much abuse. 

The mommy threw kitty into the machine for a wash, and I no longer became friends with kitty, just because kitty no longer feels the same ;(

Tangled, rough and ugly - I couldn't even find her eyes amidst the fur tangling. 

Sorry kitty! 

Next would be Le Daphne at some chalet. Back then, my parents were always full of activities. 

Company events and outings with friends, weekly Karaoke and majong sessions at my place. 

Wow wee. 

Back to the picture, Those bear bear shades totally nailed the look. Mom matched my shades and shorts together?

Hahahha 

As for the pose? I apparently started young with fatty belly and all!

Next, 

This was taken at home with the sister and our beloved piano. 

Sometimes random stranger would ask if we are twins. 

We understand that our mother fancies dressing us alike, but one really short twin and one really tall twin?! 

Well.... When Da and I talk about it in recent years, she'll reason out that those strangers must have been really naive with low comparative skills. 

One really short twin? 

Doesn't make sense at all. 

Tsk.

Accessories accessories accessories.

The outfit of the day #ootd would be furry headband + sunnies + layered frilled dress. 

Le sister and I are obviously delighted with our matching dress and accessories!

This picture in the backdrop still exist at home to date. Omg!

Vintage frames.

The mom tells me that she very much misses the house when it has less furnitures.

We have so much stuff lying around everywhere, that she gave up prettifying the house a long time ago!

At one of our monthly outings to the beach, If my memory wasn't failing, we were heading out for an island tour/ ferry trip to Sister's island.

This is my mom still working her stylist aptitude on her kids. 

I pointed to her that she obviously dissected the set of outfit and exchanged them, and she laughed. 

Good job mommy!

This is my mommy and I "bickering". 

We start our love-hate bicker really young. 

Judging by both the parent's expression… 

I figured it must have been something that I suggested or said that triggered their reactions.

Dad's like huh? What's going on you both?

While the mommy would give me her usual "you sure you're allowed to do it…" sort of standard answers..

While my sister usually just ignores and stares far away doing her own stuff~ 

This picture depicts family life as it is.

Oh and the brother isn't in existence yet. But in reality, he adopted Da's far away stance whenever Mommy, Da and I start on one of our epic girlie topics over dinner. 

Totally predictive. Who's to know that our personalities would have been captured at such tender age?

Lastly, a random picture of us at home, celebrating daddy's birthday. 

Their friends and colleagues all hidden behind the photographer. 

My folks used to throw parties at home every week, so perhaps that's why my mom dressed us up so much when we were kiddos. 

My dad, mom and uncle. 

So young! And so skinny!

My brother looked at the old pictures, and jokes that the picture is daddy and uncle at normal size, and what we see of them now in person, is similar to how wide screen TV works. 

Stretched. 

Blast from the past, evokes so much Nostalgic feeling, and seriously, home is truly where the heart is.

The dust from going through the photo albums is epic. 

They get into the eyes and nose, and made me itchy all over. 

It's good that I had mimi training, prior to picture spring cleaning. 

Mimi's been adopted by a Dutch family, and is currently on trial at their place. 

I hope everything works out for Mimi there! 

Posh place 

Bigger place for her to run and explore. 

Better food 

Access to the balcony ( mimi has a keen interest to birds.) 

I found out about it when I let her out for a stroll, and (her reaction) when she saw snowy the speckled pigeon who lives by my room's air condition unit.

She practically dashed to my window in a flash, just to bird watch/ bird hunt.

I'm super glad that mimi's in good hands, and I am thankful for everything that has fallen into place so far. 

Thank you universe and the big guy up there for taking care of Mimi. 

Bye July!

Busy.
That's what the month of July brings about for me.
I like it when i'm mobbed down with activities that I enjoy.
It's like busy in a good way (If you know what i mean)

July has been a busy month. Not all smooth sailing, but overall, has treated me well on hindsight.

Work wise, no special breakthroughs
That aside, the upside would be that I went back dancing a little in late june, but officially danced and said hello to all my old friends from the dance community this week.
All thanks to Mosaic's anniversary parties.

So proud to see Mosaic flourishing in their new venue, I saw for myself how much time my sister invested into making the studio happen - tho i'm not sure if its for the love of dancing, or for the love of Zee.
Ok, both.

It's a nice and nostalgic feeling to be back, moving and twirling around.
I'm surprised that muscle memory really works after my hiatus. LOLOL.
Comeon, I exited in 2009? and danced annually thereafter.
Hohoho.

I woke up the next day, with aching body.
But that didn't stop me from attending my first Kizomba class ever!


It has been a while since I have ventured into unchartered territories, and I guess new dance class works for me.
The challenge of doing something that I am unused to.
It's been a while since I last feel like I move awkward, discovering random muscles that I never knew of their existence, and I actually like this feeling of learning something new.
Not forgetting that aching feeling in the abdominal muscles from all that mini body rolls that I did in class.

Oh and waking up to more aching body.


I spoke about taking up Tango, Kizomba and/or Kpop dance at the start of this year.

Happy to have touch base with 5%.
Therefore, "Pleased" is the word.

This weekend has also been exceptionally filled up.
With le bestie back from Indo over his long weekend, and not forgetting the attempted birthday surprise(not) celebration for MF, and it was a rather enjoyable session.

I also accompanied the mother to watch movies.
The last movie that I caught with her, was Ah Boys to men.
It was to help ease the pain, when her baby goes into camp for National Service.
Oh I'm such a terrible daughter sometimes.

Anyway we caught Transformer, the movie, and while waiting for the show to start, we munched on our sweet and salty mixed popcorns, the mother said between munches that she could not decide if she likes the sweet ones better or the salty ones.
#popcornNoobie I told her, that's the beauty of a mixed popcorn, because it balances out so well, that you love both the salty and the sweet!

She also said that every bite is like a surprise, because you don't quite know what you're going to get until you place the popcorns into the mouth.
Well. Instinctively, I fished out a popcorn, said its flavour and planted them into her mouth and asked her if I was right!

Of course I'm right.
Spent the trailer moments helping her to differentiate between the salty and sweets just by groping the popcorn.
Hahahaha.

and before all the popcorn eating happened, the brother declared that our popcorns NEVER made it to the start of the show.
Indeed. He was correct. It was mostly gone by the time the movie started rolling.



Good weekends like this ought to be blogged into memories.
Thank you.

conversations with mommy

Strolling at the supermarket with the mommy after dinner, she randomly mentioned: 

Mom: your brother's scheduled for wisdom tooth operation on the 18th august.

Daph: okay, should get some mashy food ready for him... 

... Mashed potatoes, porridge, milk shake, ice cream, yakult... Instant soup..all gonna be life savers!

Mom: porridge can already. 

She pauses for a second or two, before saying

Mom: I think I should take 2 days leave to take care of him. 

I turned over and gave mom my biggest unfair facial expression topped with a big frown and pout and exclaims "not fairrrrrrrr!" , just to tease the mother on the special preferential treatment that her "baby" is going to get, whilst kids like me goes unloved. 

Lol.

Mom: When you went for operation, the maid cooked for you what. 

She replied nonchalently.

Daph: nope, by then we were maid-less... 

continues to maintain my most poor thing face, very much like a sad unloved puppy

Pause a little more to think.... And mommy replied

Mom: eh hello, I wasn't working at all, back when you went for the wisdom tooth operation.

What unfair are you talking about huh? I took care of you throughout the entire 8 days of downtime!!!!! 

Well she's got a point there... 

*laughs and resumes making my rendition of poor thing face, because I decided that it was fun to guilt trip the mother a little more....  

Daph: still not fairrrrrr!

It's not the same. This one is time off, specially for the brother, mine's like on the way. 

Quantity vs quality not the same huh. 

Hahaha. 

Continues to make sad pouty face for the next few minutes just for laughs.

#whatdidyoujustread?
#thingsIsaytomymom

Appreciating my besties...

It's always easy to post about the light hearted stuff.
And yet this one's been boggling around within for a while.

The thing with friendship, it's where..

Like attracts like.
Birds of the same feathers flock together.

These special people who have the ability to make me open up more than necessarily.
Where pride and image does not matter.
Where its absolutely alright to talk about kooky subjects like karma, universe, destiny, past and present life, life values, or even plot and hatch weird ideas.

The one who says... what you've just shared and said, reminded me of this book that I've read!
*proceeds and sends books over*

No we're not bookworm club.
As I said, Like attracts like. 

It's not about people accepting and buying what we say (albeit that we're quite talented in selling our concepts and ideas to people), but rather its the sharing of concepts, ideology, and faith, in order to motivate and steer us towards the direction that we're (individually) meant to head towards.

To help develop awareness and broaden our subconsciousness, and make things more conscious for further contemplation and subsequent referencing for our own future action.

In pursuit of a deeper meaning and purpose in living this life.
To those who have ever questioned, "why this life?"
Perhaps you'll understand or have an inkling of idea about what I'm yabbling about.

Deep much?

Its always been tough to use words to represent how I feel.
That's why its easier to use pictures to represent thoughts, even though it sometimes look extremely bimbotic to everybody else.
Lol.
NLP test suggest that, im 51% visual and  49% audio.
Images and songs holds their respective meanings to me.

But in this post, I appreciate the special people who get along extremely well with me philosophical/intellectually/frequency.
The ones who enjoys doing silly stuff and spending time with me without judging.

I specially appreciate the ones who have the ability to manage me when i'm in anger/tantrum/diffcult mode, + bonus point to the one with the ability who can dissolve the boiling anger in me.
I dont know how these precious people manage, but thank you for understanding me more that I understand my own quirks at time.


It's been a pleasure growing up together with these boys and girls in more than just age alone.
*thumbs chest with pride*

Okaybye!

Giving thanks.

Tried sleeping early tonight, and I wasn't contented with the way my bed feels.

Ended up changing bedsheets, packed up my insane stack of freshly laundered clothes and sorted them back into the exploding wardrobe. As I sort out my warzoned room, I thought to myself, that it's true that everyone in this world have worries of their own to bear. 

And yet one of my biggest daily problem, would be space. 

Specifically, space to store my clothes, shoes, bags, belts, accessories, make up. 

Tonight I am grateful that my problems seem so small and insignificant, compared to what some people might have to experience in different parts of the world. 

I give thanks that I have been blessed with many things that I take for granted. 

For every time that I complain about something, there is someone who has a bigger worry than mine. 

That somewhere in this world, there are people who worry about their

health, hunger, poverty, or having a roof over their heads. 

While I grumble about the lack of space, mess piling up high, and dirt, insect bites and dust mites. 

Thank you to the big guy up there who's taking care of me. 

Thank you, that I've been blessed with loving parents who raised me up comfortably and have given me so much in this life. Though there are times when I am an ingrate, despite for all the love that has been showered upon me. 

Which reminded me of this picture that I saw sometime during my birthday week. 

I cried like mad when I saw this cartoon picture. 

It goes along the line of "never complain about the quality of stuff/life that your parents have provided for you, for it could be all that they could give to you".

I cried because, what I didn't understand when I was ignorant and younger, I understand it now.

Thank you for the friends who shower me with love and kindness, even though sometimes I'm too stubborn at that moment to listen to your advise and be a good girl.

Thank you my guardian angels ( I believe that we all have little angels hovering about us like body guards to take care and guard over us) for guiding me to the right path whenever I stray.. And never leaving me, whenever I'm in trouble :)

Without every blessings that I've received to date, I do believe life would have been much harder to live by. 

Therefore thank you for everything. 

I truly appreciate them.

#haveyougiventhanks yet?

My muse

Just finished catching up with work from both ends.

It's amazing how I survive burning both ends of the candle sometimes.

Missed my magical sleeping hour and decided to scroll through my picture albums to calm my mind and turn off from work. 

Found some expressions from the little zoo that amused me much.

Here we have blackie *rolling his eyes away* giving me that "omg! Help me " gaze

And Trixie is usually the biggest photography victim!

*Maybe if I stare at my paw enough, the human will get the message...*

*looks up* 

Nope! 

*continues to stare at paws*

Whut is that scary creature that I see in the mirror?! 

Bambi: i hate Chu *death stares* 

The classic! 

Trixie: dear god, I asked for a normal human...and you gave me one who's lost her marbles...now I want a refund please.

The thing is, I can control my own expression, but the furry ones? Priceless!

the meows..

Clearing space in the iphone, and I realized that I've never uploaded this video of the boys taken last year during one of my trips to China.

China felt a little more like home, when I started staying at Daddy's place, instead of the hotel.
Home to me, is where there is animals to look forward to, to have pets greeting me when I step through the doors.
It's always been this way since I was young. :)

I hate how I sound, when I talk to animals.
Urgh...so please forgive my my icky voice in the video..




Exotic Shorthair are known for their very endearing characteristics. They love the company of human beings, and love love super love their owners to the max.
In the video, they respond to "Lai" (come here) because they're technically living in China, and dad talks to them in Chinese.
That aside, the only cat I did not call out to in the video, was Toots (she's chilling out by herself in background when I called out to Hachi..), and she hates to squeeze in with the boys (because Ben and Sam always bully her)... so we'll just let her be.

Oh! and Standing up to get a petting advantage is Sam's specialty. ;D
Exotic Shorthair cats have this crusty eye problem, and daddy's usually too lazy to clean up their eyes to make them look handsome. So we'll usually just live with crusty eyed cats mostly, a little dirt won't kill.

I miss the cats, and am looking forward to spending time with the Cats soon.
The only sad thing about this coming trip, is that I wont get to see my precious babykins (who are all sold away to their new homes), and the only updates I get is through the petshop lady who still get updates of them periodically from their respective owners.

Oh well, at least they're all living good lives. It's all that matters, despite my heartbreak.

Engrish engrish and growing into a tree

Alright! 

Did I mention that I was done with the pictures?

I was wrong.

I'm now stuck at part 2 editing again.

ZzzzZZz.

Everytime I thought I could take a break and watch my love from the star in my spare time...

Well it turns out to be a scam.

IF time is money.

I really feel stuck.

My time is important. Yet if I traded time, and paid clowns to do up stuff for me, I'll get shit.

I saw the template that my pictures goes to...and I nearly died.

the template has atrocious english.

At this rate im going, I'll never be able to delegate any visual work out to any "professional" in China.

From the way they fix my face and my limbs, to the layout. 

T.T 

Enough already!

So many Engrish.com moment that I don't even know how to start grumbling!

I took this blurry image off my phone app, and there's no way I can get a clearer version of this due to one reason or another.. 

                                                                  

It's kinda blur...

Let me blow up the mistakes here...

dum dee dum..

qualificalion will eb your fist choose.

Huh?

When clearly it should be Quality will be your first choice if god even allows this sort of sentence to be on a fashion spread.

Index Notice? 

I'm gonna turn a blind eye on that one because the sentence jumbles at the bottom is even more painful.

Like being knitted warm gentle protectionWith casual turtleneck pamper yourselfWith the edges of pavers out a wanton.

Dafaq much?!!?

My blood pressure went sky high when I spotted it. 

Nothing makes sense, and the spacings between each words got discounted away.

Ahhh itemS size!

What exactly is that?

ok and the jibberish below is so awesome again.

I dealt with this shit, the last time I edited the catalog.
All the words I wrote out, buggers discounted my spacesbetweenthe
words
                       like this.           Rearranged my spacing
and now again.
       
Those Chinese should just STOP using english as if it's damn happening and fashionable to be have a print page laced with bad english.
It's super loser.

Luckily for them that I'm in Singapore, and that I discovered this error in the middle of Sunday morning. Otherwise I'll have this very big urge to yell at somebody.

I know it's nobody's fault.
The people do not know the language, and therefore they would not be able to know where to add spaces and additional S in items and all.
But im not even attempting to blog in Chinese.
Why are they attempting to add bad english into commercial stuff?!

ARghhhhhh!!!!

Aside from that crazy rant, I need to share a secret.

Do you know that this entire entire entire collection of pictures that I've loaded up lately (that is linked to the collection)  was taken solely with the iphone 4S?

It's pretty decent for a phone right?

It was a huge gamble that I took. 

You must wonder why so budget?

Sometimes, its not all about the budget, but rather the degree of control that you have, that makes the difference.

In my case, I might not be the most professional model. or photographer. or photoshop specialist. or layout specialist. nor editor.

But i'm sick and tired of being controlled like a puppet, just because I'm a foreigner without resources.

With limited time from my trip, and no proper camera, the only thing I had with me in my suitcase, was my phone.

I thought to myself... Let's push the phone camera to new limits.

If nokia lumia could produce a short movie, I do not see why an Iphone could not produce a small collection of fashion show case.

I also had the ease of cutting the photoshoot from a 1 day rushed affair (with at least 3 pairs of eyes staring/assisting me in changing outfits as I strip down to my knickers + 5 pairs of eyes watching me pose for photoshoots),  into 3 (half day shoots).

I had the luxury of changing in my own changing room in the office, at my own speed, and pose comfortably with just my assistant  (Well I did say that I'm quite an introvert right..)

So why not?

I've taken a new approach, and it's a "let's do it my way" sort of game that i'm playing with my assistant and dad lately.

I do not care if people take pictures professionally, or do layouts professionally.

They aren't doing things my way.

I mean, if they made it look super super good and magical, that's fine. 

But that's not quite the case, for the exorbitant price that they charge for professional fees.

Saying this, I do feel like a control freak.

I might eventually be a little tired of being in control, but this, is not going to last forever.
When I set my expectations right, things would flow and follow along.

Perhaps you could also say that I've grown up a little more since.
It's a change within that I've not spoken about to any one in particular.

However, I'm tired of being a little flower, that sways along with the wind and gleam in the sunshine.
The one with vibrant colors that catches the eyes, only to be plucked at the whims and fancies of others.
Nope.

It's time that I become a big tree.
The one with the deep roots that can withstand rainstorms and heavy winds.
The one that provides people with shelter from my branches of flourishing leaves.

Goodbye little flower.
and it's really rather apt that I received a book on Empress Dowager Ci'Xi from the mail.
All the way from Sweden.
Thank you Olle!

Yes I want to be a spectacular and remarkable person when I leave this earth.
This is my journey, and it will take some time to grow into a big tree.
Nobody said it was easy, but I'm always lucky to be surrounded by very positive and encouraging people, even when I say nothing at all.
:)
For that I'm thankful that the right people are always sent my way like angels.

Oh hello!

Of the 23082982931092- pictures that I've edited over the span of ... weeks.

I'm most taken to this picture of my...nostrils. 

Hahaha.

It's like. I wonder if the camera can detect what's inside my nose.
Anyway so happy to be moving on to the next set of collection.
and also
happy to be done with...
ringworms. I caught them from godknowswhere I swear!
It started with a mosquito bite and it evolved into a ringworm in a couple of days.
I now know who really loves me even if i'm "dirty".
I'm gonna tell santa who's been nice to me!
Now i'm just waiting for the worm "bites" to fade away.
Consciously alternating between the bio oil that the mother swears by, and the anti fungal cream from the fridge.
I'm super thankful that the ringworm stopped at 2.
Khamsahamida!

slipped off the stairs in slippers. Well done.
I earned myself a sore bum, and a juicy bruise on the elbows when I broke my fall.
How it happened?
Claud thinks I might have been too happy and bounced off the stairs, while I think it's all slipper's fault.

Kicked into the cupboard. Newly acquired bruise on the knee.
I shifted the rackety old cupboard and have to wait for muscle men to remove them from my house.
In the meantime, I forgot they exist, and walked right into it, in the dark!
I'm Bruise Lee after all! :D

Fever! It's like a 3 day fever fest. Everything hurt. from the bones to the scalp. I didn't even want to comb my hair. The detangling tugging hurt me so much, I gave up and went on with life with messy hair.
I also couldnt locate the thermometer, so I never quite knew how much damage I was into, only that I transit between chilly cold (I sit around in my PU jacket meant for 15-20 degree in this crazy hot weather, shivering), to being a super baking HOT girl! *flips hair*
Gosh!

Now that i'm done mumbling about the terrible stuff...
There's the good stuff as well to balance it out.
Like how Claud covered work for me, while I was ill. Super love her for being kind to me.
Or how when it rains, and being stranded umbrella-less + sick, Someone sells you the idea of walking through the rain in a cupboard box, and giggle your way through it because it's super funny.
Raise your hands if you've tried walking in a box like you're doing lion dance!
I enjoyed myself! Love again!
Oh! and my new toy! The sony Alpha 5000 :D
in pink! That's love as well!
Ben heard that I was sick and offered to send congee from crystal jade over, since he was at Wala. *touched*
and getting concerned messages from friends, because I sounded emo in my previous post.
super touched as well!
and I had the best sick person food over the weekend.
I asked for steamboat at home...because i'm really a very soupy person by nature, and we had my favourite pork collar with sesame sauce for dips!
and the charcoal congee at Tiong Bahru for lunch today.
All super love!
and I've been told that I'm gonna get a package from a friend in Sweden earlier today..
---

It's like, getting bad stuff in exchange for lots of good stuff.
What more can I complain about?

Besides, I dont need many friends, because I'm blessed with friends who matter, friends who cares.
Quality over Quantity
That's more important to me.

#Blessed&Grateful
#RainbowsAfteraStorm

Year of the horse

With the lunar new year celebrations,

What have you been up to? 

My last few days of the snake year ended up mostly with the packing up of the house and room. 

Trixie (as usual) was nosing around and I decided to dress her up with little bits of treasures that I dug up while packing. 

Meet Lady Trixie! 

Long hair, Victorian pearl necklace and all!
She looks odd. Too much hair or something.

I couldn't wait to wear my stash of new clothes, and working very hard to resist wearing them earlier.

I figured that since the eve of the New year, is somewhat new yearish already......
I took out my panda tee that I bought from my recent trip at the River Safari. 

It's a kids sized tee,  Just because the designs of the adult tee looks yucky.

(and that I'm still capable of squeezing in to a 10-12 year old's garment, while I still can!)

Wore panda tee out on the for some last minute shopping run in town, then it was our annual family dinner that I look forward to.
Goodies, fresh seafood, and other yummies.
It's not that I dont get to eat them other days of the year, but the daddy rarely sits through dinner, and its really a time when the entire family sits together to have a proper meal.
Right, I'll feel sad if its the entire family and we're eating boring food actually.
So all requirements have to meet before the meal can be considered a good one.
:)

I started my new year pretty well. 

For starters, I finished my face goob and had to open up new bottles on the first day of the horse year!
I had the hardest time finishing that 125ml of Biotherm that I bought at the airport.
How can you resist traveller's pricing? $80 for $125ml.
I couldn't.

Cheapo Aunty instincts showing up.
My mom trained me well.
Haha.

A 50ml moisturiser usually takes me approximately 6 months to finish...
125ml is a test of my tenacity to finish up my products. I got quite bored. and tried to use it up everywhere, and use more!
So it was definitely a Yay! When I could start back on my Lancome again.

And the eyeliner as well. 

I was lining my eyes and it was out of ink! 

I had grey lines instead of black. 

Haha
I'm a control freak/hoarder. I rarely run out of essentials if things were done my way.
I never like to be in situations where I do not have a choice.
Therefore, Im not a light traveller. Everything also must bring!

The fams heading out for our first round of visiting! 

My little furry lady bug for the day. I bought her this outfit when I went to Hongkong.
Cute eh!

Trixie terrorising people in the house. 

Oh she enjoys terrorising people, especially if there's food!

I think she was sniffing after my dad.

The well behaved dogs, compared to my little terror. My uncle's dogs would hide under the dining table to hide away from Trixie.

They're kinda afraid of her actually or something I'm not sure.. 

So the boys sought the protection of their owner (my uncle)!

My little furry bug in her outfit, taken at home!
That's my mom's fruit auspicious basket. There's pomelo. Mandarin oranges, pineapples and my favourite rice cakes.

The decoration was left entirely up to me, and I stuck sticker all over her fruits and pineapple leaves. Leave nothing undecorated!

Surprisingly, the naughty little girl didnt do anything to that basket of fruits. (yet!)

We ended our visits really early this year, as the brother needed to report back to camp every night. 

Poor thing. My aunt packed a few jars of new year goodies for him to bring back to camp to savour. 

But it was good for me in a way.


I was exhausted! Meeting my bed early was a glorious reward!
I'm like an iphone. I need to recharge very frequently if I have too many things going on with.
Being in crowded places exhaust me rather easily.
I'm not sure why either.

I took a screenshot of the video that my cousin took for me when we were at our grand aunt's place.

I like this moment best because it captured the special bond between Trixie and I. 

See our mutual joy?

It's like her looking up at me telling me : Human, did you see what I did there?

Did you? Did you? Are you happy now?

and when I affirmed and praised her back...

It was our magical moment where we were both happy glad. 

You can see it!

It's her third cny with my family, and I'm super glad and grateful that Trixie was sent my way like magic. 

Day two. 

Everyone was uber lazy. We woke up late and left home in the evening for 2 house visits only.
Look of the day..

In the car on our way to visit my nanny.

At her place, I spotted my old old piano toy that used to be mine over at her place. 

It's like a happy joy to know that she still keeps it in her house, and I loved it so much when I was younger.
Actually I had 2 of them.
One with her, and one with me.
My mom chucked the one I had at home years back.... 

so its nostalgic to me.

She says she'll give it to me when  married. 

Gosh. It's gonna be a long wait for her.
Haha

Headed over to my uncle's for dinner and I went home to rest my full tummy after dinner. 

Nothing beats collapsing in bed after a satisfying meal.
#foodcoma

Third day, I visited the River Hong bao, and by the time I made it there, the lights were off. 

Gah! 

So we went off to catch a movie instead! 

We watched Robocop. 

It's not bad really, only that I hurt my foot while getting myself a drink at the convenience store!
I notice that on the years that I get freaky little bleeding accidents like this, it usually turns out to be a good year.
It's like a blood sacrificial to pay my way into a good year or something.
*recalls the freaky bleeding eyebrows incident in 2011*

It's a really deep scratch that the refrigerator door made on my heel. 

3 hours later, it was still bleeding.

I walked funny after, as I couldnt stretch the wrinkly bits that dried up eventually.

Going down the stairs was a little challenging.

I had to do a little springy hop down the stairs like a kid so that the heels didnt need to be stretched.

It's been a week, and the scab is still stuck on my feet.

It's starting to itch alot, and I tried prying it away to stop the itching.

Turns out, that my heel isnt quite ready yet, and now i've got myself a new and thinner scab covering that poor spot.

That's about all, and here's some other random pictures to share.

During my bout of spring cleaning and reorganizing my accessory wardrobe, I found my vintage Hermes hook necklace.

Been wearing it quite a lot lately.

Some of my red packets that I received!
When you plonk all the red packets together, they look kinda pretty.

My favourite red packet designs...

On the fifth day of the Chinese new year, I also attended baby mikaela's baby shower!

Though I was much attracted to Chocolate the dog and mostly forgot that I was there for a baby shower, instead of a dog party. 

She's got to be the cutest shi tzu mix Maltese mix dunno what that I've ever met. 

I'm usually not a fan of shitzus but this one's really really adorable and pretty!

She hates to be touched by strangers. 

OCD much?

But to be fair, her fur coat is sparkly white and extremely well brushed.
Trixie in comparison is very black and she hates to be brushed. So she looks like one of those wild dogs that emerged out from the forest.
I always joked that Trix looks like an abandoned dog that's never been showered or brushed.
It is especially so, whenever I take long trips away from Singapore.
No one at home actually thinks that its important for their pet dog to look like their pet is ever ready to gloss the covers of a pet magazine.
Sigh.

I digress too much... back to Chocolate..
I snuck a shot of Chocolate while Claud pretended to offer a piece of food to Chocolate to get a shot.

Sleeping beauty!

This is my sleeping furry, and she's very good at being comfortable. 

She props her feet up whenever she sleeps!

and whenever the opportunity presents itself, she makes herself comfortable, with my stash of clothes as her mattress.

Tsk!

My dress one of those night out to party..
You dont want to know how scandalous the front looks like..

Buying new shoes...

Need to remember how the shoes looked on me, to help me decide better!
I needed a pair of black shoes to replace my Aldo ones that is dyingfrom too many trips to China.

I wasn't sure sure about this pair...
and the quickest way to decide was to leave it to chance!
I walked away from the last pair of size 37 in the store and went home.

If it's there the next day, I'd get it, and if it isn't then, viola! Decision made!
I hate to be pressured into buying anything.
#ChillPillDaphne

Anyway, it was there the next day, and here!
I present to you my newest addition to my extensive shoe family!

Usually when i'm overly stuffed. I'd fancy light, soupy stuff for supper.

I made Kim chi soup one of those days, and I did a bad job out of it. 

It looked decent, but tasted normal. 

Not enough Kim chi, because I was out of Kim chi!!!

It was just red chicken soup. 

Aha!

Supper the next night turned out way better!

I had Instant Fish soup noodles from Prima Taste with those soft Japanese boiled eggs that I always fancy.

I like it!

This supper tasted waaay better, because it was lovingly cooked and prepared for me!

Yay!

I just sat there and waited for my chef to serve them to me! *loves*

Proof that I have personal chef!

And on the 8th day of the lunar new year, my nephew is finally out! 

I'm officially Aunty to 4 kids. 

Tsk!

This is how Aunty Daphne looks like.

And if I could keep a pet pig, this is how my pig would look like and I'd feed her ice cream everyday! 

Ok I'm done 

Ending this post with Trixie wishing all a Happy Chinese New Year via video!

Post by Michelle Ow.