Easter break

It's the holidays again, this time with three essays and two pieces (one not more than 6 mins and one 8-12 mins long). And this time I'll be good. No more one-day-late essay that got demoted two grades down just because they took away 5 marks for the lateness! No way.

On top of the essays and assignments, I'll also be preparing for a written paper and two recitals. And an extra recital that's not graded for me, but I'm just playing as part of somebody's ensemble. Of course I'll have to make sure I play properly and not be the cause of her getting a grade lower than she deserves. I might accompany her for her recital too, if she remembers to leave me the scores before she goes home for the holidays.

Guess I don't have it as bad as people who have to spend their holiday preparing for about 3-5 papers. But it also depends on how you see the situation, I think? Anyway, I'm quite pleased that at least not all the deadlines are on the first day of term.

Had a good break yesterday, though. OM came down to visit us and he gave very constructive comments when I played some of my recital stuff for him. He's a great help. Then we (OM, II, GH and I) went yum cha-ing for lunch. It wasn't too expensive in the end since we could split the bill between the four of us. A pleasant change from normal chinese meals that would end up costing about the same.

I had a day-off as well. I just love not having a nagging feeling at the back of my head that's making sure I remember I have to get to work by 5.30. Went for a movie with HN at night and we had a great time laughing at the silliness of mr bean. Just felt he was so stupid to be running away from authorities when he could have asked them for help. But he was real hilarious and sort of cute in a way while he was in the car with the French actress. I guess that's what bean is, his silliness is what makes everyone laugh. However I kept feeling he is evil, because of some of the things he did. Of course, at the end of the day he's the mr-good-guy who managed to return the stranded boy to his father (which is in no small part due to luck).

Well, going to start mugging and working hard from today! Although at the back of my head I think I will watch 300, with HN again. Of course I won't say no when he's such a fantastic person to catch movies with.

Two-hour haircut

Had my haircut today. Finally, after telling NH I wanted to cut my hair since before the Christmas holidays... but since his friend went back home during the hols, I didn't get to cut.

Before I could get my haircut, I had to sit through XG's; I had to follow him to the place because I didn't know where it was. Average cutting time for each person (most of his customers are guys) is an hour, but for me it took two. He said he hadn't cut for a girl for some time already, but his cutting seemed alright to me.

Other than taking so long (which I had also experienced from a salon owner when I went back to Singapore during the summer holidays!), we managed to understand each other quite well when discussing what I want my hair to be like. We spoke in a mixture of Chinese, Cantonese and English... lol this is so weird. When at first we conversed in Chinese, I kept lapsing into English for some unknown reason, and out of the blue he spoke Cantonese to me (because that's what he was speaking to the person before XG). After apologising though, I said I could speak Cantonese as well, so we started to communicate in that, although sometimes it was better to describe some things in more than one language :P

The hair turned out to be acceptable, except that maybe because he's not so experienced, some places are too straight for my liking. But they'll grow soon, I suppose. When I got home I had a big shock looking in the mirror because it looked much shorter than in his mirror! I dunno why... but anyway, I think it's ok. I just hope it's not going to be too messy when I wake up tomorrow morning... the day after haircuts is always panic day.













That's how the hair looked after I took a shower. Not as messy as when I first came home, because he blew dry the hair, and I mean really so dry that there were lots of frizziness. Bleargh, I'm totally against hair dryers. I think they only spoil your hair.

First time is FREE! :D

More updates

Still busy with work and uni, although it was slightly better this week in that once the presentation on Monday was over, I felt more relaxed. And fortunately he didn't set us another presentation for next Monday! That would be killer... presentations on both the second and third lessons for a module, I'll just die.

Still haven't started on my final piece for one of the modules. It doesn't help that instead of the usual weekly lectures we had last term, we'll have fortnightly individual tutorials this term; the less frequent lessons are for a module, the less motivated I am to start doing work. Guess I'll have to do the usual and rush through this weekend to produce something decent for next week's tutorial. A leopard never changes its spots. Sigh.

On Wednesday evening I told the boss that by mid-March I'll stop working on Wednesdays. Beforehand I really wanted to say mid-February, but I guess that's a bit of a short notice. I do love the extra amount I earn for working Wednesdays, but I think working four evenings per week is beginning to take a toll on me. Need time, big time! I've also calculated that at present two weeks' wages covers the rent, the next two weeks' goes into bills and other expenses, the remaining money is saved up for next year's tuition fees. Without working Wednesdays, I'll probably use about two and a half weeks' wages for rent, then stretch the expenses a little in order to manage paying the bills without having to deduct from the savings. Think it'll still work. I've already stopped being lazy by packing my own sandwiches for lunch everyday, instead of buying really expensive sandwiches at an average of £2! Yes, I know, I shouldn't be converting currencies and all that, but I can't help it! If it helps, I do convert my wages from time to time too... hehe.

Today, a loud and persistant doorbell-ring at 9am got me jumping out of bed and running down the stairs. Because I knew my precious baby was going to be delivered today. Woohoo, I have my own euphonium at last! Over the last few weeks I had been viewing lots of second-hand euphoniums online, deliberating whether to bid for them (most are on e-bay), then deciding not to. Also calculated and re-calculated how my spending on an euphonium would affect my finances. Finally, last week I saw a Buy-it-now! euphonium on e-bay for £700 and after staring at the page for over an hour, decided to buy it. That's just about how much I earned for working in the cafe during the Christmas holidays. Right now I'm still unsure if this wasn't a good decision; what if this £700 could be like a miracle if I ran out of money later? But there's no way to tell, I'll just have to hope that's never going to happen.

Anyway, more about my baby. It isn't my Besson Sovereign model dream baby, but a second-hand Boosey & Hawkes Imperial model for this price is good enough for me. It was supposed to be delivered on Tuesday, but because stupid me forgot that I had only changed my address in paypal and not in e-bay. So the instrument got sent to my university accommodation last year. By some stroke of luck, either nobody was in or they kindly directed the parcel deliverer to the main reception, where someone rejected the parcel because they couldn't find my name in their records. And by the time I realised about my address in e-bay, this was all already in progress. By the time I called the local depot the next morning, the parcel was already back in the seller's local depot. Fortunately she managed to get them to hold it and then send it back to me, this time to the right address. Very contented now :)

I wish there were more than 24 hours a day...

Arghhhh. Wanted to wake up really early yesterday and today, about around 6am so that I can get to uni by 7-7.30 to practise. But was dead tired after a very busy night in the restaurant on Friday, so I only woke up at 10am yesterday. Didn't even hear my alarm clock. Hate the feeling of frustration when I realise how late it is and how many hours I've wasted. So I rushed to school and managed to squeeze in about 4.5 hours of practising before having to come home and go to work.

Also asked the boss if I could just set up the restaurant and then leave at opening time, since the other waitress would be working. Was really evil to do this, but at that point I couldn't really be bothered anymore because I've now ended up working every Wednesday for her although when we first agreed on that it was meant to be temporary. I needed the time too; hadn't had time to move my stuff into my room over the week (the whole table was cluttered with stuff that belong to various housemates... they seemed to have likened the empty table to a store room).

So last night I finally piled all the things somewhere on the floor and set up my laptop, hard disk, speakers etc. Finally! A table to do my work on! Later today I'll try to bring the books up from the kitchen too.

Right now I've just finished webcam-ing with the parents and I've got to take a quick shower before I rush to uni to practise. NH's friend is going to cut my hair for me in the afternoon. They say he cuts alright, just that he can sometimes take up to two hours per person, so my whole afternoon is likely to be burnt. Sigh. Things I do to save a bit of money... haha maybe I should reconsider going for a haircut in one of the many salons for £14.99?

Back from the dead

Wow... been really busy for the past two weeks. It was really bad, particularly because AL couldn't work in the cafe so I had to do that, take a 3-hour break while HN sets up the restaurant for me, and then work in the restaurant. It really took away whatever time I figured I would have to complete my essays.

At the same time, people came to tear down the plaster in my room and re-plaster and paint, so I had to move my stuff to the kitchen and NH's room. And sleep in a sleeping bag in his room as well, but I didn't get to sleep for 4 days because I was basically going to work, coming home after 11pm and then camping in the kitchen with my laptop until it was time to go to work again the next morning. That, and yet I still couldn't finish one of the three essays by the deadline. I had to give that up and hand it in a day late... was really disappointed in myself. Not so much for not being able to finish, but for procrastinating and leaving the work till so late.

Now my room is finally done, and I can move back, but the wardrobe is still mouldy, so I still can't put clothes in it. Going to just move my laptop and stuff back later, and put the bedsheets on so I can finally sleep in my own room tonight! But I'm going to miss sleeping in the very warm and comfy sleeping bag, although I won't miss the backache from sleeping on the floor.

I could have moved back sooner, but I was busy with the first week of school and for the last three days or so NH took over my room to finish his assignment (his room's in a complete mess now with my stuff cluttering it). But he's finally handed it in today, and I will gradually move out of his room (except my luggage with all the clothes piled on it).

The recital at which I accompanied two singers went really well. There was a last-minute change of piece at the end of last term by one of the singers, which I didn't have the time to practise during the holidays... and when school started, I had a day to practise it before rehearsing it with her the day before the recital. It was really nerve-racking, but I'm glad I managed it. And didn't break down, just had some minor mistakes... which the professional accompanist also had when he played for the singer who abandoned me. So, just goes to show... I'm not that bad afterall! (Saving my own face here la.) Both singers were really sweet and they bought me chocolates; the nicer one of the two bought a really box of chocolate and a really pretty card.

I can finally breathe again this week (or at least for now, I just hope the rest of the week will be ok). Tonight all of the housemates got together and we made assam fish head curry, roti john and roti prata for dinner. It was fantastic, except that the curry wasn't spicy at all (the Germans can't take spicy stuff). Tomorrow after I finish at 7pm I'm going to watch a movie with HN (whee!... but, a week after he asked me, he also asked a fellow colleague and her husband along...). Should be fun. I realised he's a really great friend to hang out with and we never run out of things to chat about, so that's good. Think status quo is great too, things can turn sour sometimes once you cross the line.

Anyway, yep, going to relax a bit before all the studying and working takes it out of me again once term gets into full swing.

Slacking and pigging out

NH just called to say his plane has touched down in UK and he'll reach home by about 3am. Back to my smelly mouldy room then... *sob*

Despite promising myself to finish at least the assignment this week, I'm really ashamed to announce that I haven't done much over the past few days. The only thing I was hardworking about was practising, which is good in a way... but once I get home I have the tendency to slack. I'd much rather browse blogs, watch the movies I have on the external hard disk over and over again, do anything but work. Sigh.

I did try very hard last night, but after listening to what I've already written, I will just be sian ji pua and not only don't feel like doing work, but also feel like deleting everything I'd written! And after listening to it over and over again in an attempt to maybe hope a bulb will light up somewhere... I was ready to give it up. So I moved on to watching a video of the opera which I've chosen to do for one of the essays. Fortunately I managed to find its score in the central library, otherwise I really wouldn't have been able to do anything except watch it.

I hate essays and assignments!!!! I'd much rather have more practical stuff even though I'm scared to death of them, and can really screw up. But since I don't ever get tired of practising, and at least it's just... go up there, do your stuff, and it's over. Much better than doing essays when you have to mull over it, do lots of research and reading, and finally force yourself to stare at the computer for days on end. (Ok, I know watching movies is also staring at the computer.) Just to come up with rubbish that many people have already written about. I do like reading and learning all the academical things, just not plaigarising summarising paraphrasing trying to express the same opinion as others have done in their books. Give me practical stuff any day.

It's also not helping much that I have a very guilty conscience because I suddenly got a monstrous appetite. Think it's because of the sudden jump to colder-than-before temperatures. But that's no excuse! I don't wanna become as fat as I became at the end of last year again! Look what I had for dinner for the past three days:










Thursday: devoured half a duck by myself (was really craving for Peking duck for unknown crazy reasons so I bought it at Aldi, sold frozen, together with the wrapper thingy and sauce). As if this was not enough, I munched on a whole packet of popcorn that was about probably medium-sized as sold in cinemas. Oh the horrors!










Friday: had lamb shank in rosemary and mint sauce (also bought frozen from Aldi). Then I moved on to peanut glutinous rice balls in water with brown sugar (what a great comfort to eat this and listen to the wind howling!) Also ate three small packets of Cheese Curls (light potato and maize snack that's cheese flavoured, very addictive) after that.










Today: ate two pieces of southern fried chicken (again, bought frozen from Aldi), with a mountain of fries drizzled with melted cheese. No picture, because I wolfed down the whole thing before I remembered that I should capture a picture to remind me of all the fats I've just consumed. And then peanut glutinous rice balls again (bought frozen from a shop in china town, same brand as the one in Singapore!), this time in soya milk.

Oh, the sinful convenience of frozen food. Buy it, keep it for as long as you want, and when you're craving for it, take it out, bang it in the oven, and half an hour later it's ready. No fuss. But also unhealthy.

I think it's just a once-in-a-long-time thing, cos right now I'm feeling too sick of such rich food and am ready to eat like I normally do once again. Just hope it will last for some time before I start craving for something more fattening. And then, I will attack the pizzas still lying in the freezer *cackles*.

Boxing Day sales

Went to the city centre for Boxing Day sales! Was pleasantly surprised by a late-night sms from HN yesterday asking if I wanted to join him and his housemates. It's good I did, or I might have been quite put off by the crowds if I went alone. Shopping alone usually means that I walk into stores that are not too crowded, and run home as fast as I can right after I've bought whatever I wanted to buy.

And because his housemates have the Singaporean kiasu spirit (they're Malaysians), I was supposed to meet HN at 8.20am at their student accommodation. Was there only five minutes early but the girls were all not ready so I could have taken my time to walk there! We shared a cab since the trains are not running on Boxing Day.

It's quite amusing to note that the majority of early-arrivers were not British. But eventually, there was quite a crowd of British people waiting in front of River Island, even though other stores were already open. Can see that River Island is very popular here.

Got a pair of jeans from the first shop we went to, Gap, for £19.99:










That was before the large crowd in front of River Island formed. We also went to Zara, Miss Selfridges and Topshop, but I didn't buy things from there. Either not the kind of clothes I would normally wear, or really nice jeans at really nice non-discounted prices. T_T Ok lar, to be fair, there were many nice tops I could have gone crazy over, but... I dunno, just thought I'd rather not go through the hassle of trying and then in the end decide not to buy, or only buy one.

Because the girls took so long in Topshop, HN and I decided to go to River Island, which was just next door. And was probably one of the most crowded shops (didn't step into Monsoon though, and I saw quite a lot of people in there). Found a pair of shoes I liked, but also found out that the queue was hell of a long one snaking through the store. Queued for half an hour. Just to get a pair of simple-looking shoes. That wasn't exactly cheap either. Haha but better than HN by a bit, he did the same in the men's department, except that his pair of shoes costs twice of mine.

Shoes from River Island, for £24.99:










Found out when I got home that the shoes are too big! *Horrors* Before I saw this pair, I tried on another pair, and so stupidly thought that the size should be the same and decided to buy this one without trying it first. Oh well, at least the receipt says I can return it for refund or exchange, just not within 26-28 December. Hopefully they will still have my size after 28th... if not, then ok lor, refund. Not like I would wear such shoes in UK much (too pretty to spoil by walking on such muddy roads). Just that it would be nice for once to have a pair of black shoes to wear for concerts that does not also bleed my heels to death. Also, important to have comfy black shoes for my own performance assessment!

After River Island, HN and I were basically very much done with shopping. Went to Body Shop to meet up with the girls and everyone bought stuff together in order to use HN's card. And then we split up, since the girls were still not done shopping. HN and I had a good break, and a filling one too... Krispy Kremes! Getting bored of sitting and chatting, we decided to browse around again, and on our last stop at Music Junction, we got some really good steals of two-CD sets for £2.97 each. Since we couldn't decide which sets to get, we finally settled on four and each got two, and we can exchange them later.

Although I've known this for as long as I dunno, many years?, one little incident really reiterated it in my mind: HN was complaining that owning too many pairs of shoes is troublesome cos he has to decide which pair to wear everyday, and then he said he usually makes his decisions based on what he's wearing.
Me: Haha that's such a girly thing to do.
HN: Ya, I know! Maybe that's why I don't have a girlfriend.
Me: Oh, so it's the opposite for me? I don't have enough handbags and shoes so I don't have a boyfriend. (All of us were chatting while waiting for the shops to open, and it seems I have even lesser pairs of shoes than HN.)
HN: Ya! You don't even have ear holes! What happens if your boyfriend buys ear rings?
Me: ... I dunno... ???? Consider piercing? (Which boyfriend would buy ear rings when he knows the girl doesn't have ear holes?! Or maybe they would, I dunno?)
HN: Clip-ons... (haha previously when he found out I didn't have ear holes we were joking about how the mention of clip-ons just brings to mind 'old-fashioned')

Ya lar, ya lar, so I'm not very girly... nothing wrong lor. Not that I don't like to look nice, just that I prefer the not-too-dressed-up kind of nice mah. And my mother didn't bring me to pierce my ears when I was a kid, so I grew up without having the urge to wear pretty ear rings nor pierce my ears. Heck, I don't even bother wearing any accessories apart from the once-in-a-very-blue-moon necklaces. And I'm a sucker for jeans, but girls don't have to wear dresses to look nice ok. Also, one nice pair of shoes can be worn many times, so what's the point of buying so many pairs? Haiyah... but ya I know, I'm not a girly girl.

Living out of a suitcase

Sort of. The mould in my room has been back for quite some time and it's beginning to spread in a disgusting pattern on the wall. The landlord said he'll arrange for someone to dismantle the whole wall, clean and dry the plaster, before putting it back again. Not sure how that's done.

So since NH is having a romantic Christmas with his girlfriend in Phillipines, he has kindly offered me boarding space in his room. Which is so much bigger than mine but is also very messy, and with both his and my indoor clothes airers taking up quite a lot of space. And I can't use his cupboard so the only thing I can do is pile up the stuff in my suitcase. And some on one of the airers. (The other one is for drying clothes.)

I'm turning his room into some sort of laundromat as well, because when I moved my clothes out of my cupboard, I was unpleasantly surprised by mould growing in the innermost, darkest corner. It was nauseating... and even more horrific to find out that some of my clothes were contaminated with mould too. I just stood there staring at the clothes, not knowing what to do with them. Some I could throw since I've never even worn them this year, but others... well, I think I will wear them, just not so often. So lots of clothes went into the washing machine (with a generous dosage of washing powder!), and thankfully NH's room is big enough to accomodate two airers. Mine is too small and once I open up my airer, I just have about enough floor space for three persons to stand still doing nothing. And that's after they squeeze into the room so that the door can be closed.

But despite the hassle of having to move my stuff (don't get me started on moving, I hope I'm not going to find new housemates or a new house next year), I'm enjoying NH's room. Because when YR moved out, our previous internet line went with him so NH had to sign for a new line. Which, thanks to the way internet companies work here, was only activated (modem delivered on the same day) after NH left for Phillipines. And somehow we couldn't configure the router which YR is lending us until NH buys a new one on his trip back here via Singapore, not even when we asked two other computer science students to come over and try. Apparently it's different from what they do in Singapore.

Which all boils down to one thing: I can use the modem in NH's room!

It's worth it to live out of a suitcase just for the sake of having internet connection. And a nice comfy bed on which I can sleep right next to the wall, toss and turn, without having that subconscious knowledge that I'm sleeping next to mould. Yea, I did move the bed away from the wall but there's only that much I can move it due to space constraint. And I've been sleeping as far out and as close to the edge of the bed as possible... for the past few months. It's become a habit. I've never actually touched the mouldy wall and neither has my duvet moved in that direction.

I just hope the person fixes the room soon, before NH comes back on 29 December, then how? I don't want to sleep sofa leh...

Random musings

It's so ironic that I'm having a social life again because of work. Although I now have less time to spend with friends, I've also found a new bunch of friends at work to go out with. I guess that's the good thing about working with other students.

Last night four of us had planned to go to the movies, but HD didn't turn up in the end. We still had a blast though, because AN and HN are such fun people to hang out with.

This afternoon three of us planned to go jalan jalan in the city centre where the christmas market is going on. But AL didn't reply my SMS-es nor did she pick up my calls so only HN and I ended up going instead. Haha just what I've been dreaming of, spending time with him. But I've already convinced myself that we are just friends and I shouldn't be expecting anything more than that. So I had a great time without feeling awkward or trying too hard to be nice.

However, lurking in the back of my head there's still a list keeping track of all the nice things he's done. Like when we're clearing up after work and he helps set up the cafe (my job) while the rest, including me, are doing the dishes. He insists that he hates doing the dishes, which might be a reasonable explanation. And buying the coffee yesterday, paying for part of my movie ticket (by giving me more change), treating me to food at the market today, paying for my little souvenir together with his (and then declining when I said I didn't have small change to pay him back). Little things that can be explained away with other reasons.

Or one night just before opening time when AL said it might be busy because she'd seen people peering in while we were setting up. And HN said the people might have been looking at the pretty girls inside. Which everyone laughed off, including me. But at the same time I also wondered if that was his way to casually drop me a compliment. I'm pretty sure if it was meant to be a compliment it wouldn't be for AL, not being mean or anything but she's about twelve years older than us. And yet it could just have been one of the many jokes we crack during work :/

That's the bad thing... one part just wants to daydream and imagine all sorts of possibilities, yet the sensible part is triggering alarms and telling me it's going to be a stupid infatuation so I should stop daydreaming! Argh. I hate being female. Or, maybe, I just hate the daydreaming part of me that makes everything so rosy...

I gotta go. Need to repeat 'We are just friends' to myself hundred times.

How do I freeze time?

Had lots of fun with two of the chefs, AN and HN, tonight. We went for a movie and then dinner.

Life is such a funny thing sometimes. While I'm now enjoying great friendships with both, my first impressions of them were rather negative. I thought AN was the sort who was 'I'm too cool for anyone', but by half of the first evening I worked in the restaurant, I already saw the real AN, who is cool in his own way. Not the 'act cool' kind of cool, but he really makes people like him because he is so honest, frank, sarcastic, funny, but at the same time never hurts anyone he's joking about. That's one person I wouldn't mind (and so far I haven't minded) making fun of me, because I will end up laughing with everyone about it. HN struck me as a dao kia at first. He seemed a little too serious and bossy the first time I worked with him. Only when the restaurant was closed and we were doing the dishes did he start being really friendly and joke-y.

And oddly enough, thinking about the friends I've now gained from working in the restaurant makes me feel so bittersweet. When I'm with them and thinking about all the fun times we've had so far, I just can't help smiling and laughing. But in the end I know we're still going to drift apart once we graduate, mainly because we all come from different countries, which makes me hurt so much. Sometimes I really wish time could freeze and I could remain here forever. It's the same about the Singaporean friends I've made here, whom I've never known in Singapore but have become close to here. Ultimately we're still all going to be doing our own things, living our own lives, with nothing to hold us together except the shared memories of our uni days. It's really sad.

I know, people come and people go, but we can still treasure the footprints they left, right? But I'm really selfish. If there was one thing I could change about the way the world works, I would change it so that friends can stay together always.

Some ways to (slightly) lower living costs

1. Switch the heater to timer mode
Only use heating from 5pm to 12 midnight and 5am to 9am. This saves a lot of spending on gas. This actually started out in my head as a rant about how cold my house is, but I know it's also saving me quite a lot.

2. Walk
Walk to anywhere manageable (e.g. average maximum distance of an hour on foot). I used to do this all the time last year, but being rather short of time this year, I'd rather pay to take the train and save some of my precious time.

3. Buy groceries from 'cheap places'
Some places have lower prices, especially if buying in bulk. And if it's too far to carry too heavy a load home, over here we have the 'family saver' thing for bus fares where three to five people can get together and pay less for their bus fares.

4. Only buy snacks when needed
I only buy snacks when I feel like snacking, as opposed to last year when every trip I made to buy groceries included the compulsory buying of snacks. It not only adds to grocery spendings, it also means I eat more. But I guess it doesn't really help a lot when I feel like snacking all the time anyway.

5. Find a job
Part-time jobs are great. The only drawback is having to manage my time well so that I don't neglect school work. Which is not a big problem for me I guess, since even if I wasn't working I'd be slacking instead of doing work. So why not spend the slacking time earning some cash and then really stressing myself out thinking there's no way I'll ever finish the school work on time? Non-clerical/office jobs are also good fat-burners, especially jobs like store assistants, waitressing, cooking, cleaning etc.

6. Try not to splurge
Very common sense. I haven't bought a single piece of clothing since I came here this year. Neither have I eaten at any fast-food places which are so tempting and mouth-watering each time I walk past them. My stomach always starts churning and I think I'd be salivating if not for fear of looking disgusting in public, but I convince myself that I could whip up a tasty, healthier meal at home for half the price anyway. But I've been out for dinner with a few friends a couple of times at some chinese restaurants, although each time I try to spend less than ten pounds (which is quite reasonable compared to if I ate out very often with friends in Singapore).

But oh! I'm so going to splurge on Boxing Day! I can't wait for Boxing Day sales... ooh I want a new pair of jeans. Some sweaters, a jacket (maybe?), things I can wear in spring, things I can wear in summer... I can't wait. I'm starting to save up now, keeping my salary safe and using as little of it as I can. It would be better still if I got to spend the day with him, even just as a friend. The act of him asking if I wanted to go to the sales together, when we were getting ready for work and casually chatting about the sales, shows that at the very least he cares (as a friend). Right? I think I'm thinking too much... *blush* am I too love-deprived or what?!

Bleeding...

I'm crazy.

It started as an admiration for his good looks last year.
I was ambivalent when I found out he had a girlfriend.

But unknowingly and subconsciously it has grown into a serious infatuation by now.
And my heart broke when I found out he currently has a girlfriend.

We have probably spoken less than ten sentences to each other. It was stupid. All in my mind. I knew it was impossible.
Why does my heart feels like it's torn to pieces?

Crazy day

I should have slept tried to sleep more rather than drag myself out of bed so early in a bid to start my day early by practising early in the morning. Because just minutes after I got into the practice block, the technicians decided to test the fire alarm. Which was fine by me, but somehow something was wrong and they had absolutely no way to reset the alarm, which was just ringing non-stop and beginning to make weird noises in my head. This went on for two hours.

Two hours! Two hours I could have lazed around spent productively by trying to read up more for the presentation next Thursday. But whatever, an early start to the day usually never fails to make me slightly more cheerful at the very least.

So I only got an hour of practice in when it could have been three. I decided to cut myself some slack as well, joining GO for lunch. What could be compared to spending just that one hour of my day catching up with a fellow Singaporean that I haven't talked to, or seen for that matter, since a few weeks after we came here for our second year?

To be fair, the day turned out to be alright. The highlight of the day was getting home after work to find all the housemates sitting around in the kitchen laughing their heads off at stupid little things, then proceeding to join in the laughter myself. They also saved me a piece a cake, bless their souls. Oh I'm so going to miss YR when he moves out. There can be nobody humourous enough to replace this house's chief harbinger of rolling-on-the-floor-tears-streaming-out-of-eyes laughter. Although NH's infectious and funny laughter comes in at a close second.

Now I'm going to catch some sleep before I start complaining about not getting any again.

Tossing and turning

This is bad... had a relatively sleepless night. It would already have been bad enough to have 4.5 hours of sleep from 1.30am to 6am, but it's now worse that I spent a large part of this time awake.

It might have been the adrenaline still running its course after I got back from work, but although it does keep me sleepless for a while most work nights, I will eventually still knock out.

Maybe a fatal combination was activated when I accepted that cup of coffee from NH when I got back? Coffee used to have no effects on me whatsoever back in secondary school and junior college days cos I drank too much of it. But after I cut down on my caffeine intake it's now effective for me again. Hmm, but I still managed to fall asleep pretty quickly the last few times I had coffee that late at night.

Maybe it is a lethal combination afterall. I shouldn't have drunk that coffee! But then if I didn't I probably wouldn't have been able to keep awake enough to have written out 5.5 pages of notes for a seminar presentation next Thursday, within 2 hours. It's quite frustrating when I realised all this time I was awake while trying to sleep could have been spent on more productive activities. But on the other hand, I didn't want to keep myself awake doing something cos the point was to let the brain and body relax enough so that I'll be able to fall asleep, right?

Hope I will survive today... more coffee, perhaps?

On hindsight, I guess I am quite glad that the classmate whom I promised to accompany for her performance today informed me on Monday that she had been ill and has decided not to sing. I was disappointed cos I spent Sunday learning the hardest piece with the speed changes, figures and bass line. And at the end of the day I was so proud of myself for doing a good job, being responsible enough to learn the music in such a tight schedule so that I won't screw up during her performance. But I guess now that I didn't have much sleep, it probably would have been quite hard to pull off a good performance if she were still doing it.

And I'm glad I took the courageous move of agreeing to accompany another singer last Wednesday, cos this sort of thing works best by reputation and word-of-mouth, so this Monday yet another singer sms-ed me to ask if I could play for her too. Great opportunities, especially since these two singers are really responsible to look for their accompanists this early. I just hope I won't be too stressed when the time comes.

Ok, enough rambling, off to get my coffee.

Muahaha all bow down before me!

Right now I am seriously lacking the drive to blog. Slightly exhausted from working four nights in a row and trying very hard to catch up with school work on Sunday. Glad it's Wednesday though, had a nice sleep-in this morning. Now the quiz takes over:

You are The Empress
Beauty, happiness, pleasure, success, luxury, dissipation.
The Empress is associated with Venus, the feminine planet, so it represents, beauty, charm, pleasure, luxury, and delight. You may be good at home decorating, art or anything to do with making things beautiful.
The Empress is a creator, be it creation of life, of romance, of art or business. While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the High Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where it gestates and grows till it is ready to be born. This is why her symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things as well as love. Even so, the Empress is more Demeter, goddess of abundance, then sensual Venus. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, yet at the same time, she can, in anger withhold, as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Hehehe this decidedly so not me. Other than the fact that I do like to decorate things and create stuff.

Right. Going to drag my lazy bottom out of bed to make myself some hot 'dinner' before I drag myself to work.

Not only Singaporeans complain

The Helsinki Complaints Choir. And click here to watch the amateurish Complaints Choir of Birmingham. Cringed at their out of tune moments but somehow it adds a very 'layman' feel to it.

Anyway, random daily update on work:

Feeling so shiok now sitting on my bed with my legs on the chair. Ah....

But work today wasn't too bad. The other waitress was the one who received training with me on Wednesday, and she's ok. Albeit just a little slackish sometimes. I don't really mind, as long as she doesn't slack the whole time. And I got to meet one of the students who works as a chef, but only on Saturdays, and who is a friend of a friend.

We had two big reservations - seven people (turned out to be eight) at seven, and six people (turned out to be seven) at eight. And other people who just came in. All the tables were filled.

Mouldy room and random additional cookie ingredient

My room is now mould free! Someone came yesterday and according to housemate NH, he bleached it. I'm not sure if he painted over, cos I can still see some marks. But anyway, it's a much better improvement.

Before:



















After:











The other day when I was being a pig munching a whole roll of Hob Nobs by myself, I came across this:











Needless to say, it turned me off the rest of the cookies for some time. Urgh. Luckily I looked before stuffing it into my mouth :/