I abused my stomach over the course of the week. Pizza on Tue, Crystal Jade on Wed, Sushi Tei on Thurs and Moovellous set lunch + bday cake on Fri.

Oh I abused my wallet also. How could I forget?

Wednesday's lunch was with the Cornies haha. No lah, I mean my Cornell friends :)

Thursday's lunch was with pltmates. Dear dear Jyang returned from USA and Anna's accessory made a rare appearance too.

Friday's lunch was with my colleagues cos it was the last day of work for a fellow intern. Bday celebration for one of my supervisors followed in the afternoon .

Merry christmas everybody and happy birthday to jyang, who's stuck in JFK right now. Well if this is the suckiest way to spend a birthday, you can be sure that the rest of ur birthdays will be absolutely terrific in relative terms :)

On the eve of Christmas Eve, this was what I did:

The scrawny cat which bullied me lived in a hawker centre where tables were beige and seats were green. It really was a scrawny thing, probably in its teens, covered by a dull white coat of fur and random black spots. What I remembered most was the pair of pale blue eyes that conveyed its nonchalant attitude and that attitude was directed towards me.

While I was valiantly guarding the four plates of nasi briyani (the other family members went to get more food), that little squirt came out of nowhere and leapt onto the seat next to me. I did what any other young woman would do. I waved my hands menacingly at it and said "Shoo."

IT DIDN'T EVEN LOOK AT ME!

"Shoo!" with more frantic hand-waving. This time, it granted me a slight inclination of its head.

"SHOO!" with prolonged hand-waving. Right, I finally got its attention. That was when I noticed its pale blue eyes. I stared back at it and stood up, hoping that the extra height will intimidate it. Its sole reaction was to blink at me. Just one slow blink, as if asking "You think I'm scared? Pfft."

Internally, I was frothing at the mouth. While I underwent such mental anguish, the cat decided it had enough fun at my expense so it removed itself from the seat and strolled away, disappearing as fast as it appeared.

I lost. Call me loser.

Thyme's Law:
Everything goes wrong at once.

Malek's Law:

Any simple idea will be worded in the most complicated way.

Think there's a book that contains such variations of Murphy's Law. Anyone knows the title? More importantly, does anyone have the book? I'd love to read it :)

Went to Shu's house yesterday to make alot of noise. Memorable moments include the ill-fated 20% discount on pizza, QH's controversial shirt and the subsequent debate between herself and El, everyone ganging up to bully me during mahjong, and Shu playing an outstanding game of bridge. To echo Jo's sentiments, yesh, let's try and meet up more often.

Quote of the day:

"Veni, Vidi, Velcro"
(I came; I saw; I stuck around.)

Story: The Ter Kwa and I.

I ordered a bowl of Minced Meat and Mushroom Noodles (Xiang Gu Bak Chor Mee Pok) for lunch yesterday. Silly me. I should've known that there was pig's liver in it. I dun like to eat pig's liver. Almost to the point of 'hate' actually. I know it's nutritious etc., believe me, I get more than enough reminders from my mother. So anyway, it was a bit too late to tell the vendor that I dun want the ter kwa, and I was also quite hesitant to tell her "Auntie, mee pok without ter kwa" because it reminded me of that Mr. Brown podcast. I might burst out into uncontrollable laughter on the spot if I hear myself say that.

So staring at those 1 small, 3 medium and 1 large pieces of ter kwa, I started to devise ways of getting them into my stomach without too much protest from my taste buds. The first strategy I adopted was to dunk the whole piece of liver into the soy sauce of the chopped chilli. Unfortunately, the soy sauce wasn't quite spicy enough. The next piece of liver was dunked into soy sauce and eaten with a tiny piece of chopped chilli (I have low tolerance for spicy food...) but it still didn't work. Think the chilli itself just wasn't spicy at all. On my third try, I finally found the perfect solution. I ate the liver together with a big mouthful of mee pok, taking only a few bites to help me swallow the food.

Okay fine, I pretty much swallowed the ter kwa. And the remaining pieces. So much for strategising.

Moral of the story: When all else fails, revert to your roots. Forget civilisation. Embrace barbarian-ism and uncouth-ness.

PS: Seriously, dun take my words seriously.

Exams are over, hols have started. To kick it off, a blog revamp.

Ta-da.

Okay I seem to sound less enthusiastic than I ought to be. I blame this on having to wake up at 5.45am this morning and the impending rain. When I'm trying to study, I love the rain. It calms me. When I'm trying to sleep, I love the rain too. It cools me. When I'm trying play... well you get the idea. A tan is so out of the question now.

What have I been up to lately? Well right after the last paper, went out with the girls (Qiaohui, Engel, Priya and Angie) for dinner at HV. On Friday, I pigged out at the library. My mom lent me her library card and my dad's (I can't remember the last time he borrowed a book...) so I made full use of them. Saturday was devoted to driving, vivocity and a free threading. Sunday was devoted to cooking, reading manga and LOTR. Monday was devoted to subject registration and more LOTR.

Lemme just rave a little about the books I found in the library. My habit is to walk down the shelves in alphabetical order, so the first author I checked out was Boris Akunin. Was looking forward to reading another book in his Erast Fandorin series but there weren't any new ones. I'm quite fond of Fandorin. Sigh. Akunin did have a new book though, featuring a nun this time. Haven't read the book yet but I dun think Akunin will let me down. I walked down further to Lindsey Davis for my all-time favourite informer with dark curly hair. Lo and behold! A Falco book I haven't read! I thought I must have cleaned out the entire series back in 2004. Anyway, that made me deliriously happy. I just finished the book last night (well early this morning to be exact...) and yesh, I think I'm in love. I might just re-read the whole series now.

Happy hols everyone!