slippers. bought 2 pairs of slippers recently. one to be placed at my house and another at fatbear’s. haha.
i still don’t approve of slippers as footwear when going out, but sometimes, slippers are just so comfy! take a break from all the heels, wedges, flats and all that.
feet need to breathe too!

domo camera pouch from fatbear.

lotso bear shoe clips. yet to use them because i realized that they dont clip very well on converses.
the head is too heavy! lotso always ends up looking at the floor in sadness. i need sneakers with fatter and more sturdy shoe tongue.

picture with me looking pretty shitty. but i just wanna show off my jacket!
niceeee. bought from f21 a longgg time back but didn’t wear it out at all. wore it on the last friday of work, just before cny.

HAHAHA oh yar, you can also spot the yellow brolly hanging behind me in the cubicle. redeemed it at wisma after some brokeaholeinmypocket purchase. it’s LIMITED EDITION F1 race brolly ok!

not like i care.
but since i spent that amount already, why not just exchange for the umbrella right. or not wasted.

#likeanauntie

my table is full of rubbish, seriously. i have oranges on the partition, nian gao on my cpu and lettuce (caught from the lions during cai qing) next to it. errrr.
i guess you can tell that i really wanna HUAT ah. HAHAHAH.

hurhur. one last picture of myself. taken in the office, just before work ended and the cny hols to begin.

time flies. cny is almost over.
so how was your visiting? did you take all the ang baos you can get?
for those giving out ang baos…don’t worry, you’re not alone. sooner or later, the rest will join you. LOL.

didn’t eat much during cny.
the goodies just don’t excite me anymore.

have loads more pictures to post, but honestly, i’m getting lazier to blog. =( opened this page in the morning, hoping that i can blog intermittently between breaks at work.
no such breaks leh.

tweet also lazy, you say leh?

byeeeee!

besides, i always feel tired after work (signs of ageing). if not, i go out after work sometimes, and when i reach home, i’m too tired to turn on the computer again. i clock crazy hours every time there is an event, which is like…almost every month FTS.

i edit, resize and upload pictures, then i lose the motivation to blog. sleep overtakes me.

point is, i’m lazy.

ok next point and most important point…..*insert drum rolls*

i completed my first ever standard chartered marathon!!!!

ok fine, so it’s only 10km. but it’s A LOT to me! considering that i hardly ever exercise, and the only time my feet moves faster than the brisk walking speed is when i run for my bus or when a cockroach chases after me in the HDB carpark at fatbear’s place wtf.

so well, 10km is an accomplishment! plus!!!!! i didn’t stop at all! i managed to run all the way from the starting point to the finishing line! *thumps chest proudly*

only had about 2 gym trainings prior to the race. errr. clocking about 5km in each session. never tried 10km at all. oh yea, i ate macdees just the day before the race. #likeaboss

awake so early, feeling like i can conquer the world. lol. probably my lack of sleep talking. slept only 4 hours that night. above picture was taken prior to the race, on the way to the starting point.

you can go buy toto with my race number already hahahahah. but fyi, the number didn’t even get any prize for 4D or toto lah. lousy.

just before the race line. don’t know why would people want to waste their energy and start jogging even when the race line is so far off?

Obviously i was half-dead throughout the entire race so i didn’t take any during-race pictures. the above picture was after the race, at the huge field where you find the sponsors’ tents and all that stuff.

This was taken by my colleague who also went for the race. i didn’t bring my camera for this race. he ran throughout with his cam lor! hahahha.

err mandatory photo with the photowall.

bo bian. don’t take now, don’t know when can take again…doubt i have the guts, fats and energy to participate in another marathon. this one really killed my immune system.

right after this race, i came down with flu, headache, sore throat and fever…all within that same day. don’t even get me started about the bad body and muscle aches =.=””

and hor, my after race pics all damn ugly, so had to use mei tu xiu xiu. HAHAHAHA. what! who runs 10km at one go and still can look hot! don’t tell me about movies or celebs…*threatening glare*

i can haz a BMW balloon although i don’t have a BMW. HAHA.

say hello to my pink nikes! <3

so…..my race results! not the best, not the worst too! i daresay it’s pretty darn good for a first-timer and someone who never trained prior to the race!

actually i’m just glad i did’t die (literally) halfway or towards the ending point. my heart was beating so hard and fast in my ribcage. T___T close to seeing stars. even the thought of food didn’t manage to motivate me to run faster; the only personal goal was to NOT stop my pace.

there! i’ve blogged. transferred pictures from camera into hard disk. things don’t look that good HAHAHAH. wahlau eh, my TW pics from years ago never even edit finish lor. can die pls.

goodbye.

In fact, all 6 days before Christmas was spent working like a mad dog/cow (whatever), to the point that I thought I was going to lose my sanity. But I didn’t. Thankful for that.

Received quite a lot of presents from my colleagues, clients, friends and the bf. Hahaha. Of course, one present from my mum too. I didn’t take any pictures of the presents I received this year. Didn’t feel the need to.

In fact, I didn’t even take the pictures of the presents I gave out.

Despite all that, I felt that this year’s Christmas was more heart-warming than the last. Just a vibe, can’t really place a finger on the exact reason as to where I got that vibe.

Anyhows, as I was saying, I didn’t take any pictures of my gifts this year…but this was too hard to resist! Hahahaha my mum actually got me domokun bookmarks hahaha.

Super funny can! The fact that she remembered that I like domokun is already very funny. I asked her how she remembered and she said it was ‘the teeth’ hahahahahahahahahah.

I’ll leave it at that.

In the office sending out emails now after I returned the loaned/sponsored items from my partners earlier this morning. Getting ready to leave the office and grab some quality time to spend with fatbear.

Have a very merry merry jelly Christmas everyone! Be happy and positive and don’t forget to love those around you, and to spare a thought for the less fortunate! Some of the best gifts don’t come with price tags. It’s always the thought that counts (:

Yup, I’m joining the standard chartered race this year, competing under 10km. Very minor to those pros out there. 10km. Actually would have been nothing a few years back. Now, it’s like chasing after the bus 635372826382 times.

Only joined because the entry was given free to me (one of the very few perks of being in my job) and I won’t feel like shit if I can’t wake up for the race in time. It’s not cheap lor!

#truestory (about the notbeingabletowakeupintimepart)

But my Nike Air trainers is pink so exercising makes me happy, so far. Shall post a picture of that bimbotic shoe some other day.

Anyway my pre-cramps are being a bitch so I’ll make this short. Shall post a picture of my part-time boyfriend Mr. D and one of a chipmunk.

Sorry if I scared you.
Nights! <3

That said in the title of this entry, I probably have much more to learn about being thankful and grateful for what I have.

Everyday is a learning process. Learning to remind myself to look at the bigger picture and not to let small annoyances grow on me.

Just like the public transport.

Every morning without fail, my blood pressure skyrockets because the bus is not on schedule or because the train breaks down. In most instances, I fail to see the bigger picture. I get mad. Very mad. I mean, we’re talking about a 20 minute wait for ONE bus during peak hour! Actually, let me be honest. I still can’t see the bigger picture for this issue.

Let me give you another example: Being able to meet fatbear after a day of hard work, being in his warm embrace and telling me that everything is gonna be alright….I’m thankful for that.

But of course, our relationship is not perfect. It’s a constant effort from both parties.

But I guess the moral of this short (and rather pointless) post is to ask you guys to start appreciating people and things around you. Things you have. I’m not asking you to be contented. Just…grateful.

A simple smile from the cleaning auntie.

A grin and a few words asking about how you are recently from the security officer.

Even when a stranger thanks you with a warm smile for helping them hold the door open.

Because everything works in the law of parallelism, the more you are grateful for things in your life, the higher the frequency of things happening that will make you grateful.

Am I making sense? :p

Good night and good morning! Till then.

zombies are growing on me. like vampires.

ahhh, the living dead.

it’s easier to post single picture entries. but i’ve got too many pictures backdated. i doubt anyone would be interested in the content anymore. no one reads this space! neglected for way too long!

update again soon!

At the state I am in now, neither here nor there, neither up nor down, neither happy nor sad.

Seems to be a rather pathetic state of equilibrium I have here.

Perhaps the only main flaw I have, and possibly the worst flaw one can have, is a consistent sense of discontentment and dissatisfaction in oneself.

Decided to follow fatbear to work today because he has to go back to office to discuss work stuff with his boss. So here I am at his cubicle (shiok cubicle placement I must add), typing out this slightly more than half-hearted entry and praying that the 3G connection doesn’t fail me when I’m ready to publish this post.

One can likely tell from my processed pictures that I had used some app (meituxiuxiu to be exact) to ‘beautify’ myself. Transferred the pics from my beloved pink Sony cam into the iPad so that I can also resize the large file sizes for easier uploading. Camwhore much? Apologies to spam my face in the entry. Thought you people might be interested to know how I look like now. Haha.

Kinda tiring to do the editing of so many pictures (way too trigger-happy) on the iPad instead if on the computer, so imma stop here for now. Let me try to find back my motivation and inspiration before I continue.

Meanwhile, please take some time out to admire my awesome $3 necklace and equally awesome ring I got from an online store. I have that same design in silver too lol. Extreme I know. Have other pictures of my crazy accessories but too lazy to post now.

Not sure if anyone still checks back on this space. Life has been a blur. Work has been insane. I’ve learnt to be more tolerant and patient — seriously never thought i could level up this virtue of mine hahahah. And I’ve grown so jaded I kinda detest myself.

Internalizing everything; feels almost like I’ve sustained too much internal injuries to continue.

I’m fine, thank you. I’ve been wanting to blog every single day, just didn’t get around to doing it.

Today’s not the day. Bye.

and till now, even after replaying the TVC, i have NO IDEA how the creatives did the kazua. i never saw such a cute kazua before — and people who know me well enough should know that i have this terrible fear for the blackbrownpest =(

i mean, how does the kazua even walk on the two hind feet? HAHAHAHAH. looks so idiotic strolling down the street. HAHAHA. and the mannerisms when he failed to get his message across aka failed to sell the insurance.

MUST WATCH! =D

to end of this rather short post, i was just wondering why local adverts (TVC) are always so predictable and boring. lacking humor too! the easiest way to etch memory in someone’s mind is to insert humor into TVC or print ads! honestly wishing to see more creative adverts on air in the future.

i know im no professional to be spouting all these talk…but where have all the creative people gone to???

just a short note before i start on the entry:

i actually followed fatbear on this trip since it was his company training trip for him and he was going to SH to learn from auditing process or something. save the details, it meant that i get FREE lodging and food and transport! MUAHAHAH. so why not go, right? i just needed to pay for the airfare; a good getaway for me although i’ve been to SH with my family a few years back! #cheapo

it was more of a gotochillandrelaxtrip rather then goandhavocandshoptrip. so i didn’t do much shopping at all, prolly spent my entire time walking…walking…and walking. they don’t say china is large (with huge land mass) for no reason. trust me.

so we took SQ (bloody expensive but the price of our tix dropped the day AFTER we bought it. pissed fatbear off real bad hahaha) to Shanghai. woots!

hiong ok. chiong-ed home after work ended on the 18th Apr and chiong-ed to pack the remainder of my luggage before chiong-ing to bathe and to head out because the cab was downstairs waiting. zzz. we headed off to airport around 10.30pm.

flight was about 1plus in the morning.

here we are in the airport. ahhh, love the feeling of leaving everything behind and just flying off.

but i spectacularly caught the cold on the night of the flight. had to take meds and food prior. zzzz.

groggy max. sick maximus.

trying not to let the flu get my spirits down!

fatbear with his ugly bagpack from the company fhl. HAHAHAHA. i have no idea why all his company stuff are so ugly. T___T

never trust the bf’s phototaking skills. so always request for a second shot.

yay! all prepped up to fly off!

long tank dress + shorts + over-the-knee boots + jacket + scarf

dimsum for a simple dinner before the meds.

preparing to check in. yes, i know you can see the tissue paper in my hands. shows how sick i was. =(

and oh, before going through the scanning gates (dont know what you call them lah), the officer asked me to take off my jacket and my boots (what a pain in the ass). so there i was, stripping in the middle of the queue. FML.

and the guy behind me couldn’t stop staring tyvm.

so, reminder to all, pls do not wear heavy footwear ie. boots on the day of your flight. chances are, you’ll have to strip to your toes when going through the gates. apparently, it’s some sorta protocol for checks.

sleepy. fell asleep before the plane took off, slept throughout and only woke for lousy plane breakfast before the descend. but thank god it was SIA because the flight was tolerable. wasted my in-flight entertainment though. *wails

SQ is known for the awesome in-flight entertainment. super tons of good movies to catch in all languages!

standard of air stewardess fell though. =( not as pretty as how i remembered they were back when i was in primary school. boos. what happened to quality control??!

so we arrived in shanghai pu dong airport! (: went out to get a cab. so familiar. can vaguely remember the airport from the days i went to shanghai with the parents. notably, things have changed over the years; especially after the shanghai expo.

all cabs in shanghai (or maybe all over china) have this little plastic thingy covering their seats. i think it’s to protect the drivers from violent passengers HAHA. i believe cabbies in U.S. / Euro have this as well. think so lah, cannot remember already so many years back. *goldfish

speeding to our hotel for check-in! yeahhh! a new day begins! at 7 in the morning!

cannot remember what fatbear was looking at. why so serious??? somemore ignore me. AHAHAHHA.

went past these apartments with weird white-looking stuff. a closer look…..

satellite dishes at homes????? erms. okay. you won’t find this in SG.

how taxis here look like. pls NEVER take the taxis without proper signages and logos. you never know if you’ll get cheated of your money, taken on roundabouts and if you really suay, kenna kidnap lor.

reached our hotel!

check-in time!

my very chio new luggage. HEHEH. *smirk

fatbear’s new luggage as well. ok, cost me a bomb. *heartpain

view from the reception area. the hotel’s check-in area is surprisingly on the 25th floor and not on level 1 (which i assume is what’s normal). the concierge is on level 1. oh, but the service of the hotel staff is really good! (:

we stayed in zhongshan park’s shanghai long zhi meng wan li jiu dian.

HAHAHA the bathroom can be seen from the bedroom ok!

bathtub and bathing area behind.

full-length mirror as the bathroom door.

view from bedroom into bathroom. the shutters can be pulled up to reveal a clear glass which separates the bathroom from the bedroom.

our queen sized bed. or issit king sized? aiya, i don’t know. but damn huge and comfy.

a sofa. but for me to put my luggage HAHA.

study table for fatbear to do work.

huge tvee for my pleasure. with cable!!!!! *tears of happiness

corridor area.

so we settled down and rested a bit before heading out for our day 1 of exploring shanghai!

first, we headed to Yu Garden (yu yuan, in chinese). took a cab there because cabbing is cheap! please enjoy the pictures because i’m lazy to captionize from here. =D

you can probably tell that it’s this quaint little street with tons of old buildings and food and buildings and food. erms, yeps. that’s about all. good for phototaking.

if you noticed, i changed into a warmer scarf and wore my long socks because it was very windy. this translates to cooler temperatures.

the famed nanxiang restaurant with awesome xiaolongbaos and dimsum.

there are different areas to this restaurant. there is the takeaway/stand along walkway and eat area. then there is the order minimal amount of $XX area. and upstairs, there’s the $XXX minmal order amount area.

the queue outside the restaurant. this is for the takeaway/stand and eat people.

we headed to the sitting area upstairs. hungry people mah. HAHAHA.

no need for aircon becsause it was already so cooling 10+ degrees celcius. and the windows were wide open to let in the breezes.

wahhh! $145 bucks!!! RMB lah. which is like divided by 5 for sing dollar.

xie huang tang bao. you’re supposed to use a straw to suck up the soup inside the bao.

jin tui xiao zhong zi. super mini. can use my finger as a gauge.

san wei xiao long bao. 3 different tastes. 3 different meats i think. aiya im bad with all the memory stuff. plus no one explained anything to us =(

gui hua la gao. AWESOME STUFF I LOVE. nais. sweet and fragrant and supposedly good for you as well. yumsss.

unwrapping the dumplings.

so we filled our tummies and continued our walkaround.

fatbear bought this vegetarian bao to try. i didn’t like the taste =(

many aunties. say hello!

erms. peeing cow ball soup? HAHAHAHHA.

we arrived at cheng huang miao!

must pay 10yuan to enter. nothing much inside lor. just look look see see take picture. wtf.

saw like these men holding rulers or something against the scrolls of pictures and another group of men gathering around pointing at the paintings and engaged in discussion. i have no idea what it’s about. but fatbear says it’s got to do with the 13 levels of hell or something like that. -.-”’

so the rulers were supposed to measure how “deep” the level of hell it was across all the 13 scrolls of paintings. yeps! see im good at deductions HAHAAH. #chinesehistoryfail

and we came out to the main strret again to head off to our next destination.

took a cab to tian zi fang.

this is a really quaint place; a bit like that of haji lane! old buildings mixed with new and fashionable concepts. very popular amongst the younger crowd i heard.

and i saw this cute little place out of nowhere! a teddybear themed cafe! on one look, it just seems like a normal cafe with teddy bears lined at the window display.
BUTTTTT…

you see the ceiling of the little balcony places where their patrons can sit to sip some tea and enjoy a simple meal!!! SO NICE RIGHT OMG.

and i totally agree with this. HAHAHA fatbear refused to acknowledge the existence of that pouch and kept ignoring me.
and no, i did not buy the pouch, if you were wondering.

hello little bear! are you trying to blend into the surroundings?

super hazardous. i have no idea why they can leave the wires and cables like that. it’s a mess! and it doesnt look that pleasing to the public’s eye as well…maybe they just got used to it.

got enough of wandering around..and we took a cab (again) to this other place that sells AA grade branded stuff which i shall not publicize here. if you are interested, ask me directly and i will let you know the address to head to to get such buys! (:

after browsing around at the building selling all the AA grade stuff, we left not long. the long hours of not having caught any proper sleep since the night before was starting to take a toll on us — we were feeling exhausted and wanted nothing but food and rest. and our bed.

headed back to our hotel where we have our co-joining shopping mall (bliss because don’t have to walk so much). had our dinner there…which was another joke.

fatbear had ya she (duck’s tongue). i refused to eat any. looked gross enough.

and please, if you are thinking of going to shanghai free and easy, PLEASE NOTE!!!!
the portions served at any restaurants is humongous. fit for 4 adults (when all you wanted to feed are two HUNGRY adults). it’s fucking scary.

the pictures shown on the menu looked SMALL in terms of servings ok! so we ordered and ordered and the dishes didn’t came in the staggering sequence — they came ALL at once.
best thing was the idiotic waiter didnt tell us the the portions were enough to feed giants. so we ended up looking likat wasteful asses who over-ordered and over-estimated themselves, resulting in unfinished food.

it was so bad both of us felt immense guilt. but hell yes, we sure learnt our lessons. T___T

finished our meal to head off back to our hotel room to wash up and sleep. did my daily masking routine and skincare prior to going to bed. paid even greater attention to hydration because the air was so dry there! i was wrinkling up like a prune! damn jialats. very jialats because i already have fuckedupdryskin.

last picture just shows how many levels that insane shopping mall had. it’s so large i was tired just from walking 3 levels. NO JOKE.

ok!!!! thanks for reading. day 2 of SH coming up! (:
<3