Honeysuckle in the after-rain.

Honeysuckle in the after-rain.





We braved the heavy afternoon rains to buy the necessary picnic food, and our optimism was finally rewarded with weak evening sunshine and the palest of rainbows. Yet, outdoor movie night was far from the great event we had envisioned.

For starters, the organizers had us (and at least 200 people ahead of us in the queue and maybe 400 behind) waiting at the door while they did whatever last-minute preparations they should have done.

And when the first movie finally did start at an hour later than the stipulated time, the crappy sound system had us furrowing our brows and straining to hear the dialogue, not that it would have mattered for the storyline was weak, and we counted at least 20 cliches in that one movie. Make it Happen. Don't bother wasting your money on that one.

The second show, My Sassy Girl, was way better, but the sound system was still equally crappy. The air was cool, the stars were out and there were couples snuggling up all around. Perfect ambience for a chick flick, except that we couldn't bloody hear what Elisha Cuthbert and Jesse Bradford were saying half the time!

I'm never going for a GV outdoor movie screening, not for the next few years at least.

All gripes aside, the night was not all that bad. We had one heck of a picnic - Dorito chips, French Onion dip, brown bread, beef pastrami, herb ham, fresh strawberries, chocolate profiteroles, and the strawberry muffins I baked in the morning. And then there was the complimentary popcorn. Oooof. I think I've eaten enough to fuel my beach run with Lanxi tomorrow, and maybe three more after. Haha.

And as Jem said, he wouldn't have minded paying the S$20 entrance ticket just to lay down on the grass and watch the stars. It really was a gorgeous night, really. No regrets.

Two plus two makes four.

Two plus two makes four.

I'm feeling mighty good, for I clocked in a 35-minute run this morning. So the timing isn't that great for 5km, but it's the longest run I've done since the crappy allergy and stupid fall. Evan checked in on me today upon his return from Malaysia - what a dedicated volunteer coach! I'd love to finally meet up and buy him coffee one day, hopefully soon.






Thanks to Mathew Yap's MICA-style teaching, Thursdays are no longer a drab and instead quite a stress-free end to the school week. And I like nothing better to herald in the three-day weekend than a good night out after school on Thursdays. This week, it was with Fagan, whose heart-to-heart chats I've dearly missed.

We haven't had a proper long catch-up since I left for India, so we had ALOT to talk about. Over a Japanese curry dinner at Curry Favor Cafe, a shared souffle and chocolate hug mugs at Max Brenner's over at the Esplanade, and when they closed for the night we took our conversations to the riverfront. About our new love interests, our families, and investments (his, not mine).

After duly updating each other in detail on all that's new in our lives, our conversations revolved back around to life, love and its many unanswerable questions. One thing this confidante of mine always says is inspiring - "If life were so certain, what's the point in waking up everyday?"

Boyish Fagan has indeed grown up. It's been almost six years since we first met each other. Him with his floppy hair, and me with my ex-penchant for way-too-low-slung jeans (Thank goodness). And there are our other two partners-in-crime, both of whom are in Australia right now. Those BizPark lunches and Tampines Mall food court dinners seem like such distant memories! Can't escape the fact that we're done with growing up and are now slowly growing older.

It ain't that scary really, once you put it into perspective.

Am up for a spot of muffin baking tomorrow morning for the evening's movie screening/picnic at Fort Canning with Ceci and Jem. Crossing my fingers and toes for clear skies!

Girly dilemmas.

Girly dilemmas.

I've been staring at the screen since 10:29pm, toggling between several of tabs. By 11:15 p.m., I had narrowed my choices down to a paisley print hippie dress, and a blue one which wouldn't look out of place on a yacht.

I've subjected my dear chums (who were unfortunately on MSN) to an impromptu poll, and the current ratio's at 3:3. My aunt isn't of much help, for she was the one who egged me on to look at more choices when I merely asked her if should get the blue dress, thereby resulting in my current sleepless predicament. I've resorted to emailing B the two pictures. A decision must be reached tomorrow.

What an unaccomplished girly day it has been. Apart from my afternoon workout and evening piano class with my new favourite German student, the rest of my day was spent watching Made of Honor, chatting with B, and... online shopping.

Sheer frivolity. Buh-bye readings.

Ciggies no more.

Ciggies no more.

Earlier in class today, Gregory Tan told us about his friend who died of nose cancer. (He was smiling while recounting it, but i'll let that rest for now.) Jolted by the tale, I immediately wrote a Stickie on my Mac's desktop: "Get Berty to quit smoking!"

So when I came home to chat with B earlier, I told him about it all, and he said that he actually intends to quit once he comes to Singapore, and replace the ciggies with sports. He's not that heavy a smoker anymore, so hopefully it won't be too difficult. Minimal persuasion needed on my part, I'm happy!


image from http://sonofthesouth.net

As class ended early and I had a good half hour to go before I was due to meet B online, I strapped on my Asics and headed downstairs for a run. I wasn't sure the ankle would hold up, but I didn't want to let too much time pass for me to develop a phobia for outdoor running.

Needless to say, my eyes were working extremely hard to spot fallen fruit traps, and I managed to clock in a 3.55km run. Not too bad for a post-recovery trial! And though the hacking cough was non-existent throughout my almost half hour run, it's back now with a vengeance. Pffft.

I'm still feeling mighty pleased with today's accomplishments. 9 days till B arrives, and hopefully not that many before we finally get to meet!

Reassessments.

Reassessments.

Before I go into anything less lighthearted for a Sunday night, here's a recap at the week past with a couple of pictures I forgot about.


CH's bright idea to take our reflection while waiting for the NEL to Vivocity on Thursday evening. It was a rainy evening, perfect for catching up with the childhood buds over dinner (even if we were talking about body parts and rectal examinations courtesy of Kenrick) and snuggling up at the cinema.


(L-R) Microwaved French rabbit dish, Ceci's buttered rice, Aunt's vegetarian pizza. Chick flick weekends used to happen once every few months at best, but are now happening increasingly often as it's really a much cheaper alternative to us trawling town. The money's better put towards our getaway, and we finally got around to watching the dvds I got from Shanghai. The Waitress was a feel-good flop, while we had mixed reviews for Love and Other Disasters. I liked it, but Ceci thought it was too fragmented.

Despite recent rains, I wake up most mornings to cloudy pre-rain skies which are perfect for running, and it bums me out every single day. The hobbling's subsided to a minimum, but I think I'll have to rest up a little more before hitting the trails again. Thankfully it was raining cats and dogs (now ain't that a primary school phrase we haven't heard for awhile...) so I wasn't further bummed out about missing my weekly beach runs with Lanxi.

So in place of the beach, I headed out to catch 12 Lotus with the aunts. The show wasn't rave-worthy, though I was really concentrating more on not getting dirty looks for hacking my lungs out. I have no bloody idea where the cough came from, but it doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon...

Reasons enough for my less than cheery mood this weekend, but it'll pick up. After a couple of reassessments. Here's to Monday.

Evil chuckles.

Evil chuckles.

It's Erwin's 23rd today, and I couldn't help chuckling at the post Romain left on his wall. Here's the extract that had me laughing non-stop (still am).

"Happy Birthday to you. How are you? I'm gonna send you a present in 2 weeks... It's white, talkative, wears glasses... it's Berty!"

ROFL. I couldn't help imagining B as Humpty Dumpty.

Night out with the childhood boys.

Night out with the childhood boys.


We never seem to be able to spend a lot of time together whenever school starts, but things are better this semester as CH and I are taking a module together. My 6.5-hour break is all for the one and only chance we'll get to share a class in NTU, before he goes off to Norway next year.

We managed to meet up with the busy and elusive Ken to catch The Mummy, as well as for his belated birthday treat.

So the movie wasn't fantastic, and neither was limping around all that great, but the familiar company was. And so was the convenience of the 2-minute ride home from Vivocity in Ken's zoom zoom car. Heh.

On a separate note, Happy 23rd to E, my ever cynical manwhore!

Tripping on a fallen fruit!

Bali dreaming.

Bali dreaming.


Spoke to Desi in class earlier today, and she was telling me all about how gorgeous Lombok was. FYI, Lombok is an island near Bali, but comparatively untouched by tourism. I have my mind set on making a side trip there when I head to Bali in December. My Bali dream is all I have to keep me going through the subsequent days of too much writing, readings, churning out way too many essays, and the dreaded exams.

I'm exhausted, and in horrible need of a nap before my new piano class tonight. Having school from 9 a.m. till 8:30 p.m. is no joke, even with the ridiculous 6.5-hour break between. After a late dinner with CH at one of the prata shops outside after class last night, it was 10:45 p.m. when I finally trudged back home, weighed down by my Macbook and one too many texts. 10 more weeks of this, bless me.

Plonking in bed and falling asleep with my dinner hardly digested proved the old wives' tale of dreaming on a full stomach true. I spent the night dreaming that B and I were exchange students who were housed in a bungalow, and I was getting all jittery waiting for him to confess his love and adoration as he was going back to France that very day. It's almost as ridiculous as the dream he had of us hiding in a tree-house from the MICA director and eloping to Goa. Haha.

I'm a little nervous about tonight as I'll be teaching an older Caucasian lady who though having learnt piano for nine years when she was younger insists that she's in it for leisure. Don't even get me started on the embarrassingly bad state of my piano, which I've neglected since passing my Grade 8 practical exam yonks ago.

How glad am I that tomorrow's the last day of the school week for me, and that there is no Organizational Communications lecture thanks to Union Day? A late start and a movie date with the Spottiswoode boys after class. Need to unwind!

Happy 22nd, my bitch.

Happy 22nd, my bitch.






Yet another year has lolled along, though it does seem just like yesterday that we were bringing in her 21st birthday with a bang at Hooters. Age kinda catches up with you once past 21, so my bitch's birthday was a quiet affair this year.

As luck would have it, the afternoon's tutorial was cancelled, so I had time to take her out for a proper Mexican lunch Cha Cha Cha Restaurant at Holland Village.

We polished off one too many margaritas and beef enchiladas, though my vote for the best margaritas still lies with Cafe Iguana. Bitch has left for her Amore class, which leaves me with the pressing question - yoga or kickboxing? Am not too sure what I feel like right now.

Gotta keep awake past midnight, 'cos that's when B and I finally get to chat! He sent me a mail about a documentary on saw on how Singapore was a likely target for pirates. What sort of old-school documentaries are they showing in France?!

Never run with sushi in your tummy.

Never run with sushi in your tummy.

It was Lays' big day yesterday, and all decked out in varying shades of orange, we gathered at her Pasir Ris chalet.







It was a great chance to catch up with the people I haven't caught up with since school started, and also to test my body's tolerance for beer. No allergies, pass! And in case you're wondering why there are repeated shots of Ting Yi and myself, it's because the Alaskan boy is horribly picky with his pictures! And I'm wondering whose fingers those are in the shots... fess up!


It was pouring when Lanxi and I met up today, so we reversed our usual routine and had our sushi lunch and shopped around instead, before heading to Sentosa for our run. The strong sunshine lasted a good half hour during which we felt like we were going to keel over from overheating, and after changing into our bikinis, the rain clouds promptly took over. Murphy's law.




And even though we didn't eat enough to feel stuffed, I could feel the sushi flopping around in my stomach with each step. Never fuel up on sushi before a run! Maybe that's why there are bananas and power gels. Haha!

I'm feeling pretty shiok now because Jinli's just informed me that there's no tutorial for Corporate Communications tomorrow, which means I can meet my bitch earlier for a birthday lunch instead of a birthday tea.

Feel like I haven't spoken to B for too long! We make sure we keep in touch everyday, but it's been awhile since we last had a proper chat, and I was weak and woozy then. He'll be here in less than three weeks though, in the flesh. Hasn't quite sunk in yet but I'm starting to feel the first flutterrings of the jitters. I wonder if he'll like chee cheong fun. Haha.

Clouds in the Saturday sky.

Clouds in the Saturday sky.
feeling: restless
music: jason mraz - bella luna (live at tahoe)

The man is a musical genius. I could spend all morning watching his videos on youtube and not feel at all bored.

But I'm restless, and duty demands that I put on some color on my face and meet Cheryl and ZL for a spot of shopping before heading off to Lays' party tonight.

By the way, I kept to my word and did my 45-minute Yoga for Energy video on my new Nike mat. It's a lot thinner than the older one Jem got me, I realised. And I'm a lot less flexible than I used to be. If only Sunil would come back to Singapore.

Resigned to armchair traveling.

Resigned to armchair traveling.

Having been cooped up at home for a good one week, and taking baby steps in readjusting my body back to school, heading out to Vivo and poking around in the shops just because I could bizarrely made my day.

It's amazing how one's standards drastically lower after a sick spell, but I'm happy. So happy that I snapped up a dress I'd seen and ignored more than once in Pull & Bear, and got myself a new yoga mat.

I'm not taking any chances with any allergy-causing molecules, and seeing how I had brought my previous mat with me to Europe and laid on the apartment floor B and I only got to cleaning once the whole time I was there, I figured it was high time to toss it out. Out with the old, in with the new - in this case a pretty Nike rose and mauve mat. Just looking at it gets me all inspired to get stretching. And I would, after the hefty amount Ceci and I ingested tonight.


I was glad to resume our weekend dates, and even more glad to be able to eat proper, non-sick-people food. After months of procrastination (during which another outlet sprung up), we finally got around to checking out Hog's Breath Cafe.



The food was so-so (good only if you like overpriced barbecued food), and so was the live singer who butchered one too many of my favourites. I don't see us returning at all, especially not when the amount of food we had had me hiccuping for a good 15 minutes. How glad I was to be wearing my dad's shirt, made presentable only with the shell belt I bought in Bangkok yonks ago. Good for hiding a post-meal belly!

Not that it was worth it.

Anyway, school is starting to get into full swing, which means I would be up to my neck in work for the next four months or so. Which also means that it's time to take a hiatus from all the traveling I've been doing the past months. Time to reign in the wanderlust, and to stick to armchair traveling for now. Down girl.