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.

Weekends start on Thursday.

Weekends start on Thursday.

By some stroke of magic, I have gotten all the modules i wanted, and now boast a 4-day timetable. My weekends officially start at 6pm on Thursdays!

And taking a class with the juniors wasn't as nightmarish as I'd thought it to be, and it turned out pretty fun. Especially because class ended an hour earlier, and I had time to get home and drag my allergy-weakened body running. It wasn't easy adjusting back to the workout, and even though I could feel the energy coursing through my veins, I just couldn't get my legs to go any faster. Ah, slow and steady.

I've got some catching up to do, both academically and socially. I have friends to meet and parties to attend, and of course a beach running date with my favourite workout babe. After being cooped at home for a week, I'm more than ready to head out and about.

Off to bed for an early start tomorrow!

Report: First day back.

Report: First day back.

My head was woozy most of the day, and my tongue felt twice its size whenever I spoke, but going back to school today was awesome.

There was the initial culture shock the girls had warned me of, and like May said, in the game of CS bench-monopoly, the year 3s are endangered and the year 4s are extinct. Haha!

After touring half of Singapore during my 6.5 hour break (just to Vivo with Daph for pants-shopping and Carls Jr actually), I zipped off to hang out with CH in his engine study room. And I spent our three-hour Human Resource Management lecture doodling flowers. Haha.

But I had fun nonetheless, and I'm even looking forward to tomorrow's PR Writing tutorial. I may change my mind after the class, but I'll stick to my enthusiasm for now.

On a different note, B's sick now that I'm feeling better. We're taking turns, ecks.

Back to school.

Back to school.
music: jason mraz - prettiest friend

All my bags are packed I'm ready to go (to school). Finally!

Gonna be a long day though. Have got an early lecture, after which I have to go pants-shopping with Daph. I like to think the whole tight-at-the-hips thing the suit pants I bought 6 years ago are a result of puberty. You know, becoming a woman.

Then I gotta get back to school for a late lecture. Early and late with a 6.5 hour break.

Hip, hip, hurray!

Hip, hip, hurray!

I am feeling better!

Thanks for the love.

Still alive.

Still alive.

Yes I am, despite slipping in and out of groggy sleep and watching in horror as the rashes lumped together to form bigger lumps, morphed into blue-blacks, and currently take the form of swelling limbs and too-sexy Marilyn Monroe puffy lips. It's the worse infection I've ever had, and the doctor said to let it run its course and let my body fight it.

Can you imagine my fear when I saw the bruises? I thought my veins were constricting and that I was gonna collapse blue and bloodless.

My family doctor sent me packing to A&E when I returned weaker and lumpier than before, and I had my first 1.5 hour stay in the observation ward as I awaited the results of my blood test. It was clear, but the two hugeass injections the laundry-detergent-smelling-doctor gave me knocked me out cold and gave me the most restful sleep I've had over the past several days.

My sincere apologies to the many unreplied sms-es. You either caught me in a wake-sleep transition, or at a time when my fingers were too swollen to type messages.

Thanks a lot for the love, for suggested house-visits which I've declined for your health (and my vanity haha), for keeping me in mind during project groupings, and for tirelessly sending me the lecture notes.

I love you, I love you, I love you.

A second shot at resolutions.

A second shot at resolutions.

Seeing how I was too busy living and breathing India to come up with a list of 2008 resolutions, I figured the start of a new school term would give me a second shot at making a list of things I hope I would commit to doing.

(I am also awfully bored, and in dire need of distraction from those itchy bumps.)

• use sunblock daily, even if I'm just headed to school and the day's activities do not involve prancing around in a bikini
• put S$120 of my monthly allowance and teaching income into my end-of-year travel fund
• avoid hopping into cabs unnecessarily
• get to class on time

Easy enough no?

Bumps on the highway of my body.

Bumps on the highway of my body.

I spoke too soon when I said the bumps didn't multiply. Sometime between posting the previous entry and going to bed at 1 a.m., my left eye started swelling and I started to feel bumps emerging on my back, neck and even my ears.

I went to bed hoping it'll all be okay when I wake, but any amount of good luck has got to run out some time. I'm bummed to be starting school by missing it, but walking around with a swollen face and looking like I've just spent the night in a mosquito-infested camp would really be kinda gross.

So I've gotten myself to the doc, who thinks I'm having an allergy reaction to either medication or alcohol. So it could be that one anti-itch pill my sis gave me yesterday, or the glass of Chardonnay I had on Saturday night.

What is this, a sign that I should cut back on the alcohol? Doubt it for I've been an almost teetotaller since my return from Europe. Anyway, I'm not inclined towards the wine deduction, for any allergy to it would have resulted me spending almost every day of my six weeks in Europe covered in bumps.

I've gotten a jab, and couple of pastel-colored pills. Hopefully I'll be good to attend tomorrow's lecture.

Sneeze, sneeze go away.

Sneeze, sneeze go away.

I woke up to B's message at 5ish this morning, and proceeded to spend the next 10 minutes sneezing my nose blue. Sniffling, I fell back asleep to unsettling dreams, and awoke to a few red mosquito-like bumps on the weirdest places.

I wasn't quite myself while teaching piano this morning, and after fixing myself a chicken sandwich lunch, I fell back to more unsettling dreams till the late evening. I don't feel rested at all, and my arms feel kinda achy.

I'm hoping the aches are from yesterday's yoga or the dormant effects of Friday's swim with Lanxi, and not some weird allergy that rears its ugly head in sneezes and bumps. The bumps, very thankfully, have not multiplied.

School starts tomorrow. Maybe that's what I'm allergic to. Haha.

On a different note, Hui Hui and I finally made it down to The French Stall at Serangoon Road last night. The food is nothing to rave about really, but it was a good catch-up nonetheless.

Strolling amidst the many tandoori and naan restaurants in Little India, with its incense-perfumed air and the devil-may-care attitude of Indian nationals maneuvering our roads had me feeling like I was back in Ahmedabad all over again.

The crazy crossroads from Reliance Mart over to our favourite roadside tandoori stall, the mix of incense, food and sweat that hangs in the still air, and the crowds of people everywhere. All's that missing is the autos.

Wednesdays at Whatever.

Wednesdays at Whatever.



I've just done 30 minutes of matwork, and while the stretches are always shiok regardless of where and when I put myself through them, a bit of contentment eluded my afternoon practice.

The kind that courses languidly through the body and soul. The kind that comes from sharing a class with strangers who became yoga mates, and from laughing together as Sunil tormented and contorted our bodies.

The kind from Wednesdays at Whatever.

Dreaming with the ukulele.

Dreaming with the ukulele.

It's been a good day, and I can't bear to sleep just yet. I had a good catch-up session with my ex-boss, and my dismal timetable issues seem to have resolved themselves with a stroke of magic.

I've got Israel Kamakawiwo playing an island version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow in the background, and the gentle strumming of his ukulele makes me want to walk on the beach at sunset, with gentle waves teasing my toes.

I'm reminded of when B invited me to walk with him along Palolem Beach during our first Goan sunset. The knot of my sarong kept coming loose, and the lapping waves had the flimsy material clinging to the back of my legs with saltwater glue.

Peace. I am at peace.