:-)

last sunday, we went for the annual standard chartered marathon run.
still currently challenging 10k. no progression. ha!
didn't have much(any?) practice since the ge woman's run in july.
once again, reminded myself to run my own race at my own pace.

felt i did good.
with a lack of stamina, it was very tempting to just walk when i'm feeling tired.
decided to slow the running pace instead.
eventually reaching the finishing point at 1h 50m 27s.

actual run time from runpix was at 1h 22m 38s.
an improvement(LOL) of 2m 6s from the ge run in july! lol.
*prouds*

have a few friends who can't figure out why people pay good money to go torture themselves.
especially when it can be fatal.
they were probably referring to the 22 year old chap who died after completing the 21km run.

well, in my opinion...
if you are in pain or extreme discomfort, you should stop and get help.
if you feel torturing, you obviously lack practice.
if you feel challenging, you are experience the kick of the run (where i want to be)
if you feel it's easy, you should either up your running distance or increase speed of run.

it's so hard to describe the feeling...
during the run, i feel something between torturing and challenging...
days after the run, i feel like experiencing the feeling again.
whatever it is.
it beats studying. lol.

on top of all these, i have lessons on friday, saturday and sunday...
okay, i am hyperventilating now...
i need to remain calm.

so i am having a break.
tomorrow to be exact.
batam, i shall go.
fun, i shall have.

with my bunch of work-tormented colleagues.
everyone should just have a break.
let's see how this short trip goes...

yes, i actually am.

so exactly what am i busy with?

busy with work
busy with studies

actually those two are enough to kill me.
and whatever remaining time i have, i squeeze in a short trip.

just mainly studies.
especially this term.
taking two modules is torture.

but i need to persevere.
it will be more manageable next year.

from time to time, i dream about the things i will do once i graduate.
told myself to reward my hard-work with a playstation 3 (or 4?)
buy all the games i like and go full gear in pure playing pleasure...

then plan for longer trips to countries in europe...
and roll in their meadow fields or something.

and then i will realise i have to stop dreaming...
and head back to the painful painful reality.

but because of the pain, it made me feel really blessed.
i am very thankful for a number of things.
a bunch of friends at school who i can share the pain with.
a friend who nags motivates me to keep going on
a boss who understands my situation
a team of colleagues to swap and cover duties
a mother who loans me money for school fees without interests
and loads of friends who are patiently waiting for me to be free again for meet ups.

really, can't ask for more.
i am actually happy. tg.

it all started with counterstrike...
i was introduced to the term "free frag".
well. by being one.

i was dissed mercilessly... until i fragged some of them.
which brings me to the next word i learnt... "tyco".
it was really fun.
my favourite weapon was the ak47.
the dictionary expanded to include stuff like... "bunny hop", "everglide" and "dua lim gong lai liao"

around the same time, "s.o.j" was often heard.
and it's actually worth money.
loved the concept of d2
tried playing it myself
but just couldn't get past blood raven
i was THAT lousy

then there was the mini LAN game, SOLDAT
didn't really play it, but it was so frequently mentioned that i just couldn't forget it.

finally warcraft 3 came.
my peers ditched cs and wc3 became the next IN thing to play
so it was wc3 all the way...

could still remember some friends of mine would create 3 wisp and send them floating all over the map

+ve
dread lord's sleep ability
priestess of the moon
work work
brilliance, trueshot auras
moonwells
starfall~
agility scrolls

then my peers got bored of the usual maps
and that's when the corridor maps came about
suddenly last hit was so important
which made agility scrolls so popular

then there were tower defense maps
made you realise that not only you've got to build fast, you got to upgrade fast and have a solid maze
that's until you've reached a level where all the aerial creatures just fly past your maze
:- S

and...

oh... my sc2 installation is done. ;- )

well, here are some updates since march.

around late april, went for a comprehensive medical checkup before heading to australia with a couple of girlfriends.
visited mainly cairns, gold coast and brisbane.
pretty interesting experience, considering attempted snorkeling and white water rafting.

mid may, was the follow up of my medical checkup.
the doctor said i am of fairly good health, for now!
so that's good news.

late may, yaris required a car service. spend money.

had a reasonable busy june. and now being july and all... my studies started so weekends are occupied.
bonus came and went.

so did the world cup. happy that spain won!
spend a couple of nights at robertson walk watching matches.

lessons, practical and tutorials are part of my life now.
sent the yaris for repairs. spend more money.

with my newly repaired yaris, i still have many long days ahead...

somehow i knew that the tree design on the new notepads were smaller. it was pretty funny. i said to myself, "hmm... have they changed the size of the tree? aren't they suppose to be bigger?"

and yes! i was right! plus i am damn smart! well, in general, sales staff just stack the new stock over the old ones. so all i've gotta do is to dig deeper down the stack. and yeah... could now buy the old stock with the bigger tree. i like my tree bigger. hahaha...

hmm... it's kind of pathetic to be amused with such trivial matters. though it's fun, nevertheless...

and goodness... this song from david guetta is stuck in my head. i think the title is called memories. i tried to say out loud, "damn this song... it's so addictive!"

however i just couldn't pronounce the word addictive properly. :- S
adddiii... adiiitiff ahh... ahhdifff... arrrghh!! damn it. GAH! stupid song.

i am a bit worried, because the time to negotiate starts all over again. sometimes i wonder why i have to do this every year? i am quite tired of this.

so anyway... i was in the baking mood recently... i wanted to have a go at making pineapple tarts.
so i did...
since it was my first try at making pineapple tart, i decided to test with a smaller batch.

prepared the pineapple tart filling yesterday night, and so far so good. looks moderately decent.

will find another day to make the pastry portion and i am done.

and it seems everyone else is also making pineapple tart!
dropped by phoon huat just now, and the queue was horrendous!
while making my way to the end of the queue, i briefly glanced into every other customer's basket and guess what!
almost all of them had butter and pre-made pineapple tart filling in their baskets...

goodness!

need to make a trip to chinatown soon... need to buy my annual door decoration for the year of the tiger...

something last minute so something delayed.
something delighting, something amusing, something fun then something rushed.
something straining, something worried but something accomplished!
something proud and something unexpected.

something arranged or... not?
something confirmed, something short, erm... something best not mentioned.
something clear and precise, something crazy and something acknowledged. :'- S

something familiar.
something drove off leaving something parallel.
something handsome, something ordered, something ready, then something eaten.
something messy, something satisfying :- D, something of mine being memorized. :- O

something planned, something changed.
something done at home.
something with special guest, something received, something clipped on hair.

something traveled, something very urgent, something chatted.
something about being tired, something about getting late...
something dangerously avoided X- O, something to learn from and remember
something feeling jelly-like and weak...

something...

yup, that's right. i am going on a cruise soon.

just a short getaway with two of my good female friends. while both of the ladies are cruise virgins... me here, have been on star cruise trips for no less than 3 times.

however, this time we will be staying at the ocean view with balcony rooms. cool eh?? have balcony leh. and on top of the free buffet meals, we will be having $200 of dining credits. where we can spend on either ala carte food or drinks! hmm...

we'll be dropping by penang and phuket, so there'll be some shopping and eating. it's pretty exciting actually!

AND OH YAH!!! wishing myself a happy 2 years driving anniversary!!! Woot!!

after 2 years of driving the yaris!! *sniggers*
i am proud to announce that i am no longer a road hazard!! i am now a very asshole-ish singaporean driver! just like every other driver you see on the road. we are all assholes, one point in time or another.

yesterday i was @^#&@@*($&(!!#*$&@ a black mazda car loh. so anyway... even though i maybe more asshole-ish, i never horn others for no reason. in fact, i've only horned... for less than 5 times. hee... i no no horny de. kekeke...

have been on my lazy ass for a very long time. and my valid excuses can't last me forever. let's not waste time my dear ger, and be more productive! ok?

ok... :-S

did i mention that i have a wonderful car? :- )

realised there are a lot of tweaking to do for life. so i'm just continuously tweaking tweaking tweaking...

tweaking away...

some photos...

why do i sound so not lookng forward for it? chinese new year for me, is a period of time where i am being placed in a pretty difficult situation. situations where i have to consider the choices i have and be responsible for the decision i make. sounds complicated. maybe because it is. at least for me.

it's not really nice to see your mother cry in disappointment. yet... you also do not want to cry in your disappointment... how do you comprimise to acheive a balance? or somewhat near balance?

that is why... this year, i am pretty happy with myself. i have managed to somehow arranged it in a way where everyone is somewhat happy. i am proud to acheive something that feels like err... 88% of the best of both worlds.

so... until next year... where the planning, arranging and decision making starts all over again...

Ａ_Ａ    ./⌒▼⊂　・ ・つ *～|●   （ （ o＿o） ∪∪～U U

Ａ_Ａ ⊂・ ・　⊃▼⌒丶 （o＿o ） ）   ●|～*     U U ～- ∪∪

i wish you all a happy chinese new year!!!