read this link from a friend's friend>> an interesting post about local scholarships - the new taboo?.
good observation and some parts well-said.
however...
"They can slack off, get people to do their work for them and still get that nice fat paycheck and that guaranteed promotion...", "their lives are meticulously being mapped out for them for cushy jobs in the civil service..."
not true leh.
scribbled at 6:13 pm
.::.
good observation and some parts well-said.
however...
"They can slack off, get people to do their work for them and still get that nice fat paycheck and that guaranteed promotion...", "their lives are meticulously being mapped out for them for cushy jobs in the civil service..."
not true leh.
Monday, September 25, 2006
wedding bells ringing at home
sweet looking cupcakes from carnival & co. in assorted flavours - chocolate, lavender, strawberry and vanilla, 30 boxes in all. these were meant for mainly friends and relatives, the relatives were given traditional cakes instead. they also ordered 60 more cupcakes for the tea ceremony and solemisation events, to display them as mini cupcake towers, think it's going to be so sweet! since having a real tier wedding cake is so expensive, i guess having a real cupcake tower is a good alternative, and better still if it's homemade (rather, self-made) and decorated with fresh white and pink flowers....ahhhh, sweet.
anyway, i'm not going to be too ambitious, probably for the guo da li* next sunday, i'll opt for just one batch of either chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting, or apple banana cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. chocolate will probably be more popular, especially with the kids. wish me luck! :P anyway, there's lots to eat that day, mum already ordered buffet lunch from neo garden to feed an army of 50, and if she's crazy enough, she might just decide to make another huge pot of chicken curry. :S
*taken from wikipedia:
In Chinese culture, an auspicious date is selected to 'Ti Qin' (literally meaning 'propose marriage'), where both families will meet to discuss the amount of the bride price demanded, among other things. A couple of weeks before the actual wedding, the ritual of 'Guo Da Li' (literally meaning 'performing the rites') takes place (on an auspicious date of course). The groom and a matchmaker will visit the bride's family bearing gifts like wedding cakes, sweetmeats and jewelry as well as the bride price. On the actual wedding day, the bride's family will return a portion of the bride price (sometimes in the form of dowry) as a goodwill gesture.
scribbled at 7:12 am
.::.
sweet looking cupcakes from carnival & co. in assorted flavours - chocolate, lavender, strawberry and vanilla, 30 boxes in all. these were meant for mainly friends and relatives, the relatives were given traditional cakes instead. they also ordered 60 more cupcakes for the tea ceremony and solemisation events, to display them as mini cupcake towers, think it's going to be so sweet! since having a real tier wedding cake is so expensive, i guess having a real cupcake tower is a good alternative, and better still if it's homemade (rather, self-made) and decorated with fresh white and pink flowers....ahhhh, sweet.
anyway, i'm not going to be too ambitious, probably for the guo da li* next sunday, i'll opt for just one batch of either chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting, or apple banana cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. chocolate will probably be more popular, especially with the kids. wish me luck! :P anyway, there's lots to eat that day, mum already ordered buffet lunch from neo garden to feed an army of 50, and if she's crazy enough, she might just decide to make another huge pot of chicken curry. :S
*taken from wikipedia:
In Chinese culture, an auspicious date is selected to 'Ti Qin' (literally meaning 'propose marriage'), where both families will meet to discuss the amount of the bride price demanded, among other things. A couple of weeks before the actual wedding, the ritual of 'Guo Da Li' (literally meaning 'performing the rites') takes place (on an auspicious date of course). The groom and a matchmaker will visit the bride's family bearing gifts like wedding cakes, sweetmeats and jewelry as well as the bride price. On the actual wedding day, the bride's family will return a portion of the bride price (sometimes in the form of dowry) as a goodwill gesture.
Friday, September 22, 2006
louis vuitton + tintin???
it's the louis vuitton newest monogram groom series, and nah, it's not exactly tintin although that was the first thought that came to my mind. oooooooooh... so cute, especially the round coin purse!
scribbled at 10:30 pm
.::.
it's the louis vuitton newest monogram groom series, and nah, it's not exactly tintin although that was the first thought that came to my mind. oooooooooh... so cute, especially the round coin purse!
big fat chocolate chip cookies
sheep, if you're reading this, come claim one of the bags! :P
scribbled at 8:20 pm
.::.
sheep, if you're reading this, come claim one of the bags! :P
Monday, September 18, 2006
forbidden city weekend
since i missed the previous performance few years back, i didn't hesitate when lion suggested watching this together, even when it means having to pay for the most expensive seats. i suppose because this repeat performance has been planned to coincide with the IMF meetings, the tickets were sold out really fast, and we really didn't have many days to play around with. this was also our (referring to the bf and me) first musical at the esplanade, the previous one was another local production, chestnuts, at jubilee hall last year. anyway, this musical about empress cixi was like a history lesson, especially since none of us have studied china history - all we knew was puyi was china's last emperor, and we were clueless about who tong zhi was (cixi's only son), and probably only vaguely heard of guang xu (her nephew who eventually took over and started the hundred days reforms). well, we know cixi has always been portrayed as a ruthless ruler, and it's interesting to note that the musical seems to indicate otherwise... and the story about cixi engaging an american artist to paint her portrait was actually true, and not pure fiction! (i always thought dick lee made up this part, haha.) and kate carl actually published a book about her experience... i wonder if we can still get a copy of this book?
although it still pales in comparison to broadway musicals (but hopefully catching up), the performance was still overall good. the three female leads - kit chan, and the two other actresses playing the older empress and kate carl - they all have very rich powerful vocals and sang very well, with a lot of emotions. other local faces include hossan leong and sebastian tan who acted as record keepers, added some humour to the serious plot and yup, we also spotted cynthia lee (she played ah girl on mediacorp tv series). i wasn't too impressed with the lyrics though, too repetitive, and a couple of times the actor's voice was not being projected to the audience.
i haven't dine at esplanade for the longest time... after the show, the weather looked slightly gloomy and being lazy to explore further, the two couples ended up at the garlic restaurant. the food was reasonable, although i think the standard has dipped slightly, and the colours of bay no longer allow cross-ordering! when they first implemented this concept, i thought it was really ingenious, what a waste. check out the thick fries, it's even thicker than the mos burger ones. if you know me well enough, you'll know that the salmon linguine was mine. :P too salty and too saucy though.
okay, i must rant about this before i forget! because of all the silly road blocks for IMF, we had to detour to get our car from shaw towers, and my heels eventually gave me blisters! and i must add that the assorted clusters of red, white and yellow chrysanthemums really made the place resemble a grave site (what the hell are the npark people thinking), the sunflowers nearer to the convention centre area were much prettier though.
scribbled at 8:42 pm
.::.
since i missed the previous performance few years back, i didn't hesitate when lion suggested watching this together, even when it means having to pay for the most expensive seats. i suppose because this repeat performance has been planned to coincide with the IMF meetings, the tickets were sold out really fast, and we really didn't have many days to play around with. this was also our (referring to the bf and me) first musical at the esplanade, the previous one was another local production, chestnuts, at jubilee hall last year. anyway, this musical about empress cixi was like a history lesson, especially since none of us have studied china history - all we knew was puyi was china's last emperor, and we were clueless about who tong zhi was (cixi's only son), and probably only vaguely heard of guang xu (her nephew who eventually took over and started the hundred days reforms). well, we know cixi has always been portrayed as a ruthless ruler, and it's interesting to note that the musical seems to indicate otherwise... and the story about cixi engaging an american artist to paint her portrait was actually true, and not pure fiction! (i always thought dick lee made up this part, haha.) and kate carl actually published a book about her experience... i wonder if we can still get a copy of this book?
although it still pales in comparison to broadway musicals (but hopefully catching up), the performance was still overall good. the three female leads - kit chan, and the two other actresses playing the older empress and kate carl - they all have very rich powerful vocals and sang very well, with a lot of emotions. other local faces include hossan leong and sebastian tan who acted as record keepers, added some humour to the serious plot and yup, we also spotted cynthia lee (she played ah girl on mediacorp tv series). i wasn't too impressed with the lyrics though, too repetitive, and a couple of times the actor's voice was not being projected to the audience.
i haven't dine at esplanade for the longest time... after the show, the weather looked slightly gloomy and being lazy to explore further, the two couples ended up at the garlic restaurant. the food was reasonable, although i think the standard has dipped slightly, and the colours of bay no longer allow cross-ordering! when they first implemented this concept, i thought it was really ingenious, what a waste. check out the thick fries, it's even thicker than the mos burger ones. if you know me well enough, you'll know that the salmon linguine was mine. :P too salty and too saucy though.
okay, i must rant about this before i forget! because of all the silly road blocks for IMF, we had to detour to get our car from shaw towers, and my heels eventually gave me blisters! and i must add that the assorted clusters of red, white and yellow chrysanthemums really made the place resemble a grave site (what the hell are the npark people thinking), the sunflowers nearer to the convention centre area were much prettier though.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
please light a candle
The innocent victims of Internet child abuse cannot speak for themselves.
But you can.
With your support, we can eradicate this evil trade.
We do not need your money.
We need you to light a candle of support.
We're aiming to light One Million Candles by December 31, 2006.
This petition will be used to put pressure on governments, politicians,financial institutions, payment organisations, Internet service providers,technology companies and law enforcement agencies who have the power to work together to eradicate the commercial viability of online child abuse.
You have the power to get them to take action.
Please light your candle at lightamillioncandles.com or send an email to light@lightamillioncandles.com.
Together, we can destroy the commercial viability of Internet child abuse sites that are destroying the lives of innocent children.
Kindly forward this email to your friends, relatives and work colleagues so that they can light a candle too.
scribbled at 7:10 am
.::.
The innocent victims of Internet child abuse cannot speak for themselves.
But you can.
With your support, we can eradicate this evil trade.
We do not need your money.
We need you to light a candle of support.
We're aiming to light One Million Candles by December 31, 2006.
This petition will be used to put pressure on governments, politicians,financial institutions, payment organisations, Internet service providers,technology companies and law enforcement agencies who have the power to work together to eradicate the commercial viability of online child abuse.
You have the power to get them to take action.
Please light your candle at lightamillioncandles.com or send an email to light@lightamillioncandles.com.
Together, we can destroy the commercial viability of Internet child abuse sites that are destroying the lives of innocent children.
Kindly forward this email to your friends, relatives and work colleagues so that they can light a candle too.
Monday, September 11, 2006
"baby, is this for IMF?"
phew, it has been a tough week - was busy running around, hardly at my desk, and i'm now two shades darker (even my spf 50-protected face isn't spared). oh well. anyway, just some random ramblings. the city area especially was given a new uplift for the imf/world bank conference, read that they have gotten orchids, sunflowers and frangipani trees planted all round suntec city and orchard road, maybe we ought to go take a look and snap some pictures. oh yeah, anyway, we'll be at esplanade next weekend to catch "forbidden city" the musical, i'm sure they have already done up that place. because of all this hype surrounding the meeting, we have been pointing out to blinking decorating lights, new paved roads, water displays, wondering if they were there specially for the event, haa. well, on a more serious note, let's just hope the forums and in-depth discussions lined up are able help the third world countries in improving education, fighting disease and combating poverty, and of course, for everything to be smooth-flowing - no terror attacks, please. anyway, is it just me, but can you imagine demonstrations on singapore roads, i just can't imagine that happening here.
forbidden city: portrait of an empress
A historical retelling of the story of China's Empress Dowager, the story is seen from the eyes of an American painter, Kate Carl, who is commissioned to paint the Empress's portrait. The Empress recounts her amazing journey from a young imperial concubine to become the Empress of China and the pressures she faced. The musical explores the myths surrounding her reign, from the controversial death of her only son to her ambitious tussle for power. Having played to 60,000 people in 2003, Forbidden City is Singapore's most successful musical to date. Starring Asian sensation Kit Chan.
scribbled at 9:46 am
.::.
phew, it has been a tough week - was busy running around, hardly at my desk, and i'm now two shades darker (even my spf 50-protected face isn't spared). oh well. anyway, just some random ramblings. the city area especially was given a new uplift for the imf/world bank conference, read that they have gotten orchids, sunflowers and frangipani trees planted all round suntec city and orchard road, maybe we ought to go take a look and snap some pictures. oh yeah, anyway, we'll be at esplanade next weekend to catch "forbidden city" the musical, i'm sure they have already done up that place. because of all this hype surrounding the meeting, we have been pointing out to blinking decorating lights, new paved roads, water displays, wondering if they were there specially for the event, haa. well, on a more serious note, let's just hope the forums and in-depth discussions lined up are able help the third world countries in improving education, fighting disease and combating poverty, and of course, for everything to be smooth-flowing - no terror attacks, please. anyway, is it just me, but can you imagine demonstrations on singapore roads, i just can't imagine that happening here.
forbidden city: portrait of an empress
A historical retelling of the story of China's Empress Dowager, the story is seen from the eyes of an American painter, Kate Carl, who is commissioned to paint the Empress's portrait. The Empress recounts her amazing journey from a young imperial concubine to become the Empress of China and the pressures she faced. The musical explores the myths surrounding her reign, from the controversial death of her only son to her ambitious tussle for power. Having played to 60,000 people in 2003, Forbidden City is Singapore's most successful musical to date. Starring Asian sensation Kit Chan.