Chloe Won!

Ok. For those of you who’re from North America, this is SUCH old news. Chloe won the Project Runway competition. And I just got to know that today from watching the last episode of the season which Santino, Chloe and Daniel are from. I just LOVE Chloe’s collection. So feminine and form-fitting. Not to mention flattering. haha. I wonder how long you have to be in fashion design to come up with that kind of skill in tailoring and sewing the seams and all. Before Chloe I always liked Marc Jacobs (Love the tops he designs) and Vera Wang (who can resist her flowy gowns???) and Catherine Melandrino (her dresses and skirts are SO flattering!!) –> Did my research on bluefly.com. haha. Now Chloe’s my favourite too! haha.
I didn’t really watch the whole competition, to be honest. I think I only watched the last 2 episodes! lol. But by the 2nd last episode it got quite competitive so there’s more juice to the show. And Michael Kors was one of the judges in the final episode! I’ve always pictured Kors as this really suave manly dude but he’s actually another David Gan. If you know what I mean. My little sister’s in fashion design. I’m so excited for her just by knowing more about the fashion industry. It’s so exciting. hehe.

Fashion aside, I watched my first Hindi movie yesterday afternoon after the site visitation at Orchid Country Club. Although the movie was 3 hours long, I think the length gave the plot time to develop and the script was very very well written, and is reflective of real life situations. Not to mention the setting was in NYC and London. Complete with blonde girls as backup dancers with the Bollywood stars. The female leads were SO gorgeous (those perfect Aryan features make me green with envy!!) and I love their wardrobe of Saris and winter fashion. Fashion again! lol I don’t mind watching more of Hindi movies! More more more!! hehehe.

End of study break

One week’s study break passes just like that. I got my hospitality marketing exam on saturday morn, and I’m not even sure if i’ve studied enough. I mean it’s all multiple choice questions, but there are 100 questions to be done in about 120 mins. If I don’t read enough, I’m done for. And come monday, we’re gonna start Club Management. Should be quite interesting. More so than marketing anyway.

School aside, family’s great, now for some shout outs:

Shout out to Hunn: You better be thinking of me now!! & Don’t forget to feed Pinchy~! (Pinchy’s our pet lobster)
Shout out to V: Thanks for the cd, System of a Down’s great. Can I pass the cd-rw back to you so you can burn more Rammstein for me? lol.
Shout out to  Capitalist Infidel: I want Saw 2! No movie no textbook! It’s a barter. No excuses ok.
Shout out to Cecile: Hope you’re safe and having fun in Seoul!
Shout out to 402: I don’t usually do this, but it was quite fun hanging out with you guys this time, considering class gatherings used to be really boring, to be honest.
Shout out to Nive: BEHAVE!
That’s about it I guess.
Had my first flare-up moment in months. Sister wore my favourite jeans (which i specifically indicated out-of-bounds to her otherwise all other clothes I’m sharing with no reservations) without telling me and wasn’t even apologetic abt it when caught red-handed. But it’s all good now cuz she eventually managed to look sheepish and apologized yesterday. I can be quite scary when i’m pissed off enough, but i’m also a fairly forgiving person.
Coming back to JB always makes me feel in a holiday mood, any anger whatsoever just evaporates. I managed to sleep 13 hours straight last night. It was great. Had a nice dream which probably made me want to sleep longer to see how the story turned out. Can’t remember the ending though.

Just wanta end of this entry by saying, for the record, I’m seriously starting my fitness regiment. Here’s to a new me in say, 4 months. Need to be toned~!

Of Classics & Cell Phones

I’m listening to Classic Frank Sinatra. They Can’t Take That Away From Me.
Sinatra’s so soothing. It immediately puts me at ease no matter how tired the day has been. It’s like listening to Christmas-y songs, the kind you put on while holding a mug of hot chocolate like a hamster holding a nut in front of the fireplace and cuddling with someone you love. Do they call this kind of music Big Band? I just love them.
Doris Day, some albums from THAT CD SHOP’s High Society collection (My favourites being Music to Watch Girls By, Déjà Vu, Lust, etc) and the more recent Barry White (which I got to know from my Ally McBeal craze) rule my play list now. Those, and the new-age kind of chill-out music. I’m getting a little too old for alternative and indie rock. (Where’s Jack Ho, front man of EIC, when you need him to revive the music in Wala Wala?)
Maybe I need to visit music stores more often. Just to check out what they have these days. Actually I love rock music too. Some tracks Joey always blasted on the car stereo were really good. Stuff from Rammstein, System of a Down, even Linkin Park sounds great.
Oh. And. Guilty confession. I kinda like Pussycat Dolls as well. I know, I know. The name is the epitome of bimbo and slutty girls, but a few of their tracks are actually pretty good, if you disregard their image. I wonder who wrote those tracks for them.

Music aside,
I got a new cell phone (ok, or handphone, mobile, whatever they’re called) on saturday from Starhub. It’s the Sony Ericsson K610i which is a rather new phone, but thanks to my 200 bucks phone voucher from Starhub & a 2 years contract, I only paid SGD88 for it. Which is only a fraction of what my sister paid when she bought the phone within days of its launch, SGD498, with plan! It just goes to show how cheap the cost price really is, considering a 50% cut still guarantees profits and room for more price dips. At least this is a rather neat phone.
For features go click on the link I attach above. My favourite feature is actually its bluetooth function. (See, my previous phone was only a Nokia 6610i, which doesn’t have this feature.) The camera function is at 2.0mp, so very soon I shall be updating my blogs with pictures attached, since the transfer of files is fast and breezy.
Call me oudated, but yea I guess I am lol. I’m usually lagging far behind in phone technology mainly because I refuse to spend hundreds on a new phone. Trust me, this new phone’s gonna stick with me for another 3 years at least.

Yoga & working out are my latest commitment… Joined a fitness centre in RafflesPlace which is near my school, so I’m trying to commit to working out 3 days a week. Gotta get toned and ripped! Hate my flabby tummy..

A little routine actually helps. Going to school everyday and keeping myself busy all the time makes me feel so energized & alive, I can’t believe how I’m going to stop being on the go one day. Bleah. And a little coffee goes a loong way to keep my concentration span longer. Hail Nescafe 3-in-1 mix! It makes me feel like a little hamster scurrying around storing food. keke. And it’s cheap and good. Not that I mind the occasional Starbucks latte. lol. I can’t wait to cook that portabello burger & Merlot-infused sirloin steak for Nive & Yilun! One of the things that make me happy.

First day of school, again.

After missing one week of my academic term for the month of august, I stepped into what I’d be calling School for the next 12 months.

Hospitality Management Diploma awarded by the American Hotel & Lodging Assoc. Anyone interested? It’s a 12 month cyclic course, you can join in any month you like. After you graduate from this, you can choose to further your studies & have an internship in the UK, Australia or go for a job placement in the States (altho i’ll be lobbying for a Canadian one since Joey’s there. heh.)

First module for me is Hospitality Marketing. It’s rather different from the generic business marketing of course, because of the way hotels are run. Interesting to know that Ritz Carlton is french (I always thought it’s American or British) & there’s a new position called Lobby Manager, whose job is basically to keep the lobby clear and save the concierge / bell-boy’s asses when they’re MIA (missing in action). Et cetera.

What saved me from classroom syndrome (aka nodding off) was the group mini project. Apparently my group (which consisted of girls from Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Mongolia & Singapore..lovely people, they are) went on a survey trip to Ritz. Ooh their sunday brunch is beyond amazing. It’s THE place to impress if you can afford it. Anyway. I didn’t know the bathrooms have paranomic views of Kallang Bay & Marina Bay. Amazing. Their rooms are charged on average SGD500 apparently. Five star price indeed.

I think I’m finally doing something I know i’ll enjoy. The more I learn about how hotels are run, the more I’m into it. Let’s just hope my enthusiastic doesn’t fizzle out.

As a sidenote, I’m taking students for General Paper for Cambridge A’ levels. Anyone in need of help in the subject ? Do drop me an email or sth.

Touchdown

After about 11 days in Maple Land, I’m back. Was tearing a bit while on the plane at Vancouver airport cuz I’m gonna miss my baby so bad. We had an argument just hours before I left about this stupid henna weed tatt I was gonna get for the heck of it but obviously the idea didn’t go too well with him cuz of what it implied. We ended up having a cold war for about 2 hours throughout dinner. Sometimes I wish we had this telepathic power to empathize each other’s emtions without having to talk about it. I wish more however, that Vancouver’s just next door. The ring’s on my finger, ain’t nobody hitting on me, better not. I’m taken in totality. And yes, absence does make the heart grow fonder.

And my God that was such a tiring 17 hours approx on Cathay Pacific.. The flight from Vancouver to Hongkong was delayed by 2 hrs and lasted about 13hours, & i was in between this rather nice Fillipino lady and this other Canadian chinese lady who kept leaning over when she slept. Bugger. At least the food was pretty alright..

Was hoping I’d have time to shop around at Hong Kong during my transit but due to typhoons my first flight was delayed and I ended up with only a half an hour stopover. Barely enough for a wee and then off I went to board the flight back to sg. Sigh.

Oh well. I’m back in one piece and that’s good. No lost luggage or anything like that. Oh just a piece of trivium — They use depleted uranium to balance the aircraft’s weight on commerical airplanes, so everytime you fly, chug down tons of vitamin C, it’s gonna help a bit. I’m tired because i didn’t sleep much, but otherwise my nose didn’t feel stuffy like it usually does on planes and my skin was doing ok, considering I didn’t use facial wash at all until I reached home. Hmm. Vitamin C. Don’t do without it.

Canadian Banter

After being here again less as a tourist (since I’m no longer taking the city bus tours & I’ve learnt a bit of their lingo so I no longer embarrass myself…haha) both in Vancouver and Toronto, I think Singaporeans, in comparison, have a really really good life! Why?

- In Canada, GST is about 14%; price tags don’t include that, so everytime you buy something, even a bottle of water, you gotta calculate in your head the estimated total.

- Cab fares here start at CAD2.70 and each kilometre is charged CAD1.50! Plus you gotta tip the cabby. That’s an insanely high number even when compared to the recently hiked price of Singaporean cabs’ SGD2.50 flag-down price and a mere 10 cents for every kilometre. Plus, the oil price to cab fare ratio in Canada is so low, the cabby earns even more. For Singaporean cabbies, they got it really really bad.
Plus they seldom get tipped (and we all heard about difficult passengers who fuss over 50 cents change or an extra dollar’s difference from what they normally pay). No wonder there’s bad service. Underpaid drivers tend to get grumpy. I totally understand why now.

-In Singapore, you get MANUAL car wash at SGD6. And tipping isn’t even compulsory. In most countries in the west actually, they only get the “touchless car wash” that charge 10 bucks approximately. Where else can you get TLC for your car at such an absurdly low price other than Singapore? lol.

On the bright side, I’m going to watch a game of Canadian football this friday evening!
PS: LOTR was surprisingly impressive. Wasn’t a waste afterall. Plus Joey got an authentic replica of the Ring & I got a hobbit bag! Pity we can’t stay long enough to catch Monthy Python and The Holy Grail though. Heard it’s hilarious. Oh well. Can’t have your cake and eat it too. :p