a happening last week of 2008...

so investor central had our year-end dinner at hard rock cafe last night.

it's been such a roller-coaster 2007, with changes galore...most for the better.

here's presenting team 2008:

we'll also be having an american intern starting january.

i'm glad we can all laugh and smile the way we used to before IT happened.

the boss did the whole "thank you" spiel to everyone on the team, and tried to squeeze in whatever he could say before the food arrived.

a round of drinks and way too much food later - nachos, cobb salad, quesadillas, surf and turf, fajitas, salmon pasta and some - the girls got the giggles and started taking weird-ass pictures with the boss.


we even dedicated "grow old with you" to the boss, but the band played "living on a prayer" instead. =P

of course, we were all head-banging away and screaming the lines of chorus.

onward, investor central!

a little more from the christmas day roll...

a bunny for the niece...

what an interesting weekend.

and the final tally is...

you may already know how 'optimistic' i am about my statistics grade.

i finally saw it today.

let it be on the record that i had expected a C. at most.

so you can imagine my pleasant surprise to find that i scored a B.

and so, the final tally of term 1 grades is as follows:

creative thinking: A+
business, government and society: A
political science: A-
statistics: B
analytical skills: B-
economics: B-

pretty much evened everything out huh?

not too bad for ms "back-at-school-after-six-years". =)

on a sad note, dan fogelberg has passed away, losing a battle to prostate cancer.

the hubby and i love his song "longer".

our condolences to mrs fogelberg.

and here's to a great singer-songwriter.

longer than there've been fishes in the ocean
higher than any bird every flew
longer than there've been stars up in the heavens
i've been in love with you.

stronger than any mountain cathedral
truer than any tree ever grew
deeper than any forest primeval
i am in love with you.

i'll bring fires in the winters
you'll send showers in the springs
we'll fly through the falls and summers
with love on our wings.

through the years as the fire starts to mellow
burning lines in the book of our lives
through the binding cracks and the pages start to yellow
i'll be in love with you.

i am in love with you.

investor central goes places.

there's been some changes in the office.

the mood's changed a whole lot since.

and i think it's for the better.

we can now put the unhappiness behind us and trudge along. =)

and moving ahead we are!

the gang's gonna be suited up by raoul for our on-camera work! *beam*

i got a little buzz getting measured for my outfit today. =P

i'm back to my daily routine of humming a happy song as i walk to the bus stop.

and singing to myself as i walk into work.

overqualified.

i never quite understood what that word meant.

i mean...wouldn't you love someone who's "more than qualified" for your company, what with all that experience?

unless you equate the experience to baggage, in which case wouldn't it be more prudent to say that you want to take in untrained minds?

i don't know.

i'm still a little puzzled why they would tell me their scope would not do my experience justice.

i'm not too disgruntled by not getting the internship though.

because the hubby and i can go house-hunting and plan other stuff...

i'm still deciding if i should do SHINE next year, in addition to all the goodness that i'll be doing in school. =P

watch this space.

barney's left hanging...

i made a trip down to the costume shop at bali lane today to try on a santarina costume.

yes, i'll be playing santarina this christmas...for a buncha boys, no less (but no, santa baby's not on the list). =P

i wonder how little children will feel seeing barney's skin hung out to dry, or its head hung up on a wall with other animals'.

or how there're so many santa costumes waiting to be rented.

before sending the in-laws to the airport for their trip to spain and portugal, we had a simple dinner, ending with some ice wine and gelare ice cream cake.


the hubby's had a tough day and he'll be heading back to work tomorrow.

i feel slightly sad that i can't do any more than just offer him hugs and kisses.

but i'm sure he gets some kicks outta WoW so i should be doing just fine. =P

yummy yummy for my tummy...

the brother was on leave this week and we met up for lunch a couple of times this week.

being the foodies we are, we revisited our favorite food haunts and i introduced him to a yummylicious and affordable place.

we went to grab some tai hwa noodles at crawford lane today.

the stall used to be at the old marina square food court and when that closed down, it moved over to the coffee shop at crawford lane.

anyone who likes bak chor mee should definitely try this!


we visited astons grill at east coast road two days back.

and since the brother already had lunch, he could only share some of my meal - a rack of honey bourbon ribs with pasta salad and mashed potato sides.

we ordered additional sides of fries and cream of mushroom soup.

of course, nothing beats using your fingers when it comes to ribs.

you get to polish off every single bit of goodness on those bones!

boy do i love food. =)

i sing because i'm happy, i sing because i'm free.

i miss singing.

i wonder why i haven't been singing as much since i met eric.

because aren't i supposed to sing when i'm happy?

reading through my blogs from a few years back, i know why i sang so much then.

pain was the reason.

i was in so much pain that i wanted to tear my heart out and sing it little songs to make it feel better.

it was catharsis.

i sang all sortsa songs.

among those included "someone like you" from jekyll and hyde...

but if someone like you
found someone like me
then suddenly
nothing would every be the same

my heart would take wing
and i'd feel so alive
if someone like you
found me.

and "last night of the world" from miss saigon...

a song played on a solo saxaphone
a crazy sound, a lonely sound
a cry that tells us love
goes on and on

played on a solo saxaphone
it's telling me to hold you tight
and dance
like it's the last night of the world.

i revisited these two songs last night, singing parts of them to snuffy hubby.

i feel different singing them this time around.

it's like...being in love makes you sing of love differently.

you emphasize parts of the song you wouldn't have if you were not in love.

it's just like reading business news - you only know which words to emphasize on if you understand it.

now, i do not feel like digging my heart out, sing to it to make it feel better.

instead, i sing in celebration of how it feels.

if all that i've written and said made you think that love and marriage makes one whole, i apologize.

they don't.

because only you can make yourself out to be who you want to be.

and only you can decide how you want to be happy.

you should not get hitched as a solution to your esteem and abandonment issues.

you should be self-aware and feel whole enough before you get involved in someone else's life.

do not bring your shit into a marriage.

the hubby is not your punching bag.

a crazy christmas.

exams ended with a political science paper yesterday.

whoopee!

i hope i do well enough for this credit to further it as a major...=)

so post-examination euphoria extended till today, which just ended with a concert put up by selena tan at friends at the drama center called "a crazy christmas".

it wasn't their usual dose of funny, but their chemistry and voices made my night anyhow.

the venue (snuffy hubby and i went there for "chestnuts" last christmas) at the drama center, national library seemed cosy enough for a christmas concert.

a few of my favorite moments of the show included john lee's rendition of "geylang sipaku geylang" (which made me tear some), pam oei's "i saw mommy/daddy kissing santa claus" and selena tan's attempt at broadway-ing the nativity play.

some know that i'm rather a fanatic of musical theater.

so right from the day snuffy hubby and i got together, i've been sharing with him all those songs i know from watching musicals and movie versions.

tonight, i was pleasantly surprised when tan kheng hua and her daughter, shi-an, did a short version of the fantastik's "soon it's gonna rain".

it was one of the first songs i sang to snuffy hubby because singing that song makes me feel so happy.

of course, the last line of the song applies especially to us.

soon it's gonna rain
i can see it
soon it's gonna rain
i can tell
soon it's gonna rain
what are we gonna do?

soon it's gonna rain
i can feel it
soon it's gonna rain
i can tell
soon it's gonna rain
what'll we do with you?

we'll find four limbs of a tree
we'll build four walls and a floor
we'll bind it over with leaves
and run inside to stay.

then we'll let it rain
we'll not fell it
then we'll let it rain
rain pell-mell
and we'll not complain
if it never stops at all.

we'll live and love
within our own four walls.

and lim kay siew's "dancing monkey" reminded me of how i felt when i heard it for the first time some years back. i can't quite remember where or when i heard it though.

i made a fool of myself over you
and here i go again
i keep falling over you

i'm such a fool.

the song's melody is wonderful. i just had to look over at snuffy hubby then.

ashley once said that i was like a "marriage-whore" because i kept gushing about how i love being married to snuffy hubby.

what can i say. i really love being married to eric.

before eric, i did not believe in marriage because i saw how many married couples turn indifferent. after all, a couple can still be happy living together. they're just...not married.

but with eric, i just felt like i wanted to be bounded to him like that. and so did he, with me.

so barely a week into our relationship, we were already talking marriage.

then he shocked my parents by asking them for permission to ask me to marry him just a month later. =P

i never believed in settling for any lesser.

but i tell my classmates (who're mostly way too young to think about marriage as yet) that one shouldn't have a checklist to check off the qualities of a potential mate.

because most of those qualities exist in less superficial ways.

ways that can only be unlocked and seen when two people share real chemistry, comfort and have common fundamentals to base their relationship on.

snuffy hubby and i make magic together.

and i know that with his love and care, i will accomplish so much more than if i were without him.

i truly believe in fighting for what you want and what you think is right.

and things sure are a lot easier to fight for when you've got a supportive hubby propping you up from the back.

as eric says, "behind every successful woman lies a very good husband".

and in time, the world will know just how "very good" my dearest snuffy hubby is.

watch this space. =)

taking a breather...

three papers down, two more to go.

i'm THIS sure i'll be failing at least one paper, failing (pardon the pun) which i would just barely scrape through - something which i will be very happy about.

exams are really not my thing.

i have an econs paper tomorrow and a political science paper on saturday.

i strongly suspect having five papers during the week is costing me my grades. =(

anyways, as i was pottering the hubby's room yesterday, i found that these things always make me smile (in absence of snuffy hubby)...

of course, there's our wedding photo series...

we had brought gwizzly and donald to our photoshoot because they are so us.

we also loved that gwizzly played a major part in our wedding - from being the model on our invite to being our ring bearer. =)

a short honeymoon later, we added two more members to the gang - viktor (from just for laughs) and sully (from monsters inc.).

sully never fails to get me smiling because he just looks so cheeky.

and hubby is as glad we got sully because i was contemplating buying him at the fifth avenue disney store but didn't get him until we were at california disney.

the gang keeps me company during the day...

until snuffy hubby comes back home. =)

not so long ago...

snuffy hubby told me something very sweet today.

on a rare breather moment today, he took his cellphone out and started scrolling through the pictures he took of me and of us.

he said that looking at those pictures reminded him of how he used to visit my blog not too long ago and would look at my pictures, thinking how cool it would be to be the one who makes me smile and taking those photos of me.

"i thought 'how cool it would be if she were my girlfriend' and now all that's come true! she's even my wife now!"
aww.


thank you, snuffy hubby, for your support through my first exam in years...and the ice cream treat tonight. =)

CREATIVE THINKING...

so the creative thinking presentation is finally over!

and now the studying can begin proper. =P

two weeks ago, the team set up a booth outside the SMU kopitiam with a sign with the words "ask me a question".

we invited passer-bys to ask us whatever questions they had in mind for a low donation of 10 cents per question.

the amount raised would go to a charity project (Project Nepal, probably) organized by one of the SMU clubs.

we applaud and thank those who patronized our booth and had us wrecking our brains for creative answers to your creative questions. =)

click here for a short video of the kind of craziness we encountered.

we presented this video and our observations in class today, where all the other groups presented their creative thinking projects.

we had loadsa fun doing this. =)

thanks professor kirpal!

EXAM FEVER...

it's a week from my exams.

shudder.

i haven't started revising for them and i'm not sure why i'm not getting that stressed out at the prospect of not being able to finish revising.

perhaps being married changes my mindset about what's really important.

everything else pretty much falls to the sidelines, even though i used to think of those things as the be all.
i'll be taking five papers, while the majority of students are taking four, or three.

good luck to me. =P

in other news, pauline's posted up pictures of our day at wild wild wet!


topped off the evening with a fantastic dinner at aston's grill...


where we showed off the t-shirts mom got us from bangkok...


thanks to snuffy hubby for being so sporting. =)

WEEKEND MADNESS

so the weekend came and went.

saturday morning was spent at east coast park blading, and having my first fall!

it was still a fun morning spent with the hubby, brother, parents and sue en. =)

the hubby and me then decided to head over to my parents' place with the new card game he got yesterday (a couple of hours before we were to attend a scout dinner at spring court).

we tried my mom's tiramisu ice cream (yummers!) and spent some time playing "zeus on the loose" with the bro, before we all shuffled off to dinner.



the night ended with us zoning out in front of the telly. =P

and sunday afternoon was spent at the wild wild wet water theme park at downtown east.


it was a really small park, but wasn't too bad for a scaredy cat like me!

the hubby and friends could've used more of a challenge though.

dinner of honey-bourbon ribs and the new york strip of a steak was extremely satisfying. =)

the two of us then hopped over to the pet store down the street, played with the puppies some, and got a contact for a husky breeder...*beams*

puppies always lift me up.

i can only imagine how owning one would affect our lives, but i do know for sure that we would be good parents to it. =)

the night ends with a slice of cake from the cheesecake cafe, and puppy thoughts consuming my mind.

on a separate note, nothing beats the cool outta my hubby. =)

LAST POLITICAL SCIENCE ESSAY!

that's right.

the last political science essay for the term is done!

i'm extremely relieved that this is the last of the three term papers i have to hand up for this module, but am rather dissatisfied with the content of my latest paper "Globalization: Does It Discourage War?"

my previous two were a comparison between presidential and parliamentary systems and whether religion is the underlying cause of most conflicts (i enjoyed writing this one).

exam's on in two weeks...

i'm glad the term zipped by so quickly, but am not sure i've absorbed that much within this time to warrant my advance to the next term.

so far, my journey into varsity hasn't quite given me enough reason to think that school's really that important now.

i appreciate the knowledge i've gained as a result of my first term and the few genuine souls i've encountered along the way, but i'm still missing my job.

my boss has been an absolute sweetie, encouraging me to take on ad hoc assignments because he wants to keep me on his payroll.

i guess it's hard for him to not have me around anymore, given how we've slogged through the last four years together.

but things are better now, what with the company moving ahead and upward.

so now i'm playing the roles of an employee, a student, a daughter/in-law, a sister and a wife, the last two being my favorite. =P

i am thankful for the presence of my husband.

and for the rollerblades and ice cream treats he's showered on me.

and for the mornings he wakes up next to me, kisses me, and tells me that he loves me.

INCOMPETENCE

i have been made to compromise on the very things i've held as my expertise.

this happens because i simply cannot arm-twist students into being responsible and to doing what i think would get us that A-grade.

i am absolutely appalled by how inconsistent and shoddy some people can be.

and what's even worse is how these people seem to think that they are "good enough".

i hate settling for less. seriously.

i pride myself on being good at what i do.

and i know what i do well.

so when people get sloppy at things and do not meet deadlines, i blow my top.

i could be outright bitchy in the office, because everyone would get that it was more about the issue than it was about them.

but i can't seem to be too bitchy in school, because some of the people i work with will not appreciate that i just want us all to do well.

sigh.

i was put into the school mainly because of my work and life experiences.

it sure seems like these very experiences could lead to my undoing.

i refuse to be deemed incompetent because the people i work with are.

but i also refuse to be deemed the only competent one in a team because we are a team.

i hate cookie-cutter everything.

why are people afraid to be different?

HAPPY ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY!

dear snuffy hubby,

Con los ojos cerrados
Amandonos
Volando en un beso
Viviendo de este amor que es tan puro ideal
De este amor que se puede tocar

Con los ojos cerrados
Enamorados
Sonando despiertos
sin miedo
A que nadie nos pueda separar
A jurar que lo nuestro es eterno amor
Amor

(with a little help from Josee's latest email =P)

and it's been a year since we first kissed on 28 October 2006 - the beginning of a helluva ride.

getting married has been the most unexpected event for the both of us.

but i realize how the proposal and wedding reflects how much of an influence we've had on each other.

we were both schedule-freaks, always wanting to plan things in advance to keep them from screwing up.

but we're like two dialectics, which came together to create something new - spontaneity, which was never quite a part of our personalities in that sense.

in spite of the obvious chemistry we shared from the start, i wasn't quite sure then if we could fit intellectually.

i always saw myself as a brooder and a bloody cynic while you were this bright-eyed, optimistic soul.

of course, we both rubbed off on each other and i became much less of a prick and you became more self-aware...of sorts. =P

i love how we are able to engage in a variety of discussions, ranging from what kinda dog we'd like to have, to the morality of heinrich himmler.

i love how you try to keep my spirits up when i get upset at times about feeling like a fish out of water, now that i'm back at school.

i get really sad when you're sick.

and then i get sick.

ah well.

i'll always remember your attempt at spanish when you came to the airport for me after my work trip to China.

Te amo y no puedo vivir sin ti. =)

HUBBY AND ME BACK AT SALSA!

thanks to panda for snapping this picture of us at the Singapore International Salsa Festival over the weekend!

man i need to build up on my stamina. =P

Thanks Josee =)

in friends

today's the day off from school.

but with plenty of readings and project work to catch up on, wednesdays aren't really breaks for me.

especially when i'm feeling wheezy and have a blocked/sometimes running nose.

i started off my day with the usual routine of checking for emails and listened to the tune that Josee passed on to some of us.

it clearly main my morning as i tried ways and means to embed the audio onto my blog to share it with everyone else.

it has such a wonderful melody. =)

a fantastic example of a bachata song i would like to share with my classmates who were asking me about the dance.

MOM'S THE WORD

i just had a rather resigned conversation with the mother over the phone.

as i spoke, i teared and now i've launched into full-blown sobs.

she reminded me it's just one day and after that, all will be over and we can get on with our lives.

she reminded me that i have to compromise to make everyone else happy.

I KNOW ALL THESE THINGS!

AND I'M ALREADY THROWING IN THE TOWEL.

BUT WHY DO I HAVE TO BE EXPECTED TO GIVE IN?

WHY IS THERE SUCH AN EXPECTATION PLACED ON ME?

i love him so much, but i feel as each day goes by, i'm losing more of me.

i cannot defy convention now because i cannot bear for him to go through what i'm experiencing now.

the wedding. the living.

that's two of the biggest things i might ever be giving up.

fucking patriachy.

i can't say it out loud.

but the one thing i want to do now is...

go back to disneyland and keep my eye on them fireworks.

have my snuffy hubby and JP along with me.

and get hitched right there.

i just don't feel like facing all these people anymore.

and i just broke my promise to myself.

STUFF IT LAH, SERENE.

i believe my mom was joking when she said some years ago that i could "elope" to get married, so will "save a lot of money".

all things considered, that sure seems like the best idea now.

i just want to keep being in love with him, marry him and move on.

without all the politics and fuss.

and more tears.

of course, my mom would be appalled that i actually heeded something she said.

i wonder when i'll lose my marbles and throw in the towel.

so much for always having declared to make the wedding work for us, and not others.

COUNTING BLUE CARS

maybe this is growing up.

to stop whining and perhaps do something about things.

or not.

i learnt that i can't always want things my way.

and that i shouldn't put others through my mess.

so if now's not the right time for things to be said, then i shouldn't push it.

it will only bring me and the others more pain and heartache.

but when it's deemed the right time to say it...

i'm hoping what i say will not break someone's heart.

nothing's ever easy.

so i learnt today.

THE ONE GOOD THING

about being on the verge of tears the whole afternoon is...

you get naturally red cheeks.

but also bloody high blood pressure.

is this worth it?

IF I KISSED YOU

i'm back.

i'm engaged. =)