Happy holidays!!

Merry X'mas!

Hee, Zim decided to give me my X'mas present before we head off to Vermont. Well, this was quite a pleasant surprise as I really wasn't expecting anything, especially after the few major spendings this month (beginning with MASA and followed by Vermont trip). Nonetheless, the gift was AWESOME. (Probably one of the rare few things that I actually really like!)

And yes, it comes in a pretty little blue box tied in a silky white ribbon that is every girl's dream!


It's a lovely charm bracelet with it's very first charm that resembles little Sammy!!! YAPPY!


Feeling really guilty for him spending so much money, I've decided that this would double up as our 2nd wedding anniversary present as well. (Time really flies! It's been almost two years!)

I've been pretty busy with school that I've not been able to buy him his present. Oops.. Shall brainstorm and sit on it for a while.. Hang in there Zimmy~

Done with School!

Yeah! Okay, at least for this semester..
Happy~

Snowboarding weekend!

Snowboarding weekend is finally coming up! Not only that, it's also gonna be the first white X'mas I'm gonna be having! Happy~ Anyway, in preparation for the snowboarding weekend and after much deliberation, I finally decided to invest in the snowboarding gears.

So, I swinged by Paragon Sports with a friend who is an expert at snowboarding to stock up on the gears. Hee, I'm really glad he was there to give some really precious advice. No surprises, the criteria of my purchases were as such:
1. The aesthetic - White is of course my new black. (Recall: white ibook, white ipod, white iphone..)
2. Price
3. Feasibility (Come on, I'm afterall still a girl, what were you expecting?!)

Here are the steals:

1 ) My snowboarding boots from Burton. Not only was it one of the cheapest available, I am completely in love with the colors!

2) My solomon helmet which surprisingly cost as much as the boots does.

3) The design of my board with my lovely Oakley googles. It's also my first pair of Oakley. Apparently, I don't have a nosebridge that is high enough to support most of the Oakley shades, so this is about as far as I can get to own an Oakley. Guess I'll make do.

4) The snowboard bag that I had to drag all the way from Union Square to Chinatown for lunch. Luckily there were wheels on it. It's a lifesaver!
All in all, my steals for the day.
This whole shit cost me quite a huge sum of money and thankfully, we had already bought our ski jackets and pants from our shopping trip in feb. Hence, the damage isn't as significant as it should be. (Okay, who am I kidding again...)

Nonetheless, I'm definitely making a pretty deep commitment here and will try my best to go snowboarding as frequent as I can before the season is over or before something is broken. (Knock on wood though) And, by any stroke of luck, I might be able to snowboard well enough by the end of my stay in NYC.
Can't wait!! And yap, this is also what I'm abandoning Sam for. Sorry Sammy boy!

It's Really NOT my day.

When bad and unlucky things do happen, they all happen at the same time. And yap, today is the day.

It started off with a confrontation with a neighbour I really dislike. (Yes, I'm biased...) I was dreaming for a dashing ang moh, preferably with a Daniel Wu resemblance, that would move in opposite us. And of course, that did not come true, nowhere close at all. In came this fugly balding middle aged guy. (Okay, I'm not against his appearance) I just didn't have any good vibes about him. We had an encounter before this and he was just purely unfriendly and stuck up. So, in a nutshell, I don't like him. I guess I must have been really extremely unlucky to meet him on my way back. (I was carrying this uber heavy box all the way back from times square and I was in a rather frustrated mood already.) He was complaining about a barking dog and how the dog had been driving him crazy for the past three days blah blah (no, it's not Sam, Sam isn't even at home most of the time, it's a dog we are dog sitting.). To his credit, his complaint was valid. Unfortunately, being a bitch I am, it's just his face and his tone that I was upset with. Plus, I was really tired from dragging the box, couldn't he had picked a better time? This was actually one of the rare few times that I was not apologetic for something that's partly my fault. It didn't help that the dog was barking when I was struggling to open the dog. Sigh, maybe the barking might make him move away? And maybe then a daniel wu look-a-like would move in instead? *Praying~*

On one hand, I was also pretty frustrated with the barking. I am dog person and while I don't mind the barking, it's getting on my nerves a little and I'm also a little stressed out that my other neighbours would complain as well. I had to change some of my plans for the rest of the week as I had to stay home to prevent the dog from barking incessantly. And I really appreciate that Zim's mom was around to help out a great deal.

And things just didn't get any better. I decided to carry my two uber big textbooks to school to sell today and after struggling with the stupid books on the long train journey and long walk, I arrived at the bookstore just 2 minutes before closing! RAWR~~~~~~~~ Super upset. So, I was left with the two horribly heavy books. Thank god for my classmate who was willing to let me leave them in her car. So annoyed.

The best part of all, to end my day, I dropped my underwear in the toilet bowl (AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh) just five minutes short of a new day.

WHAT THE HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL...

It's here!!!!

No, I don't mean my period.

It's the canvas I ordered! Well, long story short, I went for a Rachel Ray Show recording and the guest star was Ty Pennington (from Extreme Makeover Home Edition). Apparently, he was endorsing for Canvas on Demand and as the audience, we received a USD$150 gift voucher free. Well, being the skeptical Singaporean, I was pretty convinced that there were conditions applied to receiving the discount. Hence I procastinated for a while before finally choosing a photo to be made into a canvas. No surprises here, of course it's a photo of Sam!

It was a real pleasant surprise to learn that not only were there no strings attached, the company even gave us a larger size being the size we chose wasn't suitable for the photo we submitted. All we had to pay was the shipping cost, which came up to no more than USD$15! So, we waited.

This was the photo we submitted.

Here's the end product which I absolutely adore!!

I absolutely love it! But I can't quite say the same for Sam though.

Nonetheless, I'm sooo please with the end product. =D

New apple product to my collection?

Couldn't stop LOL-ing when I saw this product.

Maybe I should get this for Sam for X'mas.

List of things to do when I get back...

1. Visit a dentist. Despite the daily brushing, I'm sure there are some decaying food scraps anchored somewhere in my mouth that I just can't get rid off. But nope, I'm pretty sure my breath doesn't stink.. Slight dilemma here though, (A bimbotic one as well) should I return to Hougang just to see the cute dentist, or should I just find one in the vicinity? *Frets*

2. Get a facial. I really miss my facial place - Skin Revival. While there's a pretty decent facial place in Flushing, I really miss my facialist whom I could just talk non-stop with. (I'm not that sure if she misses me though, probably not..)

3. Get a hair cut. Hair cut is just ridiculously expensive in NYC and after being to two different salons, nothing beats NEXT Hair Salon! And in comparison to the prices here, it's wayy cheaper too. Maybe I'll get a color and a perm (if I don't chicken out again) as well.

4. Visit my OB-GYN. Well, the last time I went, I had some cysts removed. Hopefully this visit would be better and more pleasant. And, time to stock up on my painkillers again. Yes, the cramps are still here. It was better initially but it's gradually getting worst. Sigh~ let's see how it goes. Hopefully, my insurance would cover the cost. =P

5. Visit my optician - Chew's Optics (I've been going there since I was in primary school!) I guess I am officially sick of my nerdy glasses. Time to get something that will make me look smarter and to grab more contact lens.

6. Stock up on my comics! This time round, I'm bringing some back here with me! Rawrrr...

7. Visit Universal Studios Singapore. Any takers?

8. Indulge in the oyster spread at Marriott Hotel's buffet dinner. (My record is still 15 in one seating. This I've to beat!) Oh, I better get my cholestrol checked before doing that. -_-

9. Wala and paulander sessions! I'm ready to get dead drunk! Where are my drinking khakis??

10. Eat Ya-Kun, eat Ya-kun, eat Ya-Kun.

Meal of a lifetime..

We finally did it. We went to MASA and busted our wallets. My very first experience with a Michelin 3-star restaurant, and probably my last too, especially after the damage incurred. Whether if it's actually worth it, I'm not too sure, but the experience was definitely once in a life time and of course, the company was awesome.

There was no fixed menu in the restaurant and the chef would serve whatever he wants (probably dependent on the availability of the ingredients). It was a 8-course omakase dinner (that was somewhat similar to Sushi-O-Gari), except that this has officially overtaken the price significantly (it was more than 3 fold!).

Anyway, it was also the first time in my life trying a list of super expensive and exotic food.
1. Caviar
2. White Truffles
3. Black Truffles-Good stuff, seriously
4. Fugu (yes, it's pufferfish) and thankfully still alive to tell the tale
5. Wagyu beef (that was heavenly~)
6. Tuna belly (toro)

Slight disappointment that the foie gras didn't make it to the list (but again, we had our fill at Sushi-O-Gari). A couple of the courses were also garnished with gold flakes as well. How extravagant! A lot of the dishes were also topped with yuzu sauce and had a pretty good aftertaste (though I did get kinda sick of it after a while).

Honestly, despite the impressive list of food that we had, it didn't feel like it was worth the amount of money we paid. While the food was good and ridiculously fresh, it was nothing as orgasmic as what we had at Sushi-O-Gari. The service wasn't astronomical either (it didn't suck, nor was it drop dead good) despite only having a handful of guests to serve. Each sitting had about 16 guests and we were sitted on wooden tables that reminded me greatly of Ikea. (okay, I'm being mean. But again, my table was wobbling slightly.) There was quite an intimidating air when we entered the restaurant and we were told that the chef requested that we turned off our cell phones and to excuse ourselves when we need to answer the phone. (This is kinda dumb. I mean, our group was making quite alot of noise just by our basic conversations already, so what difference does answering a call make?) Another unfortunate part was that they didn't allow photographs and that was really a damper as we were all equipped to take pictures of food that we were probably gonna taste only once. Well, I guess they do need protect the privacy of their dishes.

While I don't regret my experience, I'm pretty sure we won't be doing it again and probably won't recommend to our friends as well, unless the joker has too much money to spare. Nonetheless, I'm glad we did it and we enjoyed it while it lasted. (Which was until the bill arrived..)

In bed with him..

So Zim's outta town again. (Silent "yeah"!) And when that happens, I am able to illegally allow the little boy to sleep on the bed with me all night long. And I looove it. Well, I think Sam loves it too, especially since he would sleep all night through without getting off.

However, everytime I try to lay him right beside me so that I could hug him to sleep, the silly little thing would wriggle out of my arms and crawl far far away. T_T Seems like he would rather sleep on the edge of the bed than right beside me!!!

Yet again, I would sometimes wake up to see that the little boy has crawled nearer back to me and is laying relatively me. And that really makes my day!

I know he loves me! My silly little boy..


- Greetings from KeY's iPhone!

Lotsa Love from Singapore..

Little Sam's gifts from Zim's mom and sister!!! A really pleasant surprise and I have to admit that it's really heartwarming to know that they treat Sam like family. (Afterall, he is like my child!) Zim's mom was really cute and even asked Sam to say good night to Por Por. Hee....

Thanks for the love!!!!!

Ugly New York..

Well, as much as I like NYC, it really isn't as glam a place as it's set out to be. At least not with the tons of ugly and rude New yorkers around here. For the 10 months since I've been here, I've been told off a dozen times for things that I didn't do on purpose. And it really sucks.

Incident 1:
I went to the supermarket near our apartment for the first time. After shopping, I placed the basket of items on the checkout counter and waited for the cashier to scan my items. Sounds right doesn't it? Apparently not. The cashier, with the rudest and worst attitude ever, told me off bluntly, saying that I should have taken the items out and place them individually on the checkout counter and stow the basket away (anywhere else except the checkout counter...) What the... Worst of all, just because of this practice, there were baskets and trolleys parked everywhere, making the checkout lanes a mess. Geesh, how dumb.

Incident 2:
I was walking Sam and crossing the cyclist track that has a sign "Yield to Pedestrian". At first glance, it seemed clear, thus I went ahead and crossed, not realizing that a cyclist had came out of nowhere (travelling in uber speed). Of course, he swayed and avoided me (thankfully) but without forgetting to shout at me rudely first, asking me to watch where I was going! WHat the...

Incident 3:
I bought a new tote bag that I loooove to ferry Sam around. Well, I wanted a bag with an opening so that Little Sam could pop his head out to see see look look. Anyway, since the day I bought it, I've taken the bus and subway umpteen times without any issues. Until this fateful day. I was about to board the bus and the driver pointed at me and waved a 'No' action. I was confused but tried to board the bus anyway. She shouted at me, rudely AGAIN, saying that the bag isn't enclosed and thus I wasn't allowed. (Sigh, you gotta be kidding me!) So, LL. I ended up walking about 5 avenues to get home instead.

Incident 4:
I was just walking along the pathway and texting to Zim. Apparently, the pathway was doubled as an entrance into the petrol kiosk and a cab was turning into it. I did see the cab but just walked anyway. Come on, it's a pathway for pedestrians, so, don't I have the right of way? He actually honked me and scolded me for crossing. What the...

Incident 5:
I was walking (again~) and there was an idiot who left his coffee cup on the floor while he was trying to light his cigarette. The pathway was pretty big and he just had to leave the cup in the middle of nowhere. I mean, if he was any brighter, he should have placed it near the wall. (But again, I would never had left my cup on the filthy NYC streets.) I did see it but just ended up walking a tad bit closer to his cup than he would liked and he shouted loudly (This one was really loud though I was no more 3 arms length from where he was standing.) asking me to WATCH OUT! Arrrrrgggh.. Well, I actually shouted back this time round, as his rudeness was totally uncalled for (but again, so were many others).

Incident 6:
A wheelbound passenger was trying to board the bus that I wanted to board. So I stood back and waited (it took a pretty long while..and I was freeezing in the cold). When the guy got up and the ramp had retreated, I simply hopped on the bus. The bus driver SCREAMED at me infront of everyone saying that I shouldn't have boarded when he wasn't ready, blah blah blah. I was pretty stunned. I mean, apparently, I was supposed to wait for him to get out of his seat and buckle the guy up before I was 'allowed' to board the bus. O-K-A-Y. I'm sorry I didn't know the protocol or SOP for 'Waiting for a wheelchair bound person to board', but the screaming was really uncalled for.

Sigh. This incidents were just off a few that I could remember (and yes, I don't forget easily...) and there were many more. I mean I don't think Singaporeans are any more polite, but at least they ain't rude. They don't go around snapping and shouting at people like that. Yes, there were moments that I got pissed off and what not, but still, most of the incidents could have been resolved by just answering nicely. Best of all, several of the incidents were with service providers. Dude, where's your service standards? Oh wait, I am in NYC, there's NO service standards.

Now KeY isn't gonna be the pushover no more. I'm going to start to act like a New Yorker and no way am I gonna get bullied again. Watch out people, I AM going to retaliate the next time you step on my toes...

Watch out, I mean it...

Sweet tooth!

Yummy desserts at Kyotofu!


- Greetings from KeY's iPhone!