Breakthroughs

Hmmm...

After all the visits and meals together with Chris' family, I can now say that I'm getting more and more at ease.

We happened to go back to his place yesterday to grab a charger before leaving for Causway point for dinner and to stock up on Sundae's kibbles. Midway, Chris remembered it was his elder brother's birthday and that his Mom prolly cooked up food for the occassion.

Entered the house sniffing in as much aroma of the food as we could because we were SO HUNGRY! HAha!

The 3 hours in there we chatted over meal, got to know Chris' SIL a lil more, played with Chris' niece, chatted bits with his Mom, and got a little more friendlier and open towards his younger sis.

It was quite fun lah, especially watching Catherine[Chris' niece] play gleefully with the balloon and behaving damn cheekily while having the cake. She can like take a spoonful of the cake and the cream get on the outside of her lips, she'll stick out her tongue ,and in circular motion, lick and SMEAR the cream all over her lower half of the face!

AND she does it each time she takes a bite! Cute right! It's like she's out to make us laugh!







Oh ya! Great news........ I've got a job already! [Everybody say "yay~~" ya.. like again!! lemme see..... it's my 3rd ob within 1.5yrs]

Gonna keep it hush hush for now. Don't wanna get too excited and hyped up about the job yet still kind premature to be announced as I'm going through a course, and then a 3months probation period afterwards.

Pay wise is kinda average for a Diploma holder. So don't keep coming to ask me for treats ah!





Talking about job, my previous one, damn irritating! I think I'll never recommend anyone there already. Already received few threatening messages when I didn't answer the bosses' calls when I was either busy or, like earlier, in the shower.

Now all I pray is that they'd pay me! If they don't, I'll refer customers to the firm that has opened right next to them.




'Nuff from the unhappy stuff, back to my current job. As I asid, i'm on a mini course now with the rest of the people at OSD[shortform for my work place, good for you if you managed to figure it out. heh.]. Consultant is from the States and I love his presentations!

He asked a question in class, even my 3 bosses thought for a while and came up with less than satisfied answer to to consultant. [okay, let me brag a bit here can?] I on the other hand, gave him a superb answer and he was in AWE! "Are you sure you've been only here for a day?"

And my director went "That's a very good answer. I'm impressed"
And boss 2 went "Very well done."
And boss 3 went "Whoa"

And consultant went "Where did you hire this girl?"
And boss1 went "We've been interviewing for 2 months and came this right candidate and we hired her immediately!"

Yea, I went for interview like 2hours after I sent my resume, a trial the very next morning and started work the day after. I even clocked OVERTIME ok!

And then colleague went "I'm so proud of you, you remembered what I've taught you through the 2hours crash orientation yesterday."

What did I tell you guys? Ah~? ah~? I'm a fast and keen learner ok! :D Of course under the right circumstanced like the teacher, surroundings and influences. Realise that a motivating & unpressurizing teaching method works the best for me.



I can easily say that these encouragement, motivations and words of praise made me the happiest employee today! [when was the last time i got praised? and how often do I get prased, I don't remember.] And for the following days, months or years to come. It had seriously made an impact on me, definitely.



Starting to miss school when I was there. Missed the times straining my ears to adjust to the slang of different teachers' special accents, missed the times where I could so confidently asnwer questions subconsciously while listening & taking down notes, missed the times where I really like subjects/modules and I put in a hundred and one percent of my concentration and hard work to excel and show the lecturer I'm his best student.

I guess I must be really missing 'student-hood'. The strive to compete, excel and outshine in classes. But I remembered I was never good enough. Maybe that is what's stopping me from putting my hundred and one percent in adulthood.

Time to have a change, to welcome the new type of bosses & colleagues into my life. I don't want to quit after a few months again.

9-6pm again tomorrow!
michelle

Me cooked these

We always eat out, and recently, it's becoming such a chore to decide what and where to have our daily dinner. We both love good food, and most of the times, good food doesn't come cheap. In our aim to cut down on our expenses and yet not resorting to eating hawker takeaways, we COOKED!

Not only cooking is CHEAP, it also taste nice when you don't have bad cooking skills. Lalala~

Linguine Carbonara with added bacon & golden mushroom! & Broccolli in Creamy Chicken Soup!



We also had baked potatoes like 2 hours afer our dinner. All these, less than 10bucks!! Cheaper than having it at Pasta Mania.

Down side to whipping up your own food? Doing the dishes! 3 pots and pans, and like 4bowls, 3plates, 1 tong and numberous spoons & forks.

My hands..... I'll need some chocolate butter moisturizer!!


Very selfish just to cook for the 2 of us riggggggghhhhtttt? So I gave some broccolli to Sundae. Mashed up broccolli + Nutripe canned food.



Saw this thingy that Dina took on her blog. Being bored, I tried it out.

Take a read, and try it out too!

What Michelle Teo Nah Hoon Means

You are confident, self assured, and capable. You are not easily intimidated. You master any and all skills easily. You don't have to work hard for what you want. You make your life out to be exactly how you want it. And you'll knock down anyone who gets in your way! You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are very open. You communicate well, and you connect with other people easily. You are a naturally creative person. Ideas just flow from your mind. A true chameleon, you are many things at different points in your life. You are very adaptable. You are truly an original person. You have amazing ideas, and the power to carry them out. Success comes rather easily for you... especially in business and academia. Some people find you to be selfish and a bit overbearing. You're a strong person. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow. You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily. Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is. You are a seeker. You often find yourself restless - and you have a lot of questions about life. You tend to travel often, to fairly random locations. You're most comfortable when you're far away from home. You are quite passionate and easily tempted. Your impulses sometimes get you into trouble. You are well rounded, with a complete perspective on life. You are solid and dependable. You are loyal, and people can count on you. At times, you can be a bit too serious. You tend to put too much pressure on yourself. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals. You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality.

Amazingly 90% accurate!

Oh wait~ Great! Now everyone knows my full name. [GaH!]

Dead bored!
Michelle

Yellow-Faced-Woman

In Mandarin, it means " Huang Lian Puo ".

What defines a " YFW " ?

1. She does not go to work
2. She stays at home to do every little house work
3. She keeps the house neat and tidy by sometimes nagging, sometimes doing
4. She feels really bored and aimless after all the chores are done
5. She feels lonely when there's no one online to chat with her
6. She walks her dog too often
7. She pass time by waiting for her other half to come home from work
8. She cooks
9. When there's nothing else easy for her to cook, she tries to look into the recipe book for more challenging dishes to whip up.
10. She now only need 7hours of sleep, sometimes even lesser as she don't tire out easily anymore

There are more to it.

Sad to say, I've been like that for the past week after my Bangkok trip! Even Chris commented that I'm one already. Doing the laundry, dusting the house, vacuuming the areas, IRONING [I accidentally IRONED my right index finger the other day.]

I seriously need a job, PERIOD!

Ugly shit

Job hunting starts tomorrow
michelle

Bangkok trip - 10th to 14th June 2008

I'm actually contempleting whether to post about the trip in 1 post or separate them into 3. There's just too many pictures and details I wanna talk talk about, but I'm so tired!!! But guess if I keep procrastinating, this post might not even surface at all.

Goodness, I need a massage badly, my back and legs are still aching from 5days walk!! Everywhere we go, we walk. Save a lot on transportation fees and got ourselves free from the ever polluted and jammed up roads. It's crazy there! Look! Ain't it scary? Gonna bring a mask the next time I go there.

Again, this was a very last minute trip. We booked the air tickets and hotel only 2days before our departure! Flew by Jetstar and stayed at some budget 2 star hotel in the heart of Bangkok! Everywhere was within our reach!

Had Gelare before the Flight, was a Tuesday so it's half the price!

Boarding pass? So paperish lah.

My first time on a budget airline! Tell you, the seats are even more cramp than those on our SBS buses!

B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L weather! See the cloud, machiam cotton candy! Feel like getting out of the plane and lay my body on it.

Day 1,

Our humble room in First House Hotel. Only a total of USD100.87 for 4 nights of stay.

Mai siao siao, this toilet still got bathtub, but small lah, can't even fit 1 of us nicely in the tub. A lil dirty also.

By the time we settled our stuffs, unpacked and rested for a while, we head out hunting for food! This place, after 10pm is like a dead town. We had to walk a distance out to only to find a small little push cart stall selling chicken noodles/rice. There was also another push cart stall selling meatballs & squids on satay sticks dipped in their specialty spicy sauce.

So on the first night, at 75baht[about SGD3] we had 2 bowls of noodles and 2 sticks of meatballs and 1 stick of squid. Ice water were complimentary.

As we walked our way back to the hotel, we were still scouting around for food. Came across this 24hours Burger King located about 10mins away from "home", for the 5days, they have items that are not available back in SG. Milkshakes!!!! Prices are really cheap too! We bought back a set meal consisting of 2 piece chicken, 1 chocolate milkshake and a packet of onion rings at less than SGD6.

End of Day 1


*****


On Day 2, woke up really early for breakfast at the hotel's cafe and set off to the Platinum Fashion Mall that was just opposite our main road.

One of the popular morning snacks. Don't know what it's call, but it has a very nice taste of corn, coconut and something which I still can't identify.

The lazy and sleepy mongrel we see when we set off for our programs each day.

Took a picture with this cute mongrel puppy and his owner who seem to be waiting for someone on the overhead bridge.

Look what I found in the mall!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yummy yum yum yum~ Also bought some back for my siblings to try on my last day.

All these for 88Baht! Drooling already?

Other than the usual shopping, we noticed some cute stuffs over there too. Think this bag suits me? Hehehe.

Cute portable mini fan.

AshTray. Gotta press the red button to emit air/water.

Looks funny in this shades. Almost bought it for him lah, kept saying want a shades where it's unique and doesnt look common.

After all the shopping, went back to the hotel to drop our bags and also to take a short rest before setting out to MBK for another round of shopping and dinner. Just as we walked towards the 2 Buddha statue in front of Central Mall, came a dark skinned guy approximately about 50yrs of age or more.

"Aye, good day! Come to pray to the Buddha? Are you both Buddhists?"

Chris said yes, while I stood there saying nothing.

"Oh, so have you visited the Lucky Buddha already?"

We shook our heads

"He is very good, people go there wish for things and come true. You must go there, thetemple only opens once a year and it coses at 7pm today. I help you get a tuk-tuk to bring you there? Only 20Baht, go there and come back, ust 2 streets away."

A bit curious lah, and since the transport so cheap, we decided to go. Was a very humble temple lah, bit run down and old, was thinking how come got no crowd at all.

On the Tuk-tuk. This tuktuk so difficult to get into. Quite a good mode of transport when the roads are ammed up, cos tuktuk drivers can cut the queue very well. One bad thing, you'll breathe in all the polluted air, and dust, sand and whatsnot will get to you eyes.

The statue of Lucky Buddha and other smaller buddhas

There at the side of the praying hall, is another man who speaks really good english,

"Hi, where you from? Looks like from Malaysia or Singapore?"

"We're from Singapore."

"Oh, very nice country there, and very expensive. Changi Airport very big, very nice."

We smiled and nodded in agreement.

"Both of you married yet? You must love her alot. I love my wife a lot too, and that is why I buy her gifts every year."

Then he went on to talk about red ruby and sapphire stones, about how his wife love these jewellery and how expensive they are in Singapore and without the tax and plus the discount, we're actually getting at least a 50% discount. And then!!

"Have you visited the export centre? Every year only open 1 day for tourist to buy without tax, and it comes with great discount! You love her, you go get a gift for her there."

He went on to yak and yak, like psychoing die die must go there, so out of curiousity, we decided to take a look.

A run down jewllery shop is what we came to. But the stones inside is really nice lah, I was so bought over by the beauty of the 0.93carat red ruby ring accompanied by 5 little diamonds at each side. And the price? 46000Baht! That is SGD2000, and after discount is SGD1600. The lady offered us a whole set of Tiffany cutting stones consisting a Pendant, a pari of earrings and the ring at SGD$3800, and a blue sapphire ring for Chris at SGD1600. He wanted to get for each of us.

Then.......... A uncle who was a Singaporean came into the shop to collect his set. He chatted with us in Hokkien saying that this was the 3rd tim he came to buy the stones. And always, he buy a set, give the ring to his wife and sold the rest to POH HENG and recoupe his $$$, that way, he gets his wife a ring for free.

This tact works on people who are greedy and never think much lah. Sensing something wasn't right, I gave a call to Dad, better to waste that few dollars than few thousand. Daddy said the stones are not valuable, another sms to Wilson, who goes to Thailand often, said not to buy either.

We left the shop without anything lah. Heng man. Wasted my precious 2hours of shopping at MBK. ARGHZ

Rush over to MBK to get some local titbits for our families and then a quick Shabu dinner. Kinda cheap, but food were so-so only.

See what I found at Central World? One of MAH FAVOURITE ice cream kiosk!!

They do not have my Brownie Temptation, but the next closest to that is BROWNIE CHOCOLATE! only 25Baht [SGD1.10]!!! In SG a small cup goes at SGD3.90 I think.

Another interesting Delicacy! INSECTS!!!! Hehehe, I was daring enough to snap a real close up picture of these while the stall was left with no one, but not daring enough to try any of it. Chris dare not too. :P

Okay, end of Day 2.


*****



Guess where we went on Day 3? We visited one of the theme parks in Thailand!! It's not big, but it was fun! Call us kids, we really enjoyed ourselves living like one again.

Welcome to DREAMWORLD!!!

Under I Love You

And over there, we've been to many wonders of the world!

Effiel Tower! Romantic Paris

Statue of Liberty! And statue of chapalang!

Leaning Tower! Corny eh! hahaha

And out of sudden, we became STRONG people there.

I guess I was stronger. Lalala~

I love puppies! I love Dalmatians!!

Back into StoneAge. We look funny without our necks! AHahAHahaHAAHaha!!

Oh look, did we just entered the Giant's House? Everything's so HUGEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

See how mini Chris is?

Now I know how Tweety Bird felt being kept in the cage.

Outside the Haunted House which I chickened out after taking 3 steps inside. Have to walk in the whole experience one lah, so scary can! After being freaked out at Igores, the haunted restaurant in Singapore, a few years back, I can't walk through scary experience again. If not, I'll just get stuck midway, legs jellified, shoulders shaking and hands over mouth, screaming!

BUTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!! I'm not timid okay. :P If the whole scary experience is to be gone through on a automated mobile cart/tram, I would have gone for it as usual. :P I repeat, I am not timid! BLEAH!
Bite me,

And he'll bite you back!

Hurhurhur, is this me after a hundred years? :(

2 of the few thrilling rides in DreamWorld. Hurricane & the Sky Coaster!

We're the first 2. Fun! But I got a lil dizzy afterwards.

A very cute "Mae-mae" in Uncle Tom's Farm.

The Uncle tom's Farm Show. Smart wittle monkey who can do Mathematics!

3 poodles who have their share of talents.

Jumping through the fire hula!

And also some other stunts performed by the goats. Walking on a branch, jumping over humans and etc. Too many pictures to post about 1 show lah.

You know, this place have a very interesting toilet sign. Take a look.

Close up! Chris said that he looks like he's constipated + masturbating. Lol!

Now, to the games carnival! :D Busted 350baht on the games.

and luckily on the last game that we decided to leave, Chris got a prize for me!


Enough of the games already, and finally got to see a real life elephant after 3days in Thailand.

Up close and personal.

Your highness need a rest.

Tian Mi Mi? Tiring loh, no matter how fast u paddle, the thing only moves a little.

After spending 1/2 day at Dreamworld, we came back to Petchburi Road. Dropped Skabby the soft dog "home" and went out in search of food to fill our grumbling stomaches. Over the past few days, we kept walking poast these stalls which sells stuffed cat fish and some other seafood. Being curious again, we settled ourselved down in one of the stalls.

Our food. Got communication problem one leh. I saw the menu, Crab Papaya, and asked in broken english, the boy tell me is papaya mashed with crab. Then I thought, okay, something new, we'll try. Guess what it came? MASHED UP RAW BABY CRABS WITH BEANSPROUTS IN SWEET N SPICY SAUCE! Eeeeekkkksssssssssss!!!!! RAW CRAB!

And the Cat fish I saw on the menu, showed 50baht, but when bill came, the boss who spoke okay english points to another items without english description and charge us 120baht. Zzzz, whatcan we do right?

Not filled during dinner, so at MBK again, we went for food. Oreo Cheesecake and Mango + Sticky rice and some beautifying mixed fruit blend.

That's the end of Day 3.


*****


Come Day 4, whoa so fast, with our bahts depleting at an alarming rate, we went over to SuperRich to get our Sing Dollars changed, BUT they got a stupid policy lah, must produce passport! Which tourist bring their passports around instead of putting them at the hotel's safe box?

Left the place a lil irritated and went for breakfast at Big C. It's like a ultra big hypermarket building. Think Giant in Singapore.

Had dried noodles again, with duck and pork this time, and some other chinese Dim Sum. Noodles were great, but compared to the chicken noodles on the first night, this comes in second. The Dim Sum was so-so only.

Walked around Central World, the previous WTC, and I was really happy on what I found!

MACARONS!!!! It comes cheap too! 12 pieces at 180baht! That works out to be 65cents Singapore dollars for each macaron! Where to find so cheap in Singapore ley? I got a lil addicted to it, and Chris was like "buy and eat all you want here, Singapore one very expensive lah."

Happy me!

After the little shopping, we head off to Chinatown for some cheap and good seafood! Past few meals not as shiok as this.

Steam crab in milk - Think crab bee hoon at AMK Ave 3. Kekeke

Shark's fins

BBQ Jumbo prawns - this one really sinful lah.

And oh, not forgetting this cheap and refreshing yummilicious ice cream! only 10baht for 10 scoops. :D

After makan, nothing to do, went ahead with our Suam Lum Night Bazzar Shopping spree. It looks a like Chatuchak, but on a smaller and less crowded scale.

This place, really chop people don't see blood one leh! I saw a fake CK panty on a street stall near "home" and they asked for 100baht, over at SuanLum, they asked for 180baht! Siao. I bargained back asking for 80baht, the she-male refused, we walked away, and after 2 seconds, we heard "ok!ok! 80baht!" Hahaha, the fun of bargaining and the power of walking away.

Not much night life in the heart of Bangkok, count the pubs and bars and discos out, I don't like visiting this places when I'm abroad, cos you don't know the place and culture well. Better stay out of trouble.

And so, to end Day4, we headed back to the hotel not too late to catch up some well deserved rest for the legs! We've been walking LOADS!

Day 5, the last day, had the simple breakfast in the hotel's cafe, back into the room to pack our stuffs before checking out. Brought all out bags into the storage room before heading straight out to Chatuchak!

So excited can! Everytime I read on the forums, owners bring back a lot of cheap goodies for their doggies and I only get to stay at home, on the laptop to see what they bought. But when I was there, not much were really nice and those not nice stuffs were the cheap stuffs. End up, only got a doggy denim overall and a ceramic bowl for Sundae, and the rest were buying of Polos, T shirts and boxers. Haha.

I also had lotsa fun picking up little puppies and animals. Patting them and just looking at them play with one another. The way they sleep is really cute too!

Sleepyhead French bull? or Boxer?

The funny & playful Golden retriever.

Cutie little bunny.

Poor little squirrel being tied down from its neck to the grills of the cage.

ShihTzus & Pomeranians.

So ultra cute right, but very poor thing hoh. Those being showcased outdoors are always panting, and there's no water in sight for them lah. And the smaller breeds of dogs like Chihuahua, pinchers & daschunds are being sold as young as 1month old. Sigh, what people do for money.

Very frustrating to walk in Chatuchak, cos the place very crowded, cramped up and dirty, not to mention smelly too, and especially so when the weather is hot and humid!

A lil hungry, settled down for some friend rice and noodles. Not very platable, but that is what's available when 2 people are too tired and frustrated to choose anymore.

Went back to MBK to grab some more Raphl Lauren fakey polos and shirt for Mom too, then back to Platinum Fashion Mall to tapao Mister Donut before collecting our stuffs at the hotel to head down to the Airport.

I tell you.......Food at the Thailand Airport ish soh expensive can! As you can see earlier, a set of burger kind meal is about 115baht or so. BUT! At the airport is 235baht! DOuBLE LEH! Siao!

End up we dined at some pizza place, at least was more wu hua than burgers and fries. :P

Nua-ed a bit cos we got to the airport a lil early. :P

Our food and drink. Not bad.

And end of Day 5, Hello to Singapore!


*****


My busy days not over loh! After being so beat out during the trip, I come home, only to remember that the maid is away! Back to her hometown for 3 weeks! ARGHZ!!! Left all the baggage in the living, showered, had supper and went to take the night's rest.

The next day was horrible lah! All the unpacking and washing and cleaning and mopping and laundry & ironing and packing again. I machiam MAID CAN!!!!!!!

Hurhurhur.. let me show you our loot! kekeke..

Happy Sundae and her presents. :D

This whole trip cost Chris about $1700 in total, I helped out a little bit lah. :P This month's pay vanished ust like that, gotta spend sparingly for the month now.

very much in love
michelle