Friday, April 29, 2005
are they less loved?
watched trading women last night. it was a part documentary, part interview film on the escalating sex industry in asia. twas a depressing overview of underaged women forced or coerced into this billion dollar industry where each girl's paid an average of S$2.50 (or less) for each act.these girls grew up without experiencing life, many of them ending up HIV positive and dying by the age of 16. they grew up selling their bodies not for luxury but for survival. it's really heartbreaking seeing women in such deplorable situations where not too far away in asia, the richer asian women (singapore, hong kong) are consumed by materialism and ungratefulness. i felt like a total witch for wanting a $300 pair of shoes, the five grand watch amongst many other desirables. what is wrong with us? why are some people so loved (silver spooners) and others so broken?
mak and i pondered over the irony of it all as we headed off for dinner after the film. here we are sitting in a cushy air conditioned theatre watching these women suffer amidst a sticky struggle of politics and impossible emancipation yet thinking about dinner and work tomorrow. as much as we felt sympathetic towards these ladies and their plight, we wondered if we would be as affected the morning after.
song of the moment: gone too soon babyface and stevie wonder
bee wrote this at 9:06 AM
Thursday, April 28, 2005
the one with the bad morning
woke up with a bad dream...some remnants...first she found out $80 for a mutual friend's wedding angpow is too little. mutual friend apparently told her she should give at least $120. (huh?)
secondly there wasn't enough toilets around the mutual friend's house during the ROM party (she woke up with very very full bladder)
thirdly she ate too much during the reception (on the contrary she woke up with gastric cos she was too hungry after the stomach runs last night)
...
then as ms bee was about the leave the house, she made a last reminder to mom to help retrieve the credit card receipt of her melbourne accomodation from pseudo master. she told mom bout this a month ago but apparently despite mom's superb memory for the entire synopsis of oprah winfrey and hong kong tvb serial shows, this simple little receipt reminder slipped her mind. GOLLY. worse yet, mom subsequently decided to repent her forgetfulness by nagging at ms bee to ask pseudo master for it during the car ride later. what the...?!
anyway...
got skinned by pseudo master cos he said ms bee should have asked him personally knowing mom is blur like sotong (local lingo for "darn blur") and that he could have shredded the receipt cos it was two months ago.
dammit.
yes...on hindsight she should've just asked pseudo master for it in the first place.
stupid ms bee.
update due the bad weather, she had to forgo spinellis and get her usual coffee muffin at this cafe across the street. though they serve awesome and well priced lunches, the brekkies there are far too expensive. she bloody hell paid $6.20 for a tall cap and a yucky flavoured almond apricot muffin?!and best of all she forgot she hated cooked almonds. *stabs herself with finger*
bee wrote this at 8:52 AM
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
the one with her BLACK pants
she was smart enough to avoid another black umbrella incident during the car ride this morning. subject in mind? her black kungfu- like pants. apparently pseudo master said its "ugly and it should be brown or something, not black." instead of wasting her breath rebuking his silly superstitions, she chose to keep her silence today. ahhh...the art of zen again.bee wrote this at 9:22 AM
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
the one with animations
sweetie asked me this last sunday before the screening of korean animation wonderful days (an excellent one by the way)mak: "are we watching a cartoon?"
bee: "nope. it's an animation."
i wasn't able to explain in great detail to him about the vast difference between cartoons and animations except the latter's usually adult oriented and darker in terms of content (visions and idealism), delivery and style.
five min into the film's introduction...
mak: "i see. yes, it's not a cartoon"
will be giving ghost in the shell 2: innocence a miss this year by taking randy's advice to catch the in between series (only on DVDs/VCDs) before i watch the film's part 2. i marvel at the intelligence of anime directors and if an opportunity ever presents itself, i'll love to meet the master himself.
bee wrote this at 11:13 AM
an apple is not an orange
why do people like to compare or pit one against the other especially when its obvious different beings handle and view similar situations differently? i'm not so and so and i'll appreciate if you stop the assumptions......that my career choice is marginalised just cos i don't sit with the creative people. pls understand that "creativity" emanates from your overall perspective and personality, not just cos you have a fancy title on the damn card. i've seen many uptight and narrow minded art directors.
...that all servicing people are useless bag carriers. cos if i was one, you would've been made to redo your fucking creatives ten times over two days.
...that all servicing people sleep around. hell if you bothered to look around, eight out of ten friends around you aren't exactly angels and best of all, NEITHER ARE YOU. in local terms, please wake up your idea.
...that advertising is all about looking good, PR and the ability to suck up and nothing else? you obviously have zilch clue of how this industry works by passing such naive remarks. don't you realise this is a supra dynamic industry where only the fittest (shrewd and street smart) survive. but wait, ahh, now i understand, are you one of the narrow minded people?
my sincere apologies then. point i'm trying to make? if you aren't in the industry, don't place such negative judgements cos i most certainly have never made any derogatory comments on your choice of career either. hence i would greatly appreciate if you could respect what i do as much as i do yours.
song of the moment: fully grown (disco 2000) jarvis cocker
bee wrote this at 8:54 AM
Monday, April 25, 2005
heur
she finally caved in and bought herself the heur necklace she's been eyeing since last xmas. she was actually hoping mom would get the hint, guess not. so she's not waiting any longer, it's finally hers now.
bee wrote this at 9:41 AM
the real hunt
had a pseudo amazing hunt event on saturday for a new project (another client) and darn, was it the best ever! it ran like clockwork and finally, for the first time in her life, she felt totally at ease cos she knew the event was in good hands with her supra efficient event company. see, it's always worth paying a tad more to the experts cos they really know what they're doing instead of scrimping and doing a bad ass job later.awesome! this despite her starting the day with an awful wakeup call at 8.15am that morning. her bad actually...
bee's subconscious: "DID YOU courier the prizes down to the event ms bee?"
ms groggy bee: "....prizes...what...huh...OH...FUCK."
shot up in bed immediately despite the headache, showered in a jiffy, took the car out to office, packed and lugged two heavy bagful of prizes and hauled everything to wisma by 11am.
whew.
but you know what? it may have been the most complex event she ever did, but it was also the best she ever had. thank you raj, ros and team, thank you so very much. so if any of you peeps out there need any recommendations for event experts, let me know and i'll pass you their contacts :)
bee wrote this at 9:22 AM
Friday, April 22, 2005
O...M...G...
unbelievably cool, welcome to the future everyone.bee wrote this at 5:17 PM
being chinese chinese
how often have not we described ourselves as singaporeans rather than chinese?she's never thought of herself as an "authentic" chinese other than obvious physical traits and that she could speak and read chinese. she grew up watching american sitcoms and cartoons. she grew up infatuated with kirk cameron in growing pains. she grew up wishing she was some popular cheerleader of sorts in beverly hills 90210. she grew up in an environment that welcomed "american-ness" in thoughts, beliefs and attitudes during her primary years. she grew rebellious and independent. she grew up, in other words, un-chinese. she's been labelled several names from a globalised chinese to a banana (yellow outside white inside) to a hang tze (a local slang for potato which older folks use to chastise those who cannot speak mandarin).
why did she try to break away from traditional chinese beliefs and old school mentalities? she understands the government's worrying stance on younger singaporeans losing the chinese culture. but what else do you expect in a cosmopolitan city where everyone's influenced in one way or the other by american imperialism? do you honestly expect kids to grow up timid and docile when they sit in front of their tellies at night watching the simpsons? america's "freedom of rights" has a great social impact on conditioning her thoughts and behaviour. she grew up believing in equal rights. she grew up despising judgmentalism and narrow mindedness of many around her. she's seen her dad's friends looking at her frankness and independence as being too aggro and open minded. ahyoh, your daughter like that, how to find boyfriend or husband next time? or she doesn't intend to get married ah? (twats) but you know what? she knows deep down pseudo master's very proud of his little girl despite all that. ha!
bee wrote this at 1:01 PM
music to her ears
its uncanny how radio stations always seem to know what mood she's in and play whichever song that soothes her ruffled feathers. it happened again last night with her insomniac habits and just as she was about to go to bed with puffy eyes, she heard jodeci's lately playing at 1:40am. it's the most beautiful song ever and it made her heart swell with numbling peace. she's been searching for this song for the past four years and she's finally found it at amazon (jodeci's disbanded for years). thank you very much for bringing her this song at last.bee wrote this at 9:01 AM
Thursday, April 21, 2005
what's in a name?
her colleague apparently had the impression that she's a staunch christian (?) cos of her "misleading" hotmail address evangelist. defined by dictionaries as a preacher of Christian gospel or any of the spiritual leaders who are assumed to be authors of the Gospels in the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. although the definition of evangelist may be a preacher but it could also mean advocate, champion and propagandist, someone who believes in spreading his words, ideas and thoughts to the rest of the world. she got this inspiration from david tang, head of account servicing at DDB singapore who inscribed "the evangelist" on the back of his name card. nice touch, cos most advertising people and clients would like to believe that the ultimate success of any campaign would be positive conversions. if they can change your mind and make you believe in them (like cult brands Apple and Nike), they can do almost anything, really. hence, evangelist. dynamic!bee wrote this at 1:34 PM
ms miffy
she's miffed by the darnest things lately...and she doesn't know why but the little 101 things do total up a fair bit. she's looking forward to her melbourne trip come first week of may, perhaps she can recover some positive energy from the land of different lights. she's also looking forward to her old friend and first time mommy jiayi's return from hong kong with her newborn son bill whom we've taken the affectionate liberty of calling him bui chai (billy boy in cantonese); will blog bout jiayi's choice of names for children when she meets up with her.bee wrote this at 1:12 PM
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
the one with her grateful soul
an interesting take on the harsh reality of singlehood.from article:
When the rhythm of formal religious life is centered around marriage and birth, single people experience themselves on the outside of life's important events. The more single people feel that their needs are not reflected by the institutions in which they participate, the more they feel peripheral to society. People may not be immediately aware of how much this sense of marginality affects their well-being.
how true. the christmas of 2003 was one where she felt left out, alone and mostly depressed by the lack of a person to share her life with. for once, she prayed (to God "in general") that she could have
...someone to talk to and cuddle up with
...someone to hold her hand in a horrorthon
...someone to rub her ankles when she s tired
...someone to stop her from picking at her ruined fingers
... someone to laugh with her
...someone to teach her basic kitchen skills
...someone that she can learn to cherish and share herself with
...cos there are just some things that buddies and family cant do that a special someone can.
and she's very thankful for that granted wish.
bee wrote this at 2:05 PM
Superamerica
how orgasmic can a set of wheels be? the answer? VERY.bee wrote this at 1:50 PM
the one with the rude note
she had a minor shock yesterday morning when her new client told her she was RUDE to send an accounts chaser note to her.new client: dont send the kind of account email chaser anymore, its RUDE to us
bee and colleague: [HUH?] what note?
new client: that you won't proceed to do yadda yadda if you havent received money from us. ive told you im getting the money in. its RUDE to tell your client that you wont do a job cos we havent paid you
bee and colleague: we hope you understand that prior to that note, you already owe us $XX (more than fifty grand).
new client: only $xx? its a small amount only dont be so petty [HUH?]
bee: [deep breaths] pls understand we are not a large organisation like you and this amount of money is a HUGE sum to us and we are under the instructions of the accountants to convey this note cos its really a crucial issue and not something to be brushed off. and we cant proceed with the new job as suppliers require cash upfront and theres really no way we can fork that huge sum of money when so much is owing then.
new client: [rolls eyes] whatever, just dont send this kind of note anymore
bee: [bugger off halfwit. as much as its a client- agency relationship, agencies are not in the business of love and fresh air. we NEED to get paid and with that amount of money you owe us, its a darn miracle we get our paychecks on time]
bee and colleague were too stunned by that preposterous request of
1. no more chasing for money despite knowing they MOST times delay payment for more than three months
2. pay upfront to suppliers on time despite the above
3. how else to craft an email when its already polite with "greatly appreciate if you can expedite this urgently before XX date. thank you for your help."
*JEEZ* we have a business to run much as you do. ARGHHHHHHHH.
bee wrote this at 8:52 AM
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
a new look!
bored by the old template, she went google searching and found a simple black based design from Maystar. she's still trying to figure out nav bar adjustments and centering blogger acknowledgments but darn, she's really proud of her own HTML tinkering [without any tutorials]. guess nothing is impossible if we made that little effort, heh. what do u reckon?bee wrote this at 9:27 AM
Monday, April 18, 2005
babyface.
she was rummaging through a cheap cd sale at shaw tower (beach road) and found quite by accident babyface's acoustic MTV album going for S$9 (that's like US$5) which included guests performances with stevie wonder(awesome). how could anyone resist how come, how long by babyface? and that voice...*sigh*
bee wrote this at 9:11 AM
Sunday, April 17, 2005
the one with the fucked up e-filing
how she hates badly managed sites. an excellent example being the local IRAS e-filing site. first she had a problem with passwords, and now she suffers from multiple page errors when trying to access and complete the damn files. what is with the stupid site? and it's not just her, over the past two weeks she overheard several colleagues blasting the iras helpdesk for not being able to "help". they too had password and download error problems. WHY THE FUCK DO YOU ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO E-FILE WHEN THE SITE IS SO FUCKED UP? of cos, there are the extremely lucky ones who manage to efile without any problems (pseudo master). the help desk people were rude and condesending cos they probably think its our fault for doing last minute work but honestly who bothers to fucking efile two months ago when the deadline is end april? lesson learnt? she despises anything to do with the government, even its people. in local terms they are "one kind wun". where's the courteous service they so encourage in the private sectors?bee wrote this at 10:32 AM
Saturday, April 16, 2005
the one where she reflects in solemn
Relationships.It s been a long time since she s thought much of it. Isn t it strange how all of us put on a cheerful facade when there are days where we re really feeling like a truck has just rammed through us? Relationships are scary, yes. because taking these unknown steps would affect our future decisions, point us in totally unexpected directions and in some extreme cases, change our destiny.
What is it about relationships that can make two or more people suffer so many unseen unhappy consequences? If we are so happy as friends and doing the casual dates, why should the next step be so traumatic (for some)? Do we always screw things up on our own accord because some of us are just not born generous givers, or some of us deserve karma retribution as a humility lesson? or perhaps we are mere puppets of social surroundings where we have to behave and progress in a certain way that s acceptable to all? Is cohabiting such a terrible sin? Are affairs sending us straight to hell? Or perhaps we all have different definitions of love?
Love defined (from dictionary.reference.com) can mean many things to different people:
1. A deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection toward a person, arising from kinship, recognition of attractive qualities, or a sense of underlying oneness
2. A feeling of intense desire and attraction; the emotion of sex and romance
3. Sexual passion, intercourse, a love affair
4. An intense emotional attachment
so maybe it s definitions and expectations that s ruining everything.
Relationships are strange, but fate is even stranger. It seems to possess an evil knack for karma. Good man meets manipulative insecure woman. Good woman meets confused selfish man. Why do most good halves always end up with crappy others? Through some ill twist of fate, we sometimes find ourselves thrown in sticky situations where we are forced with moral and ethical decisions to choose between our happiness or doing what s right. Prince charles and camila parker bowles have waited this long to be together. Can we not give them a break and leave them be? Is camila not accepted because she s not royalty, or because she was the mistress? But didn t she meet the prince first? Weren t they in love already? Who are we to judge what s right and wrong? Are YOU perfect? How would you feel if you left the love of your life under circumstantial situations and societal pressure? Perhaps the bridges of Madison county is an apt example.
How long would you wait to be with the one you love? The Chinese have a saying you yuen wu fen or Cantonese yao yun mou fun (fate to meet but not to be together)…how true, cos we don t always get want we really want. What if that love never turns up? Not just anyone but that someone who brings out the sparkle in you, someone who makes you smile despite the tough day, someone to hold you when you re down? Or would you take the safe road out and settle for someone great. Not awesome but just great.
Would you?
She would. Cos the idea of waking up alone at fifty and sitting in the balcony with her cuppa remembering her lost opportunities twenty years ago scares her so bad she would not mind spending a lifetime with someone who loves her more than she does him. Why don t we ever listen to our mothers?
bee wrote this at 1:37 AM
Friday, April 15, 2005
what's her kind of intelligence?
Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence |
 You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well. An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly. You are also good at remembering information and convicing someone of your point of view. A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary. You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator. |
bee wrote this at 11:06 AM
hmmm.
she's got a particular male colleague that piqued her interest cos she noticed that he likes to:- straighten the odd angles of things on the table during a discussion (a little obsessive compulsiveness showing)
- muss his hair when talking to you
- walk past your table a couple of steps before turning back suddenly asking you how things went
- pick lint off his velvet coat
- peep at your computer screen
- fiddle with your intray items
guess we all have our little peculiarities *silly grin*
bee wrote this at 9:47 AM
taste of thailand
thank you felicia and daniel for recommending an awesome (yummy and great for the pocket) place for seafood last night. it's called taste of thailand at sembawang shopping centre #04-05 [highly recommended for seafood buffs]
the location was real ulu (malay word for isolated) but that's probably cos the four of us (ernest, shumei, mak and me) aren't exactly the greatest navigators around. it took us an hour and a half to get there from CBD. can you imagine? and it's only singapore. good grief! we were like an hour late for dinner *lol*
but it was totally worth the wait cos those guys served the food in less than seven minutes (the guys went to the washroom and food was on the table when they returned). fucking unbelievable.
we had...
tom yam soup lar
thai fried fish lar- damn good stuff by the way
cereal prawn lar
kang kong belachan lar
fried squid lar
egg tofu with prawn on hotplate lar
thai noodles lar
fried pineapple rice lar
an unrecognisable brown (pork?) lard like dish lar
followed by kopi at causaurina place (the prata kopitiams at upper thomson)
an awesome seafood dinner despite two prawn allergics shumei and mak. *hope they turn out fine today*
bee wrote this at 9:19 AM
Thursday, April 14, 2005
the one with her ibook
she ran mad when she finally had time to look for some new skins for her precious ibook and found instead cool covers and an awesome kimono case for the podders. can't wait if they do a kimono bag for the ibook, supra nice.ya lar ya lar, she's a sucker. SHE KNOWS.
bee wrote this at 3:13 PM
the one with many thoughts
things have been moving really fast (work and play) and she hadn't really sat down to think about her plan for the next five years. it struck her that she didn't blog about her permanent residency approval at all. she didn't blog about it cos she didn't know what to write about.she's feeling ecstatic? excited? scared? numb cos its been a year long wait already? why's she not as excited as the first time she mailed the migration forms out? why is she not skipping all the way to the airport right now and looking forth to this new chapter of her life where she can finally explore and live the life she really wanted to since coming back four years ago?
cos she's finally discovered inner peace in her nasty temperament and new found happiness with a special someone. happy cos it's a new chapter of her life, unhappy cos she's not willing to let go of new found happiness and certain friends here. guess things don't always go our way huh. obstacles, people, situations, luck. they all play a part in determining our next steps. she wished things were simpler. she wished for many things but unfortunately there are too many things right now that remain out of her control and grasp.
sniff.
song of the day for once in my life vonda shepard
for once in my life
i won't let sorrow hurt me
like how it's hurt me before....
for once in my life
i have someone who needs me
bee wrote this at 9:29 AM
how did YOU get your driver's license??
met a total jerk on the highway last evening.owner: ugly SHORT ah beng (his head's barely seen from the back)
car: very OLD suzuki swift modded (occupational hazard) with ah beng trimmings like sports rims lar, body kit lar can you imagine all that on an old small dingy car? anyway...
road moron decided to cut across 3 lanes from the extreme right (lane 4) with the intention of exiting on the left. he obviously miscalculated his overtaking distance cos any five secs later, the jerk would've missed the exit. he promptly decided to exit anyway regardless of safety and did his stupid aggressive stunt of moving into lanes 3 and 2 despite the onslaught of fast moving cars.
pseudo master was on lane 3 and this jerk decided to cut in, wanting to overtake us. the jerk did not slow down at all and instead almost ran into our car. pseudo master, with his 0.001% patience for beng bullies, blasted his horn for a whole 30sec at the jerk. jerk slowed down, went behind us and exited the left. BUT...as we passed the jerk, he actually had the gall to STARE at us like we're the morons. HULLO? where the hell did these drivers come from?
JEEZ.
bee wrote this at 9:05 AM
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
japanese archibeauties
if you've never been in love with a building's form before, you will now... for some apparent reason, she's more partial to japanese architecture as per the rest.from toyo ito's TODS to SANAA's 21st century museum of contemporary art to the Chichu art museum to the amazing louis vuitton in omotesando.
isn't it truly worth all the pain when you're finally here someday?
bee wrote this at 12:34 PM
the one where she ventured forth
create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands
she's got a long way to go as she contemplates the grey areas [link compliments of abi]...
wish list for travel destinations:
- japan (again)
cherry blossoms in tokyo
the little soba stalls along the streets
the rich youth culture in shibuya and harajuku
the gangster tribes in ikebukuro
a trip up roppongi hills
strip clubs
- big apple
greenwich village
central park for morning coffee and walks
manhattan at night
times square
rockefeller center (in case terrorists get there before she does)
metropolitan museum
- london
all markets (portobello, camden, chelsea antique, you name it)
opera companies
castles
- bali (again)
for personal romantic reasons
bee wrote this at 10:17 AM
the one with the dress
its uncanny that this thought just dawned on her after all these years. do you not notice this trend in most creative/ad agencies?copywriters
dress code: long sleeved shirts and usually slightly baggy bottoms, they're the most casual dressers in the agency [come to think of it].
what are they thinking? COMFORT rules
art directors
dress code: 2 types. the stylish prim and proper version, meaning short sleeved fitting shirts and tailored looking pants + the avant garde who doesn't give a shit what you and anyone on earth thinks version [highly probable that they are too hung over from alcohol parties the night before they can't frigging think straight the next morning]. but they both usually think they're the coolest things on earth. God knows why. (as you can she, she's not the biggest fan)
what are they thinking? STYLE rules
creative directors and planners
dress code: a mixture of copywriter and art director styles
what are they thinking? dress down when there are no meetings.
media/ account servicing/ PR
dress code: semi club wear and always in heels
what are they thinking? always dress up (sexy or clubby) cos you never know which launch party you might be invited to at the last hour.
accounts
let's digress for a bit. contrary to those outside of advertising and media, there is a difference between accounts and account servicing. SO DO NOT do the ultimate stupid by sending your resume for a servicing position when you are vying for the accountant position. the former does the mathematical shit that ensures your agency is not in the red and the latter does the complex tug of war relationship between CEO, accounts, client and creative.
dress code: gah-men style (except for her agency cos her two accountants have the most awesome wardrobe)
what are they thinking? just business [don't mess with me if you want your claims on time]
bee wrote this at 9:02 AM
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
the one with the little gadget
love tricorn's piece on the gadget turned mandatory accessory: mobile phone. reminded her of the lost lovebee wrote this at 9:03 AM
Monday, April 11, 2005
the one where she felt loved...
her history of ickyfingerpicking and something which made her heart melt last saturday night...him: "what's that?"
her: hides almost bleeding thumb
him: "show me."
her: sheepishly holds her hand out
him: takes out alcohol swab "it's gonna hurt"
her: "huh?"
him: wipes swab over bleeding finger (ouch) and places a plaster on it with "don't do it again" stern voice. he continues to hold her thumb to stop her from picking at the sticky plaster.
you know he loves you when it's not just the big things but the little things he does. like offering his fingers and toes for you to pick on so your bleeding fingers can heal.
how she adores him...
bee wrote this at 11:13 AM
how was my day?
mindless regurgitation of last saturday.- woke up for morning coffee with dad. ended up in foul mood when he insisted she not buy anything from the flea market cos they (items) belong to the dead. HULLO? and in his own idiocy and stubbornness, he refused to hear her explainations on the difference between sungei road pasar malam versus a higher class flea market. oh whatever.
- went to flea market ANYWAY at timberlux centre and picked up:
* a cool italian labelled top from a babe
* an cute DKNY top from a gay fashionista
* a cute purple raisin like necklace
* a pair of pretty wood carved like earrings from black ivory
- met celine at timberlux an hour later and we found this pair of gorgeous nine west brand new black wedges size 8M for a steal at $50. for once in her life, bee wished she had slightly bigger feet cos its was a tad too loose!!! SHUCKS. walked away grudgingly with celine reiterating how useless it is to buy shoes that don't fit. it's celine's attempt at making me feel better. sigh...
- went for coffee with celine at book cafe round the street. nice place!
- celine was tickled by the novelty of taking a bus to town with bee. and so they hopped onto a bus en route to dhoby, went into this fashion for quick laugh and took a stroll to town from there. shared a huge tub of granola yami yoghurt.
- both of us got distracted by the bargain books at orchard point and ended up buying a cookbook each.
- ended up at borders and met mak for dinner preps at kinyew's place later.
- found ourselves in a flurry of rushes:
* head to kembangan mrt to hitch a ride from jun and joyce lar
* run into cold storage for salad ingredients lar
* walked a short distance looking for japanese takeouts [lol]
* walked back to kopitiam to get horfun zee char lar
* walked back to kinyew's place and was huffing and puffing around to get the salad ready in 10 minutes lar
PHEW!
- had a great dinner spread from shepard's pie to whipped potatoes to taiwanese dumplings to horfun to quiche to chicken wings to salad to tow kau. yum.
- potted ourselves in front of tv till her heavy eyes gave up the fight.
bee wrote this at 10:06 AM
birthday BOYS
that's our birthday boys last friday night, randy and darren respectively.
it was a MEE themed gig where we were supposed to bring an assortment of stuff with MEE in it. eg tiraMEEsu, MEEni M&Ms, MEE siam, MEE hoon, MEE chan kueh. though she's yet to deciper salt baked chicken, pringles, muffins, and polar sugar rolls. heh. what amused her was pseudo bartender of the night alfred and his aggressive yet endearing product sampling promotion skills for SCREWdrivers (the alcohol, not the tool duh)and his murder of the roach in randy's sink.
the lack of photoshop is hampering her photo posting + montage skills so if you're interested to see more pics of that night, do scroll to the flickr zeitgeist bar on the right, enjoy! btw, she suffers from shaky hand syndrome so do bear with her blurred closeup shots. sigh...
bee wrote this at 9:59 AM
Sunday, April 10, 2005
in between books
she's always had a REAL bad habit of inter switching books based on her moods and occasion.current booklist?
before bed book: crappy to happy by randy peyser
toilet crap book: speed tribes by karl taro greenfield
coffee soul searching book: the purpose driven life by rick warren (compliments of her sweetie)
in between times book: just finished she'll never tell by hunter morgan (crap book cos it didn't provide a closure at the end. psychopath was NOT caught NOR revealed NOR any signs from author of any part 2. good grief, frigging hate trilogies, time wasting)
anyhow she's got another heapful of books waiting for her consumption:
- lizard by banana yoshimoto (it's a short story compilation and she's left it unread for the past 6 months GUILTY)
- the devil wears prada by lauren weisberger (bought this en route from perth to singapore last mar and haven't touched it since stepping off plane. will continue on next flight to melbourne.)
- beyond the narrow gate by leslie chang (about first generation amercian chinese women)
- brave new world and brave new world revisited by aldous huxley (bought this at sunny's last xmas and haven't gotten round to reading past chapter v.
song of the night: kc and jojo's all my life
bee wrote this at 8:21 PM
the one with the little prick
pseudo master and mom had the "fortune" to witness a terrible little orge during their coffee session at starbucks yesterday.act 1 scene 1
little prick comes in tow with entourage consisting of ah huay mom, nice granny and maido-san, found an empty table next to pseudo master and mom. mom queues for coffee as granny looks round for alternative cleaner tables. maido-san jagas (malay word for looking after) little prick. grannie spotted clean table and headed over to the other end. maido-san tried in vain to pull little prick off his seat to the other corner. REFUSES to budge and kept insisting his mommy wants to sit HERE and not there. maido-san accepted defeat and decided to lug the barang barang (knick knack bags) over first and let mom coddle and bring her little prick over later. so little prick ended up sitting at table alone sulking.
act 1 scene 2
caucasian man comes along and sees "available" table (since granny and maid are over the other end). sits himself down. ACTION!
man: "hi!"
little prick: no answer. glares at man. after 5 sec of glaring, little prick uttered "my mommy seat there. MY MOMMY SEAT THERE ONE (note the grammar and singlish)
man: "ok buddy, but your granny and auntie is waving to you over there and asking you to go over? if your mommy still wants this table, it's ok, i can switch tables. [smiles] (nice man)
little prick: "THAT MY MOMMY SEAT. GO AWAY. FUCK."
yes, the little prick (hence the name), not more than eight years old said the four letter word to a stranger while his ah huay mother was looking at the entire scene quietly and seemingly proud that her precocious little one was able to stand up for himself. EXCUSE ME??? what kind of upbringing has this little brat been brought up with? it's pretty much obvious how uncouth his parents are to accept such profanities at this age.
act 2 scene 1
granny trooped over and insisted little prick apologise to stranger. little prick refuses and TIAOS (blink in condescending manner) granny and stranger. ah huay mom finally came over and dragged little prick to the other end sans apology. granny looked away sheepishly and everyone around felt a tinge of sympathy for the old lady.
act 2 scene 2
stranger saw pseudo master's highly disgusted expression and said "if that kid was mine, i'd had slapped him." pseudo master, a STRICT disciplinarian of her (author's) upbringing agreed. mouthing obscenities is one bad thing. the worse thing any responsible parent can do is not correcting and explaining why the kid cannot use such foul language [or at least until they're older to understand the context].
downright embarassment to singaporeans once again. SHEESH. so much for inculcating a "gracious" society. PAP, pls stop wasting money on the gracious society PR and campaigns cos courtesy will not be exercised as long as these selfish small minded singaporeans are still around. they're obviously too preoccupied with the I factor to care bout YOU.
bee wrote this at 7:50 PM
Friday, April 08, 2005
the one where she held her bated breath
for once, she's finally learnt how to rein in that bad temper of hers when dealing wtih #$%F at work, be it suppliers or clients.she:
- DID NOT send the nasty mail out, it's currently regressing in her mailbox
- DID NOT pick up the phone and blast XX
- DID NOT forward XX's rude mails to his boss
and damn, she's proud of herself. she's finally mastered the tao of calmness and mellowness in this industry. WOW.
bee wrote this at 4:36 PM
the one with an old friend
finally caught up with lip and had a great coffee (booze for him) session at border's cafe last evening. was quite affected by the news regarding retrenchment from their ex agency and it disappointed her when she knew a different side of some people whom she had always thought fondly of. guess there's a jerkyl and hyde in everyone of us.
on a chirpier note, the evening started from:
- work
- ex colleagues
- chess masters
- relationships
- fear of having deformed children
- migration
there's always something new on the table cos we share fairly similar views, likes and exploring intellectual interests, he's a book geek too (ha!) check out the dude's cool ring.
bee wrote this at 12:13 PM
the one with the beanie
a VERY belated and extravagant gift from her other half. its a huge corduroy maroon beanbag for her 2004 birthday and xmas. supra nice and comfy, it's currently nestling a huge space in her room much to the chagrin of mrs sim who thinks her girl's got too many thingamagigs stuffed in her dusty room. NICE. thank you sweetie. she loves her gift very very very very much.
bee wrote this at 9:57 AM
Thursday, April 07, 2005
the one where she missed the old library
went for a private tour of the new NLB (national library) last weekend. she may not know anything about design and architecture* but being a book lover herself, as impressive as the building facade and interior spaces were, he seemed more like an architect or ID's dream rather than a book geek's. the new library didn't strike her as a condusive place for encouraging the young new readers. the building seemed overly masculine and reeked somewhat of coldness and detachment. maybe her thoughts would change once the books and people are in.
she missed the old torn down library next to the substation, likewise the old musty murdoch library. she may not have the most impressive facade, she may not have the latest technology but it had the widest selection of books and bee felt loved by the atmosphere around her. what matters alot to book lovers most are the kind of books a library has to offer and not so much of how cool the building looks, how impressive the finishings are, how color co-ordinated the carpets look with the shelves. they don't really care honestly cos all they are interested in is a good book and a comfortable and resourceful place to house their neverending thirst for reading. or at least that's the geek's two cents worth.
*she may not be into design but she really loves the creative arts. please feed her with contemporary and interactive art, books, avant garde theatres and films, graffiti, poetry slams, creative writing and anything you have in mind that will tickle her mind.
bee wrote this at 9:35 AM
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
OMG.
was doing a random check on why her bank balances been at that particular amount for the past two years and started tapping on the calculator...and to her HORROR...WHERE IS THE MONEY?
- cigs: assuming 2 packs a month for a year: $250
- coffee: assuming a medium latte every work day for a year: $1,128
- shopping, food and entertainment: $800 a month for a year: $9,600 (oh...my...god)
with the rate that she's going, she needs to start buying saving packs of 3-in-1 coffee. SNIFF.
*she was halfway through the drama cost adjustments at work which prompted her to start fingering her own accounts, she wished she didn't start.*
bee wrote this at 5:16 PM
the one with no lights-WHAT? AGAIN?
now that the electricity within the office is running, the lights along the stairway outside went kaputt. she swears nothing runs in good order here ha. her colleague decided to add a little spa factor to the "dreadfully dark potential killer stairs" with some tealights. nice...
bee wrote this at 3:44 PM
the one where she conversed with the short man
this is so fucking hilarious [ex colleagues would know why] she had to blog this despite the mountains of paper work she has next to her. presenting the short manshort man "hello my dear, HOW ARE YOU [in that tone that sir fendy imitates well]
ms humble bee "good! mr XX. HOW ARE YOU? [in that fake tone she applies only to him cos he seems to like it]
short man "good. i wanted to talk to you about coming back to work for me"
ah-ha!
ms humble bee "oh mr XX. sorry to disappoint but i just got my PR in australia and am intending to move to melbourne in a year or so [hoping to dispel the bulldog instincts]
short man "oh...[silence] but it's ok lar, you come back and work for me, handle a few portfolios, one year also can. i also have contacts in australia. i know XX who's heads the biggest recruiting agency in australia, he can help you."
read short man's mind: i can help you get a job in australia ONLY if you quit your job now and help ME.
ms humble bee "oh? btw, how's your university business in australia doing?
short man "good! we have over 600 students.."
ms humble cum shameless bee "if you want i can go over and help you at the university"
short man "yes yes, there's definitely opportunity for you, no problems"
read short man's mind: short man probably didn't even register this thought
ms humble bee "but really, if you have someone in mind from the current interviews, please go ahead, pls pls..."
short man "no lar you work for me for so long, you know how i'm like, i would still like you to work for me. btw, how much did i pay you last time?"
ms humble bee "ermm.. $xx..."
short man "oh. don't worry about the money issue. we can always settle that later. like i said, i just want you to come back and help me look after these..."
read short man's mind: shit. i think i'll pay her $500 more and promote her to account director.
ms humble bee "ok ok ok mr XX. tell you what, i'll think about it and let you know cos i'm really not looking to moving back into this industry"
read ms humble bee's mind: "middle finger" but she's PC and didn't want to lose any opportunities (no matter how slim) in australia at this stage.
short man "ok ok, you let me know early next week?"
ms humble bee "will do, bye!"
laughs outloud. hell, don't play play huh. he know top man of recruit firm in australia yah? just as he knows top man of BMW in melbourne and wanted him to meet me when i'm there on my vacation (two years ago)?
[fendy, SHUT UP, jules stop laughing and lip, thank god you're a creative.]
bee wrote this at 12:23 PM
the one with the ministry
feeling a tad nostalgic and gloomy, she dug out her old MOS annuals and it made her pine for a good night out at the clubs. singapore's restrictive in terms of large scale parties, there's so much potential for something more than just annual zouk outs at sentosa and she often wonders why they've never utilised dilapidated areas or the old racecourse which could've made excellent party land. not that zouk didn't try though, or perhaps the clubbers in singapore aren't all that enthusiastic cos she's heard tons of comments like "too far lar, wait no cab lar, eee where's that place" and other whines. she doesn't want anything right now. all she wants is good music with like- minded people and she can probably do that in melbourne when she visits again in may.bee wrote this at 9:28 AM
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
the one with the short man
she got a call from a certain short man (her ex GM) bout two weeks ago.first instinctive thing she did was to conveniently stuff the ringing mobile into the drawer.
why?
switching it off would be idiotic cos it shows short man you know who's calling and that you're avoiding him. sides, she didn't really dig the idea of pissing a man who knows the top man of every company in singapore and possibly beyond.
anyhow, she got a call from her ex production manager who was tasked by short man to get an appointment with her. poor lady. why doesn't he get his PA to do such things like harassing ex employees? cos his PA is totally overworked. he should feel blessed with such an angelic superwoman PA whom we all used to wonder how she tolerated his two second ideas and other shit thingamagigs.
she managed to squirm herself out of the situation last week only to have her ex colleague sms her for another appointment this morning. sigh, who's she kidding? he's got the tenacity of a bulldog *middle finger in the air* oh well, might as well as it over with right? and so she specified lunch only, no dinner, no drinks. who the fuck wants to spend her precious nights entertaining his grand idea of a rojak night with anyone he feels like putting together? he must be fucking nuts to think she will do things his way when excuse me she's no longer taking money from you mr tyrant. tsk.
bee wrote this at 12:59 PM
Monday, April 04, 2005
black out...AGAIN
she swears the rental at her agency is so not worth paying cos it's been like the eight time its suffered a black out from the bad weather.so they spent the morning huddled in the dark, drinking cold decafs in the meeting room (only place exposed to light) and talking about hair for the whole two hours. the other half of the people are on mcs and meetings. man... so she goes on a half day too. fuck it all.
bee wrote this at 12:37 PM
the fashion show with two ah-peks
went for HYBRID-O show at fashion festival last evening (compliments of tammy girl and her man adrian). was a tad impressed by the tent setup this year cos last year's was crap. hmmm. anyhow, a mini drama unfolded when this dude announced available seats in the "reserved" section so those interested could come forward. two disgusting and uncouth looking ah peks decided promtly to upgrade themselves for the boob parade and pushed aside (without excuse mes nor apologies) a preggie seated in front of them in their haste to get the front row seats. what LC jerks. anyway, for some obvious reasons they were both denied theVIP seats and had to move back to where they belong...at the far end of the aisle.wanna know what they look like?
- dirty scruffy hair
- grimy pocked marked faces
- untucked shabby polo shirts
- baggy pants
- speaking hokkien
how the fuck they gatecrashed such events she cannot comprehend...
she knows she should be cutting some slack and stop the snot bitching cos honestly, they could very well be the hardworking dudes who did the setup of tents and deserved a great boob fest for their tough work.
ah well. it was their lucky day cos a model actually had her boob flashed on the huge projections. ha!
Adrian's MIZU is available at Blueprint concept shop L4 at heeren
http://www.heeren.com.sg/shops/shopsAB.asp (see blueprint)
bee wrote this at 9:43 AM
Friday, April 01, 2005
the one with a simple thought.
celine sent out a nice quote this morning during her search for creative "brain food"they say good things will come to people who wait, but aren't these the left overs from people who got there first?
haha, how the simplicity of it all created its truth. and celine my dear, the previous tasters usually leave the goods in such a bad state that it may probably give you major pain disorders.
on a second note, got an invite for IDEAS think tank asia @ suntec, read the interesting opening copy...
it's a funny thing but there's a thin line between survival and extinction. recent research points to adaptability as being the prerequisite trait for survivability- not intelligence.
why did it take people so long to understand this simple fact?
bee wrote this at 2:27 PM
FUCK IT
just wrote a short para on how her ID was accidently deleted from the office server yesterday (cleaning up servers and she was logged on under her ex colleagues' ID for specific reasons). spent later half of day retrieving desktop and server items alas outlook could not be salvaged. anyway, as she was publishing her previous para documenting her anger at IT and its vulnerabilities, the fucking internet explorer encountered an error and her blog para was lost. DAMMIT.bee wrote this at 9:43 AM
