Curse of the golden boobs

The latest Zhang Yimou film is a nice visual feast, yes. Just look at the amount of jiggling, heaving bosoms. Yep, sure distracts one from the paper thin plot. All these wonderbras and cups runneth over, no wonder the men in the film are all a little crazy. Can't blame them.

Here's a thought - if bitches (as in female dogs) have 8 nipples, and pigs probably have 6-8 because these animals give birth to >1 offspring at the same time. So errm, why do humans have 2 nipples? What's the extra one for? Pervy thoughts come to mind. Hmmm.

Grand Cathay is a nice cineplex, not too crowded. For the record CarlostCow wants to state that the carpark sucks. Ok I agree. Whole building is pretty quiet though, I don't see how retailers can survive long. This concept shop we were at briefly, served expired juice (too bad for them the label was facing me when I was drinking). Ok so a day past expiry is no big deal but heck if they are in the F&B service they should damn well be sure to check their expiry dates. Manager even had the gall to suggest they do not give refunds. You know me, I gave them a black look and asked for my money back, I don't give a flying dung what their policy for refunds were. Point taken.

Spring at Christmas...and a happy Holly Day

By 'spring' I mean spring cleaning. I woke up and all geared and ready to go to yoga on Christmas day. But hmm, since I was going to cook the xmas meal I wanted to make sure I had all necessary ingredients stocked at home. Took a look into the cupboards, boyo, what a mess, I'll just clean it up. And that - cleaning the kitchen cupboards (or rather, the inside of) took a good 3 hrs. Bye bye any further thoughts of yoga. A couple of dead dried up cockroaches in dark cabinets does not a zen experience make. Bye bye expired goods. Bye bye old dirty cutlery and utensils not uses. Bags and bags of trash. Got tired enough at noon to take a break and cook an impromptu tuna pasta lunch (recipe called for olives and parsley which I did not have), but it wasn't too bad. On with the cleaning post lunch, this time to make space in my room cupboards for the 3 new bags I accumulated during the month. Bye bye secondary school and poly textbooks, and old ye faithful dictionary that served me during my teen days. All had to go to make space for bags bags and bags. Total cleaning time, about 6hrs on Xmas day. Apparently I'm not the only one spring cleaning - whilst unloading my trash downstairs seems like everyone in the block had the same idea. :P

Xmas dinner of moussaka, pomegranate rocket salad, pea n potato mash, carrot-tomato soup was a success. All save the soup were first time attempts, all were recipes from Tessa Kiros' book. Well worth the $80 investment, hers is the best cookbook I've invested in so far. Yay.

Unwrapped conCow's xmas pressie for me, turned out to be an iLuv, a cute radio-like docking portable docking station for my ipods. Ipod(s) with an 's' because I got another iPod from him for an xmas pressie, bringing the pod family to a total of 3. Well ok, there's also a new 40gig hdd aptly named Boogie so I could store my iTunes in it. My mac has run out of space. Whoa.

What did I buy conChristmasCow this jolly season? Let's see - oh yeah, an orange Cowculator. Heeheeeheee. It's so giant even the severely myopic would have no problems using it. ha ha ha.

Oh yeah, Happy Holly-day. It's Holly's birthday. Happy 2nd birthday to Holly. She and Bis got a share of the xmas meal (which one of them exploded all over the corridoor this morning as I soon found), and of course a candle on a slice of xmas fruitcake. I don't think she really knows it's a special day and couldn't care less, as long as she's got food in her bowl, she's like Oh Yeah, give it to me dude.

Tis the season to be Jolly

I mentioned something about ungenerous people in my previous post. Well not really true, I had forgotten about a group of good tekka market friends. Last night as we gathered at Veron's house for a Xmas dinner with no sign board chilli crab, tanghoon and youtiao (really strange type of Xmas dinner food), all our pressies for the gift exchange were under her Xmas tree. Pretty impressive no. of presents I'd say, since we each had to buy 5 for the rest of the gang members. So yeah, I got my 5 presents, pretty good stuff, mostly stuff I wanted and can use. The strangest I suppose was a Muppets dvd, err, I haven't watched muppets in ....years. Guess I'll just fast forward to those scenses where Miss Piggy kicks ass. Yep, kick-ass characters are the winners in my book. ha ha ha.

John outdid himself again with a display of xmas cupcakes. This guy is good. So good his colleagues and friends have started to order pastries from him. Oh and there was some swiss snowmen too, pretty to look at but all marzipan. Too much sugar shock.

Just took a look at one of my credit card bill. Yikes. Haven't brought myself to look at the others and see total damage. Chances are it's altogether the whole months' pay. Sigh. Not so jolly there. I wish I had a money growing tree. Ha ha ha ha. Doesn't everyone?

OM xmas Moo.

Almost Jolly

Xmas is getting near, only a few days away. I had volunteered myself to cook an Xmas dinner. Well it's going to be my first cookout in a long time, and I've got all those brand new cookbooks. So why not? Already planned to go to the market early tomorrow to get some fresh produce. And food for my dogs of course.

YP treated me to lunch today. Verdict - Imperial Treasures very good. Better than Crystal Jade. It's teochew cuisine, and several firsts for me today - teochew dumpling (very good), beancurd skin in soup (really very good), and the elusive pig's stomach soup that is hard to find at high end restaurants which turned out to be as good as a good hawker version. The surprising winner of course, is the Oh Nee (yam paste). I usually do not enjoy yam paste dessert since it's thick, starchy, gluey and oily. But gawd, Imperial treasure's version is incredibly smooth, light, and just exactly right on with the sweetness level. Definitely worth going back. Four thumbs up.

Lenny was hanging out with us today of course, and watching him, it's really hard to eat a meal in peace even though there's two of us adults. Both of us got our eyes on the boy either restraining him, or having to entertain him to avoid any nuisance mischief. Can just imagine if YP were to have another kid, and then the situation of 1 baby + 1 toddler driving her nuts whilst she tries to get shopping done or even have a meal. That's it, I'm staying away from the baby situation. I'll just hire nannies. It's the old english tradition anyway, nannies and governesses just take over after the baby is delivered. Life back to normal for the mommy. In fact, I'll just stick to dogs. At least I can chuck them into the playpen during extreme situations of punishment. And I definitely don't have to take them shopping or to a restaurant. Yay.

The Illusion of Money

Money buys happiness. Except, if there's no money, then there's no happiness. Which is really the problematic theme of the past 2 days, when a conversation with YP as she was giving me a ride to work struck me right the face. I DON'T HAVE A 13 MONTH BONUS. Holy cow. The realisation felt as if a cow just hoofed me in the head and then knocked the wind off my sails. So I've been happily spending $$ jollying myself thinking my bank account was a little plump. Obviously, now it's going to be much leaner; maybe I should even apply for the equivalent of a third-world-shopper aid fund. I briefly wonder if it's too late to return my shopping to Hogan and Colette and get a refund. Owwww.

I am getting old. Memory is getting poor obviously. Of course, really it's time to cut up those credit cards. Evil banks laying a trap. Did I mention I got a new wallet from Colette? Damn thing is so heavy once I load it up with cards and stuff, I could knock someone into a coma with it if ever I choose to. It weigh like a whole can of beans. No kidding.

Tis the season to be jolly except neither Santa nor anyone has been generous to me. I'm the only one generous to myself. I blithely realise all these years, I've been spending money on presents for people but I hardly get presents from these same people with the exception of YP. Perhaps it's time to cut them off. Bro even had the gall to suggest that I ought to give him presents every birthday since I'm the elder and earn more moolahs than him. I don't ever remember him giving me a present. Selfish prick. As for mom, well, the prodigal son still spends her money. Whilst she sometimes nags about it, she still pays the bills nonetheless. Man, that's such unfair treatment. I haven't spent my mom's money since I started work. Except for the ang pow money she gives me every CNY and birthday of course.

Argh. The more I think about it the more it gets up my back.

OM pissed cow.

The Zen of Money

Money buys happiness. So they all say. But having money is dangerous. Money in my wallet or credit cards, is exceptionally dangerous. Even more dangerous when I pass by stores with gigantic "SALE" sign printed boldly in red or black. In I go for a browse, out I come with a shopping bag. Mostly a large one.

So I took the day off innocently enough to attend Shiva Rea's yoga workshop. Wow, this lady is good. Her yoga flow and dance really makes me feel like I want to do yoga this way for a long time, maybe I should get her DVD. Hmm. Well, after yoga I was supposed to work from home. But first, lunch with my yoga kakis. Hmm, toenails look overgrown and in need of treatment, so ok, to a pedicure I go. Except I had 30 mins to kill whilst waiting my appointment, so into a boutique I go. Out I come with a sweater. Same cycle repeated at Betula and Colette. Out comes my wallet and credit card, I get swipe-card syndrome trigger happy. Total spending for the day = unmentionable amount. Shhhhh.

Meanwhile, my room gets piled with more shopping bags. More shoes, more bags, more books. I mean, wow, Xmas is a time of giving, so err, who's giving me anything? I guess I just gave myself lotsa pressies. :X

Creative writing and retail therapy

Exams over at last! yay! I'm done for the year. This paper was on Entreprenuership, and frankly, the professor told us exactly what topics the exams would cover. And even gave us the topics in the same sequence as the exam format. What more could a student ask for? Except maybe the essay answers. Should be an easy exam right? Yup. Except I spent most of my Friday shopping, and dozing off, instead of revising my notes. Hey! I made decent attempts to read the notes, but I swear, the stuff is so boring, hardly entrepreneurial that my eyelids needed sticks to prop them up. And all this despite an extra large double shot latte at my side. My gawd, my caffeine tolerance has certainly moved up several notches. As for the exams, well, since much of the module was taught about creativity and innovation, let's just say I had to be creative about my answers. After all, bullshitting is part of the natural cow phenomenon.

Speaking of shopping, I exercised my right to retail therapy yesterday, yes when I was supposedly supposed to be studying for exams. Tod's sale mah, but I'm so proud, I didn't buy anything from Tod's. Note this doesn't mean I didn't buy anything else. ha ha. Also managed to buy some of the gifts for the tekka gang dinner this coming week. Just a few more to go and I am done. Concow was rather sweet by printing me a couple of Borders coupons. Which I promptly put to good use by buying even more cookbooks which I will hardly use, and which I have absolutely no more shelf space in my room to accomodate. Space in my room is now a premium, shelf space in particular is like the district 9,10, 11 of Singapore. Books and lecture notes all over the desk, and bags bags and more bags on the floor. Time for spring cleaning soon, when I have the time that is.