new-age monks ?

Throughout our 3 day stay with poh poh at sin ming, we had 2 different monks who performed the chanting rituals.

Both of these monks arrived at our location in Mercedes Benzs. This is rather shocking to me. Aren't monks those that have pledged their life to simplicity, free from worldy possessions in the pursuit of nirvana?

"The renunciate monk is a man of extraordinary character and virtue. He has detached himself from family, from career, from all secular affairs, from the pursuit of money, even the retention of money. "

That sounds more like it.

Monks are supposed to go around with their alms bowl looking towards the charity of their community for sustenance which they are allowed to consume from dawn to noon yet we see both of these monks zipping around in luxury cars. Seriously ?!!?

poh poh

I am very shocked and saddend by poh poh's passing. She never really had any history of any health problems. The only thing was the wear and tear of the cartilage in her knees which were causing her pain when she walked. She went for total knee replacement last year so that kinda fixed that.

Mum found her sitting out on the patio drinking her morning coffee. When I got home, she was in poh poh's room just staring at all her stuff. I've never seen her so ... lost... vulnerable.


Even though we didn't really understand each other (my cantonese was shit and the only english she knew was fish and chillies) we got along just fine and she always asked me about Grumpy. She always tried to warm mum up to Grumpy.

Bye poh poh, I will miss you. Finally you can rest with Ah Kong.

freebies

No news from recruitment company. Guess it's safe to say it didn't go through. Ah well, can't say I'm not disappointed. Maybe I messed up one of the 4 personality tests.


Received my stuff from fr3b.com . Samples which you try, review for points enabling you to try other samples. And they're free ! (just have to pay for them to post the stuff to you, $2.40 or something)

Got the Rojukiss pore tightening source. Very excited to try !! Retailing at Watson's for 69.90.
And something to appease Grumpy. A 150ml (?! looks almost full-sized) sample of Hex hair gel.

church times

Went for Sunday mass yesterday at Novena. It was all very solemn, unlike the evangelistic (rock-concert type) services I am used to . Nodded off during the sermon (oops!) , summore sat in the front pew. Adoi. I asked Grumpy if God would be mad at me for doing that and he said nah... he pointed out one of the boys sitting on the stage in his red-caped costume that had fallen asleep too! LOL

the 4 month search

Ever since end April I've been searching for an alternative to my dead-end job. It's been getting stale for a long time. Have applied for at least 20 positions and gone on about a dozen interviews but only the latest has borne any kind of positive result. I was starting to think I was bloody useless.

I originally went with the intentions of discussing the finer points of being a Clinical Research Project Administrator. After all, it was somewhat related to my degree and as for the admin experience part, yeahhh I sure got that.

My interviewer, Ms V didn't mention this Project Administrator position at all, she wanted to hire me as a recruitment consultant and asked me if I was interested. I told her in all honesty I'm not sure if I have the skills for it but what the hell I'd try it. She then shared with me her own (very similar) background - life science degree, admin job in hospital and basically the lack of any kind of future in that line. She read I'm from Crescent and she says 'yeah, you'll do fine, Crescent Girls are good' ... her office has 5 Crescentians. And 4 life science degree holders. How shocked was I ? VERY

cafe 211

One of the gems in Holland Village is the rooftop Cafe 211 . I love love love going for dinner here. Nice ambience, not too crowded, a bit secluded and yum yum food !

Went for lunch here once, not good. It was scorching !

I always get the spaghetti vongole. The zhup is fantastic. All garlic and chillies. I'm fussy with my food. I don't really eat shellfish unless the shells have been removed and I'm definately not a fan of oysters, abalone, clams etc . It's all too slimy for me so for me to rave about this, it has to be bloody good.

Grumpy being a rice man, always gets the risotto . Risotto, if not done properly, can easily end up too wet, too dry or too bland. Cafe 211's seafood risotto is oozy and cheesy. In this instance, I requested extra rice for him since he usually polishes his off real quick then sits around and gives me a puppy-dog-wide-eyed-please-feed-me look. They agreed to add more at no extra charge, very nice of them . After all that, Grumpy struggles to finish it and says very gelat. Better off with a smaller serving after all ..... T_T

The only problem here is the Coke. It always has a chlorinated flavour to it. Coke + Chlorine = NO !

the real deal

Lately, I've come across (okayy..looked for) alot of these sites that sell fake branded bags.

I must say that some of them are actually quite good.

The only brand I can speak of is LV. Comparing my Batignolles with one from high replica I would say the resemblance is bloody uncanny right down to the hook closure and the interior as well.

They have 800+ replicated models from LV alone. They even come with a receipt replicate. wtf. Even an 'Authenticity Card' ... what the hell for ??! Your assurance that it's an authentic replica ?

Can you spot the fake from the real ? Yeap, the odd one out is the real mccoy though I guess it isn't entirely fair given the other 3 are of gold hardware.

This is the very pretty and very coveted Fairy Bag by Prada. The photography of this alone gives it away but yea, the fakes are the ones taken up against a dodgy corner.

dead fishy :(

The other day Grumpy asked me to feed his fish (one red male, one white female). I walked over and I couldn't find whitey !!

We looked around and whitey was dead lying a few feet from where she had jumped.

I was sad. Why would she jump out ? Was she depressed ? Bored ? Wanted to get at reddy ? Suicidal ?

Google said it's animal instinct. Google also said sometimes putting them back in the water jolts them back . Damn.