happy new year 2010!

it's soon time to bid farewell to 2009, and welcome a brand new 2010.
it's been quite a year for me.. the goods and bads, the ups and downs, the beginnings and ends...

special thanks to all of you who's been there for me in a way or another, who's somehow helped me become a better, stronger person. thank you too, for reading my blog, for entertaining my sometimes insignificant raves and rants.. and making me feel appreciated somehow :)

here's to everyone - a better and more beautiful year ahead.
enjoy, and have a blast of a time tonight!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010!

(courtesy of on SandAnimationCom youtube)

beware.. this kitty "steals" your money!

this is such a cute coin bank :) me likey!
think i'll get a kick just leaving single coins on the "plate" and then watching the kitty sneak up on it.. and repeat over and over again. hehe.

(coutesy of tomonaring on youtube)

snowy winter, here i come...

it's just passed midnight 14 december 2009.
i've hit my big 30 mark this year, and today will be the first time in my entire life that i'm going to experience a snowy winter :)

both excited and nervous at the same time.
having grown up and spent all my life here in tropical Singapore, i have no clue what to expect of a freezing cold sub-zero degree winter. temperature at my destination is already at an average of -7 degree celsius now and it will only get c-o-l-d-e-r *grrrr*...

for many years, i've imagined my first winter experience to be be somewhere in north america. but life's full of surprises anyway *smile*... in the morning when i wake up, i'll be on the plane to Beijing, China.

yes, my first freezing winter will be in Beijing... and then to Tianjin, followed by Shanghai.
it's going to be quite an adventure for sure :) i'll update how i managed in the cold when i'm back...

ciao!

aren't these the cutest winter fashion for newborns?

i don't know why i'm looking at these.. lol.. i don't even have kids of my own. i guess it's influence from friends and colleagues who've recently welcomed little babies into their families :)

anyway, i saw these on Old Navy's e-newsletter today.. and just wanted to show them to everyone. the winter onesies are especially adorable! (check the website for more) the prices aren't exorbitant plus there are some holiday discounts going on.. and i know Old Navy's clothes are usually pretty decently made.

so if you still have some time, do some online Christmas shopping today for your own kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews or friend's kids...

this hokkien song made me cry...

(courtesy of toni lie on youtube)

yes.. this hokkien song brought tears to my eyes.
the melody is lovely, but it's actually the lyrics that really tugged at my heart strings... such a sweet song... (lyrics - simplified chinese translation here)i often forget how beautifully touching some of these hokkien songs can be, especially the super sad crooning ones :) i really love this one, especially those last two lines that go something like..

(1st verse) "when the time comes for us to go back (die), i will let you go first, because i can't bear to leave you behind to cry for me.."
(2nd verse) "when the time comes for us to go back, you will have to let me go first, because i can't bear to watch you cry for me."

so "awww", so poetic, isn't it?

many people (especially within Singapore) tend to find the hokkien dialect kinda crude or vulgar - no offence to my hokkien friends please. i guess it's not so much the dialect (or language) itself, but perhaps because it's the dialect more commonly spoken here by the less educated, older generation, hooligans, gangsters etc... hence when one speaks hokkien here, the tone somehow ends up sounding very "beng" or "lian", quite unlike the more refined manner it's spoken in taiwan.

i don't speak much hokkien myself (my dad's a teochew, mum's a hockchew) but having grown up in an old neighbourhood, spending much of my childhood years hanging around a traditional hawker centre, interacting with heartland kids, old aunties and uncles... i wouldn't say it's a totally foreign dialect to me either.

earlier tonight, my colleagues and i went to watch the opening show of Broadway Beng - Jiak Liu Lian (Dream Academy production; written and performed by Sebastian Tan; directed by Roystan Tan). the entire perfomance was about 70% hokkien, 30% english (or rather, singlish), so if you didn't understand hokkien, you'd probably miss out the essence of the show. Sebastian Tan, as usual, is a real star. performing alongside 8 supporting "chio bus" (pretty babes), he literally one-man hosted, joked, sang, danced, discoed and glitzed through the 1.5-hour show, very entertaining, dramatic and hilarious (though i still find his performance as The Queen in Wild Rice's Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs more outstanding). Broadway Beng is like an "atas" (high-class) getai, a little bit of broadway, a little bit of suburban housing estate flair :)

one of my favourite performance tonight was when Sebastian Tan did a very soulful and heart-wrenching rendition of the above hokkien song 《家后》 ("wife") . he sang it really well, so moving, literally brought me to tears - fortunately the lights were dim enough for me to secretly rub away those tears before anyone noticed *smile*.. yea, i'm a softie, i cry at movies, perfomances, concerts etc.

just wanted to share...
couldn't find the version performed by Sebastian Tan himself, so i showed the version by taiwanese singer Jiang Hui instead. enjoy this if you understand hokkien :)

kitty.. boo!

this made the MSN singapore news today..

this clip apparently went on the Philip DeFranco Show and became an instant hit.

lol... very cute though.

(courtesy of bachelor0101 on youtube)

the prettiest "phua chu kang boots" ever ;)

i saw a snapshot in the chinese newspapers 2 weekends ago, and just had to log on to this website to check out the full range of - rain boots! soooo cute...

given the current monsoon season here in Singapore, there's really no better time to get yourself one of these adorable and functional pairs of "phua chu kang boots" but in a much prettier version :)

i'm so in love with the black-white polka-dot pair (US$59.95).. and of course, the tokidoki ones (US$74.95) too! priced from US$49.95 (for adults) and from US$24.95 (for kids), splurge on one of these shiny rubbery pairs for yourself and you'd definitely be the centre of attention the next time you walk out in the rain :) stay warm and dry in the cutest, prettiest way.