happy holssss

my favourite e-card this holiday season from one of our public agencies..
i think...
full of subsbtance

check it out.

click here

16 and pregnant

i am a reality tv-show junkie. i loved survivor, amazing race, the bachelor, the bachelorette, big brother, my best friend forever, my sweet sixteen, my big fat fabulous wedding, jon and kate plus 8, the hills, the real oc and the list goes on and on...

but my latest fascination has been with mtv's 16 and pregnant. ok so i must admit, i like to watch reality shows cos it lets me sit in my high-chair of judgement, and lay on judgement and criticism, on the doo-doos that usually partake in the reality shows, really fast and thick! i love watching how spoilt the brats on my sweet sixteen are or how kate used to scream at jon, and now they've broken up. always makes me feel high and mighty, bloody perfect and all. lol.

but with this show- it's just raw honesty. these kids who are pregnant at 16, some are real idiots who i think make the mistake of keeping their babies (i.e. not giving them up for adoption, not abortion!) as they're really still sillly brats who don't have a clue of what to expect, and can't take care of themselves, what more a newborn. but you watch how they quickly grow up. and like it or not, they do go through a harsh and quick growing up period when the baby comes.

tonight's episode was super duper sad. this young couple, the first couple i actually like in the show, decide to give up their baby for adoption. it was such a tough decision for them, and i cried along with them. and i was just amazed at how mature and adult they were throughout the entire process.

it's a tough thing to do- give up your baby i'm sure. but they're 16, not from very well off families with their whole lives ahead of them. i'd have done the same thing. and i think their kid is really better off.

i wonder how many of the struggling couples who were part of the show, but kept their babies would watch this show over again, and wished they had done the same thing for their kid as Catelynn did for Carly.

i'm looking forward to next week's season closing episode. they'll be interviewing the couples again, post baby.

my new fab shoes part 2

last xmas treat for me is you guessed it...another pair of shoes from Jshoes...seized the sale that's happening at Isetan to get a nice pair of black shoes...

there were several very very nice black shoes from the line, but i picked the most flamboyant black pair...
no point paying good money for everyday black shoes right?

aren't they just divine?

konsert rakyat kita 2009

i helped out a friend and emceed at a concert he organised- konsert rakyat kita 2009 (the people's concert) at the asian civilisation museum last night.  organised by roach productions, it aimed to provide a platform for malay bands to showcase their talents. the line up had 11 bands including, Fyno, Rattle, Zaibaktian, Crossover, Empire and Klutz.

with 11 bands and each band playing a set of 4 songs, it was no wonder we had to begin at 5.30pm, taking a break for maghrib prayers, before continuing up to close to 11pm.

i've done my fair share of emceeing...i've done a lot for work events and i've even done some professional gigs for major events, but this was the first time i was emceeing in malay. in fact when i agreed, i had assumed that it would've been in english. i was SOOOO out of my element.

first, my malay ain't that bad, but my malay is like queen's english compared to rocker english ya know? and i'm sooooo tak (not) rock. i'm not rock chick lah. while hubby checks out his rock albums at 'that cd shop' i check out the classical music albums, ya know.

plus i don't listen to malay music. my malay music knowledge stopped at alleycats in the 80s when mum and dad had the radio turned to warna 94.2fm daily ya know? so, i so couldn't identify with the bands, didn't realise that some of them had albums out in the market and even popular across the causeway.

it was pure torture for me. i tried to up my rock-chick persona a bit after my bro-in-law who was part of the crew said something  like, 'rock sikit lah eveeeleva!' sigh.

all in all it was a pretty decent job i think. but i told hubby, that i don't think i'd do this again. alamak, how to emcee rock gig, when half-way through i started to get a headache from all the loud music.

tak boleh lah!

but it was a good experience, and some of these bands are really good. and i was really impressed with Dr Fatima Lateef (mp marine parade grc), who came as guest of honour. she was very avril lavigne, with a white shirt, jeans and a skinny tie, and hung out for a good 2 hours before she left. its cool that she thinks its important that such a space is open for our malay bands...if there was one other person who looked more like a fish out of water than me, i bet it was her. but still...cool that she came!

rock on lah dr fatima....

rattle- older school malay rock. but i loved them!

my favourite shot of the night- crossover

another shot i quite liked

xmas thanks..

i'm actually very tardy with my friends....always don't spend enough time with them...especially those who are overseas... they hardly hear from me and i'm always surprised... that even after they dont hear from me for years on end... that they still love and care for me.

maybe becos of all i've gone through this year...i really appreciate being surrounded by people who love and support me...even when their thousands of miles away...

this year i took extra care to get them xmas gifts. they weren't huge hampers or terribly expensive gifts, but really just tokens to remind them that i was thinking of them, and missing them terribly, this year end.

Happy Hols everyone!

beautiful hamper of the most DELISH chocs from Jess from downunder! =)

quiet xmas at home...w sewing patterns

i spent xmas at home...had a generally lazy day...except when sis and i decided to put together a sewing pattern together.

no..i'm not sewing... my mom is...we have tons and tons of fabric sitting around at home...and for some reason, the mood just kicked in and she wants to sew some more. mom is a whiz at sewing baju kurungs, but dresses tend to be a bit tougher, and she did the other week, ask me where she could buy sewing patterns....she just couldn't find them anymore.

so i googled sewing patterns and found www.sewingpatterns.com . i found a pattern i liked and decided to try out the download function instead of having the patterns posted all the way from the US to Singapore.  So for US$4.99, i managed to download a pattern in any size from 6-16. Only problem is that we only have an A4 printer. The pattern is split into A4 sizes and you have to assemble them together. Its relatively painless except trying to past them together.

So sis and i spent yest afternoon- a good 2 hours putting them all together. Now that it's done, we just have to wait for mum to start cracking on the sewing! Yaay, i'm so excited. It's been a long while she she last sewed me a dress, and i still love those dresses. A cheap and inexpensive way to update the wardrobe.

I really should learn how to sew from my mom.

office xmas

office xmas haul was really nice this year- lots and lots of goodies.

i was also quite happy with the gift of movies i decided to gift my team.

they really deserve a good break for all the hard work they've put in.

they weren't around on xmas eve, so i'm excited to give them out come monday!

*smile*

sucky dec

i've not been posting much. not at all in fact. simply because i've been friggin busy lah! this december is unlike the last 3 decs where they office goes into relak mode and we happy hour from 4pm onwards.

this year, is all work and so little play.

=(

even though i'm not enjoying this dec at all. i'm really dreading jan- it just get's worse! =(

the only thing that is keepin me sane are all the friendly creatures that keep me company in the office and shed some cheer...

    

found

found: a sketch of a table leg in a meeting room in vientiane, from 2 trips ago

loving singapore like a new yorker loves new york

on my way to the gym last night, i walked past 313@Somerset to get to Orchard California Fitness Gym. it dawned upon me how different my walk to the gym, i've been going to for the last  (whoa) 9 years of my life, has become. it has changed drastically. no more big carpark to pass, no more sleepy kinda entrance into orchard road.

instead, it's like BOOOM and POW, once you get out of the MRT station. and with the festivities, the pretty christmas lights and the huge crowds of people thronging 313@Somerset, it was just such a different vibe. as i walked on, i sensed the energy of the streets, the buzz was just so exciting.

walking down Orchard Road, i kinda felt the way i felt when i walk down the streets of Manhattan or even Sydney or Tokyo. just an exciting city vibe- that i'd never learnt to appreciate in Singapore. in New York, its electrifying. in Singapore, it's just -alah, Singapore jer per! (btw jer per is not french, its malay. *lol*)

i love Singapore. yeah, so 313@Somerset is just ANOTHER shopping mall. but hey, its a NEW shopping mall. it's something new, it has a squeaky clean new vibe, and the layout's cool, architecture is different and always more current. that's the thing this city girl just loves about Singapore, that there is always something new and eye-catching, that really shows off new ways of using spaces, architectural ideas, interior design ideas. it's not just about the shops, but the experience.

i wish we Singaporeans were more like New Yorkers who don't apologise for the fact that they love New York to the extent that some never want to leave it (ok, i do think that's a bite extreme, but you catch my drift). instead, we Singaporeans always say that anywhere is better than here.

i don't agree. we have fabulous, warm year long weather, albeit a bit humid and sticky some times, but ask any Northern Hemisphere person whether they'd complain if they could wear shorts and slippers everyday?
we're a great shopping destination, surrounded with great cheap weekend getaways. our public transport is reliable. our streets are safe and clean. and we're multicultural- you can get any cuisine in Singapore (except good Greek my friends complain, but i'm sure that'll change)!

i'm all about loving this city right now! you should come to appreciate it too!

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azuki

so i met Est to get the azuki that i had specially asked her to get for me when i heard she was off holidaying in Tokyo. there's something about azuki or red-bean from Japan, that is absolutely amazing! i still remember how awesome it tasted when i was in Tokyo last year, and everytime someone says Japan, the one and only thing in my mind is AZUKI!

anyway, it's been a month since she was in Tokyo. with my busy travelling calendar last month, we didn't have a chance to meet earlier and she was quite seriously worried that the azuki she bought me had spoilt. there was an expiry date on the box that read, 09.11.14. I was quite confident that it was 09 Nov, 2014. while she didn't think that it was possible that the azuki could keep that long and was thinking it meant, 14 Nov 2009.

she bade me farewell, telling me to be careful about the azuki and got off the mrt at amk. i got off at yck, and while i waited for hubby to swing by to pick me up, i fought every instinct to rip open the package so that i could sample the azuki. but the longer i waited, the more the azuki called out to me until finally i gave in. (aiyar no surprise i know!)

helpless, i plonked myself down at the steps of the mrt station. ripped open the package, and oooohed at the gorgeous little green tea and strawberry dumplings of azuki.

i took a deep breath, bit into one, and let the sweet yet smoky taste of the air-flown azuki, linger on my tongue. with an ahhhhhhh, i swallowed that bite, smiled and took another!

who cared about the people around me who were staring with their mouths wide open at me? btw, it wasn't spoilt lah- it tasted soooooo soooooo good!

wat a headache!

so- i've been suffering from major major migraines this weekend. my migraine on sat night was so bad, i was seriously contemplating launching myself out from our 2nd story window, aiming for the right throbbing side of my head to land head-first onto the concrete-gravel walkway outside our house. with a splat, that would eliminate the painful throb in my head forever.

but i thought- what a mess? now who'd clean that up! seriously, if our form in the afterlife were to be the form we take during the seconds before our death (ala neil gaiman's Stardust) i'd be a really ugly figure. even if i were to miraculously find my way into heaven's gates, none of the handsome virgins that bathe by the milky river would want ever to hump me, if i looked like that for all eternity, right?

so- i sucked up the pain, begged hubby to come back quickly from his night out from fishing. he did, and promptly brought up a bowl of ice-chips which i needed, for my gums felt sore too, and he pressed my head till a good 4am, while my 3rd round of painkillers kicked in. i woke up with a numdber version of my migraine. and my head still dun feel right, right now.

i thought it was my teeth. maybe a HUGE ASS cavity, so skipping work yesterday i headed off to the dentist.

dentist: have you been under a lot of stress lately

eveel: Duh! like Yeah!

dentist: have you been sleeping well?

eveel: are you blind? can't you see this giant, not so cute panda in your dentist stool right now? oh right, you just look at teeth, well yeah i haven't been sleeping well.

dentist: i think you've been doing a fair share of teeth-grinding?

eveel: well, hubby's mentioned it like just about a million times, and that was just today!

(lol...seriously, he hasn't lah!)

anyway, i had hurt my something in my jaw, from my teeth-grinding or 'bruisxm' and jaw-tension at night. can you believe? all this work stress is being exercised via my teeth-grinding and jaw-clenching, that is in turn causing my migraines, as my teeth grind and bite down so hard that i literally strain muscles in my face/jaw.
in fact, my dentist advised me to massage my face, like you would a sore leg muscle, to help it heal faster.

sigh..can you believe? worse of all, i had to cough up $400 to custom make a jaw guard, to help prevent teeth-grinding, and my jaw from totally dislocating itself. sigh....at least, my teeth won't get ground down to dust.

now, let's see what i can do about all this work-stress..

=)
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married life

woke up on saturday to find that hubby was wide awake. i ALWAYS wake up earlier than hubby. i turned to the alarm clock and was surprised to find out that it was 12:30 in the afternoon. i've not slept after 12 since like, forever. the latest i sleep to is 10:30am. even on holidays i wake up way before that.

i expressed my disgust with my total laziness with a couple of expletives to myself. i was totally pissed that my saturday morning plan of doing some housework was down the toilet bowl.

hubby responded, 'please eveel, we were out late last night. plus you've been sleeping so badly for the past week.'

surprised, for i didn't remember complaining to hubby about the terrible sleepless nights i've had, i asked 'how do you know i've been sleeping badly?'

he replied, 'come on eveel, i'm your husband. of course i know.'

*grin*

it is inexplicable how happy that made me feel. i can't explain it. i was just deliriously happy in a totally satisfied way.

i like being married.

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dreams and nightmares fortelling the future?

it was weird.

last week i had a strange strange dream involving several men in, or have been, in my life. included my hubby, some men i work with and an ex-bfren- whaler.

i'm not going into go into the details of the dream...NO Lah! not x-rated or anything...just long and terribly nonsensical.

so i came into the office, obviously looking like a pile of shit cos of the restless dreamfilled night i had, and when the girls asked why i looked like a pile of cowdung, i began recounting my dream with all its vivid details.

then suddenly out of nowhere....phone went. toot tooot.....

i SCREAMED.

it was an SMS.

it was.............WHALER!.

the last time i saw or spoke to him was like 7 months ago at my wedding. and here it was an sms from him, "Eveel, am at your workplace today. Wanna meet up for lunch?"

*GASP*

what were the odds. me and whaler are on good terms, so of course i agreed and we met for lunch while he retold the story about me dreaming about him just the night before, and how, lo and behold, here he was!

i guess we still have some sort of mental connection....?

when i told hubby later in the evening, he just shrugged his shoulders and nonchalantly said,

"apa-apalah (whatever)".


(btw...read this again...but this time...read it in a dramatic radio-drama fashion...sounds so melodramatic lor... but then again..i'm sure you all have beter things to do. lol.)
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nenek

i'd like to tell you about my nenek (grandmother). one of the reasons why my mother had such a successful career was because my nenek was there to help take care of us while my brother and i were growing up. our school-bus would drop us off at her house after school if we were in the morning session or pick us up from her house if we were in the afternoon session.

i don't remember but she bathed and washed me up, powdered me white when i was a very naughty chatty little girl. i remember, when i was bigger that she'd make sure we had our lunch, washed our uniforms and ironed them too. she'd make sure we went for our quran reading class and that we didn't play too long with the children in the neighbourhood after school. she'd also give us butter sugar toast as an afternoon snack or made kuih dadar while we played with my late-grandfather or watched malay-dubbed japanese series on rtm.she'd also pack food for our family dinner and enough leftovers for mum to freeze to bring home with us, when mum and dad pick us up.

she also taught me how to roll the pineapple filling just round enough for her tarts, and how i should slice and dice the carrots for the hari raya lodeh, a particular length and width. And i still cut up long beans just the way she taught me, at an angle, so that it looks pretty all cooked up. I also learnt that asam pedas fish should go with stir fried green beans and lauk lemak always went with sambal tumis telur. And that durian was best eaten with nasi pulut, a healthy dose of santan (coconut milk) and gula melaka.

she's 86 now. if i visit her in the mornings, i'd find her in the kitchen for she still insists on supervising the cooking at home despite her old age. she still wants to peel and cut the vegetables just the way she's been doing it for as long as i remember. but if i visit her in the afternoons, she'd be resting in her room. taking long naps or reciting the quran for her old age is taking a toll on her. in fact, when i look back to my childhood, i never had a memory of my nenek resting. she was always, always doing something.

now that i've grown up and living my own busy, hectic life. i always seem to find more important things to do than to visit my grandmother. i forget how much of her time and of her life that she had given so that my childhood years were so comfortable and easy. sometimes, like today, i remember and i cherish all that she's done for me. and tell myself- the way i feel today, i should feel everyday.

my new fab shoes

i was in a bad bad mood friday because of work stuff. i had planned to head down to orchard road to window shop while hubby went for a haircut. but on the way there, i got a work related call about this shitty work situation which isn't my fault really. i had spent the whole day and most of the evening before trying to sort it out- and i got a earful from a boss on friday night. and it wasn't even my fault. yeesh.

so i found myself plonked at BK Orchard assessing emails, sorting whatever i could out and trying to appease the boss and salvage whatever i could of my work-reputation, but it's friday night for god's sake and i couldn't reach anyone. so as i took in the amount of work that is piling on my plate for december and january and just got more and more upset.

and then i took it out on my credit card. i was looking forward to checking out the new 'J Shoes' line which Isetan just brought in. It's a UK brand, and had promise of stocking my size of UK8/US10. I was just planning to take a look. But there was a 20% discount, and i was in such a foul mood, that i bought a pretty pair ( i also bought an outfit too, so credit card damage was pretty substantial- by my standards)

Luckily for me, it was not an emotional buy that i regretted. they pinch a little, but they're pretty and very sturdy! and worth the little bit of pain!

here's a sketch of my shoe

and these are the real pair!

it paired off perfectly with my grew and pink outfit today. i was in the mood and decided to sketch Ms Eveel in the outfit i wore today- complete with the shoes.

i'm sketching again! all i needed was a little inspiration, all i needed was that pair of shoes.

i've already eyed a couple more that i wanna get from j shoes. =)

Yaay!

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fabulous laksa

i cannot get over how fabulous the laksa was at j n e's wedding this afternooon. it was the first thing i zoomed into as soon as i stepped into the multi-purpose hall at the church. hubby lined up at the buffet line while i made a bee-line for the laksa.

i love love love laksa lemak or nyona laksa, not the penang laksa or other varieties. it's got to have the thick coconut gravy, with that layer of red oil over it (of course you don't scoop on the oil onto your bowl lah!).

the laksa was perfect, thick, rich with a fabulous chilli paste that gave it an extra kick, with a slight sweet aftertaste. it came with fishcake and pretty sweet prawns too. it would have been perfect with some cockles. but when you're catering for hundreds, i guess its safer to omit that ingredient.

i only had one bowl, knowing that if filled the calorie quota, but it took all the willpower in me not to go for a refill (i must admit i took one spoonful from hubby's bowl though).

Mum's Kitchen Laksa- definitely YUM!

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j n e wedding

i'm such a baby these days. i've only realised it recently. that i choke up with tears sooooo soooo easily. movies, books, stories people tell even on the radio can make me tear almost instantaneously.

jeremy n esther's wedding this morning was just that- filled with tears. i don't even know the couple. esther's is the hubby's ex-colleague and good friend, and i've only met her like ONCE- during our own wedding. or maybe twice. i can't quite rem.

anyway, her wedding was sweet. there's something i enjoy about church weddings- maybe it transports me back to my catholic primary/secondary school days and the time i spent during mass. although nowadays, the hymns are all so upbeat, and well she's not catholic. actually i haven't been to a catholic service wedding before. hmm...i wonder if its very different? someone catholic, please invite me to your church wedding please? =)

bride is soooo chatty, and she chatted away, bawling her eyes out while she thanked everyone in her family. she was just so frank and out there, about her relationships with her parents and siblings that it really really got to me (not that it takes much to get a tear out of me!) they even showed a video of the ACTUAL proposalh! this couple are definitely the sort who just wanna share and shout out to the world how happy they are!

she's also a ballet teacher, and had her lil ballerina kids perform a dance towards the end of the wedding.
they were cute, although some of them looked quite petrified during the performance. lol. later she said during her speech, that they had asked her, 'Miss E, will you shout at us (if we made a mistake)?'

LOL.

Best Wishes Jeremy and Esther, may you enjoy married life and each other! As requested, our prayers will be for your happiness.

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full of laughs...

it was a crazy night. we started off pretty sane, but slowly, as time tick-tocked away, we slowly crept into the abyss of the crazed...

it started out normal enough. 3 friends meeting over dinner at the marmalade pantry @ ion.

we then moved on down and then went absolutely berserk with desserts.

with a sugar-rush, a share of ridiculous and over the top stories shared and tossing us way over the edge, i fished out my camera and we went all berserk on each other.

i even managed to scare a group of girls, as we took photos of ourselves in the empty lift, i shouted as the doors opened ,'Oh my GOD! I've got a double chin! a Double CHIN!' a group of stunned very very young teen girls, just stared into the lift, mouths wide-opened, obviously stunned by my proclamation of the existence of my double chin. They didn't move a muscle as the doors closed on them, and i broke out in a fit of giggles. You wouldn't have guessed that the teens were outside, and the bunch of loonies in the lift were the 30year olds! =P

the evidence:

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7 things i miss about Vung Tau

1. i miss the ice-cold drip coffee that has a hint of chocolaty hazelnut that is just sweet enough to keep me away from chocolate in the afternoon.

2. i miss the freshly steamed clams with lemongrass which are just bursting with the natural plump flavours of the fresh seafood.

3. i miss the freshly bbqed crabs with their bright orange sweet roe that just melts in my mouth!

4. i miss the beautiful blue skies and the wonderful sights.

5. i miss the delightfully colour-filled meow-meow shop just across the road from the hotel!

6. i miss the small but serene pool; and the refreshing swims i had in the late-afternoons.

7. i miss my quiet time and deep contemplation

eveeleva on TNP

imp sent me a snapshot of a page from yesterday's The New Paper. i was bored in Vung Tau, and was surfing the ST online website reading about stuff, including the online posts and reactions about the civil service bonus or lack thereof. i was really bored and thought that the posts i reacted to was quite silly. apparently TNP picked it up and put it on the paper. read on if you'd like to know my full (unedited) comments here.

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i want ME some of that!

Hubby was so sweet to book tix for New Moon early so that it was the first movie i'd watch when i got back from Vung Tau. I was SOOOOO excited. didn't help that i've been reading a whole slew of gossip mags like 'OK, Hello, Famous' detailing Kristen and RobPat's romance, Kristen's wanting to quit and Lautner dating Taylor Swift. like an appetiser, it got me quickly hungry to catch the movie!

And Yaay!

I LOVED it. It was a really Bad movie- i seriously think that Kristen Stewart can't act for nuts. And Rob Pat trying to be all broody is just god-damn awful. But I loved it because of Taylor Lautner who plays Jacob. Aiyor he stole the show lah. His acting and not just his fab fab body! Ok ok. His FABULOUS body also had something to do with how great he was.

Hahahaha...

He brought much needed warmth and personality to the show. Which i kinda get later- that the show does feel all cold and dreary until Jacob comes along- cos you know lah, vamps and icy-cold bodies (and personalities) and cold weather there, and here comes 103degrees of warmth in the form of a tight tight tight body with to die for abs...who can transform into a super-big wolf!

Aiyor- Jacob, with that body, cute smile, abnormally white teeth, great short hair (i'm glad he lost the locks. those locks looked so stupid on him)  AND that WOLF instinct! A recipe for lustful perfections!

Actually ALL the boys in the wolf-pack are  AAAAA AAAAAAA OOOOOoooooooooooooooooo!!!!

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