No Photos?

Btw, if you're wondering why there's not been much photos posted lately, that's because my wonderful friend misplaced my SD card reader and I can't get the photos out from my camera to the blog. :( Hopefully there'll be some photos when I get back home. YES! Home is Singapore!!!! In 30 hours' time, I will be in the plane. I am super duper mega ultra excited!!! :PpPpP

My life's first WALTZ!

I had my life's first Waltz class today. We did a re-cap of Swing first, and I'm already the "model student" - always being asked to demo for the class. It's just amazing because I've always thought of myself as having legs and hands that can never synchronize well.. guess this whole experience has taught me a little bit about self-confidence.

For Waltz, this was exactly what I did in class today (minus the box tape on the floor):



Fun fun fun!!! It's sooooo much easier compared to Tango! Got me thinking about my first dance in 2005...I wished I had learnt this earlier! :p

The folks today are similar to that of last week- 5 couples and me. Everyone is in their 50s-60s- probably semi-retired and it is just so sweet to see old couples dancing together and learning something new at their age. It's funny how I keep getting asked the same question, "Are you getting married?" People find it incredible that I'll come alone to learn ballroom dancing just to unwind, relax, toggle some bones and learn some new stuff. I think I do the strangest things. :)

Sexy Piece of Work!

Just got done with doing the entire deck of Accounting presentation. I am very exhausted. And now I have a 30 page report to write - which is terrible... because division of labour doesn't apply here. It's not like 1 person is in-charge of the presentation, while the other is in-charge of the report. When you're the one analyzing & preparing the entire deck, it also means you'll do the bulk of the report- on the implicit assumption that you know what went into it. What a good deal right? Don't buy 1, get 2 free!



The strange thing is, I don't feel sore about this. In the past, despite all attempts to be cordial, the pent-up emotions of injustice would inevitably infuriate me. But now, I genuinely feel ok- as long as my beaten body can take it (after 4 nights of not sleeping!). Maybe that's because I've learnt empathy- that others are having a hard time dealing with such a fantastic topic like accounting. Maybe that's because I've learnt that it doesn't matter who gets the credit as long as the work gets done. Maybe that's because my partner also burned his time next to me. Maybe it's just the excitement of going home in 4 more days!! :) that is keeping me alive. :P I can't wait!!!! :)

Martin Luther King Day

It's a national holiday today- and I feel so bad that I'm not out in the sun! :( Stuck at home working on Accounting... The pain shall be over in 18 hours, whether I like it or not.

When you wish upon a star...

Saw my life's first shooting star today! I am more than 110% sure it was a shooting star because it looked something like that below:



It was soooooooooo bright- with almost a fireball trail behind it but alas, so short-lived. The one I saw disappeared in like 2-3 seconds! So I made a wish...hope it will come true.

Christmas Delights

Accounting is driving me nuts. What with capitalizing leases and looking at valuation accounts and deferred income taxes. Argh. I wish I could go out and get some sunshine- the past 6 days have been so warm & bright, it's like summer time! (although we are now smack in the middle of winter) So I've decided to de-stress via COLOUR THERAPY- ie. post loads of colourful photos!! Haha.

Sworn had a flight to Los Angeles over Christmas so I picked her and her batch girl, Pagan, and we spent Christmas together. I came up with this silly idea of a Min $5, Max $10 Christmas gift exchange- which left us scrambling around for presents in 10 minutes. We then went on a wild supermarket shopping spree to get all our party needs. When we got to my house, sworn insisted I play her some songs on my cello- exactly what got us to know each other in 2001..Mann, I feel ancient... :(

The cooking process was not too difficult- it was just lengthy. Our Christmas menu consisted of:

1. Tortilla chips with cheese & salsa
2. BBQ Buffalo wings
3. Prawn cocktail with peach pineapple salsa
4. Buttery mashed potato
5. Rosemary roasted garlic chicken
6. BBQ Chicken Pizza
7. California Signature Pepperoni Pizza
8. Grape jelly with nata de coco
9. Walnut brownie
10. Haagen Daaz white chocolate raspberry truffle

With a selection of wine, alcohol and spirits:
1. Malibu blended passion tea
2. Diet Sprite
3. Lipton Green Tea
4. Riesling White wine
5. 100% Apple juice
6. Lemon Tea
7. Apple Spritzer.

And in the party of extravagance, we had a proud count of 5 attendees for this Grand Feast!!! :-)

Jason was our chief Bartender for the night, Cheryl was his capable personal aid (you know how James Bond is always surrounded by pretty girls), I was the lowly kitchen i/c a.k.a chef, Pagan was the dessert specialist and Sworn was the... eng eng cheng cheng nothing to do kid on the block. Only know how to take photos & yak on the phone!!!! Hrmmmmpf. Hahahaha!

After our dinner, we decided to play Bingo for live entertainment as we didn't have poker cards (and you thought the SIA girls would bring some cards for us from the plane right... -_-"') It was also a good chance to test out my new Black Friday printer as I started downloading and printing out Bingo cards off the internet. LOL

But hey, our BINGO was SPECIAL ok! We allocated 1 point to the winner of the game (we played 6 sets) and 0.5 point to whoever guessed the winner of the game correctly!! So each round was really hilarious - we kept telling whoever we voted for to buck up. The spooky thing was that Jason guessed all 6 rounds of winner correctly!!!! That's a 1/5 x 1/5 x 1/5 x 1/5 x 1/5 x 1/5 = 1/ 15625 chance of getting all 6 guesses right!!! We decided then that we should have spent Christmas in Las Vegas instead... :((( [believe me, we would have seriously driven down since it's only 4 hours away, if not for Sworn & Pagan who had to report for flight duty the next day)

The overall winner of Bingo (that's Jason!!) got to choose the Christmas present he wanted from the gift exchange.. but we had another set of rules for playing the Christmas gift exchange which involved stealing another present that you like, and once the same gift had been "stolen" twice, it would be frozen with whoever had it, so it was funny that he ended up with the same gift he had brought! LOL.

Ok, 3 more painful days of MAD ACCOUNTING and I'll be done with the Accounting Monster. Although I don't like the super tight deadline, I think it helps to relief the pain that the end is in sight!!! Adios!

First Swing Class!

Just had my life's 1st Swing Class. It was supposed to be Waltz & Swing but I guess 1 hour was too short to try to juggle two dances at once. Aww mann, it was so much fun! I guess I needed the break from Accounting pretty badly. Chanced upon the video below- these folks add a whole new dimension to dancing. No wonder they won the US Open! Oh mann... this totally doesn't look vaguely like anything I learnt in class today... hehe.

P/s: You may want to pause the song on my blog by clicking on the pink bear at the left bottom side of this page

Coronado Island, CA

Just paid USD$78 for 1.5 days of parking in downtown LA. Prices here are unbelievable.

Finally got home after what seemed like months of being away. Actually it was just 3 days being away in downtown LA- but it's probably the crazy accounting work that has drained me completely. Decided to leave my work laptop & huge stack of annual reports in the car after such a long day so I get the time to post these long overdue photos taken at Coronado Island, San Diego.

Thanks to Jason's posting with the US Navy, we got the good fortune of being at the private side of Coronado beach, one of the most exalted beaches in the US... where I had much, much fun fiddling with my camera:

9 tricks in 2009

"The real trick in life is to turn hindsight into foresight that reveals insight." - I wrote that not too long ago in a personal note. Today, I started reflecting on the major lessons I've learnt in my life and came up with the 9 most important "tricks" for 2009. Without going too deeply into each of them, nor intending for it to be affirmative, here they are:

Trick #1: When it's a single person vs. an institution, the institution always win.
Trick #2: Don't be defensive/ don't bother to explain: Those who matter don't mind, and those who mind don't matter.
Trick #3: Don't get strung up by the notion of fairness. Everyone has their own balancing beam of what fairness means.
Trick #4: You can never win an argument. If you lose, you lost. If you win, you still lost. Think about it.
Trick #5: If you can't change others, change yourself- it's far easier that way. Your attitude determine the altitude of your happiness.
Trick #6: Don't nurse, curse nor rehearse your wound. You'll only hurt more and you can't forget things that way.
Trick #7: There is no good or bad. Everything happens for a reason/every person enters your life at a point to teach you the lesson you most need to learn. But our human tendency is to rush to label it as "good" or "bad". Take the chance to decipher the lesson.
Trick #8: Everything a person does, he/she either does it out of fear or out of love.
Trick #9: Let go, let flow! Enjoy life for what it is.

On a quick note, it's not just about introspection & reflection, but putting it into action! That's not always easy as we are all painfully human. But slowly and surely, we will get there.

Top jobs

Didn't know Mathematicians have the best job in the USA!

According to the study, mathematicians fared best in part because they typically work in favorable conditions -- indoors and in places free of toxic fumes or noise -- unlike those toward the bottom of the list like sewage-plant operator, painter and bricklayer. They also aren't expected to do any heavy lifting, crawling or crouching -- attributes associated with occupations such as firefighter, auto mechanic and plumber. The study also considers pay, which was determined by measuring each job's median income and growth potential.

Wicked is so Good!

Today was awesome! I finally got to watch my long-anticipated musical: WICKED! I must have been in New York say at least 10 times to try to get its tickets on Broadway but it's perpetually SOLD OUT. So now that it's touring LA, I was sure not to let the opportunity slip by.

So Persistence Pays (clearly Money Pays too!!!) and boy!!! WICKED was sooooo GOOOOOOOD!!! Very unconventional, fresh storyline, great music, wonderful cast, amazing props/costumes/lighting. Oh mann, it's now my FAVORITE MUSICAL!!!

XT met me after the show and gave me this that he bought while I was watching WICKED. Heh, cool stuff! Someone should also start the Zing! brand of other cool stuff that I like. Ha, I wish! :p



I'm also really happy today as I got to call home. I saw this red building today right next to the Pantages theater where I had watched WICKED and the top really attracted me: "Home Is Where The Heart Is". Very true.

I'll probably be SUPER busy in the next 2 weeks doing my super tough, tedious accounting project and company analyses. But hopefully I'll also get some time to blog!

Welcome to 2009!

A thought came to me this morning... Why do people wish each other "Happy New Year"? What is the significance of a New Year? Shouldn't every day be momentous and worth celebrating? Afterall, we never know if we will live past today; and it is every "today" that makes an eventual year go by. As I reflect on this, I see New Year's significance more as it's been 2009 years since the birth of Jesus. I'm not trying to preach over here, but 2009 AD really stands for 2009 Anno Domini Nostri Iesu (Jesu) Christi ("In the Year of Our Lord Jesus Christ"). No matter what religion you believe in, you'll have to agree that the birth of Jesus must have been so remarkable that all of world history is denominated in it.

- - - - - - - - - - Ok, I'm done with my random muse. - - - - - - - - - -

I spent New Year's Eve with my colleague, Brian's family. He just married a Thai wife whom he met while travelling and her mom is in town to visit so we had a good time together. Brian hopes I can lend social support to his wife given we're both dealing with the stress of relocation. I see it as that and more - it's also about friendship, asianhood (I'm getting all patriotic!) & observing the intricacies of different cultures. Life is too short to go through every lesson yourself.



Wenwen & I then got ourselves into SQ outfits and checked out a Salsa & Swing countdown party. It was rather weird spending our countdown with a whole group of strangers but I guess it's the best we've got. I just had a good time laughing at crazy people dancing. Not that I'm a big fan of Countdowns anyway. They hardly mean a thing to me since every day is a new beginning.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I spent the first day of 2009 with a bang by going to Temecula! It's one of the top places to visit in SoCal (Southern California)- famous for the historic Old Town and amazing wineries! For us, it was also the sunshine and blue skies that made it special after days of fog, rain and freezing temperatures.



I got Jason to piggy-bag Cheryl and it was sooooo hilarious! Things are -really- old school here...what with red old funky hats and 5 cents Bubble Gum.



The Old Town looked like a historic hollywood set. There were antique shops and unique craftswork at every turn. And at almost every corner of the main street was a super classic car- like this 1930 Ford! (which was still in perfect running order!!!) It's a pity cars back home never get the chance to age gracefully...



I enjoyed exploring the various shops here as well. They sell really interesting items you can't find in commercialized malls. One of this sign was so cute (& true!), I couldn't resist taking a photo with it: "Give a man an inch, And he thinks he's a ruler". haha!!!



Given the geographical proximity, there was pretty strong evidence of Mexican influence in Temecula- from the buildings, to the food, to the decorations that hung around the old town.



We had fun taking photos and posing with the Mexican decorations (Jason thinks he looks super gay! haha!) when tragedy struck. I was happily skipping up the wooden ramp in my indulgence of bliss when my 2 hour old cK sunglasses decided to explore gravity in action. And its first disfigurement. -_-"'



3 Lessons learnt:
1) Sunglasses are meant to be worn on the face, not hung on shirts.
2) Walk, don't skip.
3) When all the damage is done, just pose & smile for the camera. It's not the end of the world! :)

Temecula is also famous for its wine, so we picked Wilson Creek to visit (as Jason had said that he saw them being sold in Albertsons supermarket all the time). I also had my life's first wine-tasting session with a hearty toast to the New Year! I used to think wine tasted bad; but after this visit, I think I just haven't been tasting the right wines. :p I'll now be stocking up some wine like a true Californian!



Couldn't resist getting Jason & Cheryl to post for this 2nd picture in the vineyard- which I affectionately term "Toast to Love" :)



Wilson Creek has legendary almond champane that I was -so- close to buying. Until I decided I should wait for my family/ relatives to come visit. There's no way I can finish a bottle all by myself in 1 day. In any case, TOAST TO GREAT HEALTH!! :)