Down with (not swine/H1N1) flu

I am currently down with flu. I started coughing on Thursday afternoon. I thought it’s just a normal coughing, but due to the recent paranoia over H1N1 coming to Singapore shores, I decided to check at the school doctor. I didn’t go travel anywhere over the few weeks so he dismissed the possibility of H1N1. (I was about to tell him that I did go to the airport to see my boyfriend before he flew off to Jakarta, but then I went to the airport after I got my first coughs)

On my way to the doctor, on my way to the airport, on the way back from the airport, I was always afraid to cough. Because I was afraid people will think bad things about me (like OH NOES THE GIRL IS COUGHING I MIGHT GET SWINE FLU HOW HOW HOW???)

Seriously, I think this paranoia thing is a bit too much. I found out that the H1N1 flu’s fatality rate is low (just slightly higher than usual seasonal flu). Even the patient zero in Singapore is recovering well. Oh by the way, just because I’m an SMU student doesn’t mean I have increased risk of H1N1. The SMU girl went to the doctor in Bedok area, I didn’t go on the BSM NY trip, so no. Seriously.

Perhaps in Singapore they were already scared about what happened with SARS several years ago?

And by the way, I’m seriously irked by how a newspaper revealed the patient zero’s name (who has requested not to reveal her name – at least in her statement to SMU). Cut it off, will ya. It’s not like she intentionally wanted to contract the virus.

Anyway, I’m quite contained in home right now. I only went out to eat (at the famous Whampoa makan place no less!), then went back to home to gulp down my medicine. It’s a partial home quarantine, I guess.

Hope I get well soon. I’ll need to shop for some stuff for my impending trip to Russia!

Oh and by the way, contact me or e-mail the choir at chamberchoir@smu.edu.sg to get your tickets for the choir’s fundraising concert! $15 each! (details at picture below)

Wiping the dust off my blog

I know you’ll be like “Oh well, what’s new? Sylv disappeared without announcement and went back to post several trivial stuff.”

Nothing new, I will say.

Just let me tell you this : I’ve been writing, a lot. I’ve used writing as my way to channel my frustrations and whatnots since I was young.

But the thing of being a blogger is that you’ll always have to think about who will read the posts, about what to say and not to say, about what impact the post might have, etc etc etc. Yes, even personal posts, the so-called unimportant blogposts about how a day went through and everything, morons. Getting a friend angry over a blogpost is just too ridiculous and tacky.

So what I did was, I picked up a pen, and I grabbed my (unruled – this is important) notebook and wrote. I’ve been writing in another site too (can’t be bothered to link it now), and because the thoughts are jumbled and incoherent, I can’t bear myself to publish this in the blog (which I try so hard to maintain as a blog with coherent/cohesive sentences).

So.. What else should I say.

Ah. Out of boredom, I announced on plurk that I’m gonna send some people christmas cards. Hillary said “No! Don’t kill the trees!” and ding! Something appeared on my mind. Why don’t I make cards from recycled materials?

Without further ado, here’s my first one : (too lazy to make the next ones wahahaha)

Materials used : pizza box, cut-outs from brochures/promotional materials, cut-outs from newspaper. Tools used : cutter, glue, markers, scissors.

I’m actually thinking of making this into a charity event or something. You get one from me for a small amount of money and I’ll donate the money to some causes. Can’t figure out what cause to donate and how much should I charge and everything though.

Would you guys be interested though? Tell me in the comments (or you can reach me from, well, anywhere. For instance, the Contact Form is apparently very nifty!).

That’s all for now.

24th of May – The Opera in a Forest

I know it’s been so long! Nevertheless here’s my entry!

24th of May, the last day of our competition

It was the folk music category.. Songs that we sang:

• Sohran Bushi (Japanese)
• Xiao Huang Li Niao/小黄鹂鸟 (Mongolian folk song, sung in Mandarin)
• Mamayog Akun (Philippines)
• Dayung Sampan (Singapore, with melody adapted from a Chinese song)
• Now I Walk in Beauty (Navajo traditional prayer, sung in English)

Pieroghi (dumplings)

Yummmmmmmmmmm

pieroghi!

Okay if you’re wondering.. I did eat two portions of pieroghi!

me and honey vodka

Hehe.. The first “gloomy” photo is my favourite photo of the lot! He even used it for his profile picture once

 

Mwahahahaha. Please don’t kill me, please. It’s just a joke

Halfway

I know, I missed 3 NaBloPoMo. I failed, but at least I tried.

It’s halfway through November and this month has been a steep roller coaster for me. 

On a lighter note, I just finished my last presentation of the term. Now I’m only left with 2 project parts to write, and that should not be a big issue.

This month will also be a month to mark one year through my relationship with my boyfriend. Time flies, eh? How many of you feel that it’s just like yesterday I announced my relationship change?

I hope this month will end in happy news for me

The (slightly) longest day in a week

part of NaBloPoMo 2008

This term, Tuesday is my longest day ever. I had one Monday about 2 terms ago that was also so long because I had 3 concurrent courses at one day. This term’s Tuesday doesn’t have 3 concurrent courses, but equally, if not more, tiring.

So I have a morning class at 8.30 AM. People who know me will surely know that I’m just not a morning person. Don’t get me wrong, I CAN wake up, but whether I can “function properly”, that’s a whole different story. Today was worse than ever. My “best friend” called insomnia kept knocking on my door again last night, and I could only fall asleep at about 5 AM. And I had to wake up at 7 AM! Darn. So I did. Unwillingly I dragged my ass to school.

Class finished at 11.45 AM. Usually after class, I would have a meeting from around 12 PM to around 2 PM. However I didn’t have any meeting today, meeting was cancelled coz the groupmates couldn’t make it. This explains the (slightly) in the title. Hehe.

It didn’t mean I could slack though. Went to the lab to do stuff. And class (at the same lab) finally began at 3.30 PM. Tried so hard to catch what’s being talked about but gave up. La di da. La di da di da.

“Please go outside to enjoy the buffet”

Wha…?

Whoa seriously! My kind professor (and now I feel bad for not listening….) treated the whole class a buffet dinner! Om nom nom nom.

Couldn’t remember what happened between finishing eating and finishing class. Hahahaha. Anyway, after class finished at 6.45 PM, it was time for choir practice. Argh.

Don’t get me wrong, I like singing in choir. After all I chose to be in the choir and had been staying for more than a year. It’s just that.. The practice time just doesn’t suit my body time. You want to know the other practice day for choir? Saturday morning. Argh.

It was election day to select new choir exco and we’re so excited to know the results this Saturday!

And now here I am, typing this, and will proceed to finish this hellish long day.

While I’m finishing my long day, our folks in USA are also having a long day.

I just hope they’ll vote wisely and whatever the crowd’s decision is, it’s for the best.

Are you excited about the result?

Here I come, November

part of NaBloPoMo 2008

And so NaBloPoMo starts. Here I am with the first post for this month!

It was, like usual, a busy day. I’m always busy on Saturday. Choir at morning (which I attended late because of my stupid morning stomachache that made me go to the toilet back and forth). Sang 2 tango songs. Very emotional. And tiring.

Then I had brunch at a dim sum place in Sunshine Plaza. I think it was called Victor’s Kitchen. Great dim sum although it’s sad that the waitresses can only speak Chinese. Bah. Went back to school to do EWS (Enterprise Web Solutions) assignment. We’re supposed to create an enrichment course portal. I realized we started late and I realized there’s SO MUCH to be done, but I hope we can strive anyway.

OTW to EWS computer lab (which is, strangely, located in School of Economics/School of Social Sciences. Huh.), I remembered that there’s Podcamp Singapore going on. I intended to attend the event religiously but hell the things that I need to get done was just eating me up. So I thought, ah hell I’ll just drop by and say hi to some blogger friends and then go. So I went to the room. Saw DK, Farinelli, Miccheng, Claudia present. Daphne went out to talk to me (and to go toilet) and told me that I should just go in. It was 12.56 PM and the talk is supposed to be over at 1.00 PM so I thought, again, ah what the heck, just barge in and wait until it’s over, and then I can mingle around with blogger friends, and go.

“Sorry it’s already 1 PM and time’s up”
“Ah sorry, just 1 more question. Very short.”

La di da. As I checked the clock, it was 1.25 PM. 

Immediately went off from the room and said hi-bye to bloggers and rushed off to the lab. Helping to search for automatic way to create website after an event happened (in Microsoft Share Point – the urgh thing, I might say).

A friend, Olivia, came to the lab and told everyone that today is another friend, Edwin’s bday! She bought a cake and told us to go out and celebrate.

She took picture of my EWS group and the cake!

Yes I know my hair looks hideous. GAH.

Happy birthday Edwin Tan!

And it was time for my piano lesson! And guess what! I didn’t bring my piano books to school! Yeay!

Sigh. Lucky I realized it quite early so I rushed off from the lab and went to the bus stop to catch the bus home. Waited and waited until at least 15 minutes. I turned impatient. Checked SBS Iris and HA HA HA, GUESS WHAT. SBS Iris next bus : 10 minutes. You gotta be kidding me.

Anyway bus came and I went home and took my piano books and I quickly flagged a cab to get me to the piano lesson place. (this is an attempt of shortening sentences. I realize I did too many things)

Piano lesson finished, bf picked me up and we ate at Ayam Penyet Ria at Square 2! YEAY! <3

Ayam Penyet! Photo by Shellfish

Photo by Shellfish. Hehe! I didn’t have time to take photo coz I just tucked in!

Oh well.. What a busy day it was! Imagine how busy the rest of November will be! I have another blog to update for NaBloPoMo so I’ll leave you guys with a video of one of the tangoes I sang : Adios Nonino.

Background of the video : it was played during the church wedding of Prince Willem-Alexander (of the Netherlands) and Maxima Zorreguieta. Maxima was born in Argentina and Adios Nonino (meaning : Goodbye, Father) is a popular song from Argentina written by Astor Piazzolla after his father passed away.

Such a sad, depressing song yet beautiful..

Good friday.. Really good =)

I really love stating this fact : I’m kinda free. I feel more relaxed than usual

This Good Friday I went to Church of St Peter and Paul. Initially I and my boyfriend wanted to go to the Cathedral of Good Shepherd but we have heard news about it being overcrowded. Heh. It’s usually overcrowded even in usual Sundays. Can’t imagine the crowd on this special day. Novena church even put a temporary “tent” outside the church building equipped with plastic chairs, fans, and projectors+screens.

And we were right! The church wasn’t overcrowded, and the choir sang pretty nicely. Unlike the choir of Novena Church that we heard on Holy Thursday.

After the service (which included stand-kneel-stand rites and kissing the cross), we decided to eat and walk around Bugis Junction. As a typical girl I went around to see the newest earrings and other accessories and then lamented the super expensive price. (seriously, why put price so high? I can buy many cheap earrings online. Like Bobo’s blog shop. Hehe!)

Few days ago I teased my boyfriend how we never have a “couple” thing. You know, something in pairs. Something very lovey-dovey, in my opinion. As I grow up I’ve grown more ignorant to these types of “romantic things to be done with boyfriend”.

But, well… =P

Apparently my boyfriend is a sucker for cute things too =P (sorry, honey =P)
The moment we saw those things we instantly fell in love and impulsively bought it!

There are many pictures so read more to continue =)
Read more

Valentine’s day 2008.. =)

Finally.. I can celebrate Valentine’s Day peacefully and happily, after going through meetings and God knows what else.

My boyfriend arrived at my home at 7.30 PM.. With that HUGE smile on his face. Hehehehe.

He gave me this rose!

I’m so happy!

And soooo we hailed a cab and went to Suntec City. Initially he wanted to take me to Marche. He knows I love Marche! =P Apparently, Suntec City was very full of couples =P and some freaky people trying to sell roses. Ha.

But then…. Apparently Marche closed down!! =( It really just disappeared. We thought we were in the wrong place, but then we checked the directory.. And no… Marche is not there anymore.. Sigh…

Since Suntec City got many (maybe hundreds of) restaurants, we decided to stay in Suntec City. My eye caught Sizzler. My boyfriend had never been there, but I did, when my very very kind piano teacher treated me and her tenants (which are my friends) to christmas dinner there. I told him it’s nice, so he agreed to go there.

Well, you know.. Suntec City fountain terrace is huge, so we went there, and initially got lost, and finally found the restaurant. While walking along the fountain terrace we actually had a thought to switch to Fish n Co instead, but the queue was….er.. violent. LOL.

Moreover, my boyfriend really likes the ambience of Sizzler that night. They put candles on every table and the lights were kinda dimmed, so yeah

(I juz realize I didn’t take any pictures. I think we were too excited -_-)

We ordered the meal with free unlimited salad from the salad bar. And the salad bar in Sizzler is just goodness. They not only have some vegetables, they also have some meat, some delicious pre-made salad (potato tuna salad!!), a nacho bar, and a pasta bar! Moreover, it offers free ice cream with free sprinklers. So make your own ice cream! (and you can go back and forth again and again and again since it’s unlimited =P)

After that… We went back to my home. And this is the time.. Of unwrapping!

The two presents from my boyfriend =)

Opening the first one and tadah!

It’s a box of Ferrero Rocher. FYI, it’s a box of Ferrero Rocher that he brought to my house when he suddenly popped up that morning and said “I love you” to me. =D Er well.. I rejected him at first =P But now since we’re together, he gave me this box of Ferrero Rocher again =D

The second present..

Hehe.. Wonder what is inside..

So I opened and..

A cute photo frame!
And what’s cuter, the picture inside that frame! It’s my favourite cat picture!!

It’s this one..

moar humorous pics

And then.. This is the Valentine card..

The content is confidential! =P

And here’s my boyfriend trying to open his present (read : how to make last-minute valentine’s day gift)

He’s blending with the background.. =P

All in all, it was a very pleasant day.
Love you my darling..
Thank’s for the wonderful day. And being the wonderful you =)