To all who may be celebrating the occasion, have a prosperous and fulfilling Year of the Ox!
P.S.: The Chinese characters in the picture is not quite appropriate for the occasion, but this is the only background I could find on Meez that’s related to Lunar New Year.
OK.. I’ve been tagged by a handful of friends on Facebook to write this, so here goes..
I *LURVE* cats! My friends will tell you that I’m crazy over them. I’ll go ga-ga over anything and everything that resembles a cat, or has a picture of a cat on it.
Despite my fondness for felines, I’ve never had a pet cat. Nor a pet dog. Nor a pet hamster. In short, I’ve never had a furry pet. However, I did have 2 pet terrapins when I was about 10, but things did not end well. One of my terrapins fell into the toilet bowl and got flushed away. My mom made me give the other one away.
I’m Singaporean by nationality, Chinese by ethnicity, and Hakka (or Khek) by dialect. Chinese (Mandarin) is my mother tongue, though I was taught English as a first language. I never got to learning the Khek dialect because we do not speak it at home. However, I’m fluent in the Cantonese dialect, thanks to years of watching Hong Kong dramas. So I’m often mistaken as a Cantonese.
Even though I majored in Computer Science back in my polytechnic days, and have been working in the IT line ever since, I’ve never owned a computer until 2 years ago, when I finally bought my first laptop.
I studied Japanese for 3 semesters in polytechnic as an elective. I can converse in simple, beginner level Japanese, though my vocabulary is still somewhat limited. I can read hiragana and katakana with relative ease. Since kanji characters are essentially Chinese characters, I can roughly guess the meaning of the word even though I may not know how to pronounce them.
I’m currently a BIG fan of Korean dramas, and have a huge collection of DVDs of the genre at home. Korean dramas have also piqued my interest in Korean culture, particular Korean food and the Korean language.
I *hate*bell peppers (a.k.a capsicum), particularly green ones.
I can’t swim. I joined a swimming class once, but I gave up when our instructor wanted to teach us how to jump off the diving board.
I have acrophobia, that means I’m afraid of heights. I don’t necessarily get into a panic attack, but I do get a little nervous and uneasy when I’m standing in a high place. It was worse when I was younger, when I’d rather walk further down the street to cross at the traffic lights just to avoid crossing the overhead bridge. Nowadays, I can cross the bridge without too much trouble, as long as I keep away from the edges and don’t see the cars passing underneath me. I was even able to ride the cable car and take the Skyride (a type of chairlift) when I was at Sentosa with the bf a couple of years ago. The chief principle is to avoid looking at the things that are moving around beneath you.
I have an innate fear of falling down. This has hampered my attempts of learning to cycle, skate, roller-blade, etc. This probably also explains my fear of heights too. I used to have nightmares of falling off high buildings or from a long flight of stairs.
I used to have a fear of the dark when I was younger, which probably evolved from a fear of the unknown. I remember singing “Amazing Grace” to calm my nerves, when visiting the washroom in the middle of the night.
I’m a sensitive person, literally. I have a sensitive nose as well as sensitive skin. Dust, mold and huge temperature changes will send my nose running for hours on end.
I love cheese, but I don’t like cheesecake.
I like coffee with milk, lots of it! But I will *not* touch a cup of tea that has even a drop of milk in it.
I have a palate that leans more towards the savory rather than sweet. So I’m more likely to fall prey to potato chips than to ice cream.
Generally speaking, chocolates do not tempt me. But I do have a soft spot for brownies. I like my chocs dark and bitter, preferably infused with rum.
I cannot tolerate animals with more than 4 legs, i.e. insects and spiders. They give me the creeps.
I have a habit of talking to myself. Verbalizing my thoughts makes it easier to straighten them out. This probably stemmed from growing up as the only child. As I grew older, I learned to be more discreet to avoid queer looks from passers-by.
I think guys wearing hairbands are just plain *WRONG*.
My maxillary canine are still my baby teeth. I think this is hereditary as my dad lost his last baby tooth at the age of 55. I’m aiming to break my dad’s record.
My Chinese name is 绍慧 (pronounced as shao hui), which literally mean “introducing wisdom“.
Today was my first working day of 2009 and I was greeted with a couple of pleasant surprises throughout the day. First, when I was on my way to lunch, I chanced on the local television station doing some drama filming at the mall where I was at.
Then when I got back to the office, I found a 50 cent coin underneath my chair. Since it didn’t belong to anyone (or so they claimed), they told me to keep it as a New Year’s gift.
While chatting with some current and ex-colleagues on MSN, one of them revealed that he’ll be expecting a baby girl (his 2nd child) soon. Highly “productive” guy, this one.
After work, while I was walking to the nearby hawker centre to get some dinner, I bumped the “baby sister” of our development team and her boyfriend. Hmm.. not bad.. They really look good together!
And as I was wandering around the hawker centre, thinking of what to get, I (quite literally) bumped into an ex-classmate of mine. Seems that she works nearby too. Cool!
Although today has its fair share of downs, I am truly thankful to God for providing me with so many pleasant little surprises to keep my spirits up through the day. It sure feels like the after the rain. Deo gratias!
I realized I’ve slacked in posting, but it IS the festive season, so please forgive my laziness. Meanwhile, for the first post of the new year, here’s a classic which you’ll enjoy.
This brief visit to the newly opened National Geographic store in the heart of Vivocity, Singapore was purely accidental. I just happened to be around the area, and decided to grab some lunch there before heading back to the office. As I was making my way up the escalator from the basement level, a drfit-wood sculpture of a horse (above) at the store’s entrance caught my eye.
I’d picked up the news that National Geographic had opened a concept store in Singapore, after reading through some Facebook updates of a friend, who happens to be an avid blogger and is rather “into” news of this kind. But I didn’t know where the new store was located. Well, since opportunity has presented itself, I had to oblige and walk in and see what in-store! (mind the pun )
The concept store was sort of like a cross between a gallery and a museum and a souvenir/gift shop. Lot’s of National Geographic related merchandise on sale, but I didn’t really take notice of those. I was more interested in the gallery/museum aspect of the store.
To view the pictures this amateur photographer has taken with the trusty Sony Ericsson K800i, click here.
after the rain. Deo gratias!
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