Ready, Lights, Action ( Part II )

Photographer : Yew Kwang
Stylist : Janice

When a girl turns into a woman...

That's me!
I'm 21 today...I still remember last year during this time, my MSN nick was "I'm not a girl, not yet a woman...Happy birthday to me!" Now I am an adult already yay!! So that nick no longer applies.

Anyway, I had a really happy birthday this year. The best ever so I had to write it down. It's nothing very big, so to those friends who were not invited, I didn't throw a party. Unlike some of my peers, who wants to commemorate their turning into adulthood with a bang, get themselves dead drunk, I didn't feel like entertaining. Perhaps I AM really getting old, plus throwing a party = entertaining people = modelling = work, which I didnt particularly feel like doing. All I wanted was a nice food, good wine, doing the things i like with the people I love. Boring...Hurhur.

Not forgetting to credit my parents, I have to mention their efforts to make me happy. First, they brought me and ZY to eat chilli crabs because I wanted to eat them, then last Saturday, we went to Magic Wok, and the bought a mango cake from Bengawan Solo to Gram's place so all my uncles and cousins could sing the song for me. It made me feel good to be 21. I mean my parents didn'f forget to make me happy just because I was getting old.

By Sunday, I knew Zhiyou was hatching some secret plans for me on my birthday, though I didnt know what. He did ask me what I want, and I told him I wanted a present (with the object, the wrapping paper), nice food, nice wine, and to spend it alone with him. He made a project out of my birthday! Since yesterday, he had been wrapping my present and writing cards for the whole day. Initially I thought he just don't know how to wrap presents properly and keep tearing pieces of wrapping paper.
But at around 12 midnight, he surprised me with not one present, but 10! But I could only open one each hour, so that I would feel excited the whole day. (I have this thing about unwrapping presents. It gives me adrenaline rush.)

First let me talk about the food. We went to The Square @ Furama for lunch. For UOB cardmemebers, they had a 1-for-1 birthday lunch buffet promotion. And just for $26.80+++, we stuffed ourselves silly. They had a wide selection of Asian and Western Cuisine; for main course, I liked their chicken rice, tempura, soft shelled crabs, chicken rice, this baked pasta thing that tasted damn good, and sushi. For dessert, we had chocolate fondue, DIY crepe which turned out really gross looking like they had pimples on them, a great assortment of cakes and brownies and best of all their fruit jelly. I had like 5 cups of them, until I was full to my head.

Now the presents from ZY:
#1) From pillow #1, whom I have left at home: A green hair band to keep my hair up when I study, stuffed in a Erin Cup soup box and nice red wrapping paper.
#2) From pillow #2, whom I have remembered to bring to hall: A giant box of my favourite Post's Honey Bunches of Oats, nicely wrapped up in gold wrapping paper.
#3) From Xiaobai: Because Xiaobai thinks I like mags for toilet reads, so it asked ZY to get me a set of 3 female magazines; CLEO, FEMALE & HER WORLD.

#4) A pair of long dangling silver earrings from Topshop. Perfect for my neck plunging dresses or Oscars if I become famous.

#5) A lovely box of luxury bittersweet chocolates from Royce. You know, the chocolate shop in Suntec that people only go in to buy chocolates as gifts, and never for themselves.

#6) A FILA handbag with apple green sides. One day ZY called me after work and said he was looking at mattress covers on discount in Liang Court and asked me what colour I fancy something white and light purple. I told him that sounded very sexually deprived and I told him I like green. Hurhur...he's still in denial that green is actually nicer than purple.

#7) A bottle of Incanto "Charms" by Salvatore Ferragamo. It's got passionfruit and Jasmine notes. I'm normally a no-perfume person, and Ferragamo is one of the few brands of perfume that ever caught my fancy. We encountered "Charms" when we were looking for Xiaohui's presents, and I casually mentioned that I liked it when the salesperson did the test on me. Sexy, feminine, free-spirited with a hint of glamour, it evokes the image of Angelina Jolie sitting on a Ferris Wheel, with flushed cheeks and looking happy. Since ZY likes me sans perfume, I think I'll probably wear it twice a year, like during Christmas or on Valentine's Day. Perhaps I'll take 10 years to finish the bottle, or perhaps if I become famous, I'll wear it to the Oscars. (hurhurhur) Maybe I'll just wear it when I'm feeling sexy. But I like it very much.

#8) A knee length black-polka-dotted white tube dress that caught my eye a month ago from Chinatown. I had dragged ZY there for a second opinion after his internship at the law firm and he bought it for me on the spot, "as a birthday present". I told him to bring home and wrap it up and I'll pretend I didn't know what I was going to have for birthday.

#9) A bottle of Syrah custom-made for me, called "1 Silly baby". Actually, it was only the label, but it looked authentic. This is what it says on the front label, "Anniversaire, Neo Xiao Yun, Syrah 2006"; and at the back, "The vintage: The 2006 vintage is the only one commemorating the 21st birthday of Neo Xiao Yun, they are more lush and approachable than normal vintages at release while still exhibiting excellent structure.
Lasting Notes: Exotic aromas of rose, jasmine and spice, following pepper and leather nuances. Complex and concentrated in style, with deep blueberry aromas complementing the higher note spice on the palate. The wine has the structure and balance to develop in bottle for 7-10 years. Sweetens and gets sillier with age."

#10) 2 sets of Pierre Cardin lingeries. Zy knows that I have a soft spot for nice lingeries and especially those by Pierre Cardin. The first set was a soft blue maximizer set with diamond studs on the straps. Push ups...I get the hint, but I loved it. Next, is a pink and white tulle set. The cups are cut generously at the cleavage, giving it a innocently sexy look. Think mermaids and their seashell "bikinis".

To end the day, he whipped up a lovely dinner of barbecued diced beef and braised chicken. Diced because we didn't have steak knives in hall and I still haven't figure out out to eat steak. I am really very touched by the amount of effort ZY put into making me happy for my birthday. And what can I say, except that he spoils me. Not only on my birthday, but everyday, he has this special ability to make me feel loved even after being together for a year. Thanks for everything you've done. I love you! MUACKZ...

Addicted to Haute Couture

Christian Dior Couture

It is sort of like my free day. Although I promised myself that I'd study hard and finish all my readings by today, I wasn't motivated at all. Instead, I went Couture hunting. Lately, I've been hooked onto watching Haute Couture on You-Tube. Watching because I am not famous nor tall (bloody hell...I'm only 170cm. The ang mos are at least 10cm taller) nor experience enough to get hired by Chanel or Dior to do a Haute Couture. You-tube because I am not famous enough(again!) nor rich enough to buy my way into the fashion house to watch a live fashion show.

If I am not wrong, Haute Couture is a French name for High Fashion. I mean very very very high fashion. And to date, there are only a handful of very very lucky women who buys couture clothes and most of the time, fashion houses uses Couture Fashion show as an publicity to promote their other products. People get interested in it because 1) it's really grand. If you think normal fashion shows by Gucci is big, Haute Coutures are better. 2) They are really interesting to watch. These high fashion performance tells a story. Sometimes they don't do normal conventional catwalk, but dance out in dresses exquisitely done up.

Ready, Lights, Action ( Part I )

Bitch of the First Order

That's the name Theresa gave her. And I like that name

Last week, ZY told me that a close friend from law, whom I am acquianted, was having a birthday party whereby he wanted his friends to be around. This guy's girlfriend, the bitch in question(as we always referred to her as prior to this incident) sent out a notice that says no *Plus 1 was invited to his bday party. I was fine with it, except for a little weeny bit of disappointment that Sat could not be spent with ZY alone. I forgot about it soon after.

However, like an hour ago, as ZY was checking his email, he reminded me that the host of the bday party had sent out an email to all those invited. The exact content of which is not reflected here, but it mentioned that the party was a potluck party and those invited are supposed to bring food along. Presents for the intended birthday guy is without a doubt, expected. (Probably by his cheapo neh neh, stingy gf). Everyone is not supposed to bring any drinks because the hosts are providing it for FREE! Beverages are included for FREE and that is what the hosts are providing for the party...

Oh wow! Such charming hosts. I mean how much can a few 1.5 litres bottle of green tea and diet coke cost?? And not that only, as the host, the gf demanded that everyone should bring food to the party when she only provide drinks. It is like a half-fucked attempt at trying to show her bf that he is important to her, "I bring in all your friends so I don't have to spend money on buying you a birthday dinner, and took all the 'trouble' so you better appreciate me". Then expect my bf to leave me on a Sat night, to spend his money and time to contribute to contribute to a half fuckedly organized party that no one actually care about. I mean if the girlfriend of the birthday boy didnt care about him THAT much, I don't think anyone else would care about the party more right? WTF!

Then ZY told me that these 3 other guys who were not within the clique were invited. COINCIDENTALLY, they were the *Plus 1s of the other 3 girls from the clique. Dang! I knew these three guys weren't close with the birthday couple, so their presence at the party had to do with the fact that they are the plus ones of the girls from the clique. So that's left with me and Theresa. That was obviously double standard. ANd even ZY was pissed about that. BUt he kept assuring me, that is just the boliao-ness of that girl and ask me not to take it to heart. I mean I am obviously not very gian to go to the party, especially so when I am not invited. But the fact that the girlfriend of the birthday guy insisted that no *Plus 1s are allowed, and yet blatantly invite the male *Plus 1s is just disgusting. On a personal petty level, she wanted my boyfriend to exclude me, to be separated from me on a saturday night, so that she can take advantage of him as a "provider" of the party. WTF!!! In fact, I was so angry that I immediately went on MSN to message unsuspecting Theresa about it. I think she was more angry that the girl snubbed her and didnt want her there rather than the fact that everyone was taken advantage of. Okie I was angry at both things. SO maybe I was more angry. She told me to ask ZY not to go, and she'll ask JAck not to go as well. But I think that since they were like best friends with the poor henpecked birthday guy, it isn't so nice that because of us, he didn't have 2 good friends at the party with him. OKie I can't, and don't want to stop him from going to the party (to make me seem gracious), but I just wish he'll think of the right thing to do.

Anyway after that me and Theresa came up with a shitload of explanations why the BIATCH behaved as she did. All boils down to: she's ugly. She's jealous that we look better. She's jealous that she don't have curves and we have, hence forbidding us to the party to vie with her for the limelight. She cannot not invite the other girls because they are part of the clique. She thinks my bf is cute. She thinks Theresa's bf is cute. She's desperate...blah blah blah. In a nutshell, she is a crazy, selfish, stingy and delusional bitch. There's a reason why her name rhymes with "Medusa".

End of Holiday...

Back to reality!

I've been slacking and behaving like a Tai Tai the whole holiday, going overseas, sleeping in late, occasional, selective appearance for modelling jobs, shopping and more shopping( speaking of which, my pocket has a big hole but my birthday is just around the corner...*hint*). I didn't do alot of things I planned to do this holiday, but ended up spending alot of time on things I didnt plan on doing.

The trip to Thailand wasn't as nice as the one to New Zealand. There was too much sleaze and too little charm about the place. Forget about the 'exotic charm', "if u no 100 baht, no okay!" The place is over-commodified. SO is Singapore, but at least, u get decent toilets, decent service and clean streets all around. I felt quite cheated there. I mean if you just went for the shopping and all, you'd probably be quite happy, but everything else is disgusting. ESPECIALLY THE ZOO!!

Then, the treatment to my illness. It was unprecedented and it took me 2 weeks before I can step out into the sun again because of the stoopid medicine i was taking, and another week before I can start to walk properly without bending over in pain. It means that I cannot do ANYTHING but rot at home. So I had to push away all my modelling jobs in July, which means I haven't earn enough money for the coming semester! Grrr...

Zhiyou had wanted to find a weekend during the 2 month holiday, and set up a stall to sell his action figures and toys, my stock of clothings and crates of honey. 2 months has passed and the big room is still CHOKED full of toys. I'm excused because I was sick, and so is he because of his internship....so we'll just blame Xiaobai for of inefficiency. He makes me sleepy all the time. hurhurhur....

Then, I've been trying to arrange my modules to get a perfect timetable for the next sem. I've been trying every imaginable permutations for a whole month and I haven't gotten anything decent. Should I just take 4 history modules this sem because I can't make up my mind which to give up, or should I just take 3 and take another 3 next sem, although I went through the list and didn't see much that I'd be tempted to take next sem? Should I take a module largely because favourite lecturer is lecturing it? Should I take a module because I heard that it is quite manageable and has no final exam? Geez...I don't like making decisions sometimes.

Secrets

Everyone has dark secrets
Hidden somewhere in their heart
Sometimes it prevents them from living as they wish.
The pain is hard to be shared
Especially when others do not understand it

Sometimes it's so hard to forget
memories that frightens so much
But such is life.