down

feeling really down. it’s strange how the emotions just appear suddenly without warning. 2 hours ago i was still enthusiastically fiddling around with my laptop, organising my many new media & game files. and then out of the blue, everything just hit you – *snap* just like that…

yesterday dearest “complained” that i’m neglecting petit|hippo and inspiration came to me this afternoon. but guess i will save that for the weekend. for now, let me release my emotions here…

 

CPA exam

• 2 years ago i signed up for the CPA pre-admission course with my boss (now ex-boss). we never attended that course then.
• finally i could afford to take 5 days off work to go for this, a pre-requisite for my current position.
• but the course is so tough! much harder than i thought anyway. the reading materials are so thick, full of standards, act, rules, legislation… blah blah…
• and the exam! heard it has gotten harder and harder every year. previously, you just need 50% to pass – MCQ format. now, you need 50% for EACH of the 5 modules, and the format is MCQ + true/false + simple calculations. ARGH
• in any case, my exam is tomorrow. i think i will fail the paper. so 丢脸！how?

 

Weight

• good news first: i finally hit 40kg!!! yipppeeee….. first time in my entire life.
• bad news: all the weight went to my thighs & tummy!
• argh… and guess what’s the form of this additional weight? not flesh, not muscle… but cellulite!
• why must i be cursed with genes dominated by cellulite?
• i feel so fat & ugly. totally low self-esteem. i look at my horrible thighs and feel like crying. really need to hit the gym regularly but can i find the time?
• i really need help… boohoo…

 

Hair

• hmm… nothing new about this. have been losing hair faster than growing hair.
• was originally optimistic about the smelly hair treatment that i’m undergoing. until my scalp starts to itch again.
• should i persevere wih the treatment?

 

ok, enough of complaints… it’s getting more and more depressing. need to hit the books now or i’ll have nightmares again tonight.

something light-hearted – since we mentioned cellulite earlier, here’s an sms from dearest last year:

Grand finals of the cellulite challenge 2007 between tummy boy and princess cellulite held at bedok sports hall today at 2pm…

Slogan – fans will roar, we will burn them all!

WAHAHAHA… that’s my creative darling…

gym-hair-sing-crab-ball

friday - 11 april 6pm

yippe!! the weekend is finally here! dearest came and fetch me from work and drove us to bugis cali for my long awaited work-out. during the journey i actually slept in the car like a pig – all through the busy expressway till we reach rochor. was i really that deprived of sleep?

so yeah, ran for a good 20 min on the threadmill & did some other simple weight training. the gym was way too crowded, felt lost in there and quickly called it a day and went to shower. accomplished something else though – burst a gigantic pimple filled with pus! eeeeww….

guess what we did after gym? pig out at chongqing steamboat – our fav food… so much for working out. after a good shower at cali, we subjected ourselves to a suana session at chongqing. can you believe that? think both dearest and i are losing our form – we just couldn’t eat as much as we used to before.

after steamboat we thought about going to topone but decided it was too late so we headed home instead.

 

saturday – 12 apr 1.30pm

dearest was really sweet as usual and bought lunch for me despite the pouring rain. after lunch we simply lazed around and dozed off (dearest was supposed to be working! haha). he woke up like 2 to 3 hours later after my countless failed attempts to wake him. then dearest sent me to eastpoint while he went home for dinner.

what did i do at eastpoint? i spent $1,418. *cough*

that’s for a hair loss treatment course for one month. ever since i took up my current position at work, i have been noticing thinning patches on the sides of my crown, and also at my hair parting. is it due to stress? not sure. whatever it is, even my regular hairstylist was shocked at the empty patches, so i thought i better do something about it.

actually, i have gone to beijing 101 for a consultation a couple of weeks ago. was planning to sign up for the course until dearest heard about the hefty price and said to me “i won’t mind if you turn bald”. it was so sweet of dearest. but after thinking about it for a few weeks, i thought i better don’t put too much faith in his words (lol). after all, i MIND if i turn bald.

well, the experience at 101 was alright. first they put on a herbal hair mask for 25 min, then washed it off with very soothing massages, then blow dry my hair and applied herbal hair tonic with acupressure massage. when the whole thing was done, i smelled horrible! the young girl who tended to me laughed along with me and suggested that i can pretend i just came back from a chinese sinseh. haha…

after 101 i was really conscious about the bad smell, so i bought a zinger meal and rushed home (despite the consultant’s advice not to take fried & oily food). then dearest called and asked whether i want to go to topone.

so me, dearest and his sister tracy went to topone. had lots of fun singing, and even had a complimentary jug of vodka raspberry. nice!

 

sunday – 13 apr 3pm

met up with dearest at somerset mrt. went to taka to have my lunch – japanese fried noodles! cheese & egg flavoured… yummiliciously sinful! haha… then we shopped around somemore and finally went to far east to get dearest’s martin fields screen protector for his new w890i. dearest was quite excited because he also finally bought a bluetooth headset. now dearest can pick up calls safely while he drives around le… my little gift to dearest…

in the evening time, dearest brought me to a teochew restaurant for dinner. it’s a rather old set-up in mosque st, quite crowded with families. the restaurant is called 李贵 and is famous for cold crabs.

some random pics when we were waiting for our food:

 

and pictures of our food:

we had the mixed fried platter (ngor hiong, toufu, springroll etc), di huang miao with prawns, the famous cold crab, and our favourite orh-ni. yummy! it took a while to get used to the cold crab actually… not bad not bad…

after dinner, we went to the cavern to catch the liverpool vs blackburn match.

i used to watch soccer a lot in the past before i met dearest. although dearest is a liverpool fan, he is not really a soccer-fanatic in that he doesn’t NEED to watch soccer every week. thus i haven’t been watching soccer for like the past 5 years? on and off i have watched liverpool matches with dearest but they never truly excite me because i still do not know most of the players, except for like gerrard & carragher.

it was different this time. for 2 reasons: 1. the atmosphere was good because we were seated indoors, where the projector screen was huge & audio very loud, so you actually feel quite involved. 2. liverpool won! haha… the past matches that i have watched are often draw or nil-nil games. but there were a few exciting goals in this match against blackburn.

at the end of the match, dearest asked me whether i will convert to be a liverpool fan. of cos! why not! but dearest, you must play a part in educating me about the players, alright? (what’s the name of the goalie? haha)

ok, one more pic to end this terribly looooonng weekend post:

The Chicken & The Duck

 

A newly married couple went for a walk together in the woods, one fine summer’s evening after dinner. They were having such a wonderful time being together until they heard a sound in the distance: ‘Quack! Quack!’

 

‘Listen’, said the wife, ‘That must be a chicken.’

‘No, no. That was a duck,’ said husband.

‘No, I’m sure that was a chicken,’ she said.

‘Impossible. Chickens go “Cock-a-doodle-doo”, ducks go “Quack! Quack!” That’s a duck, darling,’ he said, with the first signs of irritation.

‘Quack! Quack!’ it went again.

‘See! it’s a duck,’ he said.

‘No dear. That’s a chicken. I’m positive,’ she asserted, digging in her heels.

‘Listen wife! That…is…a…duck. D-U-C-K, duck! Got it?’ he said angrily.

‘But it’s a chicken,’ she protested.

‘It’s a blooming duck, you you…’

And it went ‘Quack! Quack!’ again before he said something he oughtn’t.

The wife was almost in tears. ‘But it’s a chicken.’

 

The husband saw the tears welling up in his wife’s eyes and, at last, remembered why he had married her. His face softened and he said gently, ‘Sorry, darling. I think you must be right. That is a chicken.’

 

‘Thank you, darling,’ she said and she squeezed his hand.

 

‘Quack! Quack!’ came the sound through the woods, as they continued their walk together in love.

 

————————

 

The point of the story that the husband finally awakened to was, who cares whether it is a chicken or a duck? What was much more important was their harmony together; that they could enjoy their walk on such a fine summer’s evening. How many marriages are broken up over unimportant matters?

 

When we understand this story, we will remember our priorities. The marriage is more important than being right about whether it is a chicken or a duck.

 

Anyway, how much times have we been absolutely, certainly and positively convinced we were right, only to find out we were wrong later? Who knows? That could have been a genetically modified chicken made to sound like a duck!
[for the sake of gender equality, the story can be switched around as to who says it is a duck and who says it is a chicken]

————————

Story extracted from the book “Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung? – Inspiring Stories for Welcoming Life’s Difficulties”, by a monk named Ajahn Brahm.

————————

Although the story focuses on knowing one’s priorities in a relationship, I personally love the story and think it illustrates “give and take” very well.When the going gets tough, stop and think about what made you begin the relationship in the first place. Remind yourself that you love your other half. And you may just slow down the temper and stop all silly quarrels. If both parties can remember this story, then there will be much lesser minor quarrels and lesser damage to the relationship!

 

of loud voices & frustrations…

dearest is going to kill me for posting this. but then again, no one reads petit|hippo anyway. so here goes…

 

every relationship has its ups and downs. a happy relationship will… have more ups than downs? god, this sounds so lame. but it’s true, isn’t it? me and dearest have been together for a really long time. our relationship has undergone many different stages and while there have been tough times in the past, i’d say that we are a happy couple. and i have faith that we will go on – strong.

but what puzzles me is, why do we need to experience silly quarrels – bickering that brings some tears (or a lot of tears at times – or is it most of the time?), a bit of resentment, cold-dagger eyes, and generally a bad after-taste… then followed by silence… then the pretend-nothing-happened hand-holding and in more serious cases, some make-up hugs & kisses…

why? to spice up an otherwise too peaceful relationship? *shrugs*

 

so much for the senseless ramblings… here’s what happened last night:

 it was evening time and we bought dinner back for his mum & sister. so we reached his carpark and i passed the food to him. at the same time, i passed a bag of melted chocolates (which he brought out earlier in the day but we forgot to eat them) to him so that he can bring up and put in his fridge.

D: dun wan lar

K: bring up lar, melt already

D: you bring home and eat lar

K: you bring home, i still have a lot of chocolates at home

D: dun wan, i dun wan to bring up

K: *takes back the chocos and grumbles* 很奇怪 (very strange)

D: *stays in his seat while holding the dinner in his hands, somewhat glaring at me*

K: *feels a mini-storm brewing* ok, you go up

D: *yells at me* what do you wan?!

i was like, shocked. forgot the details of what happened in between, except that i was unhappy and shouted back at dearest. and as usual, dearest kept quiet and just glared at me. at some point in time, dearest did explain that he was upset cos he brought the chocos for me but i didnt want to bring them home. but how would i know that? couldn’t dearest have just said it when i first asked him to bring home? i thought he brought the chocos out to share with friends, how would i know it mattered to him so much? *dearest, if you don’t say, i won’t know*

so anyway i was shouting like a mad woman cause i hated that dearest had to raise his voice at me for nothing, especially when i felt that i had made an effort to avoid a quarrel when i asked him to bring the food up when i sensed he was unhappy. if dearest had just brought the food up, we will be fine when he is back. but he yelled! argh…

anyway, it was a really silly misunderstanding, but i was so mad, i kept shouting and crying. guess it was a release of pent-up stress, not necessarily all related to our relationship. nevertheless, it was bad, bad, bad…

in any case, dearest brought the food up and when he came back, i was still crying (yeah, crybaby…) and he kept quiet and drove us off. and then dearest asked “so what movie are we watching?”

*duh*

that’s my dearest’s way of reconciliation – to pretend that nothing has ever happened in the first place. not too bad an approach actually because it prevents further outbursts, but it can irk me sometimes because i will feel like i have cried for nothing!

but well, dearest eventually said sorry and was sweet and all… so…

 

actually, i do have a lot to say about this. not so much on this particular incident, but the fact that it seems that as time passes, dearest threshold of tolerance is narrowing, and his temper is getting quicker. what is the reason?

i can feel that dearest still loves me a lot. in fact, he dotes on me a lot. in many little ways – holding my hands while he drives, fetches me after work, ensuring that i have my meals, holds me tight when we hug, buys little presents for me, spends all his time with me…. the list goes on.

when days are good, we are so blissfully in love but on the bad days, dearest gets all frustrated with me, intolerant of the little remarks that i make, or simply ignores me. why?

 

anyway, i’m just ranting to feel better. no issue with our relationship at all. in fact, things always get better after a small quarrel.

 

*to dearest: maybe you dun like it that i always harp on this. but i still wan to say it anyway. we have come a looooonnng way. there are already so many obstacles in our relationship, which we have put aside and not let them affect our love for each other. why do we succumb to other evils such as quick temper and intolerance and let these lesser evils slow us down? wouldn’t it be really ironical if we have stuck together through all the unimaginable difficulties in the past (and in the future as well), only to be hindered by little silly arguments?*

 

dearest, it is time to reinforce the story of “the chicken & the duck”… hee…

 

dearest, i’m sorry, and i love you all the same…