On the 29th day into the new year, I fell down and had a bad abrasion on my knee.

And CNY is over. I’m gonna miss going out with my family for the whole day.

Some quick recaps of 2011…

Most Memorable

Ruivin @ Serangoon countdown (blog post »)
The night that we went crazy just by looking at their interactions with each other.

Super Junior SS3 concert (blog post »)
The first ever K-pop concert I went to! Highly energetic dance, solid live singing and entertainment, how can you not love these guys?!

Taipei trip (blog post »)
Have always wanted to visit Taiwan since many years ago, and this was the fruit of half-a-year of my labour. LOL! I’m very glad that this trip made my parents happy, and they even plan to visit again next year! I CAN’T WAIT!

Star Awards
My best actress finally won Best Actress Award! Even as I’m typing this, I’m beaming with pride.

KL trip (blog post »)
“You know that day when we arrived…”
“No! It was only yesterday!”
The 2-day getaway trip which felt like a week. From Changi Airport in wee hours of the morning, to Sungei Wang, Times Square, Chinatown, and finally the 2-hour journey to the “pond”. Fond memories~ Cath Kidston, anyone?

Christmas
I’m not someone who celebrate Christmas, but the day this year was spent with BFFs! Dinner at Keppel Bay’s TCC, and gift exchange and stay over at Carribean. Despite saying that we were very sleepy at 3am, we still continued talking for almost 2 hours after lights out. That’s why I always enjoy our meet-ups & gatherings, because we can talk anything under the sun. ^^

Favourite Songs/Albums

孫燕姿 《是時候》
Yanzi’s comeback after 4 years! Another album of quality music.
“我是怎麽了 像被困住了 時間滿滿的 心卻空空的
有那麽一天 時間停止了 才發現原來心自由才能真的快樂”
That also sums up how I had been feeling about the year.

Olivia 《Romance》
A different genre of music this time, fans of the bossanova Olivia might not like this album, as it’s a little more pop and commercialized. I still find it enjoyable to listen, especially at night or on rainy days.

田馥甄 《My Love》
Again, an album that needs a few more spins for me to get used to the tracks inside. Love the attitude of the album!

Favourite TV Dramas/Programs

行醫
One of the better dramas in recent years (but Meta still ranks #1 in my heart).

We Got Married (Teukso Couple)
My current craze – Teukso couple! *fangirl moment* They are still feeling shy, but their efforts to make little things for each other are so sweet! I can loop the proposal during SS4 for 34291463294 times. Honestly, I will give them my blessings if they date for real, at least I feel that Teuk likes Kang Sora and she’s not fake. ^^

To sum it up, not exactly a happening year, because most of the time spent was on work, which I’m still pretty enjoying it. (Only complaint is that we shifted to a not-so-convenient place in another area of CBD.) I’m more independent on my job now, although I’m not a very creative person…still trying very hard to learn and practise as much as I can along the way.

Have not made any New Year resolutions for years, but there are things which I hope I can accomplish in the coming year, like drawing, more out-of-the-box thinking (screams “CREATIVITY!!!“), and mastering basic Korean conversations.

Here’s wishing everyone a Happy New Year! Stay healthy and happy!

我沒有想要求多些什麼
我只希望你能尊重曾經／現在於你合作的“朋友”

Have been spending time drawing, learning HTML5/CSS3, and Korean! Looking forward to the trip next year and I hope I will be able to converse in basic Korean by then. 한국어 재미 있어요! ㅋㅋㅋ…

I am not a troubleshooter, I wish I have quick brains.

Just ranting.

There used to be this billboard at the MRT station where I would pass by (too timely for the end of each day of work):

“It doesn’t matter how slow you go, as long as you don’t stop.” – Confucius

Yes, yes, keep calm, prioritize, and get going.

When you were free, you wished you were busier.
When you are busy, you wished you were freer.

When you were earning less, you thought you were rich.
When you are earning more, you think it’s not enough.

When you listened to electropop, you wished you could listen to more bossanova.
When you listened to bossanova, you wished you could listen to more electropop.

When you had this, you wished you have more of that.
When you have that, you wished you have more of this instead.

Can there ever be a perfect balance at any point of your life?

Today is another reminder to slow down my pace, before I really fall down.

Giving myself 6 months. Sit Down. No distractions. Just focus.

Dream of mine. And it might just be a surprise for you.

Here’s what Xaby wrote about the trip, together with ideas contributed by Grace and myself.

The day began with us cabbing to the airport from Grace’s house in the small hours of morning. It was Xaby’s maiden experience taking budget, as well as our first time taking a half an hour flight in our lives. Before we could warm the seats with our butts or to go into three-level deep sleep like that of Inception’s, it was time for us to get out of the aircraft. The immigration checkpoint took us quite some time, and it certainly didn’t help that there were no clear instructions to us as to where to line up in front of the counters. We settled for the “Countries with Visa” counters eventually, given that it was the shortest line. Took a cab from airport to Bukit Bintang and arrived at Sungei Wang at approximately 9am. Most of the shops weren’t open then, so Xaby dragged Bee and Grace to Cotton On, but only to get mocked by Grace. “Singapore got no Cotton On hor?”

We then went Starbucks to get our morning coffee fix and Bee discovered free Y5 connection. So the three of us started finger tapping vigorously on our mobile phones – tweeting, FBing, Whatsapping, stalking, you get the idea….. (Kidding about the last one actually.) Shops were beginning to open for business so we decided to forsake our Internet for the benefit of contributing and boosting the economy (read: shopping). Before we knew it, it was already a quarter past twelve, that means, we could finally unhand of our heavy backpacks that we’ve been lugging for hours in our hotel room! After some Whoas and Oohs of our comfy room, we decided to watch some TV. Masterchef on Star World caught our attention and again, peals of laughter broke out among us, no thanks to what Grace said. “Look at how they prepare their food, the way they dribble their sauce just reminds me of what Rui En always say.” (If you have no idea of what we’re talking about here, check out http://rbkd-online.com/2009/01/27/im-just-a-kopitiam-girl-tnp-flame-awards-2009-babe-of-the-year/ “Most of the time, she said, she opts for the kopitiam instead of those ‘restaurants where they give you those small portions with a dribble of sauce’.”)

Before we headed out of our hotel to meet the rest of them for lunch, Bee started to arrange her bedroom slippers in an untidy fashion. That left us a little curious, and it wasn’t only until Shirley asked which room we were in did we uncover the curious case of Bee’s untidy arrangement of slippers. So the conversation went a little something like this:-
Shirley: Which room are you guys in?
Grace: 0713
Shirley: Whutttt? 7 and 13? Double omen!
Xaby, Bee & Grace: Srsly?! Are you kidding us!
Xaby: But neh mind luh! In math, we learn that two negatives give us a positive. HAHAHHAHA
Bee: And just arrange your slippers untidily!
Grace and Xaby: OHHHHH. Like what you did just now!
(Tadah, mystery case #98371214 solved.)

There was also a series of prank call incidents, where innocent victims such as Xaby and Jean were involved. Xaby tried to connect to Phyllis’ room via the Room-to-room complimentary service, but was connected to Joanne’s room instead. (Perhaps it was because of fat fingers, we can’t be sure.) Joanne picked up, and gleefully started her “professional hotel concierge service” that got Xaby fooled badly. Nicely done, Joanne! Hahahaha. After confirming the meeting time and venue for dinner, Bee, Grace and Xaby went out to explore Petaling street, aka Chinatown. Without a doubt, that has definitely got to be the best place for shopping. Grace got herself a henna design on her right hand, it was supposed to last for 2 weeks, the shopkeeper boasted. Sadly, less than a couple of hours, the henna design on Grace’s hand started to appear faint already. (So much for 2 weeks, Ms. Shopkeeper.) Anyways, while roaming around the streets of Chinatown, this knock off Marc Jacobs bag caught Xaby’s attention. Trying to test the waters and push some limits, Xaby decided to haggle over the price of the MJ bag, with a starting price that was so low, the shopkeeper didn’t even want to entertain her. Eventually, Grace and Xaby got their Cath Kidston bags at an extremely good deal. See, the importance of honing your bargaining skills, everyone. After almost squandering close to half of our assets, the Malaysian ringgit that is, Bee, Grace and Xaby went back to Bukit Bintang and met up with the others for dinner.

We had our dinner at Jalan Alor, famous for the stretch of food stalls along the road. Scrumptious dinner awaited us, but it was a pity that we couldn’t appreciate it. We had too much junk food for the whole day – the countless cups of sugared drinks and desserts such as sticky mango rice. So that pretty much summed up our first day in KL.

Day 2 of our KL trip begun with waking up at 7am and meeting the others at the hotel lobby at 8.30am. We set off in search of this “pond” in the “jungle.” By lunchtime, we got the best surprise that probably wasn’t included in our itinerary. Wink wink wink.

Went back to the hotel to send the others off while the three of us sneaked into the recreational area of the hotel despite already checking out. Owing to the fact that the weather was just so HOT, we bathed thrice a day on the average while we were in KL. So we crept into the recreational area, where the swimming pool and bathrooms are, stole some towels and began bathing away. Just to digress a little, we just have to say that the bath foam in the bathroom was really good. Our skins were completely moisturized!

After the invigorating afternoon bath, we were charged and ready for our final stretch of last minute shopping. We started splurging even more, upon seeing so much of our assets that we’re still left with despite leaving KL for Singapore in a couple of hours. We even contemplated foot reflexology massage!

Given that there are no A&W fast food restaurants in Singapore, having dinner at A&W before we return back to Singapore was definitely something to die for. So we feasted at A&W, ordering their signature (junk) food from the curly fries to the root beer float. Then, it was really time to bade KL goodbye.

Lugging our even heavier backpacks, we took the KLIA ekspres train to the airport. And during our 25 minutes train ride, barrels of laughter broke through again, with all due credit to Grace’s impromptu suggestion of how we should pose in our photos. Also, not forgetting how Grace tried directing us to the flight baggage gate instead of the gate to the KLIA train.

We arrived relatively early at the airport, and decided to display our true blue Singaporean idiosyncrasies. We stood in front of the check-in counter way before the counters were opened, just so that it guarantees us of our seats in the plane. See, kiasu-nism, in its best epitome.

All in all, the jokes that we cracked, the hoots of laughter and fun we’ve all experienced together under the really really HOT sun – as cliche as it sounds – were simply beyond measure. One important lesson that we have all learned from this trip, as Bee put it, was, “I miss leeching wifi from Starbucks. It taught us not to take internet access for granted.”

Whispering our goodbyes,
Roomies 0713
(Bee, Grace & Xaby)

On a side note, I hope I won’t get too addicted to travelling, my parents have already started nagging at me. Hur hur! So next destination, Seoul?