Payday~! I just got my first paycheck, but... its not much. really. Boo hoo hoo~ Now I start lamenting gambling on the stock market with my tuition fees and lending myself in debt with the accursed bank (please see somewhere below below below for the related post). After subtracting away the this and the that, I'm left with only a few miserly dollars in my bank account, and i wonder awkwardly about when I'll ever get the $4.2k needed to get another lot of Capitaland. (Woohooo, more gambling)

But still, on this very important monday, instead of celebrating with my colleagues (who are also getting their first paycheck), i was stuck somewhere in orchard road and dishing out money to the banks and the waitresses and the cashiers coz yours truly was on leave. forced leave actually, coz its a holiday somewhere in europe and i have nothing to do for the day.

not that i'm complaining about having to take a leave day. i owed mum a shopping trip and weekdays are just perfect. so we hopped on down to orchard road armed with a $30 robinson's voucher.

we couldn't spend it on any of the clothes coz they were either too expensive or too big or too... not-my-taste.

we almost spent it on this cute little mini steamboat set (1 person worth, $32), but the thought of having to go through the trouble of preparing soup stock, buying the flammables and etc just for one person put us off.

in the end, still armed with that $30 voucher, we left for lunch.

there's this new restaurant from the crystal jade franchise - crystal jade korea or sth like that. lunch deals at $8 or $10! and since its monday, we got the ginseng chicken soup set for $16~ it came with a few small dishes of starters such as kimchi, cauliflower, peas, toufu, ??? and ???, which we quite good. and then the soup came... there was a whole chicken in it, cooked to be really soft and succulent, and the soup was also nicely herbly-bitter. and we had free sour plum juice, which were really good, and fruits after. and it all came to >$20 for two people~! (^._.^)

its definitely a place i'll go to eat again, hohoho. but only for weekday lunches so i guess i'll have to wait for another holiday then. darn, if only i can work on weekends instead, its so much more convenient that way.

last night was a monday night. a very late monday night coz the company decided to treat us out to dinner, and we made off to cafe iguana at clarke quay. the food was pretty good, especially the nachos, and the never-ending bowls of bitey stuffs.

the never-ending bowls of bitey-stuffs (things like nacho chips, but harder, and which you can dip into a tangy sauce) and nachos (with a big dollop of cheese, green cheese"?", mayo"?") and margaritas are so nice, and the food took so long in coming that when my chimichanga came, i was half-way to full-tank.

it was the first time i ate chimichanga. unlike the grills, the portion was huge. it was like a huge roll of cheese, vegies and delicious grilled prawns wrapped in a crispy biscuity puff, and topped with green cheese"?" and mayo"?". it was a pity i couldn't finish it, in the end i dug out the prawns (delish) and left the deep-fried tortilla behind.

the people who ate the tequila grills and steaks (the more expensive stuffs) reported that the food's only so-so though

after clearing off the main dishes, my table had the mad idea of ordering desserts, and i just HAD to try these dishes. i greatly recommend the chocolate cake, deep and dark, almost to the point of bitterness, my favourite. even though i was on the brink of dying of fullness, i couldn't stop myself from eating it.

aaaah~ i can go on and on about the cake, but this isn't a food blog. at the end of the day, the boss gave us taxi e-vouchers so we can pull our sorry asses off home for free. it was the first time i'd seen these neat little cards, and the taxi uncle told us the concept had only been around for less than a year.

and so, moving on to today, because i reached home 3-glasses-of-margarita-and-too-much-food-full, and because i slept late, i rolled out of bed with relatively more difficulty. and it was so that i did not check my wallet before leaving and forgot all about needing money, even though i was due for a movie date with les later in the evening.

when lunch came, we decided to order mcdelivery since the sky was overcast, it just finished raining, and we just couldn't be bothered to walk out anymore. so i happily ordered my $2 burger, and realized i used up my last note. so yay, my wallet was only coin-filled.

its ok, i thought, the movie place would have an atm, or les would have cash hohoho.

the movie place had an atm, but it was UOB. out of the 3 local banks, i have accounts with 2 of them, but it just had to be the one that i'm not registered at. i dug around in my wallet. i had $2.80 in coins. les had more. $6.20. together we have $9!!!

we paid off the movie tickets with debit cards (NETS not accepted) and took our $9 around to see what we could get. in the show-down between KFC and the food-court, KFC lost, and so we got our chicken rice $3.50 and veg rice $2.80 + les bought a drink to share and a donut for my breakfast tmr. <3

now decidely cashless, but relatively full, we went for the movie, mummy 3!

it's horrible. don't watch it. really.

it was more like a gag show then anything else, only it wasn't, and it was supposed to be an action movie. half an hour into the show i felt like leaving. the director was horrible, the chinese was laughable, the actors had no chemistry, and the only redeeming point was that the comic character was still as funny as in the first 2 installments, which wasn't much really. and the plot, the plot....! *cries in agony*

i walked out of the theatre apologizing to les for dragging him to the show, altho he was reallly nice about it.

my $7~~~~!!!! *writhes in pain*

(>_____<)'"

this is a very agitated and spiteful rant about a BANK that i'm not going to name coz, even with all the free speech blah and blah, i think the big loaded corporations are still very happy to shoot their lawyer's letters around cyberspace and i'm not giving them another penny if i can help it.

i just happily got a job, and started on my new life, and all looks rosy when this puny little local bank affiliated with my university turned down my credit card application. like what the ?!*! i only applied for it coz of the 5 year waiver for recent grads, and now u're rejecting me when i'd hit all the requirements u stated?

i don't really mind that badly coz the offers and benefits that come with the card isn't as competitive as other banks (actually i don't know WHAT benefits they have coz their privileges website has been down everytime i clicked on it, that's pretty shoddy if you ask me) but its the sheer humiliation of it all. its like getting rejected by the ugliest guy in the school when you only confessed to him on a dare. its like playing against a table tennis noob and he actually won coz of 11 flukes (the ball hit and rolled down the net, hit the edge of the table, you mis-served, the wind blew the ball off course, the ball flew in unpredictable patterns coz it hit his knuckle, the ball rolled over the net again, the ball hit his finger and just made it over the net, the ball hit the edge of the table, the wind~, obstruction but no one saw, you mis-served under stress.)

...omg its so humiliating i feel like sticking my head in a hole in the ground.

irritating little bank, once i'm through with you on my little loan, i'm THROUGH with you! even if i become the richest girl in the world and you offer me 44% interest rate and beg me on 2 1/2 knees i'm gonna reject you coldly and waste a lot of your time~ ROAR!

i just started work~! i got paid 5 days worth of salary for doing nothing save for observing other people work and undergoing training. tomorrow i shall be starting work proper, i hope all goes well for me.

the company is a really nice place. in addition to having friendly colleagues (most of which are my university schoolmates), there's lots of employee benefits as well, such as free breakfast every 4th friday, dental and healthcare, free beer, a pool table and a fulsbal"?" table in the pantry. i love the place, although i can't say much for the work seeing as how i'd not been on the floor before, but i'm looking forward to it. rawr~!

as of friday~ (2 days ago) my parents went overseas~ hohoho. so i'd been home alone since then. its pretty amazing coz normally when they are at home, i get scared of bathing at night, i don't dare to look into the bathroom mirrors, and i become uber scared of the dark.

when i'm all alone, all thoughts of the supernatural fly away, and instead i find myself thinking about preparing meals, worrying about break-ins and security, and trying to save water and electricity. well, its vague, but i guess when landed with greater responsibilities, i become more firmly grounded in reality?

any potential robbers who happen across this blog, give it up, my parents are returning soon (-_-)

even as i acclimatise to living alone, i'm still chronically afraid of encountering cockroaches.

there are 3 downstairs in the kitchen even as i type.

as i screwed up my cooking pretty badly i had to leave the dishes in the sink for the residues to peel off over time. and when i went down to do my washing, 1 roach crawled out from the sink, 1 from the wastebin and 1 ultra fat one was lounging on the kitchen floor. i dropped everything, switched on all the kitchen lights, and stood at a safe distance until they had hidden themselves from my sight.

and even while washing the dishes, every single movement startled me, be it the water dripping down from my arms and hitting my legs, or even the hairs on my neck brushing against one another.

and i have no idea how to get rid of the critters. its suicidal to spray baygon in the kitchen, and i'm not about to take a broom and smash them up, and clean up their guts (or see them dragging their intestines across the kitchen). and so i gritted my teeth, finished everything up asap, and am now sitting in front of my computer shivering and ranting and attempting to collect my wits about me again.

i hate cockroaches. when i was in primary school i remembered thinking, if a genie came and gave me 3 wishes i'd wish for all-encompassing knowledge, and if i'm pretty sure killing mosquitoes wouldn't damage the ecosystem that bad, i'll wish the them extinct. now i add roaches to the list. and then i'll wish for a long happy life for my frenz and family and me. sorry world~ i didn't really believe in world peace.

oh, and taking advantage of the fact that my parents were overseas i went to the ntu party/bash at st james on saturday with yt. we downed 2 tequilas, 1 rum and 1 bourbon coke each. the drinks were pretty decent, and they are generous enough with their servings, unlike some place* i'd been to where their free drink didn't even seem to have a single drop of alcohol in it. we also got to know two new lady-friends and we all set off home happily on the last train. seems that on ladies night its free admission and 5 free drinks, so maybe i'll drop by st james again someday.

now, enought ranting, and i'd gotta hop into the bath and sleep coz there's work tomorrow. beh

on sat hl, yy and i met up to go cycling at east coast. there were supposed to be more than the 3 of us, but various mishaps happened due to wrong hp numbers, some members going overseas without a pip and examinations, but, yeah, us three old birds were what was left of the gang this fateful saturday morning.

since we had ample time, small numbers and beautiful weather, we decided to make off  toward changi beach park at full speed. all~the~way.

we almost made it, and one hour of furious paddling later, we stopped 2.34km short of our destination and decided to head back lest we were late to the bike rental shop.

it. was. gruelling. hell.

i guess cycling off towards an unknown location is a lot more enjoyable than the 'return'. the road back seemed endless, and barely a third of the way back i felt like the grim reaper had his hands around my neck. my legs were numb, my face was almost sunk into my handles, and i was pushing forth with only LUNCH and $6 FOR AN EXTRA HOUR in pounding in my mind.

it felt like if i stopped for a breather i could never start again. becoz my feet wouldn't have the power to push the bike off the ground.

we cycled and joked about lunch and how our stomaches were folding upon themselves and how we'll be crawling to the benches when we get our rumps off the bicycle seat. we were two ducks and one ravenous racoon making our way slowly to parkway, and our knees were buckling as we walked down the underpass.

i.. had.. never... broken a sweat before... EVER... cycling.

i guess this is a whole new experience, or proof that i'm really regressing... boo hoo hoo.

at night, just before bedtime, my legs were aching horribly. i went to bed extremely worried, and very not looking forward to the next day and the muscle pains that would follow. surprisingly enough, there were none~! yay~!

and so i went on the long trek from telok blangah to alexandra via the newly constructed watchacallit treetop walk/henderson wave/forest trek thingy with my parents. its fun. i'll be trying to organize another outing there~ hohoho. three hour trek with sandwiches and bentoes~