Last of 2012

Welcome to the last of 2012 and I am still alive to type this entry...

Anyways, I was looking at a gizmodo post and a recent article in the newspaper with regards to technology.

Technology has definitely become part of our society. Without it, we are lost and I would say unable to function properly and efficiently. Gone are the days where we give coins to the bus conductor (however, technically speaking.... a bus should be some form of technology too but let's not dwell on that) or write on a piece of paper ( I thought long for this). Yes... I am not only talking about the internet. I think many have forgot the embrace the fact that technology doesn't only encompass internet, social media and phone. Just thought I should pen this down because I am trying to be clever or at least look clever (and hopefully witty). laugh if you want... bet some (if not all) have overlooked and think in their mind "I know these already...." but actually forgot until I mentioned it.

However, having said that, I am going to talk about internet, social media and phone because I start to get frustrated with the above mentioned. I am not going to say what rubbish things people write on the internet and the social media because I simply love reading them. Mind you... I stalk follow people pretty badly on facebook to the point that I wake up reading through status updates before I get out of bed. Maybe that is the source of my frustration.... because I constantly feel the need to know what is happening even though technically.... it doesn't actually concern me and why should I give a shit of what people are doing. But yes... I think that I am actually addicted to it unless I am forcefully taken away from the internet (for eg. going on a holiday where the hotel charges outrageous internet fees that I can probably eat quite a good meal with it). It is not that I get frustrated when I do not get to connect to the internet or go through withdrawal symptoms like craving for internet or vomit (okay.. I am just trying to be funny again.) I actually felt relief that I do not have to constantly check my phone for updates. It is a little weird for me cause my rationale mind tells me that just do it if you want to, why are you giving a shit about controlling your urge to stalk follow people. People get really happy when others follow them.... I can literally vouch for that... hahaha... (I think I am in a general mood to irritate people today so if you are already unhappy or feel that you want to challenge for what I have said... please continue feeling so because I can actually do nothing to you.) Currently, I feel myself constantly getting distracted and need to do something on my phone all the time.

So for starters to curb my addiction, I have taken off the shortcut to my facebook and twitter from my phone. Hopefully, this will make me go on these media less often because I am generally very lazy to go through a lot (of inefficiencies) to get my things done. That probably leads another of my frustrations.... getting impatient with all the inefficiencies in life like why people like to walk/drive so slowly and hog up the whole area.... So in order not to stress and irritate myself further, I will choose to go at their pace. Life seems a little easier when you match up with inefficient people.

So kudos to inefficiencies in 2013 and hopefully I will become happier when I start becoming less efficient and also less of a stalker.

Meaningful

While watching a show last night, something that the host said that was rather meaningful.

"When you work with someone, see whether they are professional and not whether you like or dislike them, because your objective is to get the work done"

Myer Briggs

Basically in Singapore, the popular test that everybody might already know is the DISC assessment where you are grouped into 4 major groups, namely dominant, inducement, submission and compliance. Everybody will have at least one dominant group while having a secondary characteristic. I took this test when I was in secondary school as well as junior college and was rather upset by the results (they yield the same result). There are inherent points that I could not agree on for the descripton of the trait that I was bestowed and it did bother me for a while.

As I grow older (and hopefully wiser), I have gotten to terms of the category that I am put into and didn't think too much about it. A friend later recommended for me to try myer briggs as she felt that it is pretty accurate and could let me understand myself more. From the results, I think it gave me a little more insight than DISC as there are 16 categories based on permutation of 4 different traits.  I found myself nodding to the descriptions that were described so I guess it is pretty accurate or at least more accurate than DISC. I talked to a psychology major friend of mine and she mentioned to me that the personality assessment is based on very bizarre theories that she could not accept (similar to Sigmund Freud). Whatever it is, give it a try if you seek to find out more about yourself.

P/s: I just did a Hartman personality test and it mentioned things that I find surprisingly true for myself.

morton's

blue cheese steak fries and martini... woohoo.....

Christmassss 2012

Post merry christmas to all!!!

Had a wonderful barbeque on the eve of christmas.... Whatever happened to 平安夜 has basically gone into smoke (pun intended).

Anyway, I will spare you the details of the barbeque since there isn't anything particularly out of the world or different from other barbeque and I did not take any photos during the session but it was really nice as we were able to stay till around 1am without being chased off by the security guards. I am definitely looking forward to the hotel stay next week to celebrate new year's eve and take note not to drink too much. hahhaa...

I also came to realize that I haboured quite a bit of unhappiness this year and hope that it will dissipate during the new year. I finally have came to the conclusion that

1) Things are not perfect and they are not meant to be perfect. What we need to do is to perservere and make the best out of the situation.

2) You have only yourself to fight for your rights so if you give it up yourself, nobody will help you. If you try hard enough, there might be someone who will assist you in the process.

3) Passion is an overrated word. Do what you want to do and keep improving on it. Someday.... you will get there.

4) Come to terms with yourself. If you don't, you will struggle a lot and feel lost. But that doesn't mean that you stop at where you are because you are only at the starting point of the race.

5) What others tell you is one thing, how you feel about it yourself is another. Never let another undermine you because it only serve to make them feel good but listen and make your own judgement.

Have a good break during this time folks and hopefully I will be able to do something that I like and excel in it.

Tether issues

I was just wondering whether anybody is having tethering issues after upgrading to version 4.1.1 (android)
It used to be a breeze to connect to my laptops using wifi but now, I can detect the network but unable to connect to the internet. Using the usb doesn't work as there is a constant pop up error message from my phone.
I can't install anything into the laptops as they are company laptops.
It has been bothering me for a while so anybody with sound advice is welcome to comment.
Thanks in advance!!

bathroom design

this is for own reference as something that I would like to have for my bathroom.
i think the showerhead is pretty cool.
p/s:  I got it from apartment therapy website.

Flowers on dandenong

Some pretty flowers to perk up your day!! Enjoy!!

Flowers on sales.... I remember they look nicer in real life... It must be my photography skills

Maybe I will design my garden (if I have one) like this in the future!



 frangipani resemblence




Strong colour



Bell like flowers

Simply love the colour of the flower.... Want to live in Aussie for the flowers.

Cute pink!

Elegant~~ Fragile~~

Day 3

Had frenchtoast for brekkie and it was tasty. However, having said that, I still prefer banana bread that I had on the first day (memory failing me at this point of time and I had to retrieve my password for dropbox)... anyways, this was how it looked like. I still finished it and couldn't eat the brunch at Miss Marples.

After which... we went up to Mount Dandenong to eat at Miss Marples (yes I mean the character who is a detective and I know I am being repetitive).... highly hyped after for their tea and scones. I didn't take pictures in the teahouse as it was rather packed and I felt awkward to take pictures. The fingers are really good... when I said fingers... it is not your actual fingers or finger food like fish and chips or calamari. It actually look like this... I guess it is some kind of dough with the cheese melted and alfalfa sprouts. I usually don't eat alfalfa sprouts as it's really "green" but I thought it complemented well here.
Disclaimer: I got this from their website: http://www.missmarples.com.au/#

The scones are really overhyped.... so I rather you eat the fingers than the scones.... The tea is pretty good but not it's not out of the world... sorry.... I gotta tell the truth....

It was rather squeezy but still bearable... I guess they really want to give people the cozy kind of feeling or maybe make some reference to the book.  Here's the exterior of the tea house....

Feeling kind of lazy so shall continue next time 

one nice move facebook

Facebook finally did one thing good by making comments pop up as a sub bubble rather than getting to load it as a separate page =)

a good deal...... Not

I thought i had a good deal when i came across this 10 dollar eeyore at a florist shop.
so without much hesitation, I bought it....... only to find the same one in ntuc !!!

nevertheless it was still a good deal but i cant help but feel that i got cheated by this deceivingly cute toy >_<

silkair vs sia

my dad brought up this topic when he was  driving me to the airport.

i told him... actually, they offer about the same kind of service but it was a pride issue. personally, I do feel that sia steward/stewardess generally have more confident and pride in their work as compared to the silkair stewardess (dont recall there are silkair steward for the flights i took). maybe it's the way they handle difficult customers (not heeding safety procedures like switching off the phone) that made me feel this way or maybe it's my own biasness towards the aircraft.

note to self: people do feel it when you have pride in your work.

nothing beats flying back and having these

slept almost immediately upon reaching the hotel...
the room is pretty good despite the somewhat dodgy exterior...
the pro - there is internet connection, think it is connected to a shopping mall but didnt explore as i reached the hotel at 10 plus
the cons - view from hotel is blocked, no breakfast provided
will choose the hotel that i frequent... heehee

Anybody knows of a good alternative of a vanilla smelling perfume??

This costs too much for comfort.

Just went to Aussie for around a week recently.... and all I wanna say is that I love the weather.
I just wanted to blog about it because I want to keep it as a memory. I did not take a lot of pictures as I was simply lazy.... Really happy that I met up with my friends living in Aussie as I was trying not to be too touristy.... but I think it ended with me not doing important things like seeing a real life kangaroo and koala bear.

On the first day when I arrived in melbourne after travelling for 8 hours on emirates (oh... talking about emirates.... I think they have more leg space than SIA and their fare is quite reasonable. Note to self to book that in the future), I met up with my friend who insisted that I should start looking around the city right away. So we went to have brunch at one of the cafes. I ordered some mushroom pasta which I don't really like and it ended up him finishing 1.5 plate of food. Frankly, I prefer the lasagna that he ordered. hahaha....

Next up, we went to take a look at the state library which was pretty spacious and very well sectioned. I went to look around at some ongoing exhibitions in the library that are not too draining.... I didn't know that older biology books, they actually have illustrations for the animals or plants beside the description. It is at least a B4 sized book and the illustration spans for the whole page and it was coloured. I also remembered that I saw the religious text that was carved on pretty thin wood bark. It was pretty impressive.

We proceeded to drink coffee at this cozy cafe which had pretty good coffee I thought. I forgot the name but I am sure in times of need, I should be able to ask my friend. whahaha..... we had the ice coffee and the vanilla ice cream was soooo good~~~

At night, we met up with his friend and went to a Greek restaurant. I am rather open to go to "out of norm" restaurants but somehow, Greek restaurant gives me that feeling that I am going to have to eat a lot of feta cheese (I am not a cheese fan so it slightly bothered me). But it turned out that I was wrong... there wasn't really a lot of feta cheese and all the dishes are pretty refreshing and minty.
Somehow, I took a picture of the menu and the place.

So the night ends for Day 1.

 

 

For Day 2, I managed to hop on for a vineyard tour. I was pretty hyped up about it because I never been to one before and actually had thoughts of being a sommelier. The first one that we went was scenic as you can see from the pictures from above... The place was filled with the aroma of the wine and it was pretty cool to see the real stuff.

We proceeded to go to 2 other vineyards. I really liked a Shiraz from Seville estate that I bought it immediately... It was nice sharing it with my family as they liked it as well.

How could I forget to blog about the tasty banana cake I had in the morning. I think I start to understand why my bf's mum love to make banana cakes. She must have had really good ones when she was in Aussie.

 

 

The night ended with a good dinner, oyster shots, johnny walker blue label (I still prefer martell cordon bleu) and a long stroll as wanted to save up on the taxi fare. I really like to take long strolls in cold countries as you get to enjoy the surroundings without getting sweaty and uncomfortable.

 

End of Day 2~