The Marvellous Month of May

Wheeeeeeeeeee! So excited. I really really really wanna watch Switchfoot in action. Guess what I'm listening to right now? Chem 6A, one of the very first Switchfoot songs I ever heard and one of the songs that got me hooked. Still one of my faves!!!!

Guess you've heard the news... Switchfoot is coming to town in May. (If you don't know who they are, check them out here. I know you'll love them! If you get the chance, listen to Don't Be There and Underwater... great songs.) When exactly, I don't know, but I know I so wanna go. I really hope the concert doesn't clash with our Sunway Lagoon escapade and Tioman dive trip. *crosses fingers*

Haha. Switchfoot is one of the few bands I discovered before Greg did. AND he loves them too. Yay! So maybe I'm not a total dinosaur when it comes to music after all ;)

They've changed a lot since their first 2 albums... the line-up's changed, 2 new members added, it seems. Well, more guys are always good ;) Heh seriously though, I loved this band for their Christian pop-rock sound, but even that's changed. Like Greg says, they're so mainstream now. Radio-friendly. Oh well, I still love them, I just sometimes miss the Christian lyrics... hmmmmmf.

Anyway, let me just point out that I'M GOING TO SUNWAY LAGOON IN MAY WANNA COME???? Haha and diving at Tioman after. Right now we're gathering friends to join us for the Sunway part. And Zouk in KL. Wheeeeee!

More girls better. So says Greg. I think he's planning to get everyone drunk, then suggest strip poker. Or something.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

My parents were on TV today. Their 15 minutes of fame. Actually, more like 15 seconds. Dad was so excited about being on TV. He totally loves the camera. Lisa calls him a media whore. Lis!!!!!!!! So bad...

Anyway, they were involved in this marriage-enrichment thingy called We're Married! and it was covered on the news on Channel 5. Haha. My parents on TV. Cheap thrill, but I love those guys. They're so cute.

Greg mentioned the 5 love languages today. One of the topics my dad sometimes gives talks on. Apparently I sent this test on love languages to him a long time ago and then forgot about it. Well anyway he only did the test recently. I did the test for fun, though I think I know myself pretty well when it comes to how I love! And here are my results... (dum dum dum...)

The Five Love Languages

My primary love language is probably
Physical Touch
with a secondary love language being
Quality Time.

Complete set of results

Physical Touch:		8
Quality Time:		7
Words of Affirmation:		6
Acts of Service:		5
Receiving Gifts:		4

Information

Unhappiness in relationships, according to Dr. Gary Chapman, is often due to the fact that we speak different love languages. Sometimes we don't understand our partner's requirements, or even our own. We all have a "love tank" that needs to be filled in order for us to express love to others, but there are different means by which our tank can be filled, and there are different ways that we can express love to others.

Take the quiz

No big surprise there. I've always known my 2 biggest love languages were physical touch and quality time - hence the absurd amount of waking hours (and sometimes sleeping too =P) I spend with my sweetie. Just can't get enough of him... but I'm just wired that way.

I take after my dad in love languages. His 2 biggies are the same as mine. He's always made it a point to spend time with me, and he's the big hugger in my family. Guess that's why I love hugs so much. I think giving me a good hug is the fastest way anyone can ever cheer me up. Good thing Greg's a hugger. You give great hugs babe! ;)

I'm lucky that Greg's primary love language is quality time. And that physical touch is also important to him. (Oh don't we ALL know that... he hugs like, everyone!) So at least he's not gonna get tired of spending so much time together. 'Cos it's never enough anyway!

I remember once when I was in secondary school, I was like, 13 I think, and my form teacher Mrs Wong asked the class this question, "How do you spell 'love'?" I can't remember what led her to ask that question, but I do recall my excitement at knowing the right answer - "T-I-M-E!!!!!" Dad was always saying that, 'love' is spelt 'T-I-M-E'. How right he is. Maybe it's just me (or people like me), but all it takes is a phone call, a meal together, a walk on the beach... a simple gesture, it doesn't even have to take up a lot of time, but it says so much to me. It means so much. Thank you, sweetheart, for doing that.

And do I really need to thank you for your touch too? ;) You know how appreciated that is. I'm the girl who still holds Dad's hand when we're out on 'dates'. I hold my mom's hand too. Heck, I hold my brother's hand! (Awwww. Not all the time of course, only when he's feeling particularly gentlemanly - sometimes I think he's genuinely afraid I won't be able to cross the road on my own.) I'm actually quite proud of this. He's almost 18 and not afraid to hold his sister's hand in public. In fact most of the time he initiates it. I think that's sweet as heck.

I'm a lucky lucky lucky girl. The men in my life are awesome. So are the women! But I'm closer to my dad and bro than I am to my mom and sis. And of course Greg's the one who know me best... my best friend, confidante, partner, playmate. He's total back-up.

Am I lucky or what? ;)

Heineken Green Room non-party '06

So. Saturday night's Green Room party was a total wash-out. Check out Greg's rant here. (He ranted on The Slate as well.) Started out fine, we were pretty hyped up. This is us at the start of the party (although technically it never quite got off the ground).



See how happy we were? Ah well. So after waiting in vain for 3 hours for GangStarr to show up, we were all pretty pissed off. In the end we decided to head to Sentosa on the off-chance that there was a party somewhere. There wasn't. Ended up on Siloso Beach eating instant noodles (Tom Yam flavour), a cheese hotdog and octopus balls. Then Greg somehow charmed us into stripping down to our bikinis and we spent some shivery minutes in the water (at 2am!!!!) trading secrets...



(Me and Kat sharing a lesbian moment. Oops! Kat will have you know she's very, VERY STRAIGHT. Poor girl, I think she's played the 'bi' card once too often, now everyone thinks she's not quite, er, heterosexual.)

...After which we headed to Mac's at KAP for an extra-early breakfast. Got home close to 6, had maybe 4 hours of sleep before I had to rush off to church. (Hey I managed to stay awake through service at 11am though!) Actually, I think we might have had more fun than if we'd stayed for the Heineken party. Heh.

Any crazy fella out there wanna join us? We're looking for a fourth. Then next time maybe can play bridge lah ;)

Bowling pix

Ok so this is a little late, but I just got this pix from my cuz Kev. From the bowling outing with the cuzzies. (I blogged about this on Jan 31st. Yes yes this is way late, I know.)



Me and the girls, Stef and Sherl, at the arcade.



And here's one with the man himself! Kev and the girls, in the bowling alley. (Apparently he only took photos of the girls...)



And since Lisa wasn't around, here's one with her taken at another cousin's wedding dinner. Aren't we all pwetty????

Kings of Convenience RULE!!!!!!!

Ever since the Kings of Convenience gig Quiet is the New Loud on Thursday night, all I hear in my head are their songs, and when I close my eyes I see Erland's funky dance steps. And it's no wonder. Thursday night truly was a night to remember.

I expected KoC to be good. They were AWESOME. Between playing all my faves, like Stay Out of Trouble (on which they got the audience to whistle along), Cayman Islands, Winning a Battle, Losing the War, Singing Softly to Me, I Don't Know What I Can Save You From (Eirik was awesome on this), Toxic Girl, Misread, Know How (the audience chimed in on the chorus), Gold in the Air of Summer and Love is No Big Truth (they worked so well together on this one!), there was friendly bantering with the audience, and Erland showed off some nice moves to boot. Often Eirik would be singing and playing guitar behind the mic and Erland would be at the edge of the stage swaying his hips to the music, raising his arms to the heavens or doing some nifty footwork to loud applause and catcalls.

The cheers were pretty much continuous between songs. This duo really has a comedic streak. Like when someone shouted "I love you Eirik!" during a pause, then someone else shouted "I love you Erland!" later on, and Eirik immediately said, "He needed that.". And when Erland was tuning his guitar, he said, "So fun to listen to me tuning my guitar." The audience just ate it up. They're so cute! I loved it when Erland said, "As you all can see, my T-shirt's a little bit too small. I was going to change it before the concert, but somehow it didn't seem so important." Haha. He was wearing a green 'Let's Mond' T-shirt which showed just a wee bit of belly whenever he raised his arms. Which he did. Frequently. I asked him later (!!!!!) what his shirt meant and he said Mond is a club in Norway which he goes to. HEY! I got to talk to him!!!!!!!!

More on that later. The best moment, I think, was when the lights went out and they played Homesick in the dark. It was... completely magical. I think I almost cried. It was just so beautiful. Oh they started off playing out-of-tune (on purpose of course). How can you not love them?

The second best moment was when they played I'd Rather Dance With You and Erland invited the audience onstage. Some girls went up - security actually let them!!!! (lucky!). They got to dance with Erland and hug both him and Eirik. Wahhhhhh... My group wanted to go but we were all the way at the back. (Actually, I guess we were lucky enough to even get tickets at all... we were in the third row from the back! Tix were almost all out when we grabbed them.) There were five empty seats just a few rows from the stage too. Erland announced them and urged people to come fill them up. We were tempted to run up and take them but I'm not sure security would have let us. Oh well...

The concert really seemed way too short. The audience gave a collective "Awwwwwwww..." when they announced their last song. We were all on our feet for the last song (although not till Erland asked if we'd rather stand up!) and stayed on our feet, cheering, till they came back on for an encore. Two songs actually, Little Kids and a Norwegian song.

We didn't manage to get good shots from where we were sitting but Greg got some shots from the autograph session (first 100 only! Aren't we lucky.) Check them out.

We were last in line but one for the actual session. That's the last person in Greg's photos, the girl with the curly hair. Erland was so relieved that it was over, he grabbed her hand and rested his forehead on it. Then she patted him on the head. Now why didn't I do that???

Autographs! Sorta. More like, scribbles and abstract art.



















On the cover of Versus, which I bought right after the concert. Remixes, but it's got one new track, Gold for the Price of Silver. Was hoping they had singles or something, of new songs. They performed a few throughout the concert. There was one I totally fell in love with. I don't know its title, but it had this gorgeous chorus "Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh! I can never belong to you". Anyone know what the song is?

Anyway, on Versus: That's Eirik's scribbling in white. His signature (I think) underneath the line, followed by 'Sorry for ruining your cd...'. Haha. Erland's in black. I asked him what the picture was. He said, "You know when you fart in the bath?..." Hahahahaha! Abstract art by Erland Oye. Wheeee!!!!!

Truly truly, a night to remember. I had a great time ;)

Edit: Oh before I forget, cool forum my friend intro'd me to. The Slate - first heard of it when Alvin's photos appeared there and my friend saw me in one of the shots. KoC discussion going on there already!

It won't be heaven without you

for Gracie
2nd March 2006


All Dogs Go to Heaven

You know it won't be heaven without you, baby girl
You know it'll be chill and lonesome
So I'll see you there in heaven, darling girl
When it's time for me to go home

I think you left a hole in my heart
I think I don't know where to even start
You left so suddenly today
Someplace far far away
I hope you find a good home above

In a place where there's no pain
Where you can see and hear and run again
Where the green grass sweetly grows
And gentle breezes blow
And you're surrounded by the ones you love

Can you hear your brother howling
And your sisters weep for you
You brought so much joy and laughter
Were you always laughing too?

You know it won't be heaven without you, baby girl
You know you always made me smile
Wish I had time to say goodbye, sweet girl
It'll only take a little while

Wish you were here close beside me
I wish you well and whole and free
I'd curl up with you
Fall asleep with you
How happy and peaceful we would be

You know it won't be heaven without you, baby girl
You know it won't be heaven without you

*******************************************************

It's been a rough day. It started out pretty much like any other workday, quick breakfast, hug Mom goodbye and off we go. Except today's Mom's birthday, so I wished her Happy Birthday before we left. First time I've seen anyone cry when receiving birthday wishes. Guess she already sorta saw it coming.

I didn't. Not really.

My little dog Gracie had a swelling on her jaw. It had been there for awhile and we were getting worried. The vet said it would probably go away on its own but it was taking forever so Mom thought she'd get a second opinion. So she brought Gracie to the vet this morning. I had just finished lunch at work when I got Mom's message: "Vet said growth cancer. Put Gracie down on my birthday."

I guess I was stunned. It was so completely unexpected and so sudden. I just sat there and cried. Wishing I'd said goodbye, wishing I'd hugged her or something. Wishing I'd spent more time with her and complained less about her messing on the floor all the time. I just stroked her a couple of times this morning when I left for work. I never thought for one second that she wouldn't be there when I got home.

That was a pretty rotten moment. I can't remember feeling that bad in a long time. Everything else just seems so petty and stupid now, every other little grouse or grievance really were just that - little. At least with any other 'trouble', I was pretty much in control. Even with the worst of them, there was always a choice I could still make. But this was completely out of my hands.Just like that, Gracie's gone.

I called Greg, I didn't know what else to do. (Sweetie, you were wonderful. You really came through for me.) He immediately said, can you take the day off, I'll come right away and pick you up. So I did. And then I just sat in his car and cried and talked and cried and laughed and talked. 'Cos you know, when I think about Gracie, there are all these amazing memories and I can't help but smile. She was always, always so adorable.

Like when we were younger, we had this maid we called Aunty Gina. When our parents went out, Aunty Gina would put on some music and we would all start dancing. That is, we kids would hop around a bit and Aunty Gina would grab Gracie by her front paws and dance with her. It was really funny. Gracie would be jumping and panting and her tail would wag and wag and wag.

Gracie was always happy. A real happy dog. She had the sweetest nature you could ever imagine, so quiet and docile. I remember when we first got her. My grandma's neighbour was giving away her dogs and my parents popped by to have a look. They've told this story so many times I almost feel like I was there with them! They said there were three dogs. Two were really yappy and jumped around them barking their heads off but there was one white dog who just stood quietly at the back and looked at them. Of course they got her. My first memory of her was when they were walking her across the field below my grandma's flat. I was looking over the balcony and I saw my parents with a little white dog. I just fell in love.

She was so smart. She'd always look both ways before she crossed the road. I remember one time we were just going out and a car was passing along the side road. Gracie was almost out on the road in front of our house so Lisa yelled, "Gracie, car!" You know what Gracie did? She just hunkered down, flattened her body against the road and shut her eyes. She was... one of a kind.

She used to have tons of energy. She's chase cats, birds, moles, lizards, anything that invaded our gardens. She used to make these mad dashes through the house, from the front yard all the way to the back and all the way to the front again. When she came to the stairs in the living room she'd leap right off them with her legs stretched out. Then she'd stop suddenly and stare at us with this gleam in her eye. She was so playful. I remember we'd play five-way tug-of-war with her, us kids, Aunty Gina and her. We just all grabbed a piece of a rag and pull. Happy days.

Of course Gracie hadn't displayed that much energy in a while (except at mealtimes. Then she was still a crazy thing.)... she pretty much slept most of the time these last couple of years.Well, she was pretty old. She was seventeen. A grand old lady. I guess that's a pretty good age for a dog. She couldn't see or hear or smell too well and she definitely had difficulty with stairs but I think she was still happy. She's had a long, full, happy life. I want to be happy for her. Even though I miss her terribly now.

Home feels empty without her somehow. She was so sweet, she'd come out and greet us when we came home, even though it took her so long to go from the house to the porch and back again while it took us only a few seconds. My poor sweetheart. She really was something.I really hope I see her again someday. Mom said, don't tell me Gracie doesn't have a spirit. Gracie's special. She is. It wouldn't be heaven without her, it just wouldn't be right.

My little baby girl, I love you so much. You will be remembered.

Running to Brokeback and other stuff

I ran today! WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, so it was only about 5 or 6 clicks, and yes, I've slowed down an awful lot over the years (*grumble*) and errr yeah I had a huge supper afterwards... but still. I ran, okay!!!!!

It was a good run. It's always better with someone else. Especially with guys, 'cos they're faster so (a) my sense of pride won't let me quit and I'll run till I die 'cos I don't wanna lose face, and (b) I don't feel bad about being so slow 'cos they're bigger anyway. Heh. Looking forward to next week's.

For those who haven't heard (that would be nearly everyone), I'm taking part in the JP Morgan run. If you don't know what that is, well I'm too tired to explain and you don't have to know anyway. All you really need to know is it's a run, a short one, but my colleagues and I are all out of shape (okay, me lah. Boo!) so we're having not one, but two training sessions every week. Hopefully in a couple of months I'll have washboard abs. Ah well, I can dream can't I?

Anyway, my legs are so sore now. Just past the halfway point my legs lost all feeling and I pretty much completed the run on two huge blocks of pins and needles (oh wait, isn't that a contradiction?... Whatever). After cooling down I pretty much just flopped down and massaged my legs till the feeling slowly returned. Not that that was such a good thing. Ahhhhhh... the pain, tha pain! I might have trouble going to the loo tomorrow. (This really brings back fond memories of cross-country training in JC. Back then, I kinda looked forward to having trouble with the loo, 'cos it meant I really did have washboard abs. Well, nearly. *Tear*)

I wanna blog a lot more, there's been a lot of stuff going through my head lately. Some good, some bad, some just plain confused. The stuff is, I mean, not me. Or is it both? Anyway. If I don't let it out soon I'll go nuts or nuttier. But time isn't on my side tonight. It rarely is. So maybe tomorrow. Or something. Hoping to update the look of this ol' blog soon too. We'll see what we can whip up (by 'we' I mean Greg). So stay tuned!

K, time for bed! Man this week's gonna be crazy. Mom's birthday on Thurs, I'm on course on Fri and then we're celebrating in the evening, I got stuff to pick up tomorrow, planning a beach outing on Sat and there's also a blood donor thingy at the Heeren (yes, there's now a club for blood donors. Sigh. Much guilt I feel. When's the last time I gave? And all those poor needy bloodless people out there) and Sun I guess will be taken up by church and cell. I love the guys in my cell! They're so fun to talk to. Okay, well, I love guys in general. (Greg, just be glad I love guys and not girls. Then again, you're a guy, so...)

Which reminds me. It's kinda depressing that the hottest kiss I've seen in recent memory was between two gay guys. Yes, Brokeback Mountain. Yes, Jake Gyllenhaal (mmmmm!). Yes, Heath Ledger (double mmmmm!). How do they do it? Maybe they both really are a little bit gay. Straight couples could take a leaf out of their book. Mmmmmmmm... dreamy.

Okay, well, it's hard not to be turned on by those two guys. Although watching it with a parent could dampen the mood. I told my Dad I'd take him out for lunch as a Valentine's Day present, he suggested a movie on my day off. First he suggested Mrs Henderson Presents (which has full frontal nudity by the way - suffice it to say, his choice of movie was unexpected) but I wanted to watch Brokeback. So we happily bought the tickets before I remembered, aren't there naked guys having sex in this movie? But since Dad fell asleep during the show I guess he didn't mind it too much! He watched Mrs Henderson with my Mom in the end, and she was telling me yesterday how perky the bits were. The 'rents ARE pretty open. I always knew they were, but I forget sometimes. They're cool. I love them.

2 am and I really need to go. As an ex-cellmate used to say, I have an appointment with my bed. Goodnight.