Random musings

Isn't it ironic that the word 'dyslexic' is so darn tricky to spell?

Like-wise, the irony applies also for the word 'abbrieviation'

Did you know that 'rhythm' is the longest English word without vowels you can spell.

The word 'stewardesses' is the longest English word you can type using just your left hand. (That is if you type correctly i.e. the fingers at the right keys)

I'm sleepy.

2 down 1 to go!

Today is my 2nd year anniversary in Hong Kong! Two years ago on 27 August 2005, I moved here to HK. When I arrived, I felt sick and had to abandon plans to go to Ikea to start on my furniture shopping. Instead I spent the afternoon curled up in bed in The Excelsior Hotel, waking up at 8pm to have Vietnamese Beef Noodles. I went to Ikea to walk around but did not feel well enough to buy anything.

In other news, I can officially say that Shirlynn Oh + friend (Catherine) are my best house guests to date! They left on a 8pm flight and when I came home just now, they left me some gifts - a mirror (coz Shirlynn insists my makeup mirror is too small), and more hangers coz I have more clothes than my hangers can handle. They even made my bed for me, and washed the sheets they used and aired them out! My floor is clean, they even tidied up my coffee table and cleaned my bathroom! I must say they did a good job -can put my cleaning lady out of business! Haha! Thanks Shir! Thanks Cat! It was great fun overall the past few days - Shir kena suaned like no tomorrow. Poor thing. Haha. Good thing she's a good sport ;)

Off to remove my mask - I haven't gone for facial for over a month and the pores are getting clogged! Going to visit LD this weekend! Please, no pimples!!

Banks!

Brilliant old me forgot to sign the cheque that I wrote to Citibank HK for expenses incurred on my CX Citibank card. When I called to try to rectify the situation, I obviously had to choose the English option 'Press 1 for Cantonese, 2 for English, 3 for Mandarin', you would think that if I pressed 2 for English, the person will be okay to talk to! I swear, the person almost made my blood boil coz at one point it doesn't look like she knew what I was talking about! In any case, I am going to try to call back again tomorrow when my cheque is due to arrive and if the Eng still cannot make it, I'll get my colleague to speak in Canto with the person. WOMIT BLOOD I TELL U!

Then my dad tells me that he has also received a bill from Citibank in SG demanding for my annual fee, and coz he didn't see it last month and didn't pay it, there is an additional late charge of S$40. So I called up Citibank on the international number I got from the website ('In HK, dial this number ____ ) just now to tell them that I want to cancel the card since I don't use it and I don't wanna pay the annual fee. The service standards were so different! THE PERSON ACTUALLY UNDERSTOOD ME! I asked her 'Am I calling HK or Singapore?' and she's like 'Singapore', I'm like 'No wonder you understand me, I called Citibank HK yesterday and she can't understand me' She laughed politely and said 'er yeah, Hong Kong, sometimes the English....' hahahahahahah! Anyway she said she will try to get a waiver for me this time and will call me back here in HK next week! That's service!

Alright - you would think I'd be sick of ranting about terrible English in HK but they never fail to surprise/annoy/perplex me. I told one of my colleague about it and she tried to stand up for her fellow cantos by saying sometimes these customer service centres are in Shenzhen so even when they call and speak in Canto, those people also don't understand them! But let's face it, even if it was based in HK, would the standard be any better? People with good English would be doing high flying jobs - why be a Call Centre person where random strangers call and scold you?

Ok done with ranting. Heh!

Bored

Cannot think of what I could blog about - I have been meaning to get G to send me the zoo pics so I can put them up here.

In the meantime, I'm hooked on Facebook! I'm checking it all the time and I realised heck I can even check it on my Blackberry and I do! So loser I know!

Those of you who are not on it yet - GET ON IT!

It's one of those the more the merrier type of things. When you have a lot of friends who do a lot of things on Facebook, it makes it fun. If you only have a handful of friends and they don't do much, it can get quite boring.

Facebook

Sorry for the lapse in blogging - I was back in SG last weekend for Mel Joon's wedding and managed to also go to the Zoo & Night Safari with G. We super suaku can - we've never been to Night Safari! Both were fun but the Night Safari performance show was more fun. The walking trails weren't that great, coz most of the animals were hiding or zzzzzing! We would be peering and going 'what are we supposed to be looking at?" Eventually we just walked up to the display and excitedly go 'Oh look! A branch! Look! A twig! Ooohhh, leaaaveeesss' then walk away, leaving bewildered people behind! Haha! Cheap thrill I know. The tram ride was fun also, only hassle was the queue was ridiculously long coz the place was full of tourists!! We didn't take much pictures in Night Safari coz it was too dark but we have a few zoo pics which I may post when G sends them to me.

The wedding dinner was good fun too. Caught up with friends from my uni days in Melbourne. Saw a friend that I've made in Melbourne and forgotten about! Remember the Channel 5 TV show 'Growing up'? The guy who acted as Ah Guan, the friend with the stutter - he was in Melb with us and we used to go clubbing! Mel was good pals with him coz they were in Aust earlier than the rest of us and so she invited him. All in all, it was good fun catching up and the food was good, albeit the dinner starting super late!

I'm bored now. Gonna go watch Nip/Tuck on TV now.

In other news, I'm super addicted to Facebook! Tragic eh? Haha!

Chunky Monkey

I am very disturbed by my stubborn, jiggly, wiggly and super resilent fats.

To make things worse, my double chin likes to make frequent, unwelcome appearances in photos.

At Alan's wedding recently, G & I took photos with the groom.

See!

I look so bloody chunky! Check out the double chin! But on the other hand -->

Despite the fact that my forehead majorly needs blotting, I have ONE chin here, not TWO!

Obviously quite dismayed, I wikipedia'ed 'double chin' and found an exercise for it!

A double chin is a phenomenon caused by a layer of subcutaneous fat around the neck that sags down and creates a wrinkle, making the owner appear to have a second chin. It is most common on the elderly and the obese, and is more visible when the bottom jaw is lowered. Although, as people get older, their skin and muscles tend to become more lax, this does not mean that a double, sometimes triple, chin is inevitable.

Losing it
It's possible to reduce a double chin. The first step to reducing a double chin is to ensure your diet is high in fibre and low in fat and calories, and contains fresh fruit and vegetables. Using a skin toner every day helps the skin remain firm. Exercising the platysma muscle, whose function is to pull down the corners of the mouth and pull down the jawbone will help to reduce a double chin. Open your mouth wide, and then pull up your bottom lip over your bottom teeth. Move your jaw up and down as if you're trying to scoop something up with it - imagine the movement of the shovel on a digger scooping up earth or debris on a building site. Perform ten repetitions of this exercise each time, 2 or 3 times a day.

I also bought a 'Face Lifting Cream' which promises to 'uplift the skin', and rubbing it vigorously on my neck in circular upwards motions morning & night!

Drastic measures! Aahhhhh!