Archive for July, 2005
Posted behind toilet door
Posted on July 28, 2005, by soph, under Uncategorized.
Inspiration: It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.
It is official. I have weird management.
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Life as a Missus
Posted on July 28, 2005, by soph, under Married.
Coming up to four weeks now, life as a missus has its pros and cons, and definitely needs its share of adapting.
Prior to marriage, friends warned us about the woes of sleeping with another person. One poor guy shared how he couldn’t sleep properly for 6 months after he got married because his wife was well, a different type of sleeper. So far, I have to say we’re doing quite well. Okay, so there was those 2 nights in New York where I suddenly took it into my sleeping head to kick all the blankets off the bed in the middle of the night (I don’t know why I did that, I swear I’ve haven’t done that since I was like, 12). I woke up at unearthly hours to find my beloved fluffing my pillow and settling onto it. My pillow, mind you. And I was sardined between him and the very eager edge of our bed. His defence was he had wandered into my territory in search of the missing blankets.
Then there’s all the name-calling. Like “mum” and “dad”. It is so hard to call someone mum and dad when you’ve been calling them aunty and uncle ever since you’ve known them. I think I’ve only done it three times since the wedding day. But I should probably get used to it soon. Living with them, I’m bound to have to ask them something or need some other sooner or later. If I had to name the hardest transition, this might just be it. At least for now.
Definite pros of being married though, include moving out and having more freedom. I can go home at whatever time I please, go out whenever I want, and I no longer have to call home on weekends to say whether or not I’m coming home for dinner. It’s great. And no more creeping through the dark, dark house at 2am alone because I’d been watching 24 (we just finished Season 3 by the way). Now I do it with Yuchun, and the house isn’t all that dark anyway. He also doesn’t need to chauffuer me back to my house anymore, which is probably his biggest pro of getting married.
A con of being married? People start calling you “aunty”. How come “uncle” never sounds quite as bad as “aunty” does? Yuchun’s younger brother wants to know what to call me. Names that are being tossed around include “Dai Sou” (which is Cantonese for big brother’s wife). So far, I have to say that takes the cake for oldest-sounding-term-of-address. Whatever happened to “Sophia jie jie”?
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pixies
Posted on July 26, 2005, by soph, under Travels.
Finally. The oft-asked for and long-awaited pictures are up. Bahamas is on the way but for snaps of New York, you can go here.
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One Happy Worker
Posted on July 26, 2005, by soph, under Uncategorized.
Coming back after 3 weeks’ holiday is bound to be a drag. But I was most pleased to find 2 large brown boxes under my desk. This happy worker is now equipped with technology. From 350MHz 64MB RAM and no CD-Rom, I am now the proud owner of a brand new 2.53GHz 512MB RAM Dell Desktop.
It makes the first day so much easier, even if I was a zombie by 12.30pm.
It was nice to see my colleagues again.
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Oops
Posted on July 25, 2005, by soph, under Uncategorized.
Edit: The author wishes to state that she went snorkeling with reef sharks and not reek sharks as previously posted. Any confusion and frantic googling in search of this non-existent creature is greatly regretted.
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The 411
Posted on July 24, 2005, by soph, under Travels.
It is 8 in the morning, I have been awake for 3 hours. You do the math. Jet-lag sucks. Unless it isn’t jet-lag but a mere result of sleeping almost throughout the entire 21 hour flight from New York and that 3 hour evening nap yesterday. I’m going to be a zombie by 2. And I’m starving.
New York was awesome. The first time I saw Times Square I didn’t know where to look. The flashing bilboards, the lights, the non-stop running news shorts, the posters, the screens… That was the closest to gawking I got the entire trip.
The second closest was the opening scene of The Lion King musical, though technically I wasn’t gawking because I cried when the elephants and the giraffes and the birds came out. It was so unbelievably beautiful and creative, maybe a part of me cried because I couldn’t even imagine someone coming up with that, let alone come up with it myself.
Maybe it’s a good thing I’m awake now, cos I’d never have the time and opportunity to blog otherwise.
Rather than bore you with minute by minute details of my 2 week adventure and sit here till lunch, here’s the lazy way out:
Only Time We Played Our Honeymoon Card
Getting business class seats from KL to Stockholm. We were unceremoniously dumped back into economy when they changed crew and the new inflight supervisor was a rude pompous ass.
Weirdest Experience
Getting sunburned on my scalp. It was red for days and hurt everytime I washed/combed my hair. Now it’s peeling and I look like I have really bad dandruff.
Coolest Experience
Snorkeling in the Bahamas. The waters are said by some to the clearest in the world, and the underwater views are as good as The Great Barrier Reef. Feeding the fishes by hand definitely ranks as a top highlight, as does swimming with reek sharks (apparently they’re scavengers and not interested in human flesh). Well, it must be true cos we’re here aren’t we? A big one came unexpectedly near us and I didn’t freak out and die so I’m quite proud of myself.
Most Painful but Morbidly Cool Experience
Getting stung by a jellyfish deemed invisible by the clear-as-tap-water sea. That was the painful part. The cool part was peeling its transparent tentacles off me so calmly I didn’t recognise myself. It was my 4th jellyfish sting since I was 9 (they love me as much as I hate them), and again, I’m uber proud of myself for not shrieking and flailing and making a mad dash for shore as per my first 3 encounters.
Rudest Encounter
The cab driver and uncountable others. New Yorkers are a rude, rude people. In general of course. Special mention goes to the cab driver who snapped at Yuchun, “you think I’m going to take your money like that?” when Yuchun asked about the change he got; and the cashier in Guess Factory Outlet who told us to queue up in a corner and proceeded to serve everyone else who came after us but didn’t queue up there. When Yuchun asked, “Didn’t you just ask us to queue up there?”, she replied, “I don’t remember.”
New York Sights
Times Square. That place never sleeps.
Rockefeller Centre including the NBC Studio Shop. We decided not to take a tour of the empty studios because we were watching our budget.
5th Avenue including afamed Saks 5th Avenue, Bloomingdales, Macy’s, Nike Town, FAO Schwarz (the oldest and probably coolest toy store in America), NBA Superstore and a ton of massive brand names. Oh and Trump Tower, where they film The Apprentice.
Empire State Building. Gives you a wonderful view of New York State from its 86th floor Observation Deck.
Brooklyn Bridge. The biggest man made construction of its time. It stupefies me how people built things like that with horse drawn carriages and no cranes.
Statue of Liberty. It rained during the cruise so you had a boatful of the most miserable holidayers and practically no view because of fog.
World Trade Centre Site aka Ground Zero. Four years down the line, there’s nothing to see there anymore. It looks like a very neat construction site now.
Wall Street. The New York Stock Exchange is no longer open to public viewing. The street around it has been cordoned off and there’re police officers and dogs guarding it everyday. It gets boring for the poor policemen I tell you. Thanks to the London bombings, which happened while we were on the plane to New York, security around the city has been upped, especially the subways. The policemen on duty do nothing but stand around and pose for/give directions to/take photographs for tourists.
SoHo. Great mix of cheap and expensive shopping.
Central Park. Is bordered on one side by a mile of museums which we passed on. We did see Yoko Ono’s memorial to John Lennon in Central Park though, along with disco skaters, street acts and wild squirrels.
Madison Square Garden. Choked with history and interesting tit-bits of general information most people don’t really care to know which I loved. No, we didn’t get to see the actual auditorium (where they had the Grammys one year), and the arena where they play their NBA and WMBA games.
Woodbury Factory Outlets. The place is HUGE. We barely covered a quarter of it, and that took almost an entire day. Needless to say, that’s where we got most of our bargains.
Various Highlights
Seeing the beaches of Bahamas for the first time. I never thought I would see beaches so beautiful.
Feeding endangered parrots by hand in the Bahamas zoo. You stick out your hand holding an apple and they’ll come land on you to peck at it.
Stomping all over a giant keyboard that plays when you step on it at FAO Schwarz, and watching the staff play Chopsticks and The Entertainer, among others, on it.
Eating at Ellen’s Stardust Diner, where the waiters and waitresses are all Broadway hopefuls and take turns singing all day long. They are good.
The Lion King musical. A slight let-down because Simba was seriously off in the singing department that night, but definitely a must-see.
Being constantly fed to bursting by Yuchun’s aunt while in New York. I was most surprised to find I didn’t gain any weight. Must have been all that walking.
Biggest Bargains
A Victoria’s Secret camisole for $10.
2 Calvin Klein capri pants for $20 each.
2 pairs of shoes for $5 and $12 respectively.
Biggest Rues
Not being able to find a nice pair of stilettos. Shoes are so much cheaper in America. As are clothes.
Not seeing a single celebrity despite Manhattan being the location for over 10 television series including Will and Grace, it is home to dozens of celebrities, and Angelina Jolie and Keanu Reeves were both in town.
Facts We Learnt
Bahamas is a highly religious country. Almost all shops are closed on Sundays, but when they’re open, jewelery, cosmetics, perfumes, leather goods, and a host of branded names are duty free. Tourism is their number one industry, banking is number two. It’s probably one of those places people hide their money.
Manhattan is one of five boroughs that make up New York State. The other four are Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and Staten Island. Manhattan has the most skyscrapers in America, the best wages, and an overwhelming majority of the people who live there are not born there, making them one of the most diverse populations in America.
Dumbest Thing I Did
Drink rum punch on an empty stomach. Bahamas is the home of Bacardi rum so everything there is about rum, like rum punch and rum cake. The alcohol didn’t hit me until over an hour later but when it did, I near fainted in the zoo.
Amount of Money Spent
Accomodation and airfare aside, we spent $2200. And that was only because Yuchun’s aunt fed us for like a week. All that tipping and tax really does add up.
I won’t promise pics anytime soon. But I promise to try real hard.
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this little piggy
Posted on July 24, 2005, by soph, under Uncategorized.
has come home.
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Previews
Posted on July 6, 2005, by soph, under Married.
A pic I just love. Even if I look a little like Donald duck. Or Daisy. Whatever.
Another pic here.
And Jon promises more here and here.
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titbit
Posted on July 6, 2005, by soph, under Married.
I know I promised more details on the wedding, but who wants literary details when you can have visual images? Look out for pictures of the wedding on other blogs, cos I’m just too busy right now to convert 16MB image files into a decent blogpost. Besides, I fly for the States in less than 24 hours and I’m just almost done unpacking and settling into Yuchun’s house as it is. We’ve barely been home but hanging out with the rest are so worth it.
I think I’ll sleep all the way to New York (which might not be such a bad idea).
I suck at Halo. Like, really, really, really suck.
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Just Married
Posted on July 4, 2005, by soph, under Married.
The Big Day has come and gone.
It went by so fast, especially the morning ceremony. And even though I dreaded having to sit still for hours while I got my makeup done twice, and complained about feet that were killing me, it was A Truly Beautiful Day.
But more on that later. This blog entry is dedicated to all those who traveled from near and far to be at my wedding, and to every single lovely soul who helped out in big ways and small. Thank You for sharing our day with us. I wish I could have spent more time with all of you, but know that your presence was really special.
Special thanks to all of you who came from Singapore, especially Dida and Kaye, who helped me climb into my dresses and tugged and puffed trying to zip me into it, and for making me practise my walk before I did it in front of 1000 people. Thanks Nel, for playing (and looking) every bit the professional photographer throughout, I can’t wait to see the pictures. And thanks to the rest of you dear, dear ones, who traveled all the way for just a weekend.
Thanks to all of you from Melbourne who flew in and made us feel Very Special Indeed. And special thanks to Ashley and Angie for singing. There were guests who thought it was a CD, honest.
Thanks to the bestmen/ringbearers, bridesmaids and Chai Yen, who is truly the event manager extraordinaire.
Thanks to Marcus and Charlene who manned our reception table during the dinner, and especially for taking us out to dinner when we were hungry and stuck in the hotel.
Thanks to everyone who sent us smses and cards from abroad, and well, just every single one of you who was there. We love you.
Call me Sophia, even though I am now a missus. Mrs. Ngian is just a little too hard to remember and pronounce. And if you call me Aunty, I will ignore you.
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