Road Trip & the 1st weekend without mom & sis

Sometimes, people need to let go. I got "buttered"* on Friday night and went off to Zouk with Jeannie and my good ol' friend Wenxiong. buttered* is a term a friend came up with ... which meant we headed down to butter factory. The night went alright. We'll have more drinks to come. I got home, barely got rested... and then went on this whirlwind 300km plus roadtrip to KL, with Angie.

I suspect i'm nuts. I slept barely an hour while she drove, and having to drive for the 2nd leg of the roadtrip. It's wild, crazy and you know what... i love it. I love being unconventional. That's me. Of course, in KL, i shopped like crazy. Mostly the usual stuff i enjoy : shoes ... shoes... shoes. I had fun at The Loft in KL. Nice place, but i seemed to realized the bars in KL doesn't play the usual stuff i'm used to. Or maybe i'm going to the wrong places. Can someone tell me where i should go?

I got back on Sunday evening, and rushed to meet my friends at Siglap. While we sit there, we decide

Oh an interesting anecdote:
Angie commented to me that she finally understands why girls totally hate me, while we were driving back to Singapore.
Reason : I'm obnoxious. I'm unafraid of being myself, strutting around in berms & tees, and just screaming my head off. Of course, it takes effort to be the "uncut" princess within like a diamond waiting to be discovered underneath the rocks. And at the end of the day, i don't really care what people thinks of the uncouth impolite spoilt bratty me. You know what...I love being me

sporty me

Ben just told me my soccer post was a bit off. He's a lil' thrown off with the sporty side of me. Then again, i see that as questioning my knowledge of football. Well, in fact, i don't really know. I only know i am born in Singapore, grew up in Singapore & SoCal, so of cos, innately i am very Singaporean-ish and heartlander, thus punting is in our blood. 4D, toto, big sweep... and now football. Woohoo...

I may not be a sports freak. In fact, i don't like team sports a whole lot. I love individualistic sports like running, or swimming. Funny thing is during school days, i do better in relay teams. So now individualistic sports does it for me : swimming or running ... or driving.

I just came back from KL from trackday. It's been fun. I am starting to enjoy track driving way too much, and learning to overcome that fear of taking turns much faster. I did a mini fishtail that left me shocked. Yep, after that i held back. I smoked my brakes. But they're stock standard, so who knows. It may just pave the way to better things ahead. I got off to a rough start in the morning, driving that awful coupla hours up to Sepang. Feeling extremely grouchy, in the morning of cos. i've got pikchers to prove for them. You can't help that feeling, cos you had barely 2-3 hours of sleep and then driving with extreme care & caution on the road. Being the only chick that's driving, of course, the guys were sniggering. A friend told me my outfit is so not FIA approved. You know what? I don't care. The track's too hot for me to wanna put on teeshirt and stuff. Keyword : skimpy. The outfit worked out well, since i saw the guys sweating buckets. Nonetheless, I had so much fun, but it seems i might have to skip the next trackday. Argh... drive me nuts. I need my rush...

I did have fun, hanging around my friends... and of course, laughing over silly things. And of course, with my sis. And definitely, my ride...

World Cup Season...

World Cup season. A month long of festivities that rolls around once every four years. It can only result in a huge group of soccer widows* or a bunch of guys who get so bored cos the rest of their male buddies are all into soccer.

Soccer is commonly known as football, local (Singapore) lingo. I started watching football when i was in Secondary School. I stopped watching football, when i moved to US to complete my college education. It was then football took on a whole different meaning. To some, it's just the same bunch of guys dressed up in their suits lined with padding to cushion the tackling, hurling a ball. No goal keeper. Just run, yards and yards, without anyone hitting you down. It's almost like the Kiwis' rugby. But of cos the Kiwis will disagree.

Now i'm in Singapore. Football has become the once-familiar term again. 11 men on a team, two teams running after a black & white ball, with a goal keeper being the only one able to touch the ball with his hand. Yea well, go figure. I don't think i will want to be a soccer widow*. The term Soccer Widow was coined by the media and of cos, the general masses. It is to describe women who are deserted by their boyfriends or husbands or other halves for football. No way am i going to sit there being deserted by any boy for the sake of soccer. Of course, there are the guys who get deserted by their girls so the girls can watch football. I think the camaderie whereby you don't need words to pact together. There's an ad on tv that describes that. Football brings the world together.

Football season is here. So whatcha waiting for? Get off your seats and start watching.

Happy Birthday to the Gemini babies...

1stly , Happy Birthday to Dennis... who gave a puking performance at Eastside. heh heh !

And 2ndly , to my dearest Kimbo, Yul Gin, Stefan, June and Jolene. It was fun at esmi, and of cos, watching the kick off match of the world cup. More matches to come....See you guys again soon.

Singapore Business School versus. The rest of the world

Amidst the furor of the slew of advertisments by foreign agencies hired by Singapore's very own National University of Singapore (NUS), about Singapore Business School, i can't help but provide my two cents worth. By now, i am sure everyone has seen the ads.

The power of advertising is that phenomenal. You have to give credit to the brains behind the ads. Afterall, it provided a talking point among a bunch of Singaporeans. They get talked about via tv (through their ads), through papers (i vaguely recall The Straits Times wrote about the chuckles and dismay over the ads), through blogs (you can find a lot of them at tomorrow.sg), through podcasts (the infamous Mr Brown show). The ad company were pushing for airtime they have paid for, and in return they are widely talked about. That is the power of media. And with that, there's an increased in exposure for the ad as well as NUS / Singapore Business School.

I've been thinking about where i should do my MBA for some time. I've considered the common US Universities like Stanford, Berkeley, UChicago, Northwestern, Upenn, etc. Or even back to my alma mater : Purdue. Or even back closer to home : UCLA or SC.

I've moved back to Singapore for about five years. I still consider US very much where my home is. But so does Singapore. And you know what... because of the coverage of the media, i have sat up to think, and maybe i will consider Singapore Business School. Afterall, it's Top 30 for their Executive MBA programs. I can stick with everyone i love back in Singapore, while finishing up school. Besides, comparatively, the expenses are like almost a quarter or one-fifth of the fees i will have to pay back in LA.

I guess i'll have to decide...

What can i offer?

I got tomorrow-ed for that Pragmatism post. And of cos, with the post comes trackbacks and of cos the voices of both the male & female population. A lot of which prompted me to wonder what i can offer. So let's see, i'll start listing them now :

• Cook
  
• Clean
• Sew
• Bakes a mean set of chocolate chip cookies
• Smart, Intelligent, Witty, learning very well to keep quiet when by her man
• Demure, gentle, kind
• Great care giver to the elderly and kids.
  

The list could go on & on. But that is just not me. I don't have any of the virtues / characteristics / criteria as above. I agree with the readers & people who commented that this is a two way street. To the ones who love me, i may be priceless. To the rest of the world, superficial me is just the b***h that you would love to hate.

I believe i can't offer much to those who knows me superficially, but a lot more to those that i am close to. I do think i am the absolute best gal pal any guy can have. I am direct, blunt, pragmatic (the magic word!?!), but yet i still hold that girly sense that i know girls can really have a whole spectrum of mood swings. I am an absolute b***h for highlighting what i believe would be the truth. I am also selective to what kind of friends i have, i am also snotty & bratty. But i am sure my family, friends & clients should know me better.

So what can i offer to my other half? Let's just say, he would agree it's worth more than any amount of money can buy.

Choosing life partners

I realized that time has really flown greatly. I am no longer the 18 year old that i can claim. My friends are getting married; my relatives are getting married. I've been attending wedding dinners for three weekends in a row. Gawd! Is it a sign that i should get married too?

Another sign came when a close friend sent me an sms regards to pragmatism and love. I have always been a very pragmatic person; realism over the undefinable things in life such as love. Between love & bread, of cos it would be nice to have a balance. I have always felt women are generally a materialistic bunch, me included. And never once looked at men being materialistic. I don't think i am materialistic, i think i'm being realistic. All i want is a roof over my head ( a real roof, not just an ordinary ceiling with neighbors trottering their feet & drilling their walls at 9am on a saturday morning), a car (let's just say i can't drive a Kia), and of course, my handbags & shoes. Am i unrealistic to ask for a man who can pay the expenses of my kids & my roof? I can jolly well pay for my car & my fashion garbs. But the ideal is spending more time with my kids, than to go out and work. Isn't that what men would want their women to do?

Oh, we do have to stop at the line of the whole Male Chauvinist Pig, versus the Feminist. I don't deny i am feminist... and my theme song is prolly "Independent Women". I dislike having to follow through rules set forth by men of their ladies. Like duh?!? I too have earning power, why should i subject to the fact that you want me to keep mum over your requests of scrub the bathroom floors or following your mom to the market? Then again, some friends would think the song "Gold Digger" works way better for me.

Whatever the case is, i am realistic. But men... should never be. So how do men search for the one? Is it out of sheer attraction? Physical attraction? Emotional attraction? It has been brought to my attention that more and more men out there are choosing their brides based on their earning power and willingness to contribute to the household income. Well, that's something new to me. Totally blasted my Traditional view of a family (men pay, we take care of kids ideology) out of the window. I have always thought they would choose someone they are happy with, regardless of the girl's background. I know, certain pre-req must be met, like equal or lower educational background, doesn't do drugs or drink abusively, doesn't abuse husbands (i am guilty of being abusive to my other half. heheheh). But i guess i was wrong when someone told me otherwise that it just doesn't mean you make me laugh the hardest equate to me wanting to marry you, there's a lot more.

A friend told me he has two choices between two girls. Yes he loves both chicks, what a slut he is. Ok, moving along, it's between someone who makes a "perfect wife", has a stable career and job, will do most stuff for him, and then another one who's more offbeat, down to earth yet atas (high class, for those who don't know), street smart, energetic and initiate stuff. That is just heaven & earth comparison, to him that is. And he doesn't know where to start. Who does he turn to? The pragmatic slut me. That term was coined by him for me, cos i'm so realistic about everything. I always thought the term of financial stability doesn't work for most men. They all want a trophy wife. The wife that is sweet to the parents, yet a wild child when with them. Nothing of a financial sort. So when more of my friends told me yes they want to look for someone who's more financially independent, i sat there stunned and dumbfounded. Money Money Money. Not just that, the wife has to be hot. This is the time that calls me to scream " SIMI SAI... ai lui ma ai hot... SIMI SAI". Oh did i also forget to mention polishness is a must? No swearing, being an absolutely darling to his family & friends. Throw in a good cook & cleans the house, without even bitching a bit. Goodness, how the hell am i going to meet up to the requirements set forth by men these days?

Ohhh ... so much for my happy ending.
Do they even have as much of what women want, to begin with? Hmmm, notes to ponder.

Anyone with alternate views?