1) I can do or eat anything I like.

I no longer need to do any laundry and the only housework I do is magic-cleaning the floor. It is fun and definitely a good form of exercise since I so seldom walk nowadays. As for eating, I just need to blame it on my baby making me have cravings and I get my way! This is the only time when I get to eat so much birds’ nest in my life, it seems to be of unlimited supply.

2) I have no period now.

Yay! Although having periods make a woman continue looking youthful and be able to conceive, I definitely don’t like the mess associated with it. Men won’t understand that feeling.

3) I get to see specialists instead of the GPs for the slightest illness.

The feeling of being protected and taken care of by a specialist definitely feels good. My respiratory specialist is always concerned about me, not just whether my cough is getting better, but also about my pregnancy and my giddy/breathlessnesss problem. She is very detailed when she asks me questions and does very detailed tests/checks just to ensure I am ok. Feels good having all that attention from someone you can trust on.

4) I can see baby move/dance inside my stomach.

Tell you, I think this is the HAPPIEST thing about being pregnant. Since the end of the second trimester, I could feel and see my baby moving inside my stomach. The bad thing is, each time she moves, I feel like pee-ing. But I don’t mind that as I get to know she is actively moving inside. I have captured many videos of my stomach bobbling up and down (and left to right or vice versus) but unfortunately can’t share with you all ‘cos there is too much of my bare skin in the videos (*shy*)… Hee hee.. I also like feeling her presence, which is in the form of some hard “object” pressing against the inner walls of my stomach. The hard “object” will move away after a few seconds, so I’ve got to catch her while I can. The hide-and-seek is really fun and satisfying.

5) I get to buy cute baby stuffs, esp. clothes!

Having a baby girl means I get to choose and buy pretty clothes for my daughter, and dress her up like a little princess. I don’t care if Yh and I dress sloppily and look more like her servants, but I would want her to look like a royalty. Hahaha. Most of the clothes I have chosen for her are mainly white and pink (nope, I don’t even like yellow or purple colours) and the joy of buying pretty baby clothes is similar to me buying Rosebullet clothes for myself. Can’t wait to let her wear them! Unfortunately I often have giddy spells, so I can’t spend too much time outside shopping for her clothes. Often have to rely on my family and close friends to do the shopping for me … Thank goodness I have these personal shoppers to support me during this while.

Baby, we are all waiting for you to come out!

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Actually I am crazy over collecting many other things too.

For instance, when I was young, I used to collect batteries. Not really the different types of batteries, but I loved to collect a huge quantity of AA batteries because I listened to the walkman often then. Collecting the batteries gave me a sense of security.

Then, I started collecting pens and highlighters as well, as I used them often in school and I just loved to see my textbooks and assessment books looking colourful. During the study periods before exams, I would pester my aunt to drive me to the nearby stationery shop near our house to buy the different coloured pens and highlighters, even if I’d already had 20 of the same pilot/pentel pens at home. That was my way of de-stressing myself. My poor ATM, aka my mother/aunts. Haha.

As I grew older, I started writing lecture notes and paper became my new obsession. Till today, as I have been taking Japanese language lessons, I still collect different types of papers, notebooks and post-it pads for writing the notes. My latest collection revolves round those ring-binded papers aka loose leaf papers. They just give me the very Japanese feeling.

Since my uni days, I have also grown into a maniac over skincare and cosmetics products. Even if I already have an unused bottle of toner/moisturizer at home, I will still buy a second bottle just to give myself added security. Yes, I am that insecure about the things I use.

Some other unusual things that I still collect today or used to collect are – towels (I have many Disney ones), glass bowls and cups (mainly Sanrio types ‘cos they look very exquisite and cute), cute letterpads and stickers (oh!!! I used to collect many cute letterpads but I have no more use for them now. Who can I write to? I also have no secret lover/penpal. Hahaha. Sometimes I still collect stickers when I am feeling moody, because I always dream of pasting them all over my iphone, to the dismay of my act-macho hubby), and medicine (I fell sick often pre-pregnancy and have tons of medicine for all illnesses. My family liked to treat me as their pharmacist when they are lazy to go downstairs to the clinic.

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Anyway, today’s topic is the cute pencils/pens and they are mostly from Japan (Disneyland/Disneysea/Disney Store/Sanrio Puroland/Sanrio shops/Universal Studios Japan/Tokyu Hands/Kiddyland). Some are from Singapore (random push carts/Isetan or Taka Sanrio corners/A’n'BC). I think I have neglected them recently and it’s time to give them some attention on this blog, as well as make myself happy just by admiring them. Serious. I feel so happy just pouring them out and playing with them. The 3 guidelines I stick to when buying them are:

1) As far as possible, buy the mechanical pencil version instead of the pen version. This ensures that they last longer. The ink in pens dry up over time if left unused. However, exceptions are when the pen version looks too different from the mechanical pencil version and when the design is simply so cute that I need to buy both versions even if there are only slight differences. In such cases, yes, I would buy the mechanical pencil version AND the pen version.

2) 宁可杀错,不可放过 (lit. translation: I’d rather kill wrongly than to let go of any). This is really my mentality when I am overseas. I do not want to return to Singapore feeling regretful for not buying any of the pencils (like how I am feeling now as I look through my collection, as I seem to have missed out buying some of the characters’ pencils. Sad.). This often leads to me buying 5-6 different characters’ pencils from the same series in Disneyland, or ending up buying 2 same pencils as I sometimes forget what I have bought earlier on. Anyway, just buy first and worry later lah!

3) Winnie the Pooh is my favourite character (actually I have many “favourite characters” but that yellow bear is my top favourite), hence as far as possible, buy ALL Winnie The Pooh pencils even if they don’t look very nice. My favourite shop in Disneyland is Pooh’s Corner located at the exit of the ride, Pooh’s Hunny Hunt. I would always take a shopping basket and start sweeping all the cute Pooh mechanical pencils. I really mean it. ALL.

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Please join me in admiring my humble collection (Sigh, wish I have bought more).

The ikea box used for storing them. Cannot even close the box as it is too full. Haha

Oops, really filled over the brim..

The heap of rubbish pencils/pens. Rubbish to you, but precious to me

From here onwards, I will just show some of the more special/memorable ones…

From left: (1) One of my first few cute pencils since primary school days. Loved it hence used it very often. (2) This Minnie pencil was given by a beloved Japanese Uncle (my mom’s old colleague who had passed away years ago) about 20 years ago. He also gave me a Mickey one but I don’t know where it has gone to! This set of Mickey and Minnie pencils sparked off my interest in Disneyland stuffs. (3) Minna no Tabo (I loved this character when young as he looks so cute with his mouth always open. Another Sanrio character that is rarely seen today) (4) Hello Kitty type of pen (just showing you all that this type of pens is worth buying because it uses the Pilot Hi-Tec-C refill.)

This Keroppi pencil was also very much loved and used by me. You can de-stress by playing with its mechanism to open/close the flower petals and peek at Keroppi! This pencil made me hunt for other pencils of such mechanism.

See what I mean? More of Keroppi-like mechanism pencils, mainly manufactured by Sanrio.

Big-head pencils!!! Most of them have some cute functions such as the characters nodding their heads or opening their mouths. The third one from the right is Mickey and Minnie riding a horse when you press the lever down.

Kaleidoscope series of mechanical pencils. All were from Disneyland except the far right one I think. That one is Pixar-collection and has the various Pixar cartoon characters on it.

This is The Incredibles Kaleidoscope pencil. Look through the peephole and you will see the image on the right. Sorry, unable to get a better shot of it. I love Jack Jack so much btw!!! It is so hard to find The Incredibles products in Disneyland, so when I see any, I just grab them, even if they are useless items.

The bulky series of mechanical pencils. These usually have some monkeys moving up/down some rod inside. Showing you all the Hello Kitty one for e.g.

Rare characters’ pencils. Must buy! In Disneyland, it’s easy to find Mickey, Minnie, Pooh and Marie characters’ items, but not these. The 2 pencils (collaboration between Kewpie and Disney) on the far left were probably bought from Tokyu Hands. The one on the far right is The Mummy, from Universal Studios Japan. Cute right?

These 2 are the funniest pencils in my collection. Bought from Tokyu Hands. Press the lever down and Cupid pees! You can even control the amount he pees! Haha.

Some cute pens/pencils bought in Singapore. For snacks lovers.

Ok, that’s all. Can’t show you every single item in that pink box. As you can see, I don’t have that many right! Time to go Japan and stock up soon (i.e. after baby is out)! Bye!

There is one thing I cannot stand about – I simply cannot leave anything outside my house, even if the item is something cheap! For instance, I have heard of ppl stealing plants (that is the most commonly stolen item), and you are especially susceptible to such acts if you grow plants that are useful, e.g. pandan leaves and pomelo leaves! My mum was so protective of my pomelo leaves plant that she once suggested buying a lock to lock my plant, those kind that you use to lock bicycles. I actually went to a hardware shop and asked the assistant if there was such a lock and my then-colleagues ended up laughing at my silliness. Sigh. Things that got stolen outside my house included slippers and a large water bottle (those 2litre-types) for washing feet etc. It’s not that I feel the pinch over the monetary loss (these are such cheap items) but I feel so irritated that I have to go buy replacements, thanks to these cheapskates!!!!

What do I deem as “safe” then? I think Japan is safer than Singapore (at least there are less cheapskates there). Should you lose your wallet in the public area, the likelihood of finding it at the same spot would be higher than that in Singapore. Somehow, I don’t feel safe in my own country!

**Update of myself: My baby will be out of my tummy in less than 6 weeks’ time! Yay yay yay!

Will update again when I am feeling better.

Well, Town Council has kindly helped us to hire contractors to paint the exterior and interior walls of all the blocks in my estate. Since I live at the top floor (technically not the top because there is still the roof level), I often have to bear with A LOT of noise. The workers tend to throw their machinery (all metal stuffs) around, causing a lot of banging sound. On top of that, they have this really sucky pulley system which is used to transport the workers up and down as they paint the walls.  The pulley has this really loud rotating sound, as if there is a heavy chain being dragged across for a long distance.

I had complained earlier to Tanjong Pagar Town Council on 2 matters (some of you would say I am fussy, but imagine them happening to you):

1) The workers are seen chatting and playing tamil music while working. I think they talk more than they paint. Seriously, it is fine if they seek leisure while working, but I have noticed HOW SLOWLY they paint as a result of their chatting and enjoying of music. Since I have to tahan all that noise on the roof and from the pulley, of course I complained, saying that if they were to delay the completion of the painting works, I am not going to condone any noise beyond the scheduled completion date. Afterall, they had so much time to chat and enjoy music what.

2) Can the workers stop treating the public tap at my 30th storey as a convenient source of water to bathe? They tend to wash their legs, hands, hair, face, etc. using the public tap at my rubbish chute area, causing the whole area to be very dirty and wet after their “bath”. As a result, I requested Town Council to clean up the mess thay have created.

After my long complaint letter, the ONLY response Town Council had was –> “We will give your feedback to the contractors. Thank  you.” As an ex-civil servant, I can imagine this is their typical taiji response and how useless they can be at solving problems. Most of the time, if they really want to and are dedicated enough, they would do something about it and give a more comprehensive response like “We note your feedback and will inform the contractors to minimise the noise. Sorry for the inconvenience. We will arrange for the rubbish chute area at your area to be washed thoroughly. etc etc etc” However, their response does not serve to commit anything and does not address my complaint on the dirty rubbish chute area! Sigh…… Why are we paying so much income tax to feed these people?

Last Sat, being the light sleeper that I am, I was awakened by their pulley system AGAIN, at 8.30 am sharp. According to NEA guidelines on noise, I thought such works should not be carried on Saturdays and Sundays? Yh could not stand the noise too and called TP Town Council to complain. This time, when he called, they were EVEN MORE TAIJI! Their immediate response when they heard that we live at Redhill Road was “Redhill? I don’t think that is under Tanjong Pagar Town Council” HAHAHAHAHA. That’s funny, totally brushing us aside. Yh was very fed up and shouted back at them. And he requested for real action to be done, i.e. for them to lubricate the pulley system so that there wouldn’t be that noise. Hmmm I think it worked a little ‘cos there is really less noise today. Why couldn’t they have done that earlier? Sigh…. Anyway, towards Yh’s complaint, TP Town Council had the cheek to “blame us” saying that there should be “accommodation”, meaning we should give in to the contractors and vice versa. What if all this nonsense happened to this Town Council guy? He also said that the works can be carried out on Saturdays (I will check the NEA website later on this, good luck to them)

Anyway, in terms of work attitude, I also don’t have a good impression of him as he has dee xiao a few times for his own work and I had to do some of the work for him as a result. My branch is like that, if anyone cannot handle his/her work, the more efficient and younger staff will suddenly have to catch those half-done jobs. Since this guy is young (he’s my age), why didn’t they make him catch my half-done jobs?! Stop citing that he is new and hence you all don’t dare to give him any jobs! During my 3rd month in the branch, I was already assigned to do presentations and organise divisional events. Bloody Hell. And the average age of the execs in my branch is around 30, about 6 in total, yet the only ones that always kio sai are the same two people. All the unfairness is making me psychologically unbalanced every  day second.

I really despise nuah3 tangs4, especially if they are men! BE A MAN AND WALK LIKE ONE LAH! Oh btw, when I was describing to yh how this guy walks, somehow this image came to mind –> in HK vampire dramas/movies, those ancient era types, the vampires will suck the villagers’ blood and these villagers will roam the streets in masses. To act like vampires, they will drag their feet and walk in a half-dead manner… That’s really similar to how this nuah3 tang4 walks!!!

My practice is, if I want to print things and paper has run out, I will find any CSO and ask him/her to help add paper into the printer.  If I can’t find any CSO, too bad for me, I will go add the paper myself.  It is as simple as just going to the cupboard to take out one huge stack of paper and adding into the printer.  (Ok, since I say it’s so simple, why don’t I do it myself and still trouble CSOs to do it? I think it’s part of their job scope and I should not “spoil” them.)

This morning, the B/W printer ran out of paper again, and I witnessed one of my colleagues, removing a small stack of paper from the colour printer next to it and putting into the B/W printer.  WTF? Is she just taking enough to print for HERSELF?  And the cupboard containing all papers is just nearby!  If she does not know where the papers are stored, she could have asked the CSO sitting nearby to just help out on it (note: the CSO was around during then).

Alamak… This is just one of the incidents showing how selfish my colleagues are.  Anyway, there is a PSC scholar serving an internship in my branch; we are supposed to “impress” him and give him a good impression of the branch/organisation.  Haha…

Disgusted with these people.  If only I could be more aloof towards what I see…. Sigh.

Apparently, the “best” day for me to start work (I am born in the year of dog, btw) is Tue, 8 Feb 2011.. Hmm…..

For me, anyday is the best day to start work after CNY, as long as I have a peaceful workday, without my DD shouting at me. So I pray hard that she is either on MC or on leave on Mon.

Of course, I still love having them with me now, just like moments ago. There was so much fun reminiscing the old days. Before my memory fails me, let me list out the funny things we did and the unforgettable experiences…

1) We loved playing mahjong and “murderer” at the chalet, especially late into the night. It was really funny playing with my brother because whenever he was the murderer, he would try to wink and somehow the other eye would twitch as well. I think he had some problem with his eyes and could not do a proper wink. Moreover, he always had a funny expression whenever he was the murderer, the “want-to-laugh-but-control” kind of grin.

2) We loved playing (or re-playing) the rides at Asian Village. Afterall, we paid the entrance fees for unlimited rides, of course we had to make full use of that. I was initially phobic of viking, but to overcome my fear, I made Michelle take the ride over and over again with me. We progressed from the middle row to the last row, and by the time it was our 2o+th time, we were totally emotionless and treated the viking more like a usual swing at the playground. Cool, nice view from the top, and we could feel the wind blowing into our faces.

3) Fantasy Island. How many of you visited that water theme park?! We went on the first few days or first day when it opened, and it was so damn fun. As usual, we paid the entrance fees for unlimited rides and took most of the rides. As I was more water-phobic, I did not dare to take the more dangerous rides. Michelle and Delvinia were the brave ones to experience those rides. Once, one of us actually lost the locker key (we stored our belongings in the locker there) and all of us were scared stiff (of course lah, we were just kids then). The theme park people wanted to charge us $20 for opening the locker. During those days, $20 was like $2000 to poor primary school kids! We had had to gather all our cash to fork out the $20! On another instance, I actually had my period, at about 5-6pm. (I was already Sec 1 then, I think) *kwah kwah*…. So suey. Of course we all quickly made our way back to the chalet, before “it” came out in full force.

Haha. I really enjoyed the company of my primary school friends, which explains why I am now writing down these fond memories, despite my really depressed state due to my work. With such lousy mood, I somehow lost the zest in blogging or doing many other things. I have had to distract myself from the gloom by focussing on my Japanese course. Sigh. I will get out one day.

•  They act like they are soooo interested in everything the “producer/director” says, by gasping, etc.
• They suck up to the “producer/director”, just like what newbies do to get acting opportunities
• They are melodramatic about the things they do, for e.g. if they pick up a piece of trash and thow it to the bin, they equate the action to being contributing to the efficiency and well-being of the office – i.e. do small thing, achieve a save-the-earth kind of effect
• They skive (read newspapers, watch youtube, etc.) when the “producer/director” is not looking at them, just like those actors catching sleep when the camera is not facing them
• To fellow “actors/actresses” in the office, they show their true selves, especially when the “actors/actresses” are more junior than them. However, towards the “producer/director” they can become those tame little sheep again
• The older and more experienced “actors/actresses” like to harp on their past experiences to show their worthiness in the office *again and again and again*

Sigh. Maybe as a farewell gift to each of them, I should go Queensway and make a trophy specially for each of the “actors/actresses”, of course with their names engraved on the trophies

I was very surprised and quickly turned around to see how fat she really was, and also to see the reaction of the slimming centre’s employee.

Alamak. Some women really have very bad temper and kee siao so easily. People were just doing their job mah…