It's the end of 2006 as we know it... and I feel fine!

It's been an incredibly eventful year for me: I changed my job, I injured myself (again), I did a lot of travelling, I met a lot of people, I went out with a few of them and I saw my most favourite band in the whole wide world live in concert.

After a bevy of bad years ever since graduation, 2006 has certainly come as a refreshing surprise.

And now, it's onward to 2007. I'm not sure what it holds, and whether I can engineer myself another makeover in terms of work - both in terms of location and work-life balance - but here's hoping that my will and determination hold out and I'm able to stave off impending burnout for that much longer.

Happy New Year!

Oh dear. Poor b*****d.

BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) -- A 21-year-old German tourist who wanted to visit his girlfriend in the Australian metropolis Sydney landed 13,000 kilometers (8,077 miles) away near Sidney, Montana, after mistyping his destination on a flight booking Web site.

"I did wonder but I didn't want to say anything," Gutt told the Bild newspaper. "I thought to myself, you can fly to Australia via the United States."

"I didn't notice the mistake as my son is usually good with computers," his mother, Sabine, told Reuters.

Link to entire article.

Before I went into university, there was this relationship advice web-site called Breakup Girl which consisted of an advice column and some awesome comics. It went offline for a while after that, but came back online two years ago or so. The site doesn't just give advice on break-ups, as you might surmise, but deals with relationships in general. Given recent circumstances, I naturally turned to BG to re-read the old comic when she's asked how to deal with a situation in which you've developed a crush on a friend. And in that comic, she advocates the same stance I took when I was considering my options - that friends you can be this honest with are hard to find, and if you let them know with no expectation of anything in return, it can be good, after you get over the initial awkwardness.

As for my case, we've been spending a lot of time together over the last few days just doing stuff, such as exploring the Botanic Gardens and chilling out at the second floor of Starbucks in Holland Village, easily my favourite spot in the whole of Singapore to chill (with the exception of having to drink the Starbucks coffee, not something I particularly enjoy). He'll be leaving in a few days time and I'm not particularly sure where this is headed, but for now, we're both just going with the flow, each of us having discarded our usual relationship rules for the moment. Sometimes, as my friend said, we just have to stop thinking so much, and enjoy it while it lasts.

Ha ha! This is something I so totally do... especially if you're a guy I like!

I have a date tomorrow. At least, I thought it was a date. Because the two of us have grown rather tired of all the restaurant food we've been eating over the last few days, we are now going for what could potentially be a romantic dinner at a hawker centre.

Given the usual problems I have figuring out when a date is a date, and when it's just meeting up with a friend, this new development, of course, isn't helping me much. Especially if you consider the fact that one of the reasons I'm sick of all the heavy food is because I've been out for three dinner dates over the last four nights, although tomorrow's 'date' is the one that I've been looking forward to for some time now.

My only consolation is that he said we'd go somewhere nice for dessert later, but that doesn't help me very much, because I haven't the faintest idea how to dress. I'm on leave this week, so I won't have the excuse to turn up in work clothes, and now, if we're eating at a hawker centre, I obviously can't go even partly glam'd up as I usually do when I know it's a date.

Why is this such a big deal to me? Because my date? He's a friend. And part of me wants to make clear to him that this, irrespective of the location, is a date to me. And because my friend works overseas, another part of me just wonders what the point of even doing that would be.

It's always the eternal question, isn't it? Carpe diem, regardless of the probabilities? Or just choose the safe route?

In a follow-up to posts which display my usually hidden geekiness - on CNN, a Japanese researcy team has succeeded in recording a giant squid live (via Boing Boing).

Over the weekend, I managed to grab the last few early bird tickets left for the Good Vibrations Festival taking place on February 19, 2007 at Park View Fort Canning Park (venue's been changed).

The line-up looks pretty good with the Beastie Boys (!!!) and Jurassic 5 heading the line-up for the Singapore edition of the festival. Other artists performing include Cicada, Cut Copy, Ursula 1000, Too Phat, Wicked Aura Batucada and the Guerilla Collective.

I admit I'm going solely for the Beasties; I don't know anything much about the other artists save Wicked Aura Batucada (seeing as they're from Singapore). The only song I can recall offhand from any of the other artists is Jurassic 5 - Swing Set which is a pretty nice song to swing dance to because it's just so different and reminds me of The Avanlanches - Frontier Psychiatrist, I guess, because of the sampling and turntabulism involved.

But what the hey, it's the Beasties, the band which spawned some of the funniest and best music videos ever made, and it's something to do over the holiday season, so why not?

Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You has got to be the best Christmas song ever. I have yet to tire of the song; in fact, I could listen to it all year long.

Bill Nighy - Christmas is All Around from Love Actually is another of my personal favourites. It's just so incredibly cheeky and great fun to sing at karaoke.

Another song I like listening to at this time of year is East 17 - Stay Another Day which was released in 1994. There's nothing vaguely Christmas-y about it, but because it was the Christmas no. 1 in the UK the year it came out, the song just reminds me of this particular time of year. And heck, it's a nice light love song.

I just checked YouTube and realised that East 17, like Take That, have reunited and gone on tour in Europe this year. Will wonders never cease?

Mylo was decent, if a little disappointing. I had expected something a little more pleasant to my ears but instead, got what I felt was a generally slow set.

However, as if to make up for that, we were treated to the world's goofiest club dancer ever. He did moves that quite honestly, no one should ever attempt, ranging from dancing against the world as if he were trying to hump it, to jerking in time to the music, to waggling his butt while waving his arms in the air. I couldn't decide if I was being entertained or just scarred for life.

"He's got to be on something," I said. "Otherwise, he has no excuse whatsoever." Later on, we learnt that he was drunk - on one jug of some random alcohol mix.

Then, T. leaned over and said in my ear, "Wah, so sexy," and I just lost it and buried my head in his chest while laughing uncontrollably.

We spotted some young girls filming him with their cameras later on in the night. The poor sod's going to go down in YouTube infamy.

Well, unexpectedly, I got a half day today as well as Christmas presents from my colleagues. The thought of getting them something didn't even cross my mind and I felt quite bad when I was given the gifts, especially when the one I'm closest to got me something which is clearly a book along with something else. But thankfully, they told us not to worry because the ones who did get us presents have people (i.e. significant others) to help them out when it comes to getting the gifts and wrapping them up. Still, I'm rather touched... and I'll wait until Christmas to open them even though I'm naturally a very curious person and hate to be kept waiting.

I also bought myself a Santa hat because of the Christmas parties I'll be attending this weekend. I can't believe I actually went out to buy one. And not just any Santa hat, but one which I thought was nice and stylish too. I really need to curb my 'ah well, let's not do things by half measures' instinct I've been operating on the whole year.

I was out with a friend for a rather bland dinner tonight. The dinner was bland at my request because my stomach's been a little queasy over the last few days and was most definitely acting up just before I met up with him for dinner.

That notwithstanding, we still had a couple of margaritas, even though yesterday night, I ended up hovering in the ladies for about fifteen minutes trying to calm my stomach after having had 2.5 martinis.

We caught up on life, his recent viral infection which caused him to miss my birthday party, what's been going on in my life and then started - as all social alcoholics do - swapping alcohol-related stories involving people we knew.

Then, we both mentioned that our alcohol tolerance was falling as we grew older. I compared it to how my tolerance for a lot of things is falling as I grow older. For instance, I said, I'm getting to the point when I don't want to put up with people I dislike. After all, life is too short to put up with people you hate.

At this point, I then told him of my worst first date ever, which involved a guy who I tolerated for the next few months as an acquaintance because he hung out with a bunch of good friends of mine, but I have since relegated him to the 'less than dirt' status. I'm really good at telling stories of the bad dates I've had, and now, my friend wants me to do a podcast because I tell it so well. Heh.

It's not likely I'll do it though, as I treasure my anonymity, but I will admit, it makes a good story.

I went to Swirl on Saturday just to check it out as there was a gorgeous shirt dress designed by Dotted Line which I wanted to try on, and subsequently, perchance purchase. Unfortunately, it was sold out and I ended up buying the sparkle dress instead. The latter definitely isn't as nice as the former, but still, it's something different and it's suitable for the office, and it makes me look damn sweet. The smoothness of the silk on my skin played a large part in my buying it after my initial disappointment too.

Prior to that, I was at Rapunsale and didn't buy anything much, other than a postcard with my initial on it (or rather, I bought one with my friend's initial and she bought the one with mine and we exchanged it), a Christmas card from White Dog Bobby (and got a free keychain worth more than the card because, I guess, of the sheer joie de vivre I was giving off and the general tao2 hua1 yun4 I've been experiencing lately) and a notebook from The Asylum.

Shopping is becoming an expensive habit to maintain. I am so looking forward to January and finding out what I get for slogging so hard this year.

Thanks to Nokia, as well as a recent purchase of Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem, I have re-discovered my love for Daft Punk.

I'm not big on overly commercial tunes, but I can't object to Nokia's use of Daft Punk - Digital Love for their latest ad. It's got such a happy, full of love kind of vibe that it makes me feel good just listening to it.

As for Interstella 5555, it's a feature length anime collaboration between Daft Punk and Leiji Matsumoto, with the former supplying the soundtrack and the latter providing the visual artistry and storyline. Essentially, the film is set around a blue-skinned alien band which is kidnapped, brought to Earth and disguised as humans and passed off as a new hit band. The band's biggest fan, who is alerted of their kidnap, races to Earth to rescue them. There are no words spoken at all throughout the film, and it's truly amazing to see how well the story is told through music and images alone. You can catch the entire movie on YouTube. I've listed the link below.

Related Links:
Review of Daft Punk - Discovery - Stylus Magazine
Interstella 5555 on YouTube - Stylus Magazine
Daft Punk at Coachella 2006 - YouTube

My 12 oz. Argentinian sirloin steak dinner at Craft Steak in Hong Kong. I'm not a big steak eater (in all possible senses of the word) and after the appetisers of a great caesar salad, foie gras and steak tartare shared among three of us, all I managed was 25% of the steak. Still, it was wonderful (grilled over an open charcoal fire), and I feel very bad for possibly sending the wrong message to the chef when the sirloin was delicious.

Address: G/F, 20 Elgin Street, SoHo, Hong Kong
Telephone: +852 2526 0999
Open: Mon-Sun, 12 - 3 pm, 6 - 11 pm

Conversation with my English colleague
Me: What is it with the English? Why do they call every serial killer "something or other the Ripper"?
Him: Because the original was the best of them all! What are they calling this one? The Suffolk Ripper?
Me: The Ipswich Ripper.
Him: That's hard to say after a couple of drinks.
Me: Well, yeah. But where's the originality? The creativity?
(Later)
Him: I've got it. All of his victims have been prostitutes so far, right? So what about The Prossie-cutor?
Me: Argh!

I'm back from my business trip. In the meantime, I had a secret admirer for a day when a bouquet of flowers was delivered to my hotel on Monday. The identity of the admirer was later revealed, but for a whole day, I seriously thought it was someone from my office because I didn't recall telling anyone else which hotel I was staying at. It turned out to be someone I'd only just met. I haven't yet got in touch with him to thank him for the flowers, partly because I'm not interested in him but mostly because of the next incident.

While chatting with a colleague in one of our overseas offices over our electronic messaging system, I asked what I thought was a friendly yet mostly innocent question, and he clued into the fact that I like him. Look, in spite of my intelligence, I can be a little stupid sometimes, and today's hangover definitely didn't help matters. I apologised for asking that question. He seemed stunned and yet still friendly, but I totally freaked out and literally ran out on the conversation, walking several blocks to grab a quick dinner and also to clear my head. My face had turned flaming red and while only one other person was around, I definitely did not want to have to face anyone at that point in time.

I came back to find a message from him telling me that if I wanted, he could pretend that he'd never heard the question, and that we could still do dinner when he gets back to Singapore.

Now, honestly? I don't know. I have a massive fear of rejection, in spite of the times I've just sucked it up and asked strangers for their numbers, or told friends I liked them. In case you're wondering, I usually always take the friends route first, figuring it's safer, but more often than, not, it just leads you into a quandary where you can't figure out whether to tell them or just be friends.

And right now? I just feel like continuing to run because I'm so freaking embarrassed. I hadn't decided whether to tell him when we have dinner in a week's time and today, it just comes out. Just like that. I am such an idiot.

Just got back from Zoukout and finished packing up for my business trip.

Zoukout was pretty decent, but not spectacular. Still, as I told a friend on my way out, we'll always go to Zoukout because the one party you choose not to attend will inevitably turn out to be a great one.

Funnily enough, in spite of my qualms about dancing in my bikini top and shorts last year, I experienced no such thing this time around, especially because I was very hot with my top on. Given my usual conservative nature, my friends raised an eyebrow, but gave their wholehearted approval. While this was fun, I did end up attracting some weirdoes here and there, with one particularly stubborn one who was nice but refused to go away until I ran and hid between (!) two new cute male acquaintances I had made that night.

After that guy backed off, one of the new acquaintances turned to me and said, "You attract trouble, you know," with a wry grin on his face. I protested that it was just that one guy he saw, and he said, "No, you've also got two of us." It took me a little longer than usual to get that because it was 5 am and my brain was operating slower than normal.

That same acquaintance asked for my phone during the shuttle bus ride out, and keyed in his phone number into my address book. I had been wondering if I should ask for his number, especially since someone else I had met during Zoukout and who had introduced me to said acquaintance was displaying what I'd consider significant signs of interest in me as well, although truth be told, I was more interested in getting to know the acquaintance better.

Bikinis, dancing, alcohol, flirting and cute guys. I guess I really couldn't ask for a better way to sooth the sting of having to go overseas on such short notice.

I was informed several hours ago that they need me to go to our overseas office this weekend. They wanted me to leave tomorrow but I begged off as I've a wedding dinner to attend, and of course Zoukout.

And yes, the latter isn't a proper personal commitment, but damn it, I've worked so hard this year, and I'm aware that I'm not being paid all that greatly for my industry, and I freaking deserve this.

I called a couple of friends and probably sounded very close to becoming completely unglued. It's just that... I'm tired. I really am. I want a proper break. And while I don't want to get married just yet, it doesn't mean I want the kind of life whereby that path is completely closed to me. In short, I'd like some work/life balance. In fact, I'd just like a life.

But for the moment, I'm just staring at the weather forecast for Hong Kong and while I see the numbers, my brain is unable to comprehend the clothing requirements for 17 to 24 degrees Celsius.

I was listening to one of my old MP3 CDs today and came across this gem of a song. It's a beautiful love song, and captures perfectly the fear and trepidation that most people go through when realising that you're beginning to fall in love with someone.

Jewel - Near You Always

Please don't say I love you,
those words touch me much too deeply
and they make my core tremble
Don't think you realize the effect you have over me
Please don't look at me like that
It just makes me want to make you near me always
Please don't kiss me so sweet
it makes me crave a thousand kisses to follow
And please don't touch me like that
makes every other embrace seem pale and shallow
And please don't come so close
it just makes me want to make you near me always
Please don't bring me flowers
they only whisper the sweet things you'd say
Don't try to understand me
your hands already know too much anyway
It just makes me want to make you near me always
And when you look in my eyes
please know my heart is in your hands
It's nothing that I understand, but when in your arms
you have complete power over me
So be gentle if you please, 'cause
Your hands are in my hair, but my heart is in your teeth
And it makes me want to make you near me always
Your hands are in my hair, but my heart is in your teeth
And it makes me want to make you near me always
I want to be near you always
I want to be near you always
I want to be near you always

From Grey's Anatomy (Episode 2.15 Let It Be):

Alex and Izzie are having a state of the relationship talk after Alex kissed her at the end of last week's episode.
Izzie: You kissed me.
Alex: Yes, I did.
Izzie: Should we? I mean, there's a discussion that we could have... if you wanted to have one?
Alex: Izzie, I kissed you, with tongue, and I plan to do it again and again - get used to it. End of discussion.
Izzie: (delightedly) Okay!

Cristina is trying to decide on which dress to wear for her date with Burke.
Izzie: Uh....they're both really nice.
Cristina: I know. I bought them. But which one's right?
Izzie: For what? You're gonna look hot in either one.
Cristina: Well, clearly. That's not the point.

Hee!

And of course, this episode features one of the hottest scenes in Season 2 - the scene where Meredith tells Derek when she bumps into him in the elevator for the umpteenth time that day that she misses him. And to quote from Television Without Pity, because they do it so much better than I can, "[he] steps up behind her. He takes a whiff of her hair and starts to lean in -- just long enough for it to become extremely hot -- and then whispers, 'I can't.' The music picks up, and McDreamy exits the elevator. Whew! Somebody better end this episode before all of America falls into a swoon."

Our office had an Australian visitor today. Naturally, he was rather fixated on the cricket match which took place today and when Australia beat England convincingly after England had a spectacular collapse, he said, "Yes! We whipped those poms!" to which I replied, "You mean you whipped their Ashes?"

Hee. I so funny.

You said it, sister!

And fresh on the heels of my latest vintage dress purchase too. It ain't sexy but is rather eye-catching... and really girly too. Just like how I used to be before I started work.

And to indulge your own girly instincts, there's an upmarket flea market (called Rapunsale) taking place on December 16 at Loof from 4 pm to 10 pm. It's organised by Epilogue Pages and details of participating merchants (including Granny's Day Out, felt, Fling and Books Actually among others) can be found here.