The Secret Recipe of the German Bomb.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup of Aunty's House warming

600 grams Plain Flour

2 eggs

1 n 1/2 block butter

3 Cousins's wishes

1 Tbs. of Random Saturday Afternoon

1 Lemon

8 dashes of Cinnamon

3/4 cup Sugar

A pinch of Mom's nagging

10 apples

Countless Raisins

1) Chop apples till kingdom comes.
2) Throw all the pastry ingredients together, wave your hands over it, mutter "Abbrakablar", and watch the magic take place.
3) Press mixed doughie into pan using your fingertips. ONLY your fingertips. Palms are banned.
4) Don't give up, let patience have her perfect work.
5) Next, make the crumble topping by crumbling the butter. Set aside to chill in fridge so that it does not become melted topping.
5) Spoon da bomb onto the doughie, spreading the black-eyed peas evenly among the apple blossoms.
6) Bless the German Bomb with crumbs.
7) Bake for 45 minutes or until the thumbs up sign is given.

8) Whisper: "One HOT German Bomb up for grabs!!!" and stand back, far far away from the stampede.

:)

**She wishes the accidental SMS could happen more often..**

Getting into the Weekend Mood.

Working life sometimes makes you wonder where all the beautiful people of this world went and disappeared to.

I know they're out there.

It's just that on certain days, they go into hiding and leave you to manage all those PITAs whose one goal is to make your day as crazy and hectic and frustrating as possible. Take, for instance, today. I guess month end's peak in sales had something to do with it too, but it was definitely good hands-on training in the subjects of handling stress levels and people management.

At any rate, the crazy workday certainly made our dinner plans with Shen all the more inviting. :) It's been quite awhile since the 3 of us met up for some gal time...it was wonderful getting to catch up and chill out together!

Salmon Pasta... it was a right choice!:)

The hickory BBQ chick..

Shen and I!!!:) Big smiles even after a long tiring workday...

Lemon-lime Chicken

the scholars chatting about school...clearly, I was not a part of the conversation. HA!

Dessert time calls for a change of location - TCC!

Kim & Shen

Humm..a sneak peek at what's on the menu... LOL

Expressive Kim

Sweet Shen

Contented me

Sharing just makes everything taste nicer!:)

A wonderful transition from Stressful Workweek to Relaxing Weekend! It was a great time to dress down, unwind, chill out, and have gal fun....

This week has been soooo long. I've never been so glad that the weekend is here.

**She wishes she could be somewhere far far away, like the South China Sea, blowing bubbles underwater with her dive khakis**

All in a Day's work.

It's been more than two years working as an Administrative Officer, yet I never cease to get a thrill whenever I endorse an official looking letter complete with company logo and and a window envelope. You know, the kind where the address on the letter shows through to the front. Like the one I just sealed and placed in the mailbox a few minutes ago.

I just find it funny that some unknown person is going to receive this letter, the same way that one would receive a CPF notice or a phone bill, and they're gonna see the signature and company logo and nod their head crisply. And imagine some big shot at a desk signing off the letter and handing it to his secretary to post. And have not the slightest idea that in reality, this letter was signed by a young nineteen year old who sometimes wonders what on earth she is doing in an office full of grownups when she should be in the schoolroom with the rest of her peers.

Weird, huh. ;)

Sometimes I feel so grown up (helloooo, a full-fledged working adult ok!)..and yet at other moments like now, I feel so young and insignificant, feeling my way along and learning new things each day....

Oh da' joy of each new workday!

**She thinks everyone needs to watch Transformers II - it ROCKS!**

It never rains..

It always pours.

You've heard that saying or said it yourself time and time again. Trite, I know, but it hits the head on the nail every time, and I vouch for its authencity.

Somehow no matter how positive or strong you are, there will always be those days.

Those days.

Those days where everything that can go wrong, does. Those days where bad news comes, one after another, like some irritating Follow-The-Leader game. Those days that, just when you thought you were getting back on your feet after a let-down, another disappointment comes along, and slams into you the hardest because it hits you closest to home - your heart.

Today was one of those days.

Disappointment was just the tip of the iceburg. Beneath, there was a multitude of other emotions - indignation at a great injustice, sympathy for the one wronged, shock at the sudden news bomb, frustration that such things should and could even happen, protective anger that anyone should dare hurt my loved ones whether directly or indirectly, and heart pang at a certain news.

You want to, and you DO say, "I don't care." And yet, deep inside, you know you do. And that is what leaves you all the more frustrated and weary.

Because if you really didn't care, then it wouldn't hurt so badly. If you didn't hope, you wouldn't be disappointed. If you didn't love, you wouldn't be protective.

But even as you blink back the tears in your eyes, the realization slowly dawns on you... that that is exactly what life is all about.

In order to appreciate the sun even more, we need to have some rainy days.
In order to truly love, we need to experience pain.
In order to properly value all that we possess, we need to go through loss.
In saying goodbye, we realize not to take hellos for granted.
In letting go, we see how much we actually have.
In looking at things in retrospect, we learn lessons for the future.

True, Life may not be all good, but it is not all bad either.

While the sun may be hidden behind the clouds temporarily, let's not forget to trace the silver linings.

**She just preached to herself, and hopes she goes away the better for it..**

Peekturres of A Wet Weekend!

Hellooooo, Dayang!:)

Beautiful day, isn't it? Perfect for diving!

Rigging up for the dive...

Ben: Incoming!!!

Me: Whee, wait for me!

Kim: Walking on the water comes easy with diving...

Tom: Hold on, I'm coming too!

Everyone ready?

Regulators in mouth, hands on air deflator...descend!!!

Down, down, down...into the deep blue ocean...

*glub glub glub*

Time for dinner when we get back, starving from the dive...

Chicken wings, Satay, Lamb chops, sambal squids... it's a BUF-FET!!

Our leisure dive group of the weekend:

Jason, Grace, Kasey, Benjamin, Kimberley, Me, & Thomas!

You guys rock:)

**Stomach-flued, nitrogen-deprived, and work-sick - and thinking of you**

Another weekend underwater :)

Life is full of contradiction.

How can a dive trip be LEISURE and yet so stressful???

This past weekend at Dayang was so fun and relaxing, and yet at times so challenging when suddenly great responsibility was placed on the shoulders while underwater. Here are a few snapshots in words… pictures to follow soon!

Ø Thomas had high fever for both days – so high that Kim and I took turns skipping dives so that we wouldn’t leave him alone, so high that his total number of dives over the weekend was an outstanding two, so high that there was actually the possibility of his being stopped at customs on the way in due to the current H1N1 epidemic. Thank God we reached home uneventfully.

Ø We saw two morray eels in one day! A rare treat...

Ø Jason’s sinus was blocked so badly that on the second day, he skipped the two dives totally because it was too painful. Ben and I led the dives instead, using his dive computers to double-check for each other. Ben was the lead man, I was the last lady. It was fun, exciting, scary, and totally thrilling. And we had a whale of a time.

Ø Grace L dropped her fin on the second last dive. I whipped on my mask and looked down to see it slowly sinking away from us, pushed away by the current. It looked like a scene from Titanic or Bourne Supremacy. Because we had been diving at 20+ meters for about half an hour, our tanks were all low on air and I had to chase after Kacey who was descending after the fin, to stop him. I tugged at his BCD, pointed to his meter gauge which registered 20 bars of air, and signaled to him not to go down. It would have been dangerous because by the time he reached the bottom, he would have run out of air. Instead, the two of us boarded the boat, changed tanks, and then went back down to 26 meters to search for the missing fin. Faced with strong current, bad visibility, and no decompression time, we limited our search to five minutes before ascending back up. It was the singular most stressful moment of the diving trip for me, but it was definitely a good experience. Too bad about the fin, though.

Ø There were several pleasant surprises to and from Dayang as well, in the form of glimpsing an occasional dolphin or friend. :)

Ø I realized that you can learn a lot of interesting things when talking to DMs.

Ø We took pictures, I got to meet and make new friends, and we reached back to SG at 9PM.

**She had to drag herself to work today...**

Run, baby, run!!!

Why do people call life a race?

Is it because we are always racing against time? Or is it because so often we find ourselves caught up in the ‘rat race’ of struggling to survive in this crazy, hectic world of ours? Or because we are always striving to outdo others, to do better, to be THE best?

I experienced a combination of all three last Saturday, 30 May, at the Adidas Sundown Ladies 10KM Run.

Ankles aching and already weary from being in my speed blades for practically the entire afternoon (12:30-7PM), I gulped down a banana and several mouthfuls of a Subway sandwich in the car on the way from ECP to Changi as I laced up my running shoes. We were running short of time. It was 7:45PM, and our run flagged off at 8:30PM.

Kim and I reached with just barely half-hour to spare, and amassed at the starting point with some other 10,000 ladies. The blasting music, the booming DJ’s voice, and the small percussion band added to the already hyped-up atmosphere, and for a few short moments I actually forgot I was tired.

3…2…1…..GO!!!

The feeling was delicious - the rush of adrenaline through the veins; the cheers of the crowd; the sea of faces when I looked behind; the blur of bobbing heads when I looked ahead; the exhileration as we took the first few steps into the race, with some 20,000 steps more to go...

The adrenaline lasted the first 1.5KM.

Autopilot mode - the state of running where your mind is no longer thinking about the actual movement, but busy with other thoughts - took over for the next 7KM.

Zombie mode - the state of running where your mind is no longer thinking, numbed by exhaustion - sustained me through the ninth KM.

And then exhilaration upon spotting my supportive family at the stands pushed my legs to their limit with a final sprint the last 200M to the finish line.

The time totaled = 1 HR and 16 Min.

In most races, there is only one winner. This, however, was one race where every runner was a winner - for everyone who participated in the race was running it for themselves, for whatever reason. It was a cause for celebration that Kim and I managed to shave off an extra 2 minutes off our previous 10KM timing, despite our state of sheer exhaustion that night.

We pushed ourselves more than we thought we could, and emerged the better for it.

Come next year's Adidas Sundown, I'll do it all over again.