Blessing in Disguise?

Mechanic 1 - Made car transmission worse with the Transmission Fluid change! Said it was normal! WTF?!

Told situation to a friend... asked him to contact his uncle, who is Mister Transmission, for me. Appointment was set for this morning. Made friend wake up early on a Saturday morning to accompany me.

Got to his uncle's garage, chatted with them. Just before uncle got to work, he commented "maybe the car just needs oil". Being the car-idiot I was, I replied "Can't be, I have a full tank of gas!" haha.
Being nice, uncle said "No... transmission oil"
I felt silly... But told him that's not possible coz I just had that changed recently, and that i think the mechanic could be trusted as he was a friend of my ex-supervisor. On top of that, the mechanic specialises in VW cars! BUT, I asked the uncle to check it out for me anyways.

Friend threatened to kill me if I got him to wake up early on a Saturday just for an fluid change!
I just said I'll be relieved if that's the only problem! The alternative will just be too expensive!

Some time later...

Uncle announced that he was right. Car was lacking in transmission fluid! I FEEL LIKE MURDERING MY MECHANIC!!!

At the same time, I am just relieved that I'm only spending $30 instead of $3000! *sigh*

Steak or Beef Jerky???

One day...
Male Friend: What can i grill?
me: Steak, Lamb Chops, Pork Chops?
Male Friend: Let's go with Steak.

Today...
Dinner was sooooooooo late! Friend got home at 8pm! So instead of waiting for him to go buy stuff together(which he wanted), me and Female Friend bought it before heading over.

I prepared the mushrooms and onions.
Female Friend marinated beef and roasted potatoes and prepared salad.
Male Friend's only cooking responsiblities was to grill the steak on his grill...

*sigh* can't believe he screwed it up!

Male Friend asked: How long does it take to grill the steak?
Female Friend answer: I usually do 7mins each side, but since ur grill can be closed and grill on both sides, and is super-powered, maybe 5mins is enough
Male Friend responses: Do you have any evidence to back up your statement?

Me thinking: OMG! Proof?! When one has no clue, one should take what advice is given!

Finally, it was time to eat.
Female Friend: This steak is soooo dry! I feel like I'm eating beef jerky!
both girls broke out in laughter.

Summary... All side dishes tasted great! Main course, the steak (the reason for this dinner) was a terrible failure... *sigh* Redemption point: good company, so all in all, it was an enjoyable evening.

Dempster face?

Stepping out of a store on Queen Street, Dory and I got stopped by these 2 girls. They work for Dempsters Bread and are looking for people to appear on their commercial. They just want to take a polaroid shot of us, with a short video clip of us saying what makes us smile. Dory was all up for it, and I on the other hand was hesitant. IF selected, a pay of up to $2000 will be given! That convinced me.

I smile alot in general, but for me to pinpoint one thing that makes me smile it's not that easy. And I didn't wanna say anything common. After it was done, it occured to me that I should have said "Being tortured by my personal trainer makes me smile!" :P

This is a picture of us smiling. Is it Dempster worthy?

Dory was called back for a tryout a week later. She faltered when asked to do a little acting. *sigh* we both lost out on a potential windfall..

What did I get out of this experience?
Something I can think back on and smile! An experience I know Dory and I will talk about in years to come.
On top of that, I bought a spectacular dress for a spectacular price on the day we got spotted. And I bought a dress I can now call "my little black dress" (something all girls seem to own) on the day Dory went down for her tryout. The dress was very cheap as well!
So all in all, I'm satisfied! :)

Late, jeans, gross and Philthy

I do not like being late, but I have to admit I tend to fall into that unpleasant category. One of those instances is today. However, I believe I can justify this in my usual twisted logic.

The lateness is inexcusable especially since it's a farewell dinner. My redeeming points, it's the 2nd farewell dinner for the same person, AND the cause of the lateness is 2 pairs of sexy jeans! At a fantastic price too! haha... Seeing as though I've been unlucky in finding jeans I love, I can forgive myself.

Thought I've heard great things about The Sumit House. Was grossly disasppointed. There were fruit flies all around, lingering around our food and drinks. One friend swears to have swallowed a few by the end of the night. Yuck!

Seems as if we haven't had enough of uncleanliness. We went to Philty McNasty for drinks after dinner. Drinks weren't good, and a couple of the guys were complaining about the dirty washroom. You know it must be bad if guys complained about the washrooms!

Lost of voice

Horrific experience. Once you feel the onset of a sore throat, you know it's too late. This was me last week.

Went into Devil's Martini on August 5th fine, but left sounding like a frog. That's the price of going crazy, trying to talk and sing and yell in a club with an already complaining throat.

Continued to torture it all day on Saturday... Since it was my birthday, I couldn't not show up! At the end of the night, I had to really strain my throat just to talk...

Sunday morning, August 7th... woke up at 10am. OMG! ABSOLUTELY NO SOUND IS COMING OUT OF MY MOUTH!!! Drowned myself with water followed by series of throat clearing attempts. Still no voice. 11am comes around. Phone rang. Lina is calling. I couldn't pick up the phone since it'll be pointless. Right after that, phone rang again. Thought it just Lina calling for the 2nd time to leave a message. Nope.. it was Jenzy. A 3rd call followed immediately. Naomi. Sunday mornings were never this exciting for me. When did I become so popular? Thank God for small miracles. SMS! Messaged the 3 callers, telling them that I wasn't trying to be rude by avoiding their calls, but that I have lost my voice. :(

Hours passed, panic sets in. Never had a sore throat that leaves me voiceless. SOUNDLESS! Not for a prolong period of time anyways. Finally at 2pm, I could squeeze out a word or 2 at a time. Not what I hope, but a wave of relief swept through me. Pheeww... My fear of permanently losing my voice is not happening.

Monday morning, the same cycle began.. Woke up with no voice. Getting ready for my training session. Trainer calls telling me he would like to postpone the session to the afternoon. I'm happy, but i wanted to cancel it. Don't think it'll be as beneficial if I couldn't speak. :P SMS to the rescue once again.
When Jocelyn emailed me to see if we're still on for our regular monday evening walk/jog today, I told her no running, but I'm definitely up for some walking, but I just won't be talking. It all worked out fine coz Jocelyn seems to be in a rather talkative mood today.

Tuesday August 9th
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SINGAPORE!
Farewell dinner for a friend was arranged, but plans fell through. Called Jenzy telling him to go for dinner with me anyways since there's no power in my building, meaning I couldn't cook or heat up any food. He asked "What do you feel like having?" I replied saying I'm down for whatever that's not spicy since my throat isn't doing too well. He said he'll think about it and call me back.

Well... Jenzy being the smart guy that he is called back and asked "How about Mexican? In the review it says they have 2 awesome hot sauce, one green and one red." Wow... my dear friend is so thoughtful! Mexican food = spicy food! Not to mention the display of the 2 hot sauce is just gonna be there on the table to tempt me! Which Singaporean can say no to spicy food? :P He obviously wants to kill me.

Cold drinks should be avoided.. but the Margaritta was just too tempting. Yum... best margaritta I've ever had! My theory, the alcohol will kill the germs! muahahaha!

As for my poor throat, it was many days later before it no longer took alot of effort for me to talk. But to the relieve of many, I still had problems singing...

My Birthday Celebrations

I have to say, I've never had my birthday celebrated so much before. Not complaining. :)
4 separate celabrations... I'm guessing my friends feel really bad for me being here in Toronto without family and on top of that, Stefan is away this year. *sob sob*

Jocelyn and her mom are both sooooo sweet to me. I eat at their place all the time. Yes, I'm thickskin! Her mom calls me her "adopted daughter", and she has my birthday engraved in her brain after only being told once last year. Jocelyn and her had a discussion and decided to cook noodles for me on my birthday coz I've mentioned to them that chinese people must eat noodles on birthdays as it signifies longevity. I was touched!

1st celebration: 29th July 2005, Friday
Our group of friends threw a combined birthday celebration for Jocelyn and I. Monte Cristo is a very classy restaurant, with excellent ambience, food and service. I thought the price was pretty ok for that type of place, but when the bill came, we almost fainted. I'm glad I didn't have to pay, but I felt bad for my friends. Our water bill came up to be $50! When we asked for water, we didn't realise we were given bottled water and was charged for it. $7 per bottle! Ouch! The only other thing I can complain about is the missing of the pianist. There should be a live piano performance on Fridays, but somehow there wasn't one there that day. That was compensated by the excellent gifts from my friends. Thank you Jocelyn for the amount of effort and thought that you've obviously put into it!
http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=49528331209

2nd celebration: 4th August 2005, Thursday
Dorian (my roommate from 1st yr university) is bringing me out. We went for Vietnamnese and Bubble Tea... nothing glamourous but just as touching since she's not working and has always been careful with money. The restaurant was disappointing! How can they provide disposable wooden chopsticks and plastic spoons?? Noodles weren't properly cooked, which made it even more difficult for us to pick them up with that stupid chopsticks. The waiter obviously noticed that Dory was having diffiulties with her chopsticks so he brought her a fork instead. Guess what? It's a metal fork! Maybe I should pretend I don't use chopsticks either!

3rd celebration: 5th August 2005, Friday
Jenzy, my guardian angel here... Always looking out for me, taking care of me when I'm sick. Decided to celebrate my birthday as well... He did what I did to him on his birthday last week. All he had to do was be ready for pick up and just go along, knowing no details of the night. I appreciated it! Not knowing how might be coming gave no room for disappointment. Not knowing the plan gave no room for expectations. I appreciated people showing up even though the restaurant Jenzy picked was out of the way for everybody!

The only request I had for the night was to go clubbing at Devil's Martini. I've been there a few times, but this time I want to be able to step in with my head high coz their age limit was 25 yrs old! Ivan and I arrived at the club first. Showed my ID to the bouncer. He looked at it, looked at me, shook his head, looked at my ID, looked at me. "OMG! Dun tell me he's gonna make me wait till midnight before letting me in!!!" Meanwhile, Ivan was beside me looking bewildered! Probably wondering "How old is Ming?!?! Why is the bouncer shaking his head??? I swear I remember coming here with her once!" Finally, the bouncer smiled at me and said "You just made it! Happy Birthday!" A sigh of relief from both Ivan and me. With a quick thanks, I walked in before he changes his mind!

Friends' plan to get my wasted did not happen! haha!
http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=40205284209

4th and final celebration: 6th August 2005, Saturday
I am to arrive at Jocelyn's place at 12noon for lunch. It was to be a quiet event with Jocelyn, her mom, her aunt and her boyfriend Felix. Jocelyn had done a little bit of decoration of her place. Food wasn't ready, so I helped out while waiting for Felix to come back from his haircut.

I helped set the table for 5, places the yummy dishes out and waited... Finally everything was ready, we sat at the table then there was a knock on the door. Must be her aunt. Jocelyn said since it's my birthday, I have to open the door. The knock sounded insistent, which was weird. The peephole was blocked. Weird... So open the door I did... Man, was I pleasantly shocked out of my skin! My friends were at the door yelling "SURPRISE!!!" OMG!!! I feel blessed with such great friends! Especially Jocelyn for going all out for me! Reminded me of the little surprise party at work last year. Totally caught me off guard.. Both times, I'm on the verge of tears!

After the fulfilling lunch, we had the yummy dessert prepared by Lina. I know I shouldn't be greedy with all that I have, but I was a little disappointed that with all these birthday celebrations I've had, I don't have a birthday cake.

It's my birthday and my wish will not be denied. Jocelyn starting walking out of the kitchen with a huge lovely pink cake baked by her mom just for me! There is truly nothing more I can ask for! At least for today. heh heh..

Spicy Food Festival

I still find it difficult to believe that Andrea agreed to go with me. As a typical Canadian, she can't take spicy food. Not even the least bit... It's a holiday today and I found her at work!!! I'm surprised it didn't take me too much effort to convince her. Guess she really needed a reason to prevent herself from staying too long at the office.

Andrea was so worried that her stomach won't be able to handle the spice, so she had stuffed herself with a large milkshake from McDonalds! Hahaha.. Turns out, my Jerk chicken roti was kinda spicy, and her curry chicken roti wasn't.

Andrea's boyfriend was very happy to find out that she likes her roti experience. Since he likes it too, and was under the impression that Andrea wouldn't, he can now go have roti with her! I take all the credit! hee hee...