在追寻 那片梦想
寻找� 那线希望
在��的天空
那片你会存在的地方

有人说 雨过天晴�
总会有彩虹的出现
我等待 我会等待
那 缤纷的 �烂的
那个 我想�惜的
让我想用我的一生去爱的
我相信的 彩虹幸�

�有你能把我那
�过伤的心 �化� 永远的快�
�有你在我身�
�色的世界 �会是 永�的 色彩缤纷

彩虹的微笑
�似�形的翅膀
我想紧紧牵�你的手
我想飞

飞到 那宽阔的海空
飞到 天涯海角
��有彩的陪伴
我哪里都愿�

为了彩 为了梦 为了幸�
我会勇往直�
我会飞

Ko Ko wrote this for me. Based on the things I have said to her, or via my tweets, or my blog. A collection of many ideas I wrote about the rainbow and waiting for my rainbow to come. It’s supposed to be a song but its tuneless since nobody knows how to write tunes.

Can you read the title? How is it pronounced at your side? If you said “xian cai. meng”, then you are wrong! Guess you don’t know me enough! Haha.

My family went to dinner at Vivocity today, at an Italian restaurant (resutoran. sorry just wanted to say that in jap style). It’s called Modesto’s and it was the first time I had dinner there. The occasion was to celebrate my sister’s excellent A level results, as well as my dad’s pay increment.

I ordered the Tagliatelle Nere Con Cappesante E Gamberi In Salsa Di Crostacei, which is actually fresh home made black ink flat pasta served with sauteed scallops, prawns and diced tomatoes in a shrimp bisque sauce. I didn’t remember the name, of course. I took it from the online menu. It smelled super nice when it came, and the scallops were great. I loved it. I ordered that dish for the scallops actually. But I had a problem with the prawns. They are too soft, meaning they are not fresh. It was quite a dampener to an otherwise nice meal. Black ink pasta is a nice try too, but I guess I will still pick linguine anytime.

Other than pasta, I chose a cocktail called Kamikaze, which is vodka, triple sec & Lime Cordial mixed together. It’s the only Jap name there and Lime sounded what I would like to have, so I chose it. I didn’t order the dessert because I was too full from the McDonalds lunch at 3pm.

It was an enjoyable meal. After dinner we went near the sea side facing Sentosa. They had fireworks! What a surprise. The IR looked like a place I would like to visit with a special someone. There’s this ride you can take up a tall tower and down. It’s not those roller coaster rides so it would be a nice romantic evening I guess, being on it? I haven’t even gone on the flyer yet. I wonder who will receive the honour of joining me on my maiden journey up the flyer.

Oh. And during dinner, there’s this male and female with their young boy. The boy had cream all over his face from his pasta/pizza (not sure which), and his mum whipped out her iPhone and took several cute shots. Don’t you find it heartwarming? Haha. I do.

Sorry about these recent bout of feeling for other’s established families. Maybe it’s that time already. I’m like quite old. Haha.

It’s quite rare that I post two posts in the same day, and it is even more rare that it happens consecutively twice, with only 1 day break in between. But I guess when you have something off your chest you would like to say, you should just say it and make yourself feel better. Plus I know of friends who care, and ask my best buddy Jia Hao about what happened to me. And anyway there is no need to hide anything. It is something that people go through, and they emerge stronger and better. Plus they understand themselves more, so it is a good thing.

Anyway I was quite affected over something recently, which I guess anybody would be affected by it. Before I say anything regarding the subject matter at hand, I would like to first clarify that whilst when it affects me, I do feel really down, but usually the period of time when I feel down will soon reverse and then I’ll feel much happier and positive. Great music really helps, and also friends to talk to, who encourage you and show you pretty photos to remind you of your dream. Thanks, you know who you are.

I guess most people would have already known that I was in a rough patch during the new year of 2010. There was a person and we had issues. It was really complicated, but we went our separate ways. I guess it is always good to remain friends, but sometimes that is not really the case. Awkwardness sets in. Feelings of confusion, doubt and many other things. But that’s just a brief background. I’m not going in depth because then people would start judging and saying things, which is really unfair to everyone.

Recently, this friend of mine got attached again. I thought I would be fine and cool with everything. But I guess I wasn’t that strong after all. Sometimes it takes time. No matter how many times I tell people that I’m alright, there are times when you just don’t feel right. And that moment of weakness, you fall and you wonder what’s going on with your life. The funny thing is that you know few months down the road you’ll look at this and laugh, because it happened before.

But you still allow yourself times to feel upset and hurt anyway. Maybe it’s part of the process. And it is always the healing that is the painful part for the wounds isn’t it?

Anyway the purpose of writing this is to come to terms with it, and just walk on without needing to carry this like a burden of worry. People do move on, and it is time to do so. After all, as the cliche goes, “You’ll meet someone better”. Which I agree, for it is not that the new person is better than the old, but you know more about yourself, so you’ll find someone that is more suited for you.

And there are more things in life to worry about. At this stage, it is probably, what else other than school can I do? What type of jobs should I apply for? How much starting pay can I command? Is it possible to work overseas? What about dreams for the future? What would you like to achieve?

On a side note, I’ve been feeling rather paternal lately. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the age you just start to change your priorities and think about the near future, like in 5 years time?

It’s time for everyone to move forward and be happy. Be happy that life gives you whatever you have right now. Be happy with the person you are with. Be happy with the friends that surround you. Be happy for everything.

Be happy. Even when I may feel a little weird around you, it’s something normal. ç¥�ç¦�你。:)

For the first time in my life, I tried buying CDs from an online source instead of over the shelf at Music CD shops in Singapore. The reason is simple, and one of practicality. Japanese singer’s CDs are quite rare in Singapore if they are not very famous. At different HMVs in Singapore, I find only a limited number of CDs by the singer that I wanted, and the CDs are expensive. Around 10 tracks for $84? When normal Mandarin CDs cost $19 for 10 tracks!

So I went to search online about the different sites that I can use to buy CDs, and I stumbled upon YesAsia, which offered free shipping if I met the criteria. If I remember correctly, if I spend more than USD$39, then they will provide free shipping. Buying the two CDs would definitely be over USD$39, hence I was entitled to free shipping.

Anyway the two CDs that I bought can be seen below:

Best of Ueto Aya

The “Best of Ueto Aya” cd is a compilation cd of her four earlier CDs, and I guess it would make sense to buy the compilation since it is the best songs that make it into the CD.

Happy Magic: Smile Project

The “Happy Magic: Smile Project” is her latest album in 2009, and was not in the compilation because the compilation cd was in 2006. So I got both the compilation and the latest album as an early birthday present to myself.

Ok, excitement about the CD aside, I shall narrate my experience so that people know what happened when I bought my cds.

I went to YesAsia and added both items to my cart. That was on Feb 7. They told me the expected ship out date was 13th. A few days later, the ship out date was changed to the 15th due to the fact that they are unable to get authorization from my debit card company. That was fine by me. They said their items would ship in 7 days, so 15 sounds like a great timing.

On Feb 17, that’s 2 days after the expected ship out date, YesAsia emailed me to tell me that the “Best of Ueto Aya” cd is not available from any of their suppliers and I had two options. The first is to cancel the cd and let the remaining items ship. The second is to wait another 5 days to see if they could get the source, failing which they will ship the remaining items to me.

Hence the next few days saw an exchange of emails asking if the free shipping would still be on. Naturally I would want to get both cds, but now I had to find another source for my compilation cd! And what about shipping costs? I was unhappy because I feared that if I bought a single cd elsewhere I would be charged for shipping.

Luckily, YesAsia does not charge me for shipping because I had met the criteria originally and it was their mistake that resulted in me not being able to get my cd. Hence I immediately cancelled the compilation cd on Feb 18. On the same day, I went to PlayAsia, and to my delight, they had the compilation cd, and even the edition with the DVDs. And they know the quantity that they have. They have only 4 more, and so I bought it. Especially after knowing that the requirement for my purchase to have free shipping was if my bill was above USD$10, which it already was. Plus it ships in 24 hours.

On Feb 19, I received an email from PlayAsia saying that my cd was shipped. Wow. Fast. I love it. On Feb 19, I received an email from YesAsia confirming my cancellation of the compilation cd. Only on Feb 22 did my CD ship. I had bought the CD from YesAsia 11 days earlier than PlayAsia and PlayAsia actually shipped first.

Last Friday, 26th Feb, I received my compilation cd at home. I only received my “Happy Magic” cd today on 2nd February. I am quite happy to have them with me, but this experience had told me that perhaps it would be wiser to buy from PlayAsia in the future. They even gave me a coupon code if I wanted to buy USD$50 worth of items before the 18th of April. If anyone needs that coupon code, I would be happy to give it to you.

Anyway, PlayAsia’s cd came in the small box, and the cd was inside the bubble thingie. It’s the plastic where you have many bubbles and its nice to pop them? The CD is inside one bubble thingie, and the whole thing was inside a small box. Nice and compact.

YesAsia’s cd came in a big envelope. The envelope is already lined with the bubble thingie inside, and they used two more bubble thingies (ok this is getting irritating..lol) to cushion the CD. Well, my CD got the royal treatment, but I guess it was unnecessary. I got this Haruhi keychain thingie since I was originally purchasing two CDs from YesAsia. They still gave it to me even though I only paid for one in the end.

Anyway, I’m very happy with my purchase even though it took almost a month for the original order to arrive at my mailbox. I think I saved at least S$60 buying the cds online. PlayAsia really made my experience enjoyable. However please do not expect such service. The CD I bought was under the “Ships in 24 hours” status whilst the others are mainly “Ships in 5 – 7″ days. But I guess you can expect them to have the stock when they allow you to add it to the cart. I saw that the Hong Kong version of the compilation cd (No DVD) was out of print. Yes, they actually write it on the website.

Guess what version I bought? If you know me well, yes, I got the Japanese version. Might as well right? It’s my first two Japanese songs CD and they are both Japan versions.

Am too happy now. I listened to the compilation many times already, and it’s great. There are 18 songs inside compared to 11 for the “Happy Magic” cd. The songs are great and I love them. It is quite rare for me to love all the songs in the CD when I start to listen. Usually I will only start liking songs once I have heard them for a few times.

I’m not opening the second cd till a few days later. Maybe on Thursday. Think I will enjoy it too.

Happy birthday to me. Too early though. It’s in June and its only March now. 3 months and 5 days early!

Last Friday was the end of the Week 7 of my Industrial attachment which is going to last me 24 weeks. I guess I am reaching the 1/3 mark of my attachment soon.

Life on attachment makes you feel lazy I think. It’s like you feel you are working, and some days you just go home feeling drained out because you had a long day. When you do, you just feel like unwinding by watching videos or doing things you like to do. That does not help when you have to do project research for school.

But attachment isn’t really working because you don’t get to do the actual work you do when you’re an employee. You don’t experience the full spectrum of events. At least that is what it is for me, which is why I am a little bored when I realize that I’m back in office tomorrow, and usually there’s huge gaps of time in between the work given to me, so much so that I have to spend the time away.

Thankfully I leave early tomorrow due to my lesson back at NUS at 6pm. So I probably leave at 4.30pm. But the rest of the days would be till 6pm. I hope there’s plenty of paper work to do. Else I’ll probably try to do my project research in school.

The last time I had a full week in office was in my second week. I really hope that I can go and attend the course the other intern is attending. It starts on 4th, so if I am allowed to go, then I would be able to spend some time learning new stuff. It’ll be more exciting.

Anyway recently the weather has been unbearable. It is too warm and humid in my opinion. I sweat all the time. When I get back to office tomorrow, its going to be cold all the time because the air con is free there. Haha. I guess I would prefer cold since I got my jacket.

And I’m still surviving for my projects, just feeling quite unmotivated. Good luck to those taking mid terms!