I'm sure by now some of you have heard about Zoe Raymond. If you haven't, here is the Facebook link of the story. (You need to scroll all the way down to start from Chapter One. It's in Chinese from Chapter 2 onwards by the way and if you click on "translate by Bing", the translated English is horrendous and hence still not understandable. Reading in Chinese will convey the emotions of the author more vividly, so yea 加油了 my friends!）
In summary, the Singaporean blogger Zoe Raymond stole Yuki's fiance Alvin just 2 months before their marriage, that led Yuki to create a personal blog entitled "Alvin & Yuki" on Facebook to pen down her story, with one of the posts describing how she came to know about the 3rd party but still kept quiet about her knowledge hoping that Alvin may come to his senses someday. The blog was so well illustrated and detailed that it garnered to more than 15,000 likes within a week, which included 16 of my friends, and has now won over 24,000 people's hearts, inevitably making ZR the most hated blogger ever.
I first came across this saga about 2 weeks ago when one of my friends liked a photo of Zoe Raymond side by side with a picture of Lao Fu Zi (老夫子）on Facebook, and there were several comments ridiculing her, especially on how ugly she look. I found it very disturbing and hysterical as I've been a loyal fan of her blog for 3 years now and on her blog she appeared to be such a sweet girl, so how can anyone possibly hate her? Of course every celebrity blogger no matter how nice will have haters but all along, but Zoe Raymond is one who makes the least amount of enemies. Hence having sprung on the rude comments led me to intuitively google "Why do people hate Zoe Raymond?" Again lots of hateful comments in forums came up and one of these led me to Yuki's page.
I really sympathise with Yuki. She was highly anticipated bride-to-be but yet just before her wedding the one she wants to be with for the rest of her life betrayed her trust and her world crashed instantly.
You know, when you began an agreement to start a relationship with someone, you are actually opening yourself up to the susceptible world of hurt. In some way or another, he/she may hurt you, it's just the case of whether the hurt inflicted on you is mild or severe. In her case, perhaps it was mild or almost none throughout the relationship but became so severe near the end of it that she couldn't deal with the sudden blow and tried to end her life.
It's so scary to think how someone whom you thought you know dearly change in a flash, and it happened so quickly that it caught you off guard. Being betrayed must have hurt big time, and I would never understand such pain until I experience it myself (but choy!). But agreeing with others who left encouraging messages on her page, it's good news that at least she saw his true colours before marrying him than to be deceived later when a child comes along in the picture. She is hurting now, but ya I'm sure a fine girl like her would find someone more deserving for her. Well, I really admire her courage for writing her personal thoughts and feelings out for thousands of strangers to see as I would not have the courage to do that if it is me. :D
As for ZR, she is getting most of the attention and blame since she is well-known by some people to be a successful entrepreneur beforehand and now they found out that she had a history of stealing boyfriends. If it wasn't for that history, I would think that perhaps Alvin already had problems with Yuki and Zoe Raymond came at the time to say, "Hey Alvin, I am a more suitable girl for you." But no, from the look of it, she seems like someone who enjoys flaunting her victory over another girl by taking away her beloved, which may be her everything, from her. I suppose she loves winning every guy over and so to her Alvin is just a chess piece (手中的一个棋子); she will dump him as soon as she finds another relationship to destroy.
For me, after my last failed relationship, the feeling of distrust is still stuck with and haunts me even after so many years, and no matter what I do now, I am wary of putting in all my efforts in my current relationship. I tend to form a shield all over me and remind myself not to be so trustful of Simba. This is just in case someday he may turn his back on me just like what Alvin did to Yuki, and I will be forced to take everything into my own hands. Whether or not I will be sprung on the bad news in the future, I always prepare myself so that I would know how to take it better later.
Emotional things aside, I recently earned myself a skill point in photography. It's like the Sims game where the characters you created practise for example painting over and over again to earn ART skill points. Lol. I went online and watched a short tutorial video on how to entirely focus on an object so that the background would be blurred out.
Here are a few casual photos of my work:
I initiated the self-learning by placing a set of skin care and health supplement products on the table to set the background. The pocket-sized bottle of SK-II is in focus while everything else behind is blurred.
The 30ml sample bottle of SK-II at $25.90 was bought online as I've been dying to try it out since there were a widespread of good reviews about it and what made me click on the "Add to Cart" button ultimately was when Jun Wen told me that the new intern in his company started using it and his face became so radiant that it looks like the glow was from deep within. The Facial Treatment Essence, also known as Miracle Water, must be miraculous!
Another effect I tried was to blur the object in front and make the background in focus.
:D
The closer your camera is to the object you want to focus, or the more zoom you subject the camera to, the object is comparatively more in focus and stood out. In contrast the background would appear significantly blurred.
Took my NTU grad bears from the shelf by force to make them part of my photography project. Intended for the standing teddy to look more prominent than the other 3 bears and although it did appear in focus, the 3 bears in the background weren't that blurred. Failed.
Randomly assigned some of my jewellery to participate as well. Was quite pleased with this since the fine details of my piece of ear ring are photographed and the background which contained my necklaces, other ear rings and hair clips, was blurred till the extent of becoming tiny specks of light. This was the result I wanted to achieve.
This keychain was bought for us by our work supervisor as a souvenir! Really liked the shadow this keychain created.
My fave photo was this one where my watch played the main lead. It suffered quite a few scratches because of my carelessness lol. Look at its poorly maintained strap!
It was a Friday again. As I was still keeping up with my enthusiasm to try out the new camera especially when I read up about how to take a night scene photo, I wanted so much to visit Gardens by the Bay again and hopefully take a nice good photo of the man-made tree. But my plan was rejected by Simba since it was a long walk from the MRT station to the park and my legs might not be able to take it, so we went to Bishan instead after much compromise.
We tried the new Creme Brulee MacFlurry ice cream! It felt great to have ice-cream after so long and this was a strongly flavoured one! Simba was over the moon when I agreed to share one with him since I have stopped dieting after my surgery (but will continue with it after I recover).
The DSLR has saved us time for any photo re-taking since we got pretty satisfied by the photos taken of us. :D
It's still Christmas in Junction 8, and Simba was still caterwauling in the departmental store as the Christmas music played in the background.
We dawdled about in Junction 8 but stationed ourselves at a spot outside BEST so that I could use my newly acquired skill.
Only when the subject is near enough then would the background be completely blurred.
I continued my practice when we reached home which made him quite irritated. Lol.
Hope I have passed Photography Basics 101.
Dear readers, I've been updating this space more often than ever so please read through all my posts below and click on "Older Posts" as there may be a chance you missed one. Having you read every single post of mine is important as I took hours just to blog one entry. :D
The controversy about blogging has always been about one being self-centred cos people tend to blog mostly about themselves. I kind of like blogging cos it is the only time I can be very very self-centred and make my friends read everything that is happening in my life. Lol.
Jun Wen bought some ba gua and durian puffs to show his gravest gratitude for my family's hospitality throughout his 10-day stay in my house. His bathroom was going through some upgrading and there was a heightened susceptibility to flu due to dust churning out of all the renovation. To save himself from the unnecessary risks, he became my housemate for 10 days.
The ba gua was so Christmassy! Everyone in my family loves ba gua and durian, and so they were all digested before I knew it.
My brother's girlfriend, whom I have only met once, bought me and my family presents for Christmas. My dad was so happy about it and showed his new polo tee off to me! :D It was a little too big for him but he insisted it wasn't. That was how thrilled he was, so thrilled that he wanted to fit into the shirt, not the other way around.
I got a big sweet pink heart-shaped box containing shower gel, bath soaps and body lotion from her. I think becos she doesn't know much about me, getting toiletries was a safe choice and something girlish may be good. Really appreciate her effort in spending time to shop for me! Dad commanded me to buy something back for her.. Aiya! What we Chinese always have to do is something called 礼上往来, which means to repay someone with another gift when you receive one from him/her. (The unfair thing is, Dad doesn't intend to buy anything back. Lol.) Don't misunderstand me, I don't mind spending some money to get a present for her, it's just that I feel Christmas is a time to show your love for someone you care about by giving to them. Not that I don't care about my future sis-in-law, but I don't know enough about her to care. I don't know if this feeling of mine is wrong, since it gave me a palpable sense of uncomfortableness. Anyway, I think she was brought up to be a very family-oriented person and hence I don't have to be worried that she might mistreat my parents in the future. Lol.
Anyway, Jun Wen's bro just had a girlfriend! Okie lah, I went abit too kaypo and went to look at his girlfriend's profile on Facebook. Lol. But hey she might just be my future BFF ok! :D
I am now able to bend my knee to an angle of about 80 degrees, thanks to my physiotherapist! From months of being a patient in the physiotherapy department, I can tell you it's so cool to be a physiotherapist. Let me tell you why,
1. You get to be fierce to your patients but patients still respect you.
2. You get to torment your patients by getting them to do the exercises they can hardly do.
3. You get to be sarcastic but your patients think of you as encouraging.
4. You can know your patients personally and feel a sense of satisfaction every time you see them improve and recover.
5. And best of all, they thank you after every session for all the tortures u put them through. LOL.
My physiotherapist is one cute lady. She is sarcastic and fierce in a good way.
She will be like,
"Hey, why after 7 weeks you still walk like that?? You can bend your knee already why u walk like that?" And you will be dumbfounded and speak like a mouse, "Ehhh.. I dunno..."
"Okay, this is how you do this exercise. Now you do it 50 times." And you will be like omg, is she trying to kill me??
That day, I was made to do a straight leg raise for 50 minutes. After 20 minutes, the assistant felt some sympathy for me, and asked the physiotherapist if I could stop and she said, "Oh.. You are tired? Tired is good." Lol. And you will be even more sure that she is trying to kill you.
And then when I rest for some seconds in middle of the exercise, the assistant will be like "Hey don't eat snake leh. I talk to other people doesn't mean you can stop your exercise!"
She is like a gym instructor, only much stricter.
Cool right? Of course I didn't get to see the lighter green grass on the other side, but from my point of view, I find that she is really happy and skilled in her job as her sense of satisfaction is there.
And from the bottom of my heart, I'm nothing but grateful to her. :D
Every time I have to go through some rough patch of my life, I will promise myself to do something meaningful once I'm over it. This time, I promise myself to organize photos and print them out in hard copy, write a recommendation on my surgeon in those knee surgery forums, provide information to people who are having the same problem as me, and lastly volunteer at SPCA.
Here is part one of my promise:
I picked out 76 photos from about 5 SD cards and went to print them out. Not done with all the other SD cards, but will do them soon.
76 2R photos in hardcopy. They cost me about $47 omg. Simba finds it weird that I don't print them in 4R but I just can't bring myself to spend near to a hundred just on photos. Lol. 2R photos are cute, I would say, since others might think they are polaroid photos.
Arranged them into my album by events. This page is all about our trip to Bangkok in April this year.
Another page invaded with collated photos of friends.
More pages of the album would be shown to you if you come to my house. I wish for you to flip through the tangible pages of my album instead of clicking through my Facebook photo albums. Technology advancement is good and has proven itself in making lives easier but let's not forget keeping our lives to a more personal level.
--- Daniel's Wedding.
Daniel is my first good friend to get married. We were all excited and happy for him that he found the one, someone he wanna be with for the rest of his life. His then soon-to-be wife Jasmine is such a sweet girl, whom I believe can make him a better man. May God bless this wonderful couple!
So that afternoon, Jun Wen and I took a cab to St Patrick's Church to attend his solemnisation.
Brought along his wedding invitation card which has the important map to have us guide the driver to the location of the church. His invitation card was nicest I have seen so far; it is cute, creative and specially designed to give the couple a personal touch.
We were there a little earlier and had time to flip through their wedding photo album. Again, I would go with cute to describe the presentation of these photos. Let's applaud the couple's effort in the whole wedding preparation. It's a long tiring process mind you!
Soon we were seated on one of the benches in the traditional church as we so much wanted to sit as near to the stage as possible to catch a more unobstructed view of the couple during the ceremony. Afraid that Simba may be bored not knowing anyone there, I tried to tease him whenever I had the chance to. He was doing me a big favor that day by being the babysitter of the day.
Daniel looking all serious in preparation.
Chia Liang with his wife, and Wei Jian. They came a little later and hence sat in a different row as us. Wei Jian, as usual, was jabbering throughout. He even suggested for me to kneel down at the altar and ask the leading pastor to bless and heal me through the power of Christ. Lol. I would steal the limelight in a negative way if I did as what he said. Everyone would be looking and thinking why I can't wait till the ceremony is over.
The attendees.
After the flower boy and girl made the entrance, the bridesmaids were next in line. They looked so shy and perhaps a little overwhelmed by the dozens of people admiring them. I would too if I were them.
Convertible dresses as bridesmaids dresses are the most common nowadays; they are convenient to get and each bridesmaid can wear one in a different manner than the other. Look at the 4 different styles of wearing on the 4 bridesmaids!
That was the first time I saw jade bridesmaids dresses, as most I've seen were often light pink or electric blue.
Then it was the moment everyone was waiting for, it was the time for the bride to walk down the aisle with her dad, dazzling us with her radiance and elegance.
The best men were outside the door looking as Jasmine walked with her dad. They and the bridesmaids are also a bunch of people who worked really hard to make the wedding a success. Daniel must be very touched!
The couple coming before the altar after the bride's dad handed her to the bridegroom.
People who had attended a church wedding would have known that the solemnisation started off with songs of praise to the Lord.
Jun Wen immersed himself in singing the songs with high praise to the Lord.
The time to say "I do".
The exchange of vows. They chose to say their own vows, making affirmative promises to each other.
Jun Wen and I are not a fan of public speaking and hence I think we will leave everything to the ordained minister next time. :D
Pastor blessing their marriage.
We were serenaded by a romantic piece of music as they held hands and walked down out of the church together, being the most envied couple of the day.
Jasmine in her romantic wedding gown. She wore super high heels which is the only thing I would refuse to do on my wedding day. Bottom line is, I can never trust my knees again. I am so glad that I'm as tall as Jun Wen muahahahaha #evillaughs!
They actually made a scrapbook to make a cute story out of their photos. Idea sia!
The car that honoured part of the couple's memories. The license plate is nice right!
Merry merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Merry Christmas dear friends!
It's 6 weeks post surgery. I'm not improving fast enough to achieve the stability my physiotherapist wants me to have and the hope of having the knee brace removed before Christmas was smashed.
Walking is still a tad tough for me but the warmth emanating from friends who care and quite a number of kind strangers kept me going. Strangers I met are often people who asked if I was alright, reminded me to be careful when I walk or gave up their seats for me. The unconcealed knee brace worn on top of my leggings work like a charm; I have gotten over the embarrassment of letting people stare at the brace since maxi skirts which can perfectly hide it are hazardous. I lost count of how many times I stepped on one and almost lost my balance because of that. I just ain't tall enough (ahem I am tall, just not tall enough) and the skirt extends beyond my ankles. Most girls solve the problem by wearing high heels but unless I want to run the risk of falling flat on the ground and cause another unfortunate ligament accident, I won't want to try that. Hence I was only left with the choice of wearing the skirt up above the waist (lol). Coincidentally, high waist pants / skirts are still chic! However wearing the supposedly at-the-hip maxi skirt as a high waist skirt to work wasn't the tough part. The tough part was dealing with people dashing into trains in a flash and their high tendency to injure me. Hence the brace not only serve well in its job of protecting the graft, but also say hey to people so that they avoid bumping onto me when they rush to work.
Gonna give credit to the top 3 Good Samaritans I have met since I went back to work:
#1. Good Samaritan Winner: Was using a whole lot of strength dragging my left leg while I walked down the slope when I felt someone hold my arm to lend me her support. She held me and walked with me at a tremendous slow speed until we reached the MRT station and handed me to Jun Wen.
#2. Good Samaritan 1st Runner-Up: She asked where I was heading to and once I said the MRT, she waved down the SGH shuttle bus for me (It was about to leave) and got me onto it. And from then on, I took the shuttle bus from the Cancer Centre to Outram MRT and saved 15 minutes of both walking time and exertion of the injury everyday.
#3. Good Samaritans 2nd Runner-Up: 2 men on 2 separate days walked behind me, stayed beside me and walked ahead of me to watch me walk. (lol) Then after hesitating about almost 5 minutes (of walking beside, behind and ahead of me), they finally asked if I was okay.
Perhaps if they didn't offer to help, they will feel guilt-ridden at night when they self-reflect and would be unable to sleep. Lol. Either that or men tend to hesitate much more than women as their true intentions are often misread by women.
Thank you Good Samaritans. God bless you wherever you go! I should really work on my appreciation towards others. Other than a dozen times of saying thank you, I dunno what else to say to let others feel my appreciation.
Jun Wen uploaded the following image of us wearing helmets at Segway Sentosa in the year of 2010 as his cover photo and one of his colleagues commented, "Wah, last time u so skinny ah!" Lol.
It's Christmas Eve today! Jun Wen and I enjoyed a half day off work. Our head of department treated us to a exquisite lunch buffet while Simba had potluck with his colleagues. Being a glutton, I immersed myself in the buffet, totally forgetting to check my phone the whole time and poor Simba waited half an hour for me to return his call. He was already near my workplace when he called.
Being in a Christmassy mood, I wanna walk as far as my legs could take me, so we explored the new extension of Plaza Sing together and took breaks from time to time so that my legs wouldn't feel like they were on the verge of breaking.
We had one of our breaks at Gloria Jean's Coffee. He confessed that he slept at 3am the night before largely due to his love for killing man-eating zombies to make the virtual world a better place to stay in, so he was weary from the lack of sleep. Perfect timing for a cup of coffee to perk him up.
We don't usually drink hot coffee but since we forgot to mention "Iced" to the staff, we accepted our own mistakes and drank the whole thing up.
I ordered Irish Nut Creme and he Choc Macademia Latte. Mine was great and worth every penny. Didn't like his but he loved it, so well what do I know?
Do you know that high-end coffee is one thing that Singaporeans squander their money on? They (Okie okie, "We") are always hunting for cafes to sit in and sip on expensive coffees while waiting for their friends to turn up, studying for exams or chatting with friends.
I don't remember the Starbucks in Malaysia or Thailand was ever once so occupied with people that you can't find any available seats. But in Singapore, it's always the case.
Took plenty of photos with the drinks while waiting for them to cool down a little but drew some attention from the surrounding curious patrons in the meantime.
Lol. I was totally blending into the background! I thought I was in for a pleasant surprise when he took up some minutes to take a picture of me but it turned out that I was totally wrong. Lol.
Take 2 still failed. Lol. I quite like the bit blur though so that my flaws wouldn't be obvious to the eye.
I wore a Toga dress beneath the cardigan. Toga dresses not only come in a maxi form, but also in a shorter style for girls like me with not enough height to conquer maxis with style!
My turn! Now I can take lots of candid, with many to choose from later without having to worry that they might be blurred because the shutter speed is awesomely high.
Stirring drinks is the man's job. Lol.
After window shopping for two floors of the new extension, the leg strength weakened too much that the first instinct was to sit down and dine at Canele, the restaurant in our proximity, an hour before dinner time.
Tried the colour sketch function of the camera.
The tile patterns on the floor are so pretty in the sketch aren't they?
Some more photos to show our active involvement with the new cam. :D
My first experience with Canele was the time I dined with Cousin at the Wheelock Place's outlet. What stayed in my long term memory was that the food especially the desserts was fantastic and the service alright. But this time I was utterly disappointed.
This crabmeat pasta didn't look appetizing nor taste at least passable. We even think that the crabmeat had a certain uncooked smell. Yuck right!
His Marinara wasn't suited to our taste too. Maybe its uniqueness caught us by surprise so much that we didn't know how to appreciate its goodness. At least it does look good.
It was both our first time having macarons. :D
Left: Hazelnut
Right: Chestnut Obsession
We couldn't understand how these macarons have the capability of catering to the tastes of people after having a bite. They were too sweet, so sweet I think I taste obesity. Lol. The hazelnut tasted like ultra sweet red bean paste omg.
That was our Christmas Eve! Couldn't walk after that and wound up taking a cab home.. again..
Found a clothing label I like there and it's Lowrys Farm! Great taste, great style! Ladies, I'm sure u will like it too so now head over there and grab something you like!
