Sentosa

Went to Sentosa yesterday. I got free tickets to some attractions at Sentosa, Kh got free entry tickets, so we basically didn't spend much money at all the whole day.



pink orchids!


my flower hairband




Megazip


Segway










vday prezzie :)

New Laptop

Finally bought a new laptop from Matrix at Funan Mall last Saturday. Well it wasn't that my old, sturdy Dell laptop wasn't working-- in fact its still working perfectly thanks to proper PC maintenance (points to self). It's just that I've been meaning to install Lightroom 3, Adobe Photoshop CS5, Sims3, etc etc, and my old laptop just wasn't able to keep up with the recommended specifications without hanging. Also, I left my old laptop on the table and woke up one morning to find the hinge really loose. Like, if you accidentally brush against the screen a bit, it will totally slam down in either direction. Scary. 

So after browsing around several shops and listening to recommendations, I found Asus X42J to be quite compatible with my needs. 

Frankly, I would prefer a faster processor speed, preferably at least Intel i7 Quad Core 2.0Ghz. This comes at 1.73Ghz. According to one guy, the newer and faster i7 2.0Ghz isn't very stable right now, and Intel recently sent them notification to recall it. He could be bluffing me for all I know, but he does make some sense. Plus, why would he encourage me to buy the slightly older version when the newer one is more expensive? (btw, I didn't buy from him)

Another feature I really appreciate is the keyboard. Nowadays, new laptops swap the position of the function keys on the F1-F12 buttons. In the past, if you want to switch on your bluetooth, you have to press Fn+F2. With newer keyboards nowadays, it's simply F2. So if you really want to use F2, you now have to press Fn+F2 instead. Can you imagine what a hassle it will be to rename stuff. So much for shortcuts eh? I'm glad Asus hasn't followed in this dumb direction.

Specs:
Intel i7 Quad Core 1.73Ghz
500GB hard drive space (would have preferred more actually)
4MB memory
ATI Mobility Radeon 1GB graphics card (would have preferred Nvidia but it's fine)
14.1"
2.3kg (much lighter than my 2.41kg Dell)
... and a whole lot of other stuff I don't care about.

Freebies:
3-years warranty (Apparently, only Asus dares to do this as they make their own motherboards hence more confident of its stability.)
Asus mouse (comes with laptop!)
Laptop cleaning kit
Keyboard protector
Mouse
Earphones + microphone
Asus Laptop bag
Laptop Cooling fan

All that for $1200 nett. =)

To think I was prepared to pay like $2k... Alright, another strike off wishlist!

CNY Fail

Mum was totally unprepared when it comes to decorating the house with CNY stuff. She brought out last year's CNY decoration to put them up and I said,"You can't use that." "Why?" "Because it's not Tiger year anymore. There are tigers in it."

So everywhere's closed. What do you do but rely on Gerrie to make the CNY stuff with angpows?

I cringe at the sight of these homemade decorations. It totally spells C-H-E-A-P-S-K-A-T-E. Adding to my horror, Mum actually said that these locations that Gerrie chose to display her homemade decorative piece was a great idea.


Later on, Mum tore out the lanterns from last year's Tiger decorative piece to paste on the wall.

Gerrie: Don't put that lah. It's not even a proper word.
Mum: It's correct what. Wan Shi Ru Yi.
Gerrie: No... It's Xi Yang Ru Yi.
Me: IT'S JI XIANG RU YI LAH. Wah your Chinese damn jia lat.

********************************************************

Mum: I want to watch countdown.
Gerrie: What countdown?
Mum: New Year countdown?
Gerrie: It's already 2011...?
...
Mum: Chinese New Year countdown.
Gerrie: Why Chinese New Year must countdown?
...

********************************************************

Gerrie: "财神" is Monkey God right?

********************************************************

Gerrie: I wore my best dress yesterday. I thought Chinese New Year is yesterday.
Me: What? You should have worn it today. It's the first day.
Gerrie: I know. I just realised it. No wonder there was a countdown.

Thai Massage

If there's any reason why I would go to Thailand every year, it's for the Thai massage.

I'm still not over the 350B/2hours Thai massage which I chanced upon 4 years ago. Nowadays, we're just trying to find substitutes in terms of quality OR prices (not asking for much), but we've yet to find any.

I was at JB yesterday, and Kh insisted on going for a 2-hour Thai massage at Thai Odyssey, to relax the muscles after Friday night's night cycling. Now, I don't feel sore at all after the night cycling thing, and I was quite unhappy about having to pay S$44 for a Thai massage that I know it's nowhere near quality. I know this because we've been patronising Thai Odyssey for years, and their standards fluctuate greatly.

I normally consider myself to have a rather high threshold of pain, but this woman, I think she secretly wants to kill me. Even after repeated cries to lower the intensity, I still feel like she's marinating sauce into beef.

Did I mention I was fine before the massage? Now I'm left with bruises and I'm feeling sore all over. All that for 44 bucks.

=(

Ger's Soundbites

I know this seems very thick-skinned of me, but I haven't had any new soundbites to put on my blog so I'll just go ahead and quote myself for fun.


Welcome to Ger Says The Darnest Things.

*****

"You can have my beef but not my onions. They are my only source of vegetables."
- Me to Kh at Beijing's Yoshinoya. We haven't had any proper vegetables to eat for the past 10 days of our trip.

*****

Kh: Are you trying to push out phlegm? It's gross.
Me: At least it sounds better than my singing.

- I've been suffering from a bad cough-phlegm situation for a week.

*****