Classé dans : 1
French men are mostly jerks, I’m sorry to say. And I got groped in Brussels so my title really doesn’t refer to the males of either places. It does however, encompass my infatuation for Europe. More so the amazing architecture, the perfect blue skies, the billowing white clouds, gallivanting around with my pretty roomie.. And the food, don’t even get me started on the juicy mussels and the cheap alcohol.
If you need help envisioning it all, look no further:
Classé dans : 1
Yep I’m back in Singapore. Aside from the nostalgia and reminiscing of European architecture, and my lovelorn for Brussels, some semblance of jet lag, I am doing alright.
Actually, NO
I am so fucking screwed for my May phone bill, I can’t even imagine the disaster or my dad’s face when that horribly innocuous envelop arrives with my death sentence written all over on it. I just found out that for every call that goes to a voicemail, there is a charge for that. FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!
Thankfully, Patrick has offered his generous aid to help me out, he’s going to pay for all calls related to our conversation. Most of the other calls / sms are between my dad and I so I see no reason why father dearest wouldn’t pay for peace of mind knowing that his precious is safe somewhere in Europe, the squalor of Jakarta or in Bangkok. The rest of it is from my calls / sms to Bernie or assorted group mates.
But god help me.
Classé dans : 1
You don’t know me if you didn’t know how badly I wanted to come to Paris.
Sadly, now that I am here I can barely muster up enough energy to type or write about my experiences. Its been dull so far; seeing the mona lisa yesterday at the lourve was disappointing. It was just the same picture I’ve seen thousands of times in postcards, fronting advertisements and andy warhol art illustrations. The same staid smile, the dull eyes peering out from a face incapable of expression. There I was standing infront of this world famous painting, and while cameras snapped around me furiously I suddenly found myself walking away. This is too tiring, the mental strain of having so many works of art surrounding me. Its like my fascination is stretched too far and I am not able to really focus on any one piece of art without a child screaming, a mother chiding, an annoying old person sauntering infront of the exhibit et cetera. After a while the lourve is just another museum, another place with noisy tourists and I am so disenchanted I leave for a quieter area.
I’m just really tired and I want to go home. Not back to singapore per se but home to a place where I can dump all my crap, let myself go, have enough wine to make me fall asleep quickly. Anywhere will do. I am tired of doing this touristy bullshit and I just want to sit at a cafe and watch europe go by. Don’t get me wrong, I am in love with europe ; paris just tires me out infinitely. The way people jostle among each other on the subway, the impatience of food vendors who scream at me in a barrage of french to which I stare back at, clueless and frightened and immediately homesick. Really, big cities with their irresponsibly callous people tire me out. I am glad I return to Brussels tomorrow even if it’s only for 4 h. I’m sure my favorite Italian waiter at the Matignon Hotel will cheer me up 
Classé dans : 1
So I’m alive and surviving. The last 2 weeks of EU-ASEAN has been insanely busy what with all the traveling an long drawn conferences that would stretch past 5 in the evening. Jakarta was.. very boring. All I did enjoy was the A&W. Indonesians smoke like crazy I swear and I am convinced that my lifespan has been shortened by a lot during my stay there. Bangkok was predictably much better and on hindsight we all agreed as a cohesive that we should’ve stayed longer in BKK and less in Jakarta.
The european leg was the best so far. Brussels was pretty damn awesome and I enjoyed every single second I was there. The weather was amazing — blue skies and low 20s so my make up stayed and my hair remained coiffured from the morning. The beer was cheap and really good, we’re talking about 0.85 euro cents for chimay in the supermarche man I was sober for half the day really. The not so cool part was that I was groped at the grand place by a random horny dude who had the cheek to shout “good” when in my rage I screamed “fuck you”. Happily, the Italian waiter at our hotel-restaurant more than made up for the previous sleazeball. After a hard day of politics and horrible MFA decorum that turned sour, I had like 3 bottles of beer and the charming Italian only charged me for one bottle.
Yes european men are quite the charming lot. So I’m in Paris now and it’s been.. alright so far. Parisians are rude and crude but when we ventured out to the suburbs today it was pleasantly nice. Bern and I got Miss 60 jeans for 20 Euros. Insane right? The manager of the store was really nice he just kept bringing out these random jeans that were 20 euros because he knew we were shopping with a budget. Anyway, we all went out for dinner/wine later and he paid for it all.
Ok well gtg now so that Bernie can do her exam revision for tomorrow. Au revoir!
Classé dans : Life
Yes doesn’t that sound like a strip tease? Well there is little moral difference between high crime profiteering and cunning bank policies. It just occurred to me that the extra $10.00 siphoned away from my chevy chase bank account was for viewing my account balance. I didn’t even know that these asswipes charged me $2 USD everytime I check my account balance on an atm machine. This past 2 days of bank malaise after that horrible atm incident which has yet to be resolved might I add, I’ve been checking my chevychase bank account repeatedly to see if the money has been refunded back to me. Its ridiculous how shoddy these assholes are ; they don’t even tell me that I’m expected to be charged $2 everytime I peek into my account balance! What the fuck? Bureaucracy makes me want to strangle these banks with the very red tape that hinders progress. Piece of Shit Bank called yesterday and said this could take up to 3 or 4 business days and Crappy Cunt Bank told me that this could take up to 10 business days. My losses have been $10 USD so far for the above mentioned and another $3 SGD incurred at the post office yesterday because Crappy Cunt Bank decided they require “official documents” in the form of either a facsimile or an actual mail. Well the second alternative will take 6 to 12 business days to get delivered so of course I had to choose the fax which cost me $3.45 at the post office.
My shitty fortune doesn’t get better ; I went to Dynasty Travels with $400 exact to pay for Anuja and my tickets from Brussels to Paris because Nazir told me that it was $196 each both ways. So I was all prepared for payment and to rid myself of so much money ( I don’t want to get robbed by an actual mugger this time around! Annoyingly, the lady behind the counter who not only took forever, also informed me that the tickets were $214 each altogether totaling up to $428. Well I’ve only got $400 with me so I had to go and withdraw money from the horrible POSB bank opposite in Cheers praying and hoping it doesnt “register hardware failure” and eat up my cash again. Of course everytime I remove money from my US bank accounts I have to pay. These motherfuckers sure know how to jew a chinese.
Clearly, this week has been horrible. I’m counting the seconds to tomorrow because somehow I believe that with the end of the exams things will be better maybe color will return to the world tinged red with frustration and blue from study isolation. I also dare to be further optimistic; hopefully Diana would have already transfered my much needed money and that the $140 will be back in my account tomorrow when I wake. And maybe I’ll make more sales on etsy to beef up my spending money, to pay my etsy selling fees and to buy my box of dailies contact lenses. Yes as you can see each new day really heralds high hopes for me. Oh maybe I’ll pass the exam too, that’d be a bonus.
Back to the mean green. I’ve already taken my mom’s charity of $200 the day before for my thalis train tickets. I hate taking money from my parents because I would hate giving money for someone elses’ pursuits. I hate taking Patrick’s money because.. why should I take someone elses’ money for my self interests? Its not fair when he works so hard for his money. But I’m left without a choice this time around. I’m happy that I’ve been fairly independent. I pay for my own travels, my COACH purses contrary to popular belief , my jewelry, my transport fees, my etsy fees, my little business, my food, my alcohol consumption …
I feel like in my world, money is a big thing because I aspire to be independent and as a result I’m always short of cash. Also because when I get a large amount of cash I blow it all on starbucks, pens, sushi, beer and extravagant buys like purses and books. I’m also unemployed technically. Summer is fast approaching and with the already flailing US economy, things on etsy aren’t looking good because gas prices increase during the summer months whittling away what little spending money Americans can afford anyway. Yes and the falling green back tops it all off like a fucking cherry parfait.
I guess this is where we differ in terms of perspectives and spending habits; Patrick says it’s only money and that I shouldn’t be so upset because money problems are the easiest to solve. But he’s also employed, is fairly wealthy ; because of all the extra money they pay him for being in the Middle East aside from not being able to spend any since he’s there, has a house that he earns rent from, has a mini cooper but isn’t using it right now so he saves on gas… It’s so easy to wave away money problems when you haven’t got ‘em. Unlike me. By Singaporean and UN world standards, I am currently living under the poverty line and would have to move to chatterbox if my parents kick me out for any reason. Wait, I’d have faster internet connection, more pillows, air condition, more toiler bowls to choose from if I moved to the cbox. Now that option seems fairly nice. BUT still, the fact of the matter is paypal still owes me a lot of money from uncleared echecks that are expected to clear on the 8th ( today! ) and the asshole banks still owe me money also as do Diana.
Money isn’t everything but right now with less than 30 bucks to my name in the whole wide world, it’s hard for me to negate the importance of money.
Sitting at the starbucks at Liang Court yesterday, nursing my tazo iced tea and savoring sushi, I was easily the happiest girl in the universe. I was infinitely pleased that my top 3 favorites were easily in one mall — starbucks where I can study, kinokuniya on top where I can get my pen fix and medi-ya supermarket where they have awesome sushi!
After a nightmare last night, I woke up to see that 10 bucks has been deducted from my chevy chase bank account because of “misc transaction fees” totalling up $8 and a withdrawal fee of $2 for money that didn’t even come out of the atm because of hardware failure. I was all over myself with rage. The world was, I screamed, conspiring against me. I thought Patrick wasn’t gonna call because it was already 8:55. But then the phone call came and saved my life, my day. I’ve just been so caught up with all the money frenzy to really calm down and think. But I think I’m ok.
Yes I’m alright for now, and I think I’ll be able to study some today for tomorrow’s exam at 9. Here’s a pithy quote that I like.
Classé dans : 1
I am so fucking pissed off right now I feel like throwing up.
Chevychase bank isn’t being the most helpful, because I found out after 15 minutes of calling them and waiting on the damn line and wasting my dad’s money on this pointless goddamn call, I FIND OUT THAT THERE IS NOTHING THEY CAN DO EXCEPT TO REPLY TO MY EMAIL WHICH I HAD ALREADY SENT.
FUCK THIS SHIT
I wanted to smash the damn Piece Of Shit Bank atm today when they robbed me of my $140. I guess all the bold letters in my email must’ve scared some rookie because I got a call from their senior management later saying they’d deal with this matter.
My mom says that she will give me that $200 for the train ticket from brussels to paris but THIS IS NOT ENOUGH I WANT MY MONEY BACK STILL. I don’t care if it’s from chevychasebank or from posb, I JUST WANT MY MONEY BACK 
(((
And I also wish Patrick would call….
*cries*
Classé dans : 1
I’ve never really understood why people would delete others from their facebook or myspace accounts. It seems asinine to both delete someone else and also to care about if one gets deleted. But due to issues with my inflated ego, I take it as a personal insult and proceeds to add them back as a friend. Which is silly, I know but my voyeuristic desires to know about the lives of other people through their pictures on facebook has made me do this.
Anyhow, Sarah ( my sis in law to be ) called me back and we had a great tete a tete. Too lazy to insert the required accents and too glad about life in general to care. I’m really quite prepared to do utterly injustice to my modules this semester by possibly failing. It’s just difficult to care about school when it’s fading out quickly in the black of yesterday.
Classé dans : 1
Sometimes I think I am the luckiest in the world, with a caring husband and doting in-laws. Most times however, I have to content with my annoying family who can’t seem to decide on a suitable date. Daniel’s exams and my mom’s leave end early october while Hilary’s vacation ends mid october . They demand that the wedding be held in mid october — the 11th right before Hilary’s vacation ends. One problem however is that the groom may not show up. You see, Patrick is scheduled to come back to the US between the middle of september to early october. Which is fine really, except the military has strange ways of doing things and if for some reason he gets extended because no suitable replacement can be made, then the wedding is screwed. So between having a groomless bride, and skipping 1 week of polytechnique classes, my dad chooses the latter. And my mom? She insists that the wedding should be held in June instead even though I will already have relocated to Japan by that time, and also taking 3 weeks of leave from my NEW job will probably leave me unemployed. My job, she argues, is considerably less important than hers. At this point of time, my patience are fraying and more than ever, I am glad to leave this household so soon. I wish with all my heart that my parents could be a little bit more supportive of my new life ahead. I am perplexed ; all they have to do is show up for the wedding and even that they can’t do. This is the last thing that they’ll ever do for me and I wish they saw it that way because after that I’ll never ask them for anymore favors if I can help it.
For the last two weeks, my days have been an emotional roller coaster alternating between impossibly happy moments and dissolving into angry tears. My in-laws have been amazing. Patty and I talk every week now and she has been so helpful. His entire family is so supportive and if I wasn’t already in it, I’d be so envious of the warmth, the solidarity that is their family. In all honesty, Patrick and I deserve only the best after all that we’ve been through. 3 years of long distance, 7 months with him in Iraq and my difficult parents, well that says it all doesn’t it? I stubbornly believe that after a relationship wrought with so many trials and tribulations, that my wedding will be more than perfect.
In spite of all that, I am still the luckiest girl in the world because I will be spending the rest of my days with Patrick. That’s really all I want to do ; the wedding is to tell everyone how much our love is beyond the champagne and the romance. He gives me my first and last smiles of the day. Any extra random calls are much welcomed and my day is immediately brightened. I couldn’t possibly be any more fortunate because happily, he loves me as much too 
We deserve a happy life together because we’ve been through hell and back so many times but heaven is just out of reach now.
* update// my mom came to my room and sorted out the dates with me. So we’re looking at October 18th now. Prayerfully, we hope that Natalie’s love story unfurls into a happy beginning with the groom at her side during her wedding as it’s meant to be.
