Sweet suprise!

Clock reads 5.51am. I am the unearthly (quote Bobo) girl.

Despite such a weird hour, I am refreshingly awake and hungry. Thus, I am eating my regular supper, a bowl of koko krunch and milk. To think that 10 years ago, it was my regular breakfast.

Today is worth an entry because I have finally started mugging. I actually managed to write notes for 4+ consecutive hours. WOW! The diligence, I suspect, is largely due to my realisation that I know nuts when reading the lecture notes. Disorganization just clouded my mind.

Firstly, I had to admit I had not been very attentive in class. Secondly, other than during class, I have never read my lecture notes prior to this. Thirdly, I only read my textbook once, which is more of scanning for important stuff to highlight than understanding and absorbing.

However, the trigger is probably really because I cannot predict the exam questions! Usually, I will just instinctively pick out exam questions when I study. It’s my habit or instinctive behaviour since secondary school (I don’t remember doing that in primary school, besides I highly doubt there is anything worth spotting in primary school, at least during my days) and it works perfectly. This is no short-cut because for it to work, there has to be a foundation – adequate understanding of the materials, which is clearly missing this time round.

Anyway, it is good, because it grows the seed of urgency in me. Furthermore, like my helpful coursemate said, there is still a week! So all’s fine

Now, the real reason for this entry is because I received a sweet surprise in the mail!

It’s a postcard from Diana! She is my other intern friend, like Prof! But unlike Prof’s, this postcard is totally a surprise because she did not say anything about it and did not ask me for my address. Either the mailing label on the parcel I sent to her has my address or she has gotten it from Prof, I still have no idea. Anyway, it’s super sweet

I am very inspired to start mailing Christmas cards this year again! People please email me your address! LOL. This sounds very insincere. But the problem with not making friends write in autograph books, like in primary and secondary schools, is that is very hard to mail surprises to your friends. Because if I ask your for your address, it is like so obvious lah! Still, hopefully, I will get to collecting addresses after my exams and before I fly to Japan. This is so exciting!

P.S. There is no new episode of Gossip Girl today! I shall watch 富贵门 to sleep instead.

看前面 忘记了是那个夏天

When I can’t sleep at the weirdest hours, like now (clock reads 5.30am), one of the things I like to do is to search for songs that describe my current mood.

试着看见 让时间倒转回到从前
认真如我 有抓不到的边缘
在想像的空间里不断徘徊
让画面永远明确
就算是闭上眼 也无法否决

There is only one thing worse than not getting what you want, and that’s getting what you want.

This is the textbook I am currently reading for my exams, although my cover looks slightly different, and is also the last textbook for my undergraduate life as a Psychology major. I am graduating!

I don’t feel that much exhilaration any more nor have I slipped into depression/emptiness/frantic-job-searching mode. I suppose this is just one of the odd-semester-syndrome.

Anyway, this is the second textbook that actually made me feel inspired. The first being my first textbook in University, the Introduction to Psychology, which I used to regard it as the bible.

Back to the textbook, I feel that this should be classified as a general self-help book rather than a guidebook for counsellors/therapists and the wannabes. The textbook is like a exploding balloon of insights.

After reading the textbook, it further enhanced my earlier decision that if I am to really further study in Clinical Psychology, I will first have to get a job in this area and be certain that this is not only a career I love but also one I can do well at. Passion alone is not enough, and it takes more than hard work to become a skilled helper. In some ways, certain abilities or skills are almost intrinsic, not easily learned. Therefore, to simply jump straight into graduate school will be silly, and in many ways, unfair to others.

It also made me re-think of my relationship with certain persons. Especially pertaining to those who appeared to play as a devil advocate in my life. No matter how annoying or even frustrating these people are, usually in the form of challenging my viewpoint or decision, I still love them. And so I felt a little upset as I thought of a friend, one whom I have not spoken to since I entered University. Even though I have more perspectives to our respective behaviours back then, I still wish things never had to become that complicated.

Lastly, it is really important to at least have one concrete and clear goal at any point in one’s life. It is because of a goal that made me so concentrated, though I now lament too much, in my studies for at least the first 2 years in my undergraduate life. Today, I no longer remember what that goal is. I thought of a lot of possibilities, both directly and indirectly related to academic, but none appeared to be definitely the one. Perhaps this is also why it has been very exhausting for the last 1.5 years, working hard towards something that holds no meaning to me, or at least not any more.

Today, my goal is simply to be happy and keep the people around me happy.

Pre-order for iPhone cases at HMG

For the past three days, I have only read half a chapter of Clinical Psychology. So what have I been busy with?

1. Sleeping 8 to 10 hours a day. I just cannot drag myself out of the bed.
2. Going out.
3. Downloading applications for my iPhone.
4. Playing games on my iPhone.
5. Looking for cases for my iPhone.
6. Watching teevee, 宫心计 and 富贵门.

And before I know it, the day is gone! I have been so chilled that I always thought that my exam is on next Friday, until someone reminded me that next Friday is actually a public holiday. Kudos! I need to stop slacking, starting from reading a chapter before I go to bed!

Before I end off, I shall do a little advertisement for HMG

As it is really hard to find pretty and cheap skin covers for iPhone in Singapore, HMG has decided to do a pre-order for these lovely skin covers!

Check them out at HMG.

Lotsa love for iPhone covers

I am so high over looking iPhone covers!

Can someone please me buy this?

It’s oh my so pretty and in purple! However, it comes with a hefty price tag of almost USD70 and this is without shipping. Early Christmas present for me please?

Another one I really like and probably will carry it for a longer time is:

One thing I notice is there is a wide variety of iPhone covers featuring Hello Kitty, like this one:

However, the selection for Disney is pathetic and rather ugly. What’s happened to the Disney camp? Please start producing pretty Disney iPhone covers!

As much as I love chocolate, people have to stop trying to feature chocolate in every possible thing, from facial mask to iPhone cover. This just looks really weird and I am sure it will not be comfortable to hold the iPhone with this:

Clock reads 5.29am. And no, I have not yet studied. And I have to wake up early tomorrowlater for the delivery guy and an appointment. Okay, time for bed. Although I am very tempted to continue playing my wheel of fortune!

I don’t believe in breaking the rice bowl of someone’s, but this is simply unacceptable.

After a meet-up with B & R on Japan, I met my mother and had my worst customer service experience ever. Even though I may, yes, whiny in front of certain people and thus may appear to be a complain queen, I had never made any official complaints against anyone.

As I have worked in the customer service line before, I do understand the frustrations faced by customer service officers after a long day and that they are also humans and thus may be experiencing a bad day (even though it is unprofessional to show it at work). Moreover, I believe in the saying, “Do not break other people’s rice bowl.”

Nevertheless, the behaviour of the particular customer service officer at the hello! store (ComCentre) is unfathomably unacceptable. I was so pissed that I rather walked over to Takashimaya rather than buying the phone from him as I believed that he may earn commission (and the last thing I want to do is put money into his pocket). It would save me a lot more trouble if I were to ask to speak to another officer, but I really do not want to kick up a fuss plus words tend to be overly hurtful at the moment.

Luckily, the officer at Takashimaya was totally at the other end of the spectrum. Not only did he deliver basic customer service, he also provided value-added services, like taking the initiative to provide me with helpful explicit information. Hence, I noted a little compliment of him at the end of my complaint for the previous officer.

My complaint (details of the CS officer was provided in the other boxes of the complaint form):

It is unfortunate that I have to bring to your awareness of a CS officer who is clearly unable to deliver the necessities of his job, including product knowledge, a positive attitude and credibility. Firstly, he was unable to answer my questions regarding the basis on which the phone price will be based on in the future after signing up for the rebates for recontract (on my mum’s behalf) and broadband mobile. When I asked the same question again, he showed displeasure, and either gave me the same statement that did not answer my question; (2) vague answer and did not clarify despite being probed; (3) a different answer (e.g. “The system does not allow me to check stock availability in other outlets -> Some branches have stocks but I don’t know if they are faulty/reserved.”). Hope to see better service, like salesman code 8210 taka branch.

Yes, I am the one who complained against you, because not only did you show a lack of capability to deliver your job’s duties but is also clearly not interested in your job. I can cite a lot of examples to demonstrate your unacceptable lack of product knowledge and bad customer service, however, (lucky you!) there is a character limit to the complaint box.

Maybe my expectations have gotten higher over the years. However, I get way better customer service (yes, the basic + value-added services) at fashion boutiques (and I am not even talking about the high-end ones). If the salesgirl can take the initiative to help me call other outlets for stock availability of a skirt that costs less than $100 and offer to have the skirt sent to a outlet that is more convenient for me, I would at least expect the service of checking stock availability at other outlets and inform me of the outlets that have stocks when I have made an explicit request pertaining to a phone that costs more than $600 and also a 2-year contract.

I still love Singtel! Because all my other experiences with Singtel are very positive. Plus I am a loyal brand user. So please, don’t ever make me decide to switch operator. As much as I hate hassle, there is a bottom line to my acceptance of unacceptable customer service.

P.S. I am so addicted to Wheel of Fortune on my iPhone! And I have not studied even a single page the entire day. Faints.

保持通话

OMG! 保持通话 is so good! No wonder there is a Hollywood remake.

Yes, I know I ought to be studying. I have only slightly highlighted more than half of the book!! Gosh.

Initially, I only wanted to watch half of the movie and continued watching tomorrow. But it was just so exciting that it took me a while before I managed to drag my butt out of the chair to throw away the cup noodle. Then I returned and watched finished the entire movie. It’s so good!

Now I feel more awake to study (clock reads 1.39am). I shall start studying after a quick wash-up.

A Colour Trouble

Because I cannot remembered the exact colour name of the highlighter I am using, I simply described it as orangey yellow to my mum. However, my mum read it as orange and yellow, and got me one packet of refills for each colour.

Although orange clearly looks darker than the highlighter colour I am using, I thought it might be the same case as hair dye. If you have coloured your hair yourself before, you will have realized that the colour mixture is somewhat different from the actual colour that will turn out on your hair. So, I happily refilled my highlighter with orange.

It worked fine for a couple of lines, then gradually, the colour got darker and became more and more orange. This is not wrong in the sense that the refill is orange. However, this is not my original colour! Then I realized, the highlighter itself actually has the colour code – cream yellow -.-”

In my attempt to fix the colour, I refilled the highlighter with yellow. Sounds like I am overdosing my highlighter, but because I usually have a few highlighters of the same colour, I have the habit of sharing one refill over two highlighters. Hence, in the end, I only refilled one tube for each highlighter. But it is still very orangey!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with using a different colour, except that it irks me. Now my textbook has two highlight colours and it is annoying. This is why I self-claimed to be somewhat OCD.

Now I am hoping that there are refills in cream yellow at the bookstore even though my mum says that she don’t remember seeing another kind of yellow. Sigh. Give me cream yellow!

P.S. (an hour later) The entire chapter is now filled with various shades of orangey yellow -.-”

What always happens? Life.

I like Summer and I pity Tom. I am not sure if he finally understood Summer by the end of the 500 days, or even why she did what she have done.

Tom: You don’t want to be named as someone’s girlfriend, and now you’re someone’s wife?
Summer: I woke up one morning and I just knew.
Tom: Knew what?
Summer: What I was never sure of with you.

And maybe he does not have to, since she is clearly only a part of history now. A lesson on life more than an experience of love.

Summer: Love. You don’t believe in that. Do you?
Tom: What. It’s love, not Santa Claus.

The right to be confessed and the right to not confess.

Quite sometime back ago, someone told me that it is an obligation to tell the person you love that you love him/her. The argument was that the person has the right to know. My view, however, was that the individual also had the right to not pronounce his/her love out loud too. Because both of us were very defensive at that moment, we did not get pass to elaborating our stand.

I am mentioning this because I got reminded by a drama I was watching today. However, dramas being dramas are sometimes very vague. And so, I still do not understand why. What is so wrong to keep your feelings to yourself, or at least, not to the other person?

Anyone care to elaborate?