other people's birthdays are joyous occasions.
written: 6:43 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 03, 2007

Tempted to stop by HMV tomorrow to pick up a Clash CD. I'm ashamed to say that the few songs of theirs that I have were all downloaded. I don't like mp3's, haven't you heard? That is, apart from when I rip the songs in my store-bought CDs into my mp3 player. Generally I kind of enjoy paying for the things I want, unless the free song download is legal (have a few of those). And toss-up between buying a high-quality pirated DVD and downloading an AVI of the movie? I'd choose downloading. If it's illegal, it should be free. Don't ask me to justify that.

Anyway, we celebrated Yun's 21st birthday on February 1st, which was, like, the actual day itself! Pearlyn was apparently the one that attempted to plan the surprise but uh, I think it was pretty obvious that the birthday girl already knew what was going on. Bad Pearlyn, baaad.

Just kidding. We all love Pearlyn because she's so sweet and generous. We had dinner at this Japanese restaurant at Marina Square whose name I didn't quite catch. So, as expected, pictures!

Limei made us pose with the menu. We took another one before this but Yun was laughing so hard that she didn't smile properly. Yun was all, "This is the most retarded thing I've ever done!" I concur, indeed.

Pearlyn, Limei and Junmin posing with the menus.

My only picture with just the birthday girl. How sad is that? I think Yun looks really cute here, too.

Pearlyn and Limei talking about something. Nice candid shot.

The obligatory food post. The don'tknowwhat egg-mushroom-crabmeat udon I ordered. It was nice at first but the udon made me sick after like twenty strands and uh, I didn't finish my food. It wasn't my fault; the udon just tasted weird. And I was full. Soup makes me full. Uh, yeah.

Yun with her birthday balloon in the shape of a cupcake. So cute!

The yummy mango mousse birthday cake from Bakerzin/Bakerzinn. Sorry, I don't do misspelled words. (Side note: People should learn how to spell. It's Bakers'/Baker's [depending on how many bakers are behind it] Inn. For the love of my sanity.)

Group photo.

Me, Shuting and Yun. We headed to Raffles City after dinner, where we proceeded to take lots of pictures in the area in front of: Starbucks; the escalators leading down to City Hall MRT station; and the entrance to Raffles City. I don't know why we couldn't have moved to a nicer spot, but 'twas fun anyway.

Shuting, Junmin, Limei and I. Quite tragic that my Trusts and Equities casebook had to be in the pictures, I feel.

Me and Pearlyn!

Going through the pictures made me realise how bad that dark grey cropped cardigan thingy looked with the colourful stripey top I wore. I absolutely hate that top, by the way. Got it yonks ago and wore it that day 'cause I was running late and I wanted to wear a tube I got from Zara during one of its older sales but on that day it looked too baggy and thus ugly and so I hastily grabbed the colourful stripey top from my closet and put it on and stayed in it for the whole day. I HATE IT. It makes me look pregnant. I'm NEVER wearing it ever again.

Anyway, it was fun catching up with them. I haven't seen Limei and Junmin in years. They brought up quite a lot of hilarious things that happened in our class, way back in 2001, 2002. Good times with good ol' friends. A fruitful Thursday evening and I hope Yun enjoyed herself!

**

I woke up at 10.15 this morning because I couldn't sleep and I was bored and had nothing to do so I decided to watch My Neighbour Totoro.

This movie will always have a special meaning for me. I watched it over and over and over again when I was kid growing up in Taipei - in Chinese, no less, and I knew it as Long Mao. I even had a pink plush Totoro bag, and also a grey one but I used the pink one more often. Prior to this morning, the last time I watched it was probably in primary school, perhaps even before I came back to Singapore. I won't pretend to remember what I loved about it; giving in to the urge to write sentimental things like, "Its imaginative story captivated me when I was kid" and whatever else is, quite honestly, false and insincere, because truth be told, I don't remember why I loved it the way I did. I just remember watching it over and over and over again, I even remember staring at a shelf full of Totoro video tapes when I was in this tuition centre thing somewhere in Taipei.

Whatever it was that enthralled me so many years ago, watching it now was a completely different experience. I found myself looking for subtext, for symbolism, thinking about what the movie is saying about childhood and the innocence that accompanies it, only to be corrupted when one gets older. Much as I wanted to, I couldn't really enjoy it for what it is: A cute Japanese cartoon with gorgeous animation and a simple story about two sisters discovering this giant dragon-cat and their interactions with said giant dragon-cat.

Watching it was kind of bittersweet. I don't know how to explain this, and so I won't.

**

I don't know what it was about this week's episode of Veronica Mars that compelled me to make an active decision to move things along for myself. The show gives me many epiphanies. I don't know if that's good or bad, considering the show ain't what it used to be. Well, some vague sort of an answer is better than none, I guess.

On a different note, my favourite quote of all-time from any episode of American Idol: "I don�t think I look like Jack Osborne. I look in the mirror and see Christina Aguilera."

It came from this overweight dude with frizzy hair who totally cracked me up and he sang Seal's Kiss From A Rose which is one of my favourite songs and yeah I'm totally rooting for him.

Going to do something else with my time now. Not studying. But what else is new. Note the lack of a question mark.

before sunrise // before sunset

Previously:
- - Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017
I'm moving. - Sunday, Jul. 11, 2010
In all honesty - Tuesday, Jul. 06, 2010
What I want for my birthday... - Sunday, Jul. 04, 2010
On Roger's behalf. - Friday, Jul. 02, 2010