*Brrr...*
It's COLD. I just spent a day out in the city. Dinner last night was FUN! Liz and I want to go and take bellydancing lessons now. Maybe they'll hire us at the restaurant... hmmm....
Over dinner, I realised how comfortable and friendly we've all become. We've somehow morphed into a "pop" sorta crowd and it sounds like high school, but we seem to have singled out an individual that we don't like. There's a running joke now between us... and I have a feeling we're going to be out of control in the class that we have with this person. Oh, no! Heehee...
I went out to buy new ink cartridges for my printer. It's actually worked out that purchasing a new printer is cheaper than buying new ink cartridges. Can you believe that? With this new printer I've bought, I can buy generic ink cartridges, so I save a lot in the future too... *sigh* what a pain.
Going out in a bit with Lyssi. We're going to Paramount, so it should be nice and mellow. I don't plan on drinking tonight. I just want to chill with people tonight.
Skating tomorrow morning... then it's work in the afternoon. I've got loads to read for next week. It's really starting to feel like grad school now... *gag*~

*What have I done?*
I think I may have managed to do what I feared I would do... I'm neglecting my friends. I haven't had a chance all week to catch up with my friends, and it's making me feel awful about myself. I'm thankful for the weekend, so I can regroup and get together with people.
Dinner tonight's going to be interesting. Amy managed to find a Turkish restaurant in our guide book. I'm excited about the waiters' attire. Apparently, they wear red satin balloon pants... *woohoo
I felt good about myself yesterday in class. The reading I had to do prior to going to class just went over my head. Discourse Analysis is looking to be a problem class for me. I don't understand Halliday's writing. Anyways... the good thing that happened yesterday, was that I managed to answer a problem in class exactly how Halliday would (or so my prof says). Heehee... I'm so proud of myself! It's funny, 'cause little things like this make me want to read more in this course and answer more question. How childish is that? It's the competitive side of me...
Gotta run. I've got loads of shopping to do. ACADEMIC shopping! (I know what you're thinking). I haven't bought all any of my books yet, and I've run out of ink and paper for my printer... I think I'm just going to buy a new printer. To buy a new colour and ink cartridge costs the same as buying a new printer... go figure.~

*Congratulations*
Congrats. You have successfully navigated to Ollie-Lollie's site.
It seems as though EVERYONE at TC has managed to find my page. Dunno if it's a good thing or a bad thing. One thing for sure is... I may have to start watching what I say.
There's quite a bit of snow on the ground. It was particularly beautiful last night. Just after midnight, I went out to get nachos and salsa at Appletree, and the city just looked so pretty. The snow was falling hard then, and looking North up Amsterdam... it looked just like a ski slope.
I'm totally in love with the song "My Immortal" by Evanescence. It's so haunting. The music video is haunting too... so eerily beautiful.
On the other hand... I'm also crazy about Britney's latest single "Toxic". It's such an awesome song to dance to.
Anyways... I'm blabbering. Shoes are calling to me. There's a Beverly Feldman shoe sale today and no amount of snow can stop me from going... NO AMOUNT.
Riddle of the day:"Why did Ollie-Lollie cross the road?"~

*Je n'ai rien a dire*
As the title of this blog suggest... I have nothing to say.
Classes are underway. I'm trying to convince my advisor to let me take more than full course load. I have a feeling that I'm really going to like Sociolinguistics, but the pace of the class has to definitely pick up if that's going to happen.
I've had requests for a response box of some sort for this blog... I'm going to work on that...
In the meantime, I've got to get going now to get myself ready for class. Hope everyone's well and hibernating like me...~

*AWESOME!*
The R-squared birthday/new year bash went great! It was so awesome to see everyone out en masse. I don't know exactly how many people showed up, but the guest list was at 62 before we went...
I had a really great time. Certain friends of mine also apparently had a super time *ahem*. It was funny people watching... enough about that though... there are some things we'll never hear the end of, right?
I'm so tired... my neck really hurts for some reason... I didn't sleep right last night...~

*Obsessive-Compulsive*
I have OCD tendencies. When I'm in one of my moods, I clean like there's no tomorrow. I was in one of those funks this morning... so what did I do? I scraped about 2 pounds worth of pigeon poopie from my window sill. GROSS.... But at least now, I'm not afraid to open that second window.
My room's the neatest it's been in months. All I need to do now, is to do my laundry. For some reason, I can create a heap of laundry after only 2 days. It's mainly due to my "never twice" towel rule... I find it very difficult to use a bath towel 2 days in a row. Ah... just only one of my weird quirks...
Right... gotta buy my books and get to class. *groan*...~

*Passive-Aggressive*
So I was asked today - "Do you prefer a passive or aggressive partner?" (What kind of a question is that anyways?)
Answer is... I dunno. The traditional girl in me likes a man to be aggressive and "take charge". But it can be too much when this happens all the time because I'm a pretty darn outspoken girl. But on the other hand... passive men annoy me to no end... sometimes. When they're passive at the right time, it can be really sweet... but again... NOT ALL THE TIME! The traditionalist in me wins over. Men should take charge and be more pro-active and ask their ladies for their opinions from time to time... Yeah... I'm not that big a feminist afterall...
I guess I like my men to be more aggressive. My relationships with passive men have been pretty disastrous, and I'm not afraid to lash-out out of frustration... which is actually pretty nasty of me now that I come to think of it...
ANYWAYS! It's bloody freezing here! The wind is ultra-nippy, but my earmuffs are helping. I don't have enough clothes to throw on to keep me warm! The cold just seeps through ANY openings in your coat and attacks you! (well... that's how it seems anyways).
HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR, EVERYONE! Gong Xi Fa Cai! The monkey in me is restless... I'm still fighting jet-lag (hence the blogging at this insane hour)... Since I'm up, might as well do some Pilates mat work...~

*Fly*
So my birthday came and went... *pouf*... just like that.
I had a fun day. I quietly ushered in my 24th year of existence with my friend Amy. We ran errands for the first part of the day, had pasta at a really swank restaurant for dinner... and had the BEST cupcakes in the world for dessert (@ Magnolia). I'd been dying to go down to Magnolia's for ages and eat Cupcakes a la Sex and the City where Carrie and Miranda devour theirs. We did it... VERY good cupcakes...
It felt different to celebrate the day quietly. I like that I got to relax on the day of, and that there's a huge party just round the corner. Can't wait for Friday...
I just realised that I may be able to work afterall here in Manhattan! I think I may actually go ahead and get it all sorted out and work... Hmmm...
Righty-ho... I've still gotta unpack. My room's a sty!~

*BIRTHDAY!*
It's my birthday! I've been waiting for it for a whole bloody year! Oh... and HAPPY BIRTHDAY GREG! It's nice to have a friend who shares this day with me... heehee...
It's perfect! There's snow on the ground, I'm in a city that I love and I'm feeling good about myself. It's been a while since I've felt good about myself, and it's about time. I have a feeling I'm going to have a pretty good year. I don't really want to be 24, because it's almost 25... and 25's almost 30, but I guess it's alright. It sounds a little more mature than 23.
I think I want to spend the first half of the day alone in the city... just exploring a bit and buying myself some birthday treats. I'll head out to dinner afterwards with a couple of friends and quietly celebrate my day... the big bang is going to be this weekend...
So yeah... I'm going to have a good year. I'll take the good with the bad and still I'll make it an awesome year... Yee-ha!~

*I'm BACK!*
Ah... It's good to be back in the city. There's snow EVERYWHERE! It's not too cold though... just right.
I'm severely jet-lagged. After my 15 hour flight, I was cooped up in the tin can for another 30 minutes to wait for a bay at the airport. Then, I waited an hour and a half for my suitcases to come out. It took me another hour and a half to get home. I was so exhausted that I crashed the minute I got in, and now I'm wide awake at 2:30am. Good thing I knew to come back early, otherwise I'd never make it to class this week...
I did a lot of thinking and reflecting on the plane. According to fortune tellers, I'm supposed to have an awesome year. Let's hope that they're right. Anyways, I was thinking because I was watching my new Sex And The City DVD and I always thought of myself as somewhat of a blend of the 4 women. I now realise that I'm much more like Charlotte than any of the others, even more so after her divorce. I know I'm a bit of a nutter to think that my life mirrors a TV character, but I do think that the writers of the show wrote the show to reflect all that women go through this day in age through the 4 characters. Each character possesses traits that the modern woman strives to achieve. We all want to be sassy like Carrie, tough and successful like Miranda, wild in bed like Samantha but yet traditional and optimistic like Charlotte. Seriously, think about it... women go through life pretty much like a schizo goes through a day...
I'm hungry... I wonder who delivers in Manhattan at 3 in the morning?~

*HK*
I leave HK in 11 hours. All in all, I think I had a pretty good stay this x'mas. Except for the getting sick part, it was rather pleasant. It didn't rain at all the whole entire month I was here (well, I think it was spitting a bit when I was in the movies the other day, but that doesn't count). I got to explore Kowloon-side a bit, but I have to admit... I'm DEFINITELY a HK Island girl.
I have to face it, I'm never going to be able to make new friends in HK that I really enjoy spending time with. There are only 4 people here that I've known for a while and I really genuinely like hanging out with. I guess that's what makes me love Toronto and New York so much... I'm able to make new friends easily over there AND enjoy hanging out with new people. If I could just combine the friends aspect and the work aspect... then I wouldn't hesitate about coming back here to live for a while.
Oh... I did something pretty drastic to my hair today! I think it looks awesome... but I think some people are going to comment about the much shorter hair. It's not THAT short, it's just past my shoulders with LOADS of different shades of red highlights in... WICKED!
Gotta pack. I have to make sure I'm prepared for the freezing temperatures I'm returning to. I'm looking forward to seeing the snow though! I LOVE SNOW!~

*Wow*
I went and watched "The Last Samurai" today at the new theatre at IFC. The seats there are super comfy! And the movie was really really good. I'm really glad I got to see it. I really don't like Tom Cruise, but the movie was superb. It was beautifully shot and the story line wasn't bad. I had tears streaming down my face at the end... not that my movie pal isn't used to it already. I'm glad it wasn't ultra sappy. The "love" part of the movie was just enough, and that Japanese actress really is very graceful.
I had a good day. I enjoyed it in the city. HK always feels better when you're about to leave it... why's that?~

*Smiles*
I have really great friends. Today was a good "friends" day for me. I managed to haul my ass out to Amanda's place... she has such an AMAZING place! Her home is exactly what we PAY to go to on vacation. It's exactly something out of a storybook, with the winding path and fruit trees and all! A bit of a hike though, girl... my bum's a bit sore.
Part One of my birthday was celebrated today with my 2 best friends. Michelle and Connie took me out to Thai Basil for dinner, and they got me the BEST birthday present EVER! The cake part was a bit ghetto, but it was really funny and will forever go down as the quickest any 3 girls have ever wolfed down a whole birthday cake! The restaurant wanted to charge us a king's ransom just to cut the cake at the restaurant, so we ate (all within an hour!), and took the cake to PP's food court. There, we lit the cake, sang a VERY quick "Happy Birthday", and proceeded to pig out. It was real fun though, and I love my best friends for being such good sports and for being wacky with me. I'll miss you 2 while I'm in New York!
We went and watched "Magic Kitchen" afterwards (Chinese film, with my fave actor). It was a really cute story, and part of it was curiously appropriate for tonight. For a Cantonese film, it was pretty good!
Tomorrow's a bit wacky. I've got a load to do, and hopefully... I'll get to watch "The Last Samurai" with a friend in the evening. I guess HK's not THAT bad afterall??~

*New Friend*
My new friend is sweet and ALWAYS asks me to go to her house to play. Her name's Jasmine, and she's FOUR.
I finally found time to go play today, and I brought with me the pink scooter to give to her. She loves the scooter and I watched as she slowly went from just pushing it around, to full-on zooming around her living room. In return, she gave me a bag of my favourite sweets (Sugus sweets!). So awesome. I think I got the better end of the deal. I'm reminded again why I love little kids and why I hate them after age 6...
My trip to HK is coming to an end. I'm off to spend the day tomorrow with my friend Amanda on her island tomorrow (sounds posh, doesn't it?), then it's dinner and a movie with the gals tomorrow night.
I'm pretty proud of myself. I haven't spent much this month and I haven't really bought anything! My suitcase isn't even full! Quite astonishing. What's wrong with me??
Time to go nite-nite. I think I'll leave the shades up tonight and fall asleep under the moon and the stars...~

*Plus One*
I've been really ill these past couple of days, hence the lack of posts since Friday. Don't worry, it's not SARS, but I was (and still am) fairly under the weather.
Anyways... After my fever subsided, I watched a lot of telly and I got finally got around to watching Season Five of my favourite show. I watched the episode "Plus One is the Loneliest Number", and Carrie finally voices what a lot of women feel more often than not.
Am I lonely? I don't think so. In the last 3 years, I've learned to not depend on one person to make me happy and to not lavish all my energy onto just one person. In the last month, I've learned to explore the simpler things in life and not rely so much on material purchases to "show" what I have accumulated in my experiences.
I believe that everyone goes through life looking for that "plus one" - it's just harder for some. As my next birthday draws closer (T minus 6 days!), my new resolution is to not become jaded in my quest to find my plus one and to make as many happy memories as I can with all my friends around me.
Well... I'm off to make happy memories now. The sun is shining and I look pretty darn good today, considering how crappy I feel.~

*Um...*
Fun day today, but it ended on a slightly confusing note...
I worked again today. It was the last day of the exhibition and I came home laden with gifts. Here's the list:

1) The PINK scooter
2) The wine bottle opener
3) The karaoke machine
4) A remote-control All-Terrain jeep
5) A Baby-foot (fr. Eng=Fooseball?) table
6) A miniature treehouse complete with THE WORKS
7) TWO toyhouses complete with furniture and dolls
8) A complete Tea Set (toy)
9) A Walking Dick

Yeah... that last one reads "A Walking Dick". It was so funny... the dude in the next booth called me over and shoved it into my hand. He then showed me a cupboard full of his off-colour products. They were pretty much all "Dick" things and it even included a water pistol. It was pretty funny.
I went out to watch "Love Actually" with a friend tonight. It was a pretty good movie. I didn't realise that I needed to watch a movie until I sunk into that comfy theatre chair. I think Martine McCutcheon is so cute! But like my friend said, I'm more than a bit disappointed about the ending... We never find out about Laura Linney and the HOT guy! What the ??!?@?#?
Oh... the confusing thing... Let's just say it had something to do with the song I heard playing on the radio the minute I jumped into the Taxi... "Without You"...
Ok... gotta sleep. I'm going off to China for the day tomorrow to play golf with my gal pals. Woohoo!~

*Cool*
The awesome thing about working in Sales or Marketing is the amount of samples you get! I've been offered multiple samples to take home tomorrow from the fair and they include:

1) A beautiful PINK razor scooter
2) A replica of Noah's Ark that opens up with all the animals
3) A really cool no-hassle wine bottle opener
4) A CD player karaoke machine with microphone

Isn't that list so awesome? I'm seriously thinking about going into Marketing again...
Another cool thing happened today. About a year ago, I had sorta mentioned to a family friend that I was interested in joining the Liberal Party in HK to gain some political insight and experience. At the time, they weren't really interested in youngsters and instead, I just continued to help out with volunteering during election time. Today, I was told that my request prompted them to think about starting a "Young Liberals" thing, and a meeting was scheduled for the 18th. They have since found out that I'll be leaving on the 18th and they're trying to move the meeting earlier now so I can attend! SO AWESOME! I've always wanted to get involved in something like this...
So yeah... I had a pretty cool day today. I'm exhausted from work, but the rewards I got for this day were so great. I love my life right now!~

*Love*
I love my friends. I love getting steady emails from them. I love reading about how they're doing. Feeling lotsa love right now.
My best friend asked me yesterday that if there were a grand piano at her wedding, would I play the Wedding March for her as she walked down the aisle. My answer is yes, but I forgot to tell her (oops). Instead, I told her that it would be more romantic for a 4 piece strings ensemble to play Mozart...
More along the "love" theme... I've thought of the perfect wedding present for Sam. It's the BEST! And I don't think it's something people usually ask for, but wish they had... That's all I'm going to say.
On the flip side of things... I'M WORKING! I'm working here in HK this week *groan*. I'm working at the Toy Exhibition and it's incredibly tiring. I'm reminded again how I really don't like working in HK... well... in a "local" kinda company/setting anyways. I'm doing some marketing which was something I had wanted to do before... and I'm actually thinking about getting into that again. But hey, I change my mind about my career path every day anyways... who knows how long this desire's going to last?
Must crash... another long day tomorrow. Hope all's well out there! Be back on the 18th!~

*pix*
I've got LOADS of pictures! It's so exciting having a digital camera around. My dad got the new Sony digital camera, and since he really has no use for it... Sarah and I have pretty much taken over possession of it... temporarily. This new camera is FIVE megapixels! The pix that come from it are awesome! I'm going to buy another one though. I want the new one that I can use underwater... It looks pretty cute!
I finally got to see my best friend today. It was great to talk to her again and dinner was... "interesting". We're planning on going on a short golfing trip in the next two weeks... I'm so excited!
Gotta crash now... Mum, Sarah and I are heading to China for the day tomorrow... Woohoo!~

*Burp*
I've definitely over-eaten these last couple of days... er... make that these last 2 weeks. Today was the WORST.
I saw Bianca today... the first time this vacation, and she looks about the same. She's a cute and smart kid, but she's missing a kind of innocence, and that's a bit troubling...
I'm so tired. Living in a hotel is kinda bad... actually, living in HK is bad. I don't get enough fresh air unless I'm out on the golf course. I just keep feeling like I'm not getting enough oxygen. I really want to go to the beach. Maybe I'll grab a friend next week and lie on the beach for half a day.
*yawn* Need to crash. Will fill you in with more info later. I've got some new pics uploaded onto my yahoo photo album, but I don't know how to share it yet... so I'll post the link up later. Zzzzzzz........~

*Feliz nuevo ano*
Happy New Year to all!
My first blog of 2004... and I don't really have much to say. I haven't really done much. We played our golf competition on New Year's Eve... but mum's game was a bit "off"... and we didn't do as well as we could've. Oh well... mum's determined to redeem herself next year and we're going to really go for it next time 'round.
I went out to dim-sum today with my mum, sister and my mum's friend and her daughters. Her little girl is so cute. Jasmine's 4 years old and dressed all in pink because she knew she was going out for lunch with me and Sarah. It was this big pink dress with loads of frills and lace and ribbons... BUT... at the end of lunch, she came up to me and asked if she could play with me. I said she had to wait until we finished our lunch. She waited patiently until I polished off ALL the dessert on the table (heehee) and then asked sweetly again if I would play with her. I said yes and asked her what she wanted to do... to which she replied "I want to play guns". I almost choked on that last morsel of tart... but I said ok and went off to play guns with her. I turned my clutch purse into a machine gun and aimed to gun her down... she didn't move, so I said "you're supposed to die!". She immediately dove to the ground in her pretty pink dress... and I got a scolding from my mum. I then fashioned a hand grenade out of tissue paper and we threw that around the room a bit... before AGAIN I was told off by my mum... I'm reminded again why I love little kids... They can have fun even if you only have tissue paper around.
Right... Time to sign off. Hope everyone had a fun New Year's. This year was rather boring for me... but I got to spend it with family.. and one MAJOR HOTTIE!~