A client's product launch I mentioned earlier will be held here - The Forbidden City. It's an upmarket bar and restaurant dripping in a decadent Chinoserie theme complete with opium beds, silk cushions, lounging mats and those famously huge replica terracota soldiers, all gathered here at Clarke Quay. I was there to get measurements and even during the day, it looks glamorous! I can't wait to see it on the night of 12 August. Oh, and the product in question? It's a non-prescription, all herbal supplement targeted at men. And it's a lot safer than Viagra too!

This has been the cause for the whirlwind in the past week and over the next 2 weeks. There's a lot of hand-holding with the company as it's brand new to the market, and of course, the miles of red-tape to clear with the HSA (Health Sciences Authority) for approval with the name and copy. Not to mention the umpteen deadlines to meet for things like photography which have so far, been a headache to coordinate. Things get approved at the last minute then there is a mad scramble to get things done. Arrgh!

But you know what? It's been a load of fun too.

Oh...Finally finished Harry Potter book 6 and was in shock at the end with the death of certain character. I don't dare post more in case a couple of friends who haven't even started reading the book (Sheila, Xin and Ees...will you guys hop to it!!!) kill me.

Ok...I've finally posted a new poll for the weekend. I think you can tell from its content, my frustration level. The next two weeks are going to be ABSOLUTELY crazy with pratically no breather till after 12 August. I've got a thumper of headache and it seems to have settled in my forehead, between my temples for the long-haul.

Yes, I'm stressed...and have NEVER been busier. This moment is like the eye in a whirlwind. One of those times I wish I had 2 heads, 4 hands or the day was 48 hours long.

Have a good weekend people.

I swear that this is more trouble than it's worth!

Egypt is out. One of the key reasons being that trip will leave me broke, broke, broke. Everything I've saved for my Holiday/Macintosh fund would be blown. I know that this would be the trip of a lifetime, but I don't want to get into such a state, and have to worry again later. I really really need to upgrade my Mac before my poor ole' G3 calls it a day. (Hang in there, baby! Pat, pat!)

It was suggested that if we really want to do Egypt, we plan that trip properly and target 2007. (My parents are off to the US in 2006, me included.) Then saving up for Egypt would not be a major problem, especially if freelance work continues in the way it has been doing.

So for now, it could be Italy or ...? I think I need to just make up my mind and focus. D is right. Throwing darts at the world map is not going to be the solution. And Italy has always been THE place for me, since Art History classes. I know exactly what I want to see, and where I want to go.

Maybe I'll just concentrate on that, and try to find either a complete package out of Singapore, or sign up for a land tour from there. I'd like D to join me but I realise that there could be a clash of when we both can leave...damm! One of us has to be flexible.

The search continues...stay tuned.

...falling sick! I'm sneezy for no reason today and it doesn't feel like my usual allergies, thank goodness! And my throat is starting to feel sore when I swallow. Not to mention the body aches. UGH! Hope it's just a 24-hour bug.

Any ideas how to arrest this before it becomes full-blown!?

...still unsure WHERE I'm going for a holiday. My sister is understandably concerned about Egypt after the bombings, but that was on the coast of the Red Sea, and no where near Cairo, Luxor, Karnak and Alexandri. I'm still crossing my fingers. My safety net vacation is always the US and my sister. But I want to save that for next year when she and G finally make the move to San Antonio, Texas.

...having vegetable soup for lunch. It's Campbells and easy to nuke in the microwave in our office pantry.

*AaacchoooOO!*

An unexpected development: Mom suggested that my sis and I kidnap our father for a 2 week vacation to Egypt. That suggestion floored us! And it's perfect!

This would be the trip of a lifetime for us: 3 egyptophiles wondering through tombs, pyramids, temples and museums from Cairo to Luxor, breathing the air of ancient history. Mom has zero urge to journey through the Valley of Kings and clamber down into King Tut's tomb (can you imagine that?). Dust and scorpions give her the heebee-jeebees. And I know she would be miserable.

I just woke up D (can you believe she and G were sound asleep at around 1030pm on a Saturday night !?!) and broke the news in a 5 minute phone call. Think I left her wide awake with excitement.

The next person to convince is my Dad - but only after D and I have finalised some things. While I know he'd go in a flash, we'd have to work hard to convince him that Mom can manage by herself at home for 2 weeks (she's already planning some sleepovers with her girlfriends, for goodness sake!), and that all he has to worry about is getting on the plane as D as the whole trip planned. And that for my Dad...will be the MOST difficult thing in the world. LOL!

Target take-off date is set of end October 2005. Stay tuned for more...

1. Went to Singapore Expo for the Premium Gift Show - for what else? Gift ideas for clients. Realised that I mis-read the venue in the papers - it was at SUNTEC exhibition hall!! Took a cab there.

2. After the show, took a cab back to office (all claimable). Was negotiating a very over-sized paperbag, a bulky handbag + 1 tall hot Starbucks hazelnut latte. As soon as I got into the cab, things bounced around and the coffee splashed out of the little hole in the lid and onto my white pants! GRrrrr... That was about 12pm.

3. At 1230pm, I was told an ad that was suppose to go out at 12 hadn't even been prepped!! WHAT!! The AE on the account didn't even give the heads up to the designer. She had clearly said yesterday that we could send it out today, but she didn't even look after her own ad by checking to see if the designer was notified. I shudder to think what would have happened. And she couldn't even see it!! All she could say was that she was busy with a presentation due at 1130 this morning. WHAT!? It doesn't take 5 minutes to let someone know, right? But it's ok for me to be juggling 500 things at the same time and still have to get each one done right. But that's my job...no problem, I can handle it. Why the heck couldn't she either? Only 2 clients on her plate and she thinks she has it hard. *rolling eyes* Oh for goodness sake!!!

4. I ran out for a quick lunch and bought a new pair of white & purple leather Nike shoes.

5. The best one yet - I bought Rowling's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, hardback adult-cover version from Bloomsbury. Note to self: To find and collect all hardback adult cover version from this particular publisher. Hopefully, they'll all be first editions.

It's a glorious Sunday afternoon but I'm stuck indoors at my laptop and with about 500 words to write. A good friend from Hong Kong is in town and wants to meet for tea today but I had to turn her down with a promise for a dinner early in the week.

And to top it all off...I nixed my own plans to queue up for the latest Harry Potter book on Saturday morning as that would have meant wasting at least half a Saturday afternoon catching up on some sleep (I've never been a morning person and the book was out at 7:01am), when I had 2000 words to write by Saturday night.

My Send Me To Italy/New Zealand/USA/?? Fund (pick one) is coming along quite nicely, thanks to copywriting assignments I've picked up recently. I'm semi-grumbling as my weekeds for the past few months have been shot and I don't have the luxury of burying myself in weekend read-a-thons like I did before. So on hindsight, if I had bought Harry Potter, he'd have to wait for at least 2 more weeks till I have some time to get around to him.

Focus on that holiday, I tell myself in the bathroom mirror, with thoughts of chucking it all aside for an afternoon of sinful sloth. It rained last night, the afternoon is cool and breezy and The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova is beckoning.

Sigh!

A new poll is ready. Since I've been desperate for a holiday, I'm curious to know what your idea of one is. See poll in left column. Have a great weekend, people!

A couple of things happened in the last couple of weeks that have made me really mad:

1. The London Bombings: This despicable act just shows how low some humans have fallen. These low-lifers use the cover of their extreme religious beliefs, sanctioned by the twisted teachings of a beautiful religion, to hurt, maim and kill innocent people. That these extremists have since been proven to be UK citizens is even more horrifying. Right about now, I feel like punching all those perverted zealots who insidiously get their followers to do their dirty work in a community and country that has given them a home, a job and a future.

2. The National Kidney Foundation in Singapore: This is an organisation that utilises public donations to provide subsidised dialysis to patients with kidney failure. It really does do a lot of good. But...after long years of rumours and lawsuits, it's been finally revealed that the CEO of the NKF HAS been earning about $600,000 a year in salary and bonuses ($25,000 a month plus 12 months bonus!). That has been a secret for a very long time. It all came out at a recent lawsuit he filed on Singapore Press Holdings for publishing a story last year on the S$990 the CEO/NKF paid for gold taps to be installed in his personal office toilet. What also came to light to the satisfaction of many who've heard these rumours for years is that he HAS been using his position to travel first class on airlines.

The NKF also keeps a fleet of 8 cars of which one Mercedes Benz is reserved for the CEO's family and another which he uses at work. Can you believe the arrogance of this man when he said that he was entitled to all these perks as the CEO which the board of directors have awarded him? What CEO in this day gets all those perks, let alone a CEO of a not-for-profit organisation? He's suppose to be running a not-for-profit organisation with about 1800 people (not 3000 as they have let the public believer) depending on life-saving dialysis.

What I felt was even more annoying was a board member who insisted that the $600,000 was 'peanuts'. PEANUTS!! Do you realise how that immediately cheapens the average man-in-the-street's monthly donation of $12 a month! That was a callous and insensitive remark considering that it's the PUBLIC that funds EVERYTHING that the NKF is built on and for.

As of this morning, the entire board and the CEO have resigned. A new broom sweeps clean, they say. What more will be uncovered as a new team comes on board?

My day started out great - busy with work, met some friends for lunch, browsed through a favourite art shop, until...a small voice piped up just behind me as I got off the escalator...

"Excuse me, would you be interested in a weight management service I offer?"

I was stunned!

Right there, in a semi-crowded shopping center, with my friends hovering, I was being told that MY weight was a problem and that I should be doing something about it.

My first thought was to be rude, really rude. But she did ask politely and was apologetic when I said I was simply not interested.

I'm floored, angry and hurt. Now I know I have put on some since mid last year. I've long had a battle with the weight machine which I'm not speaking to these days. I know going regularly for gym classes will help - if I can find the time to do it these days. I do want to lose but that is NOT a number one priority right now, nor is it causing me sleepless nights. While a bunch of my friends are FOREVER talking about putting on weight even when half of them are stick thin, they've NEVER pushed it to my face although that conversation does get really annoying at times.

I'm perfectly happy with the way I look and feel. Why do women especially the annoyingly thin ones in Singapore, love to harp on how fat they are *me rolling eyes* and make those around them who are more curvy, feel like they've sprouted facial hair or grown a horn?!

This woman had the gall to push it to my face. For a few minutes I felt an inch tall and just wanted to disappear into a crack. Now I'm angry for letting some stranger make me feel that way. It's not enough that there are ads in the papers and on TV constantly telling us how women should want to look and how they would be more attractive. Oh well, I guess that works for women with zero personality and brains. Like the one who ambushed me!

Just heard from a friend that there are these irritating ambushers who jump out at unsuspecting people and tell them that they need to lose weight. They have bee prowling through the MRT stations and shopping centres. Can you believe the audacity of them? What gives them the f***ing right to totally ruin somebody's day with such an offending sales tactic that the weight should come off? Let the next one BEWARE!!

The Rule of Four left such a taste that I'm indulging in some armchair traveling with Sarah Turnbull's Almost French. So far it's been a balm on an otherwise jaundiced week of that other book. Turnbull's adventures of her journalistic life in Paris, with a handsome Parisian boyfriend now husband, have been an eye-opener. I'm about one-third of the way through the book which reads like an expensive box of French chocolate.

I was enticed by its comparisons to Umberto Eco, Donna Tart and Dan Brown - all whose books I've enjoyed. But the comparisons are superficial at best: Eco for the exploration of an obscure Renaissance document, Tart for the college setting and friendships, and Brown for solving an age old mystery. It was never a coherent whole but a loose hodge-podge of incidences and characters. I was disappointed in the end.

Anyone want a slightly used copy? It's free.