Here's to a great New Year and may all that you hope, wish and pray for come to pass in 2006.

Someone at work tipped me off that authentic Legacy Coach bags could be bought on Ebay even though they've disappeared from Coach store shelves. I found this beauty and it's purple, my favourite color. Oh, and it's brand new too!!

I've never bought anything on Ebay before. It was a bid item, and things got quite exciting during the last 10 minutes. Now to wait patiently for its arrival in the New Year.

I'm at work, skivving (shhh!!) when I should be working. I've got a folder crammed with stuff to do but today is just not a day to be spent indoors. I'm still, unfortunately, in a holiday mood. "Anywhere but here" is my motto for today.

Ok...so what can I do besides the obvious blogging and surfing that will make me look oh! so productive? Your tips and suggestions are welcome.

Note (9:28pm): It's finally over and I'm home. I can't wait to see what 2006 brings. I'm hoping and praying for something but will let you know once it becomes real.

I've lately noticed greetings for Christmas being replaced by 'Happy Festivus" or "Happy Holidays". Whatever happened to Christmas? And the whole reason for it in the first place - the birthday of Jesus Christ.

I've read about shops in the US greeting shoppers with "Happy Holidays", and was a bit stunned. You know, in multi-racial, multi-religious Singapore, I wish my Muslim friends with "Selamat Hari Raya" (the day after the fasting month of Ramadan), and my Hindu colleagues with "Happy Deepavali" (Festival of Lights). Even my Chinese friends and suppliers get a "Gong Xi Fa Cai" for their New Year. And they in turn wish me "Happy Christmas" or "Happy Easter".

Being PC is just ridiculous when the day in question is YOUR particular holiday and EVERYONE knows it. I don't celebrate those holidays but nothing stops me from wishing those who do, and using the right words to say so. Even if they didn't celebrate anything, I'm not going to stop wishing some one a Merry Christmas because it's not part of their religion. It is the name of the holiday after all, for pete's sake.

There's simply just no excuse for giving funny half-baked greetings like "Happy Festivus". Too PC? Most definitely!

As Christmas is nearly over, the next big holiday for us in Singapore, and for Chinese people everywhere, will be Chinese New Year at the end of January 2006. Tomorrow, the Christmas decorations will come down and the Chinese New Year ones will start popping up. Chinataown will be THE place to go for all the yummy goodies.

Chinese New Year is the time for visiting family, exchanging 'angpows' or red packets with money, usually given by married people to children. Older folk get 2 oranges from the younger generation, symbolising longlife and prosperity.

And oh! what a different Christmas this is! For like the 2nd time in my famly's history, we're having a lower than low key Christmas. No party at No. 14 this year. No scrambling around to get things prepped, roasted, baked, fried, stewed, boiled, glazed and garnished for a dinner tonight. No setting up garden tables, chairs and stringing party lights. No rushing to get ready at 6pm in preparation of early guests. It's just been a quiet... restful... day.

I woke up at nearly 12pm, exchanged presents with equally sleepy parental units (we didn't turn in till after 3am last night, following a Christmas mass at 9pm and Mom's delicious supper; of Eurasian chicken pie, brown-sugar roasted Australian ham and Mom's pickle). Got 2 phone calls in the wee hours from my sis who's somewhere in Missouri with her hubby G and his family. Then after lunch, I received a 2 1/2 hour phone call from P in DC. Poor guy! We talked so long that he now has only 5 1/2 hours of sleep before waking up to drive nearly 2 hrs to his brother's. Thanks P...but that phone call was priceless!

For once, let there be peace around the world today. On this holiest of days, no bombings, no attacks, no shots fired. These lyrics are based on the prayer of St. Francis of Assissi...and it's one of my favourite hymns.

Make me a channel of Your Peace!
Where there is hatred, let me bring your love.
Where there is injury, your pardon Lord.
And where there's doubt, true faith in you.

Oh Master, grant that I may never seek
So much seek to be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved, as to love with all my soul.

A Merry Blessed Christmas all.

It's pouring rain. It's cold, well, as cold as a tropical island can get in the middle of December and the monsoon season. I have a cold and I have the house to myself. And now with a cup of hot cocoa beside me, it's perfect.

You know, over the past years and recently, I've encountered people here who boast of their love of the cold, and claim to be able to 'stand' it even in a thin t-shirt. Yes...I do too, only usually when it is cold (especially in my office and nearly all public buildings here!), I'll be wearing something warm like a cardigan, sweatshirt or a pashmina, not a tank-top and fisherman pants. I'm not stupid enough to walk around in bermudas and t-shirt mouthing, "Cold huh? Waah...you very weak huh? Must take more vitamins." And you wonder why so many fall sick during this period. These individuals take pride in their yeti-like prowness. Mostly men, they use it as a badge of machismo. And their stupidity.

If another taxi driver flexes his cold-bloodedness to snigger at me shivering in the back seat in almost artic-like temperatures (I kid you not! So many cabs here are refridgerators on wheels!), I swear I'll bop him!

...is arm-deep in books, piled high on nearly a hundred tables, lined up row by row in a cavernous expo space. Then sitting at the nearest Starbucks with a Venti of double-shot latte with hazelnut syrup to enjoy the spoils of the day.

Care to join me?

Seldom has anything hurt as much as when I saw those pictures. Amazing - what I thought was and what really is. Makes me wonder about my place at all.

I guess nobody is ever what you expect them to be. Maybe it's best to not expect anything from anyone, anymore. It's simply NOT worth it.

I'm off for 5 glorious days, starting tomorrow. And I'm starting to experience a slight tingle...

I haven't done my Christmas shopping yet!! Not one!!

And I've got to find my Christmas spirit - it's buried under deadlines and a stack of work to clear before I go on leave. Anyways, will be off from 23/12 to 27/12...woohoo!

Just something I 'sketched' for Illustration Friday while fooling around with the new Photoshop.

Falling maple leaves against a blue sky - it's so easy to imagine that I'm somewhere cold, bundled up in layers of wool, sipping on hot chocolate. Instead I'm in hot humid Singapore, staring at pictures of falling leaves, imagining...

Oh, this Mac G4 Powerbook is a thing of beauty - I think I'm in love. LOL!

I've finally set up my internet connections, hooked up a new mouse, downloaded software, configured my email and ftp. The next step is to transfer all my files from my old laptop to this one.

So bear with me for awhile. This site may experience some downtime. I hope to get everything just right by the end of the year.

I finally got my Mac. Or more specifically, a G4 15inch Powerbook with 512 RAM and a Super Drive. With FREE 1GB RAM, 25 blank DVDs, Phillipe Starck Mouse and a laptop bag. Also bought an incase sleeve and got the Apple Extension Warranty at a great price!

You see, this morning when I opened the papers, there it was. A full page ad of the grand re-opening of Apple Orchard. And some really GREAT laptop deals. Including that free 1GB RAM with vouchers to the first 20 Powerbook buyers!

I flew out of the chair, into the shower, dressed, changed and was at the store in 30 minutes and BOUGHT one of the last 4!! I was so excited, I was shaking as I cornered a sales guy to see if they had any left. I did a small 'Whoop! when told they had! A good friend, Flee, had been hanging around there with instructions to secure the last one with whatever means necessary for me.

I was also eyeing the iPod Nanos that were half off but those got snapped up early. Never mind...I got what I really really wanted.

Now...the sad bit. I've got to put everything away till Tuesday as I've got tons of copywriting to do by then. So everything is still in boxes and bags till then. *Sigh!*

Yup...it's been THAT bad. For the past two weeks, I've been floundering outside my comfort zone, helping a sick colleague in a project that had "Screwed Up!" emblazoned on it.

It was a last minute product promotion that the client dumped on us ONE week before its intended launch. ONE WEEK! These things usually take at least a month to plan and coordinate but we had ONE FREAKING WEEK. And with a key colleague out of the picture for the entire time, the whole bloody campaign fell on the shoulders of me and another. We struggled along as best we could, both of us out of our element as neither of us have EVER done event management or planning. Our job scopes are vastly different too. We checked and double checked everything with each other. A third colleague was involved but he didn't do much in giving us support. And that's another issue...

Things came to a head on Thursday with both of us having a mini breakdown in the office. The stress we were experiencing was like NOTHING I've EVER experienced as a designer, copywriter or even in my latest capacity in creative services. I think several ulcers popped and I probably grew several new ones too, no thanks to THE MOST difficult client EVER! If it wasn't for the timely intervention of our two bosses, I think we'd both have gone running out of the office screaming. I kid you not.

The promotion is now well underway at a number of supermarkets throughout Singapore. There have been several hiccups but so far it's been ok. Not a resounding success but ok. What can you expect when you give such a short notice for a project of this size!? I just know that the client is going to use all those minor problems to get discounts on her quotes from the agency.

There's definitely going to be a post-mortem after this whole exercise. My first reaction is that this project should NEVER have been taken on in the first place. What started out as something creative with event management thrown in became pure logistics hell. And we should have charged the client the sun, moon and stars for all the crap we got.

For now, I'm just glad it's over.