i have a large grey's-anatomy-sized hole in my life, because i have finished the season 1 DVDs and I've downloaded and watched all of season 2 that's aired in the US so far. The only thing that is keeping me alive is the fact that another episode will air in the US sunday night ie tonight but it's not tonight yet in the US obviously. anyway i will hopefully have my grey's anatomy fix again in a couple of days. i can't believe that four days in bangkok didn't cure my addiction, and i managed to watch 4 episodes 16 hours after getting back (despite ten of those hours being spent asleep).

another gaping hole in my life is the 18 discs of sex and the city -- all six seasons!!! -- that i gave away to the driver in bangkok, because my parents were convinced that we'd have been caught at customs. which is, i have to admit, a very real possibility given the nanny-state-ness of the country we live in. my dad also thought the censor-worthy status of sex and the city would've made it doubly worse, which is a little excessively paranoid in my opinion. however, i was forced to make a choice between 18 discs that would have helped eradicate some of the burden on my computer's hard drive, and my eagerly-awaited Rest of Future -- because my parents told me that if we were caught they'd fine heftily, raid the house and fine some more for every pirated disc and downloaded thing on computer, and they'd prosecute. meaning i would Never Go To University. so naturally i chose the eagerly-awaited Rest of My Future.

bangkok was good, though. once i made the decision to give away the dvds (god i sound like i made a decision to give away my baby or something) i drowned my sorrows in silver rings at chatuchak market. about 4 gorgeous rings, loveliness. and bright orange linen capris and a white tunicy thing and a big fat black GAP tshirt with a very cute picture of a london cab painted with the british flag and big yellow GAP-logoed pockets. i don't know who had the bright idea to put pockets on a london cab, but they might be messenger bags or something. whatever it is, cute. and four little celadon elephants.

other shopping: khao san. great shopping because i got two wrap skirts and white linen capris and a silver bangle in a tiffany-ripoff design at a fraction of the price. and those damn DVDs. which made me hugely happy at the time of purchase, after much convincing of the paternal unit, and happiness after bargaining brought the price down to 1500 baht for 18 dvds which is quite a steal. and now its just a bitter, bitter memory. i should've got just a couple of movies instead. Major Sigh.

the big malls like the much-touted Siam Paragon and The Emporium are huge ripoffs. they've got all the major labels under one roof, which is better than singapore where you kinda have to walk around Paragon and Takashimaya and Palais Renaissance and Forum before you get everything and even then that's less than Siam Paragon carries under one roof (that place is truly a scary behemoth) but the prices are pretty ridiculous. Philosophy beauty products at three times the US price. who in their right mind would pay 1800 baht for a facial cleanser? it's 20 USD on sephora, which of course doesn't ship to singapore or thailand so i guess the elasticity of demand is a little lower or something. but still. i'll wait till i get my fat ass to the US.

sightseeing's quite cool -- all that gold on the temples and palaces is surprisingly non-painful to the eyes. and our guide at the palace is quite an impressive photographer, she took some really nice shots of the four of us (my family, i went with bangkok with my family which is why i got to stay at a beautiful hotel and buy half a dozen silver rings and watch my mother spend half an hour buying a ruby ring and flush 1500 baht down the drain because of intellectual property laws, but didn't get to see patpong).

we walked around in the hotter-than-hell chatuchak market, got duped by tuk-tuk drivers, took a boat across the river every morning because the hilton's on the tonburi side of bangkok which is kind of out of the way but literally on the riverbank and the 360-degree-view from the rooftop jazz bar is as beautiful as it gets in a smoggy, high-rise-building filled city like bangkok. despite being a city girl through and through i don't actually find skylines very beautiful. oh and the hilton makes the BEST tomato soup. i'm a total tomato soup fiend, and this is the best i've had in ages. my brother and i ordered room service every day just for that. my dad was not too amused when he paid the bill.

the hilton staff themselves, angels that they are, told us that the hilton spa was not very good. so we didn't go to the spa :( :( :( the oriental spa is across the river but basically the parental units made several excuses to not spend money on the most expensive spa in the universe, so spa, again, was a no-go for poor old me. my mother professes that AMEX have given her some spa vouchers so she'll take me here. but i'm not counting on that. perhaps the first time i get myself a spa experience will be when i decide that i am willing to part with a couple of hundred of my own hard-earned money. pity me, people, for my spa endeavour has been foiled again!

that was my dramatic moment. i am calm now. this is why i haven't blogged recently. when i read the archives, something i avoid in general, i tend to wonder if i was on crack when i wrote most of it.

yup so that was bangkok. the service is excellent everywhere, the people are so damn nice. we got a rude awakening on the way back from the airport in singapore, with a Very Crabby Cabbie. first, he stood by and just watched while we loaded the luggage in the trunk. i know it's not his job to help, but normally if people don't help atleast they don't stand by and watch. then, while driving his speed kept changing and my dad noticed that he looked really sleepy, so he asked the cabbie - really nicely - if he wanted to stop for a while because he looked sleepy. the cabbie proceeded to yell that if he were sleepy the cab wouldn't be moving, and what was my dad trying to say and blah blah blah. it was kind of scary at almost midnight being driven home by a man who's yelling about not being sleepy. anyway i guess that woke him up because we got home in one piece. and all of us just shut up for the rest of the ride. my dad took a receipt so he could complain because even in singapore none of us had ever seen such a rude cabbie, but knowing my dad he won't bother complaining.

i was thinking i might end this with a point form recap of the last month or so during which i have not blogged at all, but obviously the prospect itself exhausts me because my life is so full of fun and excitement that there is much to blog. ok now i am compelled to recount the fun and excitement lest you should think i am making it up.

in no particular order:

i've been watching a TON of grey's anatomy since my dad brought me the season one dvd from the US.

i went for the paquito d'rivera and new york voices concert which was FABULOUS and then walked around in my fabulous new red heels which promptly broke.

so i took them back to Hue, the shop in raffles city where i paid 150 damn dollars for them. they refuse to refund me, and can't quite fix them up but will let me exchange them. i didn't like anything they had then so i'm going back tomorrow to see if the new stock's worth the 150 dollars. i suppose it's all good because the red heels, despite being damn cute under jeans, were a size too small and therefore killing my feet. they were an impulse buy despite there being about 6 hours between the time i saw the heels and the time i bought them. impulse purchases are my biggest vice.

watched transamerica, which didn't move me much but felicity huffman is amazing.

went to one of my parents' bridge parties, sampled good food and listened to all the Argumentative Indians (amartya sen is so right). they have interesting opinions, though, if you're the sort of person who can tolerate people with Very Loud Opinions. and then i cabbed off to nasty's uncle's place where we lasted through five minutes of Rumor Has It and switched to Death Becomes Her. which i lasted through ten minutes of before falling asleep with a large cushion clutched to me. and then i watched the second half, which was quite quite disturbing.

(yeah i know this was supposed to be point form, but i always had a problem with being concise.)

my work took me places! ie tampines. i went to sit in an office building on the other side of town and collect documents from customers. incidentally, i no longer telemarket. i now process forms for people who've already been convinced to open accounts. which is harder work than actually doing the convincing, which is why last week, for three days in a row i was at work till around 7. also because my boss told me to process a LOT of accounts before he'd let me have the week off.

after i bought the red shoes on that fateful day, there was prata with shooj and nasty. yeah i'm really not going in chronological order. prata is great, but i hate people who smoke. and i hate the smell of cigarettes. wonder why i actually like clubbing. the dancing/grinding into floor is good fun. and the punjabi guys of course. well i haven't done any of that since new year's, pathetic.

one night we also went to shoojee's for jazz and prata. and grapes and vodka with ribena, but that story shall never be told. it shall merely live in our memories, that is more than enough. then i had to go home because my mother dearest was uncomfortable with me sleeping in a Boy's house. the fact that it was merely shoojee did nothing to assuage her fears that i'll return knocked up and ruined. or whatever her fears were, i myself fear sometimes to ask what her fears are. sometimes one does not want to know the extent of one's mother's imagination.

many weeks ago it was valentine's day. after work i walked around orchard being annoyed with roses and couples making gooey faces at each other. yes, i was Grumpy Single Girl. but had dinner with good company and then saw a gorgeous pair of Nine West heels that i proceeded to resist, so the day didn't completely suck. plus i felt kind of strong and feminist wakling around CouplesWorld without my arm linked to that of a member of the male species, so it was... a validating experience i suppose.

many weeks ago there was also kelly's birthday surprise at the botanics, just a few days before valentine's. nasty has already recounted, complete with embarrassing pictures, on her blog. the botanics is a very pretty place, kelly liked her own personal zoo, lucas was cute as a button, the food was pretty good and it was funfunfun! besides the fact that i ended up suffering from a severe cold for the next three days. that did, however...

allow me to skip work for the first time ever. skipping work is, of course, much more difficult than skipping school. you can't just grin at batchelor and get away with it. or get mom to write a note. or just, you know, skip classes, sleep through classes, hole up in a chatroom during classes. work is Serious Stuff, people. anyway i skipped work for the first time, with a terrible cold. because my parents are very enthusiastic about the Work Ethic, they did not allow me to go out and meet vivien for coffee. she'd just returned from hong kong and i hádn't seen her in ages so she came over and we hung out by the pool instead.

i played truant a number of times though. or rather, one time i woke up late and then decided to just take half the day off. watched The Constant Gardener by myself, which was a first in many ways -- watching a movie alone, playing hookey from work without a good reason. and another day, the day before the A Level results were released, i took another day off for relaxing. nasty and i watched Munich, which isn't exactly a relaxing-variety movie, but after that we had lunch at Marmalade Pantry and then chilled out at the coffee bean outside borders. and then michelle came along to meet nasty for dinner, so we cabbed off.

speaking of michelle and coffee bean, there was the Day We Went To Toys'R'Us. me and nasty went, found kelly her zoo and numerous other party supplies, and then went to coffee bean to make plans about who's bringing what, cooking what etc. and then michelle met us. and then we cabbed off. the usual =D

and since that is related to kelly's birthday, on kelly's actual birthday nasty, zhi an, claud and kelly came to meet me for lunch. like it's MY birthday or something. i hate how the location of my workplace and the limitations of lunch hour mean that if i want to meet anybody for lunch, THEY have to come to meet ME. it sucks. but little india and raffles city are quite close by, not that they're gastronomical heavens but atleast they make for variety when i get bored of plaza singapura. which i am. very very bored. i don't want to go back to work tomorrow. i will go to raffles city, get my shoes and get some decent lunch.

oh there was another day, i left work early citing a university interview and i went to have tea with kelly and nasty at paragon's PS cafe. quite a nice little place. we were there for four hours plotting our future Igloo.

at some time in feb i had a couple of actual alumni interviews. some were good, one was pretty bad and that, unfortunately, was yale. it actually made me feel like yale might not be the best place to be, but i still don't want to jinx my chances so dear yale, my fingers are still tightly crossed that you will like something about me.

ok that's about all i can think of. now i need to go sleep so that i can turn up at work tomorrow at a decent hour. and process more forms. funfunfun! bangkok pictures will come soon -- for those holding on to the edges of their seats in anticipation, i don't always deliver on promises related to this blog, so go find a job or something :D