Because it’s Harry Potter’s birthday, tee hee. (Which also means it’s Neville’s birthday – sorry ah non-Harry Potter fans, you are missing out. Hahaha.)

Screencap of J.K Rowling’s official site! Check out the top right hand corner of the pic. It’s a calendar and it’s Harry’s birthday! Hoho.

Today is also magical because it’s the first day of the Hungry Ghost Festival! It’s 11 pm now, 1 hour before the gates open, assuming gates open at GMT +8. Do all gates from the nether world open at the same time, or do they have different times allocated to prevent overcrowding issues? Hmm. *imagines Ghost Ah Pek telling his friend “Hai yah, we different time slot cannot go out together. Later meet MRT station hor?”*

I’m totally drifting from what I intended to write about. Which is…

MY BIRTHDAY!

Didn’t see that coming did you? Heh heh.

Cake #1 of the day from Mummy dearest and Tugs (my maid) at 12 am! They are awful at surprises lah. I could hear them opening the fridge, tinkering with the candles, etc, way before they asked me to come out.

But it’s still sweet! *blush!*

Mummy gave me a rose, and Tugs gave me… something special… don’t tell you! Wahahaha. Try to guess if you can.

The boyfriend came over soon after we cut the cake. Must be he anticipate got cake then come all the way for free food. Cough cough.

Nice photo of the rose from Mummy.

Cake #2!

Swensen’s ice cream cake! With frozen strawberry!

The nice folks at my office, who are much better at surprises. I was surprised! Pass!

Have to mosaic their faces in case I offend them; I think older people don’t really fancy appearing on the Internet right…? I dunno…

Met the boyfriend after work for dinner. Wanted to go Tony Roma’s at first… butbutbut, it was a bit far from his workplace so we settled for Swensen’s instead.

Can save money also. And got free birthday ice cream. And got 10% off for HSBC cardholders. So woo hoo!

The people.

The food.

The free stuff.

Hee. ‘Twas a happy day!

Received many sms-es from friends too hee hee. Thanks everybody! 我爱你们！I love you all long time! Muacks muacks!

Was reading MM Lee’s Daughter’s speech on another blog. She also talks about how intellectual arrogance is deplorable, which hmm, I find true. I think people in general seem to categorize and discriminate against those perceived to be less well-endowed “up there”, sometimes unintentionally, but other times, to get one foot up.

She quoted Desiderata:

Listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.

The poem, by Max Ehrmann, in its entirety is below. Do stop, and smell this rose.

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly, and listen to others,
even to the dull and ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be
greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career
however humble;
it is a real possession in the
changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you
to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit
to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore, be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.
With all its sham,
drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

What! I can also be serious hor.

Puppy eyes that can melt hmm, diamond! (Creative right…)

Saw this dog at Ubin during lunch. He came over to our table to play! He seemed to know that I was taking photos of him, cos whenever he saw the camera point at him, he would stop for a moment until I took the camera away.

The black blurry thing below me was another dog I saw. He was so affectionate, but sadly, he wasn’t in it for love, just for lust! Sigh. It was quite scary when he stood up to hump me. -_-” Good thing there was some noisy family with food along the way while I was running away.

This was taken while he decided to rest his entire body weight against my legs.

Of course I didn’t forget my dearest Maomao, who will always be the cutest dog to me. Taa-daa!

Muacks! These puppy eyes can melt anything! But of course, they are meant for meeeeeeeeee and onlyyyyyy meeeee.

By the way, I now have absolutely awesome photography skills (by my own standards, of course).

With watermark okay. Because it’s mine. My preciiousssss.

It’s that time of the month again. Not for… ahem… (although it is coincidentally also here – which is TOO MUCH INFORMATION) … but for…

THEME CHANGING!

Woo hoo!

Was asking on Plurk where to find nice Wordpress themes, and the very ingenius Darran introduced me to… *squeal* the erm, official Wordpress theme page.

*crickets*

It may be hard to believe (wait.. not really), but I actually never knew about the official Wordpress.org theme page. Erm, hee?

I always thought it was at themes.wordpress.net, which sucks. Oops. Nevermind. I’ve found the rich trench of wealth and prosperity!

Bye bye to sad nervewrecking days when I can’t find nice themes!

Bye bye to my old theme too.

It was fun while it lasted *pats*, but good things always have to come to an end. Especially when the good things in question take up too much bandwidth and take forever to load.

P/s: If you are reading this before 10pm on 29th July 2008, editing is likely to be in process. So if things disappear here and there, erm, they are probably gone for good given my skillzors it’s okay.

My temp job, in the haystack of snore, managed to perk me up today! I was going through a list of students enrolling today, and something caught my eye.

I imagine the name was created like this:

Mummy (who is a bit bimbotic): I’m so excited! We’re having a son!
Dad (nonplussed): Mmm.

Mummy: Omg omg! What shall we name him? Xiao Ming?
Dad: Mmm.

Mummy: C’mon! Suggest something!
Dad: Aiya, chin chai lah. (translation- chin chai is ‘anything’ in hokkien)

Mummy takes it seriously.

And so, we have…

Soo Chin Chai.

Other curious names spotted include Cai Peng and Qi Shuai.