The recent slowness in updating is attributed to my lack of internet at home, don't ask why, it's a longgg story involving lots of money, travelling to and from computer shops and repeatedly calling my ISP provider at which allt he operators pretend they don't speak English...

I'm in the school library now fueling up on internet access before I go home to the starved lack of entertainment that is my flat. No TV and no internet, wha...? There is only so many episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond that I can watch (ever since I lost interest in LOST, drama series' no longer take precedence in my life).

Last Sunday was perhaps the highlight of my recent days, when I participated in the Beat the Banana Run. I got a goody bag and a medal which cruelly said 'the Banana beat me'. Still, I ran at a decent pace, beat my male friend, and had a lovely jog by the waterfront at Tsim Sha Tsiu promenade, which was airy and sunny and lined with Chinese lanterns in anticipation of Chinese New Year.

I want so badly to put pictures up, but due to my internet woes, they will have to wait. More news to come!

Most played on my iPod of late - Regina Spektor's new album 'Begin to Hope', Death Cab for Cutie - 'The Photo Album', Mogwai - 'Mr Beast', and The Guillemots.

Damn my friend Naveen is a lucky biatch! Or just pure hot. She went to the John Legend concert in HK last Saturday, and John Legend got her up on stage to dance with him!! Things got hot, he took off his shirt and he even asked for a kiss, which she did not oblige as she was attached (such a good girl, her man must be over the moon right now). It came out in today's Apple Daily and I am still not talking to her because she did not invite me to the after-party.

How come these things don't happen to me, at least not directly? The coolest thing that happened to me was getting Fiona Apple's signature on my iPod, then I had to move to HK and get the bloody iPod stolen (u could hear my heart breaking). My mum, however, has prescribed medicine to former president Bill Clinton; this drama girl I met in L.A. is apparently shagging Vince from Entourage, another friend is colleagues with Mischa Barton's sister, my ex-hallmate has teenage pictures of him and Keira Knightley, and here I am buying the Apple Daily from 7-Eleven to oogle at my friend grinding John Legend's glorious rhythmic hips.

Was very proud of my first three-course dinner cookout tonight, which I whipped up for Dionna, Nicole and Josh. Equipped with nothing but a gas stove (no ovens in HK flats), one small pot and a frying pan, I managed to get each course done in good time and in perfect proportions, so that I didn't have even an ounce of food leftover. I am encouraged to make this a weekly thing!

I thought up each recipe pretty much by myself and from experience! The menu was as follows:

APPETISER - pan-fried scallops with asparagus topped with a lemon vinaigrette dressing

MAIN COURSE - seared smoked duck breast topped with a mango, lime and coriander sauce, served with French-style fried potatoes

DESSERT - buttered bananas flambeed with rum and served with macadamia nut ice cream

I LOVE cooking. Perhaps when my fancy lawyer salary starts failing to compensate for the psychological strain, I shall open a lovely restaurant chain and keep it as my baby.

Today marked my first attempt at braving a jog in the polluted Hong Kong air, in preparation for my upcoming 'Beat the Banana' charity fun run next Sunday. It's a run to raise awareness about the threat of cancer and funds for research, and literally you try to outrun a man dressed as a banana. Yup, hilarious!

At the rate I'm going, however, my clean (almost) non-smoking lungs however will not be ready for the air in Tsim Shah Tsui come 28 Jan. It was hard enough to find a decent place to run today; my neighbourhood is extremely crowded, streets are narrow and the leisure park nearby is for old people with a small circular track about 100m in circumference; not my idea of a good training ground. When I did set off on the uphill climb in a less crowded area, I realised how much I was used to the comfort of a gym and the flexibility a treadmill offers. Looks like I have my work cut out for me. Gotta catch the damn banana!!!

I've spent the whole day ill at home. Well aside from being ill, it was a good excuse to shy away for a day fro HK's hectic social schedule, and to chill at home without having to engage in constant chit-chat. Since starting uni again, I've kept up a good deal of activity - tennis, clubbing, gym, hen party, drinks, dinner, dessert, movie - I've even signed up for my learner's drivers' licence and theory test so the route to the ever-elusive licence is finally set out.

Today, though, was the time to rest and recuperate. This weekend will see me at a wedding and then at the airport to welcome my boy back to HK for another joy-filled weekend.

Now facing the last 9 months of pre-work life, I am determined to be as productive as possible. But I am confused - should I take up more sports classes? Horseriding? Dancing? Buy a guitar, and pick up on the old skills I left off? Travel more, or see the bf more? Or go back to Singapore more? Should I start some long-distance business courses, or look for part-time work at a magazine? Or focus on my linguistic skills, studying Chinese and French intensely?

I wish I had 6 years more. Bleah.

I still haven't done the mandatory run-down of 2006, and the list of resolutions that appear on my blog each year. Perhaps I am still trying to cling onto the glowing memory of the past year, wishing it back; is that bad, tantamount to living in the past? Not quite. 2007, I know, will hold many joys, but it is the first new year which has brought me the biggest sense that I am nearing the end of my youth and have to start prioritising, sorting, looking forward and planning ahead.

When I was young, I told my closest friends that my biggest fear in life was mediocrity. Perhaps that was why I filled my teenage years with any activity I could lay my hands on - I played tennis on the Singapore team at 12, ascended to captainhood of school teams in later years, played percussion in the school band, took up swing dancing, led worship and played guitar in church, started my own band playing gigs at pubs, aided in a start-up business and so on and so forth. Mediocrity was easy to surpass in the early years - assuming such activities did make me special.

Approaching this quarter-life crisis, I feel the inevitable fate of becoming another commercial lawyer (and spending 20 hours a day doing it) loom in on me. Envy is not a trait I invite, but it is a feeling that crops up now and again - I envy my Auntie, a freelance journalist who has seen everything from glaciers in tibet to political riots in Cuba, I envy a friend of mine who has just ended a 3-month legal stint in Tanzania, I envy the serial skydivers who carried on when I quit, and I even envy my own early reward-filled years.

And it is a strange predicament, since I have been told and I know that my own life is one to be envied - living independently in a city I love, having travelled Europe and afar, in a passionate relationship, with a loving family and a pending lucrative job. I can't complain - these are the blessings, in fact, 2006 has either brought me or highlighted to my attention. I have no resolutions because I know my life is sound and positive changes will come naturally.

And to my dearest friend Jackie,indeed you will always remain one of my inspirations. Make 2007 work for you and shine on!!

I think 2007 should see a revival of my blog. All this moaning about ‘ohhhh life’s too happy, I have a guy who’s good to me for a change, I’m in a country I actually like, I am not broke as dirt, I have no inspiration for my blog, I wish I was sad sack of sorrow so I can write a little more like Cindy Chupack and less like a first-time blogger who’s unsure of what to write so outlines just the details of her very boring life…’ – has GOT to stop.

Having said that, I did need a little bit of inspiration. Having accidentally googled my site (my browser likes to fuck with me) I found several interesting sites which link to my site or rank it. Although I couldn’t see all of them (since the China earthquake the internet connection in this whole country is messed up) I managed to follow a link to a site which keeps tabs on blogs; my blog was there and I got five stars for popularity!! WOOHOOO. Unfortunately I also did not make it on the list of top 100,000 blogs, which frankly is pretty pathetic.

And then I also chanced upon a link to my blog, from a blog of someone I didn’t know! How exciting, THIS is what a blogger lives for! The address was also canadiancat.blogspot.com, which got me hyped, but then I realised it was a Singaporean girl in Canada which brought me back down a little. Anyway, sadly enough, desperately in need for some validation, I scrolled all the way down like 20 posts till I found the passage that quoted my site. It said this:

Second, the Lose-Weight-Tone-Up Grand Plan? It has ALWAYS failed. Hahahah. And I really cannot haul myself up to bundle up and walk to the gym in this bloodycoldweather whatwiththe WIND.... Blah. Really. But I know I'd be so satisfied after a good run. It feels good to get all that toxin out.Reading this made me feel better too!

"Before you take my cue and try some similar diet, I guess I should mention that even with my gym workouts and 150 sit-ups a day, I don't feel any different. I don't think I've lost much weight. This is gonna take some time. But I have WILLPOWER of STEEL, and with God as my witness I will plough my way through fire and high waters to the promised land of Flat Tummy and Toned Thighs."

-taken from the blog of law student currently in Uni of Bristol, England.

Presented like that, my prose, if I may say so myself, looks magnificent. What an artist I am. What would the World Wide Web be without the manifestations of my brain on HTML? Granted, the words weren’t quoted for their literary value, but I reckon some credit is due.

Thus is the conclusion: THE BLOG LIVES ON.

Right, now that’s over. On the subject of losing weight, I have happy news: this time in Singapore, for the first time since 4 years ago when I caught a virus and dropped kilograms via diarrhoea, my mum admitted that I HAD LOST WEIGHT. This is a breakthrough of a magnitude I cannot explain. Today I returned to the gym and looking in the gym mirror, I could hear stadiums of people cheering my willpower; I could see them nodding their heads at the ease with which I did my 100 sit-ups. The Fitness Angels sing for me, baby. I feel like writing a diet book, except chances are it’ll be six pages long.

God, there is SO MUCH to say and I need to reserve some material at present, so ciao peeps, I go to rest.