Friends?

Writing within the confines of a public blog limits freedom of expression to only things that one would like to share with family and friends. I write to share, but also to remember. So decision is to record it. Little blogs to remember who I think I am, or perhaps to get to know myself better.

Throws me back about 10 years ago...an incident I still remember. I cried in the shower, reluctantly went upstairs after ensuring it wasn't obvious I had teared. Friends come, friends go. But there are some friends I know would have been my best-est of friends if I didn't choose to let go. I thank God I still have some really great friends and I treasure them, but I still miss the others who were once important in my life. I think of them, do they think of me?

Its all wrong..completely wrong and I have no right to feel this way. I think I know myself, but actually not very well. Realisation occurs only when it happens, and hmm, I must really get to know myself better. I'm abit surprised by myself, but I know time heals (though never entirely) wounds. I'll try to work it out cheerfully. Don't worry, be happy rite! I have many other blessings to be thankful about.

The above seems incoherent and confusing? Probably, since they come from bits and pieces of my life in random order. But feeling better already, but still dreading to start on my financial computing homework. In my entire life, I have never encountered such a challenging subject...not my cup of tea, I would say. But nonetheless, I'm going to drink it up and hopefully get a decent score for exams next week.

Wish me luck! =)

Life is Such...

5 weeks into the course in Pittsburgh and just 2 weeks left. Other than my earlier blog entry, there hasn't been anything terribly exciting to blog about my life in Pittsburgh.

It has been school work and coding, and more work, with the occasional entertainment from US$5 movies which comes with free but not too yummy butter popcorn. My other form of stress relief comes from the indulgence in desserts. Discovered really nice cheesecake and chocolate cake sold at Southside Works. Also, the "branded" icecream in Singapore is going at warehouse prices in US. Ben & Jerrys sells for US$10 for 3 tubs, and Hagen Daz is a better bargain with 4 tubs going for only US$10. One can literally go ice-cream crazy here. And today, I just found out I eat more than my guyfriends!! I'm feeling so guilty now, but I'm balancing my frequent indulgence with exercise. Its a simple joy to jog in Pittsburgh cos the weather is simply great..there's cool air gushing at you, the surroundings are pretty, and it really does help to have a group of friends who are exercising with you =)

Anyway, what prompted this blog is a short one-line message I received last week. I dread negative news. And such news always set me thinking about life. I want to lead life as meaningfully as I can. I am already set to pick up keyboard after my graduation, I want to spend more time with my family, I want to resume volunteer work..there're so many things I want to do, and I am going to try to accomplish them, hopefully soon.

Just this afternoon, I received confirmation of the terrible news. I'm not particularly close to my aunt, but its just saddening that someone I know has passed on. I didn't even had the chance to bid farewell.

I don't like life that is out of my control. And with age, I only know that more terrible news will come. I don't want to hear about it, but I also can't avoid it. This may seem childish for someone of my age, but if I could wish, I wish time will stand still, and life will always be the way it is now.

I still miss my grandpa very much. He passed on when I was still an ignorant brat in secondary school, and I never had the chance to show him my love. This is one of my greatest regret. I never had a chance to make him proud of me. What would I give up for him to be here with me now.

There is this particular song by Mariah Carey that never fails to bring tears to my eyes. Sighz, life goes on I guess...

===================================================
"Bye Bye"

This is for my peoples who just lost somebody
Your best friend, your baby, your man, or your lady
Put your hand way up high
We will never say bye (no, no, no)
Mamas, daddies, sisters, brothers, friends and cousins
This is for my peoples who lost their grandmothers
Lift your head to the sky 'cause we will never say bye

As a child there were them times
I didn't get it but you kept me in line
I didn't know why you didn't show up sometimes
It's something more than saying "I miss you"
But when we talked too
All them grown folk things
Separation brings
You never let me know it
You never let it show because
You loved me and obviously
There's so much more left to say
If you were with me today face to face

[Chorus:]
I never knew I could hurt like this
And everyday life goes on like
"I wish I could talk to you for awhile"
"I wish I could find a way try not to cry"
As time goes by
And soon as you reach a better place
Still I'll give the whole world to see your face
And I'm right here next to you
It feels like you gone too soon
The hardest thing to do is say bye bye

(Bye Bye [3x])
Bye bye

And you never got the chance to see how good I've done
And you never got to see me back at number one
I wish that you were here to celebrate together
I wish that we could spend the holidays together

I remember when you used to tuck me in at night
With the Teddy Bear you gave to me that I held so tight
I thought you were so strong
That you can make it through whatever
It's so hard to accept the fact you're gone forever

[Chorus]

(bye bye bye bye bye bye [3x])
Bye bye

This is for my peoples who just lost somebody
Your best friend, your baby, your man, or your lady
Put your hand way up high
We will never say bye (no, no, no)
Mamas, daddies, sisters, brothers, friends and cousins
This is for my peoples who lost their grandfather
Lift your head to the sky 'cause we will never say bye

[Chorus]

1 week in Pittsburgh

To my family and friends who are wondering how happystella has been in Pittsburgh.

This blog is long overdue. I have a half-completed blog entry on my first week in US during which I toured LA and Las Vegas. Taking into account the painful amount of time it takes to sort, select and upload the travel pictures, I've decided to temporarily skip that 1 week of glorious fun to provide an update to (highly probable) final phase of my study life. At this point, I don't see myself study for the many years to come, although man (and Stella, notwithstanding) can be fickle.

I've just placed aside the computing notes and fully wary that I've only 7 hours to my morning alarm buzzing, I hope to keep this blog short and sweet. But I do miss writing and hope to write endless pages, alas, time waits for no man.

Accomodation:
I'm staying in a clean, nice 2-bedroom apartment. I have received varying levels of service from the apartment staff, though most are generally pleasant.

But prior to my arrival, I had the most unpleasant encounter with Stacy, apparently the manager. 1.5 weeks before my scheduled arrival to Pittsburgh, she had unilaterally cancelled the 3-bedroom booking I made almost 2 months ago, and merely informed me via email. I called the apartment umpteen times, spoke to almost all the counter staff there were, found out that lady who sent me the curt email was on leave and the rest of the staff I spoke to could not help me on this matter, before I finally spoke to her. Talkig to her felt like I was stupidly banging against the wall, to the point that I was at my wit's end and got my hubby (who is generally more logical and calm) to speak to Stacy who probably is acquainted with the real meaning of customer service. All efforts came to no avail.

And despite all the unpleasantries, I still had to stay at this apartment because it was just too late for me to look for alternative accomodation. On the bright side of things, the other counter staff I've met are great and helpful, all with the exception the woman who doesn't bother to even smile at you. I certainly hope she is not the manager. I don't think I'm biased against her. Even my rational hubby thinks her quality of service is really substandard.

So everything at Forbes is great..from the free Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate to the extra study desk in my apartment...except for her whom I don't care much about anyway.

Food:
To all Subway fans back at home, Quizno sandwiches win Subway's handsdown anytime! Competition between both sandwich chains appear tough. Both chains are currently having $5 footlong promotions, and the Quizno ads on TV blatantly mentions that they include more ingredients than Subway! I'm not sure such an advertisement could be aired without lawsuits back at home.

All bread and no rice makes Stella a dull gal. Lucky for my friends and myself, we found a Taiwanese eatery a few streets away that serves pretty decent Chinese food at reasonable prices. The "gu lu yok" is simply delicious and I've a good mind to make it my staple for the coming weeks.

In school, I haven't explored that many eating places, but I think the one I will patronise most often would be the food truck selling Thai food. Ha, looks that the Singaporean me simply can't live without Asian food.

Occasionally, we also have the cooking sessions...only 3 sessions so far, but definitely more anticipated. The general rule is that gals will do the cooking, and the guys the cooking. I'm tempted to ask the guys to cook (more than maggie mee) but I need time for confidence building, hee hee. Oh, by the way, we succeeded in cooking rice using a normal pot! Quite pleased as I thought cooking rice would be a pretty formidable task.

School:
Challenging. I spent 1.5 days writing the code for one question, and would probably take more time if not for my friends. The subjects have more coding than I would like. But I'm trying to look at the bright side of things and hoping this is a good chance to brush up my programming skills. Project work also generally requires more brainwork, hopefully it'll add some mental agility. I'm expecting more work, less play in the upcoming weeks. So in the meantime, trying to put in consistent work, enjoying whilst I can, and just to try my best.

Weather:
Freezing! This morning, it was about 8 degrees Celsius. Lecture hall was pretty chilly and I had to down a cup of hot cocoa to fight off the cold. Lunch time was much worse. I wore 3 layers of clothing, but nonetheless, still shivered on my short walk to buy lunch. Weather is supposed to be sunny tomorrow with a high of 20 degrees, but the low is 7.2 degrees! Brrr...right now its actually a bit cold in my apartment cos the heater doesnt seem to be functioning well. But I'm glad I'm indoors. Every time I leave the guy's apartment (just a few rooms away), I've to run back to my apartment cos the chilly wind. Let's see how I'll manage the cold tomorrow. I really miss Mr Sunshine.

Transportation:
Transportation comes in 2 forms: walking or bus. And patience is tested when waiting for buses. It is not uncommon to wait for over half an hour for the dear bus, and I have learnt not to trust the bus numbers stated at the bus-stops.

But the bus drivers have been generally helpful, and we met a really nice bus-driver on Sunday on our way to Waterworks Mall. We took the wrong bus and was kinda stranded at a bus-stop waiting for our bus. Weather was cold and the wind was blowing furiously. A kind bus-driver who had apparently finished his scheduled drive picked us from the bus-stop and drove us all the way to the Mall! Thank God for such a great driver!

Everything else under the sun:
Caught some exciting scenes the past few days. About a week ago, saw a several police cars speeding by with their sirens blasting out loud. And above us was a helicopter...perfect scene taken out of a movie.

Just this afternoon on my way back to the apartment, my friends and I saw a group of policeman surrounding a man, putting him down on the floor before handcuffing him. It was pretty exciting, and a bit scary cos one wonders why it needs so many trained police officers to handle a man.

Great friends, great company. Having friends around helps to ease the part of me who is missing home, the summer-all-year round weather, my cute little berry, my food, my family, my friends.

For now, I think I'm settling in pretty well in Pittsburgh. Hopefully all continues to go well and I hope to make my stay here as memorable and enjoyable as possible (ex- all the homework and exams, of course!).

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

One of the best American Idol episodes this season. Contestants were supposed to pick songs that inspire them. Best song of the night probably goes to Jason Castro with Somewhere over the rainbow. I love this version...and it reminds me of the same song sung by Katharine MacPhee a few years back. Same lyrics, entirely different arrangments, and I love them both.

In a way, the song brings me back many years ago when I was in Primary One sitting in my school hall watching a ballerina dance performance. The tune the ballerinas were dancing to was "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". I fell in love with the song and the dance, and even bought some photos of the performance!

When I was young, it was my dream (and probably the dream of many young girls) to be a ballerina. The grace and beauty associated with the elegant art was just too enticing. I actually took up ballet in my lower primary days, but gave up after realising that I had bones as stiff as chopsticks. I was just no talent at ballet.

It's nice reminiscing those days of dreams. Where you are free to dream big, and look to the future, wondering what it may hold for you. Sadly, now that I am all grown up, practical reality has set in. There's hardly time for dreams and great ambitions. Not that it really matters. If I could turn back time, I would probably have done many things differently. Maybe I would have been more insistent to pick up piano, maybe I would have studied law, maybe I could have salvaged that friendship...there are countless maybes.

But now, I just want to appreciate life. It's difficult to dream big anymore because I am already of the age where I should be working towards the dream. There are still small wishes and hopes...while I don't dare to dream too big, I'll definitely work my "best-est" so that my little wishes and hopes do come true.

Home & Decor, Nature

Home & Decor came by today (or to be exact - yesterday, since it is already past midnight) for a photoshoot of my place. How did it went? An ok experience, I suppose. The people were nice and friendly, but a lot of reorganisation of my home furniture though. For example, I had to remove my husband's chunky PC monitor from the study area, my ames-replica was shifted away from my ideal spot...

The photoshoot took slightly over 3 hours, and boy, my hubby and I had quite a bit of reorganising & packing to do after that. Had to reassemble the PC, connect our speakers, move things back to original place...I'm not complaining by the way, cos even though they didn't offer to help us put the stuff back in place, my husband and I would much prefer to shift things back ourselves.

As homeowners who had saved up for our home, we tend to be more careful with our furniture. For instance, I almost freezed when the photographer just slided my black footstool to one corner...my fear at that moment was that my cement floor might not be able to handle that harsh treatment, but lucky for me, my fears were unfounded. But still, the policy in my home between my hubby and me is that all items are to be lifted and placed down, not dragged across the tough-looking, but unfortunately, sensitive cement flooring.

Anyway, the team showed us the final pictures. The photos were nicely taken, but I felt that it didn't reflect the "feel" of my place. The photos showed nice angles, but failed to capture what we thought were the best spots in my home. Guess the photographer had a different perspective of my place...

I'm obviously not as professional as him, though I do dabble in a teeny bit of "artistic shots" with my non-professional Canon Ixus. Anyway, I was inspired to take some photos of my place to reflect what I think were the missing elements from the photoshoot today.

On a VERY separate note, there was a really lovely sunset viewed from my home about a week ago. These are some pictures I took.

The pretty blend of colours in the sky is definitely an instant perk-me-up to any nasty mood. I think no man-made colours/structure can be as beautiful as that found in nature. And I guess that's the beauty - nature, God's creation, is constantly evolving, surprising us. Man can never duplicate nature 100% - a simple example lies in the fact that most ladies prefer fresh to artifical flowers because the latter just looks, well...fake.

I love travelling because there's so much nature I soak in which I cannot find in the city I call home. Staring at the sea for hours without feeling bored, trekking past the Himalayas and filled with a sense of awe, observing the giraffe patiently chewing off the tree - I miss travelling and can't wait for my Peru holiday in July.

Ok I'm digressing. But I certainly hope to catch another beautiful sunset from home again...and do look out for June's issue of Home & Decor. My place will be featured in it =)

Nightmares with Beglas Home Decor

It has been a really frustrating experience with Beglas Home Decor http://www.besglas.com/home.html. The tagline of the company is "We don't just open the doors to your dreams. We make them". But this company has been creating nightmares for me right from the start.

I have shifted into my new place for slightly over 2 months, but renovation works are (my gosh!) not completed yet - all because of the glass company. Beglas has been to my place at least 5 times and they have to be back here for at least 2 more trips, provided everything goes smoothly.

Glass doors are a key part of my home decor - I am supposed to have 8 pieces of them in my place as toilet and wardrobe doors.The first time they came to install a few of my wardrobe doors, they left black marks on my cement floor, and I couldn't figure out how those marks came about. Also, the company was rushing quite a few jobs at the same time, and could not install all my doors at the same time. This meant I had to clean up each time after they did their partial installations, and this could have been avoidable if they installed the doors all at one go.

The second time they installed the other wardrobe doors, they left 2 huge scratches on my floor. I was pretty unhappy and asked my interior designer to warn them about it, which he did. My interior designer even brought one of the glass representatives to my place to show him the damage his workers had created.

Despite the warnings, when they came for the 3rd time, I finally realised how the black marks were created. They used small sheets of carpet to rest the corner of the glass. But the bottom of these carpets was made of black rubber, which had disintegrated badly. So when they dragged the carpet across my cement floor, they disfigured my floor by leaving a huge black stain. I told them that cement floor was very sensitive and porous, so they had to be careful. But the workers seemed to turn a deaf ear to my words, and used chemicals to clean the floor. When I caught a whiff of what they were doing, I immediately told them to stop cos the cement floor was sensitive and they couldn't just use any cleaning chemicals! So the workers left an indelible mark on the floor. The chemicals soaked right through my floor, removed the layer of e-proxy (floor protection) and left a dusty patch which could not be cleaned away. And the workers didn't even apologise. They merely said that they had never dealt with cement floor before.

Despite all the upsetting events, the company can't seem to improve on its sloppiness. As all the paper pasted on the glass doors were badly done (which the company explained that particular batch of paper used was of poor quality), all the doors had to be removed for them to redo the pasting. But when the glass doors came back, I still noted some problems. Some of the issues were just evident of the sloppiness of the workers - eg. upside-down door knobs, rusty/dented knobs, using 2 separate pieces of rubber edges on the door, not cleaning ink marks thoroughly even after I requested them to help me clean away some marks.

So I asked my interior designer over yesterday, and we marked the problematic spots with masking tape. When the glass workers came over, we left them to do their work. Only later did I realise that they had removed the masking tape without thoroughly rectifying the problematic spots. That was the final straw. I told the workers off right away and was on the verge of screaming my head off. I would have fumed more if not for my interior designer who was around and he told the workers off too, although his tone was a lot better than mine.

But what else could one expect from me. After going through numerous inconveniences from the workers spoiling my floor, chipping my table tiles, and having to clean up my place again and again cos of the dust they leave behind each time they came, I just want a decent job done. Beglas is unable to deliver - both product and service quality are substandard. At the minimum, the workers should have left the masking tape on the problem areas and explained to me what they could do and what they could not.

So when I told them off, they gave a can't-be-bothered reply that they would just bring the glass doors back. And they expected me to check for the problematic spots all over again without the markings I made initially. Yah, how convenient for them.

Anyway, in the end, they brought back 4 of the 8 doors they installed. The glass representative explained they had inserted the hinges before the glue had fully dried, resulting in air bubbles they couldn't remove. So they were going to leave the paper to dry entirely this time round before inserting the hinges, and it would take a longer time. Well, why couldn't they have done this earlier if they were already aware of this problem?

It's no fun having to inspect every corner of the glass doors to spot for problems, and having to tell the workers to remove the doors. I actually feel a little bad at the numerous trips they have made, but the company is really unable to produce decent quality.

I just hope things will move more smoothly now that the glass representative is aware of my unhappiness with the company. They probably think I am a picky customer, and honestly, the more sloppy their workers are, the more unhappy I am and the more demanding I become. I'm not sure whether this applies to others, but somehow when service quality is good, and staff is cooperative and willing to accept their mistakes, I tend to be more accepting. But when they are rude, give excuses time and again, the more I would demand for perfection. The glass doors also don't come cheap - almost a total of $6000. And for such poor quality, I would really advise everyone not to use this glass company.

I have decided to be really firm with the glass company and will be asking them to exchange 2 more of the glass doors cos the marks are not acceptable. Not going to care whether the workers are fed up with me (anyway, I think they already are). All "thanks" to the company, I probably can't organise any housewarming anytime soon. This is so frustrating.

Morton's

I first tasted Morton's steak sandwich during its weekday Martini happy hour, and for someone who is not too fond of red meat, I fell head over heels with the sandwiches. So for the longest time, I've been wanting to sink my teeth into the restaurant's famed beef steaks, as well as its Godiva hot chocolate cake.

The opportunity finally came yesterday in the form of a belated birthday treat for my cousins. My cousins and I have something in common - a love for gooood food. So I figured Morton's was probably a suitable place for us meatlovers to enjoy dinner together.

It was a Sunday evening, and the restaurant was packed, mostly with foreigners though. It felt as though I was dining overseas. There was lively banter all around, and the service staff were generally quite courteous. Except they seemed so busy, we had difficultly getting their attention at times. What I found interesting was that a service staff would come round to introduce the choices of main course. They pushed a cart containing the actual cuts of the raw meat, and even a live lobster!


The food portions were huge, especially E's porterhouse steak. I shared a steak (think mine was a Double Cut Filet Mignon, which according to the service staff, was the leanest & most tender cut) with my hubby, while my cousins each enjoyed a choice cut of their own. Among us, we also shared garlic mash potatoes and spinach with mushrooms. All the dishes were really good. My steak was really tender. It was also a little burnt at the edges which gave a really nice chao-ta smell and taste. The main course had me feeling satisfied, my hubby craving for more beef, E with some remainder of her huge portion, and K really bloated cos he actually managed to finish his steak!

I was looking forward to dessert which comprised of the Godiva chocolate cake and a Grand Marnier souffle. The desserts were not as great as I thought they would be. The cake was a little tough on the outside, but the molten choclate that oozed from the center made up for everything. I found the "egg" taste in the souffle a tad too strong although my hubby thoroughly enjoyed it. In comparison, I think Bakerzin's desserts are better, though my hubby didn't agree on that.

So overall dinner was pretty good. Pricing was on the high end, but you get what you pay for. Definitely worth the splurge. And from the greedy looks on my hubby last evening, I think I'll definitely be back there again =)