a fine, fine line.

There's a fine, fine line between a lover and a friend;
There's a fine, fine line between reality and pretend;
And you never know 'til you reach the top if it was worth the uphill climb.

There's a fine, fine line between love
And a waste of time.

There's a fine, fine line between a fairy tale and a lie;
And there's a fine, fine line between "You're wonderful" and "Goodbye."
I guess if someone doesn't love you back it isn't such a crime,
But there's a fine, fine line between love
And a waste of your time.

And I don't have the time to waste on you anymore.
I don't think that you even know what you're looking for.
For my own sanity, I've got to close the door
And walk away...

There's a fine, fine line between together and not
And there's a fine, fine line between what you wanted and what you got.
You gotta go after the things you want while you're still in your prime...

There's a fine, fine line between love
And a waste of time.
- avenue q

ya know i actually wanna watch this musical a year ago. but there's just too many great musicals to watch and they cost a bomb. and now that i listen to the songs, it's really quite a funny and adorable musical that's kind of unique. so hmm that's gonna be on my list of things to do for nyc.

but more importantly, the lyrics really speak of something that i've never really thought about in that perspective. that a fine line is what separates the black from the white. where we have left the land of black and white, and now everything is grey.

ok i stole that last line from sex and the city. but like what sam seaborn from the west wing says, "good writers borrow lines from other writers; great writers steal from them outright".

***

there's something i love to do and i miss doing - grocery shopping. everytime i walk around the holland village cold storage where it is stocked with atas angmoh food, i feel so happy and the urge to buy everything and starting cooking and baking. it reminds me of my doing grocery shopping at safeway at university way and 17th ave and QFC at university village. my humble supermarkets in seattle.

i love every section of the supermarket. the fresh produce to fruits to cheeses to baking needs to vegetables to seafood (hunting for cheap fish and prawns!) to meats (i usually get the ones on sale which expires like on that day. hahh) to cereal to chips (kettle chips are so cheap) to biscuits (pepperidge farm and goldfish! and much more snacks) to ice cream (ahhhh i cannot forget the US$3 a tub of ben&jerry's, haagen daz, godiva - yes the chocolate brand has ice cream too!) to frozen food to the magazines (glamour/cosmopolitan/tv guide) to milk and vanilla soy milk to ham and sausages to fresh bagels and bread to of course, the booze (which is so cheap you can laugh out loud.). oh yes and the non-food items. those are less exciting unfortunately.

well today i had fun buying a bag of cinammon raisin bagel chips from new york at cold storage, philly cheese spread to put on my plain biscuits, some yummy bread from my favorite bakery provence at holland village.

i'm quite easily pleased, you know. (:

***

well FYP is slowly creeping to an end. i'm quite disappointed with my failed experiments which, if it were successful, would be such a nice brilliant end to my FYP, but after 2 tries it still refused to work. well, my supervisor said it would be too late, and i agree. but there's still a part of me that wonders if i should just pia it out. and try it just one more time. then i'm afraid that i won't have time to write my thesis. so good results or not, i won't get a good grade anyway.

hmmmm. anyway the weekend's here again. how quick huh. last weekend i spent it at the hospital and it seems like yesterday and now zeh zeh is discharged already and on the road to recovery. well it's time to worship the God that i love so much and learn more about His Word and to refresh my flu-stricken body and mind. (:

i left my heart in san francisco.

continuing on my series of posts on my very-long-ago summer trip in the US, i've arrived at san francisco from a short plane ride from LA. SFO is a nice airport and on the way to the city center i saw a city called brisbane. heh as if that short plane ride brought me to australia.

we made our way to SF's city center, passing the bay bridge and into a block away from union square. we stayed at the downtown SF hostelling int'l instead of the fisherman's wharf one 'cos we are shopaholics. haha. but this being my last stop, i've spent quite a fair bit already. but that didn't really stop me from buying more stuff haha.

by the time we settled into our room and made friends with a really scary roommate who adores darren hayes (remember savage garden?) and is a close friend of 'my chemical romance' frontman. and she's like them, punk rocker with black eye make-up, black hair and black tight clothes. anyway it was close to dusk and the wind was super strong and cold. strange. but we walked around union square and soaked in the cool weather.



major shops like saks 5th ave, macy's and high end brands are all located around here.

eekk why my face so big.

i heart SF!

dinner was at this nice place at the heart of union square. called sears fine foods, lonely planet quoted their prices as US$7-$10 for mains and i got cheated. we ended up paying about US$20 plus each. LP please update your resources! but the good was very good.

then we walked around for a bit more before retiring to our rooms for the night and going online for some research and face-booking.

the next day we were craving for some good dim sum and SF being home to many many chinese and HKers, we went in search of good dim sum and according to our sources, SF's financial district has a good one. so off we went early in the morning!

on our way to the subway station.

we saw a huge mega forever21, just as big as the new york city fashion ave one!

our brunch. was very. very. good. it's really comfort food for us. this place is called yank sing. we had a semi-hard time finding it. ended up asking some locals and they immediately knew what we were talking about. 'that dim sum place which is always crowded'.

mango pudding. cliche but good.

our tie yuan yin is yummy and comes in a stylo-looking pot. this meal was expensive again, but i didn't really mind paying 'cos the food was really good.

then to walk off our calories, and armed with a map, we decided to walk and explore SF's financial district, since SF is the financial 'capital' of US west coast, much like NYC in the east coast. we ventured toward the water and found ourselves at the port of SF.

port of SF has many nice little shops selling organic stuff, spices, bread, aromatherapy stuff and much more. i like. (:

the clock tower of the port.

the golden gate bridge's sibling, SF bay bridge.

the sea gull stands on one feet. yoga pose. linda the bird expert tells me that when a bird does that, it shows that it is relaxed and chilling out. how cute!

the bird expert and me.

that cluster of buildings is part of the financial center.

interesting art sculptures around.

it's a beautiful day. (:

the city gears up for the annual gay pride parade, which we attended on our very last day in SF. the parade is one of the major, if not the biggest, event in SF and the gay community calendar. and the rainbow flags lined the street that the parade was to take place in. market street.

SF's subway is very comfy! love their carpeting and cushioned seats.

this should be the SF district courthouse, or city hall. this cluster is called the SF civic center, which probably includes their government buildings, as well as their symphony concert hall, public library, asian art museum etc.





i like their buildings. and the space. not as claustrophoic as nyc.



more art around the civic center. this was in front of the symphony concert hall.

then we caught a bus to the famous place haight-ashbury. it is this hippie, fun-loving, cultural revolutionists neighbourhood that has very nice houses and hip stores and cafes. It has some strange characters, which is probably normal for such neighbourhoods.

i just adored the architecture here! they managed to make use of the slopes and gradients and make the buildings look so cool and hip.

i went to some shops and i bought a very comfy pair of wide-legged 3/4 pants which i always wear nowadays. and some ben&jerry's sundae.





slopes and more slopes.

houses here remind me of charmed! the tv show that i used to like a lot. heh. i did a quiz on FB and i turned out to be phoebe.

the sun starts to set. and we took a bus back to union square. we did some shopping and dinner at westfield shopping center at union square and i saw my very first mango store in the US!! i was so mango-sick haha after 5 months of no mango.and proceeded to buy stuff off the mango sale. yay. and also something from H&M. i miss H&M.

so now that i'm in the midst of planning my grad trip to the US (again, haha). well i'm going there again 'cos i'll be visiting europe next year when i visit my sis in finland and i'm not advised to go to south america. the other option i had was xinjiang/tibet, but that's out due to the violence going on in lhasa now. SIGH. so america it is. not that i mind actually. i may be able to catch some presidential elections happenings while i'm there. go to a rally or speech or something. and taking advantage of the very very weak US dollar. (:

oh yes. maroon 5 concert was suprisingly good! i really didn't expect much from their concert since their MVs are really disappointing and adam levine is deadpan. but he managed to work the singapore crowd and of course the songs were radio-friendly and justina and i spent the whole concert dancing and rocking. he's quite cute too (hurhur) but very very skinny. and i also like the keyboardist (who can play guitar also!). really like my seats cos it was the 11th row from the stage and i didn't pay a single cent! (: (:

ok the next installment will feature more days in SF. meanwhile let me go rest my runny nose. toodles.

abide.

the good friday-easter sunday weekend is here again. it has been a mad week thus far. the final weeks into the FYP deadline is starting to turn into madness. i've been staying in lab from morning all the day to 7-8pm. just doing experiments. this week i haven't even been able to work on my thesis at all. i'd lug my laptop to lab and end up not using it at all. and the reason for the neverending experiments is partly due to my fault for somehow screwing up my experiments. which led to horrible results.

well i did look forward to nightly marathons of alias. i bought the seasons 2 and 3 box sets for only $19.90 each, usual price $69.90. original code 3! eastpoint atrium was having a dvd sale so i bought without hesitation. ahhh michael vartan is SO cute and jennifer garner looks beautiful in every hair style imaginable. it's amazing how versatile her face is even though she has such a strong jaw line. maybe the hair people working on alias is just that good. and i must say that alias's blooper reel is the BEST i've seen. i was laughing so hard at their outtakes. they're all such goofballs. (:

anyway in the midst of all that i have been trying to be conscious of the Lord during this week especially. to read again John and Isaiah 53 and be reminded of God's love and the work done by Jesus on the cross to save us from sin and give us the promise of eternal life and salvation. yesterday was the first night of bethany's easter gospel outreach concert. and though it was tiring, all the saturday and sunday practices, the rehearsals, i find special meaning in singing for the Lord and the lyrics that are so apt and meaningful. and doing actions too. (: i'm also very glad renchun, my good friend, will be coming to watch the concert tonight and i've been praying for Him to be touched by His grace and love somehow so that He may come to know the Lord.

as i sit in the mount elizabeth hospital waiting room now, people are giving my strange looks. well that may be attributed to the laptop and all of my sister's barang barang and reading the Bible when i was throw out of her ward 'cos she'll be going into the ICU after her operation. and i also laid down and slept for like 20minutes 'cos i'm just so sleepy. i'm so heartened and glad that so many people are praying for her and my family. not just her friends but also my friends from bethany, pastor mitch, t. chen kee and a few more. i'm so thankful for my friends for continually encouraging me with wise words, counsel and Bible verses. and i'm clinging onto God so much more through this thing with my sister and finding myself trusting Him without fear and doubt that He is in control of all things.

"He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High,
shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty."
Psalm 91:1