The most effective steps to clearing your mail in 5 seconds.

1. Select Unread.
2. Mark as Read.

To prevent any repercussions, do the following:

1. Select All.
2. Delete.

Yay. Mail cleared. (:

Okay, since I have cleared my inbox for the past 10 days, I shall post stories from my trip to Kanchanaburi.

It's a small town in Thailand, most referred to as K-Town by many friends. There, it is difficult to gauge the income of the locals. I figured there are 2 tiers of people there. While prices of famous brands such as Lee and Adidas remained similar to those of Singapore, other shirts could cost as little as 199 baht, or around $9 SGD. These are good quality clothing, with good designs, unlike those in Singapore, poor design, and costing to be as much as $20 each.

Shopping is very enjoyable in Bangkok, but that's for another post. This one is in Kanchanaburi.

We spent 2 nights in K-Town. The first of which I went for a Thai Massage.

The entry was somewhat like those you see in Geylang. Dull door, neon lights decorating, dim lights, and curtains to block any peeping persons. But upon entry, you would see what many chiong-ers call a fish tank. This place was recommended to us by the ex staff there, so what they said was that the place was pretty clean, but we were all puzzled why they chose a fish tank method for customers to choose their masseuse.

So I chose a pretty one, but I was warned because she couldn't speak Chinese like some of the girls there, where they would entertain you with their words when you were being serviced. But I didn't care so much. I wanted the prettiest one there and I was going to get it.

My friend took a girl, also pretty, but could speak Chinese, and we were led to the third floor, huge room with about 15 beds. Privacy was given with curtains surrounding each bed, drawn if you needed it. We drew the curtains to shut out the 3 of us, but inside we could see each other.

We were then told to change into the pants there. Lucky we had ex staff, otherwise we would not have knew what to do. Stripped to my underwear and then put the pants on. The strings were tied from the back to the front, so I just tied a ribbon in front, leaving my upper body topless.

The massage was good. I was enjoying it though out, and even though no words were exchanged, smiles to each other were enough to keep me entertained. My friend's masseuse was teasing us, like a chicken and a duck together. But I didn't care so much. There were unspoken rules of the trade there. I learnt the girls were not allowed to talk to other customers except their own. So after I poked fun of her with laughs from my friend and when she didn't reply, I kinda took the message.

The details of the massage I won't go too far in, unless upon request. Haha. But it covered the whole body, and a few other areas I never expected. It was really enjoyable.

I slept on the bus trip back, and once I hit the bed, I slept the best I had in the 4 nights there.

Finally back from a 10 day trip to Thailand.

Not so enjoyable first 8 nights, but the last night in Bangkok kind of made up for all the dull events that happened. A whole workload of stuff awaits me to clear, hunderds of emails, tens of calls, and other payments to settle.

Give me a breather first, then I'll slowly blog about my trip.

Friends, this is the Audi A5 Coupe.

If you have ever wondered what to get me for my birthday, think no more. Haha.

It's a cool whopping $158,000, and will set me back $1700 each month just for installments. With the itching heart that I have, it won't be long before you will see any car that I own spiced up with gauges, body kits, and oversized exhaust pipes.

It's a car for a 8k salary scale. But I'm confident that I would be able to have that kind of income very soon after I ORD. Sure, the road will be hard, but with a reward like this waiting at the end, who's complaining?

But I was advised against getting such a high end car so young, so fast. It made sense. And I'll tell you why.

1. Cars never appreciate. The value always go downhill. Investing in property is probably the best idea if you have the money. My dad supports this, and advice I got from colleagues also recommend to use the money for better investments instead of getting a car.

2. It's superficial. If girls flock to you because of your car, then they love your car and your money. Not you.

3. What's the next car? Buying a coupe is no mean feat. But what happens next? What's the next upgrade? After driving the coupe for 3 years, the next car would have to be at least a supercar, or people will wonder if you're not doing as well. But there's an upside. It gives you pressure to work hard.

4. Little room for surprises. Big cars have big advantages. Space is an obvious concern for people like me. How to snuggle at the back in a coupe? It's gotta be uncomfortable. And the balloons won't fit. Haha.

So it's back to ogling at the moment. :(

She was feeling moody these days.

And since it was also nearing the exact 4 months more, I decided to give her a surprise together.

As the 12th started to end, I was still thinking of what to do. Busy schedules did not allow me to have the privilege of doing sufficient planning, and therefore most of my stuff that I do is pretty last minute. That's until I get my own PA. Haha.

Through MSN, asked J for V's number, and smsed V my plans. She was willing to help.

In my mind, I've always wanted everyone to enjoy possession of a nice signature pen, like Mont Blanc, Parker, etc. But the impact of the surprise just won't be there. So I thought long and hard (for 2 seconds), and I remembered she told me she liked balloons. Woo! As the bits and pieces of how the surprise was going to be conducted formed in my head, I started googling shops that sold balloons which were not closed by 8pm (It was 6:30pm when I took action).

I discovered that these shops had an obvious trend. They sold party items.

Made a few enquiries and calls about balloon bouquets, and off I went to pick Mum up before heading home.

So the 3 of us, Mum, Sis and me, went over to Centrepoint. Now this is something that I must rant about. I like big cars. And big cars have high heights. So future shopping centre owners, please make sure your carpark maximum height is 2.0m. Otherwise I will hate going to your shopping centre. Centrepoint is 1.7m! Ridiculous! Would it hurt to dig a 0.3 meters deeper so I won't have to walk carrying all the balloons to the open air car park 500m away? So embarrassing!

My grip was like never before last night.

Settled on 3 smiley faces and 1 transparent one. These balloons weren't cheap, but they're fun and reusable, so if the balloons deflate over time, you can summon your boyfriend or slave to go to a balloon shop to pump the air in again just to make yourself feel good. :P

I was warned about putting balloons in the car. I needed to do that because the scheduled time was 5pm, and I would be around Jalan Bahar for work in the day. It would be counterproductive to drive home and back again, even if I had the time.

The balloons could potentially become damaged if left in high temperature environments, not to mention that loud BANG sound. So the shop attendant under inflated the balloons a little bit to leave room for expansion.

Left the place happy, and the sis wanted to carry them back to the car. My pleasure.

Settled on Billy Bombers @ Cine for dinner. They were having a 1-for-1 promo there.

Overnight the balloons were in the car. No problems when I checked them in the morning. And when I parked my car for work, I wind down the windows a little so heat would not get trapped too much, and cause unwanted accidents. Haha. Pun intended.

But alas, as I went back to the car after work, ready to go over to NTU, one of the smiley faces were not so smiley anymore. It had deflated, and lost about 50% of it's weight in just 6 hours. Talk about an effective weight loss program. I didn't know what to do. The balloons could not be delivered. I have a little OCD, so basically I'm a perfectionist.

Made a few calls again, to try to save the situation. Found a balloon shop in Jurong Point, and rushed there, flooring my pedal most of the time (Sorry Earth.). The shop was on the third floor, so I happily parked near the lift lobby (didn't want too many people to see), and took the balloons and went up. But I was at the wrong wing. Walked the whole JP1 3rd floor carrying the balloons like a parade, before going back to the carpark, driving over to JP2 (it was too embarrassing to walk there and back).

This time, I walked up without the balloons first. Saw the shop, then went down again to pick up the cargo. The lady told me that it would take quite some time to know what caused the deflation. Maybe it was a sales gimmick lar, but I was in a rush and I needed a solution fast. It was 4pm when I reached JP, and after parading, it was already 4:20pm.

Funny how money comes to good use here. Told her that I couldn't wait, and asked for an 'insider' to replace the smiley face. An 'insider' is a balloon that has a balloon within. They are more expensive, but increases the overall effect of any surprise or balloon bouquet.

Untangled the knots, separated out the balloons, got the insider, pumped up the insider, tied the new knots, put the balloons in a bag, paid up, and I was ready to go. It was 5pm. Her lesson ends at 5:30pm.

I left smiley there for them to discover if there was a hole or what, and if it was possible to mend. I guess i'll give it to Sis if it can be mended. Afterall, she helped to carry the balloons to to the car. From Centrepoint to Cine.

Rushed to NTU, and by the time I turned into Nanyang Crescent, it was 5:15pm. Called V cause I didn't know the Hall, and the way in. Haha. But she was there in the room. Her lesson ended early. I had to think fast.

V said it was my call, and it would be unnatural to ask her to leave the room and come back later. She would suspect something. But on the other hand, it would be good for her to anticipate the surprise, but knowing her, she wouldn't want the surprise maybe. So I told her I'll just walk in.

Walked in, saw her shocked face, saw her face turn red, told her to cheer up, and I had to rush for class already.

Priceless.

I learnt a few things from my law lecturer, which is mainly why I like going for his class.

Despite the fact that he is irritating in a way where he doesn't provide answers, as he wants you to risk making the mistakes such that you would be able to learn from them, he's quite a nice guy from which I have learnt several life lessons.

I'll share one.

The degree course prepares us to become professionals, and as professionals, we need to be able to curb our natural tendencies to act upon events, and face it up front. For example, a natural tendency that one would do when a high speed tennis ball is being flung at you, is to duck. But as a professional tennis player, you have to buck up courage and use the racket in your hand to return the ball, with proper technique, strategy and execution.

That's being a professional.

I also picked up certain skills of increasing your awareness around people, phrasing words not to hurt people while giving constructive comments, and other stuff.

(:

That's what I'm feeling right now.

In a crude world of business and friends, it's everyone for his keep.

Happiness is shared. When arguments come, it's to each his own.

Of course I'm should factor in the fact that arguments create stronger bonds between individuals, but because of that, I tend to give in many a time, and then commit to something just to solve that argument.

It's really because of these commitments that I do not have time for myself. Homework is piling up, school work needs to be studied, accounts need to be done, initiatives need to be carried out. And sometimes I just can't cope.

So much so that I feel my responses are dipping because I can't really focus on what the argument is about, and just to appease everyone, I take both stands and create a equilibrium where I have to commit to something to get things done.

There's no one we can trust.