Mr Bloke's latest Goodwill Parcel

Two Sundays ago while I was at MacRitchie Reservoir, I fell on some slippery gravel and cracked my butt. People, this is a public announcement. If you have a choice between mud and slippy gravel while on a downwards slope, make the clever choice and walk in the mud. 

I am reminded of the ditty that Crayon Shinchan sang in the doctor's office once, while shaking his butt:

医生医生怎么办， 我的屁股变两半！

For those of you who don't understand Mandarin, I have it in English now (pain is the mother of creativity, ask the starving artists):

Doctor Doctor what to do, my butt has split into two!

So I have been pretty miserable, but thankfully Mr Bloke's Goodwill Commiseration Parcel showed up, alleviating my pain for quite a bit. The man always gives such thoughtful presents. Unfortunately for him, I can't measure up in return. :D

Mr Bloke's Goodwill Commiseration Parcel

I'd say that I love love the Rose Book (read a few times, still hadn't figured out what are the rose varieties I have in my garden), Pu-Erh tea (it's an acquired taste, Mr Bloke, and things that taste bitter bad are good for you, that's what we Chinese say, ie. 良药苦口利于病). You see how thoughtful the man is? Not only does he send me tea, but a mug to brew it in! Though I am more of a:

I also appreciate the German dictionary. Less painful to lug around than my giant ass dictionary which is ironically too heavy to refer to, and I don't need internet connection now to access LEO whenever my German friends write me.

Present from the Bloke

My agreement with the Bloke for a painting of Mr Bear were books on painting flowers in acrylic and mixing colors. The latter arrived, but the former went missing between the two of us, so the Bloke said he would send again.

This time I received a card from the post office to collect the parcel for missed delivery. I was already puzzled why the expected book was so thick it couldn't be stuffed through the mail, so when I saw the actual box, I dropped jaw.

It was massive.

Opening it, I was very surprised to find the following items after I opened the box from the back (the front was too secured).

the book

It came with a disc.

There were pretty stickers and paint brushes! I especially like the flat brushes!

Bloke even got me a box of paints. How thoughtful!

But of course the piece de resistance was....

Grumpy Fynn! "Why did you stuff me in ze box?!

Here is Grumpy Fynn next to his older brother Blond German Fynn

The Bloke explained in a letter that he got me the other stuff because of the disappointment over the previously missed delivery. Wasn't it fantastic of him to go to this unnecessary but totally awesome expense? :D

[reddit] Birthday greeting surprise

Last year, I wanted to do a Christmas gift exchange on reddit. Then I lost Bobo's car keys (I thought I dropped it while at the bank, turned out it was on the dining table. Only found out after I spent S$1K to replace the keys and get a new lock frequency). So I limited myself to giving Christmas greetings.

Other than taking part in the Christmas card exchange on reddit, I was searching for other Christmas card requests. Came across this request posted by a devoted boyfriend asking for postcards to be sent to his girlfriend for her birthday in Jan.

As it turned out he posted to many countries' subreddits in the hopes of scoring a postcard for his girl from every continent. I posted one too, after getting an address from him (he requested for birthday greeting in other languages as well).

太阳是金色的，(the sun is golden)

月亮是银色的，(the moon is silver)

你的生日是彩色的，(your birthday is colorful)

愿你被幸福环绕，(wish you be surrounded by good fortune)

被好运追逐，(chased by good luck)

被快乐降伏，(yield lots of happiness)

被笑容粘住。(stuck on by smiles)

那时别忘了，(at that moment don't forget)

有人在远方为你祝福， (someone from far away wished you well)

生日快乐！(Happy birthday!)

So today I finally received a reply, he showed the 105 cards and packages to her. So cool right? He even google mapped the locations that they came from:

Happy Birthday again, Brodie!~

50 shades of creep - Pre Booty call Agreement?!

I couldn't figure out jquery, so decided to take a break and read some creepy pms on reddit (八卦 I know). Came across this "agreement" which was super sad yet funny at the same time (though the actual creepy guy had turned stalky, which wasn't funny. He even sent the TS this 3X!). 

1 thing I wonder...how many guys actually succeed with this?

Reddit Gift Exchange

I participated in the snacks exchange for a lark, because sometimes you just have to do fun things to make yourself realize that work is not everything. Besides giving and receiving stuff in the mail is really exciting (though painful to wait for, I am not a patient person).

Before I go into what I got, my giftee also got what I sent him! He actually bothered to spread them out to take a foto, so sweet :). And registering the mail really ensured that the things arrived in their original shapes, (just check out the rice crackers) and not shattered in a thousand pieces like what happened to the cookies I sent to schnappi a long time ago.

My gift: Jagabee Potato sticks (I have yet to find someone who hates them), rice crackers, ribena pastilles, preserved mango, chocolate and retro local cookies.

When my cousins and I were small, the little cookies with the equally tiny icing on top was very ubiquitous. Now my cousin feeds her little girl macaroons (cheapest -> S$2 a piece), I am like WTF?!

I remember always digging for the yellow ones, even though the bloody things taste the same. Haha. Anyway back to my present. I was busy today, so B1 got the parcel for me from the post office. So when I came home, I tore into the parcel (it took 3 bloody long weeks to arrive!).

I didn't have the heart to tell the two lovely senders that nearly half of the stuff they got me can be found in Singapore. But I thought that the Garfield sweet was really outstanding! I loved the containers it came in. I never saw that before. And I always wanted to try saltwater taffy ever since I read about that in books (psst, ok, I read that in BSC - Babysitter's Club- so you know how long I have been wondering!).

I will bring some to share with Bär, he being more of an insane sweetaholic than me. I will post tomorrow what B1 got from the mail as well, because the weird stuff he bought me for gardening has also arrived today!

Updated!
Was absolutely happy when I realized that they also put in chocolate eggs into the parcel as well!

Because I am weird that way....

After reading all the bashing on gawker and jezebel, I have joined reddit  ヽ(‘ ∇‘ )ノ as of yesterday.

shit, is that a new obsession... so much from avoiding CoH. Ah well...