After a self-imposed month long hiatus from writing, it feels so odd to be sitting in front of the laptop to phrase my thoughts into legible sentences.

Man, it's been quite a month. First, I bloody passed my practical driving test after 3 attempts.

One week into driving and I manage to get a summon from LTA for driving in a bus lane during peak hours. I also somehow reversed my car into another stationary car in the multi-storey carpark. So sick...

I suppose all's well that ends well though, cos' I wrote in an appeal for a waiver of the composition fine and it was approved. For the other, we settled with the other car's owner privately and total damages incurred for doing up his and my car came to SGD330.00. All these have given me an unexplained paranoia of driving, BUT I'm trying my best to get over it and move on.

That was the bad stuff, now for the good stuff.

We've been pretty adventurous lately, checking out new places around our neighbourhood, in Portsdown Road. This is really a gem find, and a helluva chill out playground.

We went to Klee, at Jules's recommendation and it was great! The place serves one of a kind cocktails and they also have a mini sushi bar, with the chef in authentic Jap get-up. The cool thing about this place is they dun have a menu and you just tell the bartender what kind of alcohol you like, e.g., vodka, gin, rum etc. Then you choose from the wonderful array of fresh fruits and berries to mix your very own cocktail. By the way, all the fruits are cut and pureed in front of you, so it's quite a show.

I had Belvedere vodka with passion fruit, then an apple martini which tasted fabulous.

On a separate occasion, we also checked out this mad retro, lao kok place named Colbar which serves really good western food. Saw a chocolate labradoodle there which belonged to a very friendly ang moh. Her name is Maddy or Maddie, I'm not too sure. She's turning 4 and is the most amazing, stable, docile large breed dog I've met in a long time. Her owner explained they work with autistic children and children who have difficulties in learning. According to him, she's really good with them. SO COOL, huh?

Lastly, the super bad stuff.

My long-awaited trip to Dubai has gone up in a puff of smoke. A little background here, Fussy has known since Dec 09 that he's got to go up to Dubai in Feb 2010 to work for at least 2 weeks and since Feb is a really short month, no matter how he plans the trip, he will most likely clash with the CNY week.

Since V-Day also falls on CNY this year, I expressed an interest in tagging along as I really dun wanna spend V-Day alone.

But the trip itinerary really depended on whether Hewlett-Packard could deliver the hardware on time, so that he could start work and his presence would be justified. He finally got the green light and I went ahead to renew my passport and also book my air ticket.

The cool thing was, my aunt is also going up to Abu Dhabi to visit her boyfriend and we had planned to shop up a storm in Dubai, as Abu Dhabi is only about an hour's drive away.

We were set to depart on 13 Feb, and I had looked forward to going on my 1st long flight, when Fussy told me earlier that the trip had to be postponed. No wonder they say disappointment is bitter, cos' I swear the lump in my throat tasted worse than bittergourd.

This is all because of HP's incapability to deliver the goods on time. I swear, they are totally unreliable in their commitment to the customer. The order was submitted on 15 Jan and their stipulated delivery lead time was 21 working days. Now, it exceeds their given ETD and nobody can do anything about it. MNCs suck, BIG TIME!

I'm so frusrated! Because my office will be closed for the CNY week, I will be deducted 3 days' worth of annual leave for nothing. I can only stay to rot in sucky Singapore and I shudder at the prospect of having to fend off well-meaning relatives' questions about my womb and the productivity of it.

FXXX HEWLETT-PACKARD for ruining my getaway!