Sean da cutie!!

I'm so excited, I just have to mention this. Sean, my cutest little 19-month-old nephew, tasted durian for the first time, and he liked it!! Which is great, considering his ang-moh dad also loves it. Little Sean has certainly acquired likings for a few edibles during this trip to Singapore – pineapple tarts, Yakult (he doesn't seem to like Vitagen Less Sugar as much, though), durian.

It was pretty interesting to watch him try to suck through a straw for the first time. He saw me sipping at Yakult and kept staring, so I let him try. He couldn't quite get the mechanics of sucking it up all the way at first, and it was funny watching the stuff go up and down the straw but never reaching his mouth. He put the straw too far up his mouth at first, though; my sis says it's a throwback from the instinct babies have, where touching the palate of the mouth activates their sucking reflex.

You can so tell when he likes something and wants more of it: "MMMMPH!!" while leaning forward as far as he can. He looks pissed when he does that, but we all know it's because he wants something. Think he's gotten a bit spoilt while in Singapore – so many people to play with him and so much attention. It's so hard to get to work – the moment he sees me all dressed up, carrying my bag and heading to the door, he clings on to me, refuses to let go, and cries the house down if I leave. My dad and I had resorted to sneaking out the back door. You can see his noggin working each time we come home throught the front door. He should've caught on by now - us disappearing through the kitchen door and reappearing 10 hours later through the front door.

He's got this face that makes him look like a Precious Moments doll: those large doe eyes, cheeks that curve just like those characters and tiny lips that keep making weird expressions.

He's so cute.

UNGROOMED!!

I wish there was a word for the phenomenon where, on the one day you decide to go out totally ungroomed, you bump into people whom you wish could see you looking hot instead of frumpy. Then I'd actually have a term to describe my Wednesday night!

I met two people I really didn't want to see ever again in my life....well, one of them anyway, the other just comes attached to him. The last time these people saw me was when I was at least 5kg lighter and dressed better. I went out earlier that day thinking, "Hey, no one's gonna see me anyway, so why bother." So I head out without make-up, wearing an ugly, ugly cardigan over an unflattering outfit (hey, it was comfortable, ok?).

Sigh....this is almost worse than the foot-in-mouth disease that people get in similar situations. I was thankfully spared that when I had to rush off to meet my dad and couldn't (and didn't wanna) stop to talk to those two people, whom I might add seemed to have actually lost weight (rather than gained like the rest of us), making their already thin frames almost disappear. After my majorly self-esteem-killer experience with the dude in question in the past, the least I could do is look hot on front of them. But noooooooo, SOMEbody had to go out looking like a bloated, middle-aged fish with no eyebrows.

I know what you're thinking. Hey, even perfect people are entitled to frivolous grousing every now and then, let alone an excessively self-conscious neurotic like me.

Lip smackers

Let's talk about lip locking. Here are some milestones in my chequered kissing career.

Most disgusting kiss
This has got to be kissing a guy who'd just smoked. Why? Ever licked an ashtray? I didn't think so. And guys, popping in mints and sweets DOESN'T help; it just makes it more.... how shall I say, multi-dimensional?

Most virginal kiss
No, not my virginal kiss, someone else's. It's a very strange feeling to be kissed by someone who thinks he's frenching you but isn't. This dear, innocent boy didn't seem to realise that french kissing involves tongues – he apparently thought it was just open-mouthed.... and empty.

Most exhilirating kiss
The first, obviously. It's that moment just before, when I looked at those lips and thought, "Wow, am I gonna kiss THOSE lips??" Nothing prepares you for your first real one. At the rate it was going, I thought my heart was going to just pop out of my chest and start skittering away on little feet.

Cutest kiss
This has got to be a tie between butterfly kisses (where you flicker your eyelashes against your partner's) and Simpsons-type looooooooong-puckered kisses. In case you haven't seen the Simpsons in lip lock before, they pucker up such that their mouths look like little balloon-ends (the part where you place your lips to blow into the balloon) – when they kiss, it's like two little balloon-ends joining up.

Most uncomfortable kiss
Try kissing while your body is tilted backwards at about a 45-degree angle, with no support underneath, all the while you're trying to balance yourself by pushing upwards, but the numb guy is thinking that he's being super romantic by pushing you backwards while kissing like in a vintage Hollywood movie. At least in movies, the romantic dude would bother to support his lady's back. Strangest way to get a backache, probably.