Of weird theories and musings

Day 3: Hello Kitty's Town

2009-12-29T18:34:00.011+08:00

Day 3: After a looong train ride with transfers, we reach Tama Center.. (its funny if you read in chinese.) We're greeted by this right out of the train station. Definately in the correct place.

After some walking, following signs like this one...

You will see a giant Kitty...

The final stretch, i start walking very fast here.

The ticket booth 4400 yen for a 'passport'- all shows, rides..
Tickets in hand, we enter puro village.

Picture with cinnamon! I think the little girl looks way better than ehm older people in this pic, so i used her pic instead. So kawaii!

Kero-keroppi? The poor green frog was quite neglected actually. People queued to take pictures with Mocha and Cinnamon, little twin stars etc, but no one queued to take picture with him (i tink he's male) The little girls looks kind of scared...

Onward to Kitty's castle

Boat ride, i skipped this one though.

School excursion. Kids in red caps.

Cute clock tower

Performance below the Wisdom tree. Melody looks weird with legs..A bit naked?

Very pretty performers. They are like Hi5.. All the kids dance and sing happily. And they all get a Sanrio cape.

School excursion group 2 on yellow caps. Notice the same thing in the Hakone Museum too. I wonder what happens if 2 schools wear the same colour? Do they coordinate the colour beforehand?

Hello Kitty Theatre

The story is about Hello Kitty in the land of Oz. Hello Kitty reads a book and then spins and spins and finds herself in the land of Oz wearing red boots..

Its gets really crazy after this. Even Elvis makes an appearance. The musical is in Japanese and i don't understand a thing. I dozed off after some time.

Pretty dancers..

Morph into Kitties!

Daniel?

I left the Marchen Theatre 40min later clueless..

Cute vending machines

Lucky dip at 500yen a try

Taking a pic with the giant kitty

We've all turned into kitties...

More performances below the Wisdom tree.

Watched a short 3D show. Its quite cute. One of the characters farted flowers.. yes.. the screen was filled with a burst of bright yellow flowers and the theatre was filled with a sweet scent.

Hello Kitty's house. This is a key attraction (long queue). I think i queued for half an hour or more.. and its on a monday

Finally we make it into Kitty's abode.

Kitty is definately a narcissist. Everything from chairs to bathtubs are in the shape of its head.

Another queue... Inside Hello Kitty's house. I think i queued 15 min here.. to take a picture with Hello Kitty.. While queuing a Britney video was playing. Kitty likes Britney? So weird...

That's all for Kitty's house.

My Melody shrine? You see happiness bells, pray-for-good-luck places quite a lot..

You can purchase a make-a-wish slip of paper, write your wishes and hang it here.

The gift shop.. You can go crazy here. It took all my willpower to not grab a fluffy Melody!

Ended off the day with dessert at the Cinnamon Roll cafe. You get to keep the cups.

Night shot of Sanrio Puroland. Another loong train ride back to Shinjuku. We decided to call it a day early since we have to wake up super early tomorrow.

Day 2: 6 Dec - Meiji-Jingu shrine/ Harajuku/ Shibuya/ Shinjuku

2009-12-27T04:31:00.012+08:00

Day 2, rise and shine! It was a good weather day. We made our way to the Meiji-Jingumae station bright and early and grabbed breakfast from starbucks.

We got the Christmas drinks. one is a caramel something latte and the other is a berry something latte, plus a strawberry scone. The drinks taste kind of similar to me though.. Auntie me did check in Sg, the packaging is the same but the drinks are indeed unique to each country.

Essentially i'm a sucker for anything labelled with dong1 ji4 xian4 ding. I ate winter edition calbee chips, drank some winter edition sparkling juice thing .. the list goes on.. Heng i stay right smack on the equator, else i'll be going around eating seasonal 'limited edition' junk food all year round.

Entrance to the Shrine, look at the crowds.. Guess its a hot spot for both locals and tourists.

Its quite a long walk into the main shrine area but the greenery and the cool weather makes it a breeze. Most of the time you'll be walking on little pebbles so wear sensible shoes.

Changing leaves..

The little pebbles that line the path.

Eventually you'll reach the main shrine area which is quite a large compound. Its 'fenced' by structures like this.

There were 2 traditional wedding ceremonies going on. Everything looked almost the same. cos of the identical attire and make-up. Only the relatives changed.. must be a standard package thing..

You can purchase a small wooden board and write your wishes on it. Spotted quite a number of very singaporean sounding wishes...
So cute!

After the traditional experience, we went in search of the famous Harajuku cosplay. Unforunately we didn't really catch any except for a few 'drifting' through the Sunday harajuku shopping crowd. We walked as far as Yoyogi park but also didn't catch much action except some lacklustre street performances.

Check out the oversized Heidi queuing for lunch.

A very cute and hardworking salesgirl. We walked up and down the alley twice and she was still going on chirpily.

Crepes..they are everywhere.. I had a banana choc and vanilla ice cream crepe too.

We decided to just explore the area on foot. Spotted some really quaint buildings and shops along the way.

The one on the right is a tiny teppanyaki shop. You walk down a little flight of stairs to the basement.
This one only sells chopsticks. Those in the discount section outside starts at about $8.

Many garages look like this. Save space.

More people queuing up for snacks. In fact you don't really see much finger food around. Harajuku is an exception.
Eventually we found ourselves at Omotesando station. We took the subway to Shibuya in search of dinner.

This is one of my favorite pics.. like the overexposed feel.

Walking Coronas...

Taste test: Mos Milk tea. 270 yen. I prefer the Sg version. After some 'investigation', i concluded the difference is largely due the sweetener used. Gum sugar gives it a different taste.Eventually we settled dinner at another coupon machine shop. and had krispy kreme for dessert. Yes .. 'winter edition' doughnuts. But the doughnuts were a let-down. They're not even warm. not fluffy either.

We continued to explore Shibuya...

Pachinko.. I saw a lady feed a 10,000 yen note into the machine.. just like that. That's almost 160 sgd... faint..

They have boxes of little ball bearings like this all over the shop. Imagine what would happen if you tripped over one...

We decided to visit one more place before calling it a night. Took the subway to Shinjuku with the sole purpose of exploring the red light district. It was a complete let-down. It was so discreet there was hardly any action except a few pimps trying to hand leftlets to my friend. There were some free magazines with advertisements for various services. They even use cute comic characters to illustrate their services.. Quirky..

Kabuki-cho. The crowd is very diverse here. Students seem to have class gatherings here too..

This is all the porn you get... in comic form. And this wraps up day 2.

Day 1: 5 Dec - Ikebukuro/ Akihabara

2009-12-27T02:41:00.015+08:00

It took some effort to retrieve the password since i can't remember the email, userid.. nothing. After some searching i finally managed to login again. Haven't been inspired to write anything for a long time. Figured travelblogging is a naturally interesting choice, hence i shall write something about Tokyo to start.

Day 1: 5 Dec 09
Reached Narita at 7 plus. Was 'greeted' by lots of fans at the arrival hall. First thought, woah lots of people waiting for relatives.. many flights on Sat morning? Then it dawned on me that they are not your regular waiting for family crowd. They are fans! of Rain to be exact. You can see the tell-tale sign: all female, holding homemade placards..

The crowd ...

Homemade fan.

I snapped some pics of the fans and went in search of the counter that sells Suica+Nex pass. For 3500Yen, you get to take the Narita Express to Shinjuku and a Suica pass with stored value of 1500Yen. This is a hefty discount considering the return ticket to Narita airport costs 2940Yen.

We missed the train by like a minute? The last guy in front of us, a Japanese, started running for the platform. As in really run. Since we weren't familiar with the station layout and Jap trains are amazingly punctual, we opted for the next train which departs in about an hour's time. I took the time to put on wash up, put on make up and grab stuff from the convenience store.

On board the Narita Express, snazzy looking train.
We alighted at Shinjuku and tranferred to the metro line to Higashi-Shinjuku which will be our home base for the next 3 nights. I will definately recommend the Sunroute Higashi-Shinjuku hotel for the budget traveller if you don't mind taking an extra 1 0r 2 stops from Shinjuku, depending on where you take it from. Its connected by 2 metro lines so its really easy to get around by subway. The hotel is right out of the train station too. Or should i say its built on top of it? We realised we've been using the slightly further exit only on our final day!

Although the economy double room is typically tiny, its very well designed. Trust the japanese to utilise every inch of space. And they don't skint on bathroom space - there's even a decent bathtub. Pity i'm not a bathtub kind of girl, so i only used it to shower. Realise i didn't take any pics of the room though.

View from the outside:

Since it was too early to check in, we left our bags at the reception and went to our first stop - Ikebukuro.

We walked around a bit and randomly picked a place to have lunch.

Our first encounter with the famous coupon machine. Ordered a set meal each and a kirin beer.

Contrary to what the travel guides say about Ikebukuro being an up and coming place where the Lord Krauser movie was filmed. Can't remember the movie name.. It was quite a sleepy town. There was hardly any people there on a Sat morning. We didn't find many quaint/cosy cafes either. So we proceeded to the next stop: Akihabara/Electric town.

Florist inside the train station. Pretty little bouquets. Bouquets are sorted by occassion or location (which part of the house), so no worries about getting the wrong type of flowers.

Akihabara:

This place is definately the Otaku's heaven. It has entire buildings dedicated to figurines, ranging from the kawaii girl with huge boobs type to the DIY battlekits. Loads of comic paraphernalia, all sorts of cards and whole buildings of arcade games. I saw some huge simulation machines which look like some sort of plane cockpit.

It started to rain quite heavily. Everytime we had to move from one building to the next, it was freezing. My foldable umbrella was quite useless in this kind of wind and rain. The japanese used the non-foldable type, mostly transparent ones.

Girls in cosplay outfits standing in the rain. They were giving our pamphlets. They must be freezing. You have to admire their spirit.

Eventually we sought refuge in Excelsior coffee.

Since there was a dearth of proper eating places in Akihabara, maybe Otakus don't need to eat... We took the subway to another station in search of dinner. I can't remember where we were but there were many eateries so once again we randomly picked one.

The bowl of noodles cost 1050Yen. About 16Sgd. The serving was huge. The yellow noodles almost filled the entire bowl. There were 2 fat slices of yummy kong bak which is every bit like this picture. I was completely stuffed.

The shop was manned by a team of young men. Each of them handling 1 task. The kong bak guy, counter guy and noodle guy. The noodle guy would shout' whoosh' whenever he drained the noodles. At first i thought there was some kind of kitchen accident..

That about sums up day 1, i stopped by a department store to buy a 'thermal stocking'. I'm not sure what's its real name. It works like a long john for the upper body, but the material is like nylon stockings. Since its so thin, i figure you can wear 2 layers if you're really cold and not look fat at all. I tested it the next day and it really helped. I was dead tired by the end of day 1 cos i didn't sleep much on the plane and didn't get much sleep over the last few days either.

An intelligent machine

2006-08-21T20:40:00.000+08:00

This post is dedicated to the photocopying machine in my workplace.
I realized I’ve spent an unhealthy amount of time standing beside it during the last 2.5 months or so, making copies and feeding it with crisp paper from time to time.
Have a sorta love hate relationship with it.

Why I love it so?
This wonderful device copies, scans, faxes..
Moi has learnt how to turn single page to double, double to single, print 2 page in 1, sort, staple and punch holes with it.
Yes this machine can staple and punch holes too. Ain’t it fantastic?

Why I hate it so?
Sometimes it gets a little too smart though. For instance when the paper size is set to A4, it will override the setting and auto reset to A3 if it senses something else placed on the feeder.
Talk about being intuitive! Poor moi here was stupefied cos I had some stuff placed on the edge of the tray and no matter how many times I changed the setting to A4, it came out A3 sized.

It also brings me much pain whenever it throws a tantrum.
ive had my share of paper cuts from either feeding its empty stomach or from handling the warm and crisp paper it churns out.

I just caused the mother of paper jams last week. Despite opening up everything which can be opened, and removing what seemed to be the offending piece of paper, it refused to get to work again.
Even the ‘miracle’ Reset button didn’t work.
My RO actually came by when she saw me probing the machine’s innards and tried to lend a hand by well.. pressing the Reset button and probing at the toner box.
No miracle happened and she commented that im suay! Ugh…

So I had to call the technical service folks to come down.

Hopefully we can cultivate a cordial relationship and there are no more major mishaps!

The Idiot's Guide to ... Fireworks Viewing

2006-08-14T22:10:00.000+08:00

After this year's experiences, i have decided to record the 'things i have learnt'.
Like i alwaiz say 'There is sth new to learn everyday'.
Therefore, there are certain SOPS to observe in order to maximise the viewing pleasure come our nation's bdae month in 2007.

Lesson 1:
Arrive early. Very very early.
As Singaporeans are notoriously Kiasu, we come at 6 when the show starts at 9.
All for 10mins of splendour. Nonetheless it pays to be kiasu as that is the only way to chope yourself a good spot.

Lesson 2:
If you're an avid *read serious* photographer, then go even earlier.
Every precious bit of space is pretty much filled up by 6, so u'll prolly have to reach by 5?
It appears that the rule is to stake your claim along the bridge with a tripod.
Beware though as things can get tense when there is too little space and too many 3-legged stands, as illustrated by siwei's bad experience last year.

Lesson 3:
If you're driving... DON'T. Unless you arrive very early too. As illustrated by all those who suffered on Saturday. The jam was horrid and parking was next to impossible. Poor Yishan didn't even manage to weave thru the mess and ended up somewhere else altogether.
I was late and got off at Redhill MRT station at 750 to take a cab. Moi had already sat down and closed the door and the Taxi Uncle actually asked me to get off and take the train instead.

Lesson 4:
Now once you're in the area, there are many ways to watch the same show.
(Of cos those in the mood for romance and have the cash to spare can check themselves into a nice hotel and pack along a nice book.*lol* Prices are likely to be jacked up loads though.)

The rest can..
a. Go to your office in the area to watch.
(But there is a lack of proxomity). Can't smell the smoke, the sweat and hear the music.

b. Reserve a rooftop seat at Al Dente.
Romantic too. (And tuck into hearty folded pizza.yum yum)

c. Picnic.
Bring along the necessary barang. Find a less crowded spot with a decent view and unfold your garbage bag/plastic bag/newspapers. Plant your ass on it and wait.
Go to the toilet first as it'll prolly be hard to find a place to pee.
And pack along food/fan/umbrella (though i dont tink it'll help much if it really rains)..good company n whatever kips you happy n comfy.. and wait patiently.

Took some clips.. a notable one being gers going aww in a really creepy way.. but unfortunately my com can't sem to receive stuff fr my hp via the ancient infra-red port. and Nokia don't pvd a USB cable! Till i figure a way...

Zenith

2006-08-06T01:20:00.000+08:00

In all honesty, i dont know what it means.. haha

Anyways, like wat i said previously, the auntie me didn't regret blowing on a dress that i can only wear once and kiaping my hair cos i figured it only happens once, kind if like a wedding sia, and more importantly it will leave fond memories and gave a nice closure to the journey we took together during the last 3 yrs.

Neways, at the ripe old age of 23, i finali understand y such dresses which make my heart ache n my auntie mentality screech bo3 hua2 can't be recycled.. Cos it has a different equation altogether. Unlike a pair of expensive jeans which u wear many many times to make it worth its price, a dressy dress is depreciated by taking pics in them. So the idea is to take enuf pics to fully depreciate it by the end of the nite. Think of it as $1 a shot.. kaching! *A dollar pls* kaching *Another dollar pls*! And it can't be recycled for another event cos 1. I've put on enuf weight to not be able to squeeze in it again. 2. I've taken so many pics in the same dress that i wldnt want to be caught in it again.

Talking about taking pics, im cam shy okie, and my eyes will auto shut when there is a flash. I think my dear lilies have indeed put in much effort in my training .. hahaha.. Nonetheless, tink the amt of pics taken recently have exhausted my pic quota for yr 2006 already.

The day started on a frantic note, grabbed my clutch at the last min at Far East Plaza where i got my hair kiapped at a very reasonable 25 bucks *merci*, though the curls on the right did unravel by 9pm.. Elv tried her best to revive them and for abt half an hr, they did regain some of their bounce. That explained why i cld onli stand on one side.. haha. Was quite worried when the stylist yanked and pinned the hair behind and started curling the lower half. Thankfully i went out looking sane still.

Neways ya the nite was devoted to cam whoring as expected, food pretty much sucked though.. as in they were prob average, but cos of the Tung Lok name, the expectations became higher i suppose. The sharks's fin was realli quite horrid though, but i finished it anyway.. cos shark's fin is shark's fin and auntie san simply can't throw it away. It was this gooey over starched concoction.. ewww.

The highlight of the night goes to Mr Daniel Ng.. who was crowned Man of The Nite.. waha! moi pretty much screamed like a banshee.. like some fan club screaming for boy band liddat.. Just short of the line, wo men yong yuan zhi chi ni!! hahhaa..

The next morning after getting home and takin a shower, I was attempting to blow dry my hair and juz felt kinda sad.. its like wah ..we're all grown up, no more sheltered life as a student, where the worse u can find is prolly juz free-rider pjt mates or attitude ones. In the working world, where most of us wld be spending almost 40 yrs or so, its much more than that. Then felt really nostalgic.. But well, gotta think positve! There's a long long road ahead!

Since the nite is abt cam whoring, this post wont be complete with some of the evidence..

Waha! And i won 4 lucky tics to Wild Wild Wet..

Quickly grabbed Man of the Nite for a pic.

The collage which everyone wanted to take a pic with

If you haven't realised by now, there is a fantastic optical illusion in these pics. mabe its the light/mabe the dress. Heck! But well i was sufficiently thrilled to see something ive never seen b4.

Convo

2006-07-28T01:37:00.000+08:00

Ah, the convo...

Turned up for the ceremony in the end and got my bestest gal pal to accompany my ma. i owe her a BIG THANK YOU. It was reali reali nice of you to wake up so early, sit thru a borin ceremony and stay with my ma all morning.

The day started in the Nanyang Audi basement big toilet with lots of gers and some mums fussing over the mortarboard and gown. Lots of safety pins and granny hairpins were used to prevent wardrobe malfunction and falling headgear. Thankfully Dawn was all prepped and ready to help!

And so we all sat down in the audi and watched the profs strut onstage in even crazier outfits. Then the special prizes. Congrats to Andy who got the Gold medal Following that it was a bore. Name calling, handshake, multiply that by like 500 times. Eventually the last name was called and greeted with thunderous applause..last guy very poor thing hor.

Then all adjorn for lunch/pic taking with family n frenz

What followed in the afternoon was way more tiring than a normal work day though i think our artistic director is the most tired since he has to lug around his big cam, try to get everyone to stand properly like taking pri sku class pic, siam mortarboards during the board throwing pics and buy us drinks somemore. Many thanks to Siwei.

Hours under the hot sun wrapped like a dumpling in that crazy outfit did take its toll. My mei mei had commented the previous night when i tried on the outfit that i look like a dead bird. By the end of it, tink reali look n felt like one.

Thankfully, Ade and Andy arranged for a mini-bus. The air-con revived everybody and enabled us to cam-whore from Nanyang Heritage Centre to UOB Plaza to Esplanade and finally Fort Canning.

Hot, sweaty, unglam but unforgettable!

MK2 - Mystery of 6.5kg

2006-07-28T01:30:00.001+08:00

(Back-dated)

My mei mei never fails to amaze me with her intelligence or lack thereoff.

I had just purchased a new washing machine from the Harvey Norman Roadshow at West Mall last Sunday. An entry level model from Samsung at a very good price.

The blur salesman actually called me on Sat to ask if the delivery was on the 23rd, Sunday. After I confirmed with an equally blur ‘Ah..Huhh? Yaa ya its tomolo..’, he proceeded to ask .. “Ah then Miss Leong, what time is the delivery?”.. *faints*

I bet he is swimming in order forms and somehow lost track of his records.

Eventually they got the time wrong still. Supposedly 4-7pm but the delivery guy called moi at 1130am and said he’s coming in half an hour.
“Cos Sunday don’t work so late!”
Resulting in moi rushing to push back tuition by an hour.

But that’s besides the point. I digress.

The point is my mei mei can reali be so ~~innocent~~ dumb at times I dunno whether to laugh or cry.

Yesterday was one of those classic moments.
Last night I got home and plonked down on the sofa as wei1 xian3 ren2 wu4 (aka the jian4 nan2 ren2 show cos it seems in the episodes I’ve caught so far, men either kill their wives, cause loansharks to kill their wives or their wives murder them cos they drove their wives bonkers) was playing on channel 8.

Mei mei treated me to a tiny slice of apple strudel. She sliced one into many pieces you see. But got xim1 la.
And proceeded to complain that the washing machine was so damn heavy she couldn’t move it. That its definitely NOT 6.5kg as stated on its label.

I went ‘Huh? You move it for what? Nothing better to do is it?’
Then it dawned on me what she had been thinking.
*freak*

I said ‘You siao? How can you have no common sense’
True to her MK1 style, she continued, ‘label says 6.5 mah. How come so heavy?’

Moi then asked. Do ovens and fans have labels telling you their weight?

‘No.. for what?’

‘ya.. precisely..for what?’

‘What you mean?’

‘Don’t tell you..so stupid.’

‘Don’t scold me stupid. You then stupid! What?’

‘Wahaha..*evil laugh*’

‘What??’

*More evil laugh*

What is a washing machine for?

“wash clothes..u STUPID!!’

“Ya lor”

“OOOOhh… the weight of the water it can hold!!’

About there I guess…

creAtive not so C-r-e-a-t-i-v-e

2006-07-04T00:25:00.000+08:00

This post has been sitting in the drafts section for ages. started but not completed. i'm completing it as i patiently wait for the world cup finals to start.
Creative.. ah.. the creative warehouse sale is a bargain hunter's playground but a marketer's nightmare and i consider myself a little of both. Okie mabe a bit more of the former...

The Pricing and Promotion were horrible.
On the other hand, bargains galore.
But really, its no way to market a lifestyle product.

Neways the Creative Warehouse sale was bw 25-27 June. I went on the 27th (Sunday) taking my mei mei along to look see and mabe land a bargain item.

The 1st thing that caught our attention was a giant signboard with lots of MP3 players, like an NTUC discount spread in the newspapers. Very auntie.

Usual price cancelled with the discount price written beside, and freebies thrown in fo some. My mental calculator started churning to work out the best deal Gig for Gig.. then i noticed a glaring error -->
The original price of the 1 gig Zen Neon is more than the 5 gig one??
Typo? spell check!

On the 1st page of the brochure, 'red-hot' items for Day 1 of the sale were refurbished items going for $1. Selling reconditioned items alongside new ones is a no-no. There is a reason for 2nd hand dealerships. Ca you imagine old Mazda's selling alongside new ones in showrooms for half price?

Next we proceeded to check out the MP3s at the display counters. There's a newly launched product, the Zen V and Zen V Plus. A tiny cute little thing. Pretty. My fingers got a bit itchy so i picked up the demo set and twiddled with it.

It HANGED. Ugh! The promoter was all straight faced when he said 'oh this is a demo set so will hang, its not spoilt, happens a lot, the real thing wont be like that. Let me reset it.'

And he proceeded to poke at this little hole at the side of the tiny Zen V Plus with a pin (yes he had a pin ready for such 'emergencies')

Then he passed it back to me and said 'see its very simple to reset'

Isn't it the real thing? Demo set spoil will scare customers away! I'm sure Mr Sim can afford to replace the cranky demo set...

.....

In the end, i decided to grab a pair of nifty portable speakers, not high end stuff, but value for money.
As it turns out the portable speakers came with the big wooden sub woofer thing too. And everything came packed in a big box which was certainly not light. The salesman helped me to carry it and stupid me offered to take it to the queue myself and almost dropped it when he passed it to me. Ugh. Thankfully it didn't crash to the ground, else both my pocket and pride would be quite seriously damaged.

Neways i lugged it along the queue and managed to lift it onto the counter with a heave. And there i was in for another surprise. With my humble purchase, i was instantly made a Creative Card Member, eligible for a discount and a $7 rebate off my next purchase. I'm not complaining about the $ saved. But for young punks who want to look cool, such rebates are very 'Shop & Save' like. An effortless membership is rather low on the hip quotient too.

And so auntie leong lugged the box all the way to the other end of the hall to get my membership card.

The card...
Kop the pic online, so its not very clear. basically orangey cncentric circles.

Onward to the free shuttlle back to JE. It looked like it was about to leave as folks in front of us starting running towards the bus. I emphasize it looked like it was leaving cos it really wasn't. Anyways true to our auntie spirit, we started 'jogging' too. Basically i attempted to run, but couldn't cos of the speakers i was lugging. But my mei mei, she took the box over and RAN. My mei mei is so strong! I decided there and then that i'm never getting into a fight with her cos i surely can't win. But i sure as hell was grateful she's around to lend a strong arm and leg. Now i know what all those pumping in NPCC did!

Just found this on its webby -->

And the price of my speakers just got slashed further at the online shop!!
shucks!!

Tian shi di li ren he

2006-07-03T23:58:00.000+08:00

Today's a wasted day.
It would not have made a difference if i didn't turn up.
Whoever's supposed to approve my new system access was not available. MIA? MC?
I couldn't haunt her down and folks i approached simply told moi to wait it out.
And so wait i did, for the whole day, while the form passes on and eventually ends up at the right place. *hopefully* .. before too much work silently piles up and jams up in the system like a clogged toilet. Mind you, i'll be the one sinking in shit when that happens.

To think that I was “studying” over the weekend, having been reminded to go through the manuals faithfully and all. I lugged home a black ring file and a couple of plastic folders in a most unglam state on Friday, so as to get a grip on the 101 rules and procedures in place and hopefully avoid messing up today. Apparently its wasted effort. *Sighs*

So miffed.

I guess that’s life. Things often don’t come when you want them to. When you’re free, there’s too much time to while away. When stuff comes, they come in a wave and threaten to sweep you off your feet.

Back in school, there may be periods of no homework, zero test, zilch. One wonders why all the teachers turned into saints. But before we know it, tests start popping up aroung the same time and we grip about the poor timing.

In uni for instance, there may be ‘droughts’ with no presentations and then there are periods when multiple deadlines fall on the same day or week. We work overtime to squeeze out reports and slides at the last minute and drive ourselves nuts. Perhaps the FYP tutor may be unlocatable for ages and then makes his presence felt when exam approaches, dealing a double whammy.

In relationships too, perhaps once upon a time you liked this person a lot and the person didn’t like you back or didn’t treat you the way you hoped he would. Perhaps when the person finally looks back, you realise the feeling is no longer the same or vice versa.

Wrong place, wrong person, wrong time. Happens all the time.
Things happening at the right place at the right time are perhaps more the exception than the norm.. *Sigh again*

*pensive*

U-P-D-A-T-I-N-G

2006-07-02T01:43:00.000+08:00

Jus a random update... Warning: Yawn factor: 7/10
But pls do read para2.

Its been ages since i last blogged. Haven't been realli inspired to write anythng, much less anything funny. I did actualli start penning a few posts recently, but they all sounded so bland n boring i decided everyone wld rather give it a miss.

First of all, I would like to apologise to all my frenz whom ive mysteriously disappeared on. Really sorry.. like wat lily chan juz said on msn, i've sorta vanished.

Tink im still suffering from some afflictions relating to work
ie. ''adjustment sickness'' and ''information overload''. I'll come out of this shell soon i promise. And to lychee! I'm still keen on getting some exercise.. realli realli!! When ive settled down a bit more...Rite now im still rather disconnected. havent touched the newspapers or watched any soccur! really want to catch the finals at least!

Making minor progress..like finding out where to get my requisite daily dose of cold sugary caffine drink to kip my eyes open and my head up. *faints*

The best one is really far at the aptly named Far East Square where they serve up a mean iced teh tarik.

The next best thing is the really cheap soy + chin chow at Golden Shoe.

Of cos nth beats my fav ice milk tea.

i guess the fit is not quite there in terms of personality. its quite shockin reali. im considered the numbers ger among the 3 eucharians, with an eye for details. but now im far from being meticulous enough.

ive always considered myself an introvert compared to ntumarket and now i feel like an extrovert in my cubicle. So far only one person has dropped by my cubicle just to say Hi, and the person is not even frm my own division.

What's worse is i havent even said Hello to my new neighbour who's filling the cubicle on my left although i really wanted to. Cos i was worried i mite shock my neighbour since no one does such stuff here. *chicken* I promise i wld do it on Mon.

So far juz abt the most exciting thing ive done at work is to zip off to the MNG presale during lunch. I half walked half ran to the MRT station the moment the clock struck 12. Destination: Isetan Orchard outlet cos its nearest to the station. My sis had already been stationed there to queue for the dressing room. I grabbed a few items, tried and then passed them to my sis to pay b4 zipping off. I made it back by 1.15. A bit short-of-breath and very hungry but none the worse.

Only bought 3 items. A camisole, a cheapo bag and 3/4pants at half price. Its just the mentality that one muz take advantage of a sale that drove me there i suppose. *typical kiasuism*

Collaging Spree

2006-05-29T00:53:00.000+08:00

Been collaging with Picassa lately, haha.. noticed a slight thing for improvement .. ANy Google staff hearing tis? hahaha.. pics mus be in the same folder to collage.. it wld be more friendly if u can select pics from diff folders.. instead of havin to move them together.. yip..
Neway been in tis pensive and reflective mood the past week, ever since comin back fr BKK. so well..
i tink i'm missin sku already.. and the market.. as all of us will be movin on with our life, wherever it leads us, hopefully in the yrs to come, we can all mit up occassionally to celebrate birthdays, sing KTV, pig out..

2006-05-29T00:33:00.000+08:00

Of note: R1 C1, one of the nicest person ever, YongLiang, who offered so much help! R1 C2, Genesis enscounced in the little room behind. Mac coutesy of the Eucharians;) R1, C3 and R2 C1, souvenirs for one another.

R2, C3 and R3, C123, Market showing their power! Thank you:)

Cam-whoring during the break.

BKK with the lilies

2006-05-26T17:48:00.000+08:00

As my cheap nail art starts to chip off, i'm miss the tiring but fun trip to BKK. ALbeit a short 4D3N trip, but i managed to totally blow my budget and had to borrow 400 baht from lily chan to pay airport tax.

So what did i buy? As i tallied up my purchases, finally unpacked from the ah-ma canvas bag. (the blue-red-white trusty classic has been updated with mickey mouse prints), half of the stuff are gifts, a quarter are useless knick-knacks.. so what's useful?

my top 3 fav purchases...

....... 99baht 3/4 pants.. i'll be wearing them a lot..floppin ard like an ah-soh.. considerin i got 3 pairs.. lol.. i 'weaved through' leaking canvas sheets to get to the store and had to squeeze pass women while trying to avoid the puddles of water at my feet to get to the pants!

................... a black clutch for 75baht..

.................................. and a 199 baht pair of silly wedges encased in bright pink flowery print.. gasp.. with fantastic service too. I was trying to balance my mocha latte and a box of Dunkin DOnuts and the shopgirl helped me to try on 2 different sizes of the shoe! Nice... Wait til i figure out how to wear it without looking like im being hit by flowers...

and top 3 most memorable experiences were...

..........Praying at the Erawan shrine: Firstly, i got confused as i prayed and wondered which side i missed.. *gasp*, then lily chan and moi were trapped as they started to wash the road around the shrine. Poor lily fong was stuck outside holding one coconut in each hand since she cant go in due to religious reasons. when we finally got out, we were stuck between the sloshing water jets and crazy traffic. I figured our sandals were being sterilised by industrial strength detergent.

...........................Watching a romantic chick-flick which turned out to be a terrible period drama. It was so cliche and lame it got funny. Its basically abt a spoilt brat who toyed with his beautiful childhood friend's feelings and later really fall in love with her. The sex scenes were cringeworthy. The stupid director tried to bring across the idea that the couple had many rendevous at an inn by having various almost identical scenes shown in quick succession, just that the female lead's kimono kept changing.

After some research, the show Spring Snow is actually an adaption of one of the 4 part novels by Yukio Mishima - an acclaimed author who is one of the most influential Japanese Novelist of the 20th century. Its some arty farty stuff apparently..
http://www.wdog.com/rider/writings/springsnow.htm

.....................................and well, seeing all fellow lilies in our worst possible state.. sans-make-up, skin going downhill no thanks to the polluted air and dirt and lily chan is holding onto some blackmail worthy pics..

And what's the worst experience?
Getting home with my bags.
Lugging 3 bags from T1, onto the sky train, to T2, to the MRT, changing trains at Tanah Merah and JE was no easy feat! I had to call my mei mei who had thankfully returned home from sku, bribe her with a pair of cutsy flats and a voodoo doll so that she'll come to the MRT station to help moi get thru the last leg of the journey home.

Setting-off: 19th May Friday

Camera-whoring shamelessly in the room!

Lily Fong and Lily Chan
& their love affair with seafood

Back to Sg, with a crazy amount of luggage for such a short trip... *faints*

I'm proud to declare all my stuff weigh just under 10Kg, banana chips and shoes included!!

ANd of cos .. My beloved 199baht sandals which i haven't figured out how to wear!!

Offensive content: Battle of the Posers

2006-05-18T14:01:00.001+08:00

I attended a particularly innovative selection exercise with a certain stat board yesterday and kudos to their HR dept for thinking of such interesting ways to do a massive group interview.

You talk, yabber yabber yabber...
You play a couple of group games
and then you go for a short interview.
Nicely done.

And moi went in feeling good, despite having had difficulty finding the place and after asking passer-bys to no avail . I digress.. so after shelling out 3.80 for a short taxi ride. (morning peak surcharge) 480 metres to be exact, i arrived at a little building tucked somewhere in tiong bahru in one piece, sweating a bit, but nth that a short trip to the loo wont solve.

Upon stepping in, i made a dash to the loo, after which i escounced myself comfortably in a seat, praying that my sweaty palms condition would juz turn itself off for half a day. It didnt.

There were a few potentials there and as 9am approached more ppl streamed in.

The battle of posers had begun.
U can feel it in the air.
Having been warned by Dawn previously abt the pretentiousness of the exercise, I was prepping myself to switch into Poser mode.

Neways i dont tink i can divulge the games here. Lest I get sued or sth, but it doesnt take a genius to figure out that it was basically about teamwork, decision making as a group and leadership qualities.

Moi knew she had to fake it. ALong with all the others in my grp too. If there was a fake-o-meter in the air, it would have exploded.. Hahaha.

And so we all faked.. I tink i did pretty well honestly. I was quite happy with my performance until ...

we were asked if we had any comments abt the game we juz played. I failed that round cos i had no comments. and this NTU HR ger easily took home the tiara for poser queen. SHe actually launched into a PEP TALK.

[QUOTE] I think we all did very well and I am happy with how we worked together as a team. It was great team work and I like the way we supported one another [QUOTE]

I had to put in real effort to get the disgusted look of my face. I hope i did.
Shit.

But anyways, i put in my fair bit of acting too. But im not even a page boy going by the Queen's standards. Faint.

Tuff.. I hope i acted well enuf.

...
..
..
..
..
.
.
.

i figured thats life.. tuff

Awake!

2006-05-05T05:18:00.000+08:00

Im still awake! Argh!

Neways after such a depressing post, i figured i'll talk about something more motivating since im still not sleepy.

Well, the final leg of the competition will be over real soon. Just a few more days and i'll close this chapter of my life, feel that ive officially completed my education, go and have fun at the market chalet and start job seeking actively. it'll be great and it had better be! it'll probably be the last time so many ppl can get tog for a chalet...

Rem being on the train after the morning job which was supposed to be sorta a class outing cum 48 buck earning session. marred by the awful awful woman called Joanne - graduate of NTU too!!! She is so mean, so rude, so arrogant... and ... decided not to blog about that day after all, cos i figured we've all bitched and bitched about her that morning and afterwards. and i figure i'll meet many more such ppl in the future so i better learn to cope with it. I digress...

anyway i was saying bye bye to Qiuling and was about to say 'c u in sku' when i realised there's no more sku and i wont be seeing ntu market ppl in class! Sad sia, so this chalet better be GR8!!!

Neways i feel ive challenged myself this sem as its my final sem and although there is only 1 core, i felt real busy. Initially cos of web design GE and zero arty flair me killed myself doing my first webby and learning fireworks. Cos i noe nuts about such stuff, i figure taking the GE would force me to try. and i probably took twice the time my fellow classmates did jus to churn out something passable. But it was worth it, cos i realli felt i learnt something useful.

After which cos of lorealing.. wont be lorealing animore in a few days.
tink i'll get withdrawal symptoms cos by then i'll be JOBLESS and AIMLESS!!

But while im at it, i tink tis whole loreal thing has made me learn alot. We're like really weak in terms of design, IT, etc which are really crucial in this phase.
and that made us so so frustrated. Met the best and the worst kind of people. Begging for help is never never easy. And the let-downs are really quite sad. I figured we take much longer to come up with something. Just to get something presentable out, we have to go thru detours and we owe quite a few very nice people favours too. We've had our share of emotional troughs where group morale is super duper low and highs too.

Nonetheless, we're come so far already so we'll finish off nicely then we'll have no regrets!

And to my dear teammates, well all i can say is thanks for everything, bitching and disagreements included. i'm glad we havent murdered one another yet. better pen it down before i lose my guts or 'mood'. i believe all of us have our own competencies(none of which being design though we TRY) and to lily fong, although sometimes i get damn irritated by your xiaojie-ness, i hafta say you do churn out good 'fluff'. notice i put it in " " ? i can see you doing something like that for Her World or CLEO as beauty editor and having bucketloads of fun doing it! and today when you yipped and yeahed when we got the cutting figured out *hahah* i reali find you quite cute la.. dont throw a shoe!

and to lily chan: im so so thankful you're our 'liason officer' and its a super tuff job, esp with cranky folks out there like 'you know who'. i duno if you're still keen on the tourism and hotel industry but i tink u'll be gr8 at it. natural PR skills there! and i'll grow to like THE SONG. hah!

And both of you are the bestest teammates! i wouldnt exchange you for anyone else!

ps: I know we've all been seeing each other far too much and we'll avoid each other like the plague for a month after May 08!

Farm hustling

2006-05-05T04:10:00.000+08:00

Its 4am and im still wide awake. Been playing farm hustle for like 3hrs? Just stoning and 'hustling'. Brain freeze and an aching finger. mousing, clicking, mousing, clickin. Been a long day.. I waited hours just to get the A2 sized boards printed. Gosh.. all becoz its cheap. as in really cheap. so i traded 5 hours of my not so valuable time to save on printing costs.

Yip and Im officially unemployed now. I tell myself to adjust the date to 'results day'. Hmm. But well. Sad to say at the ripe old age of 22 going on 23, im still unsure of what exactly i want to do or rather where my competency is, what exactly im good at? As a kid, ive aspired to be a doctor, astronaut, teacher, journalist, a novelist.. the usual childhood ambitions and the not so usual too.. like fa3 yi1 after watching some tv serial.

By now, i no longer fantasize about what i want to be. more like the bread and butter issues. and hope for a good working environment, wherever that is.. and earning a decent living. life as an adult is no no longer airbrushed. harsh reality beckons and i have to accept my lot in life and make the best out of it.

The world is an ugly place. There are moments of beauty of cos. And we all live for those moments. Or else life would not be worth living.

On TV, with the elections looming, things are getting unpleasant. The mud-slinging, ugly exchanges are going into overkill when they're being repeated over and over. Please report on something else.. please.. Its there on the Newspapers, on radio, on the news. It'll all blow over by Sat..thankfully.

My area is a walk-over, so there is hardly any action. But in contested areas, it seems that dramas are unfolding. On the papers, i contemplate the opposition's 'to-do' list. Although i dont love the PAP to bits or anything, I do find some of the items on the opposition's laundry list laughable.

Example: We'll do away with foreign workers who are taking over our jobs. Then all Singaporeans will have jobs.

Seriously, how can people buy this? But it works! Say it during a rally and the middle-aged and unemployed guy with no skills and a family to feed will believe. Yes it can happen. If all the Bangladesh and Pakistani construction workers who are depressing the wages leave, the company would hire me and pay more $!

But if cheaper foreign labour is eliminated, the factories would pack up too, taking the jobs along.

If healthcare is made free for poorer folks, the rich would be taxed more, and Bukit Timah folks would cash out their bank accounts and go somewhere else with a lower tax rate. And we'll be left with a nation of poor people. Although i agree that health care is really really expensive. and if i get cancer now, i'll probably just die quite fast cos i'll be stuck in a C class ward with no air con and taking generic brand subsidised medicine. I'll have to see a different doctor everytime who will scan thru my record in a minute and dont give 2 hoots about how sick i am cos he has many other patients to see and im too poor to get a dedicated doc.

Sad but true. But that's reality.

Of cos there's income disparity. And its getting bigger. How do i measure it? By looking at the number of people going through rubbish bins. Yes digging in rubbish bins looking for empty drink cans.

I dont know about other estates but I stay in bukit batok and sad to say, ive been seeing them all the time. In recent years, i c more and more. I recognise this old plump auntie who always ambles along with a metal rod which she uses to poke around the rubbish in the bin and fish out the empty drink cans. If i had an 830 class, i'll probably see her 'stopping by' the bus stop while waiting for the bus. Its like a routine and she's kind of more reliable than the bus.

There's another old man who uses an umbrella instead. He'll poke around the bin with the pointy end of the umbrella and i often see him too.

I figure they live in bukit batok as they probably wont have the money to spend on transport. Ive done a rought estimate of how much they make. Assuming that one drink can fetches 5cents, and it takes 5 min to find another dustbin with one empty can on average and they work 10 hrs a day. It works out to ( 60/5=12 cans an hour 12x10=120 cans 120 x 0.05= 6 dollars) Its really sad and i cant help but feel sad everytime i c them. Sometimes on bus 174, i'll think about it after seeing the woman with the metal rod.

And people who make such statements know that such cannot be done. But they still say it. Cos some of the gullible folks out there might actually buy it. Folks like the woman with the metal rod or the old man with the unbrealla. Im appalled.

A silly random thing

2006-04-23T16:38:00.000+08:00

This is a totally stupid and random picture, taken one afternoon after walking up and down Bugis and Arab street to get materials for the VDay flower sale. Jingsi took this pic for me when Bus 33 stopped at the traffic junction. We just though it was really funny there and then..*lol*

Its never good enough

2006-04-23T16:16:00.000+08:00

I know Ive been taken advantaged of when i stayed 20min past the scheduled time and the mother shoves another assessment book in my face.

Its just never enough. There;s always something new to learn, another exercise to do, more questions to ask.. blah blah..

And its one thing to stay back of my own accord as I feel i want to finish a particular chapter and i dont to leave a few more pages 'hanging there'.. or there's a test on the topic in the next week and the kid still has queries so i feel obliged to finish up.

Its another thing altogether when the mum doesn't show appreciation for my staying back but pops in 20min after the lesson was supposed to end with another assessment book and asked her kid 'Have you asked tuition teacher how to do those questions?'( as if im not around??)

Even her kid felt paiseh and said 'no time already,not urgent one'.

But she persisted, sitting down, waiting for the moment i finish assigning homework and shoved the assessment at me.. repeating, to me this time, ' oh, she tried these questions but some dunno how to do'

and waited expectantly for me to go on from there

I said 'Can i do this next week instead?'

She said ok, but looked rather displeased.

ANd i know ive been taken for granted.
No wonder my NIE friend said never to give your student extra time. It'll become an expectation. Not a bonus.

A thankless job indeed.

This sort of thing actually happens a lot in life. A long time ago, i blogged a 'theory' of starting from a base. Its another example of it at work.

Neways i figure i cant be a good teacher. Not cos i cant teach, but because i cant instil discipline. ANd i think discipline is like 60% of the job. Im too nuah to be a teacher. My threats dont hold. If i say i'll make you do double the work if you dont do my work, chances are i would not exercise that threat. If i say i'll complain to your mum the next time you start daydreaming, chances are i would let it go a few more times cos i'll feel bad abt bad-mouthing the kid and am to be blamed for her getting a scolding.

Hmmmm... Sleepy again..

Sleep is good for the body and soul

2006-04-23T05:01:00.001+08:00

Just a random post here.

Its rather scary to wake up one afternoon (yes afternoon) assuming you're alone at home to ...

hear voices.. (i thot mabe im dreaming or something)
then i opened the door and almost ran smack into my mei mei and her friend and the tiny living room looked like a battleground.

They are doing their project (on revamping the Tiong Bahru estate) and apparently the group of 7 had split up the work according to
1. Flats/Houses
2. Carpark and Playground
3. Shops

My mei mei and best friend cum squad mate Po Ching took part 3. Hence what was lying all over the floor on newspapers are miniatures (or attempts at making miniatures) of biscuits, cakes and pretzels for the bakery and bananas for the fruit shop.

That's as far as they went with the clay, plasticine, poster colour and accompanying brushes and water.

I made a meagre contribution by donating my 'hotdog buns' and 'kuehs' miniatures and left them to continue chatting and painting and i went back to ...

sleep some more.
That's what 36 hours of staying awake does to me ... .

My phone has been going coo coo for the longest time and I finally threw the towel and got a new phone at Singtelshop.com BEFORE 21 months. With just 6 weeks left, I gave up the battle to save 100 bucks. This is the first time ever, i change a phone before the 2 yr plan is up.
SO you c, SIngtelshop.com charges 30 bucks less than the hello shops, and they DELIVER to your doorstep.

Sounds nice? yeah it is.. except for one thing..

MY PHONE WAS SPOILT.
Of the hundreds, mabe thousands of Nokia handsets they have, I got the spoilt one.
I got a stupid, wacko bimbo phone! It took like 5 seconds for the screen to 'react' when i slide it open. When i slide it close, the screen would turn blank. Oooh.

ANd it couldn;t read my SIM card either.
So after being put on some crap music and listening to 'ALl our customer svc officers are engaged at the moment' over and over, the CSO who spoke to me said my sim card is not compatible with the new phone.

And so i went to the Hello shop at West Mall at 8pm and waited an hour before i finally got my phone changed. (It can read my sim card)

During which i had to contend with a toddler banging against my paper bag and basically climbing all over the couch we're supposed to be sharing amicably. I escaped to MOS to buy myself a MOS tea instead.

My mei mei's first bottle of perfume

2006-04-01T21:43:00.000+08:00

** After Ck One, Calvin Klein is launching mK1, a new fragrance which will be in stores next month, along with a promotional roadshow at Orchard. As part of the pre-launch, customers will be able to purchase a full-sized bottle at less than a fraction of the price --> $19.90. (recommended selling price: $109).
To top it off, the second bottle is free.

Sounds like a great deal? Hurry hurry, while stocks last!

.... .... .... .... .... .... ... ... ...
And so the story goes,
My mei mei was at Orchard with her best pal Poh Ching, when a 'pretty young lass with nice rebonded hair' approached them with this wonderful offer outside TANGS.

After the sales pitch, my mei mei proceded to ask 'Is it real?'. (*Laughs*)
The pretty lass replied ' of cos its real, if fake, i'll fake chanel lah!'

Hence, the 2 ~~stupid~~ naive gers bought 2 bottles. (My mei mei's friend even called her mum to discuss first.) Cos the 2nd is FREE! And parted with 10 bucks each.

>>> >>> >>> >>> >>>

My mei mei showed off her purchase the moment she got home.
"JIE!!!! Do you KNOW how much my CALVIN KLEIN perfume cost???" she screeched.
"Waa, CK? U got so much $$$???
"I show you.."

She flashed the box at me like a trophy! (so auntie rite? haha)

"mK1???" I asked ... "It looks fake to me ..."
"No lah, the ger said ... " (The opening speech --> ** refer to top)

I had to spend a good 15min convincing her how fake her fake perfume is.

Further examination of the packaging ...
Disclaimer at the back of the box

Granted they wrote it in like 5 languages?! And in good English too.

Bloody... the spray just screams 'CHEAP'

Now my mei mei has always claimed to be smart, reason being

1. She always claims to be in the top 8% cos she's in RV, and in dunno the top ? % of RV, hence = one of the top %.

2. She don't need tuition unlike moi who somehow can't do well for MATHS and hence had Maths tuition until my parent couldn't afford to pay the rates when it got more and more expensive in upper sec and jc.

3. Her Chinese teacher thinks she's smart too, sending her for competitons and all.

So well, i concede yes she's smart in certain things but downright dumb at some ..

LIKE THIS ONE

*Laughs*

Oh my .. im really having a field day over this. Pardon me. I was laughing all the way while watching the crap show shen2 yi1 xia2 nu3 as she called her best pal to repeat to her best friend what i had JUST told her. They're even planning to go down to the NPP tomorrow. Both of them are in NPCC. See the irony?

The point is people buy fake Rolex watches and LV bags knowing they are fake, hoping to pass them off as real.
My mei mei bought fake perfume believing its real...

.
.
.
.
.
.

MK ONE???

PS: The above article is written with my mei mei's approval.

By the way it smells awful too. Left this weird metallic smell after the initial fragrance (which is actually quite nice) wore off.

Reflections

2006-03-19T23:14:00.000+08:00

I've just been thinking a lot lately.

Wishing somehow ... bright ideas would appear in my mind.
There is a dire need for some bright spark.
I feel parched for ideas, for none has made its way into my brain. It seems to have shrunk to the size of a pea recently. A shrivelled, dried pea.

For one who is not artistically inclined, ART lessons have always been a huge pain for me. Somehow my still-life drawings would be an utter mess. My shadows would be placed at the wrong angle and I would blend the water colours all wrong just to get that particular shade of gray. I couldn't have been happier when i finally bade art lessons farewell at the end of Sec 2.

It is always hard to beg for help. Something I've always felt uncomfortable with. Hence I usually reserve those awkward requests for those whom i feel i know well and would most likely agree to render a helping hand. It is sad to know that people whom you remember to mail a birthday card to every year for many years and bother to help when they asked for it really can't be bothered at all. It is even more sad when they suddenly become bothered when the subject of 'tokens of appreciation' is brought up but just as readily become busy once again when the token is deemed too small to justify the effort.

Whatever the case, it is another learning experience.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At this juncture, i find myself often reflecting on the few years in this course.
Perhaps the most vivid lesson is learnt from the countless projects, or more specifically project mates, people whom you fortunately or unfortunately become a part of a group with.

I will divide them into 4 general catergories.
1. The Do-er
Profile: Can-Do attitude, will be productive, not adverse to work, responsible. Quality work. What you get when you feel your prayers are answered. Of course Do-ers have their quirks too. Some are gan jiong, some critical, some bossy, but whatever the case, they are responsible people who do their part and more when needed.

2. The Free-Rider
This can range from the 'appear a couple of times' to the 'disappearing' type. Some have made quite a name for themselves and garnered a small legion of 'fans'. They make good gossip fodder nonetheless and are usually a convenient topic to bitch about during tea-time and lunch breaks.

3. The Intelligent Slacker
This group is much smarter than the previous, perhaps smarter than all the others. They do 'show face' at meetings but don't really contribute anything. It takes awhile to spot them as they somehow manage to do the minimal amount of work without attracting attention, usually picking the easiest part that requires the least amount of brain work. Give them anything harder and they are likely to produce poor quality stuff which gives the others even more work to undo the damage. The best of the lot manage to piggy-back all the way without ever incurring negative sentiments.

4. The 'I do my part only' type.
This type does enough to get through. But never expect them to compile a report. The difference between this and the Intelligent Slacker is that this group does something useful. They do give quality work unlike the previous group. Just don't ask them to do anything extra. A group with a combination of this and Do-ers can be a good match as Do-ers tend to take care of the extra bits anyway.

5. Anything in between i suppose. Within each category, there are varying degrees of seriousness. Also, one can transit from one group to another for different projects, depending on the team you get and your level of commitment at each instance.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well whatever the case, i am glad that ive found myself a couple of fellow eucharians to work with. Despite our bitching, the occassional bickering and all the crap ... Perhaps I've slipped into this comfort zone after working with them for so long. I do take them for granted sometimes, not realising it until I get a rude awakening from category 2 and 3ers once in a while. Life would have been a lot harder without these 2 girls.

Of younger women and older men

2006-03-12T21:46:00.000+08:00

Today's Straits Times featured an article about Singaporean men going to their weekend wives in a little island near Batam. In the other world albeit just an hour's boat ride away, 65 year old men fluant their 25 year old 'wives'. At the 5 restaurents in the little alcove, men can say sweet nothings openly to their young 'wives', unabashed. They are after all, only witnessed by others similar to themselves.

Such is an extreme case of the older man and the much younger woman. Extreme but not uncommon. Of course, there are younger men, generally in their 40s to 50s, with a mistress tucked away in Batam.

In modern society, such unions are usually frowned upon. Unless they are Rupert Murdock and such. Society is biased too. Eligible men *read: RICH* remained accepted even if they date a girl half their age. Old men who are only able to date the likes of Indonesian village girls get labels like 'lecherous, dirty old man' slapped on their forehead.

The bottemline is aren't both groups equally lecherous? The difference is: their choice of young women is limited by economic power.

And arent both groups guided by the instinct of looking for a younger beautiful woman?

Unions between men and women of around the same age usually happens when both parties meet each other at a younger age.
A 25 year old guy would find a girl between 20-25 acceptable.
By the time he is 30, he'll still go for someone around 25 years old.
The age difference increases as the guy ages.
A fifty year old bachelor is unlikely to be on the lookout for a 50 year old woman. His acceptable range is probably from 30-40. He'll likely be on the look-out for a younger wife who is, put crudely, still able to reproduce. Despite the fact that women are far more likely to outlive their spouses of the same age, since we live longer.

Women have a short 'shelf life', limited by the ticking of the biological clock. Tick Tock. Whether we care to admit it or not, hitting 35 means the clock is approaching the end of its rounds.

While one can cite the case of Madonna and Guy Richie, in the average world, this is life.

Don't men have it lucky?

Pre-Graduation Blues

2006-03-08T12:45:00.000+08:00

Life is filled with choices. 22 years of my life has passed me by and I'm at the brink of being cast out of the life of a student. Once upon a time, I might have balked at taking exams. Rite now, exams seem a lot friendlier than the cut-throat world where one has to contend with bosses, office politics and such. Suddenly school is so much more benign, less stressful and simpler. I have stepped out once in a while during the numerous temp jobs and an internship, but they are not the real thing. Little tiptoes, but I've never really put my foot into it.

What should I do next?
Get a job of course... No job = no $ . But what job?
I'm still unemployed as it is. Hmmm..

Just a random case of pre-graduation jitters.
.....................................................................................................................................................................

On a lighter note,
moi has been discussing this topic with a few frenz recently.
If moi enters the private sector, I must go source for a prospective husband in the civil service.
if moi enters the public sector, then I better list down "working in private sector" as a pre-requisite in my SDU form.

Why??
Public sector --> Assurance of a stable income ie. Iron Rice Bowl (meaning the housing loan will be paid and there's a roof above your head) Medical benefits and such. Moreover, you can always holiday in a gar-ment 'sponsered' chalet even if you plunge into a financial crisis or inter-country travel comes to a standstill due to SARS or Bird Flu.

Private --> Deemed to be more dynamic, more room for growth = Bigger paychecks. Also cutthroat and there is no safety net. Be prepared to be trimmed off during economic downturns and be irrelevant at 40.

Another set of equations:
Public + Public = Boring
private + private = what if both no job?
Public+ Private = just nice

Career Fair 2006 at SUNTEC (once again)

2006-03-04T22:32:00.001+08:00

Today, 4 jobless (thus far) marketing girls from NTU decided to pop by the career fair at Suntec Convention Hall to try our luck.

As it turns out, its another trip which didn't fulfil its initial objective....

More than half the hall's filled by 'educational booths', plugging overseas education, distance learning, NTU's there too... So it isn't really a "Career" Career fair.
Moi here can't afford to stay a student anymore anyway. I figure it'll take many many years to recoup the losses spent on pursuing my very generic certs as it is.

We put our names down in a few irrelevant organisations and jobstreet.com so as to get a career profiling session. (However that didn't happen as the career profiling corner seems to shut down periodically.)

We've been advised to take up jobs as Spa Therapists and such. Not that I have anything against Spa Therapist but I really can't picture myself doing a scrub or massage... Of cos beggars can't be choosers either and im very much unemployed. So far the 10 odd resumes ive submitted have disappearered without a trace. Organisations when spammed with too much email from jobless applicants tend to chuck them into the virtual bin just as fast.

Neways despite the initial disappointment, we made our trip not a wasted one by being sheer kian peng and kiasu Singaporeans. My loot includes a free mini cup and saucer which i later chucked in the bin and a miniature carnation condensed milk which i got for flinging rubber bands at a board. *Cringe* We also counted the number of cans of carnation milk in the display and estimated the price of 2 outfits for a lucky dip.

Counting counting ...

At the counter set up to promote the retail and services industry, as long as we fill up a form for a job in the retail sector, we'll be entitled to free nail service, pic and make-up. Hence my nails are painted a shade called "BROWN COW", courtesy of VOXY Nails. Miss Chan's french manicurist is amazing. She can paint a perfect line with the brush. *Bloody* The photos are not that well taken though (mainly due to the state of my hair. I really need to straighten it out or tame it..anything.. but im really too chicken) but the carnation milk can be put to good use to spice up my Teh Kosong/ Kopi Kosong.

And that sums up an afternoon at the "Career" Fair.

Clockwise from top-left: Jingsi n Miss chan doing her nails,

3 free manis,rubber-band flinging, elv n moi while waiting.

PS: And guess what? We spied a certain guy carrying one BOX of $2 toys to collect a set of 12 characters. Multiply that by 20 = $40! And moi here partook in the very shiok process of opening a few boxes. ANother First. There's always something new to experience everyday!

BEAUTY ASIA

2006-03-02T17:25:00.000+08:00

The 3 Eucharians arrived at Suntec City Convention Hall at 4pm on Wed MAr 01 hoping that we would not be denied entry to SpaAsia - A SPA and Beauty CONVENTION. It had specified that its for trade customers and moi must be properly attired. The impression was that its some rather formal thing with professionals pitching their wares. We had come in the hope of gathering some nuggets of good info and tips on how to market beauty products.

The claim: Quote directly from SpaAsia's website ...
"Singapore - Over S$5 million in deals were transacted at BeautyAsia 2005, the region’s most established trade show for the beauty industry. Running in its 9th year, BeautyAsia 2005 concluded its most successful exhibition yet with a total of 10,000 trade visitors over three days, an 50 per cent increase from last year. "

Alas, when we got there, the first sign of something amiss was a lady asking me how to fill in the 'VISITOR REGISTRATION' form in mandarin. 'oh well, she must be a Beauty Advisor in a neighbourhood beauty salon' we thought.

The 2nd sign, a middle aged woman dressed in orange cut the queue and went straight to the front to register.

The 3rd sign.. Okies there is no 3rd sign.. cos the moment we stepped in, we could see psuedo BAs handing out pamplets. There was a particular ger in this bathrobe like thing. (I suppose as long as its white and bears some resemblance to a lab coat - its PROFESSIONAL.)

It was a cross between Lucky Plaza and Beauty World Shopping Centre. Most of the booths were manned by Malaysian beauty companies hawking anything from 24 K Carat GOLD Infused face cream to Flower Petal Infused gel (with real flower petals floating inside the jar) The 'BAs' mostly spoke in Malaysian accented Mandarin and we received a sales pitch in Mandarin about how lin1 ba1 zu3 sai1 will cause ru3 ai2 (meaning: blockage in the lymphatic system will give rise to breast cancer) and how her bust enhancing lotion will unclog our blocked lymph nodes for a boost to the sagging bust line. *faints*

BTW, I was about a head taller than her and i could see a hint of HER cleavage peeking from her V-neck top whenever i looked down. Yes she does have a bit and has rather creamy smooth skin ah hem there, and her gold chain with a pendant disappearing into ah hem there perhaps attests to the efficacy of her lotion??

The professional hair show showcasing the latest hair cutting techique had the emcee pitching something along the line of 'heavier scissors showing the hairstylist has more jin1 liang3' (loosely translated: substance/ability/skills) and the hairstylist was cutting a wig resting on the head of a mannequinn.

Overall a total waste of time but quite entertaining in a morbid way. With a few laughs and cringes throw in.

My Day As a Receptionist

2006-02-23T10:55:00.000+08:00

Tue 10:00am
Read SMS from Dawn: 33, u want a temp job TODAY until 5.30pm? it pays $6.50/hr. Essentially, u're a receptionist4the day. Zoboh one..can read mags&file nails.It's near jurong.. U want?

Telephone conversation:
"But i don't have experience can??"
"No prob, they will teach" said the job agency lady.
"okies I'll do it"

As I was already awake and in the midst of getting ready for my LAST tuition session with a certain customer who is only available on Tue 11am, i decided that the LAST session can wait one more week.( after all i've waited so many weeks already.)

Hence I found myself at 11 International Business Park at 10:47am. (Which is near CREATIVE.) Its really near, cab fare only $4.20 (can claim)

Well, I wore a rather ehm.. bright orange jacket (compulsory attire for all the office ladies.. haha)
tink their company got some sort of colour coding. Production line wear dark blue. I spied some greenish shirts too i tink. *Haha*

ANd contrary to the sms, there was no time to file nails. (not that i packed along a nail buffer of cos)

I had 5 duties for the day.
An attachment student from poly who took over as recep in the morning stayed with moi and taught me the stuff till lunch time. We sorta 'discovered' little things about the phone routing system as we went along. *Laughs*

1a. Answer calls. Transfer calls to the relevant extension. (This got tricky when the caller had only a name but no extension or department. I referred to a list but not all the names are there, and some names are written in initials.)

1b. Make international calls on behalf of staff, then route it back to the staff who requested the call once its connected and the relevant party found. (Quite interesting this one. Esp calls to Thailand. The voice recording system is rather 'melodious'. Taiwan also polite. China got communication problem. Different brand of Chinese and sometimes only can find the person if u say the chinese name. As in Leong San San cannot find. Liang Shan Shan then can. Same problem when they call in looking for someone.)

2a. Pick up calls and answer queries on "How to Get here"/"DO you hire malaysians"/ "My English not good can employ?"/"Pay How Much"? from job seekers. Cos they advertised for Lab Assistant and Storeman the day b4 on classifieds.
The answer to all of the above, as instructed was --> GIve address, landmark, advise them to take cab $3.00 from JE only, and the rest must come for walk-in interview.

2b. Upon arrival, give job seekers a form to fill in then call HR after gathering every 4-5 people.

3. Visitor come, ask them to fill in logbook, exchange ID for visitor pass.
Vendor come, ask them to fill in logbook, exchange ID for vendor pass.

4. People come and leave things at the counter, put them aside, note down who left what if required.

5. Paging. I kinda like this one once I got over the initial hesitation.. Haha.. Mabe I do like hearing my own voice.
In a building, folks can't find one another. Like hide and seek.
So they call the recep and say "Help me page for XX"
The script is " Paging for (XX)x2, please call extension 110 ( yao yao ling) (must repeat in chinese) Xie Xie (Thank you)"
Variations are --> Please proceed to the lobby, proceed to canteen.. blah blah..

One notable one came from the production line side.. They call to ask which AH BAO is being paged. Cos apparently there's quite a few Ah Baos.. Turns out its Si Wen Bao they want. (Translate to polite Bao)

Yip, that sums it up.
And I wouldn't have survived the day without help from the SECURITY GUARD. Yes. SECURITY GUARD. He is what the PAP advocates. Huo2 Dao4 Lao3 Xue2 Dao4 Lao3. Multi-tasking type. He was so nice and helpful. (Not the sit there drink milo read newspaper, tian1 ta1 xia4 lai2 not his business kind.)

As a recep must essentially be an octopus and I'm a fledging one, when my arms get tangled, he'll pop into the counter to help me. He'll distribute the visitor passes when calls and people come in at the same time, distribute application forms to job seekers... etc.. and he even got moi a cup of coke from the vending machine cos he say talk so much must drink cold drink.

WAhhh.. If he's 30 years younger I would fall in love with him!!

Took a pic with him on hp, but hp KNN one, can't upload, if i manage to get it uploaded
will post it here. Overall an interesting day with nice people and quite fun too!

3364

2006-02-18T21:08:00.000+08:00

That's the number i betted on yesterday, my first bet of the year. The third ticket in all of my 22 years.

WHy?
I literally Kan na sai yesterday during break time
when a rectum-less bird conveniently dropped a bomb on moi in the canteen.
We had adjorned to canteen B halfway through GMS Seminar and moi had just gotten a small plate of bee hoon to 'complement' my fried carrot cakes when ...

Splat..
SOme murky greenish brown goo landed on my wrist.

Tramutised, I screamed "Ahh.. Someone save me!"
(or sth along that line.. ALthough ELv had since informed me my scream wasn't powerful enuf to justify that of bird poo.. cos she thot a fly had landed on me instead.)

Incidentally, no one at the table had tissue paper. And the first toilet I went to didn't have any more soap in the dispenser. I washed my hands, up till my elbow, THRICE in another toilet which had soap.

Meanwhile, Dawn had come up with the magic numbers.
33 for moi, 6 cos we were sitting in front of stall number 6. 4 for sai (shit)
And i announced it was time to join the aunties and cheko peks at Singapore Pools.

Later I really did place a bet at Jurong Point. $2 big $2 small.

Today, the results of the lottery is

Scary aint it?

My Day/Nite as a Flower Ger

2006-02-16T19:30:00.000+08:00

Now for the last installment of the 'flower series', I shall relate my experience as a florist.
After this particular experience, I have come to a few conclusions about life in general.
1. Expect the unexpected.
2. Expect the worst.
3. Anything is possible.

I kinda amazed myself really and am actually quite proud of my persevering spirit. ha!
I spent a nite without sleep so as to ~~save my ass~~ not disappoint the guys who need to present bouquets to their Dears on Valentine's.

Armed with 2 Mushroom mayos + 1 Chicken pie from Han's and a Red Pearl Milk Tea from Sweettalk, I got down to work.

First, remove the pesky thorns from the stems. You never know how prickly they can be until you have to slice them off. *Ouch* I think it's akin to removing scales from fish. If you've only ever eaten fish, you'll never realise the effort that goes behind scraping those scales off. (An observation: Red roses tend to have much lesser thorns than pink ones for some strange reason ...)

Next, arrange the stems into bouquets, along with Lavender and Baby's Breath, then wrap them up with layers of 'tissue'.

Sounds easy doesn't it? You bet.

By 3 am I was tired and frustrated.

By 6, I was a goner. My left hand ached from clasping the stems tightly while arranging them, and my right thumb and forefinger hurt from trimming too many stubborn stems with scissors. And for some strange reason, my hands itched. (tink its due to prolonged contact with the stems.. Most prob cos they're laced with pesticides.)

I believe I elevated myself from the ranks of ehm..."No rank" to "Amateur" to "Semi Pro" over the course of a single night, completing almost 10 bouquets. Any florists out there need temps?

Yup, and here are some of the results!

Notice the disparity in sizes in the bouquet below? Major headache...
Supposed to be pink and white but the white turned out to be pale yellow. *Panics*
Though the supplier insisted its 'ivory white'! My foot!
(Moi is aware that it does look kinda whitish on the pic, but I assure you that's the effect of a flash. Compare it to the color of the baby's breath around it and the difference is apparent)
Thank goodness the customers were not too fussy. *Phew*

A bouquet of 39, from a loving boyfriend.
Moi has since 'affectionately' named it the 'Monster Cannonball'.
Thot bubble when tying this one... 'Gf's arm would ache after one nite of lugging this around. And if she uses both hands to carry this, then no hand left to hold Bf's hand' *Laughs*

Another view:

And all these affort for a profit of about 100 bucks each for biz partner and moi, minus transport, minus cost.. etc.. lesser if i factor in the mushroom mayos.. hah!
I figure my hourly pay is less than 4 bucks. but it was quite a learning experience indeed.

Marcom disaster!

2006-02-10T02:11:00.000+08:00

Today, I finally tended to the 'flower' booth after abandoning my poor partner to wilt by herself for 2 consecutive days. (Sorry ger...)

After a couple of hiccups in setting up, I started to stake my territory on the shared 'booth' ... Armed with some 'props' which i had unearthed ...

1. Small Forever Frenz Bear holding a heart

2. "Matching" Forever Frenz Card holding 'blossoms'

3. Cheesy n Shiny Heart shaped box-cover for the bear to 'sit' on

4. A shiny purplish sash i never wore. (As table-cloth)

5. Very fake heart-shaped pendent n chain

6. Faux Jewellery boxes with no brand names on them (so we won't be advertising for Perlini's)

7. Beads to sprinkle over the table cloth

And some props my partner had unearthed... Bear (sitting atop a small heart cushion), Heart-shaped handicrafts, some more faux boxes with no brand ...
(The above being a non-exhaustive list.)

I began an attempt to be artistic in ehm.. let's juz say 'table decor'.
Objective: To create a 'Valentiny' mood.

Apparently moi's attempt worked so well that No one could tell I was selling flowers!
ANd girls were stopping by to

... touch the pendents
... touch the bears
and *shrivels* touch the beads

What is it with females who just have to finger everything that appears in their line of sight??

WRONG target audience
WRONG message
WRONG Marcom

If Lam Shun Yin sees, he'll prolly Parkinson...

In the end moi cannot take it, asked my 'neighbour' to look after my side too and went to Popular to get a black board as backing..
Then i begged my neighbour and a passing siwei to write in BIG FAT FONT on yellow paper

"FLOWERS FOR SALE!"

"A DOZEN AT $35"

and stuck em onto the board along with the flower pics on a borrowed easel.

Pics later...

In the Mood for Love

2006-02-03T18:33:00.000+08:00

I met my friend at Jurong Point for lunch a few hours ago.After the influx of Chinese New Year goodies, there is something else to celebrate. Its an unofficial holiday. But in no way less influential.

A quick stroll around the mall and Valentine's Day will be ~~screeching in your face~~ creeping up on you. There is no way you can miss the profusion of pink, heart-shaped trinklets and amorous words being marketed everywhere. There is a spike in the amount of ~~useless~~ impossibly cute soft toys like baby seals (in a pair), baby hedgehogs holding red hearts (in a pair), and cuddly turtles (two to go of cos).
Jewellery stores print glossy pamphlets with cliche themes like "LOVE STORY" (Goldheart) and "ROMANTIC EXPRESSIONS" (LEE HWA)and chuck them into the hands of browsers like moi and gal pal as we stopped by the window display, eager to cash in on the season of love.

Moi and gal pal made an observation with the 2 booklets which had found their way into our hands, in between gulps of Iced Milk Tea at Mos Burger. Both booklets had many pages filled with female jewellery, were doused with an unhealthy supply of hearts and hair-raising lines like 'Pink Passion', 'Love is everywhere' and TAKE THIS --> 'Love is the air i breathe' *oh my gawd! Gasps for air*
And both had 1 page featuring jewellery for MEN (one page with an ugly steel bracelet and ugly steel ring),no more no less. Queer isn't it?

Moi came to the following conclusion:

"Dear I love you and despite knowing that I've fallen pray to a giant marketing ploy, I'm willing to fork out $688(hypothetical sum--> add all the zeros you want) to buy you this bracelet/ring/pendant..."

"Oh Dear, I love you too, and to show my commitment and love for you, I shall give you a ~~cheap and ugly~~ ring too (@ $68)

Simple mathematics will tell you that the guy got a very bad deal. But hey, love can't be measured by $$ right?

Let me hypothesize where the remaining sum went.
33's equation:
$688 ring = $68 ring + **GROOMING
**GROOMING (cos guys like their gers to be pretty and pretty costs $$)

**GROOMING = FACIAL(so that you won't see clogged pores on my face)
+ REBONDING/PERM(so that i have nice tresses for YOU EVERYDAY) +
[THE NEW DRESS + THE NEW HEELS + THE NEW LINGERIE +
NEW LIPSTICK + XXX] (I dress up for YOU on this SPECIAL DAY)

Add it all up and both sides of the equation will balance.

Now on to another point ...

Anyone who has brains the size of a pea pod will know that Valentine's DAY is the Grand Dame of Marketing Ploys. We also know the 'St. Valentine sacrificed his life' shit is crap. Maybe once upon a time, it was really that, but with evil marketers around *laughs*, it has become a day to cash in on ~~stingy~~ hapless Singapore men, an annual opportunity for florists to cover their asses for the whole year.

Sometimes Valentine's day is thinly veiled by a more politically correct 'Friendship Day'and CCAS/hall commitees/Non-profit organizations/Anyone who needs $/ usually use this term when canvassing for funds. But being politically correct also means casting the net wider isn't it? After all not everyone has a date, but everyone has friends!

SO why are we still dumb enough to be ~~forcing stingy men~~ letting bfs/husbands pay through their noses for roses that wilt in a few days or pairs of baby hedgehogs that end up collecting dust?

33's hypothesis:
Cos women like to compete and few can bear the loss of 'face'.

When we were kids, we compared our precious collections of Strawberry Shortcakes/Barbies/Polly Pockets/Cupcakes (Not as phenomenal as the rest, but I absolutely LOVED the way the skirt flips over *i know it sounds sick* and turns the doll into a ..ehm yes.. a Cupcake. But my ma refused to buy me any so I would go to my friend's house to play.)*Lol*

Then came PSLE, Os and As.

Then we compare boyfriends.

Then husbands.

Then we become our mums and compare our kids' PSLE.

Its a cycle that goes round and round.

.. Therefore on the special day of pink passionate hearts... We compete to see how dearly our Dears love us. This has developed into such a scary phenomenom i remember from last year's Straits Times that women have even gone to the extent of delivering flowers to themselves at the office so as to save face.

The qualifying round is a date of cos.
The semi finals will be the size of your bouquet.
Those who make it into the finals will compare diamonds.

Whether its a rock or 'diamond dust' or ehm ~~Perlini's~~ (Only boys who cannot watch M-18 shows have student concession) will determine where you rank this year. Anything with Tiffany on it will automatically elevate you to the rank of 'show-it-off with a flutter of your fingers' while Perlini's is the ultimate nightmare rivalled only by a hedgehog.

Well at the end of the day, those who have the last laugh are evil marketers of cos. *Evil laughs*

Dynamic Duo

2006-01-24T15:17:00.000+08:00

My new(turning stale though) student is the richest student thus far in terms of the house he lives in, and the spare car in his driveway.
(yes yes i know there are closet millionaires hiding in HDB flats)
Landed is landed is landed. To own a piece of land in Singapore means you must have some spare cash in your pocket. Unless you're one those dumb enough to sell your soul to the bank in exchange for 10 credit lines of cos.

For some strange reason, the 'poorer' students generally are the ones who bother to give me a glass of water, pay their fees on time. The parents are also more sui2 bian4 about timing and don't complain.

With this student, I've met my worse yet.
Worst student, worst parent. The mother of all combinations. The duo from hell.

Boy, 15: Don't know anything. He can't even do Sec 2 maths. I doubt even Sec 1.
Example: -2 x -2 = -4.
-3 + 2 = -5
????????????????????????? I went blank!
Throw in an attitude like shit, which leaves me asking and answering my own questions.
He'll keep quiet and give me this really frustrated expression whenever I ask him something.
I can picture myself stretching my arms over and putting my hands around his neck.

His Mum, accomplice in crime.
Flashed me a wallet full of notes during lesson one, when she paid me for the assessments.
Like 1k notes. Not Thai Baht i swear.

This woman has something to pick on each time.
Before Lesson 1, she called and said her son always do assessments with tutors, must buy assessments. *Thought bubble: Oh well, this kid must be doing a lot of work* (The agent had said he's in Express stream.)

Upon arrival, he's in Normal Technical. Yup. Okie fine, normal technical it is. I've taught a kid in Normal before, no sweat. Until of cos I realised he's the extreme type.

Lesson 1: "He haven't bought his Maths text yet. You help him buy lor."
Okie fine...

Missing Lesson 2: She called me at 9am. Tuition supposed to be 11am. And said he's got a fever.
Come next Tuesday 11am.

Lesson 2: "Mdm Lee, it appears that his Maths is not Sec 3 standard. Maybe I should teach him Sec 2 stuff first? Or else its very hard to explain Sec 3 concepts."

"You give him difficult questions. He just started Sec 3, of cos cannot do Sec 3 questions."
KNN! *Thot bubble* Sec 3 don't do Sec 3? Then finish Sec 3 do Sec 3 is it?? Sec 1 then take PSLE?

To top it off, she once again mentioned that I ought to do assessment and not textbook.
*Thot bubble* Yes you B**ch. Your stupid son can't even get his number line right.
#Fact: I had checked with Popular and Normal Technical Sec 3 Maths only has ONE assessment book. ONE. Market size too small. No demand no supply. And its a revision test paper kind, not topic by topic kind.

Missing Lesson 3: Called on Monday night: Got family stuff to attend to. You come next Tue 11am. She is freakishly adamant about only having lesson on Tuesday 11am. No more no less, no change of timing is allowed, no other day is suitable for her precious son.

Missing Lesson 3 again: Called at 9am again. My son has stomachache.

Lesson 3: TODAY. She really breaks all records.
Upon arrival, before her precious baby descends the flight of stairs, she flipped open the assessment and said, "You give him too much homework, he has no time to finish"
(*He left most things blank*)
I went 'Huh? I gave him only 2 pages of English...
(Fact: I gave him 2 pages of English + Maths text Exercise Qn1 a b c d, Qn2 a b c d, Qn4 and Qn5.
And he had like 3 freaking weeks?)
Before I could finish, she cut me off and went .. " You tear off his answer keys"
"Ehm, I always do that with my students actually"
"Its not good to tear a book, I had MANY tutors before and NO ONE tore the book"
Argh!!

I want to quit and kick that fat rich ass of hers!
But i can't quit. Y? Cos the first month's pay from another student is still with the agency. If I quit this one, before 4 lessons, they're bound to hold my $.

Bloody. Fuck. This totally sucks.

Western Food @ Marina Food Loft

2006-01-24T02:18:00.000+08:00

Disclaimer** Moi does not take any responsibility for loss of potential earnings.

That said, moi will urge you to look at the pics youself and unless you are ...

a. On a diet
b. A gross under-eater
c. Fancy a Kid's meal

Boycott the Western Food Stall at Marina Food Loft. It sells spagetti and some mee too.
For $5.50, you can get a chicken hotplate with rice, some ikan billis, and a few pieces of Kim Chi at the Korean food stall.

For $5.50 at the Western food stall, you'll get a rather pathetic "Breaded Dory Fish"
For comparison, I've placed the fish and half a slice of garlic bread side by side. Observe the thickness. Remember its BREADED dory fish? Remove the flour and what's left of the fish? Haha!

The very first time!

2006-01-23T01:56:00.000+08:00

I gave my very first time to my camp GL from years ago. My very first time attending the wedding dinner of a friend. My very first red letter bomb!!!

It was a simple affair. SImple but still sweet. I figured he must have gone to the gym everyday for many many days to prep for this dinner.. because frankly.. yesterday was the leanest he had been in a long time i think.. haha.. Not only women go for facials and diet to prepare for their big day. Men too must pump some iron and shed that belly to look good in THE suit.

The bride was radiant. Happy and radiant. Her skin fab, her hair very very long and rebonded. And she made me feel BIG, not BIG ehm, but BIG sized when I shook her hand, cos her hand was so tiny and soft that I felt my hand enveloped hers! (So shocked! Aahhh!)

By the way, moi here got my money's worth with a double serving of shark's fin soup cos 2 girls from our table 'migrated' to another table. So table 13 had 8 instead of 10 people, hence extras of everything.. Since the folks at table 13 all knew moi has a healthy appetite, one of whom very kindly/unkindly reminded everyone with "Remember who was the one who always got hungry during Insinyur Camp??", I was given "priority" to 2nd helpings. It was very shiok when everyone dispensed with the overdose of formality you get during dinners like this and tucked in normally. Esp the prawns bit, thankfully nobody act niang with chopsticks and spoil market, else it would have taken forever to shell one pathetic prawn!

Holding the box of wedding choc like a goon!
While watching the video clip of the bride and groom, it seemed so amazing that somehow fate brought 2 people together, they fall in love and decide to spend the rest of their lives together. The groom had put together the clip himself, not exactly the most pro thing you see, but its made with a lot of love. The last line sums it all up simply with "The happiest thing in life is to love and be loved in return".

Sitting there with the same group of people I knew 4 years ago, it dawned on me just how much we had grown in 4 years and how fast time really flies.

On a lighter note, I finally laid my hands on the promised box of Krispy Cream Donuts. The 4 donuts had barely survived the journey back and a couple of them looked rather deflated by the time I got it. I polished them off anyway that night, AFTER the wedding dinner!, cos I figured they won't last another night. Despite the less than fantastic condition, the cream filled donut with chocolate coating on top tasted great. Absolutely sinful stuff! Maybe I'm deluded but i think i did compensate with a super duper long walk.

65mins

2006-01-19T19:16:00.000+08:00

Its been a long while since the last post...

Today i did a couple of queer things.
1. I chased after a lecturer in pointy pumps(not the best shoes to run in), along with my fellow Eucharisian ...
Tink i freaked Gupta out a little as i went 'clop' clop' 'clop' down the corridor.
He kept going as I 'cloped' away behind him, the echos reverberating off the empty corridor.
Finally, he twisted his head back 120degrees
and saw a crazed looking moi waving madly at him.

2. I spent 65mins at the void deck at 11pm, in between practising my 'Lancome' speech (thus getting really queer stares from passer-bys) and peering at a kitten at the stairway.

In this time, it changed its 'location' like 5 times.
But its movement was confined to a radius of 3metres.

It barely managed to hop across a small drain and stayed on a grass patch for about 5 mins,
before deciding that it wanted to get back to the other side

Hence it stood tentatively at the edge of the drain for a while before barely leaping across it again. (i figured it got scared in the darker spot, since a fat rat would probably be larger than it)

It proceeded to stay at the foot of the stairs for a long while.. (at a strategic location where if you're walking down the stairs and don't open your eyes big enough, you might just flatten it with a foot (again, bigger than it if you're a size 8 and above)

Finally it moved a few steps to this boarded up area right beside the stairs landing and proceeded to put its head and a tiny paw through a small opening between the metal boards.
It chickened out and withdrew the head and paw.
Put back again
Repeated the process again and again..
Finally it settled down and stayed put.

And i would like to thank my two very special frenz for yakking on the phone and rehearsing with moi during this period. Ha!

Miss World

2005-12-12T02:24:00.000+08:00

Watched Miss World on Channel 5 a few hours ago.
Its held in CHina this year.
Other than the addition of chinese characters on the sash so that Miss Turkey is also Miss Tu2 Er3 Qi2 and Miss Belgium is Miss Bi3 Li4 Shi2, this year's contest is not much different from the previous 55 years.

Other than the rare spark of talent from a small number of contestants (like Miss American Virgin Islands, she's very very smart!) There are about 2 answers to most questions. The idea is to pick one of them and fit it into any answer.

1. Oh, all the girls here are so wonderful, beautiful, friendly... I have learnt so much from them.
(Read: Bitchfest! I hope all of them break out in pimples so I would be crowned Miss WOrld!!)

2. Oh, I wish to help all the poor children, orphans who do not have families, do charity work.
(Read: Heck it! The last kid i was forced to bounce on my lap in the orphanage peed on my beautiful dress! Darnit i hate those monkeys!) *Why does everyone want to help children?? Year in year out.. Nobody said cancer? Aids? Famine?*

For questions like ...
How is your experience here?
What do you like most from this experience?
What have you learned/gained?
Use ANswer 1.

For questions like ...
What is your ambition?
What do you want to do if you win the title?
WHat are your dreams?
What does Miss World stand for/mean to you/your country?
Use ANswer 2.

For good measure, end off your sentence with 'Oh, CHina is such a beautiful country, its people are so nice/friendly/beautiful' to score brownie points.. (No no.. its for international goodwill.)

If all else fails, just ah ehm a bit, say something incomprehensible and smile very brightly (Which was what Miss Korea did by the way) and the host would take the cue from the megawatt smile to say a very loud THANK YOU VERY MUCH, at which the audience would applaud automatically.

If it were up to Miss Hufferphish here, the competition would have only one segment.

BKK

2005-12-07T17:13:00.000+08:00

The hotline had suffered a premature end. And it was amazing to see how folks reacted when you know your job's ending. People immediately slacked. And i mean really slacked! Right after the 'boss' made an announcement that we must all stop taking orders past a certain date of purchase. I no longer had to pick up phones fast and quick to hit the 30 orders a day 'suggested' quota, coz many others had suddenly become uninterested in picking up the phone... Having been retrenched from my temp job, I'm once again jobless and hence very free to blog a really long and detailed entry. Warning: Long and dreary...

Day 1: Friday. Checked in at around 1am.

Cheapskate me had picked a cabin room. SInce it promised 'all the facilities, just without a window.' The room was nice enough and very clean. And moi was grateful to be greeted by a soft comfy bed. Until .. It gave me the creeps... I can't quite explain it. It was perfectly fine till the time i tried to fall asleep. Despite being tired, I had problems sleeping. I woke up many times during the first night with the sensation of being watched and had a couple of scary dreams. I felt unwelcomed.

Requested for an 'upgrade' in the morning. Topped up difference of 1500 baht. Moved all the barang barang from room 448 to 723. This time i had a window. Though the first room was much bigger, the furnishings newer, nicer and cheaper, I was quite happy to be out of it.

Due to the delays caused by the changing of rooms, our trip officially started around half past noon. Bumped into an old friend in the lobby. Most unexpected. Walked to MBK. It was hot and sunny but quite fun. The 25baht roadside cocoa was yummy. Starbucks at less than a fraction of the price. They had a coffee machine, whipped cream.. the works...

Mostly just look see, explore the area and the buildings near MBK. Found the cheap nailart place Miss Fong was gushing about in her 'guide to BKK'. Ate junk food, bought DUnkin Donuts and watched a movie since there was nothing much to do at night.

Hightlight: Movie. Not the movie itself though.

1. The theatre is chio. Feels like cineleisure. Great sound. Lots of leg room!

2. Stunned! I almost dropped my popcorn when everybody suddenly stood up after some trailers. To 'pay respects to the king'. And so i stood, watching a slideshow of sorts of the king's life, rice padi, blah blah... accompanied by ang klongish music which i suppose is their national anthem. Honestly, i was bloody impressed by this show of respect thing.

DAy 2: Saturday
No problems sleeping in room 723.
Rise and shine.

Supposed to be out real early, but moi here kept dragging and took a bloody long time to get ready. After a hearty complimentary breakfast, we set off for the famous chatuchak market.

TIme of entrance: 1015am.
TIme of exit: 630pm.

It was hot and sweaty, the air wasn't fantastic at some parts. I felt icky and dirty. but heck it! The vast assortment of goods kept me quite entertained. An endless Bugis Village. Those puppies and rabbits at the pets section were so cute. I wish i could take one home.

I didn't buy that much stuff actually. SOme knick knacks, lots of cheap earrings at 20baht a piece. Since most stuff can't be tried on, it was quite a risk to buy them. Especially since Thai gers are generally of smaller build and moi here isn't exactly what you would call petite. I must thank Miss Fong again for reminding moi to wear less. Hence i went in a skirt and tank top. Else the heat would have been more unbearable.

Quite amazingly, i was not hungry at all for the whole 8 hours. And subsisted on bottles of green tea, a Singha beer and mineral water. No food, no sitting down and no toilet break (which im grateful for. Must have sweated all the fluids out).

Come nightfall, the shops were starting to close. We left chatuchak and took a cab to PAtpong. For the shows that moi had been looking forward to.

In the end, i think the only highlight was the taxi driver. WHo informed us he can " speak ying ge-lise a little." He rattled on for a bit incomprehensibly. Poor me was quite worried when he turned around to yak while driving on the highway. The only 2 lines we understood were " Lady CHIO!", "Make Love CHio!"
He obviously makes regualr contributions to the economy of Patpong ...

Patpong itself was a let-down. I find the acts neither amazing nor gross. (mabe after hearing so much about it, it loses impact.) In other words, i was a nonchalent audience. Some of the gers were really pretty, some were so-so. A couple of fat ones were probably there for some weird fetishes. One rather fat ger was making a half-hearted attempt at dancing. She had a tummy and her boobs though big, were nothing to shout about. Her feet shuffling was extremely irritating. My friend thought her dancing was akin to a half asleep passsenger on the MRT holding onto the pole.

The constant pestering by the gers working the floor for tips were very irritating too. You pay and then pay some more. What a waste of money.

The acts were standard. The very long coloured string pulled out from the vagina. Opening of the bottle, shooting at balloons and this balancing act where a ger flips over and try to loop a plastic ring over a little pole...

And don't touch anything at the street market there. The vendors can be aggresive! Moi being so auntie decided to find out how much i had saved when i spotted a stall selling lamps identical to the one i had bought at Chatuchak earlier.

"How much?" (pointing at the lamp)

She punched 650 on the calculator! (I paid 199baht for mine)

I tried to walk away but she kept saying no! no! and insisted that i name a price. When i refused, she simply kept punching lower prices on her calculator.
Her final offer was 180 baht. Although her final price was slightly lower than the Chatuchak price. I was much happier buying from the friendly vendors of Chatuchak. 19 baht for emotional trauma was not worth it. The nasty look she gave me when i walked away was worth more than that.

Later, took the Skytrain to Siam station and look see for a bit. All the shops were closing. Rich man district. VNC shoes sell at around 40 sing there! And guess what? ANother movie.. Hahaha..

Day 3: Sunday.
Was simply exhausted the previous day so slept in and missed the complimentary breakfast.

Went back to Chatuchak around noon.. Determined to clear all sections cept for those farang infested wood products, cushion covers ... and livestock sections which don't smell very fantastic.

ANd Chatuchak gave me a horrible pimple outbreak. I think its the toxic combination of the heat, sweat, dirt and sun. I'm also a tad darker after all the sun i got, despite most areas being sheltered. Lots of small zits on my forehead and nose. The 'cluster' kind.. I can't remember ever having so many zits at one go. Argh!!

AGain, we left Chatuchak at closing time. Headed to MBK for my first restaurent meal there. Steamboat Very impressed with the service crew. They were efficient, polite and can do everything. The same ger who pushes a trolley around clearing the plates zips to your table to take orders with a PDA the moment i flipped open the menu to order dessert. SHe then lifted the pot off the hot plate with her bare hands! Just like those folks at Marina Bay Steamboat stalls!

After dinner.. Shops mostly closed.. What else but to re-visit the cineplex? I suppose there were many others who had nothing much to do on a SUnday night. Cos there was quite a crowd at the cinema. We picked this Thai horror show called Long Kong. Damn scary stuff. Simply gross. Its about voodoo and spells. This deranged woman wanted revenge against this whole bunch of teenagers. She killed one of them first and fed her face to her friends in fish curry. *Puke* Cos for her black magic to work, her enemies must eat their own friend's flesh. A guy died horribly with lizards, snakes and baby crocodiles bursting out of his torso. One ger dug her eyes out and the worst.. she saved it for the guy who masterminded her disgrace and was the cause of her misery. SHe pulled out his teeth, tied him up, poured boiling water down his throat. And burned his feet, hands and finally his face. Oh my god.. *getting chills*

I watched like 50% of the show, the rest of it I was cringing and looking away. Especially the burning part, where i only caught glimpses. I really pei fu the thais.. I looked around and everyone had their eyes on the screen. ANd moi who claimed to be a horror movie enthusiast cannot take it!!

That night was the most scary night. Not cos of the movie but cos my pal was not feeling well. And we found ourselves at a certain Mission Hospital at 4am. After paying a stupid cab driver(one of those who 'camps' outside the hotel) a bloody 100 baht for like a less than 5min journey. And I filled in an alarmingly long list of drug allergies while the doc attended to the patient. Thankfully its a rather touristy hospital and they can all speak English.

DAy 4: Monday
After the late night 'adventure', the next day was even more fraught with adventures. Apparently, we had thought that we were going home on Tuesday when it was Monday. Packed and washed up in a record 25min after receiving a call from the agent who was picking us up for transfer to the airport. Made it to the airport on time though we had to pay 500baht for the hotel cab service.

The freaky stuff doesn't end there. After somehow mistaking 05 12 for 06 12. I once again misread the gate number for boarding. Instead of 32, I was happily waiting at gate 36 and assume the plane had been delayed. Until they made an announcement for 'MIA' passengers.

Oh man... And that also mean that i didn't manage to go to the temples or back to MBK for 199bahtheels and nailart. Or banana chips and some other souvenirs. So please don't be angry with me if i din get you stuff.

Back in Sg, we went to see another doc and mistook number 29 for 26.

Freaks ... 6 is the number of the devil. And we have successfully misread another digit as 6 thrice. Seriously gives me goosebumps. I still don't understand how i can read the same ticket repeatedly and yet see the digit 5 as 6...

Just hope everything turns out for the better.

*SHudders*

2x33 = ?

2005-11-27T00:07:00.000+08:00

Once again .. once again .. Fate has played a cruel joke.

Here it goes...

On Friday, I informed the product manager that I can't work for a few days and whether it would be alright if I find somebody to take over for the duration.

As i could not confirm who would be taking over, another ger asked if she could refer her friend instead. She called her pal who promptly replied.

The ger who would be taking over is also from NTU.
From Marketing, year 2.
Is a sports camp pageant.

Its all good until...
Until .....
................
..............
........
.......
.....
....
...
...
..
..
..
..
..
.
.

My colleague told me her name is ....
Shan Shan..
I gulped..

Oh man.. I thought... SHeesh..
I know its dumb. I told myself it doesn't matter. But heck it does!
Some super chio bu with the same name is coming in....

I can imagine .. The boys (I call them boys because they really are.. YOUNG. The pre-NS kind of Young.) would go.. oh this Shan Shan is HOT! Wow..

You know its like if there are 2 gers in class called Jasmine and one looks more 'Jasminey' than the other? This happened in my Sec 3 class actually. I only knew there's another ger called Jasmine when I was in Sec 4.. ONE YEAR LATER! One Jasmine is a chio bu dancer. The other well.. is just Jasmine. So normal Jasmine decided to intro herself with her chinese name instead on Day One.

So Miss Hufferphish here decided to be 'cheery' about it and 'prep' everybody for a 'surprise'.
Pre-empting the inevitable comparisons, I decided to be the one to inform them of Shan Shan and conveniently dropped in the fact that she's a chio bu pageant ger, jokingly telling the boys to 'behave'...

So well, I've covered my ass.. More or less anyway.. (Thank goodness there's no such thing as 'Shan Shany'. Unlike names like Mei Ling, Michelle or Elizabeth.)

So honestly.. as juvenile as it sounds. Yeah it matters..and i'm feeling a lil' sore abt it. It certainly doesn't feel very good to have Shan Shan the Pageant take over the work of good old 33 here..

*Sigh*

A series of unfortunate events

2005-11-24T23:02:00.001+08:00

I fell asleep on the train today. On the way back from Kallang. I knocked into the guy's shoulder a bit and it jolted me awake. Thankfully, I didn't mistake his shoulder for a pillow and drooled on it or anything. Was very paiseh for abt 3mins or so, after which i amazingly dozed off again.

Neways this week has been marked by a series of unfortunate events.

Monday: After meeting the product manager in charged of the project, I was led into an office with phones ringing incessantly. Instead of doing outbound calls, I was to be picking up calls instead for a hotline. The line was so HOT, i truly understood the meaning of 'ringing off the hook'.

There was me, me and me. I was instructed to pick up the phones and take down the numbers while he went away to settle some stuff. 10min later, he was back. I had no idea of what I was doing, what service the hotline provided and had been told by an irate customer that I ought to be fired for not knowing anything.

The perm staff were asked to tend to the phone lines too. I was given a 10min 'brief' briefing abt the hotline's service and proceeded to answer calls the whole day.

What Gonzales would say: Insufficient employee training. Yield management.

Tuesday: By day 2, there were 5 people manning the phones. Manpower's up, but due to poor coordination between the company and the 3rd party company engaged, lots of cheques remained uncollected. It was the epitome of customer dissatisfaction. people sitting at home waiting for a courier to come when no one turned up. These people in turn called back and screeched to their heart's content. very zhe2 shou4.

What Gonzales' would say: Emotional labour, frontline, performing way below expectation.

Wednesday: Some of those folks who complained on day 2 had 2x failed collection!! The courier again didn't turned up even after rescheduling! Oh my..

And Miss Hufferphish here was 'handpicked' by the GM for the dept to do the most "honorable" task. To call back customers whose data had been partially LOST from Day 1. Absolutely queer... Somehow, as there were many people jotting down notes and passing around info, the consolidated excel sheet had blanks here and there. And the sup handed me the file with the instruction to 'fill in the blanks'.

That was tramutising...
A typical call went like this:
Hello Sir, I am calling from the xx promotion hotline. Can I just double -check with you some of your particulars?

What do you need?

IC number please?

XXXXXXX

Thank you. Can I have your address too?

The courier picked up my cheque already. How can you not know my address?

I'm sorry sir. I've been handed this file and need to make sure the data is complete.

No. You ask your own company. ...blah blah...

And the above was a moderate case.

A bad case is:

Hello Sir, I am calling from the xx promotion hotline. Can I just double -check with you some of your particulars?

Oh the XXX hotline. You know yesterday I waited and waited and NO ONE came to pick up my cheque. You promised me. And now your company don't even know my details?? I called and your lines were jammed. Left voicemail and sent email and now you are asking ME? Do you know when is my collection date?

(Missing data) Ehm, I'm sorry sir, can I reschedule for you?

I'm asking you! What time were you supposed to come? You tell me!

(Missing data) EHm, I;m really sorry sir, but this file has been passed to me and I do not have these information.

Your company is so inefficient! How can you don't know? I don't care, I'm not going to repeat myself again. I am going to file a complaint! This is ridiculous./ You should be fired/ You are stupid/ You are XXX. Use your imagination, the results are varied.

Repeat variations of the above conversations about 50 times and that's what I did on Wed. Each call was made with dread.

What Gonzales would say: How IT can help? Communication?

Thur: Today! They employed 5 more boys! Overstaffed!
Somehow, God or Satan or Fate. WHoever's up there, down there, around ? Loves to screw me. 5 new computers had been set up in the cubicles for the new staff. And somehow my computer was moved and I had to shift with it.

They use one number for the hotline and the calls are routed to the next available phone. Therefore phone 1 will ring first. If phone one is engaged, the call automatically goes to phone2. If phone 1,2 are both engaged, it goes to phone 3.

With the change in feng shui, my phone seldom rang today. My phone must be number 9 or 10 in line. Cos there was one other guy whose phone didn't ring much.

ANd the GM had stated in the morning that each person should have served 30 customers, minus those who call in for the wrong reasons and ought to be referred elsewhere. So everyone was scrambling to pick up calls n boost their numbers.

30 alright.Problem is there is oversupply of labour and undersupply of customers. Thursday is considered 'off-peak'.
At the end of the day, the max number by the ger at phone 1 is 20. The minimum by phone no 10 probabely is 3.
I had 5, yes 5.

And i was thrown caustic remarks by the GM.

He came once at 2pm: You only have 2? HOw come so few?
"The calls usually don't reach this phone.. The others are ringing you can hear..." *feeling quite useless*

At 430pm, he was back.
"Your list is still so few? The others are still alright. Yours is pathetic.

Yup, he said PATHETIC.

Excuse me? But i'm not in control of the number of callers?? I can't help it if all the calls get picked up b4 phone no 9 and you've doubled your staff on a day when you don't need it!

Economics? I only supply! I don't generate demand! If a prostitute has no customers, she can do a striptease and generate demand. I can't!

I suppose he just wants to be mean.
Sad to say, I seem to be a magnet for meanies. Mean behavior is constantly directed at Moi.

Bad karma? My face? My voice? Whatever, when people don't like me, they can pick on anything.

WHat GOnzales would say: XXXXXXXX

Someone is bound to be retrenched at the rate things are going. You can't be paying folks to sit around staring at the phone and waiting for it to ring.

The Irony...

Just Like Heaven

2005-11-15T03:11:00.000+08:00

Movie review:
Warning: Contains spoilers.

Typical typical... Its a simple, light-hearted flick sorta show. What you see in the trailer is basically what you get. Except a tiny little sort of 'twist'. A good way to relax and space out from examinations but nothing spectacular to cry about. I'll probably get nightmares and heart palpations if I watch something like Emily ROse now. Went to check out her story and i don't quite believe that she's really possessed. 6 damned souls stuck in her seems a bit much.

ANyway...
What i found funny was the glaring Inattention TO Detail.
1. If ghost can walk through walls, how come it can lean on the side of a building and not flip off?

2. Funny a major road accident --> crashing into a huge truck leaves you in hospital but with no visible injury. Not a scratch! (I know Reese has to look cute, but isn't that a bit too cute?)

3. And this sometimes have shadow and sometimes no shadow thing which i din notice. (Apparently the special effects people need more coffee.)

4. The 'spend a nite in bed' scene is quite weird.. hahaha.. I'm still wondering if they censored its supposed to leave the audience guessing "did they, or did they not?" ALthough its technically impossible of cos.

5. ...................................................

6. .....................................

7. ...........................

8. ..................

9. ..........

10. ..

ANyway it had a happy ending and Reese Witherspoon is spunky, cute and pretty to bits.

A tribute to INSANIAQUARIUM

2005-11-13T22:52:00.000+08:00

I have been eating my words a lot lately.
No i wont play silly games!!! NO!! They're juz bytes!! Argh.. but here i am... yes yes once again I have succumbed to temptation today (which i attribute to exam stress as usual..)

Being my usual Kapo self, I was browsing through blogs when i chance upon a certain game called INSANIQUARIUM which was 'featured' on the blog belonging to a friend of a friend.

I clicked on her link and ended up at POPCAP GAMES and that was it.

Since i had such a crazy time battling aliens from killing my dear phishes, I have decided to feature my bloody gaming experience... though i mus say im nowhere as good as the blogger whose link i clicked on.. Her page was filled and i mean really FILLED with phishes. Scary sia...

The logic of the game is simple: feed your phish, don't let them turn grey and die, and they'll make $$ for you. Collect the coins and jewels they drop/SHIT out and buy more stuff with the Money. AND ZAP those freaking alien attackers!!!

See how cool this alien is? It shoots out rockets and those circle things tell you which phishes they're aiming at.

The preggy phish (the one with the big tummy and wearing a scarf around her neck) makes a farting sound whenever it pops out a new baby phish. Cute!

There are many types of aliens attackers. The one i HATE most is the lump of fat like thing in the pic below. It looks rather uncool and harmless but it gobbles up my phishes real fast!!! I have hence named it the FATGOB

I figure i enjoy the game so much cos I love picking up $$.. Imagine your phishes shitting gold coins.. ANd you can't even pick em up fast enuf..Hah!

For those who are not afraid to end up like me (fingers a bit numb from clicking on the mouse like a freaking nutcase)Play at your OWN RISK.

http://www.popcap.com/gamepopup.php?theGame=insaniquarium

Tong Hua Gu SHi

2005-11-12T22:28:00.000+08:00

After the headsplitting experience of muggin for LS80, I am finally able to get cracking for Svcs Mktg. I figured I have 6days. Or 5 1/2.

Half of which(mabe one) just went to Wang2 Zi3 Bian4 Qing1 Wa1. Literally translated into 'Prince turn into a Frog'. Its an Ou3 Xiang4 Ju4 which is currently screening on Channel U 7pm Mon-Fri.

Sis just bought Part3 of the VCD for this Ou Xiang Ju to commemorate her end of year holidays and moi could not help but couch in front of the TV with her. Moi who had laughed at her for watching such a stupid show. Moi who had said the male lead is ugly. Moi who got threatened to pay $5 for watching her VCDs. She claims that the rental is $20 for the whole set. Hence her part 3 is worth 7.3333 of rental, therfore i ought to pay $5 for rental at least. Damn.

Neways it is still a dumb show. BUT strangely addictive. Maybe its exam stress. Have you ever wondered why u need more junk food during exam period or watch some crap show just to tune out of studying. ANything that offers temporary relief suddenly becomes enticing.

Coming back to this show. Well, same old formula. Ger mits rich guy, dont know he's rich, cos he conveniently suffered from memory loss. Somehow memory loss happens so much and so often in the world of Taiwanese Dramas. Whenever the scriptwriter can't tink of how to link the story, just hit someone on the head. COncuss and tada AMMESIA! Oh and comas too.

The magic of ou xiang jus...

1. Hot looking guys and gers.
2. The guys must be RICH.
3. Better still, have a BAD rich boy turn GOOD becoz of a pretty POOR ger.

Sounds like Meteor Garden? That must be the mother of ou xiang jus.
BTW: Quite a number of successful ou xiang jus like Meteor Garden one, MVP Qing Ren and Prince to Frog is by the same Zhi4 zuo4 ren2. No wonder they are similar. Her Formula rocks!!

SImple but gr8 ain't it?
To fulfil the fantasy of tons of young nubile gers out there that .. hey u can find a RICH guy to marry. And he's cute and hunky too. Be a modern CInderalla. And rich meaning filthy freaking rich. Like Dao Ming Si and this Shan JunHao of some bloody organization called SENWELL.

And better still those nubile young gers would start buying posters,CDs and VCDs and whatever is churned out. $$$ What a money making venture. To make ppl pay to daydream!

**Pls let me think of a winning formula for TCS and make me rich...**

Post LS80

2005-11-11T17:51:00.000+08:00

LS80 -->Espanol Level One. After taking the paper and munching on a slightly soggy peanut Kuei stashed in my bag, i feel so much better. Talk about soul food...

Quite mentally drained though. Felt like a PC with a RAM of say.. 128MB? I was struggling to assess my faulty hard disk. Bits and pieces of information here and there. A2.5 hrs long memory test.

I think the paper wasn't that bad really. Quite bad but not too bad. I shall seek solace in the fact that its a GE.

Neways, Im not burning any books or tearing any paper. There's only a few sheets of notes in my little folder here, so i doubt i will make a significant contribution to the recycling bin.

Linguistically challenged?

2005-11-10T02:30:00.000+08:00

Warning: Whiny whiny whiny

Its 230 am. 36 hours before the dreaded Spanish exam. And im barely halfway through it. Meaning I took 2days to clear 2 chapters and I have 2 chapters left. Simple arithmatic shows that there is a problem here. Major problem. dammit i shouldn't even be blogging. But here I am..

Relating to my last post, I mentioned that studying is a 'must-do' thing. Once in a while, I come across something i enjoy. Spanish is one of those things. At least it used to be. Our relationship didn't last long though. The love fizzled out soon enough.

I have concluded im either linguistically challenged, have poor memory or worse.. Both. I fear the worst. I have been reduced to a primary school kid studying for a spelling test. Unfortunately, this is the mother of spelling tests. Ive been scribbling all over pieces of blank paper in a bid to practise 'xi2 zi4'. Hoping that scribbling a few more times would somehow make them stay in my alzeimer stricken head.

Ive also done the 'cover with paper and write yourself' thing.

SOb SOb.. this is bad... The bloody oral exam a while back almost killed me. This is 1st degree murder.. No plea bargain.
I reckon ive spent more time on a 3 (pathetic) AUs GE.. REPEAT GE! than an equivilent core over the course of this semester and i just dont get why im reduced to this state 36 hours before the exam.

ARGGGGGGGHHHHHhhhhhh!!!!!

Parallels of studying

2005-11-07T22:04:00.000+08:00

Having sat for the Political Econs paper today(which turned out to be mainly a scribing exercise), I have some thoughts in my head.

After the paper, I was real pissed with myself. Why? I felt that I haven't done justice to myself. Despite reminding myself time and again to have good time management, that exam is both about knowing your work and knowing how to be exam smart, I didn't finish my paper.

The moment i flipped open the script and scanned through the questions, I made up my mind on which questions to answer and the time I have for each. But alas, it seems that my hand was not listening to my head and I was foolhardy enough to scribble on at the expense of the last question.

WHile waiting for the examiner to collect the script, I decided that i wasn't going to lug the big bag of readings home. However, I didn't chuck it into the first bin i saw. Instead, i carried it up the slope, under the sun and all the way to S4, found a recycle bin at the basement and chucked the pile in, paper bag included.

ALthough i tell myself that the reason for not dumping my notes into the first bin i saw was due to environmental friendliness, I have to admit that i really don't care about the trees and saving the world that much. Truth be told, I coudn't let go of the notes just yet. After all, i had spent many hours painstakingly highlighing and underlining the pages, and had spent much of sunday putting POST-ITS on them. After so much effort, I needed some time before throwing them away. And a dismise in a recycling bin filled with paper seems that much better an end than a putrid rubbish bin.

As i slipped each pile of notes, each tied with a rubber band through the slot, I thought..hey isn't this a little like love?

You see, before the exam is akin to being still in love. Lots of attention and time was lavished on the notes, getting the points, remembering which part goes where....Not that I love studying. I study because I have to. It has always been like this. It is something that has to be done. Neither do I hate it. Sometimes I chance upon topics that I like or find interesting, and I enjoy those. I also enjoy the process of studying and bitching with frenz and having an excuse to eat more junk food and attribute it to exam stress. Most of the time, I am ambivalent. Those who have a passion for the things they study may find this rather sad. To me, it is just part of life. Lots of things are done because there is a need to. More often than not, you do something you don't like, in anticipation of something you like.

Back to the point. The relationship between my notes and me ended after the exam. The love has ended. Just a while ago, they were important. The most important things I was carrying. Just as quickly, they become worthless. Each piece, highlighted and tagged, will be discarded.

However, there are remnants of what was there before. Hence, it takes time to get over it. Therefore, I lugged the heavy paper bag all the way to S4 before I finally understood that there is really no point in carrying it further. It is heavy and weighing me down. The string was making angry red lines appear on my arms. Finally I discard it. EVen then, I threw it into a recycle bin, cos I wanted the end to be better, nicer, not ugly and dirty.

3 degree slum

2005-11-01T00:13:00.000+08:00

The time of the year has come when NTU morphs into a slum.

Day 1: Friday night. The dustbins start to fill up. Having been incalcated with the belief that a little man will pop up and fine us $500 for chucking rubbish in the wrong places, we students do NOT litter. Instead, we attempt to stuff each bin to the brim. After which boxes are stacked on top and around the dustbin, like a macabre Christmas tree.

Day 2: Saturday. Even the smaller bins in the toilets are full. The wastepaper baskets are overflowing.

Day 3: Sunday morning. The rubbish bins start to smell funny. I spotted a couple of wastepaper baskets toppled over along the corridor. A pair of chopsticks and chicken bones. Fellow mugger said she spotted birds picking at the fermenting food.

This coupled with lots of muggers makes the school rather scary. We flop around in our worst state. Guys start to lose their tans, turning a tad pale. Girls turn totally unglam.

To make things worse, the tutorial rooms turn into battlegrounds. A friend experienced a hostile takeover. Muggers armed with books, stake their claims.

The traditional notice pasted outside the door declaring temporary ownership no longer works. Notes / Books / Food placed on tables might be ignored

Come end of exams, things will be back to normal. We will be sane again.

A mascot for hufferland!

2005-10-09T02:54:00.000+08:00

Nintendogs

2005-10-02T01:54:00.000+08:00

"Wow! Oh my! That's so cute! CAn it bark? Gosh, it looks so real!"

Yes I was gushing as I stared at the latest generation of virtual pets. Made by who else but the grand dame of handheld portable games - Nintendo. Had it been so long ago when the humbleTamagotchi was touted as the must-have item? Remember those days when everyone had at least one of those egg shaped things which contained a precious little dog or chick which poops, sleeps and plays? And the future generations of Digimons it spun off that sent little boys into virtual battledomes?

Having said that, here's a couple of suggestions for the local market ...

The NintenSiberian-Husky --> For folks still intent on 'adapting' Artic animals to the local weather, its a safer alternative. After all, it would only be a virtual dog which dies of heat stroke. The owner can always restart his game, making a mental note to turn on the air-conditioning for his precious pet the second time round.

The NintenLuohan --> Although the Luohan may be out of fashion now, who knows when it would be in vogue again? Uncles can carry their handhelds and stare at their fish while on the go for the divine 4 digits.

The NintenBaby --> We can't miss that out. For busy couples who can't afford the time to diaper real babies, this would be a low commitment project. Maybe they would find the virtual little one so cute, they decide to make a real one to boost our falling birth rates.

Of Service in Chilli padi Land

2005-09-27T23:21:00.000+08:00

Due to the recent spotlight on Singapore's service level and the endless emphasis on good service in Gonzales' services marketing class, I have been irritated sufficiently to blog my 2 cents worth of cynical opinions here.

Yes, Singapore's service level does suck in many places. We complain non-stop about the bloody salesgirl who is more interested in her rebonded hair than us --> the dear, most important, alwaiz right customers' needs. About the slow servers at Swensens, the sulky faced counter staff and the sully looking salesger who gives you a sian look for not buying anything. Salesmen who adopt a stalker style appraoch, tailing you around his 'territory' in Harvey Norman.

Gonzales talk repeatedly about training staff, motivating staff, having checkpoints, solicitating for customer surveys. These people are in LALALAND. I'll probably fail my paper if Gonzales sees this, but this is REALITY.

Come on! People who write about this stuff are sitting in their air-con offices, fighting to get their next article posted in some journal like Marketing Science. Have they ever worked a day as a shoe salesger, driven a cab, or waitressed?

The simple problem is MONEY. How much does a salesger at Charles n Keith get for a month of staring at people's ugly toenails? $1000 give or take a couple of hundred. LALALAND DENIZENS can consider paying a decent wage to MOTIVATE employees. Factor in spending public holidays and weekends spent servicing an endless stream of Singaporean women with shoe fetishes(moi included), but can't afford On Peddar or the likes of Stuart Weitzman and Jimmy Choo. And worse still can't decide whether she wants black brown or both (moi included). And you get the idea how bad life is.

Factor in a stressful work environment with motivating techniques such as high sales quotas and leave that you somehow are never able to claim and how do you expect these folks to wish you a geniune goodday and smile at every customer?

Just keep it real, efficient and fuss free and its good enuf for me.

In case I risk sounding like a film critic, i shall relate my very own experience. During one particular end-of-year vacation a couple of years ago, I applied for a sales job at Veeko and started work at the Tiong Bahru outlet.

The pay is $1100 a month for junior staff. 6 day week, off on weekday(not-fixed), must work public holidays and working hours is 11am to 9pm. That works out to 4.231 an hour. 4.91 if you factor in the CPF contribution.

On day 1, I was introduced to a personal target, shop target, and watever targets people sitting in lalaland devised. The personal targets are anti-competitive as the structure is designed in such a way that staff fight like cats among themselves. Hence, every customer that comes in becomes part of a stalking game, giving rise to the 'follow very closely behind' routine. Stupid me had my first day's sales attributed to 'newcomer's luck' stolen by an unscrupulous '2nd shop in-charge' who happily keyed in her ID for my sales.

In addition to being on your feet all day, meeting nasty customers, the foul-mouthed, changing room divas, and faking interest type... And holding on to your customers so that your hard-earned sales won't be stolen, the company has cleverly decided to make sales staff bear the cost of stolen goods. So 50% of the COST, as in PRICE TAG "COST" minus staff purchase 'discount' will be borne by watever is deductible from employee's commission. Working hours are extended if there are customers who mill around past closing time and are too insensitive to walk out. Extra hours clocked are not paid but rolled over as hours to be claimed. But its hard to claim them. A perm staff told me that she can only claim it when she quits.

I lasted a mere 2.5 wks, out of the 5 wks i was 'commited' to work and threw in the towel.

Another example is the humble taxi. Everyone takes cabs sometime or another, and we have all had our fair share of good and ugly drivers. However, the service with a smile, polite and chirpy thing may be simply too far-fetched.

10 years ago, cab drivers were able to feed their families quite comfortably on their income. There were fewer cabs on the road and the rent was lower. Drivers could opt to own their cabs. Nowadays, drivers are reduced to just another unvalued employee of the cab companies. There are many more players now and the number of cabs on the road has multiplied. Drivers are squeezed by rising diesel prices, daily rent and the various other costs taxi companies add on. Many drivers quit each month as they can't make enough to justify the long hours spent on the road. This starts a vicious cycle. As the turnover increases, you get increasing number of drivers who are unfamiliar with the routes. Struggling to pay the rent and other expenses makes drivers turn to unorthodox mtds such as waiting for calls, taking indirect routes and worse, dangerous driving such as speeding to pick up more passengers during their shift or cutting across lanes to pick up a customer.

Do taxi companies care? It would be idealistic to think that they truly care about drivers' welfare. As long as the maximum number of cabs are rented, they can collect rent. And that's the important thing. To keep the ratio of idle vehicles low!

SO to improve service, PAY is of utmost importance. If the salesger is paid more, she'll be a happier person, be able to buy more shoes and hopefully genuinely smile more. How many smiles can you buy with $4.5 an hour? How many can you buy with $7?

Of onions and tissue paper

2005-09-25T02:04:00.000+08:00

Now this post is about the little boy and myself.

The place is at Jurong West St91( So I thought its really near NTU, unfortunately I realised its not so near after all.) ANyway I was offered $20 for an hour of teaching kiddie stuff on Thursday evening. The agent mentioned that I had to teach Hanyu Pinyin and English.

I had conjured up a mental image of the boy and his family.
1. The parents must be rich. Why else would they want to blow $20 an hour on their K1 kid?
2. They must be very busy, hence they have no time to read to their baby.
3. They can't speak or write Chinese at all, (Super Ang Moh type), hence they need someone to come in and speak some Mandarin to their kid and pronounce the Hanyu Pinyin way.

I was so wrong. Totally off tangent.

1. The parents are NOT rich. There are 6 people - Grandpa+Grandma+Dad+Mum+Kid+Baby living in a sparsely furnished 3 room flat.

2. Once again the agency got it wrong. I must be cursed.. The mother says she only wanted help with English. Says she can speak some English but nobody in the house speaks English to the kid so she wanted someone to come and speak to him as his standard is below average. (She sounded Malaysian to me.)

And so I had come with a Hanyu Pinyin and English guidebook as instructed by the agent who messed up and the mother very kindly reassured me that its okie, that she can keep the chinese book for later use and paid me the money for the books.

That brings me to a problem here. As much as I want the cash, i don't think there is much i can do for the kid. Unlike the very noisy Primary One class who couldn't keep silent for more than 3min and drove me nutty, he doesn't talk to me much. I doubt I have the ability to make him open up to me. And there is really no point in wasting their money when they're already financially taxed.

And looking at this particularly family reminded me of the time when my mother was forced to engage an English tutor for me in K2. My tutor was also an undergrad at that point of time. Basically no one in the house speaks English too. SO i could barely string an English sentence together. And i had just transferred to a new Kindergarten after moving and it turns out that at the new place, my English was way below normal. (Don't ask me how 2 PAP Kindergartens can have such big differences.)

Anyway, the aweful relevation came when I got back my paper for the English test. My form teacher had given out most of the scripts as I sat there dreading THE moment. When i finally got it back, I was one of the last few in class and had failed miserably.

The teacher's one liner did the trick though. I don't rem her face, or name, whether its Mdm, Mrs or Miss, but i rem the sentence very well...

"You don't even know how to spell 'O-N-I-O-N' ?"

I clutched the test paper and kept quiet. The teacher moved on.

When the class ended, I started bawling my heart out the moment i stepped out of class.

My mother's friend, who had come to pick up her daughter, spotted me at the void deck and asked " Shui2 Qi1 Fu4 Ni3?" I managed to thrust her the offending exam paper and muttered something about failing it, in between sobbing, swallowing my own snoot and spreading the mixture of tears and mucus on my face by wiping with my hands. She proceeded to help me wipe off some of the gunk on my face, unfortunately it seemed that my tear ducts and nose had gone into "over-production" mode.

She then handed her packet of tissue to me, told me to stay put and left me alone for a bit to pick up her daughter before coming back. By then i had tissue bits stuck all over my face.
And she brought me home in the super unglam state to my rather alarmed mother.

This story eventually became her "must-repeat every year" story whenever we bai4 nian2 during CNY.

Tuition

2005-09-25T01:46:00.000+08:00

I haven't been raking in much income ever since my crazy 'spurt' of 'working like mad' days to save up for a certain trip, depending on hand-outs from my mum and tapping into my savings which has been dwindling bit by bit over the past year. My last job was PA, which doesn't really count since well.. Pa is PA. No tuition, nothing. Nada.

Since the beginning of this semester, I've been actively calling up the agencies listed on the classifieds, hoping to stem the outflow of $ from my bank account.

As mentioned in previous entries, I had this freak case at CCK where I was "fired" before I started. (Disaster meter: 10)

And there was this case where one student suddenly turned out to be two, hence I "fired" myself before I started. (Disaster meter: 5)

And recently i've finally managed to land a couple of students. But the experiences were still rather fraught with disasters.

Student (a) - A sec one ger, so far seems quite obedient and pays attention, but not very quick to pick up concepts.
(Disaster meter 6): PAy is low as commented by Qiuling and the amazing thing was the agency got my name wrong, says that I just finished my A levels and I still can't determine whether its the parent or the agent who decided to 'under-report' my meagre earnings by another $10. Anyway first impressions were totally ruined. Instead of appearing professional on Day One. Both parties were freaked and making multiple calls to acertain the situation with the bloody middleman.

Student (b) - K1. Yes, tinny tiny.. He warrants a seperate post all to himself.

A word of thanks

2005-09-25T01:42:00.000+08:00

I would like to thank a few people.
You know who you are when you read this.
I haven't been able to articulate it very well.
But I am really touched.
Thanks for being by my side when i needed to rant,
for offering your help and company.
Thanks for staying with me.

Of hell

2005-09-13T16:39:00.000+08:00

After reading Ms Chiongster and Spidey's comments regarding my last post. I have come to this conclusion. I'll probably see my sis in hell... If such a place exists.

About this obsession with the word .. hell, purgurtory, eternal damnation ... It comes in many forms. The terminology varies with different cultures and religions, but the end result is more or less the same.

To me, hell embodies fear, fear of misery, pain, anguish. We work so hard to avoid it, to secure ourselves a ticket out of it ... to heaven? To a better next life ? Or to disappear into oblivion? We pray, donate to NKF, contribute to the Tsunami aid, and sometimes simply decide not to step on an ant. Or curb the urge to prod that millipede you spot on the pavement.

Yet, sometimes living is hell. I choose to believe in living hell. To me, that is more scary than the unknown. Sickness, discrimmination, pain, poverty. That is less apparent in Singapore though, where the underclass leads a somewhat invisible life. You spot them when they venture out of their homes and once in a while, you see a man or woman foraging the rubbish bins at bus stops. Or the old uncle cleaning the tables at hawker centers, straining with the heavy buckets.

At other times, we struggle, trudging along to keep up and find that you're falling behind, and you keep trying and trying and you're exhausted. Its like the uncle who mops the floor at the bus interchange on a rainy day. He painstakingly cleans every tile, yet, the shuffling of footsteps continues and mud is smeared all over. Mopping makes no difference. And that's what happens. You can try but it makes no difference. Or your efforts may be wiped out by the folly of others or that of yourself and in the end you have nothing.

Sisters

2005-09-11T01:14:00.000+08:00

Channel U was showing the korean (or isit Japanese?) horror flick -- Sisters -- at 1130 pm last night. I was being a potato while my lil' sis was multitasking, watching TV and doing last minute work as usual. (Note: The one week holiday ends this Sunday, so her pile of uncompleted homework is due in 2 days time.)

Now for someone as fierce and rude and fiesty as her, she turns into a timid little mouse when dealing with the supernatural. Hence it's a good time for me to scare her a abit. Typically after watching anything remotely scary, she'll be afraid of the dark, take a shorter time to shower and need someone to be with her ALL THE TIME. Hence her evil sister had a field day freaking her out by threatening to leave her to watch (and do homework) by herself. Occasionally i would also mimick those freaky breathy sounds favored by ghosts of Korean/Jap origins just to see her squirm. (I know i'm going to hell for this..)
Don't ask me why she keeps watching horror movies if she can't take it though... And insist that i watch it with her when i usually make it even more scary.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While watching the wacko sisters being tortured by their evil but chio stepmother, i took out my midnite junkie snack --> A pig- shaped- lotus- paste -filled -mooncake. As i proceeded to break its head off and munch on it, i saw my sis eyeing my beheaded piglet and dropping blatant hints to make me offer her a piece. I obliged and divided the head into 2 halves, stretching out my hand and grunting 'nah'.

As both of us munched happily on our portion of the pig's head, my sister suddenly asked ..
" Can i eat the eye?"

Me: "Of cos you can, dont be stupid. "

Sis popped it into her mouth.

A few moments later...

Sis: "Are you sure? It's a bit hard.. "

Me (an evil thought kind of just popped up in my head): HAHA.. Of course you CAN'T, so stupid... "

Sis: SPAT it out.

Me: "You actually believed that? Oh lord... "

Sis: Shit you! I'm going to fart.

(Sis's farts are really killer stuff.. Not to be trifled with and she loves to fart in my face.)

Me: "All right all right. Really.. its edible.I ate it already. "

Sis popped it back into her mouth.

Me(an even more evil thought kind of just popped up in my head): " HAHA, don't you know the myth of eating the mooncake piglet's eyes?"
(Honestly, I was just trying my luck with this one.. I swear..)

Sis (eyes open wide and stops munching): Huh???

Me: "You'll turn stupid, i can't believe you ate it.."

Sis: "I don't believe you.. "

Me: "Then eat it, no one's stopping you.. "

SIs: "I really don't believe you.. "

Me: "Then just eat it and stop asking.. the... "

Sis SPAT it out. AGAIN...

Me: *Laughs! You believed that?? oh my.. you're really stupid! Pwahaha!"

Sis: "You stupid dumb &&U*&^^%$! " and FARTS.

Chicken or Egg?

2005-09-06T22:21:00.000+08:00

After catching the 9pm TCS drama, roughly translated as ' Whose chicken doesn't lay eggs?", i'm amazed at how low TCS can go after the merger with Channel U. Don't ask me why i'm watching it.. I'm too bored, too free, too crappy or simply being a potato.

The scriptwriter ought to be fired. But then again he must be wishing he is dead too, given the requirements of the show's valued sponsors (MCDS - Ministry of community development and sports)

1. Must get married.
2. Must pop babies.
3. Try IVF if you can't make it.
4. Unwed and knocked-up? NO abortion.
5. And remember to breastfeed your kid.
6. Career-minded women beware, you'll lose your husbands if you are not family-oriented!
7. Give ex-convicts a 2nd chance.
8. Entrepreneurial spirit.

The poor scriptwriter must have been forced to work the following points into the plot, thereby resulting in the absence of one.

Snippets of the terrible show:

--> A one night stand with a Jap photographer resulted in a pretty young lass giving birth to a baby ger. The father of the child supposedly died when the overloaded boat he was in sank. However.. he survived as he.. drifted in the sea for days clingling onto a piece of wood and was saved by fishermen!(*gags* I'm getting morning sickness.) They met each other again as she was staging a 'Let me breastfeed my baby' campaign at Jurong Point!

--> Must set up a business. Sell cakes, sell eggs, whatever.

--> A pretty ex-wife who can't keep her clothes on comes back to find her ex-husband. The current wife (played by Chen Liping) felt sorry for her and took her in. Is the scriptwriter brainless? No woman will feel sorry for a nubile creature who has shagged your man before and is 1. Prettier 2. Perkier 3. Slimmer 4. Sexier. In this case, the contrast is stark.

--> A mother-in-law who is so crazy about having a grandchild that she threatens screams and hits her daughter-in-law for not getting pregnant?!!@$% And makes her eat all kinds of weird chinese tonics.

--> The mother-in-law plotted to get her son to sleep with the younger ex-wife so that she would give her the much coveted grandchild.

--> Guy eventually did not have sex with ex-wife but does not know coz he was too drunk to remember?!

Enuf said.. This show is seriously screwed and i'm even more screwed to be watching it at all.

Case 1,2,3

2005-09-06T16:27:00.000+08:00

I don't know much about the law. The only thing that comes to my mind is the case of an old bat finding a snail in her drink during Biz Law Lecture 1. With my limited knowledge, I have come to the conclusion that our judicial system is warped.

Now i'm not talking about expert knowledge and incomprehensible language that law makers use .. I'm just using common sense here. A number of recent cases that i've come across in the papers simply befuddle me.

Case 1: A mentally retarded young man had his sentence increased after an appeal.

Details: Boy had just been released from prison for molestation charges. Almost right away, he groped the breasts of some unlucky woman along the street. Hence he was shackled and cuffed once again and sent on a return trip to Changi. Boy's sentence was increased after an appeal.

Why it doesn't make sense: Note i use the word 'Boy', coz the young man's IQ is in the 50s range. A normal adult's IQ is around 90 to 110 while the average IQ of someone with Down Syndrome is 50. Obviously, this person's 'brain power' is way below normal and its apparent from the way he acted that packing him off to jail didn't work the 1st time, and chances of it working the 2nd time is close to NIL. He needs counselling and help, not the cane.

Which brings me to today's case.. A SERIAL molester who can obviously think and plot, had been sentenced to almost the same punishment as the retarded 'boy'! He wears a tee shirt around his head, grabs women from behind and MASTURBATES in front of his victims stark naked. And he did it 8 times over a period of 3 years. That's a very sick and very unrepentant pervert!

Case 2: Alaskan Malamute dies of heat stroke. Owner fined $3000.

Details: The dog died of heat stroke as a result of wilful neglect on its owner's part. He had been 'advised' by some animal protection group prior to his dog's death but did nothing to improve its living conditions.

Why it doesn't make sense: $3000 is nothing to someone who lives in Landed property and in the prime district of Bukit Timah at that. Probably even 30,000 would do little to discourage the owner from doing such a thing again. This kind of extreme cruelty ought to be punishable by a jail sentence. He put an arctic animal with 2 coats of fur under the tropical sun with NO WATER!Its akin to humans putting on two jackets and standing under the mid-day sun. Moreover, this dog was subject to such unbearable conditions over an extended period of time, not a day or two. It died a painful death with blood and foam oozing out of its mouth.

Case 3: Woman in coma after being hit by a reversing car is 50% at fault

Details: She was crossing the road when a car reversed and hit her. Judge ruled that she has to take half the blame coz she failed to keep a look out for traffic on the opposite side. Errant driver was fined $500 and given 6 demerit points.

Why it doesn't make sense: How often do you cross a road expecting vehicles to move AGAINST the traffic? The driver reversed a distance of not one or two, but 5 lots, in an area with many eateries and ought to have done it real slow and kept a look-out for other vehicles or pedestrians. Instead, he hit her with enough impact to knock her out permanently. If the same logic applies, then if killer-litter hits me, i have to share 50% of the blame coz i should have been more careful and checked 'upwards'? Now the woman's in a vegetative state, chalking up medical bills which her family has to pay and the driver got off with $500 fine? That's like being caught eating on an MRT..

I find the above judgements mind-boggling. Somehow, sentences metted out do not seem to reflect the seriousness of the crime in some cases, while for others, it seems overly harsh and senseless.

Of dark chocolate and smelly beancurd

2005-09-06T11:24:00.000+08:00

A sour stench permeated the air when a group of 3 chinese foreign workers boarded the train. 2 made themselves comfortable on the floor near the door (non-opening side) while the third found a seat.

The smell is a mixture of a) sweat, b)grime and c)poor oral hygiene, (C) being the most toxic. His breath was so formidable that we squirmed in our seats each time he opened his mouth to shout across the breadth of the cabin to his friends.

(Well, i have no case against (a) and (b), since these folks are the ones building the HDB flats, paving the roads, and doing all the stuff that we jaded Singaporeans refuse to do. When the day comes that China, India, Bangladesh and whichever countries where foreign labour originate from have fully industrialised, we Singaporeans better pray we're as advanced as Japan and depend on AI to do all these jobs, or we'll be drowning in our own shit and rubbish. I've never believed that SG is really clean and green. We're 'clean' cos we employ legions of foreign workers to clean up the mess we leave everywhere, be it cutlery at hawker centers, old furniture we leave at corridors and void decks or the seemingly endless amount of litter we generate. Just look at Orchard Road at 2am or the Padang after National day celebrations and you'll see the 'real' city at its worst.)

I'm digressing ... Back to Mr Dragonbreath

Anyway, it was so bad that the guy sitting on his immediate left found it unbearable after 2 stations and decided to forgo his seat. (He retreated to a safe spot a few metres away and proceeded to lean on a pole.) The girl next to me (2 seats from his left) tilted her head towards me and was obviously trying to take small measured breaths. While Miss Hufferphish who was 3 seats away from the source wished she was down with a flu.

The 3 stops to Jurong East Interchange seemed like forever. I got off the train gratefully and hoped the poor girl next to me won't be deprived of too much oxygen.

To make things worse, they seemed to have this uncontrollable urge to scratch and dig at every orifice. In order of preference, as determined from the 'frequency' of contact are ... 1. Feet (Space between and around the toes.) 2. Still feet (Upper part of the foot) 3. Nostrils. (Where it seems to have an endless supply of precious metal to unearth.) When Dragonbreath's pals flashed him a toothy grin, the state of decay of their teeth attested to the lack of dental hygiene.

This observation made me wonder whether it is a general trait, or a pet peeve of chinese workers only.

From my observations, it seems that Banglaesh workers are relatively well-groomed, especially when they are heading towards Mustafa on their off-days. They are a happier bunch and seem to have a much better grasp of personal hygiene as compared to their chinese counterparts. In fact they look quite smart in their long sleeved shirts(usually with sleeves folded up) and pants. I may be biased here but i do feel that Bangladesh workers do look much cleaner, don't keep rubbing their feet, or have dragonbreath. In fact most of them have nice teeth and even when they get on the mrt after a day of hard labour under the scorching sun, in their work boots scuffed and covered with mud, do not smell any worse than sweaty school children on their way home after PE lessons!

This brings me to the conclusion that it is mostly chinese men who smell bad and love to scratch their groins. How do i find an explanation for this then? I'm afraid i'm clueless.

Confessions of a Spa Virgin

2005-08-30T21:50:00.000+08:00

Having talked about weird theories, i shall talk about my experience as a Spa virgin. Its called the Hawaiian Ka Huna Bodywork and its promises range from the generic - "Physically re-energising" to healthy - " treats the lympathati, immune, circulatory, respiratory ... improved health and fitness" to Zen - " helps release fear, anger, grief .." to the bizarre - " releases hidden memories and allow change in your body, mind and soul (Huna)".

I chuckled as i read the bunch of marketing crap on its brochure AFTER the spa .. totally absurd. If it can do all those things in a 1.5hr service, all the shrinks in the world would be out of job by now.

So here's the real deal ... I entered the Earth Sanctuary Day Spa and was greeted by a VERY cheery receptionist who smiled ever SO sweetly, albeit oozing insincerity. Gonzales would be proud of her.

Then i removed my shoes and went upstairs where i was greeted by a middle age 'therapist' who definately scores tons higher on the sincerity scale.

I was given a little white disposable G-string and instructed to take everything off. I was actually expecting to be at least 25% covered. So i must have appeared kind of uncomfy and the therapist gave me a sarong to wrap around myself. I was also instructed to tie up my hair unless i want to look like Sadako on a bad hair day, since i was supposed to be slathered in sesame oil during the massage.

The sarong covered my vital bits for perhaps all of 5min. The moment she got started with me, it came off. And tada i was naked as a newborn and perhaps juz as slippery as well, since i was indeed well-oiled.

The therapist assured me that there's nothing to be self-conscious about and even 60 somethings with wrinkly skin and bellies come to her. (Actually i was more conscious about my A-cup status. But hey i started thinking that if she had seen and touched saggy 60 yr olds, she should be alright with mine.) After overcoming my inhibitions i started to enjoy the process of being kneaded and probed. She didn't miss out any part of my anatomy. I figured she covered 95%, the remaining 5% being whatever the by-then soggy G-string could cover.

Somehow i kept thinking of sesame cakes and sesame biscuits as the smell of sesame oil permeated the air.

I was rathered relaxed except for the part when she kept massaging my shoulder and back. That was uncomfortable, probably coz of my posture and all the tensed-up muscles. This petite woman can probably out wrestle a guy coz she's really strong!

After the massage, she proceeded to give me a scrub. I was totally exfoliated, from the neck down. During the scrub, i could only think of 2 things.
1. Glad that i had diligently tweezed those pesky underarm hair. The idea of her scrubbing my hairy armpits is gross.
2. Glad that i had waxed my legs a few days before. The idea of scrubbing my hairy legs is just as gross.

After the scrub, i took a shower, got dressed, drank this minty tea and went to look for a hairdryer and some moisturiser to slap on my face.

That sums up my very first Spa experience. Was i relaxed? A little.. Did i feel exfoliated? Yes.
BAsically i left feeling very clean. No zen experience, no Huna, Mana or Manawa crap.
Would i be back? Only if i am very rich.

Theory 1,2,3

2005-08-30T16:49:00.000+08:00

Haven't blogged for a bit.. No time, no mood, no inspiration.

Life has been depressing lately, been dunked in shit over and over.

Take for instance - tuition - that is one freak incident. I had prepped myself with my little sister's Pri 6 texts, travelled to CCk and was turned away at the door. They had already engaged a tutor and the agent hadn't informed me! Numerous calls to the agent ended up with me talking to an inanimate object - The answering machine. No surprises that nobody called me back. Managed to get the woman on the line eventually but of coz all i got were flat-out denials. Promised to clarify with me but no surprises again that she never did call back. There's really nothing i can do either. All i've got is a number and no name or face. I'll just put it down on pure bad luck.

Been meeting the shittiest people too. The ribbon on my flats was damaged by this woman who tried to cut across my path, and ended up almost tripping over my left foot and ripping my ribbon off in the process. There was no apology for kicking my foot and tearing my ribbon off. Instead she glared at me. If looks could kill! (I had to 'superglue' it back. Eventually, i invested in an identical pair as the former was deemed too stinky.)

Friday nite i bought a Meiji Milk chocolate bar to soothe my troubed soul, hoping the onslaught of 'happy hormones' from cocoa would rejuvunate me. Sadly, i had a bad tummyache after finishing the bar. A mere 70g of chocolate made my stomach upset. So much for therapy...

Alright, enuf of bad karmic stuff.. they do drive one nuts sometimes. I'll share the warped theories i've formulated recently.

Theory 1 : I have come up with a little theory about life and the strange way it works. For instance, 1plus 1 might equal zero. No matter what you do, people will always have a bone to pick. They might not like your inepititude or way of doing things. Sometimes they simply don't like the face, name, voice or maybe the way you smell. Simply put, the line "I just don't like you" applies here. And therefore they reserve all their shit for you.

And on the contrary sometimes 8 - 5 = 10. You put in little effort, but things do turn out fabulously, no worries. Mabe its a sunny disposition, good social skills, a pretty face, good karma, cash ... any combination that works..

Theory 2: A combination of "Law of diminishing returns" and " Base Theory " - Miss Hufferphish's own.

Basically "Law of diminishing returns" means that if you're usually nice, people won't appreciateness your "niceness" unless you do something even better. So for example, if you always help your roomie to buy breakfast, soon your roomie won't bother saying thanks. He/She will just wait for breakfast delivery every morning. For Roomie to feel the same level of gratitude now, you would need to outdo yourself, like perhaps offer to do the laundry too.

Which brings me to the "Base theory". It means that you always evaluate others based on how you think they would behave - That is the base.
For example, if you're doing a project with person A whom you deem would be a 'worker', you would expect A to do work. If he didn't, you'll be surprised, angry, pissed. You might even relax and let A pick up the bits and pieces.
However if you are so unlucky as to have a free-rider 'fall' in your group, you start from a negative base, thus as long as the free rider does his part and don't cause any trouble, you'll probably be quite relieved and grateful already.

Some may say this is a baseless argument (pun intended), however it is food for thought.

Theory 3: Since i'm working on screwed theories, I would like to share this theory that i've come up with a long time ago during my JC days, perhaps during one of those dreaded chemistry lessons, hence explaining the origin of its name. Its about pretty ppl becoming uglier and uglier ppl become prettier. I call it the theory of "natural equilibrium". Its nature's way of moderating things for people whose faces he/she/it has screwed. (I'm a free thinker.) Cos ppl can't remain ugly forever, or they'll be permamently screwed or not... And they'll never get married and pop babies(Unless the lights are off of cos).

Its based on the fact that when i beau the Chio Bus in sku, their 'impact' decreases with the increase in number of "beauings". Similarly, the very ugly guy with the bad acne and bad teeth(not inclusive of bad breath..that's alwaiz bad, no matter how many times you are unlucky enuf to take a whiff), (imagine the grossest face you can think of).. he loses 'impact' each time you look at him too.

So if this process goes on, eventually everyone will reach equilibrium. (OF cos the number of 'viewings' required varies with each individual.)Think of couples who have been tog for a long time and kinda cease to care how the other looks like? That's what happens..

2005-07-23T00:19:00.000+08:00

KBox revised - With Liqi's slim middle finger left.. hmm..

2005-07-21T21:02:00.000+08:00

That's TK and me on the last day!

2005-07-21T20:58:00.000+08:00

This is Yoda!

2005-07-21T20:57:00.000+08:00

A face to a name ..

Of love

2005-07-20T00:26:00.000+08:00

Today, a friend woke me up with a phonecall. She has fallen in love.

The magic of love -- who could ever describe it? Certainty of having found the one being destined for us by nature, light shed upon life itself and apparently explaining its mystery, unsuspected value conferred upon the most trifling circumstances, flying hours whose details elude the memory through their very sweetness ......

--Adolphe

Of library books and gold

2005-07-19T20:17:00.000+08:00

It was a cool, rainy afternoon. Despite a slightly lopsided jaw, (no thanks to the swelling from the wisdom tooth extraction), I decided to return a 'soon to be due' library book and hopefully find something else to read from the humble Bukit Batok Community Library at West Mall. By the way, it got 1pathetic star in a certain Sunday Times report whiched awarded a maximum of 5 stars to libraries, depending on how they perform .. In terms of collection, service, events.. etc.

I chanced upon a Dean Kootz book titled Frankenstein in the "Just-returned" shelf. The book looks crisp and new.. (Yes i judge a book by its cover.) Published in Feb 2005. Very new indeed, judging by NLB standards. I thought, "Looks great, this will keep me company for tonight". I spotted an empty seat, plonked down on it and proceeeded to read the first couple of chapters.

The story was fine. Done in Dean Kootz's usual style of serial killers and mystery, with an angsty cop thrown in for good measure. I feel he's the "thriller equivilent" of Danielle Steel's trashy romance stories. Quite predictable, same style for many books, but still nice to read. As the title implies, there's some psycho out there who chops people up and collects body parts. there's this warped scene where he talks to magdalene, and gives her a manicure. Flirting with her.. only to wrap Magdalene's hands in plastic wrap to be stored in the freezer. He's actually talking to the HANDS only.

I was happily reading along when i discovered a little speck of brownish green stuff on a page..
Hmm.. don't tell me its ..
One more page.. Another speck of the same stuff, slightly different shape this time..
Ewwwww!!
Ignoring it and ploughing on, tinking "No i'm not giving up on the book.. No way!"
Again.. Some more..
The previous reader must be suffering from a bad bout of flu, has lots of nose hair.. or has a thing for 'gold-digging' while reading a thriller.

By then i had stopped reading.. instead i was flipping through the pages discovering more and more little globs of treasure.

I gave up. I put the book back on the librarian's trolley, zoomed out of the library and into the toilet to scrub my hands.

Ugly Singaporeans at its best.

Day of Disaster

2005-07-19T00:08:00.000+08:00

Just when i thought my gum was happily on its road to recovery, disaster struck.

I had woken up from an afternoon nap. (If you count 4hours a nap.) Drank ice-milo and had some porridge. Watched minority report. Couched in front of the TV for some time.

Logged on using the lappy and boy was i in for a shock.

The antivirus -- AVAST --(Recommended by Spidey), rang non-stop. The alert ws something along the line of sending or isit receiving? too many identical emails. When hell, i wasn't even logged into any email account! I noticed a new icon on that little bar at the bottem right hand corner. And the setting for google search had been changed to Chinese.

You see, my sis loves to log on to Chinese fan sites and ogle at Jolin, F4, FIR, you name it. And listen to songs and whatever clips they post on the sites. These sites are hotbeds for viruses. While i was blissfully asleep leaving the computer on and the modem off, she had taken the liberty to turn on the modem and surf to her heart's content.

I went out and asked her to come in, sit down and look at her handiwork in the "Don't mess with your big Sis" tone, berating her for whatever shit she has downloaded. And the only thing she could say was "i don't know".

I said " Fine, you give me shit like this and only know how to say i don't know, get out."

And man! She said the one other thing besides 'i don't know' --> *Drumrolls please*
--> " Then ni3 jiao4 wo3 jing4 lai2 zuo4 shen3 me4?" in a 'fuck you, you can't do anything to me tone. ' before turning around and focusing on the TV.

Not a single apology, no sign of remorse only 'i don't know' and 'ask me to come in for what'?

That was it. I lost it. With the antivirus still ringing away in the background, i started shouting at her for giving me shit and at her shitty attitude and the next thing i know...

Blood, lots of it. Warm, tangy and slightly salty. I had a whole mouthful of it. I had no idea whether i had overstretched my jaw causing the stitches to come undone or had the clot been dislodged. And i couldn't tell by looking at the mirror, coz each time i spat out the blood, there was more. The sink reminded me of primary school art class. After playing with watercolours, and you start rinsing the red poster colour from your palette.

My ma totally freaked out and kept insisting that i rinse with saltwater to stem the bleeding. (Some warped logic of hers.) If i can't spit them out fast enough, how on earth do i rinse?

I resorted to biting on the gauze the dentist gave me and swallowing the warm fluid. By the third piece of gauze i gave up, changed out of my white tank top (which had a few bloodstains on it, in case i freaked anybody at the clinic out) and decided to go to the 24 hrs clinic a few blocks away.

The doc told me he can't do anything since he's not a dentist. And to go to NUH for a dentist.

And off to to NUH i went. After being examined by a pretty nurse in a uniform with teddy bear prints, (Must be from the the children's ward) I was classified as 'won't drop dead anytime soon' i suppose. After approximately an hour of waiting in total, the dentist came to take a look at me. By then, the bleeding had ceased. And i was told that the stitches were in place, just that the clot had dislodged and a new one had more or less formed. (I think if you're sick and go to NUH A&E, you just need to sit there for a couple of hours to get well, some kind of hospital effect?)

And there you go. I spent $70 at NUH for a big yellow packet of sterile gauze. $7.50 for cab fare to NUH and $10 for the return trip. (Midnite surcharge.)

Only to be greeted by ma who first asked. "The bleeding stopped right?"
I said of coz, how much do you want me to bleed. Thanks to my little sis and her bloody attitude?
(I was still seething...)
And the reply. "Oh YOU scared her just now. It really isn't her fault YOU KNOW. She DIDN'T KNOW."
At that, i had nothing more to say.

And so in my parent's wonderful world, once again i am the villian. I scared her and i shouted at her and hence i deserve to drink my own blood. Its O plus by the way.

When has my sis ever been scared of me anyway? Thanks to my parents really. If my angelic little sis takes a knife and put it through my heart, it would be through no fault of hers. I MUST have provoked her and injured her delicate sensabilities, thereby causing her to behave in a manner atypical of angels and saints.

2005-07-17T12:42:00.000+08:00

What a way to spend my sunday morning. My first sunday after PA, on wisdom tooth removal.

I arrived promptly at the dentist's at 1005am. 5mins late... but i waited for the guy before me to pay up so i assume i'm prompt..

Into the dentist's office...

1. Brief examination. Probed around a bit. Nothing much.

2. Signed on a form which basically states --> " The dentist is not to be blamed even if patient turns belly up."

3. Brace yourself for the anesthesia shot. (It feels like an extended version of the BCG skin test.) I asked " Its not painful right?" ( I know its as good as not asking, but i couldn't help it. Its akin to a child asking mummy if the injection's going to hurt, obviously mummy's gonna say no. You juz gotta wait for the kid to start wailing later.)

Anyway the dentist came up with a more qian4 bian3 answer.. "You won't feel pain, just pressure, during the procedure. Anyway pain is perceived by the mind, like Indians who walk over hot coals. But they don't find it painful." He went on about inspirational speakers for a bit and the power of the human mind.

Isn't that a fantabulous answer? I can imagine my dear dentist listening to tapes by inspirational gurus and spending sunday afternoons at the self-improvement section of Borders.

I said --> ' I don't like Adam Koo'.
(By the way, I'm not Hindu, neither do i intend to participate in the next Thaipusam.)

4. Wait for the left side of my jaw, (tongue included) to turn tingly, then numb and dry.

5. The Procedure.
I think i have a stubborn tooth. He must have taken like 30min or so to dig it out. There was drilling, i could feel the vibration and lots of pressure. He was playing tug of war with my tooth. All while instructing his not-very-competent assistant .. 'Susan, more sunction. Susan, you must suck till i can see the teeth clearly.' (That doesn't sound very right does it?) Susan this Susan that...

'Lots of sunction yep and blood of course. One of the fishes in Finding Nemo said the human mouth is a sewer. (I think its the grumpy one who was hell bent on returning to the ocean.) I totally agree. Its amazing isn't it? You eat with it, do raunchy french kisses with it. Speech is impossible without it ..The possibilities are endless. Yet it must be the grossest part of the human anatomy.

6. Finally it was done. I was supposed to rinse. *Yuck, double yuck.*
The dentist, failing terribly in social skills and tact mentioned casually that "Blood when mixed with saliva becomes viscous. You rinse now, after i stitch up the wound, you must swallow the blood, no more rinsing for the first hour at least. "

7. And yes! i was stitched up and ready to go. The good dentist asked if i wanted my tooth back. I said yes. (Hell, this cost me $350 bucks. More than half a month's pay. I'm going take a pic, post it here and gross everyone out!) ANd he popped it into a plastic baggy, with blood and all! I held it up, appraised it with a disgusted look and requested that he rinse it first.

8. I checked my face in the mirror by his sink and found bloodstains *gasp* at the corners of my mouth. I grabbed a tissue, wet it a bit and wiped. The dentist assistant was kind enough to offer me an alcohol swipe. Hell, he could have informed me or something. Obviously this guy doesn't believe in after-sales service.

9. The aftermath.
I'm on my fourth piece of guaze. Taken a painkiller, antibiotics and rinsed with antiseptic mouthwash. I look ridiculous with a piece of Kodomo Cooling Adhesive stuck on my jaw. (Been advised by Spidey to use an ice-pack to reduce swelling and bleeding. I improvised with a tui4 re4 tie1.) Other than a dull throbbing sensation in my jaw and some bleeding i'm good as new. I suppose i can eat something by evening. I feasted on half a pack of Hershey's Kisses last night to stock up on carbo. They were on promotion at NTUC, going at $3.55 a pack instead of 4 plus. Miss Hufferphish's crazed logic at work here. Else i'll just have to survive on bubble tea or ice milo for a day.

By the way i'm feeling quite happy that the offensive tooth has finally been removed for good. Despite his lack of tact, i find this dentist morbidly funny in his own way. The tooth is really quite huge. And it came out in one clean piece plus a tiny piece of root tip. Thankfully there are no complications. Worse i heard was no sensation and loss of sense of taste. Imagine a foodie who can't taste!! Horrors! Or having to cut the tooth up into fractions and taking it out piece by piece. Pity its impacted, if it had grown properly, it would probably be the last tooth standing when i'm old and wrinkley. Possible use? Hooking dentures.

A day as blondie

2005-07-15T10:16:00.000+08:00

Today is my last day of work, other than eating Clara's chocolate banana cake -Yummy! Thanks gal! Saying customery goodbyes to people i don't like, giving little tokens to those i like, writing a card for higher power and clearing cookies off the slow lappy and just as slow PC, i've got nothing else to do. Hence i shall blog some more.

Dove Trade Launch

An eye-opening experience (Read: At last! something interesting to write on my PA report.) Despite being made to stand the whole day and having scratchy white pants, it was miles better than being stuck in the office, staring at data the whole day and eating $2 cai fan.

Food is something we never run out of at the trade launch. Breakfast, tea - where we help ourselves to the snacks meant for guests, free lunch (Note: Hawker food at hotel prices. Day 1: Chicken rice or Hor Fun. The Chatterbox chicken rice is way overhyped. The portion is huge and they give you all the 4 sauces in little plastic containers. But the rice is super oily and the chicken nodescript. Day 2: Spagetti or nasi Lemak. The spagetti had everybody guessing if its chicken or beef. Those who ate it says its bland. The Nasi Lemak is worthy of its $6 price tag though. That's equivilent to 3 packs outside, so it had better be good. The person who ordered the food said its supposed to be $8 per pax, but the hotel quoted the wrong price and had no choice but to stick with it. A generous portion of omelette, a chicken wing, an otah, the rice is authentic coconut rice and the chilli's good too. Best of all its FREE!

After lunch we help ourselves to the buffet once again, tucking into little custard tarts and chocolate eclairs, while listening to brainwashing speeches of what's real beauty and trying to convince ourselves that we're really all beautiful. I still don't buy it after listening to the same speech four times over. All while waiting for the moment where we're supposed to take off our blonde wigs together.

Objective: To break the stereotype that only Blondes are beautiful. The idea is imported wholesale from the campaign in USA. Hence the blondie thing. Wherever do you c blondes in SIngapore anyway? other than Ah Lians who aspire to be Ang Mohs. Even those are a rare breed nowadays. The statement of breaking stereotypes becomes a moment of comic relief as everybody gets a cheap laugh from seeing a bunch of gers in ugly wigs. Hence the original msg is probably lost amidst the laughter. Moreover your hair gets totally flattened by the wig and all the bunched up ends make you look like Medusa instead of 'Real beauties'.

Other than that, the booths for make-up, haircuts, colour typing, body type analysis and facial masks are quite refreshing. It makes the launch interactive, more like a fairground than a talk. People come and have fun instead of just sitting through a long lecture on how good your product is. Its a soft approach instead of a hardsell technique and that really helps to bring the message across. Eddy from Monsoon added lots of clout to the event. Judging from the long snaking queue from those eager to get a free haircut, he's one hell of a popular guy.

Quest for white pants

2005-07-15T03:20:00.000+08:00

Having been instructed specifically to come in white bottoms on Day 2, short of painting my butt white for a day, i had no choice but to embark on a quest for white pants/skirt after work on Day1. After standing around for a whole day in heels, (Having been instructed by one of the office aunties not to wear flats.. only to see her come in flats on Day 1.) the balls of my feet were aching big time. Same goes for Gan Jiong Spider. We traipsed down the Orchard shopping belt and zipped in and out of shops military style. Fast. Focused. Precise. Taka first, Bossini, U2, then Far East, in search of something budget. Fit for a day of work. The skirts at Far East are far too short. Deemed too slutty for work. Moreover there was no way we could sit on the steps (The usual resting spot for gers in Blonde wigs) in skirts that could barely cover your ass. Spidey found her budget pants from Giordano at Lucky Plaza. They were going at half price. Unfortunately they didn't have it in my size.

Desperate and tired, (By then, my whole feet was aching.) i decided to give mango a shot. Chances were slim though. At 70% off and nearing the end of the crazy MNG sale, the store had mostly been stripped bare. I stood by one of the tables, scanning its contents. A swath of white fabric peeped out from the pile of leftovers, beakoning, teasing. I pulled and a pants 'leg' emerged from the tangled mess. I pulled again, this time with more gusto, and out popped a pair of white pants in my size! I parted with $36 bucks *Ouch* and ended my misery.

The next morning, i discovered to my horror that i had a horrible case of VPL. The pants was semi translucent or something. Not VPL actually, since the whole undie was visible. I don't have white seamless undies. Very pale blues simply don't work. Neither does very pale pinks. (Please don't laugh at my choice of undergarments.) Only one choice remained. The FREE nude T-Back - Company freebie. (Maybe they had anticipated this.) They do give the wierdest things don't they? Like 'drink today, expiring tomorrow' milk, dubious bottles of 'soon to expire' Mayonnaise, and of coz the by now famous ' FREE expiring B&J ice-cream that has graced many a birthday celebrations.

I'm digressing. back to panty problem. Now T-backs are basically like G-strings. Miss Hufferphish doesn't wear G-strings. They don't give me a sense of security. I need to feel protected. Not that anybody's gonna attack my butt. But between a very prominently coloured behind and an unprotected one, i chose the latter.

I thought my troubles were over. But by the end of the day i had a rash the size of about 4 50cent coins on my right hip. Gross. It had been itching the whole day. Culprit? The size and laundry instructions tags sewn on the inside of the pants. Nice.

Dumb Blondes

2005-07-14T20:00:00.000+08:00

"what's your name?"

"I'm a blond... "

"I mean what's your name.. "

"Oh you can call me blondie then. "

Maybe wearing a blonde wig makes me morph into a Norma Jean wannabe...

FAQ on the wig

Its Barbie blond, Sweet Valley High blonde, Mary Kate and Ashley blonde.
Its long. So long if you wear it the other way round, you can be mistaken for Sadako after a bleach and dye job. She got sick of that matty straggly black mop. I don't know which is more scary though.
Its itchy. *Scratch* Now i fully understand how it feels like to have head lice., No wonder Ah Meng and family pick fleas off each other as a sign of affection. By the way, folks at Mandai are hoping to pair Ah Meng with a boyfriend half her age. Its seems a lil queer but apparently there;s no age limit for Orang Utans and she's still fully capable of poppin more babies. I'm digressing here...
Its strong. Damn strong. My brush lost a few bristles combing through the tangled mess. It took many brushings (violent ones) to look the way it did.
It grips your head so tight i'm starting to pity all those Ah Peks out there. No wonder DOnald Trump walks around with that weird golden tuft on his head.

Fried to a crisp

2005-07-11T17:12:00.000+08:00

Gosh, don’t I feel screwed after the presentation. Have more to evaluate now, like whether I could have made it better, bugged people more aggressively for information or whatever.. Its over and we got fried to a crisp. How demoralising. This was not how I envisioned my PA to be. There were some problems in our data and the arrows juz kept coming, If I had a shield, it would resemble.. say a lotus root? I duno why but this image juz popped into my mind. Of those sliced lotus roots that’s boiled slowly in soup. It has lots of holes. Feeling whimsical now..

Its like the worse presentation ever. I mean have you ever seen a presentation that got interrupted like 10 times? Miss Chiongster started first, and was questioned repeatedly about the ratings and how they were calculated. I admit we had some data errors. That’s our fault. I’m sorry. The rest well, its really not within our control. There were no clear instructions on what to present so we produced everything that past groups did and more. How are we supposed to check placement according to planogram when we didn’t have one to begin with? *Frustration* And we did bug people for it. To no avail though. We got a pathetic handwritten sheet of the ‘right sequence’ and were instructed to ‘make do with it’. That’s just one example of many. The head of the deptmartment didn’t even bother to finish listening. After all, we spent weeks churning out the stuff. She could have bothered to sit through it, even though we’re really just lowly interns. Spider continued, and the arrows had lessened by then. The head of dept walked out like right after I started. And some other guy walked out after her. There were no more questions after that though. The arrows had ceased by then.

There was one kind soul – TK. He actually helped us to explain coz nobody bothered to listen to us when we spoke. The same kind soul who bothers to come and talk to us once in a while.

Our supervisor invited us to lunch with him for the first time after the presentation. Our first free lunch. But of cos there is no free lunch in the world. After a meal of curry fish head, veg, frog legs, chicken and you tiao with pork floss at a zi2 cha4 stall, the bomb came … “SO what do you think of your presentation?” “Could have been better right?” A meek ‘yah’…. “ Did you have enough time to complete?” “Yes we think so, its not the time, its juz that we started out with the wrong definations and we weren’t sure what to do.” “ Oh, After which the floodgates kind of burst. And dear higher power obviously didn’t like it very much. He asked TK to drive us back and he left to visit the trade or sth …

Well, if anything, its coming to an end. I shall juz keep a low profile, stay out of further bombs and get out in one piece.

Green tea?

2005-07-10T01:13:00.000+08:00

Green Tea...
You are Green Tea!
Strong and very smart you prefer peace to violence
and very rarely take action if it involves
confrontation. But you make up for this with
your keen insight and understanding of the
world and people around you, you have a very
mysterious nature. Many people see you as laid
back and that may be true but you are very
intelligent and make good decisions.

What type of Tea are you? {-With Anime Pictures!-}
brought to you by Quizilla

saw this on elv's site, gave it a try too...

Don't talk to strangers

2005-07-09T21:36:00.000+08:00

Was waiting for the shuttle bus when this guy came up and said i look familiar. I figure i look like many people. A friend once told me i had a common face. I had been mistaken for 'someone from NUS' more than once and i remember once i was mistaken for Sheryl (or isit Cheryl ?) while in the queue for a ride on the "Booster" at chun1 dao4 he2 pan4. Anyway i was waiting for the elusive shuttle (They don't come around much during the vacation period. Frequency's every half hr, as the bus schedule proudly proclaims). I told him nope, not NUS, from NTU actully and here to visit my friend. Then he offered to gimme a ride, and i happily hoped in tinking he's some nice chap who really happened to mistake me for somebody else and is offering me a short ride to my destination.

And there u go, i was juz bloody stupid. People you meet in a school are not necessaily nice or decent or helpful. They can be psycho, crazy, indecent or any combination of the above.

Conversation went along the line of - "I'm popping by to visit my friend who is sick." (And i had assumed he's a student) ... "oh i've graduated. Went to Washington for exchange and i came back for an event. I'm quite liberal. Are you? *Alarm* "ehm, depends on what issue it is" ... " Pardon me for being straightforward, maybe staying overseas has made me more direct. I'll just like to get to know you" But i guess you're not very liberal are you? "..*Alarm* (Anyway what sort of argument is that? Going overseas for a few months makes you 'liberal' and direct??*&&*#@#) " Ehm, just cautious i suppose" *Feeling very uneasy*

"Now, you were not being very cautious by getting into the car were you? "

That really got me stumped. Yes, i was bloody stupid. Oh gosh.. i don't know whether to feel embarrassed or scared. I continued with some mindless chatter. Thankfully the short ride ended soon enough. Before i got off, he asked if "i could just give you a friendly hug"

Oh yuck! N0! i don't think so, and literally flew out. Never trust strangers. The stuff your mummys teach you when you're three and playing at the kiddy playground still applies even when you're 22. Lesson learnt. I won't ever be this stupid again!

Everyone has a best feature?

2005-07-07T21:43:00.000+08:00

The politically correct answer is a resounding 'Yes!'. Technically it is true. No matter how ugly you are, there must be a 'BEST' something. Like when a guy tells a girl, oh i love your eyes, when he's really prefers the butt or the boob. Oh but that's so superficial isn't it?... Beauty is beyond the outer shell, the body. As all the beautiful Miss Universe pageants would chorus in unison. Its about your personality, your kind heart. Oh, by the way, the person i admire most is Mother Theresa. Or has she been elevated to saint hood already? How about a more intellectually inclined answer then? Yes, your best feature may be intelligence, sense of humor, spunk? That's a psuedo politically correct answer for you.

But then again, i'm having the line emblazoned across my chest. So tell me HONESTLY, what's the FIRST thing that comes to your mind when you see " Everyone has a best feature" blazing across their chest? That's for Tuesday. And I'm a bloody A cup. I don't need to tell everybody that's my BEST feature.

And why is it that everyone with a vagina has to wear 10% Lycra with Spandex? And guys get to wear 100% cotten? That's only telling you to "Be Yourself! Be beautiful!" -->That's for Wednesday. Not everyone looks good in Spandex. Period. Best feature or not. If you force a big ger to squeeze into 10% Lycra, courtesy of Giordano, you create a walking disaster. By the way, those $14 tee shirts in every colour are not that big, even if its an XL. Why wear something that accentuates all the wrong bits when you're supposed to be yourself and beautiful to boot? Or imagine an auntie with a belly, no thanks to a couple of babies. And having that belly encased in Spandex? How's that for BE YOURSELF BE BEAUTIFUL? Being youself certainly does not mean showcasing your blubber for the world to see!

Things take a turn for the better with " My beauty rules". That's the catch phrase on Thursday.

Oh, Have i mentioned that its got to go with white PANTS? Circa 1976 dearies. White pants to show off your cute asses. And yes darling. i can hear the gasp of horror.

Life as a seamstress

2005-06-25T15:47:00.000+08:00

Life as a seamstress is about catering to your customer's whims. You sew till your fingers are numb and your timble is worn out. You painstakingly sew a dress, faithfully copying the design your client wants. But your client don't really know the exact design in her mind either. She says she wants it tight at the bust, slightly cinched at the waist and a fishtail skirt. Two weeks later, just before you put in the finishing touches, she comes in for a final fitting. She has a change of mind. She wants you to alter the dress. It must be cut straight, not too feminine. The fishtail skirt must go. The neckline must be higher. She can't stand the flowery bits. It becomes a new dress. You set about unstitching it. One by one, the seams come undone. The next fitting is due in a week. You figure there'll be more sleepless nights.

A Motley Crew

2005-06-18T21:59:00.000+08:00

Miss CHiongster loves to Party. She can survive on half an hour of sleep and lots of coffee. Her stomach is weird and her knee even weirder. SHe hates plasters and Miss D's bags. Finds them too 'wussy' she says. She's the one who gave everybody nicks. Drew our personality portraits on a little post-it note she did, and pinned it on the wall.

Gan Jiong Spider is jittery. SHe's easily flustered as her nickname aptly descibes. When a lizard is frightened, it drops a tail. GJ Spider will drop a leg whenever her jitter-o-meter hits the Danger zone. GJ Spider is also impatient and likes to mumble to herself. Sometimes it is hard to tell whether she's asking you a question or asking herself the question.

Auntie Killer is an auntie at heart. He gets excited over discounts and keeps an eye on offers. As the chinese saying goes, zhi ji zhi bi, bai zhan bai shen. Whenever he engages in light-hearted banter with aunties, he charms their socks off. You can see their smitten look as they shower compliments on him. He also loves Hip-Hop Jelly - A lime green psuedo ice-cream. It hardly melts and is great to play with. You can lick it till it turns floppy, and flap it around to gross people out. At 30cents a piece, he's cleaning out the ice-cream cabinet.

Miss D does not have a D cup, despite the misleading nick. It has its origins from other sources. Miss D is also Miss Hufferphish. She plans and plans and keeps track of the nitty gritty details. When her stress-o-meter hits Overload, she whines. She freaked Miss Chiongster out one evening and gave her goosebumps. Her pet cuss whenever things go wrong is 'Holy SHit!' She is hopeless at Excel and is thankful that Spider is good at it.

Well, the Motley Crew is adjusting. GJ Spider is cussing 'Holy SHit' nowadays. Miss Chiongster and Miss D are learning to interprete Spidey's Morse Code. Miss CHiongster lifts Miss D's bag with 2 fingers and everyone's eating Hip Hop Jelly.

2005-06-16T00:11:00.000+08:00

AN uncanny resemblance

Return of the Jedi

2005-06-15T21:22:00.000+08:00

With the recent box office success of Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith, Lightsabers have found their way into Toy'R'us again. Jedi wannabes can apparently be found everywhere, sometimes in the most unlikely of places. Today, one of them found his way into our little nodescript cubicle tucked in a dusty corner of the office.

Higher power had popped in for a short chat...
Perhaps he feels there is inadquate communication between the little people on Naboo and those in Mustafar. After the usual progress report and updates, we ran out of common topics. There was awkward laughter and weak attempts at keeping the ball rolling when.. As all Jedis do when they run out of ideas, Higher Power whipped out his lightsaber! He made a valiant attempt at prolonging the conversation by asking us if we had watched the new movie and how we felt about it. To top it all off, he dished out a few sentences of Yoda speak, revealing little nuggets of family life like " 3 little boys i have", "One wife i have" and " Stay positive we must". Oh boy..

I can imagine him in a mock battle with his little boys. He'll be bouncing around like Yoda, wielding his green lightsaber with much relish, while the poor boys would be playing the Sith.

3 Weekends a flying...

2005-06-14T00:02:00.000+08:00

Dear Blog,
Have to make this quick. There's still some more data to be entered but my eyelids are drooping. Maybe I type too slowly. That's why its taking so so long. I'm sleepy. Time is running out. I barely had time to wax my legs just now. But i had run out of pants to wear. They're still sitting in the bin, waiting for a whirl in Dynamo.

We met the higher power today. He has set a date. We have to churn out a presentation and a 30 page report by next Friday. There's still loads to do. We predict the coming weekend is gone.

After the first presentation, Higher Power will tell us to make changes. If the grapevine is to be trusted, it'll be a major overhaul.

The 2nd draft would be due the following monday, which means the next weekend would likely be sent aflying too.

Just send me away to a far away land, where i can escape the higher power. And wax my legs in peace. Amen.

From HeLL

2005-06-13T01:09:00.000+08:00

Dear Blog,
Maybe its Monday Blues, maybe its pent up frustration. I'm experiencing a bout of anger at life at a certain organisation. So pardon me for being a procrastinating, whining bitch. I must indulge myself for the next 15mins.

1. I feel like i've learnt nothing. How much expertise does one need to circle maps and walk around copying prices? Factor in sun and sweat. Or rain. And grouchy shopkeepers.

2. The organisation has not even made a basic effort to provide us with the materials we need. I wasted time while surveying as we were not not provided with proper authorisation letters. What irks me most is that a lady working at the supermarket actually bothered to print a copy for me. A complete stranger whom i was basically just disturbing bothered. While the people who gave me the job did not. We must hound whoever's around for materials but they're slow to respond. If they even bother that is. Without these materials we'll be stuck in a rut. If we proceed without the info, what we produce may be wrong, which means we'll waste time redoing it eventually, which defeats the purpose of doing it in the first place. If we languish and wait, the deadline's looming and we'll still be at the receiving end.

3. I've spent Sunday doing data entry. Which is not a good sign.

4. The 'higher power' likes to say "I thought" which translates into "I want it this way". I really dread seeing him tomorrow.

2005-06-12T00:41:00.000+08:00

Unidentified

2005-06-12T00:29:00.000+08:00

Low tide

2005-06-12T00:26:00.000+08:00

St Michelle from afar

2005-06-12T00:24:00.000+08:00

An old fortress - St. Michelle

Everyone's on MC!

2005-06-09T08:44:00.000+08:00

Just a quick one here. Today, the office is like a ghost town. There's only Clara and me in the office so far. I wonder who else is coming in later. Out of the 4 in my grp, 2 are on MC today. And Clara is not feeling too good either. So she mite be leaving too.. Which leaves me.. ALONE in the office.. Help!!

Pink watermelon bits

2005-06-07T01:25:00.000+08:00

I remember something from this economics module i took. Its an example about a girl who gets free ice-cream and her level of enjoyment keeps increasing with each additional scoop. But the increment becomes smaller and smaller as she eats more. In economic terms its called "decreasing marginal utility". If she continues eating, her level of enjoyment will drop to zero eventually.

Singaporeans have a love affair with buffets. Its this 'eat all you want', 'get your money's worth' mentality that's in our blood. I'm admit i'm also one of those Kiasu Singaporeans who lurve buffets. I've tried some terrible ice-cream buffet at suntec where you scoop the ice-cream yourself and everyone's jostling for space and the few pathetic ice cream scoops. The best was a chocolate buffet at the Fullerton. I can get high on chocolate and i spotted Li Zhi Qin that evening too. The most economical one has to be the Sakae buffet. For 16 bucks i can have all the Fried tofu, Goyoza and Chawanmushi i want. Not exactly authentic Japanese fare, having been made to suit the local palate, but they're very 'heartlanderish' and i always enjoy it a lot. I'm guilty of counting the number of plates i've eaten and feel shiok when i manage to eat my money's worth. Since the buffet's from 3-6pm, I can eat both lunch and dinner at one go. *Lol*

However, today i witnessed a case of a buffet gone wrong. Some secondary school boy was obviously determined to max out his utility level this afternoon. He was perhaps a tad overzealous in his attempt to get his money's worth and ended up puking all over the place. He left a little pink trail of watermelon bits on the floor. (I suppose since watermelon is the last thing they serve you, for dessert.) There's a puddle at the counter, a bit near the entrance and some more along the path to the toilet. He had better avoid that Sakae outlet for a long long time. The poor waitress had to put paper towels on the floor to sop up the mess. It's disgusting and absolutely aweful. Why pay 16 bucks to stuff yourself only to puke it all up?

Peanuty ice-cream

2005-06-06T02:06:00.000+08:00

There are many ice-cream uncles along orchard road. They're strategically positioned near road junctions and other high traffic areas. They sell mostly the same stuff. A nice thick slice of ice-cream wedged between a slice of bread or small scoops of ice-cream in a mixture of flavours tucked into a plastic cup. It's a little piece of heaven in the sweltering heat. All at a dollar each.

Amidst all this competition, it seems that one uncle has found a way to differentiate himself... By adding roasted peanuts to his vanilla ice-cream. It's so yummy I traipsed down from Far East Plaza, walked along the Lucky Plaza and Paragon stretch and crossed the road just to get a cup of ice-cream from him. I know another friend who does it too. I wonder how many people out there have a craving for 'peanuty' ice-cream as well.

I was rewarded today for my loyal patronage with a more 'peanuty' than usual cup of ice-cream. The uncle sprinkled a fresh batch of peanuts into his ice-cream just after my order. Yummy. Its really good. All crunchy and a wee bit salty.

Well if Ben&Jerry's eventually comes up with a special concoction for its Singapore clientele, maybe it can consider something vanilla with roasted peanuts. "Nuts about vanilla" anyone?

The east side

2005-06-04T01:43:00.000+08:00

Been surveying the eastern side of Singapore the past week. Bedok, Siglap, Macpherson, Tampiness. I must admit that having been a west side girl for all of my 22 years, i won't mind moving to the east. There are nicer parks there, the air is better (No Jurong island) and the area has more 'character'. Mabe it's a case of the grass being greener on the other side...

Neways approaching the end of the leg-killing exercise. Make that skin killing too. I'm officially having an outbreak. I've counted 7 zits on my face, including one prominently featured on my nose for the last couple of days. I haven't counted that number for a long time. Not even during high stress exam periods and 'the time of the month'. Guess it's all the sweat, dust and grime.

And today the usually dreadful surveying went much much better than usual, mabe coz it's the last leg of the 'race'. Maybe.. because i drank some grassy wheatgrass drink. Maybe coz i managed to shield myself from the sun most of the time. Maybe cos i din feel like an octopus fumbling with my clipboard and map. It's the best day so far.

Life as a surveyor

2005-05-26T23:03:00.000+08:00

It's a dog's life.
Truth be told, most folks are okie ppl, not good, not bad, but alright.
3 steps in every provision store.
1. Do my intro speech.
2. Shopkeeper says to 'look around yourself'.
3. I jot down what i need and scoot.

Sometimes i meet really nice people, like the cashier from a certain econ minimart who chased.. i repeat chased after me, shouting "xiao jie! xiao jie!". She wanted to tell me a shorter way to walk to my next destination, cos i had asked her for directions earlier. I was touched. She really didn't have to run out in her flip flops.

And then there's the weird one. A nice chap at a certain Sheng Siong outlet was putting some Johnson's kids shampoo on the shelf. As he was blocking my view of XX brands. He stood at one side and waited for me to finish. After i was done, i thanked him. He asked for my age. I said 21.(Alright, i din want to admit that i'm closer to 22 actually.) And horrors! He said "so young?" *Gasp* DO i look OLD??.. Oh No! *Examines my face for wrinkles* Then he said it's no use thanking him, better to give him my number. I tried to laugh and quickly left. I know..so uncool.

I'm saving the best for last. This is one traumatising episode. At another Econ minimart. I haven't even finished my intro speech when the uncle asked me where i'm from. I said company XX. It went downhill from there. He said there's no need for a survey. That company XX is lousy and bad.

When shopkeepers don't want to let me in, i launch into plan B, which is basically to say that my boss will scold me if i don't complete the surveys, pls help me, and be assured i won't disrupt your business. Usually it works, most folks are a lil' sympathetic, cept for a few cases now and then.

It was still a resolute no. To top it off, he accused me of disrupting his business and causing him to mix up his orders. (A few schoolboys were buying tidbits) He was shouting at me in front of the little boys who stared at me like i was some alien. He repeated that company xx is a bad company and took out a namecard. Yes, a NAMECARD. He slammed it on the counter, wrote today's date on it, told me to show it to my boss and that he's not scared of our terrible company.

If it's a TCS drama, he would be chasing me out with a broom.

I dunno what on earth happened between him and the company. The whole thing was just horrible.

Utterly humiliating. stupified, mortified.

Dairy Farm Estate

2005-05-26T02:41:00.000+08:00

Just sorted out the Bedok address list. It has a whopping 50 outlets! I had no idea it's so big. No wonder it has a reservoir all to itself. Heh. I've circled most of the outlets on my map, which is starting to look a lil' like kiam chye.

Today i cleared a few outlets in Bukit Timah area. One particular outlet in Dairy Farm Estate had only a few pathetic bottles of XX brand shampoo on its shelf. Upon introducing myself as doing surveying work for XX company, the shopkeeper proclaimed he has to buy 4D, cos it's been a long long time since their merchandiser dropped by. Judging by how long it took for me to get there, it's no wonder their merchandiser had deserted the outlet. Its virtually inassessible by public transport. Simply cos ppl who live there don't use public transport. I missed the elusive stop, alighted at the next stop, crossed an overhead bridge(don't have the guts to jaywalk along upper bukit timah road. plus there's barricades to hop across), took a bus to the right stop.

And walked and walked and walked to the condo estate, reported at the guardhouse. (A prominent sign reminded me that all visitors must report, else will be persecuted by law.) Finally found the Econ minimart among one of the blocks. If you can afford to drive, chances are you won't be a merchandiser. That explains it.

Wisdom tooth revisited

2005-05-23T23:56:00.000+08:00

The third molar on my left jaw is an expensive tooth to remove. The going rate is in the range of $300 - $450, excluding consultation, x-ray and whatever else. To extract ONE tooth, it costs a whopping Ipod mini! The x-ray and consultation costs roughly as much as an Ipod skin or a box of Ipod socks, or a fancy add-on if you so desire. Wow.

So, being financially constrained, I am going to queue patiently and await my turn at a polyclinic.

Seeking a consultation with a certain Doctor Win Thu took about an hour in total. About 5min was spent inside his office, the rest was spent 1.waiting for a queue number, 2.waiting for registration, 3.waiting outside room 54, and 4.waiting again at the pharmacy. And i was at the polyclinic 5min b4 opening time! I got a few little white tablets for my blocked nose and a pack of orange lozanges for my throat. Not that they had any visible effect though. I guess that's what you get for $9.50. It's dirt cheap. Consultation at a GP would have set me back by 15bucks already.

So, i'm hoping against hope that the queue for a wisdom tooth removal at the Bkt Batok polyclinic is not super long. Else, my tooth might well be festering by the time i get my turn.

Of wriggling roaches and dirty uncles

2005-05-21T03:45:00.000+08:00

I've been hiking across HDB heartlands in search of elusive NTUCs and Mama shops the past few days.

I've ...

acquired a new hobby - drawing little circles on the street directory.
another new hobby - colour coding my little circles on the map.
found a bus stop with no bus, yet. Service 920 will commence on May 19th. I stood there waiting for a phantom bus for 5mins.
familiarised myself with the Bukit Panjang LRT system.
used an umbrella to shield my face from the sun for the first time.
seen a big, fat, and dead rat lying outside a closed shop in Boon Lay.
been asked to sit down and drink beer with a few uncles outside another shop in Boon Lay. For those few moments when the uncles shouted across the carpark, I was scared.
walked past a large group of foreign workers downing beers outside a shop. The stench of vomit hung in the air. Again in Boon Lay. It's not a good place to live. Avoid the old section.
spotted a void deck with a large number of dead roaches. Large fat ones, tinny tiny ones. Some were still wriggling their disgusting legs, struggling. I hope they'll all die.
been given a bloody scolding by a fucked up bitch at Shop n Save for doing a survey in HER store. I hope the Sheng Siong Supermarket next to it will put her out of business very soon.

Do i need a English name?

2005-05-15T18:33:00.000+08:00

Your name is what defines you, its a little label that sticks with you for life, bestowed by your parents, grandpa or aunt.. Maybe by some fortune teller for those who want to give their babies an auspicious headstart in life.

On the first day of school, you'll likely be made to stand up and nervously announce your name to your classmates. In a multi-racial society like SG, with its many languages and dialects, the names of little children are subjected to a certain form of rigorous testing. Even parents with the best intentions may not be abe to pre-empt the imagination of little devils.

Take for example, I had a classmate whose dialect name somehow sounded like the hokkien term for houseflies. His name was Hor Xin Rong. For those who understand hokkien, it sounds like Hor Xim. And the name stuck. What was supposed to mean 'happy and prosperous' became 'housefly'. Kids can be so cruel. There are numerous other examples. I remember reading an email compliled by some guy who obviously had too much time. It had a list of the worst names for your kid.

Fast forward more than 10yrs, to Day One of my job attachment. (I have to complete 10weeks of work with a certain company to fulfil the requirements of my course)

Now, we're talking about adults here. Mature individuals who have outgrown the name-twisting bit years ago.

Which brings us to a new problem. How to have easy-to-remember names? Names which do not tax a certain supervisor's memory, which is obviously reserved for more important issues than his subordinates' names.

It went something like this...
Supervisor : Hi, I'm XX.

Student 1: Hi I'm XX.

Sup: Oh Chinese names are a bit hard to remember, do you have an English name?

Student 1: Ah..No..

Sup: Oh choose an English name then.

Student 1: Ah.. (obviously taken aback)

Sup: Then i'll give you a name. Hmm, Alex then. Can?

Student 1: Ah okie..(rather uneasily)

Note: It took Sup about 5s to come up with a name for Student 1. I bet he takes longer to name his pet dog or fish. Is it really that hard to remember a simple 2 syllable Chinese name. The guy has lived 22 years without an English name. Why impose one on him so callously?

Student 2 already had an English name.
Student 3 (That's me) stated that her chinese name is easy to remember and don't need a new one.
Student 4 got herself a new name too.

The question is ..
Will Sup behave the same way if he's talking to more 'important' people?