Sick; unglam kitty

That heady feeling, queasy stomach and body temperature hovering on the high side could only mean one thing - I'm falling sick. Damn. And was planning to take leave tomorrow but didn't turn up for work today, so not much point in not going to work tomorrow. Ah, so if tomorrow's all well and dandy, I'm off to work again! Provided I don't feel queasy in the middle of my ride like I did today while on the bus. Perhaps I should have taken the train instead. Anyway don't even know why I'm sick.

Kitty is not mending well. Refuses to stick to the bottom of the glass jar. That's the third attempt already. Everytime I take it out to return to the person, kitty decides it is rather unglam with its butt stuck to the bottom of the jar. AND I'M USING THAT ELEPHANT BRAND SUPERGLUE! I give up mending it. Either the person mend it himself at home or don't mend it and leave it here and I'll just dump it somewhere in my cupboard to collect dust.

Dashboard(s); chocolates

Why is it named "Dashboard"? Is it because it is a board which allows us to dash to where we want? Or does dash mean "-", that kind of dash? Or is it that the board dashes around when we are not looking, which explains why blogger is down more than usual recently - the boards are having more exercises?

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Butter Almond Toffee-ettes by

Nice.

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My work table:

Yes I was reading the papers because there was nothing to do on that particular day. So bored in fact that I was taking photos of my table. Sorry, table very messy, not unlike my table at home.

FYI, the screen saver says "Hello Kitty" but it is not my screensaver. It's the person before me who sat at this desk. And the background of the computer is a hello kitty in a pink ... what's the thing that Japanese wear?? Damn, I keep thinking "cheongsam" when I know full well that it's not. It's kind of repulsive actually. =P Sorry to those who have an infatuation with Hello Kittys. I don't.

NUS adverts / Graduate video

(All) of us have seen this ad on TV. It's really amusing. Was grinning and trying to disappear into the sofa at the same time. What's the name of that cat in Alice in Wonderland? Currytan blogged about it and today Benison gave me the link.

Seriously, I think I really prefer this ad instead:



The guy's cute. *grin* I mean the older one, not the kid.

So I was clicking away on "Explore more videos" section on youtube website after watching the first ad and found this video to be amusing:

2005/2006 Sem 2 Examination for ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES 1

Module Code	Module Title	Grade
EL1101E	THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE	A-
GEK1005	CULTURES IN THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD	B+
NM2102	COMMUNICATIONS AND NEW MEDIA RESEARCH	B+
PL2131	RESEARCH AND STATISTICAL METHODS I	B+
SSA2202	CHANGING LANDSCAPES OF SINGAPORE	B+

Woohoo! Not too bad, kind of exceed my expectations for certain modules. Glad I managed an A, although it is a minus, in EL1101E. Worked hard for it and would have been disappointed if I got any lower. Expected an A for NM2102 though. Guess the exams pulled me down quite a bit. Am really really glad I got a B+ for my PL2131 stats module now that I think about it. It's far above what I expected. If you've been reading my blog, you'd know I have been scoring really badly in this module and was really depressed with it. The finals didn't help. Yes yes, I know SOMEBODY said something about my ideas on the scoring system on this and you are right. Don't keep reminding me =P It would have been nice with an A- for my GEK but considering I kind of screwed up the last question or so (or is it for SSA? Both, I think.), B+ is good. As for SSA, spent only 1 marvellous day revising it but I thought the exams were manageable and even quite exciting to go through. *shrug* It's kind of ironic, but I don't exactly expect anything less than that B+. Oh did I say something different right after my papers as compared to what I'm saying now?
Ah well, it's been some time after the last of my paper. *grin*

Soon it's off to the next semester and next set of exams.

Good luck to those who haven't received their results yet!

Stupid mood swing

Can somebody cheer me up.

Lately; "My Home"

Been very busy lately with work and the publicity of SPU's 2nd upcoming concert, titled "My Home". Very tired too. Am a temporary admin. assistant in some office. Won't name the office here.
Because most of the people in the office are away or way too busy, I find myself very free (the irony) and reading the newspapers these couple of days. Almost fell asleep at my table. Now then I understand when people say a job they have is very boring. This job is just boring at certain times. When there is work to be done, everything comes at one go and I leave office later than the other part-timers. Usually work comes in about 0.5 hours or lesser before 5.30pm, when I'm getting ready to leave. Really quite sickening. There are some stuff about admin that one just can't leave to the next day. Then there are those that CAN be left to the next day but that I just want to finish. *grin sheepishly* My supervisor(s) have told me so many times to leave early that even I'm sick of hearing it. I'm trying to leave on time! Very hard! Can't help if people last minute ask me to do stuff! Well, at least I get to come to office later the next day... sometimes.

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A little publicity:

SPU's 2nd concert - "My Home" on 29th July 2006, 7.30pm, Young Musicians' Society (YMS) auditorium, $12/ticket. Support me! Although I get nervous knowing my friends are watching. Can email me, call me, sms me, msn me, comment here for the tickets.

The Virgin Big Walk - 10km

(met at punggol CC for gathering at about 6.30am, then set off to national stadium.) On the bus, this girl who later on I realize was working at punggol CC, started chatting animatedly with me. Turns out she graduated from NUS FASS as well, but about 4/5 years ago. Also turns out the system as changed a lot since then. Also, she works in the stats board or something.

And then we reached national stadium, but not before the bus driver our bus was following took the wrong route and our bus driver commented that later we arrive later than the MP. *grin* Get it?

How do I put it in words? So many things to see.

We were late and so didn't witness the starting of the walk. Don't know if got that kind of pistol (is it called that?) or got flag or what leh. So wanted to see, but turned out didn't. Anyway there were a lot of people - My number tag was in the 50,000 range, so don't think I would have witnessed the starting anyway. Just kind of joined in the walking. Hell, we weren't even sure if we WERE in the route already or that it's started. We just followed the crowd. *waves hand around a bit*

A while later...
Brother asked, "Is this the walk?" or was it, "Where are we going?" Doesn't matter. We laughed. Then, "Huh! I thought that we were walking to the starting point or something leh!"

(I bought a pair of new running shoes and am very happy with it. Fits me very well. Knee problem still on mind before and throughout the whole walk. Promptly forgot about it the moment walk ended.)

I was wondering how come got people walking in the opposite direction from us. Did they walk 300 metres then decide they were too tired to continue? I'm telling you, there are people chatting at the side of the route, halfway through/nearing the end got people eating etc. I guess it's alright, though. I was smsing halfway through the route also.

Oh, Ah Bear came for the walk too:


After a while he got tired and was promptly stuffed into my father's bag where he took a nice long rest.

Sis and me

That's my aunt in the background to my right.


These girls are one of the people who are giving out wristbands that says "It's all about YOUths!" - Service Learning Club. I have 2 on my table now. Don't know take for what also, just took them. Good method of advertising - now more than 50,000 people know about this.

Got dogs somemore!

This is not the only one. Saw at least 5 dogs. One of the dogs was so warm near the end of the walk that the owner was fanning the dog with a cardboard while walking and when I walked past them, I overheard them saying "Maybe we should walk... it's cooler..." Nobody's fanning me.

Anyway after a while I began wondering about something.


Why are they holding hands while walking? Don't they feel warm? Aren't their palms sweaty? I already want to stand far far away from the person next to me (who happens to be my family) with all that heat and they can still hold hands and walk. Maybe their palms don't sweat, or they find it arousing with all that sweat. *shrug*

The girl looks like she's going shopping.

Got people in funny hat:
But I don't see any rice padi around. Maybe I cock-eye.

Fa Lun Gong doing advertisement:

They were playing to the music, hitting their drums. Quite simple rhythm lah. Main point is the big big words on their banner and on their shirts. I couldn't believe it when some people behind me were clapping to the music. I have that absurd look on my face.

I have got nothing to say. While I was taking a picture of this lady:


She gave me a little.. uh, decoration, asking me to visit the website. Say they want to spread it to don't know how many countries. I smiled my frozen smile specially for these people, nodded my frozen nod, handed the uh, thingover to my aunt who stuffed it somewhere (I can't be bothered where) and then decided to walk far far away from them from now on. Didn't even realize what is fa lun gong until she did that and my aunt talked a bit about them then it hit me.
I think I have unwittingly done some advertising for them. If you want, you can go find it out yourself. But they sound scary to me. I'm not interested, sorry.

Certain roads were closed. Anyway we were walking along some road (I'm very bad at roads) when we came to Raffles Boulevard. Suddenly I feel like we are cars because the traffic lights are now meant for us.

Not this traffic light in this case. It's red, but we're still walking. There are traffic police. At the raffles blvd one, when it's red, we stopped and only started walking again when it's green because raffles blvd was not closed. Interesting. Was tempted to do the car motor engine sound and was grinning to myself.

At 4 km, I was already tired and had already drifted away from my family. Was walking up in front of them. I think. Can't remember. Drifted away several times during the walk until don't know which km marking I was way ahead of them. Anyway at 4km, this juggler was blowing his whistle, and then juggled a bit and shouted that we've done only 4km. That's nice. Encouraging. *raise eyebrow* Only. Think that's what he said. Didn't manage to take a picture of him.

Then FINALLY, we turned around! I was so elated, I took a picture of it.

See, there's even a U-turn sign there! =D How apt.

That's the old supreme court. I am very sure by now I was walking alone, which is good but is also boring.

Further down there's this man... I'll let the picture do the talking:


Can't figure out what is it. Don't think it's meant to be anything anyway. It's just there to encourage us. Sorry, can't help referring to it as "it". *grin*
People were taking pictures with him/it and I would have done so too if I were still walking with my family (which I was not) and I don't trust my camera with anybody else.

THEN, got dragon dance on the opposite side of the barrier.

Actually the dragon didn't quite dance. It was really crawling along in the heat and in the long walk. It must be damn tiring for the people to keep holding the poles up (and for the dragon). Wait a minute. Uh, did they load it off like halfway down the route? Can't remember. If they went for the whole route, I've got to take my hat off to them.

Started getting really tired by then. Thought I could feel a cramp coming in my (ironically) right thigh and I was starting to get blisters all along the bottom of my right toes. *shudders* Blister are round and bumpy... Gross. I have something with small dots/round stuff on skin or uniform dots on paper or something. Some do gross me out yet I'm fascinated with them as well. I'm getting goosepimples now. Anyway I got the beginnings of the blisters some way back.

And I finally managed to take a picture of this girl.

Creative. Interesting. That's (something like) the standard shirt we were given. Well, they sure have done something to it. Guess because the shirt was too large to start with, so they cut out part of the sleeves and sewed them onto the sides of the shirt to become pockets where they had drinks placed in.

Was starting to wonder if I'd ever get back to the stadium when we turned into this road with signs and I started grinning to myself again. Remember that we were already nearing the end of the walk.

Take note of the "reduce speed now" sign. Very apt. People tired already, so walking slower, of course reduce speed. Plus we're reaching the end already and somehow the sign is like telling us to reduce speed because we're coming to a stop soon.

Height limit: 3.3m

No, don't think any of us there are any taller than 2m, so luckily, we could all pass by it towards the end point. If not the poor person would keep walking into the bar at the same spot while the rest of us walk by and stare at him. He'd probably be at the same spot when the rest of us have reached the end of the walk too, trying to put a hole in the bar so that he'd be able to walk past. Poor thing. Anyway he doesn't exist, so let's not get too upset over that! =D

Couldn't resist taking a photo of those. Wonder how it must have seemed to the rest. I should mention that along the route there are these little stalls selling drinks for $1. They are doing a roaring business. Now, are these private businesses or hired by The New Paper's The Big Walk committee?


Then finally,

The end is very near

The ending point

The end is (only) the starting. Hehz, sounds so philosophical. People were already getting off the road nearing the end, considering it finished when they haven't even crossed the line. I felt weird walking onwards by myself so I pretended that I was looking for somebody on the pavements while heading steadily towards the end/start. I'm pathetic. Should have just strided on boldly.

I sat on the pavement and waited for the rest to return. Bleh, they didn't walk to the end either. Saddening. Goodie bags, rest, stretch, lucky draw, headed for the bus and then home.
By the way, you wouldn't believe the amount of rubbish on the floor/grass/all around after it's over. It's like the whole place is a rubbish dump. There are tons of plastic cups on the grass when in the middle of it all sits a half-filled rubbish bin. Singaporeans. It is so embarrassing. Couldn't quite believe it was happening and insisted on throwing my rubbish in the bin anyway admist all those others on the floor. But one of my cracker dropped onto the grass and I left it there. Bleh. I'm bad too.

That's the end of my virgin Big Walk.

Not sure if it's Elmo's and Spongebob's virgin Big Walk too, though:


Edit: Knees are ok although they started hurting around the 7th km or so. Not serious, though. Just a slight nagging pain. After a while it went off, so I guess it's quite alright. Even managed to jog a little to the bus. =) Personally it's an achievement to finish walking that 10km without skimping (much) on it. Yesterday was really seriously doubting if I could even get to the starting point because the knee started hurting slightly again and have been so for the past few days. Hopefully I'll be able to do the next Big Walk. And the next. And the next... and the next...

Eyes on me

Do you have eyes on me?

Musical review;photos;book blog

Today's Life! section of The Straits Times has a review of the musical, "Man of Letters". Here's a brief glimpse of it:

All the write stuff
by Corrie Tan

Dick Lee's much anticipated romantic musical was, all in all, a valiant effort.

Commissioned for the National University of Singapore's (NUS) Centennial celebrations, Man of Letters attempts to incorporate a spectrum of elements: romance, politics, death, friendship, ambition - with varying degrees of success...

The songs no doubt were catchy and memorable, particularly the theme song Dear Roseanne, a moving aural ballet...

The small chorus proved to be inflexible in parts, particularly those demanding fiery crowd and huge vocal support. Clumsy dance interludes also drew slight titters from the audience...

But this certainly did not dampen the onstage energy, particularly from a highly-spirited Lim Kay Siu as the radical Professor Chan, who gamefully sang despite the onslaught of a hoarse voice...

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Hit and Run

Hit and run?? Seen at void deck near my house yesterday morning while on the way to work. The poor... stuffed toy. Whatever it is. Looks like a monkey. Haha, the irony. First I pitied it, then I expressed scorn at it. Should have called the police... The stuffed toy police, that is.
Or maybe the toy was smsing while walking and then knocked into the cone and flew sideways. Wow, it must have been moving at a really high speed. *shakes head* The perfect example of what one shouldn't do.

Extinguish graciousness

If you look around carefully, there are these two stickers on the MRT. Think only on the NE-line.
The heart reads: Graciousness is... Caring for others by giving up this seat tothose who need it more.
The extinguisher sticker above doesn't say anything. It just points downwards.
*grin* Interpret it yourself.
I thought it meant whenever we see somebody giving up that seat to another, we should use the fire extinguisher at the bottom of the seat to spray the person. *raise eyebrow* No wonder nobody wants to give up that seat. Unless that person is dressed in white that day and wants to get his/her hair dyed white as well.

Felt so weird taking a picture of that while standing in the MRT. And sniffing loudly as well. People must have been staring at me. Didn't know, was trying not to look around.
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Time for a little bit of advertising. As I've mentioned before, Benison and I set up a book blog named Wholly Books for bookaholics. The thing is that there are only two of us and we're both working as well, so we don't have a whole lot of time or books to read relatively frequently. So if you have a book you want to recommend or talk about, please feel free to send us an email (ng.wan.jing@gmail.com OR benisonp@yahoo.com.sg) with your review. Visit the blog to find out more! Thanks!

Musical - "Man of Letters"

Watched "Man of Letters" with SH last night. The show was great! Fabulous! Fantastic! If you can, catch it.

I thought all of them sang fabulously well, although sometimes the music seems to be a tad louder than the singing itself, which is a waste. The actor and actress playing the role of Ming and Roseanne sang so well, especially the duets, with the harmonies and all, that I got a bit high just listening to them. My heart kind of jumped a bit more and I believe I was grinning to myself in the dark. No, my expression should be somewhere between enjoyment and torture, if you understand what I mean. The only section of the singing I didn't like was when the cabaret ladies started singing. It was... I don't know. Perhaps a bit not together, perhaps a little too high with no bass. Anyway whenever they sang I just kind of sank back into my seat a little. However the songs were really marvellous. Gave me goosebumps and made me smile to myself, and it wasn't only because certain parts of it were funny. The poems Ming wrote, and then sung, were utterly beautiful. Made me (want to) cry. Think they were by Dick Lee. Those words would have touched any girl's heart!

The dancers were good too. It struck me that the coordination between the scenes and the music was very nicely done too. There are few too-long-pause when bridging between speaking and singing, action and singing, movement and singing. Loved it when they could just launch into a song which fits into the music straight after an action or word.

Somehow there's something in the musical that kinds of stir an almost patriotic feeling beside you. It's due to the fact that it's set in the year 1955 WWII when Singapore was returned to the powers of the British and the students are fighting for independence from them. During the musical itself I was starting to feel really touched about it all when halfway through, the words "patriotic" and "brainwashing" and "facts" just popped into my mind. Kind of tarnished the mood for me a little. Knew that these were facts and I probably should feel patriotic but can't help thinking that it's brainwashing because I'm used to thinking of stuff like that as brainwashing and feeling guilty about thinking it as brainwashing. Plus the musical is really about the love triangle, not Singapore's fight for independence.

I just realized something: There's a parallel between the setting and the storyline. Early Singapore is in trouble, Ming is in trouble, confused, trying to break out but things are not turning out the way they want it to be. Singapore gets independence, Ming finds himself =P Shan't divulge the story anymore. That's already a great hint.

Almost forgot to mention that there is a live orchestra playing in the pit. The orchestra's not perfect, but it's really good enough. Don't know if it's the music written or the player, but one section which had the flute play tumbling notes caught my attention. Was smiling and leaning over to watch the orchestra then. Some sections in the musical I just gave my attention to the music. Mostly in the beginning when I weren't so caught up in the story yet. Very interesting to see the conductor wearing headphones to hear what the actors and actresses were speaking and having to coordinate the music and the words. It must have been tiring for him. With those headphones and having to concentrate on the coordination, it must mean that most of the balance in the music is left to the players themselves to negotiate. I think.

We were seated in this section at the side of the hall so that our seats were one behind the other instead of side-by-side. I was really excited at the prospect of sitting there because I've always wanted to do so, but it wasn't long when I realized that it isn't the best seats. The advantages are that there is nobody beside you to disturb you, you have a lot of space to yourself and the person's head in front of you won't be blocking your view (supposedly). In my case nobody sat in front of me, SH's behind me, and nobody sat behind him. If there was a person in front of me, his/her head would probably be blocking me most of the time because we had to lean out over the railing to watch the action on the right side of the stage. If you'd read what SH said in his blog about me leaning out, yes I agree that I lean very far out, but no choice, if not can't see anything happening in that section. We're relatively lucky to have gotten the seats that we had because I saw the group of people in front of me standing up and leaning far out in the beginning of the show when the action was still pretty close to the centre of the stage (I think). I cannot imagine how much of the stage they can see from their seats.

Show ended at 10.40pm. 2hours 10 min long. By the time I reached home it was already 12+. Very late, but very happy. Nice musical.

And thanks for seeing me home. =P

Rushing

From BL's blog:

Start to get sick of this kind of life..
Everymorning rush, rush, rush to the office..
End up sitting in the office doing nothing for the whole morning .
Rush, Rush, Rush just to punch the card on time

After work, Rush Rush and rush to that kid's house
Just to sit there listen to that kid talking rubbish
Rush, rush, just hope i could start my lesson on time and i can end it on time


Rush, Rush, Rush just to go home
Just to reach home and go on with my lifeless style

.
.
.

I dunno why am i rushing
Rushing for nothing
infact a lot of people in this world are doing same thing as me
What kind of life we are chasing after?
it is a kind of non stop cycle we are forever behind what we want,
We will be forever rushing something doesnt exist.

Was reminded of this on my way to work this morning. There's also this "poem" I wrote some time back in one of my blogs. Can't find it now.

I walked out from under my block so that all that is above me is the sky and clouds. I tilt my head slightly back and upwards. I see a pane. I hear a dog barking, but I can't see the dog. I approach another block. I look up again. No dog, but there is the barking still. Don't know which dog it is that is barking, but I reckon the dog knows me (my wish). I walk towards the mrt station, saw a sports car, I think, with visible exhaust fumes coming out from the pipe. Why do the seemingly rich don't send their car for servicing?
Not long after I see a couple of mynahs. Their feathers are ruffled. Maybe they just preened themselves, but they look to me as if they just got out of bed. I walk further on. I see a couple of sparrows, one preening itself. I smile to myself, feeling oddly cheerful at the sight. My steps are light. I pass by another pair of mynahs, picking up twigs, presumably for its nest. Am reminded of the nest in my uncle's room at grandmother's house. I forget and I rush to cross the pedestrian crossing with a couple of people in front of me. The traffic lights at the junction don't signal for us to cross. I wonder why those people in front were rushing. I stand and wait. The green man came on, I cross the road, walked briskly to the mrt station. Am not late but am not early either. Just nice, I thought. I reach the station just as the train arrives. Should I wait for the next one? Decided against it, squeezed into one of the packed compartments and immediately regretted. Should have waited for the next train and in the meantime strolled to the furthest end of the station. More space there. Always didn't quite understand why people like to squeeze into the central compartments. Seriously don't understand. Not one tiny bit. Somebody kindly explain?
I reach somerset mrt, got off, got out, got into office, took a look at my clock. Damn. Am still early by 8 minutes. My card don't work until exactly 8.30am. Stand outside door until somebody comes to the door to let me in. I stroll around a bit, relax a bit. Finish my tasks. Am early for lunch, try to find something to do.

I like to leave my house early because I like to get to my destination at my own pace. No point rushing. The morning is nice. Always liked the morning. Except when it rains. Even when it rains, it's nice, to a certain extent. Look at the birds, the sky, the clouds. Why rush so that you are early? We're going to rush with our work in office anyway. I know my work always comes in like 2 hours before I knock off, when everybody wants to get something done, so I enjoy my day while I can. Mornings are the best. So slow down a little, look around you. There are office workers I see everyday who walk slowly to their destination, and there are those who I see rush past me only to stop at the traffic light while I stroll and stand beside them. Let's not talk about those who squeeze past you in the MRT to stand in front of you at the door so that they can alight first. (I have a fascination with watching who does that. Their age, their clothes, their faces and their behaviour.) Maybe because they're late or something. There's always some reason. Still, enjoy life, I say. It's far too short to waste it on rushing everywhere. We miss out too much on the way. That's my say. =)

YZ talking to herself and I am laughing

Am staring at the computer screen and laughing because YZ is talking to herself in our MSN conversation window because I refuse to talk to her because she has an essay to write but she is trying to make me talk to her instead.

This Pebble says:
damnit

This Pebble says:
i talk to myself then..

This Pebble says:
"hi yz"

This Pebble says:
"hi pebble"

This Pebble says:
"how was mother's day"

This Pebble says:
"stupid, i celebrated m. day for 2 days consecutively "

This Pebble says:
haiz.

I am trying very hard to ignore her. Ok, not very hard. =P Go on! Tempt me! I'm saving my energy for sleep later. *grin* Very amusing watching her trying to hold a conversation with herself. Ok, shall go and hint to her to read this entry now. I am so evil.

Hearing; Class gathering; Mother's Day celebration

It's going to be quite long and I predict, quite boring, so....

Have lots of things to write about. Will start with the most pressing one on my mind. Woke up today to a weird feeling right ear, then realized I can hardly hear with it. There's an obvious difference between the hearing in my left and right ears. Didn't know it would get worse so quickly. It's worse when it's in a small area, like my toilet. Every sound is amplified and my left ear picks the sound up clearly while my right one... it's muffled. Even now while I'm typing, I'm horribly aware of the fact that the typing sound seems much clearer in my left compared to my right. There seems to be an ear muff over my right. In fact when I woke up this morning, I thought it must be the ear-wax. Refused to believe anything else until I cleaned my right ear. There's practically nothing inside. Should have taken note of the warning signs a few days back when there was this ringing sound in my ear again, then my ear would block up and then clear in a few moments time. Sometimes it would ache for no apparent reason. Damn worried. Mum says give it some time and if it doesn't get any better then we'll go to the polyclinic to get a referral to somewhere else. Feel like my hearing is 30% gone. Kind of wish we could have gone today, but I'm really afraid that they'd say something like "Oh dear, *shakes head* this ear will go completely deaf in *insert number* years."

Why me? I don't listen to mp3/CD the whole day at outrageously high volumes. I don't go clubbing, pubbling where there are loud music all the time. I only went to KTV once (that was on Thursday). The only loud sounds I'm exposed to are during my band and studio practices. Oh right, that. 7 years of exposure to that must have taken its toll on my ears. Then again there are band people I know who are exposed to the same amount of noise as me, who listen to their mp3/CDs at high volumes and still seem to have their hearing intact. Seem to.

No no, can't afford to lose my hearing.
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A very slight, nagging headache from yesterday night till now. Behind my eyes. Beginnings of a migraine again? Nah.

(Weird, my right ear seems able to pick up the humming from the TV outside in the hall. I mean it seems much louder in my right than my left ear. Is that the humming from the TV or is it the ringing in my ear. Shucks, can't tell the difference. It's getting irritating, but at least I can hear something in there.)
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Issue #1
Found a job as admin. assistant somewhere in town. Pay is really low at $5.50/hour but it's a job and it's an income. Now then I know that admin assistant means to zhuo zha gong de, i.e to do everything short of making coffee and cleaning the carpet. They have cleaners for that, luckily. It also means I'm in charge of opening the door. Yes, you saw that right. Oh, I am also the postman. I keep running around in the office, so much so that I get hungry pretty easily and I am starting to compare between an office job and a retail one.
Anyway it's been quite alright there. The people are friendly enough although I don't exactly have a common topic with them. Lunched with them because I thought I should try and build a rapport with them or something. Now I think I should lunch myself occasionally because they (permanent staff) tend to walk around a bit after that while me (temporary staff) want to go back and start on the ever-piling-up work. Also because they (permanent staff) get paid monthly, while me (temporary staff) gets paid by the hour. So the more I rest, the less I get. Plus they eat quite fast, while I like and tend to eat slower.
And there's that shop that sells exceptionally good porridge and chee cheong fan... Not that I've eaten the porridge there but the last time I went to eat (the fried rice) there (it sucked), I saw the framed up newspaper cuttings on their walls. I was a bit cock-eyed not to have noticed it. Their shop name and speciality was plastered all over the walls. Ok, so I was very cock-eyed. What, it was the first day of work and I was nervous.

Issue #2
Last Thursday 11th May, met up with my secondary school friends after work which ended very late at 6.15pm. Thought I'd be able to walk around a bit before I headed down to Harbourfront to meet them. Apparently not. Meeting was at 7pm. Ended up at pastamania there. Jackie was quite pissed because she went all the way down to harbourfront which I guess is quite far away from her place, to eat at pastamania. I didn't mind. Harbourfront is on the way home. By MRT, I mean. =) Plus it's a class gathering, so I don't quite mind where we ate, as long as it doesn't burn a huge hole in my pocket. Won't bore you with details about what I ate and what everybody else ate (think the above already quite boring).

Well, the thing that struck me most is how some people have changed and how some have not. My friends say I have not changed at all. I wonder if that meant inside or outside. Well, I wasn't wearing my contacts... Like that makes a lot of difference. Can't tell if M.Z changed or not because I've seen her a couple of times before the gathering. Huiyee and Bao Ling are still pretty much the same. The guys, some I could recognize, some I couldn't. I forgot completely about Bok Guan. =P

Anyway those are not the people I want to discuss about. They're fine. The guys are still as good at dilly-dallying. Wait a minute, was it the guys in my JC class that dilly-dally? Don't matter, they all dilly-dally anyway. =P Slam me, please.

The person who strike me most as having changed was Jackie. She's become, using HY's words, Ah Lian. A bit proud, a bit like those people I see around who speak first without thinking things through. Maybe it's because she just came back from Tioman that afternoon so was a bit tired and grouchy, but there is just something about her that has changed. When I look at her, I only think one word - bimbo. It's alarming. I used to like Jackie and I think if she would open herself up a bit (how do I know that she doesn't? I don't. I guess.), I would still like her.

The thing about being proud - I wonder if it is because she's in Law Faculty. Guess I wouldn't blame her if it is so. People give me that look of awe when I say I major in Psychology and it gets my ego all inflated. (Don't worry, I deflate it myself looking at my results.) It's just that it's kind of a pity, a probable future lawyer and all haughty. She's really quite pretty too. Makes me wonder if most lawyers are like that.

Took pictures on the train on the way home. People were staring at us. At that time I was thinking that usually people will see students much younger than us doing this kind of thing, but I'm not that embarrassed about it. We've got to remain young at heart, I say! =P

Kian An looks like our teacher. Coincidentally, he's my primary school classmate too. Small world, huh. But he's working now, just graduated from poly.

I went to karaoke with them before this and came back smelling of cigarette smoke. It was okay. *grin* I don't exactly enjoy being cramped up in a room full of cigarette smell and loud music blasting away. Exaggeration. It's the people I spend it with that makes it worthwhile. Nah, don't think I'll go back there anyway. Not my cup of tea.


Issue #3
Last night, Saturday 13th May, went to

at Marina Country Club for dinner to celebrate Mother's Day. Very nice dinner. Very nice indeed.

The Aftermath

Oops, I promised SH a detailed entry on this dinner but it doesn't look very detailed, does it? In the car on the way there, my family was suddenly discussing if they should eat chillicrabs and I wanted to grin because it reminded me of "chillycraps" which is SH's blog address.
Oh and I took that picture above when my father and sis were posing, thinking that I'm going to take a picture of them. *grin*


Had to put the blurry one up because 1) Cannot see my face clearly, and 2) My bro looks very innocent here, which is a rarity, so must put it up.

FINALLY, done! Spent don't know how many hours on this post.

Back - "A Replacement to Writing - For Publications Only"

I am blogging again because I can't stop blogging. Miss it too much and I realized blogging really allowed me to keep track of my life, put down things I'd never record otherwise. So I'm back again (as usual) after my very short hiatus. I'm aware that I lied (about twice already) about closing blog, so I think you all can ignore me if I do that again. =) I tried starting 2 other blogs namely a book blog and a photo blog to satisfy my urge to blog but it just wasn't enough. The desire just grew and grew until I could no longer ignore it. All this in just, what, less than a week. 6 days, to be exact.

Perhaps I should explain myself a bit. I closed my blog because I was upset. I don't know if I still am upset but you all don't have to know that. Another reason is because it was getting extremely tiring, taking into consideration other people's feelings when I blog, although it is absolutely necessary. It is with this thought in mind that I decided to blog again. I don't have to publish everything, but I have to blog. I blog for an audience, for my own pleasure/relief and for my friends. It's one of the best ways to keep contact with my friends when it gets very difficult for us to meet up. Anyway as I was saying, I had in mind that I have to take into consideration other people's feelings when I blog, so from here (physically) and now (spatially) onwards, this blog will be renamed "A Replacement to Writing - For Publications Only".

No more "?" because for me, it has really replaced the physical form of writing. Can no longer write down on paper the way I blog. It just turns out differently. "Publications" because what is here is meant to be published and read. What is not here are only for my eyes. Hopefully I can keep this up.

Also, I'm using this same blog address because firstly I want to at least use this blog until the end of the year, secondly, I like the blog address and the previous blog too much to change it and thirdly, many of you are used to typing this address so I won't change it. For memories and convenience sake.

Last but not least, thanks to all of you who have told me to continue blogging - you know who you all are!

Thus, from here upwards/onwards, is the start of a new blog named "A Replacement to Writing - For Publications Only".

------------------------
From this point and below is my previous blog, "A Replacement to Writing?" As of 6th May 2006, it is closed.

Close

Why do I weep for something I don't even care about? Why does it hurt me so? I breathe, I think, so it is no longer. I officially close this blog.

Bored

*attempts to catch a fly using chopsticks*

Don't believe I'm saying this but I'm bored. Won't be much longer, but in the meantime I'm bored, and really kind of enjoying it.

-----------------------
Conversation with friend on msn.
I ... don't know what to say. Friend, don't be like me can? It's not fun. Not fun at all. Goodness, I'm getting cold feet for you. Ha, I know whatever I say won't be of any use because it was you who gave me the exact same advice I will give you. Yet now you are in the same boat as me. Why? Why is it all the same? Yet I am also... almost relieved and glad that I am not the only one. The one difference between me and you is that you are strong-willed and I am not. Don't. Then again, what can you do?

Jointy; YZ; very subtle

Writingjointyisveryfunifnotverytiring.mythumbisgettingnumbfromholding
itmotionlessabovethespacebar.whoohoohadtopressenterbecausebloggeris
viewingthisextremelyjointysentenceasonesingleword.ifyoucanactuallyread
thisgreat!

----------------------------
YZ and Aisha were approached by this person from CreateTalent some weeks back and today they called YZ. For advertisements, you know. =D I tell you, YZ has that look! She's photogenic! She doesn't believe me though. I am very displeased that she doesn't believe me (=P) so I shall blog here and say big big:

YIZHEN IS VERY PHOTOGENIC.

*Grin* That's what happens when you step on my toes (in a weird way).
----------------------------

Subtle. Very subtle. Very sweet. Very quietly. Very prominent. Very...

*smiles*

I'm in love

Swing Girls - my verdict

Finished watching Swing Girls this afternoon after getting it from Yaoming this very same afternoon...
Ah... it's nice and funny, but quite unrealistic. You might want to take a look at SH's entry on it first, it sums up the movie pretty well. By motivational I suppose it means after watching it a person would want to pick up an instrument and play as well. It would work, if not for a little tiny hitch:

It takes aeons to learn an instrument properly and to play like how they did in the movie.

The beginning of the movie was pretty correct in describing how to start learning an instrument. They really struggled through it, and the first piece of music they played together really sounds real. Out of tune, different or even a wrong sense of feel, but the sound and the melody's somewhat there. Then after a majority of the girls dropped out of the idea of formation of the Big Band, close to the end of the movie, after they saw how the 4 girls and guy played, they bought their own instruments and joined in just like that. That's the really unrealistic part. People don't just pick up an instrument and then join in like that and play like that after quite some time of rest. And that high note the girl (with the mouse) tried to reach is not something that most can easily achieve after such a short period of time.

The rest of the movie's great, though. Quite hilarious, though it's not something I would spend money to catch in the cinema. Firstly because well it's just not something I'd pay for, and secondly, I'd probably be laughing the loudest in the cinema. =P And that mouse! So cute! However, it's a great movie for me because it reminds me of what I'm playing for.

There was a portion in the beginning where they had to leave the band room because the band finally recovered from the food poisoning and they started bawling after walking some distance away. Very sad and touching but also funny, the way they cried. Oh I almost forgot, that band competition featured is a real competition held in Japan, according to Shuping. We've watched the videos of that before when we were still in XMSB and Miss Tan let us watch them. Bands in there are really good. Then again, Japan bands are good. Far better than us.

So yes, my verdict? Nice movie to watch, pass the time with and laugh, but don't believe everything in it. As a motivational movie, it isn't too bad, but I still think "Drumline" would make a far better motivational movie. Swing Girls would exceed Drumline in terms of humour and in terms of music, no comparison, both are about different things, although I do find Drumline very much more thrilling in a musical sense (and much more real). Want to watch Drumline? I've got the DVD!

Mail - adopting a kitten

One of my classmate for literature last semester sent us an email:

Greetings, people who were in EN1101E / GEK1000:

Apologies in advance for this seeming spam mail, but this is important (mostly to me, but also to a kitten).

Yesterday night, 03 May 06, Wednesday, a tiny kitten scared the bejezus out of me by meowing from the darkness as I alighted from my bus. After taking the necessary precautions against any supernatural attack, I saw that it was quite hungry (it was attacking dried leaves). Ever the champion of goodness and soft fuzzy things in this world, I decided to bring it home to feed it, lest it die of hunger and haunt my conscience till the end of my dying days.

And that was the end of my plan. I guess I should have had some alternatives, or perhaps more foresight.

Anyway, that is how I got here, sitting at my laptop, wondering if anyone of you is interested in adopting a tiny (about the size of two fists) cat:

Cat Profile

Current name: Panties (it's a working title)

Breed: I am guessing 'Singaporean Drain Cat'

Weight: about the weight of a medium-sized mango

Fur: yellow-orange, short

Personality: Likes to mew a lot (quite un-cat-ly, she adores attention). Approaches you when you squat with your palms open; runs away and hides when you stand up (height differential). Likes to attack dangling pieces of string. Does not understand the concepts of a glass door (banged head into it) or a mirror (thinks the other cat is around the corner) yet. Likes to follow people it trusts.

Age: I am guessing about a month to maybe 3.

Health: As far as I can tell, she seems to be in good health, with no skin infections. She is most probably un-neutered.

Anyone interested?

Cheers,

Eng Wen (on behalf of Panties)

So yes, anybody who's interested, leave a comment or email me or something. The cat sounds cute. =)

Pre-run; book blog; Swing Girls

=D
Everything is great after a sleep. Just fell asleep on the sofa just now after browsing through the book "Complete Book of Running". Heh. So, what am I doing with this book? My friends would wonder, "She's a runner meh?!" =D I'm not a professional, just an amateur runner. Now an even more amateur runner, if there's such a phrase, after having kept off it for 6 months (or so). I want to prepare myself before going back into running but I'm not quite sure how although there's one thing I'm absolutely certain of - get new shoes. Suspect my present ones are the cause of my knee injury. Too small for my foot already. I'm dumb enough to get it in the first place. But I don't know how to choose a proper pair of shoes leh. Help?
Don't think my feet are high or low arch, just normal. According to this book it means I'm probably a normal pronator, whatever it means. Apparently 50% of (American?) runners are normal pronators. So ah, I don't have to "search out a shoe with special features." It says that I "might want to begin by considering shoes that lie somewhere between the motion-control and cushioned types. Manufacturers often refer to such shoes as stability shoes. These shoes, which often have a slight curved shape, don't control foot motion as much as motion-control shoes."
*frowns* What is "slight curved shape"? How to see? How I know if it controls foot motion and if it's cushioned?
So anyway I turned the page and I see the best advice ever:
"Even if you have followed all the steps outlined here, it pays to go to a specialty running store. The knowledgeable people who work in these stores will be able to tell you..."
Don't care, I'm going to ask them. Then I think of all the sports stores and wonder if the staff are knowlegeable enough. So many of them are so much like fashion outlets nowadays. I mean people go in there for fashion purposes, not for sports purposes. It's kind of sad. Nevertheless, I've had good experience with sports shops so far, not that I've had a lot of experience with them, but they should be able to help me sufficiently. I'm like totally blur on this.

Asked Benison's opinion on starting a blog concentrating only on books and invited him to join me. Well, we both have too much time on our hands. At least I thought I had too much time on our hands, until I realize I'm involved in publicity for the next SPU concert. So eh, might as well publicize now. SPU CONCERT COMING UP ON 29TH JULY, SUPPORT ME OK! TICKET PRICE AND TIME NOT CONFIRMED. VENUE STILL YMS.
Now, where was I...? Oh right, blog on books. Anyway I've started this blog on books called Wholly Books for Bookaholics ("wholly books" my idea, "bookaholics" beni's. Turns out pretty fine, the name.) and well, it's really still in its infant stage. In fact, embryo stage. Is there anything before embryo? Damn, I'm still trying to sort out the html. *curses* Don't like the current template I chose, so bound to have changes. Anyway take a look.

So things are pretty fine. I have 3 agendas to meet.
1) Start running soon
2) Get involved in publicity for concert
3) Work on book blog

I forgot my 4th one:
4) Find a job.

Ah, I should be sufficiently packed this holidays. Cheers!

Oh, I managed to borrow SWING GIRLS from Yaoming! =D Although both YM and SP say the show is not nice and lame, respectively, while SH says it's nice, I'll judge it for myself. However, I'm a very poor judge of movies because I hardly watch them, and taking into account that YM and SP are band members... *shrug* We'll see.

I'll be back if I have time.

Bits and pieces

I've got a dozen things to blog/talk about..
But some stuff I'll just leave out.

Hey that rhymes!
So anyway, I was asked by YZ to watch this the moment I came on MSN. Hilarious. Enjoy! =)



Then Benison came and sent me another URL for this game. Quite addictive.
Best I can get is Bobbing Bobcat, see if you can get any higher than that!

Got a new wallet from The Wallet Shop at Bugis! Genuine leather. Mum said very expensive. Is it? =p Nowadays most wallets are like that. Plus I need one with lots of pockets. A lot of cards ah. No, not credit cards. *grin*
Then SH brought me to this place with very nice dou hua/daohui, whichever you can pronounce. Can't remember the name leh, but it's very soft, very nice. =) I think I just fell in love. Sigh.

With the daohui. =P

Then I met Shuping to get some stuff for somebody. Sweet. I wonder... *shakes head* Anyway she said the wallet's not nice. Damn. I shut her off with a few continuous phrases of "I don't care, I buy already, it's nice lor, don't care you don't like..." etc. Hehz, it's alright though.
Met up with JY downstairs my grandma's place. We talked for close to 1 hour and 45 min. Haven't met her for quite a while really. A lot of things have happened since then. She's working at Sentosa! That's so cool! So long as she likes her job, it's great.
It's weird, I don't seem to be me today. Can't concentrate on much, can't think properly, can't seem to get myself to move either. Just kind of braindead and tired. Like I'm looking at the world from a 3rd person point of view. Distant, not me, blur. Looking but not looking, listening but not hearing, touching but not feeling. You know that kind of thing? JY asked if something is bothering me. Seriously, I don't quite know. There was one point when I was kind of on the verge of crying when talking to her. No, I didn't cry. Not much point, really. Can only blame myself for being useless.

This post seems pretty useless but I can't be bothered. Sounds bimboistic maybe but I can't be bothered either. Sounds like another person? Like another person at the keyboard? Yeah, I agree too. Just can't be bothered. I think I'll just immerse myself in reading for a while. The library sounds really good. Yeah, I think I'll head down there. Reminds me of my sec. 3/4 end of year when I spent my days alternating between CDAC for the books and schoolwork. Sounds good, sounds good. And when the days pass this way, maybe I won't dwell on silly matters anymore and perhaps detach myself enough. Maybe I can forget about it. Yeah, that'll be good, really good. Yes, the library then. Books. I've forgotten how much I love them. =)

Pissed & stupid

I'm pissed off at both parties over some stupid minute thing. Damn. I was happy that I could keep my mind off the matter for the past 1+ day, then I just had to launch straight into it again. Stupid. Argh! So stupid. stupid stupid stupid. Steph you are so stupid. ARGH.