My Smelly Pillow

"I have a Labrador Retriever..."

2011-06-08T23:01:00.004+08:00

I like telling people that I have a Labrador Retriever. It's a breed to be proud of. Not everyone has had the good fortune of keeping a big dog. And then again, even lesser percentage of people have kept a good-natured big dog.

Kilo has this amazingly patient temper that would make anyone who met him understand why, among all the dog breeds, Labs are the ideal guide dogs for the blind.

This story may have been repeated 3 thousand times but I'm going to say it again.

Once upon a time, Uncle Jason's friend had a pregnant Labrador. In fact, his friend had 3 Labradors in total (1 of which was pregnant), together with a German Shepherd. We were promised one of the puppies when the bitch (term is not used vulgarly here)... had given birth.

We were excited. Keeping a big dog never crossed our mind ever since Bingo, our Belgium Shepherd, was given away when we moved to a condo, and prematurely put to sleep by his new family. I shall not dwell deeper because it would make this blog post long and boring.

Along with my Uncle, we visited his friend and his very pregnant Labrador at his house in Kovan. I remembered as we walked to the doghouse to take a closer look at the mother, instead of getting all defensive as a pregnant animal would, the light yellow coloured female started wagging her tail.

In contrast, his one German Shepherd was barking at us nonstop, although with his tail wagging as well.

I was almost squealing in delight at the sweet female, who remained seated because she was already too heavy to move about easily.

We were extremely certain that what was in store for us was a cute puppy to love and to hold, to cherish in good times and bad... and.. wait. Sounds wrong to be used here.

Anyway, my parents and I were very excited. Or rather, my Dad and I. Mum never took to liking the animals much, but she's okay with living under the same roof as them... most of the time... as long as they don't pee and poo in her room (everything which Zubby is doing right now).

We complimented the dog's good temperament.

"See you." My dad said to the owner as we left his house that night.

But later on on that very same night, my Dad also received a call informing us that the dog had given birth.

"So fast?" my Dad said, and my ears pricked up as a dog's would if you tell him "Gai gai!"

Many thoughts flashed through my mind, but one of which was, I still had to wait for at least another 3 months before we could bring a new dog into our house! The puppy had to be weaned off his mother's milk... we had to choose one from among the litter of puppies... Should I pick the one that sticks with me the most or the most daring one who doesn't run away when we do the 'scare test' that most people swear by when it comes to choosing puppies...

But the phone conversation did not end there.

"Oh.. Ohhh, I see...." My dad continued responding. His smile dropped a little and I could tell it wasn't good news. Stillborn? I thought.

After waiting for infinity, he finally got off the phone.

To summarise the disappointment, the puppies were all gone. The Alsatian dog, in his excitement to see the puppies, accidentally killed them. Probably treated them like chew toys or something, flinging them all over the place. The puppies were discovered too late and were dead by then.

Dad mentioned something about the dog owner's wife screaming in the background during their phone conversation, threatening to put down the Alsatian.

Our hopes of having another dog were dashed. Chubby remained the sole canine of the household.

But sometimes, you know when you were already promised something and you don't get it, but you still pine away for it? Yes, this was exactly how we felt.

It took almost 1.5months of searching. Dad kept looking out for ads to see which pet shop had advertised stock for Labrador puppies.

We went to countless shops. Most of the time, Dad went alone. I tried to accompany as much as possible, whenever I could wake up early enough. Mum was conveniently left out of the picture because of her lack of enthusiasm and fear of us really getting another dog in the house.

Just when I thought my Dad had plainly developed the addiction of looking at Labrador puppies at petshops and never intending to get one, we found him.

He was, honestly speaking, the ugliest among all the Labrador puppies I had ever come across. I don't know why he struck a chord with my Dad.

He had really weird droopy eyes with the lower eyelids so saggy that I was quite sure you could put matchsticks in them and the eyelid would hold them up by functioning like pockets.

Hip displacement was a very real problem for big dogs and we wanted to make sure that the puppy walked perfectly fine.

And walk he did. So well, in fact, that he commando-ed under this metal rubbish container thing that they dumped stuff in during renovations.

He emerged within a few seconds with this huge dried palm-tree leaf in his mouth which was almost as tall as me. There was this other female Lab puppy that the shopkeeper brought out together for us to view, and you could tell from her face she was amazed at Kilo's find.

Of course, their newfound toy was quickly removed and they walked around again with their noses to the floor, oblivious to a group of 4 humans staring very intently at them.

The price was decided, payment was made. And I was the one who carried him out of the petshop that day.

Yes. Me. Carrying the eventually 35kg Labrador Retriever, Kilo. Even then, he was not light as a feather at 3-months old but he was definitely less than 10kg. I was 14 years old then, and had no problems lifting him up.

I got into the car with him still in my arms, and the journey home was exactly like this because the dog did not dare move an inch as if he was afraid he might fall out of the car if he even twitched.

Got home, brought him straight to the kitchen to show Ah Ma and Ah Gong. As per usual practice, they immediately drew out a few numbers and folded them up. Kilo refused to bite onto any, so they chose the ones that stuck on to his damp nose instead.

It was evident that Kilo is a dog of mine - because just like me, the numbers he picked were far off the mark. Similarly, the numbers I bought for Toto never ever opened. In fact, as I often advised many of you, to better your chances of winning, just ask which are the numbers that I bought for my ticket. Avoid those numbers, and you have a higher percentage of getting it right.

However, Kilo does hold the record of being the only pet in the Lim household to actually help us win anything from Singapore Pools.

He has the wonderful habit of biting onto the car side mirrors. In fact, so dedicated was he that it was not unusual to see him standing on his two hind legs just so that he could reach the car side mirrors better.

But one day, he finally realised that cars also have this thing called a Number Plate which is more easily accessible and require lesser effort to reach.

So off he went, chewing on the carplate of Dad's car.

The next day, Dad drove to work, all the way to Jurong with his number plate dangling halfway because one side had already came off. Dad took off that number plate and walked around the factory. Needless to say, I'm sure he had to repeat himself countless times explaining to everyone who saw him holding his carplate, of how he had a dog who chewed it off and how the sign dangled precariously off the car.

It was a hit, or so I heard - Many who saw the number plate (and the number), went to buy 4D.

Lo and behold, it did appear in the 4D results that evening, but the numbers were in reverse (some had guessed that since the sign was dangling on its side, it would mean they have to buy it in reverse, and they did, and were spot-on). Dad won a whooping amount of S$50, of which part of it went to canned meat to reward Kilo.

I still remembered how happy the dumb dog was when he tucked into that precious can of Pedigree meat which Dad fed to him immediately after reaching home from work and getting out of his car.

Oh yes. Kilo had a superb tail wag that could make anyone grimace in pain if it hits you by accident. I once was at the unfortunate receiving end of one of his tail wags, having been standing abit too close to him when someone was about to give him a biscuit.

"Ow!" I shouted by instinct when his tail hit me like a rotan. I often liked to compare his tail to those huge ropes that they used to tie boats to the dock.

He gave me a cursory glance when he heard my shout, and out of courtesy, shifted himself a mere 5cm further away from me.

Fyi, I was still within the radius of his mega tail wag. Eventually, I still had to move myself.

The first few nights that Kilo was with us, I remembered creeping out in the dark to see him, worried that he might cry because no one was with him.

Who was I kidding. Kilo was a natural-born loner from the start. He slept against our door grill and I remembered counting that he measured up to 4 squares of our grill.

When he reached full-sized, he reached to about 10.

Kilo was also the first and only dog that I took to dog training with. I still don't exactly believed it was a dog obedience class. It was an owner's obedience class too.

It was so real, at the end of the course, there was even an examination we had to sit through. Lessons were held in this big field that was segregated into the different levels. Beginners, intermediate, advanced, and an obstacle course session.

It was fun to see a place where so many dogs gathered together every weekend. And because it was a frequent affair, everyone's dog was friendly enough to be off the leash.

The problem was never about taking your leash off the dog. It's about getting him back. Scenes of dog owners screaming their dog's name while running after them was a very common sight there, especially for those whose dogs were enrolled in the obstacle course portion because they were all unleashed. Sometimes the dog might even decide to take a break and run off to join other classes and the owner had to run after it.

Among them, one of the dog was a very handsome Boxer named Oskie. Almost every week when Kilo and I were there for classes, we could hear Oskie's owner, all decked out in full Nike sports gear, running after her dog. "Oskie! Oskie, come back NOW!"

Sometimes, the dog was so non-responsive that I even began thinking whether Oskie was its real name.

Conducted by the ASD (Action for Singapore Dogs), the courses were held on Sunday late afternoons over a period of a few months. Unlike my skating class, it never rained on Sunday afternoons back then, despite how much I wished it would. The field was a mosquito feeding ground and you perspire so much and get so sticky that pieces of grass and dog fur would stick onto you.

Time flies and soon we came to the end of the course.

We failed the exam. It was embarrassing. And we also had to retake it (yes we passed cos the retaking was more slack).

But it was how we failed that made me vexed to think about it, even now.

It was during the test item where the dog was supposed to sit and wait patiently while the owner walked some distance away, slowly turn around, wait until the handler gives the command for the dog to run towards you.

Sounds simple? Yes it actually is.

However, Kilo, being Kilo, could not remain seated for long.

I was only taking my 5th step away from him when he decide to plop his whole self in the ground while waiting for me to walk the required distance away from him. He slid from a sitting position down to his elbows to his 'Down' position.

Immediately, we were failed on the spot.

I always felt some sort of leeway should be given to us, in view of his heavy weight.

The other Shih Tzus, Malteses, Cocker Spaniels, all had no problem sitting there for 15mins. In fact, some of them were so comfortable sitting that they refused to come when called.

I must share with all though, that in return for good temperament, Labradors are not renowned for being good guard dogs for houses. So if Security is what you are after, get a Rottweiler.

Because when strangers come to visit our house, whether for the first time or the 100th time, the only part of the dog that moves... is his eyeballs.

They do an excellent job when it comes to leg-rest duties, thus are very well suited for the lazier dog owners.

With all that being said, because life will move on without him now, I'd like to sadly share with all of you that Kilo had passed away this morning, on the 9th of June 2011, at 7.20am.

From now onwards, I'd have to get used to saying... "I once had a Labrador Retriever.. and his name was Kilo."

Wherever you are with Chubby now, big guy, please, try not to steal Chubby's food. I'm pretty sure he will still snap and try to rip your nose off your face if you even dare try.

Till we meet again my sweet puppy.

Birthday Celebration PHAIL

2011-03-13T00:56:00.002+08:00

To summarise today's Lessons Learnt About Birthday Celebrations...

1) Although you are probably not gonna have enough time because everyone is usually always late, try not to write the birthday card when the birthday girl has already reached.

2) Particularly if you are sitting beside her

3) Actually, to begin with, try not to ask her whether she has a pen with her so that you can write something

4) And when you ask the above question, try to also ensure that the guiltily empty birthday card is also not in your hand.

5) Lastly, when everyone who is sharing the gift has written their say in it, please remember to pass the card BACK to the birthday girl, and not forget it in your bag and bring it home.

On a last note:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FANG FANG!!~

Oh dear, come to think of it, we forgot to take a group photo just now!!

The solution to every problem.

2011-02-06T11:30:00.003+08:00

... is L4D2.

(Most of you will stop reading here.)

I just woke up on this beautiful 4th day of the Lunar New Year and the realisation dawned on me.

1) When you are bored, play L4D2

2) When you are stressed up, play L4D2

3) When you want to scrimp and save instead of going out to spend $, play L4D2

4) When your boyfriend sleeps till 3pm before meeting you at 6pm and you have absolutely nothing to do in the daytime except wait for him, PLAY L4D2! In fact, ever since I had access to the game from home, I very nicely tell Des to "take your time, don't rush okay baby?"

5) When you are your friends are out and you all don't know what to do to slack the time away, go LAN and play L4D2.

6) When Man Utd lose and you feel agitated, play L4D2

7) If you're a Liverpool fan and Torres is being such an arse, play L4D2 and imagine every Hunter is actually him. Pouncing from one club to another.

Lazy Weekend Mornings

2011-01-19T17:49:00.002+08:00

I miss Chubby. Badly.

But I would be lying if I said that Zubby did not take my mind off him.

He does. Although I find myself making comparisons. I don't know if it was because they were such varying individuals but Chubby is definitely MUCH smarter than Zu. Maybe it had something to do with their breeds. Or maybe, as Mum says, it could just be that Chubby was an old dog.

I hate using past tense when I mention about Chubby.

When I was 13 and came down with Dengue Fever, Chubby stayed by my bedside and never left.

When I wake up in the mornings, he would laze around with me until whatever time I chose to wake up.

Now Zu and I.. are greatly lacking in this area of camaraderie.

I leave my alarm clock on during the weekends, so that when it sounds, I will just turn it off and continue sleeping (the way Zu always continued sleeping when I woke up and had to prepare to leave for work during the weekdays).

Now sometimes Zu would not be able to continue sleeping after it rang. He would irritate the hell out of me by doing things like pulling the blanket away, or even worse, trying to rip my smelly pillow into shreds and I would have to snatch it from him.

Remember how I told everyone how early I woke up during the weekends to play L4D2? No prizes in guessing who played a great hand in ensuring I woke up early ...

... But over time, the more lazy weekend mornings we spent together, the more he learnt that there were days I didn't have to drag my lazy arse out of the bed and get to work.

He gradually got lazy as well and is slowly tuning into the weekend mode of how he SHOULD still continue sleeping after the alarm goes off at 6+ in the morning.

But I however, adjusted to my early wake-up timings. So there I was, watching a video of how he was so adorably retrieving his Stitch soft toy when I asked him "Where's Stitch, Zu, where's Stitch?"

Basically it was this video:

So there I was on a lazy Sunday morning, watching watching the video while still lying in bed with my head facing the ceiling and the phone upside-down in mid-air.

I was very rudely shocked when apparently, Zu, who heard my recorded voice in the video asking "where's Stitch?", decided to plop the softoy on my face to make me 'shut up'.

He then proceeded to go back to sleep.

I should go and buy 4D

2010-12-06T21:24:00.002+08:00

Over the weekends, Des and I had a meal outside, at the type of place where they give you a packet of wet tissue as well (and of course, charge you for it).

I was mildly irritated by the fact that he used up both packets of it at the end of the meal.

"Why did you use mine!" I banged my fist on the table and demanded.

His emotionless reply was "But you always never use what."

It was true, to a certain degree. I keep it in my bag for emergencies, so I retorted with a "I need to keep it! So that when you stand under the tree while smoking and you kana bird sh*t, I can help you clean it off!"

Fast forward to 15mins later, we were out of Orchard Central and was comfortably strolling along Orchard Road while being semi-blinded by the blinging Christmas deco that engulfed all the other Orchard Road pedestrians as well.

If you haven't strolled along Orchard Road for a long time, well, there seem to have been ane explosion in the population of birds along Orchard Road, whose chirps could easily rival that of what you hear along Balestier in the late evenings.

"Wa! So many birds!" Des looked up and said, while smoking.

"Yes! And you see, you used up MY packet of wet tissue that I may need to clean bird sh*t with." I replied him while looking up at the trees as well.

True enough, within 10 seconds after I finished my sentence, something landed on his arm.

Guess who thankfully had a huge Reserve of wet tissues to clean off the poo?

An emo poem for my best friend

2010-10-14T23:00:00.004+08:00

I hate being an emo-tic but I think now's an appropriate time. It's not everyday one loses their best friend of 14 long years, which currently mathematically means I've known Chubby for more than half my life.

And I've always liked to tell people that if Chubby was a younger (human) brother of mine, he would have been a Secondary 2 kid already. Most humans seem to relate to and understand better if I 'humanise' him in this way.

But that's not the point today. I just wanted to share a poem that I came across years ago. It made me sad. It still does today, but worse.

There are a trillion different title for this particupar poem. Some call it Tear Drops, some sites named it Golden Memories. I don't know which is which but it's the content that matters:

They say memories are golden, well, maybe that is true.

I never wanted memories, I only wanted you.

A million times I needed you, A million times I cried.

If love alone could have saved you, you never would have died.

In life I loved you dearly, in death I love you still.

In my heart you hold a place no one could ever fill.

But now I know you want me, to mourn for you no more

And to remember the happy times, Life still has much in store

Since you'd never be forgotten, I pledge to you today,

A hallowed place within my heart is where you'd always stay

If tears could build a stairway and heartache make a lane.

I'd walk the path to Heaven and bring you back again.

Our family chain is broken, and nothing seems the same.

But as God calls us one by one, the chain will link again.

-Author Unknown

A reason enough to blog

2010-10-13T22:53:00.003+08:00

Yea, I thought I'd blog today because there was a good reason, and it can be explained all in 2 words: Chubby died.

(And since Chubby has been a stubborn bada$$ dog while he was alive, allow me to paste an appropriate photo of him. And if you don't like it, you can always kiss his *I shall leave this word up to your imagination*

RIP
Chubby Lim Ah Pwee

Oct 1996 - 13 Oct 2010

I'm not about to publish up one of his cute and cuddly photos because I have plenty of such photos of him, so I'm putting up such a mean and crude one because that is just what he is - Special and one-of-a-kind.

The worst part was when I decided to write this blog post and switched on my computer, my trusty little laptop promptly logged into windows and displayed my ever so cute Windows Background - a photo taken during the better days, of Chubby and a Stitch softoy (as in, Lilo & Stitch). And yes, I burst out crying. Again. *rolls eyes*

I guess I am ok because I had mentally prepared for it for such an awful long time, which also goes to show how long the poor ol' dog suffered while his emo owner was trying to get a hold on herself so that she could award him with the last and final gift to him - of letting go.

I actually got to that stage today. This afternoon, to be exact. I was on half-day leave from work and my parents and I had just returned from the hospital. I told Mum that maybe she could help me drop a call to the people who can perform euthanasia at our house.

I don't want Chubby to be put down to sleep in a veterinary hospital on a cold and scary stainless steel bed. I want him to go at ease in the most comfortable place in the world, a house in Gambir Walk which we had called home for the last 10 years, and also the place where he remembers the layout the most, because when his eyesight began to fail him about 2-3 years back, he remembered the layout of the furniture so well he could roughly navigate his way and avoid obstacles.

But put a chair at where it wasn't placed before and I can assure you Chubby would knock into it, though he would learn, after a few times of knocking his head, that there IS NOW a chair there and he should start avoiding it.

I probably cried at least 5x or more over the long course of his Geriatric illnesses, at each step of the way that he had gotten worse.

At home, Chubby was like my shadow. Yes, he stalked me at every step. Sometimes, so near that I would accidentally step on one of his little paws and he would yelp, and then I would turn around and scold him for following me too close.

So when old age took over, I cried when I realised he couldn't climb the stairs as fast. I cried when the day came that he was not even able to climb the steps at all. And then cried again when I realised he was barely even able to stand on his feet when he had to relief himself. Each step was abit closer to today.

I cried again as he growled impatiently through the night to tell me something was wrong, for I did not know how to help, nor understand what was making it so difficult for him to just go to bed and sleep like he used to.

Yes, I am a crybaby when it comes to Chubby, such that if tears made me rich, I am rather close to being a millionaire. The simplest of things that go wrong with him could make me weep buckets (I've actually even cried in the office before).

In fact, I know that Dad felt really guilty about the whole thing because he told me that he bought Chubby for me with the intention of making me happy, and that if he knew I was going to cry so much over the dog, he would not have bought it. And yes, in case you were wondering, that made me cry even more.

I was glad that earlier just now in the evening at about 7+pm, before he passed away naturally, I managed to speak to him. Okay, not exactly audibly because I was busy, guess what! Crying! Haha, yea. I was a wreck and I'd bet the dog himself must have probably felt it too.

You see, my entire family always believed that animals do understand or are at least able to sense whatever you say to them, and so I believed in the same. Earlier in the day I had asked my mum a huge favour of doing the necessary so that Chubby can be humanely euthanised at home.

So I thought that it was only expected of me to explain it to Chubby as well, though he might not know what hit him but at least I sorta explained the, um.. clinical journey.. to him. It has got to be the lousiest one in the world, but it went along the lines of "Chubby darling, you must believe that whatever I decide and choose for you is for your own good."

I'm pretty sure he heard it, because he passed away a little over an hour later.

PS:

I would also like to extend thanks to the following:

- My parents and our helper, Marie, who were secretly trying to 'dispose of the evidence' by hiding his body from me, and was caught redhanded. By me.

- Shufang who keeps trying to offer to cheong down to my place like RIGHT NOW to accompany me and I have to .. um.. keep rejecting her advances *wriggle eyebrows*

- Val, who, already knowing I probably can't talk at the rate of my tear-flow, but still bothered to drop me a call from Down Under

- Shakila, who, well, better thank you in advance because I'm sure you'd have to help me in handling a few phone calls tomorrow.

...as well as all the rest of you (you all know who you are!)

And to end this post with a fitting closing, as per Junwei's words: Don't mourn for his passing but rejoice on the life that he had lived.

Good night forever, my dearest friend.

Until the day we meet again :)

Don Don has died

2010-07-21T23:18:00.002+08:00

I have alot of pets. Naturally, this results in alot of death reports as well when their time has come.

Today, the one that has met with an untimely death is Don Don.

This photo was taken more than a year ago. The only photo of Don Don that I could find at such short notice.

The cause of death?... Rats.

Yes. Today, I super freaking hate Rats, though I am still logical enough to blame it only on Rats. I cannot deny my love for pet mice.

My dad sms-ed the news to me that Don was seriously injured. He didn't recognise which was Don and which was Shreky, but he said it was one of the Putehs.

I swept an entire plate of Chicken Rice into my mouth and went home as fast as I could. It was really difficult to explain how I felt. There was this powerful need to KNOW who was it that was injured. Wishing it was not Shreky and then slapping myself for being so biase and indirectly cursing Don. But admit it, even in the eyes of parents, there IS always a favourite child.

I could never physically tell the difference between Shrek and Don (shortform of Donkey... Shrek & Donkey. Get it?).

They both looked so alike. Only Des could tell the difference.

"Shreky is the fatter one! And Don Don is the better-looking one." he would say. We lovingly gave Shrek a Hokkien nickname called 'Yao Kwee', which translates to 'Hungry Ghost'.

I knew which was Shreky because, as per his given nickname, he was the one who would fly towards your direction to take a closer look at your hands to see if you had any food for it. Don was not as tame, probably because he was so much older than Shrek when he came to me.

It was a very deep puncture, though I hoped against hope that Don would survive as I helplessly applied cornstarch to stop the bleed. I think 'puncture' was an understatement.

The poor bugger almost had his entire left leg severed and was obviously in intense pain. A bird that I had kept for 2 years died within 2 hours. It's not a good feeling, I assure you.

I. Freaking. Hate. Rats. Today.

By the way, this weekend, I am so going to the temple to pray. I had supposedly already appeased the Grand Duke of Jupiter this year by visiting the temple within the first 15 days of the Chinese New Year but apparently I may need to visit again. Yes, those born in the year of the Tiger clashes with him head-on (which virtually covers all of you, my dear ex-school and class mates).

It seems to be the year of many deaths for me. My Grandaunt, Cherry, and now Don Don. That is enough deaths to last me for the next 50 years, thank you very much.

If you would allow me to add in a VERY random remark: I just want to state that I would rather pierce my nose twice than have to go through one H1N1 swab test again. (I suddenly recalled the sickeningly painful feeling of the cotton bud stuck up my nose cos I happened to re-read the post again about it).

It's not about the performance, it's the sentimental value

2010-06-28T22:38:00.002+08:00

I think I got the right to be a LITTLE emo right now, as much as I hate to be. Haha!

I always have a soft spot for Chubby. No, no wait. Let me correct myself. I have a softER spot for Chubby than any other of my pets.

Need I remind you that I already almost cried my eyes out when my fighting fish passed away. Yes, I can sense all your eyes rolling right now.

Fighting fish? What the hell! Some of you may think.

I get more upset when Chubby is sick, compared to any other pets. Which brings me back to the fact that Chubby has never been sick. NEVER. Not until he has reached his advanced age today.

In fact, other than these recent old years of his, his only other near-death experience was when he choked on the dry food that I was feeding to the cat. Yes. He sneaked and stole from Mr. Meow and because he knew it was illegal to do so, he swallowed a little too fast and almost choked to death.

You know what they say about people who never fall sick. When they do, they fall VERY sick. It makes it more difficult for me to see him suffering.

I can honestly tell you that when the day comes that the vet actually tells me straight in the face that I have to seriously consider putting him down, I may not have the courage to be there in the same room with him when they do so.

This is, honestly, rather screwed up, because he has been with me for all 14 years that he is alive. And a dog that has loved you with all his little heart and worshipped the ground that you walk on more than deserves to have you around in their final moments.

Probably, only dog lovers and owners understand how I feel. And it's occasionally people like me who remind them about their dogs that make them go home and give their dog a few more pats on their head that their dogs more than deserve.

I thought it was pretty funny today when I cried at the Vet's. I'm so sure I'm going to be somebody they remember for the next few days.

I'm upset, yes, but I seriously thought it was funny now that I look back. You should see how the vet didn't know what to do (because no one was able to tell him the problem with Chubby), and then Des doesn't exactly know what to say either because I haven't told him much. I just walked into the room, plopped the dog down on the steel table in front of the Vet, and started crying. What a great way to communicate to your vet about the problem with your dog! I'd bet he understood me completely!

Just so I can assure all of you how fine I really am, I shall revert to my true sadistic self:

I used to look at other people and their old dogs. I pitied them because I knew that for them, the end was near for their old and aged dogs. But then I also had this arrogant thought in my head: Lucky that's not me. Chubby is still young.

I was sure the other dog owners at the Clinic tonight all felt the same when they saw me. Yea, look all you want man. It's going to happen to you sooner or later.

The blur between games and reality....

2010-04-24T02:02:00.003+08:00

Everyone knows my current addiction to L4D2 right now.

As much as it sounds like the name of some kind of abused substance, L4D2 actually stands for Left 4 Dead 2.

It's a FPS shooting game where it's you and your teamates against a whole load of zombies.

Nothing I like more than teamwork. But even Diablo2x allows up to 8 players per game.

L4D2 is rather pathetic as it limits to 4 humans per game (everyone else who wants to join has to be 1 of the super-power zombies, which is no fun to me because sometimes I am promptly shot and killed before I can even blink my eyes).

I was returning from a toilet break after having played the game for a good and solid 2 hours when as I stepped back into the LAN shop, I heard someone shouting to their friends: "Oei! Jockey! Behind! Behind!"

Okay, in short, the game consists of MANY zombies (duh?!). There are thousands of 'idiot' ones. Like.. common peasant zombies that are all over the place.

Weak when alone, but there is strength in numbers (I told you this was a teamwork game).

On top of these peasant zombies we have the superpower ones, that, in short consist of the following:

- The Witch - On the surface, she looks like a classic damsel in distress. A lady crying at a corner. Of course, noobs are only tricked once. Some noobs keep a good distance away from her after their friends warned them about this particular character.

Usually you'd be attracted to her presence by the sound of a girl crying. It's not a pitiful kind. It's the creepy kind that gives you goosebumps. That's where you know you've got to walk carefully and turn off all your torchlights.

She has super long nails that can compete with the Empress Dowager herself from ancient China dynasties, which is used to tear you apart, and not for some manicure competition.

Worse thing is, once you 'startle' her, though I still feel the stupid witch is just over-reacting... She'd set her sights on you and come straight at you no matter how you run (and she usually catches up because she is THAT fast).

This, of course, will not happen if you have a self-sacrificing teammate (which usually is an idiot like me) who runs smack into her path and ends up being attacked by her instead. At which point, it is only courtesy that you stop running away.. come back.. AND SAVE ME!

- The Boomer - my personal favourite to kill. He's so big, you won't miss him and you can easily 'settle' him from afar, though if he gets near enough and pukes on you.. you'd better be surrounded by your teamates. Aptly named because upon death, he self-destructs, spurting his green goo all over you, temporarily blinding your sight. Need I mention that this bile liquid would also cause all zombies in the vicinity to run towards you because they are attracted to it?

- The Smoker - This zombie has nothing to do with cigarettes, believe me. Basically, he has a super long tongue that ties around you and drags you towards him. Kinda like the way a frog eats a fly. Unfortunately whenever I'm the zombie Smoker, I always break my tongue while trying to hook 1 of the human. Damn I hate being zombies :(

Upon death, Smoker.. well.. unsurprisingly emits Smoke that will partially impair your vision and disable your microphine feature that connects you to your teammates.

Luckily, we were all sitting beside each other in the LAN shop, so all we had to do is turn our heads and scream at each other.

- The Spitter - A permanently puking fella. He must be feeling very unwell. Upon death it melts into a green puddle of acidic liquid that will decrease your health stats as long as you stand in it. Irritating when you kill him in a small enclosed room and you need to get out. Fast.

- The Charger - Poor guy always is the butt of all jokes in countless Youtube paraodies of the game. He has one huge arm (similar to The Thing from Fantastic Four), yet his other arm is.. well.. filmsy.

- The Tank - One hell of a bad a$$. Tanks are capable of scaling walls and getting to you no matter where you are. As his name states, it's probably the hardest to kill, other than the Witch. I so... hate.... both of them.

- last but not least, we have the Jockey. Jockeys are superbly irritating, just by the sound alone. You would have thought they were related to Monkeys (though so are we). Jockeys have the ability to sit on your shoulders and steer you away from your teammates which, as we all learnt the hard way, is NOT a good thing.

They'd usually jockey until you reach the midst of a huge horde of Zombies.

The solution? Your teammates have to rescue you, and they have to do it fast!

Click here to watch a Youtube Vid of the Charger, Witch (you can even hear her) and a female Boomer in action.I really liked the song they played at the end of the video. LOL!

PS: I want to just officially declare that I, along with CK, SZ and Gary.. had the good fortune of playing The Passing just now.

Major spoiler alert: Bill was the one who died :( I, however, still wished that it could have been Francis. The creepy part was how the Part 1 survivors didn't even look sad. Jeez!

WORST Customer Service everrrr

2010-03-21T00:21:00.002+08:00

1) Des ordered steak. The waitress who took our order don't even know what is 'medium rare'. So, Des said "Never mind. I write for you, You just show it to the chef, he should know what I want." and then he wrote it down in her notepad.

2) They totali forgot the appetizer that I ordered. Boo.

3) The server half-threw the food on the table in front of us. You imagine; plate haven't touch table, the body turn to walk off already. Any more force in the throw and it will look exactly as if she threw food to dogs.

4) The food suck. Though I was rather sure if the appetizer had even appeared, it would have saved them from the demerit points I was about to give them.

5) They conveniently forgot our dessert

6) we had to remind them twice. No, wait, I think it was thrice (the appetizer was ala carte so can cancel, but dessert was part of the set that we're paying for and we're not intending to walk off without our ice cream!)

7) The FASTEST and most EFFICIENT thing.. was when we called for bill. I think it took less than 30 secs for the bill to reach us.

This is not part of the overall bad customer service experience but then we couldn't help but notice that the couple sitting right beside our table had to even ask for their own ice water when such simple things should be automated.

which brings me to no. 8.

8) they DO have service charge. Wth.

...and after we had finished our main course and (finally) got our dessert, the next table's food still haven't reached and we overheard the girl remark "we drink ice water can already..."

Exercising

2010-03-20T09:41:00.002+08:00

I once tried to convince Des about how he should start exercising more because claiming that he's on a diet and eating char kway teow at the same time is never going to work out (pun unintended).

"Follow me lah.. I exercise everyday!" I told him.

"Serious?" he asked, looking doubtful.

"Ya!! I do sit-ups every morning!" I insisted, looking half annoyed.

He pondered and then started to make plans for jogging on certain days of the week.

.......

What he hasn't asked was how many situps do i do.

Because the answer is: one.

.... Whenever I wake up from bed in the morning...

8 Steps in choosing a Rabbit Cage

2010-03-16T22:31:00.003+08:00

Life, as it is, is not simple and straightforward.

I think the one bad thing is that when it comes to shopping, we almost ALWAYS get sidetracked.

The last time I did a very motivational TARGET-ONLY shopping trip was when I wanted to go buy a surprise gift. That was with Yin.

We ended up heaving home not only the surprise gift but shoes, hairband, hair dye, make-up... you name it.

And today was no exception when I went to shop for a rabbit cage.

To summarise...Popiah's habitat has been downgraded due to Fengshui-related reasons. So this was the first time in a long time that she came back to my room, more specifically, she came back to where she first lived when she joined the Lim's Family and its Ever-Expanding Animal Population that overpowers Humans; ...my balcony.

Since I am possibly her one and only favourite person (who else feeds her her favourite dried mango treats?) whose finger she doesn't actually try to gnaw off, she gets extra motivated to get out and run towards me.

She did. At close to 12 midnight.

Not exactly a good timing after an 'outter-world' experience I recently had together with Lynn. Chubby was sleeping and using my feet as his pillow when suddenly a shadow dashed across.

I got such a fright, thankfully it was a non-screaming one, that I think my height shrank from 158 cm to 153.

It took me a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the darkness away from my table lamp, and I heaved a sigh of relief when I realised it was Popiah.

But not for long. Because it soon dawned on me that she actually jumped out of her playpen (possibly after hearing my voice in the room and with my bad habit of always talking to myself), and managed to get through a small opening of the balcony's sliding door and then run around in my room.

At first I ignored the sound because I thought it was just a flying Cockroach making its way through the dark.

Sidetrack: I know alot of macho guys who are afraid of flying Cockroachesssss! HAHAHAHA!!

Ok, anyway, here are the steps to buying a rabbit cage (don't see these steps as a guide to buying a proper rabbit cage. It is meant to ridicule how we always sidetrack while shopping).

1) Having to make my way to Serangoon North despite being super tired, especially after waking up with a headache and having it follow you the rest of the working day...

2) Choosing a shop to splurge at, out of the many shops there are at Serangoon North, the Pet Hub of tiny Singapore

3) Being side-tracked when petshop owner tried to tempt me to buy a Chinchilla by letting me hold one and making it pose like a kangaroo on my palm (yes. the little bugger really stood on his two hind legs like a kangaroo!)

4) Spend the next 15 minutes with a random Chinny leaning against my neck, which strangely enough, felt warm and comfortable because of blistering cold and powerful air-con in the shop (they turned on both the fan AND the air-con). Maybe the Chins like the cold? I don't know...

5) Spend the next 10 minutes coaxing a suicidal Chinchilla and preventing it from jumping onto every damn thing in the shop I touched because it starts 'aiming' to leap whenever I actually hold an item close enough within its jumping range

6) Rolling my eyes as Des bails out of the shop in order to smoke a cigarette and get away from his one pet peeve: Rodents. Des constantly reminds me that he only bought Popiah for me because he THOUGHT rabbits are docile creatures. Obviously, the poor guy doesn't think so anymore.

7) Chanced upon a HUGE teeth-grinding pumice stone that Chinny on my shoulder actually grinded its teeth on. I pushed it away gently and told him "No! This is for Popiah!"

8) Finally made my way to where the cages are and chooses the one out of 1 million types of rabbit cages available at the shop. I breathed a sigh of relief as my shopping trip has now officially come to an end. I just wanted to make my payment and get out, so I quickly signaled to the shop assistant and pointed out the cage I wanted. She turned around and say "That's great now that you have chosen the cage. So... what colour do you want?"

One good turn deserves another

2010-03-02T22:41:00.003+08:00

There's this little shop we like to go to that sells Jap food.

It's not exactly kicka$$ Jap food, but this also means that the price doesn't get our a$$es kicked either.

The thing is you could feel from the quaint little place that it was run by a family who probably lived above the cafe-style place as well.

(This is abit random but I always felt that they should have bought better chairs.)

Anyway, Des and I loved taking this seat by the window. No great view since it was on the ground floor. In fact, sometimes while slurping my Udon noodles, I look up and ralised that there is a group of people staring uncomfortably at me.

You know how Singaporeans are like. They seen the menu displayed outside the shop but aren't really convinced whether they should eat at the place or not, so the motto kicks in: When in doubt, stare.

Yes. Stare... at the poor guinea pigs eating their food. Check out what they are eating and the look on their faces to determine whether or not the food quality is good.

Not accurate if you look at me. My mum always says you can feed the sh*ttiest food in the world to me and I can make it look like it's edible... as long as it's not vegetarian. I have a phobia of pure plain vegetarian after a few jelly-leg related incidents.

One thing that struck me the most was ths one incident when we had finished, made payment and left the place.

Just as we pushed the heavy glass doors to get out of the place, this 2 ladies made their way in.

Des walked in front because he needed to light up and I followed behind him, holding the door open for the 2 ladies.

They smiled and said thanks as they quickly got in.

It was only after we actually reached home when we realised with horror that Mr Too Eager to Smoke left his hp back at the cafe.

As per natural reaction, I bombed it.

No one answered. It's supposed to be a good thing because it meant that no one had noticed the phone there yet. Or rather, whoever found it may be busy making phone calls on it.

I have a friend whose stolen handphone actually chalked up bills for calls to Nigeria!!!

Finally a lady picked up. I was thinking that it might be the Lady Boss of the place. The one whose permed hair kinda resembled the lady owner in Stephen Chow's movie, Kung Fu Hustle.

(Des did once suggested that I change my hair to resemble hers.)

Don't know who I'm talking about?....

Now you do.

Ok lah, but Lady Boss hair wasn't that jialat. It's just short and curled in an 'artificial' way.

It wasn't Lady Boss but another customer who was sitting at the same place we were. Apparently they pretended to ignore the phone's existence but because of persistent (read: irritating) ringing, courtesy of Cindy Lim, they decided to pick up.

And they told me that they only picked it up because it was ringing non-stop from the same number so they assumed it is the owner of the phone.

I shouted a YES very loudly and they said they'd wait for me and Des to come back to pick it up.

Lo and behold, as the car reached the place (it was right beside the road), and we wind down the window to receive the darling little E71 back, only to realise it was from the very same two ladies that I kept the door open for when we left!!!

So you see, my dear friends, one good turn deserves another and in this little totally unexpected incident, you get a taste of what it really means. They recognised us instantly as the people who had left right before them and without hesitation, returned the phone to us.

Totally unrelated but please let me say this. You see lah! I ask you don't leave your phone on the window sill liao! Still go put! You see lahh!! Here comes the most irritating part: I TOLD YOU SO!!!

Some men are...

2009-12-18T23:49:00.003+08:00

Stupid.

Seriously.

There are alot of Rule Number Ones in the world.

But one of them has got to be:

You CANNOT.. NEVER EVER.. get the same Christmas gift for your girlfriend and your girl friend.

I thought this was bad enough until I heard one even worser scenario: Boyfriend bought his girlfriend chocolates, yet bought his female friend a heart-shape necklace.

Ought to be shot. Like, 3 million times.

I was thinking of how the girlfriend ought to wring his neck, tie a rope around his ankles and then hang him upside-down on the outside of a building that rivals the height of the Empire State Building.

Hole In The Wall...

2009-12-07T21:38:00.002+08:00

So... the stupid rabbit got herself into another trouble again.

She made a frigging hole in the wall.

*rolls eyes*

I mean, which blardy rabbit is as destructive as mine?

Or should I be asking, WHEN THE HECK DID RABBITS BECOME LIKE THAT?

Since no one warned me, let my example serve as a warning to all of you instead. Rabbits are called PESTS for a reason!

I now (sort of) understand why farmers in some countries shoot them on sight.

Oh sure they are cute and cuddly... even I will not deny that...

But that's ONLY when they are young and sleep half the time.

Now that Popiah is all grown up (don't get me wrong, I still love her), and after having to replace a chewed PC speaker wire AND modem wire later.. I thought that nothing could get worse anymore.

I mean, all I had to keep away from the little rabbit was wires, right?

WRONG!

Popiah... the one with the invincible bunny teeth could chew through everything! And here I was thinking that only Cockroaches could do that!!

Fishy Business

2009-12-06T00:19:00.002+08:00

Do you know at Watson's they are selling this huuuggeee Chupa Chupps?

Ya.. Chupa Chupps. You know.. that lollipop?

It must have been like.. what... a hundred times the size of a normal Chupa.

Probably a gigantic one filled with alot of little ones inside (I mean, what else, right?).

In fact it kinda look like those primitive instruments that they always fill with beans, sand, or rice and then shake it to create some sort of rhythmn to accompany a tune.

Delighted, I showed it to Des.

After several unsuccessful times of trying to attract his attention (I never knew what to call him when we're out.. Call Des? Dee? Mond? Puppy? Kor Kor?)... I finally showed him the huge Chupa Chupps.

As you would have guessed, he started to try to juggle it.

I said something along the lines of stop it.

Too late. He dropped the blardy thing.

As we were rushing to put it back where I took it and then pretend that nothing was going on, the girl who was walking in front of us (shop was quite crowded. Wait a minute.. Watson's is ALWAYS crowded) suddenly decided that she really wanted to find something in her huge bag.

I understand the implications of having a huge bag although it gives a better sense of security.

But along with this faux sense of security also comes this ridiculously difficult way of finding your stuff in the bag. Especially when you are looking for your house key. Speaking of which I actually found the solution to it but I'd take a photo and show it to all of you when I really buy it.

So there she was, standing there in the middle of the aisle. We were less than a metre away (it was a BIG Watson's outlet) with the huge and probably already cracked Chupa Chupps that we so eagerly wanted to put back.

Yes. She must be thinking that she was the only person shopping at Watson's. *rolls eyes*

At which Des did something blardy hilarious. He held the Chupa Chupps up and acted like he was going to knock her head with it. Of course, she didn't know because Ms Ignorant had half her head in her really big bag.

To all living human beings, please remember we are not alone!

I'm not referring to aliens. I'm referring to people. This world is overpopulated so please do your part not just by recycling but by also:

1) Do NOT blardy stand there and block everyone's way just because you suddenly want to find something in your huge bag

2) Try not to use a huge bag. Which brings me to another story about this stupid girl using a LV Vernis handbag. It wasn't big. It was longish. She's like trying to shove in my face on the crowded MRT. I usually have high tolerance for inconsiderate idiots but that was almost pushing me over the edge. I really really wanted to actually voice out and ask her can she not put it over her shoulder and just hold it on her hand.

And YOU! Yes, you! Good-for-nothing boyfriend standing beside her, you saw how I was like SNIFFING the bag. What? You think I was appreciating the smell of LV Leather? I throw my Nike shoe at your face then you know. And then, as I've told Shakila many times, I will faster go and buy that Adidas pumps that we saw the other day.

3) Never EVER get off an escalator and then immediately STAND THERE not moving pondering whether you should turn left or right. Always stand to the side first AND THEN think all you want. Heck, you can even stand one side already and then sleep there for all I care.

I mean, just one idiot is all it takes to jam up the entire escalator because everyone is trying to not get their feet sucked under!

4) Pls do NOT NEVER EVER.. read newspapers on the bus. I hate smoking. Cigarettes and all things remotely associated, including yellow coloured boxes.. but there were times I have to admit that I wished I had a lighter.

Because I could use it to set fire to the newspaper that another inconsiderate idiot is reading on the train when there is not enough standing space to even breathe or not touch each other.

It's amazing. I think my teacher is way wrong. A lecturer back in TP once said that the most amazing part about taking public transport in Singapore is that no matter how crowded, everyone will do their very best to not touch each other at all.

So wrong, I tell you.

Where is the 'no touch at all' when one moment I'm sniffing an LV bag, the next moment I'm sniffing the (organic) printed ink of a newspaper?

It's bad enough that there are mornings I wake up smelling like my dog but at least I get to bathe after that.. but it's even worse when after bathing, I had to go back to smelling like something that my rabbit pees on.

......I know it's wrong to sound so agitated in the middle of the night, especially on a Saturday but you must understand that I am typing this as a very hungry (and lazy) person.. and Mummy doesn't want to cook Myojo Mee for me after she has so fortunately feasted on abalone and shark's fin at a wedding just now!.....

Bottomline: If you bought a huge Chupa only to unwrap the packaging and discover that it is cracked... it is NOT us :)

Discussing Roadkill

2009-11-25T22:34:00.002+08:00

Without a doubt, I think I can safely say that 95% of all people have a morbid fascination and curiousity towards roadkill.

We just cannot NOT look at it.

Oh come on. Admit it.

Unless from the corner of your eye you could already tell it's a piece of newspaper fluttering around the vehicles, or (very frequently) a poor abandoned umbrella blown off some open-top lorry, you usually would purposely pay attention to whatever lays on the road that is already squashed and quite dead.

Of course, we are not weird to the point of stopping the car just to take a clearer look, but we would always look to see whether it is something dead or not, just so that we know.

Another useless fact of life that we all actually don't need.

I never quite understood why I do that all the time.

Des and I travel quite alot together with Ivan, so naturally, most roadkills I see was when we are outside together.

Our most recent roadkill was spotted laying along Braddell Road. It was a disputed roadkill.

Spotting roadkill usually begins with the same, one word.

"Shit!" I would always exclaim first.

Des would always follow with two possible answers:

1) "It's not."

2) "Yucks."

He insisted that what I saw wasn't a dead cat.

I insisted I could even TELL the colour of the cat. It was a dirty grey with black stripes like the typical strays we see in Singapore.

He said it was a cloth that was probably that colour after being run over by a few hundred car tyres, but he had to agree it was a cat when I said "I saw the blood."

Yes. At this point some of you are going to lean back in your chairs and say: Walau, why the hell are you talking about this.

I've just said; it's another useless fact that we don't really need.

We sent Ivan for a bath just now. A car wash at... Ok, already having STM (short-term-memory) as the ladies at work already know, I am even worse when it comes to remembering the names of petrol stations.

I probably only know where SPC is located because guess-which-petrol-station-do-I-use.

Des and I smoked while we waited for the car vacuuming to be done.

Since when did I smoke?

Well, I don't. It was secondhand smoke that I'm referring to.

Invariably, our conversation topics somehow came back to the animals. He said I was looking more and more like Popiah. Or rather, the rabbit was looking more and more like me.

How can it be?

Which part of me resemble Popiah? Not even the teeth okay!?

The last time that I heard anyone say that I resembled one of my pets was when EVERYONE said Kilo and I look alike.

Of which I must insist: Kilo and I DO NOT. FREAKING. LOOK. ALIKE.

I mean, which part, man!? The ears!??

Do you all know who Popiah really looks like?

Miffy.

Not Miffy Miffy, but Miffy as in my previous rabbit Miffy.

I'm sure what with the many videos, all of you clearly remembers how Popiah looks like.

I swore to myself I'd never EVER get a rabbit again because of their pathetic lifespans (though not as pathetic as hamsters and mice).

But I could not resist when I saw Popiah, for she looked exactly like Miffy.

And this. Is. Miffy :)

And then many of you don't know this but Popiah is not the ORIGINAL Popiah.

Someone else was called Popiah before, um... Popiah.

Confusing?

Yes.

Cute?

Definitely!

This, my friends, is the original Popiah.

May Miffy and Popiah (the First) RIP. I DO miss you my little babies!

Lunch with Becky and Cho

2009-10-31T23:10:00.003+08:00

Occasionally, I get reminded of how old I am, when I suddenly recall out of the blue, things that happened a few years back.

And one recent recollection was lunch time at KA Centre (Kampong Ampat rox!), at the quaint little cafe located on the 1st floor.

Yes, my dear Renotokilians, it's the one that always make us wait an awful long time for our food after the change over in management :(

Anyway if I'm not wrong, the cafe is no longer there.

So one day for lunch, Becky, Cho and I went over to have our lunch. It was some full set thing so dessert was served later after the meal.

I was having the time of my life at that exact moment, happily eating my cake. I forgot which cake was it but it has alot of cream on it.

How do I recall?

Because halfway through the cake, there was a suspicious-looking fly behaving weirdly.

I mean, the fly was flying weirdly.

It was like some drunkard driving, you know? I've happened to witness some drunkards driving before and it was really like that.

And then it flew straight. Into. My. Cake.

I could recall my eyes opened abit wider as I lifted up my fork in mid-air, wondering if I should attempt to rescue it before it drowns in the cream, or just abandon everything together.

When in doubt, ask for advice.

So I said aloud to Becky and Cho, "Eh, there's a fly in my cake."

Before I could continue further to explain what happened, Cho immediately raised up his arm and the guy walked over to see what was it that we wanted.

"There's a fly in her cake!" He said in this accusing tone that I felt bad for the guy.

"Um, never mind lah. It flew into my cake. I mean, I SAW it fly and land in the cake."

The waiter was abit unsure of what the heck I wanted since it technically wasn't the shop's mistake. I think from the point of view of insurance companies, they term it as 'Act of God' or something along the lines of that.

For compensation, I got a replacement of a brownie with a generous scoop of chocolate ice-cream. Ain't life great?

Anyway, the image that stayed fresh in my mind wasn't how the fly landed into my food. It was Cho's very quick reaction to call the waiter before I even had time to say anything else!!

The way to quit smoking

2009-10-24T00:09:00.003+08:00

Now if you think I'm going to dispense some surefire way to quit smoking then you are at the wrong place.

Even if there was a surefire way, you wouldn't be hearing it from me.

Unless you will even possibly consider my idea of taking 1 month's annual leave and asking someone to tie you up to a chair and staying that way. Now that is one sure way to quit smoking. Your mind would be so preoccupied with thinking about food or going to the toilet that you would not even have time to think of smoking, much less WANT to smoke.

So.. yea.. I wanted to share with you this method that our Qi Gong masters shared with us.

To further clarify, it's called Ren Dian Xue (人电学）， or RDX for short.

Queueing up to collect my RDX Graduation Pass. Dun play play!

To those who have my mother on their Facebook friend list, you would have noticed my mother happily uploading videos and photos from our RDX lessons and their subsequent trip to Genting Highlands (WITHOUT ME :< )

The lessons were interesting, though I have to admit the first few nights I actually fell asleep in class until I drooled all over my own cheek. Fatigue is one thing that RDX cannot cure no matter how long you meditate.

SO.. before I digress further...

There was a short presentation about how to get someone to quit smoking. Or rather, HELP someone quit smoking.

First of all, it involves a smoker (duh!).

Second, this smoker must sincerely REALLY want to quit.

Third, get the smoker to smoke a stick. Once he (not that I mean to be sexist but it's the truth that most smokers are guys although I believe the difference is shortening) lights a stick and has taken a few puffs, you take the cigarette from him...

And inhale. With your mouth, such that the disgusting pollutants do not enter your lungs.

I think hamsters will probably do this best because they have such expandable cheek pouch to store food.

Then when you exhale out the smoke, make sure to exhale out at the mouthpiece of the cigarette.

Repeat above 2 more times before returning the same stick to the smoker.

They will realise that the taste suck (now then they know???) and thereafter quit smoking.

OH SO THEY SAY LAH.

So guess what. That night, I happily went home to try it out on Des and myself, as an experimental guinea pig (pun unintended).

I'm not sure if the above works only for people who has practiced RDX, or if non-RDX practitioners are able to do the same.

Well, right now all I can say is smoking is not as easy as it looks.

When I took the cigarette from Des, it was dry. As in, when I put it to my lips, it was totally dry. Not even stained with saliva.

I'm sure among the many ill-effects of smoking, 'dry lips' is probably one of them.

I then puffed. Very unsuccessfully. Do you know how freaking difficult it was? Why wasn't there any warning in class!?!?

Despite the fact that I was using my 'cheek' to store the smoke as I inhaled, fact is smoking involves burning = fire = smoke.

The smoke bothered me to no end as I very painfully controlled myself from throwing my head backwards and giving up. It went up my nose and burned my nostrils with its offensive smell, and it went into my eyes as well and made them tear.

Worst of all, it was three.. frigging.. puffs.

Yes, I had to do it thrice... and on top of all that.. had to make sure that when I exhaled, I was exhaling accurately at the 'end' of the cigarette where the smoker put his lips to.

Now if a guy peeing was as difficult as aiming to exhale at the head of a cigarette, then yea, I think I now understand why guys cannot pee properly.

Having done my intended job, I quickly handed the offensive stick back to Des and waited to see his reaction.

He took a long drag.

I waited in great anticipation.

Nothing.

"How? Got any difference?" I asked.

"No leh." He confessed. You see, the thing about Des is that he is always brutally honest.

He thought for a few seconds and then replied me thoughtfully. "The only difference is that you wasted 3 puffs of my cigarette."

You cannot blame me for rolling my eyes at this.

I then decided to do what our Marketing Research tutors and lecturers have always warned against: I used a super biased form of questioning to mislead the interviewee.

"Don't you feel like it tastes more disgusting?" I probed.

He shook his head and then continued puffing on the stick.

I gave up and walked back to my room while cursing over the failed attempt.

I whipped my head about in delight as he suddenly added "Actually, ya. It tastes more disgusting."

Wondering whether it was because the method really worked? Or was it because by the time I puffed and returned his death sticks to him, it was already horribly drenched by my saliva?

No one can tell.. but I was immensely disgusted when my guinea pig then decided to make up for that one 'spoilt' stick by smoking another TWO!

Update Update!

2009-10-19T12:14:00.006+08:00

Been crazy the past few months. So many things happened. Can I do a numbered update instead because I'm quite tired of racking my brains to figure out a way to link it up.

1) I know most of you are wondering why but today I'm not working because I'm claiming my off-in-lieu today. Worked a full day, on a public holiday, for the 1st time in my life. I am SO glad nothing screwed up during the event. A really heartfelt thank-you to the people who helped out. THANK YOU.

2) I've graduated from my Qi Gong class *wriggles eyebrow*. Not Novice, not Intermediate, but Expert level, mind you.

3) Got to learn that Ah Dai passed away. For the 95% of you who don't know him, he's the Great Dane who's always hanging out at Petsmart. I can't recall the name but it's something 'Mart'. It's the one with the dog swimming pool located at Lorong Halus.

Apparently Ah Dai's only the tender age of 4 but his presence is definitely much bigger than that. In fact, as big as he is. Bet he'd be sorely missed, batman ears and all :(

4) Popiah has successfully spoilt something. I thought I was a pretty good owner and all because I was able to stop her from chewing stuff at home via providing her with countless chew toys. I am SO wrong. Just as I was watching Gossip Girl on my laptop (courtesy of Weishan), the sound suddenly stopped and I instantly linked it up to the bunny who had been behaving suspiciously under the table where the wires are.

I do not think she'd be biting another wire for a long time. When I actually crawled under the table and found the wire that she bit through (it was just one chomp, the wire wasn't totally bitten through), there were actually sparks flying out of it. Needless to say, some of the voltage must have hit her as well (does that explain why her bunny fur is all entangled up cos of the electrical shock it gave her?).

Whatever it is, point noted that bunnies and wires do not match. I've bought a leash to tie her up to the bed / door knob / whatever furniture away from cables, so that she won't be able to do anything funny to wires anywhere ever again.

5) I forgot to mention bout not-too-recently I got a bicycle :) Those foldable kind but it's really neat! Best of all, Chubby LOVES it! Well, at least, he loves sitting in the basket and enjoying the wind while I cycle. Most entertaining to watch him enjoying the wind with his eyes semi-closed while I huff and puff trying to cycle uphill.

About Ice Skating

2009-09-19T16:19:00.003+08:00

Okay, because I am going to meet some TP-ians tomorrow for a blading / cycling session, I suddenly recalled this incident.

I do not want to name names here but this was pretty funny. I guess I did talk about it before in one of my previous posts.

See, before Kallang Leisurepark re-opened recently, Jurong was about the only place in the whole 'huge' island of Singapore to have an ice skating rink.

And even then, I have to say that it was not a very decent one.

What to do? You're the only one in the entire country, so anyone who even wants to do the sport have to travel there, how to keep it in tiptop condition?

So, yea, as expected, the ice was not just thin and unfrozen (though not to the point of being slushy), it was also very uneven.

And there we were, the whole group of us, skating.

Actually more like trying not to fall down and make a fool out of ourselves.

So one of us, I really don't want to name names but X knows who X is (I don't even want to release whether it's a him or her).

Let's assume it's a 'he', to make my story recall easier.

So he was just minding his own business as well on the rink, trying to catch up with us because we were far ahead. We turned around and waited for him to catch up.

He wasn't even trying to skate. He had gathered enough speed and was just 'moving' towards us with both his feet on the ice... and he was gliding slowly but smoothly towards us when he must have hit some ridge in the ice or something.

Because his arms started to flap about wildly and he was like going "Aik Aik Yikes Aik Woooo."

Instinctively, I offered a hand to him.

But within that split second after reaching my hand out, I thought to myself: Wa, cannot leh. If he holds my hand but still falls, I'm going down with him.

So I actually withdrew my arm back JUST as he was about to reach out and grab my hand.

Eventually, he did not fall down, and needless to say, I did not get a very polite and appreciative 'Thank you' either.

So yea, arsehole, if you're reading this and know who you are, I just want to say that I DO remember this incident. Not because I'm sorry, but because it was hilarious.

HAHAHA.

Piaked

2009-08-12T22:05:00.000+08:00

I had to login to Blogger. You know, type some stuff, just to login to my account cos I was quite worried that Blogger 'forgets' me.

In the sense that I had to bother myself with retyping my password when I tried to login and enter a new post.

Boy, was I right.

I went PIAK... headfirst straight into the Blogger wall. They did ask me to retype my password :(

(just in case some of you don't know, I'm doing this blog post on Blogspot. Because it is linked to my Facebook, most of you are probably reading this from FB instead.)

So zun right? How come I'm never this zun whenever I go buy 4D once in a blue moon?

Now, in a super drastic change of topic:

Dad says we may move soon. Well, there are alot of things to do up for the house first, so those housing agents among you please stay away for the time being. We are not interested.

See the word MAY move soon.

It may not come as a surprise to many of you. Afterall, this is Cindy Lim, who moved houses at a record of 7 houses by the time she is 14 years old.

No. This is not some idol drama where we move ever so often to escape our debtors. Contrary to that, the house only got bigger ;)

But there is no need for that anymore.

You guys know sometimes I'd like step back and take a deep breathe and marvel at the trillions of changes all around us?

This is one of those times I am stepping back to take a look at everything.

I can scarcely remember the flat at Clementi.

Can recall abit about the Condo at Minbu (and how Kor Kor always pull my hair and make me cry!)

Very vaguely recall a few things about the rented mansionette at Eunos.

Recall alot about my very tomboyish days as a nursery and subsequently kindergarten student at Jalan Labu Manis. Oh, and for the first and only time in my life, I actually scored 0/10 for my English spelling.

(It never happened again.)

After which we moved to St. Patrick's Road. Bingo, our then Belgium Shepherd got injured there, and the wound suspiciously looked like he was stabbed. I remembered going with my parents and bro to the Vet's where they stitched him up.

After St. Patrick's, Boon Teck Tower. Soccer-playing days they were. Man, do the few of you recall how my room looks like? It was truly the room of a proud Manchester United fan. During that time, I had (unsuccessfully) also tried to convince my Dad that I really wanted this Man United glass paperweight that had a few blades of grass from their home ground, Old Trafford.

Finally, our current location. I don't know if I'm supposed to say where it is because this is afterall the internet and we do not want weirdos to read it and stalk out the place.

Not unless we are really starting to sell it already!

I don't know why I even bother to hide the name of the place because there are probably a few thousand photos I've already uploaded into my blog that clearly stated the name of the neighbourhood (hint: road sign) somewhere in the photo.

Anyway, I thought it was all in all a pretty drastic change.

It's not about houses. Sure we leave good memories in every house we 'left behind'. But these were just physical stuff.

It was the people, and the things they do that we usually recall.

I say drastic because from as young as I could remember, there were (HUAT AR) 8 of us living together under the same roof. Other than my parents, bro and I, there was Lao Ma (term for great grandma), Yi Po (term for grandaunt), Ah Ma and Ah Gong.

They were like two camps. Fighting all the time in the day.

But I was young. And ignorant. My fulltime occupation back then was somersaulting in the garden, and my main concern was to avoid Bingo's poo that was lying somewhere along the grass that I always somersault about.

That damn dog. Always like to poo at the places I always play.

Bingo was also coincidentally the same dog that stole my first kiss. Forcefully. I do not want to go into details for the 2nd time because I remember blogging about this 'important' incident.

And then to St. Patrick's. I started attending Primary School.

Ah Gong started to teach me how to write in this weird calligraphic way whereby I do not lift up my pen alot, if you know what I mean.

My then Mother Tongue teacher loved it. Probably because it was the way she wrote her words.

We shifted again to Boon Teck Tower, and I transferred to a neighbourhood primary school I hated, where the stupid Mother Tongue teacher did not. Boon Teck was also where we were staying at when Lao Ma passed away.

Then we shifted to .. um... Area 51.

No. Don't need to guess what does Area 51 mean. If you think 'Area 51' has something to do with my current house's postal code or District, then you need to get out more or go to Wikipedia more often.

Anyway, to continue my story: Area 51 was not just the longest house we had lived in for a record number of 9 years (and 10 if we are still here by 2010 March), it was also a house that witnessed our family in mourning. Thrice. What with Ah Gong's death just 2 months back.

Yes, it's still raw and painful I admit, but it is getting better everyday.

And there's this chicken mcnugget I know of, I shall not mention names (but whose surname is Lee), who thinks that I should go see a psychiatrist when he saw I wasn't sad enough, and then said I should see one anyway when I got too visibly depressed.

...... Okay, I'm sorry to interrupt this post but all of my reminiscing mood is gone now. Popiah has escaped from her cage again and I need to catch her back.

Blardy !@#$%. Since when did Rabbits start behaving like Monkeys?

Siansation...

2009-07-28T00:46:00.003+08:00

...is when your super old dog, unable to control its bladder, pees in the middle of your room floor.

And before you have any time to react to it, your super kaypoh rabbit runs towards it from afar and 'surfboards' through the puddle of yellow liquid.

Yes. This is the part where all of you reprimand me and say I brought it upon myself.

Hates Warts

2009-07-09T22:27:00.004+08:00

I just happened to be talking to Des today about a wart I got in Sec 4. Somehow because of that, I contracted a kind of skin disease that had Rubella-like symptoms, probably from the clinic where I went to see the doc.

The only good thing about it was that I had a week's MC off school.

*CENSORED... because Mum was making SO MUCH NOISE about it*

I feel an overwhelming sense of pity for them, but yet some of them really appear so normal and cheerful that you wouldn't know what was wrong with them until you realised that there is a limb missing from under the blanket.

This further reiterates to me, and I hope to many of you as well, how lucky we actually are, to have intact hands and feet.

Do NOT take health for granted.

And I would like to take this opportunity to share one pet peeve of mine with all of you. Unless you are super duper tired (at which you are, in a way, less at fault), if not I believe that one should not complain that why is the car parked so far away from the shopping centre or wherever entrance.

Because, remember, you have the hands and feet to get you there. Actually, for gawd's sake, it means you also actually have a car to begin with!

PS: After the seriousness of the topic above, let me be really random and insert a picture of Chubby here. I just wanted to test whether my photo-publishing feature is still not working :(

The Dramatic World

2009-07-06T22:52:00.004+08:00

I have come to a conclusion that people are crazy about dramas because we like to lock on to another world where there are more possibilities.

Where no matter how poor you are, some super ridiculously rich and handsome dude will fall in love with you at first (or second or third or at hundredth sight), and then sweep you off your feet.

Where, unfortunately, all nose bleeds also mean that you have cancer of some sort.

And where all mama-sans in the world have the same hairstyle (I never really understood this part).

I myself am guilty of this obsession.

One of the very first few dramas I caught was Full House. I bet every single one of you who caught the show remembered the plot and maybe even certain scenes from the drama.

I can vividly recall that I was on my poly internship during that period and it involved ALOT of photocopying.

To begin with, my then-husband, Mr. Ric Oh (for some of you who didn't know, Ric Oh was actually the brand of the photocopier), was not a very fast worker to begin with.

I think it probably takes him almost 8 seconds to photocopy ONE piece of paper, and 5 seconds for the subsequent ones thereafter.

My, my. You all should see the speed of the photocopier at Rentokil. It is godly, I tell you.

*gives a dramatic kick to Ric Oh, making the machine creak and groan like an old metal piece of sh*t...*

I remembered standing there in a daze because I had very little sleep at night due to me trying to squeeze every precious second of the drama before bedtime.... Yet, I wasn't daydreaming.

In my mind, it was running a trillion different possibilities.

What was going to happen next during the next episode?

Will he this this this? Will she that that that?

If imagining things can be considered as a form of physical exercise, I'm probably on my way to being a world-class bodybuilder.

In our otherwise rather mundane lives, thank goodness for dramas.

*Muackz*

(I just wanted to add that I tried to add a photo of a bored-looking Chubby but the blardy blogger thing is NOT WORKING. I have tried uploading the same photo thrice already. I quit!)

Result is NEGATIVE

2009-07-03T15:02:00.002+08:00

I just want to make my stand clear in case all hell break loose for some of you who are more 'kiasi'.

Because of the sensitivity of my workplace, I was sent for swab test due to a super runny nose that made everyone in the department throw weird looks at me.

I was lucky in the sense that we were required to put on mask at all times (other than eating). Yes. They specifically stated the condition that you are ONLY allowed to take it off when you are eating.

What did not help was the occasional sneeze emitted from the direction where my desk was.

Let me add abit of info here that wearing a mask is not the best feeling in the world. Sure, I was already feeling a little lousy from what eventually was proved to be the common flu, but having on a mask did not make me feel any easier.

For instance, forgetting that the stupid mask was on, I actually drank water from the cup, which only resulted in a very wet mask and an even more upset Cindy.

What's a swab test, some of you may ask. It's actually the term for the test to prove whether you're positive / negative for H1N1. It's all the craze right now.

I want to write it here so that years down the road I can read back and recall that I went for this sickening test.

Of course, despite the discomfort this test brings, I urge those who have fever and flu symptoms to go for the test. Better be safe than sorry. At least your family members and close friends will not give you murderous stares because you left the house thinking it's the common flu but you actually passed it to all of them.

A swab test is called the swab test because it only involves swabbing. Got such word or not ar? Swabbing. Lol!

Other than the usual test for your Blood Pressure and your temperature (of which I had no fever), they will swab your nose and your mouth.

At least that was what I was told.

On my way down to the A&E, I was in no way scared or excited about the test. It was just SOP during the H1N1 period so I calmly went for it.

If I had known earlier, I would be so nervous I'd probably ask to go home to see my GP instead.

It involves swabbing your nose, they say.. Hell, yes. But what they did not tell you was that the cotton bud (those special super long kind) is actually sticked up as far back as possible.

Most of us cannot imagine how it feels like. I didn't either. But now I do. When something is stick very far up your nose (a term that I guiltily admit having used it to scold many people... e.g. I'm gona stick Chubby up your nose), it is something very uncomfortable and painful to the point that your eyes automatically tear.

But no, I did not look like a big crying baby when I was there. Just a tearing adult :(

My obsession with Egypt also made me know that when they are going to mummify someone, they try to keep that person as intact as possible whilst trying to remove their organs and storing them in Canopic Jars. What intrigued me was the way the brain was removed.

Apparently a long hook is put up the nose to reach the brain. They sorta mesh up the brain and then pull the whole thing out through the nostrils.

Now, now. Imagine that. That thought was running through my head in the split second the nurse was swiping my nose; I was really wondering if the damn thing actually did reach my brain!

At the back of my head I was also thinking: Jialat liao. If the nose already like that, the mouth must be not JUST swipe the lips or gum!

I was right. Damnit. I was right.

She warned me before she inserted the cotton bud: "Now, this is going to have a little gagging effect."

She was right too, man. But she was wrong about the "little".

Maybe it would have been better if she did not tell me anything and I was caught unawares. Because soon as she said that, I already felt like I was going to gag.

She swiped the right side near the back of my mouth first, and waited patiently while I recovered from my coughing fit.

But when she tried to swipe the other side, I could tell she was not as calm as I thought, because the cotton bud knocked right against my front teeth.

It was quite funny due to the seriousness of the situation where every single staff was wearing the N95 mask, even the nurse doing the swab for me was dressed in 'battle gear', go figure.

We laughed heartily while the Security Guards wondered what on earth happened.

But I stopped laughing when I realised she will need to swab the other side of my mouth already :(

Anyway, I was chauffeured home in some Maxi cab specially meant for potential H1N1 people. The nice driver was also in full battle gear. I must admit I felt like some kind of a freak. The air-conditioning was turned off and the windows were down to let air circulate within the huge vehicle.

Having experienced all the many safety precautions, I was very impressed. How on earth will the flu virus ever manage to spread in such kind of super play-safe and protected environment? I bet they disinfect the blardy vehicle once it reaches the hospital again.

Of course, let me reiterate that the result is out and that it is NEGATIVE.

I was only quarrantined for a mere 6 hours while awaiting the test results but I have to admit I could not even tolerate that 6 hours. Even Chubby was not allowed to be in the same room as me :(

It felt so... how should I say... so... blardy hell.. it feels very isolated and alone. And I assure you that the feeling sucked, although 3 out of that 6 hours was spent sleeping.

I think what was difficult was that waking up, you are not allowed to step out of the room (which I usually would because afternoon naps perk me up alot and I like to go into my parents bedroom to bug them and jump on their bed like a monkey. So what if I'm already 23!)

I ate my lunch alone in the room, and had to leave the plates outside my door. This was the same for dinner, where my food was left outside the door, a sharp knock, and then I could hear Marie 'running for her life' down the stairs and shouting as she went "Cindy! Your food is at the door!"

After a very sad and lonely TV dinner where I actually managed to catch that 7pm show on Channel 8, I believe the name of the show is called Dong Fang Zhi Zhu, I finally received the call from A&E that I'm cleared :)

One more thing I'd like to clarify was that I told a friend recently that I would not mind even if management sends me to CDC2 for duty. I mean, that is where all the action is, right? Wrong! A&E is where all the action is.

The area where we were waiting was situated right outside the A&E unit. I could glance past the security guards and see the Operation Theatre, or what looks like one, though of course, it was surrounded by those pesky curtains that block your view.

I was daydreaming halfway through because they made me wait there for quite a long time (I think it was to wait for the Maxi Cab to come back, disinfect and pick me up) when I realised that there was a lot of hoo-ha at the A&E corner.

What looks like a rather young girl was rushed in while the medics or the doctor or the whoever was asking "Got pulse already? No pulse? Got pulse already?"

One of the medics even almost slipped and fell but the rest were nonchalant as their attention was focused on rushing the patient in.

This is the kind of job that is not boring!!

And many of you thought that...

2009-06-28T23:20:00.002+08:00

... the most embarrassing thing to happen to me recently was when I drank the Coke without realising that Des was already using the can drink as an ash-tray.

That was no way in the ranking, okay?

Embarrassing is when people witnessed it.

Like.. on a very beautiful Friday when everyone's spirits are naturally high even despite being on the way to work.

As I was going down the stairs I realised my train had already reached and was about to start beeping away to signal that the doors were going to close.

I rushed in and promptly turned around just as the MRT doors started closing.

It knocked my head as it closed.

Yes.

Didn't hurt one bit. Maybe it had to do with the smart design of the rubbers at the corner of the door.

But the amount of paiseh-ness that followed was excruciating.

Thankfully I got off at the very next stop, Novena. I walked out and never looked back.

Tomorrow is Monday and I'm going to board at another door, as well as change my hairstyle and my bag so no one gets to recognise me in any way.

I hate Mondays.

A Series of Unfortunate Food Flavours

2009-06-22T16:59:00.002+08:00

This is blardy suay beyond suay.

Des and I had lunch the other day with Fang, Silie and Candy.

Because we needed some small change to settle the payment (since Silie paid on our behalf first), we decided to all buy some ice cream to break up the $50 note.

Cindy, Cindy, Cindy. If you are re-reading this post 10 years down the road, remember that even very yummy ice cream can go wrong!

I told myself, ice cream leh! Probably one of the best foods in the world. What can go wrong, right?

RIGHT!

So I saw this new blardy flavour available.

It was called Sea Salt and Caramel.

Sounds delicious, I thought. I don't know why but after reading the word 'Sea Salt', I kept salivating non-stop. I find myself having to swallow my saliva much more often and then decided, what the hell, just try lah.

Bad idea.

It was refreshing at first. You know, salty ice cream. It was salty yet cold. Add on the very nice caramel aroma and it was delicious.

But the more I ate, the more the saltiness became overwhelming. I find myself forcing down the ice cream instead.

I learnt a lesson from this; if you eat something you don't really like, especially if it is something really salty, your blood pressure actually rises and you get a weird sort of headache; the epitome of sian-ness.

If you think it sounds disgusting enough and foodstuff probably can't any worse; picture this.

Des and I having drinks at the kopitiam. Being a *ahem* gentleman that he is, he gallantly poured the Coke Zero for me from the can, into the cup of ice.

I was halfway through finishing the drink when I picked up the can and swirled it around abit, seeing if there were anymore left inside.

There was. I felt the weight and could feel the remaining liquid, so I emptied the contents directly into my cup.

It was a few sips after that that I could not help but realise the Coke Zero was tasting funny.

I told Des to try it out for himself because I am very sure that the Coke Zero was tasting funny.

The fella replied me after a few mouthfuls "Tastes just like Coke Zero what.. Sucky taste."

I pressed the top of the straw to create pressure so that a portion of the drink gets 'sucked' into the straw and stayed there.

I peered at it until I became cross-eyed and noticed distinctive pieces of CIGARETTE ASH floating around in it. That was when Des asked if I poured from the can into my drink, because he was already using it as an ASH TRAY.

Fantastic.

Coke Zero, freaking Cigarette Ash flavoured.

Come try one today!

!@#$%

I Had A Dream...

2009-06-18T00:40:00.002+08:00

This was hilarious.

I fell into a difficult nap. You know what? I realised that if I want to sleep in the afternoon, I HAVE to sleep in my parents room! It is only then that I can drift off to sleep.

Maybe because I need my mother's voice while she talks to herself, though I have to admit sometimes she is actually nagging at me (hopes Mummy doesn't read this particular entry). Or just.. I don't know. Nice bedsheets.. or even the smell of silkworm's crap!

Yes! They bought their pillows all the way from China and it has this silkworm crap thing sewn into it, the smell of which is supposed to help you sleep better!!!

In case you are disgusted, I can assure you that silkworm crap actually smells more like very nice tea leaves. It doesn't smell like crap AT ALL. Probably has to do with their diet. Silkworms.. I think they feed on mulberry leaves only or something right? I mean, for those that are raised and reared in man-made conditions.

So on a very pleasant Tuesday evening, I dreamt of Ah Gong :)

Super short dream because my Dad woke me up and asked me to go eat dinner.

In the dream I was standing at the staircase landing between the 1st and 2nd floor. Ah Gong was squatting in his usual place at the bottom of the stairs with his trademark red cigarette casing in one hand.

Yes. Ah Gong LOVES to squat. I think it runs in the family (along with Violence, but that's another funny story that happened during the funeral that I shall relate some other time). Squatting is a good and clean way to relax your legs when you have walked alot. I say clean because your butt doesn't need to be dirtied since you don't need to sit down on the floor when you squat (unless you fall down!).

We realised the advantages of squatting when we ran out of space to sit on the crowded train in Bangkok and so all of us squatted down and marveled at how comfortable it actually is.

The bad thing about Ah Gong squatting is that when he squats, YOU CANNOT SEE HIM.

Ah Gong is a rather tall guy. But once he squats, you won't even be able to find him even if you stood on a chair.

This has happened on numerous occasions when we went on family holidays. Close to 15 of us and yet none can find Ah Gong in the crowd whenever he squats down. But no issue; we figured out a solution quick enough.

The only way to find him is not to find the highest point of the place, stand on it and look out. It was to squat down and turn 360 degrees. You will be bound to find an old man in a baggy white formal shirt, dark blue pants and gold-rim glasses.

And when you do so, you quickly get up to your feet and run in that direction, all the while yelling out to the other family members who are looking for him that you have found Ah Gong already.

Now that I've mentioned Ah Gong's glasses. The last time Ah Gong made glasses was at the Nanyang Optical shop in Serangoon Central area. It was very funny. He has this THING for Gold spectacles. Most people his age probably likes gold stuff, I guess. Cos got classsssssss...

We took a long time to choose. The poor sales person also introduced to him frame after frame after frame. He liked none. Finally he took one from the shelf behind the counter and showed it to Ah Gong. Ah Gong fell in love with it instantly and told us in a cheerful voice that he wants it.

Of course, my parents agreed.

But all of our eyeballs (except Ah Gong's cos he didn't understand English,) almost popped out of their sockets when we were told that the frame itself costs around $400-500. After all, the pair of glasses looked like it had been with the shop for decades and no one wanted to buy it!

"Why?" My mum asked indignantly.

I was turning the frame over with both my hands trying to figure out whether is it covered with a super thick gold-plating or something and realised...

It was a pair of Yves Saint Laurent spectacle frame. . .

Eventually we had it made since Ah Gong only had eyes for that particular pair.

And I can't believe I talked so much and yet haven't even started on the dream yet!

Sorry! Okay, back to the dream. So I was of course shocked to see him squatting there. And he was shouting for the maid and saying "Kopi! Kopi! Kopi sekit!"

Okay, I don't know if I got my Malay word spelling correct or not. Sekit is supposed to mean 'little'.

Because coffee actually increases your heartbeat rate, which makes it more difficult for him to breathe when he is already panting as it is, so he could only drink a quarter cup of coffee during each serving. It was impossible to get him to stpo drinking coffee altogether (just like smoking).

Sidenote: Please quit smoking while you still can. Don't wait until you are too old and overtly dependent!

So he always asks for 'Kopi sekit'.

And there he was, as real as.. as real as.. while he was so real. Squatting down there, and as he shouted for his coffee, he was even making the hand sign of 'little bit' using his thumb and index finger. I don't know if you can get what I mean.

Most of all, he was wearing this particular pants that I haven't seen him wear for a really long time. I think since we moved from Boon Teck Tower, I haven't seen him wore that pair of pants.

It was a funny pair of pants. It was like Rose Gold in colour. Those that look like silk and semi-reflects light. And it is so girly because it has repeated patterns of flowers on it. I think Ah Ma wanted to make it into a bedsheet or pillow cover and then had some excess left so she made it into a pair of long pants for Ah Gong to wear it at home.

I asked him in Hokkien "Ah Gong, what you want? You want coffee?"

He looked at me and then said "Yes! Yes! Just abit! Abit can already."

I then realised everyone else at home then was totally ignoring him.

I pointed at him with a shivering finger and shouted out to my parents who were in their bedroom. "Don't you see him? Can't you see him? He's shouting for coffee!!" At this point my Dad heard me and although I didn't specify who the 'him' was, the look on his face told me he knew who I was referring to.

And then in REAL LIFE.. My Dad woke me up to go eat dinner :(

It happened to be the 7th day too. Chinese believes that the soul returns on the 7th day to the house and will visit the parts of the house that they frequented when they were alive.

I asked Marie to leave out a cup of coffee for Ah Gong that same night. Apparently I didn't give her clear instructions. She left a cup of coffee on the dining table every night for him, with that little metal spoon in the cup so that he can stir it while drinking. Ah Gong was the only one in the house who drinks his coffee with a metal spoon so I know that the cup that is on the table there every night was for him.

I think it's very hard because we are all so not used to him not being around. Dad's not used to how he no longer see him squatting around different parts of the house, smoking away (and then telling us that he quit smoking already). Mum almost accidentally told Marie to heat up the charsiew buns in the fridge and give one to Ah Gong.

I run up the stairs to the 2nd floor and I could almost imagine him shouting after me "Mai zao! Mai zao! Dang eh bua toh" (Don't run! Later fall down!).

When Chubby was much younger and we played catching together inside the house, Ah Gong would always say the same thing. And then he would add in his theory that Chubby's legs are short so he won't be able to fall down but I am different. I guess if he had observed the way Chubby walk lately, he will learn that Chubby IS able to fall down and walk into walls even with his keen sense of smell and short legs.

I've been preparing the food for the dogs since I've nothing better to do and I would usually let Kilo into the house in the process. It was easy to lure the dog out of the house again after the food is all prepared. He just follows me.

But Ah Gong would have none of it. He hates for Kilo to be inside the house because he feels that the dumb dog would knock down and break things inside the house. He would always scold Kilo. Actually, one shout from Ah Gong would be good enough to send Kilo scurrying out of the house.

But as you can imagine, these few days, Kilo has been contentedly waiting in the kitchen while the food is being prepared.

He wasn't there while we were having lunch, he wasn't sitting there again either when we were having dinner.

I don't know how long this will work but I kinda imagine him as being on a holiday trip. To somewhere really far. Like maybe, Europe. Touring Europe with his friends, haha!

The thought of it makes me laugh sometimes. It explains his disappearance as well as why everything else in his room remained just the way it was.

I remember everything about him clearly now. Especially his voice and the way he looks. He has this trademark lump growth he had since he was born. It was like a huge skin-coloured growth that even has many strands of hair growing on it. Ah Gong said it gave him luck and so he never had it removed.

I've heard hilarious stories about it. Like how when Ah Heng was a toddler and Ah Gong was carrying him, Ah Heng somehow got his baby fingers entangled with the hair on the lump.

Being a kid, Ah Heng solved the problem the best and fastest way: By pulling. I heard from my Mum that everyone had a shock because Ah Gong suddenly cried out loudly in pain. But my thoughts were that, thankfully enough, he didn't drop Ah Heng, HAHAHA!

I have to admit that while he laid in his coffin, I did went to take a peep at the mole again. It was still there. For some stupid unexplainable reason I just wanted to make sure.

Random Things You Didn't Know About a Random Guy...

2009-06-14T17:16:00.006+08:00

A random 80 plus year old guy died.

It appeared on the obituary section of the papers on Thursday, 10th June 2009, alongside with all the others who had also just passed away, or had their death anniversaries announced.

I'm sure even, that hundreds of thousands of readers who bought the Straits Times must have carelessly overlooked it.

But that one single difference that it all makes is that this particular 84 year old man who passed away is none other than my only grandfather I had ever known since I never got to know my maternal grandpa.

... Right, stop rolling your eyes. I promised not to be 'emo' or dramatic about it but I really can't help it.

So now I decide to share with you 8 facts / stories associated with him, 8 facts representing every decade that he had lived. Facts that some of you may not have known, in the hope that the memories are no longer remembered by me alone.

I don't really know how or where to begin. There are so many memories that I don't know how to cram them all into just eight. I'd just fill them up with random notes that I am able to recall right now at this very moment, since the ones that are recalled so easily are some of those that I'm going to remember very clearly for the rest of my life.

Okay, so one of the earliest memory I had about my Ah Gong was this:

He doesn't use SingPost to mail letters back to China where we came from. He did mention countless trillion times however, that our family is from Dong Shan 东山, Fu Jian Province. A small little fishing village called Sai Po Hee. No blardy idea how does that sound like in Mandarin or whether it has any English names to begin with.

The weird thing was he always goes to this shop somewhere out there to post his letter. And while he's at it he talks to the old man working there. You know, have a nice little chitchat and all.

So there I was, not more than 6 years old. wondering why does Ah Gong always go out without bringing me? I asked him to bring me (I have to admit I'm abit domineering when I was young. At least to people whom I'm sure I could boss around. I TOLD him to bring me. Not ask.) He absolutely refused.

So I waited one day when he went to change his clothes and prepare to go out that I hid in the backseat of his car. It was very obvious. He would take some time to 'dress up' in his typical white shirt and dark blue pants.

This is the exact car that Ah Gong was driving back then. We sold it but came across it when we were having CNY dinner in 2005. It was parked outside the restaurant that we were eating. What a coincidence. Pity Ah Gong wasn't there to see his old friend.

PS: Yes. The paintwork was MUCH better back than.

Now, back to the story.

I hid at the backseat of his car until I was about to give up. It was quite hot and although sweating doesn't bother young children, I was starting to have difficulties breathing.

Just then Ah Gong got into the car and I inwardly heaved a sigh of relief.

I remembered he always used this trademark cologne that is in the shape of some alcoholic / wine bottle. He doesn't really use it. He just leaves it in the car and the whole car would reek of it. I say reek because the smell wasn't all that great. It was overwhelming! But then it was Ah Gong's car's trademark smell :)

He drove off and I waited until I was sure we were far away from the house. Far enough that he would not bother to U-Turn to go home and then kick me out of the car.

I waited until the most opportune time and then I jumped up on the backseat and shouted very loudly "AH GONG!!!!!!"

I have to tell all of you that my Ah Gong has a very good heart. I think any other human being would have had a mild form of heart attack or at least get into some sort of car accident.

He didn't. He didn't even flinch. The only reaction he did was that his eyes widened and he shouted (some explicit words) and said "YOU HIDE BEHIND THE SEAT AR?!" and then he quickly turned his eyes back onto the road to make sure he didn't swerve to another lane.

Well, my presence was an obvious answer to his question.

I was successful but so what. I soon learned that I should never have followed. He probably sat there for almost three hours chatting after giving the old man his letter (I do clearly recall that he hadn't tell this old man anything about me hiding in his backseat).

I never ever followed again. Ever.

Most seniors always ask us this question. Ah Gong is no exception.

"Lee Jia Liao Buey?"

He always talks in his weird Hokkien. Weird because alot of people told me that there are some Hokkien words I use that differed from the norm. Some remain unconvinced that it is because I learn my Hokkien from my grandparents. Des thought so too at first but he agreed after he talked to Ah Gong a few times and wasn't able to fully understand his grandfather stories about building and construction of drains.

Throughout the years, I have been conditioned to answer quickly and robotically with a "Jia Ba Liao".

This answer would just fall out from my mouth even though I may have just woken up 5 minutes ago and have not even drank a single drop of water.

I realised this problem only when Gua Ma (my maternal grandmother) asked me the same during the funeral and I replied her too even as my stomach was grumbling about the lack of food when it was already dinnertime.

I then had to very embarrassingly queue up at the buffet table to await my turn in scooping my precious dinner, all the while praying that she would not notice me standing in line.

Another funny thing about my Ah Gong was that he always complimented me whenever I wore this shirt. Apparently he found my ridiculously floral blue Hawaiian shirt very VERY nice to the point that he always thinks I'm going out whenever I wore that shirt.

For your info, I only wear it at home, and when I do, I don't even go out to the car porch to wash Joon's cage because I'm afraid that the neighbours would see me in it.

Shirt looks something like that:

You may think: What's so bad about the shirt?

My answer is: Everything.

After it has been machine-washed a few hundred times, it starts to lose its shape though not-so-thankfully, the vibrancy of the colours remained. As a result, it became a HUUUUGGE Hawaiian shirt.

Those that the ladies are wearing in the photo was because they were wearing it for the very first time. I doubt many of them keep it or even consider it as a going-out shirt anymore.

Another memory I had was back when I am in Bendemeer. I bought an Aloe Vera plant that I still keep till this day. Had gotten it from the nursery situated right along the main road.

I called him on my prepaid handphone and asked if he could come to school to fetch me. He agreed and we left it at that.

I took the risk that he would see me at the main road so I didn't tell him that I'm actually not in school. And that I was actually waiting at the nursery for him.

Figured that since he had to turn in from the main road, he would definitely see me at the side of the road, waving.

He didn't!!!

In fact, I waved, almost got knocked down by my own Ah Gong because I was standing at the edge of the kerb, and then with my heavy school bag like a turtle shell on my back, a hand holding onto my A4 files that could not fit into my huge backpack, and the other hand holding onto a flower pot containing the Aloe Vera... rannnn....

All the way back to Bendemeer Secondary School!!!

He didn't even realised why didn't I walk out of school but walked IN to school instead!

I told myself that if I ever wanted him to fetch me again, I would have to reconsider telling him my exact location and be VERY precise about it.

Joon was considered to be one of the newer additions in the household other than the Putehs. Not many people remembered but there was this very short period that Joon actually could tolerate Ah Gong.

Very. Short. Period.

He then developed this habit (I'm referring to the human) of irritating the heck out of her by pushing her head really hard!

You don't have to be a genius to guess how the fierce bird returned the courtesy everytime he even tries to go near her.

There is this little silly thing about my Ah Gong. He likes to stare at me. Like, really stare. He doesn't bother to cover up by peeking through the corner of his eyes. He likes to remark about very general things about me. Like when I excitedly recall something that happened in school to my mother, he laughs at how fast I talk (to him, English sounds like a very 'fast' language).

For him, his most fluent english words were 'Thank you' that he speaks perfectly and naturally. Other English words are lost to him.. like how he affectionately calls me 'Gek Gek' when he was actually trying to call me 'Girl Girl'.

So obviously his stares were not those pervertic kind. It was those observing kind and always accompanied with a toothless grin on his face.

Yes! Ah Gong no longer has any teeth left! He would tell me about how this stupid dentist back in the good ol' days who tried to overcharge him. I guess it was due to poor dental hygiene but Ah Gong's teeth was totally gone except for this two or three that stubbornly remained.

It made it more difficult to eat instead, so he decided to have them removed by going to that dentist.

I think the dentist was being some sort of jerk as well. He asked Ah Gong for some cigarettes and when he realised he had none, he decided to charge per tooth although extraction procedure was the same throughout back in the old days; clamp on teeth and pull.

Ah Gong would recall to me how pissed he was that he left the dentist room and sat on the steps of the staircase right outside.

The more he thought about it, the more angrier he got and he eventually pulled out the teeth that he wanted to remove. By his own hands!

Just then the same dentist walked down the steps and he said he called the dentist as he walked past and showed him his bloodied teeth that he had all plucked out himself, even as blood was flowing down his lips.

Gutsy.

I'm on to the second last memory of my Ah Gong already. But this is not the end of it. I have alot more that I will add as and when I recall about them.

So, now, for the 7th detail, here's a photo of Ah Ma and Ah Gong on their wedding day, and another photo taken a few years before Ah Ma's death.

Last but not least, I hate the way how I always walk to the kitchen to place the dirty dishes and then realise from the corner of my eye how oddly bright his room is.

He ALWAYS leaves the curtains down because he's paranoid about bugs crawling in from the grass into the room to bite him. Even the sliding door is always closed so the room always looks overtly dark. It was also recently that, due to the sickeningly hot weather, he started using the aircon, which explains why I am quite used to the fact of seeing his door closed.

But now the door is open. Just open. And the room is bright. But you take a step in and what do you see?

His biscuit tin was as how he left it.

His remote controller to turn on the TV stays on top of the TV. He even has this special instruction paper that he translates what each button means by drawing a cartoon version of the remote controller and then arrowing in Chinese words what each was.

His ash-tray is untouched from the time he left it. In fact, the cigarettes that he had smoked was all still inside the ash tray.

That bottle of strong-smelling medicine that he always used to rub on his leg and relieve the joint pains was still placed behind the TV set in that innocent-looking Coca Cola bottle. No idiot would be able to mistake the black liquid inside for Coke. The smell was THAT obviously different.

It's amazing because I remembered how I would always have those slight sprains at my ankle and he would call me over, and take that Coke bottle and pour some into his huge hands and then rub it onto my ankle until those dirt marks formed (the way Ji Gong rubs dirt from his armpits into a ball and gave it to the sick and poor to eat so that they would be healed). It kinda resembled eraser markings when you rubbed your worksheet alot.

I hated the smell of his overpowering ang hoon (cigarette) that would make me choke and tear, but then I hated the way I no longer smell it even more and I find myself still tearing but for a totally different reason.

The very last thing I want to add is that I miss him very much. His absence is deafeningly obvious because there is one less figure who hangs about the house all the time, squatting at some random corner and smoking away.

Scientific theories about Death aside, if there were really an afterlife, I hope that both Ah Ma and Ah Gong have managed to reunite after these three years of separation from being in different realms. I also hope that they have managed to find Lao Ma and Dua Pek too.

The Lemon Flicker

2009-06-09T00:00:00.003+08:00

The other day while we were hanging the birds at the kopitiam at Serangoon North, I ingeniusly thought that, hey, I should order the Ice Lemon Tea.

That way, Shrek could have some lemon. Or at the very least, I would find out if he would even eat the fruit since Shreky is the renowned fruit king of the house.

He would even eat plain cucumber (yucks!).

He does eat lemon, apparently.

But the very first time he took some from my hand, he shuddered. I don't really know how to explain it but you have to see it for yourself to know what I mean. It's kind of like the way dogs shake themselves dry right after a bath.

But for my case, Chubby always tries to shake the water off himself WHILE bathing. Not good because I am standing maybe 20cm away from him only.

The most embarassing thing was, when Shrek flicked himself like that, one of the 'fibre' thing from the lemon flew out of his cage.

And promptly hit this Uncle in his arm. Uncle looked over in shock, knowing that the thing that hit him flew from the direction of Shreky's cage (which was placed on the table in front of me).

I immediately pretended not to have noticed by acting as if the glass of Ice Lemon Tea in front of me was the most delicious drink on this planet while looking at Don Don (this is the part where I'm thankful I have two Putehs).

Meanwhile, Shreky was still recovering from the sourness of the fruit that he had never ate before.

Dumb bird.

Pets are amazing. Yes. I know you've all heard enough of it.

2009-06-05T00:05:00.003+08:00

Mum insists that I owe debts from my previous lives.. That's why it's now payback time and I have to take care of my pets because I'm so indebted.

Like.. for example.. Cao Cao. Who stayed with me for all of .. um... I think 7-9 days before he flew away (and never came back).

I had the privilege of caring for him before the debt was 'returned' and he flew away. Must have been one super small debt.

I don't mind overpaying my 'debt' you know. I think in every life there is always an imbalance. That's why we always owe people something and in our next lives we have to pay them back or vice versa.

I don't mind overpaying by caring him for a longer period of time (like, maybe, the rest of his Puteh life?) so that Cao Cao ends up being the one who is indebted to me.

I am still insistent on my stand that it is not misery that caused me to think about Cao Cao all the time. It's more of worry. I get awfully worried whenever I see crows in my neighbourhood now.

Yes.

Crows. And according to the news last night, Bartley Road is called Ba Te Li Lu in Mandarin. To help you better remember, it's Butter Lee Lu.

Sounds like some dessert, huh?

I still talk about Cao Cao all the time but there is one theory that I always do my best to adhere to.

That is, whatever has died, had died (Didi, Miffy, Small Bottle, Big Bottle, Ma, Mee and Mo, Puffy, Junior, Junior I, Junior II, Junior III, Bingo... etc etc). What matters now is to treasure those who are alive.

I think alot of people ought to practice this theory as well.

I think many people get too saddened and caught up in their own loss that they fail to do what's important; which is to treasure the Now.

I don't. Or at the very least, I try not to get too stagnant about the whole mourning part. TRY.

I just told my mum that I'm considering running to her room first thing after I wake up in the morning and then out to her balcony (which is facing the front gate and at the trees that Cao Cao flew down from on the day I caught him).. and then shouting very loudly "CAOOOO... CAOOO.... WHERE ARE YOU....?"... all this, at the risk of my neighbours calling the cops.

Yes, Fang. The balcony above the front gate is my parents' room. Not my room one. You know what I mean *wriggle eyebrows*. HAHAHA.

I also want to declare one more thing.

All. Putehs. Are. Cute. Period.

Check out Shreky, the naughty little French Loaf head. Yes. A new nickname.

PS: Give my 3.2megapixel hp camera a break.

Pampered Putehs

2009-05-29T15:47:00.002+08:00

It's all my own undoing. I thought it'd be cool to let them fly around my room with everything closed.

Let them exercise those wings abit. Most importantly, help them retain or regain their flight licenses.

Yes. Putehs who haven't stepped out of their cage in a long time flies so poorly, they bang into walls. Hard.

Not mine anymore. They're wonderful navigators of my room and can pick and land any where they want. Well, they do know how to 'test' a surface first before just plomping down their whole weight on it.

So it was through one of these free and easy flying sessions in my room when they actually told me what they had been aiming to do all along.

They've been in my room long enough to know that there is a little container of water right at the corner where Chubby always drinks.

Cao, the pioneer of this free and easy session, then plunged tornado-like straight into the bowl.

The rest is history.

Birds have this funny little thing about them that makes them just like monkeys. They try to imitate each other. Parrots are likewise, except they are able to imitate the way humans talk, and even associate meanings to the word.

Thus, when it came to their turns to fly out of the cage (due to possible fighting and injuring, I do not let them out of the cage at the same time until I am able to tell their aggressiveness towards each other), everyone else plunged into the water bowl as well.

It's all good except for the fact that when they bathe, they splash alot of water out.

I took a sweet little video here to share. Don and Cao are the ones out of the cage. Due to aggression, Shreky's cage was kept shut while the two are out.

You can even see Shrek actually trying to bite them if they land on his cage.

One Night in Beijing~ 你可别喝太多酒

2009-05-28T18:11:00.004+08:00

This song is sooo stuck in my head because a friend of mine is in Beijing on a business trip and did the most unfortunate deed of telling me.

Now, I can't stop singing the song, or rather typing the song in the chatscreen to that particular friend whether or not he is on or offline.

Yes. Maybe some of you have forgotten but I can be THAT irritating.

Yesterday, Manchester United lost to Barca.

*waits for the smirk some of you have so well-prepared awaiting for this day to use it*

Ya lor. Train so much, must give you all chance to use it ma, hor?

HAHAHA..

But that aside, I am JUST sad. But I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm actually depressed by this.

2-0. The part I hate the most is the big fat zero that stares back at me. I don't even mind if we lost 2-1.

And then again, as I have told the other Manchester United fans who are apparently alot more sian than me right now that at least we lost the game 'good'. Meaning to say, we didn't lose it to them because of some stupid undeserving penalties that happened in so many games leading to yesterday's finals.

We couldn't even control much of our possession during the game. I think at least Chelsea had more of a fight with Barca than Manchester United had.

And besides, there are more urgent and pressing matters to think about. Like how, right now due to yesterday's super late night, and maybe it had to do with the number of goals conceded by Man United last night but I very coincidentally popped up two pimples as well. On my nose and on my chinny-chin-chin.

How great is that. Your favourite team lost and here you are, battling with the very two pimples that may have been caused by it.

On top of that, I want to add that...

The stupid grass is NOT growing.

I think I just got duped.

Today is Thursday hor?..... I remember there is something on, on Thursday...

YES. DUAN WU JIE 端午节! *Dragon Boat Festival*

Stupidly enough, I told my mother last night "Tomorrow is Duan Wu Jie ar? Then tomorrow night I want to go 赏月."

*赏月 is a term used when people usually hangout under the moonlight, cause fire hazards by lighting countless candles, eating mooncake, sipping on tea and chit-chatting ALL at the same time. It's direct translation to English is ... um... to appreciate the moon. HAHAHAHA.*

I tell you... my mother was drinking water and she almost puke it out all over the computer monitor.

Apparently in that split second before I could control my mouth, my mind had registered it with the Mooncake Festival.

*rolls eyes*

As if to further rub in the fact that I made that error, my Mum laughed continuously for the next 10 minutes after that.

Happy Duan Wu Jie and enjoy the very nice Kee Zhangs, Ba Zhangs and Nyonya Zhangs!

Oooh. Talk about Zhangs. Ms. Joanna Kang, have you killed the Zhangs yet? Zhang Jiao Zhang this and one more Zhang that. I can't remember the names of that 3 brothers.

That's Qu Yuan for you. Standing on a dragon boat, with huge gigantic dumplings laid at his feet. Apparently I've always thought that Qu Yuan was the originator for dumplings. He was supposedly a very loyal court guy to the kingdom of Chu. Alamak.. what is his title ar?

Statesman, apparently that's what they put over at Wiki.

Qu Yuan was stripped from his title because he opposed the Chu Emperor allying with the state of Qin, where thereafter he became a poet (and that's how he got famous).

Years later, the increasingly powerful State of Qin indeed took over the kingdom of Chu where our poor loyal fellow then committed suicide in despair by throwing himself into the sea.

If you think that's stupid, then let me remind you these things are still happening today. JW once showed me this article where this Kenyan Arsenal fan actually hanged himself after Arsenal lost to Manchester United on a 4-1 aggregate.

You say lah. He die got use or not. Manchester United will purposely lose to Arsenal just so he won't die meh?

Then again if you think you're stupid... think of the equally stupid people who actually tried to commit suicide because their boyfriend / girlfriend broke up with them.

Okay, then people are going to argue that: Cindy, you don't know any better.

I do know. Tell me which part I don't freaking know?

I do acknowledge that I'm luckier than many people in this aspect of my life. Wait. Generally I'm luckier than alot of people in alot of aspects.

But that aside, I do know that your steadys are not everything in your life. What about your family, your buddies, your.. um.. pets.. if you have any.

If you do not know how to appreciate yourself enough, if you do not know the importance of your existence.. GET... A ... DOG...

He will teach... heck.. even SHOW you how it feels to be loved.

I remembered a sign that I saw at SPCA. It stuck in my mind ever since.

"To you, he's just a dog. To him, you're everything."

OKAY GUYS. Now some of you are abit frustrated that I digressed so far away from Qu Yuan's story.

After our lead character died, the people mourned for him. In the hope that the body will not be eaten by fishes, they made rice dumplings and dumped them into the sea in the hope that the fishes will feed on the rice dumplings instead (I think the lucky fishies fed on both).

Also in their urgent boat search for his body, it slowly evolved into today's Dragon Boat racing. Thus the English name for it is Dragon Boat Festival.

That's not the end. I mean, for Qu Yuan's side, that's the end, but then I found out that it is not true. It probably really happened but it was found out that rice dumplings were not invented because of Qu Yuan's death but was an additional story to make an existing festival more meaningful and significant.

DO YOU KNOW... Duan Wu Jie is a public holiday in China and Taiwan.

Pet-Free Blog Post

2009-05-25T23:42:00.005+08:00

No one has told me yet that the mp3 player I've inserted in my blog template is irritating. I take it that it isn't, although its looped and destined to repeat till the end of time (or until copyright legal issues catches up with it) the only three songs that I could think of.

I didn't just want to insert any ol' song.

I thought people reading on my blog ought to listen to something more soothing and less rock, less noise, and absolutely no shouting at all.

I think I talk about my pets abit too much that even I myself am sick of it.

You have to understand dudes and dudettes: Being at home, they are the equivilant of the human beings in my life whereas you have had your fair share of human beings in school / work / everywhere else.

Since I gave my word that there are no pets in this blog post today, here's the catch.

No pets.. but there are plants. HAHA!

I remembered last time when I was in Sec 3, I came upon the very wonderful idea of keeping green beans in the classroom! :D

Yes. What a weirdo idea right. Screw it, we all needed to de-stress.

I was extremely glad when a few other classmtes shared my view and decided to keep their own green beans so that we could sort of compete to see whose green beans grow the fastest.

I think Kingston cheated because his seat was the nearest to the window (and thus, had the access to the strongest sunlight).

But there was a huge problem. Come Friday, our green beans would dry up over the weekend and then wither off by the time we came back to school on Monday.

I eventually flooded the whole desk with water (you know, the little depression in our table where our pens are held), almost drowning the poor bean. It worked, but only sometimes.

I actually took great care of it. Like a primp and proper mother, carefully documenting the plant's changes in height and etc, and taking a photo of it at a regular interval.

A few months later, the plant died.

I think I overwatered it, HAHA. Too much love and care apparently stifles and kills things (remember this, possesive boyfriends and girlfriends). I was so upset that, like a jilted lover, I deleted all the photos and every possible signs that reminded me of its past existence.

Thus in other words, no photo to upload here and tell you all about it.

I immensely regretted my stupid deleting actions. But not to worry. With life, came endless opportunities. All I had to do was to get another green bean and start off all over again.

But there is one problem. You cannot buy ONE single green bean from the shop. You have to buy it by weight.

And knowing me, there are a trillion things I can do with hundreds / thousands of green beans. I'd like sow them everywhere so that they will sprout out all over the entire neighbourhood, instead of killing them all by making them into green bean soup, even though I LOVE GREEN BEAN SOUP.

Do you know I have this ex-colleague (I won't name names) but she has a damn freaking good complexion for her age and I've been told the secret lies with her taking green bean soup like almost every week!

It's a cheap and good alternative then spending $20++ for ONE PIECE of SKII Mask. Crazy price. It's like using 2 piece of $10-dollar notes to stick on your face and then throwing them away afterwards. Abit wasteful right?

Yes, SKII fans, I know it is effective. I know it gives miracles etc etc. I'm just saying this because I am:

a) ignorant
b) is the cannot care less type of girl
c) don't know any better
d) not old until I care about such things (yet)

Choose whichever option fits you.

So yea, today I went to Far East Florist with my parents and then I chanced upon this cute little thing!

I admit. I'm a sucker for such things. Those grow-it-yourself plant kits. Which explains the money I blew away on Staghorn Ferns.

Apparently right now you can get those adult sized staghorn ferns easily too. My dad bought one for the airwell. I'd take a pic of it during daytime tomorrow and then upload it here so that you guys can get to (finally!) see how the adult one actually looks like.. since mine always dies prematurely :(

So yea, I'm gonna grow my own grass! I've tried all kinds of things from the Venus Flytraps to one of mother nature's most powerful plants, the godly Aloe Vera, but this is the very first time that I'm going to plant my own grass.

There were a few choices though. Some were flowers that resembled Gerberras (kind of daisy family, I believe. I've tried my luck at 3-4 pots and failed miserably although each attempt lasted longer than the first).

But eventually I chose the grass because of its very nice name. Blue Moon Grass.

Of course, there is an extremely high possibility that this name is grossly misinterpreted or lost in translation but then it still IS a nice name and I'd be damned if I say that I'm not curious to how the actual grass with such a name actually looks like, since the picture of the grass printed on the box was a big failure.

Since, today is Day 1, I shall put a picture of the plant over here and share it with all of you, haha!

Ladies and Gentlemen, Blue Moon Grass, Day 1:

*Crickets chirping*

YEA YEA YEA. I know what you're thinking. But this is Day 1 what! And I told you this plant is starting from scratch! Which means it's still a seed! Not even a seedling okay!? A seed!

Give it a break!

OPERATION TRY TO CATCH THAT BIRD AGAIN

2009-05-22T00:17:00.005+08:00

Sorry for the caps. But that's what they usually do, right? Or, I assume.

So ever since OPERATION CATCH THAT BIRD failed, I accompanied Mum out, not even wasting one minute of my time thinking about that damn bird because I was too preoccupied with Dynasty Warrior to be disappointed about not even seeing the bugger.

But when I came home later that day, there it was. Clear as day and loud as... a Puteh.. which unfortunately, is not very loud also.

But a distinct calling sound of the Puteh could be heard from the trees above.

Thankfully after getting Shreky and Dondon to retreat (Don's really stupidly terrified of butterflies that I wonder whether he knows that Putehs are actually supposed to feed on insects), I placed them at this little shoe cabinet that is outside the house as well.

Just nicely out of Kilo's reach, yet able to sing loud enough to call the Puteh over.

I parked the car and before my mother could get out of the car too, I ran over to the other side and swooped all 3 cages up in my arms and proceeded to run to the plant structure that Dad had lovingly set up for his Tomato / Ladyfinger / Pumpkin plants.

(I actually forgot to close the car door too.)

Hanged the cages up on it and the sight of my life came.

From the direction of the calls, I could roughly guess that the Puteh was on the tree right opposite our house. I was still looking for it amidst the greenery.

You must admit it's not easy to spot a GREEN bird on a GREEN tree. Moreover one that is so small.

The bird leaped down and flew rightttttttt....

to................

Warning: Objects in picture appear closer than actual

Now, it is one thing to see those huge eagles or trained parrots swooping down to their trainers during those bird shows at Jurong Bird Park.

But it's a completely different feeling when a bird you've never met in your life swoops down from the safety of the trees and lands so near to you.

I tentatively tried to bring a spare empty cage (that due to my sudden stroke of genius, I did fill with water and Puteh food, heck, even a slice of apple!), in the hopes that it would hop in naturally.

Impossible, you say? Well, the fact that it dared to be so close to my Dad yesterday, and then me right at that moment was proof enough that this particular bird had been someone's pet once.

Sad thing about Putehs? You can't really proof that it is yours. So once it flies away, even if someone else caught it, that's it, you know.

It's not like a dog.

Heck. If Shreky himself flies away one day, I'd probably not be able to recognise him if I even see his new owner bringing him out. That's the saddest part.

There are Puteh owners who can, but I am not one of them. But even if you can recognise your own Puteh, how are you going to dispute that?

Okay, digressing I know. But I can't help it after Chubby's recent disappearance (and reappearance) last week.

I should be very proud right now to declare that, after placing the spare / filled up cage near the Puteh, and then squatting some distance away from them under the not-too-gentle late afternoon sun, I finally caught the little bugger.

Out of the whole experience, the most heart-stopping part is NOT when the bird finally hopped into the cage to check out the slice of apple that I placed in there.

It's when I have to reach out my hand to close the cage door to trap the bird!

I was making noises, speaking non-stop to Shreky and Dondon as my hand slowly reached out to close the spare cage's door because I didn't want it to be dead quiet.. you know.. how stillness is associated with predators in the wild.

DEAD SCARY. Thankfully my past employments do not involve such high degree of intensity.

At the split second when my hand was about to reach the cage's door, I considered closing it gently as to not frighten the bird, or should I just shut it down violently to ensure a swift closure.

I decided on the latter. Better than risking it flying out when I'm still struggling with the door. I have to admit the door of the spare cage was abit stiff because of under-utility.

I would upload a clearer picture of him but the photos are with my Mum in her digicam; The unimpressive camera is just about the only downside of E71, haha!

Anyway, I have named the bird already.

And the name of the new Puteh is called.....

NO! JUST BECAUSE ONE IS CALLED SHREKY AND THE OTHER IS CALLED DONKEY (or Dondon for short)... DOESN'T MEAN THAT I'M GOING TO CALL THIS NEW FELLA PRINCESS FIONA.

In fact.. his name is going to be....Cao Cao.

Because of the saying: 说到曹操，曹操就到！

In English, the meaning is the equivalent of: Speak of the devil.

A direct translation will be something along the lines of: As we talk about Cao Cao, he arrives.

Kinda like the way my Dad was excitedly telling us that a Puteh was watching him doing gardening earlier in the evening and then the very next day, we managed to catch it.

Plus, Cao is the same pingyin as the Chinese word for 'grass'. . and we all know by now the primary colour of a Puteh :)

Operation: Catch That Bird

2009-05-21T11:45:00.001+08:00

According to reliable sources (aka my dad), a puteh has been spotted observing him gardening.

The following day, the elite special duties unit (Shreky & Dondon) was equipped appropriately and officially embarked on the top secret mission: OPERATION CATCH THAT BIRD. Officers lay in wait at the garden area awaiting the reappearance of the spy.

Mission was aborted after 45minutes due to Office Dondon panicking (pinballing) in his vehicle (cage) after the unpredicted presence of many butterflies near his appointed camp-out.

The special force hae been officially withdrawn. Mission status: Failed.

Officers are advised to await redployment for the next mission: OPERATION TRY TO CATCH THAT BIRD AGAIN.

King Cry Baby, King Cry Baby, Cry~

2009-05-19T16:33:00.002+08:00

For some reason, the other day, my sliding door was out of alignment.

Someone had obviously pushed it in the wrong 'sliding'.

Not easy. I had 3 panels and luckily only 1 needed to be put back properly. I don't really know how to explain this.

So as the balcony occupant was circling hungrily around my feet, I was doing my best to lift the sliding door back into the correct 'thread'.

No joke. Blardy thing was heavy. I didn't watch where it was landing and one of the corners hit my toe instead.

I lifted the door up quickly again but the pain was soon setting in. I looked down, saw a dot on my toe and then my face could not help but crumpled up already.

Yes, yes. Tears were flowing. I was crying outwardly due to the pain, not bothering to hold my emotions back.

As the tears blurred my vision, I saw that the little wound was 'growing'.

It was honestly one of the smallest wound I got in the past few years. I mean, even if I had a mosquito bite and I scratched at it until the skin was raw (yes, I'm a violent mosquito bite scratcher!), the size of wound was easily let's say 3x the wound that the sliding door gave me.

Des was there alright. The first response from him was him running over to check my wound. When he realised it was just a small dot and that I was crying, he laughed.

He. Freaking. Laughed.

If it wasn't for the pain that made me lean my body weight on the other uninjured foot, I would have kicked him.

Apparently he found it extremely funny and that I looked like some little girl who fell down and started crying.

Not funny, Bob. Not funny.

Grasshopper Powder

2009-05-18T18:29:00.003+08:00

The other day due to some prompting from some individual (I forgot which friend), I went Wikipedia to search for the angmoh name of Mata Putehs.

I then found out that they are called Oriental White-Eye. What an atas name! Oriental wor. Should call them Imperial or something, since I'm not surprised even if emperors back in the olden days of the Whatever Dynasty do rear these birds.

Oriental Imperial White Eye!!!

Unfortunately I don't think those emperors have time to. Probably more preoccupied with wars or something. Ohh.. or is that my warped point of view due to me playing Dynasty Warriors that is nothing but wars.. wars and MORE wars?

That aside, through Wikipedia, I also found out that Putehs are insectivores. . .

And the Puteh pellets that I have always been feeding them with contained absolutely nothing related to Insects (either that, or they didn't bother to list it down as one of the ingredients).

I read the ingredient list and it stated every kind of damn bean there is in the Asian market. Beans. Yes.

Insectivores... and I have only been feeding them Beans! That's like making a carnivore a vegetarian! Well, almost.

They do have their miserable intake of insect in their diet; consisting of some unfortunate and careless fly that somehow fly into their cage.

No wonder despite putting fruits in their cages for them to eat, there are NEVER fruit flies swarming about!

I quickly made my way down to look for 'kinder' alternative insect food since I do not want to buy live crickets/grasshoppers nor do I want to buy live worms.

"Why?" you may ask.

Do you know there is a special fork to impale the insect on?

According to SO, he says that firstly you must catch the, for e.g., grasshopper, make an incision in the centre of the body and PEEL it open so that its innards are exposed.

Think that's cruel?

After that, you have to impale the poor bugger (who is probably in shock), onto the special insect fork while the Puteh feed on its organs.

Are your legs feeling jelly now?

Let me jelly-fy it more for you!!!

TA DAAAA!!!

Chubby's Weakness is that he looks cute

2009-05-17T10:15:00.003+08:00

I couldn't sleep man. Because the more I think about it the more pissed off I am.

Some people in this world is... *shakes head*.

My dog OBVIOUSLY belongs to someone. Tagged. With MY address and MY mobile number.

And poor Chubby had to wait until 9+pm before a kind-hearted family happily having their chalet all the way at Costa Sands actually FOUND HIM.

I agree it is partly my fault that my dog went out, desipte me having already made sure the door is closed and the sliding doors are closed.

Why? Because it is my dog, I'm the blardy owner and somehow people always blame the owner when the dog gets lost even if the owner is not at home and have absolutely no idea how the dog got out.

Not trying to specifically pin-point who's at fault here but going to solve this stupid problem by making sure that everytime I leave the house to go out, I'm going to tie Chubby up.

Anyway, I want to warn all those who has dogs that however old / sick / partially deaf / partially blind your dog is, there are CHEAPSKATE people in the world who tries to bring it home to keep!

Apparently the asshole (Yes, I'm spelling the word properly here because that person deserves it).. or assholes, for that matter, realised Chubby's disabilities at the last minute and decided to dump him there.. AT THE CARPARK.

The family who contacted me told me they found him at the carpark wandering aimlessly and almost knocked down by the moving vehicles.

One great solution to solve this problem is to spend less than $20 to make those metal dog tag with your name and telephone number. There are kind souls out there who will contact you, in the super unanticipated event that your dog goes missing.

Worst of all is that when such things happen, it dampens your mood too, you know. What with it being the weekend and all. My Saturday is destroyed.

DW Coffee Break

2009-05-15T23:24:00.003+08:00

Ahh... The irony. Because those who know me well also know that I do not take coffee.

Coffee and Cigarettes. The two most common addictions in the world today. . .

But I'm not going to waste this post to talk about those today.

Apparently I'm STILL stuck at where I was. After killing Diao Chan and her 'lover' whose name I cannot remember but it starts with a 'Z'... I am still stuck at Lu Bu and that huge tiger that I just cannot kill :(

I always run out of potions before I managed to finish them off.

Actually for this Dynasty Warrior game, those aren't potions. They're called meat buns. HAHAHA!!

Yes. A translation for Man Tou, I believe.

By the way, do you know that the modern day 'man tou' was believed to have been invented by Zhuge Liang?

Cool right?

Okay, so what I really want to talk about today is my new handphone.

I just got a E71x (which is the newer full black version).

Don't ask me how I find the phone. Obviousy there is something about this phone that I like alot, or at least enough to buy it. So right now, if you ask me, I'd say that I'm still quite contented with it, thank you very much.

But as you know, the honeymoon period for owning a handphone is 3 days. So maybe you should come and ask me the same thing after 3 days and I'd give you a better answer by then.

I have to admit though, when converting from a Sony Ericsson phone to a Nokia one, the contacts SCREW UP BIG TIME.

For example, 'Cindy Lim HP' in your contact would become 'Lim HP, Cindy'.

No matter how I toggled with the format of (first name, last name)... or even use the (last name, first name), the format just wouldn't get back.

So much for overdoing things, Nokia.

And one of the highlight today was a Crocs woven bag. Let's just call it a paper bag. Woven bags are the more environmentally-friendly version of paper bags.

So I traded in my C902 to the shop. They had a whole lot of testing to do to it to ensure that my phone is in re-saleable condition. Since I haven't had my dinner, I told the guy we would come back later after we ate.

THANKFULLY other than the handset that he was testing, I had the brains to leave the package box there too and only took away the paper bag (I like it alot and was afraid if I left it at the shop someone else would take it).

Wrong move, somehow.

We went to eat and walked away.

Less than 20 steps away from the table, we were stopped by a kind stranger who asked if I left a bag behind.

I thanked him and we both walked back and VIOLA. Bag was already gone.

I thought that maybe the efficient hawker centre cleaner had threw away everything but it was not the case for our finished plates were all still intact.

You should have seen that guy's face. He was like super shocked, up until I told him that it's okay because there is nothing in the bag.

Thanked him again, and went back outside to join Des the Smoker who was polluting the environment.

Des (and not only him, I must say), had to add in some sarcasm into the situation by saying I should have scolded the stranger cos he should have taken the bag and ran after us instead of asking us to go back to retrieve it.

Hey, that stranger could have chosen not to do ANYTHING. I thought it was very nice of him to do so already. And no, I'm not saying this because he is dropdead gorgeous okay?

Thing is right now, I am still very worked up over the arse who stole my Crocs woven bag.

And the thought of that thief possibly discarding the bag in some random dustbin after realising there is NOTHING in the bag ANGERS ME EVEN MORE!...

*Ciin enters Fury mode* (PS: You won't get this unless you play Dynasty Warrior)

MIA-ing Again.

2009-05-14T23:28:00.002+08:00

Whenever I seldom update my blog (considering I used to do so every blardy day), alot of you more or less have guessed that I am up to something.

A new game...

A new pet...

Or pulling every strand of my hair to encourage it to grow faster after getting a very regrettable haircut.

Thankfully, my absence is not due to the last-mentioned situation.

I am currently super hooked onto Dynasty Warriors - Strikeforce (PSP). Introduction to this game is courtesy of Mr. Nick Toh, one of my UWA karkee.

The game rocks. I recommend anyone who owns a PSP to.. um... buy it.

Canon IXUS Test

2009-05-11T23:14:00.002+08:00

Let me see if I can just link the photo from Facebook to here...

Wow! Perfect.

Okay, now that I can save precious limited space on Blogger and then route the images over instead.

Now, that photo of Shreky was taken using the Canon IXUS. As I have promised to put up the photos.

There is also a video too, but as you know, I've stupidly accidentally deleted it :( so I'd take a better one and then upload it up for you to savour.. provided I get a good opportunity to video something stupid, haha!

But as with all digicams, there comes this problem. It is not prepared enough (yet) for ample situations.

Like.. if you want to take in a rather dark place.

Des and I wanted to take one with the flyer. But it ended up like this:

Yes. You can see the flyer. But you cannot see us :(

A stroke of genius led us to turn on the flash.

Unfortunately, the picture became like this....

So kids, what do you learn from this?

1) Choose a better lit place.

2) or else.. Choose between yourselves and the Flyer.

All in all, I'm not testing the Canon IXUS for picture perfect qualities. I'm just testing its user-friendliness of which I rate it 8/10. I would have given it a perfect score but then that is because I've been using my C902 and am sorta accustomed to the many logos and meanings they have on the digi-cameras these days. So I'm minus-ing 2 precious points off the perfect score in view of those who many not have come into contact with a PROPER camera for decades.

By the way, I don't know whether it's because I'm hard to please or what, but I do find the Marina Barrage a little boring.

Maybe it is attributed to me being there at a bad time (close to evening, thus the water museum attraction was already closed), plus it seemed more like an ideal place for families with kids since the kids went berserk at their little water splashing attraction where everyone can wade around in knee-high water and then navigate through the water park that kinda reminds me of a less exciting version of what they have at Pasir Ris.

I do not know how is it possible to go to that place in the afternoon though. Sweltering heat. *rolls eyes*.

I am starting to agree with Uncle Lee. One of the greatest invention in the world is...

The air-con.

The Canon Digital IXUS 860IS

2009-05-11T02:00:00.003+08:00

I have had the privilege of using one lately.

It belonged to my mother.

I must say that digital cameras these days have improved tremendously by leaps and bounds.

Anti-Shake features.. Smile Detectors... Everything you think of or could NOT think of are now input as functions of these new awesome gadgets.

Smile Detectors is a rather debatable function. Sure it's good to capture those dao-sters who hardly smile for the camera. But what about some of the photos that you purposely didn't want to capture them smiling?

Sometimes the subject may be ready but the cameraman isn't.

. . . Which suddenly reminds me of how my mother fell down at the bowling alley that day.

No, I wasn't able to capture it on camera / video. But I was still quite convinced up to the very last second that she had fell down on purpose.

She had just bowled a ball and as it slowly rolled towards its destination (which was the drain), my mother kept tilting her head in the opposite direction in the hope that the ball could miraculously 'tilt' to her head's direction as well to move back to the centre lane.

Not only did her head-tilting stunt have absolutely no effect on the ball, Mum ended up falling on the bowling lane itself too.

The thing was, it was a super slow-motion fall that I thought she was just trying to show us how frustrated she was at the shot.

Okay, back to the camera, which was also there that fateful day.

I have managed to take a few shots and would be uploading them real soon over here. Only the nice ones. All would eventually end on Facebook but only the nice ones will be seen here.

I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did.

I was quite pissed because earlier today I did take a cute video of Shreky who was busy eating orange. He was SO close and then he suddenly saw the camera lense and 'disappeared' from view in the video itself..

Only to hop back a few seconds later because the orange was just too tempting. . But not before he peered into the camera lense out of curiousity, and to ensure that nothing threatening is inside the dark lense. It is so awfully cute, I laughed and the whole camera (and video) shook with me.

But here's the best part.

When I was reviewing all the photos that were taken, I chanced upon a photo of a really blur-looking Shrek. Without second thoughts, I deleted it along with a few genuine blurred shots since young Putehs like Shreky are extremely fidgety.

Stupid thing to do. Because I deleted the video too!

Sigh.... Guess I'd just take another one tomorrow!!

Not going Holland V for a long long time!

2009-05-09T00:39:00.003+08:00

I find it very difficult to actually LIKE a place that is full of hippies, yuppies, locals and expats.

But the major pet peeve of Holland V?

SUCKY CARPARK. Gawd, save me! Why didn't the government do something about the superb LACK of carpark spaces at Holland V?

Oh no, they actually DID do something! They installed the blardy ERP barriers, that's what!

And then for the very first time in my life, someone actually snatched car park space with us. I thought this kinda people only existed in other people's stories but it has finally happened to me.

Needless to say these people really.. .. wa.. how to say ar... How to say them without sounding blatantly rude and vulgar? ROARRRRRRR!!!!!

So despite the very nice Sushi Tei meal and all, with the right atmosphere and absolutely no smokers near the area (if you exclude Des sitting in front of me, and even then, he didn't smoke near the place.. not because he didn't. More like because he wasn't allowed to.), I have to regretfully state that unless it's my leave day on a busy WEEKDAY where living souls would not be able to recall that such a place as Holland V actually exists.. THEN I will go to Holland V!

PS: Remember the photo of the super nice goldfish from the previous post? Well, a short update here. He's dead.

Yes.

He managed to trespass the border and get over to Cherry's side of the tank. There are guppies there too but they just do not interest Cherry. But this new nice and colourful one did.

There are now 3 parts of it that lay at the bottom of the tank. Stupid Cherry, she obviously killed for fun this time. It's beautiful tail is still intact and no part of the fish is missing.

I think if I look closely enough, I've even managed to spot some of its fishy intestines floating out from the mutilated corpse.

Of Puffers and Guppies

2009-05-07T15:32:00.004+08:00

Yes, yes. I know it's a cruel thing to do; feeding live food to Cherry. But as all of you know I will choose to sacrifice any fish, any time, if Cherry shows any interest towards turning the new fish occupant into fish sashimi. Unfortunately, this includes my $12 Frontosa that had (suddenly disappeared and)passed away last year. I found its spinal bone at the bottom of the tank several days after its disappearance was noted.

Spending most of my time in front of my computer, what with the fish tank right beside me, has led to me paying even more attention to the fish tank. The part of my animal kingdom that is probably the most overlooked.

Oscar the terrapin is ranked at 2nd most overlooked. But then again I'm not very worried about him. He knows WHEN he wants to eat and he MAKES SURE he gets his food. From ignorant little mosquitoes buzzing near him, to his turtle pellets that he gets by making 'noise'.

Noise, in this sense of the word, refers to him banging against my balcony sliding door until I finally feed him.

Oscar, may I add, has the ability to recognise the presence of humans.

A recently switched-on light? The toilet door being opened / closed? Sounds of foot steps?

One, or a combination of the above will lead him to knock continuously against the balcony door until he gets fed.

That cheeky turtle. He is forever hungry.

Now back to the fish tank.

Cherry, the Target Puffer, with the evil gleam in her eye. I just always assume Cherry's a 'her' because she's so reclusive

Cherry has always amazed me. I sometimes wonder how she remains so fat even though I admit to not feeding her on a regular basis. Frozen blood worms every 3-4 days certainly isn't alot for her size. But at least for her, I ensure that there is live food in her tank that she can catch and munch as and when.

But even these live feed seem to stay around for a long time before sometimes dying off from natural causes.

I have a stubborn thing about live food. They need to be quarantined in a separate tank because I would not risk Cherry to any disease.. what with Puffers being a scale-less fish and more susceptible to such stuff.

I admit guppies was my last choice in this. I would usually go for ghost shrimps (which I'm too lazy to quarantine because they always JUMP OUT of my small quarantine tank and I gave up totally).

Another problem was that these shrimps seem to die off even BEFORE Cherry saw them!! Maybe they are not called GHOST shrimps for nothing, haha!

Another thing I didn't like was, in the REAL world, you could survive if you're tough enough. If you're fast enough. And if you recognise danger well in advance of other fishies.

But then this guppy thing goes against this natural theory.

How? Well, if you're ugly, you're dirt cheap and packaged up and sold with a few hundred other guppies for a mere $2 per packet.

If you're a pretty little guppy, you're dead expensive. And can go for up to $3 PER fish!

One of the $3 per fish guppy
Now there is this Mandarin saying: 一分钱，一分货。Meaning to say, you get what you pay for. I think it applies to fishes.

But the tricky part about fish is this. You can pay for one with all the money in the world and then take it home. BUT. You cannot guarantee its survival.

I think water is such a difficult thing to control. You can measure it all you want but something may have caused some sort of upset in water balance.

There are a trillion things to measure. Nitrate level. Ammonia level. Salinity level. Air bubbles.. are they too big or too fine?

All of which, I have to admit, I didn't really bother with. HAHAHA.. Till date, I have not even bought a pH test measurement kit.

I just change the water as and when I feel like it, which would probably be, at most once every 2 weeks?

Believe me, fishes are sometimes more hardy than you think.

When I just got fishes, I dutifully changed the water every Saturday WITHOUT FAIL.

My fish reciprocated my goodwill by dying off a few at a time, every few days, without fail.

Barcelona 3, Man Utd 3

2009-05-04T23:56:00.002+08:00

Yes. I have THAT vivid dreams.

I dreamt that I watched the whole match!

In fact, when I woke up thanks to some inconsiderate SMS-ing friend (ahem ahem), I pondered with sleepy half-open eyes whether I should quickly resume sleeping because sometimes if you do so, you can continue the dream.

It has got to be the best match I watched so far.

But you know what was the funny thing?

Gary Neville actually scored. For Man Utd. Twice.

How power is that!!!

To begin with, for those who don't know, Neville is the captain, but also a defender of Man United. Along with Giggsy and Scholes, they're probably the only ones left of the Treble team 10 years ago whom I absolutely adored :)

In fact, during injury time (in the match that I was watching in my dream), I actually watched to the part where there was a throw-in.

Somehow, Phil Neville was the one who threw the ball in. Now this was weird, because Phil Neville had already gone to Everton (in fact, he captains Everton now!) all the way back in 2005.

Sadly I only learnt of this when I watched the match where Man Utd played against Everton. With great dismay, Man Utd lost out on penalties. I have to admit it was not surprising, what with the young team that was fielded.

But then again, a loss is a loss, and I admit it as a Man Utd fan. Who says Man Utd fans can't afford to lose? Actually we would RATHER not lose. Not that we can't AFFORD to lose.

I think if the opposition team rightly deserves victory, and if Man Utd was playing like shit that day for some reason, then the opposition ought to win.

You wouldn't want the team you support to lose AT ALL, right? You don't have to be a paranoid fan to want that.

Okay, and after Phil Neville threw the ball in, and boy did he really throw, he threw so far in that it was very near to the goalkeeper of the opposing team.

Guess who rushed out fast to reach the ball as all the players made a mad dash to that side of the field.

Yes.

Gary Neville!!! Wooooo!!!

Okay, I have to add the part that he looked much younger in my dream than he did now. Probaby due to that unshaven rough look.

Is it suppposed to be the 'in' thing now? Because it's not looking IN at all!

Gary, remove it!

The thing was, Phil threw the ball SO FAR in that Gary almost couldn't catch it in time before it went behind the white line (and ending up as a Goal Kick).

He did manage to stop it (I have to add that even in my dream, my heart did stop for a few seconds as I wonder if he would be able to reach it in time).

It was exactly on the white line.

Then he had to move it in a little more just to shoot it on goal but that was too late, because the other defenders had already closed in on him. A mild confusion ensued as in my dream I was trying to figure out who cleared the ball where and where the hell is the ball now.

Yes. My dreams were that incredibly detailed. I think I ought to write a book on my dreams alone if people were interested to read more about them.

Man, can you imagine? I would be indirectly earning my money by sleeping alot!

HAHA!!

Oh ya, I wanted to say something about Phil Neville as well, just to take the opportunity since I'm on the topic.

This is with regards to the Everton and Manchester United game that I blogged earlier on in this post.

You see, when it came down to penalties, Phil was one of the designated penalty-takers for Everton.

There was no doubt about it that he would score that penalty for Everton.

But the most important thing was what he said after that that made me respect him alot more.

'When I scored I did not want to celebrate in front of the Manchester United fans. You don't celebrate in front of people who have helped you in your career, but inside I was burning. When we won it I was just happy to celebrate with the Everton fans.'

That's sweet man. That's so blardy sweet.

(And then I would like to add, discreetly, that the same news article goes on to blast Rooney who does not hesitate to celebrate in front of the fans of his ex-employers, Everton, whenever he scores against them.)

Goodbye Mary

2009-05-03T14:01:00.006+08:00

Mary was a very nice Mercedes S350 that my Dad owned. Well, I seemed to have named Mary wrongly because although Mercedes starts with the letter M, I usually name cars after the 1st alphabet of their model. In Mary's case, it was supposed to be the letter S.

Well, doesn't matter now. Because Mary is now a car that my Dad USED TO own.

He changed it before I could even sneeze.

One thing i really loved about Mary was that, as most Mercedes are, they are wide and spacious, and is without one of the classic chauffeured cars available on the market (which is why my Dad probably changed it because no one chauffeured him around. My bad. I have no guts to drive a wide car and risk scratching it against anything.)

The above picture shows the arm rest where Mum and Dad always put their elbows on.

Kilo sometimes puts his head there too, in his once-in-10-years of a car ride.

One extremely funny thing about Kilo is that he loves to nibble on elbows. That little part of skin right above your elbow bone.

Now his nibbling HURTS, I tell you! He is able to use his teeth to pinch just a tiny bit of your skin that is so incredibly painful it makes you shudder and get goosebumps. Of course, not before you turn around and yell at him to stop.

Alot of us have been his nibbling victim.

Talk about being funny and comical, one of the things I would miss about the car was the fact that the back passenger seat on the left side was apparently the 'appointed' boss seat.

So, sometimes, boss may want to have a look at the front view of the car, but is unfortunately blocked by the front passenger seat, right?

Thus, boss' seat has the option of toggling with the seat of the front passenger.

Sometimes out of nowhere, my mother would give a short scream because her chair would suddenly move.

No prizes for guessing who is behind that :D

Now some of you must be wondering how is it done, so here's a pic I took as well.

Yes, the seat of the back passenger can also be toggled. Back rest, seat height, head support.

See the little 'front' and 'back' arrow direction?

Depressing the back one means you are toggling the seat fixture of the back passenger seat.

The 'front' arrow direction will affect Mum's seat. Heck, it will affect her throat as well since she usually gives a little scream too, HAHAHA!

One last thing about Mary I would miss?

The little make-up mirror that is available to both the back passengers.

Seldom, if ever, used by anyone else other than me. And even then I only used it sparingly when I need to comb / tie up my hair.

For the 'Superstar' effect, the little mirror has lights all over that shines on you when you flip it down.

Yes, Mary, my not-so-little Superstar car.. You will be missed :)

Meanwhile, let's welcome Lucy back!! Lucy the Second! Now in PURPLE colour too! Wooot! Purple rocks!!!

(Photo not yet taken. But I'm sure it will be, somehow. Like, really soon!)

For the sake of Security

2009-04-30T00:44:00.003+08:00

I think I'm kinda paranoid about safety.

It's been a rather long time since I took a plane so I don't know how am I going to tahan taking a plane right now.

I absolutely HATE that feeling where it's like a 'slight drop'. Especially during turbulence.

I think I'd be the only passenger who died if I were sitting on that Qantas flight that time that met with such a turbulence, alot of people and things, hit the ceiling when the plane 'dropped'. And then again, it would be because I died from a heart attack.

I can imagine the drop would be so severe because some of the passengers had to be warded in for fractured ribs!

I would have became hysterical on the flight.

So, ladies and gentleman, remember to be more polite to your pilots if you see them going in before you.

If they look kinda depressed or whatever, maybe you ought to skip that flight altogether.

Now this wasn't the only instance.

There were situations also, I have to add.

Like when I met a few of my buddies recently and we spoke all the way to 3am. Yes. We were a bunch of jobless people.

After that, I walked back to my car to drive home and once I got in, I immediately locked the door.

Then there were also times when Des and I caught some late movie and were going home, once we got into the car I requested that he locked the car door.

I cannot imagine going to JB with him alone. That's because I would indefinitely have a heightened sense of fear for our safety, probably tenfold.

I'm not saying we will DEFINITELY get robbed there. The situation is not that bad. But you have to admit the probability is higher than if we shopped here.

I can imagine 101 ways that a person could have robbed us, and even steal the car. For the busybodies out there, we are not going to get married that soon (probably ten years later or so), but whenever it may be, I would greatly appreciate if Ivan was our wedding car, and not a stolen car.

However the only slip-up that would occur would be that during lunch time, especially back when I was at work, I used to have the habit of leaving my wallet and handphone lying on the table with me sitting right beside it.

I know some of you think it's okay, but you have got to imagine the possible scenario that a snatch thief might chance upon it and make full use of the opportunity to grab and run.

I think this was because a friend of mine had his handphone stolen like that. He chased the thief almost all the way down Orchard Road.

It was quite sad because no one tried to help him stop the thief. I often recalled this incident out of the blue and feel the anger on his behalf.

But that aside, it made me pay more attention, but I somehow have a lapse during lunchtime maybe because my brain cells had more important relaxation to do when I've been at work for the whole morning already.

And why, all of a sudden, am I talking about all this?

Cos I think I've met my match.

You see, so cautious was I that I always made sure that even in my Sims game, the houses I built come equipped with burglar alarm device.

But the owner of this house has really outdid me. In the sense that they really DO put some sort of burglar alarm device.

It's one of the houses located along the main road. If I took the a bus to go to Toa Payoh, from my elevated height I could actually peer over the wall and see for myself the many Puteh cages that were hanging outside the house, under a specially constructed shelter.

Not just Putehs. There were Jambul cages too. Pardon me if I got the spelling of the 'Jambul' bird wrongly, because the spelling kinda resembles a fruit.

It was probably half the size of my place, but you would be surprised at the security cameras. I think they easily had more security cameras than the number of my household members put together.

Incredible.

And let me remind you again, this house is located along the main road. Who would dare burglar a house along the busy traffic?

Advertisements on Facebook

2009-04-27T23:35:00.003+08:00

I just want to do a short mention here that you know those irritating quizzes people always do on Facebook?

They are LESS irritating if you DON'T SEND INVITES TO FRIENDS.

Please be AWARE that there is the option of skipping the invite part and just proceed straight to quiz results!

Also, I'm just curious.

Am I the only one that are very disgusted and affected by the ads they have on Facebook? Ads that are promoting the other applications on Facebook.

One of it that really ticks me off in a humourous way is the IQ test. I haven't taken the IQ test application before. Apparently, it ranks to me the friends of mine that had taken theirs.

I still insist on not taking the test because of the ranking I saw. I have nothing to say about those whose IQ is high and pretty 'normal'.

What irks me is friends among me whom I deem pretty intellectual were actually like the bottom 3 scorers.

It freaks me out.

Another one would be those that consists of 'Which of your friend stated that they have a crush on you?"

Etc etc.

Because one of the ads was like saying: Is XXX(my friend's name here) trying to FLIRT with you?

For added effect, on the advertisement banner, the word 'FLIRT' was flashing and in a different colour from all other texts on the banner, making it really stand out.

They not only plucked my friend's name from dunno-where, they also included his display pic.

Usually I would just turn a blind eye and ignore it. But this is rather disturbing because of the fact that this friend is married and his display pic is a really cute photo of him and his newborn.

Life is just like that I guess.

It's weird. I haven't heard anyone complaining about the weather these days. Are all of you so caught up in your air-conditioned offices / schools? Our environment is going crazy. Mother Nature is turning evil and going to whack us back for all the pollution.

But meanwhile, I think I would really die without air-conditioning. I am on the verge of getting Kilo to sleep in the room with me at nights because even night time is SO HOT outside!

In fact, during one of these hot days, guess what I captured?

I actually saw TWO suns in the sky. Or what looks like two suns.

Here's it.

If you see it in real life, it actually looks like two suns. Now that I've uploaded the pic up on the computer, it doesn't look like it. More like a 'break' in the sky where the sun shines through. It seems like you can even see the rainbow coming through at the right 'sun'.

As you can see, the REAL sun is the one on the left shining angrily through the trees.

And there, right smack in the middle is a beautiful piece of artwork from one of the mynahs that hang out directly opposite my house.

Des claims that he only gets 'bombed' by bird poo like that whenever he parks at my place.

Superstitions

2009-04-26T14:03:00.002+08:00

I get kind of superstitious when it comes to Soccer.

Okay, some people asked why am I watching suddenly out of nowhere. All I can say is that if you don't have to wake up early for school / work, you turn to any other forms of entertainment during those nights where you can't get to sleep.

Soccer was it.

The timing was perfect. It usually ends at 3-4+am which is my current bedtime hours.

Believe me it was superbly difficult to go to bed when I was working at the event a few days ago.

In a way I was thankful that event only lasted 3 days because my sleeping cycle was really hay-wired, although I really enjoyed myself.

So anyway, I was at the peak of my Man Utd obsession in the years leading up to the treble.

It all just stopped when the stupid Starhub bought over the broadcasting rights to the soccer matches. You know what they say; out of sight, out of mind.

But even back then when Channel 5 was still faithfully showing the games, I had them all taped down on VHS. It was this weird thought of mine then they seem to lose whenever I watched them live!

Needless to say, at the UEFA finals at Nou Camp, I naturally taped down the match instead and watched it the next morning (even before I brushed my teeth.. and you know how important it is to me that I brush my teeth 1st thing, every day!).

The feeling was as good as watching it live, honestly.

I scream and threw cushions into the air when Solskjaer tapped the ball in at the final minutes.

So I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry for watching the Tottenham match last night. 'Luckily' enough, my connection died during half-time. Which probably explains why in the first half Man Utd was DOWN 0-2, and when I was unable to continue watching, they could actually score 5 goals in the second half!

Cherry is pure Evil

2009-04-25T23:46:00.004+08:00

I think I'm finally seeing Des' point of view.

Today, I wanted to buy some fishes just to fill up my tank. You know, to let it have at least some signs of life.

Cherry isn't exactly a visually-appeasing occupant of the tank. He/She/It only comes out when all the lights are totally turned off and I'm in bed.

How do I know? Because there was once I realised I forgot to do something so I got up and turned on the lights.

Viola, Cherry was out of the tank swimming around.

Upon seeing the lights turned on, he/she/it scurried back to the 'safety' of its little cave immediately.

Man, I hate that. I sometimes pondered removing that cave, but then it just made Cherry use another piece of volcanic rock as its alternative hide-out.

My intention was to get those $2 for a big packet of guppies to fill the tank with. They reproduce quickly enough and are more adaptable to the brackish water environment that Cherry needs.

The OTF Aquarium I went to today don't stock up on guppies. Either that or they ran out. Since part of the reason was to feed Cherry with the fish, the nice lady there suggested I get goldfishes instead, since the dead ones will be conveniently eaten by Cherry.

I did.

I LOVE Goldfishes. Damn cute chubby wubby little aquatic things.

Plus the fact that they're so greedy makes them try to get your attention all the time so that they can be fed.

Bad idea.

In my rush to leave the house again, I released all the little goldfishes into the quarrantine tank.

All but one. I wanted to see if they are really that adaptable to brackish waters so I immediately released it into the main tank where Cherry resides. I have to admit as well that I did so knowing that this fish might be dead by the time I come home.

So I wasn't too shocked when I found the fish stuck to the filter pipe when I came home just a few hours later.

But I was in for a huge surprise when I looked closely and realised the fish's gills were still moving!

I turned off the filter and the fish swam away and I understood why it was stuck.

Half of its body was gone, no doubt, Cherry had a huge part to play in it.

In fact, it's tail was dangling by a thin shred of skin.

As the poor fella still swam around clumsily because the tails were not helping it to navigate, I was about to burst in tears.

I knew the fishes were going to die, but I didn't want them to die a slow and painful death such as this!

I used a fishing net and pushed the dying but still struggling fish into Cherry's tank.

No use.

Cherry just wouldn't take a second bite although the fish was struggling RIGHT in front of him/her/it.

To cut short the pain, I scooped it into another little container and added a drop of clove oil.

Problem settled. The fish was 'put to sleep' in the most humane way I could afford it at such short notice.

I have to admit, it did struggle for some time before it kicked the bucket even after the clove oil was added.

It sure had this strong determination to survive but there was really no way I could have helped it. I mean, even looking at how the tail dangled disgusted me to no end. It was so separated from the body, as it struggled and swam against the current my filter made in the main tank, its tail actually could turn like 360 degrees.

I'm sure if you just held on to the tail and pulled, it would have severed it from the body.

Finally after it had died... I fed it to Oscar.

I should have done so much earlier because it probably would have worked faster than adding the Clove Oil and all and have to wait for the effect to kick in.

Trusty little Oscar baby :) Thank you for eating the dead goldfish so fast! You certainly are an efficient green little fella :)

Allow me to add a cute little photo of Kilo here too.

I was cleaning the bird cage today and wiping it dry after scrubbing with detergent when Kilo took the chance to open the gate and sneak into the house.

Because the idea struck me out of nowhere, I decided to throw the cloth on him. It landed right on top of his head, and there it stayed.

The silly dog. He made it look so comfortable it was as if I had put a cloth over his head everyday!

Cheated of my moola! :(

2009-04-25T15:32:00.002+08:00

I was once cheated of my money.

From then on, I drew the line very clearly wherever money was involved.

Not many people knew about that. And then those who know, they hardly remembered because it was 'unimportant'.

I feel lucky in a way.

There were things that happened to me when I was young that I had to grow up in that few specific area. I've known some pretty childish people in my life. With some of them having already passed their mid-life crisis mark.

Now this money thing actually happened back when I was in freaking Primary 1.

7 freaking years old. And I already got cheated. It wasn't even a school bully, though it is unfortunate to hear that school bullying is getting more rampant these days what with internet access you can even proceed to do some anonymous cyber-bullying.

I was lucky. My bully was far too obvious. She hit my head with her knuckles (MANY times) but she didn't know that because she wasn't a ghost, she had a shadow and I saw how she lifted her hand to hit me from behind. She then pretends to look away when I turn around in anger to stare at her. I ought to ask her to go and kill herself first before coming to hit my head so at least she won't have a shadow to give her away.

Okay, everytime we talk about her I get in a bad mood. I still remember her full name up to this day you know. And recently I freaked out because JW's girlfriend's name was damn similar to hers.

That aside, when I was in Primary 1, I had a classmate whose name was Belinda Lee or something. I dare to type out her name because I think she deserves the humiliation.

She was the smart type. Always topping our class.

Up to this day I wonder why she did that, you know.

She wanted us to give her money, and it wasn't just me, man. It was a whole group of us that sat near to each other in class.

When we asked why (like duh?), she told us she needed it for her family.

That's like, wtf. But then again, when you were in Primary 1, you didn't know how much was worth. You didn't know that a few cents were not even able to pay your electricity bills and etc.

I happened to have a very good memory of everything that happened when I was young. Most things. Especially incidences such as these.

You know what she said?

Her mother is blind, and her dad had just passed away. She has another younger sibling, a brother or sister, I forgot. And because of all this, her family was damn poor.

She is studying in CHIJ Katong for chrissakes! Now that I think back, really... Poor my foot!

I even can clearly recall her face when she said that. She looked down at her feet and looked so upset that she really managed to fool all of us!

She didn't ask for an exact amount though. We just gave her what we could spare. I gave her a total of 15 cents (haha!), though I remembered the others gave her much more.

I also bought this book mark that she drew and tried to sell for us at 30cents each.

Okay, so that means the total that I was cheated of amounted up to 45cents or more since there were other instances she tried to ask us for money.

So, imagine all our blardy shock when one day her mother came to school to fetch her. Apparently the mother also came to do some documentation to transfer her to another school... which school? Tao Nan Primary, mind you.

Apparently she must have been sick of her daughter topping our class (maybe even the blardy cohort) term after term.

To add to the shock, the 'blind' mother wears her sunglass in the a wrong way; instead of on her nose bridge, she put them on her head as the school's interior was rather dark.

End of Event, Phew!

2009-04-25T00:41:00.003+08:00

To be honest, it was a rather... weird.. part time job.

I enjoyed it. Really. Because it was an eye-opener for a person like me who avoided Comex and stuff not only because I hated the crowd but I absolutely know nothing about IT stuff.

It's only natural for humans to avoid things they are not good at. Well, at least for me.

But this was interesting. I got to learn alot of new things like OOBA, Man-in-the-middle attacks and other similar technical terms. Sometimes, things that you learn OUTSIDE of the classroom stays in your head pretty longer.

For stuff learn in school, I usually forget all of it the moment I put up my hand to submit the exam paper.

A teacher once described to us that the brains of students are like cupboards.

Before the exam, you put what you want into it. After the exam, you take it out. He also said that the most effective kind of grading system would be to actually give students an exam AFTER the exam. I think this lecturer was Mr. Philip Seow.

He was one of the more memorable lecturer back in TP, and it's not just because he's humourous. This guy enjoys what he does and it shows. His lesson usually will include his trademark phrase: You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.

The rationale for using this phrase was to tell us if we students didn't want to pay attention, he can't help it either. But because he reinforces this theory of his ever so often, we really do pay alot of attention during his lesson.

In fact, remember I once mentioned that I accidentally went to school an hour earlier and got a fright when there was another class in the room? The lesson was supposed to start at 10am but I freaking reached there at 9!

I only realised that when the teacher of the 9am class entered to start the lesson and I realised I knew no one, and didn't even recognise the teacher.

(I then went to the library and fell asleep. When I woke up, I was not only late for my actual lesson at 10am, to my extreme horror, there were like 6 guys sleeping on the same sofa beside me. I don't recall any of them being exceptionally cute.)

Anyway, this event paid well. But that aside, precisely because it pays well, I didn't dare to sit around doing nothing. I would put in my best effort in standing around the booth so that I could immediately speak to any visitor who had the slightest interest in the company and would loiter for a second longer than the usual passerby.

People were impressed. By the service provided lah. Nothing to do with me. It felt good to be able to bring across because it was quite difficult to try to describe the service on a piece of paper. The brochures alone didn't quite explain the services provided in detail (because if they did, the person would probably give up reading halfway through).

Here is one of the pictures that the company used many times in their marketing materials. Most of us in Marketing have already seen this ad a few times but apparently they paid for the whatever license fees to be able to use this image and relate it to their company.

It's from one of the famous comic strips in the NY Times.

Now the thing about not being able to sit for a few hours is quite a torture. I have worked in retail line before but even then, I would always sit down at some point or another.

For this? I didn't dare to. Man, the boss himself didn't even sit, how would I dare to sit down?

It got to the point that I really understand now how it feels like when you stand continuously for a prolonged period of time.

First, the balls of your feet (stop laughing, I referring to the heel area) becomes extremely painful.

Next, the pain shoots up your calves like fire.

It's quite hard to describe. But soon, because of the heels, though I don't know if I can actually describe this as "balls on fire"... but soon, every step you take hurts. And burns. Both at the same time!

My First Kiss

2009-04-23T22:23:00.002+08:00

Okay, I was daydreaming at work today (Oops).

Yes. This is a super short 3-day work. But I figure, what the heck. Leastways it pays well. I'm earning more if you calculate on a per day basis, compared to when I was working for a proper fulltime job!

It's an IT event at Suntec and no, if you are so ultra free that you thought you can come down and ka ciao me, sorry to say, show is open to trade professionals. BUAHAHA!!!

And for those who wanted to visit me out of the goodness (and boredom) of your hearts, I appreciated it but please save the carpark fees and possible ERPs. I can't recall the exact charging hours of the stupid ERP system since they charge different amounts at different timings!

But I can tell you one thing for sure. If I'm going under a gantry, it usually is on. So if you want to check out whether, say, Bugis' ERP is working, just ask me whether I'm going to that area.

How much have I naturally floated away from the topic of today?

Yes.

Somehow my work involves a video that featured a very goodlooking German Shepherd dog.

Hey, you can actually watch the actual video itself here!

So this video repeats probably a few thousand times throught the exhibition. I had to watch it again and again and again.

And I can't help thinking what a goodlooking dog it was.

Then I couldn't help but recall about Bingo, the very first family dog of ours, who's a Belgian Shepherd, and a darn good looking one too.

That damn dog took my very first kiss.

I was, like, 7?

Heck, that's damn young for a first kiss to be given away!

All I remembered was Dad had unleased Bingo and he was running about the whole blardy place.

Mum and bro was telling me to act normal because I had always been very afraid of Bingo. They told me if I screamed, freaked out, and ran away, the dog would definitely be alarmed and alerted to me and come and see what's wrong.

So I did.

It worked.

For probably 15 seconds.

In his joy, the dog bordered between ecstasy and lunacy, before making running straight.

At.

Me.

And the bugger jumped.

Because I was only so short and he was already a huge dog even to an adult, his paws reached easily ON my shoulders and I fell.

Now that I recall, I may have blacked out for about 2 seconds. I can't exactly remember because it was night time and I don't know if the 'black' was really a black out or was it because the dog was black and he was standing over me.

And there it went. My first kiss, out the window.

Should it even be termed a kiss? It was more like I got violated. It took a few seconds, just mere seconds before my whole face was covered in dog drool. In fact, I couldn't even open my eyes because Bingo must have found my face really tasty (someone who sat beside me in the classroom during secondary school actually said I smelt like milk. Disturbingly, this thought was echoed by a few others as well).

Nobody stares at my Slides!

2009-04-20T14:29:00.003+08:00

I just realised that for some reason, either I clicked and made a huge mistake at Slide.com, but for the past few months, my stupid slide show has been showing a whooping total of ONLY 3 PHOTOS.

Namely 2 from Christmas 2008 and 1 from Genting 2008.

I have just edited it and you may view the thousands of photos there.

I mean, I'm the blogger here man. So it's no wonder I didn't catch that because I don't mark my HTML template the way a teacher marks her students' homework.

But someone could have told me!!! :(

My Final Class Photo

2009-04-19T23:08:00.004+08:00

Because the Manchester United / Everton FA Cup match is moving a tad too slow, I decided to just turn up the volume to listen to the commentary and then come here to blog.

Allow me to do a little personal shoutout here to Nick. Nick Toh, you chicken mcnugget. Since you do not want your photo, I'm going to post it here so that when you somehow chance upon my blog one day, you can right click and Save your photo.

There you go.

No, people. I did not pay him any amount of money to make him pose like that.

It was probably because of the alcohol.

Suddenly out of nowhere, I recalled a particular time in Bendemeer.

When we were Secondary 4, to be exact.

Wow. This has got to be one of the larger-sized photos that I've uploaded on this blog ever since the stupid file size limit came into place 1-2 years back. I usually super shrink the photos until they are below 100kB, so this one is an exception.

I figured it was for those who wanted to really look closely at our faces and see who is who.

Anyway, I hated this photo like hell. I mean, sure everyone looks nice, but then I personally hated me in this photo.

It was the last blardy class photo for school and I've never screwed up for the past 3 years' worth of class photos.

This last one JUST had to go wrong.

I want to state my stand that I DID NOT EVEN KNOW THAT THAT SHOT WAS GOING TO BE A FORMAL PHOTO ONE.

Thus, I was happily pushing down on Miao Juan's chair in a (failed) attempt to get her attention on something I wanted to say.

In fact, someone actually asked me after the photo was given out to the whole class, whether I was scolding the F word.

The irony was... I was.

Because we were posing for so long already, I was saying aloud to everyone near me "When the F is the camera going to take the pic."..

Obviously, I didn't manage to even finish that sentence when the bright flash exploded and made me see stars.

Photos are also really funny. In the sense that it captures what is really there exactly the way it is.

I can look back now and confidently tell you that everyone in that photo, doesn't look like how they are back then already. Heck! This photo was taken SEVEN FREAKING YEARS AGO.

That is a long time! Even a kid born in the year 2002 would have been attending Primary 1 already!

I was greatly consoled though.

On the day the photos were given out to all of us who ordered it, no one noticed my F word comment that was captured.

Because Kiang Ghee took the spotlight and became the butt of all jokes for this photo.

They said he looked like he was sniffing Val's hair.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Back on The Sims Game

2009-04-16T23:17:00.003+08:00

Don't need to remind me that I'm outdated.

I jolly as well know that the game has been around for quite some time already.

But you have to agree with me. It still rocks.

And there's something about building your own house from scratch that has a super feel-good factor about it.

I love to design houses. Where, in real life, can you do so at such a fast speed.

I proudly chose every piece of furniture, every door and window that is installed.

Heck, I even design the occupants myself.

I can't live without cheats in The Sims.

I can't sit around and slowly wait for them to slowly earn enough money so that I can build and buy whatever I want (for them).

Thus, with the cheatcodes on, I decided to bring it to the 7 adult characters.

The max is 8 per household, but I was just trying my luck with 7 first.

Sort of like the 7 deadly sins right?

Anyway, here's a picture of all my 'babies' happily and comfortably sleeping in their beds.

Sweet isn't it?

AND YES. Don't need to tell me. After taking this photo and looking at it, I realised I missed out painting some of the toilet walls because I added in 2 toilet units at the very last minute.

Many people in the household, of course need more toilets lahhhh.

Do you know how pissed off they get with other people if they walk into the toilet just when they are about to release their bladder or go for a quick shower?

Anyway, as you could tell, there were only 6 people sleeping out of the 7 beds there.

Apparently, Walter, the first person I created, got abducted by aliens.

It was horribly funny because seldom do they get abducted THAT quick.

The 2 ladies who happened to be in the area were so shocked and consistently camped out at the telescope area (where Walter got sucked up into the sky) and look very distressed over his disappearance.

No problem. Walter finally was 'returned' by the alien visitors in time for work. But of course, me being the very nice me, didn't let him go to work that day. I made him stay back to rest.

Unfortunately, the headcount for the family remains at 6.

Pippin died.

Yes.

I named him after Pippin in Lord of The Rings.

I gave him a very cool hat and a very Hobbit-looking attire. His occupation was a musician just to make it all fit in.

One of my favourites among the 7 of them, actually.

But one day, the BBQ pit caught fire.

Careless me, I forgot to install a smoke detector outside the house.

While everyone was panicking and there was some lag with regards to one of them calling the Fire Department, Pippin died.

I've placed his urn in the house and every so often, when one of them walk past that area of the living room, they mourn for him by staring at the urn and crying.

At first, I had thought who the heck was crying because they usually only make crying noises when they are feeling very depressed.

Turns out they were mourning the loss of one of their compatriots.

And boy, were they loud!

Updates (of a Random kind)

2009-04-15T14:02:00.009+08:00

Wow. I just saw a new feature with regards to blogging through mobile phone.

Sounds cool. The last time I tried was on my LG Viewty phone. I had waited in the car while Des went to a customer's house to conduct a survey.

Guess what.

From the time he went in to do the survey to the time he walked out, I was still trying to access the Blogger page.

Talk about SLOWWWW... CONNNEECC...TION.....

Pffft.

I guess with this mobile update feature being made 'official', they would have came up with some sort of simpler format so that it is much faster for our hps to load.

Well, it better be! Or else no one's gonna use that feature anyway.

That aside, I bet some of you haven't seen the dogs for a long time. I not-so-recently took a photo of them peacefully lying somewhat close to each other.

Believe me, both of them would never be caught dead lying so close to the point of remotely touching each other so this is consider really close already.

You have to be reminded that this is not possible unless the afternoon is very hot so that the dogs can actually appreciate the aircon in my room. Noisy unsettling dogs aside, I always argue with my parents that Kilo ought to be let into my room during the warm afternoons since I am going to be at home anyway and the aircon is going to be turned on, may as well let one more additional living thing enjoy it, right?

That was until Kilo's drool kinda bothered me alot. He drools unconditionally at times, especially just after reaching my room on the 3rd floor after climbing up the hefty amount of stairs (from HIS point of view).

I'm pretty used to the number of stairs I have to climb to get up to my room that I'm quite immune to it, until visiting guests asked me "do you actually have to climb this just to get to your room?" and I sometimes reply them "No. I just fly."

*Rolls eyes*

So every afternoon after Kilo's 'afternoon nap' I find myself having to mop the floors because the drool stains really irritate the heck out of me.

I use a mixture of vinegar and Listerine mouth wash.

Oh yea, never underestimate Listerine. It kills 99.9%* of germs (I don't know what is the asterisk for but since they put it there I put it there too, haha!).

Anyway, the best thing about Listerine is that it gives off a super 'clean' minty smell that I love. Gurgling with Listerine as well as eating raw garlic has made my sore throat heal pretty fast.

Peepz, don't forget if you're having sore-throat that you have to dip your toothbrush in Listerine to kill all the bacteria there. Otherwise everytime you use the toothbrush again, you are just re-applying the bacteria into your mouth (which explains why some people can have sore throat for a pretty long time).

The funniest part during the whole Kilo-in-my-room incident was the fact that the dog seems to know whenever I am about to get him out of the room to go back to his original place; outside of the house!

He seems to think that if he sleeps in a particular way... no one would notice him.

If only he understood from the photo that I took that everyone blardy sure as hell can STILL see him...

Okay, other than the bad weather working to Kilo's advantage during my jobless state, Dondon was another person (or living thing, rather) who has benefitted.

With me being around at home the whole time, it means they can have longer baths.

Works well especially the weather is probably hot enough to boil an egg these days (seemingly in order to contradict me, the skies decided to sprinkle a few gracious drops of rain this morning).

Putehs loves to bathe. Hell, I let mine bathe everyday. So does Des'. But bathing until it looks quite like a drown rat is a rather rare sight.

Without a doubt, I hurriedly captured a shot of it:

His body is supposed to be green. Like moss green. Quite dark green, but in this particular photo he was so drenched that he looked almost black! Well, at least for the body.

And this was a rather difficult photo to take. Unlike Shreky who is quite used to having a camera pointing at him, Dondon freaked out at first and I had to talk to him non-stop about nothing in particular so that he can sense the calmness in my voice and start calming down himself.

See, birds absolutely hate it when you stand there quietly to look at them. The only time silence happens is when they are targetted at by a predator. Thus, make alot of consistent noises if you are approaching even a rather tame one.

No. Shouting in a CONSISTENT VOLUME does not count.

So yeah, I'm rather irritated with Singapore's weather. Sometimes it rains out of nowhere, sometimes it is so hot you could leave a prawn on the concrete slab and it turns orange.

Just last month, most of the days began with shrouded grey clouds. It even rained when we went to the temple to pray. That was where I got the divination lot. I had prayed, asking about my jobless status and whether I was going to find a job soon.

The lot read:

第八十九签上签酉宫　古人大看琼花

出入营谋大吉昌，似玉无瑕石里藏；

若得贵人来指引，斯时得宝喜风光

Basically it refers to a flawless piece of jade that has yet to be discovered and that a Benefactor is supposed to guide me to wealth and success.

Unfortunately, as you can tell, my Benefactor has yet to show up. Or even if he/she has already shown up, he/she has not done anything yet.

To make things worse/better, immediately after that it rained so heavily. I made use of the opportunity and took this photo because it reminds me of a Hokkien song:

(Translated directly into English from a Hokkien song called Jit Kee Sio Hor Sua)

You and me~
Both sharing one little umbrella~ (Echo: Little Umbrella)
Rain so big~....
I take care of you, You take care of me~

Meanwhile, I will pathetically try to help myself get out of the situation by continue to flood the HR inbox of many companies, with my resume.

Anyway, the closest instance of jade-related incidents that I can find would be this:

Look at all the lovely greenery.

I had noticed this plant in my garden as I was outside waiting for Des one day.

It was a Hibiscus plant. I think my Dad once mentioned to me before when he just bought it. Something like Hawaiian Hibiscus. He was really proud of it when he just brought it home from the plant nursery because it had really nice looking flowers that are much bigger than the normal Hibiscuses that we usually saw.

Apparently what drew me to the plant was the poor state of it. Other than the baby leaves that were sprouting at the top of the plant, the older leaves were all in bad shape. Obviously it had been snacked on by MANY caterpillars.

I walked closer to take a look, hoping to catch a sight of at least one caterpillar.

None. No wriggling little furry disgusting yucky....

and then I got a shock.

I must admit I almost screamed but stopped myself in time.

All this happened in a split second.

Just like when we went to Night Safari and Fang, Jo and me all screamed when we realised that a bat had been so terribly near to our heads and staring at us the whole time....

I had also just realised that I was getting abit too CLOSE to a particular grasshopper when I was too fixated on the hole-infested leaves.

If you realised, it was on the earlier photo too. But after I spotted it, I decided to take a close-up.

SMOKE YOUR HEAD!

2009-04-14T15:03:00.003+08:00

Today I shall touch on a subject that will affect alot of people I know.

I just want to clarify my stand that this is not a personal entry, and my comments are not directed to one person in particular because when it comes to this, I place everyone of you on an equal platform.

Whether what kind of platform you place yourself on is purely your own decision. :)

There were some very good info that I came across while surfing the net and I would like to share with you.

It's titled: What happens if you stop Smoking For...

- in 20 minutes: Your blood pressure will return to normal

- in 8 hours: The carbon monoxide (toxic gas) levels in your blood stream will drop by half, and oxygen levels will return to normal. Personal input: I think this only happens when smokers are SLEEPING. Perhaps this explains why some smokers among you tend to sleep ALOT? A natural defense mechanism in your body to make you stay away from cigarettes more?

- in 48 hours: Your chance of having a heart attack will begin its long decline. All nicotine will have left your body. Your sense of smell and taste will return to a normal level. Personal input: I think my parents' qigong master will beg to differ. He claims that nicotine remains in the body for a much longer period.. of up to a few years, in fact.

- in 72 hours: Your bronchial tubes will relax, and your overall body energy will rise.

- in 2 weeks: Blood circulation will increase, and will continue to improve over the next 10 weeks (THAT YOU STOP SMOKING).

- in 3-9 months: Coughs, wheezing and breathing problems will dissipate as your lungs increase by 10%

- in 1 year: Your risk of having a heart attack will now drop by half.

- in 5 years: Your risk of having a stroke returns to that of a non-smoker

- in 10 yours: Your risk of lung cancer will have return to that of a non-smoker

- in 15 years: Your risk of having a heart attack will have return to that of a non-smoker.

(Credits to Healthbolt.net)

Of course, some of you may have wonderfully skipped the above information. I'm not surprised. I mean, disgusting pictures of rotten feet, black lungs and a dead fetus doesn't scare you, what will?

Facts?

British researches have came up with a 'lung function test' strategy used similarly on asthma patients. This would determine the real age of a person's lungs.. Like how one of the 52-year-old patient discovered that his lungs were comparable to a 75-year-old non-smoker.

I think pictures supposedly DO the trick. It's just that some of you are so immune and desensitised to it already.

Look here, it's a picture of a non-smokers lungs VS the lungs of an active smoker who probably smoked all the way to the end.

Doesn't take a brainiac to tell you which lung is which. The photos just came with the wording which I thought was rather unnecessary.

Like duh?!

Reunion of the 3 Prime Evils

2009-04-12T22:30:00.002+08:00

Yes, yes. As some of you already know I'm referring to the 3 brothers: Flu, Fever and their oldest brother Sore Throat (since it usually arrives first).

I was running a fever the past two days. A very slight one. Only when I have a freaking high degree would I be knocked out cold. Well, cold doesn't seem to be the correct description to be used here.

Today I attended the Ruby wedding anniversary of Auntie Anna and Uncle Bill. They were staying in Newcastle. I only got to know them in recent years because they had just managed to contact my mother.

I think it was because Anna's brother is my mother's elder brother's friend. I'm not really sure how the whole thing works, but somebody knew somebody who knew somebody and then everyone got linked up.

A Ruby anniversary means that they have been married for a whooping 40 years.

It was really sweet and their family even did a video for them. Man, those photos were in black and white!

But that's not the point. The point was that I managed to catch a glimpse of my mother in so many photos.

I always found it weird. Most people said I resembled my father more, from the way we walk to the way we are always able to sleep anywhere. But then when we went to my mother's cousin's kid's wedding, many people knew that I was her daughter because according to them, I looked just like her when she is young.

Apparently now I don't. Because people stopped saying that when they see me. They had to ask whose daughter am I.

So I asked my mother whether I (still) looked like her in her early 20s and the answer is... No.

Why am I saying all this?

Well, because during Aunt Anna and Uncle Bill's wedding 40 years ago, guess who was the bridesmaid in her late teens? Well, not very late teens actually.

Yes.

My mother was their bridesmaid.

Which explains why we were invited to their 40th wedding anniversary as well.

It was held at Hogwart's Cafe at CHIJMES and yes, we DID take alot of pictures but my mother's computer had just went berserk after streaming dozens of idol dramas, it decided to do what the protestors were doing in Thailand; requesting change of governance.

Lisa's Poem

2009-04-11T23:22:00.002+08:00

One of my other favourite cartoon, other than the very infamous South Park.. is actually...

*music plays*

"it's The Simpsons~~"

Yes. I know a friend of mine who is very unimpressed because, according to him, what's so funny about a family of yellow-skinned people.

Thing was, do you know Lisa Simpson is a cat lover?

I just fond out about that.

So much for liking the cartoon, I don't even know about this.

What struck me was a poem that she wrote for her cat, Snowball.

There are alot of Snowballs actually. Snowball I, Snowball II etc.

They don't seem to live long enough and died within the same episode.

Main point is, I would like to share with you all a poem Lisa wrote for Snowball (Snowball 1, I assume), that I have actually committed to memory.

Maybe it's because the poem is so short.

Titled: Meditations on Turning Eight
By Lisa Simpson.

I had a cat named Snowball

She died! She died!

Mom said she was sleeping

She lied! She lied!

Why oh why is my cat dead?

Couldn't that Chrysler hit me instead?

Word Limit laments

2009-04-10T14:00:00.002+08:00

I used to hate word limits.

I could never type enough for an academic piece of work, and then on a personal level, like writing in my super ultra secret diary, I write pages and pages non-stop.

I hate writing. Well, ever since I mastered the art of typing, I hated writing.

I know its importance. As well as the superbly underrated importance of good handwriting, but I still prefer to type.

If you want to discuss about handwriting, I dare admit that I have nice handwriting compared to a large percentage of the population who even bothers to write, even if it was just to take down a simple note for a person.

People don't know this but actually, for the uninitiated out there, if you even BOTHERED to write properly, legibly, and clearly, people actually WILL do what your note asks them to.

E.G. Please call Mr. XXX back at (insert phone number here). He is calling to reschedule the delivery. Please arrange with him.

Clear, understandable, and obviously not a screaming and irate customer who is going to give you hair-dryer treatment over the phone line, people WILL get back to such notes that are placed on their table.

But this is just a little info that I would like to share with all of you, that's all.

The thing is, I am just a few hours old member of Twitter and I am already lamenting the fact over their 140 word limit per post.

I hate typing in SMS language. When you have the speed of typing, I don't mean as fast as Flash. I mean as long as its above 40wpm, I think for the comfort of those who will be reading, at least type in full words. After all, using the computer and typing blog entries or chat entries, it's not like we're asking you to write out word for word on your computer screens.

That would be super unproductive and boring. Moreover I know ALOT of people whose handwriting I just CANNOT READ to save my life.

Handwriting is also more important than you think. Back when I was working for a certain company, I could recognise everyone by their handwriting. It was like I'm some sort of form teacher of a class of students whereby they don't even sign off on their homework. They just write what they had to and then I know which document belonged to whom.

It is a symbol of who you are, and how much pride you take in your writing.

So, please, although I have super OT (stands for Out of Topic, as I have recently learnt) because this entry was originally supposed to be based on word limits especially concerning Twitter, just remember that your handwriting is often more important than you think.

Especially when typing is already so prevalent, that once-in-a-long-while received handwritten note is as rare as.. Shit. It's raining and my Putehs are out there!

GOT TO RUN!

Twittering Available

2009-04-10T02:11:00.002+08:00

I've just signed on Twitter.

I figured, you know, what the hell, since I spent almost the whole day in front of my computer, I may as well, right?

You can catch live updates over here from the blog itself, from the page itself, as well as from my Facebook account (once the bug gets sorted out).

Yin, I will write about you one day. ONE DAY lah.. huh?

Don't jealous. But it's been nice talking on the phone with you just now. Haven't chat with someone in a long time where we are both fighting to talk at the same time because we are bursting with experiences to relate to each other.

HAHAHA!!

Anyway, for the benefit of those who actually are not on Facebook (I like to remind everyone but, hey, even my parents also have their own Facebook account so you better start getting worried if you haven't signed yours yet :P )...

I'd like to share with all of you a video of a gathering with my mates at UWA. Not the Perth campus! We proudly proclaim that we OWN the PSB building and have pictures of those among us who smoke, smoking at the carpark shelter area (before they banned it).

We were playing a little game called Indian Poker.

Each player draws a card that you are NOT ALLOWED TO SEE and sticks it on your forehead. You are only allowed to look at the cards on other people's forehead.

We made a bit of a leeway here, you see.

If you find that the entire group is pointing at you, giggling, and your buddies among the group are looking at you and nodding their heads, you are ALLOWED to change your card ONCE to get you out of the drinking punishment.

But as we can see, for Charlie's case, our help didn't exactly.. help.. much.

Feeling Useless :D

2009-04-07T02:04:00.003+08:00

I think depression is finally settling in already.

I am doing absolutely NOTHING. . and not contributing to my family, country, or the economy.

In fact, my existence is one of futileness.

But no, this is not a suicidal blog entry (I would not resort to such drastic actions). This is another light bulb in the head when I was talking to a friend of mine. Somehow, I have to apologetically admit that chatting with that friend of mine gives me alot of blog ideas.

I mean, there should be more things I can say here then talking to my friends because not EVERYTHING can be typed / told directly to their face, but if you put them behind stories, you can bring more 'hints' across at times *snigger*.

Well, at first it wasn't all that bad. It was a blardy well-deserved break for me. Total vacation. No calls asking me where I saved what document, no calls asking me to meet up for project meetings, and no calls waking me up while I am still in bed on my off-day just to ask me the telephone of whatever Supplier.

NOTHING.

But this feeling of 'nothingness' extended for too long a duration that it got to boring.

Sure it was easily masked out what with all the living things that were depending on me to.. um.. live. It usually comprises of the following:

- Chubby's eyes need to be cleaned and moisturised with rewetting drops

- Shrek and Donkey needs to be seen to everyday

- Joon's daily water changes to so that she can have her mid-day bath

- Joon's weekly cage scrub out and change of bedding

- Chubby (depending on mood for that day) may need to have lunch

- Oscar (also depending on mood) may request for food too. Oscar's the worst. I once opened my mother's room door because I had been in there using her PC and discovered Oscar RIGHT OUTSIDE the door. For the effect, because of my sudden door opening, Oscar shrank back into his shell.

Yes, the blardy terrapin actually traveled the distance from my room balcony, pass my dressing table, pass the bed, pass the computer table ... and then drop / free-fall / fly down all the way from the THIRD FLOOR'S landing to the 2nd floor. And walked to my parents' room door.

- The new fish I bought after Bobby died, which is a Green Scat, is persistently hungry and eyes me all the time. This does not help because its Quarrantine Tank is located right beside my keyboard and it doesn't feel good to have a fish stare at you all the time although you may have fed it 3x already and it still is looking at you while wriggling its body towards your direction.

- Occasionally, I will need to sit back and relax to think things through. As in.. did I leave out anyone? Forget to feed them? Left them for dead? (Okay, this kinda reminds me of the game Left 4 Dead. Sorry, Ling!)

- Chubby needs to be fed daily too. At between the timing of 4-6pm. He gets grumpy, whiney and super annoying when you miss the timing.

I usually feed him around that time because after that Des would meet me after work and we would go out and slack. Remember what I shared with all of you about him finding it absolutely compulsory to bring me out?

Somehow I am never able to get it through to that guy that contrary to the ideologies of the general public I REALLY LOVE TO STAY AT HOME. I know there are people who hate staying at home but then THAT IS NOT ME.

Des somehow finds it hard to comprehend. He finds it impossible. Whenever I try to put across the fact that I really don't mind staying at home, his reply comes in 3 simple words: "Not sian meh".

Okay.. "meh" is not consider a word.

But.. I mean.. I find myself luckier than alot of people. Seriously, dude. It's just that I do not know how on earth am I supposed to express it, so here I am, I'm expressing it out loud by blogging about it.

I love to stay at home because I know that I'm lucky.

To begin with, I have my OWN BLARDY ROOM. I do not have to share it with any other pesky siblings (no offense to my bro).

Secondly, I am the only girl in this family. I do not have another younger / older sister who fights with me for clothes or secretly wears my clothes without telling me. Worst of all is without returning the clothes to me! Out of sight, out of mind, I may even forget that I owned that particular piece of cloth because they took it away!!

Thirdly, I am rather blessed in the electronics department. I've got my own laptop that I would like to add comes with a very chio Lycosa keyboard and Diamondback Mouse (wink wink), a rather, I would say above average Creative speakers, A damn nice Philips table lamp that comes in the only shade of sweet baby Pink that I am tolerant of (Dad knows my colour preference well!), a TV measuring 30+inches that I believe is even bigger than some families living room TV.. and a basic home theatre set to accompany it!

Well, and of course as Uncle Lee had termed as the greatest invention of all time, I have air-con every night (and day, considering that I'm homebound now).. and a fan to boot.. for those uncanny cold weather nights that we occasionally have in Singapore.

Fourthly.. or is it spelt as forthly, home is where everyone I love is :)

Not just the humans but the animals too! I am proud to share with all of you as well that the Putehs see this place as home. As a result they (disappointingly) do not dare to sing if you hang them at strange places that they are unfamiliar with (like the bird hanging areas at Serangoon North), but once you hang them at home in the airwell, or just leave them at the dining room / living room, they sing their little hearts out and fill the entire house with little lovely chirps that are so pleasant to the ear. Well... um.... at least to my ear. Mum generally finds them a nuisance. But hey, at least they don't scream their lungs out the way Joon does.

Now, with all of the above, how on earth am I not supposed to LIKE staying at home!!?

So, I have super OT-ed. OT-ed, I have learnt from Wang, does not mean OverTime. It means Out of Topic. Digressed. You know?

Okay, anyway, upon Des' insistence, I sometimes go out anyway because being couped up at home and reminded of the fact that I have been rejected by the many companies I tried to apply does not feel good AT ALL.

You feel worthless.

It's so weird right? I can confidently tell you that I am 60% sure that I'd get the job if they even bother to ask me go down for the interview, yet these companies are not even giving me the chance! (Of course, there's always a great 40% chance that something will go wrong, somehow. Like due to my nervousness I choked on my own saliva while answering one of the interview questions that sorta thing.)

It's not like I am a sucky worker; I've seen some classic examples even before I started my first fulltime job so I jolly well know the nightmares of an employer when it comes to hiring. I just needed to have that chance to prove myself, you know?

And then comes the salary part.

You can't blame me for asking more because I am now a degree grad. I didn't freaking throw myself through the very difficult task of juggling a full time job and part time studies for the what-seems-like-eternity duration of two years JUST to continue receiving the same salary as when I was a diploma-holder.

But now that some time has passed, I have decided that I will not be fussy or picky. I will take whatever lowly paid job to pass the time until the economy recovers.

Recovers from what? I don't know. I don't know what went wrong in the first place. I don't really call recovering from stupidity a recovery. More like saved. Rescued. In other words, waiting for the economy to be passed on to more capable hands.

I watched South Park's Margaritaville episode (which is a parody of the current economic situation), hoping to be a little more enlightened but it only made me more confused.

Great Get-Together

2009-04-05T01:11:00.002+08:00

It was great. Last night, actually, Friday night, I saw a hell lot of people whom I haven't seen in an awful long time!

Some of them I haven't even seen ever since the day we graduated. Hell!!!

I had a lovely prata (the standard of which is a few trillion times then the shop that is near my place) with fish curry, and a super enjoyable never-ending topics of conversation too.

The only thing that we forgot that night, however, was to use our wonderful, powerful and multi-function handphones.. to take a group photo.

I have recently realised the importance of how crucial it is to take a photo, even if it was random, at wherever you are. In case you don't know what I meant, try going to take a look at the TP photo album I just did up at Facebook.

Random photos from random outings of which would have been easily forgotten if not for the precious photo being captured.

Sure there were no proper groups or even nice poses, but it was hell lot of fun to look back and then cringe at what riduclous hairstyles we were having at that point in time, or even the ugly Hawaiian shirts that was actually part of our wardrobe.

Yes. I remember Hawaiian shirts were all the rage at one point but thankfully I never caught up with that one.

Now one new thing to share with all of you today, courtesy of one of the Tikus: Cognac is pronounced something like Cog-Niak.

A Cognac is a brandy, but brandy is not a Cognac.

Bobby Died

2009-04-03T00:20:00.003+08:00

It's so frustrating, you know. And I'm totally stumped.

Despite my many efforts and the chemical cocktail I had added in precise amounts to make sure the fella did not die of an overdose, he eventually succumbed to what I believe was internal bacteria when I had been trying to cure his infection.

I am NEVER sure. I'm sure many fish lovers are never sure either of what exactly their puffers died from.

Don't give me the I-Told-You-So-Crap because Des had already did so, but what can I do?

I'm just in love with these underwater puppy buggers that my mind goes abit blank and I gleefully make my way towards the fishing container and net to catch one of them puppies out of the tank!

If you've never gotten a puffer, either you:

1) Know your aquatic hobby limits extremely well and don't want to take the risk
2) Never seen one
3) Don't like fishes in the first place
4) Haven't met a puffer who caught your eye

Those little things swimming around like buzzing helicopters, hungrily eyeing your finger that you press against the tank was the very reason why I started keeping fish in the first place!

Whenever I come across a tankful of puffers at a fish shop (especially Seaview) I'de throw whatever I'm holding (for example, Chubby) to Des, and then run for the container/net to fish one out to bring it home!

At which I must tell you Des gives me a whole list of absurd reasons why he cannot help carry Chubby.. such as:

1) He's too hairy and he is afraid that he would accidentally 'giap' Chubby's fur somewhere on his shirt buttons or something

(so I sent Chubby to the groomer to cut botak, but Des changes his reason and tells me)

2) He don't know how to carry because Chubby has no hair (and then launches into a whole explanation about how hairless things are more slippery). Now it doesn't help that I like to put some baby powder on Chubby's back just so he would smell more nice and fluffy. I mean, the dog sleeps with me! I ought to be able to do something to make him smell good.

Anyway, back to Bobby.

When things like that happen, I can't help but wonder alot of unnecessary things. Like.. would it have lived longer if I didn't bring it home?

I'm not sure about Bobby, but I'm quite sure for alot of other puffers that I got, I had somehow extended their lifespans considerably because of the lack of food the fish shops were obviously feeding them.

Anyway, you know what they always say (and what I always tell myself). Get over the dead quickly and start appreciating the ones that are alive.

Like.. for example, Cherry.

Yes. She's still here. If anything, she was starting at Bobby in the hospital tank from her main tank with those devilish red eyes that made my cousins go Eeewwwww.

I don't know what warranted that kind of reaction, haha!

It's almost as if she was secretly laughing away at Bobby's predicament.

Evil, I tell you.

In any case, she's still as fat as ever, and Des has viewed her with the same amount of hatred since Day 1. I mean, everytime any one dies / disappears in the tank, Des gives Cherry credit for it, though in some cases, I stubbornly insist that the fish had somehow died before Cherry realised and conveniently ate it up.

I love Cherry. Don't get me wrong; I love Bobby too but I love Cherry even more. So forgive me if I go ballistic if the time comes for Cherry's death.

Heck, I know I'm biase but at least I'm open about it!!!

I would have loved to share more but I think I should shift the spotlight to some of the others as well.

Like.. bloodworms. Live bloodworms stink. They died last night and I tell you, the smell was so repulsive that I could not just flip over in my bed, ignore it, and continue sleeping.

Now pardon me for I must stop blogging here. My computer mouse is majorly pissing me off by clicking absolutely everything and nothing when I click. . . if you catch what I am trying to say...

Super Massive Random Points

2009-03-30T17:17:00.010+08:00

I really loved that random things ever since I came across it on Facebook. Ever since then I've done quite a few blogs of randomness which is SO me (I can picture my online chat mates nodding their heads in front of their computer monitors).

Oh come on, a little bit of randomness in your life is not all that bad. Plus, it keeps your mind sharp and keeps you on your toes when you have to frequently adjust and see what I am referring to when I say "Wa, that sucks."

You'd have to find out whether I was referring to someone, something, or our last topic of conversation.

Ain't that cool?

Yes I know it is.

And because knowing how I am long-winded as well as random, I named them super massive points instead, so readers are mentally prepared. Now I shall do my best to tear myself away from the drama because I am trying my best to collect a list of random points of Randomness :)

1. I have decided that I do not regret not going to Perth. Sure there is pangs of guilt because I really owe myself that much, you know. As any UWA student I deserved to go up on stage to receive the white paper from an angmoh guy who doesn't know which is my name and probably won't see me ever again for the rest of our respective lives. But, yea. I don't regret it anymore then I don't regret not eating instant noodles for supper on some nights even though I am hungry :)

That part of my bachelor degree life is over and I truly really look forward to nice guided trips to awesome places like China (no matter what some of you think about it, I think that a person ought to, to a decent extent, recognise your own roots).

2. I have the most awesome of all awesome dreams and can almost always recall them superbly vividly. It can include anything ranging from dogs, zombies, space crafts and Superman.

3. I really really like the way Chubby smiles irregardless of what you all think about him. *grabs Chubby and takes a deep sniff*

4. Does not understand why people are 'pantang' about hanging windchimes in their house. I get all sorts of answers.. especially those concerning what ifs. What if it suddenly rings really violently when there is no wind at all? My answer is: I don't know whether there's any wind at all. My aircon's on!

5. Would like to reiterate her unwavering support for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

6. Looked like this when I was young:

7. And cannot believe it either.

8. Loves to read the Comics section everyday on Straits Times life. Had 'witnessed' Zoe and Hammie from Comic Strip 'Baby Blues' growing up, and had welcomed together with their parents, their youngest sibling (whose name I forgot). Here's a short one to share:

9. Is proud to update all of you on Bobby's improving condition. While, improving my sense of the word sometimes means a last minute U-Turn to the Grim Reaper. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed but I've removed Bobby from the Hospital Tank already.. actually, he had just been transported back a few minutes ago and went straight to try and bite a dead shrimp (which I had to remove to maintain water quality).

You see, the keyword is TRY. He didn't manage and gave up after a few weak-hearted attempts. I shall monitor him over the next few days and let you all know if he is going to pull through :(

See, this is the BEFORE treatment photo that I shared with all of you a few days ago:

And here he was in this photo taken yesterday:

In case you didn't notice, the familiar cheeky playful 'gleam' in his eye is back as well :)

Cutest thing about Bobby is how he floats to the edge of the fish tank when you point your finger against the glass. He'd push his nose up against the tank too, and then look at you in such a way that both his eyes becomes 'pa-jiao'.

A cross-eyed pufferfish is definitely in the Top 100 ranking of cutest animal on the planet!

You're probably noticed that the water condition is also very different. Well, that's because after I added the medicine, alot of slime and goo gradually fell off the fish (much to the delight of the ghost shrimps in the hospital tank). Speaking of those 2 ghost shrimp buggers; they were meant as food for Bob, but you know, sick things don't eat much so they became friends and I was quite glad, really, that the shrimps helped to clear off most of the goo.

10. Have maybe realised the reason why she likes these 'points of random' method so much: I don't have to kill many brain cells just to figure out a good way to link various irrelevant blog topics together!!!!

11. Nothing is going to stop me from watching the 9pm show on Channel 8 tonight (except, maybe, a blackout)! I think the name is 煮妇的假期. And it's the FINAL EPISODE tonight. There's something about irresponsible, philandering and cannot-be-bothered husbands that makes my blood boil while watching this drama serial, thus I feel very 'emo'. PS: Aiqin should just divorce her hubby in the show

12. This is not very random because I'm going to talk about TV commercials (since the above point already talked about something related to TV). Anyway, I am a sucker for commercial ads. I usually readily believe whatever they say on the commercial. My current infatuation is with regards to MagicClean's new duster that is able to pick up and hold alot of dust!

But I must state, though, I do not buy ads relating to slimming. If you have so much gawddamn money, you should just save it up for a branded bag and then go jogging!

13. Since I'm on it, I would like to state I believe the best way to lose weight is to not only eat less, but also to start jogging. Have you seen people who start to jog? I mean, look at them! They look a hell lot more alert and slim! Jeez, it's making me envious.

14. I'm in love with E71. The white colour one, and am gonna grab one as soon as my plan ends. In June. :(

15. Moderately pissed about my current unemployment status, yet there's absolutely nothing I can do about it.

16. Thinks that my OSIM (Brookstone) nap blanket is the most shiockedelic thing in the world (ranking second only to my chou chou). It's soft, it's comfy. As a value-add characteristic, it even smells like Chubby! (Refer to above Point 3 mentioned earlier). Say.. isn't Brookstone the name of some government conspiracy in the Bourne shows?

Oops. Sorry. That one is Treadstone.

17. Had once pondered throwing away all the room decors in her room... and then replacing them with those miniature places from Lord Of The Rings. Unfortunately, this little idea of mine died as soon as I saw the price tags of the 'miniature scenes' at the shop in Suntec. Not only that, I find that I can't throw away as many things as I thought I could.

18. Doesn't really watch Anime. The only thing I come close was Bow Wow (家有奸狗） and Skip Beat!

19. Now that I'm on to cartoons, I have to admit I'm probably one of the very few people in the world who bothers trying to follow storyline :( Take Diablo, Diablo2 expansion and Warcraft III for example.

Guys, it's not all about the leveling up, okay? You've got to take some time back to enjoy the story that the people at Blizzard put so much thought into!

20. Loves to drink Yakult, amidst a list of other beverages like Coke Zero, Carrot Juice and the occasional Teh-C Peng.

21. Loves BBQ-ed/plain Marshmallows and Oreo Cheesecake. But I think that one of it is too over-eaten and the other, too under-eaten. Guess which is which.

22. Is secretly more biase towards Shreky than Donkey, although Dondon is the one who lives in the nicer-looking and more expensive cage.

23. Does not understand why she has to watch Korean drama with the sound on (loud enough to be clear) when she is always reading the English subtitles. I have absolutely no clue waht they are talking about anyway!!

24. Since I'm on it, I would like to declare my love for John Hoon (Kim Jeong Hoon). I don't know which website I got this photo from but he's darn good looking!

Ladies, please stop drooling. Guys, please stop staring. Anyone else in-between, please behave.

25. I think that one of the greatest funny incident is that Des bought me a Tiger carved out of.. well... Tiger's Eye. It's like a joke or something. But I have to admit that the Tiger was really nice. Moreover, I just did that Facebook zodiac thingy that identified me as a Fire Tiger *Roars Fire*. Fierce enough eh?

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star~

2009-03-30T03:11:00.001+08:00

He's Just Not That Into You

2009-03-29T23:01:00.002+08:00

I'm reading a book right now.

If you've read up to this part of my blog you should have easily guessed what book it is.

Okay, I'm still at the beginning part. To sum it up, this fella is giving some pretty good advice to a group of attractive and talented women (who are supposedly the story-writers of Sex In The City), and I thought that I'd like to share one paragraph of what he said, with all of you :)

Basically one of them said that she went on a date with this guy, and when he sent her home and she invited him upstairs to her apartment, he told her that he is going to have a meeting tomorrow morning and don't think he should come up stairs.

So Mr. Adviser replies:

When a guy is into you, he lets you know it. He calls, he shows up, he wants to meet your friends, he can't keep his eyes or hands off of you, and when it's time to have sex, he's more than overjoyed to oblige. He don't care if he's starting his new job as the president of the United States the nex morning at 0400 (that's 4a.m. ladies!). He's coming up!

3M Nexcare Acne Patch

2009-03-29T01:00:00.002+08:00

It's a miracle! I can actually recall the full name of this product despite having thrown away the packaging eons ago!!!

Not only me recalling the name is miraculous, but also, the product itself is a gift bestowed from the Heavens!

Okay. Quite obviously, I'm exaggerating.

Now the thing about this poor product is, some people do not know how to use it!

I think even the product's instructions are quite general.

Now, let me share with you a guide from my fair share of experience with this product.

Firstly, let me give credit to Jesslin for introducing the product to me.

Because of her lack of pimples, she had a huge supply of it and passed some to me to try out.

This resulted in me learning the do's and don'ts of the Acne Patch sticker.

Now firstly, no matter what the product say and claim to be very transparent / transluscent and almost invislble, DO NOT BELIEVE IT.

So far, unless I know I'm going to stay at home the whole day, I DO NOT use the acne patch outside of the house because it is just TOO BLARDY OBVIOUS. For the unobservant people here, it actually has a yellow tinge to it.

I know that the skin tone of most Asians has a certain shade of 'yellow' to it, but surely it shouldn't look like a drop of pee stuck firmly imprinted on your face (thanks to the special and effective 3M technology).

As much as you think it would drop off, none of the hundreds of Acne Patch stickers I've used actually came off on its own accord, unless I ripped it off from my skin personally.

The next important thing is WHEN to actually stick it.

When I just got the product, I made the absolutely stupid and wasteful decision to stick on whatever spot that was going to pop a pimple. You know, there are always the usual signs, painful and sensitive to touch at the area where the pimple is going to pop out, accompanied with redness and maybe even a slight bump forming already.

Though the product claims to be able to suck out oil, and it really does (you can see the oil stain against the sticker the next morning when you peel it off your skin), but then you will also realise that it doesn't do much damage control either.

I then found out the best way. Wait until the 'head' of the pimple is visible, or you can actually feel it when you touch the pimple.

Of course, experts always say DON'T TOUCH YOUR PIMPLE. Just leave it there and treat it as if it doesn't exist (which makes me wonder why everytime go facial they will squeeze it for you anyway?). But surely touching your pimple ONCE a day to feel whether the head is erupted or erupting wouldn't hurt abit right?

So yea, ONLY when you can feel the head or visibly see the pus THEN you use the Acne Patch.

I tell you, the next day when you peel off the sticker, be sure to stand in front of the mirror.

You will get the most awesome-o feeling of awe when upon slowly and gently peeling off the sticker, the pus gets miraculousy PULLED out of the pimple too!

(Of course, please don't be a dumba$$ and leave it at that if you obviously know there is some amount of leftover pus inside and squeeze it out!)

Shiock!!!

Now children, let's summarise today's lesson.

The Who What Where When How of 3M Nexcare Acne Patch.

Who: You

What: Acne and Acne Patch

Where: Only at home. Make sure you don't have friends who visit you out of nowhere *recalls a certain birthday surprise party and shudders with terror*

When: Before you sleep.

How: Paste it over and just press onto it to make sure it sticks firmly. Remember, use the more sticky side of the Patch on your skin! I don't know why I even have to mention this....

Blasphemy

2009-03-28T00:26:00.004+08:00

Yes my dear readers. I haven't done it for a long time but here's bringing back the WORD OF THE DAAAAYYYYYY!!!!

Blasphemy (noun) ; Blasphemies (plural)

1. impious utterance or action concerning God or sacred things.
2. Judaism.
a. an act of cursing or reviling God.
b. pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton (YHVH) in the original, now forbidden manner instead of using a substitute pronunciation such as Adonai.
3. Theology. the crime of assuming to oneself the rights or qualities of God.
4. irreverent behavior toward anything held sacred, priceless, etc.: He uttered blasphemies against life itself.

Interestingly enough, the reason why I came across this word was that I overheard it in South Park's latest episode. Needless to say, it was meant to ridicule the banks.

Obviously. As you can see from the following example. Please don't whine about it. It's just a short 1min 45sec clip. Surely you have the time to spare!?

If anything, I would advise the turning up of the volume. I never understood. This is the legit version, the original version of South Park yet the sound quality is so soft.

I would like to share with all of you the picture of my pierced tragus before it gets ugly and infected and pussy. Oops... I mean Pus-sy.

Anyway, now, in my opinion, is the hardest part of the healing process. Tragus Piercings are damn weird. I mean, they don't hurt alot on the first few days but then after that the pain hits you like a bang. Heck, even the actual piercing didn't hurt that much.

I've always felt that my body was abit retarded when it comes to the healing process. It was like this with my ear lobes. I can pierce my lobes on the same day as my friend and hers is completely well and healed and got over that crust-inducing healing stage and then it became my turn to barely start that phase of healing.

Yes, the weird part is the pain that usually comes within the 1st week of the piercing. The jaw hurts. Seriously. I have trouble smiling and even opening my mouth wide enough to eat.

Apparently this has got to do with the nerve / tendon of the jaw being situated close to the tragus. The tragus is abit swollen due to the fresh piercing, and thus affects that area of the jaw.

So, it is quite ouch. It's not really classified as pain. More like a dull ache. Like you are reeling back to your senses after someone has kicked you in your jaw.

Speaking of which my Dad did that Facebook thing about zodiacs and which element / zodiac animal you are... Like for mine, I know that I'm a Tiger baby girl, but I just realised that my element is that of Fire.

This is exactly weird because I went to Chengdu the other time and according to the time of my birth and gawd knows what, I'm supposed to be a Water Tiger.

Now Fire and Water are such different elements, I don't really like the idea of thinking I'm a Fire when I'm actually a Water, and vice versa, though it's not going to affect any way in which I lead my life. Maybe I'd stop keeping the fish.

JUST KIDDING.

I love Cherry and Bobby too much to give them up. No, actually it's more of my general love for pufferfish.

Did I forget to mention that the other day when Des and I were at Seaview and paying for Bobby and the other ill-fated green spotted baby puffer, this other customer looked at us and commented "Pufferfish? They are very hard to keep."

I wanted to boast to the stranger that I had kept my Cherry for coming to two years already when he added another comment "I never have been successful in breeding them."

All idea of boasting came to an end. You don't expect me to tell that guy "Well, let's not talk about breeding. I have trouble stopping Cherry from killing everyting else alive in the tank. "

At least Cherry has the decency to be quite afraid of human hands in the tank (when I need to put my hand in to fish the tank ornaments out for cleaning).

Hey, you noticed? Cherry and Chubby both starts with C and ends with a Y. I didn't realise it until I typo-ed and typed Chubby instead of Cherry.

That aside, Dad was born in the year of the dragon (Please do not be so kaypoh until go calculate his age). His element is a water.

In Mandarin, it's called Shui Long 水龙, Water Dragon.

However, in Mandarin, there is this thing called the Shui Long Tou as well 水龙头. Which means tap. Excuse me if I used the wrong Chinese word for it. That's the word the prog just came up with so I assume it's correct.

The idea of the joke, came from the victim himself, otherwise I would have not thought of it.

Well, back to Bobby.

Bobby.. is sick.

Yes. Already.

Apparently I've been thinking it was Finrot, resulting from one of the fights he got at the fish shop.

You see the thing about most fish shops is, although I have to acknowledge some of them do their best as economically possible, but because of the quarrelsome and territorial nature of puffers, most of them are often injured with their tails partially nipped off.

I got Bobby knowing that his tail had been nipped off quite abit, but it grows back over time. Most importantly, the way I choose fish is usually because of their responsiveness. I like to point at the tank and see which greedy bugger comes right up.

Puffers have this super cute habit of pushing their noses (well, more like mouth) against the fish tank glass to look at you. Well, I must add that this only happens when the puffers are in a healthy state. Well, healthy AND hungry.

I know of some shops where you can point all you want at the puffer tank and the puffers all lie at the bottom of the tank, only moving their eyeballs to stare mindlessly at your finger while they seemingly pant as if out of breath.

In case you're worried about Cherry going near Bob, well, I've a tank divider that separates them.

I must add though, that Cherry was being an arse. On the first day when I had just installed the tank divider, I actually woke up a few times in the middle of the night and switched on the tank light only to see Cherry scurrying back to the safety of his cave.

(I like to assume Cherry is a girl) She was trying to act angelic I suppose, because I had clearly woken up to something that was trying to knock the divider aside. It was quite obvious.. by the sounds that woke me up... and by the weird slanted angle my divider had gotten into.

At the other corner of the tank, the newbie puffer huddled in fear behind the volcanic rock tank ornament.

Besides, right now, due to Bobby's condition and the fact that Finrot may be contagious, I have placed Bob in the hospital tank in well-aerated water. I've consulted XK too and he said it looks more like an infection.

In fact, here's a picture of Bobby and the bad-looking tail.

Looks super 'Ouch' right?

PS: Just a reminder kids, that Earth Hour will be taking place this Saturday at Singapore time 8.30pm! Remember to off the lights!

Letter to Parents from Daughter in College

2009-03-25T01:37:00.003+08:00

Dear Mum and Dad,

It has been 3 months since I left for College. I have been remiss in writing and I am sorry for my thoughtlessness in not having written before.

I will bring you up to date now, but before you read on, please sit down. You are not to read any further unless you are sitting down, okay?

Well, then I am getting along pretty well now. The skull fracture and the concussion I got when I jumped out the window of my dormitory when it caught fire shortly after my arrival are pretty well healed by now. I only spent two weeks in the hospital and now i can see almost normally and only get those headaches once a day.

Fortunately, the fire in the dormitory and my jump was witnessed by an attendant at the gas station near the dorm, and he was the one who called the Fire Dept. He also visited me at the hospital and since I have nowhere to live because of the burnt out dormitory, he was kind enough to invite me to share an apartment with him.

It's really a basement room, but it's kind of cute. He is a very fine boy and we have fallen deeply in love and are planning to get married. We haven't set the exact date yet but it will be before my pregnancy begins to show.

Yes, mother and dad, I am pregnant.

I know how much you are looking forward to being grandparents and I konw you will welcome the baby and give it the same love, devotion and care you gave me when I was a child.

The reason for the delay in the marriage is that my boyfriend has some minor infection which prevents us from passing our premarital blood tests and I carelessly caught it from him. This will soon clear with some penicillin injections I am now taking daily.

I know you will welcome him into our family with open arms. he is kind and although not well educated, he is ambitious. Although he is of a different race and religon from ours, I know that your oft-expressed tolerance will not permit you to be bothered by the fact that his skin colour is somewhat darker than ours. I am sure you will love him as I do.

His family background is good for me too, for I am told his father is a very important gunbearer in the village of Africa where he comes from.

Now that I have brought you up to date, I want to tell you that there was no dormitory fire; I did not have a concussion or skull fracture; I was not in the hospital; I am not pregnant; I am not engaged; I do not have syphillis, and there is no Negro in my life.

However, I am getting a D in Sociology and an F in Science; and I wanted you to see these marks in proper perspective.

From,
Your Loving Daughter

(Above extracted from Snopes.com)

Unrealistic

2009-03-25T01:21:00.002+08:00

Idol dramas are unrealistic. That, we all already know.

But I think sometimes it's the audience that is unrealistic.

I mean, sometimes we watch a drama, and we tell ourselves, how come got such a good guy, treat that girl so well, and yet she doesn't feel anything towards him?

And then said audience decides for herself that if ever around her such a person exists and treats her really well, she would have accepted him.

Thing is, usually these treat you very good guys DO exist. And you know them too, but they are less cute, less obvious to you because THIS is real life.

Nice guys always finish last.

Just a random thought, so, yea, this is not really a long naggy post that is usually my trademark.

Looking for a job?

2009-03-23T19:54:00.002+08:00

I just have to say this.

If out of nowhere a company whom you never sent your resume to, calls you, there is a 99% probability that they are from some self-claimed Financial / Banking sector company.

Go down and ta-daaaaaaaa.. It's insurance related.

I hate it.

Why can't they stop it!

It's weird that these are the companies that get us into so much trouble in the first place. Are they trying to make up for their mistakes by cutting their CEO and higher management salaries and in return using the money to hire more people to join the workforce?

Is this some sort of pretense that everything is okay and fine and recovering at the worst-hit industrial sector?

I'm sick of it! And stop wasting my time! Omg!!

And right after an interview, a car swerved into our lane today. Turned out from a small road DON'T EVEN BOTHER TO LOOK.

We almost kissed their backside.

No, not exactly. Because the blardy driver swerved in, our side bonnet almost hit them! If we hit their back bumper with our front bumper, that one the arse can argue is because we tailgate, but this is our side bumper leh!

After braking and swerving away from its path, guess what, I stared at the car in front to see their rear mirror.. whether the front driver looked back in horror or not.

NEVER.

The fugger must be talk to girl until so happy, CAN STILL BE SMILING SUMORE.

Wtf. How do people like this pass their license? It's not P-Plate you know!?

I bet P-Plate also drive better than this!!

Now this is the 2nd thing that pissed me off today.

3rd thing. . . since most things come in 3s, I reckon I should squeeze in a 3rd item.

Hmm. . . The 3rd thing is very mild. In fact, you can even say that I asked for it.

I pierced my Tragus. Yes I did. For the 3rd time in my life.

It's a bit sad you know, if you think about it. Other than my lobe piercings that were done before I was 7, virtually every other piercing had somehow expired and I had to have it repierced.

Happened with the higher lobes. Happened with the tragus too, and then my very infamous multiple nose piercings that everyone laughed at because they thought it was a pimple *roll eyes*.

The city needs my help. It cries for protection and I will answer the calls to save her.

2009-03-20T01:37:00.002+08:00

Now the above random and mind-boggling sentence comes from the latest episode of South Park.

You see, the thing about South Park is that it usually is very straightforward.

Well, usually.

The last time they had this type of hidden identity, it was all the way back in Season 1 (Fyi, they're now onto Season 13).

Yup, in the wrapping-up episode of Season 1, called Cartman's Mom is a Dirty S***. The word is so bad I had to have more of the alphabets censored.

Give you all a hint. It's something that ZX often calls himself. I recall he even said that he doesn't know that this word is so insulting because he used on a girl once and everyone in the group killed him for it.

So yea, there is another hidden identity in South Park.

The appearance of a masked superhero (I have a feeling they were trying to do a parody of that recent Watchman movie). At the end of it, because the villians have been trying so many times to expose his identity by threatening the safety of the city, our masked hero decides to reveal his identity.

Except, the most frustrating part is....

You know how everyone has the SAME face SAME mouth in South Park? The only way you differentiate all of them is by their clothes.

So if you have the spare time to watch the little video below:

In case you were wondering, that fata$$ who calls himself The Coon is none other than fata$$ Cartman himself. So obvious lor.

But who the heck is Mysterion?

I am so pissed off by the fact that everyone in town sees the unmasked little boy and goes "Ooooh".. and "Wow".. moreover it was obvious when Mr. Garrison said the kid was from his class.

It all the more makes you wonder who the heck it is!

Who! In! The! Class! is Mysterion!?!?!

Itching Itchy? What Bug's aBugging?

2009-03-16T23:00:00.007+08:00

Now sometimes you get weird itches on specific parts of your arms or leg and you wonder what the hell bit you?

I just chanced upon a revelation, courtesy of Fang. IT may not necessarily be something that bit you because dry skin can also cause a hell of an itch!

You know what's the worst part? Even after you've scratched and broke your skin, hell, it may even bleed a little, the surrounding area of your dry and scaly skin continues to itch so much that you continue scratching the wound anyway.

It's not just irritating, the wounds and continuous addition of new sites also causes a great eyesore.

For a long time now, I do my best to wear long pants wherever I go. Jeans are specifically uncomfortable on my dry skin because when it itches, I can't reach the itch!

I would have loved to viciously tear at it with my fingernails!

Grrr...

But that aside, Fang was the one who enlightened me about dry skin causing such itchiness.

So last night, I actually applied this body butter that I bought from The **** Shop thousands of years ago during the GSS. Obviously you know what shop it is.

Now let me tell you that body butter is one of the best moisturiser to use in an office. Which was why I bought it in the first place. Like the specific N**ea Cream that comes in the trademark blue tin can, it is extremely oily and takes some time to be absorbed into your skin.

Thus, if you work in an office environment and frequently encounter super irritating yet painful paper cuts *just the thought of it makes my goosebumps surface!*, you will find that the presence of these ultra gooey moisturisers really help ALOT.

But, one thing for sure. You do not apply such stuff on yourself right before you go to bed.

Which was exactly the mistake I did last night.

Sure the moisturiser worked its wonders on my dry scaly skin. Oh, do you know that my skin is so dry that if the room lighting and angle of the light is correct, you can actually see my white skin flakes flying right off as I scratch my legs!

No kidding!!!

But last night my legs didn't itch at all, thanks to the body butter. But it sure was a hell load sticky!!

I mentally pictured that the gooey body butter was actually sticking all sorts of dust from all over my bed onto my legs.

And I forgot to mention as well that Chubby likes to curl into a ball there. I was half-afraid that maybe he would stick to my leg too.

Tip to all: If like me, you have this sort of skin, body butter is ideal BUT please use it sparingly. Preferably not before you go to bed. I'm sure there are a trillion more better moisturiser options that are non-sticky.

If you're wondering why am I being such an idiot by using the moisturiser while already knowing the 'feel' of it, well, let's just say I'm being a lazy arse because the moisturiser is right beside my lappie.

In fact, I'm re-applying it now. But, of course, sparingly.

So I would like to thank Shufang because finally I stopped scratching my leg at night, knowingly and unknowingly. Consciously and subconsciously.

And also, I have mentioned her in this blog post a few times because.....

DANG DANG DANG DANGGGGGGGG

It's her birthday!!!!

Birthdays are one of the greatest reason for all of us to get together.

Okay, who was the smartarse who once said... because I was complaining: We never ever meet for no reason. It always has to be somebody's birthday or something.

And smartarse (whoever you are), replied: Well, at least it's an occasion for celebration. It would be pretty sad if the only reason we're meeting is for sad events.

You smart arse. Thank you for making it sound better. But I'm sorry because due to Cindy's limited memory recall, I cannot remember who you are, haha!

Yes.

I find that my memory is deteriorating at an extraordinary rate!! Like, Fang had long ago told me that she wants to celebrate it at Waraku at MS, and I actually asked her twice.. along with a whole list of other things.

And when I was sending out the mass-SMS to everyone regarding sharing the cost of her present, I almost forwarded the SMS to her instead because I almost forgot she was the one who's birthday we were celebrating.

Now this is bad!

I need more things to keep my mind preoccupied. . .

(For effect, Oscar decided to crawl onto my foot at this point. Damn Chubby must have left the balcony door wide open again.)

Anyway, here's the photo of all the nice people who have gathered for this special happy occasion :)

I must add that it was pretty neat at Waraku. We had our own private room and all, those that required us to take off our shoes, and check out their seats! You had the option of sitting cross-legged or hanging your leg down and kicking the one sitting opposite you.

I believed Des had accidentally kicked all 3 persons sitting opposite him (Jo, Fang and Lex).

I must also add that this is the first time in my life I actually tasted Choya and I declare it as my favourite alcoholic beverage, though honestly, it has no kick. Maybe we'd try the concentrate next time. . But I guess it can actually beat my preference for Baileys Irish Cream!

Yes, it's that good! You should all try it!

Then again, I find that it was a great opportunity for me to see my good ol' jie meis again.

Eh, speaking of which, you two really my jie mei. One is in March and the other is in Sep. HAHA!!

Before meeting them, I must admit that it's been more than 2 years when I've shopped and walked SO MUCH I thought my legs were going to break!!! A good work-out, considering that I have been putting on weight by sitting down on my fat arse and typing away busily on the keyboard, blogging.

HAHAHA

Oh, and other than Choya, here's one more great beverage. I've recently found that other than the usual favourite Chocolate flavour, I am super in love with strawberry as well!!!!

Please ignore the angmoh who somehow appeared in the picture.

Stupid Things That People Do

2009-03-16T00:58:00.002+08:00

I know I should be blogging about Fang's Birthday but then the photos just reached me and I'm kinda lazy and also I have another 4 days before I MUST DIE DIE put her photos up because the actual day is on the 20th.

I just chanced upon this topic about the stupid things people do.

I'm not talking about silly things. It's the STUPID things.

Silly is.. like.. when.. a guy buys a huge bunch of flowers and then stands among the crowded MRT control station area while waiting for his girlfriend to reach. At the same time, tolerating the awkward (and sometimes envious) glances from passers-by.

Stupid is.. like.. when you know your boyfriend is two-timing you and you still stick to him.

I don't get it you know. While you are young, and have the freedom to explore, why do you choose to stay with a two-timing person?

The guy is not very rich, nor is he handsome, and apparently.. he is also not very smart because in some cases, the girl even knows who the hell the OTHER girl is, and yet you persist in staying with him.

Oops. I sound like I am talking about a particular case already right?

Okay let's not make this sound too personal.

Anyway, believe me, the grass is always greener ON THE OTHER SIDE. Look forward and there can only be better things.

For example, if you don't change your boyfriend, you are being stagnant.

If you step onto a particular piece of floor tile and ALWAYS fall down, even an idiot will know that you should never step on that same piece of floor tile again to avoid falling down.

But if you stay with that two-timer, it's like you KNOW.. but you CHOOSE to purposely walk up to that same floor tile to step on it; you end up falling down again and again and again.

Well, I do know that some people actually enjoy the feeling of pain, to the point that they get all parts of their bodies pieced or tatoo-ed, but then that's an experiential type of pain. You are.. torturing yourself mentally.

Even Joon, a little cutesy pie lovebird also know that if Ah Gong comes near, it is usually because he tries to be funny by whacking her head so she retaliates first by biting him really hard (that his fingers even bleed before). Then again, he asked for it. HAHAHA.. Okay, before I sidetrack.

Anyway, when you have a steady, doesn't it mean that you see a potential of this person becoming your lifetime partner? Either by cohabiting, or marriage, whichever floats your boat.

You want to be with a two-timer for the rest of your life? If so, I really nothing to say liao.

Okay, I know some of you have a 'steady' but you do not have the slightest intention of being together forever. If the feeling is mutual, I rest my case.

And then awhile ago, Bang comes and tell me nowadays there is such thing as 'Friends with Benefit' and described to me a particular situation. You know what I call it? Multiple-Night Stands.

Not one-night-stand wor. Its Multiple.

One thing that all parents want their children to possess, amidst a list of other good qualities... is self-love. And which part of this is self-love?

Oh, now talk about self-love brings me to another worrisome topic. Suicide.

I know there are all sorts of reasons to kill yourself. Be it stress from this or that. But I think one of the worst reason is to kill yourself because of BGR-related problem.

I hope whoever considers this method of solution before has also considered that your ex whom you 'selflessly' killed yourself over will attend your funeral.

Depending on the level of guilt he will, at most, shed some tears.

And then he will go home, take a bathe, change, and then go out with his NEW girlfriend. See!? Imagine that!!

Or.. guess what? He might even bring his new girlfriend to your funeral (assuming you didn't leave any suicide note and no one knows why the heck you killed yourself). If you think that the guy should know that you are going to kill yourself over him, well tell you what, most guys are stupid. You drop that hints they still DON'T GET IT!

So make sure you at least announce to your good buddies if you are harbouring such an idea, and they, being your GOOD BUDDIES, should at least be able to stop you from doing such a silly thing. Oh, sorry, not silly. I mean, STUPID thing.

Also, I suggest you don't kill yourself unless you are very certain that you are strong enough to be a really powerful and fierce ghost, and you will haunt them and use those red colour plastic chairs that they always rent to the bereaved family during funerals and whack the boy, and the girl too, if she's guilty for knowingly dating your then attached ex.

Now, other than imagining the above, also picture the sight of your grieving family members, your parents, especially, who more often than not, are wondering what the hell happened that made you kill yourself.

Would you not take a closer look at your parents, at how they have actually aged over the years? Probably aged more than they should because they had to work so hard to earn for the family to bring you up, and you blardy as hell go kill yourself over someone unrelated.

I am very convinced that.. let's say you've been with this guy for.. like.. since you were 20 years old.

I don't care how long you have been together, but my theory is that if you have been living the past 20 years of your life (before you met him) NICE, WELL, AND HAPPILY.. then you jolly as well can live the rest of your life WITHOUT this fella!

Agree or not?

Even physically... If you concentrate on the same guy in front of you for too long, your eyes also will become pa-jiao. So focus on the more distant objects located elsewhere. It is full of cute guys waiting for you to make your move! Okay, not exactly make your move lah. . Girls should show some restraint.. but you get what I mean.

There's one sad truth in life I've found
While journeying east and west -
The only folks we really wound
Are those we love the best.
We flatter those we scarcely know,
We please the fleeting guest,
And deal full many a thoughtless blow
To those who love us best.
~Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Thinking of Thoughts

2009-03-11T02:02:00.002+08:00

Now this subject title is a tease. Because one celebrity (guess who?) who was interviewed once said of this guy she's dating, describing him as a really 'deep' person.. who "thinks thoughts".

That's like wow. What on earth is she trying to imply.

You'd get slammed for grammar if you write such a thing in an O'Level composition. It's like saying "I jumped the jump" or.. "I ran the run".

Okay enough of that. I'm blogging so abruptly because I said something to a friend on MSN today. Nope. Not quarrel, not misunderstanding. No arguments involved.

But I thought it was a very heartfelt revelation.

I was saying in the conversation that the only thing I would like to alter about me now is to go jog and slim down, tone up.

Friend: You should.

Me: Don't want. Cos lazy. Anyway Des likes me the way I am.

Friend: What if he says he doesn't?

Me: Oh no he won't. And I know for sure..

Then came the relevation.

Now let me cut paste the rest of the conversation because although I type fast, I'm still lazy to retype the whole thing out.

(Please note that as I usually speak the 'shortcut' way, the following net conversation pasted is in super duper Singlish format)

it sounds sadistic and weird
but sometimes ask him do things
and he reali go and do
even reali simple things
i feel very amazed like wa.. he mus reali like me
i mean.. sometimes after a hard day's work.. he bring me go gai gai
den come back liao resting in my room
chubby makes noise cos he wans fresh water in his waterbowl
and although i.. am VERY obviously the one MUCH nearer to the dog
he bothers to get up and go replenish the water
u noe.. simple things like that
u may say i'm easily satisfied but i feel that it is thru the simple things that u can tell how good a person is to you

And as that SAME friend had also agreed on, I have super abrupt blog post endings, so, guess what? ...

END.

Weird Characters

2009-03-07T12:52:00.005+08:00

You know sometimes I hate to travel alone.

Because I believe there are these words written on my forehead that says: TALK TO ME.

I don't know why some of you say I have dao face when I'm actually so approachable especially to weird people who find strangers to talk to.

I don't mind nice little conversations.

Like once when I was taking the bus home from school there was this angmoh who talked to me about what I think about the students lucky enough to talk and shoot questions at Lee Hsien Loong.

I thought that was a very typical question that an angmoh would ask. Moreover, it was a crowded bus.

Then when we got off at the interchange he asked if I could lend him my phone. I didn't see why not, yet at the same time I geared myself just in case he decided to run off with it. Maybe I'm racist or something but because it's an angmoh I don't think he'd do such thing right? I mean, how many residential angmohs can you find in Toa Payoh? I'm sure he'd get tracked down real soon if he tries anything funny.

Nope. The wonderful thing that he did was to use my phone to call his phone and ta daaa~ Now he has my hp number.

I would have freaked out less if he was not bordering around the age of 40 years old whereas I was just a innnocent little secondary school girl. The only thing lacking from my appearance was two 'yew char kway' braids. I had the high nerdy socks as well as the heavy tortoiseshell school-bag to complete the image already.

That wasn't all, I was waiting for my friend at Toa Payoh interchange (ever wonder why there alot of weirdos?) when this other person came up to me and asked whether I am a local.

I thought that the person was a tourist (he didn't sound very local) and so I replied yes. I was expecting him to ask me another question.. like "where is so and so shop?" "where is the toilet?" etc etc.

No, he didn't do anything. Soon as I answered his question, he nodded his head and walked off. And then I observed him from the corner of my eyes and realised he was asking alot of people the same question.

The similarity? He was only asking young nubile girls who were alone.

At this point, have you realised that I've been praising myself? Nerdy innocent girl, and young nubile girl. I can't say about the young part anymore though :(

Time flies like a flash after I've turned 21. I cannot bring myself to believe that I'd be turning 23 this year. In fact, sometimes, out of nowhere, I'd ask Des how old am I supposed to be this year and he will do the calculation. I think being in Sales makes him do mental calculations very fast.

But I ought to be disturbed that everytime I ask him what my age is (which is like once every few weeks) he has to re-count, although he counts very fast.

Anyway, there was this other time at, guess where... 4 Horse Street.

I think that is one of the few places in Singapore that you should not be alone because you get approached by alot of strangers.

I guess it is also one of the places where you can find beggars. Not the type that sit down there and wait for you to throw money (and subsequently play catching with the police).

The kind that go around and ask you for money.

The bad side is that it's at my crystal-hunting hangout. Also, I am in love with the Laksa / Wanton Mee / Nasi Lemak there.

Which also means I can almost recognise the same few beggars there.. as well as their pitiful life stories.

The first few times I go there, I don't know whether the word 'noob' was written on my forehead or what, but I got this ah pek who suddenly came and sat beside me.

I ignored him since there were two other chairs for Des to sit on (he had went on to queue and buy my very favourite laksa while I sat there and waited).

In a split second, I wished that I was the one who had gone ahead to buy food instead :(

Anyway he asked me whether I was there to pray to GuanYin (Goddess of Mercy). I nodded politely.

"Prayed already?" he asked. I can't be bothered with a long reply so I nodded again and smiled. Now, you see, that's the trouble.

NEVER SMILE at strangers. Let the whole world think you are dao for all you care. SMILE means an invitation.

Then he dropped the bomb. "So can you give me some spare cash for me to buy coffee?"

I would have if he held a chopper to my neck. But then again, he was really old so I may be faster than him after all.

I shook my head. I know he looked pitiful and all, but sometimes, as Jav once put it, these people had lost all their money because they invested in CPF. (***** Prostitution Fund).

I'd let you guess the 1st word.

He actually had the cheek to ask me WHY.

Thankfully at this moment, Des came back, food and drinks in hand. Ah Pek smiled and nodded at him, and then FINALLY walked away (to sit at another table where two girls were sitting, needless to say, I know what he's going to ask them!).

That wasn't all. There was another time at the very same place when I sat down and waited for Des to buy food again.

Okay, now I'm making myself sound really bad.

As much as I try to be not rude to old people, I did not understand why when after settling down, this old lady came over and sat on the chair next to me.

Now this time the table only had 2 chairs. So I told her the seat was taken.

"I was here first!" she said.

I've seldom been rude to strangers unless they asked for it so I very obviously and dramatically rolled my eyes and then proceeded to the EMPTY table that was RIGHT BESIDE where I previously sat, at the same time wondering why on earth she could not have gone over. It was nearer to the food store too and she had to pass it before she could get to the table.

*Rolls eyes*

Chubby talks and Dead Fishes swim...

2009-03-06T00:32:00.003+08:00

I think I've been stuck at home for too long.

Too long till the screw that keeps my brain secured and sane is starting to rust or unwind itself already.

Just this morning, I swear I heard Chubby talk.

I was in those kind of half-awake and half-asleep state of mind. I don't know whether he said or I spoke it. Okay, let's just assume Chubby was the one who spoke it.

It wasn't clear. I don't know. I don't hear his voice. It was like, maybe he was thinking something ALOUD so much that I can actually hear his thoughts.

He was saying something like: I think I sleep on the pillow will be much more comfortable.

I can't recall how the dog phrased it but it was something along that.

Funny as hell.

Maybe I WAS THE ONE who woke up and told him to sleep on the pillow so that he will be more comfortable.

Anyway, I woke up, and got a shock, because he WAS sleeping on the pillow right beside me.

Doesn't help that it's been raining cats and dogs these few days because as most of you who knows him, also KNOW that Chubby's a wimp whenever it rains. It's got something to do with thunder. He is terrified of the sound of thunder.

I think I had a part to play with regards to this phobia. I used to cradle him like a baby in my arms and then try to console him whenever there was thunder. Well, in fact, up until I was a little TOO OLD.. I was still scared of thunder. I think even when I was 10 years old.

Lo and behold, I read a life-changing book. I believe it was by Enid Blyton. She made fun of the sounds of thunder by comparing it to someone who lives in the sky (guess who?) who had just moved into a new house and the movers actually dropped the cupboard.

Anyway, ever wondered why is it called a cupboard? I mean, it has nothing to do with cups unless the world's first few cupboards were meant to store cups? Wth...

I digress. So the next time you hear the sound of thunder, compare it with the sound of a huge grand piano or cupboard rolling down the stairs and you will hear the likeness.

I no longer got scared of thunder.

But the days and times where upon seeing lightning, I rushed to my bed and hid under the blankets were already witnessed by Chubby Lim.

It was sort of ingrained in him already.

He gets SUPER irritating and annoying whenever it rains. He doesn't even wait for the lightning or the thunder. Just the sounds of splattering raindrops on the roof gets him abit loony.

He sits right beside me, he wants to be carried. And if I were sleeping, he'd try to sleep right beside my face (gawd knows why). Not a very ideal position since he usually stinks.

As Chubby grew older, his hearing worsened, so unless it was really raining VERY heavily, he would not be aware of the weather conditions.

........ Unfortunately, the rain these days have been very HEAVY!!!

Behold, Chubby the Wet Weather Hater.

Have I told any of you that I have an OCD with relations to purchasing of dog beds? Every dog bed I see at the pet shop makes me hallucinate Chubby sleeping curled up inside it. He currently has 2 right now in my room (nobody, not even I know why he has two. But he just has lah, okay!?). Not counting the other 2 that I bought for him last year. Didi used it so I used it as an excuse to buy another 2.

Oh ya, and then there was the huge one that I bought for him from Ikea, and since they charged $ for using plastic bags, I hugged it all the way and everyone stared because the dog bed was so huge, Kilo could have used it as a bed himself!

Then there was this other 1 that I got because it had really cute dalmatian puppies printed all over it...

*and the list goes on......*

PS: Regarding the cupboard thing, I actually checked it out with Wikipedia (Wiki rox my socks!!)

CUPBOARD
"As the name suggests, this piece of furniture was originally a simple board or table on which to place cups or mugs - recorded use of such a name dates back to at least the Middle Ages. For the last few centuries, "cupboard" has referred to a storage area enclosed by doors."

Brooktown High Rox Ur World

2009-03-05T16:16:00.002+08:00

Another new PSP game that I'm on. Okay, I can imagine those who don't have PSP or have already sold theirs, are going to stop reading here.

Haha!!

Well, all I can say about this game is that Poly and Bendemeer Sec was never this bitchy!

I mean, in truth, I would NEVER be caught dead so blatantly trying to ask people out. I mean, a one-to-one kind of date, that kind.

My love interest, due to personal preference, is Brent. Man, I was SO BLARDY happy when Brent agreed to go out with me on a date (in the game, of course).

Captain of the volleyball team, although that doesn't matter, looks-wise Brent was probably one of the best looking out of the whole school.

The rest had some fall-behinds here and there.

Like I tried going out with Hilton, a smooth-talking African American (see, if this was real life, my parents would probably faint). Hilton was great, but his family wasn't. I mean, his parents were kinda paranoid about him dating, so that fell through.

I'm talking like this is a real life thing right? Well it kinda feels like.

Every Monday we have this School Rag thing. It's like a gossip magazine where the latest rumours or official news will be pinned on it.

E.g. there were rumours going about that the principal died (what coincidence that an NTU lecturerer happened to get stabbed a few days back), but apparently those were just rumours and they were trying to make it clear about it.

Then one day, came the worst. Spring Fling was an annual official event in school. Kinda signifies the start of spring with a formal-wear event. The School Rag actually put: It has been rumoured that Cindy has no date for Spring Fling.

OUCH.

I double-checked my PDA calendar, yes, I WAS.. and Hilton DID agreed to go with me.

Then guess what. Just as I got there, Hilton said his grandma was sick and he had to go off already :(

We haven't even danced! Gawd, I hate that guy, come to think of it.

Just in case you are interested, this is a little of what the insides of the game looks like.

Struck By Lightning

2009-03-03T13:33:00.002+08:00

I know news about the NTU stabbings have been raging around and catching on among us like fire.

But here's a lesser known news that's been shunned to the corner of the limelight.

Our Merlion kana struck by lightning.

Bet you didn't know eh? Or, at least, haven't found out about it yet.

Don't worry, he's still standing there as he always was. Still doing his national duty and favourite pastime of sprouting water from his mouth.

I feel an affinity to the creature because I was nicknamed after it due to an 'unfortunate' incident during my poly internship.

Apparently only part of Merlie's head was scraped off by the sudden impact and contractors will look into repairing it.

Okay, this is a SUPER random insertion. Do you know it costs $2,000 a day just to rent a Lambo? On top of that, you have to fork out another 5 digit sum as 'insurance' money in case anything happens to the car while it is in your care.

So the thing about renting a Lambo is not just the $2k, but most people have trouble putting a 5 digit sum down.

In short, no money, no Lambo. Not even a rented one :(

Okay back to the Merlion topic.

Anyway, relevant authorities are considering doing things like erecting some sort of barricade which would, in my opinion, only serve as an eyesore!

Or else they may consider putting some lightning rod to divert the electricity somewhere else that will not pose a danger to nearby tourists (I assume only tourists actually bother to go near the Merlion).

Hey, actually I recall R10 taking photos with the Merlion.

We didn't really stand right beside the scaly fella. It was really late at night and you could only see the Merlion's face clearly (cos he got spotlight wat!) whereas our faces were so hard to make out that you can hardly tell who is who!!!

R10 if any of you reading this, send me the photo leh!!!

The Red Background and White Barcode thing

2009-03-01T14:59:00.002+08:00

If you are as observant as me (which is actually not very observant also), you would have noticed that for quite some time already, there's been alot of red goods van going around that has some weird white barcode splashed across it.

There are even some salon cars that has that pattern too.

For the uninitiated, and if you are so capable and engrossed in your flamboyant life that you did not even catch ONE SINGLE episode of the many F1 races that they televised Live on Channel 5, well, Ferrari's cars also had that same barcode.

Lucky for me, I found out what it was even before F1 came to town.

Unable to contain my curiousity, I actually peeked into one of these vans to see what they were holding because those red vans with white barcodes were everywhere.

Let me just drop you a hint if you haven't know by now.

It's because the goods of a particular industry are not allowed to be advertised through any forms of media, thus they resorted to the barcode logo.. because..

Well, it's just a barcode. There's no name or any image depicting that it has anything to do relating to the goods that they are advertising for.

That's right my dear readers. It's the tobacco industry!

And there you have it.

As I've said, I kaypoh-ishly peeked into one of them damn vans and found stacks and stacks and boxes and boxes of.. MARLBORO~~!~!!~!@!~!~!~!~!~!~!

I thought it was a pretty good idea. Here, governments can't fault them. There, somehow by some uncanny ability, they have made ME (a classic example) found out that Marlboro and this barcode are somehow interlinked.

So from then on even when I watch the ever dashing Kimi Raikkonen (I forgot how to spell his name properly and am too lazy to find out via yahoo), and see that bar code thing on his spoiler, I would instinctively recall Marlboro and shrug it off.

Because I don't smoke.

And I can't tolerate people who do, even if you're my SO can?

It stinks and as I age day by day, I realise that my lungs are getting more and more intolerant of cigarette smoke.

I can't remmeber who it was but this person actually blew out all the secondhand smoke out at me just when I was inhaling the air.

As a result, I very dastardly breathed in a whole load of secondhand smoke and could not stop coughing!

I could still recall that very first cough after breathing in also came with alot of smoke.

Thus my unexplainable obsession and amusement of breathing out smoke, especially in colder climate places (even as near as Genting, the nearest furthest place)!

Man, I thought it's a pretty good slogan. Maybe should email Genting Resort people and ask them to consider it as future reference :)

Similarly I was eagerly breathing in alot of the good air at JiuZhaiGou because of the smoke that comes with it. I even tried my best to do it at Taipei when it rained and the temperature dropped like.. 10 degrees?

It was incredible. Why is it that everyone else gets such cool and lovely weather and here in Singapore we don't?

I was watching this really funny YouTube video too, of a local stand-up comedian, who mentioned that god has eyes. And there really is such thing as kharma.

Admit it. Each and every one of us have did something wrong in our lives. Whether it is eating animals, accidentally killing an ant, etc.

So there is kharma to every countries you know. Some countries have volcanic eruptions, some even kana Tsunami. Then there are also earthquakes, typhoons, flash floods.. all sorts of natural disaster.

So you think Singapore is safe and sound from it all? Look at our money-rich government and where it gets the cash from (us!). HAHAHA~!

I thought it was a pretty good joke!

Oh damn. Will I get in trouble for this?

My Room~

2009-02-26T14:38:00.002+08:00

I re-watched a drama recently.

One that I had watched, probably about 2 years back.

It's called 我爱金三顺.

It's probably one of the funniest Korean dramas in terms of dialogue. For example:

Guy: Where are your manners?

Girl: I made them into a soup and drank it up.

Then there was this instance where the guy asked the girl out and then refused to speak to her because he didn't know how to start the conversation.

The girl was mildly pissed and thought to herself: What did he call me out for? To see how good-looking his side view is? *they were sitting in his car so she was staring at his side view while he drove*

Call me easily-amused but I thought it was pretty funny.

Then there was this scene where the boyfriend went to the girl's house for the first time. But this was not before the girl's mother knows that this guy's bad history (you know, typical Korean drama ingredient of contractual relationship / marriage).

So she whacked him until he fainted. When he regained consciousness he was lying on the girl's bed and the girl was asking him how is he.

He commented on how her room (although much smaller than his), smells good. Because the whole room smells like the girl. At this point, the girl melts into a puddle of water.

This made me think of him. Man, I really feel like just typing out his nickname here but then he'd really kill me although he doesn't read my blog and he won't know. Because I know ALL OF YOU will start calling him by that nickname and he'd never hear the end of it. And then one of you wonderful genius will 'bao toh' that I put it up on my blog that's why so many people came to knew about it.

Roarrrr.. Can I call him my SO? As in Significant Other.

So then I remembered one of the first few times SO stepped into my room.

It irrefutably smells like Chubby's pee. But of course, SO, having no dogs around, was unable to identify the smell. There is a smell.. but he can't put a finger to it.

Until I told him it is the by-product of the very cute ball of fluff that is sticking to my ankle.

And then, SO asked where can he smoke, so I pointed to the balcony. He went there, smoking alone and admiring the wonderful scenery of 'the village' that exists behind my house.

The neighbours' kids are all damn close to each other and play together almost every evening when the weather is fine. Sometimes they even have potluck outside altogether, and bring their plastic chairs and sit right outside on the road. This group of 'village' actually consists of many terrace houses that are located at the dead-end of the road, thus they are able to sit like that.

Anyway, very soon I heard a short scream from him. You know how men scream. It starts out high-pitch because they really get a shock and then slowly morphs into a lower deeper ARGHHhhh... so that they can end it in a more manly way *rolls eyes*

Anyway I ran to the balcony only to discover the root of his shock. Oscar. Apparently SO was very enviously checking out The Village when Oscar decided that it is time to eat, and since there is a sucker standing at the balcony he may as well ask the sucker to feed him.

Thankfully, unlike Manda's Oscar which has a biting problem, Oscar doesn't really bite unless he thinks your hand looks quite like his food pellets.

He gains attention by climbing ONTO your foot. Down side was that because he climbs onto your foot and most people's instinctive reaction was to remove their foot, Oscar usually ends up flying at least 30cm away from the victim.

Most times, however, he's lucky enough to land on the right side. There were times where he obviously landed on the WRONG side.

"Are you scared of terrapins?" I asked SO innocently and what does DA MAN.. say.." No lah.. Not scared lah. Small turtle only. Just that it is quite scary when you didn't see him coming and he suddenly climb onto your leg."

Awesome Noodles of Awesomeness!

2009-02-26T00:29:00.002+08:00

This is what Chowei taught me. Or us, actually.

You know how we all gather at Val's house obediently, year after year, for the annual Christmas dinner. It probably is the only time of the year where I actually cooked something decent and non-MSG related (at least not THAT much).

You know how I'm jobless and schoolless right now so I'm not afraid to tell you all that I sleep, on average, at 3am every night.

Needless to say, supper is a must for me due to my sleeping cycle. Like a hobbit, I eat 4 square meals a day (hobbits actually eat more than that but their official mealtimes are 4 a day if I didn't recall wrongly, not including the snack times that they have official names for too).

Actually I don't really eat 4 square meals because I don't eat breakfast.

So I made noodles after deciding for a really long time. I try to avoid cooking noodles especially after 11pm but sometimes because of my unexplainable craving for the instant noodles (My relatives, especially our mother, used to say that the reason for me and my brother's uncanny craving for this particular brand of noodles was because they added some sort of drug in it).

I often engage in a super internal turmoil, debating whether or not I should go make noodles and make myself fatter than I already am.

But just now was different.

I was about to start cooking when all of a sudden an old man with a towel wrapped around his head appeared in front of me.

I'm telling you, I almost dropped my bowl on my own feet.

Turned out to be my grandfather.

In the dim kitchen light I almost couldn't recognised him.

He was staring at me with an equally shocked look because he could not recognise me from afar and was pondering the possibility of me being an intruder.

I am SO SURE I do not look like one because of the Tweety Bird pyjamas gown I was wearing. I mean, he may not be able to see my small little face but the Tweety Bird on the gown is HUGE.

He then said it is good. "Hungry must eat" is his theory. He ALWAYS says that, I don't know why. Most people I know would have given me a good scolding by saying if I'm hungry right now I should have eaten more during dinner time.

Anyway, because he can't get to sleep too, he asked me to share with him my noodles.

Best part, as this blog's title is based, was that he said my noodles was A1 *imagine Ah Gong with thumbs up sign here, because he really did that!*

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.. now my turn happy until cannot sleep. Don't understand? Well that's because you don't know what a fussy eater my Ah Gong is!

Messenger 2009

2009-02-25T00:42:00.003+08:00

Hello everyone~

Today is intro day!

Through helping my mother out with her MSN webcam stuff (of which I discovered she was on my block list, no wonder she cannot see me online!!)..

So because of this, I downloaded the newest MSN messenger and it's pretty good.

Remember how I used to mass type and flood some of your screens especially when I am very excitedly trying to relate a story?

For example:

Cin says:
You know what?

Cin says:
I saw Edison Chen today!!!

Cin says:
Can you believe it? So I walked right up to him

Cin says:
And whacked him on the head with a blunt object!

------------- end of example -------------

Except of course, things aren't as simple as they seem. Because usually on MSN, due to kind tolerance to people who love to put extra long nicknames, usually our nicknames are more like....:

Cin is the world's naggiest blogger, even if she's not she's on her way to be says:
You know what?

Cin is the world's naggiest blogger, even if she's not she's on her way to be says:
I saw Edison Chen today!!!

Cin is the world's naggiest blogger, even if she's not she's on her way to be says:
Can you believe it? So I walked right up to him

Cin is the world's naggiest blogger, even if she's not she's on her way to be says:
And whacked him on the head with a blunt object!

------------- end of 2nd example -------------

Instead, the nice new messenger helps us to summarise everything and instead of repeating nicknames a few thousand times back and forth, they summarise everything into very neat point form :)

Check out this example and a glimpse of the very nice new interface!

Oh and I think they are no longer called MSN Messenger. They have renamed it to Windows LIVE Messenger~

Kindly ignore my weak and feeble attempt to cajole that stubborn arse into playing Hotel 626. Junwei's more immune to my tricks because he has witnessed Dickson playing that game before already.

Hotel 626

2009-02-24T13:46:00.002+08:00

Yes. Some of you don't know what I mean when I said I'm checking in (and btw, I still AM).

Please, for gawd's sake, DO NOT CONFUSE THIS WITH HOTEL 61! It is NOT farnie and if you played the game before, the last thing on your mind would be Hotel 61.

Hotel 626 is actually an online game, I've heard that it's not as new as I thought it was, but what the heck! I bet it still is as fun as it was back then when they just launched it.

So anyway, it's an online short game, whose concept and doing-up is paid for by its actual advertiser, Doritos chips (where is the link?).

Now this super reminds me of this project I once did back in Temasek Poly with Peizhen, Yanling, Lena and Gary.

Holy.. please don't tell me I left any other groupmates' names out because I can only recall this 4 people with me.

I should be able to dig out a photo somewhere. Gimme a minute.

There we are! That's my last Grad project groups having a very short lunch break at Biz... Alamak.. what is the canteen's name ar?

Biz something one. Never the mind...

Anyway, what reminded me of this project team was that we came up with the concept of irrelevant marketing. By using the example that how Ben & Jerry's sponsored the Singapore Water Sports competition. I forgot the exact name but it was held behind Temasek Poly, at where Bedok Reservoir is.

Ice Cream and hot weather do provide some form of assocation but unfortunately, ice cream and water sports just don't seem to go together. I mean, can you imagine somebody wakeboarding and having ice cream at the same time?

Thus, this irrelevance makes us always recall that Ben & Jerry's are one of the main sponsors for the event.

Similarly, if it was Laurier F that was sponsoring, I bet it would be deeply remembered as well, although if you want to talk about relevance, maybe some random Tampon brand would have been considered as more relevant to water sports.

Anyway, I think Doritos did a pretty good job because its pure irrelevance has managed to work!

Now we all know (at least I do) that Doritos did such a fantastic horror game. They could consider this as one of their back-up ventures should their chips ever fail to sell well :)

I can't tell you how eerie the game is to me.

I admit, I was too chicken to try.

For those who are interested, please note that the game is only play-able.. or in their words, Hotel 626 is only open for check-ins from the sun-setting and night-time of 6pm to 6am in the morning. This gimmick is obviously to force you to play it at night.

Just for the record, Cindy has successfully psyco-ed friends to actually play the game (on her behalf). Due to confidentiality issues, their names shall not be mentioned here. I shall not let you know that they consist of Manda, Bang, and Deyang.. just to name a few.

HAHAHAHA!!!!

Check it out. A short trailer to Hotel 626:

Of Pet Owners and Parents

2009-02-23T14:11:00.002+08:00

Just a thought that crossed my mind recently.

I've always been complaining that it's getting more and more difficult to find youngsters these days who are actually polite.

By youngsters I mean around the age of teenagers. Especially those in their mid-teens.

I admit that THERE ARE those who are polite and all but those are few and far between.

You come across most of them because they work in those retail shops at shopping centres. Some whom I come across were actually these teenagers talking to their parents.

Now, if we talk about those in the retail line... How many have served you politely? They don't even need to be polite.

How many of them have even bothered to serve with a SMILE?

Maybe it's got to do with them being teenagers and all.. all the angst and rage against the world in them.. but surely, they didn't have to look like I killed their dog or something.

I assure you I'm not those difficult and rude customers.

I'm probably more like those that keep quiet and then when I get out of the shop I tell everyone I know not to patronise it.

Thus with many such experiences.. I have come to the conclusion that...

Just like not everyone is FIT to own a dog because of how they take care of it.. similarly, not every human being is fit to be a parent.

Just because you are able to find a significant other in your life doesn't necessarily mean you are fit to be a parent.

I think why there is 2 persons in the equation is a way of backup.

If 1 fails terribly, at least there is another parent to make up for it.

Unfortunately, sometimes 2 don't make it work either.

You can tell. Just take a walk along the streets.

Recently Des has this shopping craze and I ended up going to town on both precious weekend days and I tell you I'm not going to town for the next 2 years because I'm so absolutely sick of it!

But that aside, you see some parents who are really sweet. They carry their baby and walk around. And although the baby can even barely understand the environment, some parents would guggle and talk to them, for e.g. "look at that nice shoe... isn't that shoe nice?"

Yea. Tell me about it. Tell me how a few month old baby can appreciate a pair of Coach heels when it is Mummy drooling over it while Daddy looks a tad uncomfortable after bio-ing the price tag.

Then there are some cases where the equation obviously comes into effect.

Mum fusses over the baby making sure that the little toddler is seated comfortably against the pram chair. Apparently she was trying to adjust the angle of the pram, while DAD.. apparently, daydreams while standing behind the pram.

Seriously daydream. I stared at him (discreetly of course) for a total of 5 seconds and throughout it all, I don't know why but it feels like a pretty long 5 seconds to me, he was daydreaming into space.

It's not because something in the shops caught his eye. He was just daydreaming into space. Unless, of course, he was finding the Riser door super interesting.

Then there was another couple who were holding on to their kid in the LV boutique.

I guess they took a little too long, because the (I assume) 1 plus year old kid started bawling his eyes out, where parents both responsibly threw him to the maid and asked them to stand outside the boutique so that he can cry outside instead.

Of course, I may be speaking from a very biased point of view because I may have just unluckily saw the bad side of the parents although during other times they treat the child better. Or I may have seen the good side of the parents because the child was still so young and they were still very 'enthu' about it.

Either way, I really still think that not all humans were meant to be GOOD parents. Good thing was, I know people who think that way too. Take.. George Clooney for instance. He mentioned before in an interview, something along the lines that he doesn't have the intention of having kids because he cannot imagine his genes being passed down to the next generation.

Of course, there's a bad side to it.

Damnit. No cute younger version of George Clooney :(

I Can Talk, Can You Fly?

2009-02-21T14:37:00.002+08:00

This has got to be one of the most amazing things I've heard a bird say.. Moreover, it's a common mynah!! Although it doesn't look like the one we find all over Singapore.

Thing about birds is they are pretty vain. When they have nothing to do you can see them preening themselves to make sure they look their best all the time.

I, for one, am not such a person. If I didn't have to leave the house to go out, I find no reason to look good (or even comb my hair).

If for some reason, such as back when there were long otracious periods of school holidays, I would sometimes go for days without a bath. HAHAHA.. Kidding.

Just days without washing my hair lah.

The only person who can tolerate is not even my mother. It's Chubby.

HAHAHAHA!!

Pumping Petrol

2009-02-16T00:17:00.002+08:00

I went to the petrol station a few times recently and thought I'd share with all of you something.

That is.. pumping petrol.

I will give a little bittle credit to TH for teaching us how to use those pumps in case the petrol attendant was busy or jit tao MIA-ing.

I know would like to boast the fact that I know how to use the pump all by myself, when some of you MEN (call yourself what?) don't have an inkling.

:D

That aside, I seldom get to use the chance of even touching the pump. It's like cursed to let the customer touch it, you know? I very nearly set about trying to pump my own petrol once and the attendant suddenly appeared out of thin air and snatched it from me in a very apologetic manner.

So once after we finished with the petrol, we stopped aside while Des smoked a death stick (there are cheaper ways to die, you know?).

A petrol attendant was there as well since there were no other cars requiring his service.

He was about in his late 50s. A smiling friendly uncle who had a few tooth missing from that wide grin of his.

As usual, the small talk was about how tough his job is.. how it is better then sitting home doing nothing.. and the most interesting part was how people drive off without paying for their petrol.

It was not just interesting to listen. It was vexing as well.

It was annoying to see how people would drive off without payment and not only that. When petrol prices reached skyhigh and people doing this were apparently doing it more and more frequently, petrol attendants could only watch in despair as these cars drive off.

Although if I am an attendant I'd probably contemplate jumping in front of the vehicle and add another charge... attempted murder + petrol stealing.

But then again, these people are only caught should the employees actually be able to mark down the vehicle number and car type.

Slowly, petrol companies see the need to install security cameras, though some are dummy sets meant to just scare these law-breakers into paying up.

That's not the worst part. The most unfair part is that this very nice uncle told us that if they are unable to catch the perpetrators, the amount of petrol they stole was deducted from their salary!!!

We're not talking about cheapskate people (because I AM a Cheapskate). We're talking about people who drive Mercz... Beemers... Lexus... !!!

If my GTA weapons were with me, I would use my rocket launcher to shoot at their car. Full of petrol right? Full tank right? I see how it all goes up in flames! Driver included!!!

On a side note here, yes. I want to Jurong Bird Park on Valentine's Day and it was the coolest because we got to see the Eagle show! Heck! I don't even mind watching it again!!!

By the way, do you know swans can STILL float and prance around even while they are napping? Check this bugger out!!

The Random Method

2009-02-14T01:56:00.002+08:00

I'm sure most of you have seen the Random Note post that's been going around feverishly in Facebook.

I thought it's a rather good way because sometimes when you blog, you can't find relevant and related things to talk about without turning your audience to ZZZ mode.

And since you already specified to others that it's going to be about Random stuff, they are expecting it and will eagerly await to see what sort of things you can come up with.

Let me try my hand again because I feel that my previous 25 Random Things note in Facebook was done in a mental block state of mind.

This, being typed in a 'creative' state (at least much more than my Facebook one).. will probably end up being more than 25 points.

Here goes.

1. I am still intending to change my handphone. My 21-months is officially up on 17th March 2009. With that I hope some of you can advise me should I get LG Renoir or Samsung Pixon.

2. Des gave me, as part of my V-Day Gift.. a heart-shape pillow from SK Jewellery that lets you record voices.

3. Des recorded a super sweet message to me that I shall decline to expose further or risk getting both of us ridiculed the next time any one of you sees either of us.

4. Des accidentally kicked my PSP off my bed just now. It fell... but it landed on the pillow mentioned in #2.

5. It hit the 'Record' button so his sweet message got erased AND NONE OF YOU WILL GET TO HEAR IT!

6. EVER!!

7. Wants to share with everyone that SK Jewellery is also having a VERY GOOD DEAL! A .09 carat diamond ring at $169. Girls, DO NOT WAIT FOR YOUR BOYFRIENDS to buy it. Please. In my opinion it's a very good deal! Please go buy it! PLEASE! SOMEBODY! Make use of the good deal!

8. No. Des did not get me that ring though I requested for it :(

9. Wonders at why is it spelt Diamond instead of DAImond. Why is it Durian instead of Durain?

10. Travelled past Gan Eng Seng Sec and St. Theresa's Convent all within a day, and had very mixed feelings. Of winning... and losing... during debating days.

11. Will never buy a webcam because I don't want to take the risk of web-cam chatting with people while wearing Tweety Bird pyjamas.

12. Has not yet planned what to do, where to go, and where to eat on V Day.

13. Don't really give a flying *toot* about V Day because everyday is V Day.

14. Talk about being sweet and all, one of the sweetest thing Des ever said was when I ask him "So tired, why everyday after work still go out?" and his answer was "Cos you never work, whole day at home, scared you sian ma.. so bring you out lor."

15. *Melting into puddle of water in progress*

16. Fact that Des was usually brutally honest and doesn't lace his words with sugar and honey made it even more SWEETER that he said such a thing!

17. Thinks that one of the best movies ever watched was Forrest Gump. But then I didn't watch it one shot. I watched it part by part, 1st was on the streets when they were showing it, then at someone's house then finally on Channel 5. I never managed to complete the entire show at one go.

18. Thinks that taking Evening Primrose Oil has not only eased the menstrual cramps but improved my skin! ... Guys reading this, just shut up your idea, okay?

19. Is convinced that if you want a room to smell good, you can just leave a little plate with Listerine in the room and the whole room will smell good!

20. Was very pleased that Ah Gong commented that her new Billabong bag is very nice.

21. Is excited to meet the girls on Tuesday. We're going to the zoo... zoo... zoo... what about you... you... you....?

22. Thinks that I've been quite successful so far in making Chicken Mcnugget sound like a vulgarity.

23. Misses Bangkok. When will they stop poli-fighting?

24. Likes to play hide-and-seek with Joon Joon cos she runs away from me everytime I managed to 'find' her.

25. Hates dust.

26. Am glad to be past 25! I mean as in Number of Random Points.. not referring to age!

27. Sometimes have this compelling urge to just throw away EVERYTHING in my room so that it looks and feels more empty.

28. Realises in time that sometimes messy = cosy. My mum hates my room for its mess yet she finds it very 'soothing' and 'comfortable' to be in.

29. So does alot of people. Such as Jo... Wen.... Des.... oh ya.. Des used to claim he cannot fall asleep anywhere that is NOT his room.

30. I had to wake him up many times.

31. But he will accidentally wake Chubby too, who somehow likes to sleep wedged under his armpits like a tai-tai wedging her purse.

32. Likes to smell like an old woman by using Hazeline Snow cream and Snake Brand talcum powder.

33. Just because I don't follow novelty fashion trends doesn't mean I 'purposely' dress like an Auntie.

34. Is going to bed now. Good night!!

Bathing Cage Forgotten

2009-02-12T00:23:00.003+08:00

Alamak!!!

I use this word alot recently.

But.. the motive of my previous post was to show all of you the photo of Shreky and Donkey in their new Doubles Bathing cage because they look so awfully cute side by side!!!!

And then I clearly forgot all about it after uploading the video of them flying back to their cages!

Day 1 of using the Doubles bathing cage was a complete failure.

Donk entered first, instantly recognising it as a bathing cage, yet finds that the stand and the container of water seems to be situated really far away from each other.

The old bathing cage's fixtures are nearer to each other, allowing the bird to test the water depth with their beak WHILE standing on the perch.

Donk then started daydreaming.

Shrek took a heck of a time. I probably left his cage connected to the new bathing cage for about 30 minutes while he explores and tests whether the bathing cage is edible.

He then proceeded to fly in but then got a rude shock when he realises Donk was eyeing him all the while.

He jumps back into his cage and stands at the door while he peeps at Donk from afar.

This went on for quite some time before he realises that Donk is unable to reach him directly as there was a transparent acrylic separating both of them.

So, Shreky finally jumps in.

With two putehs in their new bathing cage, what else can happen?

I tell you what....

DAYDREAMING

Quite obvious that they were daydreaming right? I tell you, these two will make the worst Bendemeerian students in Bendemeer's history.

Because since the beginning of time, Bendemeerians are damn good at hiding the fact that they are daydreaming.

Except for that very afternoon during A-Maths lesson when the heat was just too hot and I fell asleep.. with Valerie and Guangyuan who were both sitting beside me joining me in LaLa Land as well.

That was hell of a funny. I jolted awake when lesson ended, cos of the sound of the bell, and I felt so terribly guilty although the Maths teacher (I forgot her name but still remember her face) could not care less because many students were like that. I still can recall she sort of looks like Aileen Tang, that Mediacorp actress that very heavily promotes that brand of cosmetic that 'slims down' the face and makes you look younger.

I bet she must be thinking how the hell did we pass our O's!!!

Well, I tell you how. We hire tuition teachers!

HAHAHAHA... Okay, not as funny when my mother reads this.

Anyway, today was the second time they both entered the new bathing cage. Thankfully enough, Shreky took a much lesser time too.

But the best part was...

those 2 dirty rascals FINALLY BATHED!!!

Here's a picture of them taken today, like 2 drown rats!

New Bathing Cage

2009-02-11T14:51:00.003+08:00

In the past I only had one Puteh. Which is Shreky.

Thus the bathing cage is a 'solo' one. Just think of it as a public toilet with only one cubicle.

Then Spidey came. I love Spidey. He's a cute little fella. Handsome too.

You know there are many times and many things in life that happens, that makes you inevitably believe that maybe Fate does exist.

How do you explain that in this world there is a world population of.. wa biang.. what is the world' current population estimation ar?

Okay, let's say X billion people.

In a world containing X billion people and X million blogs, you are reading my blog of all blogs.

ISN'T THIS FATE?

When there are X billion amount of people that you may know as friends, you know me. Isn't this fate?

And there are so many captured Putehs in this world, and even in Singapore alone, but Spidey flies into a trap cage, gets trapped, and then somehow changed hands 3x to come to me.

Isn't this fate?

But if there's one thing that has no Fate with me, it is the new Puteh that came. The one that we exchanged Spidey for.

In order to match Shreky, I decided to name it Donkey.

Yup. Shrek and Donkey.. just like the movie....

Sweet, ain't it?

I mean, although when you talk about the way the birds behave, really, Shreky ought to be called Donkey and Donkey ought to be called Shrek.

Because Shreky is a restless and fidgety young Puteh whereas Donkey seems to be one who has weathered all storms and whenever observed, you see him standing calmly upright on the perch, surveying his environment.

But there is one problem between me and Donkey. Sure we came together to have this wonderful pet-and-owner relationship, but then there were many things I don't mean to that almost scare the crap out of Donk.

For example, I would be trying to hang his cage up on one of the hooks at the airwell, and I would trip and as a result, almost drop him.

Putehs are very tame, actually. Especially those like Donkey who have been living in a cage for a long time already.

Actually even if you lower the cage to the floor at a speed that is abit too quick (sort of like the dropdown of a roller coaster ride), they are not afraid also because they know the owner is holding them (or so I like to think).

At least they don't pinball in fright!!

But then if you were to ACCIDENTALLY lose your grip and ALMOST drop them, THEY KNOW.

Hell they know!

Donk pinballed inside his cage like anything the day I almost dropped him.

Of course there were many similar such accidents that I am quite afraid one day his cage would really break when I lose grip because I always manage to save the cage back by grabbing it at some awkward angle.

The worst and most recent incident was when I let Donkey fly back to his cage from the bathing cage.

He obediently did what was expected. But just when I was snapping the cage door shut, he attempted to fly back to the bathing cage.

He and I both got a shock when within a split second, I had him in a 'beheaded' position with the door at his neck.

I immediately lifted up the door and he conveniently got back to the bathing cage, panting.

I didn't mean it but such silly incidents kept happening. I started to question whether this bird was really happy to be with me and even contemplated asking Des to pass me another random young bird since I seem to have a better affinity with the taming and training younger Putehs.

Talking about training, check out my darling Shreky obediently returning to his cage.

Of GTAs and Ferraris

2009-02-10T14:42:00.002+08:00

I've heard that my posts have been getting a little too wordy. BUT IT'S OKAY, you-know-who, I know you're still reading this anyway, muahaha!!

That aside, I am still in the midst of completing countless GTA quests.

I've been stuck in one of the quests that involved my blood brother (in the game), Lance, who was apparently high on I don't know what drug.

I was pissed with Lance because he accused this Biker Gang for stealing it when he had actually been siphoning it off for his own use.

An argument ensued and my 'high' brother decided to drive off in a helicopter after shouting "It's my damn drugs and I'm giving it to whoever I want to!"

The next scene, that ass was happily throwing cargoes of the drug into the sea and I had to rush to it in time before it sinks into the water!!!

I think it was cocaine.

What a game, I tell you!

So, yea, basically I failed this quest probably close to a hundred times. I've been wondering whether the game has some sort of 'counter' that counts how many times you failed the quest so that they will finally decide to relax a little more and make it easier for the player to complete the quest, since the counter would have realised that the player obviously lacks the skill to drive the boat to pick up the drugs.

It isn't a boat. If you watched one of the Police Academy episodes, it's those type of .. well.. inflatable boat that has a huge fan right behind it so that it can travel both on land and at sea.

The other fun thing about GTA most people can remember about is that basically you walk travel round the entire town and takeover whichever car you want to drive!

The best part?

There are Ferrari-looking cars in the game too. Without a doubt, I took over one and drove it. Unfortunately sometimes when you enter a building or quest, they force you to drive another car, whereby you leave the building to start the quest only to realise that the very nice Ferrari that you parked outside just now is gone :(

(Probably stolen by somebody else, lol!)

This made me sad for the following.. probably... 3 minutes...

before I managed to hijack another Ferrari.