The past few days have been hazy (eh, ok, weather too..), too busy and stressed over a number of things. I still read your blogs if you blog, but I've got no time to write my own (ie, this one will be long). In fact I think I didn't even have time to look at a paper I was supposed to be revising. So what was mf doing?
EASTER JOY!
That's the name of my division's stall at our CCIP (corporate community involvement programme, essentially we set up a stall with our staff welfare monies and all proceeds go to charity) on Thurs. Yes, we shamelessly and unrepentantly capitalised on the coming Easter Day :p We had two varieties of chocolate eggs, Mother's agar-agar in real egg shells, and my (in a way.. I combined various online recipes and didn't follow their proportions) tea eggs. In addition, we had some special items: two giant chocolate egg shells and two carrot hugging rabbits. All but one rabbit were sold! Happy :) Oh, Dor and I donned bunny gear to peddle our goods around the hall; she wore pink and I, blue. Of course, I roamed about to spend my coupons too. Lucky me, an instant dip gave me a nice jewellery case. While I lost in two other games, they gave me a consolation stress ball (left over from President's Challenge 2004, I think) and another gave me a "special prize" (file case) for my hopeless attempts at mini golf - I missed all seven balls! Gaaar!
The CCIP was the afternoon segment. Morning was horrible, cos a bad migraine was eating out my brain =( But I survived Elim Chew's talk which was very inspirational and motivating. She certainly knew how to hold our attention, so unlike other talks I've been to (and slept at), the talk went by in a flash, though it was actually longer than the corny workplan presentations that followed. But there was a part which I found strange, and only because I was attentive: she said that last time her family was very poor and her mother had to work as a dishwasher in a London restaurant and her sister was driving a cab. Has something registered yet? Well, I was wondering, how come a poor family got to London in the first place? You don't see Mother relocate us to London ten years ago..
This long weekend is just in time for me to prepare for my trip; I'm leaving on Thurs night! :) I'm one who needs time to carefully plan everything, otherwise I won't feel settled. That's why I had a panic attack on Wed on the way to work. I realised that my ryokans in Tokyo and Hakone had not been confirmed yet and I didn't even know when Na would be in Tokyo! Still don't know when she'll go but at least we have sent out final email to change ryokan reservation in Tokyo. As for Hakone, the cheapest ryokans have all been fully booked. I'm now looking at a S$300 pppn ryokan, more than thrice as costly as the fully booked ones but there are no other option. The PDA deal offered by Narita Airport as a trial for visitors to Tokyo also fell through so I'll have no online connection 1-10 Apr. You'll be spared from my nonsense :)
Ballroom that night was real fun as Aleena taught us quick open reverse in quickstep, absolutely exhilarating flying across the ballroom, especially with music! Dan sent Alicia and me back as we left - first time that all five of us left at the same time. Then, guess what? We were running at a rather high speed just before the turn to my street and I informed him a split second too late about the impending turn. He jammed on the brakes before turning but at that kind of speed, the car went up the kerb and almost got the MRT pillar! Surprisingly, I wasn't scared - don't ask me why - until I realised that his car might be damaged by the impact. True enough, the left wheel was sort of "off". Felt that it's my fault actually for not warning him early but he refused to let me shoulder any costs of repair.. How?? Sighs..
Like a million other single Singaporeans, I received a mail from SDU earlier in the week. Saw a friend's face on the cover of the magazine, and another inside. It was accompanied by this "little black book". I happily thought it's a nice notebook which I could bring on my travels to make notes. But the first page says "Contacts" at the top, followed by "Name", "Mobile" and "Email" repeated nine times. Same thing next page. And the next. And the next. I raised my eyebrows and flipped to the middle of the book. SAME! I did a count - expectantly - and found twenty pages saying "Notes" and, get this, 80 pages of "Contacts"!! Now, let's see, will I have 9 x 80 = 720 acquaintances in my lifetime? I have about 190 on my mobile, some others online, and then there are others whose contacts I don't have, so give and take, 300 should be a good estimate. I'm 25, so ok, I guess 720 is probable. But I'm not carrying this "little black book" around for another 50 years lor! And I wonder who still keep written records of mobile numbers, which we can store in mobiles, and email addresses, which are usually in online address books! This is such a waste of taxpayers' money and worse, this is environmentally unfriendly! mf is not happy..
I actually just popped in from KTV with Yan, CY and her friend Tim. Had a lot of fun, especially when our hours were extended to almost 4pm cos no one was using our room at 2pm, and we paid only $8 each :p These days I would only go for K Lunch cos it's the cheapest. Am feeling rather broke now. Yes, remind me, PB just came in, but I burnt $1400 on yen for both Na and me already. Then I cannot find my leftover USD so I have to buy that too.
Oh, something totally freaked me out yet amused me this morning before KTV. Gist was that Mother bumped into me in a, ahem, compromising situation right at the end of our corridor. She was in when I came back from KTV. At first, I thought she wasn't going to ask me about it but well she brought it up after a while! Strangely though, she didn't seem too pissed or freaked out :p Anyway, moral of the story is NOT to linger about, especially, I must repeat, NOT this near homeground! Enough said.
Hee, just received my first "hate mail". It was in retort to my previous bad English blog, saying that I might have hurt that guy's feelings if I don't reply just cos of his English. For him (first guy), I have one advice: the next time you send out such an unsolicited "be-friender" email, perhaps hoping to impress, pls, get your message vetted for English. And hey, I'm not obliged to reply to every single cold call lor!
Anyway, this critic wrote in super bad English but I replied anyway cos he/it was amusing:
"First of all, thanks for your msg. (mf: My usual first line, fyi..)
That was amusing, I gather your bad English in your msg was on purpose since your profile is quite free of grammatical errors..
Btw, whether I reply to a cold call or not, is really *my* call.
Anyway, feedback appreciated! :)"
Yes, feedback appreciated :)
Update 26 Mar 05
Called up a minshuku in Hakone after writing above. Lady couldn't speak English. But glad to say I managed to get a cheap room with my limited Japanese, yeah!
「来月四日から五日まで一晩だけ、OK?」
:p
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