Thursday 28 May 2009

Basically, I'm writing this because I suddenly remember..

..that I was in a meeting the other day, and I couldn't help counting the number of times the presenter said "basically".. Double-digit count within a couple of sentences!

Some other words commonly used are "actually" and "really". And I'm not absolutely sure that the usage is correct all the time..

Honestly, before I started work, I've never heard or - yes, I'm guilty at times too - used these words so much.. I must be more aware of my language.. Surely we can be more creative than that?

But how some people use the word "ever" is hardly creativity; it is just wrong - yup, I harped on that before..

Of course there are the usual jargons like one of Sito's "favourites": incentivise :p I forgive this since it is jargon...

Now, go to bed, sleepy mf with ulcer on tongue...

1 Jun 2009

This came to me in the middle of this afternoon - after the release of "O" levels results one year, possibly when I was in Sec 3 or 4, our principal got in a couple of top students to share their success factors with the assembly and to somehow inspire us. I remember thinking, even back then, that all their sentences were punctuated with "basically" and I didn't want to be like them.. Some inspiration..

Sunday 24 May 2009

Rice and music are good for body and soul

For about three hours and a half, I was repeating: 肉.. 米.. 叶.. 绳子

And randomly: 肉掉了!

It's bah zang time again! :)

Didn't talk much otherwise. Mostly, Mother was updating me on various gossips about my neighbours.. My strategy? Just keep quiet *_*

But at one point I had to answer - I think Grams somehow let slip that I went to visit my other grandmother in the home before. So Mother asked me if that was true, without telling me who told her but she mentioned Grams in the next sentence so... She asked why I didn't tell her - was it because I was afraid she might scold me for visiting her? Um, I used time as my excuse - forgot when, forgot why, forgot everything! :p

Not quite happy with this year's work. The leaves were lousy! They kept breaking up! And the arrangement was crap - the fat leaves were all together and the thin ones were all together, making it difficult to dig for complementing leaves. Then Mother kept nagging me to use less meat cos bah zang could turn out too dry since she didn't use much oil for the meat. And in the same breath, she would complain that there would be too much left over meat...!

Mother counted 121 bah zangs - a square number, I like :p Will be distributing about half of them. They're all of different sizes :p and with different proportions of rice and meat :p but hope they're all sufficiently yummy - I'll try later for dinner :)

My ulcers seem to be finally healing. I still had milk for breakfast before making the bah zangs but I was so hungry by 11am that I had to chew on some bread - overdue since yesterday but it looked fine! My tongue was a bit raw but felt better after some water.

I decided I must have rice for lunch - so got Yan out for lunch. I had sushi! It was soooo good I went orgasmic at the conveyor belt counter table!

Some people stay away from rice but I realise I cannot. How to when rice is super good - on its own, with vinegar, with togarashi, stirred or baked with cheese, in onigiri, under raw fish, drenched in chilli con carne or curry sauce etc... But I scrapped past the ulcers while having rice so I bought some liang teh - less sugar, no doubt - to keep the ulcers in check.

And tonight, I shall finally put on my retainers - haven't used them for some three weeks in case they hurt my gum infection and subsequent ulcers. I hope my teeth are not too out of shape yet =(

Wanted to blog this last night but it was 3am - yesterday, I discovered a whole new world of music - music from games!

Sito got tickets for the Asian premiere of "Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy". It was a huge gathering of otakus! I was in the company of three of them, Mr Sito included! But I'm a geek in a skirt so we're quits :p Nobuo Uematsu was at the show too and he was so cute! Like Super Mario :)

I'm not one for orchestra and chorus but this was nice with scenes from the games that matched the pieces. And I was surprised a couple of tunes and some scenes and even names of the characters were familiar to me! But Melodies of Life was not in the repertoire - I really like that song.

Went to Robinsons after dinner. Chanced upon a sale - WMF pots and pans! We like this brand cos it's made up of our initials, heh! So we took a look - quite a lot of discounts! Being an auntie, I was rather tempted but decided I would go read up on it first. And today Yan told me it was good stuff. The auntie inside me 在蠢蠢欲动...

How? I'm hardly hungry but I'm dreaming of the bah zangs hanging on a bamboo pole in the kitchen, separated from my devilish arms by a wall and barely 20 steps.. Oooh I'm such a glutton! But I have been deprived of rice for a while! I give myself another 20min :)

Sunday 17 May 2009

Lazy Sunday, lovely Sunday

Yesterday we went to NJ's 40th anniversary dinner, held in no other place but the school hall...

They were taking photos of each batch until the 1990s, when batches from the decade went up for a combined picture. Will post if I get it!

Oh, I wore a red dress and Sito wore a (blue) striped shirt. Does the combi remind you - if you're a good old NJCian - of anything? Answer is at the end of an old post.

Anyway, it's Sunday!

Dear Yan just came back from the UK so we met for breakfast this morning - at Macs :) She has put on some weight! Well, as did I during my studies - so much so that Sito (yes!) looked at me and said, "Food in Oxford must be very cheap!" But the weight will be gone in a bit..

We talked so much! And suddenly, six hours had passed! So we had lunch :p

I'm going to laze the rest of the afternoon away, rest my feet, rest my mind, rest my ulcer so that I can get through another work week... I'm looking forward to the next weekend already! :)

Wednesday 13 May 2009

Who's "auntie"?

After gym today, I headed straight for the fish soup stall. I was going to say "Auntie, 米粉汤!" when I caught myself and said "老板,米粉汤!" instead.

The "auntie" was maybe in her 30s. I'm only a few years away, not young enough to call her "auntie" already! Same thing for Alice at the juice stall. I just call her by name cos she looks so young despite being in her 40s.

So I was there slurping my fish soup (random: I lost a piece of fish cos I dropped it!) and thinking about how so many people were "aunties" and "uncles" to me just not that long ago. And I was the little girl around.

Now, I'm 29, and at the median age in office. And friends' kids are starting to address me as "auntie" already.

Guess I don't mind but it is just odd to realise that I seem to have moved into another generation... And I don't feel it!

I also realise that this is the nth time I'm talking about age here this year. A manifestation of my subconscious as I advance towards to the big THREE? *.*