End-of-year musings

1) All sorts of organisations love to print such things carrying their brand name for their staff, their clients. But how many calendars can a household or office have? And how many diaries or organisers can a person have??

2) I don't usually receive Xmas cards but I did my first (of two) this year - it was from Partyworld KTV who also sent me my first birthday card *.* Would rather not have received at all but I must say I don't mind the vouchers :p KTV, anyone?

3) Washed my hair with Dove body foam and showered with Organics (normal hair) one night. Conclusion: can save bathroom toiletry space by having just one of either. Probably the shampoo cos I prefer it more foamy.

4) Someone - my memory fails me - did a double turn as I was keeping my pink brolly; he thought it was a vibrator! Yeah, I keep one in my bag in case I get horny but have no prey nearby..!

5) Thought of several friends that day as I was browsing through my stack of photo albums, predecessors of my Ixus. Faces whose names I've forgotten, faces of friends who were once close, faces of acquaintances whom I keep in touch with now and then, faces of my closest friends.. This is always the time for some nostalgic reminiscence..

6) Received a most lovely shoe bag from Na - thanks! :) It's all gold and shiny, with two heart-shaped thingies to stuff into my shoes! I'm so going to order that pair of dance shoes after NY; UK mail must be overloaded at this time of the year..

7) At yet another kopi session with the boys, Kok sat down with his fifth cup of tea.

Kel: That auntie told you excessive tea is bad for guys.. What if cannot??! *eyebrows raised, meaningfully*
Kok: Nvm la, no gf now..
Kel: Nonetheless, must check that everything is working fine.. Your $58.80 can help you.. Hahahahaha!

Subsequent bit of conversation related to whether Kok should use his master hand for clicking the mouse or, as Kel put it, self diagnosis..!

I find it interesting that they have no qualms sprouting all that crap in front of me. Thought of two interpretations for it:
a) They are comfortable around me; or
b) They don't see me as a girl.

Kel offered me an alternative: 50-50. Hmmm.. I admit I'm not too feminine, esp with them, but I would still like to think it's the former :p

8) Had a fabulous time with CY over dinner at Chocolate Bar - yes! Choc for dinner! :) Don't know if you feel it, CY, but I think we are getting crazier with age and with the time we have known each other - 15years! And we both like lao hong biscuits, soggy icecream waffles, nothing too crispy! :p

At one point, her colleague called to inform her that she wouldn't be transferred to another desk. I heard wrongly...

CY: My colleague helped me to ask Sheng J (her boss)
mf: Shen? Ask Shen (god)?!
CY: Haha! Ya, go temple *imagine funny praying action* Hahaha!

9) Na was trying to show me her haircut through webcam as we didn't meet for a while. The webcam window showed on my tiny monitor. Took some time before the first images came through and..

Ahh!!!!!

I freaked out; she had zero expression on, or maybe she had but her fringe was covering her face, or maybe it was the split frames due to my 56.6k modem - very eerie!! ~.~

She pulled all sorts of faces until I had to get Mother to take a look :p

Mother: I don't know her.. (She just couldn't remember, not to mention she didn't have her glasses on)
mf: *still laughing*
Mother: Huan gia ah?!
mf: Huh?! Winner! :p

10) One of those sms exchanges again. Kel said my paranoia might be due to a deeper psychological problem..

Kel: So I earnestly ask, what problems do you have?
mf: Sexual deprivation *.*
Kel: I sponsor you $40 or one dildo.

*.*

11) Watched Narnia this morning, my fourth movie of the week after King Kong, Promise, Chinese Tall Story.

I LIKE!!!!

I have a weaknes for this kind of show, rolling countryside, period costumes, ahhh... And the sheer magic of the show, ahhh...

12) It was raining and we were trapped in Paragon - five of us with one brolly, my pink brolly. Kel sent SY over to Lucky Plaza and then me. On his way back, he kindly gave a stranger a lift! Needless to say, it was a young girl who, Na informed when YX sent her over, would look very pretty with some make-up. Kel ah, very smart hor? Hee hee.. Ok la, he was being kind :)

13) Going to eat something now before heading for the countdown party at Ngee Ann Civic Plaza later with Na. Next I blog, it's a brand new year!

A blessed 2006, everyone :)

Chinese movies

Seldom watch them, especially those HK productions in Canto but dubbed into Mandarin, but this month, I watched three:

1) Perhaps, Love
Honestly, despite the ratings, I was bored. Perhaps the songs were new and strange to me. For musical films, I like only Moulin Rouge and De-Lovely. For West Side Story and Chicago, thought the musicals were better. Don't remember others.. For this movie, I remember only the one-liner sung by the female lead when she was a poor country girl:
外面的世界很精彩，外面的世界很无奈……
(Old song by 齐秦)

2) The Promise
This movie got a Korean and a Jap to speak Mandarin. Come to think of it, there was a Korean guy speaking Mandarin in the previous show.. I can understand why people say it's crap, eg the ridiculous scene where Kunlun was saving Qingcheng like he was flying her as a kite.. Two guys walked out in the middle of the show saying "it sucks!" :p But I quite like the show on the whole, pretty interesting storyline. Anyway, my main takeaway is something like this:
速度是看不见的，(凭感觉？) 就象你不知道叶什么时候变黄，婴儿什么时候长出第一颗牙，自己什么时候爱上一个人……

3) A Chinese Tall Story
Spoof of a spoof of Journey to the West? A bit slow in the middle but overall entertaining.. Not just cos of eye candy Nicholas Tse, ok.. Anyway he looked better in The Promise than here; too thin!

Back to movie.. Centred on Tripitaka, a coward who was bullied by his disciples! Reminded me of the Tripitaka in a much older film by Stephen Chow who nagged and nagged at the demons guarding him until they killed themselves :p But this one became very brave later in the show because.. he fell in love! Omg, a monk fell in love! He wrote a couplet on sand, only remember the second line, something like how to not betray both buddha and love: 不负如来不负卿

The ending part where he saved his love reminded me of this anime Video Girl Ai, if anyone has seen that before..

Xmas photos

My fav tree this year is in the Ritz but I didn't have my camera when I was there.. This is next, at Taka.


The beauties in MoS bathroom! I didn't want to tower over them like a giant so I stooped a bit :p Do you know what it means when I could see the top of 95% of the heads on the dance floor? Heh heh..


They were setting the table while the rest of us were somewhere in the house, fetching utensiles, snapping pictures (this was by kel), eye power, etc..


Show me the money!! I, and subsequently SY when I left the game, had the most money cos I didn't buy much property but I did earn quite a bit of rent from my two railways..


We were eight that day - Kel was behind the camera :)


Tea took place 2hours after a heavy lunch.


Clumsy Santa was on his back, so cute :)


The spectators had just finished their Game of Life and sat around to vegetate. HL had left for a movie by then. I was totally engrossed in the city racing game. Moh must be exploring the city cos I was lost anyway! Tok was snapping about but where was YX?? He came to play later and kept beating me. "Divine intervention" by both YX and Moh didn't help me much; you can see below, 5th of five players :(


When it was determined that I had no hope of ever winning the game, it was dinner, 4hours after tea! *puke*

Oh, passed by a playground on the way to dinner. I hung on the pullup bar for a while but of course I could not pull myself up. Managed to cross a few monkey bars though. Resulted in a horrible ache that had only just subsided *.*

Booklist

Nothing to do, so decided to compile my reading list. I have very few books cos of the existence of NLB; think I first went to the library at 7 or 8. Whatever books I own are book prizes from school. But now I like to buy books for keeps.. In bold are those I actually own.

Have read:
Some Enid Blyton - Faraway Tree!
Fairy tales galore!
Other random children's books that I can barely remember
Youth sleuth fiction, ie Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Famous Five, etc
Agatha Christie - fave is Murder on the Orient Express
Danielle Steele
Jeffrey Archer - fave is As the Crow Flies
David Eddings - fave is Belgariad
Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder
Life and Death in Shanghai, Nien Cheng
Jia, Ba Jin - no chance to read Chun and Qiu yet
Hong Lou Meng, Cao Xue Qin
Life of Pi, Yann Martel
Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
Harry Potter, JK Rowling - I will buy one day!
Zhang Xiao Xian
Xiang Zuo Zou Xiang You Zou, Jimi
Dan Brown
The Underground Man, Mick Jackson
Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon
Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, Ross King
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Many others that I can't remember title, author or plot :p

Am reading:
Xi You Ji, Wu Cheng En - full text-only version, progress is very slow
Chang Hen Ge, by Wang An Yi

Next book is likely Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden, since the movie is showing soon :p

Busiest time of the year

The Season is staring at me with the most menacing eyes: write about me! ME!

I stubbornly refused to submit to its pleas in the beginning of this month. Then pleas became shouts of abuse. And now the screams are getting too loud to ignore. Fine! The Season wins!

This festive season is particularly long, starting with Xmas and NY, followed by Hari Raya Haji in mid Jan and Chinese New Year in end Jan. Factor in my birthday on the 8th (now you know it, you have to send me, at least, a long email expressing your heartfelt congratulations for my 26th! Don't forget to add that I still look like 18 =D) and I suddenly feel that the rest of the year may very well be rendered tasteless by this concentration of activities.

The coming CNY will be my third in Singapore after a four-year hiatus. I remember writing earlier that I fear the renewed novelty of such gatherings with my cousins during CNY is diminishing with time and, perhaps, age. I'm now developing similar sentiments towards Xmas; what's so special about clubbing and partying if I can do that any time?

As a kid, Xmas meant a whole day in front of the black box, ingesting endless cartoons and cookies in the same breath. I graduated from that to crowded street parties in my teens. Then I found Xmas in Oxford unbearable if not for the company of other overseas students who did not go home; decor was not as fancy and the streets were deserted with everyone at home with their loved ones. Or hidding alone pretending to be with their dearest.

The last Xmas, NY and birthday were spent with Hoegaarden and tequila etc on the dance floor. This Xmas has come and gone. The coming NY and birthday don't seem to look much different at this point. After that, CNY will be spent getting fat on cashew nuts, BBQ pork, pineapple tarts, chocolate and more candies. Cousins will play silly games, like last year, which was like the year before.

I'm grown now, and begin to feel the repetitive nature of these annual festivities. The activities never change! But I can't do the same thing or what is in essence the same, year after year. I don't need to go through it for ten years to feel such monotony; things become routine the moment I realise they are going to repeat, which, without a doubt, they will.

Perhaps cos such anniversaries do not mean much to me. I don't celebrate Xmas in the religious sense. I didn't feel it approaching until I happened to see the Xmas lights in the Orchard area when I passed by a couple of weeks ago. Already, I'm having pineapple tarts when it's not CNY, I can make logcakes if I want to, and with the proliferation of cafes, cakes are no longer restricted to birthdays only. Anniversaries have been blurred with mundane everyday life. I had wanted to dig out my Santa hat for the lunch party but decided not to; I don't want to force a Xmas mood on the party, though I did get a logcake for tea and cheer.

But I still like these holidays cos they offer a chance for a get-together, a chance to be away from work and perhaps see what the neighbourhood is like on a weekday. Still, well, it's hard to dislike Xmas etc la :p I just wish it could be different.. How different? I don't know. I'll think of it next year. Or now, to make NY and birthday different :)

Bedmates

??

If it's not obvious enough, it's an eye. A left eye. And it belongs to my dear friend..

*Pause: Wonder how that will sound like if the photo is not loaded for some reason..!*

.. my dear friend Eeyore!



He turned four on 23 Dec, my Xmas present in 2001. For the next six months, he sat on the couch next to my bed and watched over me as I slept. But this is a quiet fellow; I have never heard a single grumble from him, even during the 13hours he spent in the overhead cabin storage when we were coming back from Oxford.

But Bow makes noise, deep growls made for no reason at all. He was born two months earlier than Eeyore due to a misunderstanding, and subsequently resulted in the birth of his fraternal twin, Wow, who is black - except for the the right eye :p



Bow is my guard dog; he used to sit on the other side of my bed and more than made up for Eeyore's non-attention to his surroundings with his sharp sharp eyes.

Then there is dear Meh who shares my bed from the day I chanced upon her in a tiny gift shop in Stratford-upon-Avon, resting next to me in my arms as I sink deep into slumberland, and she remains in the comfort of my duvet in the day. Like Eeyore, she doesn't talk much but she responds to me and my whining with the most comforting pair of eyes that makes me feel understood and loved.



Isn't she the sweetest thing? :)

Now, all three of them line one side of my bed, keeping me company when I'm reading in bed, in vastly different moods: shy Eeyore keeping to himself mostly, looking at me only out of the corner of his eyes; lovely Meh taking in everything with a smile and not a word; brave Bow staring intently at me, giving his signature low growl every so often.



I'm bored :p Cos I can't watch Initial D in Jap on either lappy and I have no access to the VCD player today! =(

Xmas weekend

After more than an hour in the queue and about 10 min inside the club, I decided that I like MoS.

Was hanging out with CY and HW mostly though WS et al were there too. At the stroke of midnight, "snowflakes" descended upon the dance floor, quite gross but well, fun for the occasion! Had quite a lot to drink cos shared a bottle of Martell with HW's friends whom we bumped into. Had a flaming lamborghini with BH too but I remained strangely sober throughout. Too much mixers I think, couldn't take the brown stuff neat, yucks.. And hence multiple trips to the bathroom :p

The one on the ground floor was bright white and pink. The three of us took many pictures with our phones in there, heh! We spent a great deal more time in the one upstairs cos we were more worn out by then and sat at the dressing table to chat. We must have been in there for more than an hour..

When we rejoined the rest, I decided that I would tell this Indian attendant that he was cute! And I did!! Of course I received a compliment in return, nvm that it was only courtesy on his part :p

But something totally unappetising happened before and after this. I was tidying my hair, asking CY if I looked pretty :p and before she could answer, a head popped up from behind her: YES! We were shocked at this very unwelcome intrusion! He went on to intro himself but we were like omg and got rid of him in one min. Then we were laughing after the cute attendant left us when, horror of horrors, the same pesky guy came back with his friend and started talking to us and wanted to take pictures etc. But a friend found us - thank goodness - to fetch us back to the rest of the group. Needless to say, we grabbed the lifeline and left the two guys cold before they knew what was happening!

Hunger got the better of us - ok, me - so we left for supper before heading for bed.. Slept at 5..

Then suddenly it was 930 and I dragged myself out of the house to prepare for the lunch party at Tok's. We had so much to eat! Chicken and mushroom pie, some fusion minced meat in lettuce wrap, cocktail sticks, fruit and vege salad, fried rice, yummy :)

Sat down to play Monopoly (US edition - I'm not familiar at all!) with Kel, HL and YX. Kok was watching us, Tok was watching Moh playing PS. But Monoploy couldn't sustain me - I played too much half my life ago! Took out the logcake at the earliest opportunity and we ate again :p

I left Monopoly and took my place on the sofa for my fav game - racing! Can't remember name of game but we had to follow a beacon of light to get to the end of the race. Kept losing to YX but I wanted to win! Moh tried to help by messing with YX's controller but it didn't quite help the clueless me :p When I finally attained 4th placing (out of five) and declared I would aim for 3rd, everyone went o_O Haha! So three of us played for quite long with the others watching until it was time for dinner..

Dinner at a nearby coffee shop was funny but beyond Kel et al trying to sell me mutual guy friends and convincing me to sell Kok to CY (as usual!), I shall not say anything here :p

Oh, will put up some photos later.. I'm impatient, want to start watching Initial D, the anime!

Creepy man, or woman

Can't seem to get it out of my mind. Was out with the girls on Fri and saw a man carrying a Scooby Doo on this shoulder for his son. Memory flashback to the 1980s: in the corner of the room at some party at an aunt's place, this person - I couldn't make out if it was a he or a she! - sat on his/her own with a cigarette. I was very afraid of him/her; I thought he/she looked like Shaggy *.*

PS: Finished Pride and Prejudice on Tues but no time to blog yet.. Kiv..

Childhood playmate

Did a guest blog for Dave at Capital Region People. A very mf-ish blog unlike his usual entries and other guest blogs but well, mf-ism hit me on Xmas eve afternoon.

Is it the time of the year or me? I seem to be recalling a lot of old forgotten incidents and people this week. This rainy Sat afternoon, it was the boy who used to go to my paternal grandmother's place.

This grandmother loved me a lot and often brought me to her place to stay for a few days every other week, for she lived alone in a big house as housekeeper for a Chinese clan association who met there.

But I didn't like it; there was nothing to play with apart from a small wind-up car - I wasn't too in love with it - and dough figurines, which I didn't have often enough. There were no cousins near my age. In fact, the whole house was empty but for me and grandmother.

I couldn't run about cos the house was huge enough for a little girl to get lost, and it was dangerous too as the house was on a busy road. Grandmother kept three big dogs in the field behind the back quarters but they were not the friendly kind. I didn't like the parrot much cos it was squawking all the time and refused to talk like parrots did on TV. The lone cat was, well, a loner and ignored me. Grown chickens were also not much fun, and they got slaughtered too often :p

Side: I was once given two cute little chicks as pets, which Mother kept in a box in the flat. They were really noisy when grown and one day they were gone. Couple of years back, I happened to think of my chicks and asked Mother where they went to. "Your grandmother slaughtered them for chicken curry. In fact, you ate too." o_O

But sometimes, a boy would come by with his mother or grandmother, from somewhere down the road. I thought he was older than me cos he was taller. We would play quietly with dough or the car while the elders talked. We never talked. Perhaps he was shy as I was..?

When we were allowed, or when the adults weren't looking, we would play in the main hall of the house. Everything there was black; the many grandfather clocks lining both lengths of the room, the huge long table in the middle and its matching chairs. I remember sitting on the table top playing with the car. But we usually ran around the table playing catch or something. And all this time, we never talked. In my memory, we were always silent..

I didn't like the house very much, too dark, too boring, too many mosquitoes. But I liked my time there when the boy visited. Unfortunately, the visits were not too frequent and all too soon, I saw him no more =( Perhaps he had to go to school. I too had to attend kindergarten after a while and went to the house much less often.

Few photos were taken back then, and I couldn't find any of the boy in the old photo albums. But I was delighted to discover one with my puppy, which my grandmother kept and which enticed me to visit her often even after I started school:

I think the whole family visited her every week or fortnight but I don't recall the boy ever visiting while all of us were there. My grandmother is totally senile and can't remember anything now. No one else seems to know anything about the boy. Despite being my most valuable playmate in my early years, he will be a total stranger to me today. Whoever and wherever he is, I thank him for his company, and I wish him well..

Xmas eve

Um, it still doesn't feel like Xmas to me *.*

I've been sitting around and napping since I got back from lunch.. Should be better when I go out in an hour.. MOS tonight! :)

Happy Xmas!!

I don't run; I jog

A boy called out to me as I was jogging one summer day of 2003:

"Can you go any slower?"

!!!

I should be offended. I mean, I knew I was going real slow, yet I was panting and all, but hey boy, that was rude! Still, I found it funny and tried my best to keep my composure, didn't want to embarass myself by laughing at such a dig at myself!

Then I saw two other boys urging their friend to jog along with me, at my speed. Now that was mean! Still, I wasn't about to flare at a bunch of teens, not when I was so out of breath! :p So I turned to the girl and amid my panting, waved and said hi to her. Then she stopped, looking a bit embarassed, and I very soon passed the whole group of idle kids.

I would like to believe I'm fitter now. And slightly faster. Insp has been a great motivation to me. When we first started jogging together just before CNY 2004 (omg that's a long time ago!), we barely went 10min before we gave up. Then she became Insp and her jogging improved so much I was totally in awe..

Her work keeps her away from the park and I have since stopped for the longest time. But I resumed jogging two Sundays ago; I've decided that with or without Insp, I must jog! I've not renewed my gym membership since it expired in Oct. Desperately need exercise to maintain and lose some weight if possible. More importantly, I need to build stamina for dancing!

The first Sunday was crap but the following Sat I managed to jog continuously around the park and went a bit farther! Motivated, I went again Tues evening but it rained. Shall do again this Sat :) A bit of exertion releases bottled frustration and keeps me happy and healthy and fit. I like :)

Peace

It was a most delightful Sunday night. Mother was watching TV in the living room. MZ was in Bangkok so I had the room to myself. Decided on Eason Chen's Lonely Christmas over Christmas carols. And I just sat on my bed with my sketch book and a charcoal pencil, listening to the songs as I sketched rubbish. Did that until my pencil became blunt. But I realised I had no sharpener. So I stopped, kept the stuff, switched off the lights, and just let the melancholy tunes and lyrics fill my every pore until I dozed off.

Tonight, I'll enjoy my fav jazz album of carols and read my book. I'll stop reading at certain songs and gaze smilingly into nothingness, perhaps breaking into song here and there. Ahhh, nice..

Tomorrow night, last night before it gets noisy again, I'll play yet another sad CD, or maybe the same Eason Chen one, and be quietly miserable. I like that, being miserable; there can be beauty in misery like joy in tears. I just like.

Wed night, back to normal. I shall be out.

Kofi in town!

For the second time in my life, I took the bus back from East Coast and slept past my bus stop!!! Think a day, or half a day, in the sun tires me out pretty easily..

Had a most animated dinner with Kofi and Shu yesterday, decided that we would go to the beach today for some sun. I actually can't remember how I knew them, as we were in different colleges and different courses.. Think we talked a lot more in the past 24hours than while in Oxford :p

We made Kofi try wasabi last night - no feeling, in fact he liked it! Then as we were talking and waiting for food, he suddenly gave an exclamation and started tearing! Not delayed reaction la.. We didn't notice but he tried to eat a bigger bit of the green stuff and finally felt the full force! Na, still remember that tuna sushi row? Heh..

Learnt something from Kofi: "how are you" in his Ghanaian language Twi is "eti sen". That's one more in my pocket of greetings in different languages :) He said there are 14 languages spoken besides English as first language and French as second! So I don't know why he bought two CDs by Jay Chou and David Tao; he certainly didn't mention Chinese *.*

PS: I survived poorly without my Samsung yesterday - 13hours! And much to my anguish, Na's, SS's and the two guys'.. Sighs, I have to admit I'm a slave to my phone..