Phew!

Blogged a whole lot of pictures (and words, of course) at one go after a relatively long absence! Have fun reading cos I'm going on another hiatus.. Be busy with fixing and settling into the new office, in addition to scary deadlines and meetings..

I'm starting to see age showing on my face.. Very scared ~.~

But now I'm more hungry than sad, off I go!

"f/u"

SZ once asked what f/u was, when I used it in an earlier entry. Bump replied her comment/question for me; I stopped commenting on my own blog already in case you haven't noticed..

So, one day, I picked up a call to hear a giggling colleague..

A: In your email subject, what does f/u stand for?
mf: Follow up..
A (to B in the background): FOLLOW UP!
*B took over phone**
B: A thought you were scolding me..
mf: *blur* Huh? *A and B laughing at the other end* .. .. Oh dear! I didn't think it would be mistaken!
B: A is too free..
A: I thought you were scolding B..
mf: If I wanted to scold him, I would use capital F!
A: Haha, I'll tell him that!

On retrospect, I think I'll just spell it out in full :p

Visiting Grams

I went to find Grams one day after an external meeting that ended about lunch time. Since I was going to move to my new office soon, I thought I'd find her while I was still working nearby..

Haven't really chatted with her for some time, cos usually the elders were talking and the only communication between the generations was on food. That day, it wasn't too different actually..

Grams: I'll fry an egg for you..
mf: No need, this will do..
Grams: Just chicken with ginger?
mf: No problem! :)

Grams filled my rice bowl with a lot of rice and steamed pumpkin. When she went for another scoop, I almost forcibly grabbed the bowl away :p Of course I didn't cos she heard me say "enough!"

We were sitting about after lunch..

Grams: You want bee lok? ("Milo" in dialect..)
mf: No need :)

Two seconds later..

Grams: Pomelo? There's some on the table..
mf: Really? Ok :p

But besides food..

Grams: How long have you been working?
mf: Three years.
Grams: Oh, so three more years to go..

Grams remember the length of my bond! :)

I realised my Hokkien was getting real bad.. Also noticed that Grams seemed to have aged a bit.. But she is still very cute la, this Grams of mine..

Grams: You're not fat.. until you're old..
mf: *.*
Grams: Then you cannot help it.. See? I have two big layers here..

And she went on to pinch her upper and lower abdomen! I touched - soft :p I guess I could deal with that at her age, and with such a lovely grand daughter, ha!

Her birthday is coming, we're celebrating on 5 Nov, a Sunday so everyone could join in. I learnt that she was born in the year of the pig, which made her 83 this year or 84 going by the lunar calendar. I always thought she was born in the year of the chicken, must have heard wrongly last time.. :p

Went by Polar to chat with Aunt on my way back to office. Uncle and family should be getting the food. Aunt hasn't made plans for the cake yet so I offered to get the cake with Yan. How exciting! :)

Did you see mf?

There was a one-second frame of me on TV on the night of Sunday, 22 Oct 2006! Sito had more air time than me, unfair!!

Some time back, Mediacorp came by the studio to film for a production, which was finally aired. JK helped me record - thanks :) But I don't know how to upload the DVD :p Anyway, it's only a second of me. And I think I wasn't even smiling *.*

I was inspired to look through my dancing photos and found a cool one from the competition:



It was tango :) How? Fierce not? Grrr...

And a group photo of some of us after the comp - hot auntie next to me ok..



(Oops, organisers were rushing to clear the venue for a wedding dinner :p)

Update on Tomato Town

Came back from somewhere one Sat and took this:



I always think clothes hanging out of a flat are something unique to us. There's at least one picture of that at Fabric of the Nation - I like :)

Had some fun another Sat watching the birth of a new floor..

Before, just a mesh of mess..



Filling in the gaps with fresh cement from a mixer.. Thought it looked poo-y :p



Tidying up using what seemed like a household scrub..



And dried!



The following week, they started to build the lift shaft on the other side.

You may find these photos a bit "huh?!" but I'm very happy! Every little progress is bringing me closer to my room, closer to sanity :)

有朋自远方来！

Took two days of leave to play host to Jens and Eric. Woke up early on Children's Day to fetch Jens from the airport. We met Eric at the hotel; he arrived a short while ago by train. It had been three years since we met!

mf: Eric, you put on some weight!
Eric: Mean!
Jens: You look the same..

Gee, and I thought I lost weight since then.. Bad karma from being mean to Eric :p

Our first stop was to refuel with dim sum, marking the beginning of three days of decadence.. The first time we went to Liaison (or Liaisons?) in Oxford for dim sum, Jens was frowning at the thought of eating chicken feet but when he tried it, he loved it!

We walked around the Tanjong Pagar and Chinatown area where we visited the Chinatown Heritage Centre (I like but no photos) and found this:



More recently, I happened to walk down a spiral staircase at Scarlet Hotel cos the only lift broke down.. I like spiral staircase, pretty, but it's not too fun to walk though..

We walked all the way to the entire (really!) City Hall/Suntec/Esplanade area, passing by the bridge whose name I forgot - the one that divides North and South Bridge Roads - and took this picture:



If you look carefully, you would have seen that the buildings on the right are a bit crooked.. Think it was something to do with Jens's camera cos I'm pretty sure these buildings are straight!

It was a short day as they were tired from the travelling and the walking. When I parted with them after dinner and was waiting for my train, I bumped into Jo and CS. Thought it an odd coincidence: Jens came from Germany, Eric from KL; Jo is working in KL and CS is German.. Anyway, key is I got to see and touch Jo's tummy! Six months already, how exciting :)

After breakfast at a hawker centre the next day, we went to ACM cos they were flipping brochures and found something interesting. Of course ACM is interesting! I like too :) But it wasn't opened yet when we got there!! We left ACM and were walking along the river when we saw the police bring up a dead body ~.~ How scary.. We promptly left for Orchard..



This was all over Orchard Road. By Kusama Yayoi who was also the one who did the Stairway to Heaven I posted earlier.

Somehow I like the red and white polka dots, so happy :)

Spent some time in Borders and Kinokuniya where they bought some books and gifts. Eric found "Men to Avoid: A Survival Guide for the Romantically Frustrated Woman".. I could only remember one type of men to avoid: men who read girls' books like this!! Oh, Eric.. *shake head* We split our sides laughing, dropped the book and left :p

Jens wanted to try fried kway tiao so we went to Food Republic for king-sized servings and king-sized prawns! I didn't have it cos wasn't hungry but promised to treat myself to it the next time (which was a few days later :p)

Checked out the Opera Gallery, saw some interesting pieces by Salvador Dali there. But I was attracted to this and Jens took a picture:



I'm going to pin this somewhere to remind me to never allow myself to balloon!

We had gelato - I made up for my usual Children's Day treat :) - before going back to ACM in the mid afternoon but I was too tired to walk so I sat in the lobby while they explored the museum. Chatted with a PRC lady while waiting - disrupted my nap but she was quite interesting and inspired me to think about what I would like to do ten years from now..

Trigger-happy outside the museum cos it's me :)



And that's us!



We were beaten but we bravely carried on to Little India for the lights. Had some weird prata and I decided that Jens must try to the real stuff! We cabbed to the Upper Thomson one for dinner #2 :) And there was this foot reflexology place nearby so we went in to nurse our poor feet though Eric opted out. It was slightly painful for me, a regular, but Jens didn't even flinch! Was the uncle kind to him? Hmm..

It rained on the third and last day. We tried to do the Biennale route but were trapped in the Chinese temple for a while. I picked a chiam :p Hey, I'm starting to believe in this cos this chiam and the lot I got in Asakusa last year actually said the same thing!

Sent Eric to the train station before sending Jens to Changi. Jens brought me some souvenirs from home - so happy! Lovely calendar prints of Cologne and Cornwall complete with a feminine touch in the form of an EDT - danke! :)

Was talking with Jens about our countries' low birth rates and how some like the Nordic countries had TFR of 1.8. We hence parted:

mf: In case we meet only three years later, take good care!
Jens: By then, we'll have 1.8 TFR!

:p

So nice to see them again, seems like yesterday when we were mugging in the library, running programmes and codes in the lab, having ramen at Edamame, cruising the motorways in Cornwall.. Sighs.. Old already la :p

Don't know when I'll meet Jens again - Germany is damn far! - but I'll be going to KL next March! That's me, planning for trips so far ahead.. In fact, I've decided to go to Japan in next Sep for Miki's wedding, even before my Japan trip this year has been confirmed!!

This is an interim note..

Just to say I'm alive and very well fed. Plus broke.

No time to blog lately, too tired to even write on my Pinky on the bus. In fact, I cabbed back most nights so I'm poor too.

When I'm back, you'll see my Children's Day story.

Hazy full moon

It was a weird Mooncake Festival this year; for the first time in many years, I didn't walk about with a paper lantern =(

When I stepped out of office last night, I thought I was in the clouds. Smelly clouds. The haze was really bad. I looked up to see a big yellow moon. They said the moon this time was really big - they weren't kidding! But in two seconds, a wisp of cloud floated past the moon. Black cloud ~.~

Waited 30min for the freaking bus. Quite pissed not just cos of the waiting time. It wasactually quite scary alone at the bus stop with the haze floating in the air..

On the bus, I heard from mobile TV that the pollution level had hit 80.

Hung around the shopping centres for a while. Was glad for the late night shopping venues but didn't buy a thing. It was late but the serious shoppers were still fervent. Was in no mood to rub shoulders with them lugging my laptop and a big bag.

Settled in Cartel at Cineleisure. Had a frappucino while I read a report. Decided on a piece of cake too. It was almost midnight when I cabbed down to meet CY with a muffin treat.

The haze was in the CTE tunnel too.. Visibility was quite bad but I managed to make out CY's silhouette as the cab got to her workplace.

A weird Mooncake Festival for her too, no lanterns. We had spent many Mooncake Festivals together, chatting under the moonlight with lanterns by our side. But this year, we couldn't even see the moon when we got out of the cab!

Spent a happy hour chatting at the bus stop before parting. I thought I wanted to jog this morning. But I woke at 7am and saw the haze outside. And the horrible smell. I went back to bed. When I woke, news said that pollution level had hit unhealthy level at 100+. Which meant I wouldn't jog tomorrow too. Getting fat *.*

You may have noticed my short sentences. Feeling quite stoned, that's why. Can't believe it's 5pm already.. Sat is almost gone!

And so few responses to my questions below? I am *sob sob* heartbroken..

Being Singaporean

Suddenly remember I have something to say on this matter. But before I piece my thoughts together, perhaps I could seek some of your views on what the Koreans and PRC Chinese (and maybe others) have asked some time ago in some forum:

1) If there's a next life, do you still want to be Singaporean?
2a) Why?
2b) If not, what citizenship would you like to be born into?
3) Is nationality even important today?

PS: Even if you're not Singaporean, it would be nice to hear from you, be it about your nationality or about being Singaporean..

Found it!

And I was almost silly enough to pay some 230RMB of shipping charges for a 24RMB CD from a Chinese website! Patience paid off; found the Chinese version this pm in Bugis Village, after we ended our Healthy Lifestyle event around there. Happy :)

P(couplehood)

I was almost flunked sideway out of my seat when I first started writing this cos the bus driver drove worse than me. And that's not funny. So bear with this lengthy, "academic" and pictureless one to make my near sacrifice worth it :p

Was chatting about my single unattached status. Friend was right, that I'm not actively "patrolling". No time, no energy, and how do you keep a lookout? Especially when I'm always out with the same kakis.. Um, NOT them!

So how? Rely on friends? Sito tried, twice. Kel gave an intro of someone I wasn't interested to meet. And the other day over dinner at the boss's place, they turned to me suddenly and asked about SF's (matchmaking) project on me - not working too!

Really, I'm beginning to think it's all about luck. I mean, what's the chance of finding someone you like and who likes you too?

This is where, for once, I would like to revisit my, ahem, profession..

It's a series of events: two persons must first meet, somehow develop good feelings for each other, and at least one party must follow up, right? Assumed so, we have:

P(couplehood)
= P(A meets B, and they like each other, and either A or B or both f/u)

Now let's make a couple of assumptions here:
1) All are independent events cos my wee brain can't deal with too many conditional probabilities!
2) Probability of meeting someone is 3/7; I take it that people socialise about half the time, mostly during weekends.
3) Probability of liking someone is 1/3, since we could like or dislike someone or have neutral feelings. I make it even so as to account for varied expectations of people.. Um, guesswork, really :p
4) Probability of f/u is 1/2; similar reasoning as (3).

* At one point while composing this, I had a mathematical block and sent a desperate SOS to Kel: what is P(X∩Y)?? If anyone knows, it's Kel. Why? Just the other day, he suddenly told me he managed to derive the coefficient of restitution. We're indeed a bunch of geeks *.*

So, by these assumptions,
P(couplehood)
=P(A meets B)P(they like each other)P(either A or B or both f/u)
=(3/7)(3/7)(1/3)(1/3)(1-(1/2)(1/2))
=3/196 = 1.53%

Kao! I thought it would be low but this is really low!

Ok, let's replace assumption #2: either A and B have met or people meet people everyday ie P(A meets B) = 1!

So,
P(couplehood)
=P(they like each other)P(either A or B or both f/u)
=(1/3)(1/3)(1-(1/2)(1/2))
=1/12 = 8.3%

Still low but less scary. I gather that meeting more people is the main hurdle ie the higher P(A meets B) or P (A meets BCDEF) is, the higher P(couplehood) will be!

Oh btw, that's only P(couplehood); I'm not even calculating the odds of getting married yet, you know, getting through arguments, long distance etc..

P(marriage)
= P(getting through every piece of shit conditional on couplehood)
= P(getting through every POS during couplehood)/P(couplehood)

We know P(couplehood) is small. So if P(getting through every POS during couplehood) is not too much smaller than P(couplehood), I say we've got a match! :)

And, P(getting through every POS during couplehood) = ..?

Gaaar! Had enough maths for the rest of 2006 at this point! :p

Kao, 走火入魔-ing in my work already..

Let's take a walk!

For someone who almost cried doing cross country in Sec 1 (and fought for Girl Guide duty in subsequent years to avoid the ordeal), and who was only willing to go for the event in JC if it involved only walking (and singing, thus saundering in only during prize presentation), who could have imagined that one day I would ask KF to go for a jog in MacRitchie?!

That was the previous Sunday - no time to log this last week. Arrived at 720am and finished the cross country route by 810am, timing included a wrong start and a toilet trip so..not bad! :)

But that's comparing to myself, cos KF didn't even sweat while I was panting like a pig *.* That guy has zero ounce of fats, as he proudly proclaimed in Avignon or some quaint French town 6+ years ago - and it's amazing that it's still true today!

Anyway, was reminded of that walk from HV to MacRitchie which was accompanied by some strange farting sounds from the trees along Lornie Road. No answer to that mystery yet..

KF had a diving lesson and left. I whipped out my breakfast - peanut butter with overdue wholemeal bread (won't die la! :p) and worked my jaws as I watched aunties and uncles and ahmms and ahpehs taking their morning stroll. One middle-age woman was playing Sudoku at a bench - on paper, tough! I used to play the NTUC version here but it's no longer free..

Energy replenished, I invited myself for a walk - the TreeTop Walk :)

First thing, to the map. Then I happily walked off, passed this sign..



..and turned RIGHT!

Reached the beginning of the Lornie Trail before I realised I had just jogged that way and not seen any sign leading to the TreeTop Walk..

I revisited the sign and cursed out loud *.*

It must be quiet in the forest - not sure cos had my radio on. There weren't too many people around. Walkers/Joggers were commonly in pairs or groups. In fact, I didn't see many sole walkers like myself.

I actually spent so many hours with myself that day! Realised there wouldn't be any solo trip this year like last year so this could count as my 2006 solo adventure :) I was reminded of Samsoon (Yes! My lovely Samsoon!) who went up some mountain in one side-splitting episode.. Recalling Na saying she couldn't spend too much time with some people, I was thinking the worst thing would be that you couldn't spend time with yourself.. Wow.. Revelation..

Didn't speak much during the walk. In fact, I spoke five times between 810am and 230pm.

1) "It's just ignoring us!"



Cute little thing just perched itself on a bit of stone. And posed. Angmoh couple walked by and took pictures too. Super dao monkey.

2) “Uncle，自然保护区是不允许抽烟的！”

I let enough things pass me by while I did nothing about it. This time, I wanted to do something. So after walking away for 5sec, I turned back to tell him off! Next time, I'll wait for smokers to snuff it out before I leave! Hate it when people pollute fresh air!

3) "Um, thank you.."

That was to the kind uncle who offered to take this picture for me when all I wanted was the sign above my head..



And it turned out crooked :p Nevertheless, I was happy with it - finally a picture showing off my 13-year-old Anderson shorts! :p

4) I took a picture for his group as well before chatting with the ranger for a while. 200-500 pass by each weekday, 500-1000 on weekends. The record was a 600-person group that took some hours to cross through! Cos the bridge takes only 30 at a time. "It is a very strong bridge but we limit the number so that it's a more enjoyable walk."

5) "Excuse me.. Where does this lead to?"

Almost thought I was lost at one point.. Cos I saw a sign that read 9.3km. I had no idea if that referred to the length of that trail or the distance covered on that trail - turned out to be the latter. Don't be mistaken, I really enjoyed the walk but I really needed the pee room too :p

Back to the highlight of the walk.. Switched off my radio so I could enjoy the sounds of the forest. The sun was warm on my skin and I took a nice long stroll at canopy level, snapping pictures as I went along..

See this beautiful blue bug! "Ewe! Bug? Beautiful?!" Well, it was far enough to be beautiful..



The tall tree had been installed with a lightning protection system to reduce the risk of being struck..



But the poor tree must have done something wrong.. It looked as if it had been 天打雷劈-ed already!!



After leaving the trail, I decided that with my radio off, I was in a better position to seek a connection with nature without the soapy pop songs. And I also decided that I should be natural since I was so in touch with nature by then (ya, right..) so..I let my tummy out! If you know me, you'll know that I usually keep my tummy in to look thinner *sheepish* But I realised that I seemed to be taking a bigger effort letting it out than keeping it in.. Guess I'm too used to keeping it in..

Saw this old bridge before reaching the end of Lornie Trail.. It read Angie's Bridge or something. Wondering if 81 was the year it was built.. So old! Curious but found nothing on it online..



Was glad I chose not to take the easy way out by turning out onto Lornie Road (and bussing back) cos I saw my 红蜻蜓 along the jungle route!!



Wait, aren't all dragonflies red? :p And is that a baby one? Anyway... “飞呀飞呀！看那红色蜻蜓飞在蓝色天空，游戏在风中不断追逐它的梦……”

It started to drizzle along the way but I was nicely sheltered :)



And found some cute mushrooms along the way..



But the baby monkeys at the end of the planks were way cuter! :)



It was a Sunday morning well spent, better than lazing in! But doubt I'll do the same walk any time soon.. Think my next walk will be 小桂林 :)

今日何日兮?

星期六写的，可是没法上网……

总觉得这个星期六有点怪怪的。早上跟老妈买了台电视后，就自个儿闲逛，闷闷的东看看、西看看，还买了件颜色好看但整体感觉不是很喜欢的上衣 - 反常。逛了整个J8，就跑到新的Bishan Community Library读自己带来的书。看了几章，却闷了，想回办公室(！！！)又不想等车，干脆走回Tomato Town吧！

短短二十分钟的路程，想了一大堆乱七八糟的东西。象今天这么闷的周末，以后应该多得是，不想说话或懒得会友的时候该找些什么事情来做做，填补时间。在我小小的房间未完成之前，屋里没有我安静落脚的角落。学钢琴吧！一直都很喜欢的乐器，从来都没机会学。又想过健康生活，想找个pilates instructor整整自己的坐态走姿。可最近又花了大笔钱，很快要去日本旅行，加上每月$200左右的舞蹈学费，没法上一堂$60的钢琴课或每小时$100的pilates。

想着想着，很快到了地铁轨道下的人行道，感觉风好凉，突然什么也不想了，与其回去闷热的屋里，不如索性坐在这里看报纸！就这样竟吹了整小时的风，读了整份《我报》。

回到屋里，也只是上个厕所，又往外跑了。这回，是到附近的戏院碰运气。刚好《夜宴》在三十分钟后上映，就买了票，然后去书局看看，也算是碰碰运气吧！没想到，近一个月前相中但因想等别的颜色而没有买的包包现已成为我囊中之物 - 好开心！那次以后，我跑了很多间店都找不到那种款式，近乎放弃了。这次却在我毫无期待的时候出现，让我倍感开心。只是这种寻而不获，又不期而获的事，让我感觉走好运的同时，也隐隐感到一丝不安……

谈戏吧！我不怎么喜欢章子怡，可是有她的戏，片脚总不会太差吧。结果？我很满意！已经很久没看象《夜宴》那样 - 怎么说呢？感动？- 的电影了。除了优美的场景，颜色的运用，许多对白更是让我寻思的惊言！其中，映象最深的一段对白，是章子怡和吴彦祖的说话。没法上网google的我只能凭记忆大略重述：

吴：带面具的表演是最具考验的，因为要在看不到脸部表情的情况下带出种种情感。
章：你的喜怒哀乐全写在脸上。最具考验的，是你把自己的脸变成面具！

还有那支《越人歌》，旋律有种熟悉的哀怨，词句充满了多少无奈啊！只记得今夕何夕兮，什么什么舟，今日何日兮，心悦君兮君不知……还有另一首歌名不详的曲子……明天去买原声带吧！

不只音乐，就连演员的声音也让我沉醉。原声带应该没有吴彦祖的说话吧？我喜欢他的声音，沉沉的，measured tone，有一种吸引力。周迅的声音，我一直觉得很特别，可惜她在戏里的话不多。

走出戏院后，心情没那么闷了。发现二度出门时忘了带表，空空的左手看起来怪怪的，自娱了一下，思维又回到了《夜宴》。总甩不掉它的情节、人物、旋律……

PS：找不到有中文歌词的原声带！=(