Ah, the perils of an appetite.
All of us are sporting taut tummies from KL. Not taut abs, mind you. They are tummies pregnant with food. We completely over ate.
Instead of the regular, boring diary, Nobuko said her boyfriend used to list down his meals everyday as what he ate helped him recall his daily events. In remembrance of our 4 day Malaysia trip, I shall do the job of documenting our meals.
(People involved: Me, HW, JY, Ming & Nobuko)

27/01 Thurs
Supper: We reached JB past 2200hrs, maybe even later and proceeded for Supper at Danga Bay. (place name provided by JY) Nobuko & I went crazy, we had orange juice. (Ref: movie Notting Hill), Ming had Teh Ping and JY & HW Iced Milo. All of us shared fried vermicelli, omelette rice, satay, rojak, and a tofu dish. JY’s parents had Ice kachang and some boiled peanuts. The food was pretty good and we were glad we ate because we had some serious work to do late into the dead night.

28/01 Fri
Breakfast/Lunch: Some Chinese New Year cookies at JY’s place then we set off for Hakka food. Fried bean sprouts, the very popular liver & kidney soup, a meat thing which I don’t know how to describe (but you girls should remember when I say ‘meat thing’) and another tofu dish. The bean sprouts HW didn’t eat. All these went down pretty well. Too well infact! We stuffed ourselves.

In Between: Before we set off for KL, we made a stop at Lavender, a pastry shop where you can sit in for coffee too. Reeling from the after effects of lunch, we didn’t eat anything immediately but all had takeaway coffee which was essential for long drives. 30min into the drive, Nobuko ate her Cheese stick cake… -_-!!!
Just before we made our 2nd stop at a peeing station, HW exclaimed in her signature voice (you have to know her to know her voice of course) “I’m so FULL, I’m so FOOOOOOoooo!” yes, lunch was indeed very filling. I nodded sympathetically; I might even have shed a tear if she did not proceed to whip out Lavender’s Japanese pastry and happily fed herself… -_-!!!
At the 2nd peeing station, we had Baskin Robins ice-cream! Ming offered for the 100th time the information that we used to eat this brand of ice cream when we were in Japan! I nodded enthusiastically. Some things you can just repeat again and again. It’s a branch of long-windedness.

Dinner: Dinner was Peranakan food at Wang Utama after some shopping! I thought it was pretty good other than the Beef Rendang but the rest, I think, thought the Chicken stew was slightly sweet. I observed that Ming didn’t venture the sambal kangkong as usual but she did try the Szechuan soup although it looked spicy. Applause, applause! I gave dinner my all but apparently JY and HW left some space for desserts which they didn’t have time to order. They made up for that by eating the weird cracker tidbits offered at Red Box KTV. I would never touch those.

Supper: When I got home (home for those few days was JY’s cousin’s place) however, I was hungry and ate my Cheese stick cake from Lavender. It was ok. I think I saw HW eat some Red Bean bread bought at Lavender as well.

29/01 Sat
Breakfast/Lunch: First we had fried noodles at home, not bad! We all ate a lot of it but got hungry by the time we reached Sungei Wang Plaza so we had Teppanyaki there (which was lunch). HW was so hungry she ordered a Chawanmushi to share and even requested the Indian waiter to serve it immediately. Don’t ask me how she did it; I only heard something like “Can come now?” Her chicken dish was better than my beef dish. The food was pretty tasty, the only drawback being weird insects crawling around the table.

In Between: JY & I had Starbucks (which was bleah!) while doing pedicure. Ming & HW had their tea-time at some obscure (?) 6th floor café in Sungei Wang Plaza which I don’t know the name of. Nobuko had a very good slice of chocolate cake in a shop/café in Sungei Wang Plaza too. She saw everybody eating it and so she ingeniously ordered it as well!

Dinner: Dinner was Chicken Hotdogs for all of us other than HW who opted for the Macs Prosperity Burger. She gallantly offered me a bite and I suggested to her that it would be better with ketchup but she politely declined saying there was already the pepper sauce. Dinner was more of eating for the sake of eating. We had to refuel ourselves for some serious arm workout later on in the evening. Turn out we had a lot of workout for our legs too. And heart.

Supper: After using up all out energy and possibly losing whatever weight we may have gained from the trip, we went home for instant noodles. Korean seafood instant noodles to be exact. Ming had Chu Qian Yi Ding in beef flavour. I was in a pensive mood and the rest slightly mellow but we still found the noodles to be utterly satisfying! We proceeded for a movie at the impressive in-house theatre before we went to bed. I fell asleep for 15min in the middle of the movie, damn!

30/01 Sun
Breakfast/Lunch: ‘Breakfast/Lunch’ is always put together because we woke up late but insisted on eating both meals. Tsk tsk tsk... JY’s auntie Ta Pao-ed breakfast for us. It was Wanton Noodles for me and the rest had some of that and fried Kway Teow and Fried Noodles. There were some Malay Kuay but I didn’t have any of that. Ming ate a piece and Nobuko too. Two seconds later, we proceeded to Klang for Bak Kut Teh. JY’s brother highly recommended the Bak Kut Teh from Yong Chun but we went to the wrong shop and by the time he joined us after parking, we were all settled in the neighbour/competitor shop. Oh well, we all thought the food was good still! They provided chopped garlic to go with the dishes and I had to have a Smint after that or risk smelling of garlic for the whole day. It was Smints all round.

In Between: We had takeaway coffee from Secret Recipe. Coffee was needed again for the long drive ahead. HW had Iced Chocolate and Ming nothing. About an hour into the drive I felt like eating something sweet. JY offered her soggy Japanese pastry biscuit from Lavender. Remember Lavender from Friday? It wasn’t very edible so I only took a bite.

Dinner: Dinner was in JB at a place aptly called 大排挡. With a straight face, JY ordered for us 越南一只骨!!! Har har! Ignore the name, it was good! We also had prawns and crabs and veggies. It was good! The last thing I put into my mouth that night was lemon flavoured Mentos offered by HW at Lavender. We revisited the shop for pastries to bring back to Singapore.

And that was the end of our very FULL-FILLING trip.
I hope this will let you recall the fun we had there.

My heart is in KL. Together with Su and gals. Till 2006 when we can meet again. And i'll just be half the person i am till you make me whole.

When you walk pass CK Tangs, do you notice a man standing outside scrutinising all women passerbys' EYEBROWS?? Well, he's Steven Lim, some attention depraved soul. I'm sure you heard about the guy who stripped down to his yellow trunks during the Singapore Idol audition. That's him. I came across this on someone's blog.

"I witnessed the most shocking thing that ever happened in every day life to me, for a long long time.

I was walking at the underpass between Orchard MRT and CK Tang (you know the one with the blind accordian player, you know him!) and when I came across what I thought was the most attention grabbing marketing gimmick in a very long time. There was a girl standing in the middle of the path with A4 print outs on her back and on her forehead which had Steven's SHIT website on it.

The girl was using a newspapers to cover her face too. Wow, I thought to myself. This "Steven Lim" guy has a completely new "out of the box" method, perhaps "artsy-fartsy" approach to getting his website known! I mean, EVERY SINGLE PERSON was literally stopping dead in their tracks to look from either direction!

Excited, I quickly called my friend Elgin that I was supposed to meet at Far East Plaza to come along to have a look. Before Elgin arrived, I found a tall guy in his late 20s wearing a black sleeveless tight t-shirt hanging around the side of the underpass, and I presumed him to be the "Marketing minded Steven Lim". I told him that I was impressed by the idea and asked
him how he got it. He told me proudly that he thought about it himself. However, I couldn't help but keep looking at the girl but feel that something wasn't right. I also noticed that the girl had two girls on either side of her who seemed to be encouraging her in a "don't worry, we're here for you" kind of way.

"Who is that girl? Did you employ her? She's very brave! Where did you get her from?"

Steven replied by saying that it was his girlfriend. The horror hit me when when her friends came up to me and told me and Elgin that she was doing it completely against her will. Steven has asked her to do it with funny sunglasses and when she refused, he got angry. Apparently she loved him so much that she didn't want him to be angry with her and so she'd rather bite the bullet and cover her weeping eyes with the newspaper the whole time.

And what did this 28 year old hunkalot Steven do? He stood by the side and soaked up the glory and attention that he got as a result of his 16 year old girlfriend's humiliation. Angered, Elgin and I questioned him about his "business practices" and his only defence were lines like "I'm paying her $5 an hour" and "Of course I got unhappy when she didn't want to do it for me, it's only natural"! The whole time his poor girlfriend stood crying next to us, and her friends started looking to us for reason and support.

Elgin and I went on to give him a half an hour lecture on how NOT to treat his girlfriend and suggested other ideas to market himself without having to resort to emotional blackmail. His final response was "Thanks for the advice, but please visit my website. It's really good. Ask your friends to visit it as well!"

I felt so bad that ANY girl had to live with loving such a person that I ended up giving her a $300 watch loupe that I just happened to have on me. I just felt so sorry for her, and even more than such guys existed.

During the half hour lecture, he also asked me to support him on Singaporean Idol, let other people know about his website and how interesting all the new stuff is, and how he thinks he'll succeed in life by doing things like that.

God Bless his girlfriend, and all who stood with her.

Photo of the poor silly girlfriend

------------------------------------------

And this is from Mr Brown's blog on the same horrendous guy.........

"Be his dream girl

Update: Merv has an interesting find on Steven Lim's search engine optimisation strategy, which includes using keywords like the names of US presidential candidates and that of a famous murdered young girl.

Eyebrow plucker and aspiring actor/singer/performer Steven Lim is single again, and is looking.

Could you be his dream girl?

(I would link to his website, but his nude glamour shots may frighten little chewren. Google it yourself, if you are into that kind of thing. I am going to wash my eyes now.)

Excerpt:

I am looking for a girl friend now for a serious relationship!!!!
My trust had been betrayed by a 16 year old girl and we ended our six months relationship on 26th December 2004.
All the promises she had given cannot be fulfilled but all turned around and laughed at me at the last minutes.
She used to listen to me and put me in priority.
She had changed suddenly and heartless and I am so so heartbroken because I really love her.

I cried so badly while walking in Orchard's shopping malls feeling betrayed why she had chosen her job over me.
She dun care about me anymore!

Many people recognized me as Steven Lim and feel puzzled why the sadness.

All I ask from her is to get a job that ends earlier like 8pm not after 12am everyday, so that we can spend more time together like before.
That is wrong!?!?

Relationship needs time together to be healthy n sweet!
But she dun listen to me anymore!!!

I am a Virgo and I had to admit that I am a demanding/picky boyfriend and I need someone (a gal) that dun argue too much and rather be submissive towards me to save time on quarrels, supportive towards my passion in performing art, pure and can gradually give me 100% of total devotion, pretty, slim, dun irc, dun smoke/drink, preferably no curfews so we can roam together if we want to, close to female friends rather than guy friends and age between 16-21.

Follow me wherever I go, lift me up when I fall and I would like to bring u see the sunrise, sunset and walk the globe with you or on my motorbike, holding your hands tightly till the day we die.

Love me for what I am, Steven Lim is earnestly waiting for you. Eye for a girl. Contact me with the following numbers and email me with pictures if interested. Thank you.

Extra note in case you regret you contact me. I always subsidize 2/3 of my girlfriend expenses only, not full.
Just my way of doing things."

------------------------------------------

Wonder if the above-mentioned 16 year old that broke his heart is the one that helped him advertise for his website at the tunnel..... If so, good for her to be rid of him. And time for her to develop better taste in men.
Anyway, i'm torn between checking out his website just to laugh at him and not wanting to increase his site's visitor. Dilemma....

My birthday at Sentosa

Darling DEER Photoshopped this. Ain't he sweet? We had a great time acting like tourists at Underwater World and Dolphin Lagoon. My favourite sea creature now is..... the DUGONG!! (below munching sea weed) Dugongs were once thought by sailors to be mermaids. Cos they look like a human cradling a baby when they sit up on rocks. Their other name is....Sea Cow!

A long, big fish swimming by me at the Underwater World.... wonder how they taste like steamed fresh with soya sauce?

Here we are, suntanning at Dolphin Lagoon. The pink dolphins are truly PINK! Almost as pink as my Birkens.....amazing....

I know it's boring to read song lyrics and poetry and what-nots on blogs... but to go with the Jimmy theme, I've posted a poem.
(some of you will remember it from an email that I've sent before)
This, I think, was inspiration for the book illustration of Turn Left, Turn Right.
Anyway, the poem's LOVELY! Read it!


"Love at First Sight" by Wislawa Szymborska

THEY'RE BOTH CONVINCED
that a sudden passion joined them.
Such certainty is beautiful,
but uncertainty is more beautiful still

Since they'd never met before, they're sure
that there'd been nothing between them.
But what's the word from the streets, staircases, hallways—
perhaps they've passed each other a million times?

I want to ask them
if they don't remember—
a moment face to face
in some revolving door?
perhaps a "sorry" muttered in a crowd?
a curt "wrong number" caught in the receiver?
but I know the answer.
No, they don't remember

They'd be amazed to hear
that Chance has been toying with them
now for years.

Not quite ready yet
to become their Destiny,
it pushed them close, drove them apart,
it barred their path,
stifling a laugh,
and then leaped aside.

There were signs and signals,
even if they couldn't read them yet.
Perhaps three years ago
or just last Tuesday
a certain leaf fluttered
from one shoulder to another?
Something was dropped and then picked up.
Who knows, maybe the ball that vanished
into childhood's thicket?

There were doorknobs and doorbells
where one touch had covered another
beforehand.
Suitcases checked and standing side by side.
One night, perhaps, the same dream,
grown hazy by morning.

Every beginning
is only a sequel, after all,
and the book of events
is always open halfway through.

Su kept asking me to post an entry.....but i couldn't think of anything interesting to blog about. Still waiting for my Sentosa photos to be uploaded on some server so can't share them as yet. Decided to re-vamp our blog since i wasn't gonna blog. Still figuring out the archival links, hence, our old entries can't be read till i get it done.
Gonna go sleep now. Waking up in 3 hours time to go KKH.
Nites peeps.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME !!

There are tons of bloggers on the net and all of them seem to have so many smart and fun things to blog about… Hmph! Bleah! Sianz! Boo... ...

And what do I have to blog about?
Well, here goes.


The Ugliness of Life.
The ugliness of a man cheating on his wife and the ugliness of a woman cheating on her husband.
Ugly, ugly, ugly.

The thing is this. A marriage is forever.
If it is not, then why get married? If you intend to be with a person only when you are in love with him/her, then stay in love and enjoy it while it lasts. Cohabit, whatever, just don’t get married. Do not blaspheme the sacred act of marriage with your transient love.
If you believe in the institution of marriage, then believe that it is for better, for worse but most importantly, forever. Even after the passion fades and believe me, the passion would fade after a while.

Did I say FOREVER? I do truly mean forever and you have to make a conscious effort to make it forever. There ought not to be another choice other than FOREVER.
Forever means, if you find yourself falling in love with someone else after marriage, you stop yourself. If that person comes in the form of true love, you stop. If the person comes as your soulmate, you stop yourself too. When you get married, let the concept of ‘The One’ no longer exist unless the one is your spouse.
Getting married is not solely about love. It is about being committed to someone for the rest of his/her life. It is a promise that when the love dies and when things are no longer rosy, you will still be around.
That is commitment and responsibility for you. If you cannot afford it, don’t take that step.

This is what I believe in.


-----------------------------------------------

On a lighter note, here are some worthy pics from the Land of Oz.

Gonna leave out the story of the ducks but you can drool at them here.


"Ingenius!!!" - spoken like a real Sua Ku...


Had a slight obsession for this Tonkotsu Ramen. Sydney has wonderful Jap food!


No prizes for guessing who was on my mind... hur hur hur...


Oh, I look really smart and talented here! I look like a 才女！Perfect!

Because my computer is down and is being serviced, I hardly have the mood to blog.

But, because I have something more proper and constructive to do now, I suddenly feel like blogging!

I wanted to talk about 3 ducks I encountered in Sydney but because the pictures I have of them are in my own computer, I cannot put them up now. The pictures however, are essential, without which the story would not be as interesting. Then again, the ducks don’t seem so interesting already. Although they were funny and scary then and I, obsessively fascinated with them for 48 hours, they’re really not such a big deal now. Boohoo!!! This proves again that nothing is indispensable. Even my obsession with the ducks will turn to ashes one day and this is the day.

Maybe I should talk about… what was that? It slipped my mind. Gone, it’s gone. The wind caught it.

Ok, I have an idea! I shall be a busybody then and set New Year Resolutions for, not myself, but Wenhao!!! Wenhao, you can of course choose not to keep them and you can set resolutions for me too, if you’re bored enough.

In no order of merit:
1) To try to keep up the good work of staying away from you-know-what
2) To try to work hard and be consistent at studying
3) To try to hold her temper at home
4) To try to conquer her fear of MRTs
5) To try to keep a healthy lifestyle

I myself have 10 resolutions to keep. I just reviewed my 2004 resolutions and I successfully nailed 2, have 4 dubious ones and 4 that I didn’t keep at all. Still, I believe in resolutions because the key word in them is ‘to try to’. I guess it’s good enough as long as you’ve tried hard enough. Without the resolutions to keep myself in check, I may not even think of trying. So if you’ve never thought of improving yourself, resolutions may just be the way for you! Join me in this annual affair!

This year, I promise to try all 10!!!

MERCY RELIEF

11 SENJA ROAD
opposite Senja LRT station

1pm


Please wear comfortable clothes. Bring water and snacks if you think you'll need a tea break.
We'll be doing hard labour...... packing things into boxes. But do it knowing that someone else on the receiving end will be celebrating New Year with those items.

You Are the Girl Next Door! You're caring, warm, and the girl that nice guys want to marry. Uncomplicated and simple, you've got an easy going attitude guys love. But this doesn't mean you're dull - far from it! You're a great conversationalist, and you're an expert at living the good life. What Kind of Girl Are You? Take This Quiz :-) Find the Love of Your Life (and More Love Quizzes) at Your New Romance.

This is me and Xiaoyun at Bondi Beach! At the right hand side of the picture you may see something resembling a shark. It's not.

We went to several lookouts on that day we took that picture. It was pretty! There was this place you could see the sunset upon Sydney city and many other great night views of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House. We really have to thank Xiaoyun's friend for bringing us to all these places, which without him would probably have been impossible. For one, the public transport here is really difficult.

Anyway, there's really too much of this and that. I'll update more later!

Tonsils

I'm ill..... down with tonsillitis... this is how my throat looks like now. *suffering* Think i screamed too much at the SG Idol finals. Now that it's finally over, my groupie days are gone too.
Back to my books.... (why can't i be studying anatomy of the throat?? definately pass it with flying colours.)

很多事情我都已经不记得了。
他的名字怎么写,他的身高,甚至他的脸。
遗忘也许是好的吧！
我却都一直忘不了他。

Is that kinda onz or is that very 'song'?
Anyways, Su says, "It doesn't insinuate anybody so don't read too much into it."

This is a short and crappy installment. I'll use the time after JLPT (ONE ok! ONE!!!) and before I leave for Australia to blog once more! On the timeline, that would be between 5th Dec - 8th Dec.

For now, I'll pretend to study... like what JY is doing! Oh, and probably WH too!

It’s about my Grandfather.
He’s dead. He died recently, about 2 months ago.

It’s very queer to have him not be around although we don’t usually hang out or have an especially close relationship. I’m not his favourite grandchild, and I see him at most once a week, sometimes once a month. We seldom talk. If we do it’s me thanking him for an Ang Pao or him asking me or Ming something about the Chinese language. He’s interested in things like that, in China, in Politics, in Tradition.

Usually, he’s smiley when it comes to talking to me or Ming or any of his grandchild for that matter. He’s nice! He’s obliging and caring to us in a way, like a traditional man, not explicitly, but you know he is. You know because he didn’t like my job as a reporter, because he didn’t like me going to the Middle East, because he was worried that the place is unsafe, so he was glad my job ended. I know he cared in his unspoken ways. He didn’t tell me all that. He probably told my mom, and somehow I came to know. Most of his feelings, his thoughts were never told to me by him, I always just come to know. We really, hardly communicated yet we’re bonded by blood and we cared, somehow.

I respect my grandfather but he seemed to play a small part in the decisions I make in my life. Like what I want to study or what job I choose. I think he never felt that he had the power to change my decisions and he never did try. Sometimes when I think about it, he seemed to play such a small part in my life! Taking so little of my time! Yet I feel that he is an important person. It’s very contradictory.

Anyway, my grandfather is a very meticulous person. When the ambulance came for him, he insisted on dressing up for the hospital. He always dresses up. Not fancifully, but appropriately. On that day, I heard, he insisted on wearing his 2 layers of pants and because he’s so thin, that was a norm. The 2 layers of shirts were mandatory, of course. At the door step, he also feebly asked for his watch, refusing to leave without it. He also wore proper socks with his shoes. Everything was intact. Yes, he even took his umbrella.

At the hospital, the nurses gave us his belongings. It was HEAVY. His coins, his keys, his… stuff! He was a frail old man and he carried all that baggage around with him everyday. There were 3 tiny paper packets folded in old calendar-paper. They were probably about 2 cm in size and we were all dubious of what they were. Then we saw in neat handwriting, 班纳杜and another 陪自美(this one I’m not sure of the writing but it’s a kind of medicine for digestion) and one more, I forgot.
It was for that moment, rather funny. In the way the pills were so immaculately folded in calendar-paper and so well kept in his pockets as if they were prized possessions. He seemed like a very queer and funny man.
This old man insisted on bringing all his belongings, like a snail happily toting his shell, even if he was being rushed to the hospital.
There was a little comedy in that.

And then he passed away.

A short while after that we went to his flat to look at some of his belongings. Many things would be left for my Grandma to decide if they were to stay or to go. He had a little wooden table and a wooden stool (the stool now sits in Ming’s room). That was his work desk and it looked very simple, very modest. Before he retired, my Grandfather worked as a goldsmith and I think he spent many hours crouched over that wooden desk picking at necklaces and chains and repairing them. That I could imagine. What I didn’t imagine though, was that he had stacks of bus tickets on his desk. On the back of them, he scribbled in his laudable handwriting, many headlines from Lian He Zao Bao. Issues he wanted to ponder over sometime later. Things that people said that he wanted to remember. Names or quotes from famous people he thought were great. (Like MM Lee’s secretary, Mdm Yeong. I heard from my uncle that he admired her.) Issues like… I don’t remember clearly what I had seen there but probably things to do with China and Taiwan and laws implemented in Singapore. Things like that. He scribbled all this onto the back of used bus tickets. Did he want to recycle the bus tickets? Did he use them instead of a notebook or proper paper because he found them more portable? I don’t know but that is something that he did, and he did a lot of it.

Everything about my Grandfather was neat. He had everything ready for his death. The certificates were in place, the bank books. Everything that was needed for an easy settlement after his death was there and was well kept. He even wrote a will. That was the first time I had read something written by my Grandfather and it was indeed well written. Simple, straightforward and covered every aspect that we could think of. The language was very formal, I must say, it was very Chinese and that was very him.

Sometimes, he simply amused me because he was so old. Like when my cousin told me about the time my uncle nearly drove off when my Grandfather was getting into the car. As the car started, there he was this skinny little old man with one leg still outstretched and the car door still opened, hanging on to the bar above for his dear life. It was really funny just imagining that! I don’t know if it actually still sound funny, but when I imagine it, it is still. Or the time when he felt hungry but ran out of the bread he always brings around with him. It was so sudden and he was so hungry he was shivering. I don’t know. It’s just funny! This seems mean, but I’m not being mean. He amused me because I found him cute! I like to remember him that way, as being this funny without making an effort.

He was always busy though. You’d think a man of 90 years should be leading a very relaxed and slow paced life. That was not the case at all with my Grandfather. My Grandma said that he always complained about having not enough time.
别人有24小时，我也有24小时，为什么我的时间用得那么快？
That was his question. He was so busy he had no time to listen to a few Cantonese Opera cassettes that he bought. He said he couldn’t even spare that minute to put the cassette into the player. What was he busy with? I’m not very sure, but I know he reads the papers and that could take hours. He probably took naps and eating was also a slow event. I really cannot imagine anything else but there must be. There were things that he did everyday, things that were important to him.

I’m not ruminating about how I could have been a better granddaughter, forged a closer relationship with my Grandfather. It’s not like that. I like him the way he was with me and I like him enough the way I knew him to be. Although I cannot say for sure, I think he felt the same way towards me. I do feel curious though, of his youth and of his life.
Although we are not the paragon of Grandfather-granddaughter relationships, sometimes, I still do miss my Grandfather.

When I miss him, most of the time, I miss him for who I knew him to be.

Some of the time though, I miss him for the person I’ve never known him to be.

Show you something...





It's ME!!!





Wah!!! So brave!!! (hur hur hur...)

Congratulate me!!!

I've taken a step towards adulthood. Have you?

Me and Sly

SLYVESTER and ME!!! Now you all know why i'm star-struck.... harhar!!! And he's quite tall leh!! I was wearing heels and he's taller than me!!! Ahhhhh............ gonna drool at him again....

Tabitha

Tabitha
Originally uploaded by Suyi.

My niece is one mighty cute baby! She's also one of those baby girls who look like a boy. Try as her mom does by putting her in dresses and dolling her up with hair-clips but people still think she's a he.
Check her out, here looking adorable and somewhat at peace with the world!

I love babies!

And here is me! Practising, with no apparent goal in sight, to be a proud, young mom! The messy hair definitely makes the look!
Her name's Tabitha, by the way! Named after Samantha the (BE)Witch's daughter. Interesting name, comparable to the ones I have in store for my babies! Haha! Which I shall not repeat here because stupid people like to laugh at them!

They are really good names!
(hee hee... じまん... じまん...)

Wenhao is star struck!

We have a new member in The Singapore Club of Groupies-who-Deny (that they are Groupies)*.

---------------------------------------------------------

Today, I want to teach you kids that it takes effort to keep clean.

Other than dust, things in my room and very much everywhere else don’t just fall into place by themselves. Someone, namely you and I, have to use some energy to make some moves and put them into place. I learnt that when I started keeping my room clean. It’s not that I’ve never kept clean in my life but I’ve never had to keep up the neat and clean at the same time for so long. (note: there’s a difference between neat and clean.)

You ask why I should make the effort to be neat and clean now. Well, I have a new room and although in my perspective, it’s so clean and so neat but who cares about my perspective? It’s not enough for my dad and other nay-sayers (namely the Aunties with capital A). Not just the normal, “auntie, please pass the salt!” but “Auntie, you are my relative and my, my, you do have a lot to say!”

Never mind. My point is dust is indomitable. DUST IS US!
Dust is omnipresent regardless of time and space.

李白 said：
今人不見古時月,今月曾經照古人。
古人今人若流水,共看明月皆如此。
He could have said the same for dust because it is true!


Why do I painstakingly sweep and mop the floor only to have it be dusty again the next day? Why do I clean my shelves today when I have to do it again in 3 day’s time? Why? Why must I do that? Can’t I let the dirt culminate to a paramountcy before I combat them in one fell swoop? Say, once a week? No, I cannot. Why? Because it’s dirty and dirty is bad! Fine, but can’t I be not impeccably but manageably clean?

Manageably clean:
- Sweep & Mop own room (& other areas depending on time and mood) 2x/week
- Wipe/Dust shelves in own room 2x/week
- Make own bed 4x/week
- Pack own stuff in general 2x/week

Reasonable?
That already takes a lot of time and effort from me and I AM MAKING THE EFFORT!


People expect me to keep clean. These are people with either plenty of time on their hands with nothing else to do or people with maids or family members who are cleaning away behind-the-scenes. Good for them! But I do not have a maid nor do I have ample time to keep my room religiously clean. Nobody in my house likes to keep clean (my dad likes things clean, but he gets others to keep them clean. Ming is neat, not necessarily clean). I didn't expect my old place to be squeaky clean, neither do I expect my new place to be! In fact, I took a warped pride in telling people that, yes my place is messy because we all hate cleaning. By the way, do you do housework?


Anyway, if you currently cannot hold down my ‘Manageably clean’ schedule mentioned above, then don’t say that my room is messy. If you are one of those possessed cleaning family members, then we’re obviously not the same type of people, that’s why my room is not like yours. Finally, if you are the people who don’t do a thing but lives in a clean habitat because you have a maid or a possessed cleaning family, then surprise~! My room is still none of your business~!

So from now on, when you comment on the cleanliness of my room, it’s either fantastically neat/clean or manageably neat/clean. Please do not mention dirty or messy. If you absolutely have to, you can precede it with a negative e.g.: not dirty/not messy.

Thank you very much.

There is only one focal piece in my room.

---------------------------------------------------------

*If you are still unsure and so want to know of the criteria for entrance, look to Huiwen who’s an exemplary member.

Just a passing comment: I think Sun Yanzi is pretty critical. Or you can say cynical. She thinks Angels and Demons by Dan Brown is trashy (though entertaining), The Five People You Meet In Heaven tries too hard to make you feel good and Confessions of a Shopaholic – crap. Wow. That’s like, “Wow! You’re cynical!”
And no, I don’t think that it’s opinionated, it’s cynical. *nods all round from the people in the Zen Project*


To clarify and reinforce what I think from a discussion we had last night, I still feel that a singer is not a profession you can work at, unless it’s in the classical field. Things are too much of a fluke in pop singing and the perimeters too blur (singer-actor-songwriter???) too transient to have a standard, ‘proper’ definition of a good singer from a celebrity or otherwise.

A century ago, if you were born poor in China and had a good voice (or possibly just potentially good), your parents may sell you to a Chinese opera troupe. Day after day, without a choice, you assiduously practice singing and other stage moves. It’s hard work, it’s painful and it’s forced. If you’re good, perhaps you are born nimble, you improve faster than everyone else but it doesn’t mean that you have an easier time because training is still mandatory. Everybody puts in blood sweat and tears. Rebellion and sloth leads to caning or possibly tortures much worse but you manage to hone your craft and for better or worse, you acquire a skill, an art. In our modern terms, we’d call you an artist. (In the olden days, I’m afraid you may still be very much ostracized.)

In pop singing now, there’s editing when you record a CD, lip-synching if you can’t manage live and singers who do both shamelessly, get credit for being good. Now isn’t that atrocious! It’s an irony! It’s almost as if you sing well just to achieve a sort of self satisfaction because neither merit nor credit comes through vocal prowess. Skilful vocals don't seem to matter anymore. It has become the world of marketing and good looks. Not solely but predominantly.

Seriously, if F4 were born in the olden days with nary a skill on hand, they would not join a troupe and become leading celebrities of that time. They would be sold to brothels.

Besides good-lookers who pass off as singers, there’s the singer-songwriter who is, now more than ever, considered much more credible than just plainly a singer. Why should it be this way? If one writes good songs, then one writes them and let singers sing them. But they do a good job too you say! (Editing!!!) You say they emote simply, plainly and it appeals. It’s very elusive. Ahh yes, it must be the X-factor at work again. The X-factor is so overrated. X-factor cannot sing! X-factor can only make your heart palpitate 100x faster!

Love the singer-songwriters anyway, because take a good look around, not many singers who can sing. At least they can write! That’s where their warped credibility as singers comes from.

What is pop music? Pop music is music that appeals to the masses. It’s what the people like.
What is a good pop singer then? It should be someone whose singing can effectively appeal to most people.
Seems now it’s more likely to be someone who can appeal to people, and sings too by the way! I dread to think it that way.
You see, that’s the thing with pop. Good singing does not equate to appealing singing. Yet bad singing by a charismatic character can appeal to the layman.

It’s all a mater of how you pitch someone into the limelight and make them a celebrity. This of course is not new; everyone knows it and buys it, which is why I say you cannot work hard to become a singer as a profession. (You can work hard to be good at singing pop, that you can.) Because the hard work required is no longer singing, it’s preening your self, or cultivating the X-factor (and God knows how we do that?) Better yet, you pay a good team to market you! Pop singing is no longer an art for the singers but only for the producers, music engineers working behind the scenes. (So love those people instead.)

I guess there has always been an element of fluff perpetuated in pop, but it’s now more evident than ever. Sad but true.