crazy woman.

saturday afternoon i really should swear off taking the bus already. 3 bus trips in 2 weeks and i've met so many crazy people. none more so than the crazy woman that was on service 106 from holland village to orchard.

so here's the story. i boarded the bus with anne. it being the elongated bus, we moved in because there were a lot of people boarding the bus. we stood at the first exit door, me holding the handrail just behind the seat. so as the bus journey got underway, as friends would in a bus, we just kept talking away. i attempted to clear my throat one time and continued talking, cleared my throat a second time and the woman turned around, hit me in the arm and started to scold me in chinese, telling me to mind my manners and not cough at her. i said i already covered my mouth and didn't "cough" to begin with and asked her what her problem was and she looked away.

having thought that was the end of it, i attempted to continue my conversation but it was not to be. i cleared my throat again, this time making sure i covered my mouth and looked away from the woman (she could see clearly from the reflection of the bus door) but well, she went crazy and turned around and "coughed" at my face, saliva et al. fine. i took out a piece of tissue and wiped my glasses and face and let it slide.

a good 3 minutes or so later, she turned around, and blatantly spat at my face, somehow managing to spit at the girl standing on my right and the woman sitting just in front of the door. that's when everyone lost it. anne and the girl on my right shouted at her. the woman sitting down turned around and gave the crazy a long cold hard stare. again, i took out some tissue, gave one to the girl and wiped my arm where the crazy woman spat. at that time, anne and the woman were exchanging words. the crazy somehow decided then that spouting vulgarities was the only way she could "win" and that's where i lost it. the quintessential hokkien vulgarities were used, as were some english and chinese ones, but scolding my friends or me personally is one thing. once you drag family and all into the picture you'll get hell from me.

the ironic part was, she challenged me to call the police for "bullying old folks". damn it. she's mid- or late-50s, acting like a friggin' 10 year old kid. but anyway, i did take out my phone and offered to diall 999 for her and then she shut up - for 5 seconds. then she kept rambling "fuck you" to anne and i. the urge to really kick her out of the bus when the door opened, my goodness.. another time, another place and i would have done it.

the lady who was seated down got off the bus pretty quickly after, not surprisingly though, i'd feel disgusted and what not. the crazy, without apologizing one bit to the lady or the girl, banged her way through to rush for the seat that the lady just vacated.

in any case, what's with the older people nowadays? has the recession really made a lot of them go bonkers or what? it doesn't mean that just because you're older means you have the god-given right to be rude and irrational. yeah sure we'll give more leeway but don't push the limits man. like what the hell?

i was more surprised that i could remain calm for so long, in the whole exchange with the crazy i used one f-word and that was in the sentence, "could you f-ing shut up and stop scolding people?" i'm blinkered as to what went through crazy's mind and what she was trying to proof. but hell, shit happens and 3 bus rides in 2 weeks.. i think i'm not taking the bus for a while more.

Christmas.

thursday evening it's been a quiet Christmas this year. house party at julian's on tuesday. a couple of us stayed till the following morning before heading back. Christmas Eve was relatively quiet as well, basically slept till dinner before heading out for a bit.

went for Christmas mass at Holy Family alone. dad wasn't feeling too good so mum stayed home as well. mass was great though. i loved it especially since the choir really made it something special. it was that little bit more interesting considering i met some people i knew, a poly classmate, an anu friend, a chatechist of mine when i was in secondary school who has since become a priest. amazing.

so yeap. a very Merry Blessed Christmas to all!

Chivas Ad.

Millions of people; everyone out for themselves
Can this really be the only way?
No.

Here's to honor
And to gallantry ~ long may it live

Here's to doing the right thing
And to giving a damn

Here's to the straight-talkers
Who give their word ... and keep it

Here's the freedom, wherever you find it
And to knowing the true meaning of wealth

Here's to the brave among us
Here's to a code of behavior that sets certain men apart from all others

Here's to us
Live with chivalry

mystified.

monday evening it's perplexing when all it takes is a simple "thank you". how difficult is it to breathe two words. "excuse me", "please", "sorry". are they all so hard to say?

second bus ride from hell. shall not elaborate. point is, i hate people who talk so friggin' loudly on the phone.. oh wait, scratch that, people who shout into their friggin' phone as if the other party was deaf or the other party's phone had no volume control, worse still, both. gah!

the weekend.

monday morning it was a mad start to the weekend on friday, rushing to bukit batok before heading to town for lunch with the anu people. kc was in town so a couple of us met up to bring him around. surprisingly, morten was in town as well so it was a big b&g gathering in singapore. ha!

so yeah, went around town after lunch with them, agus joining us as well. so we've got 1 malaysian, 1 indonesian and 1 norwegien and many of us singaporeans. interesting.. left the group after to meet a couple of friends for dinner and drinks. all i can say is, good food, good music, good company. nothing beats that.

by that time, the anu gang had split into 2 groups, 1 headed for supper and the other for drinks at clark quay. quite obviously i joined the latter and we ended up at clinic before heading for st james' powerstation. while the clubbing a bit was dull (music was so-so, crowd was bad and i don't dance), again, the company was good so it kind of balances out itself.

saturday and sunday was spent running around getting presents and cards, meeting up with some church people on sunday to grab some stuff as well. so yeah, a frenzied weekend with more to follow.

much as i don't feel the christmas mood now, well, let's just hope somethings change over the next couple of days. right now, i've got a splitting headache and a mild stomach flu to deal with.

hell-bus.

wednesday night the bus ride from orchard back home just now almost spoilt my entire day. i took the bus, service 7, from outside the thai embassy. it being the holidays and all that, it was not surprising that there were a fair bit of people waiting to board the bus. because it was a double-decker, most passengers proceeded upstairs while i found myself a seat near the back on the lower-deck. the way they arrange the seats on the super bus means the back has two parallel rows of seats.

as i boarded the bus i realized that there was someone singing loudly. i turned to look and figured that the person was probably one of those "special" people and tried not to let it get to me. then came the stop at plaza singapura. another group of people boarded the bus. an indonesian family and this 2 middle-age women amongst them.

the family sat to my left, near where the singer dude was sitting. the son took out his nintendo ds and started playing - nothing wrong in that. but what pissed me off was that he was shouting and giggling for the longest time till they alighted somewhere near bugis.

at the same time, the 2 women sat next to me. the one on my immediate left (who wasn't exactly.. skinny), tried to ease her way into my "area" of the seat and then proceeded to stuff her handbag between herself and me. i was constantly battling her for my seat space but i tried to act oblivous and ignorant.

lo and behold, at the bugis stop, 2 malay punks boarded the bus (by which time the singer dude had already alighted) and sat at the rear. they were the usual, stereotypical malay punk who talked loudly, laughed loudly and being plain ignorant fools and oblivious to the rest of the public.

eventually the woman decided to remove her handbag from between us. i intentionally leaned against her to make it difficult. following which she swung her shopping bags around trying to "dig" out her handbag. to make it worse, one of the bags almost hit my face and i gave her a stare, unsurprisingly, she was ignorant to it. when the bus reached my stop and i got up to alight, she stared at me as i was tapping the ez-link card. so to return the favor, i gave her a very unkind look and got off.

this is by far one of the worse bus trips i've ever been on.. whatever it is, i'm not going to let it spoil what was a very good two days thus far.

met up with geraldine for dinner at suntec. it was hilarious what happened after dinner when some israeli guy tried to sell to her a hair curler, at the same time thinking that we were a couple. i laughed even more when he asked when we were getting married and i told him in ten years time. ha! we headed off to boat quay after that and proceeded to a jazz bar which none of us have been to before. it turned out great, the music, ambience and the customary drinks. stayed till after 12 before we made our way to geylang, me having tau huay and she, egg tarts that i swear is among the best i've ever tasted. and of course, sent her back after that. one of the best days i've ever had, ever. love that girl to bits. i swear. haha..

question: how does one misread Discovery Channel for Disney Channel? -looks at geri-

and today, well, met up with ivan, ade, shaun, choon yan and ben for dinner before we walked around for a bit and ended up at mccafe at shaw for drinks and talking-cock session. thereafter, refer to the top bit. all in all, a good 2 days.

anarchy.

tuesday afternoon why don't we just heck the consequences and let thailand fall into anarchy? seems like they're a bunch of idiots, rioting and causing trouble over every little damn thing. with the first of many lawsuits on the way against the government on the way, it's time for the PAD to put their own money and whatever on the line.

it's unthinkable that a semi-military political party is allowed to threaten the goverment so easily and get away with it. i don't even think i'll bother to mention thailand in my prayers. it's a shambolic country.

sleepless in singapore.

tuesday morning the past couple of weeks have flown by so fast. it's hard to fathom that i've been home for almost a month now. the meet ups have been great, the highlights so far being the gaming night at shaun's place where we also celebrated ben's birthday.

went for antioch camp the past weekend. felt great to be back in the company of some familar faces in church. this week's going to be packed. meeting geri later tonight (yay!), ivan ade and mad on wednesday before checking out a bar along boat quay on friday. week's looking good so far..

pfft.

friday morning it's extremely annoying and frustrating, knowing that what you and your team have worked so hard to build up over 2 years, is all down the drain just like that. the present committee is in shambles and they've implemented policies that are at best questionable.

phew!

monday morning first semester results are out... and err. i did better than expected. more importantly, i passed math1005. take that!

and my dilemma has been resolved.

HTC Touch 3G.. nahhh
HTC Touch Pro.. nahhh
HTC Touch HD.. yeahh!