SIAN

I don't know why I have days, like today, when I absolutely can't produce anything at work at all. And then I'll spend my time reading my own blog entries over and over again, thinking I should have added this fact, or that I should have phrased the sentence better. Yes, I mentally edit them. Is that loserly or what.

SIAN. TOTALLY SIAN.

Thank goodness I foresaw my sian-ness this morning, and packed my swim gear even though I was running damn late for work. I even postponed my phone interview.

Can't wait to go swimming later. Swimming laps has a mysteriously calming effect on me, other than the fact that it helps me shed kilos, well err....more like a fraction of a milligram. Then again, maybe it's just sweat loss. The walk around Toa Payoh after that is also pretty relaxing. No harried and hurrying shoppers, just heartlanders strolling in and out of shops and ah peks lazing on the stone benches looking like they have all the time in the world.

Oh yes, I'd probably not be able to resist a peek into Comic Connection. The last time I did that, I ended up buying a Naruto calendar, cos it had droolsome Kakashi (he's a ninja sensei) in it. And err...a notebook with a Kakashi cover.

*jolt back to reality* Not doing anything today also means I have to write three stories over the weekend. Ultimate SIAN.

Bizarre? Eventful? You decide

Today was a day of eventful happenings. Some that made me raise my eyebrows till they could go higher no more, others that made almost shed a tear or two.

1) In the morning, I had to interview two instructors of entrepreneurship programmes and one of them said things that nearly made my jaw drop. Well, this man has opened successful businesses of his own and even written books, but he has also dabbled in illegal activities! Well, in his definition, they were not illegal in those countries that he did them in, so he said it was actually a case of "thinking out of the box" to earn money. ie entrepreneurial thinking. HUH???
He's had money hidden under his clothes, all over his body. He has traded in weapons. And he's even on the banned list of certain countries in the region. He said that to find some form of sanity after this crazy business of money-laundering and what not, he decided to settle down with his proper retail businesses in Singapore. Errr...I don't know about you, but I don't think I call money-laundering entrepreneurial.

2) Lunch: met an old friend who said her boyfriend proposed!!! WE are really moving into the next phase of our lives. Happy for her :)

3) Second interview: supposed to interview an organisation on why it's holding a tourism studies programme for participants as young as JC students. You know, it's really just a simple story where the lead-in is, as usual, a JC student saying how he likes the programme and then the rest of the story using comments from some chairman of this association that's offering the programme.
Well, I ended up entertaining a whole entourage of pple!!! The interview took place in a school cafe with two teachers in charge (both HODs), the PR person of the organisation, the head of the organisation, the head of a division of this organisation, and the head of the tourism school set up by this organisation. OKAAY.

For the photoshoot, I had requested a maximum of five students, plus one instructor to be photographed in a tourist spot, BUT I got a busload of students - at least 20 - instead. Get this: the school chartered a coach to fetch ALL of us there. Meaning me, JK the photog who of cos couldn't resist rolling her eyes, all the pple who were in the school cafe with me, and the many students.

I was damn tired after that interview and shoot man. The PR woman said she knew I'd told her I didn't want so many pple, but that the organisation really wanted to support us and give us all the help we wanted.

I wish pple would understand that it's damn difficult interviewing so many pple at one time. I have to bloody remember who said what, and in the end, end up using only one quote of each. Thank goodness I have brains, so I simply kept looking at one guy who looked like he knew all the answers. It helped. He provided the bulk of the answers.

4) Visited K's cancer-stricken mother at SGH. Family thought she would not have lasted the last few days. Felt really sad looking at all the onco patients, reminded me of days I saw my dad and aunt in those wards. K's the teenage girl attached to me in this youth programme I'm involved in.
I'm quite happy to hear from K that her mother's accepted Christ though. At least she can go to an eternal heaven where she'll suffer no more.

Tired....

Oh but Naruto episode 121 has come out!!! And Leroy's msning me the file right now!!! At least, that's some comfort for this day of weird happenings.

Peeved

I hate it when sloppy editing's done to my story. Especially when three pple have gone through it and still mistakes are there. Argghh!!! I found two missing words and one wrong word usage in my story today. Pissed. I need things to be perfect in my story, especially when it's not my fault that mistakes were introduced. And it's really embarrassing when the newsmaker reads it, and wonders how in the world such errors could be made by someone working for a newspaper.

Arghhh!!!! I don't even want to read it.

The word game

Mr Jai the old man played an unexpected word game with me on Friday. He was looking for a meat mincer to make jam. (More about that later.) At first, he thought he wouldn't be able to find it from the clutter in his house and had wanted to see if he could borrow one from me, if I had.

But when I visited him, he asked me to pick up a piece of paper with torn edges from the table and this is what it read:

"I was finally able to FIND the meat mincer."

He looked me in the eyes and said: "You're a writer. Tell me, is there a better word for "find"?"

Stressed, I offered "chanced upon" and "discover", but he shook his head. Finally, he told me to turn the slip of paper over and there was the word "locate" staring back at me. What a sense of humour this guy has!

As for the jam business, well, he suddenly missed his late mum's jam and wanted to try his hand at it. It's gonna be pretty tough cos he has to peel lots of oranges (yes, orange jam), shred the peel and cook them. But it's gonna be interesting to see how he manages it :)

Papa's house (1): From another less flattering angle, the "throne" doesn't look that glamorous. But I think it's a nice mood shot. Heh :)

Papa's house: Every Chinese New Year, when I visit my papa (husband of my former nanny), he never fails to remind me that I used to sit in this multipurpose chair when I was young. Papa is 68 this year and his wife, who's passed away, cared for me until I was four. This antique "throne" for the kids can act as a stool or leg rest too, depending on how you turn it around. Sadly, one adjoining part on its side is broken. But, papa can't bear to throw it away cos generations of kids have sat in this! First to use it was his youngest son, who's about 30 this year. Next was me, then my bro, and I think three other boys, and then papa's own grandchildren!

Love is in the air

Well, love for those who need it :)

Two colleagues brought food for Mr Jai yesterday and today, and A LOT of food. Mr Jai said the first one brought him a "seven-course" lunch! Haha. And he was very happy and surprised to hear that it was cooked by this guy's wife. He couldn't help but exclaim: "Lovely! Lovely! Lovely!" over the phone.

Today, another colleague visited with her dad and her dad gave him an ang pow. So nice. I'm pretty happy the old man has had a pretty filling Chinese New Year.

Just some interesting tidbits about this man. He told me that, as a former doctor, he still disposes of expired medicine of his the correct way. Said you can't just throw the pills into the dustbin carelessly in case of drug abuse. Someone could pick them up and consume them. I don't know who could be so desperate anyways!

So he pours the pills into empty tins and fills them with leftover (think unsold) food from a stall that someone sends over to his house. I saw curry once in the tins. He then lets the concoction ferment before throwing the tin away. This way, the medicine gets disposed of properly.

Oh yes, he says it's a good way of clearing the junk in his house too, cos he has tins and cartons packed to the ceilings! How methodical.

Eat, drink and be merry!

Six of us had our wonderful reunion dinner at an Italian restaurant called Menotti (next to Delifrance) at Raffles City last night. And we had great food and dessert! Haha, let me talk about the desserts first.

We shared three different bowls of gelato, with interesting combinations of flavours and toppings. Menotti has so many varieties of yummy gelato, you'd be spoilt for choice. I'll post the pictures once Marilyn my 16-year-old cousin uploads them. She went berserk shooting the pix and I helped do a bit of food styling (you know, put a wine glass here and there) though err...didn't turn out very successful. Ha!

Mavis my cousin had the Portofino - three scoops of vanilla gelato, each topped with a puffy pastry. Ooo...yum :) My favourite.
Marilyn had the Menotti - chocolate, strawberry and something else. Not bad.
I had the Sorrento - lemon, passionfruit and chocolate chip! Such interesting combi. The rich cream and milk of the chocolate chip gelato balanced the sharp sour flavours of the other two perfectly. The gelato was topped off with a fruit salad and two cookies.

Prices were very reasonable, about $8 for my Sorrento, for example. Dinner was value for money too. I had duck leg braised in red wine, served with mash potato. It cost about $18. Not bad. And the portions were just right. Maybank and UOB cardholders get 15 per cent discount too! I have both cards. Heh.

After dinner, we adjourned to the River Hongbao. Pretty fun soaking in the festive mood there too. The God of Fortune was a towering giant, by the way. Of cos, trigger-happy Marilyn kept snapping all the way. I took pix with my mum in front of our zodiac animal - the goat. They were sort of gigantic lanterns and came in a family of four - Papa, Mama, and two kids (no pun intended!). The other animals were displayed all over a big square.

Anyways, let me do a 10 amusing things I observed last night (ala magazines' usual 10 things I never knew...):
1. My aunt (oldest one) and my mum have never been inside the Esplanade. My aunt even thought we were not allowed to step further inside the building cos she assumed you needed tickets of something. Yes, suaku, they admitted :)
2. The zodiac Dragon at River Hongbao is a bl**dy pink!!! According to Marilyn, who was utterly disappointed that HER animal was such a disgusting colour, said it looked like a COW. Haha.
3. .... oops...have run out of things I noticed. Hahahaha. FAIL! HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!! BE KIND TO CHICKENS THIS YEAR!!! :)

Musical Intelligence

Visited a blog of a stranger who posted a comment here, and found this quiz that tells you what kind of intelligence you have. This is my result:

"Every part of your life has a beat, and you're often tapping your fingers or toes.
You enjoy sounds of all types, but you also find sound can distract you at the wrong time.
You are probably a gifted musician of some sort - even if you haven't realized it.
Also a music lover, you tend to appreciate artists of all kinds.

You would make a great musician, disc jockey, singer, or composer."

Hmm...I've always wondered how I could be a musician without really loving music that much. I don't really listen widely, just the occasional jazz, pop, rock... I'm not an i-POD toting girl who can't seem to get enough of her daily dose of listening. In fact, my mp3 player has only four albums stored, which have been on repeat mode for the past two months! There's Mayday's 5th album, Double Take (wonderful jazz by two m'sians), Mel Torme (he wrote The Christmas Song) and erm, some Christian music I put in cos I had to familiarise myself with them for church practice.

I'm just too lazy to add new songs! Weird huh? And I say I love music.

I do play the piano and I can improvise on the pop-type stuff. I love to sing and I can detect very subtle flat notes. I can hear if the drummer has missed a beat or is playing the wrong groove. Yet, I'm not crazy over music. Weird.

http://www.blogthings.com/intelligencequiz.html

Size matters + National Day song

Did you know that shoe boutiques can reduce the size of shoes you've just bought from them? Well, Everbest at Plaza Singapura can. Apparently, they do this cos some people have right feet that are bigger/smaller than their left, so they offer this customisation service.

I bought a size 37 pair of formal shoes at the shop two days ago. When I tried them on, I was pleased to know that the leather felt extremely soft and the fit wasn't too tight. However, the next day, when I wore them again, they were too loose! Can't figure out why.

So I brought them back to the shop and the salesgirl placed a patch-like cloth thingy inside each shoe, at the front. She said each patch reduces the size of the shoe by half. After I tried the shoes on and confirmed they were the right size, she tore off the front part of the shoe lining that comes into contact with the soles of your feet. She then placed the miracle patch onto where the lining used to be, covered the patch with the lining, and glued it back in place with cobbler's glue (the yellow gooey type in a tin can).

Hence today, I wore size 36 and a half shoes to work. All thanks to the magic of Everbest!

On an unrelated subject: I have a singer friend who's been asked to write a National Day song for kids and teach them to sing it. He asked me to write the lyrics, though he hasn't given me any tune whatsoever. I don't know what I'm going to get out of this la, if the lyrics go through, but anyhows I need a theme. The only thing I can think of now is "friends". Anyone has any idea?

(I'm procrastinating by the way. Die. Need to give him after CNY!)

Food for thought

A few days back, I called Mr Jai the old doctor to check on how his meal deliveries were coming along. Good for him that Touch Home Care is now sending him both lunch and dinner. Bad for him that he finishes both lunch and dinner during lunch itself! Gee. Either he has a very big appetite or they send really little.

To supplement those meals, he called up a tingkat service. You know those catering services that deliver meals in tin containers to your doorstep? I found out when I visited him one evening recently and he opened the door expecting to see the tingkat man he had made an appointment with to discuss his dietary preferences. Of cos, since I was there at that time, I bumped into the tingkat man as well. After that, I left and thought all would be well. Not so, actually.

Turns out Mr Jai wants to pile up on his protein intake cos he doesn't have enough meat and is still losing weight. He wanted the tingkat man to send only meat and veggie, which he agreed to. But he failed to honour the deal. He kept sending rice, soup and other stuff Mr Jai didn't need.

So I brought up the plan that Leo suggested: why not ask my colleagues (those who would be free in the evenings) to volunteer for a meal run. We could roster ourselves ie each one delivers on a fixed day and at a fixed time. (Old people like fixed times cos they will sit there and expect you, I've observed.) Mr Jai says he wants to pay us, and he did pay me this week when I brought food for him to sample. I'm trying out different food stalls this week to see if the food is palatable to him. Once they are, I'll officially start the meal run next week. I don't know how long it will last, but starting it is better than not at all. I don't think I can live with myself knowing that an old man I know is going hungry during dinner. I hope everything works out well.

I asked him to rank the food that he needs and this is what he said: First is beef cos it has value. Second: fish; Third: pork; Fourth: chicken. And he wants 200g of it, I think it's either 200g or 400g cos I didn't make a mental note of it because I couldn't visualise that in portions! But I think I kinda know now cos he said the first day's portion was just right. And that was a lot that I'd bought! Was thinking to myself, oh dear, he must be really hungry.

I realised today that I sometimes forget that Mr Jai is human as well. Let me explain what I mean. I tried to get food at the lowest price cos I wanted to help him save money. But today he told me, it's ok if the fish costs $3 to $4, cos after all he has to eat to survive.

He's got a bad ear infection. Oh dear, yes. He told me today that it doesn't matter if he dies in the house, he just doesn't want to be incapacitated by a handicap cos he lives alone. How true. The doctor who saw him some days ago didn't wanna take money from him, so Mr Jai decided to give him a gift - Galileo's thermometer. Erm, it's one of those weather instruments the pple of old used. It's like a big test tube with coloured balls inside that will rise and fall I think. I couldn't understand the instructions on the box and it was quite an amusing moment cos Mr Jai was staring hard at the apparatus and he suddenly asked: "If it's a thermometer, where's the scale?" Haha. And he smiled and asked rhetorically: "Is it worth giving?" Well, anyways, I wrapped it up for him with the paper I bought (and that he paid for) cos he said "wrapping is beyond me"! Haha.

He's so funny. He was against having the supplier's name shown on the box so he made me paste a piece of paper over it. Guess what he wrote on it? Something like "This will excite the minds of the young." So philosophical.

Oh and he also gave me a gift. He said I was a writer and so I should get a pencil holder. It's probably a corporate gift he got from his medical contacts in the past cos it says Bayer Cardiovascular Care Management. It also has the 2000 and 2001 calendar printed on it. Old but still looks as good as new. :)