How can I encapsulate the experiences into words? Because there are bound to be stuff that I've forgotten but are still significant to me. I even thought of starting the requisite End of The Year post a few days early so I have enough time to note down everything.
There are also things I wish to forget. I've always been very fascinated by one object in the Harry Potter Series. It wasn't the magical wands nor the powerful hallows, but the decidedly prosaic Pensieve. It is a basin filled with silvery stuff (I think the image of the pretty swirling silver was also a factor in that liking) which are actually Dumbledore's memories. He takes strands of silvery memories out of his mind and places them in the basin, when remembrance get too overwhelming or when he wants a clearer perspective on them.
So they are always 'there' but temporarily out his mind, until when he wants and can handle them. Something so simple, yet has the potential to save the world. To save us from our old hurts and wounds, to relive beautiful memories, to make us forget the injustice done to us -- or the injustice we do to others. Guilt, hurt, anger, love, sorrow, joy... All the basic facets of a thinking, feeling being.
This year was...is, life-changing to me. Hall Production and America, the outing with the kids from Haven...and countless of little events. They shaped my thoughts and the way I live my life and my future. Sometimes they make me cry, sometimes those are tears of laughter. But most of all they make me learn.
I made up my mind a long time to embrace this life and I will, no matter how hard the road gets. And to let the people in my life inspire me in little ways, to let them take my breath away every now and then.
If there's one thing I've learn and will no doubt continue to learn, it is to always have a sense of what is important to me, to be absolutely honest with myself -- even if it hurts. Because if I am to live out this life in the confines of my mind, I have to furnish it well with bricks of truth and honesty.
I would like to say a big I Love You to all the people (and turtles) that matter in my life.
I LOVE YOU.
I love you.
Maybe I have already contained all the experiences of my year into words, however indirectly.
“And you must be able to bear your sorrow; even if it seems to crush you, you will be able to stand up again, for human beings are so strong, and your sorrow must become an integral part of yourself; you mustn’t run away from it.
Do not relive your feelings through hatred...Give your sorrow all the space and shelter in yourself that is it’s due, for if everyone bears grief honestly and courageously, the sorrow that now fills the world will abate. But if you do instead reserve most of the space inside you for hatred and thoughts of revenge- for which new sorrows will be born for others-then sorrow will never cease in this world. And if you have given sorrow the space it demands, then you may truly say: life is beautiful and so rich that it makes you want to believe in God.”
From “Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943” William B Eerdmans Publishing Co (2002).
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
On Love
When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams
as the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.
All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.
But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.
When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, "I am in the heart of God."
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.
---Kahlil Gibran
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Save a ha'penny for a rainy day -- and another, in case it doesn't rain.
The pre-Christmas Eve party with the badminton girls and a few of the friends we collected along the way ended with a few revelations for me.
They expected that I'll post word for word what they said and did, which I would do in normal situations just that I was a little preoccupied with watching my Korean Drama serials, taking pictures of that cute sitting dog and old rat. They played Mah Jong, while I refused to learn or join in because I thought I was too cool for it.
Also because I was too lazy to get up from my seat and too glued to watching Coffee Prince.
We played a little game of guessing the numbers and the forfeit was eating Jellybeans. "Hmph, where got exciting..." I thought.
I didn't really like jellybeans but weren't they a little too wimpy to be considered as forfeit??
Shi Ying being quite unlucky in matters to do with luck, had to do a forfeit, which was eating Hui Qian's awful combination of jellybeans.
She got quite revengeful and decided to choose the Cinnamon Spice one. What's wrong with that innocent-looking Red Jellybean? Merely that anyone who ate one of it puckered their lips and coughed because it was spicy and awful. Just one was horrible enough.
Shi Ying chose five of it. And I wanted to make it more of a challenge, adding cuttlefish and various assortment of weird stuff. They warned me saying that I might be the one eating it.
Which really did happen.
With no show of trepidation, I ate all of the forfeit. And everyone scrutinised my face carefully to see what reactions I would have. I can't remember. I didn't say anything, or showed much visible reaction. I just smiled and pointed to the tray of Macaroons Yao Ming made and said "Give me the Macaroon."
And they started Uh-ohing.
I stuffed whatever horrible combination I could think of for the jellybeans, including cuttlefish and whatnots.
Yvonne was quite alarmed at the result. And from everyone's wary faces I could tell none of them wanted to be the one who got that forfeit, and the one who got it will probably have a lot of puking to do.
Maggie -- our host for the night, was the recipient of my vengeance. She ended up spitting most of whatever she ate into the dustbin and looked as if she was giving birth instead of eating jellybeans. I exaggerate -- but not very much.
We then watched Channel 8's 'The Little Nyonya" which I don't follow. I heard about a rape scene in that show and I asked either SY or HQ whether this is the episode which in which it will happen. HQ/SY nodded with a kind of nervous embarrassment. "Oh my this will get awkward..." I thought.
So everyone, including Mags' family from her grandma to her cute dog, and her friends sat glued to the TV screen. We made various comments about Joanne Peh's foolishness and clucked sympathetically for her and the two main protagonist. Scolded the bad character who violated JP's character (I was trying hard to stifle my laughter because the rape scene happened with a cliche night setting of night and brewing thunder.)
I couldn't help but said sotto voce "It was a dark and stormy night..." like how gothic romances go, before the bad male character walked into the room. I don't like watching scenes like that because it stirs up unpleasantness for me, but thankfully the scene was short and brief (pun not intended).
Whenever there were crucial scenes, the TV would cut to an advertisement featuring Fragrant BBQ Pork, leading to frustrated "Wei she me zhe yang de!" (why like that!) from the audience.
It is anti-climatic but highly amusing.
One word I would use to describe the entire gathering? Cozy. Like a family gathering without the stress and hope that the relatives wouldn't notice you've gotten fatter or ask about your non-existent love life.
Mags' parents said to treat their house like our own home, perhaps not realising that they would also be treated as family. Own home, own family. =)
On a side note, this would probably be the cheapest gathering for me. The rest of my holidays are spent with people who like to eat (Japanese food) and with movies involved. I have outing with Shi Yun on Monday and my pockets are quaking with the thought of being further emptied.
I also coerced Xiao Zhu (the name which amuses me to no end) into watching Australia with me. Therefore, instead of a financially independent and secure Heidi that I normally try to be, I'm going to be moping about sporadically with the instability of a poor peasant girl whose farm has been burned by invading soldiers and the only way she can have money to buy potatoes and carrots for her young brother is to sell her...voice to an opera house.
Oh my, aren't I inventive?
We are the birds of the same nest,
We may wear different skins,
We may speak different languages,
We may believe in different religions,
We may belong to different cultures,
Yet we share the same home - OUR EARTH.
Born on the same planet
Covered by the same skies
Gazing at the same stars
Breathing the same air
We must learn to happily progress together
Or miserably perish together,
For man can live individually,
But can survive only collectively
-- Atharva Veda.
They expected that I'll post word for word what they said and did, which I would do in normal situations just that I was a little preoccupied with watching my Korean Drama serials, taking pictures of that cute sitting dog and old rat. They played Mah Jong, while I refused to learn or join in because I thought I was too cool for it.
Also because I was too lazy to get up from my seat and too glued to watching Coffee Prince.
We played a little game of guessing the numbers and the forfeit was eating Jellybeans. "Hmph, where got exciting..." I thought.
I didn't really like jellybeans but weren't they a little too wimpy to be considered as forfeit??
Shi Ying being quite unlucky in matters to do with luck, had to do a forfeit, which was eating Hui Qian's awful combination of jellybeans.
She got quite revengeful and decided to choose the Cinnamon Spice one. What's wrong with that innocent-looking Red Jellybean? Merely that anyone who ate one of it puckered their lips and coughed because it was spicy and awful. Just one was horrible enough.
Shi Ying chose five of it. And I wanted to make it more of a challenge, adding cuttlefish and various assortment of weird stuff. They warned me saying that I might be the one eating it.
Which really did happen.
With no show of trepidation, I ate all of the forfeit. And everyone scrutinised my face carefully to see what reactions I would have. I can't remember. I didn't say anything, or showed much visible reaction. I just smiled and pointed to the tray of Macaroons Yao Ming made and said "Give me the Macaroon."
And they started Uh-ohing.
I stuffed whatever horrible combination I could think of for the jellybeans, including cuttlefish and whatnots.
Yvonne was quite alarmed at the result. And from everyone's wary faces I could tell none of them wanted to be the one who got that forfeit, and the one who got it will probably have a lot of puking to do.
Maggie -- our host for the night, was the recipient of my vengeance. She ended up spitting most of whatever she ate into the dustbin and looked as if she was giving birth instead of eating jellybeans. I exaggerate -- but not very much.
We then watched Channel 8's 'The Little Nyonya" which I don't follow. I heard about a rape scene in that show and I asked either SY or HQ whether this is the episode which in which it will happen. HQ/SY nodded with a kind of nervous embarrassment. "Oh my this will get awkward..." I thought.
So everyone, including Mags' family from her grandma to her cute dog, and her friends sat glued to the TV screen. We made various comments about Joanne Peh's foolishness and clucked sympathetically for her and the two main protagonist. Scolded the bad character who violated JP's character (I was trying hard to stifle my laughter because the rape scene happened with a cliche night setting of night and brewing thunder.)
I couldn't help but said sotto voce "It was a dark and stormy night..." like how gothic romances go, before the bad male character walked into the room. I don't like watching scenes like that because it stirs up unpleasantness for me, but thankfully the scene was short and brief (pun not intended).
Whenever there were crucial scenes, the TV would cut to an advertisement featuring Fragrant BBQ Pork, leading to frustrated "Wei she me zhe yang de!" (why like that!) from the audience.
It is anti-climatic but highly amusing.
One word I would use to describe the entire gathering? Cozy. Like a family gathering without the stress and hope that the relatives wouldn't notice you've gotten fatter or ask about your non-existent love life.
Mags' parents said to treat their house like our own home, perhaps not realising that they would also be treated as family. Own home, own family. =)
On a side note, this would probably be the cheapest gathering for me. The rest of my holidays are spent with people who like to eat (Japanese food) and with movies involved. I have outing with Shi Yun on Monday and my pockets are quaking with the thought of being further emptied.
I also coerced Xiao Zhu (the name which amuses me to no end) into watching Australia with me. Therefore, instead of a financially independent and secure Heidi that I normally try to be, I'm going to be moping about sporadically with the instability of a poor peasant girl whose farm has been burned by invading soldiers and the only way she can have money to buy potatoes and carrots for her young brother is to sell her...voice to an opera house.
Oh my, aren't I inventive?
We are the birds of the same nest,
We may wear different skins,
We may speak different languages,
We may believe in different religions,
We may belong to different cultures,
Yet we share the same home - OUR EARTH.
Born on the same planet
Covered by the same skies
Gazing at the same stars
Breathing the same air
We must learn to happily progress together
Or miserably perish together,
For man can live individually,
But can survive only collectively
-- Atharva Veda.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
We Are The (Mutually Weird) Pieces...
Norah: There's one part of Judaism I really like, conceptually, I mean. It's called tikkun olam. Basically it says that the world has been broken into pieces. All this chaos, all this discord. And our job - everyone's job - is to try to put the pieces back together. To make things whole again.
Nick: Maybe we're the pieces. Maybe it isn't that we're supposed to find the pieces and put them back together. Maybe we are the pieces.
Heidi: Have you ever wondered what draws people together?
Marya: Oh yah I have, but just...not about us.
Heidi *aghast* : Why are we even friends??
We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.
Anonymous
Happy Birthday love. :)
Nick: Maybe we're the pieces. Maybe it isn't that we're supposed to find the pieces and put them back together. Maybe we are the pieces.
Heidi: Have you ever wondered what draws people together?
Marya: Oh yah I have, but just...not about us.
Heidi *aghast* : Why are we even friends??
We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.
Anonymous
Happy Birthday love. :)
Monday, December 15, 2008
A Scoop or More of Love.
Yes lately I've not been posting much because my time is not my own to wield.
And sometimes so much life and living is condensed into mere days you don't know where to start and how to end, and often a word or sentence might just be enough to contain everything.
I have been having choir practices and caroling sessions, trainings that I mostly skipped due to various hypochondriac reasons, and a zoo outing with kids from Haven.
I knew when I volunteered to bring the kids out to the zoo that it would be a highly rewarding experience and I wouldn't regret it. I honed in on a little girl I thought to be about 5, in reality she is 9. But she is so small her nickname is 'Bamboo' and she is almost painfully shy and insecure. She only agreed to go with me if her friend Janu could come to. So I was actually bringing two wards around, but Janu was more than just another ward, she was a bonus and an inspiration.
For starters, she's 19 and taller than me. I was surprised to know of her age cuz she looked about 14. Before we were asked to pick our kids, the manager of the Home told us not to ask personal questions because the background of the kids involved abuse and everything. The scar on Janu's face was testament to that but it was also a brave reminder of how one can bear the scars of the past and grow stronger all the more for it.
As the oldest ward, she took care of all the kids and most of the time was getting them to behave and managing them so motherly and carefully I felt more like a companion than a volunteer. Little Bamboo had a sister whom Janu says isn't much of one (and I agree because Bamboo's sister was rather flighty and uncaring of her sis). Bamboo was very much attached to Janu and everywhere Janu went Bamboo was almost pasted to her waist. If Janu just went meters away, Bamboo would wail I'm not kidding you.
Janu wants to go into social services and take care of elderly patients in Elderly Homes. Her dream is to take care of aids patients though. Can you already tell what a wonder she is and her selflessness that I highly doubt a 50 year-old could emulate.
No trace of bitterness, or being victimised. Her colour is a shining gold, with flashes of white.
Bamboo as an insecure kid, loves everything Janu loves. The colour green and elephants. As if loving what Janu loves makes her a part of Janu too; which I think she really wants to be.
Another girl, I shall call her Caramel, was Z's ward. Caramel was a little boyish and a 'social moth' in Z's words. Caramel is a Capricorn and I think she likes my Cancerian warmth. Cuz those two signs are the opposite. What the heck am I talking about here, wonders some of you. It's just some astrological gibberish.
Towards the end when I bid Caramel goodbye she commanded me to come back to the Home again, which sort of confirms the fact that she rather likes me (aside from teasing, touching and wanting to sit with me during lunch). Oh ho ho!
I think I could find a little of myself in all of them and that's why I could relate. But at the same time I was telling myself not to relate too much because then they would expect 'somedays' from me. Somedays meaning the promise of another day whereby I would come and visit, to shower attention, implying a permanent sort of presence. And I might not be able to promise that.
'Someday' is a dangerous word full of promises and hope and oftentimes beguile.
So ok right now I'm feeling veeeerrrryyyy sleepy and I shall stop my post because I forgot what I was gonna say.
I'm feeling easily tired recently. Sigh...What am I talking about, I am always easily tired.
When something tires you a lot, do you continue it?
And sometimes so much life and living is condensed into mere days you don't know where to start and how to end, and often a word or sentence might just be enough to contain everything.
I have been having choir practices and caroling sessions, trainings that I mostly skipped due to various hypochondriac reasons, and a zoo outing with kids from Haven.
I knew when I volunteered to bring the kids out to the zoo that it would be a highly rewarding experience and I wouldn't regret it. I honed in on a little girl I thought to be about 5, in reality she is 9. But she is so small her nickname is 'Bamboo' and she is almost painfully shy and insecure. She only agreed to go with me if her friend Janu could come to. So I was actually bringing two wards around, but Janu was more than just another ward, she was a bonus and an inspiration.
For starters, she's 19 and taller than me. I was surprised to know of her age cuz she looked about 14. Before we were asked to pick our kids, the manager of the Home told us not to ask personal questions because the background of the kids involved abuse and everything. The scar on Janu's face was testament to that but it was also a brave reminder of how one can bear the scars of the past and grow stronger all the more for it.
As the oldest ward, she took care of all the kids and most of the time was getting them to behave and managing them so motherly and carefully I felt more like a companion than a volunteer. Little Bamboo had a sister whom Janu says isn't much of one (and I agree because Bamboo's sister was rather flighty and uncaring of her sis). Bamboo was very much attached to Janu and everywhere Janu went Bamboo was almost pasted to her waist. If Janu just went meters away, Bamboo would wail I'm not kidding you.
Janu wants to go into social services and take care of elderly patients in Elderly Homes. Her dream is to take care of aids patients though. Can you already tell what a wonder she is and her selflessness that I highly doubt a 50 year-old could emulate.
No trace of bitterness, or being victimised. Her colour is a shining gold, with flashes of white.
Bamboo as an insecure kid, loves everything Janu loves. The colour green and elephants. As if loving what Janu loves makes her a part of Janu too; which I think she really wants to be.
Another girl, I shall call her Caramel, was Z's ward. Caramel was a little boyish and a 'social moth' in Z's words. Caramel is a Capricorn and I think she likes my Cancerian warmth. Cuz those two signs are the opposite. What the heck am I talking about here, wonders some of you. It's just some astrological gibberish.
Towards the end when I bid Caramel goodbye she commanded me to come back to the Home again, which sort of confirms the fact that she rather likes me (aside from teasing, touching and wanting to sit with me during lunch). Oh ho ho!
I think I could find a little of myself in all of them and that's why I could relate. But at the same time I was telling myself not to relate too much because then they would expect 'somedays' from me. Somedays meaning the promise of another day whereby I would come and visit, to shower attention, implying a permanent sort of presence. And I might not be able to promise that.
'Someday' is a dangerous word full of promises and hope and oftentimes beguile.
So ok right now I'm feeling veeeerrrryyyy sleepy and I shall stop my post because I forgot what I was gonna say.
I'm feeling easily tired recently. Sigh...What am I talking about, I am always easily tired.
When something tires you a lot, do you continue it?
Monday, December 08, 2008
Friends like you don't grow on trees...
Yesterday I went on an outing with the badminton girls. Or one-third of the badminton girls to be exact. Actually one-third sounds like many, alright two. Namely Hui Qian and Shi Ying(names have been shortened to protect their privacy)
I was late (as usual) and so decided to take a taxi and I think the taxi uncle drove me the wrong/long way so it took quite a while I was grumpily thinking I would have reached earlier if I had taken a bus. Nevertheless I reached on time and rushed into the cinema.
Minutes into the advertisements...
Heidi: Umm, actually what movie is this ah?
Shi Ying *snorts* : City of Ember! You were the one who recommended this movie lor!
Hui Qian: Yah lor Heidi!
I comfortably crossed my legs beneath me and sunk into the plushy chairs and proceeded to eat the popcorn HQ bought and watched until the movie was going to start.
Heidi: Eh actually I have a boyfriend already.
*Stunned silence.*
If I was really up to it I could have held on to that silence but alas I couldn't.
Heidi: I'm kidding! I'm kidding!!
Shi Ying: Hmpf, I didn't believe you for even one second!
Hui Qian: I almost believed you.
I just gave a "hiak hiak" in reply and we all continued watching until seconds later...
Shi Ying: Eh, really ah? If you have must tell!!
Heidi: No lah...but I have a girlfriend though.
Shi Ying: Omg Heidi don't be another Cynthia...or Hui Qian!!
Hui Qian: Eh shut up!
Shi Ying: Really ah?
Heidi: OF COURSE NOT LAH!
Hui Qian was shivering like a plucked chicken so I asked if she wanted to share my jacket and she asked "how to share?? One arm each?" and we proceeded to each wear one arm of the jacket.
[Interruption: My father called my name and asked me to go over to the living room which I did and he was holding my brother's hands and ask me to "come come let me show you something give me your hand!"
Which I did and he took it and said "Why are your hands different! Your brother's fingers are long and..."
I snatched back my hands with the stumpy fingers and went "Aiyaaaa!!" because I already knew what he was gonna say and went back to my room while his words continued behind me "...his looks like a girl's!"]
Like a guy going on a first date with a girl and wanting to take advantage of her, I drew closer to Shi Ying and closer until she said "What are you trying to do!!"
"Oh I wanted to lean on you cuz I'm cold."
"AHH!! Get away from me you lesbian!!"
I wanted to point out that I couldn't be a lesbian since I do lust after guys so at the most I would be a bisexual but it doesn't mean I lust after her but then decided against it because we were watching a movie and people were giving us weird looks.
After the movie, we had to eat an early dinner and I suggested everything besides New York New York but they wanted fatty western food so I acquiesced. As we weren't hungry, we decided to share. Shi Ying wanted meatballs, Hui Qian wanted Carbonera and I wanted Fish and Chips.
But we decided to share anyway, so Shi Ying said lets share meatballs, Hui Qian said lets share carbonera and I said lets share fish and chips.
In the end we decided to buy a dish each but I still thought we weren't that hungry and it'll be better if we share.
Shi Ying: Alright lets share 703(meatballs).
Hui Qian: And 701(carbonera)!
Heidi: I think 613 not bad also(fish and chips).
We ordered a dish each.
Mine's was bad.
I didn't like Shi Ying's one.
I liked HQ's one the most.
We decided to order dessert and because I was having my bloody day, we didn't order a banana split(which SY wanted but HQ doesn't really like bananas).
We ordered 'The Big Apple crepe'
Heidi: Crap.
Shi Ying: You mean Creep?
HQ: Isn't it supposed to be Krayp?
Heidi: How about Creepy?
The Creep/Krayp/Crap sucked.
All in all it was a rather bland culinary experience and we had more fun playing with the fluffy glistening cotton candy.
Shi Ying: What New York New York, I can't believe it's still standing!
Hui Qian: Eh finish the dessert.
Shi Ying: What, you mean this shit!
We looked at the remnants of the crepe and it did look a little like...
Hui Qian: Eh it really looks like shit leh.
Heidi: Hurhur.
Throughout dinner we were reminiscing our past and mourning Cynthia's absence and discussing who Maggie messaged.
Hui Qian: Did Mags message you if your exams are over?
Shi Ying: Yeah I messaged back but she never reply!
Hui Qian: She never reply me too!
Heidi: Oh she replied me, quite a few times too! In the end I never reply back hehehe.
Shi Ying: Har why!! So pian xin(bias)! She likes you better than me *pouts*
Heidi: True true.
Hui Qian: Yah lor why that Maggie so pian xin one??
After the dinner where we spent loads and I felt as satisfied as eating one beansprout, we went sort of shopping. Shi Ying then commented that I become like more...feminine and she said she couldn't take it.
Shi Ying: If you suddenly become pretty I cannot take it one leh because I'm not used to it.
Heidi: What what!!
Then SY spotted a shoe shop and said lets go look at shoes!
And I said "yeah ok!"
And she started wailing, "See ni bian le!(you changed) Last time you don't even care lor! You don't even look at boys, you just wear shorts and slippers, now you're becoming like me!"
Heidi: Oh but I need to buy heels! I need them for choir and right I am 20 years old and I don't even own a pair!!
In the shoe shop...
HQ: Lets all buy the same shoes!
And she asked me to try on different pairs of shoes, Shi Ying also kept handing me shoes to try on, when I asked why she said it's because my feet are the only ones that could fit into the Mondo shoes. Even then it's a tight fit.
HQ asked me to try on a particular one she thought was nice, SY came over and when she saw it she said "so ugly! Looks like some prisoner's shirt."
In the end we didn't buy any shoes.
It was nearing the time to go home when I told them to stop for a while cuz I needed to scratch my foot. So I pulled up my foot to scratch it and they said "Omg that's so unglam!!" Then SY said happily "Heidi you're back!"
And I sputtered bewilderingly "What??"
Apparently the closer I came to behaving like a neanderthal the better they like me. To think that last time they use to dislike me because in HQ's words I was "over-friendly", "hyperactive", "talk a lot".
"But why!! Friendly is good whaaaaat!"
"I didn't say it's good or bad!"
Shi Ying said wryly "But over-friendly already means something bad what."
Ahh the pleasures of being a Sec 1 kid.
Ok if they read this right now they are going to say why I write about them until like that.
I shall say something nice about them.
......
........
............
-THE END-
...I know that this is true but if friends were flowers there is no doubt how quickly I'd pick you.
I was late (as usual) and so decided to take a taxi and I think the taxi uncle drove me the wrong/long way so it took quite a while I was grumpily thinking I would have reached earlier if I had taken a bus. Nevertheless I reached on time and rushed into the cinema.
Minutes into the advertisements...
Heidi: Umm, actually what movie is this ah?
Shi Ying *snorts* : City of Ember! You were the one who recommended this movie lor!
Hui Qian: Yah lor Heidi!
I comfortably crossed my legs beneath me and sunk into the plushy chairs and proceeded to eat the popcorn HQ bought and watched until the movie was going to start.
Heidi: Eh actually I have a boyfriend already.
*Stunned silence.*
If I was really up to it I could have held on to that silence but alas I couldn't.
Heidi: I'm kidding! I'm kidding!!
Shi Ying: Hmpf, I didn't believe you for even one second!
Hui Qian: I almost believed you.
I just gave a "hiak hiak" in reply and we all continued watching until seconds later...
Shi Ying: Eh, really ah? If you have must tell!!
Heidi: No lah...but I have a girlfriend though.
Shi Ying: Omg Heidi don't be another Cynthia...or Hui Qian!!
Hui Qian: Eh shut up!
Shi Ying: Really ah?
Heidi: OF COURSE NOT LAH!
Hui Qian was shivering like a plucked chicken so I asked if she wanted to share my jacket and she asked "how to share?? One arm each?" and we proceeded to each wear one arm of the jacket.
[Interruption: My father called my name and asked me to go over to the living room which I did and he was holding my brother's hands and ask me to "come come let me show you something give me your hand!"
Which I did and he took it and said "Why are your hands different! Your brother's fingers are long and..."
I snatched back my hands with the stumpy fingers and went "Aiyaaaa!!" because I already knew what he was gonna say and went back to my room while his words continued behind me "...his looks like a girl's!"]
Like a guy going on a first date with a girl and wanting to take advantage of her, I drew closer to Shi Ying and closer until she said "What are you trying to do!!"
"Oh I wanted to lean on you cuz I'm cold."
"AHH!! Get away from me you lesbian!!"
I wanted to point out that I couldn't be a lesbian since I do lust after guys so at the most I would be a bisexual but it doesn't mean I lust after her but then decided against it because we were watching a movie and people were giving us weird looks.
After the movie, we had to eat an early dinner and I suggested everything besides New York New York but they wanted fatty western food so I acquiesced. As we weren't hungry, we decided to share. Shi Ying wanted meatballs, Hui Qian wanted Carbonera and I wanted Fish and Chips.
But we decided to share anyway, so Shi Ying said lets share meatballs, Hui Qian said lets share carbonera and I said lets share fish and chips.
In the end we decided to buy a dish each but I still thought we weren't that hungry and it'll be better if we share.
Shi Ying: Alright lets share 703(meatballs).
Hui Qian: And 701(carbonera)!
Heidi: I think 613 not bad also(fish and chips).
We ordered a dish each.
Mine's was bad.
I didn't like Shi Ying's one.
I liked HQ's one the most.
We decided to order dessert and because I was having my bloody day, we didn't order a banana split(which SY wanted but HQ doesn't really like bananas).
We ordered 'The Big Apple crepe'
Heidi: Crap.
Shi Ying: You mean Creep?
HQ: Isn't it supposed to be Krayp?
Heidi: How about Creepy?
The Creep/Krayp/Crap sucked.
All in all it was a rather bland culinary experience and we had more fun playing with the fluffy glistening cotton candy.
Shi Ying: What New York New York, I can't believe it's still standing!
Hui Qian: Eh finish the dessert.
Shi Ying: What, you mean this shit!
We looked at the remnants of the crepe and it did look a little like...
Hui Qian: Eh it really looks like shit leh.
Heidi: Hurhur.
Throughout dinner we were reminiscing our past and mourning Cynthia's absence and discussing who Maggie messaged.
Hui Qian: Did Mags message you if your exams are over?
Shi Ying: Yeah I messaged back but she never reply!
Hui Qian: She never reply me too!
Heidi: Oh she replied me, quite a few times too! In the end I never reply back hehehe.
Shi Ying: Har why!! So pian xin(bias)! She likes you better than me *pouts*
Heidi: True true.
Hui Qian: Yah lor why that Maggie so pian xin one??
After the dinner where we spent loads and I felt as satisfied as eating one beansprout, we went sort of shopping. Shi Ying then commented that I become like more...feminine and she said she couldn't take it.
Shi Ying: If you suddenly become pretty I cannot take it one leh because I'm not used to it.
Heidi: What what!!
Then SY spotted a shoe shop and said lets go look at shoes!
And I said "yeah ok!"
And she started wailing, "See ni bian le!(you changed) Last time you don't even care lor! You don't even look at boys, you just wear shorts and slippers, now you're becoming like me!"
Heidi: Oh but I need to buy heels! I need them for choir and right I am 20 years old and I don't even own a pair!!
In the shoe shop...
HQ: Lets all buy the same shoes!
And she asked me to try on different pairs of shoes, Shi Ying also kept handing me shoes to try on, when I asked why she said it's because my feet are the only ones that could fit into the Mondo shoes. Even then it's a tight fit.
HQ asked me to try on a particular one she thought was nice, SY came over and when she saw it she said "so ugly! Looks like some prisoner's shirt."
In the end we didn't buy any shoes.
It was nearing the time to go home when I told them to stop for a while cuz I needed to scratch my foot. So I pulled up my foot to scratch it and they said "Omg that's so unglam!!" Then SY said happily "Heidi you're back!"
And I sputtered bewilderingly "What??"
Apparently the closer I came to behaving like a neanderthal the better they like me. To think that last time they use to dislike me because in HQ's words I was "over-friendly", "hyperactive", "talk a lot".
"But why!! Friendly is good whaaaaat!"
"I didn't say it's good or bad!"
Shi Ying said wryly "But over-friendly already means something bad what."
Ahh the pleasures of being a Sec 1 kid.
Ok if they read this right now they are going to say why I write about them until like that.
I shall say something nice about them.
......
........
............
-THE END-
...I know that this is true but if friends were flowers there is no doubt how quickly I'd pick you.
Sunday, December 07, 2008
The world moves on different axises for different people.
My exams are over, this sem's work is over. Of course I've had my regrets, I always do. LIKE WHY COULDN'T I HAVE WORKED HARDER??
I resolve, really really resolve to really really do my best (or close to it) next sem.
Sometimes one can't help being a bimbo.
A few days ago after a choir practice, this conversation was carried out.
PX: I am so happy I'm going to Istanbul!!
Andrea: Wow I've always wanted to go to Turkey.
Heidi: Me too!! *turns to PX* Wah Istanbul, you're so lucky!!
And then we all gushed over it with Andrea discussing about Turkey with PX. PX was very excited about Turkey too, so I asked:
Heidi: Oh are you going to go Turkey too?
PX *with a huh?? expression*: But Istanbul is in Turkey what.
Andrea: Omg.
PX: Omg Heidi!!
OOPS MAJOR BIMBO MOMENT.
That faux pas aside, we continued talking about how PX's special someone was going to fly to Turkey to meet her and we kept teasing her about it.
Heidi: Wah he's flying all the way from Europe to Turkey leh!
PX: What are you talking about, Turkey is in Europe!!! Omg Heidi!!!
Andrea just gave me a disbelieving look.
OOPS MAJOR BIMBO MOMENT NUMBER 2.
After that PX had bimbo moment too and I spotted it but Andrea said it wasn't as bad as mine. "True, true."
I sent this email to the bad girls after a long delay, we were supposed to go cycling at ECP on Sunday.
Fortunately, they already had a change of plans and we're going to watch a movie instead.
I've watched so many movies this week I'm going broke! As broke as an ear drum. I've no idea why I said that.
Madagascar was quite funny, I laughed quite alot. I would give it a 3 and a half stars out of 5 if we're considering it in a purely mindless entertainment sense. Some interestingly touching moments too.
I like the Lemur inside -- King Julien. He kinda reminds me of myself, a little bit delusional and funny in an unintentional way (read bimbo moments above).
Bolt had a few funny moments, but it was less humourous than Madagascar. However it had more touching moments and almost made me tear a few times. But I didn't because it would be embarrassing, I kept telling myself it wasn't real and they were just being cliche and milking out emotions for what it's worth. But sometimes the mind doesn't matter because the matter doesn't mind.
And I've been eating Japanese food almost everyday!! How many poor fishies have died for me well I don't know and maybe I am not that concerned anyways.
This week has been a busy one and no doubt next week too. I couldn't help but wish for a bit of rest time, time to re-collect and sort out my thoughts. Time to rejuvenate, to spend in solitude and to gather pieces of myself back again.
Then this boy call Josh came to my room yesterday and said that he hasn't seen me for a long time and why am I so "zi bi" (antisocial -- but the dear psyche student reading this blog would probably correct my usage of this term) Josh is also a pysche student.
He started singing Spice Girls songs in my room, normally I wouldn't mind people singing to me but Spice Girls was totally waaayy off.
Furthermore I think he needs to be "zi bi" himself, considering what would be happening later in the night. That would save him lots of trouble.
Yiling, Esther and I had a busy night mediating between him and someone else. My heart would contract at the thought of those two sometimes. You wonder why things happen the way they do, how irrevocable situations are and how sometimes all one can do is to sit there and just cry.
Their situation brings to mind a song Cynthia introduced to me. John Mayer's Slow Dancing in a Burning Room. So I shall dedicate a song I like to the people I wish I could help heal but know I couldn't anyway.
Went home with Yiling today and along the way we discussed a lot of stuff, religion, astrology, people, and watching the world go by through the ages. Our conversations are always peppered with bits of randomness and esoteric stuff, people listening in would probably think we are strange little oddballs. But madness seeks an unconventional understanding and I think we offer each other that. So lets bumble on in our own mad little ways :) (I told her I think I knew her in a past life in part also to be an imp and disconcert her)
Right now I'm binging on Damien Rice songs. Emo, melancholic and raw; which I think is essentially the kind of person I am. There has to be a reason for why I listen to Damien Rice songs at 3am in the morning in a secluded bus stop and watch the cars go by.
I just realise it's his birthday today. Synchronicity in the works again.
"So why do you fill my sorrow
With the words you've borrowed
From the only place that you know."
I resolve, really really resolve to really really do my best (or close to it) next sem.
Sometimes one can't help being a bimbo.
A few days ago after a choir practice, this conversation was carried out.
PX: I am so happy I'm going to Istanbul!!
Andrea: Wow I've always wanted to go to Turkey.
Heidi: Me too!! *turns to PX* Wah Istanbul, you're so lucky!!
And then we all gushed over it with Andrea discussing about Turkey with PX. PX was very excited about Turkey too, so I asked:
Heidi: Oh are you going to go Turkey too?
PX *with a huh?? expression*: But Istanbul is in Turkey what.
Andrea: Omg.
PX: Omg Heidi!!
OOPS MAJOR BIMBO MOMENT.
That faux pas aside, we continued talking about how PX's special someone was going to fly to Turkey to meet her and we kept teasing her about it.
Heidi: Wah he's flying all the way from Europe to Turkey leh!
PX: What are you talking about, Turkey is in Europe!!! Omg Heidi!!!
Andrea just gave me a disbelieving look.
OOPS MAJOR BIMBO MOMENT NUMBER 2.
After that PX had bimbo moment too and I spotted it but Andrea said it wasn't as bad as mine. "True, true."
I sent this email to the bad girls after a long delay, we were supposed to go cycling at ECP on Sunday.
PEOPLE, I'm having my period, heavy flow and making me anaemic. Tomorrow will be 2nd day so still heavy flow with cramps.
Can we do something that will not involve me perspiring? Maybe watching a movie?
Chit chatting and eating together?
I'M SOOO SORRY!!!!!
I will be more energetic if I have more blood.
Am I grossing you all out ah?
Fortunately, they already had a change of plans and we're going to watch a movie instead.
I've watched so many movies this week I'm going broke! As broke as an ear drum. I've no idea why I said that.
Madagascar was quite funny, I laughed quite alot. I would give it a 3 and a half stars out of 5 if we're considering it in a purely mindless entertainment sense. Some interestingly touching moments too.
I like the Lemur inside -- King Julien. He kinda reminds me of myself, a little bit delusional and funny in an unintentional way (read bimbo moments above).
Bolt had a few funny moments, but it was less humourous than Madagascar. However it had more touching moments and almost made me tear a few times. But I didn't because it would be embarrassing, I kept telling myself it wasn't real and they were just being cliche and milking out emotions for what it's worth. But sometimes the mind doesn't matter because the matter doesn't mind.
And I've been eating Japanese food almost everyday!! How many poor fishies have died for me well I don't know and maybe I am not that concerned anyways.
This week has been a busy one and no doubt next week too. I couldn't help but wish for a bit of rest time, time to re-collect and sort out my thoughts. Time to rejuvenate, to spend in solitude and to gather pieces of myself back again.
Then this boy call Josh came to my room yesterday and said that he hasn't seen me for a long time and why am I so "zi bi" (antisocial -- but the dear psyche student reading this blog would probably correct my usage of this term) Josh is also a pysche student.
He started singing Spice Girls songs in my room, normally I wouldn't mind people singing to me but Spice Girls was totally waaayy off.
Furthermore I think he needs to be "zi bi" himself, considering what would be happening later in the night. That would save him lots of trouble.
Yiling, Esther and I had a busy night mediating between him and someone else. My heart would contract at the thought of those two sometimes. You wonder why things happen the way they do, how irrevocable situations are and how sometimes all one can do is to sit there and just cry.
Their situation brings to mind a song Cynthia introduced to me. John Mayer's Slow Dancing in a Burning Room. So I shall dedicate a song I like to the people I wish I could help heal but know I couldn't anyway.
Went home with Yiling today and along the way we discussed a lot of stuff, religion, astrology, people, and watching the world go by through the ages. Our conversations are always peppered with bits of randomness and esoteric stuff, people listening in would probably think we are strange little oddballs. But madness seeks an unconventional understanding and I think we offer each other that. So lets bumble on in our own mad little ways :) (I told her I think I knew her in a past life in part also to be an imp and disconcert her)
Right now I'm binging on Damien Rice songs. Emo, melancholic and raw; which I think is essentially the kind of person I am. There has to be a reason for why I listen to Damien Rice songs at 3am in the morning in a secluded bus stop and watch the cars go by.
I just realise it's his birthday today. Synchronicity in the works again.
"So why do you fill my sorrow
With the words you've borrowed
From the only place that you know."
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Crying Out Pain In the Centre of the Room.
Crampcrampcrampcrampcrampcrampcrampcrampcrampcrampcrammmppppppppppp
How am I going to sit for tomorrow's papeeeerrrrrrrrr???!!
And it's giving me a bad temper to boot.
I think I shouldn't have stopped taking the Evening Primrose Oil pills.
Yes I know I mangled the title in my title.
How am I going to sit for tomorrow's papeeeerrrrrrrrr???!!
And it's giving me a bad temper to boot.
I think I shouldn't have stopped taking the Evening Primrose Oil pills.
Yes I know I mangled the title in my title.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Hitting the Gong to Announce a Famous Arrival.
I found out whilst in Hong Kong that Cong Li has taken up Singaporean Citizenship. My first reaction was an elated surprise. My second reaction was speculating all the places I can bump into her, like walking down Orchard Road or eating at Seranggoon Gardens.
Today during dinner at some Thompson place, I was looking at all the Chinese servers and got reminded of this news.
"Eh you know Gong Li or not ah? She's now a Singaporean leh!!"
I said excitedly.
I was given much attention but undeterred I went on to talk about what would happen now that she's in Singapore.
"Can you imagine bumping into her at Orchard Road?? Like, 'wah that person looks like Gong Li...OH IT IS HER!!'"
It's like, you're face-to-face with a Symbol! A real super-star! Someone who has acted among the greatest names in the industry and is considered a great name herself! A Legend!
Anyways I went on, "Wah can you imagine if she acts in Singaporean dramas!! Like what would she be, a heartland auntie? Fann Wong's love rival??" The possibilities are titillating!
But I think the closest to my heart was, "How about Makansutra!(a foodie show) Can you imagine her hosting Makansutra? Like going around Singapore and trying the laksa or something??"
I waited expectantly for a response.
"You think too much." My brother intoned, and went on eating.
While I, I went on dreaming.
Farewell My China and Raise the Red Dot in world news. - From Memoirs of a Gong Li
Today during dinner at some Thompson place, I was looking at all the Chinese servers and got reminded of this news.
"Eh you know Gong Li or not ah? She's now a Singaporean leh!!"
I said excitedly.
I was given much attention but undeterred I went on to talk about what would happen now that she's in Singapore.
"Can you imagine bumping into her at Orchard Road?? Like, 'wah that person looks like Gong Li...OH IT IS HER!!'"
It's like, you're face-to-face with a Symbol! A real super-star! Someone who has acted among the greatest names in the industry and is considered a great name herself! A Legend!
Anyways I went on, "Wah can you imagine if she acts in Singaporean dramas!! Like what would she be, a heartland auntie? Fann Wong's love rival??" The possibilities are titillating!
But I think the closest to my heart was, "How about Makansutra!(a foodie show) Can you imagine her hosting Makansutra? Like going around Singapore and trying the laksa or something??"
I waited expectantly for a response.
"You think too much." My brother intoned, and went on eating.
While I, I went on dreaming.
Farewell My China and Raise the Red Dot in world news. - From Memoirs of a Gong Li
Saturday, November 29, 2008
You and I, collide.
Today is my mother's birthday and I feel like I've lived through three lifetimes in less than a day.
I dislike birthdays.
My 21st is coming up next year. *shudder shudder*
Yesterday I escaped into a favourite romance novel of mine inwhich the male character's name is Jason. I then thought about the love letters I used to pen to Jordan/Jason, my imaginary knight in tarnished armour. In fact I still have them now, stuffed somewhere only I will think to find.
As I was thinking about it, an msn contact of mine --- Jason came online. I stared at his name while amusement bubbled up. It occur came to me that my eye candy's name is the same as my imaginary lover's name, until that moment when the two names collided in my view.
OHOHOHOH. Synchronicity. Maybe...Maybe we are meant to be!!
Or maybe I'm just delirious from exhaustion.
I dislike birthdays.
My 21st is coming up next year. *shudder shudder*
Yesterday I escaped into a favourite romance novel of mine inwhich the male character's name is Jason. I then thought about the love letters I used to pen to Jordan/Jason, my imaginary knight in tarnished armour. In fact I still have them now, stuffed somewhere only I will think to find.
As I was thinking about it, an msn contact of mine --- Jason came online. I stared at his name while amusement bubbled up. It occur came to me that my eye candy's name is the same as my imaginary lover's name, until that moment when the two names collided in my view.
OHOHOHOH. Synchronicity. Maybe...Maybe we are meant to be!!
Or maybe I'm just delirious from exhaustion.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Maiden Dreams, Made-In Dreams.
I've been back from Hong Kong for a while. I gave mostly monosyllabic(or close to) answers when I was asked how was it. Fine. It was not bad. Good. Yeah I like it.
Since when was I afflicted with a sort of ennui??
On the plane ride back I had the window seat (yay!). 10 minutes on board I realise I kept my camera and camera phone in the storage compartment so I wasn't able to flex what photography skills I have to capture the clouds outside. I was seated next to a man I presume from China.
And that makes me remember an incident during my trip to Ocean Park whereby this China guy held out his arm to prevent me from going up after him on an escalator so his family could go up first. And what was soooo pissifying was that his arm hit my boobs!! I was so outraged and I gave him a death glare. Thinking about it now makes me flushed with anger. In Singapore he would already have been clobbered to death with a Bonia handbag by an office lady. Alas I was in HK and no doubt more Chinamen around me. I briefly calculated the odds of what would happen if I scream at him but realise I couldn't win out in a fight against thousands of China people.
I'm sorry if I sound discriminating, but my experiences sort of makes it hard to be tolerant. There are nice Chinese people of course, but plenty of rude, MOLESTING, ones.
Ok back to the airplane. I was seated next to this man I presume is from China. Throughout the ride I felt like he was scrutinising me several times. I steadfastly looked out of the window when he did that, not wanting to carry out a conversation with him because it was plain uncomfortable. Unfortunately my discomfort was not felt by him because he tried several times to start conversations with me, like whether I was in Hong Kong for a holiday. I gave a short affirmative reply.
Several other questions I can't remember.
After I've repeatedly asked the Flight attendants for a Singapore Sling, he asked if I was a Singaporean.
"Yes."
"What language was that you spoke just now? Singaporean?" (all said in Chinese)
"No, English."
A look of disbelief. "I really don't understand the English you all speak, it's so thick with an accent."
It was such a patronising reply I just gave him a pained smile and wondered if he knew how ironic he was being.
When he asked again if I was in Hong Kong for a holiday, I said yes.
"Only for a holiday?"
"Yes." Then what do you expect? That I went there to meet my sugar daddy and be someone's mistress for a week??
He shook his head and said "Tsk tsk, nowadays youngsters really know how to enjoy life."
Can he just get anymore condescending??
I bit my lips and gave him another pained smile.
I did not deign to say goodbye to him when we landed. Unlike when I flew to HK and was seated beside a business man who spoke to me. That one was rather nice, and Christian. I saw him reading a Christian book. I said bye to him and could tell he was surprised.
At the airport I had to buy alcohol for an aunt but the shop didn't stock the set she wanted anymore. When I called my aunt she wanted to be put to the salesman. I gave him my cellphone and he looked shocked. Actually he looked rather young, maybe my age. And quite cute too. I remember his name, I think it was Bri;an Xav.ier T.an or something. I'm putting those dots in between his name so this blog wouldn't come out on google should he decide to blog his name.
But yeah, he was quite cute, nice way of speaking, a little husky. Too bad bout his height. Or lack of it. Not like I'm tall too but paupers can dream too k?
Yesterday I went to Sushi Tei with a friend. We were placed by the glass windows which provided a rather good view of the open-air staircase and the sea, and I was glad. When I looked around the other tables placed by the side, I realised there were two persons on each table and...it was always a male and female. My friend and I were the only female-female combination, and that was a rather awkward realisation.
"Don't females have lunches together any more??" I thought indignantly.
I also wondered if Sushi Tei was like the adult version of a hang-out place for couples, like Macdonalds for teens.
Before going to Sushi Tei, I met a friend at the Business Canteen. She happily told me that she dreamed about her dream guy the night before.
"He was super gorgeous!!" She gushed.
Excitedly, I told her I dreamed about my dream guy a few times too.
"Mine is tall and well-built!"
"And he is Korean!" She continued.
"Oh?"
"I was trying to talk to him and then I realise he couldn't understand me."
"Har??"
"Yeah then I asked, 'are you Korean?' and he said 'yes'."
"So you and your dream guy can't communicate??"
"Yah!"
I was going to say what was the point of having a dream guy you can't talk to until I realised something.
"Actually I don't know how my dream guy looks like." I admitted sheepishly.
"Huh? That means you only dream about his body??"
Silence.
"Um... *embarrassed giggle* sort of..."
"Whaat?! Heidi I didn't know you..."
"Well at least I can talk to him! Yours can't even talk to you!" I said defensively.
It struck me then, the irony of it all. She had a dream guy she couldn't communicate with but know his looks and I had a dream guy I could talk to but I don't know how he looks like. Does that say something about the type of guys we want?
But I suppose that's the nature of dream guys, they do need to have that layer of the unreachable to them. That's the stuff dreams are made of.
Hand in hand on moonlight lane
we glide through the river of dreams
tender lips imprints upon my cheek
and I wake up to your smile with one of my own.
Since when was I afflicted with a sort of ennui??
On the plane ride back I had the window seat (yay!). 10 minutes on board I realise I kept my camera and camera phone in the storage compartment so I wasn't able to flex what photography skills I have to capture the clouds outside. I was seated next to a man I presume from China.
And that makes me remember an incident during my trip to Ocean Park whereby this China guy held out his arm to prevent me from going up after him on an escalator so his family could go up first. And what was soooo pissifying was that his arm hit my boobs!! I was so outraged and I gave him a death glare. Thinking about it now makes me flushed with anger. In Singapore he would already have been clobbered to death with a Bonia handbag by an office lady. Alas I was in HK and no doubt more Chinamen around me. I briefly calculated the odds of what would happen if I scream at him but realise I couldn't win out in a fight against thousands of China people.
I'm sorry if I sound discriminating, but my experiences sort of makes it hard to be tolerant. There are nice Chinese people of course, but plenty of rude, MOLESTING, ones.
Ok back to the airplane. I was seated next to this man I presume is from China. Throughout the ride I felt like he was scrutinising me several times. I steadfastly looked out of the window when he did that, not wanting to carry out a conversation with him because it was plain uncomfortable. Unfortunately my discomfort was not felt by him because he tried several times to start conversations with me, like whether I was in Hong Kong for a holiday. I gave a short affirmative reply.
Several other questions I can't remember.
After I've repeatedly asked the Flight attendants for a Singapore Sling, he asked if I was a Singaporean.
"Yes."
"What language was that you spoke just now? Singaporean?" (all said in Chinese)
"No, English."
A look of disbelief. "I really don't understand the English you all speak, it's so thick with an accent."
It was such a patronising reply I just gave him a pained smile and wondered if he knew how ironic he was being.
When he asked again if I was in Hong Kong for a holiday, I said yes.
"Only for a holiday?"
"Yes." Then what do you expect? That I went there to meet my sugar daddy and be someone's mistress for a week??
He shook his head and said "Tsk tsk, nowadays youngsters really know how to enjoy life."
Can he just get anymore condescending??
I bit my lips and gave him another pained smile.
I did not deign to say goodbye to him when we landed. Unlike when I flew to HK and was seated beside a business man who spoke to me. That one was rather nice, and Christian. I saw him reading a Christian book. I said bye to him and could tell he was surprised.
At the airport I had to buy alcohol for an aunt but the shop didn't stock the set she wanted anymore. When I called my aunt she wanted to be put to the salesman. I gave him my cellphone and he looked shocked. Actually he looked rather young, maybe my age. And quite cute too. I remember his name, I think it was Bri;an Xav.ier T.an or something. I'm putting those dots in between his name so this blog wouldn't come out on google should he decide to blog his name.
But yeah, he was quite cute, nice way of speaking, a little husky. Too bad bout his height. Or lack of it. Not like I'm tall too but paupers can dream too k?
Yesterday I went to Sushi Tei with a friend. We were placed by the glass windows which provided a rather good view of the open-air staircase and the sea, and I was glad. When I looked around the other tables placed by the side, I realised there were two persons on each table and...it was always a male and female. My friend and I were the only female-female combination, and that was a rather awkward realisation.
"Don't females have lunches together any more??" I thought indignantly.
I also wondered if Sushi Tei was like the adult version of a hang-out place for couples, like Macdonalds for teens.
Before going to Sushi Tei, I met a friend at the Business Canteen. She happily told me that she dreamed about her dream guy the night before.
"He was super gorgeous!!" She gushed.
Excitedly, I told her I dreamed about my dream guy a few times too.
"Mine is tall and well-built!"
"And he is Korean!" She continued.
"Oh?"
"I was trying to talk to him and then I realise he couldn't understand me."
"Har??"
"Yeah then I asked, 'are you Korean?' and he said 'yes'."
"So you and your dream guy can't communicate??"
"Yah!"
I was going to say what was the point of having a dream guy you can't talk to until I realised something.
"Actually I don't know how my dream guy looks like." I admitted sheepishly.
"Huh? That means you only dream about his body??"
Silence.
"Um... *embarrassed giggle* sort of..."
"Whaat?! Heidi I didn't know you..."
"Well at least I can talk to him! Yours can't even talk to you!" I said defensively.
It struck me then, the irony of it all. She had a dream guy she couldn't communicate with but know his looks and I had a dream guy I could talk to but I don't know how he looks like. Does that say something about the type of guys we want?
But I suppose that's the nature of dream guys, they do need to have that layer of the unreachable to them. That's the stuff dreams are made of.
Hand in hand on moonlight lane
we glide through the river of dreams
tender lips imprints upon my cheek
and I wake up to your smile with one of my own.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Hey Marie, I know you like this song, may it comfort you.
Love you very much.
但愿人长久
Dàn yuàn ré
If only we could last forever
明月几时有， 把酒问青天
míng yuè jĭ shí yŏu, bă jĭu wèn qĭng tiān
When will the moon shine brightly? Here’s a toast to blue skies
不知天上宫阙，今昔是何年
bù zhī tīan shàng gōng què，jìn xī shì hé nián
I don’t know where today is, in the calendar of the Gods。
我 欲乘风归去
Wŏ yù chéng fēng gūi qǜ
I would hitch the wind to return
有恐琼楼玉宇, 高处不胜寒
Yŏu kŏng qióng lóu yúyú, gāo chŭ bù shēng hán
I’m afraid of the palace on the moon, high places are cold *
起舞弄清影，何似在人间
Qĭ wŭ long qīng yĭng, hé sì zài rén jiàn
In company my shadow skips as I dance.
专朱阁，低奇户，照无眠
Zhuăn zhū gé, dĭ qĭ hu, zhào wú mián
Over the window, under the patterned door, shining on my sleeplessness
不应有很，可是长向别时圆
Bù yīng yǒu hèn, hé shì cháng bié shì yuán
Why do you have to be so cruel? Shine so brightly on the lonely?
人有悲欢离合, 月有阴晴圆缺
Rén yǒu bēi huān lì hé, yuè yǒu yīn qíng yuán quē
People are sad and happy, together and apart, the moon is full and new in clear and cloudy skies
此事故难全, 但人愿长久， 千里供婵娟
Cǐ shì gǔ nán quán, dàn yuàn rén cháng jiǔ, qiān lǐ gōng chuán juān
These troubles are old ones, may man live long under the constant full moon
Love you very much.
但愿人长久
Dàn yuàn ré
If only we could last forever
明月几时有， 把酒问青天
míng yuè jĭ shí yŏu, bă jĭu wèn qĭng tiān
When will the moon shine brightly? Here’s a toast to blue skies
不知天上宫阙，今昔是何年
bù zhī tīan shàng gōng què，jìn xī shì hé nián
I don’t know where today is, in the calendar of the Gods。
我 欲乘风归去
Wŏ yù chéng fēng gūi qǜ
I would hitch the wind to return
有恐琼楼玉宇, 高处不胜寒
Yŏu kŏng qióng lóu yúyú, gāo chŭ bù shēng hán
I’m afraid of the palace on the moon, high places are cold *
起舞弄清影，何似在人间
Qĭ wŭ long qīng yĭng, hé sì zài rén jiàn
In company my shadow skips as I dance.
专朱阁，低奇户，照无眠
Zhuăn zhū gé, dĭ qĭ hu, zhào wú mián
Over the window, under the patterned door, shining on my sleeplessness
不应有很，可是长向别时圆
Bù yīng yǒu hèn, hé shì cháng bié shì yuán
Why do you have to be so cruel? Shine so brightly on the lonely?
人有悲欢离合, 月有阴晴圆缺
Rén yǒu bēi huān lì hé, yuè yǒu yīn qíng yuán quē
People are sad and happy, together and apart, the moon is full and new in clear and cloudy skies
此事故难全, 但人愿长久， 千里供婵娟
Cǐ shì gǔ nán quán, dàn yuàn rén cháng jiǔ, qiān lǐ gōng chuán juān
These troubles are old ones, may man live long under the constant full moon
Monday, November 24, 2008
Wanderings and Wonderings.
Two days ago I went to Ocean Park. We took the bus there and I was so excited I started clapping my hands. The guy bringing us out couldn't fathom why I was so excited. "I wouldn't get too excited about a country's public transport. I mean, isn't a bus, a bus everywhere?"
I took photos of the bus because it looked so much like Singapore's one.
When we got into Ocean Park, there were flamingos near the entrance (like the Singapore Zoo) then the guy commented that he always wondered why they don't fly away since they are not chain and are free-roaming.
In a bid to hold my end of the conversation, I wryly said it was because they are actually chained to invisible posts that's why.
He believed me for half a moment until he got it. "Really? I never knew...Right."
Ocean Park (Hai Yung Gong Yun, I practised my Cantonese...Ngor kam yan hui gor hai yung gong yun.) is very very pretty! The rollercoasters were by the sea so as you whoosh past in terror you also get a pretty seaview.
I took the camera on board because I like to snap pictures as I'm going at top speed and people around me are screaming.
The man in front of me was telling me to that I might damage the camera, I think maybe he was scared I would like, lose hold of it and send it careening back to hit him.
I took the rollercoaster because I missed the American ones. It wasn't as scary, but it was definitely prettier.
I had a chance to take a scarier one but I just wasn't up to it that day. I was puzzled because I had taken waaaaaaay more thrilling ones but the ones at Ocean Park made me wary. I think it was because I got headaches after sitting on the first rollercoaster, and I just wasn't up to taking any more stimulation. Darn it.
We also went to watch the Dolphin and Sealion show, the theatre's backdrop was the bloody ocean and mountains it was gorgeous beyond belief! I think I paid more attention to the scenery than the show. But the animals were cute, I really wanted to go pinch the dolphin and clap hands with the sealions. The show couldn't really compare to Seaworld's one of course but it had its own quaint charms. The scenery really saved it all.
The cable car ride was amazing. Probably worth the entire trip because we were so high up I kept imaging scenarios such as the chains suddenly fraying and sending us plunging cable car and all into the ocean below. We would be smashed into smithereens against the ocean rocks. I said my wonderings out loud and the guy said he wouldn't want to wonder about these sort of things when we were so high up. But that's the fun isn't it, imagining how it feels to die when there is that chance you will.
*shivery shudder*
Then we went to see the Giant Pandas, I was quite excited about that one too since I don't think I've ever seen a panda. Visions of all the youtube videos I've watched about these black and white stuff ran through my mind. As you know visions are just that. The pandas were either hidden away high up as they could be (and because I'm not exactly that tall I couldn't see much over people's heads), or they were sleeping. Like hibernating bears. Which I think they are.
One yawned and stretched and got up. The crowd actually started clapping and oohing and ahhing. Then the bear turned and slumped down again, only except that it did its business with its tail facing us.
It was rather revolting but I took what photos I could of that beary business.
Then we went home. Woo.
Today, or more likes yesterday since it's 4.30am now...I went to Church in the morning. Just like a regular God-fearing Christian. It was a Catholic church and swarming with Filipino maids. Filled to the brim. Churches in HK are normally very very crowded, there's no place to sit or even stand sometimes.
The priest was talking about virtues and anticipating the needs of others. Then he recalled his own stories of how he helped his mother pay the rent and so on.
I suspect the church is so popular with the maids because the sermons seem to be catered towards them. A few of them started tearing as the Priest empathised with them. He said he think he was very wealthy and when some of the maids give him money, it was like sending coals to Newcastle. But giving is hard, receiving is even harder.
The trick is to receive graciously. And he receives the money by saying he doesn't need it but he will make sure it goes to those who do.
The songs were nice, I spend my time trying to harmonise. The choir is quite amazing. When they congregation said its prayers, the accent was a distinctively Filipino one, quite an interesting experience. As usual whenever I go to church I feel a little out of place and also a little sad because I know there are just some places I can never go. Metaphorically speaking.
My aunt held a sobbing maid back to ask if she was alright and if anything happened. She said no, although I was half-hopping she would say some sad story of hers and I could watch the act of giving and receiving graciously in process.
Trying to leave the building was hard, because everyone was trying to get out at the same time and it was just so crowded. We saw some Filipinos selling pirated DVDs along the crowded street. Smart people to know where and when to sell. As we walked on, suddenly I was shoved aside and a Filipina ran down, shouting something and shoving people along as she ran, pissing off and shocking quite a few people.
Then we turned behind and there was a policeman standing at the curb and everyone went "Ohhh that's why."
We tried to get out of that swarming, claustrophobic lane and wondered how to get a taxi when a taxi swerved up to us. My cousin commented on how good the drivers in HK are, because he could actually spot us in such a busy traffic and anticipated our need for a taxi.
It was then a buffet lunch at the Conrad, slacking in the apartment and then venturing out with my cousin to take the ferry to Tsim Sha Tsui.
The polluted skies of Hong Kong engulfs it with mystery and me with tearing eyes.
The ferry ride was short but rather pretty. We ended up on the wrong side of TST, Harbour City, not the shopping places we normally get to. We ended walking around trying to find leggings for someone.
I do so much walking in HK! The subway passages are so long and unlike Singapore's MRT, alight from the train and within 2 minutes you are out. The MTR feels like a subterranean world on its own, rather like a mole's nest.
We bought the leggings and headed back to the apartment because we had a time to get back by.
Dinner was room service because we wanted to save money. I spent some 80 SGD at Crabtree and Evelyn because there was a 50% sale, only you had to spend HKD 1500 to get it. Cheater. They put 50% sign there but not this condition -_-
Ok peoples, I know you're wondering when I'll be back...
Actually, not very soon because I'm skipping my exams this sem, that's why I'm not sure when. Maybe December?
I'm kidding.
"Someday this morning would just be a memory."
The Alchemist
I took photos of the bus because it looked so much like Singapore's one.
When we got into Ocean Park, there were flamingos near the entrance (like the Singapore Zoo) then the guy commented that he always wondered why they don't fly away since they are not chain and are free-roaming.
In a bid to hold my end of the conversation, I wryly said it was because they are actually chained to invisible posts that's why.
He believed me for half a moment until he got it. "Really? I never knew...Right."
Ocean Park (Hai Yung Gong Yun, I practised my Cantonese...Ngor kam yan hui gor hai yung gong yun.) is very very pretty! The rollercoasters were by the sea so as you whoosh past in terror you also get a pretty seaview.
I took the camera on board because I like to snap pictures as I'm going at top speed and people around me are screaming.
The man in front of me was telling me to that I might damage the camera, I think maybe he was scared I would like, lose hold of it and send it careening back to hit him.
I took the rollercoaster because I missed the American ones. It wasn't as scary, but it was definitely prettier.
I had a chance to take a scarier one but I just wasn't up to it that day. I was puzzled because I had taken waaaaaaay more thrilling ones but the ones at Ocean Park made me wary. I think it was because I got headaches after sitting on the first rollercoaster, and I just wasn't up to taking any more stimulation. Darn it.
We also went to watch the Dolphin and Sealion show, the theatre's backdrop was the bloody ocean and mountains it was gorgeous beyond belief! I think I paid more attention to the scenery than the show. But the animals were cute, I really wanted to go pinch the dolphin and clap hands with the sealions. The show couldn't really compare to Seaworld's one of course but it had its own quaint charms. The scenery really saved it all.
The cable car ride was amazing. Probably worth the entire trip because we were so high up I kept imaging scenarios such as the chains suddenly fraying and sending us plunging cable car and all into the ocean below. We would be smashed into smithereens against the ocean rocks. I said my wonderings out loud and the guy said he wouldn't want to wonder about these sort of things when we were so high up. But that's the fun isn't it, imagining how it feels to die when there is that chance you will.
*shivery shudder*
Then we went to see the Giant Pandas, I was quite excited about that one too since I don't think I've ever seen a panda. Visions of all the youtube videos I've watched about these black and white stuff ran through my mind. As you know visions are just that. The pandas were either hidden away high up as they could be (and because I'm not exactly that tall I couldn't see much over people's heads), or they were sleeping. Like hibernating bears. Which I think they are.
One yawned and stretched and got up. The crowd actually started clapping and oohing and ahhing. Then the bear turned and slumped down again, only except that it did its business with its tail facing us.
It was rather revolting but I took what photos I could of that beary business.
Then we went home. Woo.
Today, or more likes yesterday since it's 4.30am now...I went to Church in the morning. Just like a regular God-fearing Christian. It was a Catholic church and swarming with Filipino maids. Filled to the brim. Churches in HK are normally very very crowded, there's no place to sit or even stand sometimes.
The priest was talking about virtues and anticipating the needs of others. Then he recalled his own stories of how he helped his mother pay the rent and so on.
I suspect the church is so popular with the maids because the sermons seem to be catered towards them. A few of them started tearing as the Priest empathised with them. He said he think he was very wealthy and when some of the maids give him money, it was like sending coals to Newcastle. But giving is hard, receiving is even harder.
The trick is to receive graciously. And he receives the money by saying he doesn't need it but he will make sure it goes to those who do.
The songs were nice, I spend my time trying to harmonise. The choir is quite amazing. When they congregation said its prayers, the accent was a distinctively Filipino one, quite an interesting experience. As usual whenever I go to church I feel a little out of place and also a little sad because I know there are just some places I can never go. Metaphorically speaking.
My aunt held a sobbing maid back to ask if she was alright and if anything happened. She said no, although I was half-hopping she would say some sad story of hers and I could watch the act of giving and receiving graciously in process.
Trying to leave the building was hard, because everyone was trying to get out at the same time and it was just so crowded. We saw some Filipinos selling pirated DVDs along the crowded street. Smart people to know where and when to sell. As we walked on, suddenly I was shoved aside and a Filipina ran down, shouting something and shoving people along as she ran, pissing off and shocking quite a few people.
Then we turned behind and there was a policeman standing at the curb and everyone went "Ohhh that's why."
We tried to get out of that swarming, claustrophobic lane and wondered how to get a taxi when a taxi swerved up to us. My cousin commented on how good the drivers in HK are, because he could actually spot us in such a busy traffic and anticipated our need for a taxi.
It was then a buffet lunch at the Conrad, slacking in the apartment and then venturing out with my cousin to take the ferry to Tsim Sha Tsui.
The polluted skies of Hong Kong engulfs it with mystery and me with tearing eyes.
The ferry ride was short but rather pretty. We ended up on the wrong side of TST, Harbour City, not the shopping places we normally get to. We ended walking around trying to find leggings for someone.
I do so much walking in HK! The subway passages are so long and unlike Singapore's MRT, alight from the train and within 2 minutes you are out. The MTR feels like a subterranean world on its own, rather like a mole's nest.
We bought the leggings and headed back to the apartment because we had a time to get back by.
Dinner was room service because we wanted to save money. I spent some 80 SGD at Crabtree and Evelyn because there was a 50% sale, only you had to spend HKD 1500 to get it. Cheater. They put 50% sign there but not this condition -_-
Ok peoples, I know you're wondering when I'll be back...
Actually, not very soon because I'm skipping my exams this sem, that's why I'm not sure when. Maybe December?
I'm kidding.
"Someday this morning would just be a memory."
The Alchemist
Friday, November 21, 2008
You're Coloured in Shades of Melancholia.
Today I didn't go out, but stayed in the apartment to eat Haagen-Dazs ice-cream. I'm seeing little squiggies in my vision. Add a little bit of headache to that and an increasing sensitivity to noise and light I think I'm getting migraine again.
Aww shucks.
Here's a song from Grey's Anatomy, which I wanted to post because it's been on my mind. Also for Marya since she likes that show like I do and says I'm Christina while she's Meredith. So we're each other's 'Person' lol.
Kendall Payne - I Will Show You Love
I will show you love like you've never loved before
I will go the distance and back for more if you just say the word
You will come alive again and call the trying times your friend
The pain that you have suffered through will never get the best of you
You will hope in something real that won't depend on how you feel
When you call my name then I will answer, answer
I am on your side though the wind and waves beat against your faith
You were on my mind when the world was made
Trust in me my child, Trust in me my child
Walk out on the water where you have no control
So scared to death of failure you sacrifice your soul, please let that go
You have climbed an uphill road, You have worn a heavy load
You have cried through endless nights and nearly given up the fight
Watched your dreams like falling stars the heartaches made you who you are
Now looking back you see that I have always been there
Where you gonna hide? Where you gonna hide from Me?
Where you gonna go? Where you gonna go that I can't see?
I have heard you cry and it breaks my heart for I love you so
I would never lie, this is not the end there is still a hope
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I do realise it seems to be a Christian song, but music is universal. Universal Love and I suppose that's what God is about too.
Today I'll like to talk briefly about synesthesia, which I think most people have to some extent. It's a neurological process some people go through whereby triggering one sense also triggers others. Like tasting colours and hearing numbers. I think most people have it because it's hard to just use one sense to perceive something. When you look at a laptop and notice its colour it's almost always you'll also know it's hard and smooth.
"His words left a bitter taste in my mouth." We use phrases like this all the time.
Time to discover the synesthe in you.
Sometimes I see people in terms of feelings, shapes and textures. Like I'll think of her as a jelly bean chair, red, bouncy, squishy and comfortable. Or him as a ragged jagged edge. She'll give me warm, tingly feelings, and he'll give me lusty ones. OK I was just trying to be funny on that lusty one. Sort of.
The word Nostalgia makes me feel like the faded yellow of a photograph, and I taste it on my tongue. Nostalgic and nostalgia makes me taste cigarettes. Melancholy is a dark blue bile, a bit blob-like and viscous. The word taste is a click on my tongue.
I don't like leather sofas, when I see them I feel a coldness gliding over my skin and hear the sound of rough scraping of skin against the leather.
I avoid accidental touches because they shake me up a little, then all I can hear is that touch. Yesterday I was walking in a shopping centre in Tsim Sha Tsui, it was crowded and I felt a poke on my back. I turned around and it was an above middle-aged lady from China(can tell from her wind-roughened reddened cheeks) who poked me in the back, presumably to get me moving. Not a trace of apology in her face. Gah. As she walked on ahead in front of me I felt this wave of almost-hatred that she touched me.
Then some of you will probably think "BUT YOU LIKE TO SLAP PEOPLE ON THE BACK! QUITE HARD SOME MORE!" Then I'll say, true true and nod my head.
It's a weird form of synesthesia, might not even be clinically genuine, might be due to my over-active imagination. A little bit like Calvin in Calvin and Hobbes.
Here's me during essay/exam times.
-If only I could bottle up last-minute panics and sell it like a traveling gypsy in a country fair, to an innocent little chit for the price of her first love's kiss.-
Aww shucks.
Here's a song from Grey's Anatomy, which I wanted to post because it's been on my mind. Also for Marya since she likes that show like I do and says I'm Christina while she's Meredith. So we're each other's 'Person' lol.
Kendall Payne - I Will Show You Love
I will show you love like you've never loved before
I will go the distance and back for more if you just say the word
You will come alive again and call the trying times your friend
The pain that you have suffered through will never get the best of you
You will hope in something real that won't depend on how you feel
When you call my name then I will answer, answer
I am on your side though the wind and waves beat against your faith
You were on my mind when the world was made
Trust in me my child, Trust in me my child
Walk out on the water where you have no control
So scared to death of failure you sacrifice your soul, please let that go
You have climbed an uphill road, You have worn a heavy load
You have cried through endless nights and nearly given up the fight
Watched your dreams like falling stars the heartaches made you who you are
Now looking back you see that I have always been there
Where you gonna hide? Where you gonna hide from Me?
Where you gonna go? Where you gonna go that I can't see?
I have heard you cry and it breaks my heart for I love you so
I would never lie, this is not the end there is still a hope
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I do realise it seems to be a Christian song, but music is universal. Universal Love and I suppose that's what God is about too.
Today I'll like to talk briefly about synesthesia, which I think most people have to some extent. It's a neurological process some people go through whereby triggering one sense also triggers others. Like tasting colours and hearing numbers. I think most people have it because it's hard to just use one sense to perceive something. When you look at a laptop and notice its colour it's almost always you'll also know it's hard and smooth.
"His words left a bitter taste in my mouth." We use phrases like this all the time.
Time to discover the synesthe in you.
Sometimes I see people in terms of feelings, shapes and textures. Like I'll think of her as a jelly bean chair, red, bouncy, squishy and comfortable. Or him as a ragged jagged edge. She'll give me warm, tingly feelings, and he'll give me lusty ones. OK I was just trying to be funny on that lusty one. Sort of.
The word Nostalgia makes me feel like the faded yellow of a photograph, and I taste it on my tongue. Nostalgic and nostalgia makes me taste cigarettes. Melancholy is a dark blue bile, a bit blob-like and viscous. The word taste is a click on my tongue.
I don't like leather sofas, when I see them I feel a coldness gliding over my skin and hear the sound of rough scraping of skin against the leather.
I avoid accidental touches because they shake me up a little, then all I can hear is that touch. Yesterday I was walking in a shopping centre in Tsim Sha Tsui, it was crowded and I felt a poke on my back. I turned around and it was an above middle-aged lady from China(can tell from her wind-roughened reddened cheeks) who poked me in the back, presumably to get me moving. Not a trace of apology in her face. Gah. As she walked on ahead in front of me I felt this wave of almost-hatred that she touched me.
Then some of you will probably think "BUT YOU LIKE TO SLAP PEOPLE ON THE BACK! QUITE HARD SOME MORE!" Then I'll say, true true and nod my head.
It's a weird form of synesthesia, might not even be clinically genuine, might be due to my over-active imagination. A little bit like Calvin in Calvin and Hobbes.
Here's me during essay/exam times.
-If only I could bottle up last-minute panics and sell it like a traveling gypsy in a country fair, to an innocent little chit for the price of her first love's kiss.-
One Night in Hong Kong.
I very much suspect I'll always return to Singapore to rejuvenate no matter how far I go and how beautiful that country is, just like how a penguin dives back into the sea after a sojourn on the ice. Did you watch discovery channel? The papa penguin hatches the egg for six months!
Let me give an update of my OH MY GAWD I'M IN HONG KONG, holiday in Hong Kong. On Monday I didn't go out because I had to do an essay. My tutor called me all the way from Singapore sounding very pissed and I panicked. I don't know why but essays and me have this oil and water thing going on, every time I want to do it, something prevents me from doing it. Maybe that something is me.
Tuesday I had that massive migraine, Wednesday I ventured out shopping again. But I still felt the effects so all along the MTR, whenever things got too overwhelming for me I stared at my aunt's back. It got kind of ridiculous, staring at things sideways or only partially. If I didn't know myself better I would think I was on the constant edge of a breakdown. *shudder shudder*
Last night dinner was Korean BBQ and it was nice!! Better than Seoul Garden, more high class. When they put the little dishes all over with the veggies, kim chi, potato in sweet sauce, ikan bilis (or anchovies or whatever high-class name), potato leaves, I felt like I was Da Chang Jing! Or the pervert Emperor!
It was like fulfilling all my Korean Drama dreams! You know how they always barbeque meat and eat their rice with the spicy red kimchi don't know what, and the rice cakes and the metal chopsticks and long spoon! I went to order all the things I see them eat and was so excited every time I could do it like how Kim Sam Soon, or the My Girl girl, or the Coffee Prince girl or the whatever do it! Happy happy lah!
I also ordered wild raspberry wine because it sounded so interesting. It came in a cute soccer ball-shaped bottle that I brought back. I had this urge to da bao all the Kim Chi and stuff to send back to Sin Hae and Ju Ye in Singapore (my korean neighbours). Then Sin Hae will give her happy laughter.
I think I might have been a masticating cow in my past life or something because I finished all the veggies, from the Tao Ges(beansprouts), to the potato leaves, to the kim chi, to the spicy veggies in the spicy dumpling/rice cake/kim chi soup.
Then the rest of my dinner partners were rather amazed I could still eat.
Normally my appetite is quite small, but coming to Hong Kong it seems I've grown two stomachs. It really looks like a volleyball now. *squishes tummy fats*
Today it was shopping again. Man I'm really sick of shopping. And I'm not saying that in jest, it's really tiring and a bit pointless. I'd much rather be off investigating the Tian Tian Buddha or hiking. Plus Hong Kong streets are so full of pushy-shovey people and chaotic traffic and so much going on, if I didn't have a breakdown before they would tempt me to. So whenever I felt a wave of that stupid @#%##@ migraine, I had to close my eyes or start concentrating on something less...explosive. As it were, I was functioning in a daze most of the times. The only time I perked up was when I was eating. I would clap my hands in glee. Like sea lion like that.
Anyways Marie love, sorry I didn't reply your sms, I was asleep then. YAH I WAS!! I sleep so early here in HK! I think it's because I'm always so exhausted. But I wake at 7am, it's actually quite healthy right? Then Cousin and I make breakfast for...someone.
I bought something for you though, I got two of it because I like it too and it's so weird it's you. HAHAH. (actually re-reading this sentence I realise I would have implicated myself in that sentence too, so I shall say I thought of you immediately after I saw that thing)
Speaking of souvenirs, PEOPLE I'M SORRY! It's really quite hard to get suitable souvenirs for people. Don't be too upset if I couldn't get anything for you peeps! I got some for some people because those are easier to get, but it doesn't mean I didn't think of what to get for you people too! Just that my brain doesn't really belong to me these few days so I have to think less. I'm going to start drooling like an idiot any moment soon.
Oh my brother got 191 for his PSLE, which although wasn't as high as I would have like it to be, it's still much higher than expected for him. So now I can go ahead and map out his future and be pissed if he doesn't follow it, but leave it up to him anyways.
"In the land of the Honky Tong, you gonna buy a gong..."
Let me give an update of my OH MY GAWD I'M IN HONG KONG, holiday in Hong Kong. On Monday I didn't go out because I had to do an essay. My tutor called me all the way from Singapore sounding very pissed and I panicked. I don't know why but essays and me have this oil and water thing going on, every time I want to do it, something prevents me from doing it. Maybe that something is me.
Tuesday I had that massive migraine, Wednesday I ventured out shopping again. But I still felt the effects so all along the MTR, whenever things got too overwhelming for me I stared at my aunt's back. It got kind of ridiculous, staring at things sideways or only partially. If I didn't know myself better I would think I was on the constant edge of a breakdown. *shudder shudder*
Last night dinner was Korean BBQ and it was nice!! Better than Seoul Garden, more high class. When they put the little dishes all over with the veggies, kim chi, potato in sweet sauce, ikan bilis (or anchovies or whatever high-class name), potato leaves, I felt like I was Da Chang Jing! Or the pervert Emperor!
It was like fulfilling all my Korean Drama dreams! You know how they always barbeque meat and eat their rice with the spicy red kimchi don't know what, and the rice cakes and the metal chopsticks and long spoon! I went to order all the things I see them eat and was so excited every time I could do it like how Kim Sam Soon, or the My Girl girl, or the Coffee Prince girl or the whatever do it! Happy happy lah!
I also ordered wild raspberry wine because it sounded so interesting. It came in a cute soccer ball-shaped bottle that I brought back. I had this urge to da bao all the Kim Chi and stuff to send back to Sin Hae and Ju Ye in Singapore (my korean neighbours). Then Sin Hae will give her happy laughter.
I think I might have been a masticating cow in my past life or something because I finished all the veggies, from the Tao Ges(beansprouts), to the potato leaves, to the kim chi, to the spicy veggies in the spicy dumpling/rice cake/kim chi soup.
Then the rest of my dinner partners were rather amazed I could still eat.
Normally my appetite is quite small, but coming to Hong Kong it seems I've grown two stomachs. It really looks like a volleyball now. *squishes tummy fats*
Today it was shopping again. Man I'm really sick of shopping. And I'm not saying that in jest, it's really tiring and a bit pointless. I'd much rather be off investigating the Tian Tian Buddha or hiking. Plus Hong Kong streets are so full of pushy-shovey people and chaotic traffic and so much going on, if I didn't have a breakdown before they would tempt me to. So whenever I felt a wave of that stupid @#%##@ migraine, I had to close my eyes or start concentrating on something less...explosive. As it were, I was functioning in a daze most of the times. The only time I perked up was when I was eating. I would clap my hands in glee. Like sea lion like that.
Anyways Marie love, sorry I didn't reply your sms, I was asleep then. YAH I WAS!! I sleep so early here in HK! I think it's because I'm always so exhausted. But I wake at 7am, it's actually quite healthy right? Then Cousin and I make breakfast for...someone.
I bought something for you though, I got two of it because I like it too and it's so weird it's you. HAHAH. (actually re-reading this sentence I realise I would have implicated myself in that sentence too, so I shall say I thought of you immediately after I saw that thing)
Speaking of souvenirs, PEOPLE I'M SORRY! It's really quite hard to get suitable souvenirs for people. Don't be too upset if I couldn't get anything for you peeps! I got some for some people because those are easier to get, but it doesn't mean I didn't think of what to get for you people too! Just that my brain doesn't really belong to me these few days so I have to think less. I'm going to start drooling like an idiot any moment soon.
Oh my brother got 191 for his PSLE, which although wasn't as high as I would have like it to be, it's still much higher than expected for him. So now I can go ahead and map out his future and be pissed if he doesn't follow it, but leave it up to him anyways.
"In the land of the Honky Tong, you gonna buy a gong..."
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Shopping Headache.
Today I almost died. Ok I'm exaggerating but I really felt like dying.
I went to The Peak, very pretty. We sat on the tram which went all the way up, the phrase "steep incline" kept going through my mind because it really was a steep incline!
And the buildings look like they were slanted up on the way to the Peak but I think it's probably because we were the ones who were slanted on the tram.
If it was a roller-coaster, it would be the scariest one ever, but the tram trudged along at an indifferent pace. I was a bit nervous though, because it really felt like a roller-coaster and I kept thinking what if the driver lost control of the brakes and the tram just went WHOOOSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH all the way down we'll all be flung out of our seats and rush headlong forward and splatter against the windows and like, die.
A pity the haze is so heavy in HK that we couldn't see much of The Peak. Really pretty though, there were some houses right on top and I wonder who lives there. Rich people? Or.....dead people?? Because they were really old. *shudders*
I bought a mini-helicopter there because my cousin was telling me about it and I went to try it and I couldn't bear to say no to the salesgirl. I think that was the start of my daze and the problems to come after.
All along my cousin bargained and I just stood there with a glaze over my eyes. I bought it in the end, SGD 48. My cousin asked if I was ok, then I turned to her and said "I don't know why I bought it."
Then she said "Heidi ni hen cute lehhhhhhhh!" But I think she meant that in a Omg-I-said-you-don't-have-to-buy-it-if-you-don't-play-it-whaaat way.
After that we went to Tsim Sha Tsui by the MTR. The MTR really reminds me of the MRT, but we have to walk so much!! But the maps on the train have lights on them that blink and show where you are! And the MTR has food stalls! Like duck rice stalls, shopping stalls and a mini-bank! That was so cute lah.
Oh people really push into the train. Which recalls a story, on my first day in HK, my cousin and I were waiting to go into the lift. There was this group of people on my right who were waiting for the other lift, and a mother and son on my left waiting for the other one. When my middle lift came first, I let the group on my right go in first since they waited for the other lift. But the mother and son also rushed past me. Everyone was rushing past me! While I waited for the people inside to come out!
My cousin told me later that in HK I really have to push my way in because they are still Chinamen so they are like that one.
Oh.
Didn't expect that.
Ok back to TST.
We went there for lunch I was so hungry and the walk for soo long. The haze was bad my eyes were stinging and I felt tired.
Food was great and...I tried my first milk tea!! It looked so smooth looking and creamily brown my mouth was watering. Then I drank it. And grimaced.
Okkaaay. HK's milk tea is really...milk tea. Not the sweetened condensed milk type. But it had its own charms...after I put sugar in it.
After that was shopping time! Shopping in HK is really worthwhile. I'm not a shopper type but Omg. It's really Omg. Everything's so pretty and fashionable!
But the shopping accelerated the beginnings of what was to become a migraine like thingy for me.
After shopping(we were running late for our dinner appointment already)
we went to buy bubble tea, I recommended the yam one to my cuzzie even though I don't like yam, because I tasted it in Taiwan and it tasted like ice cream. To my satisfaction, it was the same taste here and the pearls are springy and soft. Nice.
I also bought from the street stalls, a strand of chewy pig intestines that were bright red. At least I think it was pig intestines, couldn't read the chinese words.
My cuzzie was like EEEEEE er xin leh!! (disgusting)
I said since we're here might as well try something different and proceeded to chew on it. It really looked disgusting though bahahha.
And Zhubs, the drink you recommended I cannot find leh. What's that ah?
By the time I got back to the apartment though, I was having a really bad headache. I think I was over-stimulated. Don't snigger! The glare of the lights or the most normal sounds were jarring and too much for my senses. My head was throbbing so much I felt like puking.
I had to excuse myself from dinner even though I think it was really rude to because I couldn't take it anymore, the mere act of chewing was a torture and the lights above me made my head swim even more. AHHH WHY AM I SUCH A WEAKLING!!
In fact, reading the symptoms of migraine in Wikipedia, I realise it really was migraine.
Wah lao eh. I think hours before, I periodically smell this sweet tea/incense smell in the air which I don't know emanates from where. From The Peak to Tsim Sha Tsui. I even tasted a sort of sweetness in my mouth. Maybe it was a form of aura. Auras sometimes precedes migraines. I'm typing all these in a darkened room now.
But yeah ok, let it be known I'm oversensitive(not the emotional sense lah but the sensing sense) Okkaaaay fine, sometimes the emotional sense too.
This quote sort of explains it a little, but I don't think it's that bad ah?
"The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive.
To him...
a touch is a blow,
a sound is a noise,
a misfortune is a tragedy,
a joy is an ecstasy,
a friend is a lover,
a lover is a god,
and failure is death.
Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create - - - so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating."
-Pearl Buck-
I went to The Peak, very pretty. We sat on the tram which went all the way up, the phrase "steep incline" kept going through my mind because it really was a steep incline!
And the buildings look like they were slanted up on the way to the Peak but I think it's probably because we were the ones who were slanted on the tram.
If it was a roller-coaster, it would be the scariest one ever, but the tram trudged along at an indifferent pace. I was a bit nervous though, because it really felt like a roller-coaster and I kept thinking what if the driver lost control of the brakes and the tram just went WHOOOSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH all the way down we'll all be flung out of our seats and rush headlong forward and splatter against the windows and like, die.
A pity the haze is so heavy in HK that we couldn't see much of The Peak. Really pretty though, there were some houses right on top and I wonder who lives there. Rich people? Or.....dead people?? Because they were really old. *shudders*
I bought a mini-helicopter there because my cousin was telling me about it and I went to try it and I couldn't bear to say no to the salesgirl. I think that was the start of my daze and the problems to come after.
All along my cousin bargained and I just stood there with a glaze over my eyes. I bought it in the end, SGD 48. My cousin asked if I was ok, then I turned to her and said "I don't know why I bought it."
Then she said "Heidi ni hen cute lehhhhhhhh!" But I think she meant that in a Omg-I-said-you-don't-have-to-buy-it-if-you-don't-play-it-whaaat way.
After that we went to Tsim Sha Tsui by the MTR. The MTR really reminds me of the MRT, but we have to walk so much!! But the maps on the train have lights on them that blink and show where you are! And the MTR has food stalls! Like duck rice stalls, shopping stalls and a mini-bank! That was so cute lah.
Oh people really push into the train. Which recalls a story, on my first day in HK, my cousin and I were waiting to go into the lift. There was this group of people on my right who were waiting for the other lift, and a mother and son on my left waiting for the other one. When my middle lift came first, I let the group on my right go in first since they waited for the other lift. But the mother and son also rushed past me. Everyone was rushing past me! While I waited for the people inside to come out!
My cousin told me later that in HK I really have to push my way in because they are still Chinamen so they are like that one.
Oh.
Didn't expect that.
Ok back to TST.
We went there for lunch I was so hungry and the walk for soo long. The haze was bad my eyes were stinging and I felt tired.
Food was great and...I tried my first milk tea!! It looked so smooth looking and creamily brown my mouth was watering. Then I drank it. And grimaced.
Okkaaay. HK's milk tea is really...milk tea. Not the sweetened condensed milk type. But it had its own charms...after I put sugar in it.
After that was shopping time! Shopping in HK is really worthwhile. I'm not a shopper type but Omg. It's really Omg. Everything's so pretty and fashionable!
But the shopping accelerated the beginnings of what was to become a migraine like thingy for me.
After shopping(we were running late for our dinner appointment already)
we went to buy bubble tea, I recommended the yam one to my cuzzie even though I don't like yam, because I tasted it in Taiwan and it tasted like ice cream. To my satisfaction, it was the same taste here and the pearls are springy and soft. Nice.
I also bought from the street stalls, a strand of chewy pig intestines that were bright red. At least I think it was pig intestines, couldn't read the chinese words.
My cuzzie was like EEEEEE er xin leh!! (disgusting)
I said since we're here might as well try something different and proceeded to chew on it. It really looked disgusting though bahahha.
And Zhubs, the drink you recommended I cannot find leh. What's that ah?
By the time I got back to the apartment though, I was having a really bad headache. I think I was over-stimulated. Don't snigger! The glare of the lights or the most normal sounds were jarring and too much for my senses. My head was throbbing so much I felt like puking.
I had to excuse myself from dinner even though I think it was really rude to because I couldn't take it anymore, the mere act of chewing was a torture and the lights above me made my head swim even more. AHHH WHY AM I SUCH A WEAKLING!!
In fact, reading the symptoms of migraine in Wikipedia, I realise it really was migraine.
Wah lao eh. I think hours before, I periodically smell this sweet tea/incense smell in the air which I don't know emanates from where. From The Peak to Tsim Sha Tsui. I even tasted a sort of sweetness in my mouth. Maybe it was a form of aura. Auras sometimes precedes migraines. I'm typing all these in a darkened room now.
But yeah ok, let it be known I'm oversensitive(not the emotional sense lah but the sensing sense) Okkaaaay fine, sometimes the emotional sense too.
This quote sort of explains it a little, but I don't think it's that bad ah?
"The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive.
To him...
a touch is a blow,
a sound is a noise,
a misfortune is a tragedy,
a joy is an ecstasy,
a friend is a lover,
a lover is a god,
and failure is death.
Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create - - - so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating."
-Pearl Buck-
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Mai Dong Xi Chi Dong Xi Mai Dong Xi Chi Dong...Xie Wen Zhang.
People, I've reached Hong Kong and am currently sequestered in a downy Egyptian Cotton with a glass of chilled margarita in my hand and a hunky Chow Yun Fatt feeding me grapes.
You should know by now that was just my imagination because a)you should know I have an overactive one
b) Chow Yun Fatt is not hunky, at least not anymore.
Anyways I was supposed to meet Shi Yun(hall mate) at the airport at 8.30 but in the end I was late again. So I got pecked at pwark pwark.
On the plane I sat beside this nice business who asked if it was my first time in Hong Kong and when I said yes he told me I was going to enjoy it here. He was nice but he had this really disgusting habit of burping. Like, multiple times. By the end of the 3 hour flight he probably burped about 20 times. And I shuddered about twice as many times.
"Errrrp."
EEE!! Shudder shudder.
Watched The Forbidden Kingdom movie with Jackie Chan inside, wanted to watch it for the longest time because Liu Yifei is inside.
When I arrived in Hong Kong, the cab fare to the Apartment where I am to live in was 400++ HKD!! WAH that's like 80 sing dollars lah!
Then the cab driver kept saying my cousin and I are very pretty, very fair, look like koreans and all that. He said that probably so we'll give him tips leh. I never give. HAHAH.
The building the apartment is in looks exclusive, black and steel like. When we went in my cousin couldn't remember the apartment number until she mention our uncle's name and the manager went "Ahh!! Here here!"
So in this apartment there's my cousin and I and my uncle's son. My aunt and uncle are living in another apartment upstairs, leaving us younger generations to hang out together. Sort of.
Our room has a very nice view of skyscrapers, although at night they can all probably look into our glass windows. Also got a view of the harbour, which I am so fascinated by I kept taking photos.
Ok lets talk about...SHOPPING!! And...EATING!! Isn't HK famous for that? Everyone here dresses so poshly I've already spotted enough LV and Gucci bags to fit 10 vivocitys. And a lot of ang mohs(expatriates) And they look a bit haughty, so I tried practicing that look then maybe I'll look like a Hong Konger. But I think my T-shirt and jeans sort of spoils the image.
Dinner is Western Food, I ordered too much and ate till I was bloated. The next morning's breakfast was dim sum, but I already had a mini breakfast before that so I was too full to eat enough T_T
Lunch I skipped because my stomach looked like a beach ball.
Dinner was Mexican Food with Margaritas. So spicy I was tearing. Very tak glam.
My cousin, aunt and I went shopping. My aunt did the choosing and us girls did the modeling so she bought a lot of clothes(which I normally wouldn't wear) for us.
It was fun trying on all those clothes, machiam fashion spread like that!
Tomorrow, I'm going to spend the entire day during essays because my tutors are emailing me already and I'm panicking so much I wish I'm dead.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
I REALLY HATE ESSAYS. WORSE OF ALL I HATE MYSELF FOR NOT DOING THEM!!!!!
Ok stay tune for more tales of myself in HK and to know whether I can finish my essays or not.
Missing Singapore and the people already.
HEIDI THE IDIOT.
You should know by now that was just my imagination because a)you should know I have an overactive one
b) Chow Yun Fatt is not hunky, at least not anymore.
Anyways I was supposed to meet Shi Yun(hall mate) at the airport at 8.30 but in the end I was late again. So I got pecked at pwark pwark.
On the plane I sat beside this nice business who asked if it was my first time in Hong Kong and when I said yes he told me I was going to enjoy it here. He was nice but he had this really disgusting habit of burping. Like, multiple times. By the end of the 3 hour flight he probably burped about 20 times. And I shuddered about twice as many times.
"Errrrp."
EEE!! Shudder shudder.
Watched The Forbidden Kingdom movie with Jackie Chan inside, wanted to watch it for the longest time because Liu Yifei is inside.
When I arrived in Hong Kong, the cab fare to the Apartment where I am to live in was 400++ HKD!! WAH that's like 80 sing dollars lah!
Then the cab driver kept saying my cousin and I are very pretty, very fair, look like koreans and all that. He said that probably so we'll give him tips leh. I never give. HAHAH.
The building the apartment is in looks exclusive, black and steel like. When we went in my cousin couldn't remember the apartment number until she mention our uncle's name and the manager went "Ahh!! Here here!"
So in this apartment there's my cousin and I and my uncle's son. My aunt and uncle are living in another apartment upstairs, leaving us younger generations to hang out together. Sort of.
Our room has a very nice view of skyscrapers, although at night they can all probably look into our glass windows. Also got a view of the harbour, which I am so fascinated by I kept taking photos.
Ok lets talk about...SHOPPING!! And...EATING!! Isn't HK famous for that? Everyone here dresses so poshly I've already spotted enough LV and Gucci bags to fit 10 vivocitys. And a lot of ang mohs(expatriates) And they look a bit haughty, so I tried practicing that look then maybe I'll look like a Hong Konger. But I think my T-shirt and jeans sort of spoils the image.
Dinner is Western Food, I ordered too much and ate till I was bloated. The next morning's breakfast was dim sum, but I already had a mini breakfast before that so I was too full to eat enough T_T
Lunch I skipped because my stomach looked like a beach ball.
Dinner was Mexican Food with Margaritas. So spicy I was tearing. Very tak glam.
My cousin, aunt and I went shopping. My aunt did the choosing and us girls did the modeling so she bought a lot of clothes(which I normally wouldn't wear) for us.
It was fun trying on all those clothes, machiam fashion spread like that!
Tomorrow, I'm going to spend the entire day during essays because my tutors are emailing me already and I'm panicking so much I wish I'm dead.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
I REALLY HATE ESSAYS. WORSE OF ALL I HATE MYSELF FOR NOT DOING THEM!!!!!
Ok stay tune for more tales of myself in HK and to know whether I can finish my essays or not.
Missing Singapore and the people already.
HEIDI THE IDIOT.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Words Before A Flight.
Alright people, here I am less than 4 hours before my flight to Hong Kong still doing last minute packing (because I fell asleep)
and you know what's the most horrid thing of all?
I STILL HAVE MY ESSAYS TO DO!!!!
So I'll probably be doing them in Hong Kong.
BAAAAAH. I'm an idiot girl.
I'm a little apprehensive and nervous because I don't know what I'll be doing there, it was quite a sudden decision. So I shall lay down some goals
1. Gorge myself on dim sum
2. Drink Milk Tea
3. Buy some nice clothes
4. Buy food back
5. Visit Many places in Hong Kong
6. If possibly I want to go trekking there
7. Meet some celebrities on the streets, take a photo with them and get their phone numbers
8. Brighten up my relatives' days
9. Act like a country bumpkin
10. Because in a sense I am one and I should never outgrow my fascination and delight with the wonders of the world, no matter how big or small.
Well, 10 goals and some of them seem pretty easy to achieve. I feel better now.
It'll be different from America and I shall polish up my Cantonese. I heard HKer's fashion sense is very good...OH DEAR OH DEAR AND I HAVE NO WINTER CLOTHES!
So maybe, maybe I can fulfill this secret desire of mine...buy boots there!!! WHEEEEEE!
Alright gotta go peepies, it's one week's worth of memories that I'm leaving for. In a sense every time I visit a country I always undergo a little bit of change, so it's bye to myself here too.
Bye people, bye Heidi, I will miss you and you and you and you and you and you and...
Tacky!!!
Oops, my hall mate who was supposed to fetch me to the MRT and I had to hide my blog from him and in the end I chased him away and say I'll take taxi myself and I think he is exasperated with me. HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA.
Adieu folkies!
and you know what's the most horrid thing of all?
I STILL HAVE MY ESSAYS TO DO!!!!
So I'll probably be doing them in Hong Kong.
BAAAAAH. I'm an idiot girl.
I'm a little apprehensive and nervous because I don't know what I'll be doing there, it was quite a sudden decision. So I shall lay down some goals
1. Gorge myself on dim sum
2. Drink Milk Tea
3. Buy some nice clothes
4. Buy food back
5. Visit Many places in Hong Kong
6. If possibly I want to go trekking there
7. Meet some celebrities on the streets, take a photo with them and get their phone numbers
8. Brighten up my relatives' days
9. Act like a country bumpkin
10. Because in a sense I am one and I should never outgrow my fascination and delight with the wonders of the world, no matter how big or small.
Well, 10 goals and some of them seem pretty easy to achieve. I feel better now.
It'll be different from America and I shall polish up my Cantonese. I heard HKer's fashion sense is very good...OH DEAR OH DEAR AND I HAVE NO WINTER CLOTHES!
So maybe, maybe I can fulfill this secret desire of mine...buy boots there!!! WHEEEEEE!
Alright gotta go peepies, it's one week's worth of memories that I'm leaving for. In a sense every time I visit a country I always undergo a little bit of change, so it's bye to myself here too.
Bye people, bye Heidi, I will miss you and you and you and you and you and you and...
Tacky!!!
Oops, my hall mate who was supposed to fetch me to the MRT and I had to hide my blog from him and in the end I chased him away and say I'll take taxi myself and I think he is exasperated with me. HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA.
Adieu folkies!
Saturday, November 08, 2008
The Life of Heidi When She is Awake.
Ok yes I know, I haven't been posting for a while. It's due to my throw-everything-to-the-last-minute mismanagement of my time that left me with 4 essays due before a week is out and 1 essay that was overdued for a week. So typing out more words sort of gave me a phobia in which I wake up late at night to start screaming.
Ok lah not that bad.
So what did I do for these past two weeks?
Notable events were sitting on the Singapore Flyer with hall friends to celebrate an irritating guy's birthday. We bought him cufflinks, which are something I have a thing for and which I didn't want to buy for him at first but was persuaded to by someone who similarly has a thing for them. ZZZzzzz.
So while people hope their presents would be used, I hope he will not. Because what if I see them on him and in my eyes I'm so blinded by the image of Hyun Bin wearing them in My Name is Kim Sam Soon and I start going crazy and run towards him to pounce on him and swear my eternal devotion to him (and he doesn't even cut his nose hairs!!) all because of him wearing some stupid cufflinks!!
But not to worry people and especially tall dark handsome rich guys, I resemble my beloved turtle Tacky too much, we both have impenetrable shells and the only running we'll do is to waddle towards food.
Another coincidence was that my family happened to be sitting the Sg Flyer on that day too! At around the same time!! So I bumped into them. I remember my mom asked if I wanted to go Sg Flyer before and said she already booked tickets for that Saturday. My eyes grew rounded because that was the day I was supposed to go with my friends.
But we didn't all get to sit in one capsule in the end, which is a good thing!!
I spent most of my time in the capsule either taking photos or trying to see up people's skirts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There's something I've been wanting to post for a long time but was too preoccupied to. Once, I organised an outing for the badminton girls and threatened them that I will fade away completely from their memories if they don't see me soon. That ploy worked because almost all of them turned up. Our meeting culminated into a discussion of our love lives. Which are like. Non-existent.
So we all felt like old maids.
Even in my romance novels the gorgeous young maidens get married at 18!! I'm way past my due date already how how how. And I forgot who (but probably Shi ying because she is the most desp- because she is the most innovative of all of us) suggested that after I turn 21 if none of us are attached yet we're all gonna haul our butts to SDU.
Social Development Unit. Primary aim? To get Singaporeans who have graduated from UNIVERSITIES, to meet each other, strike sparks, get laid and get married, and have kids.
Preferably in that order.
I think my main thought in time was whether the lunches were free. And whether I can bring Tacky along. I grudgingly acquiesced to their suggestion. Although they would probably said I jumped at that opportunity like a puppy after a twitching bone.
Another thing that resulted from our meeting was that Maggie complained I never msg her on msn and I said that's because sometimes I don't know they are online. And they should put quotation marks "" in their nicknames so they would be pushed to the top then I can see them better.
The next time I saw Maggie online, she was online as "Maggie"
I msged her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On to the next event--Night-cycling. It is an annual activity held by my hall whereby the people will bike the entire night until 7am in the morning from hall to East Coast and along the way stop to eat supper at Maxwell food centre. Normally hall people with enough time on their hands and stomachs to fill and death wishes to fulfill will take part in it.
I had 4 essays to write and going on that activity would cost me much precious time but since I didn't get to go last year because I was involved in hall production, and also because I really miss biking, I signed up for it.
Which would put me in the 3rd group.
Once on the bike I felt like a dolphin in water except that I had a cushion between my thighs. If I could go WHEEE WHEE and zoom past all the people and cycle all the way to America I would. But of course I couldn't. Instead I promised someone I would stay near her throughout the entire thing in case she fell down (because she didn't know how to cycle that would place her in the third group too) and I need to be there to laugh at her. I mean, I needed to be there to help her.
Which was rather unnecessary in the end because she was flanked by two substantial guys who kept shouting instructions at her and which got my hackles raising because they begin shouting instructions at me too. "Heidi don't cycle near her, Heidi cycle behind her, Heidi cycle more to the side, Heidi GO FIRST!!!"
I looked at their sometimes-swerving bikes with disdain and sniff a little with my nose up in the air. They were the ones who were cycling too close to the road and a bit dangerously. HMPF. Then my block head called me aside and said he asked some guy to look after my friend and that I should just cycle on ahead. Gah.
In the end I sort of separated from them but remained near my friend nonetheless.
And along the way the guys in my block asked me several times if I'm ok and offered to carry my bag for me. Ok those are nice gestures right. Just that I was a tad miffed that guys always assume that girls are horrible at this sort of activity. It's that MCP(male-chauvinistic pig) syndrome! Alright alright maybe I'm over-reacting.
So I spent most of the night staring at someone else's butt. Whomever who happens to be in front of me.
Supper at Maxwell House was an almost horrifying experience. BECAUSE I saw something that was like "OMGGGGGG". Charlynn, another girl in my block, saw it too and we both had the same reaction.
Want a hint? Well Maxwell House is populated by um...by...well Joyous people. What's another word for Joy? Three-letter word. Starts with G.
And we happen to see two Joyous people standing butt to groin and chest to back and the one behind was like...ARGGHHH. Ok nevermind lets not corrupt innocent minds. I promptly lost all appetite I had for my plate of Orh Luat that I queued 30 min for and in the end had to Lelong lelong, whoever wants to come eat my oyster omelette come eat!!
The last part of the cycling journey was also one of the worst experiences in my life. It begin to rain heavily and I started hyperventilating a little because my big big phobia was to travel in the rain, whether on the huge NUS buses(everytime it rains while in them I stop thinking and start imagining the bus toppling over and all of us inside crushed) or worse, on a bike in the rain. I once had an accident while racing in the rain, the guy in front of me braked suddenly and I braked in time too but because I was traveling at very high speeds and the ground was slippery, the bike ended up skidding on the rough pebbled ground and I scraped my arm against it. It left a gaping hole in my arm because my flesh was torn off. To this day I still have quite an obvious scar and I never cycled in the rain again.
So all the way I was muttering under my breath and saying "Ok I can do this" and breathe breathe breathe and when people asked me what's wrong I didn't bother to reply them because "STOP ASKING ME WHAT'S WRONG AND LEAVE ME ALONE!!"
I could actually cycle! Just that I avoided braking at all cost. In end I was asked to go faster (because I was sort of hogging up the road) and faster and faster until my group was separated from the rest of the group. Just a small band of us and we stopped at an ulu(deserted) bus-stop along the expressway because the rain was pouring in waves. The bus stop was sheltered but very open, so whenever the wind blew we got so cold and soaked all of us started shivering and chattering. I was already tired from my lack of sleep due to essaying and enduring the cold in an isolated bus stop was truly an agonising experience. I almost regretted going for this activity. I said at one point while huddling against a pillar "I can't believe I'm stuck here on a cold grey day early on a sat morning while it's raining." People were probably cuddling under warm blankets and enjoying their sleep.
Someone said "Imagine there's a hot cup of milo right now" and all of us started sighing and fantasising and someone said "Stop it."
We were stuck there for 2 hours due to some miscommunication and bad planning and we were misinformed. It left the bunch of us feeling quite pissed at the end.
Next year would be a better experience I hope.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alrighty last but not least...I know this is a very long post already but what if I can't manage to post anymore for the next year or so! So treasure my words even if they are rambling and lame.
Last weekend I couldn't manage to go back home because I had essays to type and on Sunday my dad called me to ask if I wanted lunch. My growling stomach immediately perked up and said yes yes I want!
So dad say "Ok, after that we are going to visit Lucy, Mary and Annie."
I went like "Har?? What time are we gonna be back by?"
"1pm"
The time was about 11am. "Ooooh ok, cannot come back too late I got work to do!"
I wore what I went to sleep in, slippers and brought my laptop along so I can do work on the way.
The family and I went to eat and I queued 30 min for a plate of supposedly very good wanton mee. (WHAT IS IT WITH ME AND QUEUING FOR FOOD WHICH IN THE END I CAN'T FINISH).
But I think there was a reason why because if I hadn't queue for so long, if I hadn't brought $50 which the uncle had no change for, if I hadn't went back to take smaller change...I wouldn't have met my friend whom I met in America! When I passed by her I was like "wah looks like her but cannot be" so I walked along until I heard my name called out and I knew it was her.
Such a stroke of serendipity. Moments in time. Times like this when you realise there is sometimes magic in the world.
But after a while my mom came to drag me back by the ear to the table because my food was getting cold.
Anyways after the lunch my father said "We're gonna go visit Lucy and Mary now!"
Which is actually...an euphemism for...CLIMBING BUKIT TIMAH HILL.
10 minutes later I was at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, carrying my laptop and dress in my pajamas. And climbing it. With. My. 2.3kg laptop. With. People. Giving. Me. Weird. Looks.
I inched my way up while gasping for air because I soooo wasn't in the mood for climbing and was in dismay. My brother yelled at me to "HURRY UP!"
Then he saw me and my laoptop and said "WHY DID YOU BRING YOUR LAPTOP FOR!!"
"I WANTED TO DO WORK!!!" I wailed back.
An uncle happened to pass by me and he started chuckling under his breathe when he heard our exchange. That left me feeling embarrassed.
But it was a short climb and we reach the Bukit Timah Quarry. And I gasped and went "Whoa!" Because it was straight out of a scene from Shen Diao Xia Lu, some period chinese drama. There was a jade-green pool of water in front of us, backed by a small hill. I was amazed Singapore actually had this sort of place existing because it was soooo pretty. I immediately thought of what use my laptop could do...Taking photos!
I huffed and puffed as I awkwardly hauled my 2.3kg laptop into suitable positions to take pictures of the quarry.
TADA!
After that I happily thought I could go back home but nooo! We ended up face to face with a very very very long and high slope and the family wanted to climb it. "I CAN'T I HAVE NO TIMEEEEE" I yelled. Then they assured me they'll only climb halfway.
Half an hour into climbing it with no hope of an end and everyone ahead of me (PLEASE BEAR IN MIND I WAS CARRYING MY LAPTOP AND WEARING SLIPPERS) I called Yiling and started blubbering out my entire life's misery to her.
Forty-five minutes into climbing it I decided to just stop in the middle of the road and call the people that I regarded as my family.
"WHERE ARE YOU ALLL!!"
"Reaching the peak we're coming down now!"
Omg. Finally. Salvation. Hope. Car. Air-Con. Essays. Ok not that. Ice Kachang.
So I turned tail and trudged back down which was harder than climbing because it felt like I was falling face-down.
Minutes later my family zoomed past me while I crawled on like a snail. I used my laptop to take some pictures and generally look like I was doing important scientific work. Several kaypoh people tried to stare into my laptop.
Two uncles came down as I was analysing this bug with a cone shape thingy on top of it's back. They stopped next to me to see what I was staring at and said "Ooooh."
The uncle looked at me and said in chinese "So hardworking, bringing your laptop here to do work!"
I nodded with brimming eyes.
"Just now I heard your brother and you talking about it." And he mimicked what I wailed to my brother just now. Can life just get any more embarrassing and coincidental??? That was the uncle who was laughing at me just now darn it.
I gave him a painful smile and walked on downwards while they tried to carry out a conversation with me. Like I still had energy to do anything other than breathe and go hiking with slippers that I normally go bathing with.
When the family and I FINALLY walked back to the car, we spotted some monkeys on the way and my dad said "There! This is Lucy!"
I was flabbergasted.
We spotted another monkey and dad said "Mary!"
I ignored him and walked on towards the car when what I saw stopped in my tracks. Monkeys. Tribes of them. On top. Of. My. Car. My hope, my salvation, my air-con.
Ambushed by monkeys. But I went trigger-happy because many of them had kids clutched to their..um..mammary glands! So I took lotsa photos of Mary, Lucy, Annie, Jane, Tommy, Johnny(MY BLOCK HEAD'S NAME HAHA), Ah Beng, Ah Seng, Ah Gui...and so on.
TADA!
As we got into the car some little boy monkeys started sitting on our windshield and our side-mirror. For a while I was laughing at how cute they were.
TADA!
TADA!
In the end I needed to go back to do essays and I started growling and chasing all of them away. They fled.
My essay didn't get finished for another week more.
The lecturer rejected it when it was finally handed up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OK THE END.
Not really.
I'm here to inform you people...
I'M GOING HONG KONG!!! On Nov 15!!!
But aren't you having exams? You ask.
Oh I'm going during the study break!
But, isn't the study break for you to like, study?
YEAP BUT I CAN STUDY IN HONG KONG!! And I only have 2 exams, the rest are in horrifying essays of which I have 3 more to type.
Oh. Good luck then.
Yeah, I think I need a miracle too.
So people, I might ask you what you want me to buy from Hong Kong in all earnestness, but after receiving requests like Bird's Nest Egg Tarts, Wife Biscuits, Dresses, Shorts, Desserts, a Husband, Bags...
I think I might just buy keychains.
Ok Gotta Go. Do My Essays!
My Widsom Tooth started growing and I don't know whether it's gum infection of whether the tooth is trying to break through my gum I'm not going to a dentist and am going to wait it out so that it can stop being a pain in the gum.
"I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once."
Ok lah not that bad.
So what did I do for these past two weeks?
Notable events were sitting on the Singapore Flyer with hall friends to celebrate an irritating guy's birthday. We bought him cufflinks, which are something I have a thing for and which I didn't want to buy for him at first but was persuaded to by someone who similarly has a thing for them. ZZZzzzz.
So while people hope their presents would be used, I hope he will not. Because what if I see them on him and in my eyes I'm so blinded by the image of Hyun Bin wearing them in My Name is Kim Sam Soon and I start going crazy and run towards him to pounce on him and swear my eternal devotion to him (and he doesn't even cut his nose hairs!!) all because of him wearing some stupid cufflinks!!
But not to worry people and especially tall dark handsome rich guys, I resemble my beloved turtle Tacky too much, we both have impenetrable shells and the only running we'll do is to waddle towards food.
Another coincidence was that my family happened to be sitting the Sg Flyer on that day too! At around the same time!! So I bumped into them. I remember my mom asked if I wanted to go Sg Flyer before and said she already booked tickets for that Saturday. My eyes grew rounded because that was the day I was supposed to go with my friends.
But we didn't all get to sit in one capsule in the end, which is a good thing!!
I spent most of my time in the capsule either taking photos or trying to see up people's skirts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There's something I've been wanting to post for a long time but was too preoccupied to. Once, I organised an outing for the badminton girls and threatened them that I will fade away completely from their memories if they don't see me soon. That ploy worked because almost all of them turned up. Our meeting culminated into a discussion of our love lives. Which are like. Non-existent.
So we all felt like old maids.
Even in my romance novels the gorgeous young maidens get married at 18!! I'm way past my due date already how how how. And I forgot who (but probably Shi ying because she is the most desp- because she is the most innovative of all of us) suggested that after I turn 21 if none of us are attached yet we're all gonna haul our butts to SDU.
Social Development Unit. Primary aim? To get Singaporeans who have graduated from UNIVERSITIES, to meet each other, strike sparks, get laid and get married, and have kids.
Preferably in that order.
I think my main thought in time was whether the lunches were free. And whether I can bring Tacky along. I grudgingly acquiesced to their suggestion. Although they would probably said I jumped at that opportunity like a puppy after a twitching bone.
Another thing that resulted from our meeting was that Maggie complained I never msg her on msn and I said that's because sometimes I don't know they are online. And they should put quotation marks "" in their nicknames so they would be pushed to the top then I can see them better.
The next time I saw Maggie online, she was online as "Maggie"
I msged her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On to the next event--Night-cycling. It is an annual activity held by my hall whereby the people will bike the entire night until 7am in the morning from hall to East Coast and along the way stop to eat supper at Maxwell food centre. Normally hall people with enough time on their hands and stomachs to fill and death wishes to fulfill will take part in it.
I had 4 essays to write and going on that activity would cost me much precious time but since I didn't get to go last year because I was involved in hall production, and also because I really miss biking, I signed up for it.
Which would put me in the 3rd group.
Once on the bike I felt like a dolphin in water except that I had a cushion between my thighs. If I could go WHEEE WHEE and zoom past all the people and cycle all the way to America I would. But of course I couldn't. Instead I promised someone I would stay near her throughout the entire thing in case she fell down (because she didn't know how to cycle that would place her in the third group too) and I need to be there to laugh at her. I mean, I needed to be there to help her.
Which was rather unnecessary in the end because she was flanked by two substantial guys who kept shouting instructions at her and which got my hackles raising because they begin shouting instructions at me too. "Heidi don't cycle near her, Heidi cycle behind her, Heidi cycle more to the side, Heidi GO FIRST!!!"
I looked at their sometimes-swerving bikes with disdain and sniff a little with my nose up in the air. They were the ones who were cycling too close to the road and a bit dangerously. HMPF. Then my block head called me aside and said he asked some guy to look after my friend and that I should just cycle on ahead. Gah.
In the end I sort of separated from them but remained near my friend nonetheless.
And along the way the guys in my block asked me several times if I'm ok and offered to carry my bag for me. Ok those are nice gestures right. Just that I was a tad miffed that guys always assume that girls are horrible at this sort of activity. It's that MCP(male-chauvinistic pig) syndrome! Alright alright maybe I'm over-reacting.
So I spent most of the night staring at someone else's butt. Whomever who happens to be in front of me.
Supper at Maxwell House was an almost horrifying experience. BECAUSE I saw something that was like "OMGGGGGG". Charlynn, another girl in my block, saw it too and we both had the same reaction.
Want a hint? Well Maxwell House is populated by um...by...well Joyous people. What's another word for Joy? Three-letter word. Starts with G.
And we happen to see two Joyous people standing butt to groin and chest to back and the one behind was like...ARGGHHH. Ok nevermind lets not corrupt innocent minds. I promptly lost all appetite I had for my plate of Orh Luat that I queued 30 min for and in the end had to Lelong lelong, whoever wants to come eat my oyster omelette come eat!!
The last part of the cycling journey was also one of the worst experiences in my life. It begin to rain heavily and I started hyperventilating a little because my big big phobia was to travel in the rain, whether on the huge NUS buses(everytime it rains while in them I stop thinking and start imagining the bus toppling over and all of us inside crushed) or worse, on a bike in the rain. I once had an accident while racing in the rain, the guy in front of me braked suddenly and I braked in time too but because I was traveling at very high speeds and the ground was slippery, the bike ended up skidding on the rough pebbled ground and I scraped my arm against it. It left a gaping hole in my arm because my flesh was torn off. To this day I still have quite an obvious scar and I never cycled in the rain again.
So all the way I was muttering under my breath and saying "Ok I can do this" and breathe breathe breathe and when people asked me what's wrong I didn't bother to reply them because "STOP ASKING ME WHAT'S WRONG AND LEAVE ME ALONE!!"
I could actually cycle! Just that I avoided braking at all cost. In end I was asked to go faster (because I was sort of hogging up the road) and faster and faster until my group was separated from the rest of the group. Just a small band of us and we stopped at an ulu(deserted) bus-stop along the expressway because the rain was pouring in waves. The bus stop was sheltered but very open, so whenever the wind blew we got so cold and soaked all of us started shivering and chattering. I was already tired from my lack of sleep due to essaying and enduring the cold in an isolated bus stop was truly an agonising experience. I almost regretted going for this activity. I said at one point while huddling against a pillar "I can't believe I'm stuck here on a cold grey day early on a sat morning while it's raining." People were probably cuddling under warm blankets and enjoying their sleep.
Someone said "Imagine there's a hot cup of milo right now" and all of us started sighing and fantasising and someone said "Stop it."
We were stuck there for 2 hours due to some miscommunication and bad planning and we were misinformed. It left the bunch of us feeling quite pissed at the end.
Next year would be a better experience I hope.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alrighty last but not least...I know this is a very long post already but what if I can't manage to post anymore for the next year or so! So treasure my words even if they are rambling and lame.
Last weekend I couldn't manage to go back home because I had essays to type and on Sunday my dad called me to ask if I wanted lunch. My growling stomach immediately perked up and said yes yes I want!
So dad say "Ok, after that we are going to visit Lucy, Mary and Annie."
I went like "Har?? What time are we gonna be back by?"
"1pm"
The time was about 11am. "Ooooh ok, cannot come back too late I got work to do!"
I wore what I went to sleep in, slippers and brought my laptop along so I can do work on the way.
The family and I went to eat and I queued 30 min for a plate of supposedly very good wanton mee. (WHAT IS IT WITH ME AND QUEUING FOR FOOD WHICH IN THE END I CAN'T FINISH).
But I think there was a reason why because if I hadn't queue for so long, if I hadn't brought $50 which the uncle had no change for, if I hadn't went back to take smaller change...I wouldn't have met my friend whom I met in America! When I passed by her I was like "wah looks like her but cannot be" so I walked along until I heard my name called out and I knew it was her.
Such a stroke of serendipity. Moments in time. Times like this when you realise there is sometimes magic in the world.
But after a while my mom came to drag me back by the ear to the table because my food was getting cold.
Anyways after the lunch my father said "We're gonna go visit Lucy and Mary now!"
Which is actually...an euphemism for...CLIMBING BUKIT TIMAH HILL.
10 minutes later I was at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, carrying my laptop and dress in my pajamas. And climbing it. With. My. 2.3kg laptop. With. People. Giving. Me. Weird. Looks.
I inched my way up while gasping for air because I soooo wasn't in the mood for climbing and was in dismay. My brother yelled at me to "HURRY UP!"
Then he saw me and my laoptop and said "WHY DID YOU BRING YOUR LAPTOP FOR!!"
"I WANTED TO DO WORK!!!" I wailed back.
An uncle happened to pass by me and he started chuckling under his breathe when he heard our exchange. That left me feeling embarrassed.
But it was a short climb and we reach the Bukit Timah Quarry. And I gasped and went "Whoa!" Because it was straight out of a scene from Shen Diao Xia Lu, some period chinese drama. There was a jade-green pool of water in front of us, backed by a small hill. I was amazed Singapore actually had this sort of place existing because it was soooo pretty. I immediately thought of what use my laptop could do...Taking photos!
I huffed and puffed as I awkwardly hauled my 2.3kg laptop into suitable positions to take pictures of the quarry.
TADA!
After that I happily thought I could go back home but nooo! We ended up face to face with a very very very long and high slope and the family wanted to climb it. "I CAN'T I HAVE NO TIMEEEEE" I yelled. Then they assured me they'll only climb halfway.
Half an hour into climbing it with no hope of an end and everyone ahead of me (PLEASE BEAR IN MIND I WAS CARRYING MY LAPTOP AND WEARING SLIPPERS) I called Yiling and started blubbering out my entire life's misery to her.
Forty-five minutes into climbing it I decided to just stop in the middle of the road and call the people that I regarded as my family.
"WHERE ARE YOU ALLL!!"
"Reaching the peak we're coming down now!"
Omg. Finally. Salvation. Hope. Car. Air-Con. Essays. Ok not that. Ice Kachang.
So I turned tail and trudged back down which was harder than climbing because it felt like I was falling face-down.
Minutes later my family zoomed past me while I crawled on like a snail. I used my laptop to take some pictures and generally look like I was doing important scientific work. Several kaypoh people tried to stare into my laptop.
Two uncles came down as I was analysing this bug with a cone shape thingy on top of it's back. They stopped next to me to see what I was staring at and said "Ooooh."
The uncle looked at me and said in chinese "So hardworking, bringing your laptop here to do work!"
I nodded with brimming eyes.
"Just now I heard your brother and you talking about it." And he mimicked what I wailed to my brother just now. Can life just get any more embarrassing and coincidental??? That was the uncle who was laughing at me just now darn it.
I gave him a painful smile and walked on downwards while they tried to carry out a conversation with me. Like I still had energy to do anything other than breathe and go hiking with slippers that I normally go bathing with.
When the family and I FINALLY walked back to the car, we spotted some monkeys on the way and my dad said "There! This is Lucy!"
I was flabbergasted.
We spotted another monkey and dad said "Mary!"
I ignored him and walked on towards the car when what I saw stopped in my tracks. Monkeys. Tribes of them. On top. Of. My. Car. My hope, my salvation, my air-con.
Ambushed by monkeys. But I went trigger-happy because many of them had kids clutched to their..um..mammary glands! So I took lotsa photos of Mary, Lucy, Annie, Jane, Tommy, Johnny(MY BLOCK HEAD'S NAME HAHA), Ah Beng, Ah Seng, Ah Gui...and so on.
TADA!
As we got into the car some little boy monkeys started sitting on our windshield and our side-mirror. For a while I was laughing at how cute they were.
TADA!
TADA!
In the end I needed to go back to do essays and I started growling and chasing all of them away. They fled.
My essay didn't get finished for another week more.
The lecturer rejected it when it was finally handed up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OK THE END.
Not really.
I'm here to inform you people...
I'M GOING HONG KONG!!! On Nov 15!!!
But aren't you having exams? You ask.
Oh I'm going during the study break!
But, isn't the study break for you to like, study?
YEAP BUT I CAN STUDY IN HONG KONG!! And I only have 2 exams, the rest are in horrifying essays of which I have 3 more to type.
Oh. Good luck then.
Yeah, I think I need a miracle too.
So people, I might ask you what you want me to buy from Hong Kong in all earnestness, but after receiving requests like Bird's Nest Egg Tarts, Wife Biscuits, Dresses, Shorts, Desserts, a Husband, Bags...
I think I might just buy keychains.
Ok Gotta Go. Do My Essays!
My Widsom Tooth started growing and I don't know whether it's gum infection of whether the tooth is trying to break through my gum I'm not going to a dentist and am going to wait it out so that it can stop being a pain in the gum.
"I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once."
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Sleeps with Butterflies.
Just one more month...
before the time is up.
I want to...
Leave the heaves of sea,
and row back to shore.
Lay down upon a breezy meadow,
and caress my cheek against fluffy grass.
Let the golden light of the setting sun
blanket me in soft repose.
Close my eyes,
breathe out a sigh
and curl into a deep,
deep sleep,
where butterflies beckon.
I am weary, and I a stranger,
Lead me to the land of angels.
Be my eyes in time of darkness,
Be my shield against hosts of faery,
Be my wings till I find my home.
before the time is up.
I want to...
Leave the heaves of sea,
and row back to shore.
Lay down upon a breezy meadow,
and caress my cheek against fluffy grass.
Let the golden light of the setting sun
blanket me in soft repose.
Close my eyes,
breathe out a sigh
and curl into a deep,
deep sleep,
where butterflies beckon.
I am weary, and I a stranger,
Lead me to the land of angels.
Be my eyes in time of darkness,
Be my shield against hosts of faery,
Be my wings till I find my home.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Loss of Important Stuff.
PEOPLE, I'VE DONE SOMETHING REALLY DRASTIC.
I've lost my virginity!!
My hair's virginity I mean.
Because I've never done any treatment on it before and today I actually went to highlight it. My hair now has reddish-brownish streaks on it and it'll darken as the days go by. So yes I consider that my hair has been initiated into the rites of adulthood.
So now I look like an Ah Lian!! I was so happy to know that because I know I have this inner Lian-ness in me that's waiting to get out. I already shake my leg, speak Singlish and have a bawdy sense of humour. I'm also quite unsophisticated and can be quite loud.
Not everyone can be a Lian, I consider it a step higher than being a bimbo. A Jiak Kantang Lian (eat potatoes Lian = Lian who's more English-speaking), might be a little innocuous but that would make me a unique and worthy Lian.
I asked my brother excitedly "EHHHHH DO YOU THINK MY HAIR'S NICE!!??"
Then he just crinkled his nose and said "No."
Flabbergasted and a tad annoyed that he doesn't know how to appreciate fashion sense, I asked, "WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!"
"Because you look old."
A moment of contemplation. "So how old do I look now?"
"20."
Disbelief. "BUT I AM 20 WHAAAAAT!!!"
"Oh then 24, 25."
"Right I shouldn't have asked you. Hmpf." Flounces away.
Now I'm going around preening in front of random people and asking them if they like my hairstyle. If they show the slightest bit of hesitation I immediately show my displeasure so they'll give me a more positive response. That's staying true to my inner Lian-ness.
On to another news.
4D.
I was in my father's car the other day and he was almost tailing a Jaguar in front of him.
"Drive carefully!!" I shrieked in horror and noticed quite a nice license plate number on the Jaguar.
The next day my father was asking if I remembered the Jaguar's number and said he wanted to buy it for the lottery. It came out 2nd.
I was confused, so did he or did he not buy it? "I didn't."
"Oh. These kinda things always happen lah, got luck won't come to us one..."
Then I went about my business when curiosity prodded me to ask, "So how much is the 2nd prize?"
"About 80k."
I started wailing and pulling my hair, from Seranggoon to Hougang.
I think the sound is still resounding somewhere between those two areas.
I've lost my virginity!!
My hair's virginity I mean.
Because I've never done any treatment on it before and today I actually went to highlight it. My hair now has reddish-brownish streaks on it and it'll darken as the days go by. So yes I consider that my hair has been initiated into the rites of adulthood.
So now I look like an Ah Lian!! I was so happy to know that because I know I have this inner Lian-ness in me that's waiting to get out. I already shake my leg, speak Singlish and have a bawdy sense of humour. I'm also quite unsophisticated and can be quite loud.
Not everyone can be a Lian, I consider it a step higher than being a bimbo. A Jiak Kantang Lian (eat potatoes Lian = Lian who's more English-speaking), might be a little innocuous but that would make me a unique and worthy Lian.
I asked my brother excitedly "EHHHHH DO YOU THINK MY HAIR'S NICE!!??"
Then he just crinkled his nose and said "No."
Flabbergasted and a tad annoyed that he doesn't know how to appreciate fashion sense, I asked, "WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!"
"Because you look old."
A moment of contemplation. "So how old do I look now?"
"20."
Disbelief. "BUT I AM 20 WHAAAAAT!!!"
"Oh then 24, 25."
"Right I shouldn't have asked you. Hmpf." Flounces away.
Now I'm going around preening in front of random people and asking them if they like my hairstyle. If they show the slightest bit of hesitation I immediately show my displeasure so they'll give me a more positive response. That's staying true to my inner Lian-ness.
On to another news.
4D.
I was in my father's car the other day and he was almost tailing a Jaguar in front of him.
"Drive carefully!!" I shrieked in horror and noticed quite a nice license plate number on the Jaguar.
The next day my father was asking if I remembered the Jaguar's number and said he wanted to buy it for the lottery. It came out 2nd.
I was confused, so did he or did he not buy it? "I didn't."
"Oh. These kinda things always happen lah, got luck won't come to us one..."
Then I went about my business when curiosity prodded me to ask, "So how much is the 2nd prize?"
"About 80k."
I started wailing and pulling my hair, from Seranggoon to Hougang.
I think the sound is still resounding somewhere between those two areas.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
State of Equilibrium.
I was in a lecture one day and notes were handed out to us. The notes were in the form of double-sided printed pages stapled to one another. On the left side of a page were the Powerpoint slides presented in boxes and on the right side were rows of straight lines, presumably for us to write down any notes we might have.
As I flip over the pages, the bold borders of the previous page's boxes of slides could be seen on the next page since the paper was printed on both sides and the ink dark enough.
As it happens, the rows of lines of the next page, fitted perfectly into the outline of the boxes.
I remembered looking at this coincidence and feeling relieved. Seeing those lines contained in squares, lifted pressures that were then unnoticed off me. Just like how a person suffering from OCD would feel relieved by repetitively fulfilling his compulsions, I begun drawing small squares in my notes, sometimes with lines inside them.
I also drew circles for good measure, but then compared how much more comforting the squares felt and drew squares outside the circles as well. The borders of the squares, neatly touching the curves of the circles.
Even now, once in a while, I start drawing squares. A hobby of mine is to draw circles and squares at the same time with both hands, it was something I found out I could do. But lately, it seems I'm favouring the squares more.
Perhaps it's time to come out of my box.
"If life is a series of mathematical equations, I'll be busy trying to find all the constants."
As I flip over the pages, the bold borders of the previous page's boxes of slides could be seen on the next page since the paper was printed on both sides and the ink dark enough.
As it happens, the rows of lines of the next page, fitted perfectly into the outline of the boxes.
I remembered looking at this coincidence and feeling relieved. Seeing those lines contained in squares, lifted pressures that were then unnoticed off me. Just like how a person suffering from OCD would feel relieved by repetitively fulfilling his compulsions, I begun drawing small squares in my notes, sometimes with lines inside them.
I also drew circles for good measure, but then compared how much more comforting the squares felt and drew squares outside the circles as well. The borders of the squares, neatly touching the curves of the circles.
Even now, once in a while, I start drawing squares. A hobby of mine is to draw circles and squares at the same time with both hands, it was something I found out I could do. But lately, it seems I'm favouring the squares more.
Perhaps it's time to come out of my box.
"If life is a series of mathematical equations, I'll be busy trying to find all the constants."
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Love Upon a Ferris Wheel.
Sometimes I stop breathing for a while and don't realise it.
Until I choke up, my lungs seize,
a few coughs and gasps
and tears start creeping into my eyes.
Then, bit by bit, the cadence resumes but-
In those few moments, did my heart stop beating too?
Until I choke up, my lungs seize,
a few coughs and gasps
and tears start creeping into my eyes.
Then, bit by bit, the cadence resumes but-
In those few moments, did my heart stop beating too?
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Happy Birthday To The Cheeze...
Hey there Cheeze,
I know you read my blog often, so I shall wish you happy birthday here.
May you hook a hot, handsome, rich and loving business man while flying.
And also remember to pray to Jesus (whom you thought was hot because he had a six-pack), God, Guan Yin Ma (not Ee Wei) or whoever you turn to for divine help, before every flight.
Best of wishes in everything you do and lets meet up soon!!
Love,
Heidi
"Happy birthday to you..."
I know you read my blog often, so I shall wish you happy birthday here.
May you hook a hot, handsome, rich and loving business man while flying.
And also remember to pray to Jesus (whom you thought was hot because he had a six-pack), God, Guan Yin Ma (not Ee Wei) or whoever you turn to for divine help, before every flight.
Best of wishes in everything you do and lets meet up soon!!
Love,
Heidi
"Happy birthday to you..."
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Just when you've forgotten.
The phone started ringing at 2.36am and her eyes lit up.
"Ooooh who's missing me at this late hour?!" She thought.
Reaching her cellphone, her eyes bulged out when she saw the name of the caller.
Resisting the instantaneous urge to fling her phone against the nearest wall, she nevertheless set it away quickly and tried to cover her phone so the ringing wouldn't disturb her further.
"Crazy shit!" was her vehement reaction.
The ringing stopped, but her unease didn't.
"Ooooh who's missing me at this late hour?!" She thought.
Reaching her cellphone, her eyes bulged out when she saw the name of the caller.
Resisting the instantaneous urge to fling her phone against the nearest wall, she nevertheless set it away quickly and tried to cover her phone so the ringing wouldn't disturb her further.
"Crazy shit!" was her vehement reaction.
The ringing stopped, but her unease didn't.
Monday, September 22, 2008
The Beach and a Coconut.
Yesterday, the dad brought the family to East Coast Park, a.k.a The Seaside where families go to chill. In my usual surliness I sulked a bit in the car while he drove us there along with Grandma and my 5 year-old female cousin.
Upon reaching the beach I immediately planted my butt in a sheltered place hoping that I could just sit there and stare out into the ocean and feel the breeze running through my silky hair while the rest of the family can just go play with sand.
But no, it didn't happen that way.
I had scarcely, eagerly planted my butt upon the bench when dad say lets walk to the bridge and look at the sea and feel the wind! And he pointed to a bridge that from my point of locale, looks to be about as far as Timbuktu.
And I whined and stomped my feet. Ok I didn't. I just said "Papa you think you are filming a Taiwanese Idol Drama is it??" Another lady sitting near us stifled her laughter at my comment.
So they left me there. For a few seconds. Then I protested, "I'm going to be alone here!!" I followed them in the end.
While gingerly picking my way through grass and pavements littered with sleeping construction workers, I took voyeuristic photos of my retar-, my brother and my cousin playing. As well as random photos of people on the beach, then pretending I was trying to photograph the trees when the people noticed me.
I coaxed my cousin to pose with some branches for a typical innocent kid among nature photo but she refused me maybe because she knew I'm a suspicious character.
We reached the bridge and I was pleasantly surprised there's actually some place like this in Singapore, I thought it all existed only in America or some other non-singaporean place.
The beauty of blue skies and the wide open sea. A bridge that stretched out before me with a gentle curvature that almost made it seem like it was moulded to the edge of the ocean. And all the weekend wranglers, families and some solitary people converging there hinted at a freedom and idyll and maybe a sought-for peace. So I walked that bridge alone while the family was beyond my sight in front of me and took photos and closed my eyes to feel the wind caress my cheek.
Blue skies, blue seas and air with a salty tang, as if I was breathing in tears and sunshine.
On the way back from the bridge to another part of the beach, my little cousin followed me, chit-chatting and asking me questions all the way. She talked more than I've ever heard her do in my all my time with her. About hamsters, and a spatula my brother found on the beach. About hated insects and the people she knows. About fishes and cooking in the sand. I gently humoured her while wondering why she was spending time talking to me. Perhaps it was because I let her talk while I listened, because I was ruminating, because she was lonely, because she's often quiet to the point of petulance. Or perhaps because I understood. What it was like to be a little girl myself.
She commanded me like a little general, to carry her up to touch the monkey bars, to hold up a container for her to put sand in, to walk with her, to water the plants with sand. All these orders I complied with such alacrity my mother would have been amazed.
"Who are you and please stay in my daughter's body!"
At the end of the outing, my cousin was dragged from the car in a crying fit because she didn't want to go home. Everyone coaxed her out, including me. "You have to go home..." but she didn't want to. So my dad carried her out saying all the while "You have to go get changed" as if promising her we'll still be there, if she'll just take some time to get changed.
My heart constricted and I said and repeated "Don't lie to her!" But unlike me, she didn't seem to believe my father because she kept on crying.
So little miss lonely girl was carried all the way back into the gaping mansion.
Wah so melodramatic.
OK ON TO FUNNIER NEWS.
Today, an article came out in the news about parents thronging a Confucian temple to pray for their kids before the exams start. I remembered snorting at that news because it reminded me of the phrase "Ling shi bao fuo jiao", last minute hug Buddha's leg. Also it reminded me of myself throughout my years of study as I desperately sought divine interference when my own exams were coming and I haven't studied crap. Tsk tsk desperate times call for desperate measures. Shaking my head pityingly at these people, I put the news out of my mind.
About half an hour later my mom called and asked if I wanted to go visit the Confucian temple so that my brother could be blessed. And maybe me too.
"Har noooo. And I think Bryan needs more than Confucious, he needs like Buddha, Allah, Jesus and God."
"So do you want to go?"
"Bu yao lah." (don't want man)
About a few hours later I was packed into a car on the way to the Confucian temple, and I told my brother about his need for more than one deity.
My friend smsed to ask where was I, "praying for my brother's intelligence in a temple for Confucious."
Alas, when we arrived, the temple was closed. Its operating hours are from 7am to 5.30pm. Even deities need appointment times in this corporate world of Singapore.
It didn't deter the parents though, for they prayed outside the temple. I clasped my hands together and did some praying, waving motions for good measure, because who knows I'll probably need it when I wake in cold sweat and a scream on the days of my exams.
Later in the night I was urged to visit my aunt. "Buy some grapes and visit her."
So I dragged my brother to NTUC to choose some grapes. I looked at that big, brightly-lit supermarket and thought of maybe buying a can of beer for her. But I think they wouldn't appreciate my sense of humour so I went to the fruits section. And sourced around for grapes. Picking a box up, I thought "How boring" and put it back down.
So my brother followed me around while I go through various assortment of fruits, pineapples? Too hard to peel, oranges too typical, apples even worse. Aha! A honeydew "No, it's too big!" My brother said.
Eeeew, the honeydews are wrinkled I thought. I then spotted watermelons! And hurried there "those are too big too!" said my brother.
A mental image of my aunt trying to chop the watermelon crossed my mind. I shuddered delicately as the red juices splashed against my mind's eye. Too messy.
And then finally...with brownish hair and green skin, nestled snugly and packed prettily into a plastic box were kiwis! Ok, I picked the box of kiwis, ignoring my brother's resigned sighs and passed it to him.
But just kiwis seem too little, I mused. And so I hurried to another section of...coconuts! My throat glided delightfully as I thought of the cooling, sweet liquid. Perfect! Kiwis and a coconut.
"A coconut? Who buys coconuts to give to people!" My brother exclaimed and protested as I tried to choose the freshest, youngest and most nubile looking coconut.
Choosing one, I dropped it into my brother's occupied hands and swept towards the counter. The cashier looked at me expectantly and I pointed over my shoulder to my brother who held both fruits and money. Tapping my foot impatiently, I then walked on. Marched onwards to my aunt's house.
In the lift up to my aunt's house, my brother drew the coconut out from the plastic bag, still in apparent disbelief.
"A coconut. You buy...a coconut...You are more retarded than me."
I couldn't stop my chuckling at the moment. A coconut and kiwis. So I chuckled my way to my aunt's door and smoothed my face when the door was opened by my cousin. My brother held out the fruits, "Heidi bought these for you." As if wanting to clear any involvement of his.
She smiled at him, "Not for me, for my mother."
And we walked in, to the dining table while my aunt was called out.
When the fruits were taken out, my cousin and my aunt stared at them perhaps in stunned silence for a moment. "You bought a coconut?"
"Yeah, and kiwis too. My mother said to buy grapes but I think these are more interesting. And the weather is so hot coconut juice would be refreshing."
"Oh yes," said my cousin, "we have grapes we haven't even eaten."
"It's the thought that counts," My aunt said as she prepare to pry the coconut open. "You don't have to buy anything, you're not working so don't have to waste money."
"Oh, it's ok, it's my mother's money." I replied gleefully.
Back at home my mother asked my brother and I what happened and was dismayed when she knew I had bought a coconut.
"A coconut? Why did you buy a coconut?" She said, scandalised. And I patiently explained my reasons, "besides, they already have grapes they can't finish."
Then I walked back to my room and absent-mindedly said,
"Oh and they said I've become prettier."
Closing the door behind me, I shrieked with laughter.
Upon reaching the beach I immediately planted my butt in a sheltered place hoping that I could just sit there and stare out into the ocean and feel the breeze running through my silky hair while the rest of the family can just go play with sand.
But no, it didn't happen that way.
I had scarcely, eagerly planted my butt upon the bench when dad say lets walk to the bridge and look at the sea and feel the wind! And he pointed to a bridge that from my point of locale, looks to be about as far as Timbuktu.
And I whined and stomped my feet. Ok I didn't. I just said "Papa you think you are filming a Taiwanese Idol Drama is it??" Another lady sitting near us stifled her laughter at my comment.
So they left me there. For a few seconds. Then I protested, "I'm going to be alone here!!" I followed them in the end.
While gingerly picking my way through grass and pavements littered with sleeping construction workers, I took voyeuristic photos of my retar-, my brother and my cousin playing. As well as random photos of people on the beach, then pretending I was trying to photograph the trees when the people noticed me.
I coaxed my cousin to pose with some branches for a typical innocent kid among nature photo but she refused me maybe because she knew I'm a suspicious character.
We reached the bridge and I was pleasantly surprised there's actually some place like this in Singapore, I thought it all existed only in America or some other non-singaporean place.
The beauty of blue skies and the wide open sea. A bridge that stretched out before me with a gentle curvature that almost made it seem like it was moulded to the edge of the ocean. And all the weekend wranglers, families and some solitary people converging there hinted at a freedom and idyll and maybe a sought-for peace. So I walked that bridge alone while the family was beyond my sight in front of me and took photos and closed my eyes to feel the wind caress my cheek.
Blue skies, blue seas and air with a salty tang, as if I was breathing in tears and sunshine.
On the way back from the bridge to another part of the beach, my little cousin followed me, chit-chatting and asking me questions all the way. She talked more than I've ever heard her do in my all my time with her. About hamsters, and a spatula my brother found on the beach. About hated insects and the people she knows. About fishes and cooking in the sand. I gently humoured her while wondering why she was spending time talking to me. Perhaps it was because I let her talk while I listened, because I was ruminating, because she was lonely, because she's often quiet to the point of petulance. Or perhaps because I understood. What it was like to be a little girl myself.
She commanded me like a little general, to carry her up to touch the monkey bars, to hold up a container for her to put sand in, to walk with her, to water the plants with sand. All these orders I complied with such alacrity my mother would have been amazed.
"Who are you and please stay in my daughter's body!"
At the end of the outing, my cousin was dragged from the car in a crying fit because she didn't want to go home. Everyone coaxed her out, including me. "You have to go home..." but she didn't want to. So my dad carried her out saying all the while "You have to go get changed" as if promising her we'll still be there, if she'll just take some time to get changed.
My heart constricted and I said and repeated "Don't lie to her!" But unlike me, she didn't seem to believe my father because she kept on crying.
So little miss lonely girl was carried all the way back into the gaping mansion.
Wah so melodramatic.
OK ON TO FUNNIER NEWS.
Today, an article came out in the news about parents thronging a Confucian temple to pray for their kids before the exams start. I remembered snorting at that news because it reminded me of the phrase "Ling shi bao fuo jiao", last minute hug Buddha's leg. Also it reminded me of myself throughout my years of study as I desperately sought divine interference when my own exams were coming and I haven't studied crap. Tsk tsk desperate times call for desperate measures. Shaking my head pityingly at these people, I put the news out of my mind.
About half an hour later my mom called and asked if I wanted to go visit the Confucian temple so that my brother could be blessed. And maybe me too.
"Har noooo. And I think Bryan needs more than Confucious, he needs like Buddha, Allah, Jesus and God."
"So do you want to go?"
"Bu yao lah." (don't want man)
About a few hours later I was packed into a car on the way to the Confucian temple, and I told my brother about his need for more than one deity.
My friend smsed to ask where was I, "praying for my brother's intelligence in a temple for Confucious."
Alas, when we arrived, the temple was closed. Its operating hours are from 7am to 5.30pm. Even deities need appointment times in this corporate world of Singapore.
It didn't deter the parents though, for they prayed outside the temple. I clasped my hands together and did some praying, waving motions for good measure, because who knows I'll probably need it when I wake in cold sweat and a scream on the days of my exams.
Later in the night I was urged to visit my aunt. "Buy some grapes and visit her."
So I dragged my brother to NTUC to choose some grapes. I looked at that big, brightly-lit supermarket and thought of maybe buying a can of beer for her. But I think they wouldn't appreciate my sense of humour so I went to the fruits section. And sourced around for grapes. Picking a box up, I thought "How boring" and put it back down.
So my brother followed me around while I go through various assortment of fruits, pineapples? Too hard to peel, oranges too typical, apples even worse. Aha! A honeydew "No, it's too big!" My brother said.
Eeeew, the honeydews are wrinkled I thought. I then spotted watermelons! And hurried there "those are too big too!" said my brother.
A mental image of my aunt trying to chop the watermelon crossed my mind. I shuddered delicately as the red juices splashed against my mind's eye. Too messy.
And then finally...with brownish hair and green skin, nestled snugly and packed prettily into a plastic box were kiwis! Ok, I picked the box of kiwis, ignoring my brother's resigned sighs and passed it to him.
But just kiwis seem too little, I mused. And so I hurried to another section of...coconuts! My throat glided delightfully as I thought of the cooling, sweet liquid. Perfect! Kiwis and a coconut.
"A coconut? Who buys coconuts to give to people!" My brother exclaimed and protested as I tried to choose the freshest, youngest and most nubile looking coconut.
Choosing one, I dropped it into my brother's occupied hands and swept towards the counter. The cashier looked at me expectantly and I pointed over my shoulder to my brother who held both fruits and money. Tapping my foot impatiently, I then walked on. Marched onwards to my aunt's house.
In the lift up to my aunt's house, my brother drew the coconut out from the plastic bag, still in apparent disbelief.
"A coconut. You buy...a coconut...You are more retarded than me."
I couldn't stop my chuckling at the moment. A coconut and kiwis. So I chuckled my way to my aunt's door and smoothed my face when the door was opened by my cousin. My brother held out the fruits, "Heidi bought these for you." As if wanting to clear any involvement of his.
She smiled at him, "Not for me, for my mother."
And we walked in, to the dining table while my aunt was called out.
When the fruits were taken out, my cousin and my aunt stared at them perhaps in stunned silence for a moment. "You bought a coconut?"
"Yeah, and kiwis too. My mother said to buy grapes but I think these are more interesting. And the weather is so hot coconut juice would be refreshing."
"Oh yes," said my cousin, "we have grapes we haven't even eaten."
"It's the thought that counts," My aunt said as she prepare to pry the coconut open. "You don't have to buy anything, you're not working so don't have to waste money."
"Oh, it's ok, it's my mother's money." I replied gleefully.
Back at home my mother asked my brother and I what happened and was dismayed when she knew I had bought a coconut.
"A coconut? Why did you buy a coconut?" She said, scandalised. And I patiently explained my reasons, "besides, they already have grapes they can't finish."
Then I walked back to my room and absent-mindedly said,
"Oh and they said I've become prettier."
Closing the door behind me, I shrieked with laughter.
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