Solubility of the White Precipitate...

Rejuvanation time...

2008-03-11T22:37:00.005+08:00

Today felt like writing something... after 6 months... or longer... haha...

I think in my previous lifetime i must be some bus demolisher whose primary task was to inflict maximum pain and damage to the bus. Now, it's payback time. This morning i had the fortune to take this new bus to sch. Apart from this particular latex aroma that smells promising in destroying my alveoli, the bus also boosts many steps towards the end of the bus whose primary intent is to trip an unsuspecting victim (me). It's all right till now, i suppose being vigilant is good enough to keep my limbs intact. Just as I arrived at the stop and about to alight from the bus, the bus uncle decided to give me knee a little wake up call, by connecting it a little too strongly on one of the seats, to remind it that my nociceptors are still functioning... Pain....Never mind...late for school already...

After a grueling day at failing experiments, it's time to go home.... Hoping onto my fav bus that takes me home, i tot it was finally time for some eye shut... Leaning onto the window against my elbow, i felt really at home, dozing off...off...off... KONG! That sure hurts... The bus uncle decided to be nice and stop at the amber light, causing my poor elbow to hit the window sill... i wonder if my osteoclasts, osteoblasts and osteocytes are hard at work trying to mend that crack in the bone...how useful that the stuff i learnt in class today is applicable to daily lives...

But it seems that the bus ordeal is not over yet... the last bus of the day...the one that brings me to my doorstep... another new bus again... with the infamous steps in the bus ... while i threaded carefully down the steps to get to the door, the bus uncle decided to test his brakes (how fast he could decelerate) just before he reached the bus stop... short of flinging me down the steps... luckily my loyal arms managed to catch the railings.. if not there will be more bus trips... to the doctor...

Haha...i think i whine a lot...this kind of stuff also blog...haha

Want to be a strawberry no more...

2007-09-15T18:34:00.000+08:00

School started...Yeah...Starting to get busy. SHOULD be fully prepared for a VERY HECTIC sem ahead, yet still feeling lethargic. Yeah...feeling unaccomplished...high inertia to do work...to the extent that i think i am a certain self-contained medical device--a leech... leeching on my frens... A good fren commented that i am rather 草莓 recently (means collapsing under stress)...ya..that's what i think too...that's why feeling a little depressed...

Will change...Will buck up yeah!!! Starting from this week... 今から、一所懸命に勉強しますね...

The Chronicles of Gabel...

2007-06-29T17:08:00.000+08:00

Once upon a time, in the deep blue ocean, there lived a little turtle named Gabel. Now Gabel the turtle was a capable turtle… or so he thought. Turtles like to catch jellyfish (well take it that it makes sense), jellyfish was the main source of food and jellyfish catching was very much a survival skill and a recreational activity for turtles. Our protagonist, Gabel the turtle certainly had to acquire this essential skill, so at a tender age, he was enrolled into the Turtlet Elementary School for Jellyfish Catching. The school introduced them to the rudiments of jellyfish catching. It seemed that Gabel the turtle was a rather promising turtle in this field, showing decent results in catching tiny jellyfishes of varying species and origin. Gabel the turtle could not understand why other turtles just could not catch anything because he felt that as long as someone put in effort, there would be some form of result. So all the way through elementary school he was hailed as one of the best jellyfish catchers.

Then he progressed to a reputable high school for jellyfish catching, which admitted only the best catchers. The aim was to train them to be the crème de la crème. In this school, apart from hard skills in catching jellyfish, they have to learn more theoretical stuff to deal with larger, more poisonous and crafty jellyfishes. Anatomy was important as they needed to know more about the poisonous tentacles and the entire composition of a jellyfish. Physics was important as they needed to calculate the trajectory of the jellyfishes with respect to the currents in the sea. Jellyfish psychology was imperative as well so that they could anticipate and figure out how jellyfishes would react to attacks and set traps accordingly. Well, those were just the tip of the iceberg, there were so much more stuff to learn. Gabel the turtle might not be the best student, but he was definitely one of the better ones. All along, he had a rather high self esteem and full confidence of his abilities which was backed up by his academic results and jellyfish catching track record. Now, after high school, it was time to progress into university.

As expected, he was admitted into the best university in his portion of the sea, The Oceanic University of Jellyfish Entrapment. He decided to major in the art of using sound waves to entice jellyfish. It was a rather new area of interest but it created a sensation in the turtle world due to it novelty. Rather difficult to get in but Gabel the turtle got in anyway. After taking some lessons, he realized that it was not what he expected it to be. While it was an interesting course, he realized that this was such a new area that he needed more knowledge and higher studies if he wanted to excel in it. Headache…Moreover, he did not do as well in university. Of course, while he was troubled over these issues, his friends in other courses were doing much better studying the more conventional courses like catching jellyfish with a net or catching jellyfish with a rod. Now Gabel the turtle was thinking if he made a wrong choice. While his other friends were getting a good head start in their career of jellyfish catching, he was worried if he could have a good future with the bare minimal knowledge and the mediocre results. His confidence level faltered. His other turtle friends all had plans for the future or a predefined career path. He was confused, no plans no future, nothing… He started to wonder if studying so much in the past was worth it. He felt that he was only a mirage, not worth a farthing and all the results in the past was nothing much to boost about. He wanted to just hide in his shell and never come out again.

Gabel the turtle was lost… in the truest meaning of the word.

Heaven and Hell in 4 days...

2007-05-23T23:51:00.000+08:00

九寨沟… they call it a fairyland…so it seems…now the 3 Singapore Students decided to embark on a voyage to the legendary scenic land since it is a supposedly a stone’s throw away from Chengdu… Well… it is not exactly a stone’s throw…unless u have a professional pitcher who can pitch a stone like hundreds of miles away… we decided to go budget and take land transport instead of flying…and hence commencing the 10 hour journey…

Day 1
Oh yeah, Day 1 starts at the ungodly hour of 6.30am where we were transported from a tiny van to a tour bus. Sad to say, the tour bus was already very packed when we boarded, so we had to take the seats towards the back. I was so lucky that I got a seat right at the back of the bus that boasted virtually no damping and guaranteed motion sickness. It really didn’t help that the roads ahead were in the mountainous regions complete with uneven paths and hair pin turns…Then I begin to praise myself for the ingenuity of bringing medicine for giddiness and nausea… Lunch was an eye opener and it definitely made a lasting impression on me or should I say ‘depression’…. dampened quite a bit of my spirits… didn’t realize the food could be so terrible… started to get worried about the remaining days…I admit that I am picky about food but I am sure ming and zinc agree with me that it was an extreme case of horror…Weird veg cooked in weird sauce with weird stuff…Meat was playing hide and seek and I could say it won the game cos I couldn’t find it at all…it’s distant cousin the fat meat was hanging around though…the aunties on the same lunch table as us were urging us to eat more cos it was a long day ahead…it was a grueling task just to scoop the food into your mouth…Overheard this mom talking to her daughter telling her to eat more…daughter said, ‘I ate 2 bowls of rice already’…I was incredulous…didn’t even manage half a bowl myself… Then we hit the road again with more turns and twists…Finally reached the hotel where we were supposed to stay for the night…Stunned….We didn’t realize that we were supposed to stay in a hotel 3000m above sea level…so we only had a thin windbreakers while others were clad in winter wear…Thought that 九寨沟 was a valley so should be sticking to low lying areas…Well…Lesson learnt…do not make assumptions… The 3 popsicles then explored the hotel room after which we all agreed in unison that we would freeze to death at night cos the heater wasn’t anywhere in sight… Dinner wasn’t any better… After dinner, there was nothing to do and we decided to reduce heat loss by limiting movement and maintaining minimal activity level and that was… going to sleep as early as 8pm… We were shocked to hear that hot water would only be available from 9.00 to 10.30pm. By 10pm, it was so cold that movement was a chore and between catching a cold and being dirty, it was a rather clear choice. No showers then…We spent the night shivering under 2 layers of blankets, praying that the night passes quickly…I think it was the first time that I felt elation when the alarm clock rang…

Day 2
Breakfast rivaled lunch and dinner the previous day…could say it actually won hands down…had to eat weird porridge with weird preserved veg for breakfast and topped with a man tou which was nowhere near tasty…I realized the true essence of ‘swallowing’ food cos my taste buds were rebelling with every chew…had to force food down my throat… Headed for 童话世界九寨沟 after breakfast... Could say that maybe the hardship till then was worth it…the place was simply enchanting…. Beautiful lakes ….Pretty waterfalls…totally fell in love with the clear blue water…yeah I mean blue…it really lived up to its name….Heaven...

Clear blue water at 五花海

Nice water at 五彩池

Pretty waterfall

珍珠滩瀑布 the scene of Sun Wu Kong and his master pulling their white horse across filmed here

At night, went to this 藏 family’s house where a series of singing and performance were staged. They were adamant to make you drunk by toasting you homemade wine every now and then…of course…by the 6th cup…my face could actually put a ripe tomato to shame…wasn’t much of a drinker actually…then they make you dance and while other people were catching the beat…I was struggling to follow…and there was this over zealous auntie who was so into dancing that she did not realize that she had elbowed me below the shoulder in her haste to follow the beat and to this very day…the region hurts…yeah present tense….HURTS… had quite a bit of fun though…

Day 3
This day we were supposed to go to 黄龙 which was another scenic spot with lots of colourful lakes, ponds, pools… whatever u call them… What we didn’t know was that we had to climb up 4100m to reach the summit where the beautiful pool was…Many or should I say all the people in the tour group chose to take the cable car either up or down or both ways cos climbing was too taxing and those who chose to climb most prob didn’t make it up cos of high altitude sickness…Saw people carrying little bottles of stuff…then I realized that those were mini oxygen tanks...Oops…didn’t know that the mountain was that high…we have virtually nothing with us and so we were half prepared to drop dead and die halfway up….the motivating factor to move upwards was powered by the fact that we dun want to waste the entrance fee and also the sufferings on the road earlier…we held on yeah…Surprisingly, we were the only 3 who climbed up the mountain and then subsequently walked down... the other tour members were super impressed cos we got down even much earlier than those who took the cable car…the young and able...haha…it was indeed a beautiful place…just a pity that we could only see a few pools…I commented that it was such a pity that there was not much water at this point of the year if not it would be prettier…and Ming said ‘yeah, only the 五彩池 is in season’…In season…what an apt way to put it…

Wow can see snow mountains...

Me at 黄龙-五彩池

Overview of 黄龙-五彩池

The evening was a particularly trying one with delayed dinner cos we had to get to the hotel which was at this particular place super far away…had to take like 4 hours bus there…I decided to curb my reliance to the medicine by refusing to eat it…and I realized that sleeping did nothing good but make u feel more terrible when u wake up…so I spent the first 3 hours looking out of the window, observing the driver drive, gazing at passing yaks and sheep….Realized the bus driver was quite set on getting us killed cos he was racing like at 120km/hr around hair pin bends along the mountainous road and I suspected he was super sore when another tour bus overtook him and he resolved to race the other bus just to satisfy his desire for road superiority at the expense of the 20 odd innocent tourists who just wanted to stay alive… Sun set and darkness came…nothing to see outside and I was resigned to singing ‘Pinky and the Brain’ silently for the last 1 hour to maintain sanity…

Day 4
Going home…going home…Ming had a lot of grievances against the bus uncle…well all of us had …but Ming had it worst cos she suffered the most from motion sickness…clinging on the dirty blue curtain as if her life depended on it with a 痛苦的脸according to zinc…but the bus uncle was the one who could get us back…we boarded the bus praying that we would be alive and kicking the same hour the next day… At last civilization was in sight…never had the smell of polluted air been this fresh and welcoming to my senses…yeah it did... the malnourished trio was so ready to kiss the Chengdu city floor after alighting from the bus…And of course…civilization means decent food …that’s important…

九寨沟 and 黄龙 are nice places to visit…simply breath taking and u will never believe that water could be so blue until u see it for urself…just bear in mind that the conditions may be trying or just dun go budget…

What are friends…

2007-05-14T00:15:00.001+08:00

‘It’s amazing how you can speak right to my heart’…It is this unspoken understanding that touches me…I wonder how you all are able to read between the lines and sense the gloom that lingers…A random comment triggered a stream of concerned questions and a simple ‘thanks’ received a ‘what are sisters for’…that did it…brought tears to my eyes…Another comment which looks totally normal to other people sent 2 other angels to ask after me and to do things just to cheer me up…(To the 2 darlings…Loved the song you sent me and although the pictures of food makes me a little homesick…I appreciate it)

Thanks everyone…

Ouch…it hurts

2007-05-09T01:12:00.000+08:00

My dou sha bao good friend, Zinc said I am a FOP… I do see the truth in it now… In the past, I used to think that the problems that she mentioned were self imposed (as in I voluntarily inflict the sufferings on myself)…but it seems that now the problems that are manifesting are pretty significant and really affecting my physical self…Dunno why I woke up with a throbbing pain in my left foot on Sunday…did some search and I think it should be Achilles tendonitis. Didn’t think it was anything more serious than an uncomfortable ache during locomotion. But apparently it was more than that… Today, concentration level in class boasted a new low (not that it was ever much higher). I think the long May holiday certainly has a part in this conspiracy but the pulsing pain in my foot certainly is the mastermind… I have to do something about it…

Went to the school’s hospital to get my feet examined…I think the doctor was rather irritated with me for my incessant asking on how serious my condition was and how long my foot would take to recover…he gave a politically correct yet non informative answer... ‘It depends, some people respond better to the medicine and recover fast, some slowly, some never’…That really assured me… Then he noticed my ‘foreign’ accent or should I say poor command of Chinese language and he asked where I am from…The word ‘Singapore’ spurred an endless stream of questions from him…seems that he was really interested…from the food to the education system to the housing price to the average pay….blah blah blah…actually felt quite proud of myself that I could answer his questions…haha… Back to the diagnosis…He told me to get a certain herb called 白芷 and a small bottle of honey…I was quite amused when I saw that 2 words on the prescription formula…白芷 happens to be the first 2 words of one of my good fren’s name and she was telling us about this particular flower just weeks ago…didn’t realized I had this much affinity with it...Anyway...the doctor mixed the 2 ingredients into a paste and bandaged it up for me…I started to wonder how I am going to make it back with this mushy, sticky and sweet concoction plastered on my foot without the ants attacking me as if I am a candy bar …Well, the ants kept their distance thankfully, but the honey batter started seeping out through the sides… eurghhhhhhhhhhh…. With considerable effort, I made it back to the hostel alive…with half the stuff left in the bandage…That’s not the end…waterproofing the bandaged leg with plastic bag is apparently a brilliant idea just that I didn’t realize that the permeability of plastic bags to polar molecules like water can increase so dramatically when I use it… had to unwind the whole mess and dry it…I think my bandaging skill is better than the doctor…at least my bandage looks more sturdy now…Till now the stuff works but it is still under probation…hope it really does…

On a side note… I broke the toilet flush in my room today…some puny mechanism just broke when I pulled the flush…Zinc said it is about time I go bother the 服务员姐姐 since I have not been breaking any part of my room for a decent amount of time…

Is it me?

2007-05-08T00:29:00.000+08:00

Most people know I have a ‘problem of the day’ problem. I always have full confidence in my ability to find something to brood over for the whole day. Pris says I think too much, some other people say I have nothing better to do. Maybe, but this ‘POTD’ problem is here to stay…

That day was randomly clicking around on my comp and suddenly I found this new problem. My Help and Support function couldn’t work! Oh for goodness sake, how many people use their H & S function in the comp? Was talking to this friend of mine about this problem and the first thing he asked me was ‘What’s that’…Well, most people would just google their problem on the Net now I suppose… I would do the same thing…. But I couldn’t take it lying down… simply couldn’t live with something malfunctioning, I must TRY to so something at least…Googled my problem and it did return very useful results…Some websites describe exactly the symptoms of my comp’s disease accompanied with solutions… Great, so now the surgeon found the rotting flesh… with sterilized surgical knife and tweezers….BUT…but ….but ….it didn’t work… maybe the knife was too blunt…The traumatized surgeon had to give up and convince herself to live with it after half a day’s battle….

A lot of people say I am asking for it…should have spent my time better rather than on something I hardly touch…makes sense…but it is just me I suppose… I cannot stand my stuff having blemishes even if I dun use them… I think it is a form of 洁癖… My friend told me to reformat my comp if I really cannot stand it…but it’s different…. I told him reformatting does not nip the problem at the bud…it is like you have a dog called 小明，then小明 caught an illness which u try so hard but cannot cure…so u kill小明 and buy a similar dog and call it小明. However, if小明 2 catches the same disease, you will have the same problem and the whole vicious cycle continues…ok this analogy sounds a bit warped…

In the meantime… I think I will try to live with it….

Slacking away...Wasting away...

2007-04-30T18:42:00.000+08:00

Here I am sitting in a nice newly opened restaurant just beside my hostel having high tea, typing my latest entry… This looks like a rather high class place… with rather high class prices comparable to stuff back home…Nice ambience… A good place to spend the afternoon… Well, they are having a trial period before the actual opening so everything is on 40% discount… why not…

Think I will become fat contrary to what I have initially expected… good food is always around the corner (if you make an effort to find and if you have the guts to try) and it is at a fraction of the price back home…

Now having close to 2 weeks holiday… this week is one of the golden weeks in China… Labour Day… should actually take the chance to travel around…but I think it is not really a wise choice… I am sure most of the tourist attractions will be bursting with locals… I suppose I can fritter my time away this week doing nothing…

A brief run through of what I do every day…

Wake up in the morning …. Go for lunch…walk around…go for dinner…sleep…wake up in the morning…go for lunch….walk around…go for dinner…sleep… (you get the idea…) Zinc told me we shouldn’t wake up early in the morning… cos there is nothing much to do and we will feel hungry, then we will start to look for food and then start growing fat… her theory is to wake up just in time for lunch… so u will just eat lunch and not feel guilty about eating cos u have effectively skipped a meal…I thought that theory was rather warped cos I believe in not mistreating myself…so if I missed a meal…I will make up for it by eating more…得不偿失…

Think I have to spend more effort thinking of what to do with the remaining week meaningfully…

I am a problem kid...

2007-04-17T20:29:00.000+08:00

Last night my good friend who is currently on SEP with me wrote something on her blog which summarises her anguish or should i say amusement over my heaps of 'problems of the day or week'... Quite funny... I am not aware that I am such a 问题儿童.... I would like to express my sincerest apologies and gratitude to my 2 good friends here who are always bearing towards me and my endless chattering and of course for providing solutions (whether or not they are feasible) to my problems....

here's the extract if you all are interested....

Artist's (Minghao's) impression of FOP-pies. [FOP= Full of Problems]
This post is dedicated to my friend who lives in Rm205 at the 留学生宿舍.. She has been officially conferred the title of FOP. As you can see from the picture, she is plagued with problems ever since SEP started in Chengdu. I think we spend 1/3 of our time in Chengdu listening and analysing poor friend's problems... It all started with a leaky toilet ceiling... which will drip a liquid (I wouldn't want to know what is that) on you if use the 马桶.. So my poor friend had to report it to the 服务员 about it and it took them quite long to repair it. And it started to leak again after they repaired it... so poor friend had to report to 服务员 again.. and then she realised that her shower area started to leak too! And the 服务员 had to go repair it for her again.. between the day the leak was found and the day it got repaired which spanned over a period of..... about 3 weeks I think, poor friend had been expressing her concern over leaky toilet to us. So being good friends we tried to comfort her that it'll be fixed one fine day and she can always come "bless" our toilets.. Finally, poor friend's toilet got fixed and she managed to dettol it. (in case you don't know wat does "dettol it" means, it means using Dettol, a disinfectant, to disinfect the area/thing/object) And we though her problems will end there... NOT! Poor friend then started to develop rashes.. So we tried to figure out what was the cause of this new problem.. Perhaps it was caused by the cold? dry weather? blanket? bedsheet? bed buds? bed mites? UFOs? After eliminating whatever might be the reason, rashes started to subside a little and poor friend also managed to get a "Made In Singapore" 药膏 to apply on her rashes. And so we thought the rashes problem was solved.... NOT! It became a problem again, now moving to her legs.. So more brainstorming was carried out, trying to solve the problem and a new tube of 药膏 was bought to salvage the situation. Before this problem was solved.. Poor friend suddenly had this "funny feeling" on her hands! So while rubbing her hands together, she expressed her concern to us whether her hands were too dry? funny? And she briefed us on the reasons that might have caused this problem... maybe she wasn't drinking enough water? But I suggested to her, maybe she was just dettol-ing too much and Dettol might be very damaging to her skin.. and while battling "funny feeling" hands problem, she was also found it very problematic going to the toilet numerous times throughout the day. And of course, she had a long list of causes for this weak bladder problem.. maybe it was caused by too high intake of water? high intake of salt? weak bladder? something wrong with kidneys? Oh yah! and while she was battling wif "funny feeling" hands problem and weak bladder problem, she neglected her rashes problem and it didnt itch anymore.. So I think it can be deduced that most of her problems are probably psychological..... right? No matter whether is it psychological or physcial my poor friend, don't worry. We will be glad to try to solve it for you! Because... that's what friends are for right? Must remember that, no matter how not nice is that dou sha bao you bought for me, I'll finish it , because you specially da bao it back for me.. =)[p.s Poor friend's hot water flask was also leaking and 服务员 had to fix it for her but I forgot when did it happen.. too many problems and I got the timeline a bit mixed up..]

She...

2007-04-06T23:00:00.000+08:00

She shines, the stars hide
She dazzles, the diamonds cry
She binds, our hearts are bounded
She captures, our friendship is prisoner

She embraces us with love, an ever encompassing love
She protects us so dearly, we indulge in safe bliss
She carries herself with grace, grace that put swans to shame
She’s pretty she reigns, with beauty that drowns all pain

She is a white lily, so pure in kindness and selfless in giving
She is a red rose, a blatant and forward embodiment of love
She is a sunflower, she towers and lights up our days
She is a forget-me-not, our memories of her last forever

She is a dear friend, her sweetness lingers
She is a true friend, her loyalty perseveres
She is a real friend, her honesty advises
She is a good friend, her love touches

But she is an undecided flame,
Burning fiercely and extinguishing in haste
We regret we mourn
Yet we could only cling to the memories of that blazing flame

Out of town...

2007-04-02T16:35:00.000+08:00

I realised that blogging has become a once in a month occurence... Those who read keep asking why i bother to keep the blog since i dun update... dunno... just lazy to start writing... I foresee this to be a long post since it documents the monthly happenings...

Ok... i am officially out of town... on student exchange to China... quite a cool place... both figuratively and literally... generally the people here are very friendly... especially the people here at the hostel... super helpful... i shall elaborate on that later... Since I don't really know my way around here the first few days... i tend to ask for directions quite frequently... most people are very eager to help... some people are so ardent that even when i told them i don't understand what they are saying… they continued giving directions in some unknown tongue…quite amusing…

Perhaps I should give a summary of some of the more interesting things or stuff that is worth highlighting… I realized as the days drag on, I will have more and more stuff to add on… so better write down while I can remember….

1. Toilet episode…

This is one that spans 3 weeks. The first day I was here I found the toilet ceiling leaking…I don’t really want to know what was the stuff that was dripping down, just hope that the pipe could get repaired soon. So I reported the leak and they assured me they would repair it the next day after they examined the ceiling… Great… this marked the start of a week’s worth of bathing at my fren’s room… so sorry to trouble her and her toilet…Thanks ming… In the next couple of weeks, I was always in for surprises…. Firstly, I came back to find part of my toilet ceiling missing… there was a big dark hole revealing the pipe above…. I assumed they were at least patching up the hole on the pipe and will eventually fix the ceiling… ming and zinc told me to be careful in case ninja turtles jump down from the ceiling when I am inside….I applaud their imagination and that was really helpful… When I thought my toilet was finally usable after putting it on probation for a couple of days…the dripping began again… how infuriating… then it became fixing, leaking, fixing, leaking… the last straw…. the whole incident was really grating on my nerves… imagine having to knock on other people’s door to borrow the toilet all the time when you have one in the room…how ironic…Finally one day they decided to replace the part of the pipe that was leaking rather than just covering it with cement… IT WORKED… But as I was indulging in the bliss of having a functional toilet in my room, I found a new leaking spot…. and the process repeats… Now at least both spots are not leaking anymore… I think I should just hope for the best and pray that the person staying in the room above me hates bathing…

2. A series of unfortunate events…

I think I am super accident prone… my bed has a permanent depression in the middle for some unknown reason… laptop charger started to rebel and stopped functioning… falling off steps…keeping an important receipt in pocket of jeans and washing it even when my friends specifically warned me about the possibility of that happening (zinc calls me a 番薯 because of that)… mistaking a 50 cent note for 5 dollars…not being able to find fullscape paper of the right size (I guess that’s trivial, haha)… ok beginning to sound whiny…guess I really forgot a lot of stuff already…shouldn’t be this short actually…haha

Maybe I should continue another day…

Tell me about service... ...

2007-02-04T22:37:00.000+08:00

Apologies to those who read my blog. I haven't had any inspiration or urge to blog recently. Well, something or rather some things happened tonight that piqued me into writing.

It started off as a simple task of returning a very much overdue library book. While attempting to pay the fine, i was reminded how long a period my cashcard was in desolation (cos i didn't even know it was low in cash). Naturally i went to the top-up machine. In my haste, i starting pressing some buttons even before i finished reading the instructions. While pondering over the next step, a very friendly librarian offered her assistance. I appreciated her help but for a moment i wondered if i looked like someone who cannot understand english. Ok, that was really mean of me. I think she was just generally helpful and I was generally ungrateful. So that's about service part I... good service... ...

Being a shopper at heart, i couldn't help but roam around the area after leaving the library waiting for something to catch my eye. Walking into a certain boutique, i started looking at dresses. That was really a wrong first move and the start of a really trying experience. I was attended by an over zealous sales girl who stuffed me successively with dresses of various shapes and styles. She even offered/requested/demanded (u get the idea) to look at me after I finish changing every piece. Then she would bring in new pieces for me to try. I think the whole duration was longer than the combined time i spent in changing rooms for the past 6 months. She kept insisting that i looked all right in some clothes that i dun think fit at all. In the end, she was so adamant on selling me a certain piece of skirt that she didn't even take the hint that i was not really that interested in that skirt. In bid to be civil, i told her that i would seriously consider it and i would come back to her if i want it. I really applaud her insistence, she said something about reserving the skirt for me and badgering some form of verbal consensus from me that I would return to buy it. Of course i didn't fall for that. Perhaps it was my fault for looking generally interested in some of the pieces she showed me and then trying them on, but I thought it was just being appreciative for her effort in matching and selecting pieces which she thought suited me. That's service part II... Well, I believe that was really good service on her part... too good that it became irritating... It seemed that i always meet very enthusiastic sales girls near chinese new year... especially when i go shopping alone. Last year, a particular sales girl stressed me out so much, i boycotted the shop till now. Seems that it is recurring this year... At the end of today's episode, i realised 2 things...
1. dun go shopping alone near chinese new year.
2. i need to go easy on carbo

After that, I went to this newly opened shop to buy dessert. The lady in front of me took ages, that irked me a little. I mean my patience was not good to start with and after that trying experience at the boutique, i could do without queuing behind someone who ordered a fair bit and a slow cashier. Finally my turn, but the cashier started talking to another staff... as if i was non existent... while patience was running thin, i tried my best not to show a very irritated face...really, i tried very hard... then suddenly she walked away... that was it... she just simply walked away and started chatting with other staff... seemed that the others were myopic too... they were engaged in some form of active conversation while i was in clear view of them looking very much like a customer who wants to buy something... if i had not promised to buy back dessert for my brother, i would have walked away. When she finally restored my status to something more than glass and acknowledged my presence, i had to repeat my orders a couple of times before she got it right. Never mind about that, she gave orders to prepare the dessert for takeaway... but apparently no one moved and others carried on doing their own stuff which was basically doing nothing. I was wondering if they were preparing my dessert somewhere in the kitchen where i couldn't see. After a seemingly long wait, I think desperate efforts to keep a friendly face failed and the cashier was prompted to nudge someone into packing... Apparently the auntie who was to pack my stuff couldn't open a refrigerator door, take out the dessert and put it into a plastic bag without turning back to talk to her friends. After packing the dessert (which was in liquid form and had a flimsy cover) into 2 bags, the auntie cautioned me to be careful while carrying to avoid spillage (cos it had a really flimsy cover). I was thinking why would you provide something to a customer when you know it would definitely cause inconvenience. Since you know the container was flimsy, change a different type... Why continue the mistake? But i gave it some allowance since it was a new shop... From the way i was to carry it with all my other stuff, i saw no way out of spillage, so i asked her to pack them in another way which i thought would reduce chances of spillage and i still believe i am right. She insisted that it would be worse and she took out the dessert and shook it while saying '是水的，是水的' (which means it was in liquid form) REPEATEDLY... At that point, i was really amused as if i dunno what i ordered... i must be wearing a 'dumb look' out today... That's service part III... you can see how i feel about it...

Really interesting evening...

Metamorphasis... ...

2007-01-16T23:33:00.000+08:00

I believe myself to be metamorphasising... Recently, I realised that my supposedly unbreachable skin is constantly attacked by mosquitoes. This is very weird... Cos normally mosquitoes steer clear of my path, they will choose to sting someone else... so normally the friends around me will get the stings... I know that sounds a bit mean but i will always be 'sacrificially protected' by the rest, so much so that i will volunteer my mosquito coil out to others cos i dun really need it. Looking at ppl applying layers of insect repellent and equipping other forms of repelling protection is really funny... ok that sounds mean again. well now i am getting my just deserts...

I have like almost 10 bites altogether on both legs... I believe that it is the same mosquito that has been invading my skin. And it has been lurking somewhere in my room... Maybe i should feel 'useful', cos i became its mobile and constantly replenishing food source....

How how how... i hope i evolve back into my old self.... i hate mosquito bites... ...

Friendship... ...

2006-12-30T03:06:00.000+08:00

What is a friend? A friend asked me this question one day in an attempt to start a seemingly intellectual conversation. I of course provided a seemingly intellectual answer which amounted to crap (though I refused to acknowledge that at that point of time). I said, “A friend is someone who will pat you on the back and say ‘good job’ after you are done with irritating him or her.” Well, I was trying to irritate him at that time of course but now I come to see that the particular statement has its merit. A true friend will brave untold dangers for you, someone who will watch your back with you feeling perfectly safe. That notion may be too remote in today’s context, but someone who will be sensitive to your every move and takes much care in your feelings. Always there to offer encouragement without blinding you to the truth, always there to lend a helping hand without leading you to be too dependent.

So back to the statement, then of course a true friend will not mind the irritation that you cause to him or her and instead focus on the stimulus which caused you to have a mind to irritate him or her. If the cause of you irritating your friend is due to some unhappy stimulus that you suffered, the friend will understand and see the irritation as an outlet for your frustration. If the irritation has no unkind stimulus and purely a result of mischief, then the friend would see it as an act with no harm intended and should measure up to the mischief by not appearing to be ruffled by the irritating acts. Either way, ‘good job’ sounds like the ideal phrase to say. However, I would think that it needs someone of a high threshold to remain impassive or even encouraging in the face of irritation. Most people, myself included, cannot stand people irritating us. We will retaliate most of the time by being more irritating.

I have been encouraged by certain friends recently. The things that they do are very heartening, it is those little things that people tend to overlook that make them special and huge when they are fulfilled. It is amazing how fast and deep friendships can be forged. I think you just have to meet the right people at the right time. I realize that you can talk about anything with certain people even though you may not know them for long, yet it is difficult for you to utter a single word to some people you have known for entire life. I suppose chemistry between people plays a large part when it comes to developing friendships. Forgive me if I am not making sense, I think the lethargy is kicking in and the brain is the first to witness it. Should continue on friendship on another day… …

Alone... ...

2006-12-30T02:35:00.000+08:00

I am alone in the world's finest airport, not awaiting to fly off somewhere but waiting for someone who is about to fly off somewhere to start a new chapter of her life. Many laugh at my foolishness at forsaking sleep for a chance to say goodbye to my good friend in face. Well, I am devoid of sleep recently and that coupled with the not too short distance between home and the airport is reason enough for me to stay at home to enjoy the comforts of my cosy bed. Yet here I am alone, at this unforgiving hour penning my latest entry for my blog. At least I made myself comfortable, sitting on a comfortable sofa with a nice cup of hot chocolate to warm my brain and keep it form lapsing into the drowsy mode. But it is the right choice to be here, good friend will not be back till mid of next year.

It is good to be alone at times, especially in a foreign environment and out of comfort zone. That is particularly true if you also happen to have too much time to kill or nothing important at hand to do, you tend to observe more things. Things that we take for granted or fail to notice normally. Then we will start to appreciate things a bit more and learn to cherish the things that we own or take for granted.

Moreover, it is not always that we get some time of our own. We are very much caught up with the events in our lives sometimes that we fail to consider the actions that we are carrying out. We just don’t see the significance or goal of the action but are preoccupied with the action itself. It is always nice to have time to sit back and reflect our actions from time to time. Yet the time allocated for reflection is sometimes a luxury as we will normally lapse from one activity to another without giving ourselves a chance to evaluate the previous acts. Especially when in a familiar environment where there is always stuff that we can find to do.

Jumping out of comfort zone may not be a very welcoming thing. I personally abhor the idea of camping over at the airport alone; my apprehension led me to reverse my decision to come many times over. Yet I can say that it is not a bad thing either, I can have personal time of my own sitting down, thinking and seeing new things. I would say that without Internet for one whole night is a terrible enough notion for a chat freak like me. Felt a bit lost initially, but I found some truth to what my brother said to me recently about ‘chatting too much online equals no life’. It is good sometimes to be uncontactable and unreachable.

Surprisingly, I don’t feel sleepy now. I am sure if I am at home, I will be dead tired if I am still up at this time of the day. Perhaps I am more vigilant in a foreign environment.

The airport is very quiet in the wee hours of the morning, most people will not come and send people off who are flying at this hour. Recently I have been in the airport umpteen times, sending people off and normally at this kind of weird hours. I wonder if anyone will come and send me off when I fly off next year.

A couple of surprises this morning… didn't think I would be able to find a nice couch to sit, didn't think I would be able to find a power plug to feed my ever thirsty computer, didn't think I would be able to keep myself occupied adequately for 3 hours without Internet access and without getting bored... ...

Just rambling....

Comments...

2006-12-11T01:04:00.000+08:00

Finally i got the comments button back... after much effort...

Reflections of the day

2006-12-09T21:58:00.000+08:00

Humans house one of the most complex machines in the world known as the brain... the directing of the intricate mechanical functioning of the body is reason to marvel at and that coupled with emotions and feelings introduce diversity and individuality in people. In short, people are different and it is not always possible that people see eye to eye with others... this introduces problems...

Some people have a higher threshold level... they generally dun see anything wrong with certain things that other people feel are or that they can endure certain level of mistakes and always hope to avoid aggression or confrontation... other people are more sensitive to the surroundings and the people around them and they tend to want to right the wrongs or correct the mistakes if they believe it justifiable... i dunno which one is considered better or more appropriate... i suppose it depends on the situation... I am inclined to think that i am of the same nature as the former...

The thing is, keeping quiet does not solve any problem at times... It may even worsen the situation and help to feed the problem causing it to go out of control. However i feel that if whatever i say does not add value to the situation or does not help to ease the situation... they can do without my input to confuse them further... I dun know if this is considered a 'heck care' attitude cos i am not actively trying to solve the problem but rather waiting for a solution to present itself or seen as trying to extricate myself from the mess.

I realise that sometimes persisting on a problem does not necessarily solve it... it just becomes an endless cycle of arguments which of course arises from the differences in mentalities and experiences. Sometimes we are just very caught up with a certain point or argument that we fail to consider the big picture... sometimes taking a back step and looking at the big picture can present a simple yet effective solution...

A summary of my incoherent thoughts

2006-12-09T20:39:00.000+08:00

I suddenly have this thought... what if everything that i believed all my life cease to hold true anymore... what if all the friends that i have around me are just figments of my imagination... what if what if what if...

I cannot imagine what i would do... would i just break down? dunno.... i think the most politically correct answer that u can get is ' face reality, wake up'. However, I believe that the course of action that i would currently take is to stay in happy delusion and carry on day dreaming... i suppose taking the easy way out is being less cruel to myself... If waking up shatters me, let me dream forever...hmm...sometimes that keeps u going... helping to maintain your confidence level and to continue with your life as normal for the time being...

Even as i am penning this down, i am feeling a bit weird. As a person who prides at being very rational and logical, I cannot believe that i would ever think of staying in a trance... generally i dun like to run away from problems as much as possible, cos running away from them means they still have a chance to catch up with u again...so i prefer to 'eliminate' or termed more commonly-- solve them... well but then sometimes logical people would want to run away from reality too... at least until they can face it with an appropriate state of mind to be able to solve it properly.

Sounds totally like a stressed out person...

Wasting time... ...

2006-10-13T15:09:00.000+08:00

Recently, I realise that i am very good at wasting time. Not that i am not good at it before but i just didn't realise the severity. There are just so many things that i have to do... the organiser shows a never ending list of projects, tests, assignments... the brain resolves to work through the night to complete them... however, the body rules over the mind and succumbs to the supposedly recuperative yet less brain intensive activity commonly known as slacking...

Sometimes i will do things that have no significance at all... the very embodiment of time and effort wastage... Things that 10 years down the road i will look back and laugh at my foolishness... Yet it seems that i am still stuck with them at the moment... should really find some way to get out of the mess i am in and devote my attention to those stuff worthwhile...

Feelers' dilemma II ... ...

2006-09-22T23:02:00.001+08:00

Haven't blogged for some time... finally had some time to write something without the need to feel guilty cos mid sem break is finally here... nothing much to look forward to since there are loads of lab reports, tutorials, assignments and projects to complete... i shall not include the list here to avoid reminding myself as i indulge in escapism for the moment....

I realised that recently i do have lots of encounters with Roach. Even the people around seemed to be traumatised by Roach recently. That day supposed to meet fang to go sch together at 1045am. She suddenly called me up at 10am which was fairly surprising. What was not surprisingly was the fact that i was still in dreamland... simply refused to wake up. But instinct told me that it must be something important so i called her up in my half conscious state... My dialogue with her for the next 5 minutes woke me up totally... laughing...

She told me a teenage cockroach walked passed her laptop and decided to make it its latest abode. I was amazed by the fact that Roach could actually fit into the comp but then she assured me that the Roach in picture has not reached puberty so it was fairly small. It crawled in through the latch of the laptop.... She considered shutting her laptop but decided against it cos she didn't want Roach to be stuck inside biting her wires... She decided to launch sound attack on Roach by blasting it with music from her comp... but it seems that it was herself who was at the suffering end... Roach firmly held its ground. I asked her to adopt the tactic of enticement... to lure Roach out with a piece of potato chip... but she was afraid that it may invite the family and friends of Roach to have a gathering in her comp and they further propogate in her comp... so she vetoed that idea... Her friend asked her to use insecticide on Roach... which was a pretty good idea considering that it was not my laptop in question... oops a bit mean....

Later we brought the comp to the school comp centre... then the person asked fang what happened to the comp... fang was evasive... keep saying something went in.. something went in... cos she think the whole issue was mortifying... then that person pressed on and she said 'some insect went in' ... and that person still didn't give up and finally she said ' a cockroach went in lah'... All the while i was standing at the side trying desperately not to giggle... a bit mean again... think she was really traumatised by Roach...

Think i should reflect a bit on my meanness....

Feelers' dilemma... ...

2006-09-06T21:50:00.000+08:00

I shall start by apologising to my blog for my negligence recently and for not making good of my promise to blog more frequently.

That day i was talking to mung and she made a comment on how difficult it is to backblog. I do agree with that but i believe that this entry deserves it due so i am penning it down...

Sunday night, I was busy mugging or rather attempting to mug to the wee hours of the morning. At about 2am, I went to the bathroom and in my half concussion state, i saw this big, fat juicy cockroach staring at me. Stunned... Generally I am not that afraid of cockroaches if i have my shoes on but then i didn't.... and i dun want them to come near me... I considered my options...
1. Hit the cockroach with anything i can grab within sight (which is effectively doormat)
2. Wake dad up and ask him to catch for me
3. Use insecticide to spray on it

Choosing 2 was not very civic minded cos dad was far in slumberland....

3 sounded reasonable but then i remembered that i didn't have insecticide at home cos everyone at home is not afraid of cockroach except for me... (Grandma apt at catching them with bare hands and dad shoots them with rubber bands). Even if i can manage to find one bottle, it must be way past the expiry date and i would not know if roach or me will die first if i use it. Roach may mutate into something more powerful... The only thing I could do is to make a mental note to buy a new bottle of insecticide.

1 sounds the most feasible but a doormat is not something we use to hit cockroaches typically and i dun dare to leave roach out of my line of vision to get something else in case it crawls somewhere i cannot find.... better let it be in the open than lurking around in the dark. I am also afraid that roach would run in my direction if i fail to hit it on first attempt.

Finally, I chose 4. Containment within.... I locked roach in the bathroom and attempted to seal the small gap of the door and floor with the doormat.

After that, I was talking to a few of my friends about roach. They were generally helpful, recounting instances when they had to deal with cockroaches but no constructive remedy came out since they all involve a third party catching it for them... One friend was particularly friendly. He assured me that roach would be able to crawl out through the small gap no matter how fat it was but he added that it would go away ultimately....... and that would be after it laid some eggs on my bed.

I went to bed hoping that roach was far away from me... ...

Bonding session...

2006-08-26T23:10:00.000+08:00

Today marks a successful outing with good friend, xx. We seldom have time to meet. Wanted to go shopping for ages (since last year) but didn't manage the time. Finally, it realised... Not much shopping to speak of since we have nothing in mind to buy. A mutual agreement on the place for lunch, seems that we really have much in common... Then we both fell in love with this piggy soft toy that we half decided to each buy one and started devising plans on how to show them off during future exco outings... really funny... But we didn't buy in the end because we were running off for our next activity... it is kind of a KIV (keep in view) thing.

Next activity cycle: Karaoke sesson... Since it is only the 2 of us, we each monopolised a microphone and started singing almost non stop for 5 hours. Quite proud of our stamina and voice... but scared that my tuition kid tomorrow will think she just hired a tutor who mimes. I like singing with good fren cos we always challenge ourselves to sing funny songs which other people would not even bother to pick at all. Had a great time singing and laughing... We even planned the songs and cheers for our supposed year end camp, inspired by our ktv session.

Dinner is enjoyable... walking all the way to chinatown for chicken rice... then we decided to go bugis to eat dessert... a long wait there... but it's worth the wait i suppose... All the laming around... set me reminiscing about our time spent during the course last year...

Ok time for rest...

Colourless...

2006-08-26T09:18:00.000+08:00

Last week, I finally went to the hairdresser to give my hair its due haircut. Think I didn't patronise any hairdresser for the past half year, but I think my hair did not grow significantly longer and it began to curl at the bottoms... In other words, it became the epitome of disarray when it was let down. Thought I would give it a little trim to get the shape and for it to grow in a more organised way. But it turned out that my hair took more than a little trim... It returned to its original length 1 year ago... short... The hair stylist suggested that I look better with short rather than long hair which i think is quite true. So in the end, half a year's effort ended up on the floor....

My new hairstyle looks quite sporty... Requires me to gel up a bit... But i think my skills are not up to it... didn't get the desired effect. My hairstylist told me that i should dye or highlight my hair a bit to make it look better. My sentiments exactly... However, i am duty bound not to... Initially, I was so tempted to do it...but then i talked to several people and i decided that i shouldn't do it at least in my term of office.... Kind of disappointed.... It's ok... I shall keep it black for the time being...

Dead beat... ...

2006-08-24T23:21:00.000+08:00

I can really appreciate the meaning of the word 'tired' now... Lessons start in the mornings.... Lessons end at 8 or 9 pm at night... Even with the breaks in between, it doesn't really help, nothing much achieved in the few hours... I suppose it is not the physical tiredness that really matters... it is the emotional drain that saps my energy. The thought of having to stay in school late and not being able to go home when others could...

Yesterday really busy... didn't wake up early enough to eat breakfast, didn't finish stuff fast enough to eat lunch, didn't think of eating dinner in sch cos didn't expect jam.... in essence... ended up hungry, tired and miserable sitting in a crowded bus wondering 'why is this happening to me'... maybe it is the hunger that irks me... think i resumed to my normal self after intake of food..

Today was another late day... very tired after the whole day of lectures and tutorials... This was especially evident considering the fact that I actually didn't bother to make a detour to avoid a 4- legs (commonly known as a dog) which was directly in my path when I was walking home.

Just hope that I can get a few days of rest this weekend....

I think I am busy...

2006-08-19T23:44:00.000+08:00

Morning 6 am, dad woke me up cos i am supposed to go for some competition this morning. far far away at the western side of the island... original intention was to wake up early to take the train. but then body ruled over mind again... and intentions remained as intentions. went back to sleep for another an hour, so had to benefit the cabs.

Competition was quite fun, at least i hit the target board a decent number of times and i did improve vastly from my previous attempt. Thought my fingers would be yelling after the first 5 rounds, but it seems that they are in a rather cooperative mood today... My apologies to anali for having to take the bus alone in...

Afternoon marks an enjoyable lunch with anali and barbara... i am truly apologetic to barbara for not being able to go to her house despite her earnest invitations . When i have stuff weighing on my mind, i don't have the mood to have fun... just need to go home to complete them... sorry...

Evening calls for celebration... went for gil's birthday party. We had a pretty interesting prelude... Fang picked me up from home and we went on to Hougang to pick hh, then we drove to Sengkang to get Jieying. Long trip... not to mention the numerous U turns that we made in the process. During which i realised that i was not appropriately attired for the occasion cos the host calls for all to be dressed in pink. Fang, being a nice person, sent me home for that, so we turned back and hit home. Haha... nice exploration of the northern and central part of the island...

Gil's party was pink... really pink.... almost everyone was fitted in pink apparels... in various shades and cuttings. Think her family members are really supportive. Can't get my uncles to wear a pink t shirt even if i buy the shirts for them. Or maybe i can.... haha... just a thought. I am sure in their wardrobe... pink is the colour that is lacking... I am very impressed with her party... she even had a mascot...

Quite a packed day... no time really to rest... maybe i should sleep early tonight....

Nice outing... reliving my childhood...

2006-08-13T10:44:00.000+08:00

Kite flying... Never really had a chance to fly a kite before... No childhood to speak of in that aspect. I believe the first and only time i flew a kite, it was already in high up in the sky when i took over the yard of string. Nothing to be proud of. Yesterday, I had another go at kite flying. Spent an afternoon under the hot sun, running around trying to get my kite up and going... without success... After an uneventful 2 hours and assistance from several 'professionals', the kite firmly held its ground. Hence we concluded that it is not a lack of skill but a technical error on the part of the kite.

A lazy afternoon spent picnicking, sitting on ponchos in the open field... not really a picnic cos there's nothing much to eat... not that lazy after all since we adjourned to discuss serious stuff... an interesting setting considering the agenda of the meeting...

The eventful day ended with a magnificent display of fireworks completed with murmurs of wonder and looks of marvel ... I expect that is the type of reaction we all get when we see fireworks. I mean we don't get to see them that often. That explains the crowd on the buses, the terrible jam and us walking all the way to the MRT station instead of waiting for the bus.

Quite fun after all... ...

A new face... ...

2006-08-09T19:55:00.000+08:00

Wow... my blog has a new face... All thanks to Cherry.... Still a little more formatting to do... the comments part cannot be added in yet... but i suppose we'll figure that out soon... In the meantime u can leave ur comments on the tag board...
Now that i have a new blogskin, i suppose i will blog more frequently... dun want to waste Cherry's effort... haha...

Stressed... ...

2006-08-04T11:26:00.000+08:00

I have been dealing with a spate of stresses recently. Things just pop out of no where to stress me out. Maybe it doesn't stress others up as much cos they dun have a 'problem of the day' problem, but i do. I think it is in me to always find something to worry about. I just don't understand why things have to go wrong and always at the last minute. Perhaps it is trying out my reflexes to see how well i deal with tricky and pressing situations. Well, i think i have too much practice on that recently. Time to give others a chance... Furthermore a lot of things are beyond my control.... Not that i don't want to solve the problems but i need replies from others before i can start my work. And others just don't reply or they take their time. In the meantime, i will do what i always do when facing an impending problem.... yes... get stressed up like now.

Well, i think there is nothing i can do now... except continue being stressed and hope that others will reply me soon.....

Camping...Camping...Camping

2006-07-29T16:24:00.000+08:00

Wow...a long time since i blogged....quite busy recently...went for atc last friday.... I realised that the more times you go for camps, the less things you will bring. When I was in secondary school, i used to spend a week or so packing... so nervous and keep checking to see if i missed out anything... remember the 1st time i went atc in sec 2...i even brought a big plastic bag full of stuff on top of my bag...well...who carries a big plastic bag to camps....everything should be compact and stuffed in the backpack... haha...but then was 年少无知... ...
Then my backpack evolved from a school bag to a outdoor camping bag...bigger... but then i still have to bring a shoe bag to supplement. And i still took a few days to pack my stuff. This time round, i really can't be bothered. Packed my stuff the night before i go camp... no shoe bag...only my camping bag... really packed the minimal and necessary...and there is still space for more stuff... dunno why i used to be so troubled about packing...
I realised that i am not prone to mosquito bites...so i was pondering whether i should bring my mosquito coil or not...apparently in my case.... i will be 'sacrificially protected' from the bites by my other 'more vulnerable to bites' friends. oh that was mean...haha
I did mention last year that i dun want to be the advance party the following year...but i was still on the AP list this year... other than the hard labour... i think it is still quite all right... i just need to complain a bit i suppose... i think i grew fatter after this camp.... instructors welfare was quite good...we got proper meals...other than that...we can still eat the combat rations though i was not really interested...
Overall it was quite a fun camp....all of us instructors became a closely knitted family...quite heart rending... quite encouraged by the attitude of the newcomers...

Shop Shop Shop......

2006-07-15T23:00:00.000+08:00

Recently, i realised that i can really spend a lot of money. Buying what.... Actually i am not sure too.. Nothing much at home to justify my spendings. But my pay has been depleting at an alarming speed. I have this urge to lock up the remaining of my pay and throw away the key. If not, i am sure they will leave me very soon.

I thought of other ways...like remaining at home and not going out... no temptations... no chance to spend money... but i think that reason alone is not strong enough to restrain my movements at the moment. Too bored to stay home 24/7. I will still go out shopping...

Next solution, I can go shopping with the 'discouragers'. In other words, they are people who discourage u from buying things. Normally they will only buy something if the price is really reasonable and they really like it. So they will take a very long time thinking and returning to look at the items again and again and again... People like me who sometimes just buy things that i like even if the price is a bit steep will earn frowns and naggings from them... so if i decide on something which is perhaps not needed or too expensive... they are there to serve as a deterrent. But if you go out with a 'discourager', sometimes it gets quite 'discouraging' too... cos u will find yourself and the product in question thoroughly criticised. So most prob you will end up not buying anything and so nothing to justify your effort spent shopping. You may even have sleepless nights, thinking of the things that u should have but didn't buy. But it is more dangerous to go out with an 'encourager', cos u will find yourself grounded and eating bread for lunch every day towards the end of the month.

I realised that i can categorise things that i will buy into 3 groups. The need-to-have, the want-to-have and the nice-to-have. Need-to-haves are things that are more basic and fundamentals, things you cannot do without. Want-to-haves are the things that i like but not necessarily need or maybe a more expensive or luxurious version of the need-to-haves. Nice-to-have are things that i do not require but i just like them. Want-to-have and Nice-to-have seems similar but they are not. For Want-to-haves, there is a purpose or function already in place but for Need-to-haves, i have to deliberately find a use for them. When i was younger, i only spend money on the need-to-haves. As I went onto JC, i realised that i have included the want-to-haves into my list of spendings. Now i am buying the nice-to-have things too.

Think i need a lesson or two on saving up....

Time for Goodbyes....

2006-07-06T20:15:00.000+08:00

This morning, I sent the first of the 4 goodbyees (ppl i say goodbye to) off to the States. In the wee hours of the morning... Considering the fact that the 4 of them are considered my very good frens, i think i have to frequent the airport at least 4 times within a period of 1.5 months just to send them off. It doesn't help that all their flights happen to be at 6am in the morning. I just have to stay overnight at the airport to save my already bruised pocket and hope that the taxi drivers can earn their keep from others. Since this is the first person that went off, obviously there is a substantial amount of ppl sending her off... but as time progresses and they all leave one by one... i will have lesser ppl to accompany me to stay over at the airport....

Kind of upsetting when i realised that 4 of my good frens are leaving all at the same time... no more shopping khakis... no one to play mahjong... Well, I suppose that is part and parcel of life.... Arrivals and departures....

Hope Panda enjoys her stay at San Diego....

Just thinking

2006-06-19T21:04:00.000+08:00

Recently, I have been plagued by people disrupting my carefully laid out plans. Meetings, parties and gatherings either pop out suddenly or are rescheduled. Coincidentally, they always fall on the same days. As a result, a lot of shuffling, apologising, tolerance of rantings has to be done. Quite busy on my part. Not to mention the stress level i have to endure everytime i have choose between 2 events. Difficult... very difficult... I guess my hair follicles are dropping exponentially with the recent spate of stress stimuli to my poor brain. Hope it will be over soon.

Today, as i was strolled lazily home from work, a thought suddenly occured to me. I was suddenly thinking of how long i have not been contributing to my blog and i thought of my blog url. Problem of the day.... Yeah... Life is about you creating problems for yourself and then you thinking of ways to solve them. Ok, it may be other people creating problems for you or you creating problems for them but ultimately someone has to solve the problems. So life is a process of creating 'troubles' and getting out of them. In this case, trouble is used in the generic sense as something that bugs you and not really in the negative sense. Once a problem is solved another will pop up and the whole cycle commences again.

Actually i am just thinking... dunno if it makes any sense...

Just another mundane day... ...

2006-06-05T23:26:00.001+08:00

My friend Cin commented that I have not been blogging for quite some time.... that's true. Basically, I have nothing much to write. Recently, it has been quite a mundane period. Going to work in the morning, going back home, chatting online, sleeping... then going to work in the morning, going back home, chatting online, sleeping... then going to work in the morning.....you get the idea. I'm sure even by reading it u are also bored to tears.

I am so envious of my other friends who can sleep late and even have the time and luxury to have absurd dreams. I really cherish my weekends and so i will not sleep them away. Then, i realised that there isn't any day in the week that i can truly sleep late. Quite ironic... Every morning i will wake up with this strong urge to take MC... quite sad considering that i am only doing a temp job. But that is against my principles so i will only restrain myself to thinking and not actualising it. It is not really the job that puts me off... just the idea of waking up early to go to work... so off to work it is....

Never mind, i think i will get around it... just a matter of time and getting used to... i'm sure i am able to find more interesting stuff to add to my mundane hols.

So folks... that's all for now...

Puzzling...

2006-05-20T22:02:00.000+08:00

Spending a lazy saturday afternoon lazing around, I haven't really gotten into the 'doing serious stuff' mode. Well, what i consider 'serious' may seem frivolous to most people. My current 'serious stuff' list has only one agenda and that is to glue up the jigsaw puzzle i finished 2 days ago. This is to prevent my little cousins who are coming by tomorrow from returning the completed puzzle back to their artless disarray. If that happens then i have to piece the same jigsaw for the 3rd time... (I accidentally smashed it while trying to glue them up the 1st time.)
I always see no point in redoing jigsaws that i have done before and the frens around me are not really into jigsaws... so i always glue them up, break them into bigger pieces and place them back into their boxes. This is to facilitate storage. I keep telling myself that this arrangement is temporary and someday i will frame them and find some place to hang them.... but the boxes keep piling and my walls are still bare. I think the truth is i don't really like to hang them on my wall... so i kept procrastinating. I have this friend who made a comment that gluing jigsaws up and keeping them is tantamount to throwing them away since i am not going to hang them up and i cannot piece them again... which is quite true. He suggested that i should just give them away to some unsuspecting victim for their birthday. Yep... and i should make a big hoo ha about the amount of effort i spent in preparing this incomparable gift of sincerity... maybe the recipient will be very touched. All right, all right... that was mean.... I am not going to do that. Haha...
Talking of jigsaws reminds me of this friend who bought a 500 piece jigsaw recently. (We bought similar ones, those of Disney characters.) I told her the other day that i finished one of my jigsaws in 12.5 hours. After she finished hers, she proudly declared to me that she finished it in 8.5 hours and even sent me an MMS of her puzzle. I didn't realise that she was trying to tell me that she beat my record. When i talked to her some days later, i finally understood her intentions.... and i found it rather amusing... cos my 12.5 hours record was for a 1000 piece jigsaw... Sorry for the disappointment....Haha.. and she said 'huh which means you can finish the 500 piece one in like 6 hours?' In actual fact, i finished it in 3 hours... It is not that difficult considering the array of cartoons in the picture.
Ok, I should get to gluing it now and hope that it will not need to be pieced for the 3rd time.

Inclinations... ...

2006-05-18T22:35:00.000+08:00

I started work yesterday. As most people would understand, resources are always lacking so i have drag my lazy self out of bed at 7am every morning to labour... I worked at this place that i used to work at a year ago... so first day of work warrants some reminiscing on the part of brain.... recalling the names of the people i know there... trying to remember the way around the different departments etc...

However, my legs did the most recollection... Even before I stepped out of the house, my legs are already sending signals to my brain telling my brain that they recalled the time when i had to wear the torturous heels to work daily one year ago... I forgot to mention that at my workplace it is mandatory to wear covered shoes and i supposed covered heels are the norm... so i followed suit. Especially going down staircases, my heels are always trying their best to convince me that i will have a very high chance of either falling down the steps and breaking my neck or ending up with a limb encased in plaster of Paris. That why i treaded each step with caution... As a result, i concluded that one of the major uses of a pair of heels is to reduce your walking speed by at least half... it was a wonder i made it to work on time....

The high heels that i am talking about are not those with stout backing but rather those with heels that look and feel rather puny and feeble... I couldn't recall why i bought that over the stout ones but i suppose vanity played a part. On top of that, the heels are around 2.5 inches high (not considered high really) with an inclination of about 60 degrees (compliments of my long lost protracter). After yesterday i realised that my legs have a tolerance level of at the most 10 degrees.

I think that heels can be considered both as the worst and the best invention. It is the worst cos it subjects women to a prolonged period of stress on the frontal portion of the foot and it arches the feet at an abnormal angle in an attempt to make you look taller (basically you are tiptoeing aound). I am very sure most women heave a sigh of relief when they remove these pretty but tormenting height elevating apparatus from their feet. I do...

On the other hand, it can be considered the best invention cos it gives shorter people confidence for them to stand out in public (may not be very useful cos shorter people want to look tall but tall people want to look taller so ultimately tall people will also wear them). But i feel that the most enticing and amazing part of this best invention is that women clamour to wear these torture tools despite their grievances and pain... you will never find another person willing to reenter a torture chamber but this tormenting device holds great allure and people return yet again to suffer willingly in their hands...

Despite my negative feelings towards them, I think heels are a necessary evil in polite society and civillisation.... no matter how much i abhorred the notion of wearing it... I think they will somehow become part of my life in the future... But for now... i will still stick to flats.... I have decided to wear flats to work and i wore it today....Unless my supervisor asks me to change... it shall be flats from now on...

An official opening ceremony...

2006-05-18T00:13:00.000+08:00

Hi everyone, thank you for taking the time to read my occasional grouses... none too interesting i suppose but hope that it will not bore u to tears....

Perhaps i should start by introducing my URL. Why did i choose problem of the day? It started in JC when my close friends told me one day that i am a person who always has a problem to bug myself (or them) every day... no matter how big or small.... and it is there regardless of rain or shine ... something to hold my attention from supposedly important lectures and tutorials (though my physical being was present)... and it is like the soup of the day in restaurants... different every day of the week (may rotate after one week) but persistently present. Even when the day seemed perfect, I will have something on my mind to ponder and worry about (like why is the day so perfect, is it a mirage and will something bad follow after the facade of perfection?) ....
世上本无事，庸人自扰之 ...

I suppose that is me, cannot stop fretting... my friends are resigned to the fate of either ignoring me when i am being ridiculous or trying to comfort me when they feel that i am genuinely distressed. But, ultimately i will only get over my problem of the day if i can rationalise things out myself (that's why some of them don't bother about me cos they know whatever they say is futile).

Talking about problem of the day, I had one rather weighing one a couple of days ago. And that is whether i should start a blog to talk about my existence. My concerns were mainly on the effort to be spent on maintaining it. The good news to me is .... i have solved my problem of the day since you are currently reading my first entry... the bad news is my brain is bearing the risk of being overworked...

I think that is enough exercise for my brain at the moment... it deserves some rest...