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My first blog of the new year! Hmm... Haven't been bloggin for the past week. This time though, it's not because of the brat, but due to my own laziness. Haha! Anyway, now that the school term has started, there's no way he can monopolise the computer, which is good for everyone, including him. It's especially good this week, since he's away to OBS for five days! So many changes in this new year. Wei Yang and Wei Tong have moved on to secondary education, my 2nd maternal uncle is moving house to Sengkang this Thursday, and of course, Parry has officially merged with Xing Hua. Hopefully, I'll be blessed with positive changes!
Had lunch with Kelly and Stanley at this restaurant in Kovan selling Hong Kong cuisine. Met Jiali there with two of her friends. She said that the food wasn't good. Indeed. I ordered this pork noodles which turned out to be (what looks like) canned pork dices, a fried egg, a slice of cucumber, a slice of tomato, and a stalk of xiao bai cai on a plate of instant noodles! I could have prepared this myself at home for a fraction of the $5.90. Kelly didn't really like her dim sum too. The service was quite poor too. It's hard to get the attention of a waitress when she's busy all the time. They must be short-handed or acting busy. Overall, it was an average eating experience, with mediocre food and service.Played 2 rounds of mahjong with the two of them and Stanley's cousin, Daryl. Played OK this time, winning 40cents. I did not receive the money though, as Kelly lost and I decide not to pursue the small amount. Having skipped dinner, I was pretty eager to get home when we stopped around 11pm. While waiting for 147 at the bus stop, there was this taxi which stopped at the bus stop for a passenger to alight. When my bus came into view around a bend at around 50-100m away, I flagged immediately, with my arm held out for about 2 secs. The driver did not stop the bus. Did it seem like I was flagging the cab, or did he miss me? :-('Thanks' to the driver, I had to wait for the next 147, and I ended back at Hougang at 12:05am. I proceeded to make a fool of myself by mistaking 'estimated arrival time' for 'estimated departure time' on the bus schedule. As a result, I waited for 50 mins at the bus stop to transfer to a bus which was estimated to reach that bus stop at 12:03am, before realising my blunder. (If the driver of the earlier 147 had stopped for me, I would have been able to complete my transfer!!!) Wanting to save money, I walked the rest of the way home. I haven't exercised in quite some time, so it was a good workout, though a the wrong time. I reached home 28 mins later, tired and hungry. Hiaz... Poor me... Kelly was already clean and full by the time I reached home.
Finally met Wei Yan today. Talked about his trip to Vietnam, among other stuff. I was interested to know more about the country, especially after reading his account of his trip in his blog, and seeing some pretty interesting photos. I also learnt about an unpleasant bubble tea experience of his. Aparently, he once bought a cup of bubble tea in Yishun that has a cockroach in it! Fortunately for him, he saw it before he started drinking. As he was in a hurry, and was already some distance away from the shop, he did not pursue the matter. I commented that he should have reported the matter to the authorities (Environment Agency? AHA?). Hopefully none of the other customers of that shop bought bubble tea with extra 'unorthodox ingredients'.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Went to Tiong Bahru Plaza for steamboat dinner with Xin Hui, Jia Hui, Yilin. It was supposed to be a super belated birthday celebration for Xin Hui (what about my birthday celebration?). Sebastian was supposed to be there as well, but he had something on at the last minute (as usual). Jane was only there for a short while to pass Xin Hui the present. We ate at RajahInn where we all ordered individual standard set meals. We thought the serving was a tad too small for the price. Not value-for-money. The broth (I had chicken; they chose Tom Yam) was decent, but certainly not fantastic. Xin Hui decided to give us a treat and refused to accept any payment for the meal. Yilin resorted to tucking money into gaps in her partially-zipped bag. The plan failed though, when Xin Hui saw the money while taking out her wallet to make a purchase at Guardian's. Haha... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Went home to see Jeffrey crowned the winner of Project Runway (Season 3). I thought he was going to be eliminated based on last week trailer showing that he exceeded his budget. I was rooting for Laura and Uli, and I thought Uli's collection for the finals was the best...~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I was told the keyboard is faulty. Tried it out for myself and realised that it is indeed cranky. One moment it was okay; the next moment, it started malfunctioning - pressing the keys did not produce any response. That the malfunctioning of the keyboard was accompanied by intermittent lag only made the matter worse. Strangely though, the problem only occurs when I am in game. Perhaps it's a coincidence? Honyi thinks the keyboard is spoilt since changin USB port doesn't alleviate the problem. I guess he's probably right since my old keyboard functions well when connected to my current computer. Positive -> Don't need to buy new keyboard.Negative -> Colour of old keyboard doesn't match that of current monitor and CPU. :-(
I was at grandma's house last night with the rest of my extended paternal family members to celebrate Christmas. We have this annual gathering every year, despite it's lack of religious significance to anyone in the family, as it's one of only two gatherings we have every year (the other being Chinese New Year).
I always look forward to the gathering, but the excitement has reduced in recent years. Somehow, the celebration seemed more fun when I was young. Judging by how some of my elder cousins no longer attend the gathering, I suppose I'm not the only one who feels that way. Indeed, watching my younger cousins play with one another reminds me of my own enjoyment years ago. As we grew up, my cousins and I gradually became strangers. Some prefer to sit at a corner with their siblings; others took to fooling around with the younger ones. Weili and Chew Ling, for instance, were classmates in Xinmin Sec, but looking at them now, one would have thought they were really strangers. Under the same roof for about three hours, yet not a single word was exchanged; neither was there a hint of acknowledgement of each other's presence.
I have not been close to either of them myself, but yesterday, I had a pretty long chat with Weili over dinner. And it's all thanks to her boyfriend, Zhao Wei. I find it pretty laughable that someone outside the family have linked us together. Weili and her two sisters (Weiting and Weijia) used to keep to themselves during family gatherings, but yesterday, we were all happily chatting together, along with Zhao Wei and Weiting's boyfriend. Of course, the situation could have been very different if Zhao Wei was not from NY...
Back at home, as I lied in bed preparing to sleep, I thought about how Grandma had sat in the chair she always occupied, watching everyone in their interaction or inactivity. I suddenly realised how lonely she seemed. Occasionally, someone would talk to her, or she would joined in a conversation; most of the time she was alone. Then I thought of my grandfather. Before he passed away, he called me on most Saturday afternoons, asking whether I was going to his house for lunch...
Does one feel more lonely when he is alone on a deserted island or when everyone he knows is avoiding him, such as when a person is down with AIDs? Or perhaps the loneliest person is one who's physically in the company of friends/acquaintances/family, but mentally detached from them because they are all ignoring him? It's time we show more care and concern to the people around us, and not regret when they are gone.
Lonely, lonely christmas...
Yay! Finally! Clear skies!No more wet laundry.No more rain-induced traffic jams.No more stuffy house.And no more rain-cooled air to aid my sleep. :-(
Rain, rain, go away!The relentless barrage of water droplets is irritating! The house is kind of stuffy now because the windows have been 95% shut over the past two days. Every now and then, the rain reduces to a drizzle or even stop, but open your windows for a moment and the storm resumes service. Even walking to the bus stop has become quite a hassle.And the clothes remain damp, day after day.And there are floods everywhere. There's the report of a nursery suffering $10k worth of damages to its plants and even office. Then there's the case of the mud slides in parts of Singapore. And let's not forget those collapsing trees that crushes vehicles and other stuffs.And there's my own experience of travelling through the flooded stretch of Lornie Road outside MacRitchie Reservoir. There was construction work going on there, and the water reach the workers' knees! It was quite a sight to behold - the workers wading around, the vehicles crawling through the pool of muddy water, and the ants breaststroking through the mess (I didn't see this, but nothing's impossible). I pity the car owners whose cars were parked in the MacRitchie carpark. There's no way those carriages are going to start after being semi-submerged for hours, unless they drive high-tech automobiles with the ability to utilise hydropower...Come again another day! It would really be good if the rain could stop now and come back on a hot Sunday afternoon. It's quite frustrating that we are having excess precipitation here, while hungry, emaciated African kids can only pray for rain. If only we could transfer all the excess rain clouds in the world to where they are needed, there would be no more Sahara Desert et al. Ah... Utopia...Little children want to play.Hopefully scientists will be able to develop technology to 'correct' environmental conditions. May the world be free from deserts and floods! Afterall, it's not right that kids in Singapore play with water (they need to learn to appreciate water) while their counterparts in most parts of Africa can only play with the thought of playing with water...The good thing is: I can get a good night sleep!
Background info: Mojo Jojo is arguably the most evil character in the Powerpuff Girls cartoon. He is basically a chimpanzee with an oversized brain with the intelligence to match. The name came to mind as Xin Hao has a CUTE picture of Mojo Jojo on his Friendster home page.
There are so many friends whom I have not met in a long time and really want to meet, to chat and catch up on what we missed out on each other’s life. Unfortunately, I’m surviving on a pretty tight budget these days…hiaz… Still, I managed to meet up with Xin Hao on Sunday.
The last time we met was when we went back to school to get our ‘A’ levels results. That was close to three years ago.
I initiated the meeting, and we arranged to meet at AMK, where he suggested we have dinner at Botak Jones. I thought the stall is located in one of the two S-11s in AMK, but the stall could not be located in either of them. Has it shifted? Anyway, there was supposed to be a third S-11 (which was originally A&W). We tried there too, only to realise that it has been replaced by Banquet. We were starting to sweat after the little walk, and decided to settle for the air-conditioned food court.
Over dinner (my mutton briyani wasn’t very nice – the meat was tough), he mentioned that he was ‘forced’ to watch Saw III on Friday by Jian Yu and some other people during their outing. Funny how he rejected the idea of us watching that show yet he still ended up watching it. Anyway, they thought the show was downright gross, and they left the theatre after around 45mins. Like Chor Liang and friends, they were a little confused about the plot of the movie – which was pretty much non-existent as the main storyline has been covered in the first show of the series. Moral of the story: Do not watch the third show in a trilogy if you missed the first two. I learnt two other things from his experience: 1. There are a lot of mosquitoes in Prince cinema, and (I already know this) the seats are old and dirty. 2. The people responsible for checking tickets there, disappears after 15mins of the commencement of the movie. As such, moviegoers are able to sneak into other theatres to catch other shows (which they did).
After dinner, we played an hour plus of pool. Saw someone who looks like Wen Zhao – wonder how he’s doing. I’m really weak at the game, and while he was not very strong, I mis-hit enough for him to win 6-2 (I think. May be worse). I did managed to get in a couple of good shots though... Despite the trashing, I had a pretty good time. Hope it will not take three years before we meet again.
