a couple of days ago, the bus i was on took a wrong turn. uh huh. and if that's not strange enough, the bus driver proceeded to scrape the side of his vehicle against the temporary wall of a construction site. the sound of metal on metal was added to all the head-shaking "tsk tsks" and the cries of "aiyo!" that the white-knuckled-hands-gripping-onto-poles-for-dear-life aunties on board were making.
finally figuring out that he wasn't gonna be able to continue on this adventurous route safely, the driver decided to go back the narrow way he came in. that involved a skillful 6-point-turn, and sadly, he wasn't all that competent.
he backed the bus into one of those plastic road barriers, all blase about knocking it over. he inched forward a tad after that, then in reverse gear for a second time, backed into yet another barrier. it was as if he was playing the game "let's see how many barricades i can bang down with my hugeass bus while traumatizing the wild-eyed people onboard".
very fun stuff indeed.
when he finally got outta there, he went on his merry way rather quickly, as if to make up for lost time and to live up to his "express bus" title. the bus ride continued rather boringly thereafter.
it all happened as though in slow-mo, and i could totally see what was coming up ahead. i started cringing way before he even scraped the side of the bus coz it was just an accident waiting to happen. i was muttering "nonono" as he inched his way back into the barrier.
the whole incident was more interesting than scary, seeing that i didn't feel like my life was in much danger except for that one moment when he was backing out to start his 10-point-turn and there was no way he could have seen on-coming traffic round the bend, and a car could have smashed right into us and that's not comforting seeing that i was seated near the rear.
but that only happens in movies. or at least, i was lucky that day.
humans are rather interesting creatures and after the intitial shock and the nail-biting moments when the driver was trying to get out of his sticky situation, we all settled back comfortably, listening to our ipods, reading our books, like it's just another walk in the park. but then again, i hardly expect anyone to hyperventilate over this rather minor happening.
in another road incident *newscaster voice* the driver of SDF 7575 H should burn in hell for talking on the phone while driving and almost crashing into my car when he swerved out of an adjacent lane without checking the roads. he didn't even wave an apology!!! the asshole should so get his licence revoked. hrmph.
our very successful attempt
the psycho look followed us back to college on saturday,
i got pretty ribbony keychains!people are so weird.
give them cash, cheque or credit card options, and they ask for giro.
visa or mastercard? "i want amex."
some glue all over their credit card details.
others glue their cheques on to paper.
mailing back empty forms equates to a negative donation of $0.35.
write to them in english, and you get some crazed dude sending back an empty form with red chinese characters all over it. he/she/it was going to donate 50 bucks (or so it read) but, because the poor deprived soul can't read a word of english, he/she/it decided to be rude and lash out "ni men yi wei xing jia po ren, mei ge dong de ying wen shi mah?" (loosely translated: do you think that every singaporean knows english?).
plus there's a joker who wants to give $1 via credit card payment - do me a favor, drop in a coin. that barely covers postage and credit card processing fees. *groan*
i want to go "pffffft stinkaporeans". but hmmm, perhaps this happens everywhere else in the world.
oh...and who says there isn't life after death? a late mr tan just sent in a $50 donation. sweet. excuse me while i faint.
ahhh...now that we've gotten the "requisite" lovey dovey greeting outta the way... *grin*
it's that time of the year again - ridiculously-priced flowers, gushy couples canoodling in the streets, expensive twin set meals with names like "rib-i heart you" and "sweet beginnings shitty endings" and whatnots, pink and red hearts aplenty. ah love, sweet love.
well, for those who have found their special someone, or at least, that someone who is temporarily holding other flowers at arms' length so as to better smell your scent, AND who bother to be part of this commercialized farce - good on you. i hope you have a great time and not burn too big a hole in your pocket.
to the others who, like me, either don't have a specific darling to spend the night (in bed) with, and/or who don't care for valentine's day much (though that doesn't mean that "happy valentine's day" greetings don't make me feel loved hee) - kinda sucks doesn't it, how all the couply ads and the nauseating gushiness are so in-your-face. *grimace* and no, it's not sour grapes or whatever, just...i guess valentine's day's never meant all that much to me, and the whole load of expectations that come with these 24 hours is just silly.
love is all around, you just have to open your eyes wide enough to see it, and learn how to appreciate it. not just for today, (cliched, yes) but everyday. i'd much rather have long-term happiness than just one day of sweet lovin' and 364 days of hell.
a couple of friends stared at me in disbelief a few weeks ago, when i mentioned that i've never received a bouquet of flowers in my life. they (one guy who sends flowers often, and one girl who gets flowers often) kinda looked at me like i'm some poor deprived little girl whom nobody loves =(
i guess i've just never gone out with anyone who thinks that flowers are a big deal (or who thinks that i'm worth sending a bouquet to). coming to think of it, i don't believe any of my boyfriends ever gave me flowers. it has always been the close friends (males and females) who give me lovely stalks that i dry (when dry-able) and hang around the house.
it's always a sweet surprise to get flowers, but it's not exactly a necessity to me. i seriously doubt i'll appreciate it if my guy spends a few hundred bucks on 999 roses. i mean, it's so over-the-top, and i can think of a million other ways that that money can be put to better use. plus, where in the world am i supposed to find the space for 999 stalks of roses to rot?
that said, i love my daddy for getting a rose each for mum, fawn and me. he's so sweet he makes my heart melt. *gooey smile* (for the record, i don't have favorites, but if anyone wants to get me roses, i love those with thorns) hee.
have a lovely day everyone *blows kisses and plays with cupid's arrows* =)
worked for most of saturday and that was exhausting. but a tian-farewell-night rounded the day up alright.
dinner was at nirai kanai, where the food's good, but the service slow. they messed up some of our orders, and we sat around waiting for ages. what did we do when we're bored? we played with our chopsticks:
the whole bunch of us went to loof after to get elegantly wasted:
left loof after a while, and ang accompanied gracie and i downstairs to grab a cab home. mr mcdonald proved to be a major distraction though - not only did he give us a comehither look to beckon us to take photos with him, he also tempted us to stop by for some mcnuggets and fries.
yummy yum.
random schmamdoms (coz it's just one of those days)
you know you spend too much time on msn (or that msn has a far greater impact on your life than you realize) when you use things like (die) and (panda) in your sms-es.
you know you're not alone when your friends totally know what you mean when you do that.
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the new girl commented (to my colleague) that i am a flashy (hopefully not fleshy) dresser.
i feel like flashing her now 'cept that my boobs aren't big enough to scare her properly.
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i want to get out of here.
i don't mind travelling the world, and getting paid to do it. any offers? *winsome smile*
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mr teh tarik's teh tarik never fails to make me feel ill. i'm feeling nauseous even though i only had half a cup this morning. =S
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yanyan is not good for quelling pukeyness.
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it was raining and the roof was leaking. adding to that the wood at the window sill that is in it's final stages of rotting *help* i don't want to die here.
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i had an awesome swim yesterday (finally, some exercise!), but i fear my shoulder injury's acting up again =(
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i punched a lot of holes today. muahaha that sounds vaguely obscene. it's all nkf's fault. the financial report is so bloody thick - over 400 pages (my condolences to the poor person who compiled it).
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yay it's 5. finally. i think i'm actually going to leave the office on time today (since i'm going to have to work on saturday!). yipee.
when i said okay to this job, i made it clear that i can only do simple addition and subtraction and excel shit (when the bosses asked if it's alright that i take on the finances too).
i guess this little bit of information wasn't passed on to the "mighty lady" when she came on board, coz with the things she's asking of me, it's as if i have a freakin' accounting background.
excuse me, please go take a look at the grainy photocopy of my cert - you will notice that nothing on it is vaguely linked to "finance" or "accounting" or "maths". in fact, can't you see "I HATE FINANCE" printed in bold, right smack in the middle?
don't tell me "it's simple, just extract the figures from the other form and fill them into this one since some of the tables look similar" because you really do need your eyes checked. and if my committee member has already instructed the auditors to complete the forms, why should i do it (and probably waste time making a mess outta it)? and no, saying "usually it's not done by the auditors, it's done by the finance" doesn't really help coz *points at the paragraph above this one*.
and don't fucking blame me if the auditors don't do their jobs properly. i know i'm supposed to remind them to do stuff, but there really are only so many reminder calls/emails i can make/send. i am not the pushy auntie you are.
and don't show me a black face when i don't respond coz i didn't even hear you call my name from the other end of the office. if you can shout so loudly when you're on the phone (and give me a fucking headache in the process), you can jolly well raise your voice a few decibels above that mouse squeak you used while attempting to get my attention.
no wait. actually, don't. just fuck off. leave me alone.
4th february was the 7th day of chinese new year - traditionally known as "ren ri" which means "everybody's birthday". milk's share-a-meal campaign was held on this day, and it involved school kids and volunteers hitting the streets with their tins, to raise awareness of milk and of course, rake in some funds.
having people running around singapore (at the mrt and bus interchanges) meant that i had to work too...so i spent my saturday travelling the world, taking photos of the kids at work.
it was pretty...er...fun, i guess, everytime i hopped off the mrt and went around spying for the kids with my little eye. they kept me entertained at each stopover, and gave me some rather hilarious photos that can be used in collaterals for upcoming events. plus i got to catch the slackers and found out that there were some really irresponsible volunteers who slunk off midway, or just failed to turn up. 'twas a shame coz the money that could have been raised would have been quite substantial, and could have gone to helping more disadvantaged children and youths.
my ez-link card was my best friend that day, and i bet i'm smrt/comfortdelgro's best friend now, coz i spent almost $10 riding on the mrt. oh, and i shouldn't forget to thank my ipod, coz without it's constant companionship, the 8 hours would have been hell.
let me show you where i went =P :
drowned my kid in the morning (and gave her an angpow and pineapple tarts too!) before an early lunch with mum&sis, after which i began my journey:
farrer park (no one, coz volunteers left super early. RAH!)
kovan (the st andrew's boys here were hella funny)
sengkang (they have apartments above the mrt station. weird place to live.)
buangkok (no white elephants in sight. no volunteers either. RAH!)
hougang (1st shift left early, 2nd shift didn't appear. RAH!)
outram park (2nd shift decided to pull out. RAH!)
boon lay (bloody far away, but with lovely beyond youths)
pasir ris (volunteers left 3hours before they're meant to leave. RAH!)
tampines (the vjc kids mucked around for some photos)
bedok (the kids united boys went wild taking pictures)
*phew* mum picked me up from bedok when i ended the day at around 8.30pm...we then went to sembawang to pick dad up from the club, and headed to thomson for a really late dinner.
what a way to spend a "birthday". *sore butt* heh.
last night was pretty fun...a scrummilicious birthday dinner at sun with moon (what? again?! jap?! again?! heh yummmmm) followed by a visit to mos.
shall start off the photolog with some rather er...crap photos:
ok, i'll give it to him, the one of feng and gracie's pretty...but the rest...i think he needs his eyes checked.
now the professionally-taken ones *snigger*
and when we finally got out of the restaurant (thanks for doing the reservations noolnai! private room was lovely!), some bras and stuff greeted us:
heeeee i love that photo!
mos after was so-so...music was quite nice to dance to actually, and the place was rather empty so there's no need to squeeeeezzeee! thought i could catch up on some sleep since i left rather early at 12.30, but my good friend insomnia obviously had a different idea in mind. it's so painful tossing and turning and not being able to fall asleep even when you're exhausted. argh.
and that's made more terrible having to work the next day...in an office that is all hustlingbustling with activity *grimace*
i'm an okay morning person, i think. but i'm not an okay small-talk person. i try to steer clear of having to struggle to find words just for the sake of entertaining someone. the inanity of having to pull questions from out of thin air and answer similarly meaningless ones just bores and annoys me to no end. especially when i have absolutely no interest in that person.
if i happen to be in a wacky mood, well then i'll probably be able to spout some nonsense. but more often than not, regardless of moods, i find small-talking totally pointless - the pregnant pauses, weary smiles, having to wreck my brains for politically correct responses, trying to remember whatever little i know of that stranger, not knowing where to look when the talk dies off etc. it's just all so painful!
i guess everything kinda starts from small-talks, but it's the talk-just-for-the-sake-of-talking kind that makes me uncomfortable. it's alright if the other person leads the way and actually has a point, some direction, an interesting topic, some semblance of intelligent thought etc...what's way off is the type who come up to you with a relatively cheery "hello" followed by an awkward "errrrr" complete with antenna searching for a conversation topic. *help*
it's the same as those who, after leaving the planet eons ago, msn me "zeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnnnnnnn" followed by a "why you so daaaaaaooooooooo?". i mean, seriously, what in the world am i supposed to say?!
perhaps i just haven't quite got the knack for making small talk. i know people who are super pr and can get on with a total stranger like a house on fire. so i guess it's just me, not you. don't mind me for keeping quiet when i've got nothing to say and can't be bothered about finding some rubbish to throw back at you.
bah, guess my point is just that there's no point making labored conversations that go no where. friendliness and all, that's perfectly welcomed. but superficial greetings...well, sometimes, silence is golden.
dog dog dog chiang! dog dog dog chiang! happy new year everyone! gong xi fa cai, wan shi ru yi and all the ching chong cheenapok auspicious greetings to one and all!!!
it sucks to be back at work after a long-but-not-long-enough break but ah, i shan't complain coz i'm in a good mood heeeeee the doggy year's starting off pretty woofily and i'm wagging my tail with joy. =)
spent a huge part of the new year with the family and it's fantabulous catching up with all my cousins and uncles and aunts. it was a non-stop food fest that kicked off with a bang on the eve of cny but ah, a pot belly's a small price to pay for all the loving (yeah right heh)!
mucking around with the camera before we started with the bai-nianing. mum's too busy getting the angpows ready =P
monday was my laling minmin's birthday!!! we gathered at zouk to celebrate the new age girl's special day! not very glam cutting cake behind copthorne, but at least the place was rather cosy (yesyes?!) and i, being the cake ic as usual, am proud to say that i managed to magically make a cake, or rather, several pieces of cakes, appear (not an easy feat seeing that it was a public holiday ok!) *MUACK* i love my minmin!
birds...or angels? =P
what followed that SAR-PLIIISSSEEEEE cakey moment was paul van dyk in a very packed zouk. the queue snaked all the way to the exit of copthorne's carpark, and zouk was full-house even before midnight! it's crazy!
as usual, photos don't do the night justice. the music was thumpingly great but the dancefloor was jam-packed so i didn't dare venture there. it was sweet though - pvd's tracks went pretty well with all the joyous "gong xi fa cais" and "happy new years"!
didn't get to recuperate from the night coz i was out and about before noon the next day visiting more relatives and getting filled up with dimsum. the gathering at gary's house last night was lovely and it was great spending some time with old friends whom i haven't had the chance to catch up with much. plus i won money so that definitely put a huge smile on my face =D
PLUS i received my belated christmas present and it turned out to be the cull pedophiles shirt that i've been eyeing for for AGES! thank you so much mucky and jaelle!!!
a conversation with tony last night also brought some...hmmm...enlightenment perhaps. we were talking about love, and how it's really so immeasurable - you can't peg it to a price, you can't weigh it, you can't even really describe it. the usual "love is about giving, sharing etc" seemed so superficial after he showed me another platform of understanding.
love is about experiencing yourself, about self-realization, through and with that special someone. and vice versa.
giving, sharing...those aren't exactly wholistic ways of looking at love since they bring with them expectations, and feelings that are kinda dictated by/dependent on someone else. self-experiencing through love though, is a different matter coz it all comes from inside, looking to see the depth of your love, and being truthful to yourself.
trusting yourself will lead to you trusting your loved one/s. and perhaps that's what's so tough about it all, the having to be so certain about something, believing in it and claiming it. but worth a shot, no? and it's not about learning, but about remembering innate feelings that are brought out through being intimate with someone you love (for instance, the sensation of having him/her hold your hand is not one that is learnt, but one that is remembered).
ok i shall quit preaching heh i probably haven't explained it quite properly, and it may all just sound like mambo jumbo...but his words struck a chord. this way of seeing love came from conservations with god, so that's one book i'm gonna be checking out.
anyway...think i've written enough to keep even tiny entertained =P happy new year once again! *woof*
