I wonder what everybody else is doing these days. Studying? Slacking? When I go too long without school, I automatically slip into holiday mood. I'm quite happy and relaxed these days cos it keeps raining and the sun hardly every shows up. I can feel Christmas just round the corner of the end of exams. My parents wanted me to go along with them when they go to Perth to settle my sister's living arrangements but I said no. It's immoral to spend the christmas season sunny places.

My family seems to be having bad luck this week.

My uncle quarrelled with my auntie (his sister) and overturned her sauce bowl out of spite.

My grandmother(mother's side) is having leg aches which make her very ad cos she can't go dancing with bad legs.

My mummy discover strange giant bruises on her arm which had appeared for no reason. She thinks they are blood clots and that she's going to die. The doctor has never seen something like that before and doesn't know what caused them. Investigation is in progress.

Abnormal white spots showed up on my grandfather's (father's side) lung X-ray. He's been coughing for a long time. Plus he's been smoking for decades. Please don't let it be the dreaded C. Screw the cigarette companies. The f**king MNCs. I hope typhoons, earthquakes and floods destroy factories that make such demerit goods. Natural disasters should wipe out unnatural things like that and leave the poor villages in China, Japan etc alone.

My parents discovered today that my grandmother(father's side) had been conned by a sweet talking sales ahlian into paying $3000 for a set of stainless steel pots worth $200 at most. Since March, she as been paying monthly installments of $200. Each time they came to collect the money, they duped her into signing an additional sales invoice for $2000. My grandmother kept this from everybody for a log time cos she was afraid that my street smart grandfather would laugh at her for being an idiot. And she kept signing the additional sales invoices because she is can read English and got very confused by the damned sales ahlian. Funny thing is, the exact same thing has happened to her before. She was tricked into buying such pots at an exorbitant prices a few years back. Clearly, she did not learn. Lots of old folks in her block got conned too.

**Please warn any old people you know who are left alone during 10am to 4pm. Such sales people operate during these hours when the younger working folks leave the elderly alone at home. The trick is not to talk to them at all because they are terribly persuasive and can confuse elderly people so much that they will sign anything. Surprising, the sales ahlian was not an illegal con person. The stainless steel company she works for is quite a reputable one: Vee Ek International Trading Co. Pte. Ltd. It is based in Bukit Timah Shopping Centre. However, their sales people are very mobile. My granny lives in Hougang. So do please warn the old folks you know, these "legal confidence tricksters" are out to get their retirement funds.** (My parents are filing a compliant with CASE but meanwhile, do watch out)

Dark and troubled times are these when the young prey on the old.