yesterday night was bump out night. this refers to the packing up of all props, costume, lights etc from the theatre and taking it all back to the theatre company's place and unpacking everything and putting them back in their respective storage areas. bloody hell. I reached home at 2.45am. And i had to eat "dinner" at 2am at this coffeeshop place where there were lots of really ugly hookers. yucks. i almost puked out my food when the hooker gangs made their entrances.
Urgh! let's not dwell on distasteful subjects. Think of nice, happy things. Like my paycheque! My happy paycheque. I'll use it to pay for some of my expenses when I go overseas to study.
And now, life can go back to normal. I'll regrow some brain cells and start wearing blue clothes again. All black was too depressing and hot. And I can also meet friends again. Life is good once again.

The archaeology department of york emailed me yesterday and asked me to reply telling them why I want to study archaeology and what atracts me about the subect. ( in case you don't know, I was accepted for Politics with Economics but changed my mind and now want to do Archaeology). i wrote something like a mini essay. wonder what made me do it? about 500 words. and I ended it with this corny lines (I share them with you but you must not laugh or giggle)

"I dreamed of finding ancient monuments and of unearthing dinosaur bones... Also, I like to dig"

immediately after i clicked on the "send" button, I whacked my forehead and said,"oh shit! why did I write that corny conclusion! dammit." Wonder what made me do it. was I too tired? Was I rusty at writing essays? Or was it a reflection of the true me? The subconscious lame ol' corny self that had been repressed for too long? We can only speculate...

Then, a few hours ago, I received an email from the uni:

"The admissions tutors have agreed to change you course from joint
Honours degree course LL12 Economics and Politics (Equal) to single
subject Archaeology (V400)"

Corniness. It works.

But am I making the right choice? And what's an Honours degree course anyway. why are some course honours degree courses and not others. Am I giving up fame, fortune and an Honours degree for dino bones?
Please, somebody, tell me. I have no zoinking idea what I am doing. I might be zoinking up my life for all I know.

Very excited! tomorrow is friday! closing night of the show. i'll be getting my first paycheck. and end to working nights will also be good. one of the other backstage people told me that action theatre is looking for crew for a musical production in june. according to her, the pay is shit and the hours are worse. but musical sounds interesting. should I? but then it will mean that i'll be stuck in rehearsals for some time. the experience with rehearsals for this current production wasn't nice at all. especially the morning when XY called me out for breakfast and i was so tired i couldn't talk properly on the phone much less drag myself out of bed. why am i doing theatre? maybe i'm just stupid.

Confusius say,"Man who stands on toilet is high on pot"

haha new skin! new skin! lalalalalala! erm.. blog sking i mean. not my skin.
also, there's music! i've been trying to get music on my blog for a long time. hope it's sucessful this time. can you hear music? it's playing glomy sunday sung by sarah brightman (low quality version). this song had a reputation as a suicide song. people used to like to play it as they committed suicide or leave suicide note quotiong the lyrics. hope this doesn't get you too depressed. if it does, tell me. i will change it to a happier song.

I'm enjoying this long break from work a lot. No show yesterday and no show today. i'll be going back to work on wednesday and even then, there will only be a night show, no matinee, so i'll report for work at 6 pm. life is good. and it appears that there won't be show on thursday either and on friday, there will be only a night show. one good thing about working in theatre, yoy can check newspaper adverts to see which days you have to work. Life! says that tckets are available for tomorrow 8pm and Friday 8pm. anyway, Life!'s young reporter seems to absoloutely love the play. there was another article about it in today's paper. I remember that particular reporter as a young guy who scribled away feverishly at his notepad when he attended a preview of the show on one of the rehearsal days. looked like an eager beaver to me. reviews have been good so far but audiences each night have been small. matinees see about 25-30 people and night shows see about 50-70. that's not much for a medium size theatre like Jubilee Hall. But small audiences are good for crew. each mistake gets amplified by less and the lack of people sitting the the front rows greatly reduces the risk that we might be seen by the audience.
I'm very happy. After Friday's closing nigght performancem it'll be bump out and paycheck and off i'll go back to wearing my usual blue clothes instead of the top to toe black i've been sporting since the show started running.

Hello everybody! I've been really busy with the show recently and had no time to blog. but now that the show has officially opened, i'll be more free. this may sound strage but in theatre, rehearsals are a hundred times busier than the actual run of the show. everything is already set and things are no longer changing all the time. so this blog will give you all the highlights of the last few days. Please read on.

THE PEOPLE
We have 6 actors in the show. All of them are very good at their jobs but some are nicer to work with than others. one actor is very prone to trouble (no names mentioned due to obvious reasons). there is a grey cap that belongs to him which is being used as part of his costume. on full dress rehearsal night, he decided to take the cap out for a walk. so, poor costume mistress thought the cap had disappeared and we ran all over the place loking for him. and then, during the run, i was backstage kneeling down doing stuff when he came and tripped over me. almost killed me. tonight, on opening night, 15 mins before the theatre doors were opened, he informed me of a costume change. i was like, what the...! he wanted black shoes and please tell me how do you get black leather shoes in fifteen minutes when you are in a theatre in raffles hotel standing by for the opeing night show? luckily, one of the other actors wore black shoes tonight and lent them to him. also, he likes to go for walks. i think he is claustrophobic. so, everytime we need him, we have to run around looking for him. it's so tiring.. I'm afraid that having a group of people all dressed in black running around a hotel shouting for an actor won't do the tourism industry any good. every day he comes up with something new. i'm worried about tomorrow.

then again, most of the actors are very very nice. on full dress rehearsal night, the thai actress gave each of the crew either a bookmark of a keychain from thailand. very nice. and tonight on gala night, 2 of the singaporean actresses also gave the crew little gifts. I have to say that the three singaporean actresses in this play are so wonderful to work with. from the crew point of view, a good actoris one who doesn't have a diva attitude, respects the rules (costumes in proper places, props in proper places, strictly no taking props and costumes out for walks and always being where you are supposed to be) And as a bonus, they are very appreciative of the work we backstage people. it is always pleasant when actors say a silent thank you when you pass them props and costumes backstage.

the crew people are also a good bunch to work with. we are the gossipers of the theatre and we do it in style. there is this system called Cans which is a one-ear earphone and an attached mic for each crew member. through it, everybody can talk t everybody. this makes it easy for stage left to gossip with stage right to chit chat with control room to talk cock with mutimedia control station. actually, the purpose of the system is for the stage manager to give cues. see how technology is abused.

THE SCANDALS
the director and the playwright have been nicknamed Bert and Ernie by the crew, after the the Sesame Street characters. Read what internet forums say aobut Bert and Ernie to understand why.

THE MEDIA
so far, the media people seem to absolutely love this play. there was a huge article in the straits times LIFE! paper the other day. front page photo and half page article. very favorable review. And just now, at the post show reception at Chijmes, I overheard a BBC guy talking to "Ernie". he thought it was fantastic and talked about how he loved the multimedia and how the comic relief moments were very masterfully incorporated in a way that didn't make it seem like the play was making fun of disaster victims. he just went on and on about how he really liked it. coming from the notoriously hard-to-please british press, it's good. very good.

a few days before, on press preview day, a fat ang moh photographer barged backstage (stage left) where I was stationed and started snapping away. I immediately asked the stage manager through Cans whether he was allowed to be there and she said no. so i tried to be polite and told him that i needed to space to move props. he stepped to one side and continued snapping away. i moved my prop. then i said that he had to leave. and he continued snapping. and i said that stage manager said he had to leave. and he asked what's the problem? i'll go and speak to her. and he left and i shut the door tight behind his ass. he didn't return. after the run, i asked to stage manager if he had gone to talk to her. she said no. ahhh... the coward.

THE SHOW
It was opening night tonight and although the audience was small, they really liked the show. I'm very happy. especially when i overheard the conversation between Ernie and the BBC guy (refer to above story). this is what theatre is all about. create a different reality on stage and making it such that the audience goes home thinking that it was fantastic and worth every cent and more. i confess that i personally don't really like the show but as long as the audience likes it, it's fine with me. me goal as a member of the crew to to be invisible and efficient. crew prepares the ingredients, lights the fire and puts on the cauldron and flips the spell book to the right page so that actors can cast the spell. haha what a weird metaphor. excuse me, i'm high on sugar.

ME
i had 2 desserts for dinner. black porridge and ice kacang. the sugar high made me hyperactive and happy. at the post show reception, everyone was drinking alcohol while i was drinking Sprite. so i got even higher on sugar and was laughing at everything and nothing and they thought i was high and speculated that the two cups of sprite were actually vodka. haha funny... i don't do alcoholic drinks. sugar can give you a better kick without rotting your liver.

ahhh.. when the audience applauded.. it made up for all the crap that i had to endure, the late nights, the dusty storerooms, the not being able to meet with LL and XY for breakfast because i was so, so tired, the everything.

so remember, next time you watch a show, be it theatre or dance or what ever. clap very loudly. the actors can see you claapping and they can feel good. but if you don't clap loud, backstage crew won't be able to hear you and they will be very sad

tomorrow, i plan to eat a block of chocolate for dinner. i'll probably be so high that i'll be bouncing off the walls.

ok i'm going to sound like xinying in this post (sentimental and easily moved)
haha anyway, miss wong (JC teacher who helped get me the job in theatre) heard about The Troubles with the show i'm doing now and she and her friend (who also helped me get the job) called me up in the middle of the night (2am) to ask me what's up and to offer advice and help and future help. i'm so touched. (there! i said it. i sound like xinying) They heard through the grapevine that the show isn't doing well in terms of production and they are worried that i'm not getting trained well and that my first experience in professional theatre is going to put me off theatre forever. and miss wong's friend who is in the theatre business said to call her anytime if i needed help. i don't even know her personally! haven't seen her face to face. so nice of them right? haha this makes up for all the shit i have to take at work.
thank you God! everytime my life becomes shitty, somebody will invariably turn up and be extra nice to me. i'm not saying that everybody loves me. i just think that most people in this world do. haha EGO EGO EGO! so hard to ignore my likeability that's why animals run from me and flag sellers avoid me like plague.
luckily, i'm a happy kid, very optimistic and cheerful when under fire and being treated like trash (if you ignore the smouldering rage and murderous urge. it's not that there are specific people who create trouble for me specifically. it's just that prejudice against youngsters in the workplace is very much alive hereabouts.

work has left me tired and drained. now that we are moving into theatre soon, rehearsal hours are 10am-10pm daily. even on sundays and public holidays. lucky for me, they postponed tomorrow's rehearsal to sunday last minute and i can't make it. the people i work with, let's see what i can say about them, some are rather nice but some are just pain weird. it is always wise not to bitch on a blog. suffice to say that the decision makers are indecisive and there exist those who ask me to lift overhead projectors onto high shelves single-handedly one moment and, a few minutes later, tell the boys to tighten the screws i already tightened because i'm a girl and thus have no strength. well, screw it! for the sake of maintaining good working relations, i swallowed my pride and almost choked. Yes, let the boys tighten the screws cos the girls ain't good for anything other than throwing OHPs around. next time they ask me to lift the wooden staircase prop(which I've been doing for ages) I'll just break a nail and start to cry while accidently lifting the stairs above my head and letting it fall to the ground. hopefully, it will splinter and we will be left with a few pieces of sad looking wood. haha so much for not bitching. anyway, i hoped i managed to be vague and ambiguous enough to keep out of trouble. personal feelings and work don't mix. (usually refers to office affairs but in this case, the phrase refers to the desire to commit crimes that are classified according to 1st degree, 2nd degree and 3rd degree and which carry death sentences. it's not drug-trafficking. guess again.

2 days ago, my grandmother had the cancerours thing in her lung removed and 1/3 of her right lung along with it. doctors are optimistic cos it appears that it hadn't had the chance to spread to lymph nodes (which is very good). my mother visited her today and said she was alert and itching to get out of bed.

just chatted with ah boy on msn. she said she would try to take some photos of her blondie friends for me. hee hee. feed my psychotic obbession.

Utterly insulted by undisguised rudeness

I just received an "invitation" letter from AJ inviting distinguished service award winners to an award presentation on college day. The letter can only be described as incredibly rude. An unprovoked attack on the maturity and character of ex-AJ students who will be acknowledged as outstanding leaders by the school ( a sentence filled with scarasm and irony if you didn't notice).
Here are few extracts from the letter which is printed on yellow paper. ( for formal invitations, white or ivory is usually the standard)

"Please report at "1.00pm sharp in LT1"* on the said day for a rehearsal of the prize-giving ceremony. Please take note that you will not be allowed to receive the award on stage if you report too late and miss the rehearsal."

*this part is underlined

"As this is a formal occasion, we will be following a strict dress code appropriate for such an occasion: plain light-coloured long-sleeve shirt, dress pants, tie and formal shoes for males; formal light-coloured blouse and skirt or dress and court shoes for females. (No** jeans, Bermudas, mini-skirts, T-shirts, spaghetti straps and see-through blouses, sports/track shoes or slippers permitted). We regret that award recipients who are not appropriately dressed will not be allowed on stage.***"

** this word is in bold
*** this sentence is in bold

What an insulting letter! If it was really a formal occasion, I would have expected the "invitation" letter to be far more respectful in its tone and, of course, for it to be printed on better paper. Not something that looks so cheap and trashy. (I'm nitpicking here but surely you see my point) If you look at the letter, you can very cleary see that the the main emphasis is not on inviting someone to recieve an award but on threatening to withold the award if the person does not turn up appropriately dressed! Talk about rudeness! The use of bold text and the thinly vieled threats exposes Ms XXX XXXX XXX from the College Day Awards Committee ( as stated at the bottom of the letter) as totally lacking in class and as someone who views everyone as a disobedient, deliquent student. Urgh! I am so disgusted and completely insulted. I don't think anyone will actually turn up after receiving such a rude letter. Only those who want to get their faces into AJ magazines will make the effort to show up. Since there is the option of turning up to collect the award from the office after the "ceremony", award receipients who don't like to be insulted should all do so.

This event should be boycotted.

Most people in AJ are very nice and occasionally you find someone with class. However, as the organising committee of the "21st College Day 2005" demonstrates, the college still has a long, long way to go in terms of getting mutual respect between teachers and students , teachers and ex-student as well, for that matter.

At the back of my lower jaw, on both sides, I'm experiencing problems. Bloody hell wisdom teeth are coming out. not really painful. yet. but i can feel them crowding out the other teeth. Since i'm so busy these few weeks with rehearsals, i won't be able to go the the dentist till the show is over. oh my... where's a good plier when you need one? I could just pull out the teeth myself and save the trouble.

I feel like travelling again. I miss Italy. I miss New Zealand. I miss places that I've never even been to. This condition is known as wanderlust (no, no, nothing to do with lewdness). The only thing I don't miss about international travel is the airplane flight. damned motion sickness.

Is it just me or does the new pope look like Saruman from the Lord of the Rings movies?
ok, ok... I'll stop going on and on about this pope stuff.

HABEMUS PAPAM!!!!!! We have a Pope!
Joseph Ratzinger from Germany will now be known as Benedict XVI
http://www.oecumene.radiovaticana.org/en1/index.asp

i'm so tired.... WE HAVE A POPE!
ZZZZZZzzzzzz

this whole day i've been waiting for news about the conclave. I'm very excited that we are going to have a new pope. so i knew that the cardinals were going to vote at about 11am vatican time which is 5pm here. my brother, hubert msged me at about 5.55pm when i was in rehearsal to say that there still isn't a new pope.

anyway, you probably think i'm either bonkers or very bored to be so excited and interested in this pope busines. wadever. I hope it the black nigerian guy who gets it. it'll be fun. then maybe i'll become less racist. (i'm not racist actually, don't report me to the Straits Times ok?)

black pope or white, we are supposed to trust in the holy spirit to guide the old guys in conclave in their choice of a new pope.

I have this brilliant idea. I should enter the religious life. Like nun. but don't pay attention to me cos i'm mad and i always have brilliant plans that are forgotten the next day. Wonder what my mother wil do if i tell her i'm planning to be a nun. start saving like mad for retirement i suppose. after all, nuns take vows of poverty so i won't be able to pay for her retirement holidays.

going mad, mad, mad. and the brainpower is going down, down, down...

in the short one week that my sister was back in singapore, she managed to add a pair of addidas sunglass and an iPod to the sum total of her material possessions. So yah, she deserves respect. wriggling so much out of my parents is not really easy normally. but when you are the first kid in the family to study abroad, i guess it makes you extra special. I can't believe my little sister beat me to it.

anyway, i was very relieved that steven decided to pay for her iPod. I had initially promised to buy it for adela (story of blackmail omitted) luckily, steven agreed to pay for it. my eccentric sister named the iPod Oracle, as in THE Oracle from the Matrix that tells Neo exactly what he needs to hear. when we got home from the store, she introduced Oracle to Marvin (her laptop) and then told Marvin not to be jealous.

during her short stay, adela also spent a lot of time with her rabbits. she also put a small teddy bear in the rabbit cage (I don't know why. before the rabbits were sterilised, she put a furry cloth in and the male rabbit started shagging it. I really don't know what the furry bear is for this time. don't ask, don't ask)

Adela flew back to aussieland on a valuair flight. did you know that if you want inflight entertainment on valuair, you have to pay 10 bucks for this laptop-like machine called a personal entertainment appliance? it is a lot thicker than a laptop and looked really heavy in the picture. Adela brought Marvin and Oracle. more than enough entertainment considering the fact that she had saved 6 movies in Oracle. the iPod functions as an external hard disk as well as a music player. adela whined me into helping her save The Incredibles, The Exocist, Goodbye Lenin!, Hitler - The Rise of Evil, Open Water and Schindler's List into her Oracle. in the music department, she also whined my into loading my whole music collection into Oracle. Her policy on audio-visual entertainmemt is: jie jie pay, i enjoy for free. But i made her say, "thank you Lao Da" after that. felt good.

just before adela had to get her butt through security and onto the plane, we ran around the airport looking for a chocolate shop. we found one and i bought her a GIGANTIC block of chocolate to keep her company on the flight. It was my way of saying thanks because she paid for my haircut that morning. Fair's fair.

Hello, i'm officially in the theatre business. haha it's quite a good job for me. no need to wake up early. I work till late. Then, since the workplace is so far from my home, I reach home at about 11pm at night.

I basically work in the black box where rehearsals are held. for those who don't know, thhe black box is a theatre space that is, well, all black. The walls are all soundproof so if you get locked up inside accidently, you can shout your lungs out and no one will be able to here you. When you are alone inside, it's totally silent and any sound that you make will seem to disappear cos it's all absorbed by the walls and there is no echo. And my favourite part is that it's air-conditioned. Yesterday it was at just the right temperature for me. Sadly, the other people started shivering and sneezing so i had to turn it up.

when i signed the contract, i noticed the employee insurance thing that says that if you get injured or killed on the job your family gets compensated thhis much this much. I thought it was pretty funny until i found out that in order to get into the control room, you have to climb a ladder which is located in a small, cramed little room. And i also discovered that the storeroom was huge with shelves all over that look like they can collapse anytime. So now i don't find the insurance thing funny anymore. I hope i don't fall down the ladder and crack my skull.

Been reading the reports about the late Pope and listening to internet radio programmes about him. He was a good Pope although not everything he said was agreeable with everybody. Catholics all over the world are mourning the death of John Paul II (or Giovanni Paolo II as he was know in Italy). We pray to the Holy Spirit to give us a new Pope who will lead the Church in these unstable times. The new pope will have to deal with things like Michael Jackson type priests who, you know, do things to choir boys. And the euthanasia issue. And the female bishops issue. Lots of didfficult pope things to do. Oh well...

You know, the da vinci code stuff about the Opus Dei and the secret conclaves? It sounds too cool to be true but the conclave will really take place. They will go in to the room and be locked inside until they decide on a new pope. And the opus dei is said to be pushing for a more traditional and conservative pope. The second in command guy at the vatican is a member of the opus dei. It's like real-life Da Vinci code without the fiction and melodrama but with all the coolness.

Wish I was in Rome now. I remember the Vatican when I visited it. Such an impressive place. And St Peter's Square is so huge and actually a circle rather than square. During the last days of the pope, the whole square was constantly filled with 50 to 70 thousand people at any one time, all praying for him. I would like to have seen that. And the night before he died, they gave out candles in little plastic cups to the people there and there was a sea of little flames in the square under the window of the pope's bedroom. I want to be in Vatican City. And even though I'm a sucky catholic, I feel sad that we've lost the pope and I'll pray for a good pope to be elected.

Ok, i've accepted the assistant stage manager job. They are flying in some thai actors for this play. I hope they are transverstites. I think they are funny and I've never met one before. Should be fun to work with them. I'll be paid 1200 for about a month. That's pretty ok especially as i've been reading the recent news articles about theatre people who are paid like shit. However, considering the crazy rehearsal hours, it is quite borderline-low pay. Rehearsals start on 18 april but there are a few yet-to-be-confirmed meetings before then. I'm glad I asked Miss Wong to help me ask around for jobs like that. Stops me from rotting at home because I refuse to do waitressing, sales and relief teaching.

I watched Miss Congeniality 2 yesterday. Compared to the first one, it was sucky. But I like lame shit so it was ok. Follows the same type of story line but without the guy. I consider this an improvement. And the new black girl partner can really fight. Before the movie started, they showed the trailer for the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie. Looked cool. I will watch that.

Talking about the Hitchiker's guide, any of you read it before? Adela and I are fans of the book. But unlike Adela, I'm not mad. She named her Acer Tablet laptop Marvin, after the character, Marvin the Paranoid Android, in the book. And she enjoys talking to Marvin. She likes to lock the door to her room and have conversations with Marvin. People in the homestay are scared and think there is someone else in the room with her.
One of the other girls in the same homestay as her is called Jill Ho, ex-Nanyang girl. She's a complete bitch. The backstabber, clingy, guy-stalker, max-out-the-internet-bandwidth-so-it-gets-downgraded-to-50Kps-causing-mass-suffering kind. Total bitch. I told my sister to just murder her and deliver everyone in the homestay from suffering. She wanted to do it but was worried for Marvin. If she killed Jill and fled the country, Marvin would surely get the heat from the police. My sister really cares for Marvin. I think she misses her rabbits to omuch, that's why she is going mad.
Another interesting Adela incident is about her presentation in class. She told me that she did a presentation on population control in Aussieland. Afterwards, the teacher took her aside and said that she really liked certain aspects of the presentation like eye contact, use of visual aids etc. However, certain aspects were really disturbing. Like her plan to promote mass suicide as a means of population control. When she told me, I was very proud.
By the way, I just named my laptop Feagle. Rhymes with Beagle. Feagle talked to Marvin over dinner yesterday (both computers were being charged). They talked about babies and Feagle knew a lot about population control and said kids sucked. Marvin didn't know much about babies but was an expert on cooking and Jaime Oliver. Then, Adela was told to SHADDUP! by the homestay people because she was talking too loudly with Marvin. So Marvin hid under the bed.
Lucky I'm not crazy. Erm... at least I don't talk aloud to Feagle. I just believe that my electronic device has a name and personality. That's all.

I'm going to meet the production manager of a theatre ccompany and they are looking for an assistant stage manager for a show in May. Hope it's not one of those artistic porn plays.
My sister is coming back on saturday. I'll have to rearrange the furniture in the room again. Luckily for me she's only staying for about a week. I'll be hard getting used to one bed after sleping on two for so long.

I did some work today. Well, sort of. If slacking around in your parents office can be called work. My mother said she would pay me 30 buck a day to do odd jobs in the office. That is pretty peanuts pay but like any good econs student, I considered the compensating differentials ( is that what it's called? can't really recall). Even though I get paid only 30 bucks, being my parents, they have to pay for my food and snacks and they won't be allowed to bully me. I also took into the account the fact that i'll be able to use the nice, nice printer anytime. cool "job" and the timing is so flexible. Basically, I work when I feel like it and sleep when i don't. Damn am I a spoilt brat.

I was supposed to file the payment vouchers for the 12 months of 2004 but I only managed about 5 months when Steven called me away from the filing. We went to OG and bought bed sheets and comforters for this apartment that as to be done up to be rented out. Then, we had lunch. After that, we picked up my grandmother and went to Mount Elizabeth to consult with a specialist about her maybe cancer, maybe not tumour thing in her lung.

I was quite surprised when I received an April Fool sms from xinying after that. Somehow, thinking about lung cancer, surgery, CAT scans, PET scans and pet cats just saps away a person's humour. I had almost forgotten that it was April Fools Day. How could I? I guess you really need lots of buddies around to be able to enjoy such "occasions". Of course you also have to not think about suspicious lung tumours that stil have doctors scratching their heads after a CAT scan and two needle biopsies. Argh.. out of my mind I banish thee unhappy thought!

We then went to the apartment that had to be made to look nice. It's a unit in UE square. If you have ever seen the development, you will know that it boasts some of singapore's most cement bloock looking architecture. Every thing is dull and greyish and looks like the building that Neo and Trinity busted into the save Morpheus in The Matrix. That's why I didn't believe Steven when he said that it had been designed by the late architect legend, Kenzo Tange. So, Steven told the story. Haha apparently, United commisioned Tange to design the development and agreed to pay him a certain amount. Then, United decided it want to cut costs and decreased the architect's fee. Naturally, Tange got pissed off and made little "improvements" and "modifications" to his plans. The result is a architectural monstrosity that strangely has little signs of potential greatness that fell flat on it's face.

Interesting world we live in.

Ok finally a liitle activity.
There was an earthquake in Sumatra last night. Steven felt it and he thought it was his high blood pressure acting up. Then he saw the window blinds rattling and thoght that his blood pressure was really going bonkers. I felt it too. I was reading in bed when I felt the bed move like somebody had bounced at the other end. My first thought was GHOST! Then I thought maybe earthquake and stood on the floor to see if it moved too. And it did. So yep, no ghost. According to quite a few ancient texts and carvings, this age that we live in will be destroyed by earthquakes. Maybe I should study geology. Siesmologists will be more and more in demand and the earthquakes continue unabated.

In the afternoon, I went to steven and mummy's office to use the laserjet printer. I like. I hugged the nice big printer cos I was so happy with the beautiful prints it produced.

Then I went with steven and mummy to far east plaza to view some shops. they're thinking of investing in some shops at various places. 77th street on the third floor is actually two shop spaces owned by seperate owners. On owner is selling and i was amused at the idea that steven might actually buy it and be the landlord of half of the shop. it's sellling at 1.3million. steep steep price. did you know that the 77th street people pay about 7000 per month for rental of half their shop space? and some of the hair salons pay 5000-6000? Just imagine how much hair they have to cut each month to cover total fixed cost. haha

More lists as I comtinue to be bored.

Top 10 things I would buy if I was filthy rich
-A jet plane. To fly anytime, anywhere.
-Lambourghini. Super sexy car that turns heads everywhere
-Laptop for my cousin who need one buy can't really aford it.
-iPod mini for Adela because I promised
-Professional drumset. To rock the whole block.
-Swords. Lots and lots of them.
-Apple, the company. I believe there is a lot of money in there.
-A mansion home in Finland. It's nice and cold and the Aurora Borealis can be seen from there. Also, there's plenty of Salmon to eat.
-A huge floor to ceiling bookshelf with a wooden ladder on wheels that can slide along it.
-A satellite station. To broadcast propaganda all over the world.

Top 5 things to do if I was filthy rich
-Bribe governents of the world to switch to renewable energy.
-Get celebrities to promote environment awareness on my satellite station.
-Bribe Osama to "take care" of Bush
-Offer a large reward for anybody who can cure my granny's cancer
-Get an assassin team to "take out" paedophiles because they're really sick

Easter Sunday and boring days continue.
I will try to alleviate my boredom by making some lists. If you are interested enough in my life, you cam read on. If not, you would be far better off trying to levitate.

List1
A-list friends (the very, very best)

The Family comprising
"shan shan
-yi jun
-yi wen
-liling
-grace
-belle
-sihan"
-christabelle
-xinying, the only A-lister i met in jc
-huang lao shi, my primary school chinese teacher

B-list friends (people I sincerely like and care about but am not very close to or don't know that well)
-sancia
-jason
-miss wong, my jc literature teacher
-shama, my junior from stajeworks
-daniel, another junior from stajeworks

List2
people i would love to be with alone with. Preferably in a locked room with no windows and a baseball bat in my hands.

animal abusers
environment killers
George Bush
malicious gossips
sexists (of both sexes)


If you have any ideas for a new list you want me to make, pls let me know. if you think you should be on one of the lists, pls also let me know and i will let you know if you deserve to be on it.

Since there is nothing much to write about my life now, I shall treat dear readers to some serious rambling and drivel.

*For those who aren't into religion, you can ignore this or just read it for a bit of boredom, If you find the heaven, hell and Almightly God stuff hard to buy into, you can treat it as fiction.

Right now, it is 12.15am on the Saturday before Easter. If I remember correctly, it's called Holy Saturday. I'm a Roman Catholic who doesn't attend Church. Should I be damned? For those of you who know about the Catholic faith, you'll know that it is against abortion, suicide, divorce and homosexual behaviour among a host of other things. Personally, I am can't agree with a lot of the Church's teachings without lying. It's alright to not like homosexuals and not agree with people who abort pregnancies but who gave them the authority to tell these people they are eternally damned?

So, continuing in the same vein, we will look at the guy called Judas Iscariot. For those who know the bible stories, Judas was the disciple of Jesus who betrayed him to the guys who whacked him onto the cross to die. He received 30 pieces of silver for his trouble (a small amount). After that, he felt bad and hanged himself.

Throughout the centuries, Christains everywhere have condemned Iscariot and branded him The Wickedest Man Ever. He was a traitor and a suicide and therefore a straightforward case of damned with no hope of redemption. Ask any Christain about Judas and they will probably tell you that he was THE bad guy. (Search the bible and you won't find any information on whether or not Judas's soul was cast into hell)

However, I have a problem with the idea of Judas being damned. I think he was a necessary tool used by Almighty to fulfil the promise that Jesus would die for our sins. In all sorts of stories, from fairytales to Dan Brownian thrillers, you have bad guys and heroes. If you think about it, heroes cannot be heroes without bad guys. Without the Dragon, who would have remembered St. George? Without the Saruman and Sauron, who would have remembered Gandalf and gang?

I wonder if Judas really had a choice in the matter? Due the the matter of God being almighty, and Judas being his chosen "means" of setting off the whole chain of events leading to Jesus being whacked on the cross, Judas couldn't have possibly not betrayed Jesus.

Imagine this: You pick up a coin. Then, ask yourself why you picked up the coin. Probably because you felt like picking it up. Then ask why you felt like picking it up. Now, if you believe in the Almighty and His ineffable plan, you would know that you picked it up because you felt like picking it up because He wanted you to feel like picking it up. And now the million-dollar question: Would you have picked it up if Almighty hadn't made you want to? Apply the same logic (if you see any) to the case of the Judas guy who betrayed Jesus and ask if he would have done so if God hadn't planned for him to.

That Christ would die for the sins of people was planned way before either Christ or Judas was born. One was destined to be betrayed and the other to betray. Even if he hadn't wanted to, Judas was doomed to betray Christ. But then again, he definitely would have wanted to. (because of the Almighty *see above) In other words, no Judas equals no Christ on the cross equals no blood of the Son of God to wash away our sins. Jesus himself chose Judas as his disciple and he knew he would be betrayed.

Whew! and there you have it. My view on the issue of Judas the Traitor. Please realise, I am not criticizing God and Son. People say Judas was damned. Church guys say suicides, divorcees and gays go to the hot place. But Jesus said, "Love" and he loved everybody.

I hear people qouting bible phrases to "back up" their own opinions, phrases and paragraphs taken out of context. They used to damn "witches". Now, they damn abortion doctors. Every age needs it's bad guys. People to be loooked down upon and cast aside. How will you know what to think if the priest says gays belong to the devil and then reminds you that Jesus said to Love you neighbour and that according to the bible we should treat others in the way we wish others to treat us? This world is full of voices and each voice says a different thing. Where is the voice of God to show me right from wrong. I think I have found it and it is Conscience. You don't need for other people to tell you what to do or what to believe. You have the Voice in your own head. Little voice or big voice, it is there. If you were Jesus, would Judas still be your friend?

If you haven't been bored to death, you can visit
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/progs/listenagain.shtml
and listen to the programme "The Wickedest Man"

Below is an extract from a poem by Victorian poet, Robert Buchanan. Judas has died and his soul is wandering. He finds a banquet hall and Jesus (aka Bridegroom of the Church) is inside.

’Twas the Bridegroom stood at the open door,
     And beckon’d, smiling sweet;
’Twas the soul of Judas Iscariot
     Stole in, and fell at his feet.

‘The Holy Supper is spread within,
     And the many candles shine,
And I have waited long for thee
     Before I poured the wine!’

The supper wine is poured at last,
     The lights burn bright and fair,
Iscariot washes the Bridegroom’s feet,
     And dries them with his hair.

*The complete version of The Ballad of Judas Iscariot can be found at
http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/robertbuchanan/html/judas.html

My life now is just plain boring. Nothing to do and no one to play with. I should be working and contributing to the economy but I am not. My reason/excuse is that all jobs available for people like me (waiting to enter university) are in the service industry and involve lots of interaction and communication with lots and lots of new people every day. I don't think I could bear that. People-to-People skills? Eh... what's that? If only there were jobs for semi-unqualifieds (like me) that don't fall under the categories of waitressing, sales promotion, tutoring or telephone operating. I am so not going to be able to survive in the typical workplace. Moving into a cave in the mystical mountains of the Himalayas is beginning to look more and more like a good idea.

now i have a laptop.
steven and mummy and hubert and i went to the IT fair. It was so crowded that hubert almost got squashed flat. We went to get mummy a new laptop for her new office. Then we went to get mine.
while bargaining, we realised that if we paid for the laptop by credit card, an extra 3% would be charged. (retailers are not supposed to do this but they do so anyway) Mummy's nets card was almost maxed out for the day. so steven dug out all the cash in his wallet, mummy dug out all the cash in hers and i dug out all the cash in mine. we looked so poor thing, one family standing there pooling all our available cash. luckily we managed to pool together enough cash to pay for half the total price which meant we didn't have to pay extra 3% for the half paid by card.
So now i have this powerbook which i don't really know how to use yet. mac is so different from windows. windows is said to be clunky and unstable but it's something most people grow up with.

results of steven's mother (my grandmother) biopsy came out last week. the tumour in her lung is cancerous. I think her body is failing. Diabetes and the eye problems caused by it, arterial blokage, leg trouble ad now this. She's scared and worried. Other than that, life is just going on. My parents and other relatives take turns to take her to the hospital for check ups and stuff. like it was meant to be, everything is not perfect and everyone is just getting on as best as they can.

My sister in australia says she will ask around the medical people to see if anyone has found a miracle cancer cure. Do you know one?

results day today.
me screwed up.

As she passed me my results slip, Mrs Tan said,"I guess I know how you will feel about these results."

Oh damn. There goes the great hopes of a promising future as a President's Scholar.
Well, to tell the truth, I didn't have such great hope anyway. And I already planned to live a screwed up life anyway. I'm going to climb Mount Kinabalu and get eaten by a BigFoot thing.

So despite the FUBAR(Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition) results, i went out with LL and Jason to watch a movie : Team America, World Police. A crappy vulgar show with puppets having sex and spewing vulgarities. After the movie three of us started going on and on about dicks, pussies and assholes. This made xinying, who joined us for dinner, slightly disturbed.

We ate subway, then Crepes at this restaurant in Raffles City. The waiters there were retarded beyond belief and piss us off a bit. Two of them, including the head waiter, couldn't understand the simple question of how long is the preparation time. Liling and I rephrased the question in 5 different ways. We got through at last and they told us 5-10 mins. So we ordered. And waited. And waited. And waited far too long for it to be interpreted as 5-10 mins by any reasonable person. Xinying had to leave for a music lesson her order arrived and I told the head waiter to pack her order in a pissed off way. We contemplated making a scene to get a free meal but decided against it.

Then LL, Jason and I went to the Timberland outlet for jason to quench his consumerist thirst. there are no shops in Pulau Tekong where he is doing NS.
After drooling our Timberland merchandise, we took a train to Kovan to meet Xinying and pass her her food in a box. Instead of utilising public transport, we decided to walk. So we walked to Jason's house where we said goodbye to LL and Jason. LL's father was waiting there in a car to drive her home. Xinying and I continued walking. At the traffic junction I said bye to Xinying and continued walking. it was a 45 min walk and it was getting late, nearing 11pm. But since I was carrying a heavy paper bag with a school year book and various university application materials, i knew i wouldn't meet any spooks. boring stuff works like a talisman according to the Law of Audrey.

I walk too much these days. I've been regularly walking home to serangoon from Toa Payoh, Orchard, Plaza Singpura, Bras Basah. And I always take the long route following the bus stops along the way to avoid getting lost. Walk and walk and walk and don't think about rubbishy stuff like crap results and global warming. Instead, think of good stuff like sky diving, and writing a violent, pornographic bestseller novel.

tuesday was the final of the inter-house drama competition at AJ. the team i mentored, Cougar House, won Best Costume and the lamer R.I. boy was Best Actor. I was laughing my lungs out when they announced it. the judges actually like lamers. i found out later that it was a split decision. the other boy being considered for best actor was from jaguar house and also an R.I. boy. Best Play award was also a split decision between cougar and jaguar and it eventually went to Jaguar. I'm proud of myself. not bad directing considering i've never acted on stage unlike the other mentors.
O level results will be out on monday. my cousin Aaron says he has only two more days to live. I want to go to cresent girls' school to "help" collect adela's results. i want to kaypo.
A level results. I wonder when they will be released. soon, soon. so i don't have much time to live either.

haha this is interesting

Who's your inner classic movie star?

I found a site that gives you very detailed zodiac sun sign analysis. Some of it appears to be rather true. Most of it is true and very amusing.
Go here and read yours then tell me if it's true http://mizian.com.ne.kr/englishwiz/library/names/zodiac/contents.htm

Here are some extracts

Of the Pisces, the site said:

When Pisces has a feeling something will happen, it usually does. If he tells you not to get on that plane or car, you'd better plan to swim or walk. (If you haven't realised it yet, LL is psychic)

If you need a dime or a dollar, a large loan, or just en­couragement that no one else would give, go to Pisces. You'll get no lectures and no glances of superiority. (yes we all know that if you want sympathy and comforting you can go to LL the friendly bugger)

The line forms to the right. And please don't crowd. There may not be enough Pisces women for every man. Take your turn, and hope for the best. Rumors have spread about the charms of a Pisces female. She has her negative points, to be sure, but at first glance she's every man's grade school valentine, with maybe just a touch of a Playboy bunny to add some pepper. (does this explain bing wen and all the other weirdos who tried to go after LL?)

Of the Scorpion the site says:

Scorpio is intensely loyal to friends. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." The Scorpio soldier leaps instantly, instinctively, to brave the bullets and drag his buddy to safety. (here i think of jun and wen who like to invite people thinking of running away from home to stay at their house)

The Scorpio's health is typical of his nature. He can destroy his body with excesses, melancholy or hard work. But he can also built it back at will from a critical illness. Scorpios are seldom sick, but when they are, it's usually serious. A long rest and a change of attitude are the best cures. They can't let well enough alone, and of course, they know more than the doctor and all the nurses. The chief areas of attack for germs and accidents are the reproductive organs, the nose, the throat, the heart, spine, back, circulatory system, legs and ankles. Varicose veins and accidents in sports are common. (If you remember, jun and wen are the ones who have suffered the most spine problems, ankle problems, toe problems....)

One of the strangest patterns in astrology is the death of a relative in the family within either a year before or the year after the birth of a Scorpio. And when a Scorpio dies, there will be a birth in the family within the year be­fore or the year after. (this is weird. any scorpio can comfirm this?)

The female Scorpio has a deep, mysterious beauty. She's magnetic, proud and totally confident. But she has one secret regret. She was not born a man. I didn't say she looked like a boy, nor did I intend to imply she doesn't do a bang-up job of being a female. It's just that, unconsciously, she would prefer to be a man. Less restriction-more oppor­tunity. It's the one secret she even hides from herself, and seeing it exposed won't sit well with her.(as i always say, jun looks like a transversite when she wears dresses)

She can be overbearing and domineering, sarcastic and frigid- then turn as hot as an oven at 500 degrees Fahrenheit. She can hate with bitter venom and love with fierce abandon. She can shriek like a furious banshee or whisper like an affectionate turtle dove. (perhaps this explains why the twins are always fighting with each other)

Of the Libra:
Notice the entire effect of the face. It will always wear a markedly pleasant expression. Even when the Libran is angry, some­how he or she will manage to look mild, or at the very least, neutral. Venus voices are typically sweet and clear as a bell, and these people seldom raise them to a shrill or bellowing pitch. A Libran is the only person on earth who can say, "I hate you and I'm going to punch you in the nose," and sound as if he's reciting Browning's "How Do I Love Thee?" (My sister: face of an angel, spawn of the devil)(think of how xinying looks when she is saying things like " i want to kill Miss In. sweet)

She can't seem to make up her fickle mind whether she made a mistake or not. First they'll talk up a storm and monopolize the conversation. Then they'll listen intently, with flattering interest. When others are fighting, theyll play the role of peacemaker, and smooth everyone's ruffled feathers. Then they'll turn right around, deliberately take the other side in discussion, and start an argument for the pure relish of it. (anyone who thinks this does not apply to xinying must be blind and deaf)

The Libra character is made up of equal parts of kindness, gentleness, fairness, plain argumentativeness, stubborn refusal to capitulate, philosophical logic and indecision. It's best to examine these ingredients in detail. The argumentativeness, for instance. A Libran will argue with you about what time it is if he thinks your watch is two seconds off. (With my sister I get this, with xinying, we have experienced this too. recall the xinying vs bao saga)

All that weighing can drive a person simply wild. It can drive the Libran himself into a state of constant indecision. Even the most controlled Venus men and women dislike making instant decisions without taking all the possibilities into consideration. Fairness can be a fetish. (has anyone ever gone shopping with xinying or my sister before?)

It's amusing that Librans will always immediately deny their Indecisiveness. The first thing they'll say when you're describing their Sun sign will be, "I'm not indecisive at all. That's not accurate. It certainly doesn't describe me." (how very true)

Ok, here's what the site says about Sagitarius:

Sagittarius is completely free of malice. He blurts out his shockingly direct speech in total innocence. Don't judge him too harshly. He means well. Not that he needs your sympathy. Under his tactless manner is an extremely clever mind and high standards. His unique combination of wit, intelli­gence and fiery drive usually brings the archer straight to the winner's circle. Both male and female Sagittarians are oblivious to their own blunt speech. They are truly convinced that they are the most diplomatic souls in the world. In fact, everything they do is done honestly. Pretense and deception appalls them. ( hee hee it's so amusing. somebody who knows me, tell me if this is true)

Look for a fairly large, well-shaped skull and a high, broad fore­head. The features will be open and cheerful, inviting friendship and the exchange of ideas, and the movements will normally be rapid. They make wide, sweeping gestures, which may be dramatic and vigorous, but not very graceful. Sagittarius can wave his arms to make a point, and upset the ketchup. He'll stride purposefully forward, head high, and trip over the curb­stone. (ahh.. i remember how i once made the whole shelf of hammers collapse in the D.I.Y. store with one toilet sucker)

Sagittarians are normally restless. They hate to sit or stand still. The archer is physically conspicuous, if only through his obvious confidence and his disregard for conventional behavior. He walks as if he's really going some­where. There's no halting or hesitating. ( me! me! me! so this is why everybody is always asking me why i walk so fast)

What is on the archer's mind and heart is almost instant­ly on his lips. He's as frank and earnest as a six-year-old. (freudian slips are part of everyday life for me. recall the time i shouted "kao beh kao bu" to some kids with the parents nearby and almost got into trouble. opps!)

High-spirited Jupiter people can't stand to be accused of dishonesty. But after a fiery display of temper, the Sagittarian will feel remorse and make amends. He'll black your eye and put you in the hospital, but he'll shower you with flowers and sympathy the next day. The archer usually speaks and acts first, and considers the consequences later. ( yes i hate liars and i like to whack people up)

Life seldom defeats these people permanently. They believe that tomorrow will be better than yesterday, and to­day is pretty interesting. Moody spells are gone almost be­fore the clouds have a chance to obscure the sunshine. (yes. it's good to have a bright tomorrow. always look on the bright side of death)

She will probably live alone. Sagittarius girls are very independent, and both sexes have a strange aloofness to family ties. Maybe it's because they travel so much. Even if they only travel to the movies and friends' houses, they're restlessly on the go. (i told you i need to travel)

She pals around with many men. Since she's so scrupulously hon­est and aboveboard, she may be a little careless of her reputation and contemptuous of the hypocrisy demanded by society. If you question her about it, she'll be plain-spoken. (the time i quarreled with LL over why i wasn't allowed to go to jason's house to play, this is probably what happened)

The typical Jupiter girl has a large appetite. She likes good food and wine, nice clothes, and when she travels, she likes to go first class. Sagittarians are extravagant by nature. The travel bug will always be nearby to give her a case of wandering fever. ( yup so true!)

Sagittarius girls are acutely bored by the confine­ment of dusting and mopping. No sooner does she make a bed than it gets unmade. Her cooking? Well-you can never tell. Maybe you'd iust better eat out. (refer to blog entry on my stint as a housewife)

The Jupiter girl may go through a tom­boy stage, and you'll always be reminding her to "act like a lady". She has her own ideas of what makes "a little lady". It starts out with honesty. Naked, unadorned, brutal honesty. They will refuse to be docile little slaves, meekly obeying every 'parental whim. (my parents found this out the hard way)

Both sexes probably enjoy school. Their multiple-faceted intelligence and great curiosity will make learning a fascinating game, if their bright interest isn't squelched by too much dull, boring routine and too much insistence on strict regulations and rigid study habits. (yup, i was lucky to have had interesting teachers most of the time)

There may be a deep and very serious interest in re­ligion. As they grow older, they'll question dogmas, perhaps change faith and church mem­bership, searching eternally for truth. (there was a time i seriously thought about studying theology in university. i even asked teachers for advise. and i don't go to church because i find most of them too fake)

Last night, I watched Hotel Rwanda with LL, jun and wen. It about the genocide in Rwanda and this hotel manager who saved a lot of people. We were quite sickened by the stuff in the show. The Rwanda genocide was one of the great failures of the UN. You all should do a Google on it and read about all the sickening stuff that happened. Maybe somebody can stop such things from happening again.

I went to cut my hair yesterday. When I came home, there was hair all over my clothes. I went to the rabbit cage and shook all the hairy stuff over them. Revenge! Sweet revenge! For all the times they shed their rabbit fur on my clothes.

Walked past Zhonghua secondary school and Yangzheng primary school today. The students walking out from the secondary school had things like roses and balloons in their hands (the girls). Valentine's day is a day of exorbitantly- priced flowers. I'm always amused to see how much people are willing to pay for dying plant parts.
A boy was walking out from the primary school. He was shouting some parting words to a girl. "I wish you good luck when you go to his house later! You can go to bed with him"
Valentine's Day celebrations in secondary schools are apparently more towards the puppy love, romance type while those in primary schools are more physical.

This month, i'm helping out back at AJ. Together with 2 J2 StAJeworks members, I'm mentoring cougar house's representative for the inter-house drama competition on 22Feb.
There's this RI boy in my group who has a classic case of the Lamer's syndrome. I haven't seen a case as serious as this outside of the lame ol' RGS family. Let me tell you some of his lame cracks. You will want to kill somebody.

The guy who typed the script did it with many typos. "Surgery" became "Suregery". R.I.Lamer said, "It's a typo? I thought it was supposed to a a play on words! Like SURE-gery." We all killed him.

The girl who plays the nurse has this line where she says, "I am a Nurse. Can I help you?" R.I.Lamer suggested that she pronounce "a" as "ay". The line would go like this: " I am ay Nurse. Can I help you?" Ay nurse= anus. Get it? We killed him again.

R.I.Lamer plays a dentist who has to pull out some other guy's rotten tooth. He is supposed to examines the tooth and pronounce it rotten. He informed us today that he had a brilliant idea for a new line which goes like this, " I can see the tooth! It's so rotten it's blue. It's a bluetooth!" We didn't allow him to use the line. And killed him again.

Is lameness a contagious disease that originated from the founder of the Raffles Schools? Or did he get it from his happy, gay buddy Mr W. F***quar? This might be a significant historical discovery.

Other than being Lame, RI boy is also weird in other ways. He is allergic to bright lights which worries me because firstly, I might be befriending a vampire and secondly, how is he going to act on stage with all the fiendishly bright stagelights?
Earlier, I took RI boy aside to a sunny spot to help him with his lines while the other mentors worked with the other actors. So it was just the two of us. While he was saying his lines, the sun came out from behind the clouds and he went, " ah! ah! so bright! my eyes are tearing!" Made me a little uneasy. Like I was all alone with a real vampire. No choice but to move to a shady spot. Then, after we had finished working on his lines and were sitting around waiting for the others to call us back to the room, RI boy suddenly asked,
"Do you have my handphone number?"
(my heart was bob-bob-bob-bob. i was wondering if the innnocent little kid was actually a freaky, weird psychopath)
I said, "No. Why?"
He said,"Oh, that's ok then, cos my mother confiscated my phone"
(wah... I phhheeeeeeww. luckily not a psycho)
And the conversation proceeded to more familiar and comfortable grounds.
"Why did she do that?"
"My mother is Anti-ME"
"Oh really. How interesting"

Kids nowadays, some of them are really strange, you know. Funny and rather interesting. But Strange. Very strange.

Then again, who am I to criticise? Anyone who remembers how I went around guzzling ketchup and terrorising children would know that I have no right to call most other people "weird".

on the morning of the first day of lunar new year, i woke up at the unearthly hour of 6.30am , had a one hour shower and went to food dist. I could't believe the amount of stuff they were giving the old folks. each person recieved two big bags full of stuff like toilet paper, soy sauce, salt, soft drinks, maggi mee, 3 jars of new year goodies, lots of caned food. it's unhelthy but who cares as it's new year. unlike normal saturdays where the old folk came down to the void deck to collect the stuff, we delivered the goods to the doorstep of every receipient. i went with xinying whose arm almost broke due to the unbelievable weight of canned food. even my fingers almost broke. i couldn't carry more than two bags in one hand. (normally i'm cool with four)
after food dist, i proceeded to my grandmother's house to get hongbao money.
new year is just great. you get to have both money and good food. although the angbao harvest isn't as good this year as in previous years, i'm thankful. I tried to sneak angbaos meant for my absent sister but my mummy strangled them out of me. damn. i was hoping i could have double happiness this year by taking adela's angbaos. now i console myself with the thought that she is facing starvation down under as her homestay auntie's cooking tastes like crap and she has no momey to but good food.
the food this year is as superb as it has always been. teochew people(father's side) make good yusheng and cantonese(me mummy's side) make good vegetarian dishes and tidbits. yesterday, i went to some relatives house where i had tidbits for lunch. stuffing things like bakwa, egg rolls and assorted junk into my mouth. i never thought that you could make a meal of such things.

I've been a very good housemaid today. almost like a house wife. In the morning, I hung up the clothes to dry. In the afternoon I vacuumed the whole house and then mopped everything twice to make it extra clean. In the late afternoon, I prepared the stuff for cooking dinner. Then I made dinner. I did a gourmet scallop dish that was simply superb. I'll be entering my name for the next Iron Chef. Then I realised that the kitchen floor had become oily from the cooking. so, after washing all the dishes and wiping down all the countertops, I mopped the kitchen floor again. Trice. After dinner, my brother had to go for his music lesson. As my mother is sick, I volunteered to take him there. After his lesson, we were suppossed to get a cab home but the queue was too long. I tried callilng one but comfortcablink could find a cab either. Our absentee father was too busy to drive us home as usual and so we took the train-bus route home. By the time we got home, the little bugger was dog tired and i had missed half of the super funny desperate housewives episode. So after a hard day's work, i'm relaxing through writing therapy here. Mummy's husband just arrived home and i opened the door for the keyless breadwinner instead of ignoring him as usual. He has just settled himself on the sofa and is nagging at me to stop chatting with people on the internet. I am not doing that. I don't like socialising, even virtually. This guy knows nothing about me at all. zero, nada, zilch. (but i know alot about him, esp the internet porn habits)
And so, after a hard day's work this is all the thanks i get. a groundless accusation and some buzzing noises around the ear region. And I haven't even had the time to shower after cooking dinner. (going to shower right after this) But I still look immaculate.
Anybody here watches desperate housewives? you know the redhead housewife who can do everything perfect and looks so perfect but who has issues with her family that doesn't appreciate her? I think I understand her perfectly. so PERFECTly.

where have i been and what have i been doing?
At home. Cooking and cleaning. I'm a maid! I'm a housewife.
This sucks. I'm going to get out of the house tomorrow and go for a walk. Thank goodness it's saturday tomorrow. I don't have to cook as we'll be going over to my grandmother’s (paternal) place for dinner.

But i'm afraid i'll be quite tied to the home until my maid comes back. my poor grandmother (mother's side) has been having problems with her legs and can't do housework. plus she has to make the new year goodies.

I've been cooped up so long in the house that i think i've quite forgotten how to talk. i don't talk much to people at home. to prevent my brain from rotting i've been working on various pieces of rubbish writing and "art". and of course, doing push ups to release pent up energy.

I tried to persuade my mother to let me go backpacking again. but, again, i failed.
I truly believe that i am wasting my youth. my mother is the type who likes to sit on her ass all the time. very placid and domesticated with no sense of adventure
whatsoever. She thinks i should stay put in this city. maybe learn to drive, bake, sew. Damn! she's been bugging me to learn to drive but i really don't want to. I'm carsick, Hello!

I need to travel. there could be some truth in horoscopes after all. every article i've read about Sagittarius has mentioned this need to travel. Argh, I feel so tied down.

My mother says that when I start working i shall have my own money and can then go on all the tours i like. That's not what I want! I don't want a cushy vacation where you stay in classy hotels and rush from place to place and have meals included. what I want is to wander about in a foreign land, damn the risks. live on a budget. I don't mind sleeping in the streets.

alright, enough about the teenage angst stuff. let's hear about more interesting stuff.

found a few viruses in my computer. rewind to yesterday night.
steven, my father(really? i still can't believe it!) asked me about an attachment.

steven: how come i can't read this attachment? I open the file but the computer can't read it

me: really? what kind of file is it?

steven: don't know

me: who is it from?

steven: dunno. I don't know this sender.

me: damn! it's a virus you abysmally stupid man!

yes, no kidding. all this from the man who claims to be my father. the man who nags me not to download stuff from the internet in case i get a virus.

but there were some other viruses that didn't come from email attachments. once again, i tracked them down to steven's user account. and when i peered into his temporary internet folder, bloody#$!@$! my eyes almost popped out. and that's saying a lot as i see the naked female body everyday in the shower. PURE UNADULTERATED PORN!!! (with these keywords, i bet this site will be getting lotsa hits from guys searching for porno)

Now don't get me wrong. I am not against his being a depraved man. I'm just shocked at how stupid he is. (stupidity is a sin) What's the No. 1 way to download viruses? opening attachments from unknown senders! what's the best way of getting viruses that run automatically when you visit a website? go to a porn site! Who is stupid enough to do both of these things? the man i am supposed to have inherited genes from!

I could have kept quiet. I'm not the big mouth sort. but i really hate stupidity. so when my mother came home this evening.

me: mummy, the computer has been infected with viruses
mum: oh dear!
me: yah. it's the kind that runs itself when you go to some websites
mum: really. that's terrible
me: you know, there's only one kind of website that almost always has this virus
mum: what kind?
me: PORN sites!

and i proceeded to show my mummy all the lurid, HOT WET SEXY AMAZING SHOCKING FF MF MM BDSM KINKY SUCK *&^* F%^& HORNY GIRLS pictures from steven's folder.
evil i am. pure evil.
but when my father came home. my mother didn't talk about the porn at all. just told him the computer had some viruses and that he shouldn't open attachments from people he didn't know. i was too preoccupied with a BBC radio programme to add fuel to the fire, salt to the wound. However, don't start thinking that i'm being nice and sensitive. I might just be saving it for tomorrow when we go to my granny's where all over GOSSIPY relatives will be. Am I Evil? Yes, I am.

On a lighter note, Hubert, my brother is becoming corny. this makes me believe that he really is my brother. I was explaining to him all the names of various soy products.
this one is called tau gua
the one in the soup is tau ki
the one that's like a sponge is tua pok
the kind in sweet syrup is tau huay
the white soft kind is tau hu
the one in the cup is tau huay
and boy was i impressed when he said:
and the one that sings is Taufik!

ahhh.. it is so heartening to see such a feat of corniness from one so young.

* amusing stories from down under

On redheads:
my sister in australia tried to chat up a redhead girl today. (i have a thing for blonds, she goes for the auburn).
here's an excerpt from her email to me:
"tried to chat a redhead up today but she got so shocked that i could
speak english that she ran away"

On fashion:
"haha, one jap has a weird fashion taste. you watch kongfu hustle yet?
he pull down the jeans until can see top part of buttock. obi quack
got scolded by vice principal."

on having small feet:
"today i went to buy a better shoe
shoe price range was $14 or $100-$500 haha, mummy will faint
went to a big store, they don't have my size. miss by 5 inches
went to a mens store...don't have
went to a womens store...don't have
....
finally got it at a kiddie store.. Stupid 5yr white kid keep coming up
to compare feet size."

being a good sister:
"my teacher adviser is a blondie want me to matchmake?"

ahhh.. my disciples are coming along nicely.

Today, I was finally let out of the house. I took the rabbits downstairs for a walk. I like my meat lean. After dumping the rabbits on the field, I proceeded to ignore them as they tried to jump onto my lap. And the sky was so blue. I had almost forgotten.

After dinner, my grandmother took Hubert and I out to Toa Payoh Central to get groceries. Seems like she'll only let me go out when she needs free labour. I think this period of time might have been more stressful for her than I thought. With my parents abroad, maid gone home and me sick, she's been doing most of the work.

Here's why I think she might have finally lost it. It also gives you some idea about how much I had to carry. She bought vegetables. 4 bags of celery, 3 bags of big leafy stuff, 2 bags of small leafy stuff, 2 boxes of dou miao, 2 packs of french beans, 2 packs of baby corn, 2 ears of corn, 2 packs of baby corn, 2 boxes of pea pods, 1 bag of 10 tomatoes, 1 bittergourd, 1 yellow mellon thing, 1 cabbage, 1 head of lettuce, 1 big brocolli and some more green stuff that I can't remember. She is obviously overestimating how much we and the rabbits can eat. Is it stress? I had a hell of a time trying to pack everything into the vegetable compartment of our fridge which is saying something as it is a big fridge. The top of the lettuce got chopped off by the fridge door when I tried to close the vegetable drawer. At that point, there were anout 2 more bags of green stuff still not packed in. I rearranged everything and tried again. I don't give up easily but when the tomatoes began to look a little like what you find on spaghetti I realised I was fighting a losing battle. I solved the problem by stuffing all the greeen stuff that wouldn't fit into the main compartment of the fridge. Then, I held everything back with one hand, counted to three and slammed the door shut as I retracted the hand with superhuman speed.

You know the TV advert that tells you how one serving of vegetables is about 1 cup? I swear I have the vegetable equilvalent of about 20 litres in my fridge.
Now, don't laugh. Seriously. I need to know if eating too much green stuff will make a person turn green. The situation here is not vegetarian,it's far worse. (there's a difference between "no meat" and "all veggies")

Sorry about the strange, surreal content and language of my previous post. I must be going bonkers and I really need to get out of the house and see the sun.

I'm practically under house arrest. I can't go out. I can't go down. I can't do anything except eat, read, write, and sleep. Luckily, there's always that surreal, kaleidoscopic world of imagination to wander about in. One thing I learnt last night before I fell asleep is that there is a subtle but significant difference between letting you mind wander and wandering in your mind.

* At this point, the reader who has just left JC is advised NOT TO CONTINUE as they may find following content highly disturbing. The blogger accepts no responsibility whatsoever for any harm caused to mental health that may result from UNWISE disregard of this warning. However, readers who do not fit the above description may safely continue as the following will probably be quite boring to you anyway.

As I tried to fall asleep last night, my utterly bored mind decided that it wanted to go for a walk. So I let it. What I didn't realise was that it was going to take a walk inside itself.

You see, it is perfectly safe to wander about in an imaginary world. Such a world is outside of yourself or maybe made up of bits of your subconscious that really have no real significance. It is, however, simply not safe to poke around your own mind. There are places in there that should be kept locked up and the key melted down and made into something else. If you've watched films like Dreamcatcher or read books like Hannibal which talk about the Memory Place, you'd know what I'm talking about. Imagine a place like a house or castle or file cabinet where all your thoughts and memories are kept. When you want to see your old schoolteacher, you can go into the castle for example, walk to the door marked childhood school memories and there your teacher will be, explaining the difference between solid and liquid just as she used to.

So I wandered in this place which I thought was Imagination. But no. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to write the sign on the door and lock it up. Pure laziness. So I went in and guess what I found?

Behind the door a medium sized hall. Non air-conditioned. The ceiling very high. Grey tables and chairs arranged in neat rows. Large pasar malam type fans at various places. At each table sat a student frantically writing, scratching his/her head or just plain staring at the lofty ceiling in desperation. The EXAM HALL. Just like I remembered it was on the day of the Econs 'A' Level Exam.

I saw myself scribbling frantically. I heard myself hoping that my made up explanations would somehow uncannily hit on the answer, all the while knowing it was bullshit.

And then the tidal wave of fear hit. The memory of anxiety. I'd almost forgotten. Kicked it into a corner and pretended that everything had ended when the exams had concluded. But it's not true. I still don't know the results although I seriously think there won't be any As on the dreaded slip of paper.

I guess most of you A level takers have also put the exams behind you. But now, sneakily I should think I have unlocked the door in your memory place labelled "I am so going to fail the As!". HAH! Aren't you scared now? Don't you remember how you failed to answer the question? Don't you recall how you realised that you got the multiple choice questions all wrong because where everyone had put "A" you had answered "C"? Your bowels are clenching in fear aren't they? You AREN'T going to do well, you know. It's going to be a permanent stain on your academic records. Really. It is very, very possible.

So you see, the mind is not a safe place to wander in and I do serious apologise if this unsettling account has unsettled you and made you remember that the worst of the 'A' levels is not over.

Don't blame me. I did warn you and you chose to ignore it. Curiosity may not kill but there are certain things that you really shouldn't be curious about for you own psychological well-being.

I hope you sleep well tonight.

Still sick.
The cough disappered for two days only to return yesterday. It's now an asthmatic type of cough and I had to use the inhaler last night. Had to turn down another invitation to lunch with the Family. The coughing really makes me feel shitty. The tummy area around where abs are supposed to be has suffered most terribly. Feels likes someone made me to do a thousand sit ups last night and then kicked me in the guts. Damn is coughing a strenuous activity.
Having been confined at home for the past two weeks, (not counting bringing hubert to yamaha on monday) I haven't seen anyone except my grandmother, brother, maid and the doctor. Wonder what's happening in the world out there. Boon says on her blog that jun is in hong kong. When did that happen? Xinying is easier to keep track of as she regularly posts the soppy events of her melodramatic life on her blog.
My energy level has been very low. This is the first time in days that I've enough energy to use the computer.
The doctor has put me on my third course of antibiotics. The pill is bright yellow and supposed to be a very strong japanese brand. Doctor appeared perplexed by my illness and asked if I have recently visited anyone in hospital. I think he suppects I've got some new superbug as the past 3 bottle of cough medicine and 2 antibiotics haven't worked. If this new course of medicine doesn't work, I'm going to check myself into hospital and let them pump me full of all the antibiotics in the world.
Even as I am suffering and lying on my death bed, my parents and sister are having a great time down under. The asshole of a sister just emailed me pictures of the huge lobsters and scallops they are eating. She put her soft toy next to the lobsters for scale comparison and boy are they big!
The evening before I got the asthmatic cough, I took adela's rabbits down for a run. (irony of it all, the very creatures I want to eat). This boy, one of her friends came up to me and said, " Adela, what happened to you? Why you look so pale?" I looked up at the strange kid and it was some moments before he realised his mistake and scuttled away. Blind children people have nowadays. He was right about the pale part though, being cooped up at home and out of the sun has caused me to become even fairer than I was before. And the sickness contributes an interesting greenish pallor to the overall dead creature look.

In case anyone wants to know, the company that I worked for and quitted puts up many, many job ads everyday. They pretend to be crowd control, events coordinator, music lovers or ask you if you like to watch movies. It's all the same company and you can tell because the contact number is the same for at least 2 ads on the same day: 67440382 or something like that. They give different names but they are all the same person. Beware.

My throat and cough got worse. Yesterday evening, I brought Hubert to his music class at yamaha at plaza singapura. I also walked over to orchard library to return books. Popo says that I kenna the wind and re-caught a chill. Damn. So now my throat is swollen again and it hurts to swallow. And I couldn't meet up with LL, boy and doggy. I think I've got a superbug. The kind that can't be killed by most antibiotics. I'm going to die soon. No flowers at the funeral please. I'm an environmentalist.

i'm still sick. bloody. the germ was either resistant or immune to the first two types of cough medicines and the first antibiotic. so i'm now on a different antibiotic and my third bottle of cough medicine. tastes like shit. I hate salty-sweet and stinky syrups. bleah!
Adela has gone off to perth, mummy and steven with her. I'm the king of the castle. My subjects: brother, grandmother and maid. I had a great idea last night. I'm going to push adela's bed together with mine and i'll have the biggest bed in the house! Life would be good if not for the cough that won't go away.

the middle eastern governments have been the stingiest with their pledges to help the tsunami-hit countries. Some islamic clerics are claiming that the tsunami was sent to punish the people in the beach resorts. Quote: We know that at these resorts, which unfortunately exist in Islamic and other countries in South Asia, and especially at Christmas, fornication and sexual perversion of all kinds are rampant... The fact that it(the tsunami) happened at this particular time is a sign from Allah"

Note how they tried to link "Christmas" with "fornication and sexual perversion"
Why not link "Arabs" with "hypocrisy"?

Remember the time before the disaster? when the arabs had all these fatwas etc calling out to "muslim brothers" to come together to fight the "western evil"?
Now, their "brothers" are suffering. Do they help? No. Instead they say it's divine punishment. Anybody from Indonesia or Malaysia who goes over to join the so called islamic jihad after this would be a prime idiot.
Arabs are just too too oily.

I'm sick like a dead cat.
The person at the old fucking cheat money company passed it to me and i'm still sick one week later. Bloody.
Today is the first day I can talk. I've been missing out on so many things. Couldn't even go for the farewell lunch they had for the boys.
sucks sucks sucks. my body is overloaded with medicines. I think i'm going to die of drug overdose.
adela and my parents are flying off to perth on sunday to get the little bugger settled down. I have to get better by then or else there will be nobody to fuss over me. and i have to help look after hubert too.

New Year, New Start.
How much has changed?
In terms of the person, not much.
With regards to the circunstance, quite a bit.

New Year's Eve was my first real day at work. It was also my last.
By 8am, the hundred over employees of that small branch of the huge MNC was gathered in a small office space in Aljunied. They started playing games and doing motivational cheers. Normal orientation type games like the one were the leader says get into groups of 5 and there's a messy scramble. The way they played it, however, wasn't so normal. It was violent and not a little cruel. Puching a shoving. People falling and getting crushed. In a small room packed with so many, it's not funny. And the cheers and songs to get people motivated. Such things are normal during orientation but these people do this every day. I started to feel like I was in the wrong place.
Then I went out with my leader and a member of the team to Tiong Bahru. We had to sell those "charity" coupons again. The leader, an Indian woman told me how to reassure the "customers" that all the money would go to the charity. We had to "pitch" the "product" to them. This leader's pitch didn't sound honest to me. She would tell people that we were teachers from a school for poor children trying to raise money for our students. At the end of the day, we went to Macs to sit down and count the "donations". Then, the leader took 20% of the money from the booklet of tickets I sold and gave to it me as my pay.
An uncomfortable feeling. Like guilt.
I had smiled at and talked to about 300 people that day. I really hate smiling and talking to people. I'm not friendly by nature. Interupting people eating at coffeeshops and rushing home after shooping didn't quite tickle my fancy. And to think that I had lied without knowing it. Only 80% of the money was going to the charity. And who knows how much the leader and the manager will deduct of of that 80% for themselves.
I was so depressed, I went to Wen's house after that. Jun was out and the house was dark and quite. We switched on the Christmas Tree lights and I sat in front of it. It helped. Wen tried to cheer me up and encouraged me to quit. Suddenly, her older sister came down the stairs and I thought she was a ghost cos I didn't know there was anybody else in the house. I was still feeling not so good, like a tummy ache in the stomach of the conscience, so Wen lent me a book to read. Then I felt better.
The big sister drove us to bugis in her car. Cool driver. Like sitting in a crazy racecar driver vehicle. Not very safe but a lot of fun. I wasn't back to my normal self yet so I was very quiet and stared out of the window thinking of evil MNCs. Wen was going clubbing. Amusing the way she was trying not to let me know. Consciously or subconsciously I don't know. When asked where she was going, "to meet my friend" "to meet cheryl". Then the sister asked, "are you going to zouk or warehouse(something like that. is there really such a place)" Funny Kid, Wen.
On New Year's Day. I went to food distribution and met Xinying and Sharmaine. Nice seeing Xinying again. We haven't met up since the end of As, I think. We are good friends who are not interested in the same things. Except maybe food.
Then I went home.
In the evening, Steven came home with my new nice, nice black iPod. A late birthday present.
Now I'm happy again.
The equation:
+Job
+Lies
+Friend
-Job
+Community Service
+Friend
+iPod
=Friends + Community Service + iPod.
Ha! I win!

I have a job now. It's some event coordinator thing. I'm supposed to do various jobs depending on what projects the company has. Not really enjoyable but I'm doing it for the money. Today, I went for job observation where I went with a full-time employee to see what the job was about. We had to sell charity tickets. So sad. Me. Tickets. Sales. Things that don't really go together. And I tried to be a friendly little bugger. That's why I got the job. I am a good actress. Planning to work until I have enough money to last me till university. Then, I'll quit and pick up slacking where I left off.

I will conclude the abuabugigigaga story since no one else is contributing.

Final part by Audrey

Mrs Abuabugigigaga! The wife he had left in Iraq all those years ago!
Once, he had been happily married and lived a quite, contented life in rural Iraq. Then, They had come. They had taken him away and questioned him. Beaten him. Tortured him. Kicked the lights out of him. The secret police had suspected him of being a member of the underground resistance working to topple Hussien's "goverment"(everyone knew it was a sham. Hussien was a dictator. When they had done with him, they had deported him from the only home he had ever known and banned him from ever returning on pain of death.
Left without a husband, Mrs Abuabugigigaga had been unable to travel out of the country as she had no other male relatives. (Women could only travel outside their homes with a male relative or risk being arrested)
So, how was it that his beloved Mrs Abuabugigigaga was standing here, right before his eyes? As he hugged his wife, Mr Abuabugigigaga saw the words under the wrapping paper of the box :Fedex. We live to deliver.
Only Fedex can deliver anything anywhere in the world within the shortest time imaginable.
THE END

Christmas Day is over and the leftover food is almost all gone. My christmas miracle happened when I arrived home after buying the last minute ingredients for the Christmas Eve feast and found my grandmother at my home, just discharged from the hospital. She was perfectly fine and ate damn a lot too. Thanks God-y.
Anyway, I need money. I need money.

This morning, my cousin cancelled tuition to go to Sentosa.
Went out with Adela and Hubert to buy Christmas food in the afternoon. We had so much to carry. After struggling all the way from carrefour in suntec city to the city hall mrt station, Adela suddenly realised that she was supposed to meet her friend at Orchard. So, Hubert and I were left with about 10 bloody bags to carry.
I was supposed to have dinner with Jun and Wen but it was cancelled at the last minute when wen realised their mother was coming back from thailand. Everybody seems to have something better to do.
Then, my mother called to ask hubert and I to go visit my grandmother in hospital. So we went. She has just had surgery to investigate a probalem with her arteries or something. Doctors also found that she has a lung infection that hasn't cleared up after a 10-day antibiotic course. I know where that infection came from. During his 20-day vacation to Australia, my uncle left 3 rabbits, 4 hamsters, 1 tortoise and a bird at my grandmother's. His family had not been taking good care of the animals and the bird had an infectious respiratory disease. Airborne.

No, the world ain't a beautiful place. Even if it is almost Christmas.

I am anxiously awaiting the next episode in the abuabugigigaga story. Will anyone deign to contribute?

I finally completed the application forms for Yale today. bloody complicated. Why do they need 2 essays? Lucky I have a big ego, else it would have been much harder to write those essays. I sent them to an editing service and the woman said that they were good enough to be submitted unedited but she edited them anyway. You see, the customer is always right, even when they are not.
Boon is working at hotel rendezvous as a waiteress and I'm having a rendezvous with her after work tomorrow. I recall how Jason used to say ran-des-ves instead of ron-day-voo. Wonder what's become of him and the rest of the 31/03 people. Liling is living it up in Las Vegas til January so there's no enthusiastic little bugger to organise a gathering. Soon, all the guys except penguin Foo(who is enlisting in March) will be shaved botak and and kicked in the ass by their commanding officer. As far as I know, they are all hoping and praying not to end up up in the same platoon as Zamir because he'll probably get everyone into trouble.
I'm currently working (sort of) as a tuition teacher. Teaching my cousin English as an excuse to go to his house to steal chocolate from the refrigerator every monday and thursday morning. I hope to get more students soon or I might just have to get a full time job as I am quite broke due to my rather extravagent christmas expenses. Anybody know anyone needing english or GP tuition? On the other hand, I am sort of enjoying the carefree zero responsibility life.

part 3 by Jun

And... ALL OF A SUDDEN, the melodic music stopped and on came the disco lights with the rhythmic techno bead. tu tu tu tu tututu. Instead of prancing in circles, the present was floating in rectangles. What seemed like a dream became all real again. -BAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRHHHH- The sound of the trumpet blew and a greeen figure came out of the box and out came mrs ABuabuGIgigaga!!!!!


* comment by me
surprisingly warm response to the abuabugigigaga story game. Wasn't expecting anyone to bother. Seems that I am not the only bored person afterall.

part 2 by Wen:


the soft constant thumping sound continued throughout the night. the rhythm of the organism pounded along with mr AbuabuGigigaga's heart. doop doop doop doop. in fear, he eyed the present closely.his heart started beating faster and all of a sudden, the present started prancing around the room. In utter shock, mr AbuabuGigigaga laid there stunned as the present prance in circles around him. music from a carousel started playing. nothing seemed to be real anymore.

I remember the story game. One person begins a story which is then passed on to another person who continues it and so on until it is time to end. I want to play that game here.
Here's the first paragraph:
(Part 1)
12 days before Chirstmas:

The present had been placed under the christmas tree. Nobody knew who it was from. There had been nothing under the tree last night and this morning, it had simply appeared there. Mr AbuabuGigigaga had shaken it, put his ear against it and given it a tentative sniff. He still had no idea what it contained. It wasn't christmas yet so it would be wrong to open it. But WHO could it be from? In the middle of the night, a soft, constantl thumping had begun to come from the mysterious wrapped object. Abuabugigigaga had been more than a little spooked. What was under the gift wrap and who could IT be from?

* If any one is reading this blog and wishes to continue the story, pls email a paragraph to zhangbaby@hotmail.com with the subject "abuabugigigaga". I will select the best (my opinion only) entry for each part of the story so if your paragraph doesn't get featured, try again for the next part. Deviant and perverted stlyes will not be discriminated against. If there is no one reading this blog, I shall be forced to complete the story myself which wouldn't be much fun.

Gloomy skies and too much TV make a person reflect on life. All the important questions about what you are here for and whether you should have a life plan. Do I have to know what I want to do for the rest of my life? Everyone seems to know what they are doing. Adela is goin to be a vet. LL is going to be a speech therapist. Hair stylist. Architect. Musician. Computer Programmer. Dancer. Teacher. How did they find their "calling"? How come they know?
Me? I think I might like to be a fighter pilot. My mother says to try for a scholarship from the airforce. Then I think that the military life is not for me. No place for naughty people in the army. I think I might like to be a musician. Then again I don't like practising and I got dangerously close to manslaughtering the new music teacher yesterday. I think maybe I'm evil and I need lots of money but law really bores me. I think maybe I won't do too bad as an academic lecturing, researching and all that. But where's the adventure in that? I have considered so many professions and none seem suitable. I am at an advanced age to not have a concrete ambition.
My mind wanders in an infinite number of directions, some rather alarming. (double agent for India and Palestine, Orang Utan hunter etc. You get the drift) Meanwhile, the body reclines on a sofa in front of the telly and dilligently wastes away.

I played hangman with my Hubert today. For over 4 hours. No one won.

Christmas is coming! The weather is getting cooler and it keeps raining. I keep hoping that the mercury will go down a bit more so it can snow.
I'm 18 now. I can buy 4D and bet on football matches though I hope I'll never be tempted to engage in such activities. Everyone who gambles knows that what they are doing is putting more money into the pockets of the rich. Who needs regressive taxes when you have so many people complusively disposing of their income in this manner? Anyway, this issue only entered my mind because I suddenly thought of how all the adults in my family like to note down "lucky" numbers to "buy". Dumb. I might possibly be the first smart adult in the family if I don't succuumb to the lure of the game with 4 digits.
Yesterday, I watched 3 movies. I was feeling smug and self-satisfied at having succesfully survied to br 18 years of age. I asked to buy the tickets to Blade Trinity (nc16) and the bloody woman at the box office had to ask to see my IC. Damn. As I gave my tickets to the girl at the entrance of the cinema, proof that I was above 16 was again requested. Double damn. I was about to murder her in cold blood when she turned to ask her colleague what dateb it was and wished me happy birthday. Whew, close shave for her.
It was a good birthday. Movies and good food. A lot of food of course. And I am still smug and self-satisfied that I am 18. People born late in the year sometimes feel a great sense of achievement when they get older by a year.