Today, I collected my bike from the bike shop where it had just been serviced. I cycled back to my house. All on my own, my first time cycling on the road with big scary cars and trucks whooshing by me. I was terrified and petrified. The last time I rode a bike, I was about 9 yrs old. And I fell and injured myself. So you can imagine how absolutely frozen with fear I was. I had to keep reminding myself not to give in to the urge to close my eyes as it would most likely be the last thing I ever did.

I eventually reached the house alive and breathing. I went to put my bike in the bike shed where I met the Iranian guy who had just come back too. And he said, "Congratulations! You made it!" And I replied, "Shit, I'm freaking terrified" I had to go to the kitchen to drink 2 cups of water and a cup of hot chocolate before my heart rate started to return to normal. Shit man.. being all alone in a strange land doing scary things alone really scares me to death. I need to get some heart attack medicine.

Dear people,
I shall indulge you with these lovely photos. They were taken about 2 weeks ago when my parents were still here to drive me around the Yorkshire country. The first few aren't very nice because they were taken with my father's 3.2 megapix camera. (so last year...). The later ones are nice cos they were taken with my trusty little 5.1 (so last month, I know).

I went to a Castle Howard on a foggy day. It was too foggy for any photos of the castle itself to be any good. Luckily, photos taken in the castle gardens turned out just fine. I walked down the passageway into the Secret Garden.



Here are some flowers that you don't get to see alive in Singapore.








Roses always look better alive and attached to a plant rather than dead and wrapped in some shiny paper.


Here's the famous Whitby Abbey which was once the lair of Dracula, if you believe Bram Stoker. The day I was there, it was misty and clammily cold. The dark imposing facade of the gothic ruins were truly impressive. Very atmospheric. As my watch ticked dangerously close to sunset time, I hurried my parents out of the place. Just in case the undead Count was still hanging around the place. You can never be too careful.





I also visited a waterfall somewhere in the yorkshire dales. I'm particularly proud of this photo. Looks like one of those waterfall calendar photos. I must be a real genius to make shitty brown water look so good.



The Yorkshire Dales is a beautiful place. Here, you can see the shade of green that grass was meant to be. You can see the little stone wall that you've always read about in story books. It's so beautiful that it makes you really contemplate Creation and Creator. No wonder cows go mad.



And in some places, heather lends the hills fiery colours.



Here is a picture of just 0.09% of the ducks on campus. It is believed that duck shit holds up the bridges crossing the lake.



This is York Minster which located very near King's Manor in the city where I have my lectures and seminars etc. It's too big to capture fully in one photo. Buildings like these were built to impress.





An ancient city wall surrounds the city centre. You can walk on it. These structures play a very important role in my navigation system. As long as I can see them, I can tell whether I'm in the city or outside it. This is significant as I spend 60% of my time being lost.





This is also a very important landmark. It's Clifford's Tower. I know it as The Thing On The Hill. When I see it, I know that it is time for me to get off the bus so that I will be on Clifford's Street. Getting lost is really a pain in the ass.



This is King's Manor, the medieval building in the city where I study. Tourists visit all the time but only students and university staff have access to all parts of the building.



Ok. That's all I'm prepared to upload for your viewing pleasure. It's too tedious. Of course, I have about a million more pictures but these are the pick of the lot. Regarding requests for pictures of my room, I'll think about it. Maybe when I'm bored.

I've just come back from the Sports Centre on campus where I attended my very first Caving Club training session. It was quite fun. The best way to describe it would be like rock climbing without the rock wall. I went up this rope which was attached to a beam near the roof of the sports centre. Because you don't have a wall like in rock climbing, you have a much higher chance of spinning round and round on the rope so I was a little bit seasick after that. I'm going on a caving trip this saturday. I'll tell you all about it.

I skyped with doggy before I went for the caving training. Doggy is a lousy gossip person. She doesn't know any juicy rumours at all. LL, where are you?

Oh, and can somebody like LL please check up on XY? She seems to be getting into all sort of uncomfortable and (in my opinion) not very safe situations. Maybe some good advice on how to avoid trouble would be useful. No offence to XY, but when it comes to putting yourself in risky situations, you haven't learnt the power of "NO, fuck off"

Yesterday, I went to mass for the first time in many, many years. After mass, which was held in a lecture room, we walked over to the village church where the ladies in the church fed us with pizza, salads and the yummiest apple and berry crumbles and pies with hot custard sauce and cream. My Iranian neighbour accused me of going only for the food. Hee Hee...

I signed up for the mailing list for the Islamic society during freshers' fair. Actually, I signed up for so many mailing lists that I can't remember what I signed up for. So, I got an email saying that there was a meeting at 5.30pm for muslims and non-muslims of the Islamic society. It seemed a bit wrong to go to church in the morning, then to an Islamic meeting in the evening. I was also afraid that they might be the pushy sort who would try to get me to wear a tudong. So, I decided not to go.

Today, I had my first lecture. It was quite good but the lecturer flashed the slides really fast. I don't think he meant for us to copy down everything but most of us, including me, did.

I forgot to tell you a bit about the location of my course. My course is situated in King's manor which is a medieval building in York city, near York Minster. I live in the university campus which is outside of the city. To get to King's manor, I can take an hour-long walk, ride a bike or take a bus. Because my bike remains broken for the time being, I had to take the bus. A return tickets costs £2.30 (that's about S$6.90). How fun.

I also met my supervisor today. Every student has a personal supervisor who performs a role not unlike that of a form teacher. Mine's an Aussie woman. She had 2 dogs in her office. When I stepped in and sat down, the dogs came over and tried to lick me. Just to be polite, I patted them in a friendly, non-aggressive manner. I imagined that I was patting Grace the Dog.

My lecture ended at 11.30am and my meeting with my supervisor was at 3.30pm. In the four hours in between, I wandered the city aimlessly. Normally, I enjoy wandering aimlessly in new cities (like I did in Perth) but this time it wasn't very fun. I think I'm still homesick.

I bought some microwave meal thing for dinner. Just pop it in for 3 minutes and it's ready to eat. Haha, never thought I'd be eating this sort of crap.

And now, after my microwaved meal of mushroom rice, I sit in my room and try to decipher my lecture notes of the day. I can't really understand my writing so I give up and stare at blue bear-bear. Yes, he appears to still be homesick. Come on, blue bear-bear, I bet a nice shower will cure everything.

Homesickness hit yesterday. Ouch! I went to sit in the common kitchen because the light was brighter and less depressing and also because there would be people coming and going that I could talk to. I found out that I am the youngest person on the floor. Everyone else is over 20. Damn! An Iranian guy showed me some card tricks to cheer me up. Quite funny reallly, I'll show you when I get back. He also advised me to go out and explore to beat the homesickness.

Today, I packed a little bag, locked up my room and started to walk home. I walked and walked and walked for many, many miles. Then, suddenly, I realised that I had reached the sea. The weather was too cold for swimming so I turned back and walked back to my room. I talked to my blue bear-bear and he was homesick too. I talked to my geranium. It wasn't homesick because it had grown up in this place so I put it out on the cold window ledge since it liked the cloudy, wet weather so much.

Then, I went out and joined the caving and potholing club. I just want to die in a cold, dark place.

Btw, boon just wrote a very good short story thing on her blog featuring Pooh and piglet. It is a work of art. I don't think she realises that it is very good. Good structure, suspense and surprise. She probably thinks it's a bit of random rubbish but I think it's a masterpiece. I'm not going to copy it here so go to her blog and read for yourself. Fishbones.blogspot.com

Hello from York! Yes, this is very, very far away from everybody. Kids in aussieland are literally on the other side of the world, thus the expression, down under. I won't be posting any pictures up yet cos I'm lazy but I'll write about random interesting things. There is no chronological order because my brain doesn't really like numbers and dates are numbers.

I went to see the ruins of Whitby Abbey. Gothic Lit. students should remember that Dracula hid in Whitby Abbey and the Van Helsing gang went there to look for him. It is really a fantastic place. The ruins are exactly how Bram Stoker described them. Seriously gothic stuff. I stayed there for a long time, trying to find the vampire's coffin. Then, suddenly, I noticed that it was getting dark so I faster siam. The photos are in Steven's camera cos my poor camera died that day so I must wait for them to be emailed to me before I can post them up. Please wait with bated breath.

From the Abbey ruins, I looked down and saw the river Esk. Again, Gothic Lit. students will remember that this was the scene for the river chase in Stoker's Dracula. Whitby is really a fantastic place because other than cool ruins, this seaside town is also the place where super yummy cod is caught.

I also visited Scarborough. You know, the song that goes : Are you going to Scarborough Faire? Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. Bullshit. Maybe a long, long time ago, it was a charming little seaside town. Sadly, today, it is the charming little commercialised seaside town of casinos and dogshit. There was so little beach because there was this whole casino belt with neon lights built all along the beach. And the floor was filthy. Dogshit everywhere. The evening that I was there, it was so foggy that I couldn't really see the floor (I'm serious) and was so scared of stepping on the dogshit. We quicly had dinner at a restaurant away from the beach and drove back to York even though we originally planned to stay the night in Scarborough and it was about 2 hours' drive back in the dark fog.

After the trauma of Scarborough, we decided to be closer to nature. So, we drove to the Yorkshire Dales. It's this very large area of land that is protected National Park which has gentle hills and lots of farm and natural formations like waterfalls etc. There was a very interesting formation called the buttertubs. In a sort of valley place with winds that can push you forward if you don't hold on to something, there are holes in the ground. When you look down the holes, you can see water flowing down rocks at the side. Like a mini waterfall in a hole. And right at the bottom of these 24foot deep holes, there are caves. I shouted hello to any aliens or undiscovered lifeforms that might be living down there before I rushed back to the car to defrost.

Steven and Mummy went back today in KiTTY. KiTTY is the name of the rented Ford car which had a license plate number: K05TTY. It just looked like KiTTY to me.

So now I'm all alone in this foreign land. I'm a stranger in a strange land just like Dracula was in England.

On my floor, there is only one other first year undergrad. He's an Iranian and just now in the kitchen, we were having communication problems. Every sentence had to be repeated 2 or 3 times because I couldn't understand his accent and he couldn't understand mine. Do you think it might be because I was deliberately doing a very strong Singlish accent? I could be subconsciously homesick.

I'm slowly accumulating people's christmas presents in the storage area that is under my bed. So far, Doggy has something. Are you happy Doggy? The rest will be added over the next two months and hopefully I will have a complete Santa Claus bag in time for when I return for Christmas

This post is courtesy of KL International Airport's wireless internet service.

I only slept about 15-30mins last night. I wanted to go the airport early to meet Sinny who madly camped there for the night to see me off in the morning. However, my parents Kay Kiang and calculated that it would be cheaper for us to go together in a maxi cab. In the morning, we spent about half an hour trying to book a maxi cab in vain. Ended up taking 2 separate normal-sized cabs. I suppressed my urge to say "Obi good! Those who don't listen to me always suffer"

At the airport, Sinny came along but we barely had time to talk. Reason: baggage 36 kg overweight. Excess baggage charge= $77/kg. So I dragged the big orange suitcase down a level to a place where they could cargo your baggage. The guy there quoted us the nice, friendly sum of $1093 for the 39kg orange suitcase. I thought, "Screw it" So I dumped my printer, opened up the orange suitcase, extracted the essentials and dumped it into the small silver one that the printer had been occupying. The whole world got to view the embarrassing contents of the orange suitcase but I had to do it. If not, my big blue teddy bear would have been left behind. Once again, I suppressed the urge to say," If I had my way, I wouldn't have packed my whole life into the suitcase" But what can you do when mummy keeps pushing drugs to you? "Bring more Panadol! Here you go, 10 tubes of Vitamin C tablets."

A sad result of all the mess was that I didn't really have time to talk to poor Sinny with the bloodshot eyes (comes from camping over at airports). I felt bad. Luckily, we did have time to ring up Doggy and LL to wake them up just for the kick of it. !Belle switched off her phone and was thus saved from being woken up early in the morning for no reason.

Sinny wants me to get a black guy with nice eyes for her. I'll see what I can do about it. She also said that she wouldn't like it if I came back with an ang moh boyfriend. So I suggested pretty blondies instead and she was fine with it. Everybody likes blondies because they are nice.

I said bye to Sinny and my Popo who was also sending me off. After clearing customs, I called XY to wake her up for no reason. I promised to miss her when I have nothing better to do.

A while more and I shall be boarding the plane to Manchester Airport. It's going to be a very long flight 13-14 hours. No, motion sickness doesn't mean being sick when you pass motion.

It's Tuesday and I'm counting down the days to Friday. I will be back in December but 2 months is a long time for me and my short-term memory. Please don't be angry if I can't recall your name when I return. I promise to remember your face.

People are scrambling, tripping over themselves and fumbling for their wallets to treat me to meals these days. It's the ideal time to pig out.

I went to Kuishin-Bo with LL, Belle and Dog the other day. After 2 hours, Dog went for her TAP DANCING LESSON (I'm completely serious) and I died from too much food. LL and Belle went to shit and came back and continued to pig out for 2 more hours. All this is completely true.

Friday, I went out with Sinny. We went to Sentosa which was so expensive and boring that we came back to the mainland after a while. Then, I was dragged into bimbo shops by Sinny who made use of my fair skin to choose shiny bracelets for her friend. We had dinner at Sakae Sushi where we did research on : How many decent cups of tea can you get from one green tea bag? We forgot to count but I think it was about 10. Then I dragged Sinny to Borders where she experienced the worst pick-up line in the whole entire wide world. I will type it out in capitals so that the full impact of the desperation can hit you like an unexpected wave. Ready?

"EXCUSE ME, YOU SEEM TO HAVE THIS AURA ABOUT YOU."

Sinny refused to tell me until we had gone out of the bookshop. When she finally did, my laughter almost cracked the glass ceiling at Wheelock Place. Some guys are just very, very sad.

My brother can travel with me to England for free. I have this HUGE orange suitcase...

The world has been laid at my feet.
I'm gonna step on it.

They come up to
Give me a hug.
Throw them down
Tread on the rug.

See those airplanes in the sky?
Many people gonna die.

Human without wings
Dreamt of flight.
Such imaginings,
Got us into this plight.

Best say your goodbyes
Cos everybody dies.

-by !Audrey, Poet Laurette to-be

Now the world has gone to bed,
Darkness won't engulf my head,
I can see by infrared,
How I hate the night.

Now I lay me down to sleep,
Try to count electric sheep,
Sweet dreams wishes you can keep,
How I hate the night.


-A qoute from Marvin the Paranoid Android, a character from Douglas Adams's novel, The Hitchiker's Guide To the Universe

I went with LL to send Jason off at the airport last night. A group of extremely nerdy-looking NS boys where kiasu-ly waiting around at the airport about an hour before their assembly time. Doting mummies were everywhere and LL saw one feeding her boy-boy a burger. My heart was gladened when I recalled that the SAF is All Talk, No Action. It would be terribly cruel to send those boy-boys to the frontline to kill and be killed. SAF: The Deterrent Force. (Look here buddy, we've got really mean armoured tanks. *Phew.. lucky he didn't see the scrawny nerd sitting in it"

Jason was secretly excited according to LL. His first time flying. How cool.

Song change! Do you like it?

Oh dear... Run away people! Run!

Der Kommandant Achtung! You are 30% brainwashworthy, 50% antitolerant, and 61% blindly patriotic

Opportunistic, patriotic to a fault, and not so fond of people who aren't just like you, you are like a Nazi General. Back in Germany in the 1940's, you would have been at the top of the asshole list. Not for Nazism, necessarily, but for your own sick, twisted values. Then, out of superior intelligence (relative to other Nazis, that is), you would've climbed to the top. Conclusion: you would have been a Nazi, and most likely would have served them well. - new test, it rules, take it - The Terrorism Test

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 28% on brainwashworthy You scored higher than 80% on antitolerant You scored higher than 80% on patriotic

Link: The Would You Have Been a Nazi Test written by jason_bateman on Ok Cupid

Yesterday, I went to SIM wth XY where she finally signed up for a Bachelor of Business Management course. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a Decision!

Later, we went to NUS where they were having an exibition for international exchange programmes to look for some food. We found some pretty good stuff. We also found Belle and LL. When LL went to play tennis with her uni pals, Belle, XY and I stayed in her room and watched Russell Peters on her laptop. First time watching for Belle and XY. After watching, Belle starterd to call me !Ahma and I called her !Belle then LL came back and she became !Liling.

Xy went home for dinner and LL, Belle and I went to Ikea to find food. After dinner, we wandered around the furniture shop where I bought some stuff to put in my uni room. A blue collapsible laundry basket with an animal shaped cover and a filing shelf thing. Interesting, affordable stuff that Ikea sells. Truly one of the great concepts of the age.

It's time I blogged about my time in Perth. I've been to Australia many times before and visited Perth once before. But this trip was my first truly independent and free trip with nobody to answer to. No parents, no teachers. I planned my itinerary day to day. Doing whatever I truly felt like doing whenever I felt like it. Cool eh?

It was a holiday that put me in such a good mood that I actually took some photos of myself and posed for a picture with ah boy.

Ah boy was very excited. For the past few years that I've known her, she's always been trying to take photos of me sneakily. Like she's paparazzo. And I'm celebrity.



It's an interesting photo. I was in a damn high mood as it was my first night and the weather was just perfect for me (but Adela was shivering). Ah boy drove my sister and I up to this lookout point in King's Park where we had a spectacular view of the city. She also showed me the place where Aussie girls stole slippers from RGS girls a few years back.

The next day, I was left on my own as both ah boy and Adela had school. So, I took a nice walk along Swan River on my own. I couldn't find any swans but saw lots of seagulls, ducks and cormorants.


The banks of the river were nice and clean. Well, cleaner than the Singapore river anyway.




And there was a fantastic tree that looked like something Pocahontas would sit in.


Then, there was this bird that just had a very constipated look. Must have eaten too much fish and too little fibre.



And I was surprised at the strength of the UV rays Down Under even though I had already been warned. It was a cloudy day. A little overcast. An as I stepped out from the sheltered city, I thought it was going to rain. However, I soon realised that it was only my UV ray-sensitive glasses that had turn completely dark. It has never happened before in Singapore except during noon on really scorching days. It continued to happen on all of my days in Perth. Sunscreen is simply essential to prevent skin cancer.



On Saturday, I was strolling in a public park with Adela when we came upon some nice roses. Most plants don't flower until it is further into spring so they were particularly nice to see.



Later, Adela and I went to Fremantle market where we bought lots of nice food. See that box of mushrooms? Well, while Adela was paying for them, I caught sight of another box that was filled with humungous mushrooms. So, I shouted, "(in a Russell Peters/HongKong accent) OH my God! That is like DAmn big MUSHrooms ahh!" There followed a stunned silence in the market. I thought: Opps! Then, the bustle resumed and the two Japanese teens running the store gave each other LOOKS and sniggered at me. But they really were DAmn big MUSHrooms.



What is Fremantle without fish and chips? While waiting for ah boy and her friend to join us for dinner, Adela and I ate lots of fish without chips (so as not to spoil dinner).


Dinner was an interesting affair fraught with tension. There was the tension of my poor stomach as Adela and ah boy forced me to try to finish the food. And there was also the religious tension. I suppose I started it by asking ah boy about her Christian Cell Group. I'm a non-churchgoing Catholic and I don't really know about Christian cell Groups, you see. Adela, blunt as a shit-stirrer and twice as insensitive started to criticise ah boy's church and pastor (she had been to the church once and hadn't exactly taken to the pastor) But the little asshole was sort of drunk on food and was veering dangerously close to inciting a religious war. Ah boy's friend who was the only reason why we had vehicular transport wisely decided not to comment as I steered my ignorant sister away from the subject. Phew... Poor ah boy who had to endure my terrible sister. When we got back to the hotel, I whacked up my sister, tied her to the toilet bowl and administered water torture as I yelled in her ear that she might not like Charismatic Churches but the Catholic Church is not exactly beloved by one and all either. We all worship the same Guy. It's just that we do it in different ways, that's all.

-Nah... Pretend you didn't read the water torture bit. It didn't really happen in real life. Only in my twisted mind. But the yelling at stupid sister part is perfectly true.

On Sunday, Adela and I went on a package tour which we booked from the hotel. We visited a wildlife park which was more like a zoo. I saw a magnificent Kookaburra. There were also a number of wet kangaroos running about as it was raining.



The tour bus then took us to the Numbung Nature Reserve where the Pinnacles desert was. The pinnacles are limestone formations of upright pillars of rock scattered throughout the coastal desert. It was my favourite part of the trip cos I like Geography!


A little size comparison here. My sister who is about 1.56-9m standing next to one of the Pinnacles formations.



A close up of one of the rock pillars. You can see fossilised plant roots in the stone. The plants helped in eroding the original limestone rocks into the pillars of today. So fantastically Geography.



And the plants! The kind of semi-arid area plants I learned about in Geography! Wonderful! Quite wonderful!


This really interesting specimen has a flower in the centre of radiating runners.


Afterwards, we drove to this place with huge sand dunes, I was still trying to figure out whether they were barchan dunes or seif dunes when this monster of a bus arrived to take us on a wild rollercoaster ride on the dunes. It could go down steep 50-60 degree slopes about 3 storeys high which was just fine for me but not my lousy stomach which felt queasy afterwards even though I ad enjoyed myself. Luckily, I had the foresight to have taken an anti-motion sickness pill earlier so the tour bus was safe from the contents of my stomach on the way back to the hotel.


There was also the super fun sand boarding that we did. Basically, you sit your ass on a piece of plastic and get pushed down a 3 storey high slope. Lots of fun but much too short-lived. I would have appreciated bigger slopes.




I came back to Singapore the next day. Good ah boy rush to my hotel after school to drive me to the airport. And back to the land of TOO HOT.

I've been sick again. I seriously don't know what's wrong with me. I mean, I know that I was down with fever and diarrhoea for a few days and before that I was down with gastric and vomiting and before that I was down with holes-in-the-gums after the wisdom teeth extraction. But what I don't understand is why I keep getting sick? I eat good, I eat vitamins, I exercise good, I sleep good. Maybe it's the weather. Everything wrong in the world can usually be blamed on the weather. Alright, that's settled then. We're all agreed that the weather is to blame. Not the Evil Empire of the Unwellness Promotion Board that keeps sending Agents of individual-targeted destruction to attack me every time I start recovering.
Relax! I was just blabbering. I'm not going mad or paranoid or anything. Shit! What was that Noise behind me? Please don't let it be one of them Agents again...

Ok, ok. The noises were really made by a man who is right now in my house dismantling the window grilles and fixing new ones. The management people have apparently decided that the old ones were getting too old and needed to be replaced. My home is getting something like a medical check-up. The other day, my parents got some people in to look at the plumbing and to check for termites. I hope my home is not sick like me. Everything going wrong inside.

Depressing health issues aside, I'm going to Aussieland on Wednesday! I'm not allowing my parents to tag along this time. I'll be playing with my sister and ah boy and exploring the place properly. Sadly, I don't have enough money to visit the two on the other side of Aussieland. Maybe next time when I have more money. As it is, I might just end up in the poorhouse with my spending habits. I need to start growing my money soon. You know all those adverts and financial people who tell you that it is possible to grow your money by investing in this and that? Anybody out there knows how to do that? I need to get in on it if I am to be able to afford my luxury properties around the world in a few years time.

Just read a nice joke. Haha stupid jokes are good

Four surgeons are discussing who makes the best kind of patient to
operate on.

The first surgeon says, "I like to see accountants on my operating
table because when you open them up, everything inside is numbered."

The second surgeon responds, "Yeah, but you should try electricians!
Everything inside them is colour coded."

The third surgeon says, "No, I really think librarians are the best;
Everything inside them is in alphabetical order."

But the fourth surgeon shut them all up when he observed: "You're all
wrong. Politicians are the easiest to operate on. There are no guts,
no heart, no balls, no brains and no spine, and the head and the ass
are interchangeable."

This is a picture of a performer in a Pringles-inspired costume during the National Day Parade. I won't believe anybody who tells me that Pringles didn't commision this costume specially to do some subliminal advertising.

Song change! A song for Family members scattered all over the world.

I think too that it has brought home to me a very important fact. That is that it is better to make less money by doing what you want to do and like doing rather than to make more by doing a job in which you have no real interest.

After all, the only thing you can do with money is to buy life. If the life you like costs you less why bother to earn more by doing what you dislike?

-Colonel Bob Berridge, WW2 P.O.W.

I don't usually post quotes from people but this is a very good one and not too cheesy. You can read the full story here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4132112.stm.

Steven has always seen money as one of the ultimate goals in life. Maybe it has to do with his upbringing. His hopes and adivce for me, adela and hubert have always been along the lines of, "earn a lot of money". I lean more towards Bob Berridge's philosophy when it comes to money though. I wonder if I will actually life up to it. Wait and see, wait and see.

The Fireworks were spectacular!! SO NICE AND GLOWY AND COLOURFUL!

Oh yah, there was on costume in the parade that looked like it was inspired by pringles potato chips. I'll try and find a photo to upload so you can all see what I mean.

HAPPY NATIONAL DAY!!!

I'm now watching the national day parade on television. Ah... the cool uniform groups, precision drills, 21 gun salute, presidential inspection of troupes. And of course, what is an NDP without cheesy songs and dances? Haha. cheesy cheesy cheesy! But so essential to the parade. The best part will be the fireworks which will be towards the end of the parade.

Once again, HAPPY NATIONAL DAY TO EVERYBODY! Especially the little Singaporean buggers studying overseas who are missing home right now.

I was sick for a long time but now I'm well again. Naasty business to do with painkillers, gastric, and lots and lots of puking. So nice to be well again.
There's this programme called Skpe that let's you make calls online. I just downloaded it but I can't find anybody to talk to. Can somebody download it and try it out with me for a cheap thrill? I know you can have voice conversations on MSN too but this one is supposed to be a lot better in terms of voice clarity.
The url is: skype.com

Song change! I'm not sure if I've played this song before. It's a nice cheerful song for a terrible period of my life so I hope you bounce along to it.

I went to have my wisdom teeth extracted yesterday day. The surgeon was very good. Some professor who is super experienced and needed only 5 minutes to remove each tooth. There was an Indian dentist observing and he was very impressed too. When I returned home, I didn't realise the anaesthesia would wear off so fast and didn't take the painkillers immediately. OOOHHHhhhh... then it was like hell man. felt like chopping off my head to lessen the pain. But after I took the painkillers and curled up in bed for half an hour, the pain vanished. I think the painkillers must contain morphine or something. I'm going to become a morphine addict like Mary Tyrone (JC lit text character)

But the interesting part of dental surgery is the operation itself, not the post-op suffering. So this was what happened:

First, the surgeon put a topical anaesthetic on my gums. Then, he injected each side with 2 syringes of anaesthetic. Each syringe took two jabs to be emptied so it was a total of 4 jabs on each side. But due to a miscommunication between the coffee shop auntie-like nurse and the surgeon, he thought I wanted to remove my upper jaw wisdom teeth too. So on my left side, I received a additional 4 jabs on the upper gums before the mistake was realised. The surgeon was quite happy because I didn't wince at all when he jabbed me. High pain tolerance, you see. He was telling me how most of the big tough guys he operated on before winced before the needle even touched them.
After the anaesthesia took effect, my gums and throat and lips went numb and I could feel sharp pain. I could only feel pressure but it wasn't painful at all. The auntie nurse covered my eyes with a cloth to protect from the sharp operating instruments. I asked that the surgeon to give me a running commentary on what he was going to do because I wanted to know when he was going to cut or pull etc. First, a trapezoidal flap of skin/gum was cut and pulled back to expose the buried tooth. Then, some digging around was done to get a good grip. Then, the tooth was sawn in half for easy removal. Then, a plier like thing was used to crack the tooth all the way through as the saw could not reach down to the places still covered by the gums. More digging around followed. The 2 halved were pulled out one after another. Finally, the wound was stitched up with needle and thread. Everything was repeated on the other side to remove the other lower jaw wisdom tooth. Thankfully, the mistake of injecting the upper gum was not repeated. This all sounds gory and horrible and it was. Blood was gurgling out of my mouth. But due to the anaesthetic, I didn't feel a thing. You could have cut my lips and I wouldn't have felt a thing. The pain only came afterwards when the drugs wore off.

So now I'm constantly on painkillers. Thank you God for painkillers. The one I'm taking is called Ibuprofen or something. Anybody can confirm if it actually contains morphine? I would like to know. The surgeon said that it is sometimes also prescribed for menstrual pain.

Hope I didn't put you off your food.

Talking about food, I'm on a liquid diet again (last time it was when I got my braces). I eat soup, soft-boiled eggs, yogurt, mash potatoes and ice-cream. Not a bad way to life actually.

And if anybody has any plans to ask me out to ogle at the stitches, forget it. My cheeks are swollen and I look like a bloody chipmunk. I'm not stepping out of the house anytime soon. Not in this state.

On Friday, I went out with Xinying. After eating at J8, we decided to walk to Bishan Park. On the way there, an army truck drove by us. Now, picture Xinying: slim, long hair and wearing a spaghetti strap top. Of course the army boys did their lecherous smile and wave routine. So I gave them the finger and shouted FUCK YOU! Xinying was amused. I dared her an ice-cream if she shouted FUCK YOU! to the next army truck boys that passed by but sadly we didn't meet any more Chi Ko Peks. She was searching all over for army boys because she wanted a free ice-cream.
FUCK YOU! aside, we had a nice day in the park. We tried to be olympic gymnasts on the excercise equipment but ended up looking like little monkeys instead.

My sister went back to Aussieland today. I have a big bed again!

Song change! Enjoy! Though it's probably not your cup of tea.

I haven't been updating this blog regularly. I'm not so busy these days so maybe I will.
My recent trip to bangkok was all ab out eating, shopping and sweating to death. Sitting by the window in a taxi gave be sun burn on one side of my face. Ouch. It was so very hot. I can't abide heat. Almost died in a melted puddle of Audrey on the streets of Bangkok. And the shopping. I've never like shopping much. But there was simply nothing else to do. My tireless sister dragged us through street after street and I had no choice but to follow. I bought lots of weird pants. Maybe I'll wear them as pajamas (what a hard word to spell) when I go overseas. The saving grace of the trip was food. Thais know how to treat food right. And luckily for me, not everything was spicy.

The past few days have been all about catching up with pals, buddies and other alien lifeforms. The Aussielanders like Jun, Boon and Adela will be going back to Kangaroo Kountry soon and the world will be quiet and peaceful once again. I think I will miss them. Quiet and Peaceful?!?! I can't stand quiet and peaceful. I'm planing to go on a backpacking holiday to Aussieland. What I need is a travelling companion. Is there anybody out there not starting school in August? Preferably somebody young and human. Blondie-lovers need not apply. I won't share.

Just wanted to play with the picture function. This is how my room looks like, all over. I've covered almost every square inch of the wall. Planning to complete the wall mosiac and move on to the ceiling.

The Admiral's Odyssey (the show I was working on) is finally over and I have time to eat and sleep. Six weeks of exhaustion and hell. I've learnt a lot. I've met extremely nice people and I've also met nasty ones. I've learnt not to assume and not to trust strangers I've learnt to humour people. Is this what adult life is all about? Knowing what to say and what not to say. Who to say things to and who you shouldn't tell things to?

At one point, I was tearing because of the enormous stress, physical and emotional fatigue. I hadn't realised I could still cry after all these years.

I've also made some new friends who are based all over the world.

The show was fantastic. And it made it worthwhile for me. It's hard to explain to those who don't already understand. When you've put six weeks of your life into a show, you want it to be the best show ever and all the terrible times you suffered will be worth if the audience loved it.

My life has a few days to sette down before I leave for Bangkok with my family for a shopping trip. It's going to be hell, I know. Shopping's such a nightmare. Leaving on the 14th, returning on the 18th.

Song Change! Hakuna Matata. A wonderful song that Sinny and I used to sing together during bored times in school.

When I step into a hair dressing shop, the hairdressers normally have a lot of fun. I remember when I did a weird haircut in sec three that gave the hairdresser such a headache because what I had in mind was so weird. Then there was the time when I cut my shoulder length hair to a short guy style. The hair dressers were all shocked and tried to talk me out of it. One of them even asked if I was terribly upset about something. When I leave a hair salon, the stylist will all be trying their best to hide the fact that they are all staring at me and not really paying attention to their respective clients.

Some things never change.

I ended work early today. On the way home, I got a sudden urge to go to the hairdresser's. I decided to dye my hair red. Not auburn or brownish red but RED red. In all, I think 4 stylists worked on me. The first stylists didn't know how to mix the dye for the colour I wanted so he called the colourist over. 3 stylists then discussed the colour and one of the student stylist came over to show me her own red hair to see if it was the colour I wanted. It wasn't. We discussed things and a colour was agreed upon. two stylist applied the dye on my hair. One for each side of my head. After the colour had set, another person washed my hair as all stylist not busy at the moment gathered round to watch. It was really hilarious. The one washing my hair said that his hands were stained red and his friends would think he had been eating too many red eggs. Another stylist who was washing somebody else's hair predicted that cars would stop if I stood by a road because my hair looked like the red traffic light. When I looked into the mirror.... WOW! Bloody red! The roof is on fire! Help! Volcano erupting. As I left, all the amused stylist were staring and one told me to count how many people would stare at me when I stepped outside.

My parents almost had a heart attack. My little brother loves it. My grandmother thinks it's cool. My maid giggled. I showed it to my sister in aussieland via webcam and she replied, " MY EYES! MY EYES...

Song Change!

WOW! Hello everybody! To think I'm actually blogging. I've been so busy with work that email is all I have time for nowadays. I work from tuesday-sunday and usually get monday off. yesterday, however, the stage manager called to say that she could manage on her own and I didn't have to go to work. So i had both yesterday and today off which is great!
I think I'm a workaholic. I really quite enjoy my work and the people here are so much easier to get along with than at the last job. after the initial two weeks, i started to talk to people so i'm not that ignored anymore.

The director has turned out to be possibly the nicest director in the world. He is so polite and nice. The type who says thank you to everybody and respects everyone's opinion. one of the actresses and I were wondering if this was the way all aussie directors worked.
*The production involves an aussie-born chinese director, an aussie-born chinese actor and an ang moh aussie actor.
Two filipino actors including one who is based in the UK. There is also a temporary stand-in actor who is a filipino
The aussie-born chinese actor and one of the filipino actors are trained doctors in their respective countries.
Interesting what doctors get up to. I wonder why they went to med school in the first place.

The aussie-chinese actor (ex-doctor) was telling a little story about how hard it is to get old people into hospital wards.

He was trying to get an 84 year old man who had just had a heart attack into a hospital ward. He called Cardiology. Cardiology told him that as the man was 84 years old, he was Geriatrics's problem. He called Geriatrics who said that the old man belonged to Cardiology. He told Geriatrics what Cradiology had said and they said to try some other department. Eventually, he called back to Cardiology and insisted that they ward the patient. So Cardiology said, " Ok, tell us more about the patient." So he said, " He's an 84 year old man who had chest pains while having sex. He clearly belongs in the cardiology ward." And the Cardiology people were so surprised, " Weel, if his young enough to be having sex... we'll take him"

So I guess the point of the story is that an active sex life can be beneficial to health. Especially in old age.
jun, wen and ah boy. Now you know what to do if you need to be hospitalised while in aussieland.

I watched Unleashed today. I really like Jet L moviesi. He can really fight. And his moves are the real deal. Not like jackie chan's nonsensical fumbling fake kung fu. In this movie, the fight scenes were really cool. When jet li whacks a guy up, he really whacks a guy up. There was a bit more emotional depth in this movie than in his previous ones. It was obvious that he was trying his best as an actor to portray emotions. But he didn't do too well in the department. I don't think his wushu training encouraged him to be emotional. He should just stick to fighting.

The first reading of the script for the musical was carried out today. I arranged a few tables in the middle of a room and put chairs and garden benches (for some reason there were garden benches in the second floor room) around it. The director brought snacks like potato chips, dips and blueberries and everyone sat around and discussed the play in comfort. Opps! Did I say everybody? Actually, no. I was sitting on a dinghy wooden platform covered in muck and sand in a little dusty corner of the room beside the CD player. My job was to press the play tracks from the musical that had been recorded earlier. It would have been a respectable job and a good reason for a member of the production team to sit in a sandy corner if the were more than 3 tracks (averaging 2.5 minutes each) that had to be played over the space of 4 hours. You have to respect the effort that goes into making sure that everyone feels they are a valued member of the team.

After the reading session, my stage manager asked me to join them at the table. Then, the director asked for comments from "anybody, anybody at all". He glanced pointedly in my direction once. Don't you think it would have been kinder to just continue to ignore a person who has been in a corner from which the readings and discussion of the past 4 hours sounded muffled and unclear rather than to expect intelligent and relevant comment from them? I made a mental note to call The Book of World Records people that a new record for tactlessness had just been set.

I have decided to be nice and politely ignore the production team except for the stage manager who is at least nice to me. She thanks me for making photocopies of scripts and scores (more about photocopies later). As for the cast, I have decided to be politely nice to them because most of them remember my name and occassionally acknowledge my existence. Smart actors are never. NEVER nasty to crew. It isn't healthy. As everyone should know, Happy, Valued Crew = Safe Props and Food.

As promised a paragraph ago, I will tell you more about photocopies. My job for the past few days has consisted of making photocopies, and rearranging furniture. The detailed breakdown is as follows: Photocopying-97.3%, Moving Furniture-2.8%. This isn't stange when you think about how the script is 93 pages not including music scores. Copies of scripts and scores are constantly being updated which means new copies have to be made for everyone involved (aprox. 15). Fortunately, the highly advanced photocopier in the office takes a mere 10 minutes to scan 33 pages and 5 minutes to produce 33 printed pages (Scanning and printing are not the same. The advanced machine has to scan first, then print. Only low-end copiers scan and print simultaneously). So, let's do a little maths (not too much, please)

The script is 93 pages long. It takes 5 mins to scan 33 pages.
Therefore, it is necessary to scan the script in 3 sections.
5X3=15
It takes 15 mins to scan the script.

It takes 3 mins to print 33 pages. 1 copy of the script has to be printed in 3 sections.
3X3=9
It takes 9 mins to print 1 copy of the script.

Since the machine has an amazingly huge memory that is able to store 33 pages at a time, (wow! 1.44mb is just so amazing by today's standards!) an infinite number of copies can be made from just one scan.
Let's stick to 15 copies for now.

15X9=135

It takes 135 mins to print 15 copies.

Don't forget scanning time!

135+15=150

It takes 150 mins to make 15 copies of the script.

150/60=2.5

It takes 2.5 hours to make 15 copies of the script.//

Wow! Modern technology simply blows your mind doesn't it? I mean, the average photocopier of yesterday (literally 24hrs ago) could only manage about 30-40 pages per minute and here I am, privelledged enough to be able to use one that blazes away at lightning speed!

What with all the photocopying, stapling and paper clipping, crew work is definitely not for idiots. Don't even dream of applying for a job as a crew member unless you meet the minimum requirement of a Masters in Phyics and Computer Engineering.

I almost forgot to mention(how could I?) that the stage manager let me off early today at 5pm. I was initially told to stay til 8pm. See how much I am pampered. Strangely, before she let me off, she asked around if anybody needed any photocopies of anything. When they said no, she said I could go off. I wonder if the two events were connected in anyway.

Why am I so sacastic?
I dont know, I'm only a rocket scientist for goodness sake! Ask someone else, ok?

Why do I do crew work?
I'm smart. I know what I want in life. I desire only to hold a lowly-paid, physically-demanding job, to be completely ignored and for my contributions to be unacknowledged.

Song Change!

We were supposed to have a 31/03 class gathering/dinner on Sunday night but it got cancelled in the end because a lot of people couldn't make it. Then, in the afternoon, Xinying called me up and asked me to go out with her because she was trying to avoid people. So, we had a class gathering of 2 people. We dined at Swensens. Soup and ice cream. Nice XY decided to join me on my no-need-to-chew diet. Then I tried to pay by Nets but the card didn't work because the stupid bank was retarded in activating it. Stupid bank. Now I owe XY $14.

Today (tuesday) I started work on the new play. We had the rehearsal in a little room with a clavinova (piano-like thing) and the cast sang the songs. The male lead has a broadway kind of voice which is rather nice. haven't heard the female lead yet. So the rehearsal was just one guy playing the clavinova and a bunch of other people singing. Maybe the people at this theatre company will prove to be nicer than those at the last one I worked with. Nobody has abused me yet. Oh yah, must write about this lame guy. Lame guys are everywhere if you pay attention. This lame guy is part of the ensemble/chorus for the play. The singing instructor told him that he would be Tenor2. She said, " you are T2" Then he asked, " spider?" I didn't get it at first either. haha "Ti-Too"..spider haha. get it? sorry if you don't speak hokkien/teochew.

The nice thing about this theatre company is that it is so near my parents' office. Just down the road in fact. So transport won't be a problem.

On the way home, driving in steven's car, I looked out of the window and saw a small, little grey car. Pasted on the back window in big, white letters were the words: DON'T BULLY SMALL CAR. Shit man! help me! help me! Lame people are everywhere!!!

I went to the dentist expecting to get my wisdom teeth plucked out and what happened? what happened? I got braces put on! bloody hell.. Cos the dentist said that if I got the wisdom teeth plucked out, I would be "down" for at least a week. this sucks. i hate the braces cos i can't chew my food properly. from now on, i've decided to survive on water, fruit shakes and soup. ARGH! laugh LL, laugh! I can't bite you but I can still whack you. When I eat, or try to eat, I swear and curse like nobody's business. this sucks. Luckily, my dentist said he would try to rearrange the teeth in 3 months, before I go overseas to study. Well, for his own good health, he'd better! I can't stop thinking about all the violent things I would like to do to him. poor guy, he was just doing his job. Alright, I better stop ranting and raving like a pitiful bastard of a sod who just had metal stuck onto teeth. There are more important things in life. Fuck! My teeth hurt.

Liling got the teaching scholarship! But it's not the one that will sponser overseas studies. I hope she gets that one and goes overseas for university. Oh, just realised that if that happens, The Family will be so scattered. Oh well, then we can form an international organisation.

Ok, feel misearble and I'm going to sleep as much as I can. Enjoy the irritating song. I'm grumpy and I don't care if it's a sucky song.

I've just accepted a low-paying theatre job. The commitment will be from 24 May to 10 June. That's about 7 weeks! and the pay is $1200. So, I have to catch up with friends before 24 may when I disappear behind the curtains into the dark backstage of the theatre. my one consolation is that this theatre company is located in a more central area than the last one so at least travelling won't be such a nightmare. I'm an idiot I know.

I watched Mother Courage by stAJeworks (ajc drama) today. It was very good. Personally, I thought it was a much better production than the "professional" one I just finished working on. Mickey Tan and Minnie Tay were there too (P and VP of AJ as known to students). Then, I had dinner with the drama crowd and juniors. We were out quite late and Steven kept calling to nag and grumble and scold me. I wonder why. When I reached home at 2.45am last night, he didn't say a word. Maybe it was because I brought back $1200 last night and not tonight. I'm so bitter and cynical. I'm much too young to be like that.

Doggy says I'm throwing away a double honours for a mere degree. I really don't know. What is are Honours anyway. What's the difference. Does it mean it's a more difficult course or what?

I've changed the music. (if you maybe turn on the speakers and if you maybe care)

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.