I won't go home with you

I feel winded. I've not talked so much and laughed so much in a day for ages. First after rushing out at 10:25 am, I met The Alchemist and Daryl at the Holland Village Starbucks. Then after The Alchemist left around 11:40+, Daryl and I headed to Orchard where I went to pick up stuff from the Derma. We then wandered over to Lucky Plaza and had Nasi Ayam Penyet and vaguely explored the area. We ended up drifting all over Orchard Road and he left me at 6:15 pm. I then went over to McCafe at Shaw to wait for Hadi, Cheam and SL Tan to appear.

McCafe is really weird. It was nice and empty when I was there, but after a while more and more people started coming. I think people were taking photos nearby because there'd be flashes of bright light occasionally which was quite irritating. The guy at the table on the upper deck next to mine however, took great offence to these flashes of light and started half shouting/ranting loudly about people shining flashlights and how irritating they were. Problem was he was by himself, so he was effectively shouting only for himself to hear. I looked at him for a while, then hid back in my book.

Met Cheam, Hadi and SL Tan at the 3rd floor of Isetan, and we headed to The Ship, followed by TCC. Going home was dodgy though because the nearest and best Taxi Stand was at Orchard Towers. It was interesting walking past them as they eyed Cheam and me, and there were lots of ang mohs around my goodness. At the Taxi Stand it occurred to me I was the only non prostitute in the queue, and from behind some ang moh guy was giving me the once over look. Wtf. I must've been the most conservatively dressed female there. I was glad Cheam was about though. This happened when we got into the taxi:

Me: Uncle, two stops. One along -, one along -
Uncle: Huh?
Silence.
Me: Uh we're not going home with each other.
Awkward silence.
Cheam and Me: UH. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA.

The taxi ride back was quite interesting. The Uncle was telling us stories about the prostitutes he ferries and Cheam and I were talking about related subjects to him. Good cab ride.

Apostles of Hustle

Things done today:

1) Meningitis C jab;
2) Lunch with Wesley at Iggy's;
3) Haircut at Yihang's place;
4) Topped up Ez-link;
5) Dentist appt that cost $120 wtf;
6) Dinner with YH at Chiharu;
7) Short 10 min jog because I have not exercised since I left USA.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

I've just finished reading a book that compelled me to stay up till 3am reading and made me shrink in fear with the unfolding events. It is strongly reminiscent to me of Marisha Pessl's Calamity Physics, I would daresay she borrowed large plot elements from The Secret History.

In other news this means I have nothing left to distract me from the headache that is packing.

And they could float above the grass

It feels weird thinking I have slighty over a week left before I leave Singapore. I can't even begin to imagine what it'll be like living in another country. The thought fills me with a utter terror, the thought of there being so much unknown. Yet at the same time I find this terror reassuring, that I am able to feel it and fall into it and lose myself in an entirely new city.

I am terrified, but made alive from the feeling.

-----

These past few weekends have been entirely filled with meetings. I've been trying to jam pack my schedule with people I want to see and things I want to do before I leave. On Tuesday I went with my dad to the Ministry of Manpower to pick up something. After I sat down in their nice seats, I took out David Golder and saw a red thing flash past my eyes and fly off. At first I ignored then, then I started searching my bad and realised my bandage tape was missing -_- Problem with the MOM is that they had nice individual seats with spaces underneath them, so the tape could have flown anywhere. I started searching by frantically moving the chairs about and eventually a few of the staff came to help me. Talk about being really embarrassing. In the end one of the girls spotted the tape underneath a chair I lifted, so I managed to leave the MOM with my tape and without my dignity.

After that we went to Vivocity because it was raining heavily. We had lunch then walked about a bit and went to Haw Par Villa to take pictures. It was still raining a little and there was hardly anyone about. The ten levels of hell exhibit was every bit as freaky as I remember it being. I ended up snapping only a few things. I think I got more mosquito bites than pictures. After that we went to Reflections at Bukit Chandu for a short while as they place closed at 5 p.m and ended up having Teh Tarik at Farrer Road Hawker Centre.

Today I met Mong at Raffles Hotel and we went to eat Hock Lam Beef Noodles. Om nom nom. $6.00, beef slices only, no tau gay, dry and guo tiao. I'll really miss beef noodles, urgh. Then we went to Bras Bersah where I bought stationary and we wandered about Raffles City. I bought chocolates to thank the neighbours because earlier today my brother threw a bottle of wine over into their garden -_- (this was after already setting the toaster oven on fire just an hour ago). Then Mong and I went to play l4d at Selegie. It was my first time playing, I could feel my heart rate going through the roof -______- After about an hour of playing we went to The Cathay and had the XO fried chicken thing while watching 2 girls pole dancing in Jitterbug. So dodgy. Then we had the most awesome Teh Ping and headed for home.

I still feel my heart suffering from adrenaline overdose.

A Comparison of Two Coming of Age Stories

*I had 5 hours of sleep yesterday and had to rush to work a stressful 4 hours in the office after being called back suddenly: forgive me if this post is incoherent.

I recently finished reading the 'indie' favourite The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Rats Saw God. Both stories followed the lives of male protagonists as they go through High School, fall in love and so on. They were also written in the '90s and littered with the requisite pop culture references. However the similarities sort of ended there.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower pretty much followed what I expected, plenty of 'hip' literary references like Salinger and Rand (why the hell do indies love Rand anyway? Is there something they perceive about being an individual equate to being selfish?) and the requisite 'hip' music references to The Smiths. I laughed at some points because it was too indie for me. I must admit I enjoyed the personification of the narrator though, because I found I could really relate to him. I understood perfectly how he felt, and have actually felt that way before. However at the end of the I preferred Rats Saw God.

Rats Saw God on the other hand exceeded my expectations. I expected some Hunter Thompson-esque bunch of incongruity, but the originally perceived explosion of drugs never actually happened. No sheets of Mesculin were anywhere to be found. Instead it followed the life of a teenage boy who was relatively drug free until his senior year. I found the book utterly captivating. From the setting up of a highly amusing Dadist society to the ending which led to him fleeing Texas (which made me feel sick because of the memories it brought), it proved to be highly rewarding for a USD6 book.

Mr Gammett has a lot of things to say

Imagine me, the underpaid under appreciated unqualified law intern doing your legal work for you. Legal work that holds the fate of your suits many hundred of thousands dollar judgment in my little hands.

Now doesn't that scare you?

A recollection from Dubrovnik

I just remembered this:

We had just finished walking around the old city walls and we were all sweating profusely and feeling really hot. The sun was punishing and you could feel the skin burning from the strength of its rays. Basically what we really wanted was a nice cold drink.

I wanted a coke, but cold coke without ice was too sweet and therefore not nice. I looked at the cooler inside the shop.

Get me a 100 plus please!
There's no 100 plus here.
What? Why!
They only have it in Singapore, don't you know? I like drinking it too.
:O HOW TERRIBLE. Do they have Pokari Sweat then?
UH what?
Nevermind, get me a Fanta please.

Sweet Dreams Are Made Of These

It is perhaps apt that right before (give or take 2 weeks) I leave Singapore for abroad, that I attend a mini school reunion. Just like how days earlier I was getting really excited about how it was the anniversary of one of the most dreaded days of my life, these past few months have often reminded me in the strangest moments how much IB in general has shaped my life.

My Dad used to tell me the reason Michael Jackson was so messed up (this was even years ago before he died) was that because as a child he never got a chance to attend school and mingle with his peers, to grow up dealing with people and all the mini trials and tribulations school brings along. To this I cannot help but agree, school for me provided a safe place for me to grow up in and to understand the world around me.

I learned un-pc truths like how incompetency and inefficiency in endemic everywhere, gained regrets at all the missed connections and things that could've been but never will be, discovered the more unpleasant sides of my psyche, lost my mind, struggled through the most mentally exhausting experience of my life, felt disappointment so many times I can't even count the number of times anymore, got to know the best lot of people ever, became friends with the best lot of people ever, grew as a person in trying to understand myself and most importantly I survived.

The reunion today felt strange. It felt like a year onwards nothing much had changed. It also felt like nothing would ever be the same again, that everything had been forever fully altered. It felt a little like something good that had been left out for a bit too long. It made me wish a little that I didn't go because what I had preserved in my mind was too good and anything further could only serve to taint my memory.

After the reunion most of us from .9 ended up drifting towards the bus stop where mild chaos unfolded as multiple snap decisions were made to take various buses and 'go where the bus goes'. In the end we boarded 166 supposedly to go to Arab Street, but we ended up alighting at VivoCity. Dinner was at White Dog Cafe (I think) followed by more aimless drifting about towards Timezone. After dismissing it as utter rubbish, the group splintered up to go meet the KKK, go home and go to Elliot's place.

In the end only JLC, Patrick, Gerald, Justin and I ended up at Elliot's place. They started playing Scrabble "wah SEX ruins everything" - Elliot while I channel surfed. We ended up watching Iron Chef, the rice special, Prom Night (good God) and finally the last 10 minutes or so of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. In the end Elliot sent me home.

I don't remember anything very outstanding about tonight. It was a night like most of the class outings. The same people, personalities, innuendo laden conversation, laughter. Yet I know I would have been so much more worse off had I not attended.

I'll miss 6.9 2008.

Spooky

! Talk about weird coincidences. Just after I wrote the thing about a year ago I went back to check my entries from last year.

Happy 1 Year IOC Anniversary Date.

Okay now I really need to get to sleep.

Time

It just occurred to me that just a year ago, I would have been half awake at this very time sitting outside my house waiting for the school bus to come pick me up.

It would never have occurred to the me of then that the reason why I am awake at the exact precise time a year later is because of jet lag, for I have not slept the entire night. It is 6:49 PM in the US.

Somebody call 911

Jetlag feels powdery. It feels like someone has coated powder all over your fingertips, brain, neck, soft padded part of feet. It feels like the automatic mental inversion of time, like 5:40 am instead of 5:40 pm. It feels like exhaustion and yawns, but without the actual lack of rest and sleep. It feels like you should be somewhere else, instead of where you really are.

I didn't listen to my ipod the entire 30 hour travelling time back

So here I am, safely arrived in HK airport and waiting for my transfer flight back to Singapore. I’m happy I’ve made it alive so far; especially after the harrowing flight I just had from Chicago to here.

Well it really wasn’t a harrowing flight. There was the usual turbulence and absurd plethora of movies that I slept through, the same amount of too little leg room and visions of dying from deep vein thrombosis. Only difference this time is what can be described as the theoretical seat mates from hell. Theoretical meaning they gave me psychological torture, but didn’t actually do anything.

First comes the one I call Junior. He’s called Junior because through repeated observations I inferred that he was Senior’s son. Except Junior is of an indeterminate age ranging from 17 to 27, making me reconsider this inference multiple times. Junior looks like a gangbanger. A gangbanger in the ‘hood’, ‘crips’ and ‘bloods’ sort of gangbanger. He had tattoos all over his neck, arms. If he had a H A T E on every knuckle too I wouldn’t have been surprised, except I was too scared to look.

Junior also comes with the rest of the gangbanger stereotype. He had a shaved head, slight goatee, droopy pants and black t-shirt that was too large for him. The only thing missing really was the hugeass chains they use to choke people to death with, though I imagine he only removed it because airport security would’ve been a pain. Did I mention he looked really scary? And Vietnamese? That made me think of the Vietnamese gangs in Australia, the most insane and fiercest of gangs (read it somewhere), though I guess there are Vietnamese gangs in USA too.

At one point of time 17 Again came on. I happened to look to my right and saw Junior watching it. The thought of a gangbanger watching Zac Efron prance about on stage was too funny, so I giggled in my head. The thought of this was too hilarious so I snuck another glance. To my disappointment Junior was sleeping, his eyes were closed. However the split second I looked at him, his eyes opened. Opened like a horror movie. Opened like I’m going to bash your brains in and destroy you. Opened like OH MAH GAWD I’M GOING TO DIE!!!!!!

And to further illustrate my point on how terrifying this was to me, a tiny small harmless Chinese girl, this is what the expression on my face was:

So I spent the rest of the flight sleeping/cowering and avoiding looking at him.

Senior wasn’t really scary. Just curious. He was a dark wrinkled man who spoke Cantonese and Vietnamese. First he assumed I was from HK and said Mmgoi. Then he gave up and just spoke in English. He was a raging alcoholic. Raging in every sense of the word. Just like how some people drink water, this guy drank beer. The only relief was that it was Tsgingtao Beer, of which I shall make the assumption that it is watered down and has a low alcoholic content because he did not get drunk after 8+ cans of the stuff throughout the 14 hour flight. He had tea once too I guess.

This was all after accidentally sitting in row 51, realizing my mistake and moving up a seat before anyone caught me. I looked longingly at that seat every time I got up to go to the bathroom.

Something filled up my heart with nothing

I have an annoying habit of mentally composing things in my mind, like for example blog posts. I then have the even more annoying habit of forgetting my thoughts, which results in frustration at my not being able to recall the exact wording. Yesterday was one of those times, where I spent the duration of the car ride from Philadephia's airport back to the house.

In essence the past 12? 13? days have been rather exciting and jam packed. Thus I take the liberty to be really lazy and type in short sharp bursts of words, with the tenses all over the place too.

-----

Flying at night from Philadelphia to De Gaulle. On demand movies that called out your name and prevented you from sleeping. Blast of cold icy Parisian air from bus to terminal. Flight to Venice. Blast of sticky heat stroke Venetian air. Board ship. Be wowed. Feel tired. Take photos. Run about Venice. Take a gondolier ride. Eat a tiramisu ice cream. Look at masks. Get hit by a flying pigeon. Board ship. Gorge self silly for dinner. Sleep for 12 hours. Wake up for boat drill. Flop about like a fat penguin in a neon orange life vest. Forget the rest of the day. Prepare for formal night. Attend dance/singing show. Eat more dinner again. Meet table mates. Laugh. Take photos. Meet photo shop Sameer. Repeat for 10x more days in various exotic locales.

Discover the Mediterrean is hot as hell. Discover Europeans have not heard of air conditioning before. Discover ties first came from Croatia. Discover not all Greek islands have white houses and blue roofs. Discover a random Asian Art museam on Corfu. Discover Captain Cornelli's Mandolin was filmed on Argostoli. Take a belated interest in Argostoli after complaining about the heat the entire time we were there. Enjoy buying 1.50 euro large bottle of coke from the Argostoli supermarket. Find a racist nigger rapper doll. Find racist doll sings 50 cent's In Da Club. Discover seas so aquamarine blue and clear it looks like a dream. See wind farms from the ship's deck. Feel tired multiple times in between. Sunbathe somewhere in between. Spend too much time lying on belly during subathing. Shower and find out that you're now two-toned. Watch The Big Lebowski. Ride a donkey up to Santorini. See white houses and blue roofs. Swear never to ride donkeys again. Admire little alleys. Decide to come back again, for perhaps a Summer job?

Go to Sicily. Find out why Sicily is such a popular gangster haunt (It's a dump. Looks like Manila.) Find out that Syracuse is too far to drive from Catania. Discover the Aragon family has roots in Catania. Wonder how the ancient royals survived the heat in their multiple petticoats. Visit a fort. Admire how bad Sicilian drivers are. Admire how crappy Sicily is. Learn that Sicily is but a small representation of the whole of Italy. Marvel at how chaotic Naples is. Marvel at how chaotic Rome is. Marvel at how they remind one of Nepal. Suffer through train rides in airless smothering heat. See Versuvius. See old lava. Enjoy cool air rushing past hot skin. Run away from hot, but B.O. smelly shirtless blonde guy. Marvel at how large Pompeii is. Rush about from locale to locale in Pompeii. Debate whether place is a public toilet or kitchen. Rush back to train station. Frantically look for clothes that cover scandalous knees and arms. Get annoyed at legs that are too long because dresses don't cover the knees.

Rewear dress worn on Corfu. Buy a shawl to wrap around shoulders. Wake up early. Listen to car blaring techno music on the way to the train station. Sit on train. Open windows. See Vatican. Kick self upon the realisation that Oxford probably looks like the Vatican. Queue to see St Peters. Sweat like crazy in shawl and dress. Laugh when sleeveless, knee revealing women get chased away. Marvel at St Peters. Feel like praying. Visit Vatican Museum. Walk through halls like a herd of sweat sticky sheep. Get pushed from place to place by the crowd till we reach the Sistine Chapel. Get yelled at to shush by Vatican guards. Get pushed out of Sistine by the crowd. Eat goopy flavourless undercooked pasta for 5 euros in the cafeteria. Gape at how rich the Catholic Church must be. Rush to Spanish steps. Rush to Church of bones, to find it closed. Skip about happily at seeing Via Veneto. Get stared at by local after repeating Via Veneto repeatedly. Rush to Colosseum. Buy a frozen bottle of water for 2 euros. Lap at water to moment it melts in the bottle. Rush to forum. Pretend you know what ruins you're staring at. Wish Tourism Ministry put some effort into providing information on ruins. Rush to Panthenon. Gape at how this isn't the Panthenon you envisioned. Realise Pantheon invision is in Athens, not Rome. Ride a local bus to the train station. Run to train to see it pull away. Mope. Use bathroom after paying 50 cents euro. Take impromptu shower with cold cold tap water. Pat dry. Sit on train ride back home... with slight blasts of air conditioning!

Join tour group. Feel like bits of cows being herded about. Fall asleep on bus. Arrive in Pisa. Climb leaning tower. Get freaked out at height. Feel drunk as you walk sideways. Arrive in Florence. See a dead pigeon on steps of Santa Croce. See dead pigeon's ribs with the organs missing. Wonder if theres pigeon organ trafficking. Get herded into leather workshop. Jump at prices of leather goods. Find out tour guide is mysteriously Austrian, not Italian. Go for lunch. Eat blandest lasagne on earth. Drink too much wine on an empty stomach. Try, and like Italian coffee. Visit Santa Croce. Get annoyed with new tour guide and tune into the other groups' tour guide on the ear pieces given. Give up and walk off. Buy a candle. Pray. Look for Machiavelli's tomb. Find it being renovation. Take a picture anyway. Buy a postcard of his grave, so you can actually see what it looks like. Give up on tour group completely and wander away. Find statue of David. Find Ponte Vecchio. Eat hazelnut and pistachio gelato. Stumble upon Il Duomo. Get blown away by how majestic it looks. Get blown away by the crowd to get in. Vow to come back and visit again. Go back to Santa Croce. Buy a scarf. Board the bus back. Get back. Eat dinner. Take more photos. Talk to Sameer. Sleep away.

Wake up in transit. Feel ship in choppy water. See white caps. Eat formal lunch. Wander about. Read. Pack. Arrive in Barcelona. Watch Captain Cornelli's Mandolin. Feel sad, but not as sad as watching The Duchess. Stay on board ship. Meet Ivan in library. Get list of recommended places to visit in Barcelona. Go for dinner. Take more pictures. Watch performance during farewell dinner. Feel sad. Say good bye to Sameer, Arun and the other people who served us during the cruise. Reminiscence about the magic tricks Arun did during the trip to entertain us. Sleep. Wake up. Pack more. Eat the last Scottish Eggs Benedict. Look for Arun, but not find him. Linger about in cabin. Leave cruise ship. Board taxi. Arrive at Holiday Inn Express. Admire how clean and nice Barcelona looks compared to Italy. Be awed by their subway system. Be awed by La Sagrada Familia. Take train to Barcelona's version of Via Veneto. Buy new SD card because SD card has run out of space. Walk about Barri Gotic and the Cathedral. Look for Museum. Walk about more looking for a non smoking eating place. Have paella, tapas and a San Mig. Enjoy Jamon Iberico ham immensely. Take train back towards La Pau (isn't that such an awesome name? LA PAU!). Get back to hotel. Watch MTV in German. Shower. Sleep.

Wake up. Get mini tour of Barcelona by taxi driver. Arrive at airport. Run into trouble because there's no proof I'm flying out of the USA. Get problem solved. Board plane 2 hours late. Praise God for more On Demand movies. Watch My Life in Ruins. Vow to go to Athens. Sleep. Watch Star Trek. Read and finish The Cellist of Sarajevo. Watch The Simpsons. Watch Mulan. Arrive in Newark late. Wait ages for baggage to come out. Run from baggage claim to customs. Run from customs to the transit counter. Get told plane is still boarding. Run from transit counter to security. Take of shoes. Run from security in sock clad feet clutching dirty converses. Run on travellators. Feel pain. Arrive out of breath at boarding gate to amazed airline workers. Become last to board plane that has a total of 9 rows. Wait on tarmac for 30 minutes. Get into the air. Arrive in Philadelphia after 20 minutes. Watch as baggage is unloaded... to find ours isn't there. Drive back. Eat instant noodles for dinner. Go to WalMart and buy clothes. Go home. Sleep. Rest. Wait for baggage to come the next day.

The cat is in my room now

Things done/survived over the past few days:-

1) Dealing with idiots ala online transaction cock up;
2) Steering a recreation plane in the air and living to tell the tale;
3) Large social engagement where I knew no one but my family;
4) Bridezilla marathon on TV;
5) Looked at creepy ugly house in the woods.

My foccacia bread was really oily

The past few days here have been rather interesting. Thursday I went to Columbia with my cousin and two of her friends. We took the Subway from Penn Station (during which I was terrified we took the wrong subway and would end up in Harlem by accident) and got to Columbia in one piece. After walking about a while (and damn that is a nice campus) I ended up spending 30 minutes in the campus book store finding/buying the things that Nick asked me to to buy by consulting the shop assistants. They were very friendly and helpful.

After that we walked out along the streets, intending to head to Central Park, but saw a small farmers market lined up against the pavement. We ended up buying some foccacia bread from this damn dodgy looking guy (small denim cut off shorts, tight wife beater top, made me think of tobias funke actually) and some apple cider (which was wonderful). We then headed to Central Park and had lunch in the middle of a field, sitting on some rocks. This location was amusing because we seemed to have found a spot in the middle of a Summer Camp's meeting spot, so after a while we were surrounded by navy blue shirted kids and felt really odd.

Then after eating lunch we ended up walking the length of Central Park (argh!) from West 108th to uh, I have no idea, 7th Avenue? It was quite fun though, and my shoes didn't hurt this time round. They went around looking for Gossip Girl/Enchanted shooting locations while in the park. Finally around 3pm-ish we finished and went to the Time Warner Building. After we exited the building (shooting location for Enchanted) it started to drizzle. We took the subway to Penn Station but when we got out it was raining slightly more heavier. Urgh.

Along the pavements as people rushed about trying to get out of the rain, all the umbrella salesmen came out to make a quick buck ("Youse too beautiful to get wet!" was what one guy said in my direction, I laughed and he protested). Further away from the station were the guys selling the same umbrellas $1 cheaper. But we made a run for Macy's anyway, sans umbrella.

So here we were again, 2nd day in a row riding up the slow wooden escalators of Macys (I wish I knew how old they really were) and running into a Starbucks in every corner on every floor. We were on a quest to find shoes that didn't make Pratt's feet hurt, since the rest of us were fine. In the end we walked away with nothing, and made a mad dash back to the Subway and somehow arrived just in time for boarding for the express train to Trenton.

And then we went home and watched Enchanted, because Pratt and I never saw it before.

I think I'm allergic to the cat

Today I visited NYC for the first time since more than 10 years ago when I last came to USA (actually not true, I came to the USA again when I was 12 but we were way up North-West in Seattle). My cousin, Katie, the girl staying with us, and I took the train from Princeton up to Penn Station. Overall it was a pretty enjoyable experience and I thought "I wouldn't mind studying here" to myself a few times. Post-grad maybe.

The entire atmosphere of the place reminded me of Osaka, but less crowded and probably 10x more dodgy even with all the maid cafes and hentai stores added in. I liked it. What I didn't like however was that I noticed there were lots of stores, stores in every block in fact, but they were all the same F21s, H&Ms, Zaras, etc. So yeah, there are a lot of shops in NYC but THEY'RE ALL THE SAME. How absurd is that? Lots of Starbucks too.

Anyway we also went to catch the matinee slot of 9 to 5, based on the movie. It was quite amusing and I laughed a lot. The ending bit where the characters narrated what happened to them was quite wtf too, with the unpopular boss who got banished to Bolivia being "captured alive by natives and never seen again". There was also a really cute actor (oho!) called Andy Karl playing the role as Joe, the accountant. I also thought one of the ensemble actors named Paul Castree looked cute in his photo in the Playbill.

On another note, I thinking being around Mong and his movie directing is adversely affecting my ability to be immersed in movies. Nowadays when I see movies (and this happeend during the Musical today too) I kept thinking about filming angles, cut scenes, blue screens and so on so forth. Except today it was more geared towards prop movements and what not. (On yet another note, I was impressed by how the ladies could dance so well today in their high heels and not slip).

Tomorrow it's back to NYC again for a visit to Columbia. It'll be another long day, but hopefully an equally enjoyable one.

I'm sick of F21

I never really understood the principle of mass consumption when I was living in Singapore. However having visited numerous USA malls over the past week and being forced into buying shit I didn't really want (no, not salespeople), I am finally starting to understand why the people of the stars and stripes are such massive consumers with the largest carbon footprint in the world.

1) Farm Produce Subsidies

If I'm not wrong the USA heavily subsidies their farm producers. After all, how can Smith in Iowa compete with Salvadore in Chile? This leads to cheaper produce (naturally), and also leads to the mindset of "oh it's so cheap! It's okay if its wasted." If things cost more, then maybe some people would treasure them more. Though honestly by Singapore standards the fresh produce here is really expensive.

2) Distance of Amenities

A drive to do something such as picking up milk can take up to 15 minutes without red traffic lights. This is in contrast to walking 5 minutes downstairs to buy milk if you stay in a HDB. Cramped housing means amenities tend to be nearer. Suburb living here means if you don't own a car, prepare to get cabin fever. Hence, fuel consumption is very high.

3) Location of Amenities

In order to combat the long distances people have to travel, retailers here have come up with the grand idea of building more stores so that they are nearer to people. This means more stores within X sq miles (since we're going with the American system here). However this makes the consumer market rather small since its still the same number of people as before, but divided. Perhaps maybe about a 1000+ people actually are close enough to use that certain mall, but all 1000 people are not going to be there at the same time. Result? Large air conditioned malls (think Vivocity size too) with enough clothes for 500,000 people (stores need to be stocked right) empty on weekdays serving maybe 50 people. What a massive waste of electricity and cloth for clothes.

And that is probably just the tip of the Iceberg.

In the meantime, while on a weekend trip to Washington D.C. to do the touristy thing, I went to the Smithsonian :D They had a small forensic antropology exhibit with Jamestown artifects and my uncle, aunt and I messed around with real human bones (I felt a bit strange after touching them) trying to solve this CSI case in a workshop. That was really fun. Then the next day we went to the Crime and Punishment museum in Chinatown and I got a huge kick from reading all the exhibits. I even drove a police car into a pole in this computer simulation because I was trying to chase down a suspect -_-

It made me think again about how I love Criminology. But there are post grad degrees for that, thankfully.

Air here is dry too and I have ezcema

Hello all,

I've arrived safely in NJ after more than 24 hours of straight traveling starting on 14th July 2009 at 6:40am on United Airlines. Let's just say I'm far from keen to repeat the experience, I've never been so tired from traveling in my life. The friendliness of strangers was a great comfort to me while flying, that and old Arrested Development episodes which cheered me up a great deal.

Last night I saw Harry Potter with my cousin and her friends. I didn't really like the way they changed the angle of the movie from the novel and messed about with the plot, cutting out large chunks of Tom Riddle's childhood. Booooo ):

In other news, I hope my sanity holds out for the length of this trip, for it appears any intellectual stimulation will come from either the internet or my books. This place is as intellectually stimulating as a frat boy party. Oh dear. Pray I don't implode pls. The ignorance of Americans is truly astounding.

Sesame Biscuits

I feel like I got abducted by aliens today. I was made to sit down in a chair as various implements held me down, and they told me to stare into the light. Talk about disturbing~

And in other news, I just finished reading Special A, yet another pointlessly dodgy shojo manga. I think the reason why I have such dodgy perceptions of perfect romances is that they all occur in school, High school to be specific. That's why according to their standards I'm now an old maid past her prime with no possibility of a perfectly dodgy manga style romance.

I Close My Eyes and Fly Out of My Mind

The past 2 days have brought to me yet a new range of experience from temp-ing at the shop. Things like:-

1) Learning how to use the cash register/nets machine/credit card machine;
2) How to get locked out of the shop because I can't open the shutters;
3) Jamming up the cash register till it makes a high pitched whine of agony;
4) Learning how to open the shutters properly;
5) Learning how to make the cash register stop whining;
6) How to disguise the face that I've dropped a customer's credit card into the dustbin by accident;
7) Learning that customers always come in at the most inappropriate time of the most inappropriate song;
8) Learning that Snuff by Chuck Palahnuik is damn dodgy, but also really good (finished it in one day there);
9) Learning that old soft rock is really the best most neutral music to play in a shop;
10) Learning that no Yong Tau Foo on earth can compare to Lau Pa Sat's Koh Kee Hakka Yong Tau Foo;
11) Learning that Subway at HV is stingy;
12) Citibank is a real bank. It is not Standard Chartered;
13) Learning that credit cards can be used for Nets too;
14) Learning that the reverse is not true. ATM cards don't work with the credit card machine;
15) Learning that ATM cards really look like credit cards if you're not paying attention;
16) AMEX is a pain in the ass because you need to key in a code on the card;
17) Customers have a tendency to forget and leave their cards behind;
18) The 3rd level female toilet of Holland Avenue Shopping Centre is really really cold for some reason;
19) The ang mohs are either very friendly or very rude. There are no 'average' normal ones;
20) The satsifaction one gets from not giving a mean customer a new piece of item is quite high.

I have also learned that (outside of my working life):-

1) Byatt's Posession is woefully dull and a massive disappointment (t0 me anyway, I bet there are people who read this blog that have enjoyed it). I feel it's an exercise in intellectual wankery that has no appeal whatsoever with terribly dull and unremarkable characters. It is remarkably Victorian without the wit of Austen (no probability of zombies too) or the drama/tragedy of Hardy. The last book I gave up reading was Le Carre's The Naive and Sentimental Lover around 2005/6-ish;
2) The Sims 3 is not like The Sims 2. I am midly upset/disappointed that I cannot be a control freak and control everyone in the town;
3) Shinshi Doumei Cross is really not bad for a manga. At least it kept my mind occupied for the past 3 nights;
4) My hand eye leg coordination is really bad. I just came back from playing Guitar Hero with Steph and JH and I died doing the drums. I did managed to survive something on Medium till 68% ish on the drums though. Ended up leaving it on Beginner so I could slack and enjoy myself;
5) My sleep cycle has gone to crap now, I am getting mild insomnia and waking up tired.

Kay, I think I better sleep now.

I fought the war but the war won

The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.

Echo & The Bunnymen

I came back home today from Social Night with Zhikai to encounter a smoked out kitchen (well as smoked out as a open air kitchen can be). My first thought when I entered the kitchen was 'eh burnt rice smell, some lucky dog is eating claypot rice!' and 'MMMMMMM CLAYPOT RICE'. Then I realised there were plumes of smoke rising from the stove. Big big plumes.

I went over and discovered a small fire had erupted on the stove, presumably because it had been lit for a long time. Luckily the larger than normal fire went away when I turned off the gas valve. I was then faced with the dilemna of what to do next, because there was also a melted plastic colander on top of the lid covering the wok. I ended up removing the cover with a pair of tongs and removing the pan of glutinous rice inside. The top layer of the rice had turned black. I covered it with a cover to keep out the insects.

I sincerely hope I do not see that rice again for breakfast tomorrow.

A Forest

So far over this past week selling feminine wares in a little fair in Marina Square (I sense some assonance in that last sentence) I have learned that I am far too honest and nice to be a good salesperson. I have absolutely zero interest in trying to pressure customers into buying something they might regret later, in essence I treat them the same way I'd like to be treated, which really defeats the purpose of sales. There are even times I feel like telling the customers "oh actually xxx has better stuff for this purpose" and I get worried when I see women approach the laptop bags which have no padding at all (I imagine them just dumping their naked laptops inside without any protection). I do however get a kick, a rise in pleasure, for the knowledge at having sold something. We even have little games where we attempt to outsell the earlier shift/try to sell a bag that has proven hard to sell.

There have been a few interesting customers too, like the 2 weird old men who came on the first day and asked a lot of questions. Then there are those people who like to pretend they are very clever and that 'they have never heard of our brand' and 'they used to live in australia/go there often/have an uncle ten times removed in australia and thus are the leading authority on australian brands'. There was also a woman who loved the acessory bag so much but had no money (she was leaving to go back to HK) and ended up giving us her USD10 in addition to the rest of her SGD to buy the bag. There was also another woman who came with her brother and they bought 2 bags from us and he paid for one :D (I almost referred to him as her boyfriend, so good thing I didn't). There were also the weird swarm of foreigners of an Asian origin (for some reason I think they're from the Indochina region) who came to our shop and inexplicaby started posing for pictures with the sign and goods even though they bought nothing. They weren't even teenagers, but middle aged men and women, plus the odd elderly grandma or two.

Anyway one more day of the fair left, then I have 2 full days of working at the shop proper next week and another fair in early July. Let's see if anything else weird happens.

2 Jobs in 2 Days

Yesterday I ended my 3 weeks employment with M/s P-. For lunch B- and Andrew brought Rachael and me to 5 Star Chicken Rice in River Valley. Then we went to Laurent's in Robertson Quay for 'tea' where I ordered an Ice Chocolate which turned out to be an epic bad idea (it was like half milk half chocolate. I'm lactose intolerant. Imagine).

I actually felt a bit sad leaving M/s P- yesterday despite the fact that I felt so eager leave just as the week had begun. I felt sad thinking about the good memories that I had, like being complimented on my research skills by Andrew on the 3rd day and the feeling of bashfulness mixed with delight as he went around telling this to everyone. Then later when I brought up a point during a meeting with the client, he went around telling everyone how impressed he and the client was with me. It just felt so good to feel that someone thought highly of me. Then there were the random talk cock sessions with him and Rachael which were really enjoyable too.

I would daresay I'll also miss my direct boss too, Miss S- who was stuck at home on maternity leave most of the time. How she'd sneak back to the office to 'get air con' and surprise me everytime she appeared, and how afraid I was of her, not knowing what she would do next. Pity that she wasn't physically around most of the time for my duration at work though.

So thus with a vaguely heavy heart I left the office, and joined Mrs Nat Lim to sell handbags in Marina Square (please do not come visit me, in fact please stay far away from Marina Square till 21st June). I started work today. It felt a bit like 3 years ago again, talking to Mrs Lim and all. Faint memories of the past also came back to me, but I'm a bit too tired to dwell on them now.

Anyway today was fairly interesting. I seem to attract strange old men (lookinag at handbags?!) who like asking lots of questions. There was also a baby in pram that I played with by imitating her actions while the other clerk was promoting the diaper bag to her parents. She kept laughing when playing with me. Awwww.

Then Mrs Lim's relatives also came along and I played with the 2 kids, Sarah and David. It later transpired that David is Matthew, my younger cousin's friend and classmate. He described Matthew as 'the crazy one'. I laughed. Really cute kids. They accompanied me to get stock from the storeroom which is most masochistically located about 100m+ away. Factor in crowds and going to get stock is a bit of a painful affair. Also for some reason when I started running today my right knee started hurting from the impact with the ground too, so boo ):

Oh and David also started teaching me Chinese. Pri 1 Chinese. I couldn't recognise the words. I epic fail.

Life

I feel very tired again today, more tired than I have felt in a long time. On the trip home today two old men, white haired and skin liver-spotted boarded the train at Outram. No one gave up their seats for them because the 'priority' seats were already taken by elderly people (but not as old as them). They were ignored for the rest of the trip. I wanted to ask someone to give up their seat, but there was no one near me to ask. I started to feel a bit sick to the stomach at the thought, and overwhelmingly tired for watching something like this happen again so shortly after Tuesday's experience.

But Tuesday was different. I should have done something, said snarky things like "congragulations! who's the father?"/"wow, how many months are you?"/"when's the delivery date?" to the young woman occupying the piority seat, making two old people stand right in front of her. Shame her to hell. Or take a picture and send it to stomp, letting the hammer of mass unsolicited judgment smash her completely. But I didn't.

Frankly I am very tired of people.

I went home today and slept like the dead.

Amazon Fail

I actually had a proper post. But I ran out of the anger fueling it. Too tiring to stay angry. So here is a placeholder.

Now, where was I?

I watched the most awesome movie (or film as a person I once knew well used to call good movies) on Saturday night with Nick, Wesley, YH and uh, Lorna. It was Memento. I could rave on and on about the excellent cinematography, script and general awesome mindfuckery, but I shan't because doing so would ruin the movie. It's another Siddhartha-can't-be-conveyed-in-words thing, except enlightenment is replaced by being awesomely mindfucked and blown away. That and I won't be kissing anyone on the forehead to relay this knowledge.

On Sunday I met up with some of the class people for lunch at Greenwood, followed by Ice Cream. Then I met up with Daryl who came a bit late with JLC. We went to Prince Coffee House where we were treated with the usual Hainanese hospitality (read: non-existant) and talked about all manner of random things. Then I rushed back for dinner with YH and my family.

Good weekend, minus the checkup which shot puffs of air into my eyes :D

A Mix of Sun and Cloud

Today is a rather screwed up day for me.

I got dropped off today at Outram MRT station because my dad was bring my brother and maid to Tiong Bahru. This was a change from the past week++ when I got dropped at stations like Bishan, Braddell and Toa Payoh on the red line because it was on the way to my mothers work place. As a result while fiddling away with my ipod, I distractly followed the guy that was running down the stairs and into the train bound for Joo Koon, all the while thinking I was on the train bound for Pasir Ris. This is despite the fact that I had looked at the sign and saw "Joo Koon" and then processed it mentally as "correct" before boarding, all the while aware that I was headed for work at Raffles Place/Tanjong Pagar and not going home.

When I boarded the train and the doors closed, my first thought was "eh how come I'm so lucky that the train is so empty today?". Then it became "wtf why so empty... this is highly suspicious at this time of the day" to "omg wait didn't the sign say "Joo Koon"?" and finally "I'm on the wrong train right -____-". This was subsequently confirmed by the announcement merrily saying that the next stop was Tiong Bahru.

Then later was Rachael and I were trying to get a cab to take us to NUS Law Faculty, there were no cabs around, so we ended up calling the cab companies. Right after the lady told me the information about the cab coming our way, I got another call trying to confirm a medical appointment and promptly forgot everything about the cab details. Within a minute a white Mercedes cab pulled up next to us with an "on call" sign flashing, but I thought it wasn't ours because SMRT cabs usually have the SMRT sign at the side and this one didn't. All I really remembered was that the cab had a '4' in the licence plate. Finally after a while Rachael went to the cab and asked, and it turned out to be ours -______- all because I forgot our cab number.

On another note, I managed to read Ibsen's The Doll House on Project Gutenburg today in between work. I shall attempt The Pillars of Society next week, then maybe move on to the other stuff on Project Gutenburg. I completely forgot it's existance till last night.

Currently Reading: Eeeee Eee Eeee by Tao Lin

I keep forgetting to blog about the books I've read. So here is a summary of books I've read, with the most memorable lines of some.

Books I read:
Ha Jin - Waiting
Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness
Thomas Hardy - Jude the Obscure
Jhumpa Lahiri - Interpreter of Maladies (this will definitely be in my Top 10 list of 2009)

'He cupped his hands around his mouth, and then he whispered, "It means loving someone you don't know"' (In reference to being asked what "sexy" means, the character is a little boy whose dad ran off with someone 'sexy')

Tao Lin - Eeeee Eee Eeee (currently reading this now, but will be done soon)

'"No I'm not. I liked Braveheart, starring Mel Gibson." Andrew grinned. Shit-eating grin, he thought. Mark did not respond. He was a graduate student, Andew knew, from Singapore, where in the army one night they screened Braveheart in an auditorium, then lectured on patriotism, citing scenes from Braveheart.'

On another note, the protagonist keeps obsessing about Jhumpa Laghiri, rather amusing.

Mohsin Hamid - The Reluctant Fundamentalist

"The owner had been a legendary figure in the local A&R scene; when he removed his sunglasses, his eyes contained the sort of cosmic openness one associates with prolonged exposure to LSD."

Michael Chabon - The Mysteries of Pittsburgh

"So Cleveland could not be stopped from bringing Happy up from one of her basement hiding places and mating her to Teddy's three pit bulls, which, when introduced to Happy in the Bellwether's dining room, showed a great deal of alarcity in mounting the distant heights of her vagina."

ie: bringing Happy, a bitch in heat, to meet 3 pit bulls. I died when I read this bit.

(Avec Paolo Nutini)

Today at work they decided to have an impromptu tea party. I didn't order anything, so they handed me an extra desset, durian ice kachang. I hate durian. I had to eat the durian ice kachang in order to not look like a indifferent unappreciative bitch. Meanwhile the other intern, Rachael, who also got handed an ice kachang got a normal one. I found out only after that she is a huge durian fan.

Fail.

-----

I also met Yihang on the bus home today. We didn't see each other when I got on the bus because he was playing with his DS and I was smsing my mother. As I stood next to him, looking at him and wondering whether it was the same guy, I took out my phone and started to dial his number just as he turned around and voila! It was Yihang.

My life is so interesting right?

Fuck

I am completely flat broke. So broke I refuse to think about it. I'm just pissed off at the fact that I've always been so careful about my expenses even when I was depressed and buying lots of stuff online, but I always kept it within my means. Now I've been saddled with an unexpected large bill, my entire pay for the next month is gone. Goodbye dreams of buying lenses and/or adding more hard disk space to Masako, my new laptop. I'm going to stay at home and play Sims 3 the entire day. Anyone who asks me out will be promptly shot in the face.

The end.

This is supposedly the 1000th post on this blog

The original title of this post was supposed to be " 'let me check with my husband first' ".

I started work today in another firm, the newly mysterious M/s P-. Probably not a very good idea after an exhausting jam packed weekend that started with Bum Friday with Ianthe, Stephanie and JH (Flight of the Conchords marathon and playing Little Big Planet) then went to Bridge Saturday meeting lots of new people and some old familiar faces that ended at 2 a.m. when Nick sent me home (also first time I sat in Wesley's car... Wesley who doesn't slow down when he makes turns. More thrilling than a rollercoaster ride). Then there was Movie Sunday with a random spontaneous movie session of Night At The Museum 2 with YH, Nick and ZY which ended at 9:30 p.m. plus. This huge flurry of activites left me feeling rather drained last night. Thus, I died this morning when I was given actual! responsibilities! that! required! my! brain! (as compared to my last job, doing about the same thing).

Today I must say was an interesting day. I arrived early and spent 40 minutes waiting for the partner who hired me (also my direct superior now), S. I spent most of it thinking about how ugly the reception table looked with the glowing flourescent blue lights, then pondering about why there was such a incongruous bronze-like sculpture of a weeping girl dumped in the corner of reception. Maybe she saw her bill from the firm, because as I was later to learn the solicitors in this firm bill by the hour. Apparently the rate for work done by me is $60 an hour, of which I see less than 10% of. How exciting.

This job is also quite dodgy. Dodgier than my old one with the defamation suit which required numerous onlines searches to prove as evidence that he was gay. For instance today I have lied multplie times (forgot how many) just to get the information I want, hence the line I uttered in the above captioned quote. I have also turned into a married woman with a 5 year old son. Quite exciting really, I can feel my heart start to race as my mind churns out various plausible storylines as fronts for such phone calls. Morally however, I think if I dropped dead on the spot now I'll be headed to hell.

I also just realised something dodgier, M/s P- didn't ask me to sign a confidentiality agreement. LOL.

"Erotic comic thriller, featuring Lu Xun"

Sayeth the title of this article, featured on What's Hot in Google Reader.

I'm not sure if this is the most awesome comic I've ever seen or the worst. Maybe both.

Recommended strongly for all IB students who remember their Lu Xun and May 4th Movement.

On Time's 100 Most Influential People List 2009

I was reading Time's 100 Most Influential People list last night. Majority of them were the usual homages to leaders of the world and written in the usual professional style, like Hillary Clinton by Madeline Albright. Some were a bit surprising like Gordon Brown, written by J. K. Rowling (not a politician nor a political commentator!) but still proved to be meaningful and relevant as she relayed how his political stance helped her when she was a struggling single parent. There was also those surprising and touching ones, like Somaly Mam written by Angelina Jolie, in addition to those written by the most unexpected people like the twitter founders by Ashton Kutcher.

Then there were those that were a bit head scratch worthy, like m00t - written by of all people - Rick Astley. The article had like 1 line on m00t, and everything else about being rickrolled. Epic fail article is fail. However nothing comes close to Sarah Palin, written by everyone's favourite insane hate-filled conservative political commentator cum politician, Ann Coulter.

"John McCain was so preposterous a candidate (at least on a Republican ticket) that Palin was responsible for far more votes than the usual vice presidential candidate."

O rly? Sure it wasn't the reverse?

"The biggest red flag proving her popularity with normal americans is that liberals won't shut up about her. Palin is a threat to liberals because she believes in God, Country and Family-all values liberals pretend to believe in but secretly detest."

I'm surprised Time even passed the article. It's filled so blatantly with her misguided hate filled vitriol (and vice versa ultra defensive 'anyone not with me is against me' stance) that it has been rendered almost incoherent. Nevermind that there is no longer any definition of a stereotypical "normal american" who is just as likely to be a teenage chinese girl like me rather than a white conservative christian man who likes female politician who shoot animals for sport. Oh Ann Coulter. I leave you with her following words to mull on:-

"The only thing I have against her is that she threatens to surpass me in attracting the left's hatred."

I'm Home

Despite many misgivings, tears and fears, I am back home in Singapore. I managed to get the flight on Saturday back, sitting next to an overly friendly Tibetan monk.

I am happy to be back in a place where I don't have to pray every hour that the power won't go out.

The Only Thing Weak About Me Is Myself

It's 5am here and I can't sleep.

If anything else during my rather short stay here has taught me that I'm not suited for the humanitarian field. Gone are my notions of joining the ICRC or the UN's Humanitarian arm. I can't imagine suffering the same severity of illness out in the field, surrounded by suffering refugees and having no medical facilities (I actually went to the hospital here, let's just say I take back all my complaints about SGH). This place was bad enough, with me praying that the power wouldn't go out at night so the fan would keep running because I closed the windows to shut out the barking dogs. If this experience didn't make me hysterical enough, being out in the field and sick would thoroughly destroy my spirit.

Thus this notion of mine has been thoroughly rubbished, relegated into Bad Idea Hell alongside:- 1) Trying to eke an apology out of the Japanese Govt for WWII 2) Trying to read War and Peace and 3) Trying to kick glass doors.

This trip has also further lowered UN in my eyes, they having become some sort of a huge joke here, as if they weren't already enough of one. This however hasn't quite reduced my notion to work for them that much though, because how awesome is it to say "I work for the UN" and see the respect emanating from the unknowing masses? Lol. We'll see.

Thankfully I feel much better now, having vomited hopefully for the last time at 12am the most vilest bitter thing all over my bed -____________- Last night's dinner, the grand total of a spoonful of rice came out too, whole and completely undigested despite having been consumed about 5 hours prior. At 3am I woke up hungry. Hopefully this means the worst is over. And I can get on today's flight back home.

I am never eating chicken momos again

Even typing the title made me feel sick. Yesterday Gloria brought me to this really dodgy momo place. I thought that since she and her husband ate there, it must be fine right?

Yesterday while teaching Renuka at the girls home I started to feel a bit weird. My stomach seemed to be really bloated and hurt. I started burping a lot, more than usual. My head felt funny and I felt like I had a fever. I ended up leaving for my place early, unable to teach the younger ones.

Flash forward to today, and entire day spent in bed after a night of bad sleep. I woke up, vomited out everything. Now I still feel like vomiting, but there's nothing in my stomach. I just had 2 cups of milo and a banana today. My head is starting to hurt again and I know I'm going to feel really cold soon, and my head is going to feel like it's on fire. I'm coughing too, because of asthma. I spent the entire day lying in bed half awake half sleeping. Oh, I still keep having to use the bathroom, passing out lots and lots of water. I'm going to suffer from dehydration soon but drinking water makes me want to puke.

I want to go home. Nothing makes you more miserable and miss home than a sickness.My parents want me home too, but Silkair flies only on Saturday, Monday and Wesnesday, and I think I'm too late to get the Saturday flight back.

Why Am I So Forgetful?

I don't know how I forget this, but Nic, you were right. Books here ARE damn cheap. Just now at Namaste Supermarket I got 3 books for 1,500 NRP ($30). Damn cheap. I found E. H. Carr's What Is History and bought Donna Tartt's The Secret History and Anais Nin's Delta of Venus (probably the only version with a non-dodgy cover).

Also, there was oddly power when I came back at 5:45 pm. It's now 6:19 pm. Now I'm afraid there'll be no power later in the night because the schedule has gone all wonky again. Sigh, Nepal -_________________________________- why so fail?

Dust Gets In Your Eyes

Today I gave up and finally bought one of those darth vader like face masks the foreigners wear here. Initially when I first saw them in Thamel, I thought that it was some over zealous response to H1N1 (look, I am being politically correct :D). Fast forward to today, more than a week later, and you learn why the foreigners wear the mask after you develop Kathmandu Asthma. It's a very special type of asthma, one that won't kill you but irritate you like hell after layer upon layer of dust enters your respiratory track and nestles itself along the folds of your aveoli. Joy.

-----

Today I also went for a hair cut. I bet you're going WTF now right, but thing is the hairdresser kind of botched my hair during the last haircut I had in Singapore. Anyway that was about a month ago too. It's also very troublesome to wash hair here what with the hard water and all making shampoo impossible to dissolve. So I went to get my hair cut. It wasn't actually too bad. The lady spent like maybe 20 mins on me (just the way I like it, I hate sitting still for too long) and trimmed my hair till it rested above my shoulders. If it wasn't for the neck snapping hair washing job, it would say it was a pretty good experience. All for 500 NPR (=S$10).

I also walked back by myself today from The Lazy Gringo where Gloria, Loong and I had lunch. This marked the first time I actually walked anywhere by myself in Nepal. I went home, dumped the things I bought from Namaste Supermarket and rest a bit before attempting to find my way to S- Home by myself. I almost got it right, overshooting the two turns I had to make by a little before realising I was heading the wrong way. I ended up taking about 5 minutes more because of that, out of a 15 minute walk. Not too bad I think considering Kathmandu is like a whole series of dodgy small alleys with no road names at all (they use P.O. boxes for mail).

I acutally felt kind of happy walking by myself today. I felt kind of independant. It was a nice feeling, the same one that I had 2 years ago when I first started working and went to eat lunch by myself when out exploring.

41 Things You Learn About Nepal: A List Because There's Just Too Much

1) Baggage x-ray checking is optional. Only the foreigners stop to push their luggage through when they see guards and an x-ray machine for screening luggage. The locals just walk past and wave at the guards.

2) There are dogs everywhere. They (thankfully) do not have rabies. However this means at any one time you will run into a few that are in heat. Dogs are also stupid. Short Pomeranian origin mutts will attempt to mount a mutt of Labrador height anyway. Nevermind the taller dog is also male.

3) Roads are not paved. They're more pockmarked than your uncle who had chickenpox and really bad acne when he was a little kid.

4) There is dust everywhere. When you see people sprinkling water on the streets from bowls they are not blessing the road with holy water. It is to make dust stay on the floor and not fly up.

This is the tourist area in Kathmandu, called Thamel. Roads are normally not so smooth.

5) There are power shortages all the time. They even have a name for it, Load Shedding which is of the scheduled variety. Unscheduled is just called 'those idiots are doing it again'. Power is now on from 8:40 pm to 9:30 am+ here in Jawalakhel, Lalitpur, Kathmandu.

6) They have water shortages too. But I've yet to experience one. This does contribute to the need to bathe mandeep style though, that is with a bucket and pail, which I've done twice.

8) Taxi drivers are maniacs. On second thought every driver is a maniac on the road.

This man is a homicidial manic. He is also a cab driver.

9) Nepalese drivers love their horns. They horn to indicate overtaking, stopping, thanks, scold, show the world they can make nose.

7) There is one road leading to and fro Kathmandu, the capital. This Achilles heel is exploited at least once a month (maybe more) by villagers/unhappy mobs/minorities/unhappy unionists/anyone and everyone trying to protest and get attention. Roadblocks are very common.

8) No one knows about roadblocks till they happen. Not like France where they tell you before they're going on strike.

This is what 4 hours of frustration, pain and waiting looks like. It is also what a Nepali Highway looks like: 1 lane.

9) When roadblocks happen, shops nearby stock up on lots of food to take advantage of the situation. People from nearby villagers boil eggs in anticipation to sell.

10) Nepalese people have no shame. During roadblocks they just walk to the side and pee even if it's in full view of everyone on the bus. This happens in the hundreds.

This man is definitely Nepalese.

11) Roadblocks can be something like 2 logs lain across the road. The police don't intervene because they're afraid of agitating the locals further.

12) Ambulances are for hire by tourists, because the people who block the road let ambulances through.

The roadblock was 2 guys watching a pile of ashes dumped between 2 large logs.

13) It's easier to get out of the bus and walk for an hour to the next town to get another bus.

14) Misery is sitting in a hot stuffy overcrowded local bus on a road riddled with even more potholes

15) Things like the PM firing the Army Chief often result in trouble, trouble of the mass protest/demonstration/curfew sort. However the villagers often don't care enough to participate in politics. They just want tourist money.

16) Power outages happen in hotels too. What a royal pain.

17) Nepalese breakfasts (for outsiders anyway) is AWESOME. Picture a large hum chim beng like bread, two eggs any style (often scrambled for me) and a large serving on potatoes fried with onions. I could die happy eating that. WHY WHY WHY did I not take a picture? ):

18) Porters are the most awesome shit ever. Our guy was like 1.56m or something, built like a stick and could carry 25kg+ with his neck and back. Again I didn't take a picture of him in action.

But that's him, with a dog that followed us from Magethanti to Ghorepani. His eyes are closed though.

19) Mule trains are very common. Mule shit is even more common. It gets everywhere, onto narrow steep steps and broad rocky paths alike. The smell is terrible.

20) Mules are dumb. They are also powerful enough to push you off the steps when they run into you.

Yeah I thought this was cute too, before we discovered shit all over the place.

21) Leaves have leeches. Trying to avoid mule shit and walking into foliage that sticks out is no fun either. Leeches climb up legs by making smaller bites and using that as a ladder. Leech bites are FUCKING ITCHY OMG. I took a pic, but I think it's a little too sick.

22) Mysterious Fucking Insect (MFI) bites are bad too. They make ankles swell up into the size of two ankles and itch like hellfire. They are still itchy and swollen more than a week later.

23) Tiger Balm with camphor is your friend. Kind of. It works better than Calamine Lotion for MFI bites.

24) Tomatoes are a Nepalese crop. Tomato soup is awesome. We ordered it (okay me) for every meal. I took note of the best 3 soups. As the pinoys say, sarap!

Yay :D

25) Rain makes the place very cold, plus strong gale force winds. So cold that hiding under a thick blanket while already in a sleeping bag for -5 degrees still makes you shiver yourself to sleep.

26) Teahouse beds are narrow. Waking up in the middle of the night and looking for your duck is not a good idea. Neither is reaching over, flipping over mattress and all off the rickety bed and falling to the wooden floor, just to get an imagined duck that turned out to be hiding in the hood of your sleeping bag.

27) Walking uphill on uneven steep slate steps riddled with new mule shit and old mule shit coupled with thin mountain air makes one stop every 5 minutes to rest and become ashamed of all previous imagined physical capability. This went on for 4 hours, uphill, all the way. (Though it really was my mother that slowed us down)

Mule Trains = Mule Shit, Steep Steps = Pain. The combination is simply inhuman.

28) Smoking actually makes you slower than age. We constantly overtook a group of Israeli boys that kept chain smoking even though they looked university age. MY MOTHER OVERTOOK THEM. I bet they're still stuck somewhere in the Poon Hill Trek route.

29) All Nepalese assume you're either Japanese or from China. They go Ni Hao! or Konnichiwa! Today some guy when 'So Deska ne!' to me, nevermind that it made no sense at all. I often just go along with it and pretend I'm from China.

30) The view while trekking is awesome. However you spend more time watching where you step (avoid shit, avoid twisting ankle) than admirning the view around you. Nat Geo would have been a better choice if you were doing it for the view really.

31) Early morning cold mountain air aggravates my asthma. I turn into my mother, with her walking speed and all.

32) The view from the top is great, all 3210 metres of it. Except coupled with aching muscles, icy slicing winds, and the existence of everyone and their dslrs, flickrs, you can't help think to yourself "was this all really worth it?" because you know someone's got more awesome better pics on flickr.

This is me trying to do my best

33) Walking downhill is bad too, because it is a massive strain on already aching knees and ankles. It's very easy to slip and fall, not to mention twist ankles. Also cannot be done at a fast speed.

34) Food in the villages literally means they kill your food when you order it. Lots of chickens running around the streets and lots of heavy dodgy chopping sounds in the kitchen after you order, plus the fact that they take almost 40 minutes+ to serve your food from when you order it.

35) They have hot showers with hot water and showers with no hot water. They assume you know why they're named differently on the door. Nevermind that no one will in their right minds will take a shower without hot water when the temperature is hovering around 15 degrees. This did not happen to me though, phew.

36) Hot water turns into steam when it touches your body up there. If your hands are numb from the cold prior to the hot water, you think you're being scalded and have lost your hands. True story.

This is pretty much the route we took, about 40km uphill and downhill.

37) Happiness is getting reception and contact with the outside world again, like to learn who got into NUS medical

38) Happiness is also a good shower in a bathroom with hot water without cold air blowing about your ankles.

39) Nepal is where the taxi drivers from cartels and declare unofficial monopolies on roads and attempt to bash up jeep drivers delivering tired trekkers back to Pokhara (the town nearest to the trekking area). And it's perfectly valid in the eyes of everyone present except the foreigners.

40) Misery is again taking an un-airconditioned bus from Pokhara to Kathmandu (7 hours, 215 km) on bad roads in 33 degree+ temperature with no wind and a searing sun. My lip balm melted into an unredeemable pool.

41) There are mountains of trash in Kathmandu. No one really clears it.

This is a dead cat that had flies around it and smelled just outside Thamel, the tourist district. Taxies were driving by just centimeteres away.

Aiyah I'm Burping Again

I just had the my longest conversation in Nepali.

Me: Anu didi?
Anu: Haju?
Me: Namaste
Anu: Namaste

No People Bowing To Neon Gods Here: There's No Power.

I woke up this morning to the thought of 'what the fuck?', and then realised I was in Nepal. Then I looked at my laptop and was relieved that there was power, not that power really makes a difference in the daytime anyway. It's just good to have the guise that there's power 24/7, till the power actually goes out and I get all funny again. Last night after I managed to get my laptop up and running and my room in order, I started to feel better and calmed down a little.

This is what my room looks like:


I even have my duck from home. A duck that went trekking. I feel a bit like Lee Min.


And that's the view from my room window. Last night I heard freaky sounds of something that sounded like it was climbing up the stairs. This morning I woke up to see a dog running on the tin roof (Oh gosh, dog on a hot tin roof), making the same noise.

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There's a part in Conrad's The Heart of Darkness where Marlowe, the protagonist watches as a storehouse of his burns down. He gets upset, naturally, but everyone around him is like 'oh what's new?' and the natives run around trying to put out the fire with buckets with gaping big holes in them, to the extent that there's no water actually left in the buckets by the time the reach the fire. I think it's the beginning part of when he starts to go mad. Nepal, to me, feels like this. Every piece of shit is nothing new ("oh PM sacks army chief for no reason? nothing new") and the subequent event ("oh President vetoes action? nothing new") to the natives response ("oh let's protest and attempt to shut down the capital by making life worse for the majority BECAUSE MY VIEWS ARE MORE IMPORTANT. nevermind that it accomplishes nothing :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D"). Fuck this. Really.

Oh and I'm not supposed to swear too, because I am attempting to be a good christian. Living in a pastor's home. This is hard because in normal life in Singapore when I fall down or make a mistake I swear. Here EVERYTHING makes me want to swear. From the roads which makes driving feel worse than the worst air pocket to a plane, to the cars that honk more than a herd of angry agitated geese, to the kids (not even those in the home, the 6 kids of the missionaries are enough) doing what kids do: behaving badly in those oh so precocious way when there's just 2 of them.

Last night I had dinner with them (the 3 missionary families) because of the 3 visiting pastors from the big scary board of christians who've come to try and open a proper *insert my denomination here* chapter here. You know those scenes where it shows someone sitting down on a park bench and the world moves around is superfast speed? It felt like that except with more facepalm, and the world was 6 kids. 6 kids which cried, threw utensils, tried to grab at open flames (okay that was just the baby), pretended to be the baby by sitting in the high chair, played a game that involved slamming tables as hard as they could (this was a restaurant with other patrons), whinined, ran around and did other stuff I was trying to ignore. Did I mention I am strongly reconsidering being a mother? I kept thinking 'okay I'll just eat my hamburger and pretend I am a cow', but then I got worried the kids would notice how weird I was. Because kids are perceptive apparently.

And then there was the actual work in the home yesterday. With a kid who was DAMN LAZY and the other who was slow. The damn lazy kid (Joy) kept on mocking the slow kid (Hiva). I think. It was in Nepali so I don't know for sure, but the tone sure sounded like it. I had to keep thinking 'okay I will keep calm and carry on' or 'I will not massive facepalm in front of the kids'. They kept asking to go to the bathroom too, and kept giggling as they asked. I was sure something was up, but they returned really quickly so I ignored it. On reflection I might have killed Neath if I had to teach her, she seems like one of those who'd run away and be completely impossible to teach.

Okay I need to stop complaining less and just go with the flow, but damn if this thing isn't going to turn me into the guy from Curb Your Enthusiasm.

I Just Ate A Milkybar

Hi. Incredibly I am not quite dead yet. Ièm sitting at a moniter in Pokhara with really dodgily slow internet service at a rate of 50 rupees for 30 mins (thatès S$1) to you, and apprently with a keyboard thatès half messed up. The joy.

I just finished a 5 day trek around Nepalès Annapurna Conservation Area and my calf muscles feel like theyève all been shredded into little bits of tissue. My thighs hurt like hell too. Ièll write more when I get back to Kathmandu, tomorrow. That is IF I get back. For the past 5 days weève literally have had no connection with the outside world. Before we left on Monday morning, we heard that Kathmandu had a curfew due to protests and rioting on the streets by opposing political parties. This came after the army chief was sacked by the Nepalese PM, then vetoed by the President. As a result the PM and the rest of the cabinet quit, leaving Nepal effectively government-less. This in addition to the fact that the minorities are already protesting in the East of the country and have threatened to storm the capital because er, their rioting went ignored.

Plus on the way from Kathmandu to Pokahara we were held at a roadblock for more than 4 hours. This is because the villagers nearby closed off the road, which is the only road from Kathmandu to the other towns (thus closing off all gas, fuel and food supplies, driving prices up in the capital sky high). The army people were sitting around watching the roadblock too, helpless. Nevermind that the roadblock consisted of a few layers of logs laid across the road and some random burnings of incense. This held up hundreds of tourists like us, in addition to more locals. We could have stormed them if we wanted to -____________________- Meanwhile, the shops nearby the affected area made a huge killing selling things from 20 RHP Lays marked up to 50 RHP (50 RHP = S$1) to boiled eggs. It was madness.

But what can I sayÉ (thatès meant to be a question mark btw), this is Nepal, where my google reader hardly works because the internet here is far too slow and power outages are scheduled daily yet still happen randomly. I can hardly believe Iève elected to stay here for a month, yet somehow Ièm slowly getting used to it.

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DID YOU KNOW THAT LIKE JUST AFTER I TYPED THAT LINE THE POWER WENT OUT AND MY POST GOT STUCK IN DRAFT LIMBO.

AND I AM TYPING IN CAPS NOW BECAUSE I AM BORDERLINE HYSTERICAL?

AND THAT PACKING THE ROOM I WAS ASSIGNED MAKES ME FEEL A LITTLE BIT BETTER?

BUT AT LEAST I HAVE POWER TODAY.

AND THIS IS FINALLY POSTED ON MONDAY 11TH MAY AT 10:54 SINGAPORE TIME?