Damn, cos of poor lighting and stuff, some of my camphone pix didn't turn out so good and I had to mess ard with PSD for them. Looks like i'm gonna be doing that a lot with the night shots. I'm also accumulating enough shots for a short photo-essay on Bishan so hope that turns out well. :p Click on the camera pix link above to see some of my latest efforts.

ooo boy.... got a lotta rantings this time..... first off......

Raining again??

Bleah. It's been raining on and off and on and off this CNY period. Just as it was time for our family to go out for dinner, it went BOOM and BISSSH and *sings* showers, showers of ble-ssings..... Tried to order pizza so we could stay at home like little cowards afraid of a little water, but even the pizza lines were clugged up. Too many cowards like us cowering in the comforts of our homes. So we had to brave the rain, go out, and sit in the coffeeshop with the wind blowing rainwater into our food and making us shiver in our pants. I swear, if not for the threat of imminent starvation.....
Days like these, you just wanna curl up in a warm, comfy bathgown, with furry bunny slippers and a cup of vanilla tea by your side. Unfortunately, right now all I have is the vanilla tea and I finished that a while back. :p What the hey. I'm just glad to be sitting in my home, while it pours on some other poor sad soul outside. Hate rain. Everything gets wet and cold and muddy and you can't go out or do the things you like to do outside, like shop, or blade or stand with your toes barefooted in the grass and hold your hands up to the sky. [no, i've never done that last one] What happened to that sunny, tropical climate that we were supposed to be so famous for?? Where the heck did all this water come from? Is God having some serious diarrhea issues up there? [eww..... that puts it in a perspective that I shouldn't be thinking about]

Ok, other stuff instead....

School of Rock

I recently caught this one on a pirated VCD while waiting for my mother to get ready for visiting. [yes, she takes that long] The story roughly is that Dewey Finn [Jack Black, main character] poses as his fren and takes up a substitute teaching post at a prestigious prep school. Then he gets the class to participate in a band competition. Along the way, they learn self-confidence, rock 'n roll history, values, and how to do a mean guitar solo.
This movie goes into the Dead Poets category. If I sound unenthusiastic about it, that's because I don't really find another new or inspiring in the movie. It's a pretty much set formula of DeadPoets+humour+rocknroll, and it becomes pretty predictable that way. You know he's gonna inspire staff and students and show them an alternative way of life. You know he's gonna inspire all of them with his wayward, carefree ways. You know so much, nothing become surprising in the movie.
One uplifting part about the movie I suppose is the talented cast. I swear, if those kids are really playing the instruments and not just shaking their fingers, then they're pretty damn good. Some of those supposed 10year-olds are good enough to be pros!

Egg Squad goes to River Hongbao

Yup, we got up to some serious comedy stuff here. [?] Started out with dinner at Kenny Roger's, where I ate enough potatoes and pasta to make Atkins swoon into a dead faint. [so sue me, they were good. :p] Then went to River Hongbao, and I managed to snap some shots with my camphone. Check out the camera pix link to see them. [hopefully when you do, i'd have finished putting them up] Lots of crapping around, esp with Jules. Wonder why the stupid stuff always comes from him? After that we went to Insomnia at China Jump. I realised that the band apparently changes every 10 weeks or so, so that explains why sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad. That nite I went down, the band up there wasn't too bad. Lots of rock music though, so not much dancing going around. Long island tea also sucked. The bottles sold at 7-11 are cheaper and much stronger than the one sold at China Jump. Never again, never again....

American Idol 3

This first episode of AI doesn't seem so interesting, mainly cos Simon doesn't do as much dissing in this one. The thing to watch out for were the gawdawful contestants, who think they're the "next American Idol", but in reality don't know the difference between a C and a G. Some of these contestants have utterly no shame. They go on national [and now international] TV, sing a song so badly off-key, and as David Eddings once wrote, "made up some notes that never existed before", shake their pathetic little ass, and expect a contract to be given to them. Yea, if it was American Failure, or American Laughing Stock, maybe they would've qualified but....
There was this black lady, she sang so bad, Simon said if she was singing in a bar or restaurant, she would drive out half their customers. She said she didn't believe that. [note: self-delusion of talent] So Simon took up a bet with her, and Ryan Seacrest, the host, brought her out to a restaurant, where she started belting out a tune. Er, true enough, more than half the customers standing there watching walked out. One or two even walked up after hearing her sing 2 notes. Reality check dahling.....Another woman sang some undecipherable tune, [not the Asian lady on TV] and of course, got dissed. "That was utterly horrendous. Have you heard yourself sing?" She started tearing and she said all she wanted to do was to sing, God on her side. "Well, he must've taken the day off, darling." Owch....
But no matter what, they all have the same response. "You're wrong." "You're so wrong" "You'll be sorry you didn't sign me" and this is the most popular one "I am the next American Idol." One lady was really bad, and when she got dissed, she started on about how she knew she could sing, and how she had talent [even though her singing consisted of maybe, 3 notes?] and when she went out crying, her friend actually assured her? "Of course you have talent. These idiots just don't see it. They just can't see your talent. Get that f**king camera out of here!" er, have you heard your fren sing??? I am reading through this book about mental disorders right now, and maybe I should go through the one on self-delusion again. Might explain a lot about these folks. What I remember is that sometimes sufferers get so caught up in the delusion that they can't see anything else. Yup, says it all.

Ok, that's all for now. Don't feel much like writing, cos it's cold, wet and I feel something coming on. Urgh. Need more tea.
As entertainment however, betcha never thought germs could be toys. So cute. Wonder when they'll come up with one for SARS?
I've also taken up reading spacefan's blog. Quite interesting, take a look.

Gong Xi ah Gong Xi!

Fa ya fa da cai.....

Hopefully for me and everyone else too. May monkeys and sarus upgrade to chimps and eat more bananas. May unemployed slackers like me find alternative means of economic sustenance. May those in school not find their intelligence stifled by uncaring professors. May everyone's wishes come true, unless u wish someone dead, in which case you're excluded, cos I don't wanna be an accessory to murder.

Yup, it's been an ok CNY for me so far. Went to Chinatown on the eve of the eve, and it's as crowded as heck. Is there some deep, inborn instinct in Singaporean Chinese for them to all flock to Chinatown during the CNY period? You know, like birds going to the south during winter?

That part was ok, though, cos the really interesting parts came during reunion dinner.

My family and I went to the SAFRA club at Yishun for reunion dinner this year, and encountered a few "incidents". Firstly, they had us and a whole buncha families waiting outside for our dinners. Why this is so is because the place has 2 sessions of reunion dinners. One starts at 5 something, and the other, ( ours ) starts at 730. But at 8, we were still waiting outside, cos some of the diners inside were still eating. So my dad goes over to the bouncer at the door, and goes "I'mbloodyhungryandsoismyfamilyiwantutogoinnowmakesuremydamntableisready!"

ok, he din exactly say that, ( knowing my dad, it's most prob to be all in hokkien anyway ) but whatever he said worked, cos finally we got a table, while a whole buncha families were still outside waiting.

The real award, however, goes to my aunt. The place was taking forever with our food, and there was something like a 20-min break between each of the courses. What was irritating was that while we were waiting for our first course, we saw waiters walking to other tables with their 2nd or even 3rd courses! So she started with this guy in the suit, and the mike to his mouth, let's assume he's the head waiter. As the guy walks by, she goes, "Shuai ge, wo de fan zai na li?"

bleah. If you've never seen my aunt, she's a total tomboy and almost-there butch lor. and imagine her going "Shuai ge...." at some waiter. Bleah bleah bleah.

So we get our 1st course. Talk talk talk for about 20mins and the 2nd course is nowhere in sight. She calls the same guy over. The following conversation took place in Chinese, but for the sake of easier typing, becomes English.

Aunt: Do you guys have a doctor here?
Guy: *blur* Doctor?
Aunt: Ya, a doctor.
Guy: Er, I donno if we do. Why? *confused*
Aunt: I need a doctor soon. Cos I'm getting gastric waiting for your food.
Guy: Duh...... ( din say this out, but it was in his face )

The final clincher came when we were waiting for our 2nd/3rd last course. She says she thinks she knows this guy in a grey shirt serving food, and she asks Guy what that one's name is. Guy says Richard. Aunt says ok, thanks. Later, Aunt calls Richard over, asks if he remembers her, and it turns out his fren knows her or something like that. Guy comes over, and says, half-jokingly, "You don't say anything bad about me ah! he's my boss ah!"

Ok, Richard wasn't exactly the boss, but more like the Guy's superior. So anyway, after it turns out that my Aunt knows his superior, suddenly he becomes really attentive to our table. We get extra chilli sauce, and even extra green chillies when my mum asks for it, and he makes sure we're happy and we get food. Man, I wonder why she didn't say she knew Richard earlier. Would have saved us a lot of time waiting for our food. We got in there at 830 and dinner ended at almost 1100 cos of all the table spent waiting. Duh.

Well, that for me was the highlight of this CNY anyway. Today was spent going to the usual relatives' houses eating, collecting and listening to my relatives telling me I shld get a job and how the economy is improving. Thankfully, because of my bro's vocation, most of the attention was diverted to him. On the flip side though, the general comment was that he had made the right choice, cos of the job security. Duh, does that mean my choice of education was a mistake altogether? Then they were telling me to be a teacher, police officer, watever that has money and some security. Thanks ah. As if I wasn't worried enough already. Next year I shld try to get a boyfriend, then they'd be talking about something else at least instead.

What You Think is Not What Is

Or rather, what you think a situation is sometimes, may not be what is really happening in reality.
Like when you go for a tuition lesson with a kid, and you do your best to explain the words in the comprehension passage to him, and try to explain what the whole passage means. And you go through all the questions with him.
And you explain half in Chinese and half in English, because the kid is from China, and his English is not all that good. In fact scratch that. You explain practically the entire passage to him in Chinese, and correct his understanding of the words.
And then you go home, thinking everything's ok and how you're gonna conduct the next lesson.
And then the tuition agency calls you up and tells you that they thought you couldn't speak Chinese and they decided not to have you back again.

Cannot speak Chinese????? I went through an entire 1.5 hours conducting an English lesson in Chinese and I can't speak Chinese????

Ok, apparently there was some really weird breakdown between the grandmother and me. I went for my first lesson with this family at lives at AMK, ( 5 mins bus from my house. What a waste! ) and they're all from China, so naturally their Chinese is power. ( The guy has a copy of Shakespeare and World History in Chinese. Good god! ) The grandmother first talked about her son, and how he was doing at school, and how his English and Science was, and then left me alone with the kid. Note, she's speaking all in Chinese, so I answer her in Chinese. I go through the abovementioned process with the kid, and then I say bye and leave.

And after that, they called the tuition agency and told them I couldn't speak Chinese, and they'd rather not have me back, because it's not good for the kid in the long run.

2 rantings about this picture: Firstly, I was speaking Chinese all the way in their freakin' house!!! I explained the entire passage in Chinese, ( ok, maybe not the entire passage, but sizeable portions of it ) I spoke to the boy in chinese, I spoke to his grandmother in Chinese. HOw the freak did they come to the conclusion that I couldn't speak Chinese????? This one didn't just fly over my head, it went by so fast I only saw a blurry streak.

Secondly, why the heck would my Chinese matter in the first place??? I'm there to teach ENGLISH, not Chinese. If you want your child to learn English, then why on earth are you looking for a tutor with a high Chinese level???? What is it exactly you want me to teach your kid? Shouldn't my English matter over my Chinese? And why is it it matters that the grandmother thinks I can't understand Chinese? Shouldn't they have asked the kid whether he got it??? And of course he's not used to my teaching! It's the first bloody lesson!!!!!

Dammit. On a more reasonable side, I suppose they wanted a tutor with some Chinese ability so that it would be easier to explain English words to him. Bloody hell. I suppose I'm a little pissed at the fact that they thought I couldn't speak Chinese, ( I passed with B ok?? ) and a little confused that they came to that conclusion when I was speaking to them in Chinese. Plus, there's the part about lost potential income again. *Bang bang bang BANG*

Fired on the first lesson. I don't believe it. Someone just run me over with a car.