a new way to get drunk on the cheap

Friday night, after dinner. Krynn already left, leaving me, Quet, and Yenn to hang around aimlessly in Orchard. All 3 of us, Aimless Wanderers, suffering from inertia of some kind. Finally we make our way to the 5th floor at Lido, where at least there is free seating and entertainment from the trailer screen and the oddballs hanging around the area.

One oddball we noticed was the Tout. This was a guy hanging around the start of the ticket queue. He had a bunch of tickets in his hand, and anytime someone walked towards the ticket queue, he'd approach them, talk to them, and apparently try to sell his tickets to them. Curiosity strikes, we debate as to what the Tout is there for. Theories range from the innocent [his friends couldn't make it at the last minute, and now he has to sell them off] to the criminal. [he's trying to swindle people by selling them fake tickets. Before the show starts, he will run out of the cinema] I'm tempted to call the guy over just to ask him what the heck was he doing exactly, but before I work up the guts to do so, he runs off. Maybe he was swindling people after all.

The object of curiosity having disappeared, we focus now on our drinks. This is like the cheapest Happy Hour any of us have ever had. Yenn had a bottle of gin conveniently at hand, and we decided to make our own cocktails there and there at Lido. The gin was left over from the Nuah Day at my place, and I met her that night to return it to her, albeit much reluctance to do so. [btw Krystal, i still want a bottle of gin. Hee.] We get a medium Pepsi at KFC, yes, because it's refillable and we lace the bugger with about 2 inches of gin.

Yes, we got high. What'd u expect? We even had 2 cups of the stuff, cos we finished the first one rather, er, quickly, between me n Yenn. Damn, but gin tastes good. And where else are u gonna get drinks like that for $2? By the time I happily helped Yenn finish up the gin Pepsi, I was high enough to be spewing out Japanese expletives for the world to hear. Yes, I still managed to walk to the bus stop and take the bus home. I was high, not drunk. But I really, really hope there weren't any Japs in Lido that night who heard me go kono saitei yariman...

Krystal: GIN! GIN! I WANT GIN!!! :p Rdgs SnP site, why not just leave it? Or pass the account to me devious hands? heh heh heh...

And yes I tried to sell the vouchers off to tons of people at the time, but nobody was interested. They were 3 $50 [total $150] Nike vouchers, to be used at NIKE Bird stores at Wheelock and Suntec, no expiry date. Since no one was interested, I just hung on to them till I decided to get a pair of shoes for myself.

The browsers are also all magically back to normal. [Sigh...] Someone in my family must've gone "what the heck...?" and just changed it back. Either that or I have pixel fairies in my com. Hm.

Opportunities in Education:
If anyone wants to make serious bucks in education, I suggest writing a book on how to tackle PSLE cloze passage. This is the part of the PSLE that murders students all around Singapore every year, and yet when I go to Popular, there's only 1 book there that really guides you through the cloze passage. Everything else is assessments. [probably cos assessments are much easier to write] I know this personally because all my students have trouble with cloze passage one way or another. One parent also told me that was what her kid's form teacher said during a PTM. Hey... market potential here... :p

[Tenderheart you might be interested] The last time I spoke to Dr Foo, he was also commenting that most of the business books out there tend to be written by people who just want to express their own opinions and experiences, [case in point Robert Kiyosaki] and there aren't many books out there to make academic research accessible to the masses. [only case in point being Harvard Business Review, which isn't exactly that mass-friendly either] So why not a book/quarterly/magazine to express heavy cheemo academic research into reader-friendly terms? [although the copyrights would probably be so sky-high as to reach the level of God, think of all the grateful uni students all over the world who'd be willing to subscribe.]

A few more add-ons to the boyfriend-shoe thing:

1. Just like men, shoes are made for women to walk on. [in, on... whatever]

2. There is always the choice between the ugly, clumpy thing that's comfortable and will last you donkey years, and the stylish, graceful heel that'll kill your feet and break the moment you step into a drain. Stylish, yet comfortable and long-lasting shoes are rare.

Now tell me honestly, how many of you guys out there have bought a brand-new pair of Nike shoes for less than $10?

100% real, original Nike shoes, from the Nike store at Wheelock. Not from the neighbourhood pasar malam.

Less than $10. $6.45 to be exact.

BECAUSE I DID!!!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!

[this is the kinda dumb thing only girls like to brag about. Bear with me guys]

Last time, long ago when I first bought my handphone, the deal came with Nike vouchers. Today I finally decided to use the vouchers and now I have a new pair of track shoes. *evil wide cheshire grin*

Even buying the shoes were an act of fate. I walked into the store, and lo and behold, just almost at my eye level were THE pair of shoes. Like, the kinda shoes where I look at it, and I go "They're mine. I'm buying them." and I don't even bother to look at the other models on display. I tried on for size and after that, everything is moot.

I love destiny when she smiles my way.

As an aside though, it inspired this:
[krystal you can copy and paste this into SnP if you like]

Why Shopping for Shoes is like Finding a Boyfriend

1. Firstly, you have to decide the type of shoe you want. Playful? Sporty? Formal? Work?

2. Then, you select the shop to find the shoes you want. Eg, if you want the sporty type, don't look at Charles n Keith. Wrong products. If you want a homeboy to raise your kids, don't look in Coyote Ugly.

3. After that, glance at all the models on display and select the ones that take your fancy.

4. Just like in real life, there will be tons of other women fighting for the same model that you want. This is especially so in stores with sales, where the women outnumber the men, er shoes, 10 to 1.

5. Try on all the shoes you want before you find one that you like. [for men, remember to always play it safe. you know what I mean] But remember to always try on sizes that fit you. [shoes, ladies, i'm talking about shoes]

6. Don't be afraid to walk around in them. Before you invest in a long term relationship with your shoes, you must see whether you're comfortable walking around with them. If there is anything wrong with the shoes before you even buy them, or if they hurt you in painful and unnatural ways, return to shop assistant immediately, no matter how good or how cheap the shoes are.

7. Don't waste money on shoes [men?] like stilettoes. They may look fabulously good, and make you look/feel fabulously sexy, but they'll slowly kill your feet the longer you wear them and give you athritis in the long run. Avoid stiletto men, I mean shoes.

8. Don't overpay for shoes. However, always pay for quality. Good, well-cut, comfortable shoes will last you a long time. Once you recognise quality, don't hesitate to foot the initial investment. The returns you get back [feet that look n feel good?] will last you a lifetime.

9. Sometimes you walk into a store and you see the pair of shoes you know you'll love. You can't explain why, but you fell in love with the shoe at first sight and you absolutely have to have them. [this happened with my Nikes]

and finally,
10. The first time you wear your new pair of shoes, it's bound to give you blisters and aches all over. [god knows this happened with my leather sandals] Don't forget that with a new pair of shoes, slight blisters in the beginning are inevitable. However, the longer and more often you wear them, the more the shoes will stretch to fit your foot, and in the end, you'll have a happy, comfortable relationship with your shoes.

Too bad I seem to have better luck with shoes than men. :p

I did a silly thing.

I accidentally slammed a couple of keys on the keyboard at the same time.

Now my taskbar [below] has completely disappeared and only reappears when I move the mouse down there, which is a totally irritating thing to me.

Then the menu bar [above] has flattened, from its usual 3 rows to everything squeezed onto one row.

I'm now suffering from windows disorientation.

Can anyone [if you know what I'm talking about] tell me just how to adjust this stupid thing??


As to the Europe trip, hm, donno.... Guess that our 'vision' here is for the whole group to enjoy ourselves as a group as much as poss so as far as possible, we try to do things together, and that's how the planning for the whole thing proceeded along. But anyway despite the size, the only ones making decisions [and objections] are essentially me, Turtle, and Juls. So all this ruckus is really just the discussion between 3 pple. Ironic huh? The other 3 more or less left power of attorney to Turtle and Juls.


The NKF bit I wrote sparked more tags than I tot too. I think it's about high time those people started issuing statement of accounts, just to inform the public exactly where all that money is going to, and whether there're people dying because of that. Luv 'em or hate 'em, you just gotta concede to their marketing prowess. They know what they want, and they're aggressive and pretty original in getting it.



Have you all heard about the collapse of the Nicoll highway? They were on a construction site for the new MRT Circle line along Nicoll Highway behind Golden Mile and then BANG! The whole thing caved in. Statistics currently stand at 1 dead, 3 hurt and 3 missing. Suntec City suffered a complete blackout, of which KR is grateful for, considering he had an early day off from work, but unfortunately Yenn didn't. :p The entire road is also completely impassable and will be so for months.

There were worries about the entire road caving in, rather than just that section, and that it might pull down Golden Mile and the Concourse with it, and then there were worries of a gas leak which could really overboil the soup. Imagine, road collapse and then gas explosion, good god. I think Candle's transport by bus to Suntec has also been completely wiped out. On the radio, I heard that buses like 10, 70, and 14 were re-routed, so Candle, you're out of luck there.

My thought is that somebody in the archi dept is really gonna lose his career for this. I mean, how could you make such a bad mistake in your calculations, resulting in this kinda accident? It's not the kind of thing you can recover from easily. You file something wrongly, slap on the wrist. You misplace documents, slap on the wrist. You forget to email a client, stern warning. You cause a road collapse of one of Singapore's major roads, resulting in 1D, 3H, 3M, and power blackouts throughout the city area including Suntec City, Marina Square, Esplanade.......

Pity the guy. If he gets designated as the scapegoat, the only thing he'll be doing in an archi firm from then on is pouring tea.

To Slayer: Er, so flying to a country you hate for the 3rd time is preferable to staying in Singapore? :p Even if it is semi-free? What's the logic in paying, even a subsidisied price, to go all the way to a place that you hate? Where nobody speaks the language that you do and in desperation you call someone in Singapore just to speak English to them? :p :p Wahahaha...

So either you have to find something you haven't seen in that country, or just don't go lah! Go somewhere else that ain't too expensive, like Thailand or something... Why do you keep going to a place you hate?

Krystal I'll take you up on your offer........ If I wasn't so damn broke at this point of time. *hangs head* Haiz... But KL maybe I'm alright for a weekend, and I know the place a little too. Hee... Might have to wait till I come back from my trip though, cos all my reserves are tied to that.

Almost a month and a half before I fly off, and there are still disagreements within the group about where to go. The LON/PAR part of the journey is set, but it's where we go after that that's causing us the problems. Gotta find some budget flight from PAR to either Copenhagen/Brussels/Stockholm and see where we end up by then. Turtle wants to go to Brussels, because he's been to Cop [lucky devil him *sulks*], Me and Julian were thinking of Cop, of which neither of us have been to, and wherever we go, we wanna try to end up in Stockholm. Then there's the matter of transport and accomo booking. Argh. Argh. Argh.

Am tempted again to do the Piscean thing and curl up in a shell somewhere, and hang a sign on the entrance that says "F**K off, World".

So... here's another of my literary contributions to the world:

Charity starts at... the Purse

The S11 at Bishan was abuzz with activity last Sunday night. This was not due in any part to a wonderful new hawker stall opening, but rather due to the NKF stunt about to be performed. For those who didn't watch/hear about it, the stunt was performed at the block just next to the CPF building and the coffeeshop. 6 stars [I donno who] lowered themselves from the 10th floor to the 6th, where they performed some aerial acrobatics. Like, "1...2....3....Go!" and the 6 people who were hanging in a row would transform themselves into a pyramid. Today in the newspapers, we read that the NKF has earned almost $2m from the 2 shows held over 2 weekends.

These few days, local charities have come under a most uncomfortable scrutiny, in light of the Joachim-Kang controversy. [the priest that allegedly embezzled church funds to pay for his 'goddaughters' computers and condominiums] So suddenly, a lot of people are interested in what happens to the money. What the average man in the street wants to know is, is the money I donate going to pay for meals for poor folks, or the priest's new handphone?

And is it any wonder that they wonder so? Take a walk down Orchard one Saturday afternoon, and you may be accosted in the face by more than 5 different charities, all asking for funds to various needy and worthy causes. [btw that no wasn't chosen arbitrarily. that was the no that accosted me one Saturday afternoon] There are so many people out there that need your money, who will starve if you don't give, who will die if you don't give, quick empty your wallet into my box now or this old lady will die, take off your clothes now because there's a family who needs it more than you, and hey, they need your shoes too.

No wonder people feel so stressed, what with all the guilt being thrust in their faces. The NKF uses this tactic to its deadly fullest in its show. They show clips of kidney patients crying into the camera, stars crying into the camera, asking for funds to keep them alive and on dialysis. Naturally you feel guilty and reach for the phone.

Then one day, 3 strikes. One, it's made public that the NKF has almost $180m in reserves, sitting in the bank. Everyone's like WTF?? They had so much money in the bank and they still want more from me??

Second, Joachim Kang becomes news. Every charity comes under scrutiny, and none more glaring than the one on the richest local charity around.

Third, the gold taps in the CEO's toilet, although admittedly, this probably won't cause such a huge ruckus as the above 2.

But it's true that people nowadays are more wary of the money they give, and who exactly is receiving it and what they're doing with it. If I give you $2, I give it to you in the faith that this money will help someone out there. I give part of the money I earned to someone, because I think he needs it and I want to give it to him. I don't give it to him so that he can upgrade to the latest model, or so that your CEO can buy that new BMW or build that new extension to his house. With all this charitable controversy going around, people are getting more wary about who exactly is receiving the money and what's going to be done with it.

Then further muddying the waters are the 'paid social workers', the kids who get a commission off each ticket they sell. Whether this is moral or not is a moot issue. There will be some for, there will be some against, and it's pointless facing each one off the other. The part I want to highlight here is the behaviour of some of these kids, who sometimes act more ruthlessly than some of the more experienced MLM, insurance or property agents. Maybe they think they have an added advantage by tugging at the heartstrings and hereby letting loose the knots on the purse strings. All they did was piss off a whole buncha people and getting themselves, and other reputable charities, in the same stereotype as MLM, insurance and property agents.

And who are the losers of all these tactics? Only the people who are most in need of the money. They put their faith and hope in an organisation to help them, and when this organisation, or its appointed representatives, acts poorly...... the nearest comparison would be to a lawyer who screams to a presiding judge, "Godammit!!!! Are you blind or what? Can't you see he's innocent???"

Charity organisations have to be more careful than anyone else in the handling of funds. No one gets morally outraged when the CEO of an MNC is caught embezzling funds from his own company. In a weird sense, we aren't so surprised because in business, the first principle is that of self-interest. Look out for your own arses first. People [especially employees, of course] will get pissed off if the CEO has his own Boeing jet or gold plated toilets, but they expect that, because he's the ultimo supremo, the boss of the entire company. Nobody's fooled into thinking he's some philantrophic soul, because if he has to, we know he'll fire our asses off in a minute. Anyway, he's also the one signing our paycheques.

But when we're doing the giving instead of the receiving, we naturally have an interest in what the charity is doing with our cash. I give money so that some family out there will have rice to eat. I don't give so that the CEO can have abalone for dinner. Charities have to make sure that their representatives act responsibly and morally. They also have to keep their slate clean of any speck of dirt that may affect their reputation.

Otherwise what's the cost? Ultimately and ironically, it's always to the people that need the money most in the end.

as an aside, I would like to say that I fully disapprove of guilt marketing. This is when the organization makes you feel guilty for not contributing, ie "If you don't give, they will die" "He died for you, what can you do for him?" and is extensively used by NKF in the former, and Christian groups in the latter. These people wanna make you think that charity is an obligation, which goes against the whole concept of charity itself. If I had an obligation to all the charities out in Singapore alone, I'd be in serious need of charity myself. By using the "If you don't give, they will die" line, they make it sound as if this man's life was in my hands, and that I have the power to let him live, or die. This is not true. As much as I'd like to think so, I'm just not that powerful. My money might help him live for a while, but it's certainly not the be-all and end-all. The more you throw this into people's faces, the more hardened and bitter they will be as a result, like moi here. If I earned my own money, I have a right to decide how to spend it. The more you force this supposed obligation onto me, the more I'm just gonna refuse. If you let me be, you'd have a better chance of getting my money.

Nuahing with FWFC. Wanderlust strikes. Take your pick.

Nuah Day

Yup, just had a Nuah Day at my house with the FWFC-ers, the purpose of which is to gather at a venue, and simply... nuah. Stone. Chill. You get the idea. We started off talking a buncha cock, watching Bowling for Columbine, [good show! good show!] and finally catching FHM's Bikini Heaven on CH5, which was basically a show where these beauties in bikinis 'battle' it out for $15,000 and an international modelling contract. Yowza. Spent more time commenting on the various body parts and clothing [or lack thereof] of the women on the show.

"Wah, real or not?"
"She looks... like she's been f**ked. Dozens of times"
"This one slutty looking"

Anyway, the whole show was more of an excuse to put the girls in various positions where different body parts would be highlighted. Example, the rock climbing segment, where the girls put on these tight black harnesses, and climbed up the walls in their bikinis, while the camera filmed their butts from below. Yup... Let's just say personality doesn't seem to earn you so many points here...

Oooh, but the beach in Miami is fantastic.... clear blue water and white sands... just like Redang, but about several miles longer. Man...... and the closest substitute we have is Sentosa. Boink. Which leads me to my next topic:

Wanderlust

Seeing the beaches, hearing about Quet going Perhentian and Kairos going to Mount Kinabalu really arouses the Wanderlust in me. Not to mention reading about Goldfish's current exploits in Cambodia and Thailand. Man oh man... I feel so badly like just going somewhere, somewhere which I haven't been over dozens of times yet. All my holidays as of far have not exactly been very exciting. Staying with grandparents. Beach resorts and Malaysia with parents. Malaysia with friends. Hai... Not exactly a very well-travelled person at my age....

So regretful in a way. Because my parents aren't exactly well-off and I've only just started earning my money, holidays so far are restricted to Malaysia and nowhere else, not even Thailand. Never been to Hongkong, Taiwan, and all those other places which other people have been to several times and dismiss as "nothing". But to me, it's not "nothing", because I haven't even seen what "nothing" there is like at all. To me, the fact that I've never been to a place means that there's something I haven't discovered about it, and so I don't mind going there, for the reason that I've never been there.

Cos a lot of people always tell me stuff like "There's nothing to see in Hongkong, it's just like Singapore." "Taiwan too noisy" "China nothing to see". Why do they say that? Is there any country in the world that's so like Singapore that it's totally a waste of time to go there? Surely there are differences in culture, food, language and customs. Buildings are totally different. Attractions are totally different. History is totally different. Maybe it's a matter of finding out these differences, rather than just dismissing it as a clone of Singapore at first glance.

Then there are stuff like too noisy, people too rude/fierce, too dirty, too backward... well, like Goldfish commented on her trip, the whole reason why you visit another country is because it's different from yours. If you want to see something different, well then don't expect to see the same customs and amenities that you see back home. [Before I get stamped for plagiarism, the idea in this point is taken from Goldfish. Please don't sue me. ;) ] Either that or go to a much more developed country and pay through the nose. :p

"Nothing to see"? If there was ever a country with nothing to see in the way of tourist attractions or sights, I'd think it was Singapore, rather than anywhere else. :p If I go to the desert, then yes, maybe there is nothing to see. If I get stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, then yes, there's nothing to see. If I'm in a city of millions of people with shops, museums, and various others, why would there be nothing to see? There's people all around me.

Hai... feel like such a country bumpkin, or imo in Jap. Stuck in Singapore, no money to go anywhere, saving for Europe, and all I know of that country I learned from books and TV. Wanderlust strikes hardest, I think, when you open a book, or watch a TV programme, and see, whether in your mind or with your eyes, the images of a place you've never seen before. The possibilities that open up before you. The rich history behind their people. Everything seems so vibrantly alive before you that you just want to reach out a hand and touch it... and then you realise it's all been in your mind. It's all a bunch of images on the screen. Before your very eyes... and yet ultimately untouchable.

Worse when you build up all these expectations in your head... only to go there eventually, thinking you know everything, and then getting bitterly disappointed. Is that all? You ask yourself. Your mind, due to lack of actual contact, has built up castles in the sky, which fall apart the very first time you touch them. Then you realise they're just loose bonds of water vapour molecules, and there never was any real substance to it at all.

I can't wait to get to Europe. All this waiting and pacing around is just making me angsty. And yet, I don't wanna go there, and realise it's all been water vapour.

But then, would it be better to keep those pretty images in my head? Or find out the reality behind them once and for all? Answer uncertain.

I do know one thing, however. I'm pretty tired of having to live my life through intermediaries. To hear about other places through other people, other books, other sources. For once, it'll be good to just fly up and touch one of my castles, and find out whether they were as solid as I thought they were, rather than just take other people's words for it. For once, it'll be good to actually fly somewhere myself, rather than always stay in Singapore and hear it from other people.

Oh God, I want to go off sooooo badly......