During a wedding celebration for Mr Er, his well-meaning friends [including Juls and I] decide to suan the bride and groom on stage.

Juls: "The game is as played! We will blindfold the bride, and then our friends will get 3 men on stage to kiss the bride on the cheek. What she has to do is to guess which one is her husband!"

And so we get the bride's father, a male relative and a 3 year old boy carried by his father. And she gets it!

Juls: "Congrats to the bride! And now for the groom's turn!"

But we are not as bad as that. To give the groom a good sporting chance, we don't get any other women on stage, but get the bride to kiss him 4 times instead. And who does the groom say his bride is?

Mr Er: "Er, I don't think any of them are my wife."

Audience's jaws drop. Audience is stunned into silence for a minute. And then

"WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OOORRRRRRRHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Juls takes off the blindfold off the groom. Who immediately sees that the same woman, ie his WIFE, has been kissing him all this while. Who then slumps back into his chair with this expression on his face (!-_-!)

I swear, we couldn't do it better if we had tried. ;)

Me: "So what did you get me for Xmas?"

Him: "I'm not telling you! You'll have to wait till Xmas."

Me: "A LeSportsac bag? That Armani bag I wanted?"

Him: "........."

Me: "Well, I hope you didn't get me jewellery anyway. You know I don't really wear it all that much."

And guess what he gets me anyway. :p Oh well, I still like it.

In 2007, I...

Good question, what have I done?

Or rather, what have I done?

There is a difference between the two, you know.

I would have done a lot of things. I would have gone to work for 45 weeks, done all that was required, had a hand in some meaningless little projects, marked thousands of work, counselled a few kids etc etc etc.

But then, that one that pays my monthly salary, my bonuses and gives me job security and enables me to plan for the future is not that important. [well, not in the way I'm thinking anyway] I'm more concerned about the others. Thus, here are the:

Things I'm Happy About

I would also have watched a number of films, read thousands of books [ok, maybe more like a couple hundred] read that same number of comics, walked millions of shopping miles [why can't they give frequent shopper miles?] and spend billions of hours gossipping, complaining, whining, laughing, guffawing and collapsing over helpless laughter with friends, acquaintances and colleagues.

I learnt to swing my butt, both in Lindy and Exotic. :p though none of you will be seeing the exotic moves anytime soon, [and I forgot them anyway] I did manage to take away other things from that class. How to move, how to stand, how to thrust your butt out, though the degree of flatteringness really depends on the butt. :s

I watched 2 great concerts, Linkin Park and the Black-Eyed Peas. I paid for it the next day with my lack of sleep, but I still think they were worth it. :p

I acquired a new camera, a new bag and a PDA. They all cost me a crazy amount of money but considering how much I've used them, more than made up for what I paid, so I'm happy. :)

I had my heart trampled on on Valentine's Day, and then healed subsequently. I'm glad to say that as a couple, I think the DF and I are really moving on. :)

Things I'm NOT happy about

I did NOT fulfill half my resolutions from last year, namely to lose weight [yea, right] and to go to the gym. [yea, YEA right] Either it's time for more resolution, or for realistic resolutions where it concerns my weight. :p

Resolution: To join at least 1 fitness class once a week. And to actually LOSE WEIGHT.

I did NOT draw much, write much or blog much for that matter. The blog suffered, the art suffered and my creativity as a whole suffered. Maybe it didn't make a difference to my paycheck or my stomach, but I felt the difference to my mind and my heart. Life was not as satisfying, and even lacking something.

Resolution: To blog at least once a month, not counting Twitter updates, and

Resolution: To complete one illustration once a month.

And I still need to save money and increase the value of my portfolio. I refuse to retire in bankruptcy!

Resolution: To continue saving my income at the same rate.

Other than that, I also want to keep my relationships alive. I'm lapsing into the bad habit of getting into a social rut and I end up doing a lot of the same stuff every week. I would like to go to Pitstop more often, for one, and I would also like to meet up with some of my friends more often than on the usual birthdays. :p

Resolution: To actually call people, instead of waiting for people to call me.

Other than that, I've got nothing else to wish for the new year. Oh yeah, other than the usual love, peace and heaps of blessings upon everyone. :) Doomo arigatou gozaimasu for continuing to read my humble blog and please continue reading!

[heck, I know that with some of you, that's the best and only way you keep in contact with me anyhow......]

Hey all! Thanks to my dad, Candle and Yenn who came down on Saturday to see the stall.

We had a dinky little table and umbrella to ourselves on Saturday, but feng shui wasn't good. They placed us towards the back of the fair. Grrr.... The way I saw it, most people came, looked around the first few stalls and went back to Cineleisure. Damn! We had a few *interesting* characters who looked around the stall, including a garrulous Chinaman who came twice to our stall, talked a lot about film and DVDs and codes, but didn't buy anything [???]

Not helping was the rain as well. There was a light drizzle at first and then this torrential shower came at 4pm. :s By then I had decided to pack up anyway cos ain't nobody gonna buy stuff in this shower. I think Slayer packed up somewhat after I did.

BUT! On the bright side, I managed to make the rent on the pieces I sold [barely :p] so not a total loss. In a way, I was kinda doing this for *fun* rather than money. This being a selling game whereby your points come in dollar form instead. :p So I made a few bucks, sales-talked to a bunch of people and learnt to set up a proper stall to attract customer eyes. Not a total loss, and a good deal of a bargain as compared to my biz degree :p

Will I do this again? Yea, I think I would. It's...... invigorating talking to the various customers, trying out different approaches and seeing what was the one line that would click the sale for me. Plenty of eye candy and different things to keep me occupied. And the money at the end of the day is a good motivating factor too. :p

Gimme a few more days and I'll be posting up the stuff I didn't manage to sell. Anyone out there needs to buy a cheap and good gift for someone? Hehehe.........

LIME Bazaar 22nd Dec 11am to 7pm
[Next to Cineleisure]

If you haven't seen my shameless self-promotion efforts by now, you wouldn't have known that Slayer and I are setting up a stall on 22nd Dec from 11am to 7pm next to Cineleisure.

In the name of shameless self-promotion, therefore, here are the stuff I'll be selling:

Shiny dangling pendants. Comes with black leather thong [not seen]

Necklaces with beads and black leather thong. I converted these from dangly earrings.

Beaded strings. I was unsure at first whether to make these necklaces, bracelets or belts, but I decided if I left them untied, then they could be used as all 3.

I'll be selling these along with some beaded bracelets [not shown] so let your friends know, and pop by! The Slayer will also be selling DVDs, shirts and beanies that have been hardly used, so you're bound to find something at our store.

Hey, if anything, at least you'll leave with some cheap presentable gifts for the xmas parties. :p

Melbourne Part 3: The Wild, The Wonderful and the Just Plain Weird
The 3rd part of my trip was really a wild shopping trip all over Queen Victoria Market and much of the shopping Swanston street [sheepish grin] Instead of subjecting you guys to that, here's a short list of miscellaneous photos taken in Melbourne:


Taken at Grandma's house. I think this is where I got my work attitude from.


I love Australia's frank humour in advertising.


A fountain. Looks unassuming till you get near it and notice the detail.


"Aw f'crissakes! Stop pissin' on me!!!" Those are some evil cherubs, alright.


At a nature reserve: 2 walking feathered balls. Someone call KFC and report 2 pieces of escaped popcorn mutant chicken.

At same nature reserve: The first albino peacock I ever saw. Ain't she a beauty??

And my all-time favourite:


Return of the Psycho Kanga!!! This guy looks as though he could be in some Australian-Chucky-the-Kangaroo flick.

Final thoughts on Melbourne:

This is a city that I must come back again, and not entirely for the usual family reasons either. There are several things about the experience in Melbourne that I would just love to see again.

People here are friendly. In most of the shops I went to, even the most jaded shop assistant still managed to put a somewhat friendly tone in her voice, and they don't trail you all over the store as if you were a potential shoplifter. It also helps that Melbourne has a very diverse population, almost similar to Singapore, and Asians here don't stand out as much.

Shopping is FABFABFABBABY. Unlike Singapore, which is dominated by large shopping malls with the same number of large brands in each mall, Melbourne city has a lot of small stores and small brands each with its own unique brand identity and look. I LOVE this. It means you can walk from one end of the street to the other and shop in about a dozen different stores with different stuff. It also means you are in grave danger of burning out your credit card.

Strangely enough, I also like the cattle and sheep. I'm a city slicker through and through. I lived in urban space all my life, and if I ever had to seriously live in the country for an extended period of time, yes, I will die real bad. But while I'm on a temporary trip, and taking my time to drive through the country, I cannot get enough of green rolling hills, and herds of cattle and sheep just grazing idly, because I have never seen so much GREENSPACE before.

And having been to a number of cities, I daresay each one, although being an urban jungle, has its own character and identity unique to itself. By the same logic, Melbourne has its own look, its own personality that you cannot find in London, Paris or Berlin. Its a smart casual kind of city that knows how to work hard and slack hard as well. They work through the day, but they know when to switch off the PCs and head for the pubs. No wonder everyone else finds us Singaporeans incurable workaholics. Melbourne is the city, for us slackers. :)

I realise the part 2 of my Melbourne trip took me ages to publish. Apologies. :p I've been preparing for the LIME bazaar on Saturday 22nd Dec where I'll be selling my self-made jewellery alongside Slayer's DVDs and beanies from 12pm to 4pm. Slayer will continue from 4pm onwards. We're hoping our stuff will be sold, because they're all in good condition, and would make great gifts for the right person.

Yes, shameless self-promotion over. Here's Part 2.

Melbourne Part 2: Birds, Penguins, and one psychotic Santa Kanga

Melbourne's summer weather means that it's a great time to get outside and view the flora and fauna. This is also where I saw some of the most beautiful blooms I have seen.

So it was that part of our trip was a sort of nature retreat, away from the traffic and noise [and temptful shopping] of the city. For this, we took a day tour outside of the city to the Dandenong ranges, to feed birds, sit an old steam train and see the penguins on Philip Island.

Our first stop was the Dandenong ranges, a 'young' forest where the trees reached 6km into the air. :s [If those are young trees, I wonder about the old ones]


There we stopped for morning tea and scones [tasting like a slightly buttery muffin, but excellent with jam and cream] but the real draw for me was to feed the birds.

I like this part! The guide gets a bowl of bird seed, and you put some in your hand and let the birds eat out of it.Watch out for the white cockatoos, though! That bugger in the photo above became too greedy and bit my finger, thinking it was some kind of worm. Argh!

The cockatoos are really the big bullies of the playground. Every time people threw seed around, it would troop over in a big-boss kind of way and the little red and pink ones would scuttle in fear out of its path.

After the Dandenong ranges, our next stop was Puffing Billy.

This was not an exhausted bird, but rather an old steam engine ran by and preserved by volunteers.

The volunteer conductor who stayed in our carriage.

Now our carriage was probably a first-class carriage, since you can see from the photo above that there were seats for us, like in the Hogwarts Express. However, if you were flat broke and you had to sit in one of the cheaper carriages, you might end up in a tight squeeze during your ride. Or if you were too poor to buy tickets, you might try to hitch a free ride. In either case, you ended up sitting in the lower class carriages, like this:
See the legs???

The DF thought it a highly dangerous activity. Which is of course, why I thought it rather grand. :p

Then we stopped by an animal farm for a while, before heading to Philip Island.

Philip Island is a great place for animal-watching. The three most popular spots there are the koalas, the seals and the penguins.

Koalas are one of the laziest creatures alive. When you look at a gum tree, the koala is basically that lump of grey fur lodged in the crook between the branches. They spend their days stuck in the tree, chewing on nearby gum leaves, and only moving when the leaves around them are done and the nearest food is out of paw's reach.

I envy them. :(

How do you spot the koalas? You walk through the park and look at where everyone is pointing their cameras.

Bingo!!! Took all the powers in my camera to take this shot, they were that high up.

The next animals you try to see are the seals at Seal Rock. Although it must have been the wrong time or something, because when we went there, the only thing we saw were seagulls. The place should have been named Seagull Rock.


Nonetheless, the view of the rock is pretty good.


The only animals seen at Seal Rock. Sheesh.

However, I confess, I only went to Philip Island to look at penguins. The island is littered with penguin burrows, and every morning, the father goes out to sea with all his penguin dudes to look for food for the wife and kids. Then at night, they come back in huge groups to feed the kids. This nightly return is what tourists [like us] flock to Philip Island every night for.

Pic from http://www.affiliate.viator.com/brochure/product_show.jsp?ID=1010&PRODUCTID=1016&CODE=2230M10&AUID=3830

This is not my photo, because tourist photography is forbidden there. Reasons being that if you were to use your cam and the flash came on in the dim evening light, the flash would blind one of the poor critters.

This has more consequences than one flash-shocked penguin. The penguin could be blinded for life, and once that happens, it is unable make its way back to its burrow to feed its mate and kids. This means the whole family goes hungry for that night. And penguins mate for life, [no penguin divorce lawyers] so even if the mate doesn't come back, the wife doesn't look for a new man, but instead waits futilely for its own mate, even if they starve in the burrow. :(

Nonetheless, even with repeated warnings, there are still idiot tourists who will insist on taking their own shots of the penguins. And a couple of times, we saw a few heartbreaking scenes of dazed penguins wandering around after some dumbbell used a camera on him.

Boredslacker always advocates RESPONSIBLE TOURISM. Please always respect local rules and wildlife.

Else risk being killed by psychotic kanga killers.

Melbourne Chapter1: Meeting the Grands

I got back from glorious Melbourne summers, cool in the mornings and evenings, and wonderfully warm and dry in the afternoons with clear blue skies, colourful birds and some of the most stunning blooms I have ever seen --- Back to a Singaporean winter, where the snow melts before it reaches us on the ground, resulting in endless wet rainy days, where the sun don't shine, and the clothes don't dry.

Should I start hunting for airtickets back?

But yea, it's good to be back home in a way. Blog updates will be forthcoming, so let's start off with Chapter 1: Meeting the Grands

**Image heavy! Let your browser load!**

We arrived at Melbourne on the morning of the 2nd Dec, and rent a car from the airport. We drove around the city first, and then we go to my grands' house.

Which turns out to be about 6 hours drive, since the DF is also terrified of getting slapped with hefty speeding fines, so he sticks strictly to the speed limit all the way. :s

And despite the speed limit, we still kill an ungodly number of flies on the way there. Something about the weather makes them more sluggish than our local flies. You could almost touch one of their wings, and they wouldn't fly off until you were actually touching them. Weird huh?

Which also explains why, our rented car:


Kills this many flies.


Gross eh? And that's just the licence plate. You should've seen the windscreen.

Anyway we reach my grands' hometown, Casterton towards the evening.


Casterton is a town dedicated to... a dog. The kelpie, one of the smartest breeds in Australia.


My Grands' house. About the size of the first floor of my house but large enough for them, 2 Singaporean visitors and the dog.


My Grands' dog, Butch. The poor thing is diabetic, and completely blind, but can acutely smell food dangling from your hand under the dinner table, and can acutely hear his collar and leash dangling from your hand, signalling the start of a walkie.

I think the DF and the Grands are all right with each other, though my Ma's lasting impression of the DF is now how he a) doesn't eat pork and b) doesn't touch alcohol. She was up on the phone that first night exclaiming to my mother in dialect about how he didn't eat pork! My god! I've never met a Chinese who didn't eat pork! while both of us stifled our laughter behind her.

Ma is a great cook and I think one of her greatest satisfaction is seeing people enjoy her cooking, as evidenced by our conversation:

Ma: "You should lose some weight! Look at you!"

Me: "Yes, Ma."

Ma: "You're gonna have an Aussie bum in no time if you continue like this! Better eat less and exercise more!"

Me: "Yes, Ma."

Ma: [peers at my plate, where I've almost finished eating a hefty portion] "You want more mashed potatoes? There are some more in the bowl."

I stare at her. "I thought you said I had to lose weight?"

"Here in my house you eat as much as you like! When you go back then you lose weight!"

"..............................."

But then again, you gotta love the Grands. They have a sign with my name on it on the front gate, over 20 years old, they put photos of you all over the place, even the ones of you in awkward phases you'd rather forget, and they grow your favourite potatoes in their garden.

Yup, Grands are always the best. :)

Next chapter: Birds, Penguins and one Psychotic Santa Kanga

Away From Blog

Owner away on holiday, 1st Dec to 8th Dec.

Will not be back on blog till jet lag fully recedes.

In this period of time, owner may prove uncontactable.

Please leave well-wishes, comments or requests in comments field, or in email.

Senders of spam are asked to leave the mail in the trash bin.

Will be back with photos, and stories. :)

Any rich Santas out there?

I swear, watching the first few seconds of the Youtube video almost made me cough out my phlegm in ecstasy. [Not the most endearing of images, I know]

I love the design. I love the stand behind. I love the fact that I can draw anything I want directly onto the screen no need for scanning no need for mouse drawing colour shading everything directly on to it

But I hate that it's only available in Europe. -_-! And that it looks blardy horrendously expensive -_-!!!!!!!

*sigh* Back to the paper and pencil and plenty of dreaming..................

note: Due to changes in blog, loading may take slightly longer than usual. Gomen! Tell me if you encounter any real problems in viewing this blog: boredslacker@gmail.com

Renovations in progress

I'm finally getting down and dirty again with HTML and Fireworks to work on some long-overdue renovations to my blog, and my first thought is: I'm getting too old for this. -_-!!!!!

The HTML changes were simple enough, because they were relatively minor. I've cleaned up some of the really old links to the right, and updated some of them. Some of the changes:

- The Twitter blogroll has a spanking new image of a bird. [hey, either u get the pun or you don't.]

- Portfolios have been rearranged so that they are all arranged in one tidy line. Added a rolling image of my Artwanted portfolio as well. [Now when am I gonna add new images to that portfolio.....?]

- Next big change is the Bloglines blogroll. I've been using this feeder to read most of your blogs and a bucketful of others, and now I've put all of them on my blog, for easy linkin' and readin'. Now you can see what crap I read on a weekly basis.........

The hard parts:

DOING THE DAMNED TWITTER IMAGE. I can't believe I've been that long away from working with imaging software but just to create that one damned singing bird nearly burst several of my arteries. You know how hard it is just to align one damn leaf with another?? Or to fix that damn bird to fit into the button?? Some bright idea I had.........

*ahem*

Which is why you may not be seeing too many other image buttons soon.... Gomennasai......

Other changes are behind-the-scenes, which will not be immediately visible here, for instance:

Blogging on the Go

In response to the many complaints about my blog gathering dust, I've enlisted two friends to help me in the updating problem.

1.
Yes, my humble phone, which is where the Twitter roll on the side comes in. The Twitter updates come via SMS to my humble blog. So whenever I see something weird outside, or some earthshattering philosophical thought strikes my mind, all I have to do is reach for the mobile, and up it comes on the blog.

2.
The second is a new addition to the family, say hello to Suss.

Suss is an Asus PDA [no phone] and she was bought because she can a) support Word, and allow me to type potential blog entries and b) go online with Wi-fi capabilities, although this admittedly depends on the networks floating around me at the time.

The keyboard is a bluetooth fabric keyboard, yea, made of fabric. It does work but so far it's given me more headaches than convenience, so less said the better.

So far, blogging by SMS and email through Suss has been going smoothly, as you can see from some of the slightly more frequent updates on this blog. [The thing I still don't like is that uploading pictures is practically impossible so far. Working on it, working on it... ]

I'm now hoping that if I get a smooth enough rhythm going during the hols, I'll be able to keep this up much better when school starts again. Then you guys won't have to worry whether I've been hit by a car or murdered at my doorstep or something. :p

Gimme some comments, though, on what you like and what you would like to see! It's nice to know that, well, people are reading this blog after all. :p

Quick updates:

1. Linkin Park RAWKED da house. 8) With a good mix of new songs plus classic favourites. I almost wished I was one of the teenypubes in the standing area so I could really thrash with the rest 'o them, but I'm too old...... I need my sitting space every now and then. :p

2. My holidays started with a good bout of flu. -_-!!!!! It's getting better but I've been sorely tempted to take MC, though I haven't......

3. It feels good waking up at the late hour of 7 for a change.

4. Have been doing a good bout of bloggin' on the go, through mobile and PDA. Will do a write up over the hols about that.

5. Am thinking that I haven't been too creative over the last couple months. Maybe it's time to do something......

6. Animation Nation starts next week. Am starting with a character design workshop on Saturday. Anyone else who is interested in going, look at the website for the events. I've already booked some shows so lemme know if you're going to any of them too.

TTFN!

Linkin Park Concert 13th Nov

845 i'm sitting in the indoor stadium waiting for the 8pm concert to
start. Anyone noticed the time discrepancy? N to think I got so
panicked when I missed the bus abt 30mins b4 the concert.... Bleah...

A few differences between this and the Black-Eyed Peas concert...one,
2 categories of standing room. Yes, some pple paid the same price I
did to stand n squeeze for a 2hour concert... Sorry, but i'm too old n
tired to be a groupie...

2nd, the crowd seems more enthusiastic about the passing-your-time
music. It's like, crowd mingles n waits, DJ changes song, crowd
screams, then some guy behind the curtain tunes a guitar, crowd
screams again... OMG we have the makings of a manic mob here. If Mike
Shinoda suddenly throws his tee out I will run for my life I tell
you...

Well closer to 9 already... I'm gonna let me eyes take a break now.
Hopefully the next post will be about the concert...

--
Getting all the slack I can...
http://boredslacker.blogspot.com

technology irritates me

Because sometimes tech probs are the hardest to fix. You can't fix a
Lego tower out of bricks, u can see which are the foundation brix
giving you probs. U have a prob with your PDA or the keyboard u bought
to go with it, even if u took it apart, u still might not know what
went wrong from the mass of circuitry n wires b4 u...... ARGH!!!

--
Check out my crap:
Blog is http://boredslacker.blogspot.com
Art is http://boredslacker.tripod.com

mobile testing

Gmail is testing this out - Aki

3 wrong turns and no anime

I know it's been last Saturday since I posted that twit about getting lost in JB, so I told myself I had to finally settle down and write the whole story down before I totally regaled it to the back of my mind.

It was last Saturday that Quet, Yenn and I thought of taking a day trip into JB just for the sake of it. We drove into the 2nd Link, intending to go to Jusco Tebrau, City Square, and then back to Singapore.

Well, the trip just to find Jusco was bad enough. We followed a bunch of road signs that led us to....... Carrefour. Part of the problem being that the Malaysian government puts road signs telling you that yes, continue on this straight road and you will end up at Jusco.

They don't put up road signs at, say, traffic junctions, telling you whether to go left, straight or right in order to go to Jusco. And you would think there would be a more logical place for a road sign, innit?

So we drove straight, good, right direction, straight, right direction, confirmed by another road sign, and then once we reached a major junction......... leftorright?leftorright?leftorright? Aw screw it! and we'd just choose one and turn.

First turn, we ended up u-turning to Carrefour. We walked around and then asked for directions, which turned out to be too vague to be of much use to goondu Singaporeans.

Second turn, we became a bit more adventurous, and we ended up in the midst of one of the suburban towns, in which Quet took so many turns, I lost track of where Carrefour, the main road and Singapore was altogether.

And ironically, it was in the middle of making the 2nd turn that I spotted the elusive Jusco. "There it is!!" I screamed triumphantly...... as Quet turned away from it, and into the wrong turning. Bleah......

Third turn, we finally reached Jusco Tebrau. [Whoop of excitement upon hearing that we were not lost, or en route to Malacca] Citizens of Singapore, if you thought Vivocity was big.... Please check out Jusco, which is bigger. Although most of the major brands here can be found back in Singapore, their sales are timed differently from us, which means if you head at the right time, you can hopefully find some stuff which has had its season over in Singapore, selling at a discount.

Stuff, say, like in a Mango sale.... Whip out those ringgit!

Then we drove to City Square, where Yenn and I found to our dismay that the anime store had been replaced by a spa........... ( T_T ) Instead we bought some at Popular and then spent all that anime money on clothes instead.

Well, besides getting lost 3 times and finding no anime, it was a pretty good day at JB... now we're thinking of how to cajole Juls into driving us in for the next round of shopping, especially since his car has the bigger boot..... heh......

Look to the right sidebar...

Look carefully and see if there's anything different....

Holy cow! There is! How did I miss that before??? *You slap your forehead*

After all these weeks of non-blogging, and people complaining about dust on my blog, this is my little attempt at housekeeping. [sort of like using a dustbuster to clean a maisonette, but well, at least I tried]

The little dinky service is thanks to Twitter, and I've used it to send updates via handphone to my blog, so at least, even if I'm out, you'll [hopefully] get to hear about what I'm doing. This means you don't have to wait until I actually go home, switch on the laptop, wait for it to boot, IM with friends, read blogs, play Sudoku till I actually blog.... :P

So let's see how this works!

Some Monkey Business

You've gotta love a good concert, especially when the group is the Black Eyed Peas. :) :) :)

I caught the concert on Monday night at the Indoor Stadium, a concert for which I paid a pretty packet, but all so worth it.

Opening act Click Five was so-so-ok-la, but they did manage to get the crowd slightly rowed up, which meant that when the lights went out and the Peas came out, BANG! Everyone started to get really wild!

It's also good that the songs that the Peas sang that night were danceworthy tracks, thumping good songs that made you just have to stand up and shake your humps in your seats! Once it came to the especially popular ones, that was what everyone was doing!

Fergie and Will.I.Am also sang their respective hits, Glamourous, Fergielicious, Big Girls Don't Cry, and I Got It From My Mama. Good to see a group that respects each other's breakaway solo hits as well.

But one thing they did during the concert was really cool: They dimmed the lights, got everyone to take out their handphones and wave left to right in the dark. So we waved our phones [my phone was dead. I waved my IPod] to the beat while Will.I.Am sang "wave your phones, now Singapore... Wave your phones, now Singapore..." [Or something to that effect, I may have forgotten the actual words] The effect was like, well, NDP lightsticks but with better music. :P

And that's why I think I prefer to pay good money for good seats. After all, in concerts and theatres, it's not about getting a product, it's the experience of actually hearing them live that counts. And as long as I can afford to do so, I think I want to maximise that experience as much as I can.

That's good money well spent. :)

A Veritable Library

It's amazing what happens when you haven't been blogging for a while, and then suddenly you find a lot to blog about.

After a week of staying away from the rugrats and the general mayhem of school, I finally found some of my old writing spark. So check out the new arrivals in my blog library:

Chick Lit

After all the worrying and agonising over money I've been doing lately, when I finally became liquid, it was as if the floodgates opened and drowned me and the town red.

I've especially been buying shoes, shoes, shoes, and I don't know why. This is me on a typical shopping trip:

Walk, walk, nice top, argh, not my size, don't have my size, it's unfair, why don't they ever have clothes in plus-sizes for us normal-sized women [excuse the occassional delusion] Aiya this one also very nice... XL? XL? Don't have! [cries] later on better not eat fast food for dinner again, this is getting depressing............

OMG that's a nice bag, but I already have so many bags, and very troublesome to keep changing bags and throwing my stuff from bag to bag, and the last time I did that I left home without Shiroi and nearly died of boredom on the bus... Oh this is cute too, but I told myself last time to wean off the bags already so forget it........

Hmm, this book looks good..... the plotline looks interesting enough, can try, and hey! There's the new book by that author I like so much! But only out in hardcover, quite ex leh, and I'm not sure if this is the kind of book I want to keep for long times..... oh well, there's always the library and if I decide I like the book I can always buy later, hopefully when Kino has a 20% off...

Wait! There's a shoe shop! And an adorable pair of heels in the front! Can go try... throw on ground, it's tight but it's only one size smaller than my usual, bigger one can fit, and can wear for work as well, so not as wasted.... do you have this in 40? You do? It fits? It looks good? Can I pay in NETS?

And there goes...... Now you can understand why I have a harder time resisting shoe shops........

The big problem with shoes, however, is that heels give you blisters. And blisters hurt like hell. So bad, that, in fact after buying and wearing out a new pair of shoes, I had to stop by the URS to buy another pair of shoes to wear to save my poor feet. And then I didn't just buy one, I bought two.

-_-!!!!!! Time to rein in the wallet ropes again......

Next library shelf....

Politics

The Gay issue has come up again, with the recent moves to repeal Section 377A. According to this law, homosexual acts or relationships are illegal and punishable by up to 2 years in jail.

Some other info: This is a law that has been decriminalised by the US, and just about every Asian country around us.

Some questions: What is the criminal element in homosexuality? What is the adverse effects on the citizens around a homosexual individual, like his family, his neighbours, his children? Are they temporary, or long lasting?

Next: Is homosexuality a condition that can be passed on from one individual to another? [I doubt so, actually. Cos if sexuality was a transmittable condition, then the hordes of heteros around the homos should have turned them straight a long time ago. If it was really possible to transmit homosexuality, then we're most likely to have a few gays, ie, mutations in the genetic flow, rather than increasing numbers]

Next burning questions: What is democracy to you? If 7 out of 10 citizens of sound and informed minds decides that they are opposed to homosexuality, then should not a democratic society follow the will of these 70% majority? Or is this a case of the tyranny of the majority, enforcing a law on an innocent minority, ala Pharaoh and the Jews?

Last stupid question: After the Jews left Egypt, who was left to build the temples?

For a more insightful [and coherent] view on this, check out the two websites, depending on your point of view:

Repeal 377A!

Keep 377A!

Note: The petitions they are handing out expires on OCt 21, 11:59pm. Cast your vote quickly.

Walk now to the next shelf:

Philosophy

I'm realising how important it is to have a life outside of work, love and, generally, everything. The one week break from the usual work suddenly made me mindful again of all the other things in my life that I wanted to do, and try.

Candle, Juls and I were sitting at Ichiban Boshi, discussing more wacky biz ideas over endless mugs of green tea. A thing you have to realise about Juls and I is that we are bad influences over each other. Once one gets into a weird idea, and the other likes it, we will bounce the idea from one to the other like a softball till it grows and turns into a basketball, and suddenly we're getting ideas of joining the NBA.

Candle steals the ball from us. What about cashflow? What about strategy? What about revenues for the first year in operation? Y'all can't just bounce this ball aimlessly around the court and expect to join the NBA.

A deft snatch from me again. Sometimes it's not about making it work. Sometimes it's about not being sure whether it works, but trying anyway for the heck of it. At times, it's time to get off the paper and actually do it.

I have friends who are too comfortable in their present situations to try anything that would threaten that safety position. Which makes me worried: What if that safety position was taken away from you, through forces not of your making? What would you do in such a situation?

What if you lost your job? What if you lost your savings? What if you lost your spouse?

I'm not sure what I would do in such situations. Probably cry a lot and clean Jul's kitchen and house for him till it was sparkling clean. But what was I going to do after that?

That's why I figured you always need outside stuff. You can't just base your life 7 days a week around one person or thing.

And sometimes, there's only so much you can do on paper. After a while, you just gotta start the game and trust in the strategy and your wits.

Maybe that's why I keep playing these games with Juls and others. When you play these games, you don't have to think about work or the rugrats or whatever. You only concentrate on the game in front of you, and you mentally switch gears in order to do so. In order to do so, you have to let go of the previous worries, and dismiss them as unimportant, or unessential to your game.

And then you start moving around on the court and start playing. And then whatever happens to the game is due to your own skills and play.

I'm not sure whether the basketball metaphor can be understood by everyone. I'm not sure myself that I understand the metaphor myself. But I think I'm figuring out what the impact is on my life.

All I gotta do is keep bouncing.

I have to say, I agree.

"Since when did my life become so BORING??!! I seem to be blogging less and less... or basically, I have NOTHING to blog about!!!" ~ The Slayer

Or rather that I have nothing to blog about, I have tons of stuff I can blog about.

Problem is that some of those stuff involve potentially sensitive information about my sheep, and some of those stuff, well, could get me sued. :p

Once you take away all those potentially interesting stuff, then, well, what you get is the rest of it, which isn't very much to read about.

Well, some simple updates then:

I get one week off from the sheep this week. I'm looking forward to long hours of reading, much more adult interaction, and a lot of menial labour. ( More information when I meet you all )

Work is getting up to a more frentic pace, what with all the end of year mayhem, but I'm still looking forward to week 10 in about 4 weeks time. After that, it's time for some much-needed slacking. ( Ahhhhhhhh....... )

I'm getting used to it, and somewhat getting the hang, though I still make tons of boo-boos, some of which I don't even know how I got myself into.

Life in general........ A lot of friends on one end seem to be getting the hitch. Congrats to all! Especially the one whose lunch I just attended! It's deeply touching to see two people who have decided to commit their all to each other...

That being said, it seems I've also reached the point in my life where more of you seem to be getting hitched, or planning to get hitched, or thinking of getting hitched. I'm still deciding whether this is because of the biological clock, or is this because of the HDB salary ceiling on flat subsidies.

On my end, I don't think I'm quite ready for that move yet. Knowing the slower state of my relationship, I'm still somewhat in the 'honeymoon' stage, I think. When your relationship is going as slowly as mine...... :p But yet I'm not complaining about it. I like being a 26-year old teenager. :p

Maybe I'm just the kind of person who will sedately plod on with life.

NEW CLASSES AT JITTERBUGS SWINGAPORE

POLE DANCE, EXOTIC DANCE & LADIES SALSA STYLING We are very excited to offer Pole Dance, Exotic Dance and Ladies Salsa Styling courses taught by Linna Tan. Linna Tan is the pioneer of pole dance and the first to teach group exotic dance classes in Singapore. She is the only Southeast Asian representative for the International Pole Federation, a regulatory body that looks into standards of teaching and performing pole dance. Linna has been featured in many publications, including The Straits Times, The New Paper, Elle, Shape, Female, IS magazine and Indulgence.) Pole dancing is a form of dancing / gymnastics that takes muscular endurance and coordination as well as sensuality. It involves dancing with a vertical pole where the dancer may simply hold the pole, or use it to perform more athletic moves such as climbs, spins, and body inversions. There are two types of classes for Pole Dance - Pole-xercise and Pole-licious. Click here for more info, start dates of courses and fees! Exotic Dance is an art form that tastefully accentuates the curves on a woman's body through sensual and feminine movements, specially choreographed to help her exude confidence and style as she sheds her inhibitions. This course helps you to look your best, to enhance and draw attention to your assets to make you most desirable to your special someone. Click here for more info, start dates of courses and fees! A course to help ladies to look feminine and attractive on the dance floor; to add style and personality to her dancing by enhancing her basic steps. Suitable for both the ladies without Salsa dance experience and the experienced Salsera. Click here for more info, start dates of courses and fees! NEW CLASSES SPECIAL (25 to 30 Sep 2007) Buy a Pole Dance, Exotic Dance or Ladies Salsa Styling 8-week course and get a free class voucher! Terms & Conditions: 1. For sign-ups for Exotic or Ladies Salsa Styling courses, the free class voucher is applicable for use on any class except for Pole classes. 2. For sign-ups for Pole courses, the free class voucher is applicable for use on any class. 3. Promotion ends 30 Sep 2007. 4. Other terms and conditions apply. NB: For ladies who have signed up and paid up earlier for Pole, Exotic or Ladies Salsa Styling, rest assured we have not forgotten your support. We have kept aside vouchers for you. Please check with the reception when you turn up for class!

For whoever is interested....... Although I probably won't be going... been neglecting my own Lindy Hop too much of late... :( And my blog... And my reading... And my comics........

Something about my job is affecting my personal life, in that if I don't make time for the stuff I want to do, I will never get that particular thing done. So my weekly schedule becomes almost like a school timetable.

Monday: Meet Jules for dinner
Tuesday: Meet Dad for dinner
Wednesday:Eat dinner on own
Thursday:Meet Candle and go for Lindy
Friday:Meet Yenn for dinner
Saturday:Shop in afternoon, reach Int'l Plaza at 2 or 3, and read in BK, then go for Jap and go out for dinner with Yenn
Sunday: Meet DF for lunch and dinner.

And I repeat this pattern every week!!! Where's the spontaneity?? Where's the life??? There are middle-aged retirees out there with more life than this!

I miss going for exhibitions, which I don't go anymore because I have either no time, or something up already on that night.

I miss going for plays, which I've stopped because 1, no nuff money now, and 2, it's not every time I see a play that interests me.

I miss going for long pointless walks, because there is no free day for me to take a long pointless walk the whole afternoon!

In a way, I'm thankful I'm in this line... at least I can wait till the holidays to reclaim whatever is left of my humanity......... :p

incidentally, have you noticed the number of fake Anya Hindmarch bags recently? They've gotten so prolific that 8 Days even has a feature on how to spot the fake from the real:

fake or real?

Some are pretty obvious, though, I mean, when I went to KL, I saw a shop selling the bags where you could get them in 3 different colours?

Is there a louder way to scream "FAKE!!!!!"?

But considering the exclusivity of these bags [less than 50 brought into Singapore, not for public sale, that means no lowlifes like you] I think we can safely assume that most of the bags you see on the MRT are most likely fake lah.

I wouldn't want to carry something too obviously fake. Heck, what for pretend I got the real thing? I'd rather carry something like:

[you saw this first on my blog. If anybody copies me, they're dreadful copycats and pirates! Copyright belongs to me!]

I wanted to print this on tote bags to sell, but Cafepress is pretty sticky on copyrights and stuff. Sheesh.

So I settled for this: [Re: If I can't get a designer bag, I may as well pretend that I don't give a damn about them anyway]

Available at my Cafepress store, but prices are in USD, sorry!

**No copying, no pirating or anything! I did this image and I put it up first! Copyright is mine, mine, mine!

Girl blowing bubbles. Only slackers have the free time to do all this

The closing down of Yahoo! Photos meant that I had to transfer a bunch of photos to Flickr instead. The funny thing is that I didn't even realise that I even had photos on the Yahoo! server :p but since they sent me a mail, well, apparently I did. :p :p :p

But transferring the photos brought me to my old Flickr page, and nostalgically, all the stuff I did during the tuition days, when I was still a full-time slacker.

Yes, another excuse to sigh, sigh, and sigh. The work is ok, but I do wish it left me more time to pursue these again like I used to, instead of sapping out all my energy at the end of the day. :s or greedily snatching every little bit of time that I had. [and I'm still lucky, compared to others in this line] I look at the stuff I used to do, and I wonder why I didn't pursue the potential in that corner enough, but had to wait till it was all taken from me.

Well, I guess you never really miss what you had until you don't have it.

So from the girl above, I guess I've turned to this:


Yes, the good things never come with no strings attached.

It's strange that when I'm working, I always dream of having more time to blog, to write, to draw, to walk, to breathe, even.

And then when it comes to the school hols, and I have the time to do some of the stuff I wanted, I find myself at a loss. :( Without a schedule to tell me what I should be doing at each second, I find myself moping around the house, and at the end of the week, I don't accomplish a thing. Except a lot of shopping and library books.

It's so sad. It's like I got so used to the hamster wheel that when I come off it I still feel as if it should be moving under me, but it's not. So the only thing I can do is munch on peanuts. [Which is what I'm literally doing, btw. It's raining and I was too lazy to go out to find food, so I salvaged a pack of peanuts from the fridge]

If I wanted to put it in another way, I could say that work is a bad habit that I haven't managed to break yet. :)

It says shrimp

I buy a packet of flavoured nuts from the 7-11 during a break in the Jap lesson. Later after lesson, Yenn and I munch on the peanuts.

Yenn looks at the script on the packet:



"Ra... Ka....?? Na....? What the heck does this say?"

"Erm, it says 'shrimp'."

"It does?"

"Yea."

Yenn peers more closely at the packet.

"Oh. Yea."

This is what happens when you pay too much attention during Jap lesson. :p

Incidentally, just started Level 5A with a new sensei [ok] new textbook [oh oh] and new grammar and vocab [argh!!!] Erm, suddenly the prospect of going onto 5B seems smaller..........

Oh, let me drown in a cup of milkshakes and marshmallows.

I had initially planned writing a thought-provoking blog post about how risky a venture child-rearing was, but I realised I was just too tired to do it.

Yes, I know my jobload is light, when compared to some of my compadres in the private sector, but that has not stopped the tolls of stress on me.

Persistent thoughts of work, all the way to the last few minutes before sleep resulted in increasing degrees of insomnia. Insomnia led to tiredness in the morning, no small joke when you consider what time I have to wake up. A quickening of adrenaline upon reaching work [possibly psychologically induced] leads to sheer fatigue at the end of the day, which lasts for weeks and weeks. Short-temperedness and irration follows. A vein starts throbbing at the back of your head, making you wary of impending migraines.

Past a certain point you just feel very, very tired with life. I miss the quiet times in an afternoon, where I could sit somewhere comfortable, drink a good cup of tea, and read a good book, and do nothing else for the day. In these times, such moments of solitude appear far and rare in between.

At least my job still leaves me scope for this, if I am willing to sacrifice some things. I'm trying to give myself more 'me' time these days to stop myself getting more tension headaches and potential fat, by leaving work a little earlier, sleeping more during the afternoons, or simply spending more time in the libraries. I think I've officially passed the energetics of the early twenties, and possibly now heading towards the sedateness of the late twenties and the early 30s.

Urgh. Get me my walking stick next.

KL was quite alright, but a few things happened to almost throw all the plans astray.

- Quetz almost didn't make it, only able to leave late in the evening, and arriving in KL at around 2am.

- I got migraines due [probably] to dehydration. I got it on the trip there, and conked out the first night early, at around 8. The next day, the migraine continued [duh] and after a day of shopping, and a massage, I conked out again, at 8! I missed out on good dinners and good suppers on both nights. :( the only consolation is that I also missed out on the calories for those meals. :p

- A queensized bed is too small for 3 women. 'Nuff said.

Although all things considered, as we were driving down the highway, it dawned on me how many times in my life I had been in this same situation. Juls driving, me passenger, zooming down a highway to who-knows-where. At the same time, it also dawned on me how much I liked it. [sigh] How long can I continue to do this backpacking, roadtripping thing, I wonder?

Note: I'll be heading to KL today with Juls, Yenn and Quetz over the weekend, on a trip that has been plagued one way or another.

First, all of us forgot to book hotels, leaving Juls to make a last minute call about, oh, yesterday. -_-!!!

Then it turned out that Juls would be detained in Singapore for some biz, delaying our departure time from morning to afternoon. This also caused Candle to back out, becoz of the possibility that we would be stuck in Singapore.

The last one just hit us today. Quetz remembered too late that she had an appointment at work that couldn't be postponed. -_-!!! She'll be taking the bus down herself in the evening and reaching KL at late night.

The bright side? I always have the unverifiable hypothesis that if all the bad luck happens at the start of the trip, it'll take away the bad luck that was supposed to hit us during the trip. Let's just hope this hypothesis doesn't fail me now. :S Or if it does, well, at least I'm only in KL..........

Anyway, I went to NDP last night with the DF.

( The Slayer has also blogged quite a bit about NDP, complete with better photos than mine, so I'll leave it at that for now. :p [But you were sitting in the same sector in front of me, I think. I recognized the dancing lobster!] )

Security was tight, from the moment you walked through the metal detectors, through to the Esplanade area itself. Heck, in lieu of the recent hairgel-ipod bombing, they even wanted to check all the liquids we had! Which meant the DF being detained for a good time, while they opened the 4 bottles of juice and drinks we had bought along. -_-!!!







The crowd at about 4pm. We managed to watch some pre-parade concert, which consisted of singers from all 4 races, [as politically correct as possible] singing songs from the complimentary NDP CD.







Hands Up! Some guys in uniform put on a military display. This was made interesting by the uncle in pink, who later on proceeded to poke his finger into the rifle butt. [Some photos you just regret not taking]






The crowd after sunset starts to take out their star lights and the stadium is transformed into a sparkling sea of lights.







And then what every Singaporean is really waiting for...

Fireworks!













Other than that, the celebrations were, *shrug* all right. They actually reminded me of the dance shows put on by North Korea, but still all right. The bag was probably the main draw of the event. [DF got me a red one!] It came packed with so much stuff, that DF and I agreed that the economy must be doing better than we thought. :s

Included:
- 2 bottles of Newater, peanuts and 1 pack of sour cream and onion chives
- 1 cheesy Osim animal hat
- the blinking star light
- a mini flag to put on your desk
- an official NDP07 soundtrack
- a trash bag and sticker. The sticker came with a lucky draw number and what you had to do was stick it onto the trash bag with your trash and you were eligible for a lucky draw. I have to admit, I didn't see this in the bag at first, so I was pretty impressed with the way all the trash was cleared so conscientiously by us Singaporeans until I found the lucky draw sticker. Sigh........

But the main draw for me is still.......... the bag. :p

It was a good NDP anyway, and it's pretty cool to be able to tell my kids that I was there on the first River parade, and no, the stage didn't sink.. :p Let's look to more years of independence, and great goodie bags!













Happy National Day!