Testing... Testing...

Currently testing a new blogging tool, so you might see some strange stuff here...

Like the font may suddenly change in type, and become totally different from the one I was using.

It may change in size,

or suddenly become bold, italic, underlined, or striked.

I may even decide to experiment with different colours.


My words may even do the hokey pokey

They'll go to the left

And they'll go to the right

And then to the left

And then to the right

But at least you know

I will always maintain my center of balance ^_^

So we'll see how this goes.

And if this tool works,

You bet I'll blog about it.

While I was blogging/surfing/reading sites, I realised that my emptied cup of Milo had attracted a small family tree of ants.... ewwww.... Note to self: Put cup in sink before blogging next time...

Anyway, I know I just blogged earlier this morning with the news, but I saw this paragraph on Krystal's blog which looked interesting, and here it is:

If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, even if we don't speak often, please post a comment with a memory of you and me. It can be anything you want, either good or bad. I promise not to come after you with a sharpened pencil either way. N pls leave ur name or initials at least so I know who =P

When you're finished, post this little paragraph on your own blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people remember about you.


Hm. I'm curious as to what you people could possibly say, since I have no memories of either getting so drunk I puke on some guy's pants, or dancing on bartops or stripping for strange men...... But follow the instructions anyway and let's see what rose-tinted [or blackened] memories you people have of me... :)

The News as read by Aki

At this moment in time, I am pleased to inform you that this blog post is coming from the comfort of my living room. Hence, you may all deduce, correctly, that my father has finally managed to configure the wireless network in the house. Doomo Arigatou Gozaimashita again to my long-suffering dad, and may the megabytes never fail. *bows deeply*

In other news, my second reading of Harry Potter: The Goblet of Fire has finally ended. Hence, I consider myself all ready for the movie on Sunday, and ready to blast down claims of "I think the movie is better because..."

I'm a literary purist at heart. NOTHING BEATS THE BOOK, YOU HEAR ME???

However, *hrmph*, I shall nonetheless watch the movie and offer my unsolicited opinion on this blog once I've done so.

Also, a serious accident almost happened last night during Swing Fling, though thankfully no one was seriously injured. The accident occurred while said assailant, Jules, was attempting to perform an inside turn with his partner, namely moi, and raised his elbow at the wrong spot, thereby causing it to collide most painfully with my right ear. ^_^!

As I said, no one was injured. Well, the blows I gave him in revenge certainly weren't enough to injure him seriously anyway.

In the blogosphere, as if I hadn't enough of blogging, I've started a new one to comment on the stuff I see online. Bleah. This one is really more of a trial thing, but check it out if you will.

In announcements, The Slayer returns to our shores for the summer. [the Aussie summer, anyway] boredslacker would like to be the first to bid you welcome back, and hope that the people and the heat doesn't kill you this time round.

That's all for the news this morning. Please stay tuned for more broadcasts. Arigatou for reading and Sayonara!

Postsecrets

A cookie: This is interesting. The premise of the blog is that you create a piece of artwork about your secrets, send it to them and they post it on their blog. The intention is apparently to collect enough pieces to create a book one day.

You might have to scroll down quite a bit to see all the artwork, but some of it is pretty interesting and thought provoking.

Some I liked:







Check it out, mate

Make Money Through Blogging

Blogging is getting more and more popular, so why not make money through your blog?

Ok, you can stop laughing now. Obviously I'm not getting anywhere like that with this blog. ^_^! But there are others out there who are trying out the same thing, with varying degrees of success.

One of the most recent examples I've heard of is Subnixus: From a 9-5 job to Blogging full time

I know this is what Xiaxue aspires to do, but is it entirely possible? These people would have you believe it is.

But their methods differ. While Xiaxue aims to earn revenue through advertising, Subnixus aims to earn revenue through adclicks and eyeballs.

Of the 2, I'd feel that Subnixus is the more successful. His website claims that he earns about $50 a day through adclicks on his site alone. [so tell me, why are we all still working?] if you browse on Xiaxue's site, you'd see that she has only one advertiser, namely Localbrand.

I guess part of the problem is her notoriety. Note the previous fracas when she wrote about using disabled toilets. The next thing you know, her 2 sponsors withdrew their sponsorship. Granted that they had only given her a 3 month contract, but would they have extended it if not for the hoo-ha over the disabled toilets? We would never know...

But a point can be made here about reputation and revenue. She should have known from the example of Kate Moss' snorting that notoriety is not always good for business in that way, and that some businesses can quickly pull away their custom if they think that your antics [or your words] can have negative effects on their reputation as well.

I suppose in that way, Subnixus' method seems more sound. He earns revenue through adclicks and offers good advice about blogging on his site. [check it out man] Hence, he is not overly dependent on a few sponsors for his revenue, and can easily make it up through other means.

Anyone tempted yet? I sure am... hahaha

Another group of people are the ones who sell things through their blogs. One example I am keeping an eye on is the Ampulets blog. This artistic duo maintains a blog, which they use to sell artwork and merchandise. The blogger software makes it easy for them to organize their website without having to resort to HTML, but their model is not that much different from the dozens of other websites out there which sell stuff. Another example is jun gifts, which was sent to me by Necroz, and which sells Japanese-themed gifts.

So is it possible? Could you? Hm, I should explore this option a little more... hehehhe....

Update: The previous rant is about how I couldn't get the wireless network to work for nuts. This update is to announce that after dinnertime, my dad had a second go at the thing, and now it works, and I'm now blogging this from Lappy. Doomo Arigatou Gozaimashita to my dad from the bottom of my bloggy little heart.

IBM Laptops are super antisocial

From the previous fracas of my old laptop comes another disaster with the new one. ^_^!

Because right now only one PC in the entire household can be connected to the Internet at any one time, my dad has been trying to set up a network so that all of us can be connected at once. This is particularly crucial for me and bro, cos we're the most frequent users of the Internet and also, the ones who fight most over the usage of the PC.

So I bought a wireless router and a couple of wireless network cards from the NTU co-op and thought that was all to go.

Me thought sooper wrong.

The router worked fine with the PC itself, but when it came to my laptop, it resolutely refused to communicate with it, no matter the amount of cajoling and threatening we did to them. [the router and the laptop] The worse part is that whenever I switched on Lapy, I could see that a wireless connection could be sensed, but when I tried to go into the Internet, nothing could be reached!!!

With a sinking feeling, I realised this was the exact situation I faced with the old one in my hall room.................

Then one day, I came home and dad told me that he had managed to get the thing working, but for it to work, I had to use a LAN cable to connect to the router. Nabeh, then I buy a wireless router for what somemore?

But one connection better than nothing. So we connected everything, switched on Lapy...

Only to find that the connection didn't work, now that I was in the room. Cue another hour or so of cursing and dad clicking intently away at the laptop.......

*string of bad expletives* Why the af does this always happen to me and IBM laptops??? Had I known this would've happened, I shld've just plopped my money on a sweet little Mac instead......

Then again, who's to say that the Mac wouldn't have given me the same problems? *Heavy sigh*

So we're back to sharing a PC for the Internet till my dad can figure out what the heck is wrong with this connection. Shinde......

A really busy Sunday

I was out with him almost the whole day and after lunch, this is what we did:

World Cyber Games

2 words: Boys' Playground. The place was packed with guys staring intently at video and computer screens while battle raged in cyberspace.

Conversely, the chairs around were filled with bored and tired parents, who had probably been badgered by their sons into bringing them here. ^_^

We walked around the place a bit, but there weren't really much exciting battles going on at the time. In fact, most of the gamers there seemed to be amateur gamers who were just taking advantage of the free gaming computers. [according to him, they were amateurs anyway. To me who can't play for nuts... ok they seemed pretty decent]

Too bad we missed the grand final match. Oh well, onto the...

Let's talk about... Sexpo

Quite a disappointment, really. Even the DF found it mild by his standards, and that's saying a lot. ^_^!

When we went in, there was a slightly 'cleaner' family section outside, and the more 'adult' stuff was in another area which had been walled off from the rest of the public, and guarded by pseudo policemen who were really security guards. [whacha gonna do if a minor really tried to run in? Pin him down and arrest him?]

And the first thing we saw when we went in was 3 guys trying to blow up condoms in a given timespan. ^_^!!!! [actually, my thought was I never knew condoms could be expanded to the size of monster jackfruits, but I digress...]

The whole thing was just really mild to the point of boring. Besides the little stage with the condom-blowers and pole-dancing girls, there was just some ancient Chinese sexual artifacts and a bunch of stalls around selling sexual items. The artifacts were of some interest, but were mainly erotic paintings. There were though, these little ornamental fruits. You opened them up, and they revealed a little porcelain couple in a sexual position. Apparently, mothers included those in their daughters' wedding presents to prepare them for marriage. How that worked, i don't know, cos I didn't see instructions included....

Anyway, it seems our ancestors weren't exactly that pure either. There was a hell of a lot of stuff going on beneath the covers [literally and figuratively] but all were hidden beneath a veneer of respectability. Like on first glance, the fan which had a normal painting of a warrior on one side, and an erotic painting on the other side. The person using that fan must have fanned himself pretty hard, I must say........

Of the stalls, the largest [and most crowded one] there was from Condomania, stocking a huge variety of vibrators on the walls, from the [do penises really come in that size??] large to the tiny ones you could put in your purse. But really, most of the stuff there could be bought in their brick and mortar shops too, so what was the point? [quite ex also]

In fact, the DF got quite bored along the way, and wanted to go shopping at the other halls. I was wondering whether I should be worried, that my BF seemed to be more interested in shopping than sex, [!!] till we walked nearer to the entrance, and we saw that the condom blowing guys had been replaced by a young nubile thing gyrating on the pole.

"Now it's getting more interesting!" He said, before I steered him firmly to the exit at the other side of the hall.

Note: actually it might've been more interesting if we had Jules and Candle with us. The 2 of them came in after we had started shopping, and according to Candle, Jules kept up a very..... lively commentary of the items in the show. Which was actually one of the reasons why I was hesitant to go with him, but well... :p Maybe next time I should start a podcast with the things he says... hahaha...

Edit: I found some photos on the web. Click here to see some.

A Twist of Fate

The musical I watched with Candle and Mega after the Sexpo was much more entertaining. In the style of a classic whodunnit, the whole thing centered around a peranakan household in 1937. The death of the family patriarch sparks off a fit of soul searching and secret baring amongst the household, as their sordid secrets come out one by one till the real murderer was revealed.

The music, composed by Dick Lee, was cute, though not quite memorable. But what really stole the show were the actors, and not even the award-winning actress who was in it. No, for me, the most entertaining actors were the family matriarch, [a formidable, kebaya-wearing woman full of hairpins in her bun] and the family servant, Ah Si. Good god, the matriarch was really peranakan to the core, the way she flicked her wrist and spoke to the others, and at certain times, she even reminded me of my great grandmother.

The family servant Ah Si was most endearing, in his star-crossed love with the daughter of the matriarch. But he was most cute when he started singing about how he hated the matriarch, and how it made him want to kill.... chickens. *pwak* It's really one of those things you had to see. :p

All in all, a busy Sunday for me.....

Check thy CDs now!

Because it turns out that some CDs which Sony had produced come with a hacking tool that leaves your PC vulnerable to virus attack if you play it on your PC. :( A summary of the whole fracas can be read at this link, and if you're worried about your CDs, check this list of CDs which come with the software. If you're interested in reading latest updates on the people who are suing the pants off Sony, read the blog on Sory Electronics.

What a dumb move for them. Bad enough for the company that they're losing money through illegal downloads, now they do something like this which just discourages people from buying the original item altogether. [You can get viruses through P2P software too, but at least you got free music in the process. Here, you're paying them to install nasty stuff in your PC.]

There was a contest.

There was a winner.

At the end of it,

There was a really cute film.

Minnasan, mite kudasai. :) Kawaii desu yo.

Jesus loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life: HELL

Before you start stoning me, not my words, but taken from this website. It's amazing, how people can just blindly do things and think the way they do, before thinking through on all sides, and considering if they were actually *gasp!* misguided in the first place.

Take a look at some of the inane things they say:
Jesus Would be Ashamed of You

Inflict ancient Chinese tortures on me.

Make me listen to inane professors lecturing.

Force me to eat my greens.

But PLEASE don't make me............







Clean my room. Bleah.

After officially moving out from the hostel, I was left with a pile o' stuff in my room, which I had left there conveniently because I had no other idea where to put them.

The little pile grew and grew in strength each day, until it became a strong, sturdy pile, capable of swallowing up whole boxes and refusing to spit them back.

It was then time, I knew, to do another complete spring clean. [in what would be winter. Yea, I know.]

I wish spring cleaning was easy for me. I wish it was like this:



But it's not. Most of the time, I end up like this:



The horrible, horrible part about it all is that I'm an uncontrollable hoarder. A trait I inherited from my grandmother, apparently. I'd never forget the huge amounts of stuff we took out from her cupboard the week after she passed away. That cupboard alone seemed to defy all we knew of the normal laws of physics.

And the weird stuff she hoarded: Money was tucked away in envelopes, or under shelf lining, on each different shelves. Ditto with jewellery, and a menu from the hospital my grandfather stayed in. Yes, a menu, which looked like it came from Cahaya or something like, but actually was from Tan Tock Seng.

Yea, I know where I got this from.

So when I had to clean my own room, you can imagine the stuff I managed to dreg up. For a while there, it seemed as if that strong little pile in my room had grown into an INSATIABLY HUNGRY MONSTER WHO WON'T STOP TILL IT HAD MUNCHED UP HALF THE WORLD. I ALMOST LOST A LEG, I TELL YOU.

But I managed to grab a dusty [trusty?] broom and whacked it back till it was whining on the floor in submission. Damn thing.

Now I've managed to pull in a favour from Candle, who'd be helping me next week to stop the pile from taking over the world. And btw, if you're reading this, I've blogged it and made it officially public, so NO BACKING OUT! xP

Some cookies before the Bangkok rant below...

The Gorillaz are actually a virtual band, with 4 cartoon characters as its members. They won the Best Group Award at the MTV Europe awards recently, and, by the miracle that is technology, managed to appear on stage for a 'live' performance. Gawdammit.

Ok lah, it's actually done by an old theatrical trick called Pepper's Ghost, but you can see how cool it looks on stage. :p

watch the live virtual performance here.

Singapore is a fine city, and that's something we've known for ages and ages of empires long gone. [bad gaming joke. sorry.] But what's refreshing is Kenny Sia's take on it.


Read it.. It's a fine laugh and you won't get fined.

my faraway land...

This thing between Bangkok and me has become almost something of an obsession during this holiday period. I think it's because this is the last holiday I can go, obligation-free, to any country, and because of that, there's a certain mental pressure on me to go somewhere.

And that somewhere is Bangkok.

And why Bangkok? Well, cheap foods and shopping come to mind. :p Plus also because practically the WHOLE of Singapore seems to have gone there at least once except for ME.

As I ranted to Candle the other night, it's crazy to think I haven't been there. It's like an hour away, the airfare is cheap, and so are the accomodations and the shopping. There should be NOTHING to stop me, monetary-wise at least.

But strangely enough, everytime I think I'll be able to go, something crops up, and the plans are dashed. *irritated crease on forehead*

Like the other time, Quet and I planned to go one Dec and she ended up going to Phuket with her BF. [heavy colour light fren.......grrr.....] And of all the times to go, she went on the most 'interesting' one. :p

Another time, I was supposed to go with Doe in place of her BF, but we couldn't change the airline tix and that was cancelled too. X(

This time, I thought I found a travelling partner in Necroz. I told her to take leave on any day in Dec and we'd go book it together. She was all set to go......

Until she found out she had to go to Malaysia for a wedding instead. X( X( X( X( X(

NONE of the guys I know wanted to go with me. Strangely enoughly, the name 'Chatuchak' alone put fear in their hearts and sent them screaming.

WHAT THE F--K IS THIS?????? It was actually easier for me to go all the way to freakin' London than it is to go to Bangkok!!!!! It's like the entire world has conspired against me to stop me from going to a country which is barely one hour's flight away! You know it takes me LONGER than that to travel to blardy NIE from home????

I can't stand it. My many thwarted attempts have made me even more stubborn about the whole idea of going there. Now, I just wanna gawdammit go there just to prove that THERE! I'VE DONE IT! YOU TRIED TO STOP ME BUT I DID IT ANYWAY!!! NYAH NYAH NYAH!!! >P >P >P

So now I'm thinking of either 1) going there by myself and praying I don't get mugged/raped/kidnapped there, or 2) booking myself on some package tour. One way or another, I'm going there at least ONCE in my life before I FREAKIN' DIE.

*one freakin' irritated traveller*

Marbles, Sand and Coffee

In response to krystal's blog, the story [slightly rewritten by me] went like this:

So you take a huge glass jar and fill it up with marbles. Make sure you fill it to the brim.

Full already? Shake it a bit, to let them settle, then try to pour more in.

Managed to pour more in? Good. Can any more marbles go in? No?

Can you say the jar is full? Ok then.

What if you pour some sand in? Smart, eh? The fine sand trickles down and fills up all the space left in between the marbles. Fill it up to the top, and make sure you don't spill any.

Any more space in the jar? No?

What about some coffee then? What will happen if you pour some coffee into the jar?

Try it.

What happened then? Were you able to pour it in? Of course you were. The sand soaked up the coffee and so you managed to squeeze in one cup of java into the mix.

Have you realised something? Everytime you think the jar is full, there's actually a bit more space for you to fit something in.

Now what's the deal? What's this gotta do with my life, you say?

Think of it this way.

The marbles are the most important things in your life, the things you will never compromise on. Things like your family, friends, your career, et cetera. Even your dog if you will it to.

The sand is the other extras in your life. You know, the stuff you could do without, but yet are still in your life anyway. Things like your deadend job, the endless social acquaintances, the shopping and movies, and all the other little distractions.

See, even with a whole bunch of marbles in your life, there will always be cracks for you to fill up with sand. You can have a whole bunch of important things in your life, but there will always be other little stuff to distract you from them.

The key thing is to not fill up with so much sand that the marbles start to drop out of the jar. Like, why would you let the little stuff get in the way of the big ones? At least marbles are something hard and solid, that you can hold in your hand.

Ever tried holding a handful of sand? Yea, that's how stable they are.

And the cup of coffee? Well, that's mainly to prove another point.

That despite how many marbles

How much sand in your life

There is always time

For a good cuppa coffee with a fren. :D

The City

I love this song. I always imagine a passing overhead shot of NYC in the morning whenever I hear the intro. And if you change the words to "S'pore City", it's almost exactly what I feel towards Singapore. You can't stand it, but yet, you love it and in a funny way, you can't get away from it. And so was inspired this illust...



NYC Weather Report by Five for Fighting

Got to get away from here...
Got to get away from all these thinkers... drinking up my thoughts again
Got to get away from here...
Got to get away from all these choosers, losers... all my best of friends
Sit back New York City
You're not cute but you're oh so pretty
When the rain comes you fall up again...
SUNNY... You are a part of me
SUNNY... You are the heart of me

Got to get away from here...
Got to get away from all these people who need people... You know it really makes me sick
Got to get away from here...
Got to get away from expectations, recreations, just for the sake of it

Sit back New York City
You're not cute but you're oh so pretty
When the rain comes you fall up again...
SUNNY... You are a part of me
SUNNY... You are the heart of me

Sit back New York City
You're not cute but you're oh so pretty
When the rain falls you come up again
Sit back New York City friend...

Got to get away from here...
Got to get away from what I'm thinking...I'm thinking...it's too much for anyone...
Got to get away from here...
Got get away from what you're drinking... you're drinking...so I'll take another one...

I am Woman, Hear me Roar

This is an interesting article about Women In Power. I read the original in my subscribed copy, and the interesting part is where the articles written by various women in powerful situations. These women talk about how they gained power, status, and importantly respectability in their various fields, and also juggle family and work life at the same time. They range from Oprah Winfrey, to a HK virologist who worked with the bird flu virus and SARS.

I guess the most empowering thing about the article is the message that you can do it. It takes planning, commitment, and a whole lot of guts, but it IS possible.

A group of us were hanging around outside the classroom, waiting for the lecturer to come and the class to start, and we started talking.

"You know, after the exams are over, I don't know what to do anymore."
"Ya, I know what you mean! You feel so aimless, like you got to do something, but there's nothing to do."
"Ya, and I don't know how to pass the time also."

When I heard that, my thoughts went back to what I did after my last exam and report deadline. Which was return to the room with Yenn for a 3 hour nap, followed by a trip to the library, which resulted in a very hefty reading list for the next few weeks or so.

I also thought of all the shopping I wanted to do, [as soon as I got my paycheck] the blogging, the art, maybe a few afternoons sitting in a cafe sipping coffee and reading, finding a wireless router and trying to configure it in my home, maybe a new graphics tablet, the lindy, the japanese......

Nothing to do? Sorry gals, I passed that stage a long, long time ago while still in school. [although technically I am still in school, but let's not get distracted.]

But it did occur to me how easy it was for us to just let our jobs take over our lives. Most of us, we work most of the day. We leave at 5,6,7 and go for dinner with BF/Friends/Family. Then we watch TV at home, sleep and repeat cycle the next day. With maybe some shopping over the weekend as an interlude.

Your job takes up the majority of your day, and of your energy. And hence, sometimes, there isn't time left for much other stuff. "I'm interested, but I'm so busy with work now, I don't have the time!"

Well, when will you ever have the time?

I realised what a big risk it was to let your job take over your life, till pretty much all you live for is your job. Imagine, that if as students, you can already feel such a sense of aimlessness after your papers. What would happen if you lost your job for some reason or another? Do you have anything else in your life to back you up? Do you other ways in which you can earn an alternative income?

We always say we don't have enough time to do all these things. And then when something happens, we lament that we didn't do something earlier to prevent it.

Well, make a change. Don't let your job lead your life. You lead it.

One Hell of a week...

In more than one ways.... starting from Sat when I watched the Possession of Emily Rose with DF...[his idea]

Now, I'm not the World's Most Devout Catholic, [I'm somewhere towards the other end of the scale] but something about this movie chilled me to the bone. Yes, chilled is the word. For those who don't know, the movie is about the [purportedly] true story of Emily Rose, whose demonic possession is the only one officially recognised by the Church so far. Ok......

The movie is not particularly scary. If you want a real scare-fest, I'd say look to the Koreans or the Japanese.

However, it did touch me on several levels. One, because as a Chinese, you're constantly exposed to tales of the supernatural world around us. Witness the Hungry Ghost Festival every year. And it goes without speaking that you are brought up with tales of ghostly hauntings and wandering spirits and vengeful gods.

Two, as a Catholic, you are brought up to believe in the existence of the Devil, and his minions. Because face it, if you believe in God, you have to believe in the Devil. The existence of one implies the existence of the other. And if you read your Good Book regularly, you will know that there are demons in the world around us.

And if you forget that fact, or let it drop from mind, there's always Emily Rose to remind you. :p

So if you're brought up with helpings of both of what I just mentioned above, you get a pretty shaky mix of Asian-Western Fried Potato. And I say fried, because if you put in too much helpings of supernatural beliefs from each culture, that's what you become.

And if you're an Asian-Western Fried Potato like me...... You sleep that night with a bottle of holy water next to your bed. [PS, I ain't kidding about the holy water. Conveniently, or fatefully enough, my mom went on a pilgrimmage to Malaysia and brought back bottles for the whole family] And you will NEVER dare wake up at 3am in the night, as that is supposedly the demonic hour, where demons roam the earth.

This I do to myself, after the previous Black River House scare... duh.......

And what do I do this week? One exam ended on Monday, and the very last essay of the term was handed up, so I have officially started holidays. ^_^ Me and Yenn are two very happy birds, Yenn with her now-incessant Mapling, and me with my long-neglected library books.

[Aside: The National Library has doubled the loan quotas for all library card holders, so this is a GREAT time to start your reading habits!]

And of all things, I start with... The Dante Club, by Matthew Pearl, which is the story of a series of murders modelled after the Hells of Dante. ^_^!!!

Like, for instance, in one of the scenes, Neutrals [people who refuse to choose between good and evil] are set upon by flies and maggots which eat their very flesh while they are alive. In another, Traitors are placed in ice so that only their heads are above the surface. Simoniacs [priests who accept money for unholy reasons] are buried headfirst underground, so that their legs are above, and then their feet are set on fire.

WHAT'S FREAKIN' UP WITH ME??? I NEED MORE CHICK LIT!!! I need to read and see more of the pink cottony, lah-lah fluffy rainbow stuff and EXORCISE all these from me!!!

Time to start more on the Photoshopping and stuff before I go completely wonkers one day......

The Big S

Went to Batam on Deepavali with Juls and Greg and learnt two things:

1. That Batam is just like Perling, Johor

So true. We entered through the main Batam centre by ferry, and the minute I walked out of the centre, I could've sworn that we'd ended up in Malaysia by mistake.

Certainly on first glance, it seemed like it. Bahasa everywhere, [even though yes, I know, that Bahasa Indon. is not the same as Melayu] the mega airconditioned malls, [these things are everywhere nowadays, and I swear the one at the centre was built for the express purpose of Singaporean dollars] and the endless rows of suburban houses and shophouses and trees.

But there are differences if one cares to look more closely. Streets are dirtier than in Malaysia, for one. [sorry, Candle] Some of the sewage drains I saw were filled with extremely noxious looking grey.... sludge that looked deadly to any living creature foolish enough to step in it.

Also, there is a diff in the shops over there. The streetside stalls all sell the same range of goods, namely wallets, caps, belts, shoes, and the huge piece of cloth that Muslim women wear over themselves. [sorry, i don't know the name of it] We walked a few km along one long stretch of stalls, and it felt like I was seeing the same cycle of stalls over and over again. Wallets, caps, belts, shoes, cloth, wallets, caps, belts, shoes, cloth, wallets, caps, belts......

The prices there are also generally cheaper than in Malaysia. Sure, you'll feel like a billionaire when you count your currency in terms of 10000s, but when you look at the prices, you feel more like, an upper class man? I did a double take a couple of times when, after mentally converting the prices in my head, it was still too low for me to believe.

Like, in the department store, a decent tee shirt, maybe about the Hanes standard, cost about 16000rp, which translated to S$4??? And we stopped at this beauty stop [hair salon/manicure/pedicure/facial/massage.... Good god, has anyone done this in singapore? It's a stroke of genius!] where we found that the price of a 45 min massage was.... S$8. Bloody fork! Juls and I ended up going for a massage each while Greg was left to play at the arcade. :p

Of course, the dark lining of all this is that you have to pay about S$30 from Singapore to actually get there. So when you count the transport, food, and massage.... it doesn't quite become so worth it anymore. ^_^! If you want to make it worth it, you have to do a hell lot more stuff than we did. But hey, once in a while, I don't mind doing stupid stuff like this.

2. We have big 'S'es written all over us

I think that it is inevitable that, if you live in any country for an extended period of time, it leaves its mark on you. I notice this in some friends who go overseas, and now I know it is on us, even in a nearby country like Batam.

The moment we started walking around the town, Nagoya, [sounds Japanese, doesn't it?] I felt as everyone knew we were from Singapore and that we didn't believe. We didn't even look like the local Chinese, even though we were plainly dressed in tees and jeans. What was it? We don't know, but I suspect a great deal stemmed from us speaking flawless English most of the time. ^_^! Bummer.... Can you stick out anymore in a place where 90% of all people we met spoke only rudimentary English? ["Taxi! You want taxi?" being one of the most common phrases I heard being thrown at us]

And even then, our clothes didn't fit in. What we wore and carried looked just a smite too good to have been bought from their department stores, which carried This-Fashion-like stuff. [which also meant that everything in the ladies dept was 10 sizes too small for me. ^_^! If I lived there, i'd have to buy everything from either the Muslim dept or the menswear]

But it wasn't just us. Even while I was having my massage, I saw this lady come in, and my first thought was: Singaporean. Again, the bag she carried looked too good, and most telling of all, she was wearing a light blue gypsy skirt, which I never saw being sold anywhere in Batam. The funny thing was that her face did NOT look Singaporean at all when I looked at it again, so....... i don't know. :p

Another lady was more obvious. She was a 40s odd woman wearing 2 spaghetti tops, cropped pants and huge colourful wedges. Oh yea, very HDB tai-tai chic......

But really, we didn't fit in. And I felt like everyone was looking at the huge S written invisibly on my forehead......

I guess in a way, going to such places just makes you appreciate home that much more. [ESPECIALLY for the clean toilets with running water in the flush and adequate toilet paper] Even when you go to nearby countries, with plenty of Asians and Chinese, it's still pretty obvious the way you stand out from all the other locals. While we were there, I had this weird feeling that people were staring at me, and whispering to each other, "Singaporean must be lah..." [on a sidenote, must learn Bahasa so this never happens to me, either in Indon or Malaysia.]

It's only when you come back to Singapore that you, I don't know, fit? That suddenly, your behavior and appearances cease to be weird or ill-fitting, and that you're able to disappear into the rest of the crowd, because you're just like the rest of them. Yea, I know there are plenty more countries which are waaaaay more accepting of weirdness than Singapore is, or more open than Singapore is, but as much as I don't fit quite into Singapore society, I still fit more into it than all the other countries that I've been to. That it's the only place I know I can disappear into the crowd, and that won't mind me ever being there. It's weird, I know, and possibly also because I haven't stayed in any other country for a long period of time, but hey, that's just my humble opinion... :p that's just me.