Tell me what makes a man......

'Cos I really wanna know.

I've already 'interviewed' some of you on a highly-informal, totally-unscientific manner already, so now I wanna get more responses.

Answer the following questions please:

1. What do you think makes a man a man?
2. What do you think makes a woman a woman?
3. What do you think is a man and a woman's role in family life?

Either answer the questions in the comments link below, or email to boredslacker@gmail.com
I will use the 'findings' in an upcoming blog entry, but I won't quote your real name or email addy on my blog at all, so be assured of anonymity. I'm not doing this for school, but as more of a pet project. Get all your friends to send in too!

Note to commentors on my blog:

- No, I really don't want the laptop cover for my birthday, if that's what you meant. :p I want other things, like a wireless-enabled PDA, the new Nokia L'amor phone, a graphics drawing tablet, and why not throw in a new car while you're at it? >D

- Meeting his parents is NOT a direct precursor to marriage. Trust me, we're far, far, faaaaarrrrrrr away from that goal.

- Yes, I will wait till 2008 to receive my ang pow. >D

Now back to regular blogging:

Freedom... Or peace?

Sometimes it really seems as if the two are on opposite ends of a scale. And I especially felt that way after seeing the two following articles:

European press enters fray over Mohammed cartoons
and
Blair under pressure after defeats in Parliament
[read the two articles to make more sense out of this blog entry. Hey, a little current affairs won't kill ya :p]

It seemed to me that the common thread between these two articles were the fight between freedom of speech, and potential offenses to the Muslim communities in each country.

It also seemed to me to be a pretty dumb thing.

Ok, freedom of speech is a great thing and all, but surely there have to be limits?? You publish cartoons you know will offend just about every Muslim in the world, and you insist on your freedom of speech rights, then you cry and scream Murder and Anarchy when these JI-types decide to bomb a few buses in your country.

Granted that terrorism is NEVER the solution, but in cases like these, I feel there is a tinge of 'they asked for it'. Citing "freedom of speech" as their excuse to communicate highly flammable messages like this...... Well, it's like going up to the local bully, [who weighs about 400kg more than you do] calling him a yellow-bellied girly wuss, and then stating that to do so is your right to freedom of speech.

Please lor! Sure kena whack one what!

IF you already know that relationships between the Western world and the global Muslim community these days are not quite at their best, then why, why, why on heaven's sake do you keep on insisting on keeping your 'personal rights' at the cost of the society around you?

This I think is the one biggest flaw of the Western world. Their insistence on democracy, and especially their personal rights.... they seem to think that their personal views and preferences prevail over the safety of society at large, even if what they say could potentially hurt and kill those close to them indirectly.

Most tragically comical was the quote I read in the article about Blair's bill:

" But after the 90-day proposal was rejected, the Lords had inflicted a series of defeats on the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill in a bid to safeguard freedom of speech.

It notably put in an amendment restricting the new offence of inciting religious hatred to threatening words and behaviour, rather than a wider definition also covering insults and abuse.
The Lords also required the offence to be intentional, and specified that criticism, insult, abuse and ridicule of religion, belief or religious practice would not be an offence."

Do you know what these could mean in ordinary terms?

- It is ok to scold someone, "You dog!", but illegal to shout, "I'll kill you, you dog!"

- It is ok to laugh, and call someone, "Hahaha!! You fucking dog!" or tell someone "Your fucking religion sucks! Hahaha!" AS LONG AS it wasn't intentional [hence the "Hahaha!" to indicate humour]

- It *might probably be* ok to write long lengthy blog posts on why you think Muslims/Catholics/Christians/Buddhists/Jews/Mormons/Aum worshippers are all muthafucking dogs AS LONG AS your blog is based in the UK.

[to S'porean Internet Watchdogs... please read the context of my blog carefully... and don't haul me to court for inciting racial hatred]

What kind of blardy weirdo rule is this that allows a person to criticise, insult and abuse another person's religion in the name of free speech?? And "unintentional"??

"Hahaha! You fucking dog! Hey! Why'd you hit me for? I didn't mean it when I called you a fucking dog, you blardy muthafucker! Take that!"

There are so many things wrong with that. How can you legally prove the person's intent was malicious? How do you prove in court that the person called you a fucking dog intentionally to cause you hurt, or to threaten your life?

These rulings are so ludicrous it's a wonder the Western world survived this long....................

Not to say freedom of speech is a bad thing. It can be a very good thing, especially when you are trapped in a communist dictatorship state and your people are starving by the dozens and your leader seems to have a great fondness for luxury and nukes. It is in these circumstances that we need people to speak out against injustice, so as to make life better for all, and to push that crazy leader off his missile.

Sometimes, you can change things just by speaking out.

But people now seem to be taking this as their god-given-no-one-can-take-away right. And the worst part is that they don't seem to care about the consequences of their words, as long as they are allowed to say exactly what they like. And that is the problem: That people either have no idea of, or do not care about the consequences. To them, their personal freedom is more important to them than civility, good manners, or, other people's feelings. Which in itself is actually a very selfish action.

*sigh* This is one crazy screwed-up world........ crazy ang mohs........

Laptop Covers

Uhm, I don't really care about the boring, standard black colour of my laptop, I really don't, but my lapy just keeps insisting she wants this totally cool and hot cover on her. [cool and hot?]



Yea, um, I'm really not too tempted by it...... Really, I'm not......

And erm, just in case you guys are interested, which I definitely am NOT, the covers are made by a company called Skyn that specializes in these laptop covers. It's not so much a cover, but more of an adhesive cover that you can stick on to your laptop and peel off as well. [think removable gmask] Not only that, but they can do custom skins as well.

But I'm not tempted. Really! I"m not! I'm...... not.

The Night After...

CNY Day 2, and the DF and I do the family rounds.

Afternoon was a dimsum lunch with my family where we ate lunch, and I watched my dad roll his eyebrows at a couple of things he said. Generally, my family has decided that he's just like one of my uncles. Eats [too] healthily, doesn't drink, sleeps in early and stays at home a lot... yea, that's him.

Despite the differences in interests though, [my dad likes kayakking and blading and him.........] they bonded over the one thing that most guys of legal age have in common.

"So... which camp are you in?"

And that was that. Cue my mom and I sighing and helping ourselves to the dimsum while the men talked army.

Well, at least he managed to keep up a decent conversation running with my parents. Which is more than I could say for me and his family. X(

We had planned to go to his grandma's house for dinner, only HE hadn't told a single soul about it aside from his parents! So we went there [ahead of the rest of his family], they got curious, asked, and "This is my girlfriend."

Cue the raised eyebrows, and the mental ah-ha...... going on in everyone's minds...... which also made for a coupla wisecracks later: ^_^!!!

Overheard when lao-ing yusheng:
"May the eldest grandson get married soon!" [guess who] "and may we see great-grandchildren soon!"

When his grandma gave me an ang pow:
"Here's an angpow from ma-ma wishing you good luck in life and career!" Ma-ma? I thought my ma-ma passed away years ago but apparently I have a new one....... -_-!!!!!!!
His aunt started laughing, and "Here's one from gu-ma as well!!" and continued laughing uproariously.

I didn't know what else to do but to hide my face by burrowing in his back while the entire extended family enjoyed the joke at my expense........ -_-!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But well, at least with the shuang qing meeting [did i get the name right?] it's sorta like we reached another stage of "officiality" with each other, now that both sides are aware of each other.

Though it still feels weird when I spend CNY with his family instead of mine. Like I'm still trying to find a place to fit in this family that's been going along just fine before I came along. And now I gotta find the missing spot in this jigsaw for me to fit into.

*Haiz* Oh well, at least it didn't seem like they hated me on sight.......... Let's see how it goes till the next CNY....... ;)

Caves and Clubs

Read in Subnixus, the blog of a professional blogger:

“The moment the slave resolves that he will no longer be a slave. His fetters fall… freedom and slavery are mental states. - Gandhi”

How true, how true.

Although if you read his entry, I'm not too sure whether you can reasonably live in Singapore with USD$640 a month considering that the rental on a room in a HDB flat could cost u around $300 [without Internet] the last time I checked, but hey, least in Singapore, food's cheap. :p

But can any of us ever do that?

Because we're not talking about just living cheap here. We are talking about completely shackling off the rat race and living on a meager lifestyle in order to pursue whatever it is one wants to do. It means not earning a safe salary every month into your bank account, it means not going to work with the rest of the corporate rats, and also a lot of embarrassing scenarios at festive seasons when relatives ask you "so exactly what are you working as?"

Trust me, I've been there. And it's not something you should take up lightly.

But yet, so many of us get caught in this rat race. We become convinced/persuaded/fooled into thinking that we need that new car, that house, that home entertainment set with surround sound [ok, maybe I go too far here] in order to live. And it makes sense in a Darwinian sort of way.

Turtle the other way was griping about how materialistic women were in Singapore. They would never go for a guy with an 'ok' salary, and with no career aspirations, even if they didn't have any themselves. They always went for the guy who was 'confident and outgoing' and focused in his career development, and who could provide them with a measure of material security, which in his opinion, was much higher than was necessary for living.

His conclusion was that most of these girls were superficial and materialistic. [something which I agree with him to a certain extent]

But from the standpoint of evolution it makes sense. We women are most vulnerable during the 9months of pregnancy, and that's when the biological need for security developed. I think somewhere along the way, some cavewomen decided that the caveman with the bigger cave and the bigger club could take better care of more of her children than the guy who was sleeping under the open sky. And all of womenhood followed suit.

And once all of womenhood followed, the guys had no choice but to follow. In order to get a mate, they had to prove that their cave was better, or they were better at clubbing animals for food, literally bringing home the bacon.

Skip forward a few million years of evolution and here we are.

But where are we?

Still looking for that bigger cave. *sigh* But now your cave comes made of brick and mortar, and comes with running water and decent toilets.

Sometimes I get so sick of it, I wonder why I even signed up into this system in the first place. Like, why should I put myself through this grief if my other life wasn't going too badly.

But sometimes I guess I just have to remind myself: Freedom is a state of mind. If I believe that I am free to pursue whatever it is I want to, if I believe that the only limits exist only within my own mind, then nothing can ever really imprison me.

Nothing.

Holiday Syndrome Strikes...

I've got at least one assignment to do for every module, 2 of which are due on the wed and fri just after CNY. I'm up to my shitassload in work,

and in true Holiday Syndrome style, I can't be bothered to touch an inch of work. Bleah.

At least this CNY it's been relatively calm. We went for dinner, did the usual visiting, and ended up at KFC for dinner because, well, half of Singapore is closed.

This aspect of CNY is always the most fascinating to me. The idea that a single holiday can cause just about the entire Singaporean [and now China] economy to come screeching to a halt for 2 and a half days [including the reunion]. The idea that for 2 days, the streets will be empty, save for the red-clad visitors, the stores will be closed, and the whole place will resemble some post-nuclear-apocalyptic scenario.

Yea, I imagine too much. :)

Anyway, this has never caused a bother to us, because usually we sponge off some relative for lunch and dinner, or we eat either fast food or muslim for 2 days. This year, it's slightly more troublesome because the family is meeting the DF for the first time, and are therefore obliged to bring him somewhere nice for dinner, I think in part because his family brought me somewhere nice.

So my parents have been wracking their brain to think of all the possible 'nice' places that could be open during CNY and we ended up booking a place for 5 at a dimsum place that would be open. [miracle of miracles!]

So the lunch is tomorrow, wish him luck, especially since some of the stuff I told my dad about him has been making my dad roll his eyeballs. The only consolation is that 1) He doesn't stop me from doing dumb stuff, even if he doesn't do it himself [case in point being the drinking] 2) If ever we go to a drinking hole together [hahahaha! Yea right!] he's definitely the designated driver.

Anyway we see how tomorrow goes.......

From the Parents' Mouth........

"So what did your parents say?"
"Let's talk about it over lunch.. "

"So.... your parents?"
"So fast? I haven't even ordered...."

"So what did your parents say???"
"Ha?"
"OYYYY!!!!!!!!!"

As you can see, it took a while before I got the news out of him......... -_-!!!!!

Turns out though, that most of his mother's comments were......... constructive........ advice that had already been given to me by other friends.......... -_-!!

Like, lose weight/style hair/wear better clothing [i wore a usual black shirt and jeans on that day]/wear makeup/take care of face [settled by him, if you know what he's like] ............................... -_-!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You have to consider. His mother's quite the typical Chinese-Indon type who prefers to dress up and stuff, so all this is like, critical advice she feels her son's girlfriend should take note of, or rather that's his rationale for it anyway.

She also commented that my hairstyle made me look old -_-! my skin too dull for my age -_-!!! I looked years older next to him -_-!!!!! I looked huge next to him -_-!!!!!!!!!! and around this time, I was starting to want to die of embarrassment.

Overall, she felt I looked too simple, though his father said it was a good thing, because that meant he won't have to spend much money on me........... >D

But OMG!!!!!! It was starting to sound as if his mother wanted to send me for some total head to toe makeover, with new hair, new skin, new clothes, and for all I know, slimming sessions!!!!!

But the bright side of this all......... his mother said these mainly in jest [i hope, anyway] and overall she's fine with me. To her, all this was a matter of personal choice, and if her son was happy with me, then that's alright. :) They thought I was a little quiet, [duh] but she didn't say proud [phew]. She was more concerned about my religion, apparently, but since it's the same as his, that's no problem. [aside for the slightly sticky question of attendance, but.............]

So ok lah. Not so bad. :)

Now for him to meet mine............... MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

What, u think I'm just gonna let him go for that? >D

Who Needs TV?

Sometimes the "scandals" you read online concerned well-known bloggers can be more interesting than the latest Korean dramas.

A recurring theme that goes around in the local blogosphere always seems to be that of Freedom of the Blogger VS Responsibilities of a Civic Blogger. No grounds for surprise there, considering this is Singapore and I guess we all follow the example of Big Brother.

Consider, firstly the case of Starryluvly.

She claims on her blog that a recommendation she made to Tomorrow was published at first, then removed, at first seemingly because she had recommended a very unsavoury blog post about Xiaxue, who is one of Tomorrow's most prominent blogger editors.

Weird huh? Sounds to me like all the times the censorship the gahmen has been doing to maintain its civil reputation.

The unsavoury blog post was in turn published by Xialanxue, who had blogged about how Xiaxue seems to have some kind of master plan to bring down his blog by masquerading as him and posting all kinds of stuff on the web in his name, and also attempting a hate entry on another blogger, blinkymummy.

This blogger, blinkymummy, in turn, claims that the hate site was set up by xiaxue, because she posted up xiaxue's pix on the net without permission, and because she had a very interesting encounter with xiaxue at Wala wala.

All this drama and it's all free to read on the net. With this kind of entertainment, who needs TV?

Hair yesterday... Gone today...

Because both Yen and I haven't cut our hair in...[ I don't know about her but I don't remember the last time I went to a hair salon] ... We duly made our way down to Jurong Point [cutting lecture in the process] to get the deed done.

This turned out to be one of the biggest [and in my opinion, most hairlarious] mistakes of Yenn's life.

Hair like mine is easy to cut, though it leaves piles of dead hair on the floor, and probably made the hairdresser's arms ache as she tried in vain to wash and condition it vigorously in the salon. I simply tell the hairdresser to snip 3 inches off, do a bit of layering, and generally leave it in the same shape, albeit shorter, that it was in. I emerge much later, with a hairdo that is much the same as my old one, but 3 inches shorter, and which feels a whole lot lighter on my head. [If it ain't broke...]

Yenn decides to try something new. And this is what I hear as I sit next to her and the hairdresser blows at my damp hair.

Hairdresser [In Chinese] : "How do you want your hair done?"
Yenn: "Can you... *hairdryer whoshes in my ear* and do it like that?"
Hairdresser: "Why don't you *whosh* and then *whosh* so it looks like *whosh?"
Yenn: "Er... Ok lor."

So far so good. We settle down to our books while the hairdressers work at our hair. Yenn's hairdresser snips industriously at her hair, while mine tugs furiously at the knots in my hair. Much later, while she is still tugging with her brush, Yenn's hairdresser does a sort of "ta-dah!" gesture and we look up to see her new hairstyle.

And stare.

And stare.

And stare.

The hairdresser seemed quite pleased with his efforts. He was like, "Isn't it fab?? You can put some gel and do this and this so it looks like this." while Yenn stared in abject shock and horror at her hair. Because my hairdresser had, by this point, finally started snipping at my hair after getting it into a semi-manageable state, she left the place first and it was only later when I finished that we met up at the arcade.

and launched into a tirade against the unholy hairdresser. Apparently she had a totally different idea of what the hairdresser wanted to do to her hair, and what he did was to cut her a rather short fringe, covering her forehead, and, in her own opinion, made her look like she was back in Primary school again. So essentially what he did was to give her a short bob, though not so cleanly cut that she looked like she was wearing a helmut.

We went back to hall, her railing against that hairdresser, vowing never to step foot within that salon again, praying that her fringe would miraculously grow overnight, while I laughed shamelessly at her follicular misfortune.

So the infamous Meet-the-Parents session turned out to be...... ok lor.

We went shopping at Robinsons', walked around a lot while his mother shopped, and his father and brother...... stood around a lot. ^_^! It's proven. Shopping is so not a male thing.

Then we went for dinner at a teochew restaurant in Chinatown, walked around a bit, and then back home.

Pretty uneventful huh? Heh...

They didn't really ask much or talk much to me, for which I was both relieved, and nervous. Relieved because I didn't want to talk too much to his parents and proportionately increase the chance of me saying something stupid or offensive, and nervous, because of dotheylikeme?dotheyhateme?dotheythinkisuck?dotheythinkimantisocial?dotheythinkimallright?
all the thoughts going through my head.

I'm not sure yet whether it's just the way his family is, or is it because they were wishing he was with another girl already. -_-!!!!!

Unfortunately, when I was with them, I also switched into the anti-soci-mood. I don't know whether you guys have ever seen me in this mood, which strikes me whenever I'm in an unfamiliar social situation and I'm not comfortable with the situation. Go fig. It's his parents. I go silent. I don't speak unless I'm spoken to. I make myself as unobtrusive as possible. I become a little stiff and I know it. And I pray desperately that I'm not screwing myself in the process. This happens a lot with the grownups. I fare just slightly better with people my own age.

Not making the situation easier before today was the previous conversations I had with Jules and Turt.

"How would you react if his mother decides she doesn't like you and he leaves you because of that? Hypothetically speaking, of course, since he's not that kind of guy, I know, but what if?"
"She asked me how come I chose a girl that was fat."
"What if *something* happens to you, and he just walks off?"

With friends like these....................................

But at least they did offer good parting advice.

"Be yourself. It'll be easier for you if they accept you for who you are, rather than forcing yourself to be someone that they will like."

consider you guys redeemed.

And at the end of the day...

He told me that he had already gathered feedback from them. [from when I left to go to the toilet, no doubt]

And in typical DF-fashion, he said he'd only tell me next week.

I'm not hoping that they love me already. [because I seriously doubt it]

I just hope it all went... ok.

CHIJ TP Open House

I figure this will make it easier for everyone:

~Blog entries

Intro - 3 old statues from the old into the new
Part 1 - A brief look at the school after renovation [published earlier in this blog]
Part 2 - My own reflections on IJ and fireworked photos [new!]

~Photos

go to flickr and search for the tag " chijtoapayohopenhouse2006 " and see photos by aki onna

Any old girls who want to add their blog links, or photos, drop me a line, at boredslacker@gmail.com

counterscript for telemarketers

because
a) it's funny
b) you never know when one of them will call you

read da script

Meet the Parents

By popular demand, I am writing up the latest developments btw the DF and I.

So it really all started with one simple MSN conversation: [highly abridged. What, you think I'm gonna spill everything???]

Me: Hey
DF: Hey
DF: You free for lunch this Sunday?
Me: My tuition ends at 1230, after that yea
Me: Where?
DF: Toa Payoh
Me: ? Why Toa Payoh?
DF: Because my parents will be there

Pause to allow sudden palpitations in heart

Me: What???
DF: Ya I told them about us
DF: And they invited you to lunch on sunday

Pause again for another aortic convulsion. Another stream of conversation follows, and then:

Me: At least you didn't tell them I drink
DF: Actually I did

Faint utterly.

So after that, I decided I had to tell my folks as well, to even the ground and all. I thought of telling them on Sunday.

Then they left for Johor the whole day. -_-!!!

Then I went to school.

Then it was Tuesday.

Truth to tell, I was a little nervous of telling them, because I didn't know how they were gonna take it. So I went through the initial part of the morning, thinking Now? Now? NOW???.

Till finally, my parents were occupied with packing up the xmas tree for another xmas, and while my mom was struggling with taping the cardboard box to keep all the twigs in, I blurted out,

"Oh yea, I have a boyfriend."

Pause.

"Just to let you know."

My parents paused a while, and my dad hollered, "So??? What do you want us to about it??"

Er, nothing much really.

My mom, caught off guard by the sudden remark and half-occuppied with the tree, remarked, "Well, can he get me a bigger box for my xmas tree?"

-_-.................................!

And that was about it, other than the obligatory What's his name? What does he do? and Of all the times to spring this on us...

My mom actually guessed it was Jules at first, to which my dad replied an emphatic "No, it's not."

I was kinda surprised at first, and then it turns out:

My Dad and Bro already kinda knew, because they saw us walking around in J8 a couple of times. -_-!!!!!!!!!!!!! *Pengpengpengpeng*

So that was it. They know. His parents know. Nothing much to hide anymore.

Are we official now? :p

Oh, and ironically enough, you know how all you guys have been asking to meet him already?

Funnily enough, the one person from the sec-sch group who met him face to face [by accident in the Esplanade tunnel] was Jubilee.

The one person who's never asked to meet him.

Says something, eh? ;)

due to some slight posting mixups, please scroll down for IJTP - The Open House Part 1. Sorry guys...

Newsflash: For all his slowness, the DF actually managed to beat me in something.

His parents now know of us before mine has.
Hey! How was I to know that mine were gonna go to JB today of all days??

And they've invited me to lunch with them next week.

Ok, altogether now:

AAAHHH!!!!!! AAAHHH!!!!!! AAAHHH!!!!!! AAAHHH!!!!!! AAAHHH!!!!!!

In other news........

The blog entries for the IJ open house are done, but because of the sheer amount of pix, will be divided into 2 parts. For those who are clueless, my old alma mater has finished its renovations and opened its doors to the public at large on the 7th Jan. And yes, of course I took pictures.

If you are impatient, or you just want to see photographs, [literary barbarians you], you can go to flickr and search for tag "chijtoapayohopenhouse2006" where you will find my photos.

I'll start off by introducing some of the people who were so important to us in those foundation years:







Stay tuned, girls...

From an Old Convent Girl

Whenever I mention to some of my friends that I was going back to my old secondary school, I get asked, "Why?" This is for 2 different reasons:

"Why on earth are you going back to that place where we were screamed at by all these old, wrinkled teachers, forced to endure dozens of boring masses, and all kinds of silly restrictions on uniforms, were subjected to the most draconian of rules, iron-handedly enforced by a fire-breathing gorgon of a discipline mistress?"

ok, this one comes mainly from the old girls, and is a little embellished under my hands.

or,

"Why are you going back? What's the point?"

What's the point? That's a better question. And one that some readers may ask, since myself and a bunch of other old convent girls recently went back to the Open House for our alma mater, CHIJ Toa Payoh. [anonymity be damned. I'm proud of my school and not afraid to show it]


Perhaps on one hand, it's the school, physically and spiritually. After all, like the old Madonna song went, this used to be my playground. [click on link for the sentiments behind it] This was where I studied, I played, learned to grow old and not like it, and where I made some of the friends that I still have till today, a kind of feat, considering how all our paths have diverged.

Does erasing the school erase the memories? Of course it does not. But what it does is to rob you of the chance of ever reliving those moments. Of being able to pretend, once again, that you were that small, that innocent, that naive. It robs you of the chance to close your common sense telling you otherwise, and pretend that you are once again young and small, and that there are grownups around ready to protect you from outside.


152 years on and counting

Maybe it's the people. It's the people who you loved, hated, made friends with only to forget, till years later on, you met in the streets and realised you two never changed that much anyway. Because the primary and secondary schools were affiliated, and because they were in the same compound, many of us took it for granted that we were going to go to IJ secondary anyway, without question. And you know what? Many of us did.

Some of my friends I've known since I was in Primary school, which is hell long when you're at my age. These are the friends who've seen everything there is to see about me, who know my past, who are still with me in the present, and who, regardless of all that, are still willing to stick by me in the future to come. [thanks guys, if you're reading this] Together, as a group, we've been through just about every human crisis you could imagine, from breakups to deaths. But at the same time, we also shared so much of the good stuff, it made it all worthwhile.

How can you forget a place where you met people like that?

And above all, maybe it's the fact that that place was my past. How do you ever forget your past? [short of physical trauma and injury, anyway] You can try to run, you can put it out of your mind, but how do you forget? You just can't.

And you shouldn't. Because it was your past that made you the person you were today. It was because of the choices you made in your past that, for better or worse, you have turned out to be the person you are today.

Even if you are the person who took this direction in order to run from something in your past, would you be running in this direction if you had not experienced whatever it is you did in your past?

So for all it's worth, this is what my school really is to me:

CHIJ TP Open House Part 1

[another photo-heavy entry. Please take toilet/drink/tv break while waiting for pictures to load fully. All pix copyright of Aki and can be found on Flickr using the tag "chijtoapayohopenhouse2006"

Others who have blogged abt this include the Slayer. If you know any other IJ girl who went and blogged about it/posted pix, lemme know so I can compile a list. cheers!]

After much waiting, my alma mater has finally finished the finishing touches on its new building, and this grand old dame has seen fit to meet the outside world again.

A group of us old girls had met up to go for the Open House on the 7th Jan, because we missed the school, we wanted an excuse to meet up and also because some of us wanted to see whether it really looked like a mosque. [which was the rumour I heard. heh.]

On approaching the school, we realised that the entire building had completely changed from what we had grown up in.

Ok, definitely the facade of the building has all changed. Not only that, but our once wide-spanning track had reduced in size by nearly half, and was now 3 lanes instead of the old six. [wah lau...] Because of the carpark, and the fitness facilities, the field had also reduced in size, and there was less grass than before. [damn]



The canteen had also changed. Gone were the creaky wooden benches, and their accompanying pastel tables. Now each girl had a seat for their butt and much more colourful [and possibly durable] tables.

Does that seem to take the fun out of recess for you? One thing we used to do was squeeze the whole group onto the bench so that we could all sit together and eat and gossip and bitch about whoever. Now it seems that the current seating arrangement would restrict the number of girls to a table.

Then again, it's probably to preserve the furniture. Why the benches were so creaky in the first place was because of all the butts that tried to squeeze onto it back then.

And remember this old bell? It used to be green, but now they've painted the frame blue. The bell itself looks just as old as before, though, and no wonder: The thing was passed down from Victoria Street. -_-!!



More pix:


Fitness Corner


The Much Bigger Hall


Inner quandrangle, prob for assemblies


The Arch


Stained glass concourse on one of the floors

Most of the classrooms had better facilities and equipment, no surprise.

After that it was over to the Primary side.

In case you didn't know, the Primary and Secondary schools, which used to be 2 separate buildings in the same compound, were now joined together in the middle, letting the girls freely interact with each other and probably allowing them easier ways to run over to each other's canteens or bookshops.

Back then, the Primary and Secondary schools were 2 buildings separated by a carpark. The Primary school girls would look longingly at the older, taller girls and dream of the day they would be as tall and big as they were. We also went to their bookstore to buy all sorts of stationery that could not be found in our own kiddy bookstore, earning us a stern reprimand from the Principal that we were to stay where we belonged and wait when we were older.

Funny thing was that when we got older and actually became those older, taller girls, we would then look back at the Primary school, and long for the days when we were there. We also went over to the canteen to buy the [cheaper] food of our younger memories, and earned ourselves scoldings that we should have known better at our age, and we were to stick to our own compound and not intrude on the little ones' spaces.

Funny how things change... and how they don't.

So anyway, now that we've gone over to the Primary school:


Canteen with benches for squeezing tiny butts


The general air of the Primary school just screamed "Cute!" in most of the things, not surprising considering that it is, well, Primary level after all. So much of the stuff here looked way better than the serious stuff that the Secondary school had:


Wayang corner with parents doing a wayang of tired parents


Different colours for each floor


The classrooms look much better now than what I went through, and guess what?


They have Macs!!! The lucky devils have Macs!!!

Apparently this is because this model doesn't have wires all over the place, and also that everything was contained inside one unit, instead of a separate CPU unit. Which made sense, because you didn't want Primary school kids knocking into the CPU or tripping over wires, or attempting to use it for anything other than its intended purpose.


The Inner Quadrangle of the Primary school... so that the kids will learn to read the name of their school... from the air.

And finally, the cutest thing of all:


Have u ever seen a cuter toilet sign?? Aaahh!!! >D

And finally on the way out:


Girls from IJTP may remember this better, but this was where the old walkway out of the primary school used to be. Beside the walkway, though, [where this new one was now at] was a little grassy enclosure with the oldest trees ever. You couldn't even call it a garden because all that was there was grass, some leaf litters, roots lying all over the place, and massive, old trees that branched out and sheltered the entire place.

The grass enclosure was separated from the carpark by the walkway, and since the schoolbuses used to drop off the primary schoolers here and pick them up after school here as well, this made the grass place a perfect natural playground for all those girls. Like, how could any kid resist? The whole place seemed separated from the rest of the world, and was like one of those enchanted magical forest patches. It was also sheltered from the glaring sun by the branches of those trees, which provided the roots for us to play on as well. I spent too many mornings/afternoons playing there.

Sadly enough, that entire patch was destroyed, and is now totally missing from the new school, as you can tell from the photo. And this is one of the things which made me feel really old, like someone I used to know alright had died or something, and that all I would ever see of him would be in my memories. Seeing your old playground destroyed... suddenly you feel your age. Or more.

And that was it. With the knocking down of the old, I had no choice but to discard my childish past and allow others to have their fun now. Now it was time for me to join the ranks of the groan-ups and the adults and do serious, responsible stuff. Nowhere was that point more forcibly underlined than the destruction of this old school.

Like all newly renovated places, I didn't quite feel as if this place belonged to me any longer.

But the memories remain. And if ever I feel like that kid playing on the roots again... :)

To those who went to the IJ open house, Pix are currently in production. Keep tuned!

I. Hate. Rain.

I hate it when it drizzles. I hate it when it showers. I hate it when it pours.

I hate it when it blows into my balcony, soaking all my shoes.

I hate it when it blows into my kitchen, and causing all my clothes to remain wet.

I hate it when the downpour prevents me from going out without a behemothic umbrella.

I hate it when I have to go out, and it drenches me all over when I do, making my feet squish in their shoes.

Get the picture? I hate it I hate it I hate it.

I get into a grump of a mood everytime it rains like this, especially during this monsoon season when it's happening more often. Somehow, the rain has an uncanny knack of choosing the moment just before I leave the house to come down in a sudden downpour, which is f**king irritating, thanks for asking. It's the constant damperer of my plans, no pun intended.

My plans today were fool-proofedly simple: Teach tuition in morning, go out with family for lunch, rest at home a while, maybe go out to library.

Because of the rain, and other reasons, one student cancelled, [though partly due to illness as well] and the other, as I type, is still wondering whether she should come down or not, despite her being 45 mins late in her schedule. >( This is another thing that irritates me, because everytime she comes late, I have to push back my afternoon plans or I am unable to finish covering everything in the lesson.

Fine. Maybe I can still go out with family for lunch. OOPS. Parents have decided to skip to Johor early in the morning, so I'm on my own. >( The irony of my life: Once I have time for family, family has no time for me, and vice versa. Should I even bother?

Ok, I'm on my own. No sweat, I can eat lunch by myself, and maybe hop down to the library.

Wait a mo, it's RAINING. It's POURING. It's getting decidedly BORING.

Ok, FINE. You had your way. I'm stuck at home. I can scrunge up something to eat for lunch.

Something like an Uncle Toby's bar and a pack of Ice Lemon tea. -_-!!!!!

Ok, the provision shop downstairs sells pau.

But at this time, all they have left are about... 8 pau. 8 miserable looking pau who've been looked over by the rest of the general public and are left languishing in their sauna prison.

I have no choice. Hunger compels me to free one of them.

In a last ditch attempt to save the day, I SMS the DF asking if he's free for dinner, so at least I have something to look forward to out of this wretched day.

2 hours later. No reply. I forget, he goes out with family on Sundays.

Unlike ME WHO'S BEEN DUMPED AT HOME WITH NOWHERE TO GO NOTHING TO EAT BUT ONE STUPID TAU SAR PAU AND NOTHING TO DO EXCEPT BLOG ABOUT HOW THIS DAY HAS ALL THE MARKINGS OF A TOTALLY MISERABLE ONE AND IT ALL STARTED WITH THE DAMN RAIN.

*Sigh*

This is so not the right time of the month for me.