Lazy summer days

All the living things in my house are dozing off and in a stumbling snooze since the humid summer air weaved its intoxicating arms around us.


concussed hamster

Even my plant was not spared. Needless to say it went into a coma and never woke up. Deadly summer this is turning out to be!


'sleepy' plant

Dragging myself out of bed everyday this week. Thankfully it's Friday tomorrow. Been drifting in and out of fitfull sleep and dreams. One about people at catch a glimpse of at work; one of an internal war where I was taught how to hold a gun, keep my emotions at bay at shoot with pinpoint accuracy with a purpose to kill someone who could could no longer remember themselves. When will I wake up from this slumber?

Four Weddings and a Funeral - Funeral Blues

This poem really spoke to me for some reason while watching the movie. So much sorrow, detest towards the finite and all things naturally beautiful and ordinarily constant. Unlike his lost love.

Funeral Blues

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He is Dead.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

-- W.H. Auden

More here

National Day

This year there's a website that features National Day babies

All the photos there are very nicely taken in b & w. There are also brief quotes on each photograph.

My favourite:

"On weekdays I will be a doctor, pilot or fireman. On weekends, I will be a baker or zookeeper."
~ Faris bin Azmi Nahar, Primary 1 student, Opera Estate Primary School

Scotch whiskey from where huh?

Was on msn with a buddy when this suddenly came out.

Dodo 1: Scotch whiskey is from where??? You know?

Dodo 2: errr scotland???

Dodo 2: Interesting question, I never really thought about it before
(Just like I had never thought about the difference between philosophy and religion before)

*goes off to google for 2 seconds* Lo and behold!!! I have the answer!!!

Dodo2: It is really from Scotland. Wuahahahaha...

Dodo 1: You really go and check out ah...

Dodo 2: I'm going to blog this...

Living alone with the lazy girl #27

Is it true that watermelons are just water and sugar? Making them very very very evil cos sugar makes you fat and the water just makes you bloated. Evil Evil Evil. And I just bought 2 mini-watermelons and 4 peaches. The key to eating watermelons with lotsa seeds is to swallow EVERYTHING. hahahahahahahah.....easy peasy.

...

So how does the lazy girl know it's time to change the bedsheets?
Ans: When she wakes up in the morning, stares in the mirror and finds pimples!!! AARRRGGHHH!!!!

So off I went with a mission to get new bedsheets from IKEA. Thankfully I managed to get classy vanilla coloured ones with complimentary khaki pillowcases. And I found these...


Left-right or right-left?

They're supposed to fit both feet. But after trying them on it felt WRONG. There is definitely a lefty and a righty. No two sides of a uni-shape slipper is alike. wuahahahha....

Unfaithful but back on track

Guilt is not a good accessory to a spiffy haircut

As you have guessed by now.

I have been unfaithful.

I promised to maintain my long distance relationship with my hairdresser but the temptation to be heat-free and locks-free was too hard to resist. But I repent!!! Will crawl back to my hairdresser in Singapore if I ever want to dye my hair. I'll only get haircuts here, it's only a small transgression, err...right?

...

Went to one of the larger chains in Shanghai 'Tiffany' for a haircut. Trust me, the trip was definitely less than breakfast at Tiffany's. My colleague and I got the 'eye' - fast swoosh from top to bottom to top again and asked by a tiny impertinent shampoo/ massage girl if we were here to get our hair cut. I acquiesed, in desperation to get some respite from the Shanghai summer. The usual happened, the washing hair part was fairly pleasant (if they screw this up, they deserve to be eaten up by ants). Then chatterbox-sales talk hell began. It started innocently enough, asking about what I'm doing here blah blah blah...then she started to say I should get my hair permed or dyed or both! No way! It was such a blatant sales pitch I was determined not to get anything else done other than a good-ole haircut. After she realised I was not budging, she came out with the big-guns, hairdresser from hoityville. While sharing with her my concern towards having too many colours in my hair she replied gratingly "I don't care how many colours you have in your hair!! I just want to tell you there's only a certain limit which I can make it look poofy since you want short hair!!" Apparently, poofy is the way to go if you want to have really short hair in China. Pissed off, but still desperate for cool hair on my neck, I bit my tongue, tucked my tail in between my legs and followed her to the 'hot seat'. At least events turned for the better, she suddenly decided to be rather pleasant and confessed I was totally intimidated by the whole consultation-cum-sales talk earlier. She mentioned that most customers that come here for a haircut want everything to be super-duper efficient. Secretly, my alterego was appalled. Although I didn't like my hairdressers talking to me, but at least I like to not feel so much like a customer or someone who at the end will be digging out cash from her wallet. Anyway, we had a rather entertaining and pleasant conversation after all and she urged me to look for her again. As she turned to serve her next customer, she said she was No. 15 and I cringed inwardly again. Immediately, I asked for her name, surprised registered briefly on her face (or so I hope it did so that she wasn't so jaded that she became No. 15), and gave me her nick name "xiao"-something (I'm bad at remembering names ok!!!!!! So give me a bloody break!!!) At least, she's not a number to me.

Thus ends my tale about my virgin haircut.

...


Focus on the background

For my darling Yao

你永远是我的挚友。

怀念你的眼睛
怀念我们在你家徘徊，谈心的日子
怀念你的理智
怀念彼此扶持
怀念和你吃早餐无忧无虑的感觉

总之，怀念你的一切。

祝你永远开心

"This is what i don't understand...we've never been richer or more comfortable or more taken care of; yet is it the fact that we want more that is making us so unhappy? Do you think it's easier to say and act like you are in depression than to actually face your problems?"

- kitty in MSN conversation with friend

uh-oh...

I just spilled water on my aircon control.

Hot weather + one spoilt aircon control = One girl praying hard that the temperature today will not be disgustingly warm till her landlord comes by tomorrow

All about bottle caps

Many many caps

From Qoo to Suntory, the world of alternative collections (Or maybe I just didn't know about it :P )

I forgot how nasty a territorial hamster smells. They give out odour like dead fish. EUUUKS!

...

I'm watching two episodes of 'NUMB3RS' for the third time. The past two times I have been too distracted either playing with my webcam or working. Though TV is a distraction I have always taken pride in being able to multi-task e.g. watching four shows at one sitting and following ALL story lines *smug grin* Therefore watching it a third time is an INSULT to my multi-tasking prowess!!! *poses with hands on hips and chest sticking out* I will not let it happen again!!!

...

Freaking out over all the hair that is falling out. I don't know whether to attribute it to the Biolyn that is working hard to push new, fresh, hair out or that even fairly decent China hair salons use cheapo, crappy hair dye. Next time, I'm going back to jet black. Will be praying very hard tonight for the little hair souls of the fallen and pray even harder for their ressurection (mostly for my own sanity).

My job has abit to do with Luscher his theory on colours and the subconscious mind.

Try it!

Here's my results, pretty accurate.

1. DESIRED OBJECTIVES OR BEHAVIOR DICTATED BY DESIRED OBJECTIVES
Seeks success, stimulation and a life full of experience. Wants to develop freely and to shake off the shackles of self-doubt, to win and to live intensely. Likes contacts with others and is enthusiastic by nature. Receptive to anything new, modern or intriguing; has many interests and wants to expand her fields of activity. Optimistic about the future.

2. THE EXISTING SITUATION OR BEHAVIOR APPROPRIATE TO THE EXISTING SITUATION
Working to create for herself a firm foundation on which to erect a secure, comfortable and problem-free future, in which she will be granted respect and recognition.

3. CHARACTERISTICS UNDER RESTRAINT OR BEHAVIOR INAPPROPRIATE TO THE EXISTING SITUATION
Willing to participate and to allow himself to become involved, but tries to fend off conflict and disturbance in order to reduce tension.

Egocentric and therefore quick to take offense, leaving her rather isolated in her attachments.

4. REJECTED OR SUPPRESSED CHARACTERISTICS OR ANXIETY-LADEN CHARACTERISTICS
Stress arising from intensity. Wishes to be independent, unhampered and free from any limitation or restriction, other than those which he imposes on himself by his own choice and decision. Desire to control one`s own destiny.

5. THE ACTUAL PROBLEM OR BEHAVIOR RESULTING FROM STRESS
Fights against restriction or limitation, and insists on developing freely as a result of his own efforts.

Feels restricted and prevented from progressing; seeking a solution which will remove these limitations.

Seeds

I haven't eaten watermelons with watermelon seeds for the longest time. In Singapore my watermelons come nicely cut and seedless, I think (hope, hope, hope) they were grown naturally with some brilliant invention such that they come seedless. Though my mom has always said the food now is more or less modified because most people think of watermelon seeds as an inconvenience.


Spitt-ptui

Spitting out the watermelon seeds was a troublesome act, making sure I do not bite into them, tasting slightly bitter and with the smaller slivers sliding around my mouth, it made the act of spitting it out all the more challenging.

...

Having completed my first round of mandarin in-depth interviews, many people spoke to me about their hopes, fears, goals, dreams, expectations from others, fulfillment, happiness. All seeds in their lives we all find difficult to articulate normally. We are subconsciously hiding behind our activities, careers, friends and family. Initially I was shocked and uncomfortable at having a stranger pour out all their feelings, from the normal day irritations to their lofty, imaginative dreams. I felt like an imposter trying to enter their lives, like an stranger that walks into a couple making out on a isolated park bench. Strangely towards the end of the interviews, it felt humbling to be given a glimpse of their individual personalities. Not people, but individuals.

...

Just like watermelon seeds, people are nifty shape shifters, always changing what they say to blend into what they think we want to hear or what they want us to hear. It just takes more time and energy to listen to what they have to say. After that, you get the magic spark (for the more rational it's called a 'connection'), people start opening up and most of us can then have a real conversation.

i & j - handwriting lessons

Apparently due to the little mistaken identity of handwriting that has caused me to be internet-less for the past 3-4 weeks. The cable guy who left me with a password had a 'i' that had a little tail, which was supposed to be a 'j' but I still obstinately decided it was an 'i'. Reason being a 'j' couldn't look so small and the little tail in the 'i' was just too sharp to be a proper 'j'. Tails of proper 'j's are supposed to be round, curved and always beckoning a fish to hook itself onto it.

So that all explains why I have been internet-less and have not been updating my blog. The grimy but nice repairman also mentioned that my phone line wasn't working. So that made me feel much better. But that didn't remove the lingering silly feeling I still feel now for mistaking a cleverly disguised 'i' for a 'j'.