Natural highs

Wore my stripey pink top today in celebration of Friday. It's been a long time since I've savoured F-R-I-D-A-Y (all those drunken nights don't count, they were stress-release nights). Finally feel like I've been released from everything - reports, management at work, bad health, losing friends etc. (not without some verbal diarrhoea to boss, but I don't really care about perceptions now). Riding on a high - cooking from people, just talking & planning about traveling itself, brilliant breezy weather with snippets of sun...

Don't need a crystal ball to know the weekend looks good already.

Bangkok madness

Hey Poh, waiting to hear from you after this.

A voice from the past

I could not tear myself away from the email. Unlike the other emails by recent lovers that you read again and again; this was an email to be read once intensely, then replied with equal intensity.

Yue, he said in the email. I could hear him murmur with gentleness and crisp, manly tones that only he could. Yue. He picked it up from hearing my best friends call me exactly by that. He knew it was a moniker that he would be the only man privileged to use at that time. Since then, I have tried letting others use it, but the intimacy of the way they said it never likened yours. Yours still sounded the best. We were so good together and even better apart. We were not ready to stop growing, despite promises to speak of vows forever. Since then, I never came close to speaking about forever and not for a couple of years.

They say there are cardinal rules when writing to an ex. Rules so strict, you would be more likely to suffocate in it than in a 14th century corset. The first love. The one boarded in transition. The one which love meant love. Even the one night stand that turned into something but never materialized into anything. Any kind of ex. Always present yourself happier than you were with them. Prove that you are better off without them. No weakness, they say. Why should he be able to gloat? But if I did write in exactly that way, then it would be a betrayal of all the pieces I had left with you about me at those moments. So I cannot. And I end up writing this to account for our years apart and could not resist signing off the way I did.

"Still in shanghai.

Life has been so hectic, sometimes nightmarish, sometimes dreamlike.
I still can't believe I'm living away from home like I talked about last time, in a moment buried in time.
Constantly straddling in between being child-like and adult. I never manage to fully cross that imaginary line. And I hope I never will (but it's never easy).
Maybe I'll stay here another few years, we'll see where everything leads.

How about you? how have you been?

Take care,
yue"


But what I am always trying to say to you is - did you remember? Parts of where these fragments are supposed to fit in somwhere in our past? Please say you do.

Words or rather the lack of writing them down when it counts

It's always when I don't have any writing materials on hand that descriptions and random sentences for stories float around in my mind. Like trying to smother a cough that only happens at the silence of that window of a break before the band plays their second song at a concert hall.

姐妹情深

Yes, we're married. Once we saw each other in wedding gowns we knew we were meant for each other.

Well, as fitting as the boob areas of gowns one-sized larger can be anyways.


More peeks at our impromptu marriage here.

Tread carefully*

*Also applies to TMI of illness

Despite being under caring cooking pots of the roomie, I have developed a frightful disposition on the 3rd day of my runs. After being deluded into not having runs anymore by useless antibiotics, we happily stuffed ourselves silly with tomyam soup mixed with sour assam. This morning, I found myself emptying all the contents of my stomach again. Not good, thus also making me extremely grumpy when a shitload of work is hanging precariously above on a balance above me.

Followed by a well-meaning (I know), that turned irritating msn conversation with someone.

Yes, I know if I'm sick I shouldn't be going to work.
Yes, I know I drink, but I'm not going to buy booze to a housewarming where there's a asian mom too (and where I can't drink any).
Yes, I know what you're going to say next (like I know what my parents are going to say). My stomach has turned into liquids but my brain is perfectly fine if you must know.

And if you're not sure that I'm being sarcastic, don't hesitate to wonder. I am.

Beijing Bicycle

Learning to ride a bike so that I can navigate through the Beijing crowds during the October National holidays. Very proud of myself for managing to do the curves around my estate on C's bike. Still fairly unstable going down the humps though. It will take a few more rounds before facing the perilous Shanghai streets/ traffic. This must be the hardest I've worked for a holiday - arms aching from gripping tightly at the handles and nursing bruises on my ankle.

Addendum: Texted parental units of my progress and got a early morning call to get a dosage of remote nagging. Turns out another motive of the call was to get a birthday greeting from me. They are turning into kids ;)

Jaunt in Tianjin

It's about as exciting as cleaning a fish tank. You can cover it in a day, including a quick taxi ride that will cost you about 30-40RMB around what Lonely Planet calls you can't miss it Five major lanes (五大道) with colonial styled buildings; remnants of eight western countries which were in China in the times around opium war.


Glimpses of Five major streets


Golden oldie


About as excited as this dog

Tianjin University is a sleepy, vintage looking place. T tells me it is a pretty good university. I'm not surprised, the environment is definitely conducive for studying. They are really good at attracting attention, though I wonder where the mannequin came from.


eyecatching!


school visiting

The remaining colonial reminders are disconnected with the new Tianjin, whereby like any part of China, has malls and condominiums sprouting at every corner. But it doesn't make this place any livable, as it's factories are constantly spewing dust. A giant-sized ah yi made to order is needed to put the spick and span back in this place. Even as it's being claimed to be one of the top five investing cities in China; it's hard to feel liveliness in this place with it's ever growing ageing population (3rd largest proportion in China). As T aptly put across,"I'm not sure if Tianjin is waking up, or just falling into deep slumber."

Nights of debauchery...All hail the Queen of Spades!

Beer festival. On a separate night gott groped by sleazy brit man. Result: Falling dead asleep on cabs and waking up on the couch way past afternoon. With unglamourously messed up hair from sleeping without drying hair. Enough. Well maybe not so much of 'enough' for beer festival with friends.



Beer fest @Kunshan

Despite countless yamseng-ing (Singapore-Malaysian toast) in our semi-drunken state on mostly cheap 天目湖 beer & Erdingers, we failed to attract any fellow countrymen. Or maybe they were overwhelmed by our extremely talkative mexican & colombian friends. Lesson learnt at beer fest: Always handy to have mexicans with colombians when near a fire, they can generate enough saliva to put it out.


To prove to ourselves that we can have fun and do absolutely silly things without alcohol, WL and I went to A's for less decadence mixed with potluck. Made simple salsa that proved yummy, but the cutting tomato into small bits drove me nuts.

All stuffed @ A's



Neglected. A's cat feeling left out from all the fun.


Caught in the act trying to sniff out the cheese in the bag. Attention seeker!


Us picking at our marbles, literally with this game and a few others. Which was fine, till 1am set in and A wanted us to play charades - how do you charade to 'german bartender' and 'suggested itinerary'? We managed 'fake gucci bag' and 'traffic light'. While guessing 'marijuana', A and I were shouting out drugs! cocaine! getting high! heroin! opium! Everything and all hard drugs, but. heh. Definitely must have one of these games nights again. In themes. So take out your pink wigs, your frilly shanghainese pjs and sense of humour (you'd be surprised how many people are sore losers); we'll be there.