Friday, February 24, 2006

The ways we move..

Today, I want to talk about modes of transportation.

I missed 4 buses in a row yesterday. See, I can either take 106 near my place, or walk to the interchange to take 7 to work. When I was nearing the 106 bus stop, 106 left. So I thought, better catch 7 if not I’ll be late for work. When I was on my way to the interchange, I saw 7 zoomed past me and I was caught at the traffic light junction. When I finally reached the interchange, a 7 was leaving. I ran for my life but it still left me (drowned in perspiration). And I had to wait for another 12 minutes before the next one came along. And another 106 would have left the previous bus stop as well.

When it did finally come along, I looked at my watch and gave the bus uncle a very annoyed look. And I was thinking, if only I have my own means of transport, then I wouldn’t have to go through all these. So, I’m determined to sign up for my basic theory some time soon and save enough money to get a car or something. But… along the way to work, I saw this car that crashed into a tree. And I start to have doubts again, especially since I have no direction sense and need a second or two to tell my left from right.

At work, my colleague told me there is a hello kitty airplane(http://evakitty.evaair.com/index.htm) filled with all kinds of hello kitty merchandise and even have hello kitties pasted on the airplane! And the in flight meals….you guessed it, hello kitty as well! It’s really very cute. Although I’m not a hello kitty fan, I would really love to be in that plane sometime. KAWAII ne! and speaking of planes, I once wanted to be a pilot (but I’m too short) and then an air stewardess (but I didn’t make the mark). So my adventure in the sky had to call quits until I found this job, which allowed me to travel occasionally. But that looks likely to end soon as we’re expecting a new china colleague.

Oh well, can only look forward to the blading session on Sunday! Feel the sea breeze on my face, feel the sun infuse vitamin D onto my skin, feel the (un)smoothness of each glide and count the number of calories burning, as I go “left, right, left, right, left, right….”

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Confessions.....

Tommy goes into a confessional box and says, "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. I have been with a loose woman."

The Priest says, "Is that you, Tommy?"

"Yes, Father, it is I."

"Who was the woman you were with?"

"I cannot tell you, for I do not wish to sully her reputation."

The priest asks, "Was it Brenda OMalley?"

No, Father."

"Was it Fiona MacDonald?"

"No, Father."

"Was it Ann Brown?"

"No, Father, I cannot tell you."

The priest says, "I admire your perseverance but you must atone foryour sins. Your penance will be five Our Fathers and four Hail Marys."

Tommy goes back to his pew and his buddy Sean slides over and asks,"What happened?"

Tommy replies, "I got five Our Fathers, four Hail Marys and three good leads"

Patience...

A man observed a woman in the grocery store with a three-year-old girl in her basket. As they passed the cookie section, the little girl asked for cookies and her mother told her no. The little girl immediately began to whine and fuss, and the mother said quietly, "Now Monica, we just have half of the aisles left to go through -- don't be upset. It won't be long."
Soon, they came to the candy aisle and the little girl began to shout for candy. When told she couldn't have any, she began to cry. The mother said softly, "There, there, Monica, don't cry -- only two more aisles to go and then we'll be checking out."

When they got to the checkout stand, the little girls immediately began to clamor for gum and burst into a terrible tantrum upon discovering there'd be no gum purchased. The mother patiently said, "Monica, we'll be through this checkout stand in five minutes and then you can go home and have a nice nap."

The man followed them out to the parking lot and stopped the woman to compliment her. "I couldn't help noticing how patient you were with little Monica," he began.

The mother sighed and replied, "Oh, no. I'm Monica -- my little girl's name is Tammy."

>>>> I hope this will not happen to me man. I think I’ll probably stuff something into her mouth to stop her from being a nuisance. Or buy a muzzle for her and put her on a leash and threaten to whip her if she makes so much noise.

I always know there is this violent streak in me. Keke

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Enjoy the honeymoon....

News from TOday:

"A study in London has found that the honeymoon period for newly weds, before the arrival of children, is the happiest time of married life. After that, the magic soon fades.

But romantics can take comfort that, on average, every successful marriage benefits from a strong honeymoon effect, lasting approximately a year. "

Only lasts for one year?!?! that's like so depressing!

Confessions of 1 unmarried woman

I was very much looking forward to Confessions of 300 unmarried men. Firstly, coz I haven’t watched a (good) play in a long time. Secondly, I’ve watched Confessions of 3 unmarried women some 2 years ago and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The men version is supposed to be the part 2 of the women. Lastly, it solves the problem of what to do on valentine’s day.
The play turned out to be okay. It’s funny but I got lost somewhere in the middle. This time, instead of a full plot like confessions women, it’s a string of short plays by 4 different playwrights and it gets really confusing when they end abruptly at one point and moves on to the next part. There’s even this kara-oke part where the 3 men take turns to lip-sync love songs. No doubt it is entertaining but lip-syncing love songs?? I guess I was expecting more.
The show opened with a teaser. “As we are about to start the show, please kindly switch off your mobile phones or turn it to vibrating mode as long as it does not affect the person sitting next to you.” something like that. Hurhur. Yah, that was the kind of humour the show had.

That aside, it does have funny anecdotes about why men chooses to remain single. Let me try to recall some of it…

1)Your dog is barking outside the door. Your wife is shouting outside the door. Who do you let in? The dog of course, at least the dog will shut up once you let it in.
2)My wife complained that there are too many electric gadgets in the kitchen that there’s no place for her to sit. So, I got her an electric chair.
3)The reason why I am unmarried is because, every morning I look into the mirror, I can’t even stand living with myself!

There were a lot more funnier ones but I can’t remember now.. It’s the kind of tickling humour. Laugh and forget.
So I asked mr. Goh what will be his reason for staying unmarried. Smart chap says none of those mentioned in the show applies.

The show did explore the topic about missing the “right” bus, but the analogy was that of a sushi conveyor belt. Disgusting thing they mentioned is, what happens when you pick a dish and it’s one that someone else has fingered. (I’m glad we didn’t have sushi for dinner that night)

So yep, a not-too-bad play for some vday entertainment I guess. Somehow, as the years move on, vday celebration is not that significant afterall. No candlelight dinner, no vday cards, no flowers for me this year and I’m not complaining. I read an article in Today and the writer (who worked as a florist) wrote that she had a customer who ordered two bouquets of flowers. One for his wife and one for his mistress. Another story is that of a girl overseas who ordered a box of chocolates online to be delivered to her bf here. When the delivery person reached the place, she saw that the table was set for two for a candlelight dinner. Yah, kinda sad.
So, what’s your valentine’s package? Hope it’s none of the above.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Not sure how i can post this video clip of the NYE's fireworks......... Posted by Picasa

National day fireworks

yeah, it was very smoky up there. Posted by Picasa

beautiful sunset

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Shooting fires!

we were the blurred figures just next to the flames! Posted by Picasa

smiley face at kelong made with sparklers

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fireworks from kelong

Posted by Picasa This is my favourite pic of the fireworks we released that night.

My love affair with fireworks display...

My love affair with fireworks had been amazing the past few months. Witnessing the national day fireworks lighting the sky from the four corners of Singapore on the balcony of Swissotel brought along a brand new experience of fireworks viewing. (To be exact, just 3 corners since we can’t see the displays at the back) Given the bad direction sense I have, it took me a while to figure out where the fireworks were coming from (yishun, tampines, marina). Then there was the Fireworks festival a few days after NDP.

And then I got the chance to light my own fireworks at the kelong during xmas. The fireworks powder is actually stored in this phallic looking “tube” with a long wooden stick to prop the “tube” upon shooting. We got the medium-sized fireworks which cost about S$10 per tube; all for that ten seconds of wows and oohs and ahs and oh my gods. The lighting up part is quite exciting, almost like lighting a bomb and then you’ll have to run off to safety after you lit it. We weren’t allowed to light the tubes when planes are flying by (the kelong is pretty near an airport). But can you imagine sitting by the window and seeing the sprouts of light and colour appear right before your eyes/reflected from the windows?? How cool is that. You may never ever get closer to fireworks than that.

But I was wrong, the New Year’s eve fireworks at the esplanade were even more bombastic. A full ten minute of fireworks display. They appear right before your eyes and draw you so much closer to them, as if twirling you into their vortex. Spell-bound. And then there was the CNY fireworks at esplanade too, for all the 15 days of cny. Singaporeans are really spoilt with the amount of fireworks over the past 2 months. Then again, I guess it’ll boost our tourism industry. (I was surrounded by Malaysians, Indians, Chinese and a few hongkong pp)

I don’t know when I first started to fall in love with fireworks display. The awe and fascination with something so beautiful but yet so short-lived (and expensive). You’d be kept in anticipation before the display begins and be surprised once in a while with the occasional outbursts. And you never know when the display will end but you’d wish it goes on forever. But I guess the best part of all is to watch it with someone you’d want to spend forever with.

I almost lost this love relationship with fireworks some time back; when I felt it’s such a pain to squeeze among thousands sticky and sweaty persons and I’m losing the effort to catch it. Plus, fireworks display got tired and there weren’t any for me to catch. It takes two to tango, really. To want to keep things together, to dance in sync. I just wish the music will not stop playing and we’ll still be able to catch fireworks display again next year.