Miscellaneous Belongings

I’ve finally received my cargo from Melbourne. The few items that I really missed amongst the books, clothes, photos and CDs, were in fact my so-called ‘spiritual’ items such as my magical chest with a barn owl feather quill that CE gave me, my tarot cards, my crystal stones and some candles. I hold such nonsense close to my heart. On top of that, I felt really relieved to see my books. I swear, next time I die, please bury me with books. No, wait. I don’t want to be buried. Ok, cremate me with a few books and photos then throw all the ashes towards the Twelve Apostles in Victoria. I don’t give a hoot about my clothes, bags and shoes.

After sorting about half of the cargo, I started to sort out my photos and reorganized the pictures according to events occurring from 1999 to whenever-we-started-using-digital-cameras. So many memories: both good and bad. Some are better left forgotten as well. I flipped through all the photos of me with Hoonie, Zon, Grace and the beagle I used to own called Whisky. We all looked so different almost 5 years ago and having looked through pictures of myself, it kind of made me miss my long hair. Contemplating of growing my hair medium long again. Haha. Sigh, how I wished I was able to keep Whisky and eventually bring him back to Singapore.

I’m thinking of bringing some pictures to the office one day to scan and digitize them. Hehe. In the meantime, I should try to make a trip down to Ikea one day to get myself a bookshelf, drawers and boxes. Everything is in a total mess now! Urgh.

###

Had dinner with Sheren and MH last night and then we proceeded to Skin Bar at Red Dot Museum with Charlotte, Qiuling and Jun. We ended up playing the game Brad got me and Grace playing last week - name all the exs, flings, dates and one night stands that you've had starting from A to Z. Wahahaha! I must say, this game really gets your brain going but then you realize that there are so many people who cross your life but never leave any impression at all (minus those intense, serious and passionate romances) and you don't even remember their names now. Sad but true!

All was well till I opened my packet of ciggies and realized I only had about 5 sticks left. I started to panic because I had just bought that pack in the morning! This means that throughout the whole day, I had smoked 15 ciggies. Now that's a lot, considering it's a weekday and I didn't go clubbing or anything along that line. A packet will normally last me 1-2 days and sometimes maybe even 3. And now it doesn't last me a day. =( Something is terribly wrong. I deduced that I must be extremely stressed at work. I think that's why. My colleague and I have been taking more smoke breaks than usual and during each smoke break, we smoke 2 ciggies. I ended up getting a bad lashing from Sheren. Even the other smoker there, Char, doesn't smoke that much. What a fuck up! I definitely need to cut down, it's actually freaking me out because it never used to be like this. Majorly fucked up.

Saturday Night @ Graze, Paradise Now & Elation

Saturday night was a night out with the 'girl girls', comprising of Moo (Grace), Sheren, MH, Gavin, Brad, Ying and Jede. I've finally stepped into Rochester Park after hearing so many people raving about the place. I must admit it really is a nice place to chill out and talk. I even introduced my boss and I think he's going there with some clients tonight. Hehe.

Here are some pics taken at Graze:

(Note: I like to take pics without the flash, therefore the dark and grainy quality of the pics. Too bad for those who like sharp pics. Ha!)

My Moo

Sheren & MH


Jede, Grace & I


Grumpy Tan (she lives up to her name)

Stayed at Graze till 1++ and then the very impromptu us (namely, yours truly) decided to go to Happy. I must say Brad rather enjoyed herself because she skipped work the next day! Hahaha.

###

Finally managed to catch Paradise Now tonight (sorry Jerry, X-Men was sold out so had to settle for this film). I enjoyed the whole movie, although a bit clueless about certain political figures, but nevertheless I did manage to understand and grasp the underlying political turbulence between the Israelites and the Palestinians. Jerry, you should catch it soon.

###

I'm finally feeling a certain sense of elation I haven't felt for a rather long time. Moo, Libbie and so many other people have been telling me to open myself up, otherwise I'll not be able to feel the happiness that certain risks bring. It was only till tonight did I manage to let myself be more receptive towards her and also to reciprocate that same tenderness without any barriers. Previously it was an issue of me being barred up, of me taking a risk, of me getting hurt, of me not wanting to give, of me, me and me....

Now the tide has turned and I'm beginning to warm up to her. Though I do have my worries, I'm now starting to realize that she does make me happy...because I want to be.

Sex and Money

Let's talk about sex.

No. That's boring and overrated. Sex may still be considered a taboo in certain societies, normally depending on what aspect or how sex is being discussed, but what I DO find is a taboo that no one, straight or gay, speaks about is: Money, and how much do you earn?

Try raising that over coffee and watch them squirm in their seats. I actually don't mind revealing how much I earn. I guess the real taboo is associated with revealing your monthly salary to your colleagues who are competitive in nature and start questioning you and themselves - am I not worthy enough even when I'm slogging my ass away? Am I not good enough? Is he/she going to climb over my head? How can I outdo her/him? How come I'm not being paid the same amount as him/her when I'm doing twice as much?

So who said dark, sexual fantasies or fetishes were something that one should not speak about? Once money comes into one of the topics of discussion, you'll be able to detect at least one or two of them changing the subject almost rather instantly.

I'm not afraid of revealing to people that I've practically been through my whole life with almost no savings at all. I'm very bad with money. Come payday and I get worried about my budget. Urgh.

People unashamedly discriminate against other people's private fetishes and sexual orientation. Get them to talk about their pay, then they'll know how it feels like to be put in an awkward position. But don't use the, "Don't mind me asking, but how much do you get paid per month?" It'll backfire.

A Moment's Distraction

I was about to write something when I got totally distracted by my own greediness. I just had dinner and went searching the fridge for more food, came back, sat myself in front of the computer and forgotten what I had wanted to write. Damn, I had something interesting to write about.

I hate the feeling of trying to recollect something you've forgotten about.

Optimistic Pessimist or Pessimistic Optimist?

During work, I thought of optimism. I thought of it because I knew I had been a terrible pessimist in the past which also led me to my downfall. It is only natural for one who had gone through a many bad incidents to be a pessimist, but ultimately what makes one happy, I believe, is optimism; the belief that better things have yet to come.

Yet how does one remain optimistic when all one has seen is tragedy played out in front of one’s eyes? Having read Voltaire’s Candide, it made me realize that tragedy is inevitable. By embracing the needlessness of bloodshed and tears and the suffering of humanity, one’s awareness will then be raised to a level where one will dispel the types of rigid thinking and abuses of power that serve to aggravate human misery. Nonetheless, optimism serves as a dangerous “temptation” that far from making life more pleasant, it tends to lead us to confusion, despair and resignation. It snuffs out that glimmer of hope we had carried before.

I’ve learnt to remain optimistic over the past few months only because it makes me happy. Ironically speaking, I’m an optimistic pessimist (if there ever is such a term). Wait, or is it the other way round? Hmm. I don’t deny I have my terribly cynical side of me, but I don’t let that bit eat my soul up till the extent where no expectations or hope remain in me. I guess the only real reason I’m optimistic compared to some other people is because by remaining so, it makes me happier for the day. Temporal as it may seem, I derive a certain sense of fulfillment from channeling my negative energy to a more positive one. Mental wise, I think I’m progressing. Mood wise, I think I’m sliding.

1st Encounter with the Supernatural and an Open Relationship

I have this dreaded feeling that I may now be involved in an “open relationship”, despite how I never could understand that term, or how the parties involved in an open relationship behave. To me, I draw a fine line between a fling and a relationship so it is rather paradoxical how I, a conservative person (ha!) would get myself involved in such a position I’ve been so wanting to avoid.

In a haste to avoid emotional linkages with everyone, I’m now suffering from slight emotional derangement. Now, if one was sensible enough, one would have turned ones back and continued walking. Truth is I’m recklessly sensible (though Zon might prefer ‘pleasurable sensibility’ as a term to use instead). I’m well aware of what all this will entail eventually, yet at the same time I’m allowing myself to drop down into this hole. I’m masochistic? Yes, I sure as hell agree. Sigh, such trouble I get myself into.

Yet she gives me such hedonic thrill.

###

Ok, I’m changing the subject now. Let me write down my first supernatural encounter of my life at the age of 24. My office building, Fuji Xerox Towers, is well known for being haunted due to its so-called ‘strategic location’. My office is on the 10^th floor, so my colleague, William, and I will always have to go down to the lobby to smoke during office hours. We’ll usually smoke at the fire emergency staircase on the 10^th floor when it’s after office hours because we can’t be fucked going down for the umpteenth time in a day.

The staircase is known to be haunted as William had experienced an encounter there, a rather freaky one in fact. But we still wanted to go there because we were told a monk had come to ‘cleanse’ our building and the ‘guests’ have been moved down and were told to reside permanently at Coffee Bean (!).

So it was like any other day when we were dying for a smoke at the end of the working day at the staircase, again. This time round, the fluorescent light on our level was malfunctioning and was flickering just like how it does in classic horror movies. We were both a bit worried and I could tell he was not the normal hyper person he was. Halfway through our cigarettes, I started to brush my left shoulder and jumped towards my colleague. Reason being, I had felt someone tap my left shoulder. I initially thought something fell from the ceiling, perhaps water droplets or insects, but there was nothing on my shoulder or on the floor after brushing it tons of times. Then I realized it didn’t feel like something had dropped on my shoulder, it did in fact feel like someone had tapped me.

We freaked out.

The next morning I was relating my encounter to a few of my colleagues and we brought another colleague in there, not to smoke but to take a look at how that dodgy place looks like and also being the silly us, to reenact what happened. Upon stepping out of the fire emergency door, my other colleague told me, “I’m not meaning to scare you, but I was rushing you guys out because I saw a white figure standing next to Karen at the exact same spot she was standing yesterday.” Damn. Now he tells me.

We still ended up going there to smoke again this morning. Hahaha.

You go to my head and you linger like a haunting refrain
And I find you spinning 'round in my brain
Like the bubbles in a glass of champagne
You go to my head like a sip of sparkling Burgundy brew
And I find the very mention of you
Like the kicker in a julep or two
The thrill of the thought that you might give a thought to my plea
Cast a spell over me
Still I say to myself get a hold of yourself
Can't you see that it never can be

You go to my head with a smile that makes my temperature rise
Like a summer with a thousand Julys
You intoxicate my soul with your eyes
Though I'm certain that this heart of mine
Hasn't a ghost of a chance in this crazy romance
You go to my head
You go to my head

Laughter is Good Medicine

My whole afternoon was a series of laughter, food and laughter again, thanks to my colleague, William.

We decided to head somewhere far to have lunch because our boss isn’t around this week and so we ended up at Tiong Bahru Market. Ordered 16 pieces of chee kueh (which was very oily), CKT, sugar cane juice and then we proceeded to buy egg tarts and char siew pao for tea.

What made us laugh the whole afternoon was a mistake that my colleague made. He started pointing at the curry puffs and asking the uncle if they were char siew paos. We couldn’t contain our laughter and continued giggling and laughing like silly women all the way back to the office.

As a result, he has now moved his laptop and cameras to another department’s desk, claiming that he no longer belongs to ATO (Asia Technical Team) but ISO (International Sales Office) and sulking at the same time. Wahahahaha!

So now, char siew paos = curry puffs.

I think I laugh a bit too loudly for my own good. Hmm. People start laughing when they look at me laughing. Kekeke. Plus I’m so tickled by laughter now anything will make me laugh.

Geez, now he's acting dramatic and told me to listen to some song that describes his feelings now. Wahahahaha.

A Voice From Melbourne...

I received a call from my dad in Melbourne. Although overjoyed upon hearing his voice, I felt terribly disheartened when I heard that he has given up his camera business and moved in with my relatives. This step, we both know in our hearts, is a point where he has reached a dead end. So when I heard the news he related to me, I felt terribly helpless. I had a sudden urge to fly over just to see him, to be there, although there’s nothing I can do.

At this moment, I’m financially incapable of supporting two separated parents, whom obviously do not want to live in the same country in the near future, who both lament how financially tight they are. So tell me, how does one go about in such a sticky situation?

Not a single call from any family member except my dad is able to render me tearing at work. Well, maybe except one person, but this time round this helplessness is eating into me. He’s 62, jobless and having problems applying for welfare.

Maybe I should have stayed on in Melbourne, at least for a few more years. Yet I myself have also reached a point of no return. Going back is totally out of the question for now since I’ve established this lifestyle of mine here. So the question remains: am I willing to give up what I’m trying to establish here and go back somewhere where I see no opportunity and comfort at work? Answer is “No”. Guess the only way would be to send him some money for the time being till he works something out over there. A large contributing factor to my decision on working is also due to the fact that I felt guilty and uncomfortable about spending anymore of his money.

It’s ironic how I hardly lived with him over the past 6 years and the strain it could have put on our relationship, has at the same time morphed into a kind of moral support we gave each other. The support was always present, though we spent a large amount of time being physically apart.

I’m now going to take a long drag from my ciggie and mentally fuck myself for my incapableness because I am now going through the turmoil I had been going through for the past years. It never ends.

Beautiful Bores

Some things are definitely better left unsaid. Maybe I told her, her, her and her, words that I should have never told anyone but to just keep it to myself. Sometimes being too honest about one's feelings or emotions at the spur of the moment may lead to dire consequences.

Sigh. Such beautiful bores. Perhaps I've finally learnt to detach myself. Or maybe not...hmm.

###

Grace decided to come out with me to Red Club. I don't think I would want to step into that place again. I have a very bad feeling about something, that something bad's going to happen to me and someone who is close to me (the someone whom I know not). I had this strange feeling once I stepped into that place last night, an uneasy and dark one. I can't put a finger to it. Thank god it didn't last for too long. I'm now on the lookout for signs. Haha.

I've slept the whole Saturday away and I intend to do the same for Sunday. Sleeping has never felt so good in a long time.

Fatigue

I can't seem to grasp the underlying factor to why certain people like to appear and disappear in my life over and over again, basically pulling ninja stunts that leave me bleeding from the heart all over again.

She took me by surprise by asking if I was over her yet. Took a lot of persuasion from her part to get me into answering that question. The reason for her asking was because she said she thinks she's ready to be friends again. Yet why must everything be followed according to her flow of emotions, desires and impulses?

I concluded the whole conversation by telling her to just remain indifferent as how she was before and as how I've been. Her nonchalant attitude from the past two months has agitated me to move onwards a little, but her recent appearance has stopped me on my tracks, just like how I did so (literally) when I saw her outside The Cathay last Friday. I wish never to bump into her again.

Apologies are futile, yes. I do agree with her on that. Apologies are not what I want and she does not owe me anything. But to say that it hasn't been easy for her is something I find hard to believe, just as how she finds it hard to believe I've not moved on. She simply lacked the courage for so many things.

Friends? No.
Foes? No.
Strangers? Yes, might as well.

She might think that I'm being petty or perhaps vindictive; whatever she chooses to believe in, I believe this choice I made today is for the better for this weak heart of mine.

Ok, I'm going to ramble about something else. I realize I have a pattern that occurs and destructs my lifestyle when I'm troubled and getting overly anxious over something (not someone). I'm back to the first 3 weeks when I touched down in Singapore in March - refusal to leave the office even when there's nothing to do, deliberately delaying my productivity rate so I can stay back after 530pm when it's less noisy and I can write better, intentionally destroying my physical and mental health and lifestyle I managed to achieve over the past month and suffering from seemingly incurable gastro and psychophysiological insomnia (thanks to Pam for this bombastic word! I've learnt a new psychological term).

I really do think I'm self-destructive. Such a flaw is so difficult to get rid of. I am indulging in it, for whatever reason, I know not. I had this nagging thought this morning whilst walking to work: I really wish I do fall sick so I can rest. Haha. Because if I don't rest that way, I won't rest at all. The fatigue I'm feeling is indescribable; I've past the point of feeling tired, the point of recuperating in fact.

Damn! That means I've lost the 1.1kg I tried so hard to put on recently! *grumbles*

Mother's Day 2006

My mother is someone who's definitely not shy at all to request certain things from her children, for example, a dinner on me for Mother's Day. Ah well, it's about time I splurge on her too. Problem is, we chose the wrong restaurant.

Thanks to Jerry's recommendation, I decided to try out this new Japanese joint at Marina Square called Azabu Sabo. Turns out this place specializes more in desserts than main courses.















My brother's Omelette and Crab Meat in Soup set.

















My mom's Sukiyaki set.














And my grilled salmon set, in which the salmon was extremely fishy and smelly. Hated it, so I ended up concentrating on my pork belly rice. Mmmm.

















We then had dessert, which was actually not too bad!





















My brother got rather bored after helping my mom finish her mango with ice-cream dessert, so he started playing with the ice shavings and created this:












I bought my mom a voucher for a manicure and pedicure session at Good Earth Spa and I got a "scolding" in return. She went on and on for almost 20 minutes nagging at me and telling me how I shouldn't waste that amount of money just for her, etc. Then I told her, "Since you're not going to spend that amount of money on yourself, so just let me do it instead!" She then replied, "I'd rather you buy 1kg of macadamia nuts or a carton of mangoes for me to eat." Yeah right. She was smiling from ear to ear when she saw the voucher. Tsk. Mothers.

This woman is going to self-destruct...

Self-destructive mode: switched on.

Thursday night:
Dinner with Jerry and we went to watch L'Enfants, the movie that is equivalent to using a frozen lamb chop and knocking me out with. We didn't particularly enjoy it. Just a movie of a couple whose lifestyle is seemingly like any other person along Flinders St in Melbourne. An educating movie on teen pregnancy, living off the dough and never showering. What a waste of time and money. And on top of that, my eyes were red and itchy.

We then met Ganesh and headed down to The Butter Factory, which I think was sucky. Never going back again. I really wonder why some people are raving about the place. I think we (or rather Ganesh) tried to make the best out of it and stayed till almost 4am before we left for supper at Maccers and only managed to get home when the birds were about to wake up.

Friday night:
Headed down to Red Club after dinner with Libbie. Urgh, my flu was killing me. I was in such a self-destructive mode I refused to stop smoking. But it made things worse, because everytime I exhaled the smoke, my nose will start to itch terribly, causing me to sneeze and sneeze and sneeze and....sneeze. Danced around, did some silly stuff, then we went for supper. Libbie, being so anti-social, decided to leave at 1plus, leaving me stuck with people whom I wasn't even close to! Nevertheless, despite the flu, I decided to have some fun since I was already out and the crazy cows said, "Let's go for karaoke after supper!" Hahaha. So we ended up at karaoke at bloody 4am and got home when the birds were already awake.

All I can say now is I'm dying from dehydration, a dry and peeling nose and a body that's not doing what I'm telling it to. Once I sit or lie down, I can't move. I'm almost dead. Two nights of itchiness from the eyes and the nose. Urgh.

I've found a Virgo who's bitchier than Ganesh.

Legally Blonde

Ching Ee told me she wants to get this for my I-DOG (aka Mashi Jr.) because she thinks it has been rather 'cold' in Singapore lately:












































I told her it's a waste of money:

K: ..... waste money.
CE: The things they do to make money out of stupid people like me.
K: Stupid people should be marooned by a boat and dumped on an island.
CE: =(
K: Stupid people should be given stupid identity cards to identifiy themselves.
CE: But stupid people sayang you.
K: ..............

So silly, but sweet. Wonder what's with her "Legally Blonde" fascination. Even Nat's complaining about it.

A Time to Rend and A Time to Ramble

I ruse the day that I ever met you,
And deeply regret you getting close to me.
I cannot wait to deeply neglect you,
Deeply forget you, jesus believe me
You promised me poems.

You might have been my reason for livin’
I gave up on givin’, gave up everything.
We were a right pair of believers
A couple of dreamers,
So how come this ending?
You promised me poems

I’m feeling drained, drained from work, lack of sleep and the inability to fall asleep as soon as I want. The reappearance of R. contributes to my lack of energy too. She told me last night that she had wanted to text me because she had the intention of visiting my mom. I then told her she doesn’t need to because I told my mom all that had happened. It is better this way, because I don’t think my mom has a good impression of her anymore. She thinks I deserve better.

She then asked when dinner was, as I had wanted to treat her dinner since a month ago. I was taken aback as it somehow seemed that she didn’t want to have dinner because she didn’t reschedule. Now I’m the one who doesn’t want to have dinner anymore; maybe one or two years later, but definitely not now.

She then asked the ultimate question she seems to love asking, “Are you seeing anyone now?” which is also the question that pisses me off immensely. I had the urge to tell her, “No, because you don’t think I’m good enough and now I really think I’m not good enough, so no one will want to be with someone who is not good enough.” But then that wouldn’t be true. Truth is I’m not interested now.

I read somewhere that destruction is creative in its own sense. To destroy is also a way of creating something new; not following trends and conforming to society’s “laws” is in some sense a form of “destruction”. However, only by destroying conventions do you create new innovations and thought. Take for example the hippies; a certain group of people who lead their life like a tribe, renouncing corporate influence, consumerism, the Vietnam War and with criticising Western middle class values. They “destroyed” the values imposed on them by their culture and government, and as a result, created what we now know as the hippie movement.

I’ve been peeling some skin off my middle finger, intentionally wanting it to tear and bleed. In destroying, I’ve created a bleeding finger now. Ok, I don’t know what I’m rambling about, just something I had read. The stress is getting to me.

Libbie sent me a forwarded mail. You’re supposed to match your date of birth with the phrases given. My concluding phrase was: I choked on a ninja because I was high. -_-

I Hate Sundays...I Do

I'm terribly exhausted. Maybe I should have stayed in last night instead of going out to meet Sheren and her friend, Krysten for dinner. Libbie said she was at the Esplanade, so I said, "Ok, let's meet up since you know Krysten as well." Urgh, huge mistake on my part. Got 'bullied' by Libbie to finish up my cocktail in huge gulps followed by 3 shots of some cough-syrup tasting shooter. That's it. Not going to meet her when there's alcohol around.

I'm exhausted not because of the alcohol, but because on top of suffering from slight insomnia, I wake up in the middle of the night in pain due to my stomach cramps. That will take up another 2 hours of my time trying to fall asleep, so all in all, I've only been sleeping 6 hours per night without recuperating from my weekday exhaustion. It's making me feel so grouchy that I just want to hibernate and disappear from all means of communication - no Internet, no mobile phones, nothing. Just me and my iPod. Yet here I am, jamming away on the keyboard, asking a friend of mine, "What's with women, 釀豆腐, 板麵 and fruits?" Think I've asked that to many people last week, except my colleagues of course; they'll get offended.

I've finally got a wishlist of my own:

1. A new watch - I don't want the leather strap on my current watch to disintegrate from daily use, so I've decided to get myself another watch.
2. Nintendo Gameboy DS Lite.
3. A Holga lomo camera.
4. A 15" Mac Powerbook. I'll probably settle for less eventually.
5. A good pair of speakers for the computer.
6. Another pair of Converse.
7. Drawers and a bookshelf.

...more to come.

And now, for the boring bit:

I might have been lying to myself since the last sms I recieved on April 12th, since the day she cancelled dinner. All my resistance has helped in building a crumbling wall around me. The more distracting my life is now, the more I turn to face what reality is, both around and within me. I think the final barrier I have to cross will be Forgiveness. I took a walk on the path with Anger, and he seemed pretty eager to leave. Then came along Disappointment, who held my hand and strolled along with me all this while. I've embraced Acceptance and now I'm facing Forgiveness.

Hmmm. I was only aware of a bruise on my arm last night. I remembered being elbowed by some fella who was jumping real vigorously in Zouk that night. Geez. It really hurts. Urgh.

Last but not least, I hate Sundays. I really do. Fucking hate them. #$%#%#$^%^#^#%$^%^%$.

*stab*

Worker's Party Rally & Oakenfold

I was feeling absolutely exhausted at work that I went for the Worker's Party rally with my padawan after work and headed down to Zouk to look for my moo. I'm amazed by my ability to withstand the noise, heat and crowd when my eyes were half-closed at both places. I must say, I've never seen such a crowd at a political rally before. Well, only in pictures, but this one at Serangoon was MASSIVE. Too bad I didn't have a camera on me to capture the historical moment. Oh, and I realized I had never seen so many black-haired heads gathered together before. Hehe.

Being at Zouk last night reminded me of why I didn't enjoy Oakenfold's gig in Melbourne. I think he was only spinning for about 2 hours or so. Oh, and what's with "Sweet Dreams" and "Ooh-La-La"? Ah well, I've learnt to make the best out of things now so I would say it was still alright. Anyway, music kinda sucked but company was great. Love my moo. She makes me happy.

We were bitching about how the girls were turning us off and the men, urgh, don't even talk about it. There was this fat guy who kept telling me, "Tell me who you want. I'll get them for you." Then Grace told him, "We want girls." Then he kept asking me if I wanted her, her or her. So I had to keep telling him that I didn't want anyone! Was getting a tad bit annoyed. But we DID see a very cute and pretty straight girl, one of Jessy's friend. Then I saw Peenut hitting on her. *cringe*

Grace and I started to get a bit bored, so we decided to destroy the fibre optic lights that they leave dangling from the ceiling. Pulled one strand down and tied knots in them. Was destroyed completely and I heard one strand isn't cheap. Haha. It's in our nature to be destructive at times. Because we were still bored during that short period of time, the 3 of us started playing Word Association. Lol.

I'm suffering from the Humming Ear Syndrome now and someone is screaming into their microphone somewhere, attempting to sing. I've had enough of noise pollution.

The Zipper

Take a look at your jeans, jacket, bags or any other item that has a zip on it. I bet majority of the zips will have the initials YKK imprinted on them. I've been wondering who YKK was ever since my secondary school days, because it was only then did I realise that most of my zips were YKK zips.

Now with the power of the Internet and time on hand, I did a search on YKK. I had never suspected that YKK was actually an original company called San-S Shokai from downtown Tokyo in 1934. Tadao Yoshida determined the most beneficial way to prosper would be to manufacture items of value to which he could add worth. He chose to produce a simple, yet high potential item that had fascinated him for years: the zipper.

They now have 122 affiliated companies in 70 countries, making 212 million yen solely on fasteners like zippers; those small and insignificant things that have become part of our life that we often overlook. Well, of course the YKK Group does other things as well, such as architectural products, machinery and engineering, R&D and other developments, in which all these were expanded from a single zipper manufacturing company.

I've always wondered how the zipper works, actually I ONLY wonder about it when my zipper spoils, because in order to troubleshoot something, you need to know how it works first. I performed a search on Wikipedia and I still don't really know how the zipper works. It's something like this:





















The slider meshes the interlocking teeth together or seperately, depending on the direction of travel. That's how a zipper works, in a nutshell. But I STILL don't know how it REALLY works. I want to put the zipper under a microscope.

What's so fascinating about the zipper you ask? It has made our life so much simpler and convenient. We don't need to know how to tie knots anymore. It's an evolution of useful things. And why am I writing about zippers at work? Because I was zipping up my jacket and did not find the brand YKK there. I found 'Nikon' instead.

Goodnight & Go

Why'd you have to be so cute
It's impossible to ignore you
Must you make me laugh so much
It's bad enough we get along so well
Say goodnight and go...

I've had this song by Imogen Heap for ages and I haven't listened to it, till tonight. Now I'm playing it over and over again and I don't know why. Now the tune is stuck in my head. The things I do to myself. Ha!

She's beginning to converse with me through MSN again, which made me lose my fucking appetite this afternoon when I was craving for a heavy lunch. Instead, I had sliced fish mee sua. Urgh. Now she tells me she lost the rings we made. What the fuck?! Does that make my existence trivial as well? Grace called her a 'schnit'. I call her a 'schnithead'. Just when everything was changing for the better: mentally, emotionally, whatever. Urgh.

Women are getting on my nerves now. Maybe I should just settle for less, get married and grow old and bitter. Hahaha. I just recalled a conversation I had with Grace last night. She asked if I would date a guy again, then I told her I might; her cracker crumbled from her hands onto the plate. Then again, I think I'll still have the urge to be with a girl in the end, so it's not a good idea to do that.

I think I'm suffering from PMS (it's about time too). I ended up in a staring war in the train just now with a middle-aged woman bitch. Just because the train sways a bit, my bag knocked her arm just a little and she turned around and made the bloody annoying "tsk" sound. That ticked me off, especially when you get "tsk-ed" by a stranger. I turned to face her and it was a good thing she was shorter than me. She was on her mobile giving instructions in such a commanding tone to that poor guy on the other side and it ticked me off more. So I started staring at her whilst she gave me 'the look'. I then gave her a 'you-actually-think-you're-great look'. I think this exchanging of looks went on for only 2 minutes or so before I got off the train. Just because you're on the mobile doesn't give you reason to 'tsk' me like a rat when I only touched her a bit because the train was swaying. I will never touch a woman like that. I hate public transport.

Such a loser. I bought Maccers home because I was craving for it the whole afternoon. I asked for shaker fries along with the meal I bought. Upon reaching home with an empty stomach, I couldn't wait to start eating, only to find that to my dismay, the woman had forgotten to give me the shaker packet. ARGHHH! I wanted to stab her.

*grumbles*

Sebastien's

Grace and I wanted to pig out, so she suggested we go to Sebastien’s at Greenwood Ave. We reached there around 6.15pm and their opening hours were from 6.30pm onwards, so we hung around there for a little bit before settling at a table.

The food was alright, not fantastic though. Grace commented that her foie gras was undercooked, and it really did seem like it.

I ordered a crispy pork belly and pork trotters stuffed with foie gras, only to find the pork trotters had somehow transformed into pork meatballs (?) and not stuffed with foie gras, but rather a layer of foie gras at the bottom of the meatball.

The escargot profiteroles that we ordered to share were a slight disappointment too, as the escargots were overcooked.

We ended up ordering a French Onion soup as a last resort to fill our big fat tummies.

Just to satisfy our immense greediness for food, I ended up at Grace’s place munching on Danish Blue cheese with crackers. Yum! Wanted to watch a Spanish movie titled, “Maria, Full of Grace”, but then we switched to National Geographic because they were doing a Secret Bible week and were featuring the Templar Knights last night. I fell asleep during the second commercial and woke up in a shock, wondering how long I had slept for. Felt a bit bad, because we were supposed to be watching a DVD, but my eyes couldn’t take it any longer. Sorry Moo!

The next few destinations that I want to eat at are:

• Azabu Sabo at Marina Square

• The delicatessen at UE Square
  

• Fisherman’s Wharf

• Nirai Kanai

• Genghis Khan International Buffet

• Japanese Buffet at Royal Hotel

  
  

….and few more coming up I guess.

Another thing we’ve been wanting to do is to find a coffee and tea place with comfy seats so me and Moo can laze around with coffee, books and cigarettes on a Sunday afternoon. Mmmm, I’ll have to keep a lookout for such a place.

*yawn*

Mini Studio in a Cupboard

Check out my mini studio that I set up in the office.....CUPBOARD.

















Quite pathetic. It's really, really, tiny. But it works well because the subject ends up looking like this:















Not bad for a mini studio in the cupboard.