Happy Jack-o-Lantern

Every year, my bunch of friends will meet up over 2 occasions which actually mean nothing to us but are excuses to get together: Moon cake festival and Halloween.. the former because one of the dudes' father is some very prominent person and always gets tons of the kick-assest mooncakes, and he will bring like 5 boxes for us on the evening itself, and cheapo asses like me with swipe a box home.. heh..

I can't remember how halloween started, but I guess it was convenient because it's not one of those days when we have family obligations before we can meet.. we've gotten a pumpkin every year except last year when I went to Jasons 10 days before Halloween only to find that they had all been sold!

Now that some of them have their own place, it's easier to just plonk yourself down and be as rude and crass as you want without fearing that parents might eye us with disdain.. we mocked and shouted at the contestants in the repeat telecast of Singapore Idol, and hooted when people did charades in this game we played called cranium.. tried it before? it rocks! nothing like dirty charades of course.. heh..

1 of the screamers was when someone told us the story about how he found out that some 40+ year old woman we all know goes to classes in the gym wearing no underwear.. well which by itself sounds "ok lor".. but check this out.. they knew because the lady in question had very obvious displays of "cameltoe" on at least 3 occasions!! don't know what "cameltoe" is? I didnt either.. but just google it.. don't say I didn't warn you though..

tomorrow marks the beginning of november, i.e. the end of the year.. and I still don't know where I wanna go for a holiday, nor have a travelling companion..

Me! 

No. 100!

My 100th post! Heard from a good friend (HR) yesterday that FL, who is the gf of WS, who in turn used to be a really good friend of HR, postponed her ROM to WS which was supposed to take place last week. Don't ask me why cos I don't know. FL and WS have been attached for some 11 years now, although looking at the state of their relationship the past 2 or 3 or more years, one wonders. FL is a teacher, and used to willingly or unwillingly channel a large part of her monthly salary to WS's business ideas, some of which are truly hare-brained. When WS meets us once in a while, FL never comes along, and more often than not, he will say that she's ill. FL seemed to be caged at home by WS, whilst he was out having fun. The past year or so, we've had reason to believe that WS' been frequenting places like Lido Palace and availing himself of the full suite of services there... with money that should be returned to FL of course. 3 years ago, we wondered if WS and FL will finally get married.. today, we are less optimistic... Fact is, I used to like FL tons. Abso-bloomin-lutely crazy about her was more like it. The secondary school where I came from, boys and girls were segregated in different classes up till Sec 2. Everyday sometime in September of the year I was in Sec 2, I'd spy this really cute girl standing in line in the smartest girl class as we all assembled after recess. The last day of Sec 2, after we'd been streamed, we were dispatched to meet our classmates for the coming year. Seeing her shyly standing with a couple of her friends in the corner of the classroom we were going to occupy the next year was a blessing like no other... I don't know how to describe it, but it felt like Charlie Brown and his little red-haired girl... The December holidays that year felt distinctively happier than any other I've had in my life.. As it turned out, I got to sit right behind her in Sec 3. We became fast friends, and you know the story... I fell in love and stayed in love for a long time, and then in love again, but this time with her sitting-mate. It was only then that she like me.. drama-mamma... Somehow, she has a really special place in my heart... she's the one who got and gave me all the little cards and friendship bands and all.. I've this ziploc bag of cards and letters we exchanged at home, and if you were to ask me what I'd take from my house if it was on fire, I'd say my box of such letters and stuff. You know, everytime I see her, I wonder if she'd be a lot happier with me instead of WS, and whether I'd be happy too. I really don't know... I guess we grew too far apart and too many intervening things happened for me to be able to say.. I feel that WS's prevented her from being the person she could have been... you could even say I hate him for that.. today she's a quiet, slightly awkward and shy person even with us... I just wish someone could come along and rescue her from this shit..

S-Eleven

I got a call at work today from a law school classmate. It turns out that one of the polytechnics here is looking for someone to lecture on 2 specialised areas of law as part of their business administration modules, and they are willing to consider me cos it's stuff that I used to do!

Once a week for 4 hours, and pays $80 an hour.. only catch is the class starts at 4pm.. otherwise another $1300 a month to talk about stuff I don't even need to revise beforehand is simply divine, not to mention (i) how it looks in the CV and (ii) the eye candy!

But that's set about some ideas.. I could actually send my CV to those schools like Auston or whatever to see if they have openings.. hmmm..

Paved with Good Intentions

In case anyone hasn't read this good article by Colin Goh, you should do just that right now..

Anyways, this post is going to be really boring, and for my own amusement.

U'd think I was crazy, but the highlight of the day actually arose from work. To cut the boring story really short, parliament tabled a bill last week on amendments to adopt a more modern and internationally recognised convention to replace the antiquated convention that Singapore now uses to calculate limitation of liability for vessels..

The issue in question has vexed eminent professors and senior counsel for at least 15 years, but parties always settle the claim so as not to lose all if they were to lose the court fight. This resulted in there not being binding precedents that we could use. For 2 months last year, I did ridiculous research that led just about no where cos there were persuasive arguments in favour of either view which were so finely-balanced no one could really say.. With an ex-boss like mine, those weeks were living hell.. The draft text of the Bill came today as vindication that even parliament admitted that the state of the law was a horrendous mess, so there u go, buster..

I guess that was 1 of the files that really made me decide to quit practice in a law firm.. and reading Colin Goh's article at the right time really made things a lot surer... in fact, some of the similarities were downright freaky cos the number of lawyers who did / went through the same kinda thing were miniscule, like:
a. we belonged to the specialised breed called shipping litigators in Singapore's 2 blue-blooded law firms;
b. on good days, what I thought of my boss was that I wouldn't want to be 45 and still be pulling my hair out distinguishing X Court of Appeal case from my clients' at 10:30pm (on bad days, ...);
c. I nearly seriously injured myself slipping down the 40m-high gangway of a huge-ass totally unladen oil tanker (I also lost my precious $400+ Mont Blanc fountain pen whilst paying off the crew of a discrepit ship one day, btw.. freaking painful).

I prepared my CV over a few evenings in the office, and spoke with 4 recruiters... only 2 seemed genuinely interested... or at least, genuinely interested in the money I could possibly bring them.. no news followed for some 2 months, and in the meantime I was back to slogging, until that fateful day in September.. the rest, as u know, is history..

The past couple of weeks, I've been re-doing my CV.. I saw the long list of files I stated in the CV that landed my current job, and am truly amazed what they saw in it to even think of hiring me.. heh.. hell, what I do now has less than 10% relevance to what I used to do!

I called up my ex-teammate to give him the heads-up on the new Bill at 8:40pm, and true to form, he was at his desk.. a few stories about the ex-boss' latest antics later, I swear for the 736th time you can chop off my whatever if I were to ever go back to practice...

First Time I Got Some in 10 Weeks

Exercise, that is... I hurt my back some 4 months ago, and finally had the common sense around 10 weeks ago to stop exercising to give the back some rest... In the intervening weeks, and especially the last 3, I've been feeling so lethargic it's ridiculous.. on the weekdays when I come home for dinner, I'm sleepy by 10:30pm, and dead in bed by 11..

Anyways, we went to the Botanic Gardens this morning for our run... doubt the route was more than 3km cos the swan lake part is closed for re-building, but totally parn-chek... I so need to get that medical excuse from my IPPT test..

Bumped into my supervisor during the run, and boy does he have a hairy chest! If you think I have hairy legs, you should check out the carpet on his chest.. heh.. thankfully he was running in the opposite direction, otherwise I was going to get some ass-whipping in the running section..

Cody came with us to the Botanics, but stayed with her mom, i.e. HJ's wife.. It was his first time really out of the house, discounting the trips to the vet, etc. He saw and sniffed at least 10 other different breeds of dogs.. I really wonder what it feels like for a dog to see other breeds... it's almost like the equivalent of being Capt. Picard seeing all the different weirdos from the galaxies in Star Trek..

Cody was a hit with the chicks and I managed to pick up 4 different girls... though their ages ranged from 3 years to errr.. 11.. it's East Coast Park next week I tell you..

There really are few other breakfasts than sausages, bacon and eggs on a Sunday morning, and that's just what we got! Portions at the cafeteria at the Visitors Centre were too small though..


In other news, a friend found out that an ex of hers who was reluctant to marry her when they were together (for about 3 years) got married this January, some 18 months after they broke up.. not a good feeling... good for this friend, she's happily married now..


I watched Singapore Idol for the first time in like 5 weeks this past Thursday... seeing Chris sing Robbie Williams gave me the itch which had to be scratched... and therein is the problem sometimes... there are more or less 7 people in my HJ group of friends:
a. HJ and wife
b. LT
c. LU and gf
d. YG
e. me

HJ, wife, LU, gf and me are earning decent amounts and will spend a bit more money just to have fun and stuff, e.g. nicer dinner and karaoke.. LT's currently trying to figure out how to get his business ideas into fruition, and is a little more thrifty by nature.. so is YG who has to support a large fraction of his family's expenses..

You can just imagine the look of disdain when YG and LT were outvoted into karaoke-ing..

It's just tiring and a little bothersome sometimes craving to do something, yet not being able to do it with some of your best friends cos they find it expensive or frivilous.. and u can just imagine it's going to be worse in future cos the income gaps' just gonna widen more and more..

Big Brother Knows

I just called up OCBC to ask for an application form for one of their credit cards which come with a free Marriot Hotel fitness centre membership (annual subscription of the card is S$190), and they called back a while later to say that they can't fax but have to post the form to me.

So I said "sure thing", and they proceed (after asking for my NRIC no.) to ask for my birthday and rattle off my home address... I've got no account or dealings with OCBC whatsoever! How the hell do they know my details?

Bleah..

I've just been back from the holiday for 2 weeks, and am already feeling so unmotivated and weary... only keep thinking of possible holidays in Nov / Dec, but everything is up in the air, and I've got 4 Friday transactions out of the 9 weeks in those 2 months... am quite confused about something.. have an idea what it is, but can't quote put a finger on it..

Anyways, I test drove the Peugeot 407 and Jaguar X-Type yesterday.. ain't shopping for a car, and thankfully those 2 are a wee bit out of my reach for now, otherwise I'd be seriously tempted to get the 2-litre 407... drives beautifully! We took the "special" (though that's what the sales-guy probably tells everyone) curvy route near Valley Park and the car kicks ass...

The X-type, though a 2.1-litre, has no engine power whatsoever.. I did a U-turn in the face of 2 oncoming cars and stepped on the gas pedal but the car didn't go anywhere much.. hmm.. interior's (especially the dash) really classy tho..

Might try out the new Saab 9-3 Troll this weekend... *rubbing hands in evil glee*

Thankfully I don't have to make car-buying decisions.. in the meantime, back in the real world, TY and husband have to decide between a Civic and Altis...

Question of the Day 15/10/04

Why is it that we hear tons of lesbian or lesbian-experimentation activities in girls' school like CHIJ and (some of) the other convents, but not from others like MGS, SCGS, Nanyang?

Pet Peeve

I share her disgust at people who can't even exhibit the slightest courtesy when shown little acts of kindness..

The other thing i find really weird about some girls is how, when you are walking beside her and quicken your step slightly as you approach a door to pull it open it for her, she goes on to push the other leaf open, and walks through it all by herself..

You're most welcome...

Bad Dog..

Ewww...

Check out the furry thing between my legs!

Meet Cody

Cody

Cody is the name of my God-Dog... I finally get to meet him tonight cos he's been diarrhea-ating for the past 4 days and HJ needs someone to sayang the little bugger whilst we drive to the vet.

Will post photos soon!

Easy Money

Wasted...

My Kinda Guy

This from today's Straits Times on the criminal trial for the commandos who conducted the POW training: Also in court yesterday, the doctor who attended to 2nd Sgt Hu when he arrived at the medical centre described what happened next. ... He then tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate the soldier. By this time, Capt Sim had decided to order a helicopter evacuation to get 2nd Sgt Hu to the Singapore General Hospital. To do this, he had to give an initial diagnosis to a medic requesting the helicopter. He told the medic that 2nd Sgt Hu was in a comatose state, but the reply came that this was 'not acceptable'. So, Capt Sim gave the diagnosis as heatstroke, even though he suspected that 2nd Sgt Hu had drowned. When asked why he did this, he told the court: 'My concern at that time was for the casualty and my decision was that the helicopter should come quickly.' He added that a heatstroke diagnosis is usually given priority. Finally, someone who is not cowed by bureaucracy..

Plotting

Am trying to leave the office earlier today, and will probably go return the Lonely Planet Sydney I borrowed.. wanna borrow another guide to look see... am itching to plan for another trip soon.. My criteria: a. not more than 8 hours away b. not a hectic holiday c. ideally a friend who lives (near) there d. not hot but not freezing Where? Tasmania's a possibility... Someone said there are parts of Hong Kong which are nice and quiet and hilly and have nice views.. been there before? Also, need travelling companion... sigh...

Kaypoh

I'd pay $10 to know what he's saying..

Alone again, naturally..

Yeah.. Miyagiman's right, it's heartache.. But not love leh... think it's just this sudden feeling of being alone that really does me in.. I was going home after work yesterday and had to decide where and what to do.. was just weird not having someone to decide or bounce ideas off.. Worse yet, the 5.5cm thick pile of un-dealt-with emails shrinks really slowly, so I'll be deprived for evening human company for the rest of the week... oh well.. I need a hug.. oh yah! HJ just bought a puppy over the weekend.. a king charles cavalier.. hmm.. I don't think it's a particularly attractive dog, but I'm the Godfather, so... If it were me buying a dog, the preference would be: a. Retriever b. Beagle c. Westie

Lump in my Chest

No, I've not been doing breast self-examination.. You know that funny feeling of something being lodged somewhere in ur chest when ure troubled? today it's not so much troubled as the sense of feeling lost.. haha.. I guess it's only natural cos I've spent the past week and a half with someone in close proximity round the clock... and am now figuratively speaking all alone in an office where my colleagues don't talk to each other very often because everyone's really busy just about all day... Maybe that's what breaking up feels like, but I can't really remember anymore.. heh.. Oh well, I'm only at email no. 20+ of about 10x that number waiting to be tended to... I left my notebook with my secretary before I left for the holiday so that my colleagues could retrieve the soft copy files if there was a need to.. but she had to send her kid to the doc's this morning, which left me computer-less for much of the morning.. printed out about 80 emails to slowly plough through, figuring that it was about what I could handle in the morning.. way too ambitious.. hmm..

...

Lakes Entrance, VIC

If you decide to take a holiday in Melbourne, I'd strongly recommend a drive out eastwards to see Wilsons Promontory and the towns along the way, like the one in this pic... It's called Lakes Entrance... I could pretend it was Martha's Vineyard...

Hampahlang

Was trying to get a nap (took the red eye back and only got a few hours) but there are too many thoughts racing through my head, and shall park the random holiday ones in this post first and see what else is sloshing around in the brain..

All in all, it was a pretty cool trip.. the kind I just need after having worked for almost 2.5 years without a proper holiday.. you know what I mean, the live-like-a-local and wake up late kind rather than running around trying to do everything.. which meant that I got to sleep in and wake up fairly late (by work standards at least, i.e. 0645) every single day..

Now there is definitely 1 person who actually knows me personally who knows abt the location of my blog, and that's been the person who's been hosting me and putting up with my nonsense the past 10 days.. welcome MS, if you do actually bother to read this... heh.. which means I can't bitch much about you anymore.. haha.. kidding.. I guess we can our reconciliation / closure last night when we laid out the few things we did which grated on each others' nerves, and I must say we make for pretty good travelling companions eh? except perhaps too many days in Melbourne when I made it difficult for you to live ur usual life, i.e. meeting ur friends, doing ur assignment due Tuesday, etc...

I guess there is something that I initially really wanted to preserve about my blog, which is that the people I knew outside of blogging didnt know where to find this refuge... and I guess I still do, but there's no harm in letting MS know what's been happening in my life.. caveat of course.. my ramblings are subject to embellishment and 1-sided points-of-view..

Don't know if I mentioned that MS is 19, and her sister who studies in Sydney and brought us around and travelled with us to Blue Mountains and Hunter Valley is 17.. it was really fun travelling with younger people, who constantly have things to talk about, who can still play card games for hours on end, play Truth-0r-Truth, and talk about the songs and groups they so loved when they were 12, and in my mind, I go "hey, freak, I was 23 when I heard the same stuff, and absolutely loved it too!"...

I've always wanted sisters.. both older and younger.. and in these 2, especially the younger sister (hereinafter referred to as "JS") I lived that life.. I guess like in a relationship, guys like to be able to feel important and looked up to.. heh..

I didnt have things which I set out to do in Melbourne cos I've been there before.. and what was strange there was that somehow working has caused to me assume that many, if not most, things change really quickly.. the same way I went back to NUS Law Library a couple of months back and was honestly shocked to see that the photocopy lady (who works in a nasty environment and hours) is still there after 6 years! So it was likewise strange to see the same shops.. the motorbike shops near the hostels area (e.g. the Y hotel), the same corner handphone shop in chinatown, the same old pushy italian maitre-d at the 1st restaurant along Lygon Street...

We returned to Melbourne on Thursday night, and just slacked away Friday and Sat before I flew.. you can imagine how unwound the holiday was when I checked my work email several times throughout the trip, only to find 280+ (at last count) and close it within 5 minutes just to ensure I hadnt made any screw-ups which had surfaced / caused me to lose my job and allow for an even longer holiday.. In fact, I attended MS' cell group on Friday..

Side-tracking, my it's amazing how certain parts of the bible are deeply etched into my brain even though I'm not a Christian.. we were looking at the chapter 1 of Phillipians, and the first question was why Paul had addressed his letter to the people of Phillipi before the elders of the church... me being the guest, and a non-Christian, I didn't want to sounds presumptious, but so had that "teacher teacher! I know the answer!!!" feeling... my model answer: because all are equal before the eyes of God, regardless of status, Jew or gentile, etc.; to take it 1 step further, Jesus himself had said it that it is the ill who need a doctor most and not those who are well... *ding!* 3 points for the correct answer (the first half of the response), and 2 bonus marks for the additional second half.. heh..

the other really strange thing which I've always known is that I somehow know Phillipians 1:3 by heart.. I guess it's because it was the verse in 1 of those christian mini-cards (a wee bit smaller than name cards) we always used to exchange with our friends back in secondary school... on the same note, (for those around my age) remember this shop called Bob's at Orchard MRT where the 2 CD shops now are? It used to sell millions of those cards, and was where I bought my budget-bursting birthday present for the one-true-love then...

As expected, the iTrip did not work all that well on the trip... I've had very limited success with this little bugger.. I'm sure I have a fairly recent batch, and it still sux! I bet there are 20 million unhappy users out there.. it works fine with my room radio, but my bro's radio and my car radio can hardly receive it.. ditto for the car we rented...

1 of the highlights for any road trip for me is always being able to drive a big car.. most of my friends are more prudent and prefer to get a medium sized car, like a Camry, but not me.. I did the searches online, and as we were returning the car at a different place from the one we took it out, the rental for a 2.4l Camry was A$55, and a 3.5l Ford Falcon was S$57.. to me the choice was clear if not for the fact that the latter drinks tons more petrol, and MS was a learner driver and I wasnt going to scare her with a big car.. as it turned out, they were short of Camrys and gave us the Falcon instead.. positively love the car! It's got a quasi-manual tramission mode that was fun on the windy roads.. a 5-speed gearbox would have kicked ass tho..

Staying with MS also caused me to realise that the one thing about studying aborad was the life of a student with good friends for housemates.. cooking together, almost always having wonderful companions to watch tv with, etc. I guess even working abroad now won't be able to let me replicate that experience.. On hindsight, I really should have applied to go to Australia or Canada in my 3rd year of uni for the exchange program..

We walked around tons in Sydney.. JS stays with a host family in Kensington and took MS in, I stayed at the new YHS Railway Square hostel (in a converted train carriage!), and bunked with ERM's gf, YJ, who lives in Randwick the night before MS and I set off along the coastal route.. We ate sashimi at the Fish Market, at Pancake on the Rocks, tons of gelate, sang karaoke, played cards for hours on end at Starbucks at Circular Quay, R-O-C-K Rock on the lawn beside the quay with forfeit to boot... was going to suggest LMD's naughty charades, but didnt want to corrupt young minds.. heh..

I didnt think Blue Mountains was anything to scream about.. but the 3 highlights were (a) having the wonderfullest breakfast at 3pm, (b) watching a move at a really old cinema at Mount Victoria which had its own literal booth in the wall to sell snacks and hot tea / coffee in real mugs before the movie began, and (c) seeing (according to my personal standards) 1 of the 10 most beautiful I've seen in my life.. for anyone who's going anytime soon, she's working at the coffee shop beside the New Ivanhoe Hotel in Blackheath.. think she's of mixed Australian-Asian parentage...

Wine tasting at Hunter Valley was like that lor... guess what we enjoyed more there was the 2 hour horse-riding we got... realise some people just have horse-sense, and I definitely dont.. I couldnt really get the horse into a trot for more than 30 seconds before I start to lose balance and need to slow him down.. ditto for JS, but MS seemed a natural!

Oh... before I forget.. on the way to blue mountains, we were on the motorway, and the fastest 2 lanes suddenly had these marking which said "E Only"... err.. for some reason, it didnt occur to me that this might be some ERP-like thing, and I drove straight through... E stands for Expressway wah.. the car rental people say the fine's about $50.. oh well..

Randwick's really like a mini-Holland Village... near university some more..

Jervis Bay is absolutely beautiful! We sat on rocks and dipped out feet in the cool water of 1 of the creeks, eating chips dipped in salsa, waded in the water with wonderful sand dunes in the background..

And to you girls out there, you'd be impressed to hear how quickly I was toilet-trained.. by the second day I was putting the seat down after peeing.. heh.. 2 more weeks there and I'll be using tissue paper after I'm done..

Oh well.. I've rambled for far too long... must stop now...