> 2 is a crowd

Went out last nite with my colleauges to New York New York, a NYDC-type of restaurant where Yvette's hubby is one of the chefs. So-so typical american burger/ribs/sandwich joint in large portions, and obviously 99% of the patrons are the teenage and young adults crowd. Super crowded and macham noisy like crazy. As we sat there munching and having good conversation (for the 1st time in over 7 yrs I had a root beer float, just because the pic on the menu looked soooo beckoning), we observed the crazy human traffic milling and moving at turtle speed at the citylink walkway. Didn't I say Singapore is waaaaay too crowded?? That scene just reinforced and triple enforced my belief. Gawd, when and where did we birth so many children?? Who said anything about declining birth rate? Bah.

We witnessed an event of a lifetime - Nicole actually using her hands to eat her ribs!! Those of us who know her well know her as super anal and super sanitized about everything. She sanitizes everything and amongst her stranger quirks, she actually has sets of clothing she wears just to play with her dog. Poor fella actually has to wait for her to get home, get changed into old t/shirt and shorts before she pats him. And she sanitizes her clothes and her hands before and after touching her dog. Sheesh. Anyway, the memorable fingers-to-ribs event was captured on my handy phonecam. Of course, post-ribs eating she spent a good 10 mins wiping down each and every finger including scraping the undersides of her fingernails just to ensure they are totally clean. We all rolled our eyes in exasperation. Citylink mall, btw, was probably super duper extra crowded that night as there was a fireworks display at 9pm. Same thing happened at our LPS satay outing, there was a fireworks display which probably accounted for why crowds of people were there too. I witness neither fireworks event, preferring to tuck into food comfort food.

The cowburglar who nabbed Nattie struck again - apparently it seems there is now a Natty cousin standing lonesomely at some road divider at Beach Road. Poor bovine even lost part of its tail during its 'adventure' of being herded away from the rest of its family. No guessing who the 'shepard' was. Would have loved to see this cow but I'm sure park rangers would have escorted it home to its herd by now.

Sated on Satay

Went with a couple of colleagues for a satay dinner at Lau Pa Sat, it's my first time there in years. If not for a visiting colleague who requested for satay, I'd say Lau Pa Sat is not usually a place I'd go to. But wah, upon arrival, the stalls of satay lined up at Boon Tat street were in full swing, and all tables outside were packed and crowded. The smoke and smell of satay thickly permeating the air. From all the net research I read, LPS was supposed to be quieter at night vs lunchtime, but no, the scene that greeted us was one of a packed hawker center, bright lights, smokey and one can easily mistaken it for another Newton Hawker center just looking at the crowds of people. We were not disappointed by the quality of the satay - no. 19 is really good! Between 4 of us, we polished off 100 sticks of skewered meat easily. Worth going back again, except the traffic in and out of LPS was ridiculously crazy. CBD is supposed to be quiet and dead at 10pm at night, but no, it was congested, traffic barely moved, and you'd think we were in geylang judging by the number of people at the streetside trying to get a cab. All the cabs there had an ON CALL sign, and eventually I ended up on the MRT home. I guess the fireworks display at marina must have had something to do with all the congestion.

C did the unthinkable - he got Meiji a friend. Meiji is a blue Bitsie who's living in C's garden, but now accompanied by a red and white new bovine friend we named Nattie. I gaped as he sent me evidence of the kidnap, and the story of how he 'acquired' Nattie was even more jaw-dropping. Unbelievable, I would not have the guts to do it, but then, that's C for you. He enjoys breaking rules, and getting away with it, and then having a good laugh over the entire thing. He really gets a kick out of these things. Some fine upright citizen he is. HA HA. But he makes me laugh.

Everybody was Kungfu Fighting...

So we went to watch Dragon Tiger Gate today - a plotless, pointless movie but hey, where there's Donnie Yen, there's always good action. The guy can fight, and wah, at age 40+ he's still in good form, like Jet Li (who's put on some weight), Jackie Chan (ultimate kung fu hero) and Samo Hung (who said fat guys don't win?). This guy can do somersaults and flying leaps like a 20 year old. Heck, even I at 20 years old can't even do a split, much less a somersault. Nowadays even trying to do dropbacks to a backbend in yoga class is also scary cuz we all afraid of hearing an omnimous crack in our backs.

Anyway, pointless, plotless movie but as long as there is excuse for action, these guys start pulling the punches and the flying kicks. Nice. Of course, in a typical chinese fighting movie the standard plot de riguer is - 1) hero always have a traumatised childhood; 2) someone the hero worships always dies; 3) hero will thus seek revenge; 4) but hero first gets critically injured; 5) then hero gets rescued by some supreme high master who lives in mountains as a recluse (master always comes out to save the deserving); 6) mountain master will impart secret skill of the highest level to hero, who takes little time to master it; 7) hero kills bad guy with newfound kungfu skills; 8) hero and damsel in distress (or token female) carry on with their merry lives. Yeah that about sums it up. In fact, that reminds me of the mention of legendary historical heroes by Fitroy Raglan, which was recently cited in my recent organization theory readings as (and one of the few things that piqued my interest other than being frustrated by stochastic dichotomy whatever). According to Raglan, the hero is:

(1)Born of a royal virgin.
(2)His father a King and
(3)Often a near relative of mother, but
(4)The circumsatnces of his conception are unusual and
(5)He is reputed to be the son of a god.
(6)An attempt is made to kill him at birth(often by father or father-figure) but
(7)He is spirited away and
(8)Raised by foster parents in a far country.
(9)We are told nothing of his childhood.
(10)On reaching manhood he journeys to his future kingdom.
(11)Faces trials and tests.
(12)Marries a princess and
(13)Becomes king.
(14)Rules uneventfully
(15)Prescribes laws
(16)Loses favor with the Gods or his subjects and
(17)Is driven away where
(18)He meets with a mysterious death
(19)Often at the top of a hill.
(20)His children, if any, do not succeed him.
(21)His body is not buried, however
(22)He has one or more holy resting places.

Yep, typical hero. But I think it's too much effort being a hero. I'd much prefer to use my superior kung fu skills to propel my dogs to the grass field downstairs and up, and propel their food from the fridge to their dog bowls whilst I lounge comfortably on the sofa watching my wuxia chinese dramas.

I want to break free!

Singapore has too many people. Just too many. Waaaayyyyy too many. Ventured into Marina square first time since their reno, given that mom and I had a spa appointment nearby. The spa was not too bad, pricey (but we got voucher so no need to pay, ha ha) and I fell asleep. I suspect I was talking in my sleep as I flitted in and out of semi-conciousness, you know, that asleep yet awake phase where you're not exactly asleep and not awake either? Think I was also blowing air bubbles through my lips too, not sure. Or was it a dream? Dunno, really hazy. Gawd, would be so embarressing if I did. Anyway........ thought I'd do a bit of browsing at Marina square. Big mistake of course - the sea of bodies is so overwhelming, the noise and chatter so loud it just woke me from my brief zen revierie from the spa. I could not take it, and it's 5pm in the afternoon, so how come every restaurant and cafe, and fast food joint is crowded to the max??? These singaporeans just eat at all hours??! The new shopping mall has no shortage of food joints but wahlau, just see the queues at macs, bk, etc even restaurants. I got headache. I decided to head home. Walking through Citilink mall, another mistake. More waves of bodies, I feel claustrophobic. Where the heck did all these pple come from???!!! ARRRRGHHH. Same thing, every food, coffee joint, packed with bodies, the underground mall, walking slowed to a near crawl as there were just too many people. I want to break free!! I want to escape from there, my senses could not take this torture. I'm ever more certain now, that I shall simply stick to yoga classes, and makan with yoga friends on weekends. No venturing to raffles, marina or cityhall. Even the cityhall station was packed like crazy. If someone would just sneeze, the rest of us will probably catch the flu too.

Fun events of the day, I scored 2 bong-aws against beefstroganoff. This is a real rare event. Whilst we were in the car, C insisted that Bendemeer street was round the corner at Sim Lim, we made a bet. Guess who lost and had to suffer a pillow smother. Later he tried to avenge himself by betting about the chicken rice stall at purvis. Lost again. Wahahhaha. FWAHAHAHhahahhaha. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAHHAH!!!! I was ecstatic, I laughed so evilly and so loudly, it was a bellyful laugh. How extremely satisfying to finally hit him with the pillow. He trapped himself. I was innocent. Yes........the pillow. Ahhhh. FWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA.

Exams over. Yay! Got myself a new chinese series rental as a reward. Heehee.

Strange encounters

Took the day off today so I could spend time on my revision, as usual the plan was to head down to Pure for a class of zen before comfortably ensconcing myself at the corner sofa. I must say it's a really good study environment, very peaceful and relaxed, and facilities nearby, no lack of food, water nor comfort. I was tracking my revision fairly well, except just before my lunch break a mainland chinese woman and her young child came over to share my space. Strangely enough she laid down on the sofa, and just went to sleep! Her kid must be used to her doing this, for the child didn't seem perturbed and simply just sat at the corner and played with paper. 'Twas quite a strange situation to me, but I carried on with my revision after lunch. Not surprising, the little kid got bored and started to chat with me. I have no liking for kids in general and I don't communicate well with them, but somehow I didn't mind this one because I detected sensibility and keen intelligence behind that lively and gamine face. Kid and I had a nice chat - this child has a chinese vocabulary more powerful than mine, for a 7 year old that's pretty impressive even though they are from China. A very inquisitive mind but very lively intelligence for I only needed to explain things and concept only once before it was instantly understood. Turns out the mother is a Pei-du mother, i.e. she was a businesswoman who left her business to her husband so she could accompany her child to singapore to study. Quite a big sacrifice, and from the looks of it she seemed a decent woman unlike the horror stories we hear about chinese pei-du mothers.

Anyway, after a 2.5hr chat entertaining this bright young child (needless to say it detracted me from my revision quite a bit, not something I preferred), it was only towards the end of the day I found out this child, whom I thought was a boy from the very beginning, is actually a girl! DUH!!! Err, I mean, she's got a haircut like a boy...and at age 7...well they all sound kinda squeaky voiced so how would I know?? And especially when her name is much like a boy's name too. (on a side note, the very bizaare twist to this is when she wrote her name in chinese characters, it's exactly the same name as my ex's......). Beefhotpot suggested perhaps it was my ex reincarnated. Riiiighhhht.

Revision progress is about 2/3 of what I'd originally liked to do, but just as well. I don't think I could absorb anymore and make sense of epistomological, ontological, tautology, sematic and syntactic concepts. Whatever the heck it means. Even C got a little befuddled today because the stuff I had him read were too drought dry. I'm as ready as I am for tomorrow and i'll be glad as soon as it's over. Back to my Pingzong series reruns! YAY!!

Pizza with 4 cheeses - an epistomological discourse on Imagination & Leadership

Ugh, even writing this entry's title gives me a headache. What exactly does the title mean, I'm also not exactly clear but it's something about Pizza, cheese on the pizza and a discussion on the articles I had to read up for my coming exam. It all started innocently enough with a lamenting wail to Cownana in the car on our way to dinner, that I'm making neither heads nor tail of the theories of these scholarly theories. To prove a point, I read to him what I thought was a difficult paragraph. To my wide-eyed speechlessness, Beefsalami not only immediately understood it, but was able to digest, break it down into tiny little bits and burp it all back to me in a straightforward way. I tested him further with a few more paragraphs and he did the same thing. "....WHAAAAAAATT???!!! How come you can understand it so easily???!" I wailed. Throughout our 4-cheeses pizza dinner, C not only read my articles but could explain it to me A-Z. He criticized, stretched it, pounded it, chopped it up, salted and peppered it, and explored it from all angles possible. I suppose that's how his (scheming) mind works, whereas me, I just follow the recipe. If the end result is not satisfactory, it's the recipe's fault - after all, I did not reinvent nor substitute nor thought of how to customize or improvise. C likened my thought process to a logical one, as I can only read the theories but not understand it, I see it only in a 2D view, if it doesn't make sense, my brain goes into Syntax-error mode and starts bleeping furiously in an error loop which I cannot get out of.

OK, so I have to admit, he's a far better student than I, and frankly I learnt more during our 1hr pizza dinner than I did in my entire week of staying up nights reading. Aww crap, I wonder if I'm able to maintain the trail of thought he's set me on tomorrow as I finalize my revisions. Even more important, am I able to remember how to argue my batmans and spidermans come Saturday's exam?

One last note to self - my body can NOT tolerate 2 caffeine shots in the same day. I indulged in a morning latte and then in the afternoon an expresso choc fix. By evening I was feeling the full effects. Ouch. Not at all pleasant. Besides, butt is looking quite the squishy wiggly bit these days.

S is for.....

...Short Sighted Sighthound.

Holly must have got a SIGHThound defect. She's a sighthound, by birth, and seems to look like a sighthound. But wah, she makes a better bloodhound than sighthound. I suspect she's shortsighted. I can be 50m in front of her and she still can't see me. I can see rats in the field quicker and faster than she can spot one. But when it comes to her nose, well, she's got a nose far superior than Bis. Where there is food, she can smell it a mile away. That said, she smells rat better than Biscuit can see one. More often than not, as we're taking our daily evening walks, she would suddenly bound into the grassfield and dig out a rat's hiding place.

....Scheming Slick.

Codie got nabbed again this morning. I emerged from my morning shower to find him lying on the floor in the dining area. Someone or something made a quick grab for him but probably heard me coming out from the bathroom and thus abandoned the rest of the kidnap attempt. Holly was innocently sitting down prettily on the kitchen rug, and Bis was just his usual woe-is-me forlorn look self. Slick had on his usual expression perched on my bed. The culprit remains yet unknown to this date. This reminds me of the Cluedo game I used to play as a kid. Only the theme is - WHO NABBED CODIE?!

....Sleepy but must Study.

Needless to say, I must study. Except that I'm spending time on the internet now. Duh.

Ok back to my books. Yawn.