A Whiter Shade of Pale

Its rather disturbing for me to pack my life away in a suitcase. I can't believe I have to streamline my life into an anorexic 40kg. Blame the cheapskate in me, for not wanting to take cash out of my wallet. I intend to bring everything which I would need.

Anyway, I have been crazily bogged down by packing, preparations, part time work & visiting places, meeting important people, stuffing my face with local goodies.

Sally has been bugging me to upload all our lovely Lewis Carrol inspired photos taken at the gorgeous Botanic Gardens, but i havnt found the time to.

In addition to that, Sally showed me her assignment which was to draw 99 things which she likes. As a result, I have my own list of 99 things. Having only little time left, it puts life and priorities into perspective. Suddenly, what is important and unimportant to you becomes strikingly clear.

1. Cheng Wan Hua. My best friend who is heading to Manchester this semster. Thank goodness. This girl knows me 99% inside out. the 1% is a complete mystery to everyone.

2. My closest bunch of girlfriends - Charlotte, Sally, Sween, Huiting, Ivy & Nissa. ( The latter 2 disappears all the time though) + all other welcomed additions such as Rebecca & Sun (Sally's korean friend). Fun is definitely the pre-requisite.

(Note: I realised at this rate, I'm gonna list out all the good people in my life!)

3. My SMU Social Science (apple county saturdays) gang. Laid back people with inner aunties & uncles unite. Dixi the Didi ( its a misnomer) & Sarah Wong the BFF. Plus Bobby the BMW which was our chariot for midnight Geylang suppers & random ECP picnics. Plus all the beer guzzling & dirty talking people I love alot for keeping me sane in SMU.

4. The PCGs & other people. A gathering is like a reunion of all the happy care-bears in the world because everyone is so unbelievably nice & sweet. Throw in a generous helping of humour & wit, it's always a great party with them.

5. The FTB people. Always reliable to pangseh our gatherings, but still good enough to be cherished. Hahaha.

6. The Rogue Lawyers who are friends even after our project sunk into the bottom of the ocean. Can you believe that! :)

7. The assortment of other people whom I meet from time to time because they are worth it. You know who you are. If you dont, you aint on this list.

8. My guitar with the gold capo & lovely martin strings. Finally, an instrument which made me want to improve my crappy skills.

9. The rollerblades which I bought at a bargain. Too bad I've lost my blading partner. He sold his soul to law journals.

10. Work, because the workplace is filled with funny and kind people.

11. Taking pseudo-smoke breaks with David at work, when I dont smoke. Haha.

12. Learning to not bother with people who doesnt give you their time.

13. Jason Mraz because he's my idea of a perfect human being.

14. The adorable neighbourhood cat, because she'll only approach me & rub her fur against my ankles when she wants me scratch behind her ears. Then, she'll look up at me with her big round eyes in appreciation.

15. Nonsense analogies about life. E.g. A380 vs private jets. HAHA.

16. Botanic Gardens because it's my wonderland.

17. Chinatown's $10bucks bargains!

18. Little India cheap gastronomic delights. Cheap buys & pungent smells.

19. Quintessential asian food like DIMSUM & SASHIMI.

20. Other Angmoh things like Chi-chi English tea sets, german sausages and erdinger beer.

21. My mom who has been getting frustrated at me for no good reason, and insisted i bring an induction plate to cook in UK. Hahaha!

22. My dad who is reluctantly funding my exchange trip, but is still being a good sport about it. THANK YOU.

23. My older brother to annoys me to no end, now that he is at home studying for his exams. That means disturbing me every 20mins every night. I hope he strikes toto soon.

24. My younger brother whom I've tried to make him into the coolest boy that I can create. Now he's way too cool for everyone.

25. My maid who told me that she'll miss me while I'm gone. (Unlike my mom who'll just nag & get pissed at me.)

26. The first person I met in the office this morning was Shane and he said he saw me at the newton bus stop as he drove by thus wanted to pick me up. Unfortunately, the traffic was too heavy, so he didnt. So I just laughed in appreciation and thanked him for his kind thought. Thereafter, I was thinking about Shane & his spongey foods fetish. Haha.

27. My bus pass which lets me travel around the entire island on a budget.

To be continued...

Tonight, I cant help but think of the number of days left here. I'll only need to use my 2 hands & 1 foot to count all the days. Time is short & i cant help but wonder what I'll miss terribly when I'm there. Yes, there's all the fun & new friends & new places to explore, new cultures & languages to learn, new things to see. I'm just worried about getting extremely homesick. I'm a closet homebody. My chicken rice, my geylang dimsum cravings, my crazyyyyy girlfriends, my hokkien spewing friends, my guitar plus all the other conveniences available at home.

Mixed feelings are hard to explain, I dont even know what goes into the mix. A month back, I was filled with more fear than excitement. Now I'm less fearful, significantly more excited, but strangely neutral overall. Maybe I'm feeling like a bride who is sitting in the dressing room, waiting to walk down the aisle. During those solitary moments while you remain seated in anticipation and apprehension, thoughts of running away creep into your mind, fear that its too much for you to handle, fantasies of a wonderful marital bliss occupy your thoughts. I guess I'm feeling just about there.

Anyway, my friends came up with some light-hearted analogy about chocolate & boys. So apparently, I like dark chocolate. Now that I'm heading to the European continent, I'd better change my taste to like white chocolate. Then, the boys protested, in defense of the local boys & i thought they were like white rabbit candy. However, on hindsight, Chinese boys arent as white nor as sweet. Thus, the better metaphor should be like dough. Theres a potential for your baking dough to be something really nice if it works out fine, or something really nasty. The problem is that its just dough, edible but not a delicacy. Something that is half worked & unfinished. Haha. Damian had to add that its CORNY dough. :D Such is the wit of dough.

It's been a busy week. The Wans go to Castle Nanyang (NTU) and it was such great fun. I found a $1book for serene and a $2.10 French-English dictionary. Wow. The library was well stocked with the most out-dated books which served us many minutes of good entertainment. It's a nice place to go to take a break from our too-cool-for-me city campus.

FYI, my friends & I finally saw Mr Sun after two years, and he glowed with a vengeance on Friday. That is why I'm nursing sunburnt shoulders as well as an ass that hurts terribly. Why can't bicycles have better seats?! But I guess it was all worth it. We made it to the Changi Beach Park Connector & chanced upon a really scenic location.

Last night it was good fun at Walas with the Unexpected. They were armed with their new Ibanez electric guitars and rocked the house down with their heavy rock covers. For some reason the crowd was made up of many head-bangers, and the atmosphere sizzled with energy, helping to make the Walas choir (which consists of everyone on the 2nd storey) so brilliant. Thereafter, it was our 2am Curry Fish Head fix.

Well, latest movie recommendation - 12 Lotus by Royston Tan.

The film was a colourful and fascinating journey. While the plot is about the unfortunate and pitiable life of Lian Hua, a pretty Getai singer, it was nicely peppered with snippets of humourous and witty moments. The show was extravagant and flamboyant at some parts, sombre and solemn at other parts. I loved the Hokkien Songs. It glamourised Hokkien, which isnt a bad thing i think. In short, its not your usual mainstream stuff like 881, just ignore the similarities and immerse yourself in the life of Lian Hua. Like me, you might realise how being too nice is simply being stupid. Also, people are hardly ever good or bad in contrasting black and white- good people can be driven to doing the most evil things by circumstances. And bahblahblah. Enjoy the show!

Anyway, NEWSFLASH! I know no one will be interested in this but... I was just listening to the class95fm (podcast) interview of Jason Mraz & he IS seeing someone now. Awww... Lucky chick.

Now that I'm out of work, after a call early this morning to tell me that I didnt have to go to work. That means that I can sleep in and have my brunch at 12+pm. For some random and unfathomable reason I was just wondering about the Sultan of Singapore, if we still had one. So all hail the invincible Google & Wikipedia who enlightened me about my burning query which was running through my mind while I was picking at my food.

While most of us think that Tengku Hussein and the Temenggung were being silly for agreeing to $ir Raffles' offer of $$$ in return for allowing British control of Singapore, the truth of the matter was that $neaky Raffle$ took advantage of the internal royal family politics, which allowed him to buy them over so easily. He was one sly old fox. See the story on wikipedia here.

History is fascinating. If I wasn't doing what I'm doing now, I'll be doing a history degree, destined to be a fuddy duddy history teacher in a dusty school. Because that image didnt appeal very much to me, I have to warm up the imagery of me staring at excel spreadsheets and punching away furiously at the calculator.

Ok back to the Sultan of Singapore, if he exists...
If he walked out of his golden Istana, would he breathe in the warm and damp air and be grateful that he didnt cough his lungs out when he did?
If he saw the streets without noisy school children running around, would he be pleased that the National Day holiday is over and the kids are being disciplined in school?
If he drove his limousine and went through the ERP 3 times and got caught in a jam on CTE, would he be glad that these gantries (supposedly) help to regulate traffic?
If he cruised along the expressways, would he admire the elegant roadside trees?
If he saw the cash registers at Orchard ring, would he be thankful that the GST we pay goes towards the maintenance of his home?
If he watched the National Day Parade, would he be awed by the air show, formations and fireworks?
If the Sultan of Singapore exists, would he love Singapore today?
Haha, maybe just the satay, the chicken rice, the teh tarik and the prata man.

I finally caught BATMAN. It was such a good show, but I was extremely disturbed by all the mind games played by Joker, and how the human spirit is possibly extremely weak-willed. Thought-provoking and unsettling, you must watch it, if you havnt.

Anyway, i suspect heath ledger's death has something to do with his role. The Joker was SO DEMENTED with such a tortured inner soul, who is hell bent on creating chaos, anarchy, fear and grief for people. The perils of method acting... Rest In Peace. Thank you for one hell of a performance.

Well, lets move on to sweeter topics- Cupcakes! Inspirations from online cupcake baking goddesses has prompted me to try to create my own. I got my recipe from here.