hoi polloi

Lunch Time At Work

2008-08-26T17:24:00.002+08:00

buwahahaha...!!!

A Year On...

2008-08-22T17:58:00.016+08:00

i took a quick sneak-peek here and realised that my last entry was dated 21 August 2007. it's been almost or rather, exactly, a year since i've totally slacked off writing. can't seem to find a reason to explain the inertia... let's just say i took a sabbatical to deal with various milestones or highlights in the past year.

it's been an amazing past 12 months, it really did flew past by me real fast.

yesterday
and more yesterdays
they tickled and fancied you
piercing moments
they did define me
and they went away
but i remember

some highlights to squeeze in that one year gap...

hong kong island, november 07 - harry's stag night. he got married.

we, best men

catching up with porcky was a total blessing - gone duct dough, sup say hoe, yau ma tei, kowloon, ferry rides, mid levels, ngau la mien, victoria harbour, beer, lan kwai fong - hong kong never fails me especially with porcky around.

november 07 - dennis' birthday. maureen and i, living up to the bollywood theme.

november 07 - one month into the job with a new consultancy. i called it quits after six months and i recovered my sanity and life.

december 07 - russel and i picking a christmas tree

december 07 - CY's newly acquired four-wheeled vintage... fricking nice can!

december 07 - porcky back in singapore for a month

december 07 - christmas eve dinner at russel's

january 08 - lichelle and rafa visited us... and they're engaged... awww...

february 08 - last chinese new year in willyn ville

kuala lumpur, february 08 - with an old friend, al

february 08 - ngiap came back for a visit and flared

march 08 - one of the many sunday brunches at russel's

march 08 - the night moira almost blacked out at prive and ended up stuffing our faces at crystal jade in the village

april 08 - we came out tour de force at 1 TwentySix to celebrate my throwing in the letter-of-resignation

may 08 - back to the fold in the village

kuala lumpur, july 08 - we travelled out of singapore for the very first time together

kuala lumpur, july 08 - to catch up with the same old familiar friendly faces; honey and ish

kuala lumpur, july 08 - and of course... how can we forget her royal highness, shida

and oh, news of dora getting pregnant came up in december 07 and a gorgeous Jordan Ross Turner popped right after national day in 08. bless the Turnips.

photo courtesy of http://cameldiaries.blogspot.com/2008/08/two-men-in-my-life.html

i think i'm ready to continue with more postings :-)

One Of Those Days At Work

2007-08-21T21:23:00.000+08:00

found this picture in my archive which was shot several weeks back. thought i'd put this up for the heck of it... no prizes for guessing who that was in the picture. grin...

Jalan Jalan Nasi Padang

2007-08-19T21:32:00.000+08:00

saturday, one of the rarest weekends i've had in a long time, where the day and night was spent out of the house.

it made me so happy... so very happy!

karen and i had a brilliant jalan-jalan nasi padang at arab street. so brilliant it was that karen did a wunderfulll collage of our sojourn and i had no choice but to artistically steal her creation off her blog (www.purposelydifficult.blogspot.com) and paste it onto mine.

nice hor...? i like...! aiyooo karen girl, you so clever do this picture leh...!

and we turned all kiddy when we saw a shop selling all things 'blast-from-the-past'.

the gooey sticky paste one blows into a sticky bubble from a teeny-weeny yellow straw was enough to fill our hearts with sheer joy and contentment. it was pure pleasure costing only a dollar for a whole box full of gooey ballony paste.

gurl... you blew it good i say... grin...

and our sojourn brought us past the row of shops along arab street, baghdad street (nope... no gun-toting redneck/marines here, and no need for a green zone either), bussorah street, kandahar street (yeah no talebans here either) and until karen had this culturally-skewed idea to pay a visit at the old istana kampong glam now turned into some malay heritage and cultural museum.

and we found a replica of an old HDB flat in the museum, all done up ala the 70s presumably, replete with gaudy wall paint colour, a black and white television set, that old school electric blade-fan and super retro furnitures. and get this, it came with a linoleum lined flooring as well!

departing from arab street on a high... i made my way to chern yeh's studio and lazed the whole afternoon in his couch playing xbox games. i suck big time at car racing games even though i was driving a lexus. stupid car.

elvan came in the evening and picked us up for dinner at little india. pure north indian vegetarian dinner at raj's was enough to burst our pants at the seams.

the supressed look of extreme hunger...

at night, wei came over and dragged me out to the mercedes' c-class launch at sentosa's cafe del mar. him and his car-crazed mood as usual.

and i cannot believe he made me walked all the way from the faraway parking lots to the supremely faraway cafe del mar.

after a long walk riddled with grumblings and curses (coming from me) in the extreme humidity of the night, we finally arrived at cafe del mar. the free flow booze was my redemption after the grueling long walk.

oh-so-cute-sinewy-muscled bevy of young boys doing free-running all over the metal structure... which i remarked to wei was an extreme homo-erotic display where topless boys of age slide down poles and holes next to one another in extreme close contacts

les enfant terribles...

several many many glasses of wine later...

... we both looked like we need extreme makeovers

wei's idea of driving us back home safely without having the traffic police to stop us on the road for breathalyser tests - sleep off the alcohol on his mini cooper

hadn't had a saturday this fun in a long, long time!

Yet Another Candle For Seto

2007-08-16T14:52:00.000+08:00

HAPPY BURFDAEY SETO THE CHEETOH!!!

one will know one is ageing simply by observing the fashion in which his or her birthday is being celebrated:

1. instead of the usual drunken night of debauchery and decadence in a cool club like zouk, your birthday is celebrated over high tea at the swissotel's equinox with a group of friends and they are totally sober

2. one does not get receive gifts or presents like a vibrator or a dildo anymore, but will instead receive useful practical gifts like bookstore vouchers, travel suuitcases, running shoes, etc.

3. at least one of your guests at your high tea birthday celebration will have children in tow and you and everyone else will be addressed as auntie seto, uncle zai, auntie dora, uncle david, auntie karen, auntie yvonne and uncle dolphin (that's me according to felicia's little nicholas)

the cake was obviously too small to fit in 40 candles altogether... or was it 45?

and the view from the equinox was of course, to die for...

and yeah, i had a whale of a frigging good time!

we love you seto the cheetoh!

When Push Comes To Shove

2007-08-04T16:01:00.000+08:00

if the sky is clear and blue, it does not mean you'll have good weather for the rest of the day.
if the ocean is calm, it does not mean there will never be a tsunami elsewhere.
if the meadow is serene, it does not mean there will never be an earthquake.

and if you deduce this blog of mine to fully reflect i'm having a good time 24/7, i say go shut your traps and keep your fucking poor judgement to yourself.

writing keeps my fucking sanity alive.

and i'm sorry i don't live a fucking picture-perfect life like the way you do.

a perfect day a perfect night
your perfect life
threw me a spanner
that makes you fucking perfectly happy
i hope

Sunday Yum Cha

2007-07-23T11:26:00.000+08:00

this entry is dedicated to dora, to remind her how bleddy expensive dim sum is in singapore compared to bangkok's hai tien lo in the pan pacific hotel.

it's also dedicated to ethan for waking up so early on a sunday morning to have dim sum with me.

dear dora, you know how little the amount of dim sum we had at crystal jade? very little lor. and do you know the price tag attached to the meal? i damn angry lor, nowhere cheap like hai tien lo in bangkok lor! are you feeling restive now or not?

but ok lah, at least got great company like ethan to have dim sum with on a sunday. hor hor hor? ethan hor? teo boh?

but i still want to go back to bangkok's hai tien lo and pig out there lor...

D Is For Down

2007-07-20T16:02:00.000+08:00

D is for Down.

I can't go to KL cos of work on the weekends in August.

I really wanna be in KL in August.

And now, they took away my last weekend in August and the first weekend in September for work as well.

I am sorry.

D is for Down.

Down, it really is.

O shall be for Out.

Out, it must be then.

Tres Fabuleux Bangkok - 14th July

2007-07-19T21:01:00.000+08:00

david arrived the night before and we dragged him to the same starbucks coffee joint the very next morning

and we were ready to do more visits to another temple involving a giant swing... no kidding

here it is - the giant swing in the phra nakon district, facing the the wat suthat temple. all that is left of it is the 30 metres structure that used to hold a swing used during the harvest season. men would perch on the swing and had to swing high up and to catch a sack of gold for theirs to keep. the then reigning king in the early 1930s had to ban the ceremony after... errr... many men unceremoniously died while trying to grab the sack of gold. right.

the facade of wat suthat

view from a different angle

the courtyard

gorgeous, gorgeous finely crafted windows! i also want!!!

both david and james apparently had trouble locating the "many-tiered and massive roof of the wat suthat complex..." as found in the brochure

one of the many buddha statues along the walled perimeter of wat suthat

cute kiddy monks during lunch

temple devotees

and the four of us continued our sojourn on foot through the many rustic sois of bangkok

the UNICEF office where james holds a humane job as a humanitarian... both dora and i too, wants to have a humane job like james has and live fabulously like he is living it up in bangkok right now

dora and i rightfully holds the conviction that submitting this photo of us looking as humane as possible together with our CV and resume when applying for a humane job with the UN will increase our chances of getting an employment there

forest whitaker lived in the very same building as james' office when he was in bangkok for filming way back then

the oh-so-bloody-gorgeous-view of the chao phraya river from the balcony where james' office is... arghhh! i also want!!!

and if you look to the left, that is the other view of the chao phraya

all want to act cute only... they all not shy one...

bagpackers' haven - khao san road - made famous by leonardo dicapacicililiyoyo in the movie "the beach"... i don't know how these skanky looking bagpackers do it but i think i won't last more than an hour here. but the imitation ray ban i got was a steal... for 8 frigging SGD!!!

aboard the river taxi along the chao phraya

the nervous smiles - upon realising the fact that we did not see any life vest on board

wat arun or the temple of dawn - in all of its towering majesty as our river taxi passed by it

the food court at emporium mall - i had to have another plate of pad thai there, it was frigging fuyummyfuckingliscious! and the fish maw soup i had was out of this world!

and men being men, david and james got all too exhausted and went home. dora and i were left to our own devices - we went straight to 'boots'.

as with my several previous bangkok holidays, i never did learn my lesson when it comes to shopping for toiletries at 'boots' - a lesson which almost cost me in terms of my cargo weight allowance each time i take the plane bag to singapore.

all in all, i bought:
a. 2 bottles of body lotions
b. 8 bottles of shower gels
c. 6 tubs of facial cleanser
d. 4 tubs of shaving gels
e. 1 jar of face cream

total net weight of toiletries purchased - 5kg

and i was tempted to add two 1-litre giant ass sized shower gels, but my rudimentary mental arithmetic sent me alarm bells that i may exceed my cargo weight limit when i fly back to singapore later. dang! dang cargo weight allowance! dang you budget airline!

no holiday to bangkok is complete if one did not partake unto the deserts and fabulous drinks that greyhound cafe in the emporium mall has to offer... it's something i'd always do whenever in bangkok

the parfait in greyhound... oh-so-fucking-yummy!

view from vertigo, the rooftop bar of the banyan tree hotel where we had pre-dinner drinks

another breathtaking view where the lit-up lumphini park is almost visible

my lychee martini rocks! and please do ask dora to relate the story behind the orchid found on her drink if you see her next time - she'll enlighten you with a new cultural insight she had learn from james and me pertaining to thai culture

vertigo - i fucking love it!

with the cool evening breeze perpetually blowing in your face, not even singapore's new asia bar above swissotel can rival the experience vertigo has to offer

to do this, i think i'll need a boyfriend... dang!

dinner time - we went to the district of sukhumvit's arab quarter for a middle-eastern fare - while james and dora were busy looking at the signboard for the menu...

...my digicam lens wandered off and caught sight of a oh-so-cute-thai-guy making bread... oh-so-cute... awww... u can dough me anytime cutie...!

fantastic dinner with fantastic company... yummers!

on the way home, we each got ourselves a scoop or two of gelato along sukhumvit road.

it was yet another marvelous day in bangkok.

oh yes one more thing... did i talk about macaroons and cakes from the grand hyatt erawan already?

that'll come pretty soon then.

Tres Fabuleux Bangkok - 13th July

2007-07-18T22:00:00.001+08:00

i got up way before mister james did, our kind host who let us stay in his lovely apartment. seriously, it was a lovely apartment... decked with old wood carvings from the southeast asian cultures, old wooden and teak consoles, contemporary paintings and a rubik cube on his coffee table.

james, who holds a humane job under the auspices of UNESCO as a humanitarian, left for work for humane reasons, and dora and i - to our own devices. we were both ready to take on the city.

this is as close as we got to keeping to our exercise routine (like we had back in singapore) - we visited the pool downstairs from james' apartment and after a minute, we went on through the sois of bangkok in search of glorious food.

i don't do this in singapore, but dora said we must do this in bangkok. starbucks was just across the road from where james is living at and we had to go visit it for a cuppa.

the both of us were totally bowled over by thai hospitality from the staffs of starbucks. we felt the initial reaction - that restive feeling started to brew in both dora and i. why can't we ever get impeccable service such as this in singapore?

i told dora i am seething on the inside at the startling degree of asymmetry between bangkok and singapore when it comes to service and hospitality quality.

all was calm on a friday morning in starbucks. lovely french doors opened into the deeper exterior of the place.

aaargh! their starbucks is housed in a lovely wooden villa!

the food loft @ central chidlom - it's like le vill'age or marche' in singapore, only difference is that it is not tacky and does not contain cheesy decor. and oh, did i say it has impeccable service standards? and supremely all-smiley and helpful service staffs too?

with a view to boot from where our dining table was

pad thai - pure culinary heaven on the taste bud till the last stands of noodles and taugeh and juicy prawns

and we walked down past the grand hyatt erawan where the famous erawan shrine is situated next to it - the four faced brahma deity

the erawan shrine replete with female thai classical dancers in service of dedication of song and dance to the deity for every devotee's prayer that was answered

although james and david (who joined us in bangkok on later in the evening) were alarmed at how dora and i exhibited our disturbing eating pattern and habit throughout the whole trip, james was glad to know were were both planning embarking some serious cultural tour of the city of bangkok.

i forgot how majestic the sight of the golden stupas and glittering roof stuccos were when i first visited the grand palace complex many years back. one has got to be there to revere the awesome architecture of the whole complex.

the avenue leading to the entrance of the grand palace

one of the first murals on the doors of the main gate we came across - i went completely crazy over them non stop

a close-up shot on part of a massive mural depicting a scene for the ramakien, the thai version of the ramayana epic

the upper terrace where the golden reliquary, a buddhist scripture repository and the royal pantheon of the past chakri kings are enshrined

watching the courtyard swarming with tourists and travellers like myself, i can't help but reminisce the days when i read ancient and modern thai history in school and university. for a while, i imagined how the early chakri kings could have strolled in the palace courtyard - long before commoners were allowed in its hallowed compound.

pat on my back - not bad an attempt at a shot on my cheapskate digicam

along the corridors of the emerald buddha temple, aka wat phra kaew

the main doorway leading into the hall where the statue of the emerald buddha sits atop a more than ten metres altar gilded with gold and precious gems. dora and i sat on the floor inside the main hall where the emerald buddha sits... and i was totally in awe of the massive murals on all walls and the ornate interior produced by the finest thai craftsmanship.

the royal pantheon - prasat phra dhepbidorn

dora and her newfound bling-bling buddy as accessory

she wasn't quite pleased when i requested a shot of her from her cleavage upwards

looking at this very window makes me want to be so frigging rich cos i'd like the same for my windows at home too, including the kitchen and bathroom windows

endless wall murals on the depiction of buddha's life

the chakri maha prasat hall where the central throne hall is situated

very very hot... cannot tahan

quaint small cafe where we had our 10 frigging bhat cold mineral water... 10 frigging bhat! that's like under 50 cents in singapore... we felt restive all over again

so we did the tourist trapping of hopping onto a tuk-tuk to MBK mall where we met james who knocked off work by 4pm (at 4 frigging pm!!!).

under my instigation, dora and i had a quick but fantastic KFC meal at MBK. we conspired not to reveal this part of our eating habit to both james and david.

dora suggested that we should clean our hands and fingers with antiseptic gel to rid ourselves of the KFC smell of oily fried chicken, in a bid to destroy all evidence on us partaking greasy junk food. i totally adore this girl for her brilliant ideas.

but we both can't lie or keep a secret for nuts, and confessed our actions to james when we met him at MBK. david soon too, found out. it's official - both dora and i are are singaporean tourists in bangkok.

back at james' apartment in the evening, the three of us had a tete-a-tete over wine, beer and gin & tonic before heading out to dinner at soi lang suan

dinner at thang long with james' friends - sara, jeffrey and sittisak - and many many beautiful boys there made me go a tad haywire along with the many many glasses of wine and rum & coke

dora went back to receive david who had just arrived in bangkok that night. and i tagged along with the rest of the gang to a nice bar called 'the room' along soi lang suan facing lumphini park. i think i had one too many whisky by then... but hell it was frigging fun.

we went back at 2am, and as i got ready to sleep, i had piggy thoughts of pigging out the next day at more food courts and food halls all one may find in bangkok.

hmmmm... food... equals to fat... but i'm on a holiday.... so it is fine right? sure is fine.

Tres Fabuleux Bangkok - 12th July

2007-07-18T21:01:00.000+08:00

i don't even know how i'll go about making this blog entry on the recent bangkok trip i had with dora and david.

it's frigging massive considering the fact that i snapped over 400 pictures on my trusty cheapskate digicam.

many a times, while walking along the backstreet soi of bangkok, i'd ask dora, "eh how ah? i've got way too many pictures leh... then hor, i also want to include ALL the pictures onto my blog but i know cannot lor, sure too many... then how?"

i've figured it out: be selective and do short captions for each image that i will choose to upload.

and so i shall start from the thursday evening we flew out of singapore to bangkok...

dora was cramming her brain to the very last word on her english-thai dictionary before we boarded the plane

she made it... the whole english-thai dictionary... we will never be lost in bangkok for the next 4 days

we boarded the plane. it was a budget airline that we took. and that was my first time on a budget airline. ever.

i was horrified petrified. it was the smallest airplane i've ever been on board in my entire life. and everything went bumpy in mid-air.

mid-air conversation with dora ensued:

me: hey, it's kinda like shaking all over the place, this plane i mean, i've never had anything like this on way bigger planes i've been on, pretty bumpy for a small plane huh?

dora: do you wanna change seats with me? you don have to be next to the window you know... do you have valium on you? you might wanna pop one right now. or you want candy? i've got candies.

me: nah it's okay, i'm okay, just that... like wow... my first time on a budget ya know... and the seats are like... 3 seats, then the aisle, then 3 seats... kinda small doncha think? i'm used to either 3 seats, then the aisle, then 4 seats, then another aisle, and followed by 3 seats... big... ya know... big... or even business class which i took when i travelled in my previous job... big planes... really big planes.... not small like this....

at this point during the conversation, i had a strong suspicion dora really wished i had valium on me.

we eventually touched down, safely; at suvarnabhumi international airport.

and we headed straight to mister james' (our kind host) condo apartment situated off ratchadamri road.

and we both fell asleep amidst conversations over what to eat the next day...

Welcome Back To Sickeningly Singapore

2007-07-16T23:14:00.000+08:00

budget airline
air asia
sawadee
wat phra kheaw
bangkok grand palace
soi mahatlek luang neng
hyatt erawan
mitkorn mansion
macaroons
99 bhat kfc meal
pad thai
tum ga khai
lumpini park
polyglot
monoglot
central @ chidlom
food loft
starbucks' staff
a&w
vertigo
amaltery
food hall @ siam paragon
unicef
humane career
mister james
dora
david
chao phraya
suan prakad
river taxi
suan lum night market
langsuan
dim sum @ hai tien lo
greyhound cafe
parfait
raspberry pudding
fish maw soup
alarming eating behaviour
boots
toiletries
toiletries
toiletries
etc.
etc.
etc.

the restive south is brewing

watch this space for that upcoming entry on winter of discontent in bangkok

We Were Sailing Along...

2007-06-27T22:57:00.000+08:00

if only everyday's lunch holds a view like this for me... i'll be blissed out even if it means eating chicken rice from a plastic takeaway box

i wanna be back there for lunch again... or a sunset dinner... or a sunrise breakfast... or an afternoon of earl grey and pisang goreng... i could live there

location - sentosa golf club, il lido restaurant, sentosa island

The Splendour On Sunday At The Grand Hyatt

2007-06-25T21:27:00.001+08:00

i started my sunday frantically helping pavithra pick the right saree to wear for the pre-wedding dinner at hyatt later in the evening.

i convinced her to wear the off-white georgette saree with bead-works. the electric blue and red sarees are saved for the jakarta lag of the wedding.

by 6pm, we got ready. pavithra was stunning!

and i had my fully embroidered black kurta suit with an organza gold shawl to match pavithra's saree.

at 7pm, we arrived at the grand hyatt in *ahem* our full splendour and regalia.

me: i can't believe how gorgeous we both look

pavithra: that's an absolute given dean, everyone knows that

me: we're just being honest right?

pavithra: of course we are, without a doubt

me: and without feeling all too self-conceited too

pavithra: get over it, we're both truly gorgeous lah

it was also a college reunion of some sort, with all the familiar faces from NUS. damn, i still have a crush on mark (4th from left)! *grin*

karishma the bride and pavithra

and the traditional punjabi welcoming party started to usher guests into the grand ballroom regaled with percussion music, dance and lots and lots of intoxicating singing... i can't help but feel amritsar at this moment must have been a very happy city in the whole of india.

and the dancing and ushering continued into the grand ballroom, with the womenfolk taking turns to carry the happy looking pot (literally, a pot with lit candles atop it, not the other sort of 'happy pot' ya)

and the dining table we were seated at...

and the couple was formally declared as husband and wife during a civil union ceremony, flanked by their respective families on stage

followed by FOOD... it was a supremely sumptuous long buffet spread of punjabi and north indian cuisine... absolute culinary heaven, and i totally busted my diet plan that night with 3 full helpings followed by a salmagundi picking of indian deserts like rasmalai, gulab jamun, saffron and pistachio kulfis and loads more... i may have gained 3kg right now...

pavithra and i were... well... totally stuffed after several rounds of deserts and gallons of wine and spirits

bhavna and the rest of the girl friends... damn... i love their sarees and salwar khameez!

oh-so-sweet-and-totally-in-love couple... george and radha... and oh, they're having a baby boy soon... sweet.

the newlywed kick started the all time favourite song-and-dance routine...

and soon after, it was bhangra-beats and bollywood boogey all the way for the rest of the guests

while for the rest of us, it was photo-opp time with the couple

and it was most disturbingly evident that, like krispy kreme, the full on buffet spread of good food and desert had an immediate effect on my face... a startling one kg found its was to my cheeks and chin and elsewhere...

the gang from our university days...

and they danced...

and danced...

till 1am... and my lens caught two helluva cute brothers in black and fuschia coloured kurtas... arghhh! HOTTIES!!!

damn... they're super HOT!!!

by 1am, the bride and some girl friends of ours made our way to the martini bar at the mezza9 for our last of many night caps - lychee martini

and karishma and sister rosie were all obviously pooped out...

pavithra and i made our way back home to the village at 3am...

it was one helluva night

i will so totally miss out the second lag of the sangeet and wedding in jakarta although pavithra and porcky will be there... you have fun on my behalf there girlfriends!

a day after, on monday, pavithra flew to HK to be with porkcy before they fly to jakarta for the final lag of the wedding.

i am so jealous.

but i had loads of fun on the weekend.

i'll miss you pavithra.

perhaps i'll come visit you in berkeley. i'll bring hindi music albums and dvd films by mira nair.

and to charanjit and karishma, all the best in the new phase of your lives and God bless.

Karishma's Hen Party

2007-06-25T20:09:00.000+08:00

i am ranting.

no men allowed at karishma's private hen party at pooja's place?

but... but... i'm ghey!

and get this this: there was no male stripper!!!

it was only vodka and cakes! and no male stripper!

but... the following party at attica rocks!

of course the endless flow of moet et chandon was extremely helpful

and an indecent proposal from a gorgeous looking straight couple in the club who were total strangers who struck an acquaintance with me stroked my ego big time

karishma (left) and girl friend

with dahling pavithra

at 3am, pavithra and and i came back to the village, and stuffed our faces with cheese pratas. i totally busted my diet that weekend. but i don't care cos it'll prolly take a long time before i can go silly on carbo-loading with pavi in the dead hours of the morning with pavithra again. or with lichelle. or with porcky.

all in all, that was ballistically fun!

Charanjit & Karishma's Wedding

2007-06-23T21:23:00.000+08:00

and so it was the engagement ceremony according to sikh rites this morning at the gurdwara on wilkie road.

i got up at 8am, shaved, powdered my nose, and put on a champagne coloured kurta suit, and headed for the gurdwara. and they gave me a pink scarf to have my head covered, as per sikh rites and custom upon entering the gurdwara. so totally my colour!

pretty much a free and easy morning. the day started with yummy breakfast in the communal kitchen - think samosa, halva, semolina, sweet cakes, tea and the works.

groom-to-be charanjit - pink turban and pink shawl - that's him alright, campy!

radha and hubby... negotiating who gets the first bite on the samosas

and the ceremony started proper on a very free & easy note...

i presume that's the priest, reciting verses from the guru granth sahib. on intervals, he'd take out a gorgeous looking fly whisk and he'd whisked it all around him in the air. oh-i-so-wanna-do-the-same-too!

lots of kirtan (hymns) followed suit, three dudes (extreme right) did the gig on tabla and the whatchamacallit accordian thingy... trippy! on hindsight, it sounded very much like ghazal.

after almost an hour of trippy hymns, the ceremony came to an end, and charanjit was formally declared as engaged to karishma...

and some warrior looking sikh dude (and he had a dagger slung across his chest i swear!) offered us a lump of warm sweet milky semolina... i reverently accepted and chowed it down there and then... lest he finds an excuse the draw his dagger.

the blushing groom-to-be...

and families of the groom and bride-to-be

and the rest of us - i looked pregnant in this shot lor... damn irritating can!

and then...

the langar lunch followed at the communal kitchen again... sweet rice, yellow rice, chapatis and vegetarian fare... one's gotta love sikh ceremonies for all of its trippy hymns, pink head dress and lots and lotsa food!

i like!

oh by the way, karishma was not present at the ceremony... due to some customary requirement i guess.

she's having her bridal shower tonight but no men allowed... but i'm ghey! dang!

meanwhile, pavithra touched down in singapore from delhi for the wedding and she's staying with me for the celebrations.

gotta go get ready for the big partaaay for the lovebirds at attica tonight... another posting to come for the traditional sangeet pre-wedding celebrations at the hyatt tomorrow evening.

what to wear? what to wear? what to wear?

Pret-a-Problem

2007-06-22T15:27:00.000+08:00

aishwarya rai
hrithik roshan
madhuri dixit
lara dutta
zeenat aman
lata mangeshkar
asha boshle
amitabh bachan
jaya bachan
ranee mukherjee
vivek oberoi
prety zinta
shilpa shetty
sharukh khan

and the list goes on...

it's charanjit and karishma's wedding party this saturday and sunday.

two of my favourite people on this planet.

charanjit makes the best fag stag for every 'behind-the-velvet-rope parties'.

karishma amuses me all the time when she reports on latest business news every morning on TV on BBC live from mumbai.

yeah sure, i have lots of kurta suits and ring shawl shaminas and pashminas to match.

but i feel totally inadequate somehow.

you guys had to do the 'dean & partner' on the wedding invite.

what 'partner' may i ask?

it's okay, i'll walk into the hyatt ballroom with Pavithra in tow, my exotic chennai beauty with brains and a PhD from berkeley to boot.

but i don't know what to wear.

Super Illegals' Ghosts

2007-06-22T12:15:00.000+08:00

ian, the head honcho of super illegals, played his band's track entitled 'Ghosts' in the office.

immediately, the mat motor-void deck in me exclaimed "eh i like! so emo like i want to slit my wrists like that! i likeeey!"

and so here it is, embedded in my blog for posterity.

thanks ian.

enjoy.

happy friday by the way.

and yeah, i'm a mat and i hang out at the void deck and pluck my guitar too.

Those Damn Addictive Calories!

2007-06-21T11:10:00.000+08:00

so, what's with watching your calorie-count when you actually have nice sweet cute interns bringing you home-baked muffins to your desk for breakfast in the morning...?

so that was like what? 10,000 gazillion gazooboollion calories? but hell it was damn good! macadamia and white chocolate in that mound of all things sweet!

and a pommey followed suit... yeah ok, that was just my way of saying "i'm redeeming myself with a healthy super packed anti-oxidant fruit..."

Bang! Bang!

2007-06-18T17:54:00.000+08:00

t-baton defense tactic- PASS
tactical defense & unarmed defense- PASS
revolver shooting- FAIL - DAMN IRRITATING CAN!

nabey...!

Being Beng

2007-06-12T22:01:00.000+08:00

for the first time, i had fun today during my reservist in-camp training course. we had to learn and demonstrate a new move during our tactical unarmed combat and defense tactic class.

we played pretend. an assailant attacks a police office from the back. police officer immediately drops to the ground and curls his body and rolls on his shoulder and butt to a safe distance away from the assailant. police officer jumps back into defense position and authoritatively commands "stand back sir!".

wasn't an easy move to be honest. but i gave it a shot anyway.

assailant attacked me from behind. i dropped to the ground and curled my body and rolled on my shoulder and butt to a safe distance away from assailant. i recovered pretty fast into defense position and the unthinkable happened.

i instinctively blurted out the line "nabey cheebye! hong gan!"

the whole troop descended into chaotic laughter and delirium. the instructors dropped on their knees and guffawed their guts out while clenching their stomachs.

for the rest of the day, the troop addressed me as ah beng.

reservist training has never been this fun. i love the day i had today.

Back To Paradise Gulag

2007-06-11T00:32:00.000+08:00

okay, here's a quick one.

i'm back to reservist gulag training camp from monday till friday this week.

i'd usually ceremoniously brandish my middle finger and all manners of profanities in the hokkien and cantonese dialect will be directed towards the gahmen for forcing me to serve a conscripted, undignified, regimented and a total waste of time during the duration of reservist training period.

but after a total bollock of a weekend spending saturday and sunday working my ass off from 7am; giving up my almost non-existent social life and my gym routine on both days; and only to bear the brunt of extreme senselessness - i admit this: all hail to reservist training. this is my short reprieve from it all. my chance to regain my sanity. my much needed space to rethink the next route i must take from here.

gotta go now and ready my damn uniform... dari kiri, cepat jaaaa-lan!

That Wounded Friday Afternoon Feeling

2007-06-08T17:50:00.000+08:00

one of those dreary late friday afternoon conversation with my girl friend al on yahoo:

Porn Star: sat n sun must work full day

alubah: hayoh!
alubah: at the office or out?

Porn Star: i'm just ranting

alubah: ohhhh
alubah: poor thing

Porn Star: it's a friday now
Porn Star: at this time in KL, i'd be paying up for my purchases at the supermarket in KL at Plaza Damas, with you in tow, then u will be calling Almir to check if he can help send me back to Lanson Place
Porn Star: i always fall asleep in the couch while waiting and the TV will be playing until you know...
Porn Star: sigh...

alubah: then he'll come and wake you up
alubah: awwwww

Porn Star: and what am i doing right now? frigging writing strategy/concept paper in the office...

i need a big break out of this whole thing here...

Those Damn Q&As Again

2007-06-07T15:05:00.000+08:00

i decided to post this draft that i had saved from last night. i get this sorta thing all the time via e-mails or friendster or whatever... it's stupid but heck, i thought this will be fun.

1. What are you doing now? (apart from answering these questions)
Pan-frying 4 marinated skinless chicken drumstick

2. Where are you at now?
Home, Willyn Ville, Holland Village, at the dining table in the living room

3. Where were you at before this?
California gym, Orchard Road branch

4. What were you doing there before?
Boxercise class and weight training, trying to lose weight off my frigging face and my ass

5. Who was the last person you spoke face-to-face with?
That same cute guy from the gym lah; I don't even know his name! Aaaargh!!!

6. What was the content of the conversation mainly about?
If we both may should go for spinning (cycling) class on Thursday night; yeah we're going!

7. Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone?
Chris whom I am lusting after but I have no guts to ask him to bed with me...haha!

8. What was the content of the conversation mainly about?
Asking me what I was doing until his mobile phone battery died out on him

9. Who was the last person you chatted with via online instant messaging?
Al, my girlfriend who lives in KL

10. What was the content of the conversation mainly about?
That this low fat, low calorie, low everything diet we're on sucks BIG time!!! And that we miss deep fried food and more good stuffs like that... sigh...

11. Who was the last person that you corresponded with via SMS?
Andy... hum sup Andy

12. What was the SMS content mainly about?
That his bf Jake is away on a business trip and he wants to meet me for supper but that was just an excuse to get into my pants because he's horny... buwahaha! (sue me!)

13. What was your last meal? (breakfast, lunch, tea-break, dinner, etc)
Apart from my dinner which is not ready yet? That has gotta be the snack I had before gym

14. What did you have during your last meal?
A Quaker-oats with raisins 90 calorie, zero fat, zero transfat snack bar... sigh...

15. What was the last thing you did before you went bed last night?
Prayed for mom's restful soul

16. What was the first thing you did when you woke up this morning?
Walked to the bathroom and took a piss while brushing my teeth with my new Oral-B Braun electric toothbrush... heaven... I don't even have to move my arms vigorously anymore!

17. What was the first thing you consumed this morning?
Blended quarter of a watermelon and 4 celery sticks... drank it all up... sigh...where's my egg prata?

18. What did you wear this morning to wherever you were going?
Blue jeans, printed short sleeved shirt, sneakers

19. What was the last song you heard?
Siren by Tori Amos

20. Describe the bed you sleep in (type of sheets, bedlinen’s colour, etc)
Decadent! Very decadent! :P 440 thread count sheets and quilt-cover and pillow casings from Cressendale; one bodymate pillow, four pillows, colour scheme - dark brown and dark gray

21. Describe the state of your bedroom currently
Ultra messy, I need to re-organize my work-station-desk and vacuum the floor, it's been more than a week since it was vacuumed!

22. Describe the state of your bathroom currently
Sparkly, dry and fresh! I fcuking love Mr Muscle bathroom and tile detergent man!!!

23. Describe the state of your kitchen currently
Free from those damned roaches which came out of nowhere last week until I installed roach bait-poison... other than that, it's pretty okay and it smells of 4 marinated chicken drumsticks in a frying pan cooking slowly on a small flame

24. What is the latest big ticket item you purchased? How much did it cost?
Supplements and stuffs like that. $320 bucks after major discounts.

25. Where did you purchase it at?
GNC along Orchard Road

26. What big ticket item do you want to purchase next?
Tough... but it will probably be a new laptop

27. What items are you wearing or do you have on you almost every other day that makes you think you’re a brand whore?
Uhmmm... my Energie belt and wallet? Or my Etro keychain? But I'm no brand ho' lah!

28. When was the last time you had an alcoholic beverage?
Last Sunday night

29. What sort of an alcoholic beverage did you consume? How much did you consume?
Guinness Draught, 2 pints

30. Where did you consume it at? With whom were you with when you consumed it?
Holland Village's Tango, with CY and his girlfriend

31. When was your last holiday/trip?
Way too long a time ago, end of January 07

32. Where did you go to on your last holiday/trip?
KL, Malaysia Truly Asia

33. Who did you go with on your last holiday/trip?
Alone as usual

34. When will your next holiday/trip be?
Cross fingers, mid July!

35. Where will your next holiday/trip be at?
Nearby lah, Bangkok

36. With whom will you be going with on your next holiday/trip?
Ah eh with Dora!!! Aaaah! Wait we both can take same pictures and blog about the same things! Aaaah!

37. What do you normally do on Saturday mornings?
Either (i)boxercise class and weight training in the gym or (ii)run from home to the Botanical Gardens and meet Dora and David and sometimes together with the rest of the friends for brunch at Tanglin Mall's Cafe Beviamo

38. What do you normally do on Saturday evenings?
Ok this is sad... I stay home and watch DVDs and drink wine alone despite Colin coaxing me to come out with him and Roy

39. What do you normally do on Sunday mornings?
Either (i)i sleep in late or (ii)i meet whoever for early morning breakfast

40. What do you normally do on Sunday evenings?
Head to the gym and dinner thereafter with Alex

41. What is your most watched TV programme/show?
BBC's World Report

42. Name five TV channels you cannot live without?
Cartoon Network, Discovery, National Geographic, HBO, BBC

43. What was the title of the last book which you have read?
Muhammad by Karen Armstrong

44. What is the title of the next book you will want to read?
Hitler's Pope - The Secret History of Pius XII by John Cornwell

45. Name three movie titles you can watch over and over again
Romy & Michelle (here's to us Sean darling!!!), Amelie, The Lords of the Ring

46. Name three book titles you don’t mind reading for the second time
All titles by Roald Dahl, Rumpole of the Bailey series by John Mortimer, all titles by Stephen Fry

47. Name a friend who you meet most of the time
Alex lor! And his parennial SMS: "you do what thing? tea/dinner later?"

48. What is the one thing you’ve always wanted to do for a long time but you have yet to get round to it?
Pierce my nipples...at least one of my nipples lah... but the thought of it... YOUCH!!!

49. Who do you really want to see right now?
Al but she's in KL... and another in KL... oh well... I'm stuck here

50. What are you thinking right now?
I can't believe I am doing this! On a serious note, I need greener pastures. Enough said.

State the time and date at which you completed this list of questions:
10.10pm, 6th June 2007

Haiku

2007-05-29T14:59:00.000+08:00

while i was rummaging through my old notebooks looking for some work-related information, i came across something which i scribbled last year... penned down in between some old and tattered pages of an almost forgotten notebook which i thought i had lost it and i never stopped blaming myself for losing it.

it was a lame attempt at writing a haiku... and die hard traditional haiku fans will gladly burn me at the stake for willfully ignoring the rules of writing a haiku. oh what the hell... i mean it anyway. but i'm so glad to have found it again.

and hence, i'm posting this for posterity:

12-14052006

vascillating mind
wrist watch beckons
time at standstill

journey between hills
the eyes closed
when will it be over

same receptionist smiled
her mischievious thoughts
key card to room 914

cold beer in alexis
and the sky poured
smoking and waiting

came thru the door
the smile again
enveloped in an embrace

rivers gushing wild
oceans forming wide
who's to stop them?

between the bedsheet
and the pillows
his murmurs seeped into the night

hazy petrol filled day
never beyond the hills
it shall remain here

to depart day after
the face must be brave
for the night

the night dies out
the key to morning
must be lost but it did not

silence marked
the departure
a kiss and embrace dominates

back home
the spot next to me
you're back there again

For My Suaku Girlfriend

2007-05-28T16:43:00.000+08:00

i'm doing this for al. i cannot believe she's not heard snow patrol's chasing cars.

it's so uber emo... how can you totally miss this song off your radar girl?!

okay you may slit your wrist now... heh!

The Doctor Is In... To Play!

2007-05-28T00:09:00.000+08:00

i cannot believe i actually went to 'play' for the first time on saturday night. oh well, that was because louis flew in for the weekend and perhaps it'll be a good excuse to hang out... plus alex and darius could sign us in.

and kwun ho caught me in 'play' while i was trying to act cool although the searing heat and humidity was making me look totally uncool... i was perspiring although all i did was to stand at the bar counter, looking all too lost.

kwun ho: "oh my gawd... wot's wrong with you, first the gym, and now the clubs? what's next? circuit parties?"

kwun ho you ho!

but all and all, never mind 'play'. don't like it at all. at least it was good to be able to hang out with louis this weekend.

buh-bye and catch you again louis... taipei, chicago, vancouver, wherever, sometime, somewhere!

note: i was aghast when i saw my own face in the picture above... i just don't get it, i lost 4kg since the may day holiday and my face is still fat? it's folding everywhere... like the michelin man! arghhh!

All White, Fluffy & Ginormous

2007-05-24T23:07:00.000+08:00

another posting on clouds! shot these amazing massive fluffy cloud formations while i was walking out to lunch with ian. i was totally bowled over! my trusty nokia n80 caught all these shots.

and this is one massive huge ass formation... and it looked extremely near right above your head when you stand under it

and that's harry pothead on a game of quidditch... is that how you spell it? only managed to painfully complete one chapter before i decided it was way too pedestrian... like the da vinci code

but yeah... awesome clouds... nice

The Morning Coronation Of Jordin Sparks

2007-05-24T10:47:00.000+08:00

hey jordin girl
i got home last night
and i skipped boxercise class
just to watch you belt it out in the finals
when you sang
you made my tasteless zero carbo dinner meal
a joy to chew on
when you sang
you teared
and i teared on my couch in the living room too
you sparkled
but i was afraid for you
that teenyboppers all across america
who have no inkling of a clue what a singing competition means
will instead vote
for the one who kept beat-boxing
for it irritates the hell out of me
whenever i hear stunted and contorted staccatos
infused into one of jon bon jovi's sacred classic
that's music assasination
but this morning at 10am singapore time
you were enthroned
as the american idol
i can rest now

and you
yes you
you who kept flogging the dead horse with your tiresome beat-box
your can take a back seat now
you got canned

Greetings For The Cheebs

2007-05-23T14:30:00.000+08:00

HAPPY 32nd BIRTHDAY LICHELLE!!!

XOXOX
from all of us here in singapore

Shuji Goes To Little India

2007-05-21T13:51:00.000+08:00

with shuji in town for the weekend from tokyo, i thought it'd be good to at least show him little india while alex went for his uhmmm... singing lesson.

like any travels of all sorts, a gastronomical introduction to the the locale culinary experience is a must.

this tokyo boy sure can eat lots of curry and naan!

shuji had a nagging suspicion that something pot-bellied, cute, benevolent and has a long thick trunk was creeping up from behind...

inner court of the hindu temple, revealing the door ways into the inner sanctum... gorgeous artistry! when i have lots of money, i want my home to look as gorgeous as that!

he did try for the position of guardsman at the temple but they told him the doorway was just to ginormous for him...

girls... they just automatically fleet towards all that is shiny and glittery and glitzy and gold...

i tried to convince shuji it was considered auspicious to run around garlands of flowers while singing and dancing but he decided to stay put and posed for a shot instead... chuckle!

hell! the singapore tourism board had better take notice of a job well done here!

Bomb Of A Faux Pas

2007-05-20T19:34:00.000+08:00

there are several situations which makes me wanna slap people's faces, or sometimes to just laugh at them silly till i drop dead.

and so, there i was today at noon, queuing up at the cashier in cold storage in the village. behind me in the same queue was a lady talking real loud on her mobile as if she's the village voice transmitter, with an obviously fake american accent:

"yeah i just got back from europe... uh huh... oh yeah... it was nice... yeah i did lots of shopping, i am so tired... yeah i am gonna take another holiday soon... i'm going to MALEBOMB (melbourne) next..."

at that point in time, i wanted to race to the cutlery section and slit my throat with a paring knife and drop dead right away before i am accused of being rude for laughing my head off at someone...

My Poor Melinda

2007-05-17T13:03:00.000+08:00

melinda got booted out
i am devastated
deluged
mowed over
distressed
rocked over
shattered
upset
confuted
confounded

no one else in this season could even stand paragon next to you
no one
no one at all

Please Don't Eat Me

2007-05-16T22:36:00.000+08:00

over dinner at sushi tei in the village with felicia, we were seated facing a glass aquarium full of live lobsters.

people generally ask themselves this whenever they sit right in front something still alive which potentially may end up on their plate five minutes later:

"can i really eat something i saw that was alive a couple of minutes ago?"

but for these crustacean dudes in the aquarium in there looking out at us diners, one perennial questions may be on their mind:

"hookay guys... who's next? bob? joe? fred? or... could it be me?"

ignorance is truly bliss if animals like these dudes don't actually have to think or don't have the ability to think.

so i'd rather have my food served straight from the kitchen where i don't get to witness their last moments being alive before they end up as my dinner...

Here We Are

2007-05-14T17:26:00.000+08:00

we're family, in our own ways
the laughters
the jokes
the anecdotes of our youths
the tempers
the tears
the banters
the witty come-backs
the flares
the long walks
the sumptuous meals
the simple meals
the everything that criss-crossed our lives
we treasure it all in our hearts
till our dying days

so that our children and our children's children
will know someday
that this family we form
did live our lives
and did share our lives
unconditionally amongst us all
because we're a family of friends

note: pictures were shot from last sunday's morning stroll at the Botanical Gardens; with Felicia and her two boys; Seto, Dora & David.

A Letter To Mommy

2007-05-13T23:14:00.000+08:00

Hi Mom,

It's Mothers' Day today... well, at least there's half an hour more to go before the day wraps up. I know you're not getting anything from me today; no flowers, no greeting card, no gifts, no day-off-household chores, no big hugs, no "I'll-do-grocery-shopping-for-you-today" and what-nots. It's been like that for the past seven years huh?

But if there's anything I could give you, it's always two things; without fail.

I say a little prayer for you every other day. And I give you the assurance that I am doing fine despite adversities that may or have come in my way (thank God for my friends and those whom I hold dear in the deep recesses of my heart who have been there for me all these while).

Happy Mothers' Day to you mom. Rest in peace. Love you lots.

*sniff*

xoxox,
Your Son

Beautiful Morning Downpour

2007-05-11T16:04:00.000+08:00

i only love it when it rains
especially when i get out of bed in the morning
and your room is darker than the usual irritating days of sunshine morning
and you draw the curtains open
to reveal the full might of dark clouds
pouring its liquid content down to earth
and traffic nervously mitigate its way along the road
under the pouring dark gloomy sky

it makes my morning
it makes my day
i adore mornings such as this
i adore days such as this
i adore the day today
it's beautiful
it portends a good day for me

8.50am: on my way to the ministry of foreign affairs via holland road, one of the most beautiful rainy morning i've ever had today

Wanting More

2007-05-07T23:26:00.000+08:00

knock off work on time.
go home.
pan-fry some rosemary lamb sausages.
steam a bunch of broccolis and baby carrots.
watch Rome on HBO.
go to bed.

an initial plan that was.
the plan that did not come through.

knocked off work on time.
went home.
frantically packed my gym bag.
boarded bus 7 to orchard road.
just in time for boxercise class.
stamina came back on track.
the endorphin high satiated my evening.
got home at 9.
pan fried some rosemary lamb sausages.
steamed a bunch of broccolis and baby carrots.
TV dinner with Rome on HBO.
i'm ready to go to bed.

this is good.
feeling uneasy about potentially missing a work-out session is good.
it's good to be back and wanting more.

A Weekend Of All Sorts

2007-05-06T23:10:00.000+08:00

this weekend has gotta be the most filled up saturday-sunday weekend!

did my very first back-breaking boxercise class after 3 years of absentia. fofoa the samoan boxercise instructor took a dig at me when he saw me outside the studio before the class began.

fofoa: so dean, you're back aye?

me: yeap... after 3 years

fofoa: yeah i can see that, it looks like you have a 3 kilometres worth of waist happening there...

me: bastard...

fofoa: that's me alright... now get your arse back to your spot, we've some serious cardio for you to pick up all over again! move! move! move!

i survived the class, even more determined than ever to go for more boxercise classes (gees, i wanna get addicted to boxercise all over again!)

then it was late lunch and tea with dora, felicia and david at foster's in the village.

and since i'm counting calories in my 'must lose weight' hyperdrive effort, i ordered the nicoise salad - i.e. tuna, and lotsa raw yucky green leaves

while david was all eased up ordering real food from the menu... although the man is gonna run several marathons coming up this year... fit people have it good all the time... blaaah!

and the rest of them did partake unto scones and cakes while i watched them at it...

so very within my reach... so very very within my reach... but oh well, i'm not the one getting fat anyway, so screw the scones and cakes!

later in the evening, mr mark chan who's back from shanghai for his coming performance in the upcoming singapore arts festival had me over for a tete-a-tete at his place...

over...

cuban cigars and strong java... heaven!

while mark was on seventh heaven on cuban cigars and coffee...

i was on the 80th heaven...

nice...

after that, wei came and picked me up to go to zouk's wine bar for...

lynda's sweet 16 birthday party!!!

happy birthday girlfriend!!!

after several pints of guinness draught later, it is evident that alcohol proves to be an effective skin refresher compared to botox.

barely 1am, the sleepy bug got me and we went home to slumberland...

we woke up the next morning and wei's first words in bed were, "i'm hungry"

"ditto", said i.

we drove to adam road hawker centre at 9am...

where i ordered soto ayam (very healthy wor!)

and wei appeared blissed tucking into mee rebus

we hit the gym later in the afternoon after a long siesta. as i walked out of the gym after working out, a 'once-a-month' sight on orchard road greeted me...

the march past along orchard road for the changing of guards at the presidential istana

men in fitted uniforms... drool...

after saying goodbye to wei, i took a walk along orchard road to borders bookstore where i wanted to get lynda her birthday present and to meet alex for dinner.

street buskers; they call themselves 'samba masala'. pretty neat percussion beats they drummed up... although they aren't as funky as wicked aura batucada. perhaps samba masala needs the to-drool-for hunks factor like wicked aura batucada has.

like a moth to a flame, i felt the strong pull of something very luxe...

chanel had revamped their store's facade... uber nice!

and tang's store glitzy proclamation on turning 75 this year

after dinner, alex and i rounded up the evening with shopping! i so needed retail therapy big time considering depressing manic monday is looming.

foowah! you damn hemsem boy wor!!!

monday coming liao... nabey...

Non Sequitur - Of Prejudices & Bigotry

2007-05-04T17:10:00.000+08:00

is this hate speech or plain comical piece of low-cerebral expression?

you guys decide. i think the remnants of Nazi Germany's cronies from the Third Reich is still very much around... coming from my alma mater *scoff*

May 4, 2007
Decriminalising homosexual acts would be an error
By Yvonne C. L. Lee, For The Straits Times

Readers of The Straits Times have written in to question the rationale for the criminalisation of homosexual acts. It is imperative that we understand the legal and broader social implications, and that Parliament, in the forthcoming debate on the Penal Code reform, carefully considers these implications.

The Home Affairs Ministry has indicated that Section 377A of the Penal Code (S377A) will be retained. S377A prohibits the commission of gross indecency by one male person with another male person. Opinions have been expressed that S377A may be unconstitutional because it discriminates against homosexuals by criminalising homosexual sex and not oral and anal sex committed by heterosexuals or lesbians.

This is an over-simplistic reading of the equality clause.

Context

Firstly, the legal meaning of equality must be understood within its social context. Equality is not an absolute value. Extreme applications of equality impair community interests and violate the rights of others. Furthermore, the Constitution does not prohibit all forms of discrimination.

Like cases must be treated alike, but Parliament may enact measures which differentiate between different groups. The courts hold that such measures must satisfy two tests to be constitutionally valid: Firstly, the classification must have a rational basis. Secondly, the law must serve a legitimate purpose which is reasonably related to the basis for the classification.

Each differentiating legal measure serves a social objective. For example, a married individual with four children enjoys higher tax relief than one without children. The public good is to encourage married couples to have more babies.

To view the issue of S377A exclusively as a matter of equality omits the broader context -- that rights can clash with other rights and community values.

When they do, Parliament may pass laws which reflect the public good in preference over the rights of the individual or groups.

Any argument to decriminalise homosexual sex must consider the harmful social consequences. For example, would affirming homosexual sexual practices serve the common good? It is a known medical fact that homosexual intercourse or sodomy is an inherently unhealthy act that carries higher risks of a number of sexually transmitted infections. The law should not facilitate acts which threaten public health.

Moreover, any reform to the Penal Code must preserve fundamental values which serve the public good, instead of abstract notions of equality or fashion.

Broader agenda

Recent developments in foreign jurisdictions like Canada, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States indicate that the move to decriminalise homosexual sex is the first step in a broader homosexual rights agenda to transform social morality:

If S377A is repealed, homosexual sex is legitimised, transformed from a crime into an 'alternative lifestyle'.

The minimum age for sodomy must then be specified. This opens the door for homosexual lobbyists to pursue the next step of equalising the age of consent for homosexuals and heterosexuals. The current age of consent for homosexual sex in countries which have decriminalised sodomy ranges from 13 to 18, covering Singapore males from Secondary 1 to junior college.

The third step is re-conceptualising homosexuality as a civil right in the name of equality. As an 'alternative lifestyle', homosexual lobbyists will seek for this to be endorsed and 'mainstreamed' into society (for example, arts, education, entertainment and media), beyond the privacy of the bedroom. The current view that 'sexual orientation' should not be a basis for discrimination is problematic. 'Sexual orientation' is a vague term covering a range of sexual expressions, including paedophilia and bestiality. Also, the assertion that one is 'born gay' is scientifically unproven.

An active homosexual agenda has engendered clashes with fundamental liberties such as free speech and religious liberty. Christian pastors have been criminally prosecuted for sermons declaring that homosexuality is a sin, a view also held by Muslims and many non-religious people who consider homosexuality unnatural and morally repugnant. Attempts have been made to extend 'hate speech' laws to the Bible and Quran.

People who oppose the homosexual agenda are branded as intolerant, bigoted, homophobes, or hateful towards homosexuals who are merely 'different'. This does not promote free speech but seeks to censor it. If this intolerance against religion is imported into multiracial and multireligious Singapore, this will breed social divisiveness.

The final step involves attempts to redefine 'marriage', the fundamental institution and bedrock of many civilisations. The redefinition is a radical reconstruction of 'marriage' - no longer a union between man and woman but includes 'same-sex marriage'. Homosexuals must then be allowed to marry someone of the same sex and be given the benefits of marriage such as tax benefits, adoption of children and/or state-funded access to alternative 'reproduction' methods.

The argument that decriminalising homosexual sex will not cause a change in moral attitudes is erroneous. It has been suggested that even after adultery was decriminalised, it remained morally reprehensible. So too, decriminalising homosexual sex will not cause a shift in moral attitudes.

While the law embodies a moral judgment, it is not always prudent for the law to punish all immoral behaviour. However, to draw an analogy between adulterers and homosexuals is fallacious. Adulterers do not seek societal approval, but certain homosexual activists campaign to alter the public mindset and to gain legal and social endorsement of the gay lifestyle.

The fact is, under the proposed Penal Code reform, homosexuals wishing to lead private lives may do so, provided they do not foist their homosexual acts on the public.

S377A is a legitimate statement of the values of our society. In constitutional terms, equality claims operate within a broader social context.

Homosexuality is offensive to the majority of citizens. Allowing an aggressive homosexual rights agenda to dictate law reform ignores the nature of Singapore's multireligious, multiracial community. Such an agenda would be divisive. Therefore, the attention given to fundamental moral values of the majority of citizens by retaining S377A in its entirety strikes the right balance.

The writer is an assistant professor who teaches company law and constitutional law at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore. The opinions expressed are the author's own.

Oh Sam, Thou Art Kind To Re-Live Mine Waning Memory

2007-05-02T13:20:00.000+08:00

i almost forgot what it was like to banter with sam years ago when i was a gayfornia member years ago. we'd use to msn each other before hitting the gym in the evening after work when i was working in the filter group as a researcher.

today, sam re-lived those moments with me on msn:

Emma Fruity Loops says:
SO WHEN U GO GYM?!

pornstar says:
AH TONITE!!!

Emma Fruity Loops says:
AH FANTASTICO

pornstar says:
i make my comeback tonite!!!

Emma Fruity Loops says:
I SHALL GATHER THE GIRLS

pornstar says:
altho i may walk in looking like an oversized whale, i want to change all that 6 months down the road

pornstar says:
ah!!! then can have neener with u girls leh!

Emma Fruity Loops says:
i shall have the macho marys carry you down the aisle in your kaftan

pornstar says:
i am sick n tired of not being able to fit into my business shirts and pants without looking like i'm wearing spandex with all my fats spilling out

pornstar says:
yes yes!!!

pornstar says:
have elephants to trump my arrival

Emma Fruity Loops says:
then nubile sinewy twinky things will present to you your first myoplex cocktail as you rest serenely on the bench press

Emma Fruity Loops says:
after which you may take your pick on who shall be your welcome back gym buddy

pornstar says:
yes yes!!! and let peacocks wander around me to herald my homecoming

pornstar says:
so as long as it's not c**l

pornstar says:
EEEEEEEEEEEW

Emma Fruity Loops says:
would be 1. Steroid boy with huge deltoids and zits the size of m&ms

pornstar says:
pass

pornstar says:
next

Emma Fruity Loops says:
or 2. fey twinky boy in satin shorts

pornstar says:
i'll consider, next

Emma Fruity Loops says:
uhm thats all in the gym la the rest are your sisters

Emma Fruity Loops says:
now practise! u must have forgotten it all

Emma Fruity Loops says:
say," SISTER!"

pornstar says:
in my sisters i lay my trust

Emma Fruity Loops says:
AIR KISS

pornstar says:
seeistera

Emma Fruity Loops says:
no snapping of butts with wet towel!

pornstar says:
oh my... i totally forgot how to do my magnificato air kiss in the gym to my frens

Emma Fruity Loops says:
now tone your droppy man's breasts while u ogle at tight butts

pornstar says:
did i used to put a pink feather boa ard my neck when i used to work out in gayfornia back then? i cannot recall

pornstar says:
or was i wearing a sarong with tassles?

Emma Fruity Loops says:
ah u just go SISTER...MUACK MUACK...and do a bicep flex

pornstar says:
6 months time honey, 6 months time... i must make myself a gym addict all over again like i was years ago lor

Emma Fruity Loops says:
i think it was a pink feather hermes towel....!

pornstar says:
ah! thank u!

pornstar says:
u recalled my memory big time!

Emma Fruity Loops says:
i mean a satin hermes scarf with pink flamingo feather detail

Emma Fruity Loops says:
AH THE STEAM ROOM AWAITS YOUR PRESENCE!

pornstar says:
ah yeshhh! the Hermes towel!!! how can i forget? i a sure it's somewhere in my closet...or is that so passe now?

pornstar says:
i do have my Givenchy towelette tho

pornstar says:
oh hell, i'll stick to run off the mill Hardy Amies towels then

pornstar says:
ahhhhhhhh! the steam room! i almost forgot abt it's most wunderbar existence!

Emma Fruity Loops says:
ah yes the possbilties

Emma Fruity Loops says:
u can soften all that hair in the steam room for easy removable later

Emma Fruity Loops says:
and u can shave your legs

Emma Fruity Loops says:
and tie your hair in a turban!

pornstar says:
i shall walk in and sprinkle essential oil all over the steam room to rid it off all dirt and carnal sins that may have taken place in all 3 years of my absence from the gym

Emma Fruity Loops says:
THEN U DONT HAVE TO MESS UP YOUR BATHROOM!

pornstar says:
oh Sam darling sister of my universe next to Grego, what do i do without u recalling my memory when i go back to Gayfornia tonite

Emma Fruity Loops says:
ah! yes also i think the stink of a 10000 trolls must have accumulated so bring extra strength essential lavander oil...OR MR MUSCLE!

Emma Fruity Loops says:
and remember not to talk to.....

Emma Fruity Loops says:
MISS SHEN ZHEN!

Emma Fruity Loops says:
besides he will either be in his jeans or ugly lycra pants

pornstar says:
OHHHHHH MR MUSCLE!!!!!!!! it's the bestest thing ever, dirt n grime dissolving in the bathroom, just spray and leave it for 10 mins, and simply rinse with water and be blinded by the shine!

pornstar says:
EEEEEEEEKS!

pornstar says:
MISS SHEN ZHEN!!! horrors!!!! still in that extremely short denim shorts ah???

Emma Fruity Loops says:
ah or u spray mr muscle at the trolls so they will dissolve away screaming in 10 mins!

pornstar says:
oh i will, i just bought refill in cold storage last night

Emma Fruity Loops says:
and his glossy side combed hair that attracts moths to a flame

pornstar says:
that's a trap i tell u

pornstar says:
a dangereuse trap!

Emma Fruity Loops says:
ah! the brethren will be uber please to see you

Emma Fruity Loops says:
(i give u one week only before u sian)

Emma Fruity Loops says:
and complain abt myoplex give u lau sai

Emma Fruity Loops says:
and how crowded it is

Emma Fruity Loops says:
and smelly

pornstar says:
oh i hope so too, and to be able to see our brethren and the intelligentsia all over again... i relish that thought

Emma Fruity Loops says:
and why so many people where adidas and not stella mcarthney

Emma Fruity Loops says:
i mean wear

Emma Fruity Loops says:
and then...why everyone wear tiny satin shots and strut around like quails

pornstar says:
oh well Sam, when u look into ur wardrobe, and u see tonnes of tank tops gone to waste just because u have piled on 20 kg since i last went to the gym 3 yrs ago... that is motivation enuff to go back to the grind all over again

pornstar says:
(ok i think i shld discard my red satin muay thai kickboxing shorts lor)

Emma Fruity Loops says:
as brian said its for health la

pornstar says:
yes yes

pornstar says:
true

pornstar says:
truly said

pornstar says:
i will see u all tonite sweethearts

Time To Bring Sexy Back!

2007-05-01T20:24:00.000+08:00

today is the first of the many past public holidays (including saturdays and sundays) that i actually woke up real late... 1030am! and that was a result of dvd marathon at home last night.

and i told myself to do myself a favour from now onwards upon waking up: bring sexy back!

you'll know what i mean as this blog entry progresses.

for a start, i thought why not have a healthy meal for lunch. so i called alex for lunch at paragon's caffe beviamo. after a serving of ciabatta, tuna and scrambled egg, that felt good.

darius came along and joined us for coffee...

awww so cute lah these two!

after which... i did myself the biggest favour this year...

YES! i am back with gayfornia gym after a super long hiatus!

upon signing the agreement contract, i declared my intention of returning to the gym to some of my closest friends via sms. and the responses have been highly encouraging:

kennedy: "go away! LOL" (that was kennedy's version of encouragement in his own warped endearing way)

lynda: "yes! bring sexy back baby!"

russel: "good, so will see you more of you at (the) gym. sean and i goes go on monday and thursday"

sam: "oh my oh my. welcome home"

brian: "most importantly for health la"

dora: "well done! you go girl! i'm gonna try out spin class soon. we both be works-in-progress lah"

yeah... a work-in-progress i shall be indeed, back to the trappings all gym rats are in right now, like i was in one years ago. oh hell, i'm doing this for myself anyway, doing myself a favour.

We'll Catch You Again Lichelle!

2007-05-01T11:08:00.000+08:00

lichelle left singapore for the philippines before she moves to dubai for work. on 30th april 2007, she walked into the terminal 2 departure hall of changi airport at 8.20am for the 9am flight to davao city.

it was way much easier this time round saying goodbye to her (unlike the last time round when she left for barcelona where i was tearing non stop all the way home in dora's car). maybe it's because dubai is nearer to singapore and flying there costs a thousand bucks cheaper.

i went straight to a meeting with my client in tampines after lichelle's departure and soon felt the flu was coming down on me. nalini sent me back home right after the meeting. it felt weird stepping back into the apartment after lichelle had left somehow. but i am so so so glad to see one of my favourite girls again.

we'll see you soon girl. we will.

Wishing Everyday's A Sunday

2007-05-01T09:56:00.000+08:00

we made the best out of the whole of sunday before lichelle flew off the next day. we re-lived sunday brunch get-together at caffe beviamo.

the cheebs and me

dora and david

yummers!

sensing our presence around the vicinity, the hediard food boutique did a total lock down their prized chocolates and truffles vault...

... but we managed to visually pry into the vault

and we walked...

down to orchard road...

where we stuffed our faces with gelato from haato! woohoo!

jugs of gelatos... i mean, cups of gelatos!

lichelle and i did some shopping along orchard road, and adjourned to little india to get some groceries for her farewell dinner at my place.

in the afternoon, the whole gang descended upon the village...

...to give me instructions how to cut veges

the QC and kitchen inspection team comprising felicia and seto

so far so good... cooking underway...

while the rest continued lounging around...

and voila! dinner is served!

chicken kurma, potatooos, lady's fingers, blanced vege in oyster sauce...

and the rest immediately assembled around the dinner table for chow time...

after everyone had left, lichelle and i cleaned the place up... and we sat down in the living room on the last minutes of the remaining sunday night...

...over a bowl of freshly cut kiwis

And I Stayed Home On A Saturday Night... As Usual

2007-04-29T02:19:00.000+08:00

it was back to contained living in the village on saturday night. dinner in the village with alex... and we came back to my place for a bottle of sauvignon blanc and grapes. as always, a long drawn conversation with alex always puts my sanity back in place.

Dinner And Drinks With The Usual Suspects

2007-04-29T01:34:00.000+08:00

friday night was the first weekend night after so many months that i stayed up way past my bedtime. talking about ageing.... (blaaah!)

the kick-arse zhi char dinner with the usual suspects at good old river valley road

followed by drinks and good old conversations and banters at villa bali...

it felt like i was back in ubud all over again...

and mr turner got all too comfy...

nice...

My Occupational Drool Hazard

2007-04-28T15:21:00.000+08:00

i totally cannot get enough of stephanie, the host of axn's sony style tv show.

i was mentally drooling over her during one of the media interviews i was hosting during a publicity drive for the show.

when i grow up, i'm gonna be just like her. *chuckle*

Bond That Never Breaks

2007-04-27T10:54:00.000+08:00

time sure flies real fast when you are in the company of old friends. i woke up this morning and looked at lichelle, still deep in slumber.

and it hit me that come monday, she'll be gone back to the philippines before moving to dubai for good. and i don't know when i'll ever get to see her again. and come monday, i'll be back to my own again.

a conversation with felicia and lichelle over kaya toast and iced tea last night was one of the most heart-rendering moments in the history of our friendship. it made me resolute to preserve our links which we first soldered in our early formative years back then while studying in the university.

an attempt to call porcks in HK last night for a quick banter and hellos was futile. we understand you porcks... you musta been busy with A.

and lichelle and i got more than we bargained for when me made a quick call to pavithra who is currently doing her PhD in the states. her parents were around and we made the most genuine declaration to pavithar's mom: "we miss your dhal and sambar dishes so very much auntie!"

pavithra - we miss you lots too.

but if there is one thing i do know, is that, no matter where around the world my friends are, that bond is never gonna break.

David's Big Three O

2007-04-25T21:40:00.000+08:00

as promised to felicia (and i grudgingly made the promise lest she spends another disappointing morning in the staff room before her first lesson of the day), here's a pictorial scoop on david's 30th birthday celebration last saturday held at aloha chalet.

felicia picked me up from home...

...with her two boys in tow, ryan and nicholas... look at 'em... awww... m e l t...

shortly after we arrived, these two cute lil' munchkins turned grumpy but... awww, they're still oh-so-cute...

the early birds...

and loads of grub...

the satay came along with a satay-man to bbq it

lesson learnt: natural daylight gives you that high-definition effect on photographs, zoom in for open pores and blackheads (and whiteheads if i may add) but it's alright cos i still love you guys

david's co-workers from the civil service very soon descended upon the party and totally eclipsed us misfits... i received a gag order and was barred from talking to them in case if i were to verbally misbehave

after several rounds of playing hide-and-seek with ryan, nicholas and leslie's kids, i was totally pooped and was forced to claim extreme fatigue despite the kids' protests wanting to carry on.

i managed to convince ryan and nicholas that trains are more fun to play with and you get to sit down at the same time...

after many satays, kick-ass chicken wings, meat patties, and other wonderful greasy bbq-ed meats later... we needed the best facial cleanser to strip the oil fields off our faces...

marie (david's mommy), david and dora...

the satay-man provided the tempo while dora's dad, uncle dick yip, plucked his ukelele to a birthday song for david...

all and all, it was a very merry evening for all of us. soon afterwards, wei came round to pick me up for our dvd night back at my place... but not without amusing the girls with his terrific yorkshire accent first. scones and tea anyone?

have a very merry, happy and joyous 30th birthday david.

Eskew Me You A Model Is It?

2007-04-25T15:31:00.000+08:00

facilitating a photo shoot in a studio can be a long drawn and draining affair. it starts with stripping off the make-up off the model's face, the length of time taken to put on make up takes up an epic proportion in itself. then comes the dressing up part. only then will the photo shoot proper take place and you wait for the cows to come back home. if you've several costumes to put on, then i'd say good luck to you. because the make up and hair will have to change all over again to fit whatever you're wearing.

since my early days on my first job in advertising, i dread going for photo shoots... worse of all if it's a whole day of doing photo shots of products. one cannot exactly talk to the products and request that it should look sassy and sultry can he?

so there i was, grumbling my arse off early morning having to wake up real early at 8am (on top of my usual 9.15am rise and shine) just because i had to travel all the way from home in holland village to mediacorp's publishing studio in ang mo kio's most bellicose industrial tech-park district.

my morning mood shot right up to the other extreme pole of eternal happiness and joy when i walked into the photo studio....

...as i caught an immediate glimpse of someone i've not seen for a long time, leaving his imprint of cosmetic genius on stephanie carrington's face... it was...

...GREGO!!! the mostest darling girl friend and love of the universe to every living being on planet earth... chuckle.

of course we got back to our tasks after half an hour of histrionics which over the years, have become very much our customary way of greeting one another (even on the streets if we were to bump into one another... no kidding).

grego as usual, is a leonardo da vinci in the realm of beautifying the face of anything that walks this planet. i'd very much would like to post my own shots of stephanie fully made up and in her most sublime modelliscious studio poses... but i can't just yet or else arena magazine will come after my arse in court for leaking out those shots. you all will have to wait for arena's june issue i guess.

teaser: stephanie's so hot i almost turned straight but i pushed happy thoughts of a naked bodied nakata in my head.

being the digicam whore that i have recently turned into, i cannot resist hijack a pose with stephanie. but i shan't post it here because i look thrice her size in photos.

note to self: adopt felicia's fabulous diet plan

the happiest person that day was of course ian, the only other colleague of very hetero inclination who tagged along with me to help facilitate the studio photo shoot.

guitar-god ian and stephanie

i for once was a very happy man that day at work. it's always good to be able to go to work and laugh, and bump into old fabulous friends like grego.

And Back Again...

2007-04-24T17:39:00.000+08:00

after a exactly a year in barcelona, our favourite chee-bie is back in town for a week's visit.

loads of catching up and loads of culinary adventures to re-enact. crystal jade was a start last night.

felicia, seto & lichelle

the same old parennial infamous lines once uttered by lichelle kept cropping up the whole of last night:

"...custard bun? what's in a custard bun?"

"yeah i got 4 As (in reference to distinctions obtained in the A level examination)... you mean you all don't get 4 As meh...?"

it's good to have you back... it feels like you never did leave somehow.

News In Brief

2007-04-23T09:51:00.000+08:00

hookay quick updates:

1. my deferment off reservist this week is granted!

2. in relation to article 1, i will be at work as per normal

3. in relation to article 1 and 2, that means i can spend more time with lichelle!

4. in relation to article 4, lichelle will touch down today, monday, at 12 noon

5. in relation to all of the above mentioned articles, today has got to be the bestest thing that has ever happened to me in the past couple of months!

note to felicia: the blog posting on david's birthday party has gotta wait, you have no idea how i slogged over the whole of sunday sprucing up the apartment anticipating lichelle's arrival.

"Come Hither" Says The Village

2007-04-20T10:38:00.000+08:00

it's friday at last. i can't wait to be back in the arms of holland village where home is. clock a'tickin'. gotta run.

Oh Tis' So Soft!

2007-04-18T16:45:00.000+08:00

new faces for toilet roll advert found in cold storage; shou chen and cynthia (yeah, the one who was casted as annabelle chong for the recent stage play).

shou chen: "oh my, how soft is this?"

cynthia: "oh yesss... it's like as if a baby's fingers had just caressed my derriere"

shou chen & cynthia: "ohhhhhh..."

Wanna Know What A Contrail Is?

2007-04-18T16:21:00.000+08:00

as i was on my way to work in the morning, i came across a spectacular sight in white streaking high up in the sky. i have seen it once in a while and i thought it was just plain air pollution in the sky until lynda explained to me some time ago it's actually called a contrail.

according to wikipedia:

Contrails or vapour trails are condensation trails and artificial cirrus clouds made by the exhaust of aircraft engines or wingtip vortices which precipitate a stream of tiny ice crystals in moist, frigid upper air. They are not air pollution, though they might be considered visual pollution.

very nice. i showed lynda the picture and she surprised me with more information when she saw how the contrails were formed in the picture below: "hmmm, must be either from an A4 or an F16 lor"

"huh?" she threw me off into bewilderment. "airplanes lah" she shrugged me off with total impunity with her knowledge. this small girl damn zhai, everything also she knows.

I Am Socially Degenerating

2007-04-16T16:08:00.000+08:00

right... this is bad. an ultra conservative introvert of a friend that i know, says i have no life to me today, on msn:

muckaroo says: hey u know what dean?

pornstar says: ah what? u want to say what? what i know? u faster say lah! i bloody busy right now, crazy freaky monday running like bloody headless cheeken all!

muckaroo says: i'll make this short sharp and sweet and will try minimise the pain that i may inflict on you when i am gonna say this

pornstar says: ah faster say lah, i'm gonna lose my head over work very soon

muckaroo says: i read your blog

muckaroo says: and i was thinking

muckaroo says: that i am, in no way anywhere near your league

pornstar says: ah huh? what u wanna say, faster lah don beat ard the bush liedat

muckaroo says: well, what i really am saying is this - GO GET A LIFE can? or a bf or something... or a pet...

pornstar says: eh hallo... u nabey say i got no life! cheebye u! fuckeroo muckaroo u! nabey!

muckaroo says: correct what! look at me, you know and we all know that i am nowhere being the socialite that you have always been but i think after reading your blog, it's clear you got no life. correct?

muckaroo says: perpetually stuck in the village... tsk tsk, what's wrong with you? degenerative socialite is it?

note to self: buy a PDA, start filling up my electronic calendar with imaginary social events

Have Extreme Humidity Will Stay In

2007-04-15T21:48:00.000+08:00

during lunch with colin, sean and warren on saturday; colin remarked that i have not been out to the clubs on weekend nights since late last year.

take late last year, say... november or december. and it is april 2007 now. so that makes a total of... give and take... i have not stepped into the clubs for five months then.

more math. for my case, weekend night means both friday and saturday nights. so it's two weekend nights. there are approximately four weeks in a month. that makes eight weekend nights in a month.

so, if i have been staying home for approximately five months now, that mean, i have roughly spent 40 weekend nights at home so far. away from the clubs. not bad for my case. and i don't even miss it. i tend to prefer less crowded places these days, meeting up a friend or two for tete-a-tete over tea or simply hanging out with a friend by the pool downstairs for quick gossips.

this weekend was almost the same as the other weekends in the past five months or so. friday night was an almost mandatory cable/dvd night. woke up the next morning on saturday at eight to find colin had risen earlier than i did and left for the gym. sean dropped by in the nick of time when i was done with household chores and we hung out at the pool downstairs for a quick tan.

"how ya doin'?"

then it was lunch in the village with colin, sean and warren. a real quick one, cos it was frigging humid outside. colin and i got back home for our siesta under the whirring sound of air-con... lee kuan yew was right: air-con has gotta be the best invention of the 20th century.

nightfall, colin left to fulfill his social calendar duties. while waiting for mr hunky-dory wei to come over, i decided to beat the heat and humidity by gorging my face with half of a watermelon. there was just way too much fibre, i went bloated right after my last slice of the melon. bad idea.

reruns of little britain and french & saunders trailed late into the night over countless vodka cranberries. the best bit was the company that wei was, i can never get enough of his au naturel english accent. we both think we'd one day do a emily howard & florence get up together and walk around in the village with dainty parasols, petite lacy gloves and in victorian accoutrements.

"i'm a lady. are you a lady? regardez les enfants, they're playing footy my dear florence."

sunday was extremely lazy a day. after breakfast, we came back to my place and watched a super duper total lesbianic nutty french movie, "8 femmes". gosh... catherine danueve at 60 yrs old is still stunning.

we sought refuge in air-conditioned pho hoa for vietnamese lunch. i thought the mural on the walls of pho hoa was gorgeous.

air-con wasn't enough for wei, he had to have shades on while having lunch.

back at home in the evening after wei had left, i was left to my own devices in dealing with the extreme humidity. perspiring terribly while i was e-filing my tax returns online.

much later, i somehow felt the cool down. it's gotta be the phalaenopsis i have been staring at, blooming in full might on the dining table.

Goodly Friday 13th

2007-04-13T11:29:00.000+08:00

i woke up this morning, completely oblivious to the fact that today is friday 13th, until a colleague told me when i arrived at the office. not that i am superstitious or anything remotely like that, but au contraire, i always hold odd numbers in high regard. odd numbered days in the calendar have always held lots of goodliest things for me.

it's just like beethoven's odd numbered symphonies - namely his 5th, 7th and 9th symphonies - they are absolutely very profound works in the history of classical music. and since i have been basking with all three symphonies plugged into my ears on the headphone and mp3 player at work since early morning, everything is a-okay on friday 13th thus far.

so come what may today, and friday being the day of my religion's holy sabbath, i think i'll do just fine for the rest of the day.

Les Enfants Terribles - My Consumer Team

2007-04-12T17:08:00.000+08:00

from left: KS (marketing manager of Oosh), greta, lynda, ian

haiyoh these people all so terrible last night at Oosh's official launch and opening.

ian was perpetually sounding off like a motion sensor every time the waiter trawls him with free flow of piper heidsick "lovely darling, oh it's so lovely, marvellous, gorgeous!". he kena my syndrome lor. then because of the campy lines ian was spewing, my friend wei suspects ian is gay.

lynda went to and fro non stop to the sashimi buffet table and danced with strangers.

greta was shamelessly cruising and hijacking the trays of food every time a waiter walks near her...and doing squats on the dancefloor.

shou chen went missing but he was generally well behaved.

me... well i have an impression to make, so i was good boy and did not get drunk until i got home and finished up a quarter of a bottle of jack daniel's with wei.

young people these days ah, tsk tsk!

Wagner Gives Me The Rush

2007-04-11T17:49:00.000+08:00

i frigging love wagner's opera and orchestral arrangements and overtures! i mean like i really frigging HEART his works since i was in secondary one, like 13 yrs old. BIG TIME!

he gets me going when the going gets tough at work. it's like going on a high octane ride and rocket off the cliff into the distant horizon of the sky in a nanosecond, cutting through the sky and slicing and dicing the fluffy white clouds and to end on a superb high rush still going through your head... it's more than all that, like his ride of the vylkyries. fucking shiok!

the overture to die meistersinger von nuremberg always gets me going at work especially when i'm beset with loads of junks to clear on the very last minute before i knock off. wagner... i totally HEART you!

Dean's Axiom #1

2007-04-11T13:24:00.000+08:00

dean's wisecrack overheard during lunch today (die die must blog this for posterity):

"i'd rather jump into a field of knives then to be in shou chen's massive freak-out session"

grin

Awww Shooo Shweeet!

2007-04-11T10:18:00.000+08:00

this is seng han and lynda. i like to refer to seng han better as ah seng. these two got damn cute story to tell lor. they were once primary school sweethearts. yeah they started real young... must be the genetically modified food these young people have been taking these days.

after 16 years, they caught up again. and ah seng being linked to my blog (check out: "AhSengz"), of course lah i came along for dinner and beer with them.

ah seng is now single and totally available, so all of you single girls out there who are interested, i am contactable on my mobile. pimping charges apply, surcharge rates to be advised.

caveat emptor: ah seng may look like a badass boy, but i tell you, this fella writes damn well (i wish i have at least half of his writing skills), he sings bloody well, and beneath that badass exterior actually lies a very polite boy. and he has an uber cool job. contact me to find out more.

With Erasure On The Bus In 1994

2007-04-10T16:19:00.000+08:00

almost 4.30pm in the afternoon, it's raining pretty heavily outside. dark, grey, sombre, wet and gloomy - perfect weather while i am on an auto-cruise mode at work sending out e-mails, going down my tasks list for the day and changing the music playing on my laptop.

then i stumbled onto a track which threw me back to the early days of 1994: "Always" by Erasure. i recall plugging in to my headphone and discman, playing the track over and over again when i was on the bus, returning to camp every sunday night before 2230hrs during my national service trainee days at the police academy on thomson road. it was always a journey of misery having to go back to camp every sunday night in your police uniform, polished black boots, a load to carry on your back and a less-than-hirsute round head.

that was almost 14 years ago. time flies. the days of youth behind me. you can try look back for sure, but you won't catch it looking back at you.

Field Of Balls On Easter Sunday

2007-04-09T21:59:00.000+08:00

the long good friday weekend was a total bummer as usual. vegetated at home and did another round of visit to the national museum in a totally conscious state because the last visit several weeks back was a total drunken-stupor blur.

but i did the unthinkable.

woke up so early at 7am on sunday morning for volunteer work with the same lot of under-privileged kids... all 40 of them kids.

so this is what my neighbourhood looks like under the 8am morning sun on a sunday... and the whole lot of us (along with hirman and may) went for this...

yeah i know this whole this is so totally not me... soccer?!?!?! it was a match organized by adidas, in a drive to scout for talents and to send the best two players to spain for soccer camp. but so as long as the kids are happy having a field day, i'm good.

and while the kids were in awe of the presence of our national team goalkeeper lionel lewis, i went "whoa he's GORGEOUS!!!" in my heart umpteens of time. dang... i think he's straight. he's gotta be straight. he plays soccer for kryst's sake! grin...

when the match ended, hirman and i jumped into may's cute kick-ass green mini cooper for the best claypot chicken rice on the island along race course road. and hirman had to break the claypot and expected me to suck-up to the coffee shop auntie who served us, in a bid to let ourselves off the crime he committed. bummer.

sunday evening proved to be a perfect wrap-up with alex in ikea. i bought some beddings and had the perfect dinner to induce me to sleep, ready to face monday.

nasi goreng dinner at ikea... yummm....

A Weekend Backlogged

2007-04-09T20:45:00.000+08:00

hookay this is way long overdue but i've tonnes of pictures to post for this entry. or else porcky is gonna send me a stinker e-mail complaining how i've slacked on updating my blog. we go back to saturday, 31st march 07.

the second weekend of the spore fashion fest, that was another round of alcohol-filled afternoon. with the whole gang this time round - my flatmate colin, his significant other roy, alex and lynda. i think i took a non-stop swig from 12 noon right up till 5pm. how incorrigible. but i have, again, sam to thank for the wunderbar free flow of all things alcoholic.

project runway rejects - alex, sam, colin and roy

it was tough trying to convince colin that haagen dasz does not carry the same sedative properties of alcohol - teetotaller schmetotaller

models went through rigorous allergy tests to ensure that they weren't allergic to pollen when they strut beneath the canopy of flowers along the runway

flower girls

going for more swigs during the interval before the second show started was a major mistake for that afternoon...

everything was a blur to me when the second show started... and when it ended, i stumbled out to grab a cab and made my way to dora's place for her birthday dinner.

i arrived at dora's place early evening... or rather, i stumbled in drunk according to dora and company while they were preparing to bake some pies. to commemorate the unsightly event, they made this on one of the pies...

alphabet 'D' as my initial, and... well you can see it for youself, a champagne flute with bubbles... the girls think i need rehab. but the pie rocks!!!

refer to dora's blog entry for more details which i can barely remember:
http://cameldiaries.blogspot.com/2007/04/in-which-she-channels-mrs-dalloway-and.html

and i found this magnet-stuck on dora's fridge door...

the days when we were staying in NUS' hall of residence - seto, lichelle, felicia and dora - those were the days before wrinkles started to gain permanent residence on their faces...haw haw!

note to self: must upgrade night face cream

and the birthday girl showing off her blowing skills. i shan't publicly say how old dora is right now because it's rude to reveal a lady's age but here's a hint, there were three big candles and one small one. three and one... go figure.

and the lot that i love...

we lamented on how the gang of usual suspects, us, have shrunk tremendously over the years. lichelle has gone to barcelona, ngiap in atlanta, porcky in HK, leonard busy with his newborn and yvonne, well, i think she was nicely sloshed at the american club that night - but we take comfort in the fact that no matter where on the globe our friends are at right now, we love one another and that has not changed.

after many long conversation and lots of laughs, good food and drinks, and several packs of kick-arse durians later, we called it a night at 2am and left the birthday girl and her husband david to do the cleaning up...heh!

but i still do remember going home that night feeling all blissed out. love you all. sniff sniff...

As Good As Good News Comes

2007-03-30T12:21:00.000+08:00

i woke up pretty late this morning although i made it in time for work. i felt more than being the usual morning person than i usually am. it was like as if i am vladimir horowitz's extremely deft fingers playing chopin's butterfly etude as i moved about in my apartment getting ready for work.

i knew i was feeling light and happy but i could not pinpoint what made me feel that way. perhaps it's friday, perhaps i was glad the media event we had the day before went on well, perhaps i was thinking it's burger king day for lunch, perhaps i was looking forward to stay home as usual tonight and watch DVDs and have a bottle of wine. i couldn't find the exact and precise reason.

it was only when i was in the bathroom brushing my teeth and at the same time furiously scrutinizing the wrinkles of my forehead that it hit me - i am glad for a friend who told me of his good news the night before; that he is out of any immediate health related danger after his medical screening and tests.

and that made me think, i should just totally lay off smoking... before my cells mutate and turn cancerous.... i should.

gosh... i think i am having this brain atrophy... took me so long to realise why i am actually happy.

Planet Unicorn

2007-03-28T22:47:00.000+08:00

oh this is just great... suddenly i'm unicorn material. right. and i live in my own planet. perhaps. possibly maybe.

Les Terribles Les Fat Visage

2007-03-27T10:39:00.000+08:00

first thing that came into my mailbox this morning from alex - a snapshot of us at the glam party 2 weeks ago.

what have i done to myself? oh my gawd... double chin, fat face, fat everything! this is so gonna get posted on this blog, as a grim reminder of how globular fat cells can seriously contribute to real image dysmorphia. oh no... i'm fat.

lynda said "do you know right after 6 sessions of excercise, you can start losing your double chin?"

nice to know that lynda... awww thanks! i'm hungry now, mebbe i'll snack on dust. yeah... better, dust, zero calories. dust. anybody? dust? yeah dust.

For An Old Friend

2007-03-27T01:46:00.000+08:00

almost 2am now. i had just got off from a long conversation with an old friend, someone whom i don't get to see very often at all, but it is someone who had been there for me in my hour of darkness and joy. and when we do get the chance to meet up, we'd have long conversations, and we'd be perfectly at ease with one another despite a long in-between absence before we meet the next time round again.

i have this to say to you my dear friend. many people out there right now probably cannot claim they have been through what you are going through at this very moment. and these are the people that you and i both know: they're our friends too.

and now that i know from your own admission that you have been reading my postings, i'm gonna say this to you (and you do know who you are) - you still have us, your friends. never strangers to you. we'll walk with you.

here is a little something for you from the poet Rumi, you will keep on walking and we'll be with you along the way:

"Come, come, whoever you are,
Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving,
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Even if you have broken your vows a thousand times
It doesn't matter
Come, come yet again, come"

The Great National Museum Excursion

2007-03-26T00:09:00.000+08:00

the last time i stepped into the national museum was in 1988. that was when i was in secondary one. i particularly remember the event because during a school trip to the museum, some of my classmates and i were caught by a museum staff because we were gawking openly at a nude painting of a female subject. the days of folly and... what was i thinking? female nudity?

anyway, since the museum recently re-opened after a year long extensive renovation and additions were made to the existing structure, lynda and i decided to extend our post-drunken fashion fest afternoon for a visit to the museum with kennedy.

all i can say is, they did a damn good job for the newly re-opened museum.

i'm glad they retained the grand old trees that have been there for yonks.

main entrance

they left lots of stuff buried in the front lawn of the museum when i was in primary three, 1984! prolly video cassettes of smurfs, care bears, fraggle rock, strawberry shortcake and some asterix comics i think.

shot from the main entrance of the museum looking into the lobby, which holds the cuppola roof... or the dome if you like.

some english bloke left the plaque there at the lobby, obviously to let everyone know they started the campy movement - having had a queen (they still do now), speaking in english accent so that they can sound all so dandy and gay...

see what i mean by being campy? they had to have it all ornate and rich looking... cornice, extravagant corinthian columns, filigree, stained glass, etc... they started way earlier than liberace did.

we had to do an emergency turn-around when a female visitor (background in purple dress) showed off her armpits.

more shots taken on the second storey of the museum...

they retained the wrought iron filigree. personally, i would love to have these things around my bed so that i can chain myself up to such wonderful ornate workmanship. kidding. no really, i'm kidding.

looking inwards into the additional glass panel structure at the back of the museum. kennedy was more interested in searching for the souvenir shop because he heard they were giving away cold storage discount vouchers for cans of evaporated milk when you purchase a paper-weight model of the museum.

another view of the cuppola/dome. you can prolly tell by now that i went totally trigger happy with my cheap digicam in the museum. i simply cannot stop clicking away... even when in the galleries itself where photography is criminal offense. kidding... it is prohibited.

old chinese wayang costumes and headgears exhibit. i'd very much would like to wear those at my wedding one day.

part of the stage decor for a traditional chinese wayang puppet.

the spice girls were kind enough to loan one of their boots for display at the museum.

the sabre-like object in the middle was actually used for manicure/pedicure - to file nails and at times, to file off callouses and dead skin cells build-up on the soles.

the coca cola company must have been so pissed off cos they did not have their branding up there in the food gallery.

kennedy earnestly thought his bottom was delicious enough to go on display in the food gallery.

this bicycle push cart was typically used by kueh tutu (a local delicacy/cake) sellers in the early days. i'd like a tutu too, especially when i wear one when performing swan lake ballet. bishop desmond tutu will never agree to me wearing him though.

the spice gallery

butt paddles and stuff for spanking - traditional torture implements and paraphernalia used to enforce moral and cultural values among the early society during the founding of singapore. in its later years, it became fashionable to utilise them for sado-masochistic pleasure purposes. until martha stewart started to use them as moulds for baking cakes.

kennedy got too close to the marijuana herb and felt its intense sedating properties almost immediately. lucky bastard.

the photography gallery

it was time to head back home after we got thrown out by security for flouting the 'no-photography allowed in galleries' rule. lynda gave one last defiant smug-face look at the security guards in this last shot.

that was a nice round-up to our saturday. after a few pints of guinness draught at tango's in holland village, lynda and i headed back home and watched re-runs of little britain on dvd for some good laughs before hitting the sack.

Drunk and Pret-a-Porter

2007-03-25T17:31:00.000+08:00

this saturday has got to be one of the best ever after many months of not stepping out of the village.

courtesy of mr sam yeo, fashionista extraordinaire and robinson's extreme makeover specialist, he had lynda and my name on the list of deserving people who are privileged to attend the s'pore fashion fest and get plastered on free-flow of white sparkling wine, chow on platters of fancy finger-food and do lots and lots of air-kissing with people we barely know. getting pissed high at 2pm was definitely it.

me, lynda and sam. lynda is seen holding her 14th glass of white sparkling wine.

the host was considerate enough to allow us the privilege of a non-stop 1.5 hours free-flow of booze before they finally decided that the cellar was running dry, and promptly herded us into the main hall where the runway was. we would have loved to accept the front row seat by the runway but i had a major fell out with karl lagerfeld, and hence we decided to avoid the front row VIP seating where he was seated.

lynda smuggled her 22nd glass of sparkling wine into the runway hall.

and the catwalk... all models were made to go through an extremely stringent nutrition test before they are allowed on the runway. anyone above 30kg do not qualify.

the fashion catwalk took place under the watchful eyes of sam (right), to make sure that no models were caught nibbling on anything remotely transfat or fibrous behind stage.

at the end of it all, all kudos to sam. great job at getting me totally plastered on a saturday afternoon, and oh, i frigging love the goody bag (especially the voucher to a top salon for hairdressing, i needed one badly).

the afternoon did not end there, lynda and i made a clear and alcohol-induced decision to continue our orchard road sojourn by going shopping.

"it's okay to shop senselessly and swipe my card liberally cos i'm drunk and i am legally incapable of making a well-informed decision..."

after coffee, we sobered up and realised the whole gravity of the credit card-swiping situation we were in. we promised to repent and mend our ways of wanton retail misadventure for the afternoon, but not after we make our way to the heeren mall cos' we heard there was a sale going on there. onward march! and oh, i got myself another piercing, on the right ear this time round.

Krispy Deep Fried Dough Kreme

2007-03-24T01:23:00.000+08:00

it's been a helluva week at work... as evident from the state of my workstation... errr... desk... if you can see it beneath the pile.

while waiting for colin to come back from his jakarta business trip with a bottle of jack daniel's from DFS, i fell asleep in the living room in front of the telly. but he brought back something way even better...

KRISPY KREME!!! OHHH I LOVE THEM KRISPY KREMES!!! FUCK YEAH!!! KRISPY KREME!!!

this has gotta be the best trans fat ever... i can fuhgeddabout jack daniel's... it's better than sex - all of them in three boxes.

after chowing on one original krispy kreme and one jelly filled deep fried dough, i think i can go back to bed now. i don't mind having another round of shitty week at work all over again just to have a box of krispy kreme delivered to my door every friday night. colin, you gotta do your jakarta trips more often buddy.

NeoCons Show Off Their General (Limited) Knowledge

2007-03-23T16:49:00.000+08:00

a friend of mine forwarded me this link:

http://www.conservapedia.com

an obvious attempt by neocons to present their own (warped) red-necked view of the world.

and so i was curious and clicked on the address link. looked pretty neat and clean cut in terms of lay-out. and i gave it a test on its search function for the word "islam".

surprise surprise but no surprise (what a bummer... these neocons are still the same lame predictable lot of zealots). the first paragraph gave a brief introduction, the second paragraph listed the religion's tenets, the third paragraph gave a scanty commentary on comparative theology on the christian-islam relationship. it higlights about how christians will be punished by God for being 'unbelievers'. and i thought to myself, "woohoo! this is definitely an interesting and ominous precursor of what's to come in the next paragraph"

the fourth paragraph - no surprises coming from insular red-necked neocons - jumped straight into talking about islam allegedly being derived from pagan traditions.

the next and last paragraph mentioned briefly on what sharia means. no biggie.

right... so there you go, all there is that you need to know about islam. i'd like to think of it more as a website you can go to if you want to find out what total dumb-fugs these neocons are.

it's hilarious no doubt, but i leave you with this:

caveat emptor: conservapedia is hazardous to your intellectual health

i'll stick to http://www.wikipedia.org thank you very much.

ps: i did a quick search on 'iraq'. absolutely no mention about how the americans are fucking up the country big time. but i did learn that "Saddam was a particularly brutal ruthless man..."

The Irony That Is Beyond Me

2007-03-23T00:26:00.000+08:00

how do you explain it when bad things happen to really good people? i am myself baffled. it's not supposed to happen this way.

if you are reading this, you know who you are. despite all that you've been through today, you still asked me how my day was.

keep up the courage, have faith. may everything work out well for you. hugs.

The Loverboy (Me?)

2007-03-22T17:18:00.000+08:00

this is interesting. i took the test, and verdict came out like how lichelle used to describe me (although i don't look like anything in that illustration tho... i can only wish):

FACT: You embody the German principle of Konstantzusammenschaft, which is best described in English (without using the obscure English word "sammenschaft") as "eternal togethermanship".

The Loverboy
Random Gentle Love Master (RGLMm)

Well-liked. Well-established. You are The Loverboy. Loverboys thrive in committed, steady relationships--as opposed to, say, Playboys, who want sex without too much attachment.

You've had many relationships and nearly all of them have been successful. You're a nice guy, you know the ropes, and even if you can be a little hasty with decisions, most girls think of you as a total catch. Your hastiness comes off as spontaneity most of the time anyhow, making you especially popular in your circle of friends, too.

Your exact opposite:
The Billy Goat

Deliberate Brutal Sex Dreamer

You know not to make the typical Loverboy mistake of choosing someone who appreciates your good humor and popularity, but who offers nothing in return. You belong with someone outgoing, independent, and creative. Otherwise, you'll get bored. And then instead of surprising him with flowers or a practical joke, you'll surprise him by leaving.

ALWAYS AVOID: The Billy Goat

CONSIDER: The Boy Next Door, The Loverboy

Link: The 32-Type Dating Test by OkCupid - Free Online Dating.
My profile name: jugularcat

Little India Sojourn

2007-03-22T01:13:00.000+08:00

as usual, lynda and i had our little whimsical adventure earlier on tonight. we were at little india, doing our shopping in 24 hr mustafa store. very crowded as usual. the typical lynda-dean conversation ensued in the vanity section:

lynda: eh u see! this night face cream is on discount, cheaper than the one at guardian. must buy! are you gonna buy too?

me: eh i still have my other night treatment cream leh

lynda: then you faster use the cream lah, like every night you anyhow slap a lot of cream on your face then will sure finish fast. so now you can buy this new treatment cream, then can use already when your old cream is finished.

me: oh yah hor, good idea. or you think i should buy the other night face cream or not? my friend earnest told me it's good leh

lynda: no, you should get this one lah. you never read the magazine is it? this night face cream won like dunno what award, but it was voted like the best ever, even better than those branded expensive one, like it's the top night cream right now you know.

me: is it? ok i take one now, you want one too?

after ravaging the whole mall for nonsensical stuffs like gazillions of incense sticks, more toiletries to feed our insatiable need for vanity and an arabic music video vcd, we adjourned for a supper of prata, masala thosai and teh tarik.

i got home and read with absolute fascination and in complete awe of the night face cream's exotic ingredients - lavandula angustifolia extract, arnica montana flower extract, camellia sinensis leaf extract, amino-peptide complex, pro-vitamin B5... i'll wake up tomorrow looking like miss angelina jolie perhaps.

Fat Feline Of Jalan Kuning

2007-03-22T00:50:00.000+08:00

piggy wiggy fat cat
you're round like a wombat

high and low everyday i look out for you
cos' everytime when i see you i'll go woohoo!

i'm so lucky to have you as my neighbour
cos' without you life's such a labour

one day i promise i'll have you in my arm
and feed you lots of fish to make you go yummm!

Natasha My Pimp

2007-03-21T21:31:00.000+08:00

anything i'd do as an excuse to come out for a drink, or two, or three, or more. some friends from australia and KL were in town. of course natasha was the pimp for the night.

wayne, natasha & steven

and we found ourselves zipped down to clarke quay's hed kandi bar from tango's in holland village for more *hic* booze *hic*

the tourism board did a fantastic job with the lights and glitz kitsch, turning tourists' attention away from the dark murky waters of the singapore river along clarke quay

the hend kandi bar was errr... put it this way, i had major trouble trying to walk to the bathroom without tripping and stumbling on the floor along the way. how much did i have to drink? four? five? six pints of guinness draught? mebbe just six all in all.

bye-bye wayne and steven... catch you boys whenever, wherever in brissy and KL!

and natasha said "oh i'm going to model for sony this saturday".

right okay, i'm sure you model well with gadgets for geriatrics. grin... love you girl! we should hang out in the village more often and do pilates on me. haha!

Runny And Wet

2007-03-21T21:14:00.000+08:00

ian: my side profile damn sexy i know

lynda: mmm... your ear got come out something runny and wet one... yummm...

i know so many of you out there totally dig runny eggs with soya sauce and white pepper... not for me though, nah uh. it smells like bleagh.

Middle Finger To The Gahmen

2007-03-21T20:42:00.000+08:00

nabey! hong gan! farkerlando! middle finger! the other middle finger! all of those to the gahmen!

5 days reservist in-camp training yet AGAIN from 23rd april - 27th april.

i curse the gahmen. the gahmen is accursed.

there goes my plan for KL... sigh...

only some people can help express how how i feel, right now, via finger gesture.

one fine day i will be a quitter and find refuge in KL... sure one.

proud to be a quitter.

A Weekend Unravelled

2007-03-20T02:43:00.000+08:00

post glam party
one too many dom perignon

intense dehydration was
my saturday morning wake up call
volunteer work beckoned
watching the glee on those kids faces
they made me smile
as the guitar ensemble plucked familiar tunes
theme to doraemon
chopin's nocturne in E minor
belaian jiwa
over the rainbow - judy garland prancing in my head

russel was mad at me
i flaked on him for st patrick's day drinks
on the same night
but he'd understand i hope
i have my 2 years of reasoning backing me up

music and lyrics made me giggle
hugh grant's wrinkles spelt out grace
drew barrymore is still the same girl since E.T.
vince's witty commentaries made me think
geez how come i did not think of something clever like he did?

saturday gave way to sunday
lunch of gastronomical proportions at da paolo
pizza
oven baked pie
russian salad
7 up
coke lite
lots of trigger happy kodak moments
humidity was killing me

the village tour
i gotta get out of the intense heat
can't the government air-condition the whole damn island?

an afternoon siesta
calm
safe
secure

goodbye at the bus stop
tracked back home
sean provided distraction - cold storage sojourn

a smoke or two and a long chat
in the humidity and stillness of the night
with ms suzanne walker
i miss her for all her rants of innocence
and her unbridled sincerity
those welled up eyes
over talks of the past and recent
i love you as a friend suzanne
you know that

casino royale at home
colin and roy
gushed at how i cocooned
out of hibernation

lynda's sms
brought us to a late night feeding fest
at adam road hawker centre
midnight venture of -
teh
bandung
maggi mee goreng
nasi goreng
bistik kering

bedtime
contentment
come what may tomorrow
i'll vie for contentment
and simple comforts amongst friends

Are we losing touch?
If you believed
they put a man on the moon,
man on the moon
If you believe
there's nothing up my sleeve,
then nothing is cool
excerpt from
Man on The Moon by R.E.M.

Glam Party Revisited

2007-03-19T17:06:00.000+08:00

i showed up at the glamour party eventually, despite the madness at work that trailed prior to the party. it's all about not wanting the person that means a lot to you, to feel let down by your failure to show up.

i followed up with an e-mail to both dora and david (the turnips, a conglomerate of both surnames: turner and yip)

Subject: hollywood schmollywood party

Dear The Turnips,

I must thank the both of you again for the advice dispensed regarding what to wear for the Glam Party last week.

After much harassment and frustrations that befell upon me at work last Friday, I eventually made it to the party at around 10pm.

I came dressed up in my pointed leather shoes, old torn blue jeans, big buckled metal brass belt, black fitted long sleeved shirt and a formal evening jacket (t’was Hugo Boss no less).

The host did ask me this: "So which old Hollywood doyen are u?"

To which my reply was: "Forgive me for the lack of decorum but I am here as my namesake, Dean, Mr James Dean. Dean is all dressed as a rebel without a cause that he has always meant to be, in a pair of jeans and pointed leather boots, but still polite enough to grace the host’s event by putting on a formal jacket."

Tis’ lovely to have a sudden and last minute fashion genius lightning to strike you when all else seems bleak and hopeless.

Lovely,

dean

Glam Party - Finale

2007-03-15T15:59:00.000+08:00

i garnered help from other friends too, and response came right after porcky's msn advice to me, in the form of e-mail correspondence. it was dora and david whose help i sought.

my e-mail to both dora and david:

Guess what?
I need help – what to wear.

What: Glamour Party
When: Tomorrow night
Theme : (This is the toughest part) Old Hollywood Glam – think Bogart, Bacall, Katherine Hepburn, etc

David – you have any suit I can borrow/rent that has any semblance to what the stars of the days of Old Hollywood used to wear? (e.g. suit, blazer, jacket, fedora, neck-scarve, walking cane, anything)

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

david was the first to reply:

ha ha, now you need 'ang moh eye for the asian guy'

i assume you are Bogart not Hepburn.

I have one suit jacket but it is def not old hollywood plus I need it for Japan on Tuesday so prob not best to wear to a glam party so soon before.

You need to find a hat most of all.

as for a fedora, I only have the dora part sorry,

will try to think.

wait i have a white waste coat i think - Dora did I bring this to Singapore?

followed by dora:

Oh my goodness! The irony is beyond me. No, the white waist coat is not in Singapore.

Dean, why don’t you go as one of the exoticised orientals rom the old David Lean pictures. Like riding on the back of an elephant ala passage to India? Then u can wear one of ur many exotic kurtas

Ps: I got invite for the party too! Tee hee, through work. But then not quite my scene lah. If not I could be the dora in your fedora.

Sorry can’t be of much help man…

epilogue

aye thanks guys... made up my mind, i'm ditching the whole thing cos i'd rather a stress free friday evening. going running with lynda and do the late night dvd thing. but you know what... it's amazing how all of you have this indelible perception of me in a north indian kurta or some jihad joe garb and an arafat kiffayeh, in any given event/function. buwahaha!

Glam Party - Part Deux

2007-03-15T15:48:00.000+08:00

porcky who is in HK gave me this advice over msn - how to dress up old hollywood glam for the glam party tomorrow:

bluedogg@hotmail.com says:
i cannot think og anyway around it unless you want to be, like, the turbanned sheikh in gold on the cabaret stage

bluedogg@hotmail.com says:
aiyah - i tell you. you wear all your gold gold brocade, shiny kurtas or whatever.

bluedogg@hotmail.com says:
dress up like an arab sheikh-y out of like lawrence of arabia or whatever

bluedogg@hotmail.com says:
wear big fake square ruby in middle of your turban

pornstar says:
then say i am an aspring actor fresh off the boat from lebanon and my name is Omar Shariff is it?

bluedogg@hotmail.com says:
and swan around like you exotic invited guest of the hollywod vanguard can already

bluedogg@hotmail.com says:
channel the elizabeth taylor in period movies vibe

pornstar says:
i'll rent a pair of elephants with tassles and peacocks wondering ard me also

bluedogg@hotmail.com says:
pretend you're on some giant hollywood epic set

bluedogg@hotmail.com says:
can oredi

pornstar says:
ok can, i go call singapore zoo now

ok... this whole thing is stressing me out. i'll go running after work on friday instead and prolly rent a dvd to watch.

Glam Party

2007-03-15T11:16:00.000+08:00

shit hits the fan when sean msn-ed me this morning... panic panic panic... i am in dire straits for a tux suit!

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
hey

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
is it ok if i cant attend the Glamour Party

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
i just remember its this week

pornstar says:
eh AHHHHHHHH

pornstar says:
NOW THAT U MENTIONED IT

pornstar says:
ARGHHHH!

pornstar says:
totally forgot!!!!!

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
oh?

pornstar says:
i have the invites at home

pornstar says:
fuck

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
i was reminded by another friend..

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
then how?

pornstar says:
it totally went off my head

pornstar says:
i give u ur invite card tonite

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
okla.. if i can make it i see u there ok?

pornstar says:
ok ok

pornstar says:
fuck

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
thanks!

pornstar says:
i totally forgot

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
what?

pornstar says:
sorry sorry

pornstar says:
shit

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
u ment to give to ppl iss it?

pornstar says:
that means i don even have time to rent a tuxedo

pornstar says:
i was supposed to pass the invite card to u

pornstar says:
shit shit shit

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
wah tuxedo somemore!

pornstar says:
cos it's hollywood theme

pornstar says:
u know, catherine hepburn era them

pornstar says:
arghhhhhh!

pornstar says:
me got no suit

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
wah..

pornstar says:
arghhhh how how how

pornstar says:
HOW

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
u tell them, u r Chandler from Friends, u wear hawaiian shirt

pornstar says:
or i am fresh off the boat from asia landed in LA

pornstar says:
HOW lah sean!

pornstar says:
shit it did not cross to me it's this week

pornstar says:
fuck

pornstar says:
HOW sean HOW???

Stick No Bills

2007-03-14T23:43:00.000+08:00

bill found near the intern's cage

one of the small little reasons why i'd wake up to go back to work the next morning... because you know you will still be able to laugh among good company.

Oh Miss Mariah Carey!

2007-03-14T15:27:00.000+08:00

i've always liked ms mariah carey since 1992, i mean like i really really do like her a lot but these days, for certain reasons, i try hard not to listen to ms carey anymore. but sometimes it's hard not to.

breaking the glum in the office is pretty easy a thing to do. go to youtube, search for ms carey's music video and VOILA! shou chen and ian break into ms carey's yuletide back-up singers. so campy these two boys!

Ah-Kwa

2007-03-13T16:28:00.000+08:00

day-a-dreaming on this hot lazy afternoon, my mind was transported to the days of nostalgia when i was an undergrad in nus, lazing in my own room in the hall of residence in the very same sweltering heat (no air-con at that time in the hall of residence lah). and this is one of the several tracks that defined part of my landscape of youth and growing-up. nice.

Leonidas? That One Is Comic Story Lah!

2007-03-13T00:52:00.000+08:00

hookay, what i am gonna say next has got nothing to do with academic arrogance nor has it got any semblance to a blatant display of intellectual prowess. none whatsoever. but i feel the need to get it off my chest and purge it all out of my extremely disappointed faculty of reasoning in sheer desperation. if i don't do this (of what is to come next), i must cede to the fact that my years and years of passion for the history discipline will just crumble as if a sledgehammer of ignorance had struck with its unapologetic will upon it.

it's almost 1am on a tuesday morning right now, and you peeps out there must be thinking i must be bordering on the pathological or even a clinical condition to embark on what i will be saying next. but i bloody need to do this.

a msn chat with dora in the earlier part of the evening revealed our exasperation at the fact that ignorance and misinformation prevail all around us. not that it is a cardinal sin on its own if you truly have no idea where bandar seri begawan is; or if you believe that the grand ayatollah ali al-sistani of iraq is truly my living maternal grandfather who toppled the shah of iran and laid siege to the american embassy in tehran for 3 consecutive years just because the reagan administration had refused to supply Gap apparels to the iranian population.

my point is, when someone genuinely tries to correct your (mis)perceptions on a particular event or information, please, for the love of God, at least have an open cerebral faculty to process the possibilities that these corrections might hold some relative 'truths' - instead of shunning out these newfound 'truths' completely.

to draw a juxtaposition of what's muddling up my head right now, i take the liberty to paste an excerpt from one dora's (The Camel Diaries) postings:

5. Do not embarass yourself by not knowing the original artist of the song you pick. For example:

ACCEPTABLE = "Tonight, I'm going to sing Moondance by Van Morrison."
NOT ACCEPTABLE = "Tonight, I'm going to sing Moondance by Michael Buble."

It is generally agreed upon that Michael Buble is to jazz what Il Divo is to classical opera. So, if I hear one more person say, "I'm going to sing Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Michael Buble", I shall beat my chest, rend my clothes and will forever only play The Greatest Hits of Queen on my ipod.

going back to my case, i had the most tiresome debate with a friend over the weekend, desperately trying to bring to his attention that the movie "300", its events was loosely based on recorded historical analects by the famous ancient greek historian, herodotus (who is also by and large regarded as the first true historian to lay the distinct line between 'factual account' and 'accounts of myths and legends', thus providing the very foundation to a theoretical and analytical framework of approach to the discipline of history).

but sometimes, swift ignorance and rejection can inexplicably confound the very act of reason one may try to put across. i succumbed to sheer and unfettered trepidation when the same friend dismissed my earnest explanation when he said, "no, it's not history lah, it's just a story created by frank miller, he did vendetta also mah, where got history one?"

i could almost hear the wailing calls coming from the ghosts of my past history professors, lecturers and tutors... poor is the teacher whose student fails to shed the same offering of enlightenment unto others.

for the record, here are some historical facts:

1. sparta did exist as a fiercely independent army-state although it did assume a very minimal adoption of the hellenistic traditions

2. leonidas was a historically recognised monarch/king from the agiad lineage who reigned in 5th century b.c.

3. leonidas did lead his army of 300 men against the persian campaign to exact overlordship over greece led by xerxes (successor to darius the great)

4. the thespians and the thebans joined leonidas and his 300 men against the hundreds of thousands that made up the persian garrison

5. the persian wars took place in 480 b.c.

6. leonidas did consult the oracle at delphi before embarking on his mission (a very typical act carried out by any greek monarch before embarking on a war mission)

7. from recorded historical account, the oracle did auger two possibilities (i) sparta will be subjugated and razed to the ground or (ii) sparta will be saved but its king will perish - leonidas opted for the second option and went to war - which is a very typical hellenistic outlook which defined the concept of sovereignty and exercising the will of the state

8. leonidas and his men perished at the battle of thermopylae but not without inflicting considerable damage to the strength of the persian army

9. the persian campaign continued resulting in their nominal conquests of the ionian states

10. aristides formed the delian league and liberated the ionian states - the persian campaign was seriously weakened, resulting in the peace of callias where persia eventually agreed to signing a peace treaty with athens

but if you seriously and earnestly think it's all comic and fiction, i guess asterix was written from something 100% pulled out of rené goscinny's imaginative arse then. none of these actually existed cos it's only comics - visigoths, rome, gaius julius ceasar, gauls, corsica, cleopatra, druids, egypt, ptolemy, iberians, normans, vikings, the sphinx...and the list goes on.

whew... i think i can to bed now.

Robert Frost Revisited

2007-03-12T14:14:00.000+08:00

i shot this picture of lynda and ian several weeks back when we were walking down the road from the office. lynda brought to our attention that the sky and clouds looked 'higher' than usual.

more often than not, you tend not to notice things like that until someone brings it to your attention. and in this case, it was lynda who brought it to my attention, which in turn resulted in me quickly snapping away shots of the blue sky and very distant white sheets of clouds.

perhaps if i make the effort, i may notice more things which i never knew before. a simple 5 mins walk home from the office may reveal more things if i were to pay attention to my surroundings just a lil' bit more.

in one of her recent blog postings, dora quoted a stanza from one of robert frost's poems. a poem which i used to read and admire during my early teenage years, i remember revisiting it several years back. since then, it had totally slipped off my mind until i stumbled upon it again on dora's blog (The Camel Diaries). and it was the most minor of all efforts, to go have a read at dora's little pockets of random thoughts and musings, that led me to robert frost all over again. there's a lot to do and discover as i walk down the road the next time round.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
by Robert Frost.

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there's some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Wrap It Up With A Pint... Or Two

2007-03-12T03:19:00.000+08:00

sunday nights, as usual, can be quite a problematic enigma for me. i'd sometimes look for that one final activity to go for which i think will help wrap up the weekend, and in turn, will define and seal the preceding days in the whole week that you've been through. and if none is to be found, well, there's always cable tv. tonight, i found the perfect reason to nicely wrap up my sunday. all it took was a sms from an old friend, ernie; and we both ended up at tango's in the village. the perfect culprit for an excuse.

ernie strongly felt that guinness draught did not match his skin tone and wished he had ordered a strawberry daquiri instead...

the concluding pint that sent me home... to yet another manic monday

Sunday With 300 Spartans

2007-03-11T23:43:00.000+08:00

behind a twisted ankle is a silver lining. you can totally skip the botanic gardens routine and stay in till late night watching countless of dvds. perfect excuse not to exercise.

saturday was a totally sedentary stay-home saturday watching japanese animes, french & saunders and almodovar's spanish horror flick; and stuffing our faces with da paolo's vahlrona chocolate scones with sam and kennedy who came to the village for a visit.

i figured out i needed to have a bit of sun on sun-day (no pun intended). that means, having to walk for a minute to the bus stop under the sun, board the air-conditioned bus to vivocity, and go through the sheltered walkway into vivocity. that's pretty much having a bit of sun.

but i have both dora and david to thank for asking along to watch the movie, 300. watching the whole sparta thingy about fighting the persians was like a trip down memory lane - A level history paper 14; ancient history - the whole spiel on a group of fiercely independent group of citizen-warrior greeks from sparta who had no sense for aesthetics like their athenian counterpart had. the athenians may have their corinthian columns, doric columns and the ionic columns. and the spartans have...well, just plain functional boring looking columns to hold their roofs up.

but here are a few top reasons why you should go watch 300:

1. durian seeds-like abs were all over the screen (god bless golden village's huge-ass max screen)
2. leonidas' bubble butt tight ass (yesh! buck naked ass)
3. spartan chicks' saucy costumes (SPGs here prolly would start wearing the same while being seen at cafe del mar)
4. leonidas and his 300 men in red capes and leather briefs
5. a totally unrepentant super ultra campy and poofy xerxes, the persian king with a "i am the queen and i am gorgeous" complex (i swear he looked like a skin-headed naomi campbell)

dora and i agreed on one other thing we saw in the movie: we both saw "lord voldemort" in xerxes' character... how bleddy uncanny! buwahaha!

and we rounded off the afternoon with coffee and sugar-frosted donut and cheesecake, and conversations on "gargoyle" and "lord voldemort".

Plorific? Plofiric? Profilic? Prolific?

2007-03-08T01:03:00.000+08:00

sometimes, after countless pints of guinness draught, one might get uhm... a cat-got-your-tongue kinda situation. so many words you want to say, so many thoughts you want to express, but all you need is a little help from an old friend to translate so many muddled-up words into plain simple facts of realities.

meeting my former professor of history from my nus days for drinks was a tremendous opportunity. and the countless pints of guinness draught pretty much helped subside the flu infliction i've been having for the past several days too.

if there is a take-home message or advice my professor friend gave me, it'd be to continue honour my feelings, irregardless how daunting circumstances may be. because giving up something you appreciate over a lame reason tantamounts to leading an existence of all things lame, null and void. a very hobbesian overview indeed.

very prolific if you ask me... just what i needed when everything at this juncture looks bleak and dirge-like.

just like the good old days in nus over a bottle of wine with the same old friend in guild house club. just that he noticed a change in me (which is, to my utter joy and appreciation upon hearing it coming from him, the cynic!) - that back then, i'd change boyfriends as if i would change underwears frequently; but now, he grudgingly admits i'm so ever ready to settle down.

thanks for the brutal honesty professor, old friend.

We All Falter, Does It Matter?

2007-03-06T22:55:00.000+08:00

last friday, a not-very great thing occured at work and very few of my friends have been privy to learn what had happened.

i have been wanting to write on several things like ian's band (super illegals) doing the opening act for electrico's concert, harry's announcement on his engagement and akan datang wedding date and stuffs. but i guess i will eventually write soon.

feeling not so great these past couple of days at home, life pretty much turned into a 24hour homestay in front of the telly.

the only major consolation i had was the usual brief bonehead chat with sean while he was at work on msn (content lifted from sean's blog 'The Wookie Has Landed'):

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
I am debating shud i go swimming at buona vista later. I am doing cardio everyday now..

pornstar says:
evening later is it? u might earn urself a band of followers

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
but there are always weirdoes following me into locker room… i hate that..

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
coz lighting is all wrong.. if i show, i want to show nicely

pornstar says:
ah true also

pornstar says:
i just go for my evening long walks and i think as i walk

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
ya, russ saw u last time..

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
but u shed the cotton and linen resort look already right?

pornstar says:
on n off lah

pornstar says:
sunday i went high tea dressed like as if i was living in the banyan tree resort

pornstar says:
yesterday..well....as if i just emerged from the HDB heartlands

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
ya.. u always look like u live by the seaside.. even tho u r in the middle of orchard road next thing u just need to wear sarong.. the brown type.. and wrapped till your chest..

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
and wash clothes by the swimming pool as if its the river.. and wait for your Abang to come back from the paddy field

pornstar says:
then serve him food from tiffin carrier

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
"bang... Din dah mengandung..."

pornstar says:
dah dua bulan dah

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
"bang nak anak lelaki atau perempuan"

pornstar says:
“PONDAN!

pornstar says:
i am so alone at home

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
u shud do a Bjork...

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
"its oh so quiet....... shhhh... shhhhh... shhhhhh"

pornstar says:
yeah i did that already, many plates and pots n pans we left broken after i slew them all around the house in the "WOW BAAM!" chorus, luckily they were cheap Ikea plates

pornstar says:
i come visit u later

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
u wear resort look k?

pornstar says:
i wear sarong and come

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
u wear the black wig i have. tonight, u do pontianak look k?

pornstar says:
i wear white long robe

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
i haul u up from second floor..

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
u fly and swing outside the kitchen window!

pornstar says:
u just make sure Ida is doing the dishes at that time

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
ok, i swing u, throw confetti.. its like our own version of St. James Powerhouse Sunday night party..

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
Got Light, Got Confetti, Got Acrobat..

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
next time russ and me go.. u come with us la. Very fun!

pornstar says:
is it...long queue one ah?

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
VERY

pornstar says:
oh dear, i am extremely allergic to queues u know

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
your symptoms are :bitchiness, none stop grumbling, confrontational...

pornstar says:
correct

pornstar says:
where u study all these from?

zhou.周公子.주지중. says: observation:
I hide behind bushes study you one.. I am like Sigourney Weaver in "Gorillas in the Mist"

pornstar says:
orhhh, next time u observe pple in towel club lah

pornstar says:
then u write thesis , sure NUS give u PhD one

zhou.周公子.주지중. says:
"The primates check each other out... as they go into the dark rooms in pairs or sometimes in 3s..."

pornstar says:
"and they produce grunts,as signs of readiness to mate.."

feeling much better in the evening, i walked to sean's for our usual banter and laughs at the usual goofs on local news on tv... and yeah, i wore the sarong, no less.

Karen The Bringer Of Jollity

2007-02-27T19:41:00.000+08:00

going back to work on a monday can be a drag (no double entendre there really, i dress up in man's clothes thank you very much).

but it's always nice when the drudgery of monday is obliterated when you get to meet a friendly, cute-as-a-button, familiar face. karen came all the way from her made-out-of-a-metal-container-office in somerset to holland village for lunch.

this eurasian girl damn cute lah!

and as random as she can get, she suggested, "come we go rob seven-eleven in our sunshades can, then no one can recognise us!"

i swear she's also another mental case but i like!

What's Above Your Head?

2007-02-26T23:30:00.000+08:00

while waiting for alex to arrive for our usual sunday tete-a-tete over tea and cake, i went trigger happy snapping away at the canopy above borders bistro's al fresco area. metal frames and sheets of glass above my head... i wonder if anyone had noticed these things are actually hanging above our heads.

Gelato Sunday

2007-02-26T22:54:00.000+08:00

saturday night was a total bummer night at home... colin was out, and i stayed home as usual with a bottle of cabernet and watched cable at home. given the near sedentary circumstances i had put myself in, i told myself i'll go for my long brisk walk on sunday... for two scoops of gelato. yummers...

teriyaki chicken don lunch with lynda and benedict followed by gelatos. i told lynda benedict looked like a poor thing, i'd like to send him to the children's home. notice how lynda's hairstyle resembled that of a groomed shih-tzu showdog...chuckle!

few more stamps, i'll earn a scoop for free... just a few more stamps...

and the unthinkable happened.

lynda took a nap in between scoops off her gelato. one scoop...and she takes a nap, she wakes up again to have another scoop...the girl is a tad mental in some sorta way if you ask me.

Kong Hey! Kong Hey!

2007-02-26T22:46:00.000+08:00

eeeks! I cannot believe I decided to look like a walking ang-pow when doing the bai-nian on saturday... all for the sake of collecting red packets and eat & eat & eat...

To Botanic Gardens, I'm So Ardent

2007-02-25T11:40:00.000+08:00

retire to bed early on a friday night
for an early saturday morning walk with full of might

"are you sure about this?" myself i asked
the road is long and daunting i may not last

if dora is on her way to the garden in a cab right now
maybe i can cheat and take a bus anyhow

continue on foot i must insist
for the lure of the green path i cannot resist

four cute topless joggers i encountered along the way
onward i marched i never did sway

it was an effort not wasted i reckon
the gardens' majestic gates, unto me it beckoned

pink frangipani blooms caught on my lens
with fresh morning dew, i wish this will never end

a white columned gazebo, solitary and stark
reminded me of a scene from gosford park

wah-lau-weh...so small the bonsai plants are
maybe they have caretakers the size of oompah-loompahs

hark! lo and behold, it's treebeard the ent!
branches waving at us from a true blue majestic old gent

Karen Taught Me One...

2007-02-23T21:10:00.000+08:00

i was inspired by karen's list of all things random.

Seven Random Facts

1. i get a kick spraying mr muscle on mildew and mould in the bathroom and watch 'em dissolve slowly
2. when i finish drinking my japanese green tea, i'd suck out the remaining juice from the tea bag believing that part is most potent and will help prevent cancer and reduce cholesterol
3. i totally believe i am an expat when i buy takeaways from da paolo gastronomia just because mainly expats patronise the deli
4. when i feel lonely at night, i hug my 1.5m bodymate pillow and pretend it's B i'm hugging
5. i gulp a shot of benedictine's d.o.m. every night before i sleep thinking my skin will glow the next morning
6. i sleep with eight pillows in bed because it acts as a formidable fortress against evil spirits that might want to pull my toes
7. on a major night out, i'd facial wash with biotherm skin polisher, pat dry, apply lancome toner, wait a while, apply lancome hydracontrole moisturiser and go out. friends will go "whoa! what the fuck what did you get that glow on your skin?". i'd always say "usual cheap facial wash lah!"