this is not a love song

i know i'm in trouble when i started thinking before typing sms, and in deep shit when i checked my sent items to see if my messages were appropriate.

duh.

i guess situation just caught me at the right place at the right time. or could be the wrong place at the wrong time.. depending on the outcome.

anyway, the trick is, is to just go with the flow. as long as i don't have the urge to hang anyone on the verge of their holy eve, i'm fine.

plus, i read my chinese horoscope for year 2007 which has been circulating around, just out of interest of course, and i must say it's pleasant. ok that's an understatement, i actually almost got diabetes from reading all the sweet fortunes coming my way.

it says work will be a blast for me this year, so i expect if i yell at my boss tomorrow, i'll still get promoted by mid-year. apparently things can never go wrong for me in april too, which means even if i murder those ppl that will try throwing me into the pool during my birthday bash this year, i will get away just fine.

among the highlights also, a good love life. so you see i've got nothing to fret about.

loosely speaking of course. for all i know, the pig year comes, and half of them will end up becoming bak kwa, or bak kut teh or char siew. the year won't last forever anyway, so i just decided to sign up for this life insurans policies today. after half a decade being in total ignorance, i think it's only right to plan some back-ups for my future, you know, in case something unfortunate crops up.

i'm never good at these insurans thingy. the agent could carve the figures and benefits on my forehead, and i'd still be asking for them when we meet next time. i expect she already put the word 'durr-brain' in brackets beside my name in her file for easy identification in the future.

well at least when it comes to bowling, i'm not such a total blur. i guess that's why few days ago my big boss asked me to include him in my team, if i had decided to join this inter company bowling league starting in march. i mean, if in star wars he's like the emperor, and he'll be at my mercy in the alley. how cool is that?

plus, what an effective and convenient way to stab your friends in the back by making cleverly concealed discreet destructive comments about them in between those innocent throws.

so i've formed a team. suggested couple of cool names for the team, like 'tenth frames turkey' or TFT (which could be thin film tansistor as well that sounds a bit like work, which i like), but majority prefers 'gloBowl warming', whatever that means.

however, before i even registered, i already lost one of our team mates because he was offered to go for work attachment to our HQ in idaho, USA. for which i was a bit pissed off.

not that i'm jealous or anything, i've been for the attachment myself last year. just that, it felt so much better when i was there in the states and they were all back here in singapore. ok i'm being selfish. this makes it 3 of our kaki going or already now in the far west of the globe. having fun i supposed,.. in the stupid fake beach volleyball court behind the company building,.. spending stupid company money.

i should check my horoscope again to see if there's anything in there about sabotaging...



...ed

another day nothing in my way

some blogs are just annoying. you opened them up, and songs immediately got blasted outta nowhere, which jolted you by suprise, especially if you're surfing in the quiet and peaceful of the after-midnight hours.

i'm not against streaming music you know, i even have it here in my own blog (forgive me if it jolted you, for which, i'm sure your speaker must be too loud or something ;) but before you start to think i'm pot calling you a kettle black yet, at least my stop-streaming button is not as invisible as the iraqi wmd.

plus, who could possible hate terry geiger?

being prisoned in my own bedroom was making me all weird. there was a volleyball session on-going in NUS hardcourt today that i should have joined, but gave it a miss. my side is still a bit sore from the fall few days ago so i decided to just let it rest. this valid reason to just laze around and not feeling guilty doesn't come often.

anyway, for the sake of those who were playing, i'm glad that we decided to go for a hardcourt rather than beach volleyball. at least with such chilling weather outside today, ppl won't get sick from wearing skimpy clothes. looking at the gloomy sky, you'd think you were in london or something. london with the london eye shifted 350km up north in tasik titiwangsa, kl that is.

before i started talking to the walls, i went out for awhile to tampines late noon. after the bathroom incident, i've been stockpiling anti-slip bathmap ever since. well, actually started yesterday. now you could even do tap dance in there and i'm sure you'll be fine.

actually i was trying to find a toaster cover. i'm starting to get suspicious of what could go inside the toaster when it's not being used. this may sound tiny-whiny but i was practically out of things to buy for my house. well except one for the car park below, but that's another story.

the nice lady in metro asked me to look for the cover at this variety household shop near the mcdonalds. sure enough they have tons of stuff, you name it you got it. only that when i actually asked them, the male helper in a most perplexed face ever, mentioned he didn't know what a toaster is. so i asked the shop lady and she didn't know either.

i mean, that thing that pops up hot and crispy breads, is called a toaster, right?
how the hell that they don't know, especially after i've pronounced it as singlish as i could?

anyway, at least that added a bit of spice to an otherwise a monotonous day, just another day nothing in my way. that particular offline icon in my msn doesn't make things any better either.

so do some song-blasting blogsites.


...ed

this ain't a scene, it's an arms race

it is proven true :- bad things come in three. officially confirmed and sealed.

first clijsters beats hingis in AO quarterfinals. i was nearly ecstatic when hingis secured the first set but as nelly furtado sings, all good things will come to an end. she lost in 3, as my friend so helpfully paged me while i was in the office cafeteria having my lunch. i swear he sounded like a bit happy.

then i took a cab back home so that i could catch men's quarterfinals between nadal and gonzales, sharp when the clock hit 5.15pm. you see, i almost never take cab back home but i figured this is much cheaper then buying a car. still to some extent, it was not an enjoyable affair to part with 13 bucks just for this.

after the thriller 5-setter with murray last monday, i was expecting some fight too with gonzales but it turned out nadal was totally outpowered and outplayed. it almost ripped my heart watching gonzo's thunderous forehands flew left and right unreached.

like i always do, i turned of the tv and did other stuff hoping the score will somehow get even. yes it's silly i know and true enough somethings are just not meant to be. apparently reading harry potter then taking a brief nap just drifted the match even further from victory. nadal was ousted in straight sets.

which sucks. now i lost all my enthusiasm in this year's AO. for all i know, serena will win the women and (who-else) federer will win his gazillionth grand slam title. so no more a quick browsing through the forums before my morning shower. no more surrepticious live score check-outs in between engineering reports windows during worktime.

thinking the day couldn't get any worse, i cleaned my fish tank just now and i was stepping into the toilet to keep the empty pail when i slipped and fell down. i remembered as if in slow motion my feet slipping forward, my hand let go of whatever i was holding, trying to get hold of my balance but to no avail. next second i was lying sideways on the floor with my body all protesting in pain.

in between heavy breath checking whether my body was still fully functional, i wondered what would have happened had i fell down badly, or worse, lost conciousness. my colleagues would wonder for awhile and then probably concluded i went for a sudden vacation or something. i expect the police will have to break down the main door after a week, to finally find me spotting mushrooms all over.

well anyway, i'm not gonna fret much about that now, as what the fall out boy sings, as long as the room keeps singing....



...ed

the poolside story

i love it when it rains in the morning. especially the feeling following that brief state of panic after grabbing the alarm clock that already passed 8, and realized it's saturday.

just that it's almost 11 but it doesn't seem to get sunny anytime sooner. which made me writing this blog instead of going down for a short swim as planned. taking a dip in a weather like this, i'd be dehydrated from running nose before the lift even reach my floor.

it's a pity. i could use a bit of thinking time by the poolside to make up my mind. you see, i've been round the roundabouts before but i still have yet to decide to buy or not to buy a car.

the other day, my colleague asked me the reason i'm thinking of buying one. hereby, these are the usual most valid reasons, just on top of my head.


a) to ferry children or sick old parents?

not really. not having kids of my own, it'll be a police case if i were to have them in my car. and my parents are still young and healthy. not to mentioned they live in kl and have a car each too.


b) for work travel assignments?

i don't have to do my own version of the amazing race meeting customers all over the island for work. i work in a lab, so the most human voices i hear are from my headphones. during work i mean. so it's a no.


c) to get to remote places?

nope. unless i'm off to bury someone already wrapped in a blanket from my kitchen. or the modern way, to blow it off in a deserted hill near the dam, especially if she's a young mongolian model mistress.


not a very strong case huh? but i do have my own reasons. like i could shorten my trip to work. i commute 45 minutes one-way to work a day, consist of an mrt ride and 2 short bus trips. driving will take less than 15 minutes, with no-jam and no parallel parking of course.

plus, it's only a matter of time till my knees give way from standing everytime taking the east west line. btw, why the hell does that line is always crowded? you'd think having 6 long coaches with train frequency every 2 minutes are enough to get seats for passengers from the 3rd station after the starting point. it's as if ppl just pouring out of tampines and pasir ris non-stop.

whether these are enough to justify an extra $1000 out of my pocket every month for a car, i'm not sure. my friend said, with that amount of money it's like i can go for travel every month. which when i think about it, it's a bit too much of a money for a bit of convenience.

i don't know. it's a lot easier if we can have help everytime we have difficult decisions to make. you know, something that can give you hints, or clue on how to proceed. like a magic dice or taro cards or something. i guess that's why ppl resort to fortune teller, or even horoscope to get some guidance in life. maybe it's human nature after all, to need help to attain nirvana.

for me, i hope to get mine at the poolside. if it's not raining of course.



...ed

tripping the starting line

i don't wanna be at all negative but the year has not gone off to a very best start.

we went to sentosa on jan 1st, purposely to catch the magical fountain show. not that it has anything to do with new year celebration, i just realized somehow this attraction escaped my radar.

implementing kiasuism since the very first day, we went an hour early to snatch good seats. like in marina bay last night, the rain chose to pour down the moment we set our asses on the bare stand. not to worry, we were well equipped with umbrellas.

an hour of our precious life went on a waste before eventually the show started, sharped at 7.40pm. the fountain shot up in the air in rhythm with music and glaring lasers, and boy, did we go ga-ga over that...

then it stopped. disappeared. nada. just like the adam air budget airlines that went missing in indonesia. by then it was all music and lasers only for the rest of the show. oh, and the poor clown too that had to talk to the now-invisible monkey that was supposed to be projected onto the water screen.

what a waste of time and effort. i mean, give me torchlight in a dark room and i could produce the same effect. i don't know why they couldn't stop the whole thing and attempt to fix it. perhaps those repair-men were all on new year holiday, or like typical other services in s'pore, the whole system just collapsed whenever events turn up un-ordinary.

to think that was the 1st show of the year, not very promosing for sentosa, huh?

the crowd waiting for 7.40pm show

to make it worse, 2 of my fishes died the next day. i know they were behaving abnormally, especially my calico ryukin that out of a sudden proned to getting its tail stucked in the aquarium filter, but they were not supposed to die. it made my effort buying medicine and tank to quarantine them went down the drain.

the good thing is, i have this friend that mentioned there's a chinese saying that pet fish dies so that the master can discharge bad luck. i don't know about that, but i almost felt not too bad anymore throwing the carcasses later down the rubbish chute.



deceased : calico (top) and pearl scale(bottom right)

what's important is that i need all the luck when i sit for driving basic theory test (btt) this wednesday. plus a bit of read-up too of course. after a short noon swim just now at the pool downstairs, instead of pouring lotion all over my body and sun-tanning like this guy beside me, i laid down reading this basic road theory book. now tell me who's sexier??

i got another wedding to attend to tonight. this time it's the wedding of one of my dearest friend, to be held at carlton, bugis. i bitched about weddings everytime i write about them in this blog but i'm not going to say anything nasty this time. it's my new year resolution. i'm going to be good and pleasant this year.

right after i curse that stupid time-wasting burn-in-hell sentosa fountain show.


...ed

Come 2 double 'oh' 7

yup that's right, that's what i'm gonna do. i'm sure we deserve it. 15-31st, that's a full 2 weeks of promising good times.

you know, after suffering the other 50 weeks...







the impressive s'pore landmark skylines. even more impressive? my canon powershot G7 that captured this photo, without a tripod!

with shadowed glimpsed of those 'kiasu' ppl who already booked the best spot by the river edge since like 6pm. urghh.. get a life!





we bared hours of waiting, partly in the rain, to watch this mediocre, nothing-special pre-show 10pm and 11pm fireworks that only lasted like... 30 seconds?









other crowd on stairs of nearby marina square.

thanks god for mobile phone. imagine have to search for your tiny little friend among those crowd?







at last, it's new year 2007! i guess everybody was overwhelmed by the start of the fireworks to actually do the countdown.

well either that, or they were busy setting up their cameras to snap the fireworks.






of course, when i mentioned 'they', i meant 'me'.

hey, at least i got this shot. this makes 3 hours of wading through the crowd waiting for this showdown a bit worth it.







the one on the ground.. no, i mean, on the water.

that's why there's a saying that it's good not to only look up, but sometimes we must remember the ground where we stand.

surely it applies here too.














see those yellow boats there? that shows how enourmous those spotlights thingy are.




















spotlights along the river edge, lined up by enthusiastic photographers capturing the more-than-usual lit-up skyscrapers.










after all, i'm sure they wouldn't want to capture what's left on the ground after the crowd dispersed.

whoever says singapore is a clean city??







...ed