Night & Bohemian Life in Serangoon Garden
A glimpse of Serangoon Garden where I sleep, eat and shower there. A few minutes'walk away from my home, there are happening places - pubs, coffee joints, wine shops and etc. Second version of Holland Village but much smaller and less happening. More like homely place.
Wedding Bells
My mother bursted into my room and exclaimed to me that my childhood friend, Ben is getting htiched this year.
She heard the news faster than me. She got the inviation faster than me. From his mother. Occassionally, my mother and his mother will pop by to say hello on phone and yak about our lives. I bet that my mother must be lamenting to her that I am still single till now. Ha ha.
Anyway, I am glad that he is tying the nuptial ribbon with his wife-to-be. Most possibly, he will fetch his wife-to-be in bridal Benz bus instead of Mercedes car. (But I dun think that it will materialise. His mother will not ALLOW it!) His passion is buses, and he is always talking about buses.
Women Warriors
March issue is out. Seventeen wrote the article "Women Warriors", and I am one of the women in iron knights.
You must be wondering why my fringe masks half of my face. The photographer took many shots of me in different poses. I had to hold still and rest my hands on my hip.
Turn ur body facing towards me a bit.
Lower ur face a bit lower... No....a bit higher.
Tuck ur hair away from ur face.
Lean on that pillar.
Etc.
Etc.
Etc.
Okay, change another angle.
Etc.
Etc.
Many shots were marred by my faulty fringe which tends to cover my face. And I look so ugly and un-photographic in some pixs. So I guess that it is the best shot they could ever choose. Hee Hee.
Hey, can you recognise my old friends on my class photo? Some were chubby, but now have shed their fats thru rigorous gym trainings. She has flown to USA and settled down. Heard that she is married. The rest...sheesh... their lives are highly confidential that I cannot share abt their lives on my blog.
To read bigger picture, click on this image, and the big image will pop out. Or go and get ur magnifying glass and read the text. Ha ha.
Valentine's Day
As I am typing my blog about Valentine's Day on my Fujitsu laptop, Valentine's Day is one day away from the date of my updated blog(Monday). It will be another Valentine-less day for me. No, I am not wailing abt my "sad and poor" state. I am happy with what I am.
In my entire life of 26 years, I have received a small teddy bear with a love cushion "I love you" attached to it from my ex-best friend. Other than that, a guy gave me a single rose. Most probably, some sales assistants approached him to buy a rose while being on the way to meet me to help me with my school assignment on 14th Feb.
It is okay that I didn't receive gifts from other guys as I didn't expect anything from them. But I was slightly disappointed with Mr Polar Bear for not doing anything on that day full of roses.
I nicknamed him Polar Bear or White Boy ( mostly) cos he is very white as polar bear. No, he is not ang moh. He is Chinese. I met him in Arts Club, sec school. He was my "Civic Defence Paramedic". He was a member of St John. Once when my finger got pierced by a splinter, I wailed and had silly worries that it might put my life into danger. He came to my rescue and helped me to prick it out of my finger, using a nail-clipper. He assumed me that I will not die of it. At that time, I dun know him; he was a stranger to me.
Our friendship started when he asked me for my name on bus-ticket which he wrote on it. I found him very friendly and warm guy. Every Fri, he would wash the pond at Arts Club, and I would watch him every time and then. Make small chat with him. Although I had a good impression of him and enjoyed chatting with him, I didn't harbour any romantic dreams abt him or had feelings for him I swear that I am telling the truth.
Till my friend told me, it changed my world. My friend observed that he was always staring at me, and whispered to me that he liked me. Ya, I noticed so, but I brushed it aside.
But anyway, I was secretly bleaming with happiness. On second thoughts, he was a great guy and I felt very comfortable hanging around him. Thought that I might give him a chance, and I became instantly fond of him. But wait, I wanted to play hard to test his character. I kept my distance from him and deliberately gave him cold shoulder.
But he disappointed me that he didn't do anything, let alone surprise me with Valentine's Day gift. And nothing developed above our friendship level. Ya, he did something a bit like asking me for a chat with him in garden and nothing else. It was not enough.
The heaven, sky and sun were my witness. They saw me waiting for him on rock for a few years, and I was a reduced to a stone. My feelings for him were crushed and dead. ( There is a Chinese legend of a woman waiting for her loved hubby or bf's return on top of rocky mountain for many years till she turned into rock.)
Before I write off, I wish you Happy Valentine's Day! Treasure your time with your loved ones!
"You don't have to worry."
Literally God whispered to me not to worry; my church peached the sermon "You don't have to worry." today.
Matthew 5: 26 - Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
Matthew 5: 28 - So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;I wish that I can be like a carefree bird or lily who dun have to worry abt its' needs being taken care.
Act of Harassment
On twice occassions, I saw him walking on opposite road. From his sex-manic look, it tells that he is up to no good. Typical Ah Seng uncle who has better nothing to do than hang ard at kopi shop and ogle at pretty girls.
He "harassed" me two times. Every time he sees me, he would deliberately cross to the side of the road where I am walking and walk towards me. His motive is very obvious. To protect myself, I quickly walked away from him. I am not happy with him for disturbing me.
Should I forward them emails?
There is a new message in my Hotmail inbox, and it is from my friend whom I never keep in contact with for years. So I am surprised to receive forwarded email from her. What is more eyebrow-raising that she still keeps my contact number esp when we have never exchanged a word of hello thru SMS before.
I am not saying that I am flattered by these things.
When I were in poly, my good friend was caught in sticky stiuation. Facing the computer, she asked me if she should forward email to that woman who she is not close to.
I identify with her dilemna. Whenever I forward emails to people, they are my "regular" friends who I keep in contact with thru MSN or SMS. Oh well, sometimes when I am going through my online address book, I see some irregular contacts. I am not sure if I should include them on my forwarded emails. I want to share with them abt these forwarded emails. But I feel quite weird sending out to them. What if they are offended that I am "spamming" their inbox? I would hum and haw. Then I forget it and click on "send" button to regular contacts.
Like the hospitals, I update my phone book occassionally and remove irregular contacts from my listings. The hospitals throw their patients' records away when they haven't been there for one year and so.
Maybe my friend must have hummed and hawed before sending me the forwarded email.
But hey, if u want to forward me emails regardless of our distant and irregular friendship, you are welcome to include me on ur sending list. But I dun welcome some silly forwarded emails like "if you send this email to 10 people, U will get good luck." :-P
Inconsiderate Passengers
I hate it when the passengers are inconsiderate.
When I was travelling in MRT, a woman sat next to me. She shoved her body towards me to make way for her dear plastic bag of things when she put it besides her thighs on her seat. I could feel body contact between our thighs that incured my discomfort and displeasure. I dun understand why she cannot put her bag on her lap.
It is not my first time with such passengers' inconsiderate actions. Ether they sit too close to me or they take up 3/4 of the seat, leaving me tiny space for me to sit. The worst is when I sat between 2 grossly XXL-sized Ang Moh guys on SIA plane when I flew to Perth. I had to endure 5 painful hours of being "squashed" by them.
As strangers on bus or train, we are inclined to keep a distance from our fellow passengers, and to avoid body contact unless we know them. We would choose a good spot that is 2 or more seats away from them to sit down. The further distance, the better. Unless the bus/train is not packed with many people, we have no choice but to share our seats with them or sit with them. We make sure that there is no body contact with them.
If I can talk very well, I would tell her off.
Chinese Handicap
A few weekeneds ago, I heard my 3D animation classmates talking in their mother tongue, Chinese.
There are 2 categories for Chinese people who are English educated. One is not ashamed of their native language. They grow up in Chinese-speaking families, and it has became second nature to them. My classmates belong to this category.
The other one is born in English-speaking family and grows up struggling with their Chinese which is greek to them. They always flunk their exams in schools and cannot make it beyond the pass border. They heave a sigh of relief when they leave their school. No more struggling with their language in school.
But the nightmare continues on for 'A' level students because it is mandatory to pass the paper in order to gain admission to local and government-funded universities, NUS and NTU. If they still fail but anyway go to local universities, they will be marched to Chinese camp for a few weeks or months, I cannot remember. At the end of the camp, they have to sit for exams. If still cannot pass, they are sentenced to spend their holidays in camp again.
I fall in neither of these categories mentioned above. There is another category, the third one. The deaf students are not trained in Chinese in deaf school. Therefore we couldn't read or write Chinese.
Actually my mom sent me to mainstream kindegarten, hoping that I will pick up my mother tongue there. But I was not able to understand what my teacher was teaching, let alone her instructions to do homework. At the end of my kindegration year, I graduated, not knowing Chinese at all.
In secondary school, my deaf classmates and I lamented about our Chinese handicap which excused us from taking this paper for O level. We are not academically bright. Knowing our language would benefit us; it would help to improve on our points for our O levels.
I tried to learn on my own. My mother would bring assignments home from kindegarten where she was working there, for me to practise. I practised it every day. I learnt how to write my Chinese name. However my enthusiasm was short-lived and I waved my white flag.
Today, the Spore Assn for the Deaf offers Chinese courses. I didn't sign up, knowing that I would take out my white flag with my head bowed down in shame again. My spirit is willing to learn but my flesh is weak. One of the students complained to me that there are too many strokes to remember and even it must be written in order. I cannot fathom why the rule of writing in order must be obeyed. As long as it is legible and people understand it, I dun see it as a necesarity to write in order.
I admire Senior Mentor Lee Kuan Yew. He has the persistance and stamina to reach the finishing line. From the begining, he had zilch knowledge of Chinese language to the end that he can write a book in this language.
Lacking his qualities, I doubt that I can write my blog in strokes one day.
Significance of Chinese New Year?
I am wondering what Chinese New Year truly means. As I know very sparsely abt this festival, I can only guess that it could be the celebration of the first day of Lunar calender, same as the first day of Western calender. We pop English New Year with fireworks, rap music, partying dance and shaking of hands to wish happy new year. It is simple unlike Chinese New Year.
Why fuss so much just to welcome the first day of Lunar calender? We buy goodies, new clothes and spring-clean. On the eve, there is a last-min rush to supermarkets to pack up the food for reunion dinner. Fuss over this and that.
On seeing that the celebrations are so elaborate and fuss-packed, it simulated my curiosity to peep over Internet to find out the meaning of this festival. After quick reading, my knowledge increased to 0.01% that Chinese New Year means "spring-cleaning".
Many older generations are faithful to their traditions and keep up with their celebrations. We young people think that it is a boring festival, and hop on planes for get-away holidays during that period of time.
Every year, it is a quiet affair for me as I have no relatives in this country, Singapore. Only in Malaysia. I treat it as a holiday of eating pineapple tarts and harvesting angpows.
I wish you Gong Xi Fa Cai!
