final goodbyes

There is no need for adoption anymore. All my fishes just died. One after another. 3 fishes in 3 successive days. Mysteriously. No sign of disease. No malnutrition. No abnormal behaviour.

Believe it or not. I think my 3 fishes committed suicide (not that they jumped out of their tanks). Just before the first one decided to give up, I openly spoke about giving them all up to a fish-rearing uncle when I move over to holland in June. Papa warned me then, saying I should not say such things out aloud, in front of the fishes, that they would somehow hear/feel/understand/deduce/know... At that time, I thought it was a really funny, impossibly unscientific thing that he said.

It was awful clearing the floating lifeless bodies... Now the tank is empty. Before this, at least when papa is away, and I return home after a long tiring day at work, I'd get to see my wiggley fishes, bobbing around and trying to devour as many food pellets as their tiny mouths can during feeding time. At least then, there was something alive in the house. Now, there is nothing. Just the tv blaring senseless monologues in the background.

And now, a vein in my left neck is hurting. It hurts each time I project my voice a little. Started yesterday afternoon I guess, but really deteriotated this morning when even swallowing saliva hurt. Perhaps that vessel there is about to burst *touch wood*. I've already told some of my kid-clients strategies to handle their end-of-yr obstacles should I suddenly disappear from planet Earth just like little fishies. I even bought all of them tau huay/fruits/milo so that they'd remember me. Haha. Maybe it is not funny. But who cares.

Why care so much about what others think. When maybe, in actual fact, they are not even thinking of/about you one millibit.

No worries, I am good. I am not whining. Nor am I sad. I am just typing thoughts as they come.

After all, this is my blog - and who is to say no?

aging obstacles

Ahyah. The one thing all leaders of organizations must do is to weed out the incompetent. Especially incompetents who are influential. Rather than kowtow to them and listen to their slew of half-baked truths and baseless whines, just kick their monstrous a** and make them fly out through some window loh. Otherwise, the consequences are disastrous - not only will they cause disillusion amongst other workers, they will also ultimately crumble the whole organization by peeving the able ones so much that the latter pack bags and go. Then good luck to you, get a influential-incompetent to do the job loh. And see what you'd get.

Maybe a super strong-principled person should never take on leadership positions. The line between black-white and right-wrong is just too defined. This only brings about unparalleled agony to the (some say) "self-righteous" soul..

Whatever it is, I'd stick to what I think is right. Thou will not bend backwards. Simplicity is the ultimate sophiscation.

Cheers.

Of sofas and green pills

Omigod.. I never knew looking for sofas can be such a tiring process. Maybe it's me. But really, I can't seem to find a PERFECT sofa leh. The closest I got is a VERY NICE, sleek, assymetrical white one, with big orange and green throw pillows BUT it is too big!! 8 feet long, way too giant for my humble little abode. But oh, how I love thee! Haiz... the rest are either too boring, too ugly, too obiang, or too synthetic... Haiz haiz haiz.. I've got my bed, my cabinets, my dining set, my LCD (a fabulous 32" Samsung LCD with super cool home theatre!), my lights, my everything... except this troublesome sofa. Maybe I'd go Zen and make all of you sit on the floor, jap style. Save my balding head.

I finally went to see a doc for my 1 mth-long burping prob. Can tahan for so long because it is more of an irritation/nuisance than a real pain/discomfort. The Bright One said it is a "functional problem" - an upset of the system caused by stress, irregular eating hours, too fast an eating speed, or a sudden change in diet to a super high fibre one. I think it is all of the above except for the last. And he gave me some lime green pills to eat. Aiyoh! A "functional problem"?? What funny kinda diagnosis is that, and too think I gave him 30 hard-earned bucks for that 6min interaction and 20 lime green pills.

For the rest, it is one more week... countdown to break. For me, it is another 3 weeks before I am truly relieved of hideously stressful work stuff. I shall survive.

rainbow

Aiyoh, I popped over to new house last weekend, coz contractor uncle said painting's done. Upon stepping inside, I realised I've actually chosen quite a no. of colours... there's yellow, blue, pink, green and grey! Hmmm.. haha, lucky all pastel shades, otw it'd look like some crazy Uncle Wonky childrens' sweet store.

Anyways, another 2 weeks to pseudo break. The REAL one (hopefully) will come in july, once I get these impending big-sized work commitments out of the way. Hope to breathe easier later half of the year. Btw, am leaving for Ozzie Land from 4th to 14th June, bringing kid clients there for study attachment. Will surround ourselves with forests, mangroves, lakes, seas & sand on a tranquil island half hour ferry ride away from bustling mainland, and interact with humble native organisms. So there, am rather looking forward to finally executing this tediously planned programme. Sure hope there's no silly kiddos attempting to jump into the sea or hide in the forest...

Anyone wans anything from Ozzie Land? Save for a true-blue aboriginal aussie, I'd see what i can do abt the rest. =)

A respite at last?

Yippee, Gomez (his chinese translation quite weird hor - Ger-mai-si, if don't pronounce it properly, may misread as cut-wrist-and-die... *absoultely no disrespect intended*) won't be charged! Finally. Hope this brings the mountain-molehill/molehill-mountain saga to a close. Enough of name-calling and threats please, we really are more gracious than that. GE after GE, someone has to have his name dragged into the mud... little wonder few dare to venture into this whole political scene, whether donning whites or blues or khakis. Either you sue or you kena sued. Scary. Why not live and let live, *O mi tuo fuo*.

I salute you, dear residents of Potong Pasir and Hougang who put crosses against the hammer. If I can, I will gladly donate the covered walkway below my block to you.

"Ben(3) shi(4) tong(2) gen(1) sheng(1), xiang(1) jian(1) he(2) tai(4) ji(2)". Are you hearing us, dear Progress And Proficient (some say "Pay And Pay)?

Plasma or LCD?

It's Vesak Day today. Go-vegetarian time. I probably should resume doing so every first and fifteen of lunar mth. Soon.

Pls x'cuse me for long absence. These days, weekends are generally spent talking to contractor & scouring for furniture. Wall's hacked, tiles' laid, wires' pulled, switches' fixed, paint colors' chosen, lighting's bought, air-con's ordered, cabinets' designed, sofa and dining table's decided. Next in line, a nice big plasma/LCD tv. But woah, very expensive leh... just couple of weeks before, I'd never have dreamt of plonking so much $$ on a black rectangular box. Almost a mth of salary on tv?! Hmmmm... but then, standing in front of one, the whole tv experience seems transformed leh... so clear, so flat, so wide, so NICE!

Well well, am glad it's another long weekend. Time to sleep in and then clear work. A lot of ppl getting married and a lot of babies popping out too. Did I tell you, I just graduated to become a "Gu(1) Gu(1)" - my cousin's wife squeezed out a huge baby boy. So there. And she's only 24 this year. What am I doing, I wonder. =P

Hey, if you were me, would you buy a plasma or LCD tv?

Election Fever

Holy Cow!

Were you at Serangoon Stadium yesterday night? My goodiness, what a gathering of the masses! It's like the Chinatown CNY bazaar all over again, I tell you! Heart-poundingly SHIOK!

I am no die-hard opposition supporter (though I do welcome alternative views), but I must say I thoroughly enjoyed myself during the precious half hour that I was there. It made the 1.5hr journey (1hr of it was spent crawling along absolutely jammed-up CTE and 0.5hr of it spent trying to squeeze out some space to illegally double-park in front of some private bungalows) worth it. So many, so many people - we are talking about more than 10,000 here - all inch-packed into the stadium; ice-cream vendors with their red Walls umbrellas parked along the roads, and barricades with starched-uniformed policemen dotting the boundaries of stadium.



Within the stadium, it's one highly-charged, organized mess. With passion running high, and a blatant disregard for the sinking of feet into muddy grounds and pressing of hot sweaty bodies against one another, people of all races and ages waved small hammer-flags and boisteriously chanted 'Workers Party! Workers Party!' each time the candidates said something that struck the right chord. And how very clever to have ended the rally by reciting the pledge!



Good luck, to candidates who truly want to serve.

At Last

Finally. I can smell freedom. The lavendery scent of calm. Peace... for at least for the next 48hrs.

I truly wonder how I managed to survive these past few days. Bruised and battered, but not yet dead. Maybe even slightly stronger from it. Haiz. Involuntary conditioning.

Tonight is the last nite! Have you been to a rally yet?! I've been so caught up with stuff I haven't had time to go wade onto those muddy fields to hear some of these ppl speak. Tonight, I will go! Off to Serangoon. =) Who cares about being in a walkover constituency.

My dears, thank you for hanging around and listening to me drone. For reading my mundane, boring-as-wood happenings. Even a snail would have a more colourful blog.

"Peace - that was the other name for Home" - Kathleen Norris

Do or Die

Horrendous week ahead. 5 messy lumps of blobby work to clear by friday, and 3 more globs by next wed. Plus multiple meetings and consultations. Plus contractor running after me (thought it shd be the other way round, but this one got lots of self-discipline and self-motivation, anyone needs renovation done, i'd pass u his contacts). Plus uncle's back in hospital. And btw, today is already wed. Oh so happening!

Well, past long weekend was shiok though. Ran away to KL to hide and eat-shop to heart's content. Spent time with papa as he celebrated his "can-take-CPF" age. Savoured roast suckling pig, macau peanut butter toast & milk tea, fried salted egg crabs, rendang-spiced bamboo clams, 1 metre tall (no kidding) roti tissue & foamy kopi terik. SHIOK. But I know I must resume (if there was any to begin with) my diet when I return.

I will try to fight these globby monsters. But sometimes, a little like the super-tragic episode of Da Chang Jin yesterday, the option of giving up seems super tempting and almost humane.

Go Da Chang Jin. Go Sunnytears.