Is it swap or swop?

I still think it's swap, but the corresponder wrote as swop. And I'm too lazy to check the correct word.

They put me down for so many responsibilities that there were inevitable clashes, which I nicely pointed out to her. Instead of appreciating the fact that I brought the problem to her attention EARLY, which I could have actually waited till the day itself and offhandedly saying, hey ... sorry but I'm down for this other and it takes precedance over yours, she seemed quite annoyed with me, feeling that I'm causing her more trouble. Hey, it's not my fault that I'm down for so many things right? It was your oversight that you missed this one, and no one wanted to know about the swap I had to do, and you did not consult me about the whole thing, so ... why be unhappy with me?

It's a conspiracy out there to make things bad for me.

DUH.

I console myself. Stress in the workplace makes everyone unhappy. I shall not fall into that trap. As someone else would have said, bah. And the flick of my wrist.

Heh.

I've got much better things to do like below.

*****
I've just finished reading 'Dancing Naked in the Mind Field' by Dr Kary Mullis. (in about four hours, now I have a damn neck ache) He was a Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry in 1993. More about him here. He certainly makes Science so much more interesting. Gee, being able to cook up chemicals in your own garage like that! Who wouldn't be interested in Chemistry! And he does have rather controversal ideas about Science and stuffs. I'd like to read some parts of the book again. So I'll put down my ideas about some things later. Most interesting really. Right now I'm feeling over-saturated. Zombified.

Hmm, I think I might go and attend some more workshops on biochemistry. Did a few so far, but too superficial. Perhaps I should do more readups. One more thing to do. :)

*****
I've ran out of chocolates for a while. It's getting into me. The last time I had nice chocolates were from Leonidas which I had finished last week, which seemed like a bloody long time ago! Too long!. I need something sweet especially after dinner. Usually I'd just pop one or two in my mouth after lunch or dinner and that is enough sugar for me for the whole day. There's also no chocolates at work. I've finished my secret cache long ago and haven't felt hungry enough to buy chocolates when I went shopping. :P The problem with me is that I only buy unnecessary stuffs when I'm hungry. And I haven't been hungry and shopping lately. It works this way. When I'm hungry and shopping in the supermarket, I tend to buy chocolates and cookies and many other stuffs. And when I'm depressed and stressed or unhappy, I'll be buying clothes. Whoops. Maybe I should just stay at home and read my books. :P

Oh, and I've also finished another Agatha Christie book today. A collection of short stories which I've borrowed from a student whom I recommended AC to her. Finished that in about four hours too. No wonder my neck and shoulders were aching like crazy!

*****
I think right now I'm starting on the reading books cycle. A few weeks ago it was the watching anime cycle. A few months back, it was gunbound cycle. I need to get back to the studying Japanese cycle. I've went to Kino and bought nice coloured files, pretty highlighters and other cute stationary. I'll need to start making notes and do more revision on them!

And the most important thing I actually need to do is to clear the clutter on my work desk. It is depressing and stressful to work in a small enclosed area which is super untidy. I'm having problems finding stuffs in the minefield of papers. I really really need to do something about it, which I tell myself each time I had to wade through the piles of rubbish to look for something I think it was vaguely there. But how to tidy the place when there's no place to put the stuffs? I can't jolly well throw everything away ... or can I? :P When is my new house going to be ready so that I can transfer all my rubbish there and sort them out? I need space! Space! Space which is what the authorities refused to give! Why are they making all the new flats so tiny? And now they complain they can't sell the big ones out. That's because they're too damn far and expensive. Really.

Shessh.

I'm complaining too much now.

I miss my cat. Reading razz's cats, I really missed my dear affectionate cat.

:(

*****
On Sunday, we went to Wen's place for dinner. She said I'm always falling sick and she told me to drink more soup which her mom makes. We had a wonderful dinner there! Too bad there was no birds' nest soup. humf. Her mom's cooking was really good. Some of her dishes are nicer than my parents' but some, I think my parents do better. :) Biscuit was all over us for scraps from the dining table. He must think men are sucker for his meltingly beautiful big eyes. He kept staring at hubby waiting for him to feed him. Heh. Biscuit stuck his head in between our chairs and looked at us so soulfully, but all hubby did was to cup his hand over his snout and teased him. :P

For supper, we had ice-cream. I could never resist a little sweet stuff. When I was washing the cups after that, Biscuit came round to the kitchen to see what I was doing. Since there was no one around, I quickly scrapped off some ice-cream from the cups and had him licking the spoon clean. Ohhh .... I'm Bis's favourite person immediately! heh ... and don't ever tell Wen that! :P After that, Bis was extremely good and did all I asked, stay, sit (shucks I forgot roll over) ... but there was no more of that nice tiramisu. heh. Wen passed me some of his usual treat, but it's just not the same as that nice heavenly tiramisu eh? heh heh.

All in all, Bis is an extremely well-behaved dog that even hubby likes him a lot. Considering he's more of a cat person. It's really nice to have a pet around the house, but a lot of work and responsibility have to go into it as well. I know Wen spent a lot of time and effort to make Bis what he is right now. I'm not sure if hubby and I have the same amount of patience and time to take care of animals. For all the times we played with Cat, she was more of an independent creature who was simply affectionate and loved us. A well-behaved and intelligent dog would be a different thing all together. Anyway, I just want to have my Cat back, she who lets me grab her leg and flop down by my side when I do so. Perhaps we'll just have to sacrifice the furniture for that.

Oddities and Evenness

There was nothing much to blog about the past few days. There was no inspiration, unlike this morning, when I woke up, the words were forming in my mind! Had been extremely busy the whole week, rushing my markings so as to return assignments and exams. My eyes were ready to pop, and my neck and shoulders ached. On Friday afternoon, I finally threw down my pen and declared, 'that's it! yay!' :)

And so I have my weekend free. It's a different kind of feeling, you know ... the feeling of having a weekend without any worry of work at the back of my mind. One can truely enjoy. :)

*****
Time

It takes about one hour to wash the car with shampoo, and forty-five minutes to wash the car without. Both requires four pairs of hands. And it usually rains after that. Well, maybe not always ... since it hasn't rained yet since yesterday's wash, but black clouds loomed after we sweated. Good thing the clouds took pity on us. Heh.

*****
Lesson notes

Ms Y is a totally inexperienced teacher, and she doesn't really know how to deliver her lessons effectively. However, this has spurred us to revise on our own. After Japanese class yesterday, we sat dowwn and revise what she did in class and did our homework (or part thereof).

After which I slept at three to do notes and revise. Gosh, I've never been so hardworking in my life! :P

Here are some stuffs from the lesson, I can't say I truely understand completely. The grammar is rather strange.

Expressing One's Thoughts
Volitional-form, meaning for ideas or plans (thinking of).
- add to o mo tte imasu (iru) to the volitional form of the verb
This is for the speaker as well as 2nd and 3rd person,
whereas
- add to o mo ismasu is only for use for the speaker.

Refer to here

Expressions of Ability
The use of to become , naru
for i-adjectives, drop the i and add ku naru
for n-adjectives and noun, add ni naru
for verbs, to the potential form of verb, add yoo ni naru
for negatives, to the nai-form, drop the i and add ku naru

Which means something like that:
i-adjectives: ookii (big) --> ooki ku naru (become bigger)
n-adjectives: kantan (easy) --> kantan ni naru (become easy)
noun: sensei (teacher) --> sensei ni naru (become teacher)
verbs: oyogeru (can swim) --> oyogeru yoo ni naru (become able to swim)

Refer to here
It's quite confusing actually!

negative
i-adjectives: ookikunai (not big) --> ookikuna ku naru (become not big)
n-adjectives: kantan ja nai (not easy)--> kantan ja naku naru (become not easy) ?
noun: okane ga nai (no money) --> okane ga naku naru (become no money)
verbs: tabenai (no eat) --> tabenaku naru (become no eat)

Literal translation. I don't quite understand. really. :P What in the world does it mean by becoming not eat? Shessh.

Joining sentences using shi, meaning: and what's more/not only ~ but also ~/so
From ~ desu. Sorani ~
n-adjectives and nouns, use dashi to join
i-adjectives and verbs, use impolite form (dictionary form) + shi to join
Becomes ~ shi ~ mo
This one she didn't explain very clearly ... must shi always use with mo? Hmm.

Expressions of Uncertainty
Probably - for speaker's opnions, feelings, guess, thinking. deshou (polite)
i-adjectives: (impolite) + just add deshou
n-adjectives and nouns: (impolite) drop the da add deshou
verbs: (impolite, dic) + add deshou

Refer to here

muzukashi desu! <-- It's difficult!

Hmm, I wonder if I can put Japanese characters in ... :P

*****
Passion about living, about life ... or enthusiasm. Dispassionate or indifference. I'm not sure ... somehow, one must find it oneself, whether from another person, or from the things one does, or from the world around you. Somedays I wake up feeling enthusiasic and inspired, other days I wake up feeling listless and unhappy. What takes?

...

Observation of the day

Here in spore, the solution to all ills is to fine the people. Ha.

On the radio this morning, they said that they will not build barriers on the open platforms, since it would not deter those who really wish to jump. Instead the best solution is to FINE the people who step beyond the yellow lines. Oh wow. Like what if the train station were crowded, and people rush to board the train and someone gets jostled off the platform? And if a person really wishes to end his life, surely a palty fine will not cause him to change his mind? Hmm, I really wonder if they were thinking of the safety of the commuters or their pocket. I guess building plexi-glass walls and doors and air-con the whole platform would create a ridiculous big hole in their profit margin, and less for the dictators directors, which in turn will cause the fare to go up and up and up again. So there will be patrols instead and you get fine for putting yourself in danger, for eating and drinking, for spitting and littering etc. And spores being extremely money-minded will think twice of jumping in front of a train whether by choice or not. Yep.

*****
I've been feeling very mildly depressed lately. I think I know the reason why. Being with hubby gives me a high, and when I'm on my own, there's a little loneliness creeping up behind me and sneaking in. I'm all right when I'm at work or at home, but nowadays when I'm out on my own, there's really something in the air which makes me miss him so much. I used to be able to shop on my own and enjoy it. Walk alone - window shop, eat alone with a book and so forth. I'm still able to do it, but like I said, I just feel that there's someone missing. :) Oh dear ... :P I'm definitely becoming old.

When I'm not with hubby, I'm usually on my own. Since all my friends are simply too busy with their own lifes. Wen has her dog and C. And everyone else is busy working or doing something else. When I'm stressed I'd like to go and take a walk, shop around and treat myself to a nice dinner. But nowadays it just doesn't seem so much fun on my own as with hubby. Dear hubby, I love you. :)

Or perhaps it's just that I haven't been out with any friends alone nowadays. It's always with hubby and other couples. The feeling of singlehood is slowly being over shadowed.

But it's still fun to shop alone, at least ... when I wasn't feeling too guilty about spending too much. :P

*****
I just realised that I jumbled up the words just now. The feeling of singlehood is slowing over being shadowed. Eh?

I was reading shewhoshouldnotbenamed latest blog entry. I think that was one of her easiest post to read, since she actually wrote in a more readable language. heh. And I must say she has been rather brave to admit her mistakes and plan for a better future ahead. Anyway, she sure has many fans to encourage her! :) I wish some of my students would 'wake up' and realise what they are doing with their own lives. It's really hard to tell them certain things because right now in their lives, they just cannot understand how tough life can be.

I have a student who refuses to do his work, whether it is class work or homework and he is doing badly for all this subjects. We have spoken to him, we have spoken to his parents, but to no avail. His parents are rather rich so I guess he has always taken things for granted. His parents had somewhat given up hope on him achieving something from his studies. There's no point shouting at him or scolding him, he just takes everything in like a seeper. He told me once that he wanted to be a illustrator. I just hope that one day when he finally decides what he wants to do, he'll put in effort to do it well.

This is a very interesting article.

*****
Once upon a time, when I knew a little about communism, I once thought that ... hey, it's definitely an ideal government! An ideal world! And when I learnt more about it, I realised that it is just an ideal, and like an ideal, it is not realistic. Because life is never fair. And people are greedy, selfish and are only interested in their own survival.

One thing for sure, I doubt I will ever touch 1984 by George Owell again. That book gave me the creeps. Worse than any horror books I've read. And what I remember of the book, I don't think it is really communism, it's more dicatoral and a prison world, which was not what communism really is, isn't it? Anyway, whatever government a country has, it really doesn't matter, does it? It's all about money after all. There's no room for ideals.

Last point. I like what he said about words. Man created words. Man. History is all words. The Bible is a book. Words lead to action, or lack of. Words are extremely powerful. Only man uses words to communicate. Animals don't. And words can lie or hide.

*shrug*

*****
On the radio: Saint-Saens Carnival of Animals: Aquarium. By P Roge and C Ortiz (pf), London Sinfonieta, Dutoit. Eek. I want to get the cd! :) Beautiful.

The good old days

Yesterday I met up with some old school friends. One of them is also my primary school friend, the first friend I made in the my new primary school. All three of us were from different classes in secondary school. And it's kinda amazing that we still remain 'in touch' after all these years.

The other has a nine month old baby girl and is expecting another. wow.

We talked about old times. It's so interesting to listen to their stories. In those times, the world revolved around oneself. I didn't know that there was so much happenings in my old school which I was unaware of! Hmm, maybe only vaguely aware.

We talked about the relief teacher my class tormented until he cried and resigned. HY said that everytime when that teacher went to her class, he would be in tears. My class indeed was notorious. Then again that teacher was rather inefficient and he couldn't teach very well anyway. heh.

Then there was another teacher who was gay. It was taboo in those times. Kind of tough on him actually. I thought he was pretty okie. Apparently there was a raid and he got caught or something. Some students in another class put up the newspaper cutting in their classroom and everyone knew about it (except me!) and he resigned. I didn't know that. I remembered being surprised that one day we had another new teacher.

I remembered during Chinese spelling tests, we always tried to find out the questions from the other classes who had taken the test. I remembered my Chinese teacher always sleeping at the back of the class when we had to do composition. I remembered one of my classmate always crying before getting back her tests and we got sick of her especially when sometimes she did better than us. I remembered our disciplinary mistress but I never got to cross path with her. Apparently HY and P had more stories about her than I knew. heh ... she must have broken quite a lot of rules! HY told me that in our year, all of us were considered the worst cohort in history. Really? *bleah*

Sometimes I felt that I had passed my secondary school days in a daze. I did not have many friends, and I never really bothered to make friends. People made friends with me and stuck with me, somehow. I did not like to stay in school very much. I remembered the long bus journey home where I would be reading a book or staring out of the windows looking at the trees and buildings. In those times, I think I spent most of my life reading and living in a different world. I think I also spent the majority of those times playing computer games. There was Ultima, AD&D and all sorts of interesting games which I played. I don't remember going for class-outings much, except for once where we visited our form teacher's place. And till now, I never kept in touch with any of my classmates!

I always felt like I'm an observer in my class. Aloof and watching, outside of the inner circle. At times, I would touch the surface and retreated back quietly. I wonder if any of my classmates remembered me. I had a cliche I used to hang out with, but again it seems just temporal, so fleeting. My physical self never seemed to be there, just a wisp of my shadow.

But I did have some photos. :)

I used to hang out with my primary school friend instead, but she went to another class. And she never really had time for me.

I remembered wandering around the corridors of the school. The school had very wide corridors, dark and gloomy, and full of ghost stories. On the second floor where the science labs were, there were shelves along the corridors. The shelves were filled with jars of preserved heads and organs, intestines and wierd creatures. Exactly out from a horror book. Cool eh? I love the old building. It was said that sometimes at night, the ceiling of the VP's room would drip with blood. And the library block was haunted. Many accidents occured during the construction of the library site, and a few people died. There was a curse in the land. And there was also a young girl who would walked in one of the blocks, after she jumped from that building. I remembered the times when I was in school early in the morning when it was still dark, and especially when it rained, we would draw the curtains in the classroom and tell ghost stories.

I remembered never having to do homework. :P Nor did I really studied much. heh. I remembered when it rained, the whole place would be flooded. Later when my father drove me to school, he had a special car which could jacked up higher and avoid the water entering the engines.

The good old days. :P

*****
Nothing beats depression than retail therapy! Shopping! I got one black top and one dark brown top and two black skirts. That makes them black skirts two too many! Seems like dark colours are in now. Winter fashion, but why must everything be black?

I need to do more shopping. :P

*****
Hubby needs to do his report soon. They don't teach them how to do a proper one. I mean, if we were to describe every visit, what would that be ... 20? 30? What if there were 100? Good grief! There must be an easier way of doing this. And not to mention having to decipher all the other people's illegible handwritings and scribbles. What is it with them? I asked hubby if he could read his own handwriting. Heh ... point taken. Thank goodness, I'm only the typist. But it's taking too damn long.

The good thing is that if I cannot read my students' handwriting, I would scrawl in red blood ink, in huge ugly letters from one end to the other end of the page. Untidy! Illegible! Too small! Cannot read!! redo!! and stuffs like that, and throw it back at them. No way am I going to squint and destroy my mind!

*****
I think Hunter x Hunter has come to an end. After all, Gon seems to have met his father in the last episode. But there are still so many loose ends. There are still so many stories to be told. I think this anime is one of the best I've seen. It's fun, enjoyable, rather sad at times, thoughtful and most exciting. The story of Kurupica meeting the Spider Organisation at York Shin City is sooo cool! The music is fantastic when it came to his story. A tinge of sadness, a tinge of remembrance, a tinge of honour ... revenge is necessary, but he suffers with it. Was revenge necessary after all? Gon didn't like him to kill. And the ghosts came back to haunt him. It was just so sad. And what is going to happen to Leorio? What is his power going to be like? Are the four friends going to meet up again and help one another? Are they going to fight with Hisoka and the spiders? What is going to happen to the Spiders? Is Hisoka going to fight Kuroro? Is the prophecy going to be true? What is Kurupica going to do next? Was it really Gon's father at the end? What is the mysterious Killua's family doing? I'd like to learn more about his engimatic siblings. ahh ... So many more stories waiting to be told! :)

I hope the next installment, if any, is not going to be compromised ... in quality, of storyline as well as graphics.

Lesson notes.

Japanese lesson today. New teacher was dead boring. tsumaranai. tmr. Dear hubby, only he can come up with such stuffs to make me remember! :) I bet we are her first class. She doesn't seem to know what to do at all! *sigh* ... mistake, if I had known there is going to be another class one month later, I'd have signed up for that one which I think would be taught by the 'crazy' teacher next door! :(

Today we learnt the potential verbs. to be able to (or can ...). And experience. have done, have eaten etc. Not very difficult yet. The pattern is there, so I guess it's much easier now.

Let me recall:
Group 1.
eg. go, iku
potential form: ikeru, ikerundesu (polite), ikemasu (polite); ikenai (negative), ikenaindesu (polite negative), ikemasen (polite negative).
meaning: can go, able to go; cannot go, is not able to go.

Group 2.
eg. eat, taberu
potential form: taberareru, taberarerundesu (poilte), taberaremasu (polite); taberarenai (negative), taberarenaindesu (polite negative), taberaremasen (polite negative).
meaning: can eat, able to eat; cannot eat, not able to eat.

Exceptional.
eg. come, kuru
potential form: korareru, korarerundesu, koraremasu; korarenai, korarenaindesu, koraremasen

eg. do, suru
potential form: dekiru, dekirundesu, dekimasu; dekinai, dekinaindesu, dekimasen

And we aren't talking about past tense yet!

For experience, add koto ga aru to the ta form.
eg.
iku --> itta koto ga aru ndesu (I have gone/been)
taberu --> tabeta koto ga aru ndesu (I have eaten)
suru --> shita koto ga arimasu (I have done)

Bloody confusing.

And Kanji. Yucks. All the Chinese characters get mutated.
Qn: Why am I learning Japanese again?
Ans: Because I like animes and some Japanese music. :)

Ah well.

*****
I'm definitely coming down with flu. Must have gotten it from mom.

I used to have a very prosaic view about friendship. As in, two's a company and three's a crowd. And that one person can only have one best friend in life. But I guess along the way, it all changed, and come to think of it, I don't think I care very much anymore.

I'm tired of keeping in touch with people. So imagine my surprise when a friend all the way from primary school called me up recently to chat up. And to meet up. with another from secondary school. Hmmm ... omoshiroi. I don't know what to say to them actually.

Nowadays I only need hubby. :P I seem to have lost touch with every other people.

Book Review. Bits and Pieces.

I had finished reading Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code. After struggling through it for quite a while, I finally managed to get the momentum and rushed through the last bit till midnight last night, which was actually a struggle to keep the eyes open to read the next line.

Gosh, a difficult book to read. Why?

Because I wasn't very impressed with it at all. All the hype about it, and it being in the top and all that stuffs.

To be fair, it was quite interesting ... some of the ideas, I mean, but I believe those are not really something new. As a fictional thriller, all I can say is that it has failed badly. It is not exciting at all. Here are some points I take.
1. No excitement. Too much talk and explanation. Should be made as a documentary book rather than a thriller.
2. Very linear storyline and extremely predictable. I knew who the big bad boss was almost immediately. Ending was not a surprise, there was no climax nor any toe-curling suspense. Boring.
3. No character development. Bad guys weren't bad enough. Good guys ... well, were rather square. heh
4. Language tends to be bombastic, long-winded. Trys to be witty and punny, but I've read better. Trys too hard at times. Well, some bits are quite punny, but it's more lame than funny.

I think the only interesting bit which got people to be so keen on the book is really the controversal issues about Christianity and the Church. Which I will not comment since I know too little. There are many articles commenting on such issues, and I've not done any research yet. There are a lot of mysteries in this world, and a lot of 'truths' still not known yet. But even if one were to know something, how does one know that that is an absolute truth?

Anyway, I was saying, it does serve to kindle one's interest in theology but I rather read it as a non-fiction information text than make it into a story (that wasn't even exciting) which makes one wonder how much is really from his imagination. One of these days I must read some history. :P And also, it does make one longs to visit all those places of historical value. Ahh ... castles and dungeons, churches and gravestones. Old buildings filled with mysteries and wonders. There's so much wonder in the world to see!

But it was an interesting idea nonetheless. Hmm, if I can find out more about Da Vinci, maybe can try something totally fantasy but based on it? There are some authors out there who does that, and does it rather well. I think David Eddings is one of them. :P

Speaking of thrillers, I think I would like to look for the book 'The spy who comes in from the cold' by I can't remember who, and read it again. I remembered that was definitely one hell of an exciting book. :)

* * *
I'm coming down with sore-throat. If I try to finish the packet of chocolates I got at Leonidas, my throat will definitely be gone. Hmm, should I do that and take mc for Monday? hahaha. Especially since I'll be having an awful class on that day. :P But otherwise it's quite a good Monday. *laughs* We were 'critised' for taking too many mcs. Me? I've only taken five or six so far now. It's usually for sore-throat after my stupid amplifier broke down.

* * *
Give me Hunter X Hunter anytime. One day when I'm free and idle, I shall put down the story. :) I love HxH!! Naruto is too disappointing now. Samurai 7 is promising, Monster is ... so-so. Hmmm ... what else? Still love Hunter X Hunter best! Yup. :) Hunter X Hunter rocks! :):)

* * *
No more idling tomorrow. Starting Intermediate 1 and gotta revise. I can't believe I've forgotten completely Katagana! Even have some problems remembering hiragana! Sheesh.

g o t .. t o . d r i n k . . . m o r e . w a t e r . . . . t o n i g h t ! ! ! :P

ouch ouch.

It rained yesterday. When the weather is cold, my arm will start to throb. My mom would always remind me that when I was a kid many many years ago, I had been an extremely naughty little girl. I was at that age which I should understand instructions and climbing up and down the double-deck bed pretending to be a pirate was certainly not a thing to do. Which I did not desist, so I fell and sprained my left arm. To this day, it aches when the weather turned cold.

So I stuck my very effective Japanese medicated plaster on my arm. When my therapist saw it, she asked me what the ... was that for? Me said, rheumatism, it certainly felt like that. Aha ... but people as young as I do not get rheumatism! So I told her the story, and she said she'll check it out for me later.

Which she did. It's like a sports injury to her. So she massaged the muscles. Scar tissue, did not heal properly last time, broken tissues, muscles knotted. press press press. I go to her for deep tissue massage. She really did her very best on my poor arm. She pressed damn hard into it. Every press emitted a shriek from me. It was like re-living the sprained arm all over again. You, reader, can never imagine how painful it could be.

ouch ouch ouch.

My arm was certainly swollen after that. The swelling has gone down a bit now. Going back for more therapy, but it certainly didn't throb today when it rained too.

Pain ... is sometimes a good thing. :P

Perhaps that was the reason why my arm can never take much weight. It was always a weak arm. Perhaps I'll be able to do the hand stand properly now. The last time I managed to go up with only a very slight help from my teacher, and I stayed up myself. heh.

V :)

*****
Meeting ended very very very late today. After dinner and home, it's just enough for bed and nothing else. Unlike normal people when they work late, they don't have to get up that early. But ... it's still 5am for me as always. I definitely said too early when I said there's not much stress this term. *bleah*

An idle day.

Some time back, I read someone's blog on her visit to Gil Shaham's concert. Damn, I kinda regreted not going, but the tickets were expensive (relatively speaking) and he was performing with the SSO. Ohh, I love Gil Shaham. In fact I got a few of his CDs, my favourite being The Fiddler of the Opera, how I would love to have him autograph it! But ... with the SSO ... it kinda spoilt the whole idea of going. You see, I've heard the SSO played a lot of times before. And they spoil the whole show, as easy as that. I had been to Noriko Ogawa's concert with the SSO. She's brillant, but SSO spoiled it. They are just not up to standard yet. There were some times when the orchestra simply could not keep in time. The strings were rushing and it all sounded as an awful mad house. SSO disapoints, again and again. And ever since I've heard the London Phil with Ashkenazy at the KLCC in M'sia, I simply cannot bear to sit down in another SSO concert.

I guess if Xel has been around, I might have gone since she doesn't really care who the orchestra is as long as it's her favourite artist playing. Hmmm

As I was saying the London Phil with Ashkenazy was the best concert I've ever been to in my this puny life. They were great! I think it has to do with the concert hall as well. Theirs were so so much better than the esplanade. The acoustics were better, and the tickets were cheapper too. heh. The music was heavenly, the orchestra 'sings' that whole night. And the most memorable piece was the Tchaikovsky's serenade. The most beautiful piece I've ever heard.

Strange how it is that the first time is always the sweetest and best.

I have to go see the doc to get myself medically certified. Tummy's being gurgling all day. :(

*****
Little Hammie writes again! He ought to have a comments thingy. *mutter* I wonder how his tuition goes. Here's a tip for him. :)

When teaching young kids, the whole idea is not teaching per se, but rather 'playing' with them. They're still so young for goodness sake, why is there a need to cram and study so much? Ahem ...

I love to teach little kids(well, most little kids, some are simply too obnoxious and spoilt little brats and totally uncute), and the first thing to do before you can teach them is to charm them completely. Then you will have them wrap around your little fingers. And it'll be easy to teach them because they are keen to please you and if you make the teaching fun, they'll be keen to learn as well.

My hubby has many nieces and nephews, all very sweet and cute. I like them very much, and have managed to charm the three little girls. By teaching them to draw. The boys also got into the act and whenever I see them, they will be drawing away and keeping out of everyone else's toes. Whoever says drawing is not effective? :) And it's always fun to get kids to draw, because that is when their creativity comes in. It's sad that all we are concerned about it getting them to cram and making sure they got their As.

Perhaps Hammie could get them to tell stories ... you know, the continuing of story thingy (each a sentence), to get them to be interested in English. :) And Maths, can be very fun if you put them into games. I've got some ideas here, let me know if you need any! :)

*****
I was thinking of hubby as I walked to the clinic this morning. And I realised that I am still continuously happily in love with him. I love him so much that it's hard to be impatient or angry with him. He looks at me with his crinky eyes and smiles his goofy smile sometimes and it makes it the most wonderful thing in the whole world. It's so comforting to come home and know that no matter how bad or awful a day it is, it really doesn't matter, because there's someone loving you. Each day is perfect just to wake up and see him as the first thing in the morning. He is like a mountain in the whirl of events. Solid, dependable and calm. Humourous and constant. And no matter how everything changes around me, I know that our love for each other is forever.

:)

A thought suddenly struck me. I once wrote a poem about a mountain when I was in secondary school. Teacher said it was very good. I wonder where it is now. Damn. heh heh.

Feeling rather goofy today. Should start on my markings soon since I've taken a day off at work. But, I protest! I'm ill. :P

Random Thoughts of the day

I feel fat today.
I think I've been eating too much.
Duh.
I need to go on a diet.
:(

*****

Reality Strike

When bad things happen, they all happened together at one go. This week had been pretty bad, of sorts. As in, bad things happened. *sigh*

Well, I shan't blog about that, will put some good stuffs in here instead. Sometimes memories are better off being happy than sad. :)

Yesterday we went to look at house stuffs. Furniture and lights and all that. Hubby loves mahogany wood. We found a shop which sells rather good mahogany wood! If they continue to keep their prices at a 50% discount, maybe we could get a few pieces. In fact, we could even get everything mahogany then! heh. The in-house designer there said she'll give us a quotation. Hmm, sounds interesting. Can't wait to get the place!

Autumn Ramblings

Eh, what autumn, you ask? Just because it's September. :P

And it drizzled this morning. We washed the car last evening. It took us 1 hour to do so, and that was six pairs of hands doing the job. Oh my, but it was sooo tiring to wash a damn car. We only used only one pail of water though .. and I think 8 pieces of clothes and 2 sponges. :) I can't say it's extremely clean right now since it rained. But at least the car doesn't looked too bad.

I've decided to start a new blog for work related stories only. Hubby's good with words and gave me a word which I'll use it to describe the blog. heh, that sounds rather fun.

Here's an article for thought:
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996374
I'm not sure about it, what do you think?

It's not healthy to drive the car with my father in it. Everytime we would never fail to end up quarrelling. I swear, one day I'd probably crash the car with him in it. Duh ... I so hate him like that!

I forgot what else I wanted to ramble about, so I'm going back to bed.

I. Bored. Bipolar Disorder.

The Super IQ Test
How Smart Are You Really?
L~, your Super IQ score is 131

Your overall intelligence quotient is the result of a scientifically-tested formula based on how many questions you answered correctly. But it's only part of what we learned about you from your answers on the test. We also determined the way you process information.

The way you think about things makes you a Creative Theorist. This means you are a highly intelligent, complex person. You are able to process information of nearly every kind with ease, using both creativity and analysis to make sense of the world. Compared to others you also have a very rich imagination.

How did we determine that your thinking style is that of a Creative Theorist? When we examined your test results further, we analyzed how you scored on 8 dimensions of intelligence: spatial, organizational, abstract reasoning, logical, mechanical, verbal, visual and numerical. The 3 dimensions you scored highest on combine to make you a Creative Theorist. Only 6 out of 1,000 people have this rare combination of abilities.

Beat that dear! ;)
Hmm, 131's pretty low though. :(

*****
Yesterday I felt rather happy. Today low mood. Maybe used up all the energy yesterday. Just felt like lying in bed and not doing anything today at all. Should have gone shopping, but ... *sigh* The thought of shopping alone puts me off. Not that there's anything I really wanted to get. Maybe window shop, but it's so boring.

Oh when is Howl's Moving Castle going to show here in spore? It's taking so long!

*petulant*

What makes me laugh

Hunter X Hunter.
That which makes me laugh.

The part when Irumi stands in as Hisoka's double in the Ryodan compounds whilst Hisoka was away, and Irumi shuffles the deck of cards and drop one card. I don't know why, but I laughed till I fell off the chair. It's just me. heh. I'll put down more of the stuffs which makes me laugh in Hunter X Hunter as well as some interesting stuffs I like about it. :) And nooooo ... I'm not crazy about the anime. Honto! heh

Punch that punctuation!

On Apostrophe: I've always thought that in pural, the apostrophe is put after the s, such as Teachers' Day instead of Teachers Day ... if that's what's according to Tomato Nation, and if it is used in a name which ends with s, you put the apostrophe after the s as well, and not 's after that, such as: Pythagoras' Theorem and not Pythagoras's Theorem or Pytahgoras Theorem. Well, at least that's what written in my Maths book.

Who knows? That article in Tomato Nation was pretty confusing in itself.

It's and Its definitely gets my goat, especially when it is used in sms ... where the sender finds it too troublesome to put in the apostrophe. I cringe everytime I read that. :P

Another word usually mistakenly used is contents/content. I've always thought that contents is a noun (always in plural), as in the contents in a box, the contents of a book etc, (never the content in the box) whereas, content is used to mean being satisfied. Hmm?

And finally, I've been taught that a sentence like this: if _____ were there, one should always use 'were' ... but I've seen books which puts it down as: if I was there ... which is right?

Hmmm.

Pensive thoughts

I've wanted to write this.

Reading Play Pen's blog ... it suddenly struck me as how much I've been avoiding this issue. Why I had been unhappy with my job. Why I had been depressed with work. Why I had been avoiding or trying to avoid mentioning work. Why I have not even been very truthful in my blog. Why I had been angry at the drop of a pin. I think I can even remember when it all started.

I dislike confrontations. I end up avoiding people, things, issues ... whatever. And it all started sliding downhill when I start to wonder if I had been wrong to do what I did. Sometimes one needs some encouragement as much and I haven't gotten any. Maybe I'm just too stubborn to listen and to accept them.

Maybe it's just me, because I disliked them.

I shall put down my beliefs again. I do not believe in doing the work for them. I do not believe in giving out beautifully printed notes word for word in perfect grammatically correct sentenses for them to memorise verbatim. They expected me to, they wanted me to, like the previous teacher they had. This was the class I was with for two years. They weren't interested in the questions I posed them, for will it get them their As? They wanted answers. They wanted nicely printed answers. And she who worked with us gave her classes the perfectly crafted answers they so rooted for. She gave them great hints to the questions which will appear before the exams and tests, and everyone knew that if you are taught by her, you'll get good grades. My other colleague complained to me much about the 'underhand' tactics she did, but I didn't want to be involved. I shall continue to do things my way. I do not like them to take short-cuts. It's not all about grades at the end of the day. It's about learning, about thinking, not about being a sheep.

Maybe it's just me, for I started disliking them. And they probably disliked me as well.

They did not do their homework, even if they were given five days to finish them. They just wanted me to give them the model answers. One day, I blew my top when one student did not do his work again ... it was boiling underneath all along. I felt that they did not want to listen to what I taught, because all they had wanted were the stuffs from the other teacher.

To cut the long story short, I scolded him, and he complained to the heads, and VP kinda 'reprimanded' me for that. Hmmm ... actually to tell you the truth, I was not really sure what she was trying to say to me. I think she mentioned something about changing my teaching methods to suit their wishes. They said she's damn inefficient. I had to agree. I've put all these away, but I've never been happy again back there.

That's one of the reasons why I avoided Teachers' Day this year.

So I played truant and got hubby to give me an mc, which I should never have done. :P At least he had one extra hour of sleep for that. :)

*****
We had the caring teachers' award nominations. They gave us essays our students wrote when they nominate us. I am not a popular teacher, because I don't care to be extra nice, I guess. But one student whom I've taught for two years in my previous form class three years ago wrote something ... which doesn't exactly bring me to tears, but it does feel encouraging. Because someone realised and respect what I'm doing for them. And that is good enough for me. I smile because of that.

And I must admit, I'll never win a caring teachers' award, because all the spoilt and foolish kids can go and destroy themselves for all I care. I reiterate: I hate humans anyway.

Wow. I had 13 essays all together. About 70% of them are meaningful, meaning the rest the kids just write because they've no one to write about. You see, it was a compulsory exercise. Part of their English essay writing thingy. Shessh.

To hell with work anyway. There's too much politics and too much backstabbing and all things unimaginable going on. I'm glad to be out of it soon. The environment is freezing cold in there. brrrr.

Maybe it's just me. :P

*****
And to hell with them all. I'm glad to get this off my chest. I'll try to be happy till the end of this year. :) And see ... my kids did win in the CG after all. And it's not because of me. It's because of themselves. So you see, one doesn't need to spoonfeed, to cuddle and to give in to whatever wishes and whims they have, like staying overnight in school to finish the project because they started it last minute and you have to stay with them and help them to finish. You gave in too much to them and they stepped all over you, and you made us all suffer for being the fool you were. It's all about firm discipline, encouragement and enthusiasm. I think these few will go far, and I'm proud to know them. Okie, they managed to squeeze a treat out of me though. hmmf. heh.

Arrrgh!

Okie, the official verdict is out. Chopin Ballade No. 1 is impossible to play! I've just heard the piece played by Thibaudet, with my eyes following the score. I must be crazy to attempt learning this piece! I've sight-read Pg 11-14 and it was sooo difficult! Because there's really no melody to it, and when I heard that part of the piece ... whooosh. This is absolutely crazy. :(

It's like knocking one's head against the wall. I wonder who in the right mind ever attempt this piece unless one is a pro?

duh.

duh duh duh.

Maybe I should go back to Mozart or Beethoven.

*knocks head on wall*

:(

Oh give me strength.

Maybe I should do more pushups. :P

Divide and Conquer

It's almost 4pm and let's see what I have done so far. I'm one of those people who can stay at home the whole day and enjoy myself throughly. heh. As long as I have an internet connection to keep me distracted now and then ... hmm.

Okie, mind check.

1. Piano: played the ballad. yup. Practised said bars. yup. Pretty satisfied. On and off probably spent about two hours on it. Or was it actually two? duh.
2. Tidied up room. Now messier than ever. Threw out one bagful of rubbish. All other rubbish still on floor, not to throw away yet. Will pile them up and put them somewhere to be sifted through again. Room is slightly neater! Really really. heh.
3. Naruto episode 100 is out! So fast! Now downloading, going to be very slow, but. I think I now prefer Hunter X Hunter. :)

Oh, lunch first. Be right back, me.

*****
Lunch was mushroom soup. It's not that I was on a diet, it's just that I haven't gained my appetite back yet. Nevermind, Father said he'll make soy-sauce chicken tonight. I could have volunteered to cook tonight, you know, do a roast chicken thingy - honey lemon style or something. But I don't feel like it today. Besides father and I are always at loggerheads. When he cooks, I shall not disturb. When I cook, he'd better not disturb too. heh. I guess we're quite like the same type of people, and we step on each other toes all the time. Besides he irritates me no end when he critisizes my cooking. Which I return the compliment to him all the time to irritate him too. heh. Most of the time father cooks really well, but sometimes he'll go crazy and do something strange, like add lots of spice and spoil the whole dish. humf.

Don't tell anyone, but I do love my father, though I love my mum more. heh.

So, I hope he cooks the chicken properly tonight. I haven't had a nice homecooked meal for a while. It'll be disappointing if he adds strange stuffs and makes the chicken inedible. Yes, I'm a greedy person, and I love my food. :P I think my family are all like that. Well, accept for my older bro. He's the wierd one out. We all love to cook (somewhat) and we love it when people we cook for love our food. heh. Hubby loves my cooking! :-) ... actually he'd better. Right dear? ;)

I can remember the last time my younger bro cooked. He made fried rice. And it was really rather special. He said he followed some chef on TV. He mixed the raw eggs with the rice first before cooking the rice. I thought it tasted rather good and ingenious too. I shall steal his recipe and try it out one day instead of my normal style. Hmm, it really looked rather messy though.

*****
Ah ha .. I just had a thought. The whole family is in tonight. Accept for older bro. He's not much here anyway if he's around. We must play mahjong sometime soon! It's good mind game for the older folks! heh heh heh.

Shucks .. guess not tonight. Back to cleaning the room and playing the piano. *yawn* Perhaps I shall go shopping tomorrow instead. :P

Amusing myself

I had just read swsnbn's blog on spore models being over-exposed. I must agree with that indeed! Too much ctrl-v followed by ctrl-c! hah. models and actresses. tsk tsk. again and again. every channel, every magazines, every posters etc. That's why spore is such a boring little place that everything has to be recycled. Even waste water. Hmm ...

There is actually a model agency which go around scouting for people on the street and getting them to work part time for some clients. My friend Wen got approached once, and the person in charged was such a sweet-talker, and friend was bored that day ... so with my instigation, she went and tried out for the audition. A few days later, they told her that she's accepted and off she went to shoot for some ad. She told me the shooting was a nightmare, from morning till night, without stopping. I didn't get to see her on TV, since I never watched TV anyway but with much pushing, she reluctantly showed me the whole series of ads. I thought she looked pretty good in it, for some at least, though her inexperience and nervousness showed. But still, the ad was tastefully done and it's actually interesting to see 'real' normal person instead of the usual faces in ads. That was the whole idea I guess. It's a pity I didn't get to see it in normal TV shows though.

I was actually approached once too but I turned down flat. Hmm, actually it was twice. haha. The first time, the girl actually chased after us to talk to me! Gosh, I was soooo flattered. hahaha. ... gee, they must be real desperate if they want to ask me to do an audition! DUH. I must improve my make-no-eye-contact technique more often and work on the keep-shaking-head-and-say-sorry-not-interested-plus-continue-to-walk technique too. On second thoughts, it might actually be fun to try it, but then again, I'm not easily swayed by people, they have to be real convincing ... and besides I doubt my work would permit it. heh. Anyway after hearing what Wen had to go through ... nah. She tried to instigate me to do it too, but she wasn't convincing enough. heh. *whew*

Besides the pay is not worth what I can get if I do give tuition. Hmm ... I should do that someday soon.

I digress.

Spore girls are mainly not pretty. This is mostly because our features are rather flat. Myself included. Damn, I got a small flat nose. hehh ... at least it isn't a BIG flat nose, which I'm thankful. :P Beauty and prettiness is in the structure of the skull, of the checkbones, of the structure of the nose and chin and all that. If you look around you, you'd see that the asian features aren't very high on such structures. True, there's always a few people with such sharp features. My parents are two of them .... gosh, I could show you a picture of my mom when she was 21, and you'd think she should be a model! She got the height too. Unfortunately, beautiful people do not necessary have beautiful and pretty kids. Damn. heh.

PM is another person whom I think has the required sharp features ... plus fair complexion. She is pretty. But she went to pluck her eyebrows herself!! *slaps forehead* Min ... if you do see her next time, tell her NOT to do it!! She's doing it wrongly too! I've told her ... very tactfully already. Oh dear oh dear ... I hope she doesn't do anything more to them!! Arrgh. Min, I think perhaps we should get her one of those Bobby Brown book or something for her birthday! :P You will know what I'm talking about when you see her next. Eyebrows should be slightly arched and not completely curved!

I won't say spore girls are ugly though. Not pretty, but neither ugly. Just plain, common ... doesn't stand out. And we tend to dress very very sloppy indeed. Blame the bloody weather. Hot and humid. Sure breakout one! Compare to our counterparts in Japan, I think Japanese girls always look very cool and unflustered. And they always dress nicely and prettily and they look good too! I wonder what is their secret. They looked totally cool in spore too! Sometimes when I'm in the mood, I try to dress nicely ... but it's just simply too hot, and I'll end up in my favourite spore's wear - the three sss, Shorts, t-Shirts and Slippers. heh.

Okie, I digress again.

I was going to write about spore models being overly repeated. Hmm ... I guess if you see them too often, with their ah-lianish long face and BIG teeth, it kinda gets one down. heh. Or maybe it's just the make-up. Or maybe that smile. *shiver*

Osu!

I can't believe how fast time flies. After coming back from holiday, I spent one entire day lying in bed and another day getting better. Already it's Thursday, more than half of my holiday is gone! Shessh.

I certainly have to start planning what to do for the rest of my holidays else I'm going to regret if I don't spend the time well.

Let's see. No emails nowadays. I used to have friends to write long letters to last time. There was once a friend whom we would write to each other very often. It was quite nice actually. But I guess we drifted apart. Then there was another email-pal whom we had been exchanging emails for donkey years, but he came to work in spore, and became so over-worked and there's nothing really to write about this place here. duh. I remembered when I was a kid, about nine or ten years old, I used to have a cool penpal. Her name, I can still remember, was Federick Ziller. Hmm, I think that was how it was spelt. She was from Switzerland and I got a lot of pretty cool stamps from there. heh. Sadly, we stopped writing after about three or four years. It was me ... I ran out of things to write about. I wonder where is she now, what she is doing and if she still remembers me. *sigh*

So now, I have no one to write to, I shall only write to my blog. Writing emails or having penfriends are actually rather fun. You get to hear about another person's point of view, about his/her different perspective in another world all together. Actually, we write about everyday little things. I missed that. Now, I only have myself to talk to ... in my boring little blog. *sigh*

But I digress, I was going to write about what I shall do for the rest of the holidays I have. :-)

I had messaged a colleague to ask if she would like to go blading with me, but no reply so that is on hold until further notice.

I had played a bit of the piano this morning, as a warm-up exercise before anyone woke up and especially before the TV was switched on. Afterwards if the house is quiet again, I shall practise the following pieces. 1. Chopin ballad No. 1. Aim: To perfect the playing from pg 2 to 9. Heavy practise needed on bars 33 and 103 onwards. Hmm, that isn't too ambitious right? Maybe try pg 10 as well. Think I've never gone beyond that yet. 2. Chopin Scherzo Op 31. Aim: To practise to perfect pg 1 to 4. I think I ought to buy the book though, it's easier to make notes. The schezo is actually quite easy to play, if one plays it adagio. :P Bloody presto though. DUH. 3. To re-practise bloody chopin fantasie nocturne. oh why oh why oh why did my idiotic fingers have to forget? :( 4. any other pieces up to my whim. I can play about 10 pieces to and fro, haphazardly. Maybe that's why I'm never able to really improve. And I need to get my gymopedies (sp?) back. hmmm ...

After I've bathed, I'll have to get them to switch off tv. ;P

Next up on agenda: practise the violin. Well, at least check if bloody violin is still in tune. Duh. Kinda regret stopping lessons, but the teacher was really bad. (yeah right, more excuses) *whines* I shall have to look for someone soon. *sigh*

Okie, maybe if I'm really really bored, I might dig out my current knitting and try to figure out what happened before I stopped. Which was like ... what? A year ago? Shessh.

I might go for yoga tonight if I feel like moving butt out of house. If not, tomorrow definitely must go jogging.

Will wash car again tomorrow. Definitely bird shit still stains one whole bloody side of car. May get younger bro to help us. Three pairs of hands means faster work ya? Besides bro owes me a lot of favours. Hey, I drove down to pick him up from the uni when he missed his bus. ... Me <-- good sister. hahahaha. *bleah*

Maybe I might even paint my toenails. ... That usually take an hour! serious! heh.

And I must wake up even earlier tomorrow.

Oh, I also have Japanese to revise! And workstuffs to do. Wow ... suddenly there seems to be a lot of things for me to do! Ha ... that's why must write them down so that I will realise that I actually have lots of things to do, and I shouldn't be bored. :)

Yay me. ... and now, back to work. commerical break over.

over and out.

... oh, before I forgot, if anyone ever does read my blog, I apologise for all the spelling mistakes and horrible tenses I made. I'm really really terrible at my grammar. I write without thinking and digesting, and when I read what I've written (after I published), I see all the mistakes there. heh ... if I feel like it, I might change them, but sometimes I can't be bothered. So there.

Osu! (that which is said by Gon and Killua)

:)

Bloody Bugger Blog

This is the umpteenth time I'm trying to get my blog to publish, but it's giving me hell of a problem! Is it me or is it just bloody bugger blog? Urrgh.

I'm in a hell of a bad mood now, because we just had an arguement on how to wash ... of all things, the car. Grrrr ... I wonder why we are just so unlucky everytime to have birds diarrheoa on our nice car. Grrr ... I think the car hasn't been exactly a lucky car ever since we've got it. :(

*sigh*

May tomorrow be a better day.

Some good news

My kids won some prizes in the recent CG competition. I was extremely proud of them and happy that they managed to win something despite the tough competition. And best of all, they did all these without much prodding or babysitting from me. That is what I call real achievement.

Compare with the other teams by my other colleagues which I think they spoonfed them too much. This was something which I held strongly against. What is the point of winning if the work they do is mainly your work? What is the point of a competition if you give them so much privilege that they become arrogant and spoilt? What is the point if all you want is glory for yourself? Aren't we missing the most important point which is their hardwork and preseverance is all that matters? To me, it doesn't matter if they win or not. Winning is only a bonus. I'm glad that they enjoyed themselves and they did it all on their own.

I dunno. Maybe it's just me.

*****
The thing about going on a holiday is that I tend to watch TV more than a whole year if I were to stay at home. Whenever I'm in the hotel room, I would switch on the TV to CNN, BBC, Discovery, National Geographic, HBO, Star Movies, Sports, etc etc. Every moment from the time I wake up to the time I sleep, the TV will be on, and I'd become a bed potato. Really! I think the real reason is that here in spore, the tv programs are really boring. Unless one subscribe for the extra programs, if I have to sit through the local channels, I'll scream in frustration. And of course the TV is simply right in front of the bed in the said hotels. heh.

On Sports news, I caught up with my favourite sports - tennis. Hmm ... it's been really a long time. All the tennis players which I rooted for a long time ago aren't playing anymore. Duh. I'm just getting old.

And recently there had been much coverage over the Russian hostage crisis at the school. It's very sad to see the attrocities and all the killings going on. It's tragic to see the families crying for the dead ones. All the lives wasted. What is it for? Why are such things happening? I don't know what to feel about it all. It's just so ... empty. War, killings, murder, terrorism are all part of their lives now. Tragic.

*****
We are in the middle of watching Love Actually, actually. But it got so confusing and rather boring, that I left watching it and came here to write my blog. heh :P At least the latest episode of Hunter X Hunter was much more entertaining. But having to wait at least a week for the next episode really truely sucks. *sigh*

And now that I'm well and not lying in bed all the time ... I think I'm starting to be bored. very. :P

My Vietnamese Memories

Hubby says I should have a lot of things to write about the Vietnam trip, but right now all I can think of is we got a very nice gift from there - diarrheoa. I guess on the positive note, we only had it when we got back. At least it didn't mar the trip there, which was quite nice actually. Ah well, we won't forget this in a hurry.

I think I know what the culprit was. I had been very careful with what I eat and drink, except on the last day ... when I was really thirsty. You know, sometimes you know that you really shouldn't be doing it, but there's a certain recklessness and you just go ahead after all. Let's see, it was in a posh restuarant, in a posh hotel, when I ordered a freshly squeezed orange juice ... and it came with ice. At that point in time, I went ... damn, ice! I shouldn't be taking the ice. But it was too late not to drink it, and it was a waste if I don't. So probably that's why we ended up like that. Before that I was very careful not to take any drinks with ice.

*sigh* ... I'm ashamed to tell Wen who pointedly reminded me not to take any ice or drink any local tap water.

:P

*****
Ho Chi Minh City was a very interesting city. The first thing which struck me as most interesting was the traffic. First of all, everyone was driving on the wrong side of the road. Felt damn strange. Like I'm trying to write with my left hand. And there were lots of motorbikes. At some junctions, there were no traffic lights. So it was free for all when you wanted to cross the junction! Imagine - cars and bikes and people all moving together from left to right, right to left, across the junction, to and fro, blah blah blah. Whew. Very very messy really. It was a wonder no accidents happen! And crossing roads was extremely fun. Hubby's rules: Do not make any sudden movement. (like swing your arms suddenly) ... Apparently the bikes can predict what you were going to doing and try to avoid you. Definitely interesting.

I think the people there were much much more gracious in their driving than all of us put together. Imagine in Spore, if there were no traffic lights at the junction, everyone would be swearing and honking away and refusing to give way. In Vietnam, it seemed that the bigger your vehicle was, the more powerful you were. Bikes went around your car and well, everyone horned all the time too actually. And I suppose everyone drove slower too.

I liked the buildings. There were a lot of buildings of French colonial style. And every building seemed to be haphazedly built. Every building was individual. Kind of reminded me of Spore in the 70s. Where my Grandma used to stay. The place was actually cleaner than expected. They kept their streets clean. Or perhaps it was because we were in the 'orchard rd' area of the city.

to be continued ...

I need to lie down. Apparently not eating at all yesterday is sapping all my energy. How is it that if one does not eat at all for one day, one loses all appetite? duh.

*****
What I liked about the city was that the women wearing the traditional Vietnamese dresses looked really nice. Very elegant. I wanted to shop for one too, but I was too lazy and tired. The weather there was hot, hot and very hot. And we did a lot of walking, and crossing roads, so if we do enter a shop, it was actually just for the air-con. The whole place was very dusty too. Most people there covered themselves from the dust. We didn't have much time to look around though, and I did not have time to read up about the place before we went there, so we didn't visit many places too.

There were many trees there. Along the roads. The parks were nice too, parks in the city. I liked the tress, but the trees didn't really give much shade. And interestingly, every tree was painted white about one metres from the ground. Apparently they were painted white so as to make them more visible at night, proclaimed my hubby.

I didn't do much shopping. The most expensive things we bought were ... ahem ... dvds non-original. heh. The quality were very good too. I couldn't find all the studio ghilbi dvds there, but we got spiderman and a few other nice stuffs.

That's about it, I don't think I want to go back to Vietnam again ... there wasn't really much things to do there. It wasn't really that bad, but I guess it was not really a touristy kind of place. The food was pretty good, and that was because we had someone to bring us around. But other than that, plus being absolutely ill when I came back, it does make one not really keen to return. At least right now, I'm really really not very impressed at all.

A little short post

Just a little short post before I start rushing again. :P

Ohh .. was I simply so angry just now. I really hated that person. The things he did. I felt like doing something back and get him in trouble. But guess I'm not good that these things. Maybe I should try again.

:P

So I was so much very angry just a few minutes ago, but when I read Razz's comments in my blog, my anger dissipated. And it brought a smile to my face, reading her. It was rather funny ... in a sense. I don't know why. heh. Thanks Razz, for making me smile. :)

A little test

Test.

Being Grouchy

Hmm ... I'm decidedly feeling grouchy right now.

I just found my digital camera, which my brother 'sold' to me for the price of a new rechargable battery. It's a very old digi cam, one of those first generation kind, so the baterry cost about $70 or more if I'm not wrong. Hmm ... I should be happy right? Except I've not used it since, and he and father were the ones using it all the time. That's not about it. So anyway, I found the camera, and the memory chip was only 64M!! If I remember correctly, 64M can't hold many photos!! And I remembered him promising to give me a 256M card. That's when I got grouchy. Grrrr .... I felt cheated, you know .. like buying for something which I don't really want and which is not really useful anyway.

And the bloody thing is not even working right now.

:(

Arrrgh.

So back to my old trusty boring non-digital (analog?) camera. *Sigh* ... and I should be packing.

*****
Current Naruto episode is a letdown.

Boring.

Too slow.

*****
I'm grouchy because my room is in a mess, and I'm not in the mood to pack.

I'm grouchy because hubby drives me up the wall with his map reading.

I'm grouchy because digital camera is not working.

I'm grouchy because tomorrow will be one hell of a mad rush.

I'm grouchy because there's no more hunter x hunter and naruto is so boring now.

I'm grouchy because my colleague finished my cookies yesterday and I wanted to eat them today.

I'm grouchy because I kept telling them that the marks were not reflected in the report, but they kept insisting that they have done it, till I went in and SHOWED them where they did WRONGLY (and I had to change it for them as well). Arrgh, that one drove my blood pressure sky high especially it was an hour before deadline.

I'm grouchy because people kept asking me stupid things like when are you getting married? Hello ... I'm married already! Grrr. Oh, they meant when is the traditional wedding thingy. Hello! Need one meh? I'm not intending to have one. So I'm making it clear once and for all. Please stop asking. humf.

I'm grouchy because after that they'll be asking me when am I going to have kids because of all the extra incentives. AND I'm so tired of replying ... I'm NOT going to have kids THIS year or NEXT year or the year after. We will think about it when we are ready. PLEASE STOP ASKING.

I'm grouchy because they also kept asking when the house is ready. Please direct such question to HDB in future. How would I know? I cannot see the future. And for goodness sake, I'm moving to the NORTHEAST not east!! I wonder why they kept saying things like ... I heard you are moving to the east. DUH DUH and DUH.

And the other day, this colleague came up to me and said, congrats I heard you just got married. HELLO! I got married more than half a year ago! Read my lips: LAST YEAR. Arrgh. Even P didn't know. DUH. Maybe I should just make an announcement during assembly one day. DUH.

I'm grouchy because then they'll be asking me if I'm leaving next year. Please direct question to the boss if they give me the transfer. Grrr.

I'm grouchy because of so many other things.

I'm grouchy because father cooked fish and it was soo soo SOO salty. yucks. It's even saltier than salted fish or salted eggs. Sometimes I swear he's a bit crazy. Besides he was not supposed to take so much salt!! His blood pressure is high. So was mine after today's lunch. Grrr.

I'd better stop writing when I'm feeling grouchy else I'll end up being nasty to just about everyone.

*****
I just need to let off steam. I doubt if any of them will read this. Heavens forbid too. heh heh.

I've been thinking of my need to write an online blog. I would much prefer what I write to be private of course, but I'm not willing to fork out money for that. So saying, perhaps I should stop writing, but it's kinda hard to stop once started. I've never been much of a paper person, I don't think I'll ever keep a diary, never have and never will. All these nice templates on the internet makes it really so easy and useful to write, so I would most probably continue writing and one day get myself in trouble. heh.

I do not care if no one reads my blog or if someone reads it. But sometimes I'd like to be read and there's a need to reach out to my friends. None of my friends blog by the way, though I tried to get them started. *sigh* ... I used to have my own geocities webpage too. Did it up myself with basic html, but blogging is so much easier than webpages.

:)

Oh yeah, last reason ... I'm grouchy because I'm bored. There's no good book to read currently.

Many little dust-mites for the attic

First of all, I would like to put this down, from Agatha Christie's A Caribbean Mystery:

Miss Marple shook her head.
"Oh, no," she said, "I think it's quite natural. Life is more worth living, more full of interest when you are likely to lose it. It shouldn't be, perhaps, but it is. When you're young and strong and healthy, and life stretches ahead of you. living isn't really important at all. It's young people who commit suicide easily, our of despair from love, sometimes from sheer anxiety and worry. But old people know how valuable life is and how interesting."

From another person's viewpoint. Certainly food for thought eh?

*****
I have been feeling depressed lately. Perhaps it's a chemical thing, perhaps it's work-related, or perhaps just both. Maybe depressed is too strong a word to use. I've been feeling low-key, off-note, under-the-weather, miserable, unhappy. I didn't go to work on Tuesday after all. :P I was into the anti-social act, not wanting to be in a crowd. I might have enjoyed myself if I went, but I wanted to wallow in my misery. Even yoga didn't help very much. It was comforting to have the presence of hubby though. Thank god for that. :)

So I went to get my jab instead. Five minutes of pain. ... Okie, so maybe I'm exaggerating. :P I could feel the needle piercing and entering into my skin, the discharge of the liquid into the muscles, the slow withdrawal of the sharp pointed needle out of the skin, it even came out with a little spish! OUCH. It hurts! :( Hubby told me to keep quiet though, will frighten people away. :P :P Hmm, one wonders why one was concentrating so hard on the jab ... duh.

I wonder if doctors can give out mc for people who are feeling depressed and wish to wallow in bed and shut themselves up in the house for the whole day. Hmmm ...

*****
At least I avoided all the bustle. :P I'm feeling much better today, thank you ... if you're asking, because I had to go to work, and I had lots of things not done at work. And I ran up and down the stairs twenty times to see to things; up and down, round and round ... and I had to rush back for a stupid briefing which only lasted five minutes, not even enough to warm my butt, which cost me almost $12 in cab fare. And I was so annoyed because they were only trying to make things difficult for me, for I didn't see any actual need to attend the stupid briefing. GRRRRR.

*****
So I'm in a better mood right now after all that energy spent running around and being angry. Slightly better only. I didn't want to be a helpful nice person at work anymore. I will only explain once ... and I was not in the mood to give extra private tuition. So I was quite abrupt with her today. The other colleagues were understanding and gave me their fullest attention when I explained to them. And she walked away only to ask me later. GRRRRR. If I'm in a sociable and good mood, I could explain the same thing ten thousand times. But I was not today. I'm still in my anti-social and moody act. meow.

:)

Come to think of it, I wonder how come I knew what to do when others didn't. No one taught me how to use it either. heh.

That point being I'm smarter than all of them. *BLEAH*

*****
Okie I confess. Perhaps part of the reason why I'm feeling low spirited is that I've been watching Hunter X Hunter continuously for the past four days. A total of a hundred plus episodes. About 30 a day. *bleah* Was it because I was feeling down so I glued myself to the screen and watched non-stop? Or was it due to the non-stop watching that I became depressed?

Second food for thought. Which comes first? The chicken or the egg? Or in this case, no more chicken and eggs because of the stupid ban. And to make it worse, no more seafood because of some stupid strike. Come on, just admit it, the second link is a failure. Did they do any research before building it? duh duh and duh. I love seafood. Prawns and squids and scallops. *sniff*

Oh, but I was writing about Hunter X Hunter. I took back what I said a long time earlier. Hunter X Hunter rocks! It is a thousand times nicer than Naruto. So perhaps it started off a bit slow and boring, after the excitment of Naruto ... but I must say, the storyline and depth of the characters are much much MUCH better than Naruto. And the excitment gradually builds up in HxH. It's also slightly more meaninful, the fights are shorter, not so long-winded and draggy like N, and definitely much much more exciting, because the posibilities are wider. And the baddies are more colourful too. heh ... and much more charming as well. heh. There's the mysterious Hisoka (I think he's gay, definitely), the extremely-evil-but-perhaps-not-really-after-all Spider Organisation, the interesting assasin-guild etc. The four main characters are cool. I like all of them. And now, once again ... I shall have to wait for the next episode.

I'd probably watch again. :)

Watching animes is spoiling my mood for reading. The anime is definitely more exciting and interesting than Da Vinci Code. heh. And that ties in with the quote in the beginning of this blog. Perhaps life is just so boring that's why I'm feeling moody.

Ah well ...

*****
Third thought of the day:
Would a real friend be someone who stands by and sympathise and empathise and tries to give encouraging remarks? Or someone who bashes you on the head, shakes you till your teeth rattle, scolds you till you feel awful about yourself, and drags you along to do what you should be doing but not wanting to do?

I think I've been watching too much Hunter X Hunter. I'm glad Kilua has a real friend Gon, and Gon has a real friend Kilua. :)

I wish life was that simple. *puffs cheeks out*

*****
And ... we caught Garfield last night. The Fat Cat is cute! Seeing how he is carried belly up in the arms of Jon makes me think of my own missing cat. She's really cute too. *sigh* ... err .. I was saying, Garfield IS extremely cute!!! I was going ohhh ... and goo goo ga ga ... heh ... but I think I still prefer the comic strip. They did some unimaginable atrocities to the story. humf. Also ... well, Garfield wasn't obnoxious enough. And Odie ... wasn't very Odie. :X

*****
I guess putting four teaspoon heap of condensed milk into my iced milo wasn't really a good idea after all.

:P

Also, it's definitely not wise to go for a sports massage the day after an intensive class of yoga. Pressing hard on sore muscles is definitely a torture, sorry I mean to say ... it hurts like hell! But ... it worked: the day after, ohh .. perfect. I love it especially when she stepped on my back and cracked it. heh. It was rather scary though. Hmmm ...

:)

I need to look for digital camera and get it charged. Damn, if only I can unstick myself from chair and/or bed and unglue my eyes from HxH. Or ... maybe I should just lie down first. The thrill of doing things last minute will ensure that I have the motivation to find it.

I wonder why some people like to write nasty comments. It just make themselves look bad. And churlish ... and childish. Oh well, people are strange ... HxH is better. :P Downloading next Naruto episode too. Yay!