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!