I will be the pattern of all patience; I will say nothing.

Payback’s a buncha engineers
I’ll admit that I probably started this one. But the engineers never cease to amaze me. They’re not just a bunch of dslr-toting, foosball-loving, childbirth-describing fathers (to-be). They’ve certainly got a quirky sense of humour. But it’s ok. I forgive them

The day before yesterday, they decided to call me on my office line to Eh me. They came into the office the next day with their cubes riddled with Post It’s that read Eh <insert engineer’s short name> like this:

Today I got into the office and was greeted by countless happy coloured plastic cups covering the entire surface of my cube. I have to say it was a pretty good one. I expected payback, but this was pretty damn cute.

If you’re so interested, evidence that engineers have a sense of humour.

To my three amigos: Luv! >:D< and I’d watch my cube if I were you.

Happy Birthday GW!
Happy Birthday to Siginah, who always sees it coming. He shares a birthday with another favourite person of mine, my (fat) brother.

My brother and I, 1979

My brother and I bear little physical resemblance to each other, it’s probably an indication of what little we share in common. The story goes, my brother was really excited to finally be a brother way back then. He was about 5, and had enough of hanging out alone. When I was born, he even got to pick my name. Notice how other siblings have similar names – whether it’s Chinese names (same middle name) or a common theme in the names (they start with E, or K or whatever) – my brother and I have drastically different names. I was the only girl in the extended family so I didn’t get to share the same Chinese character in my name. My parents didn’t go with a theme for our names either, so while my brother has a nice, well thought of name, I got a lock, stock, mass-produced, off the shelf Chinese name.

Inadvertently my brother has helped shape my life somewhat. It’s always easier being the youngest one (doubly so as a girl) in the family, mostly because any expectations my parents have are carried on the shoulders of a) the male heir and b) the eldest. I don’t have to set an example, I just have to match or supercede. The only thing I really had to contend with growing up was mostly of the “girls don’t do/say that” category which I dismissed with “if Gor can, why can’t I”. That still doesn’t explain my fondness for expletives in my language, though, because my brother hardly swears (unless he’s driving), but I got by anyhow. I pretty much, if I so wish, get to pick any job I want, decide not to get married or have kids, live away from home, get away with loads of things Chinese families usually categorically frown on simply because my brother did all the right things.

I’d declare 24 April Eldest Sibling Day but I won’t attempt to speak for every other younger sibling in the world. Instead, I’ll expend my will and energy into resisting the urge to bake my brother a cake so he might actually enjoy his birthday today.

Happy Birthday GW!

Went to the dentist
Got my tooth patched, and the rest of my teeth cleaned. It was satisfying.

As he’s done for the last 4 years, my dentist picks up my file, looks at my date of birth and comments that my birthday is just a day after his. Every time he does so I make the same lame joke about how that makes him just a little less perfect/smart than I am. This year, he starts trying to count how old I am.

“Let’s see, that makes you uhhh… ” and he starts counting. I end his misery and tell him straight up. He sniggered and went, “So old ah”.

Great. Some old fart older than my folks just called me “old”.

I don’t know if I’m physically feeling old or looking old or both. But for the first time in my life, I’m afraid I’m feeling my age! I haven’t decided if it’s a good thing. But the scary thing is I think KF is aging less rapidly than I am! Aside from the weight he put on in the 4 years in SG, he looks pretty much the same – that means he probably looks younger than me by now. That’s kind of depressing, since I prefer to be the better-looking half!

I haven’t really decided whether to worry about it yet. Apart from the very female tendancy to try any new skincare product out there – my latest experiments have been masks and just recently the L’Oreal micro-dermabrasion kit – I haven’t really put a whole lot of thought into my new predicament. It wasn’t as if I just grew older one day. But it’s been increasingly weighing in at the corners of my mind, like the encroaching darkness of the borders of a lomo print.

One of the shots from the Botanics in Sydney

I think I’ll just treat this issue like I do most other things at work – I’ll shelve it until I start to really get complaints. For now, at least I can still claim to be the youngest in the department, and while that’s somewhat comforting in a very lame way, I’ll take whatever I can get.

Isgusting and Imourous
KF got back last night, and this evening we had dinner with my folks. My brother brought his kids over after dinner, and KF noticed that my nephew’s vocabulary pretty substantially over a week and a half.

Well, this is what happened when I was stuck waiting in the car with the whiner himself on Christmas Eve.

Hey what’s this?

Ooohh, I want. Gimme.

Hey, come on! Lemme have it.

Life’s not fair! I want it! Give it!

Here comes Mom. I’m telling on you.

Went to the Botanics over the weekend
With my brother and the kids. It was fun, though it was a little too hot.

Ok I cheated – I lomo-ed this one. It’s kinda cuter this way though.

I know the cafe isn’t exactly a full blown Les Amis (it’s just Cafe Les Amis At The Botanics), but could they be any more indifferent? They’re not particularly polite, nor friendly, nor helpful, yet they charge an arm and a leg for making you stand in line, then wait for your food, and then eat outside with the bugs. They’ve got a good thing going, don’t they want to keep it that way?

The Reflex
DP and Sam kindly brought me along when they went for their foot reflexology session today. It was my first try.

DP booked a 40 minute session for us all, so they were expecting us when we arrived. I didn’t notice it, but there were 2 men and a lady who walked into the shop, it turned out that these were the reflexologists. The lady chose me over DP, and a big uncle dude with a heavy moustache worked on him instead, who was a little worried that such a big guy was attending to him. Some young guy worked on Sam.

The lady who attended to me went easy on me because it was my first try, so I didn’t experience the excruciating pain described by many. That’s not to say it didn’t hurt. Reflexology basically works on the theory that each part of your foot corresponds to another part of your anatomy. Like parts of your big toe corresponds to your head; the tips of your toes, your sinuses or something; and your arch, your intestinal area. By massaging these areas you can get the energy flowing if there are blockages, and thereby put some balance back into the force. Or something like that.

First they start by warming you up. Your feet are swabbed down with alchohol so you don’t knock your reflexologist out. After that, they start with your shin to relax your legs. Then they cream your foot and start from the toes, down towards the heel, and then the top side of your foot, and down the sides, the the shins again, and then they end off where you’ve the most problems.

The toe parts were nice. No real pain, it was just pressure from the massaging. When she got to the arch of my foot, that’s when I felt real pain. It wasn’t so excruciating that I would pass out, but it was pain nonetheless. When she massaged past my funnybone – a bump in my left foot where I broke it before – I expected to just weird out and yelp, but it went by surprisingly without a hitch. Usually I can’t even bear to touch it. Both DP and Sam put on a stoic face, but they said it hurt too.

It was fun though, and a nice way to pamper yourself. I’m not really sure what the medical benefits really are, but Sam says I’ll sleep better tonight. So I’m getting offline early tonight to continue where I left off last night in One Hundred Years of Solitude, a surprising page turner, and hopefully I’ll wake up bright and early and feeling great tomorrow.

August! Yay!
Nothing in particular to look forward to, except perhaps, my vacation!

Busy little ants

Well, I’ve some idea what I want to be doing on vacation – road trip! It should be fun, being on the road. Once we get KF’s car all fixed up and in shape we’ll be ready to run.

Cleaning up
Well this weekend was cleanup weekend, the first in a long time. Last night I decided we needed to get organised, and planned to head to Ikea today despite it being on sale, and a Sunday to boot. We got there at about 10.45am or so, and even though KF wasn’t hungry I dragged him straight to the cafeteria. Can’t shop on an empty stomach.

I was ready for a long queue, so I dashed there ahead of KF so we could get in line. To my surprise, we strolled right in, and found seats immediately. It’s the first time I’ve been there in ages without having to wait. After lunch, we headed downstairs to get the boxes and containers and other stuff we needed to get organised. It was pleasant, not too crowded. Even at the checkout there wasn’t really a queue. And when we were done, the staff helped us get our stuff into the taxi (no line there either) – all we had to do was sit.

On our way out we stopped by at the Swedish Food Shop and got some meatballs. For $17.50 you get a tub of 30 or 40.

Sidetracked
Getting through Ikea without killing anyone was a huge accomplishment, so when I got home I rewarded myself with a nap. When I got up I was so hungry I cooked up some spaghetti and meatballs – and here’s the big mistake – we decided to watch V while we ate. I remember watching it in the mid-80s, but hadn’t a clue what was going on, except the aliens were lizards and they ate mice and birds. Well, after the first episode I was glued to the TV and only finished the entire mini series at 10.30pm or so.

So much for cleaning up.

As usual, I took forever
To get my air tickets for vacation, and woo hoo, apparently August is high season. When we made calls today most of the travel agencies said they had no vacancies for the dates we were looking for. Nice work.

Sunset on New Year’s Day this year

Still, we managed to get our flight out, albeit a couple of days behind schedule. Am looking forward to my break, I’d like to say I need one, but I think it’s more a want than a need.

Morrissey – The First of the Gang To Die
The other day I napped with the radio on, and in that half awake state I heard Morrissey’s First of the Gang to Die, and liked it. In fact, even though the dream I was having meant absolutely nothing, I distinctly remember the song playing in it, and also the announcer saying it was Morrissey. A strangely morbid title, for an upbeat tune with a British accent. Can’t ask for more. So it’s going into my playlist, so Handbags and Gladrags won’t feel lonely being the only tune there now.

I had a relatively good day today
I felt better than I have in 2 months. I think it’s because I stretched for 5 minutes or so when I got up this morning. It’s the only thing different I did today. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow.

Fresh from the rain

We had a pretty fun weekend, we went to Sentosa on Saturday because the weather was perfect. It rained in the morning (and most of the day in the water catchment areas to the north) and stayed overcast the entire day. It was a dry, cool day, which is completely unusual. Even though I got up kinda late, we decided to take the cable car to Sentosa anyway. We were just going to walk around, get some exercise and take some pictures.

A bug’s life

The cable car ride was quite fun. It cost us about $11 for a round trip ticket and admission to Sentosa. The round trip includes 4 stops, so you can take it from the mainland to Sentosa to Mount Faber and back to Cable Car Tower. A $17 ticket will get you the same ride in a glass-bottomed cable car for that complete mid-air dangle.

Time flies, even when you’re not having fun

Raffles Hotel feels like a throwback in time

Earlier in what was probably the highlight of the week, we took a nice walk through grand ole Raffles Hotel after lunch. It rained horribly through lunch, but cleared up somewhat by the time we were done. Sam wanted to check out the Rolex store, so we marched in like good troopers. It was funny when Sam insisted that the watch he was interested in looked better on the website than in reality; the salesperson had a strange look that was a mix of snotty annoyance and futility.

Aging through it
Earlier in the week (or maybe last week) I met an old schoolmate, AC for lunch. He went to college in Australia and now works there – and I hadn’t met him in probably 8 years. We arranged to meet for lunch at the restaurant that another school friend of ours, YW, runs.

It was vaguely amusing to watch the whole scene unfold. AC, YW and a whole buncha guys all came from the same secondary school, which I’m going to call Tactful High School, so they go even further back. But I suppose you can tell a decade later where things were with them all a decade before.

For example, YW takes about 10 seconds to realise who AC was, and then gawks in disbelief for another 10 when AC showed up at the restaurant. I suppose that’s forgiveable. What was surprising to me was within the next 10 seconds into the hellos YW makes a blunt comment about how AC has lost quite a substantial amount of hair.

The conversation then steers to how it-could-also-happen-to-you, before we managed to talk about something else. Which I think was a nice move on my part.

Later on, another alumnus from the famous Tactful High shows up to say hello to AC. Again within the first 10 seconds of meeting him, our friend makes another remark about the weight AC has gained. At which point I really start to feel sorry for AC. Having it pointed out is one thing. Having it pointed out in front of a chick, even if it’s just me, is fairly demasculating.

I think it was downhill from that point. When YW popped by to speak to us now and again, it got more and more competitive. Perhaps the need to sound like he’s made it, despite the weight and hair loss kicked in, but it got to a point where AC was describing his plans to retire at 40, and how he’s already put his investments in place with business ventures, property and other assets. He also didn’t fail to mention that he was earning a good living.

YW put up a gallant attempt to disguise a head-on fight by modestly chipping in that all he had was a part of the restaurant we were in.

It was one of those things VS really should’ve been there to witness, we would’ve laughed about it.

It’s strange how we grow more and more distant with old friends. A decade back we would probably have had more in common than anyone else, but now our lives are so diverse. It’s strange hearing about AC’s new life – bridge and poker night, his penchant for cigars, his property and business ventures, his career. It’s just as strange hearing about my classmate Susan who just had a baby.

The natural order of things
Is this a cyclical trend? Is there always going to be an awkward phase in life every 10 decade or so? There was that whole adolescence angst ten years before where we were wondering what life was about, and how we were supposed to turn out. Now that we’re living that phase of life that we were planning for at adolescence and moving ahead into the thirties, is that same sinking feeling returning again?

I mean, now we grapple with careers, taxes, loans, reports, being too jaded to be frivolous, yet too young to be jaded, biological clocks, hair loss, weight gain, making plans, having goals, staying motivated, working out, finding someone, getting married, having kids, defending yourself when you haven’t found someone or haven’t gotten married or haven’t had kids.

Perhaps we make life more complicated than it has to be.

I think I’ll feel better after some hotcakes tomorrow morning.