Nonsense Upon Stilts

As Written

2009-06-14T20:42:00.001+01:00

Letting Go

2009-05-01T11:59:00.000+01:00

Constantly.

They Look Like They're Having Fun!

2009-01-18T09:10:00.001Z

Monkeys doing Riverdance!

Sports Channels

2009-01-17T13:28:00.003Z

I recently relented and gave in to the Starhub sports channel monopoly.

Bo pian. I really want to watch sports on tv and ever since Mediacorp became too cheap to buy coverage of sports events, there does not seem to be much of an alternative.

Truth is, ever since Starhub managed to get exclusive rights to all the football programmes via ESPN and Star Sports and in the process creating their sports monopoly, there has been less and less sports coverage on normal free-to-air television.

Is this how our intellectual property and competition laws have affected us? We are now forced to pay for things we used to get free?

According to received wisdom (from the creators of intellectual property and anti-competition laws), our lives are supposed to improve. Well, mine hasn't! So some people out there must have shit for brains.

That aside, I have recently been picking up tennis again. I now try to play weekly with folks from my office. Bought a new racket too. Am so pleased.

Woohoo!

Reality Bites. Deal with it.

2009-01-10T09:12:00.005Z

In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, a Prince breaks the spell cast on Snow White. They fall in love and live happily ever after.

In Cinderella, Prince Charming finds Cinderella after a long search and they fall in love and live happily ever after.

In Sleeping Beauty, Sleeping Beauty is woken up by a kiss from a Prince. They fall in love and live happily ever after.

You see the problem? Time and time again, the story is the same. Girl overcomes hardship and adversity and falls in love with a Prince and they live happily ever after. Time and time again, little girls all over the world are fed such nonsense and they grow up thinking that they will one day similarly meet their Prince and they will fall in love and live happily ever after. Time and time again, girls are taken in by such fantasies, ignoring the bloody blatant signs of falsehoods - the magical pumpkins, the sleeping spells, the fucking dwarfs.

They're fucking fairy tale for heaven's sake! They're NOT TRUE! From the protagonists (who the hell would call herself "Sleeping Beauty"?) to the poison apples (if Evil Stepmother is a witch, do you think she'd make a poison apple whose spell can be broken by a fucking kiss from a Prince? I'd have fucking made it POISONOUS!) to the Happily Ever Afters!

A whole load of nonsense! None of it is true. If ever someone told you "don't worry, some day you will find the one" (which incidentally sounds like a line right out of Cinderella - "some day my Prince will come") or "the perfect one is just around the corner" is fucking out of his/her mind. Has the world suddenly become filled with part-time fortune tellers.

The truth is, the world is a harsh place. Good things sometimes happen to people but they don't ALWAYS happen. Actually, most of the time, they don't happen. Take a look around you the next time you sit at a coffee shop. You will find that NOBODY is totally happy with life. Everyone is at the least dissatisfied with something. Nothing is perfect. Nobody is perfect. Nobody will be perfect. There are no fairy tales in life. Reality Bites. Deal with it.

And mothers who don't advise their children accordingly are doing them a great disservice.

People should be content with what they have. This does not mean that they don't work to better what they have, or lose hope for good things to come. But precisely that they should WORK towards betterment and keep hope as just that - hope, not expectation. It means that to always appreciate and enjoy the joys that one currently has. And therein appreciate and enjoy life for what it is. Not yearn for what it should be.

In a way, life is lot like reading a book. The reward is not in knowing the ending but in the slow, sometimes tedious process of reading itself. Through the ups and downs in the plot, over which you, the reader, has no control. Sometimes it will end in Happily Ever After. Sometimes it will end in a tragedy. But it will always be a good book if you enjoy the reading.

p.s - No, my rant has nothing to do with me. It is rant against self-absorbed, immature and deluded persons that I've recently had the displeasure of having to encounter.

Growing

2008-12-31T13:50:00.003Z

Yet another year has gone by.

I wonder where it went. I really don't remember much of it.

Hmm...

I finally moved out. And renovated my house (my new hobby is DIY and house decorating). I did two reservist ICTs. Reconnected with some friends, built on some others. Spent at one entire fruitful year in my new job. Learned a lot. Enjoy it much. Have finally made an effort to be nicer to my folks (the moving out helps).

Hmm...

I have grown.

It has been a quiet year.

New friends, Old friends

2008-12-21T06:15:00.004Z

I had the first of what will seem like a series of housewarmings yesterday. It wasn't the first time friends have visited my place, but it was the first time I actually sent out proper invites and prepared proper food. Anyway, Mom actually did all the cooking for my Poh Piah Pie Tee Party (PPPTP) and when all the food was laid out on my dining table, it really looked quite good.

I kinda planned my apartment to be party-friendly and I think everything did turn out quite well, so I'm quite pleased. There were some teething problems though, like the aircon not working properly, so I gotta get that fixed. My next party is on Christmas Eve, co-hosted by my friends L and Mess (who's camping out at my place for now). There are about 25 people on the invite, more than twice the number for the PPPTP, so that will surely be a challenge. Hope it goes well.

Anyway, in the evening, I met up with my old scout friends for dinner and drinks. I've known these friends for 20 years or more and for a while in secondary school, we truly were the best of friends. We went through a lot together - a lot of tekaning, a lot of mischief, a lot of blood sweat and tears, a lot of camps, hikes, pioneering sessions, footdrill, a lot of fun. And although we drifted apart as we grew older, 20 years on, meeting some of them for the first time in many years, most married, some with kids, it felt as if we all hadn't changed much even though we clearly have.

So much of who we are now as persons were shaped by each other and our lives as scouts. Like how L, Washington Patrol leader and multiple-time finisher of the Ironman, commented on how he was first introduced to bikes by D, the Livingstone Patrol leader. And how D started out fiddling with PA systems during school assemblies is now tech guru and ubergeek (I mean this as a compliment). And how, at the end of the day, when my car battery went flat, K, the Mitchell Patrol leader, now Army logistics officer and ever the scout, was prepared with jump cables. And D, my best friend in school and still helpful as ever, drove all the way back from Thomson to assist.

Friends like them are hard to beat. I don't think any of us back then could have imagined us gathering again after 20 years. We certainly could not know how diverse our paths would take us. But in all of us yesterday, I sensed how similar we all in fact are in the unwavering principles we live by - the law and promise we made to each other and to ourselves as scouts. And I'm glad to have known them.

Till we meet again...

I Got A Wii!

2008-11-13T15:35:00.001Z

Thank you thank you thank you!

Wonderful friends who got me the Wii!

It's time to party party party!

Change

2008-10-25T01:11:00.001+01:00

I can't deal with change.

But change is the only constant.

Sigh.

Living Out

2008-10-19T12:44:00.002+01:00

Have been in my new place for a couple of months now, and loving every minute of it.

Despite the occasional worry that I will slip and fall in the shower and my slowly decomposing body is only discovered by my annoyed neighbours a couple of days later, I'm generally really enjoying the freedom to just do whatever I want whenever I want to do it. That I can watch endless episodes of Heroes or Prison Break or that I can decorate my place exactly the way I want it or whatever. Everything is just me. And I love it.

Freedom is underrated.

Ok, going to make a cup of coffee now. Sumatran. Whee!

July, August & September

2008-10-01T17:11:00.005+01:00

Haven't blogged for a while. Many things to update.

In July, I went to a Robatayaki place for dinner. Food was very good. But the ambience was even better. Setting was like a market and the chefs just sat around and barbequed whatever you chose. It was really festive. Food was very fresh and only needed a sprinkle of salt for flavour. Yums.

Best of all, it was free. Coz it was my birthday treat. Ha.

In August, I went on a firm trip to Bangkok. It was a long anticipated trip mainly coz I had wanted to go shop for household stuff and also to visit a tailor. In the end, the tailor was rather blah but I did have a rather fruitful trip to Chatuchak.

Me at Chatuchak with my acquisitions

In September, the F1 came to Singapore and, thanks to my very cool friends, I managed to catch the action. The race itself was fantastic. The Renault and Force Asia crashes were right in front of me so it was doubly exciting. But what really struck me, and I know this has been reported by newspapers worldwide, was how beautiful our city is at night. In fact, seeing images our glowing skyline in the background, the packed stands and the shiny F1 cars racing in the foreground, being beamed across the world and hearing foreign newscasters all gush about how amazing it all looked, made me really proud to be Singaporean. Simply fantastic!

Cameraphone photo. Does not do justice to scene.

Well done, Singapore. I think we won big.

Routine

2008-09-13T06:35:00.002+01:00

Have kinda settled into a routine.

Work work work on the weekdays. Spend Saturday doing household chores and laundry. Lounge around at home watch DVD. Maybe go shopping for household stuff. Go swim if weather permits. Go visit mother on Sunday.

The weeks are flying by rather quickly.

Which means life is too.

I think this blog needs more pictures...

Where Should I Go?

2008-09-11T16:48:00.001+01:00

For my next holiday?

Where? Where? Where?

And When?

Little by little, it fills up slowly

2008-09-01T17:06:00.002+01:00

But surely, my house is filling up.

All the main things are in. Only need deco now. Time to fill it up with some character.

Funny Vid

2008-08-29T18:57:00.001+01:00

I HEART THE STIG!

2008-08-17T06:48:00.004+01:00

Have been watching many many episodes of Top Gear. It's a fabulous BBC show on cars. But the real draw are the hosts who are damn funny.

I wanna be like them when I'm old. Not necessarily good looking, but seriously funny and they have such a fun job. Driving and reviewing supercars! *drool*

Anyway, they have a team race car driver whom they call The Stig. His identity is a secret but he is their best driver and is seriously cool!

I HEART THE STIG!

blog vs tv

2008-08-04T17:51:00.001+01:00

in the last two weeks, i have watched the entire season 1 of heroes and entourage. am tv addict. my new couch is great. am aspiring couch potato.

explains the lack of blog posts.

yaTAAa!

Doing Random Things

2008-07-30T15:58:00.001+01:00

That I haven't done in a while.

Sleep

2008-07-12T04:00:00.002+01:00

It's funny how sometimes you just want to sleep and sleep and it can be such a fulfilling activity in itself, but then at other times, you wish you didn't have to sleep so that you have more time to do all the other things you need or want to do.

Like this weekend, when I do just feel like sleeping in, but am jam packed the entire weekend with activities (deliveries, mahjong, meeting friends).

Plus, it makes you grow old faster (hey, it's 8 hours each time okay?) but if you don't sleep, it makes you look older. Sigh.

I can't decide if sleep is a good thing.

My Right Foot

2008-07-09T09:34:00.004+01:00

Over the last two months or so, I had noticed a little cyst like growth on the ball of my foot. It's rather benign but because of where it is, it is uncomfortable (does not really hurt) and restricts my activities ie. I could not run or play tennis or exercise.

So today, I went to SGH and had it cut out. A day Op that I have no intention of recalling the details of. It was scarier than I thought it should have been. I hate hospitals and operating theatres where you can hear the patient next door groan in pain and only to have the nurse tell them that they are high on drugs.

Anyway, the anaesthesia is wearing off an I've popped a couple of pills of mefanemic acid to keep the pain at bay.

Am on hospitalization leave for 4 days but I'm actually fine. The bandaged foot is more an inconvenience than anything. Sigh.

Sitting in my tub

2008-07-05T07:25:00.005+01:00

As I am typing this, I have two grown men sitting in my tub.

They are contractors who came to repair a little blemish in my tub and are waiting for the enamel paint to dry. So they are just sitting in there chit chatting with each other while I wait patiently for them to bugger off so I can go have lunch. Grr...

In the meantime, while waiting, I have managed to upload some new pictures of my place.

These are shots I took before I moved in. Haven't taken pictures since I moved in yet.

(Told you there's nothing much to read on this blog...)

Why are you reading this?

2008-07-01T16:26:00.003+01:00

Why are you reading my blog?

There's nothing to read here. Go go go! Nothing to see. It's very boring one. My life is dull and uninteresting and very very blah. You're better off watching grass grow.

Plus, I lie. Sometimes I write stuff that doesn't really make any sense. Hopscotch. Pineapple. Hyperbolic revolutions. Sometimes I make things up. Like the time I found a python in my toilet. Sometimes I just rant. And rant. And complain about this and that and this and that. And what is happening or not happening and what is ideal or not ideal. And I rant about this and that...

My life is like nitrogen. Colourless, odourless, inert.

So don't bother to read this blog ok?

It's really not worth your time.

Easterner

2008-06-29T08:03:00.002+01:00

I have moved.

Have been at my new place for about a week now. Haven't yet had opportunity to really enjoy the place. Have been busy cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, checking out defects, cleaning, shopping for furniture, household appliances, items, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. Hopefully I can sneak in a DVD tonight. To unvirginize my new DVD player.

On the whole, I'm quite happy with the way the place turned out. Of course, there are things that are not ideal. Like doors that can't fit my washing machine through, speckled paint on the floors, my fridge door that can't really open fully because of my intercom... But these are things I can live with. For now.

In the meantime, I am having a distinct feeling of being rather grown-up.

I'm old. Alone. Broke. The Unhappy Trilogy.

ps - For those of you who desire to ask when my housewarming will be, well, since my couch and dining table will only arrive in 6 weeks (yes, they freaking take THAT long), I can't really host visitors until then. Unless of course you come bearing gifts like a Nintendo Wii. In which case, we can all sit on the floor and play.

pps - Yes, I did get the dining table in my last post. Now I need chairs.

ppps - Sorry, no time to upload photos. Soon.

The Perfect Table

2008-06-17T04:52:00.002+01:00

Perfect in all other ways except for the price tag.

How? Should I splurge? No. I mean, really SPLURGE???

Grgh!

2008-06-08T15:16:00.003+01:00

This has been a disappointing weekend.

Hate my laminated TV console. Left my bag/camera/BB at restaurant (but luckily retrieved them the next day). Went shopping for electrical appliances, furniture and bathroom accessories, but only ended up getting a bed (which is delivered only in July!) People wasting my time and thinking that their lives are more important than mine.

Grgh!

I think I'm going to scream.