Plagued by one (or more) of the 7 deadly sins

I confess that I have a lot of schoolwork to do, but I am not doing them. And I do not have a good reason for not doing them. The crux of the matter is, I am too lazy to get them done. My sloth has overwhelmed me to the point where I am aware that I might be receiving a result slip, some few months from now, with UUUUUU on it, accompanied by an academic warning letter, but still, here I am wasting time.

So why am I blogging? Because I have figured, under some twisted kind of logic, that if I had to waste some hours of my life either by sitting around doing nothing or blogging, I'd take up the latter.

I shall begin with something I forgot to blog about yesterday (another syndrome of sloth: Forgetfulness. Hell, what is this coming to!). Anyway, after weeks and weeks of catching it every wednesday 8:30p.m. and rewatching episodes on youtube as some kind of inspiration before I work out, I finally had my 2 seconds of Ninja Warrior, on a double decker bus no. 143 no less.

It happened when i was descending the top deck to get off at Harbour Front, only for my gripless John Little Sale slipper to live up to its namesake at the 2nd last step. The slipper slipped. Ok, my reaction time and sense of balance is not as astute as that of 綾子三宅 and that sent me tumbling, almost! Thankfully, I happened to be hanging on tightly to the bars on each side and so, for 2 seconds, I was actually suspended above the steps of a double decker bus ala one of the 3rd stage obstacles!

Cheap Thrill huh.

Today began with me waking up much later than usual (sloth. This habit has to stop. God Help me please.) and Jie and I joined a friend for lunch at West Coast Plaza's BBQ Chicken.

I chose the typical cafe offering i.e. set lunch. It began with this:

The liquid contents were nothing to shout about, nothing to complain about. Really fitted into the 'typical cafe soup of the day out of the can style of thing' category. But I did have an issue with those square objects you see floating in the yellow broth. This is the first cafe I know of that actually drops salt cubes into the soup of the day. Seriously management, if you want to get customers to rip more items off the drink menu, how about offering some authentic Korean style concoctions instead?

And the sodium overload persisted with the chicken as well. Mine was called 'Hot Hot Drumlets' .

But it was sufficiently spicy :) And the chips were real chips, the fluffy type, without the aid of flour.
Ok so I had a good lunch. But at $11.90 for the whole set, I don't think I'll be back anytime soon.

Strangely, typing this post has given me a renewed sense of vigour to continue with my pursuit towards becoming superwoman. Here I Go!

Spending Sorrows

For the longest time I could not comprehend why people, particularly members of the fairer sex, lived by the mantra, 'when the going gets tough, the tough go shopping'. Today I learned why.

After being branded (by another member of the family) a 'bad, self-centred sister' who 'does not know how to sacrifice' and 'makes a big deal out of going out', I decided to accompany my older sister to HMV.

And boy, was spending therapeutic. I can now boast to have a tangible copy of Fool's Mate in my hands. No need to wait till I fly to Tokyo to get it.

There was food as well, and I was so happy to indulge in Pretzels from

Instant influx of memories from my childhood Orchard Road visits. I recall I used to eat the plain ones, and slurped up with relish every drop of the crushed ice + colouring combination daylight robbery drink. I skipped the latter this time, but I walloped almost every single bit of this:

Sugar Rozette Pretzel in a Rosy Maroon shade (yeah a very lame description, but at least its accurate and better sounding than bruise-coloured?). The pretzel dough was as tender as ever and the sugar coating exploded with a combination of sweet and sour. In fact, when I looked carefully at the sugar pile which accumulated at the bottom of the paper packet, I discerned a mixture of dark purple sugar crystals and some kind of powder in a lighter shade. Worth every bit of the SGD$2.70, but sadly enough, such a pricing would not qualify it as a weekly snack.

And I felt so much better after all that consumption.

So that mantra was no mystery after all. Let me break it down into a simple formula:

Depression = need for happiness quick-fix = flock towards happy products = every reason to buy = spend on stuff you like = cheering up.

:)

Mistakes

The realization of a mistake can be so painful. Especially if many realizations hit you the moment you jolt out of slumber to the sounds of 'The Real Folk Blues'.

My alarm itself reminded me that I forgot to take another piece of the Cowboy Bebop OST yesterday (doing that now). And that instantly diverted my thoughts from snoozing the alarm to the fact that I had forgotten to upload several photographs to my latest blog post. So here they are:

Items from the furniture show. I actually do have another picture from the furniture show which I did not upload, but kinship ties have bound it forever to the depths of my D drive. Ah, there goes the saying 'blood is thicker than water'.

And since I've veered this narrative in the direction of 'digging up last sunday', I have now come to the realization that I have indeed forgotten another picture which I took that day. Oh how could I have forgotten the serendipitous だいそpurchase which taught me that this guy's name

is actually written as しゅえ. My sincere apologies to all hardcore ガルネイルスfans for brandishing him with the name 'Siew' (hey! I was reading it as 'syu'). From now on it shall be しゅえ　さま！

And here is the picture:

Ok enough of last Sunday. On to the mistake I made today. It occured after the morning jog + gym, waiting at Burger King for my appointment with the chiropractor, and manifested in the form of ice milo and chicken tenders.

The fat content was not the issue. The issue was the SGD $6.20 which I forked out for it. Why the thought DIY milo and chicken slipped my mind then? I have no idea.

But I did cheer up, thanks to the chiropractor who enlightened me about my malformed ribcage, potential risk of internal bleeding should I encounter some trauma to the trunk, unequilibrium in my shoulders, abnormal spine, then subjected me to some bone-cracking, neck snapping, muscle tearing positions to righten all the afforementioned. I shall have a proper skeletal structure in no time and have replicas of it displayed in every chiropractor's clinic.

And taking a walk deep within the heart of Tanjong Pagar yields gems!

So Mum, Jie and I carted home muffins, chewy cream puffs, and had mini cream puffs which oozed with chocolate cream to snack along the way.

It is Day 2 into recess week and I have succeeded with seiving out the quirky details of everyday life, my homework list might just have collected some dust.

Charge to the bleak house now!

Fussy Family Furniture

Unfortunately, I did not take the above picture in my house. I snapped this on my Sony Ericsson when Mum, Dad, Jie and I decided to have a look at this furniture warehouse sale. And I fell in love with a number of items. Now I must remember to reference this post in future when I do get to live in a house purchased in my name.

I had no idea what this 3 holed pot is for, but looking at it minus the concentration of catching the right photographic angles, I am now arrested by the realization that this is a flower pot cum decorative ornament cum pen holder cum object to get guests all fascinated about when they visit your house.

I can already imagine this toadstool shaped lamp as a common unifying feature for every room in my home. Now if only the upper portion came in different shades, I will have one in red for the bedroom (more on that later).

No clue what these things are for, but they seemed sturdy enough to be use as chairs. 'Sturdy' meaning that the black circles did not cave in under persistent pressing from a hand. Maybe things would have been different if I pressed them with a different part of my anatomy. (Has since made a mental note to try them out with that different part if I should chance upon them while buying furniture for my new home!)

For some reason I was just drawn to all things with a red hue. Even a cheesy (see the yellow bottom!) heart shaped chair.

And another! A perfect training chair for my daughter (if I do have one!) once she starts to add to my monthly expenditure for sanitary items.

And finally, maybe it was just the spillover effects of Valentine's Day, but I really had my eyes on this piece of furniture:

I love the use of warm red tones in the bedroom. This decision stems from me being steadfast on the idea of using my bedroom for only 2 purposes, one of which is extremely dependent on ambience and mood.

Our furniture sight-seeing trip was preceeded by Jarett's birthday celebration. The featured meal of the day was the birthday boy's favourite, spagehtti piled with hotdogs i.e. the style of pasta I do not like!

I very much prefer this style:

Which I whipped up for the family dinner today. At least I can tick off one item from the recess week list (do not get me started on the books!).

Another item which I can give a half-tick to is the 'jog and swim everyday' item. If only I were lenient enough with myself to pass me for a 20 minute soak in the pool, half of which was spent freezing and shooting furtive glances around the darkness.

Things better get more productive.

And so it Rained

Today, the West fell victim yet again to the type of rainfall that can only be termed 'oxymoron'. You know, the kind where it sprinkles for a while, and when the clouds dry up, the remnants from the sprinkle remain hanging in the atmosphere such that it gets even more humid after that. Imagine sweating at an intensity which rivals the frequency of the preceeding rainfall. But that was not the worse that the rain brought about anyway.

For some strange reason, I remembered to run out to the balcony to bring in the rack of towels, have in the clothes stand and shut the sliding door, but it totally slipped my mind to check on lilbro john's room. So, it was only some 10minutes into the downpour when I went over to his room to get some plain paper, that I noticed that the rain had drenched anything within the vicinity of his open window.

Bed Inclusive.

What followed next was a series of helter skelter that begin with me shutting the windows tight, Jie mopping up the puddles which had formed on the surface of his books, boxes, helmet, football, and me rushing back from our room with a fan and hairdryer for the bed.

A couple of hours, 2 extension plugs for the fan, and a broken down hairdryer, and the room was back in shape. And since lilbro john, if I may quote him, 'don't care even if you have a blog or whatever you write on it'. He probably would never find out anyway. This episode shall just be filed under 'perspectives'.

I can almost hear the chorus of 'what a horrible sister' and 'how could you forget about your brother's room'. Yes plaintiffs, in my defence, may I propose that, on the basis of my background as a musician who actually studied that subject for my damn O and A levels and went through 3 instruments and numerous concerts, I am qualified enough to say that this:



Is simply too engaging for me to prise the headsets out of my ears and peel my butt of the chair, come rain or shine, flood or hurricane, tornado, etc. Case Closed. That aside, I blame Benedryl for plunging me into a 12 hour slumber the night before. That half a day long comatose just means half a day less of time to complete this:

One of the things written under the last section (MISC) is actually 'gym + swim everyday' (so long as other commitments do not interfere!). And while I would gladly rise at 730am, or earlier, everyday throughout a holiday week just to hit the gym and pool while still being able to start work at 10am, I can foresee being potentially hindered by something, (no I'm not swearing I mean it literally) bloody.

I have not been able to work my way around it despite having to deal with it for years, and more years to come. And for that, I simply salute professional swimmers, marine biologists, synchronized swimmers (basically any woman who has to enter water on a regular basis), for their resilience against bloody, messy outcomes.

Anyway, it appears that I have one more day to let the blood run dry, considering that Monday has already been packed with appoinments. I hope for a gore-free Tuesday to pound the pavement.

Edit: Those insanely good musicians are from ガルネイルス. Had to add the 'All Things Japanese' Label.

Ill

Life has finally dealt me a blow of flu. Or maybe I dealt it to myself.
Whatever it is, I finally got tired of being plauged with a nose than runs like a tap, a sore buccal cavity, an unquenchable thrist that has set me depleting the house's water supply, and boy, the company that produces the tissue paper brand 'Tessa' should really reward me with a loyal customer award of sorts.

So I headed down to the nearest GP, met face-to-face with a multilingual receptionist who reiterated 'please have a seat first' in 3 different languages succesively but (alas!) could not pronounce my name, only to find out that I am most probably allergic to air-conditioning.

It was thus not a surprise to feel nasal cavity turning sore some 10 minutes after CS100 lecture began . Fortunately, I had the comfort of Sarah's strawberry tiramisu nestling in my stomach to distract me.

CS100 was a torture today, with sore nostrils and the after effects of Benedryl plaguing me throughout. It certainly did not help that Sarah and I sat through today's pop quiz with everyone around us copying from whatever sources they could get their hands on. Now, I am either a victim of the bell curve, or a victim of my mule-like stubborness to adhere to my conscience.

Anyway, I trudged home alone on a surprisingly half-filled 179a. Somehow, walking at a reduced pace opens my eyes to interesting sights along the way. Boon Lay never fails to amuse me.

And Today's dinner was spent huddled in a corner of Subway while a cacophony of westernized accents chorused through the air. It has become apparent that Clementi is host to many international schools, some of which were throwing a ball around the restaurant as I clamped my aching jaws around the Subway Melt.

The walk to and from West Coast Plaza was good for my lungs, though it would have been better if I had a filter of sorts to shield myself from the unearthly emissions from the cars zipping by.

School has been kind enough to give us students a recess week. And no, it does not refer to a week where lessons are suspended. The recess week, in all effect, translates to 'catch up on past readings - write essays - do projects - do more readings - and if you manage to manage your time well you can still squeeze in get-togethers and other miscellaneous stuff - study' week.

I am apprehensive. Now to translate my list of 'to-dos' in to a timetable, as long as I do not succumb to Benedryl's poetic creation of a somnambular state.

Coffee Bubbles

Here's a snippet from a series of dialogues that somehow occurs between me and Jie whenever the topic of food and beverage arises (admittedly, its not word-for-word, but the gist and phrasal structures are the same):

Jie: I need coffee.
Me: There's nescafe in the kitchen.
Jie: Not that kind of coffee.
Me: What...
Jie: TCC has the best coffee, and we have the discount card.
Me:.....nescafe....kitchen......faster.....cheaper.......
Jie: Once in a while?

And then both adjourn to TCC.

So today something of that nature occured, and I had a mint frappe.

Top-down view is seldom nice, so close your eyes when you slurp!

(The green foilage is the mint leave, not a piece of the serviette.)

Somehow, I was more fascinated by the bubbles which formed at the top of the beverage, and kept their neat arrangement even as the quantity shrank.

And speaking of drinks, I somehow keep encountering beverages served up the same way as the tooth paste and cranberry ink mixtures. Remember, the average sized flimsy plastic container with grooves all around, and a concoction of water from God-knows-where + colouring.

Today's version was the same type of water + orange dye.

Daily Quirks

This semester has presented itself with a very different timetable and forunately enough, I now have the chance to get up the same time every week day. Optimal time: 730am. Enough for a slightly less than mad-capped pace of dressing up, having breakfast and doing some work before boarding the bus. Also, I've been spared from dragging myself to bed as early as possible and kicking myself out of it some hours later just so that I'll be at maximum attention for an 830 lesson, but my Fridays are no longer free and now consist of lessons which stretch from 1230pm to 630pm! (Throw in pop quizzes, and a boring lecturer on some EEE topic at that.)

So, yes, while the majority of my coursemates are enjoying the fruits of their fervent endeavours for a free friday, and thus still in a somnambular state at 12noon, Sarah, Lionel and I were flipping through 'Communication Mosaics' on the blue benches of Canteen B.

VDay wasn't exactly over for Sarah and I, so this was for Carrey and his other half, Jiayu.


I had to find a way, other than studying, to kill the 1/2 hour before class started. Convinced by my waning interest in thumbing through chapter 5 again, and the current sweltering heat, I took to playing around with this:

For SGD$0.30, a cup of red colouring and water from God-knows-where, with a hint of red dye just so that the dispenser can be labelled 'Cranberry Juice'.

Sarah's drink did not have any cranberry dye in it, it just had the water from God-knows-where and some mint Darlie.

Why Mint Darlie? Well, what else had a colour appropriate to match the label 'Honeydew Juice'.

So, after 4 hours of CS100 (my gosh! there was NO pop quiz!), the 3 of us headed for a course conducted by a member of the teaching staff who introduces herself as 'MDM' (not Prof, Asst Prof, Assoc Prof). Top that off with permed hair, floral dresses and maroon blazers. The 台湾 MDM spirit!

And this MDM just kicked out project in a different direction.

And it was the Best Vday ever!

No kidding!



And Thank you to all who made it so special :) Zahira, Sarah, Germaine, Jean!


Here's the stash from Carrey which Sarah and I sorted in the HSS pantry, a foot away from its unisexual Japanese heated seat style toilet bowls.


My share of the loot. I managed to grab my favourite Peppermint flavoured one.

And I parted with these friends, for my friends!

Its amazing how I didn't need a date to have the best Valentine's Day of my life (thus far!). And its only because of 4 very wonderful people, who have stuck with me throughout an entire semester, and are still sticking with me through this one, who listen to my endless rambles and have been the best friends I ever had.

Happy V Day my dears!

Vday Cliche

I try as much as possible to avoid speaking/writing cliches, and detest participating in any form of an event which I deem has been 'cliched'. So, as Vday approaches, I know for sure I would not be spending an evening in precocious heels, grasping a sturdy hand, and squeezing with other couples into a restaurant of sorts (all thanks to Cupid's misaims). But! In the name of friendship, I shall allow myself to slip into the cliche of Chocolate and Soft Toy proliferation.

At this juncture, I am hoping to add more pictures of the Soft Toys and the chocolates which Sarah, Germaine and I received from Carrey. However, the 'IE has stopped working' box stands in the way each time, and I have absolutely given up!

An almost Clean Sheet

So I was scheduled for another look at the red scar on the left rib, and Mom, knowing that such a visit would entail fishing out a NETs card of sorts, decided to tag along to do the fishing on my behalf. Yay.

We waited 2 whole hours before a doctor (and houseman!) saw me for less than a minute, during which I was ushered to a corner of the room and a curtain pulled around it for some dignity, and the doctor exclaimed in pleasant surprise, 'Wow it looks good!' - when she saw how I was actually healing faster than expected.

After which, there was some brief convo about the lipoma. I would really have wanted to take it back, just as some people keep their gall stones, though in my case I would have kept the semi solid tumour in a ziploc of sorts and squeeze it like a play dough all day. Alas! Those white lab coat dorning, overworked muggers had thrown a part of my body away, though nonetheless after dissecting it precariously, examining it, and disposing it such that it should not contaminate anyone or anything.

And we left the consultation room only with the bill in hand.

Ok, so now i've been given the go ahead to swim, but not to lift weights. Hence, it'd be a considerable lapse of time before I achieve this feat:




It is easy to do it! (I mean, didn't he make it look that way?)

Food served on food

As the world of Science turns its head in the direction of 'food for (fill in the brackets with anything that Man needs e.g. fuel)', here comes food for serving food:

'100% Biodegradable @ Microwaveable'

'Olive Green Marketing'

(get this!) 'Made from Corn and Yam'

'Environmentally Friendly'

Why don't they just make edible bowls?

Seat Potato

The butchering has rendered me a seat potato. 'No gym, no jogging, (hell!) no swimming! You would not want to reopen the stitches!'

And I can literally feel myself ballooning (blame it also on my mule-style stubornness to continue eating as if I could regularly move beyond a walking pace).

To add to the torture of feeling like lard: Both the pool and the gym are visible from my balcony. I can read their minds. The water is dying to swallow more latex-clad people and the treadmill needs to be pounded by the girl with ガゼット screaming in her ears.

Truth is, the 3cm red curve around my left rib can now be touched without sending out bolts of pain. I no longer walk in the 'totally paralysed on the left' (quote El) style, and I can bend double! So, since I would not be slamming my back hard against anything (remember, no group sports)or lying on my right side (I'd be running) at all, why are my legs still not going anywhere beyond regular paced strutting?

Unexpected finds

Its amazing how I can travel to a certain place 5 days a week and yet not notice it at all. I usually walk through Boon Lay MRT station So it has come to my recent attention that looking down the holes on the train platform actually yields rather pretty sights. Like, a technicoloured patchwork of bicycles:

Maybe I should forget to bring my headsets again.

It has also occured to me that I only hasten to remind myself never to fall into the clutches of emohood only at the point when I am already within its grasps. Now, if you don't want to get hurt, get away from the clawed scrawny hands protruding from the cloak of the Emo. Yes, I think that Emo, personified, is essentially the Reaper. And today i fell into its grasps for a moment, after the supermarket woes.

Miss テッサキュウ, you must achieve more than this, in more ways than one!

And for a start, off I go to the kitchen.

Cooking up a storm as hot as this.

And the worries flood in...

5 days have passed since the butchering, yet I still find myself grimacing whenever I lean back on anything. I anticipate that the pain is not going to dissipate even after the maroon line across my back dissolves to a brown scar, but would merely transfer to my right shoulder, the poor thing which has soldiered most of my body weight of 5 consecutive nights.

But its a happy pain. I have been a happy recipient of many demonstrations of love, starting from my family's very considerate ways, Sarah's get-well-soon cupcakes, Chee Seng's ecard, just to name a few. This is a bittersweet experience. The best of its kind.

Ah, getting back into the full swing of work entails a flood of worries. Readings, assignments, revision, tests, projects. My school mailbox has yet to receive any news from the IRO. I can only hope that this selection programme does not go the same way university admission does i.e. rejection letters are decided the earliest, given out the latest.

All this pain calls for a sleeping buddy.

Back on the Run

I'll be back to my usual routine from tomorrow onwards. Thank God for these 4 days of rest (read: slacking), but now that my furtive glances to the right (at the computer clock) also allow me to catch glimpses of my stack of school books, I am inadvertently reminded that time is running out. Time for what? Let's devide 'what' into 2 phases : The short term - assignments, readings. The Long Term - Family, Friends, Health, God (Oh God!), Vocation (damn. Scholarship please!)

And I've added another goal to my concurrent list. This time, its about managing my finances better. Budget each meal, for health reasons as well. Throw some into the mandatory forced savings scheme (otherwise known as C..)? Why not. It'd be good to have some dough for a house, paying Dad back for my 4 years in NTU, and just in case I develop some lipomas again (oh god forbid.)

Oh, the night draws to a close and the world slips into the hands of dawn. How about a sleeping buddy?
Heck felines, I want a male sleeping buddy too!