Friday, August 29, 2003

quack quack

had my first ever visit 2 a physiotherapist on dad's recommendation. good location! just 9 floors above california fitness-- sprained yr ankle while running on thee treadmill? strained a muscle lifting weights?hjave no fear we're just up here!
as u can see im still doin the one-handed type.

it was an interesting trip. learnt a couple of things:
uno - it's not tendonitis! ir=t's a sprained ligament at the wrist....hmmm second ligament ive sprained - the other was 5 years ago - on my leg.

dos - i'm hyper-mobile (at least that's wat i heard him say) meaning that my joints are very flexible - which he demostrated by twisted my wrist like it was made of rubber. i kinda freaked. not becos it was painful, but becos it was being twisted at an angle i never thot possible - very scary i tell u 2 have yr hand manipulated like that.
this explains my constant sprained ankles and i think my weirdedout thumb (remind me 2 show u, in case u havent seen it yet - whoever u are - im a regular freak show! i can see it now...my name in not-so-bright lights - COME SEE THE AMAZING HYPER-MOBILE LADY! IF YER DUN KNO WAT WERE TAKLKIN ABT, ALL THE MORE YER SHOOLD COME N SEE!)

anyway, i got ultrasound treatment n heat treatment n a wrist brace to emphasize my injury - im hoping to get some extra sympathy here! (just kidding)

but i stil gotta go 2 werk. damn!


Sunday, August 24, 2003

hands down

i take my hadns for granted. almost everyone does. but not today, at least not for me.
i'm typing this as a simpletext doc, at work. wif only my left hand. why? its not some weird experiment but rather out of necessity -- my right wrist bloody hurts like hell wwhen i position it over the keyboard or the mouse.

so i'm one-handed today. that's why the lack of capital n the bad spelling. n graammar. too difficult to backspace. it's on the wrong side of the keyboard -- hard to reach.

today's maki's last day in singapore. (she's my sis' japanese friend, n i hope my friend too!)
i mentioned tht i'd like to vvisit japan soon n she's so enthused abt it. she asked last night when i'll be going n where i'd like to go. doubt that it'll be next year tho as i'll be heading to canada 4 sis graduation (imagine that! she's graduating so soon!) n hopefully do some travelling -- prince edward island to visit green gables perhapps! (did read somewhere that it's really popular with japanse tourists)

speaking of which, maki told us that she was not taught about what really went on during ww2. the whole japanese in singapore thing. she only found out here, in that exhibit in sentosa. surrender chambers i think it's called. which is sad, as that means many young japanese people dun really know what went on. so i'm glad she came n that she saw it.

anyway am amazed i've bothered 2 write all this. my hand needs a rest !

Friday, August 22, 2003

being creative for a change

found an old poem (can it actually be called it? well...it does rhyme....) that i wrote a couple of years ago. and posted on my rememory page. haven't visited that site for so long. everything looks remarkably tacky.

nyway, may i present :  "The Bus Seat Symphony"
Thursday 23 August, 2001

The Bus Seat Symphony

The bus seat beside me
It creaks to its own beat
To others a nuisance
To me a treat

It dances to its own tune
It sings a melody
To the ears of the eager listener
It sounds like Bohemian Rhapsody.

nothing much doing

haven't done much updating of my blog, unlike some people who are very good and update it with something interesting everyday!

news-wise, a lot of bad has been going on. viruses rampaging (computer viruses i mean), just subbed a story on israel threatening to missile strike palestinian leaders (!!!) - while i'm not on the side of the palestinians (the recent bus bombing killed 6 children) israel's methods aren't exactly likeable either. why is there so much rage, tension, frustration? i'm just glad i live in singapore.

oh yes, have also been thinking of what to get my dearest mumsy for her birthday. She's turning 50 soon!
we're gonna try a new restaurant - whitebait & kale - supposed to be aussie-style seafood place. at camden medical centre of all places. so, u know, we could just pop in for a lipo session and then head for some mussels and fish n chips after, how lurvely.

shall end my post with sthg i found on the bbc website (who would've thought!) on alternative film endings.

bbc online readers were invited to send in their suggestions and here are a few of the good ones (well at least i thought they were funny!)

Richard Dreyfuss' character in JAWS throws back the sheet in the autopsy room and says, "You were right, it WAS just a boating accident." Film ends.
John, US

I like this answer:

Men in Black - Will Smith can't be bothered chasing the guy at the beginning of the film and lets him run away. World gets destroyed a few days later.

Sliding Doors - she took the bus instead.

Lawrence of Arabia - gets posted to the Guildford Army recruitment centre instead of the Middle East. Doesn't quite have the same ring.

The Devil's Advocate - Keanu Reeves says no to the job and spares us his appalling acting 'talent'. Even better, the 'one' drowns in the Matrix after being ejected from his little glass box. Castaway - Madonna drowns...

J&A, Azerbaijan


In the first five minutes of 'Memento' - 'Don't you remember Sam, the butler did it'
Richard Hockey, UK


Sunday, August 17, 2003

weekend doings

had a rather packed weekend! on friday, had dinner with a couple of RGS friends at Ember, located at Hotel 1929, this funky new hotel in Keong Saik Road. apparently owned by a rich family and it's known for its branded furniture and ridiculously low rates. (well not ridiculously low, but for this kind of boutique hotel, pretty decent).

Ember is a fusion-type restaurant. Very popular from the looks of it. It was full, but the restaurant can probably only hold 30 odd people. But my friend had to make a reservation a week ahead, so that says something. (but probably doesn't say as much as the fact that she couldn't get a table at Buko Nero at all....not for the rest of august. same thing happend to me several months ago, i called early in the month but all the friday, saturday and sunday slots for that month were taken up!)

anyway, the food was great!

I started with a mushroom soup and my friend had a crabcake, somewhat asian-style.

And for the main course, a delicious chilean seabass which came with a delightful butter-fried array of fresh mushrooms (it was mushroom heaven that night!!). My dining companions (!) had: lamb loin, which came with spinach; and chicken which came with a mashed potato with a blood orange sauce (it looked pretty good but she mentioned that it tasted a bit like soap)

and speaking of soap, we had a pretty soapy dessert. it was a warm banana tart with lavendar ice-cream. tastes a whole lot better than it sounds, trust me. but a little soap-like!

we did also share a lemongrass martini. it sounded good, somewhat different and refreshing. we decided to give it a try and if it was as good as it sounds, to order one each.

but we were wrong!

the lemongrass part was great. all of us thought it was a nice refreshing taste, although a little sweet. but we were left wondering... where's the alcohol? you had to think about it a little and then would realise, that there is a hint of alcohol. whatever alcohol, i'm not sure. but i presume vodka.

a virgin martini??

we hung around in the restaurant until we were the last ones and started to feel a little bad at making the staff wait for us (they had already started setting the tables for tomoro)

verdict: definitely will go back again but have a feeling i'll give the set dinner a try. It sounds like a decent meal. 4 courses for 38++. my dinner came to about 40+

the next day (saturday) had bit of hi-tea at Raffles Hotel (empire cafe). where they sell local food at wince-worthy prices ($15.50 for chicken rice!!) so popped into ah teng's bakery for their $6 scone set (scone + jam and a coffee - in my case a cappucino...mmmm...)

the eating wasn't over yet! for dinner, headed over to east coast to have a yummy seafood time. we had:
fried baby squid (always a fave of mine! crispy, a little sweet)
scallops with veg
steamed prawns
crayfish with sambal - which seriously was not sambal. it was more like the gravy that comes with chilli crabs
chilli crabs of course!

its thanks to the presence of my sis' two friends (from japan and the netherlands) that we get to eat seafood... always seems to be reserved for visitors. but that's good as it's way too rich to be a regular meal. anyway, always leaves me craving for more. if i ate it too often, i'd definitely not enjoy it as much (and also be WAY TO FAT)

On Sunday, we made some mooncakes (snowskin kind) for the japanese friend to try.
for lunch, we headed to Lao Beijing (probably my fave chinese restaurant?) at Novena Square where we had to wait for about 25 minutes before getting a table.

ordered a set for four, which includes some tofu, san(1) bei(1) ji(1) - some chicken cooked in a claypot, guotie (chives version), xiao(3) long(2) bao(1) - which unfortunately didn't seem to be made too well that day, as they collapsed a little and some of the meat juice got wasted; popiah; dessert (aboling and redbean pancake)

but the day was still young and we attended the Ballet Under The Stars (which included a russian-style classical ballet, a modern dance called Stamping Ground and The Graduation Ball) and picnicked under a cloudy sky.

Thursday, August 14, 2003

blackout

there were some pretty big news this morning when i got into work.

a major blackout hit the northeastern us and canada, stranding people in subways, lifts, airports, hotels....

perhaps some kind of coincidence: my own house had a short power outage around midnight. think the switch for the water heater might have tripped the system.

here's a story about how the media covered the blackout from New York itself. from the New York Times of course

another piece of news somewhat closer to home: JI chief Hambali has been arrested. good news for everyone, i'm sure. of course except the ji members! it's a relief as he was one of the head honchos in that terror group.

Wednesday, August 13, 2003

musing on music

i never understand how people can work in silence.

that's just not for me. it's too weird. it's too quiet. which might be ironic as most people think of me that way - quiet

the best way to work, perhaps the only way i can work, is to
pop a cd in and play something good. it's almost an instinctive move, whenever i start up the mac at work or the pc at home, to run IE and then itunes or musicmatch jukebox.

sometimes i will sit at the pc just to listen to something.

i guess music is just a nice form of escape, the same as movies and books.

on that note, i watched a movie preview on tuesday, for a Disney family-friendly flick Freaky Friday.

hmm...was trying to put up my little review but this stupid mac doesn't have Word on it...pathetic.

and blogger isn't too mac friendly either. all the 'instant' html codes like bold, italic and hyperlink, all gone...i've gotta put them in meself.

perhaps my job does have some use!

just adding onto my note here about music. it's interesting how the albums i covet tend to be by bands that are made up of guys or by guys. why don't i listen to music by women? isn't that like the lilith fair thing?

well i used to. i did like sarah mc i have to confess. but that was before she exploded onto the airwaves and bored me to brain-death. i did or well i still do own several of her albums, mostly purchased via those 10 CDs for 1cent music membership things. wish we still had that...

i also own a beth orton, fiona apple, tori amos, dixie chicks, the corrs (well they sorta count, don't they? i mean who cares about the brother?), jewel (and this was way before she got played to death on radio ok!) diana krall (well didn't exactly purchase this, Joan gave me her extra copy) hmmm...that's all i can think of for now.

on the guys side: juanes, alejandro sanz, green day, soundgarden, lifehouse, lotsa pearl jam's, u2....

music and movement

ah....added to my spanish music collection with Alejandro Sanz's MTV unplugged. i'm afraid i had to succumb to the MTV empire's album becos it was the one with two of his best songs - Cuando Nadie Me Ve and Amiga Mia.

So now I have three (count em!) Two by my favourite Juanes and one by Sanz. Doesn't he have a great name?

happy.

but i would be so much happier if i could also have:
Andy Stochansky's Five Star Motel
Stereophonics' You Gotta Go There To Come Back and Just Enough Education to Perform
Pete Yorn's musicforthemorningafter
Audioslave's Audioslave
Eva Cassidy's Songbird

Tuesday, August 12, 2003

blog away

ooh more than one post in a day. how exciting.

i just wanted to talk about blogging. i've been looking at other people's blogs recently and noticed how different mine is to many (but i'm sure not all)

there are those which are fancy but i don't think whistles and bells are important in a blog.

what's important? content. muy importante

and what's lacking in mine? interesting content. content that would interest the casual browser.

i don't write about what i do each day, as if that would interest anyone.

it would probably look like this.

woke up at 445. changed, got ready to catch the bus.

had breakfast, lunch and then headed home. blah blah...


it would make an award-winning drama no?

i guess i could use a blog to discuss various issues, of importance to me. like the recent jakarta bombing, ji, singapore economy?

but heh...

no thanks

so what do i use this blog for?

simple:
- to air my views on various inane subjects
- to post some links that i've found while at work (skiving as usual) and think i'd make use of them in the future
- to write down some stuff i've thought of (sometimes i do get crazy thoughts too...)
- to relieve my boredom


rejection

i got my rejection letter from mediacorp radio today.

one small step for mediacorp, one giant stumble, fall, plummet for me. OUch

but i wasn't really expecting an offer. i had this feeling, when i entered the interview room, that they had already found their man (or in this case, woman). it seemed like they were talking to me merely because i was there, next in line, and they were abiding by the schedule, giving me some of the recommended talk time.

so it wasn't like a 'damnit damn them all to hell' reaction to the letter but rather a 'ah, alrighty then' one.

Saturday, August 09, 2003

ndp 2003

ah...yet another national day here in singapore. and what did i do? the same as every year.... stay at home and watch the parade on TV! (it's kinda like a family tradition which i recall only breaking once - when we actually went to the national stadium to watch the parade... courtesy of an aunt working in the civil service)

was it any different? well...same performers, similar songs (one new one though!) and the usual propaganda-laced messages.

in truth, it wouldn't have been that bad if they hadn't started chanting ONE PEOPLE ONE NATION ONE SINGAPORE so many times....

did catch Mr Goh's NDP speech yesterday. sorta expected it to be long but realised, ah...that's the national day rally, not the speech. this one was done ala the US President's State oF The Union Address, seated somewhere (the Istana?) and reading from the teleprompter. looking serious yet personable, to appeal to the television viewer.

but he said the expected. didn't learn anything new.

the most exciting news of the day (8 august) was that Ricky Martin had an orchid named after him! i suppose now anyone can claim that she deflowered Ricky Martin. (sorry couldn't help that....it was there for the picking)