De one with Splashed Weekends

Downpour

All week long I have been looking forward to weekends. This is yet another sports week.

Was lucky enough to be invited to go for a swim and sunbathing with my "swimming instructoress". Haha. Yup, I recalled our free "swimming lessons" at Yio Chu Kang. It's highly unusual for me to embark on radical adventures without clause. If questioned now, I barely remember why or how was I intrigued to learn how to swim back then.

Long stories cut short. That's all in the past, what matters is now. Despite my deprived sleep the night before, I was astonished to find myself waking at 7+ in the morning. The tiny golden angel got Kylie and Nicky to sing and have me awake to be punctual. He even resorted to have the sprites orchestra to play a morning fanfare. Pity to see his bona fide efforts go to waste, for the opal imp had bribed exhaustion to have his troops poisoned my muscles. I swear I heard him chant in rejoice: Abortion of morning run plan is inevitable!"

Good triumphs over evil eventually. I woke up in a nifty, disseminated text messages and left for my appointment after grabbing all the essential stuff into my bag. Perhaps the angel reported to God, who in turn have Apollo ride his chariots of fire to keep the skies clear and the edifice sun shining its glory.

The swim wasn't that bad, in spite of the kids influx. School holidays, sigh. What else to do. But the crowd subsided coming close to 12 when my swimming buddy and I were in comfort benches, incubating ourselves like chicken fillet on the BBQ metal grill.

The sun retired some 2 hours later, figured it out frivolous to remain lying and decided to hit the pool again. Shortly after, we left for lunch! Lunch was a whole new experience. Gotta hand it to my extraordinarily flicker-minded this afternoon. What was decided on chicken rice changed to foodcourt where she had yong tau fu and I had beef noodles. Man, I reminisce my childhood sundays, having beef noodles with my family. Mummy would always organise such bonding-events.

Anyway, no time for weeping. We shopped for a cheap long-sleeve clothing and hang around the venue until Clara needed to buy weird stuff at Balestier.

It was a long long long dehydrating walk, trekking uphills and over. Only to arrive at a shop which had relocated some 500 metres away. No choice lor, gotta travel on bus 11: by foot. I got a running stomach, must be my dinner rumble yesterday. End up, we bought nothing. Sigh.

Remember my long-sleeve clothing? It was for the purpose of Sunday's activity - Paintball. Just by saying it, my eyes glow with excitement. My anticipation of permanent paint stains on the outfit and bruising stings from being shot didn't actually materialised. At the end of it, the unexpected superseded the expected. It rained, the fields were muddy, my jeans were stained by mud, not paint splashes. There wasn't much bruise except a smudge on left shoulder blade. Lucky star's shinning on me. But my finger had a slight cut. It's pretty tiring, running back and forth. Think I'm getting old. Haha.

We played three. Team won two out of three matches. I think I didn't have much to contribute. Lol. It was pretty chaotic, fast-ball and the rain only makes the game even more muffled and urgh.. the mask fogging due to the cool climate and our warm breathe. For what is worth, it's pretty stress relieving to fire off the unexpanded rounds. Finally comprehend why people love "Call of duty", "Counterstrike"; "Live shooting" at arcades, dota-gound and for the wealthy, rifle-range. Be warned, it's expensive. Haha.

Felt the need to purchase my Xmas gift and wrapper. Again, my initial plans kept changing course. I eradicated the traditional wrapping idea and tried something boldly contemporary. Got my grinning. Love it. Well, it's less than a month to the remarkable day when Jesus was borned. Have you started checking your Christmas shopping list already? 

De one with Dr. Jason

Clinic day

Since the departure of my senior for his exam leave, work place seemed to have magically transform itself into a clinic. There's not sexy or demure nurses. Just two patients. Who's on duty? That would have to be me, Dr. Jason.

Consultation hours commence half past eight. That's 30 minutes earlier than average clinics and medical centres. And guess what, the doctor's always there to provide personalised services, on-the-spot remedies to guarantee your functional efficiency to the maximum. And the best part, it's F.O.C from an non-economical perspective.

Dr. Jason's just amazing. His hands cure with miraculous wisdom-soaked writings, these in a language known as accounting and math. Choices of aromatic and music therapies are available through the cologne he offers and that tranquil voice. Did I forget his latest ability? Laser-eyes! The state-of-the-bio offers the patients sharp scanning and fair analysis your problems. It's unbelievable! It's jaw-dropping! It's!! Dr. Jason.

Of course, Adam Smith wouldn't stand for what Dr. Jason worded above! The founder of economist might just prosecute me for disregarding the opportunity cost of the deprived luxury of scheduling my work. Alas, its Walter Woon who stepped into the trial, shoving his notes of non-pecuniary losses I've incurred over my course of duty: Weariness; the Waterloo plague on thy brain cells colony; sleepless nights of the body.

What does Dr. Jason prescribe? Knowledge (I hope) and "solutions" obviously. 

De one with Super Curry Monday

Monday blues

Early morning I text my good friend since JC, "Qing, it's settlement date for overdue meet-up debts". Intended as a joke, this cranky lady replied seriously : "Ok, today! Any plans for today?"

After what seemed like decades, the two of us are as nostalgically crazy as before. We met up, laughed endlessly, and varied our chats within bandwidths of "serious", "not-so-serious" and "insanely senseless".

She brought me to Super Curry, a japanese curry rice restaurant with pretty nice ambiance, nested within the street Capitol shop-houses along Stamford Road. The initial seats (10 metres from the entrance) offered were less than expected. "Ask and it shall be given" indeed, I did and landed ourselves in the a comfortable, slouchy couch seats deeper into the restaurant. Perfect place for two crazy person to gossip over dinner.

Not really all about gossip la. After dinner, we practically held our glasses and slouched back against the cushy couch. My dinner companion shared her wedding photos, talked about a mishap during the photoshoot. I doled my work situation, CPA inspirations, tax matters and whole lot of humorous experiences with clients, subordinates.

At the end of our hour-ful conversational dinner, we staged a minor drama when we forced our cards towards the cashier. Every part was funny. We took a fair bit of time deciding which curry food to order. Initially I had curry stewed chicken with rice in mind. She wanted curry chicken katsu with rice. End up, we discarded our initial choice, I order what she had in mind. She changed her mind from ordering my initial contemplation and flicked her decision on noodles. Damn hilarious.

The most amusing part was, she bought me a belated birthday gift: ROYCE chocolate! Precisely the same thing my close friend gave me on the actual birthday! Hahaha! Uncanny indeed! Now great, I've to spend another month clearing this chunk of blessed gift! The week keeps getting more gelare since Clara's awfully chocolate cake. :S

Yet nonetheless touched. Two extremely busy persons, crazy as ever as we continued to travel into the milestones of friendship since the good old JC band days till approaching years.

Monday blues? Curry Qing and it's not anymore!

De one with Break Time

Have a break, without a Kitkat

Alot says I worked too much. When it comes to weekends, it's usually work or head outdoors to thrive the economy. Today, I finally shed my armor sewn with career responsibilities and finally took a break.

The iconic advertisement tagline might say "Have a break, Have a Kit Kat" (Kit Kat advertising, 1950s), today, well.. indeed there's a break alright, there isn't any chocolate bars involved. Sorry gals with sweet tooth and thoughts of me eating your chocolate bars. To compensate what's good's missing, there's long-distance run to and at MacRitche reservoir, a satisfied finishing prior to packing my bag swiftly, headed out to Expo for my race-kit collection.

Surprising to the kit-collectors, including myself, the process was alot faster than expected. Even in the evening! We were dining at the airport, discussed and concluded perhaps a justification to the primed collection had to do with the crowd who probably delayed their claims over the weekends. It's happening at Expo for goodness sake!

Dinner was delicious. There was salad, seafood, chunky fries and Earthquake ice-cream (our very first Trio expedition after two successful victory involving just Clara and me previously). I was thinking, man.. all my labour from the sports activities engaged earlier - the run, the swim were counter-acted.

Oh, I had fun exploring another side of the East today. The part Nth of Dong You Ji ("expedition to the East" in Mandarin) I'd term it. Took me awhile to locate the swimming complex. First was finding the locker. Damn cock. After depositing all my valuables and loading 20 cents into the coin slot of the locker, I closed the door and turned the key. It refused to barge. My first reaction was "Sh*t, I traveled so far just to land myself with a faulty locker". And then, I looked closely, ah! The remedy was staring in my face! It's 2 x 20 cents. Haha. Super unglam.

Next, a quick scan didn't reveal any tanning beds. For a moment the sappy disappointment took over. I thought, sigh, since I've paid for the entrance and here, why not make the best out of it. I swam a couple half-laps and tar-ta! The tanning benches are all on the second storey. Cool! But i didn't approach my desire spot immediately. Waited until the sun shown its magnificent self.

But I must say, the location of the benches were good. As though the architect was a fengshui master. It's strategically placed to enable the commuters to get un-interfered exposure to sunlight. Largely due to its elevated platform I figured.

Tonight, I announced the end of my "mozza stick" affair at TCC. Yes, I'm finally sick of it. Haha. But a bitter-salt decision with the food didn't spoil the night. We had fun playing "Saboteur" at the most unexpected Macdonalds at cinema (that brought back undesirable experience). Haha. It's good old times, the three of us all the way till 2ish a.m.

The perspiration, the laughter and time subsided but the joy and the tan-complexion remained. As we cabbed home and a sine cera prayer for a chum who was already at home, battling with influenza.

De one with Extravengaza Week

Crazy week

This week was the one I've been looking most forward to! Trust me, it's crazy. Monday wasn't that good. Suffered alittle pinched headache.

Tuesday, yesterday, was like consuming a smelly doufu. The initial part is repulsive to the taste bud and pungent to the nose but it turn out someone'd kicked the bucket of magic dust off the clouds, it precipitated to end the day fine eventually.

Unpleasant story are better cut short. My Dolce shoes got drenched in the rain, I searched high and low Parco Bugis for a cake that was fit for vegetarian consumption. Boy, that's the ultimate silliest thing I've inquired with the cake-retailers. Instructions given wasn't reasonable. Try making out whether the eggs used in making the cake was kampong chicken or daily farmer's egg. Sigh.  Elementarily, how can a cake be without egg or milk?

To top things, instructions weren't ever clear. I felt being twirled around the instructor's finger, who was highly uncertained. Only when I finally arrived at the restaurant did the rest tell me the birthday guy is fine with just any cake. I was pissed, I wouldn't deny after all that folly you guys put me through but yea, what's a birthday without a cake. Hasty feet got me out of the restaurant, out in the cold weather to grab a cake.

Dinner wasn't good at all. Japanese cuisine. I'd say nothing japanese about it except a table-full of dough and artificial flavouring? At the end, what's the point of being negative. What goes around, comes around. It's only courteous to spend birthday according to the person's wish. It is precisely owing to this I didn't hold a grudge on the cake issue.

Aww.. I got myself out of the sticky situation and rushed down to Ion to collect the awfully chocolatey cake for my good and bestest friend on her *sensored* birthday. Haa! You bet, it's awfully affordable, awfully wrong and awfully wasted. I got the smallest size they could offer - a 1kg for 6 eaters. Individual portion became larger since there was five of us at KTV-ing at Katong. Perhaps they ate too much ramen for dinner, some couldn't finish the cake, nevermind. Still complain wanna puke. Urgh, for a moment I felt unappreciated lor.. *shrugs* I'm at the mercy of a birthday participant rules. I think rule number one is: Never ruin another birthday party.

Thankfully, the KTV session was better than expected. Discovered I was pretty good with reading certain mandarin lyrics with less difficulty than I expected it to be. Not to mention, singing songs which I'm only familiar with its tune. The night was too young to head home, had a chillout session and breakfast at the airport. 24 hours awake. It's just great.   

Learning new things, be it out of good or bad originating reasons, circumstances and outcomes, enriches our lives. I had my fair bit of learning today. Learning only gets better, so does my satisfaction and conviction that my life is closer to living to its fullest. Cheers.

De one with Change of Ends

Rain, winds and change

=)

It's as though the rain had come and washed all the gloominess away. When you look into the skies, the glistering rain drops reflecting the soft evening glow. Not faraway behind, the grey clouds are no longer in view. It has been replaced with clear skies, white shades of cotton-bud looking patches, the spectacular rainbow arched cross the tranquil reservoir view before me.

Weekend didn't seemed as bad as I expected it on Thursday. I stopped myself from going back to work over the weekends. Slept till 8:45, 9ish, my body's refreshed (though skin's peeling gradually from last week's tan). I did nothing but rest, do jogging, be sun-kissed if possible, else, just blog (haha, be thankful because on these days did I get to blog), draw alittle, update my song list for the forthcoming KTV session if there is. Leisure... finally.

Did I forget to mention there was wine? Haha. Yup, my lips touched wine again after a month.

What is weekend without going out? Met Zhen Ze, Guang Hui and Xue Yun out for a get together. I turned up late. But it was alright, four future accountants. Maybe three and another inspiring future financial analyst, chatted about our prospect. Birds of the feather do flock together. We ended pretty early, plus the restaurant was packed, so we left our seats for the nearby Coffee Club for catching up over coffee. We shared quite a bit, about our graduation trip, convocation, current work situation.

Meeting with these uni pals are joy. Never fails to learn in our chat. Ze's the expert in excel, he shared about Spain, his Europe trip, voucher-offering website. Guang Hui pointed out the bad message some credit card ads was portraying, shared about Paranormal movie, and his new work experience with his assistant manager, "AM". With Xue Yun, it feels more comfortable taking. I recall I was pretty quiet in her presence in campus. It was just great!
 
After short hours, I had to leave. My good friend happened to be in town with her friends, Twinkle, and SJ. I felt so proud of myself la, frequency of traveling in public transport shot up particular over the past week. My brisked arrival have us meeting at Maritus and when to one of our normal where-to-go-when-we-are-out-of-ideas TCC. I explained my set of problems for the week, it was like a trouble spring-cleaning over our stroll along town.

Oh alrighty, she cut her fringe. Look kinda amusing la. Not in a terrible-comic but a novice kinda candid feeling since I'm seeing it for the first time. I laughed. But I gotta admit, the new "Chinadoll" look, it takes alittle getting used to. Faint, my close friend who never fail to shock, amaze and entertain me with her varying hairstyles.

I thought it was gonna be another long, boring night. Turns out we had a fun time, we were opening criticising each other. My actions embarrasses her. She kept flaunting behaviors which kept me saying sexist remarks. What prevent us was strangling each other's neck and her fork (for the Mozza sticks) from landing into my eye were the crowd. Lol. But there was alot of laughter, it feels like our 8 year friendship still got it!

I can't help thinking about next week's events, forthcoming paintball (wooohoo, most dreamed of) and our approaching Xmas eve special!

So, the weekends. Lovely text messages, heart-lifting accompany and half bottle of Shiraz, what a little piece of heaven!

De one with The Opposites

Confession of the multi-personalities

Dissociative identity disorder or multiple personalities didn't surface to make known of its existence until I caught a series of Ally Mcbeal with a character with such extraordinary condition. Amazing and frightening at the same time, this psychiatric diagnosis is both a curse and a blessing, depending on different perspectives.

Without prejudice or intent to mean any offense to concerned readers, I often taunt my friends with self-imposed "split personalities". This, very much born from my desires for a twin brother, was the next best alternative to feel like I have an actual twin. Both within myself. It was a brilliant idea. But I've gotta admit, it's an excuse for me to buy things without guilt. Haha. Bet my pals must be grinning coz they are pretty convinced their judgement or suspicion were accurate. 

Now holding on to your knowledge of multiple personalities, conjure your impression of someone who acts differently inside and outside of his skin. Of course! Besides the deliriously obvious fact that any child would notice: one is involuntary, another is out of our freewill and control, wouldn't you agree with me on their similarity of surface behavioral differences? If it doesn't, you just gotta screw that thinking bulb alittle deeper into your IQ socket.. If it doesn't work, try the alternative indicating "EQ". Haha

Screw in your bulb and prepare to blow the tungsten filament (figures of speech). *fanning away the smoke in the air* Well, what I'm trying to say, thinking less complicatedly, its a thin line between adopting multiple personalities and being hypocritical. Yes, indeed. Before this gets any further ambiguous, the former means changing the way we react to the appropriate environment and circumstances. Simply because of unspoken requirements to be socially demure. Yes, you could bring morale in here. What is morally right to behave.

The latter, on the other hand, exceed the normal expected reactions or going overboard for selfish gains or avoidance of discredit to ourselves.

But what about others who doesn't know how to distinct the two and live life eccentrically between the earlier mentioned?

As much as I'm not a qualified psychiatrist, I believe it's sad but dangerous. A heart-gripping sin (not in a condemnation manner) but undesirable indulgence we tend to slip into without realising, everytime we are landed in hot soup or the apprehension of the current mistakes we made. 100% natural reaction to repulse whatever faults that's gonna impact us.

There's a Hokkien saying "Diam gou gah si liang" which literally translate into "the bite of a quiet dog is the fatal". The masses couldn't agree more because we are afraid what quiet people are capable of when their tolerance is overwhelmed. One of the principal sinister masters are those who mastermind without voice. Owing to this, we are unable to discover them nor evaluate the degree of damage of their plots. Ok, perhaps my descriptions are alittle overrated. Let's just say those people who appear smiling could have done so with an agenda or sorrows beyond any imaged.

Personally, I dislike hyprocrites. Don't wanna turn into one either. Telling a white lie is fine but let's leave the overboardness at church or temples. But there are times I act otherwise to protect our pride, people we care for.

Like at work, we priorities and scrap off any emotional intonations while we take to client and fellow colleagues. At home, we learnt about about respecting each other. With friends, we need to be over-sensitive, careful not to offend, taunt or give others the wrong ideas. Eventually, it's a tough balance and true enough, wouldn't you agree the distinction between hypocrisy and social etiquette is blurred?

This is when people raise the guidance from religions. Notwithstanding Dan Brown's fictions on religion, by at large, people strongly believe the ultimate goal of religion is to uphold righteousness and goodness. Hmm, pardon my generalisation. I won't ellborate further into what the true lessons of religion are but ya, I mean, real as it is, no religion would teach you to be bad. The more tolerable mark would be repentance which eventually requires one who have did bad to turn around from continuing his mistakes.

So what happens after knowing the opposites in behavior? I normally take a breath. Reset my thoughts before looking at the issue with fresh mind. Wouldn't deny there are times when I do regret. And nope, it doesn't have to be the case where I make it a point to repent every mistakes I've made. Instead, the correct course of behavior should be cultivated naturally.

They say, the older we get, the less stress, hence a milder temper. Most of us submit to our slowing bodies movements and present ourselves with more time to process things. Of course, it doesn't mean we are aging if similar long period of thoughts prevails now. What I'm trying to drive here is anxiety is something that can be resolved. I constantly remind myself "there's always a time for everything" Patience and open-mindedness, two virtues difficult to craft, are one of the most efficient and effective key to curb our anxiety too. Especially in a fast-paced and rather cynical world we are surviving in.
 

De one with Ally Thine

Night and rain outside

With dragging sigh, the sparks flaked sides
What's left are fragments of tears in tides.
See the ornaments shimmered in moody lune-light,
Till the come of curtain rains unite.

The silver boy had left some precious like crescent dime
Short periods before taking to blacken sea dive.
Thy blurry gazes longly t'ward smear of lights
Departing faraway borders that glowed with pride.

Thy hands are tied, my lips are dried.
Struggle tonnes hard and futile fights.
Thy worry concerns thee never sight
Faint desires stranded to trapped kites.

Had only the thoughts of wind conjure to thee
Regard not thine painful stride.
For yearned fonder lodes of impassive joy,
In matters of hours' waits and courage strikes.

Fear not thy child of uncertain prays
I'd wished thy mum's calm nurture-guide.
Smile without gloominess thy child of right
I'd wished thy dad's nice console-vise.

Had only time wizards or top divines
Grant thee thy arch of heavenly ties.
With wits and willingness for daring heights
Nods and kisses thy clasps to binds.

De one with Di(sappoint)party

Trio out on Friday

Suspect its my over-sensitivity that's playing tricks on my mind. Keep having this commotion doubts  dwelling on why everyone's behaving weird and allowing this atmosphere of awkwardness while taking me out. I was like "zhi high" (slang for self-enthusiastic in Mandarin) in attempts to dissolve the throat-swallowing moment. I bet I activated all that's left of  my bubbly cells to dissuade any unhealthy thoughts to create conversation amongst the ghostly souls around me. Ha!

What was initially planned didn't materialise. Fortunately for what is worth, my dear friends took me out for a decent dinner, an adorable movie and a pretty intensified coffee chillout session. The meal was fresh experience. Dinning at a place I've never been to. It's Chinese-Taiwanese food. Sounds yummy?

Captured the movie Megamind in 3D. At least the good thing was despite the visor's incapability of delivering sharp 3D effect, it felt light on my nose. I recalled a poor experience with the heavy visor while watching UP in 3D. For as long as I remembered, it kept slipping off the bridge of my nose repeatedly.

Besides the glasses that was good, another point worth mentioning was having noticed the plots of Dreamworks' recent animated movies had became more sophisticated! The characters are getting more witty. The languages are no longer just vocalised as simple as black and white lines, ie to say, scripts are contains a handful of hidden meanings. Maybe that's what's nurturing present youths to become more mind-stimulating and in turn, more intelligent?

Coffee at TCC. I fell in love with their Mozza sticks. Deep in the pits of my heart where the health-conscience lives knows this dish is a sin-inducer. Pretty sad thing? Desire triumphs the odds with present steps into the terrific comfy-cosy (TCC) cafe. To spice the melancholy away, I  tried a different drink too. Azuki coffee. Hmm... *takes a deep breath* perhaps it's the pre-Christmas festive anticipation, it seemed fine to taste alittle of chocolate.

So ya, this was how deepavali was "celebrated". Slight disappointingly. Yet, not really entirely.

De one with Fallen Ill

Illed

Never occur to me those scallops were either bad or my stomach was incapable of dealing with them. My lunch partners seemed fine and healthy after the meal. Unfortunately, the World War Xth manifested in my stomach and man.. the enzymes troops and hydrochloric team had raised the white flag.

Not only did it ruin my weekly run, it cause other damages like causing me to curl up in bed, feeling all nauseous with an unbearable half-aching, half-rumbling stomach. I must say, this discomfort second to the daunting effects of stomach flu. Both are equally bugging.

I said, this can't be it, I can't waste myself in bed. Since I need to lie down and rest, I'd might as well do it while sunbathing under the bright and sunny weather which was too good to be missed.

Suntan? Ticked. The second part to the tragedy of ill: effects from medication. What had been prescribed was to slow digestion. Supposedly a good thing since it stops the excretion. Bad side? It's too effective. I end up feeling so blotted after frequent hydration after the sunbath. I swear I could feel the liquid leveling itself within the rib-cage guarded "pouch", as though a few styrofoam had been stuffed herein earlier. Urgh. I dislike this sucky unwellness.  =X