Night and Day

0916hrs..
"You only live twice or so it seems, 
One life for yourself and one for your dreams. 
You drift through the years and life seems tame, 
Till one dream appears and love is its name. 
And love is a stranger who'll beckon you on, 
Don't think of the danger or the stranger is gone. 
This dream is for you, so pay the price. 
Make one dream come true, you only live twice."


                                                              - Nancy sinatra

1655hrs..
Many times I have met couples who are on their honeymoon holidays, and when you talk to them, you sense their excitement and hopes on the new life that they are going to embark on together. Then there are the old couples who are on their retirement holiday or taking a trip to see their children.

There was this semi retired couple I met on my first flight to London. They were going on one of their many retirement trips, and they were starting their Eurotrip in London then a cruise to Greece and Spain. The wife told me their children will take turns to pay for their holidays, while the husband excitedly took out his phone to show me pictures of their latest grandson. And I think, life is good for them.

On today's flight back from London (for the second time), I was assisting an old lady with her bags, and as I was going to put it in the overhead compartment, she told me that it is heavy and to get some help from the guys. But it wasn't that heavy and I told her I can manage. To which she said,

"You know, sometimes we do need a guy. I have been married for 55 years, and when my husband passed away, I told myself, I don't need a man. I can do everything myself. But as the days go by, you realised that there are all the little things that the men do that makes a difference to your life."

I guess it's the time of the month when my emotions are in overdrive, when she got to the part her husband passed away, I started tearing in my eyes and by the time she finished her piece she saw that my eyes were red, and she too started getting emotional and lamented about " all the trouble and confusion this old lady had to go through at the airport, just to go see my children and grandchildren in Australia. Why can't we all be in the same place together?"

Turns out she hasn't seen them in 3 years and I guess she's both excited and sad that she has to take 2 long flights once in a few years just to see them. I really do feel for this old lady. First the heartbreak of her dead husband, then the loneliness and void in her life that she tries to fill by attempting to see her children who are halfway across the world. And yet she's still so strong and determined.

I see these people, and I wonder if my life could be as good as theirs, or that I will survive if mine turns out to be like this. Will it one day be my turn?

0347hrs..
It's been one and a half months with the choo choo shoe. I still can't really tell if I like it yet, though being out station is always a new experience.

There's always a lot of adapting to be done on every single flight. The work environment and people are all fluid, things done or seemed this way on one day may be entirely different on another. And I'm slowly learning to just take things as they come and try to be as positive about it as possible. So far so good.

Being in a new country is exciting, I'll always prefer exploring on my own than with strangers. But it also feels very very different from being on a holiday. I guess it boils down to the people I've for company. In Amsterdam, it was much more fun and memorable because I'd a real friend with me. Other times, hanging out with colleagues will just be an extension of work place civility and bleah bleahs.

Though there's been an exception in Joburg, where there were two other colleagues whose company I really enjoyed and felt comfortable with.

Other than that it is nice having time to myself in a new place and really just to see and taste the other parts of the world.

Having said that, I feel that I also appreciate/hate Singapore a little more. The crowd everywhere has never pissed me off so much before until now. Yet it is also nice that the humid air doesn't suck the life out of my skin, hawker food is awesome and it is always nice having the company of friends and the peace of home.

0022hrs..
Now that I am on a break, I have been clearing stuff in the house. I threw away so many pairs of shoes, it seems sinful. But I also found many things that have been with me for the longest time.

Cross stitch from 11 years old. I was so slow at it that I passed it to my cousin to complete it for me.

My stamp collection! haha in those days, people collected stamps and stickers.  An early sign that I am a hoarder.

Very first pair of glasses, from 12 years ago. No idea why I didn't throw it away.

An entire folder of diskettes!! DISKETTES. With memory space of 1.44 MB.  How did people do any real work 10 years ago. Probably can't even save more than 2 essays in these things.

I remember going to the Singapore River to watch the duck race with my dad and brother.  Every year I held the hope that my duck will win so I can become a millionaire.

Tamagotchi and Digimon. Hello, coolest pets of the universe. haha

My hot dog backpack from kindergarten!  I had a hamburger sling bag as well, but I am not sure where that is now.

Wild Life Bead Set. With an elephant, no doubt.

I think this is a wooden chopping board from Australia. This was around for the longest time. It used to stand on the window sill in my old house, and every time it rained, we had to close that side of the window so that it will not get wet.

Animal stationery set from kindergarten. It's so cute that I never used it. The elephant is a paper clip holder, the lion is a scotch tape dispenser, the koala is an eraser, the bear is a pair of scissors, and the giraffe is a pen and a ruler.

1030hrs..
Hi! I am at work!

It's still the quiet period of Saturday morning, and as I was reading the headlines, I have came to the conclusion that the Swiss has got some weird thought processes going on there.

Headline No. 1: 

1751hrs..

0049hrs..

0223hrs..

2214hrs..
These are from the BBC webpage; practical poems that are actually of some use.

Conversion of temperature:
If centigrade confuses you, as very well it might, nine fifths of c plus 32, will give you Farenheit.

Boiling eggs:
To make your egg go hard inside
Just take heed of the following guide
Make your water hot and frothy
then drop your egg in very softly
Add some salt into your pan
just in case some cracks happen
If you want your egg all hard inside
10 minutes boil should be just fine.
If you like your yolk all soft and runny
3 minutes time is on the money.

Police caution, all tt you reserve the right to remain silent, blah blah blah:
Be quiet?
Omissions may haunt you
Speak?
Admissions may damn you

How to change a plug... in verse.


Specism. After watching Earthlings, I am very certain we are all going to hell.

1743hrs..
This week Zimbabwe released the new $100 Trillion note (12 zeros), which is worth only SGD50. I can't even buy my textbook with tt amount of money. And stupid TIME MAGAZINE put up another picture of Obama on their cover page AGAIN!! It's like the 7th time in less than half a year. I open my magazine wrapper and chances are I'll see Obama. Whats wrong with them, no money to pay photographers to take other pictures? I swear, I will throw up if I see another picture of him.

1708hrs..
PLAY AND MAKE GOOD CHEER, FOR CHRISTMAS COMES BUT ONCE A YEAR.

And I am glad. Its strange how I get so excited before Christmas and when its here, its such a disappointment. like I spent today doing nothing. There's nothing to watch on TV either! stupid Ch 5.

I think I was excited probably because of all the baking and post Christmas sales.

I like the elephant cookie cutters I bought recently. And I like putting lots of bling on them.

I hope you guys didn't find the gingerbread cookies too hard to swallow.

Anyway, wanna see my teeth?? I went to the dentist yesterday to get an x-ray done.
He says one of my wisdom tooth (on the left of this pic) is unusually big, thus giving me those gum problems. So I got to take it out. The x-ray machine was quite funny tho. It had its own female robotic voice that says, " We are starting the x-ray now, please close your eyes.", then after some robotic sounds for 2 minutes, "Ok, we are done scanning, you can open your eyes." Of course in a totally robotic voice. like those Neoprint machines.

Oh oh, I just read that if you act out your dreams while sleeping, like kicking, punching, crying out, it could be an early warning sign of brain disease like dementia or Parkinson's.

The neurologists found out that people with brain disease are able to move their muscles while dreaming, but in normal people, during REM sleep (rapid eye movement, a period of sleep in your sleep cycle), our muscles are suppose totally relaxed and they do not move.

Anyway, its a rather lengthy article with lots of other details, but its interesting, you can read it here if you want to. The bottom line of it is that sleep disorders, like those I've mentioned are warning signs of developing brain degeneration diseases later on in life. =(

1133hrs..
I love this song. Its Rachael Yamagata's Elephant. haha because its nice and because I like elephants.


Watching her video makes me realise how much she has aged. Look at her face! All saggy and haggard. She looks like she aged 10 years since I saw her at the Esplanade last year.



That's what smoking does to you.

But I still like her songs.

Anyway, Obama is such a gentleman! Click and watch him get out of the car and close the door for his wife. It's a video of him meeting Bushy for the first time.

1144hrs..

0106hrs..
I am suddenly overwhelmed by this desire to go back to sch days. As in days when I was still wearing a uniform.

Today I had to go back to sch for a project meeting. It is (was) a Sunday btw. and it totally sucks that my weekend is gone now. I didn't even do ANYTHING at all this weekend. Its so sad that nobody even cares.

Anyway, back to my point about my project. Its a presentation on why girls want to grow up faster. Like why young girls always prefer to appear and behave older then they are. We found that their ideal age is average 18.

My group mate asked me today what my ideal age is. And I said 20, which is like my current age. But now thinking about it, I feel that the ideal age is to be 18. I just miss those days when I was still 18, when all my friends were still 18.

There was never the question of, "What are you going to do after you graduate?". It was always like, "How are u going to kill all that time you have during the hols?" There won't be anymore hols. But well, either way, the answer is always, "I dunno."

I do miss being 18. I miss all the things i did when i was 18. I miss the routine life i had. The certainty and knowledge that tmr morning i will wake up and everything will be just like the day before.

When i was 18 I prob hated such a life. I remember complaining about doing the same things day in and out. Wake up, study, train, go home, study, watch tv, sleep. repeat. So ironic that now it actually seem rather appealing.

And life at 20 is suppose to be considered like the peak of our youth??? Yet I feel like I am wasting my life away.

She's got a new haircut. It looks like moss on stone, yet she still managed to pull it off. And that's Cruz trying to be the dark knight. Cute, but I would never allow my kid to go out in any ridiculous looking costume, unless its Halloween. Who does he think he is, Bruce Wayne? And she is totally using her son as an accessory, look at the colour combi. haha

Then again, I won't be having any children. The child birth video I watched in Laura's lecture was traumatizing enough, I can't imagine the real thing.

Anyway, I recently found out that German actually sounds like Yiddish. Its a Jewish language. But its written in Hebrew. Like for example, "What is your name" in German is "Wie heiβt du", and in Yiddish, its "Vi heystu". And "How old are you" is "Wie alt bist du" in German and "Vi alt bistu" in Yiddish!

Like how ironic right. Imagine during Hitler's time, and all the Jews probably thought if they speak their Yiddish, the Germans wouldn't understand what they are saying, when in fact they probably did, which could possibly have led to many of them getting captured earlier than if they had just kept quiet.

But the language originated from the German mountains, so I dunno.

I lost track of my thoughts.

1817hrs..
are possibly the only ones in this world who whip out their cameras upon hearing fighter planes fly by their houses.

1908hrs..

1151hrs..
I made these for my colleagues this week. Oreo Cheesecake, and Meringue Kisses. Both super easy recipes.

And I absolutely hate to fall.

1026hrs..

Wish
If Wisdom were any wiser,
I would have asked her this.
To make my choice easier,
when I ask for a wish.

What would I ask for if I had,
the chance to get anything?
More love around the world perhaps,
or to fly, to dance, or to sing.

But perhaps just this time around,
I figured, ask not too much.
You see, I am a simple person,
content with simple things as such:

If tears were my currency,
then I would ask not to spend.
I would keep them in my pocket,
and save them for my friends.

So perhaps these words are my wish,
that you will always know,
though my loves have come and gone,
my friends will never go.