The Opera Populaire

Found the CD for the musical "Aspects of Love" which I had been looking for the past 5 years. It holds sentimental value for me, having been part of the back up cast in my JC choir. Also encapsulates my memories of the most painful, yet transforming period of my life.

Been learning a lot of about the importance of timing. Ecclesiastes says that there is a right time for everything under the heaven. The prob is knowing when. And waiting for His timing, not yours. God ar, I know a thousand days is like one to you, but I dun have that much time. So pls answer my prayers as soon as possible. Hur hur.

A book fell out of the stack I was trying to recover and I kinda took it as a sign and bought it. God has interesting ways of answering prayers. Will read it over the next few days.

Azabu Sabo ice cream is very good! Was watching this video of the scenery at Hokkaido. Made me miss Japan very much. Japan is really beautiful, unlike Korea. Someday I wanna go back again. Love to try out different ice cream flavours, especially the inventive new ones out there. Wanted to try this place that sells cigarette smoke flavoured ice cream in Bangkok but I din have the address. Island Creamery has some very interesting flavours like teh tarik (Azabu Sabo has it too!).

Last week, someone I respect told me something: it is hard for your spiritual life to be at its optimum level when other aspects of your life is not doing well. I had never thought of it that way and in a sense it's a comforting thing because it is a reminder to stop being so hard on myself. Still... ah well. Other people have it worse.

Yesterday was a day that tried me to the maximum in terms of extreme emotional swing, comprising of extreme frustration to happiness.

A customer asked me something and I replied him.
Customer: "What's wrong with your voice?"
I said I just recovered from flu. And I have naturally husky voice.
Customer:"You smoke too much!"
Stunned. "No, I dun smoke!"
Customer:"You have a smoker's voice!"
Me:"..."
Customer:"You smell of nicotine!"
Me:"Huh??? No, I dun...." (Customer walked away)
Spoiled my mood for the day.

Thank God for another customer who called out my name to thank me and kinda skipped away. He reminded me of Dr. Dubois haha.

Next highlight of the day: doctor is letting me go 3 months without medication. Will check its effects in Jan and prayerfully all that's well ends well :) Ate my 1st seafood in more than a year....squid ink paella at Via Mar at Esplanade with the squad, just to treat myself for the good news. Dietary restrictions can wait till tomorrow.

I love the squad. Been MIAing for very long cos somehow they always have outings when I am away. But last night's turnout was very, very heartening. Huiying and Angela were there, whom I haven't seen in ages. All of us have changed, yet remain very much the same deep inside. We are watching Dim Sum Dollies, My Fair Lady and perhaps the Phantom of the Opera. Via Mar was a lovely Spanish restaurant and we oso went into Harry's Pub for a short while. Nice music but we sat too close to the stage for comfort.

Found out something frightening last week. Tried on my smallest (size 24) jeans when tidying up the cupboard just for fun to realise that it fits me perfectly now! The rest have been hanging on me loosely. *Gasp* But according to the weighing scale I only lost 1 kg. My galfrens have not been sympathetic.

Had a very interesting job interview last week. But sigh...will you accept a position because it appeals to your ego and not your passion? I admire the interviewer for what he is doing. This is the fairest interview I have ever been to.

Serves me right. Decided to throw all the doctors' warning against vigorous outdoor activities in view of the haze to the wind and went jogging this morning. Soon after breakfast, my nose started running and now it's alternately running and blocking. Throat not feeling so good, too. Over the counter medicine din work, so I'll have to see the doc tmr. Sigh. I recall that last year I had the exact same symptom and still had to stay back late in the office to finish some urgent work.

The church played some Bhangra songs for Deepavali and we tried to get the only Indian boy in our congregation, Bala, to dance for us! Supposed to visit his house after service but I went to meet up with Lao Da and Johan after that. The gals bang se me and I ended up the only one who dressed Bollywood-style with this top I wore for Kratoska class Racial Harmony day last time.

My dog is back home now. He will prolly live on for only another 6 months or a year, but I was glad to see that he was able to stand up and walk about now. He was quite responsive when I called his name and I even saw him licking his sister/ wife with TLC. Grandma was so concerned that she cooked special food to nourish him back to health and it does look like it is working.

I have always thought that there is a danger in trying to interpret how the other party is feeling through what his/ her blog says. Of course since most of us are struggling young adults with lesser time to keep in contact now, one way to find out how others are doing is still through their blogs. But the whole thing still comes at a price of misinterpretation and distancing of relationship. To me, there is nothing like face to face meeting or phone call or MSN at the very least to truly keep the essence of keeping in contact. Sigh. The side effect of so-called technology.

An exceedingly exhausting day. But thank God I was able to face it with His strength.

One of my dogs is dying. Felt extremely upset upon hearing that. Not that I take care of them a lot...that is a prob when something dun really belong to you; you just dun invest. There may come a time in your life when you are asked to choose between prolonging a life (which may produce more suffering anyway) or the easy way out. I dun agree with someone's words that she won't spend money for something to die or that it is not up to us to decide when to end a life. I am not saying this becos he happens to be a dog in this case. I just think that sometimes, decision for this sort of circumstances is truly on a case by case basis. Personally, if I were the ill party, I would rather ask my loved ones to pull the life support system or put me to sleep rather than continue to live on in pain. I do wonder though, what does he think? What would he tell us if he could speak? Is there really a dog heaven? Do dogs have souls in the first place?

Is it really unrealistic to find a job that combines my interests and practicality? I am an eternal idealist.

I like this section at our Thai restaurant at Siam Square so much! It's a table for mixing ingredients...filled with fresh veggie. The food was really good.
A canal beside Jim Thompson house.
Raine decided to take this pict of me. At Pratunam Market. Preferred Chatuchak, but no time to finish going through the whole place. Tha Bangkokians are getting more resistant to bargaining!!!

At the side of the street beside the Grand Palace and Temple of the Emerald Buddha.
One of the six traditional houses in the Jim Thompson house. A must-go in Bangkok!
Suvarnabhumi Airport on its first day of operation.
Using a baby elephant to earn money at the place we ate great tzi char. You are supposed to purchase the cucumbers they provide for you and feed him. Cute little creature!

Yesh! As the title shows, that's wat I'm feeling right now. Finally, finally, finally my internet connection is ok! After more than 1 month of trying to troubleshoot the prob, searching for a new laptop, basically running around, it is ok now!!!! I dun need to run around like a nomad in search of a PC anymore! My social and professional life is gonna be back to normal! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!

Another happy thing I forgot to blog about: I collected my contributor's copy of the Singapore Encyclopaedia last week :) Ooh...the ego has landed :p The publisher is at this shophouse...nice office. Had fun flipping through the book and finding out more about our tiny island. I never knew the history behind so many places and incidents! Oh, specially for dear Johan: they mentioned the Santa Catarina incident too! Brought back so much memories of A/P Borschberg's module that sem.

Feel like jogging but the haze has been pretty bad.

Had a wonderful Fri evening with some peeps from History. It has been about 1 year since the last drinking session at Dubliner's Irish Pub. This time round, the meeting took place at Blu Jazz at Arab Street. A really pretty place, especially the table we were sitting at, with a giant red lounging chair in the shape of a palm. Just sat there sipping our drinks and catching up on life. At times, the jazz live band would play, disrupting the conversation. The Japanese keyboard player spoke in funny English, but the band was not bad. Will post the pictures taken of the evening as soon as I get my internet connection fixed. Life is sad indeed without internet :p

Met up with Audrey before that. She got me this mug from Turkey, that lucky gal!!! I have always wanted to visit Turkey! We had a great time catching up and trading racist jokes we got from our brothers and frens.

On my way to meet the History peeps, had the strangest chance meeting. Bumped into Kelvin at the bus stop. He must have felt me staring at him cos he turned to see me too. We chatted a little before my bus came. He remarked that I had become more adventurous! Meeting ppl when it was already 9.30. Heh. Guess it is good that we are still frens.

Went to the new Cathay cinema to watch "Scoop" with Stephen. Enjoyed the movie a lot. The storyline was nothing much, but the dialogue was super funny! It has been some time since I watched a movie with such witty lines. And I simply loved the British accents and scenery! Brought back a lot of memories of my time in UK, which seemed so long ago.

但愿人长久，千里共婵娟。

Somehow the depth of this verse never hit me so hard as this year. Hope the folks have a happy Mid-Autumn fest back home and that boy in Aussie remembers and enjoy the celebration. Never developed a liking for mooncakes, but I do wanna try all those new flavours out there, esp the ice-cream ones :p

To all the peeps out there, happy Mid-Autumn fest!

Forgot to mention that I'll be temping at Borders starting next Mon. Do say hi if you happen to drop by, yeah! Still on the lookout for that coveted perm job...esp one that involves being a rich man's wife! Muahahahaha.

The gang in church had signed up for the Great Eastern Run on the 29th Oct and are training for it. Looks like some kinda fitness bug has hit everyone recently, including myself! It's sure strange when you thot you are the only one who has decided to get your fitness level back and suddenly you find out that everyone else is doing that! Anyway, I won't be joining the GER cos they signed up while I was away and erm...I'm not confident of doing 5K for now haha. Will be there as standby 1st aider hohoho.

Just had the most delicious pork's lard for lunch at Taman Jurong food court. Ok...not a dish by itself of course. It's mixed into some steamed fish. But super good, although very unhealthy of course.

Hmm...while I think that MM Lee's recent remarks on our neighbours' attitude towards their Chinese population was certainly straining to diplomatic relations, as an Indonesian Chinese, I can't help but think there is an element of truth in it.

I am grateful for certain developments there which is recognising the "Chinese" practices and way of life of some Indonesians like my Dad. We can now celebrate Chinese New Year, have easy access to Chinese publications and even listen to an excusively Chinese radio station and watch Chinese news on an Indonesian channel. The changes in citizenship laws meant that it is getting harder to discriminate things like employment based on your ethnicity because now, the Chinese Indonesians no longer carry identity cards that showed their ethnicity. Of course, it is too early to assess the impact of such changes. The last I heard, an unhappy pribumi policeman remarked that if he had had any say, he would have made sure the citizenship changes never got implemented. And I am pretty certain there are others who share similar sentiments. It is also still difficult for Indonesians of Chinese ancestry to enter into the civil service and the uniformed services.

Just had a disagreement with my fren, which is leaving me still feeling unhappy despite the fact that he had apologised for his harsh tone and words. I had also apologised for my lost of temper and curtness. Just dislike the feeling of quarrelling with anyone...it leaves me rather absent-minded and my whole body feels weighed down by the poison of sadness.

I know he meant well, but there are just some things I am pretty sensitive about these days. As some of my closer frens know, I am currently at a crossroad in life and I dun share my struggles easily with ordinary frens. We are not close, but I know he is a caring guy and he has shown concern for me as a fren in the past year. I appreciate the fact that he cares for me enough to bug me to find a job asap, even say harsh stuff for my own good. But I got pretty miffed and spoke curtly at a point becos he doesn't know the full picture and thinks of me as a xiao jie who only wanna have fun while others like him are struggling to support his family.

Perhaps he is right. I can afford to do what I want becos I dun have a debt on my shoulder, all my needs are taken care of etc. But all the same, I dun see anything wrong with having some idealism... with having that dream to find something really suitable for you. And about that job we were talking about, I did find out more about and to my dismay, I found out I couldn't qualify due to my medical condition and eyesight. Why won't you believe that I did make an effort to search?

Well, I dun need everyone to understand. As a matter of fact, those who do are few and far in between and I love and appreciate those individuals who care and encourage me on in their own little ways. I know that those who say harsh stuff means well, too. But it is pretty hard to be patient and accepting when you are already feeling low for most time.

But well...I am glad things are settled now and that I haven't lost a fren of 4 years.

The past week had been spent helping out at Tuas, where the family biz is located. As the place suggests, it is pretty far away from "civilisation", but things have been fine overall. Had nice time trying out different good food around the area and being able to have access to PC is a good thing!

Met up with my former colleagues on Thu night. So sad...how come ppl are clamouring to meet me becos they thot I am leaving soon....so if I tell you I'm staying here for good, you guys wouldn't be bothered to see me???? :p Anyway, we went to Marina Square. I must say that the renovation had done it good. There were some nice shops there, which we explored after dinner. I felt happy to see them again; laughed like I hadn't done for some time at Elaine's jokes like the different ways of pronouncing "pastrami" and when we went to Topshop and tried on the funny bedroom slippers (would anyone actually wear those??). Jean and Gracie are doing very well now...have put on the weight they lost and that glow on their faces. Glad for them!

Guess what....I have picked up smoking on Sat night. Smoking the Arabian water pipe or shishah (I have always thot it is called hookah cos that's wat Paulo Coelho called it in "The Alchemist"), that is! Heehee....pretty interesting experience at a cafe in Arab Street, where we lounged around on cushions with low tables and drank mint tea (very nice!). The shishah is apple-flavoured, and the whole experience was rather ordinary but for the exoticism of the surroundings. Din feel addictive or anything, but I may be wrong :p Only when paying the bill did my fren suddenly realised that he had exposed me to tobacco! *Ehem* I guess this effectively meant that my lifespan had just been cut down 5 min, my lungs are now filled with bits of tar and my fertility is probably reduced. Hahahaha :)

But anyway, that was the 1st time I had ever been to Arab Street. We never realised what a treasure throve it was. Saw these really pretty Arabian beaded slippers and a vintage kebaya which I shall consider getting for Nat's wedding if I am invited hee. Never knew that there was an Istana there, too! Sultan Mosque looks really impressive at night. The photos we took of it made it seem like we had been in Brunei or something. And we will be sure to visit the famous Zam Zam for murtabak soon. Since it is the Ramadhan, there was a pasar malam there. The other cafe my fren brought us to was oso really eclectic, filled with cute decorations which include a red chair in the shape of a palm. Got this craze for lamps, but I really have no place to put them sighz...