Love aircraft visits

(Sorry I'm just gonna babble. It's been a long, long day...)

Because this is the only time I get to be on the tarmac in Changi Airport (there are a handful of airports in the world that I have to be on the tarmac due to various reasons - such as Male airport which has no facilities for aerobridges).

Seeing the aircrafts parked side to side is so beautiful. Especially the aircrafts of the airline I work for. All big and well-maintained. I was there today for a visit to an A330 as part of my training. I was going down the stairs from the aircraft to the tarmac when one A330 taxied in and was about to park at its bay. It was really a sight to behold, being so close to the moving aircraft.

I remember once when I was at Male, I was so close to the runway when I stepped out of the aircraft that I wondered if it's even legal. Just when I got off the stairs, I heard this loud roaring of engines - the unmistakable sound of an aircraft taking off. I turned around to see a wide-body Sri Lankan Airways plane going at full-speed for take off. And then it took off. Right in front of me, without any glass barrier. That feeling will be etched in my memory for ever.

Another time in Paris - also a station where we don't clear through the airport terminal, we just get straight off at the tarmac - I saw an aircraft come in for landing. The runway was about 1 km away, but it was still an awesome sight. And all around me were aircrafts taxiing to their bays/runways.

However, being on the tarmac Changi Airport is always special. First of all, you get a sense of uniformity because the majority of the aircraft there belongs to a certain airline and so the livery that you see as you past every aircraft is the same. The aircrafts of this particular airline also has its paintwork maintained so well that they all look new. This afternoon I also saw a Far East airline aircraft come in for parking and its paint was old, making the plane look old and worn. I'd have no pride if I were the crew for that airline.

And because the aircrafts of that airline that calls Changi Airport home are all big aircrafts, you don't have smaller A310s or B737s to suddenly spoil the view as you past the aircrafts one by one. In Europe and America, there are plenty of smaller aircrafts that they use for intercontinental travel. I'm sure Changi Airport has its fairshare of small aircrafts but I probably missed them because I was at the tarmac of Terminal 3 (and a small part of T2). I hardly think Changi Airport will let these small planes use T3.

Honestly, you can't appreciate the airplane's beauty just by looking at it from behind the glass at the holding gate. It's a totally different experience when you're at the tarmac. I always feel a sense of pride when I pass a whole row of my airline's planes. Such magnificent beauties!!

Maybe next time I'll get the job of that person who waves the light stick to guide the aircrafts...




P/S: Can someone with spare invitations invite me on Google Wave? PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!!!!! I wanna be part of the revolution!

I hate loose perfume caps

1. Cab-ban my ass.

2. I stained my leather handbag!! the very one that is the highest maintenance of all! =((( The cap of my bottle of perfume came off and then the perfume leaked and created a stain as big as a 10sen/20 Singapore cent coin. FML.

3. Came back to see my friends getting annoyed at each other over email.

Now I'm really annoyed. ESPECIALLY BECAUSE OF #2!

The tragedy that is holding a 9-5 job

Until the end of this week, I have to work from 9to5. Well, actually it's 8.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m.

I HATE IT because:
1. I had been having fun this last two days hanging out at Orchard Road while most people are stuck in office. This means the malls were less crowded. And I can't continue to do that tomorrow, the day after and the day after the day after!
2. I have to squeeze on buses and trains with the rest of the 9to5 crowd/get stuck in heavy traffic.
3. I have to wear formal working attire.
4. formal working clothes need to be ironed.
5. I have to queue with the 9to5 crowd to buy dinner near my place.
6. there's always a panic that the bus will not come on time and then I have to take the cab.
7. I always battle with myself if I should just take the cab instead. I usually end up taking the cab, but I spent too much money on cabs last weekend so I'm on a cab-ban.
8. my bus queue at the bus interchange faces the scorching setting sun, baking me as I wait for the slow coach to arrive.

----------------------

"You put his brain in a bird, the bird would fly backward." - Rosaleen describing her carousal husband in The Secret Life of Bees.

There's civilisation in BP, alrite!

When a group of Caucasian youth came to Batu Pahat for a church event, they admitted that they thought we lived in trees. This was back in 1999?

When people ask where I'm from, I will say Johor simply.
The most common response: "Oh, JB. Nearby lah."
I would have to correct them, "No, not JB. Batu Pahat, Johor."
Quite a common response from them: "Oh, where's that.... never heard of that place."
Which is why in the first place I just said Johor because even if I mentioned BP, they wouldn't have heard of it.
Surprisingly, many have heard of BP - and for some who have they'd proceed with the question about the big fish.

For those who have not heard of BP, I'm sure the picture of a nice serene village with houses on stilts spaced out 1 km from each other conjures to mind. Each of these houses probably have monkeys chained to coconut trees in the compound of the houses, released only when we need the monkeys to pluck coconuts for its owners.

And the most bizarre idea of all? - a "wildlife project". ...............................


To all BPians reading this, I feel your pain too.

DG Gang

The Gayness scale just exploded.

Larry King's successor

Ryan Seacrest is the favoured one but he might be a little too expensive.

Maybe he isn't after the money?

Kids are outtawhack

Kids these days.

I just saw a video of 16-year-old Derrion Albert getting pummeled to death with wooden planks. It was a gang attack and there were many other school kids screaming away, obviously very afraid but don't know what to do.
I couldn't bring myself to finish the video.
It is pretty rough.

The video is available on Youtube and I don't think it will be taken down soon because police are now using the video to get people to identify those who took part in the beating.

Barely surviving

I'm freaking tired.

Last night was the third consecutive night that I hadn't slept enough - and I haven't even replaced the sleep I lost working back from Milan.

In fact I don't know if I even slept last night. I had a feeling I wasn't the only one in my hotel room last night. I had dreams, but I don't know if they were dreams or if they were real... I really don't know anymore.

I tried to brush the whole thing off, until my colleague showed me three sets of three blue-blacks on her left leg. Yes, 9 bruises in one night, out of nowhere. She said it happened in the night. When I asked her to elaborate, she refused. She finds it too spooky to talk about it in the hotel (she was showing the bruises to me in the hotel lobby).

Damn, even after changing hotels it's still like that. I'm never doing a Jakarta night stop ever again.


Note: I've never had any strange encounters like this before. In fact, in some hotels which they claim to be 'dirty', I've never had problems before. I always sleep like a log because I'm usually too tired. But no matter how tired I was last night, I was kept awake and cold the whole night. :(

Not just yours, it's everybody's

This hit song by Jason Mraz is, as I see it, going to beat Yesterday by The Beatles in being the most covered song of all time.

It's easy-listening and one can hardly go wrong when covering this song. The crowd loves it too. :)

Eight-handed molester

I did not oversleep! Whee.
In Jakarta now. It's very rare to get such a long stopover at Jakarta since most flights are turnarounds and the other night-stop is only a few hours over the night.

Since I only had 3 hours sleep before having to wake up at 4 a.m. for my flight, I just wanted to nap on the bus all the way to the hotel.
Shortly after the bus had left the airport, I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. While trying to sleep I suddenly felt something move on my chest. Thinking that it was just a strand of fallen hair being blown by the aircond above me, I tried brushing it away. I couldn't feel any strand of hair with my hands so I continued to try to sleep. Then I felt something on my chest again. I peered down and saw no hair. Ok, closed my eyes again. AND AGAIN I felt it. Very irritated.
I peered down closer (also checking about making sure my colleagues didn't think that I like looking down at my own chest wtf) and saw a SPIDER! It was quite deep down from the neckline of my uniform.

I panicked and tried to brush it upwards and outwards but that only made the spider scurry downward. I thought I saw it go under my undergarment *gulp*.

I quickly turned to the back and told my colleague about it. She kept laughing and asked me to unzip my top. WTF, in the bus?!
She insisted that I unzip or the spider was gonna bite me. She passed me a tissue paper and moved next to me and blocked me from everyone. We both kept giggling so much and there she was, with arms outstretched and using her torso to block me from everyone's view. I just couldn't bring myself to unzip the whole top!!

----------------
----------------

And that's how the cheeky spider died.

Blind - Lifehouse

A favourite, from 2005.

______________________________

I was young but I wasn't naive
I watched helpless as he turned around to leave
And still I have the pain I have to carry
A past so deep that even you could not bury if you tried


After all this time
I never thought we'd be here
Never thought we'd be here
When my love for you was blind
But I couldn't make you see it
Couldn't make you see it
That I loved you more than you'll ever know
A part of me died when I let you go


I would fall asleep
Only in hopes of dreaming
That everything would be like it was before
But nights like this it seems are slowly fleeting
They disappear as reality is crashing to the floor


After all this time
I never thought we'd be here
Never thought we'd be here
When my love for you was blind
But I couldn't make you see it
Couldn't make you see it
That I loved you more than you'll ever know
A part of me died when I let you go


After all this why
Would you ever wanna leave it
Maybe you could not believe it
That my love for you was blind
But I couldn't make you see it
Couldn't make you see it
That I loved you more than you will ever know
A part of me died when I let you go
That I loved you more than you'll ever know
A part of me died when I let you go

Lifehouse - Blind

Morning run

All I wanted was a good night's sleep....

After 4 hours of bad quality sleep, I finally got out of bed and had a light breakfast at 5.30 a.m.

Then I took my old pair of shoes out for a run. The last time I ran was 2.5 weeks ago. I had to stop because my knees weren't feeling too good.

My old pair of running shoes were meant to allow me to build up my feet muscles because it simulates running bare-footed - like how the Africans do it. On the back of the shoebox it says that the shoes get better with running. Seeing that when I used to run with it I could only manage about 1.5 km before crashing flat, I never noticed the power of this pair of shoes....
Today I noticed that the shoes actually gave me speed.
Throughout my run I was so surprised at how well it made me run. After 1 km I could feel myself gaining speed because the shoes were so light and flexible and God knows what other technology that goes into the shoes that makes my feet want to run more.

Even after not training for 2.5 weeks I managed to run past 4 km without much trouble.

Guess I know which pair of shoes I'll be wearing to the marathon.

Sleep deprived

Ever since my friends came to Singapore to work, I've had less time for myself.

More often than not, I would only be able to catch a nap after touching down from flight in the morning, do my laundry and then rush out to meet my buddies.

On offdays also I would be busy with this and that.
Somehow I've just not been able to have enough rest...
This weekend has not been any different.

I can't even find time to do my laundry, to clean my room... my luggage from Milan is still unpacked.
Damn.

Like yesterday and the day before, today is gonna be packed.
BBQ in the afternoon (it's because I can't stay till the end as it goes all the way till 8 a.m. Sunday morning!) and then see off my sis at night and then quickly hitting the sack before having to wake up at 4 a.m. (when my friends are probably still drinking) for my flight to Jakarta.

I have not yet prepared for my flight man, what am I gonna do :(

_________________________________

Pamela's massive 21st birthday cake. So very pretty!

That don't impress me

I was in a Montblanc boutique briefly in Milan because my colleague was looking for a tie-pin for her fiancee.
The pens caught my attention.
I made a mental note to visit a boutique in Singapore when I get the time.
So today I was there to see what might suit me.

Most of the pens looked like they're on steroids. I tried a few decent-sized ones but I was damn put-off by the weight of the pen. They felt really cheap. The doodles I drew on their sketch book (I know, most people will coolly sign their names but why would I let them see what my signature looks like?) didn't look like they were drawn with a S$500+ (RM1k) pen. Rather it looked like a Kilometrico could produce something similar. A Kilometrico pen is RM0.80, correct me if I'm wrong. And it writes 1 km, or so they say.
The difference in weight is apparent, but not great.
Like I said, the pens look like they're on steroid. If they were of the same weight as a Kilometrico then something is very wrong. But for something so fat (and expensive), you'd really expect a lot more weight. So in that very moment I picked up the pen, I was full of disappointment.


I asked the sales assistant if there were heavier pens. She said it would be from the stainless steel collection - and here, we're talking S$1000+ (RM5k) pricetags.

Anyway, the one pen that really caught my eye was from the Boheme collection. It was quite small and just about right for ladies. I just didn't like the colour combinations available. Price is S$510. I was thinking if I can get this in Europe then I get tax-refund too. Sounds reasonable. Then I tried writing with it.
Ptttttttttttttttttttthhhhh.
*big ball of expectation deflates dramatically*
Fail. The lines just weren't smooth.


The Waterman pen that I received from Alpha for my graduation feels so much more grand and writes much better. I'm sure your Parkers and Schaeffers write better too.
(Thanks again Alpha for the pen :)) It's a real pleasure to write with!)


Note: I am comparing only the ball-point versions of Waterman and Montblanc. Will compare the fountain pens when I learn how to write with one.

_____________________________________________

From Wikipedia:

Collectibility

A common criticism among fountain pen collectors is that MB have become an entirely marketing oriented brand and that quality has suffered. In one poll among collectors, only 19% voted that MB had generally maintained quality, and a mere 6% that it had improved it.

Customer Service and Repairs

Montblanc will not sell customers or dealers replacement parts without the company performaing the repair. When a pen is damaged, the customer is required to send in the whole pen for an estimate. There are no exceptions, repairs as simple as replacing a cracked barrel all require the pen be sent in. The company charges $100 for this service plus the price of what ever parts are required for repair. They then charge $20 to ship the pen to the customer.

Controversy

Montblanc special editions have been particularly controversial: after seeing a supplier's invoice,, Diamond Intelligence revealed that heat-treated black diamonds had been used rather than much more valuable natural white diamonds for $200,000 diamond covered Montblanc 149 pens. This altered the value of the diamonds in pen by a factor of ten. The journal claimed that Montblanc had used "deceptive and unfair trade practices" in its advertising and had breached US law concerning gemstones when it failed to inform customers of the nature of the diamonds used. Montblanc disputed Diamond Intelligence's legal interpretation, but changed their marketing to reveal the nature of the stones used. used one in his piece "six-star

Multi-grain lovin'

My cousin emailed me this photo of Sam, Anlynn and I counting the type of grains in our plate of rice.


Apparently there are 11 grain-types in this multi-grain rice. Anlynn makes an effort to pick out all 11 every time she eats at this vegetarian restaurant in BP.
Not sure if she has succeeded in differentiating all eleven. I know I haven't.

Feeling different

The last 6 days has been pretty amazing.

I can't point out the one or two things that made the difference but there sure are many small things.

Previously I also always thought that Milanese were a little on the racist side but I have decided to change my opinion a few days ago.

This trip to Milan was also very different from the previous trips.
This time, no one on the street pushed me just to get past me.
This time, I actually met very friendly strangers on trains. Never happened before in Milan.
This time, my Business Class Italian passengers smiled at me every time I walked past them.
This time, I finally ate at the crew joint in Milan.
This time, I did not come back with a new handbag.
(EDIT: Dang, just opened my luggage and saw a new handbag on top of my clothes. How could I forget? This one's relatively cheap though.)
This time, this set of crew is more fun than all the other sets I did Milan with previously (those were focused only on LV and Prada fullstop).
This time, I bought many bottles of olive oil instead of wine. (At 3 euros per bottle, I had to buy 3 bottles!)
.... et cetera.

I visited a castle on Tuesday. It made me wonder wtf for would you want such a big house. Wouldn't something of a decent size be nice and homely? There were even sculptures of human heads here and there. That would be the last thing I want for my house. The only exception would be a Beethoven/Mozart sculpture for my piano top.

Also, within the last few days I had my scale for Good Looks (Male) recalibrated. Italian men are so gorgeous and when the 11 of us went out on Monday, we couldn't help but notice how sleek and smart their work suits were. Not sure if it's because of the Gucci and Zegna suits or if it's because of the men's built. They all just look a million dollars.

On a slightly different note, two ladies were the envy of the entire set of crew - and quite possibly every other passenger at the waiting lounge - for they had two HUGE Hermes paper bags and other small ones. They were our first class passengers. Both were already carrying Hermes handbags (one was a black calf leather Birkin) and I heard that they bought shoes from Hermes too. The best part? They were super down-to-earth.
OK, buying ridiculously expensive handbags may not be the best way to convince you that they are down-to-earth but what's wrong with pampering yourself with one or two luxury goods now and then? I have seen people who act all snobby when they come onboard with a large Gucci paperbag (and then glare at you when you accidentally cause creases to the paperbag when you close the overhead compartment) but these two ladies were almost apologetic that their shopping bags were taking up so much compartment space.

I had two people on my flight who really pushed my tolerance level to the limit. I am amazed how I can now just remain cool and then turn and walk away. I must admit though that I do mutter expletives as I walk away.


I feel a bit giddy - possibly from the lack of sleep - that my world is the same yet so different. It's just how you'd like to make of your world. It may still be the same yet it can look so different depending on which side you're looking at it.

I feel little bit of a different person right now...

MAYBE when I see my cuckoo friends tonight things might return to normal.

not again

...I am without my makeup pouch for the next 4 days...
Left it in Singapore, again!!!

*shoots self*

Hi mate

I KNEW IT!

Having been rostered to train for the A330 at the end of this month (30 Sept. - 02 Oct.), I knew that I will start flying to Australia so much that the Immigration officers will recognize me. Those flights which I thought had been taken away from me (i.e. Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide) when they assigned those destinations to A330 are now thrown back at me again.

Out of my four flights next month, THREE are Australian flights.

Soon, my wardrobe will be full of clothes from Supre and Sportsgirl. My cereals will all be Australian. My airlarda will be filled with Tim Tams. Instead of Marmite, my fridge will have vegemite. I will no longer need to flip coins over and over at the cashier to check the denomination of each coin. Waltzing Matilda will be my favourite karaoke tune. I might even pick up a few Aussie slangs before you know it, I'm no ordinary fob a'ight.

Need to buy more tan handbags ^o)

p/s: Here's my new Optus number: +61421171584. See, I'm all prepared.

Moments of Magic

beware.... PHOTO VOMIT!

Pics from last week.

Hi!

We all meet again...

With Aunty Florence.

Two pretty girls.

Mum's having a lot of fun at karaoke!!


Auntie Lin translating the recently-found information on the
Lee ancestral home passed down by great-grandmother.

Uncle Hock with Grandma.

This is where my two grandmothers meet.

The birthday girl's very happy to be turning another year older.

Grandma and (children minus 1).

The grand- and great-grand-children (minus many many).


Nelson looks like Chinese New Year ad boy.

This is what happens when I try to pose for a shot while chewing.

Sam: She told me to look for a Chinese girl but she didn't tell me to keep it within the family!


This is the look of "*speechless* I give up."

Kelvin forced the guys and Anshii to "bottoms-up" the full glasses of wine he poured.

Guess who's high?


The 3 sisters.


Yeah yeah, thanks-leh Aunty Yan.


With a new Lee :)

Mambo jambo!


Grandma and children, perfect 10 this time :)

Random pictures

1. Second aunt with D-Wang. This was back in 2006, New Year buffet.



2. Pretty landscape in Zaanse Schans, a windmill town outside Amsterdam.



3. I really wish I were an ATM.



4. Poor boy, getting tortured by the girls!!



5. Enjoying a 1000 won (roughly S$1.10) ice-cream in Myeung-dong, Seoul. These ice-cream stands are common in Myeung-Dong and it's a must-try for every tourist.




6. Alinta's right, my grandma is "Gangster".

Stinkydinks

Recently I went to possibly the stinkiest place in Batu Pahat to have dinner.

Not even the infamous Riverside could come close when it comes to offending the sense of smell.

Together with my uncles, aunts, mum and sis, we went to Segenting for dinner for it supposedly has very fresh seafood.

Segenting is about 15-20 minutes from town and very close to the beach. I know many singletons go to the Lover's Bridge there on the 15th day of the first lunar month to throw oranges in hope of finding Mr./Ms. Right. Also I somehow know there's a fish there that will let you strike Toto/4D/lottery if you stroke it. Funnily, though born and bred here, I had not heard of this fish until I started working in Singapore. Many Singaporeans come in by the busloads to touch this fish and so I had a few colleagues who asked me about this fish when they knew I'm a BP-girl.


The moment we got off the car, the damn smell of PIGS almost knocked us out. It was so bad even though there were no pigs in sight. Apparently there used to be pig farms there and my uncle remembers seeing pigs running free the last time he was there a few years back.

It seemed that wherever we walked the smell was permanently there. A few of us had to rub large amounts of hand cream and then cover our nose and mouth with rose-scented hands.

After a short walk, we came to this mini-pond which houses the famous fish. To my surprise, it was not one fish, but three.
They were HUGE!

I think everyone took turns to stroke the fish, except for Mum and Anlynn. Word has it that if you stroke its head, you will strike first prize. If you stroke the tail then you win consolation prize. Stroke somewhere in between and your number will also be somewhere between the first and consolation prizes.

After MUCH persuasion from my sis and uncle, I summed up enough courage to stroke one of the giants and it was real gross.


I have never touched anything as slimy as this in my life (just thinking about it makes my hair stand). I will not dismiss the possibility that it was extra slimy because of the extra thick layer of handcream that I had on.


I was so glad when it was over.

We later had dinner at one of the restaurants there. The seafood was definitely very fresh, but there are many other places in BP that serve fresh seafood without the horrid smell. You must wonder how we managed to even have dinner in that stinking place. We somehow got used to the smell and it no longer bothered us. Or maybe we were just more excited about the numbers we had to buy after that!

Just FYI, I tried my luck at Toto with 3 numbers.
None of my numbers even came close to winning anything.

Really, don't bother with this place.

More please

I wish planning department will give me more flights to Melbourne (preferably this same flight, the one that leaves in the morning and comes back at night). I enjoyed myself so much I really didn't want to come back....

To be honest, I wasn't feeling the greatest before the flight. I had met up with Hsin Ching the day before my flight and I felt like crap the whole time. I went back to rest for my early morning flight but I woke up not feeling any better.

After the plane took off, things got better. My colleagues were very sweet and jovial, my passengers in Business were lovely. I think they played the part of 'good passengers' so well that the crew serving them worked even harder in order not to disappoint them.

Customs officers were as usual (as per Australian standards) so we got held back quite a bit even though we landed a whole hour earlier. Then things got even better - I received two SMSes that I knew will make my stay in Melbourne terrific.

I couldn't stop grinning through the whole journey back to the hotel.

I was to meet Kenneth for dinner that night but then he brought along two surprise guest stars - Rayner and his gf! I had conveniently forgotten to pack my shoes and so the 3 of them had to go on a hunt at 8.45 p.m. to get a pair of size 37 flats for me. Not an easy feat in Australia since most shops close early.

Kenneth gave me a quick night tour on foot of the city till midnight. While most parts of the city were familiar, some weren't.

The next day, my cousin took me for dinner by the bay. He, like Rayner, drives a tiny but fast and furious car that isn't passenger- and pedestrian-friendly.

I got back in time to prepare for my flight - no time to rest even - and again I couldn't wipe the grin off my face in the bus.

Melbourne's great, but the people even better.

Can't wait to go back again.

p/s: Since I'm going to be A330-trained, I foresee myself going to Australia a lot and hence I got myself a prepaid Optus number. It only makes economic sense.

p/s/s: Kenneth's right. Melbourne's just so-so when compared to many other cities, but it's the people who make it special. 3 strangers smiled at me in one afternoon, that must more than what I get in Singapore in a whole year!

Back to the grind

:(
Back in Singapore already.
Almost everyone's left BP to go back to Australia, with a few exceptions.

I loved the last week and I dread having to come back to work so soon.....

The flight tomorrow better be good.

Where I stand

Wow, my ego is bruised with alcohol poured over it and then flamed with a matchstick.

WTF CAN U BELIEVE THESE PEOPLE? Check out the distance they clocked man...
They're nuts...

I'm sure superbetsy is a girl, so is RunnergirlKC.

I can't remember if Nike+ was first introduced in 2006 or '07 but assuming cardio rules was one of the first people who got it (and assuming its sometime in September '06), he runs 573 kilometres a week. WHAT A FREAK! Let's say he walks in those shoes and shamelessly records all that distance too, 81 km a day is a tad too much, no?

There are really great people out there.

Oh well, at least I'm ranked 680 in Malaysia. *consoles self*

Honestly, once the marathon is over, I doubt I'll be running this much. My Nike+ running shoes will be stowed away safely with the Sportband and will probably never see the light of day again. I might run occasionally but I'd rather run with my pair of Nike Free.

Convergence

I ran this morning - in the rain... but it started to get too heavy and I had to stop. *Thanks Hsin Ching for accompanying me even though you haven't been feeling too well lately.* Everytime I jogged past this couple sitting by the lake under an umbrella (what are they doing dating at 7 a.m.?!) I would be thinking how lucky the girl is - sheltered by the umbrella held by her boyfriend, whereas I have to run under the freaking rain.

Mr. Barefoot Idiot was there again, walking with an umbrella and a friend. He didn't say a thing to me today, but he definitely disturbed Hsin Ching.
My dear readers, do you know if I can make a police report on this man? He's a menace in the park.

Anyway, relatives have begun to trickle in. I came home yesterday (YAY, managed to change my flight away to start my leave early!), Auntie Lin touched down in Singapore on Friday and then got back to BP yesterday too, Uncle Hock and Auntie Florence both touched down in Changi yesterday morning and then came into BP this afternoon, while Anshii and Nelson have also arrived in Singapore but are now resting in JB first before coming back to BP on Thursday.
More to arrive. Whoopie!

Dinner was great today but we wonder how we can possibly manage it on Thursday night. Might have to resort to having it buffet-style at the porch. The ferocious mosquitoes of Taman Perdana who love attacking foreign blood will then be having a real feast!

As sure as tax and death

Are mother-in-laws from hell.
I'm not saying that all are, but they will exist forevermore.

Like when I was on the train yesterday, and for 20 minutes straight I heard a lady bragging to her friend (who was seated beside me) about her son - how he is so very smart, how he always sleeps at 9 p.m. but still a top student (maybe because he wakes up at 2 a.m.?), how he never complains, that he's going to a university in England, etc. All this, loud enough for the entire carriage to hear.
t-w-e-n-t-y-m-i-n-u-t-e-s. She was a walking advertorial board for her son!
And in my mind I kept thinking what a horrible mother-in-law she will be. She is too proud of her son, and no girl is going to be as good as him and she will end up terrorising her son's poor wife. Because she has been so great to raise this perfect mortal she calls her son. Because it was the wife's good fortune to have married her son. Because her son is King, so she becomes Empress Dowager.

I'm serious girls, there are tell-tale signs of your boyfriend's mother which you should spot right from the start.

Random thoughts

...while in the shower:
Why do most passengers become upset as they go on a flight because of newspapers? Their airfare does not include newspapers and if they really had to read the newspapers, couldn't they have bought it on the way to the airport or at the bookstand in the airport? Will they miss out on any news because they didn't read a newspaper? I thought living in a digital world meant being able to be independent of newspapers. I guess not. No wonder Rupert Murdoch's loaded.


...while copying down ingredients for two recipes before I set off to the supermarket:
Why do we use so many eggs in baking! I cannot thank chickens enough in my life (already being sort of the only kind of meat I eat).


...while browsing at the duty-free shop for cosmetics and fragrances:
I could do this job forever just because I get to buy duty-free. You have no idea how much I've saved.


...while in the cab, coming back from the airport:
Thank God for giving me a passenger on this flight who said out loud the words I needed to hear after my last horrible flight.

This must end

WHY WHY WHY do I always forget my phone.
I cannot live without my phone, but I think God is trying to prove me otherwise and constantly lets me go without a phone for a period of time.

For the gazillionth time since I came to Singapore, I have left my phone behind somewhere. This time, in China. In my hotel room. On the bed.

Thank God it's China... because we have Chinese crew on every Chinese flight, and they all know each other. So the Chinese girl on my flight contacted one of the girls who will be back tomorrow and has sought her help to bring home my phone.
XOXOXOXOXO MUCH LOVE TO THEM!