The infamous third sector

In Tokyo now, and extremely looking forward to the great summer sales!!!
I controlled my spending in LA so that I can shop in Tokyo. I was here this time last year (just a week's difference) and I was praying for this flight again when I had to be put on standby last week.
Prayers were answered and here I am again!

On my flight here today, I went down to another zone to help out while half the set of crew were resting. The window shades were all down, and cabin lights were off, so it was pretty much very dark save for the light coming from passengers' IFE screens.

As I was patrolling the cabin, I stepped on something white in the middle of the aisle. It looked like tissue paper. (Typically, in the dark, if you see something white on the carpet, it's just tissue paper.) But I could feel it wasn't flat, and my first thought was that someone had eaten an apple from the snack basket and had wrapped the core up with tissue paper. And like many small trash, it fell onto the carpet.

I took it up with my bare hands and put it on my tray. When I stepped into the bright galley, I was horrified with what I had picked up. IT WAS DISGUSTING. UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Never in a million years will I be able to understand how THAT THING ended up in the middle of the cabin. GROSS!

Had to sanitize my hand and wash it five times after that.

Choosing lights are hard

Who knew there are so many things to consider when buying LED lights?
It was supposedly the best invention since the internet. It's report card glowed yet as you really get serious about getting your hands on one, especially dimmable ones, the headache starts.

The dark side

For my latest gadget, I have moved over to the dark side......

In transit, on its way to Singapore. Will reveal soon.
 

To read again

I've stopped reading books for years. I don't have time, that's my excuse, and also for some reason my interest wanders off most of the time. The internet is a much more interesting place, no?

I have at least 5 books in my room that I bought, started reading but never went beyond 3 chapters. So much so that I told myself, I've had enough of buying books because I don't ever finish reading them.

Last month, I had to make a 3-hour trip to the hairdresser's. All the magazines there are Chinese and female (and have I mentioned how I DO NOT touch female magazines nowadays?) so I brought along Anlynn's Mitch Albom book with me. I chose that because it seemed rather thin and wouldn't be too impossible to fit into my handbag. That got me started with reading again.


And subsequently I've read two books and I must say YOU MUST READ THESE.

Start with A Dog's Purpose.

All dog lovers will love it. You can so imagine the dogs behaving as described in the book. And I'm sure it'll help us understand why dogs behave the way they do sometimes.

A Dog's Purpose: T______T (because it makes you cry so much)
A Dog's Journey: T___T (because it doesn't make you cry as much)

And now I don't know which book to pick up next!

Summer solstice

I'm in Paris. And it's the longest day of the year today. Summer, officially, starts today. It's 8.47 pm on June 21st, and it's still bright outside. 

I wonder, why is it that Chinese celebrate winter solstice (with tang yuan and a family reunion dinner), which is the shortest day of the year, and not summer solstice? Isn't the longest day of the year worth celebrating???

Dinosaurs

One of the theory for dinosaur extinction proposed that a huge comet hit Earth and the clouds of dust covered the atmosphere of the planet for so long that dinosaurs died. Without sunlight there was no photosynthesis, hence no oxygen, no vegetation, and the chain goes on. 

I feel like a dino now. 

So Lee Kuan Yew planted a tree...

On Sunday he planted a tree. But that tree is not going to help with the air pollution in Singapore!
This morning I woke up to a burning smell in the apartment. For a moment I thought someone in the neighbourhood was burning rubbish (at 4.30 a.m.) in the open. It bugged me a lot because I know for sure this may happen in Taman Perdana, but not in Singapore. It was later on, when the sun rose that I realized the haze is back with a vengeance.

I did a short turnaround flight to the north and was back before noon. 15 minutes before landing, I could already smell the burning. We were so low, almost approaching the runway and I still couldn't see the surrounding islands that is a common sight.

As the day progressed, it got worse. I met William at Orchard and it was impossible to walk in the open for long. I ended up buying several pieces of face mask and that's the best thing I could have done for myself all day. It helped tremendously and I almost pitied everyone else who wasn't wearing one at that time.

I think even the Aedes mosquitoes are having a hard time smelling blood through this thick haze. Hopefully this brings some respite to the dengue situation in Singapore. It was estimated last week that there will be 1000 new cases this week (I'm well-stocked with mosquito repellant sprays and patches).

In other news, did you all read about Nigella Lawson's husband strangling her in a restaurant? That's absurd. Man doesn't know how to treat his woman right!!! I am certain he is a lot more abusive at home if he's capable of strangling her in public. >:(

Random post

* Chinese (like, in mainland China) buy a million cars a month. Right now, only 10% of the population own cars. Imagine how horrible the air pollution would be if car ownership were like those in the USA. It is said that all oil wells will dry up just trying to supply the demand and the world will overheat with the carbon dioxide produced. 

* George Price put forth the theory that kindness is a kind of disguise for the gratification of the actor. He was interested in evolution. And in studying that, he concluded that if humans evolved from the survival of the fittest, then the kind humans would never have been able to evolve. All acts of altruism, he believes, is done merely for the benefit of the person doing it. He did eventually become a religious person because of his studies on altruism. He was an aethist but from his studies, he actually came up with a mathematical formula to prove that God exists. God, he believes, is the only One who is truly kind with no other intentions by being so. I need to get hold of any book that'll tell me more about Price's theory. 

* There is actually a medical disorder known as the sleeping beauty syndrome, also known as Kleine-Levin syndrome. People with such a disorder sleep extensively and they do "wake up" for a while but behave like a totally different person. Some episodes can last for months until they truly wake up, and when they do, they wouldn't even recall what happened. It would be like a dream... 

I feel so knowledgable just being a couch potato. 

Fasten your seatbelts, tightly.

The weather has been very bad lately. May to October are, in the eyes of The Company, very bad months when it comes to injuries related to turbulence.

Just a few weeks ago, photos were circulating on the internet of a London-bound flight that hit clear air turbulence. The ceiling had a taste of coffee, the carpet had everyone's breakfast, and a sausage fell into someone's shirt. While food landed in the wrong places, passengers and a crew were injured too.
You know I cannot imagine what would happen if one of those idiotic mothers with infants of some of my flights were to be on that flight. I'm not saying mothers with infants are idiotic, I'm saying those mothers who always let their child sleep in the bassinet without the safety flap zipped and those who refuse to remove their babies from bassinets when the seatbelt sign comes on (even at the insistence of cabin crew).

After that incident, I have spoken to a few crew who have been lifted off the ground after the aircraft dropped suddenly. We know with global warming the air currents are all different and probably more severe.

As such I would like to remind all of you when travelling, BE SAFE and ALWAYS have your seat-belt fastened even if the sign is turned off.

Beware of jet blast!

The airport runway is adjacent to this beach. Honestly, this is so dangerous!!!

Fierce....not

Today a fierce-looking Porsche overtook me along Still Road in Katong. Then I burst out laughing because it was a sissy car! 

Hello Kitty Minis I have seen a few, polka dotted cars are not unheard of too. But this is a first. 

There were two stickers on the rear signal-indicators of LITTLE TWIN STARS OHMAIGOD. 

In case you're not sure of what/who Little Twin Stars are, here it is:

Don't know what to make of the driver...

Lost and found

Haha!

The other day, after finally waiting long enough to go down for breakfast (in my last post), I was lucky enough to be surrounded by the men of the New Zealand All Blacks. After having stopped following rugby for several years now, I couldn't recognize anyone but I did notice they did look a lot like the men on the cover of the cable TV guide in my room. Though they were all dressed in training jersey with their initials sewn on to their shorts and a few wearing All Blacks windbreakers, I asked the waitress who they were and she said "They're the All Blacks!! I thought you knew that!"

They constantly had food delivered to them even though it was a buffet. 

From then on my poor breakfast companion had none of my attention left until the team dispersed. 

Sleepless in Auckland

Body clock in Auckland is just out of whack.

I can handle Australian time-zones, I can handle European time-zones but the US and NZ time-zones I can never handle.

I had an incredibly long flight yesterday and still I woke up after 3 hours. Can't wait for the clock to turn 0700 so that I can head down for breakfast. I'm famished!