dog talk

SHE: so so?
ME: so nothing is going on lah
SHE: aiyah
ME: but my friend who tried to set us up is freaking me out
SHE: how?
ME: she keeps "promoting" him lor. wah lau eh
SHE: mebbe she got good reason leh...
ME: like how ideal he is, how alike we are, etc
SHE: age is the only deterrent to you?
ME: heh i can't really remember how young he looks anymore. it's more like, we haven't made any effort to keep in touch
SHE: CHEH!!!! then its not like you're NOT interested right? if given the chance, it MIGHT be possible?
ME: i dunno! it freaks me out! hahahahahahhaha im in denial
SHE: what freaks you out? the prospect of dating?
ME: actually, yes!
SHE: AIYO!! you been single for far too long liow. SNAP OUTTTA IT!
ME: im too set in my ways liow! im an old maid! hahahahahahaha
SHE: RUBBISH!!!! you're a sentimental fool and i know it won't take much for you to "change" hehe
ME: hahahaha sentimental fool is right. emphasis on the word fool
SHE: why don't you just send him a message? or just poke him? GO LA!
ME: but this is a moot point lah. there is nothing going on!!!
SHE: of COURSE there's nothing going on. cos YOU'RE NOT DOING ANYTHING!!!!
ME: hahahahhahahahhahaa gawd you sound like my mother
SHE: i am a mother. hahahaha!!!!
ME: also, im not sure if i want anything to be going on lah
SHE: cos you don't wanna date?
ME: harlow, when have i ever dated?
SHE: u had bfs before what..
ME: i tink i just fell into relationships. i don't think i've ever actually "dated"
SHE: hmmm... mebbe thats why you should give it a try? cos it's... non-committal?
ME: i tink i'm breaking out in hives at the thought. haahahahhahahahaahahhaha
SHE: AIYO!!!! it's like asking you to get married!
ME: hahahhahahahahahahhaha nola, i tink i just too comfortable, why should i put myself out there for rejection, potentially?
SHE: mmm... now i see where you're coming from. ok, valid point. BUT it could potentially NOT lead to rejection. so quite wasted to pass it up right?
ME: i tink i've had enough of rejection already lor. contrary to popular belief, my heart is not made of elastic one
SHE: ya, i know what u mean. but something potentially good may happen. actually i think best that we wait for HIM to make the first move. mebbe this would suit you better hor? hehe
ME: heheheheh i like the way you use the word "we"
SHE: becos we're in this together girlfwen!
ME: hahahahhaha awwwwww thanks. ok can i just add one thing?
ME: i don't think i'd even be thinking about this guy if not for the fact that he showed me pix of his dogs!!! i'm the shallowest person alive hahahahahahhaa
SHE: AAAWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!! i think i like him ALREADAY!!!!
ME: and he has TWO!
SHE: DOUBLE LIKE HIM!!!
ME: both dogs that i would lurve to have! golden retriever and labrador!!!!!
SHE: alamak!!!!! THROW YOURSELF AT HIM ALREADY!!!
ME: MUAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA just for the dogs, rite?
SHE: JUST FOR THE DOGS!!!!
ME: literally, i've gone to the dogs

book ends

MY TWIN: why are you and your soul mate incompatible in your reading habits???
ME: she is a book slut! she doesnt read one book at a time! hahahhahahahahahahahahaha
MY TWIN: muahahahahahhahaahahahahahha
ME: i'm a book monogamist!
MY TWIN: muahahaahahahahahhaha you purist!
ME: are you? oh no, you are book slut too!
MY TWIN: nope! you will hate me!
MY TWIN: hahahahhahhahhah yes i am book slut!
ME: hahahahahhahahah we cannot be twins anymore, im sorry hhahahahahahahahahahahahahah
MY TWIN: muaahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahhha
ME: thats why i take so long to finish reading all my books....i get stuck but i cant abandon it. i have to read it to the bitter end
MY TWIN: you are good! you have strong moral character! hahahahahahhahahahahaha
ME: hmmmm i tink it has spilled over to my real life relationships too!
MY TWIN: hmm!
ME: i have to see things to their bitter end!!!!!!!!!! sudden insight from aimless chatting!
MY TWIN: which is not a bad thing rite! at least you see it to its end! there is closure!
MY TWIN: hhahahahahha aimless chatting is less aimless than you think!
ME: even when i know it is BAD, i have to go on! i dunno how to abandon books/people!

Currently reading: Dave Eggers' You Shall Know Our Velocity. It has made me laugh out loud on the bus, so it is not a bad book and the end is in sight. Next, I plan to finally start on Anna K.

25 random things

For the sake of potential stalkers (I'm thinking of the lawyer, the mathematician and the economist), here are my 25 random things cutted and pasted and completely unedited from Facebook, so you won't have to waste time trawling my formidable archive of useless ramblings for other freakish similarities to Wallflower.

1. I'm deathly afraid of butterflies and moths. They're evil. (But cockroaches are ok and lizards are downright cute.)

2. When I was about nine, I won a Lego competition. I built a very ordinary house, and defeated the complicated airplane constructed by a young boy. I still have the photo of us posing with our creations. He looked very pissed off in it. I adore Lego and it is my dream to visit Legoland.

3. At its longest, my hair was long enough to reach the middle of my back. But too bad I never got round to taking one of those suggestive "naked" photos with hair draped all over my boobs.

4. My grandma's laundry shop used to be next to the old MPH and now-demolished -- sniff! -- National Library. I used to spend hours at those two places reading for free, going back only for meals. All the salesgirls and librarians knew me.

5. I was bedridden for three months a few years ago. I spent it watching Da Chang Jin (Jewel In The Palace), knitting and writing book reviews.

6. My first dog was called Brownie. He was brown. When the whole family went on holiday, my mom took the chance to give him away. I cried for days.

7. I love all things vanilla. Scraping the black seeds from vanilla pods makes me unreasonably happy.

8. My guilty pleasure is reading trashy romance novels, the racier the better. I get them for $1 each at the Salvation Army.

9. At my poorest, my bank account had only three figures. This was after my year in London. I used to take part in psychology experiments on campus to make a quick quid, I was that poor.

10. To the best of my knowledge, I have only one enemy.

11. I miss the smell of my doggie's paws when I travel. He doesn't miss me at all, I'm pretty sure.

12. My friend and I recently pretended to have a lovers' tiff at the airport check-in counter and requested for separate seats because we are both anti-social creatures when we fly. We don't want to talk, we don't want to be disturbed during the movie, and we both like window seats.

13. On two birthdays, I wished for snow and got it. On another two birthdays, I wished for sand and ended up at Sentosa.

14. I used to lead a double life as a powerful mage cleric by the name of Blush. I still miss those days -- and my One Ring.

15. Two friends and I have a pact to visit a nudist colony together, some day.

16. When I was in kindergarten, our teacher asked the class: "Do you want to be a human being or a sparrow?" I was the only one who wanted to have a bird brain.

17. Accounts of dogs and cats dying make me bawl.

18. During my party days, I have done the following: gotten lost in a gay club, kissed a bartender and sat on the curb outside Zouk with a mattress on my lap and my head on it.

19. I write down almost every single word I will say before I interview anyone. My brain has a tendency to go blank under pressure and I'm supremely horrible at ad libbing.

20. I hope I won't grow up to be my mother. But I think I'm halfway there already.

21. Kismet Kittens is the title of my novel, if I ever get round to writing it. I have no idea what it is about. Tiny cats, maybe?

22. I still find it slightly wondrous when boys talk to me. I think it's a lingering effect of 10 years of single-sex education.

23. Having someone gently dig your ears while you just lie there and close your eyes is the most loving feeling ever. Holding hands while sleeping comes a close second.

24. I deliberately stomp on the toes and jab the ribs of people who try to board the train before allowing others to get off. I also "accidentally" pull the hair of pole leaners. I've yet to figure out a way to passive-aggressively get non-stop yakkers to shut up though.

25. I love making lists.

abc, 123 & brackets

I believe I have found my soul mate.

As I am fond of telling any concerned parties, I'm single not because I'm fussy, but because I have a penchant for unavailable men. I actually have very basic (and easily satisfied) criteria* of:
(a) good English
(b) non-repulsive appearance
(c) sense of humour
(In no order of preference.)

[*Optional:
(a) geeky glasses
(b) lanky physique
(c) striped/checked shirts]

But in addition to (a), (b) and (c), my newfound soul mate has so much in common with me that it is kind of freaky.

1. We both like Japanese authors, movies, dramas, catalogues, cookbooks and just the general clean aesthetic. Muji forever!
2. We are fans of both Mayday AND Jay Chou, who we agree is a musical genius, despite his recent missteps.
3. We take photos all the time and like those of abandoned/nostalgic objects and buildings especially. We even own the same instant camera, just in different colours.

Other things in common include Gossip Girl, typewriters, pencil sharpening, notebooks, bookshelves, ferris wheels, old-skool playgrounds and Atonement. And we have made up our minds, separately, that we would finally read Anna Karenina this year.

This conversation that I stole from this mystery person's blog about childhood colour pencils was what made me realise we were made for each other:

Me: You didn't use to put them back in their respective slots, right? (Phrased such because I already knew the answer.)
Lawyer: No. Did you?
Me: Yah.
Lawyer: (Stares somewhat with disbelief) Really?
Me: Although sometimes I would let it get messy...
Lawyer: So that you can arrange them back in order?
Me: Yah.

She is perfect, except that (a) she is a cat person, (b) she doesn't know I exist, and (c) she is a she.

[I guess my criteria list just got longer, to include:
(d) must love dogs
(e) be aware of my existence
(f) preferably male]

(I came across Wallflower in the course of my web travels and have been sucked into reading its entire archives. I wonder if she were to read this blog, would she see the similarities?)

love, actually

I was clicking idly on my Bloglines, when I came across a post on Soon Lee with photos that looked strangely familiar.

Someone had taken photos of my semi-successful social experiment and they've been going round the blogosphere. I'm so psyched, now I really must go and make the notices into PDFs so that they can proliferate and take over the world.

Oh, and remember to heed my call to "Kiss someone" this Valentine's Day!

unphotographable

There are no photos on Unphotographable, which is how I like it. Its author says: "Unphotographable is a catalog of exceptional mistakes. Photos never taken that weren't meant to be forgotten. Opportunities missed. Simple failures. Occasions when I wished I'd taken the picture, or not forgotten the camera, or had been brave enough to click the shutter."

Here's one of my favourites from his site:

"This is a picture I did not take of a gaggle of kids dressed in three-piece suits and spring dresses, coagulating on a sidewalk in front of their church on Easter Sunday, punching each other's shoulders and playing with each other's hair, while one boy, a bit taller than the rest and standing out on the left edge of the group, looked right at me as I approached in my car, driving into my new neighborhood for the first time with a load of boxes, and he flashed me the widest, most welcoming happy-Easter-Sunday smile, right before looking over his shoulder to see where his cohorts were or if any adults were looking, before turning back and gritting his teeth at me and flipping me his extended middle finger."

I wish I could write with such simple, astute observations, instead of in my long-winded meandering manner.

But anyway, in my grandmother-story way, here are my "unphotographables" from Sunday:

This is a picture I did not take of the aftermath of a gal-friend brunch, the black-and-white text-only placemats littered with crumbs, stained by drips from the gooey egg benedict and splattered with the shared green tea tofu dessert; the smeared used utensils pushed right to the too-small table's edge; the leftover flatbread pizza, packed for takeaway and forgotten on the fourth empty chair.

This is a picture I did not take of 500 oily teenagers pushing us irrevocably forward in an indoor flea market with insufficient lighting from the venue's usual purpose as a nightspot, the packed racks of $5 pre-loved, now un-loved clothes a blur going past the corners of my eyes; a hand clutching my arm for dear life as we navigated through the pack, trying to keep our heads up, breathe and make it out alive; one final look back into a heaving sea of heads and arms and legs.

This is a picture I did take of my garden ornaments as the light slowly went out, which does not in any way represent how I spent my Sunday, except that it does capture my extreme shyness in taking out my camera in public places, in the presence of strangers, in the company of friends, even.

when i say it's funny...

It is, indeed, funny. Trust me, if it didn't reduce me to tears and cause me to bust a gut, would I bother to (a) copy the link, (b) sign in to Blogger, (c) paste it into a new post and (d) write a few succinct words about it?


How To Good-Bye Depression: If You Constrict Anus 100 Times Everyday. Malarkey? Or Effective Way is the actual title of a book. It is on Amazon and all, so it must be legit.

"Besides shooting out a big blank from your buttock, you can feel as if your root chakra leaked sweet hot mucus," I quote from the author. The reviews from those who have read the book are side-splitting, too.



"Coz if you run your mother break a bottle sicker run day boo," he sings. Camels make guest appearances, too.

happy birthday to me

The birthday celebrations started at the stroke of midnight.

The blackforest cake was carried out, the seven candles lit, the lights dimmed, the birthday song sung.

I huffed and puffed and blew the candles out and made a symbolic first cut. And the cake was promptly returned to the fridge. The perfunctory cake-cutting ceremony was simply to allow the early birds in my family -- ie. everyone but me -- to have it for breakfast at 7am.

I had half of my share of cake at 10am, to save my stomach for lunch at 11.45am. I have no idea what happened to the other half, it just disappeared.

As the privileged birthday girl, I gave myself the day off and forced M and M -- how confusing, the same initials! -- to partake of steamboat at Shinobi at PSA Building, where we had the best century egg dish in the world (Yes, I'm prone to superlatives). The mentaiko grilled prawns were pretty awesome too. I may have licked the sauce off the leaf that was used to garnish the dish.

We headed home to digest the food and rest for a bit before the next scheduled birthday event -- Sentosa with doggie and Ollie.



It was a wash-out. Five minutes after we arrived, it started to drizzle in earnest (If you look carefully, you will see a woman with umbrella by the water's edge). Not that it really made a difference, doggie was determined not to get wet above his legs and just obstinately stood there in the shallow waters. I could only watch longingly as a tiny terrier paddled away merrily. Ollie, too, was not a fan of the beach, especially the sand.

As we chilled at KM8 with mocktails and chicken wings, I recalled that one of the Ms and I were here four years ago exactly, sans kid and dog, who both did not exist yet at that time.

Rushing home, I cleaned the dog (of sand), cleaned the car (of sand, too) and then cleaned myself (more sand), just in time for dinner at Timbre with M and her friends, which she assured me wasn't a set-up. I gullibly believed her.

But it wasn't that bad. In fact, it wasn't bad at all. The fact that I was oblivious to who she was setting me up with probably played a big part.

I had a little too much Heineken and some strange ducky pizza, spoke to a Chinaman who enunciated his English words better than me, tried to guess the age of a 31-year-old with a 26-year-old face, discovered a chic chick had bought one of my dresses, discussed the impossibility of a platonic "I had a great time last night" text message and met two rabid Mayday fans who were also planning to go to Taipei, one of whom even spontaneously belted out 志明與春嬌.



(Birthday balloon from McDonald's, from a party my sis attended the night before.)

The whole of the next day, Saturday, was spent in anticipation of Girls' Night Out, a rarity since out of the six girls, three were in fact mothers. And five of them were either married, newly married or soon to be married. Which kinda makes Girls' Night Out a logistics nightmare.



(There is actual photo documentation of that night of hard partying, but this is the only photo that will ever see the light of day, because one of the girls is paranoid about unflattering photos of her being splashed all over the national papers should she be tragically killed in a terrorist attack, while another wants to maintain a mysterious image to intimidate her subordinates but they would never take her seriously if photos of our drunken debauchery ever surfaced.)

Since I have a history of amnesia after drinking, here's what little I remember:

No. of people in the car: Seven (five in the back with the time-tested in-out-in-out-in formation, one in the front, and one chauffeur)
No. of pubs crawled to: Four (Overeasy, One On The Bund, Bellini Grande and Zouk, which I last visited when I was in my 20s, I swear)
No. of drinks: Eleven and one-third (Three Sex On The Beach, two Ginger Cosmopolitans, one Bellini, two Apple Shooters, two Cowboy something, one Tequila Shot and one Flaming Lamborghini shared by three birthday gals. This list is courtesy of Foxxxy Mama, because I also lose all ability to count after three drinks)
Best line of the night: "How come this chop cannot?" (Uttered by M, who morphed into an Ah Lian when sloshed, after we were denied entry to Phuture despite having a "chop")
Second-best line of the night: "My ex-boyfriend was a trishaw rider." (True confession by C, not a trashy headline from a female magazine, which I made a mental "note to self" with supreme effort)
No. of smelly farts: Two (both on the dancefloor, probably by the same boy, since they smelled exactly of the same kind of bad)
No. of fart/poop anecdotes exchanged: Countless
Total hours: Seven (from 8.30pm till 3.30am)
No. of hangovers: Two

Hangover-free the next morning -- I never have hangovers. I have also never vomited, even during my party heyday. It is probably the greatest accomplishment of my life -- I was even the earliest one at a birthday brunch with fellow January baby R and the gang at Colbar.



So-so bacon and eggs, not-bad fried beehoon, retro laid-back atmosphere and lots of goss about shotgun weddings, one-sided break-ups and the cover-up of the murder of an azalea plant.

After a much-needed nap, it was off for a field trip with K, her RB and X (by the way, I think it's way cool to have X as an initial) to the last kampung in Singapore, Kampung Buangkok, where I made the deadly mistake of wearing shorts.

But the itchiness of being eaten alive by mozzies did add authenticity to the entire trip down memory lane, even if the entire compound had the feel of a desserted 1970s film set.



In the spirit of nostalgia, I decided to shoot film, a stressful yet liberating experience. Stressful because I had to focus, adjust shutter speed and aperture manually and only 36 shots to do it. Liberating because there was no chimping involved.

Thankfully, my karma levels had miraculously spiked and my photos were not a complete disaster. Well, not all of them anyway. So I'm well pleased.



The evening ended with a prata dinner washed down with Milo Dinosaur, followed by much squealing over Gigi the Guatemalan Giraffe, and one final birthday present of a taxi ride to my doorstep.

I must say, in spite of the self-indulgent birthday weekend festivities during which all work came to a standstill (I piah-ed and met my two deadlines the day before), I'm not really much into celebrating the day I was born. It's celebrating the friendships built up over the (many many, too many) years which makes it meaningful. Mushy but true.



I had a ball. Thank you, for all the cake, presents and love. Okay, you may go and vomit now.

34 things to do before 35

Now that I'm officially 34, I can start on my list (inspired by Andrea of hula seventy and driven by my list-making compulsion).

1. Complete Project 365

2. Read all the unread books I own before buying more

3. Learn to use Photoshop

4. Touch my toes

5. Sell a photo/print

6. Shoot one good photo on film

7. Watch Mayday in concert again, preferably in Taipei

8. Achieve glowing skin

9. Build a Lego house according to its original plan

10. Finish painting all the pictures in the Paint By Numbers kit

11. Buy a cow

12. Make one dish from every recipe book I own

13. Grow my hair until it is one length

14. Stop using eye cream

15. Add my own drawings to an old painting

16. String up garlands and fairy lights over my room

17. Go somewhere with snow

18. Teach Randolph to do Downward Dog

19. Reupholster my mannequin

20. Make a layer cake

21. Sew my own bathrobe

22. Fix the stopped cuckoo clock

23. Make a banner for the blog

24. Hold a picnic with balloons

25. Grow a succulent plant

26. Go to the dentist

27. Have my eyebrows professionally plucked

28. Type a letter on the cursive typewriter

29. Go on a road trip or train journey

30. Create PDFs of the Semi-Successful Social Experiment

31. Complete Tintin comic book collection

32. Keep a scrapbook of home decor and other inspirations

33. Use the words anachronism, quotidian and paradigm (not in the same sentence)

34. Type out this list and pin it somewhere prominent

stalk stalker stalkest

A Thousand Words from Ted Chung on Vimeo.
The romantic in me thinks this is beautiful, especially since I often wish to take photos of sleeping passengers on public transport. (I'm too chicken though.)

The cynic in me just thinks: "Stalker alert! Stalker alert!"

On a related note: One of the Swirl Girls (not me) has a secret admirer (in other words, stalker) who actually turned up at the shop and stealthily slipped a note expressing his ardent interest in being her friend. Too bad he didn't have the foresight to include his phone number.

love letters

This story about a crate of old love letters appeals to the nostalgic fool in me. The final paragraph at the end (read all three parts, it's a bit long-winded and could have used tighter editing, but oh well, still a good story) made me want to dig up my old love letters from under my bed and give them away.

strictly for the mayday fan

One of the perks of converting from apathetic to rabid fan is that you discover old albums full of gems, like this one. This video makes me want to be back in high school (my school was really called a High School), except of course there weren't any boys in mine. Or typhoons. But I think we did play in the rain, loiter in school and rearrange the tables.


The making of the video, which was banned -- because of the nose-digging scene, perhaps?


Another behind the scenes snippet. How can grown men be so adorable?


Unrelated to the above, but hilarious if you know 志明與春嬌.


And of course, a blast from the past. You can barely tell who is who in the video.

let me eat cake

"I was having this awful nightmare that I was 32. And then I woke up and I was 23. So relieved. And then I woke up for real, and I was 32."
~ Celine, Before Sunset (you have to imagine Julie Delpy saying it with a delicious French accent)

I know my birthday is fast approaching -- 10 more days! -- when I suddenly have a social life and weekends are all pre-booked for dinners and drinks.

And, no, I'm not going to be 32.

spring cleaning the blog

To my horror, I realise I have 45 blog posts which are still in draft mode, some as old as 2005. (To be fair, some are actually posts which I took down. You know, those of a textual nature.)

Anyway, I'm not sure why I never posted this one dated 10 Dec 2007, about my secret karaoke buddy (well, not so secret anymore).

Perhaps I wasn't sure if what I wrote would hold true, but now, with hindsight, I am convinced my observation was right.

I vaguely recalled writing this only because of the previous post. And then someone asked for his number today. So clearly it's time for this post to see the light of day.

Here's the cleaned-up version:

Last Saturday night, I did something which I'd only ever done with one other person.

I sang karaoke.

I've always resisted singing in front of other people, despite having a number of KTV queens as friends. The only exception is my sis, and even then she sings 70% of the time we go K together.

It's not that I'm tone deaf (do tone deaf people know they are tone deaf?) or my voice is horrible (do people with horrible voices know that their voices are horrible?), but I'm painfully self-conscious when faced with mikes or cameras or public speaking or, in this case, semi-public crooning. Heck, I get the jitters when I have to speak at meetings even. ("Errrrr...I agree with what so-and-so said...errrrrr...ya.")

Back to Saturday night.

An old friend was back in town after four months in Hong Kong and we met up.

Actually, he wanted to meet for kopi, but I was working as a salesgirl, he said let's do drinks, but I dragged him to a fashion show instead, we then had supper at his fave Tiong Bahru zichar, after which we had ran out of things to do.

He wanted to karaoke and he could be very persuasive if he wanted to. So Party World it was.

Curled up with my legs under me for warmth on the red vinyl bench, I clutched a cold mike in even colder hands.

Kindly, he picked songs which he guessed I would know. Jay Chou. Cheer Chen. Mayday. I tried my best to speed read the lyrics, breathe and sing, all at the same time.

Like one of those compartmentalised KTV rooms, our friendship is self-contained. Now and then, one of us would go out, to use the loo, to have a smoke, to take a call, to make contact with the outside. We only existed in the present, even though we had not seen each other for more than a year. We barely even looked at each other, concentrating as we were on the large fonts on the screen and tiny buttons on the remote.

He asked, what happened with the guy you were involved with, and I gave a bitter, oh he got married. He went, oh. And that was that.

There was no need for more explanations, just like there was no need for me to ask, where's your girlfriend tonight? How's she coping with you being based in Hong Kong? Are you going to get married?

Details seemed superfluous. They didn't exist within the room.

And when we part, we make vague plans -- yeah, let's meet up again next year, sure I'll let you know if I go to Hong Kong -- but nothing firm. No past, because that's too complicated. No future, because that's assuming too much. We are just happy to enjoy each other's company -- in the present.

Footnote: Since that night, we've karaoked together three times? Seven times? The number doesn't really matter because each time is not unlike the other. Yet, it's never dull or repetitive. Even though we even sing the same old songs.

donch mess with me*

《麥來亂》
曲：怪獸
詞：阿信

眼淚鹹 哭到眼淚 不鹹 過一天 痛一天 一天親像 一冬
過一冬 你又找阮 開講 你說你 你想我 我的一冬 攏無採工

最怕你
講你猶原思念 擱再給阮希望
最怕你 說你愛我 心擱破洞 我擱山崩

電話我也不接 找我我也不睬
麥來亂 無緣的人 麥擱來亂 去愛別人

真感謝 感謝你的 陪伴 自屏東 到基隆 走過這多 美夢
夢醒了 咱是無緣 的人 拜託你 麥回頭 麥擱問我 目眶怎紅

為怎樣 我奈這白目 我奈這飯桶 啊
明知影 你是這危險 啊擱學不會 閃
放著你 甲我的青春 甲我的生活 攏拆吃入腹

So. I'd been mulling over what, if anything, I should post about the Mayday concert, that super high open-air gig where we sang and screamed and waved and jumped for close to three hours without caring whether our old bones could take it. (The next day, we discovered they couldn't. But the aches were so worth it.) And did I mention the concert was free?

It was too memorable not to mention, yet all I had were random thoughts, with the above song as the soundtrack in my mind (and on repeat mode on my earphones).

1. I'm this close to transferring my allegiance from drummer Guan You to frontman Ashin, mainly because I realise the former is truly dispensable to the band. (He wasn't able to be at the concert because of his father-in-law's funeral, but I hardly missed him.)

2. While Ashin is charismatic and earnest and lanky, I still find him too glib. I have a natural distrust of sweet talkers and prefer those who fumble to express themselves (cf. Guan You and of course Jay the mumble king).

3. I am a disgrace to the entire Hokkien clan with my pathetic grasp of the dialect. Only now that I'm reading the lyrics to 《麥來亂》 closely that I realise it is 無緣的人, not 無用的人. Oh, and they didn't sing this during the concert, or the previous one either.

4. I'm suddenly reminded of when I first heard this song, sung not by Ashin, but by one of the only two people who have ever heard me karaoke. It was just the two of us making a fool of ourselves at the KTV, fueled by an entire bucket of cheap Heinekens, on a very late night (or very early morning). Then, pressing random buttons, he stumbled upon an improbable Anita Mui-David Tao duet of 沙滩 that moved us to just listen in silence.

5. Midway through the concert, during the very emo 突然好想你, the merest thought of someone grazed my mind.

6. After the concert, I realised my phone had brrr-ed without me noticing. It was that someone. We haven't spoken in more than a year.

7. I didn't reply, but obviously, it's still on my mind, a fortnight later. 麥來亂 無緣的人 麥擱來亂 去愛別人!

Edited to add more random tangential thoughts:

8. I can be completely bowled over by a tender Hokkien love song. 好不好 will do just fine.

9. 溫柔 is still my fave Mayday song, after all these years.

10. I wish Jay's last album didn't suck so bad, because I want to love it as much as I do Mayday's. But I couldn't even listen to it more than twice.

11. Neon sticks are essential for future concerts. This is a note to self.

* "Donch mess with me" is my lame-ass translation of 麥來亂.

foot fetishist alert

This is one of those posts I've had on the back burner since last year. Alas, just when I finished linking all the pix to Flickr, a new photo vaulted to the #1 position. (My very first Explore. Yay!)

Out of the top 10 most viewed photos on my Flickr, there are six which feature either my feet, my shoes or both (all not exactly my best work, just point down and shoot). The one with my bra is also wildly popular, as is, understandably, the "porn" one. Go figure.


# 10 First day of school


#9 75A


#8 Basketball Diaries


#7 Semi New Converse


#6 Looking For A Puddle


#5 Helter Skelter


#4 Stepping Up


#3 Feet Up Take A Break


#2 Camera Gear Porn


#1 Tulle Pretty

creative caption contest: empty pool

It's waters are gone but it won't be empty for ever, like the ebb and flow of tides, it will be full again once more, once again. That's is life.

creative caption contest

One of my karma-decreasing habits (of which I have many) is mocking the captions of earnest-till-it-hurts photographers.

Here is a selection for your enjoyment, and may we burn together in hell for snorting so loudly with laughter. (Bad grammar and spelling not corrected to retain the original flavour.)

Pink flowers with sepia tinge: This is what my dream's all about, both beautiful inside and outside.

Park bench with black and white treatment: This bench is so lonely, it's standing alone all by itself, regardless of the surroundings, it still stands still.

Pair of headphones: Headphones, linked to a music player. Just like how our hearts are being linked together.

Lighted red candle: Everyone has a heart, just like a candle. It's flame in the center, is the only thing that has a life.

Flock of pigeons devouring bread: Birds of feather, flock together. All of them want to have a bite, just like us. All of us wouldn't want to live a life without food and water.

Dilapidated basketball board: How many basketball players it has helped to train? How much joy it has brought to the boys & girls all these years? Today, it lies abandoned.........wonder anybody still remember its existence?

Boys running in a race: Dashing toward the finishing line...........juz for this race only........for these 2 boys, there is still a long way to go for the race that we all have to participate in life.

Hand holding mini kueh (above): Join in the fun and lower your karma, too, by captioning my photo. May the worst caption win!

happy japanese family

On our last night in Osaka, we dined at a restaurant in this vast underground complex, dressed up to look like Edo-period Japan, with narrow streets, wooden facades, water pumps which sprouted water when you pumped them, old signboards, etc etc. It felt like a movie set. The food, though, was hardly artificial or touristy. In fact, it was so awesome we had epiphanies over a stewed tomato, I kid you not.

We took a photo at the end with our indefatigable tour guide (who speaks not-bad English) and her boss (who doesn't) -- she's the mother, he's the father, R's the son and I'm the daughter. It's almost criminal how much fun we had on a trip we didn't pay a yen for.

talk rock

Have I mentioned that Rockson Takumi Tan, the love of my life, is back? Swoon.