Thursday, June 29, 2006

why?

have spent a ridiculously busy week in singapore, mostly eating and spending time with people i haven't seen in awhile. despite the catch-up fatigue (what i call the condition when you retell the same stories to different people so many times that you can do it on autopilot) and the horrific weather, it's been good.

especially the food, glorious food! particularly memorable was the night at chomp chomp i spent with justin. we had:
char kway teow (extra ham1)
fried hokkien mee
BBQ chicken wings
or lua (which justin has decided would be his last meal if he were on death row. i'm still deciding between or lua and sambal kangkong/stingray)
massive jugs of sugarcane juice.

haha everyone who's still on other continents (jo, sheryl and karen this means you), i know your mouths just filled with saliva!

But for all the good things about singapore that i am enjoying at the moment, there is one thing that bothers me. I didn't use to feel this way, but it's probably because i never really noticed this phenomenon 10 months ago. Now tho, it's like i can't escape from it - everywhere i go, it's taunting me. and i really cannot take it anymore. ladies and gentlemen, i give you the regrettable trend that is the croc



it is almost frightening how ubiquitous this (i hesitate to use this word for an item of clothing that posseses none, but) style of shoe has become. i spot them at least twice a day, on little kids to grown men, who really should have more shame.

I just don't get them. for one, they're so ridiculously ugly. like, i've never actually seen a more unflattering silhouette created by footwear EVER. there's the construction-workeresque loafer front, complemented by the random slingback at the end. i can't believe anyone could actually think that a shoe in a style that can only with considerable generosity be described as merely "clunky"; in a style men have ever only worn for protection against extreme weather, could be thought of by ANYONE - no matter how beng - as stylish.

so maybe it's for utility. it's a hardcore plastic (!!) material, with a thick steady platform. but people, there are HOLES (holes which you observe are situated right at the area where the foot is in direct contact, save the shoe, with soil and dirt etc). and it's a SLINGBACK. the shoe will let water and mud in! it protects NOTHING from the rain? so why?

maybe comfort then? they seem like sturdy slip-ons...none of those blisters and stuff. but make no mistake: comfort shoes are unobstrusive sandals, usually in sedate colours that are meant to blend into the background. but these crocs, they come only in bright pink, bright yellow, bright green, bright blue, bright orange etc - colours which are meant to attract attention, and announce to the world loud and proud that yes, i love my crocs. and the people i have seen wear these abominations (including a sad, sad boy who matched his bright yellow t-shirt to his bright yellow crocs, accentuated by rolled-up jeans to better display said crocs) seem to actually revel in this, blissfully unaware that what they are actually announcing is yes, i am a fashion victim.

so, to recap: crocs are from satan and they must be stopped.

i hate them so much that i have in fact added them to the list. that's right, the list. i give you:

friends don't let friends wear....
1. ponchos
2. tights with open-toe shoes
3. crocs

so if anyone who's reading this owns a pair of crocs, please never reveal this fact to me. because if you do, or WORSE, wear them IN FRONT OF ME, the friendship is so over.

Friday, June 23, 2006

jollies.

so after the last paper, i uncork a bottle of rosy's wine, and karen and i drink it while on the way to shanghai 30s. by the time john arrives, we are already pretty high. it was a good lunch though (karen's order: "uh, i want 3 'long's of char siew bao. (looks at us) and i'm NOT sharing with ANYONE!")) after recycling jokes about the nipple cameras in the nudie portrait of some random chink hung prominently in the restaurant, and sneaking sips of the wine despite the 15 pound corkage fee, we stumble out of the restaurant seeing double. karen says (pretty loudly): 'tonight, i am going to find a guy to SHAG!". i agree that this is a good plan. john, stone cold sober, pretends he doesn't know us.

i return home to PACK. it is a long process, ending with me carting 8 bags (yes people, and this is only for storage) to weelee's house. then we watch the england v. sweden match at the lincoln JCR, and it's filled with anxious brits, while i busy myself with deciding whether joe cole or john terry is fitter, and sheryl, john and i crack up everytime the commentator says: "and LAMPARD gets in there!"

fast forward to next evening. praying that my luggage is less than 32 kg, i return my key to the porters (for the last time! sniff) and get on the bus to heathrow. get off at the central bus station, which is a way away from terminal 3. so i set off for terminal 3 with a trolley on which my massive piece of luggage is precariously balanced. there's a tiny pavement next to the road with cars zooming by. i'm handling it until i look up and there's a LAMPPOST right in the middle of the path, effectively bisecting the pavement such that there is no way that i can push my trolley thru. i push the suitcase thru, then the trolley, and get on my way, the realisation that i am not at all sure that my flight is leaving from terminal 3 weighing heavily.

i get there, it's terminal 3, my suitcase is 31 kg, and it is like i have aged 10 years.

13 hour flight. (the highlights were: me asking every half an hour when the meal was going to be served and the stewardess' wonderful singlish "wah, hungry ar?", and reading vicki's awesome plane letter. and also, watching ricky gervais' "extras". so. brilliant!)

the plane lands 10 minutes early. so i emerge from the departure gates to see, absolutely no one. it doesn't help that some random in my plane too emerges to about 15 relatives. i wonder...hmm, what should i do now? so i go change some pounds, and get a 10 cent coin to use the payphone. but the ONLY coin operated phone in the damn airport is not working. the guy says, buy a calling card lor! only 5 dollars!". i say, "i don't want! let me use your phone!".

so i ring my sister:

her: sorry on the way!
me: where are daddy and mummy?!
her: dad's working, and mum has dance class.
me: DANCE CLASS?!
her: it's only once a week, she can't miss it.
me: this is horrific! DANCE CLASS trumps DAUGHTER?!
her: think what, you jesus ar?

ahhh, good times. it's been pretty surreal so far. bukit panjang plaza looks different! and boon lay has a new interchange. lol. thank god lot 1, my old homebase, is still recognisable. and i had sambal kangkong yesterday. ahhhhhh, my whole mouth just filled with saliva thinking about it.

Sunday, June 18, 2006

languishing

aiyoh. the night before, and I am faffing around sending vicki emails about episcopalians, and thinking more about 'should i wear trousers or skirt and tights tomorrow?"; "how should i pin my carnation to my gown?"; "should i go to the bridge on tuesday with karen or to the lincoln party?" then what I should really be thinking about: "what if freedom and determinism doesn't come out? (easy answer: i'm fucked)"; "please let there not 6 sequents and we have to prove them true or false" etc. it's sad, really. but i'm languishing and am defiant.

in other news, why is my blog so quiet?!! even my sister and my father don't comment anymore. it's sad that even the blood-linked have deserted the sinking ship.

eee sorry this is such a shitty teenagery whiney incoherent post. i will leave you with the wisdom that john, sheryl and i (ok, john and i) promulgated over a burger king lunch/panic session:

"eh, singapore standards, a 2:2 is FAIL ok!"

Friday, June 16, 2006

change

celebration and packing all around me - everyone done with exams, ready for summer...can't believe that already i am saying goodbye to people for 3 long months - people i didn't know a year ago, but now i count my nearest and dearest. I remember once getting into one of my "oh my god time flies" moods, and my sister saying, it's good that you feel that time flies - time flies when you're having fun. still, a part of me feels like, no this is too fast - and then i get anxious: i feel like i need to wring every bit out of my short short time here, and when i think about how a year has just sped by, my head hurts to think of how soon it'll all be over. and i want to dig my heels in, and cling on to these moments. that would be a waste of time.

Change

Dissolving in the chemic vat
Of time, man (gristle and fat),
Corrupting on a rock in space
That crumbles, lifts his impermanent face
To watch the stars, his brain locked tight
Against the tall revolving night.
Yet is he neither here nor there
Because tomorrow comes again
Foreshadowed, and the ragged wing
Of yesterday's remembering
Cuts sharply the immediate moon;
Nor is he always; late and soon

Becoming, never being, till
Becoming is a being still.


(R.I.P) Stanley Kunitz