it cannot wait, i’m yours

i’m not quite sure why, but every time i come back to singapore after a trip, i feel totally disinclined to blog at all. as much as the egoist/narcissist in me loves my own writing, i think my zeal for blogging has quite considerably waned.

anyway, penang trip was great. lots of good food, great company and conversations, etc. the only bad thing about the trip was my terrible bout of motion sickness on the bus back.

unfortunately for myself, until my stomach decided to regurgitate itself, i didn’t know that i was that prone to motion sickness. it was quite my fault, really. we had a huge dinner and in our rush i’d forgotten to take the anti-nausea medicine (the last of two miserly capsules prescribed by our ever-generous UHWC). i only remembered about an hour or two into the bus journey, when i woke up to feel a tinge of queasiness in my stomach.

better late than never, i thought, so i just quickly took the medicine.

which unfortunately proved to be too late. for some reason, i’d found that i couldn’t go back to sleep on the bus. and that the ball of discomfort and queasiness in my stomach was increasing to a most distressing level while i broke out into a cold sweat.

before i knew it, i was puking into a plastic bag.

that, and willing the queer sensations in my stomach to go away and not induce me to barf again were basically what i did for the rest of the bus trip that never seemed to end.

obviously, one plastic bag did not suffice. not when my stomach was intent on not keeping anything. not even a few sips of water. which made me very miserable, tired and thirsty because i couldn’t quite sleep, and didn’t dare drink anything because i knew it would just come out again.

in short, the motion sickness was terrible and i would never ever like to experience it again.

anyway, seeing that i’m under strict orders now to divulge the more “sensitive” details of our trip, i can’t quite blog much. i guess photos will have to suffice? except that i didn’t take very many—dr e and shanta took most of the photos. shall just grab the photos from them next time.

dark clouds over the beach-the best photo i took on the trip.

us chilling on the batu ferringi beach

old trafford ramly burgers! and no, we didn't try them :(

in other news, we (read: the usual FASS gang) need to meet up for ramly burgers soon! vanessa, if you’re reading this, reply my sms! if you’re thinking what sms, it’s your phone being wonky again. sms or call me anyway!

and i’m such a procrastinator it’s not funny. i even procrastinate on figuring out the hours i’ve done for the book project. okay fine fine i’ll do it tomorrow, after i wake up. like jo said, i need to get the 50th anniversary book like seriously over and done with. and get the money.

I won’t hesitate no more, no more
It cannot wait I’m sure
There’s no need to complicate
Our time is short
this is our fate, I’m yours

(darned song is stuck in my head and just refuses to get out. sheesh.)

penang at 3am

hello from penang at 3am!

we just came back from watching the dark knight and damn, was it good. i thought it was a bit too long, but on the whole it was a great movie. i’ve never really been a fan of the batman franchise, but this has definitely got me interested again.

anyway, penang’s been great so far. well maybe not the 12-hour bus ride on transtar, where it gets very quickly uncomfortable when the guy in front of you lowers his seat all the way. which makes it almost too close for comfort. the chair itself is okay, but something about it just made my legs kinda cramp most of the time.

after breakfast at a j-something market, we headed for our hotel – the mingood hotel. which isn’t too bad actually. room (and bathroom) is bigger than heeren inn and room is less creepy than heritage hotel. haha.

okay time to go off, shanta’s done with the bathroom. see everyone soon!

penang!

whew. after repeated scares that i might be having conjunctivitis just before my penang trip, my eyes finally cleared up and stopped being red and puffy today.

so penang is still on! woohoo.

two trips away from singapore on my own this hols! fantastic. even if it’s just across the causeway.

okay can’t talk, need to finish packing.

see you all when i get back! :D

freeeee!

oh god, we are finally done with the damned book.

well, not 100% done, because we still need to look at the first proof from the printer and make whatever adjustments we couldn’t be bothered to make anymore at 6am in the morning, but hey, at least we don’t have to deal with the book until it comes back, right?

so for now, it’s time for a nice, long rest. except that i’m kind of too tired and too hungry to sleep.

but anyway, i’m finally FREE! now i just have to sit down and figure out how much i’ve earned, submit the invoice and wait for a few months for the money to come in. and also work on more editing/writing jobs for jo in the meantime. the money is pretty good and it just happens that i have a ‘hidden’ talent for proofreading and editing. am going to save the money to get myself a nice new desktop or laptop.

ok i’m just way too hungry to go and sleep now. i shall eat something before i conk out for the next 12 hours or so.

just say the word and i’ll stay

oh boy. this week of work has been so long and tiring, i’d almost swear that it feels longer than a week. which might be because i’ve had to work this weekend.

the only good thing is the money – at $8.74 an hour, working close to full-time for a week really adds up to a lot. i was filling in my timesheet and figuring out how much i earned this week, and i was a bit surprised at how much it was. i suppose it’s sort of, kind of normal, but i’m a bit like wow, i earned more than one month of my usual allowance in one week! and the good thing is that it’s going to pay for my singfest ticket if i do go.

also, the good thing about working in hall is that i have zero transport expenses. all i do is walk over to the hall office. in addition to that, i haven’t had to spend very much on food because most of my lunches and dinners are covered by dr e and jo. also, (this is the best perk, really) going to their place means i get to play with ciaran! who is just sooo darned cute. i would take and put up pictures, but dr e and jo will have my head for that, so no, cannot.

but as i’ve said like over and over again, this is so darned exhausting. and the scary thing is, it’s probably going to be just as, if not more, tiring when i graduate and start working. which is why i very much prefer to remain a student… or barring that, i get some cushy job with very very flexible hours. only in my dreams, maybe.

in any case, i just can’t wait for this to end so i can go out and have fun. and eat nice stuff. like i said to yy and maryam already on msn, WHAT HAPPENED TO RAMLY BURGER! haha. and also for school to start. already did my module preference exercise, but i’m still a bit unsure about how many modules i should take, and exactly which 3 or 4 history modules i should do. oh well, i’ll see.

okay, shall go rest a bit and treat myself to a bit of FFTA2 now.

and here’s another song from my album of the moment – augustana’s can’t love, can’t hurt.

I forget you and your lips
Half an hour and my heart stops beating
You still love the things you did
I could want you
But my heart is shattered

Love is such a cruel game
And it won’t let you want to be the same

Do you come down?
Dream me down
And how does it feel
Feeling down
You’re wasting your breath
Just say the word
And I’ll stay

I was once a man like you
Half a day and then my love was faded
I could put a ring on too
I could make your life a living hell

Love is such a cruel game
And it won’t let you want to be the same

Do you come down?
Dream me down
And how does it feel
Feeling down
You’re wasting your breath
Just say the word
And I’ll stay

And love is such a cruel game
And it won’t let you want to be the same
And it won’t let you want to run away

Do you come down?
Dream me down
Just turn around
Just say the word
Honey, know
Say the word
Don’t ignore
Say the word
And now I’ll stay
I’ll stay
I’ll stay

augustana, i’ll stay.

hold me down, sweet and low

for the first time in a long while i actually have nothing to do in the hall office. or rather, i probably have something to do, but i don’t know what it is yet because dr. e has somehow disappeared from the hall office. but hmmm okay he’s still working because he’s just sent an email… so maybe he’s gone back to his office at the history department?

anyway, being stuck in limbo like this is quite agonising. i want to outright slack, but i think it’ll be too obvious, considering that i’m currently sitting at the reception window area thing at the hall office, and if rashidah or auntie doris were to look at me, it’ll be pretty obvious that i’m playing mahjong on viwawa… so here i am, blogging, instead. at least it doesn’t look totally unproductive from far. haha.

fortunately the amount of work i’ve had to do these few days has become a lot more manageable. it’s still tiring me out, though, this sit at office and (pretend to) do work for hours on end thing. at least i get paid (i hope?) and free lunches in the process. plus the conversation usually tends to be hilarious. i’m just glad i’m not the usual victim of suan-ing – that honour goes to yeap mei yi.

today’s lunch was different, in that we didn’t just go behind. jo was with us and dr e had the car so we went to this place called haato. i had carbonara spaghetti, which was not bad but not exactly the best i’ve eaten either. they also had gelato and waffles – the gelato is nothing to write home about but the waffles are pretty good. and conversation was funny as usual, especially since jo was around, as well as shanta.

also, i’m not quite sure if my mum will let me go, but we’re kinda planning to go down to penang for a weekend. we meaning dr e, mei yi, ashok, michael, shanta and maybe jo. and of course, yours truly. we’ll have a penang local for a guide (mei yi) so it’ll be quite fun. or rather, quite filling, since i think we’ll mostly be eating, haha. i’m not sure if we’re going at the end of this month or august, but if you’re interested in joining in, just holler. the more the merrier, right?

and haha actually it’s quite fun working in the hall office, because there’s rashidah (who calls me ee ee. haha!) and auntie doris to liven things up. there’s all the “harmless office gossip” and lots of other funny things – ask me when you see me because i can’t quite put them in writing. haha. and i just ate like half a grapefruit because rashidah had cut one up and it was a bit too sour for auntie doris. i suppose one of the nicest and most overlooked things about hall is the hall office staff – they’re just so nice and friendly that it’s a pity we don’t have time to put them in the book.

anyway, regarding singfest, me and meiyi (ngeow, not yeap) are quite set on going… so now we’re just looking for more people to join us. let me know if you want to go see jason mraz, onerepublic and alicia keys live! :D

let’s see… i can’t think of very much else to say. except that i’m bored. boo.

sigh. shall end off with my song of the moment, and go back to pretending to work until 6pm. hahaha.

Anywhere you go, anyone you meet
Remember that your eyes can be your enemies
I said but hell is so close, and heaven’s out of reach
I ain’t giving up quite yet
I’ve got too much to lose

Hold me down, sweet and low, little girl
Hold me down, sweet and low and I will carry you home
Hold me down, sweet and low, little girl
Hold me down, and I’ll carry you home

The rain is gonna fall, the sun is gonna shine
The wind is gonna blow, the water’s gonna rise
She said, when that day comes, look into my eyes
No one’s giving up quite yet, we’ve got too much to lose

Hold me down, sweet and low, little girl
Hold me down, sweet and low and I will carry you home,
Hold me down, sweet and low, little girl
Hold me down

And I’ll carry you all the way
When you say you’re fine
But you’re still young and out of line,
When all I need is to turn around
To make it last, to make it count,
I ain’t gonna make the same mistakes
That put my mama in her grave
I don’t wanna be alone

Hold me down, sweet and low, little girl
Hold me down, sweet and low and I will carry you home
Hold me down, sweet and low, little girl
Hold me down, and I’ll carry you home

augustana, sweet and low.

wherever it goes i always know

for some reason, the work i’m doing for the never-ending 50th anniversary book project is terribly exhausting.

which is a bit odd because my job scope doesn’t even really sound that tiring… does it? i mean, it’s just reading and sending lots of emails (although i realise that i’ve sent close to a hundred emails over two weeks or so… yikes.), sifting through and sorting out (a few hundred?) photographs for the various chapters, flipping through thirty years’ worth of yearbooks to try and figure out eusoff’s previous IHG results, lots of proof-reading…

somehow all of this alone is enough to make me conk out at around 2am every night, but almost impossible to drag out of bed at 9am. sigh, what happened to my only needing about 4 or 5 hours of sleep?

we’re on a very tight deadline so the work isn’t going to get any easier from now, but the strange thing is that as tight as the deadline is, it somehow feels like it’s going to take forever to wrap up and be over and done with.

as usual, the only bright spots are the end of this whole thing, and of course, the money. which i will definitely need if i really do go for singfest. i suppose i’m 51% for going? okay fine i’m still pretty much undecided. boo at my indecisiveness, again.

and boy was today tiring. after having my patience throughly tested by a certain writer S in the morning, i headed to peace centre with allan to try and settle the printing of the yearbook… only to realise upon reaching there that yearbook printing is heavy duty stuff that the shops there don’t do. great.

there was nothing much we could do but head back to hall, so we did just that. after my sneezing bouts in the hall office in the morning, i decided that it would be a better idea for me to work in my room, just so i don’t sneeze my way into another cold, after just recovering from that horrible one before. i’d barely started work before dr e called and asked if i’d like to have coffee with him and mei yi behind. and of course, who was going pass up on a free break and coffee?

after the short break, it was back to my room to try and churn out something for the still non-existent sports chapter. and there’s just something about sitting at a desk with pen and paper that just turns on the “SLEEP” switch in my brain, because barely half an hour later i found myself nodding off… oops.

i was supposed to go have dinner at dr e’s place, but jieying came over to ask if i wanted to go out and have dinner with her and jerm, so i went with them for dinner. we went to superdog at vivo, where i had the chili cheese fries, as usual. and superdog actually has pretty affordable student meals now, compared to their usual too-expensive stuff. i’ll still go for the chili cheese fries any day, though.

and i suppose the most tiring part for me was the shopping after dinner. didn’t really expect that, actually. at least i got a new tshirt from esprit out of it. and some groceries from giant – yoghurt, sesame chicken instant noodles, butter and special k fruit and yoghurt (yay!).

so yes, that was my day, which was rounded off by a surprise visit from vanessa while i was halfway through this entry – apparently she’s been bunking in with shanta every tuesday. anyway, it was nice to see her again. still haven’t seen or really talked to the other two though. i’m so out of their loop i don’t even really know what they’re doing now. maybe you guys can update me if and when you read this :P

okay, time to go sleep soon. wish me luck at work…

and this is probably over-played on the radio (i wouldn’t know, since i don’t listen to the radio), but i’ve just kinda found this song, and i quite like it :)

Will you count me in?

I’ve been awake for a while now
You’ve got me feeling like a child now
‘Cause every time I see your bubbly face
I get the tingles in a silly place

It starts in my toes
And I crinkle my nose
Wherever it goes I always know
That you make me smile
Please stay for a while now
Just take your time
Wherever you go

The rain is fallin’ on my window pane
But we are hidin’ in a safer place
Under the covers stayin’ safe and warm
You give me feelings that I adore

They start in my toes
Make me crinkle my nose
Wherever it goes
I always know
That you make me smile
Please stay for a while now
Just take your time
Wherever you go

What am I gonna say
When you make me feel this way?
I just, mmm

It starts in my toes
Makes me crinkle my nose
Wherever it goes
I always know
That you make me smile
Please stay for a while now
Just take your time
Wherever you go

I’ve been asleep for a while now
You tucked me in just like a child now
‘Cause every time you hold me in your arms
I’m comfortable enough to feel your warmth

It starts in my soul
And I lose all control
When you kiss my nose
The feelin’ shows
‘Cause you make me smile
Baby just take your time now
Holdin’ me tight

Wherever, wherever, wherever you go
Wherever, wherever, wherever you go
Wherever you go, I always know
‘Cause you make me smile even just for a while

colbie caillat, bubbly.

federer lost :(((

sigh. after staying up till now despite a migraine (exchanging the occasional YESSS and NOOO messages with meiyi along the way), after federer managed to fight back from being two sets down… i can’t believe he lost in the end :(((

oh well… time to go sleep now… i still have to go work in the hall office tomorrow. gah.

[edit: apparently, almost every federer fan i know who watched the match (myself included) nearly had heart attack(s). wimbledon finals = the new #1 cause for heart failure]

my heart is wearing thin

ok, so i obviously didn’t blog like i promised yesterday. because, well, i got distracted. first by federer’s match with safin, then by MSN and finally by final fantasy tactics A2: grimoire of the rift, which is the latest game i’m addicted to.

actually, i want to rant more than i want to write about having to work 10-6 at the hall office for the past few days. and unsurprisingly the rant is related to… yes, the 50th anniversary book project. so far i daresay that i’ve been rather productive, and i have not really minded all the work apart from the fact that it’s somehow tiring me out very quickly.

yes, for all my procrastination, once in a while i do get into this frame of mind where i like to be productive and get things done quickly and effectively. which is why it greatly irritates me when i delegate, no, ask very nicely of someone to do something, and it gets done pretty halfheartedly, in a way that will result in pointless delays for everyone else.

for goodness’ sake, does it make an ounce of sense to upload a 1.4gb-sized (already compressed, mind you) file of photos and ask all the designers to look through it for the photos they need? not to mention that this file alone is taking like nearly half an hour to extract? when it would have been easier for everyone if the person with the responsibility of retrieving the photos had just bothered to put them into separate files according to categories that i’d already given in my very first request?

and the person has the cheek to come and tell me that he wouldn’t know what categories the photos were supposed to be in, and that it would be better for me to do it.

which obviously pisses me off a lot. evidently because it’s more work for me that i don’t need, considering that i’ve already been working all week and would like very much to take a bit of a break. but more importantly, it’s creating completely unnecessary delays. firstly, it’s double-work in that it could have been done much more quickly and easily right at the beginning. secondly, knowing my internet connection at home, it’s going to take me eons to upload back a 1.4gb file, even when separated into a few files.

hello, this is not even supposed to be my job in the first place. i’m not the photos person, YOU are. so why the eff are you throwing this back to me when you’ve done practically nothing in the time that you happily went back to your home country and all of us were still back here working???

and okay this really takes the cake. i’ve just looked at the files that were extracted, and what did i find? that the photos are in folders labelled things like DP, EVC, expedition… wtf. either that someone is clearly lacking in common sense or is just attitude-ing me.

while i’m not naming names because i just want to rant and not spoil anyone’s impression of other people, i don’t quite care if the person in question reads this, either. i don’t think i’m in the wrong here, and you can call me whatever you want but this is just the way i am.

as per human nature, i am overly tolerant of my own shortcomings (at least for those that i’m aware of) but when people throw this kind of stupid crap at me when i’m working, i’m sorry, but i just become expressively intolerant. and part of my shortcomings is that i like to complain.

which explains this almost needless and useless rant. but hey, at least i’m feeling marginally better now.

so beware if you do a project with me in future, seeing how anal and siao i am.

no actually i’m kidding, most people i know have more common sense than this so i assure you that this kind of pissy rant on my blog about people i work with is quite rare. not counting the people i did the CNM project with before, because those people were truly “exceptional” cases.

in other matters, i got to see what will be my new room last tuesday, and obviously i’m quite excited about the whole thing. we’ve more or less settled the general layout of things in the room, and it’s not bad except for the fact that the room will feel a bit crammed because my parents are adamant about not letting me put the bed horizontally against the wall (some superstitious thing about the head of the bed being against the wall or something) but oh well. at least i get a tv on the wall to make up for that :D

while as usual i can’t quite wait for school to start again, i don’t exactly want the holidays to end, either. and i’m not quite sure what next sem will be like, because looking at the list of history mods, i can actually only think of 3, maximum 4 that i might possibly want to do. i’m still thinking about whether i should do 4 or 5 mods next sem… oh well, i’ll just wait till it’s time for bidding to really decide.

and i also still can’t decide if i should take the plunge and go for singfest. 200 bucks is insane but the line-up is so good, and this is like a once-in-a-lifetime (or very long time, at least) opportunity. how now brown cow?

finally, one thing that made me quite happy during the week – the HK newspapers actually had charmaine sheh-raymond lam rumours! apparently some reporter saw on some forums about their matching panerai watches, and actually asked raymond about it. and his reaction was to quickly defend charmaine and tell the reporters not to “accuse or misunderstand charmaine” because “watches are usually similar in range and brands”, and that he was wearing that particular watch because he’s the spokesman for it… but he’s not! think he got a bit confused. which is a bit suspicious, no? hehe. go charray!

okay this has been a super long entry so i’ll end here.

omg i wanna go for singfest

yeah the title sums it up.

specifically i want to go for the sunday one because there’s jason mraz! onerepublic! alicia keys! like omg. the saturday one is also not bad. i wouldn’t mind seeing new found glory and simple plan live.

but omg at the sunday. i’m practically dying to go. the only problem is the $200. ($150 for saturday, $300 for the whole weekend). it’s ridiculously ex for a concert… but then again the line-up is incredible.

incidentally, the GST offset that just got credited to my POSB account is $200. hmmm, i wonder…

anyway it’s time for a shower. will blog about my long, dreary days at work in a bit. sad, i know.