A New Year, A New Beginning

A New Year, A New Beginning

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I know I must said this like a million times – I’m restarting my BLOG! This time I’m really serious. To prove my sincerity, I’m going to write at least once a week! That’s my quota for writing.

At least this is a place to let off steam at and it entertains my friends, so why not? Without an outlet to vent my frustration, people around are finding themselves at the end of my tongue lashing… Sigh… My friends are dwindling. So, to save our sanity and relationships, here goes…

It’s That Time of the Year Again! Help!

It’s That Time of the Year Again! Help!

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Oh noooo… It’s that time of the year again! I need to do my Toastmaster’s Project 3 on Thursday! (Yes, I know I know. I do only 1 project a year… Stop rubbing it in!) And.. I have not thought of what to speak about! Arghhh!!! How how how?!
My brain has shut down for the holiday season.. Why did I ever promise to do my speech this time round!

Help help!

Doors are for Decorative Purposes

Doors are for Decorative Purposes

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Armed with the mission of acquiring my first branded bag, my two bodyguards-cum-shopping consultants (Julie and Brenda) and I decided to storm the DFS building down at Orchard Road. Even the most mission oriented soldier would need to answer nature’s call, which, of course, brought us to the posh DFS restrooms.

Once we went through the main door, we were greeted by a ceaseless chatter from the cubicles. Instinctively, we proceeded to the cubicles and we caught two women with their pants down – literally. Do I sound like I’m joking? Seated on two toilet bowls, in two separate cubicles were two women, well, with their pant’s down and animatedly chatting to each other in a chinese dialect, with the doors WIDE OPEN. One of them was wearing a bright red suit. Not only that, they were oblivious to our presence. I checked the door to my cubicle, it was working.

There were a few conclusions I could derive :
1. The doors were for decorative purposes.
2. They did not know how to use the doors.
3. It must have been culturally impolite to close your doors while using the toilet.
4. The doors would hinder the conversation and they wouldn’t be able to hear each other. However, I highly doubt this as they were loud enough to be heard from outside the toilets (That was with the buffer of 1 door – the main one, because their cubicle doors were not closed.)
5. To air the place
6. To share the mutual joy of relief of nature’s call.
7. To show off the branded underwear. (I was too embarrassed to scrutinise the brands. Looked white from far though.)
8. They forgot to bring their umbrellas.
9. They were in a hurry to use the facilities.

I simply can’t think of another reason to make it ten. Therefore, as you can see, it is not necessary to travel overseas to experience cultural exchange. It can happen right under our noses, in the restrooms.

ERP-Is it even vaguely helping??

ERP-Is it even vaguely helping??

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It is yet another trying morning to get myself to the office, which fortunately (with the beautiful waterfront view) or unfortunately, sits smack in the middle of the CBD. With the new ERP schemes in place, traffic does not seem to have subsided under the pressure of the amount of dollars and cents ticking away from the cashcard.

In fact, I have already lost count of the timing and prices of the various gantries. When the ERP initially started, everyone was faithfully keeping track of it and we even had cars queueing on the shoulder of the road to save a few cents for the next cheaper time slot. But now, it was “Hey! When was this stupid gantry erected?! It wasn’t here 3 months back! &#@%$#”

The gantries have been popping up like mushrooms in the most unlikely places! And now, if you try to get home between 6-8pm, you even have to pay! What is this about work-life balance? Are you going to stick around in the office until it is after 8pm? Or are you going to ignore it and join the crowd in paying for it and jamming up the roads? Seems like the plans of the Ministry of Transport and the Singapore Family Planning and Population Board are in conflict? How are we going to have more children and population growth if the parents are not going to be home because they need to avoid paying for the ERP? And the BIG question looms – WILL the SUCCESS of the ERP be at the COST of Singapore’s future BABIES?!!!

Anyway, that is a sidetrack. As I was saying/writing, I have lost count of where/when/how much it cost to get through the gantries, so I simply gave up and stuck to my usual driving habits and just pay LOR…. According to my survey (more like being kapo(nosy) during tea-time), my survey subjects have also given up on remembering the details of the ERP gantries and have stuck to their normal driving times… So HAS THE ERP HELPED?! Right, it has definitely helped in increasing the amount that I need to top up the cashcard though. =p

Soon, you will see the article issued from the LTA on how “after the implementation of the this and this gantry on the this and this place, with the increase of this and this amount of dollars on this and this timing, the average speed on this and this stretch of road has crawled from 30km/h to 32km/h. Congratulations! The ERP has been a tremendous success! With this in view, we will continue to keep this in place until the average speed has finally increased miniscularly to 34km/h.” I have always wondered how the average speeds were measured… definitely not through the speedometer of my car… Looking at it from their perspective, they simply cannot announce that “oh! We have built gantries all over Singapore and increased the toll prices but there is simply no change in the bottleneck situations. We have just as many cars on the road and just as much traffic jam around.” When a problem crops up, they have to do something about it, whether or not it works, is a separate matter..

They call it the Electronic Road Pricing, I call it the Ever Redundant Plan.

The PHANTOM of the OPERA is HERE!

The PHANTOM of the OPERA is HERE!

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I thought I had outgrown Phantom and that I probably wouldn’t enjoy it as much (considering that tonight’s performance was my THIRD!). Phantom’s splendid sets had never ceased to amaze me. The last time I watched it was in London. However, tonight’s show was a strong reminder of its grandeur,the elaborate costumes and emotion evoking songs.

I had the greatest urge to insert my Phantom CD while I was in my car. But, as usual, my stuff was all over the place and it was definitely unreachable at that point of time. Well, the actor who played Phantom was fantastic, as usual. I don’t remember having heard a lousy phantom before. Christine was good as well. However, 3 words appeared in my mind for Raoul – a weak voice. A very weak imitation of Michael Ball.

To me, I have always preferred Les Miserables to Phantom. I find Les Miserables more rousing and Phantom is, a love story. I have never been much of a romance junkie. I do read trashy romance novels now and then for stress relief and as an intermission for heavy duty reading. I even thought that the plot for Sleepless in Seattle was illogical (how could they possibly have recognised each other at the top of the empire state building?! DUH!), only to have my friend accuse me of being UN-romantic.

However, this time, at the final installment, where Phantom gave up Christine so that she could find her own happiness with Raoul, strangely, it felt like something was stuck in my throat. I am becoming a softie as i age. Sigh… Or it might very well, be that my seat was so good that I could see the anguished look on his face!

Phantom to me is more than a world-renowned musical. It brought back fond memories of the MAGXXM, scenes of us rolling around on Seow’s bed, listening to musical CDs, her prancing around in her Phantom T-shirt and all the silly antics (which included making prank calls to the guys in our French class and making them say dumb-ass things). Life was so much simpler and idealistic then. I’m wondering if these are being remembered. I had the urge to call Seow and discuss about Phantom. But, now, everyone has her own life to lead, husband to pander to and children to fuss over. Nothing much, just a very strong sense of loss…

Anyway, it was great that I had been there, done that. It certainly beats not even having such memories at all.

So if you ask me, will I watch Phantom a 4th time? I’ll tell you, “oh yes!” Not only that, I will prepare my Phantom cds on hand so that I will not be suffering from withdrawal after the musical ends.

Well, life goes on…. Back to reality now!

My Brother is Driving Me Nuts! Part 2.

My Brother is Driving Me Nuts! Part 2.

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Remember my “very clean” brother? Well, yesterday, he really outdid himself. I swore that for every cartridge, there was at least 1 bar of ink left. I checked. And, as usual, before every print job, my dear Brother went through his cleanliness routine. He cleaned himself so much that he used up all the available ink and left me stranded for my print job. ARGH! So now, I’m out of ink, and out of “print” job. This is just GREAT! Thanks to my dear Brother….

My Brother is a Cleanliness FREAK!

My Brother is a Cleanliness FREAK!

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Here I am, dying to get my post printed out, in black and white, so that I can use it tomorrow, and then crawl into bed. BUT! My dear brother just has to clean himself! ARGH! Every time I ask him to perform a task, he will clean himself for at least 5-10 minutes before setting his mind to it! What’s his problem! Is there a need to do that?! I can’t stand his freakish habit!

Still, being such a cleanliness freak sure beats the Epson. My last Epson got so clogged up that the nozzles couldn’t be used. That’s how I ended up with Brother. But then again, nothing could beat my faithful HP. He slogged and slaved for me for a good 3 years before he decided that enough was enough. He hung up his inks and went into permanent hibernation. How I miss him!

After my clean little brother expires, I will go back to HP. Nothing beats good old HP….

The Lazy Person’s Way to Tackle a Toastmaster’s Project

The Lazy Person’s Way to Tackle a Toastmaster’s Project

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Yes yes yes. I’m a dead duck. Tomorrow will be the long awaited day to articulate my Toastmaster’s Project 2 speech. It’s much anticipated, considering that I did my Project 1 speech, 1 year back. Procrastination kicks in ever so often.

Now, I can almost see the back of my head with my eyelids being strongly magnetised to the lower side of my eye sockets. My brain can hardly function with less than 8 hours of much needed Zzzzz…

I have, thus, decided to plagarise my own blog and rattle out the post on MRT habits tomorrow. Heck! I figure that since it’s good enough to be read, it should be good enough to recite. But, I wonder if it’s good enough to win the much coveted Speaker’s award. It will be a miracle, since it’s a such a 13th hour work. Oh well, just to get myself through the process. Project 2 here I come!

“Elevated” View

“Elevated” View

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Feeling very satisfied after a full “Fei Siong” (Char Bee Hoon = Fried Noodles) meal, I joined a couple who were waiting for the elevator to arrive. As usual, when the elevator arrived, the LED lit up and the most logical thing to do, was to walk in. The guy (uncle) turned to the lady (auntie) and asked her,”Is this going up or down?” She turned to me (DUH!) and asked me “up or down?”

1. Shouldn’t she be asking the people IN the lift?! (At that time, people were spilling out of the lift.)
2. We were at Plaza Singapura, Level B2! (If you are not familiar with Plaza Singapura, that is the lowest level.) YOU tell me whether it’s going up or down! Going down the lift shaft at this point of time would be highly life threatening!!

Anyway, I forced my eyeballs from rolling and answered her with a straight face, “UP.”

So, we all went in… happily… While in the elevator, SHE gave ME the incredulous look! As if I were the idiot! She probably peeked at the buttons on the panel.

Sheesh! I heard that suppressing one’s natural reactions is unhealthy, it’s probably as bad as stiffling your urge to go to the toilet. I should have told her,”Auntie, this is the lowest level. I hope the lift doesn’t go down anymore.” and give her the “you are siao” look.