Post-production euphoria over the weekend. We put up our show; a musical, as the kids asked for; made them sing and dance, put them in colourful costumes and let them blow the socks off their audience. New standards, new heights achieved for the Drama Club, everyone seemed to enjoy the performance, even Tina's illustrious guests, though there were still problems with audibility, occasional missed cues, unauthorised ad-libs (not usually so much of a problem) and OTT overacting by certain cast members. The dream has reached fruition and it's a great feeling to accomplish a task this scary to this level of success.

Spent yesterday not doing anything constructive for a change. Caught 'Kingdom of Heaven' and it was nice to be entertained passively, just sitting there in my cinema seat, mindlessly sipping on Coke as scenes of bloodshed passed before my eyes. The movie had some nice touches in its focus on the 'kingdom of Heaven' being in reality in the mind and in the heart of every person living. It isn't in the structures we build, nor in the political borders we raise, but in our humanity towards each other, regardless of colour or creed. That's the problem with being NE coordinator. You read NE into anything...

Today, the dream became cold, hard reality. Performance over, it was time to put away our toys. Large, heavy pieces of set carried up several flights of steps to be stowed securely behind the College Hall from LT4. Bits of costumes, hand props sorted into reusable material and trash, then disposed off properly. We celebrated our newly assigned drama (store) room, though the room is diametrically opposite campus from LT4 and with me leading the way for our tired NYeDC members struggling with armfuls of barang, I felt like Moses leading the Exodus into the promised land -- the people kept complaining how far away it was all the way there. Then when we finally reached our room, it was "too small," "too hot," blah, blah. Kids, ya gotta love 'em.

P.S. How close we are to facing death, maiming, dismemberment or disfigurement on a daily basis. On the way up the atrium flight of stairs, six or seven of us schlepping a heavy raised platform back into the classroom where we had taken it from turned a corner too quickly and too abruptly that one side slammed into the steel bannister with a jarring thud. A couple of seconds ago, my left hand was supporting that side and might have been turned to powder if I hadn't just moved it to get a better grip elsewhere.

Woke up at 0900, a luxury after maybe 3 weeks of early mornings. We're pumped, opening night of 'Oz' being quite a hit with our crowd.

As a club NYeDC 05 pulled together and focused on getting our show out. Whether in training, rehearsal, technical, handicraft or artistic activities, everyone found a niche and gave everything they had and more. Every rehearsal found a new angle, a new toy, or a new gag with improvisation and seat-of-the-pants ingenuity; necessity being the mother of invention.

Right down to opening night, the cast and crew still found new ways to play, and last night the Timekeeper and the Wizard came into their own as characters in the show. Must credit Timekeeper who was sensitive enough to notice he was stealing limelight away from the main action and sensibly stopped his antics so focus could go back to centrestage.

Having a competent 'live' band to support the action is definitely the way to go. Our musicians have very little to do with the club but they found a way to believe in the show enough to ask to be a part of it. We left them to improvise on their own and kept the soundtrack flexible. Result: action, underscored with music and effects, that would otherwise have fallen flat.

If there were any problems on opening night, it would have been from the soundboard. Condenser mikes not picking up well, actors sounding soft in ensemble, in contrast to the loud, clear sounds of our individually miked up solos. Need to balance the sound better, and avoid feedback, which was another nagging problem.

The house last night was larger than I had been mentally prepared for. Last night sold well and let's hope tonight's show will be just as good. Must thank 'sif, HT, Ramzi, Shariffah and Durga of 04 for their time and for creating a gorgeous front-of-house set with fabrics, a couple of fedoras and a ruby red shoe (shaped phone). Must also thank the AV guy for hanging around in the sound booth giving me a hand with a twitchy soundboard.

Tonight is closing night. Let's avoid complacency and let the success of our previous night get to our heads. NYeDC 05, let's go and break some legs!

Looks like another major expense heading our way. HDB came over to inspect our bathroom to determine the source of our downstairs neighbour's roof leakage. Assessment: We're going to need a whole new bathroom. Floor tiles out, crapper out, and while we're at it, wall tiles out, bathroom sink out -- hey, and maybe get a replacement water heater too!

It's likely that it was our darned air-con contractor's fault in the first place, giving us an a/c drainage pipe that drained impractically into the drainage hole of our main bathroom floor instead of the shower hole. Because the drainage hole was at the far end of our bathroom, the contractor ran a long PVC pipe all the way across our bathroom floor which became a tripping hazard for us. June got fed up with the pipe one day and had it hacksawed off. So the a/c drained directly onto the bathroom floor. The water must have eroded the sealant between our bathroom tiles and thus started seeping into the floor below. Hence, new waterproof lining has to be installed, and hence, our new bathroom (minimalist in design due to budgetary constraints) will rise from the rubble of the old.

Um... in case there is anyone out there who is looking for evidence indicating whose fault is the greater, the above raises mere speculation on my part and does in no part constitute a confession.

What happens now? An HDB contractor will be engaged who will bring steely tools and beefy men to tear up our bathroom fixtures and install new ones with more gusto than finesse; and will gleefully send us a huge, hefty bill at the end of it all. How we then proceed with the apportioning of the bill between the parties involved will be another story for another time.

Finally, this week we move into our auditorium. For one week we can call our space truly ours. No more dealing with squatters in our rehearsal rooms, no need to move furniture around and back; the stage, the flooring, the lights, the sound system, they're all ours and we have smugly taken possession of them all.

The lights are plotted and almost set, much of the major pieces of set are onstage, props in labelled boxes backstage and costumes sewn and hanging on their racks. We've used up nearly 8 rolls of gaffer tape ($20 worth!) in a day, which must be a new record for us.

We only had 1 run today with costume, and it's good that the cast know now how much faster they need to change clothes backstage as they shift from scene to scene. 2 more days of rehearsal left and then it's showtime!

Because we now have 2 cars between us, my entire family could have an outing today, this Labour Day holiday. We started early and collected mom, dad and my bro to meet my sis and her brood up on Kent Ridge Park. For the first time ever, my whole family took in the air in unfamiliar territory together.

Kent Ridge Park is the site of the battle for Pasir Panjang Hill and there is a small monument there to commemorate the event. There is even a leftover AMX-13 light tank on display, though it's presence is misleading. That tank never saw battle up on this height. It was imported in much later after WWII. It was still a talking point between my bro and me, though, as we reminisced over our own NSF days in the local Armoured brigade.

But we were here not for the nostalgia but for the trek through a pleasant canopy walk above the trees (a short one compared to the one at MacRitchie) and along the walking paths of the park. Not much to see of nature around our built-up areas, but where we have set aside some space for nature, she is lovingly preserved. The lush greenery and the abundance of wild animal life (think birds, butterflies and squirrels, not lions and tigers and bears) could almost make you think you were in some other country.

Here, even the public toilet is clean and dry -- a nice surprise considering the alternative might have been the biggest tree within sight -- and as the conspicuous signage proudly declares, the toilet is lighted by electricity generated from solar energy.

In order to get to the pond indicated on our map, we had to drive back to the much smaller car park 'A', a little lower down the hill. We weren't disappointed with the pond and its environs. We found a pavillion to sit in and chill out while my sister's kids decided to mostly hang out with mom who was intent on exploring the pond a little further. We had more important things to do, like decide where to go for lunch.

Settled for the Ghim Moh market hawker centre. Cheap and good. Between June and myself, we ordered a whole half chicken, with liver and rice, all for less than $10. Not sure about how the others enjoyed their lunch, but June advises that there is nothing special about the ah balling (glutinous rice ball dessert) and that she's had better.

Took mom, dad and my bro back home where we devoured some ice-cream before vacuuming the M2. Mom lent us a hand-me-down vacuum cleaner: a Miele with a printed label that suggested it might be at least 20 years old. That this antique could work with such effectiveness attests to just how well they made stuff back then, 20 years ago.

Too lazy to wash the M2 manually so we drove to our nearest petrol station where we had it foam washed instead, going quite against Eddie's injunction. Cost is $6 for cars, $7 for SUVs, $8 for trucks.

Managed to catch a short nap at home before heading back out to return Mimi to her home. We had dinner at mom-in-law's place where she fried up a delicious fish & chips.

Had another bowling session later at the CSC. Average: 151. OK, still maintaining.

Amazing how many activities we could pack into a day, if we simply woke up earlier.

Lazy day, and no, I didn't get bored. Took Q-tip to Pet Safari, Eastpoint Mall, for a stroll. We were looking to restock up on kitty litter, but decided not to get it from here after all as we could get it marginally cheaper at Sembawang Shopping Centre. We did pick up a new line of dry dog food from Eukanuba, made from "lamb meat, not lamb meal." Hope Q-tip will like it, else...

Later we drove to Sembawang to pick up Mimi. We brought her back to our place so she'll stay another night or two with us. The cats are now so used to Mimi they no longer fear her. Not that they are so welcoming either, but at least they don't run off into parts unknown to sulk any more.

Tomorrow is one more day to rest up before the frenetic sprint up to Drama Night. It's been fun, stressful, rewarding, breathless, and I'll be glad for a bit more rest when it's over. Sadly, tix sales are moving only very slowly so far despite our efforts. People, buy a ticket and support English Drama in our College, ok?

2 day's worth of updates in 1 entry. Go!

Yesterday's rehearsal saw a bunch of special guests from The Odyssey cast dropping in to see how their juniors were doing in this year's production. Apparently, all came in without anyone making plans with anyone else to coordinate the visit. Nice to see them so supportive and encouraging to our current cast and crew.

Mel and I, with HT (thanks for the Black Forest cake!), 'sif, Sam, and Gid (who joined us later) and Cara gathered after rehearsal at Pastamania, J8, for dinner and a rousing good time. Vince, Amy and JY expanded our company later in the evening, so we had a strange mix of student alumni, staff alumni, 1 current student (Ben), and current staff. Given a little more time, I'm pretty sure we'd have been on first name basis with each other, and why not? Who cares for our formal titles, "Mr...," "Ms...," whatever, anyway?

June joined us after dinner when we staff abandoned our current and former students and, once the parking payment machines were working again, drove out to Tg Pagar where Anthony had got us a table at the Eskibar. He's been talking so much about it the past couple of weeks we had to experience it for ourselves. It's a bar with a gimmick that it's name suggests: air-conditioned to a temperature approximating a mild temperate winter. So cold you can borrow a parka from the bar so you can hear the techno beat instead of your chattering teeth.

Unfortunately for us, we chose to go on a Friday evening of a long weekend. It was so crowded, and the main door kept swinging open to allow a steady procession of patrons in and out, thus dissipating the chill into the muggy atmosphere of the outside world. Cheapskates that we are, June and I slipped outside to a coffee shop a couple of doors down for a can of coke ($1.20) then went back into the Eskibar just to cool off and yak with the guys some more.

Eventually, traffic thinned out enough for us to grab all the available stools at the bar to cluster around our table so that everyone could have a seat. But just when it was starting to get a little chilly, it was late and we decided to head on home and catch some rest before Parents' Day II this morning.

... Woke up early on a Saturday morning for the second Parents' Day of three this year. Yes, there will be another after the mid-year exam. Today, the heat was on the P, and her retinue of HODs as they fielded a Q&A session with concerned parents over the plight of their offspring in our college.

Parents as a whole can never agree whether their kids are too stressed out or not worked hard enough, so there the senior staff are in the spotlight assuring parents that we have programmes in place to cater to academic rigour, personal development, career guidance, confidence building, leadership training, ad infinitum so that boy-boy or ger-ger won't lose out to their peers in the "Top-Five." HODs take a lot of flak from parents, and I'm glad I wasn't up there on stage today giving those answers to those questions.

After all the parents, their kids and the rest of the staff left, I remained behind with a small crew of our backstage hands to meet with Yee and Wan Wen for some training on rigging and focusing of stage lighting and to get the stage ready for our big bump-in on Tuesday.

Right. Long weekend ahead. Brought back a bunch of PW preliminary submissions to peruse and comment on in case I get bored.

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Hope Tina will like the modifications I made with our Scarecrow's movements in "Oz." Until today, JT's been playing a very grotesque scarecrow, and for a long while I've been puzzling over what was wrong with the shape she was delivering. Then I realized what it was: JT's Scarecrow looked like she was making an effort to sag, droop and be weak-kneed.

The problem, if we employ real-world physics, is that a stuffed humanoid caricature is naturally floppy, so there is no need to purposely make it look like it was going to fall over any second. Instead, where the effort should go is not downwards but upwards. The scarecrow should be fighting gravity all the time, should be the tallest and straightest character on stage during movement, and only at rest does the Scarecrow sag, just a little.

Now that I've thoroughly messed with JT's brains, she's now got to practice a completely different posture for her Scarecrow. A different motivation for her movement. Hope it will look more "correct" by next rehearsal. Tomorrow.

Shah came in to polish the opening dance number and worked the cast line-by-line with each dance movement. A painstaking workout for them but collectively they do look a little sharper now. Ended rehearsal early as today was supposed to be a rest day for the cast.

As it was early, I managed to have another bowling session with Vince and Amy at the CSC. Good decision! My average came up to 155 in a 5-game series. I hit a personal high of 184, and if I had converted that darned split on the 9th frame I could have surpassed 200 in that game. Where were these scores when I needed them during the tournament? Hope I can sustain this form in the next session.

Here I am right now, having already showered (in cold water 'cos the water heater's on strike), biting into a Wall's Magnum and for the first time in a long while feeling relaxed. It's only just past 2200 and there's the promise that if I really wanted, I could get an early night's sleep tonight. It's a temporary respite, I know, but it's a feeling that you get when a whole bunch of things you've been stressing over are indeed over and, though not exactly perfectly accomplished, the world didn't get destroyed by your incompetence.

72 kids went on tour to P Tekong; a little short of the 120 I was supposed to bring down. Make that a whole busload short, but people adapt to changing situations. NY short? SR short? So combine both groups to make the optimal number. No-fuss practicality at work and everyone's still happy.

The tour's pretty much standard from the last time I blogged about it last October, was it? The only difference, or rather, development is that the recruits' physical fitness tests are now conducted and scores recorded automatically by computer. Saves time, saves human resource, and the atmosphere is very much like a games arcade rather than a sweaty gym.

This time I managed to actually put some of the soldiers' combat rations in my mouth. I accepted a package of "corn and mixed beans dessert" which came chilled in a catering container. It was wet, sweet and cool, just the refresher I needed since it was a blazing hot day and none of us had time for any lunch before the tour began. Then I took a bite of some rice-based thing that came in a different green package. The instructor briefing us earlier had spoken true: "combat rations are not meant to suit your tastebuds..." You'd probably enjoy the stuff only if you were really hungry. Good thing they include Maggi mee, biscuits and fruit bars in the 24-hr pack as well. A guy's gotta have something to eat.

Aileen did manage to clear her schedule so I sent her to supervise the other of the 2 buses that left campus this afternoon. She's been such a great help, and she's not even considered a fully trained ed offr yet. She'll be leaving us to complete her training during the term break and I'm going to be so shorthanded then. I will miss her, though maybe since I have 40 NE reps from amongst the JC1s I can exploit employ them to my heart's content.

Returned to campus as scheduled and dropped by rehearsal again. The actors are off-script now and though still fluffing lines here and there, it is an indication of progress. The whole 3-piece band came together for the first time during this rehearsal and they're playing nicely with each other. Keyboard, sax, percussion... mmm. Lots of scenes and transitions to polish up, tighten up and energize, but at least now we have something to work with where once there was just a rough idea. Lighting designer came down today as well, so all the pieces are falling into place.

So tonight, I shall relax.

So darned tired last night. Today not much different. Military chief-of-staff paid the college a visit to answer whatever questions the JC2 kids might have. One of these questions showed the kid's faulty interpretation of our national pledge, a quibbling point around the word, "regardless..." which he took to mean, "despite..." But thankfully, the visit went well, generally speaking, and it's one more headache over.

Again, without Aileen's and Cikgu's help I might have fallen apart sometime this morning trying to coordinate all the small, unnoticed things that a visit such as this entails. Print attendance sheets, drape speaker's table, drinks, gifts, distribute attendance sheets, distribute feedback forms, arrange for an impromptu photo shoot; and collect attendance sheets and feedback forms after the dialogue session is over. Ok, listed like this it doesn't sound all that much, but still...

Tomorrow the JC2s are visiting the army boot camp on Tekong. A total of 120 invitations were sent out to our JC2s though I could only round up nearly 80 kids to go. Odd because last year there were so many respondents, I almost had to throw people off my buses. Learning point: don't plan for any major events to take place in the April-May period. Too many activities already happening including sports competitions, the SYF and other in-house matters. Kids and tutors are stretched so thin I was also having trouble rounding up a fellow tutor to help accompany the kids, 1 tutor per bus full of little monkeys. Once again, I'm counting on Aileen's help here. Hope she can get out of whatever she's involved with so that it's not just me with 80. I'd really go crazy then.

The bowling club announced the date for the annual college bowling challenge: 4 May. Great. The date of our tech and dress rehearsal for Drama Night. Don't think I can compete this year then. Wonder which Pegasii Anthony will have to partner? Boo hoo.

Oh, and the latest standings for the ministry's league are out. If you must, click the sidebar link to see how the Gutter Boys are doing.

Edit 01:
Hmm... I seem to have lost my comment service. I'll give it another day, then I switch over to Haloscan or something. How annoying.

The Oz banner! 'nuff said... g'nite! 

Brought pizza for NYeDC kids who were busy making a huge banner advertising Drama Night. Yee's design: 7 long rolls of I-don't-know-what-kind-of heavy duty industrial paper, duct taped together to form the base ; then a patchwork quilt of coloured paper pasted on for the background colour. On top of that are the lettering announcing the title, "Oz," the date and declaring that everything had been done by ourselves, in-house. June and I delivered the motivational pizza at a little past 1400...

... and we only completed the banner after 2100. By then the janitor had gone home and we couldn't get access into the atrium area where we intended to hang the banner to greet the early Monday morning crowd. So, reluctantly, we had to roll up our "tapestry" and place it against the atrium staircase for safekeeping. Tomorrow at 0630hrs, we're calling all hands to help carry the banner up to the 5th storey where we will drape it over the top railing. Hopefully, we'll get it ready before the main student body arrives.

Just got home from taking a few of our willing hands home or wherever else they needed to go. Thanks have to go out to all our helpers today: Aaron, Faz, Grace, Jane, JT, Suzhen, Shan, Yit Han, Mel and, of course, Yee and June. NYeDC owes y'all one!

If I'm getting to college by 0630 tomorrow, what time do I have to wake up? OMG, time for bed!

It's mom & dad's 43rd wedding anniversary so we took the opportunity to have a family dinner outside for a change.

The day began a little late. We overslept a bit but still managed to get to Sing See Soon Flower Garden at the junction of Paya Lebar and Bartley just in time to grab their last bouquet of purple roses for mom's pressie. The shop people called the species, "super-rose". They and a whole lot of other imported flowers were kept in a cold-room -- air-conditioned to match European spring temperatures. Cold enough to make breath visible to the naked eye.

The flowers here go for wholesale prices. A bunch of 20 gorgeous super-roses for only $8! Someplace to think about if Valentine's Day or some other special occasion rolls around for your sweetheart, eh, guys?

Drove to Gardens market for brekkie. Bought a lot of the usual local breakfast things like carrot cake, vegetarian noodles, yu tiao, and tau huay. We had Q-tip with us so we couldn't eat there. Instead we brought all that stuff over to mom's place for their second breakfast and our first.

Rushed off soon after to get the M2 groomed at Eddie's. M2's 2nd appointment for car grooming this year. I sent M2 looking filthy after last week's wash and I was a little worried that I would bear the brunt of Eddie's approbation over the state of my car. Last time I saw him, he had instructed me to wash the car twice a week, and if it rains, wash another time. Reasonably, which car owner's got that kind of time?

Caught a cab back home where we arranged to meet our neighbour from immediately downstairs of our flat. According to her, water from our bathroom is leaking into her bedroom and is becoming an inconvenience for her. We went in to look and yes, water does seem to be collecting in her ceiling lamp and a large piece of paint has peeled off from her bathroom ceiling and is now hanging pathetically downwards awaiting gravity to finish the job. We assured her that we'll get HDB to send a contractor right away to assess and repair the damage. As with HDB policy, we'll split the bill between ourselves. Watch this space for further developments.

Went back home, caught some TV, then before long, it was time to collect M2 from Eddie. From Eddie's we drove over to collect mom & dad, then drove back into Gardens to Jumbo Seafood Restaurant. June cursing and swearing that she forgot to bring her Jumbo membership/discount card. Stuffed ourselves full with the usual boring stuff we invariable order -- couple of meats, couple of veg, some tofu, but with the addition of some very fine steamed sea bass and 2 huge steamed crabs. Who thinks steamed crabs are better than chilli crabs? Yup, I thought so!

After dinner adjourned for ice-cream back at mom's place, then home again. Phew! Thought Saturdays were supposed to be for rest?

Last day of the course, today looking at the assessment of Paper 2, the Critical Thinking component of the subject. I must be mentally fatigued or something as I didn't have many intelligent things to contribute to my group's discussion. I kept staring at the sample students' answers and it took a long time for me to make sense out of what I was reading. It wasn't that the answers were bad, but I simply couldn't focus. I kept forgetting what I had read before and had to backtrack constantly. Or is it that my own critical thinking skills are lacking? All I knew was I needed sleep, or at least a week's vacation on a deserted island beach in the South Pacific. Umbrella drink optional.

To celebrate the end of the course, NBS and I paid one last visit to the Ya Kun at Tiong Bahru Plaza. This time we tried the sugar toast and concluded that it's neither the kaya nor any other spread in the toast, but it's the butter that makes it what it is. Must have gained some serious weight over the last week. Too much good food in the vicinity, coffee breaks with catered snacks between classes in the morning and afternoon, and hence, WAY too much coffee -- more than I usually get under normal circumstances.

Abandoned NBS after lunch to attend my promo ceremony. Got to shake the hand of one of our senior directors, whose youthful appearance was a bit humbling. She must be one of the scholar-types on the fast-track to the up-and-up, while the rest of us (me anyway) are contented being the bottom-feeders in the fish-tank of the ministry.

Pete snuck us into an oddly unutilized LT4 for rehearsal this evening. We ran the whole play through and though it's seriously rough, it's coherent. 8 more rehearsals to go, so they're going to be really intensive. Better prepare mentally and physically. And Yee's creating a publicity gimmick that's going to make a big impact on Monday morning. The cast and crew will be on campus this Sunday getting our surprise ready. Hope it turns out as he envisions it.

Last note: Happy bdae to Jane! Gorgeous cake!

Day 4 of my course and it's a marking and assessment workshop of students' essays in KI. Cambridge stressed how scrupulously fair their marking of exam questions is, so today we bashed out what we thought 'fair' meant in practical terms at college (ground-zero) level. The main concern was with Paper 3, the independent study project: just how far does the definition of "independent" extend? As always, there is little consensus between those who want to push for as-much-help-as-possible for the students, and those who interpret "independent" as completely-on-you-own, no help from the teachers at all, or else it's cheating.

Someone has to make a decision on this, but in the meantime, I suggest keeping it real. For the independent study, students should be allowed to seek whatever 'help' they can get as long as the source is relevant to the question they set themselves out to answer; students must credit all their consultations, dialogues, divinations, etc., in the bibliography section of the KI Paper 3. This way, the markers should get a better handle on what kind of 'help' the student got. And 'how much' of it too. Since part of the KI curriculum comprises ethics as a key module, what better way to test the students' internalization of ethical principles than making them be honest about the information and other assistance acquired in the writing of their essay?

Bowling tournament tonight. Bowled a lousy 133 average, and this was after I scored a "turkey" (3 strikes in a row) during the last game. Then my subsequent throws went all over the place. Still, this is roughly my current average -- I haven't made much improvement, personally, but I think as a team the Gutter Boys are slowly getting better. Perhaps next month we'll see some real progress?

Day 3 of my course and today we're looking at the introduction of our first real independent research paper for JC students. This is the main reason why I decided to move my teaching in this direction from GP in the first place. A chance to work directly with pre-university students on the kind of stuff they will be doing at uni level. Something real, and concrete, and skills that have direct application to their near-future rather than some nebulous far-off date close to never.

It's a tough paper, all right. A 6-month programme during which individual students will submit a research proposal to be approved by a Cambridge board (not by the teacher!) followed up with a major essay of 2500-3000 words in length, about -- get this -- thought and thinking about a particular topic of study. For example:

We know that "Jedi knight" is becoming a recognized religion by the increasing number of people who are claiming to be followers of this pop-culturally derived belief system. So, by what basis do we identify a body of human activity as "religious?" Since a religion spreads by the successful transmission of a particular canon of knowledge thus creating new converts (who had previously believed in a different canon of knowledge), how might a person be attracted to change his/her religion which may entail the eradication his/her previous belief system in order to accept the new one? How might a convert deal with such a radical thought-changing experience? How might the convert's previous socio-religious circle deal with such a change? (I made this question up, so it probably needs work still).

Well, something like that. The focus is not on "religion," mind you, but rather on the creation, transmission, and perpetuation of the knowledge behind religion, and more importantly, how that knowledge is used to expand a religion's reach amongst people; and perhaps a further exploration into whether such usage might constitute an ethical breach in our modern day social contract to respect religious diversity amongst our people.

This type of exploration goes far beyond what GP ever pushed JC students to think about. I think they can rise to the challenge if they have guts and gumption enough. Wonder what my class size will be next year -- 8?

KI has the potential for great fun and learning, and heated animated discussion, but it's definitely not for the squeamish.

Day 2 of my course. Yesterday we looked at critical thinking through the analysis of the reasoning behind chunks of text. We looked at argument premises and supporting points, and we looked at assumptions on which arguments are based. These components, depending on how they are related together make or break an argument and there is a logical, if technical way of determining if an argument is valid or not.

Today, we looked at the ethical dimension motivating decision and action for people individually and socially. We asked what was 'right' and what was 'wrong' and on whose authority do we make such claims? We looked at some simplified principles and ethical premises of various ethical schools of thought and we tried approaching various moral dilemmas on these disparate bases.

These moral dilemmas are to some extent similar to some of the decisions we have to make in KOTOR2. OK, I'm obsessed. Light-siders are motivated to do "Good" though there is the unlikelihood of gaining material reward. Sometimes, lightsiders even sacrifice material (making donations to "worthy" but unprofitable causes, for example) in the hope of gaining lightside alignment points. No material benefit, but your character's portrait appears enshrined by a column of bright, white light, stands up taller and straighter, and looks increasingly heroic. A virtue ethicist approach, as the end result of an action or the consequences matter less than the character building opportunity one gets from dealing with a crisis.

Sith characters, on the other hand, advance themselves through a more utilitarian approach. A pragmatic, what's-in-it-for-me attitude. Sith can gather more material resources this way, at the expense of an increasingly ugly (subjective term), twisted character portrait. Also, Sith get to use the cooler, more spectacular and deadly darkside powers at a discounted cost -- Force choke and lightning, for example. Who cares about 'character-building' when you can do cool stuff like this?

Hmm... now, how can I convince the college to let my students play KOTOR 2 so I can engage them in ethical discourse...?

This evening, Tina sent over the latest update on our Drama Night script and Shah is still choreographing for the Witch's big entrance number. If done well, people are going to love to hate our Witch as soon as she appears. HT dropped in on us to catch a preview. Hey, grrl!

And now for some good news: Girlfriend has recovered over the weekend at Dr Casey's and is now terrorizing the veterinary staff with her teeth and claws. Dr Casey arranged for us to take Girlfriend back to the Square where she belongs. She's a little tired out and annoyed with the blood testing, the sedation, the confinement, the drip and whatever else they put her through. She's eating again, so she should be able to fully recover soon. Hopefully, this is 1 cat that we have 'rescued' from this blight.

June thinks I am a control-freak, and maybe she's right. Today though I was supposed to be on-course I still started the day on campus to conduct my PW tutorial before taking off to Exams Branch. I felt I needed to explain the initial stage of this year's project tasks, and I hope they bought my explanation enough to actually find something useful to propose as their INDIVIDUAL project.

Was too clever and took a short-cut from campus towards the CTE, then annoyingly got lost on the way. It was a matter of knowing which lane turns where and I kept getting stuck on lanes that took me further and further away from my destination. Arrived nearly a half-hour late, and the course had already gone into full swing when I sheepishly opened the dors and tried to find a seat near some familiar face. Fortunately, I soon found NBS to sit with. NBS, my new partner in crime (or KI, anyway)... heh, heh!

Missed an opportunity to join Anthony & Co for drinks at the sub-zero bar tonight. After the course, I went back to campus for Drama Night rehearsal. After that I was simply too tired to go back downtown where I had just been just a couple of hours ago.

On the way home, another pick-up truck unexpectedly swung into my lane, and for once, I beeped my horn in anger. Nice to know you have this reflex at the time you really need it. I stepped hard on the brakes but thankfully the car behind me had been keeping his distance, so nothing more than a scare. Phew!

After our previous failure to secure Girlfriend, I purchased a proper cat carrier from the pet shop next to Dr Casey's. It has a locking door so no need to rely on cable ties and whatnot to keep the enclosure secure. This morning, Girlfriend happened to be sitting outside the NTUC and June lured her into the open with the promise of fresh kibble. It was then easy for her to pin Girlfriend down then pick her up and stuff her into the carrier. Mission Accomplished!

We brought Girlfriend to see Dr Casey but Dr Tan attended to us instead. We hospitalized Girlfriend for observation and further testing. Poor thing. Dr Tan called us later in the afternoon to ask if she should sedate Girlfriend who was getting increasingly agitated and defensive. In order to treat her immediately, sedation seemed necessary, and I didn't have any better options. So I gave consent, at the risk that Girlfriend might need more and more sedation from day to day if her attitude continues to be poor and her health continues to deteriorate. Too much sedation could kill her too.

Best thing would be for Girlfriend to quickly pull through this disease, then we can release her back to her natural habitat again. And after surviving this round of infection she should be immune to it if it should come round again. Today she's still looking pretty horrible with that stuff coming out of her eyes and making her face so dirty. Get well soon, Girlfriend.

This evening we saw Groucho who also looks sick. We also saw Nabiki (Girlfriend's daughter) who thankfully looks fine, except for being uncharacteristically quiet. Perhaps she misses all her friends who lived in the Square?

Next week is the NEXUS (the irony will be lost on most people) point for so many things I am in charge of: Security Seminar, Senior Civil Servant's Dialogue, Drama Night (shifting into high-gear), BMTC visit... As I am in charge of them ALL, my focus is so diverse I'm having difficulty controlling ANYthing. And it's even worse that next week, I'm not even going to be physically present on campus because of the week-long course I need to attend at Exams Branch. The one week I absolutely need to be on campus, I'm not. Great timing.

Fine. Perhaps I could've managed my time better. It's partially because I chose a couple of these dates myself, but at the same time, some of these dates were chosen for me as well, so the year climaxes early for me, and since the year is still early, there's promise of more to come. Multiple climaxes. If this was sex, it wouldn't be a bad thing.

Then there is next week's bowling tournament date. I'm still bowling a crap 120-130 average over 5-6 games. I changed the grip on my bowling ball's thumb hole as it was slowly wearing loose. Now my poor Brunswick 'Zone' looks a bit Frankenstein monster-like with the orange shim contrasting horridly with it's blue body. And because I now have a tighter grip, the 11-pounder feels too light and therefore less controllable. More practice needed. When? Dunno.

More bad news: Cat Rescue Squad failed this morning to secure Girlfriend (Matriarch of the Square) who is herself showing symptoms of the disease that's been wiping out the neighbourhood's cats. Her eyes are terribly sore and seriously leaking discharge, and she's too scared to see the vet. We chased her around the Square trying to put her in the transport basket, but she ran and kept running. Eventually, she settled in the branches of a tree and refused to budge. We'll try again this afternoon.

My graphics problem is no longer confined to KOTOR2. The same problem is affecting NFSU2 as well, so I have much maligned Lucasarts. My apologies. 2 possiblities: My software drivers, or more likely, overheating. Watson now operates without his chassis cover for better ventilation, and so far it seems to be working. No more graphics glitches for a while already. Ugly, inelegant solution but I'll settle for what works. I can no longer afford to be fussy.

Think I've reached my complaint quota. Thanks for listening!

Too busy, too tired... and these last 2 nights have been my nights off rehearsals. In fact they've been nights off for everyone in preparation for the big 2-week sprint to production night. But working with an expanded time-table AND coordinating next week's Seminar -- in absentia, mind you, as I will be away on course at Exams Branch all next week -- is a bit nuts. Thank god for Aileen and her organised, unflappable, solid let's-get-things-done assistance.

Yay! M2's back from hospital and he's looking fine again. Got the morning off to return the "courtesy" Soluna to the NTUC Co-op at Tampines Mall then collect M2 from IDAC Braddell where I had left him last week.

I first went to the Esso station near my place to get the Soluna washed at the Wash 'n Go. It's a fun experience -- a foam party for cars. First the entire car is splashed with buckets of water, then sprayed with loads of soapy foam, then sponged down by hand, then rinsed with a pressure hose, then finally, towel dried by hand. It took about 20 minutes as there was a bit of a queue there already even early in the morning.

By contract, I had to return a clean car, both inside and out so I extracted the car mats to beat them free of dirt and grime. The Wash 'n Go operator kindly allowed me to have the mats sprayed with the pressure hose too, so that took care of that problem. I also had to top up the fuel tank which I did.

I arrived at the co-op at about 0900 (I might have arrived earlier if I didn't get lost on the TPE) but was told the uncle would only be in at 1000 to take the car back. So I went to the nearby McDs for a leisurely breakfast to pass the time. The Soluna was clean enough to pass the uncle's standards so there was no need to apply the $10 cleaning fine. The car wash cost me $6 so I saved $4, though it wasn't quite enough to pay for breakfast.

Caught a cab to IDAC Braddell where I finally took back possession of M2, one week after his mishap. It was a minor accident, with relatively minor damage, so the whole process was largely painless. Still, it helps to have good friends who will see you through the difficult times (thanks, guys) and the attentive, amiable service provided by the IDAC staff, Eileen in particular. Without them liasing between the insurance company and the repair shops on my behalf, I would have been pretty much at a loss as to how to proceed to get M2 fixed. Bouquets and roses to y'all!

M2 is home now, where he belongs.

Exactly a year ago today I started experimenting with blogging, so Happy Birthday to quidestveritas!!! *whistles and confetti fill the air

I'm pretty proud of myself for keeping this blog updated almost daily; a couple of lapses here and there, but I've always found something to say eventually, at least so far. Must thank everyone for dropping in regularly and thus encouraging me to keep writing.

So how did I celebrate today? Well, there was PW tutorial first thing in the morning. It was my CT's first PW session with me and because one of their PW tasks involves the study of properties of a particular aspect of nature, I took the group outside the college compound to stare at the canal and otherwise observe whatever Mother Nature allowed to grow around the HDB block there. I'm not sure what the kids got out of the exercise, but they'll learn less about nature confined to a classroom, I think.

Then I had a 3 hour lecture to give. That is, the same 1-hour lecture given 3 times over within a span of 4 hours. Same exercise, same tired old jokes, and by the time the last lecture came around I was drained.

Then Drama Club rehearsal when we encountered problems with the ending and that part of the play had to be rewritten. Tina, me, Mel, Aaron and Ben trashed out some possible ideas till 2030hrs and hopefully the script will be more streamlined by the next write.

Then I went back to the Civil Service Club for bowling training. The last couple of weeks I've been bowling crap. Very disappointing scores, and tonight was little different. Back to averaging 120+ again, and the tournament is next Thursday! Good luck to us all!

Returned home to a wife who was livid over the psychodrama Cat Auntie and Lau Ban Niang are putting her through. They report that Skull is now dying from same affliction that has struck down many of the other cats in the Square. If they had told us earlier in the weekend when they had noticed his condition, we could have had him seen to, but their info today is too late for us to do anything about it. Flirt, her baby (missing), the black kitten, and now Skull. I don't know how much more of this we can take.

Didn't mean to begin a new year on such a downer, but it's been the truth so far, and long may veritas rule here! Happy birthday, blog!

Early morning wake-up call. Collected in-laws from their place at 0630. First stop: Chong Pang for brekkie. Any later and there would have been long queues for the best food there -- the chui kueh and the yu tiao. Neither are plagued with the too-much-oil affliction and they're great eaten fresh and hot. Too bad I wasn't feeling hungry 'cos there's plenty other stalls that look promising.

But it wasn't breakfast that got me out of bed early. Today is the day of my in-laws' annual visit to the final resting places of their departed folks. Well, not just my in-laws but for many Chinese families here as well.

As I was previously short of personal transportation, June and I have always been excluded from this visitation. However, this year to celebrate my acquisition of wheels, I became designated driver for the day. Don't know if it was a good thing, but as my M2's still in the shop, it was my rental Soluna that made the trip with us.

Great-grandma's tomb is up on a hillside at the burial plot up on Sime Road. Never been there before in my life. The place is just a bit creepy but beautiful nonetheless. It's like the jungle and the dead have forged a truce with each other. It's a largely uncultivated landscape, full of trees and grass, and rays of sunlight streaming through the branches overhead. If you look upwards, it's stunningly pretty, but we tend to keep our eyes on the ground to avoid walking over peoples' graves.

My in-laws place joss-sticks on the ancestral tomb and burn paper offerings in front of it. The tomb seems quite well taken care of, considering the last visit was probably last year. The grounds keeper has been doing his job well. But the adjacent tombs are overgrown with weeds and it's obvious they've been abandoned by their surviving families for a long time. At these tombs my in-laws generously spare some joss as well, visiting them in proxy of people we don't even know.

The immediate next door neighbours belong to one family and they have their tombs guarded by a pair of statues of Indian militia. Apparently the patriarch of this clan was someone important in the CID when he was alive. It's sad that it's only the statues that keep the tombs company now. Not that it's sad for the deceased, because it doesn't matter any more, but for the living who have lost the memory of their past, of the people who were once close to them. Perhaps I'm over-romanticising, but a place like this brings such thoughts to the surface.

A peaceful place, quiet, contemplative. Dutiful people arriving to remember those long-gone, armed with gardening implements and burnt offerings of paper money, paper clothes for the after-life. Other tombs waiting for visitors who will never arrive. This world is, after all, for the living. May the dead rest in peace.

We also visited June's grandparents, whose ashes rest in the San Jiang Gong Columbrarium on Dempsey Road.

Hmm... when was the last time I visited my dearly departed?

My previous post was a load of trash, and I know it. Goes to show how tired I was, writing nonsense like that. So the fact that I'm making another entry right now is totally illogical, especially when my alarm clock is set to ring at 0530hrs this coming morning. The reason why is for my next entry.

Today was another crazy run-around session, mostly work though the evening was quite fun. Morning I was at Tina's studio with the Drama Club. It was fun watching Shah choreograph the kids and watching their jaws drop in amazement at what he wanted them to do. Then it was gratifying to see them practice over and over again and get better every time. We have a really good show this year. Great director, great choreography, great accompaniment, great music, visionary set BUT too little time to pull it all off. Another couple of weeks would have made a lot of difference for us, but too bad we can't have 'em. So we'll make do and hope it'll be good enough.

Having a 'courtesy car' while your own car's in the 'shop can be a real pain when it comes to parking. Without the benefit of season parking, the tearing of chad off individual parking coupons is such a tedious chore. And knowing that each coupon is a dollar's worth for every hour of parking adds insult to injury especially when your season parking's already paid up for the month. I want my M2 back...!

In the afternoon I was busy preparing for Monday's lecture. A solid 3 to 4 hours of looking through material and condensing it all into PowerPoint slides, and I'm still not happy with the presentation. It's boring! I'll lose my audience in 5 minutes unless inspiration strikes tomorrow. Then again, it's been a week already and I have yet to be inspired. 1 more day left to think. *Fingers crossed.

Rewarded myself by joining Anthony, Weng, Celine and their dates at this wonderful eating place at the KTM railway station in Tanjong Pagar. The station is technically Malaysian territory so there's a major Malay food court operating BEHIND the main building, hidden away from the main road. We ordered an assortment of foods: Ramlee burgers, mee goreng, kambing (mutton) soup, murtabak, kebab in pita bread, satay and later in the evening, Weng ordered a seesha (secret ingredient was to put ice cubes in the water chamber to make the smoke smoother and more flavourful), forming the centrepiece of our table.

Beware the satay, though. They tell you the waiting list is half an hour long. It's actually 3 times the estimate. By the time our order came, we were too full to eat, having ordered other things while waiting. We acted 'blur' and when the server went back to check the order, we decided it was late and left to go home. Do we feel bad about abandoning our order? Not really. Other people would have snapped up our satay and have been grateful for it.

Early day (even earlier than regular schooldays) tomorrow. Must grab whatever sleep I can. 'Night!

Updatine this blog may become sporradic over the next couple of weeks. Rehearsals for Drama Night are about to go into nightly mode and I'll be coming home later and later as we approach production. Too late to write or even think about writing as the brain breaks down into incoherence.

Oops, fell asleep typing this entry. It's now a couple of hours since I started writing. Must... finish... entry... There. Good night...!

The saga of my poor M2 continues. Must thank Vince, Anthony, Weng and Amy for their advice and assistance yesterday in getting me on the next step after a bang-up.

From Vince, I learned about the Independent Damage Assessment Centre (IDAC) at which the inspection of the damage to the accident vehicle seems quite thorough. The closest centre to the College was at Braddell so I drove over with Weng accompanying me.

There, the inspector wrote up a long list of problems that had to be repaired. Looks like the back gate and the bumper have to be replaced, amongst other things, so the damage was worse than I thought. It was bad enough to make my back door unopenable.

On the admin side I had to make a report on how the accident occurred and I was judged to be not at fault. My insurance is with NTUC, as was the errant truck driver's. NTUC's position in such a case is that since I was not at fault, I could claim for the damage under my own policy without affecting my premiums in subsequent years.

IDAC appointed a mechanic early today so I drove back to IDAC Braddell and left the M2 there. Poor thing, being hospitalized already. This time, Anthony drove with me so he could give me a lift to Tampines Mall where I received my courtesy car (it was either this or a transport claim worth up to $50 per day) from NTUC Income.

So I still have wheels while the M2 stays in the workshop. It's an old auto-drive Toyota Soluna, a saloon model so I have to get used to the length when parking. It may be old, but it's quite well-maintained by an attendant who seems to take great pride in keeping his rental cars spotlessly clean.

The Soluna drives quite well, considering its age. The brakes and the accelerator feel a bit stiff and the engine is noisy -- something else I need to get used to -- but I think it still has some power to spare though I haven't exactly been testing its performance today. It feels retro-mechanical compared to the M2 but it should be ok for my needs until my baby comes home.

This week is getting dramatic. I just had my first traffic accident way early in the morning. At the T-junction of Yishun Avenue 1 and Avenue 4 my instinct was to follow the rules of traffic signals instead of common sense. On 'amber' I stepped on the brakes (a bit hard, mind you), but the truck driver behind me thought I was going to clear the 'amber' and continued his forward trajectory hoping to clear it with me. The inevitable happened and now the M2 has a big, beautiful dent on his backside. Fortunately, that's all that happened.

Now I get to investigate accident reporting procedures, as well as the process of going through insurance claims and the machinations of the car workshop. First person to call (I hope he'll be awake) will be Chew to get his advice on what to do next. I'm sure I'll be getting lots of advice from Anthony & Co too.

I'm not sure what to make of this event. On 'amber' do I stop or go? I guess that if there's still speed to bleed off by the time you reach the lights, it's better to continue because it isn't 'red' yet. Also, it's good to check the rear-view mirror and not assume the guy behind you is just as law-abiding. >___<

doh.

Flirt has been laid to rest under a tree in the open field in front of our block. Cat Auntie and the Malay cleaner saw to it that she had a proper burial. This is one instance of inefficiency by the environment ministry that we can be thankful for. At least for Flirt, we have closure.

What's more worrying is that this evening another kitten died. This little black stray had moved into the Square a month or so ago and sort of insinuated itself with Flirt's brood. It developed symptoms of diarrhea and lately refused to eat regardless of what we tried to feed it. As it looked particularly weak today, June decided to bring it to see Dr Casey. Sad to say, the kitten died enroute in the taxi.

Dr Casey said that it could be an epidemic that's spreading amongst our younger strays. These symptoms are similar to those observed in Flirt herself, as well as one of her other kittens (who has since dropped out of sight, worryingly enough). June could only pay for the black kitten's cremation.

As far as I can tell, there are now no more kittens in the Square. Hopefully this will be the firebreak that will stop the spread of the disease (or whatever it is) to the other kittens in the neighbourhood. Wish there was a 'quarantine' sign we could put up that cats can understand.

Flirt
2004-2005

Very sad day. Flirt had been missing for a few days and Cat Auntie, Lau Ban Niang and June have been worried about her disappearance. This was after we had returned her to her family in the Square after her spaying. Spaying, for some reason, makes cats who have given birth before not want to live where they raised their young. As her mother before her, Flirt moved out of the Square but, unlike her mother, she moved across the street and made the drain her home. The drain isn't the best home for a cat.

Today, we went back to the drain where we had last seen her a few days ago, and there she was under the grille though it was just her body. Her spirit had moved on. June was in tears and I was numbed. The cause of her untimely demise is unknown, though I suspect she must have been caught in the drain sometime during the last couple of days that we'd been experiencing torrential rains.

Though she was a stray, she was a part of our extended "family." Good bye, Flirt. We miss you.

I am now thoroughly disappointed with KOTOR2. Though I said I didn't have time to play anymore, I couldn't stand not having a working game on my hard drive. So I tried various graphics settings and reloaded my older video drivers to no avail. Now places that didn't give me problems before are giving problems now. This sucks! Good thing I have already finished the game once through. Now, where can I go to get my money back?

Drama Night's looking better now that we've got the music in, Yee's new set design and the Roland keyboard finally works at last. The music has been recorded on a practice CD, but will be performed 'live' on the day itself.

Our choreographer came down for the first time to meet us today. He does wonders with non-dancers. Our performers may have some experience dancing to rap and hip-hop but for this production, they're learning jazz movements instead. Classy!

Until production in a little more than a month's time, we're going to be ending rehearsals late on many occasions, but we all have to make sacrifices for the production. Our Stage Manager (SM) said so as much as he shelled the cast for their tardy, laid-back attitude. Glad the SM is taking his role as Production Sergeant Major seriously and that he's bringing the whole production team, back-stage and on, under his iron fist. In a production like this under such a tight deadline there has to be a great deal of fasicism underlying the running of the show. We have indeed the right man for the job.

Despite my earlier misgivings, Drama Night is starting to look (and sound) good... stay tuned...!

The Ministry's bowling league standings are on-line and, as I promised, you can click the link here for an eyeball. Thankfully, we aren't at the bottom of the table so we haven't embarrassed ourselves too badly the first time out. We can still hope to do better with practice. This league is far from over!

Today I met my new CT for the first time. Though I agreed to take 4 GP tutorials, 1 PW and have a complete break from CTship, this year's batch of little dragons is so immense that this arrangement can not be met by our current human resource allocation. And here I thought we were worrying over the dearth of children in our country. Guess the parents of this year's batch just aren't with the programme.

So the arrangement now is for me to take a CT (and considering what Civics Tutors have to do this year, it's not funny), 3 GP and 2 PW tutorials. My workload has skyrocketed, but we'll adapt, won't we? After all, I just got promoted with effect from April, so I'd better work harder to deserve it.

Right now, my immediate goal is to refocus my mind on the many things I have left outstanding, and, boy, are there a lot of things. April is going to be a mad period with 2 major guest speakers coming down to campus for level-wide seminars, and 1 week out of that whole month I'll be off-campus on-course. All this to be followed up by the equally daunting prospect of putting together Drama Night on the 1st week of May. And this is all before I can even think about how I'm going to be conducting my tutorials and lectures and executing my duties as Civics Tutor at the same time. Even before the real work begins I need a vacation already. Too many unproductive late nights will do that to you.

Have to resolve to sleep earlier. That will take care of problem #1. The rest? well, we'll just deal with 1 crisis at a time.

Part II
Today's mood was quite different from the day before. There was a lot of long pauses in between bouts of mindless fatigue duties. Lots of cleaning to be done, lots of inspections, lots of stores to be drawn and returned. The usual army stuff. Hurry up and wait.

Our leadership kept reminding us that this was to be our penultimate in-camp before we officially disband the 416th early next year. Indeed, it has already been 12 years and we old-timers are so ready to retire from National Service.

It's amazing to watch each other get older every year. We get wrinklier, paunchier, balding(er), and, sad to say, I myself am amongst the top 10 oldest guys in the unit. I've seen the kids in the earlier years return married, or return with more and more kids, or their kids are going to school. We men are talking more and more about family, kids and work when once we talked about how we wanna get wild and crazy and paint the town red with our nights-off.

Our CO and the Commander himself thanked us for our support and our attitude that we've shown over the years at the end of today's tasks. They spoke of the dedication and the sacrifice we've made in making the 416th rank amongst the best of the NS units in terms of training, seriousness and 'brotherhood.' That's one way of looking at it, I guess.

For me, a couple of weeks a year to spend time in-camp is a real pain-in-the-butt, but I see it as something that has to be done. So it's done. I don't have a business that might lose lots of money if I'm not there, I don't have kids who wonder where Papa has gone for so many days and nights; no, my students have a vacation when I'm not around. But there are men who do, and they want to go home as badly as I do. So it's done.

If there's a driving force behind why the 416th is so successful, it's because we know that what we do is absolutely necessary to maintain the lifestyle we are used to (though we may bitch about how 'meaningless' it all seems amongst each other). Hence, we want to do things right the first time, properly, promptly and most importantly, safely, so that as soon as ever possible, we can go home and leave all the army stuff behind us.

We are the army because we have a home we want to go back to. There is no other, no better reason to take up arms.

These last couple of days I've been wearing yet another hat. Helmet, to be precise. Kevlar construction, enmeshed in a camouflage net. Duty called and I answered. Late, because I wasn't familiar with the drive to camp and entered the expressway towards the wrong direction. By the time I figured out an appropriate course correction, I arrived 45 minutes past my ETA. They'll probably dock some of my make-up pay to make some kind of disciplinary point, but duh.

Objective of this in-camp was to familiarize the 416th with the new SAR21 personal weapon. We old-timers who are so used to the venerable old M16 now have to come to grips with this new-fangled rifle with its unusual shape, but oh-so-sweet refinements that make killing such a bigger joy. It's a heavier arm than the M16, but the trade-off is a built-in 1.5x magnifying scope, a snazzy laser aiming device, and the recoil is easier to handle making for more accurate shooting.

Now I can say from experience what had previously been hearsay: our new personal arm makes better shots of us all. I personally scored 17 shots out of 20 (12 day and 8 night shots). I'm not that great a shot to begin with but with the new weapon it really is almost point-and-shoot. I was dead accurate with the laser (4 for 4 night shots) though I could barely see the target in the dark.

Fine for non-moving plastic targets, but if it comes to hitting live, frantically scurrying -- or worse, charging-straight-at-you -- targets, we're going to need much more training, but at least for now I'm comfortable and confident in handling my new, improved and more deadly partner-in-war.

In case you think that I'm now a bloodthirsty psycho with a 5.56 calibre assault rifle fetish, there is the other part of the training that teaches one to truly hate, detest, abhor and have as little contact as possible with our weapons as well. The constant safety lectures, safety drills, checks and inspections at multiple levels on the cleanliness and general maintenance of the weapon, and the reminders (verbal and visually on posters) about using and treating it responsibly make picking up that weapon such a chore. It's best left in the armoury under lock-and-key, the less you see of it, the better.

Slept overnight in camp at midnight -- my earliest this week.

Thanks to yesterday's downpour, the M2 was looking all sparkly-gleamy last night. But under the light of day he was a total mess of irregular water spots -- the residue the rainwater leaves behind after evaporation. Water spots show up best on black cars and the M2 is as black as they come. No problem. Today is wash car day anyway. So we drove over to our nearest multi-storey parking lot, and parked close to the coin-operated tap. For 20 cents you get 30 seconds free flow of water; about 1-and-a-half buckets' worth.

One hour of splashing, scrubbing, drying and buffing later the M2 was truly a sight to behold. It cost us 60 cents in total for the water and a lot of elbow grease. Finished dusting off the mats, then drove our buckets and sponges back home before heading straight out to the Airport to collect June's brother and family after their week's vacation in Hong Kong.

Early in the morning, it was a bright and sunny day. As we drove to the Airport on the TPE, the sky suddenly darkened and poured down in buckets on us, yes the M2 got rained on again -- barely an hour after his bath! Now he's going to have to live with his water spots for the rest of the week. I haven't the time to give him another bath. Bah!

Apart from the Wong family, we also had Popeye's chicken in mind and lunched at the newly refurbished stall in Terminal 1. Ulterior motive, heh, heh. Popeye's is back to its high standards from the last time we ate there. Only, today there wasn't any coleslaw so we had mashed potato and french fries on the side. 2 kinds of potato, mmm... not. Hope they bring back the coleslaw soon.

Yes, collected the Wongs and safely deposited them back home, so don't worry on their account.

My brother messaged me that he had found my long-lost Rollerblades. A good thing too, 'cos I was contemplating on buying myself a new pair, for health's sake, you know. Collected them tonight. When I got them out of the box I noticed they had been coated with some kind of sticky, oily substance. So I took them into the bathroom to wash with MaMa Lemon. I very soon discovered what the sticky stuff was -- it was the plastic ankle cuff degrading back into the petrochemical it once came from. In water the plastic became brittle and crumbled into little bits and pieces. A handful of green plastic shards. I know what you're thinking, but I didn't do it on purpose. Honest. Um... June, can I buy a new pair of 'blades now?

Public holidays are good for the dog. Yesterday we took Q-tip out for a run at Bishan Park. This place has memories for her because she went to school here. Yep, Q-tip has a certificate in Basic Obedience Training, the dog equivalent of a pre-school education. The Bishan Dog Run is operated by the Singapore Kennel Club who hold classes for owners and their dogs. It was awesome to see what the more advanced dogs could do through the obstacle course, and then we have our own dog. Hrmph.

Today, Q-tip is in danger of having her certification revoked. What do you expect? She only passed because she was so small the examiner was distracted by the misbehaviour of other bigger dogs and passed her by default. She seems to understand voice commands only in certain contexts, and obeys certain commands given only by certain people. For example, she knows the "down-stay-up" routine just before dinnertime and only when I give the command, and she will only "shake hands" with June.

Anyway, Q-tip was off her leash for most of her run. Nice to get out into the sun once in a while. We lunched at the Acacia, the park's cafe. Dogs and owners sit outside on the patio under the trees. Dogs even get served a bowl of water, though Q-tip was too excited to even notice it. I had a very mushroomy meal 'cos I wasn't thinking straight. I ordered a very creamy wild mushroom soup and followed it up with a gratined penne in mushroom and cream cheese sauce. I didn't regret my order, though. It was delish, though I thought I could have used a bit more meat and veggies to round off my meal. June obliged me by not finishing her beef stew and letting me share the remains with Q-tip. Chunky, not-overcooked, tender beef with mashed potatoes. Mmmm... Veggies... does the sprig of parsely count? The meal was just a little bit salty so next time we'll remember to request for less salt.

Drove to Chinatown to pick up a few bottles of xuan mei shui (sour plum juice) which June has grown addicted to. It's a great thirst quencher, especially when it goes down very chilled though I hesitate to say that I like it because the aftertaste seems to me to be a bit... feminine(?). Not so good for my primitive macho image. I got myself a water chestnut drink instead. If you're looking for local cold juices and teas to-go, the stall is on the ground floor of the Yangtze Building.

Took June's folks out to Changi Village for dinner. The stall selling the famous nasi lemak wasn't open when we arrived at 6pm (it opens at 6:30 and the queue is unbelievable) so I settled for a less famous stall immediately opposite it. Wow! Mdm Rozzie's nasi was already so good. Crispy chicken wing, ikan bilis, fish fillet (extra $1) quite standard, but the rice was so fluffy and so lemak I was almost halfway through scoffing the lot before June returned with her bowl of prawn noodles. She insisted on trading on the spot so I took over her full bowl and she polished off the remnants of my nasi. Then she went to get another bowl of prawn noodles for herself. We were so stuffed after that. The walk along the beach helped a bit.

Came back early and still had time to watch "Robots," which was a pretty good story, though I felt it was more "Shark Tale" than "The Incredibles" in terms of excitement. Oops, my biases are showing.

Crawled in after midnight again last night. Chew, my Mazda Sales Exec, was right. Life changes when you have a car. Options open up to the once unthinkable, i.e., going home late, when there is no need to worry about transportation and midnight taxi surcharges.

Last night was the first game of the Ministry's bowling league. Result: the Gutter Boys got their asses royally kicked in competition. Things happened too fast to make an actual count of the team's score but we're running at least 200 pinfalls behind most other teams and it's a good bet that we've started the competition at the bottom of the table. (Will post a link to the official results when it comes on-line).

It's nothing to get upset about, disappointed with our performance maybe, but we have to remember that we already knew we had to raise our game to play at this level. Here is where the P's advice about 'being a big fish in a small pond' falls flat on its face. We're not competing within our own in-house league anymore. The champs of a small-time league now have a sea to swim in and the sharks, there are a-plenty. Everyone someday will have to move up to a bigger pond, to be the small fish again, or if not will forever remain the 'frog in the well.'

Most improved bowler in the team is Vince who has indeed taken his game to a new level. Very proud of him last night for raising his average to the 120s when he is usually happy just to reach 100. My own average maintained at 140, which for me is a good start, though I still have to improve to be worthy of the competition.

It's Anthony and Yee who, I think, have let the competition get to them. Of course, we've never had to share lanes with a team that bowls strikes and spares all the time (and our neighbours aren't even the best team) but this pressure just might be pushing Anthony and Yee into overachiever mode, which distracts them from their usual game. Instead of competing with their normal jovial, relaxed, poking fun at Vince and Amy style, they have become over-critical of themselves, which is a lot less fun than if they continued to just be critical of other people. That sounds contradictory but it's true.

5 more games left and our ass kicking last night makes us hungry to train with more determination. We may have had a poor start but we're going to end with with a hugely improved personal game and the right to swim with the sharks in a bigger pond. Da dum, da dum...

Amy and Vince's fellow Council advisors got together with us after the game and we drowned our sorrows in beverages and KTV. We had a mix of Chinese and English tunes, all from the mid-eighties and further back in history. Don't these people update their catalogues? Anthony and I lost our voices screaming projecting "You Give Love a Bad Name" and "When Love and Hate Collide" amongst other of the loudest music available for selection, well, not that there were many to choose from. There were a number of mellow ones as well, but you know our preference.

Other details, let's see... the Gent's was covered in puke and when we left at about 1am there were 2 couples left in the main lounge dancing to some Chinese techno song. One couple was an ah pek swinging his hips with his young lady friend whose hips were equally fluid. I hesitate to speculate.

Production has ground to a standstill because of block test week. Drama Night opens in a month and a week's time and we can't work on it until the tests are over. So far we've roughly blocked out about 3 acts of 8 with one act and a conclusion yet to be written. Music is beautiful but coming in in dribs and drabs, so far nothing produced that our choreographer can work with as far as major dance numbers go. The set materials have already been delivered but they still have to be worked with to see how they actually fit into the overall design of the show. Costume shopping scheduled for tomorrow and early next week.

So some things are moving but only 5 weeks left to get our act together and make a show for the college. At this time I still really miss working with Cara. Emotionally, it was good to know that someone else was equally obsessed with the production making it priority number one regardless of other um... obligations. I know my production staff and crew are doing their best, and I appreciate the contributions they've been making and will continue to be making in the coming weeks, but I still feel alone, like I'm the only one looking at the show as a major highlight of the year, and it seems to me that the others see it as just another thing on their plate (which is actually true, but still...).

In 5 weeks the show isn't likely to be 'ready.' It'll be rough and in need of serious polishing but though I've asked there isn't going to be an extension. The show will go on as is, a work-in-progress at best. And somewhere in all this, I have to wonder whether someone else playing Producer instead of me would have done a better job controlling the production in terms of planning the schedule, setting and enforcing deadlines, scolding people when they needed to be scolded, encouraging people when they're down, and a whole bunch of other things that go on behind the scenes. Probably. I'm not blind to my own strengths and weaknesses.

The next 5 weeks are going to be hell not just for me but for everyone involved in the production. But then a good show is worth killing ourselves over in making it happen. I hope the Club, staff, students will agree with me on this and pull off a knockout production like we promised ourselves at the beginning of this season. The audience deserves our best and I truly hope we can deliver.

Checked out the competition for the Ministry's bowling league based on last year's results. The opposition is TOUGH. Our team, as far as current practice goes, places us about mid-table -- IF we're bowling consistently well. Comparing individual scores, most opposing team members average 170 per game. Then there are outstanding individuals, both men and women who are scoring in the 200 range. Ouch. This contest is going to be no pushover. Hopefully our weekly training sessions will improve our game until we're scoring with the best by the end of the tourney, sometime in September. Wish us luck!

Edit 01:
There! Fixed my graphics problem with KOTOR 2. Just switch off the "Grass" option in the game setup. It may not be as pretty as watching the grass part as your party runs through it, but the graphics won't screw up now and the game is now playable in the open spaces on Dantooine, Dxun and Korriban. Hope nothing else will go wrong now.

Edit 02:
I was wrong about Dantooine. Sigh.

Official last day for the J1 CTs before the permanent posting results are released tomorrow. It's kinda' sad, kinda' nostalgic as the kids sat together in the hall not knowing if they'll see each other again when orientation begins on Wednesday. Group shots and other photo opportunities all round and so the morning passed all too quickly for them.

Meantime, a couple of graduating students asked me for letters of recommendation and to fill up forms of personal appraisal to stand them a better chance of getting the course they are applying for at the U. This sort of request is usually by students who are applying for overseas Unis, but recently the local institutes of tertiary education are adopting a similar application procedure to assess candidates from an all-round perspective rather than just by grades alone. Another indication that things here are becoming more comparable to the realities of the rest of the world. Our kids have been too protected for too long. It's good to see that we are in a way beginning to let go.

Monday evening bowling practice for the Gutter Boys. Me with my new ball, leaving Vince who didn't have a personal ball, a situation he quickly rectified at the pro bowl shop. Shoes, ball, bag in a package and now our whole team is fully kitted up, no need to rely any further on the availability of house equipment. You could say we're taking this game quite seriously now.

But can we bowl? A slight improvement on my average (140 over 6 games); Yee needs to find his form again but he's slowly getting there; Anthony's doing ok (156 average over 3 games); and Vince improving his game too -- good first throws because with his new ball he has to deal with the increased weight and custom grip and so he's throwing with more caution and accuracy now; but we could all still bowl with a lot more consistency. Scattering strikes and spares isn't going to put us up there with the best this tourney has to offer. Will we be good enough? We'll find out this Thursday when we play our first match of 6.

Dinner at the bak kut teh place on Balestier Road. Anthony will kill me for publicizing this secret but there is a public parking lot hidden behind the eating places on Prome Road so there is no need to fight for scarce parking along the main road or park illegally in the area. It's free parking in the evening too!

The bak kut teh is in a clear soup, lots of garlic cloves and meaty, chunky bones to gnaw on. It still doesn't compare to the one that used to be at the defunct Hill Street Food Centre (now an overgrown vacant lot), but it's still quite good.

Turned down Anthony's suggestion to have another practice game after dinner. No point overtraining. Priority set for rest and sleep tonight. So what am I doing blogging? Um...

Ah, my poor neglected blog.

KOTOR 2 is one absorbing game that pushes its story chapter by chapter so strongly that hours of gameplay go by so quickly that the sun is up and birds are tweeting in the trees before you decide that perhaps it's time for bed.

Not that the game is a perfect one. Gamers using ATI cards (Radeon, etc.) may suffer serious graphics glitches, at times making the game almost unplayable. Lots of complaints about this if you look up the forum pages. There is a workaround: add the line, "Disable Vertex Buffer Objects=1" under the "Graphics Options" heading in the swkotor2.ini file in whatever directory you installed the game in (remember to back up first!). However, this solution still fails to prevent the screen from turning into a pixel pizza. It only allows your party to move to where you want them to go without getting stuck in a wall or mysteriously teleporting to some other part of the map where you didn't want them to go. I guess only the didicated would want to continue playing after this horror story, so Lucasarts or ATI, get it fixed! NOW!

Having finished the game (yay! no more going to bed at 6am!). I would say that the story in KOTOR 2 seems darker than the original. A lot more guilt, death, despair in the backstory, yet our avatar's redemption seems to require little more than a clearing up of a misunderstanding. Or perhaps I was just playing light-side?

The big boss characters in the sequel seem easier to kill too. Or perhaps I know what to do now, having had the benefit of experience from the original? Simple procedure: power up with all Force bonuses (speed, resistance/s, battle meditation if you must) before you open any door you might expect a hornets' nest of baddies. If the battle is going badly for you, power up with speed and run like mad away from battle. Then heal up and return. If you're lucky, the hoard would have scattered a bit pursuing you and back at full health you can pick them off one-by-one. Not very noble, I admit, but it gets the job done.

The ending came a bit abruptly, with a few loose ends unresolved, even unaddressed. That's probably because I had a few sub-plots left to complete before the final battle launched itself on me. If you want the whole story, absolutely DO NOT go into the Shyrack cave on Korriban (I think this was the point of no-return) too early. Make sure you complete all your quests before that, then proceed.

Also, DO build up the "Repair" skill so you can upgrade T3-M4 and find out its story. I didn't do this so I haven't a clue as to what happened to it, the Ebon Hawk, or Revan(?) just before the beginning of KOTOR 2. You can trade off some "Stealth" for "Repair" 'cos there's only so much Stealth you need. Later in the game, you're going in swinging your lightsabres (2 'sabres are better than 1 double-bladed one) so there's not much use for subtlety anyway.

Guess it'll be worth playing again to complete the whole picture, but maybe not until they fix the graphics glitch. Very annoyed about that. >grumble< >grumble<...

At about 1am, there was a feline commotion in the square below my block. June and I went down to investigate and try our luck if the source was the One we were looking for. We couldn't believe our eyes when we found him -- he was indeed the Big One, the Ginger Tom, himself. Jackpot!

Of all the toms June wanted fixed, he was right at the top of the list. Overconfident, he didn't bother running from us so was he ever surprised when June picked him up and quickly stuffed him in the carry basket. Then he got upset. All the way home we had to physically hold the top of the basket down to prevent him from breaking free.

Once home we had a problem. We had to weigh the basket top down with something too heavy for him to push off. The container of rocks that June uses for rock painting wasn't heavy enough. We settled for the whole container of June's art materials and books and prayed real hard that the weight would hold him down and yet not be so heavy that it would eventually crush the basket, and him along with it.

So finally we had our 2 cats: Flirt in the bedroom toilet and Ginger Tom in the basket in the guest room. By 2am I was out like a light, but June had a sleepless night making sure that Flirt, who figured out how to open the bathroom door from the inside, didn't escape.

In the morning, after brekkie, we went to the hardware shop to get a packet of cable ties. We attached a tie to each corner of the basket and one on each side as well. Just as we had finished attaching the last tie we heard a "brrraaaakkk" from inside the basket. In his terror, the tom emptied his guts (from the smellier end, mind you), but thankfully somehow managed to avoid stepping all over the mess. There was a frenzied cutting of the ties we had just finished securing, a quick transfer to the stand-by basket, a re-securing with fresh ties, and a quick wash up of the 1st basket. Oh, man!

Drove to Dr Ling's clinic without incident. About time things went in our favour. We left them in Dr Chan's care then drove off to Causeway Point to restock up on cat litter. We dropped off our purchase at home then went to SAFRA's bowling pro shop to buy me a ball. An 11-pound blue-green orb with cosmic sparkles personally hand-picked off the cheapest shelf in the shop. That, plus carry bag for both ball and shoes set me back $145. No wonder people go pro.

No time to test my new ball. The lanes were all full and the cats were ready to be collected from the clinic. The clinic didn't fasten the tom's basket as tightly as we did, so the drive home was scary as he kept struggling in his little prison of at least half a day and I wondered what would happen if he had got loose while I was still driving. Fortunately, we got home in one piece and we released him back to his natural habitat where, Cat Auntie reported, she saw him asleep this evening. Trying to get over his trauma, no doubt.

To cowpat:
Thanks for inviting us to Blue Moo (what an interesting concept!), but after all the excitement of the day we decided to pass. Hope you had a good time, and let us know when BP's next show is on, ok?

Dinner at Marrybrown, a Malaysian chain of Southern-style fried chicken restaurants to rival KFC. Ok, lah. Quite sedap.

Boy, the M2's been running around quite a bit today.

Just a quick note 'cos it's late. Again.

Q-tip went for grooming and now she's a much smaller, lighter, more dog-shaped dog instead of a walking fluff-ball.

Flirt's kitten has found a new home! The bakery lao ban niang agreed to keep him as the 4th cat in her house. It's sad to see him go, but really the practicality of keeping him as our 4th pet was a bit much for us. Hope he can settle down quickly and have more fun with his new roomies who, hopefully, will treat him with more welcome than Belle and Momo did.

Much later in the evening, we went hunting and caught Flirt herself yet again. June is taking the day off so we can take her for spaying, and no excuses this time. We also intended to catch one of the neighbourhood toms to accompany Flirt and her "procedure," but they have so far been too smart for us. It seems they have all gone hiding as we scoured our immediate neighbourhood, but there was no trace of Bubbles, or Ginger Tom, or even Skull. Wonder who's been tipping them off?

Will try again early tomorrow morning then send off whomever we can to Dr Ling. Someone's gonna get fixed...

Whoa! Lost a day. Where have I been? Telos, Dxun, Onderon, all exotically named, but none of the drinks with the little umbrella that you keep hearing about. Over the last few days, I've been reacquainted with the word "overindulgence" resulting in VERY sleepless nights as I progress through KOTOR 2. Much improved gameplay from the original, a lot more options for customizing characters and barang-barang.

One major complaint I have, though: I've got serious graphics problems with polygons bleeding all over the place especially in areas that are wide open or if there's too much movement going on onscreen. It gets so bad, I can't see any bloody thing. The only way out is to quicksave then quickload again to restabilize the graphics and repeat ad infinitum until I reach an area that isn't so graphics intensive. Sucks there. I don't know if it's a problem with the game or my graphics card, but the forum pages aren't very helpful. Hope Lucasarts or ATI will release a patch soon, else I'll go postal.

Took a break this evening to take my nephew to the Disney on Ice "Princesses" special. I imagine that if NBS was there she'd be calling out all the moves the skaters executed, just as I would if I watched a 'live' wrestling match. Thankfully, my viewing partners were just June and nephew, bored little boy that he was. Too much romance, not enough villany to keep his attention for long. Still he managed to keep awake throughout without making too much a pest of himself. Observation of Singaporean audience: not generous with applause, very little encouragement for the performers. We still don't have a culture of audience participation, only vouyerism, which is sad.

Obviously, it's late at night and I'm still up. I'm on vacation! ...but a working one at that. I can wake up late tomorrow 'cos work for me starts in the afternoon. So what have I been up to today?

Faxed over the Ministry's bowling tournament registration form for our foursome, me, Yee, Vince and Anthony. Stuck for a name to call our team I just improvised and called us "Gutter Boys", but with my kind of luck the organizers will misread and call us the "Glitter Boys" instead (handwritten, my "u" looks like "li"), giving quite the wrong impression of us to the other participants.

I made copies of the latest version of our Drama Night script for everyone. It cost me $10.80 at the college copy shop. A guy could go bankrupt like that. Then alternated between helping one of my ex-students with her application for a PSC scholarship -- she needed an essay written about her life outside official documentation -- and sitting through Drama Night rehearsal.

We're making progress though time is getting worryingly short. As the script is now being written on the fly, there's still the music to be composed and spliced in and choreography to be done as well. Less than 2 months, less than ideal conditions to create a musical extravaganza, but everyone's working hard, and can expect to work harder still in the coming weeks.

Had a practice bowl down at the Civil Service Club where the tournament games will be held. I can't find an 11 pounder to fit my fingers, they're all too loose. Think I'll have to go get a custom ball else I'll be competing with a perturbed mental state which won't help the team at all. Yee joined us for the first time today. He's easily our top scorer though on a good day, Anthony could challenge him. Today was Yee's bad day though. Hopefully, we'll all bowl better than today during our first game next Thursday. 'nuff said.

Took Q-tip to ECP for the pet fair organized by Straits Times classifieds. A festive gathering of pets and their owners, though we didn't meet anyone we knew. Q-tip was attracting attention wearing her red gi with Japanese text on it. Kids, adults, other friendly dogs came over to make her acquaintance. Q-tip, star that she is, just wanted to be left alone.

The fair was right next to the Lagoon food court so disregarding the "No Pets" signs we made our way inside to look for brunch. I found what I was looking for: Roxy Laksa, the authentic laksa from the now defunct Roxy Cinema. It's basically Katong Laksa but in a very lemak gravy; very mild chilli; and no ham (clams). OK, by definition this doesn't sound like much of a laksa but I think it's great. No OTT chilli to distract from the taste and no undercooked clams which are a health hazard. Cooled down with fresh sugar cane juice. Yums.

More food this evening. Celebrated Dad's birthday at the Grand Copthorne's Cafe Brio's. They're having an Irish themed buffet, the centrepiece of which is the roast beef cooked in Guinesss. The spread is full of things that I like: a range of fresh sashimi salmon, tuna; fresh salads; a range of cheeses and a variety of breads; 1/2-shell oysters...; fine, I have a limited focus on the virtual smaorgasbord of food, but at least I know what I want.

Ate too much and even as I type I feel the discomfort in my stomach, though I am feeling much better than I did just after dinner and during the family river walk. From where we were sitting the the Cafe Brio's we could observe the river and the occasional river taxi ploughing its way towards the pick-up platform on our side of the river. It's a very peaceful view, great for lazy afternoons to sit under the trees, soak up the afternoon tranquility and compose poetry if you so desire. Must remember this place and do that sometime.

We changed the kind of litter in the cats' litter box. Originally we used sand which was annoying because our whole flat became sandy as the sand grains stuck to paws and tracked all over the house. We changed the litter to one that was wood based instead. It supposedly smelled better, was more absorbent, and didn't track as much. Bad idea.

There was a cat revolt and they did their revolting things in the worst of places. We found pee on the comforter which we had washed the night before because "someone" had taken a crap on it, and we found crap on the beanbag and on the morning 'paper as well!!! Hope there aren't any hidden caches that we have yet to find... Ok, most normal people didn't need to know this but these are the hazards of living with animals.

We took their point and immediately changed their litter box back to the sand they're used to. Meantime, the washing machine's been working overtime today as we have to get everything washed and dried before we can sleep tonight. We only have that one comforter after all.

In the evening we wanted to drive out to Changi Village with our folks but were turned down on both sides. Our parents may be retired but they're still busy people. On our own, we drove to Chinatown instead for clay-pot rice, made the way it should be. As the rice actually cooks in the pot over a real charcoal fire, the wait can be very long. We waited for our order for about 25 minutes but it tasted wonderful. This stall in the Chinatown food court has been around since June was a kid so it's nice to see some heritage things have been preserved and are still thriving in Chinatown today.

Too crowded in town and too early to go home so we headed back north for dessert at Swensens, Northpoint (right, what were you expecting?). Also took the opportunity to browse Harvey Normans to see if they have KOTOR2 in stock. Apparently it's been out for weeks but I haven't been able to get my hands on a copy. But there it was, hiding like a bashful virgin behind a stack of other lesser games. Duds, I now have KOTOR2, and I'm not afraid to play it before you! As soon as I can find the time, that is...

We intended to release Flirt's kitten back to his natural habitat so he could reunite with his mother and so that more people might see him and he'll have a better chance of being adopted by one of them. But he freaked out when he saw his old hangout and gang again, hissed at his brother and ran off to hide and generally be antisocial with everyone. So we caught him, put him back into his basket and brought him back home. Think we're going to have to get used to living with 3 cats. No more, please. Really.

Ended the day watching the SpongeBob Squarepants movie. SpongeBob is ok to watch in his half-hour cartoon show, but a feature-length movie? Guess that's asking a bit much. It is amusing in bits but the movie goes on too long to sustain the humour.