This entry is about the events of last weekend so it's a bit backdated.

Amy, Vince, June and I survived each other's company over a 2-night trip upcountry. On Anthony and Wendy's invitation, we spent both nights triple-sharing a room at the Ritz-Carlton, KL, to attend their wedding on Saturday evening.

We arrived at KL's Bangsar district exactly 5 hours after we left the First Coach office at Novena Square as scheduled. On the way up, we had only 1 rest stop at a place where, to our surprise, we found an A&W outlet serving our favourite root beer in chilled mugs. But we were a little anxious that the bus might leave without us (not much shopping, eating and toilet activities we could do in 20 minutes anyway) so we grabbed our root beer in paper cups to go.

KL has pretty much everything: big, impressive buildings and monuments; busy public and private transport systems; and lots of happenin' people and hip places to visit. Everywhere you look it's a bit different from the last place you looked at, not like the cookie-cutter scenery we get here -- the same stores with the same deco and layout whether downtown or in a "heartland" mall. Smaller-scale family businesses also thrive here in the low-rise areas. It's nice to see that big business hasn't completely run rampant and taken over.

KL is also dusty and grimy, and despite the effort made to keep the streets clear of litter, there seems to be a dull grey coating of some powdery substance over every building in town. Pollution, the price cities pay as they grow in size, importance and population.

After checking in on Friday night, we went out for dinner and a taxi ride to the Hard Rock Cafe where June confirmed her arrival in yet another foreign city by purchasing a few HRC t-shirts, one of which I became the lucky recipient of. Thanks, June! We walked to the KLCC at the base of the twin Petronas Towers in the hope of catching a midnight movie, but it looked like the rest of KL also had the same idea. We made a u-turn and went back to our hotel where we met Weng to go over some details for the wedding.

Saturday morning we woke up too late for the Ritz-Carlton provided breakfast so we followed Weng's directions in search of a certain famous "Muk Kut Teh" stall on Jalan Medan Imbi. We ordered from the first stall we came to and though June later scouted ahead and declared we were at the wrong stall, our herbal pork garlic soup was still better than the stuff we get in Singapore.

From breakfast we walked to Berjaya Times Square and made a bee-line for the Baskin Robbins, another treat that has gone extinct where we live. Of course, you know what else is in this building that would be a great attraction for June and me: the indoor roller coaster operated by Cosmo's World. Amy isn't into thrill rides so we abandoned her outside and paid 25RM each for an unlimited pass into the theme park.

"Supersonic Odyssey" is quite an extensive ride passing through every part of the indoor theme park. It starts high, which saves the initial clacketty climb and whizzes through a course boasting several banks and a few twists before ascending in the middle of the ride so as to plunge through 2 great non-consecutive loops before the end. We came out dizzy with wobbly legs and at least for June and me, eager to do it again later.

We didn't have much time so we went to try out the other ride that we thought was worthy of our time. "Space Attack" is a twin suspended "Viking" like ride that begins with a standard "Viking" type swing then goes into 5 rapid 360° loops one way, then another 5 backwards. Oh, the screams! Thrill factor way above the coaster I would say.

We were needed back at our hotel soon, so Vince ran off to find Amy while June and I stayed on to ride the coaster one last time to get our money's worth. We walked back to the hotel drenched in a sudden downpour.

As soon as we got ourselves showered and dry,Weng brought in Edward and Cheryl to meet me to rehearse our tribute to Anthony and Wendy. It was a short, [mostly] true dramatization of the love story behind the happy couple. Obviously, Edward played Anthony and Cheryl played Wendy. Weng was the narrator and also Wendy's mom, and me, well, I played "everyone else": Anthony's friend, Wendy's friend, and boring lecturer. Perfect casting, then.

Our "play" seemed to have gone down well. No vegetables came hurtling down our way, but that was probably because we were scheduled to go on before the dinner's first course.

You already know how the wedding went so skip to the next day where the 4 of us went back to look for our elusive pork soup for breakfast and went to the right place this time. Unanimously, we decided that yesterday's was marginally better.

Back at the hotel, June and I had a little time to kill before catching our coach back to Singapore. The 4 of us explored the hotel swimming pool and spa then went up to the 19th floor lounge for another round of coffee/tea and a read of the daily newspaper. We met Weng, Luanne and Desmond there too and yakked a bit before we had to leave. Amy and Vince were booked on a later coach so we took leave of them too, leaving them to their own devices until check-out time.

Waited for the coach at the place where it dropped us off the night before, which was the wrong place to catch it again. Fortunately, we were a little early so we decided to explore the area while we waited, and found the coach parked around the corner where other passengers were boarding. That was a lucky break for us.

Home by 1700. What a weekend!

We're back from KL, and Anthony's officially hitched! He and Wendy signed on the dotted line at the Ceylon Coffee House in a small outdoor ceremony followed by a sit-down fork-and-knife dinner. Weng, the MC, Best Man, Wedding Coordinator was the most stressed-out person on the spot. I know how he feels, at managing events as complex as this.

It was a theme party to the theme of 'Never-Neverland' and most of us invited came in some kind of attire based on 'Peter Pan.' The four of us, me, June, Vince and Amy likewise dressed up for the occasion:


4 Neverlandists await the arrival of the Pan


How does this hapless landlubber know my sword's only made of plastic?


Oh, for a life on the sea!

My digicam's quite useless for night shots so unfortunately I couldn't get too many more pix. Hope Luanne will develop some of her shots from her roll for us...

Bathroom tiles arrived today, much earlier than appointed. I was already on campus and June was just leaving for work when notice came to her via our block cleaning staff that a stack of tiles had been delivered to the block unloading bay, a.k.a. the block garbage dump. June calls to appraise me of the situation and I get permission from Boss-lady to take an hour off to settle my domestic emergency.

5 boxes, 12 tiles per box. Nett weight per box: 19kg. Individually hand carried back to my unit by myself. June couldn't even lift one, though she tried to help. They're all now sitting nicely on my living room floor waiting to be installed next week. Maybe my muscles and bones will knit themselves together by then too.

In the afternoon, the water heater got installed. Hot showers again! So spoilt, right? And our bathroom contractor dropped in to take a look at the tempered glass partition in the bathroom which we asked him to save and reinstall once the renovation is done. He came over, took some measurements, worked out his sums and priced this 'extra' at $350. Thank God (and HDB) for our repair subsidy.

In the evening I was horribly upset by yet another letter from the Traffic Police. I quote: "Inconsiderate Driving (Non-Accdt LV)* Under S65 RTA CAP 276" and this one comes with demerit points: 9 (Nooooo....!!!) and fine: $170 >O<. The date and time: 5 April 2005, 1109 am. This is no longer funny. I reread my entry for that day to recall what I did to deserve this summons: On 5 April a truck had damaged M2's rear early in the morning and at 1100 I was coming back from reporting the accident at IDAC Braddell. My situation at the time should be grounds enough to mount an appeal against this TP charge. Item 1: I was a relatively new driver..., Item 2: driving and still getting used to a new car..., Item 3: in a slightly distracted state of mind after having suffered survived an auto collision a few hours ago..., Item 4: traveling for the first time as a driver on a road with lanes leading off in confusing directions while trying to figure out where I should go next to get to my intended destination.

Despite what I said earlier, I am NOT a bad driver and I feel quite victimized by this spate of correspondences. 9 demerit points is damnedly serious and needs at least an attempt to fight off. I'll have to use the Youth Day hol on Monday to 'have tea' with the TP in their HQ and get this straightened out. Wish me luck!

Marking essays. The question reads, "Do you think young Singaporeans are well-prepared for life today?" If ever there was a question inviting whines for answers this would be it. I've got the angsty kids railing at the education system, accusing it of rigidity and failing to prepare them to be critical/creative thinkers which is what the economy needs in this new Information Age. I've also got the suck-ups who praise the "government" for recognizing that people are the only resource in our [pathetic] country and the initiatives -- some students actually do bother to name a few -- it implements in schools will stand today's students in good stead when they go out to work as adults.

Nothing wrong with either answer, per se, but the conclusions seem a little hasty.
Newsflash 1: school isn't the only agent responsible for preparing kids to grow up.
Newsflash 2: the higher up the rungs of education our youths climb, the less representative they are of the general youth population. Already at JC level only a small proportion of a year's academic cohort are priviledged enough to further their studies, but at the same time pretty much isolating themselves from the majority of their contemporaries.

So students who just focus on how education is ruining their lives and eroding their hopes for the future; or those who agree with policy without question just don't have the scope to answer the question adequately. Sadly, lots of students have taken either tack. The difference between pass and fail therefore boils down to how well they express themselves in English on paper. Same as always.

My standards are clear to me. But I have to wonder, am I being too nit-picky as a marker? Am I expecting too much from these JC1 kids? As they are, their answers are reasonable, though I would also like to reward sophistication as well. Here is my dilemma with every paper I mark. Is it fair to punish naivete? No wonder I'm slow.

It doesn't take much to break my rhythm. 2 morning meetings and 1 afternoon of shopping around for bathroom floor tiles and I'm behind on my marking quota. Then again, overcoming inertia is always slow going in the initial stages. Let me take comfort in that.

Our bathroom renovation is about a week away and we still needed to make a decision on the kind of floor tiles we want. The contractor offered us some options that simply would not do. We couldn't find a suitable colour to match our wall tiles -- too light, too pinkish, too ugly... and the material didn't seem all that non-slip to us though they were supposed to be. The other option was to source our own tiles and pay for them outside our package deal though the contractor will install them at no extra cost to us.

A trip over to Balestier then, where we got a sand-coloured tile set for the bathroom. Delivery on Thursday, 7 boxes worth which I will have to personally carry from the void deck back to my unit 'cos delivery isn't a doorstep service. Guess I could use the workout.

While at Balestier, June bought a couple of durians from the stalls in front of the Chinese temple. They were potent, fragrant and delicious. More delays. Heh heh.

Yet another half a year has flown by again. Today begins Term 3 of the school year and we celebrated this red-letter day with the GP mid-year exam. Marking open season begins as a result and I have a bunch of essays to finish marking before Friday. With 3 days' worth of concentrated marking, I should be able to put a major dent in my marking quota, then I can travel to KL over the weekend with a clear conscience.

June's been busy looking for accessories to touch up my pirate costume. She found my hoop earring and a plastic cutlass, which I will have to explain to customs is meant as a costume prop and not for threatening the bus driver with to take me to Trengganu. Now that everyone's expecting to wear some kind of costume, June's slowly starting to ponder her options. Let's see.

Finally, after weeks of showering with cold water since our heater died on us, we're getting a new one installed on Thursday. I thought it would get easier to accept cold showers through repeated acclimatization, but it turned out not to be. We were actually waiting to do up the heater during the Great Toilet Renovation but since we've decided to cut out the 'dream' part of 'dream toilet' in the hopes of being able to afford some travel later this year the heater can come in first. We're not doing the wall tiles anymore.

And I've just received my first traffic summons. Apparently, as I interpret the letter, I changed lanes at a place I wasn't supposed to. I have no idea how they discovered my crime, and I have no memory of ever having committed such a thing, but given the way I drive, it's quite plausible that I did. So the penalty is 4 demerit points (bloody ouch!) and a $130 fine (doh!). Maybe I should cancel 'Initial-D" off my must-watch list.

Spent a pleasant evening catching up with 3A2 and Cara. Thanks for the pizza and chicken, and your company! 

Mimi and Q-tip enter a 'Best Dressed Dog' contest.


Surprise results! Q-tip emerges 4th, and Mimi 'Gangster' Wong is the Champion!

Anthony's stag event begins with a round of paintball!


Slim as she is, Cheryl just can't find a way to slip through the grille.


Invincible Vince, victor of the last-man-standing challenge.

Early morning paintball began in dreary weather. A light rain kept things cool for us as we got to grips with a game requiring some of "us" to shoot at and kill some of "them" Some adapted faster than others, though our initial game was still a tentative affair. Objective: pop the opponents' balloon while guarding ours at the same time. Lesson 1: camping is no fun. Anthony made a very daring run and came very close to popping my team's balloon but he had no support and he was driven off in the nick of time. My team learned and through an overlapping maneuvre won the game.

A speeding Edward won the second game for Anthony's team. We had barely begun the game -- I was still fiddling with my safety switch -- when it was all over. Lesson 2: speed has the advantage over inaccurate firepower.

We also played a couple of other variations including one where it was Anthony vs the rest of the world, in honour that it was his special day.

Biggest lesson: we wouldn't have lasted 10 minutes in a real war. It took a lot out of us just trying to move and keep low at the same time. Very quickly our legs cramped up and our knees protested. So much for visualizing leaping over crates, rolling in a tuck somersault and catching the enemy off-guard and in shock. Visualize all you want, our bodies just wouldn't respond to such ludicrous commands. After an hour, though our hearts were still in the game, our bodies finally quit. Time to hit the beach.

Paintball practically drained our energy for pretty much the rest of the day. We settled at Club Bora Bora on Sentosa and sat around for a while staring blankly into space. Then we remembered we were here to play so we had something of a chuck-the-frisbee-around session. It was here that I was running after a bad throw and I tripped on a granite rock that someone had thoughtlessly left lying around on the beach. The skin on my big toe opened up in 2 places and started bleeding quite impressively. The lifeguard on duty did a good job of mummyfing my toe so I could go back to playing with the guys. Anthony got dunked into the lagoon chasing another bad throw then realized that his new mobile phone was still in his pocket. It got wet, it refused to function, so that was the end of our frisbee toss.

We had a pool (billiards, not swimming) challenge and insisted that Anthony had to win 3 games in a row because "it was his special day." He won 4 games in a row, and I don't think anyone made it easy for him either. Me, I discovered I could probably play a decent round of pool, though I could use a lot more practice.

We went to dinner at Hooters where the service staff are supposed to be the main attraction. Indeed, they were friendly and attentive and, I guess, cute too -- though I didn't notice any that were of knockout calibre, like those whose photos adorn the "wall of honour" in the toilet. I appreciate the service and the food was pretty good too. American-sized portions, tasty and very satisfying.

While the rest of the party was busy playing "The 12 Tasks of Anthony" involving him answering a series of questions of a personal nature, and also requiring him to make impertinent requests of strangers, June and I decided that our geriatric bodies needed rest. So we left the party while Anthony was still pondering how he could get a female stranger to reveal to him what kind of underwear she was wearing.

Booked tix on First Coach from SIN to KL for us and Vince and Amy. June and me return, Vince and Amy 1-way. Not that they've decided to defect to Malaysia but because Vince needs to be back early Sunday morning and Amy is too polite to share our room for 1 more night. She says sharing a room with us is like sharing a room with mommy and daddy. Youngsters. Huh.

Have to sleep early tonight. Early morning activities scheduled for tomorrow. It's Anthony's stag party and Weng is trying to arrange a memorable one for him. Should be fun!

As the June break winds down, people are finding excuses to return to campus and continue working. Consultations for individual and small groups of students are in full swing, and I wonder if they had ever come to a halt at all? Everyone's anxious, particularly as the first day of the new term -- no, wait, make that this Friday (no kidding!) -- commences the mid-year exam period for the whole college.

Even I've found myself back on campus making preparations for the GP mid-year paper. And to pass Amy the fairy wings she's borrowing from June. Yup, she's been invited to the wedding as well. Right now we're making our travel arrangements and hopefully we'll get them settled soon. We're thinking of taking a coach up to KL rather than drive. Amy and Vince aren't confident that their cars can make the long drive and I'm not confident enough of my driving skills to brave Malaysian highway traffic.

Late afternoon I found myself alone again so I put in more time bowling at SAFRA. In a 6-game marathon I bowled my first 4-bagger and also managed to bowl my first clean game for a score of 186. Not bad. Average after 6 games: 158. Must continue to keep my focus and concentration for the competition. Grrr... *knits eyebrows, bares teeth.

Yay! Time to go shopping. For clothes this time, not what you think. Anthony's wedding dinner is a theme party. Weng's arranging for it to be 'Neverland,' which means anything related to the Peter Pan mythos. Just off the top of my head, the possibilities are: fairies, pirates, Red Indians, mermaids, Lost Boys, kids in pyjamas, assorted woodland animals and shrubbery, a crocodile and formally dressed parents. Did I miss anything out?

Looking at this list, I think the easiest and most economical option would be the pyjamas. But that's not quite my style so I chose the next best thing -- a pirate. Not the Captain, mind you, just a swab. Seems easy enough. I went to Bugis Village for a pair of drawstring pants (free size), and got a blue striped rugby jersey from Bossini. I was hoping for something slightly oversize, so I went for XL, but XL fitted me exactly. Sigh. Actually, I saw another jersey that I thought would have been ideal because of the lace-up front; unfortunately, it belonged to the ladies' section and I had no hope of being able to fit into it. Double sigh.

The army surplus stores on Beach Road provided the eye patch and my blue bandana should complete the ensemble. A baby blue pirate, howzat? Still having trouble considering footwear, though. Pirates usually go barefoot, though I guess my leather sandals should be quite acceptable.

Cost: for everything I bought today, $32.50. I'm also still looking for a respectable sword and maybe a large hoop earring. Too bad toy stores these days tend to sell stupid-looking Power Rangers inspired "hi-tech" flashing light swords. Rubbish. Oh well, if I really can't find a sword, I'll settle for a wood-handled mop for swabbing the deck with.

June wants to go formal, so it'll be pirate and captive lady. Now, where did I put my handcuffs? Kinky.

Batman Begins. Love the cool toys, the exploding/collapsing public infrastructure (probably all paid for by Wayne money anyway), the intro of Scarecrow -- an often underrated Batman villain, the emotiveness of the characters, and the attempt to make the Batman a swift, near-invisible predator who makes criminals quake in their boots. This Batman is a trained, disciplined, self- directed weapon against crime after overcoming his trauma and psychosis rather than just another nutjob in a costume. Under another title, he would have made a scary Sith lord, given the tutelage of a dark Qui-Gon Jinn.

Couple of things bothered me, cool as this Dark Knight tale has been. Fight sequences move too quickly, too close-up. If there was any fight choreography at all, it was lost in a blur of action quite wasting the effort. Also, the Batman mask -- way pointy ears and long pointy nose, not so much scary as it is comedic in a face-to-face encounter. Otherwise, it was a fun ride.

Got more bowling practice in the evening. I only had 1 game at the CSC because of some tournament being held there, so we adjourned to dinner then decided to go back to Plaza Bowl on Beach Road because it was convenient for Wendy to collect Anthony after our game. Amy joined us having returned from her Swiss holiday over the weekend.

It was quite a surprise to see that the old Plaza Bowl has undergone refurbishing and is now Star Bowl, a completely new bowling alley. Bright lighting, smooth polished boards and pins that go skidding around creating spectacular strikes with a well-thrown ball. Amy bowled her best game here so far: 128 I think it was. Anthony's elbow seems to be recovering, his scores climbing back to his regular game again.

Oh, and every Monday and Wednesday night is red-pin night. Occasionally, 1 red pin is placed in a random location amongst the other 9. If that red pin is the only pin standing after your first throw, you get a prize. I discovered this 'bonus' when I did inadvertently accomplish this task and the guy in the next lane informed me to approach the counter and show the counter guy what I'd done. I came back with a face cloth emblazoned with the "Star Bowl" logo. Just what I need to clean my ball with.

Now we have a new place to practice when the CSC lanes are closed for 2 weeks in July for its own servicing and maintenance.

And Q-tip gets an airing at Upper Peirce Reservoir 

The Pitstop, Car Park B, Upper Seletar Reservoir

This is the refreshment kiosk I referred to in my previous entry. It turned out to be an excellent spot to take Dad out to for his Father's Day lunch. Firstly, it was nostalgic for him to revisit an old landmark (the reservoir, not the car park) that we always drove past whenever he took me back to my army camp during my NSF days. He's not been back this way for nearly 20 years already.

Second, the food is really good. It's home cooked from scratch by the proprietor (Mike) and his wife (Angela). They have a nasi bryani set served with a tandoori chicken leg that unlike the dry, stringy texture you'd expect of a tandoori, it's moist and juicy under the firery red exterior. And they add a special pepper sauce that goes so well with the fragrant yellow rice. We ordered 2 sets to share amongst 4 of us.

We also ordered a chicken curry with french loaf. Nice to see a chicken curry in which the meat hasn't disintegrated into the curry but is still tender, yet integral unto itself. We had the nasi lemak as well which was more lemak than the overrated Chong Pang variety that Channel U has apparently endorsed. And the mee siam was from a recipe that I thought had gone extinct, that I knew mee siam to be, yet I could never recapture in present-day Singapore. It was a mee siam that brought me back to the old Indian man whose stall in my old school canteen still holds fond memories for me. The gravy is pinkish, a little thicker than the soupy stuff we get nowadays, more sweet than sour, and just a little bit lemak as well.

Mike explained that this was the original recipe that the Indian stevedores concocted when they wanted bee hoon but couldn't stomach the blandness of Chinese bee hoon soup. The recipe died out when they got themselves repatriated to India or heaven. The recipe was then revived by the nonyas, who reengineered it to their taste for hot and sour and today it's this version that lives on. Another interesting piece of info: mee siam is endemic to Singapore. No one else eats mee siam (historically speaking) in the region, so where the "siam" part of the name came from is a bit of a mystery.

We polished off 6 cans of Minute Maid lemonade and felt a bit bad when Mike was trying to promote this new label to his other customers and realized there was only 1 measly can left in his drinks fridge. A possible new addiction to substitute for Coke, my regular poison. Hope it catches on.

Unfortunately we were too full to end with dessert. June and I know they have a delicious, unusually light and fluffy chocolate brownie ala mode 'cos we actually recc'ed the place yesterday lunchtime after Belle's checkup with Dr Casey. Belle's still trying to regain the use of her right foot, BTW. But she's also adapting herself to move around on 3 legs in the meantime.

Third, Mike and Angela are not so much "service-oriented" as they are genuinely personable and friendly. They have stories to tell about their customers, their pets and their customers' pets as well. This is one place where the proprietors introduce their customers to each other because they know their regulars firsthand.

Fourth, economy. For everything that we ordered and stuffed ourselves with, total bill: $31.70. Not bad for a meal for 4.

An excellent date place, especially in the late afternoon, early evening. It's quiet, natural and romantic, especially when it gets a bit darker and you climb the lookout tower or just sit on the breakwater watching the sunset together with your date. Good place to think and write too, if my previous suggestion is too mushy for you.

This place is open from 1130 to 1900 every day except Thursdays and the 1st Saturday of every month. It's best to drive here as it's a bit out of the way, though there is a bus stop on Mandai Road from which you can walk in. Just head for the rocket and you're there.

Oh, Mike hinted that some big real estate players may be muscling their way in to take over the golf course under whose auspices his establishment operates under. That could cast a shadow over the long-term viability of the Pitstop as it is run today. Until then, it'll be let's take it easy and live one day at a time. Good philosophy.

It's getting quite challenging to please all the women in my household. Today, Q-tip is a very happy girl. But June would probably want to kill me 'cos while she was out at work, I took Q-tip on a road-trip and visited some spots that were quite breathtakingly different from the usual built-up places in Singapore.

It all began last week when I foolishly accepted an invitation by the Library Board to let the Drama Club do another public reading. This time, we drew the 'Tangerine' assignment and this book by local author, C Cheong, is a difficult one to dramatize. The problem is, most of the drama in the book happens in the narrator's head while his interactions with people are quite prosaic and mundane. If there's going to be any dramatization, it's going to be quite abstract, and the kids again won't have much time to rehearse as the show date is quite close to the end of their mid-year exam which they should be studying for right now -- June hols notwithstanding. I needed some inspiration and Q-tip needed an outing so off we went.

Our first stop: Upper Peirce Reservoir. Unfortunately, just as we arrived the heavens opened up and poured buckets on our heads. Or would have if we arrived 5 minutes earlier and had got out of the car. Trapped inside M2, we waited a bit for the rain to abate, but that prospect grew less and less likely with thunder rolling in.

Plan B then. Taking the chance that bad weather would confine itself to the north, we drove south to the Botanic Gardens. The main attraction was Cafe les Amis, a dog-friendly establishment where, I remember reading recently, we could get some outstanding burgers.

Squeezing our way through a bunch of MGS girls on CIP entertaining some old folks, we managed to find an empty table for ourselves. One of the staff obligingly looked after Q-tip while I placed my order at the counter. I settled for a Mushroom 'n Swiss ($12) and wasn't disappointed. Forget the 'shrooms and cheese, the burger patty didn't need the embellishment. It tasted meaty, full of beefy goodness (and none of that fast-food nonsense -- ground up cows' ears and noses filled out with flour). It was juicy too, every bite dripping over my fingers into the plate below. Guys, if you're ever on a date here, only order the burger if your sweetheart is already used to Your Sloppyness. A most inelegant, though gastronomically rewarding dish to order. Oh, and it comes with a side of crispy golden french fries and a green salad so fresh it looks like it had just been picked from the gardens there and then.

A brief stroll around the central pond to work off the calories then we were off again. I still hadn't done any reading of 'Tangerine' so I still needed to find somewhere quiet and not crowded with people. Heading home, I remembered that I haven't been to Upper Seletar Reservoir in decades so I made a small detour and parked in the most picturesque, quiet spot on the island. No one around apart from a few dudes trying their luck at fishing, or enjoying a quiet read or polishing off a box lunch. I settled on a bench facing the water's edge and absorbed myself in a contemporary travelogue of Vietnam, my little dog patiently keeping me company.

After a chapter, wanderlust overtook me. I dumped the book in M2 then took a walk with Q-tip towards the rocket-shaped lookout tower overlooking the reservoir. Nearby, I discovered a little refreshment kiosk where I purchased an ice-cream. The elderly couple who ran the kiosk turned out to be very dog-friendly. The man offered Q-tip a bowl of water, though she was too shy to take more than a tiny lick from it. The lady was a little disappointed that I had lunch already. The kiosk seems to have a nice selection from both western and local dishes. It's good to keep this place in mind as there aren't many eating places that would welcome Q-tip like this. And it's great to walk around the grounds too. Nothing but the green of forest and cultivated gardens, the tranquil of a large expanse of water (relatively speaking, of course), and blue sky. Lovely, if you like quiet places just to get away from it all.

A brilliant afternoon. Should'a brought my cam though. *kicks self.

Yesterday's events were hardly worth recording. A wasted trip back to college getting absolutely nothing accomplished, and I would have been better off spending my time elsewhere. Anywhere. Oh, and a seperate note to myself: Avoid driving onto campus until term starts again, or at least until they do up the road properly or risk damaging M2's transmission, road wheels, undercarriage, etc.

Needed a change of scenery. Needed to go far, far away and soak up some kind of different atmosphere. Furthest place I could think of was ECP, but it rained quite terribly in the morning -- not particularly conducive for a beach outing.

Fortunately, by noon the weather looked like it was clearing up a bit, so I took the chance and drove east. Dropped in for a quick bite at McD's while waiting for the weather to improve, and it did indeed. It was still cloudy, but sunshine came out in spots; good enough for me.

I was tempted to rent a bike or a pair of 'blades but the sky being temperamental as it was I didn't want to get tied down to a contract for an hour or two. BTW, the bike rental shops now have a rent 1 hour, get 1 additional hour free, but only on weekdays.

Forgoing rented wheels, I just strolled the footpaths taking in the breeze and looking out into the sea. People were camping out at the BBQ pits and having fun in the water. Me, I had the company of my i-Pod mini as I sought out the sun.

If the weather was better, I might have brought Q-tip. She would have enjoyed the airing.

The invalid, comfortably convalescing. 

Picked up a copy of the new Battlestar Galactica mini-series on DVD. The series is premiering on Cinemax later this month and I was seriously considering adding this channel to my cable subscription just so I could relive my childhood Galactica-mania. Now I don't have to.

The series opens with humanity's total and complete defeat in a war we never had even a fighting chance in. The objective for the survivors is not to win this war, but how they, who are left with basically nothing but a small fleet of civilian ships, dwindling supplies, outdated ordnance and just a glimmer of hope, can avoid extinction at the hands of an enemy which wants nothing less.

The new Galactica upset a number of purist fans when it came out in the states last year. One of the most controversial decisions was to change the gender of fan favourite, Starbuck -- the dashing hero who attracts women everywhere he goes -- to that of a woman. So while she is still an ace pilot and total kick-ass fighter, her actions are less altruistic than the Starbuck of old. They are more like an outlet for her pent up frustrations and possibly a desire for vengeance.

Each character now has a solid backstory explaining their angst and their motivations for the choices they make. For example, the warm father-son relationship between Cmdr Adama and Apollo in the 1978 series gives way to that of a guilt-ridden father whose son bitterly blames for the death of his younger brother. The new Adama is more soldier than father, a military tactician rather than the shepherd of his flock. That task falls to a new mother-figure, that of President Roslin, who assumes political leadership being the highest-ranking civil servant amongst the 50+ thousand survivors of the Cylon genocide. She is the equivalent of our perm. sec. of Education becoming PM because the entire cabinet, MPs, and other senior civil servants have been wiped out. Moreover, she's dealing with her own case of terminal cancer on top of seeing to the welfare of what's left of the human species as far as she knows.

The women in this series are strong, decisive, independent and are very good at what they do, whether in leadership, combat/tactical skills, and they also figure very prominently in the enemy's camp as well. If not for the women, their rationality, compassion and survival instinct, humanity would have been extinct within the first few waves of the Cylon attack.

What works for this series is that decisions made by the characters come with consequences. People die, their bodies are collected and lie row upon row in a makeshift morgue. They don't get vaporized into space-dust where out of sight equals out of mind. Tough choices for the greater good mean that lives have to be lost, even those of innocents, and these sacrifices weigh heavily on the conscience of the decision-maker. How they respond to these consequences make them grow either stronger or weaker, so characters develop as the series progresses.

There are also some NE ideas that the series reinforces. Just because there has been 49 years of peace doesn't mean the enemy isn't planning something nasty to happen in the 50th year. After "home" has been destroyed, what does it take to make a new home elsewhere? What exactly constitutes "home," anyway? And, of course, the same concern regardless of where in the world we come from: if we want to survive as a species, we gotta have more babies. As it turns out, the very first victim of the Cylon attack on the colonies is a baby in its stroller in a cynical, non-military strike. It was infanticide, pure and simple though the perpetrator, a Cylon infiltrator, may have seen it as a mercy-killing.

What I have is a DVD of the pilot 3 episodes. 3 hours long, a bit slow-moving with lots of focus on character interactions and developing relationships and not a lot of fighting. The human fleet doesn't put up much of a fight, anyway. In fact, it's not so much defeated as it is humiliated by it's inability to respond to the threat. What's left is wit, desperation and the will to survive that makes the last remnants of humankind so interesting to watch.

Oh, if I could only boot up the "Wing Commander" series again. It's the closest thing to experiencing a fighter-pilot's life on the Galactica, much of my youth being misspent on this one fantasy.

"Mr & Mrs Smith" begins with a couple seeking marriage counseling. Things between the couple are stale, boring, none of the romance and mystique that they experienced in the first few years of their co-existence in a common household.

Are the Smiths professional assassins in their "real" lives? Or does it really matter? Every married couple will eventually start questioning their marriage after a time. Their story is a metaphor for what happens in a marriage relationship after the fireworks have died down and routine eventually sets in.

The movie follows a pattern of behaviour that generally begins 5 or 6 years after the honeymoon. Whether it's career or hobbies or personal interest, 2 people though pledged to each other can drift apart. After 5 or 6 years of talking to each other, can there be anything left to talk about? As communication breaks down, suspicion creeps into the picture. Suspicion causes a search for "evidence" of wrongdoing, though sometimes the search isn't an active one but rather a putting together of 1 + 1 = 3. Interpreting "evidence" leads to the conclusion of betrayal and here's where the bullets start flying hard and fast. Bullets not necessarily composed of lead and powered by gunpowder, but spiteful words powered by anger which are designed specifically to hurt as much as buckshot. And hurt they do.

The marriage is in a major crisis at this stage. Whether the 2 survive as a couple depends on how fast they recognize that the enemy isn't each other, it's the situation around them. It's essential that they identify what is tearing them apart and they agree to work together to deal with it. Remember that in this movie, the survival of either husband or wife is not in question; rather, we worry about whether the marriage remains intact regardless of the eventual fate of either party.

The climactic battle is purely a dance, set to the staccato rhythms of gunfire. The way the Smiths coordinate with each other, anticipating each other's moves and always, always, watching each other's backs shows a couple that has gone past the vagaries of the communication-interpretation stage (the messy part of a relationship) to the understanding-without-words stage where thought and knowledge are instantaneously shared between the two. That is truly transcendent.

Interestingly enough, like the Smiths, June and I have already been married for 5 or 6 years. Wonder what she's hiding in the oven, I mean besides the Thirsty Hippo?

Belle's condition seems to have stabilized. Most of the time she's just lying down in one position or another, then she'll get bored and go find some other place to lie down in. So more or less she's back to normal. Except that her hind right foot she's still dragging; and the fact that she's not eating like she used to any more. A few nibbles of her meal seems enough for her, though she's started to like drinking milk in the morning. It's almost like she knows Dr Casey will put her on a weight-loss programme as soon as she's walking properly and she's pre-empting the process. Smart girl. Meantime, her treatment still goes on: a syringe dose of meds followed by frequent leg massages throughout the day in the hope that she'll start feeling that right foot of hers again.

Other than that, there are still a few kinks to work out with FM broadcasting my i-Pod mini to the M2's radio. I need to find an FM band that's completely free of any traffic whatsoever. This is turning out to be harder than I expected. It's easy to avoid known local radio channels, but it still depends on which part of the island you travel to. A band that's clear in the north may pick up a broadcaster, say in Indonesia, when you travel east or south. North, you pick up transmissions from Malaysia. All this interference causes so much distortion that the music from the i-Pod becomes unlistenable. I'm sure there must be a frequency I can claim for myself somewhere out there; I just have to take time to find it. I wonder what frequency Amy's is tuned to?

And Anthony's invited us to his wedding in July. The venue is in KL, so he's promised to put us up for a night at the Ritz Carlton. That's something to look forward to! More on this thread as we get closer to his big day!

It's quite dangerous to leave the house with the intention to spend money. I got the urge to splurge and went to a once-favourite hangout where much of my disposable income in the past disappeared into -- Funan Centre.

After much internal debate and dramatic hand-wringing (no, not to June, but to myself) I succumbed to temptation and picked up a beautiful metallic blue 4GB i-Pod mini! This, despite my crusade against greedy record companies who won't compete against file-sharing technology. Guess they won after all.

What do I want an i-Pod for? Inspired by Amy who has a similar set-up, I intend to connect it to an i-Trip accessory and play my own song selections on the M2's stereo. After all, I was getting bored with the limitations of the CD player. You hear the same songs over and over again and it's kinda' troublesome to keep changing CDs all the time just to stay fresh.

The i-Trip attaches to the headphone jack and broadcasts the music files via FM band for the car radio to pick up and play. I just have to set one of my radio channels to FM87.9 and it's all my own music, baby! Now to let it charge overnight, then put it to the test tomorrow!

Belle continues to convalesce. Her right leg is still a major problem, but emotionally and psychologically she seems much happier. We don't need to confine her to quarters anymore, and she comes and goes as she pleases, with frequent rest stops in between. One new behaviour that she's developed is that she now likes to sit with us on the living room carpet while we watch TV, at least in the early evening. She usually kept her distance before, so all the pampering we've been indulging her with may have made her a bit more manja with us.

Meantime, we've been trying to live our lives as per normal. I went back on campus today to sort out the last few details of our Drama Night accounts, and I'm really glad I didn't pursue my 'opportunity' to study accounting when I was younger. Making every dollar and cent count is such a painful, tedious process, especially when doing it with someone who is professionally trained in accountancy. Doing it once in a while is frustrating enough; imagine building your whole life around this mind-numbing task.

There's still some outstanding matters in terms of payments yet to be made, awaiting receipt of official invoice from vendor; so I called him to mail us (fax invoices are not acceptable for payment). And so pending this important postal delivery, there wasn't much left for me to do today so I went out to lunch.

I have a car. I am mobile. I can go anywhere I want. The only limitations are within my imagination. So I went to Northpoint -- a short 10-minute bus ride from home. Doh, what's wrong with me? Had fish 'n' chips at the newly renovated food court. Fish was breaded, not battered; not bad, though neither was it outstanding. Chips could have been more generous in terms of size and quantity. Stay away from the coleslaw unless you like it sour.

Got the M2 a long overdue wash and wax at the Wash 'n' Run, so that was my justification for coming home early today.

More good news. Belle is improving in stages. She finally got fed up with her confinement in the guest room and actually walked -- limped, rather -- into the living room to rest on the carpet. That was the furthest she had walked since Saturday. She even had the motivation to put her forepaws on my stomach, the way she does when she is asking for a snack. I picked out a couple of snack sticks and she ate them. The bowl in her room was also empty, so I suspect she had also eaten her breakfast kibble this morning, though I didn't actually see her do it. There was also poop near her sand-box. I guess she couldn't make it in time, but in this case, seeing poop is a good sign. I did see her grooming herself again, which shows her morale is starting to come up. She purrs again when I stroke her, and Dr Casey was happy to hear this report from us when we went to see him this evening.

When we came home, Belle refused to go back to her guest room, but instead returned to her routine of sleeping in her basket under our bed. She's been there ever since.

Dr Casey is helping us restore mobility to her draggy leg. He reminded us to continue the massage and physiotherapy for her and suggested that we try alternating hot and cold compresses on her weak leg to improve circulation. Apparently, the blood vessels expand and contract according to temperature (we learned about this in Sec School physics) and this movement encourages blood to flow. If the heart isn't pumping hard enough, another kind of pump will have to do.

Belle still has a lot of recovering to do, but today's progress has really been amazing. Good girl! Keep it up!

Belle's 3-legged walk is a little stronger today. She can now lift her body completely off the ground and move short distances, and her tail is getting twitchier, though she gets tired very easily. We're still syringing water into her mouth 'cos she still refuses to eat. We're trying her out with milk as a food substitute, also having to deliver it through the syringe. That should give her at least some nourishment and keep her hydrated at the same time. Let's see what happens tomorrow.

Meantime, I caught "Episode III" for the second time. We went to Great World City just to remind ourselves that we were on vacation, so why the heck were we still meeting on campus working? Guess "vacation" is just a technical term. It means "working without having to follow a fixed schedule." I can live with that.

What new insight did I gain from a 2nd viewing? Well, if Anakin Skywalker became a Dark Lord of a fried food franchise, he could serve chicken in 3 different styles: mild 'n' tender; hot 'n' spicy; and extra crispy. Haha.

Belle is grouchy. Not violent, so maybe coming home did help her disposition somewhat. She still makes unhappy noises, but at least she allows us to pet her and massage her legs for her and carry her between bed and sand-box. She even let us bathe her without attempting to claw our eyes out. She growled and protested but that was it.

For brief periods, she actually tried to walk, supporting herself on a stiff back leg but, sadly, dragging the other behind like deadweight. But in her current condition, 3 legs are still better than 2. Small blessings.

The worrying thing about her is that she isn't eating or drinking. She's still too distressed and probably depressed as well to indulge in this, her favourite pastime. Dr Casey prescribed a Flower Essence rubbing oil, the fragrance of which is supposed to help calm her down and hopefully put her back in the mood for food again. Hasn't worked so far. Belle needs to eat and keep herself hydrated or she might develop complications.

We'll have to take her back to Dr Casey if things don't improve by tomorrow.

Dr Casey called us into the clinic this morning. Belle had refused any sort of treatment and charged and swatted at anyone who came close to her cage. Dr Casey hoped that with our presence she would calm down so they could continue her therapy.

When we arrived, we saw Belle crouched in a corner of her cage. She wore a lampshade to prevent her from ripping out the drip like she had the previous night. Within the lampshade was the head of a vicious, hissing, spitting, growling feline; quite a different cat from the one we knew with the always-gentle disposition. Obviously she was incredibly stressed with her large canine neighbours, the unfamiliar surroundings and people, and the fact that she's still immobile just makes it worse for her. Even we were a bit intimidated by her demeanour but I opened the door and stuck my head inside the cage anyway to stroke her and reassure her that everything was still fine.

She relaxed, just a bit, and let me pet her head, though growling with every breath. Things remained like this for a while but when the big dog in the lower cage stirred a bit, Belle reared up and slammed her forepaw onto the floor of her stainless steel cage with shocking force. If not for my reflexes her claws might have ripped my forearm open, but it was clear she wasn't happy where she was and there was no way she was going to get any treatment like that.

Plan B then. Home nursing. We brought Belle home and prepared our guest-room for her. Her personal bed, dining area and sand-box. She is still immobile from the waist down so we have to regularly carry her into the sand-box so she can take a leak or a crap. In her condition, it's a messy process but we hope it will only be a temporary situation.

My main concern is when we have to give her her meds tomorrow. She's off her food tonight -- no appetite -- so maybe she'll be hungry enough in the morning to eat her pills along with her breakfast, else we'll have to syringe it down and I'm not looking forward to this potentially hazardous procedure one bit. And Dr Casey recommends we give her some physiotherapy too just to keep the circulation flowing back into her legs. Sweet as Belle is, she's a scary mother when she's riled. She's strong too, so we're expecting to be shredded quite often this week. Yikes.

Poor Belle. Get well soon. Please.

Today was supposed to be a normal, boring, ho-hum day. One I was looking forward to. We brought Mimi back to stay with us last night and we took her and Q-tip for our usual Saturday morning breakfast walk. As we walked past the far end coffee shop, their harness bells (yes, they sound like reindeer when they go walkies) attracted Lung-Lung, a stray we haven't seen for quite a while.

The last time we saw Lung-Lung, she was a scrawny little thing who had lost most of her fur, though for reasons we couldn't fathom. She's a toughie, though. She had been attacked by a stray dog when she was a kitten, and till today the scars near her neck are still quite apparent. Today, she looked well-fed and she has recovered her lost fur. Her progress towards good health has been quite remarkable.

Here's the irony. Mid-day, Belle suddenly began miaowing in her panicked voice. She only miaows like this when we pack her in a travel cage and take her to the vet. She says, "miAO," emphasis on the last syllable, in this state. We went to see what was wrong and it was quite sad. She suddenly seemed to have lost the use of her hind legs. She was panting and the lower part of her body was cold. This didn't seem like normal cat behaviour so we called Dr Casey, who agreed to see her after 1400 though she didn't have a prior appointment.

Dr Casey didn't have good news for us. Belle had suffered a stroke and the resulting blood clot had cut off circulation to her hind legs. She didn't respond to the pain test and there was no pulse in her legs, so that's very worrying. What's hopeful is that so far she still has control over her bowels and that her general body temperature (she responded quite violently to the rectal thermometer -- she bit me) is still normal.

She'll be hospitalized for a few days while they try to dissolve the blood clot with medication and in the meantime she'll undergo further testing to see if there are other complications to her current problem. At least Dr Casey didn't say her condition was terminal, but how much use of her legs she recovers depends on how well she can respond to the treatment. Hopefully, we had brought her in early enough to be a factor in her recovery. Thankfully we hadn't left for Ikea yet, like we planned to do; else there'd be a major crisis when we got home in the evening.

Don't feel like going out right now. Apologies to Jordan for not being able to catch his last performance at Centrestage tonight before he leaves for the UK.

This is an unusual request, but say a prayer for Belle, ok?

Back on campus for more marking. Also for the company, particularly at lunchtime. I used to hate having lunch with people when I first started work. I'd leave early or later, after everyone else had left; or I'd arm myself with a book or magazine and bury myself behind it looking too busy to catch a familiar eye. Didn't really have much to say to anyone, and everyone was boring anyway. Or found me a bore, I guess it was mutual.

Glad I've found a crowd I actually like lunching with. Funny how life makes a sudden 180° turn when all along you think life will always go in the same direction. Today we made Amy drive us to GFC where we haven't been for so long. Rice and things still tasty and satisfying though my lunch companions found the towgay (sprouts) too hot for their taste. The dish was full of tiny chilli padi which gave a nasty kick, particularly since the dish isn't meant to be spiced up like that. But we took a relaxing break from our busy schedules just sitting at the coffee shop and discussing, for the most part, Anthony's upcoming wedding.

Shani opened her condo for the Drama Club to hold our long overdue cast party in honour of 'Oz.' We were there from a little past 1800. Apart from the BBQ, we got to try MJ's pasta marinara which was generously full of mussels. So that's pasta for me, like, 3 days in a row? Something like that. I've got pasta coming out of my ears now, and all I can say is, "ohboy, more!" Marco Polo might have brought my ancestors back to Italia on his last visit and a latent gene might have finally kicked into action in me. Italian food. Love it!

Q-tip came back from grooming this evening. She's been looking like a fuzzy puffball running around the house. Her legs were slowly disappearing under all her fur so we finally decided it was time. Dominic sent her back to us neatly trimmed. A sort-of schnauzer cut for her body and we can see her face again, too. But she's still pretty much ball-shaped. It wasn't all the fur making her look fat, it's because she is fat that's why she looks fat. Definitely diet time for her. And more exercise too. For someone who sleeps 23 hours a day, her condition shouldn't be surprising. Walkies, anyone?

But her walk had to wait. June found an easy-to-follow recipe for pasta in today's 'Urban' supplement of our local English daily and she tried it out for dinner. I've copied the recipe below if people are interested:

Penne with tomato, bacon and chilli
Serves 4 to 6

500g dried penne, a tubular pasta
1 teaspoon salt
250g streaky bacon, sliced into strips
2 medium-sized purple onions, finely chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 400g tins chopped tomatoes
3 tablespoons tomato puree (not tomato paste)
2-3 red chillies, sliced into rings (the smaller the chilli, the hotter the sauce)
A big handful of fresh basil leaves
Black pepper to taste

1. Put a large pot of water to boil, add the salt. Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packet.

2. Meanwhile, stir fry the bacon in a non-stick wok or saucepan over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes. Add onions and garlic for 2 to 3 minutes more till the whole lot is really fragrant.

3. Add the chopped tomatoes, tomato puree and chillies. Tear up half the basil and add to the pan. Stir well. When sauce bubbles, turn heat to low and simmer 10 minutes.

4. If the sauce is too sour, add a pinch of sugar. Not salty enough? A pinch of salt should do it, although the bacon should be salty enough. Too thick? Thin it down with some water or white wine. Then add some freshly cracked black pepper to taste.

5. Drain cooked pasta and pour it back into the pot you boiled it in. Pour sauce and mix wellso the sauce coats the pasta. Spoon into a large serving dish or into individual pasta bowls. Tear up the rest of the basil, sprinkle over the pasta and serve.

In case you're wondering about the "serves 4 to 6," June just recalculated the amounts for just the 2 of us. And she added in a few finely sliced white champignons 'cos we love those.

Spent the rest of the evening watching "Madagascar" which I thought was hilarious. Now I'm quite inspired to send Momo and Belle back to live in the wild. They're becoming so spoilt with their urban lifestyle here. I'm starting to feel a pang of guilt, like I'm keeping them from their true destiny. Just kidding.

It's bad to stay at home all day, especially when you know there is outstanding work left to do. There are too many distractions at home, TV, DVD, PC, console game device, pets, that work rates pretty low on the "things-to-do" list. No social life to speak of since I am isolated from everyone else. What to do? Everyone I know is busy with their outstanding issues too.

So today, I'm on campus, and I am being a lot more productive. Marked 10 scripts already and I'm rewarding myself with a quick post. There are people here too, and there is an opportunity for a sociable lunch to look forward to.

Don't ask about the scripts I've marked, though. They're nothing to be proud of. Whatever have I been teaching the kids? At least I know what to focus on next term: how to argue with a strategy to win (as opposed to rambling random thoughts with vague reference to the topic of the essay question). How to win arguments and influence people. Yes.

Finally, after being nearly 400km overdue, the M2 got his 5000km servicing done. Another Mazda owner *cough* had told me that the process would take the whole day, but I was able to collect my car at 12. Not bad at all.

So Mazda gave me a coupon for free servicing, plus a car wash and vacuum at no extra charge. They replaced my engine oil and topped up all the various fluids -- hydraulics, coolants, cleaners -- and checked for possible defects due to wear and tear. M2 got a clean bill of health from today's inspection.

While M2 was in the shop, I had nothing to do from 0930 onwards. My intention was to mark essays, but the workshop guest lounge didn't have tables (and why should it, anyway?), it was dim, and it had a TV blaring away. Not... conducive.

So I took a bus (gasp! public transport! how plebian!) into Toa Payoh and discovered that most stores open at 1100. So I just wandered around like a disembodied spirit looking for an unobtrusive place to park myself, though I didn't have much luck there. No unoccupied benches, so I just had to keep walking.

Finally collected M2, just in time to meet June for lunch. I had another craving for pasta, so we went to Al Forno Tratorria, a class above the Pastamania, etc., that we are so used to. The restaurant had heavy wood furniture and patrons tend to be business people, or from the tai-tai variety. In my ah-pek t-shirt and berms, I felt a bit underdressed, but hey, whatever, I was there for pasta and not to make an impression of myself.

What can I say? Beautiful lasagne, so smooth and creamy, with meaty beef chunks rather than the sprinkling of ground beef that we get in the el cheapo places. They even make you decide what kind of water they serve you, "still or spa?" They then bring a 1 litre bottle of mineral water with an impressive label on it, and pour your first glass out for you. Classy.

Warning: our pasta was a bit too salty. June's spaghetti vongole tasted like it had been cooked in sea water, and this was the one anomaly that marred what might have been a truly gorgeous experience. Next time we go, we'll definitely ask for way less salt.

Cost of meal for 2: $54. Explains the fishball bee hoon soup I had for dinner.

Yay! The mid-year break is upon us! No time-table to adhere to, no formal tutorials to conduct, and the time is mine to do what I want. And what do I want the time for? Marking a rather large pile of essays! Yes!

Spent the morning in the staff room ploughing through script after script, oh, and only another 50 more to go. Gotta get them done in the next couple of days so I can get into the frame of mind to tackle the NE backlog and the miscellaneous other items cluttering up my desk. I do so love vacation time!

I was there when the Council dragged themselves back from Ubin. The Elects, having been thoroughly indoctrinated, enthusiastically greeted passing staff in unison, united in their loudness. They must be glad to be home after 3 days in the wilderness within the nurturing confines of a BMT-style boot-camp.

Vince and Amy came back with them, obviously tired out, hungry and grouchy. The wilderness must have done them some good too. But they were also obviously unlikely to want to go bowling tonight, so I bowled with June at SAFRA. A 4-game average of 154, which isn't bad, I guess, but I'm still being held back by my inability to convert simple spares. Oh, well, today's performance impressed the kids bowling in the next lane. I'm still gonna havta' do better than that, though. The next fixture is in July, so there's still a few more weeks left to train.

A group of 40 Japanese dropped in on service today. Our invited guest item from the "J-choir." They sang gospel, not J-pop, unfortunately. But it was a very sweet choral performance, very competent, and very understated. No particular need to get dramatic with their presentations, they just sang and harmonized and blended their voices together, and I really appreciated them for that. No outstanding soloists, no ornateness, just sincerity of effort put in by everyone. Good job.

But my attention was fixed on the projection screen on which a slideshow of scenes of daily life in Japan was playing. The streets, the forests, people at work and at play, different kinds of attire, different kinds of food, flora and fauna... What captivated me was that the photos were simple, yet so well composed. Lines, textures, lighting, action and atmosphere. It felt just like looking out of a window and seeing things happen right in front of you for real. Wish I could take pictures like that.

Frivolous Supplies Convoy to Council Camp '05, P. Ubin.

NBS had a bright idea. Let's go cycling on Pulau Ubin and drop in on the Councillors at camp as an excuse. We'd bring some non-tactical, unhealthy snacks for the Camp Supervisors just to make our trip worthwhile. Our manifest included some green-coloured corn puffs, prawn crackers, potato chips (I think it was) and 9 individually packaged sachets of dried seaweed.

Woke up early today and met Lucy and NBS at the Ferry Terminal. A short boat ride later and we were on the little island swarming with schoolchildren on foot and on bikes. Apparently the 2 youth Brigades arranged for some mass activity and the jetty was crowded with kids getting oriented to a wild and rustic side of Singapore many of whom would never have seen before. It's a slice of rural life from 30-40 years ago preserved by the islanders and long may it stay that way.

The main road from the jetty is lined on both sides with bicycle rental shops. At random we picked one and got our Shimano mountain bikes at $7 each for a full day's rental.

Ubin's environment is such a change from our urbanized mainland. Here, it's mostly greenery, houses are still made of wood, the cars are in a condition that would have warranted scrapping a long time ago, and there is little evidence of air-conditioning even in the better-looking structures. It's a great place to get away from it all but I probably wouldn't last more than a day or 2 before I'm itching for bright lights, big city again. Town mouse, that's me.

We met the Camp Supervisors and accompanied them back to the jetty area where we settled in for lunch. The initial idea was for a seafood feast but as the Supervisors were going to remain on the island until Monday, they decided against ingesting anything they might regret in the near future. No chilli crab then. So we ordered rice and dishes: sweet-sour pork, 2 different styles of kailan, a tofu dish, deep-fried baby squid, and fresh coconut to wash it down with. There were 11 of us at the table and the meal came up to a very reasonable $5.50 per head (less drinks). June's thinking of bringing family here for a cheap meal-outing soon.

After lunch, we escorted everyone back to camp then the supply convoy took our leave to make our way back to civilization. Before boarding the boat, we made a quick pit-stop for more coconut and sliced local mangoes which smelled heavenly and tasted like bubblegum.

To Amy, Vince and the rest, just hang in there for another night. You'll be home soon! Until then, have fun roughing it out!

Ooh... check out the local wildlife:

Abu, a fisherman's burly tom, naps beside a well on P. Ubin.

I am stretched thin at work. Coping with a ratio of 76:1 for one subject and 50:1 for another means that my time in actual contact with individual kids can hardly be significant to them. Case in point: today I took one group of students to the NUSCC for the National NE Quiz '05 (some memories there for 03A2, yah?) then I had to abandon them there to sit through the entire experience while I returned to campus to meet my PW groups for another round of project consultations.

I feel like I've been running out on my classes a lot and that they haven't got the full benefit of my undivided attention due to one committment or another in my capacities as subject tutor, Drama Club in-charge, NE Coord, and having to prepare and undergo training for The New Subject as of next year. Speaking of which, the curriculum planning people for The New Subject came down to meet me and NBS on campus in the afternoon to see how we are coping, if we had any further concerns and for ideas as to how they can help us make the transition. A useful meeting, I think, and it's nice to see sincerity and concern on their part for us on the frontlines.

Oh, how did we do in the Quiz? Same result as last year. 3rd in our round, thus not qualifying for the Grand Finals. Hope 05A3 got to learn some NE trivia for their trouble. Thanks, guys!

Edit 01:
Forgot to mention the place I went to for lunch with Weng and Anthony. It's called Friends, just recently opened on Maju Ave right next door to the Cartel.

Friends is both a wine bar and a cafe. The first view of the interior is that of a wine cellar with racks of wine greeting the patron at the entrance. The dining area is not far behind. Tables and chairs are oddly low, though luxuriously comfortable. The chairs are the kind you might just fall asleep in after a good meal, if you didn't have anything pressing in the afternoon. Weng speculates that the low furniture gives the illusion that the ceiling is higher than it actually is, which makes the room seem more open and airier. Clever, efficient use of available space, that.

The lunch set is quite reasonable. $9.90++ for a soup OR salad, a variety of main courses to choose from, dessert and hot beverage (the coffee is pretty strong, Grinders, an Aussie brand). I had the beef lasagne. It went down smoothly, the flavours of mozza and ground beef blending nicely together. Substantial, yet not too heavy as lasagne tends to be. The passionfruit cake was tangy and fresh. Yum.

But the one thing I am most impressed with is the fact that my water glass that came at the beginning of the meal still contained a significant iceberg after I had drained it at the end of the meal. The water was cold and remained so throughout. That, to me, is a clear invitation to visit again. Def.
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Maybe I spoke too soon about the "oppressive doctrine" I mentioned in my previous post... [mumble, mumble]...

Anyway, the college blogsite is up and running with some posts already up by our student contributors. The site link is also on my sidebar for easy reference. It's called "Oil Lamps" after that stale joke about our college not needing anyone to change our light bulbs 'cos we are still using said item. We need visitors to our site to win, and your comments and suggestions as to how we can make it better, more attractive and, most importantly, more meaningful to you will help us a great deal, so please feel free.

This entry is also to mark my nephew, EJ's, birthday. He's still Thomas-mad (see my previous post of a year ago) and all his pressies were all themed accordingly. Thomas Lego Duplo from Japan, Thomas 'Lady' figurine with railway tracks, Thomas underwear, Thomas stamp with ink-pad, Thomas railway playset. Once again, M-i-L baked a mango cake and arranged another Thomas railway station diorama on top. Observe below:


Mom-in-Law puts a lot of effort into her homemade cakes.

I wonder if this Thomas obsession is bad for the kid? Shouldn't he immerse himself in other forms of popular culture at least for some variation? Like Pokemon? or Power Rangers? One Piece? On second thought, maybe not.

Yet another day spent off-campus. The M2 is getting a real workout this week. Couldn't come at a worse time for him 'cos he's overdue for his 5000km servicing and I've been too busy to make an appointment with Mazda. Hope he doesn't start falling apart through my abuse.

The Department signed up to attend another GP Seminar, an occasion for most of our fellow GP tutors from all colleges to meet and gather in one spot to listen to Important People talk about Important Things. This time, it was about the Geopolitics of the Middle East. The speakers were 2 very distinguished representatives who've had significant experience with our Foreign Affairs. Of the 2, I've only heard of Mr Mahbubani whose services for Singapore in the UN and in other strange lands are quite well documented. Just Google his name and check out 'em glowing credentials.

Our speakers very briefly touched on the surface issues surrounding that extremely bristly corner of our world, giving it so much of our diplomatic attention. They gave us a little historical insight into the Arab-Israeli problem; discussed our economic and diplomatic interests in the region, our surprisingly respected voice in the politics there (basically everyone tolerates a voice of reason), the opening up of the media which is oddly backfiring on the US who encouraged such press freedoms in the first place; and they reminded us of the fact that whatever we might think of the Arab world, the vast majority are people just like us, who want the things we want and have to some level already achieved: peace, security, freedom of expression, shopping, you know, the normal stuff we can all identify with.

And some of these normal activities we take for granted can be like a bunch of us dropping in on the Colbar for lunch before car-pooling our way to the IPAM auditorium for the seminar. The freedom of sitting at a table with a bunch of friends (Amy, HP, Yee and Gerald), tear into our meat, mushrooms and chips and laugh at the general silliness of life, and no one to tell us we can't do that because ... [insert whatever oppressive doctrine here].

Everyone should have the right to do what we did this afternoon. The tragedy is, we're amongst the few in this world, for one reason or another, who actually can. Sobering thought.

The Drama 1st Years helped launch NLB's READ! Singapore programme today with their dramatic reading from "To Kill a Mockingbird." It was interesting to compare our performance with the other 3 items because it was certainly different in style and genre. The most obvious difference was that our performers read from text that they carried on stage whereas the others were actual performances. We went for realism: movement that had definite motivational cues, the others went abstract and stylized. It's not so much a case here of which performance was better than another, but it seems like we were the odd ones out.

This fact became quite pointed when during the shmooze session, a lady representing a local Chinese drama organization commented with good intentions that our item was a bit static and could have used more movement. I totally agree. If we had been off-script, there could have been a more detailed study of the characters in terms of gesture, traffic pattern, anything other than a repetitive stand-sit-stand make-contact-break-contact kind of interaction; but considering the scenario we were playing and the style we were presenting in, I chose to move only when there was a real need to rather than move for the sake of moving; to not overkill a scene by playing around with light and sound; to bring in new elements without precedent; and to have characters stand around waiting for a line without having a reason or purpose to appear onstage other than to deliver it; all for the sake of giving the audience something to look at so they don't get bored. No wonder I don't win awards for my directorial attempts.

Anyway, this READ! Singapore programme aims to get everybody reading a common set of books -- a canon comprising 3 specific titles for each of our 4 national languages -- and then start book clubs wherever we are, work or neighbourhood or in transit, to discuss them.

"Eh, Seng, you read "Tequila Mockingbird" or not?"
"Ya, that Ah Tikus is my ou xiang. Now I wan' to study lor...!"
"But that May-la, dam' b**ch one, ok? Mei you liang xin for the black guy."
"Ayah, black people always very poor thing lah. But Ah Tikus fight for them, that's why I like him!"
"Actually, I'm more of a Bo guy..."
"No lah! Carrie will be the next American Idol!"

I feel so literate already. Oh, well, at least we're talking.

But seriously, it may be idealistic, but I too am buying in on the need to read. We live in the too-much-information age. What info we access is so transitory, so rapidly mutable, that it affects the way we think and the way our belief structure works. We learn quickly that nothing in our world is permanent and apply this attitude to things that do need a sense of the long-term, our values and our relationships, for example.

Reading for pleasure helps us slow time down. Unlike information, the stuff in stories does not change, and we get horribly upset if someone tries to do just that. A work of Fiction may have all the descriptive details thrown into the text, but our imaginations fully engage to fill in the gaps where language proves inadequate. This is how we exercise our ability to dream, and dreams are in short supply in this place.

Ironically, the kind of industry our country is moving into is named "knowledge-based," but we'll never survive just providing information alone 'cos it's too cheap and too easily available anywhere in the networked world. We should sell dreams instead -- they are from an unlimited source, our minds -- and we have the facilities, technology and know-how here to turn them into reality for other people. It's a more fun and rewarding business to get into, besides.

So here's my 2 cent's worth for READ! Singapore: Go grab a book and learn to read for fun; can you afford not to?

Just returned from a pet farm in Pasir Ris Farmway 2. The place is called "Pet Movers" and it had a write up in the June 2005 edition of Simply Her which June spotted.

What a fun place to bring our dogs, Q-tip and Mimi. There were other dog owners there to make use of the facilities: an enclosed dog run where dogs big and small gambolled around, the al fresco cafe where we had breakfast, and a dog paddling pool in which dogs swam while their owners waded after them.

The cafe's menu is very basic. We should have gone earlier 'cos their nasi lemak had sold out by the time we arrived. We had to settle for their fried bee hoon topped with a chicken wing and sliced green chilli. Stomach-filling stuff, little else. But we didn't go there for the food, anyway.

If we had known about the paddling pool earlier, we would have brought towels for our dogs. It's safer and friendlier for them to swim here than in the open sea with its unpredictable waves and currents. We saw a happy little Jack Russell playing 'fetch' with a tennis ball which his owner kept throwing into the water. If only Q-tip was as active.

Apart from the run, the place also has a large pet supply store with reasonably priced merchandise. There is a section where puppies for sale are on display together with a grooming facility. It's a bit smelly here but that's only because our urbanized noses are spoilt, unused to the natural scents of animal agriculture.

A great place for dogs and owners alike to socialize and shop. And a good way to get our 2 antisocial pets to meet and make other canine friends.

The circle is now complete. We have the full life story of one Anakin Skywalker from a precocious 9 year-old Jedi prodigy to fallen Jedi/Sith Lord to redeemed Jedi in the last few minutes of his life. And so ends a saga that took nearly 30 years in the telling.

June says Anakin led a wasted life. For someone so powerful to spend most of his power on causing pain, suffering and death to millions is unpardonable, especially when that power could have been used to do the complete opposite. That he chose his path out of his own impatience, pride, fear, arrogance, guilt and ultimately gullibility is tragic. Obi-Wan rails at him for not living up to being "the Chosen One," but perhaps the Jedi Council didn't quite understand the meaning of the ancient prophecy, as Yoda feared. Anakin was supposed to "bring balance to the Force," and that was exactly what he did.

How much more good could Anakin have done in a galaxy already watched over by the Jedi Council? The Sith in comparison were vastly outnumbered. Darth Sidious (Palpatine), Darth Maul (deceased), Darth Tyranus (Count "I will suck your blood" Dooku), and as far as the movies go, no one else. 3 Darths vs the hundreds of Jedi younglings, padawan, knights and masters doesn't seem quite fair odds even in our galaxy.

Against such overwhelming opposition, the Sith create an empire and all but wipe out their competitors in a single strike. Fine, they have the entire Clone Army behind them but that's just a matter of careful preparation, isn't it? Vader himself strikes at the heart of the Jedi organization and in the most heartless way demolishes it from the inside out. Result: The Sith rule, and 2 Jedi remain (Yoda and Obi-Wan) to rebuild the Jedi faith all over again. Balance achieved.

Episodes 1-3 is innovative in the retelling of a common myth -- hero triumphs over incredible odds and restores peace to a troubled land. In this movie series, it's just that the side that wins, the side that the hero fights for, isn't the side we like. Anakin rationalizes his actions under the banners of peace, security and stability for the galaxy but the peace that comes with his victory is a contrived one, one that exists simply due to the absence of war, and of course it doesn't last very long. And so, equilibrium has to be achieved again and from Episode 4-6 it's Luke who rebalances the galaxy. Anakin/Vader is again instrumental in achieving this rebalancing -- he is the fulcrum to Force balancing in both parts of the saga.

So Anakin fulfils his destiny as far as the prophecy goes. Just be careful how you read your prophecies. They may come true in ways you might not like.

Episode 3 was a blast to watch. A visual treat in the scale of the conflict, in the sense that whatever you were looking at, though huge by itself, is just a tiny cog when the camera zooms out to present a larger perspective of the battlescape. I guess it's that way with Vader too. His is a looming presence over the Star Wars franchise, and yet still a tiny part in the grand scheme of things. That's perhaps what's so great about this entire saga: it's an ensemble piece with every part living and breathing rather than being just a vehicle for any star in particular.

There are few surprises in the plot, since we all know how things eventually turn out but it's nice to have the gaps filled for a clearer picture.

I was also lucky enough to catch a complete screening of "The Clone Wars" vols. 1 and 2 in one sitting yesterday. This animated series chronicles the events between Episodes 2 and 3, tracing the exploits of the Jedi knights through the Clone Wars, the unorthodox promotion of Anakin from Padawan to Knight (hence answering how Anakin could aspire to the title of Master since the last time we saw him he was still just an apprentice), and finally leading up to the kidnapping of Senator Palpatine by General Grevious which is where Episode 3 opens. Many thanks to Cartoon Network for this unexpected bonus.

I guess all that's left is to propose a home screening of a Star Wars movie marathon with loads of popcorn and coke when all 6 episodes (in extended format maybe?) come out on DVD with my taped copy of "The Clone Wars" thrown in. Anyone interested?

Spent the afternoon with 3 chatty, lively schoolgirls. Took them to the official launch of the National Interschool Blogging Champoinships 05 at the Esplanade. These girls are the team who will mastermind a group blog to represent our college in the contest. As a tutor advisor, I have no editorial rights over the content of the blog. I'm just around to safeguard that the rules of the game are upheld.

The event was hosted by DJ Jamie who was taller than I had imagined. Not that I make it a habit to imagine her, mind you. My girls took a couple of snaps with her and got her autograph too.

The idea behind this contest is to see how schools can tap into blogging as an outlet for the voice of our youth. Whenever it comes to asking kids what they think about issues, they generally clam up and pretend to be dumb about things, but give them the time, the leisure and the opportunity to write and sometimes interesting things come to light.

Judging criteria are quite basic. Make the blog attractive, keep the content interesting, bring in lots of visitors, and erm... use good English (at least on the part of the main contributors to the blog; nothing we can do about the unwashed masses that leave ungrammatical comments on our entries). 9 colleges are participating, our ambition is to be in the top 5 after the 1st round of judging is over.

Well, if that's the case, I told the girls to make sure their posts remain interesting enough to reward the visitor every time he or she loads up the page. Then, and only then, will people bring other people to drop in and say hi!

The girls are now working on creating this blog so when it's ready (hopefully real soon) I'll link to it. Maybe I can entice some of you to have a look? We could use the support!

After the event, the organizers arranged a simple reception. Free-flow post-mix drinks; finger sandwiches; delicious, hot, crispy samosas; and deep-fried wontons with Sinsin chilli sauce dip. A nice, polite way to end the proceedings, but the girls were still hungry, having skipped lunch to attend the launch so I took them to Thai Express where they tanked up on different forms of Thai rice. The pineapple type, green curry type, shrimp paste type and the olive type. Yummy.

Took the Drama Club J1s to the Woodlands Library to rehearse for their debut performance. It's only a short dramatic reading but it's a pretty big event considering who the Guest-of-honour is going to be -- my Big Boss, himself.

Dramatic reading is a very delicate balancing act. On the one hand, you're reading off a set text; but on the other, you're dramatizing the scene for an audience who is there to watch the action. In a straight drama performance, the idea is to rid ourselves of our texts as quickly as possible as reading from a script loses the audience interest very fast. Here, we have to know the text well enough to play the scene, yet keep our scripts open and manipulate a handheld mike at the same time. The scene itself is a courtroom drama where most characters are held in place by protocol: Judge in his seat, witness at the witness stand, counsels seated at their desks, audience fixed in the gallery. So not a lot of movement called for, very little we can do to keep the audience's attention.

Fortunately, we've been given only 10 minutes to play, and I think that's long enough. The other items on the programme have music, movement and dance incorporated into the readings of texts in our other national languages; Malay, Chinese and Tamil. Since there's so much movement in the other items anyway, maybe we can exploit the contrast in our item and put our stillness to our advantage? We'll see.

Rushed over to the CSC in the evening of the 3rd installment of our Ministry's bowling challenge. They gave away the prizes for last month's top results before our game commenced. The top high game from last month was from a lady bowler with a score of 233 (out of a possible 300). Our competiton is truly quite awesome. I did pretty ok nevertheless, averaging 153 pinfalls out of 3 games. My sparing accuracy is crap -- for the 2nd game I simply couldn't close the frames, else my score would been higher. Training objective for next training session: practice clearing spares.

Guess with this game under my belt, my overall personal standings should have improved some, though still nowhere near the top yet. Makin' progress, though.

The team's standings are hard to judge. Yee and Vince both had good games and, like me, at least 1 poorer one. Anthony has an injured elbow and couldn't bowl his usual game. It would be good if we all bowled like we practice... Oh well, overall team improvement as far as I can tell. Cheers to us, the Gutter Boys!

Before we knew it, the first installment of this year's PW assignment was due today. Deadline was yesterday for the kids, today for us staff to submit the collated submissions. One of the major new developments in this year's PW cycle is the submission of individual proposals for a group project even before the formation of the students' project groups. This procedure ensures every student has a chance to show they can have a bright idea rather than just going along with the idea of the most on-the-ball person in the group. Of course, when you have to supervise 50 individual students in PW, having to look through and assess 50 individual proposals can be something of a headache.

It doesn't help when you have kids who insist they didn't know that the deadline was yesterday, though this little nugget of information has been repeated quite a few times over official and unofficial channels. I feel like proposing my own little project, something along the lines of equipping all teaching staff with cattle prods to inspire and motivate the blur and tardy. We could raise taxes to finance this worthy cause.

We took yet another step towards fixing the leak in our toilet this evening. It was after June had made several phone calls that we discovered our constituency's Meet-the-People sessions are usually on Monday evenings. We quickly drove down to our MP's office to have a quick dinner before he opens for consultation at 1930. We arrived on the dot but the waiting room was already crammed full of petitioners awaiting their turn. We prepared ourselves for a long wait and settled in to watch "Survivor" playing on the TV to occupy ourselves.

We watched the elimination of another "Survivor" contestant, Jan, and not long after that we received our summons in to see an official. Apparently, our problem is minor enough not to require handling from the top man himself. It's a standard procedure that our official seemed quite familiar with.

"Toilet leaking?"
"Uh... yes."
"Okay." (signs on our notice from HDB)
"Um... what happens now?"
"Oh, nothing. HDB will send you a letter in a couple of days. You'll get a subsidy of 50% of the repair cost and the balance you pay 25% and your neighbour pays 25%."
"Wow. Thank you and goodnight!"
"Goodnight!"

What might justify this subsidy? Our floor is leaking due to some poor workmanship from our HDB-approved contractor who only waterproofed the shower area though he should have waterproofed the whole bathroom floor instead. wear and tear of our bathroom waterproofing, so in a way it's a bit of compensation for the repair costs we have incurred as a result of the leak.

Our visit didn't take us as long as we had anticipated. In fact we wasted a parking coupon preparing for a 2-hour visit and we were done in 1. It was early enough to join the guys at the CSC for another practice round.

I did good tonight. 3-game average: 169; and my personal best game total: 187.
I'm starting to strike more often, but my spares still suck, else my scores would have been even better. My score, though, showed a steady decline with each consecutive game, probably because I get tired easily(...?). Conclusion: don't bother throwing a warm-up game else we'll get too tired by the time the tournament starts.

Entry for 2 days again.

Saturday: College Day, so spent a weekend afternoon in long sleeves, tie and proper shoes. Arrived early fearing lack of parking lots on campus and parked outside in the HDB parking lot anyway. Spent $5 on parking as a result. Interesting how the brain of an idiot works, no?

Due to withdrawal symptoms the Gutter Boys hatched a plan to get some practice after the speeches, prizes and politeness of the College's most important day on the calendar was over. We were unlikely to get lanes on a weekend evening so we got Weng to book a lane for us at the S'pore Swimming Club where he is a member. But because he couldn't join us, he instructed us to seek out his mom at the club first to obtain his membership card so we could sign for the lane in proxy.

Now, that seemed like a bit of a hassle so Amy tried getting a lane at the CSC instead and scored one most unexpectedly. So we bowled there in the early evening; 3 games until we got kicked out when the people who had a prior booking showed up.

The night was still young so we did as Weng suggested and used our booking at his club. We would have to pay a no-show fine if we didn't anyway. We were meant to follow each other in a convoy but Amy and I lost the lead car (Anthony's M3) in heavy traffic so Amy drove on by instinct and I kept doggedly on her tail trusting she knew where she was going. She didn't. She made a wrong turn at Old Airport Road instead of Mountbatten and wisely stopped her car on the side when things started looking unfamiliar to her.

Fortunately, I knew this part of the neighbourhood and managed to get us the rest of the way there, though I made a mistake and parked in the Members Only parking lot. After our training session, both our cars had warning letters planted on them. Next time we park there we'll have our tires clamped and face a $100 fine. Never again.

The team's doing well, Yee is running hot now. He posted a score of 211, the high game for that lane for the day. The weak link now is me, posting lower scores than the others, though higher than my usual. If we continue bowling like this for our tournament game this Thursday, we should see certain improvement in our standings.

Today:
Our contractor finally dropped in to see our bathroom. June basically entertained her while I hid in my study in denial. The repairs are going to be such a painful process for me, but for June it's the final product that motivates her.

Went back to washing the M2 by hand and got it nice and shiny again in record time. Now that we have a system that we're used to we're a lot faster now than before. Except that I left our sponges to dry in the sun and we forgot to collect them when we packed up and drove home. Fortunately, the washing bay is only a short walk away and Q-tip got an unexpected outing just to retrieve them.

Picked up parents and bro in bright and shiny car to meet sis and family at Casuarina Road for dinner. We celebrated Mothers' Day and my bro's belated birthday with more food than was possible to finish. Drove back to my sis' place to plough into the cake we bought. A lovely chocolatey one it was.

One of my passengers (don't know who) tracked a wad of chewing gum that had stuck to the sole of his/her shoe into the M2. My rear right car mat now has some indelible stains and a nice pepperminty smell as well. Nah, I'm not upset with my passengers, but that inconsiderate turd whose indiscriminate disposal of gum has messed up my car's pristine interior owes me a new car mat. Not that I'm ever likely to collect though... grrr.