Once in a while I give out "model answers" to exam questions.

There are a number of things I planned to say over the last couple of days, but I can't summon the energy to put them all into coherent thought. It's the end of the year and I'm tired, so I'll just dish out a little practical vacational advice here:

DO NOT seek to maximize vacation time by minimizing sleep time (duh!). For the last couple of weeks I've been sleeping past 4am trying to squeeze the last remnants out of December 05. Some days I don't go to bed until I realize that birds are singing in the trees! Those are really wasted days since I don't wake up again until past noon, so the whole exercise of maximizing time becomes a total farce.

Result: bio-clock gets upset causing loss of temper, loss of patience, loss of good humour, thinking of uncharitable thoughts, even outright hostility. June noticed this especially when I'm playing NFS:MW in the wee hours -- I'd be verbally abusing my virtual opponents for their anti-social driving behaviour in language that's unprintable in a PG site like this one. Can you say, "road rage?"

Will be going into hibernation mode these last few days before term begins again, if only to stock up on lost sleep.

Discovery of the Day: "Don Your Personal Pie Club." Weird name, I know. June and I were wandering around China Square when I noticed this signboard advertising chicken pie. We still haven't quite got over Harry's pies of last year's vacation in Sydney so of course we had to go check this place out.

The counter guy was very happy to see us and immediately introduced us to the pies on display. The look in our eyes must have told him we were an easy mark. The regular sized pie is shareable between 3-4 pax, assuming it isn't the only thing on the table. We bought a quarter pie to sample and it was good. The Signature pie has a light flaky crust, hot and moist inside with bits of carrot, potato and green peas accompanying the chicken strips that define it as a chicken pie. The guy said there were different grades of spiciness, and the wedge that we tried already kept our stomachs warm and happy.

Also on offer were NY cheesecake, which the guy assured us was of pure Philly cheese manufacture, and chocolate fudge cake for those who want "afters."

And so...

unofficially, the end-of-year vacation has ground to a halt. Back to work tomorrow, and in a way, it'll be nice to get back to the old routines I've grown accustomed to. Nothing like a bit of structure and predictability for direction and purpose again. Bear with me, I'm trying to be positive here. But Workyear 2006 is still a few hours away from now, so let's imbibe the last of our vacation to the dregs while we still can.

And so the day we anxiously wait 364 days of the year every year comes to an end. Well, there're still a couple of homes left to visit later, but officially, Christmas is over.

Didn't feel all that Christmassy this year, though. It was more like, suddenly It's here! Lots of seasonal food on which to over-indulge, lots of family to greet, a frenzy of wrapping and unwrapping of presents, all over in a whirlwind 48 hours.

It must have been the lack of an adequate build-up to the event for June and me. There's usually a sequence of activities to undertake that enhances the anticipation. Things like putting up the tree, taking slow strolls through the malls selecting gifts and admiring the deco (which was horribly commercial this year in particular, I thought), and preparing our share in the feasting (we usually roast up a fab turkey and put some salad together) gets us in the right frame of mind to celebrate properly. We've been naughty this year and did none of the above. No wonder we feel more like Grinches than Santas.

Oh well, 364 more days till Christmas 2006. Let's hope it's a good one.

Enough time for one quick sneaky entry. Lunched at Friends, Maju Avenue. Opted for the regular set over the Christmas special. Didn't want to spoil my appetite for dinner tonight.

The pumpkin soup was a good starter. It kept the tummy warm and happy in anticipation of the main course. The lamb shank I got was quite a massive hunk of meat over a bone that would have kept Q-tip happy for weeks. There was a lot of meat, and it didn't have that sheepish smell that mutton usually has. Tender and kept moist with a generous helping of gravy. Carnivore time! I was so tempted to drop my cutlery and gnaw on the leg directly, but there was a nice, polite family at the next table and I thought I'd better set a good example.

June let me try some of her crispy pork. 3 fine slices of breaded pork chops that I can only describe as "delicate," almost melt-in-the mouth quality.

Dessert was a small bread pudding (I've had lots of this stuff over the last week, oddly enough) served hot and sweet. Strong coffee (Grinder's) to finish off.

Attentive service too. Staff kept coming around to clear dishes and top up cold water.

And now, preparing for dinner with the clan, carolling and Christmas countdown... :)

Christmas celebrations have more or less begun. We took June's parents to Equinox for high tea, literally. 70 stories high and the view was quite stunning, especially as the sky was quite clear and we could see right across the sea. So odd to be looking down on buildings that usually block out the sun from the sidewalk, but from this elevated persepective, the whole cityscape appears so sim-city like.

High tea was basic: local standard tidbits like spring rolls, lotus pau and siew mai, but they also had a passable laksa as well. There was a section for sushi and also a section for scones with Devonshire cream and strawberry jelly which was a nice touch. Our 2 nephews enjoyed the chocolate fondue fountain the most and had to be physically restrained by their grandparents from picking up more marshmallows and strawberries to pour chocolate over.

We did a little shopping at the toy fair in the atrium of Raffles City before taking the Wongs home. In exchange, M-i-L gave us a number of her "ownself-make" fruitcakes. Those we intend as Christmas gifts she decorated with a layer of icing and created a little winter diorama on top of each using figurines she bought from Phoon Huat. Ours she left undecorated 'cos it's going straight into our stomachs.

Anthony and Wendy were the first recipients of M-i-L's fruitcake this year. We met them at Samara for cold beverages in the evening.

Other purchases today: Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway" and Eminem's "Curtain Call" CDs. We happened to be in Chinatown for a while in the afternoon.

1 more day till Christmas...

I think M-i-L's calculations for the winter solstice are off by a couple of days. June says the proper way to celebrate dong zhi is to have a clan reunion and have a big feast including tang yuan soup all round.

We marked the occasion tonight according to the Wong family tradition: cook up a hoarde of wo tie dumplings in both deep-fried and boiled varieties, and eat them with a dip comprising fresh chilli padi paste, black vinegar, sesame oil and thin shreds of ginger. Eat until silly. Simple and easy.

The longest night of the year also reminds me that it's only 2 days till Christmas. Really? I haven't been paying attention. Sigh.

We're still stuck on our scavenger quest. Today, Q-tip accompanied us in her carrier bag and because she's quiet, no one suspected the presence of a little dog within their premises.

Our first stop was M-i-L's house where we delivered to her our fur/drool/spew-encrusted living-room carpet which she decided to take over when she heard we were throwing it out. Guess moms are like that -- can't stand to see things go to waste.

We began our hunt in earnest at I Am, an exclusive menswear establishment in Suntec City Tower 1. We took the elevator to the 8th floor to find it, and again we found the service to be excellent. We pretended to be an engaged couple getting married "next year." The sales staff were very helpful, making recommendations for our big day. While I tried on a couple of spiffy dress shirts, June looked around the shop for signs of a clue. No luck, though June said I looked better in the pink shirt than the orange. Even I was impressed with my image change, even if it was only temporary. If I was rich, I'd probably dress like that all the time.

Midday we explored Little India. Many restaurants around and such wonderful spicy smells making us hungry, but because we had Q-tip in tow we postponed lunch till later. The bak kut teh place in Balestier was ok with Q-tip so we grabbed a quick lunch before visiting the Sun Yat Sen Memorial nearby. June's never been there before so since we were in the neighbourhood...

Made a couple more stops around the area before calling it a day. We needed a new carpet so we dropped in at a carpet shop near Geylang Serai. The proprietor recognized June 'cos we bought our previous carpet from him last year. Nice new carpet for the living-room: $80 (after a $5 discount for being a "regular customer").

Met Anthony and co. for dinner at EastSide. Wednesday is "Beefeater's Night." For $4.99 you get a steak dinner, and quite a sizeable portion too. I ordered mine with herb butter, but I think something was wrong with the butter. It came in a cold, round pat on top of the steak, and it wouldn't melt -- which was probably a blessing because it tasted a bit off. So I removed the whole thing and liberally applied ketchup. Worked just fine, though next time I'd opt for either the mushroom or black pepper sauce instead.

Ended the evening treating everyone to a round of dessert and coffee at Sketches, Robertson Walk. It was time to use the $100 voucher Q-tip won for us at Halloween. June said the tiramisu was too sweet, though I thought it was ok. But we both liked the tartufo I ordered. Guess we need the motivation to keep on our quest tomorrow.

Must be blog fatigue. Feel more tired after my vacation than before. Can't say much about the last couple of days. Mostly running from one possible checkpoint to another on another scavenger quest. Not that the experience hasn't been a fulfilling one: It's great having some kind of excuse to go look at some places where normally I wouldn't dream of stepping into -- places of such poshitude that the first thing I would expect to see is the bottom of the security guard's boot.

But oddly, despite the rags June and I were wearing, we got the same courteous service everywhere we went. The auntie at Katong Antique House offered us her homemade Peranakan cookies to sample (and June bought a couple of jars after that). The lady at Amor Meus showed June a secure way to tie a sarong. Even the tailor at Victor York was patient with us though we showed up at his doorstep after closing time, and he was still busy with a genuine client at the time. We discovered a very quiet, comfortable library at the STB where we could just sit and read in peace. Even the poised receptionist at the Fullerton abandoned her post temporarily to get me some info that I asked for.

We also made a few detours along the way, "since we were there already." Style:Nordic, on Ann Siang Road, sells decorative hand-crafted household items, clothes (Nudie Jeans, anyone?), shoes, and all things Swedish. June took a fancy to the wineglass rack-chandelier combo on display, but she restricted herself to a wooden gnome and 100g of assorted Swedish candy.

There is also a collection of Makansutra-approved hawker stalls next to the Esplanade where we found a slightly crispy version of o-luak (oyster omelette) which I thought was very good, though ordering $6 for a medium sized portion soon became a demonstration of the law of diminishing returns. Greedy, lah!

Oh, and somewhere in the last couple of evenings, we caught Jackson's Kong. Another example of man's cruelty to animals, whom Jackson is careful to emphasize are sentient, intelligent and just as deserving of life as we are. Leave them and their natural habitat alone, please. And stop trying to turn everything we touch into profit. Remember what happened to King Midas?

Ironic that I have 'net access in some far-flung island and none for a couple of days when I'm back home. Truth is, I haven't been home much. Family retreat began almost as soon as we returned from Samui. Our family got 3 rooms at le Meridian Changi Village and we stayed there overnight.

Just got myself a Flickr account and still playing around with it to see how it works. Won't inflict you with a slew of snapshots (I haven't quite figured out how yet), but you should be able to see what I've uploaded if you click the Flickr icon below.

We got a few hours of bright sunshine at last. Perfect for laps in the pool and beach walking. But necessity also helped us discover that eating cheap crap is just as good, if not better than the fancy-schmancy pants places we've been going to so far.

But first, we decided to honour the sun more than our promise to visit our benefactors of our "grand prize" of yesterday. There was nothing they could offer that we really wanted anyway -- we already knew which prize option we were going to get: free holiday at their spa/resort. Yay. It wasn't easy to avoid the pair 'cos there's only one Chaweng Beach Road and anyone plying the streets could spot us easily from a mile away. We encountered them twice but after firmly telling them that we were not interested in their product, they finally left us alone.

Our grand lunch plan was to go find this awesome sushi place called Hagi. From our hotel, we walked right up to almost the end of the road (about 45mins walking time) and found ourselves at a magnificently posh-looking resort which we had to enter to find our restaurant. We found it all right, but discovered it only opened at dinner time! All that walking for nothing.

We took so long to get there, we were getting late for our afternoon appointment. So we settled on eating at "Exotic Thai Food" instead, a local kopi-tiam equivalent. The food quality was good, pineapple rice especially, but the prices blew us away -- a small fraction of what we had gotten used to paying. And a godsend too, as we're quickly depleting our financial resources anyway.

We rushed back to our hotel where June booked us for an aromatherapy spa package. Spent a glorious afternoon getting pampered with a soak in a hot tub, a body scrub and while June went mild, I opted for a medium pressure rubdown to ease my knotted back and neck. A masseuse with strong fingers, scented oils, orchids in my bathtub... I could get used to this sort of treatment. Yes.

After a short nap in our room while we waited for the rain to go away -- it started raining again while we were at the spa -- we went out looking for more cheap crap. Found the Khaosan, a restaurant/bakery nearby which we always kept walking past because it was always crowded. We were lucky to get a table so quickly and we had some lovely tom yum soup with a generous supply of prawns and straw mushrooms, and more prawns fried in garlic and pepper on rice. So much garlic... vampires aren't going to bother me tonight. And neither will June. Bah.

Well, it's been a short trip. Last night in Samui, then we're back home tomorrow. Then we'll start loading up our holiday snapshots, if you're interested.

Began our day with a drive up to view the Big Buddha temple. Cost us 600B 2-way, cab driver doubling as our guide and photog. The giant statue is a landmark to look for on arrival by plane, but it was too dark to see anything on our night flight. Bought some cuttlefish from one of the stalls for M-i-L and they gave us 3 whole barbecued cuttlefish to sample with a sweet hot dip.

Took our first dip in the hotel pool (it's quite small) and took a little snooze in the weak morning sun. Sky still overcast here, though it didn't rain. Walked the beach too, me topless in support of the psychotic equine activities currently going on in Singapore.

Lunched at Prego. Didn't cost us an arm and a leg like we thought it would. We had a lovely lasagna and spaghetti frutti de mare and a fine apple pie ala mode for dessert. Here, seafood is always fresh so it's a good bet.

After lunch, we were accosted by a couple of fellas on a motorbike with a scratch-and-win opportunity for us. Of course, we won the "big prize" and they were all jump-up-and-down, wave-arms-in-the-air and shout, "yahoo," about it. Caught unaware, though we should have known better, they bundled us off into a cab and drove us to their head office for a presentation. My mind was going over all the possibilities of such an unwary-tourist scenario on the way there. Boy, were we tense.

The resort they're selling is called the "Samui Peninsula Spa and Resort," so such sales gimmicks have reached the remote shores of this island paradise too. The office turned out to be a little place on the outskirts of town. We filled out a form that focused on our demographic rather than our specific personal information, then were informed that, unfortunately, the presentation staff had left the office for the day, and would we be so kind as to postpone the presentation till tomorrow? A private car will be dispatched to collect us if so. We consented and got a free ride back to our hotel to await tomorrow's song-and-dance.

Meantime, we walked the beach again, trying to decide which beach restaurant to dine at in the evening. Much of Chaweng beach transforms into beachfront dining rooms in the late afternoon. Miraculously, palms and bamboo spring up on the beach draped with soft lighting over intimate dining tables-for-two set up on the sand. How romantic when darkness falls. Unfortunately, our faces fell when we looked at the menus. These prices we couldn't afford.

So back to the main Chaweng Beach Road where we found Rice and Stars, a fusion diner. Chic Zen themed with a koi pond right at the entrance. Fabulous tom yum, and the best mango salad we've tasted. Such chunky, sweet mangoes blending so well with the tangy Thai salad. My roasted snapper on mash was really fresh too with a hint of stingray in the fish. I like.

Sadly, Rice isn't well patronized. We and only 2 or 3 other tables were occupied while we were there. The price isn't bad for the quality of the food we get. Oh, well. We were there early. Maybe the place really gets jumping much later?

That's us. Too cheap to buy souvenirs, but always on the lookout for new ways to increase our waistlines. Burp.

Camping out at the Chaweng Regent. Spacious room, bathroom set up for multiple users if necessary. Quite thoughtful. Room temperature can get quite cold, but if we were experiencing hot weather the air-con would be a relief. Really courteous English-speaking staff so we're quite comfortable here.

Started our explorations of Samui with the half-day tour of the island. Hotel pickup to experience elephant trekking, a waterfall view, a gander at the undecomposed body of a dead monk, a monkey show, a visit to the local aquarium-zoo, a break for a Thai lunch, and a view of the "grandfather" & "grandmother" rock formations.

Elephant riding is ok for a while. Passengers sit on a metal bench perched on the elephant's back. There's a little sway to get used to and some unexpected lurches as the elephant tries to find footing along the jungle pathway and into the river on the way to Namaung Falls I, a photo op location. We had a young, chatty mahout who allowed me to sit on the elephant's neck where he usually would be sitting for most of the ride. Meantime, he sat behind with June. Wonder if he planned it that way?

Kinda' sad to see the elephants work the way they do. Yes, they do earn their keep and there seems to be no end of tourists to keep them rolling in bananas, but as I sat balancing myself on the great beast's head, I had to wonder about the routineness of his life and if he would be happier in the wild, without this sort of "work" imposed on him. Sadly, the alternative is extinction. Not much of a choice there.

Same thing with the tigers who were supposed to put on a show for us at the zoo. But the weather turned nasty so the tigers got the day off. The zoo tried to run the bird show anyway. We saw a few bird tricks like a macaw picking up empty beer cans and depositing them in a step-bin, and a budgie who pecked a 100b note from a tourist's fingers (but became uncooperative when instructed to return it -- clever fellow). But we never got to see the end of the show. It absolutely poured right into the arena, effectively cancelling the programme for us.

The larger Namaung Falls II was also on the tour programme, but the bad weather made it too dangerous to get to. Sigh.

Our group had a simple Thai meal at an eatery by the beach. Rice and assorted dishes. The deep-fried spring rolls were delicious. Even our tour companion, an elderly Brit who claimed he wouldn't eat anything other than junk food found himself picking from the dishes anyway.

Last stop: the natural rock formations that look remarkably like anatomically correct, um... phallic and fertility symbols. Gawk and photo-op time. There are a number of souvenir shops here as well and we picked up some pandan-flavoured coconut caramel which everyone here hand-makes for sale. It's sweet and has a nice bite. It's also not going to survive the night. Haha!

Found some tom yum for June for dinner 'cos there wasn't any at lunch. Around us the smell of barbecued seafood was so good. KIV for dinner tomorrow.

Chance for a quick entry. Taking a short trip to Koh Samui. Sea, sand, and monsoon, the cab driver promised us. Now using the free Internet at Changi Airport while waiting for our flight to depart. Will be staying at the Regent, which is apparently on the beach.

A bit of uncertainty in my language 'cos no one we know has been to Koh Samui before. If not for the cab driver, we wouldn't even know the island is on the South China Sea side of Thailand. So we're off pioneering and exploring unknown lands again. If Samui's nice, we'll tell you about it.

Meantime, try not to miss us, 'k? Back soon!

Another combined birthday celebration, sort-of. Mary's belated and Adrian's be-earlied. We had dinner with them and Jen at the new Viet Lang restaurant at the Arts House. Attentive and obliging service, and the food isn't bad either. I've never enjoyed paper-skin spring rolls before but the ones they served here had bite and taste, in no small part thanks to the bean sauce dip that made it work. We also had a fresh pomelo salad eaten on keropok discs; a prawn otah-like paste rolled around a piece of sugar-cane; and June ordered a fragrant oxtail soup as a starter.

For the main course, we had the pho bo -- beef noodles. Bits of beef, thinly sliced, finely edged with a little fat to give it the taste of cow goodness, without becoming overpowering. And the unexpected arrival of a tapioca cake with a lighted candle sticking out of it was Mary's little surprise for Adrian.

We were at the Arts House because Mary invited us to her show, "A Broadway Christmas Carol," an opportunity to parody famous show tunes set within the framework of a seasonally appropriate chestnut of a story. It's quite a funny show as you'll never know which popular show tune will come up next to advance the plot further. Quite a fun evening, spent in the room once occupied by the likes of D Marshall when he was Chief Minister of our little scrap of dirt we call our country.

Oh, the blood... the blood... swimming in it... drowning...! When you order a rare steak at Morton's be prepared. It's gruesome, but if your stomach can take it, your mouth will thank you so very much.

How does a scribbler who promises stuff on "middle-class entertainment" get to write about a place where one entree alone costs more than what he would normally pay for a splendid dinner for 2 elsewhere? Simply, company sponsorship. June's company has finally wound up ops in Singapore and the ex-employees -- all 3 of them, and their spouses -- got together one last time at company expense to have a such a meal together that our grandchildren will hear of it when they're old enough.

Posh a nook that Morton's is, we riff-raff are still welcomed with the same courtesy as the other guests. There is a general smart-casual dress code, though we did notice a couple of youthful looking patrons in round-necked Ts.

Cutlery is basic, but attention immediately goes to the steak knife whose authority no one will question. It's heft and size put it in the 'lethal weapon' category, so it's not a good idea to have a disagreement over dinner. The spontaneity of a duel may be exciting but such activities usually end in tears and not a little blood.

Each table starts with a loaf of bread served straight from the oven and butter to go around. Soft, warm, solid, chunky bread. Delicious, but not what Morton's is famous for. When we are ready to order, a staff-member wheels over a cart and explains the menu in a show-and-tell of pre-cooked ingredients. What you see really is what you get.

There must be a trick to it: the staff bringing us our orders isn't the same as the staff who took our orders, but he knew who ordered what anyway. I had the crab cake for the appetizer. Thankfully, more crab than cake. June gave me a morsel of her Maine Lobster cocktail which was cold and fresh. But the steak entrees are enormous. Gigantic slabs of meat served only with a bit of steamed watercress(?) and done to order. Mine was a New York Strip Steak done rare . The only way to do a steak of this size justice is to carve little bite-sized chunks and just take all the time in the world savoring it piece by piece.

Veggies come as side orders. They're quite ordinary -- steamed broccoli, mashed potatoes -- but necessary to keep the guests from becoming total raptors and t-rexes. The carnage would be unimaginable.

Janice's filet mignon was a little charred and she fed back to the management which agreed and offered to replace her steak with another. Janice had already eaten too much by then and wasn't interested in another steak so the management decided to give us 1 free dessert to make up for it. 1 dessert, so I'm not sure what happened next. First an amazingly smooth bread-and-butter pudding appeared on our table for all of us to share, then an NY cheesecake (rich and creamy, though it also appears to melt in the mouth and thus it goes down oh, so lightly) made an appearance as well and was likewise devoured.

June's idea to finish with fresh strawberries (and cream whipped with Marsala wine) was a good one. Left a fresh, clean taste in the mouth as we wished each other well, hoped for success in future endeavours and staggered back to our respective transports and home.

Sick days. Yesterday at midnight, I took June to have her knee looked at. I insisted 'cos she was in a lot of pain. Doc at Silver Cross at least confirmed no bones broken but rather the ligaments were more likely to have been injured. Said to take her back for another look when the swelling subsides in the next couple of days.

By morning, she was in less pain, so that's a good sign. She could stand and hobble around again so she accompanied me as we packed up the whole family to see the vet, Q-tip and Momo for their annual shots, and Kaiser for his dihorrea problem (been too greedy, probably).

Me? I'm still not feeling all that healthy either. My screwed-up neck gives me a slight headache which my dry cough exacerbates. Sneezy too. But I pulled myself together and got onto campus to give some attention to the clutter on my desk and do the painful but necessary annual dumping ceremony. Some parts of the surface are visible again, and the piles of, er, documentation, aren't as tall as before. There's a sense of accomplishment here.

Thanks to Amy who consented to my request for "something bland" and kept me company at lunch. The staff-room's pretty deserted these days. Even the sugar-cane auntie commented that she's missed us for a while already.

June and I met Anthony, CW and Celine at MindCafe to talk about the next scavenger quest. We tried out "Guesstures" which was a bit of silly fun. Since our bill exceeded $50, I got to toss a pair of dice for a token prize. I threw a double-six for the top prize of a free pizza on our next visit. Better remind myself before I lose the voucher.

Meantime, hope health improves tomorrow.

"Secret" blade training for June today. Midday Tuesday and Bish Park is empty. The rink is deserted, the Skateline rental facility is closed and tumbleweed rolls merrily across the dusty landscape. The silhouette of a lone cactus pines away in the distance...

June and I tear up the paths together. We are familiar with them after so many rounds of training over the last few weeks. She does pretty well, 2 rounds continuous. We take a water-break at the refreshment kiosk, which is kept open, thankfully, by a chatty auntie-type. Refreshed and cocky, someone has the brilliant idea of taking the reverse path for our 3rd round. At first, things go great. June learns to pick up speed and starts to enjoy it. Then a section of the pathway we're used to huffing and puffing on an upward climb suddenly becomes a perilous plunge accelerating the unaware blader on a plummet into purgatory.

June does her best to chicken out of the run, but she's already picked up too much momentum to bleed off too suddenly. She goes sprawling onto the grass verge and, as luck would have it, smashes the unprotected part of her knee into the ground. She's able to pick herself up and walk, so probably nothing's broken, but she's in a lot of pain anyway.

As the afternoon wore on, we had lunch with Amy, then the 3 of us joined Anthony and Yee for yet another crap bowling session at CSC. June sat out on account of her injury, but by the end of our game the pain in her knee kept increasing instead of decreasing.

She refuses to seek medical attention for the moment, opting to "wait till tomorrow and see how," but in the meantime, I've got her immobilized in front of the TV. Probably want to rub her down soon, if she'll let me anywhere near that knee.

I thought that the phenomenon of campus security making up its own rules occurred only in movies involving American academia. Today I was barred from entering the college compound with Q-tip, whom I brought with me to work. Whose rule was that? Whenever did "no dogs allowed" become campus policy? How quickly people forget...

Our campus once excelled at dog-friendliness. We hosted a posse of dogs who patrolled our compound and kept it safe. They knew who belonged on campus and who didn't. At night when it got dark, the dogs were known to escort late-staying students out to the main gate. All they asked for was a meal a day and a place to stay. How much better security could we have asked for? They didn't understand much English, though. But lately, this deficiency seems less and less of a problem for the employment market.

When it was time for campus redevelopment, for their own safety the dogs had to go stay in the kennels at staff expense, which we gladly paid. Unfortunately, once the new building was complete, they didn't come back. Guess we forgot about them after that.

And now we have this lamentable situation. Here we're trying to teach our students to respect life in all its myriad forms. Human beings don't live alone on this planet; moreover, we won't survive on this planet if we became the only species of life on the planet -- which, sadly, is what we seem to be expending a lot of energy on these days. And then we implement a "humans only" policy. And we wonder why the state of the world is such. Go figure.

On a happier note, in the afternoon June, JY and I met NBS in her home element: Fuji Ice Palace. That's the 'first' I mentioned in my previous post. I miss ice-skating in winter so I took the opportunity to take my blading L-plates and see how well they can put their skills to use on ice. Pix follow:


Despite our hand signals, people continually speed past our road-block. Maybe we should also face the other way?


...3 ...4 ...5. Yup, I still have all my fingers.


JY isn't here by accident. She's here to accompany her CT kids too.


JY and June insist there should only be 2 in this picture. I'm just so thick skinned.


You guessed it! Today's secret number is 2!

And finally, we got news this evening that the scavenger quest was over and we didn't win it. :( Met with the team at Blu Jaz to comiserate over mango smoothies and chocolate shakes. And Q-tip provided some much-needed pet therapy for everyone. Good girl!

Started the day with June and JY at J8's Ya Kun Kaya. Totally screwed up my order. Instead of teh-o, I got teh, and my order of cheese toast with kaya came without the kaya. Guess the auntie at the cashier's counter didn't speak English as well as I thought. Then again, 'teh-o' isn't really English, is it?

For once, the 3 of us had a coordinated blading session in Bish Park. As a trio we circled Park II a grand total of 5 times almost continuously. It was bright sunshine today, quite the contrast from yesterday's dismal dreariness. It was still relatively early morning so we had to dodge cyclists (including a mad little boy way over the speed limit), dogs, L-plate bladers, etc., but the girls are showing great improvement. Less fear, more enjoyment, fewer falls.

Dropped JY off at home then met Weng and co. at No 49 Katong Laksa for more scavenger quest strategizing. I stole Wendy's parking space unwittingly (sorry, Wendy!) but she was prepared to be forgiving this time. This place Weng swears is the good one, and, yes it was pretty ok. Problem with laksa is that we shouldn't classify it as 'food.' It counts more like a 'snack,'and anything that tastes this good can't be healthy, anyway.

While we were there, Weng brought us to Puteri Mas where June bought a box of powerful durian puffs that didn't survive long when our little party tore into it. The sign on the shop claims "100% durian." Wonder what they make the pastry out of?

After this little motivational boost, we hit town again looking at the Orchard Road shopping malls for any sign of the next clue. But till now, we've had no luck. Bah.

All throughout today, in all this activity, I haven't been feeling so good. My bones ache, I have a slight headache, my throat is sore and I've been sneezing too. Hope it only because I slept badly last night, and not that the flu I've been incubating all year has now chosen to hatch. Not a good time, you hear? Anyway, I'll try to sleep it off tonight as tomorrow promises to be another exciting 'first.' See how.