LIFE IS GETTING SCARY, MUMMY ...
Friday February 18, 2005

At school or varsity, finding a job or getting married,
it's not like it used be

Dear Mummy,
I am feeling very sad.
Today in school, Zhong Guoren - my classmate from China -
beat me again, in a maths test.
That boy is an unstoppable genius machine.

Last week, he beat me in sports too.
If he were not here, I would have come in first and gotten a gold.
But because the Government says we must welcome foreign talents to
increase our population and to improve our economy,
I got a bronze instead. This sucks.

At first, we laughed at them, because their English was not very good.
Their maths and science were good,
and their Chinese was excellent
(but who cares about Chinese language, right?).
But then, their English got better and now,
they are kicking our backsides in this subject too.

I think we should get the Government to do something about this.
Why didn't you have more babies, Mummy?
I wouldn't mind having a brother or a sister to play with.
I am an only child, and because you and Daddy are not
making enough babies, we have to get people from other countries,
people who make it hard for me to be number one in my class.

I think you are very selfish to just have me, Mummy.
I don't like to lose, Mummy. I am used to being first in my class.
And my school was very small too, like Singapore,
so it was easy to be first. Now my school is bigger,
and I have to fight harder to be first.

Why can't we just compete with ourselves,
among Singaporeans only (okay, and maybe Permanent Residents)?
Why can't they have a new category for all the tests and CCAs?
We could have a Best Local Maths Student category and
a Best Local Sportsman category, then at least,
if I don't win Best Maths Student,
I can be Best Local Maths Student and feel better about myself.

Just like my school is ranked one of the
Top 20 Value-added Secondary Schools with a Special Assessment Award
for Knitting CCA, I also want to be a top student.

Maybe we need to have a new category like
"Top 20 Value-added Secondary Schools (Got China Students)".
This is because our school has smart foreign students and
should be ranked separately so that schools without
smart foreign students won't feel so jealous.
And, maybe, we should drop Literature as a subject too.
I hate Literature, hard to score "A"s.

In fact, we should have streams like EM1 (Local) and
EM1 (Chinaand Others).
Let the smart Chinastudents have their own stream.
I want to go to university when I grow up,
especially the National University of Singapore (NUS),
because our newspapers say that NUS is even better than
Princetonand Cornell in the United States.
But I hear there are many brilliant Chinastudents in NUS, too.
I don't want to be having private tuition until I am 25 years old,
just to keep up with my foreign classmates in the Uni.
Or else, I will have no time to meet girls and
then I will be forced to go to Vietnamand Kelantan to
find a wife when I want to start a family.

In fact, I am very upset with foreigners competing with us
even in this area. All the girls I know say that when
they finish studying and go to work, they want to marry ang mohs,
because Singaporemen are unromantic and
do not want to know how to make a girl happy.
So, the ang mohs are even stealing our women.

I prefer to marry a Singaporegirl, of course,
but only if she knows how to cook and wash,
and peel my prawns for me (like you, Mummy).
But nowadays, Singaporegirls are so fierce, just because they study,
and earn their own money.

Maybe that is why in Chinatown, I saw this big Singapore Rooster,
and it was sitting on eggs. I think the Singapore Hen
left him to look after the eggs,
because she had to work and do all the things an educated Hen does.

I also worry I cannot find a job when I am older. My friend,
Ah Hock, tells me his mother feels all these Chinese foreigners
are stealing our jobs and our men
(and the ang mohs are stealing our women).

That is very scary, Mummy.
You told me many Chinawomen are in Singaporeonly to do naughty things,
like relieve old men of their Central Provident Fund money.

Once an uncle wrote in the papers that we should catch those
foreign women who are tall, have long hair and legs,
and wear tight, revealing outfits in black or red and
behave coquettishly.

I think we should only accept foreign women who are short,
have short hair and legs, and wear loose,
covered-up outfits in white or blue, and behave like a man.

Okay, Mummy, I have to go to my Chinese,
maths and science tuition classes now. If I don't go,
I won't be able to beat Guoren.

Your son,
Khia Soo

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This is article is full of controversial topics

6 weeks : I love U, I love U, I love U.
6 months : Of course I love U.
6 years : GOD, if I didn't love U, then why the hell
did I propose?

Back from Work:

6 weeks : Honey, I'm home.
6 months : BACK!!
6 years : What did your mom cook for us today??

Gifts:

6 weeks : Honey, I really hope you liked the ring.
6 months : I bought you a painting; it would fit the
motif in the living room.
6 years : Here's the money. Buy yourself something.

Phone Ringing:

6 weeks : Baby, somebody wants you on the phone.
6 months : Here, for you.
6 years : PHONE RINGING.

Cooking:

6 weeks : I never knew food could taste so good!
6 months : What are we having for dinner tonight?
6 years : AGAIN!!!!

Apology:

6 weeks : Honey muffin, don't you worry, Ill never
hold this against you.
6 months : Watch out! Don't do it again.
6 years : What's not to understand about what I just
said??

New Dress:

6 weeks : Oh my God, you look like an angel in that
dress.
6 months : You bought a new dress again???
6 years : How much did THAT cost me?

Planning for Vacations:

6 weeks : How do 2 weeks in Vienna or anywhere you
please sound??
6 months : What's so bad about going to Istanbul on a
charter plane?
6 years : Travel? What's so bad about staying
home???

TV:

6 weeks : Baby, what would you like us to watch
tonight?
6 months : I like this movie.
6 years : I'm going to watch ESPN, if you're not in
the mood, go to bed, I can stay up by myself.

this is for the twon brothers whose names are spelt backwards with respect to each other's names:
EZlink card - Double charge if alight at front door?


fyi...........................

Out of curiosity, I called the Translink enquiry line 1800-225-5663 it seems the undermentioned fact if absolutely true. They charge one full fare + 63cents for second deduction if flashed at the front entrance door, but willing to refund if complaint is lodged at the above tele' number within 5 working days, regretably who is so free to go through the process, so it's better to avoid such a catch. Maybe we should let more people be aware of the above misleading above transaction...............

Helpful tips for those use EZ Link card.

To those who always use ez card. Like to bring to your attention on local bus service provider.

Normally, when you board the bus, you flash your ezlink card and move in and when you get down the bus, you flash your card again at the exit door (located at the middle of the bus). We all know that if we forget to flash the card, full fare will be deducted from the card.

Below is something not known to public:-

But if you alight from the front door (the entrance) and you flash your card while exiting without informing the bus driver, the card will capture another entrance fare instead of exit fare thus meaning that two full fares will be deducted from the card as no exit was being captured for the two entrances.

For example, you board a crowded bus at Pasir Ris (where it terminates at Jurong East) and decided to get down ten stops later. If you flash your card at the front door without informing the bus-driver, a second entrance fare will be captured instead of exit fare thus you are paying for two full fares ( 2 X $ 1.90 = $ 3.80 ) instead of one fare (approximately $0.83).

This is a useful info. Here's the solution:-

Go to the "big" machine (ie machine for U to top up the card) located at the MRT stations.
(1) Insert your EZ link card
(2) Press the function key "Check card"
(3) Press "more"

The above function will show U the last 20 transactions. Information on the fare deducted, bus no, boarding time and the boarding and alighting point will be reflected on the screen.

Hope the above information is useful to U.

Please pass this email to people you know so that they will not pay extra charges for nothing and burn a big hole in their pockets. !

Last but not least, call the hotline line: 1800 767 4333 when the incorrect fares are deducted.

Rgds
Hasimah Kasiron

did i mention i invented a new recipe for delicious chocolate cheesecake over the weekend? i was making a cake for my sis's bday. you use 2 bars of philedilphia cheese cake, 4 eggs (with or without yoke) 3/4 cup or sugar and as much chocolate as you want. bake it for 40 mins or until it's baked inside ( always use a toothpick to poke into the centre of the cake) then refrigerate. the crust is standard lah..... it works out to be very nice.... coz i didn't have gelatin, so i improvised.

my pharm classmate put : can i film a show called DESPERATE PHARM STUDENTS? on his msn nick. i totally agree, we are desperate, but i'm not sure whether we are willing to divulge the lengths we go to, to get a first class honours in applied sci (pharmacy). the degree sounds stupid. but,

season 1: orientation, lots of fun, and laughter, scandals, eye candy galore.
season 2: the heat is on, first try at cap of 4.5 and above.
season 3: appearance of lecturers like eli chan and scum lai wah. hell breaks loose in pharmacy
Season 4: yet to be written

have been looking forward to going to ECP on a nice sunday, to enjoy the sun, sand and sea. but, reality just isn't what i've imagined.

left for ecp at 2 pm. that time, it was raining in the west. took bus there, got to amber road, walked to underpass, got to big splash... then walk walk, from 3.30 to 5 pm reach PA sea sports club, so that can loan a kayak. they say they don't have. and it's too late. earlier on, the sea sports centre also say don't have kayaks. and we didn't rent bikes, coz we wanted to kayak. in ze end, the guy at PA SSC say big splash got kayaks for loan.... *faint liao*

now i'm nursing a blister.

just came back from hougang, interestingly, with the help of NEL, i can get from PGP to hougang in only 1 hour.

Stef's bday.
it's the first bday party i attended this year. arrived there on time, but was the only one from st nicks there.. so i made friends. had lots of nice home-cooked food buffet style, and half the dishes where desserts... so naturally, i was very happy. (i type this while suffering from indigestion) there was pasta, bee hoon, curry, fried rice, nonya kueh, bubur chacha, almond jelly and longan, watermelon and pineapple, koniyaku jelly.....and the bday cake was green tea with red bean... very nice to eat too. there was mingling, laughing, photo-taking, and live performances on the piano and violin as mood music.... and relatives and friends and church cell group mates who really care about you. i wish i could have such a nice party as well.

usp lost again. this time to biz, 7-0. it's sad but.... one of the biz guys broke his leg or something but crossing his left leg in front of the right and then trying to launch for an attack. we heard the sound of the break from outside the track.

after that, i went to eat dinner with our star player no. 17 at fong seng and officially compared between egg prata and plaster. PLASTER is definitely the more delectable dish. then went to catch midnight movie at westmall, after which, had a nice stroll back to jeremy's house... had a nice nice chat joking and talking about books etc...of course there were some times when he decides to talk about philosophy, socrates, and Nazis... then after i tried hard to digest what he was trying to say, i drifted off.

i was all psyched up to trade-in my laptop this weekend, for $1000, my mom alerted me that there was such a deal. then on further "research" its only for laptops with pentium 4 and above. the money, is manifested in the first $1000 spent on the new Acer/compaq/NEC laptop that you'll have to buy. so, the deal was off.

thursdays are the best days of the week. it's when all the deadlines and test are over (for me at least) and no more pracs... and this week esp no microb pracs.....this is a very very BIG bonus. and the impt thing is we have a 4 hour break. initially it was 6 hours... but that's the point, we are free.

so we decided to have a cook-out today. and aiwen is the best, she brought all the ingredients and a peeler to prepare her cheese brocoli and butter carrots...... it tastes very good, and best of all, it's cheesy... all diff kinds of cheese and it's sort of nutrious... (think veg for grace who hates leafy veg)

then misch did our mee goreng.... very professional... got timer to time the noodles and must soak in cold water too. then i did heated up the stewed prok ribs and Fiona did the nuggets.

let me explain how fiona got here. we msged her to tell her about the cook out but she was having lecture and offered to skip it if we told her to. so, we decided: since fiona is already so naughty, she should be naughty for the right things for the right reasons. needless to say, she skipped lect. but it was a good exit. imagine in the middle of your boring lect, your friend says, ok, i'm going off for lunch, bye, see you next week and leaves...... hahahaha, that's so cool.

oh yah, we tried to contact cherie in vain, then we decided that cherie forgot her handphone again, this time her mum didn't pick up the phone.

then somehow, yi chiao showed up in school. he managed to turn up when all the food was finishing and cleared the remains and did the dishes... HAH! but he stole my uncle toby's yoghurt bars... ones which i'm saving for breakfast, so the bad treatment earlier is justified.

overall, had a trememdous day. no doubt there were down parts of the day. today is mom's bday but i cannot go home to celebrate it coz tmr got microb.........at 8am. hate hate hate... and my family decided to go to danga bay, now very nice, to eat at an italian restuarant!!! that's very rare for my family lah... coz my mom insists on eating rice... i don't know what came over her to agree to eat pizza on her bday.

Jeremy's prescription for PMS:

One piece of after-eight chocolate mints every half hourly
one bar of toblerone chocolate if symptoms persist.

Lovely picture which jeremy took pains to photoshop from the online calendar.....
Sophie: did you use your magic to create this place?
Howl: only to make the flowers bloom for you

it's been a long long time since i found the time to blog, partly coz i have nothing much to blog anyway. who wants to know what i do on a daily basis anyway. those who want to, ask me, or see me everyday (every school day).

but this week, i'm really really suay. i got a printer ink cartridge refill for $8.90 then the ink just won't come out. after i ran the printer to print many many, (>20) pages, then some dots of black ink came out. then i decided to go ORIGINAL, bought the real cartridge.... alas! i bought the cartridge for HP psc 1000 series, thinking that it will fit my psc 1210. but it didn't!!!!! and that cost me $45. then i went to buy myself a laptop batt, coz the prev one burnt out. (no more charging life) and to my dismay, the laptop only acknowledges the old burnt out one but not the new one....read: "no batt attached". so i spent almost all the reminder of my scholarship pocket money on things which didn't work. which also means, that i just threw $400 out of the window... on which i'm supposed to survive for the whole semester (end of april). now i'm only down to $40. !!!!!!

now we know why these are incidents worthy of a blog.

On a happier note, (you know how human beings, non-optimistic people, like to harp on unfortunate events rather than forget them), jeremy and me went to watch Howl's moving castle yesterday night. it's getting very difficult to find a convenient location which will screen the movie at a convenient time slot. and convenient time slot is after 6pm... seeing how terrible my timetable is... and everybody gets of work at 6 pm.....almost didn't watch it, as i was discouraged by the fact that my sinusitis is back, the bus journey to jurong point took a long long time thus no time to eat a nice dinner (contemplated billy bommers or fish and co), and the tickets for howl's were selling like hot cakes, and we tot we were going to get shitty seats.....but i'm glad i made the choice of watching it. jeremy doesn't decide, he always lets me decide coz that's what'll make me happy. and i'm quite stressed as i'm aware that after i make any choice, it's most probably going to be the outcome... makes me think thrice x 2.....especially when i decided to go shop around, and i wanted to go into Jennifer. and the first thing i picked out was a dress. so i tried it and surprisingly, it fitted well and hide my tummy... so, least to say, it looked great!. and it was on sale (50%) and the dress is now $70. how often do i find an evening dress which i look good in and jeremy is so willing to buy it for me. so, now that dress, is hanging in my cupboard, awaiting its debut. but i'm really happy about it.... coz it's a dress, i can count the number of dresses in my entire wardrobe, including the one at home, with one hand. by right, i should be jumping with joy... but i've had a suay week, and i have a tough week ahead (tests on mon, tues, presentation not researched at all on wed). but ..... i'm really happy (i need to find other words to explain what i feel, somehow, happy is not enough to express)

another suay thing: thanks to my bf, i now own an aromatherapy set, but, the lighter i bought last year doesn't work anymore. suay right?

jeremy's back.


when i saw him at the airport, i practically had no feeling whatsoever. i've been thinking and missing him for so long, i couldn't feel anything at that point in time.

he didn't cut his hair for 5 months... OMG. his hair was all spoofy and long (think alvin) and add a grey sweater, he looked like he travelled forward in time from trhe 70s.

first contact: grab me by the waist and hug me

to me, it felt SO weird... like some stranger was hugging me... can't believe i've been single for 5 mths then someone comes along and hugs me...not momentarily either... and i'm expected to return that gesture??

had dinner at bukit timah plaza... then went for his haircut and movie at westmall. haha, lucky we had enough time for the haircut and the movie... CLOSER is truely a good show... wanling is right.... it's very very good. i'm saying this not because of the lingerie...

not bad, after a while, i re-tuned myself to being in a relationship, and deeply in love at that... really don't want it to die off. but who are we kidding? it will ultimately die off.

paid $20 for the price of slacking away, played mahjong with mark, shiyuan and andy and lost heavily. it's just my fault to agree to gamble, and not do homework like i told my mom i would. but it wasn't my fault, it was yuan xiao (15th day of CNY) and i was alone in a foreign country, and there was no mambo session, nobody to eat dinner with me, shiyuan called, so i immediately agreed. i regret.

have spent a lot this week. mon went shopping spent $57, withdrew $50 as my pocket money for the week. then lost $20 at mahjong, then top up ez link card $10, spent $91 on jeremy's present...all $200 gone.... to think i was being happy i kept to my limit of $50 per week.... what a spendthirft!

Term break at my place
haha, been wanting to blog about it... but i was just super stressed about all my schoolwork, worrying whether i can cope with 4 projects, plus jeremy coming back on sat, plus me slacking around ( i try not to slack... but out of so many days, only sunday and thurs were prodcutive, coincidentally, they are the 1st and last day of term break)

brought wanling and her welfare com guys to my place... basically it was a food holiday, anybody coming to malaysia should just eat all the nice food... that's the most worth doing... shopping isn't that great... but the market and things on sale are diff from those in singapore...diff tastes. i myself didn't shop in johor... shopping with waikit and co was an equal eye opener to me... i didn't even know that there was rotiboy in city square....

came to my place, watched MEAN GIRLS, haha was funny.... i think i watched it 3x already...then play truth or dare... (didn't know that we could still dig new secrets from each other, basically i was the only stupid one who surrendered info, the rest of them esp the guys didn't contribute anything, alivn "forgot" everything we wanted to know about) then the guys stayed up to watch football at 3.30 am and in between my dad gave a lecture ( i forgot to consciously time how long that took) and seeing how irrelevant my dad was, and how bad his english is...it's understandable, but lots of grammar and vocab mistakes?, i tried to end the lecture by asking him to watch tv or start playing bridge with the guys.... how rude i was... but, it was early in the morn, if my dad went on, we'd have drifted to sleep.

got to show everybody that i could also drive... but by some miraculous stroke of luck, the car engin starter decided to fault when i tried to start the engin to drive to dinner...it didn't fault earlier (at the shopping centre car park), not later at the restaurant, but outside my house) so we all started to manouvre the car into the porch... was hilarious, and wanling was the best, she ran into the house, took her digicam and took pics of us toiling away. but nonetheless, the "holiday" was interesting... alvin found naruto 28 and 29... he's so happy..haha

went to orchard today, more repcisely, Far east plaza... i don't really shop at any other place. i was thinking of waxing... then didn't do that, wondered of to buy myself a denim skirt which i wanted so long... a casual bottom.... so i don't look so overdressed, more like a science year 2 student, instead of some arts year 3.....

and then i saw a shop selling casual tops at $5.... i don't mind spending on them... it's probably going to last me 2 years, which is the rest of my uni life... don't think i'll be wearing those clothes while working... so... yah. good enough, there was a pink (what do ytou call that thing which is like a spag strap but has only one side) and 3 other tops, in green, yellow and pale blue... wanted to try other colours, but only blue had that design... i KNOW i have many many blue tops already... but what to do i look good in blue mah....


then bought 2 lace panties... (info overload)....but i have to blog about it... i'm proud of myself...

for my info, brazillian wax is $35 min....

finally the sem has come to half time.....sigh.... the only thing i'm happy about is that jeremy's coming back. have 4 projects to do...yah yah yah i rattle on about my 4 projects everyday and nvr really try to complete them. and then i go about my life doing things like salsa, salsa, salsa ( i don't think i'm doing anything else). then take up my time and energy. sigh, now i'm not even doing anything jewelry making. so stressed... i put on weight....now i look terrible.

plus today got sports carnival. 9am to 2 pm. my sister say i'm very free. then got burnt on my limbs and face and neck.... if i went naked, or not with t shirt i might have gotten myself tanned red but that's besides the point. the point is i'm complaining/ahppy with myself that i got myself tanned. coz going by usual convention, tanned = fit. so...but i'm super red...hope the burns subside quickly. if they don't, i can't wear any top which does not have a round neck cut.

i bought my first bottle of aloe vera gel, first bottle of something that deals with sun burns.... even the bottle of sunblock i have at home was bought by my mom... and it's been there since i can remember.... so those are not counted. feel so rpoud of myself... but aloe vera gel does not treat burn, it just soothes the pain... which is not good enough, coz have to reapply and reapply all the time. i've even taken the trouble to move down to an air-conned study room (like what i'm doing now) to help matters.

did i mention that i was refereeing handball tournament today.... i think there were 10 matches... we were playing round robin.... siao! i never concentrated so hard for games before. one match after another... was very dehydrated, am seriously burnt and was very tired. partly coz i slept at only 3 am yesterday night, was using msn, i crashed after bathing. didn't have lunch... only had a piece of bread for breakfast which i stole from the fridge. i'm sure they don't mind... bread is always hardest to finish...

anyway, i decided not to go back to malaysia today, hope i dun live to regret it tonight... might feel lonely... didn't have my chicken chop from the western food stall at the non air-con canteen so i don't feel so good. plus when i realised it was chingay today... i couldn't make it in time to get a seat at orchard.... so... very sad, i've always wanted to watch chingay live...now i that i have the freedom to, i'm too tired to do so. very soon i'll grow old and lose the energy to go out. (oh no, i'm turning 21 this year, so old, adult...but still very much in the control of my mum)

must blog this, and have a record, so that i won't forget. (of late i've been very scatterbrain. i leave my room and soon i create a ist of things i forgot to bring eg watch, covered-toe shoes, my RING!, handphone, book, notes, prac manual..... everything.

had a reasonable happy valentine's, lets forget the bad events. (but it did cause me really really swollen puffy eyes this morning) yah. Thank you Simin....=) for the basket of joy she helped jeremy make. with ferreros and a bouquet of 12, with nice decor and rose petals which will flutter to the ground when the wind blows, serving as a testimony to my passing by.

chocolates, Wonderful in occasional servings, once a day, but will be undervalued if there's too much. overflow of chocolates, i must say, in my pharmacy class..... girls are sweet little things... cakes, cookies, chocolates... everything.

sometimes, you just lose the fire to blog, then out of a sudden, you realise the importance of a blog space.....

today i finally bought the FMH collector's edition... the one with half undone bikini model on the front. wanted to see what's so fantastic about the girls, and also to watch how guys peep/steal glances at the contents of the mag, especially when a girl's flipping thru it on the mrt.

hahaha, but i must say, i could have found a better timing.... at 9.30, the mrt is just too sparse.... didn't get a lot of responses.

to start, all 3 guys, sitting on the left and right of me, peered over my shoulder to look. including the girl whose gf was with him. then there was an old man who had to take off his glasses, rub his eyes....

nothing else much....but best asians goes to thailand, best girls to US, hottest positions goes to thailand, and fav piece of clothing... on steph song. the blue and white one.

firecrackers....this is really small fry, when i was driving home, we saw fireworks, just bursting into a flower formation in front... so nice. good to have rich neighbours who can get their hands on good fireworks, and living in malaysia..... but i take that back, just today, there was no water supply....what the #$%

my childhood playmate, cousin. missed those days.... the most outragous thing we did together.... hmm... bathe together.... (don't ask me why, and don't talk about it)