Super ears

I'm very glad this week is coming to an end.

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Had attended a course for the past two days. Although the subject was a really boring one, the trainer made it tolerable (pleasant, actually) by injecting his humour and illustrating lots of real-life examples in the workplace. I think this is the best course I have attended so far.

I went back to the office to clear email. The mailbox had exploded beyond my imagination. Tomorrow I have got to maintain my cool. I have to I have to I have to.

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While on the way back home, I saw an old man with a white walking stick. I thought he looked like he was visually handicapped so I walked a little slower, just in case he needed help or walked onto the road. When we reached the bus-stop, I stood beside him. As I waited for the bus, I observed him. He looked to his right and then to his left, to his right and then to his left. He looked like he could see. However, he never looked at me even though I was practically looking at him the whole time.

As the buses arrived, I wanted very badly to ask what bus he wanted to take but I didn't. I was afraid of offending him (he really didn't look like he had any difficulty). After a while, he just walked briskly (without using his walking stick) to sit down at one of the seats at the bus-stop.

I just kept looking at him. After a while, when a bus got to the bus-stop, he stood up and mumbled a word or two to the stranger beside him (I couldn't hear but it looked like he was confirming the bus number) and he got up the bus with ease.

I was so amazed. How does one differentiate between Bus A, B, C etc. by using his hearing?!? Is it possible?

Too tired.

Long, long day it was. I worked from 8.30 a.m. to around 9.30 p.m.. Came home to rest a bit before vetting yet another long email from work.

It's now Wednesday morning. Off day. Off to sleep now.

Write later.

What is serendipity?

Just finished watching "Before Sunrise". It's likely that you wouldn't know what this movie is about. It's a rather old movie which was on screen back in 1995 (that was 9 years ago) and it's pretty much just dialogue, dialogue and dialogue. Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy starred in the movie and I thought the chemistry was great. It's almost like they're really falling in love with each other. Their conversations are insightful and make me laugh at times. They are two ordinary folks who spent an extraordinarily special day together in Vienna after seeing each other on a train. I loved the walking around without a destination. I liked the serendipitous feel of it.

Two of my favourite scenes are:
1) when they were listening to Kath Bloom at the record store. The music fit in, the way they looked at each other, it was both heartwarming and funny at the same time.

2) when he was taking a mental snapshot of her and the surroundings while the harpsichord was playing.

I'm waiting for "Before sunset" to come to Singapore.

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It's a long day and tomorrow will be a long day too. A big part of me wants to stay home but I can't.

I remember watching a korean movie on tv some months back. The title was "The Gift" and it tells of this man who is a comedian and struggling to make ends meet. As his career was on the downside, his relationship with his wife was affected and it initially looked like there was no more love left in their marriage, only respect. In the movie, the wife kept looking at a photo taken long ago. There were a few people circled in that photo, a few kids who were presumably her childhood friends. There was this little girl who was a close friend of hers and a young boy whom she kept looking at in the picture and traced her finger around.

The wife suffered from a terminal illness towards the end of the story. Despite her illness, she repeatedly tried to help her husband get a chance at performing on a popular tv channel. The husband was touched by her efforts. After noticing that she always looked at a picture secretly, he got some people to help track down those who were circled in the picture. She managed to see her friend again, the little girl who had then grown up to be someone ordinary but who still was special to her. As for the other boy, the answer came a little too late.

The husband was the little boy. He couldn't even recognise his own picture and he was surprised to find out that he was the person she had been thinking of all this while.

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I don't know if I remember the whole story properly as I was rather bored by it. Don't know why but it just came to my mind just now. Thought about it and have some thoughts to note down here.

People do not give up on broken relationships easily. I guess it is that there is always this dissonance present. Fond memories in your head are like snapshots taken. There may become blur, a loss of details but the thought of them brings back the same emotions. In reality, the people have changed, the relationships have soured, but many people choose not to see these. They try to reconcile their memories with the present. I'm one of these people.

There are these people I still care about but no longer contact. I think about them sometimes.

I think I now understand that the feelings I had felt before can only be brought back by the memories we share and they are best left where they are. I know that no matter how hard I try to repair the relationships, the feelings can never be the same again.

Am I moving on? I hope so.

I was having a premonition while in the middle of an entry. Was trying to finish a paragraph and thinking of copying the whole thing just in case but I was too slow. I don't know what I stupidly clicked on again and there went my entry.

Anyway, I was writing about mooncakes. I had bought two boxes the other day, one from Goodwood Park and the other from Kia Hiang Restaurant. Green tea flavoured snowskin mooncakes from Goodwood Park and mango/durian flavoured snowskin ones from Kia Hiang. If only I didn't go for the ktv outing the other day, I think they would have tasted much better. Now the Kia Hiang ones don't taste as good as they should because of condensation. Ahh, why did I succumb to the pressure from them to go for the outing? I think it was one of the worst ktv sessions I ever had. PL and I were just sitting there when we arrived and it took us quite long to just choose one song and after that song, we had to search some more. Besides, if we hadn't gone for that outing, PL's monkey will still be with her. Ok, the only good thing was that SF enjoyed himself and that's why we went in the first place. Tsk tsk. =P

Oh well, I will be finally visiting my nanny with one box that I ordered. Hope she can eat those as I don't think they are that sweet. It will be delivered next Friday (which is a bad day again because there's Inter-dept netball games).

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I'll officially work from Mondays to Fridays from next month onwards, supposing there's no more change in plans. With this change in work schedule, it will mean that I no longer am entitled to alternate Mondays off. No more walking around town on Mondays. Bleah. Working on Saturdays actually aren't that bad. Sometimes.

I was actually pondering over whether to stay in my current work scheme or convert to the new scheme but now that it's all fixed, I feel a little sad that I can't remain in the current work scheme. However, I will be able to go for oil-painting classes with PL. Yay.

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Some pics from the uniform party:

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I should be taking a long break in November. Try to clear leave, maybe go for a short trip and recharge. These few days I've been thinking about pursuing some of my interests which had been put aside. One of these things is chinese calligraphy. Coincidentally, I saw my teacher on the evening news tonight (PM Lee was going about some community activity and there was chinese calligraphy and there was my teacher!) and I'm reminded of whether I should take a more active interest in it. As in whether I should really go down to some place such as the association to learn and practise every week. WW, interested?

Bird Flu

Just for sharing:

Lost and found

Currently listening to: Angels brought me here - Guy Sebastian

PL lost a monkey-faced shaped keychain tonight. As we had left early, SF tried to find it later but he didn't manage to. Tomorrow I'll try tracing the route we took. I'll try to find the little monkey face.

Lately, I lost my handphone somewhere when carrying that pail of water at SMP Odyssey. The initial feeling was a bit of shock, and then quickly replaced by something I can't really remember now but I knew it wasn't that bad. Not that kind of panicky feeling. Somehow, I had felt that I could find the phone. True enough, as I walked back, I saw the light glinting off the handphone on the grass.

I know I'm not always lucky like that time. I hope this time round I can also find the monkey.

Currently listening to: If I ain't got you ~ Alicia Keys

Back to work. Supposed to be asleep now but slept too much in the afternoon. Have been feeling really lethargic these days. I need exercise.

Yesterday, I went to buy chilli crabs for dinner/supper. It was a on-the-spur-of-the-moment thing and it turned out to be rather fun. Three of us were seated around the dinner table and Mom started talking about her childhood when Grandpa would cook crabs for them to eat.

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It's a quiet night as usual.

It was Friday night. I was very tired after the long week at work and was on the train with my colleague. After saying goodbye to her at one of the interchanges, I walked to the other side and rested against the glass panel. When the train got to the next station, many people came in and there was suddenly a smell of dung in the air. I started to SMS my colleague: "Gosh, somebody stepped on birdy shit. So smelly.".

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Today's theme party was rather interesting. We went to NUS guild house in our old uniforms (yes, that was the theme) and had a poolside dinner. There were games, a ceremony, a short video clip of the 6th cycle mentors' activities, lots of laughing and photos taken. Enjoyed myself. Sorry I couldn't attend my 22nd council's gathering. Heard that they had a fun time too.

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Had wanted to blog about this cat I see almost every morning when I go to the train station. It's a white cat with black spots (I call it a cowcat) and it is always sitting down like a soft toy on the grass patch every morning when I see it. It so happens that it is pretty cool in the morning; there's always a gentle breeze blowing and the cat looks so comfortable. It also made me think that it looks like a chicken sitting on its eggs. So I went on to think that the cat might be pregnant. That's why it's not frisky like cats usually are.

A few days ago, I saw it walking around with a pretty normal stomach so hmm, wrong judgement.

Another cat which I see almost every night near my home does almost the same thing. Can't tell the colour but it's spotted too. It also sits on this grass patch at the man-made garden and walks around sometimes.

So I concluded that cats like to sit on grass. True? Then I went on to think that they will get bitten by ants and whatever is crawling on the grass or any insects flying near them. But they look so comfortable?

To the person who never replied: I wish things had turned out better and I'm sorry if I ever made you unhappy. Hope you had a happy birthday.

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Last weekend was super tiring. On Saturday, I went to work as usual. Got off work and went to eat dinner. Then I took the train at around 9 plus to SCS to pack logistics with the rest. I had a strange encounter on the train. I had a weird guy sitting to my left who was using his swiss army knife to chop away at some stuff. There was another guy on my right who did something freaky and spoke to me. Was so glad when the time came for me to alight.

Packing was tiring as usual. PR, PL, LW, Bubbly and I were pasting, cutting and drawing the whole night. I think we finished the packing at around 1 or 2 a.m. It was rather stuffy and hot in there and we were really glad for the aircon room to sleep in. Finally got some sleep at around 3 plus a.m. and woke up at around 7 a.m.

The event started at around 9 plus. Loaded and unloaded the buses, placed the station games stuff all around the field, shouted instructions on how to play my stations and ferried pails of water to and fro. LW and I went to fill the pails in the morning and we made a major mistake. We went to the girls' toilet at the Multi Purpose Sports Halls instead of the one just behind the grandstand and it was really too far from the field. We were panting and I think 1/4 of my pail of water had splashed out. Fortunately two hostelites offered their help to carry the pails to the field. Really thankful for that.

I lost my handphone while carrying the pail. Luckily I found it when I traced my steps. PL and LW also helped to look for it and were still looking for it when I had got back to the grandstand. =P Thanks girls!

Oh well, I basically got sunburnt and my neck was red for a couple of days. The event was rather successful (I think), some people were happy, some weren't but I guess the kids enjoyed themselves. And that was what really mattered. Truly speaking, I didn't do much brainstorming and was dreaming during the meetings most of the time but I'm glad all turned out well.

It was really a good decision to take leave on Monday. When I went back on Tuesday, I was still feeling tired and burnt.

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I have forgotten what I wanted to write besides what I have written above. Oh well.