A Mind of My Own

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I am utterly bored by Chinese wedding dinner styles but won’t have a say in mine although it is mine. Because of face. Just that one word. I don’t think there is a need to show off the wealth since I can jolly well put all that money into better use such as good renovations and a further honeymoon place to have fun.

Unfortunately, the elders won’t be that easily convinced especially when the son is the eldest in the family. ARGH! Another reason why I dislike Chinese wedding dinners is because they always start late. As in 1.5 hours after the stated time on the wedding card.

Last night was the first time I saw people arriving only at 7pm. The card stated dinner would be starting at 7pm. DD and I arrived at the place only to see his tired friends resting at the sofas just outside the Grand Ballroom of Orchid Country Club.

They had been helping the groom in the morning and were busted for the rest of the day. The dinner eventually started at around 8.30pm. For my wedding, I will not care about late comers if I am forced to hold the traditional wedding dinner style. You jolly arrive on time.

The wedding album was another thing altogether. I liked the outdoor shoots as they were taken in China. I like the forest-like shots and the stream shots. Unfortunately, Singapore doesn’t have that kind of nature except for that Bukit Timah hill stream that is too tiny. I don’t want lalang shots for sure. I don’t want fake backgrounds of forests and stream shots either.

I don’t even know when I’m getting married either.

Boy oh boy do I need help from a dating agency. I never realised that I was so bad at attracting men such as the time I attended an electronics camp organised by the school where these two boys (from two different schools) wanted to help me complete the circuit board; one offered to drill the holes while the other offered to solder the components. Aren’t they sweet?

Then in poly, this cute guy I had a secret crush on gave me a handmade flower that was being sold. Aww. After that, the internet guys wanted to meet me because I sounded so lovely. I didn’t know I could project such positive vibes online just by typing words.

What I do know is that with the downturn, times have gone bad because nobody is using dating companies much these days. Everyone is tightening their belts so that they won’t have to worry about their next meals.

I never knew that dating companies do cold calls these days. She addressed me so personally and double-checked my marital status. Of course I said ’single’. She was so happy at the other line and provided some information about her company’s main services; to help singles with their dating preferences.

I should have done a Goonfather style.

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Friday nights are for partying. Thus, ES called for a last minute night out. We had dinner at Sakae Sushi. My craving, apologies. After dinner, the four of us went to Ink Bar but it was closed off for a private function till 9.30pm. Since it was just an hour’s wait, we made ourselves comfortably at the entrance.

The lady serving the drinks didn’t even give us a menu or asked if we would like to drink anything. Within 2 minutes after JC had returned from the restroom, we went to Introbar. Goodbye to poor service. We made ourselves comfortable at one corner of the club, the door where ES attempted to open but failed to try the other unlocked door. A really face palm moment.

We ordered our drinks and enjoyed the ambiance at the place. Poured our work woes and about the cruel world of why working and looking for jobs can be horrible for women at certain ages. The obnoxious people who refused to understand a problem at work and people who sing different tunes in meetings when a problem is still unresolved and why budget seems to be bugging everyone.

Mainly, we shared our stories of how to overcome them and releasing the stress. CD arrived nearly 10pm. This was where the fun started because she was all raring to go dancing her heart out. She spoke of her dancing experience in Boat Quay or was it Clarke Quay; this guy is a dancing instructor and asked her for a dance. She agreed after the bar owner said he is a dancing instructor. She twirled around in Salsa style half the night. Getting giddy was the end result.

Since she wanted to dance her stress away, HF accompanied her and they went to Equinox. At 12.30am, they returned to the table and spoke of this guy dancing near CD and unbuttoning his jeans. He was dancing very close and was really excited about CD. His friend started to dance in front of CD and got pushed away.

I didn’t realise that guys just got hot under while dancing and needed to strip. I would have crushed the balls so that he can’t use them to bang any more. CD said her hands would have been dirtied. How unfortunate, it would have been good to crush those balls.

It is unfortunate that discos and dance clubs can’t screen people for stripping-compulsive-disorders-in-public. If anyone can come up with a clamp device for crushing balls, do share.

We were young once. We want to show the world that we are no longer kids and want them to acknowledge our presence. In our own ways, we wore Armani, Burberry or Moschino apparel, carried Issey Miyaki or Guess bags, and even perfume to school. We wanted to show them that we are capable of making decisions for ourselves and didn’t need any babysitter every minute.

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The boys would show off their powers by joining the big brothers who would say, “I look after you. Nobody bully my brother one!” They would often skip classes and sit at the coffeeshops or void decks and check out the pretty girls by wolf-whistling.

As time went by, they would get bolder, from stealing food to money. Each time, they weren’t caught, they broaden their “rewards”. The boys would also go to discos and Fire Disco was a popular place for seeing them dancing and playing with the girls.

The girls, on the other hand, would dress up and try to wear the shortest skirt that is allowed to school. Some would pull down the tucked in blouses as tight as possible into the skirt to show off their curves. Others would attempt to hide their hair highlights.

Yet other girls would continue wearing that threadbare blouse to show off what they were wearing inside. Or maybe it wasn’t to show off what they were wearing inside.

Those were The Days. I had the pleasure of viewing a Boi Kwong film made just for remembering those days. It is based on a true story about himself and his younger brother. It was a misguided attempt to ensure that his beloved brother would be protected that he pulled him into his world.

The movie captured the vulnerability of teenage years and their impression of being protected by the big brothers. Fighting and staring were often part of their lives. During the 1980s and early 90s, carrying parangs was part of protecting one’s life and to attack the enemy.

The Days opens on 11 Sept, 2008. The movie is just 100 minutes long due to cuts as it contains vulgar languages that were limited to the famous “Your father”. It’s a pity as I have heard far more colourful words being sprouted during my teenage years.

Stay tuned after the credits have rolled. To catch that handsome Zi Long a.k.a. Tai Zi, the cast will be at the stated places.

I have only one question for the director. How come Tai Zi wasn’t at the Cinema Europa one?

PS: This was made possible by GV Blog Aloud session. Thanks!

I have been very happy to stay at home to find out what it feels like to do what I have been meaning to do. I may not be earning what I used to when I had a stable income but I feel way much happier. Although, my dear parents will nag at me to find a “stable” job. After having gone through unhappiness while working the same routine for years, I do wonder if a stable job is what I have in mind.

Yes, it does provide the money to buy things without having to worry about whether I still have enough for the rest of the month. During my younger years, I have learned to keep track of where my money goes to. I may buy things on the impulse but how often do I do that? I used to buy new mobiles every year but after the slate of disappointment with the mobile phones not performing to my expectations, I have since stopped that.

I want to try working from home but parents don’t understand and I keep hearing them telling me about Chines New Year is coming. Well, for a fact, it is coming every single year. So, what is the difference? Perhaps I may not think so after I have to be the one giving out the ang baos.

It is only a month. I have to prove to them that what I have always wanted to try is working. However, they want fast results. Will they ever understand that such things take time? I want to give it time. Those who have done it have may have spent 3 years just for the initial inputs to break even.

Money makes the world go round but it can’t buy happiness.

Having followed Sheylara’s blog for quite some time, I was happy that free tickets were going to be redeemed for the lucky bloggers who email her the details. DD read about it first since my RSS Reader didn’t update her new posts.

Thus, I sent her an email about my interest and surprise of all surprises, I got my free tickets to Money No Enough 2. A lady who is the contact for the event called me in the afternoon, a day before the actual movie and we spoke for a while. Nice lady.

I waited for the email for details. With the details, I proceeded to the place for collection. I was way too early since I had sent in my brother’s mobile for repair. Strangely, the huge group I saw were mostly queuing for the counter to buy popcorn and tickets.

I saw a table with the huge poster but the person to collect from wasn’t sitting at that place. Instead they were standing. I must say, they prefer to be close to the bloggers rather than just sit at the table and mark the tickets as collected. I’m impressed with the personal approach.

DD finally arrived because his training ended late. We rushed into the cinema and got our seats. Good seats. Thank you Sheylara. The show started on time without any pre-movie advertisements. I love it! Unfortunately, DD missed the first 2 minutes of the show because he needed to buy popcorn for me. I was hoping he would be back soon.

The movie’s main theme is about filial piety and I love the way it is being portrayed. Families with more than one sibling and the gap between rich and poor were shown with clarity. It also spoke of how a mother would give away her savings even if they were meant for her coffin to her children. A mother who doesn’t differentiate between loving a child more than the other.

The common quarrels between siblings is often about money after they started working. They will argue who earns more and should pay more for looking after the parents while neglecting the parents’ feelings. Parents may dote on one child more than the others but there are parents who won’t hesitate to help their children in whatever way they can without being biased.

This movie is a touching story about a family who learns filial piety and money values. A movie made from the heart. This heart part is from his speech.

After the movie, Director Neo arrived to speak about his experiences with the making of the movie. He gave a deeper insight of how budget works and thus, without speaking directly, it explained the constant reminders of the sponsors’ products which marred the movie’s flow to some people who would have preferred a visual reference instead of talking about it constantly.

I didn’t ask any questions because I have absolutely no idea what to ask. A few people asked about a sequel, whether his future movies would consist of more CGI and why he took so long to make the sequel. A lively session, I must say.

Finally, I would like to thank Sheylara and Blog Aloud for the chance to watch the movie and meet Director Neo.

I used to have this manager who treated us very well. He would also be environmental conscious, which is very rare for a company although it is ISO 9001 certified. There was once we had to keep some keys temporarily and he produced clear plastic bag from magazines. The ones that magazines are kept in for sending. Our jaws dropped.

He has a mean streak when playing badminton. I heard the other ex-colleagues often can’t beat him. Thankfully, I didn’t take part since I would have been humiliated with my pitiful skills. He was a national champion in his own country. That’s why no one in the department could win against him.

When we first heard of his name, the literal translation “Professor” came to mind. I think he did have a bachelor degree, can’t remember if he did a Ph.D though. He would speak professionally, if that didn’t sound like a professor, I don’t know what did.

He even accepted my request for being my referee. How sweet of him. Wonder why I’m thinking of him. Maybe I miss working with him as he would be sociable and offer his help.

It took me a few rounds of phone calls before finding a studio that had a free slot before 3pm. Of all days, it had to rain. Heavily. I settled on Gloria Photo Studio in the end as it was able to have a slot before 3pm. The photographer was very friendly and made us feel comfortable.

Even the brother who loved to give stern faces for each and every family photo smiled. I had specifically stated to the men in the family that they had to smile. If not, I will make them pay. Thankfully, they did smile for the camera.

The session took about 30 minutes. The style for convocation photos for this studio is traditional. The background has stayed the same. So, for those who prefer modernised versions, it would be best to select other studios. This studio doesn’t provide makeup for the ladies either. That’s why the package is cheaper than DeCharacter and The Makeup Inc (both that I initially wanted to choose).

A family portrait is important. If any of the family member feels that it isn’t, slap them upside down. If they dare to do that on your wedding day, give them two tight slaps.

Having my articles featured is both a bane and a boon. While I have some comments that aren’t well-thought, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t any who don’t think. I have been called lame and other sorts of names.

First, my piece on listening to commuters got quite a number of comments. Wow. Only when I project a negative view then I get a response. So, shall I write more negatives views? No? Oh well.

1. Raising prices will always get complains. No matter what. It seems that the explanations have gone from being detailed, to being general. Was it detailed in the first place? Like fuel prices raising, so there is a need to maintain, etc.
2. Anyone taking the train knows that going from Boon Lay to Tampines takes more than an hour of train rides. If anyone else is able to get there in less than an hour by train, show me how.
3. If anyone can show me a way such that no one will block the doors during peak hours whereby everyone is rushing to work, show me how.
   [via Flickr]
4. If anyone is able to tell me that the waiting time for a train during non-peak hours is less than 11 minutes, let me know.
5. If everyone is able to move in when needed, why would so many others say otherwise?
6. When the train is delayed, what are the announcements? For a delay of 10 minutes and above, speculations are bound to fly around. What happened when it was delayed not due to someone jumping the tracks? The story was told after speculations flew around.

If no speculations should be flying around, then transparency should be implemented. If not, there will always be unhappiness. I didn’t say that it isn’t efficient. All I feel is that whenever there is a price increase, people expect more. This goes the same for that vacuum cleaner, or any product of service. You don’t expect that $200 shirt to have seams coming out after 2 washes, do you?

You want more people to use your services, it’s like building a good relationship.

Having had the privilege to travel a few times, I must say, my favourite trip is to Australia. I went there during the Chinese New Year. Of course I visited my relatives before that. It was a package tour but ended up half free and easy.

However, it wasn’t that bad because we had a guide who drove us around according to the itinerary. In fact, I still remember this couple, there were only 3 couples. This particular couple caught SH and my eyes because of their odd pairing.

They didn’t look married. They didn’t behaved married. They behaved as if they were brother and sister. We just couldn’t make out what sort of relationship they had. The guy wasn’t that great in English and there was this one time, it rained heavily on our way back. One of us wanted to buy something and the guide recommended 7-Eleven. And so, we went there to make some purchases.

Before we alighted, the guide was telling us a whole lot of information and we weren’t used to the accent yet. This guy (from the odd couple) kept nodding and agreeing. At the end, he asked, “Ee kong simi?” (What did she say?)

We couldn’t keep our laughter in. I guess face was the issue here. It’s one of my favourite trips as it was rather relaxed and we had someone to drive us around. The only thing was that I got sick of was seeing kangaroos and koala bears from day one to day six. I did like feeding them though.