It's Gary's birthday today but being one day before the Dragon Boat Festival, today sees the traditional family celebration of my lunar birthday. No confetti, no festoons, only a simple ritual of making birthday wishes, blowing out candles and eating hard-boiled eggs, seasoned with the indulgence in Hagen-Daz afterwards with my sister at Raffles City Shopping Centre. I'm satisfied nonetheless. Thanks to my third aunt for defraying the cost of my Mango Delight cake and handling me a big Ang Pow of $50!
scribbled at 5:37 PM
It has re-inspired me to feel the urge of venturing once again into the remaining unchartered portions of the novel by Dan Brown. Hopefully, this time, it would bring me through the whole plot. :)
scribbled at 10:41 PM
I nudged my eyes and entered into a state of consciousness yesterday morning to find myself in a backdrop of raised voices and heightened emotions. A mild altercation had broken out between my parents and my elder brother, who was still in bed, over his recent profligacy in his decision to purchase home-used ionic water equipment at a cost of $1,500. It wasn't without reason - apparently, my brother had decided on taking his 3-months holiday respite to make a foray at multi-level marketing, or at least that's what I perceive it to be since I have always turned a blind eye to his matters. (Just don't get embroiled in the quagmire of golden pyramid marketing and he should be ok.) Therefore, he had his manager at our house a few days ago to sell his products and to entertain him, my parents had earlier bought a set of magnetic sleeping system for over 2K. (I don't understand what this business is about but he needed to achieve a certain sales volume to rise to a captain?) To fork out another $1,500 for the ionic water, whose health value still remains dubious, proved to be the last straw for them as they blew their top and lashed out at my brother early in the morning. The indignant remarks made by my brother further compounded the situation, interjections like "I will use my own money!" are specious arguments strewn over with loop-holes.
What's left me perturbed and shaken were the words spoken by my father. It made me more determined to find a sponsor for my university education, to lift their financial burden and reduce my economic dependence on them.
"。。。我很照顾，很珍惜我自己的健康，你知道吗？因为这个家只有我每个月赚那一千几百块，如果我有什么三长两短，这个家就垮了。你们三个都要上大学，我现在只能多赚它七八年，希望一个接一个可以读完大学，出来工作，这就是我的责任。。。"
I shall not divulge much further, and keep in my heart all that he had said. I guess all parents are the same, and their concern and love for their children is unequivocal. Anyway, that left my brother tearing afterwards.
scribbled at 3:50 PM
It's during all-so-familiar days like these when there is an unanticipated surge in the number of UIP platoons marching around, singing hoarsely sickening Army songs and suffering stoically under the clutches of the sergeants that I am reminded of the gratifying truth that ORD is within sight and more than 1 year has passed since that fateful day when I was shipped to 3 Sig from SI. Indeed, this is the last lap to the end of the race and I am trudging hard, shuffling my sore feet along while maintaining my routine breathing. Whenever I feel like breaking down under the savages of the lifelessness and inanity of the camp, it is this conviction that serves as a palliative to salve my pain and anger.
scribbled at 8:11 PM
Yes, something happened on Monday again. :( Thanks to that opinionated, bigoted and pathetic old nincompoop.
scribbled at 8:16 PM
It's little wonder how great an effect jogging has on me these days. With the numerous unpleasant encounters in camp lately, I feel like an oversized bird in a miniature cage, struggling within myself and fidgeting to break loose. Armed with a stack of email complaints, CSM issued us an ultimatum, expecting us to adhere doggedly to the rules of the game, while brandishing an axe with the phrase "BMT Style" emblazoned on it. But take a careful look to comprehend the whole picture! A ruffian who bore a close resemblance of me appeared to be sneaking up behind CSM, breaking into maniacal and raucous laughter and pointing a gun close to her rounded waist. If you are from CCC, you should know what I'm insinuating at. And before I know it, my hair was reduced to an uneven and spiky mesh.
The iron fist that ruffian promised is encroaching on us day by day. Just when I was creeping into deep sleep at midnight before my guard duty last Thursday, Teddy jolted me awake, gesturing animatedly at a turn-out, while I peeked through my groggy and puffy eyes, wondering whether I was dreaming of my UIP days. Was it a bit too late to conduct a roll call, even if the purpose was justifiable? And to make matters worse, I was awarded another guard duty in the later part of the month. I tried to think of the wise saying "Nothing is fair in this world", but it didn't drive away the common question "Why me?". What makes me even more infuriated is that whoever planned the duty did not even make it a point to ask or inform me, it's not as if my points are the lowest in the platoon.
Going back to my first point made, I presume jogging has became the only avenue through which I can relieve my neurotic behaviour, purge the poisons from my body and revitalise my senses. Visiting the fruits store and indulging in the eye-rolling variety of citrous fruits afterwards served to consummate the renewal process. I am counting on more of these refreshing experiences to negate the atrocities in that confined space!
scribbled at 8:47 PM
I stayed home yesterday, on a Saturday, a weekend, when most adolescents in NS would find themselves reveling in riotous parties at pubs or just simply frittering away their time outside for that matter, partially because nobody ever ask me out and for the most part due to the closely watched poll. Strangely, I sensed a wave of anticipation and thrill this time round as I tuned in to Channel News Asia at 9pm, waiting agog for the results of the poll which were supposed to start rolling in only at 10:30pm. I guess due to the coming of age, controversial issues raised at the GE appeared to lend more relevance to my life and future and being a potential voter 5 years down the road, I ought to ratchet up my awareness of the part and parcel in local politics; in retrospect, a happy-go-lucky student in CHS then, I was presumably too caught up in my own world to pay any attention to the previous GE, in fact the only scenario I can whisk out from my memory cauldron seems to be that of watching the results of the last GE in the middle of the night.
As the initial few announcements were made, the shaven percentages of the votes mustered by the ruling party in some of the SMCs, seemed to portend a general decrease in popularity of the PAP, and they bode ill of the subsequent GRCs showing. True enough, talk of Ang Mo Kio's possibility of garnering 80% of the votes were dashed and WP managed a beautiful victory in Aljunied! That really jolted me! A bit disappointing in CCK though, part of me was hoping Chia could turn the tables around and actually secure another ward for the opposition.
I have been suppressing some opinions I bore of the arguments that had been raging throughout the hustings. The most prominent issue was granted, the Gomez saga. I thought for a while that maybe this would sway votes in favour of PAP, since I figured that anyone intellectually sound and without any highly analytical mind could reach a conclusive verdict after examining the bits and bytes of the evidence. But I guess I was mistaken. Perhaps the tenacious grip by the PAP on the centreman proved too revolting for the voters, I for one felt that maybe the hold on him was a tad too adamant and this was done at the expense of the limited 9 days campaigning, but definitely not substantive enough to sway my vote, that is of course a hypothetical situation.
Another eyesore of the GE was the upgrading carrot dangled in front of the electorate. Yes, I am categorically convinced that carrot provides one with betacarotene which is essential for good eyesight (what irony!), but no, I do not want to restrict myself to the succulent carrot when I have my main dish, my steak, fillet, chicken chop or whatsoever that proved to be as crucial, if not more, in delivering the nutrients that makes my body tick! Simply put, I want to have broader issues mooted for discussion, things like foreign investments, Singapore's foreign policy etc, instead of turning the papers every day for the past 9 days to look at upgrading issues hogging the headlines repeatedly. But in reality, that's not really possible, because the concerns of a large echelon of the society conceivably rest on the improvement of the facilities in the neighbourhood.
The last disturbing misgiving about the speeches was the apology made by PM for the terms he used in a lunchtime rally, ie 'fix' the opposition. I'm not really offended by that word and I feared he might have overlooked the more major flaw in his political discourse in his rally. A fleeting glimpse at the political landscape in other countries like Taiwan, France and Italy, indeed beef up the notion that the ruling party may slip into quicksand because of the desire to uproot the opposition and thus implementing policies that lead to doom. The question of paramount importance is whether he meant that he might degenerate into similar circumstances if more opposition candidates were voted into parliament? Politically unwise to say that, I suppose.
Anyway, enough of the GE. I had to wake up late this morning and my breakfast and lunch were consumed within a span of 2 hours, because I wanted to catch "When A Stranger Calls" at 12:45pm. (No habit of brunch in my family) Completely wrecked my schedule. At least the horror suspense theme appealed to me and I found the plot fresh and different from conventional horror films. And I don't know whether there was a problem in the sound system in Shaw Jurong Theatre or what, the rustling bass beats sounded detached from the movie and it sorta gives me the creeps. Haha.
scribbled at 6:12 PM
![[Powered by Blogger]](http://buttons.blogger.com/bloggerbutton1.gif){kind=small}
