Below, Part 3

Jon, at 22:45:53: 114060. Guess what's that :)

Me, at 22:46:45 (thinking it has something to do with something nice for me, like maybe he won a lucky draw and now we're going to see Jacky Cheung and A*mei on the 24th): I dunno? :) :)

Jon, at 22:48:29: my new high score. Hahahahahahaha

The Sad Lives of Lawyers To Be, Part 2
I'm to blame, really.

It was I who discovered the game on Jon's new phone, Phone-E. So called because he's a Nokia E63 (or E68? I'm not sure) and we wanted our phones to be relatives. My phone, if you recall, is named Phoney.

And it is I who have been playing this game whenever a lecture proves too boring for words. Which is rather often.

However, Jon is not the only one who has an E63 (E68?), and I am not the only one who finds this game exciting, stimulating, and a great way to pass time!

I received the following SMS from J about 15 minutes ago:

Omg I was playing globalblox ..my score was like 97000+ then the dumb thing said gameover...s**t...

(asterisks added to maintain family friendliness)

We will be taking the bar exam at the end of November and all we can think about now is how to beat each others' high scores on a souped-up version of Tetris.

You Can't Deny It

Today, my fellow Aunty - also known as Fellow Suffering Pupil #1, or #2, or #n depending on who comes to mind first as I'm telling my tales about the day - pointed out something.

L, SMSing me excitedly about the "new" and "damn gd" drama Boys Over Flowers: Ya e lead looks like pck.

Minus the mole and the jade ring, of course.

"New" and "damn gd," in my opinion, are in quotation marks both literally and figuratively. But then it might not be that bad after all. I don't like it mostly because I didn't like the Taiwanese one, and that was because Barbie Hsu was just Plain Annoying and I couldn't stand Vanness Wu's hair.

I shall refrain from insulting Jerry Yen because L likes him and I don't want to hurt her feelings. And he was the least of all the Meteor Garden evils, anyway. I'll concede that.

Don't forget now, all fans of Boys Over Flowers - A Happy Journey, Starts Like That!

Maybe the campaign would be a lot more effective if they actually got Lee Min Ho to front it.

That is, if people could tell the difference.

Oh shucks. I forgot the mole. Dead giveaway there.

Wonders Will Never Cease

Today my father mopped the floor; when we ordered Coffee Pork Ribs as part of dinner at Forture, they came with blobs of whipped cream with coffee powder sprinkled over.

I'm surprised I don't see pigs flying.

And now, I am going to blog in Mandarin, and attempt to translate a Liang Wern Fook song. If you are displeased with the translation you are free to offer a better one.

Don't be surprised if you see a large pink pig backside suddenly appear at your window as you read this.

***
亲爱的文耀，

（如果你不能读以下的短文，你可以 scroll down for translation)

今天我们庆祝我们两年半的生日。 其实我的华语没你想象中那么好吧。但是我们两都知道我是骗人的。哈哈。去了北京四个多月，一直听八八三家FM，听华文MP3，看第八播道并不表示我的华文会讲得写得完美正确。

可是我的华文还是比你的好。记住啊！

这首歌虽然是首伤心的歌，但是我非常喜欢它。是我们最爱的梁文福写的，而这版也是他和潘盈唱的。 有点老套 (what is "old-fashioned" in Mandarin?!) 但是我知道你也会像我一样欣赏它。

谢谢你这两年半来给我的勇气和自持，爱心和保护。谢谢你每次很愿意和我共享你的食物。我知道食物对你来说是很重要的 - 你奋不顾身的牺牲你的食物对我来说是你表达最高度的爱心。

如果没有你，我可能还会被困在以前伤心的回忆中。

我已不再怀疑我究竟有勇气几许，因为你给我勇气继续。



我总是忘记 怎样地不去想起你
I always forget how to not think about you

我总是怀疑 你依然相信我的心情
I always suspect you still believe I have feelings for you

每一次伤的是你 每一次刺痛的是我的心
Everytime you get hurt it is my heart which feels the pain

我紧拥着你 却经已失去我自己
I've held on to you so tightly that I've lost myself

一条漫长路经已走到这里 走下去我就不再是我自己
I have come thus far down a long road, and if I go on walking I will no longer be myself

然而望着你的背影 究竟我有勇气几许
But as I look at your shadow, I wonder just how much courage I possess

回头去走那无尽无止的记忆
And I turn back to walk through those endless memories

一条漫长路经已走到这里 然而分离是否就拥有我自己
I've come down this long road, but if I leave you I can find myself

因为思念不是当年没有一丝牵挂的你
Because memories of yesterday are not yesterday and I'm not holding on to any part of you

寂寞也不是最初的我自己
Being lonely is not something which I ever was

Another sweet song, another heartbreaking story.

Except that our story isn't heartbreaking, of course not.

Here's a translation of my note to Jon, for his (and your) benefit:-

Dear Jon,

Today we are celebrating our two-and-a-half-year anniversary. Actually my Mandarin is not as good as you think it is, but then we both know that I'm just a fraud where this is concerned. Haha. Staying in Beijing for about 4 months, listening to 88.3 FM, having Chinese songs on my MP3 player and watching Channel 8 dramas definitely does not mean my Chinese will be wonderfully accurate.

But remember, my Mandarin is still better than yours! Haha.

This is a sad song, but I like it very much. It is by one of our favourite composers, Liang Wern Fook. This version was sung by him and Pan1 Ying2. Even though the arrangement is extremely old-fashioned, I know you will like and appreciate it just as much as I do.

Thank you for the courage and support, love and protection you have given me for the past two and a half years. Thank you for always being so willing to share your food with me. I know food is very important to you, so the fact that you are ever-willing to share your food with me so self-sacrificially shows me that your love for me is of the highest degree.

If it wasn't for you, I might still be stuck in the sad memories of the past.

I don't wonder anymore whether I have enough courage - for you give me courage to carry on.

好肉麻喔！
Eeee, so mushy.

May God grant us many happy years ahead, together. Thank You, for all You've done for us and everything You've brought us through.

Assaulting Your Senses

Between the last post and now, I have finally found on YouTube the songs which have been haunting my waking moments for the past few weeks.

Of course, no one ever watches YouTube videos other people post on their blogs, but I'll take the chance.

If you have a grandmother who watches a lot of daytime Chinese TV you'll definitely know these songs. Don't bluff me that you don't okay?!

And I have no idea what they're singing about - I barely understand Hokkien - I have to read the fan ti lyrics.

Above each video is what I call each song when I sing of their greatness to Jon, who has to listen to me belt out the only lines I know ad nauseum. I shall make an effort to learn to sing the Hokkien.

ＷＡ MENG TI WA MENG TI


AAAHHH JI AI NI YI JI LANG


And then I'll be an Absolutely Intolerable Friend to have.


***

Watching Korean dramas has made me miss Beijing. Going to school in Changping, especially. And street food. Definitely the street food.

Had an almost taste of Beijing on Tuesday when we went to eat steamboat in Chinatown after tutorial. Unfortunately the ma2 la4 was more la4 than ma2, which was not only most un-China but resulted in Glorious S**ts (in the plural. I am gross, I know) for Jon and myself. I'm not sure about the other people involved, but you can ask them. It's quite likely they suffered the same fate, seeing as Jon and Other Persons Who Shall Not Be Named probably downed close to 50 beef balls between them.

Being Practical

I woke up this morning to the news that A*Mei has joined Jacky Cheung (and Da Mouth and sodagreen, whose music I have never heard) as one of the acts for the first day of F1 Rocks.

Tickets are $175 per day. Not that I'm going to be forking out more than $175, although a part of me is secretly tempted to go watch the Backstreet Boys with Abi, because she wants to, and just because, you know? Not that I was a big fan - my father thought they were trash and so refused to buy their CDs (good on him, now I don't have dusty BSB CDs to get rid of!) but there's something about the Backstreet Boys that's so secondary school; makes me feel all nostalgic.

You know what they say, once you start feeling OLD and NOSTALGIC it means you're not that old. So I better stop talking about things I don't know about.

Anyhow, September is Jon's and my birthday month, so we were debating whether we should go as a birthday treat. Our friends have, however, pointed out that we can go to both Jacky Cheung's and A*Mei's individual concerts when they come, for the same amount of money. Plus we'll feel so much more fulfilled after a good 3 hours or so of the best the Chinese Pop World can bring in terms of costumes and production. Can't say much for the sound system at the Singapore Indoor Stadium though.

We have no idea how long the sets at F1 Rocks are going to be, but there are four acts - you do the math.

There's also the fact that we have a tutorial until 7 p.m. that day so we'll have to go late. Fort Canning's opening up at 5 p.m. Not that A*Mei or Jacky Cheung will open, but I just feel like I've gotta get there early to make it worth my while.

It's the kiasu Singaporean in me coming out in full force.

We inquired at the SISTIC counter at Raffles City twice today, and we still haven't bought the tickets.

I doubt we will, because there's a blue dress in Chinatown calling out my name, I hear it everytime we go the Subordinate Courts for lessons.

But we'll see, we'll see. Wouldn't it be something to go. I'm just a bit worried she'll go all Amit on me. I'm not sure I'm prepared to embrace Amit, when discovering A*Mei for real was one of the best things that happened to me in Beijing.

I'm turning into my mother. I can hear her voice in the back of my head telling me she thinks the money would be better spent elsewhere.

You might just see us standing next to that huge cherry sculpture outside the National Museum, opposite Fort Canning, come 24 September 2009.

Today

I realised that Jon and I have come very far together, and I felt very thankful for everything we've been through and the way God has blessed our relationship.

My mother said being bored was better than being sian. Like, it's better to be bored to tears writing a letter to imaginary clients about the imaginary sale and purchase of an imaginary house (that's a REAL letter we're talking about here) as opposed to being sian about something going wrong at work.

Then your heart will stop and you'll feel totally horrible and you hope and pray that by the grace of God you don't have to pay out of your own pocket.

She's right, I guess.

And after today's BSF lesson on complaining, I really ought to just shut it, count my blessings and give thanks to God. So I leave you with a picture of an imaginary "person" at her imaginary house, to decide for yourself which you would rather be.

Please exercise the Option to Purchase within seven (7) weeks of the date of this Option to Purchase. If not, Meow Meow Lee would have already reached a new level where she gets a new house and you will not be able to buy this one anymore.

My, I am bored.

Dear Reader,

Re: Procrastination

1. We refer to the above.

2. Sigh.

Yours faithfully,

SUPERMAN LLP

Of Friends Who Look Like Korean TV Stars
(or, You Know You've Been Watching Too Many Korean Drama Serials)

THAT pose. You know, the one where the male lead is driving his SUV/sports car during a time of crisis and looking Extremely Troubled. He usually puts his hand to his forehead and gives an exasperated, sad and frustrated "TSK." He's also driving Really Badly, but no one around him seems to give a s**t.

Jon Wrong on his way to becoming an Asian superstar (I didn't manage to get a picture at the moment his hand was on his forehead), Shannon looking doubtful that that's ever going to happen.

BYE QUENTS!!!

See you in December/January!
(and that was only to make myself feel better for not dragging myself out of bed at 0430 to go to the airport tomorrow morning. Not much point, when you'll only be gone for about 5 months)

More Good Old Chinese Pop

A less cheesy MTV, unfortunately.

In Lieu Of Vegetables

My parents went to JB last Friday, and like all the other times they go to JB, I fully expected them to come home with a couple of supermarket chickens for dinner, and a baguette or two.

Sure enough, they finally pulled up in our driveway at around 8 p.m., by which time I was ravenous and my tummy was singing for my supper.

My mother, for once, didn't buy any salad or cook any vegetables - she bought fake Yakult instead, and after dinner, told us that we all had to drink some of it because we hadn't had any vegetables.

No offence to anybody, especially if the manufacturers of the fake Yakult had developed the product themselves (though it's unlikely), but it tasted horrible. I got stuck with the orange flavour - and everyone knows fake orange-flavoured anything tastes awful, the only thing with a fake orange flavour I can stand is effervescent Redoxon - and after a few sips I handed it to my father and told him to enjoy it.

Saturday afternoon saw me, my mother, my grandmother, and my J2 brother who is Very Cool and About to Enter Army space out in front of Full House, which L lent me, with the kind words: You'll confirm like it lor. My aunty radar says so.

I've been wanting to blog about the Beijing Exchange Persons 2008 outing to Tea Chapter at Neil Road Thursday before last, but something's wrong with Blogger and I can't upload any pictures. The funniest picture of the day (to me, at any rate) was of Shangren pouring tea with his Zen face: When you pour tea you must have a qian3 cheng2 de4 xin1, so he says, and there I am in the background doing my best impersonation of a disrespectful moose.

We had a great time.

I went for NDP with my mother yesterday. I was supposed to go with Jon but he was sick, which was really disappointing for both of us. For me especially I think, because girls do tend to take these things a little too hard you know? And these tickets were hard-won and long expected, being as they were from one of Jon's friends on the organising committee. We failed to get any from the ballot. I'd been looking forward to the long weekend and fireworks, jostling about with a sea of people in red and singing cheesy National Day songs at the top of our patriotic, compliant lungs.

But no matter, I had a lot of fun with mummy, who was very excited too and we had a good time waving our little Singapore flags and light-up hearts around in time to the music.

I liked this year's NDP a lot (except for the fake terrorist attack) - I thought Ivan Heng did a good job. I especially enjoyed the music, which finally appears to NOT have been arranged by somebody with an alliterative name (oh, YOU know who I'm talking about), and the script which poked fun at bad Singlish and other Singaporean idiosyncrasies. It was kitschy cool, with those cheesy, rather ghoulish "people" borne about on sticks and the moving flower motifs on the big screens when they were introducing the four different races through dance and song. Ivan Heng has taste, and I think he loves Singapore, if not the show wouldn't have been as moving and goosepimply as it was. Just like how Jon thinks Home is so enduring because Dick Lee meant it when he wrote it. That, and the fact that he's talented, of course.

Maybe it was just the wind at the Marina Barrage, and those light-up hearts.

I suppose I'll get flak for this post, especially since there're probably more people than not who thought the NDP was a huge joke and the government would do well to spend the money elsewhere. But I was moved this year, and proud of Singapore and how far we've come - and you know what, I think we do have some semblance of a national identity after all, and I'm proud of that, even if doesn't epitomise sophistication. Ivan Heng managed to capture the essence of it, which is something I think no other NDP has been able to do effectively.

It's the essence of lazy afternoons at a coffeeshop wherever, drinking coffee or tea, eating a pau, popiah, or bak chor mee (that rhymes). Aunties and uncles who cook all that wonderful food, who give you a welcoming smile and know your order even before you say it, because that's what you always eat when you come to their stalls.

Like walking along the Singapore River with a loved one and about half of Singapore, enjoying the lights nonetheless, or listening to xinyao with them.

That kind of thing, you know? I'm sure you have your fond (and un-fond) memories of what makes Singapore home to you.

Wherever you are, there'll always be things which you don't like about a place, things which annoy and irritate you. But I think it's all about making the best of things. And then you'll find that things aren't so bad after all, and that Singapore is a country worthy of our love and pride.

Happy Day After National Day everyone.

Do check back with me when I have to brave rush hour crowds again.

Nah, I'm sure I'll still be fine. There'll be emails with the Aunties and Uncles To Be in the office to look forward to.