anyhow hantam again

being random as usual...

when i went to get the jabs for MEET, i barely felt anything (and thankfully since i only needed two shots they were just one on either arm - none on the derriere, which might have been a different matter altogether). As i have often lamented, i subscribe to Queen Hadassah/Esther's "If I perish, I perish" philosophy, and hence if i were left to my own devices, i would not bother with immunizations/safety flights/ insurance - that sort of thing - cos if it's His time for you to go, nothing you can do is gonna stop it from happening, and even after you go - He will still be there to provide for who you've left behind. But of course i do agree that this is a rather selfish way to see things, which does not take into account the others around you who may possibly be affected by your demise/incapacitation etc... So i let it be...

games day was way fun - good to see this year's FOC comm (do visit their blog over there =======> by the way) in action and dedicated and all that... And after the weigh-in at the clinic where i found out that i had gained weight (if not then either my home scale or the clinic scale is koyak), i was more determined than ever to play my heart's out. So i did (and each team that i was in lost - four out of four) but it was fun nevertheless - except for my sprained right fourth finger what i obtained while trying to catch a long pass. I dunno how i can hate sports so much but yet still like playing (some of) them... I guess it's all in the fitness and weight loss...

agm was interesting to say the least - have been to quite a few in my lifetime and this one was by far the most animated and to some extent, the most uncomfortable - but of well, it was nothing that was overly serious and monumental so no worries - in any case - congrats to the team who shall lead us forward in the upcoming year - prayers are with you all...

and i officially also got a one-year's notice (and i'd be lying if i said that i didn't see it coming) but it is still a year lah, so am gonna take it slow - and meanwhile i have to iron out tons of issues...

by the next day my finger had swelled to 150% of it's normal size - and swimming was no easy feat - for the first time ever i actually felt like stopping halfway cos of the pain in the finger and nothing else... writing too was proving to be a very tedious process... but got through with it by God's grace... And finger's more or less ok now =)

btw, has anyone seen my big fat black and blue pilot shaker mechanical pencil? I dunno where it disappeared to but am positive it was lent to someone whom i forgot who him/herself forgot about it. I am most annoyed when stationery is lost cos it happens ever-so-often with me...

some of my Filipino relatives are here for a visit and once again was experiencing minor Chilipino blues - which happens anytime a pinoy comes around and i am stuck with deciphering the 5% that i can gather from the conversations that they have with my mother and grandmother. This is basically why i cringe at the very mention of the phrase "mother tongue" cos, my dear future employer (shhh!!!), my mother, or my whole family for that matter, doesn't speak anything remotely similar to mandarin and yet you subjected me to the torture of learning a fictional mother's tongue for a whole six-and-a-half years (nine-and-a-half if you count kindergarten and nursery)?

my parents took the exercise bike out of my room (to wherever - out of sight, out of mind) and pushed the giant box that has been sitting in the middle of my room since we moved in more than two years ago to one corner and when i got back to my room, my jaw dropped - i never realized that my room was so big - and it'll look even bigger once Greg's stuff goes and i find a way to dispose of my father's two large filing cabinets... However, knowing me, my proposed re-arrangement of the layout will probably not come to fruition for a long time more...

had Japanese food just now for dinner - at this good Japanese restaurant (my criterion for a good Japanese restaurant is that Japanese go there) called Waraku across the road from my house [the dining oportunities here are endless =)]. Thankfully managed to spot one-and-a-half wayward small shrimp in the okonomiyaki before eating it. And the cold soba + katsu don portion that i had at $15 was huge (though admittedly still not enough to make me full). Have concluded that cold soba is my favourite Japanese food - and the best that i have come across so far is at this place (though think in total i've only eaten it from three other places, one of them being arts canteen and another being sakae so cannot really compare lah) even though i suppose it's all carbs *pooh*

And let me say a little more about the elections and stuff, now that things are starting to quiet down a bit - from reading people's blogs realised that my persistently non-political content is far more persistently non-political than theirs - so i shall take the liberty to be a little more open (though i shall only err on the side of caution)

Firstly, i am very glad that SL has decided to take up the ncmp post, even if it is in a way against what the party believes in. Use whatever way to gain exposure - and i think in this case it's a smart move (just hope she doesn't end up in some silly self-defeating scandal like SC or i'll just cry). From what i've gathered from the reports both in mediacrap and the state's times (even those unapologetically-pro-establishment-to-the-point-of-being-nauseating articles that CMH churns out on a regular basis) as well as from the rally, she is very capable and has raised and (i believe in faith) will raise tough and critical issues as an ncmp. At the least so far she has touched on a lot of the grouses i have harboured for the longest time... And methinks from today's paper she was quoted as saying something and then ending off with "God willing" which certainly sparked my interest, no matter who she was actually referring to...

And while we're on the topic of religion - let me also voice one of the many reasons why i voted the way i did - i simply cannot reconcile purported adherents of the Christian faith giving their support for schemes that they should know fully well run contrary to what their faith teaches. Yes and i am talking about people like you - IN (edited to change initial - got person's name confused with the comedian IA - though from the hilariously telling and ridiculous statement that IN made as reported in the forum today - maybe this person can be a comedian too). What were you thinking by supporting this decision in the interests of pragmatism? Of course, for every IN there also were others who stood firm in their faith like LMS, and, to the shame of people like IN and VB, even pre-believers like TSK but still, the fact remains that the party you belong to went ahead without even allowing you all to express your approval/disapproval via a whip-free vote because it is supposedly a matter of "national interest". Well, let me just say that if it is truly a matter of "national interest" then you'd jolly well let the nation make it's views heard via an official channel such as a referendum, or at the least via the supposed representatives of the people - the MPs (though in our case much of the people didn't elect them in any case - but that's another story).

Also, i cannot stand arrogance - and pardon me, but high-up people like WKS, NEH, and even higher-ups whose names are too easily deciphered even behind the veil of acronyms, have exuded it aplenty. Go and show proper respect for your opponents, refrain from calling them names and passing your own imperfect moral judgements on them as well as threatening to 'fix' them then i'll consider voting for you in future... You did not make Singapore into what we are today by yourselves, nor do you know all that's best for our country, so don't act like our survival is dependent on your existence. Get a reality check and humble yourselves accordingly.

At the same time, i knew that despite how my heart was already firmly on one camp i had to be really prayerful in my decision and not anyhow hantam - and to that extent was praying very hard about how to vote - and at the end of the day - and taking everything into prayerful consideration - i simply had no other choice.

To end off - i'd just like to congratulate the young female curly-haired and stone-faced employee of the ED who's gotten much more than her fair share of screen time over the past week or so thanks to the JG affair - you could be a star - considering how i've seen more of you on mediacrap this year than the entire gan si dui amk team and Zoe Tay combined...

Oops better stop now before the already-loosened floodgates are opened fully... Hope that this was persistently non-political enough...