reality gnaws, repeatedly chomps and munches into tiny pieces and then swallows mercilessly

It's just a couple of hours till i fly back - you know, there's just so much that is worth mentioning not only during this trip but really throughout this whole month but which i probably won't get a chance to due to having such a gigantic amount of stuff to do once i get back. Yup that's one thing that really irks me to no end - you just can't escape from it all. Ahh - momentary frustrations i know but yeah they still are annoying nevertheless...

One thing that i've to do once i get back is of course to deal with the (insert any word of a sufficiently negative tone here) cors system yet again. I have to say - i was so happily enjoying myself over here that i forgot that there's the stupid bidding to handle. So therefore i've just realized that round zero has flown by and now tomorrow round 1A awaits. Of course, after five semesters of going through this crap i've already forgotten what you're supposed to do in round zero anyways and i figure i've more than enough program account (aha you see i still remember that name) points to go around for my major classes so to *bleep* with that...

Oh well so i guess once i get back that spells the end to denial for this stretch of time at least, and back to the real world. Honestly at this point in time i'm not at all looking forward to it, but yeah we'll have to handle it somehow, and it's not a solitary fight yup so we'll see what happens...

At least for now i've a three-hour experience with SQ to look forward to... Have a pleasant flight.

ella ella ella eh eh eh

I was reading i forget where some time before i left that there's this song which has catapulted a certain Barbadian called Rihanna to superstardom. I thought to myself, how successful can a song called 'umbrella' really be?

So i made a point during my flight over here to tune in to the inflight radio and wait specifically for that song to play since it was listed in the infllight entertainment guide...

Big mistake - ever since that first time i ever listened to that song i've been ambushed by it at least three more times and now i can't get the annoying thing out of my head so my already sapped brain productivity is down some more, so doing stuff like planning trip and everything else is severely hampered.

So Rihanna, please just take your umbrella and go away and leave me in the rain, cos i'd much rather get drenched than hang with you under your umbrella... ella ella eh eh eh... aargh!!!

(Um ok let me try and change the earworm - caught Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" just now - and honestly can you even imagine her sweet little self scratching out her cheating boyfriend's "souped-up 4WD's" side panels with a key and carving her name on its leather seats? We're talking about the same girl whom had only recently asked for Jesus to take the wheel here, aren't we? These weird country music folk...)

Nandito na kame (and i sincerely think that's wrong somewhere...)

Yup so i'm finally here, ten years after my last visit, and lots have changed since then, hardly the least of which is my appearance, which now looks much more local (i.e. Filipino) than at any other point in my life (and come to think of it, since i've been now identified as a Malay, a Thai, a 'non-Chinese', and a Filipino in Malaysia, Thailand, S'pore, and the Philippines respectively, i've more or less concluded that i'm acquiring more of a native Southeast Asian identity, and this at the expense of a Chinese one). The downside of it is that people talk to me in Tagalog and expect me to respond fluently when all i can do is shake my head and utter little token phrases like "wala" and "hindi pa." I'm almost tempted to utter something in my significantly better (ok, maybe that's pushing it a fair bit) command of Thai and hold on to whatever hope that they might speak that instead...

Hmm anyways i realize that there's so much i want to say here that has taken place ever since the month started, stuff regarding VCFFOC, Thailand trip, CGL Training etc; which i dunno when i'll get a chance to recall and subsequently to write about...

But anyways,while i can remember what i can remember about the Philippines, i'd better note it down while i have the chance to.

Eh actually there hasn't been much so far. Today i explored but a fraction of the countless number of really giant malls there are in the Metro Manila area. You think that vivocity is big? Well, then you haven't seen any one of a large handful of giant malls that connect with one another like one giant air-conditioned Orchard Road. There's another mall near where i am in QC that stands alone (ok not really there's an equally big SM next door that i haven't even been into) but definitely is bigger than vivocity already... And i've yet to go to SM MegaMall, the largest mall in Asia when i last was here; and SM Mall of Asia, the new holder of the title of the largest mall in Asia...

Currently i'm trying to plan for a trip up to the mountains. The rice terraces, to be exact. Now if you know me you'd know that planning of any sort is hardly my cup of tea. And now to make things even less comfortable for me i'm planning a trip for me and me alone - no co-traveller to shift the blame to or to commiserate over should anything go wrong. Of course thankfully i've some prior info and what not but still this is a monumental achievement for me, and hence if i really am able to pull this off, methinks i'm gonna be quite pleased with myself... However, that's a big IF, so i dunno how things will turn out in the end... So all i can say is, stay tuned...

*whee*

hehe it's been a while hasn't it eh? Nope this site hasn't dieded - these past few weeks have been real busy i must say, and even now as i type this i'm awaiting to board my flight to (literally) my motherland. And actually i'm just posting this for the sake of posting something while taking advantage of free internet at Changi Airport... Yuppers so that's all from me for now - ta!

Overdue and Overwhelmed

Heh there's been a heck of a lot that has gone on over the past two weeks or so that bears mention, so let me try and recount it all while trying to not be too lor sor and nonsensical (ironically while watching of all things one of the most lor sor and nonsensical channel eight shows i've watched in history - Golden Pillow *side note to Alex Man - oh just let Zoe Tay die in the fire lah - will save us 40 episodes of crap - its ridiculous enough that you're masquerading as a twenty-something when you're like double that age*)

For starters, well i just so happened to kena food poisoning for the first time in living memory - something that i never even had no matter how questionable the hygiene level of the stalls i ate from in other places. Nope instead i kena from probably eating some nasi padang. And what perfect timing it was too - right on the day when we were supposed to finally vacate the house. So to cut a long story short, that delayed my clearing of my room by a day or two, which in turn meant that i had to speed through the packing process over the weekend. And the amount of things that i have is just staggering - up till now i can't close the door of my new room...

Well one thing that i did manage to do is to go with the folks to the warehouse Ikea at Tampines, where i did get some ideas on how i might want to arrange and decorate my room (whether these ideas ever achieve fruition is another story altogether...) Another thing is that i was reminded of how ridiculous some of the names that they give their products are. Even though apparently there's a sound reasoning behind how they name their products, it's hard to take some of their names seriously - one new name comes to mind - Siaö.

Now the new place looks like a real mess, and will prob remain as one for a long time to come. It's almost like a man-made ridge of boxes by my reckoning. The first night when Bingo stayed over, we had a hard time finding him the next morning cos there was too much stuff all over the place...

And so after all the hassle with moving, i was so worn out and since i really needed to take a break from S'pore, made a last-minute-ish decision to take a short repose in Perhentian together with Huis, Lester, MS n William (and 'Cheryl'). Glad i did go in the end, even if it meant that work sched has gotten thrown around a bit. Really had a great time and did a couple of things i never thought i'd get to do, like hold a baby leatherback turtle in my hand (even though in retrospect prob that's not the best thing for it...), go snorkelling and not even come close to drowning, or swatting five different varieties of mosquitoes in one day... Eh, of course there was much much more to the trip than that, but i'm aiming to be economical with words here. Maybe once the videos come out heh...

One thing that i've recently began really liking to do is to go for long aimless walks/runs - in the old place especially, ecp would provide the perfect place for that. Now that i'm in town though, there's a real dearth of places to do that - there's one park nearby but it's small and hilly, and while though i've taken instead to walking around town (like walking to Borders/Suntec and back), ecp is a far better place to do so - i keep on inhaling vehicle exhaust when i walk around town, and running's real difficult since there are so many people about (and i hate crowds too) and there are also so many traffic lights. That sure is one big push factor towards staying on campus next sem...