Tuesday, June 10, 2008

The Optimist calls me Prophet Pan

Eugene the (Mindless) Optimist sounded so depressed just now.. it was heart wrenching. He kept talking about the unfair nation, our bleak future and how he can take his revenge on those (I think he meant HDB) responsible for our plight.

We've been trying to ballot for a new flat since last year. And this time round, as 3rd-timers, he was so so so so sure we'd get a Commonwealth flat. I did warn him that with our lousy queue number (better than last time, but still lousy), we'd probably get nothing in the end again, and it'd be better if we didn't get our hopes too high. Aaah.. Pessimist Pan, he said and waved me off. He brought us to recce our future home and we even talked about what we could buy from Sheng Shiong, the ah pek supermarket, to prepare his favorite ah pek dinner. It's bad, developing feelings for something which you're not sure if it's really going to be yours for long... like a new boyfriend, or a pet fish. We sank too deep.

We have the dream, like all the not-so-rich-but-geh-kiang-wan-to-be-married couples have, the dream of a nice little place of our own, just right smack beside the MRT station- so we don't have to get a car so soon, hence also doing our part to save the earth by preserving its depleting fossil fuels and not contributing to global warming (>_<). Commonwealth was the perfect place to realise this dream.

Then when I told him just now that a friend of mine, a 1st timer, managed to get the flat, he was so upset.

"This just means we're destined for elsewhere better," I told him.

"Where, Prophet Pan?"

"Which ever place we're getting next time. "

"When is next time?"

"When we are richer and have the money for a resale flat... condo... or landed... heh..."

"Ok. So that's when we're... 35? Good. We'll have the money to buy that. But will we have the money to buy the time we would've lost?"


Unfortunately, Prophet Pan doesn't have an answer....

What happened to my Optimist???? :(




Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Read. It can change your life.

wow it's kinda dusty in here *coughs*

Starry was complaining that there's nothing new for her to read in my blog anymore..

Well speaking of reading...


I was telling Anthony the other day, while I was eating his raisins, that they always remind me of one of Roald Dahl's stories, and he said


Wow I didn't know you read!

Grrrrrrrrrr.......

LAO NIANG READS K!



On the first day of school, when I was in Primary 1, all we needed to do for English class was to COLOUR Nimmy the Alien and his spaceship. (teachers take note: always conduct quality lessons k)

Wow. That was Difficult. -_- And I wasn't prepared as I didnt have any colouring material.

This girl beside me, who has been boasting to everyone that her mom teaches in the same school (so we should worship her cos she's special), took out a glorious set of colour pencils, 36 colours in all, still unused and looking very fine in their box.



I asked meekly to share her pencils, and she gave me an extremely poisonous stare!



Well what was I thinking? I was looking very plain sitting beside the Princess, with her stupid long hair tied in stupid pink ribbons, and her stupid pink My Little Pony bag. My hair was plaited with simple black rubber bands and my bag was a squarish dark blue canvas one. Obviously I wasn't good enough to share her pencils, and much less be her friend.




She handed me a GOLD colour pencil, and quickly shifted the box to her side of the table such that it was out of my reach, and started to colour. It was like:

Hey, you got your pencil. Now use it and quit bothering me.

I had to colour the entire picture in 1 colour. Nimmy, his spaceship, the grass they were standing on, the tree, the sky and the sun. And when we handed up our work, our teacher frowned at my picture and I could've sworn I almost heard a sigh, which meant

Oh wow. Another one of those retarded kids in my class this year.


Then, during recess, a classmate's mom approached our table and said to Little Miss High and Mighty, Oh wow, your mom's a teacher? You must be really smart.


She proceeded to take out a book and asked, "Can you read this?" she asked, pointing at a random word in a book.


"Eh....eh.....eh........" was the retarded reply.


I decided to kaypoh, and without missing a beat, announced,


"Cucumber"


Suddenly I was the centre of attention. And the 'teacher's daughter' was nudged out of the conversation, and later I heard that she actually ran out crying and without looking fell into a ditch and messed up her hair and was too ashamed to climb out and so lived there forever.


No. Actually, she switched schools during the 2nd week or something. Probably couldn't take the intensity of Primary 1 and went back to nursery to play with pink toys.






That incident changed my life. And hers.


Anyway, I'm proud to announce that I went to the library yesterday, after 1 year!!

When I stepped in, I felt strangely happy and at peace. That happy feeling didn't last very long cos it became too cold, and I was already wearing a cardigan! And they were complaining about shopping malls wasting energy. They should check out Marine Parade Library!



And there were adolescents sitting around in some Starbucks-wannabe cafe and reading/doing homework and chatting and looking cool while trying to keep warm by sipping 6-dollar mochas. Duh. What happened to the good old library with just books and tables and chairs and quiet people who read?


Anyway, since it was too cold to stay and browse, I picked up 6 books, 5 of which were recommended by the library, and 1 was about wedding photography.

Maybe I'll talk about the books in my next post!

(do i hear some snoring already?)