Lunch Time Anorexia

So today I was happily walking along Robinson St where there is a whole melange of food outlets ranging from lau pa sat across the street, to starbucks to subway to Hans to an Indian vegetarian restaurant, to uncle samy's claypot etcetera etcetera. So anyway I was looking for a place to sit down and read after having a very satisfying lunch at lau pa sat.

I walked past Pret A Manger and The Sandwich Shop and it was hilariously ridiculous.

First of all, these places sell sandwiches at exorbitant prices. A little packet of a sandwich, which is in essence, two pieces of bread with lots of stuff in between, costs a whopping $3.90. My my.. Like I could make those at home and sell them right next to those plastic packaged pathetic excuses for food. And then you get like a Bigger sandwich which is actually a malnourished baguette (looks very much like the many women dining at the outlet) and that costs $7.50. My eyeballs almost rolled out and away.

I continued walking around the store looking for something reasonable to eat while reading and I chanced upon a little cup of chocolate mousse. ALERT!! What is CHOCOLATE MOUSSE doing here?!?! Like hello! What are all them bone-assed women gonna do about them extra 2 pounds?! Just chow it away with chocolate mouse?? The insensitivity! Goodness.

Never mind. Besides being completely flabbergasted at finding CHOCOLATE MOUSSE on the rack, I almost did a freaking double flip over when I saw that it cost $5.50! Wow! Talk about value for money! Now you want me to become fat AND pay for it? Great you know, just great.

So moving on to the Sandwich Shop. Packed with caucasians and asians who think they're caucasians. They all look so darned happy munching on their $7.50 pieces of bread like there's no tomorrow and no Africa to feed. Another rotten price steeped joint. Tuh.

And the funniest past is, in both Pret a Manger and The Sandwich Shop, you can find a preponderance of slim, neat-wasisted ladies, working hard at their SALADS and savouring their soup lunches. (the soup comes in a styrofoam cup by the way. Very appetizing and environmentally friendly, not to mention filling!). And the women use knives and forks on their salads like they're eating steak. I bet it's a psychological thing. Like you have to physically make it appear to yourself that you're eating something more substantial than the grass on your plate to avoid feeling unsatisfied and hungry.

What an amusing day!

Arundhati Roy

Here is book review number 2.

So I finished Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things a while ago during the exams. But I shall write on it nonetheless since I have nothing very important to do.

I usually tend to avoid these Indian writers because most of the time, I feel they're playing up too much on the Orientalist notion - being the educated ethnic who can speak for the voice of the oppressed and underprivleged etcetera. I mean that kind of thing might be very appealing to ignorant Westerners who are horrified at idea of female subjugation and can never imagine, for the life of them, how women can Ever be treated as anything less than equal to men. But, coming from Asia and being very Asian, it's all nothing new to me - from the sweltering sun these writers so oft' describe as an unmerciful beating heat, to the colourful tapestry of cloths women in this region adorn, to the oppression of women and caste systems and the list threads on and on and on..- it all just doesn't enthrall me in the way it would a Westerner. Arundhati Roy sort of mimicks that notion quite a bit but at least she does it in subtle ways so it's not so glaring and obvious and annoying.

The first thing I noticed about Roy was her striking semblance in writing style to Salman Rushdie. And that, I don't quite like.

But what I did like about her book was her outright defiance of the caste system of India as played out through Ammu and Velutha (the untouchable). The two had a wretched affair in the steal of the night by the bushes. Haha. And she described the details of their affair so lasciviously and with such crude explicit detail (well it wouldn't be that crude except for the fact that he was an untouchable and she, of a higher caste), that it made it seem so passionately rebellious. She really made the reader indulge in the defiance, the social and political furore, the unconvention and the wrongness of it all, surreptitiously, as Velutha and Ammu relished one another in the dark. It was nice, secret, private and burning with all sorts of dissention all in one.

I was also very intrigued by the discovery of the details of the lives of the untouchables. She mentioned somewhere in the book that at a time where caste discrimination was so bad,the untouchables actually had to walk backwards with a broom to cover up their steps. I'm not sure if that's entirely true but my goodness! How interesting.

Lastly, what I thought gave the book a tinge of sad, melancholic air was the narration that took the form of the thoughts of the two fraternal twins, Esthappen and Rahel. They gave the book that child-like innocence and expressed the simplistic and yet highly emotive ways of children which served as a good form of communication with the reader. You often feel sad when you read of their experiences with an adult view and hear them lament within the purview of their small children minds. You can almost sense the deep trauma Estha experiences when he is molested by the Orangedrink Lemondrink man at the theatre. I liked it best when that trauma was not overtly described through adult eyes but was described through the unexplinable, inarticulate woes of a child who doesn't understand what's happening to him but can only feel a deep sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. Roy follows through very well with the idea of continuation in her characters because Estha continually remembers the Orangedrink Lemondrink man and constantly relates the same feeling in hsi stomach to that incident. He also tries as best as he can, to bury it so he no longer has to face up to it. Very reminiscent of real childish thoughts - still innocent, hopeful, optimistic and unknowing.

I really enjoyed this read. Go get your book!

On Beauty

Since I now have time abundant, I shall just pen down some of my thoughts on the books I've been reading. The first of which is, Zadie Smith's On Beauty.

It is by far, the most lovely book I have read (but I must qualify, I haven't really read that many books). I'm not really an active book critic and I don'texactly know what aspects of a book people usually look at. All this ignorance is sadly in spite of the fact that I took A level Lit and am supposedly, a more literary person. Just goes to show your education in school really counts for jack shit.

But I can only say that I really love the way Zadie Smith meticulously walks us through the intimacies of each character - their thoughts, their actions, their fears.. all so human! I especially enjoyed the way she deconstructed humanity through her words. She carefully layers thought and emotion and gives careful attention to every character until they seem so damn human, all with their failings and prides. She gives excellent insight into the projected and private images of her characters without being blatantly obvious. I like how she leaves your psychoanalyst mind to play it's tricks and infer into the foibles of every character. Her detailed poring into the minds of her characters may be mistaken for pedantic writing but I found all their musings wholly identifiable.

It made for a very good read. And I'm now moving on to Paul Coelho's The Alchemist. It seems pretty strange with the over simplicity of language and the stark child-likeness of the character portrayal. But I suppose it's supposed to be symbolic. I shall read on and see.

My list of books to read:
1) Paul Coelho's The Alchemist
2) Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita (this I read in London when I was 15 but reading it in a foreign country did make it a bit strange and odd some how. So I'm going to read it again)
3) The Time Traveler's Wife
4) Graham Greene's The Quiet American
5) John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath (I tried reading this when I was 16. But I was utterly bored. I think my mind just wasn't capable at the time. Hopefully I'll do better this time.)

Yay. Reading is my new hobby.

B-O-R-E-D

Siggh. This work is truly proving to be way too boring for my liking. I mean, I can't even read a book cos it'll look too idle. I have 106 transport companies to code call and ask if they want to Invest in Hong Kong. I finished calling all of them yesterday morning. And I've sent out e-mails to all of them providing further details. I can't possibly call them again now. It'll seem too pushy. So I have to wait till next week, give it time to breathe.

In the mean time, I finished sourcing for technology companies who might be potential HK investors. Now I have to call them. But there's only 40 plus of them. I can finish that in a day if I work fast and am focused. So that leaves me with practically nothing left to do!

And the worst part is, the msn here is like non-functional. So I'm missing out on precious time catching up with the rest of the world while I'm cooped up here in this sweatshop... Ok not really, since I'm not working that hard. But you know, long hours, low pay..works out to be the same.

So what I do to pass the time
1) Read everyone's blogs
2) Update my own blog with inane posts like this
3) Surf Facebook
4) Surf food websites and baking sites and collect the recipes for val to bake when she comes back
5) Search on food and restaurants and things to do in Vietnam for my holiday
6) Sneak out for lunch at 11.30 and come back at 2pm and hope no one notices.
7) Sneak into the pantry and read the papers from back to front for 45min-1hr and hope to God that when I come back it's 6pm and time to head out into the world of my freedom
8) Pretend to go to the toilet but take a walk downstairs to the convenience store and buy chocolate instead
9) Go to the toilet a lot more
10) Try and read my book under my desk and look heavily engrossed and entrenched in deep thought about technology companies and Invest HongKong. (:

Sighh... what a bore. Sheng came to meet me for lunch today. It was so fun cos I wasted so much time. We ate at the Hong Kong Cafe (one would've thought I'd had enough of Hong Kong after calling these companies day in, day out) then we walked down to mph and browsed through some books. I'm really into reading these days. It's such an excellent time passer (stimulates your mind and is portable and can be whipped out any time and passes time! what more can you ask for!) Then we went to the convenience store and got ourselves a whole tube of yakult and sat illegally outside one of the cafes and started drinking like two idiots. Then I trudged over to my office and dilly dallyed my way up.

BORING!

Please Stand Behind the Yellow Line

So today I finally asked a woman why all these clumps of people were standing so obediently behind the yellow line. So I said "Hi. Are you going to board the next train?". And she said, with a very perplexed and almost scared look on her face, "Er no. I'm waiting for the empty train." Then I say, "Oh, so all of you are just standing here waiting for an empty train?". And she says, "Er, yah..". Then I say, "Oh ok. Now I know. Thanks!".

So that's the answer to the great mystery of people standing behind the yellow line and not boarding the train! Hahaha. I mean I knew Singaporeans were retarded and kiasu (which is why I'm not angry at the fact that they are being such a bunch of eff-ing retards, standing behind the yellow line, all enamoured in kiasu fashion, to pounce at the first empty train that comes and consequently blocking everyone else's path), but I refused to believe they were as brainless as that - to stand behind the yellow line for no good reason. Haha. But now I know they have Some reason, at least.

On another note, Josh is working in the area too! Haha. Speaking of which, I didn't realize the number of people who were getting internships. Makes me feel like I'm missing out on something here. Hmm. There's a law firm, Wee, Ramayah, right next to my office, on the same floor. I should probably be working there instead of here. Gee wee, I just hope I get some good internships next yr then. If not, woe shall truly betide me.

Till next time!

Hello. Welcome to Shenton Way

So I've started working this week. Oh what a bore. I have to make millions of code calls everyday and say "Hello this is Thea calling from Invest Hong Kong. Would your company be interested in making direct investments into HK?" yada yada yada... But it's so brainless and they gave me 2 weeks to do it. But it's only been 2 days and I'm almost finishing. This is the first time in my life I'm fighting Against productivity.

BUT anyway, on my first day of work, I really felt like I was part of the driving force of the Singapore economy! Suddenly all the shit I used to read in econs and human geog was like, alive! Haha. I came out to lunch and looked out at the world of shenton way in wonderment. Everybody was hustling about and streaming out of all the different buildings - UIC, DBS, SGX, CPS etc etc, like little ants humming about. How exciting! And much to my delight, there are so many food places littered all around the CBD area! Wow.. everyday must walk to a different place for lunch.

And I think it's so novel that all the office buildings are within walking distance of each other. I always had this impression that the CBD was this big complicated mess, coupled with the fact that it costs so much to drive in and park in the area etc. But on foot, everything is literally a stone's throw away! How pleasant.

There's one thing that really amuses me though. Everyday at the train station, as I wait for the train, groups of people clump around the area of the platform where the mrt doors open, and just stand there, right behind the yellow line. So at first I thought, ok, all these people are gonna get on the train so I'll just wait. But No....when the train arrives, they just continue standing there and reading their papers like it's completely normal to do so! Hello! you're blocking my way thanks. And why the hell are you standing there when the train comes? What are you waiting for? Wth! I really don't understand. And even after I get on the train, and in that minute or so between the train doors closing and the train leaving, they just stand there and read or fan themselves like there's nothing wrong. And as the train pulls away, I see the ENTIRE PLATFORM is ridden with these clumps of people just standing behind the yellow line waiting to be raptured or something. It's so odd!

I'm going to ask all of them tomorrow what is wrong with them.

OK I need to call more transportation companies and ask them if they want to invest in Hong Kong now. BYE!

Happy Ma-dder Day

Happy Mother's Day Mom! I have the best mom on earth. My mom is the best because she does not gossip and does not speak like an ah soh or ah mah. I like my mom best cos she doesn't judge or participate in ill-speak about anyone at all and because she is always gracious in all her ways.

****

Holidays are so fun. I love the holidays. And I have three months of it to toy around with! What pure bliss. (:



Tahahaha!

Let's have some elitism for lunch, shall we?

You must be from NUS Law if

you are one of those considered atas enough to have your own campus in Bukit Timah.

you realise that your best friend in contracts is wikipedia.


"eh mambo 2nite" is your favourite phrase on wednesdays.

The drama in your life now rivals that of prisonbreak

You make frustration, mistake and nervous shock jokes about law school.

4 letter words like LAWR and Tort probably mean the same thing as a certain 4-letter F word.

You can name without hesitation at least three people who make you want to throw things when you see them raise their hands in class.

You know the difference between the determinism and intentionalism, positivism and naturalism, retributivism and utilitarism

You are truly and deeply unnerved by the thought of some of your classmates becoming judges (and you facing them)

You think that the C J Koh Library is the place to be seen.

You agree that there are many ways to skin the cat , just that you dun seem to skin it in the way they award A+.

Sometimes during disagreements you are tempted to s.300(c) your fellow learned brothers (and sisters)

You can’t remember if you decided to come to law school because you wanted to help people and make a difference in the world or because you hate yourself.

After the first semester you realized that “briefing a case” need only consist of looking it up on twee's muggers or mini hercules

You’ve seen your frens watching EPL or shopping online during legal theory classes.

When someone is expressing their frustration or anger about something that is in any way related to the law, you can’t be sympathetic because you’re too busy figuring out in your head if they have a cause of action.

You have secret fantasies about being Lord XXX of Bishan or Baroness XXXX of Heng Mui Keng.

You know that you should never pick a fight with someone smaller sized than you, hit him on his head with a mortar or wooden pole more than once or commit a robbery with 5 or more people.

You know who are the fungstons, gans, zhangs, yins (or is it nahs?) are.

You're pretty sure the reasonable prudent man is a friendless fool who still lives with his mother.

You think the standard of care is that of a reasonable person on a SBS Bus (preferably with aircon)

Last of all, you think that your grades are subjectively objective.

I got this off someone in law school, of course.
How true. But how indulgent. Especially considering the fact that people not from nus law know jack shit about "twee's muggers" or CJ Koh Law Library for that matter. How we looooveee xoxoxoxo to indulge in our little elitist bukit timah campus-up-on-the-hill lives. WTF. Furthermore, I don't know the difference between intentionalism and determinism or retributivism and utilitarianism.

On a slightly similar note, I have sucessfully (I hope) completed 1 year in law school. Yay for me. They say it's the hardest year in law school. Man if that be the case, bring it on. I expected it to be sheer hell. But it was quite the scrape of atmospheric cake in between heaven and hell. Or maybe that's just because my grades will suffer for my scrape of cake later. Haha. But it's ok.

*DISCLAIMER: IN ALL MY OUTLANDISH COMMENTS, I AM IN NO WAY VERBALLY ATTACKING OR PATRONIZING ANYONE IN PARTICULAR. MOST OF THE TIME, I SPEAK FOR MYSELF.* Thank you.

Pure

Don't you sometimes wish you were pure. It's interesting they say, the laws of the country should not require the impossible of the people. Yet the laws of God require the complete impossible for me.

Frequently Mispronounced Words

opportunity = a-Port-tunity (with emphasis on the "por"! part)

appeal = a pill

sick leave = seek live

take a seat = take a sit

cream cheese = crim chiz

divorce = DIE-vorce

pizza = pissa

milk = mirk (where the "r" is pronounced as a blend of "r" and "l")

sailing = siel-ing

atmosphere = at-moss-phere

protege = pro-teach

Crim Chiz is my absolute fave.

Fish Shit

Have you ever seen fish shit?

These days, my fish seem to be shitting a lot. Everytime I turn to look at their grotesque faces, some black strand is being excreted from their behinds. And it's weird how they're shitting All the Time! Or maybe they just coordinate their poop times to coincide with the turning of my head. But seeing that the memory of a goldfish is a pathetic 6 seconds, I doubt they'd have the power of coordination like that. Haha.

I tried looking for images on "fish and faeces" or "fish shit" or "fish excreting faeces" but all to no avail. Sigh. Guess I can't give you guys a visual image of my fish excreting their waste!

HAHA this is utterly, tragically gross.