Conversations of a Convent Girl and a China Girl

Shades of Pink and I decided to go blading this evening before meeting BFC for dinner.

This is the kind of conversation that takes place between a convent girl (BFC) and a china girl (the waitress)....

BFC: We'll have the chicken curry, and...

Waitress: Qing de? (green one?)

BFC: No. Red.

Waitress: Curry qing de? (green curry)

BFC: Red. Red. (nudges me and goes, "eh red how to say?")

Purples: Hong. Hong de curry.



We decided to have dessert and BFC beckoned to the waitress to ask for the dessert of the day.

BFC: Xiao jie, jing tian de tian pin shi shen me? (What's the dessert of the day?)

Waitress: Yu ni.

BFC looks at Shade of Pink and I and we go, : ORH NI.

BFC: Oh. ok.

And so we had orh ni for dessert.

I'm just wondering what BFC thought "yu ni" was. Some kind of Indonesian cake?

Oh ya! Thanks for the present babes.

Happy Commercialised Love Day

So today must be the most lucrative, money-making day for chocolatiers and florists, just to name a few.

February 14th used to be a rather big and exciting thing when I was, what, 16? 17? 18?

Today, it passed just like any other day. Any normal working day.

Then I stepped out of the office, and was greeted by the 16, 17, 18-year olds - their hands filled with overpriced roses, chocolates, balloons and stuffed toys, and their hearts and minds filled (psychologically, I believe) with more love than Feb 13 or tomorrow. Hmm. Was it just me? Or does this cynicism come with age? I checked with my friends whose ages fall within the same decade of mine. What's normal from this age group of people is "Why waste money on flowers?" or "Why waste money on a lavish dinner?" or "It's just commercialisation la". Phew! So I'm quite normal.

In any case, I called back the office and asked my colleague, Ah Muay, if anyone had sent me flowers. "Huh? Not yet. You wait long long la" she said.

Then in the late afternoon, my other colleague, Amoy called to say that I had received a love letter from a secret admirer.

"Quick come back and see la. See who sent it." Amoy said.

"You must be the one la! You and Ah Muay. After I call to ask about the flowers right?" I replied.

So anyway, here's my Valentine's Day love letter that was waiting for me at the office....

Compliments of Ah Muay and Amoy.

Liking What You Do

I recently received updates via email from TLG over in UK. Updates which included matters of the heart and his career. With respect to the latter, he mentioned taking a course in acupuncture, having been quite into orthopaedic ops, and having done or helped in 1 external fixator and 1 plating of broken legs, whatever that is. In case you're wondering, TLG's a vet. And more importantly, he's enjoying it.

How many of us can actually proclaim to like our jobs, enjoy what we're doing, and look forward to going to work every single day?

My guess is that, to most of us, the job is simply a means of making a living.

But I'm sure many of us have a dream job, or rather something that we know or think we'd enjoy doing. Like setting up a bakery, teaching, painting, acting, dog-walking, baby-sitting, and the list goes on. One of the factors that holds us back from actually taking that step and pursuing it is its feasibility in terms of the financial returns. That thing that we (think) we might enjoy doing somehow will not pay as much.

I was discussing this with a friend and his reply (via sms) went like this: U get paid to get more shit, fact of life. U have to decide. My take is there's always shit everywhere so might as well go for more $ cos once u get used to the shit, it's not so bad or much. :)

Very practical. The typical 'there's-always-a-trade-off' theory.

Of course, there will be the handful who decide to just 'heck-the-money-and-do-what-i-like'. Kudos to you. For me, for now at least, I'll start trying to get used to the shit. As the chinese saying goes, "Xi guan chen zi ran" (Once you get used to it, it becomes a norm).

Or maybe what I think I might enjoy doing may not be that enjoyable once I eventually embark on it. Like how they say the grass is always greener on the other side.

The Dogs and the Rat

So this is how my dogs play with my new pet.

Honestly, I think they're just waiting to pounce on her.

The Big Shoe Clean up

Under the mother's constant bugging to discard the old shoes and clear the shoe cupboard, I finally got down to doing it over the weekend.

Here's what part of my shoe collection (the bulk of them that fits into the rack) looks like now, after I threw out more than 10 pairs of shoes.

It looks like a lot, but it really isn't actually. I still have problems finding a pair of shoe to wear every time I go out.

Now I need to work on the wardrobe.

Merry Christmas!

This greeting is 2 days late, but I only just managed to get these shots today, so.

Merry Christmas from Barkley...

and Jamie!

So cute hor? I realise Jamie looks like a reindeer.

And I think Barkley really hated having the band on.... check out his sian face...

Anyways, hope everyone had a swell Christmas!

Losing My Wisdom

The tooth, that is. Just one of the four of them.

It took me a while - 6 months to be exact, to decide that I would get it extracted. Despite the fact that Dr Lee, who happens to also be my secondary school chum, having assured me that it wasn't gonna hurt at all during the extraction. "You don't even need surgery. Just a simple extraction." she said. "Alternatively, you can choose to patch it, but it'd be better to remove it cos it's starting to decay, plus it's hard to clean it as it's all the way back."

That was in June this year.

I finally decided that enough food had gotten stuck in the cavity, and paid her a visit last Saurday.

Purples: "Eh, you sure not pain ah?"

Dr Lee: "No la. Not during the procedure. At most there will be a dull irritating ache a day or two after."

Purples: "Aiyah. Maybe just patch it la. Or do a surgery, since it doesn't require surgery, means it will be easier right if I opt for surgery? You know what I mean?"

Dr Lee: "You siao ah. Do surgery for what? That one gotta cut bone, cut gum you know! That one sure painful"

Purples: "Ok ok. Extract la. How long will it take ah?"

Dr Lee: "15 to 20 minutes."

Purples: "huh? So long ah?"

Dr Lee: "You want your mother to come in and hold your leg? Some kids parents do that."

Purples: "Tsk. No la!"

So she started with the anaesthesia, and tested to see if it still hurt where she tested. And where necessary, she increased the dosage.

Dr Lee: "Ok, I start already ah. If pain you just raise your hand or you say 'ahhh' liddat ok?"

Purples: "Ok ok."

I sat facing her and could see her doing the extraction. In less than ten minutes, it was done! Totally painless! And the whole tooth came out in tact - root and all. Amazing.


You know how we used to study the tooth structure in biology? The enamel, dentine and what-not? And how they made us draw the tooth? It really looks like that lor. Only that in primary school, pulling a tooth comprised tying one end of a string to the tooth and the other end to a door. hahaa.

Thanks to Dr Lee, come Christmas, I'll be eating normally already.

Actually, I was already eating normally on the day itself. I had turtle soup for lunch and Macs (Fillet meal with SHAKER fries!!!) for dinner.