nothing and somethings

extra idle today because i am a sickiee. fine dining at dolce vita on friday left my taste buds tingling but my stomach rumbling. it turned into occassional bouts of gastric pains on saturday and sunday. i had ruled out gastritis since i had not missed a single meal, or even crumb, past few weeks, and had considered perhaps heart burn, stomach flu, stomach ulcers.. worms?

the doctor dumbed it down to gastritis and excess wind this morning, and dashed all my hopes of a big hoo haa full body check-up, x-rays, and whatever scans that exist in the world of medicine today. gave me 4 types of pills to choke on and a day off from work. woohoo i was delirious! but i ended up writhing in bed (or maybe just rolling about in my sleep) most of the day as the pains got worse and evolved itself into diarrhoea as well.

ok, im a wuss. its just gastric, no need for a press conference. anyhows, the reason for narrating my uninteresting, unexciting lack-of-a-story, was to say, that i have alot of time on my hands today and hence i'm writing another post!

inspired by the bucket list, the idea of it but not the movie since i have not watched it (especially with the increase in movie ticket prices!), i am of the thought that i should do more with my life than work, and sleep. of course, chances are i won't get down to doing even half of them, but making the list and checking it twice is half the battle won?

and so, here it is...

read the news, and literature
learn something, a language or a skill
pick up a sport, or some type of exercise
keep in touch with my friends
spend more time at home

okay, not much of a list, but work and sleep do take up alot of my time already so i think its pretty ambitious, what i've come up with.

grandma suffered a fall sometime last year and injured her spine, which put additional pressure on her knees. that made walking difficult and painful for her, so she did minimal of it. as a result of her inactivity, her legs started to swell due to water retention, which made movement even more challenging. we've been having to move her around the house on a wheelchair, and she doesnt do much all day except watch tv, most of which she doesn't really understand anyway. it just seems like she's just waiting for time to pass, and for the time to come.

she's eighty-something, and it is a fact of life that everyone has to pass on someday. but im just realising that that day is going to come sooner than i can expect it, or that i want it. and its scary.

i think im at a point in my life where im realising how i live, the decisions i make now, will affect what my life will be like in future. and im not ready to be responsible for myself.

mathematics

the dust has settled. things are back to normal, although i'm not quite sure what normal means. life seems to come at me in waves and tides; and at its peak i seem to be struggling for breath but during the lull i yearn to be running the adrenalin race again. one can never be satisfied.

but you know where the median, the perfect fit, is when at any point in time, that is the one and only place you find rest and solace in.

certainly though, the median is not the norm.

day one: atlanta

look who's up to no good


breakfast at ihop - two eggs, two pancakes, two sausages, two strips of bacon, all gone


creatures in the georgia aquarium

an unsolvable puzzle

i dreamt that my colleague was pregnant for twenty years and gave birth to a twenty-year old "baby". my question was, does a twenty-year old baby act like a baby or act like a twent-year old?

going down south

its approximately one thousand five hundred miles from atlanta to memphis down to birmingham and then further south to fort rucker.

along the way, we saw giant fish in the georgia aquarium, picnicked by little rock falls, made detour to rome, missed the unclaimed baggage centre, witnessed a mesmerizing sunset, travelled back 150 years in the a.schwab department store, ran away from rednecks, discovered tater tots in a trucker diner, slept in a victorian room with a bed full of fluffy pillows, fought a war at the civil rights institute, got snubbed at by a peanut depot, ruined (or worsened) the reputation of chinks at a quaint little town, got snubbed at by a flea market, tasted the best barbeque burger out of a wagon, and had a fantabulastic time. all in a matter of ten days.

for new year's eve dinner, we had enough food to feed 6 boys (or men, whichever), 2 girls, and plenty of leftovers. and we ushered in 2008 with a blast, literally, with 2 hours worth of explosives.

for the next few days, i mother-ed and maid-ed 3 pilots. i made breakfast (and burnt bagels), made lunch (and burnt ketchup), made dinner (and burnt the bottom of the pot), made horfun and char siew wanton mee and fried rice and red rubies and meat-patty-lookalike mint cookies and a huge mess. i drowned gummy bears in blue jello and cleaned the toilet and folded the laundry. and watched 3 whole days of america's next top model modelthon. i shopped at the factory outlet and i shopped at target and i shopped at walmart.

going down south was indeed an adventure =)

[pictures another time, blogger is being uncooperative today]

the party i did not go to

'twas the night of heroes, villians and victims. my evil twin sister poisoned me and caused me to go into a coma for the night. she took over and went for our annual dinner & dance in my place.

evidence of the damage she did:


the girls - evil discipline mistress, injured damsel in distress saved by the fireman, sexy nurse, hot jailbird, naughty student, kinky police woman, and my evil twin sister as the bikerchick prison warden



the boys - hunkydory fireman, mad doctor, sneaky burglar



partners in crime


the mad doctor attending to the mad patient


check out the tattoo.. how bad ass!

clearly, it wasn't me at the d&d. but based on the photos, im sure it was great fun.

platform 9 and 3/4

maybe im slow, but have you realised that they have re-recorded the announcements in the train stations? they now say "if you notice any suspicious persons or articles, please inform our staff or dial 999."

they've also changed the message "the train arriving at platform A terminates at yishun" to "the train arriving at platform A will terminate at yishun". when i first heard it, i thought, ooh they've been playing something that was grammatically incorrect for so long. but then i thought about it and i couldn't decide if either was wrong, or if one was "more correct" than the other.

and i thought about it further, and i realised that if you wanted to be really picky about it, both were incorrect because technically, it isnt the train but the train service that terminates. right? because if the train did indeed terminate, it would be very expensive to run the train service since they'd have to make new trains all the time.

but then again, it wouldn't really make sense to say "the train service that is approaching platform A will terminate at yishun", would it?

two big candles and two small ones

dang. i can no longer claim that im 21 and have people say to me "you're so young!" i wish i could stay young for forever and never grow up. unfortunately, time will continue to tick whether there are batteries in the clock or not.

so on the friday before the birthday, the bunch decided it would be fun to make me go on a scavenger hunt, on my own, while carrying a laptop and wearing three inch heels, all over town, while they happily took the train down to the final destination together and sat there munching on fries and cheese sticks while waiting for me to appear, if i ever did.

meiyan left me an envelope, which was only to be opened at 5:57pm.



following that, i received several other clues via sms that would eventually lead me to blu jazz at haji lane. grrr make me walk so much when i cld have taken the bus straight from the office.











and as much as i grumble now, i was secretly extremely pleasured by the torture i was put through *haha*. thank you alll for the *suspense*, the planning, the surprise and of course, the present. the vintage doctor leather bag i had been eyeing from my last shopping trip. yayeh!!


the next morning, i woke up and found a lovely little surprise waiting downstairs for me!

a gorgeous bouquet of roses


and a giant box filled with giant cupcakes that make you grin along with them!







as much as birthdays are crappy things since they serve as reminders that you're getting older, birthdays are happy things too because people shower you with lots of love (even if they are really just out to reemphasize that you are OLD)!

thank you all for the birthday wishes!

kitkat

i need a time out.


two more weeks and counting down.

one-der

i wonder

full of wonder

wonderful

a wonder




wonder.