Fading Into Oblivion He was going to be late. I impatiently looked at my watch and started surfing on my phone. When he arrived, I glanced up and took a long hard look at his face. The face of which every little detail had once been ingrained in my memory down to the stray facial hairs on his chin. The face that once made my heart ache. The face which had, over time, faded from memory from disuse. I mockingly admonished him for his tardiness, and after the initial awkwardness of not having met someone for a long time had faded, it settled into easy banter. The night ended and we said our goodbyes. Somewhere along the line there must have been empty promises to meet up again soon with neither intending to keep them. Today, it’s the turn of the one with the angelic voice. One might wonder why I occasionally feel the need to meet up with people of the past. It’s a simple concept really. To look to the future, I always have to look back at the past. Who Would Have Thunk? A bunch of us decided to go mambo and we all took a day off tomorrow because we thought we’d party till dawn and go for breakfast. Sibei dulan. Halfway through the mambo songs, all of a sudden the Christmas carol “White Christmas” came on. And if you know it, it’s a damn slow song. Everybody on the dancefloor fell into everybody else’s arms. Except poor FF of course. Amidst exclamations of what the f… ? when some Kermit song came on, we decided mambo wasn’t quite our cuppa and to head on out to supper at an ungodly hour of…. 12:30am. I had this major craving for chilli cockles and teochew porridge at Havelock, so here I am at home really satisfied with a belly full of cockles. I willingly admit that I no longer look young enough to mingle with the mambo crowd (damn you bouncer for not checking my IC and making me happy), nor do I have the energy to partayyyy all night long. Separation The wifey called me and awakened me from deep slumber at 7 something in the morning and asked me hey where’s the ATM at Terminal 2? And you know you’ve been travelling way too much when you sleepily mumble, go in past immigration, turn right, it’s next to the money changer. After which your fat cheek accidentally pressed on the mute button which left her going hellooooo? hellooooooo?. I then asked her for her hotel phone number so I could call her while she’s away. I think I have separation issues!! Alone I have realised there’s such a thing as the “singles syndrome” where someone has been single for a long period of time, and no longer knows how to let someone else into their lives. RN who’s been single for years, was telling me her new boy wanted to see her more than twice a week, and she wasn’t used to it, so she refused. Y was telling me her new boy has been single for 2 years and doesn’t know how to listen to her problems. Me? I’m inherently stubborn, refusing to change my life to accommodate anyone. Maybe I’m scared I’ll get used to you, and you’d take flight, leaving a big gaping hole in my life. Or maybe I’m just too selfish. I’m sure it’s in me somewhere to make someone else happy. I just lost that ability along the way. But give me time, and I just might find it again someday. The Plans That Never Were If there’s one thing you have to know about me, it’s that I cannot stand indecisiveness. The Boy had been suggesting we eat crabs on Monday night, and I was over the moon because I love crabs. Last minute, he decided wanted to go drinking instead, so I suggested pizza at Wala Wala. Then he said I could ask my friends along. So I invited a couple of people over. Then he asked me why I’d rather be with my friends. Then super last minute, he said he didn’t want to go drinking anymore. I DULAN. TB says: I’m like that. I change my mind. It’s called spontaneous. Effy says: That’s not called spontaneous!! That’s called irritating!! Make a decision and stick to it!! TB says: :( But if there’s another thing you have to know about me, I don’t stay angry for long. So we had a good time in the end, with neither crabs nor pizza. Talk about planning man. Pride Had a very tense Friday night. The ex irritated me, and I snapped at him which resulted in him walking out on our mahjong game to have a smoke break, followed by two hours of sullen silence between the two of us. We’ve always been at each other’s throats, but yet, at the end of the night, he broke the silence by gruffly saying I’ll send you home to which I replied no thanks I’m calling a cab. Pisceans may have a lot of pride, but Scorpios have way more. The Boy says I have so much pride I’d rather die in hell than admit I’m wrong or say I’m sorry. Not true. Some of the time anyway. :D Hmmmm How do you trust someone you’ve seen lie so flawlessly so many times without remorse or guilt? Now I’m just trying to decide - innocent until proven guilty, or guilty until proven innocent? I have a major problem trusting people, but you know what? Life is way too short to be speculating or to be perpetually insecure, and I’m just gonna take things as they come. I’ll just leave it as that. Happy weekend everybody. :) Beyonce - If I Were A Boy If I were a boy even just for a day I’d roll out of bed in the morning and throw on what I wanted and go Drink beer with the guys and chase after girls I’d kick it with who I wanted and I’d never get confronted for it cause they stick up for me If I were a boy I think I could understand How it feels to love a girl I swear I’d be a better man I’d listen to her Cause I know how it hurts When you lose the one you wanted Cause he’s taking you for granted And everything you had got destroyed If I were a boy I would turn off my phone Tell everyone it’s broken so they’d think that I was sleeping alone I’d put myself first and make the rules as I go Cause I know that she’ll be faithful, waiting for me to come home, to come home. If I were a boy I think I could understand How it feels to love a girl I swear I’d be a better man I’d listen to her Cause I know how it hurts When you lose the one you wanted Cause he’s taking you for granted And everything you had got destroyed It’s a little too late for you to come back Say it’s just a mistake, think i’d forgive you like that If you thought I would wait for you you thought wrong But you’re just a boy You don’t understand and you don’t understand, ohhhh How it feels to love a girl Someday you wish you were a better man You don’t listen to her You don’t care how it hurts Until you lose the one you wanted Cause you’re taking her for granted And everything you had got destroyed but you’re just a boy Clueless The ex called me last night to shout at me on the phone - apparently I forgot to do something I supposedly promised to do, but I cut him off because he doesn’t have the right to shout at me anymore. Plus in my beer haze, I didn’t even remember whether I had promised whatever I supposedly did. But then again, I’m apparently quite the clueless prick at times - maybe that’s why I’ve been single for so long. Had a conversation with someone recently which just gobsmacked me. Effy ? says: there are tonnes of other nice places u prolly haven’t been to Effy ? says: one rochester is really nice and romantic :) I thought I was being sweet by suggesting nice places to go to. It’s also called “taking the initiative” which is supposedly lacking in some women. But instead, I got accused of being condescending which rendered me speechless. Followed by: *** says: so then just ask me to go. dun have to say im stupid or whatever.. Effy ? says: i never say u’re stupid at all Effy ? says: ? Effy ? says: don’t u think u’re overreacting? What’s wrong with me? Why can’t men love me for who I am? :( I Have Embarrassing Friends A friend and I were on the train when he received a phone call about a parcel. The train was packed as it was peak hour. Me: What parcel is that? He (rather loudly): Porn. In high definition. Me: Erm…. are you trying to embarrass me? He: Do you want to borrow the porn? Me: *looked around nervously* *in a whisper* Yes. He: Do bra sizes come in A, AA or AAA? What’s the smallest? Me: You think what? Batteries ah?! He: What size is your bra? At this point, I took three steps to my right, looked at the ceiling and pretended I didn’t know him. The friends I have. Tsk. We Are Infectious Last week, L picked me up for mahjong, and he warned me in the car my friend is joining us today so please ah, you and Ting cannot bully him. I was perplexed. Why on earth would I bully a mahjong kaki? What do you mean? I asked him cautiously. Apparently, wifey and I are two scary chicks at the mahjong table. We flirt incessantly, we cuss like sailors, we make suggestive remarks… it’s not the game per se that we enjoy, but the company and the interaction between players. The mahjong game started. It only took a few minutes for one of us to screech chaocheebye! Similanjiao! Kaneenah! The newcomer’s eyes widened in shock. Then started the flirting and the suggestive remarks. It took him quite awhile to overcome the initial shock and shyness. Towards the end of the night, the newcomer was screeching chaocheebye! along with us. Even L, who was incredibly subdued the first time I met him, and whom I thought was sibei innocent, started screeching, Effy you’re a whoreeeeeeeeeeee!! cos whatever card people throw, I eat, and started making lewd jokes about my er tongs. By golly, wifey and I have this magical effect on even the most innocent of people. :D Reddot It’s innate in me to stick to what I know is good (like Hoegaarden - Hoe for hos :D), but I knew I had to try the green stuff when I saw it! It was quite good actually. After which, I had the lime wheat beer which was disgusting. A limey beer is so wrong in so many ways. Protected: Bb This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below: Password: I Am The Facebook Public Bicycle First, I was in a relationship with wifey. Then I dumped wifey to be in a relationship with PT. Then PT dumped me because his ex gf was making noise. Then Yv asked me to be in a complicated relationship with her. Then Yv dumped me because her mother thought she was a lesbian. And then I’m back with wifey now. I promised her that if she gave me another chance I would never ever leave her again. I have a feeling I’m going to be dumped again soon. Bo lang ai in real life. Bo lang ai in Facebook. Sigh. A Request I fell asleep wearing my contact lenses yesterday which left me with painful eyes today. The doctor gave me some eyedrops and told me no contact lenses for a week. Stupid coloured contact lenses which seem to have much less moisture content (or whatever is required for healthy eyes) than the normal ones. Given the fact that I am a vainpot, that means I will be stuck at home for one week because I refuse to wear my glasses out. I am already geeky enough as it is. So dammit, I guess it’s back to GH3 and Wii for me this week. And if you’re kind enough to read this and take pity on me, please come play mahjong with me or if you don’t mind getting your ass kicked in GH3, that would do just as well. Thank you. Wrong Spot God, the weekend was… weird… to say the least. If I could sum up my life in a genre, it would be a fucking comedy. Or maybe an adventure. Or a comedic adventure. Or an adventurous comedy. The things that happen to me…………….. UGH! But you know what? Thank you for not giving up on me. I don’t know how you put up with me. +++ I think I’m turning into an alcoholic. Tell me, are these the signs on a future alcoholic? 1) I get disappointed when we make plans to go out, but there isn’t drinking on the itinerary 2) I must always use up my duty free quota when I land in Singapore 3) My fridge is always stocked with at least 3 bottles of Hoegaarden and 3 bottles of hard liquor 4) It doesn’t feel right on a night out when I’m not feeling the beer buzz 5) I don’t feel sociable unless I’ve had a couple of beers Can anybody say beer gutttttttttttt? London Warwick Avenue. Abbey Road. Leicester Square. Empire Casino. La Clique. Bathtub man. The Woman in Black. Picadilly Circus. Oxford Street. Topshop. Dorothy Perkins. Regent Street. Beak Street. Hot spicy soup. Digress. Abercrombie & Fitch. Birthday cupcakes. Banana pancakes. Fish & chips. Chowki. Fish pie. +++ I realised I didn’t write about my birthday weekend in London. I steered clear of the more touristy areas because I did all that several years ago. I had a fever on one of the days I was there - and that was a nice sunny day wasted sleeping. And I can’t believe it snowed 2 days after I left! Angwee! Anyway, the trip was all about spending some time with my two chickies PP and GP who really are the best. I’ll be back soon. :) Lessons To Be Learnt I was in a nine hour layover in Munich and since I didn’t want to lug the lappie around, I dumped it into my luggage and checked it in. Upon arrival in Singapore, I found out that my luggage was missing. I went to make a report, and went home with my tail between my legs. At that point in time, I was so tired that I was oddly just upset over my 5kg of Haribo gummy bears and Milka chocolate. Kena cockteased when they called me to tell me they found a black bag resembling mine in Munich, but alas, it wasn’t mine. Today, they called and said they found another one in Singapore. Does it have a Garuda Indonesia fragile sticker on it? the guy asked me over the phone. YES YES YES!! IT’S MINE!! When they delivered it to my office, I got down on my knees and wrapped it in a giant hug. I would have started humping it, but judging from how my colleagues were gawking at my show of emotion over a piece of plastic, I refrained. Digressing a little, I always get this thrill of asking for a ‘fragile’ sticker at check in because it makes me feel… well… fragile. :D Anyway, two really important points to note: 1) I wasn’t very upset about losing the laptop per se because it would have been at partially covered by my travel insurance (which I don’t normally buy, but decided to last minute on a whim thank God!), but all my files and documents and work - I would have been devastated to have to start from scratch. 2) I have a back up of all my files, but the portable hard disk was (and no points for guessing) in my luggage Moral of the story? You can’t imagine how much peace of mind insurance gives, never put your backup together with your lappie, and always have a luggage tag with your mobile number on it. Dangerous You know you’ve been kissed good when you turn around to take a breather and promptly fall into a drain. Confused Having been in two different time zones (three if you count a daylight savings adjustment), I started to get very confused. My two handphones showed different time, as did my watch. A conversation PP and I had last night. We were VERY tired. And it was VERY late. Me - hey p, since there’s daylight savings do we lose or gain an hour? P - We gain. Me - does that mean I get to sleep an hour more or an hour less? P - Erm I think I need a piece of paper to figure this out. Me - Are we really that stupid? Haha. How come G knows this shit? P - Daylight savings starts at 2am… we’ll figure it out at 2am. Me - Does that mean that my 8am flight is now 7am or 9am? Since we’re now adjusting from GMT +1 to GMT. P - Erm I think we should wait till 2am to figure this one out. A few minutes later… P - hey, your flight is still at 8am! It’s just that you adjust your watch back one hour. Me - OH YA! We aren’t that stupid after all!! We gain an hour which means I can sleep an hour longer. Yay! To Prontip Happy birthday sis! If only I was back home and we could go get so drunk that Banana has to save us from the clutches of fat evil men on the dancefloor at Attica.  Lots of love from your best jie jie in the whole entire world Up Up and Away It’s been very grueling the past couple of days and I’m mentally exhausted. Went through countless assessments and interviews, and for once, I saw my weaknesses (and strengths) written down on paper. Such a wake up call but a fantastic learning experience. I have zero creativity apparently. But hey, I’m in engineering and I’m studying accounting. What do you expect? I’m officially on holiday, so I ask of you, if you’re going to call or msg me, please do it on my private number and not my work number. Toodles! Gesundheit Today, we had a task. We had to run around Munich and photograph people or things which were either similar or different to our own culture. My colleague must think I’m so suaku. We were walking through a park when I stopped short. Oh my god.. are those…? No way, … are those…. where are their clothes?!!! Holy crap. *snap snap snap* So that was the photo which differentiated Singapore from Munich for me - naked people sunbathing in the park. :) +++ Have been so busy I haven’t even stepped into a shop other than a grocery store. :( The Virgin Attempt My limbs are a quivering mass after an intensive go-karting session yesterday. It was really fun. We had a practice round, a qualifying round and the actual race, and we ended up doing something like 30 laps each. We were even made to wear racing suits, helmets and gloves, and there were marshalls along the race track. I had my fun drifting at the sharp corners and turns, but apparently, drifting is a sign you’re not go-karting properly. Ack. So I reckon go-karting is not going to my next career switch. Hats off to the F1 drivers because I don’t know how they do it really. You need to be super fit and maintain massive focus. All I kept thinking was I really need to pee. To BB Happy birthday. xoxo Dreary Weather Cold and wet here in the suburbs of Southern Germany. A nice warm body to cuddle would be nice right about now. Uh-huh. Geeky I went to check my eyes yesterday. Haven’t checked them for about 2 years or so because the degree has been stable at around +400 for the last ten years. All of a sudden it shot up to 500 and 450. Argh. Now both eyes are of different degrees, so wearing contact lenses will be a bitch because I’ll have to be more aware of which side goes into which side of the case. I think it’s all the stupid video games I’ve been playing. The only consolation is that I’m not anywhere near being long sighted yet. Weekend Recap ++ Vagina Monologues - got a little bored hearing about pussy after one hour. Two young boys beside me couldn’t stop sniggering, guffawing and laughing like donkeys at every line. I think they were virgins. Virgins are the new paikia. Didja know that? ++ I’m getting old. I slept through 80% of Rocknrolla. Hope I didn’t snore. ++ Buffets are a waste on me, because I get full really fast. When Prontip is paying, it gets really funny because she shoots disapproving looks when you put your fork down, so I just hold my fork and play with my food once I’m full. ++ I love enoki mushrooms. Protected: For You This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below: Password: Gavin Rossdale - Love Remains The Same A thousand times I’ve seen you standing Gravity like a lunar landing You make me want to run till I find you I shut the world away from here I drift to you, you’re all I hear As everything we know fades to black Half the time the world is ending Truth is I am done pretending I never thought that I Had anymore to give You’re pushing me so far Here I am without you Drink to all that we have lost Mistakes we have made Everything will change But love remains the same I find a place where we escape Take you with me for the space The city buzz sounds just like a fridge I walk the streets through seven bars I have to find just where you are The faces seem to blur They’re all the same Half the time the world is ending Truth is I am done pretending I never thought that I Had anymore to give You’re pushing me so far Here I am without you Drink to all that we have lost Mistakes we have made Everything will change But love remains the same So much more to say So much to be done Don’t you trick me out We shall overcome It’s all left still to play We - should have the sun Could have been inside Instead we’re over here Half the time the world is ending Truth is I am done pretending Too much time too long defending You and I are done pretending I never thought that I Had anymore to give You’re pushing me so far Here I am without you Drink to all that we have lost Mistakes we have made Everything will change Everything will change I, oh I, I wish this could last forever I, oh I, As if we could last forever Love remains the same Love remains the same