watched Devour (very, very bad, but I know the person who played The Beast)
slouched around all day
had dinner at Oliva
had coffee at Javaromas
went to Wayne and Angela’s for the rugby (although the girls were delegated to the room at the back because I suppose we didn’t like the rugby or something)
went to The Londoner at 2.30am for food
ate duck porridge at 5am
slept in all day
had dinner at Little Chilli
watched Fantastic Four (not as bad as I’d anticipated, but not good, either)
I’ve been feeling strange lately, and am not quite sure how to express the strangeness of the strange feelings. It’s not physical, so it’s probably psychological and chances are I am going completely loony. So I’ve started a comic strip to see if I can fool my subconscious into spilling the dirt.
You know, sometimes I just want to have a nice dinner. And when it’s summertime, I want to have a nice dinner in a nicely air-conditioned room. Nothing’s more comfortable than sitting in a 20-something degree (that’s Celsius) climate-controlled environment, chowing down on sushi. Or pasta. Or a freshly-made sandwich. Or pork chops and beans. And a tasty, ice-cold ginger ale.
The air-conditioner blast keeps the ice from melting too quickly. I’m all about the wet elbows when I’m sitting at a table and having a drink outdoors. I’m not happy about it, but I’m all about it.
And so, that is how Neil and I commenced our Tuesday night dinner. All was good. Then my food finally arrived after Neil had practically finished his tapas and burritos (you know you’ve been in China long enough when a restaurant experience is considered good if all your food arrives, but not necessarily at the right time or in the right order), and I was proceeding to stuff my face — and then something clicked, and all the lights (and fans, and air-conditioners) went out.
Xiamen suffers from power shortages now and then, especially in the summer. It really sucks for the factory workers, because the managers attempt to lighten the load on the grid by switching all shifts to night shift. When you’ve gone to the shops for your groceries one night and you live on the 11th floor and the staircases have no emergency lighting, power cuts suck somewhat, too.
So I finished my dinner in a stifling hot, dark room. The waitresses brought candles. Damn candles with their heat. To ease my grouchiness, Neil and I went to shop for DVDs, my other favourite activity. Boy, did that cheer me up and dry the sweat.
Then on to the domicile, where we watched Robots, which was really good (corny humour is great in the right doses, eh). Neil then said, Let’s put End of Days on. I’m naturally quite sceptical of any Arnie movie, but he watched a cartoon with me, so okay then. We put the movie on. All was good — and then something clicked, and all the lights (and air-conditioner) went out.
All that to tell you that we sat through two unscheduled power cuts in two different locations in one evening and goddamn it, we’d better have reached our power cut quota this month.
If the PAP calls for elections this year, it will be yet another general election I probably will not need to vote in. I wonder how any other countries can boast a ‘parliamentary democracy’ with ‘general elections’, ‘worthy candidates’, and ‘compulsory voting’, but with such a ‘low turnout’ because most of us won’t actually ‘need to show up’.
It’s not every weekend one ends up at The Floater (heeheehee), with drinks at the Boracay Bar (it’s actually the Forest Bar, but those in the know say it reminds them of Boracay, and if it does, Boracay’s not that big a deal), ‘chips and gravy’ (potato, eggplant, and green peppers in gravy) at Revolution, and a massive pig out on dim sum that doesn’t leave room for dessert (the scandal!).
Then we had to run errands on Monday and I finally got a haircut I don’t hate the hairdresser for. But that’s because it’s an expensive hairdresser that spent good money copying Toni & Guy and their prices reflect it. I t was there that I found out that Wallpaper* is for men, and I’m supposed to entertain myself by reading British Vogue instead.
