I’m so traumatised. I was ordering lunch at Food Republic in Wisma Atria, and the bloke serving at the Hainanese chicken rice stall asked about my tattoos (the usual: are they stick-ons), then asked IF I CAME FROM CHINA. Oh. My. Fucking. God. That’s what happens when your spoken Mandarin Chinese improves by leaps and bounds? Aaaauuuuuuugggghhhhhh!!!
My cousin’s husband, Mark, plays in a band. They’re quite good. It was a nice night.
The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift, aka Makin’ Doughnuts. Although the last 30 seconds made it worthwhile. Ahem.
Why the case of Dr Chee Soon Juan and another must go to trial. My, my.
If my Chinese tutor from 1983 – 1994 (林老师) is somewhere out there, I would really love to get in touch, if just to tell her about how I’ve spent the last three years in China. Because she’ll probably laugh so hard at the improbability of that fact that she’ll fall over.
My cousins, sister, and I were such difficult students, I’m sure she remembers us — especially since neither of us showed any improvement in our Mandarin despite all that tuition (a lot about excelling in the learning of the language is attitude and a willingness to commit thousands of word combinations to memory, IMHO).
She’ll remember that one of the things we’d do was hide and lock the door in the ensuite bathroom halfway through our school holiday lessons (and eat Froot Loops — yes, while in the bathroom, although that could’ve been just me). She’ll remember that we lived in Bukit Timah, then Newton. She’ll remember my cousin moved to Edinburgh, but still had to pass Chinese for his ‘O’ level exams.
If you’re out there, all those lessons (finally) paid off. I am actually bilingual now, more than a decade after (just) scraping through my exams. You evidently did something very right, because a lot of it came back when I had no choice but to speak Mandarin. I can even switch between spoken English and Mandarin without missing a beat. I am much more aware of Chinese words and phrases and can’t help myself from practising translation when I read signs.
Heehee!
(This also goes out to my secondary school Chinese teacher, 吴老师.)
Sign the petition calling for an immediate ceasfire in Lebanon.
If you think my time in Singapore is all about food and eating, you’d be wrong. I also watch a lot of movies and (er) eat popcorn. And read. And eat crisps while I’m reading.
We really enjoyed The Silence of the Kittens. If you can get tickets, go watch it.
Click is incisive social commentary.
Just because it’s Adam Sandler doesn’t mean it has to be stupid, right? It was really funny, sometimes juvenile (oh, that fart), but it was clever. I look around me and I see people trying to use their own universal remote all the time.
Want to be skinny but not bother with bothersome things like exercise and a sensible diet, the slow but most effective way to achieve and maintain a healthy weight? No need to avoid your favourite foods, just take this pill and you can watch the pounds melt away! You can even sit and watch television all night and you’ll lose weight.
Want to be white as a sheet? Don’t worry about high factor sun screen, just use this peel-off face mask and you can spend all day in the sun and still look fair.
I think our societies today are so wrapped up in quick results, instant gratification, that no one thinks about consequences any more. You choose to do something, and there will be a reaction. You are responsible for your actions. Maybe we don’t want to face what stuffing our faces with junk food means for our bodies, so we get on the latest diet pill or fad diet, and the problem gets swept under the proverbial carpet. Maybe screwing someone over in business will get you a quick profit today, but what happens next year, when you really need a favour?
Click is about being responsible for your choices. It’s a funny movie, no doubt, but there is a message. One day, you will have to face the consequences of your actions. Will we realise too late, when we’re at the end and really wish we could be given a second chance, or will we all do our best to soldier through things we find unpleasant, because we really only live once?
Look at me, I’m a preacher. Hehe.