19 May 2006




D woke up at 5/19/2006 10:32:00 PM [comment]

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I think the most thrilling thing about the cancelled performance was that they got Brian to do the publicity shots. So Brian places me in front of a blackboard on a high chair, looking towards the light. The show may have been cancelled, but at least there remain pictures:




D woke up at 5/19/2006 12:24:00 AM [comment]

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17 May 2006



So I went to the Tyresall House with Z. She brought along her secondary school friend, M, after hearing ghost stories from R.
This was two days before my brother's wedding.



I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Tiger Airways to surprise me with Bangkok deals!


D woke up at 5/17/2006 12:23:00 AM [comment]

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14 May 2006

Many issues were raised this afternoon while I had tea and I had to face the disappointing news that the show this Friday is a no go. It is not an Arts Funding cut but rather a 'informed business decision' made by the company. I was not only feeling sorry for the crew that the production was going to be cancelled, but also sorry for this whole commercial, money, art conflict that is truly the crux of this cancellation. I had a mild discourse with someone on the board and it had nothing to do with the production. I was simply irritated by the abuse of terms such as "self-delusion", "existentialism", "experimental theatre", and some other similar what-so-fucks. And people actually patronising him. It got me thinking about the local scene and how sad it would be if Alfian really stopped writing. It got me thinking about how much I loved Alfian and Ash and Jun Feng and Melbaby and Brian and David and Nick and Alex and Shou Chen and Sam and Ian.
The world could come crashing down like on 7 May. But we're still seated on the balcony at Ash's place, sipping coke, eating corn chips that have a "hint of lime", watching Apichatpong assemble his cast symmetrically beside a stream; the last scene blacking out almost imperceptibly.

***

After that I dragged my tired feet to an uplifting session at the KTV with my buddy. Singing is therapeutic for me. At least, for today. I revisited the songs I was supposed to sing on stage on Friday.
And I'm so awake now I'm reading Jean Paul Satre's essay.

I'm settled at home now. And I'm feeling grateful for everything and everyone around me.


D woke up at 5/14/2006 11:29:00 PM [comment]

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08 May 2006







I've never seen so many people crying at the same time.

I think I know why she cried. She knew the woes of being a wife. And she knew how hard it was going to be for her daughter. She didn't know if she could handle it. She knew her daughter had a temperament of a child. She was worried, and must still be worried in her bed right now, if she'd be a good wife; if my brother could handle her mood fluctuations. But she also knew that this girl has grown up to be a woman.
And in her, she saw herself.

I like my sister-in-law's mother for her honesty and simplicity.


D woke up at 5/08/2006 12:59:00 AM [comment]

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05 May 2006

I grabbed this from Ash:

"Coming up in a PSLE near you!!!

If Harry builds a flat for $X and sells it for $Y, what is X and Y if he needs $380 million to build a new Hub for his office in Toa Payoh?"

HAHAHAHA!


D woke up at 5/05/2006 02:05:00 PM [comment]

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I've been side-lining and sleeping at 4 or 5 in the morning. If not for a call from my boss which has caused my present insomnia, I wouldn't have been awake.
And since I'm not sane enough to type, I've collected pictures that are long overdue, and combined them into this. Dates are forgotten, though.
I have this bad feeling that the Bt Pasoh road pictures will be the last of its kind - where my platoon mates are pictured in full attendance. We will be going on our own separate ways soon.









SLEEPY!


D woke up at 5/05/2006 12:24:00 PM [comment]

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02 May 2006

Ugly City No. 1:




No Notices shall be posted at this Bus Shelter.
Anyone in breach shall be referred to the Police.
Land Tranport Authority


Yes, threaten somemore. Don't do this don't do that.
I threaten: DON'T VOTE YOU!


D woke up at 5/02/2006 10:49:00 PM [comment]

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It's so surreal now to hear vans that are campaigning for votes.
And the weather is a state that is neutral. Gray, washed out skies that remind me of Taipei where I was training last December and involved in the army.
The last I heard these vans, we were trekking on the mountains, doing topography. We were on the highway, and they shouted "Go! Army Boys!". Theirs were 'live' campaigning, whilst the Lightning Party that I heard a while ago uses pre-recorded messages.
It's surreal because it's the first time I heard the sounds of these vans in this place, my home. And it's surreal because it's the hottest period in Singapore but there is a breeze circling in my room. And it's Tuesday, 3 p.m. but I'm at home. The green camouflage uniforms tucked untidily away in the cupboards.
It's enchanting to know that the these people who have made me pay $10 per week for my transport, $60 each time I visit the doctor, $1.50 each time I pass any ERP gantry, 50 cents for every half an hour I park my car, 5 per cent for anything I buy at anytime, $100 for not abiding to speed limits, and putting humans in the bushes just to catch me commit that, and yet censor every movie I want to watch, ban every good film for commercial release, suspend every party that was to be, made chewing gum medicinal, abused the law to their own benefits, are actually begging me to vote for them.
I wished I had the power to vote, because I'd have a choice. I do.

Watch this.


D woke up at 5/02/2006 02:56:00 PM [comment]

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01 May 2006

I worked at my Aunt's shop today. The manager was telling me about poor sales in April, which she accredited to the traditional chinese festival of Qing Ming. It is a period where we, as chinese, visited the graves of our ancestors as an act of respect and rememberance. The younger generation would, hopefully, have an inkling of where they came from.

This Qing Ming, I visited my grandmother's grave. I saw election banners all over the place and thought she'd be so delighted if she were alive. Elections were the only period where she had entertainment she could understand. She spoke the Heng Hwa dialect, a language which I've lost over the years in Good English and Speak Mandarin campaigns. Being illiterate, she could only write her own name, and I remember her practising her own name (three squarish chinese characters) dutifully and with full concentration before the cooking gas man came to replace the gas tank. (She had to sign for it.)

And then there were people speaking in dialect while I was at the cashier at the shop. I thought they were 'loud' and 'uncouth', almost 'vulgar'. But as soon as the thought struck me, I was ashamed I harboured it in the first place. Why have I suddenly, this supposition that English or (Unified) Chinese was 'superior' and a sign of apparent 'higher' education? And even if it meant superiority or education, does it really mean anything?

I've been educated wrongly all this while. The schools have been teaching the wrong things. And even now so, when Chinese is introduced as Hanyu Pinyin. It's like us learning french or japanese - like a third language.

And I find it odd that my friend can speak in Japanese, French and (of course!) English. But not Mandarin to his mom, or Hokkien to his grandmother. From there, it's simply charades.


D woke up at 5/01/2006 11:38:00 PM [comment]

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