Serendipity

I woke up this morning to see my Mum lying on the sofa, when I remembered she was supposed to go for work today. My mum had a sprained back, and while she was wearing her shoes, the pain was so excruciating that she just couldn’t move properly.

I was contemplating to take urgent leave and accompany her to see the doctor, but I was apprehensive, because it might not get approved, since my leave has to be applied for, a week in advance.

But there should be exceptions, in cases of urgent leaves like this. Hence, upon the request voiced out by the poor mummy, I made a call to one of the managers. She gave me the go-ahead, and asked whether I’ll be back for the later half of the day.

Didn’t make it back, because the wait at the polyclinic was atrociously long, that I practically yawn every 15 seconds. I wouldn’t be this tired if I were in the office! Guess a person gets more lethargic when the brain is not functioning, and you don’t get to sleep. Haha.

We got a number, and there were 50 more people to go before our turn to register. It was around half an hour’s wait at the registration counter. Poor Mum had to alternate between sitting at the edge of the hard, green chair, and with her back lay against the chair’s back.

Waited for an hour plus for consultation, and witnessed quite a number of babies and elderly people parading to and fro. Kept myself entertained via my beloved radio.

The consultation room we were waiting for, was room 26, just 2 rooms away from the Children’s Immunisation room, which explained the many bundles of joy being carried to and fro. There was one China Chinese toddler whose father allowed him to walk [un-steadily] on the ground on the corridor. While it was their turn, the boy walked in front, and the dad followed closely behind, then opened the door to the consultation room, and called out for the blur son that he had walked too far! So cute!

It was finally our turn, and the doctor seemed kind of unkempt. He was trying hard to make a call, but was having problems with it. He kept himself busy with his stuffs while my Mum was listing her ailments to him. Then I heard him uttered "shit" for like, 5 times? It wasn’t consecutively, of course. But I don’t think it reflects well of a doctor, in my honest opinion.

The worst was when he said, "your sister?" when I followed my mum into the consultation room. Rolling my eyeball and showing dismay, I remained silent. My mum clarified, and so I was back to my young self once again. Should I count myself lucky that he didn’t show an exaggerated face of disbelief? Haha…

Then we moved on to the x-ray laboratory, which we waited for half an hour. The results will only be available 2 weeks later, so in the meanwhile, my Mum has to rely on painkillers prescribed by the doctor. There, my mum actually chatted with an elderly guy and a well-dressed lady in her late fifties.

The guy was complaining that he had waited for 1.5 hours and he basically didn’t know what they were doing. It was indeed puzzling, because it was a relatively shorter wait for my Mum and I.

When my mother went in for the x-ray, the lady spoke to me, asking me, "ta shi ni mei mei [Is she your younger sister]?" I was distraught, I was shocked, perturbed, and annoyed. Do I look like I’m 50?!?! I don’t even look half of 50!! Okay, maybe I look 25, and I can accept being thought as my mum’s YOUNGER sister, since she looks quite young. BUT it was the first time I was thought to be older than my mum!!!! There’s something I need to seriously do to my appearance. -.-"

Let’s give her [the lady] the benefit of the doubt. She was rather unsure whether she said younger or older sister. Simply put, the way she asked, made me somehow think that she meant to ask whether I was the younger sister instead. Don’t ask me how I know. I just do. Grr.

Indignant, I told her I am her daughter, and my, she was appalled. The look on her face was priceless, but it’s not like the first time I encountered such thing. "Yadaa yadaa, wah she looks so young, got such a big daughter!?"

I gave a plastic smile. She asked for my age, and was even more exaggerated when she calculated my mum’s age. "She’s already 40 plus? Don’t look like leh!"

I’m used to it. -.-" Having a young looking mum demoralises you, because you will tend to think you look old instead. =/

Before we bade farewell, and got on to the next stop at the pharmacy, she complimented my mum for her young looks. Actually the lady looked younger than her age herself, at 60, she looked in her late fifties.

"Wah, you so young, got such a big daughter. Quite pretty leh." Mum and I decided that the lady meant that for me. =P

"You are (pretty) what. Just that not many people know how to notice."

Should I be consoled, or be annoyed? Haha…

*****

Was watching Superstar’s results earlier, and was a tad disappointed that Kelly and Derrick didn’t get in! They did quite well, with Kelly getting the highest marks, and Derrick getting the second highest points!

It really doesn’t matter whether the judges adore them or not. Theoretically speaking, if you have the most fans and friends to vote for you in the competition, it doesn’t matter if the judges only give you a passing mark.

It has become more of a popularity contest rather than singing contest.

Prudential does best in trying to lure "respondents" who are caught off-guard (who merely want to relieve the poor "surveyors" of their chore)! No offence to any particular employee of Prudential though.

My bad, why did I even link them?

Anyhow, I was coming home today, and I had the complete speech of what to say if someone ever approach me. I was actually hoping for one of the Prudential people to approach me, so I would know whether my method would work.

I mean, who wouldn’t realise that their "surveys" are just their tool, to lure unsuspecting and helpful people?

I encountered rows of Prudential people for the past 2 days, hoping to be approached, but none actually did. Is that the first way to "shun" them? Regina, please start to HOPE that they will approach you, and they won’t! =P

This is akin to the theory of there being uncountable cabs on the roads when you don’t need them, and none when you really do.

Anyhow, I was approached today [finally!] by a young girl who looked the age of 18? But from my knowledge of financial advisors, they have to be of the legal age, i.e. 21 and above.

Before this young-looking girl approached me, I was looking out at their lanyards, as to whether they were really from Prudential. I didn’t want to make a fool out of myself by identifying the wrong organisation. Anyway, only Prudential people are smart enough to use surveys as a form of getting new leads, without the initial approval of the "respondents".

You have to do it the exact way. Be polite, and smile all the time. I think I was looking in the direction of this young lass, and when she approached, I gave her a plastic smile, and she shoved me her little piece of survey form, signally that she wanted my inputs.

Listening to my radio, I couldn’t really hear what she was saying [pardon my rudeness, my lady], but I smiled again, swivelled my index finger in a slanted clockwise version, and said, "Hey! I know! You’re from Prudential right!?"

Must say that in a rather excited tone. The tone [and action] is similar to that of unexpectedly meeting your long-lost friend.

She was puzzled, and she nodded her head, and uttered a faint "yah, I just wanted to…", while showing me her little piece of survey form.

Putting on my plastic smile again, I told her, "Nah, it’s ok! I have a lot of friends who are in this line." I smiled again, and waved goodbye. She was speecheless!! Yay! I got rid of Prudential people!

They are the most persistent of all financial agencies, and sometimes I don’t really appreciate being approached thrice by the same person, albeit on different days.

I shall use this method if I ever get approached again, but it is indeed true, I do have 5 to 6 friends who are in that line, and particularly a guy friend is rather good at it, since he had been doing financial planning for 6 years running. And most of his new leads are referrals. And another close friend, Jenny, also doing it. And since I do not need policies as of this moment, I think repeated approaches are redundant, since I would be thoroughly apprehensive!

The paramount reason why I would reject them, even if it means just having a small discussion, is due to the financial aspect. I’m open to discussions, but I’m someone who’s easily swayed, and I’ll think a lot about how I should go about having medical plans, saving plans etc. But all this cannot be fulfilled without monetary backing. So it’s not up to me to decide. Once I get settled down in a permanent job, I’ll start sourcing for plans.

For now, I’m not even sure if I’ll follow through, to the following month. Or whether I’ll take up a part-time degree or whatsoever. Sigh, the "perks" of being an adult, is you would get to make major decisions without your parents telling you exactly what to do. =/

*****

On a totally unrelated note altogether, I witnessed the aftermath of a murder near Raffles City on Tuesday morning.

I reckon my phone camera takes long shots pretty nicely. Better than close-ups! Anyway that’s not the point, see the marquee over there? That’s where the crime scene is [in the mid-ground of the photo].

I was kidding. Apologies to all those who took me for real. =P Then again, I guess most of you do know that it was IOC meeting this week, hence the saga? And London won. Darn. Not that I didn’t like London, but I loveeeeeeee Paris! So I’m the typical girl who digs the romance of Paris. Bah.

Anyhow, Dad gave me a factual insight towards why they wanted to choose the new Olympics venue for 2012 when it’s like a light year away [oops, light year measures distance, not time. But do you actually know light years don't measure time?!]? Oops, I exaggerated.

I rest my case, I don’t have any common sense! Double duh! You need that amount of time to plan properly and building a massive stadium. These need time and resources! All these, while I kept thinking, that Beijing 2008 Olympics, had already happened last year. I didn’t realise my blunder, that it was only 2005 this year. -.-"

Slaps forehead. Duh.

I remember how a lecturer told me, that if you correctly predict the venue for the Olympic games, do get the domain name registered, and then sell it to the organisers! Like for example, if you had guessed London would be the hosting country for 2012 Olympic games, you would register www.London2012.com.

But too late, it has already been registered, either by the domain registrar itself, or by some smart ass. Darn. I can’t remember what was 2004’s hosting country, but check out Beijing 2008.

I cannot believe it’s all in Chinese! Oh, my bad, you can choose for an English or French view.

So you see, it’s all in that pattern. Like if you predict Singapore [like real] to be the hosting company for 2016, please go ahead and register www.Singapore2016.com. Though I highly suspect it has been taken up already. Heh.

*****

Seems like my blog entries cannot do without food, like how humans eat to live, so here are some food images. =P I told you my phone camera cannot take close-ups! =D

$3.80 for a bowl of thick beehoon drenched in hot soup! This can be found at Suntec City’s foodcourt! Can’t remember the name of the stall though. It’s not that fantastic, but there’s a long queue at the stall. Hehe. It’s quite nice if you’re looking for something light.

*****

For lunch today, I joined my colleagues together with the new hire. She’s of a petite frame, and she’s pretty young too. We went to Waraku, a Japanese restaurant at Marina Square, and lunch costs only $10 for each of us.

It was cheaper, according to the rest of them who had been there before, but for a setting like that, it was considered quite affordable. But dinner prices are a different thing altogether. Instead of the traditional kneeling at the dining table, there was a lowered platform for us to slot our legs into. But it was my first time dining at a Japanese restaurant in its traditional setting [it was a mixture of modern contemporary and traditional decor]. Heh.

I ordered the Udon and Yakitori Don set. Pardon me if I name them wrongly, because I could hardly remember Japanese names. Fried chicken rice say fried chicken rice lah! =P

*****

On the way home one evening [definitely not today since I stood on the train all the way], I saw a bunch of guys in their funny sleeping postures. There were a total of 5 sleepyheads, but I’ve only managed to catch 4.

I wonder if anyone would be so "bo liao" as me, as to take photos of sleepyheads. I wonder if my bad sleeping posture was ever caught on digital!? Duh!

I was talking to Gina this late afternoon and then suddenly a topic about "guys I’d never date" struck me.

They are not in order of preference [or non-preference in this case], so I’ll just list them. No names shall be mentioned. =)

1) Mr Naggy:
Though he’s the type who shows care and concern, he would never be someone I’d date because of the age gap, the frequency and such. He may be a smart guy [in techy stuff], but his inmaturity in love allows him to be manipulated easily. Not someone to seek advice from. He’ll prolly ask you to do the things he deem are morally and ethically right.

2) Mr Count-The-Calories:
This guy is more female than a female. Eating healthy is a good thing, and you could seek good advice in terms of nutrition by speaking with him. But if at every meal he’d say, "aiyoh, that’s very unhealthy" and then blabber on to say what you should eat, it keeps you wondering whether you can finish the meal in peace. After the meal, he would keep yakking on and on about carbohydrates, etc. Maybe you can convert this guy into a personal nutritionist, and you would be sure all things you eat, are going to be healthy.

3) Mr No-Mind-Of-His-Own:
He asks others what they wear, so that he could wear something similar, and won’t look out of place. I can understand the need for opinions if we are going to a party with a specific theme, or some special function. But if it’s just a normal outing, or a normal dress-down Friday, frankly, I don’t see why! Plus, those guys who follow suit till the nitty-gritty details, ought to be shot. Girls who don’t have a mind of their own is bad enough, it’s definitely worse off for guys!

4) Mr Perfectionist:
I would never date a Virgo if he shows traits of absolute perfectionism. This is the type of guys who would not allow their kids, or gf to touch the buttons on the lifts because they [buttons, not the kids or gf] are filled with germs. He is the type of guys who would exchange a plate of char siew rice with the hawker because they are not cut, to his liking, in thin slices. He is the type who wants everything to be done according to his preferences, but doesn’t do it himself. Can you imagine how your life would be, if you’re not perfect in his eyes?

5) Mr Question:
A guy who asks a lot of questions. If he’s genuinely interested to know about you, those questions are good to let him understand you further. But not when he asks about every single thing! I had a screen name on MSN which said I was broke, and I was asked "Why is your nick like that?" It may be his way of showing concern, but when I replied, "Isn’t it obvious? Cause I’m broke lor, spending a lot of money", he would keep asking why. Why do you have to ask so many questions, Mr Question?

Mr Question also keep probing when exactly I would change a job [during my previous job at CPF Board]. On the surface, he seems to be an intellectual chatter, but when you look beyond, it gets terribly frustrating. "Why you want to change job?" "I’m not happy in my job lor," I quipped.
"Why is that? So what do you want to change to?" "Are you going to do anything about it?" "Why is that so?" His favourite question, is "Why is that so?"

The next time he asks me that favourite question again, I shall answer him, "Because you’re driving me nuts!" Haha…

6) Mr Act-Cute:
Like I’ve said in one of my earlier posts about act cute guys, they just put me off.

*****

This list is not exhaustive, I’ll add more to this list if I encounter guys whom I’ll never date. It was never my intention to demean anyone, nor to hurt any guy’s feelings. And fortunately, the uninterest is mutual. =)

I’m a happy girl today! Mainly because I get to stay in bed till late afternoon after today, and the office didn’t have the full attendance. Actually only one wasn’t in the office [that's enough!], but interestingly, the whole office seemed kind of quiet and empty.

I have no idea whether this is a psychological way of thinking, but do you sense my subtle hint and sneer? Muwahaha. =X

During lunch, I went on a scavenger hunt for Daniel Chan’s karaoke VCD. Of the places I scouted, Sembawang Music Store only has ONE karaoke VCD in the whole store [Sembawang is good if you want English CDs], Tower Records doesn’t sell karaoke VCDs, BlueMax doesn’t have Daniel Chan’s, and TS Entertainment has a whole rack for karaoke VCDs, but I can’t seem to locate the particular album. Hmm.

I remember when I took part in SP’s Talentime [Sigh, I wanted to link to my older entries about Talentime, but I realised they have been deleted =/], my VCD was just as difficult to find. The older the song [for pop singers], the harder it is to find. A few years back, I found the one I wanted [Stefanie Sun's 2 songs in one VCD] at Bras Basah. Actually it serves more logic and sense to buy karaoke VCDs for keeping, rather than CDs. There are many ways for you to find a song [mp3], but I believe it’s harder to find the karaoke version of the same song. I know there’s a way to convert an mp3 to mute away the singer’s voice, but I don’t know the program name, so it’s hard either way.

So you see, it doesn’t matter which songs you sing best. You have to find a song which you are strong at, out of the few VCDs which you could find.

I digressed too much. Best of luck to AL for the KTV competition. =) You really need luck since you never really practise your song. -.-"

*****

I walked past the Toy Shop [I think] at Suntec, where they had at least 300 machines that dispense capsules full of cute things. I was quite excited when I saw those machines, and began the browsing to see whether I would take any liking.

This is just one row of machines.

And this is another row.

My prize was too damn small to cost $3. It was even too small to be photographed. The interesting thing about this hello kitty capsule, is that when you place her on the round, metalic stand, she pops out of her capsule!

If I get excited at my age towards these dispensers, I think I can never grow up. I’ll be as bubbly and cute at 60! Try me! =D

 
Huge Doraemon statue

Doraemon’s so cute standing there just like that!! =D I had the idea of stealing that big thing home for the room’s decor, but I doubt the feasibility of bringing it home [like what? Affix Mr. Doraemon on the top of the taxi?] even if I manage to get away unnoticed with the big Doraemon. Aww.

*****

Went by the pet shop, and ALL the pets were eating, especially with the bunnies and guinea pigs. Such a cute sight!

Please sing to the tune of Ten Little Indian Boys.
 
One little bunny…

.
.
.
.
.

 
Four little cute bunnies!

Right, the song doesn’t make much sense. -.-"

*****

Anyway, when I was back at the office later, I somehow caught my colleague playing Crimson Room. I was asking him about the location of another department, but he didn’t take his eyes off the game and told me he doesn’t know. -.-"

In the end, I told him that I’ve played the game before, and in the end, I helped him find one item in the game, which eventually helped him to escape from the Crimson Room.

It’s ironical how he would be so friendly when we converse about some non-work related stuffs, like that Crimson game. Heh. But for work related stuffs, I get the dilemma of wanting to know, versus disturbing colleagues. Hmm.