Photo of the day

Taken at the lobby level of the Hyatt facing the business centre.

Saturation

Happened by this store in Far East Plaza on Friday. It's a tiny little unit, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in V A R I E T Y. This is just one section of its exceedingly prolific display of earrings and necklaces. The store was literally covered in accessories, wall-to-wall! It was rather daunting to find a place to begin and methodically look through all of them. But I made good and got a pretty red pair of ear decos.

Organic fractal

This is the weirdest-looking thing I've ever seen in a supermarket. It was labelled "Chinese cauliflower" and I'd never seen it before in my life. I resisted taking a picture of it on my previous visit to Fairprice, but couldn't resist taking one when I went again yesterday. Was tempted to buy one so I could examine it and take better pictures, but didn't want to waste a perfectly good vege (I doubt anyone in my house knows how to cook it).

Apparently, its structure is an almost perfect physical representation of a fractal. How cool is that? I read that it also goes by the name of Romanesco broccoli. Here's a clearer close-up of one (borrowed from www.georgehernandez.com).

Compositions of yore - part 1

Found a bunch of my old school compositions, essays and such, and realised I had more imagination then than I do now. I got the highest score (25.5 out of 30) ever for composition for this one I did for an English test. Reading it now, it seems a bit silly and immature in style and the language is imperfect, but I was 13 years old after all. I present the piece de resistance of my secondary school career, almost entirely unedited except for two mistakes, one for spelling and the other for misuse.

I should call it "Confessions of a Teenage Banana" or something to that effect. (For the benefit of non-Singaporeans, a Chinese person who is Westernised and can't speak Chinese well is often referred to as a banana - yellow on the outside, white on the inside.)

The Chinese textbook lay open on the desk. I remained in my present position of repose, leaning against the back of my chair. I looked at the book. Finally, I leaned forward and made another attempt at studying. The little masses of lines did not make sense to me. I looked at them hard, trying to compute them into my brain. The little lines began to fidget and squirm, swimming around in a chaotic mess.

I did not know what all those lines meant. Those Chinese words, what did they mean? The examples, in Chinese, the explanations, in Chinese, the test! In Chinese.

I took another glance at the timetable pasted on the wall. First period: Chinese. Not just “CL”, but “HL”, Higher Chinese. First period, test. Major test. Chinese major test.

I turned to my neighbour for help. I opened my mouth to say something in Chinese to her. I said the first word. My tongue tied up in knots.

“Ching…w…en…we…oh boy! Er, che, che…”

I was feeling cold and prickly. My heart was beating normally, but I gasped for air through my mouth. Don’t tell me I am so nervous I can’t even speak it now! I thought.

Clip…clop…clip…clop…ssslop.

The sound of a pair of sandals walking in and pausing rang in my ears. Two sandals stood apart in the middle of the classroom in the front. They extended to flabby calves, a dull orange suit to a hard, thin face set in a large head, emphasised by a mushroom-shaped hairstyle.

“Tong shue men, che yen. (Students, test.)”

Test, test, test! It echoed in my mind and bounced from one side of the classroom to the other, but the other girls did not seem to hear. But it was so loud! They were just calmly keeping their books while I was flipping through hysterically, practically ripping the pages out. A long wooden ruler landed on the page I was at. I did not look up. I was so bathed in cold sweat that the chilly droplets dripped down my back. A long, bony finger pointed to the book, then under the table. Clip, clop, clip, clop, the finger and the ruler were gone. The rustling of rough brown paper being passed round was heard. I clasped my hands and started muttering whatever prayers came in my head. It was only a while later that I realised I was talking gibberish and that the girl in front of me was slapping the papers on my desk impatiently. I dutifully took them, took a sheet and passed the pile on.

Darn, I swore. What the heck is the setter trying to do? I cursed every teacher in the Chinese department. I didn’t understand a word in the script. I filled in the blanks with whatever came into my head. Even these did not look right to me.

Suddenly, time was up. I was just barely three quarters done! I hastily scribbled what I could before the script was whipped out of my hand. I silently replaced the lid on my pen and watched the teacher tidy the pile of papers. As I watched, I told myself, “Whatever happens, you have been a good girl, said your prayers, kissed Mummy goodbye and cleaned your ears. God will let you through the pearly gates.” [Comment inserted by the teacher here: "Yah, but you didn't study for your test"] My heart had sunken so low that I lost track of it. The air in my mind was still and cold. I leaned back in my chair and gazed about the classroom. My day had ended.

The Johari bandwagon

OK, I give up. I got a Johari page too! Indulge my self-indulgence and tell me what you think of me right here: http://kevan.org/johari?name=daphneong

What you do is pick 5 or 6 words that you feel describe me best. Regretfully, certain words that you may wish to use may not be present, in which case you can either drop a comment or keep it inside to fester. Dominatrix, lingerie-aholic, justplainweird and obsessive are not included.

Back from Fukette

Ah, the glories of a tropical getaway. Just got back from Phuket. Awfully tired, burnt a hole in my pocket, but oh-so-worth it! Will blog more about the trip when I find more energy...

Valentine's without a dress code

I'm glad to have spent a Valentine's Day away from the overpriced-dinner-and-flowers thoroughfare that countless couples (and hopefuls) fork out their dough for. No primping for the Big Date, no popping antihistamines in case of allergic reactions to flowers.

While the day started less than satisfactory with me chaperoning my mum from 9am until mid-afternoon, it improved dramatically after that. Kelvin-and-Daphne's Valentine started with Kelvin giving me my card and receiving his gift. Check out my card - I guess he likes me this way!
I'd made him little magnets by attaching photos we'd taken together to black foam backing and glued on pieces of magnet. Sounds simple, but took a great deal of time. The magnetic board is a simple one from Ikea. The card I picked out for him was not the prettiest, but I knew it was right up his alley (true enough, he was very tickled when he saw it).

East Coast Park was our choice for a nice, long walk. In spite of the heat and humidity, we enjoyed it plenty, just strolling and talking and talking, and taking the occasional photo. I was marvelling at how nice the beach and park can look, in spite of the filthy water, nearby commercial crap like noisy rental stores for bicycles and in-line skates, and long rows of unattractive holiday chalets. Still, it was a lovely, laid-back way to spend the afternoon. Managed to take some pretty nice pics too.The vivid emerald and yellow by this path really caught my eye.

The sweltering weather was good for producing immaculate skies.

When I saw well-dressed couples and girls wearing nice dresses by the sea, I wondered what the hell they were thinking - I was wearing a comfy cami and capris and I was already feeling awfully icky. And then I saw these monks stroll by. They looked happy, anyway, chattering away.Ah, what would romance by the sea be without the essential breakwater?

We then braved a traffic jam through town to get to Book Cafe, our favourite chill-out place. To our pleasant surprise, we found two of the cafe's three couch sets unoccupied, so we eagerly snapped up one. Just in time too, as minutes after we did so, a group arrived and took the last set, and another disappointed couple had to settle for a regular table. Hence, we spent a cosy evening having a comfortable meal, reading, chatting and just chilling. We left at past 10pm when I started nodding off (I'd eaten some chocolate at 1am the previous night and the caffeine had ensured absolutely no sleep for me).

What a lovely day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The most uncomfortable Valentine's Day I've had was some years ago with my then-boyfriend. He'd done what he felt was the romantic thing to do, which was to make a reservation at a restaurant and buy me a bouquet of flowers. Unfotunately, I was allergic to some of the flowers and spent the rest of the evening with my eyes watering and my nose tickling unbearably. And that restaurant's idea of a reservation was a reservation to stand in line to wait for a table. A very long line it was too.

When we eventually got to eat over an hour later, I was starving and my poor allergy-stricken nose was in full revolt. The food was absolutely nothing to write home about, although the bill strenuously begged to differ. I assured the poor guy that it was a lovely evening, understanding how important it was to him that I was happy with his efforts. Sigh - yes, I lied to make him feel less lousy about the evening. (In case anyone's wondering, that restaurant was one that prominently featured a large sign facing the road that looked a lot like "Brassiere" if you weren't looking carefully. I don't know if it's still there.)

I'm fondue of you too

On Thursday, Kelvin and I celebrated the end of our 3rd year together (and the start of the 4th).

The day kicked off with us making our way to People's Park to book our first real holiday together, which is a short trip to Phuket to chill out. (Digression: Gotta love trying to pronounce "Phuket" phonetically, just like "Krabi". It tickles me to no end that, for her holiday, my sis had been trying to choose between Fukette and Crabby. Pls excuse my irreverence. Teehee.)

Next stop was the surprise spa treat I'd arranged for us. Unfortunately, it was raining something awful, and the jacuzzi part had to be scrapped as it was semi-outdoors (i.e. was partially sheltered by a wooden canopy). We had a foot spa substituted instead, during which a therapist found herself in a probably unusual situation of exfoliating a pair of really hairy legs. Kelvin also got his first taste of being cling-wrapped a-la-chicken wing.After the foot spa and body scrub (during which the ever-ticklish Kelvin giggled when his armpits and foot soles were invaded), the rain had stopped, so we decided to swap the massage for the jacuzzi soak, complete with grapes and wine. The therapist warned us, "The jacuzzi might be a little cold at first, but it's meant to warm up after you've sat in it awhile." That didn't prepare us for the ~cold~ water that had been sitting in the rainy weather, lovely flower-strewn and bubbly as it was. Even huddled together, we were both shivering and regreting having given up the massage. But after a few goosebumpy minutes, it was indeed warm enough to lean back, relax and start tossing flower petals at each other. After reviewing the design of the jacuzzi tub, we came up with the hypothesis it was probably built to discourage making out, what with the uneven base (raised portions to enable users to lean back in comfort) and oddly-placed water nozzles.

We got fireworks at dinner! (Kelvin jokingly exclaimed, "Surprise, dear!") Everyone at Al Dente's halted eating and fraternising to catch the lovely display. We later figured that the fireworks were from the River Hong Bao event nearby.And to top off an almost perfect day, we had the largest, most gorgeous chocolate fondue!
On the left platter, you can see the remains of the strawberries, green apple and a VERY generous serving of banana (yay!). The milky stuff is what was left of the vanilla gelato. On the right platter, there were Oreo chunks, pistachios, biscotti and marshmallows (I got to polish off most of the marshies as Kelvin doesn't like them - double yay!). And note the large and surprisingly deep bowl of bittersweet chocolate. If it weren't unbecoming to lick off the bowl in public, that's what I would've done.

Not that we're letting our anniversary make Valentine's Day redundant. No commercialised dinner sets for us. A lovely day at the beach and a quiet, simple dinner. Plus I've got a present for Kelvin that I hope he'll like - I myself like it very much.

I hate licking envelopes.

The joy that is other people

Just read Waiter Rant's latest entry and was reminded of the day my best friend almost drowned.

Lian had been swimming in a crowded public pool with her boyfriend KK. Lian is not a strong swimmer and dodging kids thrashing around isn't the easiest thing for her to do while trying to make it through a lap. Suddenly, midstroke, she was kicked hard in the stomach by goodness knows who. She was not near anything to grab (other than that stray foot). She panicked and swallowed water while struggling, and water eventually entered her lungs and she passed out from lack of air. The lifeguard was alerted and he pulled her out of the water and performed CPR on her, but she was still unconscious when the ambulance arrived. While KK was standing by the ambulance waiting for the paramedics to load her, he overheard a woman saying, presumably to her kid, "See that girl over there? If you don't learn to swim well you'll end up like her."

When I heard about this, I got pretty damn mad. Of all the things to say when someone almost drowns (and at that point, no one knew if she was going to survive), the least appropriate thing would be to blame the victim for the accident! If she wanted to be a good mum, she would firstly teach her kid not to join the ranks of the screaming monsters who hog pool sides, lunge into the path of swimmers doing laps and generally not care who they kick/smack/maul/drown while frolicking. Try teaching a little empathy, for one.

A tree by any other name

I first read about the origin of my name from a children's edition of Greek myths when I was a kid. I was not pleased that I was named after a tree.

Daphne and Apollo (or, How the Babe Gave Him Wood)

Daphne was a river nymph, daughter of the river god Peneus. The god of light Apollo had teased Eros (Roman: Cupid) who later shot him with a golden arrow when he saw Daphne, causing him to desire her madly. Eros then shot her with a lead arrow, which repulsed her from Apollo.

Guys, what do you do when a chick rejects you? Try to run her down, of course! So when she literally ran away from Apollo when he tried to get fresh with her, he gave chase. After a long chase - and it must have been a LONG chase since she was a very fit lady who dedicated herself to Artemis the hunter goddess (who was also chaste) - when she realised she couldn't outrun him, she pleaded with her father to save her. Daddy turned her into a tree. Apollo was heartbroken of course, and declared the laurel tree to be very special indeed, so special that its leaves would adorn the heads of victors and kings. (Which, for some bizarre reason, reminds me of the Garden of Eden story where the couple wore leaves around their private parts for modesty. What would you then think of a man who wore leaves on his head??)While it's kinda cool she attracted the affections of an obsessed psycho, I'm not sure if her idea of being saved entailed being turned into kayu. The sculpture of them by Bernini as shown above is pretty cool, though. I read somewhere that it was positioned by a stairway, such that when you entered the room, you would see Apollo's behind (woohoo) and Daphne's human side. As you walked towards the staircase, you'd see Daphne's metamorphosis as the side of her that had turned to wood came into your field of view.

Poster Boy

I couldn't resist. I just HAD to post these latest pics of ultra-cute nephew Sean. He's now two and a half years old and peppers his babble with the most adorable renditions of real words. It just takes one "Hi, Yee Yee!" to make me burst into cheer ("Yee Yee" means mother's younger sis, i.e. aunt). Now that I think about it, at the rate he's picking up words, everyone's gotta remember to stop cussing around him.

He looks really good in caps...for as long as he can go without yanking them off his head.

He won't appreciate this when he's older. But for now, feast your eyes on a really cute male with his pants around his ankles (even if he is on the john). His throne shown here is the Royal Potty that makes a taa-da-da-DAAA fanfare everytime something, eh, drops into it. And his choice of toilet reading material is a book meant to encourage kids undergoing potty training - the button that Sean's got his finger on makes a flushing sound when pushed. Sean likes that button a lot, which means my sis and hubby hear a whole lotta flushing sounds during Sean's waking hours.

*Sigh* Tell me this isn't the cutest, cuddliest and most affectionate young man you've ever seen. Too bad for the ladies that it'll be almost 16 more years before he's legally available.