Monday, August 29, 2005

Everybody, for my latest sway adventure, please go to Jo's blog.

Why do these stuff always happen to me?!?!!!!!

And my computer at home is spoilt and currently undergoing some serious dissection at the workshop. I think it's another case of the dreaded word: REFORMAT.

@#$%^UI*%^&(^&(*&(%^

And no internet!! *wails* How to survive!!!

(I'm really addicted to the Web, I actually made my way to a LAN cafe, how sad is that.)

Jo's leaving tmr, I'm so very sad! But at least I'll be joining her in a few weeks time. Announcement: Jing has a blog! It's not properly set up yet, but I'll add her to my links in the near future, so keep an eye out for that.

Friday, August 26, 2005

plateau.

Even eating all the yummy food in the world is starting to lose its lustre and appeal. Nevertheless, I still shove food into my mouth, gaining temporary relief from mindless routine. This is the main reason, apart from my incorrigible lack of exercise, why I'm getting increasingly round.

And I wonder, in more ways than one, why I keep hurling myself into the jaws of delusion and destruction.

I posted this last year on the 7th of Sept:

Waiting interminably for naught, yet like a fool, I sit there limply and dream, of an idyllic paradise of my own devising, of hazy visions that only I can see.

And I feel this inexplicable sense of loss and nostalgia for the person that I was, for Harsh Realities of Life had since then taught me otherwise, and I don't think I'll ever be the same again. Which is not a bad thing. And yet, I'm not sure if I had truly learned and assimilated these lessons.

Sometimes, we can all do with a healthy dose of revision and remedial classes.

I'm going to venture into the inky depths of Little India in a few hours, it'd be my first time there this summer, how exciting! The last time I went to Little India was a few years back, when my dad insisted on giving me a tour on the red-light districts in Singapore. So he drove me through the shady alleys of Geylang Lorong xx, crawling at a speed of 20-30km/h as he casually pointed out the pink neon lights and the occasional whore on the street. I was in MGS then, young enough to be awestruck but old enough to try and mask my gauche naviety with a nonchalant face.

My dad would have showed me Changi Village too, if not for my mother scolding him in the front seat "How can you bring Lynne here? You want to die ah?" and he coolly replied "It's part of her education, she's old enough already". My dad's cool, I love my dad. He then drove to Desker Road since it's on the way home (I think that's the name) and I remember seeing so many men milling around at the back alleys. But I didn't see any women, strangely enough. Hmmmm.

I think I'll wait for my dad to come back (he's away on business) and ask him to bring me around Changi Village. After having 'seen it all' at Orchard Towers on Tues, I believe I can handle anything!

Just so you understand, I'm going there just to see, okay? No hanky-panky business. I don't do trannies, simply because they have nicer legs than I have.

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

lynne the SO-NOT tranny!!!

My day started out innocently enough. Had lunch, dinner, bought some taiwanese vcds with The Sister, and watched Perth. Btw, it was a pretty good movie, although Jing and I started cracking up the minute we heard Lim Kay Tong's solioquy at the onset. It was just bizarre to watch and hear lines delivered in a Singlish accent on a big screen, if you know what I mean. It got pretty depressing after that, but I'm not providing spoilers. Just go watch it - it had some beautifully shot scenes.

Anyway, Jo and I were sitting around, pretty much bloated from snacks and water, and we needed to pee. Urgently. One gripe I have about Orchard Road is that there are NO public toilets around. So where can you go when you need the loo, at 3plus in the morning?

We went to Shaw Towers - closed. Strike one. We then headed to the Hilton, and the toilets were locked. Damnit, stingy pokers. Strike two. Left with no choice, we headed down to the infamous Orchard Towers, and there was this police car parked outside and streams of trannys and naughty-filipino-maids leaving the building. Hmmmm.

So we finally found the elusive toilet, only to discover much to our chagrin that it's literally a throw-back to pre-WWI days. Yes, it was that bad. The pink floor tiles were covered with a thin flim of black muck, the sinks were clogged with soggy tissue and drowned cigarette boxes, the toilet bowls were stained yellow and God knows what other substances, and to top it all off, there were baby cockroaches scuttling all around.

All together now: eeewwwwwww!!!!!!!!!

Jo and I were soooo freaked out, but a girl's gotta go when she's gotta go. We gritted our teeth and went into our respective cubicles. I don't think I'd ever forget the experience of trying to pee as fast as I can, as far away from the toilet seat as possible (I don't have to go into details), while keeping a VERY close eye on the two roaches that were 2 steps away from my feet. The speed at which they were scurrying around was so fast, that they can compete with Seng Song in the 100m sprint.

We quickly left the dingy, manky, rank and revolting toilet behind, passed by a tranny chatting up some white bloke and swore never again, while thinking wistfully about the clean and sanitary Hilton toilets just across the road. As we stepped out of Orchard Towers, we heard:

"Chhuuuuttt-chhhuutt! Chhuuuttt-chhuuutt!

For the uninitiated, it's the sound that ah bengs make when they want to get attention. They pout, and quickly suck in air through their lips and you get this annoying chhhuutt-chhuutt noise.

Anyway, this sleazy red-faced Chinese bloke who was obviously pissed drunk, started chuttting at Jo and I, and followed us from behind. Eeep. Never mind. Then he really started dogging our footsteps, right behind me. I quickly walked closer to Jo, and was two steps ahead, when he asked her: "Eh, your friend ah?" Jo gave him the ducal glare, and we ran off to 7-Eleven across the road.

This dodgy beng was more persistent than we gave him credit for, to the point where he followed us into 7-Eleven, chhhuutting all the way! By now, we were utterly freaked and grossed out. He stopped following us by the time we'd reached Borders, and then we headed back to Jo's car.

It was only in the car, when we came to a belated realization: I was wearing a (VERY CASUAL) blue tube top. I was wearing jeans. I had long hair. I'm flat-chested.

The minger mistook me for a tranny!!!!!

What's more, the two of us had walked out of Orchard Towers, and we all know that it's the hang-out place for trannies. They were ALL wearing tube tops and trousers. They ALL had long hair. Apart from the rich ones who could afford a boob job, they were ALL FLAT-CHESTED. Basket, just because I've long hair, wearing a tube top (a VERY CASUAL and DEMURE top if I may add) and flat-chested, does NOT mean that I'm a TRANNY! Fantastic, I always knew I would be discriminated against due to my lack of boobs! I KNEW IT! Bloody hell! Stupid men!

In any case, moral of the story: never, NEVER, ever, walk into and out of Orchard Towers in the wee hours of the morning wearing a tube top and jeans. Especially if you've long hair and a chest so flat that a Boeing 747 can land on you.

p.s. I'm now officially starting a fund for my future boob job. Donations of any amount would be greatly appreciated!

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Jing, do not resume work!

I went to Newton for supper with Jing at 4 in the morning, and got home at 5 plus. It's 810am and I'm unbearably awake. It must be the carrot cake and satay, they're taking so long to be digested!

See, Jing, it's so much fun not working. We can go to bed and wake up whatever time we want to, languish in bed for hours till no end, and do spontaneous things like go for supper in the wee hours of the morning to spruce up our lives. How gloriously exciting!

If you need more convincing to stop working, I'll refer you to Jo/Lenny, and I'm sure they'll be more than happy to tell you about the euphoric joy they experience from being a full-time bummer. Absolutely brilliant stuff.

So... don't work anymore! At least, until I fly home to London! Heh.

Monday, August 22, 2005

You know, Singapore is THIS small, and nothing stays hidden. And I mean nothing. What goes around, comes around. I truly believe that.

So I think I'd better start doing my work on time, instead of rushing yet another paper. Today, I had to answer two major questions GP-style in 45 min on 'How can Singapore benefit from...' etc etc etc. (I'm astoundingly slow at writing these kinda things.) And of course, I didn't finish it on time, adding another notch to my infamous list of overdue items/work/library fines.

If 'what goes around comes around', it'd only stand to mean that everyone would be on the receiving end of it in future, including myself, yes? I don't think I'd want my supervisor or tutor to continually procrastinate my lessons or the grading of my papers. On hindsight, maybe this is why my piano teacher never gave me lessons: it's all the accumulated bad karma from not doing my work on time!

In any case, I'm going to endeavour to do the right thing. Even if it'd kill me in the process.

So my friends, I'm not going to procrastinate again! (I can hear all of you snickering/muttering at this point, idiots, all of you) At least, I'll make it a point not to procrastinate.

This means: tomorrow, I've to book my air ticket (yes Jo, I'll book it tmr!), look for my IC (it's been missing for the past 2 mths), renew my visa at Robinson road, look for my acceptance letter (uh oh), schedule the signing with MOE, get the CPF password thingy, internet acc for local bank acc, check and reply 10 emails, make a couple of overseas calls, arrange London accomodation with Vincent, practise piano, rearrange all of my 137 fantasy books... and I'm already out of breath just from thinking about all these things to do. They're really simple stuff, but they're such nitty gritty things, you know? It's just such a hassle having to do all these admininstrative matters. And I've time to blog, ha!

I've always wanted to post these pictures of my gal pals Yee Chong and Weilin:

These are the pictures taken on that fateful day where we staked out at Borders all the way till 7am. Yee Chong's the one on the top left corner next to me, and Weilin's in a black cardigan. My friends are so pretty! The next photo was taken last year before I left for my 3rd year in London:

I don't think I ever got to post these up, taken on my 22nd (I hate my birthdays) at Ichiban Boshi:

Left: The Cousin/Melody and The Sister/Grace. I think my cousin and sister look more like sisters, especially when they're both sooooo tiny! One of these days I'll post a portrait photo of the 3 of us, and the first thing you'll say is 'Who's that gargartuan cow in the background?' before realizing that it's me. No prizes for guessing who's who on the right: Abby and Jing! Credit for the photos go to Jing.

I can hear KitKat and my new Robin Hobb book calling my name! Which btw, the hardbound book set me back by $40. It really hurts me deep, especially when I know I could have bought forty packets of prawn crackers from Esso petrol kiosk (2 for $2!) with that money. Ah well.

I hope I'll be blogging tmr about all the achievements I've made i.e. NOT procrastinating. We can always hope! Have a good week ahead everyone!

Monday, August 15, 2005

hong kong and london.

Are you guys tired of photos yet? If you are, too bad, for here are more photos - Hong Kong!

My dad dragged me to see the 23m tall Buddha statue at some monastery, where I was eaten alive by the vengeful mosquitoes. Coincidentally, I only got bitten after I kept complaining very loudly about the cloying incense smoke all around me. Well now, I never knew mosquitoes were loyal creatures: you learn new things everyday. Oh, and I'm sure you can see the pic of the disgusting toilet taken at the temple. That was taken for posterity and to remind myself not to take Singapore's clean toilets for granted.

Down the Avenue of Stars, and that's Tony Leung's handprints! -squeals- I loooveee him, that brilliant brilliant actor. Hated Ocean Park, it had too many screaming yelling noisy rude brats, which only served to reinforce my belief that: children should neither be seen nor heard.

And now for the London shots:

Apart from the last two at Traflagar Square, all these shots were taken at Hyde Park and Buckingham Palace. We had true-blue London/British weather, where you get occasional teasing glimpses of the sunlight and rolling grey clouds.

Caught in the act of climbing over! Okay okay, end of slideshow. I'm glad I took all these photos, as pointless as some of it may have had been. (Jo/Jing/Vincent, do you rem I kept taking photos of those stupid geese in a church at Mallorca?? Sheeshhh) While people and memories are susceptible to change, pictures don't - they can't lie and tell you what you want to hear, or don't want to hear. All I know is one day, these concrete memories of mine will remind me of what I had forgotten, what I had been, and what I have become.

Yes yes, I probably sound quite cryptic, but just bear with me for now. I promise - just a while. In any case, there's nothing like a good night out at Zouk with best pals like Jo and Jing to brighten up my day! (Jess, you'll be missed!)

At the risk of sounding like a ditz: Mambo, here we come!

Friday, August 12, 2005

prague and berlin photos!

I just woke up to something really really nasty, to the point that I'm all ready to spit bolts and nails out of my mouth. Which is quite a rare thing, considering how even-tempered I am [which is NOT a plus point]. How I wish I can go on and on about it, but that's not going to do anyone any good, least of all myself. It's just.. really upsetting when you've been proven wrong. (Again!) Ah well, I shall shaddup and get on with my original post.

The following pictures are taken in Prague:

I'm sure you can see my dad being cheeky, and he stripped for the camera in the last row photo. Okay, kidding, it was TOO hot - 40deg in Prague, I don't blame him for doing so!

On the left column, I'm standing outside the Prague State Opera WHICH WAS CLOSED FOR RENOVATION, hence the endless pouting. This wasn't my day. The really pretty girl next to me is a Czech girl called Lenka, who I met on the train en route to Berlin.

Apart from the 1st two pictures in the top row of Municipal House, the rest are of Old Town Square:

Top row centre picture: That's the place where Mozart's Don Giovanni was premiered in 1787!!!! The statue that my Dad's posing next to in the last row is Antonin Dvorak. Speaking of which, I've actually not heard any of his works in Prague. Everywhere I go, I just keep hearing bad renditions of that blasted Moldau by Smetana. Which is a pretty nice piece when it's not being slaughtered by strangled chickens for violins.

Last row: I thought that 'Smoking Woman' sign was pretty funny. My dad was trying to imitate the performers in the poster *duh*, and that was for the Black Light Theatre. Some form of theatre genre which combines pantomine, music and acting, and highly dependant on UV lighting. The statue in the last picture is the Commander from Mozart/Da Ponte's Don Giovanni, where he drags Don Giovanni (cheating lying womanizing scumbag) down to the pits of Hell.

Now for Berlin photos!

See the 'Herbert von Karajan' St sign? I dragged my dad all the way to the Berlin Philharmonic "We must go! I don't care! I must listen to them play! I don't care!", only to find out that THEY WERE ON THEIR SUMMER BREAK. They only resume their normal calender of events ON THE DAY I LEAVE BERLIN. First Prague, and now this?!?! I was a sad, sad girl on tour.

Ohhh I forgot about these pictures from Prague:

That shop just gave me the chills. You never know if those dolls would one day be infused with stolen life, and start walking up to you ala Chucky with their eyes glowing emerald and their stilted creaking puppet-like movements as they try to claw your skin off in an attempt to take your skin for their own, and your life for themselves... Fine. They give me the creeps. You can't blame me when this shop was located directly below the Jewish graveyard. How freaky is that?

Okay I'm feeling a lil spooked out, taking into consideration of the fact that it IS the seventh month and I really should watch what I say. I'll post the rest of the pictures another time. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to look for all my old Barbie dolls and He-Man toys and She-Ra figurines and throw them all away. Now now now now now.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

home sweet home.

I can't believe I'm home, after being away for so long. Too much had happened, and there's so much to say that I don't really know where to start. But anyway, there are too many photos for me to upload online, and separately onto the blog, so I'm just going to put up a few.

First of all, these are the moving-out-of-Canterbury-Hall photos:

If you look carefully, you can see Jo's MSN picture on my laptop!

And now for my graduation photos in London. It was held at the Barbican Centre, which also happens to be the mingest building around AND the place where I accumulate those horrendous library fines. I bear no love for that place. NONE.

We were among the last few to go up on stage to do the customary hand-shake with Dr So-and-So-and-So as we graduated with a Bmus and not a BA. So we have that cyan blue ribbon thingy, and the rest of the KCL had a dirty-brown colour. Ha. Headed down to Smollensky's and Roadhouse later that night, where we had loads of fun and..er... fond memories! [Mary, Lou, you guys know what I'm talking about!] Had your usual pissed-drunk characters and delightful scandals, so grad night was an unmitigated success!

My sister is about to breathe fire down my neck, we're supposed to go out for dinner. Like, now now NOW. In the meantime, I've uploaded some other pics here, and I still have about 200-odd to upload. ARGH! More to come soon!

It's taken me a while, and two-plus weeks of touring to put things into perspective. I'm actually stronger than I thought I was, or maybe just even more apathetic than I thought I was! But you know what? Life is good.

I'm truly happy.

Saturday, August 06, 2005

feeling peaky.

Oh man, where do I begin? I'm so tired from travelling - London-Prague-Berlin-Prague-London-HK, and I'll be home sometime mid next week.

In HK using the internet cafe, and it's DREADFULLY hot, but nothing beats the 40deg weather I went through in Prague. That was simply awful! But if it hadn't been for the heat, my dad and I would have never escaped on the spur of the moment to the cooler climate of Berlin and Berlin was gorgeous. But I forgot to bring my camera charger though, so that was pretty booboo.

And speaking about carelessness, I lost my balance on the escalator in London Victoria while trying to handle my heavy luggages, and I fell quite a number of steps. What a Lynne thing to do right? Luckily, my dad was standing below and caught me before I tumbled headlong ala Jack and Jill. Escaped unhurt apart from a mild sprain of my foot. And a huge chunk of my pride left on the steps of London Victoria.

Ohhhhhh another one of the 'Lynne things' I did, was to forget my travel pass in Berlin on the last day, and I kept going on and on about how easy it was to cheat on public transport (it's built on a trust system, more on that next time), and guess what? Plain-clothed bobbies came into our carriage and checked us. Wunderschon. They wanted us to pay 40euros for the fine, which is about 80 Sing dollars. My dad was livid, and after 10minutes of wrangling with them, we came to a compromise and paid for a day pass. Actually, I think it was because my dad was repeating himself "But we're tourists! We're not trying to cheat you! Call the hotel, they will vouch for us!" only about 10000000 times that they got fed-up and let it go. So, dad's constant nagging endless repeated reminders throughout the trip "I tell you how many times already, look before you cross the road!" or "Lynne, I tell you how many times already, don't do anything else when you're on the escalator!" was a blessing in disguise.

Oh and I got us lost somewhere in Berlin too. Eh heh heh.

HK is cluttered, confusing, claustrophobic. I'm not so sure I really fancy HK, and the shopping isn't that great at all. I haven't actually bought a single item of clothing/accessory *GASP* but I've been eating the local food, which is SCRUMPLICIOUS and the lo bak kou (carrot cake) is simply amazing, can't get enough of it!

Now, I'm at the Peak of Hong Kong. Dunno what Peak lah, I only know I'm somewhere very high up in HK and it's super hot here and the WHOLE WORLD is staring at me blogging (YES I'm talking to you, you, the one standing behind me, reading every word I type, just GO AWAY if you can understand English. Wooops. Maybe you can't. "Zhou gai!") which is immensely irritating, not to mention the shrill conversations held in Cantonese. Ack.

Okay, the Father aka the Person who's holding the purse-strings says it's time to go. He says we can go eat tim sum now, yeay!

xxx

blueprint

I will like to spend my days, as though they are my own, which I mostly end up doing in halves, for duty beckons, and I am answering its clarion call. Soon enough! I am also a veteran procrastinator.

fresh monodies

Old wounds hurt most, I learned this today, becaus...
She speaks, repeating the old litanies, of worn ac...
time skips
and it all comes together!
beethoven's symphony no.7 2nd mvt
again,
towards that something
In the alley of shadows and death
Masking Tape
another end of the world

previous rants

August 2004
September 2004
October 2004
November 2004
December 2004
January 2005
February 2005
March 2005
April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
February 2009
March 2009
April 2009
May 2009
June 2009
July 2009
August 2009
September 2009
October 2009
November 2009
December 2009
November 2010
January 2011
February 2011
August 2011
October 2011
May 2013

treatises on life

arty jen
betty boop
carmentica
charming-linn
chasing snowy cars
cheeky lynn
cheryliciously glam
clean and cute
cyclist-mad bass
darling dominic
feisty jing
fellow ditz-sista/porkSTAR
hail mary!
hell's kitchen
hero on the beach
h-Euge heart
hunky lenny
lipgloss queen
little cheryl
live n learn, baby
lolita lou
loony loon
mr popular
musically dan
m y s t j
phringe
princess tania
roger smurf
runaway pigeon
sabotage king jeremiah
sibling angst1
sibling angst2
spector dan
spunky tian
steffy bunny
sun-sunzzz
teeny wee-nee
weeeee, leonard!
yangtze yang'en

frivolous pursuits

for shallow ppl
for very geeky ppl
for the truly bored
spun prose
binary thoughts
past imprints
some stamps
montage of images
other memories

mulling over

And there were phlegmatic souls.