Saturday, November 15, 2008
How amusing a language learning
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
A Bona Fide German Experience
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Being A Macar(l)oonie
Chinese Food Adventures
Friday, October 31, 2008
A Weekend's drive away
Monday, September 1, 2008
'Welcome to London!'
Monday, July 21, 2008
The shoeholic strikes again
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Did you know that ... ?
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Getting away with it all
Finally, a valid excuse
Monday, June 23, 2008
Special People
During my stay in Punggol, I had walked down the same path from the bus stop to my block approximately 120 evenings. I could not remember a single scene that was even slightly curious to remain in memory, much less something flashing neon yellow, calling my name in dire desperation. The only intriguing figure in the neighbourhood was an aged bearded uncle who drives a 20-year-old Proton Saga, possibly only from the carpark to Punggol Plaza and back. I despise such comfortable monotony. This was definitely my strongest reason for moving here. I somehow know I don’t have to look very hard to find an intriguing sight.
I was rewarded on my second day. While waiting for the tram, I spotted a head of shoulder-length white hair complete with as much a beard bobbing atop a bicycle. His oufit reminds me of an ancient Jane Fonda Exercise video tape I owned. Looking beyond him, I saw that he has two kiddy carts attached to his bicycle. His black mongrel had escaped from one of the carts but was promptly yelled back into place. The other kart held miscellaneous items that look like his entire life savings. Talk about a home on wheels.
Nonetheless, don’t be surprised to see a real kiddo in one of these carts tagged to a bicycle. Many mothers here really do transport their toddlers around as such. Each time I see one, I laugh out loud as I imagine my grandmother’s bulging eyes and hysterical disbelief. She was one to make sure a six-month-old grandson sits quietly to play and a twelve-year-old granddaughter crosses the road with her hand in daddy’s.
To date, six weeks here, I have spotted a modest number of five drunkards (one was pissing into the bushes of the church opposite my building. Hee…). Gatherings of the ‘lost’ outside the supermarket I go to are frequent. Neon-coloured Mohawk punks in their gothic outfits with huge dogs are by now the symbol of the city’s train station.
Having sailed to the most unimaginable ports of the world, lived in Singapore for a year and Brazil for two, even the Mister commented last night, much to my amusement, as we walked past a chopstick-thin guy with green spikes on his head and fifty rings on his face, “Jesus…There are definitely many special people here around huh…”
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Urban Duckies
Monday, June 16, 2008
The Big Sick Street
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Yellow
My sister had jaundice in the first months of her life. The doctor advised my parents to make sure she gets some sun everyday and to apply some strange yellow paste all over her body at night. I was seven then and wondered why my parents wanted to make my sister yellow. She was already looking like an uncle who has drunk too much alcohol and made his liver kaputt.
One night during her jaundice days, I was awoken by a strange sensation. Someone was piling something gooey on me. I reacted as I would whenever I am not sure what is going on; I kept still. When I was certain it was safe to move, I ran a finger over my face and discovered to my horror that I have been stained yellow. Although I am certain this had not caused my yellowness, a curious obsession with the colour yellow was begun.
A couple of years back, I examined my arm in all possible light situations and asked my sister, “Baby, do you think I’m yellow?” She looked up from her laptop screen and casually put her arm beside mine.
“Hmm…ya huh! You are a bit yellow leh!”
If you have seen truly yellow people, I thank you for being predisposed to understanding how strange this colour really is as a skin tone. I blame my hypersensitivity to colours on my oil painting instructress. She has single-handedly restructured my vision into one that tries to match every colour I see to a paint catalogue.
In my coloured opinion, I think a nice skin tone to have would be pink. The Mister is of this nice shade of warm hue. We were sitting together, fingers entwined, our arms together. In a silent moment, I said, “Look, I’m yellow.”
He chuckled, “Yellow? No…you don’t look yellow. Why yellow? You strange girl. So what colour am I?”
There comes my chance, the opportunity to reveal an observation I had been wanting to let loose, “You are pink!”
The pink deepened.
“Pink? Skin tone? How can? You strange yellow girl!”
Eversince, the Mister calls me ‘yellow girl’ and whenever I make an unusual suggestion, his rebuke would be, “Don’t be yellow!”