i was looking through the members of the SCGS group on facebook and Janice Koh's profile caught my eye. Janice Koh, an scgs girl?! to confirm my suspicions i looked through her list of friends and she had pam oei and lim yu beng listed. so definitely the actress, who knew she was from scgs ... ed, elsa, did you know? heh.

+ posted by M @ 4:34 PM

...	Friday, August 24, 2007

i was kind of excited for this movie (tony leung...), but now just kind of annoyed because the poster is a complete rip-off of ITMFL, and the girl doesn't look half as beautiful as maggie cheung.

+ posted by M @ 12:24 PM

...	Thursday, August 23, 2007

photos, as promised, are on facebook (because it's a lot less fiddly).

+ posted by M @ 7:59 PM

...

today we celebrated being together for a year. i went over and we made breakfast - buttermilk pancakes, hashed browns and sausages (a slightly healthier and less processed version of the macdonalds breakfast we used to eat together before i left). and then we sat around and went out to purvis street so i could get some drawing done. had a nice chat with her while drawing and apparently the aunties at the chicken rice stall were watching me for quite a while before i noticed. it's nice how whenever i go drawing i meet the nice people who run the stalls (i usually sit at a kopitiam for hours and draw what's opposite it) and they don't really mind if all i order is a drink and even offer to give me more water. we ate a lot today, far too much. first breakfast, and then purvis street beef noodles and kaya toast. and then we went to Actually to get her a freitag bag because lianghui very nicely offered a super discount.

after all this we went to the national museum and i brought her to the food exhibit which i really really like. i saw these two blue-collared workers (presumably from china, because of their accent) enjoying the bak kut teh short film. both of them were reading aloud the chinese sayings at the start of the film and smiling in recognition to the herbs mentioned in the film. it was really quite heart-warming to see them enjoying it so much ... a reminder that art and knowledge should be made free and accessible to everyone.

we had a really nice dinner at Novus. our first 'poshy' kind of dinner where you get the waiters serving you the plates at the same time and introducing the dishes and things like that.. and then we sat around the museum for a bit before going home.

i don't usually list out everything i've done in a day but i wanted to note this down somewhere because i felt like i would be able to remember better. it was a good day, and i was really happy. i like how we don't really do anything at all, or we don't really talk about anything at all but those times we spend not really talking about anything or doing anything are the ones i remember best.

bon anniversaire!

(photos to come - mainly for you, carol, of the National Museum!)

+ posted by M @ 2:02 AM

...	Wednesday, August 15, 2007

i never really thought that i would be going through this whole application process thing again. typing out personal statements, getting letters of recommendation, compiling the results. and i still don't know where i'm going. whether to give up a more all-rounded liberal arts education (though tediously dragged down by compulsory core science classes) for an intensely concentrated conservatory-type education. i'll finally have some sort of peace of mind after the 28th, but til then it's sketching, sketching and thinking.

i realize i have barely read at all this summer and it is a very bad thing. i'm going through one of those angsty periods in my life right now, don't mind me. i'm thinking things can only go up for now, but it doesn't seem to be happening quick enough ...

+ posted by M @ 6:42 AM

...	Friday, August 10, 2007

The River

I come from down in the valley
where mister when you're young
They bring you up to do like your daddy done
Me and Mary we met in high school
when she was just seventeen
We'd ride out of that valley down to where the fields were green

We'd go down to the river
And into the river we'd dive
Oh down to the river we'd ride

Then I got Mary pregnant
and man that was all she wrote
And for my nineteenth birthday I got a union card and a wedding coat
We went down to the courthouse
and the judge put it all to rest
No wedding day smiles no walk down the aisle
No flowers no wedding dress

That night we went down to the river
And into the river we'd dive
Oh down to the river we did ride

I got a job working construction for the Johnstown Company
But lately there ain't been much work on account of the economy
Now all them things that seemed so important
Well mister they vanished right into the air
Now I just act like I don't remember
Mary acts like she don't care

But I remember us riding in my brother's car
Her body tan and wet down at the reservoir
At night on them banks I'd lie awake
And pull her close just to feel each breath she'd take
Now those memories come back to haunt me
they haunt me like a curse
Is a dream a lie if it don't come true
Or is it something worse
that sends me down to the river
though I know the river is dry
That sends me down to the river tonight
Down to the river
my baby and I
Oh down to the river we ride


really quite a haunting song.

+ posted by M @ 1:22 AM

...	Saturday, August 04, 2007

i need to find a new haunt for my much-loved kaya toast.

killiney and yakun just don't seem to cut it anymore. i used to be decidedly partial to yakun, but now they're both pretty interchangeable to me. i remember the day when i visited yakun's very first franchise at far east square with my family. back then the bread was still served piping hot and very crispy. that was probably the day i discovered kaya toast, and it was a huge revelation. now the bread is usually lukewarm or not even warm. it feels like they pre-grilled it in mass amounts and then just spread kaya and butter when ordered ... no longer made to order. even the original killiney shop i went to on wednesday was not as good as before. in fact the best kaya toast i've probably had for a long time was at a random drink stall at commonwealth food centre (or at least that's what i think it was called ... the one near holy cross), and that was last year before i left.

so how?! on one hand i'm glad i can find a yakun practically anywhere i go, but on the other hand i'm pretty sad (don't even get me started on toastbox - they serve brown kaya which i don't like, and their butter doesn't even come in slats).

+ posted by M @ 3:06 PM

...	Wednesday, August 01, 2007

i think that on the inside, i'm malay.

i love padang food with a passion. i am in love with teh tarik. not teh si, not teh - teh tarik. but then it can be argued that teh tarik is more of a fusion type of thing, rather than purely malay. i find 'mats' endearing instead of 'aimless', and happen to think most malay girls dress themselves with a certain flair and savvy fashion sense the average chinese girl lacks. not to mention, i like the way that they speak and the accents they have. the malay language has intonations to it that is at once very dont-take-me-seriously-singsong but also tongue-in-cheek witty. i don't know, i can't really explain it. i must be one of the very few that think this way and i hardly admit it.

+ posted by M @ 12:43 AM