starbucks coffee, steamed milk irish cream -$5.00

got abit of extra time of my hands... took a trip down sucky memory lane...

bah. i hate bad memories, managed to forget most of em, but somehow seeing the pple i once knew always brings back feelings of anguish and thwartings. tend to feel stupid, wish that past was non-existant.

"live for today" - difficult. im not happy...

mistakes sometimes hav a lasting effect, and its difficult to proceed, carefree, when i noe i might make one. if life's like a card game... aii i dun play cards.



nevertheless, perfection is too heavy a burdern to carry, ill take my chances and forget my mistakes.

forget, forgot, forget again

Tanglin bake shop, 5 piece plain pita -$3.60



ez-link is evil, yes evil.



watched the news at 6:30pm today, reports of the ez-link system bringing troubles for the poorer folk and its new schemes for "convenience" sake.

i feel that as the small country that singapore is, its ridiculous that public transport cost so much. while marketing principles might justify the hike in public transport fares, it is irresponsible to allow for these prices to sky rocket...



tv reports now say that bus fares are growing too costly for low income commuters who work a long distance frm home. seriously, is singapore that huge? i mean in countries of greater scales this is unheard of and infact, common. im not sure how marketing principles of demand and availibility works, but maybe, maybe the reason that traveling a short distance in singapore cost more than traveling a longer distance in a larger country, is size.



however the cost of fares is not the problem of concern. it is the ability to travel arnd this island, in which we happened to be born in, that needs some evaluating...

i remember in my first year of design studies, my class was questioned as to how many places in singapore we hav visited. the majority of us knew only orchard/town and the areas arnd our school and home. many of us treat the other side of the country as a land of oblivion. it now leaves me to wonder if it was the arduously priced bus fares and the inaccesibility of less frequented zones that lead to such a demaning result.



note: traveling encompasses experiencing our surroundings and the observing of differences from one place to another. these feed our ability to imagine, which in turn brings forth innovation and creativity. suffice to say, traveling is a crutial aspect of education/learning. and the lack of "creativity" quotent in singapore students cld hav travel, or the lack of it, as one of the main causes.



market demands bring high transport fares, which in turn lead to students not traveling and thus the limitations in imagination and creativity. simulating this, maybe one the causes of students being dull when it comes to learning from outside of the text book or outside of sch's structured systems is the inconvenience in traveling abt the island.

possibily, the inability to be creative is the adverse effect of the market driven demands in singapore's society.



having said that, i state again, ez-link is evil.



hav u visited a remote location this year?

RomankanYokohama's rosu katsu teisyoku (fried pork-loin cutlet) -$10.00

slow day... no much progress wif work... this sux, i took a wrong turn in my project... now the model is abit too complicated. and wif the little time i hav left to finish it, the situation is truly demoralising... aish. i wish there was an easier way to tilt models...

where to start building? ahhhhhh! where to start building...



enuff abt today.



recently mcdonald's has been running this new advertising campaign on tv. i think the advert itself is prety good... very much like a levis advert, targeted at the teenage audience. for a while now macs has been trying to project a very family and heart warming image. the change is prolly some marketing strategy. and this tactic has proven effective, jus look at levis. after their campaigns, year after year, targeted to bring abt the image of sex appeal, street and authenticity, they have succeded in dominating the jeans market. i mean if given the choice between levis and lee which wld u get? this in turn gives them the power to command the highest market price.



do not be confused, i am not commending the actions of macs.



infact i feel that their actions prove them all the more horrible! lemme explain, the burgers in a typical singapore macs outlet taste like microwaved recycled food and they are mighty costly and never close to filling. likewise for most of their menu... seriously i believe everything served from a macs counter is recycled.

now wif the hefty sum of money they hav conned out of kids, kids buying useless crappy toys in their "make macs happy by buying their junk meal" (which were prolly assembled by unfortunate 3rd world poor-folk maybe even kids), they used their ill gotten gains and use it to con a different audience... they cld atleast invest in serving proper food. remember when the big mac as actually big? and there was a time when their regular hamburger wont fit an envelope.

also recycled food does NOT taste good.

after scrimping on food quality and quantity they now decide to brand themselves differently to increase sales. i mean BE ETHICAL! SERVE PROPER FOOD! i fear the day macs become as popular as levis though i doubt it.



i appeal to all who read this... boycott mcdonald's.



anyways macs aint the only bunch practicing business wifout ethics... i keeps me wondering if there wld ever be any chance for ethics in singapore.

i can only hope.

Calpis soda ina can -$1.65

-LOREAL *majireve advanced coded 8.16- that was the only english written on the purple tube of dye for my hair... its supposed to be direct frm japan... or so said the guy who did my hair colour for me... i guess he can be trusted.



well today i dyed my hair =) and first time in fact. haha. cost a bomb so im now really broke but also really happy...

oh yea and check out the pics i posted under "capitol review".







still feel silly in purple

perrier regular -$1.77

its two now but i refer to 11sept2003.

so after the accident incident, i made my way to bible study at abt 7pm. the train at seven had lottsa old people. particaluary there were two uncles that caught my eye.



one of em had rubber shoes. yes rubber! ive always known there were rubber boots but never rubber shoes. at first i tot, he had bought rubber boots and cut em off to the ankle. however on futher inspection, of the edge, it proved otherwise. haha, and they were brand new! plus they looked itchy cos the old man kept wiggleing his toes, causing the glossy rubber surface to glisten againts the lights above. haha anyhows the old guy looked weathered and tuff, so i figured he must work in some wet market or some wet goods delivery place.

another had this bright umbrella of red yellow and blue, much like the one the longan lady frm Ipoh has, jus smaller. actually, it was quite a big umbrella for a handheld one and though it look overused, it still retained some sturdyness. futhermore, the umbrella looked so 70s. i imagined this old man, in the rain, wif his umbrella walkin thro the little streets of tiong baru and bukit merah where, the art decor influence of the 70s is very much apparent in the buildings. the colourful umbrella wld hav fitted the facades of the housing estates like a fullstop in a sentance. haha wonderful, makes me feel like painting... but i cant... not yet. i also remember that, 2yrs back i wld hav hated these vintage and aged icons and products, but ive growned to love them.

utilitarian as these items may seem they looked very much a part of the two old men who owned them. it makes me wonder how somthing that looks so wrong when put in the light of current trends and style preferences cld be so explicitly correct when place in the right context.



i reached bible study late. but todays msg was abt forgiving pple and not being bitter. i think the msg is timely since ive kinda broken the silence between my father and i. and ness u are rite... i shldnt be bitter, haha it aint fun being a bittergourd :P

so ill pray and ill work towards being less bitter and more happy.

bittergourds no more!

NUH's canteen - chee chong funn -$2.50



ive jus uploaded my pics to ipoh, please click on "IpohToday" under the magazine rack for the album of selected pics.



i woke up, this rainy morning, to a call telling me that my father (yea, the detestable one) had slipped, fell and needed an ambulance. slightly flustered i prepared to go down to the hospital and walked to the site where the little freak accident had occured.

i found my father at the bus stop wif a few pple crowded around. a lady, prolly a fresh grad, kind enuff to support my father frm where he fell up to a seat then, wif her mobile fone called up my mom and i. she dint look too bright, and her set of braces made her look kinda silly, but she's a nice person. very nice. there was also a malay homemaker wif motherly chacteristics. this large lady along wif the grad was talking comenting to my father abt his condition while handing him tissue as he was bleeding at the nose. there was also this guy in orange, from his short exchange wif the grad he was the one who dialed up the ambulance.

then there was my father.

sitting and bleeding, but not much, looking a little dazed. no big deal i thought when i saw him... and no big deal indeed. but i guess he was in shock. he had first fell off the rain covered steps into a seated position, knocking his tailbone on the concrete grnd. he got up dizzy and moved to a seat only to blackout and fall off the seat, on to his knees then his face. his spects abraded his brow and nose bridge.



pause.



and before u pity this... well... my father, dont. unless u noe him better than i do.

anyhows the ambulance came, patched him up, sent him to the hospital where he spent 5hrs going thro the necessary checkups. and if any of u wish to noe, he is ok physically. mentally... well, waddling in self pity. (note again that u dun noe him as well as i do.)



today lead me to wonder again if i wld care if he died... after all, throughout the whole incident frm recieveing the call to waiting for him at the hospital i dint feel even the slightest tang of anxiety or fear. maybe its the peace of God telling me all will be fine or maybe its jus that i dun really care.

either way after silence between us both for abt 7mths, i managed to ask him how badly he was hurt. hes fine. he had to complain abit but refrained when he saw i was frowning at him. i also managed lunch wif him which contained no conversation. i dun feel enuff to care although i do feel obliged.



i imagine wat pple wld say and wat pple hav said. i think its like losing a finger. pple look at ur hand and say "oh uve lost ur finger!" but to the one whos lost it, its jus another day wif one finger less.



if theres any good left in me its gotta be Jesus.

meji fresh milk tiny bottle -$0.91

oh i forgot to say, i finished ma painting toodae! and it feels great =) dint think water colour cld be so farn! haha.