New Moon

Supposedly squeal-worthy moments, judging from the number of  infatuated females in the theatre-

1. Edward first appears on screen.
2. Jacob first appears on screen.
3. Jacob takes off his shirt to reveal a beefed-up body.
4. Jacob almost kisses Bella, twice.
5. Edward removes his shirt to reveal a pale-white lean body.
6. Edward kisses Bella.
7. Edward asks for Bella’s hand in marriage.

I KEEP rolling my eyes. Show’s rather boring, by the way.

Reading you like a book.

I can read you like a book. (smug tone)

 

I, on the other hand, cannot read you like a book; you’re just too cunning. Occasionally, when I manage to read a page of you, I get terribly disgusted.

 

The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.

One of the hardest things for me to admit is that years of speaking Singlish has interfered with my spoken English. Perhaps even my written English, in ways I am not even aware of. For instance, ‘void deck’ has been said to be a term coined by Singaporeans to describe, well, the vacant space at the ground floor of our high-rise blocks. It’s astonishing how seamlessly these words have crept into our speech and writing.

Singlish has become synonymous with bad English. This, I disagree with to a large extent. To call Singlish bad English is to strip it of its existence, totally. Rather, Singlish is a variant of the English language and I see nothing wrong with it. I use it proudly, in fact. To be honest, Singlish is incredibly functional and undeniably useful as a cultural indicator. While it has an effect on my spoken English, I recognize and acknowledge that it is not the sole factor (Nerves, among other things, have a role in this too). Neither is it the primary cause.

We believe, with quite a fair bit of confidence, that we can switch between “proper” English and Singlish to suit the occasion. Therefore, this gives us the opined right to ridicule Ms Singapore World for her poor articulation, on top of her poor choice of words for interviews.

But, to speak accurately is not simply a matter of dropping the ‘las’ and ‘lors’ from our speech. Neither is it simply a matter of applying stress to word parts as you wish- to create intonation, thus Standard English. There are phonetic rules that we were never taught in school and our enunciation skills never did improve. At least, mine didn’t.

We don’t learn our grammar the right way in school too. Word classes should not be incorrectly explained by examples (i.e. Nouns are Tom, house, cow); they have to be explained by their rules (e.g. Determiner comes before a noun, not the other way round). What about tenses? I don’t recall my teachers explaining to me what past perfect and past participle tenses are.

We never did learn the rules of English properly and this is what broke the spoken English for most. Singlish cannot be helped if we don’t even know the rules of English and can guesstimate at best. Well then, how do we even start to distinguish clearly and certainly the two*?

* Perhaps three- Standard English, bad English, and Singlish.

Moving a motion of apology.

Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, says sorry to British child immigrants.

Today, the Government of Australia will move the following motion of apology in the Parliament of Australia. We come together today to deal with an ugly chapter in our nation’s history. And we come together today to offer our nation’s apology. To say to you, the Forgotten Australians, and those who were sent to our shores as children without your consent, that we are sorry. Sorry – that as children you were taken from your families and placed in institutions where so often you were abused. Sorry – for the physical suffering, the emotional starvation and the cold absence of love, of tenderness, of care. Sorry – for the tragedy, the absolute tragedy, of childhoods lost,– childhoods spent instead in austere and authoritarian places, where names were replaced by numbers, spontaneous play by regimented routine, the joy of learning by the repetitive drudgery of menial work. Sorry – for all these injustices to you, as children, who were placed in our care. As a nation, we must now reflect on those who did not receive proper care. We look back with shame that many of you were left cold, hungry and alone and with nowhere to hide and nobody to whom to turn. We look back with shame that so many of you were left cold, hungry and alone and with nowhere to hide and with nobody, absolutely nobody, to whom to turn. We look back with shame that many these little ones who were entrusted to institutions and foster homes instead, were abused physically, humiliated cruelly, violated sexually. And we look back with shame at how those with power were allowed to abuse those who had none. And how then, as if this was not injury enough, you were left ill-prepared for life outside – left to fend for yourselves; often unable to read or write; to struggle alone with no friends and no family. For these failures to offer proper care to the powerless, the voiceless and the most vulnerable, we say sorry. We reflect too today on the families who were ripped apart simply because they had fallen on hard times. Hard times brought about by illness, by death and by poverty. Some simply left destitute when fathers damaged by war could no longer cope. Again, we say sorry for the extended families you never knew. We acknowledge the particular pain of children shipped to Australia as child migrants – robbed of your families, robbed of your homeland, regarded not as innocent children but regarded instead as a source of child labour. To those of you who were told you were orphans, brought here without your parents’ knowledge or consent, we acknowledge the lies you were told, the lies told to your mothers and fathers, and the pain these lies have caused for a lifetime. To those of you separated on the dockside from your brothers and sisters; taken alone and unprotected to the most remote parts of a foreign land – we acknowledge today that the laws of our nation failed you. And for this we are deeply sorry. We think also today of all the families of these Forgotten Australians and former child migrants who are still grieving, families who were never reunited, families who were never reconciled, families who were lost to one another forever. We reflect too on the burden that is still carried by our own children, your own children, your grandchildren, your husbands, your wives, your partners and your friends – and we thank them for the faith, the love and the depth of commitment that has helped see you through the valley of tears that was not of your own making. And we reflect with you as well, in sad remembrance, on those who simply could not cope and who took their own lives in absolute despair. We recognise the pain you have suffered. Pain is so very, very personal. Pain is so profoundly disabling. So, let us together, as a nation, allow this apology to begin to heal this pain. Healing the pain felt by so many of the half a million of our fellow Australians who were children in care – children in our care. And let us also resolve this day that this national apology becomes a turning point in our nation’s story. A turning point for shattered lives. A turning point for governments at all levels and of every political hue and colour to do all in our power to never let this happen again. For the protection of children is the sacred duty of us all. This is the motion that later this day this Government will commend to the Parliament of Australia… [full text here] Kevin Rudd

 Source: Telegraph 

You should know upfront that this is not a love story.

For a very long time, I thought that letters and parcels – delivered as slow mail -must be packed into standard envelopes that one can easily obtain from the post office or stationery shops. That is generally okay with me, except that I didn’t like to use them boring packaging tools for my jewelry packages. To skew around the problem, somewhat, I have resorted to packing them in little decorated bags (typical of a sandwich bag), before the bubble wrap, and before the boring envelope.

Today, while retrieving a boring envelope, I found a kraft sandwich bag in my office cabinet. I wished I had done this much earlier, but nevertheless it is better late than never- I asked my colleague if it is alright to use non-standard envelopes for slow mail. Am I the last to know that it is okay?

 

The Space matter

This is someone’s shop, but I would really love to have a crafting space looking like this! I do fancy my room/kitchen quintessentially oblong, with a table of some sort in the middle.

 

Protected: Away from work

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Good friend:
ooooO Ooooo <–front view of my toes
cant wait for my exams to be over
have u cut ur hair!

Me:
…….. ok thanks for the view
no i haven’t

Good friend:
when.
i want to change my style!

Me:
to what

Good friend:
something edgy, funkier

suit my character

Me:
HAAAAAAAAAAAA

Less than budget.

I’m not a fan of either but… Ouch.

 

With all that advertising and celeb endorsement by Jetstar, you would think its price beat guarantee was something awesome. Come on, it was emphasized in the ad, uttered by a celeb with hand signs and a wide smile.

You only need to notice the long list of T&Cs to know that it is not fantastic. For one, it is not applicable to all types of flights. Baggage sizes must be more or less similar. And its competitor’s flight must be within an hour of its departure time. We missed out by 5minutes. I am not surprised.

Besides, to have its customer service staff tell you wrongly the types of flights that are applicable under this publicity stunt is surely annoying. There are but 5 types…! Oh, and another staff tried to justify why Jetstar is lacking an email enquiry platform by saying that she doesn’t even have access to Jetstar’s email address (much less me). That TOTALLY answered my question.

I, and too many others, happen to think that emails are very important communication tools. I can’t see why a company (esp one which claims that it values “our customers’ feedback”) would fail to provide an online enquiry platform for their “valued” customers when they are meant to facilitate enquiry and feedback.  Like the unimpressive service standards at Jetstar, its recommendation of slow mail for customer service feedback is just as unimpressive.

Me thinks we receive less-than-budget service while paying more-than-budget prices.

 

Jab account #1

I took the first of 3 Gardasil jabs last night.

Gardasil, my doctor told me, protects against 4 human papillomavirus (HPV) types (Types 16, 18, 6, and 11), a “common virus spread through skin-to-skin contact and infects about half of all sexually active men and women at some point in their lives”. HPV is the cause of almost all cervical cancers.

Based on friends’ accounts, the jab seemed like a painful process, with side effects like fever and soreness in the arm (so sore that it cannot be lifted to buckle the bra). Thus, I had put aside my plans to take the jab for more than 2 months. It was with some trepidation that I visited the clinic last night, but the jab was over in a second. The ant-bite sting strayed for a minute or two, and then it was gone.

 

Some facts I retrieve from the little info booklet:

• Cervical cancer is

 - the second most common cancer affecting women worldwide, and the fifth most common cancer affecting women in Singapore

 - the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women worldwide, with a monthly average of 7 deaths among women in Singapore

• Types 16 and 18 account for about 70% of all cervical cancers; types 6 and 11 are non-cancerous strains but account for 90% of all genital warts.
• Cervical cancer may take up to 20 years to develop from initial HPV exposure.