The Gnomes Made Me Do It!

2 hours 20mins till the start of the Chinese New Year, and so we usher in, yet again, another beginning AND in a span of less than 30 days. It's been one heck of a week.
Let me just write it down so I remember.
I got to see Christine who came back for a 3 week visit, watched Broken flowers, spent an afternoon with Gary after his shoulder op and played scrabble which ended in a draw!

Had ice cream with Sharon who's back from Guam, celebrated friends':
1. New found love
2. Pregnancy
3. Proposal
4. Yearning to find love again
Had a disagreement yesterday which has since been resolved, somewhat.
Crazy week I tell you!

I want to be a whole lot better this year.
I need to be much more patient and giving and hopefully through these small changes I will be happier.

Anyway, Marcus is getting impatient, and frankly, am uninspired to write anything remotely intellectual, interesting or funny so here's just something to help remember the Pre Chinese New Year hours that will soon come to pass.

Posted by sideshowjo at 9:37 pm | Permalink | Comments

I LOVE GNOMES!!!!!!
I just love the idea of them, I love Marcus and his red hat, him plodding along beside me with hands behind back, tugging my skirt, rumbling in this low gnome voice, puffing his pipe, sitting under chairs and poking us with sticks, I LOVE GNOMES!!!! ARGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!


CLICK CLICK CLICK!
An Ad by Tim Burton: Starring a gnome escaping from his garden. It's AWESOME

Posted by sideshowjo at 12:53 am | Permalink | Comments

Yuck. I came home after some errand running and lay down for a minute to read "The boy who kicked pigs" and promptly fell asleep with book on chest, only waking up 2 hours later (ie: 10 minutes ago) because heat in my room, also a furnace in the afternoons, was drying me up like a prune and making me sticky icky sweaty. I hate falling asleep in the afternoons for such a long time! Yes, but I remember back in the hamster wheel running days, I would've killed to have a power nap after a heavy lunch before the onslaught of 5 hour afternoons without break. Naps SHOULD NOT stretch beyond 30 minutes, anything more and it gives you a headache and make you feel cotton headed and woozy for the rest of the day. Urgh. I feel so unproductive! And it's reunion dinner tonight, great, fat insult russian roulette coming Jo's way, Can't wait.

Posted by sideshowjo at 4:08 pm | Permalink | Comments

I'm writing this because I've been tossing in bed for the past 15mins unable to find a comfortable position to read, yes, I know I shouldn't be lying down to read in the first place but anyway. The hour long session at the driving range last night gave me an extremely sore right shoulder and raw blister. Urg. I sound like a whimp don't I? You try tossing in bed :p


The spoils of war

Posted by sideshowjo at 12:25 am | Permalink | Comments

ver·ti·go (vûrt-g)
n. pl. ver·ti·goes or ver·ti·go

My mother came into my room at 1am last night, carrying a pair of scissors and the tin of medicinal patches my sweet father bought for her from China last year. She was having yet another vertigo attack, a condition that majority of menopausal women are sadly affected by, and wanted me to put the patches on her acu points for her. She's basically incapacitated when she has an attack gripped by severe nausea and giddiness, it lasts for hours (Imagine having horrendous severe motion sickness).

From Wikipedia:
Vertigo, sometimes called a headrush, is the sensation of spinning while the body is stationary. With the eyes shut there will be a sensation that the body is in movement; if the eyes are open the surrounding will appear to move past the field of vision.
The effects may be slight; may cause nausea; or, if severe, may give rise to difficulty with standing and walking. Vertigo is usually associated with a problem in the inner ear balance mechanisms (vestibular system), with a problem in the brain, or with the nerve connections between these two organs.

Vertigo is often used, incorrectly, to describe a fear of heights (Acrophobia or altophobia is the correct term. You were right Sonny)

Menopause is a very long drawn process that could take anywhere from 2-10 years. Having been on the receiving end for the past 5 years, of which I've only been around for 2, I can say it has not been easy. Drastic massive mood swings, extra nit pickiness, being irritable, periods of low self esteem...the list goes on. It's been a challenge at time, and we've fought our fair share of mother daughter wars during this period. But truth be told, all this pales in comparison to what my mother, and every single menopausal woman has to go through.

They have to struggle to understand their body all over again, and most of the time they have no control over the drastic changes. Muscles turns into fat no matter how hard you excercise, hot flushes at night that leave you breathless and drenched in sweat, the dry skin, dry everything, reduced immunity, in extreme cases, increased facial hair (yes, the bearded lady really did exist!), just to name a few. There are treatments of course, there's the ever popular Hormone Replacement Therapy or HRT for short. The only draw back of HRT is that, cancer cells that lie "dormant" in your body may be jolted into activation, and every good specialist will make you sign a memorandum of understanding to ensure you are aware of this risk before you start. My mother lost her best friend to aggressive breast cancer of both breats after 3 months of HRT, and hence the fear and rejection of ever taking HRT.

I pains me to see her going through this, and I just wish her menopause will be over soon.
Love your mothers all, I must learn to bite my tongue a little bit more for her.

Posted by sideshowjo at 4:26 pm | Permalink | Comments

Aching all over, I think my hips came loose during belly dance today.
I also had to obtain 2 things I'd lost, today. My O-level Certificate and Bankbook. I had forgotten that I actually got a merit for my O-level chinese oral. How I achieved that still remains a mystery to my family and friends.
Rainy day surprise.


Peadus, the naughty boy hides and waits in anticipation of Marcus's delight.

Posted by sideshowjo at 6:48 pm | Permalink | Comments

On Chocolates and Fluff

The ex-colleagues and I met up on Thursday for good ol' girly gossips. The lovely "Martha Stewart" of our group baked an amazingly scrumptious chocolate fudge cake to celebrate the birthday and the rest shared money and bought me ridiculously overpriced but oh-so-divine chocolates that sent my olfactory and taste senses into overdrive.


The first time

At 6 bucks a pop!

The purpose of me writing this down is so that I can truly appreciate the fact that I actually had Godiva chocolates. You see, I finished them all in ONE sitting. Shame on me! I honestly tried my best to prolong the sweet milky goodness but the flesh was week. The sin committed right before the watchful eyes of Lolita, while hiding under my doona, lest the Godiva police comeby and thwat me on the head for failing to give their chocolates the prolonged respect they deserve.

On Fluff.
I have no sense of geography.
1. When going on a cycling trip to Pulau Ubin 2 weeks ago, I worried about my passport
2. I warmly extended my "Velkom Back to Malaysia Pam!" over msn only to receive a text from her after I logged off that read: "HARLO. I went to Sarawak which is part of Malaysia. What la you!". I knew she went to Sarawak.

Quote of the week:This rain is absolutely Biblical -Psychic S

Posted by sideshowjo at 12:16 am | Permalink | Comments

E-mail Surprise!



US 3 ARE GOING TO KINGS OF CONVENIENCE! I can't even begin to tell you what a dream this is! I can't believe it! I'm going to see Kings of Convenience! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Posted by sideshowjo at 1:48 pm | Permalink | Comments

I had the most amzaing time yesterday and it is all thanks to a most unexpected and loved mastermind, co-mastermind and a very special band of accomplices that made the whole evening possible. I've had the best surprise birthday ever. Thank you, thank you. I should be duly ashamed should I even begin to ask for anymore.


Good enough to eat.

Dinner was at the Upper Club at Chijmes with the mastermind, a swish ballroom dancing joint that serves the most amazing melt-in-your-mouth foie gras (don't hate me Psychic S!). We were the only ones at the joint till mid way through our tenderloin and chicken mains, we were joined by 2 tai tais and their charming filipino ken doll toys. We finished our mains and entertained ourselves with other people's affairs and noticed more and more tai tai's streaming, each of them coming to meet their toy boys at the club. It was the most bizarre experience and mastermind kept going on about how it was a completely David Lynch moment, I concured. It was as if we were spiralled into a completely different sordid world. Gone the classy feel from an hour before, hello sleaze and dank heaviness of sex, viva erotica. The whole joint suddenly felt like the Milkbar scene in A Clockwork Orange. The toy boys, lips poised ready to sip milk-plus served from the nippled breasted goodness of their coin-operated mannequin Tai Tais. Their minds intoxicated and laced to get them ready for a bit of the ol' "ultra-dance floor-violence" and some "in out in out" that would naturally follow. The almost teenaged like boys, wearing zoned-out, pathological expressions on their faces, smiles plastered, shoes changed, all ready. Hello the underground world of the rich and famous.

We rolled out of the club giddy with amazement and discovery and were awakened by the sound and smell of heavy pouring rain. "Let's hide out somewhere for awhile and wait this out", said the mastermind.
"Sure!"
We found Liberte and pitched tent in a corner of the cosy bar. The next 15mins that followed was a complete blur with the burst of song and cake from the hiding accomplices and recounting of the entire surprise mission that was formulated since Sunday with much help from co-mastermind. I could have cried.

Thank you all for making the rite of becoming 26 a night to truly remember. I'm going to Perth for the holidays. Thank you, mastermind.

Posted by sideshowjo at 11:48 am | Permalink | Comments

I'm 26!
I'm going to quit wallowing.
Yes I am an underachiever, yes I can and I WILL be doing alot more this year sans laziness and procrastination.
1. Get a friken job
2. Sign up for life drawing lessons
3. Be more pro active and volunteer my time and energy to chosen charities
4. Visit the girls, Visit Perth.
5. Be good, be happy, be less melodramatic, pull self out of mild depression
6. Be less Anti-social, Make more friends

I am woman. Hear me roar.

Posted by sideshowjo at 12:13 am | Permalink | Comments

Wingy whiney post
According to my clock, it's 17mins till I turn 26.
What have I achieved up-to-date, nothing much really.
I'm swimming in mediocrity.
I also think I've developed mild depression (the bane of reading up symptoms and playing doctor! ha! Don't get me started on the phantom lumps in my breasts) and my melodramatic self has probably only gotten worse.
It's been getting harder to smile and be positive these days but I am trying my best.
Growing up wasn't supposed to be this difficult.

Posted by sideshowjo at 11:42 pm | Permalink | Comments

Oh my brother's in so much trouble! Not a single call or sms since he reached turkey, my parents' worry and anxiety aggravated by the 2 bird flu deaths in Turkey yesterday. I miss the fella. Hope he's ok.



Exerpt from his blog a year ago:
"I've always found that people seemed to dwell on the level of ‘contentness’ that they had, the happiness and seeming need to feel satisfied with life. It's not a foreign notion if you've ever been down or envied others. Certainly it's what drives most of us to continue living even as we struggle to comprehend our existence and bring justice to our daily toils. Yet, I've always been disgusted at the way they tended to measure their standing. Although it would seem we, each our own protagonist in our world, would be the best judge of this journey thrust upon us, people fail to realise how misleading our perceptions can be. My personal belief is that we are indeed the best judge of things, only if we rise above the preconceived ordering of things impaled deeply into our minds by society. How dangerous and tragic it would be to live life in set constraints that others invariably place on us. Passing phrases of disgust, spurts of self-superiority, meaningless marks of excellence scribbled down in red ink bearing semblance to numbers or letters, etc. We need to envision our place without interference, without social structure or castes, without scorn or pride. Only then can we fully measure our lives, achievements and goals. Easier said then done, agreeably, but strive we must, or forever succumb to our shortcomings."

Posted by sideshowjo at 3:43 pm | Permalink | Comments

And so I've started the first week of the new year with...


A new addition to the Marcus and Jo family. Say hi to Peadus.

I've also started the first week of the year, jobless, without reply from Australian Institution, 2 kilos heavier after the festive season, a deflating e-mail from Med School admissions officer, no reply from 2 resumes sent out a week ago, random zits and swollen painful mammaries resulting from an early onset of PMS which took its natural progression onto the next phase today, crap. Jobsdb is very slow today and I am getting impatient. Ya, now everyone take bonus and planning to run already, faster move it so I can get a job please.

2006
Whoohoo.

Posted by sideshowjo at 2:59 pm | Permalink | Comments

I've always wished I could keep all my overseas friends close, so that we could grow together and never let things change between us, friends who have left Singapore to start lives abroad, friends I painfully parted from after finishing up academic pursuits.


Pam the best thing that came out of uni, who lives in Malaysia who is going away to Australia to become a film maker!


Christine my childhood sweetheart, who lives in Melbourne with Jason her wonderful husband and their tabby cat.


My boarding lovelies, Marie Sophie who lives in Prague and studies politics in Austria and Stephanie who lives in Guatemala and who has probably qualified as a kick ass lawyer.


Theresa my gorgeous bitching mate who lives in Hong Kong but grew up in and is studying Architecture in London


Sharon my entertaining ex housemate who lives in Guam with her Husband who is in the Navy


Roy our wonderful course mate who lives in Sydney who helped me make it through Uni.

And my brother in London! And so many more I've parted from through the years.
It sometimes sucks to have studied overseas :(

Posted by sideshowjo at 4:45 pm | Permalink | Comments