Spottiswoode Park Road

This road is named after the merchant, Charles Spottiswoode (1812-1858), who lived in the area. Charles Spottiswoode, together with John Conolly, started a merchant firm in Singapore in 1824, called Spottiswoode and Conolly. In 1849, the company changed its name to Spotiswoode and Company, with offices in Change Alley, In 1854 there were three Spottiswoodes listed as partners in the Company: Archibald, Charles and William. Spottiswoode died in Singapore on 13 June 1858 and was buried at the Christian cemetery in Fort Canning. His tombstone continues to stand sentinel in the cemetery.
Victor R Savage & Brenda S A Yeoh, Toponymics: A Study of Singapore Street Names

Familiar Pics

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Macritchie loop

I would like to post a picture of the sun setting at Macritchie Reservoir, but my camera is with my father at Mt Kinnabalu at the moment.

If you can imagine it, the light is slanting its way through the sky, making the clouds and water pink and orange. There are monkeys on the wooden ramps that i'm running on, and you can hear the water underfoot. You keep your pace, afraid that you will be swallowed by the darkness of the forest when the pink disappears. You've never run so fast and so long before.

The quickly changing colours make it surreal, even with the surity of your steps on the wooden ramp and your deep rhythmic breathing. You could be in a dream at this very moment, caught between slumber and wakefulness, dreaming of the end of the day before it has even begun. You could be the monkey scrowling at the intruders, then changing your mind suddenly, backing off and falling into the water unobstrusively as the joggers keep going. You could be the lean golden retriever, loyal, curious and hungry. Or the quiet reflective water that will eventually find it's way to over a million households through a labyrinth of plumbing.

You spot the end of the trail; you shake off the dream; and run. It is night the next time you look at the sky.

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Jessie Rocks!

 

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This is a Title

changed my design template today. thought i could do with a minor change in one of the more obscure details of my life. nothing major or earth-shattering (do the angels stop to listen when a human decides to repent?), but enough to make somewhat of a difference to no one in particular.

i feel like Marvin in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

I'm reading a new book now that I've finished the "Trilogy in Four Parts" (?!). It's by Michael Cummingham, who also wrote The Hours, which is an excellent thought provoking and heart rending book. This one is equally captivating - I think it is called A Home at the End of the World. Cummingham specialises in unconventional relationships and making them completely believable to the average joe. Very readable.

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Monday Morning

I'm silly this morning. S sent me to work this morning and I kept pointing out to her my shoes, white socks ("They're normal today"), and other parts of my attire. I think it had to do with the gulp of coke I had in the morning, and left over pizza in the bag.

I had a good weekend. Spent Sat with A jogging (5km in 30min21sec) and swimming. Went for dinner at this Noodle house place which had a large check for $5000 made out to Chen Su Lan Methodist Home prominently displayed. Oh, they had free flow coke too. Excellent :) I was completely noodled out by the end of that day though, since we had fried sliced fish noodle soup for lunch. That was really good - at beach road - a rich creamy soup with tasty succulent pieces of fish, wads of seaweed, and slippery cu1 me2 fen3 (fat been hoon). Ooh. I wasn't even hungry at that point.

Then went to meet S, J and L at Crystal Jade. Boy did I get an earful for being late. Whoops. I wouldn't have done it any other way though, since that was the first time I was seeing A in a week (I know, it sounds pathethic, but I am pathethic). I suppose I wanted the best of both worlds.

Sunday I went to church and then back home again to read the papers and clean the room. I thought briefly about how it is a nice day to not exist, but didn't pursue that thought any further. Had pizza for dinner - Ha! That is a funny story all in itself. We ordered one Classic Greek and one BBQ Chicken from Canadian Pizza but they sent a Mexican Fiesta instead of the Greek. S was like, "Their olives are green." And I was like, "Those aren't olives. I think they ran out of olives and replaced them with green peppers or jalapenos or something." S, "Ooh. What a spicy red chilli." Me, "Chilli? Hmm. Are there supposed to be chillis on this thing?" S, "Hmm.."

The bottom line is, we swapped one piece of the Mexican Pizza for an entire hot Greek pizza, and got a free bottle of coke in the process. :)

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I'm tired. I've had two nights of lectures already (doing the powerpoint, which means I'm standing up the whole time and hanging on the speaker's every word, and also selling books and CDs, which means I'm counting lots of money and fretting when it doesn't add up). This is in addition to the two full day seminar sessions that is happening at the same time. I'm typing now so that I won't fall asleep. Need to go back in soon to collect the name tags back.. ooh..

I forgot I brought the hitchhiker's guide to work today. maybe i'll read that instead of typing in here. but i doubt it will keep me awake... oh so tired. where did all the coffee i drank go to? did it evaporate off my head? argh. arrrrghhh. more books to sell tonight, more powerpoints to click, more people to smile at and talk to, and miles to go before i sleep.

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My sister's dog

Isn't she adorable? :) 

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A Hobbit Song

Sweet fair Lady of the Ring!
Where does your damsel head lie?
Your voice is sweet and heart is kind
Echoing deep of lovely mystery

Lovely sultry Lady of the Ring!
The folds of your garment drape
Over hills and valleys low
Terrain of my mind’s consummation

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another new day.

i want to edit the poem i wrote yesterday. the rhythm and cadence doesn't suit the ideas and feelings i want to portray. I want to capture the sense of splitting apart (body and life), tearing apart (from the crowd), and the consuming longing to hear the word that will put me together again.

The idea of being split apart stems from the disgust at having disembodied emotions, unrealised dreams, and an unlivable future. There needs to be both conflict and tension in the words.

it's like "The Second Coming" by Yeats -

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all convictions, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Feel the pulse in that? There is no pulse in mine.

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running on barker road

tumbling, procrastinating, and wanting to run
away and feel my heart inside me
like a beating drum with a life of its own,
apart, beyond, above, around.

'till life and body separates
and my story is lost in the pounding stream
of faces, piety, tears, and blood
that churns in the incense before
the throne of God.

pulling and straining to breathe
above the maddening and insignificant babble,
to hear one word one name one phrase
burned into memory by longing

and the drum rushes on
with falling feet on gravel

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lovely chocolate!

Melt in your mouth sweetness -- the perfect pick-me-upper on a Wednesday afternoon! It was a Belgain bar of milk choc, broken into half over the edge of my colleague's table, and into smaller chunks by knife. It's sweetness is of a pure chocolatey kind, not sickening in any way at all. Oh for another bite! It'll put my love handle production into overdrive though. ;)

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I think we have a solution

Two dial-up plans at $5.20 each with 26 hours of free access together.

This means that I will have two email address for both mum and pop, and I can use the NTUC May Day coupons to redeem four months free. It sounds like a plan!

Or is it too complicated?

I make life complicated for myself. I have two mobile phone plans, one with 700 free SMS and one with free incoming calls. And to complicate things further, I have identical mobile phones - two glow-in-the-dark white Nokia 3100s. Brilliant eh? All to save a couple of bucks on my phone bill. On any given day, I will have my SMS line in my left pocket and my calling line in my right with a tube sock over the calling line phone so that I can tell them apart. I have minutes on my SMS line to use on Sun and between 9pm and 9am from Mon to Sat; and 150 SMSes on my calling line in case I use more than 700 SMSes a month (which happens, horror of horrors). I wodner how I keep sane!

And so i'm proposing another venture into complication.

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One hour to lunch and I've done no work

I have been an absolute bum about work recently. Yesterday I whittled my time away surfing the web and twiddling my thumbs, today I spent the morning talking to my colleagues about the MSM concert last night, writing hm a long email, drinking milky coffee and eating beehoon, updating my blog, and watching my fish swim. What buminess! Especially since I woke up this morning and resolved to finish the youth report that I've been putting off! Oh, the best laid plans of mice and men (and I'm definitely a mouse with mouse-sized plans) gang 'oft awry.

The concert hall at the Espanade was awesome. We sat at the Circle 3 seats at the highest and furthest point of the Hall. Walking down the side steps at this height gave me thoughts of my body hurtling down to the seats below in a dramatic death. But it didn't happen. obviously, and the music played on. I had a genuinely good time. I think it was a welcome relief from the bothersome, introspective, self-bashing thoughts that weighed me down the last three days, and I was happy to be simply one person in a concert hall listening to music. They say Happiness was one of the chief goals of the Methodists, along with Love. But of course their version of happiness is like "holy happiness" or something like that.

I have a new article on Talkingcock. I've written quite a few since the first one. The Rich man one has been the most popular.

Alright. Back to work, erm, really.

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Fill in the blanks

I am not: 16 anymore
I love: my friends and family
I hate: people who trick old folks
I fear: not succeeding
I hope: for a happy ending
I hear: bubbling from the fish tank and the hum of my computer
I crave: for a simple life
I regret: my course of study
I cry: at church
I care: tremendously, but I’ve forgotten
I always: look up the HDB block for falling potted plants
I believe: in God
I feel alone: on Friday nights
I listen: and feel helpless
I hide: so I won’t hurt others.
I drive: erm.. a bicycle?
I sing: haltingly
I dance: even more haltingly
I write: to feel better about myself
I miss: Old friends, my sister, college life, Bible Study, the smell of spring, driving a car
I search: for my missing hands-free set
I learn: that life doesn’t turn out the way you’ve always imagined it to be
I feel: forgotten
I know: that my parents love me
I say: “I don’t know”
I succeed: “I don’t know”
I dream: always
I want: the best deal
I have: 19 neon tetras, 4 orange-striped fish and 1 sucker fish
I give: you $2 if you will ask me for it
I fell: too many times already
I fight: when I feel snubbed
I need: reassurance
I laugh: and it brings hope

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Ha ha! Check this out! From the archives of The Onion:

Finger-Quotes Lady Now Doing Hand Parentheses
LINCOLN, NE—Finger-quotes lady Ann Hahn, 41, has added hand parentheses to her hand-punctuation repertoire, sources reported Monday. "I ran into Ann in the breakroom, and she told me Mindy Lewis wasn't at work last Friday because she was sick," coworker Edward Felk said. "Then she cups her hands and adds, 'from drinking too much.' Who does that?" Added Felk: "What's next, thumb commas?"

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