Sisters

The women in my family and extended family are really strong women. It takes a lot to beat them down, and even when they are down, they still somehow manage to bounce back up again. So here's to them, especially to my sisters, whom have turned out to be fine individuals. I am so proud. I miss my sisters.

Phenomenal Woman (by Maya Angelou)

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s in the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can’t touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can’t see.
I say,
It’s in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I’m a woman.
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Now you understand
Just why my head’s not bowed.
I don’t shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It’s in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
The palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
‘Cause I’m a woman.
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Rent-head

The first time I watched Rent was in Singapore in 2001. It was a Filipino cast. You know how there are a few rare times after watching a film or musical, you walk out of the theatre feeling moved or changed in a subtle way. Rent did this for me. The musical blew my mind! The musical addresses modern issues like AIDs, homosexuality, drug addiction. I love the songs, love how the script is mostly sang, even the messages left on Mark’s answering machine. I’ve watched Rent a total of three times, second time in New York, and the third time in Singapore, where Karen Mok played Mimi. The musical still takes my breath away every single time.

My all-time favourite scene is when the entire group is at the Life Café singing La Vie Boheme. Love love love the song! *Gush gush gush*

"To days of inspiration
Playing hookey, making
Something out of nothing
The need to express -
To communicate,
Go going against the grain,
Going insane, going mad."

(These clips are from the movie instead of the musical.)


Here’s my second favourite: where Roger meets Mimi for the first time in his apartment. Love love the song. (Notice how I only put 2 “love’s” instead of 3 for my second favourite just to illustrate my point!)


And here's my third favourite. It's hilarious. It's a tough choice since I really enjoy all the songs.

"A tiger in a cage
Can never see the sun
This diva needs her stage
Baby let's have fun
You are the one I choose
Folks would kill to fill your shoes
You love the limelight too now baby."

Orcas spotted at St Heliers

Five or six killer whales were spotted chasing stingrays off St Heliers this morning. Unbelievable! They were just at the beach, 5 minutes from where I lived and I missed them! I take Tamaki Drive to work. How did I miss them driving to work this morning?! Seeing these killer whales would definitely have made my week. It would even have made cleaning up after Cooper all worth the while.

Ahhh... I miss diving.

Monday Morning

Woke up just in time to find Cooper peeing in the bedroom.
Banished him to the toilet.
Cleaned up spot in bedroom.
Showered.
Got ready for work in the wardrobe room.
Cooper peed in the wardrobe room.
Yelled at Cooper.
Brought him to the door.
Fumbled for keys.
Cooper peed on the mat.
Dragged Cooper out the door while cursing at him.
Cooper peed for eternity.
Cleaned up mat.
Yelled at Cooper somemore.
Cleaned up mess in wardrobe room.
Threatened to drop off Cooper at the SPCA.
Made note to self to purchase more carpet cleaning detergent.
Showered (again). Had pee all over me at this stage.
Finally got to work.
Was an hour late.
And the day has just barely started.

"Me" Time

Stephen is off to Hong Kong the whole of this week. Dropped him off at the airport in the morning and I headed first to the Chinese bakery. Stocked up on bread and pastries. Then off to thread my brows at Bombay Beauty Parlour(!), followed by a trip to Mitre 10 to pick up a fan heater for my bathroom because the bathroom is just crazy cold in the mornings. Not fun to sit on the toilet when it's 2-3 degrees in the mornings.

It's been sunny all day. Took Cooper out for a nice long walk around the neighbourhood. Found another street that I really like with gorgeous character houses and nice big lawns.

After running all my errands, I'm happily settled on the day bed by the window with a steaming cup of earl grey tea, munching on my boluo pao and my red bean bun, watching re-runs on my laptop. One of my neighbours have already started a fire in their fireplace for the day. I can see smoke coming out from their chimney, which reminds me, I'd better start mine soon before the sun goes down.

Am happy for now. One of the moments where I actually enjoy being in Auckland.

Sexism

I have a colleague in the office who constantly makes sexist remarks. The thing is, his remarks are so random that they always catch me unawares and I'll be fuming at him for saying the darnest things and at myself for not saying something brilliantly smart and sarcastic enough in return.

He'll say things like, "Women talk too much", or "Don't you think a man's success is about earning more money than his wife can spend?" or "Why do women spend so much money on clothes? Women dress up only for their men. Don't they realise that their men can't even be bothered?" I'm not taking these things out of context. He just sprouts random stuff like that.

Sometimes I get really irritated, sometimes I just roll my eyes. What I should do is prepare some brilliantly caustic come-back, just so that I'll have something to shoot him down with the next time he comes up with another "Women bashing" topic.

Any ideas?

Cold.

It is going to be freezing this week with temperatures dropping to a low of 0-2 degrees. It is cold enough to see our breathes in the morning when we step out of the house, and the car windscreens are frosted up. I've also started putting on layers after layers of clothing whenever I leave the house. Feel and look like a marshmallow man.

Cooper is such a tropical dog. He loves sun-tanning so he is not too impressed with recent cold bout. He's constantly running to the bathroom and whining in front of the hair dryer, in the vain hope that I'll be willing to turn on the hair dryer at full blast and aim the nozzle at him. Finally caved and moved one of the smaller heaters into the laundry room today so that he won’t be shivering in his crate while waiting for his walker to take him out.

I just realised something – the warmest that we’ll ever get here in summer is probably the coldest it'll ever get in Singapore – about 27 degrees.

Isn't that a funny thought?

Q: Going Home? A: Depends wholly on SIA.

I've decided to make the trip back for my sisters' graduation. One's graduating with a degree from SMU Accounting and the other a masters from LKY School of Public Policy. So proud of them! It'll be fun to take cheesy shots of them in their graduation gowns and then go for a nice meal after. My mother will probably insist that everyone (including Stephen and I) troop down to the studio so we can do a family portrait all decked out in our respective gowns. Very very very cheesy!

I wouldn't miss the graduation for the world except that SIA is not being very cooperative. How is it that every time we travel, we always end up being wait-listed? Even though there are a ton of flight promotions currently, we always manage to travel during peak periods and at full fare. Who does the Auckland/Singapore route in the middle of July?! It's bloody winter here! SIA better send us a hamper or a card at least for all the business we're giving them.

Here's my flight itinerary.

Stephen's flight itinerary looks even worse than mine. Both legs of the journey for him are waitlisted. At least I have the returning flight confirmed.

Mike Tyson vs Evander Cooper-field

HC Chen
Part-time sports reporter to ESPNx.com/full-time slave to Cooper

The Fight

This was the fight everyone had anticipated -- Tyson vs. Cooper-field.

They were calling it "The fight of the century - Man vs. Dog", the $100-million rematch between these titans. The first match took place 11 months earlier, producing a shocking upset -- knockout victory for Cooper-field aka Dog.

Now here we are, middle of the winter of 2009, and the rematch is drawing more attention than the first bout.

The Moment

Tyson, in his usual black trunks and shoes without socks, begins the bout more cautiously than the first fight with Cooper-field last July, when Cooper-field stunned Tyson in the 11th round by staring him down with his ever-powerful puppy dog eyes. On this night, Tyson avoids looking straight at Cooper-field and hammers away.

Seconds into Round 2, Cooper-field headbutts Tyson and the referee immediately signals the two apart. Tyson’s frustration grows. He lunges towards Cooper-field, and then in an explicable and gruesome move, crunches down on Cooper-field’s left ear and bites off a chunk!

The Photos

Coromandel

Last of my twenty-somethings

Yay yay yay!

I just received a bouquet of flowers from my family and a sweet little message. The flowers are gorgeous! THANK YOU! I also have a parcel waiting at the post office from Grandma and PL. Joy!

This is officially the last of my 20-somethings. I don't feel a year over 25, other than the fact that I can't stay out past 11pm without yawning every 2 minutes; and I can't drink like a fish anymore without wanting to chop off my head the next morning from the godawful hangover; and I fret about lines around my eyes; and I nag my sisters to no end; and I think most teenagers out there are annoying as hell... Okay so maybe I am getting a teeny weeny bit older.

Had a low-key but nevertheless purrrfect birthday yesterday! I got breakfast (well sort of breakfast if you count cupcakes as breakfast) in bed. Instead of a birthday cake, I got a whole bunch of birthday cupcakes. They're the prettiest little things. Too cute to be eaten. And a whole bunch of little gifts.

We had a nice lunch and caught Cats the musical in the evening.

I also received another bouquet of flowers from my in-laws. How very thoughtful! (But I must say I still like the flowers from my family best!)

This time next year, I'll be 3-0! Like what the girls in Sex in the City say - 30s is the new 20s. That is until they all grew older and then it was - 40s is the new 20s!

SPCA Comes Calling

My life, I realised, is always quite drama. When I think all is calm and perhaps a little boring, something will pop up and make me eat my words.

Yesterday, I went home and found a name card from one Lori Davies from the SPCA on my front door with a note asking for us to call her back. I rang her back immediately but it was past 5 so surprise, surprise, no one picked up.

Returned her call this morning and we spoke about 10 minutes. Apparently, someone complained that my prince of a dog has been ill-treated and kept in his crate for too long. Little do these people know that my prince of a dog has his own personal walker who comes daily to take him out for 4 hours for walks and romps in the park with other dogs in my neighbourhood. The lady from the SPCA was most understanding and she just put it down to a misunderstanding.

As you can imagine, I was pretty pissed off and I have a good idea of who complained. There's this Kiwi girl that lives in our basement. (Ha! Now that I've written it down, it seems kinda funny. It's like those little people living under your stairs or something. She's real though. The landlord converted our basement into a studio and she lives there with her boyfriend.) Cooper is such a brat and sometimes he whines in his crate and insists on being let out. Girl-living-in-the-basement addresses the problem by using a stick and pounding on her ceiling. Cooper of course gets more excited and thinks that it's a game so that sets him off.

I'm going to walk (well more like march) over tonight and have a chat (well that's putting it mildly) with Girl-living-in-the-basement and her angst-filled boyfriend. On top of it, I'll have to insist that they pay their fair share of the electricity and water bill. In the past, we were happy paying the bulk of the bills cuz we figured that she's young and just starting out in her career as a florist. We were happy helping her out as much as we can. Well that's all going to change!

Having a Coke with You

is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne
or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona
partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian
partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for yoghurt
partly because of the fluorescent orange tulips around the birches
partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on before people and statuary
it is hard to believe when I’m with you that there can be anything as still
as solemn as unpleasantly definitive as statuary when right in front of it
in the warm New York 4 o’clock light we are drifting back and forth
between each other like a tree breathing through its spectacles

and the portrait show seems to have no faces in it at all, just paint
you suddenly wonder why in the world anyone ever did them
I look
at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world
except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it’s in the Frick
which thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go together the first time
and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism
just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase or
at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that used to wow me
and what good does all the research of the Impressionists do them
when they never got the right person to stand near the tree when the sun sank
or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn’t pick the rider as carefully
as the horse

it seems they were all cheated of some marvellous experience
which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I’m telling you about it

By Frank O'Hara

Obama's Wedding

Aww... how sweet is this photo?!

Today

Today is the day of reckoning!

p/s: I know I'm being all mysterious and a tease but I'll clue you in once I hear of the news and share it share it share it!

Update: So I've been told that nothing is confirmed yet. And I figured it would not be for another few weeks before we find out. I'm so frustrated with how this is panning out. For once, it'll be nice to have things work out the way I hope it would. I mean, seriously. My life is not my own anymore! Damn these frigging stupid corporates goons!

Ah-Choo!

Stephen just left on a work trip to Melbourne. Over the last week or so, there was a surge in the number of infected H1N1 cases in Australia to over 500. Most of which are in Melbourne, Victoria. I'm pretty sure NZ has already stepped up it's alert and will be really paranoid with screening passengers on flights coming in from Melbourne. Let's hope that Stephen doesn't come down with the H1N1 flu because then we'll all be quarantined... and probably even be on the news! Ha! But that's not exactly how I'd like to spend my birthday.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/433533/1/.html