Sunday, February 24, 2008

singapore speak

Grouch: i'm looking for sacred games by vikram chandra, please

Borders Sales Girl: tha wan must beeyo citeee

Grouch: I'm sorry, could you please repeat that?

Borders Sales Girl: beeyo citeee, tha wan must

(apres 2 min)

Agitated guy in the snake queue behind me "Dude, how tough is that, you must go to Vivo City to get that one?"

Some one knee me in the boys please.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

busting my chops

"Dude, you are the oldest twenty-three-year-old I've ever met"

Friday, February 22, 2008

i heart

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

she's my november girl.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

the diving bell and the butterfly.

it took me places i've never been before.

it took me home.

i wish i could hold on to that forever.

one day, we will all be together.

i promise myself that.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Prayers, please.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

It was a friend’s birthday.

1. Supposed to go for movie and dinner, but (I am given to understand that) the movie is just a ploy so as to pull together some semblance of a surprise. The movie story bought the "hosts" time to smuggle the cake into the restaurant. So some of the guests can make it only for the movie and not dinner and movie, which since there was no movie, messes up their evening! The drama, my point exactly!

2. Conversation during dinner:

Guest 1: I have lost weight. All I eat is soup and salad, twice a day. Now repeat that sentence 20 times over and is all what she spoke about during dinner

Guest 2: Don't order so much food, don't order, are you sure you can eat that much? Two very awkward jokes followed with even more awkward silence at the table. One, I think was a dig at the firm, Frost and Sullivan.

Guest 3: Did not say a word. Cross my heart. Not a word

Guest 4: Didn't show up. See memo on movie/dinner mix up.

Guest 5: Nice guy, I talk to him, interesting.

Birthday boy: uncomfortably smiling, observing everybody, few sentences spoken.

OMG the pain!

3. Dinner gets over, photographs are taken, Guest 4 shows up.

4. I am exhausted, want to head home. More photographs are taken, I smile, I mutter a few choice words.

5. They want to buy beer and sit by the harbor and drink. Beer is bought, we head to the harbor and it’s a total love fest. Crap. I don't do that. Because. I don't drink beer. And, I don't want to intrude on nervous couples trying to have a moment. I hang out with them for ten minutes or so and then politely leave.

Oh during the 90 minutes that was dinner, I was called "pervert, drunk, old, snob..."

Woe is me. Again.
i want to text, call, speak with.
HATING the wait.

Monday, February 4, 2008

The hills and vales of life this week:

1. after two years since the girl and I ended a six-year thing i finally met someone that i really really like.

2. got a free ticket to fly away to Phnom Penh only to realize that they had misspelled my name, and screwed up the dates -- which being a free ticket, meant there was nothing I could do save fork over $350 to change the name/date. Which is SO not worth it for a two-day trip to Cambodia.

3. Heading to Nias for the last week in Feb. Part of a team that evaluates foreign aid effectiveness in Tsunami affected areas. Haven't been to Indonesia - so I really am looking forward to this.

4. Chinese New Year is happening this weekend. Everything is closed in Singapore for three days. But I got called in for a last-minute paper; and will be working dog-hours till this Sunday. CRAP.

5. Negotiating a book deal on health policy with Routledge! More later.

Friday, February 1, 2008

happy birthday, my dear,
with love, perhaps unparalleled