It all started with an MMS...

A lot has happened in the past few days that I've missed out on writing this. I'm not going to put every single detail down but the gist of it is that I found out that people tend to exaggerate.

For example, when I met Ace yesterday, he told me that he started his own photography business. "Good for him" I thought. Then he gave me his website and told me that he had posted some pictures in there. So I went in to take a look while I was at HP. The sure, he had access to certain events and was priviledged enough to photograph a bit celebrity like John Travolta when he toured to Singapore on his Qantas 707.

But upon looking at his namecard, the back of it had things such as "Celebrity photography", "Fashion" and "magazines". His "Magazines" photography were actually advertisement photos that had a lot of touching up in them. So much so that it no longer looked like the original photograph. Still, I suppose it wouldn't really be misrepresentation for him to put that in there.

K commented that he was in the CMI category of photographers and I agree (after looking at his shots posted in the website). Well, like I said, people tend to exaggerate. Especially when it comes to their capabilities.

On another note, I met C on friday morning for pancakes at Novena. I'm still flabbergasted at how my phone number managed to get into her phone. Perhaps sometime back in recent history, someone must have given her my number since I really have no idea who she was. Anyway, after pancakes I went to meet Nick downtown for "lunch" but since it was such a late and heavy breakfast, I passed on ordering more food to stuff myself silly with. The office at FH is decent if small. However, I feel that it will suit our purposes well.

I met Ed along with Nick during lunch...Nick might just be envious but I'd say that Ed is a pretty good looking guy. Anyway, after lunch, I went on to meet A at CP. And by then, I only had a couple of hours to spare before having to pick up SY and the kids home.

It's 3.15am now and I've got a shoot at 8.30 later. 3 hours of sleep might be enough cause I'm definitely still wide awake, even at this ungodly hour. Big sis got a surprise birthday celebration with the rest of the family today. We ate so much that till now, I'm still really quite full. I printed a 22 inch by 14 inch canvas of a family portrait of big sis taken a couple of years back during an XMas dinner at her house and she loved the present. Thank god for K who did all the printing. I feel so indebted to him.

Everything here is silent again as I stay awake in my darkened room typing this out. It felt good spending the weekend with KS and KH. Yesterday, we celebrated Aldon's 1st month anniversary. So I guess it's been pretty much a weekend of family, friends, colleagues and celebrations.

Ice Cream!!!!!

Yeah...that's Mainey enjoying her Ice Cream. She was so excited about getting one that honestly, she looked like my LuoHan fish when I'm about to feed him. The excited stare at the Ice-Cream with longing. I met up with her this morning after sending the M6 in for servicing and checking the Jag's remote control cause it seems to suffer from amnesia time and again.

I'm made an appointment to have it checked cause being the idiot that I am, I totally forgot that I need the spare remote in order for them to reprogram the one that's forgetful. Anyway, sufficed to say, I kinda looked like an idiot at Malayan Motors because of that.

I went on down to PS after picking Mainey up and then had Mac's Bfast. I was pretty stuffed by the time we were through cause you know...Mac's Bfast is awesome and I usually overeat when I think that it's awesome.

I then went to get a new Motorola charger since the old one seriously died. We then proceeded to Peninsula to get the strobe fixed (the one that came crashing down yesterday) and Steven said that it would be a couple of weeks. I hope it won't cost us a bomb though. :P

Went on to Funan where I got this awesome S+ARK mouse by Microsoft. It looks really cool (it's the one in the picture). And I'm loving it!

Anyway, after that I dropped Mainey off at Millenia Walk so that she could join Piotr n JuJu for lunch and went off to TM with ST. ST liked the Starfish so I got her one. I think she really likes it heh...had a nice long talk over lunch and coffee before sending her back and heading home to do this. I'm about to go MM to collect my car.

I guess I'll see if they've fixed the passenger sunvisor then.

The Uninvited

Things happened pretty much as planned. I promised to meet ST in the evening as well as have her photo taken.

Anyway, I decided to head to the airport after dropping mom off again to shoot the car in the carpark. I found that carpark some time ago and feel that it's a good spot to take a picture there. However, I felt that it was a little wasted that it had that many lights and that the lights were sodium.

Also, I didn't have the 70 Mz-5 which could be triggered remotely by the 54 Mz-3. Anyway, the 1Ds did what it was supposed to do and I'd say that the photo came up pretty good. Anyway, working with 1 strobe issn't as easy as it seems. Even though I still had the Metz as a fill/bounce I'd much prefer it if I had something more to work with.

Hopefully, KL can pass me the 70 Mz-5 today. I'm gonna have a go at the Agfa Dye-sub to see if it works as nicely as the Canons but based on the review that KL's given it, seems to be workable. Just wish the damn thing didn't cost as much.

ST's got certain angles where she looks good (depending on the lights) and she's quite open to experimentation. I enjoy shooting her. So much so that I'd probably spend lots of time going through the shots I've taken to figure out which are her good angles.

Mainey mentioned that I don't love her anymore. Hmm...it must be due to her PMS that she's behaving this way. Gawd. How could I ever not love her? She's found her polish prince and I'm giving them time and space to be together. Afterall, it's not very nice if I kept calling is it? Poor gal's a little confused as to her position with him though. They refuse to tell each other that they love each other.

Anyway, I'm not sure where I stand in their relationship except that I'm a bystander. I'm viewing it from the outside. And to top it off, I wasn't invited to Jiao Kia's Birthday Party as well. Talk about feeling left out! Oh well.

FreeSpirit

"You can't handle the truth"

Just realized that some people just can't face the facts and run away. I suppose that's their way of escaping the truth. It's about time that a long hard look in a mirror is taken. And of course, they tell others a different story and lay the blame on some scapegoat.

My snooker sucks. I've managed to badger S into playing another round with me and I still got a big can of whoop ass although it wasn't as big. I love the way S looks when playing. The sheer concentration in her eyes, her posture and poise. Ever so graceful. It's like watching a professional play. Wait a minute, she is kinda semi-pro. She's got lotsa hidden talent but doesn't really brag about it.

We watched Die Another Day later in the evening and all she could say was, "James Bond's car is so cool!". Well, yeah cause it's like and Aston Martin Vanquish V12 babe.

Spent most of the afternoon after my meetings with Maine. She's been a little down lately and desperately needed cheering up. Ah well, that's what I'm good at. Cheering people up. Heh. We bummed around FEP for a while checking out diffferent stores selling so-called "street" accesories as well as a quaint little shop selling women's undergarments at 50% discount (the price, not the amount of material).

Had Chicken Rice for lunch and I can swear that the chicken used was not as tender or yummy as before. Probably frozen chicken. However, that didn't stop me from whalloping down 2 bowls of rice cause I was absolutely farmished.

Maine was going on about her boobs and white top that she was wearing. She swore that they've gotten bigger. Well, maybe Bruce Almighty's been paying her a visit. But later, she figured that it was due to her period and raging hormones that caused the effect.

Maine's a wonderful friend to have. Mature for her age, except when she does the "Hmmm" thing with her eyes opened really big and innocent look. That would really melt any guy into a puddle of goo. She got frustrated and almost burst into tears when I mentioned that she had put the cigarettes into the case the wrong way round though. Gawd, if there's one thing I can't handle, it's a girl sobbing...

FreeSpirit

Time flies

Just got back from the airport and found out that the gate for SQ18's closed. I suppose she'd be getting the "in the event of a water landing" lecture right about now.

It was a tearful goodbye and the CH MoFo was there as well. Didn't have the guts to look me in the eye. Guess now I know what a chicken he really is.

She should be arriving in BC in about 18 hours I guess, plus the 1 hour transit in Seoul. Right about morning there too. Damn I remember my JAL flight 18 years ago...I waas a 15 year old kid travelling on my own (the fourth time I can consciously remember taking a plane) and trasiting in Narita, Japan. I had like 12 hours to kill at Narita Hotel and about US$50 in my pocket along with a couple of coupons for meals.

Boy was I tempted to order room service but the money I had didn't get me far. But I distinctly remember jumping on the bed with joy at the new found freedom I had of not having any parents around. I was 15 years old and I was travelling ALONE! To a distant country where I didn't know anyone and was one of the coolest places on earth!

What irritated me though was the customs and immigration people back then. The Japanese dude didn't speak english, and the flight attendants all thought I was japanese and started conversing with me in Japanese...they were like super shocked to learn that I didn't have anyone with me and that I was only 15 (apparently, anyone under the age of 15 in some places had to be accompanied by an adult 21 years and above). What were my parents thinking?

Well, I'm glad I didn't get too lost and sold off to some third world country as a slave. HaHaHa...a bad slave I would've been too.

Anyway, R called me up last night to apologise for her behaviour. She was like "Oh I'm sorry and shit" and then, blamed me for being oversensitive. Oh well, you can't have the cake and eat it too I guess.

She's taken off now, and I'm sure I'll miss her. I guess I have until January before seeing her again. Can't wait.

Tattoos and Marriages

Most people discourage me from getting a tattoo. Some of them say it's the permanance factor that I'll have to consider very carefully.

Well, lets put it this way, I jumped into a marriage (which is supposed to be kinda permanent as well issn't it?); okay, so you can file for a divorce if you're really unhappy with it. How about kids? Once you have them, you can't get rid of them can you? That's kinda permanent as well. Duh.

So a tattoo is permanent. Yeah, but it doesn't have to be shown all the time. Unlike your family, kids etc etc. There are ways of hiding a tattoo. Afterall, Angelina Jolie has a fair number of them and they had to digitally remove them from her films. So that wasn't so much of a problem.

Times have changed. Of course I'm not gonna draw all over my body...just a small 8cmx4cm one at the bicep would be nice. It would be tasteful. I really don't think I'd get carried away with them.

It's Sunday night and everyone's home. KS and KH are both about to fall asleep and SY's bugging me to turn off the computer and lights since I'm writing this from my bed. Nah...not gonna happen just yet. Got some emails to send out and chee hong friends to flame.

Talking about CH guys, there are some guys that one should never introduce female friends to. They don't give a shit if she came with your or not and just take over cause they're feeling lonely, dejected and horny. Well, I guess their moralistic principle is "I managed to chat her up so too bad for you that she's going off with me instead" - well, it's not the first time he's done it but I think it's the first time he was actually succesful; and that truely surprised me.

Yeah...well, that's life huh?

FreeSpirit

4 Days and 4 Nights and 4 Minutes

7 days I do not post and people start complaining. Is my writing really that entertaining a read? A lot happens in 96 hours. J was frantic in figuring out what to buy so that she steals the show from the bride at a wedding dinner, photos of MCS were taken, a bright yellow FD RX-7 has been parked outside my mom's house (under the mango tree - what a dumb fuck), I got a tattoo (so what if it's airbrushed), a new cigarette box that's out of this world, got paid five-hundred bucks (for 5 hours' work), took some interesting photos, covered Takashimaya's 11th Anniversary D&D, felt like a fool (that only happened last night though), and consumed more MacDonald's ¼ Pounders than anyone else I know.

I so love the airbrush tattoo. Think I might actually go out n get a real one. That's probably gonna happen next week. We'll see. I also love the ciggy box that I got. It's fantastic. The ciggy pops up just enough for me to grip it with my lips. And to think that Mainey didn't think that it would pop up :P I'm just wondering how long the spring will last though.

Got a mild headache now. I suppose it could've come from the lack of sleep and the booze that I consumed at Balaclava and Eastside last night after work. I remember J saying something about someone a week (or two) ago. "Phew. I couldn't wait for him to leave." Yeah well, I guess it must've been what she probably said to C last night as well. I stuck around cause I really had nowhere else to go and nothing else to do. Besides, I needed the time for the booze to settle before driving home.

And yes, I was way below the limit. I only had 4 beers the whole night. And 1 of the beers was with food. Anyway, I guess that's why I feel the fool in me. Sometimes, I just don't get the hint. Ah well, c'est la vie, oui?

I've been hung up on retro music lately. Well, at least it's not retro dance music although kids here tend to dance to tunes such as "we didn't start the fire". I'll have to admit though, the lyrics of the song are just fantastic. Talking about what happened from the 40s to the 80s. Harry Truman, Doris Day, Studebakers, North Korea, Marrilyn Monroe (Norma Gene was her birth name by the way) etc...the song just summarizes a whole generation in 4 minutes.

Sometimes, I do wish I was some American hippie back in the 60s and 70s. Too bad I was born a decade late. Although I must say, that I did experience the cold war a little. Krushchev and Reagan at it, Jimmy Carter as President, men on the moon, the fall of the communism etc...and I understood what was going on then!

Tuesday was a kinda weird day. In that 1 day, I saw 2 Maseratis. 1 was the fantastic Quattroporte and the other, the Coupe Cambiocorsa. I think, ever since my dad got the brochure for the Maserati 420, 220 and Spyder back in the 80s sent to him, I've been in love with that brand. The Shamal and Ghibli...argh...mouth watering absolutely!

What are Italians good at? 3 things. Cars, Soccer and Fashion. Think Lamborghini, Ferarri, Maserati, Lancia etc, Inter Milan et al and Giorgio Armani, Versace and what have you. If you add female butt pinching, that'd be 4 things they're good at I suppose.

Ah well. It's been an interesting week to say the least. And yeah, I gotta go for Prata and Eggs again since they lifted the ban on eggs coming in from some Malaysian poultry farms. Time to call Jiao Kia I suppose. :)

FreeSpirit

True Friendship & False Acquaintances

Friend:

From http://www.Dictionary.com:

friend noun.

A person whom one knows, likes, and trusts.
A person whom one knows; an acquaintance.
A person with whom one is allied in a struggle or cause; a comrade.
One who supports, sympathizes with, or patronizes a group, cause, or movement: friends of the clean air movement.
Friend A member of the Society of Friends; a Quaker.


Word History: A friend is a lover, literally. The relationship between Latin amcus “friend� and am “I love� is clear, as is the relationship between Greek philos “friend� and phile “I love.� In English, though, we have to go back a millennium before we see the verb related to friend. At that time, frond, the Old English word for “friend,� was simply the present participle of the verb fron, “to love.� The Germanic root behind this verb is *fr-, which meant “to like, love, be friendly to.� Closely linked to these concepts is that of “peace,� and in fact Germanic made a noun from this root, *frithu-, meaning exactly that. Ultimately descended from this noun are the personal names Frederick, “peaceful ruler,� and Siegfried, �victory peace.� The root also shows up in the name of the Germanic deity Frigg, the goddess of love, who lives on today in the word Friday, “day of Frigg,� from an ancient translation of Latin Veneris dis, “day of Venus.�

How do you define true friendship. Well, I'm not sure how everyone defines it but my definition is this:

Someone to takes you for what you are.
Someone whom you trust with intimate details of your personal life
Someone whom listens to your complaints and problems
Someone whom sees your flaws, accepts them, tells you about them
Someone whom will go out of the way to help you
Someone whom you accept and share parts of your life with.
Someone whom you can be open and honest with.

And vice versa.

From http://www.dictionary.com

ac·quain·tance noun.

Knowledge of a person acquired by a relationship less intimate than friendship.
A relationship based on such knowledge: struck up an acquaintance with our new neighbor.
A person whom one knows.
Knowledge or information about something or someone: has a passing acquaintance with Chinese history.

Yeah, that's pretty much my definition too. Plenty of those have I.

FreeSpirit

And the Rain Came

If there's one thing about anything related to so-called "Formula One", it's prestige.

I remember watching TV commercials of high life and they always either included boats of various sorts, or Formulat One cars. Yes, there are other forms of racing but somehow or other, Formula One seems to be the most prestigious of the lot. Following that, in my opinion is Le Mans 24hr Endurance.

Others have tried to reach their levels of prestige but somehow or other fail to do so. NASCAR is pretty much leatherneck blue collar and so's GT. No idea why. Perhaps it's because of the lack of big/prestigious names such as Sauber, Mercedes, BMW and Jaguar etc.

I've yet to see a Mercedes Benz WRC car, or even a BMW. Most WRC cars come from mid-range workhorse car manufacturers.

In any case, bikini clad babes and powerboats...the mix is absolutely lethal. But then again, ask them a question about those things and they'll most likely draw a blank.

I do love, however, ariel video shots of those amazing powerboats that you see in big budget movies (such as Bad Boys II) and ads for products like Drakka Noir and Hugo Boss.

Ah well, the high life. One day, I shall live it!

FreeSpirit

11 Days past

It's hard to believe that I've not blogged for 11 days.

It's hard to believe that I've been alive the past 11 days.

The past two days was mostly a blur since I was done with some crappy infection. and the past 9 before that, well, a short memory that I can't recollect.

I remember vaguely watching a movie, twice. I remember meeting friends from long ago. I remember the sea, I remember a small orange boat, I remember loosing something.

What have I done?

Zap back to current situation...I'm sitting on my couch, listening to Johnny Hates Jazz, going through blogs of other people, reading about their lives and how delariously happy they are; coming back to my own and finding out that several tags have been posted during my almost fortnight long sojourn away from blogging.

Gotta remember to build 1) File server for dad's office with redundancy drives and RAID if possible and; 2) Rebuild network and increase to gigabit. Ah hell. Like who's gonna notice the difference anyways?

Wayne's pretty good. He's totally keen on learning but sometimes, I feel a little too eager. Something like eager beaver from leave it to beaver days. :P I'm in my sentimental retro music moods now...and Secret Garden's gotta be one of the best "Lets get back together" songs. SY's listening to it. I'm hoping it'll do something to her.

I've just realised that those people I saw literally being carried out of pubs along mohd sultan last night could have been what we were like during my days of constant binging on booze. Although I've never been pissed-stoned cold drunk (except for 1 time but that was at my own room in student housing so it doesn't count), I've had buddies which were in my situation. Somehow or other, I always managed to get home, pissed or not. Before venturing out on my own, having my own place, I remember driving home arriving to mom's laughter of me being high which became scolding later on. I guess she didn't really know whether or not to laugh at me, or to get pissed off by the fact that I drove her car home in a not-so-sober state.

Yeah...those were the days. I guess, everyone gets old, everyone grows up. NOT!
FreeSpirit

12.30AM...

It's 12.30am and I've just had a solid 5 hours of sleep. It feels weird getting up at this time. My fridge has fucked up on me again. I hope that it's only temporary. I've tried cleaning it up to see if it helps. Well, we'll see.

Just got down to charging the AAs for tomorrow's shooting. Hope I've got enough to last the day. 2.5gigs of storage might not last though.

The problem with having a heavy meal like bacon, eggs and mee goreng before heading to bed is that I tend to get hearburn when I get up 5 hours later. Hence, I'm feeling a little crappy now.

Perhaps some coke would be in order but it ain't getting cold so washing it down with room-temperature coke would be a little crappy.

It's all peaceful and quiet tonight. Not very hot either. I can't for the life of me, remember what woke me up but I had the feeling that people were looking for me. It's a sixth sense thingy...

Human Nature

It is human nature, I suppose, to ignore the old after something new arrives. Could it be the same with friends though? Hard to say.

I ripped the rubber surround and cone of one of the Wild Beast's subwoofer on friday. It hurt like hell cause those things cost a bomb to replace.

I'll be damned if I'm not tired. I konked off at 8.30pm last night and only woke up at 9am this morning. A solid 12­½ hours of sleep. Feels good this morning. I've got an early start tomorrow. 8am @ Cat High which means that most likely, everyone'll have to be at TBH tonight. Don't think I can make it that early and Tristan's a late riser.

Met up with a couple interested to do their bridal photography. They're on a tight budget and I understand. We'll try to cater towards their budget but obviously, they can't really expect the sun, the moon and the stars with that.

Friday's SGH event turned out quite well. Just hope that perhaps they'll make us of us again for other things.

Peace and Quiet

Woke up this morning to the phone ringing and a really bad throat. I guess I must've been really tired last night cause I just konked out after hitting the bed. Heard from D that Maine's gonna give it a go with the polish dude. I hope it works out well for them.

Surprisingly, this morning is awfully quiet and I'm able to hear the distant rumblings of the MRT trains, a solitary sneeze and and airliner flying by at high altitude.

When I was a kid, my ambition was to become a pilot. All hopes were dashed however, once I hit primary 3 when I started wearing glasses due to spending too much time infront of the idiot box playing Atari games.

It feels totally peaceful this morning. And I'm loving every moment of it.

The midweek post...

The weekend was interesting to say the least. Did some blading, met some buddies, had a little bit of fun. Monday comes, and then the guilt of the weekend sets in.

Did more photography. Seconday school kids are an enthusiastic bunch and are vain enough to wanna be photographed. So that was alright. Unfortunately, coming from a well disciplined school, they all looked like they could learn to relax and live a little.

Another day of roti pratas, eggs, luncheon meat and bread. This is fast becoming my only diet. After which I wash it all down with coca-cola.

It's pretty humid today and boy do I feel sleepy. Ran around like a headless chicken from Beach Rd to Jurong, to Town and back again. And I've still gotta go to Mandai later. Dang if I don't chalk up mileage today.

D's fun to be with and her innocence betrays her look of someone more grown up. It's not to say that she's childish but the innocence in her behaviour manages to escape once in a while and I'm reminded as to how old I really am.

SY, Darren and Tristan came back last night. However, Tristan, due to lack of sleep refused to get up this morning and thus SY was late going to work. I know cause I had to drive her there in a hurry. Not so fun nor recommended if you've got two kids sitting in their child restraints backseat.

After dropping everyone off, it was time to head down to dad's office. Why oh why does everyone think that I can pull off miracles with the computer is beyond me. I got bombarded by questions once I arrived and it didn't stop till I left, promising to return another day with the necessary spare parts to finish up.

Got the product, and now, it's sitting in the car, waiting to be photographed. I sure hope I've got the time to do it. Added Y to my MSN as well. We might be having a movie outing next week. We'll just have to see how it goes.

Cool factor

Am I cool or uncool? [CLICK] You are Super-Cool! Woah! Step back - the future's so bright for you it's blinding me! You are the coolest of the cool. Everyone looks up to you as the benchmark for being coooool. The fonze was your grandfather. Any cooler and you'd freeze! WOO it's chilly in here. Cool quizzes at Go-Quiz.com

Biting off more than one can chew

Have I bitten off too much? Work has been pretty crazy the past couple of days. Cat High is pretty demanding but to top it off with a porta right afterwards? Geez.

No wonder I slept all day.

I've been putting off too many things due to procrastination. Now it's all catching up. I need 48 hours a day and no sleep. That way, I might get things done better, see the people I want to see and spend time with who I choose to.

The 1Ds is getting craploads of boogers on the CMOS. I don't think it's because I've not looked after it. Contrary to that. I've hardly used the thing at all. Most of the time, I still rely on the 10D and it's pretty clear of boogers save for 1 or 2 small ones that don't really affect anything.
Ah well. Lugged all the equipment back to the studio after the shoot last night. My car feels like it handles way better now that the load's off.

I found my Earl Klugh/Bob James CD. Been listening to track 2 ever since. Boy that track certainly makes me feel good again.

I guess I've been a little too caught up with my own stuff and work lately. I feel that I've been neglecting a few people. Like I said, I need more hours in a day. This sucks. Our days are too short, our lives are too short. There's never enough time. Oh how I wish I could turn back the clock!

Sleepy heads...

Slept all day...watch a little LOTR, Starsky n Hutch and then slept somemore...

Yup. That's what I did today. SY made fabbo chicken pie though. And I slept through Wendy's visit. Man, I must've been totally worn out after yesterday's shooting.

Spent most of the afternoon at Catholic High followed by porta at Sheraton Towers. I hate that carpark...damages my undercarriage when I leave it.

I still can't find my sunglasses. Which means that I've probably lost them. Damn. Looks like I gotta go out n get a new pair. That seriously sucks. Tomorrow's gonna be a pretty full day. Blading with Maine, Piotr, Juls n Raf in the morning followed by an MCS meet up later on.

Ah...I seriously need nicotine right about now. Guess I'll have to go take a walk.

Reflections

Every day, every minute, every second draws us closer to death. If I was a doctor, and someone said to me, "Doctor, I'm dying" my reply would be "We're all dying". It's a rather pessimistic way of looking at life and living but I just realised that as we age, death looms just around the corner. Rather morbid thought at 3am I must say.

I radio's belching some music that I've no idea who it is composed or sung by. It just sounds good at this time. 3 empty coke cans sit on my coffee table. Boy am I addicted to it or what.

I was surprised that KopiTiam @ NUH did not have any eggs to serve this morning. I would think that of all places, KopiTiam would have plenty of stock. They must've swiped some home for their own consumption.

I've just completed watching The Twin Towers. It's pretty good. I am surprised that I didn't fancy watching the Trilogy in the cinema. There are a couple of movies that I'd want to watch though but they've come and gone. Oh well, I suppose I'll have to catch them on DVD. It rained heartily earlier this evening so now, the air is cool and fresh. Its freshness only spoilt by the smell of smoke emitting from the lighted tip of my cigarette.

A few lights on several apartment block are on here and there. I guess there are more people than me suffering from chronic insomnia. They're usually the same ones that remain on night after night. The air is cool preventing me from turning on the fan. I've got the balcony light on and that's the only light source that I'm typing this by. The laptop's screen does seem to be a little glaring though.

I feel that I'm at peace with myself. I haven't felt this relieved for quite a while. Darren's operation went smoothly without a hitch. That's a pretty good sign. Another note that I should make is that his ultrasound scan turned out negative for a hole in the heart but positive for narrowing arteries around the heart and thus the murmour that was heard by the anesthesist.

Vanilla ice-cream with milo powder on top. That's my latest concoction for dessert. Tastes wonderful. I haven't enjoyed a good dessert in a while and I'm thus indulging myself for the time being. Of course, a can of root beer right now would be perfect as well but I suppose I can't have the cake and eat it...or can I?

I've been pretty isolated for the past couple of days. Probably because I'm stressed out by the fact that Darren's gone for surgery. I saw some other kids in PICU which stands for Paediatric Intensive Care Unit. I can only try to imagine what the parents of those kids must be going through keeping toil day and night. How fragile life is.

The breeze right now is wonderful. I'm drifting to thoughts of the time I spend in Vancouver and going speedboating at horseshoe bay with Jason. Those were the days. My memories of the place dart back and forth since it has been more than 10 years since then.

I have little memories of Perth though...probably because the place was so boring that I almost died. I must say though, that I did enjoy the semester I was there, staying in student housing @ Mt Lawley campus, being with a bunch of rather crazy pals.

I do remember with great detail, the time I spent the whole night at Brian's 7-11 branch in Canada, and immediately after that, the next morning, we drove to Whistler and had a brilliant day of skiing. It was rather tiring at the end of the day when we had to make the 2+ hour drive back home though, remembering that we didn't sleep the night before. We kicked ass on the black diamond slope though, tackling the moguls with adrenaline-rushed enthusiasm.

Ah...to be skiing again. Well, the next best thing here to do is to go roller-blading. Dammit if I can't find my sunglasses though.

Malpractices

Doctors. If it's not one thing, it's another.

It began with a saccral dimple. It then moved to MRIs and Chromozome counts. Now, it's hernia and a heart murmur. Will these 'discoveries' never end?

I seem to have lost faith in our public healthcare. Perhaps, now a second or third opinion might be in order. Doctors here are no cajuns. I feel that all they care about is their own malpractice coverage. Well, if you live in a country of mercenaries, what else can you expect?

Perhaps the government should review it's public healthcare system. And the hippocratic oath? Here's it's hypocritical alright. Damn it all.

The weather's hot tonight. When will it all end?

Haircuts

SY now looks like Dr Lilly Neo with her new haircut. I look like an NSF boy, fresh out of boot camp. It's refreshing but I'd probably use too much shampoo the first couple of times.

The dude that cut my hair, while claiming to have 20 years experience, tells me that it's nicer after the cut because it's got shape now. Well, the cut cost me $10 and for the amount of hair shaved off, I think it's pretty worth it.

My camp's RSM would be proud of me right now. My hair's probably shorter than his. Too bad I'm only due in for reservist in November.

Picked up Tristan's parcel from the Post Office at Westmall today. I never had a parcel delivered to me when I was 3 years old. It's amazing what kids get nowadays. There's a crescent moon tonight. The kids love hanging out at the garden staring at it.

Sis has got a bad throat. She's walking around with a surgical mask on to prevent what she thinks might be a virus from spreading to the kids and everyone around. She looks weird with it on.

Met up with Juls last night for a coffee at Toh Yi. Had quite an interesting talk with him. Will probably go rollerblading with them next weekend if I'm free. Well...that's about it for now. I'll see if I can think of something else to write about later..

FreeSpirit