Introspective sunday

From Markashy and The Rambling LeafMonkey,

Here's an interesting exercise.

The Johari and Nohari analysis windows.

Tell me what stuff about myself that I know or don't!

Attacked by a dead fish

Got into a minor accident at the Phuket fish port; while walking on top of a pile of trash fish, somehow, a spine from a gurnard went right through my rubber wellies and poked me in the heel. It wasn't a big puncture wound, but there were loads of blood, casing JC to freak out and the nearby workers to come over and gawk. They were really helpful, and despite the language barrier, proffered some antiseptic and bandage. It was quite funny. I must be the highlight of their week. In fact...the sight of a chinese girl squatting over a pile of stinking fish is something to talk about to their wives at home, maybe.



In any case, for my curious readers, this is what I was up to the last week. In Phuket, and spent a day squatting over a fish pile. We were lucky. It is a fresh lot this time round. No flies! :D



And these are the friendly and helpful fish meal factory workers who gave me the first aid kit.



So, I'm no longer the girl with the thorn in her side.. more like the thorn in the side of her foot! hohoho.

And no.. I didn't go see a doctor despite having promised a certain someone I would go.. just that I came back to Singapore only to dive into teaching straight away... and in case you'r wondering.. I'm alright. The smile in the last picture isn't put up bravado. And it doesn't hurt anymore. It's a good thing that's a dead gurnard and not a live stone or scorpion fish.. *shudder*

Happiness is...

when you have money in the bank. :D



A close up of my "money".

Grad school funnies

Guess this word

"Joelle is a ______"

(Arvin got this word when we were playing Taboo the other night and repeatedly said this while gesticulating at me - no one got it right though - harrumph!)

Romancing ourselves

Romancing ourselves
Originally uploaded by island_girl.

So yesterday was St. Valentine's Day, and the revelation that a few of us were going to spend it in the lab doing what we normally do prompted a drastic course of action - since we are all lonely and loveless (in Singapore anyway :P), why not romance ourselves?

So this is the outcome, 6 'loser' postgrads and a loser postgrad-to-be. Huddled outside at the Bistro, stuffing our faces with loads and loads of food. Boy, are we getting good at doing one of these last minute things. Cue 6pm, three of us ventured out into the real world to gather food, and sidestepping throngs of couples glued to each other, every other one with a big ass bunch of overpriced roses with them, and the girl grinning away like a maniac.

The boys and Jani were tasked with laying the table and getting the fire going, So when we came back, all we had to do was throw food on the grill.

Rounded the evening up very nicely with Taboo and a "I have never"... oooh... secrets... I like :D

Waxing lyrical

about what's in your ear.

Apparently, 95% of East Asians tend to have dry earwax whilst majority of people of European and African descent have wet ear wax.

I fall nicely within the 95% of Asians and can't imagine the thought of wet ones. Had a very interesting conversation regarding this with FF just now. He now thinks I have little bits of dandruff-like earwax in my ear canal (eeeuuw!) and I reckon he's got oozing wax in his (double eeeuuw! Think of the pillowcases!). Just a little trivia in case it comes in handy (I can imagine this bit of useless information as the answer for the million dollar question in "Who wants to be a millionaire"-not!).

Maybe this is why westerners tend to clean their ears with cotton buds whilst Asians (at least the Chinese people) are partial to those little 'gold diggers'. :D My crackpot theory anyway.

**********
I just found out that the pop magazine that more or less shaped my musical tastes when I was a wee kid is now no more. I was a rabid fan of the quality pop publication, "Smash Hits" from the late 80s till the early 90s. It provided me with all that I wanted as far as music is concerned..song lyrics of the latest hits, important information such as whether Jason from Take That has smelly armpits, or what Sting buys when he pops down to his local supermarket (apparently he doesn't go to the supermarket, he goes to his local corner shop - source: The Smash Hits Yearbook 1993), posters of Morten Harket, Jason Donovan, the delectable Goss brothers, and, I'm ashamed to say now, New Kids on the Block (hey we all make mistakes in our yoof!). It exposed me to songs that would never see the light of day in Singapore, such as Ebeneezer Goode by the Shamen. I have the song though, because yes, I bought the Smash Hit's CD compilation for the year 1993.

I grew out of it after entering college (because Bedok isn't exactly the centre of the english pop universe - think the most popular publication sold at the newspaper stand by the MRT station would be the horseracing guide.). , and since then its quality has evidently been going downhill. Seriously, in this day and age of the internet where pop news travel at the speed of a click and song lyrics can be recalled almost instantaneously by Sir Google, SH can't catch up. Add the fact that pop is so boring nowadays, with one hit wonders galore and manufactured images imposed on artistes, is it any wonder why there is no more juicy gossip? If Marky Mark (actor Mark Whalberg in his previous incarnation as a white hip-hop rap boy) of the Funky Bunch were to launch his career today, would he let it be known in an interview with Ver Hits that one of his supermarket staples is a pack of condoms? That would be an instant career killer!

Anyway, like an old friend that clearly can't cope anymore, it is best to let it go gently into the night. I can't help but feel a tinge of poignancy, as is what happens when you find out that bad things has happened to something that you grew up with, that was so much a part of your formative teenage years.

R.I.P Smash Hits. What would I be without you. An Air Supply fan, no doubt.

P.S I still have all my back issues! Thank goodness I doggedly insisted on keeping it after all this time, despite the nagging from my mom. I mean to keep it to show my future kids that hey! Mom was cool and had her finger keenly on the pop pulse in her day too! Haha.. loooong shot. Too bad I don't have the issue with Jason and Kylie on the cover.

Fark.. my external hard disk has gone belly up on me. That will be the second time in as many months!!!

WHY?!?!?!?

What's wrong with me and HDs? I know now that the problem lies with the firewire port either on the hard disk casing or on my powerbook. But am afraid to borrow NNK's external harddisk to try it on lest I fry hers too. :(

*sob*

Today's post is brought to you by the word resistentialism.

Bugger it.