That's it

The last 5 years distilled into a graph
Originally uploaded by island_girl.

So these couple of weeks, I've been sitting down and putting my shit together. Still a long way to go, but here is one of my drawings.

Basically the last 5 years of my life, gone through all the chomping, pippetting, drawing and what nots, distilled into a series of graphs, trees, drawings and words, of which this is a sample. 10 pages! Yay!

Yes Sir? You at the corner in the pale blue check shirt raising your hand? Question?
You want a conclusion?
Well.. I've got to think about that for a while.
Hmm... How about "They are Very Very Tasty?"
Oh right... not quite cutting it for a Dr. of Philosophy I suppose.
Oh well.. how about the more we find out about something, the more we realise that we don't know very much about it at all? Its like a can of worms, innit. You think you've cracked it, thought of a hypothesis, designed experiments, read up on how others do it, collected data, cracked it, crunched it, massage it to death. And when the dust settles, all you've discovered is that you've moved maybe 2 centimetres, filled the world with about an inch more of publications with your name on it and then realise that there's lots of new things that you don't actually know, and its time to get cracking on those.

I'll get my coat now.

Human evolution for the man in the street

I only just (15 minutes ago!) stumbled onto this delightful comedy series examining human evolution on BBC radio 4.

The ape that got lucky, presented by Chris Addision is a 4 part series looking at the natural history of Homo sapiens, Top Species (Capital 'T', Capital 'S'), with a 30 minute installment each week. Its a stand up comedy of course, but that's just fine for the guy in the street who most likely will not pick up a scholarly anthropology or human behaviour tome.

Digestible nuggets of information cunningly disguised with mirth inducing sketches. I like humour and I like science, so this is a gem. Enjoy!

The failed pilgrimage to Haji Lane

Well.. not failed exactly. Our main mission was thwarted but there were unexpected hauls for C and Applecow.

It all started when R and I took the long and scenic route back to the train station from Little India. When it comes to entertaining visitors, I always say, Little India's the place! Labbies and I took M our visitor from the Philippines for a curry and we hopped over to Mustafa's so she could pick up some toys for her little boy. Its been ages since any of us (the PGs I mean) stepped into a toy shop, so you can imagine what fun we had, reminiscing over our childhood games and other new but pointless toys. I mean.. Choke-a-chicken?!?!?!

No way I'm going to buy my future sprogs this. Even if you pay me to.

So anyway, after a session of hearty laughs and revisiting our childhood, R and I split from the group and decided to have an amble, walking from Little India to Bugis. Over too soon and because we were deep in discussion about the Grand Unifying Theory of Life, the Universe and Stuff (GUTLUS) we prolonged the walk further by having a mosey through Haji Lane, the nondescript middle child squashed between its more flamboyant siblings. It was late at night and most of the shops were shut. However I have discovered that R is a good companian to have when all you want to do is press your nose against glass. We poked around, peered into shops old and new and came across a shop selling 'vintage wear'. As R was in the market for a 'new' pair of jeans, we thought we'd come back during the weekend to see if we can pick up any bargains.

We did just that yesterday, and even recruited Applecow and C in the Quest for Cheap Denim. Using high tech telecommunications, the troop convened by the Rattan Shop and we were on our way. Shops look different in the day and we walked in and out of shops browsing through merchandise. Lots of quirky retro dresses that look great in the shop, but will sit neglected in my wardrobe if I bring it home. Where would I wear it to? I have no shoes! Bag! Oh well. There were curious littel animal brooches that looked like it was made from Rowntree's fruit pastilles. They even smell fruity! I almost ate one.

I also tried to squash the brooch and stretch it as I do with my fruit gums. But guilt got the better of me and I stopped. Surprisingly it didn't go out of shape!

The 'vintage shop' was a disappointment. As AppleCow put it, it smelt like..... a boy's room. A boy who doesn't like to wash very much and has habit of buying lots and lots of jeans, and not cleaning them. R chickend out and we had to abort the operation. If I were him, I would too. The savings just ain't worth it.

We had better luck at the girls section which was housed in a completey different shop. So this is proof that Boys Smell. The dress shop didn't exactly smell of strawberries and cream, but it didn't stink. We had a good time looking through the racks of 80s style dresses, remembering that it was what our primary school teachers wore. Anyone remember those 80s style knit dresses and boxy shoulder pad blouses? We found some nice shirtdresses. Between all the oohing and aaahing (Wow.. that is a nice dress! Lovely print! Etc!), someone spotted armpit sweat stains and it went back on the rack in a hurry. They also sell kimonos at $25 a piece. We found two which Applecow subsequently bought because the fabric is beautiful and she thinks that she can cannibalise it to make lots and lots of little things like pouches, blouses and er... pouches. Really good deal since one shop was selling retro fabric at $68 per metre.


Kimonos are big and airy, so no dubious stains under the arms. Yay! Applecow looks like a campy japanese restaurant waitress.

C bought a really cool knitted bag and a fire engine red white polka dotted Minnie Mouse dress. I guess the shopping trip down Haji Lane didn't turn out so bad after all. I just didn't get what I wanted (as is the norm) and neither did R. Nevermind! I'm expecting some new clothes in the post! I hope they are nice.

Whenever I give out this blog site's url to people, I always add that its existence is more of a 'navel gazing' exercise for me. This is a place for me to decompress and write about silly things. Sometimes I feel that I ought to be writing insightful nuggets of topics that interest me; politics, religion, science, current affairs, but ultimately I'm more of a consumer. I read more than I produce, and these days, I'm supposed to be producing something that will be published ultimately in a journal and not on this site. Therefew this site consists of non boffinish fluff - my navel gazing haven.

So imagine my delight when I fould out that there's a word for it. Yes, Anu Garg over at Wordsmith.org sent it over.

Its (tadah!) Omphaloskepsis - Contemplation of one's navel

From Greek omphalos (navel) + skepsis (act of looking, examination).
Ultimately from the Indo-European root spek- (to observe) which is
also the ancestor of suspect, spectrum, bishop (literally, overseer),
despise, espionage, telescope, spectator, and spectacles.]

Learn something new everyday, eh?

Mmmm.. beer

A few days ago, while clearing out the massive load of junk mail that a certain Miss T from the deanery sends out on a daily basis, I saw one that caught my eye the split second I caught a glimpse of the subject. Keywords: Belgian. Beer.

Here's the deal: 28 nett to taste 9 kinds of Beer (Leffe, Duval, Hoegaarden Grand Cru, Kwak, Belle-vue Framboise, Orval, Mort Subite Gueuze, Westmalle Tripel and Triple Moine). Plus finger food (and it ain't just fried popiah either. Mussels! Yu Sheng! Shepherds Pie!! etcetera etcetera!!!).

Subsequent bottles priced between SGD6.90 to SGD8.

Happens tomorrow. I'm going to check it out with a coupla friends. Anyone else keen to gate crash? Text me or leave a comment.