It sucks to be sick on planes

I'm back in Singapore, but unfortunately, with a bout of what I would classify as, maybe moderate, food poisoning. And I can tell you,the plane ride was sheer torture.

Why moderate? Because its moderate in comparison to the last time I got food poisoning, which was when my mother was away in China and I ate some chicken pie that had been left in the fridge for too long. Then, I woke up at 5 in the morning, and from then till 1pm, puked three times accompanied with acute stomach ache. The amazing thing about that episode though was, I did not cancel my skating lesson. So at 3 pm, I dragged myself out of the house, walked to the MRT station, took the train to Jurong East, and went for my skating lesson.

This time, on the day of my flight, I woke up not feeling well. It must have been the beef and tomoto noodles I foolishly decided to try. The stomach did not hurt as much as last time though. What I did not expect nor realize was that I was slowly getting a fever. I mean I passed through the temperature checks at the Hong Kong check point perfectly well.

But as the flight progessed, I got colder and colder. Even though I was wearing my thick grey jacked and had the airline blanket tucked right up till my ears. And besides the cold, my eyes ached, and the seat seemed to be slanted too far back and the space was too cramped. So all I could do was obsessively monitor the flight path, and endure till the journey was over.
It sucks to fly while sick indeed.

Do British tabloids have too much time to spare?

Posh's Footsie Index: Or how much her heels cost per inch

The daily mail spent an entire article analyzing how much Victoria Beckham aka Posh Spice, spends per inch of heels. They compiled 11 rows of the above close-ups of shoes she wore on various occasions. They found out the brand of each pair of shoes. They found the cost of each pair, the height of the heels, and divided the cost by the height to find the price-per-inch, or PPI as they call it. Too much time, no?

PS: Of course, this means I confess to reading this daily time wasting gossip about celebrities. I mean, its pretty good brainless fun. Hehe.
Here's the article

'Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated'

I've always found this phrase amusing- theres just a certain ironic wit to it.
Edit: No wonder! I've found that it was Mark Twain who first said it.

Here's an interesting instance

Found on wikipedia:
Jonathan Agnew: in January 2007, this alumnus of Cambridge University heard that his death had recently been reported in the Trinity Record (presumably a newsletter of Trinity College, Cambridge). He contacted the Record saying he had apparently also been removed from its mailing list, and requested a copy of the obituary so he could check and if necessary correct it.

And here's what was published in the newsletter:
Exaggerated Reports
of My Death

Philosophy is supposed to reconcile us to death, and even
to reported death. It is nice to confirm that it can indeed
do so. This message was sent in January to the Trinity
Record by Moral Scientist Jonathan Agnew (1960).

Subject: Exaggerated reports of my death

To the Editor of the Trinity Record

Dear Sir,
I have been informed that the latest issue of the Trinity
Record reports that I died last August. I am unable to
verify this information directly since, with a certain
internal consistency, you are no longer sending me a copy
of the Record. I am pleased to tell you (and I hope that
you will be pleased to learn) that I am alive and well and
assure you that, within the limits of my powers, I will
inform you if the situation changes. I should be most
grateful if you would publish a correction before reality
catches up with your report and send me a copy of the
latest issue of the Record so that I can read and, if
necessary, correct my obituary. Without parapsychological
means, I remain a devoted reader of your Record and give
you my permission to publish this email.

Yours faithfully, Jonathan Agnew

Here's a few more amusing incidents:

• Dick Cheney (US Vice-President) in the CNN.com incident. The draft obituary, which had been based on the Queen Mother's, described Cheney as 'Queen Consort' and the 'UK's favorite grandmother'.
• Rex Alston (sports commentator, journalist and sportsman): when The Times updated its internal obituary file for him in 1985, it was accidentally published as an obituary. Alston remarried the following year (aged 85), thus having the unusual distinction of having his marriage announced in The Times after his obituary. He lived until 1994.
• Daphne Banks, a resident of Cambridgeshire, UK, was declared dead on New Year's Day, 1996. However, while she lay in a mortuary an undertaker noticed a vein twitching in her leg, followed by breathing and snoring. (wth? I'm sure!)She recovered in hospital. Local authorities and Mrs Banks' family refused to name the doctor who had declared her dead; her local GP would not comment, citing patient confidentiality.

Frozen Grand Central

This is absolutely cool, and the reactions of the NYC communters are hilarous. This is seriously good- these are seasoned commuters who don't notice crap- you know, the ones that tut if you walk like a milisecond slower than usual- and they were TOTALLY bewildered.



I know something similar happened in Singapore recently, but check out the poses in the videos! There were some really good ones.

Moving on, moving on

Yea. The very lesson after I wrote (typed) the previous post, my instructor moved on to new things. *looks a bit sheepish*

I'm in China now and will be back in Spore end July

Unfortunately, this means that I will have to miss the Judo team prelims and finals as I will still be in China at that time. All the best to those participating though! Good luck!

And now, an update on what I've been doing in China:

Skating
Thats basically the bulk of what I've been doing now so far. Shen zhen is an ice skating haven, with three rinks in relatively close proximity- large, not very crowded rinks some more. Having grown acccustomed to super crowded fuji ice palace, the rinks are fantastic here.

The coaches are top notch too, all former national team competitiors. The bad thing though, is that my previous coach was not as careful as he should be in teaching me my basics, so now I'm back to working on basics again- forward and backwards crossovers. There were so many things I didn't realize I had to do. I'm also a bit impatient with myself. I mean, how long does it usually take to get backward crossovers working properly? It seems as if I've been doing them for forever, and I KNOW I'm still not gettting them right. Argh.

Skating takes up like about 8 hours each day, including transport, time I spend slacking, plus lunch.

Shopping/exploring
If I have free time and energy after skating, which is not a lot, I explore a bit, do grocery shopping as I'm now responsible for cooking the meals.

Oh, and I'm like single-handedly bringing down the style quotient in Shen Zhen, China. Here, most people take the effort to dress up properly. Not Singapore- T shirt and jeans= properly, properly.

I mean, its like 80% of the girls/women are wearing high heels? Don't their feet get tired? And they wear nice dresses or slacks. I hardly ever see any one wearing jeans even. And me? I'm usually in a T-shirt and trackpants, since thats what I've brought to and bought in China. And birkenstocks. I wore FBTs out once, and kept on feeling like people were staring at me- I was literally the only one wearing shorts that day in the area.

Watching TV
Watching sports on HD TV is fantastic! Need I say more?
Oh, and I watched the Fed-Nadal final at Wimbledon. So heartbreaking!

Yea, basically, I'm slacking and I'm enjoying it.

This is a dream come true

I'm giving my piano teacher a heart attack

As my judo mates will all attest, how well I do differs vastly from day to day, and it appears that this fluctuating performance has been carried over to my piano as well.

To paraphrase a friend of mine, 'how well Jingyi plays is never fixed. It seems to depend on how she feels when she wakes up in the morning, what she had for breakfast, her mood at that particular moment..'

Well, I wasn't feeling very 'on' when I went for my practice session on the exam piano on Friday, and I completely BOMBED it. I made every mistake in the book. My piano teacher was horrified, and rightly so. I was demoralized too, and I didn't even feel like practicing when I got home. So Saturday, Sunday and Monday went by without me touching the piano properly. Tuesday morning, I panicked, practiced for 2 hours, and with coffee boosting me, performed miles better than I did on Friday.

What can I say? I just wasn't feelin it on Friday.

I am suffeirng. Oh! How much I'm suffering from...

Ipod withdrawal.

Yes, that shiny sparkly red was necessary to express the depths of my torment. Because my lovely (Oh, shall I compare thee to a summer's day?) ipod has officially given up on me. I suppose I shouldn't blame it, since I was the one that (accidentally) soaked it in contact lens fluid, and since that day I should have known that its time was limited. I should, but I didn't.

And the big problem is, I dare not buy another Ipod! At least, not until the big Apple developer conference- WWDC is over. Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war- I must resist the temptations of the gleaming new ipods in the apple store. And how will I survive? How like a winter my ipod's absence has been. What dark days will these be- without any music or podcasts to accompany my travels?!

Note: try to spot all the mangled Shakespeare references that I've put in. And bah, the first one's easy easy easy.

Moving on, I thereby resolve not to be 'slower than molasses'. I went to the library today and realized that there was a skating competition going on, so I went up to take a look. And I finally realized what the people in the forums were complaining about when they derided some skaters for a lack of speed. Seriously, cute as some of these kids may be, watching them inch their way across the ice can be painful at times. Now I know what I need to work on-- I bet I'm guilty of the same thing myself. So I'll resolve to work on my speed, and not subject any unsuspecting eyes to 'turtling' or 'trundling' or even 'crawling' across the ice.

I'm watching 'Sex and the City' tomorrow. Glorious glorious days =)

Bliss

What could be better than lazing half asleep at 11am on a Wednesday morning, doing nothing but listening to the sound of the rain?

All I wanna do is: Skate my lil heart out!

skate skate skate skate skate

Yes, ice skate, even though yesterday's pactice left me with 'lovely' bruises on my knees.
Here, have a look:



Yea, that was because I fell forward on my knees three times during the session. I was practicing backward crossovers (and on that note, I think I've got them, but we'll see what my instructor says today) and I would be going pretty well I would lose focus or sort of blank out. So I would be leaning and trying to move, while my legs were still crossed together. You know what happens next. *bish* then *OWWWww*

Actually the first fall was pretty ok. I was like, OK, lets get up and try again.
The second fall- 'Owwwwww', then I sort of hobbled and jumped around half heartedly on one foot before making (hobbling) my way back to the rink seats and nursing my sore knee.

But despite all that, I'm ready to go for my lesson today. As I said, all I want to do now, is to skate and skate and skate my heart out.

LSE!

This morning, I just had a hunch about UCAS, so without checking my email or anything, I logged in to UCAS track. And what did I find?

"Congratulations! Your place at London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London) (L72) to study Government and Economics (LL12) has been confirmed."

Yay!

New Hairstyle- photos

Hi Carmen! You wanted to see my new hairstyle? Well here it is. Its blurry though-- i set the camera to timer and apparently it didn't focus well. But its clear enough to get an idea of my hairstyle I suppose.

Random, random

Well, heres a report of how things are going so far

Work:
is going better. Relations better with colleagues + I get to write a bit more. Seriously, its a waste of brain power transcribing interviews that are shit boring

Driving:
Getting better too. Buckled down and both basic theory and final theory were finished chop chop. Not that I studied much, but I was ridiculously determined, and had a good idea of how much leeway I had before I failed the test. Driving on the road is going on well too. Instructors are complimenting me on how fast I learn Ha! This is a girl who managed to drive a toy car into the sea, for goodness sake!

Judo:
NUS training has stopped. Wails. I'm going to get flabby. Not that I'm not already flabby already. Sigh.

Ohters:
Met Ms Tay at West Mall today. Was so fun talking to her!
Qin Pei, Rui Yan, Shi Jia, Adeline, Rannald-- When are all of you free?!

How to make hairstyle changes

STEP ONE:
Decide what hairstyle you want.

For me, the decision process was extremely simple.
JY: I'm sick of my hair, I want a change! Shall I chop it all off? AH, I know, I'll perm it. Or should I...
MOTHER: I beg you, reconsider! Your hair is perfectly all right as it is. Remember when you had that horrible perm in primary two that made you look like your head was exploding?
JY: OK, thats settled. I shall curl my hair

STEP TWO:
Go to the hairdressers. And sit there for a very long time.

Of course, giving precise instructions is of paramount importance. Here, I give the extremely excellent example of how I bugged (the hell out of) my hairdresser. Be extremely clear as to what you want.
Of course, I was an absolutely horrible (and boring) conversationalist, but hey, you've got nothing better to do in a hair salon anyway, right?

So, I'm lying down on this strange chair that vibrates (perhaps it was intended to be a massage chair??) while the hairdresser washes my hair.
JY: so yea, I was really sick of my hair and I want a change
Hairdresser: er hm
JY: Yea, so can I have curls that are not too big, but not too small either?
Hairdresser: hm. ok.
JY: Yea, I don't want it to wear off in like 3 months. But the curls can't be too tight ok?
Hairdresser: grunts
JY: I want curls that are just nice. Is there such a thing as curls that are not too loose and not too tight, and are just right?
Hairdresser: erm. yea.
JY: Ok, so you know I want curls like...
(I'm pretty sure you get the idea)

STEP 3:
Sit at the hairdressers for a very long time.

Useful tips include:
try not to fall asleep-- looking and thinking nasty thoughts about the people sitting beside you is quite a good tactic. Or you can try eleevesdroping on their conversations. That works too.

try not to be scared of the machines. I mean, there's this weird flying saucer thing that emits heat as it spins over your head. And another one where tentacles are attached to your hair and begin to heat up-- that thing could have worked pretty effectively as an instrument in my book. Yea. But its a tad difficult to perm one's hair if one doesn't even dare to let heat emitting machines near one's head.

AND,
thats how my hair went from this:



to this:

And hows work going now?

It's sucking pretty moderately now.
Suck.
Sucks.
Sucking.

actually if you replace the 'S'es with another letter, you get a pretty good idea of what I'm thinking while at work.

Random junk: how fast can you type?

Yup, this is the only sort of thing I have energy for when I get home after work and then judo training on mondays.

88 words

free Touch typing

A great blog I've started reading: Baby Barista

http://timesonline.typepad.com/baby_barista/

A fictional account of a junior barrister at the English Bar, this blog combines unrelenting meanness with, more than abundant, wit and style. As someone who has no interest in becoming a lawyers, I found this blog absolutely fascinating, not to mention amusing. I got to learn a bit about the peculiar workings of the law, and hear about the scheming and rivalrly among lawyers. With one reviewer commenting: "His blog is very clever and witty but I can’t take such unremitting meanness, it’s like swallowing sulphur or eating vindaloo curry everyday", what's there not to like of this blog (in small doses)?


Here's an excerpt from the blog:

Year 2, week 19: hook, line and sinker

the insurers had ridiculously dug their heels in for no apparent reason. Well, no reason which they gave anyway. All in, it was a rear end shunt worth £1,500 where the insurers had suggested that my client had contrived the accident but unfortunately for them without a shred of evidence. Almost in a sulk at their lack of success they refused to give any instructions to settle and instead insisted on their barrister cross-examining my client at ridiculous length as to his finances and his general situation in life.

By the end of the first day the judge was getting ever so slightly irritated by the droning on of my poor opponent and eventually brought the evidence to a close. Come submissions, he only asked to hear from my opponent before giving the briefest of judgments in my favour.

All in all, I must have been on my feet about ten minutes for which I earned a total of £6,000 after the uplift was taken into account. With the smell of money still fresh from the case I rang my solicitor only to be told,
“Well done BabyB. Nice little earner for all of us. It’s getting easier by the day to make insurers think even the most honest of cases is dodgy.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Oh come on. Surely you know the routine by now?”
I didn’t.
“It’s so easy BabyB. You just throw out a teeny weeny inconsistency early on and they fall for it every time. First they start alleging fraud and then go on to make it into some huge and most importantly expensive trial only to be confronted by a nice upstanding member of the community when they get to court. Hook, line and sinker.”

Oh.

Sorry about the lack of Updates

I've started work-- it'll be my 6th day today-- and I'm busy, and tired.

I'm adapting though, so Ill proabbly have the energy to blog instead of rotting away once I get home. (That image of one slowly rotting away once you reach home is pretty cool though).

Taiwan Trip Highlights: Days 1 & 2

Day 1

We arrived in Taiwan, and at my grandmother's house in time for a late lunch. After some rest, we went to the Confuciuis Temple (孔庙 kong3 miao4).

Why would we go there, you ask. Well, my parents are history buffs. So it to the temple we went, though we had already been there the last time we went to taiwan (and the time before, and the time before that... you get the idea.) . I know the temple is a place full of history, but at the risk of sounding shallow, I don't really find that sort of stuff fascinating. But it was fun! Because while my parents were traisping around listening to the guide, my brother and I were taking photographs.


This picture gives you an idea of how much attention we were paying. The guide was speaking to my parents, my brother was taking a photo of the temple, and I was taking a photo of my brother taking a photo. Fascinating stuff, really.
My parents were pleased though. We didnt whine and moan and constantly ask 'What time is it'.

We went back for dinner, and then I watched Espn. If you know me, you'll know that is a highlight. Because I am a sports nut (basketball, badminton, swimming, heck, any sport!), and I don't have ESPN at home. Hence, whenever I go overseas, the first thing I check at the hotel is whether they have the sports channels.

Day 2

My cousin took leave from work to bring around on Day 2, and it really made a difference having a local bring us around. We went to Chi Kan Lou and the area surrounding it. I shall not elaborate on the temples/architecture, as you already know my opinion.

What was important was the food!


I forgot what these round white balls are called, but some of these are cruncy while others are chewy, and there are white sugar as well as dark sugared varieties.


We went for lunch next. What my brother is cutting here is a 棺材板 'guan chai ban' (which roughly translates to 'coffin board'?) Its thick toast where they fry the toast, then cut off the top and dig out the middle. The hollow toast is then the 'coffin' and the top the coffin cover. They then fill the toast with something that tastes like campbell's coup. The soup oozes out when you begin cutting the toast, and it tastes lovely.


After that, it was time for some beancurd. We went a shop that was quite renowned, and the variety available was quite mind boggling. There was white beancurd and black bean curd. You could have your beancurd hot or cold, with red beans, with sweet sauce, with salty sauce, with with pearls (as I did, and you can see in the picture), or with everything if you dare.

We felt bloated after that much food, so my cousin brought us bird watching. The boys went to try to catch crabs, and they caught one, a tiny one, after much yelling and shrieking. I yelled too-- when they tried to bring the crab near me.


We watched the birds in a small wooden hut, and we had to keep quiet so as to not scare birds (if any) away.

I'll end with the pictures of birds I managed to get. It was quite difficult capturing them though, as the big flocks were at a distance from us, so all I managed to get were individual birds, through extensive zooming.