I'm actually having a QUIET Monday. I think most of my clients are getting into the Chinese New Year mood so work is rather quiet. This calls for a meme.

1. We've all heard the phrase, "Don't judge a book by its cover." Have you ever picked up a book based solely on the title or the picture on the cover?
I do that with Fantasy books and sometimes, those romance novels. The couple on the cover has to look believable.

2. Along the same lines, do you ever look at whichever book someone else is reading in public or whatnot, and based on that make a snap judgment about their character or literary taste?
Hmm...not so much to make a judgement on them, but to see if I've read it or not.

3. Do you buy books online? If so, where is your favorite place to find them?
Yes, at Amazon. But I'll NEVER give up the bookshop.

4. What is the largest late fee you've ever incurred at a library for returning a book past the due date? Have you ever borrowed a book from a library and never returned it?
I've held a book so long, that if I did return it, I knew my fine would be hefty. So *blush* I didn't.

5. What is the first book that you can remember reading by yourself as a child?
I think it was something from the Enid Blyton series either of Mr Pinkwhistle or Mr Muddles.

It's not because I'm Chinese, cause I'm not. It's just that the holiday means a super long weekend starting on the Feb 8 to Feb 13. Aaahh...6 days of unhurried bliss!

However, I know for most of my Chinese friends here, it means endless rounds of visits to and from relatives, eating loads of auspicious Chinese dishes cooked by loving mothers, aunties and grandmothers determined to feed them good luck and prosperity, busybodies enquiring on marital status and/or commenting on the lack of children in the marriage, and a quiet dread that all this lasts for about 3 intense weeks.

I don't envy them. However, the unmarried ones earn every dollar from the angpows (red packets containing money and sometimes LOTS of it) they receive for putting up with those constant barbs while my married friends have to bite their tongue cause it just won't do to get Third Auntie so upset that she tells their parents.

As for me, I just quietly enjoy the delicious tidbits that are now popping up in every supermarket, bakery and even the neighbourhood 7-11! So much is there that they literally spill over into the already crowded aisles, and are stacked into piles outside.

Chinatown is a buzz this time of year but you have to be a pretty tough soul with nerves of steel to brave the throngs that crush the narrow lanes in search of traditional foods, goodies and decorations like gold ingots and red lanterns. Lines also form outside famous BBQ meat sellers. People aren't interested to buy just a few hundred grams but walk out toting plastic bags with several kilos of the stuff. Other auspicious goodies that are relentlessly hunted down include groundnuts, red and black melon seeds, dried stuff like mushrooms and Chinese sausage, abalone (it's too rubbery and chewy for my liking), oranges, persimmons, pomelos...the list is quite staggering!

And oh! the flower gardens around the island are awash with pink, red, yellow and orange plants as people come in search of these auspicious blooms to grace the family home and offices like hydrangeas (xiu qiu hua), camellias (cha hua), azaleas (du juan hua), orange trees (si ji ju), lucky bamboo (kai yun zhu), chrysanthemums (ju hua) and long-stemmed pussy willows. There are over 20 types of Chinese New Year plants and their meanings all have auspicious associations such as prosperity, wealth, fortune, long-life and luck.

Puts the Christmas poinsetta, pine tree, holly and ivy to shame, doesn't it? LOL!

This was an altogether restful weekend although I spent the better parts of Friday and Saturday with friends. It was in pursuit of mindless fun (tackling a video game) and creating a video of fire twirling performances (for submission to various international fire festivals). Now it's Sunday and I feel better able to meet the hectic pace of the week ahead.

But for now, I found another book meme.

Name 3 books you haven't read but always wanted to:
1. Vanity Fair by W. Thackeray
2. A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
3. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The first one I started then got promptly stumped around chapter 2. I've heard a lot about The Alchemist, bought the book, but have always been sidetracked into reading something else. For Hitchhiker, I keep getting distracted by other sci-fi books on the same shelf and buy those instead. I'm determined to read the book this year.

Name 3 books you wish you hadn't read:
1. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
2. The Club Dumas by Perez Reverte
3. Any self-help book
I know many rave over Plath but I just didn't enjoy the book. Her poems on the other hand are entirely a different matter. Club Dumas was too convulted and strung out. As for self-help books, once in a blue moon, I'll pick up one that friends say is a 'must read' only to put it down after several chapters in dismay. Now don't get mad, but I truly believe that they are all based on common sense which it seems many of us lack or ignore therefore providing a huge market for the writers of such books.

Name 3 books you read that were better than expected:
1. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
2. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (and the others)
3. Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic series
Kinsella's Shopaholic series is chicklit at its best, folks. Tartt's sophomore effort is truly remarkable although a tad bit too long while Fforde's heroine Thursday Next and other book characters have made me a huge fan!

I got this meme from a fellow booklover's site, Shelly's Book Shelf. Thanks Shelly!

1. How many books do you own?
A rough estimate is about 500, includings books from childhood that I can't bear to part with like my Enid Blyton hardcovers.

2. Do you keep books to add to your personal library, or do you trade them/give them away?
I keep all of them. I can't bear to trade or give them away. I've only ever given books away to my sister who's another book nut.

3. If you keep books, what makes you keep them? What kind of books do you keep?
I just can't give them up. I feel like I'm giving up a part of myself if I do that. It's heart-wrenching.

4. Do you have a guilty pleasure book- something you would never want to admit to reading?
Ok...don't laugh. But once in a while, I will resort to some trashy romance novel replete with torn bodices and manly charm. LOL!

5. Have you ever gone without something you needed to buy a book instead?
Oh yes! I've gone out to buy clothes and came back instead with a book. It's a rare day that I don't enter a bookstore and NOT come out with a book.

Sometimes I feel like I'm on a merry-go-round, and every one is on the edge of it calling my name for one thing or the other. And this stupid merry-go-round won't stop!!! Honestly...what do you do when you're feeling overwhelmed by things around you? When everything is happening AT THE SAME TIME, and you've only one pair of hands?

A very tired but enquiring mind wants to know.

I have to confess.

I never made it to the book fair. I got nicely distracted by a Nokia phone that beckoned with its steely gaze. The Nokia 6170 is a steel-clad hunk in a sexy clam-shell design. It was love at first sight, folks. Besides I was already desperate. My Sony Ericsson T630 was getting more and more frustrating. I could not get used to its menu and navigtation, not to mention that I was typing out my messages faster that it was responding!!

So...before things got violent, like me throwing my Sony mobile out the cab and possibly hurting a passing motorcyclist or pedestrian with a flying object, I caved in. However, I consoled myself with the fact that there'll always be the Pansing Bookfair later this year (which I thought had a better collection of books than the MPH fair on this weekend.) Besides, its not like my cupboard is bare. That stack of books from the last book fair is sending me on a guilt trip. Ok Ok!! Just as soon as I finish the other 2!

Oooh...Something else has caught my eye. Have you seen the new iPod Shuffle? When I saw it, I could have just hugged Steve Jobs.

It was a day that started off bad, and got progressively worse. I was telling a friend that it reached a point when if someone spoke nicely to me, I would have burst into tears. Part of that could also be due to PMS which seems to have hit me particularly hard this week. I'm now sitting at my desk, trying to restore my calm before I head off home. Don't want to bring all the crap of my day back with me. U2 is keeping me company in my yellow cubicle, along with a can of Heineken.

On a lighter note...I bought something yesterday, a new addition to my bed. A BedMate. A long (about 1.52 meters), soft, downy pillow that lets you wrap yourself around it when you sleep. Last night was sheer bliss! *sigh*

Oh help! Another book fair is just around the corner again. The MPH Bookfair will hit the Expo this weekend for 2 days of books, books, books... I'm looking at the pile in my bookshelf that's crying out to be picked up and read while now another sits by my bed, alongside Blake. ACK!!

I don't NEED anymore books but you'll never know what gem there'll be, right? So, in the name of Good Books everywhere, I should go and see what I can *ahem* rescue.

But come on...how on earth can you refuse to buy books when they are about $2!!!??? Unthinkable!

On a less bookish note: I have to comment that the moon tonight is the perfect sliver of a silver crescent. It's hanging like a Cheshire Cat smile in the orange tinged night sky. With all the halogen road lights around the island, the nights here are NEVER pitch black like the nights I remember out in the boonies in West Virginia. And that means, less stars.

I was just thinking the other day of what I would say if I bumped into the ex-bf. Now punchy one-liners never come to me when I need them. It's only later, when I've had time to think that I can kick myself over what I could have said. But before that, it's stammer, stutter, stumble.

Now, about the ex...someone asked me what I would say if I bumped into him, say on the MRT or at a movie. My first reaction would be to duck and hide. But...hey! that *£@ should be running frome ME! Or at least begging for forgiveness if he sees me. So now, the question is, if I were to meet him, accidentally or otherwise, what could I say that would leave him standing there, shocked out of his socks at my sheer audacity, while I catwalk away from him?

It's cruel and those who know me, would say I'd never do it...but I'm curious. Besides, it never hurts to be prepared.

My office had a wine and cheese party. And I'm buzzy. But what to do...esp when your boss is making you 'chug'!

I'm buzzy...and we're going out for more. Help....

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Note: We ended up at the Victoria Bar for one round of drinks. Brave me, ordered a Caipirinha whose sourness masked a potent mix of alcohol. I got home at around midnight with what felt like, the beginnings of a hangover. Thankfully, none developed in the morning.

What's your favourite time of day?

Is it when the sun's up and the morning air smells fresh and tinged with golden rays of hope? Or is it when the sky's awash with pink and yellow from a setting sun? Maybe it's the witching hours of midnight when you can hear the neighbourhood sleeping?

I love that moment of the day just after sunset and before darkness falls. When the world's winding down, preparing for sleep.

Ok...got to go look busy.

Currently:
Consuming: Nothing. I just had a lunch of cheese sandwiches, a slice of my mom's fruitcake and some seedless grapes
Drinking: Warm water
Listening: Lush99.5
Feeling: Sleepy but happy

Yawn! I'm 'falling down' sleepy today. After a late night yesterday cause of work, I'm barely able to keep my eyes open. You know how when your eyes are so tired from lack of sleep, they feel gritty underneath the lids? Ditto.

Now I've got a meeting to go to, for a big project that several of us hope to kick off in May this year. Sorry, things are still under wraps but we hope it'll premier in a blaze. It's exciting but oh! so tiring too.

Currently:
Listening: LUSH 99.5, my fave new radio station
Consuming: Eau d' Skye
Feeling: Sleepy and cold (hate central aircon!)

The earth is forever changed. On 26 December 2004, a 9.0 earthquake shook the earth on its axis and the resulting tsunamis (or 'divine wind' in Japanese folklore) left a trail of death and destruction in its wake. Watching the news or reading about it in the papers does impart a sense of the horror and helplessness felt by the thousands upon thousands affected. But the sheer magnitude of what happened was brought forcefully home when I saw these pictures from Reuters.


This was taken from the IKONOS satellite over Aceh in northern Sumatra. The pix on the left was taken on January 10, 2004 and the one on the right was taken on December 29, 2004.


These images were taken by DigitalGlobe satellite of a section of Banda Aceh, the hardest hit town in northern Sumatra, just 93 miles from the quake's epicentre. The pix on top was taken on Jun 23, 2004 and the bottom was taken on Dec 28, 2004, shows considerable devastation.

The death toll now stands at 126,000 with nearly 100,000 in Indonesia alone. Numbers mount everyday and the government has given up trying to keep track of the horrifying numbers.

I haven't made any resolutions this year, except to be happy, to travel, to move on and up in my career, and spend more time with old friends while making new ones.

A new radio station was born. Lush 99.5 features chill-out sounds of Urban Lounge and Nu-Jazz, making it the uber-alternative to commercial stations such as Power 98 and Class 95.

An old favourite, Channel i has ceased transmission after 4 years as a happy alternative to MediaCorp's free-to-air Channel 5. Now I'm severely limited to a ONE English channel (Central doesn't count as it's mostly Indian on weekends, and ChannelNewsAsia is the news channel) and that SUCKS!

Here's my gripe: (Read on or jump to the last sentence)
Channel 5's programming leaves a lot to be desired - WWF is a mainstay on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, football (English and Spain the main focus here), reality TV (Fear Factor, Amazing Race etc. There is one reality show for each night of the week!!) and golf (Zzzzzz...). Not to mention the hours of compulsory local programming. Where are all the award-winning shows? Oh...they are pushed to the after 11pm slots (see shows like West Wing now on 1230am, 24Hours on 1am and The Practise on 11pm). Law & Order which used to be shown on Channel i, has disappeared into the void too. And with another new year, we will be subjected to another round of repeats of VanDamme, Steven Seagal and other B-grade kungfu/martial arts movies. Are those the only shows in the Channel 5 movie vault? Are we being 'dumbed' down to make us more receptive to Channel 5's pathetic offerings? Looking at the program line-up for the week, you'd think Singapore was a nation of testosterone-driven numbnuts.

So ok...there is cable TV which for the most part, does offer some good programming. While it's readily available to those in flats and condos, others on landed property have to pay a lot of money to receive it. I've learned that for the houses in my estate, it's about S$6000 per house! Paid over 2 years, it's still a lot of money to ask for running the cable into my house from the main line just outside.

While Channel i was not perfect either, it was nice to have alternative English programmes. And now that alternative has been taken from me (I'm taking this personally!), I'm going to save and get a DVD player cum recorder. This way I'll watch the movies and shows I want to watch, when I want to watch and skip all the commercials. I refuse to be extorted for that huge sum just to watch better TV.

Namaste.