I am always tickled and amused whenever a friend references something that I had written in any of my blogs (this one in particular of course) in meatspace. It shows that I've not been writing into a void, and really helps in delineating those who care and those who care not. I must also make a note that I am officially writing at stupid o'clock once again, and if things get all rambly and angsty, it's to be expected.
Anyhow, the weekend is upon us again. YT got back on Thursday on schedule, and we met up and hung out in the afternoon, eating a whole lot of good food and talking about all manner of crazy things, bouncing between the mundane (catching up on the various antics that our mutual friends have been up to, comparing battle scars on stupidity observed in life) to the sombre (wondering about how life is treating us, how the future looks like (hint: generally bleak)). I'm still digesting some of the stuff that we had gone through; it was a long chat, and much of what was discussed belongs to the subconscious processing unit simply because of the nature of the matter. I will withhold them in my memory and say no more about them here. One thing that was interesting was the tentative plan of synchronising trips to San Francisco to visit Victor---I'm trying to figure out if I should make an additional trip to Boston this time round to visit Xiaolu, but that is something that needs to be thought through and decided upon only nearer November.
Brian visited SIN city again, this time with Ko. We explored the southern tourist trap of Singapore, namely the Marina Bay Sands (MBS), Art/Science Museum, Gardens by the Bay, and VivoCity/Harbourfront. It was the first time that I had got my ass into the Art/Science Museum. They were having a dinosaur exhibit, as well as the photograph exhibition of Annie Leibovitz. Of the two, the first felt exactly like the popular science it was meant to be. Knowing more about anatomy made comparative anatomy on the reconstructed skeletons actually more interesting, and I think that I actually had more fun at this exhibit than at the previous one back in the Science Centre. If the dinosaur exhibit was the clear epitome of popular science and the mainstream, then the photograph exhibition was the polar opposite. Annie's forte was in taking portraits, and the manner in which she takes them (and the people of whom she took photographs of) were, for a lack of originality, provocative. We are talking about taking the extraordinary, the ``celebrity'', and recasting them in a light that shows their humanity despite the deification that we bestow upon them, with the effect where their humanity is depicted in a manner that does not belittle their existence, but rather enhance their stature in that it shows that beyond the celebrity status, they are still like regular people, identifiable outside of the sphere of their fame, sharing the same kinds of basic human emotions the way we do; approachable.
The traipse through the MBS, Gardens by the Bay and VivoCity/Harbourfront were mostly without incident, except for one. Bloody hard-selling nincompoops at the Guardian shop at the MBS near the food court. We were in there, I was looking for a bottle of tea or coffee, while pointing out the citronella oil patches to Brian and Ko for them to consider as their secondary defense against mosquitoes. Ko was talking to the pharmacist to get a hold of some hydrocortisone cream to help reduce the inflammation from the various bug bites he got from their Ubin trip the day before, and I was just about to pay for the bottle of tea I found. Immediately, a skin care sales woman came up to me, pointed at the visible rash on my arm (I was wearing a short-sleeved polo T-shirt with some mild visible heat rash), and told me in Mandarin that she had a product that could help me ``fix'' that. I told her firmly that I wasn't interested, but she lingered for a bit before walking away. I thought that was the end of it and went on to pay for my stuff and gave a stink eye look to Brian, who probably never saw me get so miffed before.
When I was done with buying my bottle of tea a different sales woman came up to me and told me about her skin product that could ``help with my complexion''. Mind you, we hadn't left the damn store yet. It wasn't crowded either, so apparently the modus operandi was ``if at first you fail, try again, even if the potential customer has already firmly said no to the first try, and was visibly annoyed''. I was so pissed I could break someone's leg. But I kept my cool, and told the interloper firmly that I wasn't interested. To avoid having to do time for assault, I walked out of the damn store, signalling Brian to follow me.
Idiots. I can play the get-out-of-my-country card and say that they were both of PRC descent and didn't look naturalised nor understanding to the typical Singaporean leave-me-the-fuck-alone response, but it's really not worth it nor is it accurate; sales staff that are clueless are clueless, and they come in all shapes, sizes, nationalities and what not. I think they should secretly be thankful I had the good sense of sparing their lives from their lack of tact by walking away. And I will stop here on my diatribe on this event---I can go on, but again, it's really not worth the effort.
``Horlicks Balls'' ice-cream from the Gardens by the Bay gift shop really tickled Ko's uhh something. Both he and Brian had no clue what ``Horlicks'' was, and was understandably making all the wrong assumptions. A pity that Ko was lactose intolerant, otherwise he could easily try out one ``Horlicks Balls'' for himself to learn of its flavour, and of the flavour of the malt-drink we all love as Horlicks.
So much for Thursday's and Friday's happenings.
I know Brian will read this at some point (I don't know when), so this piece of news is for him since he asked: that blind date is not happening. My friend conferred with her boyfriend about the... complication that the candidate girl was going through and they had [wisely] made the decision that she was probably not ready for the kind of serious relationship that I was looking for, and for the sake of everyone's sanity, have decided that it was best to not do the introduction. Funnily though, my friend promised to keep an eye out for a compatible girl for me, even though I didn't actually say anything about it. I'm not sure what to feel about that; it was just more amusing than anything else.
Hmm... I don't think there's anything else to add. Work is picking up again, the weather is getting more atrocious, and the June school holiday spirit is starting to affect me slightly. I guess most things are well in life and the only way that I can go is only forwards.
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