-___-"

Allow me to tell you about my day! Or to be more specific, allow me to tell you about my quest to get today's dinner. Thereafter you can proceed to laugh, smirk, or do whatever you want. Yes, you have my permission.

See, my housemates decided to get takeout this evening. As I was in class, I was a little late in replying their sms and so missed out on having them get dinner for me. :-(

I decide I want dinner from one of those Chinese restaurants in Northbridge (which is kinda like Geylang in Singapore, albeit no prostitutes, and generally cleaner). Northbridge is always crowded at night, whatever night. There are always people eating or drinking there, which means getting a parking lot will be tough unless you are willing to pay through your nose.

So I spotted this lot, and it happened to be part of a taxi queue. In Northbridge, parking is mostly by the roadside and you can't tell from far if one is a parking lot or if it's a taxi waiting area, you only see the signs when you get closer.

So it's a taxi lot. And... I decided to park anyway. I was only gonna be 10 minutes! How long does takeaway take?

But very apparently, luck was not on my side because

1. I scratched a dustbin while trying to parallel park (I'm only good at vertical parking!)
2. Which caused onlookers to stare.
3. And then this very very very kind man came to help guide me into parking, totally unnecessary because I was parking illegally.
4. After I was done, I thanked him profusely.



5. And then a taxi came and sounded his horn.

And I had to leave.

Yes all that hard work and embarrassment all for naught. I really pity the guy who helped me. Did I mention he also apologised to the taxi driver on my behalf and then helped stop traffic while I peel away from my lot? I should send him a bottle of wine.

(Cheap wine)

Assignment 101

In uni everyone eventually picks up essential life skills: Professional doodling, selective absenteeism, and assignment procrastination. Oh, and for some: alcohol appreciation but that's not the point of this post.

Today I'll discuss the fine points of handling one's deadlines effectively. Say you have a deadline the following Monday, and today is, what do you know, already Wednesday. For most people, the appropriate day to start Monday's submission is Sunday night, perhaps 11.59PM?

But if you want to sleep easy on Sunday night and not rush madly for your deadline, start doing your assignment on Wednesday, preferably after watching Emmy-award-winning series HOUSE. :)

So you start your word processor, assuming your laptop is already switched on and you have gotten yourself a plate of chips and a glass of soda (this is life man!), spread relevant assignment materials around on your work table, put on assignment-appropriate music (Rachael Yamagata in my case), and then... lie on your bed for an indefinite amount of time.

And then I think... you blog. Or refill your food plate, or do your laundry, cut your nails, clean the carpet, wash the dishes, watch Prison Break, format your word document, choose a font, rent a DVD, y'know, suddenly there are just heaps of things to do! Where will I find the time for my essay?

Imagine you as a female driver with, I suppose, typical female driver characteristics - indecisive, always failing to signal, fickle when choosing parking lots, etc. etc. Yeah I am going to unabashedly admit that I pretty much do all these things on the road, in addition to... other stuff.

So, you, the aforementioned female driver, are driving on the mostly straight and boring freeway when a second female driver pulls up beside you but stays about a quarter car length behind you and continues to do this for perhaps the next 10 minutes or thereabout.

You'd get pretty pissed off, don't you reckon?

Well I am that second female driver and yes, I did it on purpose. I don't know why I did it. But of course I'm not going to do it again (seriously), I think she was pretty close to flipping me a certain finger because it turned out she was trying to switch into my lane and I wasn't letting her. Oops. :S Rest assured, though, I won't be doing that again.

The "Life" thingy, y'know?

Something only uni students are able to do: fit five cars into four car lots.

And - this one upset me greatly - greeting me when I enter a cafe by "Hey mdm, what can I get you?"

Surely I do not look that old? (Don't answer that).

Other than that, posting might be a little more sporadic because I don't really have much time for myself now (read: I'm getting lazy). But my archives are good! :P

Related posts:
On life, part 6
On life (yeah again)
On life, part 4

Death by 42 degrees

The last couple of days haven't been good at all. Weather reports claimed that temperatures would be 42 degrees for these two days and it had certainly felt like 42 degrees! Imagine being out running errands and you hear the radio DJ report "We're reaching that 42 mark, it's 41.8 degrees now" and then seeing the facts on the evening news that it was indeed 42.4 degrees right about the time you were out trying to get home from Uni.

Jesus.

Do me a favour, don't complain about Singapore's humidity until you've experienced 42 degrees. No wonder they say Perth is the US equivalent of Texas in more ways than one. Seriously the heat is no joke.

Taking the motherland for granted

I had a good weekend. Pftt, what a stupid line. Anyhow, Friday night was dinner at Matsuri and Saturday was dinner at Utopia. This is how much I like nippon food: I work at a Japanese cafe, and I eat at Japanese restaurants after my working hours. What a geek eh.

Seems like every Japanese place in Perth is heaps better than where I work, even though we get a lot of regular customers who swear by our sushi rolls religiously. Oh today's post is going to be short and succinct. Friday night I drove out to dinner. Daylight savings and an early dinner is a great combination, by the time we left the restaurant there was more than enough light for us to walk to my car safely. Saturday, however, was a different story. Dinner was late and I decided not to drive. When we were done, it was truly nighttime and Northbridge was starting to look a tad intimidating. It was only 9pm but we decided it was best to head home.

It's a different feeling walking down Orchard Road at night alone and walking through a darkened City of Perth without any company. I never had to worry about any form of aggression going through Singapore's streets, even at midnight. But come nightfall in Perth and I'm running home if I happen to be alone. Just reminds me how much we really take Singapore's safety for granted.