The national day period has got to be one of the most, absolutely disgusting displays of patriotism that Singapore has to offer. I mean, once and only once a year we get fellow Singaporeans lining up for days to get NDP tickets and all that crap. The rest of the year, fellow patriots are complaining about everything from the government to heat, the expensive way of lfe and of course, New Water.

But National Day? Why celebrate? And what the heck are we celebrating anyway? Our freedom? Bah! Our history? :P Go pick up a history book. Oh, it's to watch the parade! It's so wonderful to witness it live as compared to watching it on the TV...fuck that. Try telling that to the burnt out school kids who sweltered under the sun only to perform some mind-numbing 30 sec claptrap. Or to the masses of military personnell who try their darndest not to faint in their lovely dress whites while standing for hours on end before the parade even begins. Do you know why people leave the country in droves come Aug 9? I'd say to avoid the sacharrine drivel that pours out of every single NDP performer...the overly sweet show of solidarity is almost enough to rot the teeth in your head. The only sad asses who actually watch the stupid thing are expats who didn't know any better, senior citizens and deluded people who think that the NDP parade is the most wonderful thing since Mardi Gras.

But wait...Can you imagine a year without the parade? Well, that would be absolute heaven!

No sstoopid road closures on Saturdays (what's up with that?), no need to air and hang out the flag, schoolkids will probably rejoice to know that they do not need to sing "We are Singapore" yet again...heck, I'd probably throw a party just to celebrate the day!

And what's up with the endless national songs on the TV and radio? Wake up people, the fanatics have already bought themselves a billion national day songs CDs and are probably singing to them every chance they get. It doesn't matter if the get the Singapore Idol or even Celine Dion to sing the crap - it's hokey propaganda bullshit.

Humph...the only reason to stage this overblown spectacle is probably to show the rest of the world that yes, Singaporeans do love the country and that our military personnell and schoolkids love performing in the heat and th stifling humidity. :P

Honestly, no one gives a fuck. I'm gonna go eat now.

I usually do not make it a habit to whinge about work, but lately that seems to be a little impossible. Why? Because the people I work for are getting a little ridiculous.

Over the course of my sometimes strange career :P, I've come across many a different breed of bosses. There are the good ones, who actually bothers to say or teach you a few good things, the bo-chap ones who left you to your own devices and the bitches. Unfortunately for me, the last one seems to pop up quite a few times lately. In 2003, there was a HUGE bitch and now, it feels almost like deju-vu...without the personal attacks. When I open the dictionary to bitch, I half expect to see their pictures there...

While I usually try to work things out with my bosses and finish my stuff within deadlines, this one is really testing my patience. Yes, you may be the boss but you have to trust your employees to work for you - we have a brain and feelings too. This one's a real bitch because she can never see the bigger picture. It's always now, now, now... and what happens when things go awry? Why, blame everyone but herself of course! Why is this not done, why is that not done - because you are fucking sitting on it! Bitch.

And work delegation is always - can you do this now? or I needed this by yesterday...drop everything and do my stuff now! Or my favourite: Who the fuck wrote this? I mean, WTF? For a head of department and a management level executive, that really schoked me. After all, I am the communications person, of course I wrote the fucking thing! You mean the thing wrote itself? Or maybe I have a secret gnome on staff? Gimme a break!

No one every said life was easy but you'd think that they should put up a warning sign to caution; Warning: Btich in Residence or something... I'm just pissed off at the whole thing. I always accord my bosses with due respect but in this case, the higher-up needs some talking to. Just because we are in Asia doesn't mean that people can be trampled on. Respect goes both ways and needs to be earned. I tend to run off at the mouth at the worst times so she has gotten snapped at by me as well but it seems to be the only way she'll listen. Work is usually stimulating and exciting for me but this just plain frustrates the crap outta me. Hopefully things will improve with her new team structure. Otherwise, we're fucked.

Ok, enough whinging. It's is a fucked up monday.

I'm going home to hug ET.

On the bright side, I received the 2005 AP Stylebook from one of my overseas colleagues...ooo! Got me all excited... If you're wondering, what's so fucking great about it, well, ask any writer... :o)

You know that you are no longer a spring chicken when only one week of added routines makes you as achy and creaky as an old spring.

And what's the sudden facination with prancing around like a loon anyway? Well, since I'm so not into the 'let's go to the gym' thing, I might as well do something that I enjoy. Hence, dancing it is. There's salsa, turns technique and now jazz. So, after doing all of them last week plus wakeboarding, I can safely say that I am all-excercised out. On Sat, the girls & I went riding and while we improved by a bunch, there was also much hilarity.

I think our facination with our current crop of pansies are getting a little out of hand. Why? Because after weeks and weeks of going to Punggol with Jean, we actually got lost - while mocking her pansy. Yeap, the guy is cool and all but then, we got all excited and fuck, missed our turning. Sucks to be us man. It was all, we're lost, we're lost! If only Sawyer was here....mmmmm...oh, wait, there's ulu-ness...should I turn into there? Fuck Singapore roads! So call for help we did. Rescued by my pansy we were.

My pansy has a strange facination with men...it's a little weird cos Jean & I are constantly beo-ing but when a guy goes "oh, he's so hot!" like you - it's kinda weird. The only people who does that are my "brothers". Let's hope that this is a passing fancy cos the next thing you know, there'll be confessions and I would have busted another gut laughing.

We didn't get to see Li's pansy this week. Sad-Li enough. I pulled a muscle while riding and had to limp around for a while on Sat so no salsa for us. But I'm sure that him & the dusbin are getting along just fine ;). On the hilarity level, Li's pansy would win hands down cos, we get the most laughs from the poor guy. He's almost like the male version of Dong - only sillier.

This week, it's another all - or rather, mostly dancing week yet again. Gotta try this to see if it really works. Hoepfully, the old muslces will somehow heal faster.

And people, if you are reading this blog - I don't want an inflatable crocky. A stuffed one will do ;p

It is never easy to break up with someone and this morning, it felt like my head office just broke up with me. Sigh. :o(

Yeap, this is about that job opening that I applied for in the head office sometime back. And while I was optimistically hoping that the offer would come through, deep down I was aware that it may not. Why? Because (1) they took too long to get back to me (2) it is expensive to relocate someone of my position (3) My boss actually hinted that I should wait for a better one to come up before applying. The interviewer was really, really nice though and the letdown was relatively less painful than it would have been, had I not been prepared. I've been working with the interviewer for over a year and our working relationship has always been great but still, the letdown was a little hard to take.

Well, there was the niceties and while she did expound a fair bit on my overall talents, she did give some good constructive feedback on areas that I can improve on. Personally, I'm all for constructive feedback. It's a great way to see how people percieve you and it humbles you - hey, if it was up to me, I'd think I was the greatest thing since bread came sliced but then again, I'm too realistic for that.

Oh well, I'll get over this soon. On the bright side, things in my office are getting quite interesting. I've always enjoyed my work and I feel that the opportunities here are pretty great. Where the opportunity in the US offered a chance to work in a different environment and to work in a more niche position, my current position allows me to explore new territories and run things to the best of my abilities with the backing of my boss. Yes, she may be evil at times but, then again, so am I. Mwahahahah...

I'm not saying that things are a bed of roses here - nothing ever is - but I'll take this job and run with it for now. Hey, it challenges me and allows me to grow in ways that the real estate one never had. So, I'm optimistic.

The wanderlust is still there though, so even though I may not get to travel as much for work, I will still travel like crazy for leisure. :o)

I'll make it, just give me some time.

It's been a little crazy here lately...ok, it's always been crazy wherever Jean & I go but then again...heh.

Yesterday, as far as I'm concerned was one of those blue ribbon days :o) Why? Cos we met a long-time hero of ours ...Neil Gaiman. I mean, this is the guy who wrote the cult Sandman series and one of my favourite, favourite books; Neverwhere. So, us being us, the Married Man, Jean & I skipped work to do what all fanboys do - stand in a queue in Kino for hours on end to catch a glimpse of the man, take photos, have him autograph our stuff and try not to scare the crap outta the guy.

Color me surprised but the number of people who showed! And then, and then, there were the freaky ones somemore who showed up in - gasp...in character. Ok, so I may be crazy over the guy and I frankly think that he's one of the most original writers around but it's damned funny when people show up dressed as Destiny, Death, Destruction, Desire, Despair, and Delirium. There was a kid dressed as Desire - and the only thing I could think of when I saw her was, if that is Desire, I'd rather be celibate...no hellooos for you.

The freaks were everywhere, I tell you, everywhere! There's even one who looked like Yoda...what, the bugger showed up at the wrong signing? Mwahahahaha...lost, he was.

The Singapore fans are a luckier bunch as we each could get 3 books signed, so I got Neverwhere (of course), Coraline and The Wolves in the Walls while Jean got a birthday dedication signed for Camille, Mirrormask and hmmmm...all the excitement has drained my memory...

So anyways, today is Day 2 of the great Gaiman stalk and we're heading off to Borders in a couple of hours to, well, obviously not stand in queue yet again but to beo (yes, sometimes geek boys are cute), to get more photos and hear him read.

Ah, life is good...and yes, I'll mind the gap!