may 06 - first instalment

[010506] chanced upon PKPL's obituary in both Friday & Saturday's newspapers as was going through e pile of accumulated unread newspapers, & SMS-ed LKB e sad news. twice PKPL had gone on long leave, leaving others to handle graduate student matters & our supervisory committee meetings admin. e first time round she reappeared looking much refreshed, with a new hairstyle & dye job & make-up =)

e second time round e cat barely recognised PKPL as it walked past her. by e time it registered in e cat's brain that e skeletal figure sitting outside e building was her, we only managed to exchange smiles, & that was to be e last we saw of each other. for this e cat is glad that it has always included an extra line or two to thank her for her time & help in our email correspondence.

[ 170506 update ] more than two weeks on, there has not been (& probably never will be) any official announcement on e loss of a wonderful person from e institute's staff, one who has served for many many years, & who truly cared for e graduate students & helped us so much especially in tackling e admin fortresses of e worm-class university. no notice of condolence to e bereaved family in e papers. & mass e-mails that include her still appear in our inboxes, which is rather sad to those of us who have come to know about her passing. at least her name & contact was taken off e directory about a week ago, can't imagine someone trying to contact her on her extension. how do you answer e phone & explain to e caller that e person (s)he wants to speak to is dead?

a foreign-born boss e cat talked to (oh! you also know about that? how did you manage to find out?) wonders why....is it something to do with e culture here, to avoid any mention of such things, he asked. do higher ups here actually care for their staff, even if they are just support staff? he found out only by chance, when another boss who sits on e graduate student affairs committee & worked closely with her for many many years cancelled a meeting after learning of her passing. many staff who have been in this place for years are still in e dark, though word will slowly get around, & more & more will wonder why they had to learn about it only so late?

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walked home from e WP rally at ECP, & found cat-self locked out of e house again - third time this year. no response to doorbell as usual, lucky Pig-pig was awake & answered her mobile.

[040506] walking back after buying lunch, e cat suddenly realised it had no inkling what was in e tupperware container (a beautiful large black plastic bowl with a fitting lid from e Japanese stall at Junction 8 food court = cat's effort to reduce styrofoam waste) apart from rice....no idea what it had chosen at e MOE staff canteen stall minutes ago. it is this barely-existent short-term memory that gives rise to what seems like a compulsion to record down little details of cat life - in notebooks, undeleted sent mails & this blog?

[050506] reciting e pledge in Serangoon stadium, first in English, & then in Mandarin (led by LTK), was magical. e kinda atmosphere e people there had made NDP seem so wayang (but then it really is). no need to blow up money in fireworks ;) as e massive crowds slowly inched out of e stadium, they chanted 'people's power, people's power'. e cat thought that this was something it would never get to see (let alone participate in) unless it was in Thailand or some other country. will there still be such opportunities in 5 years time?

many a times e cat has had to remind itself that e country & e government are two separate things....& this pledge-taking was a good reminder that governments may come & go, but e state & its symbols, e flag, e pledge, e anthem, etc are 'independent constants', that one can love e country & diss e government (or even diss e government because one loves e country).

many a times e cat has to look to Thailand in order to remind itself about this, & that e civil service is something that technically serves e people first & foremost, not e ruling party? they had thrown out about 14(?) governments by e time they got to Chuan Leekpai - stopped keeping count after that - & are still doing so, yet e civil service hasn't crumbled to dust & while e country has slowed down, it certainly hasn't shut down. if e civil service here can fall apart with a change in ruling party, as has been implied by some, then something is not quite right with how it is structured (based on party self-interest?) & run....

someone e cat knows refused to recite e pledge that night, & will continue to not do so until e day she feels that she is not lying through her teeth when she comes to e words 'democratic society'....

[060506] walking out of e polling station, e cat realised it had something extra in its left paw.

it had upcapped e pen tied to e voting booth to mark a cross on e ballot paper, folded e paper, walked over to e ballot box, slotted it in, & walked straight out....with Mr Blue Pen Cap *facepalm* progress package buay3 gao3 (not enough), even pen cap hafta kope from polling station.... for e record Mr Blue Pen Cap was returned to a policeman to prevent any 'why you say you return e pen cap when you never return e pen cap?' saga (lousy joke).

[ filed under: 9_lives_2006 + thewonderingstraycat ]