June 11, 2006

may 06 - part 4

[190506] corner of Armenian Street & Stamford Road:

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beautiful =))

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ugly =(( where e old National Library building used to be along Stamford Road *sigh*

[200506] esplanade rooftop has become such a smoky & noisy place, full of rowdy teens smoking & drinking themselves silly....e cat stays indoors not to hide from e sun & humidity, but to hide from secondhand smoke & e stench of stale puke =|

[210506] ICQ message from N|U|S wushu 'godson':

Date : 21/05/2006 Time : 1:37 AM
From : XXXX - N|U|S wushu
hey, it[sic] i were older, i would pursue you too ;)

this guy who refers to e cat as 'godma' has a serious case of oedipus complex....bigfatwhale once theorised that he 缺乏母爱 (lacks motherly love) *lol*

[220506] a T-rex named Sue...

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some humans thrown in for scale:

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official opening of e dinosaurs exhibition @ science centre turned out to be a FoS/DBS gathering of sorts, with plenty of profs, former TAs, lab techs & department admin staff present. a rare chance to see many of e non-profs wearing something more formal than e usual bermudas/shorts/cargo pants & Tevas/hiking boots/flip flops/diving booties get-up. after all, this is e department that has staff like bird prof, who wore jeans & flip flops beneath his academic gown up onto e UCC stage during e cat's convocation commencement ceremony ;)

met lao2 ban3 BCL....by some coincidence he'd just referred to e cat's honours thesis earlier in e morning to point something out to a masters student, at about e same time e cat was learning about his recent promotion to A/P....& now we were meeting in e evening - totally unexpected & definitely unplanned, didn't know that non-ecotax people from e department would be there. so happy to talk to him again & lapse into our usual mix of English-Hokkien-Mandarin =P

also met e former SPS staff mentor 'Dr Love', Woffles Wu's twin Dr PSQ who still remembered being one of e cat's UROPS examiners, e not-so-nice prof (why did LKY's wife choose him as a boss, e cat still wonders....) who once scolded e cat for trying to take his BL4000 module in its 3rd year & in e process miffed e department coordinator (who supported e cat's case), & otterman, whom e cat thought was still thousands of miles away in Berkeley!

got to watch e Dinosaurs i-max movie for free....with e president & other VIPs seated directly behind us. sootty's friend autograph-hunting:

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[270506] fiction@love again - cute cat & big fat koi =))

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finally cleared SMU campus off e 'to go' list =)

[280506] Maths Olympiad training for kindergarten 2 level kids:

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hanging from some lamp post at Marine Parade Central. on e reverse side was a banner advertising 'Chinese for Survival'.

[290506] cat with buttered paws = shattered mug. brings to mind one of e older KE7 hall plays 'Windscreen Cracked From Side to Side':

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can't bear to throw e pieces away (here they are pieced together), even though e cat has no lack of backup mugs. Altius 98/99 was probably one of e last 'old-style' KE7 freshmen orientation camps complete with initiation night (KE7 airport, KE7 beach, milking cows etc), square meal, & songfights. 8 years on, e 4(?) of us working in e same building who went through Altius 98/99 together still remember those 3 weeks of a really strange version of hell (to some) & how it brought us so close =))

[300506] on way to get lunch, spotted a big fat lizard (a Calotes?) on a branch of a beautiful tree along e path near e railway tracks. it would move a few inches, stop & appear to gobble up something, & when its jaws stopped moving, it would repeat e whole move-stop-gobble cycle. too far away to tell, maybe it was picking ants off e branch?

[310506] spotted it again basking in e morning sunshine:

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love this kinda tree, e smooth greyish bark is so beautiful & so are e compound leaves =) amazed how this tree-hugger was spotted through half-open cat eyes while sleepwalking in from e bus stop =P

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from a comment left by Mr Wang on his vesak day thoughts post:

'...spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle has in fact commented that cats are Zen masters, due to their ability to be perfectly present in the here & now, and to be content.'

think this comes from this line I have lived with several Zen masters, all of them cats in 'The Power of Now', a book by Eckhart Tolle?

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sootty's farewell dinner @ HV Swensen's:

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everyone:

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poor guy got totally bullied by ALGH & e cat, since he refused to ask another guy to accompany him to e loo:

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having two knives in his backpack was useless....he still got his hair tied into two ponytails =P

[ filed under: 9_lives_2006 + nature1 ]

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