Watching the live telecast of Mendelssohn's Elias from the Verbier Festival as I'm typing this. It's simply wonderful that medici tv has allowed people to watch the Verbier Festival for free.

Last sunday I attended the concert of the girl whom I helped a few years back (mentioned in a previous post) with Shu. Many of the singers that day were quite mediocre, with the exception of her. There was even a guy who sang (and danced) the Merry Widow waltz duet with a voice that showed no hint at all of classical training. She was definitely the best among them. Who could have imagined how helpless she and her mother looked back then at esplanade library? I remember I was a bit mean that time. I took the score of Allelujah from Mozart's Exsultate Jubilate and showed the girl the coloratura part and asked her if she could sing that, knowing fully well that she couldn't. I met the family before and after the concert. After heaping perfunctory praises, I told them that it was just a small favour. They were still very thankful nonetheless, especially the mum who called me their 恩人.

Last week I was loitering in Orchard. Whenever I’m alone in Orchard I’ll take the opportunity to eat at a Fu Jian delights stall. It is located in a nondescript kopitiam in Lucky Plaza. I first tried the food back in 2005 when I was visiting my psychiatrist at Mount E. Hospital. Like how my sociology prof remarked on The Newpaper, the food is “cheap and good”.

That day I was a bit greedy and ordered 1 bowl of 红糟鸡面线 and 1 bowl of 什锦汤 for my dinner! The 老板娘 said that she didn’t have enough chicken, so she shall add some 水饺 to make up for it. The 红糟鸡面线 was a bit sour I felt. I remembered it tasted better. Or maybe it was the interaction between the 2 dishes. Hehehe… The 福州鱼丸s from the什锦汤 were really nice. 里面还有汤汁呢！




The translation of 红糟 was actually “red residue”. Sounds quite scary. Hehehe…



Some time ago, I attended Opera in the Park at the Botanic Gardens. I was sitting near the pond, beyond which was the stage. Nearing the end of the concert, suddenly a blind man (in his forties I guess) started hovering along the pond, with his blind stick. An ang moh passer-by talked to him, apparently asking him if he needed help. I couldn’t hear their conversation but it wasn’t long before the ang moh left and the blind man was left there beating about with his stick. I so happened to be sitting nearest to him. He came towards my direction and inquired, “Hello? Anyone there?” I replied something but couldn’t remember and he clutched onto my arm. His speech was rather incoherent and I noticed his arms were quivering when he wasn’t moving them. He asked me if the concert had ended. I said no and that they were singing the last piece. He asked me who was the lady who sang “I feel pretty”. I said I didn’t know. He then proceeded to ask me if she was pretty. He said her perfume very strong. I was quite shocked. Blind people might have an acute sense of smell, but if he could smell her perfume from that distance, then I supposed the entire orchestra on stage should have fainted. It was then that I realized I wasn’t just dealing with a blind man, but a schizophrenic blind man. He said he wanted to see her after the concert and ask her to sing for him and asked me to take him to her. At that moment I felt like just leaving him altogether. But well I was too kind-hearted and people around were watching so I agreed to help and seated him just beside me (all the while he was standing while talking).

He was quite impatient and kept on asking me if the concert had ended. I said no and had to reassure him that I would take him to the backstage later on, which I really did. There I found a woman who looked like the person-in-charge and asked, “May I know who sang ‘I feel pretty’?” She mentioned a name and I told her that the blind man wanted to meet her. She said the singers were all on stage for photo-taking and she would inform the singer afterwards. I told this to the blind man. Some time later, the singer came to us. The blind man hugged her and clutched onto her arm throughout. As was his original intention, he really asked her to sing for him. The singer looked surprised but nevertheless sang a few lines softly to his ears. He asked her questions like “you married already?”, “you are Christian?”, “how you traveled here?”. Then he asked her to sing I think an aria from Madama Butterfly. The singer told him that she wasn’t the one who sang that and I think she was glad to refer him to the actual singer and extricate herself. So he basically repeated all his shenanigans to the 2nd singer. The 2nd singer also obliged and sang a few lines and quickly extricated herself. All the while I just stood beside him with an apologetic look.

After that the blind man wanted me to bring him to the bus stop along Nassim Road. I had the impulsion to just abandon him but alas I was too kind. I was never good with routes and the Botanic Gardens was so big. Furthermore, it was very dark by then. So it was really the blind leading the blind. He clutched onto my arm with his clammy hand. He did mention about taking a cab if it’s too late. Since the taxi stand was a much nearer destination. I asked him why not take a cab instead. His remarkable reply was “you pay ah?” Well, fine. So I slowly led him to the bus stop. He wanted to get to Adam Road to change bus. So I had to checked the bus stop directory. Before that when a bus stopped by, he asked me where does it go. Like I know? I told him I had to check the directory and he wasn’t happy. “Why you all dunno one?” As I went to check I thought I heard him curse nah beh. But anyway I got him the bus he wanted and took him up. Then I happily fled.

I just ended my special term last fri. The exam was still doable, though I realised I left out important points after I left the exam hall. I really hate writing exam essays. Often you have to address a big issue with such little time. I find it facile to try to tackle a problem of such enormity within the confines of an examination. Many times I had strong ideas, but realised I wouldn't have the time to built on them, so I had to settle for much simplistic ideas. Also, perhaps due to my poor working memory, I have problems holding my thoughts in mind and organising them.

I did quite badly for 2010/2011 2nd sem, though I did get A+ for my Socio-cognitive Perspectives of Emotions mod. Even before the release of the results, my lecturer told me that I did extremely well for his module. When I tried to inquire, he said he couldn't reveal more and that I would be very pleased with the outcome. Indeed, hehehe... I was also shocked to get a A for Language and Cognitive Processes. I expected at most a B. The mod was so opaque and abstruse. The lecture slides were badly structured and I could hardly follow. There was no textbook to guide the lost students. In its place, we had a thick coursepack of mostly unreadable journal articles. We also had a group project that was undoable. That was a project that made me feel utterly helpless. The title of the mod was misleading. I was expecting to learn about syntax, morphology, pragmatics, semantics etc. In the end it was just reading and spelling and dyslexia. The worst was that we had to include citations in the exam essays, e.g. (Jacquenot & Scott, 2003). This is ridiculous. The lecturer still said that even though our lecturers didn't mention, but secretly they hoped that we would all include citations in their essays. Yeah right.

I was disappointed with the result for English Phonetics and Phonology. I got a B+, but I was expecting nothing less than an A, to the point that I appealed for a review. But there was no re-marking of scripts and checking that the marks were added correctly. I received their reply not long after: "The Department of English Language and Literature has reviewed your EL3202 script(s) and confirms that the EL3202 grade given on your result slips stands." I thought I asked several intelligent questions during tutorials and lectures. But there were no participation points anyway.

I did badly for my psychology lab. I dropped my lab mod last sem due to the bunch of idiots. It was no better this sem. Still a bunch of idiots save for one, who was good at using SPSS. I had to think of ideas myself. I worked till 4am on some days searching for journal articles. The burden was on me to come up with everything. I really hated it. This sem there were 4 group projects. I did almost everything for 3. The 4th one was the Language project and we were all pretty helpless and there was a bastard who chose the easy task for himself.

This afternoon I ad lunch with my mum outside. As the coffee shops nearby are terrible, I brought my mum to a not so near one. After turning in to one road after another, we finally arrived. My mum exclaimed she had been there before, around 10 years ago, while she was jogging. She also claimed that there was a 三阳茶馆 nearby. But it was not to be found. There was only a 三坛水灵宫. Finally she went to ask the lady of a very old provision shop. She replied there indeed was a 三阳茶馆, but it closed down... 10 years ago.

P.S.: I'm proud to have attended 3 rallies in the midst of my exams. It was really an eye-opening experience. It would be another 5 years before the next rallies and hopefully I won't have any exams den.

Sometimes I'm awed by the fact that I'm actually existing. Why is there something rather than nothing? Well simply because there wouldn't be nothing without something. The fairest state of affairs is one in which no one exists at all.