back in london

I miss home quite a bit. It's really sad leaving after three months of cheap good food and awesome friends. and not having to cook for yourself.

anyway business class was quite awesome. I got set on the top deck of a boeing 747 next to the window. the flight wasn't full, well, not on the top deck anyway; that was half empty. so the seat next to me was empty, and I dumped newspapers pillows and blankets on it.

I made a point to drink the expensive stuff. like champagne and wine. It WAS free and I might as well have made the most of it. I forgot the port though. I didn't do cocktails cause I didn't feel like it. the food is good on business class too. they serve it to you in courses, which is pretty cool, since I'm used to getting all of it plonked down in a tray.

they had l'occitane products in the bathroom. I struggled with my conscience with a long while before deciding to steal the hand cream. but by the time I decided to go, some one else beat me to it. or maybe the stewards stowed it away since it WAS the end of the flight. I mean, I didn't really want it, but it would've been cool to know that I've stolen something that's quite useful from a plane. ok well, I did take quite a few towels. so yay! I stole the towels from the plane, how cool am I. that's one thing off the list of things to be done in a life time.

I slept a lot at the beginning of the flight. later on I watched this awesome french movie called bienvenue chez les Ch'tis. it's freaking awesome and hilarious! especially when his friends organise a demonstration of barbarianism for the wife. it's quite heart warming as well. I highly recommend it.

I also watched madame butterfly. it's supposed to be a really good opera after all, and I never really understood what they were saying, so it was a good opportunity to read translations. anyway I didn't get to finish watching it because we landed just as madame butterfly was taking her father's suicide knife out.

I was really happy when I got on, to find out that they had Johnny Bravo cartoons in the system too! I haven't seen that cartoon forever and it's one of my favourites from a long time ago. but the only thing was that the system somehow insisted on reminding me that it was meant for children by having a long introduction with lots of children playing and the words 'young ones' flashing repeatedly.

anyway I was really anxious about immigration taking forever at goddamn heathrow. It was never a problem before because I'd always arrived at freakishly early hours of the morning, but here I was landing smack dab in the afternoon. but singapore airlines gave me a fast pass. a FAST PASS!!! how useful is that?! especially in mad heathrow. I was like woooooooo in your faces, I don't have to line up with 'all other passports!!!' they didn't lose my bag either, which was a relief.

anyway martin picked me up from the airport. he'd gotten there early and had been waiting for quite a long time. it was good to see him again. anyway we rode the piccadilly line back to his station. it was a really really long ride, but we had seats since we got on at heathrow. I was really sleepy by the time we reached his house.

anyway we went to covent garden yesterday. it's really nice! and we went to the british museum to see the rosetta stone. well, I wanted to see it, but quickly got distracted by everything else. we ended up spending a lot of time there. we lost track of time too, and couldn't go for the hadrian exhibition. it was a shame since he was really excited when he realised they were having one.

I dragged martin into a few shops. like a tea shop where I bought some expensive tea, but it was one of those balled up tea things that open up into flowers when you put them in hot water. they're usually expensive, I think, so I didn't mind. by the end I was losing stamina because we'd been walking all day through the museum and I couldn't pay attention to anything anymore. well, he was relieved. he hates shopping.

news

well Iris this is partially for your entertainment, because I am just that good.

well I recently caught sight of an article about gopalan nair in the newspaper, saying that he's been sentenced to a term in prison for the duration of three months. to be honest, I can't say it's a very important case to the general public in my opinion. we have other things to concern ourselves with, in comparison to a little man with delusions of grandeur. HA! it reminded me though, to check out his blog again, not because I'm anxiously concerned about the developments of this guys life, but because it gives me a good laugh to read it, it's hard to find fools that actually give you a good laugh with their self righteous antics. most of the time it would usually annoy me.

and here I must quote things like 'fear ridden island of Singapore' and 'Singaporeans should not be treated as slaves any longer' and 'Singapore dictator cannot intimidate me.' and while reading this, I was thinking 'are you kidding me?' come on, it's so blatantly ridiculous. I don't know anyone at all who feels like a slave, I have never met any one who is constantly afraid of the government. maybe it's possible that these traits are common among opposition party members and supporters, and maybe something could be said about that, but extrapolating what a small percentage of the population feels to the entire community is absolutely ridiculous.

one thing that really surprised me was the commentary left on the blog. I mean that was what got me annoyed because I thought there weren't that many imbeciles in this country. I mean, I'm not particularly nationalistic or patriotic, but give credit where credit is due for god's sake. there are idiots saying things like 'Singapore progress to what it is today? Please lah, give me back my fishing village. I'd rather have my good ole kampong than this suffocating hell of a red dot.' ok respect for preference, but seriously between living in a stable first world country and a stable[in truth unlikely] third world country, I'd pick the first world country. this is just another example of someone blinded by an inflamed sense of self righteousness or self pity. is there some secret world here where idiots come together and feed off each other?

oh and here's an excerpt from another mindless simpleton:

'Prove them all Stinkaporean cowards wrong! Fight the FamiLees till death do part! For all the sins and hardships caused to people of Sinkapore! We salute you! Pls continue writing your blog!'

OHMYGOD. I mean I would want to respond, but I get a little frustrated myself because I am at a loss as to how to deal with such raw stupidity. at least there were some people who spoke sense, and that makes me feel a little less hopeless. some one pointed out that it's increasingly obvious that gopalan nair is probably not acting for the greater good and.. I'll just paste the quote here because it was so brilliantly summed up :

"You believe in a concept of freedom that is self-serving. You portray yourself as some 'hero' to 'free' Singaporeans from some concept of 'dictatorship'."

who ever wrote that, RESPECT!!! it's *INTELLIGENCE* in a vast desert of imbecility. thank God some one had the insight to point that out, because seriously it's obvious that someone who chooses to refer to himself in third person regularly in order to make his plight seem more epic is being a flatulent quack.

and one thing I could never understand is why some people gave donations to this person to help him sustain himself during his ordeal. maybe it was just a monetary demonstration of support. but that possibility aside, does this person not have a bank account? I mean I'm sure he doesn't put all his earnings in a piggy bank stowed away in his home some where in his beloved US [god knows we need to be reminded of his citizenship again]. I mean he's not a welfare parasite, is he?

as for the autonomy of the judiciary, that's something I'm not sure about. why? BECAUSE I'VE NEVER FULLY BEEN PART OF IT. people who have no idea of how the system works are so ready to jump to conclusions based on appearances and encouragement from impartial sources. If I had the time to gather more experience, I might be able to formulate a more solid opinion. but as it stands, I've interned in legal firms, I've seen how the courts work. and as far as I can tell, they work fine. I mean the judges can be fierce at times but they're pretty damn straight shooting.

and as for the some people saying it's the 'elitist' people whom the government has done things for in order to obtain loyalty, who think that this case is trivial. well it's possible that may be true for a few people out there but honestly maybe it's just that some people have SENSE or REASON or INTELLIGENCE, not because they are 'elite.' unless intelligence is now to be branded as an 'elite' trait. quite frankly I won't deny that there is room for improvement in our government or judiciary, it would be quite simplistic to say either perfect. but being a complete ass about it is just not the way to inspire change. even if it does give the rest a bit of a laugh about it.

I mean, when I do get the opportunity to vote some day, I'm not going vote opposition for the hell of it. I mean I'm going to vote for whoever can do the best job. if it's PAP, then it's PAP. what is the point of voting in an incompetent bumbling fool just because they're wearing different colours? yeah, that will really be doing the community a big favour.

surgery

surgery was trippy! I was shivering a lot because I was so nervous but in the end they just hooked me up to an IV and injected some other stuff in me and I went out like a light. no dreams or anything and the next thing I knew I was fighting to wake up because I was wondering what the hell happened. and there was the breathing stuff on my face which was cool and I didn't want them to take it away but they did. then some one told me that surgery was over. I was trying to talk but I had so much gauze in my mouth that nothing I tried to say was intelligible. the first thing I did was to poke my face to see if I was numb forever. and I WASNT :D

anyway I slept a lot that day. I was really thirsty too because the gauze was there to soak up all the blood and saliva so my mouth was really dry.

so this week I've stayed in. I didn't go for dance or anything. I've been watching tv, playing games, trying to learn my French, which is not turning out to be a very successful endeavour. I meant to go for dance today but in the end I got caught up in practising the piano that I skipped it. plus I had no ride.

I can't wait to meet up with crystal and eunice. although it is kind of sad that I'll only be able to meet up with them just before I go back to the UK. I get really tired when I think of the long journey and carrying the bags, but then I guess the upside is that I'm flying business class so it won't be all that bad on the plane.

I am quite happy with the progress I've made with piano over the holidays though. I've been stuck at the slow part of chopin's etude in e major FOREVER. and now I finally sat down to learn the fast part and I'm almost through with it. just need to memorise a few more phrases and I'm done. it doesn't sound fantastic but at least I managed to get step one down, which is getting the notes and the rhythm right. the tien commandments are recalled to mind.

and I managed to learn a nocturne in c minor and some of the nocturne in f minor, which are both really nice. yayness!

eunice is fat and has shitty teeth at 20, which could have been fixed a long time ago if mum wasn't so fucking neurotic, and has surgery tomorrow.