i have been so busy that i have not seen my dear theia for a long while.
so sad. :(


reader k | 9/30/2006 05:17:00 AM | 0 comments

pop by to read chanel,
and i read you there.

how strange that i've reduced you to just words.
that should not be.
should not.

i am thinking,
but quite frankly, lost.
reader k | 9/30/2006 01:28:00 AM | 0 comments

planned for the last coursework friday today. yes, planned, but not likely to be successful. as expected, some still MIA.

i called, no reply.
how can they do this? deadline was friday two weeks ago. if only i can dump their 90%-done coursework in the trash, i would. simply these 2 dudes - one playing cool, the other, i have absolutely no idea. mood swings have taken control over them. crap.
-------------------------------------------------------------
as for the handful lot, they are my gems.
working hard to complete and rounding off with jokes in the air everyday in the art room.

the other day wid commented that i can't be seen in the staff room much, because i'm always upstairs. we concluded that i lived in the penthouse of YI. pretty true. oh, and it comes with greenhouse effect too.

and so i held a penthouse party today. filled with silly lanterns and mooncakes. but all they wanted was to play with candles. what is so amazing about lighting candles and sticking them in a line? young minds. :)

then as we were busy with the 3 very hard-working basketball trio, the rest of the party entertained themselves by finding all the possible hiding places in the art room. they also discovered the most dusty spots in the room. it must have been a great discovery day for them lot this night.

we sat round the messy table and talked about singing.
and we break up the party at quarter to 9, nearly locked kelvin in the dark-dark penthouse.
(none of the above have any sensible connections at all)

after this, we would find it hard to be missing words such as:
metamorphosis (by the dictionary of syafiqah's)
intelli-gi-gence (haziq is proud to be that)
hor-ri-gi-ble (that is amir)
"hafiz, who scratched you?" - "Fira bit me." (mr quiet-shy hafiz)
basketball and biscuit in a basket to be found in a pocket (the trio)

totally missed already.


reader k | 9/30/2006 12:43:00 AM | 0 comments

she was so loud. next room
just can't shut her mouth. turn on her phone to speaker mode
can't stop blabbering repeating herself umpteen times
blah blah blah.
i can't even hear myself breath.
the whole world really doesn't wish to know about her work.
we need lesser selfish brats.

in urgency to rid of them.
reader k | 9/28/2006 11:06:00 PM | 0 comments

try having sushi with the basketball trio.
you will get some laughs.

thanks for the company, guys :)
reader k | 9/27/2006 10:50:00 PM | 0 comments

happy birthday to yaya, shian and fabby.

yaya, your present was bought and still with me.
we always take FOREVER to meet up. sorry!!!!

once pinkpoo and i clear the O levels, we shall spend time with you!

love,
kaka
reader k | 9/27/2006 09:58:00 PM | 6 comments

everyday i asked myself,
'when are they going to finish their coursework?'

everyday i stayed till past 6pm to help, usually not a lot of them stayed that late, but choose to drag on and on and on to do their work the next day, the day after next, the day after the next next day.... endless. they'd expect us to be there whenever they are there at the art-room. doesn't it occurred to them that we'd also have a full-day of classes, and that after classes, we'd have millions of other things to do? don't they realised that they are not our only students? don't they realised that after 4 periods of classes, i'd need to go pee and to eat? that if i were to help them photocopy stuffs, i'd also need to walk 2 flights of stairs down in my heels and back up again, for which time i could be there to help the other students, or to do my marking for the other classes' works?

they just don't. at least not all of them got that in their heads.

so at the end of each day, after i cleared the rubbish they left in the art-room for me, i'd dragged my tired body down to the staff room, my chair is cold cos i've not been sitting on it, my laptop has gone to sleep, i dumped my stuffs on the table, too tired to even clear them, grabbed my bag and walked away, thinking, asking myself, 'When are they going to finish their coursework?'
reader k | 9/25/2006 09:12:00 PM | 0 comments

and the second "Wow! Do it again!" goes to Lawn, by Splinter Group, from Australia.

it's set in a winter in Berlin, in a small apartment where a man dreams of the open lawns of his childhood. he encounters the ghost of a former tenant and that's when all the humour steps in. within this humour, lies a very sad notion of loneliness and cold and dreams that seem far-fetched. the 3 dancers are brilliant in their moves and expressions. there was never a dull moment throughout the preformance. once again, the set and lighting compliment the dance and a lot of thoughts have been placed in. each placement of an object on the set must have been carefully laid in, as they are crucial steps to the whole performance. the climing of the vertical wall relied greatly on where the clock, the shelf, and the pipes have been placed. each step was timed to perfection - he turns, he swings, he duck, he surge forward and they don't bump into each other.

it is filled with laughter and "wows!". oh, and the local cockroaches played a part in it too, in the bginning. they made a surprise entrance by crawling out of the dancer's face. he was eating cereal the whole time, no one has any idea how he has put them out in the open.

here are some pictures:


reader k | 9/24/2006 09:30:00 PM | 0 comments

it's not very often that i'd watch a dance performance, as many times, they presented themselves in a totally abstract form that i really have no mood to peel off each layer to discover when i'd decided to spend money and my weekends on it. i want to enjoy it and i want to enjoy it. did i say i want to enjoy it?

lately i came across 2 dance performances that made me went "wow! do it again!".
the first was "Whose Voice Cries Out?" by Japanese choreographer, Sakiko Oshima.
besides witnessing how the dance put voice to the struggles between Man and the moving times, the beautiful sets and lighting design swept you away. more information here.

and here are some pictures:




reader k | 9/24/2006 09:15:00 PM | 0 comments

one fabien the Ho Ho Ho went on his trip.
he packed like a good soldier does.
(here's his packing)

and we all love him to bits.
nice trip fabbuulous-fabby-baby!


6 Comments

zweiya said...
Take care and be alert :) oh have fun too :D
9/07/2006 12:13 PM

k said...
u forget to bring ME!!!! :)have fun you lucky pork! love, kaka
9/07/2006 6:20 PM

Fabien the Ho said...
Thanks Weiya I will... my mom said to "be careful don't get eaten by crocodiles!"

Karen remember when you went mountain climbing in New Zealand many years ago and nearly got blown away hahaha I will try to not do the same ok ;) x
9/07/2006 7:43 PM

fyen said...
wah you so organise...lagi like army packing. have fun!! :-)
9/08/2006 8:21 AM

Fabien the Ho said...
yes the boys brigade thought me well ;)
9/08/2006 8:29 PM
reader k | 9/22/2006 08:59:00 AM | 1 comments

had a brief encounter with my basketball trio and their friend, over lunch.
they ate doubly fast.
they speak with their mouth full.
they cannot resist not joking for one second throughout the whole eating experience.

they are the 'kaet' gang.
bas-kaet-ball
bis-kaet

once, i'd imagine them playing bas-kaet-ball with bis-kaet in their mouth.
hilarious.
that's what they are.
and they place heart in their artwork,
i'll pronounce BASKETBALL and BISCUIT for them,
just for a laugh.

:)

reader k | 9/21/2006 08:54:00 AM | 0 comments

i hate and love wednesday and it comes in that order -
hate.......and........love.

i hate it.
it's the day when i'll have the most ridiculous time-table.
7 periods!
the only break are the 45 mins recess and another 45 mins before the last lesson.
these one and a half hours are usually taken up by other nonsense, usually last minute; or cleaning up of the art room after it has been trashed by the students.
wednesday is definitely the day i'd have my breakfast, lunch and almost dinner at around 4 plus.
wednesday always seems like the longest day of the week.

i love it.
it's the middle of the week, if you count as a 5-days work week.
the day when i can reflect upon how successful my week has been on average ( as if! )
and frown if it's actually signifying a bad week coming to an end.

maybe because it's in the middle, wednesday sits on the fence. it doesn't take sides. but often i still feel that it is an ally with monday and tuesday - the other 2 days i don't quite fancy.

my week must be boring, i am humanising the days.
or that i am becoming quite mad.
i'd take the latter.

and yes, i miss helen.

reader k | 9/21/2006 08:32:00 AM | 0 comments

i click and unclick on the comments button.
i'm not sure.

songs for 3 girls.
i miss you, katherine.
in the absence of katherine.

there may be another k.

so i unclick the comments button
and went away.

but i miss you.
reader k | 9/17/2006 03:10:00 PM | 1 comments

some big big person said something,
some eager people interpret it in the most fantastic way,
re-distributed it to the everyday people,
and WE get to live these words.

what a world,
what a society.

the big big person said ___________
the eager people interpret it as _________
WE have to live in the _________ world.

endless.
it goes round and round.

reader k | 9/14/2006 08:09:00 PM | 0 comments

i was at the National Library yesterday looking at artist Eugenio Ampudia's 'Cold Fire', the installation work at the Singapore Biennale. A moving image of burning fire was projected onto a shelf of books, affecting the books to be on fire. not totally impressive as the concept sounded or the media has it hyped up, but i was attracted to the shelf instead.

i have not really spent time in this newly renovated national library. the usual musty smell of books and sound of slow-turning ceiling fans have been replaced by the air-con and the clicking of footsteps of the librarians have been silenced by the carpet. in fact, the librarians do not walk around much anymore, nor do they stamp return dates on your loan books. much of the familiar sounds and smells of old-school library have long gone.

life still goes on, library still serve its purpose.

so, the bookshelf where the artwork was situated - the comics section. i caught sight of a thick-bound book of the PEANUTS strips. it's been a loooongggg time since i last read PEANUTS. i borrowed the book and was going through it last night till 4.30am, not even half through it.

i first picked up a copy of PEANUTS comics from my primary school library, because the primary 3 boy i had a crush on, loves PEANUTS. i did not understand most of the comic strips featured as they are americanised and my english was not up to standard yet to comprehand what the author was trying to bring across mostly. as the crush on the boy faded, i stopped reading it. but a few characters made a deep impression for me - charlie brown (of course!), snoopy, linus and woodstock. i don't really fancy lucy.

the whole gang re-surfaced into my life around the mid-90s, when mcdonald's happy meal realeased the characters of charlie brown, lucy, snoopy and woodstock as gifts. somehow chie chie fell in love with lucy when my then-boyfriend bought me one. she MUST have it and claimed as hers. i gave in and lucy becames hers. when lucy got really beaten-up with years, dad tried to get her a new one when he chanced upon a whole lot of charlies and lucys at a flea market. in reality, he bought a whole lot of them and was intending to replaced chie chie's once hers get old and dirty. stubborn chie chie clings on to the one and only version. so the new stocks were just sleeping in the cupboard, while the authentic lucy goes through the washing machine numerous times. it is now sitting beside chie chie's urn of ashes.

charlie brown never gets a fancy from chie chie or myself. typical. he is fated not to have friends.

then i was in NZ. he gave me a tiny knitted hat. i have no idea what it was for but i kept it with me during the whole trip. he claimed that it was to keep my camera lens warm. haha. on the day i left, he gave me the owner of the tiny knitted hat - woodstock. i still keep it tucked somewhere in my drawer of memories.

there, PEANUTS is not that easy.

some of the characters i fancy:

charlie brown

linus van pelt and his blanket

Schroeder, who idolizes Beethoven

the dear woodstock


and i would love to put a picture of the school teacher,
but we have never seen him or her.
we can only hear "bwah bwah bwah bwah bwah"
as the teacher speaks.
great character.
reader k | 9/10/2006 11:32:00 AM | 0 comments

speaking of laptop, one of our household's laptops is near dead.
it was revived last week, but i think it's the "i'm really dying but i will be alive for the last second" syndrom.

it has been with me since my first year at NIE.
so, almost 4 years.
is that the usual life-span of a laptop?
i think not.
this one has a short life all thanks to A.
he dripped water on the keypad.
tsk tsk.

anyway, it has worked very hard.
went through my NIE years with me, the loads of assignment i had to work on it and then served as A's home-working laptop when i was enjoying the new laptop :)
it's time to go.
we may sell it to the garong-guni man when he comes by next.
bye bye.
this laptop doesn't have a name.

the only hardware i've owned and having given a name to would be my very first mac - LC 630.
i named it LEK.
argh.

anyway anyway anyway,
bye bye my first laptop.

-----------------------------------------------
going to tanglin camp tomorrow with benny for the biennale.
i drove by there with A just now in the night, to locate the place.
gives a chill, that spot. especially in the night.

reader k | 9/08/2006 01:26:00 AM | 1 comments

my brother just turned 34.
we are only about 1 and a half years apart, but there were many stages in our lives that sees us as close as any twins would be, or as far apart as strangers. but i guess it have been mostly closer than apart. the only strangers-period was our years of being young and rebellious. he was 16 and i was 14. we just don't click then.

i want to recall:
up till kindergarten, nel can't tell the left foot from the right. he will always wear his shoes wrongly. i have to correct him.
we had to prepare our own dinner since young, i've tasted a lot of nel's experimental dishes. i survived. the first egg he cracked fell into his pyjamas pocket.
when i was in primary 2, nel introduced me to the comics doremon. i learnt how to read traditional chinese by reading doremon comics.
mom goes to her weekly hair-do at bt merah central. while waiting for her, we would park ourselves at the comic shop. once, nel asked me to stay put at one end while he walked across the long over-head bridge. he just want to try walking over. i was not suppose to tell my mom.
he taught me maths till he vomit blood. he's a bad teacher.
we used to spit into our tutor's drink. we hate her.
we spotted the same dog at the pet shop at holland v, and we made dad buy it on father's day. chie chie became our first family dog. nel has never help to walk the dog, or clear her poopoo.
he introuduced all his girlfriends to me. i know them like my own sisters.
after my A levels, we went on a trip to nepal together. he made me drink rum to keep warm.
we signed up for the same audition with toy factory without knowing, only to find out on the day of audition. they auditioned us together, and asked us to describe each other. typical!
nel got his first debut with toy factory. he acted as a bird. eversince then, i make it a point to watch all his plays and production.
we went to UK together for study. i put on the elder-sister voice and make him come over to my place for dinner often. he was too skinny then. he was so poor that he has no money for hair-cut, but sport the arty-farty hairstyle for a whole year. his hair was longer than mine.
when i broke up with my first serious boyfriend, he wrote me a note and stuff under my bedroom door.
we used to share a room until i was 14. perhaps not being in the same room place us further apart.
i missed him a lot when he was at NS.
we were staying under the same roof until about a year and a half back. dad and mom are staying with him now. i visit often.

now he is a father of the twins, great responsibility, great burden. many times i still can't believe nel is a father now, until i see him talking, playing and disciplining the kids. however, he has not changed a single diaper for them still - he is too afraid of poo!

i'm glad he hasn't taken the path of a computer science geek. his calling is in acting. he is such a great actor, my brother.




reader k | 9/04/2006 03:33:00 PM | 4 comments

Met up with B and WY for dinner before my movies at Picture House.
B complained that i've not been updating my blog often enough to sustain his appetitie; he also trashed my not using of commas, full-stops and paragraphing. So, here's an entry just for B :)

The old Cathay cinema spells a lot for us - me, B, WY, G and Fabby - during our NAFA years. It was the nearest cinema from NAFA and we would pop in there at least 2 times per week to watch movies. It was also the short-cut way up to the San-San and Nan Hua Campus if we are not pushing the NTUC trolley that held our bags up the slope. Not many people know that, by taking the old elevator inside Cathay building up to the 7th floor, the exit is just along Sophia Hill. I don't suppose it work now. It has been a strange way of getting there, without walking outside. It felt like teleporting.

And long gone the busy, crowded Paradiz foodcourt, where we will be crashing for time and fight with the office people during lunch time. We will see our lecturers doing the same thing there. The school canteen is just so miserable to serve proper lunch. The minced pork mushroom mee pok was my favourite. We often sit at the foodcourt for hours deciding what to do next.

Picture House is not the same anymore. It's too new. Too bright. Too many posh and useless shops. And yes, too cold.

I'm not sure if the BIG tree outside Cathay is gone, i didn't look yesterday. This tree, used to be just outside the building, with roots long and large, stretching across almost touching the circumfrance of the grass patch around it, its weight push the whole grass patch a few inches below, thus whenever there is a downpour, it will transform into the big pond, with the BIG tree proudly standing in the middle. We will be taking shelter at Paradiz Centre or Cathay building.

10 years ago we graduated from NAFA. So much have changed around that area. The good times are not there anymore. But I'm glad my good friends are still with me, friends for 13 years.

love ya all.
kaka

reader k | 9/02/2006 01:48:00 PM | 2 comments

was searching for something
and others appeared.
my writings about the red bags and white shoes,
and her adaptations.
and our collaborations.
used to be.

i forgot how long it has been.
have erased unworthy memories, of others,
but not yours.

highlighted letters in my alphabet set:

ABCEDFG
HIJKLMN
OPQRSTU
VWXYZ

you are always ahead,
in treasuring,
in deleting,
in forgetting.

i see my glass of water
landing on the coaster from you:
'working late has its rewards'
they didn't have your name.

a length of black ribbons,
nothing to wrap for you.
i regret.

:
:
:
reader k | 9/01/2006 01:20:00 PM | 0 comments