Do your homework

Thursday: For today's classes, I had to do more talking than usual. Somehow, during classes I felt rather woozy – not a good feeling at all. I don’t like it. It’s crazy how some teachers never seem to miss a single day of lessons for the entire year. After school, I had to stay back to tutor this China girl in her English and because she is so weak in the subject to the point where she even lacks the confidence to speak it, I had to teach her phonetics. It’s quite enjoyable actually, something different from the conventional subjects. After which, I had to continue with the Alumni tuition... Shag. I left school at 4+, but I’m still paid the same.

That night, I went with my parents to the funeral of my Grandmother’s brother whom I visited last Sunday. I overheard his son relating the course of events which finally led to his final breadth, to my Dad. It’s funny how the road leading up to death seems so optimistic – the person counting down to his final hours always seems to get crazily better before he takes a turn for the ultimate end. And during the final hours, I really wonder what the person sees. Does he know he’s going to go? Does he have a choice when he wants to bade the world farewell? Does he know where he’s going to? Maybe I’ve been watching too much ghost whisperer, but do you actually get to talk to your loved ones who’ve died before you? I guess we’ll never know, only when our turn comes.

Friday: I never really knew what Good Friday signified, until I saw this little snippet of information on TV Mobile – Good Friday commemorates the day Jesus got crucified. On this note, Easter is the day when he got resurrected. So I guess it must mean something really special to those who believe in Jesus, for me, it’s just an ordinary day which I'm super thankful for since it made the week so much shorter.

I had to tutor my cousin today, and my parents came over to have lunch there as well. Their domestic helper creates these mouth-watering dishes that titillate the taste buds, and on the menu that day was spaghetti! I felt like a ravenous as I was downing the food because it tasted damn good. If I have this often enough under home-cooked circumstances, I think I'm really gonna feel the pinch when I pay a crazy price for the same thing outside. Moral of the story: eat something else =D

My aunt suggested going to Tampines 1 to have a look since none of us had plans for the afternoon. So the four ladies – two pairs of mothers and daughters – headed to the newly opened mall. My goodness! The place was supremely crowded, something like Chinatown during the CNY period. It was a madhouse, so much so I immediately lost the mood to even do window shopping the moment I stepped into the mall. The escalators were constantly packed, and it didn’t help that they kept doing maintenance work on every other escalator, every other 10 minutes -.- And you have people pushing and shoving just to move from point A to point B a mere 2 metres away. What’s worst are those people who, after getting off the escalator, ponder for a bit, deciding which way to go. Darn you, because the people behind are already tripping over themselves trying to avoid spilling their whole body weight onto you. Geez. And the food outlets, yes we worship food, were packed and little snakes of queues were forming along its perimeter. Those that have it really bad, I think, are the old people who have to jostle with others less than half their age, and little toddlers in prams who have probably experienced their first ever bumper pram ride at such a tender age.

Of course, after all that ranting, the mall is a nice place. It has some open concept balcony-like feature, like Vivo, outside its food court – only the view sucks. And there’s quite a number of Japanese stalls, which is a good lure since almost everyone goes gaga over items brought over from the Land of the Rising Sun. Not to mention the very hyped about Uniqlo – you had to join a queue that is three times longer than your Bak Kua queue or two times longer than your Toto draw queue, just to step into the shop. It’s pure madness. What kinda shopping experience is that? Unless your new year resolution was “Build up patience”. Anyway, as we were hurrying down the stairs, oops escalators (they got me confused for a moment there because the escalators were perpetually under maintenance), to get out of this densely populated place, we overheard these two people remarking: ‘You see tons of people in here, but only very few of them are actually holding shopping bags’. Kudos to you stranger, you’re pretty observant. The four of us were grinning as we looked around to take in the sight of the shopping bag-less shoppers. My aunt told us that the carpark was so full she’d have to take at least half an hour to get out of the jam so the rest of us headed over to Century Square to wait for her. Woah, that place never looked soHeavenly. We could actually walk freely – no longer did I have ten people crowded within 1 metre of my personal space. I could swing my arms and actually do a little jiggle without fear that I’d bump into an errant shopper without a shopping bag.

I went home for a little bit before it was time to meet Brain at Central Mall! We had pretty good udon – which looked uncannily like Maggie mee – at this Japanese restaurant for dinner. As we were going down the escalator, we heard this live band play. Brian said he did his homework, that’s why he knew they’d be there. This was met with eyes, that rolled. So we sat down (on these chairs that could actually spin! Super fun, but Brian didn’t want eyes on him so I had to sit primly like a premature adult) and basked in the richness of the melodies that resonated from the cello and piano. Beautiful...

When the two musicians took five, so did we. We went to the Azabu Sabo ice-cream kiosk to have dessert! He had ice cream while I ordered the Hokkaido hot-balls. YUM! After which, we walked around the Clarke Quay area! It’s really lovely at night with all the flickering lights and the Singapore River flowing along it. Okay fine, it’s probably like my first time there, which probably makes me a ‘swa ku’. Anyway, so I found out that the inverse bungee that people always talk about is there, and so are a few clubs such as the Arena. He wanted to drop by one of the pubs but they were all full. Better still, walking around helps in food digestion. We decided to walk back to City Hall station but on our way there, we made a little detour to Timber, next toIndoChine. Yes, I'm learning the location of all these funkay places! As expected, it was crowded. So we just sat on the bridge leading to One Fullerton and chilled. We talked about his friends, my friends, his long distant relationship, and my non-existent relationship. And the fact that my Dad kept calling.

So he sent me home and on our way back, he brought me to the highest floor of this HDB block near my house. The view just had me gushing over and over again, “Wooh... this is simply astounding”. It’s the 24^th floor and you could practically see all the way to town, the Suntec building, as well as out to the sea and beyond. But that which will break you out of your reverie would be the humming of the television or the whirling of some domestic device coming from the residents’ homes on that floor. Sorry, but it is after all a HDB block. “So you see, I did my homework”, Brian says. It took a lot to keep my eyes glued in their positions. Yes, thank you for the wonderful evening. And I really mean it – it was thoroughly enjoyable, and educational too, if I might add =)

As I got ready for bed, I brought up the idea of clubbing to my mum again. She brushed me off, saying there was no need to go because I could simply ask my friends what it was like, and that I should also talk to my father about it. Here comes the ultimatum: So you mean I cannot go clubbing even for once in my entire life?!?! “Yes.” (What the......... !!!)