sayonara. aufwiedersehen. aurevoir. ciao. goodbye.
and i don't know how to say goodbye in nepalese.

my dear (and hefty) nepal+india trip is fast approaching. in fact, before you can ask "oh when are you going to nepal/india?", i will be gone already. to be very precise, it is in a very countable 84hours. and i still don't even know how to speak a single nepalese language.

but i have a feeling i would not need to know so much. first of all, i wouldn't need to use the "where is the toilet" phrase in either nepal or india. the horrible, and extremely unfortunate, truth is that you probably wouldn't want to use it. secondly, i would be ripped off anyway given that i am an asian skin (in a sense, not south asian). so, i wouldn't have to learn any phrases that require me to bargain. And seriously, shopping?

i remember learning an indian phrase "yenge iruke" which means "where are you?". but i guess i wouldn't be needing it any time soon in india/nepal. why the *********** would i be asking anybody yenge iruke? worse come to worse, i'll just start spouting the indian version for the mrt voiceovers. like "wonverde wonverde wonverde" whenever somebody asks me everything; complete with a slight tilt of the head to the right. i'll speak it with so much gusto that a do-you-want-to-go-to-taj-mahal question can be answered with "999".

WONVERDE, WONVERDE, WONVERDE!!!!


God, you've GOT TO be with me.

fight, spiders, fight
awesome fighting spiders on channel 5

mediacorp is seriously going from strength to strength man. first it was the pretty spectacular "Little Nyonya", which later, degraded to become a lacklustre nyonya craze which should have died off 5 seconds after the show ended. this time round, it was channel 5 who hits all the right notes. i utterly enjoyed the recent channel5 serial "Fighting Spiders" which is showing on tuesday, 830pm.

but because i have been a good girl and not skipping prayer meeting which happens at the same time, i have not gotten the chance to watch it. yet, none but the brave will get the good stuff. i decided to attempt to overthrow the mediacorp jurisdiction by going on youtube.

voila, friends, there is nothing else that will whet your visual appetite more than the incredibly real setting of the 60's and those stunning acting by the children bareful half the age of adrian pang (whose involvement in Red Thread is a shame). charlie, soon lee and peter proved to be charmers on television, more so than the veteran actors who are embroiled in the red thread nobody truly cares about.

those who haven't watched it, you have got to! this English serial is historic for singapore!

here's a start for you:

facebook super flooding craze
how well do you know _? gave me a headache and many wake up calls.

i should just fling myself on the wall and rip open my lungs and stab it 5000 times because i freakin' realized i don't know a lot about my friends. who on earth started this majorly smart way to test who your real friends are? i don't know, but he/she better start praying for salvation for the number of friendships he/she have destroyed by now.

the devastation is plain for all to see.

well, you can give easy quizzes to make sure that all your friends can at least get a 50% and live without guilt thinking that they actually know you that well. OR like what a lot people do (or maybe i just have meanies as friends), give difficult like hell questions like "when did i last have chilli crab" or like "how many times have i farted this year" kind of questions. if you are guilty of the above, don't condemn me because seriously, i don't care how many times you have farted this year!

i am not ever, ever, ever going to set a quiz on facebook any time soon because i know i belong to the kind of people who will ask how-long-is-my-small-intestine-questions. i'll probably just end up with a broken heart when everybody gets 0% for my quiz. so, i have thought of the perfect solution for this problem. i am going to tell you all the answers.

i guess it is a narcissistic way of trying to tell you about myself because seriously, why would you care? but just to help you feel a little better after failing all the quizzes on facebook, here's my simple take on how much do you know sarah.

1) what was my childhood ambition? -a pastor
2) how old was i when i had my first crush? -primary2, on a girl (for the sole reason that i didn't know what love was; but i have always been a total heterosexual please thank you)
3) what is my current favourite colour? -navy blue
4) how long did my mom took to give birth to me 21yrs ago? -30mins
5) which is my strongest sense? -sight
6) which time period do i like most in literature? -the victorian period
7) which country would i want to go back to? -hong kong, for sure.
8) how did my first hamster die? -she fell from 4th storey (the balcony of my house)
9) why did i start blogging? -for fun
10) what nagging sickness do i have since a long time ago? -migraine
11) what name did i give for my first watch (the first pearly bracelet one)? -86 because it cost $86 from my bursary money then
12) how many times have i lost my valuables? -ONCE and i lost 2 valuables all at one go
13) which side is my first wisdom tooth? -the lower left side
14) how much did i weigh at my fattest/thinnest? -68kg (holy cow)/ 44kg (dang, 6kg gain)
15) what meal would i order if i were at macdonalds? -mcspicy meal (sinful cravings man)

so please for all you out that who are making life difficult for your friends, read this blog entry and repent!!!!

and i stumbled upon...
when i find a blog of someone i know.

i am an absolute gossipmonger, if you haven't noticed.

so i simply adore it when i find blogs to read; the person writing it, of which, i can put a face to. because then, with my best imaginations and accurate vision, can picture the face behind the words saying it to me. haven't you ever felt that a blog can be so personal that you can almost see their lips moving to the rhythm of the words? i have.

and so, the story goes: i found a few blogs of my fellow English majors. i truly agree with zh of how there is a certain brashness in the way English majors talk or blog. that brashness is not a euphemism for vulgarities like the eff word or you-think-you-are-witty smug talking; there is perhaps, a sort of daring and realistic accost to the world, which 99% of the English majors would think, is against them.

yup, we get it. you hate the world and apparently, the world hates you. but English majors do make them sound more poetic and less hysterical. i wouldn't say most, but many of them (us) put it so tragically across that at times, simply reading their entries seems to be a rebellion against the cruelty of the world.

then again. the blogs by which i stumble across - many of whose perceptions and actions i don't necessarily approve of. but i truly appreciate how they make blogging such a sophisticated medium for some world-bashing and emo release.

conveniently left out.
the engulfing gap.

i remind myself constantly to be aware of my friends around me. it can be as you are walking, sitting down at a table, standing on the train or waiting at a queue - don't exclude.

because that mere 1 metre that you have conveniently stunted a friend's participation in a conversation or a group setting, can lead to a distance more estranged than you think. that simple distance can leave you oceans apart.

leaving someone out is not cool. neither is it convenient.