Okay, so I suck. I haven't written in like two and a half weeks. I could use the excuse that T was out of the country and I was too miserable to write, but that's so not true that I won't. I mean, I missed him, but I wasn't too mopey to spend excessive amounts of time online or just tinkering around on my computer. So. The real reason is that I was plain lazy

Note: I am plain lazy. It's not as if this entry marks the beginning of faithful journal records either.

I think I've been lazy (thus begins the self-justification) because I want to get this software for journalling (not web journalling per se, just maintaining a journal on one's computer) and I haven't quite got the cash for it yet ($US29.95) and I've meanwhile been putting off writing. See, with the kind of Swiss cheese memory I've got, I really need a journal that will be searchable, so when I'm eighty and I'm trying to remember the time So-and-So said something, I can do a search for his/her name and it'll pull up the entries, without me having to reread things all the way through. So I want to invest in journalling software --- when I can.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to make a little money on the side by doing this freelance copy editing job. It doesn't eat up as much time as I feared; it's just that I have to e-mail writers for updates and fact-checks and tweaks, and sometimes the writers don't respond promptly, which throws a wrench in my schedule again. But it's decent money and I love what I'm reading and I love editing. I just hope I can get things settled and my schedule more or less free by the time my night classes kick in, mid-August.

So what have I done these past two weeks?

• Checked out a pool place run by a friend. It's called The Billiard Room and it's in Chinatown, in the same building as Yum Cha, opposite Sng Arms, along Mosque Street (or is it Temple Street?). The only problems are that it prohibits smoking, to avoid acquiring that seedy, illicit aroma, and doesn't yet have a liquor licence. T only plays pool when he's drunk and sometimes he smokes too, so it's not his ideal pool-playing place (which is partly why I checked it out while he was gone).

• Did lots of copy editing work at night after work and on the train ride to and from work. See above.

• Worked out at the gym! I've been there four times in the past two weeks, which is already four times more than I've been to the gym since I was eighteen and had to use it in physical education classes in school. I'm even toying with the idea of going in the mornings before work, since they have adequate shower facilities. The gym is in the building I work in and is part of the Ministry's rec club, so I don't have to pay anything to use it. It's small, too, so there never are too many people there that might stare at you. The good thing about going in before work is that there are maybe three people there in total --- much better than during lunchtime, when there's at least ten people and some of them seem to be more poseurs than exercisers, if you know what I mean.

• Had dinner with the parentals thrice in one week. I love my parents, but three times a week was pushing my limit, especially so soon after travelling with them. You know how it is with parents --- once you've grown up with them, and you're an adult, there are all their little foibles that you'd rather not be confronted with quite so often. But now I sound like a bad, bad child. So much for Asian/Confucian filial piety, huh?

• Ran up a phone bill talking to T while he was in Hong Kong. He'd barely called from Japan because it was so expensive to.

• Tried to keep track of friends who were travelling, so that I knew who I could call when I was bored and who I couldn't. Not that I was terribly bored, since I had the aforementioned copy editing work to do.

T got back last night, by the way. Today I took a day off to spend some time with him, although some of that was interrupted by him watching the Brazil-England World Cup game. The game's just ended (2-1 Brazil) and he's going to take a nap now. We'd planned to watch it at this Irish pub that we frequent, Shamus O'Donnell's, but it was way too crowded when we got there. Tonight's USA-Germany match will be viewed on a large-screen TV at the Bs' house, BYO beer and snacks.

Too hot to type any further. Time to go find an airconditioned room to curl up in.