This is not to say that nothing has happened since we bought the fan. Here's a laundry list of the things we've been up to:
1. We witnessed the Birthday of the Ninth Emperor at his temple along Upper Serangoon Road. It rained, naturally, and I got to wear T's anorak, which made me finally realize how cool anoraks are (now I want one of my own...). In addition to the hordes of devotees, there was a bunch of tourists from the Inn Crowd there, and it was a prime photo opportunity for T, of course, despite the rain.
Going for the festival was cool because it was my first time in a Taoist temple, all this time I've lived in Singapore. My family's completely non-pagan, so I'd no idea what the festival was about, really, but at least now I can say I've been to one. And that we both had to diligently scrub our hair the next day to get rid of the smell of burning joss sticks.
2. It's been raining. A lot. I love it! Bring on the Vancouver weather! Although on days when it rains heavily, it's more like Chicago in the spring, but that's good too. Did I mention that I want an anorak?
The only problem with rain --- mild or in godlike fury --- is that I worry about how wet the cats that live beside the longkang are getting. The walkway and its environs are nice when the weather's dry, but that walkway doesn't offer any shelter from the rain once the wind picks up.
On the other hand, those cats have lived there for so long, I'm sure they can hack it.
3. I finally got around to fixing my hair. It's been growing out and growing out ragged for over a year, and my cousin's wedding's next week, so I figured that was a pretty good reason to finally make that hair appointment and keep to it. I got red highlights, just like I wanted, and it's great. The only thing about the salon where I get my hair done is that the lights in the salon are weak yellow lights, so I thought he'd misunderstood me and given me really faint red highlights. But once I saw my hair in actual daylight --- oh yeah, that's what I'm talking about! Much more exciting than brown.
I'll post a photo once T takes one, though I can't promise it won't be blurred or abstract --- he seems to be going through a phase with that.
4. Speaking of T, he's delayed in Malaysia at the moment. He went with X on one of those crazy offroading trips and I guess one or more of their convoy vehicles went further off the road than it should've, 'cause he reported the convoy's got some flat tire problems and he might not get in till after midnight. So I'm sleeping with my cellphone again (the usual routine when T's not in town).
5. The funny thing about shopping is that you can go out intending to capitalize on sales, and wind up with a couple of paltry items --- then another week, you just happen to be in town, and everything's on sale, and then you have to prioritize what you buy. [Warning: Airhead Alert!] So I bought a bag that I'd fallen instantly in love with, instead of a wallet that I was hemming and hawing over. And I elected Salman Rushdie's The Ground Beneath Her Feet instead of a sleeveless T-shirt. And finally I rejected the styling wax I was unsure of in favor of going home and not spending any more money.
Today I was tempted to go to Ikea, but when I drove past, the line for the carpark was painfully long, so I went straight home and didn't spend any more money (again). Yay me.
6. There's nothing like attending a course with a group of teachers who run the gamut of cynical to realistic to earnest to insecure to obsequious --- to make you realize the many occupational hazards of being a teacher. I mean, people complain about the marking and the kids and the parents and the stress and the varicose veins. No one talks about the fact that most teachers think they know best, can talk for hours on end, enjoy telling people what to do, find it nigh impossible to break the rules or to be irreverent, yet are themselves the very worst students when anyone else tries to teach them something.
Fortunately, I had 3 days doing group work with a group of teachers to remind one of that fact. The only person in my group I clicked with was someone not too reverent, not too idealistic, but not too chain-smoking cynical either. In fact, she's the first primary school teacher I've met that I could hold a decent conversation with (though admittedly I haven't socialized with many primary school teachers). She came up to me at the end of the course and said it was great working with me and I returned the compliment, natch, and that was really cool.
Maybe it's because when I saw her name, I didn't go, "Oh, like Celine Dion" as other tactless folks did.
This suffices for an update for now. Let me go figure out now how to work out a more disciplined mode of writing for online...
