Rush Hour

Oh dear. I have such a small amount of time to blog this entry, I hope I can do it! Let’s go!

I was meaning to blog about Sunday night’s dinner for my grandma’s birthday but I was unable to find the time to blog about it. So I’m four days late, but better late than never I guess!

Last Sunday, we had a ‘mini-family reunion’ on my dad’s side for my grandma’s birthday. Nowadays, our family is so spread out with their own lives; we hardly see each other anymore. So in a way, these gatherings will pull everyone together again. It’s good in a way because we were able to meet up with our French-Singaporean cousin, Stephanie, and her French husband, along with their adorable 6 month old baby girl. Of course there were other older relatives whom I didn’t know existed, but they aren’t important. What’s important is how cute and adorable the little baby is. Awww, the tiny winy wittle fingers, and the chubby cheeks and the puss-and-boots eyes. You just wanna squeeze the wittle toddler into a million piec--

Wait, I’ve lost track. What in the world was I talking about? I seriously can’t remember.
Oh right, gatherings. So anyway, we, my other cousin Earl and I, were entertaining our French cousin-in-law. What made it even more special was his infatuation with soccer. As a matter of fact, he wanted to become a professional soccer player for France, but was called to serve the Lord first. So he decided that God would come first, then soccer second. haha, I think we best described him as the brother of Frank Ribery (but a little bit more 'defined' lol). Just without the scar (for soccer fans who have seen the scar), so you can imagine him.
Anyway, we talked heaps about soccer and briefly talked about his history with Stephanie and how his ministry became to be. Besides that, everything else was a blur to me. Maybe because everyone else was so quiet, and everytime we talked to him, everyone tuned in.
I hate it when that happens because I hate being the ‘entertainer’ of a casual dinner like this. Everyone tunes in and everything you say is heard by everyone times 2 ears. I had to contain my questions because I didn’t want to sound like a complete idiot; although I think, mission accomplished.

The problem was that everyone was so so very quiet at the table! The ‘main’ conversation happening was the one I was having! It was terrible! “So do you …” and I could feel everybody times 2 eyes tuning into your convo. What made it worse was how some people were looking/staring at me as I talked. ><” ahh!! I didn’t feel comfortable at all. What made me even more embarrassed was how I think everybody thinks I am an extrovert for talking so much! In all honesty, for those who don’t know, I am actually an introvert. Believe it or not, I'll happily sit quietly throughout the duration of the night because it’s who I am. However, experience has taught me that you have to open your mouth otherwise you will make the conversation a whole lot worse. I musn't allow the awkward 'moments' to happen too much, especially if you can do something about it. So that’s why I try to talk more. Oh dear, why am I sharing this? On a public blog as well!? I better stop this here. hehe

Anyway, more whacky stories to tell about Singapore!
This one happened yesterday while I was on the phone at work with a client. We were discussing about envelopes and she happened to say the word “sheet”. Except she didn’t say “sheet”, she said “shit”. Not once, but twice. Good thing the conversation was short, so after I placed the phone down, I couldn’t contain the laughter in my mind but I managed to convert the need to scream aloud in laughter into this massive grin.
Sadly, Singaporeans and most Malaysians as well, have a lot of words pronounced wrongly. 'Sheet' is one of them, another very prominent one is this.
'Three' – They will pronounce this as ‘tree’. I believe I have mentioned this before but I will say it again. Basically, they are quite incapable of enunciating the letters ‘th’ together. Most of the time, it will be pronounced as ‘t’ instead of ‘th’, thus ‘tree’ instead of ‘three’. So with words like three, thief, thought, thanks, math, booth, etc. I think you get the point.

Last whacky story because I gotta go. This one happened twice already! The first time was several days back, and another just 3 days ago.
Whenever I’m walking on the road, or train station, or anywhere public, there’s always a danger of ‘swinging arms’. At first, I thought only girls did it, but the second close encounter was from a guy!

This is what happens. Usually when people walk, they swing their arms to provide balance. That’s perfectly normal. What’s not perfectly normal, is how people swing their arms so hard that they rise up to an abnormal height. On top of which, my first experience was a girl who is considerably shorter than me, so she was swinging her arms at a very dangerous level, they were roaming around hazardous territory ‘down under’; and I’m not talking about Australia mate. Up and down, up and down, I couldn’t help but wonder if she had actually ‘smacked’ someone before, if you know what I mean. Fortunately for me, I was alert enough to divert my direction away from her dangerous swinging arms. Just in the nick of time I reckon.

I was so shocked when it happened the second time with a guy. He was swinging his arms so hard, I could say that any guy could black-out from the impact. Far out, have some courtesy! Control your free-willed arms and have them no higher than your hips please! Some people’s goods are at stake!