tori amos - 1000 oceans

efin: i get to shower 5 times a day in between training. Its like the only luxury in camp.

me: no shiit...

I guess it'll actually kickass, since i get to smell funky fresh each day everyday. I totally have no idea what to expect from the men in blue. but that aside, its time to start training up for NS.

Now... work... it actually pays to be nice to people. You get longer breaks, free lonely planet books, meal offers from Mcd staffers, nice old men who give you the pat on the back, rich tourists who donate their card deposit to you, this china dude who gave me a mandarin-translation of a japanese self-help book. nothing brightens up my day more than someone smiling back at me and genuinely thanking me for helping them. One lady even told her husband to tip me, but he grumbled and pulled her away as quick as lightning.

The golden ticket for me has to be the lonely planet guides that we collect when the tourists just leave them around... i had my go at the whole lot, cos the company was gonna trash them. I took one on australia, 2 on south east asia, bangkok.

And i try to save tourists from visiting all the commercial nonsense of orchard road, but instead find the real gems in places like little india, chinatown, arab st and geylang serai. people put in terrible terrible propaganda in them...' where to buy electronics? orchard road.' 'shopping? orchard road.' 'eat? orchard road.' 'sightseeing? orchard road.' some asked about newton but id rather send them off to tried and tested places like simpang bedok. getting to mess around with the tourists was really fun. a few zen'ed-out dudes asked whether harbourfront was a good place to go to recharge their chakra, since they wanted to be near a water body. i sent them the other direction to pasir ris beach. personally, i hate harbourfront, it just messes with your insides. all the neon, metal, and glass.

i get mistaken a whole lot too. but thats ok since people tend to open up more to someone who they think is of the same race. 'you look like a singapore-born phillipino...' yes. yess.. my parents were from quezon city.' also my fairshare of people to talk to me in thai. there was this indian prof. who was so adamant that i had indian blood in me, which of course i didnt deny.. he even confidently noted i was from chennai. who was i to argue with a man 50 years my senior. african heritage cos of the hair. chinese ancestry cos of the eyes... everything... everything else, but what is stated on my ic. not that i give 2 hoots cos even i dont know where i belong. im happy being not here nor there.

oh yeah, i too dont understand the weird fascination, even cult-like status, of our 'fine' posters.. sometimes i just feel like breaking out into bouts of 'you eat durian in trains, you pay pay pay. fine fine fine!' sorry, but that's coming from the 10 000 years of accumulated chinese heritage in me.