I dont know where the last one month went to. To the loo I think.

Archie is in Japan now. The cheapest means of communicating with him is through emails, and if we ever go online at the same time, we probably could MSN each other.

I hate working. For others. Period.

I have to apologise to those who have visited The French Stall after reading my previous post. It was mentioned that the food was pretty tasty. Well, I thought the food was okay for that price. The price I saw on the menu.

Rumour has it, that I'm a rich miser.

A certain colleague has unwittingly revealed this rumour (or gossip rather) going around about me. Isn't it exciting to find out a certain aspect of yourself, which you never knew, from someone else in an 'accidentally' manner?

I am certainly interested to know where my 'riches' are. Because it's high time I spend it all and keep the multiplier effect going. And a miser? Oh yeah. I am such a bean counter that I get the high counting every penny I have in my packet, morning noon and night.

wtf.

But well, ain't I entitled to be a miser? If there's an application form to be one, my credentials would check every single effing box. I have no degree - my annual income doesn't allow me anywhere near a credit card form. I have a household of three - only one is working (well, guess who?). I have a roof over my head - guess who's paying for it? I have a dad who paid for my tuition fees - guess who's paying him back? I have bills to pay which are incurred even though I spend half my time away from Singapore - guess who's paying for them?? And everyone tells me death is inevitable and I better leave money behind for my family - guess who's paying for insurance???

I am 25. I should be enjoying the fruits of my labour. I should be one of those young brats who give $600 per month to their parents and say, "Nah. Give you and don't bother me for the rest of the month," and spend the remaining thousands on food, clothes, shoes, entertainment and other useless stuff. Instead I'm handing thousands to The Mother and keeping the remaining hundreds to myself. Am I not entitled to be just a little extra careful (perhaps calculative) in what I spend so that I have just enough savings to buy myself a nice dress or a pair of shoes once awhile? Don't I deserve anything for myself?

I cannot help it if clients like to treat me to lunch, or my crew invites me for home-cooked meals when we're away in overseas. Neither it's wrong for me to save on lunch money by chewing on sandwiches. As far as I know, I've never owed any money for meals. I order, I pay. I scrim, I save because sometimes I don't get overseas allowances in advance; I'm spending a puny sum of money from my own pocket and am expected to make large purchases and 'claim it back from company later'.

So what if I ask favours from friends who might get me a discount or two on stuff I want to get? If they don't like to do me such favours, they'd tell me. I don't own a gun to put it to their heads. But I would go all out to do it for them, if they ask. Because I know every cent counts. To me, at least. If I have my way, I want to be living in a family of four. ALL FOUR OF US WILL HAVE WORK AND A DECENT INCOME. I don't worry about bills (just my own to be concerned about), I go for short getaways or even a long trip once a while, I will dine in fancy rastaurants every week, I can throw money at everyone's face and make them make me their best friend, I will buy my boyfriend every nice damn thing I see on my overseas trips, I don't have to purposely avoid designer boutiques nor do I have to furrow a single brow about my younger brother's tertiary education fees because it won't have to be my farking problem!

So anyway, this rumour got to me in a most ridiculous fashion.

I am running out of cash here in China. Mainly because I paid for my accommodation and made purchases for the project with my allowances (which are rightfully MINE to keep). I have a few more nights of hotel stay to pay for and I asked a colleague if I could borrow from her when the need arises. That's when a couple other colleagues said I don't need to borrow because 'I am rich and knows better than anyone else how to save money''.

And they repeated that many times throughout the day. It gets on my effing nerves. Do I have to set up a theatrical play and act out my sad-sob life story for them to understand that I am nowhere near the effing term - rich. Because I don't dress shoddily and I eat frugality doesn't equal me to being a RICH MISER.I am not rich to pay for every damn blardy expenses here and 'claim it from company later'. I would IF I could. Because I am not a bean counter at heart. I am actually very generous and don't mind paying for the entire crew's salary, accommodation, meals, purchases and 'claim it back from the company later', IF the alleged money does exist in my bank account.

So,

when i say im farked by destiny i have no idea whats coming for me just this morning i have been told to fly to dong guan to oversee a project for a certain high end car brand which has less than three weeks of production time and no design is drafted yet and i will be staying in china for a month and i have only two days to pack my bags settle my bills clean out the skeletons out of my closet i have no idea where i am staying what clothes to bring who is picking me up from airport but i do know that im on tiger airways and 20kg bag limit is one big farking problem i will miss home

Be careful of what you wish for.

Because the last time I wished for more hours of sleep (preferably an uninterrupted 24-hour one), my request was granted.

Except this time, I was lying in bed feeling so sick that I couldn't do anything but sleep.

Let's just admit: which one of us goes visiting during Lunar New Year because we sincerely want to wish our relatives well and we miss them so much that we can't wait to knock on their doors to see their bright cheery faces when they see ours?

'Fess up!

C'mon we know the real reasons:
1. The gold's in the ang baos (openly known secret).
2. To gamble and wipe clean someone else's ang bao collection.
3. To gamble like there's no tomorrow; know the police wouldn't kill your joy since it's CNY.
4. To watch all the CNY special variety programme at the relative's house since you have no Starhub.
4. To show off your latest arm candy to all the loser 'still single' cousins.
5. To show off your latest Maserati.
6. To persuade all your relatives, including their friends, friends' friends, that they have been leading a sinful life, and by donating to all charitable organisations, their lives would be redeemed forever and ever. Who needs Jesus?

I do remember that when The Dad's extended family was still around, parents would whip out booklets of donation vouchers and passed them around while their kids would cower behind their parents - too paiseh to ask on their own. Well, Singapore schools certainly have a good way of putting the kids in a difficult position. I'm sure I was the only person who had such awful experience. My school would purposely give out donation voucher booklets to us, just a few days before CNY, and 'encouraged' us to sell all the vouchers since (quote) 'it's time to remember the unfortunate during the festive season' (unquote).

My arse. You might have guessed it - I refused to conform. It's utter bullshit. The only reason is because you hardly meet that many people at a single short period of time, and the school teaches us to make good use of the opportunity.

And so I went back to school with the booklets still intact except for two teared snubs. I sold one to myself and one to The Mother. The teacher questioned if I had put in effort in selling the vouchers. I told her I have no family.

I think the worst you could do during CNY is not about finishing all the bak kwas at your relative's/friend's house, nor you accidentally breaking a glassware on the first day of new year. To sell charity vouchers or so-called attempt to spread 'the message of love' in any name, is just darn irritating. (And a taboo to me) I would not disagree that CNY provides an advantage to garner as much donations as possible. People are feeling joyous and wouldn't mind being more generous than usual. I guess I wouldn't mind if my lovely niece Ashlyn asks for my help when her very-dumb-arse school requires her to do the same.

But consider this: your boyfriend's relative meets you for the very first time. She greets you and asks if you're working.

Oh that's nice of her. She's engaging me in a conversation.

You tell her you're working and intends to embark on enthusiastic and meaningful conversation with her.

"Oh you're working hur? So working means you can buy this," she whips out a very suspicious-looking booklet-like thing out from the thin air.

"For only ten dollars you donate....yada yada yada"

Thereforth, all you could hear is static. At the mere mention of 'donate' your mind goes blank and it suddenly dawns upon you why you hated CNY since primary school. Because you loathe such situations.

You might have guessed anyway: the above stated scenario was played out to me. I was asked to buy the most f-ugly calendar I've ever seen in my life. SQ said it looked quite nice. He's right. But I was peeved and I intend to stay biased. Donated to where? Queenstown. Why? Because his cousin's husband is the MP of that town.

But seriously, buay pai seh meh? I bet she hasn't even remembered my name! We haven't even knew what each other's horoscope signs yet, what we like and dislike, and what colours undies we usually wear and she jump-started the whole relationship and elevated up it to 'Surely you can donate some $$ and make my husband look damn good in PAP'.

Normally, I would simply reply: Fark off. I don't even live remotely near to Queenstown! And my ten bucks would be better off contributing to the pool of money to repair my leaking air-con.

But I took out a red note anyway. In spite of wanting to roll my eyes so so SOOO badly, I reckon I should stay nice and sweet to his relatives. It's just this once anyway. And the red note is from one of those ang baos I got from his extended family. No loss actually.

P.S. The f-ugly calendar stays with SQ. I don't need to be reminded how 'well-intended' some people could be.