Time to hit the road again

The pull of travel is teasing me again. The siren of the unexplored, the lure of exotic lands, just the desire to get away from Singapore, from my responsibilities, to stop having to think logically and surrender myself to pleasure.

Ah yes, it's definitely time to hit the road again.

Plans for Europe with Kris, Syl and Shawn (yes! a boy! however will we walk around half naked??) this December has been shelved, thanks to the lack leave.

Have since made them sign a blood pact that said trip will be next March. I CANNOT WAIT. CAN EUROPE BE ANY MORE FANTASTIC??? Hot men, hot food, hot locations. The holy trinity. Bliss.

But in the meantime, to help get over my terrible disappointment, shall plan many tiny trips here and there.

Have resurrected the idea of going to Laos with the Fadz. First mooted it some many moons ago, but somehow, never came to fruition. At first, it was money constraint for Fadz.

But since his financials are starting to look a bit brighter, my dreams of the LAST FRONTIER IN SOUTHEAST ASIA may come true after all.

Hmmm, can I possibly squeeze in a little Batam and KL relaxation as well?

Plotting and scheming... please don't ask me how I can possibly afford everything. You might think I have a hidden trust fund or something.

The answer is NO. But I do value travelling, I do see the worth in seeing the world outside of Singapore. To experience life that is not highly sanitised, or perhaps, to even gain a deeper appreciation for what I do have. And of course, when you are travelling, you exist in this bubble that is not interrupted by work, or family, or real life.

Besides, travelling with your other half can be an interesting experience, especially budget travel, where your best and worst sides are revealed.

So anyway, I plan, I budget, I toss saving for a rainy day out the window.

Certainly, I do not advise this route for everyone, living capriciously in the moment and not planning for the future.

But I do recognise that I am in a privileged position, where my family is not waiting for me to put food on the table.

So in that spirit, I NEED to explore. I need to see, to feel, to smell, taste and touch things that I usually only read about, before I'm simply too old, or too tied down, to recklessly throw myself into a foreign land.

And to quiet that incessant restlessness that rears its head ever to often, if I'm being honest.

So yes, on the road again... I'm on the road again. :)

Hell Week

Woooaaahh, working 8 days without a break. A kink in my roster, promptly solved when my boss simply decided to push my off day to next month.

Oh well.

And to make matters worse, a complete disregard for shifts. I can be working until 11pm one day, and expected to report bright and early the next day at 9am.

Sigh. My boss is so fabulous.

Today was especially trying, 12 hours straight. No time for lunch even. Pushed from one event to another.

Dealing with shitty PR people, reporting my first murder case (I'm surprised too, seeing how I've been here 1.5 years).

The murder one was especially bad. Not because there was blood of whatever, but it's the running up and down 8 flights of stairs in a dingy block in Queenway in this sweltering heat. Damn, but I stink.

Brain so dead at the moment.

And I've discovered a weird quirk: whenever I'm dead tired, instead of staying quiet in one corner, I become louder and talk nonstop.

Hmm. I guess my body just doesn't believe that I can really be this tired, and tries to overcompensate.

Sunday, please, please, please, come quickly.

So that I can finally rest my weary body.

Office Drama

The level of estrogen is running at an all time high in the office and it's driving me crazy.

Sure, it's nice to have female colleagues. All the giggles, laughs, and what not.

But when the hormones start going out of balance, and degenerates into a high-school scene, complete with huffy cold shoulders, name calling, gossiping behind each other's back, leaving each other out of the "clique" (I'm cringing as I type this)...

Jesus! In the name of all things holy! I wasn't even this bitchy back in secondary school! Or immature!

Seriously, at this point, I just want to roll my eyes. Or shrug my shoulders and not give a damn.

What happened to be being grown adults? And considering that I'm the YOUNGEST in the office, and yet have to deal with older people acting all teeny bopper-ish, I just want to bonk everyone on the head.

Maybe it's not a good idea to mix business with pleasure after all. Having to see someone day in day out, knowing that after-work politics spills over into work time... it's just too complicated.

Any suggestions?

A Blooming Miracle

It's the start of my 8-day break (shorter work week and all that) and I do something I haven't done in nearly a year.

I EXERCISED. Yes, I actually stepped into a gym, paid good money to do untold torture to my body.

I think a demon must have possessed me. Or maybe I'm just a teeny bit worried about the alcohol gut that is developing.

Damn you alcoholic colleagues!

Started relatively light, cos you know, don't want the heart that is clogged with fatty tissues to give out halfway. Scooped the gym and saw no cute guys, so there really was no incentive for an mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to go on.

20 minutes treadmill, 20 minutes weights training, 20 minutes spinning.

At the end of the hour, my body was shutting down and not responding to commands. Actually, by the first 20 minutes, I thought I was seeing stars already.

Sigh. I really do hate running. It's boring, it's tiring, it's painful, it's not therapeutic.

Why oh why did I subject myself to such torture?

Oh yeah, this is why.

I guess this would explain the need to work out. And it's only half of what was consumed on my birthday.

Sigh.

Hanging Out with Famous(?) People

Seriously, I think Singapore is too small and lacking in real celebrities. Whenever I mention that I work in MediaCorp, people's eyes light up and the line of question usually runs along the lines of, "do you see famous people all the time?"

Huh. I guess in Singapore, Fann Wong and Tay Ping Hui qualify as famous. But my definition of celebrity is someone who is recognised by more than 4 million people. Someone like David Beckham. Or Brad Pitt. You get my drift.

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is, anyone who appears on local tv gets instant fame and locals REALLY do get excited by celeb-spotting.

I was hitching a ride back to the office with Ramesh, who is this really seasoned reporter, been in the business for 26 years or something.

So we were trying to flag a cab outside Shangri-La hotel, and this yellow CityCab stops for us.

We get in, Ramesh sits in front and says, "Uncle, MediaCorp".

The taxi driver immediately looks at him and says "I know you. I know where you work. See you on tv all the time".

Ok, never mind about that. Some recognition is bound to happen.

But as we cruise along, the cab driver pips up and says "You stay in Bishan right? Near me. See you all the time."

Eh, creeps-ville?

And the dude was visibly excited to have someone "famous" in his cab, and kept talking and talking.

It was quite amusing.

I wonder what it'd be like to share a cab with Fann Wong. Would the cab driver like just, hyperventilate?

Birthday Musings

Man, I'm turning another year older. Like I've been telling everyone, I'm gonna have a mental breakdown next year. You know, a quarter life crisis.

Youth is all I have!!! How can I be ageing so quickly?

Oh it just seemed like yesterday when I was traipsing around the world, one minute in Vietnam, the next in Taiwan. The only worries I had were whether my aching body would make it to volleyball practice, whether my managerial accounting homework made sense, whether I should go watch a movie with the girls or go to the library and study...

Ahhh, 21 was a good age. Yup yup.

So the birthday's this Sunday. Through some fortuitous good fortune, I'm off from Friday to Monday.

Lady luck is shining down on me, thank you thank you.

Ok, some wrangling was involved as well. Had to work 6 days straight, and work my butt off indeed. From parliament, to MOM, to Everest, to AWARE and Sex Ed, think I covered it all this week. I swear I was puking blood yesterday, stuck in the office trying to churn out story after story.

Like my colleague put it, when Joanne starts speaking in rapid mandarin and swears like a hokkien ah lian, she's stressed out.

That's the thing about MC; I'm a freaking one man show, expected to produce the same amount and quality of work as ST, which by the way, sent a phalanx of 4 reporters down for the same event. And I have to do it on the double, cos RADIO is all about speed. What midnight deadline? My deadline was the previous hour's bulletin. Gaah. It's enough to give me hives.

So anywayz, the schedule looks quite packed, which suits me just fine.

Tonight will be celebrating my bday in advance with the family, cos the big sister is running off to Abu Dhabi tomorrow. Ah yes, my globe trotting family. Bless their souls.

Meeting the colleagues for drinks tonight. Hope my liver is up for it.

Meeting Shawn and Sylvia tomorrow for some wholesome good fun.

And Sunday is reserved for Fadz to dazzle and entertain me on the very day I came into being. Yes, I still attach a lot of significance to my birthday. I can't help it. It's THE DAY I entered this world. If that's not cause for celebration, I don't know what it. Hahahahahaha.

Monday... hmmmm, told Jack I was toying with the idea of going to the beach. Dunno if she's still up for it...

Alrightie, off to while away my time in pleasurable, leisurely manner.

You know you love me. XOXO. HAHAHAHAHHA.

PS: I can't believe Kris Allen won AI!!!!! Adam Lambert was totally robbed of his glory! His rendition of Mad World gave me the chills and goosebumps. Ok fine... Kris' Heartless last week made me grin like an idiot too. But seriously middle America, stop being so conservative and pretending that gays don't exist. Being prudish is so not cool.

For your hearing pleasures :)

Exhuastive work environment

Crawled home at 1AM, after running my head off in parliament.

Oh god, how I sometimes hate my job.

You know what else I hate? The unpredictable working hours. In less than 9 hours time, I'd be back to work, onto the next event. And it's supposed to be my off day! I so loooovveee my boss. Sheesh.

Gaahhh, it's enough to give me premature wrinkles.

You know what else is giving me wrinkles? All the drama mamas in the office. My conclusion? Women are very, very scary creatures who snap and bitch about each other in a heartbeat. I'm just trying to avoid getting burnt.

Nuff said. Previous experience has taught me that saying anything more here has the weird effect of coming back to bite me.

Oh yeah, and I'm suffering from a slight case of ageism. Against myself. I'd be the ripe old age of 24 in 5 days' time!!! That's like 1 more year only to 25, and then I'd have myself a proper quarterlife crisis!

Maybe I'd shave my head bald and run off to be a nun. Maybe. More likely, I'd drink my weight in vodka and puke. Maybe. Naahhh, I'd just have a nervous breakdown.

Yup, that sounds about right.