领衔主演

When I was maybe six or seven, I would be watching Channel 8 when a trailer for a movie would come on, and the voiceover would end with ‘某某某领衔主演……’

Then I noticed that the voiceovers for nearly every movie trailer ended in the same way. Naturally, this puzzled me: how was it possible that this actor called 领衔 could star in so many shows?

It was only some time later that I finally realized that 领衔 was not the name of an actor, but actually meant ‘leading’, as in ‘in the leading roles’!!!

I guess my error is a case of overgeneralization, which is an aspect of language acquisition. Dictionary.com defines it as ‘the process of extending the application of a rule to items that are excluded from it in the language norm, as when a child uses the regular past tense verb ending -ed  of forms like I walked to produce forms like *I goed  or *I rided’.

one of my favouritest metaphors ever

‘How can I explain it to you? Oh, I know. In your language you have a form of poetry called the sonnet.’

‘Yes, yes,’ Calvin said impatiently.

‘Kindly pay me the courtesy of listening to me.’ Mrs Whatsit’s voice was stern, and for a moment Calvin stopped pawing the ground like a nervous colt. ‘It is a very strict form of poetry, is it not?’

in one’s skin

I am not a prude.

Although I am not in the leagues of Samantha Jones and her ilk, I am not a prude. My friends would definitely agree wholeheartedly.

After all, I did once ask Ahgong if he’d ever compared penis sizes with those using the neighbouring cubicles in the toilet. He said no, then asked me if my friends and I compared breast sizes. I (honestly) said no. :P

sodium chloride

Salt (sodium chloride) contains one chloride ion for every sodium ion.

Which is why for the longest time ever, I did not understand why some brands of salt touted themselves as ‘reduced sodium’. For did that not mean that there were plenty of extra chloride ions running around to spare?

Much later, I found out that reduced sodium salt actually meant that they replaced a certain percentage of sodium chloride with potassium chloride.

Alas, this meant that there were NO extra chloride ions running around to spare! And so my thoughts of swimming pool water-flavoured food went up in smoke!!! :P

a poetic life

Don’t ever be someone’s slogan, ’cause you are poetry.

Gwen’s neck sign for Andrea, 28 Days

squawk

This afternoon, when I was walking to Tiong Bahru Market for lunch, I passed the parrot who lives in the temple nearby.

‘Hello!’ it squawked.

‘Hello!’ I smiled and replied.

aqueous sodium chloride

The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.

Isak Dinesen, Out of Africa

you learn something new every day

photo from here

See those little sticks with their ends trimmed in cellophane and stuck into the hors d’oeuvres? They’re called attelets.

my big fat japanese dinner

My designer YZ asked me if I could help her write a letter, and she would treat me to dinner. Naturally, I agreed. :D She told me where she intended to take me for dinner, and I felt a little apprehensive cos the place sounded a little dodgy. Anyhow, after work on 10 November, we met at a bus stop in front of People’s Park Complex and took a bus to our destination. When we got down the bus, YZ forgot how to get there! There was a little to-ing and fro-ing but we found the place in the end!

And the place was Box n Sticks, a small Japanese eatery at Aliwal Street, in the Kampong Glam area!

We ordered a lot of food. Well actually YZ was the one who did. I wondered aloud if we could finish everything, but she ignored me and kept ordering. :P

on threading

I have been been threading my eyebrows and upper lip since 2006.

Two Fridays ago (4 November), I went to get them done at my usual place, this small Indian beauty salon near Clementi MRT. My threader had hands so cool that they were almost cold. When I told her so, she immediately cupped my cheeks with both hands. Eeeks!

My dear Dr S Tan once told me that the more you thread, the less painful it is. But in my experience, that has never been the case! Every time I get threaded, it is always as painful as it ever was! And I never fail to end up tearing!!!

Which naturally begs the question of why I still do it. Maybe that’s the masochistic side of me acting.

the essence of ‘spiderness’

Quite some time ago, I was googling to check what the plural of computer mouse is (Wikipedia has a pretty succinct answer here) when I stumbled upon this:

QUESTION

Which is the correct plural form of the proper noun “Spiderman” — Spidermen or Spidermans? On the highway, a car absolutely crammed with little Spiderman action figures passed us and I said, “That car is filled with Spidermen!” My husband said the correct plural is Spidermans. Thanks!

Edneyville, North Carolina
Tue, Dec 21, 1999

dinner in joo chiat

Had dinner with Karen yesterday night. We met at Outram MRT and took a bus to Joo Chiat!

First stop: Fei Fei Wanton Mee at 62 Joo Chiat Place. I had previously mentioned to K that I had heard a lot of good things about Fei Fei, and so wanted to try it. There is another Fei Fei Wanton Mee just down the road at No. 72 but K decided we should try No. 62′s. There seems to be a pretty convoluted history behind the two stalls (see here and here, and it seems like No. 62 does not belong to the original owners of Fei Fei)!

c’est la vie

Planned to go to the bank after work yesterday. Buses came and went, but not the one I wanted to take. Meanwhile, the seconds ticked away.

So I took decisive action. Hopped into a taxi and went, ‘Uncle, Tiong Bahru Plaza. Fast fast please, I need to go to the bank!’

The taxi uncle laughed, and replied that ‘the woman just now’ had also said the exact same thing!

And then he dropped me off at the bus stop opposite Tiong Bahru Plaza, where he had dropped his previous passenger off.

I ran and got to the bank five minutes before it closed at 7 pm. Joined a queue of more than two dozen people. ARGH. Waited more than half an hour before it was finally my turn.

I swear I’ll qualify for premier banking as soon as possible, so I never need to queue again!!!!!!!

So excuse me while I go make more money!!! ;)

completely random

A few days ago I was standing at my workstation when my colleague YL suddenly exclaimed, ‘你好白!’  and asked me if I had been using whitening lotion.

Naturally I went ???!!! and replied that it was probably the (fluorescent) lighting.

But for what it’s worth, I have been using shu uemura’s puRENovate range of products, which consists of toner, pore minimizer and moisturizer, for the past half year or so. I like their nice light scent. Most notably, the moisturizer absorbs into the skin and leaves behind a powdery residue, which took a little getting used to in the beginning.

completely random

This morning, on the train to work……

Was sitting down. A youngish auntie in her late 30s or early 40s was on my left. Another auntie, similar to the first auntie in age, was standing in front of her.

And out of the blue Sitting Auntie asked, ‘Do you want to sit?’