Monday Monsoon Madness

9th January 2006, Monday

Definitely not suffering from Monday Blues I guess for many as tomorrow would yet be another public holidays (that makes 24 in this month alone), Hari Raya Haji...woohoo...

However it didn't started too well for me, more of that in awhile..

The showers did not stopped engulfing the island for the entire weekend and now as I am typing this post, it's still very much pouring outside...
I guess it is to compensate of the lack of rain time and again since the 1st day of the year of the chicken...and many of us had been cursing an arid condition which did not helped with the MRT carriages with weak air-conditioning and a couple of friendly Bangladeshi construction workers, reeking their natural manly aura....
I love rain..especially on Sundays which I guess many would enjoy as well as we could really snuggle in the cool atmosphere and there's not immediate need to get out of bed for the rest of the day till Monday of course...
That's what happened yesterday morning when my lass who slept over, faced an obstacle waking up in according to the time she set her handphone alarm for...As I reluctantly carved open my eyes, I could swear the sky looked so void of sunlight, it seems like just 7 plus in the morning till the affirmation from the clock counter on my Cable TV console said otherwise.
It was amazing that the rain did not stop for a breather the entire day as it went on a near 24 hours marathorn and getting bigger periodically.

However with such atrocious weather to contempt with, it did not stopped a kind-hearted monk who had the audacity to challenge himself to walk on 2 swinging beam, up 60 storeys of a city skyscraper to the fright & fear of many, all in the name of charity.
He was cool as a cucumber as he held on his balance and perhaps with the guidance of higer level of nirvana, he managed to conqueor it till the producers found the weather much unacceptable to go for the next level, balancing on a single cylindrical beam...
As he was interviewed for his after-thoughts of risking his life for a 3rd year in a row, his stoic face suddenly was lined with pearls of tears (and perhaps some rain droplets) as he sorrowly beckoned the viewers to contribute to a good cause for his charitable hospital running with very limited funds.
Their target was S$3 million last evening and before his painful cajole, it was barely half that amount...
The NKF fracas definitely had a rippling effect to all charitable organisation but seriously not every CEO of the NGOs would do what our affectionate monk would do...try asking T.T. Dulan to go walk on the beam for the name of his charity and I think most probably he would had asked for the beam to be plated in gold and he would only put 1 cent from every dollar collected for actual usage this time....
So in the end my mom, who was very touched by the whole daredevil act made a couple of calls and seriously 3 million to us normal middle-class citizens would be a lifetime of savings or income but I'm sure it would be really "peanuts" to the truckload of wealthy people here....

The storm also did not deter our local Internal Affairs uniform groups like the police and the Civil Defence to engage in the inaugural simulated terror attack-emergency drill known as "Operation Northstar V (as for 5)" (I'm pretty certain it was endorsed by the shoe brand of the same name) during the wee hours yesterday morning...
But the time I woke up, the radio was buzzing that the whole event was over...

So all the accolades was delivered by the ministers and the important officers for a very successful exercise on the whole but seriously do you think terrorist would actually choose a soggy Sunday morning to plan their attack?
They definitely would be thinking in the same line as the government authorities that choosing a peak hour during weekday would really affect thousands of commuters who would complain about time wastage as they rushed for/from work...
That's the problem with us Singaporean, we love to complain but I find there would be great significance to such drills and we should abide it and stop whining if it really happened to us...
Anyway it was a great fun when I watched the news when quite a number of dedicated volunteers to pretend as the victims of the bombing actually fulfilled their roles, despite some "Abang-Adeh" (there are quite a no. of them) were actually sniggering when it appeared under their cosmetic effects that they had been seriously wounded by the attack...
But the award for the best actress had to go to one of the bespectacled auntie (who resembles CS' Chinese teacher mom) who acted as a worrisome family member of a victim suffering from chemical attack...her performance was second to none, and now Mediacorp had to do is to sign her up to star in the next season of "Heartlanders" opposite Vincent Ng, now that would be a big hit after "Master of the Seas" and "VR Man" I tell you....

There was also an auntie who fainted under unforseen circumstances in the simulation at Toa Payoh MRT station...It was bad that I burst out in profuse laughter but I must say the report of the entire operation was the best entertainment program on local TV for a long time....

Now back to my own douldrum this manic Monday morning....
Due to the overcast weather conditions compounded by the lack of motivation (new stocks to be in layman's term), I abandoned my plan to go for my weekly pilgrimage which thwarted my plan to top up my EZ link card.
Not wanting to include such a trivial issue in my early morning rush on Monday I had enlisted the help of my sister to do the topping up for me.
However due to poor memory on both sides, we completely forgotten about the whole issue for the entire day..till when I passed the gantry and tried to swabbed my wallet onto the sensor hoping for the usual response till I realized something is amiss...
I was ballistic at the moment as I had just missed the direct train (and was very late as well) and had to dig out whatever loose change I had on me (believe me it is hard to find any money, less loose change on me) to get a usual concession pass which I had never bought all these time when the EZ Link system was introduced...
The trip to Bouna Vista was $1.70, 16 cents more than using the user-specific EZ Link card and added up to 32 cents after the return trip...
argh..the scorch in my heart...32 cents could actually contribute to the charity last evening..er...most probably not barely enough....

The good people of La Tendo are inviting those who had played a part in their stock taking last week to a karaoke session this evening as tomorrow's is a nice off day...
However I had an appointment with my personal hairstylist (namely my cousin, Linda) for a cut and dye this evening as well...
At first I had already forgone the conclusion of not going but suddenly had a compulsive urge to go...
Well if my Football Manager 2006 comes as planned this evening via the mail, I guessed I would not step out of my place for the next 3 weeks or so..heehee

Japanese word of the day: 寄付しなさい(Donate) I have decided to donate all the ang pow money I supposed to give next year to the same pitiful Venerable just to stop him from putting his life at risk..but we wouldn't mind him putting Dulan's life at risk though