Many Reunions - 2/11/2002

Being quite newly married and not yet properly established as a nuclear family (cats don't count apparentlt), Ms Tan and I have the priviledge of attending many reunion dinners. The heirachies are quite complex and my goal in all this is not to put on the pounds already shed while appearing to eat so that no one is offended. Two down - one more tonight, then tomorrow CNY lunch and hopefully I can go back to the Veggie soup diet.

Three days before CNY
My stomach said to me
"Go easy on the Calories you can't see"

Two days before CNY
My stomach said to me
"Prawn rolls are a no-no, and go easy on the Calories you can't see"

One day before CNY
My stomach said to me
"Kwa Chee is addictive, Prawn rolls are a no-no, and go easy on the Calories you can't see"

On the first day of CNY
My stomach said to me
"Pineapple tarts will defeat you, Kwa Chee is addictive, Prawn rolls are a no-no, and go easy on the Calories you can't see"

On the second day of CNY
My stomach said to me
" Can you can live without Bak Kwa, Pineapple tarts will defeat you, Kwa Chee is addictive, Prawn rolls are a no-no, and go easy on the Calories you can't see"

What else of interest have I done so far? Well, first there was the attempt to play pool yesterday which quite ended disasterously for me having no inclination to poke balls around with long sticks. Did try however to not look to bad around the table but was soundly thrashed by all the people present. Am somewhat charmed by the game however and suspect that I might actually be drawn in by the mesmerising powers of the eight ball ...

In the spirit of the festive season, I've brought home nine piles of marking. Am no longer on schedule but at least I've started on several piles. Another first today - managed to mark Lit essays on a crowded 106 bus journey. This marks an improvement on marking while standing up on the MRT. I must say my handwriting on a moving bus was not bad - considering the fact I was seated in a reverse position as well.

Looking forward to - yes - the 17th of Feb where I get to meet with good ol' 4K 2001! Some of them were around today and it was nice to see long hair and cheery smiles. Gave them a taste of my new boldness in speaking bad chinese. At least I will actually speak bad Mandarin on demand - an improvement ok!

Dreading? The debates on Friday! I don't think we're adequately prepared in terms of actual debate practice and so have been having restless nights (sort of) that always end up with a dream of a debate competition of some sort. Anyway - was able to not think about it too much over the weekend and that was good.

Oh ho - just bought two CDs. Haven't gotten any classical stuff for a long time (several years in fact) and wandering about HMV just now, I picked up a copy of Mahler's 1st Symphony (conducted by Solti) and a copy of Beethoven's Triple Concerto (which I quite love ... but the copy I had (featuring Sophie Ann Mutter and Yo Yo Ma no less) was borrowed by heaven knows whom and was never returned) so that should provide some interesting listening while marking.

Am also working on a CNY poem - it's very silly because it's a whole poem just for a punchline that I heard from a 3 year old ... but it's a work in progress.