A (Sort of) Homecoming

So, what has it been like to have left New York for about three weeks -- the longest that I've been away from "home" to go back to the Motherland, for three weeks -- the shortest I've been back home -- (unless you don't consider Pulau Tekong as part of the Motherland ... even then, can go home on weekends ...) ?

1. I actually watched the National Day Parade and listened to the younger Lee make his national day rally address. Once again, I irritated my mother with snide remarks in response to just about everything he said.

1a. I tried to read the Straits Times everyday but realized that my threshold for nationalistic bull-shit has been lowered. Better go and train harder.

2. I had a wonderful time meeting up with people and finding out that while time stands still for a lot of us, the energies of youth more than make up for this for many others.

2a. I learnt that young mothers are difficult to hang out with. One ends up doing things VERY slowly, having no conversation or suffering the embarrassment of having your friends shout across a cafe ... "I count to three ah ... One ... Two ... don't make mummy count to three ah ..."

3. I got extremely "distracted", helping my father work on elements of his new book series. Some of the results of that distraction, included silly songs, are found here: http://dr.friendly.books.googlepages.com/home

3a. I rejoiced with my brother-in-law on learning that he had actually completed his reservist cycle.

3b. I was shocked to learn how skinny my sister is. I guess looking after children takes the meat off the bones. I did my best to put food on her plate while I was home.

4. I realized that while I enjoy Singaporean food a lot, I can live without it. In fact, I should generally live with less food, my weight being a source of constant attention during this trip home.

4a. I think people like to talk about your weight when they don't really have much to say. I was, to various people: a: "Wah Ni Pang Leh! She 14 weeks pregnant also not as fat as you!" b: "Ah, Mr. Lim, I see you're getting fatter ..." c: "Did you lose weight ? " d: "No change lah, no change, you look the same ..." Of course, these responses allowed me to gauge who was being (a) polite, (b) honest or (c) a liar. Then again, it could well be that some people just can't gauge these things properly (myself included!)

5. I managed to get into the "Swamp Thing" episodes that Allan Moore did, as well as rush through "From Hell". Singapore's National Library ws pretty good about this. Having forgotten the efficient mechanization of almost everything in Singapore, I actually "suakuly" asked the counter if they could check my books in so that I could borrow new books immediately. The lady, of course, gave me the "What Kind of Sua Ku are You?" look, and told me to use the book drop.

5a. I watched only ONE film. And was sadly disappointed by "Dead Man's Chest". The entire thing seemed to be merely a set-up for a third part. I was extremely sleepy as well, so I ended up dozing off intermittently ...

5b. Despite being a very ugly building from the outside, the "new" central library was pretty cool. Nice Auditorium and sky-bridges too.