as july/august as can be

Hello September. Occassional moments of rain are fine. Please don't make it into a habit though. That is not a very nice thing to do.

Will you have tea with me one day, Lynne?

A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

So punctuation really does matter, even if it is only occasionally a matter of life and death.

This has to be the wittiest thing I have read for a long time ever. If the excerpt alone is such a delight to read, you can't go wrong with the rest of it. I am halfway into the book. And every page till now is filled with classic examples and wry humour.

+ Eats, Shoots & Leaves . Lynne Truss
+ And I thought of Miss Tortured Soul, her army of soldiers and Mr Harrison the thief.

ali

While in the midst of tidying up my life, I chanced upon a couple of long lost friends and thought of a few more along the way. Here is one of them. She was meant to appear on the cover of a children's lunchbox but she did not make it eventually. Welcome to wicked wonderland, Ali. It feels good to see you once more after all this while.

Things are falling nicely into place at this point in time. Mr Chicago Tan was right. The stars and the universe are finally aligning themselves in my favour. Life can only get better. If not, sweeter.

chapter 1 . tokyo/osaka . 7/5 - 17/5

Before everything else starts rolling our way, let's hold on to the beautiful moments of our adventure no matter how fleeting they were. See you in a while, Tokyo/Osaka. We'll be back to claim our hearts.

T1 Pacific Coffee Company

We are going on an adventure. A trip so exciting that everything else can wait. How wonderful can life get? Get ready for us, Tokyo and Osaka!

lousyboy's snapshots collection 001

putting the smile back

I did this a while ago. It seems appropriate to recycle it now after watching An Inconvenient Truth which is a presentation on global warming by Mr Al Gore. Although our existing world population stands at 6.5 billion and which makes me only to be an insignificant fraction of it, I love to think that a lot can still be done on my part. So with a decent amount of hope and optimism, let's spread the word and some love. In the words of Mr Al Gore, let's do the right thing now.

honey-coated days

I fell into the world of 2 rich men, 1 poor woman and 1 rich woman. I thought I never get to see the light at the end of the tunnel or the silver lining behind the cloud. With a huge sigh of relief, I'm almost out of there. Soon. Very soon. My ordeal will be over. Knock me out, my dear friends. If I ever speak of going in there once more. Days of freedom have never tasted so sweet before.

lousy playground

miss pea in a lousy playground...no wonder she is having a lousy time recently. hope she can come out and play soon.

disconnected thoughts

The above was taken back in July where lamp post no. 189 is situated along an endless stretch of road. Somehow, it sums up all thoughts and feelings for the past week and perhaps even the week ahead too. I'm looking forward to the latter especially after being stuck in the rut for so long.

A veteran A & E doctor in a drama serial that I'm watching these days once mentioned that he did not enter the profession with noble thoughts of wanting to save lives. All he wants is to provide hope for the patients and their loved ones. What a wise scriptwriter there must be behind the serial. Indeed, hope gives us the courage to move on and keeps us looking forward to better days ahead.

Erm. I think I'm the only one who misses watching Miss Match and its opening sequence on cable. What happened to whiny Kate and lovable Michael?

so far so good

Things are moving terribly slowly but at the vey least, they are moving. I'm getting used to having a workspace within a jump out of the bed. If I do believe in Lousyboy's fengshui talk, I'm at a very good spot typing all this out now. There is not much to boast about the side view of a library. All I see are rows and columns of white rectangular panels. Depending on the time of the day, the space does get a bit too windy/hot/bright for my liking. But all this aside, I love the current arrangement. I'm a happy girl. Yea!

hapless harriet

All she wishes for is to have her cup of tea.

I wanted to write more about Harriet and her cup of tea but the only thing I'm capable of doing now is to stare at the screen. I wanted to write more about staring at the screen but the only thing I can do now is to stare at it even more.

Good night, everybody. I think I will fare better in my sleep.

to do:

1. sort out redbucket's portfolio so that no. 2 can be done.
2. give redbucket's neglected website its due makeover.
3. paint 2 works for brother's new home before 25/9.
4. select appropriate songs for his wedding clip.
   
5. start exercising.
   
6. save up for no 7, 8 and 9.
7. a studio away from home, cable tv and the bed.
8. an illustration and/or pattern-making course.
9. ticket out of here.
10. draw and paint more.
11. read more.
12. paperwork for redbucket.
13. art classes for matthew and natalie.
14. marshmallow royal. morning glory you. hello neighbour. yes, please.
15. tidy up wicked wonderland.
16. prepare for christmas.

describe in not more than 5 sentences

I am so incapable of piecing a longer entry more than a paragraph for the longest time ever. The brain is constipated and thoughts are fleeting. The condition is deteriorating. It is a struggle even with sentences now. How lovely.

Total number of words: 1040

days of my life

Life has been good. Catching up on time lost after the unforgettable asylum stint. Channel surfing. Voyuering. Eating. Bracing. Day-dreaming. Shopping. Sightseeing. Sleeping. Wasting time. Unbelievable.

the asylum stint

It was an unforgettable project. A bout of illness. Strange security uncles. Wicked contractor uncles. Timid Indian chief. Lying salesmen. All of which made a lousy combination together. Our presence of any sort was negligible other than moments when "famous artists" introductions became a convenient means to boost the wow factor. Elevated status from being animals in the zoo to famous artists. I felt like Cinderella except that my pair of slippers was never made of glass. If not for Miss Eng, Mr Lau and Lousyboy, I could have been more miserable. Thank you guys. I am so glad you were there for me.

bye bye love

The lovely emac is sold. Together with a heavy heart and lousyboy's trusty g4, little miss p is slowly getting acquainted to the newly acquired fp93v. The latter is still wrapped in her plastics waiting for the day when the dream studio/office space materialises so that she can proudly flash her pearly white in full glory. Hopefully, she won't turn cream before that happens. The cranky but lovable 7610 has also been replaced by a hot pink v3x. Despite all this, little miss p can't help but feel sentimental about the departure of both of them. Because of them, she learns to take her first step out and into the world of gadgety itties comfortably. Bye bye emac. Bye bye nokie. Little miss p will miss you much. :(

PS: The theme for illustration friday this week is rain. How timely. 23/6

ps:

I feel as if I've been marching on the same spot day in and out all this while.

milky bunnies

These bunnies were made for Easter a while ago. Many thanks to Lousyboy, Mrs Yuen and a few more who helped me drink up all the yummylicious organic brown rice soya milk before I can work on the cartons. Thank you for your unwavering support. :)