Dear John…

It is good to talk to you again, despite your wariness of me, your distrust of my words. I do not blame you. I do not seem to trust you as well. Behind your justifications, your excuses, I see little else but cause to believe you to be wrong. I suppose this is normal.

We have come to a point in our so-called relationship where trust has ceased to exist completely. What is left is perhaps a hollow shell of politeness and civility. Sometimes we give it freely to one another. Sometimes we do not. We hide behind the mask of friendship and yet, deep down inside, we know we cannot remain as friends but merely polite acquaintances.

Why? Simple. Because we both have our own little burdens to carry. Burdens that eat away against the positives of a friendship – respect, tolerance, understanding, patience, kindness. In time, the only things left would stink of hatred, distrust, insecurity and discomfort.

Reminders of the past. Your memory is littered with them. Mine as well.

You asked me many times of how and why I hated her. Your question should have been more precise. It was what you both represented that I so hate now. Do understand this. At least try to see what I saw, what another women who might be possibly your partner one day would see or experience…

It was never hatred I felt in the beginning for her. It was respect, admiration and friendship that I accorded her. But those things begin to wither away when I saw how she took it lightly and made fun of it in public – in front of you and your friends. Our friends. But even then, what I felt was hardly hatred. I tolerate it for as long as I could because I respected you enough to believe in the sanctity of friendship.

Given my beliefs of how relationships are to be formed, continued and last, it is therefore hardly surprising that I view any intrusion of the sort to be, at the very least, the work of a third party. It is hard to explain this concept to you since you do not share my belief.

One can love many beings, you said. Rightly so you are but then again, when we love many people, we do not let any one of them infringe upon the love that we bestowed on others and neither do we allow that love to come in between your other loves. Love begets love, not hatred and mistrust. Your love for her should beget love from others for her not negative emotions. Her place was as your best friend not mine and thus, her place was to advice you not me. What was lacking in the whole situation, that finally ticked me off, was propriety and decorum. She overstepped her boundaries and I have no doubt that she was aware of that.

You see…no woman in the right frame of mind would tolerate such a thing. I hope that you can learn from this should you wish to begin another relationship. No woman would ever stand the idea or action of sharing her partner with another emotionally or mentally.

A relationship is between two people – the good and the bad. When you run to someone else for support while your relationship is crumbling, you are telling your partner that you do not trust her, your relationship itself, and the faith that she has in you. You are giving a piece of yourself to someone else. Instead of growing together through trials and tribulations, instead of learning more about each other, you grow apart and with the distance comes the mistrust and ultimately, the separation.

Perhaps we were under the illusion that things were really well up to a point in time. Perhaps we were wrong. The warning signs were all there but we ignored them for the sake of being together, for the sake of being belonged, for the sake of being with someone instead of pining for one we could not have.

Both you and I have our own insecurities.

I suppose the main difference between us both is that I have stopped examining myself to the point where I lost sight of the good things about me. I refused to let the negative part of me cloud the best of what I have to give. Yes, I still have some things that need fixing but I no longer mull on them any longer than I should. For me, the wave of depression is no longer a valid excuse for not putting in more effort to save yourself from drowning.

Worthless people are not born worthless. They become worthless by their own doing.

It is strange how this turn of events had impacted both our lives. At least mine anyway. I write this because I have a faint inkling in my heart (gut instinct, they call it) that you will never stop wondering why I hate her, why there is so much loathing between the two of us…even though I have already put most of it behind me. You should too.

I am tired of speaking of the past. I am tired of having to live it over and over again each time we speak to one another (because somehow, someway, it always manages to creep up into our short conversations); of having to explain things to you. My blog entries, myself, my words…and in your words, we are not even friends.

Even if our conversations are meant to be cordial and polite, can we leave the past out of the present? Is it so hard for you to let go of the knowledge that somewhere, someone out there dislikes her and thinks badly of her? Is it so hard for you to understand that the love and care we once shared is now long gone and dead, replaced by civility for civility’s sake?

I loved a dream while I was with you. Now I love a man and he is not you.

Please learn well from this ‘encounter’, ‘experience’, whatever you may call it. I have. Now it’s your turn.

All the best.

I hope life will bring you much joy and fulfillment as it had brought to me.

Police as nannies?

Cops act to keep teens off streets

POLICE are seeking the help of parents in keeping teenagers below 17 off the streets at night – and out of trouble.

If they catch teens loitering in public places after 11pm, they will notify the parents, telling them what their child has been up to.

It is not meant to get the teens into trouble, but to ensure that they do not become easy prey for crooks out to steal or rob someone.

Keeping teenagers at home also means they will not be provoked into committing crimes themselves, by their friends or other teenagers.

The police have taken this controversial measure as more youths are turning to crime, as well as becoming victims.

They logged 36,704 offences last year, up 20% from the year before and the highest since 1998.

Youths – those aged below 19 – made up 22% of the total number of arrests, although they comprise just 15% of the population. The largest increases were crimes by, or against, youths.

For example, 136 teenagers had their belongings snatched last year, a jump of 68% from the 81 cases in 2004.

Police director of operations Senior Assistant Commissioner Aubeck Kam said the police wanted to help parents be aware of what their children were up to.

“Some parents may already know and be okay with their children hanging around, but others may think their children are out studying somewhere instead,” said SAC Kam.

Teenagers, however, decry the measure as a “nannying nuisance” and a restriction of their freedom. – The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Perhaps it might look as if I’m being authoritarian when I say that I really like this idea. Or perhaps I just think that while teenagers *think* they know what they are doing, they really can’t own up to the consequences of their actions half of the time. Besides, I hate to say this but teenagers in general do not have a very good track record when it comes to making decisions on their own – without consultation.

I don’t see this as “nannying nuisance” – besides, what are young people doing out LOITERING about in the middle of the night, especially on school nights? The keywords here are loitering and middle of the night NOT “window shopping”, “meeting some mates for a cuppa” or “in broad daylight”. I don’t really see how this can be restriction of their freedom unless of course, the police themselves are untrustworthy.

As the Chinese saying goes, why be afraid when you have nothing to hide?

Is this a sign?

He started talking to me again, after months of what He calls “just to be on the safe side of things”. Me? I just saw it as being ‘pouty’.

(Now I am not saying that I was without faults in the entire scenario, but how can I not deny the fact that I was just being honest and that my Asian upbringing led me to do what was best at that time – be nice to Him face-to-face and then bitch about my grievances on a blog or to friends?)

The conversation went from how He was to my blog entries and then to the cabinet reshuffling before settling onto the final crux of the matter – “Yes, I do have a problem talking to you”.

As much as I have tried to steer the conversation away from the topic of us (in past tense), He tries to move it back to just that. I appreciate the honesty. I appreciate the explaination. But I do not appreciate the idea of Him thinking that He still matters that much to me – good or bad.

Perhaps He was looking for an apology and I had none to give. (I doubt it.) I suspect it has everything to do with the fact that we might end up working in the bloody same building.

I’ll be honest. I have no qualms about working with Him. About seeing His face on a daily basis. About being seated next to Him. Okay…remove that last one. It is a bit too much. But my point is that while I may be a total bitch to someone I hate, I am not about to begrudge ANYONE a chance to make a living anywhere. If I was, I would not be a bitch. I would be a malicious bitch.

But I am hardly that. Bitch, yes. Malicious? Nah.

It is just that I find it humourous when He keeps on about how wary He is about talking to me, and about how wary He is about the possibility about being my colleague. I mean if the whole situation was so wary-ful, why the heck did He apply for the goddamn position in the first place?

Ooops. I forgot one thing.

He is the forgetful type. That’s my ex for ya.

He is so forgetful that He still thinks He occupies a good portion of my waking moments, thoughts, desires. So forgetful that He thinks I would cart Him off all drugged with chlorofome to a torture chamber like in Saw II. So forgetful that He fails to realized that my life has stopped revolving around Him.

I have other people to cart off to my own variation of a pleasurable torture chamber, namely Boyfriend. I have other things to occupy my waking moments, namely work, friends, family and Boyfriend.

And my life revolves around a whole lot of other things.

So is this whole thing a sign?

Yup. A sign that whoever said that “old flames burn brightest when lit a second time” is someone who have never been through the “bitten once, twice shy” scenario.

THAT interviewer.

Much has been said about fresh graduates and their not-so-sterling behaviour during job interviews. We lament about their lack of punctuality, lack of comprehensible English/Malay/Mandarin, lack of proper dress sense and etc. We concentrate so much on interviewees that we completely forget about the interviewer.

If there is anything more horrible than a tardy, rude, obnoxious, arrogant interviewee, it is an equally tardy, rude, obnoxious and arrogant INTERVIEWER.

Here is a story of one who had the pleasure of encountering such a creature. You don’t really have to go that far…just down south will do (in this case, that is).

Nearly one year ago, I was on the hunt for a teaching job in Singapore and got through to the second round interviews at this upcoming and rather prestigious college on the island. Why not go for the interview even though it was just for fun, I told myself. So I went.

The interviewers consist of the Head of Department, Head of Academics and the HR Manager – two of which were really friendly and warm people, the other – the HR guy – was a total pain in the ass.

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Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Of Pearls and Stars by Heinrich Heine

The pearly treasures of the sea,
The lights that spatter heaven above,
More precious than these wonders are
My heart-of-hearts filled with your love.

The ocean’s power, the heavenly sights
Cannot outweigh a love filled heart.
And sparkling stars or glowing pearls
Pale as love flashes, beams and darts.

So, little, youthful maiden come
Into my ample, feverish heart
For heaven and earth and sea and sky
Do melt as love has melt my heart.

HAPPY ST VALENTINE’S DAY and may love always be a part of your life…

PICCIES: Earrings anyone?

If you hadn’t known, I’ll tell you now.

I collect earrings.

Heaps of them (although of lately, a new financial goal has led me to cut down on the amount of energy/money/time I spent into collecting and keeping this little dangly bits). How many to be exact? Urm…about 50 to 60 pairs. *looks guilty*

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Some say that I’m crazy – spending RM10 on every three pairs of beaded fake cosmetic jewellery. I sayt it’s cheaper than getting shoes. At least I don’t need that much storage space (compared to everything else). Besides, everyone needs a little fetish be it shoes, boas or clothes. I just happen to like sparkly, dangly stuff…that’s all. :D

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I take considerable amount of care in housing them. A special earring tower (bought from one of the stores along Petaling Street) and then keeping them in little home-made plastic bags. (Dad has a plastic sealer and it takes me a few minutes to make about 10 of these little storage bags. If it’s for 50 over earrings, it’ll take about one to two hours of sealing, trimming and cutting.)

21earringtower 10bluebead 20pinkchandelier 19redcrescent 17whitehoop

My man thinks I’m nutty. He perhaps was incredulous and amused when telling his stepmum about what to get for me during Christmas. (I got a pair of translucent blue beaded earrings and a matching necklace.) Whenever we’re out, he drags me away from those stalls – you know, the ones selling earrings. He thinks I have too many.

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I think it’s never enough. Perhaps this is what they mean by a fetish…an obsession. Mine are earrings. It’s the new black, so to speak. :)

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ps: If you’re looking for an earring tower, try the shops along Jalan Panggong (near Purple Cane Tea House) and around the pet shops (like Pets More).