That same old feeling

There's one group of friends that we always try to have a Christmas gathering with every year, barring last year as we were out of town. The holiday is a great excuse to come together for a leisurely sit-around and banter into the night till mid-morning. Ah, that same old wonderful feeling.

Of course it's much easier on my old bones when it's held at my own place so that I don't have to drive home later. :)

As luck would have it though, the next day I had that same old uncomfortable feeling as I'd been having the whole week past - stomach upset relapse. Probably shouldn't have braved the questionably-fresh seafood at the Christmas buffet.

Under house arrest

Or at least it feels like it. On Saturday night, we went to a restaurant just across the street to get some soup and something warm to settle my stomach. But just after the soup, I felt my stomach heave, so I left J and KB to finish the rest of dinner and left for home first.

Bad move.

Before I even reached the pedestrian crossing, my vision started to gray out and become noisy. Intermittent blades of grass flashed white as the sound of traffic and chatter turned muted and hollow, and my breath felt shorter and shorter. I knew I was in trouble, and none of us had brought our cellphones out so there was nobody I could call; I didn't have the strength to shout for help either.

Leaning hard on the pedestrian crossing button, I stared blindly at the lights, straining my ears to hear the buzzing that would accompany the green man. And yet I hesitated - dare I trust my vision to spot the oncoming car with the oblivious driver? Somehow in my stupor I registered the headlamps of stopped cars on both sides of the road, so I made my crossing slowly.

My vision swam as I walked past the gate and up the path to the lobby. The gray noise grew louder and more insistent, and a roaring silence hit my ears. Unwilling to black out standing, I sat down hard on the pavement to catch my breath. Strength and vision returned partially after a minute, and somehow I must have hauled myself on, head swimming and lungs pumping, into the safety of the house.

I stayed indoors and off food for the whole of Sunday.

On Monday I went to the office, but couldn't keep lunch down and ended up going to see the doctor anyway, who put me on restorative salts, anti-vomiting pills, anti-diarrhoea capsules and two days of medical leave.

This is what I looked like today:


Miserable!

Managed to get some solid food in for dinner tonight, so my stomach is definitely recovering. I won't be able to enjoy tomorrow night's dinner at Aburiya, though.

Bad food + forced fun = sick

My body has been feeling miserable and I've been in and out of restless sleep the whole day. Fever, moderate headache, body fatigue and aches, dehydration, stomach churning quietly, and several bouts of loose stools. Probably caused by something I ate yesterday at the year-end celebration.

And it's not like the food yesterday was fantastic either, sheesh. Should have grabbed a decent lunch before leaving the office.

Lollipop family

Shot a wedding yesterday as a secondary photographer. The main photographer was fairly easygoing and didn't mind at all.

I'll be uploading choice pics to my PBase gallery soon, but in the meantime, here's a quick candid from yesterday:

Over the past week

It's been a mix of hectic activity, distractions and blogger's block. Yes, blogger's block - I kid you not. Several times in the past week I have sat down at the keyboard, all ready to capture that quicksilver stream of thinking, when it just -poof- disappears, and the mind goes blank. Fantastic.

This week saw me visiting either Funan/Peninsula or Sim Lim every day from Monday to Friday.

On Monday it was Sim Lim with J to buy a wireless router setup for cousins. Tuesday to Peninsula to pick up two lens cases, which they only had one of. So Wednesday again to pick up the other lens case and a pouch. Thursday to Sim Lim as someone from the office gang needed to purchase a laser printer. Friday to Funan for someone else to get a cell phone, and Peninsula once more for me to buy a Metz flash. Geeky week.

Two parting shots, enjoy:


Something tells me Christmas is coming


Camera shy

More at my PaD gallery.

There's something about safety pins

J's rushing to do corsages for tomorrow's wedding, and discovers that she's run out of safety pins, so she sends me to the Cold Storage across the road to get some.

Only problem is, they don't have any.

We pile into the car and drive to Bedok central. J tells me not to park as she'll be quick. So I wait.

And wait. And wait. Some indeterminable time later, J finally comes back to the car with three dozen pins, looking all frazzled and irritated.

Apparently the ABC "cheapest in Singapore" store didn't stock them. Neither did Watsons ("your personal store"), nor did the next two shops. After some frantic searching, relief surfaced in the form of a pasar malam-esque miscellaneous goods shop.

For 30¢ per dozen.

Good vibrations

the swingle singers put up a fabulous show tonight, dazzling the audience with their snazzy a cappella arrangements. From Bach to the Beatles, chorales to carols, the blend of rhythm and harmony definitely hit the spot. I was particularly happy to hear "Walking in the air", one of my all-time Christmas season favourites. "Soul Bossa Nova", better known as the theme from Austin Powers, was an instant hit with the crowd - one of the basses was mimicking Mike Myers throughout the entire song-and-dance routine, complete with square black glasses. The troupe was hauled back on stage for three whole encores! Very fun stuff indeed.

Now I just wish Take 6 would pop over for a concert someday.

Just PaD-ing around

In other news (don't I just love to overuse clichéd phrases), I set up my photo-a-day gallery at PBase.



It's like keeping a visual diary to log the progress of my photo vision, presuming I have one to begin with.

Running at Idol speed

Hell hath no fury like a woman driver impeded while rushing home to catch the Singapore Idol results show.

Or so I discovered to my amusement, as her temper flared at fools who dared cross into her lane. Rarely is J's driving more aggressive than mine, but just five minutes to the start of the results show, every other vehicle on the road seemed to be crawling as we darted and dashed through the slow-car obstruction derby, muted curses flying from the driver's seat.

From the carpark lot to the elevator she rushed, skipping the usual mail-check side trip, shot through the front door and flung herself on the couch, just seconds before the idle finalists burst into song and bluster... for another fifty-odd minutes. I think I watched more commercials in that hour than in the whole of the past month.

In the end, the TV phenomenom notched up yet another franchise win, and the fans went wild; curtain call, exit stage left and prepare for encore. Every society needs heroes, and who better to exploit this maxim than reality show producers?