Thursday, February 19

billy's lack of effectiv-ness

Tuesday i went with matt to IKEA to get pat's birthday present. it was one of at most three times i actually enjoyed going to IKEA, even though i love IKEA. this trip had a bit of a damper to it, though, as i realized that my Chuan Park flat came nowhere near to the IKEA flat ideal. the only room with any IKEA furniture at all is the study [except for the swivel chair everything's BILLY and EFFECTIV and LACK and one glass cabinet that i can no longer remember the name of]. and the study doesn't look all that good [at least it's not mismatched] because it's full of clutter.

i got irritated with AppleCorner@IKEA's pride in being the world's first [and only?] AppleCorner. what's so bloody difficult about setting up an AppleCorner? it's just a long shelf/case with PCs on top of it. again: i'm losing faith in Apple.

IKEA has some pretty interesting stuff. not exactly where one would go to buy a birthday gift; i think the fact that we managed to find stuff that was non-worthless/useless says something about how resourceful we are/were [though one of my ideas about a set of kitchen knives probably was a bit daft].

Tuesday was also the first time i walked into a Burger King and didn't feel like eating anything. in fact, i even felt [very] slightly repulsed at the food available there, like as if i didn't survive on food that tasted good and normally ate whatever was good for me. maybe the whole eat- less thing is starting to work out for me.

looking at furniture and wall colors, wardrobes, etc etc was fun. i used to spend hours in The Sims just building houses and furnishing them; maybe i really should take up a design course in poly. matt was also there to keep an eye out for ideas for his new place at Aljunied, i advised him to choose door handles instead of door knobs if he had a choice--try twisting a doorknob to enter a room when one hand has a drink and the other has a book/newspaper/sandwiches.

--right now the Chuan Park management has invaded my flat to discern if my flat's concealed pipes are in danger of bursting and flooding the unit. it's fucking ridiculous the kind of shit i have to put up with because my idiot father decided an HBD flat was beneath him, but can't afford a unit from a proper, quality, housing development--

Wednesday was patrick's birthday dinner celebration. wayne brought up a point that you're not supposed to celebrate your birthday in advance, according to cheena tradition. which amazed me, because i thought it went that you're not supposed to celebrate it after your birthday. moot point anyway. celebrating it on Wednesday made no sense to me, if his actual birthday's Thursday and Friday would mean staying out longer [and likely another xuan's house thing].

have you seen those really bad ads for a japanese restaurant called Ichiban before films at cinemas? we were going to eat there yesterday. matt seems to have this adversion to japanese food, probably not unexplainable but i decided not to prod; anyway we ended up eating at Swensen's. the Plaza Singapura one is known to my family for having bad, slow service [my family eats there every other birthday]. warned them, but there wasn't much choice there. the prices are abysmal, even without service charge and GST [hah! service charge. another one of those hilarious ironies that you have to pay through the nose as a result of].

we burned an American flag [they came on my 49ers] and matt tore up two, much to joel keh's chargin [according to dax he's a poseur- yank, anyway i can't see anyone but americans standing up for america. they seem to have a skewed perception of everyone/eveything else, sometimes even of themselves]. everyone was taken by leowjun's ridiculous [ridiculous because it manages to fit a huge LCD, five-megapixel CCD and 3x optical zoom into a Casio Exilim-esque body] and ridiculously expensive camera. even i, i must add, though though at that price i would've bought a better camera [yitchun's Olympus C-750 UZ, currently on loan to me, comes to mind]. matt did his work at the table between dinner and dessert, said we were talkign rubbish. true, but look at what they were all talking about at xuan's house: clothes, girls, the MTV Asia Awards, Jackass! and the going-ons in school. it makes matt's bluff [in case xuan's parents came out and wondered about why they were sitting in a circle] about talking girl talk no longer a bluff. i wanted to read Prozac Nation there, but i don't think it would've helped to read that there and then.

madness ensued when the bill came [we were somehow over a hundred dollars short for a while, and apparently people still owe xuan money for the pies at his place], and later when almost everyone tried to jack [jack?] pat. half of them ended up on the floor, leowjun especially painfully due to an operation he's had recently.

then pool at Le Meridien. i'm not much of a pool shark. my mom's brought us to pool before, i got a bit sick of it when my sister shot a cue ball at me by accident; more or less gave it up since then. just stood and watched, incredulous that they were screening a Harry Potter film in a pool hall.

strangely though the instant i parted ways with untung and alvin at Serangoon station i lost the buzz of company and went home down again.

"i must get out once in a while
everything is starting to die
the dust settles the worms dig
the spiders crawl over the bed

i must get out once in a while
i eat all day and i now i am fat
yesterday's meal is hugging the plate
you never wash up after yourself"

- "You Never Wash Up After Yourself", Radiohead

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