Dear Dreams – Page 41

One Task Down – Huiting’s Dry Shirt Design

[Tuesday, 17 August, 2010]

My elder brother’s girlfriend did not come over and thus, my younger brother and I moved our laptops over to play Command and Conquer together with him. We stopped at 2.30am as my younger brother needed his beauty sleep. I stayed behind to watch the soccer match between Manchester United against Newcastle United. I got sleepy in the midst of the 3-0 game but I was too lazy to get up to brush my teeth and thus I struggled to stay awake till the match ended. I was quite impressed with the Red Devil’s performance although they could have scored more goals.

I woke up a few times and finally at around 2pm. I had a puzzle to solve in my dream and I told myself to wake up in order not to waste my brain cells. My lunch was packet rice as usual.

I started working on Huiting’s latest tasked job, to design the shirt. However, I dozed off many times and the progress was slow until the evening. I called Huiting to confirm about it and eventually she told me the logo was already up and I had to design the back’s picture only. She wanted it to be in one colour and the entire shirt was supposed to be in white, and I found it difficult to design without using colours.

I packed my work area finally, although it was only half done up. At 10pm, I accompanied my younger brother down for a half an hour slow jog around the neighbourhood. The Duxton Plain Park was quiet but foreign talents of different colours were resting around.

While catching the Taiwanese show at channel 8, Huiting messaged me and I confirmed my existing design with her. Eventually I sent her the final version of it and one task was finally down.

My Latest Free Freelance Work

[Monday, 16 August, 2010]

It took me long time to finish up a blog entry and I went to sleep eventually at 5am. I woke up at around noon and the entire afternoon was kind of being wasted for I was too sleepy to do anything. I was supposed to meet up with Liyi but she was missing for the past few days and I supposed she was too busy for our date.

Bianhong called me a few times to interrupt my rest and eventually I met up with him after 6pm near NTUC. I could feel the stress for his purpose for dropping by was to pass me photos so that I could help him to piece and design them into a picture. He would then go to the printing shop to make a puzzle for his girlfriend’s birthday. He had actually tried to send me twice using his company’s email account and I supposed companies would restrict the file attachment sizes of all outgoing emails.

I accompanied him to eat at the market before he followed me home. I was very embarrassed for my house looked like a war zone, worse than before, since it was not packed after the shifting of the bedrooms. In fact, I did not even expect him to go up. He passed me the photos and roughly gave me some instructions. I had problems explaining things to him. Since he had to wait for his girlfriend to go to his place, he was bored and did not seem to be in the hurry to go off. I never knew how to tell him it was not a good time to chitchat or watch television together. I became more stressed for there were many works pending my actions. When my entire family was beginning to have their dinner, he decided to make his move since the living room was very packed. I walked him to the MRT station and by the time I reached home, it was 9pm when I started having my dinner.

I was quite depressed for the day as I thought of the number of tasks I wanted to accomplish being overruled by friends’ requests for help. I could never have the mood to start finding a job. Nobody could understand me no matter how I explained. It had always been like this since I was young that I did not know how to reject, and it had put stress into me and my life had never gotten any better.

Stay over at Hirman’s Place

[Sunday, 15 August, 2010]

I waited with Regina for the bus number 2 from the interchange and it did not leave sharp at midnight. Since it was late, I had to send her home no matter what. For almost the whole journey, she was showing me Facebook status of her crush through her iPhone, which was boring. We were, however, being entertained by an Indian who could not keep his voice down at the top of the double-decker bus. An old man who was sleeping at the back “sheesh” at the blackie but his skin was too thick.

I took a cab to Hirman’s house after sending Regina home and it cost me over six bucks for the short distance, but it was much better than travelling home directly. I felt the need to own a car. Anyway, I was so unlucky to go into the lift that an old man came out with a lighted cigarette. Smoking was not only a problem in my area.

Hirman started teasing me as he thought I had a girlfriend. Jeremy was at Hirman’s house and since I was exchanging SMSes with Regina, I decided to sleep in the living room in order not to interrupt their sleep; I preferred to sleep without the air-conditioner anyway. I was hungry but Hirman was too tired that he had changed his mind about going for supper.

Regina called me to check my location. I felt quite bad for not talking to the host more because I was on phone while he prepared the sofa bed for me. We put down the phone soon as she was going to read her book. I could not get to sleep and the last time I replied her slow SMS was after 3am.

Jeremy and Hirman got up after 7am. We went to the airport together to send Jeremy’s friend off, followed by having breakfast at Killiney. The set of breakfast inclusive of tea, half boiled egg and bread cost $4.05, which was much more expensive than any coffee shop in Singapore. I supposed the extra two bucks were for breaking the eggs or probably, the extra tiny piece of egg shell left inside.

After the meal, I walked both of them to the entrance and bid them goodbye since they were going to somewhere near Regina’s house to play tennis while I did not bring any gear again, and was still in my jeans. I went straight to the toilet to settle my stomach issue before taking the train, suffering the long journey standing alone. It was around 11am when I reached home. I uploaded the photos into Facebook and dozed off while the videos took ages to kiss Facebook.

I went for lunch with my brothers. I was craving for the lor mee at Ah Moy Street which my younger brother suggested but it was closed for the day without any notification. We ended up going to Maxwell Food Centre and had Chinese mixed rice at the “Tiong Bahru” curry rice stall. The pork chop was quite impressively done.

My younger brother and I started dozing off soon after reaching home. Regina called me in a harsh tone to get me to remove the video from Facebook and thus my sleep was interrupted again.

My video was packet fried rice. I started installing the old Adobe Premier and Aftereffect software to edit the video before I uploaded it again. Huiting suddenly messaged me in Facebook as she had a new task for me.

Most Romantic Night Ever

[Saturday, 14 August, 2010]

My brothers and I had a game of Command and Conquer before my younger brother went to bed. We planned to go swimming in the morning and thus I wanted to try dozing off earlier. However, Eileen messaged me and told me of her failed application to SIM and we started talking on phone later. Her incredible cute stories of her past entertained me till after 6am.

I woke up at around 12pm, feeling surprise that my younger brother did not wake me up for the swim. However, I could see that the sky was not in good mood. Five of us had lunch at the market and the owner selling duck rice turned me off the second time with his sales. My younger brother wanted to add an additional egg and he muttered and then pointed at the picture of a set meal for me, which included beancurd and egg, and thus I said okay to him. In the end, he did not serve us with egg and he told me that he had earlier mentioned that the egg was sold out. It was sort of ridiculous. The worst thing was that his duck meat was over salty.

Not long after reaching home, Huiting messaged me and told me to help her with a banner design for a blog, which she needed it by the same day. I spent the next few hours doing up the banner. Towards late afternoon, Regina told me she did not want to attend her church but she refused to meet me earlier.

I set off after 7pm and took bus 167 at Cantonment Link. When I was near Bukit Merah, I saw a bus number 5 in front and I had a strong intuition that Regina inside and true enough that she SMSed me that she was reaching. We went shopping for food together. I was quite disappointed that I could not find sushi at the NTUC. The MacDonald’s was closed as well. We went to the KFC and that was when I realised that upsizing everything in a Zinger meal could cost a big bomb.

We went back to the interchange and took bus 131. When it started turning into Bukit Purmei, I was quite turned off since Henderson Waves was actually just a few bus-stops in the straight Henderson Road away from the interchange. After making a big round, we finally reached our destination and climbed up the stairs to the beautiful Henderson Waves. I was glad that Regina was amazed with the beautiful scenery as well. It was a cool night and I had never thought of being with a female friend hanging around there at night, especially when I did not own a car.

We walked to the far side of the bridge and found a space to sit down. We took our dinner while playing around with the cameras. Next, we walked towards the Terrace Garden and we stopped by the fitness corner to take photos together. It was the moment I had waited for years as she trimmed her hair super short the previous time I managed to take a picture with her.

As we were entering Terrace Garden, I saw three Bangala walking behind us and I supposed that was the problem with going out with a girl at night that I had to tighten up my muscle and get ready for any unforeseeable event. Regina was acting like a reporter with my Sony camera but the battery was drained up soon. It was to my horror that my younger brother did not charge the spare battery and we had to give up the fun.

We reached the top of Terrace Garden to join other people to glance at the fireworks of the Youth Olympics Games starting ceremony from far, but it did not last for long and I could hardly catch any. Regina was waiting for more fireworks with my Olympus camera but it was a useless wait. I was glad that she was ready to take more photos with me ever since her crush joked with her that she was ugly. She did not see the remote control I held in my hand until I decided it was not fun to keep the secret anymore.

She was on the phone for quite long before I led her down to Forest Walk. The place was beautiful, though it more remote than any other places and I was shocked that she chose to complete the journey with me instead of turning back. It was the first time I went there at night, and instead of being with a group of guy friends, I was in fact with a cute girl. I felt lucky being trusted. We reached the Alexandra Arch after the long walk and finally Hort Park. After using the toilet, we went down to the hall area and Regina took pictures with the SYOG Mascot. We went to the swinging seat near the entrance and finally started heading off.

I checked my phone and was amazed that it was already 11.30pm. Regina was worried about getting home since she stayed far in the east and I was a little disappointed for she should not worry with me around. We crossed over the road and took bus 166 to Outram Park and waited for the last bus number 2. On the way, I dropped Hirman a SMS and he told me I could look for him afterwards.

It was one of the greatest nights I had ever been through.

Friday the 13 Unluckiness

[Friday, 13 August, 2010]

My brothers and I finally played Command and Conquer together and we stopped after two games. I started blogging and eventually shut down at 5am.

I woke up earlier than my alarm clock, which sounded at 10am. To my disgust, Regina reported to me that her school hated me and thus, our outing in the afternoon had to be cancelled due to her detention till evening. It was indeed Friday the 13.

I went back to sleep soon and finally got up at 2pm. As my brain was still trying to start up the engine, my elder brother told me that my mum had bought nasi lemak and it could be spoiled if we did not consume soon. I had a super restless day for having non-continuous sleep.

At night, I webcammed with Regina and she kept showing me stupid pictures. She even made me show my younger brother the shit’s photo and he commented, “Which girl is so desperate?”

Yummy Protein Powder

[Thursday, 12 August, 2010]

I went to bed near 6am again and woke up before 12pm. Lunch was at the market, or rather, Tanjong Pagar food centre with my mum and elder brother as my younger brother was in school.

I had my haircut after 5.30pm. I was telling the auntie to trim my hair a little to keep it neat but she thought I wanted to keep it short like previously. My plan to keep a longer hair before my reservist during November had failed and I had not even taken a photo for memorial.

My elder brother wanted to go for a jog but due to my late haircut and he wanted to steam the fish fillet for dinner, we called it off. I went to the gym instead near 8pm, thinking that I might not be available for the next few days.

Junze was around and I was glad to see Shaohui there as well. This time round, I tried putting weights near my ankles and the first 4.6kg reduced my chin-ups to 15 times, whereas the 6.1kg combined weights further reduced the remaining sets to 12, 8 and 8 times. After the gym session, Bobby told me to try out the protein powder with the cookies and cream flavour and it tasted quite nice. I brought a box home and the 5.1kg weight was torturing to my hand after the gym session.

I was a heavier eater after the workout even though I had filled my stomach with lots of water just before I got home. Later on, my younger brother made a cup of vanilla and honey flavoured tea and he left it long in the living room, such that I thought it was for me and I struggled to finish it up.

It Rained and No Swimming

[Wednesday, 11 August, 2010]

I spent long time blogging and eventually went to bed at 6am. I woke up after 1pm. My lunch was the noodle bought by my mum in the morning and my mum added extra ingredient to it – ba kwa.

It rained since the afternoon and I knew the plan to go for a swim had to be cancelled. My younger brother was packing his candies from Europe into small packets to share with his friends. I got to eat many different types of candies.

I left the house together with my younger brother after 6pm. I went to the gym. It was the first time after so long that I could finally get to chat with Tze Khit. I shared with him some of the ideas I had in mind for website. He left earlier since he had exams for the next day. Since Bobby was busy entertaining his client, I left for home at around 6.30pm.

The episode of Ninja Warrior was not as exciting for it mainly replayed the first game they had more than ten years ago.

Dining and Shopping Together as Whole Family

[Tuesday, 10 August, 2010]

I slept at 6am and my mum woke me up at around 10.30am before she left for the hospital. I was brushing my teeth and she changed her mind that she left together with my elder brother without even telling me. I went back to sleep until around 1pm.

The four of us had lunch at the Tanjong Pagar food centre. After that, I accompanied my younger brother to the MRT station to buy his student concession pass.

I spent the afternoon doing up an article for SmokeForWhat but it was much easier since someone else had typed the article out and I was merely formatting it and researching the keywords.

At night, the four of us went the Chinatown Complex to have dinner at the level two food centre. This time, we had chicken rice but my younger brother did not take much since he had the same food not long ago in school.

After the dinner, we shopped at Swanston and followed by the CK departmental store where I saw a very cute and sweet girl. Next, we moved to the Tanjong Pagar NTUC.

It had been long since we went out on our own.

My Younger Brother had Finally Returned to Singapore

[Monday, 9 August, 2010]

It was Singapore’s National Day and my little plan was Facebook was to be executed. Running an event to get Singaporeans and supporters post their wishes for Singapore together, it was never an easy job when most people did not read instruction. The original plan was to get them to comment on the main status so that we could see the total number of posts without any counting, however, some of them chose to post new status, while most of them posted their greetings directly on the event’s page. I tried to reply to every of the scattered posts but dumb Facebook limited the number of posting even for the owner of the page.

I went to bed at 5am. As I had foreseen, I was woke up by my mum’s repeated annoyance. She stepped on the mattress so many times that jerked me up and she even threw her clothes on the mattress to make enough noise to wake me up, and that the clothes even hit me. I gave up and got up at around 1pm, feeling irritated by my mum’s irritation, which she could never realise what had happened.

My family and I had our lunch at Tanjong Pagar food centre again. We went for the Thai food stall and it was quite good.

After reaching home, I continued to try my best at Facebook but it was never an easy task. I was tired at times and I went into the room but my mum was occupying the entire two single mattresses in her nap as her useless stuffs were by the wall and she slept more towards the outside, whereas her clothes (not sure they were used or unused) were at the other end of the mattress. More than three times, I could feel my back aching but I went out of the room within five seconds. I stood by the front door and thought over how pathetic my future life would be. I wanted badly to have a room of my own so that I could have my own privacy and a neat working place to work on the internet, and I was very certain that I could make gigantic improvement on my work.

We left the house at 5pm after some flaming up of my elder brother as my mum started nagging at him fifteen minutes before the scheduled time to leave. My elder brother’s girlfriend stayed behind to catch the National Day Parade on television. The three of us took train to Tiong Bahru station to meet my aunt before we crossed over to take the opposite train towards Changi Airport.

We went to Terminal one and met up with my younger brother’s two buddies. The most dramatic thing happened as my elder brother’s first ex-girlfriend saw us and came over just before my younger brother came out. We started greeting one another and my mum was so happy to see her, and started grabbing her elbow like they were sisters.

We went home by train to put down the two big luggage bags before we went down to have our dinner together. The dinner was at the Food Loft coffee shop where we had seafood. The television show – IP Man – distracted me.

After reaching home, I spent quite some time catching up with my younger brother inside the room.

My House Had Shrunk

[Sunday, 8 August, 2010]

I had a very long chat with Liyi in the morning and I went to bed after 6am. I woke up at around 1am and my elder brother was already starting to pack the first bedroom.

My house was one of the oldest HDB models – type 3I – with two bedrooms, and a single bathroom and toilet separated side by side in the kitchen. My mum’s wrong decision to build the walk-in wardrobes many years ago made my house looked even tinier and messier.

Our actual arrangement after my dad passed away was that my elder brother and I would share the first room, while my younger brother would share the other room with my mum. However, some times after my elder brother’s first girlfriend started coming over to my house, I went over to squeeze with my younger brother and my mum. I was not sure when I started completely sleeping over at the second room and having three people in a room could never be conducive. Occasionally when my elder brother’s current girlfriend did not stay over at my house, I would join him to play LANs game together and sometimes I would doze off there.

Recently, my elder brother spoke up to my mum that he wanted to swap the bedrooms. His main objectives were to accommodate his girlfriend and her belonging, and probably so that the rest of us would not be going into the room often once we had our stuffs shifted out of the room.

My elder brother moved his stuffs out of the first room before we started shifting our stuffs over from the second room. The double-decker bed frame was tedious for it required us to dismount everything in order to move it out of the second room. My elder brother did most of the work since there was only an allen key that could unscrew the screws and nuts. We tried to stack up the two thick single size mattresses so that my mum could get down and up easier. However, as my elder brother was fooling around with her, she laughed and tried to lie down, and she ended up knocking hard on the double-decker bed frame.

To me, it was all miserable for the owner of the house. My mum was old and she had to squeeze into the room with my younger brother and me, and that since we had four built-in wardrobes at one long side of the room, we could never do without the double-decker bed with the limited space. When my elder brother suggested placing the two thick mattresses stacked outside the bed frame for my mum and placing a thinner mattress under the bed frame for me so that I had to crawl in and out like a cave, my heart was shattered. The fact that he was going to bring his girlfriend, still an outsider, to enjoy the comfort of my dad’s leftover, while the rest of his family had to suffer by ourselves, and yet he could even think of something ridiculous to worsen the living condition of his real younger brother, hurt me more than ever.

In the end, my mum, in her pain on the back of her head, decided to place the two thick mattresses side by side just like how they were positioned in the original room. After the major furniture were shifted, my mum started packing her stuffs to worsen the pathetic room with lots of hooks and plastic bags hanging on the double-decker bed frame and taking up one-third of the length of a single bed. I went over to help my elder brother as much as I could even though he was going to be the one enjoying it after that, not because I was a fool, but the fact that it was also my house and that we were one family.

We went for dinner at the MacDonald’s before we started to switch the items inside the wardrobes. My stuffs were “Safe” since they were already inside the first room which my elder brother was supposed to share with me. My elder brother moved his clothes out of the wardrobe to his new room, leaving them on the bed. Then, we started shifting my younger brother’s stuffs over to the first room. Though it was kind of redundant, we tried to make sure the items were placed exactly the same so that it was easier for my younger brother upon he returned to Singapore, but it added extra stress.

When my elder brother took my younger brother’s stuffs hanging at the wall over, I was stunned and sad for there was no place to hang them anymore, inclusive of the note board. The longest side of the bedroom was fully occupied by the built-in wardrobes, the opposite side where the door was located had the bed frame, whereas another side was the air-conditioner and the other side was more or less used by windows; there was no space on the wall to hang anything. I wanted badly to wait for my younger brother to return before we started shifting so that he could make decision for his own stuffs but my mum insisted to do it before he returned since his lesson would begin the next day upon his return.

As we were trying to clear the top components of the wardrobes where my mum kept her worthless antiques at, things were lay all over the mattresses, especially on the outside one, which I was supposed to sleep on. I could feel the itchiness on my back upon seeing all the dust and dirt and I knew it was almost impossible to change all the bedsheets soon as I knew my elder brother had his queen sized bedsheet changed and his many unused yet dirty clothes were also dumped into the pail. There were far too many laundries to be done. I laughed as I recalled my mum saying about my rashes at my back.

The living room was in one of the worst conditions ever, such that even the dining table was too occupied to place any food. The fact that my work area was in the living room turned me off badly. The main differences after the move-over was that my younger brother, my mum and I were more packed inside a room with a less space, though most of our belongings were united, and that I could finally access my wardrobe without worrying that I would disturb my elder brother when his girlfriend was at my house.

Thinking of all the unhappy incidents and anticipating for the future, I could not stop sighing to myself.