it's been a super long time since i touched this blog. it's about time i dusted off the digital cobwebs and wrote something over here again. oh, and i have the perfect thing to write about.

first, an update. ok, so what if no one cares. i'm going to do it ANYWAY. it's nothing much though... just same old same old with camp... annoying captains... i detest more people now. and some are just plain creepy. but the worst thing has GOT to be ops clerk duty. the endless phone calls even after 3 in the morning... a whole lot of waiting around for reports and compilation to do... living in constant fear of signing extra for some stupid mistake that i may have made unknowingly because i just dont give a damn. and that nearly happened too... i decided to take a chance and sleep on the bed instead of at the table... and missed 5-6 calls at about 3.15... someone was banging on my door trying to get in... got a rather bitchy call from some big guy... "i'll deal with you later".. panic... not daring to sleep anymore... slept a total of 2 hours that day... from 1-3am. making A LOT of calls.. and answering a lot of them... i'm telephobic now... the ringing of the phone scares me. excuse duty please?

now... on to the main thing i wanted to blog about.. there was a certain day... when i went out with one of my best friends... just hanging out... a lot of things happened... it was.. definitely an eventful day.. and completely filled with E. coli moments. 1) free starbucks. 2) panicking baristas. and the ultimate..... 3) feisty fairy.

starbucks was giving free drinks for 2 hours and of course... i just had to grab a cuppa.. extra hot soy caramel macchiato.. the usual. so we queued up... avoided a LONG queue at ion by going to wisma.... which has a significantly shorter queue... you must be wondering.. "terence and his best friend queueing... for coffee???!" oh yes.... that seems uncharacteristic... we dont do queues. but i suppose there's something worth queueing for... well there's the $6 worth of coffee.... but... who cares about that... we were more interested in observing the many many baristas as they squeezed and jostled around in a cramped space behind the counter making cups of coffee... there was one near the sink who was particularly busy... she was all over the place... blending drinks... pouring them into ups.... labelling them.. she was biting on to that marker.... her santa cap flicking around as she worked... can you imagine the stress she's under? for us consumers.. it's 2 hours of free coffee.. but for that woman... it's gotta be 2 straight hours of hell. we were just standing there looking at her work... she's like a machine that doesnt stop... we were just wondering if she's going to break. that would make such a nice show to watch.. if she gets fed up with the shouting of orders... or that furry ball at the end of the santa cap. we imagined disheveled hair, throwing that annoying silly cap on the floor and trampling it, and steaming coffee arsenal hurled in the direction of the customers. (not us. we're immune.) ahh.... imagine the chaos... the rampage... fun!

now i've saved the best bit for the end... with our steaming and chilled drinks in our hands... we made our way over the ngee ann city. talking about random things as we walked past chanel.. burberry... fendi.... and then we emerged at the main lobby of the mall... where the giant christmas tree was... and as we crossed cartier... we noticed a gigantic mass leaning at the side of the cartier wall. of course being hypersensitive to human tragedies...... both of us took a closer look and saw three GARGANTUAN hippo plushies... and a tiny woman decked out in a turquoise/electric blue fairy costume complete with a cape. the combined size of the hippos are about 3 times the woman's lithe frame. she was literally struggling with them... supporting them with her arms.. and pressed against the cartier wall. xue hu said.. "is that a hippo eating a child?".. and i said.. "nope. it's a fairy." so there she was... panting and leaning against the wall for support.. and MANY passer-bys were just standing in a circle... watching her. just watching. so i thought.. "is that an act? some advert?" cuz her cape had some HP thing on it.. hewlett parkard. but then i went closer.... and i saw this mom who was holding a video camera (she's NOT the only one.) and encouraging her toddler to go closer to the fairy with the huge hippos to take a photo. and then............ i saw a certain look on the fairy's face which says.. "this is so not happening to me" before she buried her head into the hippo. then it hit me. "It is Not an act after all."

Here is a tiny skinny stick woman in a ridiculous costume with a blue cleopatra wig... struggling with plushies 3 times her size. People just stood around her and watched like it's some kind of show. Then the fairy did something impressive. She looked up and her face was all smiles as she heaved the hippos off the wall with visible effort. Then she started to tumble and stumble around the lobby. The security guard was guiding her telling her where to go because the hippos COMPLETELY blocked her face from any sort of view. She managed her balancing act all the way till she reached Tiffany's. Her back was literally arched as far back as possible to shift her center of gravity. Then she finally burned out and fell in a heap onto the floor under the 3 hippos. People were still recording and taking pictures and watching.

After a rather long period of recovering, she stood up again.. and gathered her hippos. Still all smiles, she stumbled her way towards the exit. With 2 hippos towering over her, it was not her fault that retarded people would stand RIGHT in her way and they got bumped by those ridiculously large soft toys. That threw the fairy off balance for a while. But she held on... and kept walking. This time she bumped into the railing fencing off the huge christmas tree with the high voltage warning. Not to be discouraged, she walked all the way out of the glass doors... before the plushies overpowered her and she is FORCED to collapse against the wall just outside. sandwiching the hippos between herself and the wall. That was the last I saw of her. The crowd dispersed and turned their attention back to the 4 storey tall christmas tree.

How amazing it is that out of everyone there, NO one thought of giving her a helping hand. Is it really an advert for HP? The message on her cape makes it seem that way. But where is her escort? People who look out for her to make sure she doesnt fall and take down some rugrat with her... people to clear her path... They would let her knock into the christmas tree and stupid people standing in her way if it was an advertising gimmick for such a big company? Hmm.

With that in our minds, we were beside ourselves with hysterical laughter. That is one feisty fairy.

- i see your true colours and that's why i love you.