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I am going to hand in my Honours dissertation tomorrow, effectively completing my university education. It’s surreal, bittersweet… You name it, I feel it. In my writing, at several moments, I remembered you. Taken from my thesis acknowledgements:
My supervisor, Dr. Rebecca Suter, who has been simply indispensable in the past year – my sincerest thanks [...]

Miles to go before she sleeps

So, I said I would write with my left hand this year…

Sodapop

I thought I’d reserve such acts of tough love for my siblings, but Joachim is like the brother I actually have, who is a pain in my neck in equal measure:

Quite an obvious fact, but he loves The Outsiders.
Another oldie he likes is Great Teacher Onizuka.
His grammar is questionable – who leaves a space between [...]

Suzie Q.

I realised that nothing prepares you for death, not even when you know it’s coming in the midst of the drawn-out process of cancer.
My aunt passed away on Saturday morning – the grief is unexplainable; more painful than any heartbreak I have borne. I keep thinking that this is Auntie Susan – the one who always [...]

Lest we forget

So enjoy and treasure every minute of it, as we should – 24 hours to celebrate 24 years. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABS!

The age of uninnocence

Because I thrive on these moments when I can embarrass my brother… And while he waits for the actual present to make its way to his part of Asia-Pacific:

Cheeseball Toadbrains is his alter ego (Vanessa is Squeazit; I am Goober).
He is also known as Brandon Thirsty.
He had three girlfriends in kindergarten.
And we named a lizard in [...]

A brand of affection

22 pieces of information about Vanessa - some embarrassing, some astute, some rather meh; all are true:

She has a crush on James Franco.
It is safe to assume that she likes ‘em scruffy, to the point of unkept.
She is a History whiz.
The extent of her untidiness parallels my degree of fastidiousness.
I only look like the older sister; she [...]

Uh-huh

For the inconsequential age (I kid – being over the hill is very momentous) and the black woman that resides in this Peranakan girl…
Sometimes, I think you are in my life to push me to my limits of just how much silliness I can tolerate. Then I remember that, out of all the people with [...]

It takes all kinds

… To make a world.
I am an overwhelming ‘C’ – conscientious to a certain extent, but critical to a fault. And because of my natural reflex to leave no stone unturned, the glass is always half-empty.
It was far less excruciating than expected. I asked questions; I did not give monosyllabic answers; I continued conversation – all surpassing [...]

Eccentricities and straitjackets

According to my scale of WTF (1 being the most puzzling):

Christopher cannot eat rice when there is food that requires him to use both hands, like shelled prawns – he does not like a sticky spoon.
Christopher eats sweets two at a time, so he will, whenever possible, have an even number left over.
Christopher and Gerard [...]