Tuesday, January 27, 2009


Hop on, albeit the fractured right foot

In an unfortunate twist of fate, I am now the (not so proud) owner of a fractured right foot. How on earth did that happen?? Well, see, two people conspired to have a surprise meet-up at East Coast last Saturday (24th Jan), one of these master-minds is the one who's back from Down-Under for his tem break. OF course I was delighted to see him, but strangely enough, when its just us 3, luck takes a turn for the worse and inflicts its fury on innocent me. Mind you, this isn't the first time that bad luck hits me when we're togther. The first time was during our very first meet-up at Kallang Leisure Park where I lost BOTH my wallet and handphone. Could be my pure negligence, but I dunno, having fractured my foot on the second occasion is enough an unfortunate occurence to ring some warning bells in my head. The next time I see both of them together, I will make a 180 degrees turn, and RUN. I SWEAR. Haha, ok so now for the specifics of the incident.


We were at the breakwater rocks (my cousin keeps making a joke out of this, "Its Breakwater, Not Breaklake (pun on 'Break-leg'), and we were all fine and dandy, except when we were climbing down, and perhaps you could blame it on my ideal choice of footwear ( I was in 2.5 inches high wedges, but atleast its wedges and not heels, right?!) Wrong. I had my left foot firm on the ground when my right one suddenly lost balance and twisted and hit the side of it. I thought it was JUST a sprain, what with Kai and Riyaz re-assuring me that it will be "ALL ok by tomorrow", and even had to endure the massage from Kai, my grandma and this indonesian neighbour of ours, thinking 'no pain, no gain'.

My mum being the under-rated genius that she really is, insisted that I go for an X-ray, cos apparently all that massage had caused it to swell so much more, (it was starting to resemble a baby elephant's foot) and lo and behold, there is a 'hairline crack at the side of my right foot, aligned to where my baby toe is.. So now, I am in a cast, nagging-a-blogging here, and feeling a tad lousy and useless cos I can't help my grandma n mum out with all that housework, and worse still have to depend on them quite a bit when I go to the toilet etc. Ma's been such an angel, as she always is, bringing food to me, asking ppl over to cheer me up and holding me so tight everytime I do those 'hopping tricks' that involve 1) getting my left foot out of my bed room slipper and 2) into the toilet rubber slipper, 3) getting into the toilet and 4) doing my business, all on crutches.

The silver lining to this whole episode will have to be that it has been an eye-opener, when I think of the pain my elderly grandparents have and had to go through especially when their limbs and feet get sore, it pains my heart, cos it really can be unbearable and I can only but imagine the fate of those civillians whose lives turn topsy-turvy in just one night when they lose their limbs in a war, or soldiers who suddenly wake up finding their legs or arms missing. My heart goes out to every single one of them, cos even with JUST a fractured right foot, I know what it means to feel useless, to feel awfully guilty for having to trouble my loved ones, and for having all your plans go down the drain in a matter of minutes. But I thank you Allah, cos it could have been worse, and thanks for giving me people I can depend on even in such dire times. I'm sorry I blamed you in those first few days, please forgive me and give me the strength to take the lessons from this experience and putting it to good use, Amin.

There, one blogging experience, and I feel a whole lot better. Those who have read this, please do take care of yourselves too. See you guys soon, in 2 wks time, Inshaallah! :)

Big question is: Should I go for lessons in crutches or just skip? Hmmm..


Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Stamp the bane of imporper resource allocation? Start with Tertiary Libraries!
Hey, here I am hoping to kill time while I wait for Kai to pass me the Management science textbook that she borrowed from the TP library for me. How sweet is that. :) But, seriously, latest edition books like that are lying away (feeling dejected) collecting dust on the shelves of some of the poly libraries whilst we Uni students have to freaking queue to borrow the very same ones and make sure we don't exceed the 2 hours of frantic photocopying, cos every single minute could well mean an imposition of a FINE. How sad is THAT. This is the crux of inequality and improper allocation of resources I tell you. Ironically, in the very same institutions that preach on the hows and whys we need to combat these trends. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against polys being well stocked nor am I ignorant of why there needs to be a 2 hour limit placed on such 'hot highly demanded books' -("to fairly distribute and circulate these books so that EVERYBODY will get a chance", I hear you, I hear you). But SURELY, there must be some more efficient way to allocate resources no? Perhaps extending membership of all tertiary students to every other library in singapore? Okay, perhaps there will be shortcomings, it will be an administrative nightmare to say the least, but no pain, no gain right? I am also perfectly aware that if this suggestion of mine miraculously finds its ways into teh grand plans of the schools, that this suggestion will come right back at me cos it could very well mean a even more severe shortage of books for us in NUS since now every other tertiary/poly prof or student could come in and help themselves. Yes, not ALL good, but like I said, something ought to be done, and given the amazing stuff we can accomplish with technology today, a surer and more efficient allocation of resources (i.e. BOOKS) can be achieved.
Kai's still not here, Grrr.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Welcome 2009
I had to blog. Just cos the date on this entry will be 1st of January 2009. This new year doesn't feel like a grand new year to me anymore. Not sure why, perhaps cos the excitement of heralding a new year just died down with every passing year, and to say time flies is such a known cliche, its pointless repeating the obvious anyway. So here I am, at my laptop on New Year's Day pretty much oblivious to what life will throw my way in the span of the next 364 days n 2.5 hours or so, but brave enough to brace myself to face it all. So all the best to myself, and to every single one of us, may we have the courage to pursue our dreams, have enough luck and fortune to guide us there and have all the love and loved ones to buoy us up when things don't always go our way. Here's to a fulfilling and memorable 2009! Muackz! =)