I shall learn from Keet to write short journal entries, without them necessarily sounding as spurty as LiveJournal entries.

Work has actually been decent these past two days --- but I have surely jinxed it by that very observation and tomorrow there'll be hell to pay.

G cracked me up today. All the way from London, he sends me this one-line e-mail from Mr Brown:

"6. That there may be a new Statutory Board set up to assist schools in Singapore manage matters of racial integration and harmony, the Team for Uniform Development, Unity and National Growth, or TUDUNG."

-- Singapore National Education 78.

My God. I just about died laughing, especially since I'd just written a too-long analysis of the tudung thing too. Good thing I didn't have time to read his e-mail till after I'd finished writing that analysis, or I'd've gotten nothing done. I want to make a badge that says TUDUNG, except that I think I'd get fired for that.

If you don't get the tudung joke, that's 'cause you're not like me, facing a barrage of media articles --- local and foreign, mind you --- on the subject day after day. I do believe I've been working on the issue for close to a month now. Of course, even if you know what the tudung issue is about, you also have to know Singapore and our wacky lives (or lack thereof) to understand Mr Brown's sense of humor.

Another reason today was good: I left work appreciably early, i.e. the sun was still out and even hot as I walked from my work building to the train station. Usually it's all nice and cloudy and evening-y by the time I get out of the building. I'm not a big fan of our tropical sun, but it certainly put a bounce in my step as I left today.

We had chicken rice for dinner tonight, with some veggies on the side. (This information is mostly for Keet, who enjoys reading about our strange and exotic foods.) Last night, Terz made bak kut teh, which is pork rib soup, boiled for hours and hours with loads of Chinese herbs and soya sauce. He made so much we had my cousin and his girlfriend over for dinner, though she had an exercise class, so we ate first and they came over at nine to eat. My cousin and his girlfriend are somewhat following in our esteemed paths of entering the National Institute of Education together to get teaching certification, before they get married and stuff. Except that they're feeling a lot more pressure to get married, since they've been going out for a while now (whereas, for those of you still playing catch-up, Terz and I only met at the NIE). Meanwhile, they're relief teaching at different schools for now and not having too horrible of a time of it. Yet.

The Body Shop no longer produces Scent of A Woman, which is a daft name for a very nice perfume. This puts me in a fix because some time in the middle of last year, all my other perfumes, though still smelling quite lovely, began to give me mild rashes. All the other scents that The Body Shop currently produces are either too sweet or too musky. I'm in quite a fix. Anyone got a hypoallergic perfume to recommend?

I've finally endured of the godawful BtVS season five to get to two good episodes. Tonight's is "Crush" and next week's is "The Body". I'm not sure what will keep me watching after that.