Friday, September 30, 2005
damn Blogger
Not anyone in particular, but the Blogger site.
I just wrote an extremely long post chronicling the 20 days which have past since I last updated. And Blogger decided to thrash it all.
So now, I shall just say:
Went Sydney. Had Fun. Came back. Had Interview. QUIT!
Life is good.
I just wrote an extremely long post chronicling the 20 days which have past since I last updated. And Blogger decided to thrash it all.
So now, I shall just say:
Went Sydney. Had Fun. Came back. Had Interview. QUIT!
Life is good.
Sunday, September 11, 2005
the sydney low-down part 1
I'm back!
Summary: 6 days in Sydney is way too short!
Mental (dreamy) note to self: Vacations are meant to exceed 10 days.
Mental (reality) note to self: Ain't gonna happen, gal.
So anyway, I digress. 3 fabulous days in Hunter Valley and another 3 fantastic ones in Sydney city. You cannot imagine how reluctant I was to board the homebound plane.
Speaking of planes, it was a pleasant journey to Sydney. Flew through the night (slept for the most part) and landed at an unearthly 5-something am. The ride home, however, was alot more interesting.
We got front-row seats both ways, partly because we checked in early and partly because we unbashedly asked for them. heh. I'm no jet-setting gal so I don't really know if those are really called "front-row seats" but they were the first row of the cabin. Lots more leg room and no oversized passenger crushing your kneecaps with his seat.
The thing with these front-row seats is that the "baby seat" is located there. A pull-out latch where a baby cot can be temporarily placed for infants to sleep in. Now that didn't bother us en route to Sydney mainly because there were no infants or children in our cabin.
On the way home, however, I nearly died.
We were seated by the aisle in the centre row. Immediately on my left was a Singaporean Chinese family with 2 children. The elder of the 2 gals, no more than 6 years of age I figure, was relatively silent the entire time. The younger 2-year old girl, however, is likely to grow up to be a soprano singer.
She was screaming and crying and throwing baby fits over the littlest of matters. The disturbance was intermitten though because I figure crying tires one out and she slept a fair bit.
The irritate-everyone-with-crying excellence award goes to the kid on the right row. I thank god that there were 4 seats and an aisle between me and the little rascal, else I would probably be awaiting trial for first-degree murder right now.
It was a Singaporean Indian lady with two little boys. Similar to the Chinese family, the elder boy was quiet and all - perhaps intimidated by the disapproving glares the rest of the cabin was shooting in his little brother's direction. Also around 2 years of age, that little brat was hysterical for most part of the 7-hour flight.
Really. Hysterical.
He was throwing tantrums and fits and jumping up and down and thumping his little clenched fists on his mother's knees. He was screeching and crying and wailing. And he didn't stop.
His mother was surprisingly nonchanlant about the entire matter. She was reclined in her seat and largely ignoring the mini drama unfolding by her knees. That probably agitated the attention-seeking boy even more because he started stomping his feet. Note that the entire time he was still screeching.
I cannot find the precise words to describe that loud, eerie sound he was constantly emitting. It was like he was screaming murder. Made me briefly think that it was a scene out of The Exorcist.
People passing him by to get to the toilet were tossing looks in his mother's direction; other more maternal ones would stop and try to coax him alittle. Nothing worked. Finally it got so bad that a couple of stewardess approached the lady and requested that she bring him to the back and calm him down. They probably noticed how uncomfortable everyone was becoming.
With much reluctance, the mother carried him in her arms and walked off. Silence - oh that golden silence - was restored. For all of 30 seconds. Then that familiar screeching sound gently wafted into the cabin. Thankfully it was alot softer and generally muffled.
The boy calmed down alittle I suppose, and the stewardess escorted both mother and child back to the seat. And all hell broke loose yet again.
The entire time I was struggling to fight visions of me grabbing his little face and serving a nice firm backhand across it. That, and dangling him upside down till he gagged. I was tired. Bite me.
The person I really pitied however was the innocent ang moh seated beside them. He seemed to have quite a grip on himself and was intently watching his screen. I figure the volume on his headphones was at maximum. There came a time, however, when even he couldn't take it. He tried to pick the boy up - lets be nice and assume that he wanted to comfort the screaming brat. The little rascal avoided his grip, obviously, and proceeded to continue throwing his tantrum while seated on the cabin floor.
The ang moh turned to the mother and said something to the effect of: "You have to get him to stop crying or we all won't get any sleep tonight."
This evidently embarrassed the lady because she prompted picked up her son and went to the back again. Of course that olympic-screamer of a kid never once shut up. Not once.
Until now I am wondering where he got the strength from. And more so, what on earth made him cry like that.
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