sat, 11th june 2005, 07:00pm

phew! just finished about 4 hours of work on the project. project that i'm doing pertains, of course, to my work in G1-army. what did i do today? well i tried to fill my my income tax form at revenue house at novena, but failed, because i was 5 min too late. darn. bought some books from the MPH at novena square, and visited the adidas warehouse sale. that has got to be the skankiest hellhole of a factory outlet. absolutely nothing at all, peanuts compared to birch run back in AA. anyhow, proceeded to army mkt at beach road to buy my no.3 name tag, which of course i lost at queensway shopping centre while accompanying amelia on her shoe shopping trip. w0nder whether she bought the pair of pink gola shoes that she eyed but did not buy because of the lack of smaller sizes.

came to the scotts coffee bean (yes ocore guys, i m here again, this has got to be my fave haunt now) to work on my project. arse has rotten from sitting here. interestingly, this is a very good 'people-watching' place. my spot is fabulous, right in one corner of the joint, but with a great view of everyone here. its very intriguing to observe ppl's coffee drinking habits. i've divided them into a few categories:

1. 'in-n-out!' - coffee bean must love these ppl. basically, they come in, buy their drinks, gulp it down in like 5 minutes, and they're gone. they don't even last the whole duration of 'don't mess with my man' (which i'm listening to on my ipod). somehow i wonder whether they've somewhere more important to go to. ahh the typical singaporean isn't it? always in a bloody rush, that's what we are?

2. 'bloody misers' - these are the exact opposite of the fore mentioned category. and i admit (unabashedly) that i am one of them too. they come in, buy one cheap-ass drink, and sit their ass down for the next god-knows how many hours. haa, at least i'm not that cheap; i got myself the newest belgian chocolate drink, which is of course pretty good, but has given my the runs for the last 2 hours. had to ask the various couples sitting beside me (both couples are 'in-n-out' types) to 'jaga' my computer for me as i proceeded to flush my system downstairs. lucky they're 'in-n-out' types, or else ppl will start to wonder at the alarmingly high rate at which i visit the gents.

3. 'the extravagant' - these ppl have the monies and they don't hesitate to flaunt it. this couple in front of me must have bought a slice of every available version of cheesecake they have on offer. 2 people, 10 slices of cheesecake, u do the math. wondered for a while if they would donate one slice to the poor soul sitting beside them who's sipping from the drink he bought 3 hours ago. of course they din. finished every scrap of cake, those gluttons. darn.

4. 'the father-son or mother-daughter' - these people are the most interesting. somehow they must have been on a family trip, and abandoned by the family members from the other gender (can't be help, GSS is still on). dad and son sit there in complete silence, while the mother-daughter will yak away about their fabulous bargain-buys, as well as plan their route-of-advance. note the militant-like terminology. these ladies are vultures; they plan with more detail than i've seen brigade commanders have. they leave no corner of orchard unturned, and calculate (with alarming percision) the time they need to spend in each outlet. i almost kow-towed to them (sitting beside me) had i not stopped myself in time.

5. 'the couple' - ahhh, for these ppl, staring into each other's eyes is definitely more important and the drinks in front of them. whispering sweet nothings to each other is a norm of course. a variant of this is the silent couple, whom i sense hate each other's guts (why did you have to take so long at that shop? you know i'm tired yet still continue to shop!) but somehow find it palatable to sit opposite each other at the small-ass tables they have in coffee bean. which of course i would know because my laptop, notes, as well as stationery, can hardly fit on the puny table top.

ok, gotta go for my dinner appointment with the s14 people. bet they're all late. let me see what i can get from the adidas sale. ciao.


p.s. incidentally, i think the usage of 'ciao' is very passe, but unless someone finds a better alternative for me in english, i am unbashedly passe then.