Tubs went for his IPPT on Saurday afternoon after we woke so I popped by ECP to look for Mandy and her sis and hung out there with them til tubs was done. I was really anticipating going for the Singapore Tattoo Show and that’s exactly where we went in the evening. It’s not hard to find out which hall it was held at cos only at a tattoo show, will there be a flood of people smoking outside. Anyway, I hate to say this but I hoped it would have been at a bigger scale. Saw quite a few foreign works which were very good but I don’t like the idea of getting a tattoo done on the spot cos it makes you into an exhibit. And of course, I managed to get a shot of Chris Garver from Miami Ink. Not a good pic, too blurry and far away, but he is, nevertheless, as good as the highlight of the entire show. He’ll be at the Heeren these few days too, or so I heard.

Anyway, tubs and I decided to go watch a movie again. Haha. This time, we watched The Duchess. It was not bad. A tad boring, but I love the clothes and the entire setting of the film. After the movie, we went to the toilet on the first level of Marina Square, near 7-11. When I went in, the toilet was empty and I just had a weird feeling which freaked me out so bad I din even dare turn around to flush the toilet but thank god for auto flush. I quickly came out of the cubicle, washed my hands without even looking in the mirror and walked out. Boy was I glad to see tubs standing outside the toilet waiting for me. I was just about to dismiss the feelings of unease and then tubs asked me “Were you alone in the toilet?”
Wow. Just what I needed. Apparently he heard a kid calling out for daddy in the ladies toilet but I didn’t hear anything at all. Fab.

But that’s that and then we went to Swee Choon for supper. Yum yum. I have to admit that the standard has really dropped though. *sigh* It was one of the few dim sum places that I actually thought was good. Not that it’s bad now, but comparing to last time, it’s just not as good anymore. Here’s our very pretty museum in the still of the nite.

Sunday, I finally had KSC chicken rice. I used to eat it so often last time with my bitches, and then I completely stopped eating there. And now after such a damn long time, I finally had it again. We were gonna head over to Marina Barrage to watch the sunset but these few days have been nothing but foggy so there was no point going and instead, we went to ECP to look for Mandy dear again. I bought a dress from Mandy and everything was going for really cheap lah. Slacked there for awhile and then it was time to go Granny’s for dinner. Having a late lunch on Sundays is a bad idea cos by the time we get to Granny’s, it’s near impossible to stuff anything else down our throats.

After dinner, we went Parkway to walk around bit then it was down to business. Business which is in progress, slowly but surely.

Anyway, what I read on the New Paper that night was an article written by Zaihan Mohamed Yusof. What upset me was the name calling, and also as a reporter, I think it is bloody offensive and distasteful to write such a biased article. In another section of TNP, even a reader writing in talking about the current smoking situation is so much more neutral and sensitive to everyone‘s feelings, both smokers and non-smokers alike. Anyway back to this reporter. Let me just quote the first 3 paragraphs of the report.-
You see more of them these days. They are what some call street “parties” or “groupies”. They can be found outside shopping malls and office buildings, looking increasingly alienated and frustrated. They are the outcasts, smokers who have been banished from most places because of stiffer rules that took effect on Jan 1.

Firstly I thought the entire article was absolutely redundant. It was more like a chance for a reporter who is going through a tough personal time in life to take a swipe at smokers in public because ‘Hey! I’m a reporter and I can put down in print whatever I feel like!’. There are a ton of anal people writing in to forums and such whining about everything and anything and if you ask me, I think this reporter shouldn’t abuse his authority and just write in to forums instead, together with all the pathetic people since he chooses to call people names like outcasts. And I do wonder who are the ‘some’ who call smokers street parties or groupies. The reporter and his group of non-smoking friends? Ha.

Personally, I’m not a big fan of the smoking bans, cos it really makes finding a spot to smoke a real pain in the ass. It’s obvious the government is trying to make Singapore a smoke-free country in time to come. I’m not that against it, cos even though I smoke, I admit it’s a bad habit and probably in the near future, it will decrease the number of people picking up smoking which is a good thing. But in the meantime, smokers are still human and just because they have a bad habit doesn’t mean they should be treated any differently. Ultimately, smoking is legal. I think some places where smoking is banned is crap. Playgrounds are understandable. I would never smoke in front of a kid, even if there’s no such ban, cos I am human after all and I will not intentionally bring harm to kids’ health. But sheltered carparks? Its’ one of the few places where there are barely anybody around cos people usually just park and go off. Nobody hangs around a carpark for no reason at all.. So I don’t see smokers can affect them so much. And I like to smoke at sheltered carparks cos it’s sheltered and I don’t smoke and drive at the same time. So all I wanna do after all that driving, is step out of my car and enjoy a smoke. No smoking indoors is fine. And now no smoking at sheltered carparks? I can’t even begin to understand it cos it seems as good as saying ‘if you wanna smoke, you either gotta stand under our bitch of a Singapore sun or in the rain.’ And because everyone knows what a pain our weather can be, the best option (which is obviously the main intention) is to not smoke at all, which some non-smokers just don’t understand that it’s just not that easy an option.

I can go on and on forever in regards to this topic, and I’m sure everyone else, both smokers and non-smokers can as well, so I shall cease fire for now. I just hate it when reporters become offensive. And I find it sad that once again, Singapore has added to the long standing joke about us being a FINE city. As much as there are smokers who are insensitive to other non-smokers’ presence, there are also many non-smokers who go all out to make things difficult for smokers, and many of them are getting worse by the day cos they feel like they have the government to back them up. But if everything has to be contained by yellow boxes and allocated spaces and threats and warnings and fines, I feel like a puppet in a suppressed country which I call home. In fact, I think when there weren’t any bans yet, I used to be more ‘human’, consciously taking note not to affect others’ with my cigarette smoke. But now, the law has come down so hard on smokers that I can’t even be bothered to be nice about such things anymore, especially when smokers are put in such bad light and given such a hard time and top of that, non-smokers are acting like that’s the way things should be. Sometimes I do wonder if this whole thing will backfire, making Singaporeans worse people than they oready are. It’s true that Singaporeans are a kiasi bunch, following whatever law is being implemented.. Which even though is seemingly good, but sometimes they really seem void their own voice anymore.

Enough about that. Monday nite’s KTV at Partyworld Orchard with my lovelies was madness as expected. It was a surprise planned for Wen cos she’s leaving the country soon and I may not be able to send her off at the airport on Sunday so I hope this would more or less make up for it. I had loads of fun and thanks Bryan for the Christian Dior stuff! It’s like Christmas all over again. Haha.