Auto Race Day/Camera Day/Red Planet Day/Independence Day (Albania)/John F. Kennedy Day (Massachusetts)/Advent/Festival of Lights (Arizona)
2004-11-28 @ 10:59 p.m.

I was going to relate this little anecdote yesterday, but I forgot about it. You see, while I was on the way home from practice yesterday, I happened to be seated beside this mother-daughter pair on the MRT. So there was this woman with her two children sitting opposite us. Think hers was a mixed race marriage, because the kids just had that look the progeny of mixed marriages have. Anyway, the little girl was screaming about Singapore Idol, though for the life of me I can't imagine why. Incidentally, I hope Taufik wins. The thought of Sylvester representing Singapore on the music scene is quite appalling. Okay, back to the story. So the mother was remarking to her daughter about how the children had pretty hair, hence my point about them being of mixed blood. Then she started chattering about how the pronunciations of "idle" and "idol". She's of the opinion that the latter is pronounced with a longer vowel than the former. I've checked, and she's sorely mistaken. They are homophones! Then again, she couldn't pronounce "pronunciation" correctly, so what was I expecting? Nothing against people with bad pronunciation per se, just those who pretend to possess the contrary. So there you have it, a little mundane vignette of Singaporean life.

Today was the first time in a long while that I attended the main service. The bishop's sermon wasn't too bad actually, it's the kind of thing that interests me in fact. Theology might become my new hobby yet. I bought more books from times today. I bought a collection of five plays by Oscar Wilde, and because I needed to spend at least $20 so my parents could use some rewards card to pay, I bought Susanna Clark's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell on an impulse. I was going to buy Hardy's Jude The Obscure, because Barnes & Noble publishes nice solid volumes at very low prices, whereas Oxford books are a lot more expensive. Still, I like seeing all my books by one author from the same publisher, so I passed on Jude The Obscure. Still looking for 'S' Paper texts...