People Say Got Ghost

August 28th, 2003 Uncategorized

Jonathan Lim said that an actor is like a ghost. (This is one of his lines in

Chestnuts

August 26th, 2003 Uncategorized

Being one of the few who wandered into Siglap South CC last Saturday was an odd experience. The warm musty auditorium, and the actors

Fussing over my pens

August 19th, 2003 Treats

Rotring Core in fine nib looking for good home. It lays a wet and fine (not too fine) line and it’s not unbearably scratchy. I am unable to appreciate its thickness: it makes my hand tired when I write it for long. I wish to give it away. Please contact by email e_sui@bigfoot.com. Take it home with you! Everyone will say it’s a cool pen!

Of all my pens, I love the two pelikans most. Lately they are both having ink flow problems. (Is it something to do with the weather?) I had to turn the piston to wet the nib. I’m thinking of getting a parker 51. Fook Hing is selling it at S$130. I’m nervous *thinking* about owning it. I like pens that write smoothly and parker nibs are well made but not the smoothest despite being M and not F.

Or perhaps I might get a lamy extra fine. The lamy is good and cheap – just a little aesthetically challenged. Sigh. I wonder if Fook Hing will let me try the 51s.

Some days are dull like that

August 10th, 2003 Treats

Some days are dull like that. You go on in a monologue, making tea and addressing your mother who sits a leg on the chair reading the chinese papers, thinking she’s listening but really if she was, she would be scolding you for wasting money on frivolous rich people play things even after you point out your pen collection can hardly be called expensive having lacked the more elabourate Montegrappas and the thousand dollar Namikis and the limited collection Parkers.

What darlings!

Buying a rotring core

August 9th, 2003 TreatsTags: Pens

Friday morning an idea appeared and clung itself to my mind like a barnacle to a ship’s bottom. I wanted a rotring core. I could not afford a pen but I had vouchers from Takashimaya. The young looking salesgirl said they did not have convertors. (She had no idea convertors were called convertors. I feel sorry for pen sales girls. Some just didn’t like pen selling and they didn’t think anyone would spend a couple of hundreds on a pen so you must get the sucker to buy the pen TODAY or she would never buy it at all.) I went up to the men’s section to look for convertors. They didn’t have them but they had coloured skrip ink : in purple called lavander and a yellow called Royal.

A panic ensued when I realise no one sold convertors for Rotring. But rotring *had* convertors.

Saturday I went down to Fook Hing. Fook Hing at Bras Brasah is an old style shop. Two rows of showcases lined either side of the shop leaving a slim strip of textured ceramic tiled walkway, just enough for one person to walk. An old teochew couple man the shop. There is an old grandpa who sings opera to himself (joined by the woman at times). Once when I was there, I saw him practicing chinese calligraphy. The couple were very generous and patient with me, allowing me to take my time with decision making. And I had the impression the discounts was very good, having been first quoted by Elephant and Coral S$250+ for the clear Pelikan M200 and paid only S$120 thereabouts at Fook Hing. The shop proprietor was Jimmy who usually stays in the newer and brighter shop diagonally behind also called Fook Hing. He was a good shop owner to buy from. Once I returned a Pelikan nib because I couldn’t bear its scratchiness and Jimmy allowed me to exchange it. I have always returned to Fook Hing for purchases. But that Fook Hing was gone. This shop had spotlight all around. The tiles looked up women’s skirts. I saw no signs of the old Parker 51s. My heart sank. Its prices were, I suppose, almost as high as E and C and also intolerant of lingering. Although meaning to ask about the English duofold, I did not. I bought the convertor and left to Macdonalds for an icecream. It was a sad day.

Atomic Jaya and People Say Got Ghost

August 5th, 2003 theatre

At the end of July, I saw both ‘People Say Got Ghost’ and ‘Atomic Jaya’. Atomic Jaya’s script was brilliantly outrageous. Claire Wong is incredible as the Mahatir minister. (”Highly enriched Iranian” just about cracked me into two.) Ghost had more heart. The lines Jonatham Lim writes stay in my head. He knew the same Singapore I did: the old men with downturned mouths (Emerald Hole), children who say “faster faster” (People Say Got Ghost). Both played to almost full houses. How did the public find these gems by themselves?

A drummer boy

August 5th, 2003 Uncategorized

On television, a four year old child plays the drum like an accomplished musician. I’m aghast. Art is for the old and the wounded. What is a child doing in this territory?