I unintentionally saw Life Chicken Soup on TVBS-Asia for the first time last evening and found it a rather unusual programme. It’s an interactive talk show where Ling Ji, a medium who has the ability to see a person’s past and present life, offers advices to troubled individuals by analysing who they were in their past lives. According to her, what happens in our current life is an effect of what we did, or what happened to us in our previous life.

For example, there was a guy in his late 20s who has a personality problem. Apparently, he is an easy target for swindlers because he is infantile and has a low EQ. He doesn’t have any ideas on how to plan ahead in life and so his family members are worried about his future. Ling Ji read that he was an orphan in his previous life and was working in the orphan home even as an adult. He was eventually killed at the home because of the war. As a result, he has come to his current life feeling lost because his life was abruptly cut off in his previous life.

Then there was this lady who has a problem with her grown up son. He has left home and has not returned to see her for five years. Ling Ji recounted that her son was actually her husband in her previous life, which was kind of freaky to me. Anyway, in their previous life, he married into her better off family but was much detested by all. He eventually died because she abandoned him when he was bedridden. As such, she was responsible for his death and has to pay for this in her present life. This is the reason why her son is now unfilial to her.

It was also mentioned that some illnesses or discomforts that we have in this life could be a result of what happened to us in our previous life. The host cited a case of a girl who has gastric problem because she died of starvation in her previous life and recommended that the mother teach the girl to learn cooking to work round this problem.

I thought the concept was very interesting. Perhaps because I’m a believer of karma and reincarnations. You sow what you reap holds a lot of weight for me, and I often wonder what sort of a character I was in my previous life. I hope I did not commit any heinous crime. Maybe some petty crimes which has caused me to have menstrual cramps, bad vision and backaches. Haha. I certainly don’t mind getting a reading from Ling Ji, but meantime, I still need to find out so what do I do? Aha, go and get some leads from here. And this is the answer I got.

In My Past Life…

I was: A kind philosopher. Where I Lived: Tibet. How I Died: Constipation.

Feeling very sinful now. Just had two servings of ice-cream toasts, and one big portion of Uncle Miki’s cheese cake as my deserts! Still have my main course of fried beehoon to follow. :razz: Never mind lah, can always skip dinner tomorrow. Anyway, this entry isn’t about my gluttony. This is going to be about my PSOD which stands for Poor Sense Of Direction.

I have an appalling cognitive problem with roads and streets. It is in fact so comically atrocious that my husband always has to drive me to the destination first in order for me to memorise the route! Luckily for me, this is Singapore which is only 647.5 sq km in area.

Well, today I made another good display of such atrocity. I had Zuzu drive me to SP as I must learn how to get there and home because I have to be there next Tuesday, all by myself. But I realised that I still have a very faint idea of how to get there after the scouting trip. Bah.

I started out very determined to memorise the direction but somehow midway, my PSOD brain drifted off. And just when I was about to reach the destination, it regained consciousness but it was already too late. I was left wondering how I got to where I was.

???????????

I sometimes get the places mixed up too. Like the last time when I was supposed to have a meeting at Science Centre. I even got that wrong. I told Zuzu to drive to Science Park and we searched the whole park but couldn’t find the building. I only realised we were at the wrong location all together when I checked the address again. This is how I earned the dubious title of a Superduper Blur Queen!

And that’s not all.

Twice, I got lost trying to pick Zuzu up from his overseas trip. First incident was when I got lost trying to get to the airport from town, and by the time Zuzu arrived in Singapore, I was nowhere near the airport. So he had to take a taxi home. The second was the memorable Ramsgate (not Watergate) incident.

I was supposed to pick up Zuzu from Beach Road as he had gone to KL on a coach. So I confidently told him I will have no problem to pick him up even though he was pretty skeptical. “Aiyah, I’m very familiar with Beach Road, no sweat okay!” I bragged. Then guess what? I got lost because I made an early turn and ended up somewhere on East Coast. Precisely, this road by the name of Ramsgate, with my baby and maid in tow. I had to call Zuzu for help. Told him he was to take a taxi to Ramsgate to PICK ME UP. Of course he was fuming lah. I was supposed to pick him up in the first place. He finally arrived in a taxi and we finally got home, but not before I got a earful from him.

For a person with such poor orientation, you wouldn’t believe if I told you I survived in US driving by myself to the office many years ago. Well, I couldn’t believe my abilities too. All thanks to this technology call GPRS. Otherwise, I would surely have to clocked various miles to get to the nearest U-turn.

Talking about U-turn, I must share this story about an old acquaintance, Sharon, whose PSOD is severely higher than mine.

Many years ago, she drove me home after one of our nights out. I fell asleep and woke up in a startle to find that we were in my district but she was heading in the wrong direction. So I told her to make a U-turn to get back on course. End of story for that night. Now, some weeks later, we were out again and she drove a few of us home. I was to be the first to be dropped off. She valiantly announced that she knew how to get to my house, so I didn’t bother to give her any directions. When we were quite close to my place, she detoured and made that same U-turn!!! I realised after a few seconds that she thought that was THE WAY to get to my place. We were hysterical! Muahahahahahaha.

So I am sure it’s not just me with PSOD. Sharon has it, and I believe scores of women have it too!

Out of boredom and while trying to find out if I qualify as a blogaholic, I tried my hands at these quizzes found at Weblog Wannabe.

Quiz 1: Does your weblog own you?

Answer: Your weblog owns 25% of you.

Then I need to claim 25% possession fee from my blog huh?

Quiz 2: Are you as interesting as your weblog?

Answer: “You are just as interesting as your weblog!”
You have an interesting weblog and an equally interesting life. You don’t need to exaggerate to make your stories sound exciting. They already are. You have a small circle of friends, both online and offline, and they all love having you around. You’re an all around nice person and the best friend anyone could ever imagine having.

I don’t have any online friends. “An all around nice person and best friend”??? My son’s foot!!! Actually, I am more exaggerated offline. I scream KANINABEI CHAO CHEEBYE in people’s face but I employ more subtlety on my blog by not using this expletive at all, or if required, will only say KNNBCCB.

Quiz 3: Who is my weblogger twin?

Answer: Firda of Weblog Wannabe herself!

My long lost twin? What colour be her eyes? Mine’s hazel okay.

Quiz 4: Are you a hit-obsessed weblogger?

Answer: Your Score: 20 / 100
20 points is in the 20 through 39 precentTYPE C (HIT-CURIOUS). You do the weblog thing for yourself instead of for an audience, but you are aware that you do have an audience, small as it might be. You are often curious as to what other people find so interesting about your weblog. You check your weblog referrers every now and then just to satisfy your curiosity.

My hit counter tells me I don’t have an audience. It’s there so that I can edit my published posts after I am sure no one has read my entries.

Anyway, the blogaholic quiz is apparently very popular because I could never get through the link. Oh well. But I think I can affirm that I am definitely no hardcore blogaholic because of 10 reasons:

1. I am a little uncomfortable when I don’t blog but I don’t suffer any withdrawal symptoms.
2. I don’t post multiple entries everyday.
3. I can still eat, sleep and not constipate when I don’t blog in a particular day.
4. I still remember to feed and clothe my son.
5. I sleep very early, usually before 10pm.
6. I don’t go round telling people I have a blog.
7. I don’t use fanciful designs for my blog. I stick to blogger’s with minor tweaking.
8. I don’t know all the blogging lingo, haven’t figured out rss and don’t use a blogroll.
9. I don’t use profanities unnecessarily in my blog just to attract attention.
10.I don’t think about blogging all the time, just most of the time.

I guess I am just mildly addicted and it should not get anymore severe. Well if it gets any worse and I need rehabilitation, I’ve already found a Blog Addiction Rehab Treatment Center that is willing to take me in.

Going to get myself a big pair of sunglasses soon. This is a little bizarre because I never really liked to wear them. The fact that shades can keep the sun out from my eyes, cut down the glare and make a fashion statement have never appealed to me. Simply because I like to see the world through its natural lights, and actually found sunglasses very obstructive to my vision. But today, I made a major discovery about sunglasses.

It’s a good cover up!!! :cool:

Yeah. Especially when you have no time to doll yourself, and yet fret about how you look. Just put on those shades and you’ll be protected because it conceals most of your blemishes along with your insecurities. Better still, it allows you to ignore people you don’t wish to acknowledge. The feeling is not unlike segregating yourself from the world. Bravo! A good psychiatric aid which is very handy too. No wonder the celebrities don them all the time. I am gonna get a freaking big pair too! Better late than never right?

Sunglasses at Night by Corey Hart

I wear my sunglasses at night
So I can so I can
Watch you live and breathe your storylines
(And) I wear my sunglasses at night
So I can so I can
Keep track of the visions in my eyes
While she’s deceiving me
It cuts my security (has)
She got control of me
I turn to her and say
Don’t switch the blade on the guy in shades, oh no
Don’t masquerade with the guy in shades, oh no
I can’t believe it
You got it made with the guy in shades, oh no
(And) I wear my sunglasses at night
So I can so I can
Forget my name while you collect your claim
And I wear my sunglasses at night
So I can so I can
See the light that’s right before my eyes
While she’s deceiving me
She cuts my security (has)
She got control of me
I turn to her and say
Don’t switch the blade on the guy in shades, oh no
Don’t masquerade with the guy in shades, oh no
I can’t believe it!
Don’t be afraid of the guy in shades, oh no
It can’t escape you
‘Cause you got it made with the guy in shades, oh no
I said I wear my sunglasses
I wear my sunglasses at night
Wear my sunglasses at night…

I have finally watched all episodes of Engine yesterday. Well, I did like most parts of the drama, but I have my reservations. Let’s just say this drama is heartwarming, and Takuya Kimura is loveable. But there’s something missing in this drama because it didn’t capture my imagination as much as Pride or left me lingering for more, like Beautiful Life. I hate to say this, but I have no urge to re-watch this drama too soon.

Perhaps because there is no magic between the male and female leads. I found Koyuki a bit odd for TK, even though they did look pretty good together in Beautiful Life. But then again, this isn’t a romantic love story so we can’t expect that much. I wish the director could have just left it as that, without the hugging and kissing scene. It was all out of place.

The ending wasn’t as inspiring as it could be although I like the way they treated his car racing competition scene. It wasn’t trying to make the audience feel good, because he didn’t win the competition but he won in spirit. So that was rather realistic, at the same time, uplifting. But I wish it didn’t end with a monologue from Koyuki about the future. I hate that. I am a visual person, and I like to see the scenes please. The monologuing was too placid for my liking. It didn’t tickle my imagination.

Having criticised the drama, I still must say it is worth watching because:

• TK is so gorgeous as a car racer.
• Watching him being a baka is hilarious.
• His chemistry with the kids is excellent and endearing.
• Some of the children are so adorable.
• The story line is good, makes you cry and laugh all at once.
• This is not your typical TK romantic drama at least.
• This drama allows TK to showcase more of his acting ability.

I understand the average viewership rating for this drama in Japan was 22.5% with the highest at 25.3%. This is not as good as TK’s other dramas which have usually garnered over 30%. However, it seems that viewership of dramas in Japan have been dropping over the years, so Engine did do pretty well after all. Anyhow, die die also must support my idol!!!