The alarm on the handphone went off. I have not had a proper sleep for some time now, and the comfortable bed, nice warm blanket and Tedd in my arms put me through a good night. Like the slob I am, I tried to shut the noise out of my head but it was impossible -- the alarm was like the housefly that flies around your head when you are with some people you really want to impress and confident that you're smelling good, may I add, -- its relentless effort all to irritate the shit out of you. I reached for the little pest, pressed some button on the keypad, and fell back into sleep. Like I told you, the alarm clock behaved just like the housefly, and houseflies do not go away with a simple wave of your hand, at least not with my flabby arm. I repeated the act, and then again, and a few more times, before I found the archilles heel. The Snooze. I do have a certain level of understanding of myself, and so I stretched for the innocent enough looking alarm clock sitting on mummy's table and set the alarm for 7.40a.m.. No harm being a little late, I can wash up within 15minutes anyway.
The next thing I knew, I was sleeping really comfortably, undisturbed. And that thought flooded into my mind, and did it. My eyelids flew open, i swear they did, and I felt the alarm clock in my hands -- that evil thing! Now I know why they say looks are deceiving. It was already 8.40a.m., and it must have sneaked into bed when I was sleeping soundly. It didn't even ring!
I sent an sms to my attorney saying I was down with diarrheoa and to explain to Mr. Judge. Then I said hi to darling Lola, washed my face, bathed, pulled on a big sweater, some fresh shorts off the pile neaatly stacked on the piano chair, and smsed Minah.
I'm going to be terribly late.
me too. i'm only making my way to the train station.
Let's cab down from Tiong Bahru.
On the cab, Minah said to me, "I think we're going to be early." I gave her the look, and I was totally blur. Aren't we going to be a whole hour late?! Oh yes, I had remembered the wrong time.
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As the voice in the background droned on, my eyelids got heavier. Weird things they are, these eyelid things. One minute they can spring open, the next they can't wait to be shut. I tried everything to keep them open, but they weighed heavier than the table soocer at Guild House. No wonder I'm so heavy. Most of my weight must come from my eyelids. The fear of further judgement from Mr. Judge was not strong enough and I accepted Zhou Gong's invitation to that game of chess.
I awoke to find he was still droning on in his hypnotic voice and injecting his boring speech occasionally with the weird laughter that sounded like a cross between a persistent cough and breathing difficulties. So I went back to sleep.
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(written 6th April 2005)