so, the 2nd day of CNY is finally over, and normal life can soon return. every year i dread CNY because it spells endless meaningless visiting, and altogether more contact with the parents than is humanly tolerable. i find it a drag talking to relatives who barely know anything about what's going on in your life, and then dole out advice in patronising tones. each time they see me, they ask my age and what course i'm studying, and proceed with a snippet of their own personal experience with someone in the field.

for eg, the other day one of them described his impression of doctors almost exclusively through explicit teochew phrases, and i had to sit by with a fake smile on my face pretending to be amused. at the end of it, i gathered that he was a medic in the army, and that he didn't quite like the MOs he worked with. omg, a medic telling me that doctors are useless?? like, fuck off already. then of course another irritating thing is that i don't understand the bits of dialect, and therefore fail to find whatever joke they might making funny. i'm sorry but it's not my fault that my parents don't speak dialect at home :( i'm innocent! besides, i have the feeling that if i did learn dialect, its ultimate purpose would be to enhance my vocabulary of expletives. hmm, but that might not be too bad an idea at all, come to think of it.

so, this is why i hate visiting so much, and why i end up sitting anti-socially with my sis (and sometimes mom) in front of the TV, rotting my brains out watching whichever stupid travel show happens to be playing. whenever there is food in front of me, i take the opportunity to stuff my mouth continuously, in order to further minimise conversations of mock sincerity about things nobody gives a shit about. apathy might be a social ill, but at least i'm not a hypocrite.

anyway, so that was pretty much how my CNY went. if not for the angpaos i would have absolutely no incentive to go, and i certainly think i will put a stop to it from next year onwards. i cannot afford to waste whatever precious free time i have on such senseless activities, when it could be better spent watching the latest episodes of Grey's / Scrub's / Prison break. or i could be reading the Princess Diaries! that would totally help me acheive self-actualisation.

incidentally, the other day i awoke with bad orthostatic hypotension and managed to stub my third finger in a dazed sleep walk to the staircase railing. as a result i've had a swollen third distal interphalangeal joint for the past 3 days, and might have given a few vulgar hand gestures to choice people. all inadvertently, of course! i hope this injury does not affect my future as a neurosurgeon or any other specialty requiring a lot of manual dexterity, which is just about everything except for radiology. and i'm not keen on having my ovaries fried, thank you very much.

and finally, on sunday my sister (and i really wonder where she gets these things) showed me the most horrific tabloid page ever: BRITNEY GONE BALD! apparently, the hairdresser at the salon refused to entertain her ridiculous request, and so our dear friend brit just picked up the shaver and went at it herself. 'twas not a pretty sight. but, unlike many of her fair-weathered fans, i've stuck by britney even through her coochie-bearing episodes, and so i will continue to do so in the good faith that she's truly on the verge of a mega comeback. as of late though, this has become an increasingly trying task. but whatever, maybe some of you will like her new look:

Why Britney, Why??