The Saga Ends (in other words, LEMONS)

NAFA in three weeks.
Damn.

Yang was nice to Mwina, which was good, because it meant that my Chinese wasn't that bad after all.

Debates competition quarter-finals! It was a split decision, but we won! The first and reply speaker of the other team was absurdly excellent, though. I thought we might have a good chance of losing at first, but then, Jooly our second and reply speaker saved our hides.

Greatness be Jooly, hallowed be thy name.

I wish people in our side sitting in the audience wouldn't be so noisy. But they can't seem to stop themselves.
Isn't debating about self control?

Look at this.

PART I
(We were dissecting lemons for Bio practical on Friday.)

A: Lemons are dispersed how?
Me: Animals eat them.
A: Which animal would want to eat a lemon?
Me: hm? ...animals with no taste buds.
A: Really? No wonder.
Me: Er...
A: That makes sense.
Me: Er...
A: ...Don't tell me you were joking.
Me: Okay, I won't tell you I was joking.

Part II
(Just after Part I)

B: zt, what're you laughing about?
AandMe: (repeats conversation to B)
B: ...
B: Don't tell me you weren't joking.
Me: I was joking. What did you think?
A: I thought I said don't tell me...
Me: I wasn't telling you! I was telling her.

Part III
(during Art Club on the same day. A is present.)

Deb: What animal would eat lemons? (this is a complete coincidence.)
Me: Animals with no taste buds.
Deb: I know you're joking.
Me: I was.
A: Noooo!
Me: But then if any animals do eat it, it'll spit it out immediately.
A: Yes. I fail to see how seeds can be dispersed.
Deb: Oh! I know how!
AandMe: What?
Deb: It's so sour that they spit it so hard...


All right, you can say WTF now.

In the meantime, a classmate is down in hospital with dengue fever. Poor guy.

The new principal is so nice! He lets us decorate own tables... It's so sad our batch is leaving this year. Young leaders are so much more fun than the plodding old gits most of us get.

The Saga Continues

It died.

http://mwina.blogspot.com/

Apologies to Mwina if you are unhappy about your cameo in my blog. Tell me if you want it taken off.

Mwina says in her blog that the little bird would have had a better chance of survival inside the nest... but after hearing what had been said about the brother pushing it out and the mother ignoring it, I don't think any of us quite dared to try and put it back...

In any case, Yang (my HCl teacher) had a good rant about the whole thing. It seems that the nest had been pulled open by some horrible people, and the sunbirds gone. Even the remaining one. The librarians (the nest was right next to the library, remember?), who had been tracking with delight the development of the little birds from egg up, were apparantly heartbroken about the whole thing. I'd visited the nest and peered at the remaining one yesterday after school, who peered smugly back at me, and everything seemed fine. That means the crime had been committed after around 2.30.

Yang was yelling about how bad people were when some cave-mouthed bugger from behind me mentioned that Mwina brought one of them home. Since Mwina was absent and unable to defend herself, I had to try to enlighten him on the circumstances, because he actually thought at first that Mwina was the one who had pulled open the nest. Silly ass. After some frustating attempts trying to explain exactly what nice Mwina did to help the poor bird in very, very inept Chinese (my language always detoriorates when I get agitated), I think he finally got the idea, although he'd better not corner Mwina somewhere tomorrow and start lecturing her about it for any reason. Whoever knows Mwina even marginally and thinks her capable of pulling open a nest and killing innocent sunbird chicks should be made to eat his own tongue fried in soya sauce.

But I know why he's so angry, and I fully approve and agree. WHY pull open a nest with fledgings in it? There was another nest next to the one being occupied -- EMPTY -- if they had wanted to pull a nest so much, they could have pulled that one. This is pure, mindless cruelty. If I'd ever caught a person doing that, I'd be stuffing my homework file down his filthy throat and dragging him to the general office by the nonexistent hair (because I'd have pulled it all out before that). Worse if it had been a girl. I'd have killed her outright.

Though if the brother baby bird had really pushed its sibling out of the nest, I'm kind of glad it died too.

There I go again. I've been surrounded so much by death I've been thinking of it all day.

First the time my mother had to stay back at work because a client in the nursing home she is working at had expired, and the paperwork had jammed due to circumstances at a nearby police station.

Then the news of the Pope's death plastered all over the television, tabloids and newspapers. Every one is so sad. Come on, people. The old man is now beyond pain and probably quite happy in heaven. At least use the money you're spending excessively for media coverage on his funeral on charity or something constructive. He would have preferred that.

Then stumbling out of the elevator at the unholy hour for school and staring full into a coffin surrounded by garlands, incense and people keeping the traditional virgil. Someone was holding a wake at the void deck of my block.

Then, worst of all, the news of the poor little bird.

Literature homework concerning deathly things (read I'm the King of the Castle by Susan Hill), which I had thought I had finished two weeks ago, except that I have recently discovered that there was a second section. It concerns a dead bird too, which is very depressing.

And a truly deadly Amath worksheet due today which we had been given the weekend to figure out. And today I figured out that, to my horror, I had completely forgotten to do it.

That poor little bird...

Broken bird

My junior came into class for Debates carrying a baby sunbird in a nest of tissue in her hand. It was one of the little ones in the hanging nest on the ornamental tree outside the library. Apparantly its brother had pushed it out and it had broken a wing AND a leg for it. Reports were that the mother came hopping back with food and ignored it to take care of the murderous sibling gazing innocently out of the nest.
Grrr.
The baby sunbird was so cute... it had spiky mud green down and it was cheeping at regular intervals in a way sure to win the heart of anyone with a heart... then the cheeping became weaker while we were trying to think of what to do about it (the teachers my junior had approached were rather indifferent) and then it sort of huddled down and refused to say anything for a while. We knew it was hungry, but we didn't know what to feed it and HOW to feed it. I suggested droppers taken from the science labs, but wonderful Mwina called her father, who knew about birds, and he said it needed NECTAR... so Mwina pwned Air Rifle and got her father to bring both it and her home so they could keep it alive. 'Twas a noble sacrifice, because it seems that the Air Rifle are getting a new instructor today who needed a good impression.
It was lucky I had brought a tupperware box to school that day. So we lined it with more tissue and laid the baby sunbird in. And before Mwina left, the Debates people came in.

Jooly: You put it in a Tupperware box? What for? Are you going to eat it?
Me: It's my Tupperware. Don't insult it.
Chris: so cuuuuuuute....
Instructor: so cute.
Scotty: So what's this?
Me: Baby sunbird. Brother kicked it out of the nest. Mother ditched it. Broke its wing.
Scotty: It's nice.
Me: WHAT? IT'S GOT A BROKEN WING AND YOU SAY IT'S NICE?
Scoty: Nonono, that's not what I meant...I meant that the bird was nice.

So Mwina brought it down. While we were packing frantically, the baby sunbird became quite agitated. I hope it's still alive tomorrow. It was just so cute...

Anyway. On to less unhappy tales.

I checked on my Evenstar last Friday and I found that it was tarnishing. LOTR fans must imagine the agony of symbolism.

I broke my toes searching for a DIY store at Plaza Singapura and I was so tired after that that I bought both silver polishing cloth and silver clean, therby wasting a perfectly good $12. For those sniggering at this, I beseech to make allowances for a complete and utter rookie.

In any case, I used the silver clean. The horrible patina on my Evenstar magically disappeared when I lowered it into the solution. I sort of know how it works, which was confirmed when a comforting smell of rotten eggs drifted out from the leftover solution. I only hope the crystals on the pendant wasn't damaged (I find it unlikely, but it can happen I think... Chemistry is such a useful subject, albeit irritating). Can silver polishing cloth keep for ten years or so without spoiling or losing some of its properties? I think it'll take me that long to amass enough expensive stuff that I want to keep bright and shiny.

I spent far too much money on that day to Plaza Singapura, also thanks to a 4 CD set by Secret Garden and an employee in the Music Junction store who knew exactly what was needed to sell me something. I think I shall not eat lunch for the next two weeks in order to make up for this extravagance. I need to lose weight anyway -- I always need to lose weight...

I now know why I got the CCA service Colours Award, thanks to a kind explaination by Mrs Koh. It's rather embarassing though. I will never get used to receiving verbal commendation. And I still don't think I deserve it, though I'm not going to try to give it back... I don't want to stay in Singapore all my school life and my resume still needs a bit of poking.

Why am I here writing my blog when I should be studying for O levels? Fie upon the MOE, who has put back the relevance of the O level prelims. Curses upon their silly heads. Giving us false hopes like that!

In that case, I shall not write about my brush with very destructive rage indeed, or the awards ceremony on Friday.

Did you know that the penknife sold in the school bookshop can cut through a whole day's slab of newspaper if done properly?