aDrenais' Book of Shadows

For almost 2 weeks now, I sit by the window each time I want to use the Internet, struggling to get as near the window pane as possible so as to stand a better chance in stealing the wireless access from unsecured networks. There are times I simply cannot connect to any network, times when I get connected and disconnected periodically, generating much frustration if I'm in the middle of one of my epic e-mails. Just this morning, I had to shift in my chair every half an hour to try to connect to my elusive DLink (name of the host network that provides me with connection for the greatest length of time at any one stretch).

And yet, sitting on my bed in the middle of my hotel room, I'm now getting wireless signal that must be crystal clear because each page takes about 2 seconds to load. Gah.

That I'm stealing wireless network now makes me almost guilty for enabling password protection for the router back home in Singapore. Like, if everybody were as selfish and set passwords on their wireless router, then I won't be able to keep in touch with you guys back home. Maybe I'll have 'open days' on my router when I return to Singapore, disenabling the password feature so that some poor sod from Abu Dhabi can write to his family back home occasionally.

On a more exciting note, my first ever chequebook arrived via registered mail yesterday. Everybody has credit cards (or supplementary cards at least), but only parents keep chequebooks for...actually, what do people have chequebooks nowadays for? With Internet banking so easily available, there isn't any real need for chequebooks? No matter, it's good to know that if I ever lose alot of money in the casino, I can write a cheque to pay my debts (like how it happens in the movies). It's just exciting because owning a chequebook seems such a grownup thing to do. Wait, I already am grownup.

I just mentioned to Sharon, I'm quite upset to discover that the grasp of English grammar and vocabulary, like anything else, fades without practice. I use only so many English phrases at work (load the meals/is the coffee ready?/have you checked the lavatories? etc), and the fact that I'm Asian means that people don't expect me to speak good English, assuming that I'm Thai or from China. So with lowered expectations come lowered performance (it's true!), and now I find myself struggling to string a correct English sentence. The majority of cabin crew don't speak proper English, even angmohs who don't speak English as their first language, like the French, or those who come from Eastern Europe like Romania, Poland etc. As such, speaking broken English not only improves solidarity, it also makes me more easily understood. Talk about job hazards.

It's a very pleasurable thing, coming home to duper Internet access and reading all the replies to my epic e-mails. I think my weekend just got off to a perfect start :) Heading for Al-Ain tomorrow to see the Jebel Hafeet, a 1350m-high limestone mountain. Photos to be posted only if this duper connection keeps up. Thank you DLink *muacks*