Bye, Sumiko Tan

Had a hard time tearing myself away from Bejeweled 2 on Facebook.

It's supposed to be a '1-minute game', but the catch is, the more you are on it, the more you can't pull yourself away from it. So one minute becomes half an hour, and it goes on to become one hour and sometimes more than two hours. Actually, it's 'oftentime', because the game is simply so addictive.

But I realise something interesting: I play it better when I am under stress.

Perhaps I am more 'aggressive' and hence focused on the game when I am stressed. I top the charts almost all the time, until recently, because I got most of my work done and it's the holiday. And I have 2 facebooks - one for my teacher-friends, long lost secondary friends, close friends and family, and the other for forummer friends.

It's fun to have people challenging you to better the score to top the charts. It's really boring and unmotivating to top the chart alone, all the time.

Okay, that aside. I was thinking of Sumiko Tan.

She's leaving Singapore to marry her Hurricane. I had expected her to talk more about Hurricane first before moving into the subject of marriage, but she didn't. And she's going to leave Singapore, and her Sunday column. I actually buy Sunday Times because of her.

I'm not ashamed to say that I like Sumiko Tan.

I think it takes alot of courage to be a well-known spinster, and muse about singlehood, marriage and motherhood from a single's point of view. And I agree with all of her views - I can't recall a time when I shook my head and judge her for being a frustrated spinster or 'old girl' as some people call her. I would go as far as to say that her views are balanced, level-headed and feminine (not feministic).

I don't think she's pressured to marry. For someone who is 45, it's perfectly normal to marry as soon as you're sure about the person instead of wasting time to date.

But I seriously doubt that the guy is an 'electrician', as an article states. I don't think Sumiko Tan is so desperate as to marry someone that beneath her. I always feel that she falls into the category of people who go by the 'either the best or nothing' principle. I'm not saying that an electrician cannot marry 'up', but it's true that you won't be able to communicate if your qualifications are far apart. And the guy's from ACJC after all.

I associate the word 'electrician' with those men who come to my house to install the heater or fix the lightings. They clearly have limited education, incapable of speaking English. I cannot imagine Sumiko Tan tying the knot with someone like that.

I like Sumiko Tan for her candidness with her views and the sharing of her personal life.

I was surprised to read that she had a total of $80, 000 in POSB as savings when she pulled them out of the Save-As-You-Earn scheme. I'm not surprised at the amount, of course. I'm surprised at how candid she is about money even, and I like the way she put it, that she would park her money in fixed deposit anytime. I'm conservative even in money, but that's because I earn little. The Ah Q in me finds it comforting to know that someone as rich as Sumiko Tan is similar to me in finance management, even if it's just a portion of her wealth.

I admire her courage to write about Hurricane. When I first saw his name appear on her column, I knew a romance was budding, because no woman would mention a man who is not remotely related to her in any way for nothing, and she had the word 'Hurricane' and the pronoun 'he' in reference to 'Hurricane' peppered her articles. And I secretly hoped that something good would come out of it. It was of the same kind of anticipation when I read a romantic novel - 'Please let the guy like the girl.'

The last article that I read about Hurricane was the one in which she had to spend Christmas or New Year eve alone and Hurricane skyped her and sang a song to her together with his daughter, ending the session with "You'll never spend your Christmas/New Year eve alone again." It sounds cheesy and cliche but I thought the gesture very touching. I think any woman who's in the shoes of Sumiko Tan would feel likewise.

While I wish Sumiko Tan all the best in her romance, I feel melancholic about her departure. It'll be a loss of many great reads. Not only that, she's one of the very few writers I understand and agree with just about every line and the in-betweens she writes.

I'll miss her.