On the up: Tricks
On the down: Your ego

Election day and night came and went for me. Yes, yes, I am apathetic, and I wouldn't know a BN from a DAP if an MP came an poked me in the eye.

When I spoke to a DollyDad the day before he asked if I was going to vote. I said no, I wasn't; I hadn't even registered to vote.

He was incredulous. "WHAT! How can!"

Instead, I spent the whole day in bed. I slept 14 hours. Actually, it was only 9. Then I woke up, read a bit, and went back to sleep until very very late. It was DELICIOUS.

See, I'm damn good in bed -I can sleep all day!!!

When I woke up, Rinpoche was trying to decide whether to go watch Spiderwick Chronicles or 10,000BC. I went online to go see what was on and when I saw that Spiderwick had fairies in it, I did everything I could for us to go there. I mean, fairies, or a man clubbing ancient beasts to death. C'MON. Of course the fairies!!!!!!!

We traipsed into the movies. On the way down, in the lift with a half dozen other strangers, Rinpoche started with enlightened nonsense.

"So!" he said to me with a loud, but very poker face, "Have you told your parents you're pregnant yet?!"

It was all I could do not to burst out laughing, so I spluttered out a weak, "No."

"See!" he exclaimed with a big sigh, "I told you to stop sleeping around with all those white men! I told you! It's not good! And now, you see you're pregnant! I think it must be that American man you slept with!"

All of us stood in our little tiny circles in the lift in a silent fit, trying not to laugh. I stared at the floor and tried to make myself look sorry and pathetic when really, I was giggling to death through my nose.

This isn't too new, of course.

There was also the time we were running up and down Pavilion with David and his very tight tshirt (not because it's tight but because he's round now). Just as we got onto a crowded escalator, or as we stood in a long queue, Rinpoche would bellow, "Oh my god, that's such a tight shirt. Are you gay?"

David would roll his eyes and sigh a big resigned sigh while everyone else around collapsed laughing.

Another day, Su Ming told me, as they were hopping down Jalan Alor, Rinpoche waited for exactly the moment a white dude passed by Tashi, before screaming at her, "What! You're only 120 ringgits? But that's so cheap!"

What are you supposed to do, really, when your Guru is screaming nonsense about you to the whole world. Pregnant lah, gay lah, hooker lah. What can you do really but check your mind and how you react to all the tricks.

Do we get embarrased? Scared? Mad? Want to retaliate? It's all about the tricky ego, and how puffed up we are about protecting our reputation.

And hell, the more you try to protect it, the more the Buddha is going to run it to the ground.

Well, that may be so, and for now, I know that I certainly haven't got rid of all that makes me embarrased, scared or mad.... but I think the harder task at hand, for the moment, is not to burst out laughing and spoil the game.