what a pig year

i woke up today to the last day in 2008.

hmm.. i'm not sure what my feeling is now. maybe a bit happy to have a new start in every aspect of my life.

but again new year means one more candles on the birthday cake and that's a waste of resources, not to mentioned more polution caused by open burning.

looking backwards in 2008, there is nothing worth remembering. or should i say, nothing that i want to remember. i don't even want to write about it much.

if i have a choice, i would like to wipe year 2008 clean from memory. format the whole brain partition associated with 2008. or brain system restore to 2007 year end.

even tonight's countdown celebration is almost becaming such a no-show event. i think it will be. a no-show with surely rain and thunder. last year was so much fun but i guess, this is a suitable ending for a sub-mediocre year.

it's official. i hate the pigs.

so what am i looking forward to in 2009 the year of the cow?


ed's 10 commandments for 2009

1) to give 110% at work and make the best out of it
2) to save more money in a more organized way
3) to call my mother more often
4) to further study if possible
5) to keep current friends and make new ones
6) to be more friendly
7) to join charity works
8) to work out/exercise weekly
9) to restart learning guitar
10)to gossip less


ok maybe 9.5 commandments because i don't mean item 10 that much. gossip is fun, and it's not like anybody's getting hurt. ok maybe the peson being gossipped but i'm just being friendly (see item 6).

hopefully the economy will improve next year too, although apparently the economists don't think so. hmm.. mabe they should just lie, cause at least people would get false hope and start spending again, and in return, improves the economy.

i don't know. i guess i should start with a smaller scale, like improving my house economy. i really shouldn't leave my kitchen light on when i'm inside my room, or leave the tv on when i'm sleeping. i should stop buying deodorants and use just one hair products.

the point is, let's make the best out of what's given to us in this cow year. hopefully by the end of it, we won't say...

'2009? what a cow...'



...ed

lost in washington dc

this was where i stayed in man@assas, virginia. it's a branch of marriott, called residence inn, conveniently located just at the exit of interstate highway 66.

it looks small, but the area occupied is pretty large, i got lost a couple of time inside. i must say, until you step outside, you'd think that we are somewhere in spain because almost all the workers inside are spaniards. the stay there was pleasant though.

this was the car that i drove around in, a Mazda 5. the first one hour after i got this car, i kept turning on the wipers instead of the left right signals because i was not used to left hand drive. once, i even entered the opposite lane!

then i didn't know how to open the lock of non-driver doors because when i pressed unlock on the car remote, only the driver's door opened, until my brother told me few days after that i must pressed twice consecutively to open the lock for all doors. oh i see...

my brother visited me from new york since he had a function to attend in washington dc just 40 minutes drive from where i was. so we arranged a trip to, where else, washington dc.

i decided not to drive there because i heard it's hard to get parking in DC area. even if there is, it's parallel parking, and i cannot do parallel parking. so i drove to this metro station, parked my car and we took the train to dc. it was $2.35 one way for a 25 minutes ride.

btw, nearby the metro parking, there were traffic signs saying, 'kiss and ride' and 'park and ride'. now i finally know what those mean :)

i could see a lot of writings all around DC area, on the wall, on arches and like this one, is on the walkway. i didn't bother to read what it's about because it's all poetic and complicated. god knows who understood them. for all i know, this could be part of some hidden clues that should lead you to some holy grail or something. on that bone-chilled day, i'm just so not interested to poke my nose around, so i just snapped this photo and then made a pass...

washington dc reminds me a lot of.. ok some may hate me for this.. malaysia's putrajaya! why? because there were all buildings and so less people around. at first you would be mesmerized by all the buildings and structures but after awhile, they just looked the same and started to feel pretty dead. not what you would call a lively bustling city.

this one is the treasury department building. something like minister of finance i supposed. someone in green rides on the horse in front. not hulk, but must be one of the past presidents. not george bush definitely, he would get thrown down by shoes in no time.

there were lots of squirrels by the carpark where there were trees. i thought they should be hibernating by now? squirrels do hibernate right? anyway, caught this one in its cute act, eating chips out of the dumpster. i envy those americans sometimes, even their pests are cute and adorable.

i think this is called washington monument on my background. i wanted to walk all the way to the base but it was so damn cold so i just be content by looking from afar. after all, it's just a piece of plain sharp structure with no colour with at most, probably some writings or quotes on it. big deal. my shoes has more details.

few more buildings which i won't bother to describe. by this time, i thought i have seen this building before a few blocks away. or was i just making a circle? anyway, i'm sure it must be some important ministry building. FBI or CIA headquarters probably? hmm should not be, or else i would see mulder or scully hurrying by carrying some X-files heading to north dakota or something.

one place that got me excited once i arrived in washington DC is the smithsonian's museum of natural history. this is the washington branch, not the new york branch, so it's an elephant at the main hall instead of the T-Rex. better, at least at night when all the displays come alive, it's just an elephant running lose.

i made my way straight to the dinasour section because for me, museum of natural history = museum of dinasours. i like dinos. i guess i'm just a kid at heart. the fact that once these gigantic creatures roaming the earth is pretty cool, don't you think? my favourite is the triceraptops. gosh it was enourmous ok , and i read, this was not even the full-sized one. gosh..

this one is the fossil lab where volunteers help to do the sample preparation. cool right? i don't mind volunteering myself doing this kind of cool stuff in that glass box and have sam neill and laura dern gawping in awe as we demonstrate how we used the dino DNA extracted from preserved jurassic age mosquito to create dino eggs.

one section of the museum displays this 45 carats blue diamond. it looks all shiny and glittering but it could be due to the lightings. actually i was quite surprised we could go near to look at this. shouldn't they be installing infrared beams that go zig-zagging crossing each other around this display box? maybe they thought since tom cruise could descend from the ceiling using rope and steal this anytime he wants, the infrared won't do any good anyway.

ok this is me outside the museum. full stop.

and below are some other buildings blah blah blah..

at last we arrived at the white house. i asked if it's possible to get in the whote house but get this, i was told that apparently even the americans need 7-8 months reservation in advance because they want to check your background and stuff before allowing you in. huh? that's insane right. i felt stupid just asking the question. unless you're the nightcrawler in x-men, don't count on it so soon.

there were works around the white house compound. i guess must be for the inauguration ceremony next month.

i was walking along when i noticed this. ok this is obviously some protest banner. but what's that white lump in the center? we turned around and ok.. it was a tent. the lady inside asked us to come near and take some pamplets but we politely refused in case some FBI or CIA would come out of nowehere and detain us in guantanamo bay. you don't wanna mess with american government.

my brother and me. he's studying in new york at the moment. he paid me a visit in virginia since he just finished his exams and need to be at washington DC few days after.

one last look at washington/virginia region, then i'm gone.



...ed

the second coming

i'm currently at washington dulles airport waiting room for boarding, and just found out i have to pay USD5.99 for 2 hr wifi connection.

huh? it's airport for god's sake, can't they just give us free internet access? after all it's their fault that we had to come early to accommodate their stupid endless security checks anyway. as if mr L would turn up in american airport and bring goodies in his bags.

you see, this is exactly how singapore changi airport has spoiled me. in singaporean life, being cut off from digital data stream exchange is equivalent to living in a cave. so until i return to civilization, i just have to write this entree on a notepad and copy them later into blogger.

so the last time i wrote was when i just arrived in the states after that 3 hrs misery in washington highways. after 5 days (though somehow it felt like ages ago) i could now bloat that i have the roads network all at the back of my hand (in form of scribbles notes jotted off google map though). like just now, i got to the airport from the city in a breeze 40 minutes drive! how bout a round of applause?

and also now, i have decided that i do not want to work in the states anymore.

shocked? well.. me too to be honest. i hit the brake and made that 180' U-turn when my life was about to jump off to a new start in a new land. it's a long story really. which involved phone calls in my wee hours to my bosses in singapore and a few teardrops in the script.

the thing is, i always thought this new place was like a fairy tale ending for me. everything about it sounded superficial. the work has more prospect, and i'll be living in the states! which, you know, is where all dreams come true.

but now after i'm already here in the states, i found out that it was just another massive land with different landscape and culture. working here means i have to stare at white house or capitol building every weekend, or spending time at the smitsonians museums after work on friday nights. that's why when i took the surprise elements of a new environment out of the equation, prospect at work became the sole reason for my migration.

that for the expense of my family and friends back at home.

i didn't know what was i thinking. last time, one of my friend asked me whether i am ready at heart to leave, and i said yes within 2 seconds. now to think about it, she must have some phsycic power, because she totally could see this coming! for me, it was just a classic example of not knowing what we got until it was almost gone.

stupid huh? i know i am but i couldn't help it. i just don't know what i want sometimes. ok many times. even when we go starbucks, i would stare the menu for like 5 minutes thinking what i want, and then still ended up with some prompt random decisions. i'm just like a flip flop, going from north to south and north again all the time when it comes to make decisions.

but thats just who i am. i'm defective, but i guess it's just the way i evolve. what i'd do is to learn along the way to be a more consistent person. i'll make mistakes, but let's just treat it as a lesson. even if i have to spare more than a grand learning fees to cover up the mistakes.

sigh.

well, at least i don't have to dispose any body yet. although, people might have to dispose mine when i show up in the office after new year.



...ed

touching down old dominion

aboard United Airlines flight


i'm currently about 11km high up in the sky aboard united airlines flight heading towards tokyo narita. the cabin is all dark after breakfast just now. i'm sitting beside a lady who did her hair high and hard, like no storm would ever messed it up. we never talked, which mainly because i fell asleep after take off, woke up 10 minutes for breakfast while watching the end of journey to center of the earth movie, before falling asleep again. as a traveller, i'm blessed of having no problem at all sleeping along the journey.

i must say, i'm not at all impressed with united airlines so far. this boeing 777 looked old, thank god we have our personal screens but there are only movies and no game! and we couldn't even chose the timing of the movies. i mean, at the time when people start taking A380 with big screens and all, i ended up in this junk. it's sad really, when you realized that the company is trying very hard to find the cheapest deal when arranging the travel. made you think how much you are worth. this flight should be business class in the first place. to think that i have to spend 20 hours on this flight till it lands in washington dc, and then take the same flight back to singapore after 5 days just gives me shivers. well, serve me right for wanting to take this non-compulsory house-finding trip just because it was included in the transfer package.

at least i know i'm coming back to singapore after 5 days. i cannot imagine taking that final one-way flight after new year. the thought of leaving my current home for at least the next 2 years freaked me out sometimes. gosh, did i make the correct decision? i totally wrote and made peace about this last time, but the doubts keep coming back and i have to find reasons again.

ok this plane is a bit shaky. from the map on my tiny screen that i almost need a magnifying glass to look into, we are now just passing through taiwan, which means 2 more hours before the transit in tokyo. and that's not even half of the trip yet! oh gosh. you'd think with so many inventions in the world, someone could have invented time travel machines, or at least commercial sound-speed jets. but instead, those nobel prize winners got their recognitions for their work on some crap like world peace activities and stuff. i mean come on, we have beauty pageants for that.

somehow my laptop battery is draining fast. i'll write again after recharging at narita.

beautiful top of mt fuji while approaching tokyo



----------------------------------

ok. the transfer in narita was nothing great too. the first thing i did in the terminal was to find public phones since my mobile was unable to connect to any network. at that point, i wasn't sure if it was due to my mobile setting or the japanese network. the point is, i was so lost without connection to the outside world.

i changed 30 singapore dollars to japanese yen, and got only 1600 yen. hmm.. not as many as i had expected, but with some coins, i was able to make a short call to singapore. it was a relief actually, just like finally finding toilet after some frantic search. with the yen remnants in my pockets, i bought a box of sushi by the waiting terminal. was it good? hmm pretty decent, though frankly i think ichiban sushi in singapore tasted better heh heh...and much cheaper too!

apparently there was no free internet offered in the terminal, and i couldn't recharge my laptop because i left my plug adaptor in my checked-in luggage. damn it! good preparation huh? i almost wanted to hit my head on the wall. things like this made me miss changi airport so much. at last, i found my last 100 yen coin after rummaging my pockets, so i used that for a 10 minutes internet. which was freaking expensive but hey, it's japan, everything should be expensive here. and i got to drop mail to starhub complaining about non-connectable roaming network too (which might not be their fault but i got to release some steam).

then.. another flight to catch. oh god.

----------------------------------

my first look of washington DC shortly before landing at washington dulles


finally, i am now in man@ssas residence inn, virginia.

after a 12 hours flight from tokyo-narita to washington dulles, which involved 2 turbulences and a coca-cola-spilled-to-next-passenger incident, and a 3 hours lost on washington highways.

the roads here are so confusing, and me not knowing the area made it worse. it's like when you finally came to a junction, you have X town to the east and Y town to the west. and you wanted to go to Z town, so which way should you go? plus, i was not quite used to the car. it's a 6 seater mazda so it's bigger than sedan that i usually drive, and i somehow couldn't work out the view in the side mirrors, and here being left handed drive didn't help at all.

then while i was busy running down every roads there were in the east coast, the day got dark and it rained! so i was like, o god why? why??? one time, i managed to get into man@ssas, which i think was pure miracle, but then i accidentally went into another highway. when i finally got out off that highway after many miles, it was only to enter another highway and voila! i was lost again. at that time, i seriously considered finding a police station and ask the sheriff to send me home. anyway, after a few phone calls with the hotel personnel, i managed to get into the hotel.

here are the room photos (i better take this before i mess it up).



man@ssas residence inn, for $109/night, which i don't pay

not bad huh? but i can't help feeling lonely here. if only... hmm but i guess, nobody can have everything, so let's try to make the best of what we have currently, shall we?

tomorrow i'm gonna find a way to go to my new company and sign some letters, then maybe have a look around. and i must remember, to NOT enter any highways.

now i'm gonna watch heroes episode 13...



...ed

The Butterfly Effect

just now after work, i stopped by the post box in front of the office and dropped in a few letters.

few minutes later after i drove away, i realized i forgot to put stamps.

could you believe that? i put in mails inside the post box without the stamps! gosh, i'm so screwed up right? this is so up there like going out of the house without wearing pants.

i mean, what kind of person would forget to put stamps on mails? a crazy person. mr bean. and then me.

either that ginkgo biloba i've just started consuming lately had an adverse effect (note: ginkgo biloba is supposed to sharpen brains and improve memory. i must remember to check if this is expected), or a million and one things in my head finally caught up with me.

maybe the latter.

i've made up a list of things i must do before moving to the states. it has things like, to cancel my credit cards, to request change of address to banks, to terminate my starthub accounts etc etc. i saved one copy to my desktop in the office, and sent a copy to my private mails. this is because i figured, i can no longer handle all these stuff in my brain with the verge of emotional outburst that i'm almost having right now.

seriously, it's not easy to suddenly take a 180 degrees turn and change my life like this. it's easy to just look ahead and anticipate all the excitements of a new environment, but that's before i realized all of the things i have to give up and let go.

especially things that are close to the heart. leaving your current life behind is such a big deal apparently. call me stupid and ignorant but the fact is, i just realized that. this is not like setting my automatic fish feeder before leaving house for a week. this is like writing the final will knowing there is no way you could alter the final decision.

last week when i was leaving my grandpa's house for the eid-adha break, my grandpa hugged me, broke down and cried that he's already so old and i'm gonna leave him to be in the galaxy far far away. that was just my grandpa. what about the time later when i have to say goodbye to my parents?

this is so not the situation i had in mind when i decided to click that button applying for the job. the same way that i bet the Heroes writers didn't have in mind when they decided to kill of elle bishop. kind of make you think, what the hell were they thinking? what the hell was i thinking?

but you know, among the things that eid-adha teaches us is that we have to make sacrifices in life. maybe this is the sacrifice i have to make in order to lead a better life. life inside work at least. if i have a choice, i would like to take all the people that matters to the states with me but then, that's not possible.

so for now, i just go through with this mixed feeling. after all, who'd say that i won't return after that? the earth is round, so we could go around and always end up in the same place in the end. i was so engrossed thinking about this the other day till before i knew it, i drove in my condo entrance using the visitor's pathway.

i just have to have a good grip of things.

.. or a larger dose of ginkgo biloba.



...ed

good boy gone bad

ok this is kinda a backlog. so much have been going on, i felt like i'm consistently playing catching-up with my life and then finding time to report it.

and me being a bad, lazy, uninspired reporter obviously doesn't help :)

ok first i want to write about rihanna.

in case you live in a cave, or in some felda estate off the country-side (read: batu pahat), rihanna is one of the most consistent hitmakers in current pop music. she had like 8 top 10 hits in the US in just over 3-year period (ok i read that from some websites but i do know she have lots of hit songs).

and i saw her live and raw last week in her singapore indoor stadium gig! woohoo!!

i just wanted to say..

oh.

my.

god.

i love her. this might sound superficial but i really do. as a fan i mean.

just because that was one of the best concert i have been, and i had been to some of the big concerts before.

ed's list of concerts that he had been to

janet jackson
alanis morissette
deen (a japanese band, i've seen them twice!)
madonna
christina aguilera

and rihanna topped them all!

ok here's what happened.

i picked up this friend from aljunied mrt at about 6.30pm and headed to singapore indoor stadium, which is a short drive away. did i mentioned i took half day afternoon off from work that day? yeah i just wanted to play safe hehe..

we arrived at the venue at about 7pm. there were few cars around the parking lots, which was a bit puzzling because rihanna's concert was about to start in an hour time, and the parking lot was only half full? i took out the ticket and confirmed, yeah we did get the correct date.

so we went in. ok so where are our seats? we walked down the aisle closer and closer to the main stage and oh gosh.. there are our seats, a short distance away from main stage.

o man, that $225 dollars looked to be so worth it.

then we patiently waited. the crowd slowly filled in but was it me or the crowd was much less compared to christina aguilera's? well maybe rihanna was too new to the scene.

my million dollar ticket

me + friend ready for a good time

close to 8.30pm, half an hour late from the original schedule, suddenly the stereos blasted britney's womanizer. it was.. very very loud but i liked it! my heart started beating in rhythm, all the more because, ok this might be superficial part-2, i do love this britney's song. have you seen the video clip?

right after i finished mouthing 'womanizer womanizer u're womanizer babeh..' and got my foot back on earth (and sincerely hoped nobody was watching me), the familiar bum bum be-dum bum bum be-dum bum.. got off the air.

disturbia!!

my eyes quickly scanned the stage through the black transparent veil and there she was perched atop a tower, started to sing the first lines to her latest hit as she descended onto the stage amidst screaming audiance. it was so cool.

rihanna made the entrace with 'disturbia'

but that’s as far as she got, because her microphone decided to quit on her, leaving her rather inaudible for the remainder of the song.

i looked at her in disbelief. how could this have happened? yeah her microphone really f**cked up. damn! that was one of my favourite song. ok it's official at that moment i was really in disturbia. she appeared agitated but what could she do? there she was trying to make a grand entrance but straight away spoiled by technical glitch.

good work rihanna! what a way to make a memorable entrance.

she walked to the backstage towards the end of the song (i guessed to kick some sorry asses) and by the time she reappeared on stage to start the second song (breaking dishes), she got her sound back. o thank god!

and so the concert began...

the rest of the show was like an express joyride. maybe more like a rollercoaster ride without the ascending parts. she sang hit songs after hit songs without any break, it was like a prolonged orgasm without foreplay.

she had this big deep voice that she used to sing upper registers, so she tend to sometimes mute lower notes when she interchanged them but as her songs were all familliar to us, we got the missing half words in our heads anyway.

her concert team was pretty small. only her bands, 2 backup singers and 4 dancers. that was all. and she changed outfit only once for the encore. the rest was just her strutting through her songs.

me with rihanna backdrop hehe..

all hail the good girl gone bad

my favourite part? when she sang 'unfaithful'. man, i was so inspired by that. 'please don't stop the music' got the loudest cheer but i felt that she could have stayed on that song longer since that's one hell of a song on the dancefloor. after all, she did sing to not stopping the music, right?

she surprised us when she sang 'paper plane' originally by MIA. i don't know what's the significance of this song for her, except maybe when she sang the line, 'all i wanna do (gunshots).. is take your money..' she really meant it.

because when she completed her final song (what else, her monster umbrella-ella-ella-eh-eh-eh hit), the clock just hit 9.30pm. so the whole gig was just over an hour long, which means i paid $3.80 per minute for that show! eeeekk!!!

but again, you cannot put a price on this kind of joyous experience. i don't wanna be all old and grumpy in the future watching rihanna on a tv that hasn't been even invented yet, and thinking, man i should've gone and see her.

and i was glad i did. ok the show was a bit short and there was that microphone glitch at the beginning but the rest of the show was compact with fun moments, when the audience sang or waved throughout the hour. i guess rihanna's songs are just plain fun to sing along and move the body to. i mean, there must be a reason why her songs topped the chart one after another. that was what made the concert very special and enjoyable.

plus, i gotta see her up close :)

as she says it herself..

Just live your life (Oh!), ay ay ay.
You got no time for no hata's
Just live your life (Oh!), ay ay ay.
No telling where it'll take ya

how 'bout a round of applause?




...ed

under my microscope

ok i'm just going to try to put things in perspective here.

nothing's been confirmed yet. my boss seems to have a funny way dealing with this. i thought it was a pure technical matter but during our tea-break chat today, my colleagues made me realized it might not.

upon that enlightenment, you know i actually stormed right away into my boss office but found out all the bosses were in team building outings already. apparently they went for bowling. team building? yeah right.

hmm that just showed that i'm so bad at reading people. my boss said that he's discussing the matter with his supervisor so i should believe him right? not. i read somewhere before about the rules of life, and one of the key point is that when people speak, do not only hear what they say, but also why they say it.

mind you, it's not that easy to do. every now and then we have visitors from our HQ in the states. these caucasians always get the first class treatment here, the local bosses would stand beside them and blow fans, while the project leads would prepare red carpets on the pathway. we had to do speial presentation for them and when they shoot questions in between their sips of coca-cola in their thick american accent, i have problem understanding.

you see, i couldn't even hear people properly, let alone listening the motif or anything else.

maybe i just need to learn how to read people properly. one fella that i met for 2 seconds ended up being a stalker. seriously now i'm not taking any phone call that shows private or unknown numbers. the insurance agent that i politely refused but enganged in some casual conversation ended up shoving me bunch of personal messages that i did not appreciate.

i just don't know how i got myself entangled with these morons. did i read the wrong signals? even my friends could give me few hell-of-a-lifetime surprises too. i thought i know them much while we stayed at boys hostel during high school but after so long being lost contact, i met them again in facebook but this time they donned night gowns and low cut dresses spotting international supermodels names.

i was like, what on earth had happened during all these years? it was like i've crossed over to my parallel universe or something. more over, this another friend, who was a lawyer the last time i met him shortly after i started working, literally went short in the head because of ecstacy overdose and i heard last people saw him he wandering around unbathed and all smelly in town.

see, i did not at all see these turned-up-of-events coming.

one other thing that i did not see coming, was my dear friend's answer when i asked him what should we do this coming weekend. i was actually thinking of a visit to singapore omni theater or a short escapade to nearby kusu island but he said that his company will hold this green earth movement day programme this saturday, so they will be going to the east coast and collect rubbish.

excuse me, but collect rubbish? i'm sorry, i'm all for mother earth oriented activities but surely there are other things we can do other than collecting rubbish on the much-awaited weekend? i am so not gonna buy this idea. besides, i cannot even see what his company ST marines has to do with rubbish-free beaches. unless the rubbish starts to entangle their submarines or something.

but of course, as always, what do i know?



...ed

please don't stop the music

i'm getting my umbrella-ella-ella ready, not because it's rainy season, but because i'm going to the good girl gone bad rihanna's concert at singapore indoor's stadium on nov 13th. woooohooooooo!!!

i like rihanna. she's like the hottest singer nowadays with everything she touches turns gold. ok everything she sings actually turns gold, even platinum certified. with hit songs like unfaithful, umbrella, take a bow, don't stop the music, disturbia etc etc she's the queen on the dancefloor.

and i'm gonna see her from the front row with my popcorn on nov-13th!!

hmm. my sister wedding is on the 14th. i guess i must not party till too late that night since i plan to drive home to kl the next morning. well worst case, i can just depart a bit later 'coz as rihanna says, i'm 0 to 60 in three point five, baby i got the keys....

the concert is just called rihanna! .. which if u asked me, is a bit too-simplistic. i mean, she sang about not wanting to be her ex's murderer! the least she could do is name her tour something.

i wonder why she didn't retain 'good girl gone bad tour' she used in the north america and europe legs. maybe she thought asians with all the goody-goody cultures couldn't handle the thought of a girl gone bad. i bet that must be the reason she skipped malaysia too.

anyway, here's where i will be that night, if you plan to stalk me that is.

i paid $225 for that seat. pretty unear the front huh? i haven't been this close to a big celebrity since janet jackson's velvet rope tour when i could see her non-stop flowing sweat trying to give her water-proof mascara run for the money.

for rihanna, i guess i'll just be aware if the sprinklers come on (come on).

i'm so excited. don't tell anybody but i got my twice-a-year performance bonus this month and it's almost half a month's salary! which means, lots of party money. ok with the recession and stuff, maybe just this once because god knows my mind is in disturbia (..am i scaring you tonight?).

now i'll just sit and wait. hmm seems like that's all that i do nowadays. sit and wait. everything's got me tossin' and turnin' but i still can sleep at night. i just can't wait the point when i could say..

how 'bout a round of applause?







...adie @ good boy gone bad

black and white halloween

it's saturday noon and i'm at the office.

this is so not normal for me. in fact this is the kind of weird stuff people could say you did before you got into some fatal disaster. or if in court, this could so become the kind of behaviour that raises suspicion and spells guilty all over the place among the juries.

there was this tiny lil' work that i had to do this morning. it was not that bad actually, i didn't feel particularly crushed having to do so. i even thought i should do this more often if that what it takes to show my boss that i'm all content and dedicated.

even though since last tuesday night, this does not matter anymore

that brings me to the point i've been pondering about over the last few days. remember the work offer that i got on tuesday night? i never saw any follow up on that yet, no black and white or even coloured details, no papers to sign, no nothing, nada and it's been what?.... 96 hrs.

gosh is it time for me to freak out yet?

when i asked, my soon-to-be-boss said he expects me to be there by end december. which is just nice because i heard there will be a massive forced vacation / plant shutdown for my current office from christmas until the new year. even if i have to pick up toys from the north pole factory and distribute it through the chimneys all over the world, i should be able to just about make it.

the problem is, without black and white transfer details, i must consistently pinch and convince myself that this is not a mere dream. i had a conversation with my favourite property agent yesterday and he suggested that i rent my house instead of selling. he said the property price is lower now and expected to pick up in 2,3 years time when singapore's integrated resorts are up and running. what's more, he said i could get >2000 dollars rent from my unit! woohooo!!

renting out makes sense to me too since i just refinanced my home loan last july, so i need to hold the contract for the next 3 years. but you see, i had to stop short from telling him to market my place because i don't have that damn black and white details yet.

urghh.. i don't know. it was halloween last night and i swear i felt like bitting someone's neck so badly. if i had my way, some city or some HR department is gonna be seriously bitten and haunted.

anyway, the trick and treats are all over now. i'm just gonna go home and do something that is my norm and won't raise any suspicion. which is to have a long undisturbed nap in my vampire coffin.. i mean, bed.



...ed

let's touch base

yesterday i got this mail from the company HR which goes...

'let's touch base. i got important news to tell you.'

full stop.

can you believe it? i scanned the bottom of that sentence like 20 times hoping to find some hidden messages or secret codes that could tell me more but none.

as i stared at the blank screen, i even hoped this was like that mail which had a ghost or something suddenly cropped out from the static picture as you were staring to freak you out but nada.

what news????

some people are just plain vain. this HR guy is just like those tv series writers that always like to have someone opening up the door expecting the killer inside the room, saying 'oh it's you!' without showing the killer face and then abruptly ended the scene with 'to be continued'...

except this one, i couldn't download the sequence off the net or read the next episode spoilers from wikipedia.

fortunately, my ex-colleague who was transfered to the branch where i'm applying for few years back spoiled it for me. he sent me mail which goes...

'congratulations! i heard you got the transfer'.

see? plain and simple and nobody died from this short statement. nobody i know anyway, but oh my god oh my god oh my god my god...

I GOT THE TRANSFER???

apparently i am. later that night at about 10.30pm i got a call from the new HR and i had to play surprise. ok this is so confirmed.

wow i was so ecstatic. i felt surreal, like my spirit just jumped out of my body saying banzaiiii and then came back in a second.

this is so classic example of how things turn out when you least expect it. this is like when you thought the causeway would have heavy traffics but ended up with a smooth ride, or the time when you thought nothing worth checking out the cheap sale but ended up buying lots of ripped-off discounts.

i mean, when i got a mail saying this another branch was laying off people, i kinda put my hope off. after all, when everything went mute after you asked about the result, in normal world that was never a good sign.

but i guess, good things do come for boys who wait.

at least i hope it would be good. mind you it was not easy making this decision. this is not like deciding what movie to watch for a night out, or whether my car would be white or black. this is like jumping off the ship and hope there is no shark in the water.

and i have not even told my parents yet. i told my friend this just now and she said, what a fillial son you are. i know she meant to be sarcastic, but if this sudden move could cause heart-attack, then maybe i am being fillial.

i'm just afraid how things could turn out, like people would get sad and stuff. i just like the way things are, at least for the next 2 months or so before i make my move. i felt just like becky bloomwood when she was having secrets about her 2 weddings from her parents, and look at how did that turn out.

ok maybe i should give my father a call. or maybe an e-mail saying...

'let's touch base. i got important news to tell you.'




...ed

life lockdown

i was behind the wheel waiting for the light to turn green when i saw a car almost hit a motorbike on the opposite road, causing the poor biker to slid and fall down.

ouch.

while i was glad i was not the person in the car or that injured biker, i couldn't help feeling how things could change in instant seconds.

i mean, one minute the only thing in that biker's mind could be what he should have for dinner, but out of a sudden situation changed and i believe all he wants to do now is strangle that driver alive. well at least i wanted to.

you bet i drove a bit more carefully after i witness that all the way home, feeling grateful of all the road near-misses i've had.

i guess this kind of things occur in front of our eyes are meant as a remembrance. i don't know about other people, but i'm sure guilty of taking things for granted sometimes.

be it being reckless on the road taking my safety and lawsuit-free life for granted, or playing catch and run ignoring people that matters taking their affection for granted, or even being too stagnant and easy-going at work taking the job security for granted.

after all, we never know when things could turn to the worse. just like the recent economy meltdown. few months ago my worry was which destinations to select for a year-end trip but voila, all i care now is to secure my position in the office.

especially now that it is almost confirmed that i'll be staying put in this island. to some extent, it does feel a bit relieved that i don't have to trade my current life, even though for something that could be better, but hey, i've learned to believe divine intervention by now.

you see, the company extention branch-out in the north that i almost joined last year if not for a sudden blank-out during interviews when the interviewer asked why i wanted to work there, ended up laying off 95% of its people.

ok i could be among the 5% (positive thinking) but if i were not, i'd like to believe that it was work of a higher being.

so now i look at my home and life in general from a whole new more-appreciative eyes. but as time goes by, i would tend to forget and go back to point zero and start taking everything for granted again.

until i see another near-miss incident.



...ed

last night was a flyer

Singapore Flyer

as what the stone says...

yes. i went to the singapore flyers. ok i know this Singapore Flyer has been opened to public since.. like forever (**i checked this, it was opened on 14-feb-2008. yes, on valentines day which is so 'cliche) but i guess, just like everything else that are close to us, we tend to ignore them because they are near anyway so we thought we should be able to visit them anytime we want. i mean, i'm sure there are many parisians who haven't even go to eiffel tower yet, or egyptians who never been to the pyramids, or malaysians who haven't been into the ISA cells.

anyway, the real story is, i was driving through raffles boulevard heading to marina square when i discovered the singapore flyer entrance. this might sound stupid but even though i know the flyer is somewhere close to AYE that i always drive through, i never really properly figured out where the entrance is.

until accidentally today.

singapore flyers in many colours

ok maybe this flyer isn't the first-thing-in-the-world invention at all, but as it is one of the prominent landmark in the heart of singapore city, i did feel a bit surreal to finally see the base structure. it's like when you visited a friend's house for the first time, and felt like you know him more thereafter.

we didn't ride the flyer though. i know the flyer looks impressive and everything but there is no way i'm gonna spend 30 bucks for that merry-go-round ride, watching singapore skyscrappers view that i've seen like a million times it's practically already etched inside my corneas.

maybe in the future though, when i play host to some outside oh-my-god-i-visited-singapore-so-i-must-ride-the-flyer visitors.

where people pay to get locked up for 30 minutes of their lives

this was from the spot where i realized that the flyer was actually moving. ok i know it should be moving but the movement is so slow that it is not obvious at all from afar. as captivating as it looks, one cells exchanged people one after another before rising up high in the sky, i'm pretty captivated to the view underneath the boarding deck as well. they planted this whole mini-forest down there, complete with fountains and banana trees. i expect if i look hard enough, i would find tarzan there too, not sleeping on the park bench because then he would be fined 200 dollars, according to the new singapore law released last week (can you believe that? we cannot sleep in the park bench in singapore anymore. so if you have 200 dollars to spend, get a hotel room instead. you have been warned.)

mini-jungle underneath the boarding deck

there were shops inside the building but not many people in them. it's a joy really, to be visiting a place in the city on friday night that is not packed with people in singapore. it's like you have just found a secret underground celebrity-only spot. hip, grand but not crowded.

except this particular place...

when i first saw this bunch of legs from outside the display window, at a glance i thought the mannequins were taking a rest. until i realized that the legs were actually moving and there were zillions of small fishes nibbling on them. like they could feel anything. i say, since you pay 30 dollars for the this 30 minutes fish-nibbling session, why not put something more prominent and more value-for-money inside the water? like alligators.

Marina Bay

from the singapore flyers, we then walked down to marina bay. you know, the marina bay is just around my backyard (everywhere is around our backyards in this tiny island), but believe it or not, i think this was only my only second time being there this year, after the new year countdown.

gosh. have i been this unhip and boring?

the most recognized singapore skyscrappers view

i had camera on my hand and this night view of singapore most famous skyscrappers in front of me. so what should i do? snap them, although i've snapped this view many times before.

but wait. what's that construction underneath the highway bridge? are they building new road or something?

it looks like it. what i realized about singapore is, they are very fast in putting new stuff out. one moment it's not there, then u look away one second, and it's there. most clear example is the ERP. i mean, how many times was i shocked to find a new ERP gantry suddenly popping out like mushrooms after the rain while i drive through my normal route? just last week i found one ERP popping out near the eunos exit on the PIE (my line when i saw that was - damn you blood-sucking LTA).

i snapped these from roadside contruction board notice

ok according to the notice board above, they are building a pedestrian bridge across the marina bay.

you know what? i think that is such a good idea. many times when i drove through the AYE across marina bay, i wish i was walking instead so i could stop and enjoy the view for a moment, and embrace the metropolitan life that i'm living. it's a feeling i guess new yorkers feel everytime they walk through the time square or the rockerfeller center, feeling every bit as though they were casts of friends on the way to the central perk, and that they really belong there...

am i making much sense? anyway, it looks like a nice modern bridge. full stop.

looking at the other side, the night was still young from the sounds and lights of (which i believe is) the marina bay casino construction site. who won the bid to build a casino here last time? was it the sands or something? anyway, the construction is going full gear to get this casino up. i'm so excited. not for the casino as in i want to gamble, but to check-out the whole new singapore outlook. i mean, how many of us could say we spend the day hanging around casinos? exactly.

under the spotlight

just beside the esplanade (or as the locals fondly call 'the durian'), we heard some balinese kind of mystic music being played. i was like wow, since when the ministry of sound dj changed trend to playing this kind of traditonal music? i mean, how are the disco-goers gonna strutt their stuff to this anyway?

wait. can we really hear the music that clearly if it is really from the ministry of sound disco bar?

oh some guys are playing the instruments in the performance arena just beside the esplanade near the ministry of sound. ok this makes more sense. apparently there were some traditional music and dance festival going on and it was the balinese music session.

me? not really in the mood the check this out, so after snapping some photos, off i went, faster than you could say 'babi guling'.

submerging in balinese feel with the fullerton in background

ok basically, those were what i really did last night, nothing out-of-this-world but like the flyer, we don't always have to be on full speed to be high up.



...ed