i only say it 'coz i can

it's 7am in the morning.

i'm writing on my new chair i bought in IKEA yesterday before my parents arrived. my father kept on dragging the dining chair everytime he wanted to use my pc because the old one was too small for him, so i figured i should buy a bigger one.

plus, i really need to be comfortable in order to get all the creative juice out when i write my blog, you know like jk rowling used to sit in her favourite cafe while writing harry potter. especially when it has been awhile since i last wrote.

not intentionally of course.

blame it on intel motherboard. when i decided to upgrade my pc, my friend was like, 'take intel it's more stable with intel processor'. strike one.

then the shop people (bliss in sim lim square) after he opened my old pc to transfer my hard disk to my new assembled one, 'oh you were using matsonic. lousy motherboard'. strike two.

and so i foolishly agreed. strike three game over.

take this. only in the second night, the 965RX intel motherboard suddenly shut down while in idling mode, kicking my house electric fuse off in the process. whatever happened was so serious that the fuse kept kicking back when i tried to restore the fuse.

i imagine the people in matsonic would laugh off their chair if they know about this. i could go in their advertisement saying how my matsonic never blew up as opposed to this well-known 'brand I'.

i am never gonna use intel mother board again.

why the hell that it took a week (which equals to like forever in my life without a working pc) to get a replacement? i mean, what if i were the man in pentagon in front of a red button with the word 'press to launch missile' written in bold on it? do i get a week off because the damn replacament motherboard has yet to arrive?

it's ridiculous. and just to get replacement. i shudder to think how long it takes to get it repaired next time.

by the time i got back my life, i mean my pc running, i already got back my car from the workshop so there was little left to bitch about what happened in the car park earlier.

actually, not that i would. bitch about i mean. well not much anyway. it all started when i went down to the basement carpark one innocent saturday afternoon to go out to buy lunch and i saw my car front bumper dented.

my car was hit! my not-even-3-months-old car. apparently the car parking at the side brushed it off when pulling out of the car park.

so there was i standing didn't know what to do and was about to cry out loud 'oh god why me' when i spotted this white paper slipped under the wiper.

it reads, 'knocked into your front bumper. please contact me. XXXXXXX roy'.

and so i did. the culprit was actually a hyundai matrix car with a 28 years old owner who later, finished each of his phone messages to me with 'sorry for causing such inconvenience'.

that, my friend, in metropolitan singapore social life, is equivalent to a dalai lama act.

how can i swear to such a person? i almost wanted to take him as my godbrother instead.

he offered to pay me himself if the repair cost was about $200 but when you go to the original workshop, they aren't exactly gonna have cost-cutting in mind when repairing. it ended up a whopping... you know i don't even know how much it really costs. the other party is the one going to pay anyway so does it really matter for me?

"my 'defeated car'
thereafter when i was on the road driving the nissan sunny temporarily provided by my insurans company, i'd look longingly everytime i spotted a black latio on the road.

and it does leave a dent phsycologically in me too. it's like you had sex the first time and think you'll never be virgin again. everything changed. now everytme i park my car, i'd chose the spot with a wall or pillar on the non-exit side so none will brush off my car ever again. the last thing i want, is to go nissan workshop and being greeted, 'oh you again', innocent or guilty.

the second last thing i want? for this dry season to go on.

oh god.


...ed

good things come for boys who wait

i feel like i'm on a dry spell season.

it's one of those time when it seems like everybody around me is suddenly busy with something and i'm left in my own time zone. alone, with a phone that never beeps i had to make sure the message service is working.

have i taken too many ppl for granted during my happy hours?

i just know there must be something wrong in my system when i actually look forward to go to work tomorrow just to enjoy my colleagues' company.

i mean, that can't just be right. people should loathe their workplace.

like this 2 engineers who just quit this month. for our department, that was a bit too drastic. obviously they hated it there. one decided to divorce engineering and take business, while the other, well he quit after barely half a year, surely he won't be singing the company love song.

but the thing is, recently my outer associates were not the very best of a company, if you know what i mean. it's as if they were brainwashed or something, or have a sudden selective memory. for all i know, they could be singing that fob's 'thnks fr th mmrs' and i'm sure it's about me.

although i definitely don't mind being on the singing side of the microphone.

i think i must go out more. like detour a bit on the way back from work or something. i must stop getting home on time to catch a show or just to be online. this lots of talk and no play is making me a dull dull boy. the next time ppl buzz me up on saturday night asking why i'm not out, i better don't have to come up with lame excuses and feel like a loser.

ok that'll be my life plan. at least until my parents come to visit me end of this month.

one of my relatives, my father's cousin who lives nearby is getting married early next month and she invited my parents. my parents were like, 'oh good, we never attend a wedding in singapore before'.

the truth is, i always feel like i'm going back 10 years whenever i'm with them. emotionally i mean. they are parents, i will always have to act by the book. not that i'm so like a villain without their presence, it's like i have to wake up early in the morning, and have shower before 7 kind of things.

and the book also says you should not colour your hair. so i bought that black dye hair spray when i was in mustafa center the other day. only after that i sat down and realized, what the hell was i thinking? spray my hair black everytime after shower?

i am so screwed.

tomorrow we'll have our 7th round of bowling league match after work. as the captain, i'm proud to say that we're 4th in the standing now. although i'm a bit worried about tomorrow's game. i tried very hard to balance the strategy to win, and being political to let weaker member play at the same time.

win or lose, at least i'll not be alone with my phone that never beeps then.


...ed

the amazing incidents

i watched spiderman 3 at plaza singapura yesterday after work. man it's hard to get hold of the tickets, isn't it? i had to cancel the plan to watch on friday because they were sold out. can you believe that? we have like a billion cinemas here in singapore and there were still not enough.

i like the movie, entertainment wise. storyline is not so good, i think the 2nd sequel was better. it's hard not to choose doc oc over that boring cum gloomy sandman and that 'how-the-hell-you-could-become-venom' venom.

one thing i learned from spiderman 3 is that if you pray hard enough, help will fell from above.. in terms of black foreign paranormal substance that can turn you into a superhuman so you can beat your enemies to death.

of course that's in a perfect world. or at least the world where people just pray hard. in our present world, we had to bare all the difficulty ourselves.

you know i never thought stress could kill you, but apparently this local HP girl who recently died after 8 hours working non-stop on her laptop proved otherwise. to think that she consistently woke up at 3.30am and started working at 4.30am, she must be a real life superwoman.

i sincerely hope she gets the rest she deserved now.

i am so blessed that the only common thing i have with her is probably the fact that we write blogs. sometime ago i took this online test to check if i'm under stress.

do you feel stressful at work? no
do you worry about your health?
do you lose sleep thinking about something? no
do you worry about your financial capabilities? no
do you worry about your family? no...
..etc etc

ok maybe a little for that last one, if they pester me about marriage. but the fact is, it's official i'm 'understress'. come on, i took this test during working hours, how stressful could i get?

even so after our little trip to batam island last weekend. finally i can say i'm a true singaporean. PR i mean. in the end all of us could make it to the trip. and the rain chose to stop falling too! i felt like everything just fell into place.

ok maybe not totally. ok so we were kinda conned into eating expensive tourist-price nasi padang lunch after we arrived but that's ok. after all it was just like 8 dollars per person. not even enough to buy a carl's juniour set.

then 3 of us decided to go back before nightime. duh. talk about anti-climax. i mean, you paid 30 dollars for the ferry so might as well make the trip worth it, right? at least my memory of batam does not mainly based on getting conned by the nasi padang restaurant.

at night, we paid the entrance fee to the live band executive club when we as the hotel guest should get in free. still ok too. it was just 5 dollars. did i mention the band was good? the voices were good it was a pity the music was a bit too loud. this is the first time i entered a club and able recognize half the song played.

other than those small little tiny blunders, we also went to this spa on top of formosa hotel, and tried the whole body scrub massage or lulur as the local calls it. it was only 16 dollars for 1.5 hours! cheaper than bangkok.

after they massaged you apparently to loosen your skin, they put this sandy grainy substance on your skin and began scrubbing. it felt good at first, until the liquid evaporated making you feel like a piece of plywood being scrubbed by sandpaper. i was like, oh god my legs gonna get pointy skinny.

at least in the end i felt relaxed (as if i was ever stressed-out) and more importantly my skin felt a few years younger. not that i needed it, the messeurs already thought i was 27. hmmm i must be ageing a lot within these few months because just last april, this guy in tanjong pagar club thought i was 24.

i tried the locally famous avocado chocolate too. it was good, although to tell you the truth, i think the sudden headache i got after that was caused by that drink. i'm not sure how, but must be the high calories content sent the blood rush all over my head or something.

we paid this street band to play us songs, and it was good

these kids enjoyed having their photos taken while one of their brothers working

before we went back the next day, i bought myself a sk8er shirt ($10), a korean-made adidas shoes ($24) and chocolate brownie kukus ($3, which all my colleagues loved it).

see who says you need to go madagascar to have fun? after the kenya airlines nairobi-bound plane crash few days ago in africa, i'm not that eager anymore to go ahead with nairobi trip plan.

that is at least until some black foreign paranormal substance drop onto me and turn me into some kind of superhuman.


...ed

under my umbrella

i'm a bit pissed off.

i mean, we've been planning this batam trip since like forever. this is like, a meet-up since the last bbq party ages ago. when we finally managed to get a date that everyone could make it, why must there be someone that has to pull out?

i know sometimes we need to save money, need to pay car, house and perhaps feed the whole african continents, but it's batam for gods sake. how much can you spend there?

like 50 cents.

anyway, i'm still going. i'm never the one that acts depending on other people. some people may find it unbrearable eating on their own but if i'm hungry and alone, i'd rather eat by myself than ended up being alone,hungry and feeling sorry for myself.

plus, down 1 to 6 people is barely a big deal. i almost think i can end this silent treatment by sunday.

so according to plan, we'll board the ferry on saturday morning. all set and ready to go. in theory at least. i haven't pack, i haven't changed my money and everything but again, it's batam, not madagascar.

i'm just afraid that it rains this weekend. today, we had to cancel the ultimate frisbee again after it rained too last week. such a bummer. especially since i've already set my working mind to stop at 3pm.

this time the rain was even heavier, and up till late afternoon when we were supposed to depart for marina park, as if giving us message, 'so whatchu you gonna do about it??'.

talk about the weather bitch.

so no frisbee. i believe if it's not meant to be, it won't be. everything happens for a reason, that's what i learned from lost. that, and never take flight from sydney.

today during lunch, my friend informed me of singapore airlines 60th anniversary discount, which includes ticket to perth for 60 dollars. cheap right? but when i simulated the booking, apparently the taxes, fuel surcharge etc etc totalled up to 576 dollars.

where's the logic in that?

at least when phil stacey was voted out from american idol today, i felt like finally things are restored into order.

after the show i cleaned my house a bit, and mopped the floor. i'll have visitors tomorrow and i won't want them to come to a dusty and messy house. coz this is what i do, put a good show in front of people.

even if they screw me up by pulling out from our holiday plan.


...ed

i'm going verklempt

we were supposed to have the ultimate frisbee game after work last thursday but it got cancelled because of heavy rain in the morning. it was part of our department's on-going team building activities throughout the first half of the year.

it must have been love... (ok can't resist that hehe).. it must have been ages, since i last hold a frisbee, no, make it ages since i last saw a frisbee.

i don't know where you come from but in singapore, frisbee is a kind of thing you might find in the museum. you know, unless it is made into some playstation or nintendo wii fi games in the future. i even have to explain to this friend what a frisbee is, 'that plate thing that you throw away like a flying saucer', and he was like, 'what's so great about that?'.

i guess that's why not many of them were keen to play, especially those married ones. i don't know, seems like marriage not only turning you into sudden unattractive, out-of-shaped and rapid-ageing person, apparently it makes you boring too.

anyway, i was going to have my fun when the damn rain spoiled the day. i mean, where is the damn rain when i needed to take a nap in the blazing hot afternoon just now?

at least because of that, i managed to finish prison break season one. at last michael and the gang managed to get out of the prison but unfortunately missed the flight to get away from the vicinity. damn.

lucky i'm not watching it on first prime time show, imagine have to wait the whole summer to know what happens next.

but i did watch lost last week the prime time show, when they found this girl who had just dropped into the island by parachute, and mentioned to her that they are the survivors of that crashed sydney-bound flight. to which, this girl replies, 'but that's impossible. they found the plane, and there were no survivors'.

dang! and then that irritating makes-you-wanna-burn-your-tv 'to be continued' sign. double damn.

i'm supposed to survey the facts about batam tonight since we plan to go there this coming weekend, but it's already 11pm and i'm not even done with this blog yet. plus, i really want to find out what happens to micheal, did he manage to cross the border to mexico?

it's just batam anyway. no big deal. it's near, we can always return. it's not like it's madagascar.

talking about madagascar, i remember watching american idol 'idol gives back' last week, when they featured all those horrible and ugly sides of poor african people who have not enough to eat and medicine to stay healthy.

man, it was heart-breaking. i mean, i went to east point challenger just now, again, to survey the desktop pc that they have on display, thinking hard if i better buy the components in bundle from sim lim square instead and upgrade my pc, when apparently what those poor african people have in their minds always is how to survive the next day.

even when i was there in madagascar, seeing all those poor bare-footed kids who followed us around when we walked though their village, we should have given them something. like food or money. instead, what did we do? busy taking photos.

what a depressing thought.

urghh i'm going verklempt. talk among yourselves, i'll give you a topic...



...ed

one is such a lonely number

i don't understand why johorians working in singapore always have to cross the causeway going back to their hometown everytime they are not working.

it's like, 'hey what are you doing this weekend?' and they'll be like, 'oh i'm going back jb'. then i'll be like, 'didn't you just go back 5 minutes ago?'.

seriously. i mean, i have family too, but i don't the urge to meet them every single week, or every month for that matter. and i do love them a lot.

plus, everytime i cross the causeway i get headache. i don't know why. maybe because it's messy and all over the place, or the fact that i feel like i'm being watched as if i'm carrying $100,000 inside my wallet. or just that i'm a big dickhead in my own country.

so i'd never made a trip there without a box of that red panadol extra, which ironically never been sold in malaysia. i guess it's specially for those like me that tend to behave like fish in shallow water everytime we passed through customs.

and so there were just usual nothing-to-boast-about-or-say-i'm-cool activities over last weekend with my non-johorians friend. i wish i had the gut to go and try this water skiing at east coast park, but the thought of being thrown over and then have to swim all the way to the shore is just a little bit too much to bear.

so instead, i resorted to playing bowling in yishun, then tennis at my place. now that rafael nadal is winning again, tennis is back at the frontline of my life. last night's match when he spanked federer in monte carlo final is really a match to behold.

that kid is already like a multi millionaire, isn't he? and i'm not even in a place to comfortably buy his rackets. i could actually, but i'd rather settle down with a cheaper version. in US today, a 13 year old won $25k by being the fastest text messager in the states. even at home in suntec city yesterday, a 21 year old girl student won herself a chevrolet by closely guessing the number of kisses on car competition.

made me think what the hell i'm doing at work when there's so much way to get money outside the office nowadays.

for me, the only time when i'm outside the office, is to spend money. on sunday i almost purchased a new pc desktop at east point challenger. it's embedded with intel core 2 duo processor (which i have no idea exactly what's the new technology is all about except it's fast, and more importantly, latest), 512 ddr ram, 250G hard disk and 512MB graphic card.

in short, the spec is awesome. when the salesman said they could minus off $300 if i let go the flatscreen monitor since i already have one at home, i felt like snow white just being offered the red poison apple by the evil witch. and bare in mind that was after i bitched so much when i found out all latest pc comes with vista.

the thing is, i'm not sure my current softwares and peripherals are compatible with it. for instance, my hp ipaq active sync. remember, that thing that runs my life? now if this one is not working later with vista, i'll really be like a fish in shallow water.

even with that red panadol extra in my hand.


...ed

Gimme' that Sunday school answer

my heart deeply goes to those perished in virginia tech campus shooting and their immediate family and friends.

it was all just plain wrong. school classrooms should be the place to nurture our future but yesterday it became the place where the present ended.

tragically.

i know this was the outcome of a seriously disturbed person, but look at the world that turned him into the beast that he became.

i tell you, the world that finds movies like the hostel and turistas entertaining, and filled with people who finds physically crushed bodies from various misfortunes in forwarded e-mails amusing and worth forwarding further.

which is just sickening. apparently i can no longer eat meat nowadays thank you very much.

there are tonnes of other things to share, right? nicer things. like, i don't know, good wishes, a guide to painting your neighbour's trash gold, or even how to survive a day long boring lectures without losing our minds.

i had one today at work. apparently we were to leave all in-hand assignments, which would potentially cause us trouble in next monday's weekly update meeting, and head to this training session conducted by this guy who flew all the way from the phillipines.

don't get me wrong, i'm all for upgrading ourselves to new knowlegde you know, but what good it could give when half way through the class i started imagining if the lecturer had 4 more arms attached on his back he'd look very much like dr octavious?

then what i could think was gosh i wanted to go off early, catch american idol and continue watching that borat movie at home.

not that i'm supportive over that movie's idea of making fun of people by pulling offensive stunts. this is exactly what screwing up our world that i mentioned earlier, but hey i'm just curious to see what's it all about. i mean, how can you correct things that you never know how it goes wrong, right?

plus, it's not that i'm watching it in the cinema or even buy the dvd anyway.

on a quiet night like this, it made my day when i found out there's actually people out there that wanted to link my blog to theirs. ok it's only one person but i'm still happy nevertheless. i'm just sorry i couldn't reply to that request earlier.

since i stupidly hardreset-ed my hp ipaq without knowing the effect thereafter, my life has been a bit of an upside down. since when i became so dependant of the pda calender, i've never realized till now. it's like having my own secretary in my pocket and not blowing me off.

now i have no idea when to top up my loans bank accounts, when to change my goldfish aquarium filter, or when to call my mother. since i higlighted my hair bright brown and thus can no longer go back to kl to visit them until new hair grows, the least i can do is to just ask them if everything's well over there.

'coz in case you haven't notice, it's a scary scary world out there.



...ed

why do all good things come to an end

today we had a small birthday celebration in office cafeteria hall during lunch for those of us that were born around this month, which includes me. they ordered in canadian pizza (mainly because its buy 1 for 1 free policy), some calamaries, garlic breads and of course, (and i'm so glad it's not fruit) chocolate cake.

i'm fortunate to have such group of friends as colleagues. it makes life in the office not as dreadful. not that it's a living hell in the office but at least it gave something to look forward to today other than the american idol with jennifer lopez. we already missed 'heroes' as they are busy creating hype for its finale end of the month.

i enjoyed the food. ok, considering the calories i consumed from all the cheesy pizza and sinfully-creamed cake especially now that i'm already lack of exercise after my everyday car trip takes away my power walk when i used to commute, i think i enjoyed the gathering more.

more so than the fact that it's my birthday. gone are the days i would wait till the clock striked 12 at midnight before sleeping and wear bright coloured underwear for good luck going to work the next morning. i guess, we all get used to birthdays after some time in our lives to only treat it just like any other day. i mean, do you see an 80-year old blowing candles? (which is a good thing, really. imagine how many smoke detectors would get ignited everytime there are birthday celebrations?).

instead, during my actual birthday, we went to see this movie "sunshine" after work, starring, well, some guys and michelle yeoh. to tell you the truth i've never heard about this movie before, definitely not the way i'm anticipating spiderman 3 or the latest pirates of the carribean movie. i actually won this movie tickets from this shaw contest website that my friend sent me the link to.

which in my life's context, is very unusual. i rarely win anything. ever. well except movie tickets from starhub periodically but that was because i'm their hub club member. if any, i hope this win would be the indication of what my luck will be this year. i mean, could there be any more optimistic movie title than sunshine?

although the movie was just ok for me. they talked too much. einstein could have spoken less explaning his theories. i guess when the whole movie is based inside the spaceship (and about a second or two on the sun surface), there isn't much space to create actions into. one moment michelle yeoh was holding this plant and before you know it, she was stabbed from behind and die. where's the excitement??

luckily i already got all the excitement i've ever yearned (for now at least) during my bbq party the week before, so you see i was not expecting much. hey at least this is much better than 4 weddings and a funeral which i fall asleep to. and have i mentioned they got michelle yeoh?

i organized the bbq by the pool at my place on saturday night. i ordered satay and sambal stingray from bbqwholesale.com, prepared fried macaroni myself so at least i have something personal to take credit for and i got this popular strawberry chocolate cheesecake from cheesecake cafe in siglap (i know this place from surveying forums in the net).

but the real blast was my dearest friends, including 2 from bangkok who flew over specially to attend this. could there be friends any cooler? not only that, this guy pulled a santa clause later that night distributing presents to us from bangkok, obviously regardless to the fact that we were definitely not being holy last year. it was not even winter.

i got a cool home planetarium. gosh i just love it. now instead of pathetic cartoon-like fake-looking 2-seconds-glowing thingy i have on my bedroom ceilings, i can have a galaxy worth of stars. now i wish for shooting stars.

i swear it looks better on my ceiling than here, but you got the idea

ok back to the bbq. we bbq'ed (if that's a word) and ate intensively for like half an hour and then acted crazy for the next 2 hours. we laughed 99% of the time it was a wonder we could munched food in between those howlings that made a banshee sounded sentimental. i ever glanced at the next pit and they looked all quiet and dull. i mean, it's a bbq for god's sake, not a funeral.

i think all the surrounding blocks could hear us playing poker card game bluffing, which i ended up becoming the champion. never did i know that i'm such a natural at lying. i must remember to incorporate this talent more frequently in my daily life, or at least in my resume.


the strawberry chocolate cheesecake we had

not wanting the night to end so soon, we then decided to head up for karaoke in orchard cineleasure k-box the whole night. it was an impulse. in normal day, being potentially deprived of the night sleep and yet being charged 30 dollars for it almost sounds blasphemous, but that night it felt like a right thing to do.

well, until the next morning anyway. i have had my share of a party hangover before but not as bad as this. my gastric pain kicked in, either from the screamings all night long which simon cowell could drop dead to, or from overeating during the bbq.

i don't know. what i knew was it made me not even able to stand straight, nor consume any food without feeling nauseous. if i don't know better, i'd say i'm having morning sickness. to my horor, on my way back after deciding i could not accompany my bangkok friends to roam around town any longer, i even almost dozed off while driving alone the PIE.

i am very lucky to be alive.

and that's something worth celebrating for. you know, for not being dead rather than just being born.

that's what works for me now.



...ed

a pill a day makes the sin goes away

yes. that was what written on the label of this small bottle that looked every bit like a health product, only it was inside this gift shop at plaza singapura.

i had wanted so many things in the past, but wow, this is on top of my list now. well, since last friday. who cares about recent findings about the 9th planet in our solar system, or outstanding achievements like becoming the first asian female to cross the antartica? because tell me how could those contribute to the benefit of the mankind?

invent a pill like this and you'll be helping lots, and i do mean lots, lots of people. i mean, i could go to bangkok for a 3-day trip, and all i need is 3 pills to enjoy 3 days worth of 'innocent' pain-the-town-red-no-make-it-bloody-red partying.

i'd like to go in and inspect further but the shop was closed. for all i know this could be one of those mysterious shops you always see in the movies. you know, those that owned by a spooky old lady in witch-like dress selling innocent antique stuff, which then turned out to be some sort of powerful magical artifact that was passed down from generations or something.

it was already half past 10 on that friday night when we came across this shop after late dinner at thai express. i was there to watch teenage mutant ninja turtle the movie after work. i don't think it was very nice. the movie i mean. i'd give it, say, 6/10. it was not bad actually, pretty entertaining but it didn't get me jump off my cinema chair (not that i ever done that but i heard people actually gave standing ovations to jennifer hudson after her show-stopping 'and i'm telling you i'm not going' number in dreamgirls).

like simon cowell always say, it's forgettable. after all, what could you expect from a bunch of bipedal turtles and a rat with a walking stick? i mean, the only thing i remembered after that movie was how much cheese nachos i ate and gosh, i'd have to work out over the weekend to shed those extra fats i consumed.

having a car which serves you few steps from your house elevator all the way to the your workplace elevator obviously doesn't do you any good. other than losing the chance join in the fun grabbing a free copy of todays newspaper every morning at the mrt station, i also now lost the luxury of absent-minded eatings while still maintaining proportional figure.

nevertheless, i'm proud to say that my car already hit 1000km mark today while i was on my way to mc ritchie reservoir, on my car's 23rd day.

i drove quite a distant. first from simei to braddel(my friend's place), then braddel to west coast(to visit haw par tiger balm park but turned out it was under construction. damn!), then to mc ritchie reservoir(no reason, it was on impulse), back to braddel(to get rid of my old tv inside my car bonnet to my friend's house), to tampines ikea(to check out newly opened giants, which was so crowded with people we eventually left the half full shopping cart behind those queueing customers at the cashiers, wasting my one dollar cart deposit), back to braddel(sent off my friend) and finally returned to simei.

not counting yesterday's quest, which went simei to yishun(to my friends' house), to ang mo kio(for karaoke), to east coast(for dinner), back to simei(my friend wanted to borrow some songs), to yishun(to send my friends off) before reaching back simei nearly 2am sunday morning.

i expect these could be a very good resume if i ever decide to become a taxi driver after retirement.

during brief stopover in mc ritchie, my first photos with my new car


the karaoke in ang mo kio k-box was fun, the 4 hours we were in there felt just like 40 minutes. ok we spent like an hour trying to figure how to search songs using the remote (call me old-fashioned but i beg to have the old song books system for browse through, which i think more user friendly), but after that was all quality singing and feel good time. by the end of the session when our souls returned to our bodies, we found out we were already standing on the sofas.

think about it, we didn't even need any sin-eraser pills.


...ed

i (who have nothing)

i forgot there'd be departmental meeting at 9am just now. i already had my breakfast, which was a waste considering they always have refreshments prepared. this morning we had tuna sandwich, that rolled-bread pastry thingy, which was quite nice, and of course coffee to keep everybody's awake. i must remember to put my hp ipaq alert more than 15 minutes before the next meeting.

as usual, the highlight of the meeting was the refreshments. mainly because i didn't bother to attend the technical presentations following the general update by our big boss. first, the topics presented were not related to my job scopes and second, i'd rather leave and work in the lab which would determine the amount of bonus money i'd get at the end of the quarter.

in fact, after sitting through almost an hour for the general update, you know, on how the company is doing, the market share percentages blah blah blah... i concluded that this should have been skipped too. i mean, what good could come from seeing Nand price consistent free-falling trend shown on the screen? it was so demoralizing, we might as well slack around attending meeting the whole morning instead of working our asses off. oh wait, we were already doing that!

well, almost anyway. normally we'd go for lunch at 11.30am so there was nothing much to do in between. i love lunch time because we get to eat like 5 minutes and then talk crap for half an hour, when we discuss about everything under the sun with work related stuff strictly prohibited. well, juicy gossips about our fellow colleagues are still heartily most welcomed though.

today's topics included about tv license, triggered by me after receiving notice of payment advice yesterday in my mailbox. should we or should we not pay, because it's so damn expensive. do you know they charge $110 per year for those crappy tv programs from which you watch heroes half a season late and bree still slim and not pregnant? i mean, even american idol is shown after it becomes old news considering reviews already written all over the net by the time it's on air.

talking about american idol, gosh i just love jordin sparks rendition of "i (who have nothing)" last night. what a dramatic number. how come they don't make that kind of songs nowadays? one that makes u wanna jump off the bridge and die? songs nowadays are so lame. who wants to hear how to spell 'glamourous' over and over again? or yodelling for that matter?

today after work we had our 2nd bowling league match. i did not playing this time but i promised i'd be there to support my teammates, and most importantly to join the practise game before the actual kick-off. however, when the clock striked 5.15pm just now i realized i have almost 2 hours before they'd meet at bowling alley to practise, and another hour before the match started. so what should i do? i drove back instead.

i'm sure they'd do fine without me. even if they don't, their opponent tonight was the team which thrashed all the way to victory with almost perfect 19-1 score last week, so tell me what can we expect this week? plus, i planned to go swimming now that i lost my daily power walk from my house to the train station to go to work after i got my car, and i just ate one hole stick of crunch ice-cream at tea break, not to mention double breakfast i had in the morning.

but it was raining when i reached home.in the end, i just laze around in front of tv watching sumo which i taped off nhk channel, and then american idol result. lame.

now i really do feel like jumping off a bridge.



...ed

top marks for not tryin'

when i take mrt, seems like everybody has their ears plugged with earphones. seriously, almost everybody. i expect even if you scream a vulgar word in the midle of the coach, it could be left unnoticed.

not that i blame them, because i do it too.

there's nothing much to do in within those lengthy ride. it's not like we can engange in a conversation with fellow commuters. in an asian country like this, even a friendly smile would be mistaken as ill-intention gesture.

and we cannot sleep too, because in case a heavily pregnant lady comes in and happen to stand in front of us, someone would take photo of us and post it in stomp.com.sg.

that was why when i was browsing through tebrau city mall with my friends last saturday, i found it very hard to resist the mp3 player that i saw. i'm proud to say i managed to refrain myself, until the next day when i ended up buying in tampines best denki.

the outings in jb was fun. actually the sole reason was to attend our friend's engangement ceremony in her house in permas jaya shortly after noon. ok actually quite a lengthy after noon we almost afraid the groom might not come, we were about to start stone-paper-scissors to select the replacement.

i just wish someone would tell me what an engangement ceremony was all about, so i wouldn't have missed taking the ring giving photos. how should i know, i'm sure even in my previous life i've never been through an engangement ceremony before. plus, the living room was so full with female relatives i felt like they were invading the world.

my poor friend was all red and steam, which fully pardonable considering i have just ruined the most important day of her life. ok she did not explode, but next time i must remember to ask for details whenever anybody requested my expertise to take their function photos. i should really start treating this task like a pro.

other than that unfortunate glitch, everything else was a blast, we already made plans for next outings while chatting after dinner at that steamboat restaurant in tebrau city 3rd floor. i'm dying for a karaoke session, i don't even remember when i had my last one. god knows i have plenty of practise from motor-mouthing since i got my car.

the only outings i'm sure not to put my foot in, is the ADLians reunion gathering. i kept on receiving their mails regarding the matter in between analysing failed parts in the lab today.

the problem with these people, who are my fellow hostel friends when i was in high school in kl, is that they keep on pointing fingers to find gathering organizers. in the end, nothing happens. so this is a very rare occasion that someone actually suggested something. i would go and buy 4D today if it was not prohibited.

anyway, i'm not going. first, they plan to do it in cherating. shoot me but i don't even know where that is. second, we were not close anyway. it's a long story but let's just say all of us were too immature then to appreciate each others' presence.

and lastly, the fact that it was a family day gathering. i mean, they expect ppl to buy colouring books as a present for their kids' games. colouring books! it's the last thing in my shopping list, it's almost taboo.

whose kids use colouring books nowadays anyway, or those join-the-dots craps. they hear to fall out boys.

just look in the mrt.



...ed

i dream of blogging

i was reading newspaper during my usual after-lunch-before-1pm hang-out routine when i spotted this news about this sleeping pill drugs in the united states that could cause some weird behaviours including eating and driving while sleeping.

get this. they said some even went to bed and woke up after being arrested by the roadside in their underwears or night dress.

haha that's hillarious. we so can use this reason whenever we have the urge to drive in our undergarments.

some said they found chocolate wrappers all around their bedside in the morning. some even said to have gained 50kg from all those mysterious midnight snacks.

ok this sucks. if you're willing to forego food restrictions and let your body expands to all its natural courses, the least you can do is enjoy the eating.

but you know what, i'd love to get hold of this sleeping pills. i mean, imagine i can drive to work, have breakfast in the cafeteria, and then wake up from sleep.

wouldn't it be cool? such an efficient way to get ample sleeptime without even being late to work.

and i bet since we already could eat and drive inconciously, what's there stopping us to actually do other things while sleeping?

like working. i wish we could even finish our work and then wake up just in time to go back and enjoy the remaining of the day.

ok that sounds too far fetched, but i don't mind getting a bit of a sleep time now. i'm at work and i'm all droopy. like my goldfish at the bottom of the tank when all its fins dropped lazily whenever i turned on the light in the morning.

just now during the meeting, i felt so numb i just sat there in the meeting room looking like i've just swallowed a sock.

it's all because of last night. we had our first leg of bowling league competition at planet bowl balestier after work, so i reached home late.

and what's worse, it's not even worth these eyebags. i was beaten by my opponent. ok scratch that, i was beaten by myself.

i mean, i'm pretty sure i bowl better than 118 and 120 points that i only managed to get. but whenever my opponent misses a shot, i tend to miss mine too because i felt underpressure to perform well. whenever he strikes or spares, i still miss because then i'd be overpressured.

seriously i don't see the benefit of all those practises i went through before this match, cause what i'll need is probably phsycological therapy session or something.

or some sleeping pill drugs with one of the side effects 'bowling while sleeping'.

my parents have already returned to kl after spending few days here in singapore. this time i made sure no taxi driver lecturing them on having to take cab from bus terminal to my house despite having a son living in a condo. somehow having a condo without a car is an apparent sin to him.

well ok i don't know what kind of new age religion is that but i'm so passed that stage now. i even drove my parents to east coast park for dinner one night.

personally i don't think the food there is any nicer than anywhere else, but it's always nice to eat by the seaside. nevermind that the night was so dark that what we could see beyond the eateries were black medium with distant lights from the ships.

now that i have all my bed to myself again, i don't wish to have any sleeping pills to get me to sleep anymore like when my small brother was sleeping with me during their stay. i mean, he seemed to move more when he sleeps than when he is awake.

thinking about it, i must check if he's on any pills or not.


...ed

born for speed

i was still asleep last saturday morning when my mobile alerted sms coming. normally i just ignored and returned to dreamland, owing to the fact that my hp ipaq is not intelligent enough to keep on ringing every few minutes irritatingly until i read the message, unlike my previous samsung E720.

but today, i opened my eyelids a fraction just enough to see the letters and read. here was the message.

"Gd morning eddie gd news, ur car regn no. SGS XXXX Z. R u working today, possible to arrange delivery today, let me know wat time u free to collect.Tq"

my car has finally arrived! finally something to fill into otherwise another uneventful weekend. ok, i was supposed to attend this colleague's house warming party in hougang later that day, but to be frank it's not something that make me jump on the bed.

so i got my car. my first car. the feeling was just like when i got my house. i felt so successful. coz let's face it; a car is a luxury in singapore. but i figured life is short so i may as well enjoy it while i could.

plus i learned that if the money is not meant to be yours, it won't be yours so why bother savings excessively? like today during lunch my colleague told me if i had purchased the car from carcity, i would have got $3800 rebate due to COE drop. the rebate i got from Tan Chong motors in Ubi? a mere $300.

but i'm not disappointed, or feel like burning the car showroom. i'm sure that $3500 was never meant to be mine in the first place. i read about this girl who got her new car and bought 4D using her plate numbers. she striked $400 but a week later she got into an accident and had to pay $400 for repair.

everything happened for a reason. just ask jennifer hudson. or those that watch LOST.

and the timing was just perfect. my parents are going to visit me this coming weekend, so i can ferry them around with my car. they are going to stay at my house for 5 days, and this time i want to make sure nobody's going to push me out of my own bedroom.

also i already managed to get a taste of singapore road driving last tuesday. ok not exactly roads, but circuit driving at jurong go-kart tracks. it was part of team building event organized by our department. this is the advantage of forcing those new young engineers into the committee; you got all these hip, cool and interesting events. i mean, who needs another family day?

me in front of the race.. haha eat my wind suckers!!!

gosh i love go-kart racing. i almost felt that i was born for speed. maybe after i retire i can consider giving that alex yong some competition in local arena. only i'm not so sure they will allow you to drive in such an old age. which i don't understand. i mean, the only energy you need is to press the accelerator right? unless they're afraid you'll get heart attack while driving or something.

speaking of heart attack, it was fun seeing other ppl almost get one. remember my friends that just landed a job here recently? they moved out of my house by the way, found quite a nice place in yishun. i organized a trip to downtown east with them, together with another friend who flew all the way from bangkok just for the weekend to join our little reunion (we were university's buddies).

you know i've never noticed this place despite living so near to it. i saw the entrance everytime i passed by, but how could i know they have those cool rides that will turn you 360 degrees in every directions by looking at that bland signboard?

i just love theme parks. but apparently some ppl are allergic to it. like this friend of mine. i mean, what's so scary about sitting in a pirate ship that swings up and down? it's just like sitting on a giant baby swing. you see even babies are fine with it.

but this friend became red hot on the face with tears running out of his eyes. so i literally dragged him to ride this.., well i don't know what it is called, but you sit on this pair of seats, being strapped in, then this thing will spin around, which later at full speed your seat will sway like crazy. he made me promise that i wouldn't further shake the seat, which i did. but later i did shake it vigorously to force a complete 360 degrees turn up and down in addition to left and right turn. hahaha boy that was fun.



that spinning ride that makes you go ooohh me(behind) with my friend from bangkok

today i'll have the 2nd tennis lesson in tampines safra. now mondays are not as dull and dreadful as it were. it's worth waking up in the morning realizing it's monday, then thinking about tennis game after work. it cheers me up.

to be perfectly honest, even the fact that i can drive there does it to me too.


...ed

year of the golden pig

it's chinese lunar new year today.

and i'm doing nothing. literally nothing. i got headache at back of my head because i laid down too much. i expect the veins there are having difficulty letting the blood through from being sandwiched by the head and pillows all day.

my friend called and asked me if i'm going out and i said no. well i have no one to go out with. all my chinese friends are of course busy at the moment criss-crossing the island with 2 oranges in hand visiting relatives.

hmm. i just realized how stereotype my pool of friends are, inspite of living in this multi-racial country.

i wish i have my car now. i could take it for a spin. ok maybe not a spin, i don't think i'll hit even 80km/h anytime soon. just a normal drive through and maybe practise doing parkings.

because my last refresher driving course last week was a disaster. i've written that i performed badly under inspection, but this time i got a nasty officer so it was even worse. i felt no better than a down sindrome person.

how the hell could i be on the wrong side of the road and never noticed it? seriously tell me.

and the officer was like, 'ok what's the big mistake here'? and it took me like a minute before i realized. for my defense, there wasn't any other vehicles on the road so how should i know? i could just be having deja-vu driving in US roads or something.

i did horribly at parking too. we were doing it at this almost deserted car park. it was dark, and i couldn't even see the parking lines, so i kept on crossing the parking boundaries. the officer could just let me know verbally, but no, he chose to ask both of us out of the car to inspect the lines, and gloated at my mistake.

to think i spend almost $200 for these stupid classes and all i got was lost of confidence.

anyway, i'm not gonna be overly concern about that. in movies, ppl who had not fly a plane before could be taught how to land just by a mere phone call. cars should be a lot easier, right?

this car thingy is getting more expensive than i thought. the darn COE dropped to less than half its value, which means i'm paying the car company almost $6000 more instead of locking it up in my COE. it almost never dropped that much before, and it has to be when i'm buying?

now my chinese horoscope that states a lucky year for me in 2007 sounds like a mean joke.

my kl friends will come to singapore this tuesday and they will be staying at my place until they find their own place. it's weird thinking there'll be ppl staying next to my room. i must remember to close the door when i shower and pay more attention to what i'm wearing at home.

well at least, i won't get headache from sleeping too much when they are around.


"happy chinese lunar new year"


...ed

too fast too furious

i maybe slow in making decisions, but once i make one i usually get it done fast.

like the time when i bought my house. i selected the first one the agent showed me. i mean, it's nice and affordable, what's there to be fussy about? it was love first sight. and everybody knows that always lead to a life happily ever after.

plus, what if it was snatched away by other buyers while i was busy implementing my customer right to bitch about other choices?

then recently there was time when i decided to convert my malaysian driving licence to singapore licence. the moment i got the extract from malaysian jpj, i took an urgent half day off work in next available day to settle the conversions process.

nevermind that half way through, i had to take cab back from the traffic police in ubi to my house to search for the entry permit and old passports that they required, then quickly take a return cab to resume with the application. what was missing were a dirty blond partner in khakis carrying backpacks and cameras frantically following us around, and i'd be positive i'm running for the amazing race asia snatching clues between simei and ubi.

everything went on smoothly after that, i almost forgot about the unpleasantness of that unfriendly malay counter lady the moment she handed me the temporary licence. seriously, she could be a flesh-covered cyborg, programmed to process applications with zero sense of normal human communication, i wouldn't know the difference.

anyway, so there was i with a valid licence to conquer singapore roads in my hand. i felt like standing on the edge of some tall buildings, with both hands firm on my hips, and go 'hahahahaha'... with my red cape furiously being blown by the wind.

comfort driving registration counters were just downstairs, so i figured i might as well signed up for a refresher course.

ok the truth is, i'm not at all confident yet to conquer singapore roads. or any other roads for that matter. it has been ages since i first got my licence. i mean, ace of base and richard marx were still largely popular then for crying out loud.

except during those time in idaho last year when i drove for a couple of months, but it was a left hand drive, and the roads there weren't anywhere condensed and packed like singapore roads. i could be driving in the wrong lane for half an hour and never know my mistake.

plus, they have like, 3 motorcycles in the entire state. not exactly road-challenging if u asked me.

so i went for my first driving session yesterday morning 10.20am. the instructor was a malay, who wore a black sunglass all along. it made me more nervous, like i was being interrogated or something. like he was gonna wait till i screw something up, when he'd take out his gun and say, 'man you're so busted'.

i always hate being evaluated. i'd be self-concious until my intelligence level dropped a few notches. that was why instead of putting the gear to D-drive, i put it to N-normal and complained that the car wasn't moving. then, instead of the left-right signals lever, i kept on invoking the wipers before turning the junction.

however, before the instructor got all religious and confessed all his sins while awaiting the journey to the next world, everthing improved once i entered the highway. i guess i just got back the jist of driving. in fact, my confidence grew from overtaking cars left and right, until the instructor every so often had to ask me to slow down, and mysteriously started giving tips on hidden police speed trap locations along the way.

i must say generally i didn't turn out very badly. except that one time when i didn't know what to do at this cross-junction where bunch of traffic lights seemed to keep on changing colours from every directions making me all confused. and also that time when that stupid lorry almost brushed against our car when i was attempting a U-turn.

but still, when i was at the nissan showroom and the salesman asked if i wanted to testdrive, i said no. i blamed the driving instructor, who told me the story of this guy who had a clash head-on with incoming vehicle while test-driving recently the moment we passed by that incident location. apparently he was eventually forced to buy the damaged car (for a discounted price, but stil..)

i mean, could there be any demoralizing story? imagine you're being told of a man torn into halves by raging sharks, and then being asked to go scuba diving in deep sea in the next hour.

however in the end, i still took the car for a ride but only in the building compound. anyway, i kind of already made up my mind. i like the exterior. ok the backside is a bit weird for my liking but that could just give me extra motivation for backside parking. as for the performance, does it really matter how the car performs in speed when you have to stop for traffic lights every 5 minutes? as long as i'm not poisoned by carbon monoxide during driving, i'm ok.

so i bought the car.

it still feels like a dream to me now, but the fact is, i already purchased my first car, a nissan latio sedan premium for $53.8K, in saphire black. i wanted to buy the non-premium version which was only $49.8K but only the white colour left for that kind of price. i'm not suprised, white car is so uncool. unless you're 45 with 2 kids.

i expect the day striked gold for the salesman getting such an easy customer like me. i didn't ask for an anything. nil. nada. not that i won't, but i have no idea what to demand. well actually i did ask for tinted windows, but now i'm not so sure how different it is with sun protector. isn't it already there or something? do you always have to ask for, let's say.. foot mats?? anyway, that's all water under the bridge now.

my friends were all suprised when i told them about the purchase. can you blame them? after all, i just told them that i was considering like 2 weeks ago.




...ed

this is not a love song

i know i'm in trouble when i started thinking before typing sms, and in deep shit when i checked my sent items to see if my messages were appropriate.

duh.

i guess situation just caught me at the right place at the right time. or could be the wrong place at the wrong time.. depending on the outcome.

anyway, the trick is, is to just go with the flow. as long as i don't have the urge to hang anyone on the verge of their holy eve, i'm fine.

plus, i read my chinese horoscope for year 2007 which has been circulating around, just out of interest of course, and i must say it's pleasant. ok that's an understatement, i actually almost got diabetes from reading all the sweet fortunes coming my way.

it says work will be a blast for me this year, so i expect if i yell at my boss tomorrow, i'll still get promoted by mid-year. apparently things can never go wrong for me in april too, which means even if i murder those ppl that will try throwing me into the pool during my birthday bash this year, i will get away just fine.

among the highlights also, a good love life. so you see i've got nothing to fret about.

loosely speaking of course. for all i know, the pig year comes, and half of them will end up becoming bak kwa, or bak kut teh or char siew. the year won't last forever anyway, so i just decided to sign up for this life insurans policies today. after half a decade being in total ignorance, i think it's only right to plan some back-ups for my future, you know, in case something unfortunate crops up.

i'm never good at these insurans thingy. the agent could carve the figures and benefits on my forehead, and i'd still be asking for them when we meet next time. i expect she already put the word 'durr-brain' in brackets beside my name in her file for easy identification in the future.

well at least when it comes to bowling, i'm not such a total blur. i guess that's why few days ago my big boss asked me to include him in my team, if i had decided to join this inter company bowling league starting in march. i mean, if in star wars he's like the emperor, and he'll be at my mercy in the alley. how cool is that?

plus, what an effective and convenient way to stab your friends in the back by making cleverly concealed discreet destructive comments about them in between those innocent throws.

so i've formed a team. suggested couple of cool names for the team, like 'tenth frames turkey' or TFT (which could be thin film tansistor as well that sounds a bit like work, which i like), but majority prefers 'gloBowl warming', whatever that means.

however, before i even registered, i already lost one of our team mates because he was offered to go for work attachment to our HQ in idaho, USA. for which i was a bit pissed off.

not that i'm jealous or anything, i've been for the attachment myself last year. just that, it felt so much better when i was there in the states and they were all back here in singapore. ok i'm being selfish. this makes it 3 of our kaki going or already now in the far west of the globe. having fun i supposed,.. in the stupid fake beach volleyball court behind the company building,.. spending stupid company money.

i should check my horoscope again to see if there's anything in there about sabotaging...



...ed

another day nothing in my way

some blogs are just annoying. you opened them up, and songs immediately got blasted outta nowhere, which jolted you by suprise, especially if you're surfing in the quiet and peaceful of the after-midnight hours.

i'm not against streaming music you know, i even have it here in my own blog (forgive me if it jolted you, for which, i'm sure your speaker must be too loud or something ;) but before you start to think i'm pot calling you a kettle black yet, at least my stop-streaming button is not as invisible as the iraqi wmd.

plus, who could possible hate terry geiger?

being prisoned in my own bedroom was making me all weird. there was a volleyball session on-going in NUS hardcourt today that i should have joined, but gave it a miss. my side is still a bit sore from the fall few days ago so i decided to just let it rest. this valid reason to just laze around and not feeling guilty doesn't come often.

anyway, for the sake of those who were playing, i'm glad that we decided to go for a hardcourt rather than beach volleyball. at least with such chilling weather outside today, ppl won't get sick from wearing skimpy clothes. looking at the gloomy sky, you'd think you were in london or something. london with the london eye shifted 350km up north in tasik titiwangsa, kl that is.

before i started talking to the walls, i went out for awhile to tampines late noon. after the bathroom incident, i've been stockpiling anti-slip bathmap ever since. well, actually started yesterday. now you could even do tap dance in there and i'm sure you'll be fine.

actually i was trying to find a toaster cover. i'm starting to get suspicious of what could go inside the toaster when it's not being used. this may sound tiny-whiny but i was practically out of things to buy for my house. well except one for the car park below, but that's another story.

the nice lady in metro asked me to look for the cover at this variety household shop near the mcdonalds. sure enough they have tons of stuff, you name it you got it. only that when i actually asked them, the male helper in a most perplexed face ever, mentioned he didn't know what a toaster is. so i asked the shop lady and she didn't know either.

i mean, that thing that pops up hot and crispy breads, is called a toaster, right?
how the hell that they don't know, especially after i've pronounced it as singlish as i could?

anyway, at least that added a bit of spice to an otherwise a monotonous day, just another day nothing in my way. that particular offline icon in my msn doesn't make things any better either.

so do some song-blasting blogsites.


...ed

this ain't a scene, it's an arms race

it is proven true :- bad things come in three. officially confirmed and sealed.

first clijsters beats hingis in AO quarterfinals. i was nearly ecstatic when hingis secured the first set but as nelly furtado sings, all good things will come to an end. she lost in 3, as my friend so helpfully paged me while i was in the office cafeteria having my lunch. i swear he sounded like a bit happy.

then i took a cab back home so that i could catch men's quarterfinals between nadal and gonzales, sharp when the clock hit 5.15pm. you see, i almost never take cab back home but i figured this is much cheaper then buying a car. still to some extent, it was not an enjoyable affair to part with 13 bucks just for this.

after the thriller 5-setter with murray last monday, i was expecting some fight too with gonzales but it turned out nadal was totally outpowered and outplayed. it almost ripped my heart watching gonzo's thunderous forehands flew left and right unreached.

like i always do, i turned of the tv and did other stuff hoping the score will somehow get even. yes it's silly i know and true enough somethings are just not meant to be. apparently reading harry potter then taking a brief nap just drifted the match even further from victory. nadal was ousted in straight sets.

which sucks. now i lost all my enthusiasm in this year's AO. for all i know, serena will win the women and (who-else) federer will win his gazillionth grand slam title. so no more a quick browsing through the forums before my morning shower. no more surrepticious live score check-outs in between engineering reports windows during worktime.

thinking the day couldn't get any worse, i cleaned my fish tank just now and i was stepping into the toilet to keep the empty pail when i slipped and fell down. i remembered as if in slow motion my feet slipping forward, my hand let go of whatever i was holding, trying to get hold of my balance but to no avail. next second i was lying sideways on the floor with my body all protesting in pain.

in between heavy breath checking whether my body was still fully functional, i wondered what would have happened had i fell down badly, or worse, lost conciousness. my colleagues would wonder for awhile and then probably concluded i went for a sudden vacation or something. i expect the police will have to break down the main door after a week, to finally find me spotting mushrooms all over.

well anyway, i'm not gonna fret much about that now, as what the fall out boy sings, as long as the room keeps singing....



...ed

the poolside story

i love it when it rains in the morning. especially the feeling following that brief state of panic after grabbing the alarm clock that already passed 8, and realized it's saturday.

just that it's almost 11 but it doesn't seem to get sunny anytime sooner. which made me writing this blog instead of going down for a short swim as planned. taking a dip in a weather like this, i'd be dehydrated from running nose before the lift even reach my floor.

it's a pity. i could use a bit of thinking time by the poolside to make up my mind. you see, i've been round the roundabouts before but i still have yet to decide to buy or not to buy a car.

the other day, my colleague asked me the reason i'm thinking of buying one. hereby, these are the usual most valid reasons, just on top of my head.


a) to ferry children or sick old parents?

not really. not having kids of my own, it'll be a police case if i were to have them in my car. and my parents are still young and healthy. not to mentioned they live in kl and have a car each too.


b) for work travel assignments?

i don't have to do my own version of the amazing race meeting customers all over the island for work. i work in a lab, so the most human voices i hear are from my headphones. during work i mean. so it's a no.


c) to get to remote places?

nope. unless i'm off to bury someone already wrapped in a blanket from my kitchen. or the modern way, to blow it off in a deserted hill near the dam, especially if she's a young mongolian model mistress.


not a very strong case huh? but i do have my own reasons. like i could shorten my trip to work. i commute 45 minutes one-way to work a day, consist of an mrt ride and 2 short bus trips. driving will take less than 15 minutes, with no-jam and no parallel parking of course.

plus, it's only a matter of time till my knees give way from standing everytime taking the east west line. btw, why the hell does that line is always crowded? you'd think having 6 long coaches with train frequency every 2 minutes are enough to get seats for passengers from the 3rd station after the starting point. it's as if ppl just pouring out of tampines and pasir ris non-stop.

whether these are enough to justify an extra $1000 out of my pocket every month for a car, i'm not sure. my friend said, with that amount of money it's like i can go for travel every month. which when i think about it, it's a bit too much of a money for a bit of convenience.

i don't know. it's a lot easier if we can have help everytime we have difficult decisions to make. you know, something that can give you hints, or clue on how to proceed. like a magic dice or taro cards or something. i guess that's why ppl resort to fortune teller, or even horoscope to get some guidance in life. maybe it's human nature after all, to need help to attain nirvana.

for me, i hope to get mine at the poolside. if it's not raining of course.



...ed

tripping the starting line

i don't wanna be at all negative but the year has not gone off to a very best start.

we went to sentosa on jan 1st, purposely to catch the magical fountain show. not that it has anything to do with new year celebration, i just realized somehow this attraction escaped my radar.

implementing kiasuism since the very first day, we went an hour early to snatch good seats. like in marina bay last night, the rain chose to pour down the moment we set our asses on the bare stand. not to worry, we were well equipped with umbrellas.

an hour of our precious life went on a waste before eventually the show started, sharped at 7.40pm. the fountain shot up in the air in rhythm with music and glaring lasers, and boy, did we go ga-ga over that...

then it stopped. disappeared. nada. just like the adam air budget airlines that went missing in indonesia. by then it was all music and lasers only for the rest of the show. oh, and the poor clown too that had to talk to the now-invisible monkey that was supposed to be projected onto the water screen.

what a waste of time and effort. i mean, give me torchlight in a dark room and i could produce the same effect. i don't know why they couldn't stop the whole thing and attempt to fix it. perhaps those repair-men were all on new year holiday, or like typical other services in s'pore, the whole system just collapsed whenever events turn up un-ordinary.

to think that was the 1st show of the year, not very promosing for sentosa, huh?

the crowd waiting for 7.40pm show

to make it worse, 2 of my fishes died the next day. i know they were behaving abnormally, especially my calico ryukin that out of a sudden proned to getting its tail stucked in the aquarium filter, but they were not supposed to die. it made my effort buying medicine and tank to quarantine them went down the drain.

the good thing is, i have this friend that mentioned there's a chinese saying that pet fish dies so that the master can discharge bad luck. i don't know about that, but i almost felt not too bad anymore throwing the carcasses later down the rubbish chute.



deceased : calico (top) and pearl scale(bottom right)

what's important is that i need all the luck when i sit for driving basic theory test (btt) this wednesday. plus a bit of read-up too of course. after a short noon swim just now at the pool downstairs, instead of pouring lotion all over my body and sun-tanning like this guy beside me, i laid down reading this basic road theory book. now tell me who's sexier??

i got another wedding to attend to tonight. this time it's the wedding of one of my dearest friend, to be held at carlton, bugis. i bitched about weddings everytime i write about them in this blog but i'm not going to say anything nasty this time. it's my new year resolution. i'm going to be good and pleasant this year.

right after i curse that stupid time-wasting burn-in-hell sentosa fountain show.


...ed

Come 2 double 'oh' 7

yup that's right, that's what i'm gonna do. i'm sure we deserve it. 15-31st, that's a full 2 weeks of promising good times.

you know, after suffering the other 50 weeks...







the impressive s'pore landmark skylines. even more impressive? my canon powershot G7 that captured this photo, without a tripod!

with shadowed glimpsed of those 'kiasu' ppl who already booked the best spot by the river edge since like 6pm. urghh.. get a life!





we bared hours of waiting, partly in the rain, to watch this mediocre, nothing-special pre-show 10pm and 11pm fireworks that only lasted like... 30 seconds?









other crowd on stairs of nearby marina square.

thanks god for mobile phone. imagine have to search for your tiny little friend among those crowd?







at last, it's new year 2007! i guess everybody was overwhelmed by the start of the fireworks to actually do the countdown.

well either that, or they were busy setting up their cameras to snap the fireworks.






of course, when i mentioned 'they', i meant 'me'.

hey, at least i got this shot. this makes 3 hours of wading through the crowd waiting for this showdown a bit worth it.







the one on the ground.. no, i mean, on the water.

that's why there's a saying that it's good not to only look up, but sometimes we must remember the ground where we stand.

surely it applies here too.














see those yellow boats there? that shows how enourmous those spotlights thingy are.




















spotlights along the river edge, lined up by enthusiastic photographers capturing the more-than-usual lit-up skyscrapers.










after all, i'm sure they wouldn't want to capture what's left on the ground after the crowd dispersed.

whoever says singapore is a clean city??







...ed

bashed x-mas bash

it's 8.30am wednesday morning but cubicles around me are still empty.

and i thought i am the one who always come late.

the rain finally stopped this morning. it has been raining continuously since sunday i almost forgot how it feels like to be dry outside the building.

it's about time too. my throat has started to feel weird and itchy from all these wet and cold weather.

god forbid but if i were to get sick, i hope it will be this friday.

because that's when we'll have our annual departmental x-mas bash, and for the first time, i don't feel like going.

previous years, i looked forward to this particular day. in fact, this year i did too, until the management committee decided to add in theme wear.

we are being put in different groups following our bosses, and each are required to come with a group theme wear. i heard other groups have decided for hawaiian (so fun!!), cowboy (a bit outta place, but still cool) and school uniform (sexy:).

our group? sports.

sports wear! i mean, who'd go to an xmas bash wearing sports attire? have u seen ppl with full soccer jersey with shorts and everything in a pub? it's like wearing a sarong and dine in the equinox. so not appropriate.

plus, it's not just a pub, it's a pub at the chijmes. it's almost illegal.

enough that we'll looked silly in those, we are expected to do a little presentation (or 'strutt our stuff' as they put it) too. and that's of course on top of whatever stupid game stuff the mc will force us do.

not to mention it's a 3pm event, so it's not like we're gonna have a full set of gourmet christmas buffet anyway. i'm sure most of the food budget has been allocated to cater for that free flow of beer, which i don't drink.

i am so not going.

so perhaps i can join my other friends to shop around instead that friday night. it will be christmas shopping round 2 for me, having done the 1st one in junction 8 last weekend.

when singapore says it's having sale, it really having sale. i bought myself a pair of jeans for just 39 bucks. plus a few t-shirts and get this, a piece of white gold men necklace for 150 bucks.

the manager of junction-8 lee hwa jewellery, and i must mention his name, ken lim, was very nice. he's the kind that make the customers feel well appreciated. such a rare breed nowadays.

you know i called him few days after that to ask if i could change my necklace to a longer type, and he said normally they couldn't but he could do something about it? such a simple gesture felt like an early christmas for me.

he even gave us tips on on-going lucky draws around the department store which we would be eligible after the purchase. so we went ahead later for this 1 dollar lucky draw instant dip, from which i won a can of new moon abalone! i don't really appreciate abalone and i don't understand why it's such a delicacy here, but who cares, it's expensive!

it's christmas season. we're allowed to go a little off the hook this time of the year.

with appropriate clothes of course.


...ed

lost

if there's a month for you to slack around, choose december. if there's a day to slack, it's friday, and if there's a time to slack, it's when your boss is on vacation and your project lead on military service.

add those up and it became last friday.

we were not in the mood to crack our brains up as usual anyway. if you must know, our department is in the middle of inter-departmental sport games to promote team building, and it happened last friday that the other 3 departments tried to take a point off our team.

it was stupid really. we had this rule that if the whole team wear the pre-assigned team colour t-shirt, a bonus point would be given. now they accused one of our table tennis player wore not white, which is our team colour, but beige during the game last wednesday.

beige! as if a group of engineers couldn't differentiate between white and beige.

that now-suddenly-become-famous t-shirt is the kind being worn over long period of time, so it looked kinda, well, worn-out. but still it's white! when they found out they lost the ground to fight, they said that it was not the colour that mattered, but because that player of ours did not wear our team t-shirt.

which is ridiculuous. yes we made the team t-shirt after the first 2 games completed, but surely they cannot change the rule in the middle of the tournament, right? try do that at doha asian games and your country will have to submit application to join the EU instead.

it amazed me how far ppl would go just for one point. one tiny little point! it's not as if the winner will get a free car or anything. we don't even get any time off, so is it worth to jeoperdize our working relationships?

well this is what happened when you are being forced over the years to just swallow everything the government did to us. you'd have to direct your fighting instict somewhere else, however stupid the cause might be.

but if you think about it, it was not totally a lost act, because ppl bond stronger when they have common enemy. looking at how the other 3 teams got together and framed us, they might have achieved superb team bulding affect among them. nevermind that we ended up being a pariah department in the process.

anyway, we will have to return to company tomorrow and work as usual. despite whatever sour feelings we might have inside. despite our unhappiness that our suggestion to make that controversial t-shirt as our department's official flag might be shot to ground. hey, we are all professional, aren't we? and being asian, it's not that hard to smile and curse at the same time too. hypocrism flows in our blood.

moreover, my boss is already on leave since friday noon, all the way until after christmas, which is so good to our morale. if i don't know any better, i'd say he needed time to supervise the elves leading towards the 25th, and returned after he distributed all the presents and store back the sleigh for next year.

in that case, i'd know i've done a good work if my stocking isn't empty that morning, and with a little luck, i can expect a promotion next year too.

which is why i don't intend to slack around on monday tomorrow. seriously.


...ed

i write sins not tragedies

my mum got dengue fever and was admitted to hospital in kl. well that makes 3 of us, having previously me and my dad got the virus too. that was almost 10 years ago though, but still at the same place. now we are like, the dengue family. i expect the hospital could justify giving free treatments to my mum, because you know, after previous 2 admittances from our family, they could probably allow the third one for free.

you'd think after all these years, and so many ppl infected by the virus, they would do something to the environment there, but i guess we would sooner have our body system evolves naturally to produce antibody against the virus before seeing any improvement. so in the meantime, i'm gonna have to settle to the fact that it becomes a matter of life and death everytime i visit my parents.

which risk i have to take as early as tonight. i'm going back to kl after work today because my parents planned this special gathering on saturday night. my dad even enganged some catering company to take care of the food. i heard a lot of relatives will come too, so the least i can do is to show my face there.

i just hope that i still have the chance to catch the currently on-going doha asian games when i am there. not that i'm at all pessimistic. my family might not do sports as much as they should, but they do watch a lot of them on tv. much better than my colleagues here that don't know anything happening outside the office compound, their houses, and the routes in between.

malaysia is still stucked with only 2 gold medals as of this moment. both from bowling. malaysians are just good at this sport. it's in our blood. i mean, let's not look far, i have here on my office desk 2 bowling trophies which none of my nearby singaporean, or chinese cubicle-mates have. not that i'm boasting or anything.

i might be living and working in singapore now, and i might have spent half of my teenage life in japan, but i'm still routing for malaysia in games like this. or even in any other aspects. i'm still proud everytime they achieve something no matter how much i despise malaysia's current governments and local systems. i guess, deep in my heart i still look at this country as a place where i came from, and there's this invisible connection that binds us together no matter where i go.

that's why i found it ridiculous why singapore government decided to seggregate benefits and costs of living between local citizens and permanent residents like me. do they think this move will prompt foreigners to abandon their original citizenship and embrace singapore's instead? let's face it, even if the foreigners do agree to change the passport they are holding for a better life here, will they stand for singapore or even support if there occurs (however unlikely) war or confrontation with their original country?

anyway, not that we have a say in this matter. we are just a powerless bunch of citizen that accepts everything the government does. no matter how disagree we are with the recent decision to increase GST from 5% to 7%. 5% to 7%! that's 40% increase in everything we purchase. god knows how long our salary will see a 40% hike like that.

that's possibly why when starbuck offered free beverages yesterday as their annual christmas celebration, i saw many ppl queing for a free drink in the vivo city branch, and i expect the same from every other branches on the island. i guess everybody can make use of a small stunt like this to have something without making a hole in their pocket, however small it may be. we develop an extra heavy likings for free things because everything else is becoming more and more expensive nowadays.

plus, it's fun too joining the crowd towards a common goal, which in this case, getting a free coffee. together we sticked the small starbuck sticker which we got after donating to swiss army charity lady (who made us feel we were obliged to contribute in order to get the free drink) to our shirts.

what's not so fun? joining others to get dengue.

just ask my mum...


...ed

wake me up when december ends

i had just wasted a whole 2 hours queuing at john little mega sale at singapore expo.

urghh it was the worst way to spend sunday afternoon. i was alone too, so not that i could chat to kill time. the couple in front of me looked playful but i was nowhere in the mood to join in for a threesome, while the indian man behind me kept hitting my legs with his shopping cart so i expect if i had opened my mouth, it would not be all pleasant words anyway.

i don't know what they could have done to improve the situation. the check-out counters were a lot, the cashiers were fast but still the queues extended till the other side of the hall, and you know how enourmous expo halls are. i guess, it was because everybody was shopping like nobody's business. by the rate the ppl put things into their cart, you'd think those items were all free.

but at least, i got the blender that i wanted. it was a good one, mexus brand (i never heard of it to be frank), solid and the blades design seemed like it could do better jobs than common blenders. all those in courts and isetan looked like they would break down after couple of spins.

gosh after reading above paragraph, now it sounds silly to me. 2 hrs for a blender? duh!

anyway, all that's important is that i saved some money buying it on sale. especially after i just bought myself a 26' panasonic lcd hd-ready tv from the nextdoor sitex fair yesterday.

so much for not going ga-ga over end of the year pay. my aim going to the fair was just to buy blank cd-r and maybe checking the latest offers too while strictly avoiding unnecessary stuff. i was doing good actually, resisting all those fliers and pamplets thrown at me from every angle, and you know that's hard to do in a fair like this.

even when this beautiful big-eyed girl showed me a viewsonic 22' inch pc monitor at only $599, and thinking about my 17' bulky ancient monitor that fills half the room at home, i was never seriously tempted. until i saw that panasonic tv.

it was a nice piece of art. slim and everything. plus, it's hd-ready, although i don't even know how to get a hd signal (do we need to apply or something?). the promoter said the 26' is suitable for bedroom because it's not too big. plus, i intended to connect this to my pc as a monitor. imagine how much effort it takes to move the cursor from one end to another with too-big-a screen? (ok that was a joke. i'm not a total technical durr-brain).

moreover, it came with 350 dollars worth of vouchers, so in all, i only paid like $940 for it. for a hd-tv cum pc monitor. it's value for money, right?

so anyway, that's all water under the bridge now. not worth fretting about.

god i wish the sale season is over...


...ed

that time of the year

tomorrow we'll get the annual bonus together with the monthly pay. that is to say, 3 months salary at one go. 3 months salary!! that'll effectively sums up to make an extra digit out of the normal month.

cool right? i wish i could get this more than once a month. every quarter at least would be great. god knows i deserve it.

or do i? i worked very hard today at work to modify this perl script program. i was getting it ready for this newly coming device due next week. hit into error in the process and it took me half a day to find out that i accidentally replaced '$' with '@' sign.

urghh... i feel so stupid. i blame the keyboard maker for putting these two buttons near each other. They definitely do not deserve any bulk 3 months pay.

after work just now i went to for a dinner treat at olive tree grand continental hotel in bugis. remember the wedding that i became the videographer last month? our friend, the bride, gave us the treat as a thank you gesture.

it was a mediterranean buffet dinner. i've never considered this place for dining before because it's so expensive. i heard it's $50++ per head! and it's for mediterranean. i don't even know what kind of food they serve. is pasta mediterranean?

anyway, it's lucky that she got a friend working there, so she had like a 50% discount off the bill. which is really lucky because my verdict says, it's not worth dining there. unless you're, well, someone from the mediterranean and been eating this from inside the womb.

one thing that showed us we didn't belong there, was that they never labelled their food. so we kinda been left guessing the whole night, whether that piece of white dry squarish thingy was chicken, or fish, or even a very very pale piece of beef.

seriously.

so tell me if i'm gonna be upbeat to go for another dining event tomorrow at lunch. it's the annual lunch treat we throw to the engineering assistants who help us through-out the year doing all those crappy too-much-hassle work stuff we think not worth doing ourselves.

because it's gonna be italian. sigh. frankly i'd rather go to pizza hut but what say do i have in this matter? we might as well come to work the next day with the word 'cheapskate' printed on our forehead.

no matter how nice a combination it would be with the dollar sign in the middle of my iris after seeing my bank account total tomorrow.



...ed