Places we've been to:
-27/11/08 IMM
-29/11/08 Suntec City (Loving Hut) + Paragon
-02/12/08 The Cathay (Bolt)
-04/12/08 Singapore Expo + Escape Theme Park + White Sands
-05/12/08 Circle Green (for running)
-07/12/08 Junction 8
-16/12/08 Orchard Cineleisure (Pride and Glory)
-17/12/08 Escape Theme Park
-21/12/08 Vivocity
-24/12/08 Johor Bahru
-25/12/08 Orchard/Bugis
-31/12/08 Perankan Museum, Lotus Restaurant, Orchid Country Club
-01/01/09 Sembawang Park
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
My 25th Birthday
This year's birthday is much more special than the others, all thanks to one person: My girlfriend Wan Ching.
First thing she did for me was to wait until midnight on the stroke of my birthday to post a Happy Birthday cum I love you wish on her blog. Sweet!
We had planned to go to escape theme park so since it's in the east, I decided to go and collect my half-marathon race pack at Expo first and she accompanied me.
When we met, she wished me happy birthday and handed me my present. It was wrapped in a I love you wrapper and when I opened the wrapper it was a box with heart shapes on the outside. Sweet!
I didn't get to open the box until after I've collected the race pack which was 2 hours later. The collection was a draggy process and I was quite impatient at times. Luckily she was there to make me feel better. =)
When I finally opened the box, inside was a pair of Adidas running shorts which I had wanted to get for some time but didn't because it's too expensive. =P
Other than the pair of shorts was a heart shape on which she wrote "Watson & Ching".
Sweet, sweet, sweet!!!
First thing she did for me was to wait until midnight on the stroke of my birthday to post a Happy Birthday cum I love you wish on her blog. Sweet!
We had planned to go to escape theme park so since it's in the east, I decided to go and collect my half-marathon race pack at Expo first and she accompanied me.
When we met, she wished me happy birthday and handed me my present. It was wrapped in a I love you wrapper and when I opened the wrapper it was a box with heart shapes on the outside. Sweet!
I didn't get to open the box until after I've collected the race pack which was 2 hours later. The collection was a draggy process and I was quite impatient at times. Luckily she was there to make me feel better. =)
When I finally opened the box, inside was a pair of Adidas running shorts which I had wanted to get for some time but didn't because it's too expensive. =P
Other than the pair of shorts was a heart shape on which she wrote "Watson & Ching".
Sweet, sweet, sweet!!!
Now the sweetest part.... she made sandwiches for me! Mock meat patties with pickles sandwiches and egg mayo sandwiches which we ate for lunch. They are so delicious!!!!! Especially the one with pickles.
After that we went to escape theme park and that is where things started going wrong. Once we entered the park, it started to rain and the rain got heavier and heavier by the minute. We had no choice but to go for a walk at E-hub! where there was nothing much either. So we went to Mr Bean to ate glutinous rice balls. It was nice and sweet. But too bad we had no "kamcheng" to eat from. Haha.
The rain never stopped and at around 5.30pm, we decided enough was enough. Luckily our tickets were revalidated due to the bad weather and we can go back within 3 months' time. So we left and had ice-cream at Swensens at White Sands because I had a voucher. She had a banana split and I had a Firehouse Happy Birthday, just for the occassion. =)
After that, she bought a shawl at a shop near Pasir Ris MRT before we headed for dinner at Jurong Point. After dinner, she came to my home where my parents had bought a durian cake and I cut the cake with all my loved ones around me. My parents, my dear Wan Ching and my beloved Chippy. I feel so fortunate!!! At the same time, we were watching 小娘惹 and tonight's episode was sad because both 菊香 and her husband died.
The end of the show marks the end of a day made wonderful by a wonderful person despite the rain trying to dampen our spirits. Thank you Ching for making the journey from Woodlands to Pasir Ris and to Boon Lay and back to Woodlands again. You must be really tired. Thank you for everything you have done for me today: your gifts, your sandwiches, your company. I really appreciate it very much.
I LOVE YOU!!!!!
The other gift I received was a Burberry belt from my sister sent all the way from Japan, thanks to her too!
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Why is it so different?
When I was an undergraduate, I have the time to watch 9pm shows everyday, play soccer twice a week, study only until dinner time during exam periods, can even continue playing soccer during exam periods, sometimes can even afford the time to watch anime and serials during exam periods. And I can manage to get A, A+ or at least a B+.
Now, I stopped watching 9pm shows. I study until around 10-11pm during the exam periods. I stopped playing soccer during the exam period and I haven't even watched anime for a long time. But now..... Im struggling to get a B! What is wrong????!!!! Why is there such a great difference?
Now, I stopped watching 9pm shows. I study until around 10-11pm during the exam periods. I stopped playing soccer during the exam period and I haven't even watched anime for a long time. But now..... Im struggling to get a B! What is wrong????!!!! Why is there such a great difference?
Friday, November 14, 2008
It's been one month.
One month ago on this day, we became a couple.It has been a wonderful one month and I am so glad to have loved you!
Friday, November 7, 2008
I Miss You!
When can we meet again? :(
Stupid exams.
My exam revision schedule (Bold = exam day):
Haizz........
Friday, October 31, 2008
A pleasant surprise.
When I opened my wardrobe to fetch a piece of T-shirt to wear to school, I caught sight of an unfamiliar object lying on top of my pile of clothes. Wondering who left it there, I picked it up, turned it over and what a surprise I got! It's a card from Ching! How sweeeeeet! =)
Im really touched by what you have done. Thank you very much! I am so fortunate to have a girlfriend like you! This is what I want to say to you:
Thursday, October 30, 2008
So sweet, just like my life now. :p
小酒窝长睫毛
是你最美的记号
我每天睡不着想念你的微笑
你不知道你对我多么重要
有了你生命完整的刚好
小酒窝长睫毛
迷人得无可救药
我放慢了步调
感觉像是喝醉了
终于找到心有灵犀的美好
一辈子暖暖的好
我永远爱你到老
幸福开始有预兆
缘分让我们慢慢紧靠
然后孤单被吞没了
无聊变得有话聊有变化了
Friday, October 24, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
我喜欢你
"我喜欢你"
These were the words I told Wan Ching yesterday while we were walking along NIE, back towards NTU. The environment was nice, the moon was bright and there was a cool breeze. The only thing that was not so ideal was that it was in school.
But I didn't want to wait anymore. Im afraid that if I dragged any longer, I will lose the courage to say it out. She was quite surprised and she certainly didn't know how to answer me when I asked her if she liked me also, except with "Okay"s. I think she said at least 10 "Okay"s from NIE till we reached the bus stop. I thought the only difficult part was for me to tell her how I felt, didn't know that for her to give me an answer was also not easy. Haha. She told me that she will sms me the answer when I got off the bus.
When I reached home, I received an sms and it was a "Yes". Thank you for making things easy for me, but that doesn't mean I won't appreciate it. :) To quote 王力宏 from 大城小爱: "千万不要说天长地久,免的你觉的不切实际" but I really hope that she is my first as well as my last. She is such a nice girl. I know that if I miss this opportunity, it will be very difficult for me to find someone like her. It's really a case of "爱情来的太快就像龙卷风 离不开暴风圈来不及逃". Haha. Sorry for all the quotes. I think I have been doing too much research. Haha. I still have a lot of things to blog about but due to time constraint I'll have to stop here.
These were the words I told Wan Ching yesterday while we were walking along NIE, back towards NTU. The environment was nice, the moon was bright and there was a cool breeze. The only thing that was not so ideal was that it was in school.
But I didn't want to wait anymore. Im afraid that if I dragged any longer, I will lose the courage to say it out. She was quite surprised and she certainly didn't know how to answer me when I asked her if she liked me also, except with "Okay"s. I think she said at least 10 "Okay"s from NIE till we reached the bus stop. I thought the only difficult part was for me to tell her how I felt, didn't know that for her to give me an answer was also not easy. Haha. She told me that she will sms me the answer when I got off the bus.
When I reached home, I received an sms and it was a "Yes". Thank you for making things easy for me, but that doesn't mean I won't appreciate it. :) To quote 王力宏 from 大城小爱: "千万不要说天长地久,免的你觉的不切实际" but I really hope that she is my first as well as my last. She is such a nice girl. I know that if I miss this opportunity, it will be very difficult for me to find someone like her. It's really a case of "爱情来的太快就像龙卷风 离不开暴风圈来不及逃". Haha. Sorry for all the quotes. I think I have been doing too much research. Haha. I still have a lot of things to blog about but due to time constraint I'll have to stop here.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Oh.... when was the last time I blogged? So much has happened during the last month and I didn't even think about blogging because I don't really have the time. I used to give weekly summaries, now it's monthly summaries. Haha.
Starting of the month I attended the transferable research skills course held my imperial college which I enjoyed very much. It was fun, I made a lot of friends and learnt useful reserach skills from the course.
Middle of the month was my cousin, Alson's wedding. It was a simple dinner which consists of mainly family members but we have a big family. :) It's been some time since the whole family got together and all of us cousins managed to take a photo together. The last time we did this was when we were kids?
Another big thing that happened was the revival of Truefakers. The guys I used to play soccer together with when I was in primary/secondary school got back again and training is now on every sunday morning. We'll be having our first match this sunday and let's hope we do well. For more details, please refer to www.truefakers.blogspot.com.
Lastly, I joined the Animal Lover's Society sub-comm and my first task was to create a lucky draw box. :D Easy task I shall say. And we had our first outing for the year 2 days ago which was a visit to the goat farm followed by a visit to the fish farm. The highlight was the fish spa and I talked to my boss, the events manager in person for the first time. Haha. And we didn't stone like she said we will.
Anyway, I have a new blog skin!
Starting of the month I attended the transferable research skills course held my imperial college which I enjoyed very much. It was fun, I made a lot of friends and learnt useful reserach skills from the course.
Middle of the month was my cousin, Alson's wedding. It was a simple dinner which consists of mainly family members but we have a big family. :) It's been some time since the whole family got together and all of us cousins managed to take a photo together. The last time we did this was when we were kids?
Another big thing that happened was the revival of Truefakers. The guys I used to play soccer together with when I was in primary/secondary school got back again and training is now on every sunday morning. We'll be having our first match this sunday and let's hope we do well. For more details, please refer to www.truefakers.blogspot.com.
Lastly, I joined the Animal Lover's Society sub-comm and my first task was to create a lucky draw box. :D Easy task I shall say. And we had our first outing for the year 2 days ago which was a visit to the goat farm followed by a visit to the fish farm. The highlight was the fish spa and I talked to my boss, the events manager in person for the first time. Haha. And we didn't stone like she said we will.
Anyway, I have a new blog skin!
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Seeing Stars
My eyes are very tired recently and I think I have to avoid staring at the computer screen so much. But that's not an easy thing to do, considering the fact that almost everything I do, from work to entertainment, involves using the computer. I wonder if anybody from our generation can avoid touching the computer completely for just one day.
The modules Im taking are getting tougher and there are a lot of assignments to do. And I can't understand a lot of what the lecturers are talking about. Especially for Computational Intelligence and Multimedia Networking. I wonder if I've chosen the wrong modules. My research on Ontology Alignment is not going very well either. I've been reading a lot of papers but I can't seem to comprehend more than 40% of what is being written in the papers. And I feel that I've been lacking in self-discipline. I haven't been sleeping at 10pm for weeks and I've been waking up late. It's time I shape up or ship out; either I improve or I face getting chopped. Comparing my attitude now to when I was an undergraduate, I have only this to say: “这感觉已经不对，我努力在挽回。。。”
Enough about work. Went skating with Rong Hua, Siying, Weiming, Peiru and Jastinian at East Coast Park yesterday. I took the wrong direction for bus 15 at Eunos MRT and ended up an hour late. Haha. But then it was drizzling also. Just nice that the rain stopped when I reached. We lugged our skates for hours and ended up skating for slightly over half an hour. Went to Geylang for supper after that. I really need to go out or I'll end up using the computer the whole day and see more stars.
We got the samples for the family potrait from Serangoon Broadway last week. Here they are:
I think I'll look good if Im really that tall. Haha.
The modules Im taking are getting tougher and there are a lot of assignments to do. And I can't understand a lot of what the lecturers are talking about. Especially for Computational Intelligence and Multimedia Networking. I wonder if I've chosen the wrong modules. My research on Ontology Alignment is not going very well either. I've been reading a lot of papers but I can't seem to comprehend more than 40% of what is being written in the papers. And I feel that I've been lacking in self-discipline. I haven't been sleeping at 10pm for weeks and I've been waking up late. It's time I shape up or ship out; either I improve or I face getting chopped. Comparing my attitude now to when I was an undergraduate, I have only this to say: “这感觉已经不对，我努力在挽回。。。”
Enough about work. Went skating with Rong Hua, Siying, Weiming, Peiru and Jastinian at East Coast Park yesterday. I took the wrong direction for bus 15 at Eunos MRT and ended up an hour late. Haha. But then it was drizzling also. Just nice that the rain stopped when I reached. We lugged our skates for hours and ended up skating for slightly over half an hour. Went to Geylang for supper after that. I really need to go out or I'll end up using the computer the whole day and see more stars.
We got the samples for the family potrait from Serangoon Broadway last week. Here they are:
I think I'll look good if Im really that tall. Haha.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Usain Bolt!
Usain Bolt just won the gold medal in the men's 200m, breaking Michael Johnson's record on the way to achieving that. He's just too fast, just too good, creating history by winning the 100m and 200m in world record times and being the first man since Carl Lewis to win both the 100m and 200m. He may appear arrogant but people adore him because he's good enough to be.
Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps with his 8 gold medals in the pool will certainly be remembered for this Olympics in years to come. Tributes to the two of them!
Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps with his 8 gold medals in the pool will certainly be remembered for this Olympics in years to come. Tributes to the two of them!
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Sentosa
It's been a long time since I last went to the beach. But too bad the weather wasn't exactly nice yesterday. It started to drizzle when we reached Harbourfront but luckily it stopped. The weather was cooling and not sunny at all. The attendance was good. As of Friday night, only me, Zhen wei, Sicong and Jiehe were confirmed going. But in the end, Daji, Eddie, Sihan, Ryan and Ching Siang turned up as well.
We played frisbee, beach soccer and beach volleyball. The only bad thing was that there were not many bikini babes around which sort of defeated our purpose of going. =) But then it was fun and I hope to go back there soon.
Congratulations to Singapore for getting our first Olympics medal after 48 years! I didn't watch a lot of this Olympics but I like the volleyball matches. Swimming and track events are exciting and I saw one cute Japanese table-tennis player on TVmobile this afternoon: Ai Fukuhara. However, I still prefer the Russian girls. =)
We played frisbee, beach soccer and beach volleyball. The only bad thing was that there were not many bikini babes around which sort of defeated our purpose of going. =) But then it was fun and I hope to go back there soon.
Congratulations to Singapore for getting our first Olympics medal after 48 years! I didn't watch a lot of this Olympics but I like the volleyball matches. Swimming and track events are exciting and I saw one cute Japanese table-tennis player on TVmobile this afternoon: Ai Fukuhara. However, I still prefer the Russian girls. =)
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Money No Enough 2
Was expecting Money No Enough 2 to be a comedy but it turned out to be much more than that.
Some parts of the movie are funny but the show became very touching towards the end.
Though the storyline of how children shirk their responsibilities when it comes to taking care of their old age parents is rather cliched, it is still heart-wrenching and I guess it reflects the situation of the society now.
The song "Mother, 你只是一个名字" was repeated several times to enhance the effect of the moving scenes and you'll have to try hard to fight back your tears (that is, for those who have a heart). One meaningful phrase from the film by Mark Lee: You are poorest not when you have nothing in your pockets nor when your bank account is empty, but when you do not have your loved ones by your side.
All in all, the show was nice and brings a good mixture of laughter and tears to the audiences but I don't like the parts done using computer animation. The technology is still not good enough to make them look realistic. Bottomline: Spend your money carefully and take good care of your parents.
Some parts of the movie are funny but the show became very touching towards the end.
Though the storyline of how children shirk their responsibilities when it comes to taking care of their old age parents is rather cliched, it is still heart-wrenching and I guess it reflects the situation of the society now.
The song "Mother, 你只是一个名字" was repeated several times to enhance the effect of the moving scenes and you'll have to try hard to fight back your tears (that is, for those who have a heart). One meaningful phrase from the film by Mark Lee: You are poorest not when you have nothing in your pockets nor when your bank account is empty, but when you do not have your loved ones by your side.
All in all, the show was nice and brings a good mixture of laughter and tears to the audiences but I don't like the parts done using computer animation. The technology is still not good enough to make them look realistic. Bottomline: Spend your money carefully and take good care of your parents.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Back to school
First day back in school. The same old environment but not many more familiar faces. First lecture was Computational Intelligence and there were only 2 locals in the lecture group, me and Alex! Also no pretty girls, as expected.
Went to my assigned lab at CAIS after the lecture. I was assigned a cubicle in a not so strategic location where anybody coming in can see what Im doing. Tried to register for my graduate modules but the system totally sucks. To those who think STARS was bad, you haven't seen the worst. First I have to select the modules I want to take. After that, I will be placed on a waitlist for that module and I have to print out a form for my supervisor to sign as a mark of approval. However, if there are no vacancies, I may not get the module and I'll only be informed if I get the module or not on the 15th of August which is after registration ends.
What this means for me is that it may happen that I choose 3 modules, get my supervisor's approval, attend 2 weeks of lessons and find out on the last day of registration that I didn't get any modules allocated to me at all. What an "intelligent" and "logical" system! Good grief! Give me STARS anytime, I don't mind playing "fastest fingers first". Spent an unproductive day in school as a result. Hope tomorrow is a better day.
Went to my assigned lab at CAIS after the lecture. I was assigned a cubicle in a not so strategic location where anybody coming in can see what Im doing. Tried to register for my graduate modules but the system totally sucks. To those who think STARS was bad, you haven't seen the worst. First I have to select the modules I want to take. After that, I will be placed on a waitlist for that module and I have to print out a form for my supervisor to sign as a mark of approval. However, if there are no vacancies, I may not get the module and I'll only be informed if I get the module or not on the 15th of August which is after registration ends.
What this means for me is that it may happen that I choose 3 modules, get my supervisor's approval, attend 2 weeks of lessons and find out on the last day of registration that I didn't get any modules allocated to me at all. What an "intelligent" and "logical" system! Good grief! Give me STARS anytime, I don't mind playing "fastest fingers first". Spent an unproductive day in school as a result. Hope tomorrow is a better day.
Friday, August 1, 2008
A week of slacking
Finally, I am out of job and got my one week break before school reopens. Monday was spent meeting my professor in school for a discussion on what I have to do. Following that, there's the Junqin + Feng Cheng + Watson treat at Paulaner. It was initially only the Junqin and Feng Cheng treat but I decided to chip in as well since I can be considered to have a job. 11 persons turned up and the total bill was a whooping $432! Thanks to Zhen Wei's Citibank credit card, there was a 15% off and the amount was reduced to around $360, so that's $120 from each of us.
Picture of everyone with all the food.
After the dinner when the food's all gone.
The treaters.
Tuesday and Wednesday was spent reading The Memory Keeper's Daughter and I had to finish it before the due date on Saturday. Well, I managed that. Met Tooter for lunch on wednesday too as I went to return the hood to Melvin in Jurong West. Received some souvenirs from her as well for her trip to Redang some time ago. I also registered for the half-marathon in Standard Chartered. No more full marathon this time round because of my previous injury. Don't even know if I can manage a half, hopefully yes.
Thursday was spent watching not one, not two but three dvd movies at home! Namely, Maid of Honor, 10,000 B. C. and Batman Begins. In between the movies, I went for a swim at NTU and I realised I haven't been swimming for some time. The feeling of the evening sun on my skin is great.
Before I realise it, it's already Friday. Watched another movie, Quill (导盲犬小Q) in the morning. Another nice touching doggie show. Decided to cook some pasta for lunch which is also something I haven't done in a while. Went to NTUC to buy minced chicken and then cooked a big plate of pasta with minced chicken plus a fried egg for myself. Guess I cooked too much, feeling a little too full. Next, Im going to watch another DVD: Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Convocation!
After four years of hard work, we finally convocated on the 25th of July 2008 with Bachelors of Engineering (Computer Engineering). Congratulations to us all! We thoroughly deserve our degrees. And convocation day is definitely a good day for taking photos. So here goes....
The world is waiting for me, but Im going back to NTU. Ask the world to wait for a while more.
My moment on the stage.
Photo-taking with my parents. Without them, there wouldn't be me.
Me, Jun hao and Jun wei. The super talk cock kings.
More photos with classmates/schoolmates/playmates/teammates. :)
Ex-Chinese High guys plus Jun Wei.
All-star line up!
One of the few times I have to wear a tie. Dressed up and ready to go.
The world is waiting for me, but Im going back to NTU. Ask the world to wait for a while more.
My moment on the stage.
Photo-taking with my parents. Without them, there wouldn't be me.
Me, Jun hao and Jun wei. The super talk cock kings.
More photos with classmates/schoolmates/playmates/teammates. :)Ex-Chinese High guys plus Jun Wei.All-star line up!
Didn't get a chance to take photo with Rong Hua, Weiming and Jastinian on convocation day itself. What a pity. We made up for it by taking photos on the SCE Graduate's Evening at Grassroot's club the following day.
Me and my professor Prof Angela Goh, who was my academic counsellor during my undergraduate days and who I will be working with for my post-graduate studies.
Though everyone keeps saying SCE is a boring and stressful place, when it comes to separation we will still miss each other. I won't be seeing the same faces that I have been seeing for the past four years when I go back to school next week. Throughout these years, I have made a lot of friends though I did not stick with any particular group. Most of these friends are people who I can talk cock with and people who I can work well with. I wish all my friends good luck in their future endeavours and hope that we can stay in touch!
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Matriculated
I just matriculated today. Im a freshie! Haha. Fresh research student though, not fresh undergrad.
New semester going to start soon but I don't have much drive. The requirements that I have to fulfil don't sound easy. Can I still reach the levels that I had reached as an undergraduate? It's a totally different game now.
New semester going to start soon but I don't have much drive. The requirements that I have to fulfil don't sound easy. Can I still reach the levels that I had reached as an undergraduate? It's a totally different game now.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Lethargic
My new job is making me quite lethargic, that's why I haven't been updating my blog. Today is only my seventh working day and I feel that it's been a long time. The job is monotonous and boring at times. If not for the nice colleagues there, life will be bad. I don't know why I feel so tired everytime I reach home. I can feel the lethargy when I go running after work. Maybe it's the aircon in the office or sitting down all day long that made me so tired. I don't even feel like going out. I spent the last saturday at home reading and watching DVDs while Sunday was spent playing soccer.
Went for a medical examination for my post-graduate admission last Wednesday and found out that they had to draw my blood for a blood test. Scary. I have a phobia for that. I'll always break out in cold sweat whenever my blood is drawn. It's psychological and I don't know how I can overcome it. I remembered there was once in JC when my whole face turned pale after my blood was drawn. So embarassing. Luckily this time round it was not that bad.
Went to watch 赤壁 with Ong, Ivan and Junhao later on the same day. The show was quite nice and not as bad as what some of my friends claimed. Some of the parts were quite exaggerated though.
Went to Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao at Jurong Point with my parents on Saturday night to celebrate my father's birthday. My treat. Haha. The food there is not bad and the price is not too expensive.
Went for a medical examination for my post-graduate admission last Wednesday and found out that they had to draw my blood for a blood test. Scary. I have a phobia for that. I'll always break out in cold sweat whenever my blood is drawn. It's psychological and I don't know how I can overcome it. I remembered there was once in JC when my whole face turned pale after my blood was drawn. So embarassing. Luckily this time round it was not that bad.
Went to watch 赤壁 with Ong, Ivan and Junhao later on the same day. The show was quite nice and not as bad as what some of my friends claimed. Some of the parts were quite exaggerated though.
Went to Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao at Jurong Point with my parents on Saturday night to celebrate my father's birthday. My treat. Haha. The food there is not bad and the price is not too expensive.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
The brand with the 3 stripes
Went shopping alone at Ang Mo Kio Central this afternoon since I went to my grandma's home which is around the area. Picked up my third bargain from Adidas within a month in Sportslink. This time round, I bought a pair of Adidas +F5.6 TRX HG soccer boots for only $31.50.
Yeah! Everything half price and below. Im a good bargain hunter. Haha.
| Product | Original Price | Price I Paid | Location Bought |
| Adizero CS | $163 | $79 | Adidas Store Vivocity |
| Adidas ESS Messenger Bag | $49.90 | $24.95 | Adidas Store Junction 8 |
| Adidas +F5.6 TRX HG | $79 | $31.50 | Sportslink AMK |
Yeah! Everything half price and below. Im a good bargain hunter. Haha.
Friday, July 11, 2008
From Fuji to Meiji
After a week of being unemployed, Im back to work again, this time at Meiji factory. My new work place is near and I just have to cycle for 15 to 20 mins to reach there. My job was to do data entry and work was rather boring. The first half of the day was spent checking if my predecessor, Keith made any errors in entering the data. After that, I have to input the rest of the data. The people there are quite nice and friendly though. I got to know them better during lunchtime when we went to the nearby hawker centre.
Today being Friday, "Sweet Adventures" (a store located in the factory itself selling Meiji products at cheap prices) was open and I couldn't resist doing some shopping. Haha.
Total amount spent: $17.70 for a carton of 7 boxes of Meiji Plain Crackers with Oat, 1 box of Meiji Petit Brunch chicken biscuits, 1 box of mixed Hello Panda, 1 roll of Meiji Gummy Chocolate and 4 packets of Copan Garlic Toast. I started buying from Meiji even before I received my first pay from them. Haha. There were many other things to buy including chocolates but I don't really like them. Of all the things I've bought, I'll most likely eat the biscuits while the other junks may be given to my cousins. Maybe my parents will take one or two. :P
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Night at the museum
Went to Jiehe's home last night with Zhen Wei, Feng Cheng, Ryan and Chin Siang. What an experience it was! His house has got to be the biggest I've ever been to; it's three storeys high and the porch can park like 7 to 10 cars? There are already four cars in his family: his father's Mercedes, his mother's BMW, his and his sister's cars. Then yesterday there was also Zhen Wei's car and still there was space for a few more cars. Wow.
The first thing that we see when we set foot in his living room was a 65-inch plasma TV. 65-inch!!! Oh my god! A 40 plus inch TV is already considered large to me, now what do I see? A 65-inch. His house definitely has the "WOW-factor". Haha. Jiehe took us on a tour round his house, starting from the first storey. He first showed us the guest room with the pool table. Then he brought us outside to have a look at the swimming pool and the water fountain with the koi pond. The view from there, overlooking the Bukit Panjang estate, is rather nice. Back in the house, he showed us the study room where there are a few computers arranged in such a way that it reminds me of a mini computer lab. Nice working/studying environment.
Next, we followed him to the second floor where they all slept. The second floor has its own secondary living room and the lighting in his house can be controlled by a centralised system using a touch-screen monitor, something like those we see in the lecture theatres. He brought us to his room which is spacious but quite empty except for his bed, and every room has its own attached bathroom.
After that, we went to the third floor which consists of a sound room used to play music and a theatre. We just spent a while in the sound room but it was the theatre that bowled me over. Imagine having your own theatre in your own house! Amazing. And when I said it's a theatre, it really means a theatre, not just a room with a projection TV. It was a huge sound-proof room with an enormous screen and there were even seats like those in Golden Village or Cathay cinemas. Wow! That's not all! The room also doubles up as a KTV room and there is even a computerised system just like those in KBox, PartyWorld and such where you can select songs from the database. So basically it's just like a KTV room, except that the screen is much much larger, the room is much much bigger, the seats are much much more comfortable and the sound system is much much better! Incredible!
So after the tour, we went to the living room to play with his Playstation 3 on his 65-inch plasma TV. I've never seen a real PS3, much less played with one. We played Winning Eleven 2008, followed by Grand Turismo and then NBA 2K8. The graphics rocks for the GT and NBA but not for Winning Eleven. We played from around 9pm to 1am before we went up to the theatre for the second round of activities. We had originally intended to watch a movie but we couldn't find a DVD which none of us had watched before and we had a KTV session instead. We sang all the way until 5 plus in the morning and surprisingly I didn't feel tired at all; maybe I was too amazed to feel tired. We ended our "tour" after that and it was a wonderful experience. Thanks Jiehe!Haha. I think it will be more fun if the others like Sicong, Daji, Eddie, Junqin and KC could make it. Hopefully, there will be another visit! :)
[Maybe pictures can better describe how awesome his house is but too bad no one took photos.]
The first thing that we see when we set foot in his living room was a 65-inch plasma TV. 65-inch!!! Oh my god! A 40 plus inch TV is already considered large to me, now what do I see? A 65-inch. His house definitely has the "WOW-factor". Haha. Jiehe took us on a tour round his house, starting from the first storey. He first showed us the guest room with the pool table. Then he brought us outside to have a look at the swimming pool and the water fountain with the koi pond. The view from there, overlooking the Bukit Panjang estate, is rather nice. Back in the house, he showed us the study room where there are a few computers arranged in such a way that it reminds me of a mini computer lab. Nice working/studying environment.
Next, we followed him to the second floor where they all slept. The second floor has its own secondary living room and the lighting in his house can be controlled by a centralised system using a touch-screen monitor, something like those we see in the lecture theatres. He brought us to his room which is spacious but quite empty except for his bed, and every room has its own attached bathroom.
After that, we went to the third floor which consists of a sound room used to play music and a theatre. We just spent a while in the sound room but it was the theatre that bowled me over. Imagine having your own theatre in your own house! Amazing. And when I said it's a theatre, it really means a theatre, not just a room with a projection TV. It was a huge sound-proof room with an enormous screen and there were even seats like those in Golden Village or Cathay cinemas. Wow! That's not all! The room also doubles up as a KTV room and there is even a computerised system just like those in KBox, PartyWorld and such where you can select songs from the database. So basically it's just like a KTV room, except that the screen is much much larger, the room is much much bigger, the seats are much much more comfortable and the sound system is much much better! Incredible!
So after the tour, we went to the living room to play with his Playstation 3 on his 65-inch plasma TV. I've never seen a real PS3, much less played with one. We played Winning Eleven 2008, followed by Grand Turismo and then NBA 2K8. The graphics rocks for the GT and NBA but not for Winning Eleven. We played from around 9pm to 1am before we went up to the theatre for the second round of activities. We had originally intended to watch a movie but we couldn't find a DVD which none of us had watched before and we had a KTV session instead. We sang all the way until 5 plus in the morning and surprisingly I didn't feel tired at all; maybe I was too amazed to feel tired. We ended our "tour" after that and it was a wonderful experience. Thanks Jiehe!Haha. I think it will be more fun if the others like Sicong, Daji, Eddie, Junqin and KC could make it. Hopefully, there will be another visit! :)
[Maybe pictures can better describe how awesome his house is but too bad no one took photos.]
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
10 Promises To My Dog
After much delay, I finally went to watch "10 Promises To My Dog" yesterday. I have been waiting to see this show ever since I saw its "Coming Soon" billboard advertisement when I went to watch "Chocolate" at Plaza Singapura. Coincidentally, I watched the show yesterday at PS too. The show is very touching and some of the parts are very sad. The ones I remembered were when Akari and her father had to move into the University hostel and she had to leave Socks behind with her friend. The parting scene between dog and owner where the train began to move and the dog chased after them is heart-wrenching.
Another sad part is when Akari grew older, fell in love and started to neglect Socks. She even said that she felt very confined as she can't go anywhere because she had to take care of Socks. She said that she felt as if she was the one wearing the collar and sort of vented her frustrations on Socks. I felt so sorry for Socks. How easily people forget when things don't go their way. She had forgotten how Socks had faithfully been by her side all those years and made her happy. Luckily she remembered in the end. Of course, the saddest part was during Socks final moments when she lay helpless waiting for Akari to return from work and say her last goodbye. There were also many other parts that made me sad, like when Socks couldn't leap at the rainbow like she used to anymore because she was getting old and Akari realised that.
Inevitably, the show made me cry and I was thankful that the cinema was dark enough. However, my eyes were red after the show as I could see in my reflection in the toilet's mirror. Shows about dogs always make me sad as I will relate them to myself and Chippy. As I watched Socks grow old and eventually pass away, I know that one day the same thing will happen to Chippy too and being 7 years old, she's not young anymore. I have to constantly remind myself to treasure every moment I have with her and shows like these serve as good reminders.
When Akari first had Socks, her mother made her promise 10 things to Socks. I can't remember the 10 promises exactly but I know that they are based on "The Ten Commandments of Dog Ownership" which are as follows (from a dog's point of view):
I
My life is likely to last ten to fifteen years. Any separation from you will be painful for me. Remember that before you aquire me.
II
Give me time to understand what you want from me.
III
Place your trust in me. Remember that before you aquire me.
IV
Don't be angry at me for long and don't lock me up as punishment. You have your work, your friends, and your entertainment. I ONLY HAVE YOU!
V
Talk to me sometimes. Even if I don't understand your words. I understand your voice when it is speaking to me. Be aware that however you treat me, I will never forget.
VI
Remember before you hit me that I have teeth than can easily crush the bones in your hand,but I choose NOT TO BITE YOU.
VII
Before you scold me for being uncooperative, obstinate, or lazy, ask yourself if something might be bothering me. Perhaps I don't understand what you ask of me or perhaps I am not feeling well, not getting the right food, been out in the sun too long, or my heart is getting old and weak.
VIII
Take care of me when I get old, you too will grow old.
IX
Go with me on difficult journeys. Never say "I can't bear to watch" or "let it happen in my absence". EVERYTHING IS EASIER IF YOU ARE THERE.
X
REMEMBER I LOVE YOU!
Among the 10 commandments, IV made the deepest impression on me as a dog-owner. Sometimes we are too preoccupied with our own life that we forget that we mean the world to our dogs. Their work is to accompany us, their entertainment is playing with us and their friends are also us. So what do they have if we neglect them? Thus, I will like to make my 10 promises to my dog and tell her: "Thank you for being by my side."Trailer for "10 Promises To My Dog":
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Jie Wei's Wedding
Jie Wei's wedding dinner was on Sunday evening at Holiday Inn Park View. He is the third friend to invite me to a wedding dinner after Chang Hui and Veronica. I didn't manage to attend Chang Hui's dinner but I attended his ROM ceremony. As for Jie Wei, it was the opposite. I wasn't free to attend his ROM but I attended his wedding. David, Dennis, Zhiwen, Chang Hui and Ah Xiong were the others who turned up for. We have all known each other for a long time; I started playing soccer with them when I was in primary school and they were in secondary school. We have been playing soccer week in week out since then until recently. I still play soccer with David, Dennis and Ah Xiong at times but I haven't seen Zhiwen, Chang Hui and Jie Wei for some time. To be precise, the last time I met Chang Hui and Jie Wei was during Chang Hui's ROM one year plus ago. Now, one is getting married and another is already a father. I didn't know Chang Hui had a son until David mentioned it. Congratulations to him for that and to Jie Wei for tying the knot. I wonder who's going to be the next one.
The dinner itself was not bad and each guest was given a small teddy bear as souvenir. I took the male bear but Chang Hui gave me his female one because he said “不要拆散他们”. Haha. So I ended up with a pair. There was one cute waitress who I couldn't help but stole a glance everytime she walked past (and she walked past me more than a dozen times because she was in charge of serving the table next to mine. Haha.) but she didn't look in my direction even once. =(
I met Eddie at Orchard to shop for his suit and while on the train, I found out from my cousin Cindy that my cousin Alson is also getting married in September. That's very good news for the family. My two eldest cousins on my maternal grandmother's side are already married and Alson is the third eldest. So if it goes in that order, I'll be the fifth to get married? Haha. That's highly unlikely I shall say.
Anyway, Eddie and I went to the G2000 Black Label at Wisma to look at the suits. The blazers with matching pants cost $199. Eddie size's is the same as me, even the smallest size 44 looked just a little bit too big on us. I tried on one of the blazer myself and wow, what a difference it makes to a person. It made me look ... classy? Haha. One day I shall borrow it from Eddie for some important function. Eddie didn't buy at the Wisma outlet because the salespersons' attitudes were fucked up and I can't be bothered to elaborate. In the end, he bought it at the G2000 outlet in Takashimaya while I left to attend the wedding dinner.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Last day at Fuji Xerox
7 weeks on and I have come to my last day in Fuji Xerox. When I first got the job from JAC, my first thought was: "Ok, just bear with it for 7 weeks and I'll get back my freedom to slack at home after that." But how things have changed, right now I am hoping that the contract period was longer because this has to be the best job that I had ever worked, mainly because of the people around me. I feel kind of sad that it's going to end just like that, 树倒猴子散 (Qiu3 dou4 lao3 gao2 sua3, a hokkien phrase I heard from a warrant officer when I was a trainee in SISPEC which I think is quite funny).
I'll miss the talk cock sessions, lunches at NUS/Holland Village/Ghim Moh, the outings, the slacking, the photo taking and all. Talking about photo taking, I realised that I took as many, if not more photos in these 7 weeks than I did in an average year, thanks to Lionel's powerful camera and Alex's handphone (on the last day). Haha. There's talk of keeping in touch and having more outings but my guess is only a minority will be attending, which is usually the case. All of us will be moving on to another phase in life: some to the army, some back to study and some on to other jobs and time will be scarce in a competitive society like ours. 天下无不散之宴席，all things good and bad will come to an end and this is just one of those things that has happened before and will keep on happening. New acquaintances/friendships will always be made and old ones may gradually fade. It is fate that brings us together as we had talked about in the cinema yesterday.
So the last day began with me reaching the office around 9.30-9.40am as usual. Surfed the net and came across Eddie's blog. We went to Vivocity for lunch and while we were on the bus to Vivocity, I received an sms telling me to look behind. I turned around and there he was, Eddie. Haha. What a coincidence! He was meeting his ex-colleagues for lunch somewhere around the area also. We had lunch at Superdog in Vivocity and I had the student meal which consisted of a grilled fish burger and iced premium brewed tea. It wasn't filling at all so me and Weiqi bought bread at Giant's bakery which tasted horrible. Alex and Desmond bought bowl noodles to cook in the pantry. Shopping at Giant was followed by a trip to the arcade and we went back to office around 2.40pm, meaning our lunch break was like 3 HOURS!!!! Haha. Anyway, it was the last day for all of us with the exception of Weiqi and we can't be bothered. He can't either.
After work, me, Weiqi, Yong Bin, Alex, Sing Hong, Lionel, Melissa went for the last after-work outing which was dinner cum movie at Orchard. We had dinner at NYDC outside Hereen and the topic eventually shifted to their first days and my first day at work. And I jokingly told Weiqi that I felt like giving him one tight slap the first day I saw him. And he retaliated by telling me what a short freak like me was doing in their office on my first day. Hahaha. Hurling insults at each other is a good form of communication!
You don't mess with the Zohan is damn hilarious. We were all laughing from start to end, so much so that my jaws ached a bit. It's been some time since I watched a movie like that and Im glad I did. Haha. After the show, the guys went to play the basketball shooting game in the arcade while Sing Hong and girlfriend, Melissa and Lionel left. On our way out of Cineleisure, Yong Bin said he saw Stella (some girl they saw on a blog) and we went back into Cineleisure to take a look. I wasn't very keen but followed anyway. This detour was almost costly as we nearly missed the last train and we had to run to reach it. Wtf? All these just to look at someone who we don't even know?
One person whom we didn't get to say goodbye to was Mun Wai. He's been quite unhappy for the last few weeks, and Im aware of part of the reasons. I feel sorry for him, knowing what he's been through. Maybe we are both old people, that's why I know how he feels, I think..... He's a hardworking and helpful person and doesn't like to trouble others. However, his shortcoming is that his behaviour is eccentric at times and I have told him that. He even sent me an sms to thank me for that yesterday after work. Too bad I didn't have a chance to shake his hand and wish him all the best in finding a job and pursuing his degree.
Rejected because I don't look mature enough
The week began with me on paid leave on Monday (Yes, paid leave for a temp job, that's how good the job is). So after watching the Euro final, I slept in late and woke up at 11 plus which is very late for me but early for many people I know. Chatted with Wan Qi online and she said that she wanted to go out because there was drilling ongoing on the flat above hers and it was driving her crazy. It was rather impromptu, so I quickly bathed and changed but when I was ready, she told me that the queue at the post office where she was waiting to renew her PDL was long and asked me to wait at home first. So I waited, in my formal shirt and pants, in front of my computer for her to call me when she's ready. I wouldn't have changed so early if I knew she was going to take that long.
And so we met at Jurong East MRT and proceeded to Ikea because I have an audition later that evening at Puegeot showroom which was just beside. She had a hot dog bun, then we went to the hawker centre for dinner. After that, we returned to Ikea where she bought a cake home to eat. From there, I went for my audition and she left for home.
Together with Eddie, Keith and Keith's friend, we were directed into a small room for the auditon where there were already 10 to 20 people waiting inside. The audition was for recruiting stand-in participants for a seminar. Basically, we were supposed to go into some rooms to attend talks and fill up empty seats, acting as investors. We will be paid $100 per day for the 4 days event which will be held at Shangri-La hotel. They needed people who look mature enough to be investors so they got us all to walk out of the room and one by one they told us whether we were "OK" or "Too young". I was labelled "too young" and was therefore REJECTED. Damn it. There goes $400. In fact, among the four of us, only Keith was accepted but since Eddie participated in the event last year, they let him through though he, like me, was considered "too young". So, there goes the job but Keith told me he may have a vacancy for me at his auntie's Meiji factory which is near my home, so there may be a chance for me to earn some more money.
Met Rong Hua, Jastinian and Wei Ming for dinner at Marina Square food court for dinner on Wednesday. That has been our meeting place for the past dunno how many times. Haha. What to do? We stay all over Singapore, me in Jurong West, Jastinian in Tampines, Weiming and Rong Hua in Sembawang and Woodlands area respectively, so meeting at City Hall is easy for all. I didn't really want to go because it was quite last minute and the sole of my shoe peeled off and I had difficulty walking. But then considering that I haven't met them for like 2 weeks, I went in the end. They arranged to meet at 6.30 to 7 pm but I was already at buona vista at 6pm. So I took the train to Eunos with Weiqi and then back to City Hall again to kill time. Haha. And it was just nice that Rong Hua arrived when I was reaching City Hall.
Went out again after work on Thursday. Wan Qi was having an interview around the area so I met her at Redhill MRT after work. We went to Bugis and had dinner at the food court of Fu Lu Shou complex. She never fails to amaze (or frighten) me with her appetite. After we had our meal, we ordered a plate of Rojak. I ate only the pineapples and cucumbers and I was already quite full after that. Wan Qi finished the rest of it and after that, she had another packet of fried Golden Mushrooms. She kept telling me that it was very tasty for like 20 times while we were walking around Bugis Junction. So much so that I told her: "If you are not going to stop telling me that, Im going to slap you. " Haha. Of course I didn't mean that, it was just a joke. We window-shopped, then sat by the fountain at Bugis for a while before taking the train home. On the way to the MRT, she stopped by Crystal Jade to buy some buns which she claimed to be for her breakfast tomorrow. Haha. Don't know how much she spent on food alone.
And so we met at Jurong East MRT and proceeded to Ikea because I have an audition later that evening at Puegeot showroom which was just beside. She had a hot dog bun, then we went to the hawker centre for dinner. After that, we returned to Ikea where she bought a cake home to eat. From there, I went for my audition and she left for home.
Together with Eddie, Keith and Keith's friend, we were directed into a small room for the auditon where there were already 10 to 20 people waiting inside. The audition was for recruiting stand-in participants for a seminar. Basically, we were supposed to go into some rooms to attend talks and fill up empty seats, acting as investors. We will be paid $100 per day for the 4 days event which will be held at Shangri-La hotel. They needed people who look mature enough to be investors so they got us all to walk out of the room and one by one they told us whether we were "OK" or "Too young". I was labelled "too young" and was therefore REJECTED. Damn it. There goes $400. In fact, among the four of us, only Keith was accepted but since Eddie participated in the event last year, they let him through though he, like me, was considered "too young". So, there goes the job but Keith told me he may have a vacancy for me at his auntie's Meiji factory which is near my home, so there may be a chance for me to earn some more money.
Met Rong Hua, Jastinian and Wei Ming for dinner at Marina Square food court for dinner on Wednesday. That has been our meeting place for the past dunno how many times. Haha. What to do? We stay all over Singapore, me in Jurong West, Jastinian in Tampines, Weiming and Rong Hua in Sembawang and Woodlands area respectively, so meeting at City Hall is easy for all. I didn't really want to go because it was quite last minute and the sole of my shoe peeled off and I had difficulty walking. But then considering that I haven't met them for like 2 weeks, I went in the end. They arranged to meet at 6.30 to 7 pm but I was already at buona vista at 6pm. So I took the train to Eunos with Weiqi and then back to City Hall again to kill time. Haha. And it was just nice that Rong Hua arrived when I was reaching City Hall.
Went out again after work on Thursday. Wan Qi was having an interview around the area so I met her at Redhill MRT after work. We went to Bugis and had dinner at the food court of Fu Lu Shou complex. She never fails to amaze (or frighten) me with her appetite. After we had our meal, we ordered a plate of Rojak. I ate only the pineapples and cucumbers and I was already quite full after that. Wan Qi finished the rest of it and after that, she had another packet of fried Golden Mushrooms. She kept telling me that it was very tasty for like 20 times while we were walking around Bugis Junction. So much so that I told her: "If you are not going to stop telling me that, Im going to slap you. " Haha. Of course I didn't mean that, it was just a joke. We window-shopped, then sat by the fountain at Bugis for a while before taking the train home. On the way to the MRT, she stopped by Crystal Jade to buy some buns which she claimed to be for her breakfast tomorrow. Haha. Don't know how much she spent on food alone.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Spain: Champions of Europe
Fernando Torres scores the only goal of the match and Spain has ended their 44 year wait for a trophy! Wow! 44 years, that's a long time. That's their captain cum goalkeeper Iker Casillas lifting the cup. Congratulations! I didn't support the wrong team![Pictures taken from Soccernet]
BBQ at Pasir Ris Park
Went for the BBQ at Pasir Ris park with Fuji Xerox people on Saturday night. You can't believe how far the place is. After a 1 hour journey by train from boon lay to pasir ris, we had to take a feeder bus to the park and after alighting, we still had to walk a long distance to the pit. Upon arrival at Pasir Ris park, we started feeling tiny droplets of rain falling from the sky and we could see flashes of lightning streaking across the sky. I started to wonder: "Is this going to be our day?" Seems like we had made a mistake in going.
Thankfully, the sky cleared up and it was business as usual. We really started eating only around 9pm. Each of us had paid $20 for this barbeque and we were expecting some really good food. In the end we only had sausages (enormous ones I should say), satays, fish, squid, pork chop and chicken fillet. It turned out that there were still a lot of food left uncooked and those were the expensive ones; there was a packet of beef sirloin. Major cockup. No wonder Chae told me he was pissed that we kept cooking the sausages.
Ironically, the most enjoyable part of the day came about when we were away from the BBQ pit and playing basketball. Im not much of a basketballer myself but the others are good. We mixed the temps and the perms for the first match and for the second match, it's temps vs perms. Yong Bin is too damn good, we can see the difference in class from the way he plays. Weiqi is very good as well but he can't go on for more than 15 mins (or was it 5 mins? Haha.) On the FEW occasions when he wasn't sitting down on the floor resting, we caught glimpses of how good he can be. :D Lionel was aggressive enough and hit a couple of stunning long range shots that had us awestruck. Melissa was always involved in the build ups to our attacks, but she got hit by the ball more times than she would have liked. Haha.
After the game, we were all sweaty, oily, stinky, smoky and in very pathetic states. It was already 1 plus near 2 when we left. So we shared a cab home, bathed and slept.
Thankfully, the sky cleared up and it was business as usual. We really started eating only around 9pm. Each of us had paid $20 for this barbeque and we were expecting some really good food. In the end we only had sausages (enormous ones I should say), satays, fish, squid, pork chop and chicken fillet. It turned out that there were still a lot of food left uncooked and those were the expensive ones; there was a packet of beef sirloin. Major cockup. No wonder Chae told me he was pissed that we kept cooking the sausages.
Ironically, the most enjoyable part of the day came about when we were away from the BBQ pit and playing basketball. Im not much of a basketballer myself but the others are good. We mixed the temps and the perms for the first match and for the second match, it's temps vs perms. Yong Bin is too damn good, we can see the difference in class from the way he plays. Weiqi is very good as well but he can't go on for more than 15 mins (or was it 5 mins? Haha.) On the FEW occasions when he wasn't sitting down on the floor resting, we caught glimpses of how good he can be. :D Lionel was aggressive enough and hit a couple of stunning long range shots that had us awestruck. Melissa was always involved in the build ups to our attacks, but she got hit by the ball more times than she would have liked. Haha.
After the game, we were all sweaty, oily, stinky, smoky and in very pathetic states. It was already 1 plus near 2 when we left. So we shared a cab home, bathed and slept.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Viva España!
I watched my first live match of Euro 2008 this morning, and it's the second last match of the tournament! All the rest of the matches I watched were either highlights or delayed telecasts. Spain vs Russia was the match I watched and thankfully Spain won; I can wear my España t-shirt (The one Im wearing in the picture above)proudly. Haha. Euro 2008 final: Germany vs Spain. Monday morning 2.45am. I'll be watching that, I even took leave on Monday for that. Will Spain win the tournament?
Over at work, the new project started this week: Wajima 2 Bytes - Simplified Chinese. But progress was very very slow. I finished only less than one third of what Im supposed to do. We had been too slack, that's why we can't get back to working mode. Have to catch up next week, which is also the last week of work. Feeling a bit guilty over my incompetence....
Part of the reason why progress is so slow is because I was learning Cantonese from Melissa. Weiqi was learning too. It all began with his "Lei ge kar lat dai hou yuk xun." :D From there it led to him learning how to sing 好心分手 in Cantonese and me, 情深的一句 and 当我遇上你. I think Melissa is the first person I know who has heard of so many Andy Lau songs, but she certainly hasn't heard as much as me. But damn it, I printed the lyrics with cantonese pronunciation but forgot to bring them home. I had planned to learn them over the weekend.
It's friday night and Im at home blogging. In fact, I didn't go out the whole week. Guess my energy has been expended from the KTVs and such from previous weeks and Im reverting to the "homely" guy that I am, aka 宅男. I want to watch "10 promises to my dog" but nobody wants to watch with me. Everyone is saying "me and my stupid dog show". Melissa even told me not to be so "girl". Wtf? Guys can't watch these kinds of shows? People nowadays don't have a heart. Haha. If only I can bring Chippy to watch together, but then she wouldn't understand what's going on anyway. So, who wants to watch with me???????
Over at work, the new project started this week: Wajima 2 Bytes - Simplified Chinese. But progress was very very slow. I finished only less than one third of what Im supposed to do. We had been too slack, that's why we can't get back to working mode. Have to catch up next week, which is also the last week of work. Feeling a bit guilty over my incompetence....
Part of the reason why progress is so slow is because I was learning Cantonese from Melissa. Weiqi was learning too. It all began with his "Lei ge kar lat dai hou yuk xun." :D From there it led to him learning how to sing 好心分手 in Cantonese and me, 情深的一句 and 当我遇上你. I think Melissa is the first person I know who has heard of so many Andy Lau songs, but she certainly hasn't heard as much as me. But damn it, I printed the lyrics with cantonese pronunciation but forgot to bring them home. I had planned to learn them over the weekend.
It's friday night and Im at home blogging. In fact, I didn't go out the whole week. Guess my energy has been expended from the KTVs and such from previous weeks and Im reverting to the "homely" guy that I am, aka 宅男. I want to watch "10 promises to my dog" but nobody wants to watch with me. Everyone is saying "me and my stupid dog show". Melissa even told me not to be so "girl". Wtf? Guys can't watch these kinds of shows? People nowadays don't have a heart. Haha. If only I can bring Chippy to watch together, but then she wouldn't understand what's going on anyway. So, who wants to watch with me???????
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
The Alchemist
"When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." This is what the old king said to Santiago and the quote that I remembered most from the book "The Alchemist", recommended to me by Melissa. The book is about a boy Santiago who dreamt of treasures hidden under the pyramids in Egpyt and travelled all the way there to fulfil his dream (his Personal Legend). Along the way, he met with many difficulties that almost made him give up. He also met a girl he loved and almost wanted to give up his dream and stay by her side. However, he overcame all odds in the end and managed to find the treasure.
The story tells us that if we have a dream, we must go all out to fulfil our dream despite the difficulties faced. We must also not be too bothered about what we will lose, including leaving our loved ones behind. If we were to give up our dreams because of that, we will regret it in years to come.
So how does this apply to me? I don't really know. I don't really have any dreams in the first place. Since young, I only aim to study hard so that I can earn enough to give my parents a good life, just like they did for me. Other than that, I only enjoyed playing soccer and running. I once had a dream which is to complete a marathon. But now, I've done that twice. So what's next? Anyway, that's more of a personal goal than a dream. Seriously, I don't know what I aim to achieve in life, and I know that Im not alone. Which of you reading this post can tell me what your dream is? Im curious to find out.
In the book, the boy met a crystal merchant. He's used to his life and doesn't ask for anything more out of it and doesn't like much changes. His dream was to visit the holy city of Mecca but when he was young, he wanted to earn some money first so he started a shop. But when the shop is doing well, he couldn't bear to put the shop in another person's charge and so he can't bear to go to Mecca. Another reason why he didn't go is because it's the dream of going to Mecca that kept him alive. He was afraid that if he were to go, he will no longer have anything to dream about.
Im just like the merchant, too used to my way of life. Eat, study, sleep, run, watch TV, play soccer, spend time with my family and my dog. Many people asked me why I didn't want to go overseas to do my Phd because my results are good enough to do so. Firstly, I just can't bear to leave my family behind and secondly, I don't like to adapting to life in another country, just like the merchant. At least the merchant has something to dream about, I don't know if I have any. In fact, Im so used to my life that I've never gotten into a relationship. I don't know how my life will change if I were to do so, thus explaining why Im always lacking in intiative when it comes to these matters. Even on the few occassions that I tried to take the initiative, I failed. So now Im just waiting for others to take the intiative on me. Haha. Yes, I know that's wishful thinking, but just let it be then....
Something damn funny happened during lunchtime today. We were at Cold Storage at Holland Village when a funeral procession (出殡) was ongoing just outside. Then there was this Caucasian kid who shouted to his mum: "Mummy look! There's a chinese travelling circus!" And his mother looked as if she thought it was a circus too. We almost laughed our asses off.
The story tells us that if we have a dream, we must go all out to fulfil our dream despite the difficulties faced. We must also not be too bothered about what we will lose, including leaving our loved ones behind. If we were to give up our dreams because of that, we will regret it in years to come.
So how does this apply to me? I don't really know. I don't really have any dreams in the first place. Since young, I only aim to study hard so that I can earn enough to give my parents a good life, just like they did for me. Other than that, I only enjoyed playing soccer and running. I once had a dream which is to complete a marathon. But now, I've done that twice. So what's next? Anyway, that's more of a personal goal than a dream. Seriously, I don't know what I aim to achieve in life, and I know that Im not alone. Which of you reading this post can tell me what your dream is? Im curious to find out.
In the book, the boy met a crystal merchant. He's used to his life and doesn't ask for anything more out of it and doesn't like much changes. His dream was to visit the holy city of Mecca but when he was young, he wanted to earn some money first so he started a shop. But when the shop is doing well, he couldn't bear to put the shop in another person's charge and so he can't bear to go to Mecca. Another reason why he didn't go is because it's the dream of going to Mecca that kept him alive. He was afraid that if he were to go, he will no longer have anything to dream about.
Im just like the merchant, too used to my way of life. Eat, study, sleep, run, watch TV, play soccer, spend time with my family and my dog. Many people asked me why I didn't want to go overseas to do my Phd because my results are good enough to do so. Firstly, I just can't bear to leave my family behind and secondly, I don't like to adapting to life in another country, just like the merchant. At least the merchant has something to dream about, I don't know if I have any. In fact, Im so used to my life that I've never gotten into a relationship. I don't know how my life will change if I were to do so, thus explaining why Im always lacking in intiative when it comes to these matters. Even on the few occassions that I tried to take the initiative, I failed. So now Im just waiting for others to take the intiative on me. Haha. Yes, I know that's wishful thinking, but just let it be then....
Something damn funny happened during lunchtime today. We were at Cold Storage at Holland Village when a funeral procession (出殡) was ongoing just outside. Then there was this Caucasian kid who shouted to his mum: "Mummy look! There's a chinese travelling circus!" And his mother looked as if she thought it was a circus too. We almost laughed our asses off.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Wild night at KTV
Went back to the Chinatown $10 KTV again last night with my colleagues from Fuji Xerox: Weiqi, Sing Hong, Lionel, Melissa, Yong Lim and Da Jie. This was a totally new experience, thanks to one guy - Weiqi. He totally brought the house down. Haha. 笨小孩 brought out the rocker in him and from then on, he went insane, insanely good I shall say. I still feel like laughing when I think of how crazy he had been last night.
His "One night in Beijing" left us totally speechless, no wonder he told me that is THE song he must sing when he goes to KTV. He can scream and he can sing, and the database of songs that he can sing is extensive. Yong Lim raps well and Sing Hong is good at Jay Chou's songs. Lionel sang a couple of English songs and it sounded good, but he was not confident of himself. Haha. Da Jie sang very little too, and she likes to sing in "Analog" mode. Maybe she's too pai seh.
Melissa is a great singer as well. Found out that she was from the choir just as we were about to reach the KTV. She mostly sang duets with Weiqi and they sounded good, except for the occassions when she forgot (or was it don't know how to read) the lyrics. Haha. Well, I did a duet with her too, and guess which song we sang? Yeah, 好心分手. One of my favourite songs and one of the few which I can sing well, I think. She sang her part magnificently, I hope my part was good enough to make the song sound good. Haha. The others I sang were mostly Andy Lau songs, some by Mayday and a few random others, and Weiqi said I brought the Andy Lau style into 童话. Ooops... Im just not versatile enough when it comes to singing. :P
The greatest disappointment of the day was that 动你脚车 failed to deliver 那就这样吧. 动你脚车 was the name of the duo of me and Weiqi modified from 动力火车. Haha. I know it sounds lame but what can you expect from two lame guys? We both like the song 那就这样吧 and we agreed to sing it at the KTV. But when the song came up..... there wasn't any scrolling lyrics!!! It was just a normal MV without the enlarged font and the blue filling. Oh my god! It was damn difficult to sing that way. Maybe Weiqi can do it, but I can't. Haizzz..... In the end, we flunked and 动你脚车 face the possibility of getting disbanded. :(
As they say, save the best for the last and that's what we did. We all got together to sing 朋友 just before we left and it was damn fun and funny. Weiqi kept doing funny actions as we sang and we played along with him, raising our glasses as we sang the 一杯酒 part. Haha. Lionel took photos for us and the photos should be up in facebook soon. A pity we forgot to help him take photos of himself so he wasn't in the pictures. What a waste.
To end this entry:
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Adizero CS
Spend, spend and spend. I have been buying a lot of things recently. From T-shirts to DVDR to new shoes. Luckily Im working now, if not I don't know where the money will come from. The most recent thing I bought: a pair of Adizero CS running shoes. It's red and white and looks great. Lionel borrowed an Adidas VIP card from his friend and we went down to the Adidas Store and Vivocity after work yesterday to check out the shoes. The pair that I chose was originally $162, but it was on sale and there was 30% off. Using the VIP card, I was entitled to another 30% off the discounted price which makes it 0.7*(0.7 * $162) = $79! That's a good bargain in my opinion, the price I paid is only 49% of the original price. I really have to thank Lionel for that. He himself bought another pair of black Adizero which is the same as what Mun Wai is wearing. I wanted to buy a pair of soccer boots as well but the smallest size is UK 7.5 while mine is UK 6.5 (Yes, I know I have small feet). I tried the kid's size and the largest size was UK 5. So where does that leave people like me with feet size between UK 5 and UK 7.5? Or are males not supposed to have that kind of feet size? :(
Reached home around 8 and had dinner. My mum went out to do her newspaper job and left me with a super big bowl of pork porridge. I struggled to finish everything and felt so full after that. Usually I wouldn't have finished it but recently I felt that I've lost weight. Even my friends who play soccer with me told me that. Did I really lose weight? But why? There wasn't any changes in my lifestyle. And Im also not under any stress. That's puzzling....
Choosing to finish all the porridge was a bad decision. I couldn't sleep well at night because I was too full. I went to sleep at 10.30pm but woke up again at 11.30pm because my stomach felt uncomfortable. Tried to sleep again but was kept awake by some dog's howling from the opposite block. I hope that the dog is not being abused, because its howling sounded pathetic. But I have no idea which unit the sound came from. If someone was really abusing the dog, I wish that person a horrible death.
That's not all. After some time, the air-conditioner compressor (Im not sure if that's what it's called but it's the thing outside the window) from the unit above mine started to make a lot of noise. Im sure the thing needs servicing but the asshole of a neighbour just can't be bothered to do it. That is not the first time it has happened and the sound was damn loud. If there's one thing I really hate, it is to have my sleep disturbed. I feel like going up to slap that idiot who lives above me, stupid inconsiderate fool. But in the end I didn't and instead, tried to go back to sleep. The noise faded off and just when I thought that was it, it happened again. Arrgggghhhh.........
Eventually, I only got to sleep at about 3am and I woke up today at 7.05am. The alarm didn't sound, I just woke up naturally because Im used to waking up at that time. I had set the alarm at 8am. Ok, now that Im awake 1 hour early, do I
1) Go back to sleep?
2) Go and run?
Option 2 was chosen. I put on my running shoes (not the new pair) and off I went, approximately 5.6km around the neighbourhood. Reached home at 8am, washed up and left for work around 8.30am. Im quite late today but when I reached the office, Im still one of the first few. Haha. I wonder if I can survive the day with less than half the amount of sleep I get from a typical day. Hopefully I can, but today's going to be a long day because we're going to KTV after work! :)
Reached home around 8 and had dinner. My mum went out to do her newspaper job and left me with a super big bowl of pork porridge. I struggled to finish everything and felt so full after that. Usually I wouldn't have finished it but recently I felt that I've lost weight. Even my friends who play soccer with me told me that. Did I really lose weight? But why? There wasn't any changes in my lifestyle. And Im also not under any stress. That's puzzling....
Choosing to finish all the porridge was a bad decision. I couldn't sleep well at night because I was too full. I went to sleep at 10.30pm but woke up again at 11.30pm because my stomach felt uncomfortable. Tried to sleep again but was kept awake by some dog's howling from the opposite block. I hope that the dog is not being abused, because its howling sounded pathetic. But I have no idea which unit the sound came from. If someone was really abusing the dog, I wish that person a horrible death.
That's not all. After some time, the air-conditioner compressor (Im not sure if that's what it's called but it's the thing outside the window) from the unit above mine started to make a lot of noise. Im sure the thing needs servicing but the asshole of a neighbour just can't be bothered to do it. That is not the first time it has happened and the sound was damn loud. If there's one thing I really hate, it is to have my sleep disturbed. I feel like going up to slap that idiot who lives above me, stupid inconsiderate fool. But in the end I didn't and instead, tried to go back to sleep. The noise faded off and just when I thought that was it, it happened again. Arrgggghhhh.........
Eventually, I only got to sleep at about 3am and I woke up today at 7.05am. The alarm didn't sound, I just woke up naturally because Im used to waking up at that time. I had set the alarm at 8am. Ok, now that Im awake 1 hour early, do I
1) Go back to sleep?
2) Go and run?
Option 2 was chosen. I put on my running shoes (not the new pair) and off I went, approximately 5.6km around the neighbourhood. Reached home at 8am, washed up and left for work around 8.30am. Im quite late today but when I reached the office, Im still one of the first few. Haha. I wonder if I can survive the day with less than half the amount of sleep I get from a typical day. Hopefully I can, but today's going to be a long day because we're going to KTV after work! :)
Saturday, June 14, 2008
$10 KTV at Chinatown
Went to the $10 KTV at Chinatown on Wednesday after work with Ronghua, Jastinian, Weiming and Jastinian and Weiming's girlfriends. The place was not bad, but I heard that it was difficult to book a place, especially on weekends. This is the first time I went to KTV with this group and they are too good! Weiming doesn't sing but the rest of them can sing very well. I was quite stressed. Haha.
Tried a few new songs which I've never sang before and realised that there are some songs I must avoid. For example, JJ Lin's songs will expose all my flaws because I can't raise my voice to his key. I tried to sing 一千年以后 but halfway through I know I won't be able to make it. Haha. I'll have to select songs with lower vocal ranges.
But I managed to sing 好心分手rather well, a duet with Weiming's girlfriend Peiru. I like that song but I didn't think I have much of a chance to sing it because it's not easy to find a girl who can sing cantonese to sing with me. So when she picked that song, I readily agreed to sing it with her. :D
Met Weiming and Jastinian for dinner on Friday at Marina Square. Had planned to go to the PC show to buy some DVD-Rs. But we took our time and reached the exhibition hall late. Stupid Weiming told me it closes at 9. When we reached there at 9 plus, it was already closed. Damn it. I think I'll ask someone to buy it for me since Im too lazy to make a trip there and mingle with the crowd. Crowds are scary things.
At work, one of my colleagues Mun Wai deliberately avoided another colleague Melissa because of a joke we played on him last week. It was just a harmless joke but we didn't expect Mun Wai to take it so seriously and get all stressed up over the matter, even after we had stopped talking about it. He started to do all sorts of funny things and that made Melissa feel awkward too. We had definitely joked with the wrong guy and made a mess of the situation. Things got better towards the end of the week and I hope that he will be back to normal. If not we will feel bad, even though it's not deliberate.
Tried a few new songs which I've never sang before and realised that there are some songs I must avoid. For example, JJ Lin's songs will expose all my flaws because I can't raise my voice to his key. I tried to sing 一千年以后 but halfway through I know I won't be able to make it. Haha. I'll have to select songs with lower vocal ranges.
But I managed to sing 好心分手rather well, a duet with Weiming's girlfriend Peiru. I like that song but I didn't think I have much of a chance to sing it because it's not easy to find a girl who can sing cantonese to sing with me. So when she picked that song, I readily agreed to sing it with her. :D
Met Weiming and Jastinian for dinner on Friday at Marina Square. Had planned to go to the PC show to buy some DVD-Rs. But we took our time and reached the exhibition hall late. Stupid Weiming told me it closes at 9. When we reached there at 9 plus, it was already closed. Damn it. I think I'll ask someone to buy it for me since Im too lazy to make a trip there and mingle with the crowd. Crowds are scary things.
At work, one of my colleagues Mun Wai deliberately avoided another colleague Melissa because of a joke we played on him last week. It was just a harmless joke but we didn't expect Mun Wai to take it so seriously and get all stressed up over the matter, even after we had stopped talking about it. He started to do all sorts of funny things and that made Melissa feel awkward too. We had definitely joked with the wrong guy and made a mess of the situation. Things got better towards the end of the week and I hope that he will be back to normal. If not we will feel bad, even though it's not deliberate.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
2 late nights
Went to Timbre@ the Arts House on Friday night after work with my colleagues from Fuji Xerox. It was sort of a farewell for Chae as he is leaving the company and at the same time, we celebrated Yong Bin's birthday. Nothing much to do in there except listening to the live band. It was cramp and hot, not what I had expected. I ordered a cocktail, Around the World. It didn't really suit my taste. I preferred Long Island Iced Tea and China Blue, but it's better than AK47 which tasted like..... yucks.
Went to St James Power Station with Weiming, Peiru, Shinneng and Rong Hua on Saturday night. It was my first time there. We had planned to meet 8.30pm at Harbourfront MRT so that we can enter for free before 9pm. However, I reached the MRT only at 8.45pm and we had to rush from Vivocity to St James. We managed to reach in time after a super-fast walk and run. :D
How should I describe my experience there? The music was way too loud for my liking, Im really not used to it. And we had to shout when talking, I think we weren't supposed to talk much anyway. We explored Dragonfly, The Bolier Room and the Powerhouse. All in all, I just have to say that it's not my kind of place. It didn't turn out to be a wild night like I have expected. What a waste...... :D
We left around 12 and went to MacDonald's for supper. I took the Nightrider home after supper and saw Shihan on the bus. What a coincidence. The last time I took the nightrider was also with her, and I happened to wear the same shirt on both days. :D That's where the similarities end, the difference: Nightrider is now $3.50 instead of $3! Wtf!
Went to St James Power Station with Weiming, Peiru, Shinneng and Rong Hua on Saturday night. It was my first time there. We had planned to meet 8.30pm at Harbourfront MRT so that we can enter for free before 9pm. However, I reached the MRT only at 8.45pm and we had to rush from Vivocity to St James. We managed to reach in time after a super-fast walk and run. :D
How should I describe my experience there? The music was way too loud for my liking, Im really not used to it. And we had to shout when talking, I think we weren't supposed to talk much anyway. We explored Dragonfly, The Bolier Room and the Powerhouse. All in all, I just have to say that it's not my kind of place. It didn't turn out to be a wild night like I have expected. What a waste...... :D
We left around 12 and went to MacDonald's for supper. I took the Nightrider home after supper and saw Shihan on the bus. What a coincidence. The last time I took the nightrider was also with her, and I happened to wear the same shirt on both days. :D That's where the similarities end, the difference: Nightrider is now $3.50 instead of $3! Wtf!
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