Fashion Disaster...

30th June 2005, Thursday

I wonder how many people out there have clothings that are in their collections for more than 10 years?
Well high quality and lasting garments are hard to come by these days, that maybe even Levi Jeans might not be able to survive the toll of time...

However I knew of people still wearing clothes since the 90s, in fact maybe even the 80s..
There is this particular colleague of mine from a neighbouring laboratory who seems to be overly thrifty that she can virtually don the same sets of clothes over decades and the amzing thing is that she bears no difference now and ages ago...

well today is not about criticising other (or have I?), but talk about a couple of shirts I wore for like years now...
I ain't no fashion guru nor a metropolitican dude like Beckham... but in the past I do try to spend a hefty sum to garnish my Michelin-man like physique...However most tend to fail instataneously...
I had a shirt from "Tangs Studio" which I took a profound amount of consideration plus a couple of neutral opinions (actually the guys were just dying of boredom and wanted me to hasten the purchase process)...
It's sort fo like a bohemian style V-neck shirt with really stylo-mylo strings around the collar...
well since I was pretty into the visual kei pretty J rock at that time, I thought I could pull that off...
But I ain't no slim, drugged pretty Japanese rockers.. I was fat as always and the body hugging, beige shirt just amplify that notion ever more...
After a date with my girlfriend during X'mas that year, she banned me from wearing that god-forsaken shirt when I am with her ever....since then, I could not recall where I had placed it...
Luckily I did not contemplate on buying a pair of black leather pants back then...phew

As I have grown older and due to the context of my job, jeans and T shirts are my best buddies...because they are easy to pair and comfortable to be in...
However even T shirts can be a nightmare if the size ain't accurate...I had some really big ones and some so small it could suffocate me after 5 seconds upon putting on...
Well eventually I ran out of option to wear for work as well as casual outgoing...

One shirt which I bought from Bangkok in my late secondary school days donned the face of the late Kurt Cobain, the vocals of Nirvana...which was your typical "Mat Rocker" black shirt
The miraculous thing is that this particular shirt fit me to a T since then, despite so many years...
Even till these days, when I feel a bit grungy I would wear it...despite once during a class chalet outing at Changi region, a transversite (famous landmark of that area) was pretty attached to my shirt and when he/she uttered, "wah, Nirvana ah..." I scampered off like there was no tomorrow...

Another shirt...actually more like a football jersey which I wore today to work as well is a Unisport Dutch jersey I got for my birthday present back in my secondary school days as well...
The design is your vintage Dutch team style when it wasn't Nike who endorsed them but Umbro...but mine is just a cheap replica which was a nice gesture from my poor friends...
The jersey is in bright luminous orange (as in all Dutch football jerseys, they are not called the "Oranje" for nothing) which was so body hugging..when I donned it and went for my soccer training (yes I was an amatuer bench warmer in my younger days), my acid-tongue team-mates would call me "the fat Bergkamp"... It was really a compliment to me...
So till these days when I feel like to be standing out of the crowd, I would wear my cheap bright orange jersey...since there is a renaissance of orange since the turn of the centuary...
But the design of it gives an indication how old I am as well...

I guess this pair would continue to be ominpresent in my selection for the next few years as well...

Last night, a "pa-cik" from the Ministry of Environment knocked on our door vehemently who annoyed Dad (then again he can be annoyed by the most trivial thing around); wanting to check that our apartment is free of breeding ground for Aedes mosquito as dengue fever had sort of hit my neighbourhood pretty badly..yikes...

Things at work haven't been proceeding too smoothly as the machines kept having persistant problems and not 1 but 3 of our 4 equipments affected with slow down our operation badly..more mystery for JxMMy to unveil I guess...

Lastly been pretty engrossed with the NHK Taiga serial for the year 2004 which Chan borrowed me, "Shinsengumi" which was a tragic tale about some young and dedicated samurais in the Edo period... well you can search and read about their tales on the internet...
But this 49 episodes long Taiga series aren't as boring as other previous works and sure helped by having some popular actors like Katori Shingo (SMAP), Eguchi Yousuke and Yuuka in the cast...
Think it would be a pretty long journey to be intrigued by the story of a group of people so important in the development of historical Japan...

Japanese word of the day: 流行　~ryuu-kou~(Fashion)I think I'm going into spandex next with all these superhero fever as of now..)

State of the Art, My @$$!

29th June 2005, Wednesday

Thought I could scrimp a MC for today as I wasn't feeling a little under the weather last evening with slight fever and an excruciating headache... but a pair of paracetamol later, I was feeling aye okay...

Today feel like talking about the evil aura that surrounds my current workplace.. well nothing extraordinary or supernatural phenomenons have occured, but recently I just felt that as we marked our 1st complete year in this new building located deep within the so-called state of the art, high -tech, renowned research community... But underneath the well-garnished, pristine pretenance is really just a big empty promise...

Firstly the so called "state of the art" amenities... we got like power shortage for the entire morning with no prior warning, halting all operations for an entire morning and irking thousands of researchers on the way...
Our nice lavish lavatories are the most badly hit as the flushing system and the taps are all electrically operated...
People tends to get trapped as well as the automatic doors and the card sensors all need electricity as well...
I don't to even talk about our elevators..On common day when we had only an option to get to the basement where our common amenities like the biohazard waste disposals, collection of media, and other inventories.. Sometime it can take up to half a day just to wait for that bloody cargo lift to go down and forth...

Sometime the common taps in our labs could actually ran out of water...which really can tick one off if they are in dire needs to get an experiment done...

Our local network which include internet connection can come on and off due to our external server which is also a big inconvenience...

The entire "polis" idea was to instill a comfortable working environment with nice facilities such as nice restaruants & eateries, saloon, cineplexes, gymnasium etc.. But until now except the former, none of the other had been realised...
Even for dining places, the lavish cafes and restaraunts are more suited for expatriate researchers or people with an beefy income of at least 6K per month to be able to dine in every day of the week....
The common air conditioned foodcourt, known as "Soul Food" which is initiated by the good people of "Makansutra" was supposed to be a haven for some of the most renowned hawker vendors on the island..But a year in with staff more favored to dine at cheaper alternatives elsewhere nearby, the place is at the brink of collapse and soon would be replaced altogether.. Anyway all these really will not bother me as I will bring my "home cook" meals everyday...

Lastly I felt the larger building is starting to build walls among our own community.. Unlike in the old building, there were only 2 main floors of laboratories and we got to see everyone day in day out, and you can actually feel the community bustle within...
But now the labs are been scattered on all 8 storeys here and people became really cold and remote...
One distinctive trait from my fellow co-workers...
When you see them elsewhere off work, they would actually smile and greet you...
However during office hour, while brushing off the same colleagues along the dim corridor, they would walk pass you, without any emotions on their face and you might even wonder whether you have become the "Invisible Girl" in "Fantastic 4"...

Other times some people can actually chat and joke with you in a certain place (perhaps on a particular occasion); however immediately at another locations, when you meet the same person, they would look at you as if they had not met you ever in their god-damn lives...

Actually the evil aura I was really talking about these days is the cursed building on the staff and equipments of my own department...
Not sure why, since the turn of the year (especially in conjunction with the arrival of our German collaborators), the smooth flow of work had became hindered with problems (regarding equipments or kits) week in week out, and people started to became skeptical of our abilities...

Even the relationship between ourselves had became really bad...
The "showdown" between the girls and my supervisor has resulted into a pit that could not be filled...
Our detest on the recalcitrant JxMMy deepens since he had became more self-reliance and governed by his own rules and gimmicks...
The word "camaraderie" will not ever appear in our lab with the sequence of events that had occured and bound to occur...

I really think all the blame lies deep in this new workplace as it is sapping our zest and passion for work...and killing all that was good & was present sometime back when we were still residing in our old workplace....

Japanese word of the day: Don't even know whether there is a phase like "State of the Art" in Japanese but all i can describe this current workplace as "惨め"

Beckoning old friends

28th June 2005, Tuesday

Struggling to fight the drowsiness this morning as the banquet on Sunday still taking it's toll on me...

YM was left fighting a lone battle today as LF went on leave and BY took an urgent leave, and she was unfortunate to endure her busiest day for the entire year so far....

The main thing today is that after some "Private Messaging" on my frequent local hobby forum, Katoots to a friend whom I had not been keeping touch with for a while, Foo, the aspiring film maker and the walking dictionary for Japan Live Action Heroes especially Kamen Rider...

It seems like he has recently handed in his letter of resignation for his engineer job at Singapore Technologies Aerospace to further pursue his dream of creative film and arts... To further his studies in this trade, a well recognised degree to better equip him in the industry...

It's been a while since we have met up, the last approximately 6 months back with a karaoke and dining session; so it's all too appropiate to catch up again, together with some old J-pop loving fans like Cheryl and Selina as well...

So with Foo giving the green light, I spent the morning contacting the girls for a viable time to meet up and the street-smart Selina who is well verse with some of the best dining places on the island provided me the suggestion of "Creation Restaurant" at Shaw Buildingand mentioned about Jackson, another clique member, had the same intention to meet-up...

So now we just wait for the particular date of the meet-up, which will most prob within next weekend, so that would be something to look forward to for the month of July..man I need to step out of my hermit's shell and mingle more often...

Talking about looking forward to something, these couple of days I have been shown sneak previews to a couple of movies that set to set the blockbuster ablaze in the festive seasons...

Firstly the C.S. Lewis' fantasy classic adaptation: "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch & the Wardrobe"; which seems to me like Harry Potter meets Lord of the Ring, the typical kind of perfect movie for entertaining the young and old the festive season...

Peter Jackson is back and this time his WETA team is taking the grip of the classic sci fi horror mammoth (literally), "King Kong"...
Well after watching the trailer, I feel "Jurassic Park" & "Mighty Joe Young" suddenly become overrated and no one can do it better than Jackson himself...

Sure a good way to stall my "movie buffing" bugs after a month of pricey movie indulgence and unleash much later in the year..hopefully my wallet is well prepared for that damage by then...

Japanese word of the day: 夢 ~yu-me~ (dream) It takes a lot of courage and desire, not too forget perseverance & hard work, to pursue and attain your dream, so all the best Foo, I know you will achieve it! がんばるよ！

So when is your turn?

27th June 2005, Monday

Entering the final week of June and left around 50 days between me and my Japa trip...

Starting my week in a pretty lethargic way after the late turn in from last night's wedding banquet of Benny and June (which I kept mistakenly mentioned as "Ben & Judy" the entire evening)..

The evening started with me and my lass rushing down to Ang Mo Kio MRT station where a feeder bus was supposed to ferry us all the way to the Rasa Sentosa Shangri-La Hotel where the banquet was held...
We were running a bit late, and had to spend a bit more for a cab ride. But little did we realise that the bus would only be leavinbg 15 minutes after the scheduled time of 6 pm...
It's there where we first met the 1st 2 familiar faces which is a start of a night of reunion of the Science Club Alumni which I made a wild guess that the blissful couple may have invited up to 6-7 generations of management committee for the procession...Kenneth, my old Sec/JC and eventually college mate who went "M.I.A" for a few years now, so we were pretty surprised to see him as did many other people later on..
And Meiling aka Xiao Bai, still as docile as before...

Just as the bus is on the brink of departure, the 3 musketeers of HZ, Lingmin and Geneth finally board it and off we went to the southern resort island of Sentosa which Kenneth mentioned he had not stepped foot on since our Science Freshmen Orientation Camp back in the year 2001....same in my case...

More familiar faces started to flood in first at the reception area where we do the actual autographs and table allocation as well as the open-air reception by the beach...

Benny the groom was an excellent host trying to accomodate and attend to the guests and assuring us despite the busy schedule he would be having tonight, he would try to entertain everyone which ain't so true because he and the bride had only time only for perhaps the photo taking session after his round of the 53 tables indented for the banquet...

Despite the fact that many familiar seniors and juniors had shown their presence, there are still many who couldn't make it...nonetheless by sheer strength of our contigent, we would require 7 tables to hold us down
But the seating arrangement was not up to par, which is a common problem with people tend to stick together and left the other orginally meant to occupy the seats left clueless of their own allocations... this resulted in a little episode in which HZ wasn't too please and would complain to me now and then throughout the night, but don't forget it's HZ....

Before they serve the dishes, there was a really interesting short snippets taken by professional film production team, Treaure Productions. It delved into how Benny met June years back and their courtship to finally how he proposed to her in your typical sugar-sweet mushy way (sitting within a heart shape created by little Ikea tealight candles when Benny would plug the shiniest star from the night sky which happened to be the diamond ring..blah blha blah)...
Such novelty productions is a really innovative and show-stealing way for the pronouciation of blissful matrimony between the wedded couple but left the unmarried girls in the crowd gasping in envy and their other half (including myself) sweating on how to out do such an act...

Generally I think this wedding inclusive of everything from the banquet, the photography package, the honeymoon etc would seemingly come close to at least 50K..I shiver at the thought of the amount of money spent...

Well for the rest of the night, beside the usual compain from HZ who was sitting on my side, the usual shunning of seafood in the menu, the tipsy feeling after 2 glass of red wine, some photography and chit chat session, & of course endless number of people asking me and speculating when they would be attending my own wedding ceremony; basically people just starting to forget that the whole event was held in the name of the wedded couple and it seemed more like a reunion session...

As expected the banquet ended well before 11p.m., and on a Sunday night which precedes a long working week, it's the thought ot scurrying home, wash up and catch as much sleep for the next day of work is just dreadful... And between all those I had to endure a taxi ride back with my girlfriend and 2 persons whom I can say I wouldn't be placing them in my list of favorite people ever....

Japanese word of the day:　同窓会　~dou-sou-kai~(reunion) Benny & June s' wedding became an unofficial reunion of old friends...

A Movie a Week makes my Wallet Weak

26th June 2005, Sunday

The highlight of today is Benny & June's wedding ceremony at Rasa Sentosa in the evening, more on the report tomorrow...

Went for yet another movie session last evening, which is an impromptu decision as we realised at La Tendo that yesterday was Chan's birthday as verified by Ferris and Ziwei which leads to a pretty heated discussion of going for a karaoke celebration after the movie "Initial D"; thus both me and Tay chan who first rejected the idea of watching the Hong Kong production, later was roped in, much thanks to the treat by Chan himself...

The generous birthday boy himself said to me on MSN the statement featured on the title of this post which is all so true...
I was never a movie buff in the first place, and the ticket price hike to as dear as $9.50 on weekends almost certainly killed the thought of the nation's favorite past time...
However with the influence of the clique and company, as well as the allure of some good movies, a little indulgence starting to propogate into a weekly affair...
Firstly "Batman Begins" last week, "Initial D" this week, follows by the Japanese romance box office hit, "いま、会いにゆきます" sometime in the coming week, then the highly anticipated Steven Spielberg/Tom Cruise s' baby, "War of the Worlds" probably next weekend, it is starting to take a toll on my wallet, as I have to dig deep to see how long can I sustain such indulgence...

Anyway the manga/ anime based movie about a wonderkid car racer which original anime series took Asia by storm years back is not too bad a show despite me and Tay chan had to endure the entire ride only 3 rows away from the screen, which did incur some car sickness in me after all the high tempo acceleration...

3 points I really like the show:

1. The entire show was taken off the backdrop of the real Akina Yama (Mountain) in Gunma Prefecture, which really capture the essence of the dangerous race track used by the racers... Of course the frequent site of Lawson was a joy to a "Nihon-buff" like myself...

2. The cars used are really slick starting of the lead, Fujihara Takumi's tofu (beancurd) delivery car, Toyota Trueno GT-Apex (AE86) which is a high performance work-horse which exceeds many racers' expectations.. Then come the other race vehicles like Takeshi's Nissan Skyline GT-R, Ryousuke's Mazda RX-7 III (FC35) and finally Kyouichi Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III (CE9A) which sure makes local ah beng racers yearning to own one at the end of the show...

3. The splendid & innovative cinematography for the entire race seqeunces... make sure we get the low down of the intensity of the racing inside and outside the cars, and ensure we are not just watching another usual round of F-1 Grand Prix.. One of my fave part is the part when Talumi's AE86's engine was taken to the limit and it totally fails on a fustrated Takumi who was taunted by the professional Emperor racers led by Kyouichi

As for the actors themselves..
My fave are the comedians which kept the audience laughing in the midst of endless car racings...
Chapman Toh as Takumi's best friend, Itsuki was your usual spoile brat yet someone yearning to carve a name for himself.. His antics really was unconventional and humourous.. Kenny Bee who acted as his father and the owner of a petroluem kiosk was a very stale character unlike Takumi;s father, Bunta acted by the omnipresent Anthony Wong who is an ex-racing legend on Mt. Akina and became a self-destructive alcholic when his wife ran away from him...
He played the role of a mentor to Takumi very well...

The only flower in the bush, Suzuki Anne (as in An-ne) whom I last saw in "The Returner" as Natsuki was a social escort forced by circumstances and did well as a typical Japanese jyou-sei (lady) in which common, weak-minded guy (including myself) woh crumble and go ga-ga over...
However I felt there are better choices out there for sure...

Finally the eye-candy racers... My fave is the cool Ryousuke acted by Edison Chan... Takeshi who was badly beaten by everyone else is protrayed by Shawn Yue who looks lecherous with the moustache and that awful, over-sized black sports suit...
Jordan Chan appeared in the latter half of the show as the professional racer, Kyouichi had a fashion disaster himself in 80s rock punk (think Billy Idol) with metal studs on his leather jacket..I really doubt it would be comfortable when racing under the heat...no wonder he lost almost immediately...
Last but not least, the Taiwan prince of Hip Hop, Jay Chou on his theatrical debut as Takumi...just 3 simple words to describe his performace..":He can't act".

I rest my case....

Japanese word of the day: 車 ~ku-ru-ma~ (Cars) Nice ones featured even for a non car lover like myself...

Shoo shoo..Tax-men!

24th June 2005, Friday

Woohoo Friday already, and no better way to pass through it without much obstacles, any ordeals or even trivial hassles... and it seems like on my work front, things are basically taken care of as the problem with the clean-up kit has been reported to the vendor and awaiting their response next week; while we have conjured up an able substitute for the time being...

This morning, my colleague, YM (yes the same one who is infatuated with her nuptials fantasy and owns a blog with one sentence post) was busy filling an income tax form to be remitting her tax into Giro instalments...

She then asked me how much was my tax last year...
I could barely recall, it seemed like eons ago..but surely below $100
This brought me to my senses that it's income tax remittance time of the year...
It seemed much overdued as I could recall receiving my tax form in May last year, almost instantly from the closing date on end April; this year the In-land Revenue Authority only starts sending the letters in late June.

Well it's like opening up my monthly handphone bill, never know how much I am to cough up.. (anyway I'm starting to dread my mobile phone subscription as I am paying month after month seemingly excess of what I have been using; but been tied down to the bloody contract till next year, when which I will definitely change a service provider for sure)...

Anyway with my inclusion of my unemployed father into my records, I was hoping to limit my tax to the minimum...because I don't really have much budget for that (yes I can spend a few hundreds for my personal toy collection, I would scrimp a minute amount of money contributed to the welfare of our nation..yes I'm such a shelfish being, go on BITE ME MONKEYBOYS & GIRLS!)

YM's tax remittance is around $100+ which is quite puzzling since her income is defintely lesser than mine...
Then BY advised on paying that amount via a monthly $10 instalment by Giro, instead of letting the government suck the full amount from you at one go)..wise but don't really makes much sense to me as eventually the money will be extracted by them, just a matter of time; which tells how generally how people manage their money, by the health of their bank accounts:

If I have excessive money, goodie..can spend more.
If no money, then must start to fast and eat grass.
No measures to fall back on...

Anyway it seems like keeping a budget like I do is fustrating as the budget would end up been exceeded almost everytime... (;_;)

Talking about my old man.. he got into one of his petty fit last evening.. for no apparent reason...
Mom was just joking about something he commented about the local drama series after dinner and to carry on the joke, I just turned off the TV set.. Suddenly his face just filled with angst as he lacked that basic sense of humour & blasted at Mom...
This was a bad taste in the mouth for myself, leaving my sis' boyfriend who had just arrived feeling pretty awkward , pondering what dysfunctional family had he came to...
My mom sure is the most magnanimous and patient wife to put up with the shit, his insensitive and unhumorous husband had hurled on her...

Japanese word of the day: 収入 ~shu-n-yuu~ (income) Somehow my pathetically small income is still large enough to be taxed by the gahmen...

Ich spreche deutsch!

23rd June 2005, Thursday

I was totally engrossed with the latest development in the manga version of One Piece about the truth behind Frank (Fran Cutty) and Iceburg and why CP9 of the government is in hot pursuit of them for the blueprint of a deadly weapon that could annihilate all oppositions the government might face (i.e. the pirates)
I even gave up some slumber time during my journey to work for it...

The main feature of JxMMy's 1001 gimmicks for today is:

He sent an email to one of our German collaborater, the younger one called Stefan, asking him to do his routine online submission for the plates he had delivered for our completion, and he wrote:

Könnten Sie den Probennamen für die oben Erwähnung plattiert online eintragen? Vielen Dank.

Which after translated by some web-based translator like Alta Vista-Babelfish Translator would actually mean:

Would you know the sample name for those mention above plate on-line to register? Thank you.

As you can see the online translator really suck in sentence structure as I use pretty regularly myself for some Japanese translation especially on single words or phases, instead of full sentences or paragraphs which make no simple sense at all, therefore I think what he was trying to convey was to enquire whether he would be doing the online submission for the above-mentioned plates...

I think the objective behind his little gimmick today was to have some fun with Stefan (that from a stoic, mundane introvert like him was a pretty long shot) but when I (been the conniving, back stabbing assfreak as I am) forwarded to the girls, they were totally unamused and bewildered by what the entire point was...

I feel if his message was not translated properly into German and eventually turned out to be a joke, he would be just embarrassing himself...

However not JxMMy, with his status high on the pedestal here, he could smear his face with faeces , ran naked around the institute while singing along to the tune of "Happy Tree Friends", people would still think it's perfectly fine and continue to shower much more adorations...

Japanese word of the day: かこい~ka-ko-i~ (Cool) JxMMy ain't cool, he's simply hot, well at least to the hordes of fans who adore him....

Meaning of a Blog & Friends update

22nd June 2005, Wednesday

Midweek already..yoohoo... all thanks to the Monday leave to shorten the work week...heehee

Read an interesting article on "Today" (perhaps the only one worth reading beside the news about Saddam Hussein does not like "Froot Loop" in his imprisonment...man he is leading a better life than many of us out here)...

Mr Miyagi, one of the most celebrated blogger in local scene gave the general public of what a blog is all about:

You, dear reader, may ask: So, what is a blog? Is it an online diary? Is it a collection of personal musings or news clippings? A journal of an unusual hobby? A photo journal? A depository of stories?
.
It is all of the above but you could also think of it as a blank sheet of paper. You can write on it, stick things on it, or fold origami birds with it, or simply soil it. Only this "blank sheet of paper" can be seen instantly around the world.
.

Well said, Mr Miyagi...and I guess mine is very badly "soiled" since my buddy did said I whined too much and my blog has actually assimilated into "The Chronicles of JxMMy D, the King of Gimmicks"... time to take the dirty laundry for a wash...

Talking of JxMMy (yes don;t deny it girls, you all wanna know the latest scoop of your no. 1 idol, after Christian Bale now)..he's basically running the entire show today...in fact since I have returned on Tuesday he had been hogging everything at work... well despite it shine badly on me as I have degenerated into that piece of "shit" (an ex colleague who did nothing but surf internet all day long)... Well he really does not need to plot and scheme to make himself indispensable because in the eyes of our supervisor, he's a god (and like Vertical Horizon would said, "and I am not")

I'm not fretting as he gave me sometime to keep myself abreast with how some of the few people I can call friends are doing via the internet version of contacts directory, Friendster....

I still think that webpage makes no single sense at all, just for desperate, lonely men seeking fresh docile girls to "tackle" on
But it does hlpe keep an insight on how some of my friends whom you know I would be too lazy to keep contact with are doing....
It was where I got to know about Cheryl been happily attached, well if Cheryl you are reaing this, good luck on your job hunt...

Recent updates include a guy we used to know as "The Considerer" has been married, and considering (heehee) I knew him when I was 21 and he was already 28, which makes him 48 quadrillion years old now, it's high time...anyway congrats to you, Nel...

Not too long back, a certain Mr V asked me for authorisation...I pondered thinking it might be a Northern-based old Primary school friend more affectionately known as the No.1 Mariah Carey fan in S'pore or maybe just "The Big O (for Omen)" but actually it turns out to be just my friends from La Tendo, Vincent... the friendly giant...

An old "DJ Su clique" pal, Jackson who has a fetish in spoiling his hair follicles with ample supply of hair dye (some very potent purple ones in fact), claim to have a Japanese girlfriend and posted a couple of pictures..yeah right, Jack...I'm so believing you...

Meanwhile another old J-pop ally, the guy from Ulaanbarto (capital of Mongolia) updated his profile with pictures of his failed "drag-locks" experience...Howe never fails to humour me...sick humour but still humor...heehee

Our residential "Birthday Bear", Bernard posted a couple pictures of his adorable baby son which makes everyone goes "urgh..so cute"...

My blunt and brute NUS buddy, Edmund opened an account (perhaps under much persuasions from his girlfriend) a uploaded a dashing professional make-over picture..but still can;t conceal his receding hairline

Another former NUS friend, Cedric who is so artistically inclined and love to cosplay stills way so much more dashing than me (in my good-looking day) in his outrageously-fat Batman suit....

Last but not least, YM, one of my female colleague has actually created a blog on Friendster, but with only 3 entries with one with only 1 line "18th April: I'm back to work from my 1 week mc for lasik! =D", aren't your conventional whiny blog....

Will do more updates on Friendster perhaps again next millenium...

Anyway, yesterday a mini electrical-circuit based fire broke up in the Carrefour supermarket outlet at Plaza Singapura yesterday evening.. which shows that my evil aura persist since I was there the day before and immediately it caused the place to be doused in fire...
But the news get really whacky when some Starhub customers were there and insisted the handphone subscription provider to keep to their 9 pm close-shop time when the staff was frantically abiding to the safety rules to shut the place down and usher everyone safe from the fire...
man such typical ugly Singaporean..but then they have wasted their time, money and effort to purposely go down to get their handphones, maybe they had a point ...

Japanese word of the day: 友達~to-mo-da-chi~(Friends) Don't have many but enough to keep me entertain (aka laugh at) at times...

The shoes eat into my flesh...

21st June 2005, Tuesday

Back to work after a 3-days sabbatical... Just laze the day away, because really geared into the vacation mode which is 2 months too early...

Anyway yesterday accompany my lass downtown to do some shopping as she was in dire needs to get a dress for the wedding of Benny & June this coming Sunday; we were supposed to get our air tickets-JR pass package from the tour agency but we are way too early for collection.

After a great day spending on watching "Gokusen" on my PC as well as the pilot episode of "Kyumei Byoto 24 Ji Part 3" on our local Chinese TV channel, my fatigued girl who had been on night shift the few days before decided to just stay over since I was on leave the following day...
But she was still deep in slumber by 10 plus in the morning when which we should be start off our day...
We were supposed to drop-by the "Osaka Prefectural Government Singapore Office" but since we only left for town by noon, I took the initiative to postpone to somewhere in July...

2 issues to accomplish at least for the day:

1. Get the dress she wants. This was suprisingly fast as she managed to find a nice tube-dress which she used to shun due to her broad shoulder and fleshy arms. However with renewed confidence (I sound like a spokesperson of some body-slimming center here) of her work-out routine and encouragement from me, she finally able to don a piece of garment she wished to wear for a long time back.... The dress really suits her physique and I have confidence she would steal some limelight on Sunday...of course beside the plump incarnation I called myself...
2. Book the Osaka 1 Day City Tour at JTB saloon at Takashimaya. Served by a Japanese lady named Uchida who is hospitable and patient enough to do the reservation for us which was actually a breeze. I was quite astonished when she uttered some Mandarin to another Japanese colleague; which makes me realised that the staff here require a certain level of multi-linguality to serve their assortment of customers better. Anyway she called today (which is just a day) later, stating that our reservation has been processed. Wow, that's fast...

With the 2 prioritised issues been taken care of, we have like the luxury of few hours to just shop around..from boutique to bookstore to audio CD and visual DVD retailers to even manga and toys outlets, with the Great Singapore Sale on full force as well as the primary/secondary school still in the midst of their mid-year vacation, the town was filled with crowd usually seen in the weekend rather than a usual Monday afternoon like that...

Of course the allure of the merchandises were hard to resist as well but with a constraint budget both of us felt the need to remind each other not to indulge in any unnecessary splurging...

However even on such a half day excursion, I had to spend $20 on food which is a heart-pain to me even now at the thought of it...
Well the Venezia fat-free ice-cream was good but the spicy Char Shu Ramen from "Ajisen" just kill some of my tastebuds as the soup was a bit too much for me to take while my girlfriend just breeze through her ultra-spicy "Volcano Ramen".. neither of which can come a yard close to compare to the authentic ramen we had in Japan of course...

Beside the expenditure, I had to wear my new Scholl shoes for this shopping trip and the mouth of the shoes are literally eating my flesh, resulting in painful blisters which really spoil my day a little...

Got the news from the horse's mouth that my future in-laws' (my girlfriend's parents) is kind of on the rocks as her dad seems to be over-indulgence in his work and neglect her mother at home alone.. Really hope this would be just another little episode between them which happens now and then as they would patch up eventually, because an impending divorce would be really too much for her to take...

But my body, mind and soul have been geared too much for my forthcoming Japanese escapade that I'm oblivious to everything else happening in the world around me a little...just way too hype up,, now have to count down the seconds for the faithful 19th of August to arrive..urgh

Japanese word of the day:買物 ~ka-i-mo-no~ (shopping) Haven't had a nice opportunity to go shopping together with her for a while now...

The Dark Knight Returns

19th June 2005, Sunday

The start to my long weekend epitomize with the movie outing for "Batman Begins" at Eng Wah cineplax at Suntec City...which I did not have great memories of since the wretched movie session for the woeful Japanese horror movie, "Hypnosis" and the strong air conditioning caused me to tremble the entire movie, dunno issit due to the scare tactics of the movie or the air conditioning...

I stayed home till late afternoon, enjoying some of my "fruits of labour" from the internet...
Managed to catch the latest "SMAPXSMAP" which is a entertaining variety program featuring perhaps the most popular, and successful boyband from the Johnny;s Group, SMAP...
Kimura, Kusanagi, Nakai, Shingo and Goro sure know how to spice up the show despite their prsitine, charming outlook..
In this particular episode, we see the one & only Eguchi Yousuke as the guest judge in the "Bistro SMAP" cooking competition...
You will see how the SMAP members tried their best with their culinary skills to impress the guests week in week out..this week Kimura's "Duck meat Soba" impressed Eguchi who love authentic Japanese cuisine like soba and ramen
Then in the interview session, the guys interviewed the singer of the cult hit "Sakura", Moriyama Naotaro who did a medley with SMAP which is can only be found in the show and no where else...
It was great that the person who recorded the show did not exclude the wonderful CMs (commercials) in between each segments..man how I miss Japanese TV ..heehee

I reached La Tendo at around 4pm and despite the lack of new stocks this week, the crowd still managed to pour into the shop...once again signifying their status in local collectibles market...

It seemed the outing in the evening would be one of the largest organised in terms of attendance...
Eng Kiong brought along his wife, Miyano coming with Vincent, Chan's friends Ziwei and Celine came as well as a couple of Karen's buddies..even Tay chan who did not showed interest in coming, came along as well in a last minute online purchase of extra tickets (in whcih Eng Wah has to allocate an absurd time limit to restrict the booking process such as 48 seconds..)

After dinner, we had the pleasure to take a look of the "Gacha Fair" at Toys Room at "Family Link" and I met a new collector friend, Ryan from the Katoots forum whom LED touch light helped me complete a full normal set of "SR Zoids Action Art Collection" which was just loaded into the capsule machines these few days...

Finally the movie started and to me definitely the movie event of this year...

Director Christopher Nolan surely created the Gotham we all know.. the rotting and corruption in a city filled with gothic architecture at the backdrop with gloomy slumps littering the streets and yes plenty of rain...

He managed to tie up the crucial part of how a wealthy heir like Bruce Wayne would go through the entire transition into the executioner of crime, the one and only Batman...

The cast was delightful.. the brooding Christian Bale sure fit the role as he can portray many facets to perfection such as a man living in his fear and angst, a wealthy playboy, as well as a charismatic super hero....
Katie Holmes whom remind me so much of Charlotte of "Sex and the City" ain;t your normal damsel in distress (actually she just had to be) who is a district attorney who was on her own to crack down the mafia bosses corrupting the entire city
Micheal Caine was great as the witty bulter, Alfred who was an important asset of Bruce Wayne to manage his double life...
Morgan Freeman as a former board member of Wayne Enterprise but been demoted to head a resarch department which provided Bruce with all his accesories and artillery needed by Batman, he did not appear much but everytime he did, his knowledgable humor light up the screen
Gary Oldman as the cop which would eventually become Commissioner Gordon... You would rarely see him as a good guy but he sure did a great job as a man been clamped down with the corroded police organisation, trying to break free of it to seek justice
Liam Neeson as Bruce's mentor, Ducard from the "Brotherhood of the Shadow", the dangerous ninja cult of Ra's Al Ghul whom Batman has a final showdown with...
Ken Watanabe as Ra's Al Ghul, beside a whacky goatee and some gibberish Japanese/English, his total screen time was just 5 minutes...

But the one I really like is Dr. Crane, the psychiatric doctor whom later become Scarecrow...acted by an unknown, Cillian Murphy, he looked a wee bit like my friend, Chan Siang but with a more sinister aura in him...heehee

The entire show lasted 135 minutes and despite the slow narration in front, the high tempo chase scenes and usual blockbuster visual explosives came in later and made non-Batman fans like myself yearning for sequels to come soon..
especially when Sgt. Gordon got promoted to Lt. Gordon made the bat sign light on the rooftop and asking Batman to trace a madman from the Arkham Asylum whom ran scot free from the break through involved in a double homicides and with a theatrics like leaving behind a poker card... the card of "Joker"... and Batman says, "I'll look into it".... urgh I want to see Nolan do a Batman with the likes of Joker, Harlequin, Penguin and Riddler in it

I doubt there would another movie that tops "Batman Begins" this year...period...

Japanese word of the day: 映画~ei-ga~ (movie) Watched the best of 2005 last night!

Finally Friday...

17th June 2005, Friday

Yes coming to the end of a tiring and exasperative work week for me; perhaps owe it hugely to the Manic Monday I had...which took its toll for the next 4 days...

Was pretty mad with myself that I dozed off while watching the latest episode of "Lost" which is now the most watched TV series on local channel.. well I guess I will try to borrow some "internet-acquired" episodes from Vincent soon... Just was strange when I woke up from my short intermission to see a chance of scenerio with 2 young actors I did not recall seeing in the series, only to check the time and realized it was "OC" showing on TV....

Woke up this morning, continue to feel lethargic, but was glad the week is coming to a close and looking forward to "Batman Begins" tomorrow which I am informed today by Chan that an overwhelming response from our clique and the staff of La Tendo.. well this show got rave reviews all over and even Today gives it a full "5/5" rating...well juts gotta see it for myself..

Back on the work front, we had a mystery to solve as well as out German collaboraters had found a strange phenomenon in which a batch of their recent results got some unacceptable occurences which they require answers to resolve the problem and start churning results they desire... The 800K white elephant robot and the clean-up kit shoulder the blame for the strange occurence and it kept our supervisor, JxMMy and in some part me puzzled on how come this phenomenon affected some results but not all... well no matter how tough the going will be, JxMMy as the girls gave him the title of "Akitaji"(秋田二, after the famous Japanese detective 金田一, Kindaichi) will dig out the truth of all matters...

One of my female colleague, YM has been over-zealous in looking for wedding packages inclusive of banquets locations, wedding albums selection, wedding gowns, so on and so forth... well it's all so blatant that she is very eager to change her marital status soon..however whether her boyfriend will reciprocate in the thinking, is another matter altogether because a wedding needs of course both the bride and the groom...But no matter what, I could hear wedding bells in our workplace pretty soon for sure...

Japanese word of the day:不思議　~fu-shi-gi~ (Mystery) Big one looming in the laboratory concerning our results...

Put your name on the Paper!

16th June 2005, Thursday

Yes...it's only Thursday...and my yearning for the weekend grows even larger...well just 48 hours more to go...

Today got a call from the HR department to collect my new contract extension as the previous 2 year contract is up in a few months time...
Well this would be my 2nd extension and the last extension I remember having a pay hike but not so this time as informed by my colleague, LF about her own extension a year back...
I am also pleasantly surprised that after my little episode with the "illegal exploitation of company's network", they still "treasure" me as a efficable staff.

Well as expected no pay rise and no increase of paid annual leave days, and just a mere 2 years' extension (unlike LF's 3 years extension)...
I always find such contract-based employment is advantageous for the company as if they want to retrench you, they'll just wait for your contract to run out and need not pay a single dime of retrenchment fee..although we still have some fellow colleagues who have work 8 years or more still bound to the old "permenant contract" basis....such as BY and JxMMy...

Didn't waste too much time to ponder about my contract unlike Rio Ferdinand at Manchester Utd, as I got it done by the afternoon and submitted back to the HR department before the 10 days grace they had given on the contract itself...
With employment assured for the next 2 years, I could actually take a breather and plan for bigger events such as one of holy matrimony...and perhaps an inquest for greener pastures...

"Batman Begins" actually begins (sorry about the pun) today but somehow the entire frigging world have already watched it and put their comments on the forum (perhaps some Mainland China Friendly edition)...
This Christopher Nolan's vehicle actually depicts how a youthful Bruce Wayne slowly assume the dark knight of Gotham City whom villians love to loathe, the one and only Batman..
Starring a relative unknown actor in the lead role of Wayne, Christian Bale who is famous for "American Psycho" as well as the voice of Howl in the English version of Studio Ghibli's "Howl's Moving Castle" as the brooding hero and he sure looks good in the Bat suit and perhaps a better actor than his predecessors...
The cast is completed with the likes of Katie Holmes (Tom Crusie's current squeeze) as Wayne's love interest, Morgan Freeman (yes the same Vincent the Vegetable Vampire from "Electric Company"), Micheal Caine as Alfred (no better choice than this), Liam Neeson (still think he looks like a younger Harrison Ford), Gary Oldman (if he can't portray a villian, no one can) and Ken Watanabe (from "The Last Samurai") as Ra's Al Ghul...
Great cast, nice gothic backdrop, good directorship and a hefty budget to blossom an action-packed blockbuster, this 5th instalment of the theaterical features of Bob Kane's classic comic sure set to be the one blockbuster you cannot miss in 2005... (don't even begin to give me the Star Wars crap)


Bring on Keaton's, Kilmer's and Clooney's asses, I'll kick them all at once!

After a tussle about who would be the organiser for the "Batman Begins' movie outing, in which Eng Kiong was touted to be the one, Chan finally step into the role he fits to a "T"...so I'm anticipating a cool Saturday evening blockbuster get-together...woohoo...

Japanese word of the day: 契約 ~kei-ya-ku~(Contract) Relief to get an extension

What?! It's still Wednesday...?

15th June 2005, Wednesday

Pay day but for someone who keeps a very-much constrained shoestring budget (hey reminds me of those struggling EPL clubs), not much big deal as every penny (god know's how much a penny is worth) has been allocated to something already....

This week has been exceptionally slow... I mistaken that it was Thursday while doing my morning rituals of washing up....
I had a pretty tiring dream...literally...
No, no concern been tirelessly chased by Micheal Jackson who mistaken me as a tender, docile 12 years old and tried to stick his hands into my pants...
Nor any explicit adult fantasy to beam about...
Basically I had a dream about me going to hibernation mode... (reminds me of the bears in winter and an old Secondary school friend, Rizan)

In the dream I struggled to wake up after people around suggested that I had slept for like a day and a half over the weekend...(the circa of the dream most probably fell on a weekend) and even by then I felt lethargic...
I also dreamt about making my way around a naval ship on the seas especially the hard-to-open steel latches that seperate various compartments; which really tells you how my Navy stint has officially scarred me for life...

Reality check, I was as lethargic as I was in my dream... and was quite bothered by my broadband connection who went AWOL like it did last evening with everything from the modem to the router working properly..I even called the customer service hotline which did not provide me any feasible solution but I managed to trace the fact that my LAN cable line is a bit loose at the modem's side..
Early this morning, same occurance and I suspect the same thing..if not I would have to change a new modem or router..hopefully not as it would waste money and quality download time for me...

My girlfriend, as mentioned has the same fate casted on her with her faulty laptop which is now in the repair bay, and she faces a prospect her key-in password to log on the wireless network my IT-savvy friend, Loke had helped her established months back...

Dad seems to be going back to the same boss who retrenched him not too long back, seems like my prediction seems to have hit the jackpot when I said the boss' project would not proceed as plan without Dad's expertise and his motley crew of useless workers.. However I'm quite pissed off by the fact that Dad has submitted to his request to retun way too meekly... Mom said he is worried his unemployment is eating into his retirement savings.. well as long as he keeps himself from getting hurt again, working perhaps can brigthen his mundane life.. of course meaning more whining and cursing of his fellow workers again...

Back to work, things are in momemtum as work starting to flow in the moment I reached...but still I feel time is flowing through the hour glass (no, not the "Days of our Lives") way too slowly than usual... can't wait for the weekends to be here once again....

Japanese word of the day: 時間~ji-kan~ (time) passes way too slow...

Migriane for my Babe

14th June 2005, Tuesday

The big news today is that Wacko Jacko got acquitted for all 10 counts of accusations for molestation, putting a conclusion after a long trial for MJ and sure bring relief to him and all that supported his cause.. To me, it could be a rightful judgement as some of the accusations seem way over the top...as I have mentioned before... but seriously Jacko's reputation has been seriously dented ages ago, and the trial has only put him back into the media spotlight briefly which he has been yearning since his downfall...

Back on the work front, JxMMy is back and most probably because the arrival of a brand new equipment which he definitely has to dabble his nose in....

For the entire I was been preoccupied with the equipment's arrival, my usual work-flow as well my girlfriend's woes...

yes her laptop continues to give her problem especially with the high tendency that her sound card could not be detected (most prob loose attachment to the mother board)
She actually brought in down to the service center yesterday but was in total embarrassment when the sound card came back in full function while at the counter; but she got the same sound card problem when she uses it at home again (talk about voodoo...)
I could feel for her anguish and fustration especially when the laptop has been intermittently went out of order, first the LCD screen and now the sound card; and it only has been in use for a few months.. i think most importantly she is dying to watch all her anticipated Taiwanese dramas starring members of her fave Taiwanese boyband, 5566 (don't ask, you won't want to know about them)

I had to lend her a listening ear and try to give an efficacious soultion to end her misery... However the problem with me is that I would get impatient myself when I knew that the only solution is to charge down back to the service center and demand a justifiable answer to end her plight...

With a tution session at 5pm which precedes her OT shift, she just dreads the thought but she wouldn't want to wait till Monday which is when she is free to do so again...

Eventually she decided to postpone the tution and call in sick for work as she starts to get migriane due to her over-extertive rush to fix her laptop as well as lack of rest... which i slap my approval instantly...

My girlfriend doesn't whines all the time and she can be an independant girl but sometimes she still needs me to back her up with some decisions she most probably has decided on..She needs me to be there to give her reassurance, to give her the support every woman needs from her man... Maybe that's the important aspect of a good relationship...

Japanese word of the day: 耳~mi-mi~ (Ear) I'm perhaps the only listening ear for my girl...

Just a Manic Monday...

13th June 2005, Monday

Taken from the cult hit from the 80s bubblegum pop group, the Bangles:

"~Just another Manic Monday,
Wish it was Sunday,
That's my Fun day,
My "I don't have to Run" day,
Just another Manic Monday~"

Coming to work with a lack of adequate rest, I was mentally prepared to settle some routine Monday stuff with our equipments while waiting for JxMMy to do all his own administrative duties...

However I came in, maddened by the fact that our server went bonkers again and tons of results could not be delivered properly back to their respective owners...
One of our equipments needed immediate parts exchange which is usually a chore of JxMMY, but seems like today I have to do it myself which I do have certain level of confidance...

I also have to do clean up for a tower-tall stack of plates from our German collaboraters (who else?) which keeps increasing the entire day through to a state I have to advice one of the lab assistants to halt their operations till I can clear the backlog...

Things got bad to worse when my part-changing process went awfully wrong and I had to ask for assistance from our faithful technician from the vendor while I used the wrong program on the white elephant robot, resulting in some overall results been spoiled, sure would leave a bad taste to whoever the samples were from as they had to repeat everything again...

I did enlist help from the girls but most of the show I had to do a solo run which can be very taxing, I even had my lunch very late and not much appetite left after the fatigue...

The situation in the afternoon is slightly better and I finally got everything under control but still work kept me preoccupied till knock off time...

As I duly doze off on the journey back, glad that the first day of a long week has ended, a manic Monday has ended...

Japanese word of the day: 月曜日~ge-tsu-you-bi~ (Monday) An extraordinary manic Monday indeed...

Of Dumplings, cursed laptop & good deals...

12th June 2005, Sunday

Yesterday was one important Chinese festival, Dragonboat (or Dumpling) festival (端午節), as Chinese in other countries like China, Taiwan or Hong Kong would treat this as an important national holiday on their calendar, engrossing in paying respects to their deceased ancestors, engaging in Dragonboat competition or even indulging in their wide variety of rice dumplings; we S'poreans especially the younger generations just don't give much damn for it...

For me, it's just a good opportunity to savour one of my all time fave Chinese delicacy ( I sure have a whole library of faves), the rice dumplings... even though iin this time and age, we can just rice dumplings off the retailers at any time of the year not just this specific period though
I love glutinous rice especially when you sculpt them in a triangular pyramid shape using fragant banana leaves and include fillings like scallops, pork, chestnut, mushrooms etc...
I used to be able to have it for every breakfast (when I was still in my tender age) and 2 at one go..but these days I try to restrict at one as it ain't not the most healthy food around..and too much glutinous rice will result in very severe indigestion...

Went to La Tendo as usual yesterday and "pleasantly" exceed my budget (nothing new here) as once more my feeble self succumb to the temptations of the nice figurines... (thank goodness it's that and not other kind of vices that would seduce me)
I also tried to cajole Chan to go Japan in August as recently his fickle-minded tendency starting to make him think otherwise....

Bad luck bestowed on my girlfriend's cursed laptop once more, just after the endor helped correct her LCD screen problem, it's apparent that they had forgotten to install the sound card and thus no sound could be audible from the notebook, which really threw her into a fit which is understandable especially when you spent a fortune on an item you expected to use without a glitch for a long time to come...

On a chirpier note, the Casio watches I had ordered the day before managed to arrive in uncanny fast fashion yesterday afternoon in a registered parcel...
The watches are up to expectation from the catalogue, and at that price, I feel maximum satisfaction, hope the watches would at least cheer my lass up a bit...


Our matching watch....

Actually intended to attend a "Tikam outing" for the annual "Gacha Gacha Gala" held by Toys Room at Suntec City as I had mentioned before that some collectors of Kuala Lumpur may dropped over, but feeling pretty lethargic after a late turn in this morning, so just wanna laze my Sunday through...

Japanese word of the day: 迷惑をかける ~mei-wa-ku-o-ka-ke-ru~ (trouble) My gf is badly troubled by her cursed laptop....

The ring that binds them all....

10th June 2005, Friday

TGIF.. a pretty prompt day to go through with my impending purchase of that special "yubiwa" for my love of the lifetime (rock on Firehouse!)

Anyway last evening got a usual computer generated form from the Navy, tightly sealed in the usual "Government Service" envelope which I always tends to tear up into pieces, fearing what content the Navy had conjured up to waste my time...and yes after a 2 years hiatus, I have been recalled from "In Camp Training".. This time would be a "high key" spanning 3 weeks in the beginning of November.. Actually it only starts on the 4th (a day after Hari Raya Puasa and my hatch day) which is a Friday and ending on 15th which is a Tuesday, thus it encompasses 2 weekends, which i truly hope they don't get us involved as well.. I'm sure there would be some sailing..other than that I think more "wayang" session...

I was also very much preoccupied gathering all the materials I need to come out with a job application package, including my cover letter, C.V. and replicas of my certificates and results, somehow I could not find the Real McCoy and only got photostated versions of my results... need major "make-over" for both my CV and cover letter since now I have 3 viable and valuable years of job experience behind me...well just try my luck and see whether can get a new job with a better prospects (actually just SHOW ME THE DAMN MONEY!)

So we left work slightly early today as I followed BY back to Woodlands to grace the series of jewellery retailers available in Causeway Point.. As we venture our way amongst the crowd (Causeway is crowded all year round, 24/7!), Lee Hwa Jewellery already starting to distribute brouchures to promote their "Shimmering Summer Sale" (what a name).. in fact they are positioned nicely facing the main entrance... therefore we made into the relatively small gallery first and was immediately entertained by this ultra-friendly attendant by the name of Nashley (or was it Nancy?)

Very much like searching the needle through the hay stack, the 2 of us aren't exactly the most experience person to get the ring, so Nashley was patient enough to show me a few fancy ones & a couple of Solitares (simple white gold ones with the diamond studded in the cradle).. But still bewildered and hoping to look for better choices else where, we said we might be back later

Bypassing Poh Heng and Tian po, the mood seems pretty solemn and not thr right taste I would want to give my girl..and Tierra seems really out of my budget..Finally to Goldheart at the rear of the building, hoping to see my old Primary school classmate, Eric (whom I have spotted working there in a local variety show a couple of years back) but only managed to see a few staff flirting with each other.. Reluctant to enter inwards and unfancy by the selection they have on the display, I sort of decided to just go back into the embrace of Lee Hwa and Nashley...

So we begins our journey through the art of jewellery... and boy was I amazed...
Nash (I decided to just shorten the name) patiently showed me a few pieces withe nice, unique designs, all at very good prices... but it's true the way the diamonds are positioned just not enough to shows the glitters... Then the Solitares and I start to be captivated by shimmering of the lights hitting off the cuts on the diamonds and really can comprehend why girls all go ga-ga over that tiny stone...
So after a good 10 minutes of consideration, I have made up my mind..which one I shall not reveal now.. but if my girl does read my blog, all my effort to keep it secretive would be to no avail...

After the payment, we "hassle" Nash to give us a guide on choosing diamonds which is really an art on its own.. all the spectrum fo characteristics like cuts, clarify, carats, colors etc..
Then she unveil the star of Lee Hwa, the one they called "Destinee"...
On the outside the diamond looks very much like a normal one, but looking through that kaleidoscope tool to see the perfect cut...
One thing that really is a nice feature is the "tulip-like" cradle to hold the diamond, but the cost of 3K plus for a 0.26 carat one is not easy to swallow..
However we both have evil thoughts to tempt YM who is infatuated by this particular ring...
Nash also introduces some popular wedding bands which can be quite alluring (good to keep in mind when the time arrives to get a pair)
We also realise that jewellers have been dipping gold into various chemicals to give the gold some shades like rose and champange, way cool...

So after the purchase and the informative guide, I left well satisfied and I followed BY, our resident cat-lover, to go in search of a cat she has been feeding nearby the MRT station but gone missing in the morning, which really worries her...
This particular feline she named "Macy" is really something, a unaffected expression and a bent tail,but is pretty close to us while BY starts to feed her with some cat food...
She then guide me through some of the nearby cats, each and everyone she has a specific name given...
I'm also amazed with her "feline sense" (much like Spidey sense Spiderman possess) as she could sense the presence of any nearby cat from afar which I thought is just a lump blanding to the background...

Coming back home, I started getting paranoid when my family starting to doubt my taste, the size of the diamond and even the size I have picked..oh dear..

Japanese word of the day: ダイヤモンド ~da-iya-mon-do~ (diamond) No wonder it's girl's best friend

Always bring along the shit with him

9th June 2005, Thursday

When we said JxMMy has a living taboo hidden within him, and it's all true...

That is whenever he is gone on leave/hiatus for a while, upon returning some kind of instrument or equipment would break down...and yes indeed our $800K white elephant/robot got hit by that kharma and went out of order since yesterday's afternoon while he was running several runs on the machine and suddenly the gripper on the robot head just went bonkers... walla, there you have it our theory has been justified...

It's all so true JxMMy "brings shit" (帶屎)wherever he goes... especially when work related..I mean all the machines are running smoothly without no hiccup when I was running the entire show myself..and out of the sudden when he is back, things just go haywire...

Deriving from the classic 90s hit by the Australian band, Crowded House (no..not "Don't Dream it's over").. the song that is known as "Weather with You"...

"~ Everywhere he goes, always take the shit (or bowels) with him~"

I kinda start to speculate that his aura could have resulted in me spraining my ankle...*getting into a fit now*
My bad luck continues as the glass face of my faithful 25 Hours watch has a crack in the under-side which prompts me to get a new watch anyway...
Found this nice online Casio retailer through the yahoo auctions and it seems they had the latest range of Casio watches to offer at pretty attractive prices...me and my lass are now pondering on get a pair of matching Active Dial from their catalogue.

Have sort of made up my mind to go down Causeway Point tomorrow to scout for a nice and affordable engagement ring as the Great Singapore Sales is in full effect with great discounts in many retailers to offer....

Japanese word of the day:台無しになる　~da-i-na-shi-ni-na-ru~ (spoils) JxMMy's aura just starts to spoil everything on earth

Sprained ankle..OUCH

8th June 2005, Wednesday

Not the best of day so far for me...

Got a pleasant surprise with 2 of my long-auctioned item on yahoo got bidded, granting me so handy cash to survive the month by...
However the niggling thing about such auctions is the transaction details and in this case both buyer requested the postage and thus I have to make the necessary packaging which I always find it a hassle...
I'm no TV Champions king for gift wrapping; in fact my best style of wrapping is taking a piece of paper, wrapped the contents into a "candy" shape and just apply plenty of scotch tapes...But these days I'm more accustomed to do a presentable wrapping in a box (I have a plenty of small boxes from my toy collection) and used some mahjong paper (those white grain paper) to wrap around it, and even with my utmost dedication the parcel looks pretty crappy (so I was really bewildered when a past seller gave me a comment like this: "item received and wrapped nicely.. really appreciate tt. thanks alot! good seller!")

In the past I don;t charge for my awful packaging but these days I try to pinch a few cents here and there with my over-used mahjong paper, some bubble-wrap I "kope" during our office shift, precious scotch tape (which usually doesn't sticks well) and my time and effort (which normally is not justified in my end result)

Next I have to update my bank book to check if the transaction that the seller claimed had gone through.. Normally everyone can check at the comfort of their home, using the internet but i lost the account/password/whatever, and thus had to trouble myself to queue at the "auto update" machine in the MRT station which is usually empty at around 7 but today bears a long queue (and on other days when I want to do my update, the machine would be down for maintainence anyway!)

So as I was running out of time, I decided to do so in the afternoon as I will be taking half day leave for the legal documentation sigining for the transfer of the leash of my flat under my name... If not I would go to the S.A.M (we call uncle SAM which is an automated machine you can pay your bills with as well as purchasing of postage labels)

It was a bit gloomy over my side but as the train proceeds northwards the slight drizzle worsens into torrential rain and it sure takes it toll on the electrical charged railway track, thus the entire journey was delayed now and then and culminating 10 minutes of delay for me

I had to take the same feeder bus as a Swiss-German researcher I nicknamed as "Pirate" (because of his long curly hair , unkemped goatee and golden ear rings); he always got on our back about not delivering his samples on time or did not give him the most desirable results he had prepared for (Once our supervisor actually wrote an email to his boss to complain about his hostile accusation of our service).. So yesterday I got mixed up his samples with some other person's; but luckily I managed to find the root of the mix-up and gave him back 2 of his actual results but he claimed that he got 3 missing samples to begin with...Since it's still way ahead of my office hours (hey I haven't reached our lab), I put of my most unprofessional front and just replied him with a wry smile, "maybe you should just redo that particular sample"...

Back on the work front , after all the devastation and despair, JxMMy returns to his "kingdom"... his own realm where he reigns,where the path he walked would be adored by millions (namely our supervisor); where he can pull 1001 gimmicks to irritate his co-workers and yet get away with it...
Our supervisor nearly welcomed him back with a red carpet reception and immediately filled him in all that has been going around the place... She also dropped hints to get us communicate of some of the updates I was supposed to fill him in...
But I had tasks on my hands and he just kept quiet (perhaps of his "introvertness" perhaps he is still very much grieving); and we stayed off each others' tracks as I tried to finish up everything before I go on my leave...
Was actually quite satisfied to compose a program on the $800K white elephant robots to help the girls with their project, yes the same one that caused the rift between our supervisor and them... and glad we managed to do so without the need of "advisory" from you-know-who (actually I just modified the program that JxMMy composed in the 1st place)..

After duly updating him the issues around our service (in a very professional level); & more "supporting" session with the girls who were having lunch, I decided to make a move home, an hour off my schedule... Little did I know as I vamoose my way down the path I had walked umpteen times, sometime blindfolded, I would lose my step off the narrow path and twisted my left ankle, causing it to be badly sprained... The entire ankle region got badly inflammed and I guess some tendons inside was at the end of my 90+ kg compression... While walking is fine, climbing stairs and hiking over certain uneven terrain would drive me in agony one would experience in the deepest, darkest chasm of hell... I guess I would be staggering my way around for the next couple of weeks or so....OUCH....

Japanese word of the day: 足首~a-shi-ku-bi~ (ankle) badly sprained

Miscarriage...

7th June 2005, Tuesday

A piece of tragic news was delivered by our supervisor as she mentioned that my solo stint looks likely to continue till tomorrow as JxMMy is down with a bout of flu after taking extensive care of his wife who is physically wrecked and now compounded emotionally by the fate of their unfortunate miscarriage...
I was pretty taken aback by the news, anyone would because it's the lost of an innocent little live here. Never in the world would I think that the hospitalisation last week could brought about such detrimental repercussion...

I "shared" this piece of unfortunate news to the girls and their sympathy sentiments showered to the couple although I'm sure they are inclining towards to the distraught mother since she has always been an emotional creature...

But miscarriage would really devastate both man and wife and especially JxMMy who has been leading his down-to-earth, organised, systematic and stoic (aka boring) life and with marriage, career and a love-nest in place, the little "JxMMylets" are the next on his immediate agenda especially when seeing the obnoxious "Shit: (a former colleague who is well-known for not working everyday) already bore 2 "Shitlets" over the past 2 years... In addition he has that enormous ego, it would really cause that to deflate a little...

I then put myself in their shoes...I would be psychologically wrecked as well which is why "prevention" is a crucial aspect regardless of which trimester the pregnant mother is in... Which is why a good and experienced gynea and the experience and TLC (tender, love and care) of my mom would come in very handy to ensure the mother is eating properly and healthily while the foetus is safe and sound.. Hope I would be a caring and sensitive father-to-be as well when my time arrives to allow my future wife to carry and deliver my future offsprings safely and successfully..

Man I may be thinking a wee bit ahead of time but when such unfortunate string of events happen, people tend to ponder and try to concoct evasive measures so that history would not repeat itself....

As for the poor JxMMy and his spouse, they might just have to move on, as they are still relatively young and it has been verified that they are fertile and bears the ability to conceive (hey alot od couples these days have this taboo problem, ok..); so eventually their wish would be granted especially if JxMMy would try to reduce his incorrigible gimmicks and self-centered way of working...I may in fact be praying and rooting for him as well...

Japanese word of the day:　かわいそうな　~ka-wa-i-sou-na~ (pitiful) JxMMy & his wife sure are....

"Too-Much-Prata" Man

6th June 2005, Monday

Can't believe the weekend just gone by with the blink of the eyes, but such a phenomenon is really common to me...
Back to work, JxMMy still taking leave to stay company with her hospitalised spouse; seriously he may not be a great colleague but he would jolly well be the best husband she could ask for...

My girlfriend stayed over my place on Saturday but she was really beaten by her job over the past week, so we did not spent much "quality time" together...
Sunday morning, we accompanied me parents to have a heartful breakfast of roti prata at Upper Thomson Road.. my mom "blanjah" (treat) us after a mini windfall last week (4D followed by Toto), but we were disappointed that the shop featured on a culinary show hosted by Fiona Xie last week had closed down (what?!) and we have to settle for the neighbouring "Prata House".(which I had came before with my buddies after a midnight show of the dreadful "Casshern")
My mom was mildly disappointed that the famous Prata House did not feature "mini pratas" in their menu as the now-disfuncted "Prata King" had before..She also wanted to try the Paper Prata but the attendant said it would require too much space on their wok and they had to keep the pratas hot and ready to satisfy the maroon of customers starting to flood in by the time we were there

And he wasn't kidding, people started filling the store like locusts on a healthy wheat field and you would be amused by how disarrayed the attendants can get...Their pratas are not famous not no apparent reason, as the prata is fried just nice with the crust well done and not too hard, and the ingredients added true to what they claim... I believe the couple sitting beside us was amazed how much we could eat as we went through a few rounds of order as we would sample variations of pratas like egg &onion, cheese, mushroom, banana & also chicken & sardine murtabak and mee goreng... The cost is econimcal but not particularly cheap..one pathetically small "kosong" (plain" prata easily cost $1 (daylight robbery!) and the murtabark costs like $4.. But this didn't deter the crowd from coming in at around 11am when the churches' Sunday session were ending.... I could swear on the morning alone, our Indian prata hawker-friends could accumulate an earning up to thousands....

On the way home, I bemoaned to my lass that she had been too preoccupied with herself, even during her off-days, and that we had starting to see each other less and less (this weekend was the first time I have seen her since our screening of Madagascar) But seriously I do miss her presence once a while but even on my own, I have plenty of things to do as well...so I just moan for the whole point of moaning.. But with her work schedule clogging all the way till July, we could only salvage whatever that was left behind after her other commitments like giving tutions, work-out sessions, her part-time business, her continuing chase of her fave boyband etc....

My domestic broadband network was going from bad to disgustingly unsurfable.... Since Friday evening, the downloading process is going at an uncannily slow rate and as mentioned a couple of days back, even normal internet surfing was hindered.... I really would like to know what's the reason behind this and hopefully any fault would be rectified soon and everything would go back to normal...

This week we will see MJ would get evicted for his acts and we could be seeing the end of the fiend we used to know as the "king of pop"...

This weekend should be bustling with some diplomatic activities as some toy collectors from Kuala Lumpur are coming down to our island for some toy hunting; and I would be trying to meet up with them.. well we'll see of there's any gulf between the toy collection scene between our countries despite the obvious currency difference of course....

Japanese word of the day:　遅い　~o-so-i~ (slow) like my internet connection now

Novocaine for my soul....

4th June 2005, Saturday

Been a pretty frenzy Friday thus not be able to do an entry yesterday

2nd day with JxMMy on leave, and today our supervisor shed some light about his urgent leave...it seems like his wife has been pregnant but due to poor health, got admitted to hospital for treatment, sounds pitiful and the girls felt that now the least-favoured supervisor's intention of spreading this piece of info was to darw some empathy on JxMMy which really further sickened them...

For the rest of the day I was very much caught up with the running of the service and it's those clueless people have to wait till the final day of the work week to send in all their samples....

I did get off work slightly before 5 as I made my way to La Tendo... actually just wanted to interchange the next DVD box-set for "One Piece: The Animation" from Eng Keong but was pleasantly notified that there's a last minute shipment of toys, which does help curbed my "withdrawal syndrome"... Well since I won't be hitting by the store today, so I stayed a little overtime there before journey back home, weary, drowsy and famished....

My usual forum Katoots tried to break a record for most no. of users logging into the fourm as one go which we held last June at 98..but all we could only conjure up 86 people that's all

Got a bit fustrated now that my connection got really slow and some usual webpages could not be log into.... maybe just stay off internet for the rest of the day; and indulge in endless hours of Football Manager...

Japanese word of the day: いそがし~i-so-ga-shi~ (busy) was pretty occupied yesterday