Plain & Simple

24th October 2005, Monday

I swear I had depart from Yishun at the usual time and even rushed for the train that was seconds from shutting its doors and move on...
Then it was baffling I was still terribly late for my usual schedule this morning. For the first time, my train which was supposed to made it to the middle track in the Jurong East station for a change of passengers which would be heading the opposite direction; had to wait for 2 consecutive trains (usually just 1) before the train could safely enter the platform without any incidence of colliding.
With my own two eyes (as well as thousands of pair of eyes from my fellow passengers) we see a train from Boon Lay, proceeding to the Pasir Ris direction with only 1/4 of its capacity shut us out just before we could maraude our way into the empty carriages.
The next train was well packed, plus we were further joined by more transitting passengers and I totally gave up on squeezing like sardine just to savour for that few extra minutes when the next train was just 2 minutes away.
However the next train was jam-packed too since it is a Monday morning rush afterall.
The situation was not help that the morning sun was blazing at a high 34 degrees Celsius outside and the air conditioning of the old train was not suffice to keep each and every passenger cool enough. My stomach was aching like hell during the trip as well, therefore you could not expect me to be in such a chirpy mood to kick start my work week...

The weekend was pretty productivein regards with what I was supposed to do....

Went down to La Tendo and for the first time in weeks, met Chan who I hustled to accompany me to the Kino branch in Bugis as my lass had commanded me to get some magazines (including some which can give us ample information about holding a wedding locally) while enjoying the members-only 20% discount offer.
That evening we challenged each other on how much everyone would spend for that faithful day. Chan won hands down and he answered all my doubts about his recent activities (cutting down on purchase as well as selling some of his stuff online) as he was "storing power" during his sabbatical for the past few weeks just to pay for the stuff he got on that day which accounted to around $550!!
Even my total receipt for the past month fell much short from that amount alone.... There's no way I can and would dethrone the king...heehee

My lass spent the Saturday evening at my place and even cooked her own style of spaghetti for our dinner despite she even admitted, could go alittle easy on the amount of onions added and the brand of the sauce she purchased was a wee bit too sour.
We had a little discussion on how we wanted to proceed with our wedding arrangements and she felt a bit suffocated with the lack of time.
She felt it was too rush for her to handle and she definitely needed expert's advice and help in an unchartered region for both of us (it helped when her god-sister/ cousin is a part time wedding planner)
As for myself I kept insisiting I wanted something just plain and simple, but I think that would be the common mentality shared by all grooms-to-be.
The magazine had a nice and nifty checklist of what the couples should prepare and take note of. It stated we should start planning as early as 18 months before the big day...yikes... a bit too long I guess
But now high on the agenda would be fix a date which I would entrust my mom with her superstitious..I mean auspicious know-how to decide whether 25th of November (which happens to be a Saturday) would be an ideal date as my girl felt marking our 6th anniversary together as our wedding day would be great...
Once the date is engraved on the stone we could go sought for a restaurant for the banquet (yes a restaurant instead of a hotel, as she wants to stay at Ritz Carlton and holding a banquet there would be something for the upper class/socialites)
That would take a while but hopefully to be done before this year ends as usually September to November would be the peak period for wedding banquets, therefore better be the early birds, so as to catch the worms.

Meanwhile concurrently I have to oversee the renovation of our love nest (basically the master bedroom of my current place).
We had so many good idea to efficiently utitilise the limited space available for us to put a king size platform bed. a state-of-the-fart- I mean art wardrobe, a work station for my PC and other stuff as well as some nice, ambient lightings as well as a showerhead in the toilet which Dad had plans to do in the first place for us.
Dad's expertise in this area would be a great help and now had to source for a reliable and affordable contractor to let our dream room comes true.

We also had an agreement about saving on our owns to meet ends needed for the whole affair and we both felt with all the money needed to fund the wedding and renovation, we should push back the honeymoon to a year later, since we intended to enjoy the nice orange color fo Japanese autumn to begin with.

Despite looking forward to everything into place, we would be in a rush against time which is definitely not on our side; plus I sensed a clash in ideologies between me and my lass.. As I just want a wedding plain and simple for our loved ones to share our joy, she wants one that it would bring her great memories forever...can't blame her, all brides would want that as well

Spent my Sunday watching the 1st season of "Lost" which Chan had burnt for me eons ago but got stranded with the storyline as I could not find the remaining episodes from 16 onwards which my sis' beau had duplicate for her as she was not home the entire day, slogging for her project in school. I was watching via the PC which graphic card had a TV outlet, meaning I could not use the PC during the show; prompting me to do something I had stopped doing for like 2 months or so now, that was to take pictures of my toys collection and through meticulous photo-shooting I hope to garnish my new webpage (in the new ad-free domain) with better quality photographs.

Talking about the web-host, they had yet sent me an e-mail to confirm my order but they did gave me a call just a while ago to double-check my requested domain name.

Lastly my parents would be going for their China escapade this coming weekend, meaning I had to scrap rubbish bins for food remains/left-overs for the next week or so..heehee
But they aren't the only one going places...
Tay chan is still taking his aged parents on their very first visit to Japan while Karen intends to bring her mom to her dream destination (Japan as well) in December which she requires a lot of information and guidance from me about it
Ferris will be departing for South Korea (actually should say Korea since no one goes to North Korea for holidays anyway) to fulfill his own "Da Chang Jing" fantasy with his lass
YM will be going to Phuket with her boyfriend during the "golden week" next week despite my umpteem claims that the beach is very well haunted now as claimed from the tabloids.
Finally I am going...to my ICT next Friday..yoohoo...relive my Naval sailing (assfreak!!) days..damn

Japanese word of the day: 簡素な~kan-so-na~(Simple) Just a wedding trip to Cancun, Mexico in the middle of Hurricane Wilma would be just fine for me