The Final Decision...

30th November 2005, Wednesday

Welcome to another episode of "Go Where to Yum Seng"...
In this episode, our half-hearted groom had a change of heart with the restaurant selection when he was been enlightened to check out the list of restaurants under the Tung Lok group and he had his eyes immediately on one simply known as the "Noble Restaurant"...
Firstly the venue is aptly located just at the entrance of the Raffles Place MRT station. Next the price range looks appealing especially the "Deluxe" set for weekends at $588 per table.
So he proudly advocate it in front of his family and immediately received stamp of approvals all round.
Happily, he waited around lunch the next day to dial in to enquire on the availability and got a tight slap on his face as the date has been taken...bummer...
He wasted no time to call his lass to whine about the whole thing as they went in search of more ideal venues for just one simple wedding banquet.
Prima Tower would definitely be in contention due to their availability and perhaps the last threat "first come first serve, hor" has much more weight in it.
Other likely candidates include Noble House long-lost sibling at Liang Court, simply known as "Tung Lok Restuarant" which offers about the same thing but at a slightly higher cost.
The bride-to-be made contact with Yunnan (nothing to do with hair recovery therapy) Garden Restuarant which is located at IMM building (much to the joy of the western base guests) while a nice ambience known as "Blissful Garden" would definitely have guests kicking mud in your face for cajoling them to Singapore Expo on a Sunday evening when work beckons the following day.
One highly probable choice now has to be Chengdu Restaurant, situated in Cavenagh Road just behind Starhub Center which is quite friendly to respond (perhaps poor business..) and most importantly the availability for that date for the big ceremony.

Which one would be the final choice for the pair?

Will they find the most ideal one that is ideally & conveniently located, serving tasty cuisine that guests would savour long after the banquet is finished as well as not wrecking a huge chasm in the stingy groom's pocket?

Stay tuned to this space for the result real soon...
>

Japanese word of the day: 特別　~to-ku-be-tsu~ (Special) One of the toughest assignment in planning a wedding has to be finding the banquet restaurant which is the most special one...

Building my "Rakuen"...

29th November 2005, Tuesday

Struggling to wake up this Tuesday morning as the usual work week curve acts on my mind and body which is in severe fatugue. I was staggering to work as well while thinking whether the lithium battery within my iPod is dying a slow death and new a replacement (which would cost about the price of a new iPod by the way). JxMMy is back but minding his own business, not getting on my nerves and had a pretty long facial hair growing out of his elongated neck (perhaps it's his new look for 2006) which I had spotted while enlisting his help to explain the results of a particular post-doctorate research fellow from the Great Mainland....

The last evening got me started thinking about another aspect of me settling down with my lass next year.... The shaping up of our bird..I mean love nest. Living with my folks in my current apartment definitely drew some indifferent looks from several of my peers who adopted that usual local mentality that newly-weds should have their own little living space. But due to several reasons I guess it would be a wise choice to just stay-put in my place ...

Therefore there would be a shuffling of personnel between the 3 rooms where we would be taking the master bedroom; my parents would shift to the current room belonging to my sister and her occupying my current space.
So basically we have only a bedroom to contemplate about and can channel our efforts and reserves to construct a nice, cozy paradise.

By coincidence, Channel 8 was showing a new variety program, "Home Decor Survivor" (you can read the synopsis on how the game is been played and rules been stipulated). I knew that was such a show but never really bother to watch as I was expecting the usual Mark Lee crap that had been around on Monday primetime variety spot for like ever while Bryan Wong is just another hair-thinning gay-boy who is still recovering from the scar of "Masters of the Sea".
It seemed like all the contestants would automatically choose Bryan for his ecletic taste in certain home furnishing and color coordination of the house painting; and of course having won the 1st 2 rounds sure tilt the advantage over him.
By drawing lots, the young couple who is getting married in the coming year (as I said almost every mother's son is marrying next year) seemingly unfortunate and unwillingly chosen Mark as their advisor while 2 gay-men (really baffled about their actual relationship) got their fellow gay friend, Bryan.
With the theme being "contemporary & modern", the teams had to look at the conditions of the current place and decided on how to revamp the living room with a tight budget of $5,000. It was a tight contest as Mark actually heeded the suggestion of his contestant to paint the room orange with white and furnish with some queer orange-based furniture and decorations including a human-size "Eye of Sauron" lightning which cost like 1K. Meanwhile Bryan's choice of galazy silver & olive green made his living room very contemporary but poor planning resulted in the budget only available for few pieces of furniture and that pathetically small LCD TV was not big enough to cover the horrendously-looking electrical plug on the wall.
So in the end Mark was estatic to finally break his losing streak and the gay-boys kissed their furnishing goodbye..haha suckers!

The show did gave me an insight on how to compliment the furnishing of your room with the color of your wall and the space available to you.
I will be drafting a rough sketch of the ideal design of my room soon, and perhaps a few game of "The Sims 2" can result in some unexpected insipirations...

My family would be embarking on a renewal of the wall paint with fresh colors from the existing one which had been around for like 5 years or so. We had our eyes on a new color by ICI Dulux known as "" for our room.

We will be talking to home decor contractors as well to find the most ideal one for the project which would cover my bed, wardrobe, cabinet and most importantly the display shelf in the living room for my figurines collection which I had been dreaming of for a while now.

I'm feeling all upbeat just thinking about it and raring to go....

Just got a call from Prima Tower after I had submitted an enquiry on their availability of the date we want and it is all green, now just to dropby and check things out...hopefully soon as the lady on the other line taunted me with the favorite threat, "first come first serve basis, hor..."

Japanese word of the day: 楽園　~ra-ku-en~ (Paradise) Hoping to have endless hours of anime watching via my 29 inch LCD TV on my cozy platform bed

Go where to Yum Seng??

28th November 2005, Monday


Been a thoroughly swamped morning as there was a pile of left-overs from last Friday's evening unexpected surge that resulted I had to help "square up" whatever being left behind form JxMMy who once again on his day of leave, left a nice long, hand-written "love letter" instructing to me what to do and what not to do.
I ought to rasped by receiving such a note but his absence today does sooth the inner me a bit.
Bobby didn't help much seriously when I was deeply engaged with the routine Monday house-keeping chores when he picked this specific timing to have the joint review over his appraisal with our supervisor and when he is done, I had already accomplished almost everything.

Nonetheless it is a bright start to the week without the disturbing sight of the shaven back of JxMMy's ovoid head....

With the date for my "traditional" wedding ceremony been fixed, it is now to settle one immediate affair which can make or break the entire process..the wedding banquet.
Ok last evening my lass & I had went through the list of guests we had intended to invite which accounted to roughly 14 tables of 10 (in mathematically sense, it's around 140 people) and in addition to the number of tables required for both sides of the family, we had came out with a nice number of "28".
This implied that I really had to work within the tight budget of $700 and below (tax included) in order to accomodate the presence of 28 tables to slap the grand total of below 20K.
Therefore we can kiss several lavish hotel ballrooms around Orchard or surrounding town area goodbye...
In fact our original plan was to just hold it at some cozy restaurant and rent a room at our beloved Ritz Carlton where we could rest after the ceremony is done with.

Price aside, next seems like the amazingly good year for all prospective couples to undergo their holy matrimony despite the presence of 2 Lunar 7th Months (which no one in the right sense of mind would get married unless they wanted to invite some deceased ancestors as well). Therefore the alarm is ringing for the fact that several "hotspots" had been well reserved all the way to the end of next year...
Therefore there is not much time for us to contemplate on the likely candidates and bang on any with the availability on the date we had chosen.

Looking through the bridal magazine, there is a couple of interesting ones...
The first is The Blue Ginger at Tanjong Pagar which serves authentic Peranakan & Cantonese cuisine. However when I made the enquiry in the morning, I was immediately snubbed by the fact that the restaurant would only be ideal for small wedding banquet of less than 110 (I wish i could keep that kind of crowd); so no need for further consideration.

Next is the Prima Tower Revolving Restaurant situated at the southern area (beside Harborfront & PSA). I got a rough idea what the revolving restaurant which is situated on top of the Prima Deli bakery factory. Nice view of Sentosa and the fact it is revolving always make it exciting for the guest (NOT!) There is also the complimetary savoury smell of well-baked breads from the factory below. The prices is pretty attractive as well starting from $428; and I believe the venue has enough capacity to hold 280 people. Well the main problem is the availability I guess, just have to enquire.

My mom has been throwing accolades about the revamped "Xing Fu Jiu Lou" which we always memories of their tasty Dim Sum. But situated in the middle of the Toa Payoh heartlands,my lass felt is not posh enough, that I could not rebute on...However we are keeping our options open on that.

Well finding the ideal restaurant would be a headache which might transforms into a persistant migraine that torture me for the next couple of months.

Anyway the wedding bells would still be ringing for the next fornight or so when I had to attend Weiliang's wedding at the Holiday Inn this coming Saturday evening while just got the invitation from Siti from the neighboring lab for her traditional Malay ceremony (yes at the void deck...hot diggidy!!) on the 11th of December...time to take notes of what to expect...

Japanese word of the day: (Searching) for the ideal place for friends to drown me alcohol and make me doing silly things on my special day

Writings on the Wall...

26th November 2005, Saturday

Mark this date in your calendar, October 15th 2006, Sunday..this is the agreed date for my depature date for my singlehood as I would be officially convert my martial status to "married" (although the ROM date would definitely be before that, thus the status change would occur way before that)

I just came back from the discussion session with my lass' mom as my mom and godmom (also my 7th maternal auntie) who is has knowledge of dealing and wheeling in terms of traditional practises for a chinese wedding went to pay their official visit to confirm on the details like the official date, number of tables needed in the banquet, the dowry etc.
Well it all ended in a hush as both sides were in very condescending mood while all I have to worry about pulling my shoestring budget together to support the mounting cost of the whole procession which now believed would be requiring near 30 tables in the banquet and a cool $20,000

Yesterday marked the 5th year anniversary me and my lass had been together as a pair when it was like yesterday when she questioned our relationship when we were in the middle of a leadership building camp and I reaffirmed her doubts by claiming I would of course glad to be her confidante as well as her lover, and 5 years later, we are at the brink of entering the next stage of our lives...

However yesterday celebration did not certainly sparked off pleasantly as I wished it would as my edgy mood these couple of days kicked in when I seen her in a business blouse what I described as a Malay auntie would donned when I was expecting a very casual yet stylish dressing which I had blatantly missed for a while...I was pretty sick of her in her business outfit with her large office bag filled with catalouges for her sideline. I knew she would be attending a rally later the evening for her side-business but I just felt gutted to see her once more in business attire and that shiny-beige blouse did not help to improve the situation...

I just cranked my bitter face for the entire trip to City Hall and refused to talk to her in my immature cast which afterwards I felt I might had made a mountain out of a molehill. But I just was too incensed with her been too overt involvement with her business that even on a day which I hoped we would spend solely for ourselves, she had other ideas installed.

We managed to talk over the problem that had bothering me for the entire train trip over lunch/dinner at Rice Table and she recognised it was her fault for neglecting with her job as well as her sidelines...But I told her it was not because of that...I just needed sometime off from that totally and I won't mind her other obligations as long as we can some time solely for ourselves without strings attached before and after it...
Of course the attire for yesterday could also be the ignition point for my furore which I also brought it out eventually...

Anyway the lunch was fine except I don't quite understand the concept that the staff had to lay all the dishes in the ala carte buffet menu on the hot platter (with fuel below to keep the food warm) despite the fact that some patrons might not had taste for cuisine with Lady Fingers or mutton (which in out case luckily both of us took individually respectively)...
A lot of spciy food which was well supported by fragant rice served on pandan leaves and an autentic mee soto soup which tasted just about the same from any hawker centers but great to be eaten with the "koropok" (prawn crackers) that was served together as appertisers.
Our fave food on the lunch menu was the "Tahu Telor" (deep fried omelette with tofu and topped with the sweet "rojak" sauce) as well as "Ikan Goreng" (Fried fish in tasty chilli-tomato sauce) which both we had a second helping.
It was really filling at the end was perhaps the $15 per person price tag was aptly justified.

We then shop around Marina Square which had a revamp and became a more elegant venue to shop as they managed to segregate different genres such as youth focused, contemporary apparels, branded boutiques, eateries and a corner for people like ourselves who might be setting out our family with furniture shops like Barang Barang and another Zen inspired furniture shop where we casted our eyes on a nice platform bed that is designed elegantly with some storage compartments we had desired. There were also a couple of hard-selling bridal shops which we had been forcefully been coerced into one where we are presented with an example of nice wedding photo album which in the end my lass had doubts over their capability to deliver as she had heard not too well hearsays on the reputation of that particular bridal studio.

The movie was a nice one as director Mike Newell (not to be confused to the old Blackburn striker) who is the 3rd director of the "Harry Potter" series, definitely gave "Goblet of Fire" a dark edge involving blood and death though my fave was still "Prisoner of Azkaban". As described by Lance days before as a action-packed roller coaster which had many details been excluded to the ire of fans of the J.K. Rowlings' literature. Lance simply put that those exclusions were mere mundane Hogswart's school stuff which is not needed for the live action feature.
And my god I was infatuated with a grown-up Emma Watson (Hermione) back in "Prisoner" and this show further supported that notion and she definitely had transformed from a smart-ass elementary schooler to a fine lass especially in the X'mas ball scene when she appeared in an elegant gown..yummy..shit hope I don't become a pedophile cos she is actually only 15 years old...
In fact I wonder how many years are left for Daniel Ratcilffe and gang to be young enough to reprise their roles once more.

I ended my anniversary date with a trip to La Tendo (hey all roads lead there when you are in town) once I had parted ways with my lass when she left for her rally. It was where I found solace in the lack of new shipment of toys on my wanted list, thus enabling me to save up for another week...NOT!

Japanese word of the day: 野蛮人~ya-ban-jin~ (Barbarian) I think I was with the attitude I treated my lass early yesterday

Creativity & Chaos

24th November 2005, Thursday

These 2 words are perhaps loosely associated but I feel through chaos one can bring out his/her creativty potential within them...

Read an article on Today today regarding how Singapore is less receptive to bringing out or even accomodating to one's creativity in work place and in general life aspect, always adopting the "If it ain't broken, don't fix it" syndrome that our local workplaces had been inculcating...
This lag way behind from other developed countries like Japan which is way true although you might fault me for lobbying for my illegitimate homeland...
However many would beg to differ that in Singapore we are not totally void of creative minds, perhaps Mr Sim or even my buddy now a budding console game designer would be beg to differ vehemently...

Back in the army, we have something we called USMS (don't ask me what is it abbre for because I had automatically wipe it off my data system even before I left the force) which coerced servicemen to submit monthly suggestions to improve the state of conditions within. They also offered some monetary kitty to cajole them... However it is always the threat of been taking away some benefits like off-in-lieu that made most of us think of something out of nothing...I believe many big government organisations would be using such a system as well.But creativity could never be forced just like you cannot put Ronaldinho in a rigid tactics in the pitch and expect him to exude his footballing creativity he is so famous of...er...bad analogy I know...

Even in our work environment despite in a routine world of science where we had to adhere to protocols to produce viable results, one can make use of their creativity...
The famous Mr JxMMy is always to produce some strains of his creativity (to his stoic conveniences) day in day out though no one actually gives a damn about it...
While a systematic person like YM would content with the state of conditions with rarely injections of new ideas, JxMMy the chaotic one (just look at his workstation) would always think of way to improve the functionality of our system.. His strong sense of administration always resulted in him downloading plenty of software to safe-guard the computers of the machines (however to adverse effects frequently)
He always tried to come out with a system to overlook the chaos of our result management which could be a few hundreds a day but always too "introvert" voice it out and need to write on petty notes and paste everywhere like talismans.

Talking about creativity and chaos, I have been dabbling with both recently...
With the establishment of my own web domain, I felt it is justisfiable to concentrate alot of my webpage since I had already invested money on it...
This brought out my creativity to instill new features on my hobby in Japanese toys and related items; which eat in almost all of my free time at home nowadays...
I also wanted to bring order to the chaotic scene of toys collection at least to myself to keep a update on what goodies are to be released as well as what treasures I had bought over a period of time and been forgotten under a heap of dust somewhere in my room.
Of course like most artists, writers or people in the creative field they would always wanted to be acknowledged, recognised and accoladed by others for their efforts (though one can be himself's best audience); which is why I put a counter in my page to register the number of visits (which have been moving way too slowly perhaps due to poor "advertising" effect) as well as a guestbooks for everyone to say how much they like about my webpage...so far one comment from Ferris (who is the only one felt obligated to write something) and that's it....

I am also kind of inspired to be a writer which perhaps why I tried to instill flowery language structures and vocabulary in the things I write but I know I can never be like Azrael who can always make the life of a attachment teacher in Japan so interesting, despite the suspicion of fabricating the whole sale through.

Well nonetheless the webpage as well as this blog are means to chronicle my life in the prime period (like how I had been wasting hours writing useless stuff online or taking pictures of my toys when I should be finding good opportunity to nourish myself physically, mentally or financially) in case I become (*TOUCHWOOD*) senile in my greying days, I can always read these for referance of myself...

Actually I am suffering from slight senile dementia as I had been mixing up the days for the past week since Tuesday like I thought that today is Friday, of course it could because it's my last work day for this week..yoohoo!

Japanese word of the day:創造性 ~~ (Creativity) Perhaps I should put my creativity together to write a novel of all the wretched people I have met in my life.

Bring the Booze Please...

23rd November 2005, Wednesday

The nice cooling weather remains for the entire night and into the twilight, making it so comfortable to just snuggle in the warmth of your bed and sheets, except that.... it's only Wednesday and you still have to creep up to go to work... GMD!
It's been a long long while since I can actually sleep without having the air conditioner on (yes I'm a spoilt mama's boy, so bite me monkey boys and girls!) but last evening I believe the temperature drop to a nice,chilly 24 degrees and even with a little slit on my window panes, I am able to receive some breeze blowing in...
In the morning it got really freezing as the rain wouldn't stop and even the water from the pipes is ice cold...definitely the typical autumn weather to busk in...
I feel if the weather persist, I was compelled to wear something thicker to work and so put on this red cashmire long-sleeves I had bought from a UNIQLO boutique back in 2003 which really keeps you warm within (since it was the winter fashion when I got it), meaning if you are to wear under the normal equatorial hot weather, you will be totally drenched in sweat..much like a good sauna session...
Everything was cool till the sun comes out to drive all the chill air away as I proceed towork..damn...just my luck...

Work was as usual and with the manpower we had should be slightly more than suffice to a state that Lance came in to work on Monday (he was absent without leave yesterday) claiming his only task was a very minimal house keeping chore.. kinda empathize his plight as currently as YM mentioned we are already fighting for things to do and with limited equipment, the problem was much compounded...therefore the fact that 2 more attachment students in the month of December should be a dubious idea...
In addition, our job is so routine and mundane I'm sure the newcomers would bemoan that they had been "tricked" into this attachment...
Well we'll have to wait and see...

The same day next month we will have our X'mas get-together and some of us are already discussing what to do and what food to bring in for the potluck.. So I just suggested to Lance to bring some booze and somehow I am not surprised that he agreed...saying he should have enough Chivas Regal, Jack Daniels and Bailey's to keep everyone high...
And this is from the youngest member of the brood who of course kind of strive to "cheong" (clubbing)...This is actually quite ok as we can use the liquor as punishment drink in some games as long as no one drives on that day; and a real X'mas party should have some wine or liquor to accomodate the festive spirits...

Well the anniversary celebration this Friday looks rosy enough, now that my lass had got the tickets for "Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire" (which was highly acclaimed by those who had watched it) and I have just reserved seats at "The Rice Table", so we will have ala carte Indonesian cuisine buffet to fill our stomach on that day which is a good thing that we are going for lunch and not dinner which at least save me $12 on the total bill (yes I am such a scrooge)...
My leave on Friday is also pretty significant as I could actually "siam" a meeting for the web portal of the shared facilities which I had sort of been coerced to join the team though I hadn't been around much (especially during my ICT period) for the assessment..
There would also be a fire drill for this 2nd half of the year which I would have to fulfill my role as a fore warden once again...so basically since I would be absent, I am off the hook, buddies...

Finally just a walk down the memory lane with my sis, brought me to remember one of my all time fave Mediacorp (formerly TCS) actress (more like performer), Michelle Goh....
She can't act for Christ's sake back then in the mid 1990s but her status as one of the sexists lady in Singapore (according to a publications known as FHM) got me well hooked in my puberty days...
She would always pout and scringe her feline-like eyes which perhaps now Caucasians relate as the exotic Oriental look, which manage to get her into cameos into shows like "Dark Angel" and movies like "Out For a Kill" which stars, you guessed it..Steven Segal...
Not bad for someone who can't really claims to have acting skills but then those who scarred their resume in a local series known as "VR Man" could be proud to say they are acting... (James Lye is now happily married and into banking; Lisa Ang is more suited for hosting in Channel News Asia while Mark Richmond is now a producer in Mediacorp radio and would pick commentating soccer than reprising his role as "Tic Tic Man" again)
Gosh I missed those classic nonsensical crap we had on TV those days...not like now those program on TV are not crappy enough as well...

Japanese word of the day: 飲む　~no-mu~ (Drink) be prepared to drink lots of alcohol for the 12 days of X'mas.... 5 GOLDEN RINGS!!..

Insensitive in the autumn weather?

22nd November 2005, Tuesday

In the Northern hemisphere, the autumn season should be well kicked in and perhaps even passing the baton to winter...over here in Singapore, we never had the luxury of busking in nice, breezy weather, and appreciating the change of colour from lush green to soothing red/ orange with the natural vegetation...the closest we had was a persistant monsoon season which brings down the temperature by a few degrees, with is more profound when I was younger rather than nowadays when the earth is suffering from global warming and now even global dimming...

However last evening as I strolled my way home, I was watching the evening skyline as the cool breeze is blowing nicely on my face as I gazed at the feather-like clouds moving with the direction of the wind until I need knock over an Indian lady who was coming from the opposite direction who perhaps had her sight on something else as well...

This morning the cool weather remains and it was sure revitalising to actually get to work without your back all drenched in perspiration after a walk from place to place...

In the Northern hemisphere, there is also something known as "pollen flu" which is usually linked with the changing of season and perhaps my family as well as many Singaporeans are down with flu as well...After my one hell week of flu on board ship, it's now my dad who is at the brunt of an unrelentless cough which is the 3rd phase of his flu since last week...

My lass came home from her seminar in KL last evening just before the stroke of midnight but it's puzzling why we can't keep our cool in such wonderful weather as we had a tiff over trival matters, I felt I am the one to blame for been rather petty and highly insensitive..but all is good after she had a good sleep and woke up fresh this morning...

So it was confirmed that we would not be having a half day on the 23rd despite having the X'mas party at work as it was not X'mas eve afterall, and the admin has to play by the book...
Which really hinders our little get-together over my place that day which now deems to begin only in the evening with pretty limited time to spend together...might even contemplating on the 24th but doubt many would be free to attend...

With YM bound to tender her resignation by January, she had started to impart her meticulous knowledge in keeping the paperworks to me, Bobby & Triana...But I am also afraid that the younger ones could not really catch up in time especially the "situation awareness"... I always know Bobby is not too into house-keeping and needs to be reminded at times (though he is still much better than JxMMy in that aspect)..but I can't be always around to give you heads-up...
One good example would be he was helping the girls with something which requires a specific equipment which we had one each housed at the 2 lab area..While verifying the availability of the equipment over at our side, he started preparing the reaction enthusiastically without realising that the other equipment located just behind where he is doing his preparations would not be usuable for sometime due to servicing.. There was a big note pasted there, so he could not say he didn't know... so there you goes with that certain sense of awareness with his surroundings.

Japanese word of the day: 秋~a-ki~ (Autumn) wish we could have at least 2 months when the mean temperature remains at below 10 degrees celsius..damn

Smoking? Take a mint for god's sake

21st November 2005, Monday

It's a start to a rather special week as on Friday would mark the 5th anniversary since me and my lass is an item and on the following day, we are going to meet her parents (no not the Gaylord Focker style) to discuss about our impending big day coming in a year's time....

This morning while rushing to work in under a rather damp weather, I was sitting on the MRT and for 3/4 of my trip from Yishun westwards, there was a guy, think in his late 40s, in neat, respectable office attire taking the empty slot beside me...Everything was aye okay as I was pre-occupied in my thoughts rather than dozing off while my trusty iPod provides me with the sole entertainment in the long journey..then I smell something fishy..literally...

The pungent was much like tuna..but tuna that has gone really bad..like been badly burnt.
I did not intend to take a second whiff but the smell was persistant to a point that it was nauseating and I begin to ponder whether it could be the breath of the uncle beside me as he was in the direction of the smell; which then made me realised that it could be his breathe after some heavy smoking before the trip..as I had encountered this too often than I like...

In many cases it is always those recalcitrant, pigheaded middle aged blue-collar men who would be the culprit of this (regardless of race but high probability would be seasoned labourers from the world's most populated country who regard personal hygiene as a joke).
They wouldn't care less if they looked and smell like crap as their friends/colleagues/ smoking buddies all pretty much smell the same...
However through their deep breathing they somehow forgotten that their fellow passengers do not have impaired sense of smelling like themselves...
Sigh.. gone were the days when I had smoker friends who actually care about their breath after their puff as they would invested heavily on mouth refresher like mints or spray...

There was an interesting read on the papers today regarding tracing your genetic roots by using a toolkit to extract your DNA to be analyze and see which haplogroup you belong...which is really great except one such tool cost like US$100!! Nonetheless DNA test or not, there's no denial of the Japanese blood flowing within my veins...and arteries...

There have been some events happened and going to happening in our small island... Firstly the World Cyber Game tournament which close their curtain at Suntec City yesterday..I mean I know gaming is a serious business out in the market but didn't expect everyone to take it that seriously..hmm how come I don't see "Championship Manager" in the list of games played?

Then there is the "Sexpo" exhibition happening at Expo center which drew a lot of attention in our rather conservative society (yah right)...My lass was very interested to attend and to be educated but babe, there's nothing you don't know about sex from all those female magazines you have bought....

Last but not least, there was a "SMS typing competition" held yesterday when a 18 years old JC student bagged the top prize when he typed a message about piranhas as man-eaters within 45 seconds, 2 more than the winner of last year who held the Guiness World Record as well... Firstly I thought the idea of the competition is dubious enough till I noticed the prize kitty is a cool 12 grand which I think should be just nice to foot his handphone bills for his practise..ha ha sucker!

Oh yeah Kobayashi the great competitive eater once again trounced his much larger Caucasian competitors in a recent burger eating contest again...man talk about high metabolism...

Japanese word of the day: タバコ~ta-ba-ko~ (Cigarette) I really don't get if you are suffering from lung cancer or financial problem with your indulgence but never puff your smoke on my face and let me smell you bad breathe.

Triple Eyelid?!

20th November 2005, Sunday

Just a quick note of some bodily change I had been experiencing for a while....

No not a new 6 packs on my abdomen, I don't need a well tone bronze like physique to exude my manly appeals. that's for shallow, mindless people

No not sporting a new George "I love to masturbate in the toilet" Micheals goatee as well although as much as I would like to grow one for a while now...

It's just a new revelation that my left eyelid recently went into folds literally...giving rise to a 2nd eyelid on my left eye, and today it became a triple eyelid overnight, perhaps due to toiling overnight last evening to work on my webpage...

Well the new facial addition didn't really light up that pair of "Ix Shen" like dead, listless eyes of mine and my pock-marked craters are still prominent on the surface...ooh yeah I still THAT drop dead gorgeous...

Not much happening for the past couple of days except my lass is now in KL to attend one of those "inspirational" seminar for her side-lines so I am back here alone to concentrate on rigging more new stuffs for my web page and what fitting time that I got that "groove" to work on it...

Roy Keane left Man Utd in a hush on Friday to the astonishment of millions of Red Devils (myself included) but I was glad my fave English managed to responded to that shock depature with a nifty 3:1 victory over Charlton at the Addicks' grounds.. surely we don't need an overaged, injured whiner in the stands that mince on the performance of the up and coming stars with the fortunes of the club laid on their shoulders and not his.. I don't want to say "good riddance" in case it bites back on me with Man Utd's form spiralling downwards even since...

Alright that's all for now...

Japanese word of the day: 瞼(Eyelid) I don't need no "Extreme Make-over" to get me a double (or triple) eyelid..yoohoo

Drifting Around...

17th November 2005, Thursday

A true tropical storm which persisted throughout the evening woke most of the people heading to work up as it was once again inconvenient to manuveour under the beating of the torrential rain as well staying off the track of prospective lightning strike as it was a clear Category 1 type of weather as I forged my way to work...

For most of the morning, I basically just "drifted" around for a couple of meetings..first of which is the X'mas Party gathering which the Old Hag had changed the system to pick the unfortunate bunch of lab technicians from picking from the freshmen but rather allocate one from each lab to form tne committee. Therefore I am not the only veteran that was present for the meeting and eventually volunteered my service in the "Gift Exchange" part which I supposed should be the easiest of all the assignments..

Then I went for a safety meeting for the shared facilities side which actually I need not attend but it was refreshing to actually meet different group of people with a totally different style of working...
Therefore I am always keeping an option if they wanted to lure me over to join them as long as the terms are correct...

I had a lunch clandestine with YM & BY over at Andorra's within our work area which serve pretty sumptous pasta set lunch. Obviously BY is bouying with her new work and was very persistant for me to send my CV to her company with a high possibility of jumping ship.
I had a serious thought and felt a longing to change a new environment especially the way she is selling her company with all the nice amenities and people actually been treated with respect there. For me the down point would be adjusting to the few things I had been enjoying thus far (flexible working hour, great boss etc) and there would not be a hike of gross pay.
However I'm getting more and more sick of accomodating to JxMMy (2 years late I'm afraid) and his ominpresence in the lab is dominating and to a point of suffocation.
WIth YM leaving by early next year, I feel I might not have the same rapport with the newbies (Bobby & Triana) as they are really too new and I'm not sure I would be ready to guide as well
But overall perhaps I had reached a plateau in my career path and the current state does not excite me no more...
We'll see I guess but time to compose a really decorative cover letter just in case ...

With the fact that my lass would most probably be working throughout X'mas, I was thinking of beckoning my colleagues (present and past, excluding JxMMy of cos) over my place for a mini potluck celebration which is good to catch up for those who have left (like LF & BY) as well as for the new ones to mingle around...perhaps something to look forward to...

Got some new scoop about the new girl, Triana (as in three--a--na). She is an Indonesian Chinese formerly of TPJC, and had her education in SG all these years, no wonder she looks and behaves no much different from any SGeans. But her time at Monash down under sure bestowed her an edge over the local graduates like myself... She seems like a pretty "happening" person who is into clubbing as well, no wonder she is so "clicked" with Lance...

Japanese word of the day:変わるべき願い ~ka-wa-ru-be-ki-ne-ga-i~ (Wish for a change) perhaps in the work environment

A Whole New Arena

16th November 2005, Wednesday

After 2 weeks of hiatus from a combined effect of leave, ICT & public holidays, I am back to work this morning....

I was deadbeat when I got home laast evening after going to Liang Court's branch for Kinokuniya to pick up the magazines on behalf of Chan whose work schedule restricted his free time to roam about as much as he would like to. Immediately after shower, I fell into deep slumber the second I was embraced into the warmth of my bed amd woke up with a huge Afro, which is always the case when I sleep without waiting for the hair to properly dry itself...

On board of the train I was still very drowsy and the heat that the island had been experiencing for the past fornight is not helping the cause... Then I was exasperated by the fact that our feeder bus service was late by 2 rounds and many staff members like myself who had waited for 10 minutes or so couldn't wait to squeeze their way up the bus, in a pretty unruly fashion...

This unexpected delay in bus schedule made me a bit late for work but nonetheless still early by a yard than Bobby or JxMMy...
YM who is sporting a full black, reborn hair these days were rather glad to see me and so was our supervisor who was haste to update me on what had been going on in my absence. This is a good indication that my presence actually mean something to them.
We had a new female colleague as mentioned, the girl from Monash University. Her name was Tirana, or Triana, a pretty petit figure with very distinct oriental features. Didn't talk to her much so far but would be trying to scoop her story soon...

YM was blatantly complaining about the hell she had been esperiencing for the past week when her work load was not made any lighter with the help (or no-help) from Bobby & Lance.
The former was supposed to take over my role to help out with some stuff in the early morning but tends to forget to come over by the 3rd day and leaving YM on the lurch...
As for Lance, it seems like his slack attitude has slowly became a bane which YM could not tolerate. Perhaps he still requires that little bit of maturity since this is afterall his final year project and he got to render as much help to people who would reprocicate the help for his project report composition.
She was at the brink of insanity been helpless last Thursday and made use of her sore throat to just go on medical leave, way gutted by the responses she had been getting from our new staff.

I was supposed to have a recluse lunch session with just her and BY to share the woes this afternoon but she postponed to tomorrow as she is going to hand in her signed contract with the greener pastures during lunch. Her departure is imminent and I would be the only one left from the original group and perhaps an experience head among all these newer faces...sigh

What about JxMMy you might say? well he was quick to update me on some stuff as well which I was not wee bit interested to hear from his mouth and once again we could feel evidently there was no love lost between the both of us... I dunno he is perhaps the single reason why I wanna get out of here fast as well...

So the whole of today I was not too upbeat to the prospect of the negativity experienced in our workplace and my spirits just could not be lifted to do my usual stuff.. My misery was compounded when the secretary of the Old Hag summoned me for a meeting for the X'mas party organising committee tomorrow morning. I was bewildered as this was usually left to the newcomers to the company and I'm sure there was a plenty but later I got a niggling feeling that it could be the punishment for my "caught in the act" back in June.
Though this was way mild than retrenchment or even a letter of warning, it goes to show that the Hag downstairs can forgive but never forget...

There are some issues I needed to catch up as well especially from the shared facilities which had a safety meeting tomorrow as well and if it was earlier I could actually dodge from the X'mas thingie.
I also managed to finish the hefty annual appraisal which I looked upon as an ultra-important issue as it determines how heavy your forthcoming performance bonus would weigh.. I seriously pray to have the same reward as the past one.

Overall the day has been suffocating me of sorts with the changes that are bound to happen and I wonder what role would I play in the near future, if previous issues are always ready to return to haunt me....

Japanese word of the day: 帰る~ka-e-ru~(Return) not a chirpy one for me to work

Here's to the past 17 years...

14th November 2005, Mon

Back to Changi Naval Base to finish up my ICT and we met up with the warrant officer in charge, Bryner whom we always had fun talking cock with and it is imminent that he would move on from his current post which would be missed by many like myself who would constantly be returning for reservist in the future.

Always great to start off Monday, without the requirement to wake up in the wee hours and suffer the mad Monday mad-rush to work as a fellow NS-man, Quah who stayed from a throwing distance from me gave me a ride to CNB at around 7 plus as it really doesn't matter if we are late or not...

After the morning debrief in which we took the opportunity to highlight some usual fralities during the 5 day sailing we had last week & Bryner plan was to finish up whatever left in our stint today including a presentation of medal to a couple of guys in the group and give a full day off tomorrow. However it was thwarted by his officer in charge who is apparently from a different wavelength as Bryner and the rest of us is adamant to keep to the plan of coming back tomorrow to the constant moaning and groaning from us...Too bad Bryner is just a 1WO and he is facing a Major..ranks count in the force as they say...
However the day routine was cut short deliberately and we were released at around 2 plus and I managed to reach home in less than an hour time..woohoo...

Spent the bulk of my Sunday just watching some Japanese variety programs as well as the latest episode of "Lost" which we see the death of one active member of the cast...Good riddance anyway but to some perhaps it's a terrible lost of eye-candy source...guess who I am talking about...no not Kate...go figure

I had a long overdued catch up with my buddy on the MSN as we tried to catch up on our well beings for the past 1 month or so...
He is now busy with work as well as a personal side project and he enquired when my wedding would actually be held and wondered he would be able to make it back for it...though I wanted to tell him that I am expecting him to be my best man but with his nature with respect to such commitment which he could not be sure to fulfill, so I did not really brought it out..But if you are reading this, please do not be pressure by the offer...will definitely let you know the exact date and see whether you can work your schedule by then before giving me the final answer..

We first talk about stuff like his newly acquired investment of PS2 and games which burnt a big hole in his pocket as well as how people view otakuism these days, pretty much our usual belittling of ourselves as usual...Then followed by the usual anime focus which we very much bashed "Gundam Seed" to the point it is worthless which would incur the wrath of the horde of the loyal fans of the series if they are known of it..
Then we took things down into the memory lane as we recollect the past 6000 over days we had known each other, which began way back in 1988 when we are still in our primary four like destiny was set in the stars or crap like that and we stick onto each other ever since like strong adhesive, in such drastic fashion that our parents thought we are gay partners, fortunately we did not degrade into such a malaise..heehee
There could be several stages in our lives that drift us apart such as parting Secondary School days but somehow we always manage to hook up often that we managed to make friends to each other friends and the friendship was well bolstered...
It would actually take days to relate the crap stories we had cooked up in our past history but somehow when we are together we could always think of the most absurd stuff to say and transform the most ordinary personality characters we had encountered in our lives into some of the most interesting beings from another planet altogether...
But surely it was a blast, and though we are well seperated by physical distance over the past few years when he was first further his education in Canada and now in his attachment in Osaka, Japan; he mentioned we can still jolly well connect and when we met when I was there in Osaka in August, he felt that sense of familiarity like he had met me only days before...

We both agreed it's hard to find a buddy for 10 years, let alone one that is close to 20 years...so we definitely had to cherish it and for me personally I rarely keep contact with many friends over the years, so if you are one I am constantly in touch with, count yourself fortunate (or unfortunate)...

Well it was great to feel that sense of nostalgia especially for him who always tends to look into the future and tomorrow rather than got stuck in the past....

Before I sign off this post, I was taken aback to hear the news of the sudden passing of one of the talented WWE superstar, Eddie Guerrero who died of heart failure in his hotel room in Minnesota. He was such a humble worker and always there to entertain the fans and push his comrades into the spotlight on his own expense... His passing would be greatly miss...



Rest in Peace, Eddie, and thanks for the memories...

Japanese word of the day: 子供の時　~ko-do-mo-no-toki~ (Childhood) We had such a blast for our growing up process since our childhood days

No One Loves the Sun, the Sand & the Sea...

11th November 2005, Friday

Yes I had managed to survive sailing on board a military naval ship for 5 days straight, and last time I sailied for that long I was on an oversea assignment in my National Service days which I actually enjoyed...

Seriously I would whine and curse as much as I could but the lads who was on those small crafts and working as the "beach party" who are coming for their ICT as well had it far worse, some suffering pretty bad cases of sun burnt after prolonged exposure under the unforgiving sun...

So the 6 of us board the ship as part as the OPs team for the HQ side and basically manning the comms as well logging all the ongoing for the 5 days long exercise...

We stepped on board that huge ship with plenty of other NS men to thr irk of the regular ship crew as if we were some uncivilised babarians ready to pillage and plunder their villages, kidnap their children and rape their women....

At first we had to close up for watches for 8 hours and get 8 hours of rest which later on reverted to 3 watches which one gets to rest for 12 straight hours after a short and comfy timeslot of 6 hours..but seriously not much joy beside taking an extra wink...

We are very much confined to a all-men sweat-house with the pathetic state of bunk we are provided... I had stayed before back in 2003 in that what was referred to someone else sailing along as "coffin"..a confined space which has not much turning space for a midget, not to say for a hefty mass like myself...
The smell of stale air was mixed with smell of the canvas surrounding the bunk, and can get quite stuffy a while...
At times when I am off watch, I tried to have some quality sleep, I most probably would be kept awake by the noisy bunch of disgruntled NS-men awaiting their action hour in the wee hours in the morning, as they hurl Hokkien vulgarities towards each other while playing "Chua Dai Dee"...

Oh yeah I was wheezing with a persistant cough for the last few days to make matters worse...

They said that food sure can boost morale of the soldiers but the food just starting to deteriorate with the ok tasting nasi bryani for lunch on the 1st day which followed by plenty of lunch and dinner of stone-hard rice with multiple appearances of Indian curry which made one wonder what gives the crew of Chinese cooks such a strange Indian taste in their cooking...

The sanitary conditions aren't too fantastic as well as the lavatories/bathrooms been used regularly by close to hundreds of restless grown men who would care less to tidy up their shower area or aim properly with their urination... you had an ammonia-filled space with really unsightly floor which let's just say you wouldn't wanna walk without your footwears or take a 2nd look if you wanna have a meal after that...
Of course the lack of roughage in my diet meant I was constipated for a few days which is fine with me as I wouldn't wanna do a big business in such environment...

Beside the regulars especially the "crabs"-ladened officers who as some wise guy told us are "wali" (walking around looking important) and "sali" (sitting around looking important), basically we see some guys working really hard to meet the requirements in the stress pot of the ops room while I seriously doubt all these simulations would come in handy in real war times...

I did not have such great company to keep me entertained all these while...listening to the regulars whining about their wretched lives in the force isn't much to make me feel upbeat, though there was one chirpy Indian officer on watch with me who always kept a lighter side of things...
The 5 that I had been called up with and not smart enough to defer aren't too "click" to my frequncey (not many would anyway) as there was a pair of smokers buddies and the guy who I was keeping watch with would just repeat things to himself, sometimes which I tried hard but in vain to understand him...
However I did managed to reunite with a old navy mate of mine back in my service who I had some nostalgic moments to relished with him as well as glad to know that life at our old ship just got much bitter after I left and he was right to follow suit as well...
There was a fellow Comms from another squadron which I had fun joking around during some critical hours of the exercise as these Indian chaps sure can joke in ways Chinese is incapable of...

The only solace for me was that the ship was anchored off some southern island for like 3 days and we had reception on our handphones and I was able to call home and my lass whom I sorely miss their presence...

But the one thing I reall really miss was my PC and the internet whom I snuggle the first thing when I got home..But it could be a long while since I had sailied..I am feeling dizzy as if on a rolling ship at this very moment..perhaps could be the fatigue man...later

Japanese word of the day: 海~u-mi~ (Sea) Don't think I wanna go for a cruise anytime soon

No better way to start my 27th year of existence

4th November 2005, Friday

What great way to spend my 27th birthday than staying whole day at home, going on marathon on "Keroro Gunsou" (really love those alien frogs!) and only perhaps 3 persons on the earth that remembers my special day...1 is of course is my lass, the 2nd being my buddy over at Osaka who was discreet in his birthday greeting in the comments of my previous post after the guy that wanna sell me penis enlarger. The last being Edmund whom I believed was only reminded by his meticulous girlfriend, Jing whom supposedly remembers the birthdays of all our management committee members from our Science Club days.

Being Edmund he had to start the conversation over the phone with "never get a whore to "pong" (screw) ah?"
He then told me about him being headhunted to a client from his current company which is able to offer him higher pay that he craves (who wouldn't?)
Well over the span of 3 years I had been stuck to my first and only job while he had job-hopped twice; well either I'm too into the "job loyalty" crap or just plain lazy to find greener pastures..I guess it's the latter.
He mentioned that he would be flying to and fro Singapore with this new post at the trading house and I recommended him to spare me sometime for my forthcoming wedding ceremony (which he felt was kinda early)

Oh wait, he was the 2nd person to think my wedding plans was too prompt..the other being Michelle who is perhaps the 4th person to remember my birthday..of course the fact that she bears the same birthday could be the main reason...well do hope her relationship with Foo bears fruits soon as well...so will Jing & Edmund...
Yikes...more "crimson bomb"

Talking about that, finally got the wedding invitation from Weiliang for his wedding on 5th next month at Holiday Inn...I can perhaps contemplate of not appearing since he referred me as "Kok Koon"..what's up with that?!... he could just leave it as my famous initial as 75% of the world population had known me as...(the other 25% still is adamant that I owned a woman and children hospital of course)

My birthday was ruined by 2 incidents... firstly Man Utd been beaten sorely by Lille in Paris, compounding their whacking by Boro the weekend before
2ndly, while reading through my company mail, was pretty much irked by the fact that JxMMy made use of his ample time alone at work on Wednesday with another of his intricately painted e-mails about some problems at work as well as one to me & Bobby with a tone as if we have to seek advice from him when we take over that fragment analysis shit that Seban had annotated him to handle...sucker....
After checking my company mail account again, it seemed like he had crossed the line when he handled my shared facilities stuff when I am pretty sure I had entrusted Bobby to be my understuday...he just gotta budge his freaking nose into every facet in our service...sigh..I really feel my time is running up at my current workplace..

As mentioned on the title, I had to start off my 27th year in fulfilling my role as a patriotic NS-men..yada yada yada...my 1st day of ICT to prepare us to sail a full week next week to the astonishment of several senior guys who thought sailing more than 3 days is unheard of...
No wonder a good number of people deferred this "high key" session... luckily I met up some familiar faces who can chauffuer me home this evening and early coming Monday morning for the sailing off...

so I might not update here for the next week or so...hope things brightens up abit after the sailing.. well at least we are able to savour Mom's cuisine again when my parents return later...

Japanese word of the day: 誕生日~tan-jou-bi~ (Birthday) Hope to spend my 28th birthday watching more episodes of Keroro, hopefully torturing a stoic, boring lab technician with the name Jimmy...

Seconds Ticking...

2nd November 2005, Tuesday

Just a quick note on my 2nd day of personal retreat at home and my goodness, I am already halfway through the designated 72 hours and I am still miles away from the stuff I have targetted to accomplish to do...

I spent the most of Deepavali, relaxing at home, flipping through photo albums, indulging myself in some nostalgic moments while my lass spent the afternoon doing her revision for her final Japanese exam in a couple of weeks time which also revealed how much I had thrown what I was taught in JCS into the bin as I could not answer most of her doubts, regardless of how badly I wanted to...

I wanted to stay all night last evening to perhaps go on anime marathon but my will was lost in keeping the constrict muscles around my eyelids and I fell into slumber even while I was sitting straight up on my bed, flipping through the pages of the photo album chronicling my Hiroshima trip back in 1998 (perhaps that was just tard boring), so my night plan was wrecked...

Well my main priority would still be uploading everything onto my webpage and it should be done by end of today...

anyway it's my BIRTHDAY tomorrow, so if you had not prepare any gifts for me, at least leave a message here to wish me something...heeheee

Lastly I just got the pilot episode of the TBS dorama, "花より男子" (which people may known as "Meteor Garden" or "流星花園") which started out as a shoujou comic by renowned artist which spawned a cult anime series and that freak accident of a Taiwan idol drama that propel the pretty-face group F4 into stardom...

This Japanese version might be late to catch on the fever that drove the entire Asia crippled before Bae-sama with his "Winter Sonata" shit; but the whole mood that the pilot delivers definitely does the original comic series justice afterall they are JAPANESE repriving Japanese characters unlike the Taiwanese bootleg...and with Matsumoto Jun (from the Johnny's boyband, Arashi) as Doumyoji Tsukasa definitely is the best choice and commands so much acting ability that what F$ can deliver and to me the novice actress that takes on the lead character, Makino is even better looking than the self-proclaimed princess, Da S...
Of course with Matsushima Nanako cameo as the violent sister of Tsukasa is already a plus point on it's own...
My lass love the series with the first episode and we will definitely follow this series closely........

Japanese word of the day: 信じられない~shin-ji-ra-re-na-i~(Unbelieveable) that time passes so fast before I can get everything down to work...