Not A Desirable End to the Year of Chicken

28th January 2006, Saturday

Ok minutes away to the reunion dinner but it's an ordinary week-day dinner for my family since we always dine together for dinner..just swap with extra-festive sumptous meal (since mom's cooking is always sumptous to begin with)..man the thought of the delicacy cuisine is activating the stomach acid and triggering my salivary glands.

Anyway the final day at work yesterday was a pretty prompt affair.
YM was given a day offer to compensate the 3 days of leave "eaten" by the administartion since she tendered her resignation before utilising the remaining days left on her annual leave.
Seriously you can't have a boss better than ours.
The "prep" crew was also endorsed for an early depature since there's nothing much they could do as no one would return to off any equipments in the next 3 days or so.
As for our service side, pretty lukewarm demand as most of the PRC "Ah Tiongs" had managed to rushed it for last afternoon's batch and merrily planning to make their way back home.
My supervisor came in and said we could be secured if nothing cropped up..
However JxMMy was very much muted cos his stoic yet "passionate" attitude did not justified that he sshould go back early since he always came in the office around 9, so he felt he should slave his way till 7.
As for Bobby with me handling 2 batches of our project, he felt it would be right for him to do the final batch which was ready only after 4pm.
Actually I had schemed for that to happen as well..made him feel bad for not lifting a hand for the entire day (I actually ate lunch later so as to accomodate one batch after my early gym session); so that he would do the last batch which would end around 5 plus (normal knock off time) while I duly took up the kitty dangled by my supervisor and left at around 4.30pm
Hey I would be a sucker if I don't..not to forget that's part of the plan as well....

So I headed down to Suntec City as planned.
Man...there are people streaming in and out, here and there...getting on my nerves and I started to feel that claustrophobia eating in.
I did managed to make it to Suntec, vamoosed my way to the uppermost storey to where "Family Link" is and prayed that the gashapon set I had desired was available for "tikam" at Toys Room despite claims on the forum that it had been swiped out days earlier.
My prayers were answered as I spotted one full machine..but just only one and there might be a high chance for recurring pieces if I tikam at random..which is why I hated to do "tikam", it may be cheaper but you might ended up with plenty of extras, if you are lucky enough to form a set in the first place...
So I changed around $20 of $1 coins which would warrant me 10 tries and hopefully I'll just need half of that to complete my set.
After the first attempt which really shows how rusty I am with the art of manuveoring the capsule machine which needs to turn clockwise then anticlockwise or is it the other round...
Then the 2nd attempt and guess what.. the machine consumed my coins but no capsule was regurgitated and even the knob was stuck..
I thought I just need to seek assistance from the staff but little did I know that this Japan-imported capsule machines can only be rectified by the dedicated service-man who has the only key in Singapore..woo yeah..Life is good and blissful for me as always..so I had to wait for like light years for that darn service-man to come fix it and return me my $2..who care's about the money?
I'm here to get my gashapon toys!!!
Well unlike typical grouchy Singaporeans, i did not kick a fuss and recede once I knew my whole effort to travel here had very much backfired..more like so near yet so far...
Then I saw a couple of trading figurine series sold on the shelves which La Tendo did not managed to bring it in...however not guaranteed a complete set if I tried "tikam" again and at an exorbitant price...$14.90 for a 500 yen (around $7.50) item..GMD!

I stormed off to La Tendo next and started raining..oh great..
I was quite excited about a new shipment which was scheduled today but looking through the list I guess I was spared from spending for this week which definitely bring a smile to my face...
So the whole effort and time wasted for my toy hunt ended with a miserable capusle toy...Wish the Year of the Dog could promise better haul and ensure I need not incur the wrath of playing the capsule machines which has a tedency of breaking down as frequent as CS spending QUALITY time with his lass...

Japanese word of the day: 惨めな終わり~mi-ji-me-na-o-wa-ri~(Miserable End) Perhaps it beat having multiple attempts and just short of one piece before the machine broke down...

*Bark*Bark*

26th January 2006, Thursday

Yes we are like 2 days to the eve of Chinese New Year and sure would be looking forward to 4 full days of sabbatical from work, and come reunion with some relatives and friends who we have yet seen perhaps not seen since last New Year...then again I had to consult my mom whether I could disclose the fact that I am getting married this coming year since thus far, it seemed like it is still best keep under the sheets as almost 80% of my maternal relatives would not be invited...

Then the prospects of collecting "ang pow" is always welcome especially this would definitely be my last year to receive any. But then the sum of money collected would be non-existant by 15th February anyway.

So everything is sort of getting set for the year of the dog which looks quite prospective for me and my wife-to-be...let's hope so as she suddenly had a compulsive urge to go on s short get-away (namely Genting Highlands) and whined about it last evening as to end the year of Chicken in a rather sour note...

The thought first came about by her ex-JC friends which are mostly guys...Not that I would be dipping in childish jealousy or something but they have plan for the trip in February which I would begin my RT sessions which eat up my weekends all the way to March, so it's definitely a no-go for me.
She also knew that without my presence it is quite inappropiate to go with her guy-friends, so I thought the matter was laid to rest or so I had thought...
She called last evening to ask about going to Genting again but more of an escapade for us alone as she seems to be dire need for a rest.
However with her Japanese friends coming in March, it is better to not to waste any unnecessary money on a short get-away which we would really not enjoy that much (after the last Genting trip back in 2002..what coincidence that World Cup was held back then as well).
Plus our big day coming in October, which is another money-sapping event so every penny now is worth a million, so just got to be more stringent with our expenditure...
She wasn't too thrill with my response as we ended the conversation on the phone promptly. Let's hope it would not degenerate into a trivial tussle in the coming days when we meet.

Speaking of expenditures, wonder would the La Tendo gang be able to bring much a haul of goodies for me to buy....yikes

Japanese word of the day:吠え声~inu-e-koe~ (Bark) Think she barked up the wrong tree last evening with her proposed get-away plan

Money to Burn

25th January 2006, Wednesday

After another attempt to contact CS last evening which is no avail as well, he SMSed me this morning regarding meeting the guy who can fix my HDD, assuming that was the reason behind my recent urgent hounding after him. Well at least he is still well and alive....

We got a VVIP visiting our institute this morning, who is none other than the Sultan of M'sia who is here in Singapore for a 3 days visit. So you see all the get-up since early the morning with all the police search gantry at the lobby as well as stipulated inconveniences such as only certain passengers' lifts are available as well as no bus pick-up point. Fortunately this visit did not affected me a bit since his Majesty did not scheduled to dropby our facilities.

Spent a good chunk of the morning chatting with Bobby regarding an ideal place for the upcoming Valentine's dinner...
For the 6th year now, the likes of "Akira" Japanese Family Restaurant, Fish & Co., Jack's Place and the Rosette have been exhausted leaving me well out of prospective places to spent a nice evening of good (and most importantly filling due to the bad experiences for the last 2 years when we were still very much hungry after the meal) dinner with adequate ambience, to appease the romantist side of the lady.
Bobby did recommended me the arty-farty "Desire" restaurant residing within Scarlett Hotel at Erskine Road, beside the famous Maxwell Hawker Center.
This boutique hotel as it claims to be is occupying a stretch of rejuvenated shophouses around Chinatown area and my sister who had been there before claimed it to be very European and Gothic even.
So I made enquiry on the V-day package from the restaurant.
I was pretty taken aback with the price quoted by the personnel named Taufik (might be that Singapore Idol guy) that it would be $138++++.
The 4 pluses represented GST, service charges, some food and beverages tax and whatever not that might add up to 20% more of the original price.
I did my little calculation and felt even at a steep $160, if the ambience is as good as people had claimed and the food is sumptous, I think I can still afford it.
Therefore I made a 2nd call to sort of confirm the selection available in the 5 course meal and as I was about to make my reservation, he informed me that $138 is for one person...WTF?!?!
That makes close to $320 for a meal for 2....crikeys....
That's totally cashing in on this date which many had already claimed to be more of a business propagenda more than anything else...
I had that debate inside whether to burn that kind of money into mere carbohydrates or worse calories when I could save up for more eloquent uses in the future.
My mom, being as modern thinking as she is, felt since we are young we should really go all out to experience it and money can be earn back again...
But seriously the price really crossed the line as I thought of just using whatever "ang pow" money I am going to collect this year to just foot the bill..no way Jose, I think I would need to top up much more than that...
You all know I am the next most frugal (make it stingy) person after the scrouge in "Christmas Carol", so I better think of alternatives.

Meanwhile Bobby, despite been as dead as he can be at time (of course still breathing more life than JxMMy) too is short of Vitamin M but not short of creative juices to spice up the night for his lass...
He bought a DVD on self-enabled magic tricks online which allow him to learn how to make a paper rose (included in the DVD package) appear and disappear for her.
It definitely combined his interest in magic tricks as well as a so-called put a romantic stunt to surprise his partner.
Sorry girls, he has been taken, so find your own magic-crazy boyfriends...

I consulted with my lass last evening after she had returned home from her Backside Boys' concert on where she had in mind for a romantic dinner which she was stuck as well but she said I could make up for a not-so-romantic dinner for a nice gift of her choice which should cost me a hundred bucks...
Eventually I was thinking of "My Secret Garden" Bistro & Cafe behind Sculpture Square in Middle Rd, inches away from La Tendo (sorry no ploy of dropping by after the dinner here).
I had heard ravings from Ferris as well as my sister of the amazing ambience one can find there especially it is so well-hidden, perhaps only archeologists or treasure hunters could find it's location...

Well worse come to worse the "Bak-cho mee" across the road seems sumptous enough...at least it won't burn too much of my money...

Japanese word of the day:ロマンチック ~ro-ma-n-chi-kku~ (Romantic) If you love each other dearly, even the sewage can be a romantic place enough.

Non-Carbonated Pepsi

24th January 2006, Tuesday

Before we begin,...*sniff*...I would very much like the total number of readers of my blog (around 3-4, I'm not sure whether that texas ranger is still reading) that if you had seen this fellow below:



Please dial this following toll free number which will charge you $38 to the "T T Dulan-Reap-People's-Off-Foundation", 1800-4-6333-7825489-8463 (1800-I-NEED-QUALITY-TIME) to keep me in tab of his whereabouts as I could not get hold of him on his handphone last evening, and is worried sick for this buddy of mine...
So what's in for you, you might ask...
I would gladly pass your handphone/contact no. to all my financial planner (insurance agents) friends from all major and minor insuranc..er..financial companies as well as to the good people from various time-share/ survey groups so that your lives would be made more interesting with people keep bugging you 24-7.
Your precious e-mail address would be sent to spammers for people selling aphrodisiac and other medications as well as our good friends in Nigeria who claim to have contacts or even heir of some deceased royalties and you have a chance to bank on some of their inheritance..hooray...
Last but not least, a limited exclusive stuffed beany monkey with most of beans now in its legs....

Anyway I wonder if my good friend, CS who held on to the persona of "Pepsiman", the blue and silver spandex wearinig mascot of the inferior cola beverage, since our faithful trip to Japan back in 2000..the Japanese love that bumbling character but than again it's 5 years back anyway; had ever thought of me as a buddy of his...

He almost never call me to catch up on how am I or ask to go "lim teh" (drink tea) at the nearby S-11 and whining about work, girlfriend, money and family.
It seems I am always the only one looking for him, though I must confess he is perhaps my only reliable source to solve any IT problems 'cos once more he has all the lobang!!

However I'm aware of his work schedule which he has to work till very late in the evening and even on Saturdays and major public holidays... On the limited amount of free time he possesses, he is required to spend it with substance or should I emphasize, QUALITY with his lass as well as his gaming addiction.
There are absolutely no time to waste on trivial issues like hanging out with his good friend of 11 years or so... unless it's QUALITY time, playing "WWE: Smackdown" or "Winning Elevan" on the Playstation (hey seriously you gotta have time for that!)

Yes it's true, I had known the lad for a good 11 years since my late secondary school days through my buddy as CS was a classmate or his and they are able to "click" on a certain spiritual level and thought it would be good to introduce to some close friends of his.
It's a double edge knife for CS as he got to know someone who is a much bigger loser than him as well as the "Big O (for Omen)" who couldn't stop bugging him to buy useless magnetic pillows (which he actually bought !?).

But over the years of playing soccer together, "dawning" over at each other's place to play plenty of console games (some not meant to disclose), attending Japanese classes and making absurd sentences to drive teachers to the wall (Gomene Atsumi-sensei!), got all emoted after watching "Beach Boys" and headed to the really filthy beach at East Coast for our own version of "Beach Bum" and the pinnacle of it all, our Japan trip in 2000 which really build that bond between me, him, my buddy as well as Foo (another story to tell in another era).
I thought our friendship was only to be galvanized with time however as many friendships built before, it always got further apart ....

It was not helped that he left for Glasgow to further his studies (and spending QUALITY time, slogging our with rivals with win the affection of his girl). I was even there to send him off...
Things were still rosy when he came back once or twice during vacations and with my buddy been transfixed between Canada and Japan (anyway if you are reading this, I really need the phone number of your family's new residence before the New Year) and Foo very much preoccupied with a career change and constant visit to some oral specialist to remove that "bad taste in his mouth" (and apparently it is working!), I thought CS' return would be my only catalyst for constant companionship....

However it was not meant to be as he took up a slavery job at the same company as my lass and had to satisfy his lass with much QUALITY time, so we got to meet up sporadically since then. But I always try my best to check on him every few months and to confess when I am in dire need of expertise with PCs and stuffs...

He did promised to be my substitue best man (in case my buddy couldn't make it, and there's a high probability) for my wedding in October unless he has to fulfill more QUALITY time elsewhere.

Recently with the untimely death of my portable HDD, he actually promised to hook me up with some specialist to retrieve those data stuck within. It was like 3 Thursdays ago, he said that he would check it out and get back to me the following day. ow 3 weeks later, I had yet heard from him.
Sure is busy spending QUALITY time at work, at home and with his lass....

Last evening I just wanted to call him to invite him over to my place on the 3rd day of the Lunar New Year (unless he needs to spend QUALITY time visiting someone else) as I had done so for Foo as my lass has requested to gather the "brothers and sisters".
But after a call which led directly to a voice mailbox and another which was left unpicked, I thought he might be caught up into some QUALITY activities, so I gave up, thinking he would call back..he never did...

Well would try again this evening and really hope for once he would be willing to spend some QUALITY time with me during the New Year and of course I could then ask him about my HDD...

Japanese word of the day: 良質(Quality) Wonder does all his time had gone through ISO 9001 for verification.

She's Always Busy...

23rd January 2005, Monday

Seriously it frightens me that time is not a luxury for the start of 2006...
The Lunar New Year is days away and I am definitely contemplating with the idea of leaving my room untouched at the state as it is for now.

After the New Year, my RT session would begin and this time round I would need to change my schedule twice, once in February and once in March.
Our Japanese friends would be hitting town for a short (makes that miserably transient) 3 days 2 nights visit to Singapore as mentioned before.
Then perhaps a RT date on the 14th of Feb has to be brought forward because of Valentine's of course, speaking of that I am clueless of where to celebrate this year and had no plan or budget for meaningless flowers (stopped giving since last year with my lass' approval) and gifts..thinking of getting her a sports shoe of her choice.

YM would be leaving after the New Year too, and not sure how would they plan to honor her departures.

And all the renovations thing in my mind as well...it would be a very busy February indeed.

Ok so over the weekend, I spent it with a bit of satisfaction.
I managed to finish watching all the stuff I had downloaded including latest episodes of "Lost" and "Saiyuki" and Japanese variety programmes like "SMAPXSMAP" and "Music Station".
Then we have anime series like "Bleach", "Shakugan no Shana" and one of my fave now, "Fate Stay Night"...seriously who need regular TV when you have these at your disposal.
Of course all those are interwined with more Football Manager 2006 (with my Barc grabbing an unprecedented treble and my alter ego becoming the top Euro scorer with 28 goals in the league with minimal cheating of course) and updating of my webpage.

All these was accomplished with as little sleep as I could force myself to and completely no meet-up with my lass...

Actually I knew how her schedule was for this week with her working night shift on Saturday and her neverending seminars for her sidelines on Sunday, I wasn't expecting to see her till she gave me a buzz just before she went for the seminar yesterday afternoon saying that her evening is very much free and since I had some New Year goodies as gifts for her family as it is an annual tradition, I thought I could see her a while after dinner..But NO....
She had to go over to her godmom's place, which is very much for her sideline as well...
It can be quite fustrating to have her always on the run and seriously doubt making an obscene amount of money while doing so, in fact wonder if she is in deficit herself for purchasing all that products and not have much sales at all...
But then she would give that same old reason that it was for the good of the future...yada yada yada....the same old shit again

Actually I was not that affected till she called and enquired if I was angry for her last minute appointments...
I think I am a bit unaffected by it but seeing how many couples I had known like Vincent and Miyano, Eng Kiong and his wife etc. would actually spend time to watch some shows together, I sometime feel I had a yearning for that as well....
Then again I am one who need plenty of personal time, so I wasn't really blowing my top over her inavailability...
Well with this evening going for her usual Monday cult clandestine and tomorrow chasing over Nick "The Assman" Carter and his Backside Boys gang, I won't be seeing her till the Lunar New Year ...

Anyway on Saturday at La Tendo, an appearance of Charles who was an old acquitancefrom the Clarke Quay days we did not want to reaquitted.
This guy, whom Vincent would more affectionately known as "Cha" (Hokkien for Noisy) loves to call Vincent because he is perhaps the only sucker who would bother entertaining him.
A fellow toys fetish but I wouldn't consider a hard core otaku because he definitely lack that "otaku-finesse" in him...
Basically he is your average loser who sometimes seek attention.
His reappearance (first visit to La Tendo since they opened 2 years back) brought some agony from Miyano who was here when he came and simply hated his guts.
Vincent was to pre-occupied to talk to him with the fact that he had to lambast a locksmith who came to fix a roller barricade lock for their store but claimed he knew nuts about fixing when he had arrived and yet Vincent paid him $20 just for coming down and get on his nerves..SUCKER!
So "Cha" basically bugged Tay-chan with some of his enquiries (made that an abundance) and picked quite a few items on his purchasing list which definitely raised my eyebrows on whether he could foot the bill....
He is afterall the same guy that bought an item back in Clarke Quay from us think around $50 and took a good 2-3 months to pay everything backl in instalments; while in the midst of repaying he had the money to patronise other shops.
So I hit the jackpot with my doubt when he said he would return after New Year to come pick up the tab...but the big question is New Year of which year?

With people like that, it sure makes the world a better place to live in.

Japanese word of the day:　人形~nin-jin~(Doll) perhaps I should seek the advice of the La Tendo people to get a blown up doll (which Char would definitely be using) 'cos my girl is always unavailable to keep me company.

For All the Japanese Ladies I Love....第三巻

20th January 2006, Friday

The concluding part to the list of Japanese female celebrities I fancy...

Preface:
It takes much more for a singer to move me as much as an actor despite I had great passion for music..but with the visual aspect through a movie or a dorama series the charm of an actress will forever be embedded into my mind than listening to a same track over and over again...

Then again I kinda think the ladies in the J-pop scene basically fall into 4 categories:

The "Avex" Girls: Basically the divas of Avex Entertainment group which of course boasts the likes of Hamazaki Ayumi(浜崎あゆみ), Amuro Namie(安室奈美恵), BoA, Koda Kumi（倖田來未) & Shimatani Hitomi（島谷ひとみ）. The problem with these singers is that they had high production rate and you get to see them often on Japanese TV, way too often to a state that I rather not see them at all. Except for BoA perhaps.

The "Moe(萌え)" Group: Basically it's madness how young Japanese like their female artiste to debut. In the past you usually have teen pop idols at youngest teh most 16 years old but in this era, a 16 years old easily can turn veteran as in the past, girls groups like SPEED, Zone & Morning Musume have members as young as 12 & 13...talking about breeding for the future!

The Talented & Normal: Usually these days due to the infauation with R&B & Hip Hop, J pop singers had slowly transcend from bubblegum pop to that music genre. Misia, AI, Utada Hikaru(宇多田ひかる), Koyanagi Yuki(小柳ゆき), Sowelu, Kuraki Mai(倉木麻衣) & Crystal Kay all fall onto this region. Great voice, nice songs but not really the type I like.

The Talented & Weird: Maybe "weird" is too harsh a word..but you have a girl called "Cocco" (not Coco Lee or Koko Crunch) who once after sang a song on "Music Station", ran off and announced her retirement. Eventually made her return recently. These are the truly talented singers-song writers such as Shiina Ringo (椎名林檎),Yaida Hitomi(矢井田瞳), Onizuka Chihiro(鬼塚ちひろ), Hajime Chitose(元千歳), Yuki (former Judy & Mary), Hitoto Yo(一青窈), aiko etc. Some of them had to be barefooted to make a great performance but that doesn't really turns me on actually.

Well do note that many of the actress I mentioned before are also singers but some had very lukewarm sales, it's vice versa for the singers to go into acting which is a tough transition as well.

Let's begin:

Otsuka Ai (大塚愛)



I first noticed her 2 years back with a really bubblegum pop song called "Sakurabon (さくらんぼ)" and assumed this young lady it is yet another cute, bubblegum pop novelty act which would popped by itself after 2 or 3 mildly successful follow-ups as Hysteric Blue, Black Biscuits and wildberry had experienced before.
Then came a series of pretty successful hits in 2005 which bestowed her with much more popularity than she had already had.
She definitely can have some quirky song titles like "Kuroge Wagyuu Joshio Tanyaki 680 Yen(黒毛和牛上塩タン焼680円)" which is a love song rather than a song promoting cheap grilled beef; as well as "Neko ni Fuusen(ネコに風船)" about a skyboat for the cats.
However it was her biggest hit of 2005, "Planetarium(プラネタリウム)" which is also the insert song for "Hana Yori Dango(花より男子)" that made me sit up and notices how talented a song writer she could be. Plus she always have that innocent look and nice hair no matter what style she had conjured..think I might go on next to say..I love Ai (which is really strange since Ai stands for "Love" as well).

Nakazawa Yuko(中澤裕子,) & Ishiguro Aya(石黒彩)



Of the years since Morning Musume has formed, many fan-boys would argue whether Abe, Goto, Yaguchi or Ishikawa are the cutest...Let those adolescents argue about it I had my eyes fixed on the long hair, slender and tall Aya in the first generation of MM (not Malice Mizier).
Unfortunately she left the group at around 2000 after their hit "Love Machine" to get married by everyone's favorite chubby-boy drummer, Shinya(真矢) of "Luna Sea"...kinda devastated that time to hear that news but it did gave me a twinkle of hope that fat boys do get laid.
Now Aya is a happily married mother who is pursuing her dreams of fashion design.
After Aya left, my attention was then caught on to Yuko who at that time is around 27 years old and the elder of the group.
Concurrently as the leader of the group, she had a mildly successful solo career as an "enka(演歌)" singer.
She has always been treated as a sex symbol perhaps in the "enka" scene and was the object of desire for Tsuyoshi & his pet mynah in the dorama "Food Fight".
She also was a health teacher all the lecherous boys in the school craves for in "Gokusen 1(ごくせん)" which is why naturally a sex symbol for many testerone-filled male audience like myself...
I dunno but you can hate Morning Musume for their outrageous uniforms and regular members reshuffle but you have to takes your hat off for the musical talent of Tsunku who can write hit singles for the girls with such ecletic musical scores like bohemian, Indian, Broadway etc.

Sonim (ソニン)



Another alumni of Tsunku's Hello (Pedophilic) Project. Started of as Ee Jump with the younger brother of Maki Goto, Yuuki (, who I believe is actually Maki strapping her chest and talk in a muscular tone because they look identical from a same mold!)
Basically Sonim did all the singing, dancing and even cheer-leading in the group which was why she made the logical choice to go solo.
She then made a provocative move at the age of 19 in 2002 for her single ,"Curry Rice no Onna (カレーライスの女)", she is virtually wearing nothing except a kitchen apron in move the PV and the CD cover, with a seductively nibbling of the spoon which sent millions of male viewers into uncontrollable fit and high heat which may also led to splurting of blood via the nasal openings...
Since then she has sort of made the transition into a sex symbol, rivalling Koda Kumi.
However she is pretty talented with languages and has a good command of Koreanif I am not wrong as seen in her Korean dance hostess character in the "Densha Otoko Special" whom the Hanshin Tiger Otaku is madly in love with.
She was also seen been the love interest of another bespectacled fat loser in "Moto Kare(元、かれ)" but she herself then also put on a lot of weight and in a rather geeky style for that show.
Perhaps it's just me but I think the reason I like her could be that my wife-to-be resemble her a little but then I would need to visit the optometrist soon...

Van Tomiko (伴 都美子)



The face of the now-disbanded Do As Infinity (D.A.I).
I had been a great fan of their music except of "Yesterday, and Today" but what makes DAI click is that beside their musical talent, Tomiko went to show the world that a pretty face can have a powerful voice as well which is versatile enough to do ballards as well as heavy numbers.
Anime fans would also like them dearly for contributing themes for anime series like "Inuyasha(犬夜叉)" and "Vampire Hunter D".
With the band calling it a day in 2005, many fans like myself were shattered,mainly because the fear of not able to see Tomiko once more.
Fortunately she has embarked on a solo career and more opportunities for her to go on to music variety programs to stay cold during interviews and throw cold glares at the hosts and audience alike, ooh yeah we all love Van!!

Ito Yuna (伊藤由奈)



"Nana" the Japanese summer box office hit has yet to reach our shores but this manga-adapted series about rival bands and 2 girls known as "Nana" (how about Shazna, Mana, Mina,Reina, Lina (Max members) and Banana?) had already a huge following here, partly due to the 2 hit singles spawned from that movie.
Of course we have Nakashimia Mika's "Glamorous Sky" and then the song by Ito Yuna as Reira, "Endless Story", a cover of an old Sheena Easton song.
That ballard got a good score and lyrics (easy enough for me at least) and the appeal of Yuna is overwhelming as we rather see her than a punk rocker with a bout of anorexia (no, I'm not talking about 90% of the J rockers out there).
Hailed from Honolulu, Hawaii, Yuna definitely has the exotic cross-breed tone and looks which Japanese are always so crazy about, the "Gaijin(外人)" factor; therefore 2006 should be a much bigger year for Yuna and I wouldn't mind seeing her more often as well...
Then again I wonder would the Japanese people be crazy over a 27 year-old loser from Singapore, with pock-marked face and Michelin-man physique and of course a atrociously-weak command of Japanese??

That's it folks...I'm sure there are many out there, like myself at one time, dreaming about hooking up with a Japanese chick after seeing all these heavenly angels from the TV..except the harsh truth is that..THEY ONLY APPEAR ON TV!
Hope that brightens up your weekend (and mine as well) and gives you the opportunity to drown yourselves in your tears, feeling wretched for yourselves!

Japanese word of the day: 女性~jyo-sei~(Ladies)Actually my top female idols are none other than Gorie and enka legend, Mikawa Kenichi (美川憲一)

For All the Japanese Ladies I Love....第二巻

19th January 2006, Thursday

As continued from yesterday's post...
I had also been keeping track of the works of the actresses/singers as listed below:

Actress

The Evergreen:

Kuroki Hitomi (黒木瞳)


A versatile actress whose career spans a good 20 over years.
I had the honour to seen her works in so many great movies/doramas such as the intellectual dance hostess in "Shiroi Kyoto (白い巨塔)" to the desperate mother at the brink of insanity in "Dark Waters (鬼水凶靈)" to a sleazy mother from "Majo no Jouken (魔女の条件)" to a no-nonsense police inspector in "Rookie!".
The thing about Hitomi is that she looks her age (a mother of a child in her 40s) yet she exudes that kind of ravishing allure especially her eyes (as her name also implies) and her dimples which really captivated audiences all around, especially the male ones.

Ishida Yuriko (石田ゆり子)



First noticed her in "Jinsei wa Jojo da (人生は上々だ)" or at that time back in the mid 1990s when it was beaming on Premiere 12 (yes brother of Prime 12) on local TV is known as "Friends in Need), starring Kimura from SMAP and Hamada from Down Town.
She was acting as a mother, a perfect Japanese housewife ..very gentle, very understanding...but abit too gentle and condescending....nonetheless she took the hearts of 2 teenage losers in me and my buddy back then.
Since then I had seen her as an easy woman in "Overtime" and a bitter wife of a deceased ice hockey coach in "Pride (プライド)". Not to forget one of her earliest works is none other than "101 Proposals (101回目のプロポーズ)" as the colleague of that loser...heehee

Ijima Naoko (飯島直子)



Another alumni of "Jinsei wa Jojo da (人生は上々だ)" as a eatery shop owner having a crush on Hamada. I really love that character and eventually was very much infatuated with Naoko-chan.
For a while I had trouble differentiating between her and Matsu Takako in CMs as they both look so similar except Naoko looks slightly older and fleshier.
Her latter series like "Bus-stop" and "Wedding Planner" with 2 of my favorite comedian actor Uchiyama Teruyoshi & Yusuke Santamaria further cement her position in my favored list.
Hasn't seen much of her works these days though.
Updated on 20th Jan: Just found out that Naoko actually starts of her career as a nude idol (don't really know what the actual name for such a profession)..yikes..my image of her tarnished a bit but then a lot of famous female celebrities came off that channel as well everywhere...

The Veteran:

Matsu Takako (松隆子)



It's amazing she is still in her 20s as it seems like she had been in the industry for like a long while as she debuts at the tender age of 16.
Her series of cult dorama hits especially with Kimura such as "Long Vacation", "Love Generation" and "Hero" definitely propelled her status to A-list actress in doramas for a few good years.
The last notable one has to be "Itsumo Futari de (いつもふたりで)" opposite Sakuguchi Kenji which was shown on local TV as well is a pretty forgettable one I must say.
What I like about Takako (love that name) is that so many years she was almost never put under the scandalous spotlight unlike other popular actress.
And I really dig her songs as well.

Matsushima Nanako (松島奈々子)



A passing of baton from one squeaky clean A list actress to yet another both with the kanji word for "Pine" in their surname.
Mrs Sorimachi has been the hottest commodity back in 1999 to 2002 in both CMs and doramas.
I remembered going to Japan in the year 2000 and could not get away from a corner without seeing her face.
For a while it seems like she is always acting as a teacher or air stewardess in "GTO", "Koori no Sekai (冰の世界)", "Majo no Jouken (魔女の条件)" and "Yamato Nadeshiko (やまとなでしこ)".
She has starred opposite the entire line of A list actor such as Sorimachi, Takenouchi, Oda, Fukuyama, and Eguchi (in "Kyumei Byoto 24 Ji (救命病棟２４時)" which I feel is one of her best works).
Her popularity very much deranged after she went on maternity haitus and her comeback works include a negligible guest characters in "Hana Yori Dango(花より男子)" as Domyouji Tsubaki.

Yada Akiko (矢田亜希子)



One of Nanako's air stewardess juniors in "Yamato Nadeshiko" which is where I started noticing this petit actress.
Then suddenly she was in every dorama I was watching in a while as the health teacher who has a crush on Sorimachi in "Hotman" to the supportive girlfriend to the boot-licking Inagaki in "Yoshio no Otoko (ヨイショの男)" to the supportive wife of Kusanagi in "Boku no Ikiru Michi (僕の生きる道)" and finally as the supportive soul-mate to Eguchi in "Shiroi Kyoto(白い巨塔)".
So you may say her characters are basically "small" woman supportive of her men but that is why I really like her...not to be chauvanistic of course.
Many would find that she has a rather big nose but I think her face is pretty unique as compared to most artificially sculpted actresses.

Takeuchi Yuko (竹内結子)



A really sweet-looking actress (so sweet the ants started accumulating my keyboards as I am typing this) was first noticed in "Mukodono! (ムコ殿)" as the unfortunate common-people wife to a huge pop-star acted by Tokio's Nagase. Then she was seen in another sweet character as a elementary school teacher who had a crush on her weird colleague acted by Kinki Kids' Tsuyoshi in "Gakkou no Sensei(ガッコの先生)".
Her popularity increased and she got to star in one of Kimura's usual dashing vehicle about ice hockey known as "Pride" and now she is hot in demands.
She then went to star in 2 box office hits in Japan, "Yomigaeri（黄泉帰り）" and "Ima,Ai ni Yukimasu（今）、会いにゆきます" where she found her love of her life in co-star, the dweeby Nakamura Shido..damn lucky chap!

Uchiyama Rina (内山理名)



Rina will always in my mind as those bumbling girl who always tend to wrecked a situation and in the end someone would come and fix it.
It was all true in the characters she portrayed in the likes of "Bus stop", "Rookie!" and "Good Luck". But I really like her character in "Moto Kare (元カレ)" as the poor elevator girl Kinki's Tsuyoshi is two-timing with. Even she knew he is still in love with his ex, portrayed by Hirosue Ryoko, she never stopped trying to fight for her man.
However Rina got this face which really can cheer one up and a smile capable to melt a man's heart, this is coming from a guy not too qualified to be a "man" actually...

Shinohara Ryoko ( 篠原涼子)



The lead actress of a top dorama now showing in Japa, "Unfair", you might find her rather familiar but just can't remember where you had seen her.
Of the 20 or more dorama series she is in, I had seen her as one of the sister of Yuko in "Mukodono!(ムコ殿)".
It was in this show called "At Home Dad" opposite Abe Hiroshi where she portrayed a capable woman who had to go out to work when her executive husband was retrenched. A nice heart-warming show and with Abe anything goes for me. But it was Ryoko who steal the show for me as a really wonderful wife to have.
But do you know before the likes of Keiko,Suzuki,Amuro or Kahala, she was the first chart topping singer produced by Tetsuya Komuro (T.K.) during his reign in the J pop industry in mid 1990s.

The Young Upstarts:

Ueto Aya (上戸彩)


I know Aya should be on the veteran list with 5 years in the industry now but she is still incredibly young at just 20 years old.
I really should watch what I say as I would not want to embroil the furore of the millions of mindless Aya fans in Asia but seriously with shows like "Attack No. 1" & "Ace wo Narae (エースをねらえ!)", I would not be surprised to see her acting in an all female version of "Captain Tsubasa" soon.
In addition, she can't really sing that well (can see my fist hate mail coming in...)
But my impression of her change drastically when she took on the role of "Azumi" as the lady assassin capable of slaughtering an army. She was really great in that show as the lead character and makes me amazed that hair dyeing was already very popular back in the ancient warring days in Japan.
Then her as Utsubo in "Yoshitsune(義経)" as the childhood friend of Yoshitsune (Takizawa) who had a big crush on him, further galvanize the fact that she should permenantly be in period dorama.

Ayase Haruka (綾瀬はるか)



The lead of the hit TBS dorama series "Sekai no chuusin, ai wo sakebu(世界の中心で、愛をさけぶ)" which is based on the hit box-office movie of the same name which is in turn based on the best selling novel of the same name.
As Aki, the leukemia-stricken heroine sending her boyfriend into endless pain for years for her death, that wretched tears-jerker definitely carries on the legacy where "Heaven's Coins" left behind.
Not knowing that she was also as a student in the choir Tsuyoshi forms in "Boku no Ikiru Michi (僕の生きる道)".
She is then the face for Pocari Sweat recently humming to the jingle by Mr Children in the CMs; and next would be reuniting with her "Sekai.." co-star Yamada in "Byakuyakou(白夜行)".
She has a long face what I would normally mention as "Banana face" but can be really pretty at different angles, plus her portray of Aki surely makes a lot of men crazy over her.

Inoue Mao (井上真央)



As Makino Tsukushi in "Hana Yori Dango(花より男子)", Mao-chan surely became a lady of strength, not cowering to pressure from F4.
This doe-eye lass who is just 18 years old surely has a platform to work on, starring in one of the biggest teen dorama of 2005 but I can always visualise her as those spiteful character rather than the gentle types.
She was also seen in "Home Drama()" with Dohmoto Tsuyoshi and Yusuke Santamaria as one of the newly-formed family unit who in the end had a crush on Tsuyoshi. That was quite a nice show as well.

To be Concluded...つつく
Running out of time..tomorrow we'll touch on the female singers that I fancy among the vast sea of singers out there..stay tuned!

For All the Japanese Ladies I Love....第一巻

18th January 2006, Wednesday

Since my dour life is identical day by day, let's delved on some really superficial topic that give an insight about a part of me...my taste in women...

nay...I'm no conisseur in this area nor have dated millions of girls to make any comments...it's just that I had been ardently following Japanese pop culture for a big chunk of my life and some of them never fails to entice me wiith their beauty as well as their charisma..so literally it's skin deep that's all...
A run down of the Japanese female actors/ singers/celebrities that I really fancy these days...

No. 1: Uehara Takako (上原多香子)



Yes after so many years my affection for Taka-chan had not wavered a bit...
I definitely had seen her grow up in the entertainment industry from her debut at the age of 14 with Speed as a "vase"-like dancer with very minimal usuage of her vocal chords to her solo effort which give us plenty of reasons why her vocal chords has better left unused to her run with dorama as she reprised her role as just a "vase"....
Nevertheless, Takako is and always be the only one I would be madly pursueing for and spent a small fortune collecting posters, albums, pictorial books and even photographs which in the end all very much sold at a deflated price on local auction webpage.
Haven't seen her much these days on any variety shows or doramas, so perhaps she is now in a pretty semi-retirement mode....

No. 2: Hasegawa Kyoko (長谷川京子)



"Tentai Kanzoku (天体観測)" is like a "Friends" dorama starring some budding actors at that time such as Koyuki, Ito Hideaki, Sakaguchi Kenji, Konishi Minami & Odagiri Jo. It's basically a crap story about why anyone should join an astronomical club in college and why Japanese girls like abusive boyfriends. But like my buddy, I was totally too attracted to the sweet schizophrenic Kyoko in the show to actually care about anything else.
Then I watched her again in "Boku dake no Madonna (僕だけのマドンナ)" with another eye-candy in Takizawa Hideaki which sort of signify her further as a woman men would be very much crazy about as compared to her co-actress, Shimatani Hitomi who appeared as a straight face auntie in the show.
Kyoko went on to earn big money as the "Queen of CM (commercials)" in 2004 and was rumored to cause a rift between Sorimachi and Matsushima Nanako s' marriage..but that deter her from featuring on the no. 2 spot on my list.

No. 3: Matsuura Aya (松浦亜弥)




Perhaps the only long surviving solo singer in Tsunku's "Hello Project" but this doe-eyed, sweet 19 years old got my heart flustered years back when our local TV is still showing Music Station in like graveyard hours in Friday morning with her "Love, Namida Iro"..that bubblegum pop tune, that colorful backdrop, that cheesy dance moves but most importantly that pair of eyes that can definitely resuscitate me back from a state of unconciousness.
Aya-chan is still very much around and involved in their Hello! Project annual campaigns to team up with the likes of Morning Musume.
Rumors says that she is dating Ryohei of "w-inds" or come on we all know Keita is a much better choice!

No. 4: Nakama Yukie (仲間由紀恵)



First there was "Gokusen (ごくせん)" and then the "Trick (トリック)" series opposite Abe Hiroshi which made their the most unlikely most compartible couple in dorama, Nakama Yukie has easily established as a versatile actress able to transform from a gorgeous lady to a top-notched comedian although I prefer the latter side of her better.
Then there was that chemistry with one of my fave actor, Odagiri Jo in "Kao" and "Shinobi" while I'm sure would be endearing.
Another "Queen of CM" even these days for the likes of Lotte, some shampoo and most importantly handphone provider, au by KDDI.

No. 5: Itoh Misaki (伊東美咲)



It's amazing how a single hit dorama can push yuor popularity level to sky high....
As Hermes in "Densha Otoko (電車男)", Itoh-san had absolutely smitten the warm hearts of trillions of male viewers and otakus alike including myself and my good friend, Chan.
Before that, she is almost negligible in "Gokusen 1" opposite the likes of Yukie and Nakazawa Yuko.
Her role as Sorimachi's sister, Shima in "Hotman 2 (ホットマン2)", picking the role from Konishi Minami was definitely the platform to gear her to stardom .
I didn't even know she appears in some movies (such as "Yomigaeri (黃 泉 復 活)")and doramas such as "Itoshi Kimi e(愛し君へ)" & "Black Jack ni Yoroshiku (ブラックジャックによろしく)" which I had watched before.
Likewise, her popularity leads to more CMs with the likes of cosmetic giant, Shisedo, Nestle Japan and most importantly, the face of Vodafone.
2006 is gonna be a much bigger year for her definitely...

To Be Continued..つつく

Tomorrow: some of the others that I fancy as well...

The Replacement Filler

17th January 2006, Tuesday

Sorry for the cheap title for this post..as replacement and filler actually means the same thing and I just want something to rhyme with "killer" as in that B-grade gun-trotting killer movie starring Chow Yun Fatt in his early days in Hollywood...

Anyway YM's replacement reported for work yesterday and her name is derived from a part of the eye...no..nope Cornea (which makes a great name by the way)...not Retina..not Lens..not Pupil...yup..it's Iris
She had previous experiences working for a lab in our dog slum institute before perhaps on attachment and now formally joined the big family of lab biologists waiting for a whole new greener pastures to jump ships to...
Standing at around 1.6 m, she would be joining Triana to man the show over the project end and handle the paperworks generally..whether either of them would be as meticulous as YM, time will tell
It is a great difference that my former female colleagues are relatively tall for local ladies standard and overnight the height has succumbed to the usual petitness.
This new girl definitely exudes a high level of enthusiaism and kept throwing questions to YM who left her baffled on how to reply accordingly as she is good with the practical side but not so theory-wise...
And for once I see the whole ensemble of new staff/attachment students from Bobby to Iris, learning the trade from YM in the morning with regards to running electrophoresis on an agarose gel...it seems like she is conducting lesson to a small class of 7...done within the restricted area we had bestowed to us...

Anyway from once jerking tears of fustration, YM these days seemed more in sync (Bye Bye Bye~) with these young ones, even Lance...with days remaining for her service to our company...
I had build quite a raport with her since the departures of LF and BY and now I need to build new ones with the 2 new girls...
Meanwhile I had much time of interaction with Bobby over the past 2 days as he joined me for gym and we even lunch together at the lounge area as we really gave insights to each other's lives which usually we rarely reveal under the highly tensed-up condition of our workplace...mainly due to the presence of JxMMy...
Talk about my O.C, he actually does the cooking at home as I heard from YM who in turn heard from someone else, seriously he is a great husband but lousy colleague...unless he banged his wife on the toilet pipes vociferously while making out, causing her to suffer the repercussions of a slipped disc..yikes...

Well nonetheless he would be the remaining one from the time I started my career journey here but somehow would still be the last one I would build a rapport with...
A new bunch of people to work with surely marks a new page in my chronicles of mundane routine working life in this shabby place for sure...

Japanese word of the day: 取り替え(Replacement) For the replacement for JxMMy I just have one simple wish, at least have a better breathe when I talk to him/her.

Start of a 5-days week

16th January 2006, Monday

It seems like it have been a while since I would be working 5 days a week with the fact that I had taken one day leave on the Monday preceding X'mas, follows by 3 weeks interluded with the likes of X'mas, New Year and Hari Raya Haji..now we will have to grind our teeth and braced ourselves for the usual 5 days week at work..but no for long guys..cos every cloud has it's silver lining and our salvation resides in the Lunar New Year break at the end of this month..woohoo!!
...except my Remedial Training schedule would duly begins shortly after that..DAMN!

With the absence of a public holiday in sight for the month of February and March, it is nice to know that our Japanese friends over at Iwate, Eriko and his beau, Sou would be dropping to our Lion City in the middle of March and with much coincidence, just in time to attend our solemnization ceremony...so now my lass and I had to crack our heads to figure out where to bring them to with the limited time they would spending here.. (just around 2 days but 1 day would be preoccupied with the ROM itself)...

My weekend had been pretty much up to expectations as stated before...
I managed to watch some of the Japanese entertainment shows I had downloaded which after a while become quite dry..
Nonetheless SMAPXSMAP is always up to some queer antics, with the revival of the SMA World Cup in commemoration to the World Cup later this year..
They had done it before in 2002 when the WC was hosted in Japan and S. Korea...
This time round the lads dressed as footballing superstars (Shingo as Beckham; Kimura as Guti, Goro as Nakamura Shunsuke, Nakai as a popular former J-League star Alcindro and Tsuyoshi as a really ugly Ronaldhino) were up against some of the best footballers in the Japanese entertainment scene led by Moriyama Naotaro (who has a No. 1 hit in 2003).
SMAP was helped the real Alcindro who is often running of of breath and carry a beer-belly now and tends to shoot on sight as if he was expecting weak opposition...
Nonetheless the SMA All Stars lost 3:4 to the Japan All Stars who was awarded tickets to the finals in Germany in June....

Talking about football, of course my addiction for FM 2006 grew roots deep but my Barca team is not as ravishing and sweeping all opposition as the previous reincarnation but it was really sweet to rout Real 7:1 at Nou Camp with my alter ego, Krystofur van de Heinz scoring double hat-tricks (though 3 are penalties, I'll take it)...that is of course after the 3rd attempts as the previous 2 resulted in both draws which I simply could not accept.

I had also managed to find some time to do update my webpage which is a real achievement with respect to my discipline not distracted by temptations to play the game which could result in a massive backlog to be done for the webpage if that was so...

On Saturday I did made my way down to La Tendo and was impressed by the new display cabinet installed to sell the loose figurines. It is sort of what i had in mind except there was absence of lighting on th top and was replaced by glasses to allow transmission of natural room lighting to illuminate the display...
They had enlisted the contractor father of Zack, one of the owners of the neighbouring toy show which had shut down operations recently (which also led to the failure of our clothing retailing shop to materialize); and at that kind of dimensions (around 2 m in length which is what I had in mind as well) cost only around $2K which is a reasonable price if you ask me...

There wasn't any new stocks to interest me and as I intended to depart for home as my lass who was attending a seminar for her sidelines would be staying over that evening.
Then Miyano and Reedy appeared from the office and the former invited all of us to their place for dinner...
Well it wasn't nice to reject that hearty offer plus I had already missed out the karaoke session on Monday, so I felt it would be an opportunity to hang out with my clique and with my lass just nearby (she was having course in Tanjong Pagar while Vincent's place is in Jln Membina in Tiong Bahru) so she could joined us after her affairs especially with red wine promised by Miyano.

So after the absent-minded Vincent had finally done the accounts for that day, we set for their place as Eng Kiong gave those of us without transportation a lift.

Miyano prepared quite a spread including some Japanese style soup with corns, Enoki mushrooms and kelps as well as a chicken meatballs in sweet sauce sponsored by Reedy..actually it was left overs from the previous night mini celebrations for Tay-chan's birthday but we are not ready to complain a bit.
It was hilarious to see the interaction of the bickering couple with Vincent shaking legs and ordering Miyano as a maid; only to be chastised by his wife for not helping a bit...
Then with a stomach which is wide as an universe, he kept prompting us to have more food, to the frown of Miyano of course despite the fact that all of us said we are full...

My lass came at around 11 plus, just in time to savor a rather tardy red wine as we chat about the funny customers seen in the shop as well as how people came to befriend only to back-stab them with much deflated prices to literally make the look bad with the customers...
There was even a case when a newly opened toy shop at Funan IT Mall, even send someone to distribute flyers in front of their shop under broad daylight which really irked me..However the seasoned businessmen like Vincent dealt with that person correctly and in the end the shop actually closed down after a while...sucker....

The chat carried own till wee hours in the morning as we touched on charity in Singapore, comparison in lifestyles in Japan and Singapore, Studio Ghibli productions, personal hygiene and anything and everything possible and even gauge our personalities via the anime characters we like...meanwhile my poorlass who was totally exhausted slept on the couch till the time we made our way home at around 3 in the morning...yikes...
I slept at 4 that morning and woke up around 10 and last evening only had another 6 hours of rest...so seriously for me weekend is definitely not about rest and recuperation for the torrid week ahead...

Japanese word of the day: 相違(Differences) Miyano and Vincent are a pair of strange bedfellows which made their relationship even more interesting for themselves and for the rest of us as well.

Got My Mind on the Weekends

13th January 2006, Friday

What a taboo thing happened on this Friday the 13th...
For the past week or so, it had been raining relentlessly and the climate reached an all time cool yesterday especially last evening and this morning it was equally chilly..so i decided to wear a long sleeve shirt which would rarely see the day under the hot sun...
For that reason alone, the sky opened up and the sun which had been AWOL for a while is back with a vengeance, meaning I would be sweating my ass off for the entire day with that shirt...VOODOO ah!

As mentioned on the title I really had weekend on my mind...which would start off this evening...
I would watch some animes such as the 1 hour special for "Bleach" and of course the "Yoshitsune" series I had completed downloading whatever episodes available as well as the new Shingo from SMAP vehicle with a parody of one of the all time Chinese literature, "Journey to the West", "Saiyuuki".. My version is a high definition one but without subtitles (i.e. raw) therefore I need to try to comprehend as much as I could with my limited command of Japanese..However with the likes of Shingo, Itoh Atsushi (Densha Otoko) and Uchimura Teruyoshi (from Bus Stop), I'm sure I would understand very well...
Then there is of course the concluding parts to the SMAPXSMAP 10th anniversary special which I had been waiting for in a while...

The weekend would be blitzed with my new soccer management craze as my Barcelona embarked on winning as many titles as they are capable of...however I had to do without my prodigial alter ego who is ineligible for even the 'B' team as he is still way too young...bummer...

As the Muslims proceed to Mecca for pilgrimage I am in dire needs to go for mine at La Tendo with a thirst for new collections, that is if you can pry me off my PC as I may be staunchly addicted to the game...

This afternoon as I hit the gym, I had a satisfying 6km jog till there was this bald gay who had been mingling with some of his auntie colleagues, giving them instructions how to operate the various equipments but time and again would throw glances at me...feeling queasy especially been targeted by bald, sissy-boys....

During lunch, had a chat with Zhiyue's boyfriend who is a fellow lab biologist here, working under the renowned slave-driver who had a turnover rate so high for lab biologists over the year, he put the trigger-happy handphone changing Ah Lians to shame...
I could feel he is slightly driven insane with all the demands of his boss that he still needed to come back over weekends and public holidays to deliver the results needed if not he would be in for for a scathing berate from his boss...

Poor chap which makes me appreciate my job so much more, however didn't take me long enough to mince my words and condemn about the wage package offered here...

Talking about wage, today's PAY DAY....since 15th falls on a Sunday
What a great way to start to a beautiful weekend!

Japanese word of the day: 週末(Weekend)Counting down the minutes to knock off!

Getting Back to Virtual Football Management

12th January 2006, Thursday

Guess what.... IT'S STILL RAINING TODAY...
Not that I am complaining or anything because I am basically alienating myself to my office building for the entire day including lunch and work-out at the gym, therefore it's ok for me...
The rain and the cooling weather is a really good change for that usual tropical heat and humidity which we are so famous for....Thos suffering from the brunt of this wet weather has to be those setting the booth at Chinatown for the forthcoming Lunar New Year..... with that I have only 3 words to console you guys...

HA! HA! SUCKER!!

So my Football Manager 2006 duly arrived last evening and didn't take me long to get down with the downloading, patching and editing for a new season of professional football/soccer management with a much improved version of this line of game by Sports Interactive which I had been an ardent supporter since the days of CM1 (when you just need to sign Eric Cantona and win the freaking league).

I had already set my mind to manage Barcelona which should one of the easiest job in football with the talents they have, but most importantly I want a team that could do magic on the pitch and yet concede the least number of goals (basically not to make me lose) and Barca is the ideal choice....
Then again I also want a team that could repeatedly thrash 2 of my least favorite teams in the European scene right now, Chelsea & Real Madrid ..then again last checked them on the previous edition of the game, they are just not as formidable as they are in real life...

So I began my editing via the official editor provided...
Instantly I could see the stark improvement in loading up time, highlighting once more of how powerful my PC is...
So looking through the Barca roster, off goes the likes of Sylvinho and Rustu who always tend to get rid off. But retain another usual suspect in van Bronckhorst as I thought I would be weak on the left back position.
I created 3 usual fictitious players, one of course been an alter ego of mine..a 15 year old Dutch Wonderkid known as "Krystofur van de Heinz"...woo yeah... he better score 80 goals per season
I had also did some transferred confirmed on the market as of now such as Vidic & Evra to Man Utd, Maniche to Chelsea and Cicinho to Real. I wanted to put Cassano over as well but the loser side of me was afraid that would empower them with a player known to have devastating effect in the history of CM/FM...

So all is left is to start a brand new game and for once I had chosen to run about 20 leagues in 11 countries and was glad that there was no red warning screaming in my face about my PC cannot support such extravagant set up...woohoo
The initiation process took aorund 15 minutes, in contrast to around an hour before and I was overwhelmed that I had to take over the helms immediately...

2 niggling aspects I had to settle with as soon as possible before proceeding with the pre-season friendlies..
1stly the tactics...with the squad I have I basically can play any tactics and downloaded one famous one from the forum which claimed to be a winner in which it is a modified 4-4-2 with the wingers off the median line and more advanced to support the strikers which would suit the likes of Ronaldihno, Giuly and Messi perfectly...

Then the sticky part is to find a set of proper training schedules. In this new game, SI had made it much simpler than the previously daily timetable fo event...actually after going through I still have no idea what the training is done...
so to expedite the process I went to download some ready-made schedules online which supposed to work like Viagra as an aphrodisiac...
Basically the outfield are now trained as a whole, without clear segregation between the forwards, midfield & defence.
But there are seperate trainings for players on part time contracts (I supposed for loan or trial) and for youth players...perhaps less time schedule for party at the local disco and less punching up general public or sexually assault any women with their training schedules.
Seriously I rarely bother with the training part, as long as the players increase their attributes and deliver on the pitch I had no qualms and most importantly when my young winger can be converted to new positions like Attacking/Defensive MF/DF L/R/C who can play in goal and become strikers as well.

Some new features such as player bio in which you yourself as the player manager is dissected for your achievements and history which for now I don't know what it will do.

More accessible stats viewing for players and there is a "Position" option on the left hand menu bar to indicate which positions they play the best and which ones are "competent" or "ineffectual"..which is way cool unlike the trial and error in the past when you switch your winger to play as wingback and hope they can make it...

Now to game play...perhaps due to the improved game engine or the might of my PC, the 2D pitch view is flowing smoothly without the usual glitches.
There are now dug-outs on the sidelines where your coaching team and reserves will stay in...

During the halftime, you can give a halftime talk and convey how you felt over their performance over the 1st 45 minutes and cheer or jeer specific players... however I guess after a while it would get stale as the comment options are pretty limited.
Then there is a full time talk as you dress down or commend on the results you had acquired...
Nice inclusions but can do without...
However the halftime talk came into effect when I commended on my team for their 1st half performance against Greek side, Xanthi in pre-season friendly..saying "I was thrilled" after E'too scored a blitz solo effort to bring us 1:0 up..
Then due to complacency, the team let in 2 quick fire goals within 7 minutes in the 2nd half and I tasted my first friendly defeat after 5 games against minnows like Rouen from France (never even heard of them), AEK, Iraklis and Apollon.

It looks good with my fictitious alter ego clinched 5 goals in 4 games he played and the teams always dominate despite the changes of personnel time and again.
However playing 2 up front, I had only 3 natural forwards, so that is one aspect I had to look at..of course I have a quick-fix option in Henrik Larsson in the reserves.
The senior players like E'too, Marquez, Puyol, Belletti and Deco think I am a novice who would not bring the club to a higher level, thus a drop in morale..which I hope with positive results can be corrected...
No matter what..there's always "CTRL-ALT-DEL" or these days just a "Quit Game" button away from a restart...

Japanese word of the day:常習 (Addiction) Soon it would kick in for this game which why I hope that the day could extend by a good 24 hours so that I still got time to do my other stuffs...

Last Piece of the Puzzle

11th January 2006, Wednesday

Despite the skies are overcasted and gloomy for like days now, I am feeling all good for today's work...and no better way than to be welcomed to work with the absence of JxMMy who is down with the illness...
Got to work much earlier than the last couple of months but the former usual time to report to work...and was greeted by the fact that Wigan beat Arsenal in the Carling Cup semi-finals 1st leg which always is a good thing...
Once again I found spring in my foot, on hiatus for such a long while in my work and had a fabulous sweatout during teh jog in gym ..seriously I was afraid by the fact that the gallon of perspirations I am dispensing on the threadmill, it might actually run down due to short circuit caused by the seeping of sweat into the core...
The day would be even more wonderful if I was to welcomed home by the highly-anticipated arrival of my Football Manager 2006 in the mai box...
And I had finally finished downloading the remaining episodes of Yoshitsune available in English sub which is a undescirablle achievement on its own as I had only picked up the series almost a year since it debut back in late 2004, definitely a good companion to have on rainy days when you wanna laze at home with...

So traced back the last couple of days which was very much resembling the weekends..SOGGY...

On Monday evening, all my plans of the game arriving or heading for the La Tendo karaoke celebration did not materialized...
My hair-stylist cousin was caught up at work which was expected as this is the season for people to do some last-minute grooming before the Chinese New Year...
She arrived by 9 and to add salt to my already badly opened wound, she had left out her cutting tools, so no hair-cut for me and just left with the dyeing... which took a good hour or so but it turned out as expected to be of professional level while I had to stay with the long locks look for the festive season then...
To end of the misery on Monday evening, my favorite programs on CTi was having very bad transmission due to some satellite problems which even persisted till last evening...

Tuesday.... Hari Raya Haji... Muslims celebrating by having the haj traditions of slaughtering the korban sheeps and more showers for us to contempt with...
There was a major overhaul over at my place as my parents began preparing the house for the New Year as well as began phase 1 of the reshuffling which will include me moving into the master bedroom after I got married as my sis will take over my room and my parents off to the other room.
There would be new coating of paint as well as a renovation of the 2 lavatories...
Therefore my morning was spent listening to Dong Fang Billy talking about ovarian cancer with some Taiwanese expert on the radio over brunch and also tolerating with all the drillings as my parents swapped the curtain holders at my sister's room while enjoying my latest anime infatuations such as "Noein ~Mou Hitori no Kimi e~" and the much-awaited pilot episode of "Fate Stay Night".
I also spent some time doodling a design for my display cabinet for my collections which would stretched the wall in adjacent to the dining table.
It was uninspiring at first but once I got the groove of it I managed to put the rough design down on paper...
My lass came around mid noon when showers kinda subsided into a drizzle and she intended to have the carpentary contractors to settle for all over furnishing needs in the room which include the wardrobe, the platform bed, the bookshelf/cabinet, the TV console and the PC and workstation table.
Of course that would be a utopist point of view considering if the contractors would find it profitable for them to do even a simple piece like the TV console.
Later in the afternoon, my parents ended their hard day at work with the installation of a brand-new stylish (think Bernini...nah...I've been reading too much Dan Brown's stuff) ceiling lamp in the TV area.
Anyway this was the initian towards a long, complicated journey in renovating the entire lace..nothing too fancy but resonably cozy enough and most importantly not requiring an exorbitant amount of money...

The dusk arrived and we proceeded to South Bridge Road as scheduled for our meeting with the team from Jon Keng who we would be entrusting for the photography job for the actual day itself.
It took us a while figure out where the exact location is and I have no comprehensive knowledge of Boat Quay and the surrounding area despite hanging around Clarke Quay for a year or so for the Sunday flea market.
We were welcomed by the main guy, Jon Keng himself who was a young chap in his early 20s and awaiting enlistment to the National Service in coming September.
Therefore unlike my lass' recently wedded friend, Faith who we got this lobang from, Jon wouldn't be the photographer for our event despite the possibilities of him dropping in if he was booked out from BMT that day...
So enter the fray is his partner in crime..Jon...a quiet lad who after showing us his portfolio, we were convinced he did shared the same photography talent as his namesake.
Their style is a mixture of monotone as well as toning of colors which is rather hard to describe, but something non-conventional but pleaisng to the eyes.
The package we would be taking up is the "classic" plan which cost a cool 1.1K for a day of photography without time constraint.
Despite of our banquet is held in the afternoon, we could make the photographer stay with us as we might want some night shots later in the evening as my lass had planned to.
The package generally includes around 300-400 photographs taken depend on the number of events and come in soft, digital copies as well..
There would be a video montage from the pictures taken as well...
But the main thing that caught my lass' attentions much to the pleasure of the 2 Jons is the "collage album" which is a nicely printed sketchbook of the event with some commentaries to accompany the pictures assembled in an artistic style...
I'm sure many brides would be smitten by the look at it and bugged their hubbys to spend another $400 to get that which ultimately would be serve either as a door-wedge, a table stabilizer or a coaster....
Despite umpteen coercing from my other half, I was adamant that with the special software, enough creativity, time and effort, I could replicate it at a fraction of the price (around 35% of our package price)
It didn't take us long to close the deal as before coming we had very much made up our minds after gracing their works, and despite $100 outside my destiniated budget, I felt it would be worth it (excluding the collage of course)

So we left after the transient meet-up and left home, glad to had very much slot in the final piece of the puzzle for our wedding procession (except the final fussy details like the cakes and the dowry) and now I can concentrate more on the renovation part.

Oh yah, there would be a need for videographer as well but to me I felt the photographs would be a much important aspect than a video that would generally be way mushy and enough to cause goose pimples to fall off your body upon watching for like 2 minutes.
Then again I had experience in editing, so perhaps I could get anyone with a pair of stable hands to shoot for me.

Back at home, my lass helped me to do my first facial session in life (except the painful electricuting of my pimples during my "break-out" days across the Causeway) which very much took a good hour and a half but in the end I really doubt was there a stark improvement in my old skin which is really beyond help....

Japanese word of the day: 写真撮影(Photography) It boils really not to how old your are or how experience you are, photography is like an art which can be in-born, and if you have the talent, there's no doubts about it.

Monday Monsoon Madness

9th January 2006, Monday

Definitely not suffering from Monday Blues I guess for many as tomorrow would yet be another public holidays (that makes 24 in this month alone), Hari Raya Haji...woohoo...

However it didn't started too well for me, more of that in awhile..

The showers did not stopped engulfing the island for the entire weekend and now as I am typing this post, it's still very much pouring outside...
I guess it is to compensate of the lack of rain time and again since the 1st day of the year of the chicken...and many of us had been cursing an arid condition which did not helped with the MRT carriages with weak air-conditioning and a couple of friendly Bangladeshi construction workers, reeking their natural manly aura....
I love rain..especially on Sundays which I guess many would enjoy as well as we could really snuggle in the cool atmosphere and there's not immediate need to get out of bed for the rest of the day till Monday of course...
That's what happened yesterday morning when my lass who slept over, faced an obstacle waking up in according to the time she set her handphone alarm for...As I reluctantly carved open my eyes, I could swear the sky looked so void of sunlight, it seems like just 7 plus in the morning till the affirmation from the clock counter on my Cable TV console said otherwise.
It was amazing that the rain did not stop for a breather the entire day as it went on a near 24 hours marathorn and getting bigger periodically.

However with such atrocious weather to contempt with, it did not stopped a kind-hearted monk who had the audacity to challenge himself to walk on 2 swinging beam, up 60 storeys of a city skyscraper to the fright & fear of many, all in the name of charity.
He was cool as a cucumber as he held on his balance and perhaps with the guidance of higer level of nirvana, he managed to conqueor it till the producers found the weather much unacceptable to go for the next level, balancing on a single cylindrical beam...
As he was interviewed for his after-thoughts of risking his life for a 3rd year in a row, his stoic face suddenly was lined with pearls of tears (and perhaps some rain droplets) as he sorrowly beckoned the viewers to contribute to a good cause for his charitable hospital running with very limited funds.
Their target was S$3 million last evening and before his painful cajole, it was barely half that amount...
The NKF fracas definitely had a rippling effect to all charitable organisation but seriously not every CEO of the NGOs would do what our affectionate monk would do...try asking T.T. Dulan to go walk on the beam for the name of his charity and I think most probably he would had asked for the beam to be plated in gold and he would only put 1 cent from every dollar collected for actual usage this time....
So in the end my mom, who was very touched by the whole daredevil act made a couple of calls and seriously 3 million to us normal middle-class citizens would be a lifetime of savings or income but I'm sure it would be really "peanuts" to the truckload of wealthy people here....

The storm also did not deter our local Internal Affairs uniform groups like the police and the Civil Defence to engage in the inaugural simulated terror attack-emergency drill known as "Operation Northstar V (as for 5)" (I'm pretty certain it was endorsed by the shoe brand of the same name) during the wee hours yesterday morning...
But the time I woke up, the radio was buzzing that the whole event was over...

So all the accolades was delivered by the ministers and the important officers for a very successful exercise on the whole but seriously do you think terrorist would actually choose a soggy Sunday morning to plan their attack?
They definitely would be thinking in the same line as the government authorities that choosing a peak hour during weekday would really affect thousands of commuters who would complain about time wastage as they rushed for/from work...
That's the problem with us Singaporean, we love to complain but I find there would be great significance to such drills and we should abide it and stop whining if it really happened to us...
Anyway it was a great fun when I watched the news when quite a number of dedicated volunteers to pretend as the victims of the bombing actually fulfilled their roles, despite some "Abang-Adeh" (there are quite a no. of them) were actually sniggering when it appeared under their cosmetic effects that they had been seriously wounded by the attack...
But the award for the best actress had to go to one of the bespectacled auntie (who resembles CS' Chinese teacher mom) who acted as a worrisome family member of a victim suffering from chemical attack...her performance was second to none, and now Mediacorp had to do is to sign her up to star in the next season of "Heartlanders" opposite Vincent Ng, now that would be a big hit after "Master of the Seas" and "VR Man" I tell you....

There was also an auntie who fainted under unforseen circumstances in the simulation at Toa Payoh MRT station...It was bad that I burst out in profuse laughter but I must say the report of the entire operation was the best entertainment program on local TV for a long time....

Now back to my own douldrum this manic Monday morning....
Due to the overcast weather conditions compounded by the lack of motivation (new stocks to be in layman's term), I abandoned my plan to go for my weekly pilgrimage which thwarted my plan to top up my EZ link card.
Not wanting to include such a trivial issue in my early morning rush on Monday I had enlisted the help of my sister to do the topping up for me.
However due to poor memory on both sides, we completely forgotten about the whole issue for the entire day..till when I passed the gantry and tried to swabbed my wallet onto the sensor hoping for the usual response till I realized something is amiss...
I was ballistic at the moment as I had just missed the direct train (and was very late as well) and had to dig out whatever loose change I had on me (believe me it is hard to find any money, less loose change on me) to get a usual concession pass which I had never bought all these time when the EZ Link system was introduced...
The trip to Bouna Vista was $1.70, 16 cents more than using the user-specific EZ Link card and added up to 32 cents after the return trip...
argh..the scorch in my heart...32 cents could actually contribute to the charity last evening..er...most probably not barely enough....

The good people of La Tendo are inviting those who had played a part in their stock taking last week to a karaoke session this evening as tomorrow's is a nice off day...
However I had an appointment with my personal hairstylist (namely my cousin, Linda) for a cut and dye this evening as well...
At first I had already forgone the conclusion of not going but suddenly had a compulsive urge to go...
Well if my Football Manager 2006 comes as planned this evening via the mail, I guessed I would not step out of my place for the next 3 weeks or so..heehee

Japanese word of the day: 寄付しなさい(Donate) I have decided to donate all the ang pow money I supposed to give next year to the same pitiful Venerable just to stop him from putting his life at risk..but we wouldn't mind him putting Dulan's life at risk though