No Swimming for 2 Months

25th July 2006, Tuesday

As you get smothered by the burning of incense paper while on your way back, yes it's that time of the year again when our "good friends" from the nether world would be released for their annual feasting from the offerings from their filial descendants...
But with such ominous theme surrounding us for the next 2 months...yes due to the difference of the Lunar and the Solar calendars, there tend to be some extra days which lead to extra months for the Lunar calendar and a phenomenon that occur in decades when there would be 2 Seventh Month...
Meaning keeping in line with the taboos like not to stay out too late or go swimming in at the beaches or adventuring some "hotspots" for haunting....

Well the months will represent our last spat of time for us to confirm all the details for our wedding banquet...
First up, a hair do fit to gear us for the photo shoot on National Day... but her schedule at work is just so suffocating to not allowing to sit down and plan the banquet list...
However we did get the curtain which cost a bomb literally when I thought we could get 2 sets for $10 plus 2 packets of detergent powder and 5 packets of Japanese seaweeds....

My buddy had finally returned on last Wednesday and yet we had time to meet...however he is dead set for relaxing from any sort of work for months...so I am sure I will see him soon...and wuld wish he would remove some daft from my present life....

Back at work, BY had been too stressed with the collison of her work which all are on tight schedule while Beauty had finally moved to work on other platform to stop incurring any more criticism for laxing too much...and yes that tiny piuk Tee today surely had "I'm gay" written all over it.. Despite his persistent denail, I think one day it would spill that he had been an ardent fan of those sleazy Snowball New Year parties...

This week might be the calm before a stepped-up production and like most of my peers, I am surely dreaming of a good time off from work to let my hair down...

Japanese word of the day: 余りに遅く(Too late) Not too stay up too late at night for this period for sure...

Not the Most Fantastic Day

20th July 2006, Thursday

It's taboo when you stated that you are in a clean slate of health and not falling sick easily, it comes back to haunt you...
I mentioned to Mom that I haven't fell ill since embarking on my work-out regime after been ladened with sickness for many times in 2005.
Then just as I knew it I woke up with a sore throat yesterday, thinking that it might be my over-indulgence with the Godiva chocolate my lass had bought back from Belgium...
It aggravated into a fever in the afternoon and I was burning by the time I got home on the very evening my lass came to stay over and she claimed that she had never seen my lips so luschiously red before...
After popping a couple of Panadol, I thought I had the fever under control when I woke up revitalised though still feeling my head been slightly heavy....
For the morning I was still feverish and I thought sweating out in the gym would be advantageous to void all the toxin within my body only to be shivering when my wet work-out attire was been fanned by the air conditioning...
But this junture, I feeling ok after more paracatamol and hopefully need not pay a visit to the GP especially now that I have yet to be issued my corporate medical insurance card to entitle me with a $5 payment...

But one thing I did received was a letter to get me to take some Hepatitis B jabs...
I did took the full course 4 years back when I first joined my previous company and it is apparent that my body has excreted all the antibody within me over the years...
Not that I fear injections or something but thinking of going to Yusof Ishak House in NUS can be really put especially when my projects are kicking off with full momentum soon..

Speaking of completing projects, the very first one I had be handed to participate wholeheartedly has got some contamnination issues which we brought up to our French supervisor...
I was bewildered that some plates I had done in the latter stages worked while the ones before did not reciprocate...
My supervisor has always stressed in perfection and would like to get to the bottom of this issue...
She even doubted my competence in my laboratory skills which led to the contanmination which of course I showed notion of rebuttal...
If there is a probability of my poor lab skills, I would have admitted with grace...
This might not goes down well to my appraisal for my probation period as she had mentioned that in their history of the platform which includes 120 set, none had shown such phenomenon....
And guess what, the experiment is on Hepatitis B..argh...can't get away from that viral infection!!

At least in the afternoon, Beauty went on one of his shopping escapade and took half day to bask in that while I did some final report as my supervisor has requested...
It's apparent people are ostracizing Beauty for his non-working persona and I am beginning to feel so as we had work to be done, he would still had the audacity to take leave for his "happening life"...

Japanese word of the day: 熱 (Fever) Not an old friend I will want to reconcile with...

A Sapping Weekend

17th July 2006, Monday

It's been a weekend which is totally void of any rest or substantial one...

My lass had to work on Saturday once again and we had to get up as early as 7 as she prepared to work and most importantly not to be late for it...
For the entire afternoon, I was on my toes once more with the notion of a recall manning still yet to realize for 3rd weeks now...
But the alone time on Saturday serves as the ideal time to clear those anime series I had accumulated over the week, and hinder my progress on my webpage...

Rendenzvous with my lass at Robinson's where we get the orthopaedic-friendly pillows from the people that we spent that obscene amount for our mattress...
Also through recommendation we went to get a set of bedsheets, our 2nd set after that feline-inspired one she bought from Italy...
It didn't come cheap once more...despite the sale the department is raving at the moment...

We reached La Tendo but my wife ain't too chirpy as she had only cookies for food the entire day and we should have dine and wait for the rest at Plaza SIngapura where we would be catching the movie...
For a movie night-out with the clique, I didn't see the likes of Ferris, Karen and even the organizer, Chan who was prompt to SMS everyone and yes every single one to be watching the show of the time to meet...

Karen and Miyano came along and joined us for dinner which was set to be Ajisen for my lass to satisfy her tastebuds for some extra-spicy ramen while Miyano filled me in with the flooding of air conditioning piping in the main store which halted operation for 2 days in the past week as I thought it was not as serious as it turned out to be which cost them a hefty 15K of stocks been drenched in oil-smudged water...Now they are awaiting insurance payment which would not be that close to the exact loss amount...
I was slightly guilt-strickened not able to lend a hand to my comrades in dire straits...

The movie suely began at around 8 plus and as scheduled ended at around 2 and a half hours later with swashbuckling pirate action to which I felt was even better than the original "Pirates of Caribbean"...
Davy Jones and his sea-creature mutant-pirates are way cool and of course Johnny Depp surely made up for the lacklusture performance by his co-stars.. of course the ending hang us in anticipation of the 3rd part when the actual conclusion would be and Chow Yuen Fatt as a Chinese villain pirate...

My lass was smitten with fatigue but was condescending enough to allow an aftershow drink and chat session at the nearby Kopitiam when Karen was very much entertained by the marital disagreement between Vincent and Miyano when the latter seriously barred her hubby from indulging too much in oily delicacies so late in the night; of course my chubby friend ain't gonna oblige once he was on his gastronomical warpath...

Another late turn-in which we hoped we could laze in bed into Sunday's afternoon but it was not meant to be as my family was getting ready to head out to prepare for the photo-taking session as WERKS studio for Sis' commencement photo which of course include the family potrait with us in our graduation gowns the studio would provide as well...

I had not really planned to wear shirt and pants and bring along a tie sounded hassle at first... of course I couldn't find one in the entire morning which I did eventually...

AFter dropping by my in-laws where my wife brought along a formal shirt and off we sped off in a cab down to Albert Court Hotel where the studio is situated...
Of course under Raffles Photos, this studio did not meant to come cheap to begin with but we soon found out every cent counts with the quality and professionalism they delivered which my own photo-taking years back could not match, of course comes much cheaper as well...
My lass grasped the opportunity to fulfill a personal wish to take a photo in her gown which she did gratefully with yours truly sponsored by my folks and think she was really glad as we planned the frame shot as a gift for her mom...

After some food at Tekka Mall, we proceed to our bridal shop where the gowns are ready for try-out especially with the designer available today to check out the actual piece on her...
She had fretted about her weight gain since her return but the wedding gown snuggled into her like a glove though they had been some minor glitches which the designer is on hand to fix it...
As for her musty-orange tea-dress which is rather generous with some cleavage which I am cool with to begin with, seemed rather out of proportioned around the hip area which actual turned out to be the external layer was the cause of it and should be fine if was fine tuned properly...
I took a notice on how the many prospective brides in the shop was actually beaming in radiance and make them look prettier, perhaps the blessedness being a bride ultimately...

We bidded my family farewell as we headed off to Chinatown under the scorching sun as my lass was determined to get a concert DVD featuring her favorite Taiwanese boyband (who else?) and she did get it which cost $6 more than this popular CD shop near Outram MRT station where I got Utada Hiakru's latest album, "Ultra-Blue" which also cost much less than what it would be from major CD stores...
I would be quick to say "sucker" but surely not on my bride-to-be...

The evening had our fatigue for 2 full days of wandering around town hitting back on our bodies and we got the wrath of preparing for work the following day...
She also put me through the horror of watching the concert DVD she is so excited about, which bewildered me when the lads just lip-synched for majority of the time I actually was obliged to watch with her when fans actually forgave them for ripping off their ticket money for doing a Milli-Vanilli...those guys just can't sing live for nuts...

With a wrenching headache, my lass stayed for yet another night as she would be for every weeks in the future...

Japanese word of the day: 週末 (Weekends) Doubt I can maintain such a taxing
weekend of activities week in week out...

Idol for the Hungry Ghost Festival

13th July 2006, Thursday

It's return of the "acid tongue" gang...
I know it's blasphemous to say bad things about people especially complete strangers we don't know at all...
But leading a routine and mundane life like ours, sometime I think unleashing a bit of acid from our comments surely do spice up our lives especially with the "Queen of Acid Tongue" herself, BY in the vicinity...

Scary, Scanty Auntie (SSA)

There is this particular auntie or middle-age lady working in one of the buildings around our workplace and we have been fixated with the way she dressed herself since we always encounter her presence on the way to work or knocking off...
With curly locks and thick make-up, she would strudded around in stilettoes and barely covering her aged body with much clothings...despite it would be gale and storm outside and impressively she would balance herself in her elevated footwear...
Her scanty wardrobe would include a bikini top under a translucent table cloth just yesterday...
But she would ornament herslef with showy and flamboyant accesories which she thought she would tastefully match with similar colored attire and heels and believe me, she sure has a full collection of heels with full spectrum of color you would find in Adobe Photoshop...
So you have a well-clowned up office lady (sometime in absurd tiger stripes) hoping to recieve some attention from passerbys but she was least glad to be glare upon...
There were a bunch of teenage boys with raging hormones always on prowl for docile beings to peruse on, but the presence of SSA surely kills their appetite as once and for all as it really happened before...
Surely there weren't be anything to stop SSA expressing herself but will continue to bring unnecessary scorn and scrowl from us included...

G-String

I think I had mentioned a couple of months back as I described the people frequenting the gym as myself...
There was this scantily-clad jogger who now simply known as "G-String" now as from BY she would strip herself to just her G-string while changing for her workout session in the female changing room while most ladies would reserve their modesty in the cubicle...
Often she would flash her "anterior buns" towards my colleague and she did not fancy that a single bit...
Then as we went for our work-out today, "G-String" appeared once again, sweating it out (though no pearl of perspiration seen) on the threadmill and her usual routine would follow by warm down on the mat and some weight-lifting...
She would place her mat near the weights and I suggested perhaps it is her way to flaunt her assets (if she has any to begin with) to the guys pumping it out at that area...
Then while BY was doing her bicep curls today, she had a closer observation of her facial features and she was quick to point out how "hideous" she looks.. abit bad but I must agree with her though I had never dare to lay a single look at her face ever once before...

Well with the Month of the Hungry Ghost arriving in a matter of weeks, some people are already scaring me stiff on the TV these days...

"Rockstar: Supernova" had been going on for a fornight now and I had not been too impressed by this new competition as compared to the first one...
But there is this particular lady contestant though I can't been to certain about her/his actual gender...
Dilana with her face piercings, maschera and body tattoos might be a long lost brother/sister to Tommy Lee...



But when she sang with her deep, coarse, masculine voice Nirvana's "Lithium" last week, I thought I had seen the malevolent protagonist of M. Night Shyamalam's new film, "Lady in the Water"

It was disturbing but not enough to give me nightmares like a prospective Singapore Idol for this year...

This chap known as Paul Twohill, with his feminine facial shape, fringe that totally covers his left eye and a mouth that resembles the crypt-keeper from "Tales of the Crypt" and the braces surely make it look more obnoxious...

It is more of being loathesome rather than scary....
I know I was a big fan of Japanese visual kei rock stars who at times not advisable to be seen by old people with pacemakers in their hearts or young children...but this so-called emotional rocker just does not make a cut for me...

I don't even want to have his face to grace my blog...
But with the Hungry Ghost Festival around the corner, perhaps he would gain an upper hand and win the Idol status...you never know..it's a crazy world out there...

Japanese word of the day: 酸~sa-n~(Acid) Perhaps we should wash our tongue with alkaline soon after so much unsavoury comments of others...

Post-WC Life

12th July 2006, Wednesday

2 days after Italy won the World Cup and that famous Zidane headbutt which got the entire World buzzing for the most absurd way for a swansong...
For me it's a period to recover from all the late nights of football watching and working conscientiously with bleary-eyes every morning....
The past two nights had been headlined by fatugue which got me to fall into slumber which I was reluctant to wake up from..

At the work front, I am picking up momentum as I am more independant with almost all the stuff I am to be in charged of though can still be shaky with procedures I am still not well-versed of..

Just yesterday our big boss, Mark came over while me and Beauty are in the midst of doing a report and sent query about upping the throughput by a fold by a single operator who would most probably be me in the near future...

Of course we replied that it would be achieveable but we all know how skeptical we were of our own capability to handle that increased intensity in workload...
Just this morning Phillis and myself engaged with the usual load meaning with 2 of us, the capacity increased by a fold...

It was still manageable butu don't forget we have 2 pair of hands at this juncture and Phillis would be returning to NTU for the new semester...
With Beauty leaving for a new platform, I would be on my own and quite daunted with the amount of work and a sentiment shared by the likes of BY and Beauty, we really do need a break as the 2nd half of the work year kicks off

Everyday has became a purpose to wait for gym/lunchtime and ultimately knocking off at 5.30pm, as we RV as the "Northbound gang" which have became a pretty shapely clique here which surely makes working here a pleasure which of course you have not hear short of nowadays...

Back on domestic front, my wife is too preoccupied with her work, spending long hours at work with the setting up of her new technology and been sapped dry and maximally by her slave-driving company, knocking off late from work; thus we can only look forward to weekends for time available to spend together...
As for time on the net, it's not the most I have hope but I must say I don't really miss it too much...the time I have at night and in the weekends should be suffice...
Of course across the horizon is the wedding preparation final stage which I blatantly is ignoring at the moment perhaps I am those that need to get my butt burnt before be motivated to work on it...

I also wonder is my buddy is back in Singapore but I doubt we will have time to meet up and catch up the old times and future visions for this month or so..

God everything is coming into my life fast and furious, I sure hope things will slow down to a more leisure pace but I really doubt it would be till the end of the year...god..I need a holiday!

Japanese word of the day: ペース~pe-su~(Pace) Looking for the ideal pace for my life after the World Cup which didn't go as I Had expected...

Chilly Monday Morning with World Cup

10th July 2006. Monday

It's 3 am in the Monday twilight and with a long work week staring in front of me, I had the audacity to stay up to catch of course the World Cup final between European neighbours Italy and France...

A chilly morning it sure is as rain was pouring outside my window as Joey Lawrence might had sung it years back and hot chocolate (aka Milo) keeping me warm and awake...
The score is levelled at one goal apiece with once more France up with a Zidane penalty after yet another foul on Henry early on in the game before a sweet Pirlo delivery from the corner found the towering Materazzi... The Italians had the lion's share in possession and I do hope they would go on to win the cup that they had won twice before and eluded them in U.S.A in 94...

Germany had clinched the 3rd place after beating Portugal soundly 3:1 despite fielding a 2nd string squad but including a tough wall in goalkeeping in Oliver Kahn...a little consolation for the host nation but it's a game not many bother with over the years and I was dozing off for the bulk of the game...

The weekend began early on Friday when Beauty drove me down to town after a rather lax day at work when we did some clean-up of the PCR plates we had done the days preceded and with a half-fit Phillis back, we had an extra pair of hands for help...
I had been rather daunted by the schedule of workload to come when our French supervisor issued it to us during the weekly meeting... but we can start to find a little camaraderie going when we teased each other with the workload...surely finding some leisure amidst all the serious stuff...

After a brief stop-over at La Tendo, I met up with my family at Suntec's Crystal Jade Kitchen branch when my sister treated everyone after her graduation commencement at the convention hall there which my parents both applied leave to attend...
We were joined by her best friends since young and her beau as we savor on some delicacies which had ravings but to me aside of the seafood hor fun, the rest is slightly above average...
I rendenzvous with my lass at AMK MRT station after yet another late knock off from work...
It was quite visible that she had been well-burdened with her job with the installation of her new technology which she was sent to Italy to pick up the knowledge...
I was hoping to let her chill out with the time she is with me over the weekend to vent some fustration from work but I think she tried to refrain talking about work to me...which might have been the best option...

Got a call from my buddy on Thursday when I was close to slumber as he made a surprise early return but for all the wrong reason when his maternal grandma had passed on and he dutifully returned to attend her wake which was perhaps not the best way for his triumphant homecoming after a fruitful 1 and half year with Capcom...
It seems like our government office barred him to extend his stay with the gaming company and he was sensible to take it within his stride and just hope to fulfill his bond...
I will be looking forward to meet him when he is officially back especially when he has something for me...

Saturday was jittery once more as I had thought of the recall manning from my reservist unit so I was homebound for the bulk of the afternoon before tamely left for town to meet up with my lass when both os us wanted to get new handphones...
For me, a notion alarming for my current one I felt I had been overpaying for the past year or so, and I had been contemplating for a change of service provider especially one with a corporate plan tied with my company meaning a well-discounted rate
As for her, another line with free incoming call well-catered for clients and vendors who she would not want to hog her own personal line, from her own company plan as well...
The meeting started with a sour note when I wasn't too happy about she had been taking way too long to wash up after a gym session while I was not too comfortable as claustrophobia might had kicked in within the overcrowded shopping mall...
In the end she did get a Motorola V3 which I had been eyeing on myself while I stopped short of getting mine as I was not really certaiin about my actual decision on handphone choice...
The sun had set when we left for La Tendo as with no haul intended, it was just a friendly stopover once again before we were homebound...
She picked up her newly-made specs while I tried renting a DVD from the dispensing machine, the first attempt to do so since sunscribing to it 2 years ago...
The movie of our choice was a strong drama, "North Country" starring the stunning Charlie Theronz about sexual harrassment at work in heartland America...
We both fell asleep before the WOrld Cup game began...

Sunday was always supposed for us to wake up late and just lazed around...
I allowed her to watch her favorite Taiwanese idol dorama which is cheesy all over but I just had to endured and put up with those shallow storyline and insipid acting abilities...

Well the soggy weather was not about to subside at this juncture while the final just went into extra time after the score remained 1:1 after 90 minutes with the French coming on top in the 2nd period... let's hope it won't go into penalty shootout...anyway I'm signing off for now..

Japanese word of the day: 薄ら寒い (chilly) Wouldn't mind a nice cool weather after all the humidity and heat we had suffered for weeks now

Neck Strain

6th July 2006, Thursday

So the French is destined to meet the Italians in the final of the World Cup when they overcame the luckless Portuguese this morning...
I'm sure HC would be sniggering in glee after being dead certain about the French victory through MSN last evening while I was of course think Scolari would continue his streak in World Cup...
A 33rd minute penalty from a dubious decision by the referee was enough to see off the Portuguese scored by Zidane who is finding an Indian summer in this latter stage of the competition...

I am still hopeful the Italians would win their 3rd title as I certainly do not fancy the French if I was asked to give a choice of my favoured team...

I did set my alarm clock to wake up in the wee hours to watch the match but knowing fatigue accumulated from the previous day would eat in on me and thus I only caught the last half an hour when you virtually see all Portuguese possession but a clear chance from Figo after Barthez fumbled a Ronaldo's freekick was their best hope but it was not meant to be...

Back at work, Phillis' persistent fever kept him off work for one more day as fellow colleagues come in late due to the soggy weather which everyone had been hoping for after such a sweltering spell without a trace of rain for a week now...
I am basically doing the pre-PCR on my own, gaining my independance after 2 days of practise while Beauty gave minimal supervision..
After the end of it, all I garnered is a strain in my neck after bending downwards to check on my pipetting which is an extremely tedious process for the latter stages....
As I had mentioned how I wish for a masseur to give me a soothing massage at the end of it...

I was supposed to attend an orientation talk to last throughout the morning but with work taking precedance I had to give that a miss (not that I was too enthusiatic about it as well)....
However Beauty did took the chance to sneak in for some food from the tea brask after overheard from the maintenance guy, Mr Wong.
Somehow my mentor has a close bond with the ladies from the HR who he readily gossip with and from BY, retrieving data from the annual appraisal from the superiors.

I knew that everyone around is keeping a tab on my working behaviour and attitude since I am in such close promixity with Beauty..
Many shun him or deem him too relax with work for their likings...
Nonetheless he has his plus points but you had got to work closely with him to realize...
I hope I don't step on the toes of the others though it would be hard in this politics-shrouded workplace...

However the camaraderie of this place is still rosy which I had been in sought of after a blatant absence from my previous workplace...

Japanese word of the day: 慎重 (Wary) Have to be and be sure not to compromise my position in the workplace

Extra Time.takes a Toll on my Sleep Time

5th July 2006, Wednesday

Think I got to work the earliest this morning as the semi-finals tie between Euro giants, Italy & Germany ended half an hour off 6, which means I don't have a lot of time left to take a wink, so might as well start the day off and hopefully have enough concentration to get me through the day....

So the match in Dortmund ended as heartbreak for the host nation with Grosso then Del Piero scoring at the brink of yet another penalty shootout which should favour the Germans since we see how they dispose the Argentines in that fashion...

But the Italians who played with such sublime passing in the first half held tight especially the defence marshalled by Cannavaro and Materazzi prevented the free-scoring Germans from getting that crucial goal and at times look like they were taking a foot off the pedal and hope for extra time and then penalty shootout...

Nevertheless it is what the Azzuri deserves for playing as such a unit so far despite not looking like a true champion pedigree early on in the tournament...
Many stars in the squad such as Cannavaro, Buffon, Del Piero, Cameronesi, Gilardino, Pirlo and Gattuso could find their respective clubs been relegated due to the match-fixing scandals which is under probed at this juncture, so it could be the best way to signal their coming of age and get all big clubs noticing their abilities so as to sign them in the coming season if giants Juve and AC Milan are to be found guilty...

As for the crestfallen Germans, they would have to the latent potential to excel in the future though their next world title might not come that soon I guessed...

I wonder would I have the energy to wake up to catch the 2nd semi final between Portugal and France...
But as the colleagues of my wife are making a big joke of their company which is a French-Italian based one feeling a World Cup Final between the 2 countries might tear the parent company apart and since now that the Azzuri is in, perhaps Le Bleus might stand a chance as well to re-enact the 2000 Euro championship final...
And of course, any team that can beat Brazil cleanly ought to be featured in the finals.. However I am still rooting for the Portuguese as I would fancy a brand new WC holder...

These couple of days at work had been preoccupied with the taxing pre-PCR steps of my bread and butter platform as Beauty and the NTU attachment lad, Phillis guided me through and there had been plenty of intricate and stoic pipetting to be done which can cause a strain to my neck...making me feel like going for a massage session (preferably Thai and of non-sleazy content)
1 and a half week on I started to realize that there is a dominant clique within our department which of course I am not part of...not that I really care of course...
Inevitably, my closest comrades at work have to be my mentor, the attachment student and of course BY with whom we form the "North-bound gang" since we live at around the northern towns and tend to travel back together especially we all report for work and knock off earlier than anyone else...

Back at domestic front, Dad had been troubled by his bastard ex-boss who burdened him with the claim of a traffic accident he was involved in months back when their company truck collided with a taxi which led to a further collision with another vehicle.
Now the insurance company of the 2 vehicles are seeking payments from Dad which obviously should be paid by his bastard assfreak SOB boss (which should really be rotting in hell with maggots each his decomposing flesh now) in the first place.
However being as unmagnanimous as he could be, he was still bitter about Dad quitting out of the blue...

Then you know my old man who is fervently paranoid over every matters and when he got the letter, he was bemoaning that he might be imprisoned now...I am left dumbfounded once more

It's quite unbelieveable that despite only limited to barely 4 hours of sleep, I am still alive and awake for now...just don't think I would be able to hold on for yet another 4 hours sleep this evening...

Japanese word of the day:擬似 (Bastard) It's too kind a word to describe my Dad's ex boss even...

She's BACK....

2nd July 2006, Sunday

So I got all the quarterfinals score totally wrong...
I predicted Argentina to beat the hosts, Germany and they would if they could hold on for another 10 minutes or so...it resulted in extra time and then penalty shoot-outs and German first choice Lehmann surely would be a better bet than Argentine reserve GK, Leo Franco as his team went out 2:4

Ukraine played to their best but were not destined to score when Italy soundly beating them 3:0 despite with a 2nd choice defensive line-up

I thought England would be too strong for a weakened Portuguese side but with Rooney rather absurdly sent off, Scolari continued his winning way in the competition via penalty shootout after a stalemate...

France shook the footballing world when a Henry's goal sent the reigining champions out of the competition but largely due to their failure to convert chances to score...

So the final four would featured all European powers with Germany meeting Italy and Portugal crossing swords with France...I would be rooting for the underdogs here that is the Portuguese but then with my waning luck, they would be out in no time as well...

Friday evening was the time I had been anticipating for a long while as my beloved spouse finally touched down after a close 3 months stint in Italy...
The entire day at work I had been hoping time would go past fast and it did except our result analysis took a wrong turn late in the afternoon and with seconds ticking we needed to redo the report...fortunately Beauty was up to the task to complete it and I owed him a lot for doing so as I left at the time intended with a long journey to Changi Airport via the MRT in the prospect...

I finally reached there around half an hour after the original touch down time but with the plane actually landing later than scheduled and she did some shopping in the duty-free store, she did not waited too long...
The first sight of reunion was how I had slimmed down and she had gained some pounds on the face..she was flushing as well much due to the heat and humidity our country had been basking in for days now...

A cab ride home when she loaded that huge load of stuff s=he had lugged back from Europe...she said it was over the weight limit by 7 kgs and cost her 250 Euros ($500!!)...
After some minute packing up, she came over my (and future our) place and was razzle-dazzled by the renovation which before was seen on via the photographs I had sent her...
A home-cooked meal which she had yearned for and more tales of her foreign expedition, she was definitely be glad to be home...

She had intended not to stay over on Friday but the cozy bed and the nice airconditioning she had been so grown accustomed to over in her lodge in Italy, she abandoned plan A and stayed to watch the 2 WC matches which after been so up front and live living in one of the participating country and a football-feverish one, she had got a taste for some World Cup actions...

Saturday is a day which I am half expecting to be recalled to my NS unit since it is the beginning of July...it never came and I left my wife at home as she rejected the idea to accompany me to La Tendo where the whole gang was getting psyched up for the new Superman film...

Sunday was spent with more lazing around and enjoying each others' company as well as she commanding me to clean up the room while setting up a Studio Ghibli corner in the book shelf and she did a much better job than what I am capable of...
After not patronizing the nearby Northpoint for weeks, I made a trip there for a 2nd day in a row as she wanted to make a new pair of spectacles which she could claim up to 80% of the cost from her company... an interesting note would be that the optometrician serving us seems to be a "Project Superstar" contestant, believed to be a girl known as Silver...

Selina called to drop some queries about hotel recommendations in Tokyo which my knowledge very limited to Daichi Inn in Ikebukuro...

Before making the way home, she dropped by Cold Storage to get some instant diapers for her cousin who just had a new-born, her 2nd after the adorable Ashley...
She had intended to visit her with her parents in the evening... and yes her Dad is back and on request from her mom, she was to show a bit more compassion and empathy despite his blatant betrayal to the entire family...
Her youngest brother, Gibson looked all perk up now in the midst of his BMT since enlistment... and even joked around with us in the presence of his girlfriend....

Our weekend of reunion ended as her Dad sent me back while making their way to Bukit Batok to visit her recuperating cousin and the newborn...

I was really glad with her return though her constant nosebleeding (3 times for today) sure got me worried...hopefully it was due to the change of weather and environment and too much heat from her indulgence with chocolates...

Japanese word of the day: 帰国~ki-ko-ku~(Return) Now I am waiting for the return of my buddy from Japan which would come in less than a fornight...