Money Mind

30th August 2006, Wednesday

Last evening while I was collating my past, present and future expenditures in relation with my savings and budget using the Excel spreadsheet, my sister asked nonchalantly whether it was really needed...

Barely 1 and a half month to the big day and you will supposed that the budget should be carved into the stone and every penny and dime has been accounted for..think again...

Cost continues to accumulate and suddenly our living expenses recently had non-knowingly increased tremendously... and this after I had cut my expenditure on my figurines...

My missus and myself had came out with a savings plan for our future with a joint account soon...but suddenly it makes me wonder how soon can that be visualized into actions...
Without any outstanding loan to be buffled with, we can be sure we are off that hook as compared to many couples starting a family like ourselves...
But we just might have to curb some unnecessary spendings here and there even though I doubt we will really be fancy been cooped in a frugal lifestyle forever...

I am wondering I had the money to actually to pay for the banquet now that the tables have kept increasing and most importantly is the "red packet of well-wishes" suffice to provide us enough cash for a hefty bank account immediately...
It seems like before the money is in we had allocated some of that for the extra wedding album and eventually our mini honeymoon in Ko Samui...

Speaking of which I just paid like 7750 baht (around $330) as reservation deposit for the package we had enquired on which cost around 17,805 baht (around $770)...
Upon confirmation, the person who liaise with us contacted me via email and stated the total cost would be 24,000+ baht (around $1050) now which really baffled me with that stark increase in price...
I did in the end got a reply saying I had reserved the room which warrant that pricing... it's madness cos the difference lies in the word "beachfront" which I had reserved and "oceanview" which I had enquired...
I seriously ain't gotta pay that few hundred more and it all kind of added up to 2K plus for this supposedly-to-be mini honeymoon with a autumn Hokkaido trip in view for next year...

I had contemplated on going overseas to claim that measly few hundreds my company is offering for our "flexi-benefit" which in my previous company includes lodging in local hotels or chalets but at my dwarfed sum of course...
However it seems that I can claim that for this work year for my forthcoming winter trip next Feburary for Wonder Festival making this Ko Samui one an unnecessary luxury...

All these money matters surely be preoccupying my brain, twirling it in douldrums... I would like to take it as it goes but at times I am wondering if I should be earning more money now that I am in my 5th year of employment to allow myself, my wife and my family living with less financial pressure...

Anyway I do know that my lass would fancy hitting the pristine beach of Southern Thailand, basking in traiditonal zen-style spa and perhaps trekking on fully grown elehpants in the greenery of tropical vegetation...we might still be going but at this point I wish we wouldn't be going...

Japanese word of the day: 高価 (Costly) Sometime life can really be a costly son of the bitch...

Losing Faith in Work

28th August 2006, Monday

Back to work once again as the weekend once more past at the blink of the eyes...
As the last issue of my mishap 2 weeks back now been settled and already been repeating and awaiting results, my latest batch of samples which we ran for a collaborater from Alexandra Hospital who is friendly and generous enough to bring some snacks in appreciation of the help we had provided him was returned to be pretty horrendous...
My French supervisor who had never seen such a huge failure rate in the scores was never been seen by her from the long history of the platform functionality
And yes it is yours truly who created such a ripple in an otherwise routine workflow...not a good sense of course...

After recapping about that since leaving my work behind on Friday to thoroughly indulge in my weekend R&R, I came back to the prospect of explaining myself to my supervisor who will grind you to get the lowdown of every single aspect of why something had failed...

As the title implied I am beginning to lose a bit of faith in my work ability to churn out ideal results at a considerably higher rate in order to win some favorable appraisal which of course is not happening at the moment...
But I shall perservere and see if I can prove everyone and especially myself wrong soon...of course no more silly mistakes while handling consumable which cost tens of thousands....

I dunno how my superiors will feel about my defection from my previous workplace...as it might seem I am not as highly-rated as they feel I should be...
And we had intended to coax YM to quit her current job to join us here by feeling the void left by the Malay lady who left recently who was BY's partner in the preparation stage...

The past weekend seems to be devoid of quality rest once again but pretty fulfilling with quality company from friends and getting some more wedding preparations done...

I was incensed for more than once over the past week on how tied my missus is to her work as they will call her relentlessly about some machine error and failure even when it means 12 midnight or 6 in the morning as reflected in the case on Sunday morning...

She also had to go for work on Saturday but after getting my notice about this spa and beach paradise known as Rocky Resorts in Ko Samui, a popular boutique resort in this prominent southern island in Thailand...
Over the course of the weekend, we managed to get more information and price of a 5 days-4 nights package offered by the resort which we should be deciding as our honeymoon spot very soon...

Back at La Tendo, the young son of their Nagoya toy supplier paid a visit to Singapore for the 2nd year running and the crew graciously made him to do some "arubaito" for the shop by dealing with the customers...they claimed that will help him improve his English...
Vincent started plotting about the Feburary Wiinter Wonder Festival trip which brought more sighs from Karen, the prospective HOD of the IT department of her ITE (of course there is one person in that department) could only peer from the outside...

I got the classy bracelet with a matching ring as a traditional gift from my mother-in-laws and surely it is so much cheaper than a gold ring and I will actually wear it...
In the fit of the moment, I also got a matching ring for my spouse to the cheer of the staff in that stall..

After burger at the newly-opened Carl's Jr branch in PS, where Miyano and Vincent marvelled at how big the burgers are and actually filled my gluttony buddy, we decided to hit K Box for a karaoke session over choosing Diamond Dust which surely has much less choices for Mandarin pop which my lass indulged in the entire session...
By the end of the night, Y-kun (the Japanese chap) wondered if Emil Chau (or Wa-kn in those classic MVs) is the biggest star in Mandarin pop and I wondered of I could ever dodge Vincent reprising the George Lam's 15 minute long medley of madness...

On Sunday, my in-laws were getting some traditional ornament and accesories from Chinatown for the occasion and I spent way too much time conqueoring Nobody+knows' "Kokoro Odoru" in the cheering game on TW's Nintendo DS at the "Han's" before CSC after he did managed to get the Gundam FIX featuring RX-78 for a good deal...
Seriously those crimson stuff for the traditions can surely be a sight for sore eyes and I really doubt they would be put to any much use after the whole ordeal...

I am sure looking forward to the end of a woeful August and hope time inches closer to my wedding so that it can be done with and I actually get some break from work in some paradise on earth...and of course less mistakes made at work by then...so that by April 2007, I can at least get as much bonus as my fellow colleagues...

Japanese word of the day: 無能 (Incompetent) I described as that to my supervisor about myself...and seriously self confidence is not high at this point

Conspiracy Theory

24th August 2006, Thursday

Early this Thurday morning I felt a string of events from which some people/organisation are conspiring to ruin the well-being of my lofe...

First of all, my ultimate superior, the American researcher these days BY and I known affectionately as "Hulk Hogan" (don't ask why) has the problem when his own project suddenly became ultra urgent and take precedence of everything else...
And the sad truth would be our French supervisor being professional yet always induce ways to please her superior which I termed as "hugging the testicles (translate that into Teochew or Hokien and it'll make sense)"...
Something like what my old supervisor had been indulging herself in with SeBan's testicles of course...
Suddenly a project which involves that 2 plates I had ruined last week became a high priority and had to be done "asap"...

Today marked the day my supplementary mobile line expired which was holding my porting of old number to my new line back...
After successfully terminating that line, I got the info from Singtel that since I suscribed my line under my lass' name while my old line is under mine, legistratively it couldn't be done which totally incensed me as the lady from the telephone shop should have pointed it out before I decided to take the line under her name...
In the end, ultimately I will have to change the line and annouce to the world of the coming of my new handphone number...bugger....

However the biggest conspiracy theory arose from our friendly bridal shop...

Last evening, we went as scheduled to choose the creme-de-la-creme photos for the wedding album...
With Soon's expertise in capturing life's beautiful moment on his camera, we were in good hands and the results were stunning as the resident sissy-man Keanu who's in charge of the phot album guided us through patiently the stack of photographs from the various shootings in the studio to the 4 locations outside...
It was a difficult task choosing the best out of the lot which almost all looks too delectable to resist... However we knew in the back of our minds that we have like barely more than 24 to choose from, so we just refrained adding on to the growing collection...
Finally it was down to the final 70 and when Keanu started to rumble on about how the choices of album we could choose...

Seriously I would love to unveil that evil genius who came out with the method of burning the photographs into a thick, durable cardboard which we came to know as the "magazine" style...
I am sure eveyone had checked out before when you attended wedding banquets in recent times when the nice collection of wedding photographs which had been digitally enhanced and altered were presented in the form of a nice hard cardboard album...

We had also assumed that that was what been promised in our package except for digital effects which we needed to chip in a bit more to ornament the pictures...but boy were we wrong...
The promised package is a simple screw-on album with minimal enhancement and as Keanu had claimed barely lasting for a decade before the photographs started peeling off from the cardboard...
And there would be no way they could do digital enhancements for this format so we could dream on about doing that "Densha Otoko" montage...

Then came the gist about the pricing of the magazine style which certainly was appealing to any hotheaded newly-weds... Keanu went through the actual cost if we were to calculate by the items to make up of that album which is at absurd pricing (let's say you can tour Europe with luxury with that obscene sum of money)... Then he was "kind" enough to reveal that great deal his studio had conjured which cost like a fraction of that sum but still several folds beyond my original budget...

at this junture I felt we had been well-tricked by the whole get-up...
First the package seemed reasonable with all the gown and photo shooting, then the expert photographer showed his true shutterbug power and came out with those nice photographs...
We were not been well informed of the format of the album thinking we were been promised those nice ones...
During this selection they showed us those beautiful photos which we were in dilemma of which to give up then dropped us the bomb of the actual pricing...

We would have to give up more than half of the selected photos and it was nearing 10pm when we were tired and starving as we had not have our dinner...
In the magazine format, we could choose up to 60 photographs as the 32 pages could hold multiple photos with digital alteration and touch-up...
To make the package even more appealing, Keanu threw in a nice landscape style wedding montage as a replacement of those mundane potrait photograph with some metallic enhancement which he claimed to be the top of the line now...
In the normal package we would not have a digital form of the collection of photographs (i.e. the soft copy) and inclusion would mean more money of course...darn those conniving businessmen!!

We had a long discussion about the final decision we had to make there and then...
To me I felt the album would not justify that amount of money we had to foot as it would be for show for one day and most probably kept in the crypt for ages afterwards.
The landscape picture to be hung on the wall on the other hand sure looks classy and I wouldn't mind spend a bit on that...
Nevertheless I wouldn't budge on my budget and we came into an understanding as she as always has been well-aware of my limitations and eventually we made some adjustment and let the night of endless choosing came to an end..
Money spent eventually and let's hope it is worth..even mildly would be good...

Japanese word of the day:悪戯~i-ta-zu-ra~ (Trick) I wouldn't mind if Nakama Yukie and Abe Hiroshi would come to unravel the trick these people had pulled on us...

Cranky in Late August

21st August 2006, Monday

I am in the midst of a terrible day...Upon admitting my grave error to my returning supervisor after her retreat in Lyon, it was quite apparent that my error-prone working style surely does not go down to well into her books....
Talking about bad errors, I am starting an entire new batch of samples, only to commit some errors which hinder the smooth progession at such early stage...now I wonder I can speed up the entire process so as to go back on time....
Surely had been a miserable Monday thus far...

The weekends had been a good time to rest and relax and taking the golden opportunity when my missus needn't report to work on Saturday to finish up some issues for our wedding banquet of course as we made an effort to go down to the restaurant to tie up some issues and of course the invitation card...

It seems to be a tradition of her family for the parents to bestow us the newly-weds a token of gift in the form of jewelries...
Golden rings do not go down well with me, not even the ring that binds it all from the Lord of the Rings series and these days gold's price is escalating at a frightening speed...
I wouldn't want my in-laws to pay much for something I will almost never to touch as an accessory...
In the end I managed to convince my wife and her mom to get me a classy bangle from this shop called "Metallurgy" in the Cathay Picturehouse which we sneak-previewed on Saturday and surely cost a fraction of the price she would have to bear on a simple gold ring...
Nevertheless she was generous to give her only daughter a nice diamond necklace which I find too much a luxury as well...

We did also managed to get a plasticky drawer cupboard for more storage space for our CDs, DVDs and other niggling items lying around the room...

The Monday blues was quick to eat into our Sunday from the afternoon and I would had made a great choice not to report for work this very day....

Anyway the Wonder Festival for the summer of 2006 had just gone yesterday and how I wished I could grace the occasion minus the relentless queueing up...
I do hope my lads from La Tendo managed to get the 3 specific exclusives I had wanted and should do enough to cheer me up enough for the week...
Midweek will be the date to choose the photographs for the album and surely a certain level of anticipation...

Japanese word of the day:憂鬱 (Blues) Surely feeling the blues for this Monday...

Blame Myself

18th August 2006, Friday

Drawing towards the end of the work week and it's a pay day...I will be having a great time with my wife for the next couple of days..I should be over the moon..
yet it was not really meant to be..

Mom went on some "Northern Expedition" with my aunties, supposedly somewhere in Ipoh most probably on religious-themed since last evening...
You do know how disruptive life can be when she is not around.... Dad would have to contemplate to drive everyone up to work...
There would be no packed lunch and no dinner for this day as well..

I had planned on eating out for dinner with my lass only to be dejected by the fact that she would need to stay a while back after work (as always) to impart some knowledge of the new equipment to the operators on night shift.... meaning she would probably be home only around supper time...

On my way to work, I realized that I had missed out on a step during my experiment yesterday which could be detrimental to the overall result and I was solemnly praying for the best as I prep the samples for scanning this morning as my Dutch apprentice, Fieke who had been understudying (more like observing) me for the entire week too was hoping my efforts do not go to waste...

After running the 2 plates in the morning, the moment of truth was out not before my progress was hindered once too many times by some instrumentation and computational problems...
The results as Beauty has predicted to be too weak but barely acceptable...
It's not really about repeating the step one more time but I had been expecting to square up this particular project at least the 1st stage before my French supervisor returns on Monday so as to show her the diligent and capable side of me which now of course becomes inefficable; instead show that I am that error-prone worker once more...
Call me paranoid but appraisal is round the corner and I surely wanna impress the bosses after around 2 months here...

In the end just had to put that full blame on my partial state of dementia for forgetting that step barely minutes when I was fixating on the timer to correct the temperature...

On the wedding banquet planning side, I must say the list is almost done except some people who told me that they would get back to me apparently suffering from dementia as well or most probably blatant oblivious to my request
Tomorrow will be meeting the restaurant to tie up some final details and hope things go rosy as we enter the last 57 days before my bi day...

Japanese word of the day: 責任 (Blame) I wish I can blame on someone else for my incompetance but than in those prehistoric days with JxMMy around, I always get the blame from him... so perhaps I am used to it

Don't line up 3 hours for mere 15 minutes

14th August 2006, Monday

Spent the whole of yesterday went amok with the video package for our wedding banquet and got to a point of insanity when the entire project when out on me when I was about to tie it up...
But a ray of light befallen on me when I found a much better programme to speed up the whole process and generate a video of much higher calibre...despite is takes up as much as 4.4GB for a mere 4 minute clip!!

As my missus began the week under the moon due to a consortium of medical ailments such as sore throat and headache (too much wining and dining over the weekend perhaps), I had a day on groove to invite many fellow colleagues to my banquet which is top of my agenda including my 3 top bosses...
Also managed finish the hefty reports my French-bound supervisor had instructed before she left a week back...

Over the weekend, I accompanied my lass to watch the final fireworks display around the Marina Bay area as she had longed to and I condescended....
We heard from the Tay brothers at La Tendo claiming that we should go there early to garner a good location to view the entire performance but I frowned upon that...

We left for Esplanade together with the filial Reedy who brought his mom to view the display from the good people from France...
And you could see the stream of human traffic flowing towards that same spot which can be really daunting...
The bridge adjacent of Fullerton Hotel had been fully packed and the very spot we fixated just outside the Esplanade was marauded by a mob of people (local and foreign) hoping to catch a glimpse of the nice fireworks...





Which made me wonder what time some of those "desperate" crowd actually came to grab that spot... at least 3 hours I supposed...
Then came the display at around 9 which was after I was getting restless merely waiting for less than an hour or so with some Malay kids crying in front and a burly Indian "thumbi" standing to close for comfort...
The fireworks was captivating but nothing too extraordinary to be overly harping about and it ended within 15 minutes or so and left the entire place with a smoky haze...
Boy was I glad to not dumb enough to wait at the same spot for more than an hour to watch just 15 minutes of smoke generating yet overrated display...
It was also good that we hop on the first train as we hit the station if not I wouldn't be a very happy man...







But if you have a Nintendo DS Lite with that hilarious spirit-cheering game which I had a taste of at my buddy's place in the afternoon of Saturday, I guessed it would be much entertaining as I would help in vain to help that poor chap to woo the girl of his interest with the high tempo rhythm of Tomoyasu Hotei's "Thrill"....with the game of dodgeball which he is bound to lose anyway...

Japanese word of the day: 花火~ha-na-bi~(Fireworks) I was expecting a full hour of display to justify the entire time waiting for it...

Satisfactory Shuttle Experience

11th August 2006, Friday

Quite unbelieveable that it is already Friday, showing that what 2 days break in the middle of the week can bring you...
A short day at work and back to "vacance" mode for me...

Not so for my missus who has been badly stressed by the pressure exerted by their imperious manager who seems picking the most minute details to lash upon her and she had been well preoccupied with work even on yesterday when she was supposed to rest after a lengthy bridal photoshoot...

On National Day, we embarked on a one day mission to take some graceful photos to commemorate our nuptials...
However being a pair of sleepyheads, we were late for the shoot despite the timing of 11 am which gives us ample time to get prepared especially we took cab down to Tanjong Pagar.
The designated make-up artist Angela who did such brilliant job for my lass during our ROM was already waiting patiently by the counter.
After a prompt apology for being late, we wasted no time to get ourselves ready for the shoot...

There was another pair scheduled for photoshoot that day and to spice things up, the gigantic pair from Russia brought we them the exotic Northern European pedigree especially the 20 years-old bride who is bestowed with that model-like looks and physique and managed to carry off those elegant bridal gown my wife mentioned that had been just off the rack...

Therefore it began the routine of us taking turns to change and using the studio which was in charge by the 2 designated photographer..in our case the condescending Soon..
He and his partner was bemused when we requested for that "Densha Otoko" look for our casual and even thought of an impromptu storyline to allow him to come out with subsequent poses...
I believe it would turn out well and looking forward to look at the final products...

It was followed by that musty orange tea dress which was made purposefully for her and with the talented Angela conjuring a complimenting hairdo, I had the thought of marrying a really gorgeous lady here...
Going through the rest of the shoot, I was really glad I had the shoulders broad enough to carry those nice suits on me as we follow that up with the evening gown, the main wedding gown and finally the Chinese-inspired series...

The experienced crew also made use of whatever limited accessories in the studio to create many different feels which inculde a trio of Mandarin lamps with a kaleidescope of colors to create that "East meets West" aura as well as another corner with red velvet cushioned wall to give a more retro feel..
Soon also opened the rustic window grillings to have some sunlight to beam into the supposedly dimly-litted studio...to create a rather romantic atmosphere...

It was around 4 when both groups were done with the studio shoot and we prepared for the external shoot...
Angela was the 180675656th person to wimper about how hard it was to style my hair due to that stubborn nature but I was quite satisfied with the look she gave me nonetheless, at least I don't look like an aged groom without a slight sense of styling or take notice of personal appearance...

Our outdoor shoot routine consisted of a shoot of some authentic pre-War conserved shophouses where Soon drove us to the nearby Spottiwood Road where another pair of newly-weds preceded us for the shoot...
It was followed by my workplace which I thought had a decent scenery or at least something different or unearthed by anyone before as a spot for wedding shoot...
Of course the security personnel was prompt to request for a any sign of permission to use the premises but since it was a public holiday and it was for a good cause and ultimately I am a staff I think he left us alone fast enough...

Ah Soon felt there was lacking some greenery in our collection and drove us up somewhere in Alexander Road which has a large grass patch which slightly resembles the grassy highlands of the Alps...
Then again it wasn't 34 degrees up the Alps even in the warmest of summer...
But a nice place with a great view thus we had to endure with some roughing up with climbing up and down the slope, the tedency to be bitten by red ants and even sprawling over each other with some difficult poses on the steep, uneven terrain...

Finally Soon sent us to Labrador Beach, barely 10 minutes ride away for a sunset shot across the horizon of the seas but at 6pm the sun was hanging smartly in the sky and showing no sign of setting...
By then we got cramps for smiling the entire day and fatigue was beginning to eat into us and Soon felt it was time to call it a day...

Back at the bridal shop, we changed back to our casual wear and made yet another payment which was confusing to an extent I had forgotten how many times I had actually paid for our package...
We were scheduled to choose our photos next Friday as I braced myself for an escalating fee if there were too many delectable photographs to choose from...

I finally got my new mobile phone and line on Thursday as we took a long overdued leisure shopping trip to Woodlands but it would be even better if it was not a school holiday (which made me ponder on in my schooling days, was the day after the NDP a day off for all school children, I really doubt so)
After some clarification with regards to the corporate mobile plan which I decided to take my lass' company one due to a better rate than my own company's one and with portability of my old number,I left pretty satisfied with a new phone and more importantly a new line which will not force me to pay exorbitant charges when I really didn't call that much....

I do hope I can do something to cheer my lass up from her woes from work over the weekends..of course her undying desire to grace the fireworks festival by the Esplanade would be a great opportunity....urgh..the crowd...

Japanese word of the day: 豪華(Gorgeous) Sad but true...It takes some intricate make-up, a beautiful gown and wonderful hairdo for me to realize how gorgeous my wife really is...

Mind Wandering Elsewhere

7th August 2005, Monday

A start to a rather truncated week for as National Day would be on Wednesday and we had to be contended to it been expended on the photo-shooting session for our wedding album and naturally both of us have successfully applied for a day of leave for resting purposes on the following day...

The hiatus trend certainly is evident within the department with my French supervisor already back to her hometown in Lyon for a last visit to her family before preparing for her birth-giving dued somewhere in November.
A colleague, Jason would also be basking in some early autumn festivities as he tours certain parts of Europe immediatelt after National Day
BY, too after been influenced by the dire need of rest after an intense period of work piling in her schedule had taking a last minute leave for today, supposedly to rest after watching a play regarding culling of cats...
Despite my supervisor had departed on Friday evening, I had been handed with some tasks to complete which will reflect nicely on my appraisal if I can do it as soon as I can find time for it...

The weekend has been shrouded by mix feelings with some good rest (since my lass need not go back to work on Saturday for the first time in ages) but yet with the constant travelling around over the course of the 2 days, it seem like we haven't been able to really indulge in the free time on ourt hand...

Not that we have any either especially with the wedding breathing down our neck and both of continue to procrastinate over the confirmation of the list of guests for the banquet...
Latest news from Mom would be after been shamed by her sisters on Saturday when she attended the banquet of my cousin Brenda when she was enraged over the fact that my aunt who is also my godmother failed to find the relevance to invite me for the banquet (for face saving reason and nothing else) while other cousins were invited...
She decided to burn all bridges from her side of the family and pondering on the possibility of not inviting any of them for my banquet...
I have no qualms over that as I always leave my Mom to make the decision with regards to my relatives whether she might be making the right choice or not...

We had a meeting with some of the "sister band" for my wife and it turned out that we are so disorganized with regards to properly planning the schedule for the actual day and coming out with details and factors which my be crucial to the smooth running of the whole event especially we had so tight a schedule since our banquet is a lunch rather than a dinner...
My nature would be not be so elaborative with details as it might bite back on you but obviously it had been frowned upon... and my wife hasn't had a charmed life of having a hubby with 2 cents worth of actually care about the whole novelty of the actual day event...
After some useful notes to jot down and some internal agreements on their attire and accessories, I then realized I might actually beckon a meeting with my "brother band" which can be a chore...

Our final fitting session at the bridal shop before Wednesday was badly hindered by the amount of time wasted for me to get a new mobile line at Bugis Junction which turned out that they could not find my company's name in their list of companies entitled to enjoy the corporate savings for mobile plans..BUMMER....

Fanhan, one of my lass' "sister band" and had been her soulmate ever since they found a common trait of being over-enthusiatic about the Taiwanese boyband I loathe, followed us to the bridal shop which was in a rare state of non-activity as the seamstress in the house, Helena helped us go through the clothing we had chosen for the shoot which didn't took too long...
However my lass was disheartened to find out that we couldn't include the fireworks display by the National Stadium that day after the parade as we had hoped...
And spent the rest of the Sunday evening lamenting about me not bringing her to the Esplanade for the Fireworks Festival which Vincent enlisted the help of the likes of Ferris and Chan to marshal the place...
Seriously I enjoy fireworks more if I can set it off myself...

Anyway my weight loss seemed to recieve ravings even from the most cynical crowd such as HZ when they first saw me during the discussion in the cafe after not seeing me for months...

Finally my mind had sprung a rather frothy idea in a time when I should concentrate fully towards my wedding....
From Miyano on Saturday, got to know that the pair of Vincent and Tay-chan would hit the Wonder Festival in Tokyo over a mere weekend from a Friday (morning flight by NorthWest as heard from Tay) and returning on the Monday afternoon...
They had been in such dire need of manpower for the acquisition of those exclusive items for the event and with the short span I began to spawn an idea of whether I could lend a hand for the event especially I have like 2-3 items I am quite interested in from the list...
Of course with less than 2 weeks to go, the air ticket is a major issue and of course I will only go if I have a helper pass for their booth...
They had been a heated debate in my brain on how badly I want to go yet refraining of spending unnexessary money and taking unnecessary annual leave...
Well as I had engraved in my mind since the morning I will let fate decides on whether the trip is feasible...

Japanese word of the day: 組織を破壊しなさい(Disorganized) My wedding schedule is still in a mess and I still have the cheek to think about an escapade

12 Missed Calls

3rd August 2006, Thursday

Recently my neighborhood had transformed into mini Brooklyn hoodlum with a teenager been slashed while lingering at a nearby basketball court in the middle of the night (not the best thing to do seriously) while days later another had his handphone been robbed against his will (which is true all the time unless you wanna change your handphone that desperately)
Which is why I would be really jittery when my missus is out too late...

For the past 2 evenings she was back to her sideline seminar routine and had to contend to reaching home near midnight...
When I called her around that timing last evening she was in the cab with a fellow companion from her sideline who also lives in Yishun...

I went to sleep, hoping that she would leave a SMS to announce her back home safely so that I could rest assured when I picked it up in the morning...
But she never did..and my usual routine these days would be buzzing her when I just got to work and she would most probably to rushing for hers that moment...

One call passed after another and no picking up...
The dialing became frantic and I was starting to got worked up about her well-being in the morning as such I couldn't really concentrate on my work till I hear her voice...
She had 2 mobile lines but none was been responded and I even buzzed her home thinking that she might had overslept...
My last resort would be calling her office and it seemed to work as her colleague beckoned her to the phone which led to me lambasting of not picking up my call...
She claimed she had not hear the ringing and even shrugged away my repetitive dialing as non-existent before seeing her phone and muttered..."oh..12 missed call.."

She seemed pretty moody for the past few days and I wasn't too upbeat at that spot as well when we hung up before it poliferated into a big unruly tussle...
It is really ironic that we had actually switched positions as she was once the frantic master to seek me out when I had forgotten to SMS her when I got home after sending her home...

A really out-of-this-world paranoid thought which lingering in my mind in the morning which would be suspicious of her seeing another man behind my back...
It's is truly absurd and perhaps I had watched too many sleazy American soap operas lately...

Japanese word of the day: 逃された呼出し (Missed call) 12 truly shows how concern I can be...

Gathering Friends in August

1st August 2006, Tuesday

Been pretty uninspired to post on the blog which limit to about 2 posts a week these days...
Not that work had been particularly preoccupying my life... just that I do not get a regular internet access in the office which really limits down the time to do my usual surfing as compared to my previous job...
Not that I am complaining as I do find being busy here with my own projects surely beats ample free time in my previous job...then of course the non-existent of JxMMy (what a nostalgic name to mention for a long time) sure makes life more beautiful...

Then again when I am back home from work, my mind would just wanna relax and watching comedies or mindless Taiwanese variety programmes seem like the best remedy..a novocaine for my soul...

Of course the weekend will be filled with quality time spent with my wife which of course is crucial to my well-being these days...
It seems like her work is beginning to reduce back to a more humanly fashion when the new equipment she is in charge of is finally up after weeks of slogging over it...Now she can even spare time for gym sessions in the evening, meeting friends for dinner and even attending her side-line as she would this evening...

With the start of August, we barely have 2 and a half months to tie up every small niggling details for our nuptials in October...
The banquet is the number 1 hassle to get rid of...and after weeks of procrastination we finally came up with the final draft of people we wanna invite and set off to ask them whether they would actually be free to attend before we confirm the final number of tables from the restaurant and send out the invitation cards...
It seems like friends from my side keep adding up especially the recent reconciliation with some old Secondary school mates and now more colleagues in the new place...
Then of course some would be sacrificed though barely a handful...
But the major scare came from my lass who had intended to invite 50 colleagues of hers...
On financial terms, if every one of her colleague accounts for their own, we should be able to recoup from the ang-bao money but ultimately we should place a bar on the total number of tables as we will wanna be on the safe side with regards to whether we can actually pay the bill without taking the ang-bao money at all...as the latter would seems a bit disgraceful...
So beginning this week, it's the tedious affair to contact come old acquintances to reaffirm their attendance...

Over the weekend, we also got ourselves ready for the photo-shoot on National Day with a hair cut at this avant-garde hair salon a few blocks in front of CS' place and where we used to hang out for drinks back in the old soccer session days...
And of course enlisting the help of my hair-stylist cousin, Linda, we jazzed up that dull hue of our hair with some highlight which in my case is almost unnoticeable due to the dark base...

With the end of July, there was still no sign of a recall manning which got me all jittery for every Saturdays and some Sundays...so prepare for one in November as there hasn't been one for 2006 thus far....

I was able to meet my buddy, TW on schedule after a disappointing stopover at La Tendo with items on my wishlist not in sight once again...
After lingering around Bugis, he was whining about having dinner and we headed down to Orchard as my orginal plan involves dining at a restaurant I had yearning to return for a while, Califonia Pizza Kitchen despite pleas from him of nothing to heaty to nulify that sore throat of his...

We picked up my lass from her gym in Paragon and was surprise to meet up with an old soccer team-mate of ours, Allen who was a bit beefed up but in reasonable scale and along him his newly-wedded wife whose life is unnecessarily tainted for acknowledging that losers like us exist and actually know her hubby...
I doubt we will see Allen anytime soon which is good for them anyway...

Dinner was fantastic with the focaccia for appertizer and the 2 pizzas really filling us to the brim at the end of it especially with TW's appetite badly hindered by his feverish tendency under the vociferousl air conditioning vent directly above of him...
We made fun about travelling in Europe and he did a stance of a Spanish dancer which drew the disgust of a nearby Caucasian dining family whom TW later postulated to be Spainish...
Got a news on Sunday that he was down with a persistent fever which climbed to close 40 degree and failed to subside which lead to a jab at the hospital...
poor chap..what a way to return home... or perhaps bad karma for making fun of Europeans

Got news from my other buddy, CS after trying to contact him for a while and his life had apparently been turned upside down which he might fill us in eventually...but a reunion of the wreckers is definitely on the horizon perhaps even with Foo, but I wouldn't bet too much on that...

Well work wise, I had been trying to impress my immediate supervisor to finish up certain project on hand but due to a variety of reasons, it got pushed back further more..
However now I am really on my own with Phillis back to school and his Beautiness jumping ship to another platform which he was supposed to take over, I got to plan my work schedule over the course of the week and hopefully been praised for been ahead of schedule generally...
But it would be hard without any faults and mishaps along the way as I had tasted recently...

Let's hope we get to find the list of prospective guests for our banquet real soon...but it is just the first stage of a very tedious process...

Japanese word of the day: ゲスト ~ge-su-to~(Guest) If you are reading this and you feel you should be invited for my banquet, drop a comment..most probably I will say no..SUCKER