Sleepless in Silent Night

26th October 2006, Wednesday

What rarity to blog for 2 days straight these days but I am still basking in the "calm before the storm" as I am waiting for all the essence required for those massive projects all lined up to keep my November and December extremely busy...
Nonetheless i am hoping I can finish up 3 major projects before the final week of December so that I can clear that 6 days of annual leave mandatory to be cleared by this year end...

My body is beginning to feel the effect of not working out for a week or so, as I felt sore in my arms' and thighs' muscles after yesterday's workout at the gym and with IPPT barely a week away that is definitely not a good sign...

Haven't been get as much quality sleep as I have hope...
Not that the missus been hogging majority of the bed to herself but I had one of those really long and endearing dream last evening which exhaust my brain cells when they supposed to resting...

The scenario was a bunch of close friends of ours staying over my apartment (and my old 3 room flat to be precise) for a nice, cozy X'mas eve get-together...
The festive mood was thick in the dream and I was going through that same main host thingie as for the wedding two weeks ago and perhaps a residue of the euphoria (more like madness) of hosting such a large scale gathering that cause me to create such a scene...
But I remember I was hyping the countdown with my friends who I had invited to dawn over before leaving to run errand and when I returned all my friends were all wrapped up like cocoon, falling in deep slumber which bites back badly on me
And when I woke up, I was like myself in the dream realm, in dire need of sleep...

Just glad that it would be weekend again after tomorrow..yoohoo!!

Japanese word of the day:夢~yu-me~ (Dream) Oh yeah in the dream no one gives me any present despite it's X'mas

Back in Business

25th October 2006, Wednesday

Fancy starting work on a Wednesday, which is exactly what I enjoyed but still after a hiatus of 1 and half week, getting back in full swing working momentum is pretty hard...
Back in office, there seems to be slight noticeable atmospheric changes with some personnel on extended leaves while BY been well cooped with her work and seemed pretty fed up with it the entire day...
His Beautiness had a new haircut (i.e. crop circles) and we had some chat with him, seemingly qualching any disgruntle we had of him weeks back...
As for work, it seems exactly where I had left off, sparingly enough to make my day rather free as once again the "calmness before th storm" syndrome with projects coming fast and furious once everything is in place...

Its quite amazing the 4 full days I had after returning from Koh Samui fizzled pass without me able to do much...

On Deepavali Saturday it was a full day with the clique beginning with a badminton session at Delta Sports Hall (of all places and a shower room reeking of urine odour)..
An afternoon spent between hanging at La Tendo and roaming around Orchard to meet up with a buyer of my item from online auction as well as liberating my missus the boredom of cooping in La Tendo which seemingly ok for the rest of us..
A mini Japanese movie marathorn when she dozed off in both "Death Note" and "Sinking of Japan" which sums up how tired we were as we got on in the wee hours of Sunday morning...

Sunday was spent doing some house chores, i.e. laundry and some cooking while I can't help my tears from gushing after finishing a dorama with a fitting name "1 Liter of Tears"...

Monday was supposed to be a day of working but many people like ourselves jumped on the opportunity of a super-long weekend which spreads to Hari Raya the following day as I spent the morning finished watching the couple of DVDs we had rented the day before ("Helen the Baby Fox" and "Lake House") while I managed to get a few niggling issues off my list such as composing that e-mail for the X'mas gift exchange since I volunteered to be the one to start the ball rolling as well as preparing more sale items for postage from my yahoo auctions (I found a strange phenomenon: whenever I go on overseas trip, those auction items I had been selling online for ages somehow become hot commodities and buyers will be getting on my back for the transaction)...
We headed to Causeway Point with the simple notion of opening a joint savings account, one which offer us the maximum interest rate...
I tried to draw some cash from my account but was flabbergasted by the recalcitrant crowd which doesn't seems to care that it is a Monday which they still need to be at work...
We did get the account which will be the stronghold of our finances for this marriage to be blissful...
We also managed to send the long overdued parcel to the Moris in Iwate in appreciation for their hospitality the last time we were there as well as the prospect of bothering them again in the coming 2007...

Tuesday saw my family coming back from their respective Penang and Chang Mai trips while we woke up really early for a session of tennis organized by the hardworkig Chan though the venue of SAFRA clubhouse in Mount Faber is definitely not the most ideal for someone living as North as myself...
A nice session which saw none of us really getting the grip of the game as neither of us makes the cut to even lick clean the shoes of Roger Federer or Kim Clijsters, but we had fun especially hunting for lost tennis balls which fell outside the barricaded court...
The soggy afternoon was spent relating our trip experiences while my lass and I had a great time counting down the top 100 performances on Music Station for the former 10 years and the latter 10 years in this 20th Anniversary special...

At the end of this long break, both of us became way too lethargic and clingy to the comfort of our surroundings and returning to work somehow became a dreadful thought this morning but we just had to obliged with our commitments...

Thus far, marriage life has been rather rewarding especially with that constant company available and some gastronomical rewards when my lass cooked up dinner on Sunday and Monday for yours truly...
However imminent in her genes, my missus can be getting on my nerves to nag about my laziness though she is almost always right about what she whines about...

Now I just got the urge to get back to my usual life...working and private...
Gotta hit the gym to rid off all those sinful indulgences I had in Samui...
Gotta start doing html pages to describe about my wedding day as well as our short honeymoon which I had penned to do all along
Gotta get back on form to update my webpage...
Gotta try meet up some close friends which I truly feel worth time to be dedicated to from my wedding proceedings...

All of which with the accomodation of my other half...(^_^)

Japanese word of the day:結婚されていた生活様式 (Married Lifestyle) The most obvious difference is when half the room contains possessions that are not yours...

The Final Hurdle

9th October 2006, Tuesday

We are talking about hours to the big day or what we postulated it to be....
I still hope to keep minimal fuss and excitement for that day's run of event which is supposed to be a casual session for our closest friends, relatives and colleagues to come together in one spot to celebrate our matrimony as husband and wife...
I believe my missus share my same ideology though her paranoia tends to get the better of her as she kept altering the sequence of event for that day...

Went to get our photo album, potrait and the other items which cost (more like ripped) us a bomb, but despite ultimately I still find the price relatively steep and way beyond the budget, the final quality is on par from what we have expected... as harped by my family as well...

Friday was a well-rested day when I virtually spent a good 12 hours or so indulging in what I love to do which I do not have the luxury of time for these past months such as going on anime marathorn, taking photographs of my collections and of course get my heartstrings tagged by the Deluxe special of "Densha Otoko" which spans a good 2 hours plus...

Saturday morning was when I obliged to persistent invitations from my La Tendo clique for a game of badminton at the HDB club in Toa Payoh and for the first tiime, we are involved in a group activity which has benefits to our health...
The entire clique met up back at the shop which was marred by customers due to a big shipment as well as the lanuch of a new webshop...
I couldn't stay long as we went back to Z Wedding to do a final fitting of her gown as well as having her younger brother and father trying out the jacket that they intend to rent...
The likes of Geneth, Jing & Ed came to grace the occasion but most importantly for the girls to pick up the knowledge of helping her with her tea dress for the actual day...
After accompanying my in-laws to Chinatown where her mom got us a customary kilt blanket and dinner back in Yishun, we were welcomed home with the Sealy mattress which we had long to see since our purchase back in Feburary...
However we had to wait much longer to enjoy the comforting bedding as customary bar us from even touching the bed till the ceremony is over...

On Sunday, some of my paternal relatives come over for a gathering while we went downtown as initiated from her bridal helper, Fan Han who is one of the emcee for the banquet to meet with TW to discuss about the final details of the script which I had composed last week.
In the end, my buddy obliged our request to meet up but Fan Han pulled the plug with her absence due to a last-minute need to go back home...
I wasn't too please with that especially with the fact that it was her who want the meeting and my misery was compounded that with the fact that I was required to dropby Toa Payoh for the 2nd straight days to return a couple of DVD rented from the Play Kiosk which I had assumed I could return in Yishun which was not meant to be...
We got to La Tendo where I picked up my haul for this week while the likes of Chan and Ferris were around to rid their Monday blues by lingering around this haven of ours...
TW appeared and had great fun chatting with the LT guys about the storyline of the current Kamen Rider series, Kabuto before we went to the cafe deli opposite, Mr Bean for dinner as we gave my best man, some briefing on how that day is scheduled to be...

It was really fortunate to have my buddy getting quite into the wedding preparations as I thought he might be adopting that "go with the flow" attitude...
He even went shopping for clothing after the dinner with us for that actual day's purpose...
This is when we unanimously agreed that he has got a great model-like body frame which allows any clothing to fit him like a T...
After getting a striped business shirt each at G2000 which becomes the dress code for the brothers (though Foo once more pull the fast one on me rejecting the theme saying it is not well-aligned with his personal style...whatever...)
He went on to get a set of casual jacket and pants set from U2 which should ooze enough charm to make some of our single female guests ga-ga, which I guess would be last thing on his mind...

We did some more shopping at Spotlight and Daiso before calling it a night as he proclaimed later that he had a great time simply shopping with us, thus Sunday's meet-up wasn't as bad as I thought it would be...

Back to work, everyone thought I would taking the entire week off to do last minute preparations...I am surely taking Friday afternoon off to go draw a cheque for the banquet payment (which also sees the much-reluctant and heart sore event of my bank account significantly been depleted)...

I am not too please about the need to go back to Z wedding twice this week for all the clothing and then the bridal bouquet on Saturday which I had enlisted the help from HC to drive me for it as well as delivering the wedding gifts to the restaurant...
2 pieces of news that cheer me up a little would be the car-rental compant calls and we agreed on an undertable transaction which sees our bridal car upgraded from the originally-planned Mercedes to the more lavish Jaguar for a deal much cheaper than what the bridal shop try to milk us with...
I had thought due to the month of Ramandan, it wouldn't be nice to invite my Muslim friends for the lunch but that didn't deter one of my oldest pal, Rizan to agree to dropby to send his greetings on that day...

After the wedding photo video montage, I think I should be getting psyched up for the actual day on Sunday...let's hope it runs smoothly like a well-oiled engine..

Japanese word of the day: 準備~Jyun-bi~(Preparations) There's a lot of mental preparations to take care of as well, one would be the prospect of Jerry not turning up as a helper as I still can't find him even now

Making Mountain out of Molehill

5th October 2006, Thursday

Recently our skies had been engulfed in haze courtesy of our friendly forest-burning Southern neighbours...
Some weak souls (perhaps with signs of malingering) suffered from shortage of breathe and been pushing for MCs...
As for myself I am just glad to be working in air-conditioned environment without suffering from the brunt of the haze...

However my mood has been as gloomy as our skies for the past couple of days, perhaps a classic case of "pre-nuptials vexation"...a symptom exclusive to yours truly...

A few trivial issues just get to me as I am days to host the most important event of my life thus far...

Firstly I had an ucler in my lower gum and results in excruciating pain everytime I brush my teeth or have a piece of fruit (mostly due to the presence of citric acid)...
As the traditional sensei might suggest, my body is on heat...not in those twisted way you sicko..but due to the stress accumulating inside...
Actually it's BS as the only stress I have at the moment is not being able to clear a task in "Guild Wars"...

Nonetheless the preparations for the big day is slowly coming to an end despite the fact that we can't get the photographs this very day as I had hoped and some guests are starting to inform us of their unavailability as we had to make changes to the seating arrangements...
All the Chinese tradtional jargons such as getting new everything (your clothes, your undies, your bedding accessories, your life etc.) is getting into me but we had to oblige to what the elderly said don't we...
I'm still wondering whether the next generation will adhere to all these customs or it may just conclude with my generation...

Got a piece of information from Eng Kiong that the coming winter Wonder Festival which the entire clique (with the exception of Karen who is work-bound) is hyping to attend would be push forward to 18th Feburary 2007 which is in collision course with the Lunar New Year...
However the internet still stated the date as 25th but I believe their info would be the most up-to-date since they had been putting up store for the past 2 fairs...
I am still looking forward to attend as well as a nice winter trip to Japan but it just cut the possibility to half about this escapade...

My usually-reliable Pikachu alarm clock failed to exclaim his "pika pika" to wake me up for the 2nd time this week...
Which is why I was shock to have Mom knocking on my door and from the corner of my eye the sky has already turned bright...
Waking up at 7, leaves almost little time to do much which lead me to blow my top once again this morning...over the clock's incompetence and my personal pique as stated from the title of this post...
Back to work, I thought I could nicely finish the final step for 6 plates to be scanned but got foul up at the last juncture which ticks me off; fortunately my mood pendulum swing for a better when I find out the results turn out ok...

Finally as sanctioned by the LTA with the writings on the wall, everyone should notice now that the hike on public transport has been in place since the start of the month...meaning it is 3 cents more for every trip using the EZ-link, $1.60 now for each trip...$32.0 per day and $16 for a week...
sigh....one usual dollar more than what it was barely a year plus ago... for the money-hungry transport provider to take advantage of our inability to get own transport...

The only bright spot would be a day off from work tomorrow for a super-duper long weekend which I had intended to head to the bank, do up the wedding photo album video montage (which is not possible now) and just hang loose watching my stockpile of anime and preferably rekindle my photo-shooting form for my collection...

Over the weekend, it would be badminton with the La Tendo clique and final fitting of my missus' gowns before the big day next week (which should not see her to absurdly grown out of proportion especially she is in the midst of her 7 weeks of "only lunch" diet)..
On Sunday as requested by Fan Han who is the female/Chinese emcee for our banquet, to meet up TW to go through the emcee script which of course was met with cyncism from my buddy who rather spend his day doing his art and playing his game...
However he duly obliged for my sake which I really appreciate...

Let's hope no making no mountain out of almost invinsible molehills for the final week before the big day....

On the side news, just yesterday there had been a case of airplane hijack in Istanbul, Turkey when a Turkish militant who recently converted to Christanity and on a one-man mission to hold the whole plane hostage to force a way to Rome where he wanted to appeal to the Pope to let him get away from a Muslim army... He was duly caught in Italy but the headlines here would be that among the passengers was a Miss Singapore Globe 2006 who is on her way to attend a pageant in Albania...
When watching the clippet while working out in the gym yesterday afternoon without sound (since I don't wear a pair of headphones), I didn't take notice of the pageant queen till reading in details on the papers today that she is none other than a former coursemate from my faculty in college as well as a former colleague whom BY knew well as well...
She had a nice personality at work and we had no qualms though her frequent Tv appearances (as some promiscuous woman soliciting for business with lecherous Caucausian man) as well as those pictures of her clad in barely pieces of satin from her photos in her Friendster account surely raise our eyebrows...
I'm glad that she is safe from the ordeal but also taken aback by the horror of this entire incident...she actually wins a beauty pageant...which tells you the quality present at that particular event...I'll rest my case here...

Japanese word of the day: 山~ya-ma~(Mountain) Sometime I wish there would be a mountain here for me let me vent my fustration at the peak from...and Mt. Faber doesn't count...

Tying Loose Ends

3rd October 2006, Tuesday

The countdown ticker is deafening now as we are within days to my big day...

Last Wednesday dowry delivery session went pretty smoothly but at the end of the day after accompanying my lass to her relatives' places to deliver the cakes and invitation cards; her tipsy ol' man (after only a single can of Tiger beer) start to emphasize to the relative that they must be well-aware that the banquet is in the afternoon and not the evening, claiming that most of his friends berating him for not reminding him as it seems like an absurd idea to host a wedding banquet in the afternoon....
That notion didn't went down too well with me...despite being the chauffuer for that entire day, he is afterall the last person to make such objective comments when he had barely lent a hand all this while when he was in his "infidelity guilt trip"...

Over the weekend, we went to Chengdu to finalize some issues such as the sound system and whether the CD compilation of the songs I had chosen can be played...
I had forgotten to bring along the wedding montage video but I can be certain it should be alright..

We are now quite certain about the number of tables to be reserved..While she had cut a table for her colleagues, her mom decided to ask for another one, therefore the number was still the same in the end...
Fortunately I went around to confirm the attendance once again as some of our friends and colleagues had something cropped at the final minute and could not attend..Matthew and his missus being a good example...
Chengdu also faxed us the table arrangement which will be put into place this coming weekend...

As for the photographs, it seems like my plan to go down a day earlier was not meant to be as the residential gay-uncle Keanu told me that it was not ready for collection, with even the orginal collection date of this coming Friday highly in doubt...
I had wanted to do the video for the wedding album during my leave taken this coming Friday, so now it can't be happening...
The more fustrating issue would be the arrival of the mattress is penned for Saturday but the framed potrait had to be up before that arrives.... urgh...

The emcee script which needed to be done is duly accomplished, thanks to the template from Ling Min..
But even at this moment 2 of my "brothers'" appearance is still in doubt...
I still could not get Jerry to confirm his availability as he might be sailing somewhere now (but that's about 2 weeks now) and my good ol' buddy Foo, fresh from a personal retreat to Tokyo was back to his old self (never changes much anyway) to say he will have to look at his schedule on that Saturday to see if he wants to stay-over my place ...I was already simmering when I was expecting a "Sure man!" via SMS but got "well it depends how early is that day's programme"...
If it was such a pain for him to oblige to be a willing helper, perhaps to prevent another malignant case of "bad taste in his mouth", he should just reject to be a helper...
His case is so much worse than CS... at least I can entice the latter with my participation in "Guild Wars"...

Over at the work front, since my distancing from His Beautyness, he hasn't been talking or even mere interacting with me much...which is definitely not a bad thing...
We had a new colleague in this Master degree Indian lady whose name I am still trying to get it straight...seems like a nice girl with good working attitude...who is realy well-travelled after 4 and half years in the States for a BSc and 2 years in Melbourne for her Masters...
Surely she is more qualified academically as well as with respect to attitude towards work and co-workers as compared to our previous Al Qaeda-linked one...

As the grains of sand continues to flow in the hourglass, we are tying the final loose ends while the reality bites a big one on us with many things go awry waywards from what we had expected...

Japanese word of the day:拘束~ko-u-so-ku~ (Tie) Some people just wanna mess up those loose ends I thought I had tied...