Inching towards December

28th November 2006, Tuesday

Yes unbelieveable but it's true, we are still in the midst of November...
Like a pyschic, I have predicted for it to be a rather gloomy month, preceding the highly-festive December...
Nevertheless I managed to clear the bulk of work looming with a tight schedule that I had to adhere closely and the most fortunate part is the non-participation of our Beautiness...
Hope I had impressed the bosses with all my hard work recently...

Speaking of Beautiness, "she" is now cuddling her hubby in some muddy padi field in Vietnam, indulging in whatever gay activity nobody wanna give a damn...
That devil inside me truly wish that "she" might had stepped on some forgotten land mines from the Viet War and perished with the appreciation with everyone at work for sure...
If not, we would see her back at work tomorrow....

There had been some disgruntle with the same old issue of lousy career prospect and wage package at work here since we share the same parent company who think that anyone below the qualification of a master degree should be paid measly wage, fitting for people supposed to wash test-tubes...
I had been aiming for a promotion with my 5th in service to perhaps a senior level and of course more alluring pay package; I would be certainly contend with things by then...
Meanwhile, BY seems to be staying put for now after that impromptu interview on Friday which didn't seem to be giving her an affirmative answer..
I would coax her to stay though the miserable pay and all...'cos she would be an integral member in the team...

Over the weekend, it had been the same routine of badminton then hanging out at La Tendo...
This week however, my missus came over and we had a hearty dinner at Carl's Jr (which has a mushroom cheese burger that surely beat BK's flat down) and I allowed her to bask in some manic shopping for clothing at Plaza Singapura.
She also cancelled her gym membership which had been leeching her $100+ for not having the luxury of time to go for her usual work out before a trip down to Kino which has 20% storewide for members which is a favorite for everyone for sure, seeing how the store was still pack near closing hours...
We then strolled down Orchard Road, admiring the X'mas decorative lighting which I felt had chronically ran out of idea...

It's a 2nd consecutive Sunday, doing my favorite things homebound, despite not fulfilling a responsible son-in-law by avoiding a trip to my in-laws' place, knowing how precious seconds could be wasted, rotting there, staring into nothing and boring myself to death...
In the evening I have got a piece of suprising good news from a familiar source which I promised not to announce it to the world...just yet...
It did make my evening which was complete with the Japanese dorama we had been captivated for the entire weekend...this is the life man...

December promises ample good rest for my hard work ...
A concert this weekend and some celebration with close friends for X'mas...
Of course plenty of money needed to be spent which would see my 13th month pay been decimated into nothing... but nonetheless will be looking forward to the final month of 2006 for sure!

Japanese word of the day: 排出される(Jaded) Gets a bit of that this time of the year...

One week without the boss

24th November 2006, Friday

Today marked the end of the first week with our French supervisor on her maternity leave and what a roller-coaster ride it had been thus far...

She gave birth to her 4.1kg (huge!) baby boy on Tuesday evening and we prayed it would actually be on Wednesday morning; if not it would be by more than mere coincidence, or what we felt is a real curse to share the same birthday as Beautiness....
She would exclaimed in her usual gayish tone that it was godsend for the baby to be born on the same day as her/him/it...and the scary (and convulsing) part would be our supervisor would actually celebrate such an eerie coincidence with her...
Just don't me to be in the same room as those two when they actually realized, or someone is gonna get hurt...

Anyway my beloved Man Utd lost at Celtic's Parkhead stadium, putting them in precarious qualifying position in the Champions League on the same night as well..talk about curse...

My dear colleague, BY had been too candid with words these days, though at smaller degree it might hurt feelings or cause misunderstanding among colleagues but an incident yesterday seems much detrimental...

So we were having lunch at the pantry when our American boss, we commonly known as "shitty-green pants" these days waltzed in for his usual after-lunch cup of cheap 3-in-1 coffee...
We were in the middle of a conversation regarding drinking sugared drinks would cause pancreatic cancer and shitty-green went on to add diabetes into the common illness as a result of binging in soft drinks...
This led BY to told him about the diabetes project we had been involved for another boss and the results were quite horrendous...
At that precise moment, the other boss came into the pantry and by sheer immaturity shitty-green is famous for, he turned around and scornfully spiking the other boss about how he would be able to come out with a scientific paper with such poor results...
Perhaps the other boss knew his colleague was terribly tactless and could just be joking, thus he brushed that aside...however he didn't looked amused and neither were us who had been on site for the whole incident...
It didn't shine a good light on either of us for revealing information of a project to another boss and could hinder our progress in our current career especially when both os us would be seeking a promotion come next work year...
If our supervisor was present at work, she would frown on such an incident as well

While we both agreed to adopt that "wait and see" tactic to determine whether we should find greener pastures soon, by sheer coincidence, BY got a job recommendation from an old friend and wasted no time to attend an interview this very afternoon, even calling off a buffet lunch she had been scheming since early this week...
The other party seems pretty anxious for her recruitment that she claimed they even bother to fly to our island from Australia to do the interview..
The job scope is something like the Lab Inventory Management Systems we had been dealing with, and a great platform for her career to bounce since she had the appropiate degree in computing...

I'm not counting the egg before it hatches but it does seems probable that the person who wooed me to the current job might be leaving mere half a year on...
Her infectious presence would certainly be missed once again and I would have to combat against the dark forces of the Beautiness on my own or with fellow newcomers into the department...
Ultimately our supervisor might not be recuperating too well after labour upon hearing an important character in team would be leaving soon, during her absence somemore...

We will get to know in days time...

Japanese word of the day: 同時発生(Coincidence) The bad ones can really get to me...

Wrecking Good Times

20th November 2006, Monday

The Wreckers are back in business..more on that later...

With my French supervisor heading for her delivery cum maternity leave starting from today, our royal Beautiness now on her rampant trail to work even much less especially with the festive season around the corner..
As if fornightly department meeting with her presence wasn't bad enough, she doubled her theatrics with some really shallow, bitchy gestures throughout the 30 minutes long meeting and the most absurd part would be our supervisor actually bought into her antics, once again highlighting how she had cemented her positon as the apple of our supervisors' eyes (which was blinded with shit for sure)...
The unaminous disgruntle among us surely reached new heights with recent developments...

I took the golden opportunity of my missus going for her regular KL seminar trip to truly bonding with some of my closest chums...

This week's badminton session was held at Bishan Sports Complex and certainly a single court with 7 players surely decimate everyone's average playing span...
However it makes no difference to me as the new place served as a voodoo to me or could be the fact that I didn't bring along with me my own racquet which led to me losing every game that I played (not that I will win many with my pathetic skills)...
Pairing up with almost everyone surely might have negative effects as my perpectual partners all faltered with poor performances...

After a satisfying lunch (especially for Vincent I supposed), we headed to La Tendo as the crew geared for a busy day ahead as they began their 30% storewide discounts for members and many customers took this wonderful chance to stock up on some previously missed figurines or collectibles but those which dug deep into their wallets to buy those Yamato Macross valkyries or Medicom 12 inch figurines must be the smartest ones with hefty savings at the end of it...
Personally I only got a couple of items but both are new arrivals thus no luxury of a grand discounts... well with space constraint breathing down my neck, I couldn't spend indiscriminately also...

Cheryl and her beau, Raymond dropped by , perhaps of sheer coincidence or due to the discounts and we had a brief chat though Raymond didn't buy anything despite me offering to lend them my membership to warrant the discounts...
Foo came as scheduled to see if he could get the latest Super Robot Taisen PS2 game but to no avail and had to contemplate a long waiting time for TW who was rather late to knock off from his class across the road...
Meanwhile CS the Pepsiman was already fizzing his way around his usual haunt, Sim Lim Square where we rendenzvous for a long-awaited wreckers reunion outing which took a year or so in the making...
Wasting no time we hop onto our new official Wreck Mobil or CS' Nissan Sunny and vamoosed our way to his place in Serangoon...

Awaiting us was his Xbox 360 with his recent acquisition, "Gears of War" which he had been raving about...
A 3rd person shooting game, it follows the adventure of a reinstated soldier named Marcus Fenix who was wooed back to military from serving his prison spell to oust the alien creatures from beneath the ground known as Locusts...
The graphics were simply stunning though I had to agree with the rest about the color been really morbid and can send anyone to depression for seeing it constantly..
The gameplay seems ok but only yours truly seem to have a lot of problems controlling the 2 thumbsticks on the Xbox controllers...
While watching CS marauding as Marcus, chainsawing orc-like Locusts into bloody smitereens brought pleasure to us; it was only during the late hours when he tagged with Foo in a 2 players scenario which really got all of us glued to the exciting storyline of the game...
Foo certainly promoted from an amatuer "acromedic" (for acrobatically hurling himself about but just serve to revive other members in his troops) to such capable partner as he got the hang of the game eventually...

The other game which we had a lot of fun was Capcom's "Dead Rising"... which was a bestseller among the Xbox line of games and mock Capcom's famous "Resident Evil/ Biohazard" series with a very B-grade movie theme...
You have to play as a reporter to solve a mystery of why an entire town became zombie without yourself becoming one...
Trapped in a huge shopping mall, everything can be your weapon to exterminate the army of undeads... but the most enjoyable has to be using a industrial drill to stake through a zombie while using the remains to wipe out other surrounding zombies...
Or driving a vehicle in the carpark and run over zombies like they were mere ants...
It's so gruesome it is a fantastic way to vent your fustrations from work...
Of course allowing the protaganist to change into tight children's clothings or a Megaman helmet from the movie memorabilia shop in the cineplex floor us for most part of the game when CS insisted that the clothings gave him form...

Our group gaming session came to an end at around 1 plus Sunday morning when TW visibly looking drowsy...
CS with RT to attend in hours time even sent us back individually...
Ultimately it was great to be getting back with all of them together, indulging in the console games which bond us throughout the years.. indicating that we might be heading with our career or for me marriage life, some good things never change and never will...
Surely looking forward to the next wrecking session...

Anyway today marks the 29th birthday to my good ol' pal, Foo... sincerely wish he will have another great year ahead and have all his wishes fulfilled... i.e. more cool live action heroes series to keep his mundane life abuzz..heehee

Japanese word of the day: 大切仲間たち~ta-i-se-tsu-na-ka-ma-ta-chi~(Chums) My wrecker buddies are still the best...

Finding "L" against Beautiness

15th November 2006, Wednesday

The air is sweet and fresh at work, without the presence of certain omnimous, androgynous and nauseating presence around...he/she into his/her 2nd day of leave which will be repeated for the rest of the year...once again..good riddance!!

Anyway I am on the verge of finish reading the "Death Note" manga series as no matter how Light/Kira had a brain superceded by the few true blue geniuses from history, he met his faithful end when Near, a prodigy of his old nemesis L, brought his error-proof plan to light in front of everyone that had been vindicated to bring Kira to justice...

Our royal Beautiness much like Kira had been playing politics to what it seems to be his seamless ploy to impress the superiors at the expense of his fellow co-workers...
Time and again, I had stated in front of everyone that his sexual orientation is none of my business and I will actually respect his preference of homosexuality but he has gotta work his ass off for the amount of money he is drawing each month...

His imminent promotion to what we called "quality-assurance manager" definitely doesn't goes well with the rest of us in the department as his non-activity at work had now became his biggest downfall for respect in the entire workplace...
Well even JxMMy D is only pulling gimmicks back at my old workplace and would fight for the scrappy amount of work there....while Beautiness even got the cheek to pull a casual conversation on Monday about this gay burger joint he is going for his birthday celebration with his gay brood when I was slogging with stock taking; and helping me out is perhaps remotely within that mind of his that is filled with ideas like peeing on his supposedly male partner....

We need a smart guy to come out with a intricately brilliant plan to oust this irritating parasite that had been sucking on our hard work for his own advantages...
A plan which will not in front of the bosses, seems to be subjectively against our most senior and most adorned member of the lab...
A plan in which he will be voluntary fall into and had no qualms till the day he leave the organisation...

There is no such characters like Light or L in the department, as most of us are merely simpleminded workers who would not be spending useful time playing politics like he did...
Personally I would hope someone actually lured him with higher wages (he actually had the cheek to demand a 5K job with his inadequate job ability), then make him slog like hell for every penny he earns...
But of course that would never happen and even if it did, he would be back to his "promised land" here in no time and our bosses would welcome him back with open arms...

In my simple devious mind, I had ployed on enlisting the help of the IT guys to "confiscate" his PC for he has merely used for blogging and casual surfing of gay webpages rather than actually work...
But of course that would not happen as well and he should be close to getting an even more powerful computer if he is to do "quality assurances" as penned to be...
He would most probably cajoled our supervisor to recruit a couple of temporary helpers to do the tedious jobs and when come to issues with the various platforms the likes of myself would be the one in charge to settle for him before he takes all the credits with the wonderfully scripted e-mails for the various collaboraters for all the efforst he never produced yet earning more accolades from the superiors...
It sent many of us to fits and created an unanimous furore among us but that's all we could do and perhaps make fun of his homosexual adventures found of his blog as well as his constant preying of male colleagues/vendors/engineers within the vicinity day in day out....

Meanwhile with the PM adamant of increasing the Goods & Service Tax (GST) in the near future to compound more misery to our financial landscapes, he would most probably aiming to earn 6K by then....while MMSing his/her soul mate his urinary excretion or whatever disgusting and disturbing fetishes he indulges in....

Japanese word of the day: 死のノート (Death Note) Perhaps it is good to just write his name in it and ends all misery for everyone...

Good Hosts We Are...

13th November 2006, Monday

Yes November still seems agonisngly long as last week had been loaded with work well fitted for 2 weeks and this week began with the same notion with visitors seeing me demonstrating my platform, a miscommunication with regards to courier service, our vendors and his Beautiness caused me some wasted minutes during lunchtime and of course more stock-taking in the afternoon...
However the strong displeasure of our soon-to-be Quality Assurance manager is spreading like bonfire among the department and I am contemplating a coup when he is off on leave the next 2 days...good riddance..he doesn't work anyway...

Yesterday was fabulous as I had envisioned it to be...

Our beckoning for our beloved brothers and sisters who contributed so much to the wedding a month ago answered their call for celebration as beside CS and Hoe Chun as well as Michelle, my lass' JC mate, the rest duly made the housecall...

There were food galore as my condescending mom pitted her culinary skills once more to the appreciation of everyone with her signature curry and some sweet dumplings with peanut or sesame...

The bearded Foo came with his other half who seems to enjoying the entire day over my place for the first time in a long while as I had bombarded her with all those wedding video montages which TW warned about though she felt it was a sweet production effort...Mich also brought along some "kimchi-flavored chocolate" from her recent Korean trip which taste like normal chocolate but spicy...

Fan Han was the first to arrive with TW when we fetched her from Khatib and stayed peripheral the entire time she was here..but seemingly had a nice time just hanging around...

The "3T Gang" came and Huizhen with her usual nature can be bane for her at times but can spice things up a little while Lingmin and Geneth kept her in check...
It's our Serangoon JC Chemistry teacher that really blossomed into an eye-catching modern lady (sounds like an old Glay number, "Kanojo na Modern")...but still my buddy had his eyes fixated elsewhere...
Geneth had to leave early to meet her beau and was a good choice as for the 2nd day in a row, heavy torrential rain enveloped the entire neighbourhood...

Jing and Ed came, reeling from the effect of their weekend sports as the latter had only a few mouthfuls of the delicacy my mom prepared specially for my friend who refrained from seafood and vegetables from his diet...

The wedding photographs were top on the agenda and those timely captured photographs brought back some reminiscence of what happened that faithful Sunday especially the part which me and my crew were terribly late to pick the bride...
However it was the video taken wonderfully by the likes of Jiajian and the avant garde Foo brought maximum entertainment to those stayed behind due to the storm brewing outside as they became critical of how I had "manhandled" my bride in her full gown as well as TW's longwinded speech....
Not to forget our favorite game, "what about that guy!!" for those unexpecting paserbys spotted in various scenes in the raw, unedited video...
Mom then started going around telling tales to the likes of TW and Huizhen about not important being gorgeous when you can't find eternal happiness...

My buddy was assuming his usual self once again, brought his usual antics despite in front of strangers he might have met for like the 2nd time which I hope might be attracting the attention of some single and eligible ladies in the attendance that afternoon...

The later half of the afternoon sees the crowd divided with Huizhen causing endless headaches to Ed on the mahjong table as they had a little lesson with the classic game but not laying a wager bet which can be a chore...especially playing with Huizhen once again...
The rest were glued in my room watching pilot episodes of new anime series like "Le Chavelier D'Eon" and then down that memory lane with the Music Station 20th Anniversary special which led to my buddy gushing with nostalgia with classic J-pop tunes...

It was close to 8pm when the crew started to depart as we had expected the likes of the 3T to leave mere hours since arriving but seems like we had been good hosts to make our guests feel at home and I wouldn't mind hosting these close friends in the future as well but we had better not letting my in-laws anticipate our arrivals like last evening when we eventually went late in the evening...

Japanese word of the day:よいホスト ~yo-i-ho-su-to~(Good Host) When Michelle started to laugh as much as yesterday, I believe everyone had a good time...

Urgh...Meat Platter

5th November 2006, Sunday

My 28th birthday started with mind all set to complete as much work as I could with tight schedules and Shitty Green Pants (a new nickname I had bestowed to my American boss for his 80s fashion sense) breathing down my neck...
My French supervisor should be heading for maternity leave very soon considering she is so deep into her final trimester...and all we could do is enable her to have her mind off work while she recuperates after her labours...

I managed to sneak off after 5.30pm and dropped by at La Tendo where a young chap named Kevin began his "arubaito" while they are in search of a permenant staff to help Eng Kiong out during weekdays...

We headed to Jon Keng Studio where we had an appointment with our dashing photographer, Jonathon to collect our photographs...
Within their lush artsy European style studio, we were been dazzled for the photography ability of Jonathon while he even throws in a 100 more pictures which exceeds the contracted number of 300.
During payment I was supposed to bargain with him as we did not have the outside shooting session as planned so liable for some discounts.
However I somehow couldn't bring myself to say it before my missus did the dirty job for me as we gleefully went away with a $100 discount....
As we walked down to take a shuttle bus to Suntec City, I mentioned it sure is a final conclusion for the whole wedding preparation when merely a year back we were walking the same road while visualizing how the photography would be like....

We reached Paulaner Brauhaus at Millenia Walk slightly off the time of reservation and the place was reeking of sweet smell of self-brewed beer as seen from the microbrewery tanks seen in the middle of the bar on the 1st level...

I wasn't too pleased as I felt a slight level of biased for us against some "ang mohs" which came later than us yet been well-served while we had to wait a century before our menus arrived...




Seated just across the convention center in Suntec




Freshly brewed lagers



My missus doing kills time while waiting for the menu that took ages to come by SMSing



The mug looks well to house more beer




Some german style bread served with spam (or is it tuna) and butter to whet our taste buds




Her appertizer: Salmon salad with grapes and avocado


His appertizer: A pair of Weisswurst sausages with salty pretzel & potato salad



The meat platter (Sudhaus Selection) with really dry grilled meat selection... not recommended for non-meat lovers...



No stamp of approval as we both decided to stay off meat for next few days after this





Weissbier Tiramisu with their house own beer...highly recommended!

During the dinner, Foo dropped me a SMS stating that he had spotted my buddy at some yakiniku restaurant at Roberston Quay while celebrating Michelle's birthday...
A juicy news to brighten the night further...
Suddenly I had an impulsive urge to head to Diamond Dust to work out my vocal chords especially been too captivated by Remioroman's "Konayuki"...
I managed to get Foo and Mich interested to join me and even laid the bait to TW who is out there somewhere after his dinner date who later I realized with a former colleague in his Osaka Capcom stint...

We began the session only at 11.30pm while spending the time before been the 1st to preview the photo album...
It sure was great to return to a J-pop karaoke lounge again after such long period (the last time was a round a year back with Cheryl and Foo)
TW's presence definitely makes it even more fun been such a bubbly character and we just went on doing numbers from anime and live action heroes which Foo and TW simply love though Jam Project's "Garo" theme is not an easy song to tackle...
My lass was too having a great time doing K's "Only Human" after "1 Liter of Tears" and some Johnny's artists' tracks while Michelle like her usual self looks only minimally interested, not that it affect our mood much...

After downing a glass of very diluted yet overpriced Calpis and enduring the house-wrecking done by the patrons on the adjacent box, we ended a splendid session by 2 with the 1973 hit, "Watashi no Kare wa Hidari Kiki" which got us so hooked since that faithfu; ANA flight to Japan in May 2000...

We reached by by 2 plus and I actually sleot by 4 yet crawling up for our weekly badminton session at 9... which isn't a surprise why I became a zombie for the rest of the Saturday...
Not too bad to spend my birthday which I never bother to celebrate...

Japanese word of the day:肉 ~ni-ku~ (Meat) I'm glad I'm not living on a German dietary practise...

Not the Best Time of the Year

1st November 2006, Wednesday

The beginning of the month preceding the festive December and a period for me to clear certain niggling issues of multiple facets...

Two more days to commemorate of becoming really the grand ol' man I already am and this year I had the luxury of celebrating with the love of mine, now officially my wife, at Paulander Brauhaus, the premiere German bar/restaurant with their own microbrewery as my lass had acquired a taste for authentic German beer after 3 months in Europe earlier this year...
Although we are having 20% discount as she had borrowed the membership card from an old acquintance, looking through the cost of the dishes I truly rooting for the fact that our wedding photographer will fulfill our wish of a discount when we collect the whole package just before the meal so that some of the bill will be taken care of...
Yes I am still the same old cheapo despite another birthday...

Despite vowing to be less stringent with our budgets after the whole wedding affairs, recent events which include over expenditure from Koh Samui to unexpected colleagues' functions of hers as well as entertaining our helpers from the wedding in a forthcoming Sunday, we certainly have to keep a close tab on our bank accounts...

A birthday also signifies the closure of yet another wretched IPPT window which is precsely why I am typing this post in the comfort of my home this gloomy Wednesdat afternoon...
Although I had been going to the gymj to get my body to shape for about a year now, I still fell short of confidence to clear the double killer stations of chin-up and standing broad jump especially the latter which requires technique which I am blatantly lacking...
I am 90% sure I can make the cut and will be enrolling for the 2007 class of RT personnel...
And I have like 3 months to book for it which seriously will clash with my Japan trip in Feb and the ICT in April...

Talking about the trip, the probability of La Tendo getting a selling booth is bleak this time round and whether it puts the trip in jeopardy despite a strong roll call of the clique going left to be seen...
If we do go, I am surely will be proposing the trip to begin as the Lunar New Year as the Wonder Festival will be at the Sunday after that (although there may be a chance that it will be coinciding with the New Year itself as mentioned before)..
One good prospect of taking less number of days of leave and skipping my virgin NY as a married man and the prospect of dishing ang-pows
And if I am taking RT then, it will most probably be written off for that period as well...

My parcel for the Moris had reached Hatchimantai in Iwate and was greatly appreciated and reinforce our relationships with our sole Japanese aides (Eriko and Sou as well but we had yet sent them anything)....A short e-mail from Hiroki surely indicates that heart-felt appreciation...

November is also a month of high recall manning from my unit just as of March and July annually...meaning back to the queasy routine being jittery after 2 pm every single weekends when I should be relaxing with my friends or just hanging out at La Tendo...
This Saturday marks the 1st of 8 such days even though Chan had graciously booked a badminton session at Clementi Sports Hall once again...
I would really wish they could give an indication when the activation will be which I am suspecting to be the 1st Saturday of the month...we'll see

My wife will be making brief overseas trips this month as well with yet of her endless Kuala Lumpur expedition for her sideline which she has been rabidly obsessed of since the wedding ceremony and honeymoon concluded...
Then at the very end of November she will be going to France for a meeting as she had mentioned time and again before...the good thing is that it would only be 2 days...

November also see a surge of work to be accomplish but I am well-preparing myself for it and meeting deadlines to thoroughly impress my maternity-bound supervisor and shows her what true role model should be...
However another impending project which is due for completion before Janruary has yet have the kit ordered and it gets to me especially with my super duper long leave break at the end of December
To even extend my sabbatical from work for that period, 2007 begins so brightly with Hari Raya Haji immediately after New Year on the 2nd of Janruary...meaning 2 full weeks away from work...
what a sugar-coated thought to relish upon...

For now let's get through this month which I feel might not be the best time of the year for me... as I wish to go all out for fun yet been held back by so many factors...

Japanese word of the day:抑制~yo-ku-se-i~(Held Down) Longing for emancipation from the clutches of the bloody military