My New White Companion

28th March 2007, Wednesday

I have succumbed to temptations....





Super Robot Taisen W...Jump Ultimate Stars..Final Fantasy III... Brain Age Academy... Super Mario Cart.... Animal Crossing...Cooking Mama...here I come!!

The Lonely Heart Club

26th March 2007, Monday

As the merciless rain pelting down this morning just as I was heading to work which is always dreadful on Monday and with my missus still recuperating from returning at the wee hours from KL, I wish I had the liberty to apply leave and join her in bed...
Eventually I got to work relative late but with the usual suspects, significantly BY on leave, I just disregard the 15 minutes I was later than usual...
For the entire day it was fixated in front of a nucleic acid gauging machine which can be a chore which BY had highlighted before meanwhile my French supervisor was scavenging high and low for some storage plate for some massive restructuring she might be cooped with for the entire weekend since we discussed about it late Friday afternoon...

As for yours truly, my mind was cooped with the thought with acquiring a Nintendo DS Lite and the allure of Super Robot Taisen W for the NDS was too great for me to endure..I had been eyeing on Nintendo portable gaming console for a while and this opening seems perfect with a mundane overseas ICT the ideal platform to keep it as a close company...Now the problem would be acessing my financial ability to get the entire package which will accumulate quite a fortune...

My mind was still very much left over the weekend when the missus is out of town and I aligned myself with my usual club for the lonely hearts...the La Tendo clique...
Actually it wasn't that miserable as it sounds but Karen was enquiring on when we started to be such a clique and constantly making movie dates...But recently a phenomenan swept the whole gang since our Japan trip and with Yu-kun's presence, Saturday night just gotta hang out together and this week after failed attempt to get tickets for the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie, we replaced it with "Mr Bean's Holiday" and suddenly that section in their theater was deafened with echoes of uncontrollable laughters with myself, Karen, Miyano and Eng Kiong the main culprits who were simply mesmerized by Rowan Atkinson's bankable Mr Bean antics though I find it was a vehicle to sell the beautiful scenery of rural France and Cannes...

On Sunday, it was badminton at Clementi again but as expected I got that for the latter half when I peered through my drowsy eye to find out I was barely awake at 9am...can't fault me when I was too awake to sleep at 3am after the movie...
Kevin was here and it's been a while since the baby of the clique joined us and he followed the few of us to China Square Central to tour the otaku flea market when we jumped on the chance to book our table for our retailing...
April was out as the demand was too high for the main area on the 2nd floor where the usual platoon of figurine-hunting lads held their clandestine, leaving the unwanted chasm known as the basement...so come what May then...
Back to La Tendo where Vincent was holding the fort by himself for a while before his buddy, Reedy came after a domestic birthday celebration...
We had fun just chatting about nothing with this customer known as Joseph who was the predominant one triggering my interest in Nintendo DS there and then...
Nevertheless a nice Sunday afternoon at the joint when we tend to forget Monday is when work begins again except for Karen who is on holiday now and will be going on a solo trip to Tokyo on April Fool day and that ain't a joke....

I wonder if I should see other friends more often (namely my Japan-loving clique or the Wrecking buddies) but with this group of close-knitted friends who share the same interest and passion, I believe lonely hearts is a matter of the past...and of course, a NDS Lite will boost time alone to a whole new level as well...

Japanese word of the day: 寂しい~sa-bi-shi-i~(Lonely) I might feel that if my wife insist I join her for her overseas seminar...

Romance ain't a Virtue of Mine

20th March 2007, Tuesday

Today marks my first anniversary of the solemnization ceremony to the love of my life...however I was only reminded by her whil half dazed, at the brink of slumber at 12 midnight on the bed...

The past year had seen us coming together as a unit of married couple, getting adjusted with each other's lifestyle though despite some minor harmless squabbles, we generally foresee us remain status quo till we grayed as the color of our hair...

All this time I knew deep in me, I will be more of a pragmatic lover than a romantic one...
My last trial of being remotely romantic ended in wreckage when I failed in my proposal plan on the open air Tokyo bus tour which fell back terribly on me...
I know every girl yearns for some romantic elements or little packages of surprises from their other halves, but from yours truly, that is as effective as null...

I might have to take a leaf out of my buddy's page when he recently treated his little princess with a supposedly-romantic White Day (14th March) dinner which completes with flowers and all... My buddy is in the creative field, thus he might naturally oozes ideas to spice up his love life...
Even chatting with Selina over MSN this morning, suddenly dawn on myself how muted I have became when come to adding some elements of surprise to my love life...She told me to go get some flowers to commemorate the occasion but I could only think about plucking some along the way home after my RT
Doesn't mean that marriage automatically spells death to all romanticism...

Perhaps it's laziness that got me where I am today...totally lack the interest and enthusiasm to conjure a plan to sweep my missus of her feet once awhile... I have too many things in my brain everyday...stuff to do..more it all surrounds myself, but I cannot deny the fact that I love myself more than anyone else sadly...
Perhaps my thought of using the money for something else, which usually on myself once again...

Nevertheless I will try to venture back to the scene once again but I doubt I will be up for nomination for the most romantic lover/husband category for a long long time to come...

Fortunately my other half understands my shortcoming and I did mentioned to her, spending time with her regardless watching Japanese dorama, going on a trip or even a simple MRT journey would be a romantic experience for me...so perhaps we would just contend with the latest episode of ”花より男子” as we coaxed ourselves to sleep this evening...
Anyway she would be off to one of her KL sideline seminar trip, so most probably I will spend it at my own expense though the La Tendo clique got events lined up to keep me occupied as usual...

Sent Yu-kun back last evening, though there wasn't any overly-sentimental departure, but we sure hope to see our young Japanese friend real soon...maybe in the summer Wonder Festival..oops I am thinking too much there...
There's this Miss Singapore Universe runner-up, Genecia who came to send him off as well as she was interested in that　黒酢 (black vinegar) his family is exporting...
She came late and was in time to see Yu-kun before he enter the departure hall and our Japanese friend should leave bewildered by the standard of our local beauty queen..heehee

Selina will be having her solemnization in May with her long-time beau, Kevin at the Singapore Arts Museum...After the turbulent past year (or should be 2005) when she was suffering from depression, it is finally green light for the pair to undergo their holy matrimony (since Selina is a Catholic)...

Oh yeah, I am at the brink of completing "Full Metal Panic!" after transferring all the remaining episodes onto my iPod and no wonder the series was so well-received by many over the years as the exciting ending draw to a close on board of Toy Box which perhaps is the best action sequence I have seen in an anime which is intriguing yet not too over the top...will be uploading The 2nd Raid once this is done...doubt the sequel will be as good

Japanese word of the day: Husband(夫)Am I a fitting one after a year in practise?

じゃあ また ユ君

19th March 2007, Monday

Today marks the final day of Yu-kun whirlwind 3 weeks visit of the sunny island..I guess he should be filled with gratitude with regards with the hospitality shown by the La Tendo clique especially his host in Eng Kiong and the one pulling strings at the back in Karen...
I might just be able to rush to the airport later on to send our young Japanese dansei off later in the evening...

The final weekend for him was spent with a live cafe bar session at Wala Wala on Friday evening which I didn't attend as I felt it would be rather dumb to go back home from work and travel back to Bouna Vista again...

Saturday morning and my wife drove us to Clementi Sports Hall for our weekly badminton dose...
She had the family car for the entire day and I must say it was a good opportunity for her to garner more confidence behind the wheel with more time clock on the road and myself the wretched, useless, pea-guts husband could just muster enough to navigate beside her as well as provide her with a wider scope of oncoming traffic...
A huge shipment on Friday evening meant that we had to hit the shop rather early after the workout...
Chan and Yu-kun followed me down to the main Kinokuniya outlet in Ngee Ann City under the rather humid weather which didn't went down too well for our Kagoshima-based friend...
The stroll down to Orchard was a good window for us to chit-chat for the first time he has arrived weeks back and it is quite unbelieveable that despite this being his 3rd trip to our miserable and mundane island, he is still eager for future trips down to the tropics...well then again the sentiment is shared myself at the opposite direction...

The farewell dinner was held at Miao Yi Vegetarian restaurant which hosted my birthday celebration last year and we were like hungry souls, ravaging every single dishes that came in order though by the desserts most of us could barely stuff it down our digestive system...
However the ringing of laughters were constantly exuded from our table throughout the session as Yu-kun tries to explain the actual meaning of White Day held on the 14th of March in Japan while Vincent bestowed the staff serving us with some funny nicknames...
The group photo was taken with my mouth gasped wide open...kind of inappropiate...

Sunday was spent resting at home though the notion of joining the likes of Chan & gang for "Music & Lyrics" was pretty tempting...

Despite only getting my pay on Friday, with all the credit card bill settlement and family contribution, I am down to a measly couple of hundreds to last me for the next month though half of April will be quite free from spending money when I proceed for my ICT...
Mom dropped a pretty well-recieved news that our government will be rewarding us with some monetary kitty with the prospect of the GST hike in July...though it was rumoured some had gotten their official letter with a supposedly named "Singapore Shares" of up to thousand of dollars (even His Beautiness is getting $1090), I have been confirming with various sources that the unfounded statement is actually true...However no such news was spreading on the internet which i regard to be the most reliable source for such unwarranted hearsay...even close friends & colleagues didn't get their notification, making the whole thing just pure fabrication or only meant for those few who weren't tempted to draw our their NSS years back and now reaping the rewards...
But even a few hundred dollars can come in very handy, with a Nintendo DS Lite in my wishlist for a while now...

The relentless cough is leaving me slowly though the phlegm is still present and true to past records, it takes a while to actually rid of it...
My RT ends this week, which means I gotta go book for IPT for June...

Finally on the work front, I was supposed to sit in front of my workstation to do the report but all the files in the server which holds the crux of my work became inaccessible since last Friday and I am left with exactly nothing to do...yikes...
I do not want to waste time off, surfing around like a certain Beautiness but situation forces me into this, and yes we have an IT helpdesk guy I now labeled as "incompetent" as after endless emails, he fails to solve my problems for me...

Japanese word of the day: もてなしの手厚い (Hospitable) If you are a foreigner and seeking for full hospitality, look for us from the La Tendo gang!

Unwavering and Relentless Phlegm

13tn March 2007, Tuesday

It all began a week back, when I was like choking by saliva while dozing off, triggering some uncontrollable coughing to clear my larynx...
The next day, I had a sore throat but isn't the worst kind I had experienced, so I kinda ignored it...little did I realized it worsen into a pretty bad cough with phlegm which as we knew is a relentless SOB of an illness..
If you have a fever and a running nose, that's fine...plenty of water and a hibernation should have your immune system to kick in and rid of it..
But such wet cough usually takes up to a week or so to totally cure oneself...and the need to refrain from consuming anything that will encourages the proliferation of more phlegm...

Well apparently the flu bug has hit the household with Sis down with a mild flu and then my missus feeling under the weather, thus taking a day away from work... Let's hope everyone including myself will be better in no time...

Went for the medical checkup, seriously more like a jab session at Changi Naval Base on Friday morning...
By the evening my fate was sealed as my deferment was rejected by the headquarters and was raring to go for my ICT by Easter comes...
My American boss didn't took the news well as my absence meant his precious yet precarious project will not be done in time though it left us bewildered what all the rush to complete it...
He muttered, "we should employ ladies the next time" after receiving the news..yah wait till their maternity leave kicks in, then you might as well hire a transversite, okama or a gay-boy (which apparently there's one around)

The weekend was pretty eventful despite the arid weather doesn't goes down too well for us....
Friday evening, we went bowling at the rustic-looking Super Bowl in Marina South when we had a hard time deciphering the Street Directory to get there from Bedok South (a direct access to the ECP and waa-laa)...
It was all gracious for Karen to treat us, but really more for Yu-kun to experience local bowling which I must say should be the same anywhere in the world...

Saturday, badminton was ok though I arrived pretty late but still earlier than Eng Kiong who was holding hostage to all the playing equipments...
RT at 4pm was gruelling and the "on-the-ball" PTI didn't help the situation....
"300" was a fabulous show, and my favorite since the LOTR trilogy...I call it a tasteful B-grade movie with the sex and violence...the ladies hated it, then again Karen induced some of the poor sould to catch that wretched Korean comedy with Rain in it...
However to poor Yu-kun, it could be pure fatigue or the failure to comprehend most of the storyline due to the language barrier, but he dozed off in both shows...
However it didn't put him down for a karaoke session at Diamond Dust after the movie which span a good 2 hours and an exorbitant bill...
With the likes of Miyano, Vincent and EK, karaoke is always enjoyable though Ferris looked very solemn and half asleep throughout the session when he decided to come despite the limited selection of songs he can't pick.. in the end he decided to be just an audience...

On Sunday, met up with my buddy and his lass whom I met for the very first time...
A sweet looking damsel with such small frame, it is no wonder she was a prime target to many of competitors to win her affection...
But to win the heart of my friend, she definitely should be more than meets the eyes...
Seemingly much younger looking than my wife despite the same age, but the way she talks also seems a bit less matured..but then first interaction counts for nothing...
She seems pretty straight and frank from her conversation which is why her beau mentioned that she wouldn't be a PR person anytime soon...
After the nice lunch at Fish & Co. in Novena Square, we went combing the new extension of the shopping mall though I doubt their existence in months time when the lack of crowd result in blatant poor business...
It feels strange to see my buddy who loves himself more than anyone else showering affection to someone of the opposite gender...He truly shows that he can be a affectionate and doting boyfriend, now let's hope the girl treasure it dearly....

Payday is like days to come, though after subtracting all the past bills and allowances, I am down to a few hundreds, I still in dire need of cash at the moment...

Japanese word of the day: 咳 (Cough) The worst form of illness I want to experience...

Endless Waiting...

8th March 2007, Thursday

Internation Woman's Day befalls on this very day or something...as years passed, the status of previously-deemed lesser gender has grown in status and truly the equality in gender has been attained with the ladies clinching better education, career and overall better social status....
Although the battle of sexes still persist in various regimes around the world, I felt there is no way we can look at our female counterparts as a lesser being any longer...

However it is at this juncture that I sure wish I was a female...at least there is no need to engulf in the wrath of the National Service crap...
The deferment letter has been sent a week ago yet everything remained status quo with the Mindef taking ages to send me the final answer...
Tomorrow there is medical check-up for the forthcoming ICT and it is written in the wind that I had to attend as the waiting game for the faithful SMS persist....
The dreadful thought of going to Changi and the even more dreadful thought of seeking a way out of that god-forsaken place....
I truly now not in the mood to head to Taiwan in April yet everything hangs on a tandem...

I am still in the midst of my RT program and as usual, it is not that bad...but my weekend has been restricted somehow, meaning no late nights on Saturday and the prospect of heading to Diamond Dust for some J-pop crooning makes me wanna change my RT to Saturday afternoon instead, bestowing me the luxury to creeping out of bed late on Sunday...
Then I realized I still owe them one session (when I was happily scouring around Wonder Festival in Tokyo Big Sight with a sprained neck)...urgh....

To complicate matters further, this month seems to be a recall manning month, meaning I had to keep my eyes, ears, and whatever conscientious part of me alert for any of such dreadful recall...

Coming Sunday would be a long anticipated with my buddy and his...I guess I could mention now...other half (hope he is not reading this)...
It's about time we meet up and let's hope that would not be meddled by the abovementioned incident...

So plenty of waiting with everything uncertain and drifting in the air, leaving me totally moody for this very day...

At work, I was also stranded with some job affairs and the bloody IT department just refuse to assist me with a trivial PC issue which had been dragged for a week now...
Well it sure will be good if the tremors from that great earthquake originating from Sumatra will shook things up alittle, literally...

Will be catching Zack Snyder's "300", based on that Frank Miller comic series about the 300 courageous Spartans putting their lives on the line against the millions of Persian army from invading Greece...
All the epic battle scenes (made famous by Peter Jackson and his LOTR franchise), with hot, sweaty warriors with body so well chiseled it put some professional bodybuilders to shame..and yes those bloody gore and soundtrack by Nine Inch Nail, surely is a man's testosterone-filled affair or a gay (i.e. His Beautiness)'s dream coomes ture...and surely beats that Korean movie with Rain which Karen was dying to watch...
Kudos to Bryan and Chan for diverting the group to watch something much worth the $9.50 we will be paying...

For the past week, whenever I am awake enough I will try to finish this Fuji TV's 2006 summer dorama, "結婚できない男" (translated as The Man who can't Get Married)...
Starring Hiroshi Abe, this movie about a 40 year old architect who is a man woman loves to loathe who is a classic MCP and doesn't believes in marriage... not even getting into a relationship...
At the beginning Abe-kun is this rigid, obstinate and very blunt bigot who gets on everyone's nerve, with his stoic yet proud manner (very much like his Professor Ueda character in the Trick series)...
As the series grew, and his solitudary hermit's life (which he restricts anyone from enter his apartment which he considers his domain) got intertwined with a lady doctor who is as luckless in love as well as his next-door neighbour and his adorable pug, Ken-chan...
He starts to be a bit considerative towards others though he always tried to hide his actual thoughts with those candid blunt words...
In the latter parts, he became like a Japanese incarnation of Mr Bean which I am not well impressed of..nonetheless it is a nice dorama to watch about a couple of people with youth sorely not on their side, finding love in a very comedic way...

Well let's hope their wait for love is not as endless as all the fustrating wait I am cast into at the current moment...

Japanese word of the day: 待ち時間 (Wait) Just keeps getting longer and more fustrating...

Relapse of the Nihon Yearn

1st March 2007, Thursday

One word to describe the Japan trip with my lovely frenz from La Tendo...FANTASTIC!

Everyone had to unanimously agreed what we had experienced within that 7 days in Japan, transiting between Tokyo and Iwate has been nothing but enjoyable...I will do up a comprehensive report of the trip real soon....

Back to Singapore...where the endless rain at least reminiscenced the downpour at Akihabara..but no sight of the nice snow-capped fields we have seen in Iwate nor that spine-chilling breeze that swept us non stop during this late winter season...
Back to reality, despite gratified for not splurging too much, I guess we still very much spent all the money we had exchange for the trip (around 110,000 yen each) plus a bit more from what we had gathered from the previous trip in 2005....the coup wasn't as satisfying as the previous venture..
This time was more concentrated into the gastonomical aspect and we all agreed we might have put a few unwanted punds around the waste....
Back to work, I had to cook up a superb self-garnishing show for my Performance Appraisal with my bonus at stake in May...It seems that my French supervisor was overall pleased with the attitude I had shown over the past 9 months, the notion of a promotion was still a bit far-fetched despite my accumulated years of contribution to the parent company was inching towards the illustrous 5 years... Plenty of work had shaped for the rest of the year as BY has bemoaned...and it seems like my reservist in April should most probably put on hold for work...as ideal as I envisioned it...

These few days had really be adjusting back to full working life as well as catching rest with my tedency to fall in slumber before 10 the past 2 days and woke up no sooner than 6 in the morning...while still feeling drowsy during the day...the trip surely had been taking a toll on my ageing body...
I better clock more hours in the gym with some fat-burning cardio as well...

On the personal aspect of affairs, Loke's wedding dinner which falls on tomorrow caught me by surprise due to that blatant lack of an invitation card prior and I had not remember the date by heart...
This unexpected crimson bomb surely will dwindle my financial status further as I thirst for the next pay-cheque though a hefty credit card bill should be along the horizon...
Bernard's second child, Hayley will be celebrating her baby shower this weekend as well, and yes more money for gift...
I am in dire need to sell of some treasured items I had garnered from the trip to support my high expenditure requirements...

Time is also what I need to edit those nice pictures I had taken for the trip and post them all for all to view as of before...but with Yu-kun around for the next 3 weeks or so, the clique will surely be bringing him around and I felt with the hospitality his old man shown to us (a free Yakiniku dinner at Harumi), I felt I should reciprocate the kindness...

Therefore the next month or so will be hectic though deep inside we still had the insatiable yearn to return to that beautiful nation known as Japan....in 9 months time I supposed...

Japanese word of the day: 慕いなさい(Yearn) I will never be sick of going back to my 2nd homeland...