A Weekend without our Matriarch

25th June 2006, Monday

Mom went for a retreat with the aunties over the weekend to Bangkok...the household once was a in a state of chaos...not really that chaotic with Dad, Sis and my missus trotting between laundry but the lack of home cook food for 3 days in a row was taking a toll at us, once again emphasizing the supreme importance of our mother in this family, not that we had undermined her significance ever...

In a strange twist of event, it was a rare occasion for me and my missus just spent time, cooping ourselves in the comfort of our home for the entire weekend, barring ourselves from our usual weekend routine..me with La Tendo and badminton and her with her business solicitation...
She came home totally wrecked in the wee hours on Friday evening, tendering care to her problematic machinery at work...
On Saturday morning after a brief brunch at Chong Pang, she seemed to be totally drained of any zest and energy...she just wanna lie on bed and recuperate even though it was tough to not attend a seminar she had been eager to attend..
I of course refrained her from going, retaliating the fact that she required rest more than motivational seminars at that juncture and she knew I was right...So we spent Saturday afternoon just taking siesta, making up for the weary we attained over the past week...
Then it was dinner at Northpoint when we splurged a little on costly juices ($6.60 to be precise..yikes once in the lifetime), chips and even Frenc garlic sausages to gear ourselves nicely for the movie treats as I rented the likes of "Music and Lyrics" and "Goal!" DVDs for our usual Saturday night indulgence...

We were supposed to drive ourselves to Clementi Sports Hall to join my clique for badminton, but prying my eyelids to open at 9 am just send that notion into the dustbin almost immediately...
So it was a repeat of the day before as we headed to Chong Pang for brunch, this time with the comfort of our family car, especially essential with the intoxicating heat beating down on us, walking the distance would be a torture...
The entire Sunday afternoon was hot and humid, leaving us too tired to do anything us but just hang loose...me finishing up my "The Office" marathon and her too fixated with the Super Mario Brothers on my NDS...
Meanwhile there was this Burger King meal coupon from Sis lingering on my table for the whole day and sort of sell the idea of having that sinful fast food for dinner which we duly did...
It wasn't the authentic BK we grew to know these days and most probably I wouldn't be having for the rest of the year...

Without our beloved matriarch, Monday's meals had to be settled on our own again...it was eyebrow raising when I asked my colleagues to pack lunch for me at work which eventually I decided to ditch gym to go lunch with them...and dinner now become a tough choice of mine...

Another week to go to get whatever item of necessity or luxury before the GST hike kicks in...
It is also not a good premonition when some of my treasured accessories were not functioning well of late...
My PC would shut off by itself intermittently which isn't a good sign...but it had been doing so since the turn of the year...I ponder on the cause would be some processes that I ran and of course the internal processors could be over burnt with the intensive usage..
However I am just gonna endure with it for the time being since the last upgrade was merely a year plus ago...

My NDS tends to hang once awhile and I always suspect my R4 processor was defective the day I bought from the previous owner...I didn't think too much about it and it is still playable but the idea of replacing it with the R4 which work pretty well for the rest as well as a 2GB mini SD card became a very viable (and much desired) option...

Finally my gravest moment today would be when I discover my Audiotechnica headphones which I acquired from the trip to Japan in February had met the cruel fate much dreaded with all headphones or earphones...the wire within seem to have dismembered, thus one side will lose the ability to transmit sound unless you twist the wire into the proper position...
This is a big problem to someone like myself who need mobile music entertainment and the headphone had been such crucial to that luxury of mine...I wouldn't mind for it to spoil due to wear and tear since I am not the most meticulous person when come to personally belonging..can be quite rough when handling this delicate gadgets, but a mere 4 months of lifespan is absurd....
I will endure as long as it would irked me tremendously with the constant need to tweak the wire whenever I am on the go...but I am praying for a miraculous recovery on it's own...

Japanese word of the day: 突然~to-tsu-sen~(Sudden) I thoroughly detest this sudden twist of fate with my headphones...it should be working longer than this..urgh

July Beckons...

22nd June 2007, Friday

Nearing knock off time in the office for a rather prompt week at work...Last evening, I was just remembering Monday like it was yesterday...yikes...time really does flies... for the note I am already 1 year at my current workplace and it seems like yesterday when Italy pipped France as the World Cup champions...

While the overall personnel at work changed a little, something remains stubbornly the same... Shitty Green....
I was caught unaware and unguarded while scanning some samples when he "requested" I complete his current project by next week when the scheduled due date would be at least a week later...
It could be because my blabbermouth spilled the fact that I was ahead of my schedule that led him to push me further...crikeys...
However there were some loose ends to tie concerning poor results which led a crossfire of sort between him and my supervisor, who was slowly recovering from a flu and reverting to her usual voice rather than the sexier version earlier in the week...
Once it can be tough working under a rather unreasonable boss (much like Michael Scott from Dundle Mufflin Scranton branch), but you just gotta react to it, afterall he will be the one approving the appraisals i.e the bonus and the pay increment come every May....
Next Friday would be a treat for the entire crew to commemorate KM's depature in July and as expected from his usual antics, he pulled one on BY who announced to the entire department by claiming he never agreed to pay in the first place...
We still are adamant to create a big hole his enormous pocket comes next Friday at California Pizza Kitchen

Finally done with the IPT and I doubt I will see Khatib camp (despite just a stone throw away) till 2008 and I did put in a slightly better IPPT results after the program which still translate to failure nonetheless...
My obsessions for "The Office" grew more and more after being in the midst of Season 2 marathon though I feel Season 3 might pipped its predecessor in terms of comedic value but still the series is gold, so go catch it if you haven't already...
Now I had managed to amass the webisodes which featured the accounting trio investigating on a missing account, the famous deleted scenes only retracted from the official station webpage and the British version which inspired the US and other versions of course...I might see where this obsession might take me...
My previous infatuation for "Heroes" might restore with news from Foo that the crew might be embarking on a world tour to promote the DVD with Singapore been included as one of the stop...woohoo!

July should brings a lot of changes to our lives...GST increase is of course on top of the agenda and the 2% increase should see many trying to scrimp a bit..I am considering in curbing my purchase for figurines, actually more like the current line-up barely perk my interest these days... My main concern would be all the traveling fee if we do go ahead with the autumn trip to Hokkaido... Tay-chan messaged me that the yen had drop below the 1.24 mark yesterday...all the more reason to change some yen...
It may some foolish to stock up on foreign currency with such unpredictable world but for myself who knew the yen would be put in good usage with further trips on the horizon, I feel the choice might be justifiable...
It seems like my sister and his beau would be changing some as well, for they are hyped up for the trip itself which is a season away...

July also spells quite a few changes in administrative practises at work which may affect everyone, ultimately led to a distaste but we just had to conform...In front of the beeline would be His Beautiness who kept complaining that his work had been stacked up to his neck when we found him always affixed in his workstation which might shifted to the office itself in the near future..

I would be obliging a request from my missus to accompany to Sunway Lagoon in Malaysia for a carnival of sort organized by her sideline on the 1st Sunday of July.
She promised that it would just for fun and no brainwashing into her "cult", so I agreed to come...
Then again when I informed her of the fact that NEWS will be holding a concert in Taipei, Taiwan later this year, she went ballistic and insist on attending since it is remote to get tickets for concert in Japan itself and with her contacts, she might just be able to get her hand on the concert in Taipei..
Once again I mentioned to her if she could get them I would follow her miles northwards to Taiwan..it's madness...thinking I might have plunged myself in hordes of screaming Johnnies fangirls but then since it is J-pop artistes it's fine..I quite enjoy songs from NEWS myself (especially they did "Sayendeo" for a One Piece movie)...
This directs to the point that we would be heading for Taiwan just for the concert as I do not want to waste too much time in that place (see my ICT in Kao-hsiung)
Then again I am also the one that travel all the way to Tokyo just for a toy exhibition, so nothing is too absurd in my case...

Speaking of traveling, Mom is now on the way to Bangkok with my aunt and cousin, hope she'll have a great time...which I am not having for once again (think 3rd time now) I had forgotten to pull out my bunch of keys from my cabinet when I was retrieving my bag...
Without Mom at home and the rest of the family on returning from work very late into 7 plus, I was stranded by my void deck for an hour or so...Thank goodness I had my NDS with me...

Japanese word of the day: 不合理 (Unreasonable) Hey he is not an American for nothing...no wonder they call them Damn Tankees...

Wish My Office was Like That...

18th June 2007, Monday

Been battling a niggling flu for the entire week...It began as a sniffling nostril (specifically my right one) on Monday evening which ended as a badly malfunctioned running tap as mucus would uncontrollably flowed out of the nose which hindered my work on Tuesday...
By Wednesday, the nasal passage were badly blocked and a sore throat duly followed and guess what..deadly phlegm started to accumulate around my bronchi and I was starting to cough incoherently as the weekend approaches...
It was all bad as I was in the midst of my project at work and shouldn't be compromised with a MC and then I had evening physical trainings to attend, as I didn't wanna make up for that...
In the end I did survived last week and by start of this week, beside a regular requirement to remove the remaining phlegm, I think I am en route to full recovery...
All thanks to my wife's remedy of health supplements, meaning I had to down like 10 pills everytime...not the best experience...

Over the weekend, bleak activities were lined up which is okay since I wasn't in prime condition to have a ball of a time...
After a brief visit to La Tendo when we see Vincent for the first time in weeks but he was able to fly off to Japan for another culture exchange trip with Tay-chan chauffeuring him...
No sight of Tian Tian who had a day off, the Chong brothers who were captivated with the B-grade Marvel hero known as Silver Surfer at the newly-opened Ang Mo Kio Hub Cathay cineplex nor Chan who was subjected to overtime on weekend evenings, very much against his disgruntled wills...
Leaving EK and Karen around to man the shop which should be overwhelmed with figurine-crazy maniacs especially with the big sales being started...but things didn't turn out as we had hoped...

My missus and I departed for her colleague's BBQ at some eastbound condominium and took us a while to figure out the exact location and resulting in a series of wrong turns in Bedok which left me pretty vexed...
Well I felt obligated to follow her for such gathering with her side of acquaintance since she has always patronized with mine...
Once again the theory of the world is a small place has been vindicated as her colleague Sum happened to be a childhood buddy of one of my naval mate, in fact the one they followed me from BMT all the way to our ORD date, Lee.
It seems like he has doubled his body mass since I had seen him a year plus back (which was twice his former self); he said is the after-effect of a steroid-based medicine for skin disease he had acquired at work, a hazard he warned vociferously to me for my wife...since they are in fact from the same company but just different locations...
After some catching up and some BBQ food which I am not too enthusiastic about, we paid their condo a visit...and this Baywater apartment certainly is a scrawny place which is too small for comfort, they do have a considerably large balcony which doesn't make much sense to me....
The place is nicely decorated but reek of a stench perhaps from their beloved Cavalier King Charles Spaniel....

On Sunday, I woke up at the stroke of 9 and late for the badminton session.. Fortunately, it's Yio Chu Kang this week, thus dilute the degree of lateness on my part...
Not that the attendance was spectacular with only Karen, EK & Tian present, huffing and puffing on the court, since there was no one to take over the game from them, therefore they seems happy to see me...
I was still suffering the brunt of my illness thus running out of breathe at times but couldn't hide the fact that I suck big time at the game after such long exposure to it...My laziness to cover the court to chase the ball made it worst...
Tay-chan eventually arrived and could just squeeze about 30 minutes of playing time before we headed for brunch nearby...

I then made my way back, getting MacDonald's for the missus, a impulse desire for the fast food we grew to detest but seems to have that at higher frequency recently...

After she left for EK's place, seeking to convince Yanhui to join her cause, I indulged myself with my "The Office Marathon"...
This NBC comedy had really grew on me after filling the void left by shows like "Heroes" and "Lost" and of course the anime..
I had caught the 1st 2 seasons on the local cable network and I love the quirky characters working i that quirky environment...
Michael Scott the regional manager, portrayed by Steve Cassell reminded me alot of my American boss, the infamous Shitty Green for his inability to manage and doing the wrong things or saying the wrong words at the wrong time...
The 1st episode of season 3, "Gay Witch-hunting" which talks about how Mike had called one of his accounts guy, Oscar, a "fag" when it turned out that the latter is really a gay which brought the ire of the corporate and led to the whole "accepting gay" ritual when he would proclaim he is for homosexuality which a always turned out sour and he had to cap it with a hug then a smack on the lips to show his sincerity which totally floors me when I watched it, as I could envision my own work place except Shitty is Michael and Beautiness is Oscar...yhew....
Anyway I went on rampage with Season 3 while looking for the 1st 2 seasons for reminiscence and the characters really got on to me as it is the various staff in the office that makes the show sparkles.. Of course the protagonists like Jim, Pam, Dwight and Ryan developed further but the likes of the expressionless Angela who was trying to hard to keep her relationship with Dwight under wraps or Stanley, the always unwilling salesman that only look forward to Pretzel day and Toby the HR guy who always been bullied or Kelly the shallow simpleton which drove Ryan crazy or even those guys in the warehouse that make the show ticks...
Then there are the new staff from the merger with the Stamford branch which see 3 out of the 5 (excluding Jim) been axed in subsequent episodes with the irritating Andy Bernard left to totally irritate Dwight, sprouting evil words to deviate Michael's impression of his left hand man...for a while you might sympathize with the nerdy Dwight for once...the conniving plot is so typical of an office...
Then the only eye candy of the show..no not Pam... Karen Filippini, the Italian blood sales who has an eye for Jim since their Stamford days and prove a tough opposition for the former for Jim's affection...

It is how real the show can be reflecting a mundane office life where co-workers strive to keep sane their crazy boss' shenanigans while keeping their job safe as well..
As well as fending off irritating colleagues, thus tricks you must pull even though it might greatly endanger him/her gravely...like you care...heehee
Gosh I wish my office was like that...
Every single episodes almost got me into fits, and by the end of each show, my facial muscles usually were badly cramped by the antics they pulled..My neighbours might be totally piqued from my perturbing laughters of madness last evening...

Speaking about office, haven't seen my own version of Michael Scott today despite he has returned from his US trip..
And we do have an eye candy in the new girl XY who joined last week to understudy the likes of Beautiness, so that she could adequately replaced KM once he left for his road in education comes July...
Her name literally means "small voice"... she does has it but still too premature to read too much into her...surely more than meets the eye like Transformers...

Japanese word of the day: 事務室~ji-mu-shi-tsu~(Office) My office version of Dwight Shrute might be....?

Arcadia Citadel

11th June 2007, Monday

Arcadia is a region in Pelopennesus, Greece and in Singapore, we have a road somewhere near McRitchie Reservior which is famous for been engulfed in darkness with minimal street lamps...
Citadel is a fortress protecting a town...
I have never been to Arcadia and remotely entering that shay road void of illumination and I have nothing to do with a citadel...but I got the credits of naming my soccer team back in the days with this impressive name ...which the rest of the team unanimously failed to reckon with...

Circa the year 1995, fresh out of graduating from our secondary schools, my buddy managed to gather a band of his classmates from the only 2 express Sec.4 classes there were around in Peicai Secondary School at that time to form a soccer team with official kit and all...
Then he buzzed his soccer-frenzy pal who was down and out from the chronically lackluster school life he had back then to see whether he would be interested to join the team...
I couldn't just enter the squad without any contribution in I pulled 4 players who went to be the backbone of our playing squad eventually...

I had 2 dreams to fulfill when I was young (3 if you count wooing a girl which was almost impossible with that pathetic self confidence I had back then) was to form an actual instruments-playing band which I did back in my college days and a soccer team...

The weekly training at the old Peicai school field (a terrain almost unplayable at times) on Saturdays epitomes my salvation for living back then (as well as the visit to the comic shop to pick up my weekly ration of comic)...
Our squad of 20 odd personnels had the desire to ply our limited skills in the sports (for myself almost null) and tried to gain as many victories in our short-lived establishment as possible to boost our own morales but in the end losing the bulk of it as far as I could recall...
Nevertheless the results didn't really matters as long as we had a place to train and get together every Saturday afternoons and seemingly the after-training beverage session was much more anticipated by us...

We had all sorts of characters in the squad back then which made it so enjoyable..
My buddy was the skipper cum coach who formulates the training schedule (if there is one to begin with) as well as the selection and formation...
It is tough as of many neighborhood self-created soccer teams, the playing staff generally picked itself and training is most of the time non-beneficial to anyone just mad scramble for ball on the sandy pitch.. Barely anyone could really head the ball and set-pieces is non-existent
Then again we played in friendly matches without real officials to referee the game, thus it doesn't matter anyway...
We had a custodian, Fizz who was pretty rotund but with height advantage, agility is zero but he could read the ball well.. But his stamina is really atrocious yet he got the cheek to run up-field for any freekick opportunity...
One of my all time close friend, Rizan, now a proud father and a SQ pilot was the engine room and before he lost weight was known as the "Black Gascogine" for his skill and sad to say his epidermal coloration...
There was the temperamental Al who almost fought with everyone in the squad during training sessions (except yours truly who is too much of a wuss)
Then a Fowler-crazy Ridwan who spent too much time perfecting his outward curl freekick...
Another friend I introduced to the club was the feeble-looking Weiliang who was too skinny and pretty injury-prone, so those acid-tongues in the squad labeled him "Code Red" after a local TV series at that time modeled after "Rescue 911"...
I myself was donned in a classic Netherlands national squad jersey for my trial in the first day and was known as "Bergkamp" for my attacking instinct but otherwise has no resemblance whatsoever to the famous Dutchman...
I am like the reserve of the reserves, the penultimate bench-warmer with actual playing time clocks less than half an hour for the year plus with the team but I really didn't mind...

After a meekly successful 7-a-side tournament at Sentosa and a whipping by a U17 squad of a local soccer club, our contract with the school to utilize came to an abrupt end as the crippled principal then was chasing us off the pitch with his cane...
We also blamed it on our final recruitment, a Mariah Carey-loving childhood we more affectionately like to refer as "The Big O (O for Omen" for being the key to our disbandment.
However as A levels was more immediate for some of us then NS beckoned, it seems the best way was to just let the legacy ends...

Fast forward 11 years, a few of us met up at the wake of BH's father who passed away after a long struggle with kidney failure and diabetes...
It was CS who informed us of the tragic news and yet CS was one of the old guards of the squad...
BH ain't my closest chums butour lives always tends to intertwined to one another...
He was my mate back in my 1st 3 months back in Serangoon JC, then I realized we had more common friends than we expected and soon were in the same soccer team...
After tertiary education and national service, we became colleagues at my previous workplace before we both left that god-forsaken place and I duly invited him to my wedding last October...
I even knew his brother who was also in our same squad, but not that often in contact; but both brothers were truly devastated of their old man passing which I could feel for them...

Thus it was not the best platform to reconcile with yet another member of the squad, the vice captain and glit-edge sweeper, Zfeng whom TW was glad to see again...
The duo then connived an event we would never dared ponder about in the past: reuniting the entire squad for = a novelty game of ...soccer
Now nearing my 30s with brittle bones and a response to bouncing ball as weak as clearing the final round of Ouendan, I really doubt I can outdo myself back in my prime which spells a lousy footballer , however I wouldn't mind seeing everyone again catching up the last decade or so...
It can be as tough as scaling Mt. Everest but it is worth a try, I mean getting a good 10 of us would be a success, so no harm trying...

Finally it's amazing how my life been so connected with former Peicai alumni.. Of my current list of good friends, the likes of TW, CS, Foo, Chan and Ferris had previously hailed from that shabby school in Serangoon...
Then the entire Arcadia Citadel squad made up 80% of the graduating batch of 1994...
Last but not least, the girl I had my first major crush on too was from the school, so no one can fault me for sentimentally attached to that institution...

Japanese word of the day: 再結合 (Reunion) Let's just ensure the Big O doesn't turn up but then he most probably will even without invitation...and sell us magnetic pillows

There is Blood in this Diamond!

6th June 2007, Wednesday

My thighs are screaming in pain after an overdose of lactic acid accumulating after last evening IPT session when the PTI put us through endless jumping regimes to get our leg muscles seasoned for standing broad jump...
But to this day, what would actually be the use of all the items in an IPPT which is not a true gauge of a person's fitness...

However in "Letters from Iwojima", the character played by Arashi's Ninomiya Kazunari, Private Saigo certainly bore the attributes of a soldier that made use of the IPPT techniques to elude from the American forces from the front-line at Mt. Suribachi into the final defense within the caverns where General Kuribayashi (reprise by the brilliant Watanabe Ken) plot his ultimate strategy against the much stronger American Marines....
Although it took a lot of sheer luck, Saigo jumped, ran, sped and toiled through the tough terrains of Iwo Jime, while American bullets rained and killed many of his comrades while his mind was to stayed alive to meet his wife and baby girl back home...
In such a tragic times of war which director Clint Eastwood accurately depicting the pain the Imperial soldiers of Japan were feeling, fighting a war deemed to lose before it began, illustrating that despite been viewed as "the bad guys" in the Asia Pacific for the atrocities they had commited, they were after all merely following orders they had committed to their empire and their emperor.
There were many unwilling souls like Saigo and Shizumu who were pulled into the battle against their will when the former would just be contended in his bakery trade...
I am not a strong advocate for war movies but I truly enjoyed this complimentary feature to Eastwood's previous film, "Flags of our Fathers" which seems a bit less appealiing...
Then again it could be the strong allegiance to Japan in my blood...
Anyway a pun I just thought of today with my elementary knowledge of the Japan language... Saigo also means "last" in Japanese, thus perhaps a strong indication that Ninomiya's character would be the final survivor in the war...

Beautiness' return from his ICT with a bit of glee and alot of flashiness...
He is into ear studs recently and went to had his left ear pierced to accommodate a costly titanium studded with a diamond...
Of course as of many renowned homosexual men (such as Ian McKellen and Elton John), the natural choice to signal his sexual orientation would be the right ear but perhaps he is still holding back inside, unlike the postulated idea that he is prepared to come out of the shell...
Actually BY's suggestion to have both ears pierced for various occasions seemed logical, then of course he had spent a good 1.5K on his diamond stud, I doubt he wanna top up much more to make it a pair...
Diamonds had become a best friend to women, metrosexual men and now gays and a novelty item to show off your wealth, status and perhaps taste...

However in "Blood Diamond", we were taught that before the Kimberley Process was imposed in 2003 to curb diamonds from African nations to be used as liquid assets to fund rebel groups or guerillas, the diamonds we had in the market may actually be smeared with blood of millions of innocent souls as a civil war as seen in the movie based within Sierra Leone could break families up and turning children into unwilling soldiers..
The movie was laced with action sequence that led the adrenaline pumping as the diamond hunter played by Leo di Caprio, Danny Archer took all means to retrieve a precious pink diamond found by a Mende tribesman, Solomon, putting themselves in grave danger from a South African military force which Danny was last based and RUF, a ruthless local rebel group who both wanted the stone for themselves...
However the story which narrate the woes of the African countries despite the various adversities they are well known to be facing that got me really into the film...
Then again how can you not, well you see Jennifer Connelly, still so hot after all these years as the photo-journalist, Maddy Bowen who is the hand to push to unveil the torrid diamond trade as well as the supposed love interest to Leo's Archer... After all the years with David Bowie in "Labyrinth" and in "Rocketeer", Connelly seems to age like wine and surely one of my favorite Hollywood actress...
Another commendable feature would be that Leonardo can really act and no wonder he was nominated as the best actor for this role in the 2007 Academy Awards together with his role in "The Departed" which isn't that fantastic (even after all the F words)...
He can really displayed that intensity of a seasoned diamond hunter always prepared for the worst and after so may great films, he has really progressed much from the boy from "Growing Pains" and showed that pretty boys can actually act unlike others (i.e. Brad, Keanu etc)

After the show it seems like the best excuse ever not to adorned my missus with costly carbon structures (which if you twisted the molecular structure you will get nothing but coal)...
"Cannot buy that diamond, imagine if it is not conflict-fee..."

Finally if I ever find out that stud Beautiness will be eager to display soon happens to from such source, I will surely spit on him...then again I am always ready to spit on him...

Japanese word of the day: 弾丸(Bullets) The grand toll of empty cartridges found after the 2 above-mentioned movies came up to 179545434335357464 plus 2 mortars found on Nakamura Shidou

Geely, My Wife & Me

4th June 2006, Monday

The workplace was slightly much livelier than the ghost town on Friday when a few souls including yours truly actually refrained from applying for leave and came to work after Vesak Day...
Spent a huge chunk of the day in our little work corner, doing my routine process while walking down the memory lane with BY regarding those ageless characters that made our working days at our previous company so colorful as well as having our own pop trivia about how Mariah Carey's career turn into a whore house as well as the 1001 useless "one hit wonders" boy bands from the 1990s...

The weekend to me has been a rather satisfying for me despite the lack of any outstanding event...

Spent a good deal of Saturday just recuperating at home, trotting between Football Manager and my selection of addictive NDS games...
Had the intention to go dowtown to dropby my usual haunt but dragged the idea till the missus returned from half day at work, when she drove me down in the family weekend car, before her May Day concert at Singapore Expo...

Chan was the obvious absentee at La Tendo, of course we had yet seen Vincent as well as he extended his recent culture trip in Japan to pay a visit to his in-laws...
Meanwhile Tay-chan returned illustrating how a great number of the students they brought for the trip recently were hit by a bout of flu which led to the Toyama prefecture government from quarantine them and nearly delayed their return to Singapore...
He also told us that our Japan-bound jovial friend had acquired a Nintendo Wii and now the latest gaming craze from Nintendo is residing in Tay-chan's place and the offer to have a go at it was laid on the table though no one was there to grab it...
Of course NDS Lite took the spotlight recently as the gang were well immersed into the various games and Ouendan being the number favorite and my final song, "Sekai wa Sore o Ai to Yobundaze" got Ferris engaged in a vociferous hitting of my touch pad with the feeble stylus.. I don't blame him 'cos the umpteen attempts leading to persistent failures can be hard to bear and something burning within you that just wanna clear it...
We duly left as the shop closed for operation for the day and everyone retired early for the badminton session the following day...I think most probably not...

The session on Sunday was held at Yio Chu Kang stadium, just a stone throw (make that with the help of a good catapult) from our place and we had the luxury of our faithful Geely again since Dad had to work OT...
I tempered with the idea of driving the short distance to our venue but the wussy side of me got the better of everything, as I wryly handed the car key to her...
Since we got there rather early, we joined EK and Karen for some jogging round the tracks...
My wife who had been well devoid of any cardiovascular exercise for ages managed to clock 3 rounds, much better than some guys I had seen in IPT while I persevered for 6 under the punishing weather... as for the above mentioned duo, their habitual jogging built enough stamina to jog a full 10 laps...
Despite a proper cool down, I felt decapitated by fatigue from the jogging by the time I was sparring with Chan at the badminton court...not that I did had a stark improvement in the racket game either...
A fulfilling session despite having merely 1 court, all 7 of us who attended had a good 2-3 games under our belts...
After wash-ups, my missus proposed doing health checks on the gang for a personal project for the side line but the time and venue didn't permit, so it had to be shelfed...

We then drove down to a place filled with nostalgia for me..Serene Center at Bukit Timah Road...
My buddies, TW and Foo were already raiding Comic Mart for some reading materials and I noticed a great deal of changes to the infrastructure of the building though most of the shops there remained intact...
The McDonald branch was a usual haunt for me and TW a good decade back on Friday evenings when we were done with our weekly acquisition of comic and going through our haul with a cup of lemon tea (we known as a 'Steven' named after one of the crew at the comic shop)..
The restaurant now was a remnant of the glory days with just the ground level now but still a great place for friends to meet, students to mug exams and comic & cards geeks to cuddle in their little wretched world...not that we are well supportive of the famous golden arch...
We spent a good 3 hours or so (resulting in the final car park fee at an alarming $7.50!!), merely reminiscing the good ol' days as well as discussing the current status of movies, Kamen Rider genre and American comic scene....all these time, my poor wife was trying to pretend to be a wee bit interested and eventually took a quick forty winks...shouldn't had put her through this hang-out session...

There seems to be some celebrity-spotting for the past few days when we caught Chen Liping, a local rotund actress well-adorned by the heartland aunties bringing her toddler son and maid for an unhealthy Sunday brunch, and supposedly too irritated by our presence and made an escape too premature that she left her jacket behind in the restaurant...

2 days ago, I also caught Joanne Peh at Ghim Moh Hawker Center doing some filming..she was almost unrecognizable with a hideously highlighted hair and a frame more associated with an anorexic..

We went on seperate ways when TW was supposed to pick his lass up from shopping (how can he not be the perfect boyfriend?)...
At the carpark, my buddies obliged with the health check , enlisting themselves to be guinea pigs 1 & 2 for a grand total of 1000 down the road...
Seems like TW had put on a bit too much weight since his return from Japan and now mere 3 kgs lighter than myself while Foo seems to be well troubled with sweaty palms which would lead to reproductive problem if left uncured.
Seems like my missus with her dabbling with Chinese medicinal practices lately has the remedy for it without the need of surgery...

With the luxury of the car, we sent Foo to his doorstep at Lorong Asu before embarking eastwards to EK's place at Tampines...
The street directory played its part guiding us to an area of the island we had almost no knowledge of and when we got there, Ferris and Karen were getting bored with rigging up their resin kits...
Yanhui, the mistress of the house was no way in sight, so there were only 3 candidates for the health check and seemingly all 3 were in the pink of health with minor health issues...
One of the prime candidate, Chan was at La Tendo inquired on whether we would be interested in catching "Pirates of Carribean: At World's End", a hefty 3 hours show at 8 plus.. Taking into GV's records of excessive advertising, the show should start by 9 which means it would be Monday morning when we came out of the theater, not an appetizing thought with work beckons barely hours later, so I duly rejected...I just felt "Shrek 3" would be a better choice as it was shorter...

After some fun on NDS and amazingly amused by Phua Chu Kang final season which Chan has "burnt" for EK, we went on separate ways with Karen having to pillion on Ferris' chopper down to town for the show in the evening.
Meanwhile, we duly topped up the fuel for the vehicle for the great distances it had brought us over the weekend before heading back, stopping by her place to pick something up as well as heading to Northpoint where I got a Bengawang Solo's trademark Pandan cheese roll (a favorite pastry introduced by my old colleagues) and rented 3 DVDs to make up for not catching the movie with the rest...

All in all it's a fun time, just hitting the road with my missus, driving around from one place to another and perhaps when we have our offspring like my old friend, Rizan (congrats to the new-born!), we can go travelling the island around as a closely-knitted family unit as long as the traffic permits (highly unlikely) and I wouldn't be surprise as useless as I am as of now, I wouldn't be the driver, Bob...

Japanese word of the day: 巡航 (Cruising) I really doubt Modern Talking Greatest Hits will be the best cruising music but then I was wrong