Wrecking Spices!!

30th July 2007, Monday

The missus is still out of town as she has extended her KL trip for one more day... So another weekend without the spouse, loneliness is the last thing in my mind...

Seriously not that I dread of her presence, but just happen that this weekend becomes one of the most satisfying one for months so far...

It began on Saturday morning...
I was struggling to pry my eyes open and gain enough consciousness by 9 in the morning after falling back to sleep again upon sending the missus for her bus ride at Lavender.

I had arranged or more like coaxed into by Chan to meet as early as 10, so that we could be early for the toy fair at Takashimaya which Bryan had vehemently proclaimed to have the best deals in town...
We delayed meeting up by half an hour and got to Orchard by 11 or so when the Chong brothers were seen with baskets full of their hauls for the day...
The younger Chong had already sustained quite a damage the day before with like 10 figurines for a couple of hundreds of dollars..this for a jobless person is not the best habit ever, but life is short, indulge once awhile is not to be frowned upon..
I had abstained from the thought of a shopping spree, knowing whatever I had garnered today would be items not budgeted for, and kept telling myself and the others how I had waned off from complete figurines which was the main draw of the fair..
In the end I grabbed a figurine which I had always wanted as the price is a mere fraction from the original price, a complete set of Samurai Champloo DVD (from ODEX which definitely have to be the last time I am ever buying their goods..even after sale for good) and even something for the missus...

Since we were already at the shopping mall, Kinokuniya book store is always a must-go and we did though nothing there really lure us to part with our cash..except a guide to the Kansai area which I was designated to buy...
By noon, EK drove us to La Tendo which I stayed for a short while while being spoiled about future storyline of One Piece which I had always frowned upon when hearing...

It was pouring in town and I had to braced the rain to make my way to the Cathay, which was a street away as Foo & CS were already chatting away at the Ben & Jerry joint there...
The former was supposed to be caught up by work and couldn't make it for the movie but in a nice twist of fate, wad liberated from any work commitment and granted us the 1st Wreckers' outing (without the other halves and not a gaming session) in a while...perhaps the inaugural...
TW was the last to arrived with some taiwanese fried chicken cutlet in his hands while the rest of us were to content with ice-cream for our so-called lunch...

"Paprika" was screened in the Picturehouse, which is now shrunk to a little screening room (more than a theater) of a capacity of not more than 120 people or so...The seats had a pretty cozy feel wihich allow springs motion when you extend backwards which TW was harping about before the movie began...
At first we thought it would be a rather sparsely-filled affair with seats surrounding us empty (perhaps our "aura" had worked again) but it turned out to be full house with audience continued to sneaked into the theater 15 minutes into the movie...
The total playtime was about 90 minutes and we were all pretty much marveled by this animated spectacular with a solid script from Kon Satoshi...

Still buzzing from the movie especially with TW jumping around enthusiastically like a lunatic, we went in search of a nice place for dinner to discuss about our afterthoughts....
When this quartet is in town, the lust of quality Japanese cuisine is apparent...
Therefore we headed to where good yet affordable Japanese food is available in Singapore at this juncture..Central at Clarke Quay

The sky was overcast but the rain surely had passed, there was a nice breeze around, so taking a stroll down to Clarke Quay seems like an ideal choice though CS starting to get into his "snap" mode halfway through as we bypass the Mason House and then the fire station behind Funan Center...

After trying some teenie fried donuts which TW highly recommended, we had the stomach for the real meal...
Central, the new shopping mall by Clarke Quay had a good selection of restaurants and eateries from 3rd storey onwards and though everyone was allured by the ambience Ma Maison can provide, it was yet operation time when we got there by 5.15pm
So we chose Waraku japanese restaurant and it was instantly a valid choice as their menu offers a wide variety of Japanese delicacies from sashimi to curry udon to torikayi to mochi cheese croquette to curry rice, no other local Japanese restaurants I had been thus far could match... Most important they offered authentic Calpis drink which we topped up with a scoop of ice-cream for a sumptuous float....
We surely had our fill especially the "sakura" set which comprises of a massive bowl of hotate & cheese cream udon accompanied by a hefty bowl of han with shredded eggs and roe spread on top...If it was enough to fill me, it was enough to fill anyone and I savored every single rice drop or every scoop of cheese cream as it was celestial and well worth every penny...It would be actually ideal if the waitress had a bit more life in her and they didn't attempt to rush and hush us off our table after we were done so as to accomodate the long queue waiting outside...

After the meal, Foo apparently had forgotten about having Ben & Jerry, followed by the Calpis float; so he went on to the ice-cream stall which sells Hokkaido milk y cone while CS went rabid on more tiny donuts even forcing the rest of us to share with him which we obliged though we had to forcefully prevent him to go for another serving...

By this point quite a crowd of people was clustering around Clarke Quay to check out thea aerial displays by our air force for the National Day Parade, which was held at the floating stage at Marina Bay while we couldn't wait to get out of there to prevent been flooded with claustrophobia later on...

We pranced towards Funan Center where TW went to check out on the latest console games on the scene which wasn't too appealing while CS who had became an audiophile lately brought us to The Adelphi which has transformed into a hub for quality audio gadgets these days...

I was hoping to pick up my haul at La Tendo before 8 when they closed for operation but the option of sticking with my Wreckers buddies was too overbearing as I don't know when we would had this golden opportunity to paint the town red, again together, just the 4 of us...

We eventually walked back to Paradiz Center where CS has parked his Sunny and Pepsiman duly gave me and Foo a ride home while TW felt it would be faster and less hassle for CS if he took a direct bus back himself...

I tried my best to wake up on time for the badminton session at Clementi but was always destined to be there for the 2nd half...
It was drizzling when I got to this West-bound town and drizzles turn to a downpour as I sweat it out on the badminton court, continuing my losing streak...
Guess what, totally drenched, Ferris came in at the eleventh hour..literally...
It was 5 minutes to the end of our session when the senior Chong, came in after braving the rain on his bike, supposedly after some tongue-lashing from Karen for not making an appearance for badminton in weeks...
We did patronised our wretchedly soaked friend with a final game though eating beyond our designated time when the Tay brothers and myself slugged a fine game by my own standards before we hit the showers...

After lunch, I went meekly to the comfort of my home to just relax off the remaining of a Sunday with pizza for dinner and durains from my maternal side for desserts..life doesn't get as good as this...

Japanese word of the day: スパイス (Spice) Do you know Paprika is a spice made from capsicum?

Another Untiimely Death

27th July 2007, Friday

A gloomy Friday marks the end of a wonderful legacy for my Canon Ixus 400...
I tried taking some figurine pictures last evening but could not get the usual visual in the preview screen...
At first I assume it might be some dust settling on the lens or something but the problem persisted...
I thought it might be the LCD screen but the viewing mode works perfectly well with some recently taken shots...
So the fault has to be with the lens or CCD with the latter the most feasible reason...

I bought this faithful gadget companion of mine since March 2004 and it somehow couldn't move beyond its fourth year and I'm unsure how much a replacement or repair will cost me
Since the digital camera technology moves at such uncanny speed, a camera with 4.0 megapixels and the bare minimal functions like my Ixus 400 might be scorned at these days...

However I certainly am sentimental over it and it had served me so well for years with my photography for my figurine collection even though my photography affluency is close to null..
I am so used to tweaking the various functions instantaneously while shooting a massive number of pictures at one go...

Below are some viable options I can adopt for my digital photography need for now:

1. Bring my previous IXUS for a repair at the official Canon care center, the damage might be a few hundreds of dollars and get back the same technology from 2004...many people would think it is a foolish choice...
2. My wife has a Nikon Coolpix while my sister has a relatively newer version of Canon IXUS at home which I could use at arm's reach... And since my photography typically confines to my workstation at home for my figurine pictures onto my webpage, it should be suffice.. But there will be occasions when neither be available, and by then in times of need, I might need to borrow's Dad low-brow and bulky counterpart which sends shivers down my spine at the thought of it.
3. Wait for good lobang ot buy a new camera for exclusive usage, most probably conventions like IT show or something...
4. Lookout for some really cool ones in my upcoming Japan trip for a brainchild of some Japanese IT whiz which will never be shipped for local retailing.
   

Despite the above-mentioned options to sooth that void left by my IXUS, my heart still aches with recollection of the good time I had with it and how badly it would be missed...
It's been a few lousy months for me with regards to my gadgets such as my PC and my headphones, and all these have barely been utilized for more than 2-3 years...
I got to reflect on how I have been roughing out my tools that they somehow cannot last as long as I would hope...I'm just not a delicate person when come to care for my personal possession...

Same could be said with relationship I guess...
The missus would be heading north for the weekend once again and for the past week, I had only seen her for minutes before retiring for bed and getting ready for work...
I sure hope our relationship will not mysteriously blow out into my face like what my Canon IXUS had out of the blue...

Japanese word of the day: 写真撮影(Photography)After so many years, my photograhpy ability is still way below amateurish, so I better don't waste a fortune on a good SLR...

時をかける少女

25th July 2007, Tuesday

By no mere coincidence, 2 movies I caught over the weeks involved the concept of time...

In "Cashback", an Academy award winning short film turned full movie feature by this Canadian chap, Sean Ellis, it involves the protagonist Ben, an art student who was dumped by his girlfriend, Suzy and suffered insomnia for weeks...
He mentioned with this extra 8 hours daily, he needed to dispense off for some rewards while trying to rid thoughts about his old flame...thus the idea of doing the graveyard shift at a local 24 hours supermarket...
Like many of his fellow colleagues, enduring the slow minutes of the wee hours was a painful experience.. While the rest cultivated methods of their own not to regard time (such as avoid looking at watches or clocks) or simply wasting them, Ben managed to spawn the ass-blowing power of freezing time though in reality himself is experiencing the toll of time, a bit off from actual physics theory but then again just take the script with a pinch of salt...
Ben made use of this power of his with some mischief like stripping his female customers and drew their portraits (yes it's what a typical testosterone-filled lad would do) or putting some annoying personnel (like his manager) in some awkward situations...

Later on, he grew affection for a female colleague, Sharon and she responded in a favorable way; however during their boss' birthday party, his ex appeared and wanting to reconcile by planting a big fat kiss on him, drawing ire from Sharon...and that's where the story led him to break his insomnia curse and a prank by his colleagues actually managed to make an art gallery paid attention to his artistic talent and he finally made up with Sharon in his first art exhibition and they made out in the midst of a snowy night which he had halted with his power...

So all in all, supposed to be a arty show with substantial storyline and avant garde cinematography turned out to be a rather no-brainer but enough to keep one interested till the end, especially plenty of flesh to be seen...

Meanwhile in "時をかける少女" or "The Girl that Leapt Through Time", a Kadokawa Shoten-Madhouse production which had drew ravings from my buddies, was indeed a nice animated feature for a Sunday night...


She should leap into the past with the BGM of Johnny Hates jazz's "Turn Back the Clock"

The show has some sci-fi element in it with the protagonist, Makoto's pal from school and eventual love interest, Chiaki actually is a time traveler from the future who came to this timeline just to view a painting..that part was a bit smudgy for me to understand...

Basically by accident, Makoto acquired the power to leap through time from the power vessel in the form of a walnut, and she was bestowed the ability of leaping back into past for like a hundred times...
The first of which saved her ass when the braking system of her bike malfunctioned and resulted in a near-death when it hit a barricade and hurled her towards an advancing train...
Later on, she used this power, not to save mankind from some historical mistakes in the martyr way but to her own advantages and correcting some misconceptions of how fellow schoolmates had of her or even avoided confession by her closest baseball buddies, Chiaki and Kousuke...

The time-leaping parts had a pretty ingenious and entertaining rollercoaster ride but I felt if it was a live-action movie, Makoto would need a stunt double with a hefty insurance coverage with all these knocking and thumping over objects from the leaps

Like "Cashback" there was a time-freezing scene when Chiaki explained to her that he was actually from the future before he disappeared to allowing someone from the past to make use of their ability to time-leap...
Near the end alot of whining and sobbing of not able to find Chiaki and blah blah blah...so I wasn't paying too much attention...

Nevertheless it was a nice, light-hearted animated movie with absolutely no fan sabisu even with Makoto was seen in her school uniform which is a mini folded dress all the time and she was doing stunts that would put Jackie Chan to shame, go figure...

Actually it would be great to have the ability to freeze time or leap into the past, like some of our IT guys at work would love to possess as the computer network at work went cranky since yesterday when random workstations would experience a void of internet access or even local server where we store our precious data, making life at work pretty difficult...
Luckily my workstation was one of the rare few who was spared this ordeal...

Japanese word of the day: 氷結(Freeze) If I could freeze time, I shall do all the 101 things I had wanted to do but never had the time for

The Perfect Cycling Trip

23rd July 2007, Monday

The weather had been good on Saturday, despite being arid as for weeks now...global warming man...
So the rendezvous point for the few North-based colleagues was Yio Chu Kang MRT station cum bus interchange as the SBS No. 76 was the only viable choice to head eastwards towards Marine Parade and East Coast Park...

A good 40 minutes later inclusive of a rather sweat-inductive stroll towards the park, we finally got to that famous Golden Arc fast food joint where the rest of the gang had already gathered...

Objective: A good bicycle ride round the park for at least 2 hours on this faithful day

So we went to the nearest bicycle renting booth along the beach and each got that 2-wheels...
It was amusing to see 2 of my male colleagues deciding to ride a tandem while the rest of us settled for the usual mountain bikes...
SL, the attachment girl who was a close chum of ours at work, decided to go on the rollerblades to flaunt some of her skills...
In a matter of minutes, the entire crew was rolling off like how Optimus Prime would command his loyal Autobots...

The ECP had looked almost the same as I last came years back...The same old cycling path lined with coconut and palm trees with a considerable population of our Malay comrades already littering the beach area, pitting their tents or spreading their family picnics...playing a bit of soccer with the ah-bangs & ah-dehs...
Since it's a Saturday you will notice quite a few coagulation of students basking in their class outings which I had experiences myself..The same youthful foolishness of innocent courtship which gives me goosbumps these days...
I must admit I am not a beach person, and that from a guy living on an island all his life, may bears a notion of irony...
Despite being in the Navy, I was never a good swimmer and the idea of gulping mouthfuls of salted sea water ain't the best way to complement struggling against the tidal waves...
I also hated cleaning sands off myself after the entire ordeal...
Seriously if I wanted to go to a beach, it would surely not be the polluted seawaters Singapore possess but the pristine blue ones we see from some of our neighboring countries (for e.g. Koh Samui where I had my honeymoon)

I am also not a bike person..Though learning how to balance myself on a 2-wheeler since the tender age of 6, I had many unforgettable accidents while supposedly cruising on bikes and scars to remind me of the agony inflicted from these accidents...
Therefore I was a bit jittery during my first km on the path but eventually got the hang of it as long as I wasn't dumb enough to try the sharp bends...
It was great having the wind rushing towards your face under the glaring sun which gives us a good tan at the end...
We had a good chat about the lousy bosses and much-loathed colleagues at work, the latest movies we had caught, hobbies, politics and anything under the sun...
In no time it was already early evening and a few of us had got appointments lined up for the latter half of a beautiful Saturday...
It was when we returned the bikes and bode each other farewell to put a perfect cycling trip to a close...

Would really anticipate another of such cycling expedition with my colleagues...That is if it actually did happened....

It didn't take a meteorologist to give an astute weather forecast as on Saturday morning, our local skies was engulfed in heavy rain clouds which sent showers to the entire island...relieving us from those hot and humid days and nights we had recently...
A message from BY who had been coordinating with HB, the main organizer that the cycling trip would unfortunately had to be abolished as raindrops had been relentlessly pelting at the eastern side of the island as well...
Woohoo..just when we actually bother to have a group outing among the colleagues and this happened...

Well I spent the entire Saturday just slacking around at home cos the rain came intermittently throughout the day..I had paid my weekly dues to La Tendo the evening before as EK mentioned that there would be a hefty shipment due on Friday afternoon and had summoned the gang to render some help packing when actually he had done it on his own by 3 in the afternoon..
I went nevertheless as I had planned to do so and had dinner with the few of them present...

Sunday was a carbon copy of the weeks before with badminton (attendance seemingly dwindling with only the likes of me, my wife, EK, Karen and Chan bothered to turn up for 2nd week in succession)...
We then chat about the future of the shop when they actually moved (location has nailed) and did got me buzzing abit by how the expanded shop may turn out...
The rest of Sunday was very much like the week before with movies that I had hoped to be entertaining and they were...
The missus was out the entire afternoon but basically still in Yishun with a visit to a fellow business partner for an exhibition and then back to visit her folks which we hadn't done so for weeks now...

Well perhaps it was meant for us not to go for this cycling trip...

Japanese word of the day: 運命~un-mei~(Fate) Believe in it 'cos it can explain some unexplainable phenomenon...

Dechipering Hidden Messages...

19th July 2007, Thursday

When the cats are out, the mice come out to play....

All the directors, associate directors, group leaders, managers and any mother sons/daughters that belong discreetly in the "upper management" category are on their jolly way to Bintan for their annual retreat...
We had heard about this for a while but only the ultra-rare sight of one of our leaders (the Chinese one) in a very casual round-neck Tee and jeans which reminded us...
So basically all the authoritative figures including our French supervisor are now basking in the tropical paradise with their suntan lotion in their hands while we here just pretending hard to be diligent at work under the soggy weather (the sight of a downpour was a rejoicing moment after the excruciating heat for weeks)...

Well not exactly all the bosses are out...there were sightings of Shitty Green (or By labeled as P.E.N.O these days..go figure...) in his office, engaging in a conversation (and I hope it was just conversation they are engaging) with the rotund Goddess just before lunch... maybe the sense of remorse might have hindered him to enjoy himself with the rest and cast off his anti-social shell...NOT!

In fact tension had been escalating for the past week since last week's confrontation...
There had been blatant avoidance to have our eyes contact with him, in fact he was hidden in his obscure office for days...
Communication at best was only via e-mails when it is only necessary for purely work basis...
Then this faithful reply came, a full week since I had sent him the orginal email...

Thanks for clearing this up; and thanks to both of you for reporting this in the first place. Perhaps I over-reacted and unfairly singled out BY in my little outburst.

Take note of the usage of "Perhaps"...he might still think he is not at thw wrong when every possibility has pointed that indeed he is a small man who would bring personal emotions to work and persistently refused to admit his fault...

The last thing I want is a culture of blame or fear, and it is important that we can all admit any mistakes and accidents without recrimination.

Firstly the culture of blame is evident in any workplace especially ours when everyone worries more about covering their own asses
As for fear...fear of him...heehee... yeah right...

I guess the point I was trying to make is that, while accidents do happen, they do also matter, and we should all strive to keep them to an absolute minimum.

We held umpteen examples of worse off mistakes made by staff past and present which warrant a reaction much subtle from him... BY said it is personal against her, I had to nod in agreement...

I hope (and believe, don't get me wrong) that both of you are working with the confidence that the success and quality of your work really matters and is appropriately recognized.

This is the crux of this bloody email!!
Firstly what has it got to do with me?!
I was just pointing out that BY is a valued member of our staff and suddenly I was involuntarily sucked into this unsavory episode the moment I sent that email...
It is blatant we both had been bundled as "troublemakers" in his beady eyes and our exits will be perhaps a New Year resolution to him (maybe even earlier..)
He used "hope" about our work so far, reveals he still fails to recognise our capability, perhaps we don;t have Master degrees or chat about the pinnacle of scientific papers with him on regular basis...We Bad!

In any case, if you have any concerns or comments about this or anything else, please don't hesitate to talk to me.

Er... no way in flaming blue hell no!

With this reply was carbon-copied to our French supervisor, she must has assume that the recent restlessness has been resolved by itself...
However little did she know that, we had taken the reply in another perspective from which he has now viewed us as dispensable troublemakers...

A war is gonna be waged and in the tradition of "300", we had to conquer all adversities like King Leonaidis and his Spartans...

Think I need to hit the gym more often to sculpt my abs like those ancient Greeks, and honey, get ready my red cape, brass helmet and some Martell for the facial hair...cos "SPARTANS!! Tonight we dine in HELL!!"

Japanese word of the day: 戦争 (War) An inevitable one maybe rising when time ripes...

Fallout of another Weekend

16th July 2007, Monday

Not much thoughts this weekend which I spent entirely with the missus and the La Tendo gang...
A late night on Friday evening, we slept at 4 in the morning in fact accumulated lethargy for the wife as she decided to take a day off work to curb that irresistible Monday blues
Then again the barrage of calls from her office on Sunday was a killjoy for a day she had expect to just have a good work out with badminton and then another of the product outing with her side lines chums...

Weekend came early for us as for the 2nd night in a row, we headed to AMK central where our celebration for Ferris & EK s' birthdays were held at the K Box in Mac Center (if that was what the building was called)
The main birthday boy (a day belated nonetheless) came a bit late from work when the entire lot of us cuddled in a slightly cramped karaoke box as they had not reserved the biggest room for us...
We were shortly joined by Bryan and Chan from their own personal affairs preceding the crooning session...
The main focus was the Hi-Nu Gundam EK had done for Ferris while for a moment a few of us engaged fervently in a game of Mario Kart on our NDS linked by wi-fi...which I sucks big time...
As we worked our vocal chords till 3 am in the morning, we entertained ourselves with the song selection which spanned a good 30 years in Chinese pop history while the likes of Vincent, Miyano & Reedy hid in the other room offered for us with a non-stop English oldies session...




I do look fat in these pictures




The only place you'll see an orange Gundam...

We got out by noon and was adequately satisfied with our brunch comprised of Mom's famous curry chicken with plenty of potato pieces to appease our starch cravings...
Then we just hid out from the arid Saturday weather, procrastinating to hit town as the missus had to rendezvous with EK and Yanhui for the Jacky Cheung concert in the evening..
It turned out that Karen would be attending the concert as well as a free ticket from a male friend led us to raised eyebrows on that guy's intention...Seriously I wouldn't part a good $90+ on a concert ticket to a platonic female friend without a motive, but then that's me...
After dinner with the concert-going lot as well as Bryan who had loads of free time after his resignation from his mundane job, we hung out awhile at the store and chat about the future of this joint we had grew affections about over the years....
Expansion is the main way to go when the landlord uses unscruplous ways to snatch back the lease and utilize it for their own business which might bust eventually...
Now across the horizon is a unit twice as big as the current place in a boisterous shopping mall, opening hours of 10 to 10 everyday 7 days a week and probably more staff to support such torrid, punishing hours..but overall it will head to the correct direction that is if Kallang is actually that accessible...

Badminton on Sunday was a pretty fun session though only 5 of us attended as Chan and myself seemed cursed to win a game even with EK & Karen were sniggering with their all fours, they are still capable of beating us...
As the rest left with Brother, I had a nice brunch with my wife at AMK once again as our objective was to grab a couple of Ben & Jerry's Ice-cream from Fair Price which in the end didn't materialize when the offer for 2 at a good price concluded... To requite our appetite for actual tasy ice cream we choose cheaper alternatives named Bud...
It was also the first time I noticed that the basement of the Hub is quite a myriad...

Back home my missus once again seemed sap of life like a few weeks back and just recharge herself with a nap while I began a movie marathon with the likes of "Nacho Libre", "Little Children", "The Holiday" & ending with "40 year Old Virgin"...plenty of Tinseltown in that line-up and a good mix of Jack Black & Kate Winslet...

After the fallout of last week's confrontation to BY by Shitty Green, we tried ignore him but he was not in sight for the entire which is just way perfect for us...
Argentina got beaten Brazil in the final of Copa America once again soundly by 3 goals to nil which drew my ire... Argentina was in the form of their life with a talented squad but still failed to beat their arch nemesis who always managed to perform when it matters...
There was a 6.6 earthquake that hit Niigata, Japan which puts a "wonderful" end to this Monday which supposed to have a firedrill conducted at my workplace but somebody obviously forgotten about it....

Japanese word of the day: しなびた ~shi-na-bi-ta~ (Sapped) I think my badminton enthics totally sapped my wife out of life...

Stand Up for Your Fellow Man!

13th July 2007, Friday

Last evening an compulsive urge by my missus resulted in an impulsive movie date at the Cathay cineplex at AMK Hub (which has the criteria to be our favorite movie watching venue) to catch the latest instalment of Harry Potter movies from Warner Brothers, "The Order of the Phoenix".

The fifth film based on the best-selling literature by the multi-millionaire J.K. Rowlings had David Yates, a TV director at helms this time and it went quite wryly awful when they thought they could squeeze the thickest book in the series into a 140 minutes movie, it left us bewildered at times with some storyline...
It was yet another dark feature with Harry struggling to stop Valdemort from haunting him ever since his return in the previous film while he tried to convince the dark lord did indeed returned while the Ministry of Magic by all their wits tried to suppress him, in fear of repurcussions of fear being spread within the community...
Young Potter constantly was been cooped in a neverending nightmares of Valdemort and his misdeeds and started to go all "the hero in agony" thing which I had always hated...

The only salvation was the eye candy in the form of...no not that prune-faced Cho Chang but the number one heroine of the show, Hermione..or more specifically the young Emma Watson...



Since litting up the screen in the X'mas party in "The Globet of Fire", showing the audience who had watched her grown from a cute little 11-years old by blossoming into a fine lady...
In this film despite playing very much the background, she always charms the crowd with her usual wittiness and the way she tied her hair backwards...
Seriously if I am not a married uncle nearing 30s but in my teens with raging hormones, I would certainly go gaga over this fine British girl...
Now I just anticipate to see her works in the future...

It's Friday the 13th but the omnimous day befalls on BY a day earlier...
She was clearing the freezer in search of some samples as our supervisor had instructed but the top drawer was stack to the brim with some racks placed there by the Goddess for sure...
My brute force was enlisted to forcibly pulled the drawer out and with a bad twist of fate a couple of racks were hurled to the groud, spilling all teh samples tubes...
BY felt the need to inform Shitty Green who surprisingly returned yesterday when we had assumed it would the coming Monday instead...
Little did we expected, he would come storming into the lab and starting to scorn BY about her poor working attitude and had been judgemental about the fact that our outspoken colleague for not being serious at work...
I overheard in shock of the ongoings and seriously anyone at work could vouch that BY has been one of the most hardworking personnel who treated her work with responsibility and pride, thus Shitty Green's claim was uncalled for...
As expected, my poor colleague was disenchanted after that reprimand and felt the quick urge to resign and move to something new...

I felt the compulsion to clarify with Shitty Green how awfully wrong with his blinded perceptions at the same time notifying our understanding supervisor of this incident...
I had attempted to write in the most diplomatic manner possible and tactful enough not to irk my direct boss...
By the end of the day my supervisor came to console BY who was wrecked with emotions while no reply from our tactless & insensitive American boss, not till today...

Ultimately it might bring about bad repercussions to myself for standing up for my fellow co-worker but I felt I couldn't let this piece of injustice laid to rest like that with BY been maligned while others with even worse-off working attitude went scot-free and lauded...

When I brought this issue out in the weekly group meeting this afternoon without the presence of BY, I was observing the reactions of the others in the group...
His Beautiness was using hand gestures to signal the advice of letting his blunt comments to go in from one ear and comes out the other while Jason too shared that sentiment...meanwhile the only Indian in the group could barely care more...Surely make me disillusioned with this group...
There was no strong bond between us to stand up for one another in times of need and with everyone covering their own ass...
It's not wrong but just make working here suffocating when Shitty Green decided to continue maligning people with hurtful accusations...

In the end when BY uttered her grattitude for the e-mail, I felt it is worth it to support the same person who pulled me over from my previous douldrums , though in the near future neither of us might remain working here...

Japanese word of the day: 結束 (Bond) If we could form a bond as strong as the Dumbledore's Army at work....

More Than Meets The Eyes

9th July 2007, Monday

On Saturday, the much hyped 7th July 2007 or 070707 descended to our calendar and sent everyone globally into the date frenzy when it was just an ordinary Saturday to say the best...
This unique date was chosen by the likes of 777 couples (or should I say suckers) to beat the crowd and among themselves to get knotted matrimonially...
Great you got this special dat which occurs once a millennium and things got buzzing on the wedding ceremony..let's hope the marriage stays as long as 0.1% of a millennium though..SUCKERS!

Then our good friend Al Gore, the former vice-president back in in late 1990s for the Big Bubba Clinton who had transformed into a one-man vigilante against global warming and other ill effects human beings had inflicted towards our precarious mother earth, decided to bandied a troop of well-known musicians to host a 24 hour non-stop concert marathon across the globe in 9 countries over 7 continents, known as Live Earth..much like Live Aid or Live 8 which Bob Geldof had created years ago but at a larger scale...
Our local English speaking channel was good enough to broadcast the entire event from Saturday evening till Sunday..almost all as they explicitly excluded the performances by J-pop artists like Koda Kumi, Otsuka Ai, A.I., Rip Slyme, Bonnie Pink, Ayaka, abingdon boys school etc... which was the main attraction for me to catch for the event, which was a letdown
Then again I could be sleeping or out somewhere when they did feature these artists on TV...
Not that I haven't seen their performances before which will be almost the same as those from their own variety programmes.
I am though quite interested in catching Y.M.O headed Sakamoto Ryuichi in action...then again maybe not...

Got a new hair style, perhaps the shortest crop I had adopted in ages when Wendy, my contracted (which contract is non-existent btw) hairdresser decided to let her creativity get the best of her and it turned out to be quite satisfactory...
Thought I would raised some eyebrows in La Tendo, I slid into the shop with ninja-like stealth and start fiddling with my NDS in the middle of a usual Saturday crowd to everyone's ignorance...SWEET...
Perhaps the crew were more pre-occupied with finalizing the plan to relocate to perhaps Kallang (I shudder at the thought of traveling to beyond the National Stadium on weekly basis) when the current lease for the shop is up...
They had their good run at Sunshine Plaza and before it could celebrate its official 1st birthday (since it was opened on 29th February 2004), it would be facing the sudden need to shift...

It was badminton at Clementi Sports Hall again on Sunday and we were joined by some of EK's chain-smoking chums who can serve and smack better than yours truly (then again that's about 99% of the world population when the other 1% are actual professional players)...
After a brunch which really stuffed me to the brim (an accidental order of too much Tim Sum when all I wanted was a Lor Mai Kai), my New-Super-Mario-Bros-obsessed missus headed to RV Mr Chan at China Square Central to pick up a pre-ordered figurine but ended spending over a hundred bucks there when I managed to unravel the fact that the same shop sold items I wanted which La Tendo couldn't provide (I am getting used to it lately by the way).
We then headed for a rather costly authentic Hong Kong style dessert deli across the road when we could had traveled a bit further to across Chinatown Square for cheaper alternatives since we are heading that direction to take a bus down to AMK Hub while Chan could head down to La Tendo himself...

After a surprisingly comfortable bus rid when both of us reeling the effects of waking up early, fell into slumber and woke up just in time as the bus arrived at Singapore's 2nd air conditioned bus interchange...
As usual the Hub was infested with crowd which seems to be bewitched by the mall to keep patronizing it, and the rest was still not to be found by 4pm before Foo being the first to arrived, followed by CS with his lass, Miss Beer whom we had the honor to meet for the first time before TW who mistakenly caught himself in the jam outside the Hub which we should have warned him about..
By then the movie has began on the dot of the screening time and even we missed the short beginning of it and Foo was not wrong to describe it a usual Michael Bay-action-packed affair since the beginning till the very end...

After the movie, TW was gravely affected by how Optimus Prime was portrayed while unanimously we felt the storyline was pretty bleak but it was entertaining nevertheless...
Bay tried a bit too hard on the cinematography for the action scenes and I found the involvement of the human characters was an overkill especially when they could take down the likes of Blackout by themselves...
It surely paid some tributes to those TF G1 fans (I wasn't one myself, I'm more into He-man & M.A.S.K back then) though still roused some ramblings and rantings from avid fans..
The use of Peter Cullen, the original voice actor of Optimus Prime was an ideal choice and he still brought that voice of justice which we all grew accustomed to from the leader of Autobots...
Meanwhile Hugo Weavings was almost unrecognizable as the voice of Megatron (who transform into an alien jet instead of a pistol now) after all the digital effects into it...
Shia LaBeouf who is the main protagonist, Sam (we all known as Spike back then) did a splendid job, though I'm not sure about being a true action flick hero material, I love the way he was driven to madness when the Autobots invaded his house while his parents are on his tail for all the commotion.. This kid sure had some comedic value in him and might be the next Ben Stiller...

After the show, we had a rare dinner session (hack watching movie as the wreckers is rare by itself) at S-11 near Jubilee since it would be diabolical to just consider squirming through the rabid crown in the Hub for dinner...
It was when we conversed even more on the movie and how it could be better like true-blue losers like ourselves are groomed to be...
Then a habitual visit to a console game retailer (the same where most of the LT gang got their NDS lite from) for TW to quench his gaming need and so-called research while for CS is another day as a hardcore gamer...

It surely is more than meets the eyes as well that my buddy would desert (a strong word but that's what exactly happened) his previous girl for the current squeeze...
It was perhaps her personality that moves him and perhaps that gentle touch that makes him felt she is the one...
At the end of the day, as friends, we felt as long as he is happy, we'll be glad for him as well...

Japanese word of the day: 表面的 (Skin deep) Michael Bay's movie tends to be visual treat and barely skin deep in storyline while I doubt earth can be saved very much by a concert marathon

京都： 全部城と神社ですか。

5th July 2007, Thursday

I've camped at my workstation for the past 2 days or so with the lack of lab work scheduled for me, so basically just some data management stuff which can be sending me to extreme boredom while causing my eyes to see vertigo after fixating it to the monitor browsing wikipedia on gay musicians...er..I mean working on my data...

Somehow all the bosses are not around, and the entire office just seems pleasantly quiet and dormant...

Been researching on Kyoto with high chance we might be visiting the old capital of Japan back in the Edo period...
However thus far the attractions look kind of bleak to me..
Then again we are there to savor the wonderful colors of an autumn that actually last unlike Hokkaido, so a place like Nanzenji is a must go to indulge in the myriad of colors of maple leaves in autumn...
The temple is minutes walk from Ginkakuji , the silver pavilion, which pales in cpmparison to Kinkakuji or the Golden Pavilion which really is made with gold and seems to be a must-go when in Kyoto...
Otherwise most of the attractions seem to be focus on the selection of castles, shrines or temples which might not bat an eyelid if you are not there with the purpose of basking in the culture and heritage...
However there is Gion, the famous geisha district, the Iga Ninja Museum to get a feel of one of the famous ninja clan featured in the movie "Shinobi" or go for some hotspring in the village of Kurama..
Of course since we are in the Kansai region, we are at close proximity to Osaka where we can shop at Namba or Umeda or have a short guided trip to Nara...
All in all with a planned ryokan (旅館) stay in Central Kyoto city, we are set to fully enjoy the true authenticity of olden Japan...

On the flip side, we will have to miss the famous night scenery of Hakodate, wonderful ice-cream and musical box from Otaru and the delectable uni (sea urchin)-rice from Nishii fish market in Sapporo, but considering how much time we might have spent on traveling just to commute to the northern island of Japan as well as in the unfamiliarity to the prefecture despite being there once, I think we will leave it for another trip...

And with Kyoto barely 140 minutes trip to Tokyo, I can bring my sister and her beau to grace the hustle and bustle of the capital of Japan despite my missus might be a bit sick of it..then again a 2 days Mt. Fuji-Hakone-onsen tour might rouse her interest...

Still a good 2-3 months to plan which depends on when autumn descend in West Honshu so that we can finalize the departure date...so might be too early to get excited about everything...

Finally a good example of how good customer service is from Cathay cineplexes beside that infamous case of over-reservation for early bird movie tickets for "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" a few years back...
My missus went to the box office to purchase the tickets for a 1.40pm show for "Transformers" at the newly-opened cineplex at AMK Hub which promised the stadium-style cinema...
After sending out the SMS to my wrecker-buddies, my good ol' buddy told me he might be able to make it on time for the show at lunchtime due to a lunch commitment with his cousins...
Since it will be an inaugural movie outing for the 4 of us, I wanna make it happen so I dropped an enquiry to the HQ of Cathay to see whether we can change the tickets for a later timing since the show is still days away and availability of the tickets shouldn't be an issue...
I was expecting them to return mail the following day but the reply came almost instantly to grant me my wish and further bolster my belief that Cathay, beside their good seats, wonderful DTS surround sound system and tasty pop-corns, actually give a damn about their customers unlike other larger cineplex franchise out there...
And to add the chery topping, we got some discount off the regular price of movie ticket on a Sunday due to a credit card special from my wife...yippee!

Japanese word of the day: 神社(Shrine) Trust me you will get bored after visiting the 2nd successive shrine or temple on the same day...

Entering Her World...

3rd July 2007, Tuesday

Back to work after a long weekend with my leave yesterday meant for recuperation but I spent a whole deal of it clearing stages in my new-found favorite NDS game, "Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass" which with the aid of a walk-through from some kind Zelda-loving soul in another part of the world, made accessing through this Japanese game pretty easy and boy did it truly made usage of the playability of the NDS...

Ok enough of waxing lyrical about the game... Somehow the report I promised Shitty Green which will be handed it before his departure tomorrow seems to be laced with errors which my fastidious French supervisor once again managed to pick the bones out of the egg... Once again ego seems deflated but it's the work nature, what to do...
Which makes me ponder whether I should liberate myself from working for someone under a rigid structure or be my own boss as those inspirational speakers on Sunday during the convention I was conned to attend...more on that in a while...

After the hearty lab lunch to commemorate KM's imminent departure and resulting in a considerable dent in Shitty Green's pocket, I spent most of Saturday just hanging loose at home before heading off to my missus' business HQ for collection of a set of rather expensive cosmetic merchandise she had just purchased...now I know where her money went...well at least it is of some purpose...

We got to La Tendo by early evening and first time in weeks we met the couple of Vincent and Miyano after the latter's ordeal with chronic food poisoning and their Japan cultural exchange trips...
While the lot was harping over Transfomers: The Movie which they had caught the night before, we made inquiry from our Japan-smart friends on how to plan for a free & easy trip to Hokkaido and our original idea of admiring the beautiful crimson shades of the maple leaves in autumn got a reality bite from them as autumn in Hokkaido is miserably transient and the more ideal place would be Kansai area like Kyoto which might turn out to be our destination comes October/November.

Our final destination on Saturday was my buddy's place as we dropped by (more like making the trip with purpose) to congratulate his elder sis who is proceeding with her customary wedding ceremony on Sunday...
How ironic that she and her hubby could not make it for ours due to a trip up north to Malaysia and we were missing theirs because of a trip northwards...

We tried to sleep early in vain and crept out of bed with red-soddened eyes as my folks were so kind enough to wake up at the wee hours of 4 in the morning to send us to Lavender which was the rendezvous point for our bus pick-up...
I had intended to encapsulate myself from their enthusiasm about their trip with regards with their sidelines...and when I am in my anti-social shell, I could really put on a snobby show which I did for the first half of the day towards KL when the crew were joked and sang songs while I was glad to be drowned in my manga, NDS and iPod...
We got to Sunway Lagoon at KL by lunch time and the crux of coming to this shopping mall cum themepark was to grace the product exhibition which my missus told me was a carnival...I knew her command of English were rather inadequate but an exhibition is not a carnival and I had to drag myself with a heavy and reluctant legs as she buzzed around the joint with zest much like myself when I was in the midst of a Wonder Festival in Japan...

The 2nd part of their celebration would be a national convention at Bukit Jalil indoor stadium..
Once again she mentioned it to be a concert and a convention is not a concert and I would have to endure a full 4 hours of it stretching till 10plus .
However I had to give it to the organizer as they managed to create the atmosphere of a concert with more rabid fans in the 16000 patrons attending the convention...
The pyrotechnics, backup visual and audio system and the way the sequence of events was carried out reveals the professionalism they had pitted for this convention as a way to reward their hard work to make the organization such profitable and powerful within Malaysia..
However the crowd beside comprising of patrons from all the states in East and West Malaysia but also suckers like ourselves from Singapore and also Brunei...
There were mass songs singing and performances from the likes of a Malaysian Idol dude with a lady's voice and Ning Baizura with rather impressive tushie who impressed the crowd with a Chinese song and even a classic Cantonese tune from Alan Tam...
But the gist of the convention was the few speakers who were successful members of the organization who shared their experience of climbing to the status they are basking now...inspirational talk ..if you understand Malay of course as most of it were conveyed in their national language till the prime speaker at the end, a charismatic uncle who had transformed his life within 3 years of non-stop process of building his business without any distraction from trivial issue like relationship which he comically illustrate to be the bane of this business...
While he entered the arena in the shabby scooter he bought back in the late 70s when he first started the business, he left in the Porsche my wife kept emphasizing that he bought with cold hard cash, something she would envisioned to reciprocate when she made it on her own as well...

At the end of it I must agree that the ideology they are conveying sounds perfectly ethical in which "perseverance and hard work is the key to your success" and they encouraged everyone to emulate their success which totally perked everyone up even as the convention came to an end...
I know my wife had no devious intention to bring me to this event, just an eye-opener of what she had been striving for for the past few years...
I know that she had the ultimate dream of retired from her career and focus on this business which had umpteen examples of success unlike some pyramid-scams we grew to know of...
I truly pray she could make it but at the end of it, I am doubtful I would be joining her...well time and fate will tell.

Japanese word of the day: 成功 ~sei-kou~(Success) My immediate success now would be complete my Legend of Zelda...