Having a Bad Day in Mid Autumn

25th September 2007, Tuesday

It's Mid Autumn Festival (中秋节)..While our Taiwanese/Hong Kong/Chinese counterparts are enjoying like 3 days public holidays in their respective countries, here in in the south eastern part of Asia, we got no autumn and not holiday...something to lament to...

Yesterday's Monday blues has slowly permeated to torment my Tuesday thus the theme for me this very day has to be Daniel Powter's "Bad Day"

It all began last evening when as anticipated, my tour agent dropped a call but the harbinger of bad news certainly ruined my night with the fact that our hotel request for both Osaka and Tokyo had been fully booked...
This inculcated fear within me that with the trip merely weeks away, we might need to reside along the streets with no means of lodging in Japan's 2 biggest cities...
Of course I am being paranoid but my agent did not give me any assurance that she will push the JAL people to get us replacement hotels by hook or by crook...
My mood was foul the whole evening and even snubbed my missus' discussion of where to go when we are in Japan...she just picked the wrong time for it...
This carried over till the morning after, until the same agent buzzed me to inform me that they managed to find alternative lodging with confirmation for reservation... so instead of Akihabara Washington, we got the sister branch in Shinjuku while instead of Hotel Sunroute Umeda at Nakatsu, by a twist of fate, we got back Riva Nankai in Namba now by its incarnation of Cross Hotel...
At least that got out of the way...now the ball is at my sister's court for her beau to settle his traveling visa...

Still in the midst of feeling void of zeal for my routine work and jaded about the lodging in Japan, I got a call from the friendly clerk in my navy unit...
He didn't beat around the bush and asked if I am interested in visiting Kao Hsiung again next April...
WHAT?! Are you nuts..I'm not visiting that Taiwan city period...if I have a choice...
I supposed with 5 more high key ICTs yet to clock, I most probably might be heading back to pay my dues for the wretched National Service shit...
But I don't foresee going back that god-forsaken place for 2 consecutive years...so I have to try to send in the deferment letter as soon as the beckon begins half a year before the ICT (meaning most probably in October)...
I really do HATE serving this NS shit to the CORE!!!

However an event on the American TV scene surely helps to perk up the rest of my day a bit..Yes after the long long wait, Hiro, Ando, Claire, Jessica, Peter and the rest of the gang are back as "Heroes" season 2 begins last evening in the States and got the whole fanbase buzzing with excitement, yours truly included...till Starworld ruins it all by rerunning over and over and over again...

Japanese word of the day: 悪い日 (Bad Day) Daniel sang "Photos don't lie"...seriously if I have a bad day I wouldn't take a photo for anyone

Wish I Work in Tampines

24th September 2007, Monday

When the wind was howling resiliently while I was taking my morning showers, a storm was beckoning and at the worst time possible...the peak hour Monday morning...
To compound the misery to getting pretty drenched as I pranced towards the MRT station, I felt a terrible stomachache merely seconds from leaving my block... which didn't took me long to gallop back home to alleviate the pain...
It was near 8 am when I got to the train platform and with a 45 minutes train ride to be anticipated, I would reach office shy of 9 am...
Not that it really matters with a chronic lack of work for me to dwell upon, which is why I am doing this post to keep myself awake...

One person who would have difficulties keeping herself awake would be my missus who came home by the stroke of 1 am after yet another long-winded "educational" seminar for her sideline...
Despite I once again stamped my disapproval and frowned about treating the home like a hotel more than anything, she would be oblivious to what anyone else feels in her fervent pursue of her dream...

Back to the traveling to work part...Went to Tampines for our weekly badminton session which was a fresh move for us who had been sticking with the West (Clementi, Delta) or Central (Yio Chu Kang, Bishan, Toa Payoh) but the inability to grab a court from any of the above-mentioned sports hall meaning that it would be EK's turf for this Sunday...
Of course everyone was cynical of the decision especially with the likes of Karen living at the other end of the island, but it turned out to me a master stroke for myself...
I was contemplating of whether to attend the session but got up in time and only strolled to the bus-stop by the main road by 8.30am, half an hour before the badminton begins...
Lady Luck was apparently shining on me as the bus I was vindicated to take, arrive as I descended from the overhead bridge, and the entire busride didn't even took 30 minutes before I got to Tampines bus terminal once again highlighting the joy of cruising on the SLE-TPE...
The sports hall was a stone throw away which makes things even better...The hall was well populated by badminton enthusiasst from the East but more people spell more rubbish to be littered as we noticed how unsightly the hall turns out to be with plastic bottles and even banana skins found littering all over...At least the dressing room is more presentable than it's Clementi counterpart...
Beside Ek & missus, Chan & Karen made up the miserable line-up this week due to the combination of locality and the heavy rain which doused the entire island soon after.. But we had a good time playing consecutive games of badminton nonstop, and once again the curse combi of me & Chan remains even with a change of venue...
After the game we had our lunch at Tampines Mall and I was like a child at the candy store for the first time, was marveled by how "happening" the mall was after a good decade of hiatus from this place...
With a mood for impromptu activity, we bought tickets for "The Invasion", a remake of the classic sci-fi movie, "The Invasion of the Bodysnatchers"... although I was actively lobbying for "I Now Pronounce You Chuk & Larry" instead...
The alien invasion which was sort of mocking how the earth is a degenerative place with wars and disputes (mainly due to the Americans as portrayed) and perhaps the invasion of alien life sources from outer space seems to be the most ideal solution to nulify the growing tension...
Not a bad alien invasion movie with a bit of Resident Evil feel and of course I was impressed how 40 years old Nicole Kidman still look radiant and remains in great shape...
Another mere 25 minutes bus ride got me home under the unforgiving Sunday afternoon sun...

This got me thinking of how fortunate I would be if I was bestowed an opportunity to work in the Tampines Business park as my chum, Foo now with AXN....
Speaking of which while meeting up with all the Japan-loving clique including Sel, Cher & even Foo's lass, Mich whom I had not seen for a long while now, my buddy told us how he would be ending his short tenure at the above-mentioned television network after being disenchanted by the management and in sought of an elusive position of the same sort at ESPN...
It was part of our 4 hours-long catching up at the TCC cafe just across Sunshine Plaza after Sel and myself had paid a visit at the unusually-crowded JTB saloon,,,
I did managed to purchase the remaining 2 items for my Japan trip, the 7-days JR pass and the Sunrise tour for Mt. Fuji which I was fortunate to have a rare 5% discount on.
From Cher's solemnization and flat-renovation details to Mich's purported trip to Russia to Sel's desire to stay at a lake at Kyoto none of us had even heard of, we spent a lazy Saturday afternoon occupying the corner of the cafe though the bean-bags and arty-farty short cushion seats aren't exactly the most comfortable furniture...
Sel's beau, Kev also made an appearance..Perhaps he's reeling from his long reservist stint or just his usual indifferent nature, he remained pretty quiet throughout till I pulled out the name of our mutual NUS friend, the eccentric Thomas Kong whom Kev still kept close contacts with and I hope to meet up very soon...

It was more chatting for me the evening before as the reunion dinner at NYDC with my previous colleagues, the 3 Witches which took a good month in the making was realized and to spice things up the infamous Old Hag who would be a central topic for the night for her unbelievable departure from our old workplace actually dine with her family in the same restaurant...
Not that we had to be conscious about her noticing our presence and even the audacity to eavesdrop our conversation; she should know over her years of ruling the institute with her iron hands, she surely had made more foes than friends, and the unanimous support of her oust was shared from co-workers from part and present...
Despite the poor ventilation and at latter stages, the worsening air conditioning of the NYDCHolland V branch, we had a hearty time recollecting the good times and ultimately I believe the 3 girls forged a close bond which is unsurpassed by our current breed of co-workers especially our quest against the much-loathed JxMMy D...

Well if we could be working side by side this lifetime in a workplace perhaps as conveniently accessed as Tampines, then we can have more time to indulge in hearty chats at regular basis...

Japanese word of the day: 雑談 (Chat) I can be a real chatterbox if I am comfortable with the people I am with...most of the time too much for my own good

Don't want to be Hospitalized

20th September 2007, Thursday

Recently my in-laws went for a vacation in Thailand (most probably not Phuket, after the 1-2-Go Budget airline crash) which has been a long time making especially with my father-in-laws long-wrangled in his court case and perhaps finally got a satisfactory payment...
Little did they expected, their precious youngest offspring, Gibson was hit by a bout of high fever which peaked at 39 degree Celsius, which hampered their travel plan a bit...
Since my young brother-in-law (22 to be exact, not that young anymore) is pretty reliant on his family to take care of him through illness and most importantly his meals, so the best possible option was to hospitalized him since his older brother simply doesn't have to time to take care of him...

It's kinda sad that one could not give a hoot of his own well-being and such reliance on others to keep a tab on you perhaps is not a sign of independance...
I myself is a mommy boy but at least I know the basic rule to seeking food or medicine to get me back on my feet again...

Anyway my missus was quite worked up by her brother's continual ignorance of his own health yet worried sick for him, and went to see him on the first day of hospitalization...
I went last evening to visit him and seemingly beside niggling sore throat and persistent coughing, he should be all fine in a couple of days time...

He stayed in the inferior Type B Ward which lacks basic amenities (at least to me) of air conditioning and a television set..and shared the rather spacious ward with 4 other aged men, not the most ideal environment to recuperate...
I believe being a full-time national service man, he surely is warranted a better health package than this, then again knowing him he should be oblivious to it and couldn't care more...
This is exactly why one should take good care of one's health or at least invest on a good medical insurance...
I would go crazy to be warded in such a place...once again I have to emphasize how pampered I am...

Well let's hope Gibson gets back to his full health soon, and not let everyone worried too much about him...

With the Japan trip a good one and a half months away, 2 issues sort of bother me a bit...
Firstly the yen rate, as the Liberal Democratic Party will be deciding between Azo Taro or Fukuda Yasuo as the successor of Abe Shinzo who stepped down from the Prime Minister role last week; coupled with the bull run in the global stock market, I'm afraid the yen rate might surge in uncanny fashion very soon...
The good thing is that I had changed a great bulk of the spending dough the last time round and will be changing a bit more just in case...let's hope it stay the rate as it is or lower soon...

Secondly, the weather....
It is going to end of September and seemingly Tokyo and Osaka are still in the midst of the arid summer heat... Perhaps it is an usual meteorological phenomenon but I was expecting for temperatures to go down to assimilate for the autumn season...
As we know fall is transient in Japan, and I really hope it doesn't come too late this year because the red leaves in Kyoto will be one of the major feature of this trip...

Perhaps I am just thinking way too much...

Caught up with a few friends over MSN during these 2 days of nondescript period at work...
With the fact that the Japan-loving clique meeting up on coming Saturday, I took the liberty to give a shout out at Howe who I haven't seen ot speak with since my wedding last year...
Still being an IT specialist in a LCD fixing company, Howe still not short of the humor that he is so famous for...

My buddy who is enjoying an Indian summer that comes to early after resignation from his job was preparing a new portfolio for his next career move...
So basically he is camped at home indulging in his favorite console games and making up lost time...
Wish him all the best with his future endeavors but it's apparently the passion for gaming among us wreckers has surely been rekindled (as if it has ever been smothered)

The biggest news to me this very day is Jose Mourinho being sacked by the Chelsea board...
The writings had been on the wall for a while now as the episode of the arrogant Mourinho crossing sword with Chelski Russian billionaire chairman, Abramovich has been blown out of proportion...
His blatant loss of faith in star signings made by the latter such as Ballack & Shevcnenko surely didn't goes down well with the Russian ruler...
This doesn't spell well for Chelsea especially with the clash with my beloved Red Devils mere days away...though unlikely with the Blues' caliber, but I do hope a whipping at Old Trafford will be a turnaround for Man Utd's stuttering start of the season with only a lame 5 goals scored so far in 8 games played in all competitions...
Love it or hate it, Mourinho is a colorful character which will be sorely miss in English football; and his pedigree will guarantee him a job in no time especially one which the board will not meddle too much into his everyday managerial chores...
Fergie, Wenger and Benitez will surely relish playing mind games with him in the future...

Japanese word of the day: 入院 (Hospitalization) My ideal ward should include a PC with internet & Football manager, a home theater system, a 32 inch LCD TV, PS3, Wii, a fridge stock with my favorite juices and desserts and most importantly air con!

Singaporeans Love Traveling

18th September 2007, Tuesday

The Goods & Service Tax may have risen to 7% and there had been rumors about restructuring the CPF system, but somehow behind the moaning and whining about how the government has compounded misery to the average Joes in Singapore, there was yet another record-breaking turnout in the NATAS Holidays Travel Fair at the past weekend...

You might say there was a strong inclination among our local people to cluster where the general crowd are (totally void of claustrophobia unlike myself); however if you have to pay a $3 entrance fee, I think you might as well get a good traveling package in the fair...unless you are there for the free bottles of Coca Cola Light...SUCKERS!

After sending off Nao & Tamotsu at Changi Airport, it took me a good 15 minutes to take the skytrain to Terminal 2, then wait forever for the MRT to move off from the Airport Terminal station and then snaking painfully along the badly congested walkway of the Expo exhibition halls which I always felt is poorly designed to rendezvous with my missus who was buried in doing up her task or something at the Coffee Bean cafe...
By then around 2pm, there was a prominent beeline outside Hall 4B where anxious travel-planners were purchasing the entrance ticket before their onslaught within the hall...
Fortunately my missus was smart enough to get the tickets just when she arrived at 11plus...

The travel fair surely had upscaled since we last visited back in 2005 when it was biannually held at Suntec City Convention Center.. Perhaps the dire need to expand the exhibition was the main push for a change of venue.. Despite the secluded location, the travel-hungry crowd wasn't deterred and made their presence felt...
I have to share sentiments with my fellow countrymen who flood the Expo for good touring deals, for the best way to reward yourself after a year of toiling monotonously at work is to get out of our measly nation to see the world, recharge, destress and generally let your hair down and have a great time...

However to do so, one has to endure the madness swamping the exhibition hall as you wouldn't imagine the great number of tour agencies there are in our small nation...

My missus had did her research on which agencies had the free & easy deals on the wager...
One of them was this Asiaplus booth or something which was link to Chan Brothers, on the the most well-known agency in Singapore...
We knew that package tour is more of their specialty but since they had printed in black and white in the exhibition catalog, we thought of giving it a try...
The middle-aged uncle who served us had a hard time squinting his eyes behind that spectacles to rectify his presbyopia to search for that package on offer in his folder but to no avail...

It didn't took us long to vamoose off the booth to pop up at the Japan Tourism Official booth...
It was where we last acquire our tickets the last time round and being well-served by Jeanette from Farmosa Holidays (last heard she has left the company)...
The pavilion served more to showcase various parts of the attractive Japan which i presumed is a hotspot for Singaporeans to visit the pass couple of years due to the dropping yen rate (though it is on the rise, especially when PM Shinzo Abe has stepped down recently after a torrid time in office)...
There was one for Osaka which mainly pushing the concept of "center of great food" in Japan, one for Hokkaido which should benefit with winter beckoning as well as one for the Tohaku regions of Honshu, including our beloved Iwate...
We came upon this booth with staff dressed up in traditional Japanese wears and I supposed it would be the reincarnation of the one with Farmosa Holidays...
The attendants were all busy serving prospective clients and we finally got hold of a rather lost bespectacled guy who was indifferent towards soliciting for business...
Upon looking through the list of hotels tied in with the JAL package, we failed to spot our number 1 choice for lodging in Osaka, Riva Nakai Osaka or the revamped one under the name Cross Hotel at the heart of Namba, beside the famous Dotonbori River...
I was a little disheartened and to add salt to the open fresh wound, our preferred departure date of 2nd November, Friday was not available...
It seems to get our desired requests across that numbskull, so we soon left for better option elsewhere...

Fortunately on show was Farmosa Holidays with their own booth (and a pretty established one)...
I was always more eager to talk to lady attendants, especially the glib-tongue ones as they usually managed to accommodate to our needs, and Farmosa doesn't seem to have shortage of those...
We were soon acquainted with this lady by the name of Xuelinig who served on the platter th same offer seen at the former booth...
From their system it seems like true indeed the flight on 2nd November is fully book and immediately she offered us a flight on the 1st which Mr Clueless didn't bother to...
Without better option, we decided to tweak our traveling itinerary to depart on the 2nd and return on the 10th.
Not to jeopardizes our Kyoto Ryokan stay which we had already made reservation with JTB, it seems wise to stay an additional day at Osaka City and we chose a mid-range hotel, Granvia despite not knowing the precise location of the hotel which is utmost important...
She reassured us that if we chose to pick somewhere cheaper, it is fully refundable...
We also got the room at Washington Akihabara hotel for our lodging in Tokyo..so basically almost everything is settled less the JR pass and the Mt Fuji 1-day tour
We chose to split the hefty bill (unlike the last time when we only placed deposit but later on when we went to collect the tickets, the requirement to pay cash was a chore...nevertheless it is risky to settle the bill now) on 3 credit cards, so to enjoy the freebies included as well as jackpot which brought me more useless novelty items (like a USB extender cum clock)

Meanwhile my missus went to look at the offer from AIG with regards to travel insurance which generated a buzz at the prominent red booth...
Apparently with 40% discount, it was a great opportunity to get the travel insurance which is always crucial for traveling overseas in such time of uncertainties...

We had intended to leave at 4 but it got delayed by a good half an hour with settling the bill and this and that...but at least it was mission accomplished...

By mere coincidence, Selina and her hubby, Kevin are hoping for a short escapade to Osaka and neighboring Kinki regions like Nara and Kyoto ob Oct 31st... so we could arrange to meet for dinner when we are there...
She seems to have some connection with the crew of JTB Saloon at Takashimaya and received a 5% discount voucher which she said perhaps I could use...some savings is better off than no savings...

Now just wait patiently for the 1st of November and back into the embrace of my 2nd homeland...幸せ!!

Japanese word of the day: 走行(Traveling) Best enjoyed with the Utada Hikaru song of the same name....

Nao & Tamotsu Hits Town...

17th September 2007, Monday

Thursday was my missus' birthday and she was pleasantly surprised with the model version of a Lamborghini Murciélago which is one her dream car, and she had a shrine for the car tio spur her own to achieve her dream...
It was all jolly till another of the habitual spats we had these days (surely the honeymoon period is over) when we were getting ready for the dinner with the Japanese visitors on Friday evening...
She got home by 7 plus and by the time she started the car engine it was 7.30pm and we had to be there by 8.30pm or so... However she had intended to dropby Geylang to pick up something from her client and she took a good 10 minutes with minimal illumination from the hood light while rummaging through the Street Directory...This totally incensed me as I wouldn't mind her doing her business before the dinner but at least do her homework with the direction prior to this...
Eventually she postponed her appointment with a sulk on her face as we engaged on a cold war along CTE till we finally got to Chinatown...

The dinner was at this little known vegetarian restaurant at Kreta Ayer Road and no surprise the organizer was the perennial herbivore of the brood, EK...
Call I am a selfish ingrate or insensitive friend, but I was feeling weary recently to accommodate the dining needs of our vegetarian friends at times...
Usually the food tends to be overpriced and not getting the satisfaction of dining...
However EK and his spouse are such valued member in our clique with undying enthusiasim towards all activities, I kind of overlook it...
But the fact that a 2kg vegetarian cake cost $76 was a bit too much for me to swallow even though it was a good gesture by him to help me get it..just that financial constraint (as if I will ever get out of this fix) got the better of me...
I'm such a staunch and selfish miser who's heart aches over a nice birthday cake for his wife but I can't help myself...
In the end, the lads were generous enough to split the cost together with the treat for the dynamic Iwate duo... I was overtaken by shame but the wallet lives and breathes another day...

So after weeks of aimless arrangement of the itinerary of their one-day stay in Singapore, the gang gave the pair a glimpse of our boring our island can be for the whole of Friday which include visits to the HDB hub in Toa Payoh, Chinatown and even some horse-racing action at Kranji Turf Club which got the expressive Miyano rattling on their adventure at the premium (and perhaps the only) horse racing track in Singapore for the very first time...
Of course the usual antics of thanking the grand winner for the notion of treating everyone dinner was pulled despite that poor Bryan only managed to muster a win of a measly $20 and he had been unemployed for a while now...

It seems like Nao who was the hospitable soul who took efforts to bring us for some trips in Iwate had some innate knowledge to know the pedigree of race horses by observing the anatomy...
Meanwhile his partner in crime, Tamotsu who we have seen for the very first time seems pretty beaten by the exertion at Mount Kinabalu or overawed by the number of people welcoming him for just a dropby to Singapore...
Throughout the dinner, they were enthralled by how vegetarian meals in Singapore is not solely restricted to just vegetables and fruits while Karen was entertained by Vincent's usual friendly beckoning of the waitress by calling her "Jie Jie (elder sister)"....

The 10-course meal sort of filled us to the brim though the good thing about vegetarian meals which I must harp about is that the lack of meat surely don't make you nauseous even you had an overkill with your gastronomical affair...
Therefore we had some space for the overpriced birthday cake which doesn't look and taste half bad (despite the lack of eggs I supposed)...

It was after 10pm after the hearty meal, and we had intended to bring them to some lantern exhibition near Pagoda street with the Mooncake Festival round the corner, hoping they would savor a Singapore-style matsuri (festival) but they seemed pretty worn out after an entire day of event, not as much as Chan though who had barely 4 hours of rest when meeting them in the morning after his night shift the day before...
So in our carnival of cars, we rode down to Tiong Bahru to Vincent & Miyano s' pad...
It wasn't long before the center of attraction was the Nintendo Wii and the Wii Sports which have Miyano raving about how the boxing game has put our huge friend in a sweat-inducing workout...
Most of us were skeptical of that claim but upon trying the wifi game console, it was all justified and the entire gang were immensely entertained while doing all the sports available...
The game also transcended language as our 2 Japanese friends joined in though it might have resulted in Nao having to hit the showers one more time...
While I suck big time in bowling, I crushed Bryan in a game of boxing...
The session surely perked our interest in Wii and it is definitely high on my wishlist for my forthcoming Japan trip....

Speaking of which, finally nailed the air tickets and lodging in Osaka and Tokyo from the NATAS Holidays travel fair held at Expo over the weekend...will go more into that tomorrow...

Before headingt o Expo, I managed to see our Iwatian friends off from Changi Airport Terminal One...
It seems like they had embarked on this Southeast Asian trip with a shoe-string budget thus chose the Taiwan-based China Airlines (which recently had an airbus being segmentated at Okinawa).
As in the case of Yu-kun, we had a parting coffee session at the nearby Kopitiam as sketchy plan for another visit to Iwate for next February seems to be in the air, except I wonder will I go again...

Nao and friend didn't really have a lasting impression with their stay here in Singapore but I feel we had done our part to repay the hospitality he had shown when we were there in February..the walk in the knee-deep snow field, the ice-fishing as well as the barnyard visit surely had been the highlight of our trip then...Let's hope more the the Iwate Youth Club gang would come by the next time and perhaps by then I would not be too affected by paying for a $76 vegetarian birthday cake...

Japanese word of the day: 菜食主義者(Vegetarian) Still is bewildering how come leafy vegetables and perhaps some carrots and potatoes can cost so much more than juicy meat...

Human Differences

12th September 2007, Wednesday

We as humans are bound to have differences since we are of such myriad personalities, lifestyles & ideologies of life on the whole...
Unless you live a hermit's life in some obscure corner of the universe, there will tend to be human interactions and differences bound to exist...

In my old workplace, the number of staff in my lab was easily countable by one hand and it didn't take long for me to align myself with the girls in their resilient battle against JxMMy D...
However when I jumped ship to this new workplace, it was a whole new arena with a whole new stable of personnels which we had to cross our paths with...

My department fundmentally consists of 6 technician in charge of various platforms however there were many more staff and attachment staff as well as students and post-docs which are part of the entire work process, so we are looking like 30 odd people on the whole...

While the unanimous animosity towards his Beautiness as well as the loathe towards the Celestial one were well documented, these days another force began to emerged from the abyss...
The catalyst for this emergence is none other than my colleague, Jason, the tender-skin prime target of lust from His Beautiness, and supposedly a popular characters among the female colleagues (BY did labeled him her "idol)...
It all began when a former classmate of his from his college time down under, Jeane joined one of our PI's group late last year... At first we speculated that they might be an item since they were spotted chatting heartily alone often, only to be quashed by the fact that the latter is already attached...it didn't stop us suggesting to Jason to disregard the relationship and go after her nevertheless...
At the meantime, our group was heralded the appearance of B3 (a nickname given by BY for the Indian vixen as the B series were supposed to help her out on her chore)...
At first B3 was basically a loner despite our efforts to woo her to have lunch with us to build a steady relationship at work...We did have some good chats in her early days here...

Then the drastic change came upon me & KM shifting our workstations to the office and truncating that distance between her workstation and Jason's...
Sparks flew off immediately as the pair would make up lost time by having a ball of a time keeping internal secrets or sort in that little lab room, to an extent of calling each other (more of B3 to Jason) "Honey" or "Dear"... though the bottomline is it is merely for fun and their relation remains platonic...

However from the 2nd quarter of this year, via Jason, B3 began to pledge close allegiance towards Jeane and eventually another seasoned colleague from her group, SM and together they combined to form the stable known as "The 3 Beauties" (三大美人) with reference to the "Four Beauties of Ancient China" or Jason's Beauties... (The Celestial One supposed to be the Yang Gui Fei character but she seems to distance from this clique very much that her association is watered down)
Their usual activities beside lunching together would be curding in the lab to just chit chat as well as go for afternoon teabreaks on regular basis, usually with the company of Jason...
While indulging in the former, they would scatter in matter of seconds when seemingly "caught in the act" by some of us...
This indicates that they might felt that their actions may have been illicit or just not appropriate which we might frown upon, resulting in such shifty manner...the rest of us also began to feel likewise and the fact that the 3 Beauties aren't what you known as "model worker"...
Not titling them as "loafers" but they wouldn't lay a hand towards unnecessary chores usually especially B3 who we work day in and out with...

Perhaps being over sensitive at times, BY and I felt a couple of the Beauties (i.e. B3 & Jeane) just doesn't feel very comfortable with our presence and prepensely shun from us whenever possible...
This led to me quoting to some of my fellow co-workers saying that Jeane might actually dislike me, a notion which brought a barrage of rebuttal from the likes of Jason & HB who said perhaps my scary, unsmilingly face might have scared her off...Not that I care a wee bit...

Jason who is perhaps caught in between us & them always try to sooth any tension instead just aggravating the situation...

We tried to ask them out for lunches for a while but they would simply segregate at one corner and chat among themselves...
It's blatant we had our differences and doesn't seem to gel as one very much sooner...

Not too long back, Shitty Green inquired about the different factions at our workplace and he didn't seem to stamp approval on such faction thingie but it is hard not to seriously ..
His faction is the best...only himself and no one else...perhaps his boys...

In the same issue of having issues with people, we always knew that Vincent's spouse, Miyano is rather blunt when comes ot human relationship...
With Nao, a friendly Iwate native who's hospitality was heart felt back in February when we were there organizing a barnyard trip as well as a chance to walk in snow knee-deep, arriving for a one-day only trip in Singapore; the La Tendo gang (with the exception of Karen, all had been on the receiving end of Nao's hospitality) will be cooking a perfect and memorable stay in our mundane country...
However a few of us added some comments speculating the gender of Nao's traveling companion while I was skeptical his intention of visiting the Kranji Turf Club...
This led to Miyano to replied in her usual hostile manner, claiming that this trip was not for us but for him....
Perhaps she didn't possess an excellent command of English and I may have perceived her message incorrectly, I felt compelled to hurl a full rebuttal at her face and I did though it didn't brought about any repercussion as I had expected....
I think I was the only one deciphering the hostility in her reply and she should expect such vociferous rebuke from a "tiger" like myself...Doubt we might resolve our differences anytime soon.

Japanese word of the day: 人間~nin-gen~(Human) I'm just glad that there are quite a number of people who actually like my presence despite I'm not an easy person to be with

Of Chow Yun Fatt & Solid Snake

10th September 2007, Monday

When you struggled to wake yourself up on the 1st day of a work week and drizzles turned to torrential showers en route to work, it only spells that I would be relatively late to report to work...
Not that it really matters 'cos this week is sort of like the foot away from the pedal with the project almost done and in transition phase as we anticipate the arrival of the new batch of samples...

The weekend has been fantastic and for the 1st time in a while seems long enough for me to savor though the sleep factor is still well inadequate...

On Friday evening, after much tussling between which actual day we should go, we all felt Friday evening to the St. James Powerstation is best as the follow-up to that inaugural trial of the multi-facet discotheque...
BY's persistent fickle-mindedness can be frustrating and after convincing her to attend especially the occasion was on surface to celebrate her birthday as well as Chee Seng's which fell a day before; she informed us at the very last minute that she had abandoned the idea of going and her casual dressing on that day was a dead give-away...
The attendance was well dwindled since the last time round but the remaining of us were still high on the idea of enjoying ourselves, immersing in alcohol and the innocuous beat of the dance music...
My missus was slightly late but still in time to enjoy the complimentary entrance before 9pm and I was able to down a glass of the intoxicating "Graveyard" to get the night started...
The performance at Dragonfly was a blast with 1st runner-up of the 1st Singapore Idol Sly Sim was present to did a few powerful rock number but took it slow with Wham's "Careless Whisper" as well; but the energy exuding from the live band at Boiler Room perhaps match that of the Mandarin-themed one with their mix of rock & hip hop sounds...
At the end of it all, I suffered partial deafness on my left ear, we didn't introduce enough alcohol into our systems but danced the night through, the missus was so shacked up, she dozed on the bar stool while XY who surprisingly decided to hit the joint with the predominant male gang stayed with the rest till the end, and I didn't even uttered a word to the always wordless KM who came in the latest at 11 plus...

Recuperating from the late Friday night out, my missus decided to have a rare day domesticated while I dropped by a rather quiet La Tendo despite their storewide 20% sales...

My Wreckers-buddy, CS tried in vain to contact me on Friday evening when the loud dance music was eating away the meek ringtone of my cell-phone...
Apparently, he is in the middle of an in-camp training which spells more leisure time for him than his actual working hours...
He had intended to woo the rest of the gang for another PS3 game session since our 1st in May; and I was the last to respond and grant consent to another wild time at his place...
Instantaneously I agreed and it was exactly what kept us occupied on Sunday afternoon, rather unusual for a gaming session which a mere 3 hours ain't gonna appease us...

CS came to pick me up since he was around the vicinity for lunch with his mom while TW & Foo had arrived at his place at that moment...
CS bought the mini donuts at Central Clarke Quay he got so addicted to since that faithful day we had dinner there while TW also bought some donuts from Munchy Donut (the latest fad here after the BreadTalk which baffled me), so I foresee having those highly-sweetened, high-carbs & high-calories rings for dinner while we are there...

Once again CS had outdone himself with all the gadgetry updates... He had been into quality sounds for a while and in search of a set of suitable sound system to compliment the high-definition Samsung LCD TV to give him the most ideal gaming experience and he finally got a 3.1 set witha woofer which I mistook as a stool but elegant enough for his liking...
Later on upon query, he leaked that the woofer alone cost him a cool $750 ..woo..whatever makes him happy man...
But on the pro side, the money was well spent as the surround sound really enhance the gaming experience especially when we were in the midst of "Virtua Tennis", we could hear like the cheering of fans from almost all corner of the room...
TW's persistent usage of Juan Carlos Ferrero is dubious who no offense might be a great tennis player in real life but the virtual representation was a joke...
That was the last action before he departed to send someone to the airport much to CS' reluctance...

We did tried out a game he downloaded recently, "Calling All Cars" which enabled multi-player action as it splits the screen in 4 windows for each contestant...
Basically we are to control Micro Machine like vehicles to chase down criminals on the loose and send them back to the jailhouse to earn points within the time allocated...
It was madcap scramble with every car for himself each round and it took us a while to figure out the sophisticated controls of each vehicle...
While I am the residential cluck in our little gaming community, it can be quite vexing to keep getting the final place as you see your buddies kept whipping your butt in the game where some terrains seem mission impossible for me...
At of it all, it was for great fun which we surely indulged in, neglecting we might aggravate arthritis of the hands and fingers with long exposure to this game...

One fine feature of PS3 is that you can download demos of games to be released and sample the game before deciding whether it is viable to get the real deal...
Our good friend did sampled aplenty with the 90GB hard disk enough to hold plenty of those....
There were some notable ones...

"Heavenly Sword", an action adventure flick by Ninja Theory which should some connection with WETA since they mentioned they had production from New Zealand and Andy Serkis from Lord of the Rings fame was involved in the production...
The making of the game didn't really impressed us but going through the demo, the whole cinematography was alluring and the fighting was well choreographed which truly utilized the PS3 game engine...

Fancy be Chow Yun Fatt in one of John Woo's famous action films?
Midway Games' 3rd Person Shooting game, "Stranglehold" has a virtual Chow reprising the role of a Hong Kong cop by the cheesiest name around "Tequila"...
Basically the game has the feel of a Joh Woo movie though the re-enactment of Hong Kong seems a bit dubious with way too much fruits like watermelon, electrical appliances and tuition centers around and the hunchmen are just clones but they are fugly enough you wanna shoot them all!
The entire point of the game was to stylishly shoot everyone in the game though can be real absurd but do recall, in John's movies no one shoot properly with barrel recoil or physics taken into serious consideration....
This is perhaps a great game to play with some friends with acid tongues who just wanna commentate about everything along the way....

Konami's "Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of Patriot" is perhaps the most anticipated PS3 game to be released in 2008 and may single-handedly hike the sales of PS3 consoles when it is out...
With new features like Octocamo and the ability to play in First Player Shooter might be the tip of this tasy iceberg and from the demonstration video CS showed us, it is no wonder MGS fans are all going ga-ga just by viewing a few snippets and I might be a new fan as well...

Japanese word of the day: 射撃 (Shooting) When you got all the frustration cooped up from work, a daily dosage of shooting virtual enemies is the best medicine

Something Weird Brewing in Our Island

5th September 2007, Wednesday

Since August, our usual-dour island had been spicing itself with some unusual ongoings...I'm not talking about the supernatural kind since it is that time of the year...

The ODEX saga had been hogging the scene for a while now and the latest is that they are willing to offer the olive branch to those who heed their warning and stopped all downloading of animes since 2 days ago...
This drew more furore within the netizens especially the anti-ODEX bunch (perhaps me included) were suspicious of the actual motive behind this...
Then again the swords had been drawn and blood been spilled since, people are so incensed with the organization that no one can forgive them simply by some sugar-coated words they muttered to spite the market...
At least they finally launched their Video on Demand (VoD) program and seek to improve their quality which they should had look upon at the very beginning...
It will take them a longshot to win me, my anime-loving friends and perhaps all those who were pissed off from this fracas...almost impossible
Perhaps they produce good quality anime episodes at the fastest time span possible with no awful local dubbing, fansubbers-level subbing and at perhaps $1 an episode...
Well the principle aspect still makes boycotting them the just way...

With the success of the movie "881", Royston Tan maybe the favored director for Mediacorp's Raintree Pictures, taking the limelight of their incumbent No. 1 director, Jack Neo...
Recently there was a case when a prankster hurled a rotten egg towards one of the cast during a promotion event... The same prankster (or is the same guy?) went onto Jack Neo's blog and proclaimed it was the latter that instigate this unruly actions, drawing the ire of the one-time comedian who stated his innocence...
I doubt Director Neo would be such an unmagnanimous character and surely would lend a shoulder of support to a fellow local film-maker; however since he is such a genius to tell story from scratch, perhaps he was indeed the instigator...
It's anyone's call...

Since my days with the National Cadet Corps, we were thought possessing live round or merely expended shell was a chargeable offense since Singapore has such stringent states law for non-possession of firearms...
Recently a soldier from the 1st SIR ran off from his camp with a rifle and some live rounds...
The army and police went on a rabid search for this lad with a wretched consequences the moment he ran off with his weapon...
They caught him in Orchard Road, without any commotion...Then they interrogate him for the exact reason for his folly...
Apparently his girlfriend of 4 years decided to break up with him when he was in perhaps the worst stage of his life, grueling it out in perhaps the worst infantry unit in the army...
What's worse, she left him for another woman...Woah man..brother I feel your pain dude... BURN!!
Seriously the male ego is a dangerous tool that can make or break one's life...Losing your girl to another man, ok it's a hard pill to swallow, but time can ease the agony bit by bit...
But if the opposition was another woman (butch or whatever you call the androgynous female being), somehow absconding with your perilous firearms seem a pretty sane option to indulge in..
You may label me MCP or something and perhaps the unfortunate party should had try to up his stats as a boyfriend his squeeze would not let go; but it is blasphemous to let your woman go into another woman's arms without putting a fight...
Then again hot lesbian action, that's another matter altogether...I'm so mean at this juncture..heehee

Last evening Yu-kun's 3 weeks stay in our usually-dour island came in an end as he took a flight back to Tokyo... He would be sorely missed for sure, especially for the likes of Karen and EK, the latter getting pretty emotional, kept requesting our poor Japanese friend to try drop a tear or 2 this time...
A carbon copy of last year farewell dinner, with the exception of Chan (at work once again), Miyano & Vincent (on another cultural exchange trip) & of course my missus, the rest made their presence at Roma's Deli, Singapore's only vegetarian pasta & pizza place...
Then we literally saw him off at Terminal One at Changi Airport with the Chong brothers actually came after EK coerced the elder Chong to do so...
There wasn't a tear dropped just handshakes all round Yu as an appreciation of the time we spent with him, a video farewell for Chan who couldn't be here and some photos as seen below:

We would see him in half a year's time but for myself November would be a good time to fix a rendezvous with him somewhere in Tokyo...
Next up, Nao from Iwate is coming to town for one night only...

Japanese word of the day: 薄暗い (Dour) Some find news on papers gloomy others like myself just want to make fun of it...

My Take on Food Expenditure

3rd September 2007, Monday

It was almost a ghost town this morning on my way to the MRT station as the usual shenanigans of the marauding army of YJC students were blatantly missing..Then it dawned on me that it is the start of the 1 week school break...
Ugh...how I wish I could have a week off work now...

Perhaps the Monday blues is getting to me as the headline article featured on the inaugural Monday edition of MyPaper was on the melancholy of getting back to work after the weekends...
Within the article it looked upon some chronic cases such as a highly stressed banking staff having cold feet and breaking into persperation as well as breathing difficulties every Monday or even on Sunday
The expert psychiatrist suggested some way to alleviate the blues, number one being finding a job you are passionate about...
I don't loathe my job, it is always that notion of not getting ample rest physically and spiritually every Mondya morning that got me down...
But today just a bit more sapped of that bit more zeal that got me through the day, perhaps last evening late night watching of "Knocked Up" till 1 am took a toll on me...
I took one of the sound advice in the list..."No need to rush your work on Monday as you take it slow"... I like that!

The school holidays also mean many parents would be applying leave to spend "quality" time with their offspring (or more of invigilate them in preparation of the year-end examinations)...
However my spouse-less, let alone kids, colleague, BY jumped on the bandwagon perhaps a rather unusual day out on Sunday got her to just wilfully expend her precious annual leave on this day.. Then again she would not be saving for any imminent overseas holiday like yours truly...

My folks were out of town over the weekend as they embarked on a religious trip to Bangkok...
It meant we were on our own in terms of meals over the past 3 days or so...
I love Mom's cooking that's a fact but it became a de facto choice of mine come to my everyday meal... I am beginning to feel I would really run out of ideas of dining outside the comfort of my home...
Another aspect of that would be the requirement of spending on food at a bigger scale than usual...

Had this heart-to-heart chat with the missus over the weekend regarding management of our financial state.. (the same usual topic)
Unanimously we weren't a big fan on spending on food, a typical satisfaction for our local people...
I wouldn't mind dishing out dollars after dollars on PVC figurines mainly for aesthetic satisfaction rather than spending a bit more on the daily necessities,,,
Fortunately I have a wife that understands my lifestyle though I believe I can be quite a nuisance hovering over hers to keep tabs on her expenditures...

It's the final weekend that Yu-kun would be in town and we had another karaoke session with our Japanese friend on Friday and that adds up to more socializing bill which shouldn't be there...
There will be a few dinner sessions for the month of September (gotta check the status of the oust of the Old Hag from our old colleagues as well as Nao from Iwate would be dropping by after a climb at Mt Kinabalu)...
Then we are returning to St. James coming weekend, and gotta get the missus a birthday cake, so basically scouring for reserves somewhere in the bank account is top priority...

The gang went to Sentosa to experience some of their new features like the "Song of the Sea" and Cineblast after badminton on Sunday before ending their activity-filled day with the new Pixar feature, "Ratatouille" which we would have love to attend but we had to go pick my parents from the airport...
Not following them to Sentosa and the cash-sapping attractions sure save me some dough but my wife has a craving for "三盅兩件 Soup Restaurant" for their famous Samsui chicken...
We love to go airport with the prospect of flying off to some exotic locations and I believe many others share our sentiments which is why almost all restaurants have a crowd forming a beeline for dinner...
The dinner was lavish but didn't came cheap... luckily it was an impulse which come in a blue moon...

Perhaps it's time to be a bit more frugal for October and then feast like a gluttony king when we were embraced by all the delectable food in Japan come November..Yohoo!

Japanese word of the day: 飯　～me-shi～(Meals) Actually it would be just great to survive on cheap onigiri and instant ramen anytime for me