The Perfect Weekend Which Precedes The Trip
18th February 2008, Monday
Seriously flying off to my beloved Japan was the last thing on my mind for the past few days...
There is some point of anticipation of course but it didn't generate enough hormones to get me harping about it...
Of course the missus couldn't go and she exerted pressure on me with regards to that.
Her workload had been increased tremendously at the turn of the year and it was evident that with the phones kept buzzing over the New Year festivities as well as during almost all of her rest time, she is in dire need of a break from it all.
She had granted me this hobby-themed trip to the Japanese capital but felt the cold winter weather packed with enough element for a shopping onslaught, she had played with the idea of tagging along.
However it wasn't meant to be as she had to do a supposedly important presentation this week and the cost of a SQ ticket to Japan now hanging precariously over the 1K mark (excluding taxes).
Her absence in the trip would be profoundly felt by yours truly as with exception to the short trip in 2004, she had been my No.1 traveling companion to the land of the rising sun, tending to my every needs as well as taking care of me in times of health ailments which had been shrouding me for several edition of Japanese escapades of late...
Speaking of health ailments, had been bugged by a couple of niggling ones over this home-bound weekend...
My left knee-cap felt an acute pain since Friday for no apparent reason but managed to be on the mend by Sunday...
However my lower left gum seems to have swell again, a phenomenon that occurs for a while which tends to subside as I paid very little attention to.
I got a feeling it's the wisdom tooth but my fear of the dentist just kept me refrained for getting that fix...
The molar tooth seems to grind relentlessly on the gum and now I had to chew my food gingerly so that I would not inflict more pain on the gum...
However the main cause of it all could be that my body is too heaty... With festive goodies lying around the house, I just had to succumbed to the gastronomical allure...
With the Chingay procession in full force on Saturday evening, the traffic from town to & fro Kallang would sure be crippled, so I felt I should just stay at home...
It was the golden opportunity to watch some art films and documentary as well as TV series I had been wanting to catch while VH1 on the MTV Southeast Asia channel provides me the best source of retro music with "VH1 Best of 100 80s songs" as the crew did intricate studies to check out the latest ongoings of 80s have-beens like Flock of Seagulls, ABC, Ratt, Bonnie Tyler etc.
I had also been rather addicted to a new NDS game, a strategy warfare game by the name of "Advance Wars: Days of Ruin".
This supposedly 4th edition on the Nintendo handheld platform reminds me alot of "Command & Conquer" but less extensive and much easier to digest...
With that said, as the campaign grew deeper, the chapters can become a tough nut to crack and pretty time-consuming as I tried to outwit the A.I. with little success at first...
So the movies, the game and lost of junk food filled up that 48 hours of my life...
Surely I am a walking oxymoron.... indulging in junk food yet disciplined myself to hit the gym at least 3 times a week... But in the begin my gym routine is to ensure my health and allow me to eat (not wolfishly devouring like there's no tomorrow)..But seriously those pineapple tarts are going to have a toll on my calories count...
The weekend also carbon-copy on itself as the missus was busy attending a business seminar in town, my sister went having a dandy time with friends while my parents had their own programme too including setting up their China trip for May.
This left me with the luxury of just enjoy my own presence with no boundary for a long time to come, a nice change for a while....
Finally back to the upcoming trip, many had claimed it could be the coldest winter Tokyo had experienced for a while that even Tamori and his co-host mentioned it too on "Music Station"...
I checked the weather forecast in Yahoo Japan which proves to be the most reliable and it seems like the average weather from now till next Sunday will be around 8 to 10 degrees with lowest at 2 degrees...
I had been rather reluctant to lug my hefty white thick winter jacket as we will not be scaling snowy mountains, doing icy lake fishing or even leave urban Tokyo for our 5 days there, so I felt my usual Zara autumn jacket should be suffice with an inner wear underneath my shirt should be suffice..
However my cold-intolerant wife was skeptical....
At the end of yesterday the progress of packing was a mere 10%....the trip is surely at the back of my mind for sure for now
Seriously flying off to my beloved Japan was the last thing on my mind for the past few days...
There is some point of anticipation of course but it didn't generate enough hormones to get me harping about it...
Of course the missus couldn't go and she exerted pressure on me with regards to that.
Her workload had been increased tremendously at the turn of the year and it was evident that with the phones kept buzzing over the New Year festivities as well as during almost all of her rest time, she is in dire need of a break from it all.
She had granted me this hobby-themed trip to the Japanese capital but felt the cold winter weather packed with enough element for a shopping onslaught, she had played with the idea of tagging along.
However it wasn't meant to be as she had to do a supposedly important presentation this week and the cost of a SQ ticket to Japan now hanging precariously over the 1K mark (excluding taxes).
Her absence in the trip would be profoundly felt by yours truly as with exception to the short trip in 2004, she had been my No.1 traveling companion to the land of the rising sun, tending to my every needs as well as taking care of me in times of health ailments which had been shrouding me for several edition of Japanese escapades of late...
Speaking of health ailments, had been bugged by a couple of niggling ones over this home-bound weekend...
My left knee-cap felt an acute pain since Friday for no apparent reason but managed to be on the mend by Sunday...
However my lower left gum seems to have swell again, a phenomenon that occurs for a while which tends to subside as I paid very little attention to.
I got a feeling it's the wisdom tooth but my fear of the dentist just kept me refrained for getting that fix...
The molar tooth seems to grind relentlessly on the gum and now I had to chew my food gingerly so that I would not inflict more pain on the gum...
However the main cause of it all could be that my body is too heaty... With festive goodies lying around the house, I just had to succumbed to the gastronomical allure...
With the Chingay procession in full force on Saturday evening, the traffic from town to & fro Kallang would sure be crippled, so I felt I should just stay at home...
It was the golden opportunity to watch some art films and documentary as well as TV series I had been wanting to catch while VH1 on the MTV Southeast Asia channel provides me the best source of retro music with "VH1 Best of 100 80s songs" as the crew did intricate studies to check out the latest ongoings of 80s have-beens like Flock of Seagulls, ABC, Ratt, Bonnie Tyler etc.
I had also been rather addicted to a new NDS game, a strategy warfare game by the name of "Advance Wars: Days of Ruin".
This supposedly 4th edition on the Nintendo handheld platform reminds me alot of "Command & Conquer" but less extensive and much easier to digest...
With that said, as the campaign grew deeper, the chapters can become a tough nut to crack and pretty time-consuming as I tried to outwit the A.I. with little success at first...
So the movies, the game and lost of junk food filled up that 48 hours of my life...
Surely I am a walking oxymoron.... indulging in junk food yet disciplined myself to hit the gym at least 3 times a week... But in the begin my gym routine is to ensure my health and allow me to eat (not wolfishly devouring like there's no tomorrow)..But seriously those pineapple tarts are going to have a toll on my calories count...
The weekend also carbon-copy on itself as the missus was busy attending a business seminar in town, my sister went having a dandy time with friends while my parents had their own programme too including setting up their China trip for May.
This left me with the luxury of just enjoy my own presence with no boundary for a long time to come, a nice change for a while....
Finally back to the upcoming trip, many had claimed it could be the coldest winter Tokyo had experienced for a while that even Tamori and his co-host mentioned it too on "Music Station"...
I checked the weather forecast in Yahoo Japan which proves to be the most reliable and it seems like the average weather from now till next Sunday will be around 8 to 10 degrees with lowest at 2 degrees...
I had been rather reluctant to lug my hefty white thick winter jacket as we will not be scaling snowy mountains, doing icy lake fishing or even leave urban Tokyo for our 5 days there, so I felt my usual Zara autumn jacket should be suffice with an inner wear underneath my shirt should be suffice..
However my cold-intolerant wife was skeptical....
At the end of yesterday the progress of packing was a mere 10%....the trip is surely at the back of my mind for sure for now
Japanese word of the day:パッキング (Packing) Does how early you pack your luggage indicates enthusiasm level for an upcoming trip?
posted by Kei at
10:23 AM
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