ぼくの日記

Monday, March 31, 2008

Dark...

31st March 2008, Monday

And so we arrived at the end of March, as I stared down the prospect of having to put up to that suffocating living condition in that slum-like mess in the LSD at Kao-hsiung for a good 2 weeks or so...
It would be like serving time as every second trickles by so slowly.... At least I am a bit more prepared on the mental side this time round...

On the brighter side of things, May promise a nice bonus and I am looking forward to buy something to reward myself though the prospect of losing a close confidante at work sure doesn't perks me up...well c'est la vie....

Over the weekend, we went housewarming at Cheryl & Raymond's little pad at Tiong Bahru as scheduled.
Saturday afternoon was a pretty yawning affair as the missus' snippy siesta got us a bit late for the get-together even as we drove there.
Then again after settling for a place to park in the midst of some non-existent lots between blocks and a funeral wake which led to vehicles parked in wayward fashion, we were still to arrive before Foo and Michelle made their call.
The missus was marveled at how stylish Raymond, a architect by trade had designed their living space to be.
I had seen the pictures of the renovation of the house prior but was still enthralled by how well they fashioned their nest to be.

The theme of the house surely has to be "blanc-noir" and in between...
When you step into the living room, it is evident that the white wall on the left has a stark contrast to the adjacent wall while the ground and the TV console wall is grey.
Hovering above the dining table is a light which is perhaps modeled after a bee hive or something but the light it radiates cast a water surface-like effect on the white walls, really cool...

Lamp that looks like a bee hive


The couple installed many more lighting including a quintet of spotlights for the TV to illuminate an otherwise neat but really dark living room, but still too dim by my own standard.
Of course, it was not very child-friendly but my petite friend was prompt to stress that they most probably would give up the idea of conceiving, thus the design.

The kitchen is long and had considerable space to maneuver around but you'll notice they purposely cemented over the tiles of the wall and flooring in both the kitchen and toilet provided by the developer, talk about refuting the authority...

A look at the kitchen top
Sorry for the lack of lighting in this picture...doesn't do much justice to the picture



Raymond did some hacking of walls and repiping to create the perfect master bedroom which has a nice relaxing corner where they placed that beautiful Victorian style armchair by the window.
They decided not to get a bed-frame and just do with a mattress which i felt really fit the cosmopolitan style of the house.

First part of the master bedroom
The chair cost a bomb, but sure worth it I feel


2nd part of the master bedroom



Walking deeper into the room and make a turn right, you will discover how successfully they manage to save space for the room by incorporating the wardrobe into the wall and by sealing the actual entrance of the room, they have a wide area for the toiletries.
Very nice bedroom toilet, as the missus exclaimed "looks like a hotel!"

Bedroom Toilet
Enough mirror space for 3-4 persons



After a good time admiring the place while catching a Fuji TV variety to promote their 2007 spring doramas as well as the girls giving Cheryl a low down about their customary wedding, we headed towards Akira Japanese restaurant at Link Hotel, a stone throw away from their place.

We had a long history with this particular restaurant, formerly located at Emerald Hill in Orchard area.
Introduced by Michelle years back for authentic Japanese cuisine at affordable price plus nice ambience at a strategic location which not many people will know, this restaurant met its demise in perhaps mid 2000s when we last patronized it.
Had a couple of Valentine's dinner there and it was also the place where a browse at the Shounen Jump magazine purged my interest in One Piece and eventually my passion for gashapon and other miniature figurines from Japan.
However in the bewildered years, the quality of the food sort of deteriorated and before we knew news of it closing down spread among us, till Cheryl made it known to us that it had been relocated here by Zion Road.

Pretty good business on a Saturday evening, and it was wise that Cheryl made reservation...then came the shady part...
"Akira" in Japanese loosely means "bright" or nothing too shady; but the way they coerced us to take the ala carte buffet dinner was just seems the opposite.
In fact we only left the choice since there seems to be a party going on and the chef and his squad were not able to oblige to other orders...
So for the next 2 hours or so, we sat at this brightly-litted "dark" restaurant, trying to make our money worth by ordering whatever cuisine we can from the menu.
Of course sashimi is the top draw and we had a few plates of those, and not too bad in terms of quality of the raw fish.
Then we hit a period when whatever we ordered didn't appear and Selina had to spur up the crew for the food which eventually did arrived when most of the patrons left the restaurant and the dubious party ended.
Overall the quality still is incomparable to that many years back, though it still beats a few commercialized Japanese restaurant we had in Singapore.

While the food ain't that fantastic, we had a great chat about Japan, football, Sel & Kev s' upcoming European honeymoon, work, politics, entertainment and even a minute battle of the sexes before we called it a night...
Doubt we will visit the seedy restaurant in a long time though...heehee

Japanese word of the day: 明~a-ki-ra~(Discernment)It's hard to be discern about whether we had chose a respectable restaurant till you got conned...

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Thursday, March 27, 2008

Bring it On, Uzbekistan!!

27th March 2008, Thursday

As Foo mentioned last evening, it is a good time to be a supporter of the Lions...our national football team
Amid the doom and gloom of the inflation, the search of Mas Selamat which crippled our peaceful everyday lives and speculation of the GST might increase to 10% soon, the much-ridiculed Lions put up a great show at the National Stadium at Kallang last evening, beating Lebanon in the 3rd Round Group game for the qualification of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Foo who renewed my interest in local footballing scene when I was a fellow victim of costly paid cable exclusive for all footballing entertainment, even skipped an evening class to catch the broadcast live on Channel 5.
We were chatting vehemently on the MSN like a pair of lovers or giggling teenagers as perhaps the only means of watching the match together as we used to in distant past...

Last Saturday, the Lions had a credible draw with the Socceroos but pundits claimed that the treacherous, waterlogged pitch of the National Stadium (which should be closed for renovation by now & the Australian National team even came for a friendly then before their World Cup adventure) was the root to a dour match...
Seemingly the pitch master managed to put the green of this famous stadium in place before we entertained our Middle Eastern opponents.
The Lions lost rather unfortunately at Saudi Arabia months back as the gulf of a difference was quite blatant while the Lebanese were shot down by the mighty former Soviet nation, Uzbekistan at home; therefore both team needed a win to get the campaign back on track and my home nation was the one more urgent to do so especially in front of a home crowd of 11,000.

Weather was unpredictable for the past few days but the sky opened up nicely for the game at half past 7 though the humidity which we always used to play to our advantage could be on the high side.
The Lebanese were missing 7 starters (supposedly) including 4 star players plying their trades in German leagues (not sure whether is the Bundesliga) and we sure didn't want to show any empathy to their cause.
In the past we used to give our opponents too much respect but with our improving professional league and talented players we has amassed we surely can compete readily with what the best of Asia can offer.

The swift progress of our national team mainly has to be down to one man... perhaps the martyr of our beleaguered soccer scene, Radojko Avramovic or we like to known as Raddy.
Beneath that skeletal frame which enables him to be an extra in Michael Jackson's "Thriller" MV without any make-up, this Serb who had some professional playing time at Notts County was the shrewd tactician and motivator to bring us 2 back-to-back ASEAN (Tiger) Cup and making the Lion's den a tough ground to enter; thus we had not witness anymore embarrassing 4:0 mauling by out neighbors from the north.

Raddy also had the eyes for the right players for the right positions...
Over the course of 5 years or so, he had readily incorporated foreign talents and young impressive players into the squad usually horded by those usual players.
the Foreign Talent Scheme or FTS had met great success in other sports like table tennis, badminton & track & field.
But after the FA taking France as an example when they won the World Cup in 1998, decided to enlist some of the more well known foriegn talents who had been in the S League for a while like Goncalves & Grabovac, both of whom had been disappointing in the international scene.
However the recent enlistment like Mustafic Fahrudin, Shi Jiayi, Precious Emuejeraye, Jon Wilkinson and most importantly Aleksandar Duric changed the landscape.
And when they sang the anthem with such pride with the local lads, we knew they had readily accepted the fact that our country has embraced them for the commitment.
Duric, at the ripe age of 37 was surely a late bloomer in the international scene but he scored a brace against Tajikistan in his debut to single-handedly put us through to the 3rd round of the qualifiers, a height our local team had never been able to attain.
He scored last evening as well with a wonderful blast after out through by Shi Jiayi for the opening goal.
That dictates the game and was part of his pristine performance which include a near 2nd goal from a slide from Khairul Amri's ground pass across the goalmouth and purposeful passing throughout.
He had telepathic link with his co-attackers like Indra and Fazrul as well, a delight to watch.
He might ran out of steam as the game matured, he surely is a danger as a goal poacher when he is around.
For a while I thought we might miss Noh Alam Shah, but Duric well made up the void.
When the former returns from that moment of luncy in the Singapore Cup final, we will have plenty of attacking options...

Shi Jiayi was perhaps might man of the match. He is perhaps the best thing Sinchi FC had brought us.
He is surely a great playmaker which links well with the attackers and look very comfortable on the right flank as well.
But its his deadball specialist ability that we had been lacking for years that we should treasure this young Chinese chap (he looks abit like Oguri Shun with the long hair).

Raddy's penchant for young players is also reaping rewards for us.
Obviously instrumental with the building of the Young Lions, he had readily added the young players into the mix, and they managed to step up and makes the future of football here very assuring.
Fazrul Nawaz, one of the young Lions on show scored the all important 2nd with a lucky deflection off one of the Lebanon defender. But he did kept his nerves to choose to shoot. He had to gllaring chances to score before that.
But he needs to mature as he picked up an unnecessary yellow card and nearly awarded a 2nd...
Raddy promptly replaced him with Khairul Amri, another known hero (scorer of the winner in Thailand for Tiger Cup) and his speed was a menace for the tiring Lebanese defence.
Another starlet was Sharil Ishak who have 2 nice chances to add on the lead as well.
The final substitution is an even younger Hariss Harun, who seems to cope well despite playing the last 10 minutes, ensuring the opposition doesn't score.

So when the papers stated that the final score should stand at 6-0, it was exaggerating. While Lebanon applied intense pressure at the latter stage of the 1st half and sporadically in the 2nd period, we still had better goal-scoring chances and one move which ended with Mustafic with a thunderous shot on goal, parried away by the opposition custodian, I had the epiphany that this team might be the best ever, in terms of talent and ability.

With Uzbekistan soundly beating Saudi at home, the table is thrown wide open.
On 2nd June, we will entertain the Central Asian and it would be a tough game as Maksim Shatskikh and gang possess the built and tenacity that require the Lions to match with all their moght.
One blaring problem was the defense persistently failed to deal with the aerial threats of the Lebanese and this could be a problem when we faced the Uzbeks, hope Raddy could rectify that in 2 months time.

Foo and I unanimously felt we should render our support to the Lions come June and so should you 'cos we got such golden opportunity to make it into the 4th round...
A certain minister began the "Goal 2010" campaign which always to be scoffed at but suddenly it didn't seem that absurd...Go Lions!


Japanese word of the day: 希望~ki-bou~ (Hope) Mr Mah's baseless speculation may actually come true...I sure hope so

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Monday, March 24, 2008

Abusive Spouse?!

24th March 2008, Monday

Ahhh.... The Good Friday was gladly welcomed by many as a long weekend like that surely help us take our minds of work and for myself a good 2 and half days of rotting at home, just laid effortlessly on my king-size bed, eagerly hoping to be entertained what the TV on the wall dishes out....

The wonderful extended end of the week began on Thursday evening when I just dozed off when I was hoping to catch Roma vs Lazio, a delayed Serie A game, another chump of free footballing pleasure we get from our free-to-air broadcaster...surely the likes of Foo & myself had been scavenging for however little of that to offer... Just got the information that Singtel miotv has received the rights of airing live Champions League & UEFA cup matches in the coming future, which adds more woes of football loving Starhub Cable Vision subscribers who thought dishing out $25 per month, was enough to satisfy their needs on the long run...

Startled from a dream, I was at first petrified at the prospect that I was late for work when I pried the eyes open to see that it was 7:06 on the digital clock of the home theater system.
After the brain worked the nature of the day, I went back to sleep, feeling relief before reluctantly got up for the badminton session at Clementi...
If you thought that session a fortnight ago was wretched, the gang didn't respond to EK's heed and call for it as I was the last to arrive with the Tay brothers sitting rather dejected and bewildered on the wooden bench, staring at the empty court...
I had thought the good days of weekly badminton was over after the La Tendo move, meaning one of them had to be there at 11 to open shop... Little did we realized that in the end it was the lack of response from the rest of us without such obligations...
We'll wait and see if EK would be waned off by such sporadic responses eventually...
Went to La Tendo and stayed till the afternoon before deciding to just stay home-bound for the remaining of the Good Friday...

Surely we are feeling the brunt of an inflation... Last weekend when my folks were off to another Genting trip, a breakfast at Northpoint resulted in a good $60 gone...
On Saturday brought my spouse for some local Kopitiam breakfast delight and we easily chalked up another $10 between the 2 of us...
Really had to shun going out if possible..it's hard not to spend alot for very little these days...

So I practised what I preached and stayed home for the remaining 2 days, going through the DVDs I had amassed from last week's purchase and this week's rental...
The surprising part was that my dear wife was with me through the 2 days tourney, of course I gladly welcome that...
However staying home for so long had gotten her a bit restless...

Then came that strange phenomenon that she started to get very violent and I was that unfortunate canvas...
Before this exploded into an episode of domestic abuse and shown on Channel News Asia, just like to state that it was perhaps a way to spice up our love life...
However the missus is not petit or something and by some brute force can do some unforeseen damages to my already badly-scarred body...
Personally I do not have a good threshold for pain as well; I don;t even dare to pay the dentist a regular visit for god's sake...
So when she accidentally ramped her cranium up on my ear drums, the agony resulted in me blowing my top and Saturday evening turned out to be quite tensed for the 2 of us...
You win some and lose alot perhaps...

Japanese word of the day: 虐待する~gya-ku-ta-i-su-ru~(Abuse) I will surely not be a wife beater, 'cos that is the worst of all scums on earth!

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Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Changing World Climate & Mine

18th March 2008, Tuesday

It surely isn't a jolly period to live in since the turn of 2008....
The increasing worries of a major economic recession, starting with the global big brother, the United States of America, due to the subprime mortgage crisis and compounded with rising oil and gold prices...
The rippling effects with hit Europe and Asia for sure and many common people like you and I just hope it wouldn't affect us so much with our pristine government perhaps install an impenetrable aegis to shelter us from the effect...like real

The first sign of the problem would be the oil prices hitting record high just a week ago and now motorists are reeling from the effect of the high cost of petroleum which might brought about more expensive utility prices as well as another hike in public transport...

The global warming is still a major issue which set the solemn tone worldwide but major nations are trying to put it on a mend but surely not without a cause...
The constant fear of global terrorism (though some suggested that US might be the biggest terrorist themselves) also make us wonder if the planet is actually worth living in for the next few decades

The depressing note aside, I felt what is the most important now or for the next few years or so would be having a solid career, a clean slate of health and the importance of my loved ones to be around me for support...

Domestic-wise, my family unit is still holding strongly but a new member in terms of a baby seems highly unlikely not in the next year or so....
Psychologically I am definitely unprepared to be a father, we also have to analyse the financial side of things...Just really complicated to figure out in this period...
Meanwhile the missus revived her yearn of a car but the oil prices as well as the rising COE might not be the most attractive time to get one as well...

Health-wise, she got me on her complex weighing machine on Saturday and it seems I have high percentage of visceral fats and have a state of a 44 years-old... Sure is not the best piece of news
I am sure it could be my dietary practises that contributed to this and seems like the regular workout has reached it's plateau... Perhaps might need to change some health aspect in my life and perhaps get some supplements she suggest that can rid of those fats....

Finally career-wise, as mentioned a promotion seems likely on its way, after which it seems things will remain stale for the next few years or so...
The environment now is surely not the best time we had for a while... People at work just doesn't gets along though politicking might be just in one's mind...
I tried to continue to impress but work has been stifling on my part; I am also afraid this period of inactivity may make me daunted by increased workload in months to come...
A close confidante at work (shouldn't be hard to figure out the identity) is set to leave for greener pastures in next months or so...
She had been disillusioned with her incumbent role here and felt unappreciated by the superiors...
Her departure will have a few effects on me... I will miss her presence and surely by that point i am basically on my own
But at least it might not be depressing to listen to her constant whining about certain personnel she loathed and I could start afresh...

On a personal point of view, I am sure I would remain stagnant here and I had be pondering for a while now what I really look into for a career...
Over here it offers alot of flexibility and I am sure it really would be advantageous to someone like myself who needs alot of domestic time away from work...
But on the flip side is that there is very little room for progress and with no chance of overtime, the pay package would remain the same on monthly basis... pay increments and promotions would taken a backseat unless I really impress the superiors...
In local context the best way to progress surely has to be job-hopping, but that is not the kind of career move I am aiming...

Seeing how someone like Edmund who began working at around the same time as myself had strove to become a manager to a respectable energy company and earning big bucks sure makes one green with envy...
But his situation is totally different from mine...He has no family to cater to and working was the only way he can identify himself with... It's pure toiling and certain luck on his side for his progression over the past 5 years...
I did asked the missus would she felt indifferent about me if I remain status quo down the road...
Living wouldn't be hard but we most probably would have to worry about measly money now and then...
She had her dreams and I hope she fulfilled it but I am not really sure about my own dream in years to come...

I am turning 30 this year which makes and break one's career seriously
By 35, we might become a tangible option for most recruiting companies as age would not be on our side,,
I used to be 40 somethings but surely times had changed..job security is almost unheard of I am sure
So it is always good to think of other career options...Let's hope I will find mine soon...

Alright enough of the serious tone...

Japanese word of the day: キャリア (Career) How would you carve out your career? Better start early...

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Monday, March 10, 2008

Viral Attacks!!

10th March 2008, Monday

It sure had been a weekend of viral attacks...

Across the causeway, the major political stronghold of Barisan Nasional must be wondering if there was a chronic bout of viral attacks affecting their usually loyal citizens to vote against them in the just-concluded elections as opposition parties managed to usurp them and got control of 5 of the 13 states... Things are gonna change drastically for our northern neighbors for sure soon...

Personally I could sense some kind of flu virus had been invading my body since mid last week...
The respiratory tract had been feeling queasy and a sore throat was predictably on its way by Saturday....
The missus put me in a cocktail of health supplements to help build the immune system to combat the viral invasion and I can sense that my body sure was fighting back....
So I just keep my body hydrated for the past few days and hopefully able to expel the virus from my watery waste...
Let's hope it doesn't regressed into a niggling cough which will take ages to fully recuperate...

Finally my mobile phone, the Motorola Razr which I hope that could be be a hardy servant for the next few years or so like it's predecessor seem to had it's internal parts had turned awry but some kind of mobile virus of sort...
It was all ok on Saturday when I turned it off in the evening and I hadn't handle it for the entire Sunday till Huizhen sent me a SMS in the evening when the keypads just got stuck or something....
Feeling frustrated as always with my past history of dealing with faulty electronic or IT tools (gosh what a row it had been the past 2 years), I tried to revive the phone but to no avail.
In the end I just had to brought back my retired Samsung mobile from its grave earlier than the stipulated ICT period...
The death might come in timely as the current contract is ending in 2 months time and I could get a new one which I was pretty reluctant as I find no purpose to spend good money on one at this juncture; guess I need to milk some money (probably from the bonus in May) for that now...bummer

A rather placid weekend which began with a badminton session with an attendance slightly bettered the wretched showing in Hougang stadium months back.
The gang also didn't made their appearance at La Tendo which had seen pretty boisterous business as majority of the customers patronising the joint was families who had just seen "Disney on Ice" at the indoor stadium, in conjunction to the start of the school holidays...
I also spotted my ex colleague the one and only JxMMy D and his lovely (and seemingly very pregnant...hmm..might be just her usual figure) spouse...
I was sure he saw me as well behind the counter but as he usually mousy nature, didn't came up to say hi...not that I bothered doing so myself...
But surely the guy who I once had the intention to murder had surely put on some weight as he enters the 40s...heehee

Another haunt from the past came on Sunday as I just cooped in my room catching up shows I had amassed was my insurance agent who had been rather persistent to solicit for more policies to be signed by us...
Sis asked her over to discuss on a plan and boy she sure could do an intricate explanation that last a good 4 hours or so...

Japanese word of the day: ウイルス~u-i-ru-su~(Virus) It could be viral attack that cause JxMMy to gain such hefty weight...

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Monday, March 03, 2008

Classifying True Friends from Mere Acquaintance

3rd March 2008, Monday

Over the weekend while almost the entire home forces were out hunting a crippled Muslim extremist leader with little luck on his whereabouts, the world mourned for a true legend in Hong Kong entertainment scene who was such a magnanimous and colorful character who had warmed the hearts of viewers for generations, the late Lydia Sum, putting the now-draggy episode of the Edison Chan fiasco on the back on everyone's mind for now...

Lydia or more affectionately known as Fei Fei had many friends in the entertainment business and almost all who could make it went for her Remembrance Ceremony.

Personally I am not a truly magnanimous person and friendship is a commodity I thought I wouldn't really put too much faith into.
Afterall I had only a handful of true friends who I am willing to share weals and woes with, whom I think I can confide in and whom I felt I had my life was not wasted away just by talking to them.

A true friend would be like buddy CS who braved the rain on Saturday morning to fix up the heat sink for my CPU as he promised he would weeks back.
My game-a-holic buddy who had to juggled between work, his lass and his substantial need of time to play games, bothered to travel all the way to help me out and meticulously he helped alleviate the issue that had been bugging my PC for ages now....
My gratitude towards his act could only be repaid in the future... to show how much a true friend him and the rest of the Wrecking gang were to me...

Then of course the La Tendo clique will always be regarded as my most important "nakama" as well (as if I hadn't emphasize on that hard enough)...
We even bothered to buy a cake to celebrate the shop's birthday.
The entire troop will show their presence when an occasion commands for it for the past 3 years or so..Therefore from the many celebrations and overseas expeditions we had gone through together make me even more comfortable with their presence..
I am even willing to spend days just hanging around the shop just to dabble in their presence....

At the other end of the spectrum, I do find my group of close friends in NUS can be a bit fake or obnoxious...which means they might not be that close...
Among the herd, Edmund and Jing Jing were the one we could really relate to and contributed alot for our wedding 2 years back.
Last Saturday was their turn and we would render any help if they had asked us but they seemingly had ample assistance at hands...
Mom was curious why aren't we were included in the "brother-sister" line-up but I know they meant good, knowing I would always be too busy to comply...
Ed had a great showing on the banquet in Pan Pacific, and surely his years of toiling for his career was evident and for now his in-laws who used to look down upon him surely had changed their paradigm towards a person like him with a background they might felt incompatible with their own precious daughter....
Talking to all my successful friends from the university, I surely felt a slight sense of inferiority but after assurance from the missus, as long as we are contend with our lives and living it to the fullest, that's all it matters...

Doubt I will meet these friends up till next wedding I supposed...and we really don't click in that level enough I want to spare much of my precious time with them...

Other group of people I had felt close allegiance to like some of colleagues but the days passed we aren't really that close as I thought we would be...
Factions were formed, and politics arose...In the end we all came to work for the monthly renumeration, as I told my American boss, we might not necessary came to make friends...
The only one who I had close association to had recently had a strong urge to jump ship...She became too negative an influence for me I felt...

Finally, with the overseas ICT beckoning, it is always important to renew alliance with some fellow reservist personnel, to rid of any loneliness in Taiwan and perhaps reap greater rewards as well...


Japanese word of the day: 分類しなさい ~bun-rui-shi-na-sa-i~(Classify) I wonder how my friends classify my friendship under...



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