Just Hard to be Chirpy

29th March 2010, Monday

Little sis's customary on Friday was aye ole fine till after the buffet lunch held at a sparkling new hotel at Johor Bahru.
My old man who looked worn down by his age of late made a turn from the hotel to the main road, without putting on his signal and cutting into the outer lane.
At this point, a local Proton wagon blazed towards our tail and made a hard brake prompt enough to avoid collision with a scratch sustained by both vehicles.

Just as we thought the episode was over, the ruffian like locale Malay driver in his bootleg Man Utd jersey and all-so-cool shades walked down from his car while all a long beeline was built up on the road, knocked on our driver's door and demanded my father to stop at the nearest turn in the light drizzle.

Mom handed Dad RM$50, hoping to quell the situation as the first thing that came to our mind was that it was a ploy by the local to lure upon unsuspecting Singaporean, create a fracas and hope to bamboozle a hefty sum for the foreigner who did not want any trouble, especially when their authorities can be bought over with money.

Dad was visibly shaken when dealing with his younger protagonist while I too alighted to render any form of support for my old man though deep inside I was filled with fury and some level of fear since stories aplomb of what these crazy Malaysians were capable of.
The driver was riled at the sight of his all so sacred Proton was scratched minimally while Dad was all so apologetic in his limited command of Malay while stuffing the $50 in his hand which he was of course not satisfied with.

We then fled the scene before he called for back-ups.
Though it was my father's fault ultimately, I was well perturbed for the friggin' hell hole just north of our island and vowed never step a foot there again.

Hours back home my beloved Dolphins fell to Home United rather meekly but it was kind of anticipated.

On Saturday, in the midst of my third season on the Football Manager, there was a hard crash of the PC.
Since it happened a fortnight ago with little repercussions, I thought things were fine but it was not meant to be as I had problem launching the game without the PC crashing once again.
I had heard of the notoriety of the game of crashing but the timing was really sucky.
To aggravate the situation, my PC crashed while I was watching a video stream online...
It was barely a year and a half since my last upgrade but I think I might be tempted to go for Quad Core motherboard soon.

The only oasis in a mired weekend was the gathering with the La Tendo clique for Karen's farewell dinner, sadly almost half the crew could not make it due to other commitments or sickness.
Nice fusion vegetarian with steep prices but at least whet our tastebuds.
It followed by the impromptu karaoke session which stretched till midnight on a Sunday evening.

Back to work on Monday morning to face the email from Shitty Green after my candid response for his flagrant comment on our inadequency in our preparation process.
Created quite a fracas but did not even compare to the fact that my seemingly idle time had raised eyebrows of my younger colleagues who were swamped with work and went to blow whistle on us.
Wintery times at work and overall hard to be chirpy for the start of a truncated week.

Japanese 陽気 (Chirpy) Even the birds don't chirp today

Change is Forthcoming

15th March 2010, Monday

The other day there was a commotion created by Karen's statement on
"Change is coming".

Many friends and loved ones probed and speculated what the change would be and it seems like yours truly hit the bullseye with my prediction.

I stated that it could be something to do with changing of her job.

It was no major myth to conceal that our teacher friend simply became jaded with her working environment and had started to shake her off the tangent of her mental well-being.

Therefore it was of little surprise when she revealed that she would not be renewing her teaching contract which runs its course come end of the month.
Meanwhile she had managed to hook up with a South Korean animation production house which would see her working in Seoul for 8 months.
Doing computer animation had always been a dream of hers plus the opportunity to work overseas definitely is one to relished, even though she mentioned she would be taking a 50% pay cut for it (imagine a current remuneration..gosh)
An inside joke would be that she can finally fulfilled another dream of hers, get hitched with her pop idol, Rain.
Wishful thinking but never say never.

So by early April, a galvanizing player in the La Tendo clique would be away from the island till the end of 2010 and with Ferris' self projected one year absence, it means the crew is well thinned with the usual guys going to the shop and an occasional movie outing or perhaps dinner.
Karen's infectious giggling would be missed at the time being.
One less person to chat via MSN about the latest development on One Piece, well that is still possible unless her new employers banned all social networking tools.

Caught Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" in 3D at Cathay with the gang.
A wonderful rendition from Burton in his signature art direction but getting a bit too tired of his usage of Johnny Depp and spouse Helena Bonham Carter though the latter was perfect for the role of bulbous-head red queen.
Crispin Glover is the great shifty character since his "Back to the Future" days while Mia Wasikowska was comfortable as a teenage Alice.
Anne Hathaway's thick colored lips and broad eyebrows stood out clearly but it was those adorable imaginary creatures like Cheshire Cat and Tweedle-dum & Tweedle-dee which really steal the show.
And yah Christopher Lee, Saruman and not Fann Wong's hubby had like 3 speaking lines as Jabberwocky, Red Queen's draconian champion.

The next movie ought to be "Clash of the Titans" and let the mediocre blockbusters pattern continue for the year of 2010

Japanese word of the day: 不思議の国 ~fu-shi-gi-no-ku-ni~ (Wonderland) Karen would be heading towards her wonderland soon

What Are You Busy With Lately?

11th March 2010, Thursday

Oh gosh this blog has degenerated into those one post a month blog?
Seemingly so...sigh

The other day while chatting with Chan on the MSN he opened the Pandora's Box when he was baffled at how come I do not have time to get started with Final Fantasy XIII on my long untouched Playstation 3 console (which of late was decapitated by a ploy from Sony to oust those old models forcing pre-existing owners to spend on the new slim and improved ones).

"What exactly are you busy with?" he asked.

The truth is I am not quite sure about what had been eating up my leisure time but at this juncture, definitely spending hours addicted to a console game in front of the TV does not sound very appealing to me.

While the missus has not been the beneficial party of my free time as usual, we do try to spend a bit of time here and there.
Been catching up with old friends and acquaintances over the Lunar New Year period which transpired to be quite enjoyable just catching up old times.
Also stepped into the dark side with the creation of a Facebook account...so done a bit of microblogging which really does not mean much.

Of course the positive start of Sengkang Punggol FC's 2010 campaign got me head over heels and devote quite a bit of time chasing their progress.
Together with my strange bedfellow Foo, the blog we created really causing some buzz in synchrony with the explosive start of the Dolphins.
This created a domino effect for me renewed interest in local football and thus prompting me to work on the database for the Football Manager which really took up quite a bit of time since last weekend.

Attended a concert with the missus at the tail-end of the month.
I would not say she coerced me into it but it was kinda short (~1 and a half hour) to see the Backstreet Men plying their trade despite their bones are getting brittle.
The over-zealous jumping and shrieking of the fans did not help to improve the viewing pleasure.

At work, there's confirmation of a change in our boss...yes the 3rd time in just 3 years.
For us it's just back to the drawing board and do what we do best as usual.
The new platform encountered some issues as predicted but will iron out eventually and seemingly I am the main man in charge.
I am definitely looking forward to hold a more significant role in the group but from the latest appraisal, it looks like I might had accomplished what I set out to do.
It's not so bad just staying put here despite a recent tirade of SMS exchanges with BY indicated that the outside world just ain't as greener a pasture as it seems.

Finally at home, my little sister is getting ready to move out and start her family which we all hoped will be a smooth ride.
She truly needed to tone down her temperament and appreciate her husband who truly is a decent chap.
Mom is going to Hokkaido, sadly I am not the one who brings her there, while my old man just lament that the cost of a Japan trip is way too high for his liking, or he is just plain worrisome and paranoid.

I have no real picture in my head how the next few months will be like, and truly I am in the "go with the flow" state...watch this space.

Japanese word of the day: 流れ ~na-ga-re~(Flow) My mantra of late...no expectation no disappointment