Gun-jostling time!

31st May 2010, Monday

Don't May seems a wee bit too long for my liking?

A long weekend just vamoosed by without significantly leaving a mark though the tiramisu at Pontini was highly delectable and made every penny of the 16 bucks well worth it.

It was basically riding the stallion in the virtual wild west while learning to lasso the horse, guide the herd and hunt down bounties before hooking up with the posse to squash some bandits' den for most of the weekend.
Kind of neglected the missus by the end of it, though herself was pretty absorbed in all the gun-trotting action when she watched me play.

On Vesak Friday, the BBQ birthday celebration for 77 year old grandma was not the most ideal when none of the filial grandchildren had not bother to check with the meteorological station for the most accurate weather forecast.
The whole brood was made to dodge for shelter at least 2 times before finally managed to grilled the remaining food till the very end of the night.

The Sunday game session with TW and CS came off at the very last minute despite it being way truncated than expected.
Nevertheless the whole session succeeded in us impressed (albeit me slightly) with "Lost Planet 2" and TW likewise with "Red Dead Redemption".
Nevertheless can expect the trio of us hooking up online very soon.

Japanese word of the day: 射撃(Shooting) It is always much more fun to do it virtually...

It comes back in a full Circle

19th April 2010, Monday

17th April 2010 proved to be a real eventful day for the sleepy town of Singapore...
The preceding evening was well soaked in the torrential showers that spitefully arrived every single day during knock off time.
I did made it to Salon de Uno earlier than my stipulated appointment, and managed to get my highly active follicles well groomed by 7.30pm when the missus came to find me straight off work with no appointment planned.
She was to accompany to CS' place after dinner as a rather last minute gaming session was coined with PL's dinner appointment gave her husband some lee time to hang around with his gaming buddies on a Friday evening.

Thought it might be a great session to banter about unraveling the mystery behind "Heavy Rain" but TW's intention was to indulge in PES as usual which we did.
It was well fine but just become slightly too repetitive while a sudden phone-in interview for the host definitely hindered the progress.
At least the missus found her own form of entertainment but I felt bad putting her, who was still recovering from her chronic cough, through this despite it was her choice.

Saturday began not so bright nor early but one could sense the entire neighborhood roasting up for the grand reopening of the Hindu temple across the road which spelt road closures around our place.
It was crucial to start with a hearty breakfast and that was what we had at Starbucks as we were both bought by the strong aroma of freshly brewed Java.

The long awaited 3rd phase of the Circle Line was in operation on that fateful day.
Of course it should cut the traveling time to La Tendo, 19 minutes to be exact as indicated at the route inidcation board before Chan and I took our maiden ride from Bishan Station.
In the end with umpteen prolonged halts (notably at Paya Lebar), it added up to around 25 min which is around the same time we usually waited for that godforsaken Bus 16 in town on Saturday anyway.

Love the Noah's Ark style architecture for the Stadium station though with the ganrty at only one end does not make much sense.
The cement on the footpath to Kalleng Leisure Park was barely dried when we got there, highlighting what a hush hush job it had been.

The opening of the train station surely saw a stark improvement in the human traffic as the store was swarmed almost 80% of the time we were there.
Of course they held a 20% storewide sales helped matters too but the 2 concerts from Taiwanese acts certainly played their part to bring in the crowd.
Like my merchandise-crazed wife who spent close to 300 bucks on the increasingly stale 5 men Taiwanese band, it was easy to spot the hordes of concert-goers with their sparkling new official T shirts on.
The downpour in the afternoon nearly jeopardized the open air concert.

Closing to the final hour of operation, Karen made her appearance after going very quiet on the net and in appearance lately.
She would be getting her working visa in a few days time and the flight to Seoul is imminent.
The crew had intended to catch "Kick Ass!" which Chan had been raving about though my utmost intention was to catch the Manchester derby live with TW.

My buddy who was in the midst of a nice dinner with his missus had thought the match would be at around 9-ish when in actual fact the kickoff was around 7.45pm.
He did say it was likely to catch the Chelsea-Spurs game which kicked off after midnight.
Therefore the plan altered as the movie kind of fell with sprawling interest.
Left for AMK for dinner with yet another meal at Popeye's fried chicken, certainly look to abstain from it for at least a few months.
Bryan was gloomy for most of the day. Made to slave on a Saturday, drenched from the shower and then perturbed by the price of the Macross F Ichibankuji that he felt was not justifiable despite a strong desire to own the figurines.
I wonder if the deep fried chicken could do much to help 'cos the score at City of Manchester Stadium certainly couldn't as his beloved Poo's archrivals looked on course for a possible 19th league title after a Paul Scholes' injury time header deflated the host in laser blue.

As TW mentioned during our journey to his place after dropping PL at her Dad's in Bishan,
"When I heard GOOOALLLL! I knew there would only be one team who had scored as Man City has no fan in Singapore."
Great words indeed.

There was a filler known as "Blacburn vs Everton" to keep us preoccupied before the big one at White Hart's Lane.
Seemingly a scrappy game at first but Blackburn scored a couple of screamer including one from TW's fave player now at least because of the sheer flair of his name, Steven Nzonzi, yet end up losing to lucky Toffees.

Prior to keepoff of the big match, the missus arrived with a seemingly sore throat and high from the adrenaline rush of the live concert.
It was really nice of her to chaperon me for the 2nd night in succession when she would be bore to tears with the proceedings, plus the match would likely ending by 2.30 in the morning.

So the game ensued as we built up with our undying loathe for the likes of Terry and Cashley Cole.
It was befitting that Spurs was the team on form and the star man was defender turn winger Gareth Bale.
The Welshman had transformed his form of late since the days of Spurs-will-lose-when Bale-starts.
After Jermain Defoe hit a powerful spotkick off public enemy's No.1 John Terry's handball, we were celebrating like teenage morons.
Spurs were dominating play the entire first half and deservedly go 2-0 up before half time, from our fave Spurs player now Bale.

Second half was even more exhilarating for us with Drogba cramping his groin muscles before kick off then by my mouth of voodooism, John Terry actually got sent off for 2 yellow cards.
Chelsea was in the doldrums and we were basking in their plight till a late rally which saw Lampard reducing the arrears when we had our hearts in our throats.

Definitely a great night if you are Man United fans (esp when fellow title chaser Arsenal also lost on Sun) but Spurs under Redknapp is definitely dazzling and truly hope they make it into the Champions League.

So a wonderful Saturday ended on a great note as we sort of rekindled the interest in the EPL as the season runs in... Everything like karma will comes back in one full circle, John Terry oughta know..heehee

Japanese word of the day: 円(Circle) Life though cannot keep spinning in circles

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

2010...Not a year to look forward to

31st December 2009, Thursday

New Year Resolution?
Try to stay out of trouble, stay healthy and no leakage of money.

Very pragmatic and unelaborative plan for the coming new year as I do not have much expectation of 2010 to be a blast despite the World Cup is hovering on the horizon.

On domestic front, the missus is bugging me to conceive, literally.
Well heading into our 4th year of marriage life, perhaps it is due time especially now that my sister is moving out soon, we should have enough room to welcome a new member to the family.

On work front, I am virtually in no mood to handle Shitty Green's project at the moment but that should keep me preoccupied for the first quarter of the year
2010 looked to be pretty much filled to the brim, in actual fact it is better to be swamped than sitting around idling.
Doubt I will bring up a promotion, which perhaps I might try for the 2011 appraisal.

On personal relationship, I thought 2009 was a good year to catch up with people.
Haven't been sticking closely to my relatives, both maternal or paternal or my in-laws, but truth is I am not a relative kind of guy but I just hope I do not project myself as a stuck up.
Friends-wise, I tried to build the cohesion with the few valuable close friends I had.
It might take some mending with some friends who you might have read over the course of the past year but there was no real altercation, just seems to drift apart slowly.

2010 might see me fulfilling a local in-camp training before a loathsome one in 2011.
There would be another Japan trip for the Wreckers reunion in the pipeline but truth is Foo was still very much in the dark about it and unlikely will be interested.
TW and spouse are yearning for Europe instead, so it might be us bringing CS and wife-to-be over if plans allowed.

As for things to keep me occupied on my own leisure time, I might really need to cut back on some things like attending live football matches and what not.
Console gaming might make intermission appearance over the course of the next year but I doubt it will abstain me from my PC for long.
There still look to be many unfinished business here and there I might look forward to tie up.

So in conclusion 2010 is a year to fulfill some wishes though one can be life defining as well as tying up simple tasks, and try to be less multi-tasking.
Time is not of the essence but health as of late I do fear for the worse as life look fragile, should take precedence in any cases.

2009 had been a year of marriages and funerals, let's hope 2010 steered away from that if possible....

Memorable Personal Happenings of 2009
1. HT's suicide
2. Eriko & Sou s' Wedding
3. TW finally got hitched
4. Letterman returned to local TV

Memorable Events at Work of 2009
1. Slaying of the Shitty Green
2. Closure of the Gym
3. Jason's Resignation
4.. HB's Proposal to XY

Memorable World Events of 2009
1. H1N1
2. World recovery from worst financial crisis since Great Depression
3. Japan Finance Minister's drunken slur in the G8 meeting
4. Obama winning Nobel Peace Prize for nothing
5. World Calamities which increase by several folds


Memorable Local Events of 2009
1. Temasek Holdings losing billions in investment
2. Telcos war on EPL and iPhone
3. Passing of MC King and Chew Chor Meng's illness

Memorable Footballing Events of 2009
1. Real rebuild Galacticos
2. Robert Enke's suicide
3. North Korea making into World Cup

Memorable Movies of 2009
1. Avatar
2. District 9
3. Star Trek

Memorable Songs of 2009
1. Sotto, Zutto - SMAP
2. Shukanshutto - Hilcrhyme
3. Bulletproof - La Roux

Memorable Events in Entertainment of 2009
1. Passing of MJ
2. Tsuyoshi Kusanagi's Scandal
3. Emergence of Kato Seishiro

Japanese word of the day:達成(Fulfillment) Have your 2009 been fulfilling enough?

Illness is a Crazy Thing

18th October 2009, Monday

Had to take urgent leave today to tend to my terribly-ill missus.
Apparently a bout of gastric flu had decimated her into feeble soul whose tendency to expunge her gastric fluid (bile et al) had kept her up the entire night while I was well in dreamland...well not much dream worth mentioning in fact.

It was palpable that she was not in ship shape for work and while I was preparing to start a long week ahead myself, she sort of pleaded me to keep her company which of course I obliged as that well-exhausted beady eyes of hers made it almost blasphemous to turn down.

Perhaps it had been the only time in a long while for me to fill the role of a fitful husband to tender to my ailing bride, but still not enough to nominate me into the "Husband of the Year" award.

Despite without His Beautiness who was busy skimpy-dipping with his promiscuous partner(s) around the Kinki region of Japan, the work front had been well run and only bearing small glitches which we can handle aptly.

The mid year performance appraisal is scheduled for tomorrow and it would be the first time with the new boss on the helms.
I had been wary of the various warnings given by ex-colleagues about the new assessor whose real thoughts were hard to fathom.
I am desperately trying to win myself in his books and hope my request on been given more responsbilities to fit my experience will be answered.

All the best for tomorrow then.

Japanese word of the day:夫 (Husband) If there's an appraisal for being a husband, I might be at the borderline of being just proficient.

CONflict with the RADicals

14th September 2009, Monday

So the weekend that I had anticipated for a while gone and in the most satisfactory fashion I supposed.
Spent quality with the missus, totally rested my rigid bones, indulged ourselves in plenty of good food, spend till the credit cards busted and of course taking a great opportunity to hang out with my buddies; It was not spectacular but ain't shoddy either.

The day began at ION Orchard, the new center of attraction in Singapore's most popular shopping street.
The architecture truly stuck out in the backdrop but did not really blemished the mood of the area, instead setting a distinct feature of its own.

We had intended to purchase the JR Pass in the JTB Salpon but that did not go according to plan as we were simply too hasty.

We did had the traditional coffee, kaya toast and half boiled eggs at a cafe which bore decor which was most astutely made to resemble a high class cafe in Great America during the early 20th century or something.

The massage session at The Ultimate Wellness Haven at Shaw Center was set at 11.30 am; the entire penthouse setting was pretty grandiose and looked to cater for the tai-tais with cash to burn and the secret location looked like an exclusive clandestine of sort.
The package the missus was cajoled to buy was done a year back and she was still settling in in th form of a monthly installments.
The whole experience ain't that bad with decent massage therapy and body scrub which rid the rigidness in my muscles around the neck due to my incessant hours in front of my workstation 5 days per week and the tightness in my thigh and calf muscles from all the regular jogging.

We left for Conrad International Singapore as planned but traffic around town on a Satueday afternoon especially with COMEX, another one of those gargantuan IT convention held at Suntec City, was not going to be forgiving.
There was a near alteration when a Comfort Delgro Hyundai Avantis model unreasonably cutting the lane and close to gracing the boot of our car.
A horn of frustration ensued from the offender and from account by the flabberghasted missu, the obnoxious taxi driver still had the cheek to give her the middle finger.

The foul mood immediately evaporated when we made our way to Room 803 where we would spend the night at.

We did not lingered long in the room after settling down as one of the objectives of the weekend for me was to buy myself a decent set of suit for the important wedding procession I would be involved in for the month of October.
Prior to traveling from Orchard Road to Marina, we had took a detour to the Zara outlet at Wheelock Place and had my eyes on this particular made of real soft synthetic material which is well stretchable which is advantageous for someone like me with that kind of irrational figure.
In the end that was what I purchased.
It nearly did not transpired well with limited stock (make it one set only) in the outlet at Marina Square.

We had some rest in the room till it was dinner time as we expected our guests to be coming in around 7 plus.
The buffet at Oscar's had quite a budding reputation for a buffet which serves fresh seafood which did not really whet my appetite but it did looked quite amazing to see a good 8 types of oysters including Coffin's Bay, Irish and Scottish.

There was a "Treat of Nagoya" for limited time as the chefs laid out some exquisite Japanese cuisine from the central Japanese city.
We warmed out stomach and worked that gastric juice before the rest arrived.

Eventually TW and Peiling made their appearance, a good half hour before CS and Lili who was caught in the usual Saturday evening jam on the CTE arrived.
Despite the setting of the table and the constant topping of our plates, the 6 of us had a jolly good time chatting on each others' dining preference and a myriad of topic like the COMEX, the funny incidents in CS' workplace, TW's impending big day and of course spilling the beans from each other's can.
In the pipeline is also the "Tokyo Wreckers" 10th year anniversary" tour which CS lobbied aggressively for and something nice to look forward to the next year.

The dining and the hearty chatty lasted till an hour after the buffet stopped its operation but the restaurant was gracious enough not to hustle us out for making our usual din and even granted us a good deal as I was a patron of the hotel itself.

The gang left after taking a look at the room as the night petered to watching "The Devil Wears Prada" on that 52 inch Sony Bravia.

On the actual birthday of the missus, we began with more guilty indulgence as we overworked our intestinal factory with a fulfilling breakfast at the Oscar.
Before we knew it, it was checking out time as our little escapade for her birthday came to a close, with a parting shot of the view from our room:

Japanese word of the day:ザリガニ~Za-ri-ga-ni~(Crayfish) It seems like every love unshelling those crustaceans, making a whole mess just for that little bit of meat.

The New Commitment

20th July 2009, Monday

As of Saturday, we are (more specifically the missus) proud owner of a 3 year old 2nd hand Ford Focus.

It hard surely been a dream come true for my wife who had been fixated with the thoughts of owning her own wheels since she got the joy of driving.
The idea of car sharing with my folks in that Geely with the off peak license plate had not been well received by her for many instances.
Now she could go wherever she wants whenever she wants.

As for me, driving had never been my forte but it would surely be a handy skill if the traffic in Singapore is reduced by 3/4.

Calling the new car "Baby", my missus picked the toddler off from the orphanage in Ubi as I took my maiden spin with Chan and Bryan after a trip to La Tendo.
Commutting from Kallang to Ang Mo Kio was pretty hectic on the CTE but just glad we were not going on the reverse direction.

Crusing on the highway significantly reduced the chore of endless waiting for a bus. It would be followed by cramping it up like sardines in a can while you tried not to caress the hair follicle of the fugly baitch who eyeballed you as if she was the fairest of them all.
Hell you can even take a sip of water on the train now without $30 fine slapping you on the face!
But when we got to the madness human rampage at Ang Mo Kio, we faced the predicament of finding the right place to park the car.

So give and take at least for now we could paint the town red till the wee hours and still do not be held ransom by the cab drivers.

The license plate nearly was cause for joy when it was a number shy on hitting the first prize in 4D on Saturday which surely would recoop the dent in our joint account.

While she had to pay for the monthly instalments with parking fee, road tax, radio tax, insurance, fuel price etc, I will devote more on mending that hole in our joint account and should not be sweating too much for now.

Nevertheless it might turn out to be a decent investment and as long as she is happy..until she came home one night saying she is buying a Maserati though...

Japanese word of the day: 責任 (Commitment) My greatest commitment these days would be ensuring I have enough juice, yogurt and chips to keep me high on calories

Work Climate 2009 Q3

15th July 2009, Wednesday

It was out of the bag that Sigeeta had tendered her resignation and would be leaving the company by next month.
Her departure would mark the end of the "Tea break" clique which got the likes of BY so perturbed a year and a half back.

When Jason left months before, Shitty Green was so alarmed that he would snag Sigeeta, a close confidante along with him, leaving the platform they were in charge of totally uncovered.
Half a year later, Shitty Green's involvement with the group was almost minimal as he relinquished his group leader role to the American Chinese guy.
With the writings on the wall, Sigeeta did eventually left as she had intended to for a long time to come.

Barring His Beautiness & HB, I am like the last few remnants of the group of staff that started off 3 years ago when I first came over.
The turnover rate in my group had been alarming including the lab manager and group leader.

I would not say it was a bad place to work in with the culture rather laid back as long as deadlines are being met while work would generally kept within the boundary of the office or the lab and wage renumeration is decent.
But as usual, people just treated here as a stepping board for something better out there and surely those who had left, had found better things...but overall happiness, it's still a myth.
Of course very few would actually made a U-turn as it would reflect badly on them but for those of us remaining, every colleague departed just made us feeling we are holding on to something that is on due time will just self decay.

The truth indeed is that my department look like a sinking ship on the outside, a less than glamorous facade which really did not deter us much except for a drop in morale.

I had been sitting on my ass in front of my work station with nothing to do for the past month, together with the rest of those on my platform.
I am sure our lack of work had been frowned upon by others but there surely was nothing to be done and we are not simply loafing around.
Our impending projects look to be on the horizon but without a definite date.
Everyone is second guessing whether either would seek a way out eventually. Beautiness would be but he had been saying so for umpteen times yet still remains. XY and HB just tied their knot recently and I could not forsee both leaving at the same time but you never know.

With this new boss, the chance to be appraised with high regards look remote but still it is not so bad as I have reap the rewards of the past few years and can actually endure some mediocracy in bonus and pay increment though still it pains when you hear how good the others are taking in.

If I ever was to leave, it would be from headhunting or introduction basis, I just do not have the patience and finesse to go through the job hunting tourney again.

Of course with the recent purchase of the car, I felt I need to top up the joint account much faster with the missus' well tied down to the car loan.
Then the thought of having a child also being brought up again and it might actually be in the pipelines, so money and job security are utmost importance for the next decade or so.

Well then again you never know what life can lead you to...I better save up every cent possible and live the moment...

Japanese word of the day: 多数の脱出(Exodus) Does not spell good when your workplace face this issue

No Time Left for me from Now on

6th July 2009, Monday

"Sorry, love there was no time left for you from this point on.... "
That was a replica of the words my missus spewed last evening before we turned in for bed.

She had been totally decimated by her work of late, mentally and physically and what alludes her from fulfilling her dream to escape from that hell hole, she is now determined to make it happen.

I of course will render any support possible but felt I could not be the strongest cheering troop around for her, just had to endure the less amount of time spent with her like we did over the weekend.

My folks had gone to Genting for like the 800th time this year. They truly enjoyed hitting the jackpot machines in the casino in the cool Malaysian highlands and whatever makes them happy and seemingly economical enough, I felt it is good to have a monthly retreat there for them.

We began a cozy weekend with the island been doused with generous amount of rain and much cooling weather, something new for a long time, with some wine and dine at Paulaner Brauhaus.
The German restaurant at Millenia Walk is celebrating their 10th year in operation in Singapore and offering mugs of their home-brewed beer at $10 we just couldn't resist that offer.
At the end of it with sumptous food (all at $10 as well) and 2 pints of beer, I felt my digestive system could take no further punishment despite stretching it with a peach Melba which I shared with the missus.

After buying half a dozen of Premium Parfait at Marvelous Ice cream which I coerced my lady to buy, we should really be heading home straight before the ice cream just melted into a liquid mess, instead we spent a good 40 minutes in HMV where I just went rampage on buying DVD at sales price on some titles I was looking to add to my library.

Saturday was one I spent time alone after the missus made me some breakfast before leaving for a full day of wedding banquets, one the afternoon one for the evening.
While listening to Will Young's "All by Myself" and feeling a bit of self love (yikes sound really bad isn't), I was very much still awe-struck that Man United had snagged injury-prone Michael Owen from free transfer.
The Anfield legend surely would not be a fan favorite with his history but it might look like a wild card for the coming season and for such small price before the crescendo of Real Madrid throwing obscene amount of money into the transfer market one wonders did Bernard Mudoff was the one masterminding the moves with the money he swindled.

Sunday began with a nice breakfast at Swensen's as both missed the fragrant toast in the breakfast sets which gave us a poignant start to a Sunday with the rain god showing some belated aggression while Star World just feed me with a 3 hours marathon of "Seinfeld" which further making the missus hated George Costanza to the core.
While watching "The Break-up", the missus had the epiphany that the show kind of reflected our marriage when I persistently failed to reciprocate the affections she had showered. However I felt I was not as obnoxious as the Gary character reprised by Vince Vaughn or am I?
A romantic comedy surely was one for thoughts...

So I might not see more of my wife for perhaps the coming month, so less fritcion and bickering not that there was much to start with.

Japanese word of the day: 摩擦 (Friction) There's a reason why people should not spend time together 24-7...like in the prison

Roman Holiday...with my wife style

8th June 2009, Monday

Time and money...two of the most elusive assets which men could never ask enough of.
Time and money.. also the main bane to create little tiffs between the most stable marriage.

I must admit I hadn't adorned either of the above in great amount to my wife over the past 3 years, once again highlighting how inept I am as a husband.

But when an opportunity arose with a bit of inspiration, I somehow tried to heal some scars culminated over the period.

The folks went for another Genting escapade but left on icy terms when my old man went on his cranky mode two nights before and shouted at my poor mother.
Well after 30 years I wonder how much more she could tolerate...

I applied for an off in-lieu from the Vesak Day in May which fell on a Saturday, so to spend sometime with the missus still in the "force-leave taking" practice from her wretched workplace.

We headed to Tampines One, the new mall more well known to be "that one with Uniqlo".
It was school holidays, so we assumed it would be pretty insane to part the sea of boisterous kids in town and Tampines is mere 25 minutes of bus trip away.
Boy were we wrong as the shopping hub of the Eastern part of the island looked to amass its own crowd on a Friday afternoon as well.
However at the cineplex, it was like years ago with my transient stint as a "Science Fun" instructor at a primary school with children running amok.
There was no sheppard out there good enough to curb this herd I tell you.

Fortunately they were to catch "Aliens vs Monsters" while we opted for "Night at the Museum 2" which had opened a week ago, so the kids might had caught that.

So movie, some shopping (at Uniqlo no less) and overworking our digestive system at the Japanese style Marche, known as "Manpaku" (literally mean well stuffed), we looked to had spent a rather meaningful day at Tampines despite me constantly hounding her not to splurge, a role I am well aquitted to fulfill.

We ended the evening watching rom-com (romantic-comedy) "27 Dresses" I had rented on her request while dousing ourselves with the sparkling Shiraz I had willingly and lavishly acquired.

Saturday was when she needed attend a seminar the day long as I had the whole place to myself, but lucky I didn't dance naked like Rachel did from "Friends", just getting more frustrated at how I can't score goals more fluently with that mediorce team in Master League of Pro Evolution Soccer. Then again i could always restart when results don't go my way, if only I have that same "PS" button in real life.

Sunday was out with the boys to set up stall at China Square Central but had a decent breakfast at Swensen's before I made my way.
The food was affordable, tasty and filling and there was no rabid herd of children in sight!
She came to pick me up at CSC where we expend my day's earning on some pies for breakfast, a Banana Spin from Spinelli (not grande, not venti, just large) and some groceries for dinner which she dutifully whipped up.
Although she had very limited cooking ability, I could never say no to my wife's pasta which she might had picked up at her stint in Italy.

The night before a long week at work ended with some squabbling as we watch more Japanese doramas as she blew my mind with more things on her wishlist to buy....

It was a decent 3 day affair where we shared nice moments over things we loved (food, shopping, watching movie or doramas) and I hoped it do wonders to galvinized a seemingly blending marriage life.
More ideas were thrown in the air as I could apply leave 2 Fridays from now to coincide to her next off day as we might go for some massage at her spa or even book a hotel room as we always love to...

Japanese word of the day: 修理しなさい (Mend) Trying hard to mend things up...

$100 spent at Cold Storage!?

27th April 2009, Monday

With my sister off to her 3 weeks travel down under and my folks off for another Genting escapade for the weekend, the missus and myself had the entire house for ourselves and ultimately fend for our gastronomical requirements for the past 3 days.

Well as you know, I ain't earning big bucks and at such arid time of economic uncertainties, never would we have the audacity to grace the Cold Storage at Takashimaya and spending a cool $100 just on mere groceries...
It was what exactly happened on Saturday in a scheduled trip between us...

Of course beside the extravagant spending, we also faced the prospect of decimating the value on our cash card with at least 2 ERP gantries to cross and that obscene amount for parking in Ngee Ann City itself...Then there was the mad traffic both automobile on the expectedly cramped Orchard Boulevard and the human congestion in Takashimaya which really didn't give the missus a pleasant time.
One really ponders why I insist to hit the joint, well days before I recieved some Takashimaya vouchers from my workplace in appreciation for the time (what time?) I put in for some committee.
It was a welcome surprise but I accepted it without a trace of remorse like I damn deserved it maybe I do.

So I better spend the vouchers as fast as I can find the opportunity.
The idea was to get some ingredients to whip up a fast but nice dinner, some for breakfast for the next 2 days as well as my weekly yogurt and juice needs.
So we went around the aisles to pick up the foodstuff which quite a portion was imported from our beloved holiday destination.
Cold Soba would be the main carbohydrate source with unagi (eel) and some sushi platter to whet more appetite.
I even went to get some items which I rarely would pick up even to appease myself due to the high cost of it.
Despite our trolley being half failed by the time I went to foot the bill, I could still hardly believe my eyes when the cash register went beyond the $100 mark..
I didn' use up all the vouchers and paid quite a fraction by cash; I still felt the pinch and we might had overspent this time.

But it was a nice dinner for us which matters most...

Sunday was pretty quiet all by myself for most it before the storm which had been brewing due to the unbearable heat swept the island.
Met up with the La Tendo clique for badminton on Saturday and a good time to catch up especially Chan who had been a no-show for a while now.
Heard that YH was selected for a lucky draw for some spending at Suntec City and had a 1 in 5000 chance to walk home with a car; well she couldn't be more lucky, firstly to be one of the 20 contestants picked up for the key selection and then picking the right key to unlock the Mazda 6 sedan.
Perhaps our birthday boy Vincent (on Saturday) might have brush off some luck to her...

Japanese word of the day: 運命 ~un-me-i~(Fate) Some people get shopping vouchers, others win a car...

Like Husband, Like Wife...and a new PC

17th November 2008, Monday

After 2 days of drowning in extreme misery (don't try to empathize with me 'cos you'll just find me utterly silly), my life had a new sparkle...a blue luminous one as followed:

This baby tilted my expenditure on IT products to around 2.5K since the start of the year but it could be the most life-defying of them all....

The weekend began early when I beckoned TW who was fresh from his wretched ICT for a rendezvous at our old comic hide-out in Serene Center.
It merely took me less than 20 minutes to reach there from my workplace as traffic was smooth from Clementi to Bukit Timah Road.
My No. 4 uniform-wearing, short cropped buddy was already there browsing through Comic Mart for some reading material.
As the Mac which was the original plan was congested, I suggested to walk down to Adam Road Hawker Center for dinner.
We started whining and moaning about our misfortunes over the past weeks or so and I got a low down of what happened during the Russell Peter show.
Then it's only to get nostalgic on a breezy Friday evening as we cruised along the express way listening to endearing English pop songs from the 1990s as I suggested to hit a internet cafe to just to surf youtube for perhaps classic anime openings.

The only place I could think about these days would be at City Hall area..in the end we found this lan-gaming joint within Funan and did what we had intended for an hour or so, when CS who I had looked for in vain called to set an appointment with me to get the PC issue out of the way... which would really be the best remedy to make my mood back to the upswing.
He also disclosed a little recent update on our mutual friend BH which perked TW enough to meet us at Sim Lim the next day.
As I waited for the missus who was at a wedding banquet just down the road at Swissotel Westin Stamford and TW himself waiting to pick his lass from dinner at Liang Court down by Clarke Quay, we continued frollickin in our good old days including 1990s music, soccer and comic artists...sure were good times...

Saturday began with a frenzy...I had intended to start the day early by getting the purchase at Sim Lim less hassle and hesitation as possible.
The lads and I had arranged to meet by 10.30am but by 10 I was still at home as the missus insisted to tag along before heading off to her own affair.
So without much choice we hailed a cab down and got that slightly off the protracted time, then again the traffic congestion at CTE in AMK area was the main culprit of it.
We found CS taking his breakfast at Burger King in Burlington Square...after satisfying his caffeine urge, he gave us a low down on how BH finally got a girlfriend but the story wasn't as in depth as we had anticipated.
We wasted no time to head back to Sim Lim and more precisely Bell Systems Electronics to assemble my new PC.
Not wanting to really diagnose what's the real reason behind the failing of my original PC as CS stated as I am in dire need to get myself hook up online at home; we went ahead to do an overhaul retaining just the DVD Rom and salvaging the hard disk which hold some important data I wanted.

CS suggested to enquire with this guy by the name of Dave (whom he mistaken as Jave...er no one would call themselves Jave) who he mentioned is like the wise sage up on top on the computing mount and would impart us some knowledge on what parts would be most suitable for my computing needs.
After understanding that I'm not really into gaming but most for internet and multimedia entertainment, he suggested taking an AMD chip-mounted board with built in graphic card...
CS had his doubts on AMD being not as stable as Intel chips but Dave managed to win us over by his updated knowledge... Or he could be blowing his own horn..
However considering AMD is such cheaper alternative to Intel, it would really doesn't make sense why he wouldn't want to earn more money for his store (unless he just wanted to clear the AMD chip stock...yikes).
Without the need to purchase additional graphic card and the much lower price of the motherboard and the chip, my original budget of $1K seems to be much surplus when he included the power supply unit, 4GB RAM, 500GB Hard disk & of course a new tower with more coolant fans and those psychedelic blue lighting.
With building up a new PC, we need an operating system to run on...and we had both insisted of getting Windows XP but wise sage Dave snubbed our request, saying I should go for Vista (which at that point I still wasn't convinced was a more superior OS by Microsoft than XP and reluctant to use it day in day out).
He hit the point on why we wanted to held on to old technology which would be obsolete in half a year's time....
Grand Ol' Sage hit the notion and I duly obliged with getting the Premium Home Edition of Windows Vista with the total bill much under $700...seriously home computing had really become so much cheaper than maybe 5 years ago.

While we waited for the PC to be hook up and tested by their staff, we roamed Sim Lim and I was very tempted to get the new version of Football Manager by SIGames, released just a day ago.
However the sole mission of my wife's presence was to kill off any idea I had to do that as she had such bad blood with this series of game which will see me transform into a angst-driven bastard...she said she disagreed for the sake of my health...
But what I want I must get (as long as it's within my ability to own it)..and after relentless persuasion and a few sad looks, I got my wish fulfilled though with a price of doing some health check next month...er...we'll see.

Not before long we went to collect my new PC while TW was tempted to upgrade himself but didn't even buy a new scanner as planned as the incumbent is now soaked with rain water after he had forgotten to close the windows on a rainy day.
The missus who had been distracted by the wide selection of laptop and portable PC so far was very much tempted to a model from Taiwan-based brand, ASUS.
More on that undying temptation in a while...

After bidding TW goodbye, we headed back home as CS managed embed the DVD Rom as well as the old hard disk and installed the OS and not before long my looming misery was erased though I had lost alot of bookmarks which we couldn't seemed to isolate.
I need some softwares as well but I had good source as well as generally those I can get online including Copy Trans which was my inaugural online purchase software as I wanted to backup the songs in my iPod with the correct playlist before a fix of the battery issue...the last piece of my IT expenditure puzzle.

With the exception of still not able to listen via headphones via the front jack as well as persistent sound from the rear fan which CS had salvaged from the old PC as well, everything is working great...and Vista ain't such a pain in the neck as I had expected.
I could now even clone the display to my LCD TV after we hook up with a VGA cable from the PC...so now I surely can play my FM while enjoying a show, without the need to sacrifice the monitor as seen below:

I also installed FM 2009 on that night itself and it surely wasn't any easy task with the whole tie up witb Steam which really infuriated many avid fans during activation which couldn't be highlighted enough on the forums. Fortunately in my case, it was just a mistaken "1" for "I" which as well documented as well together with the "0/O" issue.
With the whole patching, it took close to 2 hours to finally launch the bloody game.
Fortunately start up was relatively fast, so is processing, mainly due to the power of my CPU I guess.
The whole new 3D match interface was met with much skepticism (but the previous 2D pitch was also well scorned till it was finally embraced over the years).
I had a try at it as seen below:

The Tv view was quite nauseating at the start...it seem like aerial view by helicopter or something, not conventional viewing of a soccer match.
But after a while I got quite used to it and with some level of glitches as expected, it was actually quite smooth and didn't take long to load the match.
Then again you can switch to normal 2D if you can't get used to it.
Fortunately I could use tactics and training schedule file from previous editions, so no need to mind those areas which I usually don't give a hoot about.
It was pretty hard to score in this edition but perhaps just had to get the gist of it eventually...
All in all, as I always quote..even the worst effort from SIGames, it's still a darn good game to spend hours on it...with this and PES 2009, my life is sort of complete now.

As mentioned the missus had her eyes on a laptop and had strong desire to make it her own on Saturday itself till I came up with "you sure you have the cash for it" rebuff.
After further consideration over the course of the remaining few hours and some early hours on Sunday, she made up her mind to get it....
She also intended to trade her old one for some cash to supplement her purchase...
Such a nature which resembles so close to mine, really scared CS stiff for a while...perhaps despite our widening differences, this similar trait pulled us together somehow.
So in the end, she got what she yearned for and was perhaps a good choice since her 4 years old laptop is dying a slow death anyway with crazy background softwares which make it so slow to work with...

She also helped me get an official copy of Norton AntiVirus 2009 edition which CS advised me to invest on...
An enlightening quote from the horse's mouth on Saturday was "well I got by the fact that we need to pay for softwares now, maybe you should to"...wise words...perhaps...at least because we could afford it now rather than those ailing schooling era.

So plenty of refreshing computing experience for the household for the next week or so....

Japanese word of the day: 私はほしいと思う何が私は得なければならない(what I want I must get) Surely a frightening trait but at least we will fight for it....

Work Appraisal 2008

15th October 2008, Wednesday

Today marks the deadline for the submission of the biannual performance appraisal which was mandatory here.
However being as anti-authoritarian as my pompous American boss is, he didn't even flinch a sign of doing the appraisal with any of us as he went R Kellying into his degenerative pedophilic ways (citation needed)... He was also seen in a rather seclusive "emo" mood of late...

Wonder how would an appraisal session would him be like... *shudders at the thought of it*
It seems like it could end up being a hush hush session since he likes to do it at the eleventh hour and just appraise what you have graded yourself to be...
Or it could be a gruelling face off when you defended your proposal for perhaps a legitimate "Efficient" grade while he started striking off items on the list as if he was packing for yet another Southeast Asian child sex trip.

Though not the most passionate guy at work, I am at least proficient enough for all my working years thus far as verified by the previous 2 female supervisors (no...no under table Lewinsky service for them to win their favour)
I started being very modest to thread the water for my earlier editions of appraisals and were always graded much better than expected.
So I had decided then on to grade myself without an ounce of utter modesty...we are after all trying to sell ourselves only twice a work year to get substantial performance bonus or even a promotion.
In the past, I always managed to get away with it though I was still not thick enough to put the tick for the box beside RM or Role Model unlike a certain Beautiness who was famous to ornate his shamelessly in the past.
On the other end of the spectrum, P or Proficient is the minimum threshold I would grade myself and if more than half the categories, you got yourself a P, it's like you can kiss perhaps even a month's worth of bonus goodbye...it's the onus for the bonus, if you know what I mean.

So for this mid year one (which constitute maybe 0.3% to the actual grading come end of the work year in March which will determine whether May will be a fantastic or faded month), this is how I grade myself:

1) Teamwork: Excellent.... Hey I am a big fan of soccer and teamwork is one of the most important trait of a successful team, so I am all on for teamwork...doesn't really take into account how other think of me though.

2) Excellence in Work: Excellent... Since jumping ship to the more routine platform, I was fighting for limelight woth the other 3 which usually was hogged by His Beautiness anyway. With the unfortunate sequence of delays due to the equipments, we still try to produce the results as fast as we could (though never fast enough). Even to the point of sacrificing our weekends... Still I doubt it look like I am that efficient enough

3) Creativity: Proficient...We are not in advertising like the guys in "Mad Men" (of course less hooking around with buxomy women at work as well) So when comes to creatvity, especially with our routine work, it really boils to how you can increase your throughput with half the time given. Which at this point is almost impossible.

4) Commitment: Excellent.. I am willing to stay with the group through weals and woes...ok that's loyalty but can't fault my commitment though I don't lose sleep over bad results usually.

5) Interpersonal Skills: Excellent... I am great to interact with people and have a wholesome personality to mingle with everyone...just that I choose not to.

6) Expanding your Knowledge: Excellent... Shoot me for not downloading scientific papers and printing them to hard copy so as to fall into slumber just reading the first letter of the title. I am as interested in the world of molecular science as I am with multi-layer marketing. I do try to get myself interested with the know-how of my trade but to me my profession is just the avenue for cash and benefits and nothing more..sadly

I do have some other secondary roles to back me up but as aloof as he is, Shitty Green is not oblivious to how we had performed over the course of time.
Time and again people had mentioned how he was intimidated by my stern expression at work; perhaps that I could use to my advantage to get a decent appraisal.
Anyway I just got promoted this year,so zero chance for a 2nd year straight...
I am just glad to get an average level of bonus come next May which is likely to be a mere month under such economic climate...

Today also marked my 2nd wedding aniversary.
The missus and myself tend to align ourselves more to the day we were a couple (alas 25th November) and intend to celebrate by then.
Therefore she was kind of embarrassed when it was a colleague of hers who reminded her of the anniversary...As of myself, I just hope it will be end of the week soon

Japanese word of the day: 性能(Performance) I might be an average/proficient worker as well as husband at best...that's the sad truth

The Last Straw

8th October 2009, Wednesday

I doubt I will watch another live S League match for now...highly doubtful for the new season as well unless I change my club allegiance or there's a major overhaul of personnel to Sengkang Punggol.

Too many times we had thought the team is on the mend and producing results, yet in the end we left bitterly disappointed by the woeful aftermath left by the despondent performance of a limited team.

The last straw was on Monday when we face perhaps the only team we can and should comfortably beat...Balestier Khalsa, the team etched at the bottom of the table with a run of 10 consecutive losses.

Sengkang was buoyed by an encouraging 1-1 home draw against the on-form Tampines squad (whom we witnessed an impressive victory over SAFFC) which came after a respectable defeat against SAF in a televised match which we should had carved out a draw if not for a wretched own goal.
The writing is on the wall for our 3rd league victory at home in Hougang Stadium against the very young and inexperience Tigers... Foo had been inculcating the winning notion for 2 weeks before this tie; we even took a day off from work to witness perhaps the most comprehensive victory (with more than one goal scored since that 3-1 success against the Young Lions).
But we had counted the eggs too early before they hatch, especially when the team in question is Sengkang Punggol.

The signs were ominous prior to the game when interim coach for a while, Mirko Grabovac who inspired the team for gritty display since the uber-defensive Sawsadimata Dasuki was ousted decided to leave Singapore, citing the need to be with his family as the sole reason.
Although we have a new competent gaffer in Swandi Ahmad, Mirko was really in the main reason we are now not bottom-dweller.

The sky was overcast and heavy downpour duly followed in the afternoon, putting the match in jeopardy.
Fortunately the rain subsided as fast as it arrived and by early evening the whole island was cool, the perfect remedy for a great game.

But I wasn't too please to listen to our starting line-up when I arrived at the stadium.
Our main marksman, Reginaldo (who only score one petty penalty so far btw) is out through suspension and we do not really have much attacking option on the bench except for youngsters like Kato, Duncan David Elias or Ben Low.
Swandi felt we need the experience, so he drafted in 2 players like Sufyandi Naib and Sobrie Maselan to lead the attack when neither are orthodox strikers.

We took our seats at the open terrace like we did at Tampines hoping for a change of luck and what we witnessed in the first half was an insipid display by the Dolphins who lack imagination up front with Haris Sumri looked set for a torrid night missing some passes and commiting schoolboy mistakes.
However he was the one with the best chance in the 1st half but could only head meekly towards the Tigers' custodian.
We knew that the keeper is the Archilles' heel of our opposition yet we could not conjure a proper shot on goal.

On the contrary, we allow the Tigers to come attack at us and our defense don't look sound at all when you have a pacey Saruta doing his typical mazy runs all night long.
Onyekachi could had put the cellar team one up if not for the woodworks and Ratna Suffian was non existent for most of the game, you might not notice he was playing at all.

Except for a reprieve in the closing minutes in the 1st half and the beginning 10 minutes of the 2nd, we were always on the back foot as we lack someone in the center as Hicks was out of position as the holding midfielder while skipper Simic was pushed too up front.
Sometime the 5 players up front love to cluster together with Tigers' captain, Seto marshalling his defense well but they had not much to do as well.
The best opportunity for a goal was when leftback, Ali Imran Lomri broke free into the Tiger's penalty area and picked out Haris Sumri who had 2 chances to an open goal one on one with the Tigers' custodian, Daniel Ong but can't execute a finish which explains why we had only 11 goals in 27 games.

I knew it would bite back on us and true indeed within 10 minutes or so, a poorrly defended corner resulted in young, lanky midfielder Rai to thump in the opening goal for the visitors.
The lead was extended when Yamamoto brought down the Tigers' attacker and Bekombo convert an easy penalty (seriously you can put anyone, and you'll convert you penalty against our keeper) to add more misery for his former club.

For the remaining 18 minutes or so, we were just chasing shadows and Bekombo should had score a sitter to put the final nail in our coffin.
Most players including the skipper were playing with shoulders down, doomed to lose and the odds of them scoring evaporated there and then.
The punter uncles at our terrace were cheering hard for the Tigers while for seasoned (pretty foolish if you are one anyway) Dolphins fan just deemed it as another night at Hougang.

Seriously losing to a team as raw as Balestier is blasphamous, to me even a draw is not good enough... The limited potential this team possess is truly saddening...
The abject performance once again proves to be the last straw for us as we looked forward to a new season but highly unlikely much will change....

Over at the English Premier League, one majestic club mirrors the fate of Sengkang Punggol... Tottenham Hotspurs.
By losing at home to newly-promoted Hull City, Spurs is now etched in the bottom with their inability to score haunting them much like our Dolphins...
They are experiencing their worse start since 1918 when Titanic sank...perhaps they would sank to the nether divison too... too bad Sengkang wouldn't experience the pain of relegation...

This weekend hasn't been too jolly for the missus as well...
Had a bad fall while we heading for badminton on Saturday mornin, badly sprained her ankle and palm... Then lost control of her drinking limit when she doused herself with red wine at her cousin's wedding till she regurgitated the 2004 harvest into a plastic bag on the trip bag in his Dad's bus.

Japanese word of the day: わら ~wa-ra~(Straw)I wonder how many Sengkang fans remain loyal to the club after Monday

Public Act of Intimacy

19th September 2008, Thursday

Some said marriage kills the romance but then I am never really a romantic guy..Neither am I a touchy partner well at least not within the watchful eyes of other people around.
Sometime I even felt uncomfortable just hugging the missus in front of family or close friend (then again it would look pretty awkward considering the size of us both).

However with the government still adamant to instill abit of romance into our stoic nation, many people actually heeded the notion to a point they readily show their acts of affection to one another in public places.
We are not talking about the "naked wrestling" BY once witness in the open space opposite Woodlands MRT station or the usual fanfare by the peeping toms in places like Labrador Park or maybe Bishan Park or the usual void deck actions some claimed to see.
Places like public transports i.e. MRT, restaurants, library, cinemas (which is quite a norm cos it's dark and if you refrain from a noisy foreplay no one would notice except the guy beside you or behind you) are common areas to see young love birds snuggling it out which ain't a big issue to me.
There had been many complaint letters sent into to local papers with regards to some nubile beings who had over stepped the border of intimacy; but usually such letters were sent by spinster who wretchedly yearn for some touch by men.
I am truly risking violating the act of sedition when I would say a certain racial group of our kaleidoscopic nation would be the main culprits but then again the other races are starting to join the act even a few lesbian couples I had noticed before.

Although as mentioned the younger demographic group tends to be indulging in such public display, one instance just the other day on my way to work deviates from the norm.
Exasperated that I could not grab a seat despite the train trip being a direct one (meaning there's no need for me to transit), I just try to keep balance in a sardine-packed carriage while losing myself in my NDS as usual.
It was until Choa Chu Kang station, that I felt my arm was brushed by the hair of a lady beside me.
Being the anti-social being I am, I tends to try to adjust myself so that I would not be tickled by keratinised filaments of a perfect stranger (even an attractive OL who certainly would regard me as a pervert anyway, so better keep away from unnecesary troubles).
However I then realized that her male partner was actually cuddling her and foddling her back as if he is tending an asthamtic kid or something.
There was even a point when he was helping her to alleviate an itch on her back which was totally uncalled for on a packed train.
While the lady was around 30-ish who can be forgiven as a 20 something in her early blissful relationship, her itch-post looks close to 50 with a head of unkemped grey and dry hair and looks to devour his younger lover there and then!
It was a disturbing sight to start a day with for sure...

There was this rather popular young couple within the vicinity of our workplace who we affectionately label them as "拿(Carry)".
Looking just completed their hatachi (20 years old) ceremony; this loving couple especially the guy surely looks to portray as that caring boyfriend all girls dream to possess...to a point it can be quite overbearing..
I first noticed this couple a year or so ago at the gym...
They were like a usual young couple with the lad gently supporting his lass' back as if she is suffering from some spinal issue all the way to the ladies' changing room.
He then supposedly waited for her to change into her workout rig and chaperone her to the gym as if she would be disorientated when the glass panels of the gym didn't give its location straight away.
He then saw her up the threadmill and both started their concise jogging.
The guy made sure he did it before her, so that he could render her support off the threadmill.
This is when we gave them their nicknames and it carried over several time over the past year.
Even when they were on the street, they were inseperable with the guy's hand always at the ladies' anterior; at times might pet her head like a doting parent would do for their beloved child.
In more recent times during a rainy morning while waiting for the shuttle bus into the myriad of office buildings, I saw the couple with the guy sheltering the girl's precarious forehead from the vicious raindrop pelting down with his bare hand, not it helps much seriously...
So at this juncture, you will presume the lady must be drop dead gorgeous that warrant such undividing care and concern from her beau...er...let's just say she looks slightly better than Ugly Betty...damn I'm bad...
Kudos to the pair...at least they enjoyed each other's presence while resisting the test of time...

For yours truly I reckon the classic hand-to-hand (swinging optional) or an occasional peck on the cheek or lips while bidding good-bye is where my limitations hold...but even so it would draw some unwelcoming cold stares from the same wretched spinsters...

Japanese word of the day: 親密 (Intimacy) I wonder would the guy's hands would sorely miss carrying something in her lass' absence

Virtual Fostering

8th September 2008, Monday

For the past week or so, while keeping myself interested and pretty much within sanity level with my mundane routine job, would be running scenarios of either my uber-long Sengkang/Singapore campaign on my Football Manager or the my latest football RPG fad, "Inazuma Eleven".

Surely this is not an adult who is hitting the big 30 within 2 months should be thinking about at work but c'est la vie for myself.

I love the concept of RPG (role playing game) and the Final Fantasy series had been a hot favorite of mine despite only played 2-3 titles in the franchise.
However the lengthy storyline which warrant at least weeks of playing can be a chore especially if you tediously undergo leveling up for all your characters to ensure you can transit smoothly to the latter stages of the games.
Many people tend to give up a classic RPG after a short while unless you start to grow affections to your brood or seriously interested in the storyline (or hoping to catch a glimpse of the CG ending) or you have the never-say-die spirit to perservere you through it all.

With Inazuma Eleven, the concept is very much the same where you started with bearly 11 players but you can recruit more players through scouting players you had random encounters with or players from other schools you had beaten whom you asked the wealthy heiress manager to buy them over with money.
However you still need to amass many training sessions or random kick-about to garner enough level to make your team decent.
The wayward design of the 1000 over characters from Level 5 (who gave us Professor Layton which explains the general character design and the animation sequence which became non-existent as we reached further into the game resemble the puzzle mystery game) really makes recruiting the various characters quite enjoyable.
The main feature will be the "Captain Tsubasa"-que out of this world type of shooting, tackling, dribbling and even goal-keeping.
The special moves are shown in polygon style CG while the main gameplay with the characters running about in primitive sprites but the details in each map is pretty notable.
The story which sometime involves playing against aged grocers or facing a team of otaku from Akihabara can be quite unique if only it it is in English.
I would fancy to create a strong team to face some of my NDS chums but I believe no one would be into it than myself.

Football Manager is far from role playing unless you take that of a fictitious gaffer trying to gather a team of superstar footballers as if you are backed by some Arabic tycoon by the name of Sulaiman.
I have been trying emulate the great patriarch himself Sir Alex with my stint at hopeless Sengkang Punggol and transformed it into the Asian powerhouse in that 11 years.
I also cherry picked the talents to assemble a national team which win the Asian Cup twice and got 3rd placing in the World Cup and the Olympics.
I truly enjoy fostering the young players (which absurd mismatch of Mandarin, African, Muslim and Hindu names) to become cornerstones to the future national team.

However being a sore loser who can never look "loss" at his face, I tend to get incredibly incensed with any failure at the big stage; so it's not hard to see me piqued out at the monitor sometime with some violence and vulgarity.
This was showcased at times in front of the missus which truly loathe my childish beahavior to the point she slammed a ban on me playing the game but to no avail which she knows.
She and this line of football management game have had much strained history, and surely she would savor the thought of my life rid of it which is surely impossible.

So it was gaming and football 7 days a week at home, at work (on the weekend shift while on waiting time) and even on transit with the convenience of a Nintendo DS...Life is sweet!

Japanese word of the day: 養育関係(Foster) I can't foster pets though...I presume my poor Beagle, Sousuke had already passed on in Nintendogs

My Wife don't like Crybabies

13th August 2008, Wednesday

Michael Phelps swept the Olympics as we speak with his 5th gold medal for this tournament today and now the only person who won the most gold medals in just 2 tournaments.
He surely isn't a crybaby when he lost that 200m freestyle 4 years ago which spurred him on for conquering all the challenges and beat Mark Spitz's record of 7 gold medals in one tournament.

With exposure to regular dosage of Japanese dorama, my missus surely had developed into a certain level of connoisseur for picking the type of male characters she had liked and this might reflect in what kind of personality she found appealing in man....

From the cheeky or naughty type like Yamashita Tomohisa in "Proposal Daisakusen" & "kurosagi" or Narimiya Hiroki in "Orange Days" & "Honey & Clover" to the cool prince type like Oguri Shun in "Hana Yori Dango" & "Hanzakari no Kimitachi e" or Tamaki Hiroshi in "Nodame Cantabile" to her recent badboy with a painful background type like Ichihara Hayato (Aniya) in "Rookies", she couldn't stopped going ga-ga over dashing Japanese heiyuu though there's a specific type she might find a distaste for.

In "Rookies", the captain Mikoshiba (portrayed by Koide Keisuke) was constantly weeping like a baby with wet diapers when prompted by frustration or anger...
To her, guys with active tear glands seem too "unmanly" though true men do well their eyes during crucial moments in life (see Shinsengumi).

Then there was Yamada (Itoh Atsushi) from "Densha Otoko" who most probably is the most dislike male character among all doramas she had seen and I couldn't blame her 'cos this Yamada's emotional bursts can be overwhelming at times and was very much the killjoy for the latter part of the series.

There was this pretty popular Taiwanese singer these days which came from this particular singing competition who had the tendency to make those episodes he was in back then a tear-jerking affair which might even put "Titanic" to shame perhaps.
Being an avid listener to Mandarin pop, I assume she would enjoy music from most artistes but she developed a string distaste towards this artist's works, perhaps prejudiced against his wretched crying personality to lure sympathy from his fans.

I do agree a true man shouldn't weep uncontrollably from time to time... But didn't she know that she had married to the biggest wuss in history?
Well at least I don't weep like Otacon when betrayed by women in the Metal Gear series that often...heehee

Personally the male type of character I like mostly lie in the masculine and loud type like Nagase Tomoya's gangster roles in "Tiger & Dragon" & "My Boss My Hero"... Even his Tokio bandmate, Matsuoka Masahiro borrowed some of that in his new dorama series, "Yasuko to Kenji".
It would be better if they had some comedic element but not too slapstick much like the Hiratsuka character from "Rookies" or the all time classic Professor Ueda (Abe Hiroshi) from the Trick series.

To conclude with the Japanese theme of this post, a colleague of mine sent some eye-catching and perhaps pretty "stimulating" pictures to showcase the latest fashion fad in Japan as seen below (the least provocative one at least):

There has been such pictures circulated for the past couple of years of young nubile women of Tokyo and perhaps other major Japanese cities are spotted exposing too much flesh in public but I have been to Japan during summer time twice but never seen it for myself (but the last time was 2005, so it was still a good 3 years back).

In a nation where fetish white-collared workers would pay alot of money for worn undies or sexually-deprived confined-in otaku indulging in their harem style bishojo games, these ladies are really asking for troubles...
Definitely in modest Muslim countries in Africa (think Cameroon), a woman wearing skimpy skirt once was warned by a bus driver that she would be raped by him ir she insist to be such clothing....

Japanese word of the day: 泣きなさい ~na-ki-na-sa-i~(Weep) My buddy once nearly wept while watching Buz Lahrmann's "Romeo+Juliet"

A Slice of Luxury

21st May 2008, Wednesday

2003 was best remembered as the year Singapore was living in fear of the SARS epidemic which sent our city state in high alert to curb the deadly virus from claiming more lives as it should have.
Of course we do not want to re-enact the entire scene of 5 years ago but for a while in a boisterous city like ours where over-crowding was a way of life; it was quite refreshing to see streets devoid of much human activities or traffic.

Our retailing scene and more importantly tourism sector was badly hit during that 3 months of turmoil.
Local hotelier were trying hard to woo local people to fill up their rooms but one specific case of one patron contracting the virus from a local hotel see our paranoid republic refrained from coming into contact with any hotels housing foreigners which could be the transmitting agent of the flu virus.

However I was undaunted and jumped on the great offer, The Ritz Carlton Singapore, one of the premier 6-star awarded hotel locally which offered a night stay at mere $100+.
I made reservation for 2 rooms, one for the missus and myself and the other for my family.
I extended one more night for mine and the hotel was kind enough to upgrade from the Deluxe Room to the One Bedroom Suite.
We had a ball of the time back then and now whenever we walked past that jaded white building along Millenia Walk, we got that fuzzy feeling to stay there again.

After my recently-concluded ICT, my missus suggestively shown me a newspaper cutting of a package offer by another high-scale hotel, The Fullerton Hotel.
Having stayed in such luxurious accommodation (with great view of the Marina Bay) at Ritz Carlton, we didn't want to settle for anything less and we thought the Fullerton might be the only one comparable in terms of quality and service.

With my bonus, I felt it is ideal to treat the missus for a weekend stay over the long Vesak Day weekend and we had been looking forward to the stay since making the reservation weeks ago.
However our anticipation had been hampered by the persistent coughing she and I both contracted but I was fortunate to recover in time before the weekend.

We proceeded with the check in at around 4 after we got to utilise our off-peak transport after 3pm; and was greeted with hospitality from this Malay receptionist, Samad or something.
He duly brought us to our "Quay Room" at level 7 which had a great view towards the Merlion Park as well as the floating platform and Singapore Flyer across the bay.

You get to see name emblem of the hotel from our balcony

My sister and her beau dropped by while roaming around town came into conclusion that the standard room at Fullerton pales in comparison to that of Ritz Carlton, in terms of size, furnishing and of course the latter has a bathroom with ample space and a nice scenic view...

The box on the study table is the complimentary bath robe that come with the "Time for 2" package. The missus however was more smitten with the woolen flip flops

Didn't really did much except for waiting for our in-room 4 course dinner and we were both famished at that juncture though was mildly alleviated by some tasty pies from Sis...
We had arranged for the dinner to be serve at 6.30pm and it didn't took them long to fulfill that timing as this dining staff pushed in the foldable dining table on wheels and an incubator in built to keep the food warm.
I felt with the hefty weight of the crockeries, it was better for her to set all the dishes on the small table.
There wasn't too much room to maneuver once the table was sandwiched between the study table and the armchair...

Appetizer: Deep-fried Chicken Dumpling with caviar and salad

Soup: Some creamy soup with scallops and go well with bread

My main dish: Bak-kut Teh flavored Lamp with Asparagus

Her main dish: Steamed Sea Bass

Desert: Cranberry pastry or something

Complimentary bottle of red wine (in the package as well) which we saved for the night. I was too absorbed with the preview show of the FA Cup final between Portsmouth and Cardiff City that evening.

The food was quite satisfactory and filling and we even received a buzz from one of their managers hoping to gather any feedback on the dinner and offered us coffee and tea just as we were leaving for La Tendo in Kallang.

The Fullerton Hotel was just 8 storey-high as they preserved the original Fullerton building. The guest rooms span the entire perimeter of the building with a hollow center where we could access via sky bridges from one side of the building to the other

While we left the key at the counter, we made the enquiry on whether we could be granted a late check out (which was subjected to whether the rooms are in demand) and got a positive reply from this helpful Indian supervisor who also arranged for the bubblebath (another item in the package) to be set up by 1 in the morning which was the time I thought we would reach back after crooning for the karaoke party.

In the end we only made it back by 4 in the morning.. By then we could only enter the building via the front door and there was just a lone soldier at the counter.
We scurried back to our room, hoping the bubblebath wouldn't go to waste and were glad it was still intact and the water still reasonably warm...
So the feature romance moment was the bath with scented tea candles all around and red wine which tasted rather cheap though.

We were knocked out and struggled to wake up by 9.30 in the next morning as we wouldn't want to give the buffet breakfast a miss, not especially me...

The buffet at the Town Restaurant didn't seems to boast a variety to be on par with that from Ritz Carlton but then again it could be we were rather late.
It was a window of opportunity to check out the nationality of our fellow patrons.
As expected a majority were the "ang mohs" who seemingly like to dine along the walkway towards the Cavenagh bridge along the Singapore river.
There were some wealthy Indonesian Chinese and a few Indian expats as well.
What I like about our local hotels is that they rarely discriminate between local and foreigners in terms of service which was evident during my Koh Samui stay.
The missus checked out the final bill (it was included in the package) but we still get to see the actual price which added to around $40 odd per person.
Luckily we need not pay 'cos the missus had poor appetite and nibbled on a bit while I just want to sample whatever there was on offer...

Because of the late check-out we were able to go for a quick swim in the pool which is a miserable stretch with mere 1.5m depth.
But it overlooked the Singapore River and you can check out people heading towards the Asian Civilization Museum as well as the bank buildings on the left.
We also had a look at the gym and spa which despite being rather small in scale, are pretty well equipped.

Another round of dipping in the bubble bath before we packed up and checked out as the staff said with formality to see us again...
Overall the hotel might had lived up to its billing but we spent too little time to maximise the pleasure of the place.
Service is impeccable but other factors like bath amenities, buffet breakfast etc fell short of our expectations.
Time to source another grand hotel to stay in the future then...

Japanese word of the day: 贅沢 (luxury) Conrad Hotel might be the next destination of luxurious living

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!

Marriage Life 1 Year on...

16th October 2007, Tuesday

Last year this day me and my new bride were basking in the sun of Koh Samui, Thailand...Till this day still fiind it a bit too costly for a beach resort so close to home...

Anyway the 300 odd days of us staying under the same roof together with my folks and sister had been a pretty smooth transition for my wife...The warmth of a family unit which she had yearned for before our marriage especially with his father's infidelity was fittingly been signed, sealed and delivered...
However living together also signals the "cramping of style" and the constraint of space at times... Not that she minds, 'cos she is not frequently at home...
The honeymoon period might has eluded us but we had grown to to tolerate each other differences much more..
There are definitely petty tiffs and me being the unreasonable husband went all rabid about her always had to attend to her side-lines and neglecting me at times but I was doing likewise when she was at home and myself glued to the computer..

Over the past years, there had been more ups than downs and let's hope it persist; which fundamentally justify my decision of settling down when others may deemed rather premature...

I do wish she would be able to ditch her current employment status for sure...
Her crappy company has been a wedge within our relationship at times with them unbashfully calling her in the middle of the night or during outings to stifle our merry time together...
Her mood tends to be governed by her job at times and to resolve this, the best way is to remove the root by just quitting...
However our current financial status means that I am not capable to supporting the family with my measly pay package, so her income is crucial to sustain our lifestyle especially her own...
So ultimately in the next year, I am hoping she would reap the rewards of her endless devotion to the sideline and allow her to go full time in it...

As for kids...seriously neither of us are prepared to be parents as yet...though we aren't getting younger soon...
The prerequisite for having a child into our lives would be her quitting her job I supposed and financially we are able to support another mouth in the family...
Therefore our families who had been pretty anxious about having a toddler to brighten up their lives just have to wait a wee bit longer...

Finally I feel I sure wouldn't be a nominee let alone winning the "Husband of the Year" award anytime soon...
While friends surrounding us seem to project a "wonderful husband" persona, somehow yours truly just fails to live up to the bill...
I have always been a very self-centered person, selfish if you have to be crass...so it takes a long shot for me to actually put someone else at a higher priority than myself which I need to correct if we are going to have children eventually...perhaps by a natural hormonal trigger I would change my mindset once I become a father...
I haven't been too sensitive to my wife's cause...she needs support for her sidelines and at time a lending ear, I had been accommodating and tried to lend her as much faith as I could but still fell short I think...
To amplify the situation I am remotely a romantic soul, and almost losing my self-belief to be an abled driver, thus she had to drive herself though I am sure all wives wanted their husbands to be their 24-7 chauffeur...
Which is why I really have to buck up to be half a husband she had anticipated when she said yes to my lackluster proposal 2 years ago...

I had been an avid reader of the horoscope column in MyPaper, the freely-distributed Chinese papers from SPH...
Although I have always been skeptical about how true the forecast is, but it's better to not take any chances...as they said "宁可信其友，不可信其无"...
Since His Beautiness share my same zodiac signs (unfortunately...) I always found it very true to his cause rather than myself...
However yesterday's column stated that the mid of this month signals a turn of luck for Scorpio, so have to take any unfortunate series of events with a pinch of salt and not lament over it...
This surely didn't spells well with the trip so near and I had been in full anticipation of it...
My regular work doesn't seems too smoothly yesterday and I dropped my Motorola Razr V3i, and perhaps now couldn't send out any SMS...I've still yet to prove that
However back at home, had a unsavory squabble with the princess of the household again as once again she bluntly hits bullseye on my Achilles tendon...
It was over such trivial matter like some body shampoo... I had accidentally took out her refill pack from the same spot Dad would keep it...before she started proclaiming me to keep my hands off since I had not "put in any contribution in this household stuff"
It is true alright that I still leech my folks over body shampoo and what not, but that was just a sweeping statement I loathe to listen to, especially from my family...
It is the same usual "you should pay more since you earn so much more" shit I get frequently as well...
Seriously if I am earning 3 or 4 times my current pay, rest assured I would ensure my wife and old folks can lay off from working now....
Then again she seems to be oblivious about the monthly house loan payment for this flat as well as utilities bill (and internet bill)

Knowing her nature, she would be relentless about she being right that I am being rude or unreasonable (I just barely raised my voice in displeasure saying that I didn't know it was her to begin with), she wouldn't budge to quell the matters nor will I condescend to treat this matter as another of her usual theatrical pique...

To not jeopardize the trip, I think we shall resume this cold war till god knows when...
With our in-born volatile nature, there is always a risk of us falling out during the trip as well so I had warned my missus and perhaps her beau to be ready to be mediator anytime soon...

This morning just continued the trend to make my mood even more wretched...
It was already 10 past 7 when I barely became conscious enough after a late turn-in and scurried to wash up, not noticing the missus had extend the towel liner and my forehead wasn't too robust enough to go against stainless steel, thus my morning was welcomes by a painful jab which really piss me off...fortunately I had a gracious wife to keep me in check of my temperament which would really ruin my day or perhaps my week...

Anyway today's horoscope column stated "I shouldn't butt into my colleagues' personal lives, as it wouldn't do me any good''.. hmm I am wondering which colleague I have the audacity to butt into

Japanese word of the day: 占い(Fortune-telling) Maybe I will be ready to be a father when the horoscope column instruct me to be one